With a devoted fanbase, countless live recordings, and the will to tour the country year round, Ohio-based jammers The Werks have established themselves as a staple in the jam world over the last decade, and have recently announced a special late-night show on April 29th at Howlin Wolf in New Orleans during Jazz Fest. The group will perform in The Den at the Wolf before, during, and after sets from Break Science Live Band and The Russ Liquid Test, plus purchasing a ticket for Break Science lets you access both sides of the venue (get tickets here).With the recent release of their latest LP, Magic, The Werks have continued to evolve sonically and from a songwriting perspective. Drummer Rob Chafin discussed the band’s latest effort, saying, “This is a recording of the music that’s in our souls. . . . In a way, the past decade has been leading to this moment. We play and write together so seamlessly now. We’re able to channel the inspiration in our hearts out into our instruments and come at this from a pure place.”[courtesy of FunkItBlog]Break Science has deep roots in the rich musical culture of New York City, and Adam Deitch and Borahm Lee’s music mimics the city’s diversity as they blend elements of hip-hop, dub, jazz, and trip-hop effortlessly to create their unique sound. With Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff, Eric “Jesus” Coomes, Eric “Benny” Bloom, and Ryan Zoidis of Lettuce rounding out the live band lineup, Break Science’s music will be elevated to another level for this special late-night Jazz Fest performance.EXCLUSIVE: Adam Deitch on Break Science Live Band, Voltron-level Lettuce, His Jazz Quartet, DRKWAV, and the Next Generation of NOLA Drummers, and MoreWith the October release of the 80’s-infused electro/funk album 1984, The Russ Liquid Test continues their exploration of modern dance music, all the while keeping their New Orleans vibe alive and well. Russ Liquid teams up with producer and accomplished brass player Russell Scott, guitarist Andrew Block, and drummer Deven Trusclair to deliver a groove-oriented sound that evokes classic funk/soul/R&B stylings, but with its own futuristic spin.[courtesy of Davon Johnson]With Break Science, The Russ Liquid Test, and The Werks, their lineup is a guaranteed recipe for a serious late-night get-down. Together, these groups will bring the non-stop vibes to you on Saturday, April 29 at the Howlin’ Wolf. Tickets for this special late-night performance are currently on-sale here. For show updates and additional information, join the Facebook event page here.[cover photo courtesy of Greg Homolka Photography] read more

Thomas C. Schelling, whose pioneering work in game theory and understanding the “subtle tension … between conflict and cooperation” helped steady the Cold War’s nervous nuclear standoff, died Dec. 13.Schelling, a 2005 Nobel Prize winner in economics, provided a new way of looking at issues as disparate as nuclear strategy, climate change, and addictive behavior. At the height of his influence on public policy in the 1960s, he advised President John Kennedy during the Berlin Crisis, came up with the idea of a hotline between Washington and Moscow, and even provided the intellectual seed for the black comedy “Dr. Strangelove.”Schelling was 95.Among his many achievements, Schelling was a major figure in shaping the modern Harvard Kennedy School. In 1969, he was one of the School’s so-called “founding fathers,” helping design a new curriculum not for public administrators, but for a new generation of leaders literate in public policy. Schelling described the group of leading thinkers from around the School as “distinguished misfits.” The School’s core was a mix of political scientists, statisticians, economists, and decision theorists that included himself, Richard Neustadt, Philip Heymann, Howard Raiffa, Fred Mosteller, and Francis Bator.Before his Kennedy School years, Schelling also co-founded the Center for International Affairs in 1958, which was renamed the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in 1998. The other founders were Robert Bowie, Henry Kissinger, and Edward Mason. The center was founded at the height of the Cold War, with much attention given to warfare theory and arms control research. There was little recognition of the field of international relations at the time.“Tom was the most lucid, most incisive, most insightful mind among the stellar band of founding fathers of Harvard’s Kennedy School,” said former Kennedy School dean Graham Allison, the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the School. “As he said, had he or Howard or Fred Mosteller or Dick Neustadt fit entirely into a department of economics or statistics or political science, they would have stayed there. Instead, while having one foot planted squarely in their disciplines, they simultaneously wanted to venture forth with the other to a new frontier.”Schelling was always proud of the growth of the Kennedy School as well as of the proliferation of similar schools around the country. “I don’t think anybody ever anticipated such growth,” he said.“Tom Schelling and a handful of other brilliant and dedicated scholars developed a new approach to teaching public leaders how to make better public policy, and they put that approach into action,” said Douglas Elmendorf, dean of the Kennedy School and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy. “Without Tom Schelling, the Kennedy School as we know it today would not exist, and the world would be poorer for that.”Thomas Schelling received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1946 and joined the Harvard faculty in 1958. Photo by Martha StewartSchelling was born in Oakland, Calif., in 1921. He fell into economics, he said, because the economics papers he read shared his way of looking at social problems as puzzles. He went to Harvard for his Ph.D. in 1946, leaving after his course work ended to work on the Marshall Plan and then at the Truman White House. (He wrote most of his dissertation at night, working alone, after he had finished his “day job.”) He joined the Harvard faculty in 1958, while also working at the RAND Corp., where strategic thinking was a priority.While working on the problems of a surprise nuclear attack, Schelling recalled, “I was doing it substantially as an intellectual puzzle. But as I worked through it, I realized it was a genuine, live problem.”Perhaps Schelling’s most influential work was the 1960 book “The Strategy of Conflict.” The book focused, broadly speaking, on how parties that are ostensibly opposed can find ways to cooperate, said Richard Zeckhauser, the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, one of the many influential economists who saw Schelling as a mentor.Harvard Kennedy School Oral History: Thomas Schelling Thomas C. Schelling was among the voices in the oral history project at Harvard Kennedy School, which was produced January 2014. “Tom made the observation, now widely accepted but then not fully recognized, that war is far from a zero-sum game,” said Zeckhauser, who studied under Schelling as an undergraduate and later worked alongside him. “His big insight was that the United States and the U.S.S.R. had an immense joint interest in avoiding a nuclear war.”In true Schelling style, the complex problems of superpower nuclear strategy were boiled down to the simplicity of a Wild West duel: “If both were assured of living long enough to shoot back with unimpaired aim, there would be no advantage in jumping the gun and little reason to fear that the other would try it.”His theory’s importance in Washington in the 1960s could not be overstated. Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara wrote, “[Schelling’s] view permeated civilian leadership under Kennedy … to a remarkable degree.”Beyond his advice to Kennedy during the height of Cold War tensions and his efforts to diffuse them, such as the creation of what became known in popular culture as the “red telephone” connecting the Kremlin to the White House, Schelling’s influence made him a target for criticism. Some saw his fingerprints on national security policies such as the bombing campaigns in Vietnam and President Richard Nixon’s use of the “madman theory.” His power waned after he publicly opposed the 1970 invasion of Cambodia.Later, Schelling turned his attention to a wide range of policy issues, including racial segregation, traffic congestion, and climate change. His work on rationality and how individuals could control their own behavior led him to work on substance abuse and addiction.Schelling is survived by his wife, Alice, and by four sons.SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave <a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujQaAgqgxQ” rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank”> <img src=”https://img.youtube.com/vi/fujQaAgqgxQ/0.jpg” alt=”0″ title=”How To Choose The Correct Channel Type For Your Video Content ” /> </a> read more