BERNIE WILSON, Associated Press

12 hours ago

Australia SailGP team helmed by Tom Slingsby, front left, leads the fleet ahead of New Zealand SailGP team helmed by Peter Burling, right, and Denmark SailGP Ttam helmed by Nicolai Sehested, center, on Race Day 1 of the Spain Sail Grand Prix races in Cadiz, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 14 2023. (Bob Martin/ SailGP. via AP)

Three-time defending SailGP champion Tom Slingsby skippered Team Australia into the lead of the Spain Sail Grand Prix Cádiz on Saturday, finishing well ahead of his top rivals as he pursues his first victory of Season 4.

Slingsby steered the Flying Roo foiling catamaran to finishes of 5-2-1 to take a one-point lead over Nicolai Sehested’s ROCKWOOL Denmark, with Spain’s Diego Botin six points back in third. Botin, who won in Los Angeles in late July, thrilled the home crowd with a victory in the first race.

Britain’s Sir Ben Ainslie had a rough start in his pursuit of a third straight regatta victory, going 8-10-6 to settle into ninth in the 10-boat fleet. Peter Burling and Team New Zealand returned to the racecourse with a new wingsail but struggled with finishes of 4-5-8 to sit in sixth place, nine points off the lead.

Jimmy Spithill’s Team USA is fourth, seven points off the lead, after going 2-3-10. Taylor Canfield is filling at flight controller for Hans Henken, who was seriously injured three weeks ago when the catamaran crashed hard off its foils.

“We’re stoked with today, and it’s definitely a confidence booster going into tomorrow, considering we are expecting similar light air conditions,” said Slingsby, an Olympic gold medalist and former America’s Cup champion.

The Aussies came into the regatta with a six-point lead over Ainslie and Botin in the season standings despite not having won yet this season. Their last victory was in the $1 million, winner-take-all grand finale of Season 3 in May in San Francisco, the third straight time they clinched the championship of tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s global league.

“It’s been quite frustrating,” Slingsby said. “Although we have been consistent and sailed well, we haven’t managed to get a win this season. I’ve got to do everything I can to secure this win for the team.”

This is the second anniversary of SailGP’s Women’s Pathway Program and strategist Nina Curtis rejoined the Aussie crew after taking maternity leave. She was the first woman to win a SailGP regatta when the Aussies were victorious in Cádiz in 2021.

“It’s amazing to see how much the program has developed in two years and the role it has played in inspiring young female sailors across Australia,” said Curtis, an Olympic silver medalist and ocean racer. “It’s a pretty special moment for me to be back racing here with the team, and now having my own daughter Dylan watch on.”

The Kiwis were back on the water for the first time since their $1 million wingsail suddenly shattered and fell into the Mediterranean just minutes after they finished racing in the opening day of the France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez on Sept. 9. They were unable to race in the following regatta at Taranto, Italy, and were awarded fifth place.

“We definitely had a pretty tough day where we never quite found our groove fully,” said Burling, the two-time reigning America’s Cup champion and a three-time Olympic medalist. “It’s our first day racing in a while, so we can go away, tidy that up and come out swinging tomorrow.”

___

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Three-time defending SailGP champion Tom Slingsby skippered Team Australia into the lead of the Spain Sail Grand Prix Cádiz on Saturday, finishing well ahead of his top rivals as he pursues his first victory of Season 4.

Slingsby steered the Flying Roo foiling catamaran to finishes of 5-2-1 to take a one-point lead over Nicolai Sehested’s ROCKWOOL Denmark, with Spain’s Diego Botin six points back in third. Botin, who won in Los Angeles in late July, thrilled the home crowd with a victory in the first race.

Britain’s Sir Ben Ainslie had a rough start in his pursuit of a third straight regatta victory, going 8-10-6 to settle into ninth in the 10-boat fleet. Peter Burling and Team New Zealand returned to the racecourse with a new wingsail but struggled with finishes of 4-5-8 to sit in sixth place, nine points off the lead.

Jimmy Spithill’s Team USA is fourth, seven points off the lead, after going 2-3-10. Taylor Canfield is filling at flight controller for Hans Henken, who was seriously injured three weeks ago when the catamaran crashed hard off its foils.

“We’re stoked with today, and it’s definitely a confidence booster going into tomorrow, considering we are expecting similar light air conditions,” said Slingsby, an Olympic gold medalist and former America’s Cup champion.

The Aussies came into the regatta with a six-point lead over Ainslie and Botin in the season standings despite not having won yet this season. Their last victory was in the $1 million, winner-take-all grand finale of Season 3 in May in San Francisco, the third straight time they clinched the championship of tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s global league.

“It’s been quite frustrating,” Slingsby said. “Although we have been consistent and sailed well, we haven’t managed to get a win this season. I’ve got to do everything I can to secure this win for the team.”

This is the second anniversary of SailGP’s Women’s Pathway Program and strategist Nina Curtis rejoined the Aussie crew after taking maternity leave. She was the first woman to win a SailGP regatta when the Aussies were victorious in Cádiz in 2021.

“It’s amazing to see how much the program has developed in two years and the role it has played in inspiring young female sailors across Australia,” said Curtis, an Olympic silver medalist and ocean racer. “It’s a pretty special moment for me to be back racing here with the team, and now having my own daughter Dylan watch on.”

The Kiwis were back on the water for the first time since their $1 million wingsail suddenly shattered and fell into the Mediterranean just minutes after they finished racing in the opening day of the France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez on Sept. 9. They were unable to race in the following regatta at Taranto, Italy, and were awarded fifth place.

“We definitely had a pretty tough day where we never quite found our groove fully,” said Burling, the two-time reigning America’s Cup champion and a three-time Olympic medalist. “It’s our first day racing in a while, so we can go away, tidy that up and come out swinging tomorrow.”

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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• Rachel Dube took a 20-hour flight with United Polaris business class. 
• She says the service was amazing, and the seats were comfortable. 
• Dube says the flight went very quickly and she would fly United’s Polaris business class again. 

While I’ve always had a love for international travel, the pandemic really sparked my love of aviation.

I splurge on some flights, but I’m also a big fan of using points and miles and finding flight deals. Typically, I’ll fly between 50 to 60 long-haul flights a year on various airlines to try out new routes, and airline products, and to visit new places.

Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey is my home airport, and since it’s a hub for United Airlines, I fly with them a lot. I’ve gained status with the airline and love the perks and the international flight route network. 

On a recent flight to Brisbane, Australia, I flew United’s business class, called Polaris

The business product Polaris is one of my favorites to fly and has now been rolled out into every wide-body aircraft that United operates internationally. For long-haul flights, the airline has an incredibly comfortable seat that can be turned into a lie-flat bed. It has a large-tv screen and there are thoughtful amenities like pajamas and slippers. 

A Polaris Business class seat. Rachel Dube

The seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration with ample storage, plenty of space, and a seat that turns into a lie-flat bed. They also offer plenty of privacy even with the open configuration.

The seats offered plenty of privacy. Rachel Dube.

I found that it was a game-changer during the 20 hours spent flying

This wasn’t my first time flying United Polaris business class, but I found it helped me combat jet lag. In the past, I’d only flown routes to Europe, so I didn’t fully get the opportunity to utilize the lie-flat bed for a full night of sleep, or other amenities like slippers and pajamas. 

The Polaris business class seats on the Boeing 787. Rachel Dube

The journey home from Australia started at the Brisbane International Airport. Although United doesn’t have a lounge there, Air New Zealand (a Star Alliance partner) does, so I waited there until early boarding. 

The Air New Zealand Lounge in BNE. Rachel Dube

After boarding, I headed to my seat, which was outfitted with an Away amenity kit, two Saks Fifth Avenue blankets, and two pillows.

Within the Away amenity kit was an eye mask, pair of socks, toothbrush kit, tissues, and some miniature-sized skincare from Sunday Riley. Each seat also had a pair of noise-canceling headphones, a water bottle, and a set of slippers.

The seat had an Away amenity kit, two Saks Fifth Avenue blankets, and two pillows Rachel Dube

After settling into our seats, we were offered champagne or water. I opted for the latter and opened up the large tray table that offered plenty of space to eat and drink. 

The tray table offered plenty of room to eat and drink Rachel Dube.

The cabin looked brand new and had luxe features

The flight had a 16-inch TV screen, a seat control panel that reclines the seat and moves the seat into a lie-flat position, and an extendable TV remote with a device outlet beside it. 

The TV screen at the United Polaris seat. Rachel Dube

I was impressed with the amount of space the seat had and the under-seat compartment fit my very large tote comfortably. There was also ample room for my carry-on luggage in the overhead bins. 

Each seat had plenty of space Rachel Dube

In addition, each seat had a reading light and adjustable window shade that can be controlled with the push of a button. 

Each window shade was controlled with a button. Rachel Dube

When I first turned on the TV, it displayed a schedule of the first flight with what services would be available during the time onboard. The total flight time for this flight was 13 hours to San Francisco. 

The flight offered lunch, snacks, and breakfast ahead of arrival

Australian-inspired options like a seared barramundi fish fillet, vegemite and cheese toastie, and fairy bread were offered as choices during the flight. I wasn’t too hungry after we took off, so I just got an ice cream sundae. 

One of the desserts offered onboard. Rachel Dube

  Since the journey was longer than 12 hours, pajamas were also available. I asked the flight attendant for one when we took off and it was oversized and extremely comfortable. 

After my snack, I headed to the bathroom to change into pajamas. The business class lavatory is definitely larger than the one in economy. It also featured an assortment of Sunday Riley toiletries for usage during the flight.

The bathroom on the plane was much larger than economy. Rachel Dube

When I arrived back at my seat, I switched it into the lie-flat position

Iset it up with the two pillows and two blankets. It was super comfortable. 

The seat converted into a lie-flat bed. Rachel

During the flight, I dozed in and out and watched a whole assortment of movies. I slept for quite a while but also was able to enjoy the onboard entertainment.

In between the movies and rest, I also checked out the onboard flight map. It was very interactive and showcased the flight path, speed, and more. 

Once we were getting closer to landing, I ordered the spinach, feta, and rosemary frittata. I ended up only eating the bowl of fruit and croissant, which were all I needed. 

One of the breakfast options onboard. Rachel Dube

After we landed in San Francisco, I had a few-hour layover before my next flight to Newark

I headed to the United Polaris lounge. The lounge was super spacious and featured a made-to-order restaurant, ample seating, and tons of other helpful amenities. I opted to take a shower and change in between flights and it made me feel so much better.

The showers in the Polaris lounge in the San Francisco airport. Rachel Dube

Once onboard, my seat was pretty much the same and featured all the same amenities aside from one less Saks Fifth Avenue blanket. This flight was onboard a Boeing 737-300ER, which has 60 business class seats. 

The only noticeable difference in my seat was that my tray table had this helpful stand for tablets. It was a thoughtful touch that I’d never noticed before. 

The amenity kit was also a little less luxe and included fewer items than the other long-haul flight. However, the flight was only 5 hours so I didn’t feel like we’d need the extra amenities anyway.

The Away amenity kit wasn’t as extensive as the first flight. Rachel Dube.

Overall, I loved the space, comfort, and service onboard United’s Polaris business class and I will definitely be flying it again. Both flights went super quickly and I arrived home to Newark Liberty International airport in no time.

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Like an airplane, hydrofoils use aerodynamic lift to climb just above the water above a certain speed. This reduces drag, making the craft far more efficient than if it were moving through the waves. Passengers literally fly.

The technology is not new; Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, later constructed a seaplane. But a new startup called Navier (“NAV-ee-ay”) is going a step further, trying to solve the age-old problem of how to efficiently transport people across a lake or bay with sleek, unobtrusive luxury vehicles. flying water taxis.”

The name sounds like a variation of “navigation” or “marine” but is a reference to Claude-Louis Navier, the 19th-century French physicist and engineer whose contributions to fluid mechanics remain central to this field of research. The company is betting on the eventual electrification of all modes of transportation — particularly what Chief Technology Officer Kenny Jensen calls the “marine segment.”

“The thing about boats is that they are ridiculously inefficient. You get a mile a gallon,” he said. “So if you tried to electrify these without changing anything, you’ll either run out of range or you’ll be a giant floating battery.”

The docks at Pier 40 jutting out from the foot of Townsend Street on the Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco are an ode to the city’s maritime past, when trade and transportation mostly took place along the coast. However, on a recent visit, The Standard noted that it is also home to Navier’s two current watercraft, one black and one white.

The electric-powered boats were built at a Maine shipyard and have toured Miami, LA and elsewhere. Navier claims a range of 75 miles per charge, which takes around eight hours. Boaters can simply plug into standard marina outlets or use a charger like Tesla makes.

Despite the term ‘water taxi’, Navier’s boats are intended for personal mobility rather than the proverbial Uber of the Seven Seas, carrying six or eight people at a time. You can get from Redwood City to the Embarcadero in 20 minutes or across the bay to the company’s Alameda headquarters.

The ride itself is undeniably cool, a smooth and almost impossibly quiet ride. Technologically, it’s light years beyond the analog ship that could set sail from Sausalito to Hawaii. Passengers zip under the Bay Bridge at 22 knots, looking with no small pity at the comparatively sluggish ferries while Yacht Rock playlists accumulate in the back of their minds.

Admittedly, the $375,000 price tag means hydrofoils are no longer affordable for the average person, but future generations of Navier vessels could disrupt the polluting shipping industry as well as the world of passenger transportation.

Co-founder Sampriti Bhattacharyya comes from aerospace robotics and applied her work to underwater drones – like Jensen she has a PhD. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop this next-generation ship.

“We’re very optimistic about the vision and what it can make possible,” she said. “It’s a game changer.”

There are other small advantages, such as the ability to move relatively quickly in a port where it is forbidden to leave wakes, the ability to operate near coral reefs with less risk of harming sensitive marine life and the risk of seasickness is reduced. Pilots don’t need a driver’s license either, as they pilot and control the throttle while the computer does most of the rest.

A technician once lamented the fact that our timeline gave us 140 characters instead of flying cars, but now we have flying water taxis. Navier plans to have a few more boats in the water by next year, hoping to make an impression by 2035. There is great optimism, but much less when it comes to the boats themselves.

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This story originally appeared in the March/April 2013 issue of Guitar Aficionado magazine.

Albert King was a giant among bluesmen, and not only for his immense talents on the guitar. A 250-pound giant of considerable bulk, King stood between six-four and six-seven and made any guitar he held in his massive hands look like a child’s plaything.

But the notes and tones he tore from the instrument were anything but small. In the middle years of the 20th century, King grabbed hold of a Gibson Flying V and boldly went where no blues guitar player had gone before, or has gone since.

A left-hander, he flipped a right-handed guitar upside down, put it in an unorthodox tuning, and forged a style steeped in steely drama and epic note-bends that evoke the vertiginous blood rush of powerful emotions.

King’s impact on the blues and rock guitar legacy is prodigious. Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan have been among his greatest admirers. Each drafted huge chunks of King’s fiercely original style into his own playing. Clapton famously nicked the solo from King’s Oh, Pretty Woman and inserted it in Strange Brew from Cream’s wildly influential 1967 album, Disraeli Gears.

Jimi Hendrix cited King’s Crosscut Saw as one of his favorite tunes. Mike Bloomfield covered King’s Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong, and Cream recorded their own version of King’s signature tune, Born Under a Bad Sign. As for Stevie Ray Vaughan, he outdid his King-crazed predecessors by recording an In Session television special with his hero in 1983.

His influence on many of the world’s most revered guitarists is sufficient to make him a national treasure of American music. But in many ways, his own achievements outshine those of his acolytes. After all, he did it first. And he certainly did it his way.

True to his name, King is arguably the monarch of upside-down-lefty guitarists, a distinguished company that includes Otis Rush, Doyle Bramhall II, Elizabeth Cotten, and Coco Montoya in the blues-folk realm, and everyone from Babyface to Bob Geldof in other genres.

The barbed-wire minimalism of King’s searing leads makes an ideal counterpoint to his husky, gospel-inflected vocal style. It’s a true call-and-response passion play. King was nicknamed the Velvet Bulldozer, a name that resonates once you realize that he once made his living driving a bulldozer. Albert King lived the blues. That’s why he played and sang them so beautifully.

He had a remarkably wide perspective on the blues as well, crossbreeding more traditional 12-bar forms with everything from sweet Stax soul to big-band balladry.

Like a lot of left-hand/right-brain creatives, Albert King didn’t play by any rulebook but his own, nor would he suffer fools gladly. Possessed of a notoriously bad temper, he would lay into band members onstage if things weren’t going his way. In one famous public display of anger, he chewed out John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, who were backing him, for playing too loud.

(Image credit: David Warner Ellis/Redferns)

Luthier Dan Erlewine, who made King one of the Flying V guitars that he played throughout his career, had a few occasions to witness the Velvet Bulldozer in high dudgeon.

“The first time Albert was playing at the Grande Ballroom, I was backstage after the show,” Erlewine says, referring to Detroit’s legendary Sixties rock venue, just a few miles from the bridge to Windsor, Ontario. “And Albert was pissed at the promoters, who were trying to pay him with Canadian bills. He wouldn’t take them. ‘I don’t want none of that funny money,’ he said. And they got him what he wanted.”

King was known to pack a gun, so people were reluctant to cross him. But his hot temper was only one aspect of a complex and gifted artist. Erlewine puts the anger down to a combination of impatience and competitiveness. 

“I’d say Albert was more competitive than some, certainly more so than the older folks out there, like [his blues contemporaries] Mance Lipscomb and Johnny Shines. As a person, though, Albert had a softness and kindness inside. But he kept it hidden a lot.”

Along with B.B. and Freddie, Albert King is one of the three kings of the blues, although the man born Albert Nelson was related to neither of those great bluesmen by blood. He was, however, born in B.B. King’s hometown – Indianola, Mississippi – on April 25, 1923. 

While he may not have literally been born under a bad sign, his birth date does put Albert King in the contentious and creative zodiacal house of Taurus. Later in life, he would assume the regal surname King as a stage name, some say in homage to B.B. King.

King’s family moved to Forrest City, Arkansas, when he was eight. He spent some time as an agricultural laborer, picking cotton, but set his sights on making a life for himself in music early on. He once joked that he didn’t learn from studying any other guitarists, saying, “Everything I do is wrong.” But that isn’t strictly accurate. King also spoke often of being influenced by Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Elmore James.

“I listened to the slide guitar of Elmore James and a couple of more people I knew way back there,” he told one interviewer. “Then along came T-Bone Walker, and that did it. So I just mixed it all together, and I couldn’t get it exactly like they had it, but I just put my own thing to it.”

It may have been the open slide-guitar tunings of players like Jefferson and James that inspired King’s own use of alternate tunings. He is mainly associated with an E minor tuning (low to high, C B E G B E). But he also tuned to the same intervals in both C# and D. He was known to use open F (low to high, C F C D A D) as well.

For guitarists accustomed to playing in standard, none of these tunings are as intuitive as, say, open G or E. But remember that Albert King was holding a right-handed electric guitar the “wrong” way around. This yields a different perspective on the instrument, one that is, in a way, more in tune with nature, with the low strings closer to the ground and the high strings nearer to the sky. But even upside down, some of King’s open tunings are mighty strange, which also accounts for the unique beauty embodied in some of his phrasing.

“I knew I was going to have to create my own style,” he told guitar journalist Dan Forte, “because I couldn’t make the changes and chords the same as a right-handed man could. I play a few chords, but not many. I always concentrated on my singing guitar sound – more of a sustained note.”

(Image credit: David Redfern/Redferns)

King also enjoyed what’s known as the “lefty advantage” when it comes to bending notes. With the strings’ vertical arrangement flipped, you bend notes on the critical higher-pitched strings by pulling the string downward, which is much easier than pushing upward to execute a bend. 

King exploited this capacity to particularly dramatic effect, sometimes bending notes as much as four tones up. His huge hands were another factor in this aspect of his style, as was the slackness of the strings in the low-slung tunings King favored.

As if all this weren’t unconventional enough, King didn’t use a pick. He mainly used his thumb to pluck the notes. But his first finger would also sometimes come into play in helping shape the steely pinched tones that are another hallmark of his style.

“I never could hold a pick in my hand,” King explained to Forte. “I had started out playing with one, but I’d be really gettin’ into it, and after a while the pick would sail across the room. I said, ‘To hell with this.’ So I just play with the meat of the thumb.”

The core elements of King’s riveting style are all evident, albeit embryonically, on his first recording, Bad Luck Blues, recorded in Chicago in 1953 for Parrot Records. 

By the time he cut this disc, King had paid plenty of dues, singing lead tenor with gospel quartet the Harmony Kings, fronting his own group – the Groove Boys – in Osceola, Arkansas, and playing drums for seminal blues guitarist and singer Jimmy Reed. But Bad Luck Blues lived up to its name by not providing King with the hit he might have been hoping for.

King didn’t score big until eight years later, when he released Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong in 1961. The record climbed to Number 14 on the R&B charts and put him on the map. It also became a featured track on his very first album, The Big Blues, in 1962.  

A study in pinched, plucked passion, the lead guitar intro to Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong makes it clear from the start that Albert King ain’t about to do things in a small way. 

This is the lowdown slow blues at its finest, and the guitar-and-vocal interplay is exquisite. King’s biting leads alternate with a vocal performance that scales the full emotional range, from a mournful croon to a high-pitched gospel wail. The symbiotic relationship between King’s guitar and voice is one of the blues’ greatest treasures.

By the time the disc was released, King had found his instrument: a 1958 korina wood Gibson Flying V. There has been much speculation as to why he favored this particular guitar, but upside-down lefties tend to seek out instruments with symmetrically shaped bodies and headstocks, as they look much less awkward when flipped. And among symmetrically shaped guitars, a Flying V certainly has far more flash and panache than, say, an SG or 335. 

Along with Lonnie Mack, King was one of the earliest guitarists to popularize Gibson’s angular, V-shaped masterpiece.

(Image credit: Jordi Vidal/Redferns)

Like many archetypal bluesmen, King was often on the move, particularly in the early phases of his career. By 1966, he was down in Memphis and had been signed to Stax, the premier mid-Sixties R&B label, then riding high with hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, and Wilson Pickett. 

The marriage of King’s 12-bar blues with the funky Stax backbeat is a true revelation on his 1967 hit, Born Under a Bad Sign. On it, he is supported solidly by Booker T. & the MGs and the Memphis Horns as well as Isaac Hayes, whose piano vamp sets the groove strutting at a pimp-crawlin’ pace. 

The deep, dark Memphis Horns reinforce the driving bass line, and funky off-beats walk up to the V chord. King’s guitar sounds crisper and more incisive than ever, his voice plumbing the desperate depths of this ultimate hard-luck narrative.

Stax had one of the greatest-sounding recording rooms of the period as well as a brilliant pool of staff musicians, producers and tunesmiths, including Hayes and Booker T. & the MGs – consisting of organist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Duck Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson Jr. 

It was at Stax that King’s maverick talent found an ideal home. His Stax years yielded the lion’s share of his signature recordings, including Laundromat Blues, Crosscut Saw, Personal Manager, and As the Years Go Passing By, all of which were collected on King’s first album for Stax, also titled Born Under a Bad Sign.

This was a new sound in the blues – urgently contemporary, no mere exercise in the kind of purist reconstructionism that had come into vogue at the time. The Stax tracks helped King cross over to a wider audience than he’d ever reached before.

By this point, his original 1958 Flying V had gone missing, allegedly lost by the guitarist in a game of craps. It was replaced by a 1966 Flying V presented to King by Gibson. This instrument accompanied the guitarist onto the stage for his many appearances at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore venues in San Francisco and New York City. 

These shows found King sharing bills with rock and blues titans like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Byrds, the Allman Brothers Band, Van Morrison and B.B. King. After years of hard work, Albert King found an appreciative audience among the era’s blues-crazed rock fans.

One of these incendiary Fillmore nights was captured on King’s seminal live album Live Wire/Blues Power. In many ways, King is best understood through his live recordings. The spontaneity and uninhibited abandon of live performance, as compared with studio recordings, seemed particularly suited to the man’s blues muse.

But one aspect of King’s work that typically drew a puzzled response from his new young fans was his love of schmaltzy balladry. His cover of the American songbook standard The Very Thought of You that closes Born Under a Bad Sign was easily the disc’s most frequently skipped-over track. It probably still is, for that matter. But King refused to conform to anyone’s notion of what he, or the blues, should be. 

(Image credit: David Redfern/Redferns)

In 1969, he performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Why shouldn’t a bluesman have full symphonic backing? Albert King was the first to go there. And why shouldn’t a bluesman record an album of Elvis Presley covers, should the mood take him? King went there too with 1970’s Blues for Elvis: King Does the King’s Things.

In the early Seventies, King acquired his third iconic Flying V, the instrument custom-built by Dan Erlewine. This was his only truly left-handed guitar, with the tone controls and output jack on what would be the lower bout for King. With his previous, flipped-over right-handed Vs, the volume tone controls were awkwardly located on the upper bout. 

Erlewine recalls King mentioning that it was annoying for him to reach up to adjust his tone or volume. “That was one of the reasons he wanted a lefty,” he explains. “He also wanted his name on the fretboard in pearl and abalone, so it would flash under the lights.”

Fashioned from a 125-year-old piece of black walnut, this guitar would be King’s main ax from 1972 until his passing, 20 years later. ’72 was an especially good year for King, witnessing the release of another landmark recording, I’ll Play the Blues for You, a soulful minor-key outing much in the vein of B.B. King’s The Thrill Is Gone. 

On I’ll Play the Blues for You – both the song and entire album of the same name – King is backed by members of two other great Stax outfits, the Bar-Kays and Isaac Hayes’ backing group, the Movement.

King stuck with Stax throughout the company’s decline in the early Seventies, moving on to several other labels after the company went bankrupt in 1975. 

His Seventies recordings didn’t have quite the same impact as his Sixties work, although there are some fine tracks to be discovered among the 10 or so albums that King released between 1970 and 1978. And while King remained active as a recording and touring artist throughout the Seventies, he began to slow down in the Eighties, moving into semiretirement from the studio but continuing to play select festivals and other live dates. 

Constant touring under far less than five-star circumstances was one of the things said to exacerbate the guitarist’s irritability and bad temper. But one very important gig he was able to perform – and which seemed to put him in quite a good mood – was a 1983 date with Stevie Ray Vaughan for the Canadian music television series In Session. 

It is a true passing-the-torch moment, two guitar legends from very different generations seated comfortably side by side and trading licks on blues standards and some of their own most-loved tracks. Vaughan’s admiration for his six-string idol is palpable, and King really shines in this welcoming environment. The DVD document of the performance is highly recommended.

Fortunately, and unlike many of his peers, King lived to see his work embraced by several generations of blues and rock guitarists. How much this meant to the irascible bluesman is hard to say. 

At times he seemed more interested in going fishing and smoking his pipe, two of his favorite leisure-time pursuits. But he was a road warrior to the last: Albert King died of a heart attack on December 21, 1992, at age 69. He’d played his last show two days earlier, in Los Angeles.

Albert (left) and B.B. King, seated together backstage in Cleveland, Ohio on February 20, 1991 (Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

It was fitting that the Memphis Horns, who had backed King on some of his greatest musical triumphs, accompanied his body on its journey down Beale Street and across the Mississippi River to King’s final resting place in Edmondson, Arkansas.

They played When the Saints Go Marching In. One likes to think that SRV, Hendrix, Bloomfield and many of King’s other gone-beyond acolytes were lined up to greet him at the Pearly Gates – or whatever serves as the musicians’ entrance to heaven.

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Gas prices in November fell, but they’re still the highest since AAA began recording data 20 years ago and are about 51 cents more expensive than a year ago.

That means the 6.3 million Californians planning to travel by car this week will pay the price, only at a slight discount from this summer’s peak of $6.438 a gallon.

AAA tracks fuel prices as a public service, and spokesman Julian Paredes said the increase in travelers was 2% higher than in 2021.

“And that’s a record, that’s more travelers than before the pandemic,” Paredes said.

For travelers looking to fly this holiday season, San Francisco International Airport’s public information officer Doug Yakel said the airport is forecasting 5 million travelers for the past week leading up to New Year’s Day. Yakel said about 85% of this year’s expected travelers are from 2019.

For those driving rather than flying this week, AAA is advising travelers to check their fluids, tire pressures, vehicle repair kit and battery charger, and make sure they have extra snacks and water. Another piece of advice is to leave early as traffic delays can be expected.

“There will be a lot of people out there and pretty much every freeway will be full. It’s definitely smart to take more time to travel than at any other time of the year,” Paredes said.

AAA expects over 400,000 roadside assistance calls nationwide this week, he added.

Peak tourist traffic will be on Wednesday from 8am to 8pm, and for the rest of the week 4pm to 8pm will be the rush hour.

While traffic this week could slow drivers, prices at the pump are better than in recent months, Paredes said, as gasoline prices in California fell about 58 cents in the last month.

Officer Judith Bryant directs traffic at San Francisco International Airport.

Nick Rose/Daily Journal

“Gas prices in San Mateo County are $5.33 a gallon for regular gasoline,” Paredes said. “That’s about 13 cents above the average for California right now, and California has the highest prices in the country.”

The national average, by comparison, is $3.63 per gallon, he added.

The price of a barrel of crude oil is $81.51 and has fluctuated between $80 and $90 a barrel over the last month.

Who is planning to go to the airport, the parking garage is busy, so for travelers who want to drive there and park their car. Yakel suggests reserving parking passes on FlySFO.com to ensure parking is available.

“We recommend being at the airport two hours before your flight for domestic flights and three hours for international flights,” Yakel said.

Yakel recommends downloading the airline’s app to check baggage online and use TSA Precheck to save time and waiting.

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November gas prices are down, but they are still the highest since AAA started recording the data 20 years ago and are about 51 cents more expensive than last year.

That means those 6.3 million Californians who plan to travel by car this week will be paying the price, just at a slight discount since the peak of $6,438 per gallon this summer.

AAA tracks fuel prices as a public service and spokesperson Julian Paredes said the increase in travelers is 2% more than in 2021.

“And that’s a record, that’s more travelers than before the pandemic,” Paredes said.

For travelers who plan to fly this holiday season, Doug Yakel, public information officer for San Francisco International Airport, said the airport forecasts 5 million travelers from this past week until New Year’s Day. Yakel said the expected travelers from this year are about 85% from 2019.

For those who will be driving rather than flying this week, AAA advises travelers to check their fluids, tire pressure, vehicle repair kit and battery charger while making sure there are extra snacks and water. Another piece of advice is to leave early as traffic delays are expected.

“There are going to be a lot of people out there and pretty much every highway is going to be packed, it’s definitely smart to give yourself more time to travel than any other time of the year,” Paredes said.

AAA anticipates over 400,000 roadside assistance calls nationwide this week, he added.

The peak of travel will be on Wednesday from 8 am to 8 pm and for the remainder of the week, 4-8 pm is going to be the rush hours.

While traffic this week might slow drivers down, the prices at the pump are better than the past few months, Paredes said, as gas prices in California have dropped about 58 cents in the last month.

Officer Judith Bryant directs traffic at San Francisco International Airport.

Nick Rose/Daily Journal

“Gas prices in San Mateo County are $5.33 a gallon for regular gas,” Paredes said. “That’s about 13 cents above the average for California right now and California has the highest prices in the country.”

The national average is $3.63 per gallon in comparison, he added.

The price for a barrel of crude oil is $81.51 and has ranged from $80 to $90 a barrel for the last month.

Anyone who is planning to drive to the airport, the parking garage is at capacity so for travelers who plan to drive and park their car there. Yakel suggests reserving parking passes on FlySFO.com to ensure there is parking.

“We recommend getting to the airport two hours prior to the flight for domestic and three hours for international,” Yakel said.

Yakel recommends downloading the app from the airline to check bags online and use TSA Precheck to save time and waiting in lines.

The post AAA and San Francisco Worldwide Airport supply suggestions for these hitting the roads, flying | Native Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• The Department of Defense’s mad scientist division is looking to develop a plane that can also harness the “wing-in-ground” effect.
• Nicknamed “Liberty Lifter,” the aircraft would skim the surface of the ocean for tremendous distances.
• The goal is an aircraft that can deliver heavy transport cargoes to remote islands and naval bases.

Last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new project, one that should be familiar to aircraft—and ship—geeks. The Liberty Lifter seaplane transport will harness the “wing-in-ground effect” (WIG) that Soviet-era aircraft, including the infamous “Caspian Sea Monster,” utilized to carry cargo thousands of miles, across distances such as the Indian and Pacific oceans Although the technology has been tried and abandoned, DARPA seems to think it deserves a second look.

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Liberty Lifter “will combine fast and flexible strategic lift of very large, heavy loads with the ability to take off/land in water,” DARPA says in a May 18 press release. “Its structure will enable both highly controlled flight close to turbulent water surfaces and sustained flight at mid-altitudes,” the statement continues. The agency points out that traditional sealift using cargo ships is very efficient, but slow and reliable on the use of ports. Airlift is fast, but relies on airfields that in wartime would need to be captured first.

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Liberty Lifter will utilize the WIG effect to travel, creating a craft that can carry transport ship-sized loads, flying much faster than a ship all while being able to take off and land from the water. WIG refers to the phenomenon where lift increases as a craft flies closer to the surface of Earth, while drag decreases; the zone is generally about as wide as the airplane’s wings. A craft operating in this very narrow zone is considerably more fuel efficient, using the same amount of fuel as a regular aircraft.

WIG craft are technically aircraft, using wings to generate lift, and travel at low aircraft speeds (350 miles an hour), but have boat-shaped hulls to take off and land in water. The aircraft look a little like conventional seaplanes, but traditionally cannot fly outside the WIG zone.

The Soviet Union developed several types of WIG craft during the Cold War, including the famous “Caspian Sea Monster.” Soviet WIG craft included variants that carried anti-ship missiles and others that could carry Soviet marines. One of the most famous examples was the Lun, colloquially known as the “Flying Sea Monster.” It was 240 feet long, 63 feet tall, and had a wingspan of 144 feet. It could carry 100 tons of troops and equipment at a top speed of 342 miles per hour to a range of up to 1,080 miles. It was also heavily armed, with six P-270 Moskit anti-ship missiles and four 23-millimeter automatic cannons. The largest Soviet WIG craft, the KM, was 301 feet long and had a top speed of 279 miles per hour.

TIGs had a couple of problems, though. One, they were limited to flying/sailing in relatively good weather and calm seas, as a tall wave could rise up to swat the aircraft in midair. Another problem was that the craft, like all aircraft, turned by banking, which raises one wing and lowers the opposite … potentially into the ocean. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that if a WIG tried to gain altitude to allow one wing to clear the surface, the craft would travel outside the ground-effect zone and lose altitude. As a result, WIG aircraft must turn very slowly—and carefully.

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Mastery of ground-effect flight is so tricky that no country has conducted research and development on WIG craft since the end of the Cold War. Russia has shown off concepts and models for WIGs, but the actual crafts are vaporware. In 2002, Boeing announced it was studying a new concept aircraft, the Pelican, which could carry 1,400 tons of cargo up to 10,000 miles over water. Nothing came of that, either.

DARPA seems to have two solutions to the hazards of WIG flight. One is that the aircraft will be stout enough to take hits from the waves, using “innovative design solutions to absorb wave forces.” Second, if a Liberty Lifter encounters turbulent waters, it could simply fly over them: unlike other WIG craft, Liberty Lifter will be able to fly to a maximum of 10,000 feet.

A Liberty Lifter could simply approach a beach, lower a ramp, and disgorge armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles directly on the shore. Liberty Lifter would be particularly useful against China’s militarized islands in the South China Sea, which the US Marines have focused on like a laser in the event of a war. If DARPA can pull it off, a new generation of wing-in-ground effect could rewrite the rules on wartime logistics.

Kyle Mizokami
Writer on Defense and Security issues, lives in San Francisco.

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]]> https://dailysanfranciscobaynews.com/darpa-is-transferring-ahead-with-a-flying-sea-monster-craft/feed/ 0 https://dailysanfranciscobaynews.com/deebo-samuel-flying-excessive-in-12-months-3-for-the-san-francisco-49ers/ https://dailysanfranciscobaynews.com/deebo-samuel-flying-excessive-in-12-months-3-for-the-san-francisco-49ers/#respond Tue, 23 Nov 2021 10:39:46 +0000 https://dailysanfranciscobaynews.com/?p=13085 San Francisco 49ers WR Deebo Samuel is moving towards elite status in his third breakout season. In the craziness that the 2019 Wide Receiver class was, with Marquise Brown and N’Keal Harry going in the first round and many names going ahead of DK Metcalf and Terry McLaurin, the San Francisco 49ers picked the South …

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San Francisco 49ers WR Deebo Samuel is moving towards elite status in his third breakout season.

In the craziness that the 2019 Wide Receiver class was, with Marquise Brown and N’Keal Harry going in the first round and many names going ahead of DK Metcalf and Terry McLaurin, the San Francisco 49ers picked the South early in the second round Carolina recipient Deebo Samuel rounds. Despite injuries throughout his career with the Gamecocks, Samuel showed incredible qualities and some unique for a 6’0 “, 215 pound player. His running back build, game speed, toughness, and versatility made him a fascinating player, and John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan made it possible.

A strong first season for Samuel that culminated in a Super Bowl trip saw him 57 passes for 802 yards and three touchdowns, and he also had 14 carries for 159 yards and three scores in the run game.

The promise was clearly there after one season, but by the second year injuries plagued him and production dropped sharply. He got bogged down with a Jones fracture and had hamstring injuries like in college. Many wondered if Samuel’s career would end the way it did in South Carolina, one that was promising but not available.

Instead of being defined by the injuries, Samuel stormed back for the third year and played like one of the best receivers in the league. He’s near 1,000-yard in just 10 games and will set career highs across the board. Samuel was a phenomenal distance runner this season and with his speed and contact balance in a Shanahan offensive after the catch he provides so many possibilities that open up so many possibilities for the receivers.

For the past few weeks, Samuel has been an important part of the running game, bringing the soccer ball into the backcourt when lined up while running back and doing his usual jet sweeps from the pre-snap movement. He was hard to beat in space and found the end zone on the ground twice in as many weeks.

But perhaps the most impressive part of his third year breakthrough was the depth of target and the meters per reception. Samuel averaged over 11 yards per target and over 18 yards per reception in 2021, and he’s been sighted on all three levels and produced everywhere. Despite his size, Samuel is a nightmare at the catch point who wins with sheer will and tenacity in jump ball scenarios. His game speed makes it difficult to stay with him on intermediate routes where he stays efficient through his breaks and maintains that speed. It appears Deebo Samuel is now a complete three tier threat with a running back build.

It shouldn’t come as a complete shock with the tools and qualities Samuel has, but the way he wins is unique to someone of his stature. He is dynamic as a running back, as a YAC threat, as a separator and as a jump ball threat. He is superb, as the greats have often done during this period.

As the San Francisco 49ers continue to retreat into the fray, Deebo Samuel is the one driving this offensive in several ways. He’s a real WR1 in this league and makes the 49ers look extremely smart to draw him. As you sit back and watch the 49ers on the track, marvel at the way Samuel plays in third grade. It’s a special season as he joins the elite in his position.

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