Accurately characterizing near-source ground motion is an important consideration for dam safety in California. Near-source ground motion can contain velocity pulses that are amplified by directivity, which is the constructive interference of S waves radiated by a propagating rupture front. Accordingly, Somerville et. al. (1997) developed an empirical model for predicting fault-normal (maximum) and fault-parallel (minimum) spectral acceleration for periods>0.5 sec. We compiled near-source ground motion records representing significant directivity and rotated them to the component with maximum overall spectral acceleration for common periods of directivity amplification (and importance to dam stability analyses, 0.5≤T≤3.0 sec), which we call SAMAX. As expected, SAMAXcorrelates with the orientation of a strong velocity pulse in the directivity record. Comparing the amplitude and orientation of SAMAXto Somerville's predictions, we find that strong velocity pulses produced by strike-slip faulting are reasonably aligned with the fault normal, and their corresponding SAMAXis satisfactorily predicted by Somerville's model as modified by Abrahamson. However, the orientations of strong velocity pulses in reverse-faulting records can depart significantly from fault normal, and their corresponding SAMAXcan exceed Somerville's predictions appreciably.

In this article, I discuss aspects of national identity in the performance style of the German rock band Rammstein from the perspectives of imagery, vocal style and the textual content of their songs. 1 Investigation into Rammstein's music reveals transformations of signifiers from earlier German performance styles and earlier textual themes that the band use as a means of relocating notions of German identity into their own performances. The adoption of national German signifiers enables Rammstein to establish connections between the band and the growth of national awareness among German youth who follow them. In this way, marketing and promotion of notions of a new national German identity to generations unaware of the origins of neo-romantic, national German signifiers in Rammstein's music supports a successful commercial enterprise that, I argue, runs close to boundaries existing between national and nationalist.

The absence of a contemporary English identity distinct from right wing political elements has reinforced negative and apathetic perceptions of English folk culture and tradition among populist media. Negative perceptions such as these have to some extent been countered by the emergence of a post-progressive rock-orientated English folk-protest style that has enabled new folk music fusions to establish themselves in a populist performance medium that attracts a new folk audience. In this way, English politicised folk music has facilitated an English cultural identity that is distinct from negative social and political connotations. A significant contemporary national identity for British folk music in general therefore can be found in contemporary English folk as it is presented in a homogenous mix of popular and world music styles, despite a struggle both for and against European identity as the United Kingdom debates 'Brexit', the current term for its possible departure from the EU.My mother was half English and I'm half English too I'm a great big bundle of culture tied up in the red, white and blue (Billy Bragg and the Blokes 2002). When the singer and songwriter, Billy Bragg wrote the above song, England, Half English, a friend asked him whether he was being ironic. He replied 'Do you know what, I'm not', a statement which shocked his friends. Bragg is a social commentator, political activist and staunch socialist who is proudly English and an outspoken anti-racist, which his opponents may see as arguably diametrically opposed combination. The theme of this article unpacks the sentiment expressed in these lyrics, which reflect the links between music, politics and their effects on how both are represented in contemporary media. Since Woody Guthrie's songs of the 1940s and 1950s to Bob Dylan's lyrical commentaries in the 1960s-the combination of folk or 'traditional' western popular

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