title: Cris Cyborg

text: A daughter of divorced parents and a father who had problems with alcoholism, Cristiane Justino started her sports career at the age of twelve, playing handball at a national level in Brazil. Due to her success in the sport, she won numerous athletic scholarships on private universities after her high school graduation, and eventually chose to pursue the path of physical education in the capital of Paraná, Curitiba. Later, she planned to move to the city of Cascavel to become a professional handball player and finish her college studies there, before being discovered by Rudimar Fedrigo, a Chute Boxe Academy trainer who was impressed by her physical size and advised her to enter the world of fighting.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Justino, without yet incorporating the nickname "Cyborg", made her professional debut in mixed martial arts at the age of 19 on May 17, 2005 at Showfight 2 against multiple time world BJJ champion Erica Paes. Paes, who was five years her senior, was the first woman to train at the legendary Brazilian Top Team academy, a rival gym of the Chute Boxe gym where Cyborg trained. Cyborg lost the fight via submission in the first round, which remained her only professional loss in MMA until 2018, when she lost for the second time in her career against Amanda Nunes. Although the method of win for Paes was officially recorded as a submission due to a kneebar, Cyborg's team claims that she tapped out due to an elbow injury sustained after a fall in the fight.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: After losing her MMA debut, Cyborg earned her first victory in the sport by defeating Vanessa Porto via unanimous decision. She subsequently won her next three fights in the Brazilian promotion Storm Samurai via first-round TKO finish, improving her record to 4-1.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She made her anticipated United States MMA debut on July 26, 2008, against Shayna Baszler at "". She won the fight by TKO in the second round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She was scheduled to face Dutch submission specialist Marloes Coenen at XMMA 7 on February 27, 2009, but backed out of the fight after signing a new contract with Strikeforce. Cyborg earned a BJJ Purple Belt under her jiu-jitsu instructor Cristiano Marcello in 2009.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She later signed to fight for Strikeforce, which greatly increased the chance that a fight with Gina Carano would take place. In her Strikeforce debut, she faced Hitomi Akano on April 11, 2009, at . Cyborg came in six pounds overweight for the fight. Akano originally rejected the fight due to Cyborg failing to make weight but later accepted the fight. She defeated Akano by TKO in the third round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Before the fight with Carano, Cyborg was interviewed by mmaworldwide.com's reporter Aaron Tru. When asked how long it would take to submit Carano with a choke hold, she choked him.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She fought Gina Carano on August 15, 2009, at for the Women's Featherweight Championship. Cyborg won via TKO at 4:59 of the 5:00 first round. The card was the first time that a major promotion had featured a main event between women. After the match, she hugged Carano, and stated in her interview that she had the utmost respect for Carano, and that it was an honor to fight her.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She next defended her title against Dutch standout Marloes Coenen at a Strikeforce event on January 30, 2010. She won the fight via TKO at 3:40 of round 3.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker stated that the next challenger for Cyborg would most likely be Erin Toughill. However, Toughill later announced her intentions to leave Strikeforce and plans for the fight were cancelled.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: On April 7, 2010, Coker stated that Cyborg would fight again in June. She faced Jan Finney at and won the fight via KO in the second round. Her contract with Strikeforce expired on June 26, 2011. She renewed her Strikeforce contract on August 25, 2011.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: On September 23, 2011, Cyborg announced that she would return to the promotion to face Hiroko Yamanaka. The fight took place at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal on December 17, 2011. She won via TKO just sixteen seconds into the first round; however, on January 6, 2012, it was announced that Cyborg had tested positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. As a result of the banned substance, the fight's result was changed to a no contest. Cyborg had her license suspended for one year and was fined $2,500.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: On February 15, 2013, a month after Strikeforce folded, Cyborg signed a multi-fight deal with Invicta Fighting Championships. She was scheduled to make her debut on April 5 at Invicta FC 5: Penne vs. Waterson against Ediane Gomes to determine who would move on to face Marloes Coenen. However, Gomes suffered an injury and Cyborg instead faced Fiona Muxlow. Cyborg was successful in her return, winning the bout via TKO in the first round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced Marloes Coenen in a rematch for the inaugural Invicta FC Featherweight Championship at on July 13, 2013. She defeated Coenen by TKO in the fourth round to become the first Invicta FC featherweight champion.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She returned to Muay Thai to face Jennifer Colomb at "Lion Fight 11" in Las Vegas on September 20, 2013, defeating the previously undefeated Frenchwoman by TKO in round three. She had initially been set to fight Martina Jindrova but Jindrova withdrew with injury.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: She lost a five-round unanimous decision against Jorina Baars in a fight for the inaugural Lion Fight Women's Welterweight Championship in the co-main event of "Lion Fight 14" in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on March 28, 2014. Baars officially knocked down Cyborg in the first round with a head kick and in the fifth round with a spinning heel kick, although referee Tony Weeks missed at least two other occasions throughout the fight where a knockdown could have been issued. Cyborg hit the canvas from a front kick in one occasion and from a knee on another, both times they were ruled slips by the referee.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In February 2015, Cyborg returned to MMA to defend her Invicta Featherweight title against Charmaine Tweet in the main event at Invicta FC 11. She successfully defended her title, winning the fight via TKO in just under a minute in the first round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced Faith Van Duin on July 9, 2015, at . She won the fight by TKO in the first round due to a knee to the body and punches.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In March 2015, it was announced that Cyborg had signed with the UFC. Cyborg made her promotional debut at UFC 198 against Leslie Smith at a catchweight of 140 pounds. She won the fight by TKO in the first round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced promotional newcomer Lina Länsberg in a catchweight (140 lb) bout on September 24, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 95. The referee stopped the fight midway through the second round after Länsberg could not effectively defend herself.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In December 2016 UFC was notified of a potential USADA doping violation by Cyborg. Cyborg's team immediately responded that it was in regards to a substance that helped her recover from her weight cut. On February 17, 2017, Cyborg was granted a retroactive therapeutic use exemption (TUE). Therefore, her suspension was lifted, and she was immediately eligible to compete.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In March 2017 Cyborg vacated her Invicta featherweight title and called out Germaine de Randamie for the belt targeting UFC 214 in Anaheim, California. The match fell apart since Germaine de Randamie refused to fight, stating that Cyborg was a proven drug cheater and she was willing to get stripped of the belt for not fighting Cyborg. De Randamie was stripped of her belt on June 19, 2017, by UFC and Cyborg was expected to face Megan Anderson to fight for the vacated UFC Women's Featherweight Championship at UFC 214 on July 29 in Anaheim, California. On June 27, Anderson pulled out of the fight due to personal reasons and was replaced by current Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion Tonya Evinger. Cyborg won by TKO in the third round to claim her first UFC championship.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In the first defense of her title and the first fight of her new four-fight contract, Cyborg faced Holly Holm on December 30, 2017, in the main event at UFC 219. She won the fight via unanimous decision. This win also earned her her first Fight of the Night bonus.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced former Invicta bantamweight champion, Yana Kunitskaya, on March 3, 2018, at UFC 222 for her second featherweight title defense. Cyborg won the fight by TKO in the first round. After the win, she gave out 222 burgers to Los Angeles' homeless, as her way of celebration.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced the reigning UFC Women's bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes, for the UFC Women's Featherweight Championship on December 29, 2018, at UFC 232. Nunes defeated Cyborg by knockout early in the first round, handing her the first knockout loss in her MMA career.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced Felicia Spencer on July 27, 2019 at UFC 240 in the co-main event. She won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Following the fight against Spencer, which was the last fight on her contract, UFC president Dana White announced that the UFC would not negotiate a new contract with Cyborg, and they would waive her three-month exclusive negotiating period. This allowed her to immediately begin negotiations with other organizations.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg faced Julia Budd for the Bellator Women's Featherweight Championship on Saturday, January 25, 2020 in Inglewood, California Bellator 238. She won the fight via technical knockout in round four.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: For the fight with Budd, Cyborg trained in South Africa with trainers Richie Quan, Boyd Allen, and Martin Van Staden. Her and her team's goal for the camp was to train for well-roundedness and to be ready for anything.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: After winning her fourth World Championship, Cyborg has stated she would like to make an attempt at a belt in boxing.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In the first defense of her title, Cyborg faced Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 249 on October 15, 2020. She won the bout via second round submission, earning the first submission of her MMA career.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg made her second defense of the title against Leslie Smith on May 21, 2021 in the main event at Bellator 259. They previously met at UFC 198, which was Cyborg's UFC debut, where she won by TKO in the first round. She won the bout via TKO after knocking Smith down and finished her with punches late in the last round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg defended her title against Sinead Kavanagh on November 12, 2021 at Bellator 271. After exchanging on the feet, Cyborg knocked Kavanagh out early in the first round.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg defended her title in a rematch against Arlene Blencowe on April 23, 2022 at Bellator 279. She retained the title and won the bout via unanimous decision. The following summer Cyborg became a free agent.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg made her professional boxing debut on September 25, 2022, facing Simone Silva, a former Brazilian National Boxing Champion, at Fight Music Show 2. Silva had suffered a knockout loss due to a body punch a month prior to the fight and was suspended by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, however Simone Silva was required to complete additional medicals that allowed the Associaçáo Paranaense De Lutas Commission to sanction the bout as a professional fight. Cyborg won the bout via unanimous decision.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In her sophomore performance on December 11, 2022 against Gabrielle Holloway as the co-main event under Terence Crawford vs. David Avanesyan at CHI Health Center in Omaha, she dropped Holloway and outpointed her on to a unanimous decision victory. The Event drew a paid attendance of 14,630 paid to set a state of Nebraska record for largest boxing gate.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg was married to fellow mixed martial artist Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, and "adopted" his nickname. The couple split in December 2011. She has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2016. Cyborg announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend, trainer, and former MMA athlete Ray Elbe in 2017.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: In 2018, Cyborg legally adopted her teenage niece, making her historically the first mother to hold a UFC championship belt.


title: Cris Cyborg

text: Cyborg works with Fight For The Forgotten, a non-profit organization organized by Justin Wren that digs wells to provide drinking water for Ugandan Pygmys. After earning her first submission victory in a 26-fight MMA career, she was awarded her BJJ Black Belt by Rubens 'Cobrinha' Charles.


title: Geoduck

text: The Pacific geoduck ("gooey-duck"; ; "Panopea generosa") is a species of very large saltwater clam in the family Hiatellidae. The common name is derived from the Lushootseed (Nisqually) word .


title: Geoduck

text: The geoduck is native to the coastal waters of the eastern North Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Baja California. The shell of the clam ranges from to over in length, but the extremely long siphons make the clam itself much longer than this: the "neck" or siphons alone can be in length. The geoduck is the largest burrowing clam in the world. It is also one of the longest-living animals of any type, with a typical lifespan of 140 years; the oldest has been recorded at 179 years old. The precise longevity of geoducks can be determined from annual rings deposited in the shell which can be assigned to calendar years of formation through crossdating. These annual rings also serve as an archive of past marine variability.


title: Geoduck

text: The name "geoduck" is derived from a Lushootseed (Nisqually) word , either a word composed of a first element of unknown meaning and meaning "genitals" (referring to the shape of the clam), or a phrase meaning "dig deep", or perhaps both, as a double entendre. It is sometimes known as a "mud duck", "king clam" or, when translated literally from Chinese, an "elephant-trunk clam" (). A group of geoducks is called a "bag".


title: Geoduck

text: Between 1983 and 2010, the scientific name of this clam was confused with that of an extinct clam, "Panopea abrupta" (Conrad, 1849), in scientific literature.


title: Geoduck

text: Native to the west coast of Canada and the northwest coast of the United States (primarily Washington and British Columbia), these marine bivalve mollusks are the largest burrowing clams in the world, weighing in at an average of at maturity, but specimens weighing over and as much as in length are not unheard of.


title: Geoduck

text: A related species, "Panopea zelandica", is found in New Zealand and has been harvested commercially since 1989. The largest quantities have come from Golden Bay in the South Island where 100 tonnes were harvested in one year. There is a growing concern over the increase of parasites in the Puget Sound population of geoduck. Whether these microsporidium-like parasitic species were introduced by commercial farming is being studied by Sea Grant. Research to date does indicate their presence.


title: Geoduck

text: The oldest recorded specimen was 179 years old, but individuals usually live up to 140 years. A geoduck sucks water containing plankton down through its long siphon, filters this for food and ejects its refuse out through a separate hole in the siphon. Adult geoducks have few natural predators, which may also contribute to their longevity. In Alaska, sea otters and dogfish have proved capable of dislodging geoducks; starfish also attack and feed on the exposed geoduck siphon.


title: Geoduck

text: Geoducks are broadcast spawners. A female geoduck produces about 5 billion eggs in her century-long lifespan. However, due to a low rate of recruitment and a high rate of mortality for geoduck eggs, larvae, and post-settled juveniles, populations are slow to rebound. In the Puget Sound, studies indicate that the recovery time for a harvested tract is 39 years.


title: Geoduck

text: Biomass densities in Southeast Alaska are estimated by divers, then inflated by twenty percent to account for geoducks not visible at the time of survey. This estimate is used to predict the two percent allowed for commercial harvesting.


title: Geoduck

text: The world's first geoduck fishery was created in 1970, but demand for the half-forgotten clam was low at first due to its texture. , these clams sell in China for over US.


title: Geoduck

text: The geoduck's high market value has created an $80-million industry, with harvesting occurring in the US states of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon and the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of the most closely regulated fisheries in both countries. In Washington, Department of Natural Resources staff are on the water continually monitoring harvests to ensure revenues are received, and the same is true in Canada where the Underwater Harvesters' Association manages the Canadian Fishery in conjunction with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The Washington State Department of Health tests water and flesh to assure clams are not filtering and holding pollutants, an ongoing problem. With the rise in price has come the inevitable problem with poaching, and with it the possibility some could be harvested from unsafe areas.


title: Geoduck

text: , advances in the testing system for contaminated clams have allowed geoduck harvesters to deliver live clams more consistently. The new testing system determines the viability of clams from tested beds before the harvesters fish the area. Previous methods tested clams after harvest. This advancement has meant that 90 percent of clams were delivered live to market in 2007. In 2001, only 10 percent were live. Because geoduck have a much higher market value live, an additional , this development has helped to stimulate the burgeoning industry.


title: Geoduck

text: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the geoduck industry. Given the near-shutdown of restaurants and seafood markets across the country, demand for live geoducks plummeted. Divers in Southeast Alaska who typically see prices of $5 to $10/lb for live geoducks reported prices as low as $1/lb, leading many to stop fishing temporarily.


title: Geoduck

text: Geoduck farming grow-out and harvest practices are controversial, and have created conflicts with shoreline property owners, and concerns from nongovernmental organizations. However, the Environmental Defense Fund has found that bivalves (oysters, mussels, and clams) are beneficial to the marine environment. The water must be certifiably clean to plant geoducks commercially. Regulation was mandated in 2007. Studies have been funded to determine short- and long-term environmental and genetic impacts. In southern Puget Sound, the effect of geoduck farming on large mobile animals is ambiguous. A 2004 draft biological assessment, commissioned by three of the largest commercial shellfish companies in the Puget Sound region, identified no long-term effects of geoduck farming on threatened or endangered species.


title: Geoduck

text: The large, meaty siphon is prized for its savory flavor and crunchy texture. Geoduck is regarded by some as an aphrodisiac because of its phallic shape. It is very popular in China, where it is considered a delicacy, mostly eaten cooked in a fondue-style Chinese hot pot. In Korean cuisine, geoducks are eaten raw with spicy chili sauce, sautéed, or in soups and stews. In Japan, geoduck is prepared as raw sashimi, dipped in soy sauce and wasabi. On Japanese menus in cheaper sushi restaurants, geoduck is sometimes substituted for "Tresus keenae", a species of horse clam, and labeled or . It is considered to have a texture similar to an ark shell (known in Japanese as ). is sometimes translated into English as "giant clam", and it is distinguished from sushi, which is made from "Tridacna gigas".


title: Geoduck

text: In December 2013, China imposed a ban on geoduck and other "double-shell aquatic animals"—such as clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops—that were imported from the west coast of the United States. Chinese officials found in an Alaskan shipment high levels of saxitoxin, a natural product that certain shellfish can accumulate, which when eaten by humans, can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning resulting in severe illness or even death. A shipment from Washington state was high in arsenic. The ban was in place for less than 6 months, ending in May 2014.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Out of Africa is a 1985 American epic romantic drama film directed and produced by Sydney Pollack, and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The film is based loosely on the 1937 autobiographical book "Out of Africa" written by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish author Karen Blixen), with additional material from Dinesen's 1960 book "Shadows on the Grass" and other sources.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The book was adapted into a screenplay by the writer Kurt Luedtke, and filmed in 1984. Streep played Karen Blixen, Redford played Denys Finch Hatton, and Klaus Maria Brandauer played Baron Bror Blixen. Others in the film include Michael Kitchen as Berkeley Cole, Malick Bowens as Farah, Stephen Kinyanjui as the Chief, Michael Gough as Lord Delamere, Suzanna Hamilton as Felicity, and the model and actress Iman as Mariammo. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. It was also a commercial success and won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Pollack.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Karen Blixen recalls her life in Africa where she moved in 1913 as an unmarried wealthy Dane. After having been spurned by her Swedish nobleman lover, she asks his brother, Baron Bror Blixen, to marry out of mutual convenience, and they move to the vicinity of Nairobi, British East Africa. Using her funds, he is to set up a dairy ranch, with her joining him a few months later, at which time they will marry. En route to Nairobi, her train is hailed by a big-game hunter named Denys Finch Hatton, who knows her fiancé and entrusts his haul of ivory to her.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: She is greeted at the railway station by Farah, the Somali headman hired by Bror, who is nowhere to be found. She is taken to the recently founded Muthaiga Club. She enters the men-only salon to ask for her husband and, because of her gender, is asked to leave. Karen and Bror marry before the day is out, and she becomes Baroness Blixen.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: She then learns that Bror has changed their agreed-upon plan, and has spent her money to establish a coffee farm. She quickly learns that the farm is at too high an elevation to offer much of a chance of success. She needs Bror's help in building and managing this farm, but his interest is more in guiding game hunting safaris than in farming.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Karen comes to love Africa and the African people, and is taken in by the breathtaking view of the nearby Ngong Hills and the Great Rift Valley beyond. Meanwhile, she looks after the Kikuyu people who are squatting on her land. Among other things, she establishes a school, helps with their medical needs, and arbitrates their disputes. She also attempts to establish a formal European homelife on par with the other upper class colonists in the area. Meanwhile, she becomes friends with a young woman, Felicity (whose character is based on a young Beryl Markham). Eventually, Karen and Bror develop feelings for each other. But Bror continues to pursue other sexual relationships because their marriage is still a partnership based on convenience.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: As the First World War reaches East Africa, the colonists form a militia led by the colonial patriarch Lord Delamere, which includes Denys and Bror among their number. A military expedition sets out in search of the forces from the neighboring German colony of German East Africa. Responding to the militia's need for supplies, Karen leads a difficult expedition to find them and returns safely. Shortly after the end of the war, in the evenings, Karen makes up exotic and imaginative stories to entertain her visitors.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Karen discovers that Bror has given her syphilis. As she is unable to receive proper treatment in Nairobi, she returns to Denmark for treatment and recuperation. Bror agrees to manage the farm while she is away. When she returns, now unable to bear children, Bror resumes his safari work and they begin to live separately.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The relationship between Karen and Denys develops, and he comes to live with her. Denys acquires a Gipsy Moth biplane and often takes Karen flying. Karen and Bror get a divorce on the grounds of Bror's infidelity. When Karen learns that Denys has taken one of her female acquaintances on a private safari, Karen comes to realize that Denys does not share her desire for a monogamous, domestic relationship. He assures her that when he is with her he wants to be with her, and states that a marriage is immaterial to their relationship. Eventually, this drives them apart and, refusing to be tied down, he moves out.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The farm eventually yields a good harvest, but a fire destroys much of the farm and factory, forcing her to sell out. She prepares for her departure from Kenya to Denmark by appealing to the incoming governor to provide land for her Kikuyu workers to allow them to stay together, and by selling most of her remaining possessions at a rummage sale. Denys visits the now-empty house and Karen comments that the house should have been (empty) all-along and, as with her other efforts, the returning of things to their natural state is as it should be. Denys says that he was just getting used to her things.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: As he is about to depart for a safari scouting trip in his airplane, they agree that the following Friday he will return and fly her to Mombasa; with Karen then continuing on to Denmark. Friday comes and Denys does not appear. Bror then arrives to tell her that Denys' biplane has crashed and burned in Tsavo. During Denys' funeral, Karen recites an excerpt of a poem by A. E. Housman about a lauded athlete dying young who, as with Denys, is not fated to decline into old age. Later, as she is about to depart, she goes to the Muthaiga Club to complete arrangements for forwarding any mail. The members, having come to admire her, invite her into the men-only salon for a toast. At the railway station, she gives Farah the compass that Denys had given to her, and says goodbye to Farah, then turns back to ask him to say her name so she can hear his voice one last time. Later, Farah writes to Karen in Denmark, telling her that a pair of lions often visit Denys' grave.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: As the movie ends, the on-screen narrative notes that Karen later became a published author under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Among her work is the memoir about her experiences in Africa, "Out of Africa", the first line from which is used to introduce this film. She never returned to Africa.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The film tells the story as a series of six loosely coupled episodes from Karen's life, intercut with her narration. The final two narrations, the first a reflection on Karen's experiences in Kenya and the second a description of Finch Hatton's grave, were taken from her book "Out of Africa", while the others were written for the film in imitation of her very lyrical writing style. The pace of this film is often rather slow, reflecting Blixen's book, "Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise..."


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Klaus Maria Brandauer was director Sydney Pollack's only choice for Bror Blixen, even having trouble to pick a replacement when it appeared that Brandauer's schedule would prevent him from participating. Robert Redford became Finch Hatton, with Pollack thinking Redford had a charm no British actor could convey. Meryl Streep landed the part by showing up for her meeting with the director wearing a low-cut blouse and a push-up bra, as Pollack had originally thought the actress did not have enough sex appeal for the role.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: "Out of Africa" was filmed using descendants of several people of the Kikuyu tribe who are named in the book, including the grandson of chief Kinyanjui who played his grandfather. Much of it was filmed in the Karen / Lang'ata area near the actual Ngong Hills outside Nairobi. The Chyulu Hills stood in for the less picturesque Ngong Hills. As Karen's farmhouse was at the time of filming a part of a local nursing school, the filming took place in her nearby first house "Mbogani", which is a dairy today. Her actual house, known as "Mbagathi" is now the Karen Blixen Museum. A substantial part of the filming took place in the Scott house and in a recreation of 1910s Nairobi built in an area of unoccupied land in Langata.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The scenes depicting the Government House were shot at Nairobi School with the administration block providing a close replica of British colonial governors' residences. The train sequences were filmed along a section of abandoned track some from Nairobi. The scenes set in Denmark were actually filmed in Surrey, England.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Although bearing the name of Dinesen's book, the picture was actually taken from two other books (not written by her) as well. It quotes the start of the Dinesen's book, "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills" [p. 3], and Karen recites, "He prayeth well that loveth well both man and bird and beast" from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", which becomes the epitaph inscribed on Finch Hatton's grave marker [p. 370].


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The film omits much of Dinesen's book, such as a devastating locust swarm, some local shootings, and her writings about the German army. The production also plays down the size of her farm, which had 800 Kikuyu workers and an 18-oxen wagon. Scenes show Karen as owning only one dog, but actually, she had two similar dogs named Dawn and Dusk.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The movie also takes liberties with Denys and Karen's romance. They met at a hunting club, not in the plains. Denys was away from Kenya for two years on military assignment in Egypt, which is not mentioned. Denys took up flying and began to lead safaris after he moved in with Karen. The film also ignores that Karen was pregnant at least once with Finch Hatton's child but suffered from miscarriages. Furthermore, Denys was an English aristocrat, but this fact was minimized by the hiring of the actor Robert Redford, an inarguably all-American actor who had previously worked with Pollack. When Redford accepted the contract to play, he did so fully intending to play him as an Englishman. Pollack, however, felt an English accent would be distracting for the audience, and told Redford to use his real accent. In fact, Redford reportedly had to re-record some of his lines from early takes in the filming, in which he still spoke with a trace of English accent.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The title scenes of the film show the main railway, from Mombasa to Nairobi, as traveling through the Kenyan Rift Valley, on the steep back side of the actual Ngong Hills. However, the real railway track is located on the higher, opposite side of the Ngong Hills. The passenger car was actually a small combination office/sleeper that was originally used by supervisors during the building of the Uganda Railway and was the actual car from which a man was taken and killed by a marauding lioness.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The music for "Out of Africa" was composed and conducted by veteran English composer John Barry. The score included a number of outside pieces such as Mozart's "Clarinet Concerto" and African traditional songs. The soundtrack garnered Barry an Oscar for Best Original Score and sits in fifteenth place in the American Film Institute's list of top 25 American film scores. The soundtrack was first released through MCA Records in 1985 and features 12 tracks of score at a running time of just over thirty-three minutes. In 1987 a Special Edition was issued that included the song "The Music of Goodbye (Love Theme)" by Melissa Manchester & Al Jarreau. A rerecording conducted by Joel McNeely and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was released in 1997 through Varèse Sarabande and features eighteen tracks of score at a running time just under thirty-nine minutes.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: In the Director's Notes on the DVD of Pollack's 2005 film "The Interpreter", Pollack himself stated that he filmed "Out of Africa" and his later films of that decade in 1.85:1 widescreen; and that it "...probably was one I should have had in widescreen" (i.e. widescreen). In his director's notes, Pollack stated that prior to the filming of "Out of Africa", he made motion pictures exclusively in the anamorphic 2.39:1 widescreen format and style, and that he did not resume the widescreen format, due to the rise of pan and scan which had affected the compositions of many anamorphic movies, until his last movie, "The Interpreter", in 2005.


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 61% based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though lensed with stunning cinematography and featuring a pair of winning performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, "Out of Africa" suffers from excessive length and glacial pacing." Metacritic reports a score of 69 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and called it "one of the great recent epic romances," adding, "What we have here is an old-fashioned, intelligent, thoughtful love story, told with enough care and attention that we really get involved in the passions among the characters." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" described it as "a big, physically elaborate but wispy movie" with Redford's character "a total cipher, and a charmless one at that. It's not Mr. Redford's fault. There's no role for him to act." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and declared, "My basic problem with this otherwise sumptuous and well-acted film is that I never was able to accept Redford in character ... He seems distant to the point of distraction. He is not convincing in his period outfits. He looks and acts as if he just walked out of the safari fitting room at Abercrombie & Fitch." David Ansen of "Newsweek" wrote that the film was "well worth the wait," calling it "a sprawling but always intelligent romantic epic that depicts Karen Blixen's struggles to hold on to both the man and the land she loves and cannot possess." Sheila Benson of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the film "seems to be just the thing for famished culture mavens at Christmastime. Unfortunately, and through no fault of Meryl Streep, there doesn't seem to be enough electricity generated out there in Africa to power a love story 2½ hours long." "Variety" found that the film "rarely really comes to life except when Redford is around, which unfortunately is not often in the first hour," but once Streep and Redford get together it becomes "a wonderful romance, probably Redford's best since 'The Way We Were.'" Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" described the film as "unsatisfying" and wrote that Streep is "animated in the early scenes; she's amusing when she acts ditsy, and she has some oddly affecting moments. Her character doesn't deepen though, or come to mean more to us, and Redford doesn't give out with anything for her to play against." Paul Attanasio of "The Washington Post" stated that the film "has little in the way of narrative drive" and "rarely seems more than an elevated form of tourism."


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: Reviewing the film in 2009, James Berardinelli wrote, "Watching "Out of Africa" a quarter of a century after its release, it's almost impossible to guess how it won the Oscar for Best Picture ... Sydney Pollack's direction is quietly competent and the acting by Meryl Streep and Robert Redford is top notch. But the lazy story is little more than an ordinary melodrama that simmers without ever reaching a boil. To tell the truth, during the entirety of the movie's nearly three-hour running length, I was more interested in the scenery and Barry's music than I was in the characters."


title: Out of Africa (film)

text: The film was the fifth-highest grossing film of 1985 in the United States and Canada with a gross of $87 million. It grossed $227.5 million worldwide and was the second highest-grossing film in Germany with a gross of $23 million.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; "brea" in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Over many centuries, the bones of trapped animals have been preserved. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. La Brea Tar Pits is a registered National Natural Landmark.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Tar pits are composed of heavy oil fractions called gilsonite, which seeps from the Earth as oil. Crude oil seeps up along the 6th Street Fault from the Salt Lake Oil Field, which underlies much of the Fairfax District north of Hancock Park. The oil reaches the surface and forms pools, becoming asphalt as the lighter fractions of the petroleum biodegrade or evaporate. The asphalt then normally hardens into stubby mounds. The pools and mounds can be seen in several areas of the park.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: This seepage has been happening for tens of thousands of years, during which the asphalt sometimes formed a deposit thick enough to trap animals. The deposit would become covered over with water, dust, or leaves. Animals would wander in, become trapped, and die. Predators would enter to eat the trapped animals and would also become stuck. As the bones of a dead animal sink, the asphalt soaks into them, turning them dark-brown or black in color. Lighter fractions of petroleum evaporate from the asphalt, leaving a more solid substance, which then encases the bones. Dramatic fossils of large mammals have been extricated but the asphalt also preserves microfossils: wood and plant remnants, rodent bones, insects, mollusks, dust, seeds, leaves, and pollen grains. Examples of some of these are on display in the George C. Page Museum. Radiometric dating of preserved wood and bones has given an age of 38,000 years for the oldest known material from the La Brea seeps.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: The Native American Chumash and Tongva people living in the area built boats unlike any others in North America. Pulling fallen Northern California redwood trunks and pieces of driftwood from the Santa Barbara Channel, their ancestors learned to seal the cracks between the boards of the large wooden plank canoes by using the natural resource of tar. This innovative form of transportation allowed access up and down the coastline and to the Channel Islands. The Portolá expedition, a group of Spanish explorers led by Gaspar de Portolá, made the first written record of the tar pits in 1769. Father Juan Crespí wrote,


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: While crossing the basin, the scouts reported having seen some geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs; it boils up molten, and the water runs to one side and the tar to the other. The scouts reported that they had come across many of these springs and had seen large swamps of them, enough, they said, to caulk many vessels. We were not so lucky ourselves as to see these tar geysers, much though we wished it; as it was some distance out of the way we were to take, the Governor [Portolá] did not want us to go past them. We christened them "Los Volcanes de Brea" [the Tar Volcanoes].


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Harrison Rogers, who accompanied Jedediah Smith on his 1826 expedition to California, was shown a piece of the solidified asphalt while at Mission San Gabriel, and noted in his journal, "The Citizens of the Country make great use of it to pitch the roofs of their houses".


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: The La Brea Tar Pits and Hancock Park are situated within what was once the Mexican land grant of Rancho La Brea. For some years, tar-covered bones were found on the Rancho La Brea property, but were not initially recognized as fossils because the ranch had lost various animals–including horses, cattle, dogs, and even camels–whose bones closely resemble several of the fossil species. The original Rancho La Brea land grant stipulated that the tar pits be open to the public for the use of the local Pueblo. Initially, they mistook the bones in the pits for the remains of pronghorn ("Antilocapra americana") or cattle that had become mired.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: In 1886, the first excavation for land pitch in the village of La Brea was undertaken by "Messrs Turnbull, Stewart & co.".


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Union Oil geologist W. W. Orcutt is credited, in 1901, with first recognizing that fossilized prehistoric animal bones were preserved in pools of asphalt on the Hancock Ranch. In commemoration of Orcutt's initial discovery, paleontologists named the La Brea coyote ("Canis latrans orcutti") in his honor.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: John C. Merriam of the University of California led much of the original work in this area early in the 1900s.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Contemporary excavations of the bones started in 1913–1915. In the 1940s and 1950s, public excitement was generated by the preparation of previously recovered large mammal bones. A subsequent study demonstrated the fossil vertebrate material was well preserved, with little evidence of bacterial degradation of bone protein. They are believed to be some 10–20,000 years old, dating from the last glacial period.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: On February 18, 2009, George C. Page Museum announced the 2006 discovery of 16 fossil deposits that had been removed from the ground during the construction of an underground parking garage for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art next to the tar pits. Among the finds are remains of a saber-toothed cat, dire wolves, bison, horses, a giant ground sloth, turtles, snails, clams, millipedes, fish, gophers, and an American lion. Also discovered is a nearly intact mammoth skeleton, nicknamed Zed; the only pieces missing are a rear leg, a vertebra, and the top of its skull, which was sheared off by construction equipment in preparation to build the parking structure.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: These fossils were packaged in boxes at the construction site and moved to a compound behind Pit 91, on Page Museum property, so that construction could continue. Twenty-three large accumulations of tar and specimens were taken to the Page Museum. These deposits are worked on under the name "Project 23". As work for the public transit D Line is extended, museum researchers know more tar pits will be uncovered, for example near the intersection of Wilshire and Curson. In an exploratory subway dig in 2014 on the Miracle Mile, prehistoric objects unearthed included geoducks, sand dollars, and a from a pine tree, of a type now found in Central California's woodlands.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: In 1913, George Allan Hancock, the owner of Rancho La Brea, granted the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County exclusive excavation rights at the Tar Pits for two years. In those two years, the museum was able to extract 750,000 specimens at 96 sites, guaranteeing that a large collection of fossils would remain consolidated and available to the community. Then in 1924, Hancock donated to LA County with the stipulation that the county provide for the preservation of the park and the exhibition of fossils found there.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: The George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, was built next to the tar pits in Hancock Park on Wilshire Boulevard. Construction began in 1975, and the museum opened to the public in 1977. The area is part of urban Los Angeles in the Miracle Mile District.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: The museum tells the story of the tar pits and presents specimens excavated from them. Visitors can walk around the park and see the tar pits. On the grounds of the park are life-sized models of prehistoric animals in or near the tar pits. Of more than 100 pits, only Pit 91 is still regularly excavated by researchers and can be seen at the Pit 91 viewing station. In addition to Pit 91, the one other ongoing excavation is called "Project 23". Paleontologists supervise and direct the work of volunteers at both sites.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: As a result of a design competition in 2019, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County chose Weiss/Manfredi over Dorte Mandrup and Diller Scofidio + Renfro to redesign the park, including by adding a 3,281-foot-long pedestrian walkway framing Lake Pitt.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: In respect of it being the 'richest paleontological site on Earth for terrestrial fossils of late Quaternary age', the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included the 'Late Quaternary asphalt seeps and paleontological site of La Brea Tar Pits' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.'


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Among the prehistoric species associated with the La Brea Tar Pits are Pleistocene mammoths, dire wolves, short-faced bears, American lions, ground sloths, and, the state fossil of California, the saber-toothed cat ("Smilodon fatalis").


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: The park is known for producing myriad mammal fossils dating from the last glacial period. While mammal fossils generate significant interest, other fossils, including fossilized insects and plants, and even pollen grains, are also valued. These fossils help define a picture of what is thought to have been a cooler, moister climate in the Los Angeles basin during the glacial age. Microfossils are retrieved from the matrix of asphalt and sandy clay by washing with a solvent to remove the petroleum, then picking through the remains under a high-powered lens.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Tar pits around the world are unusual in accumulating more predators than prey. The reason for this is unknown, but one theory is that a large prey animal would die or become stuck in a tar pit, attracting predators across long distances. This predator trap would catch predators along with their prey. Another theory is that dire wolves and their prey were trapped during a hunt. Since modern wolves hunt in packs, each prey animal could take several wolves with it. The same may be true of saber-toothed cats known from the area. The most common animals from this area included dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, coyotes, ancient bison, and Jefferson's ground sloth.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Methane gas escapes from the tar pits, causing bubbles that make the asphalt appear to boil. Asphalt and methane appear under surrounding buildings and require special operations for removal to prevent the weakening of building foundations. In 2007, researchers from UC Riverside discovered that the bubbles were caused by hardy forms of bacteria embedded in the natural asphalt. After consuming petroleum, the bacteria release methane. Around 200 to 300 species of bacteria were newly discovered here.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Only one human has been found, a partial skeleton of the La Brea Woman dated to around 10,000 calendar years (about 9,000 radiocarbon years) BP, who was 17 to 25 years old at death and found associated with remains of a domestic dog, so was interpreted to have been ceremonially interred. In 2016, however, the dog was determined to be much younger in date.


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: Also, some even older fossils showed possible tool marks, indicating humans active in the area at the time. Saber-toothed cat bones from La Brea showing signs of ‘artificial’ cut marks at oblique angles to the long axis of each bone were radiocarbon dated to 15,200 ± 800 B.P. (uncalibrated).


title: La Brea Tar Pits

text: If these cuts are in fact tool marks resultant from butchering activities, then this material would provide the earliest solid evidence for human association with the Los Angeles Basin. Yet it is also possible that there was some residual contamination of the material as a result of saturation by asphaltum, influencing the radiocarbon dates.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently during its first decade, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. Since early 2004, the lineup has been unchanged, consisting of Tweedy, Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, keyboard player Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released twelve studio albums, a live double album, and four collaborations: three with Billy Bragg and one with The Minus 5.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco's music has been inspired by a wide variety of artists and styles, including Bill Fay, The Beatles and Television, and has in turn influenced music by a number of modern alternative rock acts. The band continued in the alternative country style of Uncle Tupelo on its debut album "A.M." (1995), but has since introduced more experimental aspects to their music, including elements of alternative rock and classic pop. Wilco's musical style has evolved from a 1990s country rock sound to a current "eclectic indie rock collective that touches on many eras and genres".


title: Wilco

text: Wilco garnered media attention for their fourth album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" (2001), and the controversy surrounding it. After the recording sessions were complete, Reprise Records rejected the album and dismissed Wilco from the label. As part of a buy-out deal, Reprise gave Wilco the rights to the album for free. After streaming "Foxtrot" on its website, Wilco sold the album to Nonesuch Records in 2002. Both record labels are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group, leading one critic to say the album showed "how screwed up the music business is in the early twenty-first century." "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is Wilco's most successful release to date, selling over 670,000 copies. Wilco won two Grammy Awards for their fifth studio album, 2004's "A Ghost Is Born", including Best Alternative Music Album. Wilco released their twelfth studio album, "Cruel Country", in May 2022.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco was formed following the breakup of the influential alternative country music group Uncle Tupelo. Singer Jay Farrar quit the band in 1994 because of a soured relationship with co-singer Jeff Tweedy. Both Tweedy and Farrar sought to form bands immediately after the breakup. Tweedy was able to keep the entire Uncle Tupelo lineup sans Farrar, including bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer, and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston. He even enlisted Uncle Tupelo guest guitarist Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets, who performed on many of the tracks for Wilco's debut album, "A.M.". The band was tempted to keep the Uncle Tupelo name, but ultimately decided to rename the band. The group named itself "Wilco" after the military and commercial aviation radio voice abbreviation for "will comply", a choice which Tweedy has called "fairly ironic for a rock band to name themselves."


title: Wilco

text: After collaborating with Syd Straw on a cover version of the Ernest Tubb song "The T.B. is Whipping Me" (released in September 1994 on the "Red Hot + Country" compilation produced by the Red Hot Organization), Wilco began recording tracks for "A.M.", their first studio album, at Easley studio in June 1994. A demo tape from these recordings was sent to executives at Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, and the label signed Tweedy to a contract. Although Tweedy stated that he wanted a more collaborative project than Uncle Tupelo, only his name appeared on the Reprise contract. Tweedy requested songwriting submissions from other members, but only one submission—John Stirratt's "It's Just That Simple"—appeared on "A.M.". It was the last song Wilco ever released that was lyrically solely written by a member besides Tweedy.


title: Wilco

text: Stylistically similar to Uncle Tupelo, the music on "A.M." was considered to be straightforward alternative country rock in what Tweedy later described as "trying to tread some water with a perceived audience." "A.M." peaked at number twenty-seven on the "Billboard" Heatseekers chart, considerably lower than the debut album of Jay Farrar's new band, Son Volt. The album was met with modest reviews though it would rank thirty-fourth in the "Village Voice"'s 1995 Pazz & Jop critics poll. Critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt's album, the Wilco members perceived "A.M." to be a failure. Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing the band with a keyboardist and another guitarist.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco made its live debut on November 17, 1994 to a capacity crowd at Cicero's Basement Bar in St. Louis, Missouri (the band was billed for the occasion as "Black Shampoo").


title: Wilco

text: During the two hundred-date tour supporting "A.M.", Tweedy began to write songs for a second album. The lyrical theme of the songs reflected a relationship between musical artist and a listener; Tweedy chose this topic because he sought to eschew the alternative country fan base. Ken Coomer elaborated:


title: Wilco

text: The whole "No Depression" thing was funny to us because people seemed to forget that Jeff was a bigger punk-rock fan than a country fan. It led to things like us all switching instruments on "Misunderstood," where I'm playing guitar.


title: Wilco

text: A number of songs were recorded with this theme, including "Sunken Treasure" and "Hotel Arizona", however, Wilco also recorded a number of songs in the style of "A.M." Wilco named the album "Being There" after a Peter Sellers film of the same name. The band went through some personnel changes during the recording sessions. Max Johnston left the band because he felt that his role in the band had diminished in favor of Bennett; he had also been replaced by violinist Jesse Greene on one track because the band felt that Johnston was unable to play the part. Bob Egan of Freakwater briefly joined the band in the studio, playing pedal steel guitar on "Far, Far Away" and "Dreamer in My Dreams", and then became an official member in September 1996.


title: Wilco

text: Unlike the "A.M." recording sessions, the band had no desire to produce a hit song from their second effort. The recording sessions produced nineteen songs, too many for a single album release. Tweedy was concerned about the high retail price that a double album would be sold for (at least $30), so he asked Reprise Records to release it as a double album at a single album price ($17.98 or less). Reprise agreed to this on the terms that they received Wilco's share of the album royalties. It was estimated in 2003 that the band lost almost $600,000 on the deal, but Tweedy was satisfied. "Being There" was well received by critics from several major media outlets, including "Rolling Stone". The album reached No. 73 on the "Billboard" album charts, a significant improvement from "A.M.", and placed fourteenth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1996. The album's single "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" became the group's first song to enter the "Billboard" charts, reaching No. 39 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 22 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.


title: Wilco

text: In November 1997, Wilco entered Willie Nelson's recording studio in Spicewood, Texas to record a third studio album. The album was lyrically inspired by the marital problems of Tweedy and his wife, as well as by twentieth-century literature. Tweedy relied heavily on Bennett to provide music for the singer's "bold, but depressing" lyrics. Wilco recorded several songs, including "Via Chicago" and "She's a Jar", but began working on another project before assembling the tracks into an album.


title: Wilco

text: Nora Guthrie contacted singer-songwriter Billy Bragg in spring 1995 about recording some unreleased songs by her father, folk singer Woody Guthrie. Most of the songs were written late in Guthrie's life when he was unable to record due to the motor impairments of Huntington's disease. By the 1990s, Woody Guthrie had become a "relic" to the MTV generation, and Nora sought to establish a different legacy for the musician. To Nora, Bragg was "the only singer I knew taking on the same issues as Woody." Bragg was concerned, however, that his fans would not realize that the songs were written by Guthrie when he performed them on tour, so he decided to record the album with another band.


title: Wilco

text: Bragg contacted Tweedy and Bennett about co-recording the album while Wilco was on the European segment of their "Being There" tour. Bragg was particularly fond of "Being There" because their influences extended farther back than the 1950s. Although Tweedy was indifferent to the offer, Bennett was enthused about recording songs with one of his idols—Bennett's previous band Titanic Love Affair was named after a Billy Bragg lyric. A recording contract between Bragg and Wilco was signed after a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Bragg mostly recorded the politically charged lyrics, while Tweedy preferred to record lyrics that showcased Guthrie as a "freak weirdo." The recording of "Mermaid Avenue" began on December 12, 1997, and was the topic of BBC's "Man in the Sand" documentary film.


title: Wilco

text: Tempers flared between Bragg and Wilco after the album was completed. Bennett believed that Bragg was overproducing his songs, a sharp contrast to Wilco's sparser contributions. Bennett called Bragg about the possibility of remixing Bragg's songs, to which Bragg responded "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Eventually Bragg sent copies of his recordings to Chicago for Bennett to remix, but Bragg refused to use the new mixes on the album. The two parties were unable to establish a promotional tour and quarreled over royalties and guest musician fees.


title: Wilco

text: Despite these conflicts, the album was released on June 23, 1998, and sold over 277,000 copies. The album received rave reviews from Robert Christgau and "Rolling Stone", and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. It also placed fourth on the Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1998. After the album was released, Bob Egan was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach.


title: Wilco

text: After the completion of the "Mermaid Avenue" sessions, Wilco returned to Spicewood to complete their third studio album, "Summerteeth". Unlike previous Wilco and Uncle Tupelo recordings, the album featured a lot of overdubbing with Pro Tools. Stirratt and Coomer were concerned with the production, since it reduced their involvement in the music. According to Stirratt:


title: Wilco

text: The story of "Summerteeth" is Jay bought a Mellotron and he was going to use it, no matter what. It was lovely, but it was overdone. Once they got going on the overdubs, they didn't stop. And nobody in the band stepped up to stop the madness ... It reminds me of "Heart of Darkness", where you knowingly extend the creative process for the purpose of exploration or redemption, or whatever it is you're looking for.


title: Wilco

text: During 1999, Warner Brothers was looking to help repay a $16 billion debt acquired during the recent merger of parent company Warner Communications with Time Inc. As a result, Warner's imprints were under pressure to produce musical acts that would yield hit records. The head of Reprise, Howie Klein, who had previously authorized the release of "Being There" as a double album, was willing to let Wilco produce "Summerteeth" without label input. When Klein played the album for Reprise's A&R department, however, they demanded a radio single for the album. Wilco agreed to do this "once and once only" and recorded a radio-friendly version of "Can't Stand It" at the request of David Kahne, the head of the A&R department. The single version of "Can't Stand It" failed to cross over from Triple-A radio to alternative rock stations. Consequently, the album sold only 200,000 copies, significantly less than "Being There". This was despite critical acclaim; the album placed eighth on the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1999.


title: Wilco

text: After the release of "Summerteeth", the band resumed the "Mermaid Avenue" sessions. Although they had recorded enough material for a second release in 1998, Wilco recorded a few new songs for "Mermaid Avenue Vol. II". "Someday Some Morning Sometime," featuring a vibraphone filtered through a space echo, was identified by Tweedy as being the "piece to the puzzle" towards the creation of their fourth studio album. The album was released on May 30, 2000, and was the last release from the sessions. The remainder of the sessions were released in 2012 as "Mermaid Avenue Vol. III", also part of "".


title: Wilco

text: Shortly after the recording sessions for "Mermaid Avenue Vol. II", Wilco purchased a studio on Irving Park Road in Chicago, which they named the Wilco Loft. The band recorded some tracks in the studio in early 2000 for a fourth studio album. In May 2000, Jeff Tweedy requested to perform with Jim O'Rourke at a festival in Chicago; Tweedy was a fan of O'Rourke's "Bad Timing". O'Rourke introduced Tweedy to drummer Glenn Kotche, and the trio enjoyed working together so much that they decided to record an album as a side project named Loose Fur. Wilco had recorded an entire album of music at this point, but Tweedy was unhappy with the drum parts. He enjoyed Kotche's contributions to Loose Fur so much that Tweedy brought him into the studio to re-record some demos. Some believe that Tweedy sought to make Wilco sound like Loose Fur after officially replacing Ken Coomer with Kotche in January 2001.


title: Wilco

text: Although Bennett sought to act as both mixer and engineer for "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", Tweedy was unsure of Bennett's abilities against those of O'Rourke. Tweedy and Bennett frequently argued over whether the album should be accessible to a general listener, or attempt to cover new musical ground. Unbeknownst to Bennett, Tweedy invited O'Rourke to remix "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", and the results impressed the other band members—even Bennett. Tensions grew between Bennett and O'Rourke because Bennett wanted to mix every song on the album. O'Rourke cut the contributions of other members on several of the songs; some songs, such as "Poor Places", only featured the Loose Fur trio. The album was completed in 2001, and Bennett was dismissed from the band immediately afterwards. The recording of the album was documented by Sam Jones and released in 2002 as the film "".


title: Wilco

text: Time Warner, which owned Warner Bros. Records, merged with America Online in 2001, leading to more pressure on Warner's record labels to cut costs. Over 600 employees of Warner Music Group were fired, including Howie Klein, the president of Reprise Records. In absence of Klein, David Kahne became the interim head of Reprise. Kahne assigned Mio Vukovic to monitor the progress of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and to offer suggestions. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that Vukovic disliked the album and was unhappy that Wilco ignored his suggestions. He brought the album to Kahne, who felt that there was no single on the album. In June 2001, the album was rejected by Reprise and Wilco was asked to leave the label.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco managed to negotiate a buy-out from Reprise. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that instead of financial compensation, the band agreed to leave the label with the master tapes of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". The label was already receiving bad publicity for its treatment of the band and were willing to accommodate Wilco's request. However, Allmusic claims that Wilco "bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise Records for a reported $50,000 and left the label altogether" after Wilco was "[u]nwilling to change the album to make it more 'commercially viable'." To curb the negative publicity, Warner Music Group began to invest more in bands such as The Flaming Lips. Lead singer Wayne Coyne once remarked:


title: Wilco

text: We are benefiting from the label's regret over Wilco. We are living in the golden age of that being such a public mistake. The people on Warners said, "we'll never have a band like Wilco feel we don't believe in them again." They'd tell me that it would never happen to us. And what a great day for me!


title: Wilco

text: As the band searched for a new label to release the album, they decided to stream it at their official website to discourage illegal trading of low-quality MP3s. The band signed with Nonesuch Records, another Time Warner subsidiary, and the album was released in the spring of 2002. When it was released, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" reached number thirteen on the "Billboard" 200, Wilco's highest chart position to that date. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" sold over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco's best-selling album. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was met with wide critical acclaim: it topped 2002's Pazz & Jop critics' poll, was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by "Q Magazine". "Rolling Stone" rated it at 493 of their 500 Greatest Albums of all Time, in May 2012. In the 2020 reboot of the list, its ranking was raised to #225.


title: Wilco

text: While waiting for the commercial release of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", Wilco agreed to support R.E.M. collaborator Scott McCaughey for an album release by The Minus 5. They scheduled a recording session for September 11, 2001, but were distraught about the 9/11 terrorist attacks that day. Later that day, Wilco and McCaughey agreed to "create something good in the world right now" and record some material. Influenced by Bill Fay's "Time of the Last Persecution", The Minus 5's "Down with Wilco" was released in 2003. Keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, who had engineered "Down with Wilco", joined Wilco in 2002 as they toured in support of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot".


title: Wilco

text: In November 2003, Wilco traveled to New York City to record their fifth album. The album was produced by Jim O'Rourke, who mixed "Foxtrot" and was a member of Wilco side project Loose Fur. Unlike "Summerteeth" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", "A Ghost Is Born" featured songs that were created with Pro Tools before ever performing them live. The album featured the song "Less Than You Think", which included a fifteen-minute track of electronic noises and synthesizers, which Tweedy called "the track that everyone will hate". Tweedy justified the inclusion of the song:


title: Wilco

text: Leroy Bach left the band immediately after the album's completion to join a music theatre operation in Chicago. Like "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", Wilco streamed the album online before its commercial release. Instead of using their own web page, the band streamed it in MPEG-4 form on Apple's website. Wilco sought to substantially change their lineup after Bach's departure, and added Pat Sansone of The Autumn Defense, and avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline to the lineup. Just as the band was about to tour to promote the album, Tweedy checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic in Chicago for an addiction to opioids. As a result, tour plans for Europe were canceled, and the release date for the album was set back several weeks. "A Ghost Is Born" was released on June 22, 2004, and became Wilco's first top ten album in the U.S. The album earned Wilco Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005. It also placed thirteenth on 2004's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.


title: Wilco

text: In 2004, the band released "The Wilco Book", a picture book detailing the creation of "A Ghost Is Born". The book also contains writings and drawings from band members, as well as a CD with demos from the "A Ghost Is Born" recording sessions. Also that year, "Chicago Tribune" music critic Greg Kot released a biography of the band entitled "". The new six-piece Wilco lineup debuted on "", a two disc live album recorded at The Vic Theater in Chicago. Released on November 15, 2005, the album received high accolades from "Spin", "Billboard", and "Entertainment Weekly". As of 2007, it has sold over 114,000 copies.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco returned to their loft in Chicago to record a sixth studio album in 2006. Influenced by The Byrds and Fairport Convention, the band considered "Sky Blue Sky" to be less experimental than previous releases. Also unlike previous albums, the songs were created as collaborations.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco streamed the album online on March 3, 2007, and offered the song "What Light" as a free MP3 download. To further publicize the album, Wilco licensed several songs from the "Sky Blue Sky" recording sessions for use in a Volkswagen advertising campaign. The move was criticized by both critics and fans; Wilco responded by noting that they had previously done advertising campaigns with Apple Inc. and Telefónica Móviles (Movistar). The album was released on May 15, 2007, and was a commercial success: it sold over 87,000 copies in its first week and peaked in the top five in the U.S. album charts. It also was a top forty hit in seven other countries.


title: Wilco

text: Reviewer James Brubaker states that Wilco "shine[s] on a handful of the songs" on "Sky Blue Sky", such as the "light, and straightforward" songs. While he calls it a "great traditional rock and folk album at times...the rest of the record comes off at times as dull, and forced." The "allaboutjazz" review also had mixed comments. While praising the album as "deceptively insinuating, almost intoxicating to listen to" and noting its "impeccable sound quality," the reviewer claimed that ""Sky Blue Sky" becomes the first Wilco album that sounds too careful for its own good."


title: Wilco

text: Pabs Hernandez, a reviewer for "Lost at Sea", praised the album's "breezy atmosphere and pacing," and noted that it is not "easily judged upon first listen." Overall, Hernandez stated that it "may be no masterpiece, but at worst it's a more than worthy entry into Wilco's laudable catalogue." Reviewer Greg Locke praised the record as "one of the best albums of the year," calling it a "timeless record, full of sweet, hopeful sophistication and class" and "a lean, mean, soulful album." Like Hernandez, Locke acknowledged that the album could not be properly judged just on the first listening. The NPR review also had a positive take on the record. While the NPR reviewer stated that the recording "isn't groundbreaking," they praised its "coherent musical expression" and emphasis on "solid songcraft without pretense" which created a "satisfying and melodically sound album."


title: Wilco

text: In anticipation of the 2008 US presidential election, Wilco released a downloadable version of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" that they performed with Fleet Foxes. The MP3 was available as a free download from the band's website in exchange for a promise to vote in the election. The band also made an appearance on "The Colbert Report" to support presidential candidate Barack Obama. Wilco released a live performance DVD, "Ashes of American Flags", on April 18, 2009, to celebrate Record Store Day.


title: Wilco

text: In December 2008, Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, Glenn Kotche, and John Stirratt traveled to Auckland, New Zealand to participate in Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide sequel project, The Sun Came Out, joined by Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Johnny Marr, KT Tunstall, Liam Finn, and Lisa Germano. They wrote and recorded several new tracks for the Oxfam-benefiting album including "You Never Know," "What Could Have Been," "Over and Done," and "Don't Forget Me." Jeff Tweedy co-wrote "Too Blue" with Johnny Marr, and Glenn, John, and Pat play on most tracks on the album.


title: Wilco

text: Having enjoyed their time in New Zealand and the vibe of Finn's own Roundhead Studios, the four members stayed in Auckland through January to record the foundation tracks for their next album. Jim Scott, who acted as engineer and mixer for the Neil Finn project, stayed on in the same capacity for the Wilco sessions. Nels Cline and Mikael Jorgensen would later add overdubs to these tracks at the band's Chicago Loft.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco released their seventh album, "Wilco (The Album)", on June 30, 2009. In March 2009, it was announced that singer-songwriter Feist would make a guest appearance on the new album, on the track "You and I". Like their previous three albums, Wilco streamed the entirety of the album on its website prior to release. The album hit the charts at a career-high No. 4 with sales of 99,000 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart as well as the No. 2 spot on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart. It marked Wilco's third top 10 album on the U.S. pop chart. The album's first single "You Never Know" reached the No. 1 spot on the AAA Chart, their first No. 1 in twelve years.


title: Wilco

text: Beginning in April 2009, the band freely distributed a cover of Woody Guthrie's "The Jolly Banker", downloadable from their website. It was recorded at the Wilco loft in February of that year, at the suggestion of Guthrie's daughter, Nora. Downloaders were encouraged to donate to the Woody Guthrie Foundation. Feist returned to accompany on the track, playing the Garden Weasel. The track eventually became unavailable for download. In October 2011, the website began streaming the track via a plugin.


title: Wilco

text: On May 25, 2009, former band member Jay Bennett died in his home in Urbana, Illinois. In a prepared statement, Jeff Tweedy remarked that he was "deeply saddened" by Bennett's death.


title: Wilco

text: Feist and Wilco performed "You and I" on "Late Show with David Letterman" on July 14, 2009. In June during their West Coast tour, Wilco joined Beck, Feist, Jamie Lidell and James Gadson in the studio to take part in Beck's Record Club project, covering Skip Spence's "Oar" album. The first song "Little Hands" was posted on Beck's website on November 12, 2009.


title: Wilco

text: On April 6, 2010, Wilco announced during their Boston performance that they would be headlining and curating a festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, dubbed Solid Sound Festival. The event ran at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art from August 13–15, and featured various Wilco side projects, including The Autumn Defense, Pronto, The Nels Cline Singers, and Jeff Tweedy solo. Other bands who appeared included Mavis Staples, Avi Buffalo, Outrageous Cherry, Richard Bishop, The Books, and Vetiver. It also featured non-musical media, such as the Bread and Puppet Theater and comedians Todd Barry, Kristen Schaal, John Mulaney, and Hannibal Buress as well as interactive musical installations by Cline and Kotche. In November 2016, the band also curates their own program during the tenth Anniversary Edition of Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands. This curated program includes performances by amongst others Tortoise, Bassekou Kouyaté, Lee Ranaldo, Fennesz, Steve Gunn, William Tyler and The Cairo Gang.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco's contract with Nonesuch ended in 2010 and they formed their own label. Wilco announced via their web site and Twitter page on January 27, 2011 that the new label will be called dBpm Records (Decibels per Minute) and will be run out of the offices of their manager, Tony Margherita, in Easthampton, Massachusetts.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco's eighth studio album, "The Whole Love", was released on September 27, 2011. The first single of the album is titled "Art of Almost". The B-Side to "I Might" is a cover of Nick Lowe's 1977 song "I Love My Label". The single was shown at the Wilco's 2011 Solid Sound Festival at MassMoca and was met by positive reviews. The entire album was streamed live on Wilco's official website for 24 hours between September 3 and 4, 2011.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco's ninth studio album, "Star Wars", was released on July 16, 2015, as a surprise free download. In October 2015, Wilco announced that they would embark on a US tour beginning in early 2016 in support of the album. In December 2015, "Star Wars" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.


title: Wilco

text: On July 14, 2016, the band released a new single, titled "Locator", as a free download. Four days later, the band released another new single, titled "If I Ever Was a Child", and announced that their tenth album, "Schmilco", would be released on September 9. "Schmilco" earned generally favourable reviews, earning a positive score of 79 on Metacritic, while reviewer Josh Modell called the album "Wilco's most musically simple and emotionally resonant record in a decade."


title: Wilco

text: On Monday, August 14, 2017, Wilco released a single, "All Lives You Say" on their Bandcamp page to benefit the SPLC in memory of Tweedy's father Robert, who died on August 4. Upon sharing this news, Tweedy stated, "My dad was named after a Civil War general, and he voted for Barack Obama twice. He used to say 'If you know better, you can do better.' America - we know better, we can do better."


title: Wilco

text: Wilco took 2018 off from touring while Glenn Kotche lived in Finland after his wife Miiri received a Fulbright scholarship. The band announced an end to their performing hiatus and the release of the album "Ode to Joy" on July 16, 2019. The album was released on October 4, 2019 and received generally positive reviews with Will Hermes of "Rolling Stone" calling it their "best in years" and delivers "something like love shines through, and it winds up sounding joyful indeed, in a hard-won way." The album won the Grammy Award for best Special Limited Edition Package.


title: Wilco

text: Wilco subsequently followed the release with an autumn tour, the tour later being extended into 2020. In March 2020, Wilco and Sleater-Kinney announced that over the summer they would be embarking on the co-headlining It's Time Tour. Following cancellation of the tour in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilco and Sleater-Kinney eventually rescheduled the tour for the summer of 2021. In October 2021, Wilco was inducted into the "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame for their multiple contributions to the live music series that airs on PBS.


title: Wilco

text: During the COVID-19 lockdown, the band released the single "Tell Your Friends" on Bandcamp on May 20, 2020, with all proceeds benefiting World Central Kitchen. In July 2020, as a voice to the larger cultural discussion and protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd, Tweedy announced that 5% of all his writer royalties would be donated to a program that distributes the funds to organizations fighting for racial justice, stating the modern music industry is "built almost entirely on black art" and that "the wealth that rightfully belonged to black artists was stolen outright and to this day continues to grow outside their communities."


title: Wilco

text: In 2021, a feature-length documentary on the life of Jay Bennett was released. The film focused heavily on Bennett's years with Wilco. Co-Directed by Gorman Bechard and Fred Uhter, this music documentary had its world premiere in Chicago in November 2021, then was released on Blu Ray and pay-per-view on April 19, 2022, and as part of a Record Store Day release with vinyl editions of Bennett's last two albums, "Whatever Happened I Apologize" and "Kicking at the Perfumed Air" on April 23, 2022.


title: Wilco

text: "The new film does a wonderful job of capturing the quirkiness, inventiveness and brilliance of someone who never met an instrument he couldn't play. Bennett once described hearing the open spaces of the songs and holes that became his sonic landscape. They were at the core of the remarkable string of Wilco's albums "Being There", "Summerteeth" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"."


title: Wilco

text: The film was originally started by Uhter, who asked the prolific Bechard to take over the project when it stalled. It takes a hard look at Bennett's treatment in the previous Wilco documentary, "", which many consider to be unfair. "Jay Bennett's reputation never quite recovered from the battering it took in Sam Jones' documentary "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco", about the complex, lengthy gestation of 2002's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" in often painful detail, portrayed a band slowly pulling itself apart, with chief songwriters Bennett and Jeff Tweedy its twin opposing forces. The implication being that Bennett was a headstrong, intractable figure responsible for most of the discord. He was sacked as soon as the album was done. Filmmakers Gorman Bechard and Fred Uhter seek to redress the balance on "Where Are You, Jay Bennett?"". The film painted a much more balanced picture of the relationship between Bennett and Tweedy. "They just happened to be two egos at that point, fueled by a lot of demons. And it just wasn't working anymore," Bechard explained. "They're both incredibly talented. They both had egos. They both, I think, saw maybe different paths for the band. And ultimately it was Jeff's band, so he's going to win that, and rightfully so. There were other issues, whether it be alcohol or drugs. You know, it was a little bit of everything. Personally, I wish they had stayed together because I think they could have literally become the next Lennon and McCartney or the next Jagger/Richards."


title: Wilco

text: In April 2022, the band announced their twelfth studio album, "Cruel Country", which was released on May 27. The album was recorded entirely in person in live sessions at The Loft, the first album since 2007's "Sky Blue Sky." Tweedy described the album as saying, "We've never been particularly comfortable with accepting [...] the idea that I was making country music. But now, having been around the block a few times, we're finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we're making country."


title: Wilco

text: Wilco's music is typically categorized as alternative rock and alternative country. Despite their career-long association with a major record label, they are generally associated with indie rock. Wilco draws influence from bands from a variety of musical genres, but primarily from music created between 1966 and 1974. John Cale's "Paris 1919" was credited by the band as providing a musical parallel. According to Tweedy, "It was eye-opening that I wasn't the only person that felt like these worlds had a lot more in common than they'd been given credit for—that experimentation and avant-garde theory was not directly opposed to beauty, y'know?"


title: Wilco

text: Other recording artists from that timespan appreciated by the band include John Lennon, Neil Young, and Brian Wilson. For his thirty-fourth birthday, Tweedy received a private guitar lesson from Richard Lloyd of Television; Tweedy was a fan of the group and was particularly fond of the guitar work, which he wanted to incorporate into his music. Uncle Tupelo was inspired by bands such as Jason & the Scorchers and the Minutemen, influencing the recording of Wilco's "A.M.". Tweedy and O'Rourke enjoyed free jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Derek Bailey; they also listen to mainstream jazz by artists such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The lyrical structure of Wilco's songs was dictated by classic literature and "cadavre exquis"—an exercise where band members take turns writing lines on a typewriter, but are only allowed to see the previously written line. Among the books that the band has cited as being stylistically influential include William H. Gass's "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country", Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer", and Harold Bloom's "".


title: Wilco

text: Some critics have dubbed Wilco the "American Radiohead", due to their stylistically diverse catalog. A critic from the "New York Times" argues that Wilco has a "roots-rock ... [sound which] reached back to proven materials: the twang of country, the steady chug of 1960s rock, the undulating sheen of the Beach Boys, the honky-tonk hymns of the Band and the melodic symmetries of pop."


title: Wilco

text: "Rolling Stone" described Wilco as "one of America's most consistently interesting bands" and "America's foremost rock impressionists." Bands that have been influenced by Wilco include Derek Webb (of Caedmon's Call), The National, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Adam Grunduciel of The War on Drugs calls Wilco his "Favorite modern day band." Other notable artists who have covered Wilco live include Norah Jones performing "Jesus, Etc." which took place at the 2008 Bridge School Benefit where they both performed, a version of which was released as a bonus track on her 2009 release "The Fall", Widespread Panic, and Counting Crows and the Wallflowers performing "California Stars."


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: Rakhi Sawant (born Neeru Bheda; 25 November 1978) is an Indian dancer, model, actress and television talk show host, who has appeared in many Hindi and a few Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Telugu and Tamil films and was a contestant on the first season of the Indian reality television series "Bigg Boss 1" (2006) and as a challenger and finalist in "Bigg Boss 14" (2020). Sawant has established herself as a sex symbol in Bollywood.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: Sawant launched her own political party, headed by Jai Shah, called the Rashtriya Aam Party, to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. However, after the election, she joined Republican Party of India (A).


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: Rakhi was born as Neeru Bheda to Maya Bheda. Maya married Anand Sawant, a police constable at Worli Police Station, and gave the children surname of their step father.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: She made her film debut in the 1997 film "Agnichakra" under the name Ruhi Sawant. She went on to other small roles and dance numbers in Bollywood films "Joru Ka Ghulam", "Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain", and "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke".


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In 2003, she auditioned for an item number in the Bollywood film "Chura Liyaa Hai Tumne". She auditioned about four times before being selected for her breakthrough item number, "Mohabbat Hai Mirchi", composed by Himesh Reshammiya. Sawant acted in small roles in films including "Masti" and "Main Hoon Na".


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In June 2006, Mika Singh attempted to kiss her at his birthday party, which caused a media controversy. A few months later, she appeared in the first season of the reality show "Bigg Boss". She got evicted in week 4 but later made a re- entry. She was among the top four finalists but got evicted days before the grand finale (24 January 2007, Day 84).


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In 2007, Rakhi made her singing debut in the album "Super Girl" launched by Venus Records & Tapes Pvt. Ltd. She later participated in the dance reality show "Nach Baliye" with Abhishek Avasthi and emerged as the first runner up. In 2008, Sawant appeared in the film "Krazzy 4" for the item song 'Dekhta Hai Tu Kya'. In 2009, Sawant launched the reality show "Rakhi Ka Swayamwar" in which she planned to select her future husband by the ancient ritual of Swayamvar. On 2 August 2009 she chose her life partner, a contestant from Toronto, Canada, Elesh Parujanwala. However, several months later, Sawant announced that the couple had separated due to irreconcilable differences. After separation she said on interview that she got engaged to Elesh Parujanwala for money.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In 2010, Rakhi hosted a talk show "Rakhi Ka Insaaf" which aired on Imagine TV. The show saw a controversy after the death of a participant after Rakhi had called him impotent. In 2011, she participated in Sony TV's "Maa Exchange" along with mother Jaya Sawant.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: Often appearing in reality shows as a host, judge or participant, Sawant is a regular stage performer. In 2012, she did a comedy act with Shahrukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor at the 57th Filmfare Awards and entry dance performance in 2015 with Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor in Malaysia.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In 2013, she participated in "Welcome – Baazi Mehmaan Nawazi Ki" along with Anchal Sabharwal, Sangram Singh, Chetan Hansraj & Madhura Naik. The show aired on Life OK. She later was a contestant on "Box Cricket League".


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: Sawant later played the leading role in thriller film "Ek Kahani Julie Ki", and was seen in a cameo appearance in comedy fiction television series "Bhaag Bakool Bhaag".


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: From 2020 to 2021, Sawant appeared as a challenger in Bigg Boss 14. She emerged as a finalist but decided to walk out, opting for the cash prize of 14 lakhs.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: On 26 March 2014, she announced her plans to contest 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North-West as an Independent Candidate. On 28 March, she founded the Rashtriya Aam Party (RAP). The party has no symbol assigned by the election commission. However, Sawant said that she's expecting it to be a "green chilli", which she feels resembles her personality. The party's office bearers and fundraisers are local businessmen from Oshiwara.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: Sawant resigned from the Rashtriya Aam Party and joined the RPI (Athavale) party in June 2014 and expressed her desire to work for dalits. Rakhi serves as party's state vice-president and president of the woman wing.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In 2019, Sawant married an NRI man named Ritesh, separating in early 2022. As of May 2022, she is in a relationship with Adil Durrani.


title: Rakhi Sawant

text: In November 2018, during The Great Khali's Continental Wrestling Entertainment promotion, American female wrestler Rebel got involved in a dance battle against Sawant, during which Rebel grabbed her in inverse position, circulated her, and threw her on her back. It injured Sawant's back and she fell unconscious, and was later carried to a nearby hospital.


title: Misty Copeland

text: Misty Danielle Copeland (born September 10, 1982) is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.


title: Misty Copeland

text: Copeland was considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. Two years later, in 1998, her ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, and her mother, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The legal issues involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher, who was a former ABT member.


title: Misty Copeland

text: In 1997, Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award as the best dancer in Southern California. After two summer workshops with ABT, she became a member of ABT's Studio Company in 2000 and its corps de ballet in 2001, and became an ABT soloist in 2007. As a soloist from 2007 to mid-2015, she was described as having matured into a more contemporary and sophisticated dancer.


title: Misty Copeland

text: In addition to her dance career, Copeland has become a public speaker, celebrity spokesperson and stage performer. She has written two autobiographical books and narrated a documentary about her career challenges, "A Ballerina's Tale". In 2015, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by "Time" magazine, appearing on its cover. She performed on Broadway in "On the Town", toured as a featured dancer for Prince and appeared on the reality television shows "A Day in the Life" and "So You Think You Can Dance". She has endorsed products and companies such as T-Mobile, Coach, Inc., Dr Pepper, Seiko, The Dannon Company and Under Armour.


title: Misty Copeland

text: Copeland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but raised in the San Pedro community of Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Sylvia DelaCerna and Doug Copeland. Her father is of German and African American descent, while her mother is of Italian and African American ancestry and was adopted by African American parents. She is the youngest of four children from her mother's second marriage and has two younger half-siblings, one each from her mother's third and fourth marriages. Copeland did not see her father between the ages of two and twenty-two. Her mother, a former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader, had studied dance. She is a trained medical assistant, but worked mostly in sales.


title: Misty Copeland

text: Between the ages of three and seven, Copeland lived in Bellflower, California, with her mother and her mother's third husband, Harold Brown, a Santa Fe Railroad sales executive. The family moved to San Pedro, where Sylvia eventually married her fourth husband, radiologist Robert DelaCerna and where Misty attended Point Fermin Elementary School. When she was seven, Copeland saw the film "Nadia" on television and its subject Nadia Comăneci became her new role model. Copeland never studied ballet or gymnastics formally until her teenage years, but in her youth she enjoyed choreographing flips and dance moves to Mariah Carey songs. Following in the footsteps of her older sister Erica, Copeland became captain of the Dana Middle School drill team, where her natural grace came to the attention of its classically trained coach, Elizabeth Cantine.


title: Misty Copeland

text: By 1994, Copeland's mother had separated from Robert. After living with various friends and boyfriends, DelaCerna moved with her children into two small rooms at the Sunset Inn in Gardena, California. In early 1996, Cantine convinced Copeland to attend a ballet class at her local Boys & Girls Club. Cynthia Bradley, a friend of Cantine's, taught a free ballet class at the club once a week. Copeland attended several classes as a spectator before participating. DelaCerna allowed Copeland to go to the club after school until the workday ended. Bradley invited Copeland to attend class at her small ballet school, San Pedro Dance Center. Copeland initially declined the offer, however, because her mother did not have a car, was working 12–14 hours a day, and her oldest sister Erica was working two jobs. Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro Dance Center when Cynthia Bradley began picking her up from school. After three months of study, Copeland was en pointe.


title: Misty Copeland

text: Her mother told Copeland that she would have to give up ballet, but Bradley wanted Copeland to continue and offered to host her. DelaCerna agreed to this, and Copeland moved in with Bradley and her family. Eventually, Copeland and DelaCerna signed a management contract and a life-story contract with Bradley. Copeland spent the weekdays with the Bradleys near the coast and the weekends at home with her mother, a two-hour bus ride away. Copeland would spend most of her next three years with the Bradleys. By the age of fourteen, Copeland was the winner of a national ballet contest and won her first solo role. The Bradleys introduced Copeland to books and videos about ballet. When she saw Paloma Herrera, a principal ballerina with ABT, perform at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Copeland began to idolize her as much as she did Mariah Carey. The media first noticed her when she drew 2,000 patrons per show as she performed as Clara in "The Nutcracker" at the San Pedro High School after only eight months of study. She played a larger role as Kitri in "Don Quixote" at the San Pedro Dance Center and then performed with the L.A. Academy of Fine Arts in a featured role in "The Chocolate Nutcracker", an African American version of the tale, narrated by Debbie Allen. The latter was presented at UCLA's Royce Hall. Copeland's role was modified especially for her, and included ethnic dances.


title: Misty Copeland

text: During this period, Copeland received far more personal attention from the Bradley family than her mother could give each of her six children. Raised in a lapsed Christian household, when Copeland lived with the Bradley family, she attended their synagogue and celebrated Shabbat with them, enjoying their family's closeness. In addition to Bradley's intensive ballet training, her husband, a modern-dance teacher, served as Copeland's pas-de-deux instructor and partner. The summer before her fifteenth birthday, Bradley began to homeschool Copeland for 10th grade to free up more time for dance. At fifteen years old, Copeland won first place in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards at the Chandler Pavilion in March 1998. Copeland said it was the first time she ever battled nervousness. The winners received scholarships between $500 and $2500. Copeland's victory in the 10th annual contest among gifted high school students in Southern California secured her recognition by the "Los Angeles Times" as the best young dancer in the Greater Los Angeles Area.