Daniel Jeffries Clarksville Tennessee - Financial Executives International Award

Each year, the Nashville Chapter of Financial Executives International hosts an awards ceremony, honoring one student from each university in middle Tennessee.  The Deans of each university’s college of business selects one Accounting or Finance Major to be recognized at the ceremony and receive a generous scholarship check.

               

This year, Daniel Jeffries from Clarksville, Tennessee was recognized as the most outstanding student from Austin Peay State University’s College of Business.  Daniel was recognized for his outstanding performance in upper-division accounting courses, his work as an Internal Audit intern with the university, and his volunteer work as a tax return preparer in the VITA program.  Currently, he is preparing to graduate with his BBA in Accounting, and he will be moving to Los Angeles soon afterwards to earn his Master of Science in Finance from USC. 

A Look at Cloud 9's Current Roster By Daniel Jeffries Clarksville Tennessee

                There aren’t a lot of things to do in a relatively small city like Clarksville, Tennessee, which leaves ample time to read up on eSports and follow pre-season matches.  One team that’s pretty much always in the spotlight is Cloud 9.  2017 was a good year for C9’s League of Legends team, and this year looks just as promising.  Even with the departure of Impact and Contractz, there’s no shortage of talent on this team.  Here’s a look at their current roster:

Licorice – Top Lane

Eric Ritchie, AKA “Licorice”, was a substitute player for C9’s Challenger team for a few years, until he joined eUnited in 2016.  From there, he proved himself as a formidable top-laner, and he helped their team secure first place in both Spring and Summer 2016.  Cloud 9 quickly took note of Licorice’s prowess, and they recruited him as their main top-laner for this year.

Svenskeren - Jungle

Sven is widely regarded as one of the best junglers in the world.  As a fairly aggressive jungle-main, he has a strong track record of establishing a strong advantage with early ganks, which forces his opponents to play it safe and avoid making bold plays.  Sven’s performance last year with TSM allowed them to finish as the #1 team, and it’s definitely possible he’ll continue this trend by securing a championship win for Cloud 9 this year.

Jensen – Mid Lane

Jensen is one of the most terrifying Mid players to lane against, especially given his skill at denying CS for his opponents while maintaining nearly perfect CS for himself.  A staple part of C9’s roster, Jensen has been with the team for 3 years now, and they’d be foolish to let him go at this point.  His skill with Zed is arguably on-par with Faker in his prime, and I’d expect most teams to auto-ban Zed whenever they’re matched against C9 this year.

Sneaky – AD Carry

Sneaky has been around for a while as well, and this will be his 5^th year with Cloud 9.  A well-known streamer, Sneaky puts forth little effort in hiding his playstyle, which allows his opponents to study his strategies well.   Fortunately, he recently switched roles from Mid to AD Carry, so there’s not much data for his opponents to look at currently.  This preseason, Sneaky’s proving himself as a formidable ADC, especially when he picks Vayne or Tristana.

Smoothie - Support

Smoothie has a strong reputation among Support players for his ability to secure kills with crowd control abilities.  Like many talented League players, he’s often able to predict opponents’ moves pretty consistently.  His success rate with landing Thresh hooks reflects this, as there have been times where his opponents will waste their Flash and end up getting hooked anyways.  Paired with Sneaky as ADC, Smoothie is in a strong position to help Cloud 9 secure a Championship win this year.

Daniel Jeffries Clarksville Tennessee -The Evolution of Radiohead, Part 2

Last week, I left things off on a high-note by discussing The OKC and Kid A eras of Radiohead.  While most would agree that they have not been quite able to recreate that level of commercial and critical success, Radiohead still managed to produce several more quality albums, while continuing to experiment with other genres.

2001:  Amnesiac

Even the b-sides of Kid A are pretty incredible for the most part.  In 2001, Radiohead released several of these b-sides as a standalone album called Amnesiac.

The tone is definitely similar to Kid A with regards to its use of ambience, string and brass instruments, and synthesizers.  While most fans would agree that Amnesiac is not quite as strong as its predecessor, there are definitely some standout tracks.  “Pyramid Song” utilizes a full orchestra and remains one of their most beautiful tracks to date.

2003:  Hail to the Thief

Released in 2003, Hail to the Thief represents a shift back towards more conventional guitar-driven alternative rock, though there are definitely some ambient and electronic tracks mixed in.  This makes the flow of the album seem somewhat unusual at first, though it’s still a very solid collection of tracks. 

                Lyrically, this album is definitely more political and anti-establishment than their earlier work, particularly in the opening track, “2+2=5,” a reference to Orwell’s 1984.

2007:  In Rainbows

This album caught a lot of media attention when it was released online with a “Pay what you want” model.  Even though you could essentially get this album for free if you wanted to, the band actually made more money with this album than any of their previous albums, since it was released independently.  In case you’re wondering, I actually paid $80 for the special edition vinyl version, and I regret nothing about this decision.

Musically, In Rainbows spans many different genres from alternative, to art pop, and of course, experimental electronica.  “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” is definitely a stand-out track, although honestly there is zero filler on this album, and every track is a winner.

2011:  The King of Limbs

You may remember the music video for “Lotus Flower” from this album that launched an internet meme, based on Thom Yorke’s interestingly spastic style of dancing. 

The King of Limbs puts a lot of emphasis on drum and bass, and is one of the bands most rhythmic albums to date.  Mixed with the heavy electronic/ambient presence throughout most of the album, this definitely makes for an interesting record.  I’ll admit that there’s arguably some filler here, but the standout tracks (such as “Bloom” and “Lotus Flower”) are some of the band’s most creative tracks to date.

2016:  A Moon Shaped Pool

After a 5-year hiatus where the band members focused on solo releases and other projects, they released A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016.  Probably my favorite album of the last decade, A Moon Shaped Poolcould perhaps best be described as art rock, with overtones of ambience and heavy use of piano and string instruments. 

This album also has more ballads than any other Radiohead album (see “Daydreaming” and “True Love Waits”, with love and forgiveness being prevalent lyrical themes.  For those in the mood for something more conventional, there are some very strong guitar/bass driven tracks as well (“Ful Stop” and “Identikit” come to mind). 

2017 to Present

Though there’s still no news yet about Radiohead’s next album, they released a remaster of OK Computer called OKNOTOK in 2017.  This remaster was extremely well-done, and the bonus tracks included are pretty top-notch as well, though I wish they included more than just 3 previously unreleased tracks.

Going forward, we can only speculate what Radiohead’s next album will encompass, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.  Given their tendency to reinvent themselves with almost every album release, anything is possible.