Rape Me

"Rape Me" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the fourth song on the band's third and final studio album, "In Utero", released in September 1993. It is also Nirvana's last single release before Cobain committed suicide four months later.
"Rape Me" was released as the album's second single in December 1993, packaged as a double A-side with "All Apologies". The single reached number 32 on the UK Singles Chart.
Background and recording.
"Rape Me" was written by Cobain on an acoustic guitar in Los Angeles in May 1991, around the time the band's second album, "Nevermind", was being mixed. It was first performed live on June 18, 1991, at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz. The earliest live versions of the song featured a guitar solo instead of a bridge.
The song's lyrics led to controversy even before it had been officially released. The band had wanted to play "Rape Me" during their appearance at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, but the network believed the song was a direct attack on them, and insisted they perform their breakthrough single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," instead. The ongoing argument between MTV and Cobain escalated over the span of several days, with MTV threatening to cut Nirvana from the show, to stop playing the band's music videos, and even to boycott other artists on the band's management company, Gold Mountain. Cobain only relented after being informed that MTV would fire Amy Finnerty, an MTV employee and friend of the band's, if the band played "Rape Me". The band ultimately agreed to play their latest single, "Lithium," but not before Cobain started playing the chords and singing the opening lines of "Rape Me," which resulted in the live broadcast almost going to commercial.
"Rape Me" was first recorded in the studio in October 1992, during a two-day demo session with Jack Endino at Word of Mouth in Seattle, Washington. Two takes of the song were recorded, one of which was instrumental, the other featuring lead vocals by Cobain and backing vocals by drummer Dave Grohl. Cobain was holding his then-infant daughter Frances Bean Cobain on his lap when he recorded his vocals, and she can be heard crying on the demo.
The final studio version of "Rape Me" was recorded in February 1993 by Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, for the band's third and final studio album, "In Utero". The instruments for the song were recorded on February 15. The following day, Cobain completed his vocals for the album during a reported six-hour session. Cobain used his Fender Jaguar guitar plugged into a Twin Reverb amp.
On September 25, 1993, the band performed the song, along with "Heart-Shaped Box," on "Saturday Night Live" at NBC Studios in New York City. It was the band's first show with second guitarist Pat Smear. The song was again performed on television on February 4, 1994 for the show "Nulle Part Ailleurs" in Paris, France.
The final live performance of "Rape Me" was at Nirvana's last concert, at Terminal Einz in Munich, Germany on March 1, 1994.
Composition and lyrics.
Music.
The song's instrumental opening bars, which features Cobain using pick scratching while playing the verse chord progression, has led to frequent comparisons to the guitar riff of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Will Bryant of "Pitchfork" wrote that "the four-chord riff that drags the song through the motions is an almost direct inversion of the famous 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' riff," while Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross described the song as having "the same catchy soft/loud dynamic as "Teen Spirit," which "created a perfect Cobain aesthetic – beautiful, haunting and disturbing." "Rape Me" was written after "Smells Like Teen Spirit," but before "Nevermind" had been released.
Lyrics.
"Rape Me" is an anti-rape song, written from the point of view of the victim. "It's like she's saying, 'Rape me, go ahead, rape me, beat me,'" Cobain told Darcey Steinke of "Spin" in 1993, "'You'll never kill me. I'll survive this and I'm gonna fucking rape you one of these days and you won't even know it. Gllian G. Garr described the song's lyrics as "part submissive invitation, part defiant taunt, a mix that confused and disturbed many listeners", and led to Cobain frequently having to explain the song's meaning.
When asked by MUCH's Erica Ehm in an August 1993 interview how the band was helping to raise awareness about sexism, Cobain replied, "By writing songs as blunt as 'Rape Me.'" He stated that it was a song meant to be so blunt that no one could misinterpret its meaning.
American musician Tori Amos commented on the song in a 1994 interview with the "NME", saying that she "thought it was very clear what it was about...It's a defiant song. But the scariest thing to a rape victim are the words 'rape me'. When I first heard it I broke out in a cold sweat, but when you get over that you realize he's turning it back on people."
The song has also been interpreted as an attack on the media for its perceived mistreatment of Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love. While most of the song was written before "Nevermind" was released, the bridge, which was written later, contains lyrics that address his occasionally contentious relationship with the media. As Cobain explained to Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad, "It was actually about rape ... but now I could definitely use it as an example of my life for the past six months or year, easily." In line with this interpretation, Azerrad suggested that the chorus lyric "I'm not the only one" was Cobain's way of saying that Love and their infant daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, were being hurt along with him by the media and public attention. According to Azerrad, the bridge lyric "My favorite inside source" was a reference to the manager of an unnamed Seattle band Cobain and Love suspected of being anonymously interviewed for a controversial "Vanity Fair" profile of the couple published in September 1992.
Release and reception.
"Rape Me" was released as a double A-side single with "All Apologies" on December 6, 1993 on CD, cassette, and 7" and 12" vinyl record formats. The single was not released commercially in the United States.
The song was relabeled "Waif Me" on the censored Wal-Mart and Kmart version of "In Utero", released in March 1994. The chain stores had originally refused to carry the album because of the song's title, as well as the fetus collage on the back cover, which was also edited. The song's proper title was listed in the booklet, and the recording remained the same. Cobain defended the band's decision to release a censored version of the album by explaining, "One of the main reasons I signed to a major label was so people would be able to buy our records at Kmart. In some towns, that's the only place kids can buy records."
In her "Spin" cover story on the band, Steinke described the song as carrying a "quiet biblical angst." David Fricke, in his review of "In Utero" for "Rolling Stone", wrote that "'Rape Me' opens as a disquieting whisper, Cobain intoning the title verse in a battered croon, which sets you up beautifully to get blind-sided by the explosive hook line."
In November 1993, "Rape Me" was voted the third "Most Wanted to be Heard" song by listeners of the Hawaii Free Radio.
Criticism.
"Rape Me" has occasionally received criticism for its intentionally blunt handling of sensitive subject matter. John Mulvey of the "NME" wrote that "while you can't doubt Cobain's personal political correctness, there's a distinct moral dubiousness about welding the words 'RAPE ME!' to "In Utero"s best sing-along chorus." "Pitchfork's" Will Bryant wrote that the song, despite its victim-empowering intent, "comes off as a shallow and transparent attempt to court controversy."
In 2019, Jenna Bush Hager revealed that her father, George W. Bush, prior to becoming U.S. President, broke one of her Nirvana CDs due to the lyrics of "a really bad song" implied to be "Rape Me."
Legacy.
In 1999, "Rape Me" was voted number 90 in "Kerrang!"s "100 Greatest Rock Tracks Ever!". In 2015, "Rolling Stone" placed it at number 31 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs, with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd calling it "the closest to an actual Bikini Kill song that [Cobain] would ever write, using the lyrics as a woman-empowering taunt to show would-be rapists that their victims' spirits would not be tamped." In 2019, "The Guardian" ranked it at number 17 on their list of 'Nirvana's 20 greatest songs'.
"Rape Me" was re-released on both of Nirvana's greatest hits albums, "Nirvana" (2002) and "Icon" (2010).
Music video.
Although no music video was made for "Rape Me", two treatments for a proposed video were published posthumously in Cobain's "Journals" in 2002. They included scenes set in a prison, footage of flowers and seahorses as well as a man being prepared for a gynecological exam.
In 1999, the "Saturday Night Live" version of "Rape Me" began being aired as a music video on MTV2 to promote the album "Saturday Night Live: The Musical Performances, Volume 2".
Track listings.
Released as a double A-side with "All Apologies".
CD single and 12" vinyl
Cassette and 7" vinyl
UK promo single
US promo CD (includes lyrics)
In popular culture.
In "The Simpsons" episode "That 90's Show", guest star "Weird Al" Yankovic sings a parody version called "Brain Freeze". Homer also creates a band called "Sadgasm", a parody of Nirvana, and is seen singing "Shave Me".
In the "South Park" episode "Hummels & Heroin", Cartman, Kenny, Kyle, and Butters perform a Barbershop Quartet cover of "Rape Me" for a retirement home.


SS Olympia

SS "Olympia" was a steamship that served the northwest United States and Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. She was wrecked in 1910.
"Olympia" was laid down as SS "Doune Castle but launched as SS "Dunbar Castle in 1883 by Barclay, Curle and Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, for the Castle Mail Packet Company. In 1895, "Dunbar Castle" was sold to Fairfield Ship Building and Engineering Co. and renamed SS "Olympia".
In 1897, the Scottish American Steamship Company bought her, and later that year she was bought by the Northern Pacific Steamship Line. In 1898, she operated with the North America Mail Steamship Company of Tacoma, Washington. In 1903, she operated under the North Western Steam Ship Company of Seattle, Washington, which sold her to the Alaska Steam Ship Company in 1904. That year, lifeboats were installed.
On 10 December 1910, "Olympia" ran aground on Bligh Reef off Alaska′s Prince William Sound and sank without loss of life. Following the sinking, steamboat inspectors accused Captain Daniels, in command of "Olympia" when she ran aground, of "unskillful navigation."


SS Eastland

The SS "Eastland" was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915, the ship rolled over onto its side while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
After the disaster, "Eastland" was salvaged and sold to the United States Navy. After restorations and modifications, "Eastland" was designated a gunboat and renamed USS "Wilmette". She was used primarily as a training vessel on the Great Lakes, and was scrapped after World War II.
Construction.
The ship was commissioned during 1902 by the Michigan Steamship Company and built by the Jenks Ship Building Company of Port Huron, Michigan. The ship was named in May 1903, immediately before her inaugural voyage.
History.
Early problems.
On 27 July of her 1903 inaugural season, the ship struck the laid up tugboat "George W. Gardner" and sank her at her dock at the Lake Street Bridge, Chicago, Illinois, but received only minor damage.
Mutiny on the "Eastland".
On 14 August 1903, while on a cruise from Chicago to South Haven, Michigan, six of the ship's firemen refused to stoke the fire for the ship's boiler. They claimed that they had not received their potatoes for a meal. When they refused to return to the fire hole, Captain John Pereue ordered the six men arrested at gunpoint. Firemen George Lippen and Benjamin Myers, who were not a part of the group of six, stoked the fires until the ship reached harbor. Upon the ship's arrival in South Haven, the six men – Glenn Watson, Mike Davern, Frank La Plarte, Edward Fleming, Mike Smith, and William Madden – were taken to the town jail and charged with mutiny. Shortly thereafter, Captain Pereue was replaced.
Speed modifications.
Because the ship did not meet a targeted speed of 22 miles per hour during her inaugural season, and had a draft too deep for the Black River in South Haven, Michigan, where she was being loaded, the ship returned in September 1903 to Port Huron for modifications, including the addition of an air conditioning system and machinery adjustments to reduce draft. Even though the modifications increased the ship's speed, they added additional weight and reduced her draft, thereby reducing the metacentric height and inherent stability as originally designed.
Listing incidents.
Upon her return to South Haven, in May 1904, the ship handily won a race against the "City of South Haven" to Chicago. In the meantime, the "Eastland" was experiencing periodic problems with her stability while loading and unloading cargo and passengers, and nearly capsized on 17 July 1904, after leaving South Haven with approximately 3,000 passengers. Subsequently, her capacity was lowered to 2,800 passengers, cabins were removed, lifeboats added and the hull repaired. Then, on 5 August 1906, another incident of listing occurred which resulted in the filing of complaints against the Chicago-South Haven Line which had purchased the ship earlier that year.
Before the 1907 season, the ship was sold to the Lake Shore Navigation Company, and moved to Lake Erie. In 1909, the ship was sold again to the Eastland Navigation Company, and continued running excursions between Cleveland and Cedar Point. After the 1909 season, the remaining 39 cabins were removed, and prior to the 1912 season, the top smoke stack sections were removed to shorten her stack height. On 1 July 1912, another incident occurred when the "Eastland" had a severe listing of approximately 25 degrees while loading passengers in Cleveland.
In June 1914, the "Eastland" was sold to the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company, and returned to Lake Michigan for St. Joseph, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois service.
The "Eastland" disaster.
On 24 July 1915, "Eastland" and four other Great Lakes passenger steamers – "Theodore Roosevelt", "Petoskey", "Racine" and "Rochester" – were chartered to take employees from Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. This was a major event in the lives of the workers, many of whom could not take holidays. Many of the passengers on "Eastland" were Czech immigrants from Cicero; of the Czech passengers, 220 perished.
During 1915, the new federal Seamen's Act had been passed because of the RMS "Titanic" disaster three years earlier. The law required retrofitting of a complete set of lifeboats on "Eastland", as on many other passenger vessels. This additional weight may have made "Eastland" more dangerous by making her even more top-heavy. Some argued that other Great Lakes ships would suffer from the same problem. Nonetheless, it was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. "Eastland" had the option of maintaining a reduced capacity or adding lifeboats to increase capacity. Its leadership elected to add lifeboats to qualify for a license to increase its capacity to 2,570 passengers. "Eastland" was already so top-heavy that she had special restrictions concerning the number of passengers that could be carried. Prior to that, during June 1914, "Eastland" had again changed ownership, this time bought by the St. Joseph and Chicago Steamship Company, with Captain Harry Pedersen appointed the ship's master. In 1914, the St. Joseph and Chicago Steamship Company removed the old hardwood flooring of the forward dining room on the cabin level and replaced it with two inches of concrete. They also added a layer of cement near the aft gangway. Together, this added fifteen to twenty tons of weight.
On the morning of 24 July, passengers began boarding "Eastland" on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle Streets about 6:30 am, and by 7:10 am, the ship had reached her capacity of 2,572 passengers. The ship was packed, with many passengers standing on the open upper decks, and began to list slightly to the port side (away from the wharf). The crew attempted to stabilize the ship by admitting water into her ballast tanks, but to little avail. Sometime during the next 15 minutes, a number of passengers rushed to the port side, and at 7:28 am, "Eastland" lurched sharply to port, and then rolled completely onto her port side, coming to rest on the river bottom, which was only below the surface; barely half the vessel was submerged. Many other passengers had already moved below decks on this relatively cool and damp morning to warm themselves before the departure. Consequently, hundreds of people were trapped inside by the water and the sudden rollover; some were crushed by heavy furniture, including pianos, bookcases, and tables. Although the ship was only 20 feet (6.1 meters) from the wharf, and in spite of the quick response by the crew of a nearby vessel, "Kenosha", which came alongside the hull to allow those stranded on the capsized vessel to leap to safety, a total of 844 passengers and four crew members died in the disaster.
The bodies of the victims were taken to various temporary morgues established in the area for identification; by afternoon, the remaining unidentified bodies were consolidated in the Armory of the 2nd Regiment.
In the aftermath, the Western Electric Company provided $100,000 to relief and recovery efforts of family members of the victims of the disaster.
One of the people who were scheduled to be on "Eastland" was 20-year-old George Halas, an American football player, who was delayed leaving for the dock, and arrived after the ship had overturned. His name was listed on the list of deceased in newspapers, but when fraternity brothers visited his home to send their condolences, he was revealed to be unharmed. Halas would go on to become coach and owner of the Chicago Bears and a founding member of the National Football League. His friend and future Bears executive Ralph Brizzolara and his brother were on the "Eastland" when she capsized, though they escaped through portholes. Despite stories to the contrary, no reliable evidence indicates Jack Benny was aboard "Eastland" or scheduled to be on the excursion; possibly the basis for this report was that "Eastland" was a training vessel during World War I and Benny received his training in the Great Lakes naval base, where "Eastland" was stationed.
The first known film footage taken of the recovery efforts was discovered and then released during early 2015 by a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Marion Eichholz – the last known survivor of the capsizing – died on 24 November 2014, at the age of 102.
"Eastland" disaster and the media.
Writer Jack Woodford witnessed the disaster and gave a first-hand account to the "Herald and Examiner", a Chicago newspaper. In his autobiography, Woodford writes:
Newspapers played a significant part in not only publicizing the "Eastland" disaster, but also creating the public memory of the catastrophe. The newspapers' purpose, audience, and political and business associations influenced the newspapers to publish articles emphasizing who was to blame and why "Eastland" capsized. Consequently, the articles influenced how the court cases proceeded, and contributed to a dispute between Western Electric Company and some of its workers regarding how the company responded to the catastrophe.
Carl Sandburg, then known better as a journalist than a poet, wrote an angry account accusing regulators of ignoring safety issues and claimed that many of the workers were there on company orders for a staged picnic. Sandburg also wrote a poem, "The "Eastland"", that contrasts the disaster with the mistreatment and poor health of the lower classes at the time. After first listing the quick, murderous horrors of the disaster, then surveying the slow, murderous horrors of extreme poverty, Sandburg concludes by comparing the two: "I see a dozen "Eastlands"/Every morning on my way to work/And a dozen more going home at night." The poem was too harsh for publication when written but was eventually released as part of a collection of poems during 1993.
The "Eastland" disaster was incorporated into the 1999 series premiere of the Disney Channel original series "So Weird". In the episode, teenaged paranormal enthusiast Fiona Phillips (actress Cara DeLizia) encounters the ghost of a young boy who drowned during the capsizing while exploring a nightclub near the Chicago River, and attempts to learn why he has contacted her.
During 2012, Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre produced an original musical about the disaster entitled "Eastland: A New Musical", written by Andy White and scored by Ben Collins-Sussman and Andre Pluess. The Eastland disaster is also pivotal to the story of one family told in the play/musical "Failure: A Love Story", written by Philip Dawkins, which premiered in Chicago in 2012. Its Los Angeles production, directed by Michael Matthews, and produced by Couerage Theater Company, premiered on 24 July 2015 – the 100th anniversary of the Eastland tragedy.
Inquiry and indictments.
A grand jury indicted the president and three other officers of the steamship company for manslaughter, and the ship's captain and engineer for criminal carelessness, and found that the disaster was caused by "conditions of instability" caused by any or all of overloading of passengers, mishandling of water ballast, or the construction of the ship.
Federal extradition hearings were held to compel the six indicted men to come from Michigan to Illinois for trial. During the hearings, principal witness Sidney Jenks, president of the shipbuilding company that built "Eastland", testified that her first owners wanted a fast ship to transport fruit, and he designed one capable of making and carrying 500 passengers. Defense counsel Clarence Darrow asked whether he had ever worried about the conversion of the ship into a passenger steamer with a capacity of 2,500 or more passengers. Jenks replied, "I had no way of knowing the quantity of its business after it left our yards... No, I did not worry about the "Eastland"." Jenks testified that an actual stability test of the ship never occurred, and stated that after tilting to an angle of 45° at launching, "it righted itself as straight as a church, satisfactorily demonstrating its stability."
The court refused extradition, holding the evidence was too weak, with "barely a scintilla of proof" to establish probable cause to find the six guilty. The court reasoned that the four company officers were not aboard the ship, and that every act charged against the captain and engineer was done in the ordinary course of business, "more consistent with innocence than with guilt." The court also reasoned that "Eastland" "was operated for years and carried thousands safely", and that for this reason no one could say that the accused parties were unjustified in believing the ship seaworthy.
Gallery of the Eastland Disaster.
Second life as USS "Wilmette".
After "Eastland" was raised on 14 August 1915, she was sold to the Illinois Naval Reserve and recommissioned as USS "Wilmette" stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base. She was converted to a gunboat, renamed "Wilmette" on 20 February 1918, and commissioned on 20 September 1918, with Captain William B. Wells in command. Commissioned late in World War I, "Wilmette" did not have any combat service. It trained sailors and experienced normal upkeep and repairs until placed in ordinary at Chicago on 9 July 1919, retaining a 10-man caretaker crew aboard. On 29 June 1920, the gunboat was returned to full commission, with Captain Edward A. Evers, United States Naval Reserve Forces (USNRF), in command.
On 7 June 1921, "Wilmette" was given the task of sinking "UC-97", a German U-boat surrendered to the United States after World War I. The guns of "Wilmette" were manned by Gunner's Mate J. O. Sabin, who had fired the first American cannon of World War I, and Gunner's Mate A. F. Anderson, the man who fired the first American torpedo of the conflict.
For the remainder of her 25-year career, the gunboat served as a training ship for naval reservists of the 9th, 10th, and 11th Naval Districts. It made voyages along the shores of the Great Lakes carrying trainees assigned to her from the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois. Ernie Pyle, the famed World War II correspondent, was one of those trainees when he spent three weeks on the ship during late summer 1921. "Wilmette" remained in commission, performing her reserve training mission until she was placed "out of commission, in service", on 15 February 1940.
Given hull designation IX-29 on 17 February 1941, she resumed training duty at Chicago on 30 March 1942, preparing armed guard crews for duty manning the guns on armed merchantmen. That assignment continued until the end of World War II in Europe obviated measures to protect trans-Atlantic merchant shipping from German U-boats.
During August 1943, "Wilmette" was given the honor of transporting President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral William D. Leahy, James F. Byrnes, and Harry Hopkins on a 10-day cruise to McGregor and Whitefish Bay to plan war strategies.
On 9 April 1945, she was returned to full commission for a brief interval. "Wilmette" was decommissioned on 28 November 1945, and her name was deleted from the Navy list on 19 December 1945. During 1946, "Wilmette" was offered for sale. Finding no takers, on 31 October 1946, she was sold to the Hyman Michaels Company for scrapping, which was completed in 1947.
Memorials.
A marker commemorating the accident was dedicated on 4 June 1989. This marker was reported stolen on 26 April 2000, and a replacement marker was installed and rededicated on 24 July 2003.
Plans exist for a permanent outdoor exhibit with the proposed name "At The River's Edge". This exhibit would be located along the portion of the Chicago Riverwalk adjacent to the waters where the Eastland disaster occurred. The exhibit is planned to consist of six displays, each containing two unique panels which will serve to illustrate the tragedy through text and high-resolution images.
On Sunday, 12 July 2015, one hundred years after the SS "Eastland" disaster, a memorial to the dead was dedicated at Bohemian National Cemetery, 5255 N. Pulaski Road, Chicago.


Arnold Piesse

Arnold Edmund Piesse (2 April 1872 – 21 July 1935) was an Australian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1909 to 1914 and again from 1930 until his death, on both occasions representing the seat of Katanning.
Piesse was born in Guildford, Western Australia, to Elizabeth Ellen (née Oxley) and William Roper Piesse. Three of his brothers, Alfred, Charles, and Frederick Piesse, were also members of parliament. After leaving school, Piesse worked in Northam for five years, employed by the merchant firm of George Throssell (a future premier). He then joined two of his brothers (Charles and Frederick) in business at Katanning, eventually taking over the company. Piesse was eventually elected to the Katanning Road Board, and served as its chairman for a period. He first entered parliament in November 1909, winning the seat of Katanning unopposed at the by-election caused by the resignation of his brother Frederick. He was re-elected at the 1911 state election, standing for the Liberal Party, but after a period of ill health chose not to re-contest his seat at the 1914 election. After leaving parliament, Piesse went to England on a health trip, and did not return to Australia until 1925.
Standing as an unendorsed Country Party candidate, Piesse re-entered parliament at the 1930 state election, defeating Alec Thomson (the sitting Country Party leader who had been Piesse's successor in 1914). He was re-elected at the 1933 election, but died in office in July 1935 (aged 63). He had left for a health trip to England in February of that year, and on the Cape Town–Fremantle leg of the return journey committed suicide by jumping overboard. His daughter had died suddenly while he was away, and it was thought that this news might have been a factor in his own death. Piesse had married been twice, firstly to Margaret Mary Chipper in 1897, with whom he had three children. He was widowed in 1902, and remarried in 1904 to Lille Johnston, with whom he had another two children. One of his sons, Edmund Piesse, became a Country Party senator, but like his father committed suicide while in office.


Walter Dudycz

Walter W. Dudycz (born March 11, 1950) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Illinois Senate from 1985 until 2003.
Dudycz, a Ukrainian American was born in Chicago to a janitor mother and a factory worker father. He was raised on the West Side of Chicago. Dudycz was a veteran of the United States Army and served during the Vietnam War. After the war, he became a detective with the Chicago Police Department. Dudycz was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1984. He was married to Oksana. He had two daughters; one of whom is writer Valya Dudycz Lupescu. Dudycz earned a bachelor's degree from Northeastern Illinois University. In 1990, Dudycz ran for the United States House of Representatives against longtime Democratic incumbent Frank Annunzio, but lost. After the 2001 decennial redistricting, he chose to retire from the Illinois Senate in 2001. His old district had been dismantled, and he faced the prospect of running against incumbent Democrat James DeLeo, whose district had absorbed most of the Chicago portion of his old district, or incumbent Republican Dave Sullivan, whose district had absorbed much of the suburban portion. He was the last Republican state senator representing a significant portion of Chicago.


Herman Hollis

Herman Edward "Ed" Hollis (January 27, 1903 – November 27, 1934) was an American law enforcement official and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent. As an FBI special agent in the 1930s, Hollis worked with agents Melvin Purvis, Samuel P. Cowley and others fighting bank robbers, gangsters and organized crime in the Chicago area during the Great Depression. Hollis is best known for having been killed in the line of duty during an intense shootout with Chicago-area bank robber Lester Gillis, a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, at the Battle of Barrington in 1934. Hollis was also one of the three FBI special agents who shot John Dillinger near the Biograph Theater earlier that year, resulting in Dillinger's death. One controversial account also implicates Hollis in the death of Pretty Boy Floyd. Hollis served as a special agent for the FBI's field offices in Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Chicago for over seven years; at the time of his death, he was 31 years old.
Personal life.
Hollis was born in Des Moines, Iowa in January 1903 and received his law degree from the Georgetown University School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1927. He was married and had one son.
Career.
Hollis began his service with the FBI almost immediately after finishing law school in August 1927. During his seven years with the Bureau, Hollis worked with the Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Chicago field offices. Rated as one of the FBI's top investigators, Hollis earned a sharp-shooter's medal for his work with the Thompson submachine gun. Over the years, Hollis repeatedly requested that the Bureau transfer him to a field office in California or Arizona; doctors insisted that a warmer climate would help improve his wife Genevieve's nervous condition.
John Dillinger shooting.
On July 22, 1934, Hollis, Purvis and agents Charles B. Winstead and Clarence O. Hurt participated in a gun battle with the bank robber and gangster John Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago, Illinois. As Dillinger came out of the building with two women, Agent Purvis signaled to the other agents, including Hollis. At least one account states that Purvis then approached Dillinger from behind and said, "OK, Johnnie, drop your gun." Dillinger fled toward a nearby alley and reached in his pocket for a pistol. Hollis, Winstead and Hurt then fired a total of four or five shots; either two or three hit Dillinger, who fell to the ground. According to one source, Winstead fired his .45 pistol three times, and both Hollis and Hurt fired once. Because of the simultaneous gunfire, it was unclear which agent was responsible for the shot that killed Dillinger, and the agents themselves did not say. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was pleased at the news of Dillinger's death and later recognized Hollis, Winstead, and Hurt for their "fearlessness and courageous action".
Pretty Boy Floyd shooting.
Notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd was killed on October 22, 1934 after a shootout with FBI agents and local authorities in an apple orchard near East Liverpool, Ohio. In a 1979 TIME Magazine article, East Liverpool, Ohio Police Captain Chester C. Smith claimed that Hollis killed Floyd under orders from FBI agent Melvin Purvis. According to Smith, after Smith had wounded Floyd, "Purvis turned to G-Man Herman Hollis and said: 'Fire into him.' Hollis obeyed, killing Floyd with a burst from a tommy gun" at close range. This version of events contradicts the official FBI account and is highly controversial since, in Smith's version, Floyd was already wounded and could have been taken into custody at the time Purvis ordered Hollis to fire. In a subsequent letter to TIME's editors, FBI Special Agent Winfred E. Hopton claimed that he was one of the agents present when Floyd was apprehended, that he knew Hollis personally, and that Hollis was not present when Floyd was apprehended and could not have been responsible for Floyd's death. At least one other source discredits Smith's version, stating that although Smith's story received wide currency, Hollis was not at the orchard that afternoon. Hollis' FBI profile does not mention his participation in this incident.
Battle of Barrington and death.
In 1934, the FBI put Inspector Samuel P. Cowley of the FBI's Chicago Office in charge of the search for Baby Face Nelson. On November 27, 1934, Cowley received a tip that Nelson had been recognised in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin driving a stolen car. Cowley and Special Agent Hollis left the FBI's Chicago office heading northwest on Northwest Highway to intercept Nelson; Hollis drove.
Local FBI special agents William Ryan and Tom McDade spotted a vehicle matching the description of Nelson's stolen car between Fox River Grove and Barrington, Illinois and realized that Nelson, Nelson's accomplice John Paul Chase, and Nelson's wife Helen Gillis were in the vehicle. The occupants of the two cars recognized each other, and Agents Ryan and McDade began a pursuit. After a series of u-turns, Chase shot at Ryan and McDade's vehicle with an automatic rifle. The gunfire broke windows on both cars. Agent Ryan then returned fire, hitting the radiator of Nelson's car.
Hollis and Cowley met up with the outlaws as Nelson, whose car was partially disabled from Agent Ryan's shots, left Northwest Highway and stopped his car near the entrance to what is now Langendorf Park in Barrington. Chase, Nelson and Gillis all got out of the car, and Gillis ran toward a nearby field and flung herself down in the grass. When Hollis and Cowley stopped and emerged from their car to apprehend the suspects, Nelson and Chase began firing at them. Hollis and Cowley took cover behind their vehicle; neither was wearing a bulletproof vest. Both agents returned fire, and Hollis wounded Nelson with a shotgun blast to the legs. Nelson, still standing, continued shooting at Hollis with a rifle. Having emptied his shotgun, Hollis pulled out a pistol and fired as he ran to take cover behind a nearby telephone pole. An eyewitness later recalled that it was at that time that one of the agents "ran across the road and got behind an electric pole, but he got his head blown off." Nelson had struck Hollis in the forehead.
Nelson staggered over to where Hollis lay by the pole before making his way to the FBI agents' car. Since Nelson and Chase's stolen car was no longer operable, Chase assisted the badly wounded Nelson into Cowley's car and transferred their guns and equipment into the agents' vehicle. Gillis, who had continued lying in the field during the shootout, jumped into the government vehicle as Chase drove it away. The fierce gun battle was over in less than five minutes.
The first bystander to reach the scene ran to where Hollis lay face down; he had suffered severe wounds to the back of his head. The man tried to speak to Hollis, but Hollis only moved his eyes and gasped. Next, the man ran to Inspector Cowley. Cowley, who suffered serious stomach wounds in the gunfight, instructed the man to look after Hollis first, then call the Chicago field office and report what had happened. Flagging down a car, witnesses loaded Hollis inside and directed the driver to Barrington General Hospital; Hollis died before they reached the hospital only a short distance away. A witness then found a rosary in Hollis' pocket and called a priest. Cowley died early the next morning at a hospital in Elgin, Illinois after unsuccessful stomach surgery. Nelson, critically injured, died at approximately 8 pm that evening.
Hollis was survived by his wife and young son, Edward, who found out about his death when they arrived at the FBI Chicago Field Office that day to surprise Hollis to go Christmas shopping. Hollis is buried in Glendale Cemetery in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.
Aftermath.
Prosecutors indicted Chase for the murders of both Hollis and Cowley, but for some reason Chase was not immediately tried for Hollis' murder, only for murdering Cowley. Convicted of that crime, Chase began serving his lengthy jail sentence; however, by the mid-1950s Chase had still not been tried for Hollis's murder. Hoover announced that if Chase were ever released from prison, then Hoover would prosecute Chase for Hollis' murder. Chase was aware of the pending indictment for Hollis' murder but took no action for approximately twenty years. Then, in April 1955, Chase or his attorneys filed a motion demanding that prosecutors either seek an immediate trial on Hollis' murder or dismiss the indictment altogether. Prosecutors opposed the motion, but later that year, the United States District Court dismissed the indictment, holding that Chase was entitled to a speedy trial on the indictment for Hollis' murder and that Chase's mere knowledge of the indictment and his failure to take action did not waive this right. With this indictment dismissed, Chase became eligible for parole; he was eventually paroled in 1966 and died of cancer in 1973.


Michael Marin

Michael James Marin (December 2, 1958 – June 28, 2012) was an American financier, lawyer, ex-Wall Street trader, and millionaire who committed suicide by cyanide ingestion after being convicted of arson.
Early life.
Marin was raised in Oak Harbor, north of Seattle, Washington. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he attended Brigham Young University and served a mission in Japan, where he learned Japanese. After college, he attended Yale Law School and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1987.
Career.
Marin went to work in the legal departments of banks, which sent him back to Japan. He made a fortune trading in complex investments in the 1980s and '90s, working for Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Salomon Brothers mainly in their operations in Asia. His children were raised in Asia and Chicago. His wife, Tammy, left him in 1992, after 12 years of marriage.
Marin returned to the United States, after being let go by Lehman Brothers in 1997. He led a lavish lifestyle, buying a multimillion-dollar mansion in Arizona and collecting works of art that included etchings by Pablo Picasso. He traveled extensively throughout the Far East. A book he wrote about investment banking in Asia, "Fluctuations," recounts his adventures in Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Malaysia. An avid thrill seeker and adventurer, he travelled to many exotic climes and summited the highest peaks of six continents, including Mount Everest.
Arson charge.
Marin bought a mansion in the Biltmore Estates neighborhood of Phoenix in September 2008, doing so after a friend and business partner had lost the property to foreclosure and paying for it through a complex series of transactions. It came with a monthly mortgage payment of $17,250 and an imminent $2.3 million balloon payment. In spring 2009, Marin devised a lottery to sell the house with profit, with some funds going to a charity he had chosen, a crisis center for children. However, the state authorities determined that the lottery was illegal and shut it down. The lottery drawing was supposed to be on July 4, 2009. The following day, Marin called 911 to report his house on fire. He claimed to have escaped the blaze by wearing scuba gear and lowering himself down from the second-floor with a rope ladder. Fire department investigators determined the fire was deliberate after finding several points of origin throughout the house.
Death.
Marin was tried for arson and insurance fraud for setting his home on fire. Court hearings started on May 21, 2012, and Marin faced 7 to 21 years in prison if convicted.
The jury found Marin guilty on June 28, 2012. Soon after the verdict, and being informed that he was to be taken into custody immediately, he committed suicide in court. He was seen in court videos closing his eyes as the verdict was being read, before appearing to put something in his mouth and drinking a liquid in a plastic water bottle, then fell to the floor a few minutes later in convulsions. Marin was rushed to a central hospital in Phoenix and was pronounced dead; an autopsy confirmed he had taken a lethal dose of cyanide. He had bought a canister of cyanide in May 2011, from a California mail-order chemical supplier. At time of his death, he was a father of four and a grandfather of two.


Simon (2004 film)

Simon is a 2004 Dutch drama film directed by Eddy Terstall.
The story is about two male friends, one heterosexual and one gay. Same sex marriage and euthanasia are prominent themes of the film. The film has won three Golden Calves, for Best Actor (Cees Geel), Best Director (Eddy Terstall) and Best Feature Film, as well as the Audience Award (Eddy Terstall) of the Netherlands Film Festival. It was also the Dutch entry for the Oscars in 2005.
Plot.
One of the characters is Camiel, a gay dentist who marries his lover and the other is Simon (Cees Geel), a heterosexual drugs dealer and lady magnet. They become close friends in the late 1980s, but Camiel does something that interrupts their friendship.
After fourteen years Camiel and Simon meet again, but Simon is now terminally ill with cancer.
Simon has a daughter, Joy (Nadja Hüpscher) and a son, Nelson (Stijn Koomen). They develop a friendship with Camiel and his husband and after Simon's death Camiel adopts them.
Reception.
"Simon" has received had positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 60% based on reviews from 5 critics. On Metacritic it has a score of 59 out of 100, based on reviews from 5 critics.
Jay Weissberg of Variety wrote: "Slick packaging and easy ensemble-playing can't mask hoary 'gather round, I'm dying' formula."


David Parish

David Parish (December 4, 1778 – April 27, 1826) was a German-born land speculator and financier who played a major role in financing the United States military effort in the War of 1812 and in chartering the Second Bank of the United States.
Early life.
Parish was born on December 4, 1778 in Hamburg, then known as the Free Imperial City of Hamburg and a state of the Holy Roman Empire. He is the grandson of Scottish merchant John Parish, who had transferred his business to Hamburg from Leith, Scotland in the 1750s.
Life in America.
Parish emigrated to the United States in 1806, settling first in Philadelphia, then two years later acquired 200,000 acres of land in the St. Lawrence River Valley to sell as farmland to settlers. Further adding to his holdings he profited greatly from arranging a large shipment of gold and silver bullion from Mexico to Napoleon’s France.
He and his family played a major role in the development of St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties in northern New York state, where he made his home in Ogdensburg and built a blast furnace at Rossie. His 1810 built mansion is now home to the Frederic Remington Art Museum, and was occupied by members of the Parish family until the 1860s. The town of Parishville is named for him, where his family owned a sheep farm and grew hops.
Sympathetic to the anti-war Federalist Party, he nevertheless brokered a $7.5 million loan to the cash-strapped Republican administration of James Madison in 1813 to continue prosecuting the war. Historian Alan Taylor asserts that for that support, indispensable with Congress unwilling to raise taxes to fund the conflict, Parish gained the political leverage to insist on neutrality for the St. Lawrence Valley and peace negotiations with the British. Despite the strategic military importance of the St. Lawrence Valley, the US made only one half-hearted and disastrous attempt, in November 1813, to use it as an invasion corridor to attack Montreal and cut off the supply route from Lower to Upper Canada. The rest of the time, American and British interests continued their thriving transborder trade and generally peaceful relations as if there were no war between their countries, a fact Taylor attributes to Parish and his supporters and agents in the valley. Throughout the war, the focus of US military operations on land continued to be western Lake Ontario and the strategically marginal Niagara Peninsula.
In May 1816, Parish became an American citizen; he returned to Europe in the same year and served as the American consul in Antwerp from 1819 to 1823. He was removed from office due to controversial loans made to Emperor Francis of Austria for a military campaign against Italian independence, which was against the US foreign policy position
Later years and Death.
Because of an Austrian bank fraud he lost his fortune and, in 1826, drowned himself in the Danube River.He was buried in the cemetery at Währing.
In popular culture.
Parish was the basis for a character in the novel "Anthony Adverse" by Hervey Allen.


Neuvenge

Neuvenge, Lapuleucel-T (APC 8024), is a therapeutic cancer vaccine (TCV) in development (clinical trial) by Dendreon (DNDN). It uses the "immunotherapy platform approach" first successfully demonstrated on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved TCV Provenge. It was first tested on breast cancer patients with tumors expressing HER2/neu, and is now scheduled to be tested on bladder cancer patients.
History.
The concept of immunotherapy for cancer has been known for hundreds of years and was used by Dr William Coley et al. in the 1800s. Coley's Toxins are still available outside of the US. The idea of harnessing the antigen presenting cells (APC)'s to recognize cancer and target tumor cells for apoptosis (cell death) by the CD8 (cytotoxic cells) is a common approach to cancer vaccine researchers.
This 1997 example article describes targeting EGFR and other cell products and attaching their antigens to the CD64 receptor cells also using GM-CSF to grow more cells. The NIH calls this topic "Biological response modifiers (BRMs) occur naturally in the body and can be produced in the laboratory. BRMs alter the interaction between the body's immune defenses and cancer cells to boost, direct, or restore the body's ability to fight the disease."
Immunocompromising diseases have caused many deaths in human history. An ongoing example is Karposi's sarcoma (KS) caused by the Human herpesvirus 8 virus normally controlled by the body's immune system. KS is normally a rare disease but AIDS has made it all to commonplace. AIDS patients, whose immune system has been compromised, fall victim to serious opportunistic infections such as (TB) and KS. The movie "Philadelphia (film)" gives a dramatic representation of AIDS and KS. A good method of preventing some cancers is to stop the viruses that lead to them. This is known as prophylactic treatment.
The current cancer prophylactic vaccines are for Hepatitis B virus (HBV), HPV (cervical cancer, vaginal, vulvar cancer, penile, anal cancer) and HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer are all defenses utilizing immunotherapy against viruses that lead to cancer.
Milestones.
"A successful (TCV) is considered a milestone for cancer immunotherapy." The only approved TCVs, as of 2010, are Provenge in the US and Oncogene in Russia. DNDN's future will require a different skill set to manage the mass production of this first-of-a-kind product. There are 32,000+/yr deaths from prostate cancer (CaP) in the US and that is only those with metastatic CRPC. If most of these patients were to receive this product that would increase current 2,000 output 16X. When (If) the project is expanded to those whose CaP is still controlled by hormone therapy that number could easily quadruple for the US alone. Were this therapy to be used on ALL Prostate cancer patients as a monotherapy that's (120,000+/yr.in the US). If those who are still on hormone therapy the numbers are in the millions. There are currently 2,000,000+ CaP patients in the US.
DNDN is busy building plants, which all require FDA approval, in Morris Plains, New Jersey, Atlanta, Georgia and (Los Angeles County, California area) Seal Beach, California (actually in Orange County, California) for large scale Provenge production. They are still seeking overseas partners for development offshore.
Prospects.
DNDN have stated that their therapy is not a one-hit wonder and they plan to "move forward one Provenge-like new cancer treatment every year". This will demonstrate that they really have an immunotherapy platform approach to cancer.
Combinational therapy.
Involves using:
Neuvenge history.
Neuvenge is still in preliminary clinical trials and is evolving as of 2011. First Neuvenge trials were performed on patients with metastatic breast, ovarian or colorectal cancer that expressed HER-2 (HER2/neu). Some patients with stable disease after week 48 received an additional "booster" treatment using the identical protocol. Lapuleucel-T is an investigational active immunotherapy product consisting of autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells, including antigen presenting cells, which are cultured ex vivo with BA7072, a recombinant fusion antigen consisting of portions of the intracellular and extracellular regions of HER-2/neu linked to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor.
In a change of course, DNDN is planning a bladder cancer clinical trial using Neuvenge to begin 2011.
 DNDN is also using ACI technology Active cellular immunotherapy "This is a therapeutic platform using the patient's own cells to simulate an immune response." These are two major candidates:


My Dear Brother

My Dear Brother () is a 1973 Turkish drama film directed by Ertem Eğilmez.
Plot.
Kahraman leads a poor but cheerful life with his brother Murat and his loyal friend Halit. Later in the night, after a fire at home, their father was poisoned by smoke and died. The hero remains to his brother Murat. Murat's friend Halit is fired and settles with Murat. Kahraman's only dream is to buy a television at home. Kahraman's remaining teacher calls his brother and tells him to take care of his brother's cleanliness. Then Hero becomes sluggish. Her brother and friend take her to the doctor and the doctor tells her that her brother has cancer. Murat and his friend are very surprised and upset when they get the news of Kahraman who has cancer. The doctor tells her brother to fulfill every request. Later, they meet with Kahraman's teacher and he gives permission until the disease is cleared. Murat and Halit try to fulfill every request of Kahraman.
Despite their bad situation, they eat in restaurants, take them to the amusement park and fulfill every wish. They can't just buy the TV that Kahraman wants so much. They do everything they can to get the TV, but they can't take it. One night, as they return home, they steal the television they see in a store window and bring it home. Murat and Halit procure television, which is Kahraman's greatest desire, by playing on the last day of their promised date. They exhibit a rebellion against helplessness, and this time they become practitioners of violence against the system. Because there is a system violence that has been committed since the beginning of the film. They sit at home after they play the television and laugh, this is a moment of happiness without recipe for them and the audience. The system was defeated and imposed. They finally got what they wanted, but it's too late for Kahraman.


Harold Milford

Harold John Milford (16 August 1914 – 6 April 1944), was a British Douglas Boston medium bomber observer who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. He took part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, but was one of the men re-captured and subsequently shot by the "Gestapo".
Pre-war.
Harold Milford was born in Streatham in south-west London, the son of William John Milford a railway worker and his wife Ada Frances and grew up in Medora Road in the Tulse Hill area with his parents and two sisters. In the spring of 1940 he married Marion Heather in Lambeth, London.
War service.
At the height of the Battle of Britain he enlisted in the Royal Air Force in the summer of 1940 as an aircraftman aircrew candidate with the service number 1375447. On completion of flight training, as a leading aircraftman he was commissioned as pilot officer on 9 August 1941.
From final stage training at Operational Training Unit Milford joined No. 226 Squadron RAF flying the Douglas Boston medium bomber on daylight precision bombing operations from RAF Swanton Morley against industrial targets and power stations. The medium bombers were invariably met by Luftwaffe day fighters often from the ace Jagdgeschwader 26. He was promoted to flying officer on 9 August 1942 1942.
Prisoner of war.
At 10:50 on the morning of 22 September 1942 he took off in Douglas Boston (serial number "AL743") squadron codes MQ-F flown by Sergeant Maurice Collins, the third member of the crew was wireless operator/air gunner Sergeant GA Nicolls. They were part of a force tasked to bomb the power station at Chocques. The bombers were met by the Luftwaffes JG 26 and Klaus Mietusch shot one of the bombers down, the other (serial number "AL685") was also lost nearby. One is believed to have been the victim of Mietusch and the other possibly due to battle damage.
Milford's crew bailed out, the pilot headed off alone and evaded capture to make it home while Milford and Nicholls were captured in a haystack. He was sent to Stalag Luft III in the province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan (now Żagań in Poland) where he quickly met Johnny Williams who he'd known earlier in his service and made friends with Tony Hayter who lived in the same accommodation block.
'Great Escape'.
Milford was one of the 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944, in the escape now famous as "the Great Escape". Milford escaped from the exposed tunnel mouth into the woods with Sandy Gunn and John F Williams, although on the afternoon of 27 March 1944 after surviving the freezing temperatures and blizzards they were recaptured in the vicinity of Żagań and taken to the local civil prison. On 28 March they were moved to Görlitz prison. Milford's cell occupants were Cyril Swain, Mike Casey, Tom Leigh, Jack Grisman, Ian Cross, Sandy Gunn, Patrick Langford and George Wiley. Over the next few days the cells filled up as more and more escapers were recaptured and then groups of prisoners began to be removed and the numbers thinned out rapidly. While being interrogated Milford was told that his wife would never see him again. Early on the morning of 6 April 1944 Tony Bethell heard a truck arrive at the prison and then six names being called out, Denys Street, Neville McGarr, Jack Grisman, Sandy Gunn, Harold Milford and John F Williams were taken away. They were murdered by the Breslau Gestapo.
His body was cremated in Breslau's crematorium. He was one of the 50 escapers executed and murdered by the "Gestapo". Originally cremated and buried at Sagan, he is now buried in part of the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery.
Milford's name was amongst those in the list of the murdered prisoners which was published when news broke on or about 20 May 1944.
Awards.
Mentioned in despatches recognizing his conspicuous bravery as a prisoner because none of the other relevant decorations then available could be awarded posthumously. It was published in a supplement to the "London Gazette" on 8 June 1944.
Other victims.
The "Gestapo" executed a group of 50 of the recaptured prisoners representing almost all of the nationalities involved in the escape. Post-war investigations saw a number of those guilty of the murders tracked down, arrested and tried for their crimes.


Swine (song)

"Swine" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga, recorded for her third studio album, "Artpop" (2013). It was written and produced by Gaga, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, Dino Zisis, and Nick Monson. A dubstep and industrial track, "Swine" was inspired by the singer's sexual experiences and the rage she felt from being raped when she was 19 by an unidentified record producer. Throughout the song, Gaga screams out the lyrics, which talk about denouncing a suitor by comparing them to a pig.
"Swine" was critically appreciated for its harsh composition and craziness. It debuted at number 88 on the Gaon Chart in South Korea, selling 2,430 copies. In the United States, "Swine" reached a peak position of number 23 on the "Billboard" Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Gaga performed the song during her iTunes Festival show, the tour (2014) and at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas. The latter performance received criticism for promoting bulimia when artist Millie Brown vomited paint on Gaga onstage. "Swine" was featured in the 2015 documentary "The Hunting Ground", along with Gaga's "Til It Happens to You" (2015), which focuses on rape at American universities.
Background and writing.
Development of Gaga's third studio album, "Artpop", began shortly after the 2011 release of her second record, "Born This Way". By the following year, the album's concepts were "beginning to flourish" as Gaga collaborated with producers Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow. One of the songs on "Artpop" was "Swine", which the singer explained was personal, and dealt with challenging and troubling sexual experiences she had encountered in her life.
In December 2014, Gaga revealed on "The Howard Stern Show" that she was raped at age 19 by a producer twenty years older than her. During her conversation with Stern, the singer recalled, "I went through some horrific things. I'm able to laugh now because I've gone through a lot of mental, physical and emotional therapy [...] I wasn't even willing to admit that anything had even happened [...] I saw him one time in a store, and I was paralyzed by fear." She confirmed that the incident further inspired "Swine", saying, "I wrote a song called 'Swine'; the song is about rape. The song is about demoralization. The song is about rage and fury and passion, and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release."
Recording and composition.
Musically, "Swine" is a dubstep and industrial song. Based on the "teaser" of Gaga rehearsing for the iTunes Festival, "Entertainment Weekly"s Nick Catucci described "Swine" as a "real shocker with Nine Inch Nails lyrics and bull-in-a-bong-shop Deep Purple groove." Consequence of Sound noted the creation of the Twitter hashtag #swinefest, and called the song a "melancholy piano ballad that eventually erupts into a raging pop-rocker, backed by piercing guitar and synths."
Gil Kaufman of MTV News described the track as a "rock-heavy" song. Bradley Stern saw the music as "several hair-raising, teeth-gritting, heart-stopping acid techno-laced beat drops." According to Musicnotes.com, the song is set in the time signature of common time with a fast tempo of 120 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of G minor, with Gaga's harsh vocals ranging from G3 to D5. The song has a basic sequence of C/G–Gm–C/G–Gm as its chord progression.
Lyrically, the recording denounces a suitor by comparing them to a pig. Gaga wanted to lessen the harshness of the lyrics developed for the track by making it sound more lighthearted. However, she ended up "screaming and squealing throughout the track." The dance nature of the song vanishes when the chorus is reached, with Gaga belting the lyrics backed by the "chaotic" synths shouting, "You're just a pig inside a human body / Squealer, squealer, squealer, you're so disgusting / You're just a pig inside", finally uttering the word "Swine" continuously as the groove "thrashed".
Critical reception.
After the song was made available online, Idolator website contributor Carl Williott compared it to her iTunes Festival performance and said, "That rendition was particularly wild, and the studio version is even more schizophrenic and rave-ready." Furthermore, he wrote of the song, "It's a sonic onslaught of synth washes, a ground-churning bass line, jittery keyboards, hiccuping vocal samples and crescendos leading to drops in all the expected places. But amidst the EDM overload, Gaga manages to humanize things with one of her raspier, rawer vocal performances. And, for a dubstep song, it's got a remarkably huge 'Swiiine' refrain hidden in there." Nicole James of Fuse deemed it "basically the polar opposite of 'Applause'." Kitty Empire of "The Guardian" praised the song as the album's "wow-factor centrepiece, if not its greatest hit." Mike Driver of "Clash" magazine found Gaga's vocal enunciations on the track comparable to those of singer Christina Aguilera. Maura Johnston of "Spin" magazine listed "Swine" as one of "Artpop"s highlights, describing Gaga's belting of the lyrics and the sounds from the keyboards being reminiscent of Trent Reznor's songs.
Bradley Stern of "MuuMuse" called "Swine" the album's most "unhinged moment" where the singer "let her freak flag fly higher." He also theorized that "Swine" would do well in a live concert. Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" described the track as a "shrieking industrial number" in which Gaga sounds "physically disgusted." Lipshutz said the song was not as "accessible or cleverly penned" as other songs on "Artpop", but "as far as detours go, this one's fascinating." Chris Bosman of "Consequence of Sound" website criticized the length of the song, saying that "once the sound of the record has been thoroughly established, many of the songs tend to feel overly long [...] ['Swine'] could easily have chopped a verse and maintained the same effect, with the benefit of brevity."
Live performances.
In August 2013, Gaga released a one-minute teaser of the song, which showed her rehearsing for the iTunes Festival, along with an image of her performance. Gaga named her gig "SwineFest" after the track, which was a central piece of the show. During the show, she removed her previously worn blonde wig to reveal her natural hair, just before performing the song. She started playing "Swine" on the piano, initially wearing a glittery pig mask, before transitioning into the electronic version of the song. For the second part of the performance, Gaga sat behind a drum kit. During the performance, Gaga's dancers wore pig-like gasmasks and "white boiler suits", and sprayed paint into the crowd from bungee harnesses. Robert Copsey of "Digital Spy" rated her performance 3.5 on a scale of 5 and said that she "reached the peak of bonkersness".
In March 2014, Gaga introduced "Swine" at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas as a song about "rape and rage", which was followed by her inviting performance artist Millie Brown to accompany her on stage. During the duo's performance, Brown vomited green-colored liquid onto the stage and Gaga. They then climbed atop a large mechanical bull with a pig's head and a ball gag inserted in its mouth, riding it together and simulating sex acts. Brown continued to vomit on Gaga and her white apron during their time atop the bull. She even inserted her fingers inside Gaga's throat making her regurgitate the black paint all over. A writer for "Rolling Stone" noted that "[f]or the rest of the show, Gaga would have this black sheen, marking her as a metaphorical survivor of rape and an actual survivor of performance art". In the background was a neon sign with the text, "Lady Gaga's BBQ – Haus of Swine". "Swine" has been called an "anti-rape track" and similarly her SXSW performance was called an "anti-rape demonstration."
Andrew Hampp felt that "for an album [and concert] inspired by performance art, it was the one moment where music and shock value merged indelibly and credibly." The performance also received criticism for the vomiting act. Recovered bulimic Demi Lovato complained that the show "glamorized" eating disorders. In response to the controversy, Brown told MTV News, "I can understand why people would make that association, but my performance is really not a statement about eating disorders themselves." Gaga confessed on "Today", "Millie and I know that not everybody's going to love that performance, but we both really believe in artistic expression and strong identities, and I support her and what she does. "Artpop", my new album, is about bringing art and music together in the spirit of creative rebellion, and for us, that performance was art in its purest form."
"Swine" was later added to the setlist for the whole duration of Gaga's tour, , where it was performed as the last song before the encore ("Gypsy"). For the performance, Gaga was dressed as a "rave-girl", which was called "a spin on the anime schoolgirl trope". She was wearing multicoloured dreadlocks and fluorescent furry boots. On some occasions, Gaga invited audience members on stage to "rave alongside her". James Duffield from MTV called the performance "a sensory overload – the confetti cannons are back, strobe lights and dancers with pig masks start spewing fake blood from their mouths".
Credits and personnel.
Credits adapted from the liner notes of "Artpop".


Steve McWilliams

Steve McWilliams was a medical marijuana activist from San Diego, California who protested the treatment of people under anti-cannabis laws. He committed suicide in 2005.
Biography.
Steven McWilliams was a "former cowboy" who attended Western State Colorado University and the University of Colorado. In 1992, McWilliams was in a motorcycle accident and sustained a head injury, and afterwards suffered from chronic pain and migraines, which he said he found relief from with medical marijuana.
Medical marijuana activism.
After California passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which allowed certain patients to be recommended cannabis by a doctor, McWilliams opened multiple medical marijuana collectives in San Diego to provide cannabis for patients, including Shelter from the Storm and Valley Center Cannabis Club.
In January 1998, Valley Center Cannabis Club was raided and McWilliams was arrested for possession. That March he was arraigned for growing, selling, and transporting cannabis, which led to the first widely publicized case about the enforcement and limits of Proposition 215. The District Attorney declined to press charges due to lack of information.
In 2002, McWilliams protested obstruction of Proposition 215 by standing in front of San Diego City Hall by smoking and handing out cannabis to patients. He also showed up weekly to Town Council meetings, sometimes carrying a live marijuana plant, to convince the local government to make clear local regulations regarding medical marijuana in San Diego.
McWilliams was arrested in 2002 by federal law enforcement for growing about two dozen cannabis plants at his home in Normal Heights. In early 2003, United States District Judge James Fitzgerald sentenced him to six months in federal prison. He was not allowed to use cannabis as part of his bail terms. There was speculation McWilliams was targeted with a harsh sentence due to his activism. Not long after, the Supreme Court ruled that federal cannabis laws superseded local laws, which meant McWilliams' appeal would be denied and he would go to prison. On July 12, 2005 on his 51st birthday, McWilliams committed suicide by overdosing on methadone, an opioid he'd been prescribed for pain. In his suicide note, he said that he was in pain and hoped his death might convince the government to respect people's right to cannabis. He also called out Reuben Brooks, the federal judge who had ruled he could not use medical marijuana while out on bail.
After his death, more than a dozen cities in the United States held memorial services in his honor.


Joe Deebs

Joe Deebs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Along with Stuart Webbs and a number of other fictional cinema detective characters with Anglo-Saxon names, he was modeled on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In 2009, Ken Wlaschin wrote that "Joe Deebs was one of the most famous screen detectives of the German silent cinema, the suave crime-solving star of at least thirty films."
Deebs was played by six different actors including Max Landa, Heinrich Schroth and Harry Liedtke. The films were produced by Joe May (Julius Mandl), who also directed several of the films. Some of the films were produced at Weissensee Studios.
Deebs' first appearance was in 1915 during the First World War and the character continued to be featured in films through the early 1920s during the Weimar Republic. One example is "Der Onyxknopf," or The Onyx Head, a 1917 silent film starring Max Landa, Bruno Kastner and Leopoldine Konstantin.


Yanis Kanidis

Yanis Kanidis (, ; January 1, 1930 – September 3, 2004) was a Russian physical education teacher, born in Georgia of Caucasus Greek origin.
Hostage crisis.
When armed Chechen extremists took more than 1,200 school children and adults hostage on September 1, 2004 in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia, in what has become known as the Beslan school hostage crisis, 74-year-old Kanidis insisted on staying with his students, helped them survive and ultimately died to save their lives.
Two days after the start of the hostage taking, a number of nursing mothers were allowed to leave the building with their babies. The commander of the terrorist squad saw Kanidis, an elderly sickly man, and offered to allow him to leave as well. But Kanidis refused, saying he would stay "with [his] students till the end". And throughout the ordeal, Kanidis guarded and fought for the lives of his students as best he could. When the children were succumbing to the sweltering heat, stuffy air and thirst, Kanidis approached the terrorists insisting that "You have to give them something to drink, at least to the smallest children". When he was heavily beaten with the butt of a rifle by one of the terrorists, Kanidis continued defiantly, "How dare you!? You claim you are people of the Caucasus region, but here in the Caucasus even a dog wouldn't turn down the request of an old man!" At which point the terrorists allowed Kanidis to wet one of the bibs of the children and pass it around to dampen the mouths of the smallest children who were choking from thirst.
The surviving hostages tell how he repeatedly risked his own life in order to save those of the children and how he moved explosives which had been placed near the children, and tried to prevent others from being detonated.
Kanidis was killed on the third day of the hostage taking. The circumstances of his death remains not fully clarified. According to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, he was killed when he jumped on a grenade the terrorists had thrown at fleeing children, sacrificing his life to save theirs. According to the Greek/English newspaper Kathimerini, he was shot when he tried to dismantle a ceiling fan that had been wired to an explosive device. According to a feature by C.J. Chivers, Esquire, June 2006 Kanidis was killed while struggling with one of the terrorists, trying to buy time for others to escape. His last words were: "Get the children out!"
Afterwards one of the saved students compared him to the Polish man Janusz Korczak, who had accompanied his pupils to Treblinka.
Awards and memorials.
On December 9, 2004, Kanidis was posthumously awarded the medal For Protection of Human Rights by the Russian Government. Later in the same month, one of the two new schools being constructed to replace the school destroyed in the attack was named "Ivan Kanidis".


Robbie Lawlor (Irish criminal)

Robbie Lawlor was an Irish criminal. He was originally from Dublin, but had lived in County Meath and was heavily involved in organised crime, including the Drogheda feud.
He was well known to Gardaí for being involved in serious and organised crime. He was a suspect in the murders of Kenneth Finn and David Lynch among other crimes. He had over 100 convictions and had been released from prison in December 2019. He had been warned by Gardaí that his life was in danger before he went to Belfast.
He was mugged after leaving a gym in December 2019, which was filmed by his assailants. The assailants stole his gym bag and flip-flops and posted photos of them wearing the latter after the mugging. The assault was allegedly at the behest of a criminal foe of Lawlor. The presence of flip-flops in the bag of Keane Mulready-Woods remains dumped in Coolock was widely interpreted as a threat not to cross Lawlor.
Death.
On 4 April 2020, he was shot around 11:50am outside a house in Etna Drive, Ardoyne in north Belfast. The PSNI and Garda Síochána believe he had travelled to Belfast in the hours before he was shot, possibly to collect debts. As well as being a suspect in the death of Keane Mulready-Woods he was suspected of being responsible for a number of other killings. He had been threatened by one faction in the Drogheda feud but was also at odds with a major Dublin criminal who is suspected of several murders including that of Alan Ryan. Three men suspected of the murder were arrested and questioned by the PSNI at Musgrave police station.
Three suspects were arrested on Saturday, a fourth was arrested on Sunday.
The shooting was condemned by Detective Sergeant Jason Murphy, as a murder, as a danger to the local community and due to the additional pressures caused by coronavirus pandemic. The shooting was also condemned by Minister for Justice Naomi Long and Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly.
The PSNI suspect that a single gunman shot Lawlor.
Charges brought.
In December 2020 two men, one from Derry and one from Belfast, were charged with his murder. Both were also charged with possession of a 9mm pistol with intent to endanger life.
They appeared via videolink and spoke only to confirm that they understood the charges. They were remanded in custody, to appear before the court by videolink again on 8 January 2021.


Lucy Meadows

Lucy Meadows was a transgender teacher from Accrington in the United Kingdom. She died by suicide in March 2013 after the decision of her employers to allow her to return to work after gender reassignment surgery was covered in the national press.
Meadows grew up in a Christian family and married her partner Ruth Smith in 2009, prior to transitioning. Meadows and Smith separated in 2011, and at Christmas 2012, Meadows told her school about the transition. According to Smith, "The school had no difficulty with that. They put out a letter to parents explaining this – and that was their great mistake." The letter became a topic of local press interest, and then national news.
Writing in "The Guardian", Paris Lees stated that Meadows had been "persecuted by the press" after her local newspaper reported on her transition.
On 3 January 2013, Meadows complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) "harassment from the press", and specifically an article written by Richard Littlejohn in the "Daily Mail" on 20 December 2012, headlined "He's not only in the wrong body … he's in the wrong job". Littlejohn asked readers about the "devastating effect" which Meadows' gender reassignment could have on her pupils. A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked. Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the "Daily Mail" offices.
In March 2013, Meadows was found dead as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. At the inquest into Meadows' death, the coroner criticised the press for their handling of the story. According to the "Guardian", "Michael Singleton, coroner for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Rossendale, singled out the "Daily Mail" as he accused the paper of "ridicule and humiliation" and a "character assassination" of Lucy Meadows". Singleton recommended that guidelines about press intrusion into the lives of the public should be tightened.


Mark Pavelich

Mark Thomas Pavelich (February 28, 1958 – March 4, 2021) was an American professional ice hockey forward who played 355 regular season games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars, and San Jose Sharks between 1981 and 1991. Pavelich was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal in what has been called the "Miracle on Ice".
Amateur career.
The son of Croatian immigrants, Pavelich grew up in rural Eveleth, Minnesota. He was a star performer on his high school hockey team, Eveleth High School. He attended the University of Minnesota Duluth as an amateur player for three seasons from 1977–1979. Pavelich is best known for being a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal in Lake Placid. In the game against the Soviet Union, Pavelich was credited with two assists, including one on Mike Eruzione's game-winning goal.
Professional career.
After the Olympics, Pavelich, who was not drafted by an NHL team, played one season for HC Lugano in Switzerland where he registered 73 points. He returned to the U.S. national team for the 1981 Ice Hockey World Championship tournament. He was brought back to the United States the following year by his former U.S. Olympic coaches Herb Brooks and Craig Patrick, who managed the New York Rangers. Despite his size, Pavelich thrived in his role as a center for the Rangers, and holds the Rangers record for most points as a rookie (76). However, his career in New York was ended by a feud with Brooks' successor Ted Sator, who introduced a traditional North American dump-and-chase style of play.
Pavelich briefly played for Brooks with the Minnesota North Stars in 1987 before returning to Europe. He had a stint in Britain for the Dundee Rockets and played two seasons in Italy for HC Bolzano. The expansion San Jose Sharks brought him out of retirement for the 1991–92 NHL season, but he would play only two games for the Sharks before retiring. However, he did record an assist on the Sharks' first-ever goal scored by Craig Coxe in the third period of a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on October 4, 1991.
On February 23, 1983, Pavelich became the first American ever to score five goals in a single game against the Hartford Whalers at Madison Square Garden. He remains the only American to have done so.
Legacy.
In the 2009 book "100 Ranger Greats", the authors ranked Pavelich at No. 83 all-time of the 901 New York Rangers who had played during the team's first 82 seasons.
Personal life.
Pavelich married Sue Koski on September 11, 1985. The couple had one daughter, Tarja, in 1987 and divorced in 1989. He married Kara Burmachuk in 1994, and they had no children.
When Pavelich was 18, he accidentally killed his 15-year-old friend Ricky Holgers in a hunting accident. His second wife Kara died at age 44 in an accidental fall from a second-story balcony at their Lutsen, Minnesota home on September 6, 2012.
In April 2014, Pavelich put his Olympic medal up for auction, with bidding beginning at $62,500. The medal sold in May 2014 for $262,900 through Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auctions.
Health and legal issues.
Pavelich was arrested on August 15, 2019 for assaulting a neighbor with whom he had earlier been fishing, after he believed the neighbor had put something into his beer. He was charged with four felony counts: second and third-degree assault, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, and possession of a firearm with a missing or altered serial number. Pavelich was ruled incompetent to stand trial and was ordered committed to a secure treatment facility. In August 2020, Pavelich was granted court approval for transfer to a lower-security setting for treatment. Pavelich's sister, Jean Gevik, stated that she believed he was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and had noticed behavioral changes in the years leading up to the incident which led to his arrest.
Pavelich died on March 3, 2021 at a residential treatment center in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. His death was ruled a suicide by asphyxiation.
In popular culture.
In "Miracle on Ice", a 1981 TV movie about the 1980 U.S. hockey team, Pavelich was played by Jack Blessing.
In the 2004 Disney film "Miracle", he is played by Chris Koch. Koch played junior hockey for the Delta Ice Hawks in his native Canada before concussions ended his career.


Like a Star Shining in the Night

Like a Star Shining in the Night () is a 2008 French drama film written, produced and directed by René Féret.


In the Absence

In the Absence is a 2018 South Korean–American short documentary film that depicts the sinking of the MV "Sewol" in 2014, in which three hundred people mostly school children from Danwon High School lost their lives.
Background.
The film was produced by Gary Byung-Seok Kam and directed by Yi Seung-Jun, with Seung-Jun beginning the process of interviewing the victims families on camera in 2017. The documentary is seen as separated from other documentaries about the disaster, due to the fact that it highlights the disaster and not just the events leading up to the event and/or those responsible for the tragedy.
Format.
The documentary utilizes audio from first responders and government officials, aerial video from choppers, and cell phone video and multi-media messages from the victims of the ferry sinking to showcase the disaster in real time. The entire documentary is roughly 29-minutes long, and highlights how the disaster could have been avoided and the aftermath of the disaster such as the Candlelight Protests and the Impeachment of Park Geun-hye.
Awards.
The documentary was awarded the 2018 grand jury prize for short competition in DOC NYC, a documentary film festival in the United States.
"In the Absence" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 92nd Academy Awards. Before this nomination (and "Parasite"’s nominations), no South Korean film had ever been nominated for an Oscar.


Jack Ryan (FBI agent)

John C. Ryan (born 19 June 1938) is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent and police officer. He had been an FBI agent between 1966 and 1987 before being fired for refusing to investigate nonviolent activists. He lost his job in September 1987 ten months short of retirement. He was thus ineligible for a full pension. In a report by the "LA Times", he stated his belief that the Bureau could reinstate him to a position which would not conflict with his personal beliefs that U.S. involvement in Central America is "violent, illegal and immoral."
He was also a critic of COINTELPRO.


Yuko Takeuchi

 was a Japanese actress. She is known for her roles in television series "Asuka" (1999), "Pride" (2004), "FlashForward" (2009), and "Miss Sherlock" (2018) as well as films such as "Ring" (1998), "Yomigaeri" (2003), and "Dog in a Sidecar" (2007).
Life and career.
Takeuchi was born on 1 April 1980 in Urawa, Saitama, Japan. She was "discovered" during spring break in Harajuku after junior high school.
Takeuchi was married to Shidō Nakamura II (who had co-starred with Takeuchi in the film "Be With You") from 10 May 2005, until their divorce on 29 February 2008. She had a son with Nakamura who was born in November 2005. Prior to the couple's divorce, Nakamura had apologized for a drunk driving incident where he was with actress Aya Okamoto and later seen with actress Saki Takaoka. After the drunk driving incident, Takeuchi reportedly moved to live in her management office shortly before filing for divorce in October 2006.
Takeuchi married actor Taiki Nakabayashi on 27 February 2019. Her son, in junior high school at the time, was reported to have actively encouraged her second marriage. In November 2019, she announced she was pregnant, and gave birth to her second son in January 2020.
Takeuchi was known for her earlier roles starring in Japanese television dramas such as "Mukodono" (My Husband), "Lunch no Joō" (The Queen of Lunch), "Egao No Hōsoku", and "Pride", as well as NHK's Asadora television series "Asuka". In the romantic comedies "Mukodono", she and Nagase Tomoya played newlyweds, and in "Lunch no Joō", she played a girl with a mysterious past who loves her lunch. In drama "Egao no Hōsoku", her character experiences meeting new people while supporting a manga writer, and, in "Pride", her character is the love interest of a hockey player portrayed by Takuya Kimura.
Takeuchi's earlier films include "Hoshi Ni Negaiwo", "Yomigaeri" and "Be with You" ("Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu"). Her performances in "Yomigaeri" (2003)", Be With You" (2004) "and Spring Snow" (2005) were recognized by the Japanese Academy Awards. She later won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Japanese Academy Awards for her role in the 2014 film "Cape Nostalgia."
In 2010, Takeuchi appeared on the science fiction American TV serial "FlashForward", in two episodes (as a character portrayed in five). Director Michael Nankin called her "Japan's answer to Audrey Hepburn". Takeuchi's dialogue was in Japanese, but she said the experience caused her to make it a goal to master English, as she wished she had been able to communicate better with the other cast members and crew.
In 2018, Takeuchi portrayed the titular character in Hulu/HBO Asia series "Miss Sherlock", an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories.
Death.
On 27 September 2020, at 2:00a.m. (JST), Takeuchi was found hanged at her home in Shibuya, Tokyo. She was taken to the hospital but died shortly afterwards. No suicide note has been found. She was 40 years old.


Greg Stillson


Guns in the Hands of Artists

Guns in the Hands of Artists is an art exhibit and project conceived by Brian Borrello in the mid 1990s, which was later converted to a book.
History.
The "Guns in the Hands of Artists" project was conceived by artist Brian Borrello in the mid 1990s, and started in 1996; the exhibit saw artists convert decommissioned guns into artworks as an expression of gun violence in the United States. Borrello acquired decommissioned guns obtained through a trade-in program, then gave them to New Orleans-based artists, who converted them into artworks in a variety of media, including fashion, photography, and sculpture. The exhibit showcased at Positive Space Gallery, which was operated by Jonathan Ferrara. Borrello relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he executed another iteration of the exhibit. completed other versions of the project in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C.
In 2014, Ferrara organized an exhibit at his New Orleans gallery, which is now known as Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. According to Borrello, he and Ferrara worked together on the updated exhibit, though Ferrara disputes this claim. Ferrara worked with local government officials and the police department to secure 186 decommissioned guns acquired by the city's gun buyback program. More than 30 artists participated in the exhibit, and used a variety of media, including glassblowing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Borrello created a sculpture for the show in the form of an "absurdly long ammunition clip to an automatic pistol, grimly implying that the supply of death was unlimited".
The exhibit was later converted into book form, with contributions by Lupe Fiasco, Gabby Giffords, and Tim Kaine, among others. The book, which includes an essay by Borrello, was produced by Ferrara to document the exhibit. Ferrara also established the Guns in the Hands of Artists Foundation to continue the exhibit's mission.
Borrello took issue with Ferrara's actions and criticized him for "taking liberties with the fundamental ideas" behind the project and creating a foundation with a board of directors. Furthermore, according to Borrello, the exhibit was never intended to be affiliated with any specific commercial entity, and was meant to serve as an ongoing collaborative project. Borrello has expressed disapproval of Ferrara's application for a trademark on the title "Guns in the Hands of Artists". Borrello said, "I see it as a hostile takeover of my project. I came up with the name. It's clear that it was my love child." Contrastingly, the foundation's website infers a partnership and says, "The Guns in the Hands of Artists Foundation stems from an ongoing arts project begun in 1996 by Gallery Owner Jonathan Ferrara and artist Brian Borrello."


Theodore Robinson

Theodore Robinson (June 3, 1852April 2, 1896) was an American painter best known for his Impressionist landscapes. He was one of the first American artists to take up Impressionism in the late 1880s, visiting Giverny and developing a close friendship with Claude Monet. Several of his works are considered masterpieces of American Impressionism.
Training and early career.
Robinson was born in Irasburg, Vermont. His family moved to Evansville, Wisconsin, and Robinson briefly studied art in Chicago. In 1874 he journeyed to New York City to attend classes at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League.
In 1876 he traveled to Paris to study under Carolus-Duran and at the École des Beaux-Arts, with Jean-Léon Gérôme. He first exhibited his paintings at the 1877 Salon in Paris, and spent the summer of that year at Grez-sur-Loing.
After trips to Venice and Bologna, he returned to the United States in 1879 for several years. In 1881 he moved into a studio in New York and became a professional painter and art teacher, and in the same year became a member of the Society of American Artists. During this time Robinson painted in a realist manner, loosely brushed but not yet impressionistic, often depicting people engaged in quiet domestic or agrarian pursuits.
Giverny.
In 1884 Robinson returned to France where he lived for the next eight years, visiting America only occasionally. Robinson gravitated to Giverny, which had become a center of French impressionist art under the influence of Claude Monet.
Historians are unclear when Robinson met Monet, but by 1888 their friendship was enough for Robinson to move in next door to the famous impressionist. Robinson's art shifted to a more traditional impressionistic manner during this time, likely due to Monet's influence. While a number of American artists had gathered at Giverny, none were as close to Monet as Robinson. Monet offered advice to Robinson, and he likewise solicited Robinson for opinions on Monet's own works in progress.
Not only did he take to heart Monet´s theoretical admonitions and his requirement to portray the beauties and mystery of nature in a manner stringently truthful to one's personal vision, but he also studied works that were available to him in "The Master´s" studio. For instance, "Capri", painted in 1890, was probably inspired by Monet´s paintings of the cliffs at Varengeville, Pourville, and Etretat and the rocks at Bell-Ile of the early 1880s.
At Giverny, Robinson painted what art historians regard as some of his finest works. These depicted the surrounding countryside in different weather, in the plein air tradition, sometimes with women shown in leisurely poses. His "Winter Landscape" won the 1890 Webb Prize. Another example of his mature work during this period is "La Débâcle" (1892) in the collection of Scripps College, Claremont California.
Return to America.
Robinson left France and Monet for the final time in 1892, although he meant to return. Back in America, Robinson obtained a teaching post with the Brooklyn Art School and conducted summer classes in Napanoch, New York, near the Catskill Mountains, where he painted several canal scenes. He also taught at Evelyn College in Princeton, New Jersey, and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
With New York City as his base, Robinson circulated among a growing number of American artists pursuing Impressionism. He was particularly close to John Henry Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, and spent time at the nearby Cos Cob Art Colony in Connecticut. There he painted a series of boat scenes at the Riverside Yacht Club which have come to be regarded as among his finest works.
While his reputation as an important American Impressionist was growing, Robinson still needed to teach to support himself. He also harbored doubts about the quality of his work.
Throughout his career, Theodore Robinson kept meticulous diaries, but only the last several years of the diaries are known to exist. These are in the collection of the Frick Art Reference Library in New York and available to scholars. The art historian Sona Johnson, of the Baltimore Museum of Art, plans to publish an annotated edition of the Robinson diaries.
Final years.
In the last year of his life he was asked to contribute to the book of essays titled "Modern French Masters" by the editor and art historian John Charles Van Dyke. He wrote an essay on the Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and, because of his friendship with the French Impressionist, he wrote and illustrated the essay on Claude Monet. The book was published in 1896 and his illustration of Monet was featured in the exhibition "In Monet's Light."
In 1895, Robinson enjoyed a productive period in Vermont, and in February 1896 he wrote to Monet about returning to Giverny, but in April he died of an acute asthma attack in New York City. He was buried in his hometown of Evansville, Wisconsin. He was 43 years old.
Today Robinson's paintings are in the collections of many major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Art Institute of Chicago.


Chimes of Freedom (album)

Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International is a charity compilation album featuring new recordings of compositions by Bob Dylan by multiple artists, released on January 24, 2012. Proceeds from the album were donated to the human rights organization Amnesty International. It debuted in the U.S at number 11 on the "Billboard" 200 with 22,000 copies sold while the 2-CD version available at Starbucks debuted at number 38 with more than 10,200 copies sold.
Featured artists include Diana Krall, Johnny Cash, Adele, Miley Cyrus, My Chemical Romance, Silversun Pickups, Kesha, The Gaslight Anthem, Pete Townshend, Seal, Jeff Beck, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Darren Criss, Eric Burdon, Sting, Patti Smith, My Morning Jacket, Pete Seeger, Steve Earle and Rise Against.
The 4-disc CD version of the album features 73 tracks - with a further 3 tracks available on a digital-only basis - making for a total of 76 tracks. Among the 76 recordings is Bob Dylan's original 1964 recording of the title track. Of the other 75 tracks, 69 were brand-new studio recordings purpose-made for the album. The other 6 tracks were recent live performances recorded for other purposes by the artists and subsequently donated for inclusion on the album.
Music videos.
Of the 69 new studio recordings, Amnesty made music videos for 16 tracks.
Promotional TV performances.
5 of the artists who recorded tracks made promotional appearances on US or UK TV shows performing their contribution to the album:
Mini documentaries.
Amnesty created "making-of" mini-documentaries about the recording of 9 of the 69 new studio tracks.


Lord Meren