So I’m looking for a better way to capture mostly PvP content (and a bit of PvE) so that I can watch stuff back and analyse it. The maximum Xbox1X record time I can see is like 2 minutes, which is obviously no good. I’ve been told hooking up a USB Hard Drive to it will allow for much longer captures. So I had some questions because I’ve looked online and doing it through the Xbox game bar on PC worked for about 20 minutes until my Xbox hugely slowed down halfway through a PvP match, I lost sound and it became really blurry.
1) probably most important, is this actually the case? I want to capture stuff and be able to watch it on my PC, that’s the end game here, is it as simple as just putting a USB 3.0 hard drive in?
2) Do I need to format a hard drive or do anything to it or are there ones I buy that are plug and play?
3) Any recommended models that are good value? Some of the ones recommended by magazines are nearly £100, which is mental.
Thanks in advance!

Welcome (Back?) to Fallout 76

I have seen tons of new players coming in to the game lately, and even more returning to the game much like myself. I won't say I'm the smartest and best informed Fallout 76 player, but I have had tons of help from some people I can say probably are some of the smartest and best informed in the game. So I've decided to compile this handy yet vauge-ish leveling guide to some things you might be curious about, or might find helpful, or whatever! First off, however, let's go over some things the new players might not know: Etiquette in Fallout 76!

Etiquette of Appalachia

While this is a game about lawless chaos in a hell-like wasteland, there are some rules you really should follow!

1. If you don't want to engage in PVP, turn on pacifist mode in the settings and read the popups on your screen about contesting workshops!
   
2. Don't start events until the very last ~30 seconds! Give other players a chance to make it to the event so it's easier to complete and everyone gets loot/xp from enemies!
   
3. Don't go overkill and destroy everything in public events! Killing everything before anyone gets a chance to do any damage to the enemies makes it so nobody else gets any XP or loot.
   

AFAIK those are the big three rules of this game, some people have their preferences and morals and such but IMO, to each their own beyond these big three.

Leveling Up

This is probably your main way of getting poweutility; through leveling up and collecting those sweet, sweet perk cards. I'm just gonna tell you how it is and say hey, don't shoot the messenger. Unless I told ya wrong, then shoot me a message so I can correct it.

How to Increase Your XP Gain

First off, lets go over how XP Bonuses are calculated. First, there is the base XP of an enemy. Then your INT stat will add to that base at 2.072% per point of INT you have. Then the resulting number is multiplied by the percentage base XP buffs you might have active such as the Leadership Bobblehead, Lunchboxes, or Well Rested. Here's the formula:
(Base XP + (Base XP * (INT * 2.072))) + ((Base XP + (Base XP * (INT * 2.072))) * %Buffs)
CALM DOWN!!! To make it easier on you folk out there who aren't running Egghead IRL, your INT stat essentially makes your base XP reward higher so your lunchboxes can give you way more XP.
So how does a fella max their INT? Well I'll tell ya! Other than the obvious idea of maxing it out by respeccing your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat allocation, you have armor slots that can all roll legendary star stats such as boosting your INT by +1 per piece, and if you don't mind running a low health build while power leveling, the Unyielding affix that can roll on any non-power armor can give players a whopping +15 INT at +3 INT per piece equipped (body, arms, legs.) Also, you can wear the Casual Shielded Underarmor OR the Flannel Shirt for another +3 INT. Also, there's chems and foods that can temporarily boost your INT, though you can have only one of each type active at the same time. Some of the best ones to run for boosting INT are Brain Bombs for food and Berry Mentats for chems. All of these things can be purchased from other players too! Also, if you run mutations like Egghead and Herd Mentality, the Charisma Perk Card Strange In Numbers can boost your INT by another +4 so long as you're in a party. Which you should be, because forming a bond with 3 players in a Casual team will net +4 INT as well! And last but not least is the Mechanical Derby Game some players have in their C.A.M.P. which boosts your INT by +2 for 30 minutes!
Now how about boosting XP via percentages to multiply that huge INT boosted base XP you worked so hard for? I've got you covered! Same as before, some things stack but some don't. In this usage case, the Live & Love 8 (+5% XP) magazine doesn't stack with Live & Love 3 (Boost Effects of Food), for example. Same with the Intelligence Bobblehead (+2 INT) and the Leadership Bobblehead (+5% XP). Lunchboxes can stack only up to 4 times and if you pop a lunchbox around other players, the other players all get a boost too! Same if someone pops one near you, free XP boost! Lunchboxes grant +25% XP per box popped, so with four popped, that's double XP! You can also get a whopping +15% XP boost from the Charisma Perk Card Inspirational, and the event going on now, the Mothman Equinox, gives you another +15% XP for an hour if you interact with the purple eyed moth at the end. Also, the easiest bonus to get is your Well Rested/Kindred Spirit/Lover's Embrace buff that gives you +5% XP and is obtained by simply resting in a bed for a bit.
In conclusion and to wrap up this part I want to clarify that you will typically get MUCH more XP in a Casual Team over an Events Team because for a majority of the events, you will be killing tons of enemies and missing out on a +8% boost to the BASE XP of all enemies, ya know, before the multiplier boosts which adds up to be much more XP than you get from the completion reward, even when its doubled. Daily Ops is a different case because you are typically trying to run it fast and skip over fights if possible, but otherwise don't sleep on Casual Teams.

How to Farm XP

So now that we've written a small book on how to boost our XP, how are we going to actually GET the XP? Well the best ways is to kill enemies with a high base XP reward, and lots of them. For example, the super mutants at the famous WesTek Research Center provide a high base xp reward and so do glowing enemies, like ghouls, which can be more or less "made" by dropping a nuke on Whitesprings. Events are great for this as well, especially Radiation Rumble and Eviction Notice, but typically all of the events have a good amount of enemies to kill and reward you with exclusive rewards, so its typically savvy to hit the events as they come up unless you know what it has to offer and just don't need it.
Now hold on there, pardner! You don't actually have to do all the work when it comes to killing the enemies to get their XP. And to squash any rumors going around, doing more damage does not, in any way, net you a higher amount of XP!!! You simply have to do 1% of the damage to an enemy to get its FULL XP reward, and yes this applies to every single enemy, even bosses. Really all you have to do is shoot each enemy maybe once or twice and you'll be drowning in XP during those big events. A great weapon for this is the Tesla Rifle because it chains to nearby enemies when you hit something, allowing you to tag multiple enemies while only having to aim at one! Also, Nuka-grenades have a massive AOE, just make sure you aren't boosting explosive damage or anything so you aren't one shotting everything (and yourself.) And try to make sure your party is there doing the event with you because if they happen to get a kill you missed, you still get a little bit of XP which is better than nothing.
That's all for now though, and do let me know if I missed anything or messed up any info!

Daily Modifiers

Vanguard Ops

• Brawler: Melee abilities deal more damage and recharge much faster.
• Increased Vanguard Rank: All Vanguard Rank point gains are increased!
• Solar Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Solar damage.
• Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
• Solar Threat: 25% increase to incoming Solar damage.
• Power Level Disabled: Combatant difficulty is set at a fixed level.

Dares of Eternity

• MA-75 Multipurpose: Guardians deal increased damage with Auto Rifles and Grenade Launchers.
• Champion Foes: You will face [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload, and [Stagger] Unstoppable Champions. Visit the Character or Mod Customization screen to view your active anti-Champion perks.

Onslaught: Playlist

• Onslaught Rules: Defend and repair the ADU against waves of combatants. There are 10 waves to a set. ADU: If the ADU is destroyed, the activity ends. Scraps: An in-activity currency. They are earned by scoring and used to purchase and upgrade defenses at the start of every set and after waves 3 and 6. Rewards: Paid out after every set upon defeating the boss wave. Subsequent sets pay out better rewards. Legend increases rewards. Bonus Objectives: Rewards resources, vendor reputation, and armaments.
• Power Level Disabled: Combatant difficulty is set at a fixed level.
• Solar Threat: 25% increase to incoming Solar damage.
• Solar Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Solar damage.
• Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
• Champion Foes: You will face [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload, and [Stagger] Unstoppable Champions. Visit the Character or Mod Customization screen to view your active anti-Champion perks.

Riven's Lair

• Mettle: Power Level: All combatants in this activity will be at least 5 points over the player's current Power level.
• Solar Threat: 25% increase to incoming Solar damage.
• Blackout: Enemy melee attacks are significantly more powerful, and radar is disabled.
• Stasis Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Stasis damage.
• Solar Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Solar damage.

The Coil

• The Coil Rules: Successfully complete four pathways inside Riven's Lair. Escalating Difficulty: Player's Power levels are fixed. Starting at 0 each subsequent pathway increases all combatants' Power level over the player's by 5. Wishing Glass: Wishing Glass is an in-activity currency. They drop from combatants, Glass Collectors, and pots. Wishing Glass comes in multiple rarities equating to their worth. Wishing Glass is used to purchase Dragon's Gifts from Riven. Dragon's Gifts: A set of buffs are randomly chosen, once per run. Between pathways, players can purchase buffs from Riven via Wishing Glass. Buffs are separated into three price point tiers. Rewards: After each pathway, players will return to Riven for their rewards. Subsequent pathways pay out better rewards. Breaking through score thresholds unlock secret chests. Finishing The Coil with a platinum score rewards players with access to the lustrous and lucrative Chamber of Wishes.
• Multiplicity: Combatant difficulty scales with fireteam size.
• Limited Revives: Limited fireteam revives. Purchase additional revives from Riven with Wishing Glass. Small chance to drop from destroying pots.
• Full Extinguish: If all your fireteam members fall with 0 Revive Tokens, everyone is returned to orbit.
• Chill Touch: Being hit by a melee attack slows you.
• Galvanized: Combatants have more health and are more difficult to stun.
• The Pathways: Riven's wish magic stirs. The following are the pathways and their order in The Coil: -Divining Hall -First Steps (Temple of the Queen's Wrath) -Sensorium (Reaver's Orison) -First Steps (Cell of the Sycophant)
• Arc Threat: 25% increase to incoming Arc damage.
• Denial: Taken Vandals summon their shields significantly more often.
• Overcharged Shotgun: 25% bonus to Shotgun damage.
• Overcharged Linear Fusion Rifle: 25% bonus to Linear Fusion Rifle damage.

Seasonal

Legend/Master Lost Sector

Exotic armor drop (if solo): Legs

Concealed Void: Legend

• Legend Difficulty: Locked Equipment, Extra Shields
• Champions: [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload
• Threat: [Solar] Solar
• Shields: [Solar] Solar, [Void] Void
• Modifiers: Arach-NO!

Concealed Void: Master

• Legend Difficulty: Locked Equipment, Extra Shields
• Champions: [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload
• Threat: [Solar] Solar
• Shields: [Solar] Solar, [Void] Void
• Modifiers: Arach-NO!

Misc

• Terminal Overload: Límíng Harbor Weapon: Synchronic Roulette (Submachine Gun)
• The Wellspring: Attack Weapon: Fel Taradiddle (Combat Bow)
• Altars of Sorrow Weapon: Heretic (Rocket Launcher)

Guns & Materials

Banshee's Featured Weapons

Name	Type	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Masterwork
Cartesian Coordinate	Energy Fusion Rifle	Hitmark IS // Red Dot Micro	Particle Repeater // Projection Fuse	Slideways	Vorpal Weapon	Tier 2: Charge Time
Vulpecula	Kinetic Hand Cannon	Corkscrew Rifling // Hammer-Forged Rifling	Appended Mag // Tactical Mag	Shoot to Loot	Multikill Clip	Tier 2: Reload Speed
Palmyra-B	Heavy Rocket Launcher	Volatile Launch // Confined Launch	High-Velocity Rounds // Impact Casing	Surplus	Frenzy	Tier 2: Reload Speed
Lunulata-4b	Kinetic Combat Bow	Agile Bowstring // Flexible String	Natural Fletching // Straight Fletching	No Distractions	Wellspring	Tier 6: Handling
Disparity	Kinetic Pulse Rifle	Hammer-Forged Rifling // Polygonal Rifling	Alloy Magazine // Flared Magwell	Heating Up	Kill Clip	Tier 2: Stability

Note: Fixed perks on weapons are not displayed

Master Rahool's Material Exchange

• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Legendary Shards)
• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Dark Fragment)
• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Phantasmal Fragment)
• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 25 Herealways Piece)
• Enhancement Prism (1 for 10 Enhancement Core & 10000 Glimmer)
• Ascendant Shard (1 for 10 Enhancement Prism & 50000 Glimmer)
• Ascendant Alloy (1 for 10 Enhancement Prism & 50000 Glimmer)

Bounties

Commander Zavala, Vanguard

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Pride Before Destruction	Defeat powerful combatants. Defeating Champions grants additional progress.	10 Powerful combatants	XP+
Rocketing to Prominence	Defeat combatants with Heavy ammo. Rocket Launcher final blows in Vanguard playlists grant additional progress.	20 [Rocket Launcher] Rocket Launcher	XP+
Shattering Revelation	Defeat combatants in Vanguard playlists with Stasis abilities. Defeating frozen combatants grants additional progress.	50 [Stasis] Stasis ability	XP+
Loose Ends	Defeat combatants in Vanguard playlists with Strand damage.	25 Strand final blows	XP+

Lord Shaxx, Crucible

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Burn Bright	Cast your Super.	2 Supers	XP+
Calm Like a Bomb	Defeat opponents with Solar ignition damage.	1 [Solar] Solar ignition	XP+
Peak Efficiency	Defeat opponents in a single life.	2 Streak	XP+
In the Zone	In Control, capture zones.	3 Zones	XP+

The Drifter, Gambit

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Face-to-Face	Summon Primevals in Gambit by filling up your team's bank.	2 Primevals summoned	XP+
Envoy While It Lasts	Defeat Primeval envoys during Gambit matches.	2 Envoys	XP+
Final Ploy	Defeat combatants with finisher final blows.	5 Finisher	XP+
Torn to Shreds	Defeat targets in Gambit matches by severing or unraveling them with Strand. Defeating Guardians grants additional progress.	30 Strand severed or unraveled final blows	XP+

Banshee-44, Gunsmith

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Hand Cannon Calibration	Calibrate Hand Cannons against any target. Earn bonus progress with precision and against opposing Guardians.	100 [Hand Cannon] Hand Cannon	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress
Shotgun Calibration	Calibrate Shotguns against any target. Opposing Guardians and rapidly defeated targets grant the most efficient progress.	100 [Shotgun] Shotgun	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress
Rocket Launcher Calibration	Calibrate Rocket Launchers against any target. Earn bonus progress against opposing Guardians and for additional targets defeated with each shot.	100 [Rocket Launcher] Rocket Launcher	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress
Stasis Calibration	Calibrate Stasis weapons against any target. Earn bonus progress against opposing Guardians.	80 [Stasis] Stasis weapon	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress

Nimbus, Neomuna

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Invasion Repulsion	In Neomuna, defeat combatants. Shadow Legion combatants grant additional progress.	90 Targets	XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank
Cryogenic Hardening	In Neomuna, defeat combatants affected by Stasis. Vex combatants grant additional progress.	60 [Stasis] Stasis	XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank
Flawless Dance	In a single life, defeat combatants in Neomuna using Sidearms, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, or Swords.	20 Targets	XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank
Hacker's Paradise	Complete waves in Terminal Overload.	10 Waves cleared	1 Terminal Overload Key & 50 Neomuna Rank & XP+

Lord Shaxx, Hall of Champions

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Onslaught Defender	Deploy and upgrade defenses in Onslaught.	30 Defenses completed	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation
Angling for a Win	Catch fish throughout the system. Rarer fish grant additional progress.	30 Fish	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation
Shoot Out	Defeat targets with Hand Cannons. Combatants in Onslaught and Guardians are worth more.	100 [Hand Cannon] Hand Cannon	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation
Trick Shot	Perform tricks on your Sparrow or Skimmer.	3 Tricks performed	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation

Spirit of Riven, H.E.L.M.

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Wishful Spelunker	Complete a Lost Sector in the Dreaming City.	1 Lost Sectors	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation
Lair Defense: Energy Weapons	Defeat targets with weapons in the Energy slot. Combatants in Riven's Lair or The Coil and Guardians are worth more progress.	30 Energy weapon	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation
Dragon's Maw	Defeat targets with Fusion Rifles or Shotguns. Combatants in Riven's Lair or The Coil and Guardians are worth more.	30 [Fusion Rifle] or [Shotgun] defeats	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation
Dragonflame	Defeat targets with Solar or Stasis damage. Combatants in Riven's Lair or The Coil and Guardians are worth more.	30 [Solar] or [Stasis] defeats	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation

^{Never forget what has been lost. While the API protests have concluded, Reddit remains hostile to its users as their IPO looms in the horizon. More information can be found here.}

Daily Modifiers

Vanguard Ops

• Brawler: Melee abilities deal more damage and recharge much faster.
• Increased Vanguard Rank: All Vanguard Rank point gains are increased!
• Solar Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Solar damage.
• Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
• Solar Threat: 25% increase to incoming Solar damage.
• Power Level Disabled: Combatant difficulty is set at a fixed level.

Dares of Eternity

• MA-75 Multipurpose: Guardians deal increased damage with Auto Rifles and Grenade Launchers.
• Champion Foes: You will face [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload, and [Stagger] Unstoppable Champions. Visit the Character or Mod Customization screen to view your active anti-Champion perks.

Onslaught: Playlist

• Onslaught Rules: Defend and repair the ADU against waves of combatants. There are 10 waves to a set. ADU: If the ADU is destroyed, the activity ends. Scraps: An in-activity currency. They are earned by scoring and used to purchase and upgrade defenses at the start of every set and after waves 3 and 6. Rewards: Paid out after every set upon defeating the boss wave. Subsequent sets pay out better rewards. Legend increases rewards. Bonus Objectives: Rewards resources, vendor reputation, and armaments.
• Power Level Disabled: Combatant difficulty is set at a fixed level.
• Solar Threat: 25% increase to incoming Solar damage.
• Solar Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Solar damage.
• Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
• Champion Foes: You will face [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload, and [Stagger] Unstoppable Champions. Visit the Character or Mod Customization screen to view your active anti-Champion perks.

Riven's Lair

• Mettle: Power Level: All combatants in this activity will be at least 5 points over the player's current Power level.
• Solar Threat: 25% increase to incoming Solar damage.
• Blackout: Enemy melee attacks are significantly more powerful, and radar is disabled.
• Stasis Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Stasis damage.
• Solar Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Solar damage.

The Coil

• The Coil Rules: Successfully complete four pathways inside Riven's Lair. Escalating Difficulty: Player's Power levels are fixed. Starting at 0 each subsequent pathway increases all combatants' Power level over the player's by 5. Wishing Glass: Wishing Glass is an in-activity currency. They drop from combatants, Glass Collectors, and pots. Wishing Glass comes in multiple rarities equating to their worth. Wishing Glass is used to purchase Dragon's Gifts from Riven. Dragon's Gifts: A set of buffs are randomly chosen, once per run. Between pathways, players can purchase buffs from Riven via Wishing Glass. Buffs are separated into three price point tiers. Rewards: After each pathway, players will return to Riven for their rewards. Subsequent pathways pay out better rewards. Breaking through score thresholds unlock secret chests. Finishing The Coil with a platinum score rewards players with access to the lustrous and lucrative Chamber of Wishes.
• Multiplicity: Combatant difficulty scales with fireteam size.
• Limited Revives: Limited fireteam revives. Purchase additional revives from Riven with Wishing Glass. Small chance to drop from destroying pots.
• Full Extinguish: If all your fireteam members fall with 0 Revive Tokens, everyone is returned to orbit.
• Chill Touch: Being hit by a melee attack slows you.
• Galvanized: Combatants have more health and are more difficult to stun.
• The Pathways: Riven's wish magic stirs. The following are the pathways and their order in The Coil: -Divining Hall -First Steps (Temple of the Queen's Wrath) -Sensorium (Reaver's Orison) -First Steps (Cell of the Sycophant)
• Arc Threat: 25% increase to incoming Arc damage.
• Denial: Taken Vandals summon their shields significantly more often.
• Overcharged Shotgun: 25% bonus to Shotgun damage.
• Overcharged Linear Fusion Rifle: 25% bonus to Linear Fusion Rifle damage.

Seasonal

Legend/Master Lost Sector

Exotic armor drop (if solo): Legs

Concealed Void: Legend

• Legend Difficulty: Locked Equipment, Extra Shields
• Champions: [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload
• Threat: [Solar] Solar
• Shields: [Solar] Solar, [Void] Void
• Modifiers: Arach-NO!

Concealed Void: Master

• Legend Difficulty: Locked Equipment, Extra Shields
• Champions: [Shield-Piercing] Barrier, [Disruption] Overload
• Threat: [Solar] Solar
• Shields: [Solar] Solar, [Void] Void
• Modifiers: Arach-NO!

Misc

• Terminal Overload: Límíng Harbor Weapon: Synchronic Roulette (Submachine Gun)
• The Wellspring: Attack Weapon: Fel Taradiddle (Combat Bow)
• Altars of Sorrow Weapon: Heretic (Rocket Launcher)

Guns & Materials

Banshee's Featured Weapons

Name	Type	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Masterwork
Cartesian Coordinate	Energy Fusion Rifle	Hitmark IS // Red Dot Micro	Particle Repeater // Projection Fuse	Slideways	Vorpal Weapon	Tier 2: Charge Time
Vulpecula	Kinetic Hand Cannon	Corkscrew Rifling // Hammer-Forged Rifling	Appended Mag // Tactical Mag	Shoot to Loot	Multikill Clip	Tier 2: Reload Speed
Palmyra-B	Heavy Rocket Launcher	Volatile Launch // Confined Launch	High-Velocity Rounds // Impact Casing	Surplus	Frenzy	Tier 2: Reload Speed
Lunulata-4b	Kinetic Combat Bow	Agile Bowstring // Flexible String	Natural Fletching // Straight Fletching	No Distractions	Wellspring	Tier 6: Handling
Disparity	Kinetic Pulse Rifle	Hammer-Forged Rifling // Polygonal Rifling	Alloy Magazine // Flared Magwell	Heating Up	Kill Clip	Tier 2: Stability

Note: Fixed perks on weapons are not displayed

Master Rahool's Material Exchange

• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Legendary Shards)
• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Dark Fragment)
• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Phantasmal Fragment)
• Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 25 Herealways Piece)
• Enhancement Prism (1 for 10 Enhancement Core & 10000 Glimmer)
• Ascendant Shard (1 for 10 Enhancement Prism & 50000 Glimmer)
• Ascendant Alloy (1 for 10 Enhancement Prism & 50000 Glimmer)

Bounties

Commander Zavala, Vanguard

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Pride Before Destruction	Defeat powerful combatants. Defeating Champions grants additional progress.	10 Powerful combatants	XP+
Rocketing to Prominence	Defeat combatants with Heavy ammo. Rocket Launcher final blows in Vanguard playlists grant additional progress.	20 [Rocket Launcher] Rocket Launcher	XP+
Shattering Revelation	Defeat combatants in Vanguard playlists with Stasis abilities. Defeating frozen combatants grants additional progress.	50 [Stasis] Stasis ability	XP+
Loose Ends	Defeat combatants in Vanguard playlists with Strand damage.	25 Strand final blows	XP+

Lord Shaxx, Crucible

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Burn Bright	Cast your Super.	2 Supers	XP+
Calm Like a Bomb	Defeat opponents with Solar ignition damage.	1 [Solar] Solar ignition	XP+
Peak Efficiency	Defeat opponents in a single life.	2 Streak	XP+
In the Zone	In Control, capture zones.	3 Zones	XP+

The Drifter, Gambit

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Face-to-Face	Summon Primevals in Gambit by filling up your team's bank.	2 Primevals summoned	XP+
Envoy While It Lasts	Defeat Primeval envoys during Gambit matches.	2 Envoys	XP+
Final Ploy	Defeat combatants with finisher final blows.	5 Finisher	XP+
Torn to Shreds	Defeat targets in Gambit matches by severing or unraveling them with Strand. Defeating Guardians grants additional progress.	30 Strand severed or unraveled final blows	XP+

Banshee-44, Gunsmith

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Hand Cannon Calibration	Calibrate Hand Cannons against any target. Earn bonus progress with precision and against opposing Guardians.	100 [Hand Cannon] Hand Cannon	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress
Shotgun Calibration	Calibrate Shotguns against any target. Opposing Guardians and rapidly defeated targets grant the most efficient progress.	100 [Shotgun] Shotgun	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress
Rocket Launcher Calibration	Calibrate Rocket Launchers against any target. Earn bonus progress against opposing Guardians and for additional targets defeated with each shot.	100 [Rocket Launcher] Rocket Launcher	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress
Stasis Calibration	Calibrate Stasis weapons against any target. Earn bonus progress against opposing Guardians.	80 [Stasis] Stasis weapon	XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress

Nimbus, Neomuna

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Invasion Repulsion	In Neomuna, defeat combatants. Shadow Legion combatants grant additional progress.	90 Targets	XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank
Cryogenic Hardening	In Neomuna, defeat combatants affected by Stasis. Vex combatants grant additional progress.	60 [Stasis] Stasis	XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank
Flawless Dance	In a single life, defeat combatants in Neomuna using Sidearms, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, or Swords.	20 Targets	XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank
Hacker's Paradise	Complete waves in Terminal Overload.	10 Waves cleared	1 Terminal Overload Key & 50 Neomuna Rank & XP+

Lord Shaxx, Hall of Champions

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Onslaught Defender	Deploy and upgrade defenses in Onslaught.	30 Defenses completed	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation
Angling for a Win	Catch fish throughout the system. Rarer fish grant additional progress.	30 Fish	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation
Shoot Out	Defeat targets with Hand Cannons. Combatants in Onslaught and Guardians are worth more.	100 [Hand Cannon] Hand Cannon	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation
Trick Shot	Perform tricks on your Sparrow or Skimmer.	3 Tricks performed	1 XP+ & 25 Lord Shaxx Reputation & 50 Lord Shaxx Reputation

Spirit of Riven, H.E.L.M.

Name	Description	Requirement	Reward
Wishful Spelunker	Complete a Lost Sector in the Dreaming City.	1 Lost Sectors	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation
Lair Defense: Energy Weapons	Defeat targets with weapons in the Energy slot. Combatants in Riven's Lair or The Coil and Guardians are worth more progress.	30 Energy weapon	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation
Dragon's Maw	Defeat targets with Fusion Rifles or Shotguns. Combatants in Riven's Lair or The Coil and Guardians are worth more.	30 [Fusion Rifle] or [Shotgun] defeats	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation
Dragonflame	Defeat targets with Solar or Stasis damage. Combatants in Riven's Lair or The Coil and Guardians are worth more.	30 [Solar] or [Stasis] defeats	XP+ & 25 Spirit of Riven Reputation

^{Never forget what has been lost. While the API protests have concluded, Reddit remains hostile to its users as their IPO looms in the horizon. More information can be found here.}

Noob looking for a 8” or so 9mm sub gun pistol like CZ scorpion 3+ or Striborg and can be found in that sub $700-800 price point on sale but that uses Glock hi capacity 9mm. This gun will be shot exclusively suppressed with subsonic ammo. Feeding federal 147 Hst law enforcement is my go to sub defense round so reliably feeding is important. Suggestions?

So, i dont live in a place with wooded areas, i dont go hiking, i dont see bears. but i do live in a city that has violent crime happening frequently. would 10mm be viable for solely CCW self defense?
my reasoning is, in an SD scenario, i want to STOP the possible threat to my life as fast as possible, and in terms of stopping power, it seems 10mm would be able to do that with 1-2 10mm rounds center mass (most SD scenarios are within 7 yard iirc). ive seen videos of cops unloading half a mag of 9mm onto a hopped up druggie (sadly becoming a common sight now a days) coming at them with a blade pr blunt weapon and they dont stop until a few moments pass, and they usually get close enough for the cop to have to retreat, mainly because of the drugs.
Do you think 10mm would be a good CC for urban situations only, or would i be better off sticking with 9mm+p or 45acp? that being said, is there anything g19 sized for ccw even if its not glock (i know about the 29 but that seems to be subcompact)? anything compact i can shoot very very well bith 9mm and 45acp (think sig p320 compact, glock 19, m&p compact, hk45 compact, etc) but anything SUB-compact, i can barely hit a plate within 10 yards away even with 9, and i dont wanna imagine how thatd be with a 10mm so when it comes to SD i would want nothing smaller than a regular compact size.
thanks in advance!

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/QBPhqLx
Repost bc my first title wasn’t specific enough
Cleaning out my closet and freeing up funds for new toys. Anything above 100$ gets free shipping anything under 10$ shipping. Can always work out discounts for bundling. Will definitely trade for sig Romeo 4xt or 4xt pro but if u have something cool you want to trade the worst I can say is no. Payments on PP G&S. You cover g&s fees
A2 carry handle middy, 14.7 ballistic advantage barrel with f marked fsp and skinny midlength m&p 10 Handgaurds. No Bcg or charging handle -350$ shipped
Gunsmith special upper. 14.5 faxxon pencil profile barrel. Coda evolution cf Handgaurd with one muffed screw hole, slick side billit upper. No Bcg or charging handle. -sold
C7 upper reciever with rear sight and and fa installed-sold
Brownells a1 barrel with fsp and gas tube- 150$ shipped
Yhm diamond quad rail Handgaurd with magpul afg-120$ shipped
Hk uspc/p2000 magazine 40cal (x2) -40$
Uspc gg&g pic rail adapter- 40$
Random shotgun light/pic rail adapter-20$
Ak mil spec plum Handgaurd and pistol grip-20$
Horizontal belt kiwi mag insert-20$
Bcm keymo Handgaurd cover set-10$

I’m Erika Hayasaki, a journalist based in Southern California who writes for magazines including MIT Technology Review, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Verge and Wired.
I recently wrote a story for MIT Technology Review about rapid DNA analysis, a new technology revolutionizing the way investigators identify victims of large disasters. Housed in a box the size of a microwave, this technology can be deployed quickly in the field, and following record-breaking fires over the past few years, it has effectively become the new standard.
When devastating wildfires swept through Maui in August 2023, Raven Imperial’s family was separated for days. After some 72 hours, they all found their way back to one another … except for the patriarch of the family, Rafael.
His family and friends spent a frantic month searching for “Uncle Raffy,” as he was known to locals on the island—following dead-end lead after dead-end lead. When his family eventually submitted a DNA sample, this new technology quickly confirmed what they had feared: Rafael had died in the blaze.
In the past, identifying victims of mass casualty events was a long and tedious process, and DNA testing was the longest, most challenging process of all—potentially taking years to make a positive identification. For instance, victims from 9/11 are still being identified by DNA. It was basically impossible to do this kind of analysis for hundreds of human remains.
But this new rapid DNA analysis takes just a matter of hours. It's a "game-changer," in the words of one expert. But unfortunately, the Imperials' experience is also a grim preview of how we’ll live in a future marked by increasingly frequent and catastrophic mass-casualty disasters.
I’m hosting an AMA on Monday, May 20 at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT. Ask me anything.
Proof pic here.

Bitcoin

• suuperfli

Bitcoin fixes this
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• BitCypher84

NEW: Coinbase's Bitcoin reserve is currently ~267K BTC, down from 418K BTC in early 2024.
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• xX_ihatetheworld_Xx

Me right now
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ethereum

• ShakeelShaik

Gone in 12 Seconds MIT Students Stole $25M Crypto in a US Criminal Case First Exploiting the Ethereum blockchain
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• Taylorvongrela

US DOJ Arrests & Charges 2 brothers for Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, & Money Laundering in Relation to MEV exploit in April 2023
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• Bales_wages

Error: *** Deployment Failed *** "IdentityVerification" -- unknown account. Migrating a smart contract on Truffle connecting to Geth nodes
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CryptoCurrency

• rizzobitcoin

13 years ago today, a $110 million Bitcoin mistake ✨
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• Freezy1111

How am I this bad at crypto.
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• MyOpinionsDontHurt

USA Feds charge brothers in $25 million cryptocurrency heist that took 12 seconds
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btc

• _The-Resistance

Welcome ABLA BCH May upgrade
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• rareinvoices

BCHBULL is paying 6% (24% APR) to anyone who wants BTC exposure (hedge BTC/BCH pair). They can actually use the BCH network with low fees to do it rather than have their BTC stuck on centralized exchanges due to high fees. BCH does BTC better than BTC themselves.
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• rareinvoices

Biden threatens to Veto Congress and Senate resolutions, and allow the SEC to overrule the majority of the representatives of the citizens of the USA in crypto matters. Why have democracy when we can have SEC dictators forcing their will on the people?
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SatoshiStreetBets

• Historical_Drink_486

Kendu Inu is not going anywhere. Actually... it is. Its going to the multi billion market cap. With or without you. Im just recommending before you make your opinion take a look into our telegram. If you were an early shib holder you will see a loooot of similarities on how we build up the project.
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• islandmoneygame

Breaking the Chains of Obscurity and Unleashing Pepe's Pet: $Nitefeeder
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• AlfredoMegiazo

GameStop CEO's doggo $TYLEE is about to take over the dog memes empire! Don't miss out
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CryptoMarkets

• wdw67

Bitcoin Wipes Out around 5B Shorts
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• ProffesionalAds

First-Ever Robinhood Staking Service Goes Live with Solana at 5% APY
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• Fungus_Child

Thoughts on the HODL mentality? Any promising long-term winners?
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CryptoCurrencies

• RF12

El Salvador Launches Own Proof-of-Reserves Website to Track Its $360M Bitcoin Holdings
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CoinBase

• Temporary-Package-47

Month 5 of funds kept hostage
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• Antique_Library_1549

*Coinbase wallet swap not showing swap assets *
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• Grimeybobnyc

*Fake emails *
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binance

• AutoModerator

Binance Support Thread
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FantomFoundation

• vernik911

Fantom is now supported in Coin Wallet 🚀
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solana

• CapnScratchnSniff

“SOL will never flip ETH, lol” … except SOL just exceeded ETHs total daily economic value
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• m4r00o

Why Solchan Is a Beautiful Thing
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• WeirdCityRecords

J.U.P Planetary Call #13: LFG Edition starting soon! Tune in to catch up on all things Jupiter Eco!
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cosmosnetwork

• No-Aardvark-8167

Are you eligible for airdrops if you provide liquidity via osmosis?
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• eetaylog

Transferring NIM tokens to Osmosis
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• prodigiouscrypto

*What is going on with the stargaze price? *
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algorand

• cysec_

Algorand support spotted on Travala website
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• GhostOfMcAfee

Why you should care about developing on blockchain (App Developer Magazine highlights the importance of Algorand’s Python coding)
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• cysec_

Wayrus OG WiFi router sale is live
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cardano

• Podsly

APE Society is leaving Cardano. Thoughts?
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• DecentralizedNation

Do you have a plan in place for your family to recover your Cryptocurrency in case something happens to you?
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• Key_Appearance7528

Today, 1430 utc, come to Gimbalabs 🏗 Open Spaces!
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Monero

• Vespco

*Imagine Monero is outlawed: An "Ichthys" Message Protocol might aid in its continued adoption and improve user privacy. *
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• -TrustyDwarf-

Travala
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• samdane7777

Obscure Constitutional Cases That Would Be Used To Erode Code is Speech--Excerpts from Coincenter
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NFT

• CreatorofArk

*the_roaring_kitty vs DogeTesla faceoff.-- Comment preferences! *
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• TrapsRc00l

Looking for help on selling fast well I’m between jobs and this could really help. New to selling and would like to get rid of it as soon as possible
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• Amityville-Horror

New NFT drop Aphro Punkz x V1 on opensea
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Hi All, looking for some thoughts / advice here. We bought a multifamily ~7 years ago, and lived there for 5 years. Location is fantastic - nice town, 5 min walk to main street restaurants etc. Now we live 30 mins away w/ 2 kids and self-manage the property. You can probably guess where this is going…
As we go into our last year of the $500k capital gains exemption eligibility, I’m very tempted to sell it then invest the ~$500k expected proceeds. We did a bunch of renovation 7 years ago, but it’s an old Victorian building and our plan is to kick the next round of major work down the road ~11 years until it’s paid off (refi’d into a 15 @ 2.6% ~4 years ago). Because of the 15yr mortgage, it should cover its expenses / maintenance / some buffer until it’s paid off but I don’t expect to be able to pull any $$ out until paid off. Picking up $2500+/mo of principal payoff in addition to appreciation right now.
For the house, I’m estimating ~6% annualized return for the next 6 years before any appreciation, ~8% if you assume 2% annual appreciation, about 1% lower years 7-11, then years 12-16 are probably in the 1-2% range excluding appreciation because of renovation / anticipated large repairs (roof / driveway / other stuff)
If you were in my shoes and didn’t need the money for anything right now, would you rather hold it for a few more years and keep doing the legwork, or sell and invest? Historical S&P / other returns are telling me to run away screaming from the house.
I don’t think I’m in a bad spot either way, just trying to make the best move. Also need to break through some emotional attachment to the idea of rental property with facts/numbers! I also plan to chat with my accountant and a friend who is a financial advisor, but trying to get as many opinions as I can.

Leonardo da Vinci

Class: Ruler
True Name: Leonardo da Vinci
Gender: Young-Girl Type
Source: History, Fate/Grand Order
Region: 2017 Antarctica
Alignment: Lawful Summer
Height: 144cm
Weight: 36.5kg
Strength: D
Endurance: C
Agility: B
Mana: A
Luck: A+
Noble Phantasm: B
Scenario Writer: Yuuichirou Higashide Character Design: Simosi CV: Sakamoto Maaya
Main Appearance: Fate/Grand Order
Class Skills
Riding: EX The talent for riding. She controls the dinosaur-shaped mecha she invented this time.
Item Construction: A The inventor aspect of hers is more pronounced this time compared to her artistic side. The dinosaur-shaped mecha exemplifies this the most.
Magic Resistance: B The Magic Resistance skill acquired as a Ruler. Her durability has slightly improved.
Personal Skills
Dreaming Machine: A A series of support-type dinosaur mecha Da Vinci gave up sleep to develop. Each one has its own unique (though admittedly simple) AI that gives them a degree of autonomy, and they all move just as you'd expect dinosaurs to move.
Triceratops: Fiamma (Italian for "flame") Futabasaurus: Mare (Italian for "ocean") Archaeopteryx: Vento (Italian for "wind")
Treasure Checker: B A treasure-tracking skill Da Vinci gained for her very first treasure hunt. While it's normally meant to detect gold, silver, and other similar ores, in battle, it also serves as a form of active sonar.
Shining at Twilight: EX Every adventure has to end sometime. Once the Singularity disappears, it will be as though the treasure hunt never happened. But, no matter how strong the twilight may have been, there was always something bright shining. Although this skill may resemble Dream Upon the Star, it has very different effects.
Noble Phantasm
Unforgettable Summer Vacation, Dream Of White
Rank: A NP Type: Anti-Personnel Range: 1 - 10 Maximum Targets: 1
Dinosaur Summer Goodbye. Da Vinci transforms her mecha dinosaurs into bullets and fires them with her trusty magical pistol. Each mecha dinosaur "round" has different effects. Although older Mystics are usually stronger, Da Vinci's mecha dinosaurs fall into the cutting-edge category, so unfortunately, their Mystic power is somewhat lacking. Fortunately, Da Vinci's ingenuity is more than enough to compensate for this particular shortcoming.
Character
First person pronoun: watashi Second person pronoun: kimi/aitsu/○○(calling them by name with no honorifics) Third person pronoun: kare (for males)/kanojo (for females)/○○(calling them by name with no honorifics)
○ Personality
Although her class has changed from Rider to Ruler, her personality seems to be unchanged. That said, she does seem more curious than usual, and she has to hold herself back from running around excitedly wherever she goes, though that may just be because she's in a Singularity. And who can blame her, since she finally has the chance to experience something she's so far only been able to observe from the sidelines.
Da Vinci had almost started to ask Master to tell her all about the latest adventure, as she always does, but then, she remembered that she would get to experience it herself this time, and flashed an embarrassed, but happy smile.
○ Motives and attitude towards Master
"I wonder what exciting adventure you'll take me on next?" she asks with excited eyes.
Her excitement is about 30% higher than usual, resembling a girl her age, and her responsible side is slightly subdued as she eagerly awaits the thrilling and earth-shattering events she'll experience.
○ Example lines
"Oh, that's interesting! Now, what kind of adventure will you take me on next?" "What should I do, Master? This stegosaurus has imprinted on me." "Goredolf, you're so tyrannical!!!"
○ Character Portrayal in Fate/GO
This summer has a sense of adventure in the air...
That's how the young-girl type da Vinci adjusted her Spiritron Dress with her gaze.
She investigated the various events that have occurred so far, and intends to enjoy them to the fullest.
Although not interested at first, pirate treasure accidentally fell into her hands.
As a result, an unforgettable summer mayhem unfolds.
At the center of this mayhem are Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Columbus.
Though these two lived during the same period, there is no historical evidence of them ever having met.
The child a young Da Vinci spoke to about her dreams probably went by a different name, and the same is most likely true for the child to whom a young Columbus confided his dreams.
Regardless, the two children set off on different paths, each determined to make their respective dream come true.
It was a promise made just as the sun was setting. Two children talking about their dreams, though whether it actually happened is anyone's guess.
Of course, it has nothing to do with her.
○ Summer Position
Looking at the records of minute Singularities is one of the few ways Da Vinci is able to entertain herself.
"What in the world happened here?" "How did such a crazy Singularity even exist?" She would think about how the Servants who were trapped there must have felt, or laugh at seeing her predecessor's complaining in the accompanying records, even though she knew she shouldn't.
Though Da Vinci had always admired Singularities, she never thought she would get to experience one herself. That she finally has a chance to do so feels like nothing short of a precious gemstone, and she plans to make the most of it in every way she can.
○Connection to other Characters
Steggy She happened to be imprinted when it hatched from its egg. Though she says "Oh no," she doesn't seem bothered at all. Sensing the impending parting, she takes care of the Stegosaurus.
Columbus (as a boy) When they were children, they apparently talked about their dreams. Unfortunately, neither of them have a clear memory of it. He wonders if he (she) has forgotten about it as an adult. Columbus, however, doesn't remember anything in particular as an adult.
Goredolf "Let's enjoy the summer with each other", she thinks. Meanwhile, Goredolf thought, "Well, it can't be helped", and worked hard at cooking.
Protagonist, Mash "Come on, let's enjoy the summer together!" she says enthusiastically. Since the two of them are very easygoing, they go along with it.
Sherlock Holmes I wondered why he wasn't enjoying the summer, but I soon realized it was because his coat was too hot! It can't be helped...
There's no way it can't be helped.
Comment from Illustrator "Adventure to Treasure Island?" That was the plan, so I dressed her up in an adventurer-style outfit with a bikini underneath. I had prepared a character illustration of her wearing a white swimsuit for her Spiritron Dress, but due to various circumstances it was shelved. Since I had the chance, I had it published in this magazine. While the design of da Vinci herself was simple, the amount of work involved in designing the dinosaur-mecha and Steggy was quite a lot. (Simosi)
Notes: • Her True Name is what it says, which is surprising since it's not Gran Cavallo like every other time they write it. Even her in-game profile puts in Gran Cavallo. • Her personal skills, NP, personality, part of her character profile and summer position are all taken from her in-game profile since I found them identical there. • The white swimsuit Simosi was talking about is the one da Vinci wears in her FA.

I left the country about two years ago and had someone sorta kinda look after my car (09 forester). They ended up randomly bringing the car to the shop multiple times while I was gone and I’d get a text saying how much I owe. $400 for a new battery, $400 for a new shift linkage, etc. Knowing I was sinking money into an old car was frustrating and not what I asked or expected of the car-sitter. Anyways, I’m back now and took it to the shop for a once over. They got about 30 minutes into it and called back saying not to bother. The cars underbelly is all rusted out- brake lines, every bolt and nut is rounded, etc. So I’m in the market for a used car. I like something that’s AWD as I move from VT to out west regularly between seasons. And I need something that can carry all my stuff, which my forester could. I’m not real keen to jump back into another Subaru as I feel their cars are very basic and overhyped. I felt like mine preformed as a metal box would careening down the highway at 75mph. Maybe more like a Toyota or Honda (reliable quality). Been looking at the ‘24 consumer reports magazine as well as carcomplaints.com to try and see the overall qualities of the market. I read somewhere a 4 year old used car is the best value sometimes since they’re right out of a lease… i dont know? Any thoughts or suggestions would be great as this is my first car buying experience alone. Cheers

L85A2 holds 30 rounds mag. But, actually they are load only 28 rounds - magazine spring quality is too low. How about reduce magazine capacity from 30 to 28. Instead, 416-C shall restore capacity from 25 to 30 again.

There's been a lot of talk around balance lately, particularly some (in my opinion) valid complaints about certain nerfs not making sense.
With that in mind, here are some suggestions around balance. The focus here is on fun and uniqueness.
Credit for most suggestions goes to the Helldivers community. I've mostly compiled what others have said, though I've tried to be more specific about stat recommendations.
For anyone who doesn't know, the stats shown on-screen are not the full picture. For instance, the CEO has said recoil is actually governed by 14 different values. However, I wanted to be as specific as possible.
For anyone wondering, I'm around level 50 and play on various difficulties, most often 7.
When in doubt, I've erred on the side of smaller versus larger changes, which I think is a good approach to balance in general.
Some more general thoughts about balance about the bottom, but for now, let's just dive in...
Liberator: Honestly great as-is; well-rounded starter for clearing crowds, compensated by being bad against armor.
Liberator Penetrator: VERY underpowered due to a 30-round mag (versus 45 for the Liberator), and 45 (versus 60) damage, though it does have Medium armor penetration. It's very strange that the "Penetrator" does far less damage than its "vanilla" variant. Suggest raising damage to 65 and keeping the clip at 30 rounds to emphasize its specialty anti-armor role.
Liberator Concussive: Suggest raising damage to 75. Come on... it shoots explosive, um, concussive rounds. The smaller clip would still balance it versus the basic Liberator, while the lack of Medium penetration would mean it doesn't invalidate the Penetrator.
Tenderizer: Suggest raising damage to 75 on this one too, or it will be completely invalidated by the Liberator variants (as it currently is...). This would make it a smaller-capacity, higher-caliber alternative, which aligns with the description. Also, ammo should be fully refilled by drops (as most other guns are) and the color fixed to match the trailer. Guessing these were oversights.
Adjudicator: Well-balanced thanks to recent buffs, but I do think the recoil should be more like 30-35 instead of 40. I'm a big fan (and liked it even before the buff), but it feels strangely hard to control the recoil, especially now that it's considered an assault rifle.
Diligence: Think it's great after the buffs. Not always ideal for bugs (though I use it for that too), but great for bots. No changes.
Diligence Counter-Sniper: Love it after the buffs; it was terrible before. I do think it should have 8 mags instead of 6 (matching the Diligence in mags, but still with less ammo overall due to a clip of 15 versus 20). It feels like it runs out way too fast.
Defender: Honestly not sure; I rarely use it and haven't read much about it. I suspect this means it's decent as-is.
Pummeler: Similar to Defender but less fire rate and lower damage in exchange for stun. Well-received by the community; good as-is.
Punisher: Powerful and well-rounded, good as-is.
Slugger: People were using it as a stagger sniper rifle, and somehow the balance "fix" was to remove the stagger and power, but keep the sniper accuracy? This is a slug shotgun. Suggest reverting damage and stagger to pre-nerf, but make it somewhat less accurate (or have the damage drop off more) at longer ranges.
Breaker: Good as-is.
Breaker Spray& Pray: Nearly half the damage / twice the capacity of the regular Breaker, but only 10% more fire rate? Granted this is a light crowd clearer, but I really think the fire rate should be more like 400. This would still be notably lower DPS than the Breaker, but with more ammo and much faster firing... it is called the Spray&Pray!
Breaker Incendiary: One of the best weapons imo, with a very reasonable trade-off of less immediate power for more BURN THEM ALL. My teammates often use it to set me ablaze with patriotism. Good as-is.
Exploding Crossbow: One of the worst-balanced weapons right now. The question is whether it should be more of a light crowd-clear (as it was pre-nerf), or armor penetrator (as the devs have claimed was their original intention), as currently it is bad at both. I would favor the former, only because A) that's what it was before and what people seemed to prefer, and B) that sets it apart from the Eruptor more, rather than basically serving the same role but without the ability to close holes. (I personally wish it could close them, as it is explosive, but being semi-auto that might be a bit OP.) I think it should be reverted to pre-nerf, but adding a couple more clips and keeping the faster-flying bolts (a nice change!). It was odd and a bit annoying how slow the bolts were when it first got released; even strafing could throw them off. It's a crossbow, after all, not a trebuchet. The tooltip should also say its level of armor penetration (currently it doesn't.)
Dominator: Not sure why it was recently nerfed down to 275 damage. I honestly feel the recent nerf made no difference to the balance, but I'd revert it just as a show of good faith.
Eruptor: There is a lot to say here... suggest reverting its stats and performance to the original release, but keeping the fix to it not 'imploding' players toward the explosion, and keeping the magazines at 6. I think it is potentially OK to keep the slight nerf to damage radius fall-off too (I didn't feel much difference, but it seemed more realistic somehow, whereas at release the explosion felt like it went abruptly from full damage to 0 at the edge of the radius).
HOWEVER, removing the "shrapnel" mechanic absolutely needs to be reverted. This was a massive, unnecessary nerf that removed the gun's identity and took it from being great to being awful.
A couple more points about that:
-Yes, it could randomly kill you from 30 meters away... like 0.5% of the time. Anyone claiming it didn't is wrong, though it was very rare. I had it happen maybe twice in a 10-hour period.
-No, it was not a big deal at all. However, it also did not make sense, and added nothing fun to gameplay. None of the other "explosive" guns, airstrikes, etc, work that way, and it appears from dev comments the rare weirdly long ricochets were not intended. If that could be fixed without removing the shrapnel, I think it should be... though I would personally rather have a quick revert/fix that adds back shrapnel but keeps the weird ricochet, versus a slower fix that resolves the issue completely.
-Removing the shrapnel was a dev decision. Some people need to stop blaming the community for that, because no one was asking for it to be removed completely; they just wanted the explosive mechanics to be more consistent, fun, and intuitive.
Punisher Plasma: Feels way better after the buffs; love the increased flight speed for the shots. I could see a slight buff to power or explosive radius, but think it's pretty good as-is.
Blitzer: Feels amazing after the buff to fire rate. Kudos to the devs, because this has gone from hot garbage to being my favorite gun... unless/until the Eruptor is fixed. Democracy rating: Taste My Lightning / 10.
Scythe: The buff helped, but it still feels quite weak. I'd buff power significantly (up to 450-500 DPS) and up the Fire Limit from 8 to 10. For comparison, the Sickle has a DPS of 687.5 (assuming its 750 "Fire Rate" means roughly 750 rounds per minute) and a Fire Limit of 9.
Sickle: Super fun, no notes. Great crowd clear, not so great against heavies. I think the nerf to its ammo cartridges was fine, though unnecessary. It didn't change much.
Scorcher: I haven't used it personally (literally just unlocked), but the community seems to feel it's in a good place. Looking forward to some Scorching!
Purifier: Also have not used this personally, so take with a grain of salt, but the consensus seems to be that it's like a much worse Scorcher. The chargeup is a neat mechanic, so I'd lean into that and add a lot more power... like, 400 versus the current 250. Maybe increase recoil to give it that extra kick. Also, I could be wrong, but the 250 displayed for the fire rate seems strangely high based on the gameplay videos I've seen... not sure if that's accurate.
General balance suggestions:
1) "Spreadsheet" balancing based on gun popularity is a bad strategy.
It's good to encourage loadout variety, but guns will never be used equally, and "more used" does not necessarily mean "overpowered." There are many reasons besides a gun being unbalanced that it might be used by more people. It could be unlocked earlier, or easier to learn, or just more fun to use (in which case it's the last thing you should be nerfing!). Some will be used by more people simply because they see other people using it. There are many examples of this in other games. In Rocket League, the "Octane" car is literally identical to many other cars in its stats, but it's still the most used by a wide margin. In Age of Empires 2, the French civilization has a higher win-rate among low-level players because it's easy to learn, but at a higher level, it's well-balanced.
2) Ideally balance for low and high difficulties... but high is more important.
At a high level, if a gun underperforms, you will either die, or worse, not contribute properly to your team... and Freedom.
Because there are some enemies that only appear on higher difficulties, you simply can't get away without playtesting on higher levels.
With that said, if something works well at a high level, the lower levels take care of themselves to an extent. There are some caveats (for instance, crowd-clearing weapons with low armor penetration are relatively better on lower levels), but it's hard to have perfect balance across all difficulties, and it's less important for lower levels because you can get away with a lot more and still survive. The same is not true in reverse.
If the devs don't have the time or inclination to play at a high level, a Preview server (as some have suggested) could help. Tapping skilled streamers/content creators for balance suggestions (after vetting them and/or putting some kind of NDA in place) is an option, too. Microsoft does that with Age of Empires, for instance.
3) This is a PVE game, not PVP. It's best to err on the side of limited changes... especially with nerfs. Fixes take time, but it takes 0 development time to NOT nerf something.
People emotionally invest in weapons they enjoy. (I bring my emotional support 500KG everywhere!) If you change them, they probably won't like it! This goes double for unnecessary nerfs (see 1 above).
In a PVP game, if something is overpowered, the person it's used against generally has less fun. In Helldivers, our enemies are subhuman and have no feelings to consider besides a hatred of all things free and Democratic.
If you've read this far, thanks for taking the time!
I'd love to hear what others think about these suggestions.
The CEO (Pilestedt) has made it clear that the community's concerns around balance have been noted, and the recent Discord posts indicate it's something the team is currently looking at, so hopefully there will be more positive changes soon.
See you on the front!

Admitting we have a problem is the first step in solving it! Author is a Eugenean talking about her experience with rising crime in the city, never saw this story but hey, still relevant today. Found this little gem by random chance. Title is a hopefully relatable quote from the article. You can agree or disagree with the author, but it's actually pretty well written with sources included. (just including the whole article, for people who don't want to click links!)

I Caught Two Men Stealing From My Home. The Aftermath Was Absurd—and All Too Typical.

This experience crystallized Oregon’s deeper problems.

BY REBECCA SCHUMANJUNE 21, 20225:40 AM
Typically, guys wearing power-company vests don’t leave the houses they’re working on laden down with backpacks—let alone power tools, a scooter, and a Nintendo Switch. But that was the scene I happened upon at 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in mid-April when I puttered into my driveway in Eugene, Oregon, my 7-year-old ensconced in the back seat.
For a second, my brain tried to normalize the incident: This is just my daughter’s dad stopping by—except there are two of him, and they’re dressed as electricians for some reason? Then, a second later, everything whooshed into place: Oh, wait, I’m being robbed. Or, rather, I was being burgled. I would get reminded of this distinction later, when I made the dubious choice to join the chorus of aggrieved buttinskies on Nextdoor, where my well-meaning post to warn the neighborhood would turn me into an accidental vigilante hero for a day.
Unfortunately, it’s true: My reaction to this burgle was the lived-out fantasy of many who have been on the business end of a property crime. As the two goons took off on foot down my street, I went into fight-or-flight mode—and I chose fight.
“Well,” I said to my confused child, “let’s go see if we can get our stuff back.”
I peeled my 2005 Subaru back onto the street and easily overtook my two targets, who then hurtled themselves into an alley, whereupon I cornered one by the driver’s side window as the other made haste across the adjacent parking lot.
“Just give it back, bro!” I yelled out my window. “Just give it back! I’m a single mom! Just give it back.”
I repeated this until either I reminded him too much of his meanest teacher or he realized he’d been caught in broad daylight. “Fine,” he said. “Just fucking take it.”
He shoved a backpack through my driver’s side window. Inside it was both my laptops and my daughter’s iPad from school. Back at home, I would discover these guys had used channel lock pliers to force open the back door, but that the general chaos of my home had prevented them from locating my passport, jewelry, or sole item of irreplaceable value: the Montblanc fountain pen that my father, who died in a bicycle accident two years ago, had gotten for his law school graduation. My cat was unfazed.
I can honestly tell you that this little caper of mine was thrilling and deeply satisfying. It was also the exact wrong thing to do. Even this fanatical open-carry gun website implores: “Don’t chase criminals.” What if these two dipsticks had been armed? As unlikely as that was—property crime in my town is often driven by addiction, and weapons are worth money, which can buy drugs—I put myself and my child in potential danger. And for what? Three grand worth of electronics. As any reputable expert will tell you, you’re never to give chase to a thief, because human life is not worth possessions. As much as I admit to enjoying being called a “badass” by everyone I told this story, plus the listeners of KLCC Oregon, I should not have done this.
I did call the police, on the nonemergency line, because the dudes were long gone and nobody was hurt. I declined the dispatcher’s offer to send two officers to fingerprint a bunch of stuff I’d already touched. At best, that would have just added two more sets of prints to my town’s burgeoning roster of perennially at-large property criminals.
There are larger issues here, issues much more important than my would-be cool story. First, it’s an example of how in Eugene, small-scale property crime is now de facto legal. It is largely nonviolent, so it’s rarely seen as worth police resources to track down the goods. At the same time, it is so prevalent that any time one vest-wearing bozo gets nabbed, three more spring up in his place. This was my house’s second break-in in six months, and my fourth property crime total in the three years I’ve lived here as an adult. Eugene is my hometown, so I can also add the four times my childhood house, where my mother still lives, has been burgled since the early 2000s. When I was little, we left our front door unlocked so regularly that I wasn’t aware front doors had locks on them until I was much older. By the time I turned 30, however, every door in my parents’ house had been pried open at least once. (“Time to finally get that alarm system!” said my dad for three straight decades.)
Still, it’s a mistake to treat this trend solely as a vexing crime problem. Eugene’s descent into its property crime epidemic has been concurrent, unsurprisingly, with two addiction epidemics: First, the methamphetamine nightmare of the 1990s—when pseudoephedrine pills were still unregulated—hit Oregon and other Western states particularly hard. That wave segued all too naturally into the opioid and fentanyl crisis of the present. Meanwhile, not only did meth never really leave, but its use in Oregon also surged with the pandemic, with three Oregonians per day currently dying a drug-related death.
Since our conversation was necessarily brief, I don’t know the housing or drug situation of the guys who broke into my place. But local statistics point to them as two more casualties of these plagues. (Granted, those statistics are from nearby Portland, and they are police-sourced, so take them how you wish.)
For all the ambivalent empathy that the opioid epidemic has engendered, the local property crime scourge has set off a fierce public backlash. My incident brought out an unsurprising chorus of bloodlust on Nextdoor and elsewhere, when I shared it because I wanted to give my immediate neighbors a heads-up: “You should have kicked their asses,” they wrote. “We need to rise up and defend our property.”
This town’s petty crime is often attributed, at least in the national conservative press, to our West Coast government’s decision to temporarily allow urban camping during the pandemic. (That policy has now officially ended, for what it’s worth.) Towns like mine have often been characterized in the popular imagination as unlivable crime-addled hellholes. I will be the first to admit that our tent cities are sometimes blatant open-air drug markets, but this is the case even as our property values inflate to absurd proportions—and our crime is actually on the decline. Still, Oregonians like me currently have about a 2.7 percent chance of being burgled, which, at almost 30 percent higher than the national average, is very high. I learned very efficiently how anecdotes like mine get around (I can’t help it if I’m a dynamic storyteller!) and attract the righteous indignation of other former victims, so many often feel, incorrectly, like we few honest vanguards are awash in a sea of riffraff.
This atmosphere, in turn, inspires my locality’s equally unreasonable political extremists to put forth and exacerbate their own untenable solutions. Even in a hyperpolarized American environment, Oregon is more polarized than most. For decades, our liberal enclaves have made Portlandia look understated, while our conservative areas make Texas’ look progressive.
For example, during the heyday of Eugene’s recently dismantled and infamous Washington Jefferson Park tent city, a larger break-in at a bicycle store was traced at least partially back to the encampment. The police swept the tents and made a flurry of arrests. Some of the bikes were found. This resulted in part in outrage over using resources to hassle the city’s most impoverished residents: “A stolen bike, yes, that sucks,” an advocate for the unhoused told a local news outlet. “But what are your priorities? And I’m sorry, but a stolen bike isn’t the priority.”
Well, trust me, in this town, it definitely isn’t. Recovering those bikes was an anomaly; in Eugene, most of these burglaries go unsolved. In fact, 87 percent of burglaries in the whole country do, too. The get-tough-on-property-crime proponents assert that statistically, this sends a message that stealing is fair game, and sure, that is a message I do not condone. But I also agree with a somewhat less rabid version of the opposing view: Property is replaceable, these crimes are nonviolent, and everyone currently rifling through houses and dealing drugs out of tents in my town is human. They deserve a chance to get their lives on track.
So, what should be the town’s priority? Fixing the addiction epidemics is a perilously long way away from happening, for reasons that are as polarizing as addiction’s consequences. In the sobering and excellent Dopesick, author Beth Macy goes into painfully exacting detail about opioids’ near-inescapable hold on the human brain. Macy argues that the true way out of this epidemic is “low-barrier treatment,” which includes supportive housing and medical interventions such as safe injection supplies, fentanyl testing strips, buprenorphine access, and supervised consumption sites. All of these options, however, are a tough sell even in a “progressive” town like Eugene, where supervised consumption sites are what NIMBY nightmares are made of, and low-barrier treatment can run up against deeply held moral stigma: Gas is $5 a gallon, and my taxes are going to some junkie?
In the meantime, while some admirably advocate and vote and wait for those breakthroughs, what should we do about the burglaries themselves? Should we pursue more law enforcement, or more compassion toward the burglars? More arrests that allegedly might deter this, or policies that might alleviate income inequality? Does—as approximately 83 percent of the suggestions from my Nextdoor thread contended—every house in town need a tripwire that handcuffs trespassers on sight? Or should all businesses be taxed at 500 percent, and the proceeds used to furnish every fentanyl dealer in town with a nice apartment and mad cash? The debate has degenerated such that these are the sorts of cartoonish positions each side believes they’re fighting—and, in fact, are the only available choices. Just check out Eugene’s Reddit section any day, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The actual blight on small American towns like mine isn’t property crime. It’s that any tenable solution to it has been swallowed up into a churning abyss of extremism and perceived counterextremism. No one seems to have a convincing answer to the most basic question: So what should we do? What should I do?
Burglaries don’t have to be largely unsolvable, and more property criminals could be apprehended. But while I don’t want those dudes or any of their buddies to come back to my house, I also don’t want them in an American prison, where their “rehabilitation” will consist largely of learning better ways to commit even bigger crimes when they get out, and their options for alternative forms of acquiring money will be even more limited than they are now. Lacking any meaningful restorative justice program for petty thieves in my town (which would, in turn, necessitate locating and apprehending them), I decided my own problems could be solved, for now, with a padlock on my back gate.
And then, not long after the break-in, a Nintendo Switch appeared on my town’s Craigslist. Its included components and color combination were identical to the set stolen from my house. I debated, briefly, bringing my vigilante justice alter ego Super Annoying out of retirement, answering the ad and showing up to shrill my wrongdoers into returning what was mine. But this time, I thought better of it. My life is not worth much, but it’s probably worth more than Mario Kart. I can only hope the console’s new owners enjoy it as much as my daughter did—at least until someone steals it again.

Cigarettes and rebellion have always gone hand-in-hand, and in an age of cigarette packet-sized health warnings, now more than ever, smoking a fag says: 'I do not give a fuck.' But if Brandon Flowers is hoping to strike a seditious pose by sparking up at the start of the interview, it's not going according to plan. The Killers' frontman is on all fours rooting through the junk that carpets the anteroom at the band's rehearsal space. "Has anyone seen my lighter?" he asks, rocking back on his heels. The question hangs in the air while Brandon cocks his head, waiting for an answer like a meerkat listening for a predator. Twenty-five years old and with a delicate bone structure, there's something almost dainty about him. Receiving no response, he returns to his search. "Oh, Jeez," he sighs. "I had it just a minute ago."
It's a scene that emphatically does not suggest a rebel without a cause. The mess isn't helping. The Killers' HQ - an industrial unit sandwiched between a construction supplier and the offices of a housing development just off Dean Martin Drive in West Las Vegas - is ankle-deep in designer clothing. A Dior Homme suit lies crumpled by the door; there's a pile of shoes topped like a sundae by a pair of Marc Jacobs trainers; and anyone wishing to enter the shoebox room the band use as an office must negotiate a mountain of discarded jeans. Many items are identifiable as coming from the wardrobe of Hot Fuss, The Killers' hugely successful 2004 debut album - triple platinum in the UK with two weeks at Number One and five million sold worldwide. Look! There are the shirts, ties and suit jackets they wore when they thrilled Glastonbury 2005 with indie rock anthems Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me. That was the crowning moment of a two-and-a-half year tour that finally concluded in October of last year. It seems that after playing that final date in Miami, they returned to Vegas and shrugged off their image onto the floor of this bland white box.
Now a fine layer of dust covers the dead clothes. The Killers have no further use for white tuxedos on their second album, Sam's Town. Today, Brandon wears a black polo shirt, black pin-stripe waistcoat, black jeans and black boots. Where there used to be a layer of foundation, there is now a beard - an untrimmed beard at that. Dave Keuning (30, guitar), Mark Stoermer (29, bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (29, drums) all echo Brandon's black ensemble. Ronnie has added Aviator shades and a handlebar moustache for a dash of motorcycle cop, Dave's frizzy bubble of hair gives him a Marc Bolan-ish air, and there's something very teenage about Mark's scuffed Vans.
Short of walking around wearing sandwich boards saying, "Our new record is a bit heavier than the last one," The Killers couldn't hope to communicate that message more effectively. And they have gained some musical girth on Sam's Town. The pop hooks that made Hot Fuss so irresistible survive intact - see the ringing guitar riffs on first single When You Were Young - but there's a newfound punchiness, coupled with an epic sweep. The minor-to-major uplifts on Bones are fabulously dramatic, the coda to Why Do I Keep Counting? thrillingly intense. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen have been made. If they overstate the case a little, they are at leaset qualitatively accurate. The Killers are back and this time it's serious - they've got the bootlace ties to prove it.
"Hey, it says here that Springsteen's headlining Glastonbury next year," shouts Ronnie, who's flicking through the NME. He nods sagely at the page without looking up.
"Really?" asks Dave, nicknamed Crazy Dave on account of his alledgedly volatile nature.
"The Boss is headlining one night, we're playing second on the bill the next night and Kylie's headlining the Sunday," says Brandon, charging like a bull through Michael Eavis' as-yet-unannounced line-up with what subsequently proves to be a characteristic gaucheness.
But that lighter is proving elusive. This being America, none of the people hurrying to-and-fro prepping the world for the release of Sam's Town smokes. Manager Robert Reynolds - Bobby Rey to the band - barks into his mobile, booking his band onto eye-wateringly demanding tours. "We're going to make a lot of money," he cackles to himself before switching calls to make a series of stern pronouncements on legal matters. Dave, Mark and Ronnie disappear for a jam session. Artwork is approved, B-sides are decided on and schedules are hammered out.
"I can't find it," Brandon says, finally. But he's not going to be denied the opportunity to underline The Killers reinvention with a puff of smoke. "Let's go to the gas station. I'll have to buy one. It's too busy to talk here anyway."
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Brandon's black (of course) Volkswagen Touraeg four-wheel drive is barrelling down West Flamingo Road into town. "I was a bell boy there," he says, pointing out of the driver's window at the stucco facade of the Gold Coast casino. "I was working there when we were signed."
Coming from Las Vegas, it is perhaps inevitable that casinos play a big part in The Killers' story; not only is Sam's Town named after one, it was recorded in one, too.
The band began writing songs while on the road with Hot Fuss, turning up early for soundchecks to run through new ideas. On a trip home to Vegas, George Maloof, a hotelier known for cultivating famous friends, invited them to record the album in the new studio he'd built at The Palms, his flagship hotel-cum-gambling den. When the tour finished in October 2005, they returned to Vegas and spent five month finessing the songs they'd sketched out on the road. Then, in February, they decampled to the third floor studio at The Palms and recorded Sam's Town over 11 weeks.
Producer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) encouraged them to experiment. They overdubbed, fiddled with synthesizers and played with new equipment. It took them five weeks to get the backing vocals right. The band sang the harmonies, then double-tracked them four times. The end result recalls Queen wondering, "Is this is the real life? Is this just fantasy?" When Ronnie, a trained classical percussionist, brought some kettledrums down, eyebrows were raised; but the fabulously bombastic coda on Why Do I Keep Counting? vindicates his indulgence.
"That's kind of the Ben Hur of the album," he says. He's not wrong. Sam's Town is a record on an epic scale. "Yeah, it has drama," he continues. "But, at the same time, I think it's a little more exposed than Hot Fuss. It's a little more naked. Last time it was about a lot of fictional things." By "fictional", Ronnie means that Hot Fuss wore its predominantly British influences for all to see. Brandon's taste in music is rabidly Anglophile - he constantly references The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division - and it showed. By contrast, Sam's Town is an unequivocally American record. The lyrical imagery is pure American dream - cars, girls, wide-open spaces and escaping to a better life. "We're burning down the highway skyline/On the back of a hurricane that started turning/When you were young," sings Brandon on When You Were Young. That's the basis of the Springsteen comparisons then, though the lack of pathos more closely recalls another blue-collar rocker from New Jersey - Jon Bon Jovi.
The phrase "this town" recurs throughout the album, and it's always receding into the distance as The Killers escape to a new life. "This town was made for passing through/I never did get along with everybody else," sings Brandon on This River Is Wild. On Read My Mind he "never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town", while on the title track he offers something of an explanation: "Nobody ever had a dream round here."
"With the first record, there was this feeling that there was this world out there that we didn't know," says Mark later in the day. Before The Killers, he studied philosophy: now he's their quiet one. "We wanted to get out and away from this and be somewhere else. We hadn't had a lot of experience - hadn't travelled much - then we were gone for three years. We didn't sit down and say that we wanted to make a record about how we're glad to be home, but that's what happened naturally."
It's not an angsty record. The Killers have already escaped with Hot Fuss, and, having done so, they view the experience fondly now they're back. There's a mistiness to Brandon's eyes as he explains how the album got it's name.
"Sam's Town is a casino on the edge of Vegas," he says. "I grew up in Henderson, which is out on the way to the Hoover Dam. My mom and dad lived in a trailer park, and my dad used to hitchhike up and down Boulder Highway, which is the only way you could get to Vegas. Sam's Town was the first thing you saw on your way in to town. So, when you're driving down Boulder Highway from Henderson, I always thought you finally knew you were getting somewhere when you saw Sam's Town. It was kind of like a beacon."
"It's not a completely American album," contines Brandon. "We still have our English influence, but we're also from the Wild West. Somehow we've managed to unify all that on this album. it's just such a perfect resemblence of what we are."
At the petrol station, Brandon rummages through the glove box looking for change to buy a lighter. "This is a great album," he says, pointing at Highway Companion, the latest from iconic American rocker Tom Petty. "I've always been a big fan of his. He's such a great American artist."
Yes, Brandon: we get the point.
+
When Brandon finally lights his cigarette, he smokes it awkwardly, like a child mimicking something he's seen the grown-ups doing. However, when he cheerfully admits that, "I feel the same mentally as I did when I was 12," it's not a knowing nod to the fact that he sometimes behaves like a loveably precocious child, but a reference to an unusually comprehensive grounding in pop music at an early age.
When Brandon sings about "this town", he doesn't mean Las Vegas. He means Nephi, Utah or Henderson, Nevada, where he spent his childhood. His parents are Mormon and he is the youngest of six children. "I was a surprise," he says. "I've got a 42-year-old sister." If he was issues about his "surprise" status, he chooses to gloss over them. "It turned out perfect because my brother was a teenager when I was a kid," he says. "He would bring home things like Rattle And Hum by U2 and I would watch it. I remember he bought Live In Dallas by Morrissey. It was always him watching these things, or his door was shut and you'd hear The Head On The Door by The Cure blasting through the house and rattling the walls."
The Killers were formed when Brandon answered an advert Dave had placed in a local paper in late 2002. Dave cited Oasis as a big influence; Brandon had seen them play recently and responded; and, as Dave has said in previous interviews: "He was the only person to reply to my ad who wasn't a complete freak." However, the band was born in Brandon's brothers bedroom.
"His room was like a shrine," enthuses Brandon. "It was a holy place. I wish I could show you a picture of it. It was covered in posters. There'd be a big picture of Elvis wearing a bow tie that just said 'The Smiths' [the artwork for The Smiths 1987 single Shoplifters Of The World Unite]. You had The Cure wearing face paint [the artwork to The Cure's 1985 single In Between Days] - all that kind of stuff. I remember Morrissey being on the cover of the NME, with the halo [from 1985] - stuff like that. You just wanted to know about these people 'cause they were so cool. My brother seemed like such a cool person. But he was a teenager, so he wasn't going to be that nice to me, a kid."
Brandon was fascinated by his brother's collection of music, magazines and posters, but he was denied access to them - officially, at least. "I would sneak in," he says. "I knew he'd be angry if he found out, but I would go in as soon as he left the house." For a long time Brandon was too scared to actually play anything. "That didn't come 'til later. I just used to go in there because I liked it. Then I got to the point where I'd actually take a tape out and put it in. It took more guts to do that."
It was a life-changing moment. "I was ten and the first song I played was Sing Your Life by Morrissey. I remember dancing about to it."
The lyrics to Sing Your Life include the lines, "Sing your life/Just walk right up to the microphone/And name all the things that you love/All the things that you loathe." It's intriguing to wonder what Morrissey makes of the neophyte he inspired with these lines.
Eventually, Brandon inherited his brother's tape collection. "It was around the same time CDs started coming out in a big way. He started buying CDs and gave me his tapes. And that was it: it took off from there. I got a hundred of the best albums - all the New Order, all the Morrissey, all The Smiths, The Beatles. I started buying posters. I went to see The Cure in concert. It was just kind of a continuation of my brother. And it was nice because, though my parents were strict, they were already used to it from him. There was no, 'My dad doesn't understand me,' or any of that kind of stuff. My mum likes The Smiths."
Brandon was 13 and his favourite band was late-'70s/early-'80s American new wavers The Cars, and particularly their jaw-droppingly catchy 1979 single Just What I Needed.
"I wouldn't exist without that song," he says. "That was the one. I remember driving around with my mum when I was 13, and we're living in Nephi - a really small town - and I felt so cool when I put that song on. Like: 'I have something that none of these kids I'm going to middle school with tomorrow have.' That excitement is what music's about, isn't it? That's why I understand the mentality of people that don't like us because we've sold so many records. I used to like it when no one else knew about a band. So I get that - I do."
+
Brandon's first band was called Blush Response. It was never going to work out. Not because he refused to move to Los Angeles with them, but because he is utterly - comically - shameless. He's given to making outrageously boastful statements like: "It's not like the '60s, '70s and '80s now. There are only a few bands around that are really good, that just do it. I mean, there's what, five or six of us?"
For the record, in Brandon's estimation, those bands are Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, of course, The Killers.
"I don't want people to think I'm lumping myself with other people just to make us sound cool," he says. Really? It sort of sounds like you are. But he just steamrolls through it. "Yeah, but you know what I mean," he says, grinning at his own cheekiness. He's so disgracefully forward you can't help but laugh along with him - Oh you are awful, Brandon! But joking aside, The Killers are the most commercially successful of all the bands he mentions.
Later, back at the rehearsal space, the band run through Sam's Town at deafening volume in preparation for the forthcoming tour - first the US, then the world. The infectious, almost contagious, chorus of When You Were Young sounds fabulous, as do the U2-like guitars and Twin Peaks synths of Read My Mind. Meanwhile, Smile Like You Mean It and Somebody Told Me benefit from the newfound harder edge.
They somewhat heavy-handedly underline the new direction by playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath and Get It On by T Rex. That's the thing: The Killers are not a subtle band. Their songs are like a wet kiss from a girl who's a bit too drunk. They are big and brash, and not everyone loves them for it. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me might go down as well at hip nightclubs as they do on the festival circuit, but the DJs play them with the same guilty look they wear when playing a pop record.
"I hate that," says Brandon. "Like writing a song you can hum somehow cheapens it? It makes me think of this quote by Morrissey. Everybody knows how he read Oscar Wilde, Keats and Yates when he was growing up and that he wanted to be a writer. He was talking to this journalist who asked why he hadn't become a writer, and Morrissey said: 'What I do is more powerful than what you do because I can write down these words and you get it to a melody. How can you beat that?' I'm of the same opinion. I don't understand why a good melody that's memorable is a bad thing."
Being dismissed as pop particular aggrieves Ronnie. "When we first came out we got compared to Duran Duran all the time. Jesus Christ! We got a keyboard player now all of a sudden he's Nick Rhodes! Come on!"
"The people who criticise us for being too poppy don't get it," agrees Mark. "I think that's the problem with a lot of rock music. People are afraid to write a song any more. Either that or they can't. And that attitude hurts music in general. The best bands ever have all written great songs. You can still do it and do it intelligently and it can be original. This isn't a studio creation with a producer writing these songs for us. We're not Avril Lavigne, or something like that. We're a real band writing real songs, just like a punk band would do, except that we write pop songs."
You get the impression that The Killers knack for showboating pop hooks that border on vulgar is inextricably tied up with the brazen side of Brandon's personality. But while his ebullient charisma, not to mention the songs themselves, mitigates his outrageousness, there is a less attractive side to his ego. He has a combative streak. He can't resist taking pot shots at emo bands, notably Fall Out Boy, whith whom The Killers share an A&R man.
Has he heard how many emo kids it takes to change a light bulb? "No." None. They just sit in the dark and cry. It's a full 30 seconds before he stops laughing. When he does he admits: "Yeah, we've had problems with other bands. You know, when you walk in the room it's like..." He whistles the theme to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. "We're like gangs."
And while the other members of the band are diplomatic on the subject of Brandon, you don't have to read too deeply between the lines to conclude that there have been internal issues, too.
"Some people will think Brandon's the big genius," says Dave, visibly bridling. "There are songs, such as Why Do I Keep Counting?, where he's written every note. But there are others, like When You Were Young, that were more of a collaboration - like Mr Brightside, where I had some of the music and Brandon came up with the lyrics. We always have arguments about who wrote what. The truth is that we all help in that process."
When asked how success affected them, Ronnie says: "There were certain things that needed adjusting. When you're on tour for two years, people can get a little needy. It doesn't help that you're surrounded by yes men and everybody's working for you. At times we've had to say, 'Who do you think you are?' to people. No one wears the trousers, but some people would like to. I think if it wasn't for the people in the band kicking each other in the ass... Let's just say there was some ass-kickin'."
It doesn't take a genius to work out whose ass needed kicking most often.
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It's the following day and The Killers are back at their rehearsal space. The topic of discussion is what to wear in the video for Bones, the second single. It's a big deal: the director is Tim Burton. "I feel like Frank Sinatra when I sing it," announces Brandon. "With maybe a little bit of Morrissey and a little bit of Elvis, too."
Of course he does. But if securing the services of Tim Burton tells you one thing, it's that The Killers are about to get even bigger, perhaps even make the leap to the same level as Coldplay et al. Already stars, they are about to become superstars. Brandon can hardly wait.
"Do you know that Rolling Stone didn't want to put us on the cover last time," he says indignantly. "They didn't think we were stars. We sold five million albums! What more do they want from a band?"
Whatever was required, Brandon would be happy to do most things. "I'll do stuff that some people don't want to do, 'cause I want people to hear the music," he says. However, even he has limits. "The Rolling Stone thing made the record label think: 'What can we do to make them stars?' If I go on vacation with my wife, do they have to send somebody to be there to take pictures of me? Is that how you become a star? I don't want that. I walked down the red carpet one time and I realised I don't like it. But you don't have to walk down the red carpet for people to hear your music. We do still have some of that indie blood running through our veins."
He heads off at a tangent: "When you walk around Liverpool, you think of The Beatles, or you go to Manchester and you think of The Smiths or Oasis. I want you to come to Las Vegas and think of Sam's Town. And I think we've started to capture that, which is a truer version of The Killers, 'cause that's where we're from."
He pauses.
"I used to live across the street from Sam's Town. Maybe it'll be like our Abbey Road where people go to take pictures."
Is that what he'd like?
"I wouldn't mind it," he says, desperately hoping it will come true.
He puts a cigarette between his lips, looks down at his trouser pockets and pats them in search of the lighter he bought yesterday.
"Hey, I don't suppose you've got one?"

III. Changing Modes of Making It: From Horatio Alger to the Happy Hooker
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From “Self-Culture” to Self-Promotion through “Winning Images”
In the nineteenth century, the ideal of self-improvement degenerated into a cult of compulsive industry. P.T. Barnum, who made a fortune in a calling the very nature of which the Puritans would have condemned (“Every calling, whereby God will be Dishonored; every Calling whereby none but the Lusts of men are Nourished: …every such Calling is to be Rejected”), delivered many times a lecture frankly entitled “The Art of Money-Getting,” which epitomized the nineteenth-century conception of worldly success. Barnum quoted freely from Franklin but without Franklin’s concern for the attainment of wisdom or the promotion of useful knowledge. “Information” interested Barnum merely as a means of mastering the market. Thus he condemned the “false economy” of the farm wife who douses her candle at dusk rather than lighting another for reading, not realizing that the “information” gained through reading is worth far more than the price of the candles. “Always take a trustworthy newspaper,” Barnum advised young men on the make, “and thus keep thoroughly posted in regard to the transactions of the world. He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.”
Barnum valued the good opinion of others not as a sign of one’s usefulness but as a means of getting credit. “Uncompromising integrity of character is invaluable.” The nineteenth century attempted to express all values in monetary terms. Everything had its price. Charity was a moral duty because “the liberal man will command patronage, which the sordid, uncharitable miser will be avoided.” The sin of pride was not that it offended God but that it led to extravagant expenditures. “A spirit of pride and vanity, when permitted to have full sway, is the undying cankerworm which gnaws the very vitals of a man’s worldly possessions.”
The eighteenth century made a virtue of temperance but did not condemn moderate indulgence in the service of sociability. “Rational conversation,” on the contrary, appeared to Franklin and his contemporaries to represent an important value in its own right. The nineteenth century condemned sociability itself, on the grounds that it might interfere with business. “How many good opportunities have passed, never to return, while a man was sipping a ‘social glass’ with his friends!” Preachments on self-help now breathed the spirit of compulsive enterprise. Henry Ward Beecher defined “the beau ideal of happiness” as a state of mind in which “a man [is] so busy that he does not know whether he is or is not happy.” Russell Sage remarked that “work has been the chied, and you might say, the only source of pleasure in my life.”
Even at the height of the Gilded Age, however, the Protestant ethic did not completely lose its original meaning. In the success manuals, the McGuffey readers, the Peter Parley Books, and the hortatory writings of the great capitalists themselves, the Protestant virtues - industry, thrift, temperance - still appeared not merely as stepping-stones to success but as their own reward.
The spirit of self-improvement lived on, in debased form, in the cult of “self-culture” - proper care and training of mind and body, nurture of the mind through “great books,” development of “character.” The social contribution of individual accumulation still survived as an undercurrent in the celebration of success, and the social conditions of early industrial capitalism, in which the pursuit of wealth undeniably increased the supply of useful objects, gave some substance to the claim that “accumulated capital means progress.” In condemning speculation and extravagance, in upholding the importance of patient industry, in urging young men to start at the bottom and submit to “the discipline of daily life,” even the most unabashed exponents of self-enrichment clung to the notion that wealth derives its value from its contribution to the general good and to the happiness of future generations.
The nineteenth-century cult of success placed surprisingly little emphasis on competition. It measured achievement not against the achievements of others but against an abstract ideal of discipline and self-denial. At the turn of the century, however, preachments on success began to stress the will to win. The bureaucratization of the corporate career changed the conditions of self-advancement; ambitious young men now had to compete with their peers for the attention and approval of their superiors. The struggle to surpass the previous generation and to provide for the next gave way to a form of sibling rivalry, in which men of approximately equal abilities jostled against each other in competition for a limited number of places. Advancement now depended on “will-power, self-confidence, energy, and initiative” - the qualities celebrated in such exemplary writings as George Lorimer’s Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son. ” By the end of the nineteenth century,” writes John Cawelti in his study of the success myth, “self-help books were dominated by the ethos of sales-manship and boosterism. Personal magnetism, a quality which supposedly enabled a man to influence and dominate others, became one of the major keys to success.” In 1907, both Lorimer’s Saturday Evening Post and Orison Swett Marden’s Success magazine inaugurated departments of instruction in the “art of conversation,” fashion, and “culture.” The management of interpersonal relations came to be seen as the essence of self-advancement. The captain of industry gave way to the confidence man, the master of impressions. Young men were told that they had to sell themselves in order to succeed.
At first, self-testing through competition remained almost in-distinguishable from moral self-discipline and self-culture, but the difference became unmistakable when Dale Carnegie and then Norman Vincent Peale restated and transformed the tradition of Mather, Franklin, Barnum, and Lorimer. As a formula for success, winning friends and influencing people had little in common with industry and thrift. The prophets of positive thinking disparaged “the old adage that hard work alone is the magic key that will unlock the door to our desires.” They praised the love of money, officially condemned even by the crudest of Gilded Age materialists, as a useful incentive. “You can never have riches in great quantities,” wrote Napoleon Hill in this Think and Grow Rich,” unless you can work yourself into a white heat of desire for money.” The pursuit of wealth lost the few shreds of moral meaning that still clung to it. Formerly the Protestant virtues appeared to have an independent value of their own. Even when they became purely instrumental, in the second half of the nineteenth century, success itself retained moral and social overtones, by virtue of its contribution to the sum of human comfort and progress. Now success appeared as an end in its own right, the victory over your competitors that alone retained the capacity to instill a sense of self-approval. The latest success manuals differ from earlier ones - even surpassing the cynicism of Dale Carnegie and Peale - in their frank acceptance of the need to exploit and intimidate others, in their lack of interest in the substance of success, and in the candor with which they insist that appearances - “winning images - count for more than performance, ascription for more than achievement. One author seems to imply that the self consists of little more than its “image” reflected in others’ eyes. “Although I’m not being original when I say it, I’m sure you’ll agree that the way you see yourself will reflect the image you portray to others.” Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
<The American Religion by Harold Bloom (California Orphism)>
The Apotheosis of Individualism
The fear that haunted the social critics and theorists of the fifties - that rugged individualism had succumbed to conformity and “love-pressure sociability” - appears in retrospect to have been premature. In 1960, David Riesman complained that young people no longer had much social “presence,” their education having provided them not with “a polished personality but [with] an affable, casual, adaptable one, suitable to the losing organizations of an affluent society.” It is true that “a present-oriented hedonism,” as Riseman went on the argue, has replaced the work ethic “among the very classes which in the earlier stages of industrialization were oriented toward the future, toward distant goals and delayed gratification.” But this hedonism is a fraud; the pursuit of pleasure disguises a struggle for power. Americans have not really become more sociable and cooperative, as the theorists of other-direction and conformity would like us to believe; they have merely become more adept at exploiting the conventions of interpersonal relations for their own benefit. Activities ostensibly undertaken purely for enjoyment often have the real object of doing others in. It is symptomatic of the underlying tenor of American life that vulgar terms for sexual intercourse also convey the sense of getting the better of someone, working him over, taking him in, imposing your will through guile, deception, or superior force. Verbs associated with sexual pleasure have acquired more than the usual overtones of violence and psychic exploitation. In the violent world of the ghetto, the language of which now pervades American society as a whole, the violence associated with sexual intercourse is directed with special intensity by men against women, specifically against their mothers. The language of ritualized aggression and abuse reminds those who use it that exploitation is the general rule and some form of dependence the common fate, that “the individual,” in Lee Rainwater’s words, “is not strong enough or adult enough to achieve his goal in a legitimate way, but is rather like a child, dependent on others who tolerate his childish maneuvers”; accordingly males, even adult males, often depend on women for support and nurture. Many of them have to pimp for a living, ingratiating themselves with a woman in order to pry money from her; sexual relations thus become manipulative and predatory. Satisfaction depends on taking what you want instead of waiting for what is rightfully yours to receive. All this enters everyday speech in language that connects sex with aggression and sexual aggression with highly ambivalent feelings about mothers.
In some ways middle-class society has become a pale copy of the black ghetto, as the appropriation of its language would lead us to believe. We do not need to minimize the poverty of the ghetto or the suffering inflicted by whites on blacks in order to see that the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable conditions of middle-class life have given rise to similar strategies for survival. Indeed the attraction of black culture for disaffected whites suggests that black culture now speaks to a general condition, the most important feature of which is a widespread loss of confidence in the future. The poor have always had to live for the present, but now a desperate concern for personal survival, sometimes disguised as hedonism, engulfs the middle class as well. Today almost everyone lives in a dangerous world from which there is little escape. International terrorism and blackmail, bombings, and hijackings arbitrarily affect the rich and poor alike. Crime, violence, and gang wars make cities unsafe and threaten to spread to the suburbs. Racial violence on the streets and in the schools creates an atmosphere of chronic tension and threatens to erupt at any time into full-scale racial conflict. Unemployment spreads from the poor the white-collar class, while inflation eats away the savings of those who hoped to retire in comfort. Much of what is euphemistically known as the middle class, merely because it dresses up to go to work, is now reduced to proletarian conditions of existence. Many white-collar jobs require no more skill and pay even less than blue-collar jobs, conferring little status or security. The propaganda of death and destruction, emanating ceaselessly from the mass media, adds to the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity. Far-flung famines, earthquakes in remote regions, distant wars and uprisings attract the same attention as events closer to home. The impression of arbitrariness in the reporting of disaster reinforces the arbitrary quality of experience itself, and the absence of continuity in the coverage of events, as today’s crisis yields to a new and unrelated crisis tomorrow, adds to the sense of historical discontinuity - the sense of living in a world in which the past holds out no guidance to the present and the future has become completely unpredictable.
Older conceptions of success presupposed a world in rapid motion, in which fortunes were rapidly won and lost and new opportunities unfolded every day. Yet they also presupposed a certain stability, a future that bore some recognizable resemblance to the present and the past. The growth of bureaucracy, the cult of consumption with its immediate gratifications, but above all the severance of the sense of historical continuity have transformed the Protestant ethic while carrying the underlying principles of capitalist society to their logical conclusion . The pursuit of self-interest, formerly identified with the rational pursuit of gain and the accumulation of wealth, has become a search for pleasure and psychic survival. Social conditions now approximate the vision of republican society conceived by the Marquis de Sade at the very outset of the republican epoch. In many ways the most farsighted and certainly the most disturbing of the prophets of revolutionary individualism, Sade defended unlimited self-indulgence as the logical culmination of the revolution in property relations - the only way to attain revolutionary brotherhood in its purest form. By regressing in his writings to the most primitive level of fantasy, Sade uncannily glimpsed the whole subsequent development of personal life under capitalism, ending not in revolutionary brotherhood but in a society of siblings that has outlived and repudiated its revolutionary origins.
Sade imagined a sexual utopia in which everyone has the right to everyone else, where human beings, reduced to their sexual organs, become absolutely anonymous and interchangeable. His ideal society thus reaffirmed the capitalist principle that human beings are ultimately reducible to interchangeable objects. It also incorporated and carried to a surprising new conclusion Hobbes’s discovery that the destruction of paternalism and the subordination of all social relations to the market had stripped away the remaining restraints and the mitigating illusions from the war of all against all. In the resulting state of organized anarchy, as Sade was the first to realize, pleasure becomes life’s only business - pleasure, however, that is indistinguishable from rape, murder, unbridled aggression. In a society that has reduced reason to mere calculation, reason can impose no limits on the pursuit of pleasure - on the immediate gratification of every desire no matter how perverse, insane, criminal, or merely immoral. For the standards that would condemn crime or cruelty derive from religion, compassion, or the kind of reason that rejects purely instrumental applications; and none of these outmoded forms of thought or feeling has any logical place in a society based on commodity production. In his misogyny, Sade perceived that bourgeois enlightenment, carried to its logical conclusions, condemned even the sentimental cult of womanhood and the family, which the bourgeoisie itself had carried to unprecedented extremes.
At the same time, he saw that condemnation of “woman-worship” had to go hand in hand with a defense of woman’s sexual rights - their right to dispose of their own bodies, as feminists would put it today. If the exercise of that right in Sade’s utopia boils down to the duty to become an instrument of someone else’s pleasure, it was not so much because Sade hated women as because he hated humanity. He perceived, more clearly than the feminists, that all freedoms under capitalism come in the end to the same thing, the same universal obligation to enjoy and be enjoyed. In the same breath, and without violating his own logic, Sade demanded for women the right “fully to satisfy all their desires” and “all parts of their bodies” and categorically stated that “all women must submit to our pleasure.” Pure individualism thus issued in the most radical repudiation of individuality. “All men, all women resemble each other,” according to Sade; and to those of his countrymen who would become republicans he adds this ominous warning: “Do not think you can make good republicans so long as you isolated in their families the children who should belong to the republic alone.” The bourgeois defense of privacy culminates - not just in Sade’s thought but in the history to come, so accurately foreshadowed in the very excess, madness, infantilism of his ideas - in the most thoroughgoing attack on privacy; the glorification of the individual, in his annihilation.
<…>
Standing-Reserve.
Note a lack of the “Greek” in Lasch.
Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939 by Georges Bataille, Edited by A. Stoekl, Translated by A. Stoekl, C.R. Lovitt, and D.M. Leslie Jr.
<…>

** BOTH FRI 5/17 AND SAT 5/18 *\*
Motorcycle Safety Foundation Ride Day New Mexico Motorcycle Safety Program, 3401 Pan American Fwy Take Your First Ride: Ride a motorcycle in 30 min or less for free. MOTO Intro provides the motorcycle, helmet, gloves, and coaching. Free Riding Skills Test: Take the challenge of an advanced MSF course! SKILL Check participants, bring your motorcycle and gear! Please wear over-the-ankle footwear, long pants and long sleeves

• Fri: 2 - 4 PM Skills Check, 4 - 6 PM Moto Intro
• Sat: 2 - 4:30 PM Moto Intro, 4:30 - 6:30 PM Skills Check

Niños and Teeños: Flamenco para todos Carlisle Gymnasium (Elizabeth Waters Center for Dance), UNM, 301 Yale Blvd. NE National Institute of Flamenco presents Niños y Teeños Flamencos in FUTUROS FLAMENCOS. Come see the high-energy flamenco of the National Institute of Flamenco's Student Companies. Don't miss this special showcase by talented youth in our community! (tickets)

• Fri: 7 PM
• Sat: 4 PM

** Fri 5/17 *\*
Fri 4:30 PM Bike to Wherever Day Canteen Brewhouse, 2381 Aztec Rd. NE Learn about exciting bike routes in Albuquerque and grab some cool giveaways to kickstart your cycling adventures. Whether you’re a seasoned cyclist or just starting out, there’s something for EVERYONE at our pop-up table! We'll have Canteen will be volunteering at a table from 6:30-9am and then again at 4:30-6:30am. Receive $1 off your beer if you arrive on your bike
Fri 5 PM Pistachio Cream Ale Release Tractor Brewing, ALL locations We're bringing back this seasonal favorite for American Craft Beer Week! Inspired by pistachios produced right here in New Mexico this brew is as smooth as silk and as tasty and a fresh roasted pistachio. This is a very limited one off for us, so come and get you a pint or growler while supplies last
Fri 5 – 7 PM May Babies Birthday Celebration Rio Bravo Brewing, 1912 2nd St. NW Starting at 5pm, the first 25 people with May birthdays to show Ryan proof of their birthday month will score a $5 Rio Bravo Brewing Gift Card...oh, and Beers are on special for birthday kids for just $5! But you spend your gift card however you want! Thanks to Cake Fetish...we'll have cupcakes for the May Birthday Kids (while supplies last) We'll have prizes JUST for the May Babies! We'll also have drawings for all you non-birthday folks too If you want to get their before us...All drinks are $1 Off for May Birthdays the whole day!
Fri 5:45 – 7:15 PM 22 Veterans Suicide Awareness WOD BFit505, 11500 Menaul Blvd. NE Each month, Team Bravo & Bfit505 team up to bring awareness to veteran suicide. Before our events, we will take a moment and talk about the issue. Then we will begin with our 22 reps WOD followed by a 2.2 mile ruck/walk/run. Afterwards, we will be going out to eat for social time with friends and family. This event is for all levels
Fri 6 PM Sandia Social - May Hangout Dawn Patrol Coffee Shop, 3619 Copper Ave NE We will be hanging out around the patio and inside starting at 6pm! Bring your friends and come hang out!
Fri 6 PM Pink Therapy, A Latin Dance Fundraiser for Breast Cancer Sobremesa, 3421 Coors Blvd. NW On The One and Pachanga Productions' "Salsa Therapy" night has made its mark in the Latin Dance community, now we are using the symbolism of "Therapy" under "Pink Therapy" but this time it is to fundraise in partnership with the Pink Warrior House Foundation in order to provide outreach and increase resources for those warriors battling against breast cancer. On The One and Pachanga productions will be involved in community outreach and utilizing our resources to help those in need. Cover charge is a SUGGESTED $20 donation (ALL PROCEEDS GO TO Pink Warrior House Foundation). Cocktail hour from 6-7 PM (purchases go to PWH on selected drinks). Dance lesson from 7-8 PM. Open dance floor 8-12 AM. Be aware of Media/News coverage. We need everyone's assistance with this, PLEASE SHARE FAR AND WIDE, those warriors battling breast cancer need our help. Let's do our part. We are asking for the entire Latin dance community to come out and support. This will be one of many fundraisers that we do for organizations like PWH. Lets use our dance skills to help those in need!
Fri 6 – 8 PM May Flowers Stampin' Bingo (in person) Hip Stitch, 2320 Wisconsin St. NE Cost is $35 for 6 rounds of bingo, prizes, and make n' takes! Message for more info or to register
Fri 6 – 8:30 PM Los Domingueros Live El Vado, 2500 Central Ave SW Prepare for an unforgettable fusion of Latin dance beats and rock energy as Friday Night Live at El Vado proudly presents New Mexico's premier menudo-based band, Los Domingueros! Few bands can match the infectious joy and vibrant rhythms that they bring to the stage. A multi-talented group of musicians, they take listeners on a musical journey like no other. From the pulsating rhythms of salsa, bachata, and cumbia to the high-energy vibes of ska and reggae, sprinkled with a dash of punk and thrash, their eclectic repertoire promises an exhilarating experience for all. As always, treat your taste buds to a delightful selection of culinary delights from our diverse food pods. From savory stir-fries to tantalizing Latin flavors and heavenly desserts, there's something to satisfy every craving. And don't overlook the opportunity to quench your thirst with a crisp craft beer from Ponderosa Brewing Company, conveniently available at the El Vado Tap Room
Fri 6 – 10 PM Fork Cancer Gala FUSION ABQ, 700-708 1st St. NW The American Cancer Society is hosting Albuquerque's second #ForkCancerAbq fundraising event. VIP 6pm - 7pm. Gala 7pm - 10pm. Dress Code: Gala Attire. #ForkCancerNM is a foodie's dream, with local restaurants and bars bringing out their best to truly showcase the Taste of Albuquerque while raising money for the American Cancer Society's life-saving mission in New Mexico supporting Access to Care like patient transportation, patient lodging and 24/7 support. Along with life saving research and grants. With great opportunities to raise money, we will also have live entertainment! (tickets)
Fri 6:30 – 10 PM Community Movie Night South Valley Multipurpose Center, 2008 Larrazolo Rd. SW Feature of the night: In The Heights. Bring your dinner, blankets and chairs. Please no glass containers
Fri 7 PM Movie In The Park ABQ Food Park, 6901-B San Antonio Dr. NE ABQ Food Park is bringing back Movies In The Park, starting off the summer with a screening of The Sandlot. Arrive early to get your face painted by Local Locas Facepainting before settling in with your blankets, chairs, and appetite for a delightful evening at the park with loved ones. Indulge in delicious fare from our food trucks while enjoying this timeless film under the stars. Please do not bring outside food as we have a variety of food options at the park. Please support our local food vendors. Entry is free! Reserve your tickets
Fri 7 – 10 PM Emerald Ball Holiday Dance Studio, 5200 Eubank Blvd. NE, Ste D Celebrate the enchanting month of May by donning your finest emerald attire. Bring in the vibrant spring season by joining us in elegant semi-formal wear of rich verdant colors and dance the night away! A Foxtrot lesson will begin the evening at 7pm followed by open dancing. Call 505-508-4020 for more information. $30 non-members
Fri 8 PM – 2 AM Sucia EDC Gogo Takeover Sidewinders Bar and Grill, 4200 Central Ave SE Sucia Productions is bringing the Electric Sky to Sidewinders! No need to have EDC FOMO because Papa Sucia is ready to bring the party to you! Come join your Sucia Family for a Night of PLUR! Featuring the Sucia Gogos on multiple boxes and individual dances available in the Cabaret Room! Hosted by Papa Sucia and Sucia Gogo Madam Sativa Rico-Stratton. DJ Unzipped will be bringing the you the best EDM set for you to dance the night away!
Fri 9 PM – 1:30 AM Callaita Fridays Salt Yard West, 3700 Ellison Rd. NW DJ Soiree will be spinning under the stars in the Salt Yard, promising a night of electrifying Latin music. This 21+ event guarantees an atmosphere where you can fully embrace the rhythm without inhibition. Whether you're a die-hard fan of Reggaeton or simply seeking a night of unparalleled fun, "Callaita Fridays" is the place to be
Fri 10:30 PM – 12:15 AM FACELESS AFTER DARK - new meta horror starring Jenna Kanell of "Terrifier"! The Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE All Seats $8. Check out the trailer. Dir. Raymond Wood - 2023 - 82m. Following her breakout success as the star of a killer clown horror flick, Bowie (Jenna Kanell, TERRIFIER) now finds herself struggling to capitalize on its success. But when she is suddenly held hostage by an unhinged fan posing as that same killer clown, horror becomes her reality as she fights to survive the night and escape before he completes his sinister plan to recreate the film's fatal plot (tickets)
** Sat 5/18 *\*
Sat 8 – 10 AM Planting Corn Seeds Lynn Garden, 176 Manierre Rd., Corrales We will be planting corn seeds; a new crop for Seed2Need this year!
Sat 8 – 10 AM Run for Mercy 5K Sagebrush Community Church, 6440 Coors Blvd. NW Join our team to run with us to support Mercy Multiplied, which exists to provide opportunities for all to experience God's unconditional love, forgiveness, and life-transforming power. Mercy offers free-of-charge Residential and Outpatient Counseling Programs, as well as Outreach Services that include workshops and trainings, our Keys to Freedom discipleship study, and Keys to Freedom Retreat (register)
Sat 8 AM – 12 PM Downtown Growers' Market Robinson Park, 810 Copper Ave NW Every Saturday from 8 am - NOON! This vibrant community event connects local farmers, growers, artisans, wellness makers, and hot food vendors with the local community from mid-April to early-November. Bring friends / family or come solo to enjoy fresh food made on sight, a variety of seasonal produce, unique arts and crafts, live music, and special programming all in the heart of downtown
Sat 8 AM – 2 PM Rio Rancho's Biggest Yard Sale Cabezon Park and Community Center, 2307 Cabezon Blvd. SE, Rio Rancho FREE Admission! Clean out your garage, spare bedroom, attic and shed. Come join us to sell all of those items that were collecting dust, find a treasure that you didn’t know you needed, and enjoy a day in the park! Vendor space $35 for a 15’ x 15’ space (Tables and chairs are not provided) Must register online, NO Drop-Ins Accepted. Please call the Cabezon Community Center at 505-892-4499 for more info
Sat 9 AM Send Haley to Spain Sand Volleyball Tournament Charlie’s Sandbox, 4335 Paseo del Norte NE All proceeds go to Haley and her trip to Spain in July! $20/per player. All Skill levels! Prizes for 1st & 2nd place. 4-6 players Coed with 1 female on team. Check in @ 8:30am. More info: Jillian (505) 322-7228, Haley (505) 331-4788, Charlie (505) 239-2461
Sat 9 AM Invisible Heroes Run Believers Center of Albuquerque, 320 Waterfall Dr. SE Join Runfit and the American Society of Radiologic Technologists for the inaugural Invisible Heroes 5K Run/Walk. It is a community event being held to recognize the vital role that medical imaging professionals and radiation therapists play on the health care team and to introduce the public to these vital health care professionals. You are invited to run and walk to celebrate the important work done by invisible heroes. At packet pick-up, you will have an opportunity to tour the ASRT Museum and Archives. Age group, overall, and team awards, including a great t-shirt and finisher medals for all participants (register)
Sat 9 AM - 4 PM 16th Annual CTC Vintage Tractor & Car Show Corrales Recreation Center, 500 Jones Rd., Corrales Join us for a fun day in the Corrales Park. There will be music, food, hot rods, tractor, stationary engines and more. Proceeds Raised will benefit Corrales 4H and Historical Society. Free admission. $10 for show participants
Sat 10 AM – 12 PM Foraging for Fun(ds) Los Poblanos Open Space, 1800 Tierra Viva Pl. NW Join Rev. Ryan Tate on a foraging excursion! Rev. Tate, of the African American spiritual tradition and an IPL board member, wants to bring their loving knowledge of NM edibles and herbs to you. Discover the food right under your nose and how easy it is to enjoy! We’ll meet to explore and harvest native and edible plants. Enter the Open Space area from west bound Montano Boulevard. After foraging, we’ll gather to taste our harvest and other locally sourced treats. Sign up today to participate - space is limited. This is a fundraiser for our work for climate justice: Please give generously (Suggested minimum donation $10)
Sat 10 AM – 3 PM Homebrewer's Happy Hour Southwest Grape & Grain, 3401 Candelaria Blvd. NE Homebrewer's Happy Hour is the perfect chance for all homebrewers, wine makers, distillers, or anyone interested in learning, to connect with others, share a drink, and learn about a new subject each month! $1 off beers from 10am to 3pm. Presentation on monthly subject at 1pm with open forum to discuss after. Food truck on site for lunch! May 18th - Barley
Sat 10:30 – 11:30 AM Animal Tales with the ABQ BioPark Ernie Pyle Library, 900 Girard Blvd. SE Dive into the captivating world of animals with "Animal Tales" presented by the ABQ BioPark! Join us for a delightful reading session featuring an animal-themed book. Experience the magic as the BioPark brings along real animals and biofacts that connect to the story, giving kids an exciting opportunity to meet these creatures up close! Don't miss this engaging and educational adventure for young animal enthusiasts!
Sat 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM FolkMADS Third Saturday Family Dance Albuquerque Square Dance Center, 4915 Hawkins St. NE Dancing, song, and live music for kids of all ages. No experience needed to have fun! Children must be accompanied by an adult. Children dance free, Adults $10
Sat 11 AM – 1 PM Annual Summer Kick-Off Event! Matheson Park Elementary, 10809 Lexington Ave NE Join us as we kick off the summer with fun, a food truck, face painting, dunk tank, and more! Bring your family and your pets for a Blessing of the Pets. There is no cost to attend and all are welcome!
Sat 11 AM – 3 PM Wine + Art Afternoons Gruet Winery, 8400 Pan American East Fwy NE Prism Arts presents a new public art and social series with a special one-day multi-artist event. Join us inside the Gruet Winery with a selection of fine art, prints, paintings, jewelry, and ceramics from local artists Vanessa Alvarado, Eric Romero, Margarita Paz-Pedro, & Aaron Richardson. Enjoy unique art, amazing fine, food, and a social environment with the artists and the public. *All art purchases receive a complimentary bottle of Gruet Wine*
Sat 11 AM – 3 PM Bernalillo Family Fun Festival! Calvary Church, 4001 Osuna Rd. NE Get connected to community and enjoy a Fun Family Day!
Sat 11:30 AM – 4 PM Imaginary Friends Fest Flix Brewhouse, 3200 La Orilla Rd. NW Let your imagination run wild! Join us in the lobby to celebrate the opening of IF! Enjoy photo ops, freebies, an in-theater giveaway, and activities for the whole family. All ages are welcome!
Sat 12 PM BBQ n' Crawl Supper Rock Park, 598 Monte Alto Pl. NE Mini Crawlers 505 and Duke City RC are throwing a BBQ and crawl sesh! All rigs welcome! Please mark going if you are, so we can get enough food!
Sat 12 PM May Brew Tour - Farewell Tour Rio Bravo Brewing, 1912 2nd St. NW This is the last NM Brew Ha-Ha Beer tour for the season. The 24-25 season will start in June 2025 so stay tuned for the season lineup release. Rio Bravo Brewing, Ponderosa Brewing, Bow & Arrow Brewing, Juno Brewery. At Rio Bravo, a DD will be selected, then we’ll head to the other breweries in the order listed. T-shirts, if ordered will be delivered. For safety, a breathalyzer is available, a DD will be established and a liability waiver will be signed by all participants. Safety is of utmost importance. We want everyone to enjoy their tour and arrive home safely
Sat 12 PM Drag Bingo & Brunch! All Ages Welcome! Sidewinders Bar and Grill, 4200 Central Ave SE Join us for a Drag Queen Bingo and Brunch benefitting The Albuquerque Roadrunner Tournament 2024 (coming up in September). Hosted by Priscilla Bouvier. Doors 12pm. Show 1pm. Bingo, Prizes, Giveaways, Raffles, Cocktails, Mocktails and Fun!
Sat 12 PM Empire's 9th Anniversary - FREE PLAY ALL DAY Empire Board Game Library, 3503 Central Ave NE It's Empire's 9th Anniversary celebration and you're invited! We've been here 9 years and it's all thanks to the support we get from you, so to show our appreciation, this Saturday's celebration is our gift to you: Come in and play for free all day! Every game is on sale all weekend! We're holding raffles over the course of the day to give away some great games! So come on down and let us thank you!
Sat 12 – 3 PM STOODIS!: An AIDS/LifeCycle Fundraising Event Soo Bak Seoul Bowl, 111 Hermosa Dr. SE Help Vanessa Bowen cross the finish line – the fundraising finish line, that is! Vanessa is on a mission to raise $3,500 to participate in the 2024 AIDS/LifeCycle, a 545-mile charity bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles from June 2nd to 8th, 2024. Join this special fundraising event and send-off party for an afternoon of entertainment, vendors, bike tune-ups, raffle, and food and drink specials. Come prepared to support our local vendors and find out how you can win our selected giveaways. AIDS/LifeCycle benefits, and is jointly produced by, San Francisco AIDS Foundation (Tax ID # 94-2927405) and Los Angeles LGBT Center (Tax ID # 95-3567895), each of which is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation recognized as tax exempt under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3). Donations to AIDS/LifeCycle are deductible for income tax purposes, to the extent permitted by law. Vanessa Bowen (They/Them) is a Diné (Navajo) product designer and cyclist. Their work gravitates toward the intersection of design and social equity. Bowen is a former Outride Ambassador, current Chamois Butt’r and Kuat Racks Ambassador, founder of Get Native Kids on Bikes, and a supporter of AIDS/LifeCycle. If not creating in their studio in Albuquerque, they are training for a cycling event or community building for a just, equitable future (more info)
Sat 12 – 5 PM Day Camp - A Festival for Families Tin Can Alley, 6013 Signal Ave NE Day Camp is where adventure meets education, creativity, and community in a fair-like environment where a variety of youth development organizations are excited to share their programs. In partnership with Warehouse 505, and featuring organizations such as Explora, there will be workshops ands expos for kids to discover new passions across music, art, science, and more. Supporting Youth Security & Education, all dedicated funds raised will be going to New Mexico non-profit organizations
Sat 12 – 5 PM Monthly Pinball Tournament Sister, 407 Central Ave NW All skill levels and players welcome! 21+ Sign up starts at 12 pm; tournament play starts at 1 p.m. Entry fee is $5 + coin drop
Sat 1 – 5 PM United in Beer Collaboration Festival Ex Novo Brewing, 4895 Corrales Rd., Corrales United in Beer is a New Mexico statewide collaborative beer festival that benefits the Somos Unidos Foundation with 26 participating breweries, which were randomly partnered through a live draft and then together selected the beer style they would collaborate on. All beers will be showcased at the festival. Tickets are limited. Portions of ticket sales will donated to Somos Unidos Foundation, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to creating positive outcomes for New Mexicans through art, sport, community, and unity. This will be a 21+ Event. Food trucks will be on site. Included with ticket purchase is: Festival access, 8 drink tokens, and a United In Beer glass! We recommend bringing: Sunscreen, your friends, and good vibes
Sat 1 – 10 PM Boots In The Park Presents Thomas Rhett, Chris Young & Friends! Balloon Fiesta Park, 5000 Balloon Fiesta Pkwy Dust off your boots and get ready to holler, because Boots In The Park is making it's way to Albuquerque, y'all! Join us for a rootin', tootin', two-steppin' good time with none other than Thomas Rhett, Chris Young, Chris Janson, Kameron Marlowe, Dylan Schneider, Leaving Austin and beats by Luwiss Lux. We're talking about an evening filled to the brim with live tunes, finger-lickin' craft food, and the smoothest cocktails. We'll be kicking up dust with some good ol' line dancing and a whole heap more, as Balloon Fiesta Park is transformed into Albuquerque's best country music party! Past folks to grace the Boots In The Park stage are Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and a bunch of other country legends. But this day is gonna be one for the record books, a show that will leave y'all talking for years to come (tickets)
Sat 2 PM Annual Castro Concerto Competition Albuquerque Youth Symphony, 4407 Menaul Blvd. NE Join us to hear talented high school juniors compete for the privilege of performing with the Youth Symphony during the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program's 2024-2025 concert season! This event is free and open to the public. We also plan to stream this event live on Facebook for anyone not able to attend in person
Sat 2 PM "Greatest Moments" - a fundraising concert for Opera On Tap New Mexico Central United Methodist Church, 201 University Blvd. NE Join us for an afternoon of music to help raise money for Opera on Tap - New Mexico! Featuring some faculty and students of University of New Mexico, along with other local professionals, we have put a program together highlighting some of the show-stopping, beautiful moments of opera and musical theater! Suggested donation $10
Sat 2 – 7 PM Rawking: An Afternoon Metal + Art + Comedy Extravaganza Juno, 1501 1st St. NW Featured performers include Light Thief, Destroy to Recreate, Guvtika, Abandoned Saviors. outdoors on the patio with Four Bands, Comedians, Artists, Vendors. Produced by Metal World Radio. 21+. $10 at the door or presales online
Sat 3 – 8 PM Albuquerque Roller Derby presents: Sandia Slammers vs. Bosque Bruisers! Expo New Mexico - Manuel Lujan Jr Exhibit Complex, 300 San Pedro Dr. NE Albuquerque Roller Derby has gotten SO big we’ve split into two teams! Sandia Slammers & Bosque Bruisers! Get your tickets for our first Home Game of the 2024 season
Sat 3:45 – 5:45 PM AND 7 - 9 PM The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 Flix Brewhouse, 3236 La Orilla Rd. NW Experience the Twilight saga's epic romance and thrilling fantasy BREAKING DAWN - PART 1 on the big screen! Bella and Edward, plus those they love, must deal with the chain of consequences brought on by a marriage, honeymoon, and the tumultuous birth of a child, which brings about unforeseen and shocking developments for Jacob Black (tickets)
Sat 4 – 8 PM Drink Local Downtown ABQ - May Step into the heart of Albuquerque with our thrilling, free monthly bar crawl event! Immerse yourself in the local charm as we celebrate community, culture, and creativity right in the heart of ABQ. In partnership with ABQCore Neighborhood Association, a locally organized and hosted event, we're bringing you a bar crawl experience like no other. This isn't just a crawl; it's a vibrant celebration of local businesses, a showcase of community talent, and a monthly escape into the unique flavors that make ABQ special
Sat 4 – 9 PM Summer Market ABQ Food Park, 6951 San Antonio Dr. NE Dive into the magic of summer evenings at ABQ Food Park with our captivating Summer Market! Join us for a delightful evening, where you can browse an enchanting array of offerings from local artisans and support our vibrant community businesses. Discover unique treasures crafted with love and passion by talented artisans, from handcrafted jewelry to exquisite home decor. Every purchase you make supports local creators and contributes to the thriving arts scene in our city
Sat 5 – 8 PM National Astronomy Day! Rainbow Park Observatory, 301 Southern Blvd SE, Rio Rancho The Rio Rancho Astronomical Society will host National Astronomy Day at Rainbow Park Observatory. There will be food for a donation, family activities and safe solar viewing. Dr. Tony Hull will appeal at 7 pm about his work on the James Webb Space Telescope. He will also have some info on light pollution
Sat 5 – 11 PM Beer & Jazz on the Hill Tractor Brewing, 122 Tulane Dr. SE We're bringing you a full night of brews and Jazz with the very talented Rona & Meli opening things up at 5pm and our house Jazz band Basilaris Trio closing things down at 8!
Sat 6 PM Bear Affair 4: Spanish Tapas Beer Pairing Dinner Boxing Bear Brewing, 8420 Firestone Ln. NE Join us on our patio for an ALMOST summer night paired with a variety of our seasonal beers, chef-crafted Spanish tapas, and flamenco. Featuring chef Christopher Midyette And the artist dance group Spanish Broom. Tickets are $65 per person and include a welcome beer, three course tapas style meal with beer pairings and entertainment for the evening
Sat 6 PM One Year Anniversary Celebration Urbanmama505 Kombucha, 1014 Central Ave SW, Ste A Celebrating one year of love, abundance, and sharing wellness. Right after Open Mic 4-6pm, we will be graced with a jazz concert by Davis Nelson-Hooker, an amazing local musician. Elixirs and small plates for purchase
Sat 6 – 9 PM Gone Country Saturdays with DJ Soiree Ponderosa Brewing, 1761 Bellamah Ave NW It's Gone Country Saturdays featuring the amazing DJ Soiree! Start your evening with free dance lessons at 5 pm, followed by family-friendly entertainment
Sat 7:30 – 9 PM Saturday Night Stand-Up Bosque Brewing Co - Nob Hill, 106 Girard Blvd. SE Live from ABQ, it’s… Saturday Night Stand-Up Hosted by Nax Davis! Every third Saturday of the month! Seating at 7:30 - Comedy at 8. Featured line-up of local comics includes: MEG FINN, BRYAN LAMBE, SARINA OCHOA, MARY BYRD, ROBERT EYSTER
Sat 8 PM – 1:15 AM Apparition Goth Night Historic El Rey Theater, 622 Central Ave SW A hauntingly dark, classic goth night featuring the Apparition team: DJ Ren, DJ Batboy, DJ Moonside. Doors at 8. $10 all night. 21+ Tickets at the door. Expect goth, darkwave, death rock, synthpop, dark post punk, ebm, dark dance, industrial, witch house, horror punk and more
Sat 8:30 PM – 1 AM SABOR Latin Night - SATURDAYS Bama's 1865, 6007 Osuna Rd. NE May 11th - SPECIAL GUEST DJ ITALIA! DJ Gabriel Goza & DJ Pedro will be serving you the saucy Salsa, Bachata, Cumbia, Merengue y Mas! Ample Parking, Safe Environment, Beautiful Venue, Good Food, Good Music, Good Vibes. 21+ / $10 cover
Sat 9 PM – 1 AM Cumbia + Rock en Espanol Juno, 1501 1st St. NW Grupo Super Verza with Ave. 69 and Lot Beat and DJ Tony. Baila! 21+, $15 at the door or online
** Sun 5/19 *\*
Sun 9 – 11 AM Elevated Roller Derby May Training Scrimmage Heights Community Center, 823 Buena Vista Dr. SE Officials' huddle 9:00AM. Captains' meeting at 9:20AM. First whistle 9:30AM. This is simply a black/white scrimmage. It will be used as an educational opportunity. NSO paperwork will be used as appropriate. You are encouraged to stretch your skills. Hospitality: This is a low/no production scrimmage, bring beverages and snacks for your own use. Bathrooms: The community center may not be open during the scrimmage. (That's the trade-off for a free space). You can stop at the nearby Starbucks before the event. Expectations: Skaters and Skating and Non-skating Officials are expected to follow all WFTDA Risk Management Guidelines. The venue is a designated alcohol, drug, and smoke-free space by the city of Albuquerque (sign up)
Sun 10 AM – 2 PM The Great Burque Bake On Rail Yards Market, 777 1st St. SW Get ready to whisk it all at the "Great Burque Bake-on," a special fundraiser for the non-profit Rail Yards Market: One dozen of Albuquerque's most talented bakers will dough head-to-head in a crusty competition for the ultimate bakery glory! Bakers brawl... You vote for the winners! This sugar-dusted showdown promises a blend of flour-fueled drama and buttery bravado, making it the yeast you can do to support your local confectionery champions. As these culinary wizards knead their way to the top, we guarantee you'll find their efforts both batter and sweeter than anything you've tasted before. Join us for a day of laughter, pastry, and a chance to see who rises as the crème de la crème of Burque's baking scene! 1) ORDER > Claim your Bake-on Box & exclusive market swag by ordering online May 10-16th, 2024. 2) LEARN > Follow our social media to learn about each contestant & their offering. 3) PICKUP > Grab your box of baked goodies & swag at the info booth Sunday May 19th. 4) ENJOY > Eat all the delectable goodies, savor the flavor, and read about all the contestants 5) VOTE >> Submit your votes online to choose the winners! (tickets) The Farmers' Market event is going down simultaneously with 175+ local vendors to explore, and is still FREE to enter and welcome to all. This funky fundraiser is going down during the FREE Rail Yards Farmers' Market. So you can peruse 150+ small businesses and enjoy the historic architecture while you enjoy your Great Burque Bake-on Box of goodies! All proceeds will benefit the Rail Yards Market. The Rail Yards market of Albuquerque is a certified 501(c)3 non-profit focused on building a resilient, sustainable, local economy where the surrounding historic communities thrive, all can participate, and everyone is enriched and inspired. Through food, art, education, and music, we invite the community together in an inclusive and festive atmosphere
Sun 11:30 AM The Addams Family Historic Lobo Theater, 3013 Central Ave NE THE HISTORIC LOBO THEATER is excited to bring The Addams Family to the big screen! Showing Starts at 11:30 am Tickets are ONLY $10 for General Admission $25 Brunch and a Movie Ticket $21 Brunch Only ticket
Sun 12:30 PM Annual Spring Tea Asbury UMC, 10000 Candelaria Rd. NE All are welcome to attend our Annual Spring Tea! This year's theme is "The Tapestries of Our Lives." Life can be like a tapestry; our quilt, with events, feelings, accomplishments, and even disappointments "stitched" in. Join us, for tea, while Cindy Kurey, AQS-certified quilted textiles appraiser, shares how quilting and her faith have helped her navigate life. She will also show her collection of antique, vintage, and modern quilts! There is no cost to attend, though RSVPs are required. Please call the church office 505-299-0643 or message us on Facebook to RSVP

For most Americans, college is no longer working. A bachelor's degree doesn’t reliably guarantee what universities say it delivers: an investment that prepares you for the workplace and the world. While the income gap between college and high school grads is well documented, the wealth gap is “indistinguishable from zero” due to unconstrained costs, regardless of race or ethnicity. Put differently, college grads will earn more but because of their student loans, they’ll have the same amount in their bank account as someone who didn’t go to college at all¹ . Barely one in ten (11%) business leaders believe that college graduates have the skills and competencies that their workplaces need² . Instead, employers report recent hires showing up without the requisite skills required to contribute as productive employees³.
Traditional universities spend more on non-instructional initiatives like research and athletics instead of developing knowledge and skills that prepare its students. Today, 1M students annually report that they didn’t enroll or they dropped out of college because of the cost⁴ . Americans carry $1.8T in student loan debt while universities have increased the cost of tuition by 30-40%⁵ since 2010. Economists report that over the next ten years, businesses will have increasingly more job openings for college graduates with no adequate supply⁶ . Additionally, as artificial intelligence threatens jobs across industries, humans will be pushed up or out – up to more intellectually intensive and integrative roles, or out of the workforce altogether. Our nation’s economy needs a sustainable, accessible, and effective approach to college if we’re to compete globally.
SOLUTION Polymath University will produce more-prepared graduates through a three-major curriculum, delivered year-round and remotely to same-city cohorts, who will serve apprenticeships en route to graduation in three years.
A polymath is someone who has built depth, breadth, and integration of knowledge. Specifically, polymaths can operate fluently and with expertise (depth) in three or more non-adjacent domains (breadth), and have built the critical skill of applying concepts and frameworks in one domain to complex problems in other domains (integration). Polymath University empowers leaders and problem solvers to thrive in a more complex and technologically-enabled world.
RANGE Polymath University’s approach to education, and its namesake, is built on ensuring that graduates are curious, creative, collaborative, and critically-minded. Polymaths have been proven to be more creative and more adept at solving complex problems, and more resilient against economic shocks⁷. Building a broad, generalist field of knowledge and expertise, as opposed to the hyper-specialization that traditional higher education encourages, makes graduates more valuable in the world and workplace. According to a 2012 study of serial innovators⁸, polymaths are described as having a high tolerance for ambiguity and as systems thinkers. Polymaths can connect disparate pieces of information in new ways, making them highly effective at innovative problem solving. And they are adept at repurposing what is already available and synthesizing information from many different sources.⁹ A Future of Jobs report highlighted the following skills being increasingly demanded by employers (all of which polymaths excel at): creative thinking; analytical thinking; technological literacy; curiosity and lifelong learning; resilience, flexibility, and agility; and systems thinking.¹⁰
REAL-WORLD APPRENTICESHIPS Polymath University will partner with employers to ensure that its degree programs serve the talent acquisition needs of regional business and organizations, and that those degrees include skill development that is often short-changed by traditional universities. In years two and three, students will serve as apprentices with those employer partners in high-demand, early career roles. Across the country, more employers are building apprenticeship programs as a key part of their talent acquisition strategy, with Department of Labor registered apprenticeships doubling since 2010 to 250,000. Many of these employers pay some or all of the tuition for their apprentices to concurrently earn a college degree.
REMOTE Educational outcomes lead all other priorities for Polymath University, and we must hold this as our north star. This means that the most important activity for faculty will be teaching or the associated development through coaching and mentoring their students. As Polymath University is led by the former CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation, and counts ten Tillman Scholars on its Advisory Board, the Tillman Scholar community will seed Polymath University’s initial set of faculty, drawing on their service and academic experiences to support student learning. Courses will be delivered remotely, but to same-city cohorts that will facilitate week-long immersive and collaborative in-person experiences as well as informal study groups throughout the year, unlocking persistent relationships and networks within our community.
Learn more at PolymathU.org.
highereducation college education HigherEd StudentLoans Polymath Leadership apprenticeship Apprenticeships University talentdevelopment
¹ Emmons, William R.; Kent, Ana H.; and Ricketts, Lowell R. “Is College Still Worth It? The New Calculus of Falling Returns.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Working Paper, Jan. 7, 2019.
² Gallup-Lumina Foundation Poll on Higher Education; Higher Education’s Work Preparedness Paradox. 2013. Gallup; Lumina Foundation.
³ Hansen, Michael. “The U.S. Education System Isn’t Giving Students What Employers Need.” Harvard Business Review, May 18, 2021.
⁴ https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=75
⁵ Kerr, Emma; Wood, Sarah. “A Look at 20 Years of Tuition Costs at National Universities.” U.S. News & World Report. Sep. 23, 2023
⁶ Tough, Paul. “Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?” NYT, Sep. 5, 2023
⁷ Hanks, Andrew; Jiang, Shengjun; Qian, Xuechao; Wang, Bo; Weinberg, Bruce. (2024). Do Double Majors Face Less Risk? An Analysis of Human Capital Diversification. NBER.
⁸ Vojak, Bruce; Griffin, Abbie; Price, Raymond L. (2012). Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms. Stanford, Stanford University Press.
⁹ Epstein, D. J. (2019). Range: why generalists triumph in a specialized world. New York, Riverhead Books.
¹⁰ Future of Jobs Report; World Economic Forum. 2023.