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uniformbravo · 5 years

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me trying to make a gif part 2 (thrilling finale, buildup ver.)

ok good news and bad news: good news being withheld for Spoilers (not that it’s that hard to guess anyway lol), bad news explained first bc, chronologically, it is first

so yesterday i mentioned in the tags of that post that i had seen that krita has an animation feature so i was gonna try importing the frames into that and then exporting it as a gif. easier said than done, as it turns out

i started by opening the file i made yesterday with 62 layers as the frames and importing that into krita, which worked fine (i didn’t know you could actually open .psd files in clip stuido ((this typo is so fucking stupid it made me laugh so im leaving it)) and krita, so that’s pretty neat, i wonder if it works the other way around too) but i ran into problems when i tried to convert those layers into frames in an animation. because, like, the layout of the program has the layers displayed in one tab, and the animation timeline in another, like so:

(do u like how im using pictures now, i thought of that yesterday after i published the other post and realized hey, visual reference would probably make my plight a lot easier to understand!! so enjoy these educational diagrams from now on)

so my goal was to get the frames from the layers into the timeline, and i still don’t know if i did it right bc lbr krita is not very intuitive at all,,.,, i mean i watched a video tutorial abt how to animate in krita which was v helpful (it’s the one by jesse j james on yt fuckin SHout out) but it was about animating from scratch, not importing an animation you’ve already done elsewhere

so like, the way krita’s animation thing works, from what i could piece together as i bumbled my way around w/ it, is that each layer in the layers tab is a separate timeline in the,,, timeline tab

i want them all to be in the same timeline, not separate ones, and there’s no way to combine them in the timeline tab bc doing that just overwrites whatever layer you’re pasting it down onto, and also if you define the number of frames for that timeline (62 for this project) it just puts the single image of that layer for all of the frames instead of just one of them, so you’d have to go through and delete all the other frames you don’t want it to be, which would be such a fuckin pain

so i found a workaround, which is so tedious that it can’t be the right way to do it, but basically i started w/ layer 1 and defined 62 frames & then emptied frames 2-62, like this

(that blue box is the frame, btw, even tho it says 0, which actually kind of annoys me like why doesn’t it start the first frame on 1????)

from there i went up to layer two and selected that in the timeline, but for some reason the frame doesn’t show up automatically?

& i couldnt fuckin figure out how to make it into like, an Official Timeline Layer or whatever tf bc like, u see on layer 1 how theres that little lightbulb-looking icon on the right? that’s for turning on onion skin which only applies when you actually have frames with things drawn on them, so basically layer 2 in the layers tab has a drawing but in the timeline it doesn’t?

i didn’t find out what the actual reason for this is or how you’re /supposed/ to make the frame appear in the timeline, but what i did was right click on layer 2′s timeline & select “create blank frame” which magically made the frame i want appear

but it’s on top of the layer 1 frame, and i want it to be the frame after. also it’s still in a different timeline. this is the only easy fix in this whole damn process, u can literally just click & drag the frame from layer 2 to layer 1 and put it wherever u want on the timeline

and then u just delete layer 2 and that’s it, frame transferred!! then i just had to do that for 60 more layers and after [unspecified amount of time but it was a fuckin while ok] my timeline looked like this!

(the gaps near the end are held frames, to save me time so i didn’t have to copy a bunch of frames that were exactly the same)

krita is great because as far as i know ur animation can have an unlimited number of frames, at the risk of your own pc’s processing power, which is a definite upside to SOME expensive art programs i know (clip studio, i’m talking abt csp) and u can pick the frame rate too (cough photoshop elements 5.0 even tho u dont technically have an animation feature & it’s a miracle u can even make gifs at all) so once i finally got all the frames situated all nice and in order like on the same timeline, playing it was great! played at the right speed, looped perfectly, it was a dream come true right

well, time to export it as a gif

haha

hoooo oo o

so u got 2 options for exporting ur animation, u can either hit “export,” which lets u save it as different file types, one of which being gif, or you can hit “render,” which gives you gif and video options

well

i tried export first, bc that seemed like a good idea, but the “””gif””” it made was distinctly not a gif, despite its claim to be one?? this is what i got:

notice: 1. it is not moving, and 2. the black bars to the sides?? those are supposed to be transparent. they’re transparent in the file i made so why didn’t they register as transparent in the export, when gifs have transparency capabilities??

so That was some real live bullshit but i still had the “render” option, right? export was wrong, so rrender must be the correct option to go to that will produce the results i am wanting to see produced in front of me like a silver dinner platter with a correctly functioning gif under the lid, that’s what i want to see and “Render Animation...” is gonna Give me that silver platter righWRONG ok look at this shit rn ok Look

it says GIF it says it RIGHT THERE right??? right?????? then WHY

?????????????

and it also gave me all This bullshit

like did i ask?? did i fucking ask???? i already have all the individual frames why do i need even M o re i mfjgjgk

((rationally ok yea thats v useful for if ur making the animation in krita and want to export the frames to use elsewhere, but like uhhh 1. again, they’re not transparent & 2. i should have the option of saying i don’t want these??? bc *meme voice* i don’t want these)

so in the end i could find NO correct method of exporting animations as a gif in krita bc every ooption that says gif is fuckign LYING to ur face there are NO gifs in krita, aliens made the progam who looked at gifs and went “hmm i thikng this is how a gif works “ and just made jpegs instead but somehow got on the computers good side and got it to lie for them about it being a gif so thats why it says gif on the file still even tho its not a gif illimati confinr

so what is the conclusion to this? well i said there was good news too, and this is the portion where i divulge that sweet nectar (i type dthis 2 seconds ago and @ me what the fuck)

so after wasting a good 2 hours trying to figure out krita i gave up and watched some good old [youtuber name redacted bc what if it shows up in search & ppl see this dumbass post in there but it rhymes with fjackfsepticfeye] to relax into accepting my fate that i’ll never be able to upload my animations to tungle except in poor quality loopless video form, making me into a laughing stock on my own art blog, but THEN i had a stroke of genius, in my Brain

so if u read yesterday’s post u might remember that flipnote studio, the animation program i use on my ds, to animate, has the option to export files as gifs, both animated and sequential (meaning either as one fully animated gif or each individual frame separately), which is super convenient, but as i mentioned yesterday, any time i tried to open the folder with those files on my laptop, it crashed immediately

WELL today i thought “hey, how about instead of opening the folder in the sd card when it’s plugged in, how about i copy that folder from the sd card to my flash drive, and try to open it there, in case it’s the card’s hardware that’s causing the problem, not corrupted files”

so i tried that and it FUCKING WORKED THANK GOD GLORY HALLELUJAH

so now instead of spedning A THOUSAND YEARS trying and failing to force art programs to bend to my will i can just export the animations straight from my ds and drag them onto my computer Just As God Intended oh GOD im so fucking happy

here’s the gif in the end, i’m gonna post it to my art blog too but this is the Green Version bc i animate in green bc of some default settings in flipnote that i got used to, plus it makes me feel like i’m just sketching so nothing really has to be finalized so i’m comfortable while i work, and also it’s just nice ok it’s a Nice Green

(there’s a few frames at the end that are like the extra scraps from while i was working dw i got rid of those in the final version that i’m posting to my art blog later. also i added my blog url to that one too it’s aaaaaall good)

the only downside to this method is that i can’t change the canvas size to be 540px wide to fit with tumbrl s image dimensions but whatever i can just post them in a text post and fix the html to display it at its original size instead of the resizing bullshit tmurbl pulls constantly ugh. anyway it works great on desktop but it’s inevitably gonna look like shit on mobile no matter what i do *Big Ass Shrug*

anyway thats the end of my success story uhh i can’t make the like comment & subscribe joke again bc i already did that in the last post so like bye i guess thanks 4 watchign & have a great day i’ll see u in my next fvideo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYob4uDjEKI&t=0s

(^that’s my outro music)

#this started out so boring like a tutorial (but made by someone who doesn't know what the fuck theyre talking abt)#& then things derail Real Quick #that's why this is the ''buildup ver.''#retag later #talkin bout stuff #today posts #rieley's wips #(me: i can't mention this youtuber by name in case my post shows up in search #me: *adds a link to the post rendering that effort for naught*#me: *leaves it anyway bc it's funny*)#pls listen to the outro musi c it's rly good & tunmgmldnr wouldnt let me embed the video & idk how to do it thru html & too lazy to look it #up :(

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tagamark · 5 years

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The little five of photography

New Post has been published on https://tagasafarisafrica.com/the-little-five-of-photography/

The little five of photography

As a safari guide in Africa, I spend my days unveiling the wondrous Big (and Little) Five to my guests. And as a photographic guide, I like to enhance the wildlife experience even further by helping budding photographers with advice about what I like to call the Big Five of photography: lens, body, shutter speed, frame rates and composition.

Of course these are the often talked about ‘basics’ of photography. What we don’t often talk about are the smaller enhancements and ultimate game changers that can go a long way to make a meaningful difference to your photography and overall game drive experience. I like to call these the Little Five of photography:

1. Kikoi

A kikoi is a striped piece of cotton cloth from Kenya (similar to a sarong). Really though?! A simple rectangular piece of material? Absolutely! Besides my camera itself, this is actually one of the most-used items in my photographic arsenal.

A kikoi can be used to provide shade and protection when shooting in the hot sun. Don’t ever give up on a sighting because you’re burning to a crisp. Not only can you shoot longer and feel more comfortable with a kikoi draped over yourself for relief from the sun, but it also helps protect your lens from the dust, allows you to switch between lenses safely and enables you to view your camera screen without any glare. The bright sun can make it difficult to see the LED screen clearly and you could potentially be making fatal photographic errors that could be avoided.

Personally, I don’t recommend changing lenses out in the open, but if you really must, then the kikoi provides an extra layer of sun and dust protection for your lens and sensor. The kikoi can also be used as a makeshift bean bag. If you roll it up to form a donut shape, you can use it on most surfaces to stabilise your camera.

2. Memory cards

I always suggest to my guests that they bring lots of smaller, faster memory cards, rather than one large card. Unfortunately cards can sometimes become corrupt, so it’s good practice to bring several with you just in case. I have seen this happen all too often and I have sent many of my guests to data retrieval companies to attempt to retrieve their precious images. Storing your images in smaller batches can help prevent an unexpected catastrophe.

So which memory card is best? This really depends on your budget, however I would suggest a 32 GB card with a write speed of 95 MB/s. This will be quick enough for JPEG and RAW and the same theory applies to SDHC, SDHX or CF cards. You can find these specs on the card itself, otherwise ask the shop assistant or website help for assistance.

Personally, I’ve found Lexar to be reliable and reasonably priced, whereas I’ve actually had lots of problems with Sandisk, which does tend to be cheaper at times. Not to say you must use one over the other, just be aware of the potential complications. So, to sum it up, buy a card between 16 and 32 GB with the highest write speed and best brand to meet your budget.

3. Rain protection

More often than not, this is something my guests tend to travel without. Often we’ll get caught in the most dramatic of African storms and ill-prepared photographers are forced to pack their cameras away. But the storms are where the magic happens in photography, so don’t waste the opportunity.

Plastic bags tend to be a go-to for rain protection, but in order to help leave our world a better place, please, let’s steer away from using plastic! I suggest buying a far more eco-friendly ‘dry bag’ (you can find them in most outdoor shops). Neatly cut a hole in the bottom of the bag and slip your lens hood through the hole. There will be enough room for your hands to move around and change settings and it’ll last a lot longer than single-use plastic.

Different sized bags are available, which can fit a standard body size, right up to a 150 mm – 600 mm zoom lens comfortably. Otherwise, shop around online to see what other versions of rainproofing exist. Also ensure you have proper rainproofing for your camera bag. Pelican cases are still the best for rain and dust protection.

4. Cleaning kit

You can buy cleaning kits that come complete with blowers, pens, brushes, cloths and sprays. These are really useful and you should always carry one during a shoot. It is important, however, to be very careful how you use them. I’ve seen a lot of people use the spray directly on the lens and wipe. This will damage your lens over time, if not immediately. The chemicals and alcohols in the spray can corrode the protective film on some lenses and cause the cloth to scratch easily.

The best way to clean a lens is by using the hand pump blower. Blow the lens rigorously to remove all dust and particles that can cause scratching, then use a soft brush and gently brush your lens. Remember, don’t brush around in circles, rather use strokes and imagine you’re dusting and flicking particles off the lens.

If your lens is still dirty (you can hold it up to the light to check), then very gently use a cloth (not just any cloth – make sure it’s a microfiber cloth) to wipe the lens using the same technique as the brush. I try to avoid using a solution on my lens, but if you need to, then rather spray it directly on the cloth first, wipe gently, then wipe again with the dry side.

5. Batteries

We’ve all learned this the hard way, haven’t we? There’s nothing worse than following lions that are on the hunt, and suddenly your battery indicator starts to flash. Always ensure your batteries are charged. It’s a good idea to have more than one battery to rely on. Pack two, maybe even three, just in case.

You can also buy battery packs, which can help immensely. I would recommend buying original batteries. There are some ‘decent-ish’ cheaper versions out there that many guests of mine use successfully, but I have also witnessed the flip side. Just know that if you’re going to go the cheaper route, that there are risks involved. Cheaper batteries don’t always hold charge or they can end up not charging at all; even though they appear fully charged, they can quickly leak power like a sieve. So, although they can be used as backups, I strongly suggest that you don’t take any shortcuts here.

I hope your next sunny safari shoot under your kikoi with your super clean camera and fully-charged battery fills your super-fast memory card with incredible, non-corrupt images that will provide a lifetime of memories.

Arrive prepared with these tips and tricks from expert &Beyond photographic guide Matt Yardley…

Post courtesy of AndBeyond

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valiantchildstudentme-blog · 5 years

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Indonesia’s Kawal Pemilu

New Post has been published on http://gampangqq.link/indonesias-kawal-pemilu/

Indonesia’s Kawal Pemilu

The Global Impact of Open Data

Elections: Free, Fair and Open Data

by Auralice Graft, Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young*

Summary

Kawal Pemilu (“guard the election,” in Indonesian) was launched in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 presidential elections, as the country was riven by political polarization and the two leading contenders for the presidency traded allegations of vote rigging. Faced with this delicate moment in Indonesia’s ongoing process of democratization, a globally dispersed group of technologists, activists and volunteers came together to create a website that would allow citizens to compare official vote tallies with the original tabulations from polling stations. These tabulations were already made public as part of the Elections General Commission’s (KPU) commitment to openness and transparency. However, Kawal Pemilu’s organizers played a critical role in assembling a team of over 700 volunteers to digitize the often handwritten forms and make the data more legible and accessible. The site was assembled in a mere two days, with a total budget of just $54. Its overall impact was to enable citizen participation in monitoring the election results, increase public trust in official tallies, and more generally, help ease an important democratic transition.

Takeaways

Successful open data projects rely and often build on a pre-existing government commitment to openness and transparency. But open data enthusiasts and activists can play a critical role in taking already-released information and making it more accessible.

When given the opportunity, citizens are willing and able to play a role in digitizing and analyzing data in order to ensure that government is working properly. Kawal Pemilu demonstrates the importance of crowdsourcing, in its various forms.

Successful open data projects do not require huge budgets or a centralized team. They can be built on a shoestring budget, by dispersed and nonhierarchical teams that may largely consist of volunteers.

Open data projects that threaten the status quo must guard against hacking and other security attacks. This is an especially important consideration given the rapid and ad hoc nature of many of these projects, which naturally increases their vulnerability.

Background

Corruption in Indonesia

Public demand for transparency, accountability and better government in Indonesia has been growing rapidly since the “Reformasi,” a movement for political reformation that began in the 90s. In spite of this, corruption remains a problem in the country. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Indonesia ranked 107 out of 175 countries in 2014. Its Bribe Payers Index ranked Indonesia 25 out of 28 countries in 2011. According to the World Democracy Audit, Indonesia ranked 88 out of 150 countries in terms of corruption in 2014.

Corruption has also been evident in the electoral process, and both the 2004 and 2009 elections were characterized by alleged irregularities. Perludem (www.perludem.org), a nongovernmental association for election and democracy in Indonesia, reported instances of money politics, manipulation of vote counts, intimidation and officials taking advantage of government positions to add candidates or campaigns. As Diah Setiawaty, Perludem program manager for election application programming interface, puts it: “Candidates used to routinely bribe voters. They bribed them with money, with rice and with other food products.” Observers also note that Indonesia’s electoral process is particularly prone to vote manipulation, due in large part to its size and complexity. “Our election system is one of the most complex in the world,” says Setiawaty. “It has to accommodate over 100,000,000 registered voters and a complicated geography that includes over 17,000 different islands. It is huge and it all happens in one day.”

Open Data and Indonesian Elections

In 2011, Indonesia joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP), emphasizing a national commitment to budget transparency and more efficient public service delivery. In 2014, Mardianto Jatna, Assistant to the Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4), declared a “Year of Open Data.” Several initiatives were undertaken as part of this Year of Open Data. One was the launch of the Indonesia Data Portal, which publishes approximately 700 sets of data from 23 government institutions.

Another particularly significant open data effort was the Elections General Commission (KPU)’s move to begin sharing all election-related data on the Internet. The KPU is a quasi-governmental body whose mandate is to ensure transparent and fair elections. In April 2014, amid urgent calls from citizens and political parties on all sides to improve transparency and safeguard the presidential elections due later that year, it announced its decision to share election data on its official website (www.kpu.go.id/).

The political mood during that year was particularly polarized. It was the first time in Indonesia’s history that just two candidates were running (typically, three or more run). In addition, the candidates’ backgrounds and profiles were dramatically different: Probowo Subainto had a military background and was associated with the former Suharto regime, while Joko Widodo (Jokowi) belonged to a more recent generation and came from a more civilian background. According to Perludem’s Diah Setiawaty, the polarization of voters was magnified by their increasing presence on social media. Indonesia had the fourth-largest number of Facebook users in the world in 2014, and Jakarta was the most active city in the world in terms of Twitter participation in 2012.

It was against this background that the KPU made its decision to publish the voter tabulation forms from various levels of the Indonesian voting process. Voting in Indonesia is manual; citizens vote at one of more than about 470,000 polling stations. The results are then tabulated at six different levels: the polling station, the subdistrict, the district, the city regency, the province and the national. Each level uses a different form, and the time between actual voting and national tabulation can be very long. The potential for fraud – for example, by manipulating results along the way – is huge. Initially, in April 2014, the KPU announced that it would open up and make accessible the results tabulation forms for levels 2-6. However, this left out the all-important polling place tabulation form (the so-called C1 form) from the first level (i.e., the actual location of voting). After further pressure from civil society groups and some political leaders, the KPU announced in July 2014 that it would also make the C1 forms available. These forms were then scanned and published on the KPU’s website, offering citizens and the media an unprecedented level of scrutiny over election results.

The KPU’s initiatives have been widely praised. Ainun Najib, one of the founders of Kawal Pemilu, says: “I really have to commend the KPU for this move. It was a huge step toward improving transparency in Indonesia’s election system.” Nonetheless, the KPU’s initial efforts were in some respects incomplete, and have since been supplemented by citizen efforts. For example, the scanned C1 forms were filled out by hand and published in a non-machine-readable format (usually JPEG or PDF); often, these forms were hard to decipher, and sometimes published upside down.

To address these (and other) problems, a number of independent, citizen-launched applications and websites emerged around and since the 2014 presidential elections. The first such application appeared almost immediately after the July 11 election, when a Twitter user with 7,000 followers began posting the scanned C1 forms. Other applications followed, each monitoring different portions of KPU-opened data: Some filled the gap in machine-readability by digitizing the scanned C1 forms and making them more accessible; other applications dealt with district, city/regency and province-level scanned forms, monitoring results at those voting levels; and yet another category of citizen-led applications examined scanned C1 forms for problems or anomalies. Kawal Pemilu, the application under study here, was among the most successful initiatives in this surge of citizen-led voting applications.

Project

During the summer of 2014, Ainun Najib, who would later go on to co-found Kawal Pemilu, was living and working in Singapore. It was the middle of Ramadan, and he was down with the flu. Still, he was following the elections closely in his native Indonesia, and watched with growing concern as the extreme polarization that had characterized the campaign spilled over into the post-election period, and as the results were contested by both the Jokowi and Probowo camps.

Amid allegations of fraud and vote rigging, Najib began looking at ways he could add more transparency to the electoral process. “We [had to do something] to prevent the nation [from] being ripped apart because of two claims to victory that nobody can verify,” he told The Financial Times. Around this time, he messaged a friend, Andrian Kurniady, a Google employee based in Sydney; Najib had met Kurniady in 2007 at a Mathematics Olympiad Champions competition, and though they were not close friends, they were connected on Facebook. The two quickly decided to work together to help safeguard Indonesia’s vote count. Later, they were joined by three other friends, who worked with them to get the application off the ground.

In its early days, Kawal Pemilu tried to fill machine readability gaps in KPU data by digitizing scanned C1 forms and using handwriting recognition to extract the polling data. They quickly ran into obstacles with this approach, however, and soon decided to turn to a form of crowdsourcing. Specifically, they decided to recruit volunteers to manually digitize the almost 500,000 scanned C1 forms on the KPU site. This was the genesis of Kawal Pemilu (“guard the election,” in Indonesian), which was launched on July 12, 2014, with the intent of providing a platform for public participation in guarding the 2014 general election results. As Andrian Kurniady, Najib’s co-founder, put it at the time: “We hope this system can reduce the uncertainty, fear of election fraud, and restore public confidence in one of the most important points in Indonesian democracy [while it] is still young.”

The Kawal Pemilu application consists of two main components. At the back-end, it includes a private, walled-off website, where volunteers and site administrators can enter polling data based on scanned forms (Figure 1). In addition, there is a public-facing site that allows citizens to view the data, broken down by polling station and candidate (Figure 2). Visitors can choose to view results for different levels of the tabulation process. For example, a visitor can choose to examine just C1 results. Results can also be viewed by region.

The underlying data for the site was generated from KPU data through a network of volunteers spread across the globe. Volunteers were recruited through a closed, secret Facebook group, which ensured that only trusted people were included. To start the process of recruiting volunteers, each founder chose 10 trustworthy friends, each of whom was asked to recruit 10 more, and each of those was also asked to recruit another 10 friends – and so on. Over 700 volunteers were recruited in this way in just three days. Volunteer names and identities were initially kept hidden, to prevent any efforts at bribing or intimidation.

Each recruit received a secret link to the nonpublic component of the website, where scanned C1 forms were presented with an accompanying form for the volunteer to fill in with extracted data. The form also allowed for the reporting of errors. The results of this work were posted every 10 minutes to the public-facing website, which was read-only. In addition to allowing citizens to monitor election results in near real-time, this data also allowed them to compare vote tallies listed on the site to official numbers released by polling stations.

Figure 1: Screen used by volunteers to digitize scanned C1 forms (translated into English by Google)

Figure 2: Screenshot of the public-facing Kawal Pemilu website (translated into English by Google)

The entire process of building the site and gathering all the data was performed with remarkable efficiency. Because the co-founders were spread around the world (California, Sydney, Singapore, Indonesia, Netherlands, Germany), they were able to work round-the-clock, taking maximum advantage of different time zones. This enabled them to create the website and counting system in just two days. In addition, all the recruited volunteers and founders worked without pay. The total capital investment for the setup was, as a result, just $54; these funds were used to purchase the website’s domain and space on a hosting server. Overall, Kawal Pemilu is an impressive example of a “public-service startup”: Despite never benefiting from seed capital or a Silicon Valley-style business ecosystem, it was put together with all the agility and speed that are the hallmarks of far more lavishly funded business ventures.

Impact

Kawal Pemilu was one of many crowdsourced vote count initiatives launched around the time of the 2014 elections, and built on KPU data. Others included Kawal Suara (“guard the votes”), Real Count and a Tumblr site called C1 Yang Aneh. However, Kawal Pemilu stands out as one of the most efficiently built and managed, and one of the most effective initiatives. In an article on “Indonesia’s election tech fighters,” one Indonesian reporter described the site as “the most professionally run” among various efforts. Kawal Pemilu has also been described as a “leading spearhead in monitoring and legitimizing the [2014 electoral] vote count outside the state apparatus.”

The impact of Kawal Pemilu can be measured in several ways:

Settling the 2014 Election Results

By the fifth day after the 2014 elections (four days after the site’s launch), Kawal Pemilu volunteers had digitized 470,000 or 97 percent of all scanned C1 forms. In fact, volunteers had competed against each other to scan the highest number of forms, spurring the rapid and efficient process described above. Based on these numbers, Kawal Pemilu (and citizens accessing the site) was able to establish that the vote count was in fact very similar to the official KPU result (53.15 percent for Joko Widodo and 46.85 percent for Prabowo Subianto), which was at the time being contested by the Prabowo camp.

A month after the elections, the vote tallies were still being contested, and the results were taken to court. Kawal Pemilu played an important role in the court hearings, and its testimony – along with that provided by KPU officials and other expert witnesses – helped influence the court’s decision to award the elections to Jokowi. In this way, the crowdsourced election results helped settle the elections, legitimize the winner and, more generally, ensure a peaceful transfer of power in Indonesia.

Increased Trust and Greater Public Participation

Beyond its direct impact on the 2014 elections, Kawal Pemilu has also had an overall effect on Indonesia’s electoral process and political climate, helping to increase transparency and public trust. As Uuf Brajawidagda, a lecturer of Indonesian politics at the University of Wollongong in Australia, who studied Kawal Pemilu and similar Indonesian open data initiatives, puts it: “Projects like Kawal Pemilu catalyzed the level of trust among citizens. The KPU move [to open election related data] increased trust, but Kawal Pemilu and others like it transformed the trust into something bigger. Their actions amplified the level of trust.”

The greater public trust has, in many ways, translated into a new sense of citizen involvement and stakeholdership in Indonesia’s political process. The sense of involvement is most evident in the more than 700 volunteers who helped crowdsource the KPU data. But observers also note a more general sense of empowerment and new expectations of transparency. As Perludem program manager for election application programming interface at Perludem Diah Setiawaty, put it: “Kawal Pemilu created a movement – a movement toward increasing open data and transparency in Indonesia. It set the bar really high.” As evidence, Setiawaty cited the numerous open data initiatives that have followed Kawal Pemilu (see below for details), and the energy she experiences around these initiatives. “Indonesians are definitely more eager and willing to participate in crowdsourced applications now,” Setiwaty says. “They want to participate in the political process.”

Reduced Polarization

Kawal Pemilu emerged at a time of intense polarization in Indonesia. One of its most important (and perhaps long-term) effects may be to reduce the climate of partisanship and political division. Observers note that, because it presented an independent, verifiable and nonpartisan snapshot of the election results, it helped heal some of the mistrust and mutual suspicion among rival political camps. “I think it closed the gap between the two groups,” said Brajawidagda. “It made people feel better about official results, even if those results contradicted their personal outcome preferences.” As evidence, Brajawidagda cites some of the comments he saw posted on social media – comments that point to people’s faith in the final results, regardless of their political leanings. One example he cites is the following comment: “Unbelievable, kawalpemilu (final count) deviates only 0.01 percent. Great. … This is the real count.” Overall, Brajawidagda feels that, in helping validate the election results, Kawal Pemilu played an important role in fostering a more civil political climate in Indonesia.

Perludem’s Setiawaty agrees. “Politics were still very polarized after Kawal Pemilu,” she says. “But the mood was less negative. People could see things from a more objective perspective.”

Challenges

What happens next for Kawal Pemilu and, more generally, for Indonesia’s political climate? Despite the early successes of initiatives like Kawal Pemilu, corruption remains a serious problem in Indonesia, and ample scope exists for improvement in the electoral process. In order to truly change conditions, Kawal Pemilu (and other similar projects) will not only need to scale significantly but also prove that they can grow and last beyond a single election. If that is to happen, a few challenges will need to be overcome.

Legal Changes

In fact, the KPU’s move to open up election data in 2014 was just a temporary measure, without any lasting legal foundations. Following the success of Kawal Pemilu and similar applications, there has been a general clamor calling for legislation to require opening of election data for all future elections. The organization Perludem has played a key role in pushing for new legislation and in drafting versions of the proposed law. Setiawaty of Perludem says: “Kawal Pemilu was a definite success, and in addition it has increased the probability of new election laws in Indonesia that emphasize transparency.” So the prospects for new, more-encompassing legislation are bright – but until it is passed, the cause of greater transparency in Indonesian politics, and more specifically applications like Kawal Pemilu, will continue to face challenges.

Security

As with any anticorruption project, Kawal Pemilu has come up against some powerful vested interests. Soon after it was launched, some of those vested interests appeared to strike back. Four days into its existence, the site was attacked by what administrators called “hundreds of hackers.” As a consequence, the site was brought down for a few hours, until the project’s administrators returned a “logic bomb” to their attackers. In addition, administrators ran a mirrored version of the public site, to limit the potential damage from hacking.

The identity of the hackers remains unknown, but they were mostly believed to be located within Indonesia, and they were widely considered to be responding to the website’s growing legitimacy and popularity. In this sense, the hacking attempts were just a particular instance of a more general effort to hijack the project or weaken its credibility. For example, in the early days of the Kawal Pemilu, the project’s founders went to great lengths to hide their identities (and those of their volunteers), in an effort to thwart attempts at bribery or intimidation. Such threats are only likely to grow as Kawal Pemilu and other popular initiatives seek to take on the establishment and increase transparency in Indonesia.

Reliability of Information

In its early days, Kawal Pemilu experienced some skepticism about the reliability of its data. This skepticism was heightened by the anonymity of its volunteers – ironically, because the anonymity was in fact designed to decrease their susceptibility to untoward influence and was thus a way of ensuring reliability. Ainun Najib says organizers regularly fielded questions from the public about accountability and verification of inputs. He and the rest of the team always took the time to explain their methodology, and to point out that all the data was verifiable within the site itself. Indeed, visitors to the site can click on any piece of information and find the underlying, original scanned form, all the way down to the C1 form from the initial polling station, as proof. In that sense, Kawal Pemilu contains an internal process of legitimization – which helps overcome (if not entirely do away with) public skepticism or doubts.

Lasting Political Impact

Any issue- or event-focused project faces questions about its survivability and sustainability over time. For Kawal Pemilu, the question is not only whether the project can survive, but what form it can take in the long term. The same factors that permit such initiatives to emerge quickly and rapidly – their decentralized, ad hoc nature – often make it difficult to grow into larger organizations. The founders of Kawal Pemilu are well aware of these challenges. They say they don’t have answers yet, but are exploring strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability of Kawal Pemilu.

Looking Forward

The example offered by Kawal Pemilu has inspired several other open data initiatives that aim to increase transparency and reduce corruption in Indonesia. In some ways, we are witnessing the emergence of a new, citizen-driven open data ecosystem in the country, one whose aims can broadly be defined as improving governance and enhancing democracy.

This ecosystem is likely to grow more vibrant in coming years, and several new applications and websites are already starting to make their presence felt. Here, we highlight three of the most promising.

Kawal APBD

Following his involvement with open data and elections, Kawal Pemilu co-founder Ainun Najib has launched a new site that aims to improve budget transparency and open it up to citizen involvement. His new project, Kawal APBD (www.kawalapbd.org) places different versions of government budgets side by side and allows citizens to find and comment on discrepancies. For example, in one case, the site helped find a discrepancy between the South Jakarta department of education and the education section of the city budget. In addition to commenting on discrepancies, citizens can also “like” or “dislike” budget allocations, and visualize data, thus helping them better understand the budget process.

The goal of Kawal APBD “is to make more government data accessible and presentable for people,” said Mr. Najib. “We already knew through Kawal Pemilu that people would participate. We hope more and more government data is going to be exposed to the public.”

Mata Massa (“Eye of the Masses”)

Mata Massa was in fact launched before Kawal Pemilu, in the run-up to the 2014 elections. It allows citizens to report campaign-related and other violations through their smartphones to the General Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu). For example, citizens have reported instances of vote buying, as well as other administrative violations. Overall, some 1,500 violations have been reported (though reports indicate that little follow-up action has in fact been taken). Originally launched to monitor the trustworthiness of journalists, the app was created and is run by the Alliance of Independent Journalists in Indonesia.

Kawal Pilkada

Kawal Pilkada sought to replicate Kawal Pemilu’s effort to crowdsource digitizing of KPU C1 forms for regional elections in December 2015. The project is built around the same concept as Kawal Pemilu, but under different leadership. There are several challenges here. One is in terms of recruitment. While citizens are eager to participate, crowdsourcing is more challenging than it was in the Kawal Pemilu experience. Diah Setiawaty, whose team provides technical assistance to the Kawal Pilkada team, says there is less intrigue overall in these regional elections, and voters know and care less about leaders in other regions. Kawal Pilkada also faces a time constraint. The KPU only recently announced it would publish related tabulations online, so the Kawal Pilkada team has little time to prepare. Another constraint going forward is the frequency of regional elections, which occur every two years. “For each election, there is a lot to monitor at the same time. The political situation in every region is different. We face different challenges in every place,” says Setiawaty.

Taken together, these and many other existing and emerging applications make up a new landscape for open data, transparency and accountability in Indonesia. They demonstrate that data can be used by ordinary citizens to hold government accountable, and, although many of them remain modest, more proof of concept than full-blown national platforms, they suggest that a citizenry empowered with information can indeed effect genuine political transformation.

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frontmezzjunkies · 7 years

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My Two Year Old Baby Blog

By Ross

In the year that has passed since I wrote my first year birthday blog (click here to give it a read), I have learned a great deal about the business of theatre and the press that covers it. I learned so much about writing a blog, and writing about theatre. For one, it took the helpful guidance of a few other blogs who post my reviews to teach me how to do a hyperlink. I know that sounds silly, but what did I know? And I still don’t really understand what a ‘focus keyword’ is, or does, or what I should list. Regardless, because of the helpful people at OutBuzz and Times Square Chronicles, my posts look better and are read far and wide. Wider than I could do on my own. Wider than I could ever imagine last year.

With thousands of more readers and visitors, Frontmezzjunkies.com has out performed my wildest dreams. This past year has seen this blog change dramatically from a review-based posting of whatever theatre I could see (or afford), to getting invites and press passes to more theatre than I could ever attend on my own. And I want to thank all of those at every theatrical press company that ever received any of my emails, and especially to those kind souls that responded. I know my place in this theatrical press world, and by no means do I think my blog is so special to demand anything. I am no New York Times reviewer, so my heartfelt thanks goes out to all that helped make this the most special year of theatre going that I can remember.

This past year, I have posted almost twice the number of theatrical reviews than the first year, and the theatre world has definitely taken over a good chunk of my life and my spare time. Just ask my friends, who are thankful that I get to invite them along on so many amazing performances, but who also find it more difficult to schedule free time with me outside of a theatre. I’m either seeing a show or writing about one. Or sleeping. Or doing my day job. Which I still have two of those humming along beside me (I’m a personal trainer and a psychotherapist, for any of you who don’t know).

Some exciting things are in store for Year 3. When asked to submit a number of reviews for consideration for a few unique opportunities coming up (I’ll let you all know when I hear, as big changes are ahead, I think, I hope), I came up with this list. I already submitted a preliminary list to get to the next round, but I need to resubmit in the summer. So I thought I’d share them with you. I had to whittle it down to five, one per category, but here, there is no need. Click on the name of the show to take you to the review, and let me know what you think. Which review is the better read in each category? Not which show you liked the most, but which review was written with a unique outlook or perspective. Which review made you think about a show in a different way? Which review is just pure crap? It’s tricky, cause I certainly have my favorites, but is it because I loved the show, or what I said about it? It’s hard to say. Tell me your votes.

Heisenberg New York City Center – Stage II Cast List: Mary-Louise Parker Denis Arndt Production Credits: Mark Brokaw (director) Other Credits: Written by:

One broadway play

The Present

Heisenberg

Oslo

Sweat

The Glass Menagerie

Dear Evan Hansen

One Broadway musical

Dear Evan Hansen

Come From Away

Sunset Boulevard

Sunday in the Park with George

Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812

Love, Love, Love at the Roundabout

One off Broadway play

Love Love Love

Notes from the Field

Man From Nebraska

Daniel’s Husband

One off Broadway musical

Band’s Visit

Ride the Cyclone

Sweet Charity

Kid Victory

A Streetcar Named Desire at St. Ann’s Warehouse

One Brooklyn/off off show

Streetcar Named Desire

Beauty Queen of Leenane

The Tempest

Escaped Alone

The Tempest at St. Ann’s Warehouse

Which ones do you think are your favorites? I’d be thrilled to hear your opinion. And below are some images of my favorite performances over the past year. Can you guess what shows they are from?

Stay tuned. A lot is in store for year number three of frontmezzjunkies!

#frontmezzjunkies is celebrating its 2nd year anniversary Happy birthday frontmezzjunkies.com My Two Year Old Baby Blog By Ross In the year that has passed since I wrote my first year birthday blog (click…

#broadway #broadway musical #Broadway play #off broadway #theater #two year anniversary

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attendantdesign-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Attendantdesign

New Post has been published on http://attendantdesign.com/tether-shooting-software-for-fujifilm-gfx-50s-announced/

Tether Shooting Software For Fujifilm GFX 50S Announced

Fujifilm GFX 50S proprietors will quickly be capable of down load X Gather tether capturing software so one can join their GFX 50S to a Mac or Laptop through USB cable for direct moving and saving of Shooting pictures onto the computer.

Users may also be able to select report types for saving onto the memory card inside the digital camera, and for shifting and saving onto the pc both in Uncooked or JPEG format. X Acquire is likewise well suited with tether shooting capabilities of Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujifilm X-T2.

The X Acquire software program will be to be had from 28 February 2017 as a unfastened download from the Fujifilm website.

Test our palms-on preview with the GFX 50S for greater records at the medium layout mirrorless camera and we additionally have sample pix captured with the GFX 50S so one can Check.

A way to Remedy reminiscence Card Corruption in Fujifilm FinePix S5700 Fujifilm FinePix S5700 makes use of its internal memory in addition to a reminiscence card for storing virtual documents. For the reason that inner reminiscence can simplest store up to 27 MB of data, it becomes essential for a photographer to use a reminiscence card (xD and SD) to shop his/her big series of pics, audios, and videos. These playing cards, although agree with worthy, can get corrupt if now not treated properly.

One easy manner to discover memory card corruption is when the photographer perspectives an errors message at the time s/he attempts to view the images. The photographer perspectives the error message each time s/he accesses the card. An smooth manner to get admission to information from card after its corruption is by restoring the statistics from an up to date backup. But, if no backup is to be had, then the photographer needs to look for a few excellent Photo Recuperation solution.

Recollect a actual-world example. You attempt to access the statistics saved in xD card of your Fujifilm FinePix S5700 digicam and come across the below errors message:

“CARD errors”

the mistake appears whenever you try to get admission to the information saved inside the xD card. Needless to say, the information stored within the reminiscence card becomes inaccessible after the above mistakes message pops up.

Motive:

Fallacious shutdown of the camera, interrupted examine/write operation, or malicious software program/malware may also result in memory card corruption.

Decision:

layout the xD reminiscence card in Fujifilm FinePix S5700 digital camera. the card will become reusable after formatting and also you save new virtual documents in it. However, formatting comes with a disadvantage of deleting all of the previously stored virtual documents from the xD card.

To recover deleted files after formatting, you may need to:

Restore them from an up to date backup.

Use a industrial Image Healing application. Such Picture Recuperation software get better all varieties of files from a formatted memory card, irrespective of its size. These utilities use high-stop scanning algorithms to recover lost files and Repair them at required vicinity. Moreover, These tools do not require any technical expertise to perform Recovery. Stellar Phoenix Photograph Restoration surmounts all different Photo Recuperation software program and presents most Recovery outcomes. The software can get better statistics from almost all memory cards, together with xD, SD, MMC, CF, and SDHC. The Restoration tool may be established on Home windows and Mac OS X. It helps Healing from other media, including, Zip drives, USB drives, memory sticks, difficult drives, and so forth. Identifying and The usage of taking pictures Lanes in Hockey

I always see lovers shouting at participant to shoot the p.C. whilst they’re at the strength play or after they have a massive gain in the attacking quarter. However, I additionally see that if the player made the shot that they could no longer get the shot past the defense. They might handiest surrender control and provide the defense a threat to skate down the ice and score a aim. The purpose that the offense can not shoot the percent is they do no longer have a first rate shooting lane.

A capturing lane is any instantly course that the percent can take closer to the net. It is pretty easy to understand that if the percent cannot cross in the direction of the internet, then it isn’t always well worth capturing.

What defenders will do is try to positioned something that they are able to in the manner of the shot. A stick, a leg, or maybe there whole body may be used to dam a taking pictures lane. What the offense has to do is pick out where the modern-day taking pictures lanes are and where they’ll be in some seconds. when the offense is able to predict this correctly they will be unstoppable.

One of the approaches to look a taking pictures lane is to study the net. If you could see the net with out all people in front of it, It’s miles a taking pictures lane. But, it does no longer rely what your eyes see, it handiest topics what is in the manner of the p.C.. If you can pick out a corner with a slap shot, then you have to do it when you have the opportunity. But, you want to be clever because if the other group receives within the manner of the shot, the possibility you need to score is long gone and the alternative crew no longer has manipulate of the percent.

Simply make sure which you are The use of your head and no longer attempting to take pictures that specialists would no longer be able to. Another appropriate issue that you should do is awaiting the play. Paintings on seeing lanes develop via searching at the inclinations of the other group’s defenders. make sure that you take a glance as some of the alternative hockey techniques

The way to Select a software program Improvement Enterprise – Here Are 5 Criteria

while evaluating a software Development company, be aware of the questions they ask. Are they taking their time to analyze extra about you and what you need, or are they dashing to handing you an offer and a quote? We’ve got achieved a research and selected the 5 key Criteria we Don’t forget important for businesses to make their desire of a web or Cellular Utility Development Employer that would match their needs. The Criteria are listed by means of priority below:

1) The Variety of IT Services a Employer offers

Any assignment Development have to be handled as a complex system that requires a comprehensive technique. It includes now not best best code writing however also preliminary enterprise research, group Improvement, satisfactory guarantee, high-quality audit, threat assessment and mitigation on all stages of web Development and post-launch guide. An outsourcing Company that offers the overall Range of IT Offerings can guide you on The way to deliver out the nice of your challenge concept offers a non-trivial solution and create the product so that it will hit the market. In recent times, rendering the entire scope of IT Offerings is a have to-have for IT organizations to provide a successful task.

2) software pleasant and Professional technique

You should Pick an outsourcing crew based totally now not most effective on their technology skills, but additionally their potential to apply useful equipment and frameworks that accelerate Improvement and boom Paintings efficiency and productivity. Figure out what mockup gear, shipping process/technique, tracking systems and quality software metrics the seller employs to make software, and speak your expectations with the vendor.

3) method and challenge shipping procedure

A good IT Corporation have to observe a based and nicely-described assignment control method (such as Scrum, Kanban, and so forth.) to optimize undertaking Development and provide effective collaboration between a purchaser and a supplier. It is in particular vital for outsourced tasks to make certain their proper tracking and coordination in real time. Find out how you, as a customer, can be involved in the Development process and keep song of your undertaking implementation. Ask to put together a verbal exchange control plan.

4) Language and Cultural Compatibility

So, you need your venture to be delivered as predicted and within an affordable budget and time body. A verbal exchange gap and cultural differences can go all of the efforts you’ve got made before. Attention in your dealer language abilities and cultural compatibility. To facilitate communication and interaction, Choose an outsourcing seller that has comparable cultural and academic backgrounds.

5) location and Time area

Preferably, your supplier have to be located inside a close attain on your Organisation. Proximity reduces travel fees and times significantly. And sooner or later, ensure your seller is positioned inside the proper time area with similar working hours. That makes verbal exchange better and allows you to settle problems immediately.

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frontmezzjunkies · 7 years

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Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The Steaks are High.

By Ross

I’ve been dying of hunger waiting to see this British import of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (here after referred to as Sweeney Todd) since first hearing about it. It sounded like so much delicious fun, being performed inside an actual pie shop, the 109-year-old Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop in Tooting, London. So when I planned my trip to London last summer, my hope was to see and ingest some pie and mash. I had heard that it transferred to an unused restaurant in the west end, courtesy of Sir Cameron Mackintosh, for thirteen weeks in 2015, but once again I was thwarted. I can’t recall if it was bad timing or just plain ‘sold out’, but regardless of the ‘why’, I missed it. So I was thrilled last year to hear that it was coming across the pond and setting up shop at the Barrow Street Theatre. Not exactly the pie shop I had envisioned but regardless, I had to make sure that I was there this time. I wanted those Hot Pies.

Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite musicals of all times, and is in the top five theatrical experiences I’ve had. Right up there with Sunday in the Park with George (which I was lucky enough to see a few days prior to my visit to Sweeney Todd – what a great Sondheim week I’m having). Just like my mad affection for Jenna Russell in Sunday, I carry the same torch for Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris who both dazzled in the John Doyle directed 2005 revival. Those two were magical; precise and delicious in every way in that stunningly unique production. So the stakes (or should I say, steaks – as food metaphors will be plentiful in this review) were high, and this delectable troop, made up of four of the original British players and a sprinkling of Americans thrown in for flavor (or union requirements) had a lot to live up to.

Delicious is the first word that comes to mind. Piping hot and tasty is this inventive revival, transported, not for life, but for an extended run in the revamped Barrow Street Theatre. The oldest pie shop in London has been recreated within the very flexible walls of this west village theatre (designer: Simon Kenny; lighting: Amy Mae; props: Ray Wetmore). Every inch is said to look just like the original, except the seats are a bit more comfortable, so says Joseph Taylor, one of the original Tooting Arts Club players who followed this meal ticket to NYC. He joined us at the head of our table just as the show was about to start, chatty and adorable. He certainly knows how to welcome us into this establishment. We did not join in for the pre-show pie and mash that was being offered, but a few beers seemed appropriate going in, just a shame they were from Brooklyn, not England.

Once the lights go out with a bang, the show kicks in with full force. From the first note sung, we know we are in for a solid fantastic meal here. It’s a small bare to the bones cast, each player has a significant role, but together with the three-person band (music director: Matt Aument: music supervisor and arranger: Benjamin Cox), these folk sure know how to fill up the room with song and movement.”The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” has begun, in full fledged aroma. Spectacular and exciting. As precisely directed by Bill Buckhurst (choreographer: Georgina Lamb), this production is filled to the brim with great voices, creativity, and a perfectly cast group of actors. Not one bad ingredient in the lot.

Jeremy Secomb as Sweeney Todd, the namesake of this bloody show has just the voice and presence to command the space and creep into our nightmares. He’s scary and strong, loud and frightening in his thirst for revenge. He’s funny when needed to be, but when he tells you to move, you won’t hesitate, and I dare you to avoid his glare. My dinner companion could not, and he has the goose pimples to prove it. His rendition of the hauntingly savory “Joanna” as he slices his way through his customers stays floating around in my head ever since.

Mrs. Lovett, one of my favorite Sondheim creations, played to vaudevillian perfection by the spectacular Siobhan McCarthy, has just the right amount of spice and humor. She nails every nuanced line and every note, in the scrumptious “Worst Pies in London”, playing with Sondheim’s tricky and fun words with the joy they deserve. She ‘has’, ‘had’, ‘has’ great comic timing and like the fine baker she is, she serves up her hot pies with pride and relish. Outrageous and devilish, she’s the perfect side dish to Secomb’s meaty main course named Sweeney.

Our initial dinner companion, Taylor, as I expected, played Tobias with all the forlorn charm, glee, and innocence needed. He seems to be having the time of his life as he ushers us back into the pie shop after the interval. The beautiful song “Not While I’m Around” carries all the naivety and deceptive power required by the Mrs. Lovett and Tobias. He and the others all do impressive work in Sweeney with each and every one of those savorous Sondheim numbers. The young lovers (the ever so handsome Matt Doyle and the exquisite Alex Finke) are glorious and a wee bit crazy. The lovely and funny number “Kiss Me” plays joyfully with the theatricality of young lovers falling madly and deeply in love at first glance which Joanna giddily acknowledges when she sings that she doesn’t even know Anthony’s name.

The Judge Turpin (an impressive Duncan Smith) is perfectly cast, with the strong voice to go with the imposing frame. Brad Oscar as his side kick in menace, Beadle Bamford, leans a bit too close to a Nathan Lane impersonation at times which didn’t give him the menacing demeanor that the part sometimes requires, but the whole production leans towards a vaudevillian feeling that is entirely engaging and festive. Betsy Morgan as both the Old Woman and the shady barber, Adolfo Pirelli, gleefully bounces back and forth and beyond, serving up an impeccable performance each and every time she appears, and god, what a voice she has.

The whole production is more fun and startling, rather than dark and moody which works so well in the environmental set-up. The Barrow Street/Barrington Pie Shop space is surprisingly and delightfully well suited to the task, easily shifting for each scene needed. It’s an inventive and creative use of space and dynamics, that only starts feeling a tad bit forced in Act II when the bodies begin to pile up in the bake house downstairs. It feels a bit clumsy but by then we are all so giddy with joy that we are totally willing to brush that aside and take it all in happily. This piece of hot pie sliced by a demon barber went down amazingly well. It is the best pie in town, and if I could get another ticket, I’d go back for a second helping. Because “God, that’s good!”

Sweeney Todd Barrow Street Theatre Jeremy Secomb Siobhan McCarthy Matt Doyle Alex Finke Betsy Morgan Brad Oscar Duncan Smith Joseph Taylor Music & Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM Book by HUGH WHEELER From an adaptation by CHRISTOPHER BOND Directed by BILL BUCKHURST A TOOTING ARTS CLUB Production CREATIVE TEAM Design by SIMON KENNY Music Supervision & Arrangement by BENJAMIN COX Music Direction by MATT AUMENT Choreographer GEORGINA LAMB Lighting Design by AMY MAE Sound Design by MATT STINE Casting by TELSEY + CO. / CESAR A. ROCHA, CSA Fight Director BRYCE BERMINGHAM Vocal and Dialect Coach BEN FUREY Prop Master RAY WETMORE Associate Director ANDREW SCOVILLE Associate Choreographer YASMINE LEE Associate Set Design by IRON BLOOM CREATIVE PRODUCTION Associate Lighting Design by JESSICA CREAGER Associate Costume Design by SYDNEY GALLAS Assistant Sound Designer AJ SURASKY PIE AND MASH Chef & Pie Maker BILL YOSSES Assistant Pie Maker ROBERTO WELCH Food Consultation by FLAVOR MEMORY MUSICIANS Violin TOMOKO AKABOSHI Clarinets MICHAEL FAVREAU Standby Music Director ANDREW GERLE MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTATION General Management by KATE MORROW Production Management by IRON BLOOM Production Stage Management by RICHARD A. HODGE Assistant Stage Management by JOSHUA MARK GUSTAFSON Company Management by KARLY FISCHER Wardrobe Supervisor ANDREA DOCKHORN Deck Carpenter BRIAN GUSTAVESON Legal by NEVIN LAW GROUP Architect MITCHELL KURTZ ARCHITECT PC Accounting WITHUMSMITH + BROWN, ROBERT FRIED Controller GALBRAITH & CO. Banking CITY NATIONAL BANK / SHALIMAR ALI Insurance AON ALBERT G. RUBEN/CLAUDIA KAUFMAN PRESS AND MARKETING Advertising by AKA Original Artwork by DREW HODGES Press by BONEAU/BRYAN BROWN / ADRIAN BRYAN-BROWN, HEATH SCHWARTZ, MELISSA COHEN Social Media by MARATHON LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Production Photographer JOAN MARCUS PRODUCED BY RACHEL EDWARDS JENNY GERSTEN SEAVIEW PRODUCTIONS NATE KOCH Executive Producer FIONA RUDIN BARROW STREET THEATRE JEAN DOUMANIAN REBEC

Sweeney Todd OFF-BROADWAYDRAMA BARROW STREET THEATRE 27 BARROW STREET SYNOPSIS: A barber who was unjustly imprisoned for years by a corrupt judge returns to England bent on revenge — a revenge that turns indiscriminately murderous, leading his resourceful accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, to bake the victims into meat pies. The Barrow Street Theatre will be turned into a working pie shop for the production. Director: Bill Buckhurst Starring: Jeremy Seacomb, Siobhan McCarthy, Duncan Smith, Joseph Taylor (until April 9, 2017) Norm Lewis, Carolee Carmello, Jamie Jackson, John Michael Lyles (starting April 11, 2017) Matt Doyle, Alex Finke, Betsy Morgan, Brad Oscar, Colin Anderson, Liz Pearce, Monet Sabel Design by Simon Kenny Music Supervision & Arrangement by Benjamin Cox Music Direction by Matt Aument Movement Direction by Georgina Lamb Lighting Design by Amy Mae Sound Design by Matt Stine Prop Master: Ray Wetmore Chef & Pie Maker: Bill Yosses Assistant Pie Maker: Roberto Welch Food Consultation by Flavor Memory Show Times: Tuesday – Thursday @7:30pm, Friday @8pm, Saturday @2:30pm and @8pm, Sunday @2:30pm and @7:30pm http://www.barrowstreettheatre.com MUSIC: STEPHEN SONDHEIM BOOK: HUGH WHEELER LYRICS: STEPHEN SONDHEIM

#frontmezzjunkies reviewed: #sondheim @sweeneytoddNYC #morehotpies @jrtjoe Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The Steaks are High. By Ross I've been dying of hunger waiting to see this British import of Sondheim's…

#Alex Finke #barrow street theatre #Betsy Morgan #Bill Buckhurst #brad oscar #Duncan Smith #Harrington&039;s Pie and Mash Shop #Jeremy Secomb #Joseph Taylor #Matt Doyle #michael cerveris #patti lupone #Simon Kenny #Siobhan McCarthy #stephen sondheim #sweeney todd #Tooting Arts Club

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