title: Rod Stewart

text: After returning to London, Stewart joined a rhythm and blues group, the Dimensions, in October 1963 as a harmonica player and part-time vocalist. It was his first professional job as a musician, although Stewart was still living at home and working in his brother's painting and picture frame shop. A somewhat more established singer from Birmingham, Jimmy Powell, then hired the group a few weeks later, and it became known as Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions, with Stewart being relegated to harmonica player. The group performed weekly at the famed Studio 51 club on Great Newport Street in London, where The Rolling Stones often headlined; this was Stewart's entrée into the thriving London R & B scene, and his harmonica playing improved in part from watching Mick Jagger on stage. Relations soon broke down between Powell and Stewart over roles within the group and Stewart departed. Contrary to popular legend, during this time Stewart likely did not play harmonica on Millie Small's 1964 hit "My Boy Lollipop". That was probably Peter Hogman of the Dimensions, although Powell has also claimed credit. Powell did record and release a single during this period, though Stewart did not appear on it.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In January 1964, while Stewart was waiting at Twickenham railway station after having seen Long John Baldry and the All Stars at Eel Pie Island, Baldry heard him playing "Smokestack Lightnin'" on his harmonica, and invited him to sit in with the group; when Baldry discovered Stewart was a singer as well, he offered him a job for £35 a week, after securing the approval of Stewart's mother. Quitting his day job at the age of nineteen, Stewart gradually overcame his shyness and nerves and became a visible enough part of the act that he was sometimes added to the billing as "Rod the Mod" Stewart, the nickname coming from his dandyish style of grooming and dress. Baldry touted Stewart's abilities to "Melody Maker" magazine and the group enjoyed a weekly residence at London's fabled Marquee Club. In June 1964, Stewart made his recording début (without label credit) on "Up Above My Head", the B-side to a Baldry and Hoochie Coochie Men single. While still with Baldry, Stewart embarked on a simultaneous solo career. He made some demo recordings, was scouted by Decca Records at the Marquee Club, and signed to a solo contract in August 1964. He appeared on several regional television shows around the country and recorded his first single in September 1964.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Turning down Decca's recommended material as too commercial, Stewart insisted that the experienced session musicians he was given, including John Paul Jones, learn a couple of Sonny Boy Williamson songs he had just heard. The resulting single, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", was recorded and released in October 1964; despite Stewart performing it on the popular television show "Ready Steady Go!", it failed to enter the charts. Also in October Stewart left the Hoochie Coochie Men after having a row with Baldry.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart played some dates on his own in late 1964 and early 1965, sometimes backed by the Southampton R & B outfit The Soul Agents. The Hoochie Coochie Men broke up, Baldry and Stewart patched up their differences (and indeed became lifelong friends), and legendary impresario Giorgio Gomelsky put together Steampacket, which featured Baldry, Stewart, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll, Micky Waller, Vic Briggs and Ricky Fenson; their first appearance was in support of The Rolling Stones in July 1965. The group was conceived as a white soul revue, analogous to the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, with multiple vocalists and styles ranging from jazz to R&B to blues. Steampacket toured with the Stones and The Walker Brothers that summer, ending in the London Palladium; seeing the audience react to the Stones gave Stewart his first exposure to crowd hysteria. Stewart, who had been included in the group upon Baldry's insistence, ended up with most of the male vocal parts. Steampacket was unable to enter the studio to record any material because its members all belonged to different labels and managers, although Gomelsky did record one of their Marquee Club rehearsals.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart's "Rod the Mod" image gained wider visibility in November 1965, when he was the subject of a 30-minute Rediffusion, London television documentary titled "An Easter with Rod" that portrayed the Mod scene. His parallel solo career attempts continued on EMI's Columbia label with the November 1965 release of "The Day Will Come", a more heavily arranged pop attempt, and the April 1966 release of his take on Sam Cooke's "Shake", with the Brian Auger Trinity. Both failed commercially and neither gained positive notices. Stewart had spent the better part of two years listening mostly to Cooke; he later said, "I didn't sound like anybody at all ... but I knew I sounded a bit like Sam Cooke, so I listened to Sam Cooke." This recording solidified that singer's position as Stewart's idol and most enduring influence; he called it a "crossing of the water."


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart left Steampacket in March 1966, with Stewart saying he had been sacked and Auger saying he had quit. Stewart then joined a somewhat similar outfit, Shotgun Express, in May 1966 as co-lead vocalist with Beryl Marsden. The other members included Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (who would go on to form Fleetwood Mac), and Peter Bardens. Shotgun Express released one unsuccessful single in October 1966, the orchestra-heavy "I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round", before disbanding. Stewart later disparaged Shotgun Express as a poor imitation of Steampacket and said, "I was still getting this terrible feeling of doing other people's music. I think you can only start finding yourself when you write your own material." By now, Stewart had bounced around without achieving much success, with little to distinguish himself among other aspiring London singers other than the emerging rasp in his voice.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Guitarist Jeff Beck recruited Stewart for his new post-Yardbirds venture, and in February 1967, Stewart joined the Jeff Beck Group as vocalist and sometime songwriter. This would become the big break of his early career. There he first played with Ronnie Wood whom he had first met in a London pub in 1964; the two soon became fast friends. During its first year, the group experienced frequent changes of drummers and conflicts involving manager Mickie Most wanting to reduce Stewart's role. They toured the UK and released a couple of singles that featured Stewart on their B-sides. Stewart's sputtering solo career also continued with the March 1968 release of non-hit "Little Miss Understood" on Immediate Records.


title: Rod Stewart

text: The Jeff Beck Group toured Western Europe in spring 1968, recorded, and were nearly destitute. Then assistant manager Peter Grant booked them on a six-week tour of the United States starting in June 1968 with the Fillmore East in New York. Stewart, on his first trip to America, suffered terrible stage fright during the opening show and hid behind the amplifier banks while singing. Only a quick shot of brandy brought him out front. Nevertheless, the show and the tour were a big success, with Robert Shelton of "The New York Times" calling the group exciting and praising "the interaction of Mr. Beck's wild and visionary guitar against the hoarse and insistent shouting of Rod Stewart," and "New Musical Express" reporting that the group was receiving standing ovations and pulling receipts equal to those of Jimi Hendrix and The Doors.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In August 1968, their first album "Truth" was released, and by October, it had risen to number 15 on the US albums chart but failed to chart in the UK. The album featured Beck's masterly guitar technique and manipulated sounds as Stewart's dramatic vocalising tackled the group's varied repertoire of blues, folk, rock, and proto-heavy metal. Stewart also co-wrote three of the songs and credited the record for helping to develop his vocal abilities and the sandpaper quality in his voice. The group toured America again at the end of the year to a strong reception, then suffered from more personnel upheaval (something that would continue throughout Beck's career). In July 1969, Stewart left following his friend Wood's departure. Stewart later recalled, "It was a great band to sing with, but I couldn't take all the aggravation and unfriendliness that developed... In the two and a half years I was with Beck I never once looked him in the eye – I always looked at his shirt or something like that."


title: Rod Stewart

text: The group's second album, "Beck-Ola", was released in June 1969 in the US and in September 1969 in the UK, bracketing the time the group was dissolving; it also made number 15 in the US albums chart and reached number 39 in the UK albums chart. During his time with the group, Stewart initially felt overmatched by Beck's presence, and his style was still developing; but later Stewart felt the two developed a strong musical, if not personal, rapport. Much of Stewart's sense of phrasing was developed during his time with the Jeff Beck Group. Beck sought to form a new supergroup with Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert (of the similarly just-breaking-up Vanilla Fudge) joining him and Stewart, but Stewart had other plans.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Mercury Records A&R man Lou Reizner had seen Stewart perform with Beck, and on 8 October 1968 signed him to a solo contract; but contractual complexities delayed Stewart's recording for him until July 1969. Meanwhile, in May 1969, guitarist and singer Steve Marriott left English band The Small Faces. Ron Wood replaced him as guitarist in June and on 18 October 1969, Stewart followed his friend and became the band's new singer. The two joined existing members Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones, who soon decided to call the new line-up Faces.


title: Rod Stewart

text: "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" became Stewart's first solo album in 1969 (it was known as "The Rod Stewart Album" in the US). It established the template for his solo sound: a heartfelt mixture of folk, rock, and country blues, inclusive of a British working-class sensibility, with both original material ("Cindy's Lament" and the title song) and cover versions (Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town" and Mike d'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags"). The backing band on the album included Wood, Waller and McLagan, plus Keith Emerson and guitarists Martin Pugh (of Steamhammer, and later Armageddon and 7th Order) and Martin Quittenton (also from Steamhammer).


title: Rod Stewart

text: Faces released their début album "First Step" in early 1970 with a rock and roll style similar to the Rolling Stones. While the album did better in the UK than in the US, the Faces quickly earned a strong live following. Stewart released his second album, "Gasoline Alley" that autumn. Stewart's approach was similar to his first album and mandolin was introduced into the sound. He then launched a US tour with the Faces. Stewart sang guest vocals for the Australian group Python Lee Jackson on "In a Broken Dream", recorded in April 1969 but not released until 1970. His payment was a set of seat covers for his car. It was re-released in 1972 to become a worldwide hit.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart's 1971 solo album "Every Picture Tells a Story" made him a household name when the B-side of his minor hit "Reason to Believe", "Maggie May", (co-written with Martin Quittenton) started to receive radio play. The album and the single occupied the number one chart position simultaneously in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, a chart first, in September. "Maggie May" topped the single chart for five weeks in the US, and the UK and four weeks in Australia. Set off by a striking mandolin part (by Ray Jackson of Lindisfarne), "Maggie May" was also named in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". The rest of the album was equally strong, with "Mandolin Wind" again showcasing that instrument; "(I Know) I'm Losing You" adding hard-edged soul to the mix; and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", a cover of a Bob Dylan song. But the ultimate manifestation of the early Stewart solo style was the Stewart-Wood-penned "Every Picture Tells a Story" itself: powered by Mick Waller's drumming, Pete Sears's piano and Wood's guitar work in a largely acoustic arrangement; it is a song relating to the picaresque adventures of the singer.


title: Rod Stewart

text: The second Faces album, "Long Player", was released in early 1971 and enjoyed greater chart success than "First Step". Faces also got their only US Top 40 hit with "Stay With Me" from their third album "A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...To a Blind Horse" released in late 1971. This album reached the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic on the back of the success of "Every Picture Tells A Story". Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols regarded the Faces highly and named them as a main influence on the British punk rock movement.


title: Rod Stewart

text: The Faces toured extensively in 1972 with growing tension in the band over Stewart's solo career enjoying more success than the band's. Stewart released "Never a Dull Moment" in the same year. Repeating the "Every Picture" formula, for the most part, it reached number two on the US album charts and number one in the UK, and enjoyed further good notices from reviewers. "You Wear It Well" was a hit single that reached number 13 in the US and went to number one in the UK, while "Twisting the Night Away" made explicit Stewart's debt to Sam Cooke.


title: Rod Stewart

text: For the body of his early solo work Stewart earned tremendous critical praise. "Rolling Stone"'s 1980 "Illustrated History of Rock & Roll" includes this in its Stewart entry:


title: Rod Stewart

text: Rarely has a singer had as full and unique a talent as Rod Stewart; rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely. Once the most compassionate presence in music, he has become a bilious self-parody – and sells more records than ever [... A] writer who offered profound lyricism and fabulous self-deprecating humour, teller of tall tales and honest heartbreaker, he had an unmatched eye for the tiny details around which lives turn, shatter, and reform [...] and a voice to make those details indelible. [... His solo albums] were defined by two special qualities: warmth, which was redemptive, and modesty, which was liberating. If ever any rocker chose the role of everyman and lived up to it, it was Rod Stewart.


title: Rod Stewart

text: The Faces released their final album "Ooh La La," which reached number one in the UK and number 21 in the US in 1973. During the recording of the album, the rift between Stewart and the rest of the Faces grew further, as (according to Ian McLagan), Stewart did not participate until two weeks into the sessions, "and then complained that some songs were in the wrong key for him. So we recorded them again and waited a week for him to come back. We cut the track for 'Ooh La La' three times before he eventually passed on it, leaving it for Woody to sing. [...] The week the album came out he did all he could to scuttle it and told anyone who would listen how useless it was." The band toured Australasia, Japan, Europe and the UK in 1974 to support the album and the single "Pool Hall Richard".


title: Rod Stewart

text: In late 1974, Stewart released his "Smiler" album. In Britain, it reached number one, and the single "Farewell" number seven, but only number 13 on the "Billboard" pop album charts and the single "Mine for Me" only number 91 on the "Billboard" pop singles charts. It was his last original album for Mercury Records. After the release of the double album compilation "The Best of Rod Stewart" he switched to Warner Bros. Records and remained with them throughout the vast majority of his career (Faces were signed to Warner Bros., and Stewart's solo releases in the UK appeared on the Riva label until 1981). In 1975, Faces toured the US twice (with Ronnie Wood joining The Rolling Stones' US tour in between). With Ronnie Wood having released his second solo album in 1975 and also having joined the Rolling Stones (first as a temporary replacement for the departing Mick Taylor, and later as a permanent member), as well as Stewart's own burgeoning solo career, it became impossible to maintain the Faces' as a viable band, so the Faces broke up at the end of the year.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In 1975, Stewart moved to Los Angeles. He released the "Atlantic Crossing" album for his new record company, using producer Tom Dowd and a different sound based on the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. "Atlantic Crossing" marked both a return to form and a return to the Top 10 of the "Billboard" album charts. The first single, a cover of the Sutherland Brothers song "Sailing", was a number-one hit in the UK, charted high in other European countries and in Australia, but only reached the Top 60 of the US and Canadian charts. The single returned to the UK Top 10 a year later when used as the theme music for a BBC documentary series about . Having been a hit twice over, "Sailing" became, and remains, Stewart's biggest-selling single in the UK. His Holland-Dozier-Holland cover "This Old Heart of Mine" was also a Top 100 hit in 1976. In 1976 Stewart covered The Beatles' song "Get Back" for the musical documentary "All This and World War II".


title: Rod Stewart

text: Later in 1976, Stewart topped the US "Billboard" Hot 100 for eight weeks and the Australian ARIA chart with the ballad "Tonight's the Night", with an accompanying music video featuring actress Britt Ekland. It came from the "A Night on the Town" album, which went to number two on the "Billboard" album charts and was Stewart's first album to go platinum. By explicitly marking the album as having a "fast side" and a "slow side", Stewart continued the trend started by "Atlantic Crossing". "The First Cut Is the Deepest", a cover of a Cat Stevens song, went number one in the UK in 1977, and top 30 in the US. "The Killing of Georgie (Part 1 and 2)", about the murder of a gay man, was also a Top 40 hit for Stewart during 1977.


title: Rod Stewart

text: "Foot Loose & Fancy Free" (1977) featured Stewart's own band, the original Rod Stewart Group that featured Carmine Appice, Phil Chen, Jim Cregan, Billy Peek, Gary Grainger and John Jarvis. It continued Stewart's run of chart success, reaching number two. "You're in My Heart" was the hit single, reaching number four in the US.


title: Rod Stewart

text: "Hot Legs" achieved a lot of radio airplay as did the confessional "I Was Only Joking". In appearance, Stewart's look had evolved to include a glam element, including make-up and spandex clothes. Stewart scored another UK number one and US number one single with "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", which was a crossover hit reaching number five on the "Billboard" black charts due to its disco sound. This was the lead single from 1978's "Blondes Have More Fun", which went to number one on the "Billboard" album charts and sold three million albums.


title: Rod Stewart

text: A focal point of criticisms about this period was his biggest-selling 1978 disco hit "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", which was atypical of his earlier output, and disparaged by critics. In interviews, Stewart, while admitting his accompanying look had become "tarty", has defended the lyrics by pointing out that the song is a third-person narrative slice-of-life portrayal, not unlike those in his earlier work, and that it is not about him. The song's refrain was identical to Brazilian Jorge Ben Jor's earlier "Taj Mahal" and a lawsuit ensued. Stewart donated his royalties from "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" to UNICEF, and he performed it with his band at the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly in 1979.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart moved to a more new wave direction in 1980 by releasing the album "Foolish Behaviour". The album produced one hit single, "Passion", which reached No. 5 on the US "Billboard" Charts. In August 1981, MTV was launched in the US with several of Stewart's videos in heavy rotation. Later in 1981, Stewart added further elements of new wave and synthpop to his sound for the "Tonight I'm Yours" album. The title song reached No. 20 in the US, while "Young Turks" reached the Top 5 with the album going platinum. On 18 December 1981, Stewart played the Los Angeles Forum, along with Kim Carnes and Tina Turner, in a concert broadcast worldwide via satellite.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart was criticised by the anti-apartheid movement for breaking a widely observed cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa by performing at the Sun City resort complex in Bophuthatswana as part of his Body Wishes (1983) and Camouflage (1984) tours.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart had four US Top 10 singles between 1982 and 1988; "Young Turks" (No. 5, carrying over from 1981 into 1982), "Some Guys Have All the Luck" (No. 10, 1984), "Infatuation" (No. 6, 1984) and "Love Touch" (No. 6, 1986, a Holly Knight/Mike Chapman collaboration). "Baby Jane" reached No. 14 in 1983, but went to No. 1 in the UK, his final chart-topping single there to date. The corresponding "Camouflage" album went gold in the UK, and the single "Infatuation" (which featured his old friend Jeff Beck on the guitar) received considerable play on MTV. The second single "Some Guys Have All The Luck" reached No. 15 in the UK and No. 10 in the US.


title: Rod Stewart

text: A reunion with Jeff Beck produced a successful take on Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready", but an attempt to tour together fell apart after a few dates. In the UK, "Every Beat of My Heart" reached number two in 1986. In January 1985, Stewart performed to a large audience at the Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In 1988, Stewart returned with "Out of Order", produced by Duran Duran's Andy Taylor and by Bernard Edwards of Chic. "Lost in You", "Forever Young", "Crazy About Her", and "My Heart Can't Tell You No" from that album were all top 15 hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and mainstream rock charts, with the latter even reaching the Top Five. "Forever Young" was an unconscious revision of Bob Dylan's song of the same name; the artists reached an agreement about sharing royalties. The song reached No. 12 in the US. In September 1988, Stewart performed "Forever Young" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, and in 1989 he received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In January 1989, Stewart set out on the South American leg of the Out of Order Tour playing to sell-out audiences throughout Americas. There were 80,000 people at his show at Corregidora Stadium, Querétaro, México (9 April), and 50,000 at Jalisco Stadium, Guadalajara, Jalisco (12 April). In Buenos Aires, the audience at the River Plate Stadium, which seats 70,000+, was at over 90,000, with several thousand outside the stadium. Firehoses were sprayed on the crowd to avoid heat prostration.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart's version of the Tom Waits song "Downtown Train" went to number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 1990. This song was taken from a four-CD compilation set called "".


title: Rod Stewart

text: Released in 1991, the "Vagabond Heart" album continued Stewart's renewal and inspiration. The lead single "It Takes Two" with Tina Turner, was released in 1990 in advance of the full album's release, and reached number five on the UK charts, but did not chart in the US. The follow-up songs from "Vagabond Heart" both reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991, with "Rhythm of My Heart" peaking at No. 5 and "The Motown Song" peaking at No. 10.


title: Rod Stewart

text: At the 1993 Brit Awards in London, Stewart picked up the prize for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Stewart brought back the Faces on stage for an impromptu reunion. In 1993, Stewart recorded "All For Love" with Sting and Bryan Adams for the soundtrack to the movie "The Three Musketeers"; the single reached number one in the US and number two in the UK. Also in 1993, he reunited with Ronnie Wood to record an "MTV Unplugged" special that included "Handbags and Gladrags", "Cut Across Shorty", and four selections from "Every Picture Tells a Story". The show featured an acoustic version of Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately", which topped the "Billboard" adult contemporary chart and No. 5 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. A rendition of "Reason to Believe" also garnered considerable airplay. The resulting "Unplugged...and Seated" album reached number two on the "Billboard" 200 album charts.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, presented by Jeff Beck. On 31 December 1994, Stewart played in front of 3.5 million people on Copacabana beach in Rio, and made it into the "Guinness Book of World Records" for staging the largest free rock concert attendance in history.


title: Rod Stewart

text: By the early 1990s, Stewart had mostly abandoned creating his own material, saying that he was not a natural songwriter and that the tepid response to his recent efforts was not rewarding. In 1995, Stewart released "A Spanner in the Works" containing a single written by Tom Petty, "Leave Virginia Alone", which reached the Top 10 of the adult contemporary charts. The latter half of the 1990s was not as commercially successful though the 1996 album "If We Fall in Love Tonight" reached number 8 in the UK, and went gold and hit No. 19 on the "Billboard" album chart.


title: Rod Stewart

text: "When We Were the New Boys", his final album on the Warner Bros. label released in 1998, contained versions of songs by Britpop acts such as Oasis and Primal Scream, and reached number two on the UK album charts. That same year, he recorded the song "Faith of the Heart", written by Diane Warren, for the film "Patch Adams". In 2000, Stewart left Warner Bros. and moved to Atlantic Records, another division of Warner Music Group. In 2001, he released "Human". The single "I Can't Deny It" went Top 40 in the UK and Top 20 in the adult contemporary. Stewart then signed to Clive Davis' new J Records label. "The Story So Far: The Very Best of Rod Stewart", a greatest hits album compiled from his time at Warner Bros., is certified four times platinum in the UK with over 1.2 million copies sold, and reached number one in 2001 in Belgium and France.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In June 2002, Stewart performed "Handbags and Gladrags" at the Party at the Palace held at Buckingham Palace Garden, a concert which celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II and featured stars from five decades of music.


title: Rod Stewart

text: By 2002, Stewart had sold over 100 million records during his career. While growing up, he heard in his home classic songs written by songwriters such as Cole Porter, Gus Kahn and George and Ira Gershwin. Stewart joined others who had recorded the classic songs. He concentrated on singing 1930s and 1940s pop standards from the Great American Songbook with great popular success. These albums have been released on Clive Davis's J Records label and have seen Stewart enjoy album sales equal to the 1970s.


title: Rod Stewart

text: The first album from the songbook series, "", reached number four on the US album chart, number eight in the UK and number ten in Canada when released in late 2002. The track "These Foolish Things" (which is actually a British, not American, song) reached number 13 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart, and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" went Top 20.


title: Rod Stewart

text: The second series album, "", reached number two in the US, number four in the UK and number one in Canada. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", a duet with Cher, went Top 20 on the US adult contemporary charts. "Time After Time" was another Top 30 track on the US adult contemporary charts. A musical called "Tonight's The Night", featuring many of Stewart's songs, opened 7 November 2003 at London's Victoria Palace Theatre. It is written and directed by Ben Elton, who previously created a similar production, "We Will Rock You", with music by Queen. The musical tells about a "Faustian pact between Detroit gas station mechanic Stu Clutterbuck and Satan."


title: Rod Stewart

text: In 2004, Stewart reunited with Ronnie Wood for concerts of Faces material. A Rod Stewart and the Faces best of album, "Changing Faces", reached the Top 20 of the UK album charts. "Five Guys Walk into a Bar...", a Faces box set compilation, was released. In late 2004, "", the third album in Stewart's songbook series, was released. It was his first US number one album in 25 years, selling over 200,000 albums in its first week. It also debuted at number one in Canada, number three in the UK and Top 10 in Australia. His version of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World", featuring Stevie Wonder, made the Top 20 of the world adult charts. He also recorded a duet with Dolly Parton for the album – "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Stewart won his first ever Grammy Award for this album.


title: Rod Stewart

text: 2005 saw the release of the fourth songbook album, ""; it included duets with Diana Ross and Elton John. Within weeks of its release, the CD made it to number two on the Top 200 list. In late 2006, Stewart made his return to rock music and his new approach to country music with the release of "Still the Same... Great Rock Classics of Our Time", a new album featuring rock and southern rock milestones from the last four decades, including a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?", which was released as the first single. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts with 184,000 copies in its first week. The number one début was helped by a concert in New York City that was on MSN Music and an appearance on "Dancing with the Stars". He performed tracks from his new album live from the Nokia Theater on 9 October. Control Room broadcast the event Live on MSN and in 117 cinemas across the country via National CineMedia. In November 2006, Stewart was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.


title: Rod Stewart

text: On 1 July 2007, Stewart performed at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium, London, an event which celebrated the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death. He performed "Sailing", "Baby Jane" and "Maggie May". On 12 December, he performed for the first time at the "Royal Variety Performance" at the London Coliseum in front of HRH Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, singing another Cat Stevens number, "Father and Son", and Bonnie Tyler's song "It's a Heartache". On 22 December 2006, Stewart hosted the 8th Annual "A Home for the Holidays" special on CBS at 8:00 pm (PST).


title: Rod Stewart

text: On 20 May 2009, Stewart performed "Maggie May" on the grand finale of "American Idol" season 8. On 2, July 2009 Stewart performed his only UK date that year at Home Park, Plymouth. On 29 September 2009 a 4-CD, 65-track compilation entitled "Rod Stewart Sessions 1971–1998" was released; it is composed of previously unreleased tracks and outtakes from the bulk of his career. Stewart has also mentioned plans for a compilation of covers of soul classics, the possible release of another edition of the "Great American Songbook" album and a country covers album.


title: Rod Stewart

text: On 17 October 2009, Stewart released the studio album "Soulbook" which was composed of covers of soul and Motown songs. On 14 November 2009, Stewart recorded a TV program in the UK for ITV that was screened on 5 December 2009. The music in the programme featured tracks from his new album and some old favourites. On 14 January 2010, Rhino records released Stewart's "Once in a Blue Moon", a "lost album" originally recorded in 1992, featuring ten cover songs including the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday", Bob Dylan's "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar" and Stevie Nicks' "Stand Back", as well as Tom Waits' "Tom Traubert's Blues". On 19 October 2010, Stewart released another edition of his Great American Songbook series titled "Fly Me to the Moon...The Great American Songbook Volume V" on J Records.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In 2011, Stewart performed with Stevie Nicks on their Heart & Soul Tour. Starting on 20 March in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour visited arena concerts in North America – with performances in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa and Montreal, among others.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart headlined the Sunday show at the 2011 Hard Rock Calling Festival on 26 June in London's Hyde Park. Stewart signed on to a two-year residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, commencing on 24 August. Performing his greatest hits, the residency also saw him perform selected tracks from his upcoming, untitled blues album.


title: Rod Stewart

text: On 7 June 2012, Stewart signed a recording agreement with Universal Music Group. Stewart released his first Christmas album, titled "Merry Christmas, Baby", on the Verve Music Group label (a division of Universal Music Group) on 30 October 2012. The album was produced by David Foster and contained several duets, as well as an original song written by Stewart, Foster and Amy Foster called "Red-Suited Super Man". According to IFPI, "Merry Christmas, Baby" was the seventh best-selling album worldwide in 2012. In October 2012, Stewart's autobiography titled "Rod: The Autobiography" was released (exact dates vary worldwide).


title: Rod Stewart

text: In November 2012, Stewart performed "Auld Lang Syne" from his Christmas album and his hit "Sailing" at the Royal Albert Hall for the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, which was attended by Queen Elizabeth II. Later that month, Stewart again performed at the Royal Albert Hall in front of the Queen during the 100th Royal Variety Performance, singing "When You Wish upon a Star". On 26 November, Stewart's recording of "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" reached the top of the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary Chart. Stewart had the number one song on this chart three times previously, the last being in 1993 with "Have I Told You Lately", giving him the second-largest hiatus between number ones in the history of the chart. The song remained in the No. 1 spot for five weeks, tying it for the longest-leading holiday title in the chart's 51-year history. On 10 December 2012, Stewart was a guest singer on Michael Bublé's television "Home for the Holidays" Christmas special. Stewart was the tenth best-selling artist in Canada in the year 2012 according to year-end sales data from Nielsen Soundscan Canada. In February 2013, Stewart was nominated for a Canadian Juno Award in the International Album of the Year category for his album "Merry Christmas, Baby".


title: Rod Stewart

text: In May 2013, Stewart released "Time", a rock album of his own original material. It marked a return to songwriting after what Stewart termed "a dark period of twenty years"; he said that writing his autobiography gave him the impetus to write music again. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1, setting a new British record for the longest gap between chart-topping albums by an artist. Stewart's last No. 1 on the chart had been "Greatest Hits Volume 1" in 1979 and his last studio album to top the chart was 1976's "A Night on the Town".


title: Rod Stewart

text: In September 2013, Stewart presented his friend Elton John with the first Brits Icon award in a special show at the London Palladium, recognising John's "lasting impact" on UK culture. Stewart quipped that John was "the second-best rock singer ever", before the two performed a duet on stage.


title: Rod Stewart

text: A new studio album, "Another Country", was released on 23 October 2015. The video for the first single "Love Is" is available on his Vevo account.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart recorded vocals with Joe Walsh on the Frankie Miller album "Frankie Miller's Double Take", which was released on 30 September 2016. He sang his cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as Sgt. Pepper for "Beat Bugs" episode 17b, which debuted 18 November 2016 on Netflix. At the same, Stewart was quoted responding to John Lennon's 1980 assertion that Stewart's hit "The Killing of Georgie (Part 1 and 2)" plagiarised his song "Don't Let Me Down", declaring to "The Guardian": "It does sound like it, [...] Nothing wrong with a good steal!".


title: Rod Stewart

text: On 28 September 2018, Stewart released his 30th studio album, "Blood Red Roses", on Republic Records. He duets with Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler on the track "Battle of the Sexes" from her 2019 studio album, "Between the Earth and the Stars". Stewart collaborated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the release of "" in November 2019. The album contains new versions of the hit songs "Maggie May", and "It Takes Two" with Robbie Williams.


title: Rod Stewart

text: On 22 November 2019, Stewart released "", produced by Trevor Horn. The album contains vocal tracks from UK number one hits "Sailing", "I Don't Want To Talk About It" and "The First Cut is the Deepest" with new arrangements performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as 1971 chart toppers in both the UK and US "Maggie May" and "Reasons to Believe". The release of "You're In My Heart" coincided with Stewart's biggest-ever UK stadium tour throughout November and December 2019, a continuation of his successful summer stadium tour. "You're In My Heart" also included "Stop Loving Her Today", a new song, as well as a new recording of 'It Takes Two' featuring Robbie Williams. "You're in My Heart" topped the UK Albums Chart, staying in the #1 position for three weeks and making it his tenth Number 1 album. Stewart released his 31st studio album "The Tears of Hercules" in November 2021. Stewart is only the fifth British act in UK chart history with 10 or more number-one albums, and BPI Certified – Gold.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In 2022, he revealed that he had refused to perform in Qatar the year before, despite an offer of "over $1m", citing the country's human rights record.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In May 2000, Stewart was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, for which he underwent surgery the same month. It had been previously reported he suffered from a benign vocal cord nodule. Besides being a major health scare, the resulting surgery also threatened his voice, and he had to re-learn how to sing. Since then he has been active in raising funds for The City of Hope Foundation charity to find cures for all forms of cancer, especially those affecting children. In September 2019, Stewart revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017, and has been given the all-clear after treatment.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Before returning to the UK, Stewart played for his LA Exiles team made up of mostly English expatriates plus a few celebrities, including Billy Duffy of The Cult, in a senior soccer league in Palos Verdes, California.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Despite his father having been a supporter of Hibernian, Stewart is a supporter of Celtic, which he mentions in "You're in My Heart". He supports the Scotland national team and follows Manchester United as his English side, and he explains his love affair with both Celtic and Manchester United in Frank Worrall's book, "Celtic United". Stewart clarifies this more in his 2012 book (pp. 163–64), "Rod: The Autobiography", mentioning he "only had an attachment to Manchester United in the 1970s, but that was because they had so many great Scottish players in the 1970s, including Denis Law ... When I did eventually click with a team, it was Celtic". He presented Celtic with the trophy after they won the 2015 Scottish League Cup Final.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart is a model railway enthusiast. His HO scale layout in his Los Angeles home is modelled after the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads during the 1940s. Called the Three Rivers City, the layout was featured in the cover story of the December 2007, December 2010, February 2014, and June 2017 issues of "Model Railroader" magazine. In the 2007 article, Stewart said that it meant more to him to be in a model railroad magazine than a music magazine. The layout, which has a mainline run of , uses code 70 flextrack and a Digital Command Control (DCC) system made by Digitrax. Stewart has a second, smaller layout at his UK home, based on Britain's East Coast Main Line. In a sidebar to the 2014 "Model Railroader" article, Stewart confirmed (in an anecdote about his having unwittingly mixed red scenery texturing material into a "turf" mix he used around the bases of buildings) that he is colour-blind. In a 2019 interview with "Railway Modeller" magazine, he said the hobby is addictive for him; the singer has admitted to taking cocaine in the past.


title: Rod Stewart

text: A car collector, Stewart owns one of the 400 Ferrari Enzos. In 1982, Stewart was car-jacked on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard while he was parking his $50,000 Porsche. The car subsequently was recovered. In March 2022, Stewart and others personally filled in some potholes on the country lane near his Essex residence, claiming an ambulance had burst a tyre and his Ferrari couldn't get through. Dominic Zaria, one of Stewart's neighbours, praised the singer's action and said the lane had "massive crack" and can be dangerous when it's dark and wet. In response, the county council cautioned that potholes should be reported and repaired by professionals, adding residents making their own repairs "could become liable for any problems or accidents."


title: Rod Stewart

text: In September 2002, Stewart's son, Sean, was sentenced to three months in jail for attacking a man outside a restaurant in Los Angeles. Sean Stewart was also required to pay compensation and to attend anger management, drug and alcohol treatment courses.


title: Rod Stewart

text: Rod Stewart was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours for services to music. At his investiture in July 2007, at Buckingham Palace, Stewart commented: "It's a marvellous occasion. We're the only country in the world to honour the common man." He was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for "services to music and charity".


title: Rod Stewart

text: Stewart was estimated to have a fortune of £215 million in the "Sunday Times Rich List" of 2021, making him the 12th wealthiest person in the British music industry. He lives with his wife in the Grade II listed Durrington House, a £4.65 million property in Essex.


title: Rod Stewart

text: In reference to his divorces, Stewart was once quoted as saying, "Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."


title: Rod Stewart

text: In January 2020, Stewart and his 39-year-old son, Sean, were arrested and Stewart was charged with alleged assault following an incident at a Florida hotel. He was due to appear in court on 5 February. Stewart's defence lawyer Guy Fronstin, told Judge August Bonavita in October 2020 that he had been in contact with the prosecutors and the case is unlikely to reach the trial stage. The case was resolved in 2021, with Stewart and son pleading guilty to simple battery in a plea agreement that included no jail time, no probation, and no fine.


title: The Owl House

text: The Owl House is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that premiered on Disney Channel on January 10, 2020. The series stars the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Tati Gabrielle, Issac Ryan Brown, Mae Whitman, Cissy Jones, Zeno Robinson, Matthew Rhys, Michaela Dietz, Elizabeth Grullon, and Fryda Wolff.


title: The Owl House

text: In November 2019, ahead of the series premiere, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on June 12, 2021. In May 2021, ahead of the second season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season consisting of three specials, later announced to be the final season of the series, with Terrace later stating that this was because the series was misaligned with how some Disney executives sought to portray the company's brand. The first episode of the final season premiered on October 15, 2022.


title: The Owl House

text: "The Owl House" has become particularly notable for its LGBTQIA+ representation compared to other Disney media, including becoming the first Disney property to feature a same-sex couple in leading roles, a same-sex kiss involving lead characters, and non-binary characters. The series also won an award for Children's & Youth Programming at the 2021 Peabody Awards.


title: The Owl House

text: The series centers on Luz Noceda, a teenage Dominican-American human girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to the Demon Realm, where she arrives at the Boiling Isles, an archipelago formed from the remains of a dead titan, and befriends the rebellious witch Eda Clawthorne, also known as "The Owl Lady", and her adorable demon housemate King. Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.


title: The Owl House

text: In the second season, directly following the end of the first season, the main characters work together to return Luz to the Human Realm, help Eda confront her curse, and search for the truth about King’s past while contending with the Boiling Isles' ruler, Emperor Belos, who is preparing for the mysterious "Day of Unity".


title: The Owl House

text: In the finale specials, a couple of months after the second season, Luz and her friends set out to save the Boiling Isles from Belos and the chaotic Collector.


title: The Owl House

text: Dana Terrace first began conceiving early ideas for a series about a girl learning to be a witch in late 2016. While working on "DuckTales", Terrace didn't feel "fulfilled artistically or emotionally", so she began to research influences and work from her college years, eventually rediscovering the works of artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Remedios Varo, inspiring her to create a show for Disney that features strong surreal visual elements. Terrace initially pitched the idea to both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, but neither deal worked out.


title: The Owl House

text: In 2018, it was reported that Dana Terrace, previously a storyboard artist for "Gravity Falls" and later a director on the 2017 "DuckTales" reboot, was creating and executive-producing an animated series, titled "The Owl House", for Disney Television Animation. The series was greenlit alongside "Amphibia" in 2018 with an order of 19 episodes, and was set originally for a 2019 release, but it was delayed to a 2020 release. Terrace would later call the decision to work with Disney as a fortuitous one stating, "I think it's important to note that Owl House would NOT be what it is if made at another studio," and cited the fact that having each episode be 22-minutes rather than 11 is one of the reasons why it worked out so well.


title: The Owl House

text: Terrace is the third woman to create a series for Disney Television Animation, after "Pepper Ann" with Sue Rose, and "Star vs. the Forces of Evil" with Daron Nefcy.


title: The Owl House

text: Terrace said that the general lore for the series was inspired by art and storybooks by Hieronymus Bosch. According to Terrace, the hardest decision when creating the series was whether to implement potential lore elements in the series. Terrace also stated the lore of the series is "70 percent made up", with writers also drawing inspiration from books about witchcraft for spells and character names, to add depth to its lore. The "Pokémon" franchise served as a strong influence on the series.


title: The Owl House

text: Eda was the earliest character created for the show. Terrace said the character is inspired by "the women who raised me. My aunts, my Nana, and my mom, they're all in the Owl Lady". The second character created was King, who was described by Terrace as "a little guy that wants to be big", something she related to. Luz was the final main character created and was inspired by consultant and story artist Luz Batista. Batista agreed to let Terrace use her name for the series' main character on the condition that she be Dominican-American, which Terrace agreed to. The character's personality was inspired by "stories of each other about what dorks we were in high school", as well as parts from Terrace's childhood. Alex Hirsch, Terrace's partner and creator of the TV series "Gravity Falls", on which Terrace served as a storyboard artist and revisionist, serves as a creative consultant on the series.


title: The Owl House

text: Several of the series' themes are inspired by Terrace's childhood. The series features themes of uniqueness and conformity, which were inspired by Terrace's experience at school, where she was mocked for her habit of drawing roadkill, only to meet people with similarly different personalities when she went to a new school. The series also explores the idea of getting close to fulfilling a dream, yet being unable to completely fulfill it, inspired by how Terrace was told that she wouldn't be a cartoonist, only to "[find her] own path".


title: The Owl House

text: Hirsch said that while there was a concern with the Disney Channel over the series' horror elements, Terrace nevertheless chooses to feature horror elements, arguing that "Disney is the full spectrum of emotions, creatures and scary things". Terrace said that Disney "allowed me to do more than I thought they would". Terrace also said that the producers "[don't] want to pull [their] punches on the show" in its horror elements, as she "loved being a little scared" as a child, though she also wanted to balance them with comedy and heartfelt moments. She described the magic elements on the show as "a framing device for the grounded emotional stories" featured in the series.


title: The Owl House

text: The series initially had a darker tone, as Terrace wanted to create a TV series targeted at older audiences "where things like whimsy and darkness can coexist", but had to tone it down during season 1 to find a compromise between her ideas and Disney executives' wishes, though she nevertheless was proud of the final product. The tone of Season 2 is closer to what Terrace originally intended.


title: The Owl House

text: The show is animated by Rough Draft Korea, Sunmin Image Pictures, and Sugarcube Animation. Terrace said that the visual style was inspired by paintings by Remedios Varo, John Bauer, and Hieronymus Bosch, as well as Russian architecture. By December 2019, the show had 120 people working on the show, including those in the animation studios, and 50 staffers on the pre-production crew.


title: The Owl House

text: Spencer Wan served as the animation supervisor during season one. Disney initially refused for the series to have an in-house animator, feeling Wan may not meet their "overseas pipeline", but he was eventually hired. Kofi Fiagome serves as animation supervisor for season two. Terrace also provided rough animation for three season 2 episodes.


title: The Owl House

text: Ricky Cometa served as the art director for the series. Cometa first became involved with the series when Terrace began working on the pilot, before the series was green-lighted by Disney, and was approached by Terrace, a fan and friend of Cometa's because she "really wanted to work with someone who I vibed with, someone whose style I knew, that could execute the kind of weird junk I wanted to do", and Cometa agreed to work on the series due to being interested in the concept. Cometa said that he wanted to "try and show the dualities between the Demon Realm and the human realm, and with a little twist of demons and eyeballs and bones and whatnot". He also didn't want all demons on the show to have scary appearances, as they are supposed to represent normal people within the show.


title: The Owl House

text: Terrace said that Luz's design was "challenging", as she struggled to create a design for Luz that didn't make her look too old or that felt too much like a costume. Cometa eventually created a t-shirt for Luz to wear that is "low key, and like a nod to all our fellow nerds out there". Cometa said that it was "fun" to design demonic versions of commonplaces. The animators also changed real-life elements to further distinguish the Boiling Isles from Earth, such as making the ocean purple.


title: The Owl House

text: On July 19, 2019, Terrace announced that T.J. Hill composed the series' score. On January 10, 2020, Hill said that the score features "interesting and experimental sounds that [he] had a ton of fun cooking up". In the second season, "Gravity Falls" and "Star vs. the Forces of Evil" composer Brad Breeck took over as composer.


title: The Owl House

text: By March 2020, Disney Television Animation was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the production crew to work on season 2 remotely from their homes.


title: The Owl House

text: On June 10, 2019, the trailer premiered during the show's Annecy 2019 panel. It was uploaded to Disney Channel's YouTube channel a day later.


title: The Owl House

text: The show's main title sequence was released on July 19, 2019, during San Diego Comic-Con 2019. The show released a sneak peek and an official end credit sequence on October 4, 2019, during a panel at New York Comic Con 2019. The show's main title sequence for season 2 was released on May 17, 2021. A trailer for season 2 was released on June 3, 2021.


title: The Owl House

text: Season 1 aired its 19th and final episode on August 29, 2020. On November 21, 2019, the series was renewed for a 21-episode second season prior to the first season's debut. On May 17, 2021, the series was renewed for a third season, which will consist of three 44-minute specials, ahead of the second season premiere. The episode order was much shorter than the 10–20 episodes that the production team was anticipating, only for Terrace to later confirm in a response to a fan's question that it would be the final season.


title: The Owl House

text: In October 2021, in an AMA on Reddit, Terrace explained the series was cut short not because of its ratings or the COVID-19 pandemic, but rather because executives at The Walt Disney Company believed that it did not fit "into the Disney brand." She stated that this was the case due to the serialized nature of the show and an audience that "skews older," rather than due to its LGBTQ+ representation, saying that she would not "assume bad faith" against those she works with in Burbank. Terrace also noted that due to the pandemic, budgets were constrained and episodes were cut, further adding that she was not allowed to present a case for a fourth season. However, Terrace said that she believed there was a future for the show if Disney Branded Television had "different people in charge."


title: The Owl House

text: When asked about the series' future on Twitter, Terrace expressed interest in continuing it in other media. This content could include comics and a limited series centering on Eda's past, as well as other potential spin-offs, though Terrace stated the three specials of season 3 were the end of the main story, persuading fans to ask Disney regarding more content based on the show.


title: The Owl House

text: "The Owl House" had its first international debut in Canada on January 12, 2020, in Southeast Asia on March 20, 2020, in Turkey on April 6, 2020, in Latin America on April 13, 2020, in France on April 15, 2020, in South Korea on May 23, 2020, in Japan on July 23, 2020, in the UK & Ireland on August 10, 2020, in the Netherlands on August 24, 2020, in Spain on October 3, 2020, in Africa on October 26, 2020, in Romania and Bulgaria on January 2, 2021, in Poland on Disney XD on January 4, 2021, and in Scandinavia on February 15, 2021.


title: The Owl House

text: The entire first season was added to Disney+ in the United States on October 30, 2020. In the U.S., the first five episodes of the second season were added to Disney+ on July 21, 2021, while episodes six through ten were added on August 18.


title: The Owl House

text: The show was originally intended to premiere on January 2, 2021, on the local Disney Channel feed shared by Hungary and the Czech Republic, but it has not aired on the channel for unknown reasons. The series later premiered exclusively on Disney+ in those two countries on June 14, 2022.


title: The Owl House

text: "The Owl House" has been praised for featuring several characters who are LGBTQ+, in particular the romance between the characters of Luz Noceda and Amity Blight. Series creator Dana Terrace first implied a romance between the two on July 7, 2020, when responding to a fan who posted a screenshot from the upcoming episode "Enchanting Grom Fright" on Twitter which showed Amity putting her hands on Luz's shoulders and looking into her eyes. Claiming "there is no heterosexual explanation" for Amity's action, Terrace responded, "there really isn't". On August 8, 2020, the episode, written by Molly Ostertag, aired, and it featured a scene in which Luz and Amity dance together while casting spells to defeat "Grom," a demon that manifests as their deepest fears. The animation supervisor for the show, Spencer Wan, referred to their intimate dance as "the gay thing" and the first time he got to "do anything even remotely queer."


title: The Owl House

text: On September 2, 2020, during a Reddit AMA, Dana Terrace confirmed that Amity intended to be a lesbian and that Luz is bisexual. The two girls represent Disney's second animated LGBTQ+ characters after Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland in "Gravity Falls," and the first to be unambiguously portrayed as such. In the episode "Understanding Willow", one of the main characters (Willow Park) is shown to have two dads. Some noted that the beginning of the show's second season, which began airing in 2021, continued to build out the relationship between Amity and Luz, with Luz reciprocating Amity's feelings at the end of "Escaping Expulsion" and both blushing at each other. Others praised Amity's character evolving outside her "relationship with Luz."


title: The Owl House

text: The series was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming in 2021 and won a Peabody Award for "...giving queer kids a welcome template...to explore their own budding creative energies."


title: The Owl House

text: On July 10, 2021, the episode "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" premiered, which focused heavily on Gus' development as a character and how much he's grown since his last major appearance. However, the episode received significant attention and press over Luz and Amity's growing relationship and its ending, in which Amity kisses Luz on the cheek. The episode "Eda's Requiem" features a character named Raine Whispers, who uses they/them pronouns and is voiced by transgender and non-binary actor Avi Roque. Raine is both Disney TVA's and Disney's first transgender and/or non-binary character. Roque said that the character is based on their own experience, with the character's skin color reflecting their actual skin color, praised the show as normalizing queer identity, and said it was an honor to voice Raine. In the episode, Eda Clawthorne is shown to have romantic feelings for Raine. The subsequent episode, "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", reveals that Eda and Raine were formerly dating, before breaking up due to Raine beginning work in the coven system. The episode also has Luz and Amity asking each other out and officially becoming a couple. GLAAD praised the episode, saying they were excited to see a "wonderful and affirming message" from the series. Jade King of "TheGamer" praised the series for having a fictional universe where queer characters can "learn to love themselves without the fear of ridicule", comparing it to the similar approaches in "Steven Universe" and "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power", noting the relationship between Luz and Amity. In March 2022, Lilith, Eda's older sister, was confirmed to be aromantic and asexual during a charity Livestream, via an in-character letter read by the character's voice actress Cissy Jones. Jade King of "TheGamer" noted that Cissy Jones said that her letter during a charity stream saying that Lilith didn't have any romantic attractions was "basically canon", further confirming those identities. On May 21, 2022, the penultimate episode of season two "Clouds on the Horizon" aired, in which Luz and Amity share a kiss on the lips. A promotional video released on September 25, 2022, depicted Luz in a new outfit with a pin on her beanie, picturing the bisexual flag. On October 15, 2022, The first "The Owl House" special "Thanks to Them" has Luz come out to her mother as bisexual. The special also reveals that Vee's campmate Masha is non-binary as they use they/them pronouns in their nameplate and their nails are painted in the colors of the non-binary pride flag.


title: The Owl House

text: According to Whip Media, "The Owl House" was the 8th top-rising show across all platforms, based on the week-over-week growth in episodes watched for a specific program, during the week of June 13, 2021. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, "The Owl House" was the 6th most watched television series across all platforms in the United States, during the week of October 10, 2022, to October 16, 2022.


title: The Owl House

text: "The Owl House" has received widespread critical acclaim. Emily Ashby of "Common Sense Media" rated the show 5 out of 5 stars and said putting different elements together made the series quirky and likable. It was also described as well-written and animated, and speculated that "[the show] likely will be one you will want to watch alongside your older kids and tweens, allowing you to discuss these kinds of themes as they come up." "LaughingPlace.com"s critic praised the series for its unique visuals and voice acting, stating "The performances fit together beautifully as the diversity in their delivery showcases the characters' unique roles in the Demon Realm." "Collider"s Dave Trumbore gave the series' first episode a 4-star rating, feeling that the episode "[has] got a dark, yet darkly comic edge to the whole thing." The conservative evangelical Christian religious television network Christian Broadcasting Network attacked the show, declaring it was part of a "witch agenda to make witchcraft look positive," an assessment that a writer for "The Mary Sue" called "hyperbolic," and stated that a "rebellious Latina witch" is, to those like CBN, "probably the scariest thing," while stating that the show sounds like "a ton of fun."


title: The Owl House

text: Kevin Johnson of "The A.V. Club" was critical of the series, stating that they were not "buying the developments between Amity and Luz," but praised Eda's character. Ben Bertoli wrote that Terrace and those working on the job had done a great job creating a fantasy world, and relatable characters, and predicted a "big animation fandom." Nick Venable wrote that fans of "Gravity Falls" and "Steven Universe" would love the series because the "otherworld-ness of the Boiling Isle[s] immediately asserts itself" while the show makes "relationships feel genuine and tactile," following in the footsteps of those shows. At the same time, Colin Hickson of "Comic Book Resources" praised the series, while noting that the opening of the series would give "any "Gravity Falls" fans a major sense of deja vu." Jade King of "TheGamer" described the show as a "groundbreaking queer adventure" that has broken boundaries in LGBTQ+ representation, noting how it builds off to "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" and "Steven Universe". King also said that the show could make sure "queer content isn't merely a footnote to the overall story" but ingrained into the show itself. The first and second seasons currently hold a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: The Owl House

text: A light novel based on "The Owl House" was set to be released in May 2022. According to Dana Terrace, the novel was to feature an original story based on the in-universe fictional character "The Good Witch Azura". However, it was confirmed by Dana Terrace on March 25, 2022, in a now-deleted tweet, that the light novel had been cancelled due to financial disputes between the publisher and authors hired to write the book.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership—one planned by Shosanna Dreyfus, a young French Jewish cinema proprietor, and the other by the British; but is ultimately conducted solely by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Christoph Waltz co-stars as Hans Landa, an SS colonel in charge of tracking down Raine's group. The title was inspired by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 Euro War film "The Inglorious Bastards", though Tarantino's film is not a remake of it.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino wrote the script in 1998, but struggled with the ending and chose instead to direct the two-part film "". After directing "Death Proof" in 2007, Tarantino returned to work on "Inglourious Basterds". A co-production of the United States and Germany, the film began principal photography in October 2008 and was filmed in Germany and France with a $70 million production budget. It premiered on May 20, 2009, at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and received a wide release in theaters in the United States and Europe in August 2009 by The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: "Inglourious Basterds" grossed over $321.5 million in theaters worldwide, making it Tarantino's highest-grossing film to that point, until it was surpassed in box office by "Django Unchained" (2012) and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019). The film received generally positive reviews, with Waltz's performance as Hans Landa being singled out for praise, but some criticized the historical liberties taken. It also won multiple awards and nominations, among them eight Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay). For his role as Landa, Waltz won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award, as well as the BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: In 1941, SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa interrogates French farmer Perrier LaPadite as to the whereabouts of a Jewish family, the Dreyfuses. Landa suspects the LaPadites are hiding them under their floorboards, and in exchange for the Nazis not murdering his family, LaPadite tearfully confirms it. Landa's soldiers shoot through the floorboards, killing all but Shosanna Dreyfus, who escapes.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: In 1944, Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the Basterds, a commando unit formed to instill fear among Nazis by killing and scalping them. They include Sergeant Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz; Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz, a rogue German soldier turned defector; and Corporal Wilhelm Wicki, the group's translator. In Germany, Adolf Hitler interviews Private Butz, the lone German survivor of a Basterd attack, who reveals that Raine carved a swastika into Butz's forehead.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Shosanna Dreyfus is living in Paris, operating a cinema under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux. She meets Fredrick Zoller, a German sniper famed for killing 250 Allied soldiers in a battle. Zoller is the star of a new Nazi propaganda film, "Stolz der Nation" ("Nation's Pride"), and, having become infatuated with Shosanna, convinces Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere at her cinema. Landa, the head of security for the premiere, interrogates Shosanna. Shosanna plots with her Afro-French lover and projectionist, Marcel, to set the cinema ablaze during the premiere, killing the Nazi Party leaders in attendance.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Meanwhile, British Commando Lieutenant Archie Hicox is recruited to lead a British attack on the premiere with the Basterds. Hicox, along with Stiglitz and Wicki, goes to a tavern in German-occupied northern France to meet with German film star Bridget von Hammersmark, an undercover Allied agent who will be attending the premiere. Hicox inadvertently draws the attention of Wehrmacht Sergeant Wilhelm and Major Dieter Hellström, then blows the group's cover by using a British hand gesture. A gunfight ensues, killing everyone except Sergeant Wilhelm and von Hammersmark, who is shot in the leg. Raine arrives and negotiates with Wilhelm for von Hammersmark's release, but she shoots Wilhelm when he lowers his guard. Raine, believing von Hammersmark set his men up, tortures her, but she convinces him she is loyal and reveals Hitler will be attending the premiere. Raine decides to continue, with himself, Donowitz and Omar Ulmer taking the place of Hicox, Stiglitz and Wicki. Later, Landa investigates the tavern and finds von Hammersmark's shoe and a napkin with her signature.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Raine, Donowitz and Ulmer attend the premiere with timed explosives strapped to their ankles. Landa takes von Hammersmark to a room, verifies the shoe from the tavern fits her and kills her. Raine and another Basterd, Smithson Utivich, are taken prisoner. Landa has Raine contact his superior to cut a deal: He will allow the mission to proceed in exchange for his safe passage through the Allied lines, a full pardon and other privileges.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: During the screening, Zoller slips away to the projection room and attempts to force himself on Shosanna. She shoots him, and he shoots and kills her before he dies. As the film reaches its climax, Shosanna's spliced-in footage tells the audience that they are about to be killed by a Jew. Having locked the auditorium doors, Marcel ignites a pile of flammable film behind the screen as Shosanna's image laughs and the theater goes up in flames. Ulmer and Donowitz break into the opera box containing Hitler and Goebbels, submachine-gunning them both down, then firing into the crowd until the bombs go off, killing everyone in the theater.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Landa and his radio operator transport Raine and Utivich into Allied territory, where they surrender themselves. Raine shoots the radio operator before ordering Utivich to scalp him. Raine has Landa restrained and carves a swastika into his forehead, professing it to be his "masterpiece."


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Director Enzo G. Castellari also makes a cameo appearance in the film at the movie premiere. He previously cameoed as a German in his own "The Inglorious Bastards" and reprised the same role in this film, but under a different rank and SS organization. Bo Svenson, who starred in Castellari's "The Inglorious Bastards", also has a small cameo in the film as a US colonel in the "Nation's Pride" movie.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Additionally Samuel L. Jackson narrates the movie, Harvey Keitel voices the Office of Strategic Services Commander, Bela B appears as an usher and Tarantino appears as an American soldier in "Nation's Pride" and a scalped Nazi. Two characters, Mrs. Himmelstein and Madame Ada Mimieux, played by Cloris Leachman and Maggie Cheung, respectively, were both cut from the final film due to length.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino spent just over a decade creating the film's script because, as he told Charlie Rose in an interview, he became "too precious about the page", meaning the story kept growing and expanding. Tarantino viewed the script as his masterpiece in the making, so felt it had to become the best thing he had ever written. He described an early premise of the film as his "bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission" film, "my "Dirty Dozen" or "Where Eagles Dare" or "Guns of Navarone" kind of thing".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: By 2002, Tarantino found "Inglourious Basterds" to be a bigger film than planned and saw that other directors were working on World War II films. Tarantino had produced three nearly finished scripts, proclaiming that it was "some of the best writing I've ever done. But I couldn't come up with an ending." He moved on to direct the two-part film "Kill Bill" (2003–2004). After the completion of "Kill Bill", Tarantino went back to his first storyline draft and considered making it a mini-series. Instead he trimmed the script, using his script for "Pulp Fiction" as a guide to length. The revised premise focused on a group of soldiers who escape from their executions and embark on a mission to help the Allies. He described the men as "not your normal hero types that are thrown into a big deal in the Second World War".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino planned to begin production in 2005. In November 2004, he delayed production and instead took an acting role in Takashi Miike's Western film "Sukiyaki Western Django," and intended to make a kung fu film entirely in Mandarin; this project foundered. He directed "Death Proof" (2007), part of the double feature "Grindhouse", before returning to work on "Inglourious Basterds".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film's title was inspired by the English-language title of director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 war film, "The Inglorious Bastards". When pushed, Tarantino would not explain the first "u" in "Inglourious", but said, "The "Basterds"? That's just the way you say it: "Basterds"." He later stated that the misspelled title is "a Basquiat-esque touch". He further commented on "Late Show with David Letterman" that "Inglourious Basterds" is a "Quentin Tarantino spelling". Tarantino has said that the film's opening scene, in which Landa interrogates the French dairy farmer, is his "favorite thing" he's "ever written".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino originally sought Leonardo DiCaprio to be cast as Hans Landa, before deciding to have the character played by a native German-speaking actor. The role ultimately went to Austrian Christoph Waltz who, according to Tarantino, "gave me my movie" as he feared the part was "unplayable". Pitt and Tarantino had wanted to work together for a number of years, but they were waiting for the right project. When Tarantino was halfway through the film's script, he sensed that Pitt was a strong possibility for the role of Aldo Raine. By the time he had finished writing, Tarantino thought Pitt "would be terrific" and called Pitt's agent to ask if he was available.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino asked Adam Sandler to play the role of Donny Donowitz, but Sandler declined due to schedule conflicts with the film "Funny People". Eli Roth was cast in the role instead. Roth also directed the film-within-the-film, "Nation's Pride", which used 300 extras. The director also wanted to cast Simon Pegg in the film as Lt. Archie Hicox, but he was forced to drop out due to scheduling difficulties with Spielberg's "Tintin" adaptation. Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender began final negotiations to join the cast as Hicox in August 2008, although he originally auditioned for the role of Landa. B. J. Novak was also cast in August 2008 as Private First Class Smithson Utivich, "a New York-born soldier of 'slight build'".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino talked to actress Nastassja Kinski about playing the role of Bridget von Hammersmark and even flew to Germany to meet her, but a deal could not be reached and Tarantino cast Diane Kruger instead. Rod Taylor was effectively retired from acting and no longer had an agent, but came out of retirement when Tarantino offered him the role of Winston Churchill in the film. This would be Taylor's last appearance on film before his death on January 7, 2015. In preparation for the role, Taylor watched dozens of DVDs with footage of Churchill in order to get the Prime Minister's posture, body language, and voice, including a lisp, correct. Taylor initially recommended British actor Albert Finney for the role during their conversation, but agreed to take the part because of Tarantino's "passion." Mike Myers, a fan of Tarantino, had inquired about being in the film since Myers' parents had been in the British Armed Forces. In terms of the character's dialect, Myers felt that it was a version of Received Pronunciation meeting the officer class, but mostly an attitude of "I'm fed up with this war and if this dude can end it, great because my country is in ruins." Tarantino met Mélanie Laurent in three rounds, reading all the characters on the first round. On the second meeting, he shared the lines with her; the third was a face-to-face dinner. During the dinner, he told Laurent, "Do you know something—there's just something I don't like. It's that you're famous in your country, and I'm really wanting to discover somebody." Laurent replied "No, no, no. ... I'm not so famous." After four days, he called to finalize her for the role of Shosanna. Samm Levine was cast as PFC Hirschberg, because, according to Levine, Tarantino was a big fan of "Freaks and Geeks", which starred Levine.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Isabelle Huppert was originally cast in the role of Madame Mimieux before being fired due to creative differences. It was also reported that Catherine Deneuve was considered for the role.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: According to French musician and actor Johnny Hallyday, Tarantino had originally written a role for him in the film.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino teamed with The Weinstein Company to prepare what he planned to be his film for production. In July 2008, Tarantino and executive producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein set up an accelerated production schedule to be completed for release at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, where the film would compete for the Palme d'Or.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The Weinstein Company co-financed the film and distributed it in the United States, and signed a deal with Universal Pictures to finance the rest of the film and distribute it internationally. Germany and France were scheduled as filming locations and principal photography started in October 2008 on location in Germany.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Filming was scheduled to begin on October 13, 2008, and shooting started that week. Special effects were handled by KNB EFX Group with Greg Nicotero and much of the film was shot and edited in the Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam, Germany, and in Bad Schandau, a small spa town near Germany's border with the Czech Republic.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Roth said that they "almost got incinerated", during the theater fire scene, as they projected the fire would burn at , but it instead burned at . He said the swastika was not supposed to fall either, as it was fastened with steel cables, but the steel softened and snapped.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: On January 11, 2013, on the BBC's "The Graham Norton Show", Tarantino said that for the scene where Kruger was strangled, he personally strangled the actress, with his own bare hands, in one take, to aid authenticity.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Following the film's screening at Cannes, Tarantino stated that he would be re-editing the film in June before its ultimate theatrical release, allowing him time to finish assembling several scenes that were not completed in time for the hurried Cannes première.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Tarantino originally wanted Ennio Morricone to compose the film's soundtrack. Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore's "Baarìa". However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the CD.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The opening theme is taken from the pseudo-folk ballad "The Green Leaves of Summer", which was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster for the opening of the 1960 film "The Alamo". The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including Spaghetti Western and R&B. Prominent in the latter part of the film is David Bowie's theme from the 1982 film "Cat People". The soundtrack, the first of Tarantino's not to include dialogue excerpts, was released on August 18, 2009.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: When the script's final draft was finished, it was leaked on the Internet and several Tarantino fan sites began posting reviews and excerpts from the script.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film's first full teaser trailer premiered on "Entertainment Tonight" on February 10, 2009, and was shown in US theaters the following week attached to "Friday the 13th". The trailer features excerpts of Lt. Aldo Raine talking to the Basterds, informing them of the plan to ambush and kill, torture, and scalp unwitting Nazi servicemen, intercut with various other scenes from the film. It also features the spaghetti-westernesque terms "Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied France", which was considered for the film's title, and "A Basterd's Work Is Never Done", a line not spoken in the final film (the line occurs in the script during the Bear Jew's backstory).


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film was released on August 19, 2009, in the United Kingdom and France, two days earlier than the US release date of August 21, 2009. It was released in Germany on August 20, 2009. Some European cinemas, however, showed previews starting on August 15. In Poland, the artwork on all advertisements and on DVD packaging is unchanged, but the title was translated non-literally to "Bękarty Wojny" (Bastards of War), so that Nazi iconography could stylize the letter "O". Tarantino didn't misspell the title to differentiate his film from the 1978 movie by the same name. He said it instead was a creative decision which he initially refused to explain, simply saying that “Basterds” was spelled as such because “that's just the way you say it”.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Universal Pictures adjusted the film's publicity materials and website in Germany and Austria to comply with both countries' penal laws, as the display of Nazi iconography is restricted there: the swastika was removed from the typography of the title, and the steel helmet had a bullet hole in place of the Nazi symbol. The site's download section was also revised to exclude wallpaper downloads that openly feature the swastika. Though advertising posters and wallpapers may not show Nazi iconography, this restriction does not apply to "works of art", according to German and Austrian law, so the film itself was not censored in either Germany or Austria.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film was released on single-disc DVD and a two-disc special-edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 15, 2009, by Universal Studios Home Entertainment in the United States and Australia. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 7, 2009, in the UK. On its first week of release, the film was number two, only behind "The Hangover", selling an estimated 1,581,220 DVDs, making $28,467,652 in the United States.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The German version is 50 seconds longer than the American version. The scene in the tavern has been extended. Although in other countries, the extended scene was released as a bonus feature, the German theatrical, DVD, and Blu-ray versions are the only ones to include the full scene.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: "Inglourious Basterds" grossed $120.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $200.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross $321.4 million, against a production budget of $70 million. It became Tarantino's highest-grossing film, both in the US and worldwide, until "Django Unchained" in 2012.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Opening in 3,165 screens, the film earned $14.3 million on the opening Friday of its North American release, on the way to an opening-weekend gross of $38 million, giving Tarantino a personal best weekend opening and the number one spot at the box office, ahead of "District 9". The film fell to number two in its second weekend, behind "The Final Destination", with earnings of $20 million, for a 10-day total of $73.8 million.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: "Inglourious Basterds" opened internationally at number one in 22 markets on 2,650 screens, making $27.49 million. First place openings included France, taking in $6.09 million on 500 screens. The United Kingdom was not far behind making $5.92 million (£3.8 m) on 444 screens. Germany took in $4.20 million on 439 screens and Australia with $2.56 million (A$2.8 m) on 266 screens.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of 332 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, "Inglourious Basterds" is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining." Metacritic, which assigns a rating on reviews, gives the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Critics' initial reactions at the Cannes Film Festival were mixed. The film received an eight- to eleven-minute standing ovation from critics after its first screening at Cannes, although "Le Monde", a leading French newspaper, dismissed it, saying "Tarantino gets lost in a fictional World War II". Despite this, Anne Thompson of "Variety" praised the film, but opined that it was not a masterpiece, claiming, ""Inglourious Basterds" is great fun to watch, but the movie isn't entirely engaging ... You don't jump into the world of the film in a participatory way; you watch it from a distance, appreciating the references and the masterful mise en scène. This is a film that will benefit from a second viewing".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Critic James Berardinelli gave the film his first four-star review of 2009, stating, "With "Inglourious Basterds", Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since "Pulp Fiction"", and that it was "one hell of an enjoyable ride". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" also gave the film a four-star review, writing that "Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he's the real thing, a director of quixotic delights."


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn was disturbed by the portrayal of Jewish American soldiers mimicking German atrocities done to European Jews, stating, "In "Inglourious Basterds", Tarantino indulges this taste for vengeful violence by—well, by turning Jews into Nazis". Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" stated he was "struck ... by how exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing it is".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: While praising Christoph Waltz's performance ("a good actor new to American audiences"), David Denby, of "The New Yorker", dismissed the film with the following words: "The film is skillfully made, but it's too silly to be enjoyed, even as a joke. ... Tarantino has become an embarrassment: his virtuosity as a maker of images has been overwhelmed by his inanity as an "idiot de la cinémathèque"". Journalist Christopher Hitchens likened the experience of watching the film to "sitting in the dark having a great pot of warm piss emptied very slowly over your head".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film also met some criticism from the Jewish press. In "Tablet", Liel Liebowitz criticizes the film as lacking moral depth. He argues that the power of film lies in its ability to impart knowledge and subtle understanding, but "Inglourious Basterds" serves more as an "alternative to reality, a magical and Manichaean world where we needn't worry about the complexities of morality, where violence solves everything, and where the Third Reich is always just a film reel and a lit match away from cartoonish defeat". Anthony Frosh, writer for the online magazine "Galus Australis", has criticized the film for failing to develop its characters sufficiently, labeling the film "Enthralling, but lacking in Jewish content". Daniel Mendelsohn was critical of the film's depiction of Jews and the overall revisionist history aspect of the film, writing "Do you really want audiences cheering for a revenge that turns Jews into carboncopies of Nazis, that makes Jews into "sickening" perpetrators? I'm not so sure." While Jonathan Rosenbaum equated the film to Holocaust denial, stating "A film that didn't even entertain me past its opening sequence, and that profoundly bored me during the endlessly protracted build-up to a cellar shoot-out, it also gave me the sort of malaise that made me wonder periodically what it was (and is) about the film that seems morally akin to Holocaust denial, even though it proudly claims to be the opposite of that." When challenged on his opinion, Rosenbaum elaborated by stating, "For me, "Inglourious Basterds" makes the Holocaust harder, not easier to grasp as a historical reality. Insofar as it becomes a movie convention — by which I mean a reality derived only from other movies — it loses its historical reality."


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: "Inglourious Basterds" was later ranked #62 on a BBC critics' poll of the greatest films since 2000. In 2010, the "Independent Film & Television Alliance" selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: Christoph Waltz was singled out for Cannes honors, receiving the Best Actor Award at the festival's end. Film critic Devin Faraci of "CHUD.com" stated: "The cry has been raised long before this review, but let me continue it: Christoph Waltz needs not an Oscar nomination but rather an actual Oscar in his hands. ... he must have gold".


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film received four Golden Globe Award nominations including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actor for Waltz, who went on to win the award.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film also received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and went on to win the awards for Best Cast and Best Supporting Actor, which was awarded to Waltz.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: The film was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, including Best Director for Tarantino, winning only one award—Best Supporting Actor for Waltz.


title: Inglourious Basterds

text: In February 2010, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Waltz, and Best Original Screenplay. Waltz was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: El Salvador

text: El Salvador (; , meaning "The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador (), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2022 is estimated to be 6.5 million.


title: El Salvador

text: Among the Mesoamerican nations that historically controlled the region are the Lenca (after 600 AD), the Mayans, and then the Cuzcatlecs. Archaeological monuments also suggest an early Olmec presence around the first millennium BC. In the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the Central American territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. However the Viceroyalty of Mexico had little to no influence in the daily affairs of the isthmus, which was colonized in 1524. In 1609, the area was declared the Captaincy General of Guatemala by the Spanish, which included the territory that would become El Salvador until its independence from Spain in 1821. It was forcibly incorporated into the First Mexican Empire, then seceded, joining the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. When the federation dissolved in 1841, El Salvador became a sovereign state, then formed a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua called the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasted from 1895 to 1898.


title: El Salvador

text: From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, El Salvador endured chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. Persistent socioeconomic inequality and civil unrest culminated in the Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 to 1992, fought between the military-led government backed by the United States, and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups. The conflict ended with the Chapultepec Peace Accords. This negotiated settlement established a multiparty constitutional republic, which remains in place to this day.


title: El Salvador

text: During the civil war, large numbers of Salvadorans emigrated to the United States. By 2008, they were one of the largest immigrant groups in the US.


title: El Salvador

text: El Salvador's economy has historically been dominated by agriculture, beginning with the Spanish taking control of the indigenous cacao crop in the 16th century, with production centered in Izalco, along with balsam from the ranges of La Libertad and Ahuachapan. This was followed by a boom in use of the indigo plant in the 19th century, mainly for its use as a dye. Thereafter the focus shifted to coffee, which by the early 20th century accounted for 90% of export earnings. El Salvador has since reduced its dependence on coffee and embarked on diversifying its economy by opening up trade and financial links and expanding the manufacturing sector. The colón, the currency of El Salvador since 1892, was replaced by the United States dollar in 2001.


title: El Salvador

text: El Salvador ranks 124th among 189 countries in the Human Development Index. Despite high rates of poverty and gang-related violent crime, as of 2019 economic improvements had led to El Salvador experiencing the lowest level of income inequality among countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among 77 countries included in a 2021 study, El Salvador had one of the least complex economies for doing business.


title: El Salvador

text: Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado named the new province after Jesus Christ – San Salvador (lit. "Holy Savior"). The territory's name, including the province of San Miguel, was later extended to the ' (), shortened to the Republic of El Salvador, or Salvador, during the post-Federal Republic period and subsequently settled on as '.


title: El Salvador

text: Tomayate is a palaeontological site located on the banks of the river of the same name in the municipality of Apopa. The site has produced abundant Salvadoran megafauna fossils belonging to the Pleistocene. The palaeontological site was discovered accidentally in 2000, and in the following year, an excavation by the Museum of Natural History of El Salvador revealed several remnants of "Cuvieronius" and 18 other species of vertebrates including giant tortoises, "Megatherium", "Glyptodon", "Toxodon", extinct horses, paleo-llamas. The site stands out from most Central American Pleistocene deposits, being more ancient and much richer, which provides valuable information of the Great American Interchange, in which the Central American isthmus land bridge was paramount. At the same time, it is considered the richest vertebrate site in Central America and one of the largest accumulations of proboscideans in the Americas.


title: El Salvador

text: Sophisticated civilization in El Salvador dates to its settlement by the indigenous Lenca people; theirs was the first and the oldest indigenous civilization to settle in there. They were a union of Central American tribes that oversaw most of the isthmus from southern Guatemala to northern Panama, which they called Managuara. The Lenca of eastern El Salvador trace their origins to specific caves with ancient pictographs dating back to at least 600 AD and some sources say as far back as 7000 BC. There was also a presence of Olmecs, although their role is unclear. Their influence remains recorded in the form of stone monuments and artefacts preserved in western El Salvador, as well as the national museum. A Mayan population settled there in the Formative period, but their numbers were greatly diminished when the Ilopango supervolcano eruption caused a massive exodus.


title: El Salvador

text: Centuries later the area's occupants were displaced by the Pipil people, Nahua speaking groups who migrated from Anahuac beginning around 800 AD and occupied the central and western regions of El Salvador. The Nahua Pipil were the last indigenous people to arrive in El Salvador. They called their territory "Kuskatan", a Nawat word meaning "The Place of Precious Jewels," back-formed into Classical Nahuatl "Cōzcatlān", and Hispanicized as "Cuzcatlán". It was the largest domain in Salvadoran territory up until European contact. The term "Cuzcatleco" is commonly used to identify someone of Salvadoran heritage, although the majority of the eastern population has indigenous heritage of Lenca origin, as do their place names such as Intipuca, Chirilagua, and Lolotique.


title: El Salvador

text: Most of the archaeological sites in western El Salvador such as Lago de Guija and Joya De Ceren indicate a pre-Columbian Mayan culture. Cihuatan shows signs of material trade with northern Nahua culture, eastern Mayan and Lenca culture, and southern Nicaraguan and Costa Rican indigenous culture. Tazumal's smaller B1-2 structure shows a talud-tablero style of architecture that is associated with Nahua culture and corresponds with their migration history from Anahuac. In eastern El Salvador, the Lenca site of Quelepa is highlighted as a major pre-Columbian cultural center and demonstrates links to the Mayan site of Copan in western Honduras as well as the previously mentioned sites in Chalchuapa, and Cara Sucia in western El Salvador. An investigation of the site of La Laguna in Usulutan has also produced Copador items which link it to the Lenca-Maya trade route.