title: Quintana Roo

text: Ancient human remains have been discovered in a system of submerged caves and sinkholes in the Tulum area of Quintana Roo. To date, a total of nine skeletons have been found in these caves, including one of the oldest human skeletons found on the American continent. In 2016, underwater archaeological exploration of a cave known as Chan Hol found a skeleton of a female who lived in the region at least 9,900 years ago, during the Paleo-Indian period. Dating revealed that the skeleton was probably about 30 years old at the time of death. According to craniometric measurements, the skull is believed to conform to the mesocephalic pattern, like three other skulls found in Tulum caves. Three different scars on the skull of the woman showed that she was hit with something hard and her skull bones were broken. Her skull also had crater-like deformations and tissue deformities that appeared to be caused by a bacterial relative of syphilis.


title: Quintana Roo

text: According to study lead researcher Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, "It really looks as if this woman had a very hard time and an extremely unhappy end of her life. Obviously, this is speculative, but given the traumas and the pathological deformations on her skull, it appears a likely scenario that she may have been expelled from her group and was killed in the cave, or was left in the cave to die there”.


title: Quintana Roo

text: The skeleton found by the 2016 exploration was away from a site where a previous expedition found human remains known as Chan Hol 2. Although archaeologists assumed the 2016 expedition had re-discovered Chan Hol 2, Stinnesbeck concluded that the two skeletons represent different individuals.


title: Quintana Roo

text: Due to their distinctive features, study co-researcher Samuel Rennie suggest the existence of at least two morphologically diverse groups of people living separately in Mexico during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene.


title: Quintana Roo

text: According to the Köppen climate classification, much of the state has a tropical wet and dry climate ("Aw") while the island of Cozumel has a tropical monsoon climate ("Am"). The mean annual temperature is . The hottest months are April and August, in which the average high is , while January is the coldest month with an average low of . Extreme temperatures can range from a low of in the coldest months to in the hottest months. Quintana Roo averages of precipitation per year, which falls throughout the year, though June to October are the wetter months. Hurricanes can occasionally hit the coastal areas during the hurricane season, particularly from September to November. 2020 was a historic year for hurricanes in Quintana Roo, with a record-breaking 31 tropical systems formed, of which four affected the state.


title: Quintana Roo

text: The State of Quintana Roo is divided into 11 municipalities (), each headed by a municipal president:


title: Quintana Roo

text: Quintana Roo's tourist boom began in the 1970s. Tourism resulted in the development of coastal hotels and resorts, in addition to ecotourism inland and in coastal regions, which have increased the development of the region as well as the gross domestic product. Quintana Roo ranks sixth among Mexican states according to the United Nations Human Development index (HDI).


title: Quintana Roo

text: The Riviera Maya is located along the Caribbean coastline, including Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos, Akumal and Cozumel.


title: Quintana Roo

text: There are a number of Mayan archeological sites in Quintana Roo, including Chacchoben, Coba, Kohunlich, Muyil, San Gervasio, Tulum, Xcaret, Xelha, and Yo'okop.


title: Quintana Roo

text: The Yucatán Peninsula is one of the most forested areas of the world in terms of biotic mass per hectare. However, anthropological, biological and governmental experts have determined that Quintana Roo is 'facing a faunal crisis'. Many medium to large game animals are disappearing due to hunting and habitat loss. While its population is relatively small, Quintana Roo is experiencing both a population influx and an increase in tourism. This only increases the pressure on the plants and animals native to the area.


title: Quintana Roo

text: There are four generalized ecosystems in Quintana Roo—tropical forests, or jungle; savanna, mangrove forests, and coral reefs. One of the byproducts of traditional and large-scale agriculture is the creation of additional habitats, such as second growth forests and fields/pastures. Tourism has caused Quintana Roo to become famous around the world in the last thirty or so years for its beaches, coastline, and cenote sinkholes. Biological experts consider the coastline of Quintana Roo one of the best manatee habitats worldwide. Queen conchs are also noted for their inhabitation of coastal territory. The wide variety of biotic organisms such as these has decreased drastically in the last fifteen years.


title: Quintana Roo

text: Also affected by the loss of habitat due to both agriculture and development, birds are one of the region's most varied animal assets. Hundreds of species reside in Quintana Roo permanently, with hundreds of others either wintering there or using it as a stopover on the long journey into South America. As a result, many birders come to the area annually in search of the rare and unexpected.


title: Quintana Roo

text: Many blame the environmental damage in Quintana Roo on either the regional government or outside investors. However, resorts and hotels in Quintana Roo have created jobs and increased economic activity, which in turn has resulted in growth.


title: Quintana Roo

text: Projections for the tourism economy of Quintana Roo were exceedingly optimistic. It houses multiple tourist attractions from the Maya ruins to the lush forests and beautiful beaches. However, the long-term effects were not foreseen. The effect on the local environment was not properly considered. Economic stresses of development and population were virtually ignored. The effect on the native population was not properly considered. The 'economic marginalization' of the Maya has had drastic effects on their sense of place and identity.


title: Quintana Roo

text: Newspapers of Quintana Roo include: "Diario de Quintana Roo", "Diario Respuesta", "El Periódico de Quintana Roo", "El Quintanarroense", "Novedades de Quintana Roo", and "Por Esto!"


title: Quintana Roo

text: Soccer club Atlante F.C. was founded in 1916 in Mexico City and moved to Cancun in 2007 due to poor attendance. During its years in Mexico City, the team played in Liga MX, Mexico’s premier pro soccer league. In June 2020, a possible move of Atlante F.C. began to be speculated. On June 26, the relocation of that club to Mexico City became official. The same day, however, the relocation of Cafetaleros de Chiapas was announced, moving to Cancún and rebranding as Cancún F.C. They play in the Mexican second division Liga de Expansión MX at Estadio Andrés Quintana Roo.


title: Quintana Roo

text: In addition to soccer, the city has a professional baseball team, known as the Quintana Roo Tigers. After playing the 1955–2001 seasons in Mexico City and the 2002–2005 seasons in Puebla, the Tigers have been playing baseball with a home field at the Estadio de Béisbol Beto Ávila in Cancún since the 2006 season. The Tigers made it to the Mexican League series of baseball (analogous to MLB’s World Series) in 2009, but lost to the Saraperos de Saltillo 4 games to 2.


title: Quintana Roo

text: On February 1, 2015, Quintana Roo officially adopted a new time zone, Southeastern, which is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (). Quintana Roo does not observe daylight savings time, so Southeastern Time is constant throughout the year (that is, it does not shift forward in the spring and back in the fall). Southeastern Time (ST) is the same as Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Central Daylight Time (CDT). This means that in the winter, Quintana Roo has the same time as regions observing EST, such as the eastern U.S., eastern Canada, Cuba, and Jamaica; and in the summer, Quintana Roo has the same time as regions observing CDT, such as central Mexico.


title: Quintana Roo

text: Before Quintana Roo adopted the Southeastern time zone (officially referred to as "zona sureste" in Mexico), it had been part of the Central time zone ("zona centro").


title: Dax (rapper)

text: Daniel Nwosu Jr. (born March 22, 1994), better known by his stage name Dax (often stylized as DAX), is a Nigerian Canadian rapper, singer, and songwriter.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: Daniel Nwosu Jr. was born on March 22, 1994, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He grew up in Ottawa and moved to Wichita to attend university, and he later moved to Los Angeles, California. He attended the Newman University, where he played guard for the Newman Jets basketball team. He initially wrote poetry and was a motivational speaker prior to pursuing a rap career. During his tenure at Newman University he worked as a janitor, which he claimed was a job he liked because he was able to work on building his rap career in his spare time from work.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: Dax decided to write up a poem as he rode on a bus with his basketball team in 2016. After impressing one of his teammates with the poem, Dax realized he had a knack for putting words together. He began seriously releasing and promoting music through his SoundCloud account dropping mixtape "2pac Reincarnation Vol 2: As Told By Dax" in 2017, He rose to fame for the official music video of his song "Cash Me Outside" featuring Danielle Bregoli.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: He released his first extended play in August 2018, entitled "It’s Different Now" which features guest appearances from other rappers including OT Genasis and Futuristic. The following year, he was featured on Hopsin's song "You Should've Known". In June 2019, he went on "It goes up" tour with Tech N9ne and then later announced his first solo headlining tour "It's Different Now Tour" via Instagram and scheduled to tour in October across America and Canada.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: In 2020, he released another EP called "I'll Say It For You" which received generally positive reviews, the 7 track EP was preceded by the controversial single "Dear God", in which Dax asks questions for God as he contemplates the existence of both himself and the world at large. The song was praised by the critics for its subject matter and lyricism, the music video of the song has over 50 million views on YouTube and has been streamed more than 50 million times on Spotify. Later that year he released two more singles, "Faster" and "I don't want another sorry" featuring Tech N9ne and Trippie Redd respectively. In April 2020, he released the single "Coronavirus (State Of Emergency)", which was written about the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: In July 2021, Dax released a sequel to "Dear God" called "Child of God" in which he responded by thanking God for what he had done for him. In August 2021, Dax announced his debut studio album and released "Propaganda" featuring Tom Macdonald as album's lead single. The song peaked at number 15 on the "Billboard"'s R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart and at number 9 on the Rap Digital Song Sales chart. In early October 2021, album's third single "40 Days, 40 Nights" featuring Nasty C was released. On October 15, 2021, his debut studio album "Pain Paints Paintings" was released digitally through Living Legends Entertainment.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: On March 11, 2022, he released a new single titled "Dear Alcohol", the song was written about alcoholism. It debuted at number 9 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 and at 28 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart, and was eventually certified Gold by both the RIAA and Music Canada. In the song, Dax has reflected on his toxic relationship with alcohol admitting to the times in his life when he "got wasted" because he didn't want to be alone with himself, he wrote on YouTube while promoting the single that, "This one is very personal to me". On June 10, 2022, he released a country music crossover remix for the song featuring vocals from country singer Elle King.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: Initially, Dax did not take rap seriously because of his interest in basketball but there was a phase where he grew up listening to Tupac. He was never really a big fan of rap but he started listening to hip-hop when Drake took over the scene. Dax has also cited artists like 50 Cent and Lil Wayne. He compares his style to artists such as Tech N9ne, Eminem, and Hopsin.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: On November 18, 2018 KSI appeared on the What's Good? Podcast, where he called out various internet rappers. In the interview KSI said both Quadeca and Dax were worse than him at rapping. Quadeca went on to post a full diss track against him on November 23, 2018, called "Insecure". Shortly after, Dax also responded with his own diss track, which was a remix of Eminem's diss track toward Machine Gun Kelly, "Killshot". KSI then responded to Dax and Quadeca's track with a reaction video, also accompanied by a diss track called "Ares".


title: Dax (rapper)

text: He challenged Dax to a private boxing match, with Dax accepting but repeatedly delaying it. He then later appeared on Deji's diss track "Unforgivable" against KSI.


title: Dax (rapper)

text: On January 24, 2019, Tory Lanez claimed through a tweet that he is the "best rapper alive". Dax responded by posting a video on YouTube, featuring a diss track titled "I'm Not Joyner Or Don Q" aimed at him. Lanez posted a video on Instagram in response in which he pressures Dax to apologize for the diss track. Dax addressed the situation in interviews with DJ Akademiks, "Impaulsive", and "No Jumper", saying that apologizing was the right thing to do because he did not want a fight to break out.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Wings of Desire (, ; ) is a 1987 romantic fantasy film directed by Wim Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist, played by Solveig Dommartin. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Inspired by art depicting angels visible around West Berlin, at the time encircled by the Berlin Wall, Wenders and author Peter Handke conceived of the story and continued to develop the screenplay throughout the French and German co-production. The film was shot by Henri Alekan in both colour and a sepia-toned black-and-white, the latter being used to represent the world as seen by the angels. The cast includes Otto Sander, Curt Bois and Peter Falk.


title: Wings of Desire

text: For "Wings of Desire", Wenders won awards for Best Director at both the Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards. The film was a critical and financial success, and academics have interpreted it as a statement of the importance of cinema, libraries, the circus, or German unity, containing New Age, religious, secular or other themes.


title: Wings of Desire

text: It was followed by a sequel, "Faraway, So Close!", released in 1993. "City of Angels", a U.S. remake, was released in 1998. In 1990, numerous critics named "Wings of Desire" as one of the best films of the 1980s.


title: Wings of Desire

text: In a Berlin divided by the Berlin Wall, two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, watch the city, unseen and unheard by its human inhabitants. They observe and listen to the thoughts of Berliners, including a pregnant woman in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, a young prostitute standing by a busy road, and a broken man who feels betrayed by his wife. Their "raison d'être" is, as Cassiel says, to "assemble, testify, preserve" reality. Damiel and Cassiel have always existed as angels; they were in Berlin before it was a city, and before there were any humans.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Among the Berliners they encounter in their wanderings is an old man named Homer, who dreams of an "epic of peace". Cassiel follows the old man as he looks for the then-demolished Potsdamer Platz in an open field, and finds only the graffiti-covered Wall. Although Damiel and Cassiel are pure observers, visible only to children, and incapable of any interaction with the physical world, Damiel begins to fall in love with a profoundly lonely circus trapeze artist named Marion. She lives by herself in a caravan in West Berlin, until she receives the news that her group, the Circus Alekan, will be closing down. Depressed, she dances alone to the music of Crime & the City Solution, and drifts through the city.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Meanwhile, actor Peter Falk arrives in West Berlin to make a film about the city's Nazi past. Falk was once an angel, but, having grown tired of always observing and never experiencing, renounced his immortality to become a participant in the world. Also growing weary of infinity, Damiel's longing is for the genuineness and limits of human existence. He meets Marion in a dream, and is surprised when Falk senses his presence and tells him about the pleasures of human life.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Damiel is finally persuaded to shed his immortality. He experiences life for the first time: he bleeds, sees colours, tastes food and drinks coffee. Meanwhile, Cassiel taps into the mind of a young man just about to commit suicide by jumping off a building. Cassiel tries to save the young man but is unable to do so, and is left tormented by the experience. Sensing Cassiel's presence, Falk reaches out to him as he had Damiel, but Cassiel is unwilling to follow their example. Eventually, Damiel meets the trapeze artist Marion at a bar during a concert by Nick Cave, and she greets him and speaks about finally finding a love that is serious and can make her feel complete. The next day, Damiel considers how his time with Marion taught him to feel amazed, and how he has gained knowledge no angel is capable of achieving.


title: Wings of Desire

text: After living and working in the United States for eight years, director Wim Wenders returned to his native West Germany and wished to reconnect to it with a film about his favourite part of it, West Berlin. Planning to make "Until the End of the World" in 1985, he realised the project would not be ready for two years, and wishing to return to photography as soon as possible, he considered another project.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry partially inspired the story. Wenders claimed angels seemed to dwell in Rilke's poetry, and the director had also jotted "angels" in his notes one day, and noted angel-themed artwork in cemeteries and around Berlin. In his treatment, Wenders also considered a backstory in which God exiled his angels to Berlin as punishment for defending humans after 1945, when God had decided to forsake them.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Wenders employed Peter Handke, who wrote much of the dialogue, the poetic narrations, and the film's recurring poem "Song of Childhood". Wenders found the names Damiel and Cassiel in an encyclopedia about angels, and also had photographs of Solveig Dommartin, Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander that served as muses. The idea that angels could read minds led to Wenders considering personal dialogue no one would say aloud. Wenders did not view the angel protagonist as representative of himself, instead deciding the angel could be an embodiment of film, and that the purpose of film could be to help people by opening their eyes to possibilities. Handke did not feel able to write a single coherent story, but promised to regularly send notes on ideas during production. Screenwriter Richard Reitinger also assisted Wenders in scripting scenes incorporating Handke's contributions.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Given the nature of this arrangement, Wenders would hold daily meetings with his crew, frequently at late hours, to plan the logistics for the following day. French producer Anatole Dauman did not see a large budget as necessary, and the project was funded with 5 million DM.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Wenders believed it would be important for the actors playing the two main angel characters to be familiar and friendly with each other. Ganz and Sander had performed in some of the same stage productions for 20 years. Sander and Ganz also recommended Curt Bois to Wenders and asked Bois to perform. Bois' performance as Homer marked his final feature film in an 80-year career, beginning as a child actor.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Peter Falk's role was not planned until photography had already begun, with Wenders planning an artist or political official to have an analogous role until assistant Claire Denis suggested the "Columbo" star would be familiar to everyone. Falk described the part as "the craziest thing that I've ever been offered", but quickly agreed. He was accustomed to the improvisation the newly created role required, and when Wenders and Falk met, they conceived ideas of the character sketching and searching for a hat. Nick Cave and his band were based in West Berlin, with Wenders calling him "a real Berlin hero" and deciding "It was inconceivable for me to make a film in Berlin without showing one of his concerts".


title: Wings of Desire

text: The film was shot by Henri Alekan, whose cinematography represents the angels' point of view in monochrome, as they cannot see colours, and switches to colour to show the human point of view. During filming, Alekan used a very old and fragile silk stocking that had belonged to his grandmother as a filter for the monochromatic sequences, adding a touch of sepia to the black and white. Wenders felt it was natural that angels without experience of the physical world would not see colour, and also thought black-and-white cinematography by Alekan would provide a novel view of Berlin.


title: Wings of Desire

text: A challenge in the cinematography was posed by using the camera for the perception of angels, as angels are not restrained in how far they can observe, in any dimension. The story's Circus Alekan is named in the cinematographer's honour.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Filming took place at actual locations in West Berlin, such as the Siegessäule, Hans Scharoun's Berlin State Library, Potsdamerplatz with the disused elevated track of the M-Bahn, the Lohmühlenbrücke, the Langenscheidtbrücke (the motorcycle accident), Oranienstrasse, Goebenstrasse 6 (where Damiel exchanges his breastplate for a loud check jacket), Waldemarstrasse (where Damiel comes to as a human), Günzelstrasse U-Bahn station, the Anhalter Bahnhof, Theodor-Wolff-Park (site of the circus), Hochbunker Pallasstrasse (Peter Falk's film set) and the Hotel Esplanade (the concert). Most shots of the Wall are genuine, although the set for the scene in the death strip, in which Damiel announces his decision to become human, was specially built. Some pieces of the recreation were made from inexpensive wood, with one being destroyed by rain during production.


title: Wings of Desire

text: With little idea of how to portray the angels and no costume design, Wenders said the filmmakers consulted artwork, experimented, and found the idea of armor during production, and told U.S. filmmaker Brad Silberling they did not decide on overcoats until later. The hairstyle was loosely inspired by a photograph of a Japanese warrior.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Although the circus scenes required extensive and risky acrobatics, Dommartin was able to learn the trapeze and rope moves in a mere eight weeks, and did all the work herself, without a stunt double. During production, the filmmakers called German police after Falk went missing. Falk had been spending hours exploring West Berlin and was discovered in a café.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Peter Handke arrived in West Berlin during the editing process, led by Peter Przygodda. Handke believed it bordered on a silent film, aside from some music, and lacked much of the notes he had sent to Wenders during filming. Handke thus proposed adding his writings via voice-over. After Falk left Berlin, he recorded much of his voice-over in a sound studio in Los Angeles. Much of this was improvised, though Wenders still supervised by telephone.


title: Wings of Desire

text: With the filming performed in lengthy takes, and the camera used as "the eye of the angel", much of the movement was conveyed in the camerawork rather than in editing effects. There was five hours of footage to edit down to the final cut. A pie fight between the stars was filmed for the final scene, but later edited out.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Composer Jürgen Knieper assumed harps and violins would suffice for a score for a film about angels, until he saw a cut of the film. Seeing the angels were discontented, he wrote a different score employing a choir, voices and whistling. Laurent Petitgand contributed the circus music, an ensemble work performed with accordions, saxophones and keyboards.


title: Wings of Desire

text: The concept of angels, spirits or ghosts who help humans on Earth had been common in cinema, from "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) to the 1946 works "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Matter of Life and Death". Many earlier U.S. and U.K. films demonstrate high amounts of reverence, while others allow reasonable amounts of fun. Powell and Pressburger's "A Matter of Life and Death" presents an early example of spirits being jealous of the lives of humans. The shift from monochrome to colour, to distinguish the angels' reality from that of the mortals, was also used in Powell and Pressburger's film. While "Wings of Desire" does not portray Berliners as living in a utopia, academic Roger Cook wrote that the fact that people have pleasure "gives, as the English title suggests, wings to desire".


title: Wings of Desire

text: God is not mentioned in the film, and is only referred to in the sequel "Faraway, So Close!" when the angels state a purpose to connect humans with "Him". Scholars Robert Phillip Kolker and Peter Beickene attributed the apparent lack of God to New Age beliefs, remarking Damiel's "fall" is similar to the story of Lucifer, though not related to evil. Reviewer Jeffrey Overstreet concurred that "Wenders had left his church upbringing behind", and the cinematic angels are "inventions he could craft to his specifications", with little regard for biblical beliefs. Overstreet characterized them as "whimsical metaphors, characters who have lost the joy of sensual human experience". Nevertheless, Professor Craig Detweiler believed the sky-level view of Berlin and the idea of guardian angels evoke God. Authors Martin Brady and Joanne Leal added that even if Damiel is tempted by seemingly profane things, the atmosphere of Berlin means the human Damiel is still in "a place of poetry, myth and religion".


title: Wings of Desire

text: In one scene, Damiel and Cassiel meet to share stories in their observations, with their function revealed to be one of preserving the past. Professor Alexander Graf wrote this connects them to cinema, with Wenders noting "Wings of Desire" itself depicts or shows places in Berlin that have since been destroyed or altered, including a bridge, Potsdamer Platz and the Wall.


title: Wings of Desire

text: The closing titles state: "Dedicated to all the former angels, but especially to Yasujiro, François and Andrej" (all references to Wenders' fellow filmmakers Yasujirō Ozu, François Truffaut, and Andrei Tarkovsky). These directors had all died before the release of the film, with Kolker and Beickene arguing they were an influence on Wenders: Ozu had taught Wenders order; Truffaut the observation of people, especially youth; and Tarkovsky, a less clear influence on Wenders, consideration of morality and beauty. Identifying directors as angels could tie in with the film characters' function to record.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Academic Laura Marcus believed a connection between cinema and print is also established in the angels' affinity for libraries, as Wenders portrays the library as a tool of "memory, and public space", making it a miraculous place. The depiction of Damiel, by using a pen or an immaterial pen, to write "Song of Childhood", is also tribute to print and literacy, introducing, or as Marcus hypothesized, "perhaps even releasing, the visual images that follow". Kolker and Beickene interpreted the use of poetry as part of screenwriter Peter Handke's efforts to elevate language above common rhetoric to the spiritual. Reviewing the poetry, Detweiler remarked that Handke's "Song of Childhood" bears parallels to St. Paul's 1 Corinthians 13 (""When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child ... ""). Professor Terrie Waddell added that the poem established "centrality of childhood" as a key theme, noting that the children can see angels and accept them without question, tying them in with the phenomenon of imaginary friends.


title: Wings of Desire

text: The film has also been read as a call for German reunification, which followed in 1990. Essayists David Caldwell and Paul Rea saw it as presenting a series of two opposites: East and West, angel and human, male and female. Wenders' angels are not bound by the Wall, reflecting East and West Berlin's shared space, though East Berlin remains primarily black and white. Scholar Martin Jesinghausen believed the film presumed reunification would never happen, and contemplated its statements on divides, including territorial and "higher" divides, "physicality and spirituality, art and reality, black and white and colour".


title: Wings of Desire

text: Researcher Helen Stoddart, in discussing the depiction of the circus and trapeze artist Marion in particular, submitted that Marion is the classic circus character, creating an image of danger and then potential. Stoddart argued that Homer and Marion may find the future in what remains of history found in Berlin. Stoddart considered the circular nature of the story, including a parallel between the angel who cannot see the physical (Damiel), and the faux angel (Marion) who can "see the faces". Marion also observes that all directions lead to the Wall, and the final French dialogue "We have embarked" while the screen states "To be continued", suggests "final movement to a new beginning".


title: Wings of Desire

text: Writing in the journal "Film and Philosophy", Nathan Wolfson cites Roland Barthes's work—especially "S/Z"—as a model to argue that "This 'angelic' portion of Wings of Desire deliberately invokes in the viewer a set of specific responses. These responses provide the foundation for the transformation that Damiel and Marion participate in. The film prepares the viewer for an analogous transformation, and invites the viewer to participate in this process, through an exploration of authorship and agency."


title: Wings of Desire

text: British Film Institute writer Leigh Singer assessed the cinematic style as "bold" and artistic in its use of colour, "existential voiceover" and "languorous pacing". Singer also commented on the use of symbolism and the combinations of diverse pieces of culture, from the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke to the music of Nick Cave. In Singer's estimation, the cinematography is able to communicate the angels' "invisible intimacy and empathy". Professor Terrie Waddell described the "dialogue and monologue" as "lyrical", in the mold of Rilke's poetry. Scholar Alexander Graf considered how these voice-overs and verbal exchanges are frequently combined with background radio and television sounds, and concluded the "image and soundtrack" that comprise the style convey a point of "blindness": "men and women are plagued by their everyday problems; children are, like the angels, in their own dreamy world".


title: Wings of Desire

text: Professor Russell J.A. Kilbourn judged the style as opposed to realism and "emphatically German" in looking at particular situations of human life. Authors Martin Brady and Joanne Leal remarked the storytelling shies away from an entirely narrative format, and the film's writing style is embodied in the Homer character as "the angel of story-telling". Perception of people becomes key to the storytelling, with Brady and Leal quoting Handke's vision for a new narrative: "You have only interpreted and changed the world; what matters is to "describe" it". Psychologist Ryan Niemiec wrote that, by focusing on "the beauty of each moment", "Wings of Desire" conveys "awe and wonder".


title: Wings of Desire

text: As Singer observed, "Wings of Desire" serves as a "Symphony of a city" in capturing a "wintry, pre-unification Berlin". Kilbourn said that the place highlighted in the German title "Der Himmel über Berlin", like the desire referenced in the English title, is of great importance, and that the "frequent angel's-eye-view shots of East and West Berlin" allows for "quasi-objective voyeuristic surveillance". Observing the angels' trench-coat fashion, sociologist Andrew Greeley wrote it fit the "wet, blustery, cold northern Germany" setting. Looking at the coats and ponytails, Dr. Detweiler found the visualization of the angels "so cool and stylish".


title: Wings of Desire

text: Music is used in differing ways throughout the story. Musicologist Annette Davison argued Knieper's score in angel scenes is artistic, with elements of Eastern European and Orthodox Christian music, and Petitgand's music displays a "slippery" harmony frequently heard in circus entertainment. When Marion leaves the Circus Alekan, there is an increase in rock music, particularly by Cave and Crime & the City Solution. Davison submitted this symbolizes "utopian promise of the sensual mortal world", and that lyrics echo the plot: Cave's "The Carny" suggests a disappearing carnival worker as the Circus Alekan closes, and "From Her to Eternity" suggests a desire for a woman's love. Professor Adrian Danks wrote that Cave's rock music symbolized "the physical, worldly reality of Berlin", with "The Carny" adding a feel of sorrow in the background, while Marion gives "breathy accompaniment".


title: Wings of Desire

text: The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 1987. "Der Himmel über Berlin" subsequently opened in West Germany late in October 1987. With Orion Classics as its U.S. distributor, it opened in New York City as "Wings of Desire" on 29 April 1988 with a PG-13 rating. Sander said that it had a release in Japan, and that while angels do not appear in Japanese mythology, Tokyo audiences would approach him after and share their impressions about the characters.


title: Wings of Desire

text: After a videotape printing in Germany in 1988, Kinowelt released a DVD in Germany and Region 2 in 2005. In 2009, The Criterion Collection released the film in Region 1 on DVD and Blu-ray. It later screened at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015, to mark Wenders' Honorary Golden Bear.


title: Wings of Desire

text: The Wim Wenders Foundation produced a digital 4K restoration using the original black-and-white and colour film stock. This new version of the film premiered on 16 February 2018 during the 68th Berlin International Film Festival at Kino International, as part of the "Berlinale Classics" programme.


title: Wings of Desire

text: "Der Himmel über Berlin" had 922,718 admissions in Germany. Under the title "Les Ailes du désir", it had a further 1,079,432 admissions in France.


title: Wings of Desire

text: The film finished its run in North America on 11 May 1989, having grossed $3.2 million, or possibly nearly $4 million, a beneficial investment for Orion. Critic James Monaco assessed the financial performance as above that of typical art films. In 2000, "Variety" calculated that it was 48th in the top 50 highest-grossing foreign language films ever released in the U.S., and one of only three in German, along with "Das Boot" and "Run Lola Run".


title: Wings of Desire

text: "Wings of Desire" received "Two Thumbs Up" from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on "Siskel & Ebert & The Movies", where Siskel credited Wenders for a story that "praises life as it is lived yet making sense of life's confusions". In "New York", David Denby hailed it as "extraordinary", and possibly "the ultimate German movie". Desson Howe cited it for "a soaring vision that appeals to the senses and the spirit." Janet Maslin, writing for "The New York Times", called it "enchanting" in its concept, but "damagingly overloaded" in execution. In "Variety", David Stratton embraced the visuals, the performances and Knieper's score, adding the film also showcased Wenders' taste for rock music. "The Washington Post"s Rita Kempley credited Wenders and Handke for crafting a "whimsical realm of myth and philosophical pretense, dense with imagery and sweetened by Ganz's performance". Dissenting, Pauline Kael remarked, "It's enough to make moviegoers feel impotent". According to online film resource "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?", "Wings of Desire" is the most acclaimed film of 1987.


title: Wings of Desire

text: By 1990, "Wings of Desire" was placed in the top 10 best films of the 1980s by critics David Denby (first), the "Los Angeles Times"s Sheila Benson (fourth), "The Orange County Register"s Jim Emerson (fifth) and Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss (tenth). "Premiere" voted it the second greatest film of the 1980s, after "Raging Bull". James Monaco awarded it four and a half stars in his 1992 "Movie Guide", praising it as "A rich, mystical near-masterpiece". In 1998, Ebert added it to his Great Movies list, championing it for "a mood of reverie, elegy and meditation". "Empire" critic Ian Nathan gave it five stars in his 2006 review, hailing it for its poetry, themes of loneliness, and Ganz's acting style. In 2004, "The New York Times" included the film on its list of "the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made". On reflecting on Solveig Dommartin's death in 2007, "Der Spiegel" recalled the film as a poetic masterpiece. Reviewing the Criterion DVD in 2009, "Time Out" critic Joshua Rothkopf called it an introduction to the art film, but also a product of its time, mentioning the songs.


title: Wings of Desire

text: John Simon of the National Review had a differing opinion. He described Wings of Desire as both "obnoxious" and as a "130 minute mess".


title: Wings of Desire

text: It was later ranked 64th in "Empire" magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. In 2011, "The Guardian" placed it in the 10 best films ever set in Berlin. The next year, it received 10 votes in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls of the greatest films ever made. "Les Inrockuptibles"s 2014 review declared it a great film, timeless, and poetic. That year, French critics at "aVoir-aLire" also praised its poetry, and said Berlin becomes one of the characters, crediting Alekan, Handke, Cave and Knieper for important contributions. German journalist Michael Sontheimer recommended seeing it to understand how radically Berlin has been altered since the 1980s, particularly looking at the somber images when the human Damiel walks through Berlin. In his "2015 Movie Guide", Leonard Maltin awarded it three and a half stars, describing it as "Haunting" and "lyrical". Jonathan Rosenbaum declared the bulk of the film before Damiel becomes human as "one of Wenders's most stunning achievements". In 2017, "Le Monde" rated it four stars out of five, citing the aesthetics of its black-and-white photography, poetry and contemplation of history. The German news publication "Der Tagesspiegel" recounted the film's memorable imagery in 2016, listing Damiel as an angel and the library scenes. On the 30th anniversary of the Cannes screening, Jessica Ritchey posted on Rogerebert.com that she found it odd to be an atheist and love the film, expressing admiration for the black-and-white photography and the overall message that when the world seems terrible, desire is powerful. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Beyond ravishing, Wings of Desire is Wim Wenders' is aching and heartbreaking exploration of how love makes us human." The film ranked 34th in BBC's 2018 list of The 100 greatest foreign language films voted by 209 critics from 43 countries around the world.


title: Wings of Desire

text: The film competed for the Palme d'Or and won for Best Director at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. In 1988, it won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.


title: Wings of Desire

text: It was submitted by West Germany for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a bid supported by its distribution company. It was not nominated; the academy seldom recognized West German cinema.


title: Wings of Desire

text: In 1993, Wenders made a sequel, "Faraway, So Close!", which he found desirable to explore Berlin post-reunification, more so than for the sake of a sequel. In 1998, a U.S. remake directed by Brad Silberling called "City of Angels" was released. The setting was moved to Los Angeles and Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage starred. In Prague, Czech Republic, Jean Nouvel designed "Angel", a building that features an angel from the film observing the people of the Smíchov district.


title: Wings of Desire

text: A stage adaptation of "Wings of Desire" was created by the Northern Stage theatre company in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. in 2003. This particular adaptation, which used film footage of the city and stories from the community, was adapted and directed by Alan Lyddiard. In 2006, the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Toneelgroep Amsterdam presented another stage adaptation, created by Gideon Lester and Dirkje Houtman and directed by Ola Mafaalani.


title: Wings of Desire

text: Wenders' story was also an influence on the play "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner, in which angels intermingle with troubled mortals. R.E.M.'s music video for "Everybody Hurts" also takes cues from the film. "Wings of Desire" was possibly Ganz's most remembered role before "Downfall" in 2004.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra Ann Lauer (born 18 May 1962), commonly known under her stage name Sandra and Sandra Cretu (), is a Franco-German pop singer who enjoyed mainstream popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s with a string of European hit singles, produced by her then-husband and musical partner, Michael Cretu, most notably "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" (1985), "In the Heat of the Night" (1985), "Everlasting Love" (1987), "Secret Land" (1988), "Hiroshima" (1990) and "Don't Be Aggressive" (1992). Her albums "Into a Secret Land" (1988) and "Close to Seven" (1992) have won Sandra high critical acclaim.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Prior to embarking on a solo career, Sandra was the lead singer of the all-female disco trio Arabesque, which had a massive following in Japan and the Soviet Union. Also, between 1990 and 2001, she provided vocals on album releases of the very successful musical project Enigma, which had top 10 hits in North America and the United Kingdom. A cult star with a devoted fan base, Sandra remains one of the most popular singers of the 1980s in Continental Europe. During the height of her popularity, she even managed to outsell Madonna in a number of countries around the world. With sales in excess of 33 million records worldwide, Sandra has established her position as the most successful German female vocalist.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra Ann Lauer was born on 18 May 1962 in the German town of Saarbrücken, close to the French border. Her French-born father, Robert Lauer (1937-2021), owned a wine store in Saarbrücken, and German-born mother, Karin ("née" Eltern) (1939–2020), worked in a shoe store. Sandra had an older brother, Gaston, a paraplegic who died in 1995. She showed an early interest in music and dancing, taking classical ballet at the age of five and guitar lessons when she was 10. In 1975, at the age of 13, Sandra went with her mother to see Young Star Festival, a Saarbrücken talent competition. She was only a member of the audience, but when the participants had finished performing and the jury was discussing the results, Sandra walked onto the stage and persuaded the DJ to put on the German version of an Olivia Newton-John song. The impromptu performance gained considerable recognition and led to the release of her first single, a song about a pet dog, "Andy mein Freund". The single, however, performed poorly.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: In 1979, now 17, Sandra joined Arabesque, a disco group consisting of Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter, and would become the band's lead singer. At that time, Sandra met keyboardist Michael Cretu. They found that they shared the same birthday, albeit five years apart, and became good friends. Arabesque became successful with their cheerful music and flamboyant costumes, winning a massive following in Japan and scoring a top 10 hit in Germany in 1981 with "Marigot Bay". After nine albums, emerging differences in musical interests of group members and decreasing popularity of disco music signalled the group's break-up. Sandra and Michael Cretu, by then romantically involved, moved to Munich where Michael created his own studio, Data-Alpha, named after a song from his solo album "Legionäre". Their first single together was 1984's "Japan ist weit", a German cover of the Alphaville song "Big in Japan". However, the song failed to chart with only 125 copies sold.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra gained international success in 1985 with the song "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena," which topped the charts in 21 countries and reached the top 10 in another five. Her first album, "The Long Play" (1985), reached number 12 in Germany and number 2 in Sweden. The follow-up single, "In the Heat of the Night," reached number two in Germany and the top 10 in many European countries. The song also earned Sandra second place at the Tokyo Music Festival in 1986. "Little Girl," accompanied by a music video filmed in Venice, became the third single from the album in 1986, but was met with moderate success. Shortly after the release of "The Long Play", Sandra moved to London for six months to work with singing teacher Helena Shelen and take drum lessons. She also enrolled at the London Berlitz School of Languages to improve her English, returning to Germany at weekends to record new songs.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra's second studio album, "Mirrors", was released in October 1986 with "Innocent Love" chosen as the first single, followed by "Hi! Hi! Hi!". Both of these up-tempo synth-pop offerings achieved success in continental Europe. Two further singles from the album, the ballad "Loreen" and "Midnight Man", were only moderate successes. In 1987, Sandra released a cover version of "Everlasting Love", her favourite song since childhood, to great international success. The single was a top 10 hit in German-speaking countries and charted within the top 20 internationally. The song was included on Sandra's first greatest hits compilation, "Ten on One (The Singles)."


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra and Michael Cretu married in January 1988 and moved to the Spanish island of Ibiza to work on what would be Sandra's third studio album. "Into a Secret Land" moved from electro-pop to more sophisticated areas of pop, showcased by the first single, "Heaven Can Wait". The second single, "Secret Land", met with even greater success, is considered one of her biggest solo hits while "We'll Be Together", released as the third single, was the first song she co-wrote. In order to promote her music in the English-speaking world, another compilation was released at the end of 1988, "Everlasting Love". The album failed to enter the charts in the USA or the UK but a PWL remix of the title track included on the album charted at number 45 in the UK. 1989 saw the release of the final single from "Into a Secret Land", "Around My Heart", which became another chart hit. With animal rights and nature conservation high on her personal agenda, Sandra took part in recording "Yes We Can" with 15 other performers for Artists United for Nature.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra's fourth album, "Paintings in Yellow", was released in March 1990 and became her highest-charting album in her home country. "Hiroshima" was released as the lead single and was a hit. Danceable "(Life May Be) A Big Insanity" and ballad "One More Night" were released as the second and third singles off the album, respectively, but were only modest successes. Sandra accepted an award for the best-selling German artist at the 1990 World Music Awards in Monte Carlo. Also in 1990, the singer contributed vocals to four songs for her husband's musical project Enigma, including the worldwide number 1 hit "Sadness (Part I)".


title: Sandra (singer)

text: In early 1992, Sandra's fifth album was released, "Close to Seven", which continued a more mature, less dance-orientated musical style. The album was a remarkable international success as was its lead single, "Don't Be Aggressive". However, the second single, "I Need Love", was her first since 1984 to fail to chart. Later in 1992, a new compilation was released, "18 Greatest Hits". It included most of her previous single songs and a re-recording of "Johnny Wanna Live", originally from "Paintings in Yellow", which was released as a single and became a minor hit in Germany and the Netherlands.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: In 1993, Sandra released a new version of "Maria Magdalena" with a techno arrangement and futuristic music video. The re-recording turned out to be a flop. Nonetheless, she sang on three songs on Enigma's next album, "The Cross of Changes", including the hit single "Return to Innocence".


title: Sandra (singer)

text: While pregnant with twins, Sandra recorded and released "Fading Shades" in 1995. The album saw new writer-producer Jens Gad working alongside Michael Cretu and comprised mostly pop-orientated material. A cover version of "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues was released as the first single, becoming one of Sandra's lowest-charting singles in Germany, although it was a hit in Israel. The album met a lukewarm commercial and critical reception, and the second single, "Won't Run Away", failed to chart. After giving birth to sons Nikita and Sebastian in a Munich hospital through Caesarean section in July 1995, Sandra decided to put her career on hold. However, the following year she participated in recording two songs for Enigma's third album.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: 1999 saw the release of "My Favourites", a double disc album featuring remixes of Sandra's older songs and some of her favourite ballads. It was a success, charting within the top 20 in some European countries. A new version of "Secret Land" was released as a single, accompanied by a music video in which Sandra sported a shorter hairstyle. Her vocals again appeared in two songs on Enigma's 2000 album "The Screen Behind the Mirror" as well as the project's 2001 single "Turn Around". She released ballad "Forever" in 2001, which was a minor chart success in Germany. It foreshadowed her next studio album, "The Wheel of Time", eventually released in spring 2002, after several delays. The album was a chart success and met a positive critical response, producing two more singles, "Such a Shame", originally performed by Talk Talk, and another ballad "I Close My Eyes". In 2003, the DVD "The Complete History" was released, featuring all of her music videos. The same year, Sandra contributed vocals for Enigma's "Voyageur" album, which would mark the last time she worked with the project.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: After several years' break, in 2006 Sandra teamed up with Swiss singer DJ BoBo for a duet "Secrets of Love" on his "Greatest Hits" album. The single was a big hit, reaching top 5 in Switzerland and top 20 in Germany. Sandra subsequently took up performing live again and began working on her next album. In late 2006, "Reflections" was released, an album consisting of remixes of Sandra's biggest hits. A new ballad version of "Everlasting Love" was released as a promotional single in Germany while the remix of "Around My Heart" proved to be a big radio hit in Poland.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: "The Art of Love", a studio album, was released in February 2007. It reached the top 20 in Germany and enjoyed minor success internationally. For the first time, Michael Cretu did not participate in recording one of her albums as he was reportedly busy with Enigma; Jens Gad produced the entire work. Sandra participated in composing and writing the album, making it a reflection of the struggles in her personal life. (In November 2007, Sandra and Michael divorced and she spent the following year touring Europe.) "The Way I Am" was the album's lead single, peaking at number 50 in Germany, while the second single, "What Is It About Me", failed to chart. However, her version of The Hooters' "All You Zombies" became a big radio hit in Poland.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Her next album, "Back to Life", was released in March 2009, showcasing up-tempo material influenced by Latin pop, dance, and R&B. "In a Heartbeat" and "The Night Is Still Young", the latter featuring Thomas Anders of Modern Talking, were released as singles and had modest success in Germany. Later in 2009, a three-disc compilation titled "The Platinum Collection" was released, featuring all of Sandra's hit singles as well as some album tracks and extended versions.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: 2012 saw the release of "Stay in Touch", Sandra's tenth studio album. Produced by German DJ duo Blank & Jones, the album incorporated 1980s sounds reminiscent of her early albums. "Maybe Tonight" was released as the first single and peaked at 77 in Germany while the second single, "Infinite Kiss" failed to chart. However, the album was a modest success internationally and received warm response.


title: Sandra (singer)

text: Sandra and Michael Cretu, who share the same birthday, were married on 7 January 1988, and in July 1995 became parents of twin sons. They separated in November 2007, citing "personal and professional differences."


title: Sandra (singer)

text: While Cretu has been living in Germany since May 2009, Sandra remained in Ibiza and married music producer Olaf Menges in 2010. They separated in 2014.


title: Counterculture

text: A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores. A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes. Prominent examples of countercultures in the Western world include the Levellers (1645–1650), Bohemianism (1850–1910), the more fragmentary counterculture of the Beat Generation (1944–1964), followed by the globalized counterculture of the 1960s (1964–1974).


title: Counterculture

text: John Milton Yinger originated the term "contraculture" in his 1960 article in "American Sociological Review". Yinger suggested the use of the term contraculture "wherever the normative system of a group contains, as a primary element, a theme of conflict with the values of the total society, where personality variables are directly involved in the development and maintenance of the group's values, and wherever its norms can be understood only by reference to the relationships of the group to a surrounding dominant culture."


title: Counterculture

text: Some scholars have attributed the "counterculture" to Theodore Roszak, author of "The Making of a Counter Culture". It became prominent in the news media amid the social revolution that swept the Americas, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand during the 1960s.


title: Counterculture

text: Scholars differ in the characteristics and specificity they attribute to "counterculture". "Mainstream" culture is of course also difficult to define, and in some ways becomes identified and understood through contrast with counterculture. Counterculture might oppose mass culture (or "media culture"), or middle-class culture and values. Counterculture is sometimes conceptualized in terms of generational conflict and rejection of older or adult values.


title: Counterculture

text: Counterculture may or may not be explicitly political. It typically involves criticism or rejection of currently powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society. It does not look favorably on party politics or authoritarianism.


title: Counterculture

text: Cultural development can also be affected by way of counterculture. Scholars such as Joanne Martin and Caren Siehl, deem counterculture and cultural development as "a balancing act, [that] some core values of a counterculture should present a direct challenge to the core values of a dominant culture". Therefore, a prevalent culture and a counterculture should coexist in an uneasy symbiosis, holding opposite positions on valuable issues that are essentially important to each of them. According to this theory, a counterculture can contribute a plethora of useful functions for the prevalent culture, such as "articulating the foundations between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and providing a safe haven for the development of innovative ideas".


title: Counterculture

text: During the late 1960s, hippies became the largest and most visible countercultural group in the United States.


title: Counterculture

text: According to Sheila Whiteley, "recent developments in sociological theory complicate and problematize theories developed in the 1960s, with digital technology, for example, providing an impetus for new understandings of counterculture". Andy Bennett writes that "despite the theoretical arguments that can be raised against the sociological value of counterculture as a meaningful term for categorising social action, like subculture, the term lives on as a concept in social and cultural theory… [to] become part of a received, mediated memory". However, "this involved not simply the utopian but also the dystopian and that while festivals such as those held at Monterey and Woodstock might appear to embrace the former, the deaths of such iconic figures as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, the nihilistic mayhem at Altamont, and the shadowy figure of Charles Manson cast a darker light on its underlying agenda, one that reminds us that ‘pathological issues [are] still very much at large in today's world".


title: Counterculture

text: The counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s generated its own unique brand of notable literature, including comics and cartoons, and sometimes referred to as the underground press. In the United States, this includes the work of Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, and includes Mr. Natural; Keep on Truckin'; "Fritz the Cat"; Fat Freddy's Cat; Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; the album cover art for "Cheap Thrills"; and in several countries contributions to "International Times", "The Village Voice", and "Oz" magazine. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, these comics and magazines were available for purchase in head shops along with items like beads, incense, cigarette papers, tie-dye clothing, Day-Glo posters, books, etc.


title: Counterculture

text: During the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of these shops selling hippie items also became cafés where hippies could hang out, chat, smoke cannabis, read books, etc., e.g. Gandalf's Garden in the King's Road, London, which also published a magazine of the same name. Another such hippie/anarchist bookshop was Mushroom Books, tucked away in the Lace Market area of Nottingham.


title: Counterculture

text: Some genres tend to challenge societies with their content that is meant to outright question the norms within cultures and even create change usually towards a more modern way of thought. More often than not, sources of these controversies can be found in art such as Marcel Duchamp whose piece "Fountain" was meant to be "a calculated attack on the most basic conventions of art" in 1917. Contentious artists like Banksy base most of their works off of mainstream media and culture to bring pieces that usually shock viewers into thinking about their piece in more detail and the themes behind them. A great example can be found in Dismaland, the biggest project of "anarchism" to be organised and exhibited which showcases multiple works such as an "iconic Disney princess's horse-drawn pumpkin carriage, [appearing] to re-enact the death of Princess Diana".


title: Counterculture

text: Counterculture is very much evident in music particularly on the basis of the separation of genres into those considered acceptable and within the status quo and those not. Since many minorities groups are already considered counterculture, the music they create and produce may reflect their sociopolitical realities and their musical culture may be adopted as a social expression of their counterculture. This is reflected in dancehall with the concept of base frequencies and base culture in Julian Henriques's "Sonic diaspora", where he expounds that "base denotes crude, debased, unrefined, vulgar, and even animal" for the Jamaican middle class and is associated with the "bottom-end, low frequencies…basic lower frequencies and embodied resonances distinctly inferior to the higher notes" that appear in dancehall.


title: Counterculture

text: According to Henriques, "base culture is bottom-up popular, street culture, generated by an urban underclass surviving almost entirely outside the formal economy". That the music is low frequency sonically and regarded as reflective of a lower culture shows the influential connection between counterculture and the music produced. Although music may be considered base and counter culture, it may actually enjoy a lot of popularity which can be seen by the labelling of hip hop as a counterculture genre, despite it being one of the most commercially successful and high charting genres.


title: Counterculture

text: Many of these artists though once being taboo, have been assimilated into culture and are no longer a source of moral panic since they do not cross overtly controversial topics or challenge staples of current culture. Instead of being a topic to fear, they have initiated subtle trends that other artists and sources of media may follow.


title: Counterculture

text: Digital Countercultures are online communities, and patterns of tech usage, that significantly deviate from mainstream culture. To understand the elements that shape digital countercultures, its best to start with Lingel's classifications of mainstream approaches to digital discourse: "[T]hat online activity relates to (dis)embodiment, that the Internet is a platform for authenticity and experimentation, and that web-based interactions are placeless."


title: Counterculture

text: The basis for online disembodiment is that, contrary to the corporeal nature of offline interactions, a user's physical being doesn't have any relevance to their online interactions. However, for users whose physical existence is marginalized or shaped by counterculture (ex: gender identities outside the binary, ethnic minorities, punk culture/fashion), their lived experiences build a subjectivity that carries over into their online interactions. As put by Shaka McGlotten: "[T]he fluidity and playfulness of cyberspace and the intimacies it was supposed to afford have been punctuated by corporeality."


title: Counterculture

text: Arguments that the Internet is a platform for authenticity and experimentation highlight its role in the creation or enhancement of identities. This approach asserts that norms of non-virtual social life restrict users' ability to express themselves fully in person, but online interactions eliminate these barriers and allow them to identify in new ways. One means by which this exploration takes place is online "identity tourism," which allows users to appropriate an identity without any of the offline, corporeal risks associated with that identity. A critique of this form of experimentation is that it gives the "tourist" a false impression that they understand the experiences and history of that identity, even if their Internet interactions are superficial. Moreover, it's especially harmful when used as a means to deceptively masquerade oneself to appeal to digital counterculture communities. However, especially for countercultures that are marginalized or demonized, experimentation can allow users to embrace an identity that they align with, but hide offline out of fear, and engage with that culture.


title: Counterculture

text: The final approach is on online communication as placeless, asserting that the consequences of geographic distance are rendered null and void by the Internet. Lingel argues that this approach is technologically determinist in its assumption that the placelessness provided by access to technology can single-handedly remedy structural inequality. Moreover, Mark Graham states that the persistence of spatial metaphors in describing the Internet's societal impact creates "a dualistic offline/online worldview [that] can depoliticize and mask the very real and uneven power relationships between different groups of people." Subscribing to this perceived depoliticization prevents an understanding of digital countercultures. Socio-cultural, power hierarchies on the Internet shape the mainstream, and without these mainstreams as a point of comparison, there are no grounds to define digital counterculture.


title: Counterculture

text: Marginalized communities often struggle to meet their needs on mainstream media. Jessa Lingel, an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, had conducted field research on examples of digital counterculture as part of her studies. In her book "Digital Countercultures and the Struggle for Community", she focused on the Brooklyn Drag community and their battle for a Queerer Facebook to meet their specific needs of social media utilization. In the drag culture, there are many holiday and festivals such as Halloween, New Year's Eve, and Bushwig that they celebrate over a vibrant queer nightlife. While utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook to post and record their cultural events, the drag community has noticed the large schism between its "queerer and more countercultural community of drag queens" and Facebook's claimed global community. This gap is further realized through Facebook's change in the policy from "real-name" to "authentic-name" in 2015 when hundreds of drag queens' accounts were frozen and shut down because they had not registered with their legal names. Communities with "queerer culture" culture and "marginalized needs" continue to struggle to fulfill their social media needs while balancing their counterculture identity in today's social media landscape where the internet is largely monopolized by several big technology firms.


title: Counterculture

text: Gay liberation (considered a precursor of various modern LGBT social movements) was known for its links to the counterculture of the time (e.g. groups like the Radical Faeries), and for the gay liberationists' intent to transform or abolish fundamental institutions of society such as gender and the nuclear family; in general, the politics were radical, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist in nature. In order to achieve such liberation, consciousness raising and direct action were employed.


title: Counterculture

text: At the outset of the 20th century, homosexual acts were punishable offenses in these countries. The prevailing public attitude was that homosexuality was a moral failing that should be punished, as exemplified by Oscar Wilde's 1895 trial and imprisonment for "gross indecency". But even then, there were dissenting views. Sigmund Freud publicly expressed his opinion that homosexuality was "assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development". According to Charles Kaiser's "The Gay Metropolis", there were already semi-public gay-themed gatherings by the mid-1930s in the United States (such as the annual drag balls held during the Harlem Renaissance). There were also bars and bathhouses that catered to gay clientele and adopted warning procedures (similar to those used by Prohibition-era speakeasies) to warn customers of police raids. But homosexuality was typically subsumed into bohemian culture, and was not a significant movement in itself.


title: Counterculture

text: Eventually, a genuine gay culture began to take root, albeit very discreetly, with its own styles, attitudes and behaviors and industries began catering to this growing demographic group. For example, publishing houses cranked out pulp novels like "The Velvet Underground" that were targeted directly at gay people. By the early 1960s, openly gay political organizations such as the Mattachine Society were formally protesting abusive treatment toward gay people, challenging the entrenched idea that homosexuality was an aberrant condition, and calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Despite very limited sympathy, American society began at least to acknowledge the existence of a sizable population of gays. The film "The Boys in the Band", for example, featured negative portrayals of gay men, but at least recognized that they did in fact fraternize with each other (as opposed to being isolated, solitary predators who "victimized" straight men).


title: Counterculture

text: Disco music in large part rose out of the New York gay club scene of the early 1970s as a reaction to the stigmatization of gays and other outside groups such as blacks by the counterculture of that era. By later in the decade, disco was dominating the pop charts. The popular Village People and the critically acclaimed Sylvester had gay-themed lyrics and presentation.


title: Counterculture

text: Another element of LGBT counter-culture that began in the 1970s—and continues today—is the lesbian land, landdyke movement, or womyn's land movement. Radical feminists inspired by the back-to-the-land initiative and migrated to rural areas to create communities that were often female-only and/or lesbian communes. "Free Spaces" are defined by Sociologist Francesca Polletta as "small-scale settings within a community or movement that are removed from the direct control of dominant groups, are voluntarily participated in, and generate the cultural challenge that precedes or accompanies political mobilization. Women came together in Free Spaces like music festivals, activist groups and collectives to share ideas with like-minded people and to explore the idea of the lesbian land movement. The movement is closely tied to eco-feminism.


title: Counterculture

text: The four tenets of the Landdyke Movement are relationship with the land, liberation and transformation, living the politics, and bodily Freedoms. Most importantly, members of these communities seek to live outside of a patriarchal society that puts emphasis on "beauty ideals that discipline the female body, compulsive heterosexuality, competitiveness with other women, and dependence". Instead of adhering typical female gender roles, the women of Landdyke communities value "self-sufficiency, bodily strength, autonomy from men and patriarchal systems, and the development of lesbian-centered community". Members of the Landdyke movement enjoy bodily freedoms that have been deemed unacceptable in the modern Western world—such as the freedom to expose their breasts, or to go without any clothing at all. An awareness of their impact on the Earth, and connection to nature is essential members of the Landdyke Movement's way of life.


title: Counterculture

text: The watershed event in the American gay rights movement was the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. Following this event, gays and lesbians began to adopt the militant protest tactics used by anti-war and black power radicals to confront anti-gay ideology. Another major turning point was the 1973 decision by the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders. Although gay radicals used pressure to force the decision, Kaiser notes that this had been an issue of some debate for many years in the psychiatric community, and that one of the chief obstacles to normalizing homosexuality was that therapists were profiting from offering dubious, unproven "cures".


title: Counterculture

text: The AIDS epidemic was initially an unexpected blow to the movement, especially in North America. There was speculation that the disease would permanently drive gay life underground. Ironically, the tables were turned. Many of the early victims of the disease had been openly gay only within the confines of insular "gay ghettos" such as New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Castro; they remained closeted in their professional lives and to their families. Many heterosexuals who thought they didn't know any gay people were confronted by friends and loved ones dying of "the gay plague" (which soon began to infect heterosexual people also). LGBT communities were increasingly seen not only as victims of a disease, but as victims of ostracism and hatred. Most importantly, the disease became a rallying point for a previously complacent gay community. AIDS invigorated the community politically to fight not only for a medical response to the disease, but also for wider acceptance of homosexuality in mainstream America. Ultimately, coming out became an important step for many LGBT people.


title: Counterculture

text: During the early 1980s what was dubbed "New Music", New wave, "New pop" popularized by MTV and associated with gender bending Second British Music Invasion stars such as Boy George and Annie Lennox became what was described by Newsweek at the time as an alternate mainstream to the traditional masculine/heterosexual rock music in the United States.


title: Counterculture

text: In 2003, the United States Supreme Court officially declared all sodomy laws unconstitutional in "Lawrence v. Texas".


title: Counterculture

text: the counterculture's various strands developed from earlier artistic and political movements. On both sides of the Atlantic the 1950s "Beat Generation" had fused existentialist philosophy with jazz, poetry, literature, Eastern mysticism and drugs – themes that were all sustained in the 1960s counterculture.


title: Counterculture

text: In the United States, the counterculture of the 1960s became identified with the rejection of conventional social norms of the 1950s. Counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, especially with respect to racial segregation and initial widespread support for the Vietnam War, and, less directly, the Cold War—with many young people fearing that America's nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, coupled with its involvement in Vietnam, would lead to a nuclear holocaust.


title: Counterculture

text: In the United States, widespread tensions developed in the 1960s in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, and a materialist interpretation of the American Dream. White, middle class youth—who made up the bulk of the counterculture in Western countries—had sufficient leisure time, thanks to widespread economic prosperity, to turn their attention to social issues. These social issues included support for civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights movements, and a rejection of the Vietnam War. The counterculture also had access to a media which was eager to present their concerns to a wider public. Demonstrations for social justice created far-reaching changes affecting many aspects of society. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United States.


title: Counterculture

text: Rejection of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, pop-art and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era in the United Kingdom and United States included The Beatles, John Lennon,  Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks, Sly and the Family Stone and, in their early years, Chicago. New forms of musical presentation also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, with large outdoor rock festivals being the most noteworthy. The climactic live statement on this occurred from August 15–18, 1969, with the "Woodstock Music Festival" held in Bethel, New York—with 32 of rock's and psychedelic rock's most popular acts performing live outdoors during the sometimes rainy weekend to an audience of half a million people. (Michael Lang stated 400,000 attended, half of which did not have a ticket.) It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history—with "Rolling Stone" calling it one of the "50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll". According to Bill Mankin, "It seems fitting… that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the 'Woodstock Generation'."


title: Counterculture

text: Songs, movies, TV shows, and other entertainment media with socially-conscious themes—some allegorical, some literal—became very numerous and popular in the 1960s. Counterculture-specific sentiments expressed in song lyrics and popular sayings of the period included things such as "do your own thing", "turn on, tune in, drop out", "whatever turns you on", "Eight miles high", "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll", and "light my fire". Spiritually, the counterculture included interest in astrology, the term "Age of Aquarius" and knowing people's astrological signs of the Zodiac. This led Theodore Roszak to state "A eclectic taste for mystic, occult, and magical phenomena has been a marked characteristic of our postwar youth culture since the days of the beatniks." In the United States, even actor Charlton Heston contributed to the movement, with the statement "Don't trust anyone over thirty" (a saying coined in 1965 by activist Jack Weinberg) in the 1968 film "Planet of the Apes"; the same year, actress and social activist Jane Fonda starred in the sexually-themed "Barbarella". Both actors opposed the Vietnam War during its duration, and Fonda would eventually become controversially active in the peace movement.


title: Counterculture

text: The counterculture in the United States has been interpreted as lasting roughly from 1964 to 1972—coincident with America's involvement in Vietnam—and reached its peak in August 1969 at the Woodstock Festival, New York, characterized in part by the film "Easy Rider" (1969). Unconventional or psychedelic dress; political activism; public protests; campus uprisings; pacifist then loud, defiant music; drugs; communitarian experiments, and sexual liberation were hallmarks of the sixties counterculture—most of whose members were young, white and middle-class.


title: Counterculture

text: In the United States, the movement divided the population. To some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, world peace, and the pursuit of happiness; to others, they reflected a self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on the country's traditional moral order. Authorities banned the psychedelic drug LSD, restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what they considered obscenity in books, music, theater, and other media.


title: Counterculture

text: The counterculture has been argued to have diminished in the early 1970s, and some have attributed two reasons for this. First, it has been suggested that the most popular of its political goals—civil rights, civil liberties, gender equality, environmentalism, and the end of the Vietnam War—were "accomplished" (to at least some degree); and also that its most popular social attributes—particularly a "live and let live" mentality in personal lifestyles (including, but not limited to the "sexual revolution")—were co-opted by mainstream society. Second, a decline of idealism and hedonism occurred as many notable counterculture figures died, the rest settled into mainstream society and started their own families, and the "magic economy" of the 1960s gave way to the stagflation of the 1970s—the latter costing many in the middle-classes the luxury of being able to live outside conventional social institutions. The counterculture, however, continues to influence social movements, art, music, and society in general, and the post-1973 mainstream society has been in many ways a hybrid of the 1960s establishment and counterculture.


title: Counterculture

text: The counterculture movement has been said to be rejuvenated in a way that maintains some similarities from the Counterculture of the 1960s, but it is different as well. Photographer Steve Schapiro investigated and documented these contemporary hippie communities from 2012 to 2014. He traveled the country with his son, attending festival after festival. These findings were compiled in Schapiro's book "Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie." One of his most valued findings was that these "Neo Hippies" experience and encourage such a spiritual commitment to the community.


title: Counterculture

text: Australia's countercultural trend followed the one burgeoning in the US, and to a lesser extent than the one in Great Britain. Political scandals in the country, such as the disappearance of Harold Holt, and the 1975 constitutional crisis, as well as Australia's involvement in Vietnam War, led to a disillusionment or disengagement with political figures and the government. Large protests were held in the countries most populated cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, one prominent march was held in Sydney in 1971 on George Street. The photographer Roger Scott, who captured the protest in front of the Queen Victoria Building, remarked: "I knew I could make a point with my camera. It was exciting. The old conservative world was ending and a new Australia was beginning. The demonstration was almost silent. The atmosphere was electric. The protesters were committed to making their presence felt … It was clear they wanted to show the government that they were mighty unhappy".


title: Counterculture

text: Political upheaval made its way into art in the country: film, music and literature were shaped by the ongoing changes both within the country, the Southern Hemisphere and the rest of the world. Bands such as The Master's Apprentices, The Pink Finks and Normie Rowe & The Playboys, along with Sydney's The Easybeats, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs and The Missing Links began to emerge in the 1960s.


title: Counterculture

text: One of Australia's most noted literary voices of the counter-culture movement was Frank Moorhouse, whose collection of short stories, "Futility and Other Animals", was first published in Sydney 1969. Its "discontinuous narrative" was said to reflect the "ambience of the counter-culture". Helen Garner's "Monkey Grip" (1977), released eight years later, is considered a classic example of the contemporary Australian novel, and captured the thriving countercultural movement in Melbourne's inner-city in the mid 1970s, specifically open relationships and recreational drug use. Years later, Garner revealed it was strongly autobiographical and based on her own diaries. Additionally, from the 1960s, surf culture took rise in Australia given the abundance of beaches in the country, and this was reflected in art, from bands such as The Atlantics and novels like "Puberty Blues" as well as the film of the same name.


title: Counterculture

text: As delineations of gender and sexuality have been dismantled, counter-culture in contemporary Melbourne is heavily influenced by the LGBT club scene.


title: Counterculture

text: Starting in the late 1960s the counterculture movement spread quickly and pervasively from the US. Britain did not experience the intense social turmoil produced in America by the Vietnam War and racial tensions. Nevertheless, British youth readily identified with their American counterparts' desire to cast off the older generation's social mores. The new music was a powerful weapon. Rock music, which had first been introduced from the US in the 1950s, became a key instrument in the social uprisings of the young generation and Britain soon became a groundswell of musical talent thanks to groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd, and more in coming years.


title: Counterculture

text: The antiwar movement in Britain closely collaborated with their American counterparts, supporting peasant insurgents in the Asian jungles. The "Ban the Bomb" protests centered around opposition to nuclear weaponry; the campaign gave birth to what was to become the peace symbol of the 1960s.


title: Counterculture

text: Although not exactly equivalent to the English definition, the term Контркультура ("Kontrkul'tura") became common in Soviet Union (Russian, Ukrainian underground and other) to define a 1990s cultural movement that promoted acting outside of cultural conventions: the use of explicit language; graphical descriptions of sex, violence and illicit activities; and uncopyrighted use of "safe" characters involved in such activities.


title: Counterculture

text: During the early 1970s, the Soviet government rigidly promoted optimism in Russian culture. Divorce and alcohol abuse were viewed as taboo by the media. However, Russian society grew weary of the gap between real life and the creative world, and underground culture became "forbidden fruit". General satisfaction with the quality of existing works led to parody, such as how the Russian anecdotal joke tradition turned the setting of "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy into a grotesque world of sexual excess. Another well-known example is black humor (mostly in the form of short poems) that dealt exclusively with funny deaths and/or other mishaps of small, innocent children.


title: Counterculture

text: In the mid-1980s, the Glasnost policy permitted the production of less optimistic works. As a consequence, Soviet (and Russian) cinema during the late 1980s and the early 1990s manifested in action movies with explicit (but not necessarily graphic) scenes of ruthless violence and social dramas about drug abuse, prostitution and failing relationships. Although Russian movies of the time would be rated "R" in the United States due to violence, the use of explicit language was much milder than in American cinema.


title: Counterculture

text: In the late 1990s, Soviet counterculture became increasingly popular on the Internet. Several websites appeared that posted user-created short stories dealing with sex, drugs and violence. The following features are considered the most popular topics in such works:


title: Counterculture

text: A notable aspect of counterculture at the time was the influence of contra-cultural developments on Russian pop culture. In addition to traditional Russian styles of music, such as songs with jail-related lyrics, new music styles with explicit language were developed.


title: Counterculture

text: Sebastian Kappen, an Indian theologian, has tried to redefine counterculture in the Asian context. In March 1990, at a seminar in Bangalore, he presented his countercultural perspectives (chapter 4 in S. Kappen, "Tradition, modernity, counterculture: an Asian perspective", Visthar, Bangalore, 1994). Kappen envisages counterculture as a new culture that has to negate the two opposing cultural phenomena in Asian countries:


title: Counterculture

text: Kappen writes, "Were we to succumb to the first, we should be losing our identity; if to the second, ours would be a false, obsolete identity in a mental universe of dead symbols and delayed myths".


title: Counterculture

text: The most important countercultural movement in India had taken place in the state of West Bengal during the 1960s by a group of poets and artists who called themselves Hungryalists.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: James Robert Davis (born July 28, 1945) is an American cartoonist, television writer, television producer, screenwriter, and film producer. He is best known as the creator of the comic strips "Garfield" and "U.S. Acres". Published since 1978, "Garfield" is one of the world's most widely syndicated comic strips. Davis's other comics work includes "Tumbleweeds", "Gnorm Gnat", and "Mr. Potato Head".


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: Davis wrote and co-wrote all of the "Garfield" TV specials for CBS, originally broadcast between 1982 and 1991. He also produced "Garfield & Friends", a series which also aired on CBS from 1988 to 1994. Davis was the writer and executive producer for a series of CGI direct-to-video feature films about Garfield, as well as an executive producer for the CGI animated TV series "The Garfield Show" and "Garfield Originals".


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: James Robert Davis was born in Marion, Indiana, on July 28, 1945. Davis grew up on a small Black Angus cow farm in Fairmount, Indiana, with his father James William "Jim" Davis, mother Anna Catherine "Betty" Davis (née Carter), and his brother, Dave Davis. Davis's childhood on a farm parallels the life of Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon is a cartoonist, who also celebrates his birthday on July 28. Davis attended Ball State University where he studied art and business. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: While attending Fairmount High School in 1959, Davis joined the staff of his school's newspaper "The Breeze", where he eventually became Art Editor. This is where Davis's first comic was featured, apparently inspired by school life. Davis also drew the majority of the illustrations for his 1963 senior yearbook, reusing the same characters.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: Davis has been married twice, first to Carolyn Altekruse, who was allergic to cats, though they owned a dog named Molly. They have a son. On July 16, 2000, Davis married Jill, who had two children from a previous marriage.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: Davis joined the faculty of Ball State University in Muncie as an adjunct professor in fall 2006, lecturing on the creative and business aspects of the comics industry.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: Davis resides in Albany, Indiana, where he and his staff produce "Garfield" under his Paws, Inc. company, launched in 1981. Paws, Inc. employs nearly 50 artists and licensing administrators, who work with agents around the world managing Garfield's vast licensing, syndication, and entertainment empire.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: In December 2019, Davis announced that he would be holding weekly auctions for all hand-painted Garfield comics made from 1978 to 2011. As Davis explained, he started drawing comics digitally using a graphics tablet in 2011. Older comics remained sealed in a climate-controlled safe, and Davis had to figure out what to do with them.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: Prior to creating Garfield, Davis worked for an advertising agency, and in 1969, he began assisting Tom Ryan's comic strip, "Tumbleweeds". He then created a comic strip, "Gnorm Gnat", that ran for two years (1973–1975) in "The Pendleton Times", a newspaper in Pendleton, Indiana. When Davis attempted to sell it to a national comic strip syndicate, an editor told him: "Your art is good, your 'gags' are 'great', but bugs—nobody can relate to bugs!" He then began studying the comic strips; still firmly believing that animals were funny, he took note of how Snoopy was not only a scene stealer in the "Peanuts" comic strips, but that he was far more of a marketing success than his owner Charlie Brown. Deciding that the comic market was oversaturated with dogs, he decided to create a cat character as the lead of his next strip instead.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: From 1976 to early 1978, Davis then published a strip titled "Jon" in "The Pendleton Times" which would later become "Garfield", starting syndication in 41 newspapers on June 19, 1978. As of 2008, it was syndicated in 2,580 newspapers and was read by approximately 300 million readers every day.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: In the 1980s, Davis created the barnyard slapstick comic strip "U.S. Acres". Outside the U.S., the strip was known as "Orson's Farm". Davis, along with Brett Koth, also made a 2000–03 strip based on the Mr. Potato Head toy.


title: Jim Davis (cartoonist)

text: His influences include Mort Walker's "Beetle Bailey" and "Hi and Lois", Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts", Milton Caniff's "Steve Canyon" and Johnny Hart's "B.C".


title: Security clearance

text: A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal process to vet employees for access to sensitive information. A clearance by itself is normally not sufficient to gain access; the organization must also determine that the cleared individual needs to know specific information. No individual is supposed to be granted automatic access to classified information solely because of rank, position, or a security clearance.


title: Security clearance

text: Government classified information is governed by the Treasury Board Standard on Security Screening, the "Security of Information Act" and "Privacy Act". Only those that are deemed to be loyal and reliable, and have been cleared are allowed to access sensitive information. The policy was most recently revised on 20 October 2014.


title: Security clearance

text: Checks include basic demographic and fingerprint based criminal record checks for all levels, and, depending on an individual appointment's requirements, credit checks, loyalty, and field checks might be conducted by the RCMP and/or CSIS.


title: Security clearance

text: Clearance is granted, depending on types of appointment, by individual Federal government departments or agencies or by private company security officers. Those who have contracts with Public Works and Government Services Canada are bound by the Industrial Security Program, a sub-set of the GSP.


title: Security clearance

text: To access designated information, one must have at least standard reliability status (see Hierarchy below). Reliability checks and assessments are conditions of employment under the "Public Service Employment Act", and, thus, all Government of Canada employees have at least reliability status screening completed prior to their appointment. However, Government employees by Order-in-council are not subjected to this policy.


title: Security clearance

text: Clearances at the reliability status and secret levels are valid for 10 years, whereas top secret is valid for 5 years. However, departments are free to request their employees to undergo security screening any time for cause. Because security clearances are granted by individual departments instead of one central government agency, clearances are inactivated at the end of appointment or when an individual transfers out of the department. The individual concerned can then apply to reactivate and transfer the security clearance to his/her new position.


title: Security clearance

text: Standard screenings are completed for individuals without law enforcement, security and intelligence functions with the government, whereas Enhanced screenings are for individuals with law enforcement, security and intelligence functions, or access to those data or facilities.


title: Security clearance

text: Individuals who need to have RS because of their job or access to federal government assets will be required to sign the "Personnel Screening, Consent and Authorization Form" (TBS/SCT 330-23e).


title: Security clearance

text: Individuals who require access to more sensitive information (or access to sensitive federal government sites and/or assets) because of their job will be required to sign the "Security Clearance Form" (TBS/SCT 330-60e). There are two levels of clearance:


title: Security clearance

text: Two additional categories called "Site Access Status" and "Site Access Clearance" exist not for access to information purposes but for those that require physical access to sites or facilities designated by CSIS as areas "reasonably be expected to be targeted by those who engage in activities constituting threats to the security of Canada". Designated areas include Government Houses, official residences of government officials, Parliament, nuclear facilities, airport restricted areas, maritime ports, and any large-scale events that are sponsored by the federal government (e.g., 2010 Winter Olympics).


title: Security clearance

text: Where reliability is the primary concern, a site access status screening (similar to a reliability status, standard screening) is conducted; where loyalty to Canada is the primary concern, a site access clearance (similar to a Secret clearance screening) is required. They are both valid for 10 years.


title: Security clearance

text: Prior to granting access to information, an individual who has been cleared must sign a "Security Screening Certificate and Briefing Form" (TBS/SCT 330–47), indicating their willingness to be bound by several Acts of Parliament during and after their appointment finishes. Anyone who has been given a security clearance and releases designated/classified information without legal authority is in breach of trust under section 18(2) of the "Security of Information Act" with a punishment up to 2 years in jail. Those who have access to Special Operational Information are held to a higher standard. The release of such information is punishable by law, under section 17(2) of the "Security of Information Act", liable to imprisonment for life.