Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, voice actor, writer, radio host and producer. Born in Los Angeles, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of a radio comedy group. Following the breakup of the group, Shearer co-wrote the film Real Life with Albert Brooks and started writing for Martin Mull's television series Fernwood 2 Night. Shearer was a cast member on Saturday Night Live between 1979 and 1980, 1984 and 1985. Shearer co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap, a satirical rockumentary, which became a cult hit. In 1989, he joined the cast of the animated sitcom The Simpsons. Shearer has appeared in films including A Mighty Wind and The Truman Show, has directed two, Teddy Bears' Picnic and The Big Uneasy, he has written three books. Since 1983, Shearer has been the host of the public radio comedy/music program Le Show, incorporating satire and sketch comedy. Shearer has won a Primetime Emmy Award, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the radio category, has received several other Emmy and Grammy Award nominations.
He has been married to singer-songwriter Judith Owen since 1993. He is "artist in residence" at Loyola University, New Orleans. Shearer was born December 23, 1943, in Los Angeles, the son of Dora Warren, a bookkeeper, Mack Shearer, his parents were Jewish emigrants from Poland. Starting when Shearer was four years old, he had a piano teacher whose daughter worked as a child actress; the piano teacher decided to make a career change and become a children's agent, since she knew people in the business through her daughter's work. The teacher asked Shearer's parents for permission to take him to an audition. Several months she called Shearer's parents and told them that she had gotten Shearer an audition for the radio show The Jack Benny Program. Shearer received the role, he described Jack Benny as "very warm and approachable... He was a guy who dug the idea of other people on the show getting laughs, which sort of spoiled me for other people in comedy." Shearer said in an interview that one person who "took him under his wing" and was one of his best friends during his early days in show business was voice actor Mel Blanc, who voiced many animated characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Barney Rubble.
Shearer made his film debut in the 1953 film Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, in which he had a small part. That year he appeared in The Robe. Throughout his childhood and teenage years he worked in television and radio. In 1957, Shearer played the precursor to the Eddie Haskell character in the pilot episode of the television series Leave It to Beaver. After the filming, Shearer's parents said. Instead they wanted him to just do occasional work. Shearer and his parents made the decision not to accept the role in the series if it was picked up by a television network. Shearer attended UCLA as a political science major in the early 1960s and decided to quit show business to become a "serious person". However, he says this lasted a month, he joined the staff of the Daily Bruin, UCLA's school newspaper, during his first year, he was editor of the college humor magazine including the June 1964 parody, Preyboy He worked as a newscaster at KRLA, a top 40 radio station in Pasadena, during this period. According to Shearer, after graduating, he had "a serious agenda going on, it was'Stay Out of the Draft'."
He attended graduate school at Harvard University for one year and worked at the state legislature in Sacramento. In 1967 and 1968, he was a high school teacher, teaching social studies, he left teaching following "disagreements with the administration."From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The Credibility Gap, a radio comedy group that included David Lander, Richard Beebe and Michael McKean. The group consisted of "a bunch of newsmen" at KRLA 1110, "the number two station" in Los Angeles, they wanted to do more than just straight news, so they hired comedians who were talented vocalists. Shearer heard about it from a friend so he brought over a tape to the station and nervously gave it to the receptionist, he found out. The group's radio show was canceled in 1970 by KRLA and in 1971 by KPPC-FM, so they started performing in various clubs and concert venues. While at KRLA, Shearer interviewed Creedence Clearwater Revival for the Pop Chronicles music documentary. In 1973, Shearer appeared as Jim Houseafire on How Time Flys, an album by The Firesign Theatre's David Ossman.
The Credibility Gap broke up in 1976 when Lander and McKean left to perform in the sitcom Laverne & Shirley. Shearer started working with Albert Brooks, producing one of Brooks' albums and co-writing the film Real Life. Shearer started writing for Martin Mull's television series Fernwood 2 Night. In the mid-1970s, he started working with Rob Reiner on a pilot for ABC; the show, which starred Christopher Guest, Tom Leopold and McKean, was not picked up. In August 1979, Shearer was hired as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live, one of the first additions to the cast, an unofficial replacement for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who were both leaving the show. Al Franken recommended Shearer to Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Shearer describes his experience on the show as a "living hell" and "not a real pleasant place to work." He did not get along well w
National Library of the Czech Republic
The National Library of the Czech Republic is the central library of the Czech Republic. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture; the library's main building is located in the historical Clementinum building in Prague, where half of its books are kept. The other half of the collection is stored in the district of Hostivař; the National Library is the biggest library in the Czech Republic, in its funds there are around 6 million documents. The library has around 60,000 registered readers; as well as Czech texts, the library stores older material from Turkey and India. The library houses books for Charles University in Prague; the library won international recognition in 2005 as it received the inaugural Jikji Prize from UNESCO via the Memory of the World Programme for its efforts in digitising old texts. The project, which commenced in 1992, involved the digitisation of 1,700 documents in its first 13 years; the most precious medieval manuscripts preserved in the National Library are the Codex Vyssegradensis and the Passional of Abbes Kunigunde.
In 2006 the Czech parliament approved funding for the construction of a new library building on Letna plain, between Hradčanská metro station and Sparta Prague's football ground, Letná stadium. In March 2007, following a request for tender, Czech architect Jan Kaplický was selected by a jury to undertake the project, with a projected completion date of 2011. In 2007 the project was delayed following objections regarding its proposed location from government officials including Prague Mayor Pavel Bém and President Václav Klaus. Plans for the building had still not been decided in February 2008, with the matter being referred to the Office for the Protection of Competition in order to determine if the tender had been won fairly. In 2008, Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička announced the end of the project, following a ruling from the European Commission that the tender process had not been carried out legally; the library was affected by the 2002 European floods, with some documents moved to upper levels to avoid the excess water.
Over 4,000 books were removed from the library in July 2011 following flooding in parts of the main building. There was a fire at the library in December 2012. List of national and state libraries Official website
RTVE
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S. A. is the state-owned public corporation that assumed the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service called Ente Público Radiotelevisión Española in 2007. RTVE is the largest audiovisual group in Spain broadcasting in the Spanish language. Since January 2010 it is financed by public subsidies. In the exercise of its public service function, among the obligations of the RTVE Corporation are: Promote dissemination and awareness of constitutional principles and civic values. Guarantee the objectivity and truthfulness of the information provided, while ensuring that a broad range of views is presented. Facilitate democratic debate and the free expression of opinion. Promote the territorial cohesion and linguistic and cultural diversity of Spain. Offer access to different genres of programming and to the institutional, social and sporting events that are of interest to all sectors of the audience, paying attention to those topics that are of special interest to the public.
To serve the widest audience, ensuring maximum continuity and geographical and social coverage, with a commitment to quality, diversity and high ethical standards. RTVE throughout its history has undergone numerous restructurings and reorganisations, has assumed numerous identities; the history of RTVE begins in 1937 with the first broadcasts by Radio Nacional de España from the city of Salamanca. In these early years, RNE served as a propaganda tool for the Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Television was introduced in Spain in October 1956, in October 1973 the two broadcasting networks, RNE and Televisión Española were consolidated into the Servicio Público Centralizado RadioTelevisión Española. Further consolidations followed in 1977. In 1979 TVE, RNE were joined by RCE an old radio service which, unlike RNE, could broadcast commercials. In 1980, RTVE was configured, as a legal public entity with its own jurisdiction. According to RTVE's annual report: "This law arose from the Spanish Constitution and the political pluralism which the constitution asserts as a fundamental value of the rule of law.
The former cinema newsreels service NO-DO was merged into RTVE to be dismantled in 1981. Since the NO-DO archives are property of RTVE and its conservation is on their hands and Filmoteca Nacional's. In 1989, RCE was dismantled and its radio service was merged into RNE. In accordance with the Law of State Radio and Television of 5 June 2006, in the face of an enormous deficit, the RTVE Public Body and the companies TVE, S. A. and RNE, S. A were dissolved, on 1 January 2007 the Corporación RTVE came into existence; this change in the law put Corporación RTVE in control of Spain's public radio and television service. As part of the 2007 restructuring, a controversial plan was put into action to reduce the workforce by 4,855 through attrition and retirement incentives, in spite of the fact that RTVE is the European public broadcasting service with the smallest workforce. In 2012 political tensions associated with the austerity program of the conservative ruling party, Partido Popular resulted in personnel changes which displaced journalists interviewed by the centre-left The Guardian interpreted as an effort to remove critical political comment from RTVE's content.
In 2012 the PP began staffing RTVE with party veterans. Considerable controversy was caused. On 11 June 2013, RTVE was one of the few known European broadcasters to condemn and criticise the closure of Greece's state broadcaster ERT. In December 2018, RTVE launched Filmoteca Española, available via Internet with more than 4000 videos of Spanish films and documentaries. Pursuant to the 2006 Law of State Radio and television, management of the national public service is entrusted to Corporación RTVE; the Administrative Council of the RTVE is the main body of RTVE, appoints the executive officers of RTVE and its companies, approves its organisation, approves most major activities. The Administrative Council is composed of 12 members; the President has operational control of day-to-day operations, in order to execute the decisions and guidance of the Administrative Council. The President is appointed by, may be dismissed by, Congress. Before the 2006 Act, this position was filled by the role of the Director General, which had a de facto total control of RTVE.
In practice, the Director General had been chosen by the Government for their political profile. Corporación RTVE is described as a "state mercantile society" with special autonomy and independence from the government and the general state administration, it performs its functions through TVE and RNE. Most staff are civil servants; the News Council is an internal supervisory body composed of RTVE journalists with the aim of safeguarding RTVE's independence. RTVE's own television service comes under the Televisión Española division of RTVE. All of TVE's channels broadcast in Spanish, with the exception of TVE Catalonia, principally in Spanish with certain programming in Catalan. RTVE's radio stations come under th
Waddy Wachtel
Robert "Waddy" Wachtel is an American musician and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel has worked as session musician for other artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones, Jon Bon Jovi, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Warren Zevon, Bryan Ferry, Michael Sweet, Jackson Browne, Andrew Gold, both in the studio and live. Wachtel was born May 1947, in Jackson Heights in the New York City borough of Queens. At about age 9–10, Wachtel began to learn to play the guitar, taking lessons with teacher Gene Dell until about age 14. At that age, he says, he began writing songs. Waddy is Jewish. Wachtel studied with Rudolph Schramm, the head of the NBC staff orchestra and went on to teach music at Carnegie Hall. Schramm tried to get Wachtel to take piano lessons, but Wachtel was intent on playing guitar so Schramm agreed to give him guitar lessons three times a week on rhythm and harmony. After performing with local bands in the New York area, Wachtel formed his own band, The Orphans, who played in Connecticut and New Hampshire.
The band settled into a regular bar band routine, playing in Newport, Rhode Island, where Wachtel took lessons from Sal Salvador. When the Orphans disbanded, he formed another band, Twice Nicely. At the suggestion of Bud Cowsill, he brought Twice Nicely to Los Angeles in 1968 where they recorded a few demos, but after two years, Wachtel decided to work as a session player, recording with The Cowsills and produce their albums. In 1972, he made an appearance in the film The Poseidon Adventure with the actual band on stage in the dining room when the ship capsizes, he played in the Oscar's awarded short film Session Man in 1991. Wachtel has composed and played instruments for film scores including Joe Dirt, Up in Smoke, Nice Guys Sleep Alone, The Longest Yard, The Benchwarmers, Grandma's Boy, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Strange Wilderness, The House Bunny, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, he has composed, produced, or performed in songs with Warren Zevon, Joe Walsh, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and others.
In 1972, he was hired by Warren Zevon to play guitar on The Everly Brothers Stories We Could Tell album and join them in a subsequent tour. By 1973, he played with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on their first album Buckingham Nicks, on tour; when Nicks and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, he played rhythm guitar on their 1975 album Fleetwood Mac on the track "Sugar Daddy". In 1980, he wrote and sang lead vocals on an album for producer Peter Asher with members of Linda Ronstadt's band, including musicians Don Grolnick, Dan Dugmore, Rick Marotta. Both the group and the album were titled Ronin. Released on the Mercury label, the record never charted. In 1984 he played on Steve Perry's solo album Street Talk, he has appeared on hundreds of albums with bands. Production credits include albums by Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards, Jackson Browne, Bryan Ferry, The Church, Sand Rubies, George Thorogood and the Destroyers and Warren Zevon. Wachtel co-wrote several songs with Zevon including "Werewolves of London".
He co-wrote the Warren Zevon song "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" from the album Mr. Bad Example, he co-produced the first two Zevon albums. Wachtel shares co-writing credits with Stevie Nicks on a few tracks such as "Annabel Lee", "I Don't Care". Wachtel has been credited on some albums as Bob Wachtel, but some online sources have incorrectly credited him as Richard Wachtel on albums he was credited as having played guitar on. Wachtel and his wife Annie were arrested in 1998 on suspicion of possession of child pornography after illicit images were found on a computer they had in their home hard copies and duplicates of child porn were found in the home; the case against Wachtel's wife was dismissed. Musician Brett Tuggle defended Wachtel and his wife, saying "there is no way that Stevie would have him in her band if she thought he was guilty of any wrongdoing." Wachtel plays 1957 Fender Stratocaster. He said in a 1980 interview. Wachtel purchased the Les Paul guitar from Stephen Stills for $350.
In September 2014 the Gibson Custom Shop chose the 1960 Les Paul Waddy Wachtel guitar for their new Collector's Choice series. Wachtel performs with the Waddy Wachtel Band in the Los Angeles area, notably at The Joint from 2000 through 2013; the band at that time included Phil Jones, Rick Rosas, Bernard Fowler and Blondie Chaplin, among others. He continues to gig with some personnel changes, while retaining Fowler and Chaplin. Many famous artists have performed with the band as special guests.> Wachtel appeared on the 2010 Grammy Award television show backing Taylor Swift's live presentation. In Swift's duet with Nicks on the song "Rhiannon", Wachtel was featured on lead guitar. Waddy Wachtel Band Website Waddy Wachtel discography at Discogs Waddy Wachtel on IMDb
Virtual International Authority File
The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of several national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. Discussion about having a common international authority started in the late 1990s. After a series of failed attempts to come up with a unique common authority file, the new idea was to link existing national authorities; this would present all the benefits of a common file without requiring a large investment of time and expense in the process. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library and the OCLC on August 6, 2003; the Bibliothèque nationale de France joined the project on October 5, 2007. The project transitioned to being a service of the OCLC on April 4, 2012; the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together. A VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary "see" and "see also" records from the original records, refers to the original authority records.
The data are available for research and data exchange and sharing. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol; the file numbers are being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAF's clustering algorithm is run every month; as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records. Authority control Faceted Application of Subject Terminology Integrated Authority File International Standard Authority Data Number International Standard Name Identifier Wikipedia's authority control template for articles Official website VIAF at OCLC
Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax is an American actress, mental health campaigner and author who has resided in England since the 1970s. A classically trained actress, Wax starred in the sitcom Girls on Top, came to prominence as a comic interviewer, playing up to British perceptions of the strident American style, in shows including The Full Wax and Ruby Wax Meets.... She was the script editor for the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous appearing in two episodes, her memoirs, How Do You Want Me?, reached the Sunday Times best-seller list. Wax studied psychology at the University of California, Berkeley but did not complete her degree and in 2013 she gained a master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Kellogg College, Oxford. In 2015, she was appointed a Visiting Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Surrey. Wax was born and raised in Evanston, the daughter of Edward and Berthe Wachs Her parents were Austrian Jews who left Austria in 1938 because of the Nazi threat, her father became wealthy as her mother qualified as an accountant.
Once settled in Chicago, Wax's father changed the way that the family surname was spelled from Wachs to Wax. She majored in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley but left after a year without completing her degree. Wax studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, she started her acting career as a straight actress at the Crucible Theatre, where she began a long-standing writing and directing partnership with Alan Rickman, to direct most of her stage comedy shows. In 1978, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, working alongside Juliet Stevenson in Measure for Measure, as Jaquenetta opposite Michael Hordern in Love's Labours Lost, replacing Zoë Wanamaker as Jane in The Way of the World and appearing in the Howard Brenton three-hander Sore Throats. While at the RSC, Wax met and befriended Ian Charleson, contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute. Wax made a one-off appearance in a 1980 episode of The Professionals, playing Lonnie, an American student.
In 1981, she appeared in the follow up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, called Shock Treatment. In the film, Wax portrays Betty Hapschatt. Wax appeared as a secretary in Omen III: The Final Conflict. In 1985, she starred as loud-mouthed American actress Shelley DuPont on the British sitcom Girls on Top. In 1987, Wax was given her own comedy chat show Don't Miss Wax, on Channel 4, she was hired as a radio presenter by the Superstation, an overnight sustaining service for commercial radio in the UK. In December 1989, she appeared in the Red Dwarf episode "Timeslides" as an American reporter. Wax began working with the BBC with the show The Full Wax. In 1994, Ruby Wax Meets Madonna aired on the BBC, followed by the series Ruby Wax Meets... in which she interviewed public figures such as Imelda Marcos, OJ Simpson, Pamela Anderson. Ruby Wax Meets... was nominated for a 1997 BAFTA Award, for an interview with Sarah, Duchess of York, an interview which attracted an audience of over 14 million viewers.
She made two guest appearances in Absolutely Fabulous, a programme on which she served as script editor throughout the run of the series. From November 2001 to June 2002 Wax presented a TV quiz show broadcast on BBC1 called The Waiting Game, her final BBC interview series aired in 2003. In 2005 Wax appeared as a cleaner in the music video to McFly's Comic Relief song All About You. In 2002 Wax became the host of Commercial Breakdown. Wax wrote her memoir, How Do You Want Me?, which became a best-seller according to the Sunday Times best-seller list. In March 2003, Wax was one of the celebrity contestants on Comic Relief does Fame Academy, a spin-off from the BBC's Fame Academy with all proceeds donated to Comic Relief. Although not a good singer, Wax made it to the final. Wax appeared in a supporting role opposite Olivia Williams and Andie MacDowell in the 2005 film Tara Road. In September and October 2005, she appeared as a celebrity contestant in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, progressing through to Sale of the Century before getting knocked out.
In summer 2006, she was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief event Only Fools on Horses. She presented Cirque de Celebrité on Sky One in 2006. Wax appeared in an episode of Jackass where she participated in the Gumball 3000. While the race was stopped at the Latvian border she was wrestled by Jackass personality Chris Pontius. In March 2009, Wax returned to Comic Relief to take part in Comic Relief Does The Apprentice. Wax appeared in the 2011 Comic Relief in Comic Relief Does Master Chef in which Wax prepared an appetiser for the Prime Minister, David Cameron. On 1 April 2009, Ruby Wax Goes Dutch premiered on Dutch television network NET 5. Wax's 2010 stand-up show Losing It deals with her experience of clinical depression; the show played in London at the Duchess Theatre in 2011. Wax founded the mental health website in 2011 in response to the audience reaction from her theatre show. In June 2015, Wax was appointed Visiting Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Surrey.
She was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Southampton, commencing her duties from 1 May 2019. Wax teaches business communication in both the private sector. Clients include the UK Home Office and Skype. In September 2013, Wax graduated from Kellogg College, Oxford with a master's degree in
