James Richard Harden (born November 30, 1981) is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched for the Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.

Early years
Harden attended Claremont Secondary School in Victoria, British Columbia. He was a childhood friend and neighbor of Olympic diver Riley McCormick. Harden was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 38th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball draft, but instead attended Central Arizona College, from where he graduated in 2001. While there he played baseball alongside future MLB All-Star second baseman Ian Kinsler.

He led all NJCAA Division I pitchers with 127 strikeouts in 2001, and his ERA of 2.14 was the 5th lowest in the nation. In his first professional season as a 19-year-old with the Vancouver Canadians in Single-A, Harden had a 2–4 record in 18 games (14 starts), a 3.39 ERA, allowed only 47 hits and struck out 100 batters in 74 innings.

Professional career

Draft and minor leagues
Harden was drafted by the Athletics in the 17th round of the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft, and signed by the team on May 28, 2001, shortly after graduating.

In 2002, Harden began the year with the Single-A Visalia Oaks of the California League and was very impressive in 12 starts, as he had a 4–3 record with an ERA of 2.91, and struck out 85 batters in 68 innings. Halfway through the 2002 season, Harden was promoted to the Double-A Midland RockHounds of the Texas League, where he continued his impressive season, earning a record of 8–3, with an ERA of 2.95 in 16 starts. He also struck out 102 batters in 85 innings. His combined 2002 stats were 12–6, 2.93 ERA, 187 strikeouts and 75 walks in 153 innings.

Harden began the 2003 season with Midland, and in 2 games, he had a 2–0 record and pitched 13 perfect innings, striking out 17 along the way. He was then promoted to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League, where he pitched very well. In 16 games, 14 of which he started, Harden went 9–4 with an ERA of 3.15. Overall, Harden finished with a combined 11–4 record, 2.74 ERA, 107 strikeouts and 35 walks in 102 innings in the minor leagues during the 2003 season. He was then promoted to the Oakland Athletics in July 2003.

Oakland Athletics (2003–2008)
Harden made his major league debut on July 21, 2003, against the Kansas City Royals. He held the Royals to only one run on four hits in seven innings, earning a no decision. Through Harden's first five starts, he had a 3–1 record, with an ERA of 1.69. In his next two, he allowed six runs in four innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 21, and then eight runs in 2.2 innings on August 26 against the Boston Red Sox. He finished the season with a 5–4 record and an ERA of 4.46. Harden pitched in two games in relief with the Athletics in their Division Series matchup with the Red Sox. In his playoff debut on October 1, Harden earned the win, pitching a scoreless inning. However in his second appearance, he pitched only  of an inning, and allowed two runs and was tagged with the loss.

Harden began the 2004 season with the Sacramento River Cats, coming out of spring training as the A's 5th starter. But the Athletics had two off days in the first eight days of the season, and they optioned him down to get a start in the minor leagues. He pitched in one game, losing 5–3 to the Edmonton Trappers. The Athletics called him up on April 10, and he put together a very solid season with an 11–7 record and an ERA of 3.99. Harden compiled an 8–2 record and an ERA of 3.49 after the All-Star break. He ranked 8th in the AL with 167 strikeouts, and was tied for 7th with 81 walks. Harden allowed just 16 home runs in 189.2 innings, an average of 0.76 per nine innings, which was tied for 4th lowest in the American League. He threw the fastest fastball of all major league starters, averaging 94.3 miles per hour.

In 2005, Harden began the season with the Athletics, but was sidelined with an oblique injury, and missed more than a month. Harden came back and pitched a two-hit game against the Texas Rangers on July 14, in which he allowed no runs for 7+ innings. One month later on August 14, Harden allowed only one hit, but received a no decision, en route to a 2–1 loss against the Minnesota Twins. On August 19, Harden had a 10–5 record with an ERA of 2.63, until he injured his right shoulder, sidelining him until September 25, by which time the Athletics were already out of the playoff hunt. Harden appeared in three games late in the season, pitching 5 innings of shutout ball, striking out seven and walking one. He finished the year with a 10–5 win–loss record, an ERA of 2.57 and 121 strikeouts in 128 innings. He allowed only seven HR's all season long, and despite the injuries, he emerged as the ace of the Oakland Athletics pitching staff.

In 2006, Harden had two lengthy stints on the DL, spending most of the season there. He came back from the DL on September 21, 2006, for a short but outstanding start, going 3 innings allowing a run and recording 7 strikeouts, while finishing the season with a 4–0 record.

He started off the 2007 season with a win against the Seattle Mariners, going 7 innings, striking out 7, and allowing two walks and two hits, before returning to the DL, on April 23.

After another injury-plagued season, Harden started off the 2008 season with a strong start against the Boston Red Sox, pitching six strong innings and giving up a run and three hits while walking three and striking out nine batters. However, after his second start, he was again placed on the disabled list. Harden was activated on May 11 and struggled in his return allowing 8 hits and 5 runs in 3.2 innings and earning a no decision. In Harden's next start against his former teammate Tim Hudson and the Atlanta Braves, he pitched 7 innings only allowing 4 hits and a run while earning the win. In this start against the Braves on May 17, Harden also achieved his first major league hit.

On June 8, 2008, he became the 38th major-league pitcher to throw an immaculate inning, strike out all three batters on nine total pitches, occurring in the first inning of a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Chicago Cubs (2008–2009)

Harden was traded to the Chicago Cubs on July 8, 2008, in a six-player deal. The Cubs traded Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher, and Josh Donaldson to Oakland for Harden and Chad Gaudin. He made his Cubs debut on July 12, against the San Francisco Giants, leaving the game with a 7–0 lead after pitching  scoreless inning and striking out 10. Though the Cubs won 8–7, Harden earned a no decision after Carlos Mármol was unable to hold a five-run lead in the ninth. Harden registered ten strikeouts and allowed only one run in both of his following starts, but was not able to earn a win. He finally recorded his first win as a Cub on July 31, 2008, against the Milwaukee Brewers. At this point, Harden had the highest winning percentage among all starting pitchers over the last three years, with a record of 15–4 (.789).
On October 8, 2008, the Cubs picked up the $7 million option in Harden's contract for the 2009 season.

Texas Rangers (2010)
On December 10, 2009, Harden signed with the Texas Rangers to a one year, $6.5 million contract, with a mutual option for 2011. Harden struggled in 2010 with a 5.68 ERA through 13 starts. He threw more pitches per inning than any starter in the league. He was put on the DL in June with a gluteal strain and returned to the rotation on July 31, pushing Scott Feldman to the bullpen. On August 23, 2010, the Texas Rangers combined for  innings of no-hit ball on the Minnesota Twins, in which Rich Harden pitched  innings but was pulled after throwing 111 pitches. Neftalí Feliz eventually gave up the first hit for the Twins with one out in the ninth, a single to catcher Joe Mauer. Texas won the game, 4–0.
On October 9, 2010, Harden was released by the Texas Rangers after being left off the post-season roster. The Rangers were playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS at the time. Harden finished the season with a record of 5–5 and a 5.58 ERA.

Second stint with the Oakland Athletics (2011)
Harden rejoined the Athletics on a one-year contract in 2011. On July 30, 2011, Oakland agreed to trade Harden to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Triple-A first baseman Lars Anderson and a player to be named later. That deal, however, fell through after the Red Sox front office reviewed Harden's medical records and determined that it was unlikely he would make it through the season without injury. Harden remained with the Athletics through the next day's non-waiver trade deadline. He finished the year at 4–4 over fifteen games with a 5.12 ERA but a high 9.91 strikeouts per nine innings. The Athletics declined arbitration at the end of the season.

Free agency (2012)
During the 2011–12 off-season, Harden underwent shoulder surgery and spent the entire 2012 season on free agency without signing for a team or playing a single game.

Minnesota Twins (2013)
After a one year hiatus from baseball due to recovering from shoulder surgery, Harden signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins on December 21, 2012.
Harden was released on July 27, 2013.

Pitching style
Harden threw four pitches: a fastball, a changeup, a splitter, and a slider. Harden's fastball typically reached speeds of 92–96 miles per hour (mph) and on occasion broke 100 mph. Because of the grip he used, his splitter often acted much like a knuckleball because it was difficult to predict what it would do, resulting in it often being referred to as the "ghost pitch". Former Oakland Athletics catcher Adam Melhuse coined the term "spluckle" (a combination of splitter and knuckleball) to refer to this innovative pitch.

Harden was well known for his ability to induce strikeouts. With the exception of his 2010 season with the Texas Rangers, he struck out over a quarter of batters he faced after 2006. His swinging strikeout rate of 13% was highest of all then-active major league starters since 2008.

References

External links

1981 births
Baseball people from British Columbia
Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States
Central Arizona Vaqueros baseball players
Living people
Major League Baseball players from Canada
Sportspeople from Victoria, British Columbia
Oakland Athletics players
Chicago Cubs players
Texas Rangers players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Vancouver Canadians players
Visalia Oaks players
Midland RockHounds players
Sacramento River Cats players
Stockton Ports players
Iowa Cubs players
Oklahoma City RedHawks players

Rich Harden


Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino is a hotel and casino on the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada.

History
Don Laughlin bought the southern tip of Nevada in 1954 (informally called South Pointe). Laughlin operated the 101 Club in Las Vegas. He opened the Riverside Resort on August 2, 1966. It offered all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, twelve slot machines and two live gambling tables, and eight motel rooms, four of which were occupied by Don Laughlin's family. Laughlin wanted to call the community "Riverside" or "Casino" but the Post Office opted for Laughlin.

In 1972, Don Laughlin expanded by building a west wing that added 48 rooms, and in 1975, a 52-room east wing was built. Construction of a 14-story hotel/casino tower in 1983 added 253 rooms and in 1986, a second fourteen-floor tower added 307 more rooms and an automotive museum. With free admission to the public, the Riverside's extensive collection is an offshoot of the famous Harrah's collection. The largest expansion came in 1994 with the addition of 792 more rooms in a 30-story hotel tower, which remains the tallest of the hotel towers in Laughlin. The expansion cost more than $70 million. A 34-lane bowling center, only one of two in Laughlin since the addition of a bowling center at the Laughlin River Lodge, was constructed in 1999.

Facilities
The resort has 1,405 rooms, and a six-screen movie theater.

The Riverside poker room is smoke-free and has a large rear window with a vista of the Colorado river and nearby mountains.

The resort has a full-service RV park with 740 spaces, as well as several restaurants. The hotel has a yacht, The U.S.S. Riverside, which is available for charter.

Don Laughlin's Classic Car Museum
Don Laughlin's Classic Car Museum is a free exhibition of antique, classic, and special-interest automobiles, housed in two separate areas at the resort.  There are also some trucks and motorcycles.  The first hall, located next to the main valet entrance, displays a rotating selection that includes horseless carriages, cars used in motion pictures, and a motorcycle owned by actor Steve McQueen.  The main Classic Auto Exhibition Hall is located on the third floor of the south tower, and also features privately owned vehicles that are for sale on consignment.

Popular culture
Candid Camera filmed a segment at the Riverside, featuring guests' reactions to slot machines in the hotel rooms.

The fictional Frost Casino where Rian Johnson Poker Face's story begins uses Riverside as stand in.

References

External links

 Don Laughlin's Classic Car Museum

1966 establishments in Nevada
Casino hotels
Casinos completed in 1966
Casinos in Laughlin, Nevada
Hotel buildings completed in 1966
Hotel buildings completed in 1972
Hotel buildings completed in 1975
Hotel buildings completed in 1983
Hotel buildings completed in 1986
Hotel buildings completed in 1994
Hotels established in 1966
Hotels in Laughlin, Nevada
Resorts in Laughlin, Nevada

Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino


Praia do Gunga (Gunga's beach) is located 20 miles south of Maceió, Alagoas.  It is considered to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil.

The beach is surrounded by coconut trees and it positioned right between the Atlantic Ocean and Lagoa do Roteiro (Roteiro Lake).  This position guarantees a unique color of the ocean surrounding the beach.  It is bluer during the low tides and it turns greener during the high tides when the ocean waters meet the lake waters.

This beach is part of the Roteiro region and you can get there by boat from Barra de São Miguel or by car driving through a private property.

This is a very popular tourist site with many entertainment options such as boat trips to nearby "natural aquarium" or beaches such as Barra de São Miguel. There are small boats and kayaks available for rental there.

References

Beaches of Brazil
Neighbourhoods in Maceió

Praia do Gunga


"The Doomsday Machine" is the sixth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Norman Spinrad and directed by Marc Daniels, it was first broadcast on October 20, 1967.

In the episode, the starship Enterprise fights a powerful planet-killing machine from another galaxy.

Plot
The USS Enterprise, following a trail of mysteriously destroyed star systems, picks up the automated distress beacon of one of Enterprise sister ships, the USS Constellation. Upon arrival, the Constellation is found heavily damaged and drifting in space; Captain Kirk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott, and a damage control team transport to the ship to evaluate her. There they discover the only member of the crew still aboard: the ship's commander Commodore Matt Decker, who is suffering from severe mental shock.

After McCoy injects him with a sedative, Decker explains that he and his crew had discovered a giant machine, miles long, that used beams of antiprotons to tear planets apart, consuming the rubble for fuel. The attack by Constellation on the machine was ineffective, and the ship suffered heavy damage. Decker evacuated his crew to a nearby planet, remaining aboard the Constellation until last; however, the machine subsequently destroyed the ship's transporter, and then the planet, killing the entire crew. Kirk theorizes that the machine is an ancient doomsday machine, which must be stopped before it reaches more populated sectors of the galaxy. McCoy and Decker transport to Enterprise, which has taken Constellation in tow, while Scott's damage control team attempt repairs on Constellation damaged impulse engines, weapons and shields. Kirk attends to Constellation nonfunctional viewscreen, which, aside from communications from Enterprise, will be his only means of monitoring events outside the ship.

Enterprise's first officer, Spock, informs Kirk of the sudden appearance of the planet killer, which begins to pursue Enterprise. As Kirk's boarding party prepares to beam back aboard, the machine attacks Enterprise, damaging the transporter and disrupting communications. Decker, now the senior officer on board Enterprise, assumes command and orders a phaser attack on the machine; this fails, as the machine's hull is of solid neutronium. Decker refuses to retreat, and the planet killer captures the Enterprise in a tractor beam, drawing it into its maw.

Completing his repair of Constellation viewscreen, Kirk is shocked to see Enterprise engaging the planet killer. Scott has managed to repair Constellation impulse engines and one of her phaser banks, so Kirk uses the crippled ship to approach and fire at the planet killer, distracting it long enough for Enterprise to escape its tractor beam. After repairing the transporter and reestablishing voice communications, Enterprise retreats to a safe distance. Spock relieves Decker of command on Kirk's orders, and Decker is escorted to Sickbay. However, Decker subdues his security escort and steals a shuttlecraft. Overcome with survivor's guilt over the loss of his crew, Decker informs Spock he is flying shuttlecraft straight into the maw of the machine. Kirk begs Decker to return to Enterprise, but Decker does not deviate from his course and dies.

Lt. Sulu reports that the shuttlecraft explosion has reduced the planet killer's power output by a small amount. Realizing that this may have been Decker's intention, and hoping that a starship would do much more damage, Kirk comes up with a plan to explode Constellation inside the planet killer. Over Spock's objections, Kirk insists on piloting the damaged starship himself, and Scott rigs the impulse engines to explode with a thirty-second delay before detonation, warning his captain that once the timer is enabled, there is no way to abort it.

With the rest of the boarding party transported back to Enterprise, Kirk aims Constellation at the maw of the planet killer, triggers the timer, and orders Enterprise to beam him aboard. The transporter malfunctions, and Scott races to set it right with advice from Spock. With virtually no time to spare, Kirk is safely beamed aboard Enterprise as Constellation explodes inside the planet killer, destroying the machine's power system and leaving it permanently dead in space. Kirk and Spock speculate there could be other doomsday machines out there.

Production
Episode writer Norman Spinrad based the script on a novelette "The Planet Eater" that had been rejected by a number of publishers. He revived the idea when he had a chance to pitch it to Executive Producer Gene Roddenberry. "I did 'The Doomsday Machine' fast," he recalled. Spinrad had written the script with actor Robert Ryan in mind to play Commodore Decker, but Ryan was unavailable, owing to prior commitments.

Some sources hold that the episode was influenced by Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series, which features robotic killing machines built as a doomsday device by a now-vanished race to wipe out their rivals. However, author Norman Spinrad denies the influence: "I wasn't conscious of the Saberhagen stuff when I was doing this, but I was certainly conscious of Moby Dick. And, actually, my unpublished novelette, which was the genesis of "The Doomsday Machine", was written before the Saberhagen stuff." Non-canon Star Trek media refer to the device as a Berserker.

According to one source, the model for the USS Constellation was an off-the-shelf AMT Enterprise model painted and torched in places for the battle damage, while other sources claim that the smallest and least detailed Enterprise professional model was altered for the episode. It has also been stated that the Constellation's hull ID number of 1017 came from simply switching the digits of an Enterprise model's 1701 hull numbers.

The episode was written as a bottle episode, i.e., one that could use existing ship sets to save time and money. According to Spinrad, the episode was so well-received by Roddenberry that he commissioned him to write another for comedian Milton Berle who planned to do a dramatic turn on the show titled "He Walked Among Us".

Music
The Doomsday Machine features a complete original score by Sol Kaplan. Writer James Lileks notes that the music cues for this episode are "intended to belong together, and that's one of the reasons the episode works like few others: it has a unique symphonic score. Played start to finish, it holds together." Jeff Bond  notes, "Although he wrote only two scores for the series, New York composer Sol Kaplan's music was tracked endlessly throughout the show's first two seasons." Both Lileks and Bond point out similarities between this music and John Williams' award-winning score for Jaws, nearly a decade later. The music for this episode was collected, along with the score for "Amok Time", on the second release from Crescendo Records of music from the series: the first release other than the music from the pilot episodes.

Non-canon sequels to the episode
An advanced version of the Planet Killer appears in the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Vendetta. The novel depicts the original Planet Killer as a prototype for a weapon designed to combat the Borg, released in desperation when the weapon's designers realized that the Borg would defeat them before they could finish the more advanced version. In the 2005 episode of  Star Trek: New Voyages, "In Harm's Way", William Windom reprises his role as Commodore Matt Decker almost 40 years later. Star Trek Online features the machine in the Federation storyline.

Reception
In 1991's 25th anniversary of the series, a fan survey of the top ten episodes of the original series ranked "The Doomsday Machine" No. 4 behind only "The Trouble with Tribbles", "The City on the Edge of Forever", and "Amok Time."

For the franchise's 30th anniversary, TV Guide ranked "The Doomsday Machine" No. 4 on its list of the 10 best Star Trek episodes. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" rating, describing the episode as "very strong stuff", noting effective tension building and the development of Decker's character. Handlen also noted Sol Kaplan's score which "matches the actors' intensity."

In 2010, SciFiNow ranked this the tenth best episode of the original series. In 2012, Christian Science Monitor ranked this the tenth best episode of the original Star Trek. In 2014, Gizmodo ranked "The Doomsday Machine" as the 18th best episode of Star Trek, out of the over 700 ones made by that time including later series.

In 2015, WhatCulture ranked this the 6th best episode of all time in the Star Trek science fiction universe. In 2015, Wired did not recommend skipping this episode in their binge-watching guide for the original series.

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter rated "The Doomsday Machine" the 48th best television episode of all Star Trek franchise television prior to Star Trek: Discovery, including live-action and the animated series but not counting the movies. Business Insider ranked "The Doomsday Machine" the 13th best episode of the original series. Empire ranked this the 9th best out of the top 50 episodes of all the 700 plus Star Trek television episodes. SyFy ranked guest star William Windom's performance as the self-sacrificing Commodore Matt Decker, as the 4th best guest star on the original series. CNET noted the Doomsday Machine spacecraft as one of the powerful and important spacecraft of the Star Trek franchise. Newsweek ranked "The Doomsday Machine" as one of the best episodes of the original series. Empire ranked "The Doomsday Machine" 9th out of the 50 top episodes of all Star Trek in 2016. Also in 2016, The Washington Post ranked "The Doomsday Machine" the seventh best episode of all the franchise television episodes, remarking it was "good fun" with a "thrilling climax."

At that time, there were roughly 726 episodes and a dozen films released. TVLine ranked the episode as having one of the top twenty moments of Star Trek, noting Kirk's line, "Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard…," for the Enterprise to transport him off the Constellation which is about to self-destruct.

In 2018, Collider ranked this episode the 11th best original series episode. PopMatters ranked this the 20th best episode of the original series. They note it as a "suspenseful episode" and praised the musical score by composer Sol Kaplan. A 2018 Star Trek binge-watching guide by Den of Geek, recommended this episode as one of the best of the original series.

In 2019, the Edmonton Journal ranked this as having one of the top ten Spock character moments, pointing out his intervention in Decker's plan to destroy the ship and ensuing conversation.

In 2020, Screen Rant ranked it as the 7th best episode of the original Star Trek series to re-watch.

In 2021, Luis A. Plata ranked it the #1 Best all-time episode of the original Star Trek series. #2 was "Obsession" and #3 was "The Immunity Syndrome."

References

External links

"The Doomsday Machine" Screen shots from the re-mastered version at TrekMovie.com
"The Doomsday Machine" Full Episode for viewing at CBS.com
"The Doomsday Machine" Music Revealed Documentary about Sol Kaplan's music for the episode

1967 American television episodes
Star Trek: The Original Series (season 2) episodes
Apocalyptic television episodes
Fictional energy weapons
Films scored by Sol Kaplan
Bottle television episodes
Television episodes directed by Marc Daniels

The Doomsday Machine (Star Trek: The Original Series)


Itamar Singer (November 26, 1946 – September 19, 2012) was an Israeli author and historian of Jewish-Romanian origin. He is known for his research of the Ancient Near East and as a leading Hittitologist, pioneering the study of this ancient Anatolians culture in Israel and elucidating the tensions which brought about its demise.

Personal background
Itamar Singer was born on November 26, 1946, in Dej, in the multiethnic Transylvanian region of Romania. He was the son of Zoltán and Gertrude Singer. The Hungarian-speaking family moved to Cluj (Kolozsvár) when Singer was five years old. They relocated to Israel in 1958, where they settled in the new town of Holon.

Singer married Argentinean-born Egyptologist, Dr. Graciela Noemi Gestoso.

Career
He studied for his bachelor's degree in archaeology and geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem graduating in 1968 and then went on to pursue his masters at Tel Aviv while fulfilling his national service obligation concurrently in the Israeli airforce. His Hittite studies were to continue at the University of Marburg, Germany, under the auspices of Heinrich Otten, resulting in his doctor-ship and yielding an influential thesis on "The Hittite KI.LAM Festival" in 1978. He joined the Department of Archaeology and Near East Cultures at Tel Aviv, at times simultaneously teaching in the Department of Jewish History and other educational establishments. He reached full professorship in 1996 and remained in this position until retiring due to poor health in 2008.

The focus of his academic interest was in what he termed the Pax Hethitica, a period of the 13th century BC - a golden age of international diplomatic relations between the great powers and with their Levantine vassals. He was the first researcher to theorize that it was the internal rivalries and the schism which rendered the Hittite empire vulnerable to the Bronze Age collapse and the coup de grace delivered by the Sea Peoples and others. His publications numbered over a hundred papers in academic journals, to which he continued to contribute well into retirement. For several years he was a member of the editorial board of the scholarly journal Antiguo Oriente.

In 2010, Itamar Singer was awarded the EMET Prize.

Selected publications
 Singer, Itamar. The Hittite KI.LAM Festival, 2 Vols, Harrassowitz, 1983, 1984.
 Singer, Itamar and Izre'el, Shlomo. The General's Letter from Ugarit: A Linguistic and Historical Reevaluation of RS 20.33, Tel Aviv University, 1990.
 Singer, Itamar. Muwatalli's Prayer, ASOR, 1996.
 Singer, Itamar. Hittite Prayers, Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.
 Singer, Itamar. The Hittites and their Culture (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 2009.
 Singer, Itamar. The Calm before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the End of the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant, Society of Biblical Literature, 2010.

References

External links

1946 births
2012 deaths
People from Dej
Romanian emigrants to Israel
Romanian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Historians of antiquity
Hittitologists
Israeli historians
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni

Itamar Singer


Frequency hopping spread spectrum is a method of transmitting data wirelessly, using many different frequencies. After a given time, the transmitter and receiver change the frequency on which they transmit the signal. They do this in a seemingly random way, but both have agreed on the order in which they use the frequencies.

Technologies such as Bluetooth use it.

It is one of the technologies generally referred to as Spread spectrum.

Radio technology

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum


An impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump began on September 24, 2019, when Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, announced in a televised speech the beginning of a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States.

It began after President Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani repeatedly wanted the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, in what was seen as an attempt to hurt Biden's candidacy for president and for Trump to gain advantages in the 2020 election.

In July prior to the phone call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump stopped military aid to Ukraine; he released the hold in September.

Further revelations have been revealed, including; President Trump claiming to Russian officials in 2017 that he was unconcerned with Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participating in the phone call to the Ukrainian President despite not being present in the released memo from the Trump Administration, as well as President Trump also pressuring Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a phone call to investigate the origins of the Mueller Report in an attempt to discredit it.

On October 28, 2019, Speaker Pelosi announced she would hold a floor vote on a resolution to formally establish the procedures for the impeachment hearings. On October 31, 2019, the House voted 232–196 to create procedures for public hearings.

The inquiry ended on December 3. On December 5, Nancy Pelosi asked the Judiciary Committee to draft articles of impeachment against President Trump. On December 16, the House Judiciary Committee released a report specifying criminal bribery and wire fraud charges as part of the abuse of power charge. The house voted to impeach Trump on December 18, 2019. On February 5, 2020 the Senate acquitted Trump on both count.  The votes were 52-48 to acquit on the first count and 53-47 to acquit on the second count.

References

Presidency of Donald Trump
2019 in the United States
September 2019 events
October 2019 events
November 2019 events
December 2019 events

Impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump


Miron Ivanovich Merzhanov, born Meran Merzhanyantz (, September 23, 1895 – December 1975), was a Soviet architect of Armenian descent, notable for being the de facto personal architect of Joseph Stalin in 1933–1941. Arrested in 1942 on political charges, Merzhanov continued professional work as a sharashka architect, designing numerous public buildings in the Black Sea region, Krasnoyarsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amure.

Biography

Meran Merzhanyantz was born to a middle-class Armenian family in Nor Nakhichevan (today the district of Rostov-on-Don). On the eve of World War I he graduated from high school and was admitted to Saint Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers. Merzhanyantz was eventually drafted into the Russian Army and served in deep rear training units. After the Russian revolution of 1917 he deserted and returned to Rostov. When faced with mandatory draft into Denikin's front-line troops, he preferred to volunteer with the military engineers, again escaping combat service. With the fall of the White movement, Merzhanyantz relocated to Krasnodar. There, in 1920–1923, he completed engineering training at a local college and married Elizaveta Khodzhaeva, daughter of a successful architect from Kislovodsk.

Throughout the 1920s Merzhanov (using a Russian version of his surname) was active in the Mineralnye Vody area (Essentuki, Kislovodsk, Pyatigorsk). His designs of the 1920s belong to the constructivist architecture school with a neoclassical monumental impact and visual "dematerialization" of load-bearing structures. Merzhanov's trademark details were corner balconies and setbacks breaking through otherwise flat-wall surfaces. Later, he cited Ivan Zholtovsky and Frank Lloyd Wright as his principal sources.

In 1929 Merzhanov won a contest to design a Red Army sanatorium in Sochi, sponsored by the Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov. Voroshilov and Merzhanov became close friends for life, staying in contact after Merzhanov's arrest in 1943 and Voroshilov's forced retirement in 1960. This constructivist project, completed in 1934, and the nearby funicular ramp became an iconic landmark of 1930s Sochi, elevating Merzhanov to the upper tier of Soviet architects. It was followed by two more sanatoriums in Sochi in "grand" style of Stalinist architecture, a Bocharov Ruchey dacha settlement and public buildings in Moscow and Komsomolsk.

In summer of 1933 he was summoned to design a single-story residence in Kuntsevo that became Joseph Stalin's Kuntsevo Dacha () and where the dictator died in 1953. Merzhanov met Stalin in person later, in 1934, when the architect received another commission for a large summer house in Matsesta on the Black Sea. Stalin made a peculiar request - no fountains; Merzhanov, however, squeezed in a natural-looking pool. More dachas for Stalin and top statesmen were built to Merzhanov's design in Gagra and Sochi area in 1935-1937. This time, according to Merzhanov, Stalin did not issue any direct advice, fully relying on the architect. Their relationships remained strictly official, never crossing the line of subordination.

Modest, modernist-but-not-constructivist appearance of Stalin's houses may indicate that the dictator's real personal taste was quite different from the official Stalinist architecture of the period.

According to the biographer Arkady Akulov, Merzhanov co-designed Golden Stars of Hero of Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labour, but his version is not corroborated in mainstream historical sources.

Following the German invasion of 1941, Merzhanov was involved in defense projects in and around Moscow, and stayed in the city when the Academy of Architecture evacuated to Chimkent. In August 1942, Merzhanov, his wife and his associates were arrested. On 27 February 1944 he was extrajudicially sentenced for 10 years in labor camps for Anti-Soviet activities. According to the sentence, testimonies against Merzhanov were produced in advance in 1938, and both witnesses were executed in the same year. Merzhanov was lucky enough to be sent to Komsomolsk camps where city authorities, who collaborated with him as a free professional in the 1930s, extricated him from the barracks. For the next five years he headed a construction sharashka. Merzhanov's public building in Komsomolsk follow the Stalinist style of the late 1930s. Meanwhile, his wife perished in the camps and his son, Boris Merzhanov (1929–1983), was arrested in 1948.

In the beginning of 1949, halfway through his jail term, he was summoned to Victor Abakumov, Minister for State Security, and assigned to lead the design and construction of MGB Sanatorium in Sochi. However, Abakumov fell from power in 1951 and Merzhanov was relieved from the half-finished Sochi project. Nevertheless, the palladian Felix Dzerzhinsky Sanatorium, then the largest structure in Sochi, was completed in 1954 to Merzhanov's original plans.

After Stalin's death, Merzhanov ended up in Krasnoyarsk, and headed a local design bureau until 1960 (under city architect Gevorg Kochar, another exiled Armenian). His associate on the Sochi project, Gleb Makarevich, persuaded Merzhanov to continue practice in Moscow. Merzhanov later designed and built two glass office towers in nondescript, Khrushchev-period style. He remained active until a 1971 accident which left him crippled.

References

Notes

Modernist architects
Armenian architects
Russian people of Armenian descent
Soviet architects
1895 births
1975 deaths
Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering alumni

Miron Merzhanov


Alison Krauss & Union Station is an American bluegrass and country band associated with singer Alison Krauss. It was initially composed of Krauss, Jeff White, Mike Harman and John Pennell. Later additions included Tim Stafford, Ron Block, Adam Steffey, Barry Bales and Larry Atamanuik. In 1992, Stafford was replaced by guitar and mandolin player Dan Tyminski and in 1998, Steffey left and was replaced by Dobro player Jerry Douglas.

Career
Alison Krauss had signed to Rounder Records, and at age 16 released her 1987 debut solo album Too Late to Cry. Soon after she joined Union Station, with Jeff White, John Pennell, and Mike Harman as her backing band. Their debut album in 1989 was Two Highways. The album included the traditional tunes "Wild Bill Jones" and "Beaumont Rag", along with a bluegrass interpretation of The Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider".

Krauss' contract with Rounder Records required her to alternate between releasing a solo album and an album with Union Station. So after yet another solo album I've Got That Old Feeling in 1990, Krauss' second Union Station album was Every Time You Say Goodbye released in 1992. The album went on to win her second Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album of the year. This album featured a completely different lineup (other than Krauss): Tim Stafford, Ron Block, Adam Steffey, and Barry Bales. Bales and Block would become permanent fixtures in the band.

Tim Stafford left the band in 1992, and was replaced by mandolin and guitar player Dan Tyminski from Lonesome River Band. During 1993, Tyminski briefly rejoined Lonesome River Band and was then replaced by John R. Bowman who toured with Union Station until 1994, when Tyminski returned as a permanent member.

So Long So Wrong, another Union Station album, was released in 1997 and won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. One critic said its sound was "rather untraditional" and "likely [to] change quite a few ... minds about bluegrass". Included on the album is the track "It Doesn't Matter", which was featured in the second season premiere episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and was included on the Buffy soundtrack in 1999.

Adam Steffey left Union Station in 1998, and was replaced by renowned Dobro player Jerry Douglas, who had been playing on the solo and band albums from Too Late To Cry onwards.

Their next album, New Favorite, was released on August 14, 2001. The album went on to win the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, with the single "The Lucky One" winning a Grammy as well. Lonely Runs Both Ways was released in 2004, and eventually became another Alison Krauss & Union Station gold certified album. Ron Block described Lonely Runs Both Ways as "pretty much... what we've always done" in terms of song selection and the style, in which those songs were recorded. Krauss believes the group "was probably the most unprepared we've ever been" for the album and that songs were chosen as needed rather than planned beforehand.

Returning with Union Station, Alison Krauss released a new album called Paper Airplane on April 12, 2011, the follow-up album to Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004). Mike Shipley (the engineering mixer) said that it took a lot of time to do the album because of Krauss' non-stop migraines.

In 2014, she and her band Union Station toured with Willie Nelson and Family, with special guests Kacey Musgraves, and The Devil Makes Three.

Members

Current members
Alison Krauss – lead vocals, piano, fiddle (1987–present)
Larry Atamanuik – drums, percussion (1987–present)
Ron Block – guitar, banjo (1991–present)
Barry Bales – bass (1990–present)
Dan Tyminski – vocals, guitar, mandolin (1992–1993, 1994–present)
Jerry Douglas – dobro (1998–present)

Former members
Dave Denman – vocals, guitar (1987–1992)
Mike Harman – banjo, vocals (1987–1992)
John R. Bowman – guitar (1993–1994)
Alison Brown – guitar, banjo (1987–1991)
Viktor Krauss – bass (1989–1990)
John Pennell – bass (1987–1989)
Tim Stafford – guitar, mandolin (1990–1992)
Adam Steffey – mandolin (1990–1998)
Jeff White – guitar, vocals (1987–1990)

Discography

Studio albums
Two Highways (1989)
Every Time You Say Goodbye (1992)
So Long So Wrong (1997)
New Favorite (2001)
Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004)
Paper Airplane (2011)

References

American bluegrass music groups
American country music groups
Musical backing groups
Country music groups from Tennessee
Musical groups established in 1987

Alison Krauss & Union Station


Terje Olav Pedersen (born 9 February 1943) is a former Norwegian javelin thrower. He represented SK Vidar.

At the 1960 Summer Olympics he progressed from the qualifying round, but did not start in the final. At the 1964 Summer Olympics he did not qualify for the final. He became Norwegian champion in the years 1960 and 1962–1964.

Pedersen established two world records in javelin throw (with the old implement), both at Bislett stadion. The first record of 87.12 metres came in July 1964 and the second of 91.72 metres was established in September the same year. This remained his career best throw. For his world records Pedersen was selected Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year in 1964.

References

External links

1943 births
Living people
World record setters in athletics (track and field)
Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes for Norway
Norwegian male javelin throwers

Terje Pedersen


Freixenet () is a Spanish producer of cava and other sparkling and still wines, founded in 1914 in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, in the province of Barcelona. It is the largest producer of traditional method sparkling wine worldwide, and the largest exporter of Cava. It is chaired, as of November 2021, by Alfred Oetker, and completing the Board of Directors are Pedro Ferrer, José María Ferrer, Carl Ferdinand Oetker and Dr. Andreas Brokemper.

History
The company was founded after the union of two families specialized in the wine market: the Ferrer family, owners of La Freixeneda since the 12th century, and the Sala family, founders of Casa Sala (1861). When Pedro Ferrer Bosch married Dolores Sala Vivé, the foundations of the company were laid. When Spanish wine production fell at the end of the 19th century, many companies became interested in the production of cava, beginning to bottle sparkling wines. Pedro and Dolores started bottling cava under the Freixenet brand from 1914 onwards.

During the Spanish Civil War the family lost the company, but recovered it again at the end of the war thanks to the drive of Dolores Sala and her daughter. In 1941 they managed to launch their best-selling product, the "Carta Nevada" cava. Under the control of José Ferrer, at the end of the 1950s Freixenet managed to improve the company's commercial trajectory until it became one of the main companies dedicated to cava. In 1974 Freixenet launched "Cordon Negro". Since the 1970s Freixenet began its expansion into international markets and in 1985 became the world leader in the cava market.

In the following decades Freixenet launches more modern and innovative products such as cava Elyssia in 2009, cava to drink on ice Freixenet ICE in 2016, Freixenet Prosecco DOC in 2017 or Freixenet Still Wines in 2021.

In 2018, the German group Henkell & Co. acquired 50% of Freixenet.

In 2019, the Spanish-German alliance was renamed Henkell Freixenet, creating the world's leading sparkling wine group.

Marketing
This Cava company taps into a world-famous celebrity to be the face of its much-awaited Christmas TV commercial. Celebrities who have appeared in Freixenet's Christmas sparkling wine include Liza Minnelli (1977), Raquel Welch (1985), Paul Newman (1989), Antonio Banderas and Sharon Stone (1992), Kim Basinger (1993), Penélope Cruz (1994 and 2001), Alejandro Sanz (1998), Pierce Brosnan (2004), Demi Moore (2005) and Shakira (2010).

In 2018 Freixenet stopped having famous people in its commercials and changed its advertising strategy with the aim of deseasonalizing the consumption of cava and consolidating the international positioning of the brand focused on the celebration of life's small and big moments, as well as maximizing the Mediterranean lifestyle through a global campaign.

Freixenet is the main sponsor of the roller hockey (quad) team, Club Esportiu Noia, that usually competes in the main Spanish league and also European Competitions:CERH European League and CERS Cup. Due to this sponsorship agreement the name of the team is CE NOIA Freixenet.

Freixenet is also the official cava of the MotoGP World Championship since 2003.

See also
Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards, Freixenet's California based winery.

References

External links

Freixenet official site

1914 establishments in Spain
Companies based in Catalonia
Spanish brands
Sparkling wines
Wineries of Spain
Dr. Oetker

Freixenet


Mitchell Kupchak (born May 24, 1954) is an American professional basketball executive and retired player. He is the current president of basketball operations and general manager of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a college player, Kupchak was an All-American at the University of North Carolina and a member of the gold medal-winning 1976 United States Olympic team. As a professional player, he won three NBA titles – one as a member of the Washington Bullets and two with the Los Angeles Lakers.

High school and college career
Kupchak played for Brentwood High School in New York. He was an All-American on the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team, and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in his senior season. Kupchak played on the gold medal-winning team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

NBA career
Kupchak was drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1976 and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. He had four productive seasons with Washington and was part of the team that won the NBA championship in 1978. He signed a long-term contract with the Lakers in 1981 at the behest of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who told owner Jerry Buss, "If we could get Mitch Kupchak, I know we could win", after the team's playoff upset. 26 games into the season, Kupchak injured his knee and did not play again until the 1983–84 season.

Kupchak played a key role in the Showtime Lakers' 1985 championship team against the Boston Celtics, who had intimidated them in the prior year's Finals. Kupchak retired after the 1985–86 season, having played 510 regular season and 68 playoff games, with regular season averages of 10.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game (7.7 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game in the playoffs). During his final game, Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, a brawl broke out between the Lakers and the Houston Rockets, which saw Kupchak and Hakeem Olajuwon ejected.

Transition to NBA management
Kupchak planned for his "life after" being an NBA player and pursued a focused program to learn the trade of running NBA team operations. While still under his initial player contract, he worked with the front office, developing strong working relationships with Laker management, beginning to "apprentice" with Jerry West, and starting studies that led to his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1987.

As general manager
Kupchak retired from playing in 1986, and became the Lakers' assistant general manager (under GM and Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West). He later succeeded West as General Manager, but was not considered to have all of the traditional powers of an NBA GM until 2000 (when West resigned as Vice President of Basketball Operations, for the challenge of trying to replicate the Lakers' level of success as GM of the recently relocated, last-place Memphis Grizzlies).

On July 16, 2003, after the Lakers failed to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in three years, Kupchak's first major deal was the off-season acquisitions of superstars Karl Malone and Gary Payton (who had both failed to win an NBA championship despite long, Hall of Fame-caliber careers). After a number of controversial trade transactions over the years, including the trade of Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, and Brian Grant—as well as the decision to not trade young center Andrew Bynum for point guard Jason Kidd—Kupchak faced severe criticism from Lakers franchise star Kobe Bryant, who urged his firing. However, Kupchak reportedly still had the support of the team's owner.

In 2007, Kupchak traded Brian Cook and Maurice Evans for Trevor Ariza, and the Lakers started the season off with the best record in the West. After an injury to Andrew Bynum cast their recent success in doubt, his February 2008 deal to obtain Spanish power forward Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, and draft picks (one of which was the right to Marc Gasol) earned him praise (and scorn) from league insiders and fans alike. Bryant later conceded, "He goes from a F to an A-plus.", while Gregg Popovich, coach of Western Conference rival San Antonio Spurs, went so far as to argue that "there should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense". That year, the Lakers reached the NBA Finals for the 5th time in 9 years, but would eventually lose to the Boston Celtics. The following year, they returned and won in a 4-1 rout over the Orlando Magic.

In 2009, Kupchak signed 2004 Defensive Player of the Year Ron Artest, famous for his role in the Pacers-Pistons Brawl, as a free agent. The Lakers made it to their seventh NBA Finals in 11 years, winning in a championship re-match against the Celtics in the 2010 NBA Finals. 2011 saw the retirement of longtime coach Phil Jackson, replacing him with Mike Brown, as well as an attempted three-team trade of Odom and Gasol to the Houston Rockets, in exchange for the New Orleans Hornets' All-Star point guard, Chris Paul Because the Hornets (a financial failure for its previous owners) was still owned by the NBA, Commissioner David Stern vetoed the trade for unspecified "basketball reasons"—leaving the Lakers with a publicly disgruntled Odom, and shocked Gasol (both of whom intended to end their careers as Lakers, and had not known that they were about to be traded).

On July 4, 2012, after two consecutive playoff exits in the Western Conference semi-final round, Kupchak used a traded player exception (gained by trading Odom to the Dallas Mavericks) on two-time, former NBA Most Valuable Player, Steve Nash. The deal to get Nash in a Laker uniform was finalized for a package of future draft picks and cash considerations. That same summer, Kupchak dealt Andrew Bynum, who had just been voted to his first All-Star team, in a four-way trade for his Eastern Conference counterpart, three-time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard. The move was announced August 10, 2012. But the flurry of personnel changes did not stop there: Kupchak had also convinced former All-Star and Sixth Man of the Year winner Antawn Jamison to sign for a veteran-minimum contract. He later, along with owner Jerry Buss and Vice President of Basketball Operations Jim Buss (Jerry's son), also fired defense-minded head coach Mike Brown and replaced him with Nash's former head coach, offense-minded Mike D'Antoni.

During the 2013–14 season, Kupchak and the Lakers gave Kobe Bryant a 2-year, $48.5 million extension despite him being out due to an Achilles injury. The deal was reportedly endorsed by team president Jeanie Buss. Mike D'Antoni resigned after the season, leaving Kupchak and Jim Buss the task of hiring a 3rd coach in 4 years. They decided on former Lakers point guard Byron Scott. The Lakers announced in April 2014 that Kupchak's own contract had been extended for multiple years. It was scheduled to expire after the 2014 season. Terms of the contract were not released.

On February 21, 2017, Kupchak was fired as general manager of the Lakers. On April 8, 2018, Kupchak was hired as the president of basketball operations and general manager of the Charlotte Hornets. On June 21, 2018, Kupchak made his first draft selection as the general manager of the Charlotte Hornets. He selected Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with the 11th pick, who was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Miles Bridges, who was selected with the 12th pick.

Personal life
Kupchak was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island in the Basketball Category with the Class of 1990. In 2002, he was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. He is married to Claire, with whom he had two children. His daughter, Alina Claire Kupchak, died on January 5, 2015, after a lengthy illness. His son Maxwell played as a forward for the UC Santa Barbara basketball team.

See also
List of National Basketball Association team presidents

References

External links

1954 births
Living people
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
American people of Polish descent
Basketball players at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Brentwood High School (Brentwood, New York) alumni
Centers (basketball)
Charlotte Hornets executives
Los Angeles Lakers executives
Los Angeles Lakers players
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
National Basketball Association general managers
North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball
People from Hicksville, New York
Power forwards (basketball)
Basketball players from Nassau County, New York
UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni
United States men's national basketball team players
Washington Bullets draft picks
Washington Bullets players

Mitch Kupchak


Galloping Thunder is a 1946 American Western film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Charles Starrett. It was part of the series of Durango Kid films.

Cast
 Charles Starrett as Steve Reynolds / The Durango Kid
 Adele Roberts as Jud Temple
 Merle Travis as Guitar Player
 The Bronco Busters as Themselves
 Smiley Burnette as Smiley Burnette
 Richard Bailey as Grat Hanlon
 Curt Barrett as Ranch Foreman
 Ray Bennett as Henchman Wyatt
 Budd Buster as Barber
 Roy Butler as Rancher
 Edmund Cobb as Henchman Barstow
 Slim Duncan as Fife and Fiddle Player
 Nolan Leary as Curt Lawson
 Kermit Maynard as Henchman Krag
 Merrill McCormick as Rancher
 John Merton as Henchman Regan
 Bob Reeves as Cowhand
 Matty Roubert as Man with Match
 Forrest Taylor as Colonel Collins

References

Bibliography
 Martin, Len D. Columbia Checklist: The Feature Films, Serials, Cartoons, and Short Subjects of Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1922-1988. McFarland, 1991.

External links

1946 films
1946 Western (genre) films
1940s English-language films
American Western (genre) films
Films directed by Ray Nazarro
Columbia Pictures films
American black-and-white films
1940s American films

Galloping Thunder (1946 film)


Tess Wiley (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter.

Early life
Tess Wiley was born in Dallas, Texas in 1974 to a Christian  family. Her mother was a poet Kathryn Wiley while her father was a musician Fletch Wiley, one of The Disciples. Tess's childhood was rather rough, she used to travel a lot from Houston to Seattle to San Francisco then back to Houston... She showed an interest in music and songwriting from an early age, adding "Create in Me a Clean Heart" and "Tender Shepherd" to her repertoire at the age of two. She began to play the piano at the age of five, then the violin at 12, and the guitar at 14. She wanted to make her musical style along the lines of hard rock guitarist Slash, but riffing soon gave way to contemplative songwriting. She spent her high school years singing in the band Nothing in Return while studying classical piano at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas where she sang along with Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

Career

Sixpence None the Richer
In 1995, Wiley joined the band Sixpence None the Richer on their European and American tours and wrote a mini-album Tickets For A Prayer Wheel as well as "Disconnect" for their second record, This Beautiful Mess. Wiley left the band shortly after the American tour in 1996. When Sixpence reunited in 2007, Wiley rejoined in 2008 and performed several shows including the European tour, but left shortly thereafter.

Solo career
After her departure from Sixpence, she began recording under the name "Splendora" but had to abandon it because it was in copyright violation with the New York City group of the same name. She adopted "Phantasmic" name for her group when she was still dating Chris Colbert, who was a singer in Fluffy. Together, they agreed to change the name of the band to Xtra Fluffy and compiled a few songs along with Zachary Gresham of Southern Hymns. Eventually, she formed her own band, called Tess Wiley and Her Orchestra.

She also lent her vocals to Velour 100 on the album Of Color Bright in 1997 and the following year recorded an album I Light Up Your Life as well as Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life. She also appeared in the Misfits' I Turned Into A Martian and sang many songs from the 70s and 80s of such singers as Michael Jackson, Pat Benatar, Sam Phillips, Nazareth and Level 42 among others. In the end of 2001 Tess had released her first album called Rainy Day Assembly which she recorded along with Gerry Leonard and David Bowie between June 1999 and January 2001 while living in New York City. She also was responsible for hiring a producer, Paul Bryan, who periodically invites her to town when he is with Aimee Mann.

In 2003, Tess had relocated to Giessen, Germany where she had formed a band with Tim Potzas, Christian Weiss and Christian Pfaff. In 2004 her Not Quite Me album was launched in Germany which was her first attempt at recording alone and was released by Tapete Records. In 2007, she agreed with Tapete to release her another album, called Superfast Rock n' Roll Played Slow. In 2010 Tess had formed a duo band along with Elo von Knorre, whom she met at the church. During those times, she also wrote a German song "Licht Leuchte Auf" and had translated "My Fortress And My Shield", an inspiration of Psalm 42 from her Not Quite Me record. In 2011, she had sung for the Houses And Homes of Gregor McEwan and the same year recorded songs "How Much I Love You", "Rescue Me" and "Good, What We've Got".
In 2013 her album Little Secrets was released by Nordpol which featured her song "Tornados".

Personal life
Wiley was married to Christian Roth, a photo-journalist. Her brother, Gabriel Wiley, is the drummer in the emo band Mineral.

Discography
Rainy Day Assembly (Effanel, 2001)
Not Quite Me (Tapete, 2004)
Superfast Rock n' Roll Played Slow (Tapete, 2007)
Little Secrets (Nordpol, 2013)
Femme Sole (What we call Records, 2018)

Sidewoman
With Steev Richter
Beloved (Steev Richter, 2016)
With Velour 100
Of Color Bright (Tooth and Nail, 1997)

References

1974 births
Living people
Alternative rock guitarists
American alternative rock musicians
American expatriates in Germany
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American women guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Singers from Dallas
Tapete Records artists
21st-century American singers

Tess Wiley


Fenethylline, the generic name of Captagon, was first produced in the 1960s to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy, and depression. It was banned in most countries by the 1980s for being too addictive.

It remains popular in the Middle East and is used as a stimulant in the area to aid in combat.

The drug is cheap and simple to produce, using ingredients that are easy and often legal to obtain, yet sells for up to $20 a tablet. A Lebanese psychiatrist, Ramzi Haddad, said that Captagon had "the typical effects of a stimulant", producing "a kind of euphoria. You're talkative, you don't sleep, you don't eat, you're energetic."

Psychoactive drugs
Organonitrogen compounds

Fenethylline


James T. Woodley (December 21, 1929 – November 20, 1996), who performed as Singin' Sammy Ward, was an American rhythm and blues singer who recorded for Motown Records and had a R&B chart hit with "Who's The Fool", written by Smokey Robinson and produced by Berry Gordy, Jr., in 1961.

He grew up in the Ensley area of Birmingham, Alabama, before moving to Detroit, Michigan, where he was established as a club singer by the late 1950s.  He was named "Singin' Sammy Ward" by Berry Gordy's wife Raynoma, "Miss Ray", and first recorded for Motown in 1960, on a duet with Sherri Taylor, "Lover" / "That's Why I Love You So Much".  He then moved to the Tamla label as a solo singer, and recorded "That Child Is Really Wild", co-written by Gordy and Robinson.  The original B-side, "What Makes You Love Him", was changed to another song, Robinson's "Who's The Fool", which became Ward's only chart success, reaching no. 23 on the Billboard R&B chart in August 1961.  The record was only the fourth successful chart hit for Motown.  According to record producer Ian Levine, Robinson also wrote "You Really Got a Hold on Me" for Ward, but Gordy insisted that Robinson record it himself, with The Miracles.   A bluesy singer who drew comparisons with Bobby Bland, Ward released several more singles on Tamla, including "Big Joe Moe" written by William "Mickey" Stevenson and Brian Holland, and "Someday Pretty Baby" featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica, both in 1962, and then one on the subsidiary Soul label.  However, the records were commercial failures, and Ward left Motown, disillusioned by his lack of success compared with others on the label, by the mid-1960s.

Credited as Sam Ward, he recorded Richard "Popcorn" Wylie's "Stone Broke" and "Sister Lee" for the Groove City label in 1968.  He then gave up the music business until rediscovered by British Northern soul fans, and by record producer Ian Levine, who recorded several sessions with him, starting in 1989, for his Motorcity label.  Ward re-recorded many of his 1960s recordings at that time.  Levine stated of Ward that: "He was almost impossible to record, as he couldn't stick to any melody at all, and merely improvised in a bluesy voice..."  However, Levine released several dance singles by Ward in the early 1990s.  Ward also appeared at weekend soul festivals in Britain at the same time.

He died in 1996 in Mount Clemens, Michigan.

References

Musicians from Birmingham, Alabama
20th-century African-American male singers
American rhythm and blues singers
Motown artists
American soul musicians
1929 births
1996 deaths
20th-century American singers
People from Ensley, Alabama
20th-century American male singers

Singin' Sammy Ward


The Devil's Bit or Devil's Bit Mountain (, historically anglicized as 'Barnane Ely') is a large hill in County Tipperary, Ireland, which rises to . It lies north-west of the town of Templemore. The mountain is usually climbed through the townland of Barnane. There is a car park at the base.

History
The mountain was historically called  and , after the territory of Éile. According to local legend, the mountain got its current name because the devil took a bite out of it. There is a small gap in the mountain between one outcrop of rock (known as the Rock) and another small plateau. The legend says that the devil broke his teeth taking this bite and spat the Rock of Cashel from his mouth to where it now stands.

Historically, Devil's Bit was one of the hills around Ireland that were climbed as part of the Lughnasa festival.

The Book of Dimma was supposedly discovered in a cave on the mountain in 1789. It is an illuminated manuscript copy of the four Gospels and was written in the monastery of St. Cronan in Roscrea some time during the 8th century. According to legend, Cronan ordered his scribe Dimma to produce the manuscript before sunset on that day. He then used miraculous powers to ensure that the sun did not set for forty days, and Dimma spent all of this period completing the manuscript without feeling the need to eat or sleep. The manuscript disappeared following the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. There is some debate about whether or not the manuscript was actually found on the Devil's Bit amid claims that it could not have survived without damage in an outdoor environment for over two centuries. The Book of Dimma is currently housed in the library of Trinity College Dublin.

The mountain was the scene of a mass anti-tithe meeting on 25 July 1832. The meeting was part of a wider campaign of resistance to the payment of tithes (one-tenth of the value of arable produce) to the Church of Ireland by the majority Catholic population. According to press reports of the time, over 50,000 people attended, many coming from as far away as County Galway, although the attendance would have been larger had there not been confusion about whether or not the meeting was cancelled. Although local folklore states that Daniel O' Connell attended the meeting, it is almost certain that he was not present as he was attending parliamentary debates in Westminster at the time. A semi-fictional account of the meeting was given by Samuel Lover in Legends and Stories of Ireland (1834), where he refers to a mock 'burial' of the tithes by local peasantry.

The tower on the approach to the summit is known as Carden's Folly. The Cardens were an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family who arrived in Ireland during the seventeenth century. They purchased estates in Templemore and Barnane and became the principal landlords in the area in subsequent centuries. The most notable Carden was undoubtedly John Rutter Carden (1811–1866), better known as 'Woodcock', so-called by irate tenants because he was as difficult to shoot as the bird of that name. As well as constructing the folly, he built a magnificent family home on the lower slopes of the mountain. Although the house was demolished in the early 20th century, the ruins of the walled garden can still be seen. In 1854, 'Woodcock' made a notorious attempt to kidnap a lady, Eleanor Arbuthnot, with whom he had become obsessed. A detailed history of the Carden family has been published by a descendant, Arthur Eustace Carden.

A cross was erected on the Rock in 1953–1954 in celebration of the 'Marian Year dedicated by the Roman Catholic Church. A committee was formed and planning of the work began in early 1953 and construction began in September of that year, it was constructed by the Duggan Brothers. The project manager was Stephen (Steedie) Grey of Templemore. Work was completed at a cost of approximately IR£2,000. The cross was officially blessed by the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Most Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Kinane, on Sunday, 22 August 1954. It stands 45 feet high and has a span of 25 feet. The base of 340 tons is 5 feet squared and 10 feet deep. All tools and materials for this construction project were carried to the Rock by hand. The cross is presently illuminated at night. Holy Mass is celebrated at the base of the Rock each year on Rock Sunday, which is the closest Sunday to the feast of St James (25 July). A statue of the Virgin Mary was erected in 1988 on the eastern side of the Rock.

A 1980 article in the journal Nature described the finding on the mountain of the earliest record of a fossil flora containing Cooksonia-type sporangia.

Topography
The southwestern extremity of the Slieve Bloom range just touches Tipperary at Roscrea. The valley in which Roscrea stands separates this end of Slieve Bloom from the Devil's Bit range, which begins immediately south of the town and runs southwest. This mountain has a singular gap in its contour (very conspicuous from the railway), from which it was formerly called Barnane-Ely, i.e., the gapped mountain of Ely (the old territory in which it was situated), which is still the name of the parish. The other chief summits are Kilduff Mountain (1,462 feet; 445.6 m), Borrisnoe (1,471 feet; 448.4 m), and Benduff (1,399 feet; 426.4 m), all near Devil's Bit in a line to the northwest; and 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Devil's Bit, Knockanora (1,429 feet; 435.6 m) and Latteragh (1,257 feet; 383.1 m).

The Devil's Bit offers expansive views of the surrounding countryside. When the cross was erected, it was said that nine counties can be viewed from the summit – Tipperary itself, Clare, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Offaly, and Waterford. There is doubt as to whether any part of County Cork is actually visible. One can see the Knockmealdown and Comeragh Mountains in Waterford, along with the Galtees, and, to the north-west, Lough Derg and the River Shannon.

The triangulation station which marks the highest point of the mountain is on the 'Long Rock' which lies to the east of the Gap. The Long Rock can be climbed if one passes through the Gap and follows the pathway to the right.

There is a military firing range on the western slopes of the mountain.

References

Mountains and hills of County Tipperary
Marilyns of Ireland
Templemore

Devil's Bit


Cándido Pastor Bareiro Caballero (October 27, 1833, in Luque Paraguay – September 4, 1880, in Asuncion, Paraguay) was President of Paraguay from 27 November 1878 to 4 September 1880 and the leading politician of the post-war decade.

Bareiro served as ambassador and commercial agent for the Paraguayan government of Francisco Solano López government in Europe.

During the last months of Paraguayan War he returned to Paraguay in 1869 and entered politics, where he started a political movement that would result in creation of the Colorado Party. A strong ally of General Bernardino Caballero, he was elected President in 1878 with Caballero's help and died from a stroke after two years in office.

Early life
Son of Jose Luis Bareiro Montiel and Felipa Mayor Dolores Caballero he was the grandson of the famous Paraguayan founding father of Independence, Pedro Juan Caballero. He went to a school managed by the Argentine teacher Juan Pedro Escalada. Bareiro benefited from the opening to the world which was initiated by the regime of Carlos Antonio López, with a group of other Paraguayan students on June 2, 1858, he sailed to Europe, where in London he finished his studies. He returned home in the middle of December 1863 and received a bonus of 200 pesos. In May 1865 he was awarded with the National Order of Merit.

The Uruguayan writer Jose Carranza Sienra, who met him at the start of the Paraguayan War, said of Bareiro:

Political biography
On March 21, 1864, government appointed Cándido Bareiro as chargé d'affaires in the Paraguayan Embassy in London and Paris. He was relieved from his post in October 1867 due to inability to organize critically needed armament shipments to Paraguay. By the time he managed to return to Asuncion in February 1869, the city was already occupied by the Allied armies.

Bareiro faction
Around him quickly gathered the remaining Lopez loyalists who on March 31, 1869, founded the Republican Union Club which in early 1870 become the Club del Pueblo and after February 17, 1878 Club Libertad and who published their newspaper La Voz del Pueblo.

Bareiro faction was also known as lopiztas because of their loyalty to the memory of President Lopez and it was opposed to the Decoud faction who had established their rival Club del Pueblo (after March 23, 1870, the Gran Club del Pueblo). Both of these factions were crucial for the establishment of the Colorado Party in 1887.

Together with Bernardino Caballero he was one of the organizers of the revolt against the Presidency of Salvador Jovellanos. Despite this, after the removal of Benigno Ferreira in February 1874 he was appointed a Foreign minister by Jovellanos. In this capacity he went to London where he tried to negotiate the war loan payment crisis. He served as Minister of Finance of Paraguay during the Presidencies of Juan Bautista Gill and Higinio Uriarte from August 1876 to August 1878.

President, 1878-80

On November 25, 1878, he finally was elected to the presidency. His government included:
 Adolfo Saguier, Vice-president.
 Juan Antonio Jara, Treasury.
 Bernardino Caballero, Minister of Interior.
 José Segundo Decoud and Jose Antonio Baez, Ministers of Justice, Culture and Public Education.
 Patricio Escobar and Pedro Duarte, Ministers of War and Navy.
 Benjamin Aceval and José Segundo Decoud, Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

On October 1877 he had involved in the murders of imprisoned former President Facundo Machain and others suspected in the assassination of President Gill. In December 1878 he probably was involved in the assassination of former President Rivarola. His political ally Bernardino Caballero was the main organizer of these murders. In June 1879 he suppressed the Galileo uprising led by the exiled Juan Silvano Godoi.

During his rule Paraguay won part of the disputed Gran Chaco territory. This decision was made by international commission led by the US President Rutherford Hayes, in whose honor Presidente Hayes Department was created. After this decision, the Decoud-Quijarro treaty was signed on 15 October 1879 that recognized Bolivia's claims to northern Chaco, but it was never ratified. Argentina handed over territory of the West Villa, currently Villa Hayes where the first ice factory of the country was established.

Despite being almost bankrupt, Government proceeded with the construction of the Palace of Lopez; the Nueva Germania was established, bringing German immigrants to Paraguay; Pedro Juan Aponte was appointed as the first post-war bishop of Paraguay and Argentine Penal Code adopted.

After Bareiro's death his vice-president Adolfo Saguier was prevented from assuming the presidency by a bloodless coup led on September 4, 1880, by Bernardino Caballero. Saguier was arrested and the Senate was informed that he has resigned. Caballero then was elected to thr presidency.

Controversial acts
Earlier in the year 1867 Solano Lopez thought in recommending Bareiro to the mission to travel to the United States to thank the authorities for their thoughtful participation. Unfortunately certain formalities were not entirely fulfilled by Bareiro. The Marshal had ignored a first act of disobedience on his part, but other events that occurred lacked accountability. Lopez ordered to delegate Benitez to Peru and to express the declaration of repudiation by the Paraguayan government towards the treaty of the Triple Alliance. Bareiro did not focus properly on the indication, so he recklessly send a letter, dated December 14, 1866.

It is said that one of the mistakes of Lopez was to choose Bareiro as Chargé d'affaires of Paraguay in Europe. Some accused him of the defeat of Paraguay in the war, since his mission was to travel to Europe to buy weapons, but these were lost because of his incompetence. All this had no justification whatsoever, so on January 20, 1868, Bareiro was forced to surrender his position.

Awards
 1865 – National Order of Merit.

References

1833 births
1880 deaths
People from Luque
Paraguayan people of Galician descent
Presidents of Paraguay
Finance Ministers of Paraguay
Paraguayan diplomats
People of the Paraguayan War

Cándido Bareiro


Stuart Blakely (born August 15, 1956) is an alpine skier from New Zealand.

He competed for New Zealand at two Olympics. In the 1976 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, and was 53rd in the downhill and 35th in the slalom, but did not finish in the giant slalom.

In the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, he came 32nd in the downhill, but did not finish in the slalom or giant slalom. He was the flag bearer for New Zealand in 1976 and 1980.

He is a brother of 1968 alpine skier Margot Blakely.

Stuart currently lives in Christchurch.

References
 Black Gold by Ron Palenski (2008, 2004 New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, Dunedin) p. 103,110

External links

Living people
1956 births
New Zealand male alpine skiers
Olympic alpine skiers for New Zealand
Alpine skiers at the 1976 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 1980 Winter Olympics

Stuart Blakely


Dumb Starbucks was a coffee shop opened by comedian Nathan Fielder. It was closed just after three days for not having a proper health license. Because the shop was a parody making fun of the real Starbucks company, Fielder was able to use their logo.

Items and beverages
In a normal Starbucks store, you will usually see a board with the beverages that you can purchase. But in Dumb Starbucks, it had the word "Dumb" in front of the name of the beverage you would see at Starbucks. For example, if you saw the Vanilla Latte at Starbucks, in Dumb Starbucks, it would be called "Dumb Vanilla Latte". Usually Starbucks has some other items, such as music CDs, but Dumb Starbucks also took the same music CDs and wrote the word "Dumb" in front of them.

Plans
Nathan Fielder had planned to open another Dumb Starbucks in Brooklyn, New York City, but he did not try to open one, even with health documents. Many people did not like Fielder and his new parody. Some people felt he was making fun of them being Starbucks customers, others said his coffee was terrible.

References

2014 in American television
2010s in Los Angeles, California
Coffee houses

Dumb Starbucks


George William Headley III (January 8, 1908 – February 7, 1985) was an American jewelry designer, collector, socialite and founder of the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, Kentucky.  As a designer, he was known for collaborations with Salvador Dalí, Paul Flato, David Webb and Cartier, between the 1920s and 1960s, with clients including Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper, the Marx Brothers, Judy Garland and Joan Crawford, as well as for his extravagant bibelots - small, intricate and precious decorative objects.

Biography
George William Headley III was born in Lynchburg, Virginia on January 8, 1908, to Louise and George Headley Jr., a wealthy family which moved to Mississippi soon after his birth. He attended New Jersey preparatory school Lawrenceville School from 1924 to 1926. Artistically inclined from an early age, he studied art for one year in 1927 at the Art Students League of New York and then moved to France to attend the Parisian L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts and Académie Moderne, where he studied painting and planned to become an artist.  In 1960, he married Barbara Whitney Henry Peck (died 1982), sister to Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (died 1992), and daughter of sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (died 1942), founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art. After a nineteen-year career in New York and Los Angeles, he moved to his Lexington, Kentucky family farm La Belle in 1949, where he died in 1985, two years after his wife. With a second home in Palm Beach, Florida, the couple were well known as traveling and entertaining socialites. The La Belle grounds became the Headley-Whitney Museum.

Career
Headley got his start in 1930, as an apprentice to popular jeweler Paul Flato, who is considered the first celebrity jeweler, where he worked alongside Count Fulco di Verdura. In 1937 Flato opened his Beverly Hills salon across from the Trocadero nightclub, and both Headley and Verdura moved to Los Angeles.

In 1940s, he opened his own jewelry boutique in the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. After nearly a decade in California, he returned to La Belle in 1950 to be with his aging parents.  At La Belle, he continued his career designing jewelry and bibelots, and collecting. Bibelots is a French term denoting a knick-knack or curio. Popular in the 19th century, they are small, beautiful, decorative objects often made with precious materials and intricate craftsmanship. In 1966, Headley was noted as the "greatest living creator of this extravagant craft", as well as for similar small boxes.

Headley described two of his pieces to the Palm Beach Daily News:
"The idea of making a Swiss carving of a walnut came to me in the middle of the night. I drew two gold diamond canaries building a nest, and three diamond butterflies. By cutting the walnut in half and hollowing it out, I had space for a nest. When it opens one can see several tiny turquoise eggs."
"Another piece I designed was made from a fragment of shell found at St. James Beach in Barbados. It is mounted with gold seaweed, and supports a coral mermaid from eighteenth century Naples."

Headley-Whitney Museum
The La Belle farm was originally designed by Warfield Gratz in 1926. To house his growing collections, Headley hired Lexington architect Robert Pinkerton to design an luxurious and distinctive Jewel Room and Library. The rooms were heavily influenced by Headley's travels, drawing upon many different architectural styles and motifs. The buildings feature a sloped Thai roof, Greek columns, English windows, French floor design, and Georgian moldings and match Headley's eclectic style and tastes. The library holds a 1,500 volume collection of fine art books. The Jewel Room was built to display his collection of jewelry and bibelots, and is designed to evoke the feeling of a jewelry box with its dark enclosed interior.  Both rooms are littered with Headley's collection of natural curios, specimens, objects, and art collected during his travels abroad. A former three car garage was transformed into a shell grotto, with coral floors, mosaic ceilings and walls covered in shells and polished stones.

The museum continues to be a popular attraction in the Lexington area. In the early days of the museum, Headley himself offered guided tours of his Jewel Room and Library.

References

Additional sources
Headley-Whitney Museum - Online George W. Headley Retrospective
Hollywood Jewels, by H.N. Abrams, 1992, 200 pages
The Headley Treasures of Bibelots and Boxes, by George W. Headley, 1966, published by October House.
Jewelry, Designs, and Art: George W. Headley Retrospective, by Headley-Whitney Museum, 2006, 43 pages
Verdura: the life and work of a master jeweler, by Patricia Corbett, 2002

1908 births
1985 deaths
American jewellers
People from Lynchburg, Virginia
Artists from Virginia
Museum founders
Lawrenceville School alumni
Art Students League of New York alumni
American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
Artists from Los Angeles
Artists from Lexington, Kentucky
Whitney family
20th-century American philanthropists

George W. Headley


Jamestown Historic District is a national historic district located at Jamestown, Guilford County, North Carolina.  The district encompasses nine contributing buildings in the Quaker community of Jamestown dated to the early-19th century. Located in the district is the separately listed Richard Mendenhall Plantation Buildings. Other notable buildings include the Richard Mendenhall Store, Jamestown Friends' Meeting House, Dr Shubal Coffin's House and Medical School (c. 1812), Dr. Coffin's second house (c. 1855), Harper-Johnson House, Mcinnis House, Joyner House, and Potter Log House.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

References

Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Buildings and structures in Guilford County, North Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Guilford County, North Carolina

Jamestown Historic District (Jamestown, North Carolina)


Anita "Anna" Sergeyevna Tsoy (; born 7 February 1971, Moscow) is a Russian singer-songwriter of Korean descent.

Parents and Early Life

Her grandfather, seeking free education, emigrated from Korea to the Russian Far East. He, his wife and his children were later caught up in the 1937 deportation of the Koryo-saram to Central Asia. Anita's mother was born in 1944 in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union. She successfully graduated from the Moscow State University and became a chemistry doctor.

She did everything she could to make her daughter educated in all kinds of arts . Anita's favourite one became music. She began violin lessons at a young age; she later studied piano, flute, and guitar. She wasn't a loved one at school. Many classmates, being children of influential parents, often abused her. Most teachers were not as friendly to her as they were to the other classmates.

When she became an adult, a tragedy happened: her mother was branded a "class enemy" in the 1970s in response to her record of speaking out in support of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Andrei Sakharov. For her dissent she was briefly committed to a mental institution. She became a permanent invalid. After leaving school Anita attended the teacher training college, then law school at Moscow State University, where she met her husband Sergey P. Tsoy.

Career
After graduation, rather than becoming a teacher or lawyer, she began saving up money in order to launch a singing career, while her husband began working as a press secretary for Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov in 1994. Her first album Polyot (Полёт; Flight) was released in 1997; she kept it a secret from her husband until after she had already signed the contract with her production company.

In 1998 her second album, named "Черный лебедь" ("The Black Swan") was released and in 1999 a concert show "Черный лебедь или храм любви" ("The Black Swan or a Love Palace") was held in the concert hall "Rossiya". This show was accepted as "Best Show of the Year" and Anita won an "Ovation" She went to the United States in 2003 to record an English-language album, where she worked with cinematic composer Lee Holdridge; while there, she was offered a five-year contract as a solo vocalist in the Cirque du Soleil, but turned it down in order to return to Russia and be near her family.

She records her third Russian dance solo-album "1000000 минут" ("1000000 Minutes") in 2003, which was introduced to public in the "Elevator" club, a former factory in Moscow. In 2005 a major show-concert "ANITA" was held in the "Rossiya" Concert Hall, Moscow, featuring high technology decorations like large LCD-screens and fountains on the stage. The show was considered to be one of the most successful ones in Russia and was released on DVD by Universal Music.

Anita Tsoy records her fourth album "На восток" ("To The East") in 2007 and changed her image greatly since the 2003; she turns to manga-anime style. In autumn of the same year she performs with her "To The East" show, which attracted more than ten thousand people. Following the show, the DVD-recording of this live concert was released.

Both "ANITA" and "To The East" shows are considered to be one of the best live-performances in Russia and the recordings of these concerts were shown on Channel One, Muz-TV and other influentable Russian channels.

Anita recorded 5 albums in total and won more than 10 major awards for both performing and charity during her 13-year career as a solo artist.

Albums
 "Полет" ("Flight") - 1997
 "Черный лебедь" ("The Black Swan") - 1998
 "I'll remember you" (Recorded in the USA) - 2000
 "1000000 минут" ("1000000 minutes") - 2003
 "На восток" ("To The East") - 2007
 "Твоя А" ("Your A") - 2011

This information was received from the singer's official site.

Live Concerts
"Полет к новым мирам" ("A Flight to New Worlds") - 1998
"Черный лебедь или храм любви" ("The Black Swan or a Love Palace") - 1999, 2000 (symphonic version)
"1000000 минут" ("1000000 Minutes") - 2003
"ANITA" - 2005
"На восток" ("To The East") - 2007
"Помнить, чтобы жизнь продолжалась" ("To Remember so that Life Continues") - 2009 (Charity Concert Tour)
 "THE BEST" - 2010
This information was received from the singer's official site.

Awards
"Honoured Worker of Kuzbass for active participation in charity, 2009
"Golden Gramophone", 2007
"Golden Gramophone", 2006
A True Professional of Russia, 2005
"Mezenat" for active participation in charity, 2004
"Pillar" for the artist's talent, 2004
"For Russia's renewal", 2004
Meritorious Artist of Russia, 2003
"Olympia" for active participation in charity, 2002
National Musical Prize "Ovation" - Best Show of the Year, 1999
National Musical Prize "Ovation" - A Discovery of the Year, 1998

References

Other websites
AnitaTsoy.RU
 AnitaTsoy.RU
 Blog
 A fan site

1971 births
Living people
Russian singers
Entertainers from Moscow
Mezzo-sopranos
Russian television presenters

Anita Tsoy