1.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
2.
Alternative rock
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Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s. In this instance, the word refers to the genres distinction from mainstream rock music. The terms original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their debt to either the musical style or simply the independent. Ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music, Alternative rock is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most of these subgenres had achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands representing them, such as Hüsker Dü, with the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream and many alternative bands became successful. By the end of the decade, alternative rocks mainstream prominence declined due to a number of events that caused grunge and Britpop to fade, emo attracted attention in the larger alternative rock world, and the term was applied to a variety of artists, including multi-platinum acts. Post-punk revival artists such as Modest Mouse and The Killers had commercial success in the early, before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sort of music to which it refers was known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about, in 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had a late night new wave show entitled Rock and Roll Alternative. College rock was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the radio circuit. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture, according to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red, NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called Alternative Charts. The first national chart based on distribution called the Indie Chart was published in January 1980, at the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, at first the term referred to intentionally non–mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave and high-energy dance anthems. The use of alternative gained further exposure due to the success of Lollapalooza, for which festival founder, in the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. Defining music as alternative is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word, the name alternative rock essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in clubs, recorded for indie labels. Sounds range from the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the guitars of indie pop to the dirty guitars of grunge to the 1960s/1970s revivalism of Britpop. This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s, by 1984, a majority of groups signed to independent record labels mined from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years
3.
Indie rock
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Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Originally used to independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. In the mid-1980s, the term began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels. Some prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s, during the 1990s, Grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term alternative lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term indie rock became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status, by the end of the 1990s indie rock developed subgenres and related styles including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the industry and in music technology enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success. In the early 2000s, a new group of bands played a stripped-down. The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives, emo also broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s. By the end of the 2000s the proliferation of bands was being referred to as indie landfill. The term indie rock, which comes from independent, describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released, the influences and styles of the artists have been extremely diverse, including punk, psychedelia, post-punk and country. Allmusic identifies indie rock as including a number of varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes, in fact, there is an everlasting list of genres and subgenres of indie rock. Many countries have developed a local indie scene, flourishing with bands with enough popularity to survive inside the respective country. However, there are still indie bands that start off locally, Indie rock has been identified as a reaction against the macho culture that developed in alternative rock in the aftermath of Nirvanas success. However, Cortney Harding pointed out that this sense of equality is not reflected in the number of women running indie labels. The BBC documentary Music for Misfits, The Story of Indie pinpoints the birth of indie as the 1977 self-publication of the Spiral Scratch EP by Manchester band Buzzcocks, Indie pop and indie were originally synonymous. In the mid-1980s, indie began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the rock that dominated college radio playlists. In the United States, the term was associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr
4.
Power pop
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Power pop is a pop rock music subgenre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of devices such as strong melodies, clear vocals and crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements. Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed, in the 1980s and 1990s, power pop continued as a commercially modest genre but by the mid-1990s through the 2000s, power pop was mainly in the underground. While its cultural impact has waxed and waned over the decades, Power pop is a more aggressive form of pop rock that is based on catchy, melodic hooks and energetic moods. The Small Faces are often cited as being among the progenitors of power pop, the Whos role in the creation of power pop has been cited by singer-songwriter Eric Carmen of the Raspberries, who has said, Pete Townshend coined the phrase to define what the Who did. For some reason, it didnt stick to the Who, but it did stick to these groups came out in the 70s that played kind of melodic songs with crunchy guitars. It just kind of stuck to us like glue, and that was okay with us because the Who were among our highest role models, other acts such as the Knickerbockers, the Easybeats and the Outsiders contributed iconic singles. Writer John Borack has noted, Its also quite easy to draw a line from garage rock to power pop. Although the formative influences on the genre were primarily British, the bands that developed and codified power pop in the 1970s were nearly all American. The Raspberries 1972 hit single Go All The Way is an almost perfect embodiment of the elements of power pop, the most influential group of the period may have been Big Star. The Replacements even recorded a song entitled Alex Chilton in honor of Big Stars frontman, spurred on by the emergence of punk rock and new wave, power pop enjoyed a prolific and commercially successful period in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although coined in the 1960s, and used as early as 1973 in reference to Sweet, as the novelist Michael Chabon has written, Power pop in its essential form. Did not come into existence for a number of years after it was first identified, like so much of the greatest work turned out by popular artists of the 1970s, true power pop is quintessential second-generation stuff. The term was used in reference to critics favorites Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. Los Angeles-based Bomp. magazine championed power pop in its March 1978 issue, tying the genres roots to 1960s groups like the Who, like their punk brethren, late–1970s power pop groups favored a leaner and punchier sound than their early–1970s predecessors. Some occasionally incorporated synthesizers into their music, though not to the degree as did their new wave counterparts. Representative singles from the period include releases from the Bomp, records label by 20/20, Shoes and the Romantics. Major label groups like Cheap Trick, the Cars and Blondie merged power pop influences with other styles and achieved their first mainstream success with albums released in 1978
5.
OK Go
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OK Go is an American rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy Ross, the band is known for its often quirky and elaborate one-take music videos. The original members formed as OK Go in 1998 and released two albums before Duncans departure. The bands video for Here It Goes Again won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2007, the bands lead singer, Damian Kulash, met bassist Tim Nordwind at Interlochen Arts Camp when they were 11. Kulash was in for graphic design, Nordwind for music, the band name comes from an art teacher of the band members saying, OK. They kept in touch after camp, often exchanging mixtapes which influenced each others musical taste and they met the bands future guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan in high school. Nordwind and Duncan moved to Chicago for college, where they formed the band Stanleys Joyful Noise with drummer Dan Konopka, the name OK Go was adopted in 1998, when Kulash moved to Chicago to join the band. At the end of 2000, the band was invited by radio host Ira Glass to serve as the band for live performances of This American Life in Boston, New York. The band self-released two EPs, titled Brown EP and Pink EP, which were culled from an albums worth of songs recorded in February 2000 with producer Dave Trumfio, to serve as demos. Though the members of OK Go eventually left for Los Angeles and New York, in a 2011 interview, Kulash described the bands formative years, “As far as the band is concerned, we only have one home town. We all live in L. A. Chicago had such a close-knit, the Empty Bottle was where it all started for us. We played at the Metro and the Double Door as well, the band released its debut album, OK Go, on September 17,2002, after it was pushed back by the label from its original June release date. To promote the release, the label sent out miniature ping pong tables to press outlets, in the United States, the album reached #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and #107 on the Billboard 200 Chart. In the United Kingdom, the first single Get Over It debuted at no,27, in the UK singles chart on March 16,2003, and the band performed it on that weeks edition of Top of the Pops. Also that week, the video was named video of the week by Q magazine. The bands second album, Oh No, was recorded in Malmö, Sweden in the fall of 2004 and was produced by Tore Johansson and mixed by Dave Sardy. After recording, in February 2005, Andy Duncan left the band citing creative differences, major label pressures, and the bands rigorous touring schedule. Ross introduced himself to the fans by writing a blog entitled The Will To Rock
6.
8in8
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8in8 is a supergroup comprising Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, and Damian Kulash of OK Go. In 2011 they gathered together with the intention of writing and recording eight songs in eight hours, the band have been referred to as a supergroup, acknowledging that moniker by describing themselves as tomorrows supergroup today. The musical members of 8in8 each have different styles and the EP Nighty Night was created to each one. The Berklee College of Music hosted the Rethink Music conference in April 2011, inviting musicians, during the discussions Amanda Palmer raised the question of how fast an artist could complete the process of creating an album, from writing new material to releasing the work. Shortly afterwards she joined with the members of 8in8, forming the group to write. On 25 April 2011 they went into Mad Oak Studios with producer Sean Slade and they had the intention of creating an album of eight songs in eight hours, but fell short of that target, completing six songs in 12 hours. The album, available under a Creative Commons license, went on sale on Bandcamp, the session was broadcast live on Rethink-Music. com, and the band members used Twitter to communicate with fans, encouraging them to put forward ideas for the lyrics. The band have played one concert, returning to the Rethink Music conference just hours after completing the record and they played the set at the Berklee Performance Centre
7.
Kristin Gore
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Kristin Carlson Gore is an American author and screenwriter. She is the daughter of Al and Tipper Gore and the sister of Karenna Gore Schiff, Sarah. Gore was raised in Washington, D. C. graduated from National Cathedral School in 1995, while at Harvard, she was an editor for Harvard Lampoon. Until her senior year at Harvard, she was the woman on the literary board of Harvard Lampoon, I didnt know its reputation at all. It was just that the funniest people I knew at Harvard were on the Lampoon, Gore has published three novels, Sammys Hill, Sammys House, and Sweet Jiminy. She co-wrote the screenplay for the 2015 film Accidental Love, and she was also a writer for the animated sitcom Futurama and the long-running sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. In 1999, Gore sang backup vocals on a Diva Zappa comedy single called When The Bell Drops about Zappas hunt for someone to make out with on the Millennium, Tipper Gore played drums on the recording. In 2013, she worked on Spike Jonzes film Her, and has written a screenplay called Racing Dreams that Lance Acord will direct, Gore married Paul Cusack, a former district director for former Massachusetts United States Representative Marty Meehan, in 2005. She is currently married to OKGO frontman, Damian Kulash
8.
St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.)
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St. Albans School is an independent college preparatory day and boarding school for boys in grades 4–12, located in Washington, D. C. The school is named after Saint Alban, traditionally regarded as the first British martyr, within the St. Albans community, the school is commonly referred to as S-T-A. St. Albans, along with its schools on the Cathedral Close. The school was founded in 1909, with $300,000 in funding bequeathed by Harriet Lane Johnston, initially, it was a school for boy choristers to the Washington National Cathedral, a program that the school continues today. The school mascot is the bulldog, a symbol adopted under the fourth headmaster, Canon Charles S. Martin. The St. Albans motto, Pro Ecclesia et Pro Patria, translates to For Church, St. Albans requires all students to attend Chapel twice a week in The Little Sanctuary. The school seeks to develop in its students a sense of moral responsibility through Chapel, its Honor Code, and a co-curricular social service program. A2004 article in the Wall Street Journal found that among U. S. schools, St. Albans had the 11th-highest success rate in placing graduates at 10 selective universities. In 2012, St. Albans sent 24 out of its 75 graduates, or 32%, to an Ivy league School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or Stanford, making its matriculation one of the best in the country. The class of 2013 similarly fared well, with 21 graduates attending Ivy League schools or Stanford and 2 each attending the University of Chicago and the United States Military Academy. From the 76 member class of 2014,16 headed to the Ivy League,2 to Stanford,1 to Duke, a 2015 article in Business Insider ranked St. Albans the smartest boarding school in America. Almost 75% of the faculty at the school have advanced degrees, the school also maintains one writer-in-residence, who teaches English classes while developing his or her work. The schools seventh headmaster is Vance Wilson, who has recently served as the President of the International Boys School Coalition. The school opened its new Upper School building - Marriott Hall - in 2009–2010, the St. Albans application process begins in the fall prior to the students intended year of attendance. In September, a family may schedule a tour and interview, in addition to the visit, a general application form, personal statement, teacher recommendations, standardized testing, and a school transcript are required for the application. St. Albans operates a need-blind admission policy, as a result, a students application for financial aid has no bearing on his application for admission. The St. Albans Skip Grant Program offers financial aid and other support to enrolled students from a diversity of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. This program was started by former St. Albans teacher Brooks Johnson and is now named after the second director, former teacher, coach
