Allied Vans: The Worst Company in the US

Allied Van Lines is the worst moving company in America. I am here to tell you about my experiences with Allied Vans.

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There are many moving companies out there. A lot of them are reputable and will carry your goods safely, reputably and respectfully. Then, there’s Allied Van Lines. It has to be the most nightmarish company to deal with. As a consumer advocate, I feel compelled to explain how horribly Allied Vans was when it moved my stuff. I didn’t want to use Allied Movers, because I heard bad things about them, but I’m in the Navy and the Navy uses them. I had to use Allied Moving twice, in fact, but the second time was the worst. We were moving from Florida to Virginia, trusting many nice things to Allied Vans. For example, we had a leather sofa, love seat and recliner. Well, Allied Movers damaged them right away. Allied Movers tried to say that the sofa was already ripped on the paperwork the employees turn in, but I was smart enough to check it out. Then, a woman Allied Van Lines employee tried to move our queen sized bed BY HERSELF. She didn’t even bother to try to take it apart, she just went to take it as it was. Who can believe one person could move an entire bed? Well, I guess an Allied Vans employee thinks so. The bed was broken by the Allied Van Lines mover, and we didn’t get any compensation for it. In fact, because the Allied Moving company’s employee was so stupid, we had to buy a new headboard and footboard, costing us a lot of money.Also, Allied Vans broke a lot of things while packing up our stuff. There were four of them to do the entire 3 bedroom apartment. Maybe they got tired, because the Allied movers were there for 9 hours, but they took so many breaks and a lunch that it was ridiculous. Whatever the excuse, these Allied Van Lines moving “specialists” managed to break so many things. When they got to Virginia, they broke even more things as they were unpacking. The movers Allied are supposed to take all the boxes off and place them in the rooms and then unpack them. Well, you would think Allied moving could get that right, wouldn’t you? Well, no way. We asked the Allied Vans people to please unpack everything and put it all in piles in each room. However, they didn’t. In fact, it took them only 38 minutes to unpack a 3 bedroom apartment because the Allied Vans moving people simply cut open each box no matter what it was and dumped the contents on the floor. We took photos of the ginormous mess the Allied Vans people made and then called Allied Van Lines customer service to come out and assess the damage. The Allied movers got into some trouble; the Allied Moving rep said they shouldn’t have done that because they wouldn’t want the same thing happening to them, but I doubt these movers Allied really cared. The pictures prove that everything was dumped upside down. A lot of figurines, picture frames and things with sentimental value were broken.If I have to move again, I’m going to watch the Allied Vans employees the entire time. Or I’m going to convince the Navy not to use Allied Van Lines ever again. This company is just horrendous!

How to Visit the Vatican with Kids

Small group Vatican tours are the ideal way to introduce children to the art and history of this inspiring cultural icon.

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For anyone who wants to experience the full glory of the Eternal City, a visit to the Vatican is essential. The centre of the Roman Catholic Church is one of the richest sources of culture, history, and architecture in Europe, and is home to some of the most iconic Renaissance art in the world.

For those with children, it may seem like a fairly big challenge to engage in a cultural excursion of this proportion. However, with a little bit of planning, it can actually be an extremely fun and fulfilling experience for young ones – and anyone with a family knows that’s great news for parents.

Vatican Tours: Perfect for Families

Exploring the Vatican alone can be overwhelming, but with a family it can be positively exhausting. Booking one of the organised Vatican tours can eliminate the stress entirely, allowing you to focus on the truly awe-inspiring experience it should be.

Eschew the Queue

As one of the most popular attractions in Rome, entry queues can stretch as long as several hours in high season – a guaranteed red flag for the attention span of children. But the beauty of booking organised small-group Vatican tours is that you’ll meet up with your guide and get streamlined access to the complex.

Art History Can Be Fun

Once you’re inside, the benefits of having a guide who’s intimately acquainted with the floor plan of the Vatican’s museums really can’t be overstated. The sheer size and scope of the collections (there are over four miles of corridors and galleries) can take a first- time visitor by surprise, making it all too easy to wander aimlessly and bore the children. But with the expert guides’ extensive knowledge and experience, the masterpieces of the Vatican will come alive in young hearts and minds.

Engaging youngsters in art and history is so much easier when they’re face to face with the subjects. A passionate guide can make the stories behind the art pieces fascinating with rich, child-friendly renditions of the Greek myths that form the backbone of Roman mythology. Instead of simply glazing over at the sight of a crumbling statue, children will be able to recognise characters like Mercury and Hercules and make a connection with their history.

Pieces like the Statue of Laocoön and His Sons and Apollo del Belvedere, the hallowed chambers of the Gallery of Tapestries and the Gallery of Maps, and the exquisite detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel become meaningful and, therefore, memorable.

The lasting effects of such an immersive art history experience don’t end when the tour is over. Once exposed to this vast cultural legacy, children will be able to see its influence everywhere they turn on the streets of Rome and beyond.

Before You Go

In order to make the most of Vatican tours, it’s a lovely idea to introduce your children to some of the art work they’re going to see beforehand. With the aid of books and videos, you’ll be able to gauge what’s likely to pique their interest, and can ensure that they get to see their favourites in the flesh – or, rather, in the stone, marble, or paint! Create a fun list of sculptures and paintings that they relate to, which will give them something to look out for when you tour the Vatican.

In the end, though, it’s important to remember that children are just that – young people with curious minds but short attention spans. If you encourage them to be mindful travellers and continue to nurture them with these kinds of cultural experiences, with luck they’ll develop a lifelong appreciation for history and art.

Lauralee Franco: Bringing the internal and external together

NEW YORK, NY – Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature the original work of Lauralee Franco in Contemporary Perspectives. The exhibition opens April 1, 2017 and runs through April 21, 2017 with an opening reception on Thursday, April 6 from 6-8 pm.

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Creating gesture, motion, energy and space on canvas is the objective of Lauralee Franco’s oil paintings. “I use paint to begin a conversation,” Franco says, and that conversation is conducted through a juxtaposition of textures, colors and forms. From outdoor scenes composed of soft lines and blocks of tone to abstract works that bring internal moods and emotions to vivid external life, the artist is constantly balancing contrasts, giving her work a liveliness that draws the viewer in. Franco also notes that dance has been a strong influence on the rhythm of her paintings, and the physical freedom found in dance is reflected in their dynamic brushstrokes and vibrant color combinations.

But the energy of the artist’s work goes hand in hand with harmony. Her balanced compositions give a unity and order to each image, placing their contrasts in a framework that renders them all the more powerful. “I hope to illuminate our true desires,” she says, and her paintings shed new light on the secrets that lie within us. Franco lives and works in Sea Cliff, Long Island.

Exhibition Dates: April 1, 2017 – April 21, 2017

Reception: Thursday, April 6, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11:00am – 6:00pm

Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York

Event URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Lauralee_Franco.aspx

Featured Artists:

Contemporary Perspectives

Lauralee Franco | Fariba Baghi | Craig Frankowski | Stephanie E. Graham | Gail Comes | Bobbie See

About the Exhibition

Contemporary Perspectives: The New Art History

Agora Gallery is pleased to present Contemporary Perspectives, a new collective exhibition highlighting all the ways which show that the past and present are in constant dialogue. Contemporary Perspectives assembles a small group of artists who approach classic subject matter with fresh eyes. Their work contains echoes of art history while managing to be entirely forward-thinking.

Half of the six featured artists work in oil. One depicts romantic landscapes as a series of highly stylized, streamlined patterns. The second paints florals, with an updated hyperrealism and irregular canvases. The third paints portraits that are composed as traditional reverential busts. However the colors are saturated, the body language is animated, and her subjects are women of color, a historically overlooked group. There are two acrylic painters: one creates dramatic visions of completely imaginary forests, and another places realistic figures in foggy, abstracted landscapes. The last artist works in ink and mixed-media to create meticulous botanicals that recall both scientific catalogues and the watercolor works of nineteenth-century leisure painters.