title: Back pain

text: About 50% of women experience low back pain during pregnancy. Some studies have suggested that women who have experienced back pain before pregnancy are at a higher risk of experiencing back pain during pregnancy. It may be severe enough to cause significant pain and disability in as many as one third of pregnant women. Back pain typically begins at approximately 18 weeks of gestation and peaks between 24 and 36 weeks. Approximately 16% of women who experience back pain during pregnancy report continued back pain years after pregnancy, indicating that those with significant back pain are at greater risk of back pain following pregnancy.


title: Back pain

text: Biomechanical factors of pregnancy shown to be associated with back pain include increased curvature of the lower back, or lumbar lordosis, to support the added weight on the abdomen. Also, the hormone relaxin is released during pregnancy, which softens the structural tissues in the pelvis and lower back to prepare for vaginal delivery. This softening and increased flexibility of the ligaments and joints in the lower back can result in pain. Back pain in pregnancy is often accompanied by radicular symptoms, suggested to be caused by the baby pressing on the sacral plexus and lumbar plexus in the pelvis.


title: Back pain

text: Typical factors aggravating the back pain of pregnancy include standing, sitting, forward bending, lifting and walking. Back pain in pregnancy may also be characterized by pain radiating into the thigh and buttocks, nighttime pain severe enough to wake the patient, pain that is increased at night or pain that is increased during the daytime.


title: Back pain

text: Local heat, acetaminophen (paracetamol) and massage can be used to help relieve pain. Avoiding standing for prolonged periods of time is also suggested.


title: Back pain

text: Although back pain does not typically cause permanent disability, it is a significant contributor to physician visits and missed work days in the United States, and is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons report approximately 12 million visits to doctor's offices each year are due to back pain. Missed work and disability related to low back pain costs over $50 billion each year in the United States. In the United Kingdom in 1998, approximately £1.6 billion per year was spent on expenses related to disability from back pain.


title: Tracy Reed (English actress)

text: Tracy Reed (born Clare Tracy Compton Pelissier; 21 September 1942 – 2 May 2012) was an English actress.


title: Tracy Reed (English actress)

text: Reed was the daughter of director Anthony Pelissier and actress Penelope Dudley-Ward; she took the surname of her stepfather, Carol Reed, following her mother's remarriage in 1948. Reed was the granddaughter of actress Fay Compton and producer H. G. Pelissier, and of socialite Freda Dudley Ward and politician William Dudley Ward. Her great-uncle was novelist Sir Compton Mackenzie. Actor Oliver Reed was a step-cousin.


title: Tracy Reed (English actress)

text: During a film-acting career that lasted from the early 1960s until 1975, she appeared in about 30 films, the TV series "Man of the World" (1962), and was at one point under consideration as a replacement for Diana Rigg in "The Avengers". In one episode of "Dr. Finlay's Casebook" in 1967, Reed played opposite Bill Simpson, whom she later married.


title: Tracy Reed (English actress)

text: Reed is best remembered today for her role as Miss Scott, the mistress of General 'Buck' Turgidson (George C. Scott) in director Stanley Kubrick's film "Dr. Strangelove" (1964). She has the only female role in that film, and is (principally) seen in only one scene – when she answers the phone while Turgidson is in the bathroom. She is also shown as the centrefold "Miss Foreign Affairs" in the June 1962 copy of "Playboy" magazine being read by pilot Major T. J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens) in the B-52. In the photo, she is lying down, apparently nude, with the January 1963 issue of "Foreign Affairs" – Vol. 41, No. 2, containing Henry Kissinger's suggestive article "Strains on the Alliance" – strategically draped across her buttocks. When asked in 1994 if she had "fond memories" of working on the film, she replied "'Oh yes, lots!'", but "'I was wearing a bikini the whole time,' Reed [remembered], and when Kubrick decided to open the set to the press, 'there were all these reporters staring at me. It was dreadful.'" She again appeared in a feature film starring Peter Sellers, this time in the Blake Edwards comedy "A Shot in the Dark" (also 1964). Alongside Beau Bridges, Reed also played the madame in "Adam's Woman" (1970), filmed in Australia.


title: Tracy Reed (English actress)

text: Later in life, she worked as a gourmet foods company representative in Ireland, travelling the country to persuade shops to sell her employer's products.


title: Tracy Reed (English actress)

text: Reed died of liver cancer in County Cork, Ireland, on 2 May 2012, aged 69; her funeral was held there.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full on, darkpsy, forest, minimal (Zenonesque), hitech psy, progressive, suomi, psy-chill, psycore (fusion of psychedelic trance and hardcore), psybient (fusion of psychedelic trance and ambient), psybreaks, or "adapted" tracks from other music genres. Goa trance preceded psytrance; when digital media became more commonly used psytrance evolved. Goa continues to develop alongside the other genres.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: The first hippies who arrived in Goa, India (a former Portuguese colony) in the mid-1960s were drawn there for many reasons, including the beaches, the low cost of living, the friendly locals, the Indian religious and spiritual practices and the readily available Indian cannabis, which until the mid-1970s was legal. During the 1970s the first Goa DJs were generally playing psychedelic rock bands such as the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and The Doors. In 1979 the beginnings of electronic dance music could occasionally be heard in Goa in the form of tracks by artists such as Kraftwerk but it was not until 1983 that DJs Laurent and Fred Disko, closely followed by Goa Gil, began switching the Goa style over to electro-industrial/EBM which was now flooding out of Europe from artists such as Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb as well as Eurobeat.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: The tracks were remixed, removing the lyrics, looping the melodies and beats and generally manipulating the sounds in all manner of ways before the tracks were finally presented to the dancers as custom Goa-style mixes.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: By 1990–91 Goa was beginning to attract attention and had become a popular destination for partying. As the scene grew bigger, Goa-style parties spread like a diaspora all over the world from 1993. Parties like Pangaea and Megatripolis in the UK helped spawn a multitude of labels in various countries (U.K. Australia, Japan, Germany and Israel) to promote psychedelic electronic music that reflected the ethos of Goa parties, Goa music, and Goa-specific artists, producers, and DJs. Goa Trance as commercial scene began gaining global traction in 1994. The golden age of the first wave of Goa psy trance as a generally agreed upon genre was between 1994 and 1997.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: By 1992 the Goa trance scene had a pulse of its own, though the term 'Goa trance' did not become the characterization of the genre until around 1994. The Goa trance sound, which by the late 1990s was being used interchangeably with the term psychedelic trance, retained its popularity at outdoor raves and festivals, but also permanent psytrance nightclubs emerged such as Natraj Temple in Munich. New artists were appearing from all over the world and it was in this year that the first Goa trance festivals began, including the Gaia Festival in France and the still-running VooV festival in Germany.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: In 1993 the first 100% Goa trance album was released, "Project II Trance", featuring tracks by Man With No Name and Hallucinogen to name two. Goa trance enjoyed its commercial peak between 1996 and 1997 with media attention and some recognized names in the DJ scene joining the movement. This hype did not last long and once the attention had died down so did the music sales, resulting in the failure of record labels, promotion networks and also some artists. This ‘commercial death of Goa trance’ was marked musically by Matsuri Productions in 1997 with the release of the compilation "Let it RIP". On the back sleeve of the album at the bottom of the notes, R.I.P : Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, William Burroughs & Goa Trance was written.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: While the genre may have been incubated in the goa trance scene it went on to proliferate globally. Its impact was felt in western Europe, Middle East, North America, Australia, Japan and South Africa. Psytrance is linked to other music genres such as big beat, electroclash, grime and 2-step. The genre evolved in conjunction with a multimedia psychedelic arts scene.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Psychedelic trance has a distinctive, energetic sound that tends to be faster than other forms of trance or techno music with tempos generally ranging from 135 to 150 BPM but some psytrance songs can also reach 190BPM, 200bpm, 210bpm and even 300bpm. It uses a very distinctive bass beat that pounds constantly throughout the song and overlays the bass with varying rhythms drawn from funk, techno, dance, acid house, eurodance and trance using drums and other instruments. The different leads, rhythms and beats generally change every eight bars. Layering is used to create effect in psychedelic trance, with new musical ideas being added at regular intervals, often every four to eight bars. New layers will continue to be added until a climax is reached, and then the song will break down and start a new rhythmic pattern over the constant bass line. Psychedelic trance tracks tend to be six to ten minutes long. This includes a developed and atmospheric introduction, and a breakdown in the middle of the track of around 30 seconds to over a minute.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Dark psytrance (also known as dark psychedelic trance, dark psy, darkpsy or dark trance) is the heavier end of the psychedelic trance spectrum with tempos starting from around 150 bpm, but may often go faster. Psytrance styles related to dark psy include psycore (fast and crazy), hi-tech (bouncy and glitchy), and forest (organic and earthy). Characterized by having obscure, deep, and more eschatological background that leads into profound meditation of death, night, and transcendence, often with dismal sounds and heavy basslines. The subgenre often samples horror films in contrast to the science fiction film samples more regularly used in "normal" psytrance. Dark psytrance emerged as a recognizable genre after 2003 in Germany and Russia, with Brazilian, German and Russian artists dominating the scene. The German artist Xenomorph (Mark Petrick) is credited as an artist who first brought dark occult aesthetic into psytrance, with his album "Cassandra's Nightmare" released in 1998 being a major influence on the subgenre; X-Dream's "Radio" is another 1998 album cited as an early influence.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Full-on is a psychedelic trance style which has high energy for peak moments, often having melodic, energetic, and crisp basslines with a fast tempo (usually 140-148 bpm). There are some related styles that are derived from this style and are distinguished as different varieties of Full-On: twilight and night full-on (or dark full-on), having bolder and lower notes in their basslines, morning (light and kind of happy), and uplifting. Artists working in the genre include Ajja, Burn In Noise, Dickster and Tristan.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Progressive psytrance (or prog-psytrance) is among the common party themes, normally played during the afternoon or on a different stage. It has grown in popularity since the mid-2010s to the point where it is often also labeled "psytrance". Artists working in the genre include Astrix, Protonica and Meora.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: "Psybient", also known as "psychedelic ambient" or "ambient psy" — is a genre of electronic music, that contains elements of ambient, downtempo, psychedelic trance, dub, world music, new wave, ethereal wave, and IDM. The genre is also known for different alternative names used in different time periods, — the earliest developments of the genre within ambient house and chill-out music scenes were known as "psychill", "psychedelic chillout", "psy chillout", the later works within goa trance and psychedelic trance scenes are known as "ambient psytrance" or "ambient goa". The dub derived developments are known as psydub and "psystep".


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Psybient pieces are structured to generate vast soundscapes or a "musical journey". Like psytrance, it emphasizes on-going rhythm and beat-matching, however, it is more lenient to beat changes than psytrance.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Earthdance, the world's largest synchronized music and dance festival for peace, arose from the psychedelic trance culture.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: At the 2004 Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom, psytrance was given an entire day on the Glade stage.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: The Alien Safari, Vortex, and Synergy festivals are just a few of South Africa's many recurring and long-running psytrance festivals.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: Rainbow Serpent Festival, Esoteric Festival, New Psycle, and Earthcore (now discontinued) are just a few of Australia's long-running psytrance festivals, dubbed "doofs."


title: Psychedelic trance

text: The Boom Festival in Portugal began as a psytrance festival but has since expanded to include world music. It is held in August every other year and combines social activism with cultural and spiritual elements.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: The Ozora Festival in Hungary is an arts-focused event that emphasizes connecting with nature and oneself. Psytrance is still very popular at this festival.


title: Psychedelic trance

text: In 2007 research was conducted on the global psytrance scene. 600 people from 40 countries provided detailed information via an online questionnaire. The results were published as "Beyond Subculture and Post-subculture? The Case of Virtual Psytrance" in the "Journal of Youth Studies".


title: Psychedelic trance

text: In 2012 Graham St. John published "Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance", Equinox. ().


title: Cummerbund

text: A cummerbund is a broad waist sash, usually pleated, which is often worn with single-breasted dinner jackets (or "tuxedos"). The cummerbund was adopted by British military officers in colonial India, where they saw it worn by sepoys (Indian soldiers) of the British Indian Army. It was adopted as an alternative to the waistcoat, and later spread to civilian use. The modern use of the cummerbund to Europeans and North Americans is as a component of traditional black tie events.


title: Cummerbund

text: The word "cummerbund" is the Anglicized form of Hindustani "kamarband" (Hindustani: कमरबंद; ), which is in turn from Persian (). It entered English vocabulary in 1616 from India. It is a combination of the words "kamar" meaning 'waist' and "band" meaning 'strap' or 'lacing'. The 'waist-band' was a sash accessory worn by Indian men for many occasions.


title: Cummerbund

text: The word "cummerband" (see below), and less commonly the German spelling (a Germanized spelling variation of the English word), are often used synonymously with "cummerbund" in English.


title: Cummerbund

text: The form of the cummerbund is a wide band around the waist, and its origin as part of black tie determined the acceptable colours. It was adopted as civilian dress, beginning as a largely summer option with informal dinner jackets, such as Burmese fawn and white, it was restricted to the narrow range of colours which accompany black tie. These were predominantly black, sometimes midnight blue to match the trousers, and occasionally maroon (the normal hue for coloured accessories). The pleats face up because they were originally used to hold ticket stubs and similar items, explaining the slang name 'crumb-catcher'. However, the cummerbunds worn as part of the US Army Blue Mess and Blue Evening Mess uniforms are worn with the pleats down, as prescribed by Army Regulation 670–1 Chapter 24 Section 10(b). The US Navy Uniform Regulations NAVPERS 15665 stipulate the cummerbund be worn with the pleats up for the Navy Dinner Dress Jacket. The contemporary use of the cummerbund is purely aesthetic, providing a transition between the shirt and the waistband. The fastening is a ribbon around the back, tied or held shut by a buckle or velcro.


title: Cummerbund

text: In contemporary use, it is now common to see coloured bow ties and cummerbunds, often matching, but this is considered non-traditional. They have also expanded in less formal situations into use with components of white tie, particularly by musicians, who sometimes wear a white cummerbund instead of the traditional piqué waistcoat.


title: Cummerbund

text: Most units of the French Army of Africa wore cummerbunds of two different colours: blue for the European soldiers of the Zouaves and Chasseurs d'Afrique; and red for the native Spahis and Tirailleurs. Some modern French regiments with a colonial history origin, still retain cummerbunds as part of their full dress uniform (notably the French Foreign Legion and the Spahis).


title: Cummerbund

text: Similar to the cummerbund, a cummerband is an accessory to the dress uniform used in several modern South Asian armies, including the Indian Army, the Pakistan Army and the Bangladesh Army. It is generally worn during ceremonial parades and dinners. The colour or combination of colours varies widely according to regiment or corps.


title: Cummerbund

text: Unlike the civilian cummerbund, a leather belt is worn above this cloth piece and one end hangs free displaying an ornamental fringe.


title: Cummerbund

text: During the 19th and early 20th centuries, cotton cummerbunds were commonly worn by athletes participating in gymnastic and/or combat sport training and competition.


title: Cummerbund

text: A "cummerbund" is also an informal word used in scuba diving to mean a wide waistband either on a buoyancy control device designed to provide more comfort to the user than a standard waistband and usually made of a stout fabric backed with velcro fastenings, or on a two-piece dry suit where a flexible rubber waistband helps to maintain a watertight seal between the jacket and the pants of the suit.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Blown Away is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker, Suzy Amis, and Lloyd Bridges. The film was distributed and financed by MGM, a studio which was in financial difficulty at the time. The head of the studio was former Paramount executive Frank Mancuso Sr.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: It was the first action film starring Jeff Bridges, who was by then a 45-year old leading man. Bridges said he was always interested in the genre, particularly as his father, Lloyd Bridges (who co-stars in the film) appeared in "High Noon" fighting Gary Cooper. Hopkins said that Bridges was his first choice to play the lead. "I was very lucky that MGM backed me up, because he doesn't seem to be the obvious choice for this kind of genre film."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Irish Republican Army fighter Ryan Gaerity escapes from his cell in a castle prison in Northern Ireland after turning a toilet into a bomb, killing a guard and his cellmate in the process.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: In Boston, Lieutenant James "Jimmy" Dove is a veteran member of the police force's bomb squad, on the verge of retirement and helping to train newer recruits. Dove hides that he is really Liam McGivney, a former member of a Northern Ireland terrorist cell. He had been friends with Gaerity, but when Gaerity tried to set off a bomb that would have killed numerous civilians, he interceded, ending in the death of his girlfriend (Gaerity's sister), and leading to Gaerity's imprisonment. Devastated, McGivney moved to Boston and took on a new identity, hoping to find atonement in saving others by defusing bombs. Only Dove's uncle, retired Boston police officer Max O'Bannon, is aware of his past and encourages Dove to retire early, feeling he has done his penance.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Gaerity sees Dove on TV and makes his way to Boston, taking residence in an abandoned casino boat. He takes a job as a janitor at the police station to learn more about Dove's present life and his co-workers. Gaerity sets up bombs specifically designed to kill the rest of the bomb squad: the first victim, Blanket, is killed by a bomb placed under a bridge on the night of Dove's wedding to his fiancee Kate. Later, at the site of a fake bomb threat, technicians Rita and Cortez are killed by an explosive hidden in their bomb disposal robot. Dove receives a call from Gaerity and realizes that Kate and his stepdaughter Elizabeth are in danger. He rushes home and finds no bomb, but his dog, "Boomer," has been killed. He explains his true past to Kate, and convinces her and Elizabeth to go into hiding at Max's seaside cottage. Gaerity's third bomb almost kills rookie technician Anthony Franklin, who has linked Dove's former life to Gaerity, but Dove rescues him and Franklin promises Dove any assistance he can offer.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Max decides to try to stop Gaerity himself, trying to get close to him at an Irish bar, but instead ends up captured by him, and latched into a makeshift bomb. Dove tracks down Max, and goes to retrieve his tools, but Max, realizing that Gaerity had created the bomb to kill both of them, intentionally triggers the bomb while Dove is away, sacrificing himself. In analyzing the bomb's debris, Dove finds a roulette ball that points to the abandoned ship, where he finds Gaerity. Gaerity reveals that he has set up another bomb in Kate's car and arms it via radio signal, then activates a Rube Goldberg-esque mechanism to trigger an even larger set of explosives that will destroy the ship. Dove engages with Gaerity in a large mêlée fight throughout the ship. Dove gains the upper hand, and handcuffs himself to Gaerity, preventing him from leaving, preparing to die to keep his secret and prevent any more deaths. Dove is saved by Franklin at the last second, having followed Dove to the ship, and the two escape in time before the ship explodes, killing Gaerity in the process.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: The two race back to the city, hoping to stop Kate before she starts the car. They arrive too late but are able to catch up to Kate, and Dove jumps into her car. He finds the complex bomb and manages to defuse it in time. As they recover, Franklin tells Dove he knows his past identity but will keep it a secret if he can take credit for taking down Gaerity; Dove agrees and gives Franklin his beeper before leaving with Kate and Lizzie.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Stephen Hopkins, who agreed to do the film after completing "Judgment Night", told his agent, " 'I don't want to make a movie about a bomb squad!' But he insisted, which he very rarely does, so I read it and thought it was terrific. Forty-eight hours later, the deal was done, bang."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: "I would say the movie is, hopefully, more of a suspense film, which is more interesting to me than that type of movie where we see a bunch of explosions", said Hopkins. "I was attracted because there were a bunch of great characters who obviously would attract great actors to do them. And also the suspense bit; there's so many different types of suspense in the film. There are some fun suspense scenes, and there are some very emotionally intense scenes."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: "You can make violence into a fantasy situation or you can try and make it relatable", said Hopkins. "If you bring it down to as realistic terms as possible under the circumstances, then for me it becomes more interesting than to be out there with larger-than-life superhuman types in glossy, glamorous situations. There's some politically incorrect things about this film I like which aren't usually allowed in these kind of films. The hero did make mistakes, he lied to his wife, he lies to his friends all the way through the film, he feels guilty and acts irresponsibly, he gives up. Normally I find now that everyone has to be perfect."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Hopkins says that Bridges' casting "opens up a whole bunch of actors who really want to work with him."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: "I was looking for an action film", said Jeff Bridges. "So I read a lot of scripts, looking for one that transcended the genre. I wanted something that had a little more depth -- that had genuine characters and relationships. What appealed to me about this script was that you cared about the people."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Richard Harris was going to play Bridges' mentor. However the role ended up being played by Bridges' father Lloyd. The producers made Lloyd Bridges audition because they associated the actor with comedies.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Another actor new to the genre was Forest Whitaker, who wanted to play "a character that could walk into a room and say: 'I'm the best. Stick around and maybe you'll learn something from me.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Filming was scheduled to start August 24 in Massachusetts. It was the biggest budget movie ever to be made in Massachusetts until that time. The Boston Bomb Squad acted as consultants.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Hopkins used microphotography and expanded digital sound effects to get right inside the bombs. "I thought it was a great way of using sound and visuals", he said. "You can increase the visceral response to the scene. You can suddenly cut to this big marble hanging there and hear it `Whooosh!' all around. You're sort of able to change the world, to go in and really see what's going on."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: The climactic ship explosion was so powerful it shattered 8,000 windows in East Boston during filming.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four who had been wrongly imprisoned in the UK, helped the filmmakers with background information.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: "Blown Away" opened at fourth place in its opening weekend at the US box office, with $10.5 million, which at the time was MGM's biggest opening weekend ever. This was still MGM's biggest opening in a decade. "This puts us back in the mainstream of movie distribution", said Larry Gleason, MGM's president of worldwide theatrical distribution."


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: It finished its run with $30 million in the United States and Canada and grossed $22.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $52.7 million.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: The film suffered in comparison to another "terrorist with a bomb" movie, "Speed", which was rushed into cinemas to beat "Blown Away".


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 41% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: The film was widely criticized for the poor Irish accents of the three main Irish characters, with Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of Ryan Gaerity particularly receiving the harshest criticism.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: The VHS and Laserdisc of the film was released on December 14, 1994. The UK rental tape of "Blown Away" notably featured a Tango Orange advertisement in the trailers at the start which was banned from television for being frightening.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: MGM issued "Blown Away" on DVD on July 29, 1997, while Kino Lorber (under license from MGM) picked up the movie for a Blu-Ray release in 2015.


title: Blown Away (1994 film)

text: The film also spawned a FMV video game tie-in for PC and Mac. It was developed by Imagination Pilots and published by IVI Publishing, Inc.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Emigration from the United States is the process where citizens from the United States move to live in other countries, creating an American diaspora (overseas Americans). The process is the reverse of the immigration to the United States. The United States does not keep track of emigration, and counts of Americans abroad are thus only available based on statistics kept by the destination countries.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Due to the flow of people back and forth between the United Kingdom and its colonies, as well as between the colonies, there has been an American diaspora of a sort since before the United States was founded. During the American Revolutionary War, a number of American Loyalists relocated to other countries, chiefly Canada and the United Kingdom. Residence in countries outside the British Empire was unusual, and usually limited to the well-to-do, such as Benjamin Franklin, who was able to self-finance his trip to Paris as a U.S. diplomat.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: After the American Revolutionary War, some 3,000 Black Loyalists - men who escaped enslavement by Patriot masters and served on the Loyalist side because of the Crown's guarantee of freedom - were evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia; they were individually listed in the "Book of Negroes" as the British gave them certificates of freedom and arranged for their transportation. The Crown gave them land grants and supplies to help them resettle in Nova Scotia. Other Black Loyalists were evacuated to London or the Caribbean colonies.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Thousands of enslaved people escaped from plantations and fled to British lines, especially after British occupation of Charleston, South Carolina. When the British evacuated, they took many former enslaved people with them. Many ended up among London's Black Poor, with 400 resettled by the Sierra Leone Company to Freetown in Africa in 1787. Five years later, another 1,192 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia chose to emigrate to Sierra Leone, becoming known as the Nova Scotian settlers in the new British colony of Sierra Leone. Both waves of settlers became part of the Sierra Leone Creole people and the founders of the nation of Sierra Leone.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Thanks to the increase of whalers and clipper ships, Americans began to travel all over the world for business reasons.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The early 19th century also saw the beginning of overseas religious missionary activity, such as with Adoniram Judson in Burma.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During the War of 1812, some African American slaves joined the Corps of Colonial Marines to fight against the United States. Their reward was guaranteed emancipation (as per the Mutiny Act of 1807) and new land set aside for them in southern Trinidad. They and their descendants later became known as the Merikins.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The middle of the 19th century saw the immigration of many New Englanders to Hawaii, as missionaries for the Congregational Church, and as traders and whalers. The American population eventually overthrew the government of Hawaii, leading to its annexation by the United States.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During this time the American Colonization Society established a colony in the Pepper Coast for freedmen known as Liberia. The ACS's main goals were to Christianize indigenous Africans, end the illegal slave trade, and resettle African Americans out of the United States. Their descendants became the Americo-Liberians, who dominated the country for most of its history.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During the early 19th century, particularly between 1824-1826, thousands of free blacks emigrated from the United States to Haiti to escape antebellum segregation and racist policy. They primarily settled in Samana Province, where their descendants still live today as the Samana Americans. They speak their own variety of English called Samana English.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During the American Civil War, President Lincoln asked Kansas Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy and Secretary of the Interior Caleb Blood Smith to develop a plan to resettle African Americans out of the United States. Pomeroy had come up with the idea of Linconia, a freedmen colony much like Liberia in modern Chiriqui Province, Panama. After nearby Central American nations expressed their opposition to the project, it was quickly scrapped. However, 453 African workers were sent to Ile-à-Vache in Haiti as part of a private colonization effort run by entrepreneur Bernard Kock. Unfortunately, this colony was short-lived due to Kock breaking the contract. By the end of 1863, all of the colonists had returned to the United States.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: After the Civil War, thousands of Southerners moved to Brazil, where slavery was still legal at the time. They founded a city called Americana and became known as Confederados. Some also migrated to Mexico, where they established the New Virginia Colony with the help of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. They founded their capital, Carlota, and had planned to make more settlements, but the colony was abandoned after the fall of the Second Mexican Empire, and most of the settlers returned to the U.S. There was also a sizeable presence of ex-confederates in British Honduras, now known as Belize.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: In Asia, the U.S. government made efforts to secure special privileges for its citizens. This began with the Treaty of Wanghia in China in 1844. It was followed by the expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan 10 years later, and the United States–Korea Treaty of 1882. American traders began to settle in those countries.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Many Americans migrated to the Philippines after it became a U.S. territory following the Philippine–American War.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Cecil Rhodes created the Rhodes Scholarship in 1902 to encourage greater cooperation between the United States, the British Empire and Germany by allowing students to study abroad.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: In the period between the First and Second World Wars, many Americans, particularly writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound, migrated to Europe to take part in the cultural scene.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: European cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, and Vienna came to host a large number of Americans. Many Americans, typically those who were idealistic and/or involved in left-leaning politics, also participated in the Spanish Civil War (mainly supporting the Republicans against the Nationalists) in Spain while they lived in Madrid and elsewhere.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Other Americans returned home to the countries of their origin, including the parents of American author/illustrator Eric Carle, who returned to Germany. Thousands of Japanese Americans were unable to return to the United States, after the Attack on Pearl Harbor.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Éamon de Valera, the third taoscieach of Ireland during the 1930s, was born in New York to an Irish mother and a Spanish father. He moved to Ireland at a young age with his mother's family.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During the Cold War, Americans became a permanent fixture in many countries with large populations of American soldiers, such as West Germany and South Korea.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The Cold War also saw the development of government programs to encourage young Americans to go abroad. The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 to encourage cultural exchange, and the Peace Corps was created in 1961 both to encourage cultural exchange and a civic spirit of volunteerism.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: With the formation of the state of Israel, over 100,000 Jews made aliyah to the holy land, where they played a role in the creation of the state. Other Americans traveled to countries like Lebanon, again to take place in the cultural scene.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During the Vietnam War, about 100,000 American men went abroad to avoid conscription, 90% of them going to Canada. European nations, including neutral states like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, offered asylum to thousands of American expatriates who refused to fight.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: A small number of Americans abandoned the country for political reasons, defecting to the Soviet Union, Cuba, or other countries, such as Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, and sixties radicals such as Joanne Chesimard, Pete O'Neal, Eldridge Cleaver, and Stokely Carmichael.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: During this period Americans continued to travel abroad for religious reasons, such as Richard James, inventor of the Slinky, who went to Bolivia with the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the Peoples Temple establishment of Jonestown in Guyana.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The opening of Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and Central Asia after the Cold War provided new opportunities for American businesspeople. Additionally, with the global dominance of the United States in the world economy, the ESL industry continued to grow, especially in new and emerging markets. Many Americans also take a year abroad during college, and some return to the country after graduation.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Iraq War deserters sought refuge mostly in Canada and Europe, and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden escaped to Russia.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Increasing numbers of Americans retire abroad due to financial setbacks resulting from the 2008 financial crisis.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Young Americans facing a tough job market due to the recession are also increasingly open to working abroad.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: According to a Gallup poll from January 2019, 16% of Americans, including 40% of women under the age of 30, would like to leave the United States.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: There are many reasons why Americans emigrate from the United States. Economic reasons include job or business opportunities, or a higher standard of living in another country. Others emigrate due to marriage or partnership to a foreigner, for religious or humanitarian purposes, or to seek adventure or experience a different culture. Many decide to retire abroad seeking a lower cost of living, especially more affordable health care. Immigrants to the United States may decide to return to their countries of origin to be with family members. Other reasons include political dissatisfaction, safety concerns and cultural issues such as racism. Some Americans may also emigrate to evade legal liabilities; a common past case was evasion of mandatory military service.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: In addition to Americans who choose to emigrate as adults, many children are born in the United States to foreign temporary workers or international students and naturally move with their parents when they return to their countries of origin. Due to their acquisition of U.S. citizenship by birth but no significant connection to the country, they are sometimes called "accidental Americans".


title: Emigration from the United States

text: In addition to U.S. territories, U.S. citizens have the right to reside in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau due to a Compact of Free Association between the United States and each of these countries. They may also freely move to Svalbard due to its open migration policy, as long as they are able to obtain housing and means of support there.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Americans with parents or ancestors from certain countries, such as Germany, Ireland and Italy, may be able to claim nationality via "jus sanguinis" and therefore move there freely. Germany and Austria also have an easier path to citizenship for descendants of victims of Nazi crimes, even if "ius sanguinis" does not apply in the specific case. Similarly, American Jews may move to Israel under its Law of Return.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The USMCA (and previously NAFTA) allows U.S. citizens to work in Canada and Mexico in business or in certain professions, with few restrictions. However, to obtain permanent residence they must still satisfy the regular immigration requirements in these countries.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The United States is a net immigration country, meaning more people arrive in the U.S. than leave it. There is a scarcity of official records in this domain. Given the high dynamics of the emigration-prone groups, emigration from the United States remains indiscernible from temporary country leave.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Anyone born in the United States, with the sole exception of those born to foreign diplomats, acquires U.S. citizenship at birth. Those born abroad to at least one American parent also acquire U.S. citizenship if the parent had lived in the United States for a certain number of years. Immigrants to the United States may also become U.S. citizens by naturalization.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: In the past it was possible for Americans abroad to lose U.S. citizenship involuntarily, but after Supreme Court decisions such as "Afroyim v. Rusk" and "Vance v. Terrazas", along with corresponding changes in U.S. law, they can only lose U.S. citizenship in a very limited number of ways, most commonly by expressly renouncing it at a U.S. embassy or consulate.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Historically, few Americans renounced U.S. citizenship per year, but the numbers drastically increased after 2010 when the U.S. government enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, requiring foreign banks to report information on American holders of bank accounts located outside the United States. More than 3,000 Americans renounced U.S. citizenship in 2013, many citing the financial disclosure requirements and difficulty in finding banks willing to accept them as customers. More than 5,000 renounced in 2016, and more than 6,000 did in 2020.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: One of the biggest issues with the American diaspora is double taxation. Unlike almost all countries in the world, the United States taxes its citizens even if they do not live in the country. The foreign earned income exclusion mitigates double taxation on income from work, but the Internal Revenue Code treats ordinary foreign savings plans held by residents of foreign countries as if they were offshore tax avoidance instruments and requires extensive asset reporting, resulting in significant costs for Americans at all income levels to comply with filing requirements even when they owe no tax. Even Canada's Registered Disability Savings Plan falls under such reporting requirements. The most prominent piece of legislation which has attracted the ire of Americans abroad is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Disadvantages stemming from FATCA, such as hindering career advancement overseas, may decrease the number of Americans in the diaspora in future years. The problem is so severe that some Americans have addressed it by renouncing or relinquishing their U.S. citizenship. Since 2013, the number of people giving up US citizenship has risen to a new record each year, with an unprecedented 5,411 in 2016, up 26% from the 4,279 renunciations in 2015.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: There are no exact figures on how many Americans live abroad. The United States Census Bureau does not count Americans abroad, and individual U.S. embassies offer only rough estimates.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: In 1999, a Department of State estimate suggested that the number of Americans abroad may be between 3 million and 6 million. In 2016, the agency estimated 9 million U.S. citizens were living abroad, but these numbers are highly open to dispute as they often are unverified and can change rapidly.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: According to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the Department of State's estimates are inflated on purpose as their purpose is to prepare for emergencies. FVAP makes its own detailed estimates of the number of U.S. citizens abroad, by region and by country, and of those who are of voting age, based on a variety of sources such as censuses of other countries and U.S. tax and social security records. In 2018, it estimated about 4.8 million U.S. citizens abroad, of whom about 2.9 million were of voting age. FVAP's estimates also fluctuate significantly, for example it had estimated about 5.5 million in 2016.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The United Nations estimates the number of migrants by origin and destination of all countries and territories. In 2019, the organization estimated that about 3.2 million people from the United States were living elsewhere. This number is mostly based on country of birth recorded in censuses, so it does not include U.S. citizens who were not born in the United States, such as those who acquired U.S. citizenship by descent or naturalization.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: One indicator of the U.S. citizen population overseas is the number of Consular Reports of Birth Abroad requested by U.S. citizens from a U.S. embassy or consulate as a proof of U.S. citizenship of their children born abroad. The Bureau of Consular Affairs reported issuing 503,585 such documents over the decade 2000–2009. Based on this, and on some assumptions about the family composition and birth rates, some authors estimate the U.S. civilian population overseas as between 3.6 and 4.3 million.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: Sizes of certain subsets of U.S. citizens living abroad can be estimated based on statistics published by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). U.S. citizens with income above a certain level are required to file a U.S. income tax regardless of where they reside. During 2019, the IRS recorded about 739,000 U.S. tax returns filed with a foreign address, representing about 1.3 million people including spouses and dependents. Other indicators are the number of U.S. tax returns with a partial exclusion on income from work abroad (about 476,000 in 2016) and those reporting foreign income other than passive income (about 1.5 million in 2016), but not all of these were from people actually residing abroad full-time.


title: Emigration from the United States

text: The list below is of the main countries hosting American populations. Those shown first with exact counts are enumerations of Americans who have immigrated to those countries and are legally resident there, does not include those who were born there to one or two American parents, does not necessarily include those born in the U.S. to parents temporarily in the U.S. and moved with parents by right of citizenship rather than immigration, and does not necessarily include temporary expatriates. In all other cases, starting with Israel, the figures are estimates of part-time U.S. resident Americans and expatriates alike.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (September 22, 1831 – February 9, 1878) was an American businessman and philanthropist from the Roosevelt family. Roosevelt was also the father of President Theodore Roosevelt and the paternal grandfather of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He served as a member of the plate-glass importing business Roosevelt & Son.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Roosevelt helped found the New York City Children's Aid Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Children's Orthopedic Hospital. A participant in New York society life, he was described by one historian as a man of both "good works and good times". In December 1877, Roosevelt was nominated to be Collector of the Port of New York but was rejected by the U.S. Senate.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Roosevelt was born in Albany to businessman Cornelius Roosevelt and Margaret Barnhill. His four elder brothers were Silas, James, Cornelius Jr., and Robert. His younger brother, William, died at the age of one.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Roosevelt married Martha Stewart Bulloch of Roswell, Georgia, on December 22, 1853. She was the younger daughter of Major James Stephens Bulloch and Martha "Patsy" Stewart. Mittie was also a sister of the American Civil War's Confederate veteran Irvine Bulloch and half-sister of Civil War Confederate veteran James Dunwoody Bulloch. They married at her family's historic mansion, Bulloch Hall in Roswell. Theodore Sr. and Martha had four children:


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Of Theodore Sr., or "Thee" as he was known, his namesake son, in his autobiography described him in the following words:


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness. As we grew older, he made us understand that the same standard of clean living was demanded for the boys as for the girls; that what was wrong in a woman could not be right in a man. With great love and patience, and the most generous sympathy and consideration, he combined insistence on discipline. He never physically punished me but once, but he was the only man of whom I was ever really afraid. I do not mean that it was a wrong fear, for he was entirely just, and we children adored him. ...


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: I never knew anyone who got greater joy out of living than did my father, or anyone who more whole-heartedly performed every duty; and no one whom I have ever met approached his combination of enjoyment of life and performance of duty. He and my mother were given to hospitality that at that time was associated more commonly with southern than northern households. ...


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: My father worked hard at his business, for he died when he was forty-six, too early to have retired. He was interested in every social reform movement, and he did an immense amount of practical charitable work himself. He was a big, powerful man, with a leonine face, and his heart filled with gentleness for those who needed help or protection, and with the possibility of much wrath against a bully or an oppressor. ... [He] was greatly interested in the societies to prevent cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. On Sundays, he had a mission class."


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: I was fortunate enough in having a father whom I have always been able to regard as an ideal man. It sounds a little like cant to say what I am going to say, but he did combine the strength and courage and will and energy of the strongest man with the tenderness, cleanness, and purity of a woman. I was a sickly and timid boy. He not only took great and untiring care of me—some of my earliest remembrances are of nights when he would walk up and down with me for an hour at a time in his arms when I was a wretched mite suffering acutely with asthma—but he also most wisely refused to coddle me, and made me feel that I must force myself to hold my own with other boys and prepare to do the rough work of the world. I cannot say that he ever put it into words, but he certainly gave me the feeling that I was always to be both decent and manly, and that if I were manly nobody would laugh at my being decent. In all my childhood he never laid hand on me but once, but I always knew perfectly well that in case it became necessary he would not have the slightest hesitancy in doing so again, and alike from my love and respect, and in a certain sense, my fear of him, I would have hated and dreaded beyond measure to have him know that I had been guilty of a lie, or of cruelty, or of bullying, or of uncleanness or cowardice. Gradually I grew to have the feeling on my account, and not merely on his."


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: To combat his poor physical condition, his father encouraged the young Roosevelt to take up exercise. To deal with bullies, Roosevelt started boxing lessons. Two trips abroad had a permanent impact: family tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and of the Middle East 1872 to 1873.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Theodore Sr. was an active supporter of the Union during the Civil War. He was one of the Charter Members of the Union League Club, which was founded to promote the Northern cause. He has not been listed as such, probably because his wife was a loyal supporter of the Confederacy, and her brothers Irvine Stephens Bulloch and James Dunwoody Bulloch were fighting for the Confederate Army. It was perhaps because of her active support of the Confederate Army that Theodore Sr. hired a replacement to fulfill his draft obligation in the Army of the Potomac. During the war, he and two friends, William Earl Dodge Jr. and Theodore B. Bronson, drew up an Allotment System, which amounted to a soldier's payroll deduction program to support families back home. He then went to Washington, lobbied for, and won acceptance of this system, with the help of Abraham Lincoln himself. Theodore Sr. and Mr. Dodge were appointed Allotment Commissioners from New York State. At their expense, the two men toured all New York divisions of the Army of the Potomac in the field to explain this program and sign interested men up, with a significant degree of success. In 1864, the Union League Club recruited money and food to send Thanksgiving Dinner to the entire Army of the Potomac. Theodore Sr. served as Treasurer for this generous outpouring of support for the troops. The elder Roosevelt meticulously listed every donation received in a Union League Report dated December 1864.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Roosevelt founded the New York Orthopedic Hospital. His younger daughter Corinne wrote this account of its origins: Bamie was born with a curved spine, and Roosevelt found a young doctor, Charles Fayette Taylor, who had developed groundbreaking methods of treating physical defects in children, including braces and other equipment. Roosevelt then organized what appeared to be a social party for the upper crust of New York City. When the would-be revelers arrived, however, what they saw to their great surprise, were small children in new braces specially constructed for them. Moved to tears by the sight, one of the wealthiest socialites, Charlotte Augusta Gibbes (wife of financier/philanthropist John Jacob Astor III) said, "Theodore, you are right; these children must be restored and made into active citizens again, and I for one will help you in your work." That same day enough money was collected to start the hospital. Friends of Roosevelt used to see him coming and note the look in his eyes only to say to him, "How much is it, this time, Theodore?"


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: He contributed large sums to the Newsboys' Lodging-house and the Young Men's Christian Association. He organized the Bureau of United Charities and was a commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities. He was a director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the American Museum of Natural History.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: In October 1877, Roosevelt was nominated by President Rutherford Hayes to the position of Collector of Customs at the Port of New York. One of Hayes's main reasons for nominating Roosevelt was to embarrass New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, whom Hayes considered corrupt, and who was demanding the renomination of the incumbent Collector, future President Chester A. Arthur. Conkling, as a member of the Senate committee tasked with considering the appointment, used endless delaying tactics, and the resulting battle made national headlines and left Roosevelt Sr. feeling humiliated and disillusioned.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: As the process dragged on, Roosevelt started experiencing severe stomach cramps caused by a gastrointestinal tumor, misdiagnosed as peritonisis. In December, two days after his appointment was finally rejected in the Senate by a vote of 25 to 31, Roosevelt collapsed. Initially he kept the extent of his illness hidden from his elder son, who was away attending Harvard. In February, however, 19-year-old Theodore Jr. was informed and immediately took a train from Cambridge to New York, where he missed his father's death by a few hours. The senior Roosevelt had been 46.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was profoundly affected by the early death of his father and spent months in a deep state of grief.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: Biographer H. W. Brands argued that the timing of his death contributed heavily to the younger Theodore's psychology, since the future president knew his father fully while growing up, but missed knowing his father man-to-man, and therefore absorbed a view of his father entirely in his role as a parent, untempered by much realization of his human imperfection. Theodore Jr.'s sister Corinne remarked that "when [Theodore Jr.] was entering upon his duties as President of the United States, he told me frequently that he never took any serious step or made any vital decision for his country without thinking first what position his father would have taken on the question."


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: In 2012, historian Douglas Brinkley ranked Roosevelt first in a list of fathers of presidents of the United States, citing his instilling his son with a love of outdoors and lessons in foreign languages, taxidermy, and bodybuilding and calling Roosevelt "in a league of his own."


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: The year after their 1853 marriage, Mr. & Mrs. Roosevelt moved to a Manhattan city house at 28 East 20th Street. All of their children were born there. The house was demolished in 1916. Following President Roosevelt's death in 1919, the vacant lot was purchased, and the house was re-created as the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site.


title: Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

text: In 1872, the Roosevelt family moved to a city house at 6 West 57th Street, where Theodore Sr. died in 1878.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: To the Beautiful You () is a 2012 South Korean television drama series starring Sulli, Choi Min-ho, and Lee Hyun-woo. It aired on SBS from 15 August to 4 October 2012 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 (KST) for 16 episodes.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: It is based on the Japanese shōjo manga series, , written by Hisaya Nakajo. The Korean series is the fourth television adaptation of the manga following the Taiwanese "Hanazakarino Kimitachihe" in 2006, the Japanese "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e" in 2007 and its remake "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e 2011".


title: To the Beautiful You

text: The story of "To the Beautiful You", distributed over 16 episodes, centers on Goo Jae-hee (Sulli), a Korean girl who lives in the United States. She is bullied in school due to her looks and nearly decides to drop out of school. One day, she sees a track and field competition on TV, and becomes attracted to one of the high jump competitors, Kang Tae-joon (Choi Min-ho). She begins to idolize the young athlete, and is inspired to participate in sports and to stand up against her foes. She eventually transfers to Korea to attend the same school that Tae-joon, who has recently suffered an accident that could potentially end his career. There is a catch, however: Tae-joon attends an all-boys high school, Genie High School, so Jae-hee cuts her hair short and disguises herself as a boy to enter the school.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: In Genie High School, Jae-hee encounters Tae-joon, who is repulsed by her behavior, and befriends soccer athlete Cha Eun-gyeol (Lee Hyun-woo) after a brief brawl with an aggressive muscle boy in the bathroom. Ha Seung-ri (Seo Jun-young), dormitory captain of Dormitory 2, assigns Jae-hee as roommates with Tae-joon. Disgusted of having a roommate, Tae-joon challenges Jae-hee to score a goal in a soccer game so that she will be admitted as his roommate. Jae-hee is injured in the match and is brought to the school infirmary, where the infirmary custodian Teacher Jang Min-woo (Ki Tae-young) becomes the first to discover Jae-hee's true identity. Jae-hee reveals her purpose of coming to Genie High School and pleads for her secret to be kept, to which Teacher Jang, realizing Jae-hee's resolve, hesitatingly accepts.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Jae-hee begins to adapt with the school and her schoolmates, gradually gaining Tae-joon's favor and of the entire Dormitory 2 when she won in a marathon match. A confused Eun-gyeol begins to doubt his sexuality when he begins to feel attracted to Jae-hee, not knowing she is a girl. Tae-joon, who already have hints on Jae-hee's real gender, saves her from being raped during a trip at Seung-ri's place.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: When Jae-hee's older half-brother, Daniel Dawson (Julien Kang), comes to Korea, he finds out what his little sister is doing. Daniel soon decides to make Jae-hee leave the school. Jae-hee and Daniel argue in her and Tae-joon's room, and Tae-joon overhears their conversation, and discovers Jae-hee's secret. Tae-joon sends her out, but he later appreciates her candid efforts in helping him in his athletic career when he discovers a video email that she sent to Canadian high jump coach Mr. Holten, which also contains a brief narration of Jae-hee's bitter life in America and her anticipation to see Tae-joon jump again. Tae-joon pleads Jae-hee not to leave him behind. Teacher Jang, then, convinces Daniel Dawson to trust Jae-hee and to let her stay in Genie High School.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Fueled by the inspiration Jae-hee brought upon him, Tae-joon struggles to recover from his nearly lost career in high-jumping. With Jae-hee's constant support, Tae-joon's cold personality changes and he starts to develop feelings for her, despite negative reactions from his childhood friend, renowned gymnast Seol Han-na (Kim Ji-won), who anticipates having Tae-joon as her boyfriend. On the other hand, Eun-gyeol has rejected the love offered to him by his childhood friend Hong Da-hae (Nam Ji-hyun) and insists on affirming his love for Jae-hee. As they become closer to each other, Tae-joon reveals to Jae-hee about the death of his mother, which he blames on his father's indifference. The competition over who takes Jae-hee intensifies as her childhood friend and suitor John Kim arrives from America for a photo project in Korea. John Kim (Kim Woo-bin) attempts to talk Tae-joon down, but Jae-hee personally rejects his love.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Later, Han-na learns of Jae-hee's true identity after reading a secretly acquired yearbook of Jae-hee's previous school in America. Teacher Jang attempts to stop her from revealing the truth to no avail. The angered Han-na threatens Tae-joon to have her as a date before she kicks Jae-hee out of Genie High School. Tae-joon reluctantly consents, consequently receiving negative responses from the public. Later on, Han-na severely injures her ankle during a rehearsal and is feared incapable to do gymnastics anymore. She finally rejects Tae-joon, just as Eun-gyeol confesses his love for Jae-hee.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Confused on what to do after Eun-gyeol's confession, Jae-hee asks advice from Teacher Jang. Along with his fellow teachers, Teacher Jang brings Jae-hee, Tae-joon, and Eun-gyeol to the countryside for volunteer work, thinking it will lessen the tension between the trio. After the trip, Tae-joon reveals to Teacher Jang his plan to confess his love for Jae-hee and to admit to her that he knew all along that she is a girl.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Meanwhile, Tae-joon's training partner and fellow high jumper Min Hyeon-jae (Kang Ha-neul) gets stressed over the competition between them and attempts to sabotage him. Instead, his efforts nearly killed Jae-hee and injured Eun-gyeol, rendering the latter incapable of playing an incoming soccer match. Hyeon-jae reveals to the Eun-gyeol (who was his roommate) his fears of defeat and disheartening his own family. Eun-gyeol forgives Hyeon-jae to the condition that he shall put him under his servitude until he heals from his injury. Tae-joon dismisses Hyeon-jae's offensive acts and encourages him not to withdraw from his sports career.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Soon after, Jae-hee talks to Tae-joon about making up with his father, Kang Geun-wook (Sunwoo Jae-duk). Tae-joon learns from Geun-wook the truth about his mother's death: his mother's condition was unbeknown to both Tae-joon and Geun-wook, and when she died, Geun-wook decided to let Tae-joon blame him for her death. Tae-joon reconciles with his father, and his performance in high jumping boosted as the date of the National competition approached. Just then, Eun-gyeol unexpectedly discovers Jae-hee's identity and felt betrayed for not being told of the truth. Tae-joon comforts a troubled Jae-hee, reveals that he had known all along that she is a girl, and finally confesses his love for her.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Later, gossips of a girl hiding in Genie High School began to spread and the captains of Dormitory 1 and 3 starts to search the locker rooms to confirm the rumor. Eun-gyeol hears of their plan and hides Jae-hee before the dormitory captains were able to see her changing clothes in the locker room. Eun-gyeol lets go of his anger and accepts the reality that he and Jae-hee cannot be together, telling Jae-hee of his happiness he felt when he learned that she was a girl.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Merely two days before Tae-joon's match, Jae-hee faints at school and her identity is revealed when students try to revive her. Seung-ri scolds Jae-hee for what she had done, though, out of loyalty for his own dormitory, he takes the responsibility of Jae-hee's case. Knowing that the truth will soon be brought to the school head, she plans to leave the school behind for good and scheduled her flight on the day of the National competition. She spends his last night and shares a kiss with the unknowing Tae-joon, who was in the arena during the incident.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: On the day of her departure, Eun-gyeol, Seung-ri, and the entire Dormitory 2 gives their last messages to Jae-hee and bids her farewell. Tae-joon learns from Eun-gyeol about Jea-hee's departure. Just as he was about to leave the arena, he saw Jae-hee's diary inside his bag and is inspired to do the jump without her. Miraculously, Tae-joon emerges victorious in the match and vows to Jae-hee on the live cameras that he shall see her once again.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: A year later in the United States, Jae-hee gets updates from Eun-gyeol through his video emails. At the end of the episode, Jae-hee unexpectedly meets Tae-joon and they happily share a hug.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: On 10 March 2011, SM Entertainment announced that they had acquired the rights to the manga, "Hana Kimi" and would be filming its Korean adaptation. Representatives revealed, "The Korean version will have a total of 16 episodes that draw out stories of hopes and dreams. It's a teenage comedy with a cute, but strong storyline and a slew of handsome cast members."


title: To the Beautiful You

text: On 26 April, it was announced that Shinee's Choi Min-ho and f(x)'s Sulli are cast in the lead roles, and directed by Jeon Ki-sang who had previously directed the hit dramas "My Girl" and "Boys Over Flowers". On 24 May 2012, it was further announced that the title is "To The Beautiful You" and written by Lee Young-chul, who wrote the "High Kick!" series. On 6 June, it was announced that Infinite's L was reviewing the offer to join, but would have to juggle overseas schedules with filming. After previous discussions for the secondary male lead role, Lee Hyun-woo was finally confirmed as Cha Eun-gyul.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: The first script reading took place on 7 June at SBS Ilsan Production Center. On 9 July Minho, Sulli, Kwanghee and members of EXO were spotted taking part in a photoshoot for the drama. In preparation for his role as Tae-joon, Minho received personal training from coach Kim Tae-young, former national high jump athlete and a member of the Korea Association of Athletics Federations, for a month and a half. His personal record at the end of July was 175 cm.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: Filming began at the beginning of July. In an interview with Vogue Girl Korea, Minho confirmed that the drama would broadcast on 15 August, rather than the initially scheduled 8 August. MokWon University was used to film the scenes in Genie Athletic High School, and Anmyeondo was used to film the summer vacation scenes. The first scene Choi Min-ho filmed was a high jump scene. For the high jump scene, 105 high-speed cameras were used to film in bullet time.


title: To the Beautiful You

text: According to AGB Nielsen Media Research, the premiere episode achieved a nationwide rating of 7.4 percent in viewership, behind its rival "Arang and the Magistrate" on MBC with 13.3 percent for its premiere episode and 19.4 percent for "Bridal Mask" on KBS.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Rocket to Russia is the third studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, and was released on November 4, 1977, through Sire Records. Its origins date back to the summer of 1977, when "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" was released as a single. That summer was known as the peak of the punk rock genre since many punk bands were offered recording contracts. The album's recording began in August 1977, and the band had a considerably larger budget with Sire allowing them between $25,000 and $30,000; much of this money went toward the album's production rather than recording.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: The album's cover art was directed by John Gillespie. John Holmstrom and guitarist Johnny Ramone both worked on illustration, with the entire back cover contemplating a military theme, while the inner sleeve artwork depicted many of the themes portrayed in songs. The subject matter of songs varied throughout the album, though nearly all the tracks on the album incorporated humor into the lyrics. The musical style showed more of a surf rock influence, and many songs had minimal structuring.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: The album received positive reviews, with many critics appreciating the matured production and sound quality as compared to "Rocket to Russia"s predecessors. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it his favorite Ramones album as it contained several hooks and featured more variety of tempos. The album was not as commercially successful as the band had hoped, peaking at number 49 on the "Billboard" 200. Band members blamed the Sex Pistols for their lack of sales, saying that they changed the punk image for the worse. This is the last album to be recorded with all four original members, as drummer Tommy Ramone left the band in 1978 to work solely on production. The album was ranked at number 106 in "Rolling Stone"'s "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2012, and was ranked number 385 in the 2020 edition.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: In the summer of 1977, the single "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" was released shortly after the release of the band's second album, "Leave Home". This period was extremely significant to the punk rock genre, as it was the initial wave of New York City's underground punk bands receiving recording contracts. New York-based clubs CBGB and Max's Kansas City began to see bigger audiences crowd in to hear these bands. Punk fans commonly believed that this musical style would soon top the market, to which author Tom Carson explains: "To be in New York that summer was to have some sense of what it might have been like to live in San Francisco in 1966 or '67, or in London when the Beatles and the [Rolling] Stones first hit."


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Sire Records allowed the band between $25,000 and $30,000 to fully record and produce the album, which is a considerably larger budget compared to the band's previous albums. The band spent most of the money Sire had given them on the album's production value. The studio rent was $150 per hour, usually using the first take of a song as its final recording. Johnny explained that "it's best to do it quickly ... You do not wanna sit there and bullshit. It's your money they're spending."


title: Rocket to Russia

text: The recording began on August 21, 1977 and took place in Midtown Manhattan at Mediasound Studios, a premises of a former Episcopalian Church. On the first day of sessions, guitarist Johnny Ramone brought a copy of the Sex Pistols' single "God Save the Queen" with him, remarking that their type of music "robbed" the band. He emphasized that the album's sound engineer Ed Stasium needed to incorporate better production than that of the Sex Pistols, to which Stasium replied "no problem". Johnny relates: "These guys ripped us off and I want to sound better than this."


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Though the album cites Tony Bongiovi and Tommy Ramone (credited as T. Erdelyi) as the head producers, much of the album's production was done by Stasium; Johnny went so far as to insist that Bongiovi was "not even there" during the band's recording sessions. "Rocket to Russia"s final mastering was mainly done in Bongiovi's "Power Station" studio. Infamous record producer Phil Spector offered to fabricate "Rocket to Russia", but the band declined, feeling as though the album would not be the same without Tommy and Bongiovi.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: The album was released on November 4, 1977, under the name "Rocket to Russia", though it had a working title of "Get Well". John Gillespie directed the artwork on the album, and the cover photo was taken by Danny Fields. Arturo Vega is credited as Artistic Coordinator, and "Punk" magazine editor John Holmstrom illustrated for the album. Holmstrom and Johnny collaborated on the back cover's concept, eventually conceiving a military theme with an anti-communist cartoon drawing. The back cover art depicts a "pinhead" riding a rocket from the US to Russia. The drawing features many landmarks which pertain to their global position, including The Empire State Building and Capitol Building, and Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The original artwork is now featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The inside sleeve features cartoon illustrations of each song's basic concept.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Compared to the band's previous albums, the songs from "Rocket to Russia" were more surf music and bubblegum pop influenced. But similar to their previous releases, the lyrics integrated humor, specifically black comedy with themes circling mental disorders and psychiatry.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: The album opens with "Cretin Hop", which pays homage to Ramones fans, and was inspired by Cretin Avenue of St. Paul, Minnesota, named after former bishop Joseph Crétin. When the piece was performed at concerts, the band would pogo dance on stage. "Rockaway Beach" was written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone, and was inspired by the Beach Boys along with other surf music bands. The title refers to a neighborhood and beach in Queens which Dee Dee was a fan of, as confirmed by Tommy and Joey. "I Don't Care" is composed of three chords and features minimal text composition. The song is among the first pieces written by the band and was originally recorded as a demo that was released on the 2001 expanded edition of the Ramones debut album. "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" was written by Joey, who explains that the lyrics are about a young female outsider named Sheena who strayed away from the popular disco and surf music and instead visited nightclubs and listened to punk rock. The mid-tempo song deviates from a three-chord pattern and starts off with Dee Dee shouting "Four!", which, according to engineer Ed Stasium, was the result of Dee Dee starting his iconic countdown before the tape started rolling. This is followed by guitar riffs deemed to have a "raucous" texture by author Tom Carson. The author also suggests that these chords "bump[ed]" into each other until the song's fade-out ending.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: "We're a Happy Family" is a caricature of the conditions which 20th-century middle-class American families lived in. The song's lyrics depict a dysfunctional family where the father is a lying homosexual, the mother is addicted to prescription drugs, the infant has chills. The writing also tells of how the family are friends with the President of the United States and the Pope and indicate that the family sells "dope". The song fades out with various different lines taken from fake dialogue, which illustrate a side of Joey's personality according to his brother Mickey Leigh.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Side B of the album begins with "Teenage Lobotomy", which deals with the brain surgical operation lobotomy. The lyrics outline how this procedure can cause serious consequences to the brain, with the line "Gonna get my Ph.D, I'm a teenage lobotomy." The composition features more complex melodies than that of other songs from the album, with Stasium proclaiming it to be a "mini-Ramones Symphony". "Rocket to Russia" is the first album to feature two cover songs: "Do You Wanna Dance?" (originally performed by Bobby Freeman) and "Surfin' Bird" (originally performed by the Trashmen).


title: Rocket to Russia

text: "Rocket to Russia" was well received by critics, and was often given a positive review. Many critics appreciated the band's progression of sound quality and production value, as opposed to the album's predecessors. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, a music critic at AllMusic said that the production "only gives the Ramones' music more force." He rewarded the album five out of five stars, stating that although it lacks the revolutionary impact that their debut had, "Rocket to Russia" is the band's "most listenable and enjoyable album" because of its surplus of hooks and varying tempo.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Critic Robert Christgau reaffirms that the album's content evolved significantly since previous releases. Writing in "" (1981), he noted that the album had "something for everyone" and called it a "ready-made punk-rock classic." "Rolling Stone" critic Dave Marsh began his review of the album by stating: ""Rocket to Russia" is the best American rock & roll of the year and possibly the funniest rock album ever made." Like other critics, Marsh recognized the advanced sound quality, explaining that "the guitars still riff relentlessly, but they are freer within the murky sound, and the songs give them much more to work with." John Rockwell of "The New York Times" deemed "Rocket to Russia" the band's best album "because the humor and the role-playing have become more overt than ever."


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Though the band expected the album to spawn a few hit songs, "Rocket to Russia" sold few records. The album charted on the US "Billboard" 200 at number 49, making this album one of the most successful of the Ramones' releases. It also debuted at number 31 on the Swedish charts, 36 on the Canadian charts, and 60 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Rocket to Russia

text: The lack of record sales was largely due to the fellow punk band Sex Pistols turning people off the genre "with their antisocial behavior," as put by author Brian J. Bowe. Rock music historian Legs McNeil relates: "Safety pins, razor blades, chopped haircuts, snarling, vomiting—everything that had nothing to do with the Ramones was suddenly in vogue, and it killed any chance "Rocket to Russia" had of getting any airplay." Joey also insisted that the Sex Pistols were partially responsible for the low sale numbers, concluding that before "60 Minutes" focused on the Sex Pistols, "Rocket to Russia" had decent airplay. After this, Joey asserted that "everyone flipped out and then things changed radically. It really kind of screwed things up for ourselves."


title: Rocket to Russia

text: Drummer Tommy, who had also worked to co-produce the album, was troubled by the lack of sales and began debating on continuing with the Ramones. He also considered touring to be "depressing", and that the audience at unfamiliar gigs were "a bunch of very eccentric, high-strung, crazy people, from one shit-hole club to another." The drummer left the band in 1978 but continued as producer on their next album "Road to Ruin". He said:


title: Rocket to Russia

text: All tracks originally credited to the Ramones (except "Do You Wanna Dance?" and "Surfin' Bird"). Actual writers are listed alongside the tracks.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut studio album by American indie folk band Bon Iver. It was first self-released in July 2007, and later saw wide release on the Jagjaguwar label in February 2008. The album is principally the work of singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. While living in Raleigh, North Carolina, Vernon fell ill with mononucleosis and a liver infection, and grew frustrated with his songwriting and life. He left Raleigh and drove to his father's remote hunting cabin an hour northwest of his hometown, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, hoping to be alone.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: The album was recorded at the cabin between late 2006 to early 2007. Vernon abandoned his old songwriting methods and instead focused on wordless melodies that he later set to words, which he felt evoked a more subconscious meaning. The record's lyrical subjects include lost love and mediocrity. His folk-infused songs include heavy choral arrangements, featuring Vernon's falsetto, and horns. He hunted his own food and spent much of his time isolated. Though he did not intend to make an album, he received strong encouragements from friends and decided to self-release "For Emma, Forever Ago" in July 2007. After several performances and online exposure, he was signed to Jagjaguwar later that year.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: "For Emma, Forever Ago" attracted wide acclaim from music critics, achieving a spot on dozens of end-of-the-year lists, as well as several awards. It became a major commercial success for Jagjaguwar, an independent label, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of over one million units. "Skinny Love" became the album's best-performing single and also went gold. Vernon gathered together several musicians to form a band to tour with. The album's touring cycle lasted two years, ending in late 2009, and visited several countries and music festivals worldwide. In 2020, it was ranked 461 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the greatest albums of all time.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: Justin Vernon was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and grew up pursuing music. He saw the folk duo Indigo Girls in concert in middle school and it proved formative on his life. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UW–Eau Claire), where he played in a number of bands. One such group, Mount Vernon, consisted of ten members, including saxophonist Sara Jensen, who became his first love. He and Jensen broke up in the middle of his college years, but would remain friends. He studied music theory for a time, as well as jazz, but ended up with a degree in religious studies. DeYarmond Edison became his next musical project, as he graduated from college and relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina in August 2005. The group chose Raleigh hoping for an adventure and a more vibrant musical scene.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: Over the course of his time in Raleigh, he became frustrated with his songwriting as well as personal life. He worked at a local sandwich shop that he felt took too much time from him. He started to have health problems: he first contracted pneumonia, then mononucleosis, which developed into a liver infection that kept him bedridden for three months. Members of the band began to fight, and Vernon was kicked out of the group. Many of his bands had held similar members—some he had known since his adolescence—which amplified the pain of breaking apart. Afterwards, he spent time as a band member for the Rosebuds; his contributions feature on their third album, "Night of the Furies". Vernon also recorded a solo extended play, "Hazeltons", which he distributed in 100 self-made CD-Rs. He lost his money playing online poker, which he viewed as a microcosm for his other problems.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: Vernon, then 25, felt his life had spiraled into mediocrity, as though he had lost the sense of purpose he had a half-decade prior. He sensed he had compromised with bandmates and in his personal life. His depression was fueled by indifference, and he decided to get away from Raleigh and return to his hometown. He broke-up with his then-girlfriend, Christy Smith, and tossed his recording equipment into the trunk of his car. He drove home to Eau Claire over eighteen hours through the night. He first stopped at his parents' home while they were out. He sat on their couch and felt "claustrophobic" and "super-empty." He returned to the road, in search of silence and hoping to be alone.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: Vernon's travels brought him to his father's hunting cabin, roughly an hour's drive northwest of his hometown. He and his father had often spent weekends at the 80-acre rural property—an area they dubbed "the land"—when he was growing up. In an interview, he described it as "a little alpine-style, timber-frame cabin." The cabin was not necessarily ramshackle; his father had replaced its dirt floor and installed plumbing years before. For roughly three weeks, Vernon sat alone in the shack, drinking beer and watching television. He mulled over thoughts about his relationship with Jensen, a break-up he had struggled to get over. He hunted his food, a practice that he had learned from his father. He killed two deer in his period at the property, which lasted the entire three months "and then some," according to Vernon. At one point, he faced a wild bear that entered the cabin late one night, enticed by his stew. His father would drop by "every 10 days or so," supplying his son with beer, eggs, and cheese. Vernon completed tasks for him, such as stripping wood, clearing brush, and stacking lumber. He did not intend to stay for long, viewing the excursion as "an opportunity to escape the trap of society, to not pay bills, to play music and live really cheaply." Instead, he stayed for three months in the harsh Wisconsin winter.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: After three weeks, Vernon grew tired of his "self-indulgent, lazy behavior" and began forming song ideas. He had an idea for a song and brought inside his musical equipment, which consisted of several guitars, microphones, and an old-model Macintosh with ProTools LE. Shortly before exiting Raleigh, he had developed song ideas but ceased working on them in his depression. He began recording songs and layering his vocals atop more vocals, imitating a choir. He sang in falsetto, which he had first tried with his previous band. He gained freedom in singing in a higher register, feeling he accessed "painful melodies" unattainable in his previous work. He further manipulated his recorded vocals using the software Auto-Tune. Soon, he began developing more songs, which were worked on in 12-hour "bursts" of productivity. "I would work for 14 hours a day and start to feel a little insane," he later commented. The work was "labor-intensive," as he often merged over a minimum of eight tracks of vocals on each song. He likened the singularity of the process to his teenage years, where he worked alone with an eight-track. According to Vernon, days were hazy and began to run together for him. He would wake each morning at sunrise, due to the light reflecting from the snow. To help repair his 1964 Sears Silvertone guitar, he traded venison in the nearby town. By February, with winter drawing to a close, Vernon emerged from the cabin with nine songs. He left still feeling physically sick from the infection, and did not feel "renewed" from his creative catharsis. Before heading back to Raleigh, he broke out some whisky with a couple friends and put the finishing touches on the record, recording brass on "For Emma."


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: While stories of the "cabin" would become oft-repeated and mythologized, Vernon never viewed it that way: "It's sort of odd to look back and see it as magical, because it felt like a lonely few months at the cabin, where I plugged in the laptop and fucked around." "Rolling Stone" Josh Eells later summarized its romanticized story as "part "Into the Wild", part "Basement Tapes", part "Walden", part Unabomber." Vernon later viewed the album as a victory for his mental health, a metaphor for taking "personal steps" to improve his life. He characterized his growth as a "small internal dialogue between me and the microphone." The album's title comes from the middle name of Jensen, though he refrained from confirming that she was the central inspiration behind the album. He felt the titular "Emma" was evocative of "a statement, a sentiment and a closing of my own history." He went more in-depth in a later remark: "Emma isn't a person. Emma is a place that you get stuck in. Emma's a pain that you can’t erase."


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: "For Emma, Forever Ago" is a summation of Vernon's life events at the time, ranging from "lost love and longing" to mediocrity. His lyrics on the album aspire to tell stories, which was inspired by musician Bruce Springsteen, and the song structures are unorthodox. He discarded his old method of songwriting, both metaphorically and literally: on one occasion, an old PowerBook crashed, losing dozens of unfinished old songs. Vernon buried the laptop in the snow, later remarking, "They were taken from me but it was good that they were, as it really gave me a new face." Music came first, after which he would create wordless vocal lines. He felt this process brought forth "weird, subconscious melodies and sounds." He considered this method a "back-door way," as they fit more to his unintelligible syllables than words. He expanded upon this process in a 2008 interview:


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: Vernon listened to little music while creating the album, but was inspired by myriad sources. He had listened to Vienna Boys' Choir recordings months prior, which inspired him to incorporate choral arrangements into his work. He also felt inspired by Appalachian folk singers who employed the falsetto register, which inspired him to use his. As a result, he felt more comfortable singing certain complicated phrases, as though he could express pain or joy more clearly. He suggested in one interview it could have been a reaction to his favorite black singers, such as the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, and Sam Cooke. "Flume" was written at his girlfriend Christy Smith's house in Raleigh, preceding his trip to the cabin. He later dubbed "Flume" as the "catalyst" for his move to the cabin and creation of Bon Iver: "that was the song that made me leave." While "Skinny Love" has been considered a reference to his relationship with Smith, Vernon countered this as "not entirely accurate [...] it's about that time in a relationship that I was going through; you're in a relationship because you need help, but that's not necessarily why you should be in a relationship. And that's skinny." "re: Stacks", meanwhile, concerns a period of problem gambling Vernon underwent.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: After completing the recordings, Vernon returned to North Carolina to play guitar on tour with the Rosebuds, who toured through that spring. It took several months for him to have thoughts on his recordings. He viewed them as potential demos he would later re-record, but Ivan Howard of the Rosebuds convinced him to leave it as is, commenting, "This is your record." He consulted friends to listen first before deciding to self-release it. He mixed his recordings himself, hoping to send them out to labels who would give him an advance to record a "real" album. While at the cabin, Vernon had written to Kelly Crisp of the Rosebuds, concluding his letter with "bon iver," a misspelling of "bon hiver," which is French for "good winter." Its origins lie in an episode of "Northern Exposure", wherein two characters greet one another. Crisp encouraged him to name the project Bon Iver. While on tour with the Rosebuds, he asked to play a small solo set, his first, prior to a performance at that year's South by Southwest (SXSW). Encouraged, more performances followed in New York and in Wisconsin.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: "For Emma, Forever Ago" was first self-distributed on MySpace in June 2007, and gradually became an independent hit throughout that year. My Old Kentucky Blog was the first to popularize the record. A release party was held at the House of Rock in Eau Claire on July 8, 2007, marking the album's CD debut. It was a limited run of 500 copies, as Vernon had no idea who would be interested. He intended to send out 100 copies to press outlets. Positive reviews increased within weeks, from music blogs such as BrooklynVegan and "Pitchfork". An appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York increased Vernon's popularity among music blogs such as Stereogum, and he began to see offers to release the album from record labels. According to Vernon, major labels were "desperate" to sign him, offering contracts in which he chose the deal. He chose to sign with independent label Jagjaguwar in late October 2007 because he liked the label's president, Chris Swanson, who had first opened communication in the summer, and its Midwest roots. 4AD would distribute the album in Europe.


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: "For Emma, Forever Ago" received widespread acclaim from critics. It scored an 88 on review aggregate site Metacritic, based on 27 critics. One of the earliest reviews came from "Pitchfork" Stephen M. Deusner, who praised Vernon's "soulful performance," describing the record as "a ruminative collection of songs full of natural imagery and acoustic strums—the sound of a man left alone with his memories and a guitar." Rob Sheffield for "Rolling Stone" christened it a "quiet marvel," praising Vernon's "light touch, with zero interest in narrative or confessional lyrics." "The Guardian" Jude Rogers praised Vernon's restraint, noting, "nothing is overplayed, but nothing feels throwaway either." Steven Hyden of "The A.V. Club" characterized it as "quietly startling," opining, "The power is in how these songs sound rather than what the opaque lyrics don't quite spell out." Tim Sendra of AllMusic wrote that ""For Emma" captures the sound of broken and quiet isolation, wraps it in a beautiful package, and delivers it to your door with a beating, bruised heart. It's quite an achievement for a debut and the promise of greatness in the future is high."


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: David Marchese, writing for "Spin", suggested Vernon's "sturdy folk chords, earthy melodies, and plainspoken, pastoral lyrics prevent the album from descending into self-pity." "Uncut" John Mulvey deemed the record "a hermetically sealed, complete and satisfying album" that "operates so securely and intensely in its own world that to listen sometimes seem like an intrusive act." Darcie Stevens of the "Austin Chronicle" described the record as a "paradigm of uninhibited closure, a gentle touch on a sad day," writing, "[Vernon]'s pain is so visceral it provides warmth, the therapeutic definition of music." "The New York Times" called the record "irresistible." On the other hand, Robert Christgau, in his review for "MSN Music", stated that the album ultimately had little to say about "shared aloneness", comparing Vernon unfavorably to Robert Creeley and writing that Vernon's "solitary meditations ... lose definition faster than an angel's breath on a January morn".


title: For Emma, Forever Ago

text: Upon its February 2008 release, "For Emma, Forever Ago" sold 4,000 copies in its debut week. That placed it on several US album sales charts, including at number 182 on the "Billboard" 200 and a number five entry on the Top Heatseekers chart. Sales for "For Emma" were "slow-building," according to music publication "Billboard", but eventually became a "commercial smash" for Jagjaguwar. The album eventually peaked at number 64 on the "Billboard" 200 in the issue dated January 24, 2009. Prior to its official release on Jagjaguwar, the album was widely available online. The label offered sales incentives in response, including a free poster with pre-ordered copies, a bonus track on the iTunes Store edition, as well as purchasing a copy required for in-store performances. The album was mostly successful among triple-A radio stations in the US, including many public stations in the Midwest, where the label focused their marketing campaign.