title: Queer theory

text: Although more studies on family communication have started to include nontraditional families, critical rhetorical scholar Roberta Chevrette argues that researchers continue to look at nontraditional families, including families with openly queer members, from a heteronormative lens. That is, when studying LGBTQ+ families, many scholars continue to compare these families to their cis-heterosexual counterparts' norms. As Chevrette writes, "Queering family communication requires challenging ideas frequently taken for granted and thinking about sexual identities as more than check marks."


title: Queer theory

text: Chevrette describes four ways that scholars can "queer" family communication: (1) revealing the biases and heteronormative assumptions in family communication; (2) challenging the treatment of sexuality and queerness as a personal and sensitive topic reserved for the private sphere rather than the public; (3) interpreting identity as a socially constructed phenomenon and sexuality as being fluid in order to expose the ways gender roles and stereotypes are reinforced by notions of identity and sexuality as being fixed; and (4) emphasizing intersectionality and the importance of studying different identity markers in connection with each other.


title: Queer theory

text: Queer theory is the lens used to explore and challenge how scholars, activists, artistic texts, and the media perpetrate gender- and sex-based binaries, and its goal is to undo hierarchies and fight against social inequalities. Due to controversy about the definition of "queer", including whether the word should even be defined at all or should be left deliberately open-ended, there are many disagreements and often contradictions within queer theory. In fact, some queer theorists, like Berlant and Warner and Butler, have warned that defining it or conceptualizing it as an academic field might only lead to its inevitable misinterpretation or destruction, since its entire purpose is to critique academia rather than become a formal academic domain itself.


title: Queer theory

text: Fundamentally, queer theory does not construct or defend any particular identity, but instead, grounded in post-structuralism and deconstruction, it works to actively critique heteronormativity, exposing and breaking down traditional assumptions that sexual and gender identities are presumed to be heterosexual or cisgender.


title: Queer theory

text: One of the ways queer theory has made its way into online discourse is through the popularity of Adrienne Rich's 1980 essay, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." Rich's theory regarding compulsory heterosexuality (or comp-het)—the socio-cultural expectation that women must be attracted to men and desire a romantic heterosexual relationship—inspired the creation of the "Lesbian Masterdoc", a 30-page Google Document originally written in 2018 by Anjeli Luz, a Tumblr user who was in the midst of questioning her own sexuality as a teenager.


title: Queer theory

text: Katelyn McKenna and John Bargh’s studies of online groups consisting of marginalized groups found an interesting phenomenon called “identity demarginalization” — how participation in a group consisting of people with shared marginalized identity can lead to a higher level of self-acceptance, which could lead to eventually coming out to their friends and family.


title: Queer theory

text: Online groups and interactions also contribute to normalizing queerness and challenging heteronormativity by serving as a networked counterpublic. Sarah Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles’ discourse analysis of the hashtag #GirlsLikeUs shows how trans women have used the hashtag to build community in ways that normalize being trans and offering counter-narratives to the often stereotypical and caricatured portrayal of trans people’s lives in popular mainstream media.


title: Aparna Balamurali

text: Aparna Balamurali (born 11 September 1995) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Malayalam films and some Tamil films. She is known for her roles in "Maheshinte Prathikaaram" (2016), "Sunday Holiday" (2017) and "Soorarai Pottru" (2020). For the last of these, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress.


title: Aparna Balamurali

text: Aparna was born in Thrissur, Kerala, India to KP Balamurali, a music director and Shobha Balamurali . She completed her schooling at Devamatha CMI Public School.


title: Aparna Balamurali

text: Aparna made her acting debut in the Malayalam film "Yathra Thudarunnu" (2013) along with Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, directed by Jayan Sivapuram. In 2015, her movie "Oru Second Class Yathra" was released. She rose to fame with her film named, "Maheshinte Prathikaaram" in 2016. She also starred in comedy "Oru Muthassi Gada" (2016). She made her Tamil debut in "8 Thottakkal" (2017). She played in "Sunday Holiday" (2017) and "Thrissivaperoor Kliptham" (2017). In both films, she is paired opposite Asif Ali. Besides this, she also pursued her career in Music and gave songs like "Mounangal Mindumoree", "Thennal Nilavinte" and "Thanthane". Her 2018 releases are "Kamuki" and "B. Tech". She has been cast as the Tamil film's heroine in "Sarvam Thaala Mayam" (2019) starring G. V. Prakash Kumar. Her subsequent films in Malayalam were "Mr. & Ms. Rowdy" (2019) and "Jeem Boom Bhaa" (2019). She appeared as Bommi in Suriya starrer "Soorarai Pottru" (2020). The next Tamil movie was "Theethum Nandrum" (2021).


The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named "Priscilla", along the way encountering various groups and individuals. The film's title references the slang term "queen" for a drag queen or female impersonator.


title: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

text: The film was a surprise worldwide hit and its positive portrayal of LGBT individuals helped to introduce LGBT themes to a mainstream audience. It received predominantly positive reviews and won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards. Among other designers the film's costume department included many pieces of costume jewelry by Ziggy Attias of Ziggy Originals, NYC. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and became a cult classic both in Australia and abroad. "Priscilla" subsequently provided the basis for a musical, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", which opened in 2006 in Sydney before travelling to New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Broadway.


text: Anthony "Tick" Belrose (Hugo Weaving), using the drag pseudonym of Mitzi Del Bra, is a Sydney-based drag queen who accepts an offer to perform his drag act at Lasseters Hotel Casino Resort managed by his estranged wife Marion in Alice Springs, a remote town in central Australia. After persuading his friends and fellow performers, Bernadette Bassenger (Terence Stamp), a recently bereaved transgender woman, and Adam Whitely (Guy Pearce), a flamboyant and obnoxious younger drag queen who goes under the drag name Felicia Jollygoodfellow, to join him, the three set out for a four-week run at the casino in a large tour bus, which Adam christens "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."


text: While on the long journey through remote lands bordering the Simpson Desert, they meet a variety of characters, including a group of friendly Aboriginal Australians for whom they perform, the less accepting attitudes of rural Australia in such towns as Coober Pedy, and are subjected to homophobic abuse and violence, including having their bus vandalized with homophobic graffiti.


text: When the bus breaks down in the middle of the desert, Adam spends the whole day repainting it lavender to cover up the vandalism. The trio later meet Bob, a middle-aged mechanic from a small outback town who joins them on their journey after his wife leaves him. Before they arrive at Alice Springs, Tick reveals that Marion is actually his wife, as they never divorced, and that they are actually going there as a favour to her. Continuing their journey, Adam is almost mutilated by a homophobic gang before he is saved by Bob and Bernadette. Adam is shaken and Bernadette comforts him, allowing them to reach an understanding. Likewise, the others come to terms with the secret of Tick's marriage and resolve their differences. Together, they fulfill a long-held dream of Adam's, which, in the original plan, is to climb Kings Canyon in full drag regalia.


text: Upon arrival at the hotel, it is revealed that Tick and Marion also have an eight-year-old son, Benjamin, whom Tick has not seen for many years. Tick is nervous about exposing his son to his drag profession and anxious about revealing his homosexuality, though he is surprised to discover that Benjamin already knows and is fully supportive of his father's sexuality and career. When their contract at the resort is over, Tick and Adam head back to Sydney, taking Benjamin back with them, so that Tick can get to know his son. However, Bernadette decides to remain at the resort for a while with Bob, who has decided to work at the hotel after the two of them had become close.


text: "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" had originally been conceived by filmmakers Stephan Elliott and Stuart Quin, who were at the time in production of a film called "Frauds". They and producer Andrena Finlay initially tried to pitch "Priscilla" to various financiers at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, but were unsuccessful, and so instead took the film's concept to PolyGram and, with the backing of the Australian Film Finance Corporation, were able to begin production of the film on a relatively low budget of 2.7 million Australian dollars.


text: Elliott and the film's producers, Michael Hamlyn and Al Clark, agreed to work for $50,000 each, a relatively low fee for filmmakers at the time, while the lack of funding meant that the crew agreed to receive takings of the film's eventual profits in compensation for their low salaries. Due to the involvement of the Australian FFC, only one non-Australian actor was allowed to appear in the film, and Clark initially considered David Bowie, whom he had known back in the 1980s, and later briefly thought of John Hurt, although neither was available.


text: In May 1993, after travelling around the Australian Outback searching for appropriate sites to film in, "Priscilla"s creators attended the Cannes Film Festival and Marche to advertise their project, hoping to capitalise on the selection of Elliot's first film "Frauds", which was "In Competition" at the festival and despite the fact that they had not yet confirmed any actors for the roles. Their primary choice for the role of Bernadette was Tony Curtis, who read and approved of the script, but eventually became unavailable. They then approached John Cleese, who was not interested.


text: For the part of Tick, they had initially wanted Rupert Everett and for Adam they wanted Jason Donovan. However, at a pre-production casting meeting held at Cannes, Everett and Donovan did not get on well with one another and were found to be openly hostile toward the production staff. In light of this, it was readily agreed that they would not be suitable for the parts and the search for their three leading men would resume. However, Donovan would go on to play Tick in the West End musical adaptation of the film.


text: After unsuccessfully lobbying Colin Firth to play the role, producers eventually awarded the part to Hugo Weaving. Initially considering Tim Curry for the part of Bernadette, they cast Terence Stamp, who was initially anxious about the role because it was unlike anything that he had performed previously, although he eventually came on board with the concept. Stamp himself suggested Bill Hunter for the role of Bob, who accepted the role without even reading the script or being told anything about the greater concept of the film other than the basic character description, while Australian actor Guy Pearce (who had previously appeared with Donovan in the Australian soap opera "Neighbours" in the late 1980s) was hired at the eleventh hour to portray the sassy but spirited Adam.


text: The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, Sydney was the filming location for the opening and closing scenes. The Imperial Hotel has hosted drag shows since 1983, and continues to be an icon for Sydney's LGBT community, with its restaurant renamed 'Priscillas' in honour of the film. Many scenes, including one where Bernadette encounters a butch, bigoted woman named Shirley, were filmed at the outback town of Broken Hill in New South Wales, largely in a hotel named Mario's Palace (now simply the Palace Hotel), which Al Clark believed was "drag queen heaven". Some small scenes were filmed in the All Nations Hotel. They also decided to film at Coober Pedy, a rough-and-tumble mining town in Central Australia which featured prominently in the film. The executive producer, Rebel Penfold-Russell, appears as the marathon runner.


text: Initially, they tried to get permission to film upon the geological formation formerly known as Ayers Rock or "the Rock" (Uluru), but this was rejected by organizations responsible for the monument, such as the Uluru Board of Management, as it would have been in violation of Indigenous Australian religious beliefs. Instead, the scene was filmed in King's Canyon. Dialogue from the scene was rewritten slightly to accommodate the new location.


text: With filming over, the director and producers began editing the footage, repeatedly travelling to both London and to Los Angeles, which had then just been hit by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Scenes were deleted on the advice of early viewers to shorten the film.


text: "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" took $18,459,245 at the box office in Australia, which is .


text: Being an Australian film, not an American-produced Hollywood blockbuster, "Priscilla" was released as a minor commercial product in North America and other English-speaking nations.


text: Director Elliott noted that the audiences viewing the film in Australia, the United States, and France all reacted to it differently, going on to state that "At a screening we had for an Australian audience, they laughed at all the Aussieisms. The Americans laughed too, but at different jokes. There is a line where Tick says, 'Bernadette has left her cake out in the rain...', the Americans laughed for ten minutes." Tom O'Regan, a scholar of film studies, remarked that the film actually carried different meanings for members of different nationalities and subcultural groups, with LGBT Americans believing that the film was "the big one that will bring gay lifestyles into the mainstream", while Australians tended to "embrace it as just another successful Australian film".


text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Priscilla" has a 94% "Certified Fresh" rating based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10; the consensus states: "While its premise is ripe for comedy -- and it certainly delivers its fair share of laughs -- "Priscilla" is also a surprisingly tender and thoughtful road movie with some outstanding performances." Metacritic reports a 70 out of 100 rating, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


text: American film critic Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" felt that Bernadette was the key part of the film, stating that "the real subject of the movie is not homosexuality, not drag queens, not showbiz, but simply the life of a middle-aged person trapped in a job that has become tiresome." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote ""The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert" presents a defiant culture clash in generous, warmly entertaining ways." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" commented "In this roaringly comic and powerfully affecting road movie, Terence Stamp gives one of the year’s best performances." Kenneth Turan from the "Los Angeles Times" wrote "The comic pizazz and bawdy dazzle of this film’s vision of gaudy drag performers trekking across the Australian outback certainly has a boisterous, addictive way about it."


text: The film was ranked 7th on Logo's 50 Greatest Films with an LGBT theme, and #10 on AfterElton's Fifty Greatest Gay Movies list.


text: "Priscilla", along with other contemporary Australian films "Young Einstein" (1988), "Sweetie" (1989), "Strictly Ballroom" (1992), and "Muriel's Wedding" (1994), provided Australian cinema with a reputation for "quirkiness", "eccentricity" and "individuality" across the world. Both "Priscilla" and "Muriel's Wedding" (which had also featured a soundtrack containing ABBA songs) in particular became cult classics, not only in their native Australia, but also in the United Kingdom, where a wave of Australian influences, such as the soap operas "Neighbours" and "Home & Away", had made their mark in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


text: In 1995, an American film, "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar", was released, featuring three drag queens who travel across the United States. According to Al Clark, the creators of "Priscilla" heard about the film while shooting theirs, and "for a moment [were] troubled" until they read the script of "To Wong Foo", when they decided that it was sufficiently different from "Priscilla" to not be a commercial and critical threat. "To Wong Foo" had a mixed critical response in comparison to "Priscilla", but was a box office success in North America as it was a film from a major Hollywood studio and starred big-name actors. Like "Priscilla", "To Wong Foo" has also enjoyed a cult following.


text: During the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, "Priscilla" was part of a parade of images of Australian popular culture. A 1980 Denning (resembling the bus used in the film) featuring a giant steel stiletto heel which extended from and retracted into the roof – inspired by scenes from the film – paraded around the Olympic Stadium. The bus was accompanied by several stiletto heel tricycle floats and drag queens in big wigs in tribute to the film's international success and the local Sydney gay community. The music video for Iggy Azalea's 2013 single "Work" paid homage to scenes from the film.


text: The film has come under criticism for alleged racist and sexist elements, particularly in the portrayal of the Filipina character, Cynthia. Melba Marginson of the Centre for Filipino Concerns stated that Cynthia was portrayed as "a gold-digger, a prostitute, an entertainer whose expertise is popping out ping-pong balls from her sex-organ, a manic depressive, loud and vulgar. The worst stereotype of the Filipina." She argued that, by portraying Cynthia in this manner, the filmmakers were "violently kill[ing]" the dignity of Filipina women, something that she feared would lead to "more violence against us." An editor writing in "The Age" echoed these concerns, highlighting that "It is perhaps a pity that a film with a message of tolerance and acceptance for homosexuals should feel the need of what looks very much to us like a racist and sexist stereotype." Similarly, in his study of bisexuality in cinema, Wayne M. Bryant argued that while it was "an excellent film", "The Adventures of Priscilla" was marred by "instances of gratuitous sexism."


text: Producer Clark defended the film against these accusations, arguing that while Cynthia was a stereotype, it was not the purpose of filmmakers to avoid the portrayal of "vulnerable characters" from specific minority backgrounds. He stated that she was "a misfit like the three protagonists are, and just about everybody else in the film is, and her presence is no more a statement about Filipino women than having three drag queens is a statement about Australian men." Tom O'Regan noted that as a result of this controversy, the film gained "an ambiguous reputation."


text: The film featured a soundtrack made up of pre-existing "camp classics" (pop music songs that have a particular fanbase in the LGBT community). The original plan by the film's creators was to have a Kylie Minogue song in the finale, although it was later decided that an ABBA song would be more appropriate because its "tacky qualities" were "more timeless" (although in the musical adaptation, the character Adam performs a medley of Kylie Minogue songs atop Uluru). The film itself featured four main songs, which were performed by two or more of the drag queens as a part of their show within the film; "I've Never Been to Me" by Charlene, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, "Finally" by CeCe Peniston, and "Mamma Mia" by ABBA. On 23 August 1994, Fontana Island released the soundtrack on CD.


text: Original music for the soundtrack was composed by Guy Gross, with choral arrangements by Derek Williams, and released separately on CD.


text: On 14 November 1995, the film was released on VHS. On 7 October 1997, it was released on DVD with a collectable trivia booklet.


text: In 2004, a 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition was released on DVD in Australia with the following special features: a feature-length audio commentary with writer/director Stephan Elliott, three deleted scenes, two featurettes: "Behind the Bus: Priscilla with Her Pants Down" and "Ladies Please", cast and crew biographies, the original Australian theatrical trailer, US theatrical and teaser trailers, and a number of hidden features


text: In 2006, it was re-released on DVD in Australia with the following special features: a feature-length audio commentary with writer/director Elliott, "Birth of a Queen" (featurette), deleted scenes, tidbits from the Set, "The Bus from Blooperville" – Gag reel documentary, a photo gallery, and US theatrical and teaser trailers.


text: On 5 June 2007, it was re-released in the United States as the "Extra Frills Edition" DVD. This edition includes the same special features as the Australian 2006 re-release. On 7 June 2011, it was released for US Blu-ray.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: The Helter Skelter scenario is a theory put forward by Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor in the Tate–LaBianca murder trial. It is mostly based on the testimony of Paul Watkins, as a motive for the series of murders that were committed by the Manson Family in order to convict Charles Manson of conspiracy to commit murder. Bugliosi described his theory at trial and in his subsequent book "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders". According to Bugliosi's theory, Manson often spoke to the members of his "family" about Helter Skelter in the months leading up to the murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in August 1969, an apocalyptic war arising from racial tensions between Black and White people. This involved reference to music of the Beatles, particularly songs from their self-titled 1968 double album (also known as the "White Album"), and the New Testament's Book of Revelation. Other scenarios besides Helter Skelter exist, with some writers, police detectives, attorneys involved with the case, and perpetrators identifying the Tate–La Bianca murders as either copycat killings, revenge for a bad drug deal, or a combination of two or all three.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: According to Vincent Bugliosi, Charles Manson had been predicting racial war for some time before he used the term "Helter Skelter". According to Paul Watkins, Manson's first use of the term was at a gathering of the Family on New Year's Eve 1968 at Myers Ranch near California's Death Valley. Watkins said the scenario had Manson as the war's ultimate beneficiary and its musical cause. He and the Family would create an album with songs whose messages would be as subtle as those he had heard in songs of the Beatles.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: According to Bugliosi, Black men would thus be deprived of the White women whom the political changes of the 1960s had made sexually available to them and would lash out in violent crimes against White people. According to Watkins and Tex Watson, frightened White people would retaliate with a murderous rampage, and militant Black people would exploit it to provoke a war of near-extermination between racist White people and non-racist White people over the treatment of Black people. Then the militant Black people would arise to finish off the few White people who survived, and kill off all non-Black peoples.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Watkins goes on to say that in this holocaust, the members of the enlarged Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city that was underneath Death Valley which they would reach through a hole in the ground. They would be the only remaining whites upon the race war's conclusion, and they would emerge from underground to rule the blacks who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world. At that point, Watkins says, Manson "would scratch [the black man's] fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick the cotton and go be a good nigger".


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Watson said the term "Helter Skelter" was from the Beatles' song of the same name and that Manson interpreted it as concerned with the war. The song was on the band's self-titled double album (also known as the "White Album"), which Manson heard within a month or so of its November 1968 release.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: According to Paul Watkins, Manson and his followers began preparing for Helter Skelter in the months before they committed the murders. They worked on songs for the hoped-for album which they anticipated would set off everything, and they prepared vehicles and other items for their escape from the Los Angeles area (their home territory) to Death Valley when the days of violence arrived. They pored over maps to plot a route that would bypass highways and get them to the desert safely. Bugliosi wrote, Manson was convinced that the song "Helter Skelter" contained a coded statement of the route that they should follow.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten, with assistance from Charles Manson, committed the LaBianca murders on the night of August 9, and Krenwinkel wrote "Healter Skelter" on the refrigerator in blood, along with a possible reference to the Beatles song "Piggies". Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil had written "political piggies" (in no relation to the Beatles) in Gary Hinman's blood on the wall at Hinman's house after Beausoleil murdered Hinman. Krenwinkel testified she wrote the phrase at the LaBianca's house to copycat Beausoleil in order to get him out of jail as he had been arrested for Hinman's murder and was in custody.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: In his book "Helter Skelter", Bugliosi writes that Manson told "numerous people", including former Ma Barker gang member Alvin Karpis, that "given the chance, he could be much bigger than the Beatles." Watson wrote that the Bible had "absolutely no meaning in our life in the Family" apart from Revelation chapter 9. Manson lived with an aunt and uncle for a period in his childhood when his mother was in prison. He later told a counselor that the aunt and uncle had "some marital difficulty until they became interested in religion and became very extreme".


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: The following interpretations are based on Vincent Bugliosi's interpretations and theories based on statements made to him by Paul Watkins. It also includes statements made by Tex Watson years later, and Charles Manson's statements to David Dalton.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Years later Tex Watson tied the prophecy to one more White Album song, "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey", though he changed "monkey" to "monkeys", plural. While on LSD at a party in late March 1969, Watson claims, he and two Manson girls realized they themselves were "the monkeys ... just bright-eyed, free little animals, totally uninhibited". As they started "bouncing around the apartment, throwing food against the walls, and laughing hysterically".


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: "Abbey Road" was released in the United Kingdom in late September 1969 after the murders. By that time, most of the Family was at the group's camp in the Death Valley area searching for the Bottomless Pit. Three Family members arrived at the camp around October 1 with an advance copy of the album, which the group played on a battery-operated machine.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Law officers raided the desert redoubts in the second week of October and found the Family with stolen vehicles, and they arrested Manson and several others. By mid-November, Manson had become a suspect in the Tate-LaBianca murders, but Family members made their way back to Spahn Ranch after being released from jail. The LAPD confiscated a door on November 25, 1969 on which someone had written "Helter Scelter is coming down fast." A photograph shows that the confiscated door was also inscribed with "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 — ALL GOOD CHILDREN (Go to Heaven?)" . This children's rhyme is heard in "You Never Give Me Your Money" on "Abbey Road". In October 1970, the prosecution offered testimony about the door during Manson's trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders, but only the "Helter Skelter" inscription seems to have been noted.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Tex Watson had left the desert camp and gone on to separate himself from the Family, but according to Watson, he bought a cassette recording of "Abbey Road" and played it continuously while walking for miles across the desert to rejoin the Family; he was hoping to see what The Beatles might have to tell him. He turned back at the last moment, and an old prospector informed him that the arrests had taken place.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Three people were attacked on the beach near Santa Barbara, California in late July 1970 while Manson was on trial, two of them fatally. One of the Manson girls spoke of this incident as "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", an "Abbey Road" song that is about homicidal madness.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Manson was permitted to testify at his 1970 trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders, after the defendants' attorneys had attempted to rest their cases, without calling a single witness. The jury was removed from the courtroom, as Vincent Bugliosi argued he would use his hypnotic powers to unfairly influence them. He spoke for over an hour. As for Helter Skelter, he said the following:


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: It means confusion, literally. It doesn't mean any war with anyone. It doesn't mean that some people are going to kill other people…. Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down around you fast. If you can't see the confusion coming down around you fast, you can call it what you wish.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Manson has dismissed the Helter Skelter conspiracy as an invention by the trial prosecutor to tie him to the murders.


title: Helter Skelter (scenario)

text: Is it a conspiracy that the music is telling the youth to rise up against the establishment because the establishment is rapidly destroying things? Is that a conspiracy? The music speaks to you every day, but you are too deaf, dumb, and blind to even listen to the music.… It is not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says "Rise," it says "Kill." Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music. … As far as lining up someone for some kind of helter skelter trip, you know, that's the District Attorney's motive. That's the only thing he could find for a motive to throw up on top of all that confusion he had. There was no such thing in my mind as helter skelter.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: Fred Sirieix (; born 27 January 1972) is a French maître d'hôtel best known for appearing on Channel 4's "First Dates", and BBC Two's "Million Pound Menu". Sirieix grew up in Limoges, France and trained to work in front of house in a Michelin-starred restaurant in France before working at La Tante Claire in London. Until 2019 he was the general manager of Michelin-starred restaurant "Galvin at Windows" at the London Hilton.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: Sirieix is the founder of National Waiters Day, the training tool the Art of Service, and the Galvin Cup and Galvin's Chance charities. He helped to launch the Right Course, which teaches prisoners about the service industry, and has also released a book called "First Dates: The Art of Love" and a music track, "La Vie Continue". He has been featured in an ITV show, with Gordon Ramsay and Gino D'Acampo, entitled "" (2019), and "Remarkable Places to Eat" on BBC Two (2019).


title: Fred Sirieix

text: Sirieix was brought up in Limoges, France. His parents both worked in healthcare and he says they inspired him to work in the service industry: "The conversation around the dinner table was all about patient care. It was about making sure people had a good experience.”


title: Fred Sirieix

text: Sirieix began his career in the food industry at catering college, receiving some training as a chef, before quickly deciding to focus on front of house. He trained at a Michelin-starred restaurant in France, before moving to London restaurant La Tante Claire where he worked as a "chef de rang" (). Following this, he worked at Le Gavroche, Sartoria and Brasserie Roux. He was for 14 years the general manager at the restaurant "Galvin at Windows" (left in December 2019), a Michelin-starred restaurant on the 28th floor of the London Hilton hotel on Park Lane.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: On Christmas Day 2012, Sirieix launched National Waiters Day to celebrate the work of front of house staff and attract people into the profession. In 2011, he launched The Art of Service - a board game for teaching customer service in hotels and restaurants. Sirieix is also involved in charity work, creating a cocktail competition called the Galvin Cup, which awards young bartenders. He also created the charity Galvin's Chance, which supports underprivileged young front of house staff in London and Scotland's best hotels, restaurants and bars. In 2017, Sirieix, along with Novus, launched the Right Course, which remodels prison staff restaurants to operate as high street restaurants to teach prisoners cooking and about other aspects of service industry.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: Sirieix is the "Maître d"' on Channel 4's "First Dates", deciding to be part of the show because "it sounded fun and you have to consider any opportunity. I looked carefully at it and became sure it was a good programme at heart." He was also "Maître d' " on the "First Dates" spin-off show, "First Dates Abroad". In addition to "First Dates", Sirieix, along with celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr, co-hosted BBC Two's "Michel Roux's Service". In 2012, he appeared on BBC One's "The Apprentice" whilst the programme filmed at Galvin at Windows. In 2017, he appeared in Channel 4's "Tried and Tasted: The Ultimate Shopping List".


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2018, he presented "Million Pound Menu", a new show for BBC Two. In December 2017, he appeared in ITV's "Gordon, Gino and Fred's Great Christmas Roast", alongside Gordon Ramsay and Gino D'Acampo.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2019, he hosted the CBBC series "Step Up to the Plate" with Allegra McEvedy where they tested 8 young people in each episode to see if they had the skills to run their own restaurant. A second series was broadcast in 2021.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2019, he presented a series on BBC Two entitled "Remarkable Places to Eat", in which he was taken by chefs to their favourite restaurants in different cities.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2019, he co-presented the Channel 4 series "Snackmasters" with comedian Jayde Adams, in which two "haute cuisine" chefs are challenged with recreating a well-known brand of snack or fast food product, such as KFC's Zinger burger or Monster Munch crisps, from scratch. Two further series were broadcast in 2020 and 2021.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2015, Sirieix released a music track with Mark King from the band Level 42 and rapper XO MAN called "" ("Life Goes On"). Sirieix describes it as "a song about love, loss and everything in between".


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2021 it was announced he would be dancing with Dianne Buswell in the 2021 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: In 2010, Sirieix was nominated for the Cateys manager of the year award, winning it three years later in 2013. In October 2011, he won the National Restaurant Awards' Personality of the Year for his charity work and promoting the hospitality profession. He was voted Educator of the Year in 2012 at the Imbibe awards and in March 2014, he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of West London.


title: Fred Sirieix

text: Sirieix lives with his Jamaican fiancée identified publicly only as "Fruitcake". His two children from a previous relationship, also live in Peckham. His daughter is professional British diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix. He was in the crowd to witness her win gold in the Women’s 10m Platform at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.


title: Duga radar

text: Duga (, ) was an over-the-horizon radar (OTH) system used in the Soviet Union as part of its early-warning radar network for missile defense. It operated from July 1976 to December 1989. Two operational "duga" radars were deployed, with one near Chernobyl and Chernihiv in the Ukrainian SSR (present-day Ukraine), and the other in eastern Siberia (present-day Russia).


title: Duga radar

text: The "duga" system was extremely powerful, reaching over 10MW, and broadcast in the shortwave radio bands. It was given the nickname Russian Woodpecker by shortwave listeners for its emissions randomly appearing and sounding like sharp, repetitive tapping noises at a frequency of 10Hz. The random frequency hops often disrupted legitimate broadcasts, amateur radio operations, oceanic commercial aviation communications, and utility transmissions, resulting in thousands of complaints by many countries worldwide. The signal became such a nuisance that some communications receivers began including "Woodpecker Blankers" in their circuit designs.


title: Duga radar

text: The unclaimed signal was a source of speculation, giving rise to theories such as Soviet brainwashing and weather modification experiments. However, because of its distinctive transmission pattern, many experts and amateur radio hobbyists realized it was an over-the-horizon radar system. NATO military intelligence had already given it the reporting name "STEEL WORK" or "STEEL YARD", based on the massive size of the antenna, which spanned in length and in height. This massive structure formed a phased array and was necessary in order to provide high gain at HF as well as facilitating beam-steering, though it's unconfirmed whether the latter was actually used in normal operation. While the amateur radio community was well aware of the system, the OTH theory was not publicly confirmed until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


title: Duga radar

text: The Soviets had been working on early-warning radar for their anti-ballistic missile systems through the 1960s, but most of these had been line-of-sight systems that were useful for rapid analysis and interception only. None of these systems had the capability to provide early warning of a launch, within seconds or minutes of a launch, which would give the defences time to study the attack and plan a response. At the time, the Soviet early warning satellite network was not well developed. An over-the-horizon radar sited in the USSR would help solve this problem, and work on such a system for this associated role started in the late 1960s.


title: Duga radar

text: The first experimental system, Duga, was built outside Mykolaiv in Ukraine, successfully detecting rocket launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome at . This was followed by the prototype Duga, built on the same site, which was able to track launches from the far east and submarines in the Pacific Ocean as the missiles flew towards Novaya Zemlya. Both of these radar systems were aimed east and were fairly low power, but with the concept proven, work began on an operational system. The new Duga-1 systems, built in 1972, used a transmitter and receiver separated by about .


title: Duga radar

text: At some point in 1976, a new and powerful radio signal was detected simultaneously worldwide, and quickly dubbed 'the Woodpecker' by amateur radio operators. Transmission power on some Woodpecker transmitters was estimated to be as high as 10MW equivalent isotropically radiated power. Even prior to 1976, a similar 'woodpecker' interference is remembered by radio amateurs occurring in the high frequencies. As early as 1963, or before, radio amateurs were calling this "the Russian Woodpecker". Little is known about the power levels or Russian designation but it was probably a forerunner of the Duga radar systems. It was also speculated at that time, at least among radio amateurs, that this was an over-the-horizon radar.


title: Duga radar

text: These signals even caused interference on 27MHz CB radios in the late 60s and early 70s sometimes completely blocking even local communications in Portugal for example, leading to the supposition of several Megawatts of RF power transmission.


title: Duga radar

text: Triangulation by amateur radio hobbyists and NATO showed the signals came from a location in present-day Ukraine, at the time called Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (part of USSR). Confusion due to small differences in the reports being made from various sources led to the site being variously located near Kyiv, Minsk, Chernobyl, Gomel or Chernihiv. All of these reports were describing the same deployment, with the transmitter only a few kilometers southwest of Chernobyl (south of Minsk, northwest of Kyiv) and the receiver about northeast of Chernobyl (just west of Chernihiv, south of Gomel). At one time there was speculation that several transmitters were in use.


title: Duga radar

text: The radar system was given the code 5Н32-West by the Soviets, and was set up in two closed towns, Liubech-1 held the two transmitters and Chernobyl-2 the receivers. Unknown to civilian observers at the time, NATO was aware of the new installation. A second installation was built near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Bolshya Kartel and Lian, but did not become active for some time.


title: Duga radar

text: The NATO reporting name for the Duga-1 is often quoted as STEEL YARD. Many online and several print references use this name. However some sources also use the term STEEL WORK (or STEEL WORKS). As any "official" sources using NATO Reporting Names are likely to be classified, establishing the true name will be difficult. The earliest found open source mention of a NATO Reporting Name for this system, a reference publication in print while the system was still active, unambiguously uses the term STEEL WORK.


title: Duga radar

text: Even from the earliest reports it was suspected that the signals were tests of an over-the-horizon radar, and this remained the most popular hypothesis during the Cold War. Several other theories were floated as well, including everything from jamming western broadcasts to submarine communications. The broadcast jamming theory was discarded early on when a monitoring survey showed that Radio Moscow and other pro-Soviet stations were just as badly affected by woodpecker interference as Western stations.


title: Duga radar

text: As more information about the signal became available, its purpose as a radar signal became increasingly obvious. In particular, its signal contained a clearly recognizable structure in each BPSK modulated pulse, which was eventually identified as a 31-bit pseudo-random binary sequence with properties much like Barker codes, with a bit-width of 100 μs resulting in a 3.1 ms pulse. The auto-correlation of this pulse/sequence results in a single 100μs pulse 31 times the amplitude of the received sequence, giving a resolution of (the distance light travels in 50μs) and process gain of almost 30 dB. This system took advantage of pulse compression to increase the power of the received echoes thereby increasing the sensitivity and effective range. When a second Woodpecker appeared, located in eastern Russia, but also pointed toward the US and covering blank spots in the first system's pattern, this conclusion became inescapable. These further installations allowed for more precise pin-pointing of potential targets or missiles in multiple dimensions thanks in part to the properties of the Barker codes that allow for multiple radars operating on the same frequencies without significant interference.


title: Duga radar

text: In 1988, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducted a study on the Woodpecker signal. Data analysis showed a pulse repetition interval (PRI) of about 90ms, a frequency range of 7 to 19MHz, a bandwidth of 0.02 to 0.8MHz, and typical transmission time of 7 minutes.


title: Duga radar

text: The pulses transmitted by the Woodpecker had a wide bandwidth, typically 40 kHz. Their repetition frequencies were 10Hz, 16Hz and 20Hz with the most common frequency of 10Hz, while the 16Hz and 20Hz modes were rarely used.


title: Duga radar

text: To combat this interference, amateur radio operators attempted to jam the signal by transmitting synchronized unmodulated continuous wave signals at the same pulse rate as the offending signal. They formed a club called The Russian Woodpecker Hunting Club.


title: Duga radar

text: Starting in the late 1980s, even as the FCC was publishing studies, the signals became less frequent, and in 1989, they disappeared. Although the reasons for the eventual shutdown of the Duga systems have not been made public, the changing strategic balance with the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s maybe had a part to play. Another factor perhaps was the success of the US-KS early-warning satellites, which began entering service in the early 1980s, and by this time had grown into a complete network. The satellite system provides immediate, direct and highly secure warnings, whereas any radar-based system is subject to jamming, and the effectiveness of OTH systems is also subject to atmospheric conditions.


title: Duga radar

text: According to some reports, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur installation in the Russian Far East was taken off combat alert duty in November 1989, and some of its equipment was subsequently scrapped. The original Duga-1 site lies within the Zone of Alienation around the Chernobyl power plant. As of today, the radar appears permanently deactivated and will not likely receive future maintenance because such arrangements were not implemented within Russian and Ukrainian talks; with regards to the Dnepr early warning radar systems at Mukachevo and Sevastopol. Most of the antenna still stands and is often used by radio amateurs who visit the area using their own portable radio equipment.


title: Duga radar

text: The original Duga was the first experimental system. It was built outside the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv in the southern Ukraine, and successfully detected rocket launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome about away. Duga is able to track launches from the Far East and from submarines in the Pacific Ocean, as the missiles fly towards Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean. This huge radar complex was restored in 2002 after a fire seriously damaged it. The transmitter was located at and the receiver at . It appears that the original Duga transmit and receive sites near Mykolaiv, Ukraine were demolished in 2006.


title: Duga radar

text: The original Duga was supplanted by a pair of installations: western, Duga-1, and eastern, Duga-2. Duga-1 was built in northern Ukraine, between Liubech and Chernobyl-2. The receiver is located at , 12 kilometers west-north-west of Chernobyl; the transmitter is located at about northeast of Chernobyl (just west of Chernihiv, south of Gomel). The site is open for pre-arranged visits, for which a permit must be obtained in advance; it has been open since approximately 28 October 2013. Operators who provide tours of Chernobyl and the surrounding areas are able to obtain the relevant paperwork.


title: Duga radar

text: Duga-2, the eastern system, is located near Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk Krai, with the receiver at , some southeast of the city, and the transmitter at , north of the city.


title: Duga radar

text: The Ukrainian-developed computer game series "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." has a plot focused on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the nuclear accident there. The game features many actual locations in the area, including the Duga-1 array. The array itself appears in "" in the fictional city of Limansk-13. While the 'Brain Scorcher' from "" was inspired by theories that Duga-1 was used for mind control, it does not take the form of the real array.


title: Duga radar

text: Markiyan Kamysh's novel about illegal trips to the Duga, "A Stroll to the Zone", was praised by reviewers as the most interesting literature debut of 2015 in Ukraine. The novel has been translated into French (with the title "La Zone"), and was published by French publishing house Arthaud (Groupe Flammarion). It was also later translated into English with the title "Stalking the Atomic City".


title: Duga radar

text: A game later in the series, "", uses the duga as location for a possible final mission and as a map in the Zombies game-mode “Outbreak”, the map being appropriately named "Duga". Said map has rappel lines that can take the player(s) up to the top or middle of the Duga, despite the actual radar array lacking this.


title: Duga radar

text: The Duga at Chernobyl was the focus of the 2015 documentary film, "The Russian Woodpecker", by Chad Gracia. The film includes interviews with the commander of the duga, Vladimir Musiets, as well as the Vice-Commander, the Head of the Data Center, and others involved in building and operating the radar. The documentary, which won numerous awards, also includes drone video footage of the array and handheld video footage of the surroundings as well as a climb to the top by the cinematographer, Artem Ryzhykov. The film also proposes a conspiracy theory that the Chernobyl disaster was engineered to cover up failures in the radar's design.


title: Duga radar

text: The Duga radar is also featured in the films of the "Divergent" series, where it was used as the giant wall and fence surrounding the main city. In wide shots, its structure was used to create computer-generated imagery of the superstructure and several close-up scenes were shot directly at its location.


title: Duga radar

text: A Duga radar is featured in the 2017 game "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" in a map which portrays a fictional Russian Military base.


title: Duga radar

text: The Chernobyl DLC for the game "Spintires" features a representation of the sarcophagus and an antenna array similar in appearance to Duga.


title: Duga radar

text: The Duga radar is heavily featured in the virtual reality game "Proze: Enlightenment", a suspense/puzzle game with the theory that the radar is being used by mind controlling experiments during the 1950-60s. The game actually starts with the player ascending one of the pylons on a maintenance lift.


title: Duga radar

text: In episode 12 of the first season of the NBC science fiction series "Debris", the Duga radar array makes an appearance as a fictional array in the state of Virginia.


title: Duga radar

text: The Chernobyl Duga site is featured in Discovery Channel's series "Mysteries of the Abandoned" (season 1, episode 4).


title: Noor Jehan

text: Noor Jehan (Punjabi: ) (born () Allah Rakhi Wasai ; 23 September 1926 – 23 December 2000; sometimes spelled Noorjehan), also known by her honorific title Malika-e-Tarannum (Queen of Melody), was a Punjabi playback singer and actress who worked first in India and then in the cinema of Pakistan. Her career spanned more than six decades (the 1930s–1990s). Considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers in Indian subcontinent, she was given the honorific title of Malika-e-Tarannum in Pakistan. She had a command of Hindustani classical music as well as other music genres.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Along with Ahmed Rushdi, she holds the record for having given voice to the largest number of film songs in the history of Pakistani cinema. She recorded about 20,000 songs in various languages including Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Sindhi. She sang a total of 2,422 songs in 1148 Pakistani films during a career that lasted more than half a century. She is also considered to be the first female Pakistani film director.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Noor Jehan was born as Allah Rakhi Wasai into a Punjabi Muslim family in Kasur, Punjab, British India and was one of the eleven children of Imdad Ali and Fateh Bibi.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Jehan began to sing at the age of six and showed a keen interest in a range of styles, including traditional folk and popular theatre. Realising her potential for singing, her father sent her to receive early training in classical singing under Ustad Ghulam Mohammad. He started her training at age of 11 at Calcutta and instructed her in the traditions of the Patiala Gharana of Hindustani classical music and the classical forms of "thumri", "dhrupad", and "khyal".


title: Noor Jehan

text: At the age of nine, Noor Jehan drew the attention of Punjabi musician Ghulam Ahmed Chishti, who would later introduce her to the stage in Lahore. He composed some ghazals, na`ats and folk songs for her to perform, although she was keener on breaking into acting or playback singing. Once her vocational training finished, Jehan pursued a career in singing alongside her sister in Lahore, and would usually take part in the live song and dance performances prior to screenings of films in cinemas.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Theatre owner "Diwan Sardari Lal" took the small girl to Calcutta in the early 1930s and the entire family moved to Calcutta in hopes of developing the movie careers of Allah Wasai and her older sisters, Eiden Bai and Haider Bandi. Mukhtar Begum (not to be confused with actress Sabiha Khanum) encouraged the sisters to join film companies and recommended them to various producers. She also recommended them to her husband, Agha Hashar Kashmiri, who owned a "maidan theatre" (a tented theatre to accommodate large audiences). It was here that Wasai received the stage name, Baby Noor Jehan. Her older sisters were offered jobs with one of the Seth Sukh Karnani companies, Indira Movietone and they went on to be known as the "Punjab Mail".


title: Noor Jehan

text: In 1935, K.D. Mehra directed the Punjabi movie "Pind di Kuri" in which Noor Jehan acted along with her sisters and sang the Punjabi song "Langh aja patan chanaan da o yaar", which became her earliest hit. She then acted in a film called "Missar Ka Sitara" (1936) by the same company and sang in it for music composer Damodar Sharma. Jehan also played the child role of Heer in the film "Heer-Sayyal" (1937). One of her popular songs from that period "Shala jawaniyan maney" is from Dalsukh Pancholi's Punjabi film "Gul Bakawli" (1939). All these Punjabi movies were made in Calcutta. After a few years in Calcutta, Jehan returned to Lahore in 1938. In 1939, renowned music director Ghulam Haider composed songs for Jehan which led to her early popularity, and he thus became her early mentor.


title: Noor Jehan

text: In 1942, she played the main lead opposite Pran in "Khandaan" (1942). It was her first role as an adult, and the film was a major success. The success of "Khandaan" saw her shifting to Bombay, with the director Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. She shared melodies with Shanta Apte in "Duhai" (1943). It was in this film that Jehan lent her voice for the second time, to another actress named Husn Bano. She married Rizvi later the same year. From 1945 to 1947 and her subsequent move to Pakistan, Noor Jehan was one of the biggest film actresses of the Indian Film Industry. Her films: "Badi Maa, Zeenat, Gaon Ki Gori" (all 1945), "Anmol Ghadi" (1946), Mirza Sahiban (1947) and "Jugnu" (1947) were the top-grossing films of the years 1945 to 1947.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Mirza Sahiban was her last film released in India in which she was paired opposite Trilok Kapoor, brother of Prithviraj Kapoor.


title: Noor Jehan

text: In 1947, Rizvi and Jehan decided to move to Pakistan. They left Bombay and settled in Karachi with their family.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Three years after settling in Pakistan, Jehan starred in her first Pakistani film "Chan Wey" (1951), opposite Santosh Kumar, which was also her first Pakistani film as a heroine and playback singer. Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and Noor Jehan directed this film together, making Jehan Pakistan's first female director. It became the highest-grossing film in Pakistan in 1951. Jehan's second film in Pakistan was "Dupatta" (1952) which was produced by Aslam Lodhi, directed by Sibtain Fazli and assisted by A. H. Rana as production manager. Dupatta turned out to be an even bigger success than "Chan Wey" (1951).


title: Noor Jehan

text: During 1953 and 1954, Jehan and Rizvi had problems and got divorced due to personal differences. She kept custody of the three children from their marriage. In 1959, she married another film actor, Ejaz Durrani, nine years her junior. Durrani pressured her to give up acting, and her last film as an actress/singer was "Ghalib" (1961). This contributed to the strengthening of her iconic stature. She gained another audience for herself. Her rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's ""Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat Mere Mehboob Na Maang"" is a unique example of "tarranum", reciting poetry as a song with music of Rasheed Attre in the Pakistani film "Qaidi" (1962). Jehan last acted in "Baaji" in 1963, though not in a leading role.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Jehan bade farewell to film acting in 1963 after a career of 33 years (1930–1963). The pressure of being a mother of six children and the demands of being a wife to another fellow film actor, forced her to give up her career. Jehan made 14 films in Pakistan, ten in Urdu and four in Punjabi as a film actress.


title: Noor Jehan

text: After quitting acting she took up playback singing. She made her debut exclusively as a playback singer in 1960 with the film "Salma". Her first initial playback singing for a Pakistani film was for the 1951 film "Chann Wey", for which she was the film director herself. She received many awards, including the Pride of Performance in 1965 by the Pakistani Government. She sang a large number of duets with Ahmed Rushdi, Mehdi Hassan, Masood Rana, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Mujeeb Aalam.


title: Noor Jehan

text: She had an understanding and friendship with many singers of Asia, for example with Alam Lohar and many more. Jehan made great efforts to attend the "Mehfils" (live concerts) of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Roshan Ara Begum. Lata Mangeshkar commented on Jehan's vocal range, that Jehan could sing as low and as high as she wanted, and that the quality of her voice always remained the same. Singing was, for Jehan, not effortless but an emotionally and physically draining exercise. In the 1990s, Jehan also sang for then débutante actresses Neeli and Reema. For this very reason, Sabiha Khanum affectionately called her "Sadabahar" (evergreen). Her popularity was further boosted with her patriotic songs during the 1965 war between Pakistan and India.


title: Noor Jehan

text: In 1971 Madam Noor Jehan visited Tokyo for the World Song Festival as a representative from Pakistan.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Jehan visited India in 1982 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Indian talkie movies, where she met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi and was received by Dilip Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar in Bombay. She met all her erstwhile heroes and costars, including Surendra, Pran, Suraiya, composer Naushad and others. The website " Women on Record" stated: "Noor Jehan injected a degree of passion into her singing unmatched by anyone else. But she left for Pakistan".


title: Noor Jehan

text: In 1991, Vanessa Redgrave invited her to perform at a fundraising event to benefit the children of the Middle East held at Royal Albert Hall London. Lionel Richie, Bob Geldof, Madonna, Boy George, and Duran Duran were some of the performers at the star-studded event which was attended, amongst many others, by thespian John Gielgud, Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, and Oscar-winning actor Dame Peggy Ashcroft. She has also sung "Saiyan Saadey Naal", a song of well-known Pakistani folk singer, songwriter and composer Akram Rahi for the film "Dam Mast Kalander/Aalmi Gunday".


title: Noor Jehan

text: Noor Jehan was married at least three times, perhaps four; she had six children by two of these marriages. In 1942, aged 16, she married Shaukat Hussain Rizvi of Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. In 1948, Shaukat Rizvi decided to migrate to Pakistan, and Noor Jehan moved too, ending her career in India. She next visited India only in 1982. Her marriage to Rizvi ended in 1953 with a divorce. By this time, the couple had become the parents of three children, and the singer Zil-e-Huma is their daughter.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Noor Jehan was also in a relationship with cricketer Nazar Mohammad, but it is not known whether they were ever married. In 1959, she married Ejaz Durrani. This marriage also produced three children, but also ended in divorce in 1971. Later, Noor Jehan also married the Pakistani actor Yousuf Khan.


title: Noor Jehan

text: Jehan suffered from chest pains in 1986 on a tour of North America and was diagnosed with angina pectoris, after which she underwent bypass surgery. According to her daughter, Shazia Hassan, she was suffering from chronic kidney disease in her last years and was on dialysis. In 2000, Jehan was hospitalised at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and suffered a heart attack. On 23 December 2000 (night of 27 Ramadan), Jehan died as a result of heart failure. Her funeral took place at Jamia Masjid Sultan, Karachi and was attended by over 400,000 people. She was buried at the Gizri Graveyard in Karachi. When she died, then President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf said that "She deserves a state funeral". He ordered her funeral be taken to Lahore from Karachi, but her daughters insisted on burying her in Karachi on the night she died. In the wake of her death, a famous Indian writer and poet, Javed Akhtar, in an interview in Mumbai, said that "In the worst conditions of our relations with Pakistan in 53 years, in a very hostile atmosphere, our cultural heritage has been a common bridge. Noor Jehan was one such durable bridge. My fear is that her death may have shaken it."


title: Noor Jehan

text: Noor Jehan received more than 15 Nigar Awards for Best Female Playback Singer, eight for Best Urdu Singer Female and the rest for Punjabi Playback. She has also received the Millennium Singer Award in Pakistan.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Raymond Louis Heenan (November 1, 1944 – September 17, 2017) was an American professional wrestling manager, color commentator, wrestler, and comedian. He performed with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan was known for his skill in elevating villainous on-screen talent by drawing negative reactions for himself and his wrestlers from the crowd. He was paired with numerous wrestlers, including Nick Bockwinkel, whom he led to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, and he became an integral figure in the 1980s professional wrestling boom by managing King Kong Bundy and André the Giant in WWF main event matches with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 2 and WrestleMania III respectively. The wrestlers under his tutelage were collectively known as "The Heenan Family" at various times throughout his career.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Known for his quick wit and comedic ability, Heenan also served as a color commentator and is remembered for his on-screen repartee with Gorilla Monsoon. Outside of wrestling, Heenan authored two books, appeared on numerous television shows, and briefly hosted a parody talk show titled "The Bobby Heenan Show" on "WWF Prime Time Wrestling". Heenan retired in 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven after a seventeen-year stint as a commentator in professional wrestling but he continued to make sporadic appearances in several promotions. In 2002, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, which limited his appearances in later years, and died from complications of the disease in 2017. Among other honors, he has been inducted into the Professional Wrestling, WWE, and "Wrestling Observer" halls of fame. Multiple wrestling commentators have described him as the greatest professional wrestling manager of all time.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Raymond Louis Heenan was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 1, 1944. His father Robert Heenan was a railroad worker, and his mother Mildred Bernadette Kambrz was a hotel manager. Heenan dropped out of school in the eighth grade to support his mother and grandmother. As a fan of wrestling growing up in Chicago and Indianapolis, he started in the wrestling profession early on, carrying bags and jackets for the wrestlers, and selling refreshments at events.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In 1965, Heenan became a regular in William Afflis' (known by his in-ring persona Dick the Bruiser) Indianapolis-based WWA promotion under the moniker "Pretty Boy" Bobby Heenan. In 1966, he wrestled his first match against Calvin "Prince" Pullins. Heenan said he was never trained as a wrestler and it came naturally. He was booked – both as a manager and wrestler – after the promoters saw how well he handled the physical aspects of his managerial duties. During his time in WWA, he managed Angelo Poffo and Chris Markoff, the Assassins (Guy Mitchell and Joe Tomasso), The Valiant Brothers and The Blackjacks. In particular, Heenan was credited with making Blackjack Lanza one of the top wrestling villains in the country. This impressed promoter Sam Muchnick, who typically hated wrestling managers, and Heenan is believed to be the only heel manager to work in Muchnick's St. Louis Wrestling Club. He also occasionally wrestled with a storyline "brother" Guy Heenan, portrayed by Guy Mitchell, from the Assassins. In 1974, he left the WWA. He attributed his departure to a dispute with Afflis over pay for his participation in the first-ever wrestling event held at Market Square Arena, emphatically stating that he never returned to the promotion as a result.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: After leaving WWA, Heenan announced he was now to be known as "The Brain" at his AWA debut in 1969. He took up managing the team of Nick Bockwinkel and Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, a duo which won a third AWA World Tag Team Championship under his leadership. While Bockwinkel and Stevens feuded with The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser, Bruiser famously called Heenan "Weasel"; this led to his rivals calling him "Weasel" throughout the rest of his wrestling career. The AWA was the starting point for the first incarnation of his eponymous heel stable, The Heenan Family, which initially consisted of Bockwinkel, Stevens, Bobby Duncum Sr., and Blackjack Lanza.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: On January 25, 1975, an angry fan fired a gun at Heenan in Chicago's International Amphitheatre after Heenan interfered in one of Bockwinkel's matches. Heenan was unharmed, but five people sitting ringside were injured, one of them critically. Later in 1975, Bockwinkel captured his first of several AWA World Heavyweight Championships, ending the seven-year reign of perennial champion and AWA promoter Verne Gagne. While Bockwinkel was AWA Champion in 1976, Lanza and Duncum captured the AWA World Tag Team Championship, making Heenan the first manager in history to simultaneously manage both a major promotion's singles and tag team champions.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In early 1979, Heenan left the AWA (suspended one year, in storyline) to work in Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW). During his short tenure in GCW, Heenan managed a stable of wrestlers that included the likes of Killer Karl Kox, Masked Superstar, Ernie Ladd and Blackjack Lanza. Heenan met a young Hulk Hogan while in Georgia and later told AWA promoter Verne Gagne that he should hire him. According to Heenan, he moved his family to Atlanta after being told by GCW promoter Ole Anderson that he could work for the promotion as long as he wanted, only to release him less than a year later. Anderson admitted to releasing him but denied promising him indefinite employment.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In late 1979, Heenan returned to AWA and resumed managing Nick Bockwinkel to renewed championship success, including against Hogan in 1983. During AWA's tour of Japan in 1983, Heenan suffered a neck injury in a match with Atsushi Onita that would limit his in-ring ability going forward.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In 1984, Heenan left AWA to join the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). While most of the AWA talent left for the WWF during this time without giving proper notice (the AWA required departing talent to work a six-week notice for booking and syndication-based reasons, with most talent claiming that WWF promoter Vince McMahon paid them extra "not" to work out their notices with the AWA), only Heenan worked out his notice in good faith to the Gagne family. He was written out of AWA television when Wally Karbo announced on the September 28 AWA broadcast that Heenan had been suspended indefinitely by AWA President Stanley Blackburn for initiating a brawl with The Fabulous Ones.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan was signed by the WWF in 1984 with the intention of him managing Jesse Ventura, however Ventura's retirement due to blood clots in his lungs prevented this from happening. Instead, Heenan managed Big John Studd (whom Heenan was best friends with in the AWA) in his feud against André the Giant. Studd challenged André to a US$15,000 bodyslam match at the first WrestleMania, with the stipulation being that André would have to retire had he lost. André won the match and then took the bag with the $15,000 and started throwing it out to the crowd before Heenan snatched the bag.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan reformed the Heenan Family, which over the years in the WWF would include Studd, "Olympic Strong Man" Ken Patera, "Playboy" Buddy Rose, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, King Kong Bundy, André the Giant, High Chief Sivi Afi, the Brain Busters (former Four Horsemen members Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "King" Harley Race, the Islanders (Haku and Tama), Hercules, The Barbarian, Mr. Perfect, The Red Rooster, and The Brooklyn Brawler. Heenan and the Heenan Family had a feud with Hulk Hogan in the 1980s, and Heenan managed two WrestleMania challengers to Hogan's title. In 1986, Heenan managed King Kong Bundy in his main event bout at WrestleMania 2. During the André the Giant–Hulk Hogan rivalry preceding WrestleMania III, André sided with Heenan and challenged Hogan at the event. While neither Bundy nor André won the title at that time, André later bested Hogan for the championship on "The Main Event I" on February 5, 1988, in a controversial win after he aligned himself with "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: After being derided by announcers for his first five years in the WWF (mostly by Gorilla Monsoon) for never managing a champion, WrestleMania V was promoted (mostly by Jesse Ventura and later Gorilla Monsoon) as Heenan's quest, and best chance since WrestleMania III to manage a champion. Heenan finally managed his first champion in the WWF when "Ravishing" Rick Rude upset The Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, a match Heenan ensured Rude would win by holding Warrior's leg down so he could not break the pin. Shortly thereafter, he led the Brain Busters to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. After the Busters had lost the titles back to Demolition a few months later, he led the Colossal Connection (André and Haku) to win the Tag Team Championship when they defeated Demolition. Demolition would win the titles back at WrestleMania VI. Immediately after the loss, Heenan began blaming the loss on André the Giant going as far as slapping him. A few months after that, he led Mr. Perfect to Intercontinental Championship success.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan also wrestled sporadically in his WWF run. In his in-ring debut at Madison Square Garden in November 1984, he cleanly pinned Salvatore Bellomo. At WrestleMania IV, he teamed with The Islanders to defeat The British Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware. The following year, he was defeated in 30 seconds by former client The Red Rooster at WrestleMania V. Heenan also wrestled a series of "Weasel Suit matches" against The Ultimate Warrior, who defeated Heenan by forcing him into a weasel costume. His final in ring match came on August 2, 1991, at a house show in Long Island, New York, where he defeated Mr. Fuji.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan retired from managing in 1991 to become a full-time commentator. Nonetheless, Heenan crossed the line to managing sporadically. When the WWF signed Ric Flair, Heenan spent several weeks talking Flair up as "The Real World's Heavyweight Champion", appearing onscreen with Flair's Big Gold Belt. He continued to act as an adviser to Flair during his WWF run from 1991 to 1993. Though he nominally managed Flair, Heenan's former protégé Mr. Perfect, who temporarily retired due to injury, would regularly accompany Flair to ringside as his "Executive Consultant". At the 1993 Royal Rumble, he introduced "The Narcissist" Lex Luger to the WWF to exact revenge on his former protégé, Mr. Perfect.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In 1984, WWF owner Vince McMahon took full advantage of his microphone and comedic skills and Heenan became a color commentator in addition to his managing duties. He replaced Jesse Ventura on "Prime Time Wrestling" and "All American Wrestling", aired on the USA Network, teaming up with Gorilla Monsoon. He also replaced Ventura to team up with Monsoon on the syndicated "All-Star Wrestling", which was replaced in the fall of 1986 with "Wrestling Challenge". Although the purpose of these shows were to summarize weekly WWF events, viewers tuned in to see Heenan and Monsoon's interactions.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan, calling himself a "broadcast journalist", bashed fan favorites and cheered for their opponents while they cheated or did something under-handed. For instance, Heenan claimed that Marty Jannetty was trying to escape Shawn Michaels' attack on the Barber Shop after Michaels threw him through a glass window. He referred to the fans as "humanoids", and fan favorites, especially enhancement talent, as "ham-and-eggers." Another moment between the pair often occurred when Heenan would go on a long rant supporting the villainous wrestlers, until an exasperated Monsoon would say either: "Will you stop?", "Give me a break!", or a sarcastic, "Please!"


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan, still suffering from the broken neck he received ten years earlier and unable to cope with the long working hours, decided to leave the WWF at the end of 1993. He was given an on-air farewell by Gorilla Monsoon on the December 6, 1993 edition of "Monday Night Raw", broadcast from the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York. Fed up with Heenan's constant insults, Monsoon threw him and his belongings out of the arena and onto the street. After the show, Heenan stated that he and Monsoon embraced each other and wept for over an hour in the hotel where they both were staying.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan's original plan was to retire, spend time with his family, and relax, but he was contacted by WCW soon after he left the WWF. He was unsure at first, but accepted their offer once he found out that WCW provided lighter work schedules and health insurance. Heenan also cited the short driving distance between WCW's home base of Atlanta and his daughter's school in Alabama.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: On January 27, 1994, Heenan made his debut in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was originally brought in to replace Jesse Ventura, his former client, as the color commentator for "WCW Saturday Night" and eventually took over Ventura's position as the company's lead commentator, replacing him for pay-per-view events and on the syndicated "WCW Worldwide" and "Clash of the Champions" events produced for TBS. When "WCW Monday Nitro" premiered in September 1995, Heenan left "Saturday Night" to work on the new show full-time and joined former Chicago Bears defensive lineman Steve McMichael as an analyst alongside play-by-play man Eric Bischoff. He was later frequently paired with Tony Schiavone.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: On the January 23, 1996 episode of "Clash of the Champions XXXII", during a match between Eddie Guerrero and Brian Pillman, Pillman left the ring and grabbed Heenan, (who had a history of neck problems,) by the collar, causing him to blurt out: "What the fuck are you doing?" live on the air. Five months later that year in June 1996, Heenan made a one-off return to ringside at The Great American Bash as the manager of two of his former clients, Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, in a tag team match against his broadcast colleague Steve McMichael and then Carolina Panthers linebacker Kevin Greene. Heenan was instrumental in convincing McMichael to turn on his partner, which enabled Flair and Anderson to win the match, and fill the open spot in The Four Horsemen that Brian Pillman left behind when he departed from the company earlier in the year.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: At the following pay-per-view, Bash at the Beach, Heenan reacted incredulously when his old rival Hulk Hogan walked out during the main event match between The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) and Sting, Lex Luger and Randy Savage by shouting "Whose side is he on?" Hogan subsequently turned his back on the fans and joined Hall and Nash to form the New World Order (nWo). Despite no longer being a fan favorite, Heenan continued to bash Hogan on commentary by gloating that he had been right about him all along, continuing a rivalry that dated back to their time in AWA.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Starting in late January 2000, WCW replaced Heenan on "Monday Nitro" and pay-per-view events with Mark Madden. Heenan continued to commentate on "Thunder" along with Mike Tenay, and later Schiavone, until he was replaced by Stevie Ray beginning in July 2000. Heenan was then only seen with Scott Hudson on "Worldwide" until he was released by WCW in November 2000. Heenan said he was uninspired in WCW due to the negative work environment and due to conflicts with Schiavone. WCW went out of business less than a year after his release.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: On April 1, 2001, Heenan returned to the WWF and provided commentary to the Gimmick Battle Royal match at WrestleMania X-Seven alongside "Mean" Gene Okerlund. Heenan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 (WWF changed its name to WWE in 2002) by Blackjack Lanza. The following night, he appeared at WrestleMania XX in a skit with Gene Okerlund, Mae Young and The Fabulous Moolah. He inducted his protégés Paul Orndorff, The Blackjacks and Nick Bockwinkel into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2005, class of 2006 and class of 2007 respectively. In his last WWE appearance, he was one of the speakers for "Mr McMahon appreciation night" on the June 11, 2007 episode of "Raw".


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan made several appearances on the independent circuit. In February 2001, Heenan did color commentary for the "WOW Unleashed" pay-per-view. Also in 2001, Heenan worked briefly as a "sports agent" in the Xcitement Wrestling Federation with Curt Hennig under his tutelage. In 2004, he feuded with fellow manager Jim Cornette in Ring of Honor. Heenan made a series of appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in December 2005, culminating at the Turning Point pay-per-view, where he provided commentary for the Six Man Tag Team Basebrawl match between The Diamonds in the Rough and Chris Sabin, Dale Torborg and Sonjay Dutt. His final appearance for TNA was on the September 7, 2006 episode of "Impact!", when he appeared to make a bid to manage "free agent" Robert Roode. Pro Wrestling Report honored Heenan at the annual "Blizzard Brawl" event on December 5, 2009, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as he was given their Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to this, the mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, declared December 5, 2009, to be "Bobby Heenan Day". Despite declining health in his final years, Heenan continued to make appearances at fan conventions. He enjoyed staying in touch with former colleagues and fans.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan made appearances as a guest on various television shows, including: "Family Feud", "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee", "The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon", Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, "The Arsenio Hall Show", and "The Dennis Miller Show". He also made an appearance in the 1995 film "Timemaster". Heenan had a parody talk show known as "The Bobby Heenan Show", which was broadcast in four segments during the second half of WWF's regular weekly program "Prime Time Wrestling".


title: Bobby Heenan

text: His first memoir, "Bobby The Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All", was released by Triumph Books on September 1, 2002, with a foreword from Hulk Hogan. A second memoir, "Chair Shots and Other Obstacles: Winning Life's Wrestling Matches", was released by Sports Publishing on February 1, 2004, and has an introduction by Ric Flair. Both books were co-written by Steve Anderson.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In 2004, he joined former WCW commentators Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko in providing commentary for the video game "". After his Hall of Fame induction, Heenan provided comments for use in WWE documentary releases. In December 2010, WWE released a retrospective two-disc DVD on Heenan's career titled "WWE: Bobby "The Brain" Heenan".


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan was married to the former Cynthia Jean Perrett (known as Cindy) from June 21, 1978, until his death. Together they had a daughter, Jessica. He also had two grandchildren.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Although on-screen they were often at odds, Heenan was actually very close with his WWF broadcast partner Gorilla Monsoon. He was also close friends with announcers Gene Okerlund and Mike Tenay. Various other people involved with the wrestling business, including Jim Ross, on-screen adversary Hulk Hogan and Ted DiBiase, noted their close friendships with Heenan on their Twitter accounts after he died.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: In January 2002, Heenan announced that he had throat cancer. By 2004, the cancer had gone into remission. The treatments caused a great deal of weight loss, dramatically altering his appearance and voice. In December 2007, Heenan had reconstructive surgery on his jaw, after the first surgery was unsuccessful. He was placed in a medically induced coma and was slowly brought out. In the second half of January 2008, he had come out of his medically induced coma. For a time, Heenan was unable to speak and had to communicate with his eyes. In December 2009, Heenan was hospitalized after an examination of his rebuilt jaw found an infection that needed to be treated. In the last few years of his life, he suffered a series of falls. In 2010, he broke a hip and his shoulder in a fall that also fractured his pelvis. He fell out of bed and broke a shoulder in April 2014. In May 2016, he fell again and broke a hip.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: On September 17, 2017, Heenan died at the age of 72 while surrounded by family at his home in Largo, Florida. His cause of death was organ failure due to complications from the throat cancer that had been in remission since 2004.


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Heenan is considered by many to be the greatest wrestling manager of all time, including WWE, who placed him at the top of their 25 greatest managers list in 2011. "The Post and Courier" columnist Mike Mooneyham said Heenan became a blueprint for managers and fellow manager Jim Cornette said: "He formed in my mind as a fan and performer what I thought a manager should be." Author Brian Shields notes that many consider him "one of the most significant figures in professional wrestling history". For his work in promoting André the Giant's match with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III, often cited as the most famous American professional wrestling match, Heenan received a six-figure payoff—arguably the largest pay day in any managerial career. Broadcaster Peter Rosenberg considers Heenan a personal hero and describes him as the best commentator, manager and bad guy in WWE history. Rosenberg stated that Heenan "operated on multiple levels", adding: "If you were a little kid, he was the foil to your hero. As an adult, you look back and appreciate just how much of a comedic genius he was."


title: Bobby Heenan

text: Longtime on-screen rival Hulk Hogan wrote in the foreword to Heenan's "Bad Boy Tells All": "Bobby was a legendary wrestler ... He will go down in the books as someone who mastered the craft". These comments were echoed by Triple H, who said that Heenan was one of the best in-ring talents but chose to be a manager. Journalist Wade Keller states that what sets him apart from other managers was his ability to take "tremendous bumps" (falls to the mat after being attacked). Pro wrestling historian George Schire praised his in-ring ability, commenting: "Bobby was a good athlete – flipping over the ropes, he could do it all. And whether it was as the manager or as a wrestler, he could get the crowd going as well as anyone."


title: Bobby Heenan

text: His comedic ability was praised by Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", who wrote that Heenan could have been a successful television actor. Comedian David Letterman became a fan of Heenan after seeing him in WWA. WWE Hall of Fame commentator Jim Ross selected Heenan as the greatest talent in the history of the wrestling business. Ross praised Heenan's ability as a color commentator, stating:


title: Bobby Heenan

text: He was naturally funny ... and enhanced every single talent, including the heroes, even though Bobby did not support the fan favorites as the bad guy announcer. [Heenan] did what every announcer should strive to do and that is to make talent bigger stars than they are and to embellish every talent's TV persona.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens (or simply Nora from Queens) is an American comedy television series starring Awkwafina that first aired on January 20, 2020, on Comedy Central. The series was renewed for a second season before the series premiere, and received generally favorable reviews from critics. The second season premiered on August 18, 2021. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a third season.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens" follows a "20-something woman, named Nora Lin, in Queens who strives for a larger-than-life existence." Raised alongside her cousin by her dad and grandma, Nora leans on her family as she navigates young adulthood in New York City.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: On April 17, 2018, it was announced that Comedy Central had given the production a pilot order. The episode was written by Awkwafina and Teresa Hsiao. Executive producers were set to include Awkwafina, Karey Dornetto, Peter Principato, and Itay Reiss. Dornetto was also expected to serve as showrunner and Hsiao as a co-executive producer. Production companies involved with the pilot were expected to include Principato-Young Entertainment, later rebranded as Artists First.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: On November 29, 2018, it was announced that Comedy Central had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. Awkwafina, Hsiao, and Dornetto were set to write for the series and Lucia Aniello was expected to direct and executive produce. Ahead of the series premiere, on January 14, 2020, it was reported that Comedy Central renewed the series for a second season. On May 12, 2022, Comedy Central renewed the series for a third season.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: Alongside the pilot order announcement, it was confirmed that Awkwafina would star in the production. Concurrent with the series order, it was announced that BD Wong and Lori Tan Chinn would star in the series. In July 2019, Chrissie Fit and Jonathan Park joined the cast in recurring roles. On August 14, 2019, Jennifer Esposito was cast in a recurring capacity. On March 24, 2021, Alan Kim was cast in a guest starring role for the second season.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: Principal photography for the pilot began on July 20, 2018 in Queens, New York City, New York. In the last episode of season one, part of the story's background is set in Beijing, China, but it was actually filmed at Taoyuan International Airport and in Taipei, Taiwan.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: The series premiered on January 22, 2020 on Comedy Central. In August 2020, it was announced that the series would be available on HBO Max, with the second season airing on the service after its first-run broadcast on Comedy Central. The trailer for the second season was released on July 22, 2021. The second season premiered on August 18, 2021.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 80% with an average rating of 6.75/10, based on 30 reviews. The site's consensus states that ""Nora From Queens" showcases Awkwafina's charming brashness and surrounds her with an equally delightful cast—especially scene stealer Lori Tan Chinn—but it could stand to walk a less familiar comedic beat." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Linda Holmes of NPR states "There's a lot of pressure on creators of color to be groundbreaking — to sell their shows as both good and somehow ethically nutritious. Awkwafina's place in that calculus is complicated by legitimate questions about her own treatment of cultural traditions she's not part of. But it's also fair to evaluate "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens" as an entry in a line of single-camera comedy series amplifying one distinctive sensibility ("Insecure", "Louie", "Chewing Gum", "Broad City", even "Portlandia"). And as part of that line, it holds up well." According to IMDb, "Grandma and Chill" is the highest-rated episode of season one, followed by the season finale, "China".


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: The series premiere obtained 0.49 million viewers, making it the highest rated season one premiere for Comedy Central since 2017. Several days later, Comedy Central announced that "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens" amassed 3.8 million total viewers (2.2 million came from the simulcast and replays of the episode and 1.6 million came from YouTube views). On social media, the series ranked the first in the most social primetime cable comedy of the night with 39,000 social interactions across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The second season of the series saw a 20% increase on rating and 14% increase in share from the Season 1 average.


title: Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

text: A sneak peek at the show's sixth episode aired on January 20, 2020, before the premiere of the pilot in its regular timeslot. The episode later re-aired on February 26, 2020.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: The Holy Mountain () is a 1973 Mexican surreal-fantasy film directed, written, produced, co-scored, co-edited by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, who also participated as a set designer and costume designer on the film. Following Jodorowsky's underground hit "El Topo," acclaimed by both John Lennon and George Harrison, the film was produced by the Beatles manager Allen Klein of ABKCO Music and Records. Lennon and Yoko Ono put up production money. It was shown at various international film festivals in 1973, including Cannes, and limited screenings in New York and San Francisco.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: A man (later identified as the thief), representing The Fool tarot card, lies in the desert with flies covering his face. He is befriended by a footless, handless dwarf representing the Five of Swords, and the pair travel into the city where they make money entertaining tourists. Because the thief resembles Jesus Christ in appearance, some locals — a nun and three warriors — cast an impression of his body and sell the resulting crucifixes. After a dispute with a priest, the thief eats off the face of his wax statue and sends it skyward with balloons, symbolically eating the body of Christ and offering "himself" up to Heaven. Soon after, he notices a crowd gathered around a tall tower, where a large hook with a bag of gold has been sent down in exchange for food.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: The thief, wishing to find the source of the gold, ascends the tower. There he finds the alchemist and his silent assistant. After a confrontation with the alchemist, the thief defecates into a container. The excrement is transformed into gold by the alchemist, who proclaims: "You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold." The thief accepts the gold, but smashes a mirror with the gold when shown his reflection. The alchemist then takes the thief as an apprentice.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: The thief is introduced to seven people who will accompany him on his journey. Each is introduced as a personification of one of the planets, in particular the negative characteristics that are associated with the respective planet. They consist of a cosmetics manufacturer representing Venus, a weapons manufacturer representing Mars, a millionaire art dealer representing Jupiter, a war toy maker representing Saturn, a political financial advisor representing Uranus, a police chief representing Neptune, and an architect representing Pluto. The alchemist instructs the seven to burn their money as well as wax effigies of themselves. Together with the alchemist, the thief, and the alchemist's assistant, they form a group of ten.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: The characters are led by the alchemist through various transformation rituals. The ten journey by boat to "Lotus Island" in order to gain the secret of immortality from nine immortal masters who live on a holy mountain. Once on Lotus Island they are sidetracked by the Pantheon Bar, a cemetery party where people have abandoned their quest for the holy mountain and instead engage in drugs, poetry, or acts of physical prowess. Leaving the bar behind, they ascend the mountain. Each has a personal symbolic vision representing their worst fears and obsessions.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: Near the top, the thief is sent back to his "people" along with a young prostitute and an ape who have followed him from the city to the mountain. The rest confront the cloaked immortals, who are shown to be only faceless dummies. The alchemist then breaks the fourth wall with the command "Zoom back, camera!" and reveals the film apparatus (cameras, microphones, lights, and crew) just outside the frame. He instructs everyone, including the audience of the film, to leave the holy mountain: "Goodbye Holy Mountain, Real life awaits us."


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: The film is based on "Ascent of Mount Carmel" by John of the Cross and "Mount Analogue" by René Daumal, who was a student of George Gurdjieff. In this film, much of Jodorowsky's visually psychedelic story follows the metaphysical thrust of "Mount Analogue". This is revealed in such events as the climb to the alchemist, the assembly of individuals with specific skills, the discovery of the mountain that unites Heaven and Earth "that cannot "not" exist", and symbolic challenges along the mountain ascent. Daumal died before finishing his allegorical novel, and Jodorowsky's improvised ending provides a way of completing the work (both symbolically and otherwise).


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: Before the principal photography would commence, Jodorowsky and his wife spent a week without sleep under the direction of a Japanese Zen master.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: The central members of the cast spent three months doing various spiritual exercises guided by Oscar Ichazo of the Arica Institute. The Arica training features Zen, Sufi and yoga exercises along with eclectic concepts drawn from the Kabbalah, the "I Ching" and the teachings of George Gurdjieff. After the training, the group lived for one month communally in Jodorowsky's home before production. Thereafter, the filming started in early 1972. The film was shot sequentially, entirely in Mexico, at a budget of $750,000.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: Jodorowsky was also instructed by Ichazo to take LSD for the purpose of spiritual exploration. He also administered psilocybin mushrooms to the actors during the shooting of the death-rebirth scene.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: "The Holy Mountain" was completed just in time for the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, where it was much awaited. Jodorowsky edited out twenty minutes of dialogue from the film, with the intention of removing as much dialogue as he could. The film had its premiere at Waverly Theatre, an art house movie theater in New York City on 29 November 1973, where it had restricted run at midnights on Friday and Saturday for sixteen months. It was also shown at Filmex on 30 March 1974, which was described as the "American premiere." At a few places it was released as a double bill with Jodorowsky's 1970 film, "El Topo", and eventually became a cult film with its influence on popular culture.


title: The Holy Mountain (1973 film)

text: In 2010, the Alamo Drafthouse held a screening of "The Holy Mountain" as part of their "High for the Holidays" event. To commemorate this event, a limited-edition movie poster was designed by German artist Florian Bertmer.