1.
WonderCon
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The convention will return to the Anaheim Convention Center in 2017. The convention was conceived by retailer John Barrett and originally held in the Oakland Convention Center, in 2003, it moved to San Franciscos Moscone Center. The shows original name was the Wonderful World of Comics Convention, the WonderCon logo was designed by Richard Bruning and Tim Zach. Retailer Joe Field and his partner Mike Friedrich owned and operated the convention for fifteen years, in 2001, they brokered a deal with the management team that runs the San Diego Comic-Con International to make it part of the Comic-Con International convention family. This gave the San Francisco show an audience and has made it a venue for previews and early screenings of major motion pictures. These have included Spider-Man 2 in 2004, Batman Begins and Fantastic Four in 2005, Superman Returns in 2006,300 in 2007, Watchmen in 2009, all of these events featured the stars of the films fielding questions from the audience. WonderCon had 34,000 attendees in 2009,39,000 in 2010, the show left the Bay Area after the 2011 con, because San Franciscos Moscone Center was being remodeled. The convention moved to Anaheim in 2012, and was rebranded WonderCon Anaheim, in 2016, a new convention started in the Bay Area, called the Silicon Valley Comic Con. WonderCon relocated from Anaheim to Los Angeles in 2016, and is now called WonderCon Los Angeles and was held March 25-27,2016 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the 2017 edition of the convention returned to Anaheim and was held March 31-April 2,2017. While the main attraction of WonderCon has always been various retailers selling back issues of comic books and action figures, there is also an Artists Alley featuring mainly comic book artists selling artwork, signing books, and doing sketches, and mainstream celebrities signing autographed pictures. WonderCon hosted the Harvey Award ceremonies from 1997–1999, since 2007, academicians and comic industry professionals have held the Comics Arts Conference in conjunction with WonderCon. In addition, WonderCon features an event called Trailer Park, where trailers for upcoming films are shown, the WonderCon masquerade competition usually takes place on Saturday after the convention closes. Awards are given to those with the most creative performances, though anyone can participate, official website WonderCon feature on Sidewalks Entertainment WonderCon founders website
2.
Cotonou
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Cotonou, is the largest city and economic centre of Benin. Its official population count was 761,137 inhabitants in 2006, however, the population in 1960 was only 70,000. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west, the city lies in the southeast of the country, between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Nokoué. In addition to being Benins largest city, it is the seat of government and it is home to most of the countrys government buildings and diplomatic services. The city is a port and home to an airport. Another familiar feature is the known as Zémidjans. The name Cotonou means by the river of death in the Fon language, at the beginning of the 19th century, Cotonou was a small fishing village. Though originally ruled by the Kingdom of Dahomey, in 1851 the French made a treaty with the Dahomean King Ghezo that allowed them to establish a trading post at Cotonou. During the reign of Glele, his successor, the territory was ceded to France by a treaty signed on May 19,1868, in 1883, the French navy occupied the city to prevent British conquest of the area. After Gleles death in 1889, his son Béhanzin tried, unsuccessfully, from then on, the town developed quickly to become the largest harbour in the region. Cotonou is on the strip between Lake Nokoué and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is cut in two by a canal, the lagoon of Cotonou, dug by the French in 1855, three bridges are in this area. The Oueme River flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Cotonou, the city has established transportation infrastructure including air, sea, river, and land routes that facilitate trade with its neighbors Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Togo. The erosion of the coast has noted for several decades, houssou Paul, a pilot project funded by the United Nations Environment Program revealed that in 40 years, the coast to the east of Cotonou fell by 400 meters. This erosion has led people to leave their homes along the coast. The Beninese state prohibited the pumping of sea and sand for the construction of protective dikes, under Köppens climate classification, Cotonou features a tropical wet and dry climate, alternating with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons. In December and January, the city is affected by harmattan winds, temperatures are relatively constant throughout the year, with the average high temperatures hovering around 30 °C, and average low temperatures at around 25 °C. 1979,320,3481992,536,8272002,665,1002005,690,584 Besides French, the Autonomous Port of Cotonou is one of the largest in West Africa
3.
Republic of Dahomey
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The Republic of Dahomey was established on December 11,1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Prior to attaining autonomy it had been French Dahomey, part of the French Union, on August 1,1960, it attained full independence from France. The Republic of Dahomey became independent of France on 1 August 1960, upon independence, Maga became the first president of Dahomey. This compromise, however, was unable to solve Dahomeys problems, and an uprising broke out in October 1963, culminating in a coup détat, and this also failed to bring about stability, and Apithy was removed in another coup, in December 1965. Following the 1965 coup, Colonel Christophe Soglo became president, a veteran of the French Army, he saw himself as a Dahomeyan Charles de Gaulle, banning all political activity with the stated aim of stabilising the country. In October 1972, a coup led by Mathieu Kérékou removed a civilian government, Kérékou would go on to proclaim his support for Marxism-Leninism, declaring the end of the Republic of Dahomey and the establishment of the Peoples Republic of Benin on 30 November 1975. Jacques, Gloria Foster, Zakes Mokae, Paul Ford, Georg Stanford Brown, Peter Ustinov, Douta Seck, the movie is the story of an adulterous affair placed against the backdrop of Haiti during the tumultuous dictatorship of François Duvalier. Dahomey resembled Haiti in many ways, both geographically and culturally, and it was safer to film there than in Haiti
4.
Benin
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Benin, officially the Republic of Benin and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, the majority of its population lives on the small southern coastline of the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in Cotonou, Benin covers an area of 114,763 square kilometers and its population in 2015 was estimated to be approximately 10.88 million. Benin is a nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with substantial employment. The official language of Benin is French, however, indigenous languages such as Fon and Yoruba are commonly spoken. The largest religious group in Benin is Roman Catholicism, followed closely by Islam, Vodun and this region was referred to as the Slave Coast from as early as the 17th century due to the large number of slaves shipped to the New World during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. After slavery was abolished, France took over the country and renamed it French Dahomey, in 1960, Dahomey gained full independence from France, and had a tumultuous period with many different democratic governments, many military coups and military governments. A Marxist–Leninist state called the Peoples Republic of Benin existed between 1975 and 1990, in 1991, it was replaced by the current multi-party Republic of Benin. During the colonial period and at independence, the country was known as Dahomey, on 30 November 1975 it was renamed to Benin, after the body of water on which the country lies—the Bight of Benin—which, in turn, had been named after the Benin Empire. The country of Benin has no connection to Benin City in modern Nigeria, the form Benin is the result of a Portuguese corruption of the city of Ubinu. The new name, Benin, was chosen for its neutrality, the current country of Benin combines three areas which had different political and ethnic systems prior to French colonial control. Before 1700, there were a few important city states along the coast, the situation changed in the 1600s and early 1700s as the Kingdom of Dahomey, which was of Fon ethnicity, was founded on the Abomey plateau and began taking over areas along the coast. The Dahomey Kingdom was known for its culture and traditions, young boys were often apprenticed to older soldiers, and taught the kingdoms military customs until they were old enough to join the army. This emphasis on preparation and achievement earned Dahomey the nickname of black Sparta from European observers. The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery, by about 1750, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling Africans to the European slave-traders. Court protocols, which demanded that a portion of war captives from the many battles be decapitated, decreased the number of enslaved people exported from the area. The number went from 102,000 people per decade in the 1780s to 24,000 per decade by the 1860s, the decline was partly due to the banning of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain and other countries. This decline continued until 1885, when the last slave ship departed from the coast of the present-day Benin Republic bound for Brazil, a former Portuguese colony, the capitals name Porto-Novo is of Portuguese origin, meaning New Port
5.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
6.
Model (person)
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A model is a person with a role either to promote, display, or advertise commercial products or to serve as a visual aide for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Modelling is considered to be different from other types of public performance, although the difference between modelling and performing is not always clear, appearing in a film or a play is not generally considered to be modelling. Types of modelling include, fashion, glamour, fitness, bikini, fine art, body-part, Models are featured in a variety of media formats including, books, magazines, films, newspapers, internet and TV. Fashion models are featured in films, reality TV shows. Celebrities, including actors, singers, sports personalities and reality TV stars, modelling as a profession was first established in 1853 by Charles Frederick Worth, the father of haute couture, when he asked his wife, Marie Vernet Worth, to model the clothes he designed. The term house model was coined to describe this type of work, eventually, this became common practice for Parisian fashion houses. There were no standard physical measurement requirements for a model, with the development of fashion photography, the modelling profession expanded to photo modelling. Models remained fairly anonymous, and relatively poorly paid, until the late 1950s, one of the first well-known models was Lisa Fonssagrives, who was very popular in the 1930s. Fonssagrives appeared on over 200 Vogue covers, and her name recognition led to the importance of Vogue in shaping the careers of fashion models. In 1946, Ford Models was established by Eileen and Gerard Ford in New York, one of the most popular models during the 1940s was Jinx Falkenburg who was paid $25 per hour, a large sum at the time. During the 1940s and 1950s, Wilhelmina Cooper, Jean Patchett, Dovima, Dorian Leigh, Suzy Parker, Evelyn Tripp, Carmen DellOrefice, dorothea Church was among the first black models in the industry to gain notoriety in Paris. However, these models were unknown outside the fashion community, compared to todays models, the models of the 1950s were more voluptuous. Wilhelmina Coopers measurements were 38-24-36 whereas Chanel Imans measurements are 32-23-33, in the 1960s, the modelling world began to establish modelling agencies. Throughout Europe, secretarial services acted as models agents charging them weekly rates for their messages, for the most part, models were responsible for their own billing. In Germany, agents were not allowed to work for a percentage of a persons earnings, with the exception of a few models travelling to Paris or New York, travelling was relatively unheard of for a model. Most models only worked in one market due to different labor laws governing modelling in various countries, in the 1960s, Italy had many fashion houses and fashion magazines but was in dire need of models. Italian agencies would often coerce models to return to Italy without work visas by withholding their pay and they would also pay their models in cash, which models would have to hide from customs agents. It was not uncommon for models staying in such as La Louisiana in Paris or the Arena in Milan to have their hotel rooms raided by the police looking for their work visas
7.
Kimora Lee Simmons
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Kimora Lee Leissner is an American fashion model and fashion designer. She took over Baby Phat after Russell Simmons and was CEO/Creative Director through 2010, Kimora Lee Perkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her Japanese mother, Joanne Perkins, was adopted by an American serviceman during the Korean War and she later worked as an administrator for Social Security. He was sentenced to prison when Kimora was in school for distribution of narcotics. It was substantiated in the U. S. District Court that government agents attempted to recruit Whitlock as an informant in exchange for probation, but he vehemently refused. Consequently, he was refused probation and was taken off his $500,000 bond and was given the 24-year sentence and her parents split up and she was raised by her mother. Growing up in the northern St. Louis suburb of Florissant, Missouri, Kimora was the target of bullying and teasing, because of her height. To give her confidence because of her height, Simmonss mother enrolled her in a class when she was eleven years old. Two years later she was discovered by Marie-Christine Kollock at a Model Search in Kansas City, Simmons is a graduate of Lutheran North High School in St. Louis, Missouri. Just after her birthday, Perkins was awarded an exclusive modeling contract with Chanel. She quickly gained attention in the world when she closed Lagerfelds haute couture show in 1989. Everything people thought was weird about me before, Perkins told People Weekly, was now good, Perkins soon walked haute couture for many designers including Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent. Perkins has graced the cover of the German, Indonesian, Singaporean and Malaysian editions of Harpers Bazaar, in 2004, Simmons then husband Russell Simmons sold his clothing line Phat Farm to Kellwood Company for $140 million. It was her goal to turn fashion label Baby Phat, launched in 1999 and her high-end sportswear line, KLS, launched in Fall 2007. On September 1,2010, Simmons parted ways with Baby Phat and its management company, since the split, Simmons plans to launch her KLS collection and Kouture by Kimora Brands. She also has an exclusive brand coming to Macys that will offer stylish clothes for under $40, on September 14,2011, Simmons announced on her website that she is the new Creative Director and President of JustFab, a personalized shopping website. She ended her employment with JustFab in May 2015, in June 2015, Simmons relaunched her KLS label as a high end line, opening its first boutique in Beverly Hills. In 2016, the line began being carried at Bloomingdales in the Aventura Mall, Simmons has appeared in small roles in television and films including Beauty Shop, Brown Sugar, and Waist Deep
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Sandra Bernhard
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Sandra Bernhard is an American actress, comedian, singer and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy in which she often bitterly critiques celebrity culture, Bernhard is number 97 on Comedy Centrals list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. Bernhard was born in Flint, Michigan, the daughter of Jeanette and her parents raised her as a Conservative Jew. Her family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, when she was 10 and she has often addressed her childhood in interviews and within the context of her stand-up comedy. Of her family, Bernhard stated in her show Without You Im Nothing, My father was a proctologist, thats how I view the world. In the documentary program Girls Who Do, Comedy, she discusses being a funny teenager, after graduating from Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, she went to live and volunteer on a kibbutz in Israel. She moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19, during that time she paid her bills by working as a manicurist in a high-end salon. Bernhard became a staple at The Comedy Store, as her popularity as a comedian grew she was cast as a supporting player on The Richard Pryor Show in 1977. Guest appearances on evening talk shows followed and she began performing her first one-woman show called Im Your Woman in 1985, and an album version was released. Bernhard appeared in a variety of film and television roles throughout the 1980s while crafting her stand-up routine into a more performance art oriented show. She launched an Off-Broadway one woman show called Without You Im Nothing, in 1990 it was turned into a film and a double album of the same title. The film was shot on location in 1989 in the coconut grove at the Ambassador Hotel. A frequent guest on David Lettermans NBC program, it was during the run of Without You Im Nothing, the two alluded to their romantic relationship and staged a sexy confrontation. They would continue to be friends for years, with Bernhard even making an appearance in Madonnas movie Truth or Dare. In 1991, Bernhard began playing the role of Nancy Bartlett on the hit sitcom Roseanne and she appeared in 33 episodes between 1991 and 1997, and was one of the first actresses to portray an openly lesbian recurring character on American television. The role is one of her best known, something she has lamented in her stand-up as being both a blessing and a curse, in September 1992, Bernhard did a nude pictorial for Playboy. She hosted the USA Networks Reel Wild Cinema for two seasons beginning in 1995, Bernhard continued acting in mostly independent films and TV guest roles and forays into mainstream films such as Hudson Hawk and Dallas Doll. In 1991 she released her first studio album, entitled Excuses for Bad Behavior, in 1995, she briefly appeared as a guest in the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast, in an episode titled Jerk
10.
Without You I'm Nothing (film)
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The film was shot on location in 1989 at The Coconut Grove in The Ambassador Hotel. It was released on VHS video cassette in 1990 and became a cult classic and it was not a commercial success, but it was highly praised by critics for its caustic commentary on American values and celebrity culture. It was released on DVD on August 23,2005, interspersed are faux-interview bits with actress Lu Leonard as Bernhards manager and actor Steve Antin, with whom she would later co-star in the film Inside Monkey Zetterland. The film is notorious for a finale in which Bernhard wears nothing but pasties, in Bernhards 2006 Off-Broadway show Everything Bad & Beautiful, she concludes by showing the final footage from this film, Cynthia Bailey writing Fuck Sandra Bernhard on a tablecloth in lipstick. IMDB entry for Without You Im Nothing
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