title: Alexander Calder

text: Alexander Calder's parents did not want him to be an artist, so he decided to study mechanical engineering. An intuitive engineer since childhood, Calder did not even know what mechanical engineering was. "I was not very sure what this term meant, but I thought I'd better adopt it," he later wrote. He enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1915. When asked why he decided to study mechanical engineering instead of art Calder said, "I wanted to be an engineer because some guy I rather liked was a mechanical engineer, that's all". At Stevens, Calder was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and excelled in mathematics. He was well-liked and the class yearbook contained the following description, "Sandy is evidently always happy, or perhaps up to some joke, for his face is always wrapped up in that same mischievous, juvenile grin. This is certainly the index to the man's character in this case, for he is one of the best natured fellows there is."


title: Alexander Calder

text: In the summer of 1916, Calder spent five weeks training at the Plattsburgh Civilian Military Training Camp. In 1918, he joined the Student's Army Training Corps, Naval Section, at Stevens and was made guide of the battalion.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder received a degree from Stevens in 1919. He held a variety of jobs including hydraulic engineer and draughtsman for the New York Edison Company. In June 1922, Calder took a mechanic position on the passenger ship "H. F. Alexander". While sailing from San Francisco to New York City, Calder slept on deck and awoke one early morning off the Guatemalan Coast and witnessed both the sun rising and the full moon setting on opposite horizons. He described in his autobiography, "It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch—a coil of rope—I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other."


title: Alexander Calder

text: The "H.F. Alexander" docked in San Francisco and Calder traveled to Aberdeen, Washington, where his sister and her husband, Kenneth Hayes resided. Calder took a job as a timekeeper at a logging camp. The mountain scenery inspired him to write home to request paints and brushes. Shortly after this, Calder decided to move back to New York to pursue a career as an artist.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In New York City, Calder enrolled at the Art Students League, studying briefly with George Luks, Boardman Robinson, and John Sloan. While a student, he worked for the "National Police Gazette" where, in 1925, one of his assignments was sketching the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Calder became fascinated with the circus action, a theme that would reappear in his later work.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1926, Calder moved to Paris, enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and established a studio at 22 rue Daguerre in the Montparnasse Quarter. In June 1929, while traveling by boat from Paris to New York, Calder met his future wife, Louisa James (1905–1996), a daughter of Edward Holton James and grandniece of author Henry James and philosopher William James. They married in 1931. While in Paris, Calder befriended a number of avant-garde artists, including Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, and Marcel Duchamp. Leger wrote a preface for the catalogue of Calder's first exhibition of abstract constructions held at the Galerie Percier in 1931. Calder and Louisa returned to America in 1933 to a farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised a family (Sandra born 1935, Mary born 1939). During World War II, Calder attempted to join the Marines as a camofleur, but was rejected. In 1955 he and Louisa traveled through India for three months, where Calder produced nine sculptures as well as some jewelry.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1963, Calder settled into a new workshop, overlooking the valley of the Lower Chevrière to Saché in Indre-et-Loire (France). He donated to the town a sculpture, which since 1974 has been situated in the town square. Throughout his artistic career, Calder named many of his works in French, regardless of where they were destined for eventual display.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1966, Calder published his "Autobiography with Pictures" with the help of his son-in-law, Jean Davidson.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder died unexpectedly in November 1976 of a heart attack, shortly after the opening of a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In Paris in 1926, Calder began to create his "Cirque Calder", a miniature circus fashioned from wire, cloth, string, rubber, cork, and other found objects. Designed to be transportable (it grew to fill five large suitcases), the circus was presented on both sides of the Atlantic. Soon, his "Cirque Calder" (on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art at present) became popular with the Parisian avant-garde. He also invented wire sculpture, or "drawing in space", and in 1929 had his first solo show of these sculptures in Paris at Galerie Billiet. "Hi!", in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is an early example of the artist's wire sculpture. The painter Jules Pascin, a friend from the cafes of Montparnasse, wrote the preface to the catalog.


title: Alexander Calder

text: A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930, where he was impressed by the environment-as-installation, "shocked" him into fully embracing abstract art, toward which he had already been tending.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Dating from 1931, Calder's abstract sculptures of discrete movable parts powered by motors were christened "mobiles" by Marcel Duchamp, a French pun meaning both "motion" and "motive". However, Calder found that the motorized works sometimes became monotonous in their prescribed movements. His solution, arrived at by 1932, was hanging sculptures that derived their motion from touch or air currents. The earliest of these were made of wire, found objects, and wood, a material that Calder used since the 1920s. The hanging mobiles were followed in 1934 by outdoor standing mobiles in industrial materials, which were set in motion by the open air. The wind mobiles featured abstract shapes delicately balanced on pivoting rods that moved with the slightest current of air, allowing for a natural shifting play of forms and spatial relationships. Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Jean Arp in 1932 to differentiate them from mobiles. At Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937), the Spanish pavilion included Calder's sculpture "Mercury Fountain".


title: Alexander Calder

text: During World War II, Calder continued to sculpt, adapting to a scarcity of aluminum during the war by returning to carved wood in a new open form of sculpture called "constellations". Postwar, Calder began to cut shapes from sheet metal into evocative forms and hand-paint them in his characteristically bold hues. Calder created a small group of works from around this period with a hanging base-plate, for example "Lily of Force" (1945), "Baby Flat Top" (1946), and "Red is Dominant" (1947). He also made works such as "Seven Horizontal Discs" (1946), which, like "Lily of Force" (1945) and "Baby Flat Top" (1946), he was able to dismantle and send by mail for his upcoming show at Galerie Louis Carré in Paris, despite the stringent size restrictions imposed by the postal service at the time. His 1946 show at Carré, which was organized by Duchamp, was composed mainly of hanging and standing mobiles, and it made a huge impact, as did the essay for the catalogue by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1951, Calder devised a new kind of sculpture, related structurally to his constellations. These "towers", affixed to the wall with a nail, consist of wire struts and beams that jut from the wall, with moving objects suspended from their armatures.


title: Alexander Calder

text: While not denying Calder's power as a sculptor, an alternate view of the history of twentieth-century art cites Calder's turning away in the early 1930s from his motor-powered works in favor of the wind-driven mobile as marking a decisive moment in Modernism's abandonment of its earlier commitment to the "machine" as a critical and potentially expressive new element in human affairs. According to this viewpoint, the mobile also marked an abandonment of Modernism's larger goal of a rapprochement with science and engineering, and with unfortunate long-term implications for contemporary art.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1934, Calder made his first outdoor works in his Roxbury, Connecticut studio, using the same techniques and materials as his smaller works. Exhibited outside, Calder's initial standing mobiles moved elegantly in the breeze, bobbing and swirling in natural, spontaneous rhythms. The first few outdoor works were too delicate for strong winds, which forced Calder to rethink his fabrication process. By 1936 he changed his working methods and began to create smaller-scale maquettes that he then enlarged to monumental size. The small maquette, the first step in the production of a monumental sculpture, was considered by Calder a sculpture in its own right. Larger works used the classic enlargement techniques of traditional sculptors, including his father and grandfather. Drawing his designs on craft paper, he enlarged them using a grid. His large-scale works were created according to his exact specifications, while also allowing him the liberty to adjust or correct a shape or line if necessary.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In the 1950s, Calder concentrated more on producing monumental sculptures (his "agrandissements" period), and public commissions increasingly came his way in the 1960s. Notable examples are ".125" (1957) for JFK Airport in New York, "Spirale" (1958) for UNESCO in Paris, and "Trois disques", commissioned for Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Calder's largest sculpture, at 25.7 meters high, was "El Sol Rojo", constructed outside the Estadio Azteca for the 1968 Summer Olympics "Cultural Olympiad" events in Mexico City. Many of his public artworks were commissioned by renowned architects; for example, I.M. Pei commissioned "La Grande Voile", a 25-ton, 40-foot high stabile sculpture for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Most of Calder's monumental stationery and mobile sculptures were made after 1962 at Etablissements Biémont in Tours, France. He would create a model of his work, the engineering department would scale it up under Calder's direction, and technicians would complete the actual metalwork — all under Calder's watchful eye. Stabiles were made in steel plate, then painted. An exception was "Trois disques", in stainless steel at 24 meters tall, commissioned by International Nickel Company of Canada.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1958, Calder asked Jean Prouvé to construct the steel base of "Spirale" in France, a monumental mobile for the UNESCO site in Paris, while the top was fabricated in Connecticut.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In June 1969, Calder attended the dedication of his monumental "stabile" sculpture "La Grande Vitesse" in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This sculpture is notable for being the first civic sculpture in the United States to receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1971, Calder created his "Bent Propeller" which was installed at the entrance of the World Trade Center's North Tower in New York City. When Battery Park City opened, the sculpture was moved to Vesey and Church Streets. The sculpture stood in front of 7 World Trade Center until it was destroyed on September 11, 2001.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1973, the 63-foot tall vermillion-colored public art sculpture "Four Arches" was installed on Bunker Hill, Los Angeles to serve as "a distinctive landmark." The plaza site was designed in tiers to maximize the sculpture's visual effects.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1974, Calder unveiled two sculptures, "Flamingo" at Federal Plaza, and "Universe" at Sears Tower, in Chicago, Illinois, accompanied by the exhibition "Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago which opened simultaneously with the unveiling of the sculptures.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Originally meant to be constructed in 1977 for the Hart Senate Office Building, "Mountains and Clouds" was not built until 1985 due to government budget cuts. The massive sheet-metal project, weighing 35 tons, spans the nine-story height of the building's atrium in Washington, D.C. Calder designed the maquette for the United States Senate in the last year of his life.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder created stage sets for more than a dozen theatrical productions, including "Nucléa", "Horizon", and most notably, Martha Graham's "Panorama" (1935), a production of the Erik Satie symphonic drama "Socrate" (1936), and later, "Works in Progress" (1968). "Works in Progress" was a "ballet" conceived by Calder himself and produced at the Rome Opera House, featuring an array of mobiles, stabiles, and large painted backdrops. Calder would describe some of his stage sets as dancers performing a choreography due to their rhythmic movement.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In addition to sculptures, Calder painted throughout his career, beginning in the early 1920s. He picked up his study of printmaking in 1925, and continued to produce illustrations for books and journals. His projects from this period include pen-and-ink line drawings of animals for a 1931 publication of Aesop's fables. As Calder's sculpture moved into the realm of pure abstraction in the early 1930s, so did his prints. The thin lines used to define figures in the earlier prints and drawings began delineating groups of geometric shapes, often in motion. Calder also used prints for advocacy, as in poster prints from 1967 and 1969 protesting the Vietnam War.


title: Alexander Calder

text: As Calder's professional reputation expanded in the late 1940s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Masses of lithographs based on his gouache paintings were marketed, and deluxe editions of plays, poems, and short stories illustrated with fine art prints by Calder became available.


title: Alexander Calder

text: One of Calder's more unusual undertakings was a commission from Dallas-based Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size Douglas DC-8-62 four-engined jet as a "flying canvas". George Stanley Gordon, founder of the New York City advertising agency Gordon and Shortt, approached Calder with the idea of painting a jet in 1972, but Calder responded that he did not paint toys. When Gordon told him it was a real, full-sized airliner he was proposing, the artist immediately gave his approval. Gordon felt that Braniff, known for melding the worlds of fashion and design with the world of aviation, would be the perfect company to carry out the idea. Braniff Chairman Harding Lawrence was highly receptive and a contract was drawn up in 1973 calling for the painting of one Douglas DC-8-62 jet liner, dubbed "Flying Colors", and 50 gouaches for a total price of $100,000. Two years later, Braniff asked Calder to design a flagship for their fleet celebrating the U.S. Bicentennial. That piece, a Boeing 727-291 jet N408BN called the "Flying Colors of the United States", and nicknamed the 'Sneaky Snake' by its pilots (based on quirky flight tendencies), featured a rippled image of red, white and blue echoing a waving American flag. A third design, to be dubbed "Salute to Mexico", was commissioned but went uncompleted following his death.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1975 Calder was commissioned to paint a BMW 3.0 CSL automobile, which would be the first vehicle in the BMW Art Car Project.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder created over 2,000 pieces of jewelry over the course of his career, many as gifts for friends. Several pieces reflect his fascination with art from Africa and other continents. They were mostly made of brass and steel, with bits of ceramic, wood and glass. Calder rarely used solder; when he needed to join strips of metal, he linked them with loops, bound them with snippets of wire or fashioned rivets. Calder created his first pieces in 1906 at the age of eight for his sister's dolls using copper wire that he found in the street.


title: Alexander Calder

text: For his lifelong friend Joan Miró, Calder set a shard of a broken porcelain vessel in a brass ring. Peggy Guggenheim received enormous silver mobile earrings and later commissioned a hammered silver headboard that shimmered with dangling fish. In 1942, Guggenheim wore one Calder earring and one by Yves Tanguy to the opening of her New York gallery, The Art of This Century, to demonstrate her equal loyalty to Surrealist and abstract art, examples of which she displayed in separate galleries. Others who were presented with Calder's pieces were the artist's close friend, Georgia O'Keeffe; Teeny Duchamp, wife of Marcel Duchamp; Jeanne Rucar, wife of the filmmaker Luis Buñuel; and Bella Rosenfeld, wife of Marc Chagall.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder's first solo exhibition was in 1927 at the Gallery of Jacques Seligmann in Paris. His first solo show in a US commercial gallery was in 1928 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York City. He exhibited with the Abstraction-Création group in Paris in 1933.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1935, he had his first solo museum exhibition in the United States at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. In New York, he was championed from the early 1930s by the Museum of Modern Art, and was one of three Americans to be included in Alfred H. Barr Jr.'s 1936 exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art".


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder's first retrospective was held in 1938 at George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1943, the Museum of Modern Art hosted a Calder retrospective, curated by James Johnson Sweeney and Marcel Duchamp; the show had to be extended due to the number of visitors. Calder was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. His mobile, "International Mobile" was the centerpiece of the exhibition. Calder also participated in "documentas" I (1955), II (1959), III (1964). Major retrospectives of his work were held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1964), the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France (1969), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974). In addition, both of Calder's dealers, Galerie Maeght in Paris and the Perls Galleries in New York, averaged about one Calder show each per year.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder's work is in many permanent collections across the world. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder. Other museum collections include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. There are two pieces on display in the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY.


title: Alexander Calder

text: The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a view of works by three generations of Alexander Calders. From the second floor window on the east side of the Great Stair Hall (on the opposite side from the armor collection) there is behind the viewer the "Ghost" mobile from the 3rd generation (born 1898), ahead on the street is the "Swann Memorial Fountain" by the 2nd generation (born 1870), and beyond that the statue of "William Penn" atop City Hall from the 1st generation (born 1846).


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder Gardens, a 1.8-acre, indoor-outdoor center dedicated to Calder's work is set to open on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway by late 2024.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Calder's works were not highly sought after, and when they sold, it was often for relatively little money. A copy of a Pierre Matisse sales ledger in the foundation's files shows that only a few pieces in the 1941 show found buyers, one of whom, Solomon R. Guggenheim, paid only $233.34 () for a work. The Museum of Modern Art had bought its first Calder in 1934 for $60, after talking Calder down from $100. And yet by 1948 Calder nearly sold out an entire solo show in Rio de Janeiro, becoming the first internationally renowned sculptor. Galerie Maeght in Paris became Calder's exclusive Parisian dealer in 1950 and for the rest of Calder's life. After his New York dealer Curt Valentin died unexpectedly in 1954, Calder selected the Perls Galleries in New York as his new American dealer, and this alliance lasted until Calder's death.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 2010, his metal mobile "Untitled (Autumn Leaves)", sold at Sotheby's New York for $3.7 million. Another mobile brought $6.35 million at Christie's later that year. Also at Christie's, a standing mobile called "Lily of Force" (1945), which was expected to sell for $8 to $12 million, was bought for $18.5 million in 2012. Calder's 7.5-foot-long hanging mobile "Poisson volant (Flying Fish)" (1957) fetched $25.9 million, setting an auction record for the sculptor at Christie's New York in 2014.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Beginning in 1966, winners of the National Magazine Awards are awarded an "Ellie", a copper-colored stabile resembling an elephant, which was designed by Calder. Two months after his death, the artist was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, by President Gerald Ford. However, representatives of the Calder family boycotted the January 10, 1977, ceremony "to make a statement favoring amnesty for Vietnam War draft resisters".


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1987, the Calder Foundation was established by Calder's family, "dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and interpreting the art and archives of Alexander Calder and [is] charged with an unmatched collection of his works". The foundation has large holdings, with some works owned by family members and others by foundation supporters. The art includes more than 600 sculptures including mobiles, stabiles, standing mobiles, and wire sculptures, and 22 monumental outdoor works, as well as thousands of oil paintings, works on paper, toys, pieces of jewelry, and domestic objects.


title: Alexander Calder

text: After having worked mainly on cataloging Calder's works, the Calder Foundation is now focusing on organizing global exhibitions for the artist. One of Calder's grandsons, Alexander S. C. "Sandy" Rower, is the president of the foundation and other family members are on the board of trustees.


title: Alexander Calder

text: The Calder Foundation does not authenticate artworks; rather, owners can submit their works for registration in the Foundation's archive and for examination. The committee that performs examinations includes experts, scholars, museum curators, and members of the Calder family. The Calder Foundation's website provides details on the current policies and guidelines governing examination procedures.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1993, the owners of "Rio Nero" (1959), a sheet-metal and steel-wire mobile ostensibly by Calder, went to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia charging that it was not by Alexander Calder, as claimed by its seller. That same year, a federal judge ruled that for "Rio Nero" the burden of proof had not been fulfilled. Despite the decision, the owners of the mobile could not sell it because the recognized expert, Klaus Perls, had declared it a copy. The judge recognized the problem at the time, noting that Perls' pronouncement would make "Rio Nero" unsellable. In 1994, the Calder Foundation declined to include the mobile in the catalogue raisonné on the artist.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Referring to the "Rio Nero" case, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court in 2009 rejected the appeal of an art collector who wished to sell a couple of stage sets that Calder had designed but did not live to see completed, which had been unsuccessfully submitted to the Calder Foundation for authentication. The court found that it did not have the power to declare the purported Calder work authentic, nor to order the Calder Foundation to include it in the catalogue raisonné.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 1995, questions arose about another purported Calder, "Two White Dots" (not to be confused with the similarly named piece, "Two White Dots in the Air", which Calder created in 1958). In 1973, Calder had created a -high sheet metal maquette for an unrealized stabile he called "Two White Dots". He gave this maquette to Carmen Segretario, founder and owner of the Segré Foundry of Waterbury, Connecticut. For decades, Calder had utilized the services of Segré Foundry in manufacturing his mobiles and stabiles. Each piece (no matter how many copies were made) would be initialed personally by Calder in white chalk, after which a welder would follow the chalk marks to burn the initials into the work. Calder died in 1976, without a full-size version of "Two White Dots" having been made. In 1982, Segretario constructed a full-size version of "Two White Dots", and sold it in 1983 to art dealer Shirley Teplitz for $70,000. Segetario's documentation claimed that the work had been fabricated around 1974 "under the supervision and direction of Artist". "Two White Dots" was then sold at auction in May 1984 for $187,000. Over the next decade, the piece was sold repeatedly. In 1995, Jon Shirley (the former president of Microsoft and a Calder collector) purchased "Two White Dots" for $1 million. When Shirley submitted the work to the Calder Foundation for inclusion in their catalogue raisonné, the Foundation contested the work's authenticity. The André Emmerich Gallery refunded Shirley's money, and sued the Segré Foundry, which sought bankruptcy protection. The suit was settled out of court in the late 1990s. "Two White Dots" now resides outdoors on a farm near a river outside the small town of Washington, Connecticut.


title: Alexander Calder

text: In 2013 the Calder Estate filed a lawsuit against the estate of his former dealer, Klaus Perls, alleging that Perls had sold fake Calders as well as concealing the ownership of 679 works by the artist. After a high-profile battle with much press coverage, the lawsuit was dismissed by Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich in the New York State Supreme Court.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Calder and his wife, Louisa, were the parents of two daughters, Sandra (born 1935) and Mary (1939-2011). Mary's husband, Howard Rower (1939-2000), had been chairman of the board of the Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation. Mary and Howard's two sons are Alexander S. C. "Sandy" Rower (1963), president of the Calder Foundation, and Holton Rower (1962), a vice president of the Foundation. Alexander Rower established the Foundation in 1987 with the support of the Calder family. He has four children, including Gryphon Rower-Upjohn, a sound experimentalist, composer-performer, and curator in the field of audiovisual culture, who is also known as Gryphon Rue.


title: Alexander Calder

text: Sandra Calder Davidson and her late husband, Jean Davidson, have a son, Shawn (1956), and a daughter, Andréa (1961). Sandra, Shawn and Andréa are vice presidents of the Calder Foundation. Jean Davidson was the son of artist Jo Davidson. Sandra is an illustrator of children's books. She caricatured her family and friends as animals in the 2013 book "The Calder Family and Other Critters: Portraits and Reflections."


title: Alexander Calder

text: The Calder family has a long-standing connection with the Putney School, a progressive co-ed boarding school in Vermont. Calder's daughters attended the school as did several of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Around 2007, the Rower family donated a standing mobile (a mobile that stands on its own fixed base) to Putney. A 13-foot mobile hangs in Calder Hall in the Michael S. Currier Center on campus.


title: Michael Biehn filmography

text: Michael Biehn is an American actor, primarily known for his military roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in "The Terminator" (1984) and its sequel "" (1991) (although he only appeared in Director's cut on "Terminator 2"), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in "Aliens" (1986), and Lt. Coffey in "The Abyss" (1989). His other films include "The Fan" (1981), "Navy SEALs" (1990), "Tombstone" (1993), "The Rock" (1996), "" (2001), and "Planet Terror" (2007). On television, he has appeared in "Hill Street Blues" (1984) and "Adventure Inc." (2002–2003). Biehn received a Best Actor Saturn Award nomination for "Aliens", and received The Life Career Award at the 2011 ceremony.


title: Bania (caste)

text: The Bania (also spelled Baniya, Banija, Banya, Vaniya, Vani, Vania and Vanya) is a Vaishya community mainly found in Indian states of Gujarat, and Rajasthan, but they are also found in Madhya Pradesh. Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, Traditionally, the main occupations of the community are merchants, bankers, money-lenders, and in modern times they are mostly White-collar and Knowledge workers and owners of commercial enterprises.


title: Bania (caste)

text: The community is composed of several sub-castes including the Agarwal Banias, Oswal Banias, Porwal Banias, among others. Most Banias follow Hinduism or Jainism, but a few have converted to Sikhism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. Most of Hindu Banias are Vaishnavas and are followers of Vallabhacharya and Swaminarayan.


title: Bania (caste)

text: The etymological origin lays in the Sanskrit word "vanik", and they are deemed to be India's "pre-eminent" trading community, historically. In Bengal the term Bania is used only to indicate people who are money-lenders and indigenously developed bankers, irrespective of caste.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Starburst (originally known as Opal Fruits) is the brand name of a box-shaped, fruit-flavoured soft taffy candy manufactured by The Wrigley Company, which today is a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated. Starburst has many different varieties, such as Tropical, Sour, FaveREDs, Watermelon, Very Berry, Superfruit, Summer Blast and Original.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Introduced in the United Kingdom in 1960, the regular flavours are blackcurrant, lemon and lime, orange and strawberry.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: The brand was introduced by Mars in the UK in 1960, named Opal Fruits by Peter Phillips (known as Peter Pfeffer at the time), the winner of a competition that won him £5. Produced at their factory in Slough, Berkshire, the four original flavours were strawberry, lemon, orange and lime. Opal Fruits were introduced in the United States in 1967 as M&M's Fruit Chewies and later as Starburst. While the etymology of the name Starburst isn't certain, it was probably an attempt to express the burst of flavour at each bite, and draw attention while space interest was at its peak during the Space Race. Originally, Starburst came in the same flavours as Opal Fruits, though the lime flavour was replaced by cherry in the US in the early 1980s. Subsequently, its first variant, "Sunshine Flavors", was released, and was later renamed "Tropical Opal Fruits". In Europe, the lemon and lime flavours were combined to become a singular "Lemon and lime" flavour to make room for a blackcurrant flavour.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: The brand name "Opal Fruits" was phased out in the UK, followed by Ireland in 1998 in order to standardise the product in a globalised marketplace. In 2008, however, the supermarket chain Asda revived the original Opal Fruits in the UK for a period of 12 weeks starting 10 May 2008. On 6 October 2008, Mars acquired Wrigley and it transferred Mars' non-chocolate candy brands, including Starburst, to the Wrigley subsidiary. The original flavours are now branded "Original Fruits", and Starburst now comes in several assortments: FaveREDs, Limited Edition Retro Fruits, Tropical, Baja California, Sour, Strawberry Mix, Berries and Creme, Very Berry and Fruity Slushies. Among the additional flavours are Strawberry Lemonade, Strawberry-Banana, Blue Raspberry, Blue Raspberry Rush, Cherry Splash, Citrus Slush, Kiwi, Banana, Plum, Passion Fruit, Mango, Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry, Melon, Watermelon, Tropical Punch, Green Apple, Orange Cream, Mixed Berries and Cream, Peaches and Cream and Strawberry and Cream. Europe and the United States also has the "Sour" assortment, which includes Apple, Cherry, Pineapple and Raspberry, as well as Strawberry Mix.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Starburst in the UK is vegetarian, its packaging and website clearly stating "Suitable for Vegetarians", and also does not contain any artificial colours or flavours. In the US, Starburst contains non-vegan gelatin in its ingredients.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Lime Starburst made a comeback in 2007 as a limited-edition "retro" flavour in packages of the "Baja" version, while the range in the UK was further extended with a version named Starburst Choozers. These lozenge shaped chews have a liquid fruit juice centre, and come packaged with the tag line "The chews that ooze." Each packet contains three flavours; Orange & Mango, Raspberry & Orange and Pineapple & Orange.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: During March 2020, the Opal Fruits name was revived again for a limited period in the UK with a 152g bag available in Poundland and Dealz stores initially, which included the four original flavours (lemon, strawberry, orange, lime).


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Starburst products were entirely discontinued in New Zealand in April 2021, and in Australia in June 2022. Starburst-branded products had been sold in Australia since 1996.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: In the 1970s, Opal Fruits were well known in the UK for their advertising tag line "Opal Fruits—made to make your mouth water!" (slogan coined by Murray Walker). The full advertising jingle was "Opal Fruits—made to make your mouth water/Fresh with the tang of citrus/four refreshing fruit flavours/orange, lemon, strawberry, lime/Opal Fruits—made to make your mouth water!"


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Starburst has been marketed in several ways, including a marketing tie-in for the movie "" where they replaced Kiwi Banana and Tropical Punch with Royal Berry Punch.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: In 2002, Starburst created a song for the Australian market called "Get Your Juices Going". It was released as a CD single and attributed to a fictional pop group also called Starburst.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: In 2007, a commercial for Starburst's Berries and Creme flavour went viral. The commercial, referred to as "Berries and Creme" or as "The Little Lad Dance", stars a man dressed in Victorian/Georgian clothing expressing his excitement for the candy's flavour by performing an impromptu song and dance routine. The commercial received praise for its style from "Advertising Age". In an interview with "Adweek" the actor of the character (Jack Ferver) commented that the commercial took over 12 hours to film and that they had to wear the full costume in weather.


title: Starburst (candy)

text: In the second half of 2021, the Berries and Creme commercial went viral for a second time, with a number of videos on TikTok using the audio and the "Little Lad Dance".


title: Starburst (candy)

text: Starburst also exists in the form of candy corn, popsicles, gum, candy canes, jelly beans, fruit roll ups, gelatin, energy drinks (in partnership with C4 Energy), lip gloss (in a partnership with Lip Smackers) and yogurt (by Yoplait in 2019 as a flavour).


title: Starburst (candy)

text: A range of non-taffy Starburst products for the Australian and New Zealand markets were produced from 1997 to 2020; products included 'Snakes' gummies and 'Sucks' lollipops.


title: DigiLocker

text: DigiLocker is an Indian digitization online service provided by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India under its Digital India initiative. DigiLocker provides an account in cloud to every Aadhaar holder to access authentic documents/certificates such as driving license, vehicle registration, academic mark sheet in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates. It also provides 1GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents.


title: DigiLocker

text: Users need to possess an Aadhaar number to use DigiLocker. For sign-up, the Aadhaar number and the one-time password sent to the Aadhaar-registered mobile number, need to be entered.


title: DigiLocker

text: The beta version of the service was rolled out in February 2015, and launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015. The storage space provided was 100 MB initially, and was later increased to 1 GB. The individual file size for upload cannot exceed 10 MB.


title: DigiLocker

text: In July 2016, DigiLocker recorded 2.013 million users with a repository of 2.413 million documents. The number of users saw a large jump of 753 thousand in April when the government had urged all municipal bodies to use DigiLocker to make their administration paperless.


title: DigiLocker

text: From 2017, the facility was extended to allow students of ICSE board to store their class X and XII certificates in DigiLocker and share them with agencies as required. In February 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank started providing access to documents in DigiLocker from within its net-banking application, allowing users to e-sign them and forward as needed. In May 2017, over 108 hospitals, including the Tata Memorial Hospital were planning to launch the use of DigiLocker for storing cancer patients' medical documents and test reports. According to a UIDAI architect,


title: DigiLocker

text: patients would be provided a number key, which they can share with another hospital to allow them to access their test reports.


title: DigiLocker

text: As of December 2019, DigiLocker provides access to over 372+ crore authentic documents from 149 issuers. Over 3.3 crore users are registered on DigiLocker. 43 requester organisations are accepting documents from DigiLocker.


title: DigiLocker

text: There is also an associated facility for e-signing documents. The service is intended to minimise the use of physical documents, reduce administrative expenses, provide authenticity of the e-documents, provide secure access to government-issued documents and to make it easy for the residents to receive services.


title: DigiLocker

text: Digital Locker is not merely a technical platform. Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India also notified for Digital Locker. Amendments made to these rules in Information Technology Act, 2000 in February 2017 state that the issued documents provided and shared through Digital Locker are at par with the corresponding physical certificates.


title: DigiLocker

text: According to this Rule, – "(1) Issuers may start issuing and Requesters may start accepting digitally (or electronically) signed certificates or documents shared from subscribers’ Digital Locker accounts at par with the physical documents in accordance with the provisions of the Act and rules made thereunder."


title: DigiLocker

text: "(2) When such certificate or document mentioned in sub-rule (1) has been issued or pushed in the Digital Locker System by an issuer and subsequently accessed or accepted by a requester through the URI, it shall be deemed to have been shared by the issuer directly in electronic form."


title: Propaganda techniques

text: A number of propaganda techniques based on social psychological research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be classified as logical fallacies, since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid. Propaganda techniques emerge from abusive power and control tactics.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: In their book "Propaganda and Persuasion", authors Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell define Propaganda as the "deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist". Harold D. Laswell's definition targets even more precisely the technical aspect: "Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical form." Manipulation can be organized or unorganized, conscious or unconscious, politically or socially motivated. The concept reaches from systematic state propaganda to manipulate public opinion (Edward Bernays) to "sociological propaganda" (propaganda of integration), where the unconscious desire to be manipulated and self manipulation leads the individual to adapt to the socially expected thoughts and behaviours (Jacques Ellul).


title: Propaganda techniques

text: The transition from non-propaganda to propaganda is fluid. Effective manipulation presupposes non-manipulative embedding in order to unfold its effect, which is why the reference to these contexts is not yet a refutation of the manipulative character of an act of communication.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: Propaganda is understood as a form of manipulation of public opinion. The semiotic manipulation of signs is the essential characteristic (""Propaganda is a major form of manipulation by symbols" ").


title: Propaganda techniques

text: Thus, propaganda is a special form of communication, which is studied in communication research, and especially in media impact research, focusing on media manipulation. Propaganda is a particular type of communication characterized by distorting the representation of reality.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: Common media for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, junk science, books, leaflets, movies, social media, radio, television, and posters. Less common nowadays are the cow post envelopes, examples of which have survived from the time of the American Civil War. (Connecticut Historical Society; Civil War Collections; Covers.) In the case of radio and television, propaganda can exist on news, current-affairs or talk-show segments, as advertising or public-service announcement "spots" or as long-running advertorials. Propaganda campaigns often follow a strategic transmission pattern to indoctrinate the target group. This may begin with a simple transmission such as a leaflet dropped from a plane or an advertisement. Generally these messages will contain directions on how to obtain more information, via a web site, hot line, radio program, etc. The strategy intends to initiate the individual from information recipient to information seeker through reinforcement, and then from information seeker to opinion leader through indoctrination.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: Information dissemination strategies only become propaganda strategies when coupled with "propagandistic messages". Identifying these messages is a necessary prerequisite to study the methods by which those messages are spread.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: Some techniques are categorized, analyzed and interpreted psychologically, within political psychology, especially mass psychology, social psychology, and cognitive psychology, which includes the study of cognitive distortions.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: With regard to political and military conflicts, propaganda is seen as part of psychological warfare and information warfare, which gain particular importance in the era of hybrid warfare and cyberwarfare.


title: Propaganda techniques

text: Some techniques are classified as logical fallacies, because propaganda uses arguments which may have psychological effects but which are logically invalid.


title: Poncho

text: A poncho (; ; ; "blanket", "woolen fabric") is an outer garment designed to keep the body warm. A rain poncho is made from a watertight material designed to keep the body dry from the rain. Ponchos have been used by the Native American peoples of the Andes, Valley of Mexico and Patagonia since pre-Hispanic times, from places now under the territory of Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina and are now considered typical American garments.


title: Poncho

text: In its simplest form, the poncho is essentially a single large sheet of fabric with an opening in the center for the head. It often has an extra piece of fabric serving as a hood. Rainproof ponchos are normally fitted with fasteners to close the sides once the poncho is draped over the body, with openings provided for the arms. Many ponchos have hoods attached to ward off wind and rain.


title: Poncho

text: Alternative ponchos are now designed as fashion items. They are the same shape but of different material. They are designed to look fashionable and provide warmth and to remain breathable and comfortable, rather than to ward off wind and rain. They are often made out of wool or yarn, knitted or crocheted. Ponchos with festive designs or colors can be worn at special events as well.


title: Poncho

text: The poncho was one of the typical clothes of many South American and Mexican cultures. Although investigations have concluded that its origins could be Mexico, Ecuador or Peru, it is not known where the first ponchos were made. The poncho is now commonly associated with the Americas. As traditional clothing, the local names and variants are:


title: Poncho

text: The poncho was first used on a regular basis in the 1850s for irregular U.S. military forces operating on the U.S. Western Plains. These early military ponchos were made of "gutta percha" muslin, a latex-coated, waterproof cloth. Ponchos made of gutta-percha or "India rubber" coated cloth were officially adopted during the American Civil War, both as rain clothing and as a ground sheet for sleeping. While originally intended for cavalry forces, they were widely used by infantry as well; General Sherman's Union troops, lightly equipped and living off procurement demand from the local populace, wore ponchos during wet weather encountered during the march through Confederate Georgia to the sea.


title: Poncho

text: Discontinued after the Civil War, the U.S. Army again issued ponchos of waterproof rubberized canvas to its forces during the Spanish–American War of 1898. Two years later, both the Army and the Marines were forced to issue waterproof rubberized cloth ponchos with high neck collars during the Philippine–American War in 1900. With the entry of the United States into World War I, both doughboys and Marines in France wore the poncho; it was preferred over the raincoat for its ability to keep both the wearer and his pack dry, as well as serving as a roof for a makeshift shelter.


title: Poncho

text: Just prior to World War II, ponchos were significantly improved during testing with the U.S. Army Jungle Experimental Platoon in the jungles of Panama, incorporating new, lighter materials and a drawcord hood that could be closed off to form a rain fly or ground sheet. Ponchos were widely used by United States armed forces during World War II; even lightly equipped foot-mounted forces such as Merrill's Marauders, forced to discard tentage and all other unnecessary equipment, retained their blanket and poncho. During the 1950s, new lightweight coated nylon and other synthetic materials were developed for military ponchos. The poncho has remained in service ever since as a standard piece of U.S. military field equipment. Today, the United States armed forces issue ponchos that may be used as a field expedient shelter. These garments are also used by hunters, campers, and rescue workers.


title: Poncho

text: During World War II, the German Army (Wehrmacht) issued the "Zeltbahn" (see Shelter half), a poncho that could be combined to form tents. A typical four-man tent used four "Zeltbahnen".


title: Poncho

text: The versatility of Military Ponchos are very common specially when hiking or even in military field.  Building improvised tent, sleeping mats etc. can be observed.  Soldiers tend to use ponchos as a substitute of tent because it is portable and easy to install. Poncho Hooch, Poncho Lean-to, Poncho Litter, and Poncho Raft are some example on how you configure your own poncho in order to survive.


title: Poncho

text: In the late 18th century, Basque navigator José de Moraleda wrote that the ponchos of the Huilliche of Osorno were less colorful than those of Chiloé Archipelago. The Huilliche are the principal indigenous population of Chile from Toltén River to Chiloé Archipelago. Mapuche ponchos were once highly valued, in the 19th century a poncho could be traded for several horses or up to seventy kilos of yerba mate. 19th century Mapuche ponchos were clearly superior to non-indigenous Chilean textiles and of good quality when comparing to contemporary European wool textiles.


title: I'll be back

text: "I'll be back" is a catchphrase associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was made famous in the 1984 science fiction film "The Terminator". On June 21, 2005, it was placed at No. 37 on the American Film Institute list AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes. Schwarzenegger uses the same line, or some variant of it, in many of his later films.


title: I'll be back

text: Schwarzenegger first used the line in "The Terminator." In the scene, his character, the Terminator, a cyborg assassin, is refused entry to the police station where his targets, Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, are being detained. He surveys the counter, then tells the police desk sergeant: "I'll be back." Moments later, he drives a car into the station, destroying the counter, and massacres the staff.


title: I'll be back

text: In an October 1, 2012, interview on "Good Morning America", Schwarzenegger revealed that he had difficulty pronouncing the word "I'll" and asked director James Cameron if it could be changed to "I will be back". Cameron refused but told him that the shot would be taken as many times as he wished and the best would be used in the final cut of the film so Schwarzenegger could vary the line.


title: I'll be back

text: Variations of the line have been used by Schwarzenegger and other actors in each of the "Terminator" films.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Eberechi Oluchi Eze (born 29 June 1998; pronounced ) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Premier League club Crystal Palace.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Eze was born in Greenwich, Greater London to Nigerian parents. Growing up, he reflected on his life, saying: "There are the nice parts [of Greenwich] and the not so nice parts. I grew up in a not so nice part. It wasn’t the easiest life and you don’t have as much as other kids around you. The first place we’d go after school is to the cage. We’d stay there till our parents called us in, not eating, playing all day and night. There wasn’t really anything else to do. But that’s where the love comes from. [At the time], you don’t realise it’s actually how you’re learning your trade." Growing up, his footballing idol was Ronaldinho. Eze then met Bright Osayi-Samuel, his teammate during his time at Queens Park Rangers, at secondary school and played football together at the same district team.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Eze started his football career at Arsenal before being released when he was thirteen and then went on to join Fulham and Reading. Eze then appeared as a youth player at Millwall, where he signed a two–year scholarship with the club. Eze quickly progressed both the U18 side and the reserve side. It was announced in April 2016 that Eze would be leaving Millwall at the end of the 2015–16 season after not being offered a professional contract.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Following his release, he continued studying in college before trialling successfully with Championship club Queens Park Rangers (QPR), impressing the club's technical director Chris Ramsey. Eze completed his signing for Queens Park Rangers on 3 August 2016. On 7 January 2017, Eze made his first-team debut in an FA Cup tie against Blackburn Rovers, featuring for 18 minutes before being injured and replaced by Yeni Ngbakoto. The game resulted in a 2–1 home defeat for QPR. He then signed a contract extension with the club, keeping him until 2019. This was his only appearance of the 2016–17 season for the side.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: On 30 August 2017, Eze joined League Two club Wycombe Wanderers on loan until January 2018. He made his Wycombe Wanderers debut, coming on as a 79th minute substitute, in a 0–0 draw against Newport County on 9 September 2017. Since making his debut for the club, Eze quickly became a first team regular for the side, where he rotated in different midfield positions. Eze scored his first ever senior goal on 7 October 2017, netting a brace for Wycombe against Cambridge United. His goal against Cambridge United earned him a nomination for Sky Bet League 2 Goal of the Month for October. He made a total of 20 appearances and played a part in Wycombe gaining promotion that season. Eze scored a further four times in total for Wycombe, putting in some eye-catching performances before returning to QPR in January.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: After returning to QPR, Eze featured regularly for Ian Holloway's side, who planned on using him in the first team. His first appearance of the 2017–18 season came on 6 January 2018 against Milton Keynes Dons in the third round of the FA Cup, coming on as a 61 minute substitute, in a 1–0 loss. At the end of the 2017–18 season, he went on to make 16 appearances, with his first goal for the club came on 10 March 2018 against Sunderland, the only goal of the match. Eze's second goal for QPR came in a 4–1 home win against Norwich City.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Holloway left Queens Park Rangers as the previous season was concluded and his replacement, Steve McClaren handed Eze the number 10 shirt for the club. A week later, he signed a new three-year contract with QPR, binding him to the club until June 2021. Eze started the season well when he scored his first goal of the season, in a 2–1 loss against Sheffield United on 11 August 2018. Eze then scored two consecutive goals between 15 September 2018 and 19 September 2018 against Bolton Wanderers and his former club, Millwall. Since the start of the 2018–19 season, he continued to be a first team regular for the side, continuing to play in different midfield positions. His performance was praised by McClaren, who said: "Eze has great talent but he did great work off the ball in terms of helping the team defend. We're asking him to do that and it's important that he does that in terms of his development." Eze then set up two goals in two matches between 20 October 2018 and 23 October 2018 against Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday. A month later on 24 November 2018 against Stoke City, he set up two goals for Àngel Rangel, in a 2–2 draw. Eze’s fourth goal then came on 1 January 2019, in a 2–2 draw against Aston Villa. However towards the end of the 2018–19 season, Eze soon found himself placed at the substitute bench. He played 46 games in the 2018–19 season, scoring four times in all competitions.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: In the opening game of the 2019–20 season, Eze scored his first goal of the season, "sauntered through a static Stoke City defence to double Queen Park Rangers' lead after the interval", to win 2–1. Three weeks later on 24 August 2019, he scored his second goal of the season, as well as setting up the club’s third goal of the game, in a 3–1 win against Wigan Athletic. Two weeks later on 11 September 2019, Eze scored his third goal of the season, as well as setting up Queen Park Rangers' third goal of the game, in a 3–2 win against Luton Town. After the match, he was named Team of the Week by the EFL and WhoScored.com. Since the start of the 2019–20 season, Eze retained his first team place for the side and played in different midfield positions under the new management of Mark Warburton. He then scored four more goals by the end of 2019, including two braces against Hull City and Preston North End. After the match Warburton praised his performance, saying: "Ebe is a tremendous talent. I want him to enjoy his football and he has got to understand how much hard work is required to maximise the talent that he has. He is a talented boy, is playing exceptionally well for us, scoring goals and I hope very much that he is playing with a smile on his face as well."


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Eze scored his tenth goal of the season and set up two goals in a 6–1 win against Cardiff City on 1 January 2020. He continued as a first-team regular, and by the time the season was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he had made 37 league appearances and scored twelve times. Eze remained an integral part of the team once the season resumed behind closed doors. Eze then scored two more goals in the last remaining two matches of the 2019–20 season, coming against Millwall and West Bromwich Albion. He scored 14 goals in 48 games across all competitions in the 2019–2020 season, which saw him become one of England's most promising young attacking players. Following this, Eze won the club’s Sportito Supporters' Player of the Year. He was also nominated for Championship PFA Bristol Street Motors Fans’ Player of the Year for 2019–20 but lost out to Luke Ayling. On 8 September 2020, Eze was named in Professional Footballers' Association's 2019–20 EFL Championship Team of the Season. Sporting Director Les Ferdinand was quoted saying he believes if Eze continues this form, he must be selected by three lions manager Gareth Southgate for the 2021 European Championships.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: On 28 August 2020, Eze signed for Premier League side Crystal Palace on a five-year deal; the fee was reportedly around £17 million. QPR had rejected a £12 million bid from Palace earlier in the month. He was given a number 25 shirt ahead of the new season. On 12 September, he made his Palace debut, coming on as an 81st minute substitute, in a 1–0 win against Southampton in the opening game of the season. Eze scored his first goal for Palace on 7 November, with a direct free kick in a 4–1 home league win over Leeds United. Eze was reported, in May 2021, to have injured his achilles in a training session and was expected to be sidelined for several months. Following the departure of Andros Townsend for Everton at the start of the 2021-22 Premier League season, Eze was given the number 10 shirt for Palace.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Because Eze is of Nigerian ancestry, he has trained with the Nigeria national team. On 5 October 2018, he was called up to the England national under-20 team, and made his debut on 11 October 2018 in a 2–1 win against Italy in the Under 20 Elite League. Eze then captained England U20 for the first time, playing for 75 minutes before being substituted, in a 2–1 loss against Chile at the 2019 Toulon Tournament on 7 June 2019. He went on to make seven appearances for the U20 side.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: In 2019, Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick met with Eze in an attempt to persuade him to switch his allegiance to Nigeria. Eze said that he was undecided on who to represent, but Pinnick stated: "It appears to me that he would want to play for Nigeria, but again, there is a lot of pressure on these players who play in England". Nigeria manager Gernot Rohr later stated in January 2021 that he contacts Eze on a weekly basis.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: On 3 September 2019 Eze was called up to the England U21 squad by manager Aidy Boothroyd for the upcoming UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers against Turkey and Kosovo. He was an unused substitute on both occasions. Eze eventually made his U21 debut on 15 November 2019 as an 81st minute substitute for Phil Foden during a 3–0 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification victory over Albania.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: In April and November 2020, Eze said he had yet to decide on whether to play for Nigeria or his birth country, England, at senior international level.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: Eze was selected for the group stage of the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship and scored his only goal at under-21 level in their final game against Croatia.


title: Eberechi Eze

text: In May 2021, Eze was called up to the senior England squad for the first time, as part of Gareth Southgate's 33-man provisional squad for Euro 2020, but on the same day was injured during a training session.


title: Willie Dixon

text: William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon's songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of his most famous compositions includes "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Little Red Rooster", "My Babe", "Spoonful", and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover". These songs were written during the peak years of Chess Records, from 1950 to 1965, and were performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Bo Diddley; they influenced a generation of musicians worldwide.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon was an important link between the blues and rock and roll, working with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in the late 1950s. In the 1960s, his songs were adapted by numerous rock artists. He received a Grammy Award and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 1, 1915. He was one of fourteen children. His mother, Daisy, often rhymed things she said, a habit her son imitated. At the age of seven, young Dixon became an admirer of a band that featured pianist Little Brother Montgomery. He sang his first song at Springfield Baptist Church at the age of four. Dixon was first introduced to blues when he served time on prison farms in Mississippi as a young teenager. Later in his teens, he learned to sing harmony from a local carpenter, Theo Phelps, who led a gospel quintet, the Union Jubilee Singers, in which Dixon sang bass; the group regularly performed on the Vicksburg radio station WQBC. He began adapting his poems into songs and even sold some to local music groups.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon left Mississippi for Chicago in 1936. A man of considerable stature, standing 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighing over 250 pounds, he took up boxing, at which he was successful, winning the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship (Novice Division) in 1937. He became a professional boxer and worked briefly as Joe Louis's sparring partner, but after four fights he left boxing in a dispute with his manager over money.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon met Leonard Caston at a boxing gym, where they would harmonize at times. Dixon performed in several vocal groups in Chicago, but it was Caston that persuaded him to pursue music seriously. Caston built him his first bass, made of a tin can and one string. Dixon's experience singing bass made the instrument familiar. He also learned to play the guitar.


title: Willie Dixon

text: In 1939, Dixon was a founding member of the Five Breezes, with Caston, Joe Bell, Gene Gilmore and Willie Hawthorne. The group blended blues, jazz, and vocal harmonies, in the mode of the Ink Spots. Dixon's progress on the upright bass came to an abrupt halt with the advent of World War II, when he refused induction into military service as a conscientious objector and was imprisoned for ten months. He refused to go to war because he would not fight for a nation in which institutionalized racism and racist laws were prevalent. After the war, he formed a group named the Four Jumps of Jive. He then reunited with Caston, forming the Big Three Trio, which went on to record for Columbia Records.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon signed with Chess Records as a recording artist, but he began performing less, being more involved with administrative tasks for the label. By 1951, he was a full-time employee at Chess, where he acted as producer, talent scout, session musician and staff songwriter. He was also a producer for the Chess subsidiary Checker Records. His relationship with Chess was sometimes strained, but he stayed with the label from 1948 to the early 1960s. During this time Dixon's output and influence were prodigious. From late 1956 to early 1959, he worked in a similar capacity for Cobra Records, for which he produced early singles for Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Buddy Guy. In 1956, Dixon wrote "Fishin' in My Pond", which was recorded by Lee Jackson, and released on Cobra in February 1957. Dixon later recorded for Bluesville Records. From the late 1960s until the mid-1970s, Dixon ran his own record label, Yambo Records, and two subsidiary labels, Supreme and Spoonful. He released his 1971 album, "Peace?", on Yambo and also singles by McKinley Mitchell, Lucky Peterson and others.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon is considered one of the key figures in the creation of Chicago blues. He worked with Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Joe Louis Walker, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulson, Willie Mabon, Memphis Slim, Washboard Sam, Jimmy Rogers, Sam Lay and others.


title: Willie Dixon

text: In December 1964, the Rolling Stones reached number one on the UK Singles Chart with their cover of Dixon's "Little Red Rooster". In the same year, the group also covered "I Just Want To Make Love To You" on their debut album, "The Rolling Stones".


title: Willie Dixon

text: In his later years, Dixon became a tireless ambassador for the blues and a vocal advocate for its practitioners, founding the Blues Heaven Foundation, which works to preserve the legacy of the blues and to secure copyrights and royalties for blues musicians who were exploited in the past. Speaking with the simple eloquence that was a hallmark of his songs, Dixon claimed, "The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits. It's better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on. The blues are the roots of all American music. As long as American music survives, so will the blues."


title: Willie Dixon

text: In 1977, unhappy with the small royalties paid by Chess's publishing company, Arc Music, Dixon and Muddy Waters sued Arc and, with the proceeds from the settlement, founded their own publishing company, Hoochie Coochie Music.


title: Willie Dixon

text: In 1987, Dixon reached an out-of-court settlement with the rock band Led Zeppelin after suing for plagiarism in the band's use of his music in "Bring It On Home" and lyrics from his composition "You Need Love" (1962) in the band's recording of "Whole Lotta Love".


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon's health increasingly deteriorated during the 1970s and the 1980s, primarily as a result of long-term diabetes. Eventually one of his legs was amputated.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, in the inaugural session of the Blues Foundation's ceremony. In 1989 he received a Grammy Award for his album "Hidden Charms".


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon died of heart failure on January 29, 1992, in Burbank, California, and was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. After his death, his widow, Marie Dixon, took over the Blues Heaven Foundation and moved the headquarters to Chess Records. Dixon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category Early Influences (pre-rock) in 1994. On April 28, 2013, both Dixon and his grandson Alex Dixon were inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame.


title: Willie Dixon

text: The actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer portrayed Dixon in "Cadillac Records", a 2008 film based on the early history of Chess Records.


title: Willie Dixon

text: Dixon wrote or co-wrote over 500 songs. Several have become blues standards, including "Help Me", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "I'm Ready", "Little Red Rooster", "My Babe", and "Spoonful". Other Dixon compositions that reached the record charts include "Evil" (Howlin' Wolf), "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Muddy Waters), "Pretty Thing" (Bo Diddley), "The Seventh Son" (Willie Mabon), "Wang Dang Doodle" (Koko Taylor), and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (Bo Diddley). In the 1960s, his songs were adapted by numerous rock artists.


title: Promised Land (2022 TV series)

text: Promised Land is an American family drama television series that premiered on January 24, 2022 on ABC. The story focuses on Joe Sandoval, patriarch of two blended Latino families who runs a successful Sonoma County, California vineyard and is preparing to hand the vineyard's management to one of his children. Two sub-plots involve the challenges of undocumented immigrants from Mexico who come to work at the vineyard, and conflicts with a hotel owner who blames Sandoval (who bought the vineyard from her father) for her father's death. The final five episodes of the series premiered on Hulu. In May 2022, the series was officially canceled after one season.


title: Promised Land (2022 TV series)

text: In February 2021, ABC ordered a pilot for a family drama titled "Promised Land", originally titled "American Heritage", from writer and executive producer Matt Lopez. In April 2021, it was announced that Michael Cuesta would direct the pilot episode and be an executive producer. On August 11, 2021, "Promised Land" was given a series order. On May 6, 2022, ABC officially canceled the series after one season.


title: Promised Land (2022 TV series)

text: In March 2021, Christina Ochoa was cast to play the role of Veronica Sandoval. The following day, Mariel Molino landed the role of Carmen Sandoval. In April, it was announced that Andres Velez would portray Carlos Rincón. The following week, John Ortiz was cast in the role as Joe Sandoval. Three days later, Cecilia Suárez & Augusto Aguilera were cast as Lettie Sandoval and Mateo Flores respectively. The following week, Tonatiuh Elizarraraz was cast as Antonio Sandoval, and the day after that, Katya Martín was cast as Juana Sánchez. In May 2021, Rolando Chusan was cast as Billy Rincón. In October 2021, Bellamy Young was cast as Margaret Honeycroft. In January 2022, Yul Vazquez, Julio Macias, Ariana Guerra, Kerri Medders, Tom Amandes, Natalia del Riego, and Miguel Angel Garcia joined the cast in recurring roles.


title: Promised Land (2022 TV series)

text: The series premiered on January 24, 2022, on ABC. Due to low ratings, ABC pulled "Promised Land" from the schedule, effective after the fifth episode on February 21, 2022. The last five episodes are set to stream exclusively on Hulu, starting from the sixth episode on March 1, 2022. Previously, episodes had been posted to Hulu next-day after premiere as is custom with ABC shows.


title: Promised Land (2022 TV series)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.4/10, based on 7 critic reviews. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Blood of Elves

text: Blood of Elves () is the first novel in "The Witcher" series written by the Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1994. It is a sequel to the "Witcher "short stories collected in the books "The Last Wish" and "Sword of Destiny" and is followed by "Time of Contempt". The book won the Janusz A. Zajdel Award in 1994 and the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2009. An English translation was published in the United Kingdom in 2008 (Gollancz) and in the United States in 2009 (Orbit).


title: Blood of Elves

text: About a year before the beginning of the novel, the Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra. Queen Calanthe, mortally wounded, commits suicide and her granddaughter, Cirilla, nicknamed Ciri, flees from the burning capital city. Emhyr var Emreis, Emperor of Nilfgaard, sends his spies to find her, as, in addition to her royal lineage, Ciri has elven blood, giving her immense magical potential. The war ends with Nilfgaard's defeat by a coalition of the Northern Kingdoms, though the Empire retains much of its power.


title: Blood of Elves

text: Almost two years after the armistice, the rulers of the Northern Kingdoms meet in secret to discuss the political situation. Peace with Nilfgaard is not what it was supposed to be - the Empire's financial clout is ruining the northern economy, Imperial emissaries agitate aristocrats and merchants against their monarchs, elves and dwarves have formed partisan groups called "Scoia'tael" and are conducting acts of terror against humans - and cultists are prophesying that the world will end, unless the Savior comes from the South. The kings decide to start a war, before the Empire weakens their countries further, and to regain Cintra. They are aware that the Emperor is looking for Ciri to marry her (morganatically) and thus legitimize his occupation of Cintra. To prevent this, the monarchs decide to find and kill Ciri.


title: Blood of Elves

text: Ciri is being protected by the Witcher Geralt of Rivia, a magically and genetically mutated monster-slayer-for-hire, who takes her to the witchers' keep, Kaer Morhen, to be trained by the few remaining witchers. The oldest witcher, Vesemir, asks the sorceress Triss Merigold to help with strange behavior he had seen in Ciri. Triss eventually realizes that Ciri is a "Source". As she is unable to control Ciri's talent, she advises Geralt to seek help from his former lover Yennefer, a more experienced sorceress.


title: Blood of Elves

text: At the same time, the wizard Rience is searching for Ciri, serving an unknown powerful mage. He captures Geralt's friend, Dandelion the bard, and tortures him for information about Ciri. Dandelion is saved by the arrival of Yennefer, who engages in a magic duel with Rience. Rience escapes with his master's help, but is scarred from the encounter.


title: Blood of Elves

text: In the spring, Geralt leaves Kaer Morhen with Triss and Ciri, to deliver Ciri to the Temple School in Ellander where she would receive a "normal" education from the priestess Nenneke. On the way, Triss falls ill, and they join Yarpen Zigrin's dwarven company, who is leading a caravan for King Henselt of Kaedwen. Geralt tells Ciri about the roses of Aelirenn, an elf who died leading elven youths to fight the humans in a hopeless attack. The caravan is attacked by the Scoia'tael, and it is revealed that the escort mission was a trap set by the kings who doubted Yarpen's loyalty.


title: Blood of Elves

text: Meanwhile, Geralt tracks Rience and his employer. With the help of Dandelion, the medical student Shani, and the sorceress Philippa Eilhart, he forces a confrontation with Rience, during which both are injured. Rience's master intervenes again, opening a portal for him, and Geralt is prevented from pursuing by Eilhart.


title: Blood of Elves

text: Some time in the future, Yennefer and Ciri are about to leave the Temple School in Ellander. Yennefer asks Ciri whether she did not like her at first. A series of flashbacks details Ciri's studies with Yennefer, from the day they were introduced and back to the present. Ciri's stay in Ellander had been haunted by disturbing dreams until Yennefer's arrival, who started educating her in magic. From an initial antagonism, their relationship developed into a mother-daughter bond. Ciri admits that she did not like Yennefer, at first, and they leave.


title: Blood of Elves

text: was the winner of the Polish Janusz A. Zajdel Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel in 1994. In 2009 the book won the David Gemmell Legend Award in the United Kingdom.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Mandatory Fun is the fourteenth studio album by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. The self-produced album was released by RCA Records in the United States on July 15, 2014, and was the final album on Yankovic's recording contract. Yankovic had previously released "Alpocalypse" in 2011 and was touring in support of it when he first spoke of his next record. When he began to work on "Mandatory Fun", Yankovic found himself listening to older acts, many of which he stylistically spoofed on the album.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Recorded at studios in Los Angeles and Massachusetts from 2012 to 2014, "Mandatory Fun" contains twelve songs, which include parodies of songs by Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, Lorde and Imagine Dragons. It also features original songs in the form of pastiche, imitating the styles of the Pixies, Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Southern Culture on the Skids. Yankovic composed the originals first and wrote the parodies last to allow them to be as timely as possible upon the album's release. Many artists reacted positively to being parodied; Williams remarked that he was "honored" to be spoofed by Yankovic, while Imagine Dragons advised Yankovic on how to replicate sounds in their original song.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: After Yankovic's 32 years under contract, "Mandatory Fun" marks his first number one album in the United States. It received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Yankovic chose not to release a lead single and instead publicized the album by launching eight music videos online during the first week of the album release through different video content portals. Among these, "Word Crimes" became Yankovic's fourth top 40 song, making him one of few artists to achieve such a feat in four separate decades.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The album won the award for Best Comedy Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Yankovic's fourth career Grammy. Due to the completion of his record contract obligations and the success of the video strategy, Yankovic has suggested "Mandatory Fun" may be his last traditional album, switching to more timely releases of singles and EPs of his songs.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: During the closing stages of the "Alpocalypse" tour, Yankovic stated in an interview with "The Morning Call" that he had one more album on his contract; the paper and other sources took to mean that this album would be his last. Yankovic later clarified that this was the last album on the current recording contract with his label, that he is currently "weighing his options" for renewing the contract or looking to another publisher, and made it clear that he was not retiring from music in the foreseeable future. In a later interview with NPR's "Weekend Edition", he stated that this might be his last conventional album, turning instead to more frequent releases of singles and EPs. For an LP, Yankovic stated that given the time lapse between the beginning of the process and the release of the finished product, "chances are a lot of the material is going to be somewhat dated by the time it comes out".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The first tracks conceived for the album were original songs in the style of various bands as, compared to direct parodies, the pastiches "age better". Prior to composing these songs, Yankovic had been listening to older acts such as Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, and Southern Culture on the Skids for his own amusement. His Crosby, Stills & Nash style parody "Mission Statement" draws from his experiences attending executive meetings in his music career. Shortly after completing the song, Yankovic encountered Graham Nash, who coincidentally asked Yankovic to parody "". Yankovic played a recording of his pastiche on his phone to Nash on the spot, and Nash loved the track. "First World Problems" is an original composition emulating the style of the Pixies, whom Yankovic had performed alongside for a charity concert two years earlier. The song features background vocals by Amanda Palmer, emulating the vocal style of Kim Deal (particularly from the song "Debaser"). Palmer, who cites Yankovic and the Pixies as being among her childhood heroes, explained on her personal website that she and Yankovic had met at one of her concerts in Los Angeles a few years previously. After Yankovic learned that his fans had petitioned for him to headline a Super Bowl halftime show, he realized that he lacked a sports-themed composition in his repertoire, and decided to write "Sports Song".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Yankovic described that his usual method of generating parody ideas is to scan "Billboard" charts, radio play and online buzz to create a master list of candidates. From that point, he works out possible puns on the song titles, the potential for humor, and general direction for his versions. Fans speculated ahead of the album's release that Yankovic would parody "Let It Go", from the Disney film "Frozen", due to the song's popularity. He considered making a "Frozen" parody titled "Make It So" about "", but decided not to after discovering such a parody already existed. Yankovic observed that the existing spoof "had gotten enough attention online to make the Disney legal department ask them to take it down! I couldn't think of an idea that I liked as much as 'Make It So', so... I gave up!". There were several other songs he intended to parody, but felt he was unable to develop a clever enough idea for, and instead used them in the medley "Now That's What I Call Polka". More specifically, Yankovic expressed that while Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" is an "iconic song", it was too repetitive for him to incorporate new lyrics into effectively.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Twelve songs were recorded for "Mandatory Fun". Most of the sessions took place at Way Station, GoDaveyGo Studio and Bedrock L.A. in Los Angeles. Yankovic pre-recorded demos of each song on his personal laptop prior to recording, to show his bandmates the direction to go in. The earliest songs produced were "Mission Statement", "Lame Claim to Fame" and "My Own Eyes", which were recorded on September 4, 2012. Three more songs were recorded later: "Sports Song" on May 3, followed by "First World Problems" and "Jackson Park Express" on May 8, 2013. Yankovic announced Amanda Palmer's involvement in the album later that month. Her background vocal sessions for "First World Problems" took place at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, as she was unable to travel to L.A. at the time. Yankovic coached Palmer remotely via Skype as she attempted to emulate the vocal style of Kim Deal.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Yankovic sought permission from the original artists for his parodies, as he had typically done in the past; in contrast to previous albums, he had few difficulties. Yankovic stated "This is the first time where I've gotten everybody that I wanted, and I couldn't be happier about it." He was able to get Pharrell Williams' permission for three of the songs he represented on the album, Williams' "Happy", Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", and "Get Lucky", through a personal email to the artist after Yankovic's manager had difficulty working this with Williams' manager; according to Yankovic, Williams was "honored" to have his work used by Yankovic. Yankovic and his band got full cooperation from Imagine Dragons, who gave permission and advised on how to recreate some of the sounds used in "Radioactive" for Yankovic's sendup "Inactive".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: When Yankovic decided to parody "Blurred Lines", he was initially concerned that by the time his version was released, a year later, many parodies would already exist. He therefore opted to go in a more distinct direction by making "Word Crimes", which continues his fascination with grammar previously expressed in video set pieces where he corrected malformed public signage and text. Yankovic said that his version avoids the perceived misogyny of the original song and its various existing parodies. He also considered this "the only chance that 'Blurred Lines' will be used in the curriculum of somebody's school". "Word Crimes", "Inactive" and "Foil" were all recorded in December 2013 while "Tacky" and "Now That's What I Call Polka!" were produced the following April. Lisa Popeil also revealed in April that she would be recording with Yankovic for the album. Comedian Patton Oswalt, who appears in the video for "Foil", listened to Yankovic's album in May 2014 and revealed that "He satirizes a band I've worshiped since the 90s". Yankovic later affirmed that Oswalt was referring to his Pixies pastiche.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Eleven tracks had been completed by early 2014, and Yankovic set the release date in the middle of the year as to keep the material "as timely as possible". However, he wished to find "the big hit of the summer" to add to the set. Yankovic recalled that he determined the saturation point of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" by asking his daughter: "I said, 'Are they talking about Iggy Azalea at school?' And she says, 'Well, not so much.' I asked the same thing two weeks later and she said, 'Oh yeah, that's all they're talking about now!'" Yankovic then traveled from Los Angeles to Denver, Colorado in early June 2014 to ask Azalea permission to parody her song. He noted that meeting a spoof target in person is not his usual method for obtaining permission, but was necessary in this instance to meet the album deadline. The encounter was described by TMZ as an "ambush" as Yankovic presented the potential parody lyrics to Azalea backstage at one of her concerts. He later clarified that the meeting was much more polite and blown out of proportion by TMZ. Yankovic recorded the Azalea parody "Handy" that same month, and announced that the album mastering process was complete on June 12.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: "Mandatory Fun" consists of twelve tracks, five of which are parodies of songs popular at the time of the album's production. The opening Iggy Azalea parody of "Fancy" is "Handy", performed from the point of view of a person described by Kenneth Partridge of "Billboard" as "the world's most braggadocious contractor". The character portrayed in the song rhymes about various handyman tasks including installing countertops, tile floors, and repairing leaf blowers. Kevin O'Keeffe of "The Wire" noted that the only direct connection between the character and Azalea is the line "I got 99 problems but a switch ain't one", which refers to Azalea's appearance in the song "Problem".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The Southern Culture on the Skids pastiche "Lame Claim to Fame" examines celebrity-obsessed culture. It features frequent name-drops as the singer brags about having tangential associations with popular people. "Foil" is a parody of the Lorde song "Royals" and focuses on two cases of aluminum foil use: the first verse deals with food being preserved with the material, while the second verse describes the foil being used by conspiracy theorists as a protective hat. O'Keeffe observed that it is the shortest parody on "Mandatory Fun" as it omits the bridge and final chorus of the original song. The original composition "Sports Song" imagines a college marching band directly insulting the opposing team with their fight song. Annie Zaleski of "The A.V. Club" summarized the track as a "passable but not particularly inspired take on rabid fandom".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The following Robin Thicke parody, "Word Crimes", involves the singer pointing out common grammatical errors and shaming people who engage in various other common textual misconceptions. "My Own Eyes" is a style parody of the Foo Fighters in which the protagonist recalls witnessing unusual events throughout his life, such as elderly men dying of "Bieber fever" and a mime "hacked to death with an imaginary cleaver". Partridge felt that the pastiche "falls flat" without Dave Grohl's songwriting and personality. "Now That's What I Call Polka!" is Yankovic's twelfth polka medley, in which Yankovic sings selections of various popular songs at the time of recording, set to a polka music. The title is a parody of the long-running series of compilation albums released by EMI, "Now That's What I Call Music!".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The song "Mission Statement" emulates the style of Crosby, Stills & Nash, with the lyrics citing a series of corporate buzzwords and executive jargon. Yankovic considered it "ironic to juxtapose that with the song stylings of CSN, whose music pretty much symbolizes the antithesis of corporate America". "Rolling Stone" noted that the song imitates the band's layered harmonies used in "Carry On" and "".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: "Inactive" is a spoof of the Imagine Dragons song "Radioactive" that centers on an extremely lethargic character covered in food residue. O'Keeffe remarked upon the breathing sounds of the original song being recontextualized in the parody, as the character mentions that he requires an inhaler. The Pixies pastiche "First World Problems" lampoons people who complain of various First World problems such as the lack of gluten-free cookies in an airport lounge. The song features "off-kilter guitars and a Black Francis-esque raucous vocal delivery" with stylistic references to the Pixies songs "Debaser" and "Hang Wire". The sendup of Pharrell Williams' "Happy" is the song "Tacky", in which the singer boasts of having no shame and making unfashionable or tactless choices. Reviews noted that the song lists various disruptive acts associated with social media, referencing Instagram, Twitter, and Yelp.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Following Yankovic's tradition of recording long-form songs such as "Albuquerque", "Genius in France", and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", he concludes the album with a 9-minute plus track called "Jackson Park Express". The song is in the style of Cat Stevens and can be described as "an in-depth vignette about a bus-ride-length romance that's really a figment of the protagonist's imagination." Another review detailed that the piece is a conversation between two bus passengers involving topics such as relationships, deodorant, and wearing the skin of another person; the protagonist insists that the latter is "not in a creepy way." Comedy website Chortle opined that "Jackson Park Express" is the best song on the album and "arguably the funniest one he's ever written."


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The cover art and title of the album was first affirmed via the RCA Records website. Regarding the title of the album, Yankovic commented that "That was just an oxymoron that I've always been amused by. It's used a lot in corporate retreats and, I'm told, in the military." Yankovic also acknowledged that the name is speculated to be a reference to the album marking the end of his 32-year-long label contract.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The artwork is designed to resemble an agglomeration of Soviet and Chinese propaganda, and Yankovic is described by "Rolling Stone" as wearing a Russian military costume over a font resembling Soviet text. Communist propaganda is often drawn in shades of red, features people marching, and is supported in the background by an image of a leader. Yankovic stated that the cover image was photographed as early as August 2013. Yankovic said the cover art was a play on the name "Mandatory Fun".


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Before the album was complete and a release date was set, Yankovic had already booked promotional appearances that coincidentally fell around the album's time of release: this included an appearance on the YouTube series "Epic Rap Battles of History" where he dressed as Isaac Newton and the Comedy Central series "Drunk History" where he played Adolf Hitler. Yankovic started hinting at the release of "Mandatory Fun" using social media in mid-June 2014. On June 14, he posted a self-described "cryptic" image of himself with the message "July 15", which "Rolling Stone" specified as being the album release date. Yankovic used a series of short trailers to tease the album, using stock footage of historical communism and military propaganda films interspersed with imagery from the album cover art. He later observed that his portrayal of Hitler on "Drunk History" fit the "totalitarian theme" of the "Mandatory Fun" artwork.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Yankovic announced that there would be no pre-album single for "Mandatory Fun" and instead he would let the listeners decide which songs are the hits. He also revealed that he would participate in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session on the day of the album release. Yankovic explained that the pre-release campaign deliberately withheld song information, since he felt it has become more difficult to establish a unique take on a parody in the age of YouTube content creation. He later made an appearance on the Hulu sitcom "The Hotwives of Orlando" that coincided with the "Mandatory Fun" launch. After the album was released, he elaborated that putting out singles was technically unnecessary, since customers can buy the songs individually from digital vendors.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Yankovic made a commitment not to tour for an entire year during 2014, instead using "Mandatory Fun" to tour "with a vengeance" in 2015. "The Mandatory World Tour" was announced in January 2015, and covered venues in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand throughout 2015 starting that May. Yankovic continued this tour in 2016 primarily across North America.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: To help promote "Mandatory Fun" in social media circles, Yankovic produced eight music videos for the album; one was revealed each day starting on July 14, 2014, a day prior to the album's release. Yankovic commented that "there is no more music television" as there was in the past, and that "the Internet [...] is the new MTV" that operates continuously. Yankovic came up with the idea for the video promotion of the new album about two years before its release. He felt that releasing a new video for eight continuous days "would make an impact because people would be talking about the album all week long". The approach has been compared to Beyoncé Knowles' marketing for her album "Beyoncé" which took advantage of social media; when asked if this video strategy was influenced by Knowles, Yankovic pointed out that his previous record "Alpocalypse" featured videos for every song at the time of release: "Nobody said to Beyoncé, 'Hey, you're doing a Weird Al, aren't ya?' So for the record, I was first."


title: Mandatory Fun

text: Although the music video aspect of Yankovic's songs had long been a part of his success, RCA Records opted not to fund any video production for "Mandatory Fun". Yankovic instead turned to various social media portals including Funny or Die and CollegeHumor which he had worked with in the past; these sites helped to cover the production cost of the videos with Yankovic forgoing any video ad revenue. He chose to distribute the videos to different portals to avoid burdening any single one with all of the costs and work needed to produce them. This release strategy was considered by "The Atlantic" as a "web-enabled precision video delivery operation, and evidence of some serious digital distributional forethought" as it allows the videos to be seen by different sets of audiences for each site. During an interview on Fox Business, Yankovic explained his method of funding to Stuart Varney, who seemed to misunderstand the possible monetization of Yankovic's videos.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: The first music video debuted on July 14, featuring the song "Tacky". Produced by Nerdist Industries, the one-shot video mimicks Williams' own style used in his video for "Happy": It features Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, Jack Black and Yankovic dressed in tacky clothes and dancing poorly on purpose while lip-synching to the song's lyrics about a person who brags on about his questionable style choices. The video was filmed at Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, previously featured as Julianne Moore's apartment in 1998 film "The Big Lebowski". Yankovic specified that during each of the six continuous takes, he had to rush down five flights of stairs while changing his outfit in order to appear in the beginning and end of the video. The video for "Word Crimes" features kinetic typography created by Jarrett Heather, reflecting the song's theme of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The "Foil" video, produced in conjunction with CollegeHumor, shows Yankovic as the host of a cooking show obsessing on the use of aluminium foil, suddenly descending into conspiracy theories; it also includes guest appearances by Patton Oswalt, Tom Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant.


title: Mandatory Fun

text: "Handy" was released through Yahoo! Screen's "Sketchy" channel, and it is presented in the style of a late-night infomercial with Yankovic performing as a residential general contractor; the video also includes Eddie Pepitone, Justin Giddings, and Ted Hollis. The video for "Sports Song" plays to the song's theme, featuring Yankovic along with the Riverside City College Marching Tigers band performing a routine on a football field during the song; the video was directed by Yankovic with Andrew Bush and Brad Schulz and produced in conjunction with Funny or Die. The video for "First World Problems" was directed by Liam Lynch and shows Yankovic, posing as a "pretentious jerk" wearing a "douchey blonde wig", over-reacting to minor annoyances of a well-off lifestyle.