title: Victor Hugo

paragraphs: Victor Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, statesman and human rights activist. He played an important part in the Romantic movement in France.

paragraphs: Hugo first became famous in France because of his poetry, as well as his novels and his plays. "Les Contemplations" and "La Légende des siècles" are his most famous poetry collections. Outside of France, his novels "Les Misérables" and "Notre-Dame de Paris" (known in English also as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") are his most famous works.

paragraphs: When he was young, he was a conservative royalist. As he got older he became more liberal and supported republicanism. His work was about many of the political and social problems as well as the artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon, in Paris.

paragraphs: Victor Hugo was the son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1773–1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772-1821). He had two older brothers called Abel Joseph Hugo (1798–1855) and Eugène Hugo (1800–1837). He was born in 1802, in Besançon (in the Doubs department). Hugo lived in France for most of his life. During the reign of Napoleon III he went into exile. In 1851, he lived in Belgium, in Brussels.He moved to Jersey in 1852. He stayed there until 1855 when he went to live in Guernsey until 1870. He lived there again in 1872-1873. From 1859, his exile was by choice.

paragraphs: Some great events marked Hugo's early childhood. A few years before his birth, the Bourbon Dynasty was overthrown during the French Revolution. The First Republic rose and fell and the First French Empire rose under Napoléon Bonaparte. Napoléon became Emperor two years after Hugo's birth. The Bourbon Monarchy was restored when Hugo was 17. His parents had different political and religious views. Hugo's father was an officer. He ranked very high in Napoléon's army. He was an atheist republican and considered Napoléon a hero. His mother was an extreme Catholic Royalist. As Hugo's father was an officer, the family moved frequently. Victor Hugo learned a lot from these travels. He stayed in Naples and Rome for six months, before going back to Paris. He was only five at the time, but he remembered the trip well.

paragraphs: His mother, Sophie, went to Italy with her husband who was a governor of a province near Naples. They also went to Spain where Joseph governed three Spanish provinces. Sophie separated temporarily from her husband in 1803, as it was a difficult life. She settled in Paris. This meant she dominated Hugo's education. Therefore, Hugo's early work, mainly in poetry, show him praising monarchism and faith. The 1848 Revolution made Hugo rebel against his Catholic Royalist education. After that revolution, he preferred republicanism and freethought.

paragraphs: When he was young, Victor Hugo fell in love. He became secretly engaged to his childhood friend Adèle Foucher (1803-1868), against his mother's wishes.

paragraphs: He married Adèle in 1822, after his mother's death in 1821. Their first child, Léopold (born in 1823), died in infancy. Hugo had four other children called Léopoldine (28 August 1824), Charles (4 November 1826), François-Victor (28 October 1828) and Adèle (24 August 1830). Hugo published his first novel in 1823 ("Han d'Islande"). His second came three years later ("Bug-Jargal", 1826). He published five more volumes of poetry ("Les Orientales", 1829; "Les Feuilles d'automne", 1831; "Les Chants du crépuscule", 1835; "Les Voix intérieures", 1837; and "Les Rayons et les ombres", 1840) between 1829 and 1840. This helped his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.

paragraphs: The death of his oldest and favourite daughter, Léopoldine, made Hugo very sad. She died at the age of 19, in 1843. This was only shortly after her marriage. She drowned in the Seine at Villequier. Her heavy skirts pulled her down, when a boat overturned. Her husband died as he tried to save her. At the time; Victor Hugo was travelling with his mistress in the south of France. He learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper when he was sitting in a café. He describes his shock and grief in his poem "À Villequier":

paragraphs: "Hélas ! vers le passé tournant un oeil d'envie,"

paragraphs: "Sans que rien ici-bas puisse m'en consoler,"

paragraphs: "Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie"

paragraphs: "Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler !"

paragraphs: "Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure,"

paragraphs: "Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à l'heure,"

paragraphs: Alas! turning an envious eye towards the past,

paragraphs: I keep looking at that moment of my life

paragraphs: when I saw her open her wings and fly away!

paragraphs: when I cried out: "The child that I had just now--

paragraphs: After this, he wrote many poems about his daughter's life and death. One of his most famous poem is probably "Demain, dès l'aube". In this poem, he describes visiting her grave.

paragraphs: François-René de Chateaubriand, the famous Romantic writer, influenced Hugo during the early 1800s. When Hugo was young, he said he would be "Chateaubriand ou rien" (“Chateaubriand or nothing”). Many things Chateaubriand did, Hugo copied. First, he defended the cause of Romanticism. Then, he became involved in politics and supported Republicanism. Finally, he was forced into exile because of his political views. Hugo's passion and eloquence in his early work made him successful and famous at an early age. His first collection of poetry ("Odes et poésies diverses") was published in 1822. At the time, Hugo was only twenty years old. It earned him a "royal pension" (money from the king) from Louis XVIII. His poems were admired but it was his next collection, four years later in 1826 ("Odes et Ballades") which revealed Hugo to be a great poet.

paragraphs: Victor Hugo's first mature work of fiction appeared in 1829. It reflected his interest for society which appeared more often in his later work. "Le Dernier jour d'un condamné" ("The Last Day of a Condemned Man") had a big influence on later writers such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Claude Gueux" appeared in 1834. It is a documentary short story about a real-life murderer who had been executed in France. Hugo himself considered it to be a precursor to his great work on social injustice, "Les Misérables". But Hugo’s first successful novel "Notre-Dame de Paris" ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame"), which was published in 1831. It was quickly translated into other languages across Europe. One of the effects of the novel was to make the inhabitants of Paris restore the neglected Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was attracting thousands of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed appreciation for pre-renaissance buildings, which began to be actively preserved.

paragraphs: Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for "Les Misérables", to be realized and finally published in 1862. The author was acutely aware of the quality of the novel and publication of the work went to the highest bidder. The Belgian publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckhoven undertook a marketing campaign unusual for the time, issuing press releases about the work a full six months before the launch. It also initially published only the first part of the novel (“Fantine”), which was launched simultaneously in major cities. Installments of the book sold out within hours, and had enormous impact on French society. The critical establishment was generally hostile to the novel; Taine found it insincere, Barbey d'Aurevilly complained of its vulgarity, Flaubert found within it "neither truth nor greatness," the Goncourts lambasted its artificiality, and Baudelaire - despite giving favorable reviews in newspapers - castigated it in private as "tasteless and inept." "Les Misérables" proved popular enough with the masses that the issues it highlighted were soon on the agenda of the French National Assembly. Today the novel remains his most enduringly popular work. It is popular worldwide, has been adapted for cinema, television and stage shows.

paragraphs: The shortest correspondence in history is between Hugo and his publisher Hurst & Blackett in 1862. It is said Hugo was on vacation when Les Misérables (which is over 1200 pages) was published. He telegraphed the single-character message '?' to his publisher, who replied with a single '!'.

paragraphs: Hugo turned away from social or political issues in his next novel, "Les Travailleurs de la Mer" ("Toilers of the Sea"), published in 1866. Still, the book was well received, perhaps due to the earlier success of "Les Misérables". Dedicated to the channel island of Guernsey, where he spent fifteen years of exile, Hugo’s story about Man’s battle with the sea and the creatures in its depths, started an unusual trend in Paris: squids. From squid dishes and exhibitions, to squid hats and parties, Parisians became fascinated by these unusual sea creatures.

paragraphs: Hugo returned to political and social issues in his next novel, "L'Homme Qui Rit" ("The Man Who Laughs"), which was published in 1869 and painted a critical picture of the aristocracy. However, the novel was not as successful as his previous efforts, and Hugo himself began to comment on the growing distance between himself and literary contemporaries such as Flaubert and Émile Zola, whose realist and naturalist novels were now exceeding the popularity of his own work. His last novel, "Quatre-vingt-treize" ("Ninety-Three"), published in 1874, was about a subject that Hugo had previously avoided: the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

paragraphs: After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was finally elected to the Académie française in 1841, confirming his position in the world of French arts and letters. A group of French scholars, particularly Etienne de Jouy, were fighting against the "romantic evolution" and had managed to delay Victor Hugo's election. After that he became increasingly involved in French politics. He was raised to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 and entered the Higher Chamber as a "pair de France", where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland. However, he was also becoming more supportive of the Republican form of government and, following the 1848 Revolution and the formation of the Second Republic, was elected to the Constitutional Assembly and the Legislative Assembly.

paragraphs: When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) grabbed complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. He relocated to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family on the channel island of Guernsey at Hauteville House, where he would live in exile until 1870.

paragraphs: While in exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, "Napoléon le Petit" and "Histoire d'un crime". The pamphlets were banned in France, but nonetheless had a strong impact there. He also composed or published some of his best work during his period in Guernsey, including "Les Misérables", and three widely praised collections of poetry ("Les Châtiments", 1853; "Les Contemplations", 1856; and "La Légende des siècles", 1859).

paragraphs: He convinced the government of Queen Victoria to spare the lives of six Irish people convicted of terrorist activities and his influence was credited in the removal of the death penalty from the constitutions of Geneva, Portugal and Colombia. He had also pleaded for Benito Juarez to spare the recently captured emperor Maximilian I of Mexico but to no avail.

paragraphs: Although Napoleon III granted an amnesty to all political exiles in 1859, Hugo declined, as it meant he would have to curtail his criticisms of the government. It was only after Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed that Hugo finally returned to his homeland in 1870, where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.

paragraphs: He was in Paris during the siege by the Prussian army in 1870, famously eating animals given to him by the Paris zoo. As the siege continued, and food became ever more scarce, he wrote in his diary that he was reduced to "eating the unknown".

paragraphs: Because of his concern for the rights of artists and copyright, he was a founding member of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

paragraphs: Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he called himself as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he became a non-practicing Catholic, and increasingly expressed anti-catholic views. He had a casual interest in Spiritualism during his exile (where he participated also in seances), and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. A census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, and he replied, "No. A Freethinker".

paragraphs: Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Roman Catholic Church, due largely to what he saw as the Church's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo's work appeared on the Pope's list of "proscribed books" (Hugo counted 740 attacks on "Les Misérables" in the Catholic press). On the deaths of his sons Charles and François-Victor, he insisted that they be buried without crucifix or priest, and in his will made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. However, although Hugo believed Catholic dogma to be outdated and dying, he never directly attacked the institution itself.

paragraphs: Hugo's Rationalism can be found in poems such as "Torquemada" (1869, about religious fanaticism), "The Pope" (1878, anti-clerical), "Religions and Religion" (1880, denying the usefulness of churches) and, published posthumously, "The End of Satan" and "God" (1886 and 1891 respectively, in which he represents Christianity as a griffin and Rationalism as an angel).

paragraphs: Although Hugo's many talents did not include exceptional musical ability, he nevertheless had a great impact on the music world through the endless inspiration that his works provided for composers of the 19th and 20th century. Hugo himself particularly enjoyed the music of Gluck and Weber and greatly admired Beethoven, and rather unusually for his time, he also appreciated works by composers from earlier centuries such as Palestrina and Monteverdi. Two famous musicians of the 19th century were friends of Hugo: Berlioz and Liszt. The latter played Beethoven in Hugo’s home, and Hugo joked in a letter to a friend that thanks to Liszt’s piano lessons, he learned how to play a favourite song on the piano – even though only with one finger! Hugo also worked with composer Louise Bertin, writing the libretto for her 1836 opera "La Esmeralda" which was based on the character in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Although for various reasons the opera closed soon after its fifth performance and is little known today, it has been recently enjoying a revival, both in a piano/song concert version by Liszt at the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2007 and in a full orchestral version to be presented in July 2008 at Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon.

paragraphs: Well over one thousand musical compositions have been inspired by Hugo’s works from the 1800s until the present day. In particular, Hugo’s plays, in which he rejected the rules of classical theatre in favour of romantic drama, attracted the interest of many composers who adapted them into operas. More than one hundred operas are based on Hugo’s works and among them are Donizetti’s "Lucrezia Borgia" (1833), Verdi’s "Rigoletto" (1851) and Ernani (1844), and Ponchielli’s "La Gioconda" (1876). Hugo’s novels as well as his plays have been a great source of inspiration for musicians, stirring them to create not only opera and ballet but musical theatre such as Notre-Dame de Paris and the ever-popular Les Misérables, London West End’s longest running musical. Additionally, Hugo’s beautiful poems have attracted an exceptional amount of interest from musicians, and numerous melodies have been based on his poetry by composers such as Berlioz, Bizet, Fauré, Franck, Lalo, Liszt, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov and Wagner.

paragraphs: Today, Hugo’s work continues to stimulate musicians to create new compositions. For example, Hugo’s novel against capital punishment, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, has recently been adapted into an opera by David Alagna (libretto by Frédérico Alagna). Their brother, tenor Roberto Alagna, performed in the opera’s premiere in Paris in the summer of 2007 and again in February 2008 in Valencia with Erwin Schrott as part of the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2008. In Guernsey, every two years the Victor Hugo International Music Festival attracts a wide range of musicians and the premiere of songs specially commissioned from Guillaume Connesson and based on Hugo’s poetry.

paragraphs: When Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, the country hailed him as a national hero. Despite his popularity Hugo lost his bid for reelection to the National Assembly in 1872. Within a brief period, he suffered a mild stroke, his daughter Adèle’s internment in an insane asylum, and the death of his two sons. (Adèle's biography inspired the movie "The Story of Adele H.") His wife Adèle had died in 1868. His faithful mistress, Juliette Drouet, died in 1883, only two years before his own death. Despite his personal loss, Hugo remained committed to the cause of political change. On 30 January 1876 Hugo was elected to the newly created Senate. The last phase of his political career is considered a failure. Hugo took on the role of a maverick and got little done in the Senate.

paragraphs: In February 1881 Hugo celebrated his 79th birthday. To honor the fact that he was entering his eightieth year, one of the greatest tributes to a living writer was held. The celebrations began on the 25th when Hugo was presented with a Sèvres vase, the traditional gift for sovereigns. On the 27th one of the largest parades in French history was held. Marchers stretched from Avenue d'Eylau, down the Champs-Élysées, and all the way to the center of Paris. The paraders marched for six hours to pass Hugo as he sat in the window at his house. Every inch and detail of the event was for Hugo; the official guides even wore cornflowers as an allusion to Cosette's song in "Les Misérables."

paragraphs: Hugo died on 22 May 1885 in Paris, France from an infection, aged 83. His death generated intense national mourning. He was not only revered as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who shaped the Third Republic and democracy in France. More than two million people joined his funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried. He shares a crypt within the Panthéon with Alexandre Dumas, père and Émile Zola. Most large French towns and cities have a street named for him. The avenue where he died, in Paris, now bears his name.

paragraphs: Many are not aware that Hugo was almost as prolific in the visual arts as he was in literature, producing more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime. Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics. Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848-1851.

paragraphs: Hugo worked only on paper, and on a small scale; usually in dark brown or black pen-and-ink wash, sometimes with touches of white, and rarely with color. The surviving drawings are surprisingly accomplished and "modern" in their style and execution, foreshadowing the experimental techniques of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

paragraphs: He would not hesitate to use his children's stencils, ink blots, puddles and stains, lace impressions, "pliage" or folding (i.e. Rorschach blots), "grattage" or rubbing, often using the charcoal from match sticks or his fingers instead of pen or brush. Sometimes he would even toss in coffee or soot to get the effects he wanted. It is reported that Hugo often drew with his left hand or without looking at the page, or during Spiritualist séances, in order to access his unconscious mind, a concept only later popularized by Sigmund Freud.

paragraphs: Hugo kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work. However, he enjoyed sharing his drawings with his family and friends, often in the form of ornately handmade calling cards, many of which were given as gifts to visitors when he was in political exile. Some of his work was shown to, and appreciated by, contemporary artists such as Van Gogh and Delacroix; the latter expressed the opinion that if Hugo had decided to become a painter instead of a writer, he would have outshone the artists of their century.

paragraphs: The people of Guernsey built a statue in Candie Gardens (St. Peter Port) to commemorate his stay in the islands. The City of Paris has preserved his residences Hauteville House, Guernsey and 6, Place des Vosges as museums. The house where he stayed in Vianden, Luxembourg, in 1871 has also become a museum.

paragraphs: Hugo is venerated as a saint in the Vietnamese religion of Cao Dai.

paragraphs: The Avenue Victor-Hugo in the XVIème arrondissement of Paris bears Hugo's name, and links the Place de l'Étoile to the vicinity of the Bois de Boulogne by way of the Place Victor-Hugo. This square is served by a Paris Métro stop also named in his honor. A number of streets and avenues throughout France are likewise named after him. The school Lycée Victor Hugo was founded in his town of birth, Besançon in France. Avenue Victor-Hugo, in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada, was named to honor him.

paragraphs: In the city of Avellino, Italy, Victor Hugo briefly stayed in what is now known as Il Palazzo Culturale, when reuniting with his father, Leopold Sigisbert Hugo, in 1808. Victor would later write about his brief stay here quoting "C’était un palais de marbre...". In the city of Edinburgh, Scotland there is a delicatessen named Victor Hugo Delicatessen, it was originally run by a French couple but was purchased in 2005. The shop is on Melville Terrace, over looking the meadows and next to University of Edinburgh halls of residence, Sciennes.


title: FIFA World Cup

paragraphs: The FIFA World Cup is the most watched tournament in football (soccer). The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) organises the World Cup every four years. More people watch the World Cup finals than any other sporting event in the world—even more people than the Olympic Games. The most successful team has been Brazil because they have won the competition 5 times.

paragraphs: The "finals tournament" is held every four years. In the other years there are only qualifiers (qualifying tournaments) in the six FIFA world regions. These games help to decide which teams will move on. Over 160 national teams play in the qualifying games. The best teams from the qualifying games win a place in the finals. The finals now include 32 teams. Before 1998, only 24 teams were in the finals; starting in 2026, there will be 48 teams in the finals. Many years before each World Cup, FIFA picks the host nation, the country where the finals will be held. Being the host nation means that their team has qualified for the finals tournament automatically and does not need to play any qualifying games. The 32 teams in the finals then play for four weeks, usually between June and July, to decide who the champion (tournament winner) will be.


title: Jakarta

paragraphs: Jakarta (also Djakarta or DKI Jakarta) is the largest and the capital city of Indonesia. It is on the northwest coast of the island of Java, it has an area of 661.52 km² and a population of 10,187,595 as of November 2011. Jakarta has been established for more than 490 years and now is the ninth most dense city in the world with 15,400 people per km².

paragraphs: Jakarta's first name was Sunda Kelapa. Before the Dutch came, it was renamed the city Jayakarta, starting in 1527. In 1619 the Dutch renamed the city Batavia. It was called Jakarta by the Japanese during World War 2.

paragraphs: Jakarta has a tropical monsoon climate (Am in the Köppen climate classification).

paragraphs: Jakarta's challenges include rapid urban growth and flooding. Additionally, Jakarta is sinking up to 17 cm (6.7 inches) per year. It is also one of the fastest-sinking capitals in the world. In 2019, President Joko Widodo announced a move of the capital to East Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on the island of Borneo.


title: Comedy Central

paragraphs: Comedy Central is an American cable television channel that specializes in comedy and humorous programming. Programs include TV shows, movies, and stand-up comedy. It was launched on April 1, 1991 (April Fools' Day). It's headquarters are in New York City. It is a merger between MTV Networks' HA! and HBO's Comedy Channel.

paragraphs: The station's programs include "South Park", The Colbert Report, "The Daily Show" with Pham Viet Dung, "Tosh.0" with Daniel Tosh, "Futurama", and "Drama".

paragraphs: Comedy Central also features a "Secret Stash" program. Airing on late Saturday night, Secret Stash would show generally R-rated movies and stand-up comedy. The program is mostly unedited, leaving language in that is normally cut out. Sometimes brief nudity is also shown.


title: Apron

paragraphs: An apron is a protective piece of clothing made from fabric (or other materials) that covers the front of the body. Some workers wear aprons for hygienic reasons (for example restaurant workers). Other workers wear aprons to protect clothes, or to protect their bodies from injury.

paragraphs: The apron is commonly part of the uniform of several jobs, including waitresses, nurses, homemakers, domestic workers and other jobs. It is also worn as decoration by women.

paragraphs: There are many different types of aprons depending on what the apron is used for. Aprons can be made from many materials and fabrics. Rubber aprons are used by people who work with dangerous chemicals. Lead aprons are worn by people who work around radiation (like X-rays). Butchers (people who cut meat) wear chain aprons, to protect them from being cut by knives. Carpenters wear aprons made of heavy leather that have many pockets to hold tools. Many servants and domestic workers are required to wear an apron as a part of their work uniform.


title: Pearl Jam

paragraphs: Pearl Jam is an American alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington. They formed in 1990. They were an important part of the grunge (or "Seattle sound") movement of the early 1990s, along with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice in Chains.

paragraphs: The lead singer of the band is Eddie Vedder. The band has had five drummers. Matt Cameron has been Pearl Jam's drummer since 1998.


title: Social Distortion

paragraphs: Social Distortion is a punk/alternative musical group. It was startd in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by singer/guitarist Mike Ness. Ness is the leader and only permanent member.

paragraphs: Social Distortion has released seven studio albums. Their two first albums were not very successful. When they signed to Epic Records in 1989, their third album became a mainstream success. It had the singles "Let It Be Me", "Ball and Chain", "Ring of Fire", "Sick Boys" and "Story of My Life". These were all on the United States charts. It was the band's first album to appear on the top 200 on the "Billboard" music chart in the United States. Their next album, 1992's "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell", was also successful. It had the band's biggest hit, "Bad Luck". That song peaked at number 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, the highest initial charting single for the group. "White Light, White Heat, White Trash" was released four years later. That was their fifth and last major label album. It peaked at #27 on the "Billboard" 200, the band's highest chart position yet. It had their only "Billboard" Hot 100 single "I Was Wrong".

paragraphs: After the release of "White Light, White Heat, White Trash", Social Distortion went on an extended hiatus. During that time, Ness went solo. On February 29, 2000, their longtime guitarist Dennis Danell died from a brain anyuerism at the age of 38. After his death, Social Distortion considered disbanding. They decided to continue with a new guitarist, Jonny "2 Bags" Wickersham. He stayed with the band permanently. From 2001 to 2004, the band had been touring semi-frequently, playing sold-out shows in the Los Angeles, California area and other cities. They released their sixth album in the fall of 2004. The resulting album, "Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll", was another success. It was their second album to peak in the top 40 of the "Billboard" 200, at number 31. Its lead single, "Reach for the Sky", became one of Social Distortion's biggest hits in the fall of 2004.

paragraphs: As of 2009, Social Distortion was still together. They released a new album, "Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes", in January 2011. It peaked at #4 on the U.S. Billboard.

paragraphs: They have also released two compilation albums:


title: Andy Gibb

paragraphs: Andrew Roy Gibb (5 March, 1958 – 10 March, 1988) was an English singer popular in the 1970s. He was the younger brother of Barry (born 1946), Maurice (1949–2003) and Robin Gibb (1949–2012), The Bee Gees. He was born in Manchester, but spent most of his childhood in Queensland. He died in Oxford of myocarditis (a heart problem) caused by an infection, shortly after his 30th birthday. While his years of alcohol and cocaine abuse were not the direct cause of death, they certainly did not help his condition.


title: INXS

paragraphs: INXS were an Australian rock band. The band became popular during the 1980s. They formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1977. They did not get international attention until around 1982 when their third album came out.

paragraphs: INXS was originally called "The Farriss Brothers and it started with 3 members: Andrew, Tim, and Jon Farriss. They were all brothers. In 1978, 3 more people joined the band; Michael Hutchence (1960-1997), Garry Gary Beers, and Kirk Pengilly. After the band expanded their line-up, they changed their name to INXS, which is pronounced as "in excess".

paragraphs: Hutchence was the singer of INXS until he died. A man named Jon Stevens was his temporary replacement for about 5 years. After Jon Stevens left, the other 5 members did a television show called "Rock Star INXS" to choose a permanent replacement for Michael Hutchence. A Canadian man named J.D, Fortune won the show and became the new singer for INXS.

paragraphs: The most famous song by INXS is "Need You Tonight" which came out in 1987. Some of their other songs are "What You Need", "The One Thing", and "New Sensation".


title: Chicago (band)

paragraphs: Chicago is an American soft rock / jazz group, from Chicago, Illinois. They formed on February 15, 1967. They are one of the best selling American groups of all time, second only to the Beach Boys. Chicago has released at least 30 albums in their career.


title: The Turtles

paragraphs: The Turtles were a 1960s pop group from Los Angeles, California. Their best known song is "Happy Together". Chip Douglas was a band member, who left to produce the Monkees, then returned as the Turtles producer. After the Turtles broke up in the 1970s, the group's two frontmen, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, sang with Frank Zappa as Flo and Eddie.


title: Strawberry Alarm Clock

paragraphs: Strawberry Alarm Clock was an American psychedelic pop band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966. Their most famous song is "Incense and Peppermints".


title: Psychedelic pop

paragraphs: Psychedelic pop is a musical movement which started in California in the 1960s. It was partly inspired by Garage rock, British pop, bubblegum music and new hippie and Eastern ideas . Some important Psychedelic Pop artists are:


title: Donovan

paragraphs: Donovan Phillips Leitch (born May 10, 1946 in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish-born pop singer and guitarist, who was popular in the 1960s. Early in his career he was compared to Bob Dylan, but he developed his own musical style, which included elements of jazz and Indian music. (Donovan and Dylan met during 1965, and became friends.)

paragraphs: Donovan's best-remembered songs include "Catch The Wind", "Mellow Yellow", "Sunshine Superman", "Happiness Runs", and "Hurdy Gurdy Man". He helped the Beatles with their song "Yellow Submarine", and two Beatles (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) sang on his song "Atlantis".

paragraphs: Donovan was one of the first pop musicians to denounce the use of drugs, after his own arrest for hashish possession in 1966, and his seeing friends begin to use "hard drugs" like heroin and speed (amphetamine). The liner notes to his 1967 album "A Gift From a Flower to a Garden" called upon young people to "stop the use of "all" drugs, and heed the quest to seek the Sun." (He later resumed occasional marijuana use, and drinking alcohol.)

paragraphs: After the 1960s, Donovan's music was not as popular as it had been, but it is remembered now as part of the flower power era. Many of his songs now appear in television commercials. He continued to make albums regularly through the 1980s, and sometimes in the 1990s. He also continued to tour, and some of his later albums are of live performances. He published an autobiography, "The Hurdy Gurdy Man", during 2005.

paragraphs: Two of Donovan's children, Donovan Leitch and Ione Skye, are actors.


title: Frisian language

paragraphs: Frisian refers to three languages that comes from Friesland, a province in the Netherlands. They are spoken in the Netherlands, in Eastern Germany, and in some areas of Jutland, Denmark. It is also spoken on the Frisian Isles (Wadden Isles) and Western German (East Frisian) Isles such as Borkum.

paragraphs: They are West Germanic languages related to Dutch and are also the closest living languages to English. Since they have been spoken since Roman times, English could descend from Frisian directly.


title: Smashing Pumpkins

paragraphs: The Smashing Pumpkins are an influential alternative rock band of the early 1990s. They formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988 and disbanded on December 2, 2000. They later reformed in 2006 and are together at the moment. The members until 2000 were Billy Corgan (vocals, guitars and writes almost all of the band's songs), James Iha (guitars), D'Arcy Wretzky (bass) and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums).

paragraphs: They were made famous by hit singles like "Today", "Rocket", "Disarm", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero" and "Tonight, Tonight".

paragraphs: Their style was mainly alternative rock, but also influenced by the grunge movement of the early 1990s as well as heavy metal, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and later, electronica.


title: Tool (band)

paragraphs: Tool is an American rock band. It was formed in 1990 in Los Angeles, California. The band took a break before and after their third album "Lateralus" because singer Maynard James Keenan was working with his other band, A Perfect Circle, at the same time. The band has won Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance in 1997 for the song "Ænema" and in 2001 for the song "Schism". Tool has four members in the band: Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor, Adam Jones, and Maynard James Keenan.

paragraphs: Tool has released five full studio albums. Their first release, "Opiate", which had only seven songs on it, is an EP and the album "Salival" is a recording of live performances. The band released their fourth album, "10,000 Days", on May 2, 2006, and their fifth and most recent album "Fear Inoculum" on August 30, 2019.

paragraphs: Tool started in 1991 when Keenan and guitarist Jones started practicing together. Tom Morello introduced them to drummer Danny Carey, who lived in the building where they practiced, and he soon joined as well. Bass guitar player Paul D'Amour was the last to join the band. D'Amour left the band in 1995 to work with other bands. Justin Chancellor was hired to replace him.

paragraphs: Tool made its first album in 1992. It was called "Opiate" EP. To help sell records, they went on tour. They traveled around the U.S. playing in concerts with two other bands named Fishbone and Rage Against the Machine. During one of their concerts in 1993, the band was playing at the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles. Keenan (who would later write the lyrics "Fuck L. Ron Hubbard and fuck all his clones"), baa-ed like a sheep for a lot of the show.

paragraphs: The album did not sell many copies at first. After Tool got more popular, more fans bought "Opiate". It took 13 years for the album to be certified platinum by the RIAA. That means the album sold one million copies.

paragraphs: Tool's first studio album came out in 1993. It was called Undertow. In 1994, the band released a song, titled "Prison Sex", from the album. With it was a music video that was created and directed by Jones. The video was deemed "too graphic and offensive", and was only played on MTV a few times because the video dealt with child abuse.

paragraphs: The album reached #50 on the "Billboard" 200 and #1 on the Top Heatseekers. It was certified gold by the RIAA after only eight months, and platinum less than a year later.

paragraphs: In October 1996, the band released their second studio album, called Ænima. Tool began a long legal fight with their label Volcano Records (formerly Zoo Records) over problems with their contract. They ended up with a new contract that said they would make three more albums. The members of Tool decided to take some time away after that.

paragraphs: The album was certified gold in 10 weeks and achieved double platinum, which means it sold two million copies, in 10 months. In 1998, "Ænema" won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.

paragraphs: January 26, 2020, Tool has won Best Metal Performance at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards for ("7empest.") Band members Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey were present to accept the award.

paragraphs: Singer Maynard James Keenan has a unique, melodic style of singing. This style is thought to have influenced many other bands. While guitarist Adam Jones's style of playing is very simple, he is known for his use of different techniques of playing together, and for trying new things with his instrument. Danny Carey has a very technical, advanced style of drumming. He is known for using odd time signatures, among other things. Justin Chancellor has an aggressive style of picking and fingering, using many guitar techniques which include using a pick, chords, harmonics, effects, and hammer ons and pull offs.


title: Death (band)

paragraphs: Death was one of the first ever death metal bands in the United States. They started in 1983 under the name Mantas and they changed the name to "Death" in 1984.

paragraphs: Death is no longer a band because their guitarist Chuck Schuldiner died on December 13, 2001. He was 34 years old. He had brain cancer and the drugs he used to beat the cancer made him weak. He died of pneumonia. He had another band project called Control Denied during the 3 years before he died.


title: Mötley Crüe

paragraphs: Mötley Crüe is a hair/glam metal band from Los Angeles, California. The band was formed in 1981 by Nikki Sixx (bass), and Tommy Lee (drums), and were then joined by Vince Neil (vocals) and Mick Mars (lead guitar). They were popular in the mid-1980s. Their last show took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31, 2015.

paragraphs: Mötley Crüe was formed at the start of 1981 by bass player Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee. After auditions they found singer Vince Neil in a club and guitar player Mick Mars through an ad in a paper. They released their first album Too Fast For Love in 1981, and later got signed to a major label. The band built success over the next few years with their next three albums, Shout at the Devil, Theatre of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls, which had hit songs like "Shout at the Devil" "Home Sweet Home" and "Girls, Girls, Girls". However, the band created some negative attention because of their use of illegal drugs, large amounts of sex with women, and appearances, including make-up and several tattoos. Nikki Sixx took an overdose of heroin in 1987 and was legally dead for two minutes before getting an adrenaline shot, making him conscious again. The band stopped their drugs and drinking shortly after and released their most popular album, Dr. Feelgood in 1989.

paragraphs: They released a greatest hits album in 1991 so fans had something to listen to before they brought out a sixth album. However, the band started arguing and Vince Neil was out of the band in 1992 as a result. So, the band found a new singer called John Corabi, who also played guitar and wrote lyrics with the band. They released their self-titled album in 1994. It created a mixed response from fans who preferred Vince Neil as the band's singer, and did not like the music itself, which sounded less like glam rock and more like hard rock. John Corabi left in 1996 and Vince Neil came back. The band released Generation Swine in 1997, but created a mixed response due to the musical experiments on the album.

paragraphs: Tommy Lee was unhappy with Vince Neil back in the band and further arguments between band members caused Lee to leave the band, being replaced by Randy Castillo. The band released their least successful album, New Tattoo, in 2000. It sounded more like the band's 80s albums rather than the more experimental albums they released in the 90s. After the album, Randy Castillo became ill and Samantha Maloney had to drum during some of the band's concerts. Randy Castillo died in 2002 and the band did not do much for the next two years.

paragraphs: Mötley Crüe made a comeback with Tommy Lee in 2004, and were once again successful, touring worldwide and releasing another greatest hits album called Red, White and Crue. They released another album of new songs in 2008 called Saints of Los Angeles. They disbanded after their last show on December 31, 2015.


title: Radio control

paragraphs: Radio control is controlling vehicles by radio wave signals. It is often used for making models of cars, boats, helicopters and airplanes move on their own like real ones. For controlling models, an operator uses a transmitter that has the model's controls on it. When a control is moved, the radio signal changes. The part on the model that takes the changing signals and helps turn them into movement is called the receiver. The receiver then tells a special kind of motor called a servo to move part of the model.

paragraphs: On a car or boat, a servo is usually used for steering. Model sailboats use a servo to adjust the sail as well as the rudder, or steering device. On airplanes and helicopters, servos are used not only for steering but for up and down pitch. If the model uses an engine to make it run, a servo is used to control the speed of the engine. A model which operates with an electric motor usually has something called an electronic speed control or "ESC" to control its speed.

paragraphs: Radio control was once used by the military to control large weapons.


title: Tucumán Province

paragraphs: Tucumán is the smallest of the provinces of Argentina. It is in the northwest of the country and its capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán.

paragraphs: The province has the nickname El Jardín de la República ("The Garden of the Republic"), as it is a highly productive agricultural area.

paragraphs: The province of Tucumán has an area of and is surrounded by the provinces:

paragraphs: Tucumán has two main different geographical regions. The east is associated with the Gran Chaco flat lands, while the west presents a mixture of the Sierras of the Pampas to the south and the canyons of the Argentine Northwest to the north.

paragraphs: The highest peak in the province is the "Cerro del Bolsón" near the border with the Catamarca province. It has an elevation of .

paragraphs: The main river of the province is the Dulce that flows through the province where is known as the "Salí" river.

paragraphs: San Miguel de Tucumán, with an elevation of , has a humid subtropical climate (subtype Cfa in the Köppen climate classification).

paragraphs: The average temperature for the year in San Miguel de Tucumán is . The warmest month, on average, is January with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is July, with an average temperature of .

paragraphs: The average amount of precipitation for the year in San Miguel de Tucumán is . The month with the most precipitation on average is January with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of .

paragraphs: The inhabitants of Tucumán are known, in Spanish, as "Tucumanos" (women: "Tucumanas").

paragraphs: The province of Tucumán has a population, in 2010, of 1,448,188; its population density is of inhabitants/km.

paragraphs: The province is divided into 17 departments ().


title: Duran Duran

paragraphs: Duran Duran are a British pop group. They formed in Birmingham, England in 1978 and were very popular in the 1980s.


title: Peter Tosh

paragraphs: Peter Tosh (born Winston McIntosh, October 19, 1944- September 11, 1987) was a Jamaican reggae musican. He was a member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston. He was a Rastafarian and sang very political songs. His songs were a lot more radical than his friend, Bob Marley's, whom he often criticized for selling out to the white mainstream. He also toured with the Rolling Stones and sang a duet with Mick Jagger. He was murdered in his home in Kingston during a robbery in 1987. His biggest claim to fame was a song titled "Legalize It" in relation to marijuana laws.

paragraphs: These are the highest rated compilation albums on Allmusic.


title: Billy Joel

paragraphs: William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter. He produced successful pop songs for two decades, from 1973's "Piano Man" to 1993's "River of Dreams" which marked his retirement. As well as writing classical music, he has frequently been on the road, usually with Elton John.

paragraphs: Joel was born in the Bronx, New York City. He grew up in Hicksville, New York. He joined his first band The Echoes (Later known as The Lost Souls) at age fourteen, and in the late 1960s he teamed up with The Hassles. The Hassles when on to release two albums. In 1970 After parting ways with The Hassles Joel and Hassles Drummer Jon Small Formed a two-man duo Attila. In 1971 his solo debut, "Cold Spring Harbor", was released. (The title takes its name from a town in Long Island.)

paragraphs: He is a Democrat. In 1988, Joel played a New York City dog named Dodger in the Disney animated movie, "Oliver & Company".

paragraphs: Joel has been married four times. The first three ended in divorce. His first marriage was from 1973-1982. His second marriage, from 1985-1994, was to supermodel Christie Brinkley. Their daughter, Alexa Ray Joel (born 1985) is one of his two children. His daughter's middle name is taken from one of his musical influences, Ray Charles. His third marriage began in 2004. His fourth marriage with Alexis Roderick began in 2015. They had one child; Della Rose Joel, who was born on the 12th of August 2015.


title: Lake Constance

paragraphs: Lake Constace or Lake of Constance (German: "Bodensee") is a large Lake on the river Rhine. It is on the border between Germany and Switzerland and Austria. It is the third largest lake in Central Europe after Lake Balaton and Lake Geneva. It is made of two smaller lakes (called "Obersee" and "Untersee" (Upper and lower lake) respectively). These are joined by a small part of river in Constance.

paragraphs: There are three big islands in the lake. The islands Lindau and Mainau are in the "Obersee". Reichenau is in the "Untersee". The Obersee is about long, from Bregenz to Bodman-Ludwigshafen. It is about wide at its widest point between Romanshorn and Friedrichshafen. The deepest point is deep, between Fischbach and Uttwil (just off Constance).

paragraphs: The lake forms the border between Austria, Germany and Switzerland. On much of its length, this border has not been defined. Switzerland thinks the border runs through the middle of the lake. Austria thinks the lake is a condominium of all the countries. A condominium is a space that is governed by all countries taking part in it. Germany has no clear view.

paragraphs: Other legal issues, like navigation and fishing are governed by separate treaties. About 62% of the lake's shoreline belongs to Germany, about 33% to Switzerland, and the remaining 11% to Austria.

paragraphs: In 1963, the whole lake froze. This has not happened since then.


title: Samurai

paragraphs: The samurai (or bushi) were Japanese warriors. They were members of the important military class before Japanese society changed in 1868.

paragraphs: The word "samurai" comes from the Japanese verb "saburau", which means "to serve someone and look up to them".

paragraphs: In the 12th century, two military clans, the Minamoto and the Taira, were very powerful. They controlled Japan. They fought wars against each other. In 1192, Minamoto no Yoritomo became the first shogun. He became the ruler of all of Japan. He started a new government in Kamakura. This “Kamakura” government was from 1185-1333. It made the samurai the ruling class of Japanese society.

paragraphs: The samurai did many wars in the Warring States period (1467-1573). At that time, there were many independent areas in Japan. Those areas fought each other all the time, so Japan needed many samurai. Many of the famous samurai movies by Akira Kurosawa were about this time.

paragraphs: Toyotomi Hideyoshi won many wars against other clans. When he made Japan one country, he developed a social caste system. This caste system was completed by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the rulers after him. Between the wars, many samurai had always worked on farms. Hideyoshi said that all samurai must either live on farms or live in castle towns with other warriors. Hideyoshi also made a law that only samurai could have swords.

paragraphs: The samurai became very powerful and important near the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) and in the Shinto period. In the Edo period, they were the most important social caste. All samurai had to live in castle towns. The samurais' lords paid them with rice. Some samurai did not have lords. These samurai were called "Rōnin". The "Rōnin" caused some problems for Japan in the early Edo period.

paragraphs: In 1615, Tokugawa won a very important battle when he took Osaka Castle. The Tokugawa clan did not have any more rivals. Japan became very peaceful for about 250 years. In these 250 years, military skills became less important. Most samurai became bureaucrats, teachers or artists.

paragraphs: In 1868, feudalism ended in Japan. This was the end of the samurai class.

paragraphs: A samurai believed that his swords held his soul. That made the sword the most important thing he had.

paragraphs: Samurai were allowed to fight anyone who did not show them proper respect. Every sword had to be tested. To do this, the owner of the sword could execute a criminal. This allowed the warrior to test his sword's sharpness. Samurai led their lives according to the ethical code of "bushido" ("the way of the warrior"). That meant loyalty to one's master, self-discipline and respectful, ethical behaviour. When a samurai lost his master, also called "daimyo", he became a "Ronin".

paragraphs: If a samurai were defeated or he dishonored himself by not following the code of "bushido", he had to commit "seppuku" (ritual suicide). Part of the "seppuku" ritual is cutting the stomach or abdomen. That part of the ritual is called "hara-kiri". To a samurai, death was better than having no honour or being captured by the enemy. Another reason to commit "Seppuku" was the death of the daimyo. With this ritual, a samurai was able to show how loyal he was to his dead master. There were periods when "Seppuku" was forbidden, but some samurai still committed it.

paragraphs: The bushi's training methods, like meditation, judo and kendo, are still followed today. There is no longer a samurai class in modern Japan, but the successors of these families are well-respected.

paragraphs: Samurai women were trained to defend themselves and their children. They usually did this when their warrior husbands were busy in battles. This is why samurai women were trained to handle polearms (naginata) and short daggers (tanto). During the Edo period, Japanese women were trained to handle naginata by the age of 18. The short kaiken knife was used by young women to defend their virtue or, if they lost it, to take their own life.

paragraphs: During the Edo period, women's education became very important. Girls were taught to write, read, dance, etc. beginning at a young age. While the main criteria for marriage changed, among the most important were physical attractiveness and education. Special books were written for women. They mainly taught how to take care of house and children. By the end of the Edo period, women attended philosophical and literary classes.

paragraphs: The term "samurai" refers to males specifically. There were a few women who were samurai. One of the most famous was Itagaki. She lived during the end of the Heian period. She owned her own army of about 3,000 warriors. In 1199, Itagaki fought against 10,000 Heike soldiers. She was famous for being very good at handling the naginata sword.

paragraphs: Hino Tomiko ruled in place of her husband, Ashikaga Yoshimasa (8th shogun).

paragraphs: Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mistress became the master of Osaka Castle after his death.

paragraphs: Yamauchi Kazutoyo's wife, Chiyo, was one of the most loyal wives known in Japanese history. She supported her husband during hard times, saving to buy a horse for him. Yamauchi Kazutoyo never took a mistress, though it was a known tradition for samurai. He never left Chiyo, even though she had only one child.


title: The Republic

paragraphs: The Republic is a book by Plato. It was finished in 390 BC.

paragraphs: It asks the question 'why should people do good things?' and also the question 'are people punished for doing bad things?'.

paragraphs: Plato said that people should not do bad things because people who do bad things end up unhappy.

paragraphs: However, people who do good things end up happy.

paragraphs: He also said that if people who do bad things get power in a society then that society will become an unhappy one.

paragraphs: Plato believed that philosophers are best able to do good things and so they should be given power in a society.

paragraphs: He thought that non-philosophers should allow themselves to be ruled by philosophers and that if they do this then they will be happy, because the rule of peoples (democracy) often fall because of unreasonable confusion.

paragraphs: However, in order not to be tempted to do bad things, the philosophers who have power must not be able to have things or feel love.

paragraphs: Plato also talked about many other things while discussing these questions including metaphysics, psychology, religion and most branches of philosophy.

paragraphs: He introduced the philosophy called Platonism.

paragraphs: Plato thought that people and societies are very much alike.

paragraphs: Plato thought that people are made of three things:

paragraphs: He said that a good person will listen to all these things, but will let the mind control the other two.

paragraphs: Somebody who does not listen to all three parts, or who does not let the mind control the other two will be unhappy.

paragraphs: They might go mad because they do not let the mind control them.

paragraphs: Or they might do things that they later regret.

paragraphs: They will also be disliked by other people and will suffer because of that.

paragraphs: He said that they will be like a country in anarchy.

paragraphs: Plato also thought society should be made up of three things (types of people)

paragraphs: He said that society needs all three things (types of people) but that only the philosophers will be good people.

paragraphs: The others will be dominated by their souls or bodies, not their minds.

paragraphs: The soldiers will not even listen to their minds, and the workers will not listen to their minds or their souls.

paragraphs: This is why the philosophers should rule and the other types of people should be soldiers and workers.


title: Aesthetics

paragraphs: Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy. It is the study of art and beauty. Together with ethics it is part of axiology which is the philosophy of what people like.

paragraphs: Aesthetic philosophers ask what people like to look at, hear, feel, smell or taste, and why they like these things. Aesthetic philosophers also ask if art has any value. For example, they may ask if some art that nobody likes and that nobody wants is art at all, or if it is something else.

paragraphs: Plato, Aristotle, and Immanuel Kant are some important philosophers of aesthetics.

paragraphs: One theory in aesthetics is called subjectivism. Subjectivism says that each person has their own sense of beauty. So, the only way of judging something's beauty is if people say it is beautiful. A common way of describing this is ""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"". Subjectivism also says, for the same reason, that something is art simply because someone says it is art. This is backed up by the experience. even though people feel they find something beautiful, they may not be able to explain why.

paragraphs: Many objectivist theories of beauty have been offered, going from the ancient ideas of Plato and Aristotle (e.g., the golden mean,) which still have great appeal in their own way to neuroscience research into the brain's response to images and other sense information. At the moment, even though we do not know what people are thinking, brain-scan technology can identify when people are responding pleasurably to images, providing some clue as to how certain images affect some people.


title: Wes Craven

paragraphs: Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American movie director, producer and writer. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is well known for horror movie classics including "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream".

paragraphs: On August 30, 2015, Wes Craven died of brain cancer at his home in Los Angeles. He was 76 years old.


title: Earth, Wind & Fire

paragraphs: Earth, Wind & Fire are an American funk group. They formed in Chicago in 1969 and were very popular in the 1970s.


title: Fifth Dimension

paragraphs: Fifth Dimension was a singing group popular in the 1960s and 1970s, some of the songs they sang include:


title: The Kinks

paragraphs: The Kinks were an English rock band. They first became popular in the 1960s. The band had a lot of hits during the 1960s and 70s.The band was formed in 1964 by the brothers Ray and Dave Davies.

paragraphs: The Kinks are one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a wide range of genres, including rhythm and blues, British music hall, folk and country. Between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, the group released a lot of commercially and critically successful singles and LPs. The group reached a reputation for songs and concept albums which show English culture and lifestyle. Albums such as Face to Face, Something Else, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround and Muswell Hillbillies, are considered among the most influential recordings of the period. The Kinks had five Top 10 singles on the US Billboard chart. Nine of their albums charted in the Top 40. In the UK, the group had seventeen Top 20 singles and five Top 10 albums.

paragraphs: In 1990 the original four members of the Kinks were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2005.


title: Diesel engine

paragraphs: The name diesel is given to an engine invented by a German named Rudolf Diesel in the late 19th century. It is one of the most used kinds of internal combustion engine.

paragraphs: Most other engines need a system called an ignition system – one that uses an electric spark – in order to burn the mix of fuel and air and make power. Other types of ignition systems use compressed air from an outside source, such as an air compressor. A diesel does not. It burns a diesel fuel (similar to heating oil) through very high compression or pressing together of the mix. A tiny bit of fuel is injected, or forced, into the engine's cylinders at just the right moment. Since gases heat when they are pressed together, the compression of the air and fuel mix cause the mix to explode within the cylinder.

paragraphs: Diesel engines make very good use of the fuel they burn. They also make lots of torque (pronounced "tork"), or twisting power. An engine with a lot of torque will be able to spin its shaft even if it is very hard to do so. This makes a diesel engine a good choice in heavy equipment like trucks, trains and construction machines. The very big trucks on the road have diesel engines in them. So do train locomotives, unless they are electric or the old steam-powered kind.

paragraphs: Sometimes, even the torque of a diesel engine is not enough to run such big machines. To boost power, large diesels often have a device called a turbocharger attached. A turbocharger is a type of turbine – something used to move a lot of air very quickly. Jet engines also contain a turbine. In the diesel, pressure from the exhaust spins the turbocharger at a very high speed. Fresh air is then forced back into the engine. Since the engine works by pumping air, the more air you can put through it, the more power it makes. That is where the turbocharger helps. A diesel engine that has a turbocharger is called a turbodiesel. The whistling sound sometimes heard near one of these engines is caused by the turbocharger, or "turbo" for short.

paragraphs: A diesel engine can also be made to run on canola oil made from old cooking oil. This type of fuel is called biodiesel. Running a diesel engine on biodiesel fuel makes the exhaust smell like food. Vegetable oil as fuel is not a new idea. The engine that Rudolf Diesel used to demonstrate his new idea ran on canola oil.


title: Megabyte

paragraphs: A megabyte (MB) is a large number used when talking about hard drives or computer memory. One megabyte is 1 million bytes or 1 thousand kilobytes.

paragraphs: Until December 1998, when the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) first defined a mebibyte as 2, or 1,048,576 bytes, "megabyte" also meant either 1,048,576 bytes, or 1,024,000 bytes. Casual computer users still often use megabyte to mean one of these numbers.

paragraphs: One thousand megabytes make one gigabyte.


title: Waffle

paragraphs: A waffle is a cooked food made from a batter that consists of flour, water, baking powder, oil, and eggs. It has a gridlike appearance because it is cooked in between two hot metal plates in an electric kitchen appliance called a waffle iron. Waffles are cooked until they become golden-brown in color, with a crispy outer texture and a soft interior. Waffles are served as a breakfast or as a dessert, and they are usually served with sweet sauces or toppings.

paragraphs: Waffle has two definitions, the edible kind of waffles, but also the verb waffle means to talk on and on, often about random things. Synonyms include ramble

paragraphs: In North America, waffles are often eaten for breakfast on weekends or holidays. Freshly-baked waffles are topped with maple syrup and served with breakfast sausages, eggs, orange juice, and hot coffee.

paragraphs: In Belgium, France, and the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, waffles are often served as a dessert, after dinner is finished. Freshly-baked waffles are topped with sweet toppings such as chocolate syrup, bananas, strawberries, or whipped cream.

paragraphs: Waffle is also a slang term meaning "to keep changing one's mind.". For example, if a reporter is asking a politician a question, and the politician does not give a clear answer, the reporter might say that the politician was "waffling." It can also mean to keep repeating the same information in a different way or make no useful points.


title: Stargard

paragraphs: Stargard Szczeciński (German: "Stargard in Pommern") is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland, with 71,400 inhabitants (2003). Situated on the Ina river, it is the capital of Stargard County in West Pomeranian Voivodship.


title: Disney

paragraphs: The name also refers to several members of the Disney Family, such as:


title: Ruby slippers

paragraphs: Ruby slippers are red shoes that are worn by the character Dorothy (Judy Garland) in the movie "The Wizard of Oz". They are an important part of the story. Many pairs of slippers were made for the movie. One pair can be seen at the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. The others are owned by private collectors.

paragraphs: Dorothy gets the slippers after her house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing the witch. The witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, wants the ruby slippers. She attacks Dorothy many times during her journey down the yellow brick road. The Wicked Witch of the West wants the slippers for herself so she can become the most powerful witch in all of the land of Oz.

paragraphs: Dorothy knows that the slippers are powerful, but she does not know why. At the end of the movie, she learns their power: click your heels together three times, and repeat "There's no place like home."


title: Pope John XXIII

paragraphs: Saint Pope John XXIII (; ), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (25 November 1881 - 3 June 1963), was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 262nd Pope from 1958 to 1963.

paragraphs: Roncalli was born in Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII in northern Italy.

paragraphs: In 1904 he was ordained as a priest in a Roman Church of Santa Maria. Later in 1905, the new Bishop of Bergamo, Giacomo Maria Radini Tedeschi, appointed Angelo his secretary. Angelo went with Bishop Giacomo to all his pastoral visits. Angelo also helped him with many other tasks like managing the diocesan bulletin, going on pilgrimages, and social works. Angelo did more than just that while in the seminary; using his very good preaching skills he taught history, patrology and apologetics. It was in the seminary he met the two future saints that would affect his life dramatically. These two Saints were St. Charles Borromeo and St. Francis de Sales, who were both very good pastors in the same seminary, and had a kind of apprentice like relationship. Father Angelo was extremely devoted to Bishop Giacomo until his death in 1914. After Bishop Giacomo’s death, Father Angelo continued teaching in the seminary, but was dragged into World War I and served as a medical corps sergeant and after the war started Italy’s first home for poor young students. His life after the war started changing dramatically, and he even got the attention of Pope Pius XI.

paragraphs: From 1925 to 1944, Roncalli was a papal representative in the Balkans and the Mideast.

paragraphs: Pope Pius XI named him Apostolic Visitator in Bulgaria, which brought him to the episcopate with the titular Diocese of Areopolis. He chose a motto, Oboedientia et Pax, which was his motto for the rest of his life.

paragraphs: Roncalli was Patriarch of Venice from 1953 to 1958. Venice is the see of a cardinal.

paragraphs: Cardinal Roncalli was elected pope on October 29, 1958. His coronation was televised in Europe, and filmed for viewing in other parts of the world.

paragraphs: Pope John expanded the College of Cardinals by naming the first African Cardinal, the first Japanese Cardinal, the first Filipino Cardinal. and the first Venezuelan Cardinal.

paragraphs: He was the first Pope to make an official visit to the President of the Italian Republic at the Quirinal Palace.

paragraphs: Pope John brought together the church's bishops and cardinals in a meeting called Vatican Council II. It was ended by the Pope's death.

paragraphs: John XXIII is buried with other popes in a crypt below St. Peter's Bascilica. According to the official news agency of the Soviet Union, the pope's reign "was marked by fruitful activity for the sake of consolidating peace and peaceful cooperation among nations."

paragraphs: On September 3, 2000, Pope John XXIII was beatified and given the title of "Blessed John XXIII". On April 27, 2014, Pope John XXIII was canonized by Pope Francis and declared a new Saint of the Catholic Church given the title of "Saint John XXIII" alongside Pope John Paul II now known as "Saint John Paul II".


title: Beauty

paragraphs: Beauty is a property of certain things. Something is beautiful if it is nice to look at it, hear it, feel it, taste it, smell it or think about it.It is also the name of a feeling that is hard to describe. The nature of this feeling varies from person to person and culture to culture. It is not known if only humans can feel it.

paragraphs: There are many ideas about what beauty is. Some people say that beauty is:

paragraphs: There are many other theories. Some things that people say are beautiful are not explained by any of these ideas.


title: 2020s

paragraphs: The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties") is the current decade that began on January 1, 2020 and will end on December 31, 2029.


title: Guitar

paragraphs: The guitar is a string instrument which is played by plucking the strings. The main parts of a guitar are the body, the fretboard, the headstock and the strings. Guitars are usually made from wood or plastic. Their strings are made of steel or nylon.

paragraphs: The guitar strings are plucked with the fingers and fingernails of the right hand (or left hand, for left handed players), or a small pick made of thin plastic. This type of pick is called a "plectrum" or guitar pick. The left hand holds the neck of the guitar while the fingers pluck the strings. Different finger positions on the fretboard make different notes.

paragraphs: Guitar-like plucked string instruments have been used for many years. In many countries and at many different time periods, guitars and other plucked string instruments have been very popular, because they are light to carry from place to place, they are easier to learn to play than many other instruments. Guitars are used for many types of music, from Classical to Rock. Most pieces of popular music that have been written since the 1950s are written with guitars.

paragraphs: There are many different types of guitars, classified on how they are made and the type of music they are used for. All traditional types of guitar have a body which is hollow. This makes the sound of the strings louder, and gives the guitar its quality. This type of guitar is called "acoustic". (An "acoustic" instrument is one that makes its own dynamics.)

paragraphs: From the 1930s, people started making and playing guitars that used electricity and amplifiers to control the loudness. These guitars, which are often used in popular music, are called "electric guitars". They do not need to have a hollow body. This is because they do not use acoustics to amplify the sound.

paragraphs: Most guitars have six strings, but there are also guitars with four, seven, eight, ten, or twelve strings. More strings make the instrument sound fuller. The neck of a guitar has bars or marks called frets. Frets help a guitarist know where to put his or her fingers to get the right pitch when playing. Standard tuning defines the string pitches as E, A, D, G, B, and E, from lowest (low E2) to highest (high E4). Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning.

paragraphs: The word "guitar" was adopted into English from Spanish word "guitarra" in the 1600s. In the Middle Ages the word "gitter" or "gittern" was used in England. Both "guitarra" and "gitter" came from the Latin word "cithara". The word "cithara" came from the earlier Greek word "kithara". "Kithara" could have come from the Persian word "sehtār". "seh" meaning "three" and "tār" meaning "string". There is also a similar but two-stringed Persian instrument named "dotār". "do" means "two" in Persian. The Indian sitar instrument was named after the Persian "sehtār". The sihtar itself is related to the Indian instrument, the sitar.

paragraphs: A person who plays a guitar is called a guitarist. A person who makes or fixes guitars is a "luthier", which comes from the word "lute". The word "lute", comes from the Arabic "Al-Uud", a stringed instrument from the Middle East.

paragraphs: The guitar appears to be derived from earlier instruments known in ancient central Asia as the Sitara. Instruments very similar to the guitar appear in ancient carvings and statues recovered from the old Iranian capitol of Susa. The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from the Spanish word "guitarra", which came from the older Greek word kithara. Possible sources for various names of musical instruments that guitar could be derived from appear to be a combination of two Indo-European roots: guit-, similar to Sanskrit "sangeet" meaning "music", and "-tar" a widely found root meaning "cord" or "string".

paragraphs: The word "guitar" is a word that the Iberian Arabic language took from the Persian language. The word "qitara" is an Arabic name for various members of the lute family that preceded the Western guitar. The word "guitarra" was introduced into Spanish when such instruments were brought into Iberia by the Moors after the 10th century.

paragraphs: There have been instruments like the guitar for at least 5,000 years. The guitar may have come from older instruments known as the sitara from ancient India and central Asia. The oldest known picture of a guitar-like instrument is a 3300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard. The oldest guitar-like instrument that is still complete is the "Warwick Gittern" in the British Museum. It belonged to Elizabeth I of England and probably to her father Henry VIII before it was given to her. It is about 500 years old.

paragraphs: The design of the modern guitar began with the Roman cithara. The cithara was brought by the Romans to Hispania (Spain) around 40 AD. In the 8th century the Moors brought the four-stringed oud into Spain. The introduction to the oud caused changes to the design of the cithara. In other parts of Europe, the six-string Scandinavian "lut" (lute) became popular wherever the Vikings had been. By 1200 AD, there were two types of the four string "guitar": the "guitarra morisca" (Moorish guitar) from Spain which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes, and the "guitarra latina" (Latin guitar) which was more like the modern guitar with one sound hole and a narrower neck.

paragraphs: The Spanish "vihuela", of the 16th century, was another instrument similar to the guitar. It had lute-style tuning and a body that was like a guitar. The vihuela was only popular for a short amount of time. It is not known whether it was simply a design that combined features of the oud and lute or a transition from the Renaissance instrument to the modern guitar.

paragraphs: The Vinaccia family from Naples, Italy were famous mandolin makers. It is thought that they also made the oldest six-string guitar that still exists. There is a guitar built that was signed and dated 1779 on the label by Gaetano Vinaccia (1759 - after 1831) Although there are many fakes that have dates on them from that time, this guitar is believed by experts to be genuine (real).

paragraphs: The guitar's design was improved (made better) by the famous Spanish luthier, Antonio Torres Jurado (1817-1892) and by Louis Panormo of London.

paragraphs: The electric guitar was made by George Beauchamp in 1936. Beauchamp co-founded a company called Rickenbacher to make guitars. However, Danelectro was the first to produce electric guitars for the public to use.

paragraphs: A guitar was described by Dr. Michael Kasha as an instrument that had "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides".

paragraphs: Modern guitars come in four main types. The classical guitar is used for classical music. The term acoustic guitar is generally used for a guitar used for popular music, even though a classical guitar is also an acoustic instrument. There are many other different types of acoustic guitars from different parts of the world.

paragraphs: A electric guitar can be flat, hollow, or semi-hollow (solid with hollow pockets on the sides), and produces sound through its pickups, which are wire-wound magnets that are screwed onto the guitar. Some guitars combine the hollow acoustic body with amplified sound. Bass guitars are designed to make a low bass rhythm.

paragraphs: A special electric folding travel guitar called the Foldaxe (briefly manufactured by Hoyer in 1977) was invented for Chet Atkins (in Atkins' book "Me and My Guitars") by inventor and guitarist Roger Field, featuring a built-in way to keep the string tension and tuning the same even when folded, and ready to play when unfolded. Atkins demonstrated his several times on US television, and also on The Today Show with Les Paul, who was with him as a guest.

paragraphs: Guitars are used in many different genres of music, such as traditional, regional, and folk to modern punk, rock, metal or pop. Guitars are used as rhythm instruments, lead instruments, and sometimes both.

paragraphs: A capo is a device which can be placed on any of the guitar's frets which don't lie on the body itself. This enables the user to change key without changing the tuning of the guitar strings. There are multiple types of capos, some latch around the whole guitar neck and some just clamp onto the back and fret board.


title: British Sea Power

paragraphs: British Sea Power is an indie rock band from England. They formed in 2000. Many band members come from Cumbria, but they are based in Brighton. They have released six albums and six EPs. They released their sixth album "Machineries of Joy" in April 2013.


title: Jimmy Eat World

paragraphs: Jimmy Eat World is an alternative rock band. They formed in Mesa, Arizona in 1994. To date, they have released six studio albums. They may record one more album on their label for a 2009 release, but after that will consider self-releasing. They have released many singles, including "Sweetness", "The Middle", "Bleed American", "Rockstar", and "Let It Happen".

paragraphs: They used to be part of the emo scene and many would still call them that. However, the band has never liked that term and do not even understand that. While their albums do have considerable emo influences, the album "Future" brought on a change of sound and a different fanbase.


title: Phish

paragraphs: Phish is an American rock band. They formed in Vermont in 1983, broke up in 2004, and reformed in 2009. Their lead singer is Trey Anastasio. Phish was often compared to the Grateful Dead, and had a similar following of "Phish Heads" following the band on tour. They went on a 5-year-long hiatus from 2004 to 2009. Their hiatus ended when they played shows on March 6, 7 and 8 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA. The band surprised the audience with longer sets than usual.

paragraphs: Their music has a lot of improvisation, so when they play live, their songs are sometimes a lot longer. They use elements from many genres, including rock, jazz, funk, progressive rock, bluegrass, country, reggae, blues, Latin, and psychedelic rock.


title: Green Day

paragraphs: Green Day is an American rock band that formed in 1986. The members of the band are Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion), Jason White (guitar/vocals) and Jason Freese (keyboard). Jason Freese only participates in concert tours. Green Day is often celebrated as one of the best punk rock bands currently performing.

paragraphs: At first, Green Day was part of the punk rock culture at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Its album "Dookie" (1994) became a success. Soon, it sold more than ten million copies in the United States alone, and 20 million copies worldwide. The album was well reviewed and the band were praised for its music and sales. Green Day had three more albums after that, "Insomniac", "Nimrod" and "Warning". They were still successful albums, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively. However none of these albums sold as well as their third album, "Dookie". Green Day's 2004 rock opera "American Idiot" sold six million copies in the United States.

paragraphs: Green Day has sold over 85 million records worldwide, 32 million of them in the United States alone. They also have won four Grammy Awards, Best Alternative Album for "Dookie", Best Rock Album for "American Idiot", Record of the Year for the song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Best Rock Album for 21st Century Breakdown and have also been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

paragraphs: In 1987, Lookout! released Green Day's first album "39/Smooth". Green Day recorded two EPs: "Slappy" and "Sweet Children". Lookout! Records released "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours," an album that had the "39/Smooth," "Slappy," and "1,000 Hours" EPs in it. In late 1990, shortly after the band's first worldwide tour, Sobrante left the band. The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool became a replacement, and then became a permanent replacement because Sobrante did not want to come back. Green Day was on tour for most of 1992 and 1993, and played a lot of shows overseas in Europe. Its second album, "Kerplunk", sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S., which was a lot for the punk band in 1992.

paragraphs: "Kerplunk's" success made major record labels interested in Green Day, and they soon left Lookout! and signed with Reprise Records after getting the attention of producer Rob Cavallo. Signing to Reprise made many punk rock fans think Green Day as sellouts. After signing with Reprise, the band went to work on making its major label debut, "Dookie."

paragraphs: Released in February of 1994, and recorded in 3 weeks, "Dookie" became a commercial success, making it to MTV for the videos of the songs "Longview", "Basket Case", and "When I Come Around", all of which made it to the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts.

paragraphs: "Insomniac" was a darker, more punk release for the band than the rocking "Dookie." "Insomniac" earned 4 out of 5 stars from "Rolling Stone Magazine", which said "In punk, the good stuff actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets." "Insomniac" won the band award nominations for Favorite Artist, Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music Awards. The video for "Walking Contradiction" got the band a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form, and a Best Special Effects nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards.

paragraphs: In 1995, a new single for the "Angus" soundtrack was released, titled "J.A.R.". The single went straight to number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. After that, "Insomniac," Green Day's new album, was released in the fall of 1995. After that, the band stopped from going on a European tour so they could rest for a while.

paragraphs: In 1997, Green Day began to work on a new album. They came up with "Nimrod." The new album was released in October 1996. The success of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video.

paragraphs: In 2000, Green Day released "Warning," an album that had types of songs that "Nimrod" did. Though the "Warning" made the hit "Minority" and a smaller hit with "Warning", some observers thought that the band was losing popularity. "Warning" was certified gold by the RIAA.

paragraphs: At the 2001 California Music Awards, Green Day won all eight awards that they were nominated for.

paragraphs: In the summer of 2003, the band went into a studio to write and record new songs for a new album titled "Cigarettes and Valentines." After making 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band was upset and chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead start over with a vow to be even better than before. In this same year, Green Day went with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album "Skull Ring." They took "band therapy," talking for a long time to work out the members' differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was "the band's Nazi" and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.

paragraphs: The 2004 album, "American Idiot", was number one on the Billboard charts, the band's first ever album to top the chart, even with success of the album's first single, "American Idiot.

paragraphs: Through 2005, the band toured for about 150 days— visiting Japan, Australia, the United States and the UK, where they had a crowd of 130,000 people in only two days. While touring for "American Idiot," they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted 'The Best Show On Earth' in a "Kerrang!" Magazine Poll.

paragraphs: These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called "Bullet in a Bible" on November 15, 2005. The DVD had a behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People's Choice Award for favorite group.

paragraphs: In 2006, Green Day won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" which spent 16 weeks at the number one position of Billboard's "Modern Rock Tracks".

paragraphs: In an interview with "Kerrang!", Billie Joe said that 2008 would "be a fair estimate of the release date of their new Untitled Eighth Studio Album." In October 2007, Billie Joe said more on this new album, saying he had been writing new songs on the piano, and had around 45 of them. He said he wanted the new music to dig into what he's feeling during that time - which is middle-aged.

paragraphs: In 2009 "Kerrang!" named "American Idiot" the best album of the decade, "NME" ranked it #60 in a similar list, and "Rolling Stone" ranked it 22nd.

paragraphs: In an interview with "Kerrang!", Armstrong said that 2009 would "be a fair estimate of the release date of their new untitled eighth studio album for Green Day." It was revealed that Butch Vig would be producing the upcoming album in an interview with Carson Daly. The gap of nearly five years between their previous album, "American Idiot", and their newest release was the longest gap in Green Day's career. While the band had been working on new music since January 2006, by October 2007 Armstrong had written 45 songs, the band showed no further signs of being close to releasing a new album until October 2008, when a video of the group recording with producer Butch Vig in the studio was posted on YouTube.

paragraphs: Their newest album, titled "21st Century Breakdown", was released on May 15, 2009. Called "Green Day at their best" by "Seattle Weekly's" Krist Novoselic, the album has received mostly positive reviews. Rating website "Metacritic" reported a rating of 70% as of July 2009, based on 30 reviews. After it was released, "21st Century Breakdown" reached #1 on the charts in fourteen different countries.

paragraphs: Green Day's sound is often compared to first wave punk rock bands such as the Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks. Stylistically, the group is characterized as punk rock, pop punk and alternative rock.

paragraphs: Most of their songs are fast and under the average song length of four minutes (4:00), though some of their songs run on longer such as "Jesus of Suburbia" which runs for nine minutes. Billie Joe Armstrong said that some of his biggest influences are alternative rock bands Husker Dü and The Replacements. Armstrong's lyrics mostly describe alienation, hysteria, girls, growing up, and what happens to someone if they take drugs. The Ramones had lyrical themes that were also close to Green Day's lyrics such as hysteria, alienation, girls, and drugs. Green Day has covered Ramones songs a few times, such as recording "Outsider" for the tribute album "We're a Happy Family", and performing "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Teenage Lobotomy" when the Ramones made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.


title: Live album

paragraphs: A live album is an album that has live songs. These live songs are played on stage at a concert, instead of recorded in a studio. People record the songs and put them on a CD.