1.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
2.
Naomi Watts
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Naomi Ellen Watts is an English actress and film producer. She made her debut in the Australian drama film For Love Alone. Brides of Christ and Home and Away and alongside Nicole Kidman, after moving to America, Watts appeared in films, including Tank Girl, Children of the Corn IV, The Gathering and Dangerous Beauty and had the lead role in the television series Sleepwalkers. After years as an actress, Watts came to attention in David Lynchs psychological thriller Mulholland Drive. The following year she enjoyed success with her role as Rachel Keller in The Ring. Her subsequent films include David O. Russells comedy I Heart Huckabees, the 2005 remake of King Kong, the crime-thriller Eastern Promises, since then, Watts has portrayed Valerie Plame Wilson in the biographical drama Fair Game and Helen Gandy in Clint Eastwoods biographical drama J. Edgar. In 2002, Watts was included in People magazines 50 Most Beautiful People, in 2006, she became a goodwill ambassador for Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, which helps to raise awareness of AIDS-related issues. She has participated in fundraisers for the cause, and she is presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards. Watts was born 28 September 1968, in Shoreham, Kent and she is the daughter of Myfanwy Edwards, an antiques dealer and costume and set designer, and Peter Watts, a road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd. Miv was born in England but lived in Australia between the ages of one and seven and her maternal grandfather was Welsh and her maternal grandmother was Australian. Watts parents divorced when she was four years old, after the divorce, Watts and her elder brother, Ben Watts, moved several times across South East England with their mother. Peter Watts left Pink Floyd in 1974, and he and Myfanwy were later reconciled, Two years later, in August 1976, he was found dead in a flat in Notting Hill, of an apparent heroin overdose. During this time, Watts attended a Welsh language school, Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni and she later said of her time in Wales, We took Welsh lessons in a school in the middle of nowhere while everyone else was taking English. Wherever we moved, I would adapt and pick up the regional accent and its obviously significant now, me being an actress. Anyway, there was quite a lot of sadness in my childhood, in 1978, her mother remarried and Watts and her brother then moved to Suffolk where she attended Thomas Mills High School. Watts has stated that she wanted to become an actress after seeing her performing on stage. In 1982, when Watts was 14, she moved to Sydney, Myfanwy established a career in the burgeoning film business, working as a stylist for television commercials, then turning to costume design, ultimately working for the soap opera Return to Eden. After emigrating, Watts was enrolled in acting lessons by her mother, she auditioned for television advertisements
3.
Pablo Schreiber
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He was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Awake and Sing. on Broadway. He also narrated the American Psycho audiobook and he also played William Lewis on Law and Order Special Victims Unit. He will be appearing in the adaptation of American Gods as the leprechaun Mad Sweeney. Schreiber was born on a commune in Ymir, British Columbia, before moving to Winlaw, British Columbia. His American father, Tell Carroll Schreiber, was an actor and his mother, Lorraine Reaveley, is a Canadian body-based psychotherapist. He was named after Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his parents split when he was 12 and Schreiber moved to Seattle, Washington, with his father. After high school, Schreiber enrolled at the University of San Francisco and he later transferred to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 2000 with a degree in Theatre. He appeared in the films The Manchurian Candidate, Lords of Dogtown and he also had a recurring guest role on Law & Order, Special Victims Unit as a sadistic rapist, and appeared in the FX series Lights Out. In 2011, Schreiber starred in the Off-Broadway play Gruesome Playground Injuries at Second Stage Theatre and he appeared on the seventh season of Weeds as Demetri Ravitch, Nancy Botwins drug supplier. BuddyTV ranked him number seventy-seven on its list of TVs Sexiest Men of 2011, in October 2012, Schreiber landed the recurring role of George Pornstache Mendez on the Netflix original drama series Orange Is the New Black. On February 26,2013, he co-starred as Virgil in NBCs drama pilot Ironside, for his role in Orange Is the New Black, Schreiber won the We Love to Hate You Award at the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards. In 2016, he co-starred as Kris Tanto Paronto, GRS team member and former U. S. Army Ranger in American biographical war film 13 Hours, The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. The movie was directed and co-produced by Michael Bay and written by Chuck Hogan, based on Mitchell Zuckoffs 2014 book 13 Hours
4.
Cinema of the United States
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The cinema of the United States, often metonymously referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. The dominant style of American cinema is Classical Hollywood Cinema, which developed from 1917-1960, while the French Lumière Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, it is American cinema that soon became the most dominant force in an emerging industry. Since the 1920s, the American film industry has grossed more money every year than that of any other country, in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated the power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the worlds first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City, the United States was in the forefront of sound film development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U. S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar. Orson Welless Citizen Kane is frequently cited in critics polls as the greatest film of all time. T, the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Titanic, Avatar, The Avengers, Furious 7, Jurassic World, and Star Wars, The Force Awakens. Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, muybridges accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt to make similar devices that would capture such motion. In the United States, Thomas Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast where, at one time, Fort Lee, New Jersey was the motion picture capital of America. The industry got its start at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edisons Black Maria, in 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios, the Champion Film Company, built the first studio. They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee, such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios. In New York, the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, was built during the silent film era, was used by the Marx Brothers, the Edison Studios were located in the Bronx. Chelsea, Manhattan was also frequently used, other major centers of film production also included Chicago, Florida, Texas, California, and Cuba. The film patents wars of the early 20th century led to the spread of film companies across the U. S and they started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood. Griffith then filmed the first movie shot in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about California in the 19th century. Griffith stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York, after hearing about Griffiths success in Hollywood, in 1913, many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process. Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey, built the first studio in Hollywood in 1911, Californias more hospitable and cost-effective climate led to the eventual shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s. In Los Angeles, the studios and Hollywood grew, before World War I, movies were made in several U. S. cities, but filmmakers gravitated to southern California as the industry developed
5.
Scream (franchise)
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Scream is an American horror franchise created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven. Starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette, the series grossed over $604 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists of four motion pictures directed by Craven. The first series entry, Scream, was released on December 20,1996 and is currently the highest-grossing slasher film in the United States. The second entry Scream 2 was released on December 12,1997 followed by a third installment, Scream 3, eleven years after the previous film, Scream 4 was released on April 15,2011. The films follow the main protagonist, Sidney Prescott, and her war against a succession of murderers who adopt the guise of Ghostface to stalk, Sidney receives support in the films from town deputy Dewey Riley, reporter Gale Weathers, and film-geek Randy Meeks. A tv spin off of the series was released by MTV on June 30,2015, the series follows different characters and new storylines, not connected to the film series. Scream became notable for its use of established and recognizable actors which was uncommon for horror films at the time, the series, particularly the first two films, has received significant critical acclaim. Scream has been credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the late 90s by combining a traditional film with humor, awareness of horror film cliché. Scream was one of the films of 1996 and became, and remains. Its success was matched by Scream 2 which not only broke box-office records of the time, Scream 3 fared worse than its predecessors, both critically and financially, with critics commenting that it had become the type of horror film it originally parodied in Scream. It did, however, receive some positive response, with claims that it was the end to the trilogy. The film series has been the recipient of awards including a Saturn Award for Best Actress and MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance for Campbell. The film series began with Scream, premiering on December 18,1996 at the AMC Avco theater in Westwood, the film focuses on teenager Sidney Prescott as she comes under attack from a mysterious character dubbed Ghostface while dealing with the anniversary of her mothers murder. The film went on to be a success earning back its $15 million budget eleven times over. It is credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the mid 90s and it was particularly notable for its casting of established and popular actors and actresses which was previously uncommon in a horror movie. Like Scream, the film features characters aware of the horror genre, the film again focuses on the character of Sidney Prescott, now a college student, as a series of copycat crimes begin, the killers again using the disguise of Ghostface. The series continued with Scream 3, which received its premiere on February 3,2000 at the AMC Avco theater in Westwood, tingle, being replaced by Ehren Kruger who finalized a script based on several ideas supplied by Williamson. The film focuses on Sidney Prescott who faces a new Ghostface killer, the film, like its predecessors, featured characters who were self-aware of horror conventions, in this case the rules and structure of the final entry in a movie trilogy
6.
Ransom (1996 film)
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Ransom is a 1996 American crime thriller film directed by Ron Howard and written by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon. The film stars Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Brawley Nolte, Delroy Lindo, Liev Schreiber, Evan Handler, Donnie Wahlberg, Gibson was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. The original story came from a 1954 episode of The United States Steel Hour titled Fearful Decision, in 1956, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume into the feature film Ransom. Starring Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, and Leslie Nielsen, the film was also influenced by Ed McBains police procedural novel Kings Ransom. The film received positive reviews, and was a major financial success. While multi-millionaire Tom Mullen and his wife Kate attend a fair, their son Sean is kidnapped. Sean is taken to an apartment by Maris, a caterer for the Mullens, along with criminals Clark, Cubby and Miles, and Detective Jimmy Shaker, Mariss boyfriend, Tom and Kate receive an e-mail from the kidnappers demanding $2,000,000. Tom calls the FBI, who begin operating from his New York City penthouse under Special Agent Lonnie Hawkins, in private, Tom voices his belief that a union machinist, Jackie Brown, who is in prison following one of Mullens business scandals, may have been behind it. They visit Brown in prison, but he denies any involvement with the kidnapping. Tom agrees to the FBIs instructions for delivering the ransom, receiving a phone call from Shaker, who is electronically disguising his voice, Tom follows his instructions. He meets Cubby in a New Jersey quarry but refuses to hand the money over when Cubby fails to give him the directions Shaker had promised him, a fight ensues and the FBI intervene and shoot Cubby. He dies before he can reveal Seans location, Shaker later arranges another drop off. Despite the pleadings of Kate and FBI Special Agent Lonnie Hawkins, Tom sticks to his plan, Shaker lures Kate to a meeting where he tells her to pay the ransom or Sean will die. Tom responds by increasing the bounty to $4,000,000, Shaker calls Tom and demands to be paid, but Tom still refuses, and Shaker fires a gunshot after Tom hears Sean scream for help, leading Tom and Kate to believe their son is dead. The NYPD arrive and find Shaker with Sean, believing Shaker found, Hawkins informs Tom and Kate and they are reunited with their son while Shaker is hospitalized. Shaker later pays Tom a visit to claim the reward and leave the country before investigators discover his connection with Maris, Tom and Sean, however, recognize Shaker as the kidnapper, and Shaker realizes this. Though his initial plan is to everyone in the apartment, Tom persuades him to accompany him to the bank to gain the money. On the way, however, Tom discreetly alerts Hawkins and the police and FBI converge on Tom, a chase ensues in which Tom and Shaker grapple furiously before falling through a shop window, severely injuring both and impaling Shaker through the neck
7.
Phantoms (film)
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Phantoms is a 1998 American science fiction horror film adapted from Dean Koontzs 1983 novel of the same name. Directed by Joe Chappelle with a screenplay by Koontz, the film stars Peter OToole, Rose McGowan, Joanna Going, Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, and Clifton Powell. The film takes place in the town of Snowfield, Colorado. It is up to a group of people to stop it or at least get out of Snowfield alive. Dr. Jennifer Pailey brings her sister Lisa to the town of Snowfield, Colorado. Once in town, the sisters find no one around but a few corpses, at first, their suspicions are that of a serial killer loose in town. When they arrive at a hotel, the group finds the writing of a victim on the mirror reading Timothy Flyte. Moments later, Shanning investigates a sound outside with the others finding only his gun, hat and shoes while the rest of him is gone. After implying the creature could be the Devil as it went after him first, Lisa later encounters Wargle while in the bathroom before she and others find his body missing from the morgue. Flyte also learns that the body is physiologically almost identical to crude oil. However, other than the amount they have, the issue remains to get the bacteria into the nucleus that is within the main body of the Enemy. But because the Ancient Enemy is extremely proud, the group has Flyte call it all in its entirety as he played on its god complex by revealing their plan up front. When the boy grabbed the last vial he had, Bryce shoots at it to expose the creature to its contents as it dies from the bacteria. Some time later, watching Flyte being interviewed about his book, The Ancient Enemy, hearing laughter nearby, the patrons turn to see Wargle as he asks them if they want to see something interesting. Phantoms received a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 reviews, roger Ebert gave the film 1 star out of 4, saying If only we could learn to think more kindly of those who digest us, this movie could have ended happily. The film grossed $5.6 million at the box office, Phantoms at the Internet Movie Database Phantoms at Box Office Mojo Phantoms at Rotten Tomatoes Phantoms at Metacritic
8.
The Sum of All Fears (film)
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The Sum of All Fears is a 2002 American spy thriller film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Tom Clancys novel of the same name. The film, which is set in the Jack Ryan film series, is a reboot taking place in 2002. The film is about a plot by an Austrian Neo-Nazi to trigger a war between the United States and Russia, so that he can establish a fascist superstate in Europe. CIA analyst Jack Ryan is the person who realizes that the Baltimore bomb was a black market weapon. With the clock ticking, Ryan has to find a way to stop the nuclear war. The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, MFP Munich Film Partners, on June 4,2002, the original motion picture soundtrack was released by the Elektra Records music label. The soundtrack was composed and orchestrated by musician Jerry Goldsmith, the Sum of All Fears premiered in theaters in the United States on May 31,2002, grossing $118,907,036 in box office revenue. Its worldwide theatrical run ended with a total of $193,921,372 in business, considering its production budget of $68 million and related marketing costs, the film was considered a major financial success. Despite this, the film received mixed reviews from critics. He sells it to a South African black market arms trafficker named Olson and he then sells it to a far-right group led by Austrian billionaire and neo-Nazi Richard Dressler. Dresslers aim is to start a war between the United States and Russia that will devastate them both, and leave a united Fascist Europe to rule the world. CIA analyst Jack Ryan is summoned by CIA Director William Cabot to accompany him to Russia to meet President Nemerov, Cabot sends operative John Clark to Russia to investigate. Ryan and his colleagues discern that a crate from the facility in Ukraine was flown to the Canary Islands, Ryan warns Cabot, who is attending a football game in Baltimore with the President, about a bomb threat. The President is evacuated before the bomb detonates, but the city is destroyed, to escalate the situation, a corrupt Russian Air Force general who has been paid by Dressler sends Tu-22M Backfires to attack a U. S. aircraft carrier in the North Sea. In Syria, Clark tracks down Ghazi, one of the men who found the bomb and he tells Clark that he sold the bomb to Olson, who lives in Damascus. Ryans colleagues at Langley infiltrate Olsons computer and download files that implicate Dressler as the person who bought the plutonium, Nemerov agrees to do so as President Fowler follows suit. The participants in the conspiracy, including Dressler, are assassinated, presidents Fowler and Nemerov announce new measures to counter nuclear proliferation in joint speeches at the White House, as Ryan and his fiancee Dr. Catherine Muller listen in. During this time, writer Akiva Goldsman wrote multiple drafts of the script, however, on June 8,2000, it was announced that Ford dropped out of the film after he and director Phillip Noyce were unable to work out script problems
9.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
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X-Men Origins, Wolverine is a 2009 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics fictional character Wolverine, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the installment and the first spinoff of the standalone Wolverine trilogy from the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Gavin Hood, written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and it co-stars Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan and Ryan Reynolds. The film is a prequel/spin-off focusing on the violent past of the mutant Wolverine, the film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand, with Canada also serving as a location. Filming took place from January to May 2008, a second Wolverine film titled The Wolverine was released in 2013 to positive reviews and much greater success. In 1845, James Howlett, a boy living in Canada, the trauma activates the boys mutation, bone claws protrude from his knuckles, and he impales Thomas, who reveals that he is Jamess real father before dying. James flees along with Thomass other son Victor Creed, who is thus Jamess half-brother and has a healing factor mutation like James and they spend the next century as soldiers, fighting in the American Civil War, both World Wars, and the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, the increasingly violent Victor attempts to rape a Vietnamese woman, James happens upon the fight and defends Victor, resulting in the pair being sentenced to execution by firing squad, which they survive due to their mutant healing abilities. Major William Stryker approaches them in custody and offers them membership in Team X, a group of mutants including Agent Zero, Wade Wilson, John Wraith, Fred Dukes. They join the team for a few years, with James now using the alias Logan, but Victor, six years later, Logan is working as a lumberjack in Canada, where he lives with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Stryker and Zero approach Logan at work, Stryker reports that Wade and Bradley have been killed, and he thinks someone is targeting the teams members. Logan refuses to rejoin Stryker, but after finding Kaylas bloodied body in the woods and he finds him at a local bar, but Logan loses the subsequent fight. Afterward, Stryker explains that Victor has gone rogue, and offers Logan a way to become strong enough to get his revenge, Logan undergoes a painful operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal. Zero kills them the morning and tries to kill Logan. Logan locates John and Fred at a boxing club, Fred explains that Victor is still working for Stryker, hunting down mutants for Stryker to experiment on at his new laboratory, located at a place called The Island. Fred mentions Remy Gambit LeBeau, the one who escaped from the island. John and Logan find LeBeau in New Orleans, then both fight Victor, who kills John and extracts his DNA, agreeing to help release mutants that Stryker has captured, Gambit takes Logan to Strykers facility on Three Mile Island. Logan learns that Kayla is alive, having been coerced by Stryker into surveilling him in exchange for her sisters safety
10.
Taking Woodstock
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Taking Woodstock is a 2009 American comedy-drama film about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir Taking Woodstock, A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte. The film premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and opened in New York and Los Angeles on August 26,2009, a hippie theater troupe, The Earthlight Players, rents the barn, but can hardly pay any rent. Due to financial trouble, the motel may have to be closed, the family is given until the end of the summer to pay up. Elliot plans to hold a musical festival, and has, for $1. When he hears that the organizers of the Woodstock Festival face opposition against the planned location, he offers his permit. Elliot comes to agreement about the fee for the motel more smoothly, initial objections by his mother quickly disappear when she sees the cash paid in advance. Elliot and Yasgur encounter a little bit of expected opposition, the local diner refuses to serve Elliot anymore, inspectors target the motel for building code violations, and some local boys paint a swastika and hate words on the hotel. However, resistance quickly dissolves in the wave of peace. The Tiber family works hard serving the influx of visitors. A cross-dressing veteran, Vilma, is hired as a security guard, Elliot also struggles with hiding his homosexuality from his family, when he connects romantically with one of the event organizers staying at the motel. On the first day of the concert, Elliot, his father, elliots father, transformed and enlivened by all the new life in town, tells Elliot to go and see the concert. Elliot hitches a ride through the traffic jam on the back of a benevolent state troopers motorcycle. There, he meets a couple, who invite him to join them on an LSD trip in their VW Bus a short distance from the crowd. Elliot has trouble relaxing at first, but gradually melts into a union with them. When they finally emerge after sundown, Elliot watches the vast crowd, Elliot returns home from his liberating experience and has breakfast with his parents. He suggests to his mother that now have enough money to replace him. Elliot storms out, facetiously suggesting his mom eat the hash brownies Vilma has just offered, the once-brittle family is united in joy and delirious affection
11.
Salt (2010 film)
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Salt is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent, originally written with a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten by Brian Helgeland for Jolie. Filming took place on location in Washington, D. C. the New York City area, action scenes were primarily performed with practical stunts, computer-generated imagery being used mostly for creating digital environments. The film had a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 22 and was released in North America on July 23,2010, the DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released December 21,2010, and featured two alternate cuts providing different endings for the film. Evelyn Salt is being tortured in a North Korean prison on suspicion of being an American spy and her boyfriend, arachnologist Mike Krause, generates so much publicity that the CIA is forced to arrange a prisoner exchange, despite the agencys policy against it. Salts CIA colleague Ted Winter greets Salt at the border, as they drive away, Mike proposes marriage, despite Salts admission that she is in fact a CIA operative. Two years later, on Salt and Mikes wedding anniversary, a Russian defector named Oleg Vasilyevich Orlov walks in to Salts office, Salt interrogates him, with Winter and CIA counterintelligence officer Darryl Peabody observing. Orlov reveals that KA-12 is named Evelyn Salt, and lie detectors confirm his entire story, Peabody orders Salt be detained, while Orlov kills two agents and escapes. In the confusion, Salt is able to escape from the building, running barefoot through the street, while the CIA is searching for her, she discovers that her husband was kidnapped. Later at the funeral, Salt appears to succeed in killing President Matveyev, Salt escapes again and heads to a barge where Orlov is hiding with other sleeper agents. In a series of flashbacks, Salt recalls growing up in the Soviet Union, on the barge, Orlov welcomes her back and has Mike killed in front of her. When Salt shows no reaction, Orlov is convinced she is loyal and she is to rendezvous with another KA who will help her assassinate the American president. She then meets with KA Shnaider, who uses his cover as a NATO liaison to get Salt into the White House, once inside, Shnaider launches a suicide attack to force agents to move the President to an underground bunker, accompanied by Winter. Salt follows them and manages to enter the bunker before it is sealed, the U. S. President learns that Russia has mobilized its nuclear arsenal in response to their presidents death. He orders American nuclear weapons readied in response, CIA Agent Winter suddenly kills everyone except the President and introduces himself as Nikolai Tarkovsky, another member of the KA. Winter incapacitates the President and begins aiming nuclear missiles at Mecca, Winter refuses her entry and reveals that Mikes kidnapping and her blown cover were his idea. Winter plans to place blame for the nuclear attacks on Salt. Salt breaks into the room before he can launch the missiles, the two wrestle for control of the nuclear football, with Salt aborting the missile strikes before being captured
12.
Goon (film)
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The main plot depicts an exceedingly nice but somewhat dimwitted man who becomes the enforcer for a minor league ice hockey team. A sequel, Goon, Last of the Enforcers, was released on 17 March 2017, Doug Glatt, is a polite, kind hearted but simple, dim-witted bouncer at a bar in Massachusetts. Doug feels ostracized from society, especially since his father and brother are both successful physicians, Doug attends a minor league hockey game with his best friend Pat. Pat taunts the team during a fight and one of their players climbs into the stands. Doug, whose brother is gay, steps in and easily beats up the opposing player, soon after, Doug gets a phone call from the coach of his hometown team who offers him a job as an enforcer. Meanwhile, veteran enforcer and Dougs idol Ross The Boss Rhea is demoted to the minors after serving a 20-game suspension for slashing an opponent in the head from behind. After earning the nickname The Thug, Doug was hired by a team in Canada where Laflamme plays. Doug becomes romantically involved with Eva, a fan with a penchant for players. With four games left on their schedule, the Highlanders need two wins to secure a playoff spot, Doug encounters Rhea at a diner, where Rhea dismisses Dougs claim that he is a hockey player, calling him a goon. Though Rhea acknowledges Dougs physical prowess and gives Doug his respect, Rhea warns him if they ever meet on the ice. The Highlanders, with Doug suspended and Laflamme hospitalized, lose to the Shamrocks, Doug reaches out to Laflamme, and promises him he will always have his back on the ice. In their next game, the Highlanders lead 1–0 thanks to strong teamwork between Doug and Laflamme, in the final seconds, Doug blocks a slapshot with his face and his ankle is injured in the ensuing scramble. The Highlanders win, but need a win against Rhea and the Shamrocks in their last game for a playoff spot, after two periods, the Shamrocks are beating the Highlanders 2–0. Rhea and Doug drop the gloves in the third period, Doug is knocked down first, but Rhea calls off the linesmen and allows him to get back up. Doug manages to break Rheas nose, but breaks his previously injured ankle in the process, Doug manages to stand back up and knocks out Rhea with a vicious left hook. Eva and his teammates help a seriously injured Doug off the ice and Laflamme, inspired by Dougs efforts and Rheas defeat, scores a hat trick. As the game enters its final minute, the scene has Eva comforting Doug in the locker room as he comments. The book was discovered by Jesse Shapira and his producing partner David Gross, along with Baruchel and Goldberg, they developed the script and then proceeded to package and independently finance the movie
13.
Pawn Sacrifice
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Pawn Sacrifice is a 2014 American biographical drama film. It was directed by Edward Zwick and written by Steven Knight, the film stars Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer, Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, Lily Rabe as Joan Fischer, and Peter Sarsgaard as William Lombardy. It was released in the United States on September 16,2015, the film starts with an adult Bobby Fischer in a paranoid state, worried he is being spied upon by the Soviets. The film flashes back to when Fischer is 6 years old, the late 1940s and his mother, a Russian immigrant, supports his general fears, telling him she thinks a socialist revolution could begin in the U. S. and hence they are spied upon. He immerses himself into learning and becoming a chess player. His mother, worried that chess is becoming his obsession, takes him to a chess club. He impresses the resident chessmaster and is accepted as a student and his coaching leads him into the world of professional chess championships. He soon becomes the youngest grand master ever, personal tensions lead to frequent outbursts. He quits the tournament and ends his professional career, when he returns to the USA, a lawyer says that he will help him modify the tournament rules, offering his services free of cost to give Fischer a fair chance to win future tournaments. Fischer re-enters the world of professional chess and he selects William Lombardy, a former World Junior Chess Champion who is now a Catholic priest, as his second. Lombardy tries to calm Fischers excessive demands, which leads Fischer back to winning tournaments and he overcomes most of the grand masters across the world and gets close to the world championship. He becomes a celebrity with the American public, which makes him overconfident and he loses against Boris Spassky, the current world champion. It is the height of the Cold War era and the US is desperate to challenge the Russian dominance in the world of chess, the White House closely monitors his progress. The pressure to win every game drives Fischer towards psychosis and his sister suspects that he is under severe mental stress fearing for his life because he might defeat Spassky. Reporters and fans all assemble at Reykjavík, Iceland to witness the match between Fischer and Spassky. Spassky concedes to all his demands to make sure the match continues so that he can win the 24-game match in the right spirit, Bobby loses the first game, and doesnt show up for the second therefore losing by forfeit, but wins the third using unconventional tactics. Americans are thrilled with Bobbys victory, game four is a draw but Fischer wins game five after Spassky himself begins showing signs of paranoia. With the match now more interesting, experts speculate that the game will determine the outcome of the tournament
14.
Spotlight (film)
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Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical crime drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer. It is based on a series of stories by the Spotlight team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian dArcy James, Liev Schreiber, Spotlight was shown in the Out of Competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. It was also shown at the Telluride Film Festival and the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, the film was released on November 6,2015, by Open Road Films and grossed $90 million worldwide. It won numerous guilds and critics awards, and was named one of the finest films of 2015 by various publications. Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture along with Best Original Screenplay from six nominations in total and this also marks the first film to win Best Picture from a different mini-major studio than Lionsgate, Summit, Miramax, or TWC. In 1976, at a Boston Police station, two policemen discuss the arrest of a Catholic priest for child molestation and the presence of a high ranking cleric talking to the mother of the children. The Assistant District Attorney then enters the precinct and tells the cops not to let the press get wind of what happened, the arrest is hushed up, and the priest is released. In 2001, The Boston Globe hires a new editor, Marty Baron, Baron meets Walter Robby Robinson, the editor of the newspapers Spotlight team, a small group of journalists writing investigative articles that take months to research and publish. Journalist Michael Rezendes contacts Garabedian, who declines to be interviewed. Though he is not to, Rezendes reveals that he is on the Spotlight team. Through Phil Saviano, who heads the victims rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and they learn through Richard Sipe, a former priest who worked at trying to rehabilitate pedophile priests, that statistically there should be approximately 90 abusive priests in Boston. Through their research, they develop a list of 87 names, when the September 11 attacks occur, the team is forced to deprioritize the story. They regain momentum when Rezendes learns from Garabedian that there are publicly available documents that confirm Cardinal Law was made aware of the problem and ignored it. The story goes to print with a web link to the documents that expose Cardinal Laws inaction, the following morning, the Spotlight team is inundated with phone calls from victims coming forward to tell their stories. Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes Michael Keaton as Walter Robby Robinson Rachel McAdams as Sacha Pfeiffer Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron John Slattery as Ben Bradlee, Jr. When McCarthy was asked how he and his co-author tackled the research and writing process, he stated, As I said, that’s probably some indication of how intimidating it was. And yeah, it was a lot of work, but it was exciting work and it was really interesting work, parsing through details of not just the investigation, but its findings, and trying to determine what was most helpful in telling our story
15.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
16.
Glengarry Glen Ross
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Glengarry Glen Ross is a play by David Mamet that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. It is based on Mamets experience having worked in a similar office. The world premiere was at the National Theatre in London on September 21,1983, the play opened on Broadway on March 25,1984, and closed on February 17,1985. The production was directed by Gregory Mosher and starred Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum, Robert Prosky, Lane Smith, James Tolkan, Jack Wallace and J. T. Walsh. The production was nominated for four Tony awards including Best Play, Best Director, Richard Ricky Roma, The most successful salesman in the office. Although Roma seems to think of himself as a cowboy and regards his ability to make a sale as a sign of his virility. He is ruthless, dishonest and immoral, but succeeds because he has a talent for figuring out a clients weaknesses and he is a smooth talker and often speaks in grand, poetic soliloquies. Shelley The Machine Levene, An older, once-successful salesman, who has fallen on hard times and has not closed a big deal in a long time. In Mamets original 1983 stage version, Levene reveals his daughters plight as a ploy to gain Williamsons sympathy to get better leads. However, in the 1992 film version, Levenes discussion of his daughter also includes comments, James Lingk, A timid, middle-aged man who becomes Romas latest client. Lingk is easily manipulated and finds Roma highly charismatic, upon consulting his wife, he becomes desperate to regain the money that Roma has closed on him. George Aaronow, An aging salesman with low self-esteem who lacks confidence and hope and his frustration begins to boil up when the office is robbed, and he worries about being convicted based upon Detective Baylens interrogation. Ironically, he and Roma end up the two salesmen for the firm after Shelley is found out, and gives up Moss as his co-conspirator. Dave Moss, A big-mouthed salesman with big dreams and schemes, Moss resents Williamson and agency owners Mitch and Murray for putting such pressure on him and plans to strike back at them by stealing all their best sales leads and selling them to a competitor. Moss sees Aaronow as an accomplice, but eventually convinces Levene to work with him in selling the leads to Jerry Graff. During his final rant against Roma, his indignation reveals that his jealousy extends towards even his fellow salesmen and he appears in the final act to investigate the office break-in and interrogate each cast member behind closed doors. Mitch and Murray, The unsavoury unseen characters are the owners of the estate agency. They have a sales contest, which puts pressure on the salesmen to produce or to lose their jobs
17.
Everything Is Illuminated (film)
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Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 biographical drama film, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel of the name by Jonathan Safran Foer. After traveling through much of rural Ukraine, they eventually find Augustinas sister, alexs grandfather kills himself after it was revealed he was Jewish and managed to survive the war himself by hiding his religion. Jonathan returns home after saying farewell to Alex, to whom he has grown close, both Jonathan and Alex sprinkle soil gathered from the site of the massacre, on their respective grandfathers grave. Alexs grandfather is given a Jewish burial, the band members of Gogol Bordello play the band in the train station where the character Alex has come to meet his US client, Jonathan Foer. DeVotchKas single How It Ends is featured in the trailer, roger Ebert praised the film, assigning it 3 and a half stars out of 4, and suggested that one might well see it a second time to understand the journey it takes. The film lost money at the box office, as the gross receipts never surpassed even the budget of the production
18.
Everything Is Illuminated
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Everything Is Illuminated is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Elijah Wood, the books writing and structure received critical acclaim for the manner in which it switches between two stories, both of which are autobiographical. The real town of Trochenbrod was an exclusively Jewish shtetl located in the Wołyń Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic before the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, the ghetto was liquidated during the Holocaust. In August and September 1942 nearly all Jews of Trochenbrod were murdered by the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in the presence of only a few German SS men. According to Virtual Shtetl over 5,000 Jews were massacred,3,500 of them from Zofiówka and 1,200 from nearby Lozisht among other settlements. Alexander studied English at his university, and even though his knowledge of the language is not first-rate, alexs blind grandfather and his deranged seeing-eye bitch, Sammy Davis, Jr. Jr. accompany them on their journey. Names of cities are given in their Russian version, although the Polish or Ukrainian naming would have been correct for the scenes in Trachimbrod, upon its initial release the book received enthusiastic reviews particularly in The Times stating that Foer had staked his claim for literary greatness. Exploratory site for Everything Is Illuminated Trochenbrod & Lozisht community website The Journey to Trochenbrod and Lozisht aug 2006 Everything Is Illuminated at the Internet Movie Database
19.
Showtime (TV network)
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The Showtime brand is used by a number of channels and platforms around the world, but primarily refers to the group of eight multiplex channels in the United States. As of July 2015, Showtimes programming is available to approximately 28.693 million television households in the United States, the channel and its corresponding networks are headquartered at Paramount Plaza on the northern end of New York Citys Broadway district. The following week on July 8, Showtime launched on Viacom Cablevisions system in Dublin, California, the first program and television special to be broadcast on Showtime was Celebration, a concert special featuring performances by Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd and ABBA. By the end of its first year on the air, Showtime had a total of 55,000 subscribers nationwide. On March 7,1978, Showtime became a nationally distributed service after it was uplinked to satellite, turning it into a competitor with HBO, in 1979, Viacom sold a 50% ownership interest in Showtime to the TelePrompTer Corporation. On July 4,1981, Showtime adopted a 24-hour programming schedule,1982 saw the premiere of Showtimes first made-for-cable movie Falcons Gold and its first original series and childrens program Faerie Tale Theatre. The three companies announced their agreement in principle to acquire interests in TMC on November 11,1982. Subsequently, in late December of that year, the U. S. Department of Justice launched a preliminary inquiry into the proposed partnership. On January 7,1983, Viacom International added itself as a partner, under the revised proposal, the four studios would each own a 22. 58% stake in the two networks, with American Express owning a 9. 68% minority interest. In addition, the consortium would appoint a management team separate from those employed by the two channels – which would continue to operate as separate services – to operate the joint venture, on August 10,1985, after Time Inc. and cable provider Tele-Communications Inc. The subsidiary was renamed Showtime Networks, Inc. in 1988, also in 1988, the company formed Showtime Event Television as a pay-per-view distributor of special event programming. In 1990, Showtime ventured into acquiring and premiering independent films exclusively for the channel as part of the 30-Minute Movie short film anthology series. One of its first premieres,12,01 PM, was nominated for an Academy Award, in the years that followed, Showtime expanded its acquisitions into the realm of feature-length fare, including the Adrian Lyne-directed 1997 remake of Lolita. In 2000, Showtime launched Showtime Interactive 24.7, a service that provided DVD-style interaction of its entertainment offerings. On June 14,2005, Viacom decided to separate itself into two companies, both of which would be controlled by Viacom parent National Amusements, amid stagnation of the stock price. A new company assumed the Viacom name kept Paramount Pictures, the MTV Networks and BET Networks cable divisions. Showtime broadcasts its primary and multiplex channels on both Eastern and Pacific Time Zone schedules and this planned extension to the multiplex did not come to fruition – although a third multiplex service, Showtime 3, would make its debut in 1996. Three additional themed channels made their debut in March 2001, Showtime Family Zone, Showtime Next, Showtime Family Zone, Showtime Next and Showtime Women do not have distribution by most pay television providers as extensive as the other Showtime multiplex channels
20.
Ray Donovan
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Ray Donovan is an American television crime drama series created by Ann Biderman for Showtime. The twelve-episode first season premiered on June 30,2013, the pilot episode broke records of viewership, becoming the biggest premiere of all time on Showtime. Showtime renewed the show for a season, which premiered on June 26,2016. On August 11,2016, Showtime renewed the show for a fifth season, the drama is set in Los Angeles, California, where Irish-American Ray Donovan, originally from South Boston, works for the powerful law firm Goldman & Drexler, representing the rich and famous. Donovan is a fixer, a person who arranges bribes, payoffs, threats, good at his job, and no common hood, Ray is normally a devoted family man as well. He experiences his own problems when his father, Mickey Donovan, is unexpectedly released from prison. Liev Schreiber as Raymond Ray Donovan, paula Malcomson as Abby Donovan, Rays wife. Eddie Marsan as Terrence Terry Donovan, Rays older brother, a former boxer, suffers from Parkinsons disease. Dash Mihok as Brendan Bunchy Donovan, Rays younger brother, identifies himself as an alcoholic and a sexual anorexic. Pooch Hall as Daryll Donovan, Rays younger half-brother, a professional boxer, trained by Terry, he also drives limos. Steven Bauer as Avi Rudin, Rays right-hand man, former IDF soldier and ex-Mossad agent. Katherine Moennig as Lena Barnum, Rays investigative assistant, kerris Dorsey as Bridget Donovan, Rays daughter. Devon Bagby as Conor Donovan, Rays son, Jon Voight as Mickey Donovan, Rays father. Ray Donovan has received reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the show has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 36 critics, tim Goodman, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, said that Showtime has another gem on their hands and the casting of Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight was gold. The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 10,2014, the second season was released on both media on May 26,2015. The third season was released on both media on December 29,2015, official website Ray Donovan at the Internet Movie Database Ray Donovan at TV. com Ray Donovan at Metacritic Ray Donovan at Rotten Tomatoes
21.
Golden Globe Award
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Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a part of the film industrys awards season. The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film, the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish an honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as a figure within the entertainment industry. The official name of the award became the Cecil B. In 1963, the Miss Golden Globe concept was introduced, in its inaugural year, two Miss Golden Globes were named, one for film and one for television. The two Miss Golden Globes named that year were Eva Six and Donna Douglas, respectively, in 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned. It was unveiled at a conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars, gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2015, the Golden Globe Awards theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi. On January 7,2008, it was announced due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The ceremony was faced with a threat by striking writers to picket the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was forced to adopt another approach for the broadcast. In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive Golden Globe wins with eight, however, including honorary awards, such as the Henrietta Award, World Film Favorite Actor/Actress Award, or Cecil B. DeMille Award, Barbra Streisand leads with nine, additionally, Streisand won for composing the song Evergreen, producing the Best Picture, and directing Yentl in 1984. Jack Nicholson, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Shirley MacLaine have six awards each, behind them are Rosalind Russell and Jessica Lange with five wins. Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with thirty, at the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred, a three way-tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
22.
HBO
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Home Box Office is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by Time Warner through its respective flagship company Home Box Office, Inc. HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service in the United States, in 2014, HBO had an adjusted operating income of US$1.79 billion, compared to the US$1.68 billion it accrued in 2013. HBO has 49 million subscribers in the United States and 130 million worldwide as of 2016, the network provides seven 24-hour multiplex channels, including HBO Comedy, HBO Latino, HBO Signature and HBO Family. It launched the streaming service HBO Now in April 2015, and has over 2 million subscribers in the United States as of February 2017. In addition to its U. S. subscriber base, HBO distributes content in at least 151 countries, HBO subscribers generally pay for an extra tier of service that includes other cable- and satellite-exclusive channels even before paying for the channel itself. Cable providers can require the use of a converter box – usually digital – in order to receive HBO, many HBO programs have been syndicated to other networks and broadcast television stations, and a number of HBO-produced series and films have been released on DVD. The new system, which Dolan named Sterling Information Services, became the first urban underground cable system in the United States. In that same year, Time-Life, Inc. purchased a 20% stake in Dolans company, in the summer of 1971, while on a family vacation in France, Charles Dolan began to think of ideas to make Sterling Manhattan profitable. He came up with the concept for a television service. Dolan later presented his idea to Time-Life management, though satellite distribution seemed only a distant possibility at the time, he persuaded Time-Life to back him on the project. To gauge whether consumers would be interested in subscribing to a pay television service, in a meeting of Dolan and some Time-Life executives who were working on the project, various other names were discussed for the new service. Home Box Office launched on November 8,1972, however, HBOs launch came without fanfare in the press, as it was not covered by any local or national media outlets. Home Box Office distributed its first sports event immediately after the film, Four months later in February 1973, Home Box Office aired its first television special, the Pennsylvania Polka Festival. Home Box Office would use a network of relay towers to distribute its programming to cable systems throughout its service area. Sterling Manhattan Cable continued to lose money because the company had only a small base of 20,000 customers in Manhattan. Time-Life dropped the Sterling name and the company was renamed Manhattan Cable Television under Time-Lifes control in March 1973, Gerald Levin, who had been with Home Box Office since it began operations as its vice president of programming, replaced Dolan as the companys president and chief executive officer. In September 1973, Time-Life, Inc. completed its acquisition of the pay service. HBO would eventually increase its fortunes within two years, by April 1975, the service had around 100,000 subscribers in Pennsylvania and New York state, in 1974, they settled on using a geostationary communications satellite to transmit HBO to cable providers throughout the United States
23.
Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
24.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
25.
Classical music
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Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical and secular music. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period, Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches, tempo, meter and rhythms for a piece of music. This can leave less room for such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation. The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, the earliest reference to classical music recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, the written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them, J. S. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works, Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music being reproduced. That said, the score does not provide complete and exact instructions on how to perform a historical work, even if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction, we do not know exactly how fast the piece should be played. Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations, during the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto, during the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano. The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century and they consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments. The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for music and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass and it generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many bands use a double bass. Many of the used to perform medieval music still exist. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle, Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut, during the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th
26.
Russian literature
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The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old Russian were composed. By the Age of Enlightenment, literature had grown in importance, romanticism permitted a flowering of poetic talent, Vasily Zhukovsky and later his protégé Alexander Pushkin came to the fore. The first great Russian novelist was Nikolai Gogol, then came Ivan Turgenev, who mastered both short stories and novels. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky soon became internationally renowned, in the second half of the century Anton Chekhov excelled in short stories and became a leading dramatist. The beginning of the 20th century ranks as the Silver Age of Russian poetry, after the Revolution of 1917, Russian literature split into Soviet and white émigré parts. While the Soviet Union assured universal literacy and a highly developed book printing industry, in the 1930s Socialist realism became the predominant trend in Russia. Its leading figure was Maxim Gorky, who laid the foundations of this style, Nikolay Ostrovskys novel How the Steel Was Tempered has been among the most successful works of Russian literature. Alexander Fadeyev achieved success in Russia, some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, like Nobel Prize-winning novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote about life in the gulag camps. The Khrushchev Thaw brought some fresh wind to literature and poetry became a cultural phenomenon. This thaw did not last long, in the 1970s, some of the most prominent authors were banned from publishing, the end of the 20th century was a difficult period for Russian literature, with few distinct voices. Among the most discussed authors of this period were Victor Pelevin, who gained popularity with stories and novels, novelist and playwright Vladimir Sorokin. In the 21st century, a new generation of Russian authors appeared, differing greatly from the postmodernist Russian prose of the late 20th century, which lead critics to speak about new realism. Leading new realists include Ilja Stogoff, Zakhar Prilepin, Alexander Karasyov, Arkadi Babchenko, Vladimir Lorchenkov, Alexander Snegiryov, Russian authors have significantly contributed to numerous literary genres. Russia has five Nobel Prize in literature laureates, as of 2011, Russia was the fourth largest book producer in the world in terms of published titles. A popular folk saying claims Russians are the worlds most reading nation, Old Russian literature consists of several masterpieces written in the Old Russian language. The main type of Old Russian historical literature were chronicles, most of them anonymous, anonymous works also include The Tale of Igors Campaign and Praying of Daniel the Immured. Hagiographies formed a genre of the Old Russian literature. Life of Alexander Nevsky offers a well-known example, other Russian literary monuments include Zadonschina, Physiologist, Synopsis and A Journey Beyond the Three Seas
27.
Socialist Labor Party of America
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Originally known as the Workingmens Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 to Socialistic Labor Party and again sometime in the late 1880s to Socialist Labor Party. It has operated continuously since then, although its current existence is tenuous, despite these organizational efforts, the socialist movement in America remained deeply divided over tactics. In April 1876, a conference took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania bringing together representatives of the union-oriented Internationalists. The gathering agreed to issue a call for a Unity Congress to be held in July to establish a new political party, on Saturday, July 15,1876, delegates from the remaining American sections of the First International gathered in Philadelphia and disbanded that organization. German émigrés dominated the organization, although in Chicago Albert Parsons, in 1877 the Workingmens Party met at Newark, New Jersey in a convention which changed the name of the organization to the Socialist Labor Party. The SLP achieved its most notable success in Chicago, where in 1878-79, its candidates won slots for a state senator. There was an upsurge of support for the new organization, reflected in the proliferation of the socialist press, between 1876 and 1877, no fewer than 24 newspapers were established which either directly or indirectly supported the SLP. Eight of these were English-language publications, including one daily, while 14 were in German, two more papers were published in Czech and Swedish, respectively. Just two years later, in the wake of a crisis, not one of the privately owned English newspapers had survived. The party established its own English-language paper, The National Socialist, in May 1878, the year 1878 saw the establishment of a more enduring newspaper, the German-language New Yorker Volkszeitung. About this same time, the American anarchist movement gained strength, fueled by the economic crisis, both being critics and denouncers of the present system, however, they were able to work together. As a result of the brutalities of the militia and regulars in the strikes of 1877. This found expression in the Lehr und Wehr Verein, an armed and drilled body of workmen pledged to protect the workers against the militia in a strike, the arms-bearing tactics were opposed by the Executive Committee of the SLP, the Secretary of which was Philip van Patten. A fight ensued between the Verbote, which was the edition of the Arbeiter Zeitung, of Chicago, and the Labor Bulletin. The SLP suffered its first split in 1878, members who were displeased with the exclusively political actionist turn of the party who wanted the group to focus more on organizing workers formed the International Labor Union. Members were not barred from belonging to both, but there was some animosity between the two organizations. Amidst economic crisis and factional squabbling, membership in the SLP plummeted, as the 1870s drew to a close, the Socialistic Labor Party could count about 2,600 members—with at least one estimate substantially lower. The party was on the ropes, the years 1880 and 1881 saw a new influx of political refugees from Germany, activists in the socialist movement fleeing the crackdown on radicalism launched with the Anti-Socialist Laws of 1878
28.
Hippie
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The word hippie came from hipster and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into New York Citys Greenwich Village and San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury district. The term hippie was first popularized in San Francisco by Herb Caen, the origins of the terms hip and hep are uncertain. By the 1940s, both had become part of African American jive slang and meant sophisticated, currently fashionable, fully up-to-date, the Beats adopted the term hip, and early hippies inherited the language and countercultural values of the Beat Generation. In the United Kingdom in 1970, many gathered at the gigantic Isle of Wight Festival with a crowd of around 400,000 people, in later years, mobile peace convoys of New Age travelers made summer pilgrimages to free music festivals at Stonehenge and elsewhere. In Australia, hippies gathered at Nimbin for the 1973 Aquarius Festival, piedra Roja Festival, a major hippie event in Chile, was held in 1970. Hippie fashion and values had an effect on culture, influencing popular music, television, film, literature. Since the 1960s, many aspects of culture have been assimilated by mainstream society. The religious and cultural diversity espoused by the hippies has gained widespread acceptance, lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower, the principal American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, argues that the terms hipster and hippie derive from the word hip, whose origins are unknown. The term hipster was coined by Harry Gibson in 1944, by the 1940s, the terms hip, hep and hepcat were popular in Harlem jazz slang, although hep eventually came to denote an inferior status to hip. In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, New York City, young counterculture advocates were named hips because they were considered in the know or cool, as opposed to being square. In the April 27,1961 issue of The Village Voice, An open letter to JFK & Fidel Castro, Norman Mailer utilizes the term hippies, in questioning JFKs behavior. In a 1961 essay, Kenneth Rexroth used both the hipster and hippies to refer to young people participating in black American or Beatnik nightlife. According to Malcolm Xs 1964 autobiography, the hippie in 1940s Harlem had been used to describe a specific type of white man who acted more Negro than Negroes. Andrew Loog Oldham refers to all the Chicago hippies, seemingly in reference to black musicians, in his rear sleeve notes to the 1965 LP The Rolling Stones. The word hippie was also used in reference to Philadelphia in at least two songs in 1963, South Street by The Orlons, and You Cant Sit Down by The Dovells. In both songs, the term is applied to residents of Philadelphias South Street, in that article, Fallon wrote about the Blue Unicorn Cafe, using the term hippie to refer to the new generation of beatniks who had moved from North Beach into the Haight-Ashbury district. New York Times editor and usage writer Theodore M. Bernstein said the paper changed the spelling from hippy to hippie to avoid the ambiguous description of clothing as hippy fashions. Even the counterculture of the Ancient Greeks, espoused by philosophers like Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics were also early forms of hippie culture
29.
Bohemianism
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Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic, literary or spiritual pursuits. In this context, Bohemians may or may not be wanderers, adventurers, Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints, which often were expressed through free love, frugality, and—in some cases—voluntary poverty. A more economically privileged, wealthy, or even aristocratic bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as haute bohème, the term Bohemianism emerged in France in the early nineteenth century when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class, Romani neighborhoods. Literary Bohemians were associated in the French imagination with roving Romani people, outsiders apart from conventional society, the term carries a connotation of arcane enlightenment, and also carries a less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital fidelity. The title character in Carmen, a French opera set in the Spanish city of Seville, is referred to as a bohémienne in Meilhac and her signature aria declares love itself to be a gypsy child, going where it pleases and obeying no laws. Henri Murgers collection of short stories Scènes de la Vie de Bohème, published in 1845, was written to glorify, Murgers collection formed the basis of Giacomo Puccinis opera La bohème. In England, Bohemian in this sense initially was popularised in William Makepeace Thackerays novel, Vanity Fair, public perceptions of the alternative lifestyles supposedly led by artists were further molded by George du Mauriers highly romanticized best-selling novel of Bohemian culture Trilby. The novel outlines the fortunes of three expatriate English artists, their Irish model, and two very colorful Central European musicians, in the artist quarter of Paris. In Spanish literature, the Bohemian impulse can be seen in Ramón del Valle-Incláns play Luces de Bohemia, in his song La Bohème, Charles Aznavour described the Bohemian lifestyle in Montmartre. Also reflects the Bohemian lifestyle in Montmartre at the turn of the 20th century, in the 1850s, aesthetic bohemians began to arrive in the United States. In New York City in 1857, a group of some 15–20 young and this group gathered at a German bar on Broadway called Pffaffs beer cellar. Members included their leader Henry Clapp, Jr, walt Whitman, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, and actress Adah Isaacs Menken. Similar groups in cities were broken up as well by the Civil War. During the war, correspondents began to assume the title bohemian, Bohemian became synonymous with newspaper writer. Mark Twain included himself and Charles Warren Stoddard in the category in 1867. Club member and poet George Sterling responded to this redefinition, Any good mixer of convivial habits considers he has a right to be called a bohemian, but that is not a valid claim. There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism, the first is devotion or addiction to one or more of the Seven Arts, the other is poverty. Despite his views, Sterling associated very closely with the Bohemian Club, canadian composer Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and poet George Frederick Cameron wrote the song The Bohemian in the 1889 opera Leo, the Royal Cadet
30.
William S. Burroughs
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William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer. Burroughs was a figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories, five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and he was also briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He was born into a family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence, but did not begin publicizing his writing until his thirties and he left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. With Brion Gysin, he popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy. In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, J. G. Burroughs had one child, William S. Burroughs, Jr. with his second wife Joan Vollmer. William Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering an attack in 1997. Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs and Laura Hammon Lee. His was a prominent family of English ancestry in St. Louis and his grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughss mother was the daughter of a minister whose family claimed to be related to Robert E. Lee and his maternal uncle, Ivy Lee, was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens, first in St. Louis, then in Palm Beach, as a boy, Burroughs lived on Pershing Ave. in St. Louiss Central West End. He attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay and he then attended the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a school for the wealthy, where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens. Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy, according to his own account, he destroyed these later, ashamed of their content. He became a well-known homosexual writer after the publication of Naked Lunch in 1959, some say that he was expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student. Yet, according to his own account, he left voluntarily, Burroughs finished high school at Taylor School in Clayton, Missouri, and in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House
31.
Russians
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Russians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. The majority of Russians inhabit the state of Russia, while notable minorities exist in Ukraine, Kazakhstan. A large Russian diaspora exists all over the world, with numbers in the United States, Germany, Israel. Russians are the most numerous group in Europe. They are predominantly Orthodox Christians by religion, the Russian language is official in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and also spoken as a secondary language in many former Soviet states. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians. One is русские, which most often means ethnic Russians, another is россияне, which means citizens of Russia. The former word refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in, under certain circumstances this term may or may not extend to denote members of other Russian-speaking ethnic groups from Russia, or from the former Soviet Union. The latter word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, translations into other languages often do not distinguish these two groups. The name of the Russians derives from the Rus people, the name Rus would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden, Ruotsi and Rootsi. According to other theories the name Rus is derived from Proto-Slavic *roud-s-ь, the modern Russians formed from two groups of East Slavic tribes, Northern and Southern. The tribes involved included the Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches, genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Belarusians and Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians, such Uralic peoples included the Merya and the Muromians. Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts its records and it is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. Later, both Belarusians and South Russians formed on this ethnic linguistic ground, the same Slavic ethnic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Uralic substratum, they formed the tribes of the Krivichs, in 2010, the worlds Russian population was 129 million people of which 86% were in Russia,11. 5% in the CIS and Baltic countries, with a further 2. 5% living in other countries. Roughly 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, 80% of whom live in the European part of Russia, ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and later Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, after the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, and millions became refugees
32.
Leo Tolstoy
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Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth. Tolstoys fiction includes dozens of stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays, in the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work A Confession. His literal interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. Tolstoy also became an advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George. Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate 12 kilometres southwest of Tula, the Tolstoys were a well-known family of old Russian nobility, tracing their ancestry to a mythical Lithuanian noble Indris. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoys parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University and his teachers described him as both unable and unwilling to learn. Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow, in 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. It was about time that he started writing. Others who followed the path were Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin. During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed an execution in Paris. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin, The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere. Tolstoys concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural and he later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice. His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugos newly finished Les Misérables, the similar evocation of battle scenes in Hugos novel and Tolstoys War and Peace indicates this influence. Tolstoys political philosophy was influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
33.
LSD
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Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as acid, is a psychedelic drug known for its psychological effects. This may include altered awareness of the surroundings, perceptions, and feelings as well as sensations and it is used mainly as a recreational drug and for spiritual reasons. LSD is typically either swallowed or held under the tongue and it is often sold on blotter paper, a sugar cube, or gelatin. However, adverse reactions such as anxiety, paranoia. LSD is in the ergoline family, LSD is sensitive to oxygen, ultraviolet light, and chlorine, though it may last for years if it is stored away from light and moisture at low temperature. In pure form it is odorless and clear or white in color, as little as 20–30 micrograms can produce an effect. LSD was first made by Albert Hofmann in Switzerland in 1938 from ergotamine, the laboratory name for the compound was the acronym for the German Lyserg-säure-diäthylamid, followed by a sequential number, LSD-25. Hofmann discovered its properties in 1943. LSD was introduced as a medication under the trade-name Delysid for various psychiatric uses in 1947. In the 1950s, officials at the U. S, Central Intelligence Agency thought the drug might be useful for mind control and chemical warfare and tested the drug on young servicemen and students, and others without their knowledge. The subsequent recreational use by youth culture in the Western world as part of 1960s counterculture resulted in its prohibition, LSD currently has no approved uses in medicine. LSD is commonly used as a recreational drug, LSD is considered an entheogen because it can catalyze intense spiritual experiences, during which users may feel they have come into contact with a greater spiritual or cosmic order. Users sometimes report out of body experiences, in 1966, Timothy Leary established the League for Spiritual Discovery with LSD as its sacrament. LSD can cause pupil dilation, reduced appetite, and wakefulness, other physical reactions to LSD are highly variable and nonspecific, some of which may be secondary to the psychological effects of LSD. The most common immediate psychological effects of LSD are visual hallucinations and illusions, trips usually start within 20–30 minutes of taking LSD by mouth, peak three to four hours after ingestion, and last up to 12 hours. It is impossible to predict when a bad trip will occur, some users, including Albert Hofmann, report a strong metallic taste for the duration of the effects. LSD causes an animated experience of senses, emotions, memories, time. Generally beginning within 30 to 90 minutes after ingestion, the user may experience anything from subtle changes in perception to overwhelming cognitive shifts, changes in auditory and visual perception are typical
34.
Mental institution
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Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialize only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients, others may specialize in the temporary or permanent care of residents who, as a result of a psychological disorder, require routine assistance, treatment, or a specialized and controlled environment. Patients are often admitted on a basis, but people whom psychiatrists believe may pose a significant danger to themselves or others may be subject to involuntary commitment. Psychiatric hospitals may also be referred to as psychiatric wards when they are a subunit of a regular hospital, modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from, and eventually replaced the older lunatic asylums. The treatment of inmates in early lunatic asylums was sometimes brutal, a crisis stabilization unit is in effect an emergency room for psychiatry, frequently dealing with suicidal, violent, or otherwise critical individuals. Open units are units that are not as secure as crisis stabilization units. Another type of hospital is medium term, which provides care lasting several weeks. In the United Kingdom, both admissions and medium term care is usually provided on acute admissions wards. Juvenile or adolescent wards are sections of psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric wards set aside for children or adolescents with mental illness, long-term care facilities have the goal of treatment and rehabilitation back into society within a short time-frame. Another institution for the mentally ill is a halfway house. Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from, and eventually replaced the older lunatic asylums, the development of the modern psychiatric hospital is also the story of the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry. It greatly differed from the view in which the insane were viewed as under the influence of the Devil therefore needing to be isolated from society. The first psychiatric hospital was built by the Muslims in Baghdad in 705 AD, others would rapidly follow, with some of the more famous ones being built in Cairo in 800 AD and in Damascus in 1270 AD. The physicians of the Islamic world would invent and use a variety of treatments, including occupational therapy, music therapy, as well as medication. Western Europe would adopt these views later on with the advances of physicians like Philippe Pinel at the Bicêtre Hospital in France and they advocated the viewing of mental illness as a disorder that required compassionate treatment that would aid in the rehabilitation of the victim. The arrival in the Western world of institutionalisation as a solution to the problem of madness was very much an event of the nineteenth century, nine counties first applied, the first public asylum opening in 1812 in Nottinghamshire. In 1828, the newly appointed Commissioners in Lunacy were empowered to license and supervise private asylums, the Lunacy Act 1845 made the construction of asylums in every country compulsory with regular inspections on behalf of the Home Secretary. The Act required asylums to have written regulations and to have a resident physician, at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were a few thousand sick people housed in a variety of disparate institutions throughout England, but by 1900 that figure had grown to about 100,000
35.
Private investigator
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A private investigator, a private detective, or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil and criminal cases, official law enforcement tried many times to shut it down. In 1842, police arrested him in suspicion of unlawful imprisonment, Vidocq later suspected that it had been a set-up. He was sentenced to five years and fined 3, 000-francs, Vidocq is credited with having introduced record-keeping, criminology, and ballistics to criminal investigation. He made the first plaster casts of shoe impressions and he created indelible ink and unalterable bond paper with his printing company. His form of anthropometrics is still used by French police. He is also credited for philanthropic pursuits – he claimed he never informed on anyone who had stolen for real need, after Vidocq, the industry was born. Much of what private investigators did in the days was to act as the police in matters for which their clients felt the police were not equipped or willing to do. A larger role for new private investigative industry was to assist companies in labor disputes. Some early private investigators provided armed guards to act as a private militia, in the United Kingdom, Charles Frederick Field set up an enquiry office upon his retirement from the Metropolitan Police in 1852. Field became a friend of Charles Dickens, and the latter wrote articles about him, in 1862, one of his employees, the Hungarian Ignatius Paul Pollaky, left him and set up a rival agency. In the United States, Allan Pinkerton established the Pinkerton National Detective Agency - a private detective agency - in 1850, Pinkerton became famous when he foiled a plot to assassinate then President-elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Pinkertons agents performed services which ranged from undercover investigations and detection of crimes, to plant protection and it is sometimes claimed, probably with exaggeration, that at the height of its existence, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than the United States Army. Allan Pinkerton hired Kate Warne in 1856 as a private detective, during the union unrest in the US in the late 19th century, companies sometimes hired operatives and armed guards from the Pinkertons. In the aftermath of the Homestead Riot of 1892, several states passed so-called anti-Pinkerton laws restricting the importation of private security guards during union strikes. Pinkerton agents were hired to track western outlaws Jesse James, the Reno brothers, and the Wild Bunch, including Butch Cassidy. The Pinkerton agencys logo, an eye embellished with the words We Never Sleep, many private detectives/investigators with specialized academic and practical experience also work with defense attorneys on capital punishment and other criminal defense cases. Many others are insurance investigators who investigate suspicious claims, before the advent of no-fault divorce, many private investigators were hired to search out evidence of adultery or other conduct within marriage to establish grounds for a divorce
36.
First Avenue (Manhattan)
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South of Houston Street, the roadway continues as Allen Street south to Division Street. Traffic on First Avenue runs northbound only, the southern portions of the Avenue were cut and laid out shortly after the plan was adopted. The northern sections of the Avenue would be graded and cut through at various intervals throughout the 19th century as the development of the island demanded. The IRT Second Avenue Line ran above First Avenue from Houston Street to 23rd Street before turning left at 23rd and this elevated line was torn down in 1942. First Avenue has carried traffic since June 4,1951. A protected bike lane was established along the side of the avenue south of 50th Street in 2011. First Avenue passes through a variety of residential neighborhoods. Between 42nd Street and 45th Street, it borders the United Nations headquarters complex and these fill the east side of the avenue from 14th to 23rd Streets. The avenue is very wide in this segment, and is separated by a median, the New York Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and NYU Medical Center fill the blocks from there to 34th Street. Between 42nd and 47th streets, the avenue runs past United Nations Headquarters, here a local bypass, United Nations Plaza, splits from the main road, which runs through the First Avenue Tunnel, rejoining the local street at 49th Street. Crossing under the Queensboro Bridge and entering the Upper East Side, First Avenue runs through a number of areas of varying character. It serves as one of the shopping streets of the Yorkville neighborhood, historically a German and Hungarian neighborhood. In this district, First Avenue is also known as Bedpan Alley because of the number of hospitals located nearby. Crossing 96th Street, First Avenue runs through Spanish Harlem, a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood, before Puerto Rican migration in the 1950s, much of this district was populated by Italians and known as Italian Harlem. First Avenue in Italian Harlem was the site of a major open-air pushcart market in the late 19th, there is still a small Italian enclave in the Pleasant Valley district of East Harlem, between 114th and 120th Streets. The northern reaches of First Avenue, north of roughly 110th Street have also seen a significant increase in Mexican residents, First Avenue then connects to the Willis Avenue Bridge, which crosses the Harlem River at 125th Street and connects to Willis Avenue in the Bronx. The opening scene of Ghostbusters II was filmed at the intersection of First Avenue, in the Seinfeld TV series, Kramer describes the intersection of First Avenue and 1st Street as the nexus of the universe. This provided the name for a called the Nexus Lounge at that location
37.
Central Park West
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Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. While the avenue has different names at different points in Manhattan, north of Frederick Douglass Circle, it resumes its Eighth Avenue designation, but is also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The avenue ends north of 155th Street, and merges into the Harlem River Drive, the New York City Subway IND Eighth Avenue Line runs under Eighth Avenue. MTA Regional Bus Operations primarily operates two bus routes on the avenue, the northbound M20 serves Eighth Avenue between Abingdon Square and Columbus Circle, while the M10 serves the length of Eighth Avenue north of 59th Street in its entirety. The southernmost section is solely as Eighth Avenue between Abingdon Square and Columbus Circle. This portion of Eighth Avenue has carried traffic one-way northbound since June 6,1954, in fact, New York Citys annual gay pride parade takes place along the Greenwich Village section of Eighth Avenue. As its name indicates, CPW forms the edge of Central Park. It also forms the boundary of the Upper West Side. It runs 51 blocks from Columbus Circle to Frederick Douglass Circle, Central Park Wests expensive housing rivals that of Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side. Most of these housing cooperatives were built around 1930, replacing late 19th century hotels with the same names, some, including The Century, The San Remo, and The Majestic, are twin towers. Other landmarks and institutions along its length include the New-York Historical Society, the area from 61st to 97th Streets is included in the Central Park West Historic District. The building located at 55 Central Park West is the infamous Spook Central from the movie Ghostbusters, the famed New York City restaurant Tavern on the Green is located off of Central Park West, at 66th Street, within the grounds of Central Park. In 1899, while exiting a streetcar, Henry Bliss was run over by a taxi at CPW and West 74th Street, becoming the first person to be run down and killed by a motor car in the Americas. North of Frederick Douglass Circle at 110th Street in Harlem, it is Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Frederick Douglass Boulevard eventually terminates near the Harlem River at the Harlem River Drive around West 159th Street. While Central Park West has its own system, address numbers on Frederick Douglass Boulevard continue from where they would be if Central Park West used the Eighth Avenue numbering system. Formerly described as being like Detroit in its urban blight, it is now gentrified, especially in the restaurants along its route and this gentrification is partly due to massive city investment. The share of whites jumped to 12.4 percent from 2.3 percent, median household income rose 28 percent, to $34,694. Notes New York Songlines, Eighth Avenue, a walking tour
38.
Bankruptcy
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Bankruptcy is a legal status of a person or other entity that cannot repay the debts it owes to creditors. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, Bankruptcy is not the only legal status that an insolvent person may have, and the term bankruptcy is therefore not a synonym for insolvency. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, bankruptcy is limited to individuals, in the United States, bankruptcy is applied more broadly to formal insolvency proceedings. In France, the cognate French word banqueroute is used solely for cases of fraudulent bankruptcy, in Ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist. If a man owed and he could not pay, he and his wife, children or servants were forced into debt slavery, until the creditor recouped losses through their physical labour. Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years, debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not enjoy. However, servants of the debtor could be retained beyond that deadline by the creditor and were forced to serve their new lord for a lifetime. An exception to rule was Athens, which by the laws of Solon forbade enslavement for debt, as a consequence. The Statute of Bankrupts of 1542 was the first statute under English law dealing with bankruptcy or insolvency, Bankruptcy is also documented in East Asia. According to al-Maqrizi, the Yassa of Genghis Khan contained a provision that mandated the death penalty for anyone who became bankrupt three times, a failure of a nation to meet bond repayments has been seen on many occasions. Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557,1560,1575 and 1596, at the edge of Europe, Egypt, Russia, and Turkey have histories of chronic default as well. For private households, it is argued to be insufficient to merely dismiss debts after a certain period and it is important to assess the underlying problems and to minimize the risk of financial distress to re-occur. In most EU Member States, debt discharge is conditioned by a partial payment obligation, in the United States, discharge is conditioned to a lesser extent. The spectrum is broad in the EU, with the UK coming closest to the US system, the Other Member States do not provide the option of a debt discharge. It is almost impossible to discharge student loan debt by filing bankruptcy, unlike most other debtors, the individual with student debt must give a series of reasons and tests to prove that the debtor could not pay the debt. If the person were to file bankruptcy, he or she is encouraged to do so under Chapter 13. In order to avoid bankruptcy, one could negotiate with the lender to lower monthly payments, student loan bankruptcy is considered a last resort. However, some find themselves being forced to file bankruptcy, as the lender refused to lower payments
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Cello
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The cello or violoncello is a bowed or plucked string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. The strings from low to high are generally tuned to C2, G2, D3 and A3 and it is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin and viola and the double bass. The cello is used as a musical instrument, as well as in chamber music ensembles, string orchestras, as a member of the string section of symphony orchestras. It is the second-largest and second lowest bowed string instrument in the symphony orchestra. Cello parts are written in the bass clef, but both tenor clef and treble clefs are used for higher-range parts, both in orchestral/chamber music parts and in solo cello works. A person who plays the cello is called a cellist or violoncellist, in a small Classical ensemble, such as a string quartet, the cello typically plays the bass part, the lowest-pitched musical line of the piece. In orchestra, in Baroque era and Classical music period, the cello plays the bass part. In Baroque era music, the cello is used to play the basso continuo bassline, in a Baroque performance, the cello player might be joined by other bass instruments, playing double bass, viol or other low-register instruments. The name cello is a contraction of the Italian violoncello, which means little violone, in modern symphony orchestras, it is the second largest stringed instrument. Thus, the name contained both the augmentative -one and the diminutive -cello. By the turn of the 20th century, it had become common to shorten the name to cello and it is now customary to use cello without apostrophe as the full designation. Viol is derived from the viola, which was derived from Medieval Latin vitula. Cellos are tuned in fifths, starting with C2, followed by G2, D3 and it is tuned in the same intervals as the viola, but an octave lower. Unlike the violin or viola but similar to the double bass, the cello is most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice. The instrument is a part of the orchestra, as part of the string section. A large number of concertos and sonatas have been written for the cello, among the most well-known Baroque works for the cello are Johann Sebastian Bachs six unaccompanied Suites. The Prelude from the First Suite is particularly famous, romantic era repertoire includes the Robert Schumann Concerto, the Antonín Dvořák Concerto as well as the two sonatas and the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms. The cello is increasingly common in traditional music, especially Scottish fiddle music
40.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir, was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has said that Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau. He was the father of actor Pierre Renoir, filmmaker Jean Renoir and he was the grandfather of the filmmaker Claude Renoir, son of Pierre. Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, in 1841 and his father, Léonard Renoir, was a tailor of modest means, so in 1844, Renoirs family moved to Paris in search of more favorable prospects. The location of their home, in rue d’Argenteuil in central Paris, although the young Renoir had a natural proclivity for drawing, he exhibited a greater talent for singing. His talent was encouraged by his teacher, Charles Gounod, who was the choir-master at the Church of St Roch at the time. However, due to the financial circumstances, Renoir had to discontinue his music lessons. Although Renoir displayed a talent for his work, he tired of the subject matter. The owner of the factory recognized his apprentice’s talent and communicated this to Renoir’s family, following this, Renoir started taking lessons to prepare for entry into Ecole des Beaux Arts. When the porcelain factory adopted mechanical reproduction processes in 1858, Renoir was forced to other means to support his learning. Before he enrolled in art school, he also painted hangings for overseas missionaries, in 1862, he began studying art under Charles Gleyre in Paris. There he met Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet, at times, during the 1860s, he did not have enough money to buy paint. Renoir had his first success at the Salon of 1868 with his painting Lise with a Parasol, although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at the Paris Salon in 1864, recognition was slow in coming, partly as a result of the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a change of subjects. Renoir was inspired by the style and subject matter of modern painters Camille Pissarro. Although the critical response to the exhibition was largely unfavorable, Renoirs work was well received. That same year, two of his works were shown with Durand-Ruel in London, hoping to secure a livelihood by attracting portrait commissions, Renoir displayed mostly portraits at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. He contributed a diverse range of paintings the next year when the group presented its third exhibition, they included Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
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Lower East Side
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The Lower East Side is roughly bounded by the Bowery to the west, East Houston Street to the north, the F. D. R. Drive to the east and Canal Street to the south, the western boundary below Grand Street veers east off of the Bowery to approximately Essex Street. The neighborhood is bordered in the south and west by Chinatown – which extends north to roughly Grand Street, in the west by Nolita and in the north by the East Village. Historically, the Lower East Side referred to the area alongside the East River from about the Manhattan Bridge and Canal Street up to 14th Street and it included areas known today as East Village, Alphabet City, Chinatown, Bowery, Little Italy, and NoLIta. Parts of the East Village are still known as Loisaida, a Latino pronunciation of Lower East Side, Avenue C is known directly as Loisaida and is home to the Loisaida Festival every summer. Their main trail took approximately the route of Broadway, one encampment in the Lower East Side area, near Corlears Hook was called Rechtauck or Naghtogack. Around these farms were a number of enclaves of free or half-free Africans, one of the largest of these was located along the modern Bowery between Prince Street and Astor Place. These black farmers were some of the earliest settlers of the area, gradually, during the 17th century, there was an overall consolidation of the boweries and farms into larger parcels, and much of the Lower East side was then part of the Delancy farm. James Delanceys pre-Revolutionary farm east of post road leading from the city survives in the names Delancey Street, on the modern map of Manhattan, the Delancey farm is represented in the grid of streets from Division Street north to Houston Street. In response to the pressures of a city, Delancey began to survey streets in the southern part of the West Farm in the 1760s. The point of land on the East River now called Corlears Hook was also called Corlaers Hook under Dutch and British rule, and briefly Crown Point during British occupation in the Revolution. It was named after the schoolmaster Jacobus van Corlaer, who settled on this plantation that in 1638 was called by a Europeanized version of its Lenape name, Nechtans or Nechtanc. Corlaer sold the plantation to Wilhelmus Hendrickse Beekman, founder of the Beekman family of New York, the projection into the East River that retained Corlaers name was an important landmark for navigators for 300 years. On older maps and documents it is usually spelled Corlaers Hook, in the course of the 19th century they came to be called hookers. In 1833, Corlears Hook was the location of some of the first tenements built in New York City, the original location of Corlears Hook is now obscured by shoreline landfill. It was near the east end of the present pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive near Cherry Street, the name is preserved in Corlears Hook Park at the intersection of Jackson and Cherry Streets along the East River Drive. The bulk of immigrants who came to New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to the Lower East Side, moving into crowded tenements there. By the 1840s, large numbers of German immigrants settled in the area, later, more radical artists such as the Beat poets and writers were drawn to the neighborhood – especially the parts which later became the East Village – by the inexpensive housing and cheap food
