The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG 34, was a general-purpose machine gun. It was developed in Nazi Germany. It was first made and accepted in 1934. It was first given to soldiers in 1935. It fires the 7.92 x 57mm Mauser cartridge.

It was designed to be able to be a light machine gun and be able to do other things as well. This was an early example of a general-purpose machine gun. When it is being used as a light machine gun, a bipod can be attached to it. If it is being used for other things, it is put onto a tripod and is belt-fed. In a battle, the bipod version was used mostly. This turned the MG 34 into an infantry support weapon. Later, the MG 34 started to be used less for the MG 42.

History

The MG 34 was used as Germany's main machine gun in the 1930s. It stayed the main tank and anti-aircraft machine gun. It was supposed to be replaced by the MG 42. However, there were not enough MG 42s. The German Armed Forces still wanted the MG 34 to be made. It kept being made until the end of WWII in 1945. However, the German Armed Forces wanted more MG 34s than could be made.

The MG 34 was designed by Mauser Werke. It was based on the Solothurn 1930 (MG 30). The Solothurn was developed by Rheinmetall. It was starting to be used in Switzerland.

The MG 34 began being made right away. It was used in all parts of the German Armed Forces and even by the police. When it was first brought into service, it was the very first general-purpose machine gun.  However, the MG 34 took a long time to make, and it was expensive and difficult to make. The Germans ended up using a weapon they could not afford. However, because so many were needed, it was still made.

Some MG 34s given to  Chinese Nationalist forces were used during both World War II and the Chinese Civil War.

Characteristics

The MG 34 could use 7.9 mm cartridge from both magazines and belts.

The MG 34's barrel is designed to be replaced quickly to keep the gun cool. Changing the barrel took just a few seconds when done by a well trained gunner. However, when the barrel was being replaced, it was very hot. The gunner changing the barrel had to wear an asbestos glove to protect his hands while he was changing the barrel.

The MG 34 had a special trigger. It was split into two parts. It gave select fire. Pressing the upper part of the trigger made semi-automatic fire. Holding the lower part of the trigger made fully automatic fire.

When the MG 34 was being used as a light machine gun it was used with a bipod. It weighed just  with its bipod.

The MG 34 broke easily if it was used in dirt or dust.

The MG 34 could be carried around by an infantry squad and be fired from a bipod. It could also be put onto a tripod to fire for a long time. It was kept cool by the air.

Different kinds of MG 34

MG 34/41(MG 34S)
The MG 34/41 was the MG 34 used for anti-aircraft. It could only fire fully automatically. The length of the MG 34/41's barrel is .

MG 34 Panzerlauf
The MG 34 Panzerlauf was the standard machine gun for tanks during World War II. To be used in a tank, the barrel of the MG 34 was covered with armour and the butt stock was removed.

MG 81
The MG 81 machine gun was based on the MG 34. The MG 81 was used on aircraft. It got its ammunition from a belt and fired 7.9 mm rounds. There were never enough MG 34s made to make its users happpy. Even though the MG 81 was much better than the MG 15 and MG 17 used before it, they were still used until the end of the war.

Related pages
 MG 42

References

Other websites

U.S. Army training video about the MG 34

General-purpose machine guns
8 mm firearms

MG 34


Tobi Adegboyega na one Naija pastor wey dem bon for 11 November 1980. Na im bi di lida and oga kpatakpata of Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church (SPAC Nation, wey bi one of di Peticosta churches for London, England. Im na Yoruba man.

How Him take Start Life

Tobi Adegboyega bin move to London from Lagos, Nigeria for 2005. Wen him arrive London, him bin share one room with him cousin,John Boyega wey be actor.

Career

Pastor Tobi Adegboyega  bin start SPAC Nation for Croydon inside South London for 2008 with three members. As Pastor, him dey reason with criminals to drop their weapons for the altar of him church when dem dey do service and na this kind thing make some people praise am and also come make some people take bad eye look am.  For May 20 2020, Tobi Adegboyega bin step down as the Oga kpatakpata Pastor of SPAC Nation come hand over to Samuel Akokhia.

Kasala

One BBC Panorama investigation bin torchlight Adegboyega plus other leaders of the church sake of say dem dey take cunny cunny collect money from people wey dey come the church. Some members wey panorama interview bin talk say make dem torchlight the church and Adegboyega well well as him hand no clean on top this matter. Panorama come later release one video of Adegboyega where him bin talk say him no see anything wey wrong if church members dey drop at least £1,000 every month for the church sake of say him self dey target £1 million monthly.

For January 2020, MP Steve Reed wey dey represent Croydon North bin accuse SPAC Nation of 419 plus including obtaining money by trick but sha o,police no gree open criminal investigation on top the matter.

Many many other 419, jaguda issue come join domestic abuse plus include sexual abuse na him dem don take accuse him church, SPAC Nation and him pastors.

Pesona life

Tobi Adegboyega be cousin to Oyinbo actor John Boyega. Him dey live inside one £2.5 million mansion for Surrey inside England. For one interview in 2002, him talk say him don marry for 8 years.

Pipul wey dem bon for 1980
Tori abaut pipul life
Naija pipul
Pastors for Naija

Tobi Adegboyega


The Daniel Waring House, also known as Indian Hill, is located on River Road (Orange County Route 29) just outside the village of Montgomery, New York, United States. It sits on a large parcel of land overlooking the Wallkill River at the junction of River Road and NY 17K, just opposite the western approach to Ward's Bridge.

It is believed that part of the house dates to the 18th century. Waring, a later resident, had the four-column temple-style Greek Revival front section built in the 1840s. It has been occupied since his time and remains a private residence. In 1995 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with several other buildings and structures on the property. The current resident, a former town supervisor, purchased the property from Richard James and Dora Holvey in 1998.

Property

The house sits on a  triangular lot on both sides of River Road. It slopes to the north and is elevated above grade level enough to provide good views of the river, bridge, and village across. A stone retaining wall, with a set of entrance steps in the middle, along the front of the property is a contributing structure to the listing. A modern swimming pool at the rear is not included. Nor are the ruins of two old mills in the steep sloping ground between the road and the river. Contributing outbuildings include a privy, wellhouse near the house and a large garage/barn to the east. There are other houses on the east and a woodlot on the west.

Indian Hill itself is a two-story, three-bay clapboard-sided frame house on a raised stone foundation. On the main block is a gabled roof with two large brick chimneys on the east side. There are wings on the side and rear.

The south (front) facade has four fluted Doric columns. A plain frieze runs around the main block's roofline. The main entrance, on the west end, has sidelights and a transom surrounded by flat pilasters supporting the cornice above it. A single raised panel is above both front windows. All windows have louvered shutters.

On the sides are two gabled one-story wings. A one-story kitchen wing, with a gable and chimney, projects from the rear, connecting to a two-story rear extension.

Inside, the house retains much of its original finish. A molded plaster cornice runs through most of the first floor rooms and the second-story hall. In the parlor and dining room, more flat pilasters support the cornice. Architraves surround the paneled field around each window.

The main stairway features a mahogany rail with a turned newel post and balusters. Both first and second floors have marble mantels, black and white respectively, unusual for Greek Revival houses in the area. The beehive oven in the kitchen wing still has its original cast iron door.

The most conspicuous contributing building is the barn/garage, a one-and-a-half-story frame structure with rear ell on the east side of a carport at the end of the unpaved driveway. The privy is on the other side of the driveway, and the wellhouse on the south side, near the stone retaining wall.

History

Amy Eliza Crist, a descendant of one of the earliest families to settle the land around today's Montgomery, sold the  that include the current house property to Waring, a successful local miller, for $4,764 ($ in current dollars). Waring lived in a still-extant house on Clinton Street in the village at the time, and stored the lumber for the house he planned to build on the property in one of his own rear outbuildings. It burned, prolonging the construction of the house.

The Crists had built the first mills on the future Waring property, and local tradition holds that the kitchen wing was left over from one of the Crist houses. Waring's use of not only the Greek Revival style, but a very high application of the style featuring the only colonnade on a Greek Revival house in the Town of Montgomery, with lavish interior decor reflects his prosperity and taste. The stone wall was part of the original house plan.

He died in 1881, leaving the house to his daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Thomas Stratton. The son-in-law had bought a large gristmill across the Wallkill from the house, and ran it until it became unprofitable around 1900. During the Strattons' time in the house, the privy and wellhouse were added.

Stratton sold it to a Charles Kaune in 1911. He added the large barn, later to be used as a garage, around 1920. Throughout the rest of the 20th century it passed through a succession of owners. Two of them, in the 1970s and 1990s, restored the house. The latter, Susan Cockburn, was later elected to two terms as Montgomery's town supervisor, the first woman to hold the position.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, New York

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Houses in Orange County, New York
National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, New York
Greek Revival houses in New York (state)
Houses completed in 1844
Wallkill River

Daniel Waring House


The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO), located in Annapolis, Maryland, has been in operation since 1962. Its founders include Kenneth W. Page, a well-respected civic leader in the Annapolis area during the 1960s who was also the music director of the Annapolis High School band.  The ASO has hosted guests such as Cuban violinist Guillermo Perch and Charlie Byrd. It inspired composer David Ott to create the Annapolis Overture, which premiered in 1993. José-Luis Novo has been the music director since the 2005–2006 season.

For 50 years, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has served as the leading performing arts organization in Maryland's capital city. Formed in 1962, the ASO now features 70 professional musicians who perform a variety of symphonic music for audiences of all ages. It is the largest performing arts organization in Anne Arundel County. The ASO currently produces and presents five Lexus Classic Series concerts, four Education Concerts, two Family concerts, one Holiday Pops Concert and one free Pops in the Park Community Concert. The Pops in the Park and two joint concerts with the United States Naval Academy bring the ASO before thousands of new audience members each year. The ASO sponsors numerous award-winning education and outreach programs in community schools, reaching thousands of school children from diverse backgrounds. With a budget of $1 million annually, the ASO is governed by a 25-member volunteer Board of Trustees and operated by a professional staff of five full-time employees and led by renowned Music Director, José-Luis Novo. Previous music directors were Leslie Dunner (1998–2003), Gisele Ben-Dor (1991–1997), Peter Bay (1983–1990), and Leon Fleisher (1970–1982).

See also
Music of Annapolis

External links
 www.annapolissymphony.org

References

Musical groups established in 1962
1962 establishments in Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Orchestras based in Maryland
Tourist attractions in Annapolis, Maryland

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra


Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny is a role-playing video game developed by Attic Entertainment Software. It was the first game based on the German pen & paper RPG system The Dark Eye by Schmidt Spiele. The original German version of the game (German title: Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge) was released in 1992. Due to its success it was translated to English and released by Sir-Tech in 1993.

Gameplay
Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny is a classical 3D party role-playing video game that has up to six characters (plus an optional NPC that may be recruited) moving through 3D towns and dungeons. Travels between those 3D levels were simulated by showing a path on a regional 2D map. The game generally uses the same pseudo-3D-engine as Attic's 1991 game Spirit of Adventure, utilizing an increased resolution for the 3D part of the screen. The game also borrowed ideas from Eye of the Beholder (the inventory user interface) and Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (the main screen user interface layout). The game did not feature NPC/monster sprites in the 3D view (a shortcoming that can be found in the entire Northlands Trilogy) that were already introduced by the first 3D real-time action role-playing video game - Dungeon Master - in 1987. Instead of visualizing fights in the 3D view, the game switched to the isometric perspective for a unique turn-based tactical combat simulation.

Plot
An orc chief has united all tribes of the orcs and plans to attack the lands of the humans. The player is hired by Hetman Tronde Torbensson, the leader of the Thorwalians, to find the sword Grimring (the Blade of Destiny) and prevent an orc invasion on Thorwal. However, Grimring has been lost since the death of its bearer, the Hetman Hyggelik the Great. In order to recover the sword, the player must find pieces of a treasure map which shows the location of the sword. Once the sword is recovered the player needs to defeat the orc chief and his minions. If the player does not succeed within about two in-game years, the orcs will attack and the player loses.

Sequels
Blade of Destiny was the first game in the Northlands Trilogy, it was followed by Realms of Arkania: Star Trail, and Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva. As a feature players could save the game after beating it, this allowed the players to import their characters into any of the sequels.

Remake
A remake developed by the Austrian Crafty Studios and published by German United Independent Entertainment was released on Steam on July 30, 2013. Metacritic, a review aggregator, rated it 18/100 based on five reviews.  This is one of Metacritic's lowest ratings for a PC game.  On release, the game was plagued with bugs, and the developer's forums were full of complaints.  Crafty Studios eventually posted an apology to Steam in which they promised to update the game.  Steven Strom of Ars Technica, in an article where he played each of the five worst-rated games on Metacritic, said the remake is playable but still feels unfinished, including untranslated dialogue.

Reception
According to Die Zeit, all three games in the Realms of Arkania series, including Blade of Destiny, were commercially and critically successful. The paper's Nicole Lange reported in 2011 that the three entries together had surpassed 2.4 million sales worldwide.

In a 1993 review from Computer Gaming World, Scorpia wrote, "'Das Schwarze Auge' means 'The Black Eye,' and that might be appropriate here". She wrote that "there are so many things wrong with the game play that we should start off with the few that are right" such as automapping and extra experience points for fighting unfamiliar enemies, but criticized the "awkward and confusing" magic system, discrepancies between the documentation and gameplay. Worst of all, she wrote, were the reduction in experience points for saving outside a temple, high failure rates during combat, and a bug that "won" the game by quitting during the final fight.

The One gave the Amiga version of Blade of Destiny an overall score of 73%, criticizing its graphics and small draw distance, saying "you can't even 'see' the poorly-drawn buildings until you're practically standing in front of them" and calling it a generic RPG, stating "The main problem with Blade of Destiny is that you really have seen this sort of thing before - and better, most probably. There are few surprises as you travel around, with everyone and everything you meet conforming to their usual clichéd fantasy roles." The One criticized the combat, calling it "uninspiring", and expressed that the 'movement points' system removes a sense of urgency.

Chris W. McCubbin reviewed Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny in Pyramid #6 (March/April, 1994), and stated that "I have no hesitancy about recommending Realms of Arkania for what it does well -- graphics, story and background. And I remain optimistic about the combat problems as well. After all, Blade of Destiny is only the first game in the Realms of Arkania series. If subsequent games correct the unrealistic aspects of ranged combat, Realms of Arkania could easily be a state-of-the art game for mature, discerning computer gamers."

References

External links

 Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny at the Hall of Light

1992 video games
Amiga games
DOS games
Games commercially released with DOSBox
Role-playing video games
Sir-Tech games
U.S. Gold games
Video games based on tabletop role-playing games
Video games developed in Germany
Video games with gender-selectable protagonists
Windows games
First-person party-based dungeon crawler video games
Orcs in popular culture
Single-player video games
Attic Entertainment Software games
de:Das Schwarze Auge: Die Nordland-Trilogie#Die Schicksalsklinge

Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny


An ice cream cake is a cake with ice cream as the filling. It can also be made by putting different flavors of ice cream on top of each other in a loaf pan.

Ice cream cake is a food popular at parties. They can be seen at birthday parties and weddings. It is more common in North America and Australia, but not seen very often in Europe. In the United Kingdom, there are ice cream swiss roll cakes. These are called "Arctic rolls".

History
Ice cream cake were first made from biscuits and cream. Victorian era desserts called Bombe glacée (or bombes) were made of ice cream and fruit. They were made into colorful and decorative shapes. Sometimes they were put beside cakes or biscuits. Ice cream cake recipes from the 1870s have also been found.

U.S. market
Ice cream cakes are popular in the United States. Baskin-Robbins, Dairy Queen, Cold Stone Creamery and other retailers also sell ice cream cakes.

They are also a popular dessert for Fourth of July celebrations; cakes prepared for this day are often decorated with patriotic motifs, and garnished with whipped cream, red berries and blueberries. Other versions are elaborate flag cakes made with alternating layers of ice cream and sorbet.

Related pages
 Baked Alaska
 Ice cream

References

Other books
 Stewart, Martha; (2007). Everyday Food. MarthaStewart.com.
 Johnson, Ann. (2008). About Ice Cream Cake. EHow. Demand Media
 Dean, Sydney. (2010) Ice Cream Cake Powerpoint. Upload & Share PowerPoint Presentations and Documents.
 Bejin, Samantha (2013) Lets party. Penguin books

Other websites

 Icecream Cake Recipe At Home | Easy Method
 Frozen Food Age Magazine

Ice cream

Ice cream cake


The Grammy Award for Song of the Year  is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in the entire American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 to the composer (not the performer) of the song in question. It almost always happens that one or more recordings are nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, and a recording could receive both awards. Years reflect the year the Grammy Awards were presented, for music released the previous year.

Unlike Record of the Year, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year goes to the song composer(s).

Confusion
Every year there is a lot of confusion between the Grammy categories Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year.  Record of the Year is awarded for either a single or an album track. This award is given to the performing artist and the producer, recording engineer, and/or mixer of that song. Song of the Year is also awarded for a single or individual track, but the recipient of this award is the songwriter who actually created the song in the first place. Album of the Year is awarded for an entire album, with the award being given to the artist, producer, and recording engineer for that album.

Grammy Awards
Writing awards

Grammy Award for Song of the Year


Curtis Curtis-Smith (September 9, 1941, Walla Walla, Washington – October 10, 2014, Kalamazoo Michigan), better known as C. Curtis-Smith or C.C. Smith, was a modernist American composer and pianist.

Education
Curtis-Smith was born in Walla Walla, Washington, and received a bachelor's degree from Whitman College, where he studied with John Ringgold and David Burge. He received a Master of Music degree in piano at Northwestern University where he studied with Alan Stout and Guy Mombaerts. He pursued further studies at the University of Illinois with Kenneth Gaburo, the Tanglewood Music Center with Bruno Maderna, and in master classes at the Blossom Music Festival with Pierre Boulez. Curtis-Smith was an adjunct professor then full-time faculty at Western Michigan University from 1965-2012.

Career
In 1972, he pioneered the technique of bowing the piano. Pianist David Burge wrote about the technique, saying "Loose bows made of strands of fishline are woven throughout the piano strings at various places in the instrument ... to give the pianist the possibility of crescendo and diminuendo on a single note or group of notes."

Curtis-Smith performed at Carnegie Hall in 1968, and had several of his compositions performed at Carnegie Hall as well.

In 1968, Curtis-Smith joined the faculty of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was Artist-in-residence and a part-time instructor of music composition.

In 2001, Curtis-Smith's Twelve Etudes for piano was one of four compositions commissioned by the Van Cliburn Foundation for the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Honors and awards
Curtis-Smith received over 100 grants, awards and commissions, including the 1972 Koussevitzky Prize awarded by the Tanglewood Music Center, a 1978 Guggenheim Fellowship, and an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, among others.

Selected works

Orchestral works
Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings (2005) For violin, piano and string orchestra.
Lux Esto--Ring in the Light (2003) For orchestra (winds in pairs).
Violin Concerto (1999)
Anthem for Piano and Strings (1996)
Second Symphony (African Laughter) (1996)
Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra (1990)
"...Float Wild Birds, Sleeping "  (1988–92)
Celebration (1986)
Chaconne à son goût (1984)
Songs and Cantillations (1983)
The Great American Symphony (GAS!) (1981)
(Bells) Belle du jour (1975)
Winter Pieces (1974)

Vocal music
O Wondrous Singer! (2008), A setting of portions of Walt Whitman's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,  for soprano, string quartet and piano. *Tulips (2007), A setting of the Sylvia Plath poem, for soprano, string quartet  and piano.
Gold Are My Flowers (1992) A cantata /melodrama for soprano, baritone, and chamber group.
The Mystic Trumpeter (1991) A setting of Walt Whitman's poem, for baritone, men's chorus, trumpet and organ.
Six Theodore Roethke Settings (1989; revised 2008), Settings of poems of Theodore Roethke for soprano and piano.
The Shimmer of Evil (1989), Settings of seven poems of Theodore Roethke for baritone and chamber ensemble.
A Civil War Song Cycle (1987), Settings of seven poems of Walt Whitman and Herman Melville for soprano and piano.
Chansons innocentes (1987, revised 2007), Settings of poems by e.e. cummings, for soprano and piano.
Comedie (1972), For two sopranos and chamber orchestra.
Canticum Novum/Desideria (1971), For six sopranos, four tenors and chamber ensemble.
"Passant. Un. Nous passons. Deux. De notre somme passons. Trois." (1970), For nineteen voices, chamber ensemble, and electronic sounds.
"Till  Thousands Thee. Lps. A Secular Alleluia Without..." (1969), For six sopranos, two trumpets, and percussion.

Chamber music
More African Laughter (2008). In two movements. For two percussionists (vibraphone and marimba).
Games for Brass (2003). In four movements. For Brass Quintet.
A Farewell...(Les adieux) (2001). For horn, string quartet, and piano.
Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (2000)
Masques d'Afrique (1997). For Organ, Trumpet and Percussion.
African Laughter (1994). Septet for flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano.
Second Piano Trio ("The Secret Heart of Sound") (1992)
Sextet for Piano and Winds (1991). For piano and woodwind quintet.
Five Pieces for Piano and Percussion (1988)
Fantasy Pieces (1987). Five pieces for violin and piano.
Sardonic Sketches (1986). Five pieces for woodwind quintet.
Ragmala -- A Garland of Ragas (1983). For guitar and string quartet.
The Sweetgrass Trio (1982). For piano trio.
The Barbershop String Quartet (1982, revised 2001) (Third String Quartet)
Black and Blues (1979). For brass quintet.
Sundry Dances (1980). Five pieces for winds and brass.
Plays and Rimes (1979). For brass quintet and piano.
Tonalities (1978). For clarinet and percussion (one).
Ensembles/Solos (1977). For chamber ensemble and piano. Composed in the "Five and Seven" temperament (a microtonal temperament).
Partita (1977). For flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion.
Unisonics (1977). For alto sax and piano.
Music for Handbells (1977). For 37 handbells played by ten performers.
Five Sonorous Inventions (1973). For violin and piano.
A Song of the Degrees (1972). For two pianos and percussion.
Fanaffair for Fanny (1971). For nine trumpets in three unequal groups and four-channel tape.
Second String Quartet (1965).
Sonata for Flute and Piano (1963)

Instrumental music
Goldberg Variation (2003). One of a group of 13 variations on Bach's theme.
Twelve Etudes for Piano (2000). For solo piano.
Collusions (1998)  Co-written with William Bolcom. For solo piano.
Bagatelles (1989). For guitar.
More Southpaw Pitching (1985). For piano, left hand.
Variations on Amazing Grace (1983). For organ.
The Great American Guitar Solo (GAGS!) (1982)
For Gatsby (Steinway  #81281) (1982). Four movements for piano.
Masquerades (1978). Seven pieces for organ.
Three Pieces for Harp (1976)
Suite in Four Movements (1975). For harpsichord.
Tristana Variations (1975). For piano.
Rhapsodies (1973). For piano.

Choral works
The Mystic Trumpeter (1991). A  setting of Walt Whitman's poem, for baritone, men's chorus, trumpet, and organ.
Alap -- Raga Kedar (1984). SATB  Chorus.
Beastly Rhymes (1983–84). Thirteen tongue-twisters and limericks for SATB chorus.

Recordings
Twelve Etudes for Piano / The Great American Symphony (GAS!)
Performers: C. Curtis-Smith, piano; Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies, cond.
Release Date: April 30, 2002
Label: Albany Records
Merling Trio Performs Works By C.C. SmithPerformers: C. Curtis-Smith, Hermann Herder, Bruce Uchimura, Rainer Schumacher, The Merling Trio, Dennis Russell Davies, Stuttgart Wind Quintet
Release Date: August 22, 1995
Label: Albany RecordsDlugoszewski/Curtis-Smith: Sonorous Explorations'Compositions: Unisonics and Music for Handbells
Performers: Curtis Curtis-Smith, piano; Trent Kynaston, alto saxophone; Patricia Wichman, handbells; Rick Uren, handbells; Betsey Start, handbells; Mickey Shroeder, handbells; Jeff Powell, handbells; Connie Klausmeier, handbells; Larry Hutchinson, handbells; Steven Hesla, handbells; Barbara Brenner, handbells; Cary Belcher, handbells; Curtis Curtis-Smith, Conductor
Label: Composers Recordings, Inc./New World Records

Chihara/Curtis-Smith''''
Compositions: Masquerades'
Performers: William Albright, organ
Label: Composers Recordings, Inc./New World Records

References

External links
Interview with C. Curtis-Smith, December 2, 1996

20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Western Michigan University faculty
People from Walla Walla, Washington
1941 births
Tanglewood Music Center alumni
University of Michigan faculty
21st-century American composers
2014 deaths
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians

C. Curtis-Smith


Via Maris is one modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — along the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Syria. In Latin, Via Maris means "way of the sea", a translation of the Greek ὁδὸν θαλάσσης found in  of the Septuagint, itself a translation of the Hebrew דֶּ֤רֶךְ הַיָּם֙
. It is a historic road that runs in part along the Palestinian Mediterranean coast. It was the most important route from Egypt to Syria (the Fertile Crescent) which followed the coastal plain before crossing over into the plain of Jezreel and the Jordan valley.

One earlier name was "Way of the Philistines", a reference to a passageway through the Philistine Plain (which today consists of Israel's southern coastal plain and the Gaza Strip). Academic researchers prefer other names, for instance "International Trunk Road" or "International Coastal Highway" (also uncapitalised).

Together with the King's Highway, the Via Maris was one of the major trade routes connecting Egypt and the Levant with Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The Via Maris was crossed by other trading routes, so that one could travel from Africa to Europe or from Asia to Africa. It began in al-Qantara and went east to Pelusium, following the northern coast of Sinai through el-Arish and Rafah. From there it followed the coast of Canaan through Gaza, Ascalon, Isdud, Aphek avoiding the Yarkon River, and Dor before turning east again through Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley until it reached Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. Again turning northward along the lake shore, the Via Maris passed through Migdal, Capernaum, and Hazor. From Hazor it crossed the northern River Jordan at what later became known as Jacob's Ford, then climbed sharply over the Golan Heights and wound its way northeast into Damascus. Here travellers could continue on the King's Highway as far as the Euphrates River or proceed northward into Anatolia.

Name and controversy
According to Anson Rainey (1981),
"Via Maris" is not the historical name of any road. The phrase rather originates as the Latin translation of  (in the Hebrew Bible, 8:23) – "by the way of the sea". The prophet was probably referring to the road from Dan to the sea at Tyre, passing through Abel-beth-maachah, which marked the northern border of Israel at the time of the Assyrian conquest.

The road mentioned in the traditional description is better listed as the Great Trunk Road. This Egypt-to-Damascus route is so designated by Barry J. Beitzel in The New Moody Atlas of the Bible (2009), p. 85, by John D. Currid and David P. Barrett in the ESV Bible Atlas (2010), p. 41, and by Rainey and Notley in Carta's New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible (2007), p. 76. Carl G. Rasmussen in the Zondervan Atlas of the Bible (2010), p. 32, also notes the traditional misnomer and denotes the Egypt–Damascus route as the International North-South Route.

Rasmussen, basically in agreement with Langfur and Rainey, suggests that the Via Maris was the road that connected Tyre with Damascus. Beitzel, in contrast, denotes the Via Maris as a road from Ptolemais (Acco / Acre) to Kedesh (Kedesh-naphtali) in the Galilee – also leading west to east, but slightly further south and not reaching so far inland.

See also

 Barid, Muslim postal network renewed during Mamluk period and connecting Cairo with Damascus
 King's Highway (ancient) – an alternative, more easterly ancient route between Egypt and Mesopotamia
 Salah al-Din Road – the main highway of the Gaza Strip, crossing the territory from north to south
 Way of the Patriarchs – the biblical north-to-south route through the mountains of Canaan
 Grand Trunk Road – one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads linking South Asia and Central Asia.

References

Trade routes
Ancient roads and tracks
Ancient Near East
Ancient Israel and Judah
Geography of Egypt
Geography of Palestine (region)
Geography of Syria
History of Palestine (region)
Latin words and phrases

Via Maris


Life of Pi is a 2012 adventure-drama film directed and produced by Ang Lee and written by David Magee. Based on Yann Martel's 2001 novel of the same name, it stars Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu and Adil Hussain in lead roles. The storyline revolves around two survivors of a shipwreck who are on a lifeboat stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days. One is a sixteen-year-old Indian boy named Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) and the other is a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

The film began development shortly after the release of the book and would see directors M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón and Jean-Pierre Jeunet involved at various stages before the hiring of Lee. Filming was split between India, Taiwan and Montreal in 2011, with Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) handling the visual effects work.

The film had its worldwide premiere as the opening film of the 50th New York Film Festival at both the Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall in New York City on September 28, 2012. It was theatrically released in the U.S. on November 21 by 20th Century Fox. Life of Pi became a commercial success, having grossed over $609 million. Critics praised Lee's direction, the screenplay, the editing, the music, the sound design and especially the effects and the cinematography. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture – Drama and Best Director, and won for Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. At the 85th Academy Awards it had eleven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won four, including Best Director for Ang Lee.

Plot

In Canada a writer meets Pi Patel, who he has been told would be a good subject for a book. Pi tells the writer the following story:

Pi's father names him Piscine Molitor Patel after Piscine Molitor, a famous French swimming pool. In secondary school in Pondicherry, he adopts the Greek letter "Pi" as his nickname to avoid bullying. He is raised in a polytheistic Hindu family, but at 12 years old, he is introduced to Christianity and then Islam, and decides to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love God".

Pi's mother supports his desire to grow, but his rationalist father tries to secularize him. Their family owns a zoo, and Pi takes interest in a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. After he gets dangerously close to Richard Parker, his father forces him to witness it killing a goat.

When Pi is 16, his father announces that due to "The Emergency", they must move to Canada, where he intends to settle and sell the animals. The family books passage with the animals on a Japanese freighter. During a storm, the ship founders while Pi is on deck. He struggles to find his family, but a crewman throws him into a lifeboat. A freed plains zebra jumps onto the boat with him, breaking its leg. The ship sinks into the Mariana Trench, drowning his family.

After the storm, Pi awakens in the lifeboat with the zebra and is joined by a bornean orangutan. A spotted hyena emerges from under a tarpaulin, forcing Pi to retreat to the end of the boat. The hyena kills the zebra and later the orangutan. Richard Parker suddenly comes out from under the tarpaulin, killing the hyena before retreating back to cover.

Pi fashions a small raft which he tethers to the lifeboat to be safe from Richard Parker. Despite his moral code against killing, he begins fishing, enabling him to sustain the tiger. When the tiger jumps into the sea to hunt for fish and then swims toward Pi, he considers letting him drown, but ultimately helps him into the boat. One night, a humpback whale destroys the raft and its supplies. Pi trains Richard Parker to accept him in the boat and realizes that caring for the tiger is helping to keep himself alive.

Weeks later, they encounter a floating island. It is a lush jungle of edible plants, freshwater pools and a large population of meerkats, enabling Pi and Richard Parker to eat, drink and regain strength. At night, the island transforms into a hostile environment. Richard Parker retreats to the lifeboat while Pi and the meerkats sleep in the trees; the water pools turn acidic. Pi deduces that the island is carnivorous after finding a human tooth embedded in a flower.

Pi and Richard Parker leave the island, reaching Mexico after over 200 days at sea. Pi is heartbroken that Richard Parker does not acknowledge him before disappearing into the jungle. While he recovers in a hospital, insurance agents for the Japanese freighter company interview him, but do not believe his story and ask what really happened, specifically concerning why the ship sank.

So Pi retells the story, in which the animals are replaced by humans: his mother for the orangutan, an amiable Buddhist sailor for the zebra, the ship's brutish cook for the hyena, and Pi himself for Richard Parker. The cook kills the sailor and feeds on his flesh. He then kills Pi's mother, after which Pi kills him and uses his remains as food and fish bait. The insurance agents are dissatisfied with this story but leave without questioning him further.

When the writer recognizes the animal story may be an allegory for the human story, Pi says that it does not matter which story is true because his family died either way, and neither story provides the explanation the insurance company wanted. He asks which story the author prefers, and the author chooses the first, to which Pi replies, "and so it goes with God". Glancing at a copy of the insurance report, the writer reads that Pi survived his adventure "in the company of an adult Bengal tiger."

Cast

Production

Development

The project had numerous directors and writers attached, and the Los Angeles Times credited Fox 2000 Pictures executive Elizabeth Gabler with keeping the project active. In February 2003 Gabler acquired the project to adapt Life of Pi into a film. She hired screenwriter Dean Georgaris to write a screenplay.

The following October, Fox 2000 announced a partnership with M. Night Shyamalan to direct the film. Shyamalan was attracted to the novel particularly because its main character also comes from Pondicherry in India. The partners anticipated for Shyamalan to direct the film adaptation after completing The Village. He also replaced Georgaris as the screenwriter, writing a new screenplay for the film. Ultimately, Shyamalan chose to film Lady in the Water after The Village; he said later, "I was hesitant [to direct] because the book has kind of a twist ending. And I was concerned that as soon as you put my name on it, everybody would have a different experience."

In March 2005, Fox 2000 entered talks with Alfonso Cuarón to direct. Cuarón decided to direct Children of Men instead, and in October 2005, Fox 2000 hired Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct the film. Jeunet began writing the screenplay with Guillaume Laurant, and filming was scheduled to begin in mid-2006, partially in India. Jeunet eventually left the project.

In February 2009, Fox 2000 Pictures hired Ang Lee to direct the film. In May 2010, Lee and the producer Gil Netter proposed a reported budget of US$120 million, at which the studio balked, placing the project's development on hold for a short time. David Magee was hired to write the screenplay, as Lee began to spend several months looking for someone to cast as Pi. Lee stated that water was a major inspiration behind making the film in 3-D: "I thought this was a pretty impossible movie to make technically. It's so expensive for what it is. You sort of have to disguise a philosophical book as an adventure story. I thought of 3-D half a year before 'Avatar' was on the screen. I thought water, with its transparency and reflection, the way it comes out to you in 3-D, would create a new theatrical experience and maybe the audience or the studio would open up their minds a little bit to accept something different." Following the premiere of the film, Lee stated that his desire to take risks and chances helped with his direction, saying "In a strange way it did feel like we're the vessels, we have to surrender to movie god. We have to let things happen. I just had this feeling, I'll follow this kid to wherever this movie takes me. I saw the movie start to unravel in front of me."

Pre-production and casting

After 3,000 young men auditioned for the film's lead, in October 2010 Lee cast Suraj Sharma, a 17-year-old student and an acting newcomer. Upon receiving the role, Sharma underwent extensive training in ocean survival, as well as in yoga and meditation practices to prepare for the part. Two months after Sharma was cast, it was announced that Gérard Depardieu would play the role of the Cook, Irrfan Khan would play the adult Pi, and Adil Hussain would play Pi's father, while Tabu was in talks to play the role of Pi's mother.

Canadian actor Rajiv Surendra, who had played a small part in Mean Girls, was one of the auditioners for the role of Pi. In 2016, he published The Elephants in My Backyard, a memoir of his failed campaign to win the part. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle in 2017, American actor Naren Weiss revealed that he too unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Pi.

In April 2011, it was announced that Tobey Maguire would be joining the film in the role originally referred to as "a reporter." However, in September 2012, it was announced that Lee had cut Maguire from the film. He justified the cut by stating that he did it "to be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I decided to go with an entirely international cast." Like Shahrukh Khan, Lee described Maguire's presence also as "too jarringly recognizable." He reshot the scenes with Rafe Spall in the role of the book's actual author.

Filming
Principal photography for the film began on January 18, 2011, in Puducherry at the Holy Rosary Church in Muthialpet. Filming continued in Puducherry until January 31 and moved to other parts of India, including Munnar in Kerala, as well as Taiwan. The crew filmed in Taiwan for five and a half months in Taipei Zoo, an airport in Taichung, and Kenting National Park, located in Pingtung County where Lee was born. The ocean scenes of the film were shot at a giant wave tank built by the crew in an abandoned airport. The tank is known as the world's largest self-generating wave tank, with a capacity of 1.7 million gallons. With production scheduled to last two and a half months at the tank, cinematographer Claudio Miranda assisted in the tank's design in order to get the most out of it for lighting, explaining, "We knew we were going to be inside there shooting for 2.5 months, so it was worth it to be able to do anything we want. On all these kind of scenes, we had an idea of what the weather would be like. In that tank, I can create storm clouds, nightfall. We had curtains that I can block out [light], doors to open and let in real sunlight," Miranda says. "So lighting-wise, [the movie] had a big ebb and flow." After photography was completed in Taiwan, production moved back to India and concluded in Montreal into early 2012.

Post-production
The lead visual effects company for Life of Pi was Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H). 3D effects for the film were created by a team of R&H artists in Los Angeles, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, Vancouver and Kaohsiung.

The R&H VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer said that discussions of the project began with Ang Lee in August 2009. Westenhofer noted that Lee "knew we had done the lion in the first Narnia movie. He asked, 'Does a digital character look more or less real in 3D?' We looked at each other and thought that was a pretty good question." He also stated that during these meetings, Lee said, "'I look forward to making art with you.' This was really for me one of the most rewarding things I've worked on and the first chance to really combine art with VFX. Every shot was artistic exploration, to make the ocean a character and make it interesting we had to strive to make it as visually stunning as possible." Rhythm & Hues spent a year on research and development, " building upon its already vast knowledge of CG animation" to develop the tiger. The British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine suggested that, "Life of Pi can be seen as the film Rhythm & Hues has been building up to all these years, by taking things they learned from each production from Cats & Dogs to Yogi Bear, integrating their animals in different situations and environments, pushing them to do more, and understanding how all of this can succeed both visually and dramatically."

Artist Abdul Rahman in the Malaysian branch underscored the global nature of the effects process, saying that "the special thing about Life of Pi is that it was the first time we did something called remote rendering, where we engaged our cloud infrastructure in Taiwan called CAVE (Cloud Animation and Visual Effects)."

Additional visual effects studios that worked on the film include MPC, yU+co, Buf, Crazy Horse Effects, Look Effects, Christov Effects, Lola VFX, Reliance Mediaworks, and Stereo D.

Music

The film's musical score was composed by Mychael Danna, who previously wrote the music to Lee's films The Ice Storm and Ride with the Devil. A soundtrack album of the music was released by Sony Classical Records on 16 November 2012. The album features the track "Pi's Lullaby", which was co-written by Danna and Bombay Jayashri, who performs the song in Tamil.

Distribution

Marketing
Due to the film's holiday release, Life of Pis financial success was uncertain. Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes said, "It looks like chances are very slim that the film will earn back its production and marketing costs let alone turn a profit." Pomerantz attributed this to the fact that film was not led by a big name star and faced other winter blockbusters. John Horn and Ben Fritz of the Los Angeles Times compared the film to Martin Scorsese's Hugo, a large-budget 3D film that opened during the 2011 Thanksgiving week. They said that Life of Pi could have ended up like Hugo by "failing to connect with moviegoers" and become a "financial failure". Similar speculation had been made by other news sources.

Whether or not Hurricane Sandy would affect the film's publicity was also a question. Because the film includes a massive storm, it was speculated that the recent storm might result in lower box office revenue due to the unintentional overtones of Sandy's devastation. A Fox spokesperson made note that there were no plans to change the film's marketing approach.

During the marketing campaign for Life of Pi, the film was promoted as "the next Avatar" in trailers and TV spots. James Cameron, the director of Avatar, later became the subject of two featurettes that focus on the film's 3D and computer-generated imagery. In addition, the original novel was re-released in a movie tie-in edition. This was later followed by the release of The Making of Life of Pi: A Film, a Journey, a book by Jean-Christophe Castelli that details how Life of Pi was brought to the big screen.

Theatrical release
Life of Pi had a wide release in the United States on November 21, 2012, in both traditional and 3D viewing formats. It was originally scheduled to be released on December 14, 2012, but when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was announced for the same release date, Life of Pi was postponed a week. It was then shifted a month in advance.

Home media
Life of Pi was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D in North America, on March 12, 2013. The film's 2D Blu-ray release contains many special features, including a one-hour making-of special entitled A Filmmaker's Epic Journey and two featurettes focusing on the film's visual effects, as well as two behind-the-scene looks at storyboarding and pre-production artwork. In addition, the film's 3D Blu-ray release contains five deleted scenes and a featurette entitled VFX Progressions that takes a look at what was shot and how it evolved to be what was rendered on screen. The film was later released on 4K Blu-ray and digital copy on March 8, 2016.

In the United Kingdom, it was the eighth best-selling film of 2013 on physical home video formats.

Reception

Box office
, Life of Pi had grossed US$124,772,844 in North America, and US$484,029,542 in other countries, for a worldwide total of US$609,006,177. During its opening on the extended Thanksgiving weekend, the film debuted in 2,902 theaters throughout the United States and Canada and grossed US$30,573,101. On the Chinese mainland, from November 22 to December 24, the film topped the box office for three weeks, and grossed over US$91 million. , it had also topped the box office for three weeks in Australia and Chile, and four weeks in Mexico and Peru. The film became the highest-grossing Hollywood film of the year in India, and was the tenth highest-grossing Hollywood release in the country. Life of Pi has earned HK$45,058,653 (US$5.8 million) at the Hong Kong box office, making it the highest grossing Ang Lee film in Hong Kong. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it grossed  () by February 2013. At the annual 2012 UK and Ireland box office, it was the year's eighth highest-grossing film, third highest-grossing 3D film, highest-grossing adventure film, and highest-grossing PG-rated film.

Critical response
Life of Pi has an 86% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 253 reviews with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A 3D adaptation of a supposedly "unfilmable" book, Ang Lee's Life of Pi achieves the near impossible – it's an astonishing technical achievement that's also emotionally rewarding." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 79 out of 100, based on 44 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Life of Pi four stars out of four, referring to it as "a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery" as well as "one of the best films of the year". He particularly praised the film's use of 3D that he described as "deepen[ing] the film's sense of places and events". Similarly, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone highlighted the use of 3D in the film suggesting that "like Hugo, from Martin Scorsese, Life of Pi puts 3D in the hands of a worldclass film artist. (Ang) Lee uses 3D with the delicacy and lyricism of a poet. You don't just watch this movie, you live it." Parmita Borah of Eastern Fare says, "There is this one scene in particular where the entire ocean is covered with jelly fish which makes you feel like 'this is what heaven must look like'."

The Los Angeles Times critic Betsy Sharkey referred to the film as a "masterpiece", stating that:

There is always a poetic aesthetic that Lee brings to his best work – the brutal martial arts ballet of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or the homophobic hatred against the backcountry grandeur of Brokeback Mountain, which would win him an Oscar for directing in 2006. In Life of Pi, certainly given its technological achievements, the filmmaker has raised the bar. Not since James Cameron's breathtaking blue Avatar in 2009 has 3-D had such impact.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cameron himself highlighted the film's use of 3D, noting that

Life of Pi breaks the paradigm that 3-D has to be some big, action fantasy spectacle, superhero movie ... The movie is visually amazing, inventive, and it works on you in ways you're not really aware of. It takes you on a journey, and unless you've read the book – which I hadn't – you have no idea where that journey is going. It does what good 3-D is supposed to do, which is, it allows you to forget you're watching a 3-D movie.

According to French journalist Marjolaine Gout, the film is "a philosophical tale where Noah's Ark metamorphoses into The Raft of the Medusa". She adds that it is "a visual masterpiece" in which "Ang Lee proves, once again, his talent as a universal storyteller". She also writes about the visual poetry of the movie reminding viewers of the works of classical painters and the symbolism of kolams. The film got 8 out of 10 stars, the readers gave 7 stars.

The novel's author, Yann Martel, found the film to be a "delightful" adaptation, saying,

I'm happy it works so well as a film. Even if the ending is not as ambiguous as the book's, the possibility that there might be another version of Pi's story comes at you unexpectedly and raises the same important questions about truth, perception and belief.

A. O. Scott of The New York Times was critical of the film's narrative frame, arguing that "the movie invites you to believe in all kinds of marvelous things, but it also may cause you to doubt what you see with your own eyes – or even to wonder if, in the end, you have seen anything at all". Scott further criticized the film for repressing the darker themes of the tale. Nick Schager of The Village Voice also panned the film, stating: "A stacked-deck theological inquiry filtered through a Titanic-by-way-of–Slumdog Millionaire narrative, Life of Pi manages occasional spiritual wonder through its 3-D visuals but otherwise sinks like a stone". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, and states "despite some lovely images and those eyepopping effects, it is a shallow and self-important shaggy-dog story – or shaggy-tiger story ... It deserves every technical prize going."

Richard Corliss of Time selected the film as the third-best movie of 2012, as well as calling it the next Avatar.

The film was noted for containing a "subtle, artistic warning" about the dangers of increased anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and ocean acidification. The scene of the acidic island Pi and Richard Parker encounter saw comparison to Castello Aragonese in the Tyrrhenian Sea near Naples and Richard Parker's final dismissive departure representing the "not too pleasant face of Gaia."

Accolades

Life of Pi was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won four (more than any other film from 2012): Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Cinematography (Claudio Miranda), Best Visual Effects (Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan de Boer and Donald R. Elliott) and Best Original Score (Mychael Danna). It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and won for Best Original Score.

Controversies and animal abuse allegations

Despite winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects at the 2013 Academy Awards, Rhythm & Hues Studios (who provided most of the visual effects for the film) was forced to file for bankruptcy on February 11, 2013, citing unfair competition from subsidized and tax exempt foreign studios. This sparked a demonstration of nearly 500 VFX artists who protested outside the 2013 Academy Awards. Inside, during the Oscars, when R&H visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer brought up R&H during his acceptance speech for Life of Pi, the microphone was cut off. This started an uproar among many visual effects industry professionals, changing profile pictures on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to show the green key color, in order to raise awareness for the issues the industry was facing. In addition, director Ang Lee was criticized by the protest leader for his failure to thank the effect industry, "Ang thanked the crew, the actors, his agent, his lawyer and the entire population of Taiwan right down to the team that built the wave-pool on the soundstage where Pi was shot, but failed to mention hundreds of artists who made not only the main character of the tiger, but replaced that pool, making it look like a real ocean for 80% of his movie." He was also criticized for earlier complaining about the costs of visual effects. In February 2014, Christina Lee Storm and Scott Leberecht released the documentary Life After Pi to YouTube. The documentary details the role Rhythm & Hues played in Life of Pi as well as the consequent bankruptcy. Bill Westenhofer also discusses his experience at the Oscars as he accepted a Visual Effects award for Rhythm & Hues' work on Life of Pi.

A trust named after Carnatic musician Irayimman Thampi has accused Bombay Jayashri's Oscar-nominated song "Pi's Lullaby" of not being an original composition. The trust has alleged that the first eight lines of the song is a word-by-word translation of composer Thampi's lullaby in Malayalam "Omanathinkal Kidavo". Jayashri has denied the allegation.

A 2013 investigation by the Hollywood Reporter brought to light leaked emails suggesting that animals involved in the filming of Life of Pi had been mistreated during the filming despite the American Humane Association's "No Animals Were Harmed" certification on the film. In an April 7, 2011, email, AHA monitor Gina Johnson wrote, "last week we almost killed King", in reference to a tiger used for filming. The email goes on to suggest that the incident, in which the tiger apparently nearly drowned while filming a scene, would be "downplayed" in the official report to the AHA. Additionally, the exposé alleges that Johnson was involved in a romantic relationship with one of the film's producers, possibly representing a conflict of interest. Life of Pi director Ang Lee has described the animal abuse allegations as "an accident" in interviews. Following the publication of the Hollywood Reporter investigation, Gina Johnson resigned from her position with the AHA.

New animal welfare concerns were raised in 2015 when PETA released a video that showed Life of Pi animal trainer Michael Hackenberger swearing at and whipping a young tiger 19 times. In April 2016, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed animal cruelty charges against Hackenberger based on the video evidence.

See also

 Survival film

References

External links

2012 3D films
2012 films
2010s adventure drama films
20th Century Fox films
American 3D films
American adventure drama films
Animal cruelty incidents in film
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Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award
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Fiction with unreliable narrators
Film controversies in the United States
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Films about survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents
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Films scored by Mychael Danna
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Life of Pi (film)


Céline and Julie Go Boating () is a 1974 French film directed by Jacques Rivette. The film stars Dominique Labourier as Julie and Juliet Berto as Céline.

It won the Special Prize of the Jury at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1974 and was an Official Selection at the 1974 New York Film Festival.

Synopsis
The film begins with Julie sitting on a park bench reading a book of magic spells when a woman (Céline) walks past, and begins dropping (à la Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit) various possessions. Julie begins picking them up, and tries to follow Céline around Paris, sometimes at a great pace (for instance, sprinting up Montmartre to keep pace with Céline's tram). After adventures following Céline around the Parisian streets—at one point it looks as if they have gone their separate ways, never to meet up again—Céline finally decides to move in with Julie. There are incidents of identity swapping, with Céline pretending to be Julie to meet the latter's childhood sweetheart, for example, and Julie attempting to fill in for Céline at a cabaret audition.

The second half of the film centers on the duo's individual visits to 7 bis, rue du Nadir-aux-Pommes, the address of a mansion in a quiet, walled off grounds in Paris. While seemingly empty and closed in the present day, the house is yet where Céline realizes she knows as the place where she works as a nanny for a family—two jealous sisters, one widower, and a sickly child. Soon, a repetitive pattern emerges: Céline or Julie enters the house, disappears for a time, and then is suddenly ejected by unseen hands back to present day Paris later that same day. Each time either Céline or Julie is exhausted, having forgotten everything that has happened during their time in the house. However, each time upon returning via a taxi the women discover a candy mysteriously lodged in their mouth. It seems to be important, so each makes sure to carefully save the candy. At one point, they realize that the candy is a key to the other place and time; sucking on the sweet transports them back to the house's alternative reality (in this case a double reference to both Lewis Carroll and to Marcel Proust's madeleine) of the day's events.

The remainder of the film consists of the two women attempting to solve the central mystery of the house: amid the jealous conniving of women of the house over the attentions of the widower, a young child is mysteriously murdered. However, this narrative is one that repeats like a stage play, with exact phrases they soon learn well enough to start joking about. Each time they repeat eating the candy, they remember more of the day's events. Just as if reading a favorite novel, or again watching a beloved movie, they find that they can enter the narrative itself, with each twist and turn memorized. Far from being the passive viewers/readers that they were at first—and most movie viewers always are—the women come to realize that they can seize hold of the story, changing it as they wish.

Now, even as the plot continues to unfold in its clockwork fashion, the women begin to take control, making it "interactive" by adding alterations to their dialogues and inserting different actions into the events unreeling in the house. Finally, in a true act of authorship, they change the ending, and rescue the young girl who was originally murdered. Both realities are fully conjoined when, after their rescue of the girl from the House of Fiction, the two not only discover themselves transported back to Julie's apartment, but this time it isn't another "waking dream" for the young girl, Madlyn, has joined them, safely back in 1970s Paris.

To relax, Céline, Julie, and Madlyn take a rowboat on a placid river, rowing and gliding happily along, but something isn't quite right. They go silent upon seeing another boat quickly coming to pass them on the water. On that boat we see the three main protagonists from the house-of-another-time: that alternate reality has followed them back to their world. But Céline, Julie, and Madlyn see them as the antique props they are, frozen in place.

The film ends as we watch Céline this time, half nodding off on a park bench, who catches sight of Julie hurrying past her, who in her White Rabbit way, drops her magic book. Picking it up, she calls and runs after Julie.

Themes
Magic is one of the themes of the film. Céline, the stage magician, does her magic tricks in a nightclub performance. Magic seems to come too from Julie's Tarot card readings. Finally, "real" magic comes from the design of a potion, which enables both women to enter the house and take charge of the narrative.

At the start, the two women are leading relatively conventional lives, each having jobs (Julie, a librarian, is more conservative and sensible than Céline, a stage magician, with her bohemian lifestyle). As the film develops, Céline and Julie separate from the world by leaving their jobs, moving in together, and gradually becoming obsessed with the mysterious and magical events in the old house.

In one scene, according to critic Irina Janakievska, Julie is playing Tarot cards, with one of the cards interpreted as signifying that Julie's future is behind her—exactly when we see Céline, wearing a disguise, observing Julie from one of the library desks. As Céline draws an outline of her hand in one of the books, Julie echoes that as she plays with a red ink pad.

Another noticeable aspect of the film is its use of pun]. For instance, the title Céline et Julie vont en bateau has other meanings from that of taking a boat ride: "aller en bateau" also means "to get caught up in a story that someone is telling you" or, in English, getting taken up in a "shaggy dog story".

Cast

 Juliet Berto – Céline
 Dominique Labourier – Julie
 Bulle Ogier – Camille
 Marie-France Pisier – Sophie
 Barbet Schroeder – Olivier
 Nathalie Asnar – Madlyn
 Marie-Thérèse Saussure – Poupie
 Philippe Clévenot – Guilou
 Anne Zamire – Lil
 Jean Douchet – M'sieur Dede
 Adèle Taffetas – Alice
 Monique Clément – Myrtille
 Jérôme Richard – Julien
 Michael Graham -  Boris
 Jean-Marie Sénia – Cyrille

Production
Luc Béraud was assistant director on the movie. Marilù Parolini worked as the set photographer.

References to film and literature
The film references Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Henry James' "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes", Bioy Casares's La invención de Morel, and Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires (Gaumont, 1915). Dennis Lim of the New York Times in 2012 wrote that the internal part of the film story is an adaptation of Henry James' story "The Other House" and that the film was an inspiration for Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan and Sara Driver's Sleepwalk. He also points out similarity of themes in David Lynch's Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire.

Reception
Celine and Julie Go Boating is among Rivette's more acclaimed works. The film tied for #78 in the British Film Institute's 2022 Sight & Sound poll, and the aggregation site They Shoot Pictures, Don't They has found it to be the 143rd greatest movie ever made. Rotten Tomatoes reports 80% approval among 54 critics, with an average rating of 7.9/10. On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100, based on 4 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

 Celine and Julie Go Boating at the TCM Movie Database
 Irina Janakievska at Culture Wars
 Gonzalo de Lucas, 'Vindication of Jacques Rivette' (special attention to Céline et Julie)
 'Phantom Interviewers Over Rivette' by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Lauren Sedofsky, Gilbert Adair
 Céline et Julie Vont en Bateau: Phantom Ladies Over Paris by Jonathan Romney
Céline and Julie Go Boating: State of Play an essay by Beatrice Loayza at the Criterion Collection

1974 films
1970s feminist films
1970s female buddy films
Films directed by Jacques Rivette
Films produced by Barbet Schroeder
French avant-garde and experimental films
French female buddy films
1970s French-language films
1970s French films

Celine and Julie Go Boating


Siobhan Trichelle Cropper (born April 13, 1978) is a 2-time Olympian and swimmer from Trinidad and Tobago, who specialized in sprint freestyle and butterfly events. Cropper represented Trinidad and Tobago in two editions of the Olympic Games (1996 and 2000), and eventually captured the 100 m butterfly title at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games in Maracaibo, Venezuela. She also holds three Trinidadian records in a sprint freestyle and butterfly double (both 50 and 100 m), two NCAA championship titles and fourteen All-American honors, while attending Stanford University.

Career

Early years and education
Cropper was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, the daughter of Anthony and Vilma Cropper. Started her sporting career at age six, she produced numerous age group and meet records in all swimming strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly). In 1993, she attained silver medals in both 50 m freestyle (26.93) and 100 m freestyle (58.78) at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Ponce, Puerto Rico. As a teenager, Cropper attended St. Joseph's Convent in Port of Spain, where she swam and trained for Hayden Newallo.

Cropper accepted an athletic scholarship to attend Stanford University in Stanford, California, where she swam for Richard Quick as a member of the Stanford Cardinal swimming and diving team from 1997 to 2001. While swimming for the Cardinal, she held school records in the 50-yard freestyle (22.54), 100-yard freestyle (49.65), and 100-yard butterfly (54.46), and received a total of fourteen All-American honors in her entire college career. At the 1998 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, during her freshman season, Cropper helped the Cardinals set meet records and capture two titles each in the 200-yard medley relay (1:37.80), and in the 400-yard medley relay (3:33.61).

International career
Cropper made her first Trinidad and Tobago Olympic team, as an eighteen-year-old junior, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. There, she missed reaching the top 16 final in one of her individual events, finishing nineteenth in the 50 m freestyle (26.29), and twenty-sixth in the 100 m freestyle (57.30) Cropper and her training partner leading up to the 1996 Olympic Games, Leah Martindale, were both coached by Anil Roberts for the 1996 Olympic Games.

At the 1997 FINA Short Course World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, Cropper made the final and established a Trinidad and Tobago national record of 25.68, placing eighth in the 50 m freestyle. The following year, at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Cropper collected a total of two medals: a gold in the 100 m butterfly (1:03.01; a meet record), and a silver in the 50 m freestyle (26.40).

Cropper competed in three individual events at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She qualifies for the Olympic Games with 26.54 (50 m freestyle), 58.44 (100 m freestyle), and 1:02.76 (100 m butterfly) at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. On the first day of the Games, Cropper placed fortieth in the 100 m butterfly. Swimming in heat three, she completed the event with a personal best of 1:02.34. Four days later, in the 100 m freestyle, Cropper lowered her lifetime record to 57.91 from heat two, finishing slightly behind leader Leah Martindale of Barbados, a finalist in Atlanta four years earlier. In her third event, 50 m freestyle, Cropper posted a time of 26.36 from heat six for a thirty-second overall seed, but missed the semifinals by just half a second (0.50).

Life after swimming
In the spring of 2001, Cropper graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, ending her swimming career with two Olympic editions and a top eight finish at the World Swimming Championships. In 2004, Cropper was inducted into the Trinidad and Tobago's Sports Hall of Fame. She  then added to her achievements an Ivy League MBA degree (Master of Business Administration) from the prestigious Columbia University in New York City in 2007, and eventually worked as a financial consultant with the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

See also
 Stanford Cardinal
 List of Stanford University people
 List of Trinidad and Tobago records in swimming

References

External links

Player Bio: Stanford Cardinal

1978 births
Living people
Trinidad and Tobago female swimmers
Olympic swimmers for Trinidad and Tobago
Swimmers at the 1994 Commonwealth Games
Swimmers at the 1995 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
Swimmers at the 1999 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Pan American Games competitors for Trinidad and Tobago
Commonwealth Games competitors for Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago female freestyle swimmers
Female butterfly swimmers
Sportspeople from Port of Spain
Stanford Cardinal women's swimmers
Stanford University alumni
Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Trinidad and Tobago
Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Trinidad and Tobago
Competitors at the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games
Competitors at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games
Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in swimming
People educated at St. Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain

Siobhan Cropper


WYUU (92.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting from Safety Harbor, Florida, and serving the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area. The station airs a Latin Pop format branded as "Maxima FM."  Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, its studios are in St. Petersburg while its transmitter is in Seminole.

History

Classical (1983-1989)
After being issued a construction permit, the station signed on the air in October 1983 as WXCR with a classical music format, advertising itself as "Concert Radio". On April 30, 1985, the founding ownership group, Tampa Bay Concert Radio, sold the station for $1.9 million to Entercom, a Pennsylvania-based company owning several U.S. radio stations.

Oldies (1989-2002)
Entercom continued the classical music format until September 28, 1989, when the station flipped to oldies, branded first as "Oldies 92.5", then later rebranded as "U92". WYUU flipped to oldies at around the same time the other former oldies station WFLZ switched to its CHR format after a week of stunting.

Country (2002-2005)
On April 18, 2002, a major change took place at WYUU. Sister station WRBQ-FM (104.7, also known as Q105), which aired a country format at the time, swapped formats with WYUU. This was done at the behest of U92 program director Mason Dixon, who was once a popular personality on Q105 when it was a Top-40 powerhouse throughout the 1980s and wanted to return there (not to mention WRBQ boasts a stronger signal).  WYUU thus became a country station and was dubbed "Country 92.5", before rebranding as "Kickass Country, Outlaw Country 92.5".  It was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series radio affiliate and also brought The Cowhead Show (morning drive, 6am-10am) over from WRBQ.

However, Outlaw 92.5 found itself as the third country station in a two country station market when Clear Channel's WTBT flipped to country as WFUS on April 14, 2005. With sister station WQYK-FM also playing country in the market, it became obvious to many observers that something had to give, particularly with country stations out of Polk County (97.5 WPCV) and Sarasota (106.5 WCTQ) edging into the fringes of the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater market.

Spanish (2005-present)
Finally, on August 7, 2005, WYUU flipped to a tropical music format following its broadcast of the Indianapolis Brickyard 400 NASCAR race. After three commercials, an announcement told listeners that a new format had come to the signal: "La Nueva 92.5, The Latin Sound of Tampa Bay". It became the second tropical station of Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio) after WLZL in Washington, D.C./Baltimore, which also signed on the same year.

In October 2008, WYUU was rebranded as Maxima 92.5. With this, WYUU began leaning towards rhythmic hits, but still reported by Mediabase and Nielsen BDS as a tropical station.

On October 2, 2014, CBS Radio announced that it would trade all of their Charlotte and Tampa stations (including WYUU), as well as WIP in Philadelphia, to the Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for 5 stations located in Miami and Philadelphia. The swap was completed on December 1, 2014.

In 2015, WYUU added some English pop music into their playlist, making them a rhythmic-leaning Latin pop station.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, WYUU plays Spanish holiday music.

WYUU-HD2
WYUU signed on HD Radio operations in 2006. WYUU-HD1 airs the same programming as the analog frequency, while WYUU-HD2 aired a salsa music format, branded as "Maxima Exitos." On January 22, 2017, WYUU-HD2 began simulcasting on translator 106.9 W295CF (which had been initially simulcasting sister WHFS), and began stunting with remixed Miami bass music as "El Booty", branding themselves as  "The Official Station For Latina Strippers Of Tampa Bay". Following the stunt, 106.9/92.5 HD2 launched a Spanish tropical format as "Playa 106.9", a format found on sister station W251AL/WRXK-FM-HD2 in nearby Fort Myers (and formerly the primary format that aired on WYUU from 2005 to 2008); a Facebook page for "Playa Tampa" was established a week before, on the 13th, featuring a logo promoting the signals.

References

External links
WYUU website

Sylvia Villagran Website

YUU
YUU
YUU
Radio stations established in 1984
1984 establishments in Florida

WYUU


Robert Dean Manfred Jr. (born September 28, 1958) is an American lawyer and business executive who is serving as the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball. He previously served as MLB's chief operating officer. Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner on January 25, 2015.

Early life and career
Manfred was born on September 28, 1958, in Rome, New York. As a child, he played tennis, golf and baseball, opting to focus on tennis by his eighth grade year, which he continued to play through college at Le Moyne. He attended Rome Free Academy and graduated in 1976. Manfred enrolled at Le Moyne College from 1976 through 1978 before transferring to Cornell University. He earned his Bachelor of Science from Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1980 and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1983, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

After law school, Manfred clerked for Judge Joseph L. Tauro of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1983 to 1984. He then joined the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he worked in on labor and employment law.

Major League Baseball
In 1987, Manfred began working with Major League Baseball (MLB) during collective bargaining. During the 1994–95 MLB strike, he served as outside counsel for the owners. He joined MLB on a full-time basis in 1998, serving as the Executive Vice President of Economics and League Affairs. Manfred negotiated MLB's first drug testing agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) in 2002, and represented MLB in negotiations with the MLBPA when forming new collective bargaining agreements in 2002, 2006 and 2011. In 2013, Manfred led MLB's investigation of the Biogenesis scandal.

At the end of the 2013 season, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig promoted Manfred to chief operating officer of MLB. The position had been vacant since Bob DuPuy resigned in 2010. Following the announcement of Selig's retirement, effective after the 2014 season, Manfred became a finalist to succeed him as Commissioner.

On August 14, 2014, MLB owners elected Manfred to succeed Selig, beating Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and MLB executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan. Manfred assumed office on January 25, 2015. He stated that his primary goals as commissioner were youth outreach, embracing technology, quickening the pace of play, strengthening player relations, and creating a more unified business operation.

As commissioner, Manfred instituted rules before the start of the 2015 season to address the pace of play, including having batters remain in the batter's box and the installation of time clocks to limit the time spent around commercial breaks. For the 2017 season, no-pitch intentional walks were approved in MLB for the first time.  The first Little League Classic was also played in August 2017, which received widespread praise.  Before the 2018 season, Manfred introduced more rule changes to affect the pace of play, including reducing the time in commercial breaks and limiting player visits to the pitcher's mound. He has also advocated for expansion franchises, listing Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, Montreal, and Vancouver as possible locations for new teams.

On November 15, 2018, the owners extended Manfred's contract through the 2024 season. On July 26, 2023, his contract was extended through the 2028 season.

Houston Astros sign stealing scandal

In 2020, Manfred led an investigation that found that the Houston Astros had used illegal methods to steal signs during the 2017 season, in which they won the World Series, as well as part of the 2018 season. Manfred fined the team $5 million, the maximum allowed by the MLB constitution, and revoked their first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. Astros manager A. J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were each suspended for the entire 2020 season, including the playoffs. No Astros players were punished because they received immunity in exchange for their cooperation in the investigation.

Manfred was widely criticized for his handling of the situation. In an interview with ESPN, he defended his decision not to discipline players involved with the scandal, arguing that the MLBPA would not accept it. He also refused to strip the Astros of their 2017 World Series title because "It has never happened in baseball" and that he believed "that precedent happens and when you deviate from that, you have to have a very good reason." During this Manfred used the phrase "Hunk of Metal" to describe the Commissioner's Trophy. After many fans and players pushed back to the description, Manfred issued an apology, stating his intent was to make "a rhetorical point".

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic
On March 12, 2020, one day after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, Major League Baseball cancelled spring training and delayed the start of the 2020 season by at least two weeks. Four days later, it was announced that the start of the season would be pushed back indefinitely due to the recommendation made by the CDC to restrict events of more than 50 people for eight weeks. On May 26, Manfred made the league's first proposal for the 2020 season, which included a reduction of the richest salaries by over 75 percent. This proposal was immediately rejected by the Players Association. The MLBPA later voted 33–5 to reject a proposal from Manfred and the owners for a 60-game season that would include an expanded postseason format and no provisions for salary guarantees in the event of a cancelled season, then rejected a third proposal for a 72-game season with 80% pro-rated pay. Manfred and the owners had also rejected the players' proposal for a 70-game season. On June 22, Manfred imposed a 60-game regular season that was unanimously approved by franchise owners. The season imposed by Manfred included the implementation of a sixteen-team postseason format (proposed by the players' union and later approved by the owners), a universal designated hitter and extra innings beginning with a runner on second base.

2021 All-Star Game relocation
On April 2, 2021, Manfred announced that the 2021 All-Star Game would be moved from Atlanta in protest of a voting reform law passed by Georgia's legislature. The move was supported by President Joe Biden and the MLBPA, the latter of whom claimed that the law "disproportionately disenfranchises the Black community." The decision was opposed both by Republican state officials including governor Brian Kemp and by several prominent Georgia Democrats including activist and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and senator Raphael Warnock. The Atlanta Braves also opposed the move remarking that they were "deeply disappointed" by Manfred's decision and "businesses, employees and fans in Georgia are the victims of this decision." On April 5, Manfred announced that Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, would host the All-Star Game.

2021–22 lockout

Following the expiration of the league's collective bargaining agreement in December 2021, team owners unanimously voted to enact a lockout at 12:01 a.m. EST on December 2, indefinitely lasting until a new CBA was signed. Manfred formally announced the lockout in a press release titled "A letter to baseball fans," an action that received criticism from various baseball media members. After several rounds of meetings between MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association that were described as "unproductive," the league set February 28 as a deadline to complete negotiations at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, or else regular season games would begin to be cancelled. MLB and the MLBPA worked late into the night on contract negotiations on February 28, ignoring the deadline and working into the early morning hours of March 1. Around 2:30 a.m. EST on March 1, the league decided that there was enough progress on negotiations to push the deadline to 5:00 p.m. on the same day. As negotiations began to resume on March 1, a players' union representative stated that the two sides were further apart on key issues than what was being reported and claimed that Manfred and MLB were pushing an overly-optimistic storyline for their own gain. Just before the 5:00 p.m. deadline, the league contingent made a final offer that was ultimately turned down by the players' union. As a result, Manfred announced in a press conference outside Roger Dean Stadium that a chunk of the season's first games (later revealed to be the first two series) would be cancelled. Manfred received online criticism for smiling and laughing before and during the press conference.

As negotiations continued, Manfred announced that March 8 was the new deadline for an agreement to be in place or else more games would be cancelled. After another marathon of negotiations beginning on March 8 and stretching into the early hours of March 9, the deadline was extended as it had been in the previous week's deadline meeting. The league and the players' union once again failed to come to an agreement by the extended deadline because of the last-second inclusion of an international player draft in the owners' proposal.  As a result, Manfred cancelled another two series, tentatively pushing the 2022 season's opening day to April 14. On March 10, Manfred and the league put the possibility of a 162-game season on the table if a deal could be met soon thereafter. That evening, the players' union accepted an MLB proposal that allowed the two sides to explore the international draft idea and come to decision on it by July 2022. The owners voted unanimously to ratify the agreement, ending the lockout. Manfred announced that opening day was being reverted back to April 7 and that the original first two series of the season would be played at later dates so that a full 162-game season could be conducted. In a subsequent press conference, Manfred said that he was relieved to see the lockout end and that he desired to improve his relationship with the players.

2023 World Baseball Classic

Manfred valued the World Baseball Classic from the beginning of his tenure, and the 2017 tourney drew 3.5 million viewers in the United States. After a six-year hiatus (longer than planned due to COVID-19 pandemic), Major League Baseball superstars such as Mike Trout and Mookie Betts joined Team USA for the 5th iteration of the tournament in 2023. The 2023 World Baseball Classic was broadcast in 163 territories through 63 media partners and received US$100 million in benefits.

The 2023 tournament was extremely popular in the United States and was broadcast nationwide on FOX.
The finals between Japan and Team USA had an average combined viewership of 5.2 million Americans across FOX, FS1, and FOX Deportes and peaked at approximately 6.5 million Americans watching as Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout for the game's final out to clinch the title for Japan.

The 2023 World Baseball Classic game between Japan and Korea recorded nearly 63 million viewers, higher than the 1980 World Series, making it one of the most viewed baseball games in history. In the Japanese archipelago, 100 million people watched the WBC, and over 55 million people within the Japanese archipelago watched the final game.

The 2023 tournament was broadcast in China on China's largest websites, including Weibo, Douyin, and Bilibili, Kuaishou. The match between China and Japan was watched by up to 422,000 people.

Oakland Athletics proposed relocation to Las Vegas controversy

On April 19, 2023, the Oakland Athletics (A's), at the guidance of team owner John Fisher, announced a "binding deal" purchase of land in Las Vegas, Nevada for a new ballpark. The announcement indicated the team's intent to relocate out of their longtime home of Oakland, California after 57 seasons and four World Series championships. The proposed relocation of Oakland and the East Bay region's sole remaining major professional sports franchise comes on the heels of the city losing the NBA's Golden State Warriors to San Francisco in 2019 and the NFL's Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas in 2020, and has been described by national and international media as "catastrophic" for the community and "incalculable loss" for the community and larger East Bay region. The A's proposed relocation would make Oakland the first and only major city in history to be fully abandoned by North American major professional sports after hosting multiple teams across different sports.

The announcement was followed immediately by widespread condemnation, including public accusations of bad faith negotiating and intentionally-deceptive business practices on the part of the A's and Major League Baseball in negotiations with Oakland city officials. In 2023, Fisher, A's President Dave Kaval and Commissioner Manfred have repeatedly been caught or accused of knowingly giving false public statements and outright lying about the proposed Oakland Ballpark project, which began in 2018 and stalled sometime following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Public response to the proposed relocation of Oakland's only remaining major professional sports franchise has been widespread. Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob publicly stated he has a standing offer to buy the A's from Fisher and would privately fund a new ballpark for the team, though Fisher has repeatedly stated he will not willingly sell the team. Actor Tom Hanks, who worked as an Oakland A's hot dog vendor at the Oakland Coliseum as a teenager, on the topic of the A's proposed move to Las Vegas just after the departures of the Warriors and Raiders from town, stated "Damn them all to Hell." Other celebrities such as Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong have publicly joined the "SELL" movement, with the goal of convincing John Fisher to sell the team and allow it to remain in Oakland.

In July 2016, Manfred stated "I am committed to Oakland as a major league site. If we were to leave Oakland, I think 10 years from now, we would be more likely than not looking backward, saying we made a mistake."

In May 2021, Manfred's office announced that Major League Baseball had given the Athletics permission to explore relocation, citing slow progress on the proposed bayfront Oakland Ballpark.

In late October 2022, Manfred announced that he would instruct the league to waive the standard assessed relocation fee (estimated at $300 million) for Athletics ownership should the team choose to relocate specifically to Las Vegas. Manfred reiterated this in late July 2023, exacerbating the ire of other MLB owners frustrated with the "preferential treatment" Fisher and Las Vegas were receiving from Manfred.

In response to questions about the Tuesday June 13, 2023 "Reverse Boycott Game I", which drew the A's highest attendance of the season to date, more than triple the team's season attendance average to that point, Manfred condescendingly stated "It's great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That's a great thing." He continued, erroneously stating, "There is no Oakland offer. They never got to the point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site." In response to a question about several academic studies on the economic benefits to communities that contribute public funds for professional sports facilities, Manfred responded "I love academics; they're great . . . Academics can say whatever they want. I think the reality tells you something else." All three comments were met with widespread condemnation of the commissioner, with the comment of Oakland having "no plan to build a stadium at any site" being immediately disproven the same day by Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and city officials, who in response publicly shared the plans for the proposed bay-front Howard Terminal ballpark at the edge of Downtown Oakland, opposite and in complement to the cross-bay San Francisco Giants' Oracle Park. Oakland city officials had been in negotiations with A's and MLB officials over the project since 2018 and into 2023, though Oakland city officials indicated the A's had seemingly stalled the project and begun to shy away from following through with it, starting sometime in 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This claim was substantiated by the fact that the A's missed project deadlines without explanation, including a key city-mandated deadline for finalizing the stadium development plan in September 2022. Reports have indicated Fisher no longer has the financial capability to follow through with the Oakland ballpark project that he and his team proposed due to pandemic-related revenue losses and losses incurred by the declining stock prices of Gap Inc., which much of his net worth is tied to.

On Saturday August 5, 2023, Oakland A's fans and independent supporters groups held "Reverse Boycott Game II", which drew 37,553 fans, the largest crowd of the season at the Oakland Coliseum.

The circumstances surrounding the A's franchise under Fisher's ownership tenure as a whole (Fisher assumed controlling interest of the franchise in 2016 after initially co-owning the team with Lewis Wolff since 2005) received significant media attention throughout the 2023 Major League Baseball season.

Personal life
Growing up in Central New York, Manfred was a fan of the New York Yankees. His father Rob Sr. led the Rome, New York, division of Revere Copper and Brass, while his mother Phyllis was a school teacher. He has an older sister and a younger brother.

Manfred and his wife, Colleen, have four children; Megan, Michael, Jane and Mary Clare. Megan married Timothy Petrella of Minnetonka, Minnesota, son of the president of UnitedHealthcare Community and State, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

References

External links

1958 births
Living people
People from Rome, New York
Major League Baseball commissioners
American chief operating officers
Catholics from New York (state)
College men's tennis players in the United States
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations alumni
Le Moyne College alumni
Harvard Law School alumni

Rob Manfred