title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: It was Ally Sheedy's first role in a feature. "Rick really took a chance on me, he really did," she said.


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: While filming the escape scene, actor Sean Penn broke an ankle which halted shooting for three months.


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: The film unit spent six days filming in St Charles, IL, a suburb west of Chicago. They employed about 40 residents as extras.


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: Universal Studios originally released "Bad Boys" in 1983, and Thorn/EMI released it on its videocassettes in 1984, but in 1999 Artisan Entertainment took the rights and released the DVD. In 2001, Anchor Bay Entertainment took its DVD rights and re-released it, and in 2007 Facets Multimedia Distribution re-released it on its DVDs. "Bad Boys" was released on Blu-ray by Lionsgate Home Entertainment for the first time on February 1, 2011, presented "complete and uncut." It is also available for online streaming video rentals and digital download files purchases through Amazon Video and Apple iTunes Store.


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: "Bad Boys" garnered generally positive reviews; review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes currently holds a 90% "Fresh" rating based on 20 reviews. David Denby of "The New Yorker" magazine argued, ""Bad Boys" is never less than tense and exciting, but it's coarse and grisly, an essentially demagogic piece of work".


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: In his original review, Roger Ebert praised the direction and cinematography in particular and wrote, "The direction, by Richard Rosenthal, is sure-footed, confident and fluid; we are in the hands of a fine director". In her review for "The New York Times", Janet Maslin wrote, "Sean Penn's performance is the chief thing that separates "Bad Boys" from mere exploitation". Perry Seibert of All Media Guide said "Bad Boys proves that great performances can overcome routine story lines."


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: Rosenthal later said "I think I turned down around 20 or 22 films after 'Bad Boys.' The phone rang all the time. The funny thing is, at the time I didn't know I was hot. But after 'American Dreamer,' I knew the difference."


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: The soundtrack of the film comprised some late, eccentric funk tracks, as well as Billy Squier and Iron Maiden.


title: Bad Boys (1983 film)

text: The name of the Croatian ultras group Bad Blue Boys (who support NK Dinamo Zagreb) is said to have been inspired by "Bad Boys".


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Some Time in New York City is a part-studio, part-live double album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono as Plastic Ono Band that included backing by the American rock band Elephant's Memory. Released in June 1972 in the US and in September 1972 in the UK on Apple Records, it is the third album to bear Lennon's name since he left the Beatles, and his fourth with Ono. Like Lennon's previous solo albums, it was co-produced by Lennon, Ono and Phil Spector. The album's agitprop lyrics are very politically charged compared to its predecessors, discussing political and social issues and topics such as sexism, incarceration, colonialism, and racism.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Recording for the album's studio portion took place between December 1971 and March 1972 while the live portion, released as "Live Jam", was recorded on 15 December 1969 at the Lyceum Ballroom in London for a UNICEF charity concert and on 6 June 1971 at Fillmore East in New York City. Musicians who contributed to the 1969 performance included Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Nicky Hopkins, Keith Moon and Klaus Voormann, while the 1971 performance featured Frank Zappa and his band the Mothers of Invention.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Preceded by the single "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", which caused controversy due to its title, "Some Time in New York City" received scathing reviews on release and performed poorly commercially. Reviewers were especially critical of its politically charged content. Zappa was critical of Lennon and Ono's handling of the recordings of the Mothers performance, eventually releasing his own version of the performance on "Playground Psychotics" (1992). "Some Time in New York City" was reissued on compact disc in 2005 as a single album, removing several of the "Live Jam" songs while adding other non-album singles, and again on CD in 2010 in its original double album format.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to New York City in September 1971 and continued their involvement in political, peace and social justice causes of the counterculture era. When they settled in Greenwich Village, in October, they were quickly contacted by activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman who persuaded them to appear at an upcoming rally for left-wing writer John Sinclair, who had been jailed for possession of two marijuana joints. The Lennons also spoke out on the Attica Prison riots, jailing of Angela Davis and oppression of women. On 12 November, Lennon and Ono taped numerous demos of "The Luck of the Irish", which were videotaped by director John Reilly for a 17-minute documentary short titled "Luck of the Irish – A Videotape by John Reilly". On 9 December, Lennon and Ono flew to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the John Sinclair rally, which was due to start the next day. Soon after their arrival, Lennon recorded "Chords of Fame" with Phil Ochs. At the rally itself, Lennon and Ono played four songs that would end up on "Some Time in New York City": "Attica State", "The Luck of the Irish", "Sisters O Sisters" and "John Sinclair". The performance was filmed, and included in the short film "Ten for Two" which was shown locally in Ann Arbor sometime in December.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Lennon and Ono, along with David Peel, performed Peel's "The Ballad of New York" on "The David Frost Show", with Lennon playing tea-chest bass. The trio, now joined by The Lower East Side Band, played the same set of songs that Lennon and Ono had played at the John Sinclair rally, though the version of "The Luck of the Irish" was shorter. This episode was recorded on 16 December 1971 and broadcast on 13 January 1972. The next day, Lennon and Ono performed at a benefit concert for families of victims of the Attica Prison riot at the Apollo Theater, playing acoustic versions of "Imagine", "Attica State", and "Sisters, O Sisters".


title: Some Time in New York City

text: The original double album contained the live album "Live Jam", featuring the Plastic Ono Supergroup's 15 December 1969 live performances of "Cold Turkey" and "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, for a UNICEF charity show billed as the "Peace for Christmas Concert". In addition to Lennon and Ono, the supergroup featured George Harrison, The Who's drummer Keith Moon, Delaney & Bonnie, Billy Preston and Legs Larry Smith, among others. Harrison, who had been touring with Delaney & Bonnie, received a phone call from Lennon and was excited about the prospect of performing with him. The ballroom had its interior covered by posters declaring "WAR IS OVER, if you want it, love John and Yoko." For "Cold Turkey", Ono sat inside a white bag located near Lennon's feet, later jumping out of the bag during "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", facing the crowd and screaming at them. Toward the end of the latter performance, Ono broke down crying. An early mix of the two tracks was produced by the Abbey Road Studios engineers on 26 November 1970 and was sent to Lennon and Ono. The album also featured a recording of Lennon and Ono performing with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Fillmore East on 6 June 1971, a collaboration instigated by Andy Warhol. Ono arranged for the performance to be filmed, and Klaus Voormann overdubbed some of his bass parts at a later date.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Throughout January, until the 21st, Lennon mixed the live album at the Record Plant. Lennon also mixed the recordings of the John Sinclair rally, as well as the Apollo Theatre and Lyceum Ballroom performances, for possible release as EPs; however, only the Lyceum performance was released. Lennon and Ono, with the assistance of studio drummer Jim Keltner, hired Elephant's Memory, a local band known for their hard partying and anti-establishment musical style, to back them for a series of albums and live performances. Lennon once again brought in Phil Spector to co-produce the new studio album, which was completed on 20 March 1972. Around this time, Lennon and Ono were producing Elephant's Memory's self-titled album. Several jams were recorded, featuring Lennon and Elephant's Memory, all of which remained unreleased: "Don't Be Cruel", "Hound Dog", "Send Me Some Lovin'", "Roll Over Beethoven", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "It'll Be Me", "Not Fade Away", "Ain't That a Shame" and "Caribbean".


title: Some Time in New York City

text: The opening song of the studio album, "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" (a phrase Ono had coined in the late 1960s), was intended as a negation of sexism and was also issued as a single in the US to controversial reaction, and – as a consequence – little airplay. The Lennons went to great lengths (including a press conference attended by staff from "Jet" and "Ebony" magazines) to explain that the word "nigger" was not meant as an affront to black people. A quote from Ron Dellums, referring to the use of the word "nigger", appeared in an issue of "Billboard" (referred to on an episode of "The Dick Cavett Show"). Lennon's other tracks include the biographical "New York City", a Chuck Berry-styled rocker that details the Lennons' early months in their new home, as well as "John Sinclair", his musical plea for Sinclair's release from a ten-year sentence for giving two marijuana joints to an undercover policewoman.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Ono, a feminist, responds musically with "Sisters, O Sisters", tackles the lacking education system with "Born in a Prison", and celebrates a culture of one in "We're All Water". The album is generally seen as the beginning of Ono's emergence as a songwriter. Together, Lennon and Ono lament police brutality in "Attica State", the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland in "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck of the Irish" (see Bloody Sunday (1972) article), and pay tribute to Angela Davis with "Angela".


title: Some Time in New York City

text: "Some Time in New York City" was issued in the US on 12 June 1972 but delayed until 15 September in the UK, due to a dispute with Northern Songs over publishing rights on songs co-written by Lennon and Ono. The album was packaged like a newspaper (an approach previously employed on The Four Seasons' "The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette", Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" and Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick"), depicting the events covered in the album's songs, causing even more consternation with an image of Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong dancing nude together. (The photo was stickered over on many of the issued copies, with a non-removable seal.)


title: Some Time in New York City

text: With most of the gatefold cover space taken up by printed lyrics and photographs, the album credits appeared on the first disc's inner sleeve. The customised label, featuring the face of Lennon morphing into Ono's, was created by Iain Macmillan. The inner sleeve for "Live Jam" featured Lennon's doodling over the cover of Zappa's album, "Fillmore East - June 1971", adding his credits and commentary to Zappa's.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Initial copies of the US edition included a photograph of the Statue of Liberty and a mailable petition to allow citizenship for John and Yoko. Also, the message "John and Yoko forever Peace on earth and goodwill to all men '72" is inscribed in the dead wax on Side 1.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Although the UK release managed a number 11 chart peak, it only went to number 48 in the US. Lennon was reportedly stunned by the album's failure and consequently did not record new music for almost a year.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: On release, "Some Time in New York City" provided a startling contrast for listeners expecting a repeat of the well-received "Imagine" in 1971. According to author Robert Rodriguez, the new album received "abysmal reviews". In a scathing critique published in "Rolling Stone", Stephen Holden wrote that "the Lennons should be commended for their daring", but not before calling the album "incipient artistic suicide". Holden added: "except for 'John Sinclair' the songs are awful. The tunes are shallow and derivative and the words little more than sloppy nursery-rhymes that patronise the issues and individuals they seek to exalt. Only a monomaniacal smugness could allow the Lennons to think that this witless doggerel wouldn't insult the intelligence and feelings of "any" audience."


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Dave Marsh wrote a mixed review for "Creem", stating that "it's not half bad. It may be 49.9% bad, but not half." "The Milwaukee Sentinel" declared that John and Yoko had produced "another crude, superficial look at trendy leftist politics and have plunged even further into their endless echo chamber". In the "NME", Tony Tyler presented his album review in the form of an open letter, titled "Lennon, you're a pathetic, ageing revolutionary". After criticising Lennon for "the general tastelessness of the presentation", particularly the album's lyrics and cover art, Tyler concluded: "Don't rely on cant and rigidity. Don't alienate. Stimulate. You know, like you used to."


title: Some Time in New York City

text: More recently, Garry Mulholland of "Uncut" magazine has described "Some Time in New York City" as "a contender for the worst LP by a major musical figure, its list of '70s left-wing clichés hamstrung by the utter absence of conviction within the melodies and lyrics". Writing in the "Boston Phoenix" in 2005, Eliot Wilder said that listening to the album was "a painful experience". Although he conceded that Lennon "had his heart in the right place", Wilder opined: "these tracks – pedantic, topical, elitist – show that a latter-day Dylan he was not ... Refer to the Beatles' 'Revolution' or his own 'Give Peace a Chance' if you need a dose of John the Protest Singer." More impressed, Mark Kemp of "Paste" considered that "the album has been unfairly chastised", identifying "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" as "one of Lennon's finest songs" and Ono's "Born in a Prison" as another highlight.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: On 30 August 1972, Lennon and Ono performed two benefit concerts for the Willowbrook State School for the mentally challenged at Madison Square Garden, at friend Geraldo Rivera's request. The shows, known as "One to One", were filmed and recorded, with the evening show broadcast on ABC Television, and the earlier matinée show compiled for release as the 1986 live album and video, "Live in New York City". New York mayor John Lindsay declared the date "One to One Day", and the performances proved to be Lennon's last full live concerts.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: Zappa criticised the presentation of the Mothers' performance on "Some Time in New York City", as the vocals of Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan had been removed, and Zappa did not receive writing credit for "King Kong", which was wrongly identified on this release as "Jamrag". He and Lennon had also agreed that each would release their own version of the performance, but Zappa was legally prevented from issuing his version, which did not appear until the release of "Playground Psychotics" in 1992.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: After Lennon's death, the album, along with seven other Lennon albums, was reissued by EMI as part of a box set, released in the UK on 15 June 1981. "Some Time in New York City" was remixed, remastered and reissued in November 2005 as a single CD, removing, in the process, several of the "Live Jam" cuts, while adding "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and "Listen, the Snow Is Falling". On this remastered release, "John Sinclair" and "Attica State" were not remixed. In 2010, the album was digitally remastered and reissued on CD in its original double album format. Another remix is slated for 2022.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: + Originally written by Frank Zappa, titled "King Kong". However John Lennon and Yoko Ono claimed copyright, giving "King Kong" the new title "Jam Rag" (British slang for tampon).


title: Some Time in New York City

text: A remixed version of the live recordings captured on side four of "Some Time in New York City" was released in 1992 on Frank Zappa's album "Playground Psychotics". The remixes make Zappa and his band more prominent in the mix, most notably in the song "Scumbag" where Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan's singing became audible, which it had not been on "Some Time in New York City". In some cases the songs were given new titles: "Say Please" and "Aaawk" are edited from "Jamrag" (a longer piece on "Some Time in New York City"), and "Aü" is retitled "A Small Eternity With Yoko Ono". The songs, which appear as tracks 22 through 26 on disc one of the CD, are denoted as follows:


title: Some Time in New York City

text: This remixed/remastered edition, issued on a single disc, omits much of the live material with Zappa (though it is available in a different mix/edit on Zappa's "Playground Psychotics") and includes two bonus tracks. Some of the track times, notably for "We're All Water" and "Don't Worry Kyoko", differ from those on the original vinyl LPs.


title: Some Time in New York City

text: The audience in attendance is credited on the label as "a cast of 1000's" and on the dust jacket as a "star-studded cast of thousands!!"


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. In a meander of the River Thames used for competitive and recreational rowing, with several rowing clubs on the river bank, the finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.


title: Chiswick

text: Old Chiswick was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with an agrarian and fishing economy beside the river; from the Early Modern period, the wealthy built imposing riverside houses on Chiswick Mall. Having good communications with London, Chiswick became a popular country retreat and part of the suburban growth of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was made the Municipal Borough of Brentford and Chiswick in 1932 and part of Greater London in 1965, when it merged into the London Borough of Hounslow. Modern Chiswick is an affluent area which includes the early garden suburb Bedford Park, Grove Park, the Glebe Estate, Strand-on-the-Green and tube stations Chiswick Park, and Turnham Green, as well as the Gunnersbury Triangle local nature reserve. Bedford Park and Acton Green are in the Chiswick W4 postcode area but the London Borough of Ealing. The main shopping and dining centre is Chiswick High Road.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick Roundabout is the start of the North Circular Road (A406). At Hogarth Roundabout, the Great West Road from central London becomes the M4 motorway, while the Great Chertsey Road (A316) runs south-west, becoming the M3 motorway.


title: Chiswick

text: People who have lived in Chiswick include the poets Alexander Pope and W. B. Yeats, the Italian poet and revolutionary Ugo Foscolo, the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, the novelist E. M. Forster, rock musicians Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Phil Collins, and the stage director Peter Brook.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick was first recorded 1000 as the Old English "Ceswican" meaning "Cheese Farm"; the riverside area of Duke's Meadows is thought to have supported an annual cheese fair up until the 18th century. The area was settled in Roman times; an urn found at Turnham Green contained Roman coins, and Roman brickwork was found under the Sutton manor house.


title: Chiswick

text: Old Chiswick grew up as a village around St Nicholas Church from c. 1181 on Church Street, its inhabitants practising farming, fishing and other riverside trades including a ferry, important as there were no bridges between London Bridge and Kingston throughout the Middle Ages. The area included three other small settlements, the fishing village of Strand-on-the-Green, the hamlet of Little Sutton in the centre, and Turnham Green on the west road out of London.


title: Chiswick

text: A decisive skirmish took place on Turnham Green early in the English Civil War. In November 1642, royalist forces under Prince Rupert, marching from Oxford to retake London, were halted by a larger parliamentarian force under the Earl of Essex. The royalists retreated and never again threatened the capital.


title: Chiswick

text: From 1758 until 1929 the Dukes of Devonshire owned Chiswick House, and their legacy can be found in street names all over Chiswick.


title: Chiswick

text: In 1864, John Isaac Thornycroft, founder of the John I. Thornycroft & Company shipbuilding company, established a yard at Church Wharf at the west end of Chiswick Mall. The shipyard built the first naval destroyer, of the Daring class, in 1893. To cater for the increasing size of warships, Thornycroft moved its shipyard to Southampton in 1909.


title: Chiswick

text: In 1822, the Royal Horticultural Society leased of land in the area south of the High Road between what are now Sutton Court Road and Duke's Avenue. This site was used for its fruit tree collection and its first school of horticulture, and housed its first flower shows. The area was reduced to in the 1870s, and the lease was terminated when the Society's garden at Wisley, Surrey, was set up in 1904. Some of the original pear trees still grow in the gardens of houses built on the site.


title: Chiswick

text: The population of Chiswick grew almost tenfold during the 19th century, reaching 29,809 in 1901, and the area is a mixture of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian housing. Suburban building began in Gunnersbury in the 1860s and in Bedford Park, the first garden suburb, on the borders of Chiswick and Acton, in 1875.


title: Chiswick

text: During the Second World War, Chiswick was bombed repeatedly, with both incendiary and high explosive bombs. Falling anti-aircraft shells and shrapnel also caused damage. The first V-2 rocket to hit London fell on Staveley Road, Chiswick, at 6.43pm on 8 September 1944, killing three people, injuring 22 others and causing extensive damage to surrounding trees and buildings. Six houses were demolished by the rocket and many more suffered damage. There is a memorial where the rocket fell on Staveley Road, and a War Memorial at the east end of Turnham Green. By the start of the 21st century, Chiswick had become an affluent suburb.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick St Nicholas was an ancient, and later civil, parish in the Ossulstone hundred of Middlesex. Until 1834 its vestry governed most parish affairs. After the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834), local administration in Chiswick began to be devolved to authorities beyond the vestry. Then, Chiswick poor relief was administered by the Brentford Poor Law Union. Briefly, from 1849 to 1855, responsibility for Chiswick drains and sewers passed to the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers under its 'Fulham and Hammersmith Sewer District.' From 1858, under the Chiswick Improvement Act of that year, responsibility for drains and sewers, paving and lighting was vested in an elected board of eighteen Improvement Commissioners. This operated as Chiswick's secular local authority for a quarter of a century until its replacement with a Local Board in 1883. In 1878 the parish gained a triangle of land in the east which had formed a detached part of Ealing. From 1894 to 1927 the parish formed the Chiswick Urban District. In 1927 it was abolished and its former area was merged with that of Brentford Urban District to form Brentford and Chiswick Urban District. The amalgamated district became a municipal borough in 1932. The borough of Brentford and Chiswick was abolished in 1965, and its former area was transferred to Greater London to form part of the London Borough of Hounslow. With these changes, Chiswick Town Hall is no longer the local government centre but remains an approved venue for marriage and civil partnership ceremonies.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick forms part of the Brentford and Isleworth Parliament constituency, having been part of the Brentford and Chiswick constituency between 1918 and 1974. The Member of Parliament (MP) is Ruth Cadbury (Labour), elected at the May 2015 general election replacing Mary Macleod (Conservative). For elections to the London Assembly Chiswick is in the South West constituency, represented since 2000 by Tony Arbour, of the Conservative Party. For elections to Hounslow London Borough Council, Chiswick is represented by three electoral wards: Turnham Green, Chiswick Homefields and Chiswick Riverside. Each ward elects three councillors, who serve four-year terms. For 2010–14, all nine councillors were Conservatives. It was one of 35 major centres identified in the statutory planning document of Greater London, the London Plan of 2008.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick occupies a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross. The district is built up towards the north with more open space in the south, including the grounds of Chiswick House and Duke's Meadows. Chiswick has one main shopping area, the Chiswick High Road, forming a long high street in the north, with additional shops on Turnham Green Terrace and Devonshire Road. The river forms the southern boundary with Kew, including North Sheen, Mortlake and Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It includes the uninhabited island of Chiswick Eyot, joined to the mainland at low tide. In the east Goldhawk Road and British Grove border Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In the north are Bedford Park (like Chiswick, within the London W4 postcode area) and South Acton in the London Borough of Ealing, with a boundary partially delineated by the District line. On the west, within Hounslow, are the districts of Gunnersbury, which is within the bounds of the early 19th century parish of Chiswick, and Brentford. A short distance south of the High Road in the centre of Chiswick is the Glebe Estate, consisting of small terraced houses built in the 1870s on glebe land once owned by the local church, and now a desirable place to live.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick is in the W4 postcode district of the London post town, which in a tribute to its ancient parish includes Bedford Park and Acton Green, mostly within the London Borough of Ealing.


title: Chiswick

text: Some of the most beautiful period mansion blocks in Chiswick, such as Heathfield Court and Arlington Mansions, line the sides of Turnham Green – the site of the Battle of Turnham Green in 1642. Other suburbs of Chiswick include Grove Park (south of the A4, close to Chiswick railway station) and Strand on the Green, a fishing hamlet until the late 18th century. As early as 1896, Bedford Park was advertised as being in Chiswick, though at that time much of it was in Acton.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick High Road contains a mix of retail shops, restaurants, food outlets and office and hotel space. The wide streets encourage cafes, pubs and restaurants to provide pavement seating. Lying between the offices at the Golden Mile Great West Road and Hammersmith, office developments and warehouse conversions to offices began from the 1960s. The first in 1961 was 414 Chiswick High Road on the site of the old Chiswick Empire. Between 1964 and 1966, the 18-storey IBM headquarters was built above Gunnersbury station, designed to accommodate 1500 people. It became the home of the British Standards Institution in 1994. Chiswick has an annual book festival.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick is home to the Griffin Brewery, where Fuller, Smith & Turner and its predecessor companies brewed their prize-winning ales on the same site for over 350 years. The original brewery was in the gardens of Bedford House in Chiswick Mall.


title: Chiswick

text: A weekly farmers' market is held every Sunday by Grove Park Farm House, Duke's Meadows. A monthly flower market is held on the first Sunday of each month on Chiswick High Road in the old market place, now mostly used as a car park, near the Hogarth statue. An antiques market is to be held on the second Sunday of each month, and a "Cheese and Provisions" market with 23 stalls on the third and fourth Sundays of each month in the same area, so there will in effect be a weekly market event on the High Road once again.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick House was designed by the Third Earl of Burlington, and built for him, in 1726–29 as an extension to an earlier Jacobean house (subsequently demolished in 1788); it is considered to be among the finest surviving examples of Palladian architecture in Britain, with superb collections of paintings and furniture. Its surrounding grounds, laid out by William Kent, are among the most important historical gardens in England and Wales, forming one of the first English landscape gardens. It was used as an asylum from 1892 to 1928; up to 40 private patients were housed in wings which were demolished in 1956 when the house was restored.


title: Chiswick

text: St Nicholas Church, near the river Thames, has a 15th-century tower, although the remainder of the church was rebuilt by J.L. Pearson in 1882–84. Monuments in the churchyard mark the burial sites of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth and William Kent, the architect and landscape designer; the churchyard also houses a mausoleum (for Philip James de Loutherbourg) designed by John Soane, and the tomb of Josiah Wedgwood's business partner, Thomas Bentley, designed by Thomas Scheemakers. One of Oliver Cromwell's daughters, Mary Fauconberg, lived at Sutton Court and is buried in the churchyard. Enduring legend has it that the body of Oliver Cromwell was also interred with her, though as the Fauconbergs did not move to Sutton Court until 15 years after his disinterment, it is more likely he was reburied at their home at Newburgh Priory. Private Frederick Hitch VC, hero of Rorke's Drift, is also buried there.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick's principal Roman Catholic church, Our Lady of Grace and St Edward (the Confessor) in the Diocese of Westminster, lies on the corner of Duke's Avenue and the High Road. It is a red brick building; the parish was founded in 1848, a school began c. 1855, and a church was opened by Cardinal Wiseman on the present site in 1864. It was replaced by the present building in 1886, opened by Cardinal Manning. The heavy debts incurred were paid off and the church consecrated in 1904. The square tower was added after the First World War by Canon Egan as a war memorial.


title: Chiswick

text: The church of St Michael, Sutton Court was designed by W. D. Caröe in 1908–1909. It is a red brick building on Elmwood road, in Tudor style. St Paul's Church, Grove Park is a Gothic style stone building designed by H. Currey. It was built largely at the Duke of Devonshire's expense in 1872.


title: Chiswick

text: St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park was initially a temporary iron building from 1876 on Chiswick High Road facing Chiswick Lane. The current building's foundation stone was laid in 1879 and consecrated in 1880. It was designed, along with much of Bedford Park, by Norman Shaw, and was called "a very lovely church" by John Betjeman. It is an Anglo-Catholic church, and was attacked on the day it was consecrated for "Popish and Pagan mummeries" by the brewer Henry Smith, churchwarden of St Nicholas, Chiswick.


title: Chiswick

text: Christ Church, Turnham Green is an early Victorian Gothic building of flint with stone dressings. The main part of the building, by George Gilbert Scott and W. B. Moffat, is from 1843; the chancel and northeast chapel were added in 1887 by J. Brooks.


title: Chiswick

text: The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Royal Martyrs, is a Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Harvard Road. Built in 1998, it has a characteristic blue onion dome with gold stars.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick Mall is a waterfront street on the north bank of the River Thames in the oldest part of Chiswick near St Nicholas Church. It consists mainly of some thirty "grand houses" from the Georgian and Victorian eras, many of them now listed buildings, overlooking the street on the north side; their gardens are on the other side of the street beside the river. The largest and finest house on the street is Walpole House, a Grade I listed building; part of it is Tudor, but the building now visible is late 17th to early 18th century.


title: Chiswick

text: Strand-on-the-Green is the most westerly part of Chiswick, "particularly picturesque" with a paved riverside path fronted by a row of "imposing" 18th-century houses, interspersed with three riverside pubs. The low-lying path is flooded at high tides. It became fashionable in 1759 when Kew Bridge opened just upstream, with the royal family at Kew Palace nearby.


title: Chiswick

text: The Bedford Park neighbourhood was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as the first place "where the relaxed, informal mood of a market town or village was adopted for a complete speculatively built suburb". In 1877 the speculator Jonathan Carr hired Shaw as his estate architect. Shaw's house designs, in the Queen Anne Revival style with red brick, roughcast, decorative gables, and both oriel and dormer windows, gave the impression of great variety using only a few types of house. These were scaled-down versions of the more expensive houses that he had designed for wealthy areas such as Chelsea, Hampstead, and Kensington. He also designed the focal buildings of the garden suburb, including the church of St Michael and All Angels and the Tabard Inn opposite it.


title: Chiswick

text: Duke's Meadows stands on land formerly owned by the Duke of Devonshire. In the 1920s, it was purchased by the local council, who developed it as a recreational centre. A promenade and bandstand were built, and the meadows are still used for sport with a rugby club, football pitches, hockey club, several rowing clubs and a golf club. In recent years a local conservation charity, the Dukes Meadows Trust, has undertaken extensive restoration work, which saw a long-term project of a children's water play area opened in August 2006.


title: Chiswick

text: The Gunnersbury Triangle local nature reserve, opposite Chiswick Park Underground station, is managed by London Wildlife Trust. The area, a railway triangle, was saved from development by a public inquiry, and became a reserve in 1985. Its 2.5 hectares are covered mainly in secondary birch woodland, with willow carr (wet woodland) in the low-lying centre, and acid grassland on the former Acton Curve railway track. The reserve runs a varied programme of activities including wildlife walks, fungus forays, open days and talks.


title: Chiswick

text: There are several historic public houses in Chiswick, some of them listed buildings, including the Mawson Arms, the George and Devonshire, the Old Packhorse and The Tabard in Bath Road near Turnham Green station. The Tabard is known for its William Morris interior and its Norman Shaw exterior; it was built in 1880. Three more pubs are in Strand-on-the-Green, fronting on to the Thames river path.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick had two well-known theatres in the 20th century. The Chiswick Empire (1912 to 1959) was at 414 Chiswick High Road. It had 2,140 seats, and staged music hall entertainment, plays, reviews, opera, ballet and an annual Christmas pantomime. The Q Theatre (1924 to 1959) was a small theatre opposite Kew Bridge station. It staged the first works of Terence Rattigan and William Douglas-Home, and many of its plays went on to the West End.


title: Chiswick

text: The 96-seat Tabard Theatre (1985) in Bath Road, upstairs from the Tabard pub but a separate business, is known for new writing and experimental work.


title: Chiswick

text: The Sanderson Factory in Barley Mow Passage, now known as Voysey House, was designed by the architect Charles Voysey in 1902. It is built in white glazed brick, with Staffordshire blue bricks (now painted black) forming horizontal bands, the plinth, and surrounds for door and window openings, and dressings in Portland stone. It was originally a wallpaper printing works, now used as office space. It is a Grade II* listed building. It faces the main factory building and was once joined to it by a bridge across the road. It was Voysey's only industrial building, and is considered an "important Arts and Crafts factory building".


title: Chiswick

text: In 1971 Erin Pizzey established the world's first domestic violence refuge at 2 Belmont Terrace, naming her organisation "Chiswick Women's Aid". The local council attempted to evict Pizzey's residents, but were unsuccessful and she soon established more such premises elsewhere, inspiring the creation of refuges worldwide.


title: Chiswick

text: The house used for filming the comedy show "Taskmaster", a former groundskeeper's cottage, is just off Great Chertsey Road, near Chiswick Bridge.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick is situated at the start of the North Circular Road (A406), South Circular Road (A205) and the M4 motorway, the latter providing a direct connection to Heathrow Airport and the M25 motorway. The Great West Road (A4) runs eastwards into central London via the Hogarth Roundabout where it meets the Great Chertsey Road (A316) which runs south-west, eventually joining the M3 motorway.


title: Chiswick

text: The southern border of Chiswick runs along the River Thames, which is crossed in this area by Barnes Railway and Foot Bridge, Chiswick Bridge, Kew Railway Bridge and Kew Bridge. River services between Westminster Pier and Hampton Court depart from Kew Gardens Pier just across Kew Bridge.


title: Chiswick

text: Bus routes on or near Chiswick High Road are the 94, 110, 237, 267, 272, 440, E3 and H91. The 94 is a 24-hour service, and the High Road is also served at night by the N9.


title: Chiswick

text: The District line serves Chiswick with four London Underground stations, Stamford Brook, Turnham Green, Chiswick Park and Gunnersbury. Turnham Green is an interchange with the Piccadilly line, but only before 06:50 and after 22:30, when Piccadilly line trains stop at the station. Chiswick railway station on the Hounslow Loop Line is served by a regular South Western Railway service to London Waterloo via Clapham Junction. The North London line crosses Chiswick (north-south); London Overground stations are Gunnersbury and South Acton.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick's local rugby union teams include Chiswick RFC, formerly Old Meadonians RFC. The team plays league games on a Saturday at Dukes Meadows. Chiswick's cricket club, formerly known as Turnham Green and Polytechnic, plays at Riverside Drive. On Chiswick Common is the Rocks Lane Multi Sports Centre, where there are tennis, five-a-side football and netball courts available to hire to the public. Private tennis coaching for individuals and groups is also available.


title: Chiswick

text: The Chiswick reach of the Thames is heavily used for competitive and recreational rowing. Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney runs past Chiswick Eyot and Duke's Meadows. The Boat Race is contested on the Championship Course on a flood tide (in other words from Putney to Mortlake) with Duke's Meadows a popular view-point for the closing stages of the race. The finishing post is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge. Other important races such as the Head of the River Race race the reverse course, on an ebb tide. Chiswick is home to several clubs. The University of London Boat Club is based in its boathouse off Hartington Road, which also houses the clubs of many London colleges and teaching hospitals; recent members include Tim Foster, Gold medallist at the Sydney Olympics and Frances Houghton, World Champion in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Quintin Boat Club lies between Chiswick Quay Marina and Chiswick Bridge. Tideway Scullers School is just downriver of Chiswick Bridge; its members include single sculling World Champion Mahé Drysdale and Great Britain single sculler Alan Campbell.


title: Chiswick

text: Chiswick High Road was once home to the "Chequered Flag" garage and its associated motor racing team.


title: Chiswick

text: In the 18th century, the poet Alexander Pope, author of "The Rape of the Lock", lived in Chiswick between 1716 and 1719, in the building which is now the Mawson Arms at the corner of Mawson Lane. The actor Charles Holland was born in Chiswick in 1733. The artist William Hogarth bought the house now known as Hogarth's House in 1749, lived there until his death in 1764, and is buried in St Nicholas's churchyard. The house later belonged to the poet and translator of Dante, Henry Francis Cary, who lived there from 1814 to 1833. In February 1766 Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived a few weeks with a local grocer, before moving to Wootton, Staffordshire.


title: Chiswick

text: In the 19th century, the Italian writer, revolutionary and poet Ugo Foscolo died in exile at Turnham Green in 1827, and was buried at St Nicholas Churchyard, Chiswick, where his monument incorrectly states he was 50, not 49. In 1871 his remains were taken to Italy and given a national hero's burial in Santa Croce, Florence alongside Michelangelo and Galileo, while his monument in Chiswick was lavishly refurbished.


title: Chiswick

text: The inventor of the electric telegraph, Francis Ronalds, lived on Chiswick Lane from 1833 to 1852. Another engineer, John Edward Thornycroft was born in Chiswick in 1872; his father, John Isaac Thornycroft, had founded the Chiswick-based John I. Thornycroft & Company shipbuilding company in 1864, which Thornycroft later joined and developed. The artist Montague Dawson, regarded as one of the best 20th-century painters of the sea, was born in Chiswick in 1895.


title: Chiswick

text: The poet W. B. Yeats lived in Woodstock Road as a boy from 1879, and came back in 1887 to live in Blenheim Road, where, inspired by Chiswick Eyot, he wrote "The Lake Isle of Innisfree".


title: Chiswick

text: The Pissarro family of painters, the impressionist Camille Pissarro, his eldest son Lucien, as well as Felix and Ludovic-Rodo lived in 62 Bath Road, Chiswick around 1897; with Camille Pissarro painting a series of notable landscapes of the area. The landscape artist Lewis Pinhorn Wood lived at Homefield Road from 1897 to 1908.


title: Chiswick

text: In the twentieth century, the novelist E. M. Forster (1879–1970) lived at 9 Arlington Park Mansions in Chiswick from 1939 until at least 1961. John Osborne (1929–1994) wrote his play "Look Back in Anger" on his houseboat at Cubitts Yacht Basin.


title: Chiswick

text: Notable people born before the Second World War include the cricketers Patsy Hendren (1899–1962) and Jack Robertson (1917–1996), the novelist Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) who lived on Eastbourne Road, the theatre and film director Peter Brook (1925–2022), zoologist and broadcaster Aubrey Manning (1930–2018), and marine geologist Frederick Vine (1939– ). The comic song performer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) spent the last years of his life in Bedford Park. The Who rock musicians John Entwistle (1944–2002) and Pete Townshend (1945– ) were both born in Chiswick during the Second World War. Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan was born in Chiswick on 19 August 1945.


title: Chiswick

text: Those born in Chiswick during the post-war period include the rock musician Dave Cousins, the cricketer Mike Selvey (1948– ), the musician Phil Collins (1951– ), the singer Kim Wilde (1960– ), illustrator Clifford Harper (1949– ), the photographer Derek Ridgers (1952– ), actress Kate Beckinsale (1973– ), the comedian Mel Smith (1952–2013), and the cricketer Dimitri Mascarenhas (1977– ).


title: Chiswick

text: Among those who have lived in Chiswick are the novelist Anthony Burgess (1917–1993), at 24 Glebe Street in the mid-1960s; the playwright Harold Pinter (1930-2008) who lived at 373 Chiswick High Road; the pianist and broadcaster Sidney Harrison (1903-1986) who in the 1960s lived at 57 Hartington Road and later at 37 The Avenue; the musical double act Bob and Alf Pearson, Bob (1907–1985) on Netheravon Road in the 1940s, and Alf (1910–2012) on Linden Gardens in the 1950s; the pop artist Peter Blake (1932–), in Chiswick since 1967, with a "vast" studio in a former ironmonger's warehouse; the actor Hugh Grant (1960– ), who grew up in Chiswick, living next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane; the singer Bruce Dickinson (1958– ) of the band Iron Maiden; the TV presenter Kate Humble (1968– ); the actress Elizabeth McGovern (1961– ) and her husband, film director Simon Curtis (1960– ); the American lawyer John Lowenthal (1925–2003), the singer Lonnie Donegan, and the model Cara Delevingne (1992– ).


title: Chiswick

text: The playwright Michael Frayn (1933– ) and his daughter the film maker and novelist Rebecca Frayn live in Chiswick. Chiswick residents have included the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, the TV journalists Jeremy Vine, Rageh Omaar and Fergal Keane, the actors Phyllis Logan, Colin Firth, David Tennant, Georgia Tennant, and Vanessa Redgrave, the TV presenters Clare Balding, Sarah Greene, Gavin Campbell, and Mary Nightingale, the journalist Alice Arnold, and the celebrity duo Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.


title: Chiswick

text: The novel "Vanity Fair" (1847/8) by William Makepeace Thackeray opens at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies in Chiswick Mall. Louis N. Parker's play "Pomander Walk" (1910) has the imagined setting of "a retired crescent of five very small, old-fashioned houses near Chiswick, on the river-bank. ... They are exactly alike: miniature copies of Queen Anne mansions". Ford Madox Ford's "Parade's End" tetralogy (1924/28) contains many scenes set in Chiswick, where the Wannop family resides. The BBC adaptation of the literary work featured filming on Bedford Park's Woodstock Road. Basil Dearden's 1961 suspense film "Victim", starring Dirk Bogarde as the barrister Melville Farr, was set in Chiswick, and many of its scenes were filmed on Chiswick Mall, where Farr lived.


title: Chiswick

text: The "middle class" On May 20 1966 the Beatles filmed two of their earliest promotional films for the songs Paperback Writer and Rain in the grounds of Chiswick House. BBC sitcom "My Family" was set in Chiswick; it ran from 2000 to 2011.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Arthur Christmas is a 2011 computer-animated Christmas science fantasy comedy film directed by Sarah Smith and co-directed by Barry Cook. Featuring the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, and Ashley Jensen, the film is a co-production between Sony Pictures Animation and Aardman Animations. It is also Aardman's second entirely computer-animated feature film after 2006's "Flushed Away."


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Set on Christmas Eve, the film centres on Arthur Claus, the clumsy but well-meaning son of Santa Claus, who discovers that his father's high-tech ship has failed to deliver one girl's present. Accompanied only by his free-spirited and reckless grandfather, an enthusiastic young Christmas elf obsessed with wrapping gifts for children, and a team of reindeer, he embarks on a mission to deliver the girl's present personally.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Following the underperformance of "Flushed Away", DreamWorks Animation did not renew its partnership with Aardman. In April 2007, Aardman signed a three-year deal with Sony Pictures. Originally titled "Operation Rudolph", the project was first announced in 2007. Aardman spent 18 months on pre-production on the story and design in the UK before relocating to Sony's Culver City, US, for another 18 months of production. On 27 April 2009, it was reported that production had begun with Aardman and Sony Pictures Imageworks working together on animation.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: "Arthur Christmas" was released on November 11, 2011 in the United Kingdom, and on November 23, 2011 in the United States. The film received positive reviews from critics. The film earned $147 million at the box office.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Instead of a single individual, Santa Claus is a hereditary title belonging to gift-givers that has been carried on for many generations. The current Santa, Malcolm Claus, is heading his seventieth mission, but his role has largely been reduced to that of a figurehead. The traditional sleigh and reindeer have been replaced by the S-1, a high-tech vessel operated by hundreds of elves that use advanced equipment and military precision to deliver presents. The complex Christmas operations are micromanaged from a North Pole-based Mission Control by Malcolm's eldest son, Steve, who expects to be handed down the role of Santa following his father’s retirement. Meanwhile, Malcolm's younger son, Arthur, answers letters sent from children to Santa.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: During one of the delivery operations in Poland, a toy is accidentally activated, waking a child and nearly revealing Santa. A tense escape operation ensues, during which an elf aboard the S-1 leans on a button, causing a present to fall from the supply line and go unnoticed. Another elf named Bryony Shelfley later finds the missed present—a wrapped bicycle for a young girl named Gwen living in Trelew, Cornwall, whose letter Arthur had personally responded to. Arthur is heartbroken to hear a child’s been missed and urges his father and brother to use the S-1 and deliver the final present but Steve argues that one missed present out of billions is an acceptable error, citing this year's Christmas as the most successful in history. Malcolm's cynical elderly father and predecessor, Grandsanta, whisks Arthur away to deliver it in EVE, the original wooden sleigh that is pulled by the descendants of the flying reindeer. Bryony is revealed to have stowed away and joins the pair, but they get lost on four different continents, lose several of their reindeer and encounter many obstacles, ultimately being mistaken for aliens and causing an international military incident.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Arthur is shocked and hurt to learn that Grandsanta only agreed to go on the trip to boost his own ego, Malcolm is indifferent to the missing present, and Steve refuses to help them because he believes Arthur's efforts could undermine his attempts to become the next Santa.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Finally, stranded on an island in Cuba, Arthur becomes disillusioned with his family and nearly gives up. However, he realizes that so long as the gift is delivered one way or another, the "Santa" Arthur and Gwen look up to exists in the hearts of children. Reinvigorated, Arthur manages to get the sleigh back and the trio sets off for England. Meanwhile, the elves grow increasingly alarmed at rumors of the neglected delivery and the Clauses' indifference, sending them into a panic. In response, Malcolm tricks his wife Margaret into believing Steve gave them permission to use the S-1 to deliver Gwen’s gift, only for a furious Steve to confront his father onboard and a dejected Malcolm recognises his inability to properly lead. Steve drives the S-1 and delivers a superior present, only to realise that Malcolm had accidentally set the address to the wrong child, revealing Steve’s inability to connect with children.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Arthur’s group reach England but lose the remaining reindeer. Furthermore, a Predator drone scrambled by Chief De Silva of UNFITA intercepts and opens fire on the sleigh, believing it to be an alien spacecraft. Grandsanta sacrifices EVE, while Arthur and Bryony parachute to the ground.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: All paths descend on Gwen’s house before she awakens, only to have everyone but Arthur quarrel about who gets to actually place the gift. Noticing that Arthur was the only one who genuinely cared about Gwen’s happiness, the elder Clauses collectively realize that he is the sole worthy successor. As a result, Steve recognises his own shortcomings, forfeits his birthright and acknowledges his brother's worthiness to take up the mantle, with Malcolm admitting he’s truly proud of both his sons. Gwen glimpses a snow-bearded Arthur in a wind-buffeted sweater just before he vanishes up into the S-1.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: In a postscript, Malcolm goes into a happy retirement with Margaret - where he also becomes Grandsanta's much-desired new companion - and plays Arthur's board game with him for many happy hours. Meanwhile, Steve finds true contentment as the chief operating officer of the North Pole. Bryony is promoted to Vice-President of Wrapping, Pacific Division. The high-tech S-1 is rechristened EVIE in honor of Grandsanta's old sleigh and refitted to be pulled by a team of five thousand reindeer led by the original eight, all of whom have returned home safely. And at the helm, Arthur happily guides the entire enterprise as Santa Claus XXI.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Lead elves are voiced by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Robbie Coltrane, Joan Cusack, Rhys Darby, Jane Horrocks, Iain McKee, Andy Serkis, and Dominic West.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: "Arthur Christmas" was first announced in 2007, under the name "Operation Rudolph". It was the first film made by Aardman in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment and its subsidiaries, after they parted ways with DreamWorks Animation.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Aardman spent 18 months on pre-production on the story and design in the UK before relocating to Sony's Culver City, US, for another 18 months of production. On 27 April 2009, it was reported that production had begun with Aardman and Sony Pictures Imageworks working together on animation.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: The film was released on 11 November 2011 in the United Kingdom and on 23 November 2011 in the United States. The music video for Justin Bieber's song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", which plays over the end credits, was exclusively shown in theatres before the film.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: "Arthur Christmas" was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on 6 November 2012, in the US, and 19 November 2012 in the UK.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: "Arthur Christmas" holds an approval rating of on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews, with an average score of . The consensus reads, "Aardman Animations broadens their humor a bit for "Arthur Christmas", a clever and earnest holiday film with surprising emotional strength." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: John Anderson of "Newsday" praised the film as "not only funny and fresh, but . . . a new way of tackling the whole yuletide paradigm: Santa as a high-tech hereditary monarchy." Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" described it as "unexpectedly fresh, despite the familiar-sounding premise". Neil Genzlinger of "The New York Times" wrote that "the plot may be a little too cluttered for the toddler crowd to follow, but the next age group up should be amused, and the script by Peter Baynham and Sarah Smith has plenty of sly jokes for grown-ups." Rene Rodriguez of the "Miami Herald" stated that "the movie fails utterly at coming up with a story that merits all the eye candy."


title: Arthur Christmas

text: "Arthur Christmas" has earned $46,462,469 in North America, $33,334,089 in the UK, and $67,622,914 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $147,419,472.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: In the United Kingdom the film opened in second place with a £2.5 million weekend gross, behind "Immortals". It topped the box office in its fourth week, by which time the cumulative gross was £11.5 million. The film returned to the top of the box office on week seven, during Christmas week, grossing £2.05 million and a total of £19.7 million.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: In the United States and Canada the film earned $2.4 million on its opening day and $1.8 million on Thanksgiving Day. It would go on to gross $12.1 million over the three-day weekend and $16.3 million over the five-day period. This was on par with studio expectations. The film went on to gross nearly $50 million domestically against a $100 million budget.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: Arthur Christmas: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the film of the same name. It was composed and produced by Harry Gregson-Williams, who had previously composed the score for "Chicken Run" (2000) and "Flushed Away" (2006), and released on 14 November 2011 by Sony Classical. Originally, Michael Giacchino and Adam Cohen were going to compose the score.


title: Arthur Christmas

text: An iOS video game titled "Arthur Christmas: Elf Run" was released in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2011, on iTunes App Store. On 18 November 2011, the game was released worldwide on the iOS and Android platform. Released as a free and a premium version, the game allows players to play as delivery elves, who must quickly and quietly deliver gifts to children. Another iOS app based on the film is "Arthur Christmas Movie Storybook", which was released on 30 November 2011.


title: Abiotic component

text: In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and the phenomena associated with them underpin biology as a whole. They affect a plethora of species, in all forms of environmental conditions, such as marine or land animals. Humans can make or change abiotic factors in a species' environment. For instance, fertilizers can affect a snail's habitat, or the greenhouse gases which humans utilize can change marine pH levels.


title: Abiotic component

text: Abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by other organisms.


title: Abiotic component

text: Component degradation of a substance occurs by chemical or physical processes, e.g. hydrolysis. All non-living components of an ecosystem, such as atmospheric conditions and water resources, are called abiotic components.


title: Abiotic component

text: In biology, abiotic factors can include water, light, radiation, temperature, humidity, atmosphere, acidity, and soil. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the above. Pressure and sound waves may also be considered in the context of marine or sub-terrestrial environments. Abiotic factors in ocean environments also include aerial exposure, substrate, water clarity, solar energy and tides.


title: Abiotic component

text: Consider the differences in the mechanics of C3, C4, and CAM plants in regulating the influx of carbon dioxide to the Calvin-Benson Cycle in relation to their abiotic stressors. C3 plants have no mechanisms to manage photorespiration, whereas C4 and CAM plants utilize a separate PEP carboxylase enzyme to prevent photorespiration, thus increasing the yield of photosynthetic processes in certain high energy environments.


title: Abiotic component

text: Many Archea require very high temperatures, pressures or unusual concentrations of chemical substances such as sulfur; this is due to their specialization into extreme conditions. In addition, fungi have also evolved to survive at the temperature, the humidity, and stability of their environment.


title: Abiotic component

text: For example, there is a significant difference in access in both water and humidity between temperate rain forests and deserts. This difference in water availability causes a diversity in the organisms that survive in these areas. These differences in abiotic components alter the species present both by creating boundaries of what species can survive within the environment, and influencing competition between two species. Abiotic factors such as salinity can give one species a competitive advantage over another, creating pressures that lead to speciation and alteration of a species to and from generalist and specialist competitors.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Vincent Lamar Wilfork (born November 4, 1981) is a former American football nose tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football for the University of Miami and was drafted by the Patriots in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He also played two seasons for the Houston Texans before retiring following the 2016 season. Along with Tom Brady, Wilfork is the only Patriots player to win the Super Bowl in both decades of the Patriots dynasty (2004 and 2014).


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork is considered to be one of the greatest defensive tackles in NFL history, and was named both to the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro team in , , , and .


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork was born in Boynton Beach, Florida, and attended Santaluces Community High School in Palm Beach County, Florida. There, he was a letter winner in football, wrestling, and track and field. In football, he won "USA Today"'s second team All-American honors.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In track & field, Wilfork was one of the nation's top performers in the throwing events. He was the Florida Class 4A state champion in the shot put and the discus in 2000. He also holds the Florida state high school record in the shot put with a throw of 68 feet (20.73 m). In the discus event, his top throw was 180 feet (54.86 m).


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork attended the University of Miami, where he played for the Miami Hurricanes football team. He also competed for the Miami Hurricanes track and field team; he held the Miami indoor school record in the shot put until Isaiah Simmons surpassed it in 2013. In his freshman season, Wilfork did not start but played in every game as a defensive tackle, finishing tenth on the team in tackles with 41 while also recording a sack and forcing three fumbles. Wilfork did not start a game in his 2002 sophomore season either, but still recorded 43 tackles and seven sacks. Before the 2003 season, Wilfork was rated the second best defensive tackle in the country by "The Sporting News" and went on to start all 13 games for Miami. He finished the year with a career-high 64 tackles and led the team with 20 quarterback hurries. He was named to the All-Big East Conference first-team following the season, which would prove to be his last in Miami as he decided to forgo his senior season and enter the 2004 NFL Draft.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork was ranked by most in the media as the second best defensive tackle prospect in the 2004 NFL Draft behind only Tommie Harris. Although regarded as a top-10 talent, Wilfork was criticized for lackadaisical effort during his junior season. Wilfork drew comparisons to fellow Miami alumnus Warren Sapp, and was selected in the first round (21st overall) by the New England Patriots. He was the highest selected Miami Hurricane defensive tackle since Damione Lewis in 2001.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In his rookie 2004 season with the Patriots, he compiled two sacks, 42 tackles, and three deflected passes. Wilfork saw considerable playing time during his rookie season, sharing the nose tackle position with veteran Keith Traylor and started Super Bowl XXXIX against the Philadelphia Eagles, a Patriots victory.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Following Traylor's release, Wilfork had a career-high 54 tackles in 2005 and started all 16 games; however, the defending champions were eliminated in the second round of playoffs by the Denver Broncos. In 2006, Wilfork finished the season with 50 tackles, appearing in 13 games.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In the 2007 season, Wilfork finished the season with 48 tackles and two sacks, was selected to the 2008 Pro Bowl, and was named as a second-team All-Pro selection.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork was fined a total of four times by the NFL in the 2007 season. In the third game of the season he was fined $12,500 by the NFL for his hit on Buffalo Bills quarterback J. P. Losman. This was appealed to the NFL and reduced to $2,500. In an October 14 game against the Dallas Cowboys, Wilfork was fined $5,000 for drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct foul when he tangled with Cowboys tight end Jason Witten. In the last game of the regular 2007 season, Wilfork placed his finger in the facemask of New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs after a play in the second quarter. He was fined $15,000. He was also fined $5,000 for a 15-yard face-mask penalty called in the against the San Diego Chargers, while attempting to tackle running back Michael Turner.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork's string of fines continued into the 2008 season, when in an October 20 game against the Denver Broncos Wilfork appeared to elbow Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler in the head after a play. Wilfork met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in the days following the game and reportedly faced a one-game suspension, but after Wilfork explained his manner of playing to Goodell only a fine was imposed. Wilfork finished the 2008 season with a career-high 66 tackles, while recording two sacks. In 2008, he was also named for the first time a defensive captain, by his teammates.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork entered the final season of his contract in 2009. Reportedly unhappy with not receiving a contract extension, Wilfork did not attend the team's voluntary organized team activities in the spring, but reported to the team's mandatory sessions later in the summer. In August 2009, he was named to the Patriots' 50th anniversary team. Wilfork would go on to start the first 13 games of the season for the Patriots, missing the final three games of the season with an ankle injury before returning for the Patriots' playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. He finished the season with 43 tackles and no sacks, and he was elected to the 2010 Pro Bowl.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork's contract expired after the 2009 season. He stated that he was looking for a long-term deal and threatened with a holdout should the Patriots instead place a franchise tag on him. In an interview with the "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" he also acknowledged it would be "a dream come true" to play for either the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Miami Dolphins. On February 22, Wilfork was assigned the non-exclusive version of the franchise tag by the Patriots, who expressed their desire to reach a long-term contract with Wilfork. On March 5, the first day of free agency, the Patriots re-signed Wilfork to a five-year, $40 million contract with $25 million in guaranteed money.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: After starting the first three games of the 2010 season at nose tackle, Wilfork moved to defensive end beginning in Week 4 against the Miami Dolphins. He returned to start at nose tackle in the Patriots' Week 8 win over the Minnesota Vikings. He would continue to switch between the positions for the remainder of the season, but started all 16 games and finished with 57 tackles and two sacks. Wilfork was selected to the 2011 Pro Bowl after the season. Wilfork was named to the 2010 AP All-Pro Second Team at defensive tackle, finishing third in the voting, but also received a vote at defensive end.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: At the start of the 2011 NFL Season, he played defensive tackle when the New England Patriots moved to a 4–3 defense thanks to his former teammate Albert Haynesworth and after playing nose tackle for the first seven NFL seasons. In the second game of the 2011 season, Wilfork got his first career interception off San Diego Chargers quarterback, Philip Rivers. He caught his second interception against the Oakland Raiders two weeks later. He scored a touchdown on week 14 against the Washington Redskins at the FedExField.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: During the 2011 season, Wilfork recorded 3.5 sacks—a new career high—and was included on the AFC's 2012 Pro Bowl roster. In the AFC Championship game against the Ravens, he had one of his best games of his career, recording 1.5 sacks and 6 tackles. At the end of the 2011 season, Wilfork and the Patriots appeared in Super Bowl XLVI. He started in the game and recorded three total tackles, but the Patriots lost to the New York Giants by a score of 21–17.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork was selected as a defensive tackle for USA Football's 2012 "All Fundamentals Team", which honors 26 NFL players each year for executing the fundamentals of their position. He was also named to his fourth career Pro Bowl team and to the All Pro second team.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In 2012, he was voted co-captain for the fifth straight season by his teammates. Wilfork made one of the most famous plays of his career on November 22, 2012 in a game against the New York Jets. In the second quarter he shoved Jets offensive lineman Brandon Moore in the direction of quarterback Mark Sanchez, causing an unlucky collision between Sanchez and Moore's buttocks, which in turn caused a fumble. The play became known as the Butt Fumble. Wilfork finished the year with 48 total tackles and 3 sacks. His strong season earned him a spot in the Associated Press All Pro first team and in the 2013 Pro Bowl.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In week 4 of the 2013 NFL season against the Atlanta Falcons, Wilfork tore his right Achilles' tendon while trying to get past Falcons offensive guard Justin Blalock. Wilfork would miss the rest of the 2013 season after being placed on injured reserve.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In the 2014 NFL season, Wilfork recorded 47 tackles, 2 passes defensed, and 1 interception. He helped the Patriots reach Super Bowl XLIX. In the Super Bowl, Wilfork recorded 2 tackles as they defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28–24 to give Wilfork his second Super Bowl championship.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: On March 5, 2015, the Patriots declined their team option on Wilfork's contract, which made him a free agent at the end of the 2014 league season.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: On March 16, 2015, Wilfork signed a two-year deal with the Houston Texans. He started all 16 games in 2015 at the nose tackle position making 22 tackles. In his two seasons in Houston, he totaled 43 tackles, helping the Texans win back-to-back AFC South titles.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: On August 9, 2017, Wilfork held a press conference to announce his retirement, along with signing a one-day contract to retire with the Patriots.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: During the 2018 season, the Patriots honored Wilfork by naming him honorary captain for the AFC Championship game and he presented the Lamar Hunt Trophy after the Patriots beat Kansas City Chiefs. After the Super Bowl LIII win, Wilfork carried the Lombardi Trophy along with Emmitt Smith and Joe Namath to the presentation stage.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In 2022, Wilfork was voted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, becoming the sixth player in their first year of eligibility to be selected by the fans. He was inducted on Saturday, September 24, 2022


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Wilfork lives in Houston, Texas and Florida. He has two sons and one daughter. He married Bianca Farinas in 2004. They divorced in 2021. Both of Wilfork's parents died in 2002 and were unable to ever see him play in the NFL.


title: Vince Wilfork

text: Following the Patriots' victory in the 2014 AFC Championship game, Wilfork helped remove a driver out from an overturned vehicle. He noticed the flipped SUV on his way home from Gillette Stadium, assisting an officer already at the scene. Wilfork later recounted the event and his role in helping the driver: "I think anybody would do the same thing, I saw the lady in there and asked her if she was OK, could she move. She grabbed my hand, and kind of talked her through [it]. It wasn't a big deal; it was seeing someone that needed help and helping. I was just trying to get her to safety."


title: Vince Wilfork

text: In May 2021, Wilfork reported that over $300,000 of jewelry was missing from his home, including two of his Super Bowl rings and a Miami Hurricanes college football championship ring. It was later reported that his son D'Aundre had been arrested and charged with stealing them, with him pleading guilty in April 2022.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: My Lovely Sam Soon (, lit. My Name Is Kim Sam-soon) is a South Korean television series based on the internet novel of the same title by Ji Soo-hyun, which was published on March 9, 2004. Touted as the Korean version of "Bridget Jones's Diary", it starred Kim Sun-a (who gained 15 pounds for the role), Hyun Bin, Jung Ryeo-won and Daniel Henney. The series aired on MBC from June 1 to July 21, 2005 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 16 episodes.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: "Sam-soon" is an old-fashioned name in Korean culture. It is translated as "3rd daughter" ("sam" (삼) is three, "soon" (순) is meek or feminine).


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: The romantic comedy-drama series was a huge hit, with an average viewership rating of 37.6% and its peak rating of 49.1% (for the finale) makes it one of the highest-rated Korean dramas of all time. It also won numerous awards, including the Baeksang Arts Awards Grand Prize for TV and the Grand Prize at the MBC Drama Awards for Kim Sun-ah.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Kim Sam-soon (Kim Sun-a) is loud and brash, yet insecure about her weight. She has always been embarrassed by her old-fashioned first name, and nearing her 30th birthday, she dreams of changing it. She is an excellent baker with a fervent passion for making desserts. On Christmas Eve, Sam-soon gets dumped by her cheating boyfriend (Lee Kyu-han) and loses her job. One of the witnesses to her public humiliation is Hyun Jin-heon (Hyun Bin), the owner of upscale French restaurant Bon Appetit. Upon recognizing her talent, Jin-heon hires her as Bon Appetit's new pastry chef. From their first meeting, the two have an antagonistic relationship (she calls him the equally old-fashioned "Sam-shik"), and sparks fly.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Jin-heon is the son of a wealthy hotelier (Na Moon-hee), and his mother constantly nags him about succeeding her in the hotel business. She also keeps setting him up on matchmaking dates, saying his niece Mi-joo (Seo Ji-hee), who hasn't spoken a word since the childhood trauma of her parents' deaths, needs a mother figure. When Sam-soon finds herself in need of (approximately ) to prevent the foreclosure of her mother's house, Jin-heon proposes a deal: in exchange for the money, she agrees to become his pretend girlfriend. They draw up a complicated contract, of which the most important stipulation is that they should never fall in love for real. But as they spend more time together, Sam-soon and Jin-heon grow closer and gradually fall for each other. But just when things are going well, Jin-heon's ex-girlfriend Yoo Hee-jin (Jung Ryeo-won) returns from the United States.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Hee-jin had suddenly left Korea years ago, right after a car accident that had killed Jin-heon's older brother, his sister-in-law and a motorcyclist, and left Jin-heon (who was driving) seriously injured. Though Jin-heon's leg eventually recovered, emotional scars remained, a mixture of sorrow, guilt, and anger at Hee-jin's abandonment. But what he didn't know was that Hee-jin had been diagnosed at the time with stomach cancer, and she'd broken up with him because she didn't want to add to the tragedy he was already experiencing. Now in remission, she returns to Korea to ask for a second chance, followed by her Korean-American doctor Henry Kim (Daniel Henney), who is in love with Hee-jin and eager to learn his roots. Upon learning the truth, Jin-heon reconciles with Hee-jin.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Broken-hearted, Sam-soon resigns from Bon Appetit, and she and her older sister Yi-young (Lee Ah-hyun) decide to open an online pastry business using Yi-young's settlement from her recent divorce. Meanwhile, Jin-heon can't stop thinking about Sam-soon and realizes that he wants to be with her. After several run-ins in which he sabotages her blind date and immaturely invents reasons to see her, he finally confesses his love for Sam-soon. After a difficult break-up with Hee-jin, Jin-heon proves to Sam-soon's mother and sister that he's serious about her and the couple begin dating happily.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Then Hee-jin asks a final favor of Jin-heon, to accompany her back to the U.S. to rejoin her parents there. Sam-soon is initially resistant, but later gives her blessing when Jin-heon reassures her that this journey will be a form of closure for him and Hee-jin. He promises to return after one week. Sam-soon goes once again to the city clerk's office to have her name changed, but finally believing that her name is special and an important part of her identity, changes her mind at the last minute and tears up the papers.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Two months pass, with no calls or letters from Jin-heon, and Sam-soon has given up on him and gone on with her life.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: When Jin-heon eventually returns to Korea, she gives him the cold shoulder. But the misunderstanding is cleared up when two months' worth of postcards gets delivered to Sam-soon's house; as they had been sent to the wrong address all this time. Jin-heon had spent the two months traveling and inspecting hotels all over America; in his desire to be a man worthy of Sam-soon, he is finally ready to take up the reins as his mother's heir. Whatever obstacles come their way (including his mother's continuing benign disapproval of their relationship), Sam-soon and Jin-heon decide to face the future together, doing their best at work and love, and living life to the fullest.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: Some critics believe its huge success was due to the show's focus on the life of a single woman in her late twenties. Particularly, the heroine's chubby physical appearance and frank, flawed yet lovable personality broke long-held Korean drama stereotypes, greatly increasing its popularity due to its resonance with many Koreans.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: In the table below, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: The "My Lovely Sam-soon" soundtrack was released on June 18, 2005. Korean electronica band Clazziquai contributed two songs to the soundtrack: "Be My Love" and "She Is", the former of which became the show's theme song. The show's popularity brought the group increased media and public attention.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: A stage adaptation (which was based more on the original novel than the TV series) ran at the Sangmyung Art Hall in Seoul from January 21 to September 25, 2011.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: A 2008 Philippine remake titled "Ako si Kim Samsoon" starred Regine Velasquez and Mark Anthony Fernandez.


title: My Lovely Sam Soon

text: A 2020 Thailand remake titled "My name is Busaba" starred Namthip Jongrachatawiboon and Thanapat Kawila on One31 HD.


title: History of Kyiv

text: The history of Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, officially begins with its founding year as 482, but the city may date back at least 2,000 years. Archaeology dates the site of the oldest known settlement in the area to 25,000 years BC. Kyiv was the historical capital of medieval Kievan Rus' from 879 to 1240, and is now the largest city and the capital of Ukraine.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Legend states that three brothers, Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv, and their sister Lybid, founded the city. Kyiv thus takes its name from Kyi, the eldest brother. The exact century of the city's foundation has not been determined. Legend has it that Saint Andrew (d. AD 60/70) prophesied the emergence of a great city on the future location of Kyiv. He was allegedly fascinated by the spectacular location on the hilly shores of the Dnieper River. The city is thought to have existed as early as the 6th century, initially as a Slavic settlement. Gradually acquiring eminence as the center of the East Slavic civilization, Kyiv reached its Golden Age as the center of Kievan Rus' in the 10th–12th centuries.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Its political, but not cultural, importance drastically declined when, in 1169, it was pillaged by the troops of Andrey Bogolyubsky; the old town was destroyed, and the capital moved to Vladimir. This was followed by numerous sackings of Kyiv by Rus' princes until the town was completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240.


title: History of Kyiv

text: In the following centuries, the city functioned as a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbors: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, its successor the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Tsardom of Russia which later became the Russian Empire. Kyiv was also a major political and cultural center for Ukrainian nation, especially during the Ukrainian Cossack Hetmanate in 17–18 centuries. A Christian city since 988, it still played an important role in preserving the traditions of Orthodox Christianity, especially at times of domination by Catholic Poland, and later the atheist Soviet Union.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Kyiv prospered again during the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century. In the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the city, caught in the middle of several conflicts, served as the capital of several short-lived Ukrainian states. From 1921 the city was part of the Soviet Union, from 1934 as the capital of Soviet Ukraine. In World War II, the city was destroyed again, almost completely, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, becoming the third most important city of the Soviet Union, the capital of the second-most populous Soviet republic. It now remains the capital of Ukraine, independent since 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


title: History of Kyiv

text: According to a legend, East Slavs founded Kiev in the 5th century. The legend of Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv speaks of a founder-family consisting of a Slavic tribal leader "Kyi", the eldest, his brothers Schek and Khoriv, and also their sister Lybid, who founded the city. "Kyiv" () is translated as "belonging to Kyi" or as "Kyi's place".


title: History of Kyiv

text: The non-legendary time of the founding of the city is harder to ascertain. Slavic settlement existed in the area from the end of the 5th century, that later developed into the city.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Some western historians (e.g. Kevin Alan Brook) speculate that the city was founded by Khazars or Magyars. Brook posits that "Kyiv" is a Turkic place name ("Küi" = riverbank + "ev" = settlement). However, the "Primary Chronicle" (a main source of information about the early history of the area) mentions Slavic Kievans telling Askold and Dir that they lived without a local ruler and paid tribute to the Khazars - an event attributed to the 9th century. Brook believes that during the 8th and 9th centuries the city functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. A hill-fortress, called Sambat (Old Turkic for "high place") was built to defend the area.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Whatever the precise circumstances and date of its foundation, the city constituted a nodal point on important ancient trade routes, standing as it does near the confluence of the Dnipro and Desna river systems. The Dnipro came to serve as the standard route between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire, while the Desna gave the area water-borne access (via portages) to the Don and Oka-Volga basins.


title: History of Kyiv

text: According to the "Hustyn Chronicle", Askold and Dir (Haskuldr and Dyri) ruled the Rus' Khaganate at least in 842. They were Varangian princes, probably of Swedish origin, but not Rurikids. According to the Annals of St. Bertin (Annales Bertiniani) for the year 839, Louis the Pious, the Holy Roman Emperor, came to the conclusion that the people called Rhos ("qui se, id est gentem suum, Rhos vocari dicebant") belonged to the gens of the Swedes ("eos gentis esse Sueonum").


title: History of Kyiv

text: According to the "Primary Chronicle", Oleg of Novgorod (Helgi of Holmgard) conquered the city in 882. He was a relative of Rurik, a Varangian pagan chieftain. The date given for Oleg's conquest of the town in the "Primary Chronicle" is uncertain, and some historians, such as Omeljan Pritsak and Constantine Zuckerman, dispute this account and maintain that Khazar rule continued until as late as the 920s (documentary evidence exists to support this assertion — see the "Kyivan Letter" and the "Schechter Letter).


title: History of Kyiv

text: From Oleg's seizure of the city until 1169, Kyiv functioned as the capital of Kievan Rus', which was ruled by the Varangian Rurikid dynasty which gradually became Slavicized. The Grand Princes had traditional primacy over the other rulers of the land and the Kyivan princehood was a valuable prize in an intra-dynastic system. In 968 the city withstood a siege by the nomadic Pechenegs. In 988, by order of Grand Prince Volodymyr I (St. Volodymyr), the city residents accepted baptism en-masse in the Dnipro river, an event which symbolized the Baptism of Kievan Rus to Orthodox Christianity. The city reached the height of its position – its political and cultural Golden Age – in the middle of the 11th century under Volodymyr's son Yaroslav the Wise (Grand Prince from 1019 to 1054). In 1051, prince Yaroslav assembled the bishops at St. Sophia Cathedral and appointed Hilarion as the first native-born metropolitan bishop of Rus'. In spite of the East–West Schism in Christianity, the Kievan church maintained good relations with Rome (note for example prince Iziaslav I's request to Pope Gregory VII to extend to Kievan Rus "the patronage of St. Peter", which the Pope fulfilled by sending Iziaslav a crown from Rome in 1075).


title: History of Kyiv

text: Following the fragmentation of Kievan Rus' polity, the Principality of Kiev emerged. Subsequent years saw rivalries of the competing princes of the dynasty and the weakening of Kyiv's political influence, although the city temporarily prevailed after the defeat of Polotsk at the Battle on the river Nemiga (1067) that also led to the burning of Minsk. In 1146 the next Ruthenian bishop, Kliment Smoliatich of Smolensk, was appointed to serve as the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'. In 1169 Andrei of Suzdal (Bogolyubsky) sent an army against Mstislav II Izyaslavich and Kyiv. Led by one of his sons, it consisted of the forces of eleven other princes, representing three of the main branches of the Rurikid dynasty against the fourth, the Iziaslavichi of Volynia. The allies were victorious, and sacked the city for three days. They left the old town and the prince's hall in ruins, and took many pieces of religious artwork - including the "Theotokos of Vladimir" icon – from nearby Vyshhorod. Bogolyubsky established a new capital at Vladimir. He lost Kiev five years later.


title: History of Kyiv

text: In 1203, Prince Rurik Rostislavich captured and burned Kyiv. In the 1230s different Rus' princes besieged and ravaged the city several times. Then Mongol-Tatar forces led by Batu Khan besieged and then completely destroyed the city on 6 December 1240. The Mongols had originally planned to take the city unharmed, but upon their arrival, the garrison threw down the bodies of the Mongol diplomats sent to urge them to surrender. In revenge the Mongols broke down the gates and slaughtered much of the population, then razed the city.


title: History of Kyiv

text: In the period between 1241 and 1362, the Princes of Kiev were forced to accept Mongol/Tatar overlordship. In 1245, Petro Akerovych, the Metropolitan of Kyiv, participated in the First Council of Lyon, where he informed Catholic Europe of the Mongol/Tatar threat. In 1299, Maximus (of Greek origin), the Metropolitan of Kiev, eventually moved the seat of the Metropolitanate from Kyiv to Vladimir-on-Kliazma, keeping the title. Since 1320, the city was the site of a new Catholic bishopric, when Henry, a Dominican friar, was appointed the first missionary Bishop of Kiev. In the early 1320s, a Lithuanian army led by Gediminas defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kiev at the Battle on the Irpin River, and conquered the city. The Tatars, who also claimed Kyiv, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while the city was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay a tribute to the Golden Horde.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Kiev became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the Battle at Blue Waters in 1362, when Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, beat a Golden Horde army. During the period between 1362 and 1471, the city was ruled by Lithuanian princes from different families. By order of Casimir Jagiellon, the Principality of Kiev was abolished and the Kiev Voivodeship was established in 1471. Lithuanian statesman Martynas Goštautas was appointed as the first voivode of Kiev the same year; his appointment was met by hostility from locals.


title: History of Kyiv

text: The city was frequently attacked by Crimean Tatars and in 1482 was destroyed again by Crimean Khan Meñli I Giray. Despite its diminished political significance, the city still played an important role as seat of the local Orthodox metropolitan. Starting in 1494, however, the city's local autonomy (Magdeburg rights) gradually increased in a series of acts of Lithuanian Grand Dukes and Polish Kings, finalized by a charter granted by Sigismund I the Old in 1516.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Kyiv had a Jewish community of some significance in the early sixteenth century. The tolerant Sigismund II Augustus granted equal rights to Jews in the city, on the grounds that they paid the same taxes as Podil's burghers. Polish sponsorship of Jewish settlement in the city added fuel to the conflict that already existed between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.


title: History of Kyiv

text: In 1569, under the Union of Lublin that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Kyiv with other Ukrainian territories was transferred to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and it became a capital of the Kiev Voivodeship. Its role of Orthodox center strengthened due to expansion of Roman Catholicism under Polish rule. In 1632, Peter Mogila, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia established the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, an educational institution aimed to preserve and develop Ukrainian culture and Orthodox faith despite Polish Catholic oppression. Although ruled by the church, the academy provided students with educational standards close to universities of Western Europe (including multilingual training) and became the foremost educational center, both religious and secular.


title: History of Kyiv

text: In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks triumphantly entered the city in the course of their uprising establishing the rule of their Cossack Hetmanate in the city. The Zaporizhian Host had a special status within the newly formed political entity. The complete sovereignty of Hetmanate did not last long as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth refused to recognize it and resumed hostilities. In January 1654, Khmelnytsky decided to sign the Treaty of Pereyaslav with Tsardom of Russia to obtain a military support against the Polish Crown. However, in November 1656 the Muscovites concluded the Truce of Vilna with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was approved by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. After his death, in the atmosphere of sharp conflicts his successor became Ivan Vyhovsky who signed the Treaty of Hadiach. It was ratified by the Crown in a limited version. According to Vyhovsky original intention, Kyiv was to become the capital of the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia on the limited federate rights within the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth. However, this part of the Treaty was removed during the ratification. In the meantime, Vyhovsky's opponent Yuri Khmelnytsky signed the Second Treaty of Pereyaslav in October 1659 with a representative of Russian tsar.


title: History of Kyiv

text: On January 31, 1667, the Truce of Andrusovo was concluded, in which the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceded Smolensk, Severia and Chernigov, and, on paper only for a period of two years, the city of Kiev to the Tsardom of Russia. The Eternal Peace of 1686 acknowledged the status quo and put the city under the control of Russia for the centuries to come. Kiev slowly lost its autonomy, which was finally abolished in 1775 by the Empress Catherine the Great. None of the Polish-Russian treaties concerning the city have ever been ratified.


title: History of Kyiv

text: In 1834, St. Vladimir University was established in the city (now known as National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv). The Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko cooperated with its geography department as a field researcher and editor. However, the Magdeburg Law existed in Kiev till that year, when it was abolished by the Decree of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia on December 23, 1834.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Even after Kiev and the surrounding region ceased being a part of Poland, Poles continued to play an important role. In 1812 there were over 43,000 Polish noblemen in Kiev province, compared to only approximately 1,000 Russian nobles. Typically the nobles spent their winters in the city, where they held Polish balls and fairs. Until the mid-18th century Kiev was Polish in culture. although Poles made up no more than ten percent of the city's population and 25% of its voters. During the 1830s Polish was the language of Kiev's educational system, and until Polish enrollment in the university of St. Vladimir was restricted in the 1860s they made up the majority of that school's student body. The Russian government's cancellation of the city's autonomy and its placement under the rule of bureaucrats appointed from St. Petersburg was largely motivated by fear of Polish insurrection in the city. Warsaw factories and fine Warsaw shops had branches in Kiev. Józef Zawadzki, founder of Kiev's stock exchange, served as the city's mayor in the 1890s. Poles living in the city tended to be friendly towards the Ukrainian national movement in the city, and some took part in Ukrainian organizations. Indeed, many of the poorer Polish nobles became Ukrainianized in language and culture and these Ukrainians of Polish descent constituted an important element of the growing Ukrainian national movement. Kiev served as a meeting point where such activists came together with the pro-Ukrainian descendants of Cossack officers from the left bank. Many of them would leave the city for the surrounding countryside in order to try to spread Ukrainian ideas among the peasants.


title: History of Kyiv

text: According to the Russian census of 1874, of 127,251 people living in Kiev, 38,553 (39%) spoke "Little Russian" (the Ukrainian language), 12,917 (11%) spoke Yiddish, 9,736 (10 percent) spoke Great Russian, 7,863 (6 percent) spoke Polish, and 2,583 (2 percent) spoke German. 48,437 (or 49%) of the city's residents were listed as speaking "generally Russian speech ("obshcherusskoe narechie")." Such people were typically Ukrainians and Poles who could speak enough Russian to be counted as Russian-speaking.


title: History of Kyiv

text: From the late 18th century until the late 19th century, city life was increasingly dominated by Russian military and ecclesiastical concerns. Russian Orthodox Church institutions formed a significant part of the city's infrastructure and business activity at that time. In the winter 1845–1846, the historian Mykola Kostomarov (Nikolay Kostomarov in Russian) founded a secret political society, the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, whose members put forward the idea of a federation of free Slavic people with Ukrainians as a distinct group among them rather than a part of the Russian nation. The Brotherhood's ideology was a synthesis of programmes of three movements: Ukrainian autonomists, Polish democrats, and Russian Decembrists in Ukraine. The society was quickly suppressed by the Tsarist authorities in March–April 1847.


title: History of Kyiv

text: Following the gradual loss of Ukraine's and suppression of the local Ukrainian and Polish cultures, Kiev experienced growing Russification in the 19th century by means of Russian migration, administrative actions (such as the Valuev Circular of 1863), and social modernization. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city was dominated by Russian-speaking population, while the lower classes retained Ukrainian folk culture to a significant extent. According to the census of 1897, of the city's approximately 240,000 people approximately 56% of the population spoke the Russian language, 23% spoke the Ukrainian language, 12.5% spoke Yiddish, 7% spoke Polish and 1% spoke the Belarusian language. Despite the Russian cultural dominance in the city, enthusiasts among ethnic Ukrainian nobles, military and merchants made recurrent attempts to preserve native culture in the city (by clandestine book-printing, amateur theater, folk studies etc.).


title: History of Kyiv

text: During the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century, Kiev became an important trade and transportation center of the Russian Empire, specializing in sugar and grain export by railroad and on the Dnieper river. By 1900, the city had also become a significant industrial center, having a population of 250,000. Landmarks of that period include the railway infrastructure, the foundation of numerous educational and cultural facilities as well as notable architectural monuments (mostly merchant-oriented, i.e. Brodsky Choral Synagogue).