The Ottobar
The Ottobar is a music venue located in the Charles Village neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. In 2018 the Ottobar was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone Magazine; the Washington Post describes it as a "bastion of sub-mainstream music...where the insular community of artists and scenesters flock to hear the best touring bands." It hosts theme events, dance parties, an occasional burlesque show. Long considered one of the top music venues and one of the top indie and alternative music venues in Baltimore, the Ottobar was opened in Downtown Baltimore by Craig Boarman and Michael Bowen in September 1997, it was located at 203 East Davis Street in the former Chambers Nightclub. The venue, named after Bowen's cat, was small, providing an intimate setting for live music and performance art. Despite its size, it attracted national acts such as Blonde Redhead, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, Lamb of God, Le Tigre, of Montreal, Queens of the Stone Age, The Rapture, The White Stripes.
It supported local artists of the time, such as Daybreak, Lungfish, The Goons, The Oranges Band. The Ottobar has booked more than 12,000 acts since it opened in 1997. Performance art showcased included The 80's Prom, Salute To Satan, Tiny Couch Night, The Death of Vaudeville Night; the Davis Street location closed on November 17, 2001. The Ottobar reopened the same month at its current 2549 North Howard Street location in lower Charles Village, south of the Johns Hopkins University campus and the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Charles Village location is larger, but still provides an intimate listening experience by permitting fans to be close to the bands. The venue is valued by artists for its sound system. Food is not served at the Ottobar. There is a bar and concert area on the main floor, a balcony with seating and a good view of the first floor, an area for dance parties on the second floor; the second floor has pool tables, a sofa, a small performance space, a bar. It has been reported that there is a secret passage to the apartment next door which functions as the dressing room.
The new Ottobar showcases emerging musical artists as well as national acts. Some of the artists who have performed at the Ottobar include national artists Animal Collective, At the Drive In, The Black Keys, Bouncing Souls and Cambria, David Cross, Death Cab for Cutie, Dinosaur Jr, Drive-By Truckers, Father John Misty, Jimmy Eat World, Jonathan Richman, KRS-ONE, Maroon 5, The Melvins, Michael Ian Black, Queens of the Stone Age, Quiet Riot, Sharon Van Etten, Supersuckers, TV on the Radio, The Breeders, Brand New, Saves the Day, Frank Turner and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; the venue supports and showcases local artists such as Celebration, Lake Trout, Misery Index and Thrushes. There are theme nights such as Underground Dance Party, Pet Wedding, Butcher Knife Throwing Contest, Spelling Bee, Ottobar Boys and Girls Choir, Book Burning For Peace. In 2014, tragedy struck when Thomas Malenski and another employee were stabbed by Nicholas Heath after they escorted a friend of Heath's outside. Malenski died of his wounds.
Musicians and employees were surprised and said they had never felt unsafe coming to or being inside the Ottobar. The only other reported issues had been neighbors complaining that patrons were noisy as they left the bar; the Ottobar hosts fundraisers and other events for various causes. In 2017, supporters of Planned Parenthood of Maryland met at Ottobar in Baltimore the day before the Women's March on Washington. Management announced in November 2018 that the venue would change ownership in 2019. Status of that transition is unclear. On November 02, 2018 the owners of Ottobar announced on Facebook that they planned to sell the bar and seemed to suggest that they had found a buyer, they refrained from naming the potential buyer. They are asking $1.25 million for the real estate, liquor license, a permit for daily live entertainment on all levels, as well as the furniture and sound equipment. It is not known whether the transaction has been completed
Phoenix (band)
Phoenix is an indie pop band from Versailles, consisting of Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz. They are best known for their singles "If I Ever Feel Better," "Lisztomania," " Too Young" and "1901." Phoenix was conceived in the 1990s when vocalist Thomas Mars, bassist Deck d'Arcy, guitarist Chris Mazzalai, who were all friends in school, started playing together as a "garage band" based out of Mars's house in the suburbs of Paris. In 1995, Laurent Brancowitz, Mazzalai's older brother, permanently joined the band on guitar after the end of Darlin', a short-lived band that Brancowitz had formed with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who would form Daft Punk. Two years the band took on the name Phoenix and pressed 500 copies of a single on their own label, Ghettoblaster. Shortly after, they were signed to the Paris-based Source Records. Phoenix became well acquainted with labelmates Air when they acted as their backing band on several UK TV appearances.
Phoenix began releasing singles in 1999, the first of these being "Heatwave" and "Party Time", the latter of which would appear on their debut album, United. The single "Too Young" was released on 22 May 2000, along with remixes of the track by Zoot Woman and Le Knight Club. "Too Young" was the band's first single to chart, reaching No. 97 in France and No. 148 in the UK. The band's debut album, was released on 12 June 2000, it featured the singles "Party Time" and "Too Young", with "If I Ever Feel Better" being announced as the third single from the album on 22 January 2001, charting in several countries, reaching No. 12 in France and No. 4 in Italy. United received positive reviews. "Too Young" was included on the soundtrack for the movie Lost in Translation, as well as in the movie Shallow Hal. Shortly after the release of United, Phoenix began work on a second album, recording in 2003 and 2004 and releasing the singles "Run Run Run" and "Everything Is Everything" in 2004; the band's sophomore album, was released on 22 March 2004 and saw the band reach more mainstream success, with both singles reaching some alternative rock airplay charts.
French fashion designer Hedi Slimane commissioned a special mix of their song "Victim of the Crime", taken from Alphabetical, as the soundtrack to one of his runway shows for menswear clothing retailer Dior Homme. Following Alphabetical, the band toured three continents; this tour was followed up with a live album, Live! Thirty Days Ago, released only thirty days after the end of the tour. After their Alphabetical tour, Phoenix spent time in Berlin during the summer of 2005, making use of Planet Roc studios to produce their third album. On 8 May 2006, the band released the lead single from the album, titled "Long Distance Call". American band Paramore would go on to perform a cover of the song live on Taratata, a French TV show. Phoenix's third studio album, titled It's Never Been Like That, was released on 15 May 2006. To promote the release of the album, Phoenix toured the United States and Europe in 2006; the album charted in several countries, reaching greater success than Alphabetical, although it still did not chart in much of North America.
It's Never Been Like That was re-released in Mexico that year, with the so-called "tour edition" featuring four bonus tracks recorded live in Oslo from the tour. On 11 September 2006, the track "Consolation Prizes" was announced to be the second single from It's Never Been Like That. Phoenix curated a compilation album for French electronic music record and fashion label Kitsuné, it was released on 23 March 2009, includes music by Elvis Costello, Roxy Music, Lou Reed and others. In early 2009, around the time of the release of the Phoenix's compilation album for Kitsuné, it was announced that the band would be returning with a new album titled Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, which would be released on 25 May 2009; the album was recorded in Paris, was co-produced and mixed by Philippe Zdar of Cassius. "1901", a tribute to early Paris, was released on 23 February 2009 on the band's website as a free download. Due to positive reviews, the song was issued as a retail single and aired for the first time on Australian radio station Triple J.
In June 2009, after the release of the album, Phoenix first appeared on the cover of the 62nd issue of The FADER publication. As the album's popularity grew, "Lisztomania" and "Lasso" were issued as the second and third singles from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; as it became apparent that "1901" was Phoenix's biggest success yet, the song was performed live on several TV shows and began to appear everywhere. "1901" was featured in the US during Super Bowl XLV in a Green Bay Packers montage, was performed on Saturday Night Live along with "Too Young" and "Lisztomania" on April 4. Phoenix performed "Lisztomania" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, "Girlfriend" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, "1901" on the Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards on 31 January 2010. Shortly afterwards, "1901" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Alternative Songs chart. The album was the first Phoenix album to be certified gold and appeared on numerous "Best of" lists at the end of 2010, including Rolling Stone magazine.
In addition, "1901" and "Lisztomania" were certified gold, respectively. Following the album's release, Phoenix appeared at various major music festivals, including the Austin City Lim
ODDSAC
ODDSAC is a visual album by Animal Collective, featuring psychedelic visuals directed and edited by Danny Perez. First announced in August 2006, the film took over four years to complete; the band members and director Danny Perez dubbed the 53 minute combination of Perez's film and Animal Collective's music a "visual album" or "visual record" in which the visual "scenarios" were created to reflect the music and the music was created to reflect the imagery. The band members make appearances as major characters in the film. According to the band, the film's name is both a pleasant combination of letters and the name for a bag of gummy candies; the film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2010, It was released on DVD on August 10, 2010. The project was first conceived when Plexifilm approached the band regarding the creation of a documentary or concert film; the band decided to approach Perez about making a film which resulted in Perez going on tour with the band in order to create some concert footage for the upcoming project.
This film was never used as the band decided to make a film, more to'their taste'. While Perez was on tour with Animal Collective concepts for many of the scenes for the film that would become ODDSAC were discussed and the shooting of the film began shortly thereafter. Many of these concepts were based on ideas. During the production of the film the musicians and director collaborated, thus neither the music nor the film was created independent of the other aspect of the work; this had been the concept of the film since its inception. Josh Dibb explains: That was the goal of what we were setting out to do. We didn't want to have him make a video and have us score to it and we didn't want to make a piece of music and have him just cut a video to it. So we did... both things informed each other. And, what we wanted to make. Many of the sounds created by the band were inspired directly by the images created by Perez and Perez's images were changed in response to new music and sounds from the band.
The film was shot outdoors in what was intended to be an "alien landscape". The sound from the film footage was not used because of its poor quality and the noise of the generator used on the outdoor set. All four Animal Collective band members appear in the film; some of their appearances are listed as follows: David Portner appears as a faceless warrior surrounded by fire-twirlers. Noah Lennox is seen wearing a strange wig that covers his entire face while ominously setting up a drum kit in a dried up river bed. Brian Weitz appears as a knight cleansing strange objects in a stream. Josh Dibb appears as a'sad vampire'; the film was first screened at the Sundance Film festival on January 26, 2010. It was screened several times in various countries throughout North America; the last screening was held on September 5 in Mexico City's Cineteca Nacional. The film was released on DVD in the US by Plexifilm on August 10, 2010 and is available in Europe from Plexi UK. Various ODDSAC merchandise including posters and t-shirts were released for the screenings.
The band members and Perez have indicated that ODDSAC will only be released in theatres and in DVD form. According to Portner the band will not release a separate sound-track since the video and audio are intended to be seen and heard in tandem, he has stated, however that fans will rip the music and listen to the sound track separately. The DVD package includes a 40-page hardcover book containing imagery from the film. All songs written by Noah Lennox, Brian Weitz and Josh Dibb. "Mr. Fingers" – 7:01 "Kindle Song" – 2:53 "Satin Orb Wash" – 2:53 "Green Beans" – 2:22 "Screens" – 3:39 "Urban Creme" – 6:36 "Working" – 2:45 "Tantrum Barb" – 3:42 "Lady on the Lake" – 3:52 "Fried Camp" – 5:12 "Fried Vamp" – 3:46 "Mess Hour House" – 3:10 "What Happened?" – 4:40 Official website ODDSAC on IMDb
Mali
Mali the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa, a region geologically identified with the West African Craton. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres; the population of Mali is 18 million. Its capital is Bamako; the sovereign state of Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers. The country's economy centers on mining; some of Mali's prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, salt. Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Songhai Empire. During its golden age, there was a flourishing of mathematics, astronomy and art. At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa.
In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan joined with Senegal in 1959. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. In January 2012, an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali, in which Tuareg rebels took control of a territory in the north, in April declared the secession of a new state, Azawad; the conflict was complicated by a military coup that took place in March and fighting between Tuareg and rebels. In response to territorial gains, the French military launched Opération Serval in January 2013. A month Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north. Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2013, with a second-round run-off held on 11 August, legislative elections were held on 24 November and 15 December 2013.
The name Mali is taken from the name of the Mali Empire. The name was derived from the Mandinka or Bambara word mali, meaning "hippopotamus", but it came to mean "the place where the king lives"; the word carries the connotation of strength. Guinean writer Djibril Niane suggests in Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali that it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. 14th-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta reported that the capital of the Mali Empire was called Mali. One Mandinka tradition tells that the legendary first emperor Sundiata Keita changed himself into a hippopotamus upon his death in the Sankarani River, that it's possible to find villages in the area of this river, termed "old Mali", which have Mali for a name; this name could have been that of a city. In old Mali, there is one village called Malika which means "New Mali."Another theory suggests that Mali is a Fulani pronunciation of the name of the Mande peoples. It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment /nd/ shifts to /l/ and the terminal vowel denasalises and raises, thus "Manden" shifts to /Mali/.
Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt and other precious commodities. These Sahelian kingdoms had rigid ethnic identities; the earliest of these empires was the Ghana Empire, dominated by the Soninke, a Mande-speaking people. The empire expanded throughout West Africa from the 8th century until 1078, when it was conquered by the Almoravids; the Mali Empire formed on the upper Niger River, reached the height of power in the 14th century. Under the Mali Empire, the ancient cities of Djenné and Timbuktu were centers of both trade and Islamic learning; the empire declined as a result of internal intrigue being supplanted by the Songhai Empire. The Songhai people originated in current northwestern Nigeria; the Songhai had long been a major power in West Africa subject to the Mali Empire's rule. In the late 14th century, the Songhai gained independence from the Mali Empire and expanded subsuming the entire eastern portion of the Mali Empire.
The Songhai Empire's eventual collapse was the result of a Moroccan invasion in 1591, under the command of Judar Pasha. The fall of the Songhai Empire marked the end of the region's role as a trading crossroads. Following the establishment of sea routes by the European powers, the trans-Saharan trade routes lost significance. One of the worst famines in the region's recorded history occurred in the 18th century. According to John Iliffe, "The worst crises were in the 1680s, when famine extended from the Senegambian coast to the Upper Nile and'many sold themselves for slaves, only to get a sustenance', in 1738–1756, when West Africa's greatest recorded subsistence crisis, due to drought and locusts killed half the population of Timbuktu." Mali fell under the control of France during the late 19th century. By 1905, most of the area was under firm French control as a part of French Sudan. In early 1959, French Sudan and Senegal united to become the Mali Federation; the Mali Federation gained independence from France on 20 June 1960.
Senegal withdrew from the federation in August 1960, which allowed the Sudanes
Electronics
Electronics comprises the physics, engineering and applications that deal with the emission and control of electrons in vacuum and matter. The identification of the electron in 1897, along with the invention of the vacuum tube, which could amplify and rectify small electrical signals, inaugurated the field of electronics and the electron age. Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, diodes, integrated circuits and sensors, associated passive electrical components, interconnection technologies. Electronic devices contain circuitry consisting or of active semiconductors supplemented with passive elements; the nonlinear behaviour of active components and their ability to control electron flows makes amplification of weak signals possible. Electronics is used in information processing, telecommunication, signal processing; the ability of electronic devices to act as switches makes digital information-processing possible. Interconnection technologies such as circuit boards, electronics packaging technology, other varied forms of communication infrastructure complete circuit functionality and transform the mixed electronic components into a regular working system, called an electronic system.
An electronic system may be a component of a standalone device. Electrical and electromechanical science and technology deals with the generation, switching and conversion of electrical energy to and from other energy forms; this distinction started around 1906 with the invention by Lee De Forest of the triode, which made electrical amplification of weak radio signals and audio signals possible with a non-mechanical device. Until 1950 this field was called "radio technology" because its principal application was the design and theory of radio transmitters and vacuum tubes; as of 2018 most electronic devices use semiconductor components to perform electron control. The study of semiconductor devices and related technology is considered a branch of solid-state physics, whereas the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems come under electronics engineering; this article focuses on engineering aspects of electronics. Digital electronics Analogue electronics Microelectronics Circuit design Integrated circuits Power electronics Optoelectronics Semiconductor devices Embedded systems An electronic component is any physical entity in an electronic system used to affect the electrons or their associated fields in a manner consistent with the intended function of the electronic system.
Components are intended to be connected together by being soldered to a printed circuit board, to create an electronic circuit with a particular function. Components may be packaged singly, or in more complex groups as integrated circuits; some common electronic components are capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc. Components are categorized as active or passive. Vacuum tubes were among the earliest electronic components, they were solely responsible for the electronics revolution of the first half of the twentieth century. They allowed for vastly more complicated systems and gave us radio, phonographs, long-distance telephony and much more, they played a leading role in the field of microwave and high power transmission as well as television receivers until the middle of the 1980s. Since that time, solid-state devices have all but taken over. Vacuum tubes are still used in some specialist applications such as high power RF amplifiers, cathode ray tubes, specialist audio equipment, guitar amplifiers and some microwave devices.
In April 1955, the IBM 608 was the first IBM product to use transistor circuits without any vacuum tubes and is believed to be the first all-transistorized calculator to be manufactured for the commercial market. The 608 contained more than 3,000 germanium transistors. Thomas J. Watson Jr. ordered all future IBM products to use transistors in their design. From that time on transistors were exclusively used for computer logic and peripherals. Circuits and components can be divided into two groups: digital. A particular device may consist of circuitry that has a mix of the two types. Most analog electronic appliances, such as radio receivers, are constructed from combinations of a few types of basic circuits. Analog circuits use a continuous range of voltage or current as opposed to discrete levels as in digital circuits; the number of different analog circuits so far devised is huge because a'circuit' can be defined as anything from a single component, to systems containing thousands of components.
Analog circuits are sometimes called linear circuits although many non-linear effects are used in analog circuits such as mixers, etc. Good examples of analog circuits include vacuum tube and transistor amplifiers, operational amplifiers and oscillators. One finds modern circuits that are analog; these days analog circuitry may use digital or microprocessor techniques to improve performance. This type of circuit is called "mixed signal" rather than analog or digital. Sometimes it may be difficult to differentiate between analog and digital circuits as they have elements of both linear and non-linear
Festival au Désert
The Festival au désert was an annual concert in Mali, showcasing traditional Tuareg music as well as music from around the world. The first Festival took place in 2001 in Tin Essako in Tessalit in 2002, in Essakane from 2003 to 2009. From 2010 to 2012 it was held on the outskirts of Timbuktu because of security concerns which have prevented it from taking place since. Several film documentaries have been made about or at the festival: Le Festival au Désert, Dambé: The Mali Project, The Last Song Before the War and Woodstock in Timbuktu; the album Festival au Desert Live from Timbuktu has performances from the 2012 festival. The first Festival took place in Tin Essako in 2001 and it moved in 2002 to Tessalit in the Kidal region of North-Eastern Mali. From 2003 until 2009 the festival was held in Essakane, 65 km from Timbuktu, but because of security issues, from 2010 the festival was held on the outskirts of Timbuktu; the Tuareg band Tinariwen first garnered international attention with their performance at the 2001 Festival.
An audio recording of the 2012 edition Festival au Desert Live from Timbuktu was released in 2013 with performances by 18 artists with supplemental digital bonus performances. Shortly after the January 2012 festival, the MNLA launched the Azawadi rebellion, an early stage of the Northern Mali conflict, resulting in the postponement of the 2013 festival. In July and August 2013, Tartit and Mamadou Kelly toured throughout North America as the Festival au Desert - Caravan for Peace; the Festival has continued to be postponed due to security concerns in the region. A French-language documentary entitled Le Festival au Désert was filmed at the 2003 festival. Performers include Tartit, Oumou Sangaré, Lo'Jo, Robert Plant with Justin Adams, Khaira Arby and her band and Ali Farka Touré; the DVD contains English subtitles, an audio CD of the concert, Festival in the Desert, was released. The documentary Dambé: The Mali Project tells the story of a cross-cultural musical adventure over 3000 miles by two Irish musicians, that features performances from the Festival au désert.
Other documentary films made about the Festival are The Last Song Before the War and Woodstock in Timbuktu. Festival au Désert official site "Audio slideshow: Desert festival", BBC News, 2 February 2007 "Video report: Festival au Désert 2008", Guardian Unlimited, 18 January 2008 "The Last Song Before the War", Feature Length Documentary
Caravan Girl
"Caravan Girl" is a folktronica song performed by British duo Goldfrapp. The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory for the duo's fourth album Seventh Tree, it was released as the album's third single on 30 June 2008 and peaked at number 54 on the UK Singles Chart. In Scotland, the song reached number 6, becoming the third single from Seventh Tree to reach the top ten; the music video premiered on Channel 4 on Saturday 14 June 2008, Mute Records made the video available on YouTube the following day. The video, Goldfrapp's first not to include Alison Goldfrapp, features a girl riding her longboard, it was filmed, in Cambria, California. The video was directed by The Malloys. "Caravan Girl" was released in the following formats: UK 7-inch picture disc "Caravan Girl" – 3:40 "Little Bird" – 3:19UK CD single "Caravan Girl" – 4:03 "Happiness" music videoUK Maxi-CD single "Caravan Girl" – 4:42 "Monster Love" – 4:38 "Little Bird" videoDigital EP "Caravan Girl" – 4:03 "Little Bird" – 3:19 "Caravan Girl" – 4:42 "Monster Love" – 4:38Promotional CD single "Caravan Girl" – 3:40 The following people contributed to "Caravan Girl": Alison Goldfrapp – vocals Flood – co-producer, mixing Alex Lee – acoustic guitar Tony Hoffer – bass guitar, mixing Adrian Utley – bass, guitar Chris Goulstone – drum samples Aidan Love – keyboards The Metro Voices – choir Jenny O'Grady – choir master Stephen Marcussen – mastering Bill Mims – engineering, mixing assistant Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
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