title: Brittany

text: Brittany lies within the north temperate zone. It has a changeable, maritime climate, similar to Cornwall. Rainfall occurs regularly but sunny, cloudless days are also common. In the summer months, temperatures in the region can reach , yet the climate remains comfortable, especially when compared to the French regions located south of the Loire. The temperature difference between summer and winter is about 15 degrees, but it varies depending on the proximity of the sea. The weather is generally milder on the seacoast than inland but rainfall occurs with the same intensity on both. The Monts d'Arrée, despite their low elevation, have much more rainfall than the rest of the region. The south coast, between Lorient and Pornic, enjoys more than 2,000 hours of sunshine per year.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany's wildlife is typical of France with several distinctions. On one hand, the region, due to its long coastline, has a rich oceanic fauna, and some birds cannot be seen in other French regions. On the other hand, the species found in the inland are usually common for France, and because Brittany is a peninsula, the number of species is lower in its western extremity than in the eastern part.


title: Brittany

text: A variety of seabirds can be seen close to the seaside, which is home to colonies of cormorants, gulls, razorbills, northern gannets, common murres and Atlantic puffins. Most of these birds breed on isolated islands and rocks and thus are hard to observe. The inland is home to common European species including pheasants, barn swallows, woodcocks, common swifts, partridges...


title: Brittany

text: Like Cornwall, Wales and Ireland, the waters of Brittany attract marine animals including basking sharks, grey seals, leatherback turtles, dolphins, porpoises, jellyfish, crabs and lobsters. Bass is common along the coast, small-spotted catsharks live on the continental shelf, rattails and anglerfish populate the deep waters. River fish of note include trout, Atlantic salmon, pikes, shades and lampreys. The Breton rivers are also home to beavers and otters and to some invasive American species, such as the coypu which destroys the ecosystem and accelerated the extinction of the European mink.


title: Brittany

text: Among the invertebrates, Brittany is notably home to the escargot de Quimper, the freshwater pearl mussel and the white-clawed crayfish. The larger Breton mammals died out during the modern period, including the wolf. Today, mammals of note include roe deer, wild boar, foxes, hares and several species of bat.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany is widely known for the Breton horse, a local breed of draft horse, and for the Brittany gun dog. The region also has its own breeds of cattle, some of which are on the brink of extinction: the Bretonne Pie Noir, the Froment du Léon, the Armorican and the Nantaise.


title: Brittany

text: The Breton forests, dunes, moorlands and marshes are home to several iconic plants, such as endemic cistus, aster and linaria varieties, the horseshoe vetch and the lotus maritimus.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany has the same education system as the rest of France. As in other French regions, formal education before the 19th century was the preserve of the elite. Before 1460, Brittany did not have a university, and Breton students had to go to Angers, Poitiers or Caen. The University of Nantes was founded under the duke Francis II, who wanted to affirm the Breton independence from France. All the traditional disciplines were taught here: arts, theology, law and medicine. During the 17th century, it had around 1,500 students. It declined during the 18th century, mostly because Nantes was flourishing with the Atlantic slave trade and paid no attention to its cultural institutions.


title: Brittany

text: A mayor eventually asked the university to be relocated to Rennes, more devoted to culture and science, and the faculties progressively moved there after 1735. The transfer was interrupted by the French Revolution, and all the French universities were dissolved in 1793.


title: Brittany

text: Napoleon reorganised the French education system in 1808. He created new universities and invented two secondary education institutions: the "collèges" and the "lycées" which were opened in numerous towns to educate boys and form a new elite. A new University of Rennes was progressively recreated during the 19th century. In the meantime, several laws were promoted to open schools, notably for girls. In 1882, Jules Ferry succeeded in passing a law which made primary education in France free, non-clerical (laïque) and mandatory. Thus, free schools were opened in almost every villages of Brittany. Jules Ferry also promoted education policies establishing French language as the language of the Republic, and mandatory education was a mean to eradicate regional languages and dialects. In Brittany, it was forbidden for the pupils to speak Breton or Gallo, and the two were strongly depreciated. Humiliating practices aimed at stamping out the Breton language and culture prevailed in state schools until the late 1960s. In response, the Diwan schools were founded in 1977 to teach Breton by immersion. They have taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school, and they have gained more and more fame owing to their high level of results in school exams. A bilingual approach has also been implemented in some state schools after 1979, and some Catholic schools have done the same after 1990. Besides, Brittany, with the neighbouring Pays de la Loire region, remains a stronghold for Catholic private education with around 1,400 schools.


title: Brittany

text: During the 20th century, tertiary education was developed with the creation of the École centrale de Nantes in 1919, the University of Nantes in 1961, the ESC Bretagne Brest in 1962, the University of Western Brittany in 1971, the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne in 1977 and the University of Southern Brittany in 1995. The Catholic University of the West, based in Angers, also opened classes in several Breton towns. In 1969, the University of Rennes was divided between the University of Rennes 1 and the University of Rennes 2 – Upper Brittany. After the Second World War, the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, the foremost French military academy, settled in Coëtquidan.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany, apart from some areas such as Lorient, Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, has never been heavily industrialised. Today, fishing and agriculture remain important activities. Brittany has more than 40,000 farms, mostly oriented towards cattle, pig and poultry breeding, as well as cereal and vegetable production. The number of farms tends to diminish, but as a result, they are merged into very large estates. Brittany is the first producer in France for vegetables (green beans, onions, artichokes, potatoes, tomatoes...). Cereals are mostly grown for cattle feeding. Wine, especially muscadet, is made in a small region south of Nantes. Brittany is the first region in France for fishing. The activity employs around 15,000 people, and more than 2500 firms work in fish and seafood processing.


title: Brittany

text: Although relatively new, the Breton industry has been constantly growing since 1980. Food processing (meat, vegetables...) represents a third of the industrial jobs, but other activities are also important for the local economy. Shipbuilding, both commercial and military, is implanted in Saint-Nazaire (Chantiers de l'Atlantique), Lorient and Brest; Airbus has plants in Saint-Nazaire and Nantes; and Peugeot has a large factory in Rennes. Brittany is the second French region for telecommunication and the fifth for electronics, two activities mainly developed in Rennes, Lannion and Brest. Tourism is particularly important for the seacoast and Brittany is one of the most visited regions in France. In April 2019, The Guardian's travel section included two Brittany locations in its list of "20 of the most beautiful villages in France". The two were Rochefort-en-Terre with "its covered market, 12th-century church, medieval castle, 19th-century chateau, and 16th- and 17th-century mansions" and Locronan, where "East India Company's offices still stand on the village square, as well as 17th-century merchants' dwellings".


title: Brittany

text: The unemployment rate in Brittany is lower than in other French regions and it is usually around 6 or 7% of the active population. Because of the global financial crisis started in 2007, unemployment rose to 8.7% in the Region Brittany and 8.4% in Loire-Atlantique in late 2012. However, these figures remain under the French national rate (9.9% at the same period). Some industries, such as construction, industry, catering or transport, usually have difficulties finding employees.


title: Brittany

text: In 2018, Region Brittany's gross domestic product reached 99 billion euros. It was the ninth richest region in France and it produced 4% of the national GDP. The Breton GDP per capita was around 29,694 euros in 2018. It was lower than the French result, 30,266 euros, below the European one, 30,900 euros. The GDP of the Loire-Atlantique "département" is around 26 billion euros, and the GDP of the five historical Breton départements would be at around 108 billion euros.


title: Brittany

text: In 2017, the population in Region Brittany was estimated to 3,318,904 and Loire-Atlantique had around 1,394,909 inhabitants, thus historical Brittany's population can be estimated at 4,713,813, the highest in its history. The population in Region Brittany had grown by 0.9% between 1999 and 2000, and the growth rate reached more than 1% in Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan. The region around Rennes and the south are the more attractive areas, whereas the population is declining in the centre and in the westernmost parts. While most of the metropolitan areas are growing, the cities themselves tend to stagnate or regress, such as for Brest, Lorient, Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo. In 2017, Ille-et-Vilaine had 1,060,199 inhabitants, it was followed by Finistère 909,028 inhabitants, Morbihan 750,863 inhabitants, and Côtes-d'Armor, with 598,814 inhabitants.


title: Brittany

text: The largest cities in Region Brittany as of 2017 were Rennes, with 216,815 inhabitants, Brest 140,064, Quimper 62,985, Lorient 57,149, Vannes 53,352, Saint-Malo 46,097 and Saint-Brieuc 44,372. All the other communes had under 25,000 inhabitants. Brittany is also characterised by a great number of small towns, such as Vitré, Concarneau, Morlaix or Auray. Loire-Atlantique has two major cities, Nantes, with 309,346 inhabitants and an urban area encompassing 972,828, and Saint-Nazaire, with 69,993 inhabitants. Loire-Atlantique's population is more rapidly growing than Region Brittany's and it is the 12th most populated French département. Nevertheless, since the 1990s, Rennes has consistently ranked as one of France's fastest growing metropolitan areas.


title: Brittany

text: In 1851, Brittany had around 2.7 million inhabitants and the demographic growth stayed low until the second half of the 20th century, mainly because of an important emigration. Brittany had 3.2 million inhabitants in 1962 and the growth was mainly due to Loire-Atlantique and the steady growth of Nantes. Without the Loire-Atlantique's figures, the Breton population only numbered 2.4 million in 1962, nearly unchanged from its population of 2.3 million in 1851. After the 1960s, the whole region has had a strong demographic growth because of the decline of the traditional emigration to richer French regions. Instead, Brittany has become attractive, particularly for families, young retired persons and active people over 35 years old.


title: Brittany

text: Breton political parties do not have wide support and their electoral success is small. However, Bretons have a strong cultural identity. According to a poll made in 2008, 50% of the inhabitants of the Region Brittany consider themselves as much Breton as French, 22.5% feel more Breton than French, and 15.4% more French than Breton. A minority, 1.5%, considers themselves Breton but not French, while 9.3% do not consider themselves to be Breton at all.


title: Brittany

text: 51.9% of the poll respondents agreed that Brittany should have more political power, and 31.1% thought that it should stay the same. Only 4.6% favoured independence, and 9.4% were undecided.


title: Brittany

text: A 2012 poll taken in the five departments of historical Brittany showed that 48% of the respondents considered themselves belonging first to France, 37% to Brittany, and 10% to Europe. It also showed that Breton identity is stronger among people younger than 35. 53% of them considering themselves to belong first to Brittany. 50% of the older respondents considered themselves belonging first to France. Primary Breton identity is at its lowest among the respondents over 65: 58% consider themselves to belong first to France, with European identify secondary. 21% of the respondents over 65 considering themselves to be European first. Breton self-identification is stronger among people who vote left-wing. It is stronger among employees than employers.


title: Brittany

text: French, the only official language of the French Republic, is spoken today by the vast majority in Brittany, and it is the mother tongue of most people. Nonetheless, French was not widely known before the 19th century, and two regional languages exist in Brittany: Breton and Gallo. They are separated by a language border that has constantly moved back since the Middle Ages.


title: Brittany

text: The current border runs from Plouha on the English Channel to the Rhuys Peninsula on the Bay of Biscay. Because of their origins and practice, Breton and Gallo can be compared to Scottish Gaelic and Scots language in Scotland. Both have been recognised as "Langues de Bretagne" (languages of Brittany) by the Regional Council of Brittany since 2004.


title: Brittany

text: Breton is a Celtic language derived from the historical Common Brittonic language, and is most closely related to Cornish and Welsh. It was imported to Western Armorica during the 5th century by Britons fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Breton remained the language of the rural population, but since the Middle Ages the bourgeoisie, the nobility, and the higher clergy have spoken French.


title: Brittany

text: Government policies in the 19th and 20th centuries made education compulsory and, at the same time, forbade the use of Breton in schools to push non-French speakers into adopting the French language. Nevertheless, until the 1960s Breton was spoken or understood by many of the inhabitants of western Brittany. During the 1970s, Breton schools were opened and the local authorities started to promote the language, which was on the brink of extinction because parents had stopped teaching it to their children.


title: Brittany

text: Having declined from more than one million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in the first decade of the 21st century, of whom 61% are more than 60 years old, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709.


title: Brittany

text: The Breton language has several dialects which have no precise limits but rather form a continuum. Most of them are very similar to each other, with only some phonetic and lexical differences. The three main dialects spoken in the western end of Brittany are:


title: Brittany

text: in opposition to the "Vannetais", spoken around Vannes, which is the most differentiated Breton dialect.


title: Brittany

text: Gallo is spoken on the eastern half of Brittany. It is not itself a Celtic language. Like French, it is also descended from Latin (and is classified in the Langues d'oïl branch), but has some Celtic influences, particularly in its vocabulary, whereas French has influences from both Celtic (Gaulish) and Frankish (the Germanic language which arrived after Latin in much of the rest of France).


title: Brittany

text: Unlike Breton, Gallo does not have a long promotion history and it is still often perceived as a poor rural dialect. Moreover, because of its linguistic relationship with Gallo, French imposed itself more easily as the main language in Upper Brittany than in Breton speaking areas. Gallo was simply felt to be an incorrect way of speaking French rather than a separate language. Gallo transmission from parents to children is extremely low and efforts to standardise and publish books in Gallo did not reverse the decline of the language and its lack of prestige.


title: Brittany

text: Gallo is also threatened by the Breton language revival, because Breton is gaining ground in territories that were not previously part of the main Breton-speaking area, and most of all because Breton appears as the national language of Brittany, thus leaving no place for Gallo.


title: Brittany

text: Gallo had never been written before the 20th century, and several writing systems were created. They are however rarely known by the population and signs in Gallo are often unreadable, even for fluent speakers. In Loire-Atlantique, where Gallo is not promoted at all by the local authorities, many people do not even know the word "Gallo" and have no idea that it has writing systems and publications.


title: Brittany

text: The Gallo community is estimated at between 28,300 and 200,000 speakers. The language is taught on a non-compulsory basis in some schools, high-schools and universities, particularly in Ille-et-Vilaine.


title: Brittany

text: Bretons are mainly Catholic and the Christianisation occurred during the Roman Gaul and Frank era. During the Briton emigration to Brittany, several Christian missionaries, mostly Welsh, came in the region and founded dioceses. They are known as the "Seven founder saints":


title: Brittany

text: Other notable early missionaries are Gildas and the Irish saint Columbanus. In total, Brittany numbers more than 300 "saints" (only a few recognised by the Catholic Church) and, since the 19th century at least, it has been known as one of the most devoutly Catholic regions in France, together with the neighbouring Pays de la Loire region. The proportion of students attending Catholic private schools is the highest in France. The patron saint of Brittany is Saint Anne, the Virgin's mother, but Ivo of Kermartin, a 13th-century priest, called Saint-Yves in French and Sant-Erwan in Breton, can also be considered as a patron saint. His feast, 19 May, is Brittany's national day.


title: Brittany

text: Many distinctive traditions and customs have also been preserved in Brittany. Among them, the "Pardons" are one of the most traditional demonstrations of popular Catholicism. These penitential ceremonies occur in some villages in Lower Brittany on the feast day of the parish's saint. The penitents form a procession and they walk together to a shrine, a church or any sacred place. Some Pardons are reputed for their length, and they all finish by large meals and popular feasts.


title: Brittany

text: There is a very old pilgrimage called the "Tro Breizh" (tour of Brittany), where the pilgrims walk around Brittany from the grave of one of the seven founder saints to another. Historically, the pilgrimage was made in one trip (a total distance of around 600 km) for all seven saints. Nowadays, however, pilgrims complete the circuit over the course of several years. In 2002, the Tro Breizh included a special pilgrimage to Wales, symbolically making the reverse journey of the Welshmen Sant Paol, Sant Brieg, and Sant Samzun.


title: Brittany

text: The most powerful folk figure is the Ankou or the "Reaper of Death". Sometimes a skeleton wrapped in a shroud with the Breton flat hat, sometimes described as a real human being (the last dead of the year, devoted to bring the dead to Death), he makes his journeys by night carrying an upturned scythe which he throws before him to reap his harvest. Sometimes he is on foot but mostly he travels with a cart, the "Karrig an Ankou", drawn by two oxen and a lean horse. Two servants dressed in the same shroud and hat as the Ankou pile the dead into the cart, and to hear it creaking at night means you have little time left to live.


title: Brittany

text: As official religious statistics are forbidden in France, there are no official figures about religious practices in Brittany. However, successive polls show that the region tends to be more and more nonreligious. Catholic religion has started to decline after the Second World War, during the urbanisation of Brittany. A poll conducted in 2006 showed that Morbihan was the only "département" to have a strong Catholic population, around 70% of its inhabitants belonging to that religion. Loire-Atlantique and Côtes-d'Armor were among the least Catholic French "départements", with only 50% of Catholics, while Ille-et-Vilaine and Finistère were at around 65%. Other religions are almost non-existent, apart from Islam which gathers between 1 and 3% of the inhabitants in Ille-et-Vilaine and Loire-Atlantique.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany is home to many megalithic monuments; the words "menhir" and "dolmen" come from the Breton language. The largest menhir alignments are the Carnac stones. Other major sites include the Barnenez cairn, the Locmariaquer megaliths, the Menhir de Champ-Dolent, the Mane Braz tumulus and the Gavrinis tomb. Monuments from the Roman period are rare, but include a large temple in Corseul and scarce ruins of villas and city walls in Rennes and Nantes.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany has a large number of medieval buildings. They include numerous Romanesque and French Gothic churches, usually built in local sandstone and granite, castles and half-timbered houses visible in villages, towns and cities. Several Breton towns still have their medieval walls, such as Guérande, Concarneau, Saint-Malo, Vannes, Fougères and Dinan. Major churches include Saint-Pol-de-Léon Cathedral, Tréguier Cathedral, Dol Cathedral, Nantes Cathedral and the Kreisker chapel. Most of the Breton castles were rebuilt between the 13th and the 15th century, such as the Château de Suscinio, the Château de Dinan, the Château de Combourg, the Château de Largoët, the Château de Tonquédec, the Josselin Castle and the Château de Trécesson. The most impressive castles can be seen along the border with France, where stand the Château de Fougères, the Château de Vitré, the Château de Châteaubriant and the Château de Clisson.


title: Brittany

text: The French Renaissance occurred when Brittany lost its independence. The Renaissance architecture is almost absent in the region, except in Upper Brittany, close to the border with France. Major sites include the Château des ducs de Bretagne, the last permanent residence of the dukes, which displays the transition from late Gothic to Renaissance style. The Château de Châteaubriant, a former fortress, was transformed into a vast palace in the Italian style.


title: Brittany

text: In Lower Brittany, the medieval style never totally disappeared. However, local innovations permitted some changes and the birth of a particular style. Its most distinctive feature is the parish close, which displays an elaborately decorated church surrounded by an entirely walled churchyard. Many villages still have their closes, they date from the 16th and 17th centuries and sometimes include an elaborately carved calvary sculpture.


title: Brittany

text: During the 17th and the 18th centuries, the main seaports and towns obtained a typical French look, with baroque and neoclassical buildings. Nantes, which was at the time the biggest French harbour, received a theatre, large avenues and quays, and Rennes was redesigned after a fire in 1720. At the same period, the wealthy ship-owners from Saint-Malo built many mansions called "Malouinières" around their town. Along the coast, Vauban and other French architects designed several citadels, such as in Le Palais and Port-Louis. In rural areas, Breton houses remained simple, with a single floor and a longhouse pattern. They were built with local materials: mostly granite in Lower Brittany and schist in Upper Brittany. Slates and reeds were usually used for roofing. During the 19th century, the Breton architecture was mainly characterised by the Gothic Revival and Eclecticism. Clisson, the southernmost Breton town, was rebuilt in an Italian Romantic style around 1820. The Breton lighthouses were mostly built during the 19th century. The most famous are Ar Men, Phare d'Eckmühl, La Vieille and La Jument. The lighthouse on the Île Vierge is, with 77 meters, the highest in Europe.


title: Brittany

text: At the end of the 19th century, several seaside resorts were created along the coast and villas and hotels were built in historicist, Art Nouveau, and later in the Art Deco styles. These architectures are particularly present in Dinard, La Baule and Bénodet. Architecture from the 20th century can be seen in Saint-Nazaire, Brest and Lorient, three cities destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt afterwards, and in the works of the Breton nationalist architects like James Bouillé and Olier Mordrel.


title: Brittany

text: Until the 19th century, Catholicism had been the main inspiration for Breton artists. The region has a great number of baroque retables, made between the 17th and the 19th century. Breton sculptors were also famous for their ship models that served as ex-votos and for their richly decorated furniture, which features naïve Breton characters and traditional patterns. The box-bed is the most famous Breton piece of furniture. The Breton style had a strong revival between 1900 and the Second World War and it was used by the Seiz Breur movement. The Seiz Breur artists also tried to invent a modern Breton art by rejecting French standards and mixing traditional techniques with new materials. The leading artists of that period were the designer René-Yves Creston, the illustrators Jeanne Malivel and Xavier Haas, and the sculptors Raffig Tullou, Francis Renaud, Georges Robin, Joseph Savina, Jules-Charles Le Bozec and Jean Fréour.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany is also known for its needlework, which can be seen on its numerous headdress models, and for its faience production, which started at the beginning of the 18th century. Quimper faience is known worldwide for its bowls and plates painted by hand, and other towns, such as Pornic, also maintain a similar tradition. The potteries usually feature naïve Breton characters in traditional clothing and daily scenes. The designs have a strong traditional Breton influence, but Orientalism and Art Deco have also been used.


title: Brittany

text: Because of its distinct culture and natural landscape, Brittany has inspired many French artists since the 19th century. The Pont-Aven School, which started to emerge in the 1850s and lasted until the beginning of the 20th century, had a decisive influence on modern painting. The artists who settled in Pont-Aven wanted to break away from the Academic style of the École des Beaux-Arts and later from Impressionism when it began to decline. Among them were Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac, Marc Chagall, Paul Sérusier and Raymond Wintz. Before them, Brittany had also been visited by Academic and Romantic painters like Jean Antoine Théodore de Gudin and Jules Achille Noël who were looking for dramatic seascapes and storms.


title: Brittany

text: Since the early 1970s, Brittany has experienced a tremendous revival of its folk music. Numerous festivals were created, along with smaller "fest-noz" (popular feasts). The "bagadoù", bands composed of bagpipes, bombards and drums (including snare), are also a modern creation, inspired by the Scottish pipe bands. The Lann-Bihoué bagad, one of the most well-known, belongs to the French Navy. It is the only one that does not take part to the annual bagadoù competitions. Celtic harp is also common, as are vocals and dances. The Kan ha diskan is the most common type of singing. The performers sing calls and responses while dancing. Breton dances usually imply circles, chains or couples and they are different in every region. The oldest dances seem to be the passepied and the gavotte, and the newest ones derive from the quadrille and French Renaissance dances.


title: Brittany

text: In the 1960s, several Breton artists started to use contemporary patterns to create a Breton pop music. Among them, Alan Stivell contributed most in popularising the Celtic harp and Breton music in the world. He also used American rock and roll in his works and influenced 1970s Breton bands such as Kornog, and Tri Yann, who revived traditional songs and made them popular across France. Soldat Louis is the main Breton rock band, and Breton singers include Gilles Servat, Glenmor, Dan Ar Braz, Yann-Fañch Kemener, Denez Prigent, Nolwenn Korbell and Nolwenn Leroy. The Manau Hip hop group from Paris has strong Breton and Celtic inspirations.


title: Brittany

text: Yann Tiersen, who composed the soundtrack for "Amélie", the Electro band Yelle and the avant-garde singer Brigitte Fontaine are also from Brittany. The 19th-century composer Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray was one of the first western European composers to be influenced by what is now known as world music.


title: Brittany

text: In 2022, Alvan and Ahez have been selected to represent France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Their song, Fulenn, is sung entirely in Breton and is about the legend of Katel Kollet, a lady who dances with the devil.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany is closely associated with the Matter of Britain and King Arthur. According to Wace, Brocéliande is located in Brittany and it is nowadays considered to be Paimpont forest. There, ruins of a castle surrounded by a lake are associated with the Lady of the Lake, a dolmen is said to be Merlin's tomb and a path is presented as Morgan le Fay's Val sans Retour. Tristan and Iseult are also said to have lived in Brittany. Another major Breton legend is the story about Ys, a city swallowed by the ocean.


title: Brittany

text: Breton literature before the 19th century was mostly oral. The oral tradition entertained by medieval poets died out during the 15th century and books in Breton were very rare before 1850. At that time, local writers started to collect and publish local tales and legends and wrote original works. Published between 1925 and the Second World War, the literary journal Gwalarn favoured a modern Breton literature and helped translating widely known novels into Breton. After the war, the journal "Al Liamm" pursued that mission. Among the authors writing in Breton are Auguste Brizeux, a Romantic poet, the neo-Druidic bard Erwan Berthou, Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué, who collected the local legends about King Arthur, Roparz Hemon, founder of Gwalarn, Pêr-Jakez Helias, Glenmor, Pêr Denez and Meavenn.


title: Brittany

text: Breton literature in French includes 19th-century historical novels by Émile Souvestre, travel journals by Anatole Le Braz, poems and novels by Charles Le Goffic, the works of the singer-songwriter Théodore Botrel and of the maritime writer Henri Queffélec. Brittany is also the birthplace of many French writers like François-René de Chateaubriand, Jules Verne, Ernest Renan, Félicité Robert de Lamennais and Pierre Abélard Max Jacob, Alfred Jarry, Victor Segalen, Xavier Grall, Jean Rouaud, Irène Frain, Herve Jaouen, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Pierre-Jakez Hélias, Tristan Corbière, Paul Féval, Jean Guéhenno, Arthur Bernède, André Breton, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor


title: Brittany

text: The "Asterix" comics, set during the time of Julius Caesar and written in the second half of the twentieth century, are set in Armorica, now Brittany.


title: Brittany

text: The Museum of Brittany, located in Rennes, was founded in 1856. Its collections are mainly dedicated to the history of the region. Museums dedicated to Prehistory and local megaliths are located in Carnac and Penmarch, while several towns like Vannes and Nantes have a museum presenting their own history.


title: Brittany

text: The Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes owns a large collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities as well as drawings and engravings by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Parmigianino, Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt. Its French art collection gathers works by Georges de La Tour, François Boucher, Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, Camille Corot and Robert Delaunay. It has also works by Pablo Picasso, Rubens, Peter Lely and Paolo Veronese. The collections of the Museum of Fine Arts of Nantes are more dedicated to modern and contemporary art and contain works by Edward Burne-Jones, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Paul Signac, Tamara de Lempicka, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Ernst, Pierre Soulages and Piero Manzoni. The Museums of Fine Arts of Brest and Quimper offer similar collections, with large quantities of French painting together with the works of some Italian and Dutch artists. The Museum of Fine Arts Pont-Aven is dedicated to the School of Pont-Aven. Contemporary sculptures can be seen in the park around the Château de Kerguéhennec, in Bignan.


title: Brittany

text: Museums in Saint-Malo, Lorient and Douarnenez are dedicated to ships and maritime traditions and history. The Musée national de la Marine has a large annex in Brest and a submarine is opened to visitors in Lorient. In the same town, it is also possible to visit the Keroman Submarine Museum, and the "Cité de la voile Éric Tabarly", a museum dedicated to sailing. In Saint-Nazaire, where many transatlantic ships were built, including and , a museum showing transatlantic interiors was installed in a Second World War base. Nantes has a museum dedicated to Jules Verne, a Natural History Museum and a museum of archaeology and design, the Musée Dobrée.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany has a vibrant calendar of festivals and events. It hosts some of France's biggest contemporary music festivals, such as La Route du Rock in Saint-Malo, the Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix, the Rencontres Trans Musicales in Rennes, the Festival du Bout du Monde in Crozon, the Hellfest in Clisson and the Astropolis in Brest. The Festival Interceltique de Lorient welcomes each year participants all the Celtic nations and their diasporas. La Folle Journée, in Nantes, is the largest classical music festival in France.


title: Brittany

text: The Breton culture is highlighted during the "Fête de la Bretagne", which occurs in many places around Saint-Yves's day (19 May), and during the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper. Several towns also organise historical re-enactments and events celebrating local traditions, such as the Filets Bleus in Concarneau which celebrates fishing.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany also has some film festivals like the Three Continents Festival in Nantes. The Utopiales international science fiction festival is held in the same city. Brest and Douarnenez both organise large tall ship meetings (See Brest Maritime Festival).


title: Brittany

text: Football, cycling and sailing are the three most popular sports in Brittany. Major football teams are the FC Nantes, the Stade Rennais F.C., the FC Lorient, the Stade Brestois 29, the Vannes OC and the En Avant de Guingamp. Professional footballers coming from the region also form the Brittany national football team which sometimes plays with national teams.


title: Brittany

text: Several Bretons have won the Tour de France: Bernard Hinault, Louison Bobet, Jean Robic and Lucien Petit-Breton as riders, and Cyrille Guimard as a "directeur sportif".


title: Brittany

text: Sailing is particularly important for sea-resorts like La Trinité-sur-Mer, Pornichet, Concarneau, Lorient and the îles de Glénan, where a prestigious school is located. A great number of Bretons have become acclaimed sailors, such as: Éric Tabarly, Loïck Peyron, Jean Le Cam, Michel Desjoyeaux, Olivier de Kersauson, Thomas Coville, Vincent Riou and Marc Pajot. The Route du Rhum, the Transat Québec-Saint-Malo, the Jules Verne Trophy are the main Breton sailing competitions. The Solitaire du Figaro stages often start in Brittany.


title: Brittany

text: Gouren, a style of folk wrestling, is the most popular Breton sport. The Boule bretonne is related to pétanque. The "Palets", common in Upper Brittany and in other French regions, is also related to pétanque, but players use iron disks instead of balls and they have to throw them on a wooden board.


title: Brittany

text: Gaelic football is also a growing sport in the region, with club teams and a 'county' GAA team representing Brittany against other European 'counties' such as Galicia.


title: Brittany

text: Although Muscadet and Gros Plant white wines are produced south of the Loire, the traditional drink of Brittany is cider. Brittany is the second-largest cider-producing region in France. Breton cider is traditionally served in a bowl or a cup. Brittany also has a long beer-brewing tradition, tracing its roots back to the 17th century. Young artisanal brewers are keeping a variety of beer types alive, such as "Coreff de Morlaix", "Tri Martolod" and "Britt". Stronger alcohols include the "chouchen", a sort of mead made with wild honey, and an apple eau de vie called "lambig".


title: Brittany

text: Crêpes and galettes are the two most well-known Breton dishes. The crêpes, made and served with butter, are eaten for dessert and the galettes are usually salty and made with buckwheat. They traditionally replaced bread as basic food and they can be served with cheese, sausages, bacon, mushrooms or eggs. They can be accompanied by Breton buttermilk called "lait ribot". Brittany also has a dish similar to the pot-au-feu known as the kig ha farz, which consists of stewed pork or beef with buckwheat dumplings.


title: Brittany

text: Surrounded by the sea, Brittany offers a wide range of fresh seafood and fish, especially mussels and oysters. Among the seafood specialities is a fish stew called cotriade. The beurre blanc sauce, invented in Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, close to Nantes, is often served with fish. Brittany is also known for its salt, mainly harvested around Guérande and used in butter and milk caramels. The region is notable for its biscuit factories, many towns having their own: Quimper, Lorient, Pont-Aven, Saint-Brieuc, BN and LU in Nantes, La Trinitaine in La Trinité-sur-Mer, and Galettes Saint-Michel in Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef. They usually make their biscuits with salted butter and sell them in iron boxes. Famous Breton pastries include the "kouign amann" ("butter cake" in Breton) made with bread dough and high quantities of butter and sugar, and the "far", a sort of sweet Yorkshire pudding usually made with plums.


title: Brittany

text: Until the 1970s, the Breton road network was poor because maritime and rail transport prevailed. The French president Charles de Gaulle implemented a major road construction plan in the 1970 and Brittany received over 10 billion francs of investments during 25 years. More than 10,000 km of motorways were built, permitting Breton road transport to multiply by four. The Breton motorways are not toll roads, contrarily to the usual French highways.


title: Brittany

text: The main road artery linking cities and other settlements along the north coast is the Route nationale 12 which connects the cities of Rennes, Saint-Brieuc, Morlaix and Brest. It also provides a link to southern Normandy, terminating in Paris. In south Brittany the Route nationale 165 performs a similar role along the south coast providing connections between Nantes, Vannes, Lorient, Quimper and Brest. The Route nationale 164 crosses the centre of the peninsula and connects Rennes to Loudéac, Carhaix and Châteaulin, and the Route nationale 166 links Rennes to Vannes. The Route nationale 137 provides connections between Saint-Malo, Rennes and Nantes and terminates in Bordeaux.


title: Brittany

text: Nantes is linked to Paris by the A11 autoroute, and Rennes is both on the A81 autoroute to Paris and the A84 autoroute to Caen. These highways are standard French toll roads.


title: Brittany

text: The biggest Breton airport is Nantes Atlantique Airport. Destination served include the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Morocco. The Brest Bretagne Airport is the second airport in Brittany. It is followed by Rennes – Saint-Jacques, Lorient South Brittany and Dinard – Saint-Malo. The Saint-Brieuc – Armor airport serves flights between Brittany and the Channel Islands. Others smaller airport operates domestic flights in Quimper, and Lannion.


title: Brittany

text: Brittany is on two major TGV lines, one linking Paris to Nantes and Le Croisic, on the south coast, and another linking Paris to Rennes and Brest. An extension of the LGV Atlantique, which stops at Le Mans, was completed in 2017, bringing the line to Rennes. This extension is known as the LGV Bretagne-Pays de la Loire. TGV services also link the region with major cities in France such as Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille, and Lille. Regional services are operated by TER Bretagne providing connections between small towns such as Vannes, Carhaix, Roscoff and Paimpol. TER Bretagne also manages coach lines and connections between Rennes and Nantes. TER Pays de la Loire operates trains between Nantes and smaller towns in Loire-Atlantique.


title: Brittany

text: There are ferry services that take passengers, vehicles and freight to Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. The main companies are Brittany Ferries which operates lines between Plymouth and Roscoff, Portsmouth and Saint-Malo, and Roscoff and Cork. Irish Ferries operates the route Rosslare-Roscoff and Condor Ferries link Saint-Malo with Jersey.


title: Brittany

text: Cycling has always been one of the main sports of Brittany, but leisure cycling and the infrastructure to support it have been growing extremely rapidly. An extensive network of cycle paths and recommended cycle routes has opened up all over the region. Some of these are routes using mainly smaller roads and both signposted and maintained by communes individually, but many are based on dedicated cycle paths often formed by converting disused railway tracks. These help form routes such as 'Vélodyssée' from Roscoff to Nantes and several major routes under the 'V' label (following signs V1, V2 etc.). The old tow-path of the Nantes-Brest canal is now open to cyclists along its entire 385 km length though in places (unlike rail-based cycle paths) it is very meandering and leaving the path will both shorten the distance and provide variety.


title: Brittany

text: As a general rule cyclists are very well respected in the region and many larger towns have cycle-lanes – however traffic is 'cycle-friendly' even in their absence.


title: Brittany

text: The modern flag of Brittany was designed in 1923. It is called "Gwenn ha Du" ("white and black" in Breton) and it features eleven ermine spots (their number may vary) and nine stripes, the black ones represent the Breton speaking historical dioceses, and the white ones symbolise the gallo speaking dioceses. The flag was created to replace the traditional ermine plain standard, considered too aristocratic and royalist. It was inspired by the American flag and the British Red Ensign. Since the 1920s, the flag has become very popular and it is flown from a large number of institutions. Apart from the ermine flag, Breton historic banners include the Kroaz Du, a white flag with a black cross, the perfect negative of the Cornish flag.


title: Brittany

text: The coat of arms of Brittany, "ermine plain", was adopted by John III in 1316. Ermine had been used in Brittany long before, and there is no clue to its origin. It was probably chosen by the dukes because of its similarity with the French fleur-de-lis. The ermine, or stoat, as an animal became the badge of John IV at the end of the 14th century. It appeared later on numerous locations, including churches and castles. According to popular traditions, Anne of Brittany was hunting with her court when she saw a white ermine who preferred to die than to cross a dirty marsh. This episode would have inspired the duchess' motto : ""Potius mori quam foedari"" ("rather death than dishonour"). The motto has later been reused by Breton regiments, local World War II Resistants and cultural movements.


title: Brittany

text: The Breton anthem, although not official, is "Bro Gozh ma Zadoù" – ("Old Land of My Fathers"). It re-employs both the Welsh anthem's music and that of "Bro Goth agan Tasow" (the national anthem of Cornwall; its lyrics were written at the end of the 19th century).


title: Brittany

text: Colloquial Breton emblems include the Celtic triskelion, the menhirs and dolmens, local dishes such as the galettes, the Bigouden headdress and the traditional black round hat, the fisherman and his yellow raincoat, etc. "BZH" is a common abbreviation for "Breizh" ("Brittany" in Breton) and people often put BZH stickers on their car-plates, although it is forbidden under French laws. ".bzh" is an approved Internet top level domain for the Breton culture and languages.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: Star Trek: Lower Decks is an American adult-oriented animated television series created by Mike McMahan for the streaming service CBS All Access (later rebranded as Paramount+). It is the ninth "Star Trek" series and was launched in 2020 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded "Star Trek" Universe. "Lower Decks" is the franchise's first animated series since the 1970s series "", and its first comedic series. It follows the low-ranking support crew of the starship "Cerritos" beginning in the year 2380.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero voice "lower decks" crew members of the "Cerritos", with Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman providing voices for the ship's senior officers. Work on an animated "Star Trek" series began in June 2018. McMahan joined as creator and showrunner by that October, when "Lower Decks" was ordered for two seasons by All Access. The series is produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse who began work by February 2019. The main cast was announced that July. Production on the first two seasons shifted to taking place remotely in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series features many connections and references to past "Star Trek" series.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: "Star Trek: Lower Decks" premiered on CBS All Access (later rebranded as Paramount+) on August 6, 2020, and its 10-episode ran until October 2020. A was released on Paramount+ from August to October 2021, and a premiered in August 2022. A is expected to be released in 2023. The series has received generally positive reviews from critics, as well as several accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is set in the late 24th century in the "Star Trek" universe, in which Earth is part of the multi-species United Federation of Planets. The Federation's military and exploration division, Starfleet, operates a fleet of starships that travel the galaxy establishing contact with alien races; "Lower Decks" focuses on one of Starfleet's least important starships, the USS "Cerritos". Unlike previous "Star Trek" series, whose principal characters are typically starship captains or other senior officers, "Lower Decks" focuses on the missions and adventures of the "lower deckers", low-ranking officers with menial jobs, while the captain and other senior staff appear as supporting characters.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: A 10-episode fourth season was ordered in January 2022, and writing began by that April. Voice recording for the season began by June.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of the series "", Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the "Star Trek" franchise beyond "Discovery" to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Aaron Baiers of Kurtzman's production company Secret Hideout brought Mike McMahan—the head writer of popular animated comedy "Rick and Morty"—to a general meeting about animation in "Star Trek". Baiers and McMahan had been television assistants together when McMahan was running the Twitter fan account @TNG_S8, suggesting stories for a theoretical eighth season of "". McMahan was asked what his dream "Star Trek" series would be, and pitched a series following "the people who put the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so a banana can come out the other end".


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: After winning over executives with his initial pitch, Secret Hideout moved forward with McMahan's series. It was marketed to different platforms and networks before being picked up by CBS All Access, the streaming service that was releasing "Discovery", who officially ordered two seasons on October 25, 2018. Titled "Star Trek: Lower Decks", it was the service's first original animated series and the first animated "Star Trek" series since the 1973–74 series "". McMahan was set to create, write, and executive produce "Lower Decks" alongside Kurtzman, Secret Hideout's Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry (the son of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment, and veteran animation executive-turned-producer Katie Krentz of the newly formed CBS Eye Animation Productions. In January 2019, Kurtzman said the series would not be ""Rick and Morty" in the world of "Star Trek"" and would have its own tone, but would "skew slightly more adult". That July, McMahan announced that the first season would consist of 10 episodes and be released in 2020.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: By late March 2020, work on the series was taking place remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing staff to work from home. In May, McMahan said animation was "uniquely suited for this moment" since the series' animators could continue work on the series from home. In July, All Access scheduled the series to premiere in August 2020. A third season was ordered in April 2021 for the rebranded Paramount+, ahead of the second-season premiere in August 2021. The third season was confirmed for a late-2022 release when a was ordered in January 2022, which is expected to be released in 2023.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: The series is set in 2380, one year after the film "" (2002), and, unlike typical "Star Trek" series, focuses on the support crew of a starship rather than the main bridge crew. McMahan set the series shortly after "Nemesis", the last "Star Trek" film in the "Next Generation" era, due to his love of "The Next Generation". The series is named after the "Next Generation" episode "", which also focuses on the lives of lower-ranking starship personnel and which McMahan said was his favorite episode of any "Star Trek" series; the episode was the first thing McMahan showed the "Lower Decks" writers room when they started work on the series. McMahan was inspired by the social side-stories in episodes of "The Next Generation", with Kurtzman explaining that the "A story" of a typical "Star Trek" episode would be taking place in the background of each "Lower Decks" episode, so "huge, crazy, crazy shit is going on in the background and that's super peripheral to the story that you're actually focusing on". Kurtzman felt this made the series a unique addition to the franchise. Starting in late 2019, astrophysicist Erin Macdonald joined the "Star Trek" franchise as a science advisor. Macdonald said each series was on a "spectrum of science to fiction" and the "Lower Decks" writers approached science from the perspective of "we can get away with a lot more" than the live-action series, so her role was mostly to fix small dialogue mistakes to ensure the correct terms were being used.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: The main setting of the series is the starship USS "Cerritos", a ""California"-class" ship. This ship class, created for "Lower Decks", is a class of support starships that work with larger starships like those seen previously in the franchise, but are not "important enough" to have appeared on screen before. McMahan described the mission of the "Cerritos" as "Second Contact": after Starfleet has made first contact with a new alien civilization and invited it to join the Federation, the crew of support ships like the "Cerritos" arrive to find "all the good places to eat [and set up] the communications stuff". McMahan wanted "California"-class ships to be named after Californian cities, and chose the city of Cerritos because he otherwise only knew it for local Cerritos Auto Square car dealership advertisements. He wanted to give the city "one more thing other than just being the home of the Auto Square".


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: McMahan did not want the humor to be "punching down on "Trek"" and focused on telling "Star Trek" stories where the characters happen to be funny. Writers from different comedic backgrounds and with different levels of "Star Trek" interest were hired. Kurtzman described "Lower Decks" as a love letter to "Star Trek", and it is filled with many references to other "Star Trek" series. McMahan said these were there to "create a rich, vibrant, fun expression of the world of "Star Trek" in that era" rather than just be Easter eggs for fans to pick through. It was important to the team that these not distract from the emotional storytelling and also fit within established canon, with "Star Trek" author David Mack consulting on the series to ensure that it fit into the franchise. McMahan hoped that references to "The Animated Series" specifically would honor it as the franchise's first animated series. The characters often use the real-world titles of past "Star Trek" episodes when referencing those events, with McMahan explaining that the personal logs of famous characters are given similar in-universe titles to the episodes they are from. The franchise established that ""Star Trek" characters watch "Star Trek"" in the series finale of "", where the events of an earlier mission are recreated with a hologram, and McMahan felt many events from past series would be common knowledge within Starfleet. Acknowledging this allowed the main characters to be "geeks for "Star Trek"", which let "Lower Decks" be a "Rosetta Stone" connecting all previous "Star Trek" projects.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: Kurtzman stated in June 2019 that the series would mostly focus on new characters, but there was potential for characters from previous "Star Trek" series to appear at some point. The next month, McMahan announced the main cast and characters for the series, including ensigns serving in the "lower decks" of the "Cerritos"—Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as D'Vana Tendi, and Eugene Cordero as Sam Rutherford—and the ship's bridge crew who believe "the show is about them, but it's not"—Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as first officer Commander Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as security chief Lieutenant Shaxs, and Gillian Vigman as chief medical officer Dr. T'Ana. Voice overs for each episode are recorded before any animation work is done, with the different recordings edited together into what McMahan described as an "old-timey radio play version of the episode". Initially, actors were recorded together such as Newsome and Quaid, but this stopped during production on the first season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This became one of the biggest challenges for the series during the pandemic, with a need to use remote recording equipment in each actor's house. Newsome used a recording studio that she already had at her house.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: Independent animation studio Titmouse provides the animation for the series. Their process involves the "board teams" drawing a rough version of the episode in black-and-white based on the initial "radio play" version of the voice actor recordings. These are put together as an animatic which the animators use as a basis for the final animation with full details and colors. Juno Lee served as supervising director for the first season, with first-season episodic director Barry J. Kelly taking over as supervising director with the second season. Titmouse CCO Antonio Canobbio guided the overall animation style for the series.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: McMahan wanted the series' animation style to reflect the look of "prime time animated comedy" series that he grew up with, such as "The Simpsons" and "Futurama", as well as previous comedy series that he had worked on such as "Rick and Morty". This included a "prime time look" for the characters based on the "every-man vibe of "The Simpsons"" which meant that even the alien characters felt human and grounded. However, he did want the backgrounds and environments to be more detailed than is traditional for prime time animation, reflecting the designs of the "Next Generation" era of "Star Trek" for the series' sets, starships, cinematography, and character movements. The team tried to follow the same rules that would apply to a live-action "Star Trek" series that was set in 2380, and used the wiki encyclopedia Memory Alpha as well as other fan resources to ensure they were staying accurate to the original designs of the era. The animators also watched episodes of "The Next Generation" while they were working on the series, which uses the same blue font as "The Next Generation" for its credits. The opening title sequence features the "Cerritos" flying through "Next Generation"-like situations with a sweeping musical score, but with twists such as it being sucked into a vortex or immediately turning around after arriving at a battle. The uniforms worn by the crew of the "Cerritos" are based on unused designs for the film "Star Trek Generations" (1994).


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: Kelly said the "Cerritos" was designed to stand-up as a model alongside the live-action starships already seen in the franchise, with some adjustments then made to fit the animation style of the series. It is a "Next Generation" version of the USS "Reliant" from the film "" (1982), McMahan's favorite "Star Trek" starship. The California-class starships seen in the series feature the same colors as the uniforms, with yellow for engineering, blue for medical, and red for command (the "Cerritos" is yellow). For interiors of the "Cerritos" such as the carpet, walls, and ceiling, elements of the LCARS computer system from "The Next Generation" were included in the design, with "those swooping shapes [being] part of the overall architecture of the ship". The particles of transporter beams were also drawn to be "little pill-shaped tubes" in the LCARS style, while actual LCARS displays are featured throughout the ship as well. Michael Okuda, who designed the LCARS system for "The Next Generation", consulted with the animation team on the series' LCARS designs and colors.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: In January 2020, frequent "Star Trek" composer Jeff Russo said it may not be possible for him to compose the score for "Lower Decks" due to his workload and the large number of "Star Trek" series being produced at the same time. He suggested that he could oversee some other composers for "Lower Decks" and the other "Star Trek" series if Kurtzman asked him to. In July, Chris Westlake was revealed to be the composer after working with McMahan on "Solar Opposites". McMahan said Westlake's score sounded like a traditional "Star Trek" score that fit within the fast-paced, comedic style of "Lower Decks". Westlake felt it would be funnier if sincere music scored the comedic series, which is why the main theme includes a choir. He wrote six or seven different main theme ideas that were narrowed down to two, with one being energetic and the other having a slower, more stately feel. The final theme is "between" these two. A soundtrack album featuring music from the first two seasons was released by Lakeshore Records on October 8, 2021. All music composed by Chris Westlake:


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: Once the animation is completed, the last element of the series is the final sound design. McMahan noted that the same level of care was applied to the series' sound design as its animation in terms of honoring "legacy" elements from previous "Star Trek" series. Sounds from earlier in the franchise that were studied and replicated include those for existing technology, such as the noises made by different phasers, the different sounds made when making or receiving a call using a Starfleet badge, or the sound of the ships' warp core. They also include the general "room tone" of different areas of the ship, such as the bridge, different hallways, and crew quarters. General sound design was also required, such as for the sound of characters' footsteps. Once the sound design is completed, these sounds are mixed with the voice recordings and score in a final mix for the episodes.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: "Star Trek: Lower Decks" premiered on August 6, 2020, on CBS All Access in the United States. Each episode is broadcast in Canada by Bell Media on the same day as the U.S. release, on the specialty channels CTV Sci-Fi Channel (English) and Z (French) before streaming on Crave. In September 2020, ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+ in March 2021. The first season remained on Paramount+ along with future seasons. International distribution for the series was not secured by the time of its premiere, due to negotiations being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, Amazon Prime Video was revealed to have picked up the streaming rights for the series in several territories—including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and India—with the first season released on the service on January 22, 2021. The series is distributed worldwide by Paramount Global Distribution Group.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: "Star Trek: Lower Decks" has an 84% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, while Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned a score of 59 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: For the first season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 68% approval score with an average rating of 7.20/10 based on 47 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fun, but not very bold, "Lower Decks" flips the script on "Star Trek" regulation just enough to stand out in the franchise, if not the greater animation landscape." Metacritic assigned a score of 59 out of 100 based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval score for the second season, with an average rating of 8.30/10 based on 12 reviews.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: A special episode of the official "Star Trek" aftershow "The Ready Room", hosted by "Star Trek: The Next Generation" actor Wil Wheaton, was released following the premiere of "Lower Decks". Wheaton returned for further aftershow episodes, which were released following key episodes of the series.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: The first comic book tie-in for the series, a three-issue miniseries written by Ryan North with art by Chris Fenoglio, was released by IDW Publishing in September 2022.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022, Kurtzman announced that an episode of "" second season would be a crossover with "Lower Decks", featuring a mixture of live-action and animation. Newsome and Quaid reprise their roles from "Lower Decks" in the crossover.


title: Star Trek: Lower Decks

text: A free-to-play mobile game based on the series was revealed in February 2022, titled "Star Trek: Lower Decks Mobile" (previously "Star Trek: Lower Decks TBD (The Badgey Directive)"). Developed by East Side Games and Mighty Kingdom for iOS and Android, it features the series' rogue artificial intelligence Badgey and was released later in 2022. In April, the mobile strategy game "Star Trek Fleet Command" launched a "Lower Decks"-themed expansion, adding the "Cerritos", Mariner, Boimler, Badgey, and a new function called "Below Decks Abilities" that allows players to select a support crew with "additional abilities that can combine to provide... benefits to player ships".


title: Ally Sheedy

text: Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy (born June 13, 1962) is an American actress. Following her film debut in 1983's "Bad Boys", she became known as one of the Brat Pack group of actors and starred in "WarGames" (1983), "The Breakfast Club" (1985) and "Short Circuit" (1986). For her performance in Lisa Cholodenko's "High Art" (1998), Sheedy won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy was born in New York City on June 13, 1962, and has two siblings, brother Patrick and sister Meghan. Her mother, Charlotte ("née" Baum), is a writer and press agent who was involved in women's and civil rights movements, and her father, John J. Sheedy Jr., is a Manhattan advertising executive. Sheedy's mother is Eastern European Jewish, whereas her father is of Irish Catholic background. Her maternal grandmother was from Odessa, Ukraine. Her parents divorced in 1971.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: She attended the Bank Street School for Children, followed by Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in New York City, graduating in 1980. She started dancing with the American Ballet Theatre at age six and was planning to make it a full-time career. She gave up dance in favor of acting full time, however, and then started studying acting with acting teacher Harold Guskin. At age 12 she wrote a book, "She Was Nice to Mice". The book was published by McGraw-Hill Education and became a best-seller. On June 19, 1975, she appeared on the game show "To Tell the Truth".


title: Ally Sheedy

text: At age 18, Sheedy relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she enrolled in the drama department at the University of Southern California. Sheedy concurrently began her acting career and intermittently completed three years' worth of courses toward a BFA degree in acting.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: Sheedy started acting in local stage productions as a teenager. After appearing in several television films in 1981, as well as three episodes of the television series "Hill Street Blues", she made her feature film debut in "Bad Boys" (1983), starring Sean Penn, wherein she played Penn's humiliated girlfriend. The 1980s were her most active period, with roles in popular films such as "WarGames", "The Breakfast Club", "St. Elmo's Fire", "Short Circuit", and "Maid to Order".


title: Ally Sheedy

text: Sheedy starred alongside Radha Mitchell in the 1998 independent film "High Art", about a romance between two women and the power of art. Her performance in "High Art" was recognized with awards from the Independent Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and National Society of Film Critics.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: In 1999, Sheedy took over the lead role in the off-Broadway production of the musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." She was the first cis-gender female to play the part of the genderqueer Hedwig, but her run ended early amid "mixed" reviews, according to "E! News". That same year, she was cast as a lead actress in "Sugar Town", an independent film that featured an ensemble cast of actors and musicians.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: She was reunited with "Breakfast Club" co-star Anthony Michael Hall when she became a special guest star on his television show "The Dead Zone", in the second-season episode "Playing God", from 2003.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: Sheedy has also appeared in the episode "Leapin' Lizards" of "", in which she played a woman who murdered her boyfriend's wife while mixed up in a cult. On March 3, 2008, Sheedy was introduced as the character Sarah in the ABC Family show "Kyle XY". In 2009, she played the role of Mr. Yang on the USA Network television show "Psych" (in the third-season finale), a role that she reprised in the fourth season, fifth season, and finales.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: Sheedy dated Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora for less than a year in the 1980s. She stated in "Los Angeles Times" that the relationship led her to abuse drugs, a claim Sambora denied. In 1985, Sheedy was admitted to Hazelden Foundation and in the 1990s was treated for a sleeping pill addiction, an experience she drew on for her role as a drug-addicted photographer in "High Art".


title: Ally Sheedy

text: On April 12, 1992, Sheedy married actor David Lansbury, the nephew of actress Angela Lansbury and son of Edgar Lansbury, the original producer of "Godspell". They have a son, Beckett, born in 1994. Beckett is a trans man from whose transition Sheedy says she "learned a lot". In 2008, Sheedy announced that she and Lansbury had filed for divorce.


title: Ally Sheedy

text: In January 2018, Sheedy tweeted the #MeToo hashtag along with the names of James Franco and Christian Slater, indicating that they have been sexually inappropriate with her, but later took down the tweets. Franco stated that he did not know why Sheedy would have tweeted those accusations.


title: Biggest ball of twine

text: There are multiple claims to the world's biggest ball of twine record in the United States. As of 2014, the ball of twine with the largest circumference is located in Cawker City, Kansas, and was measured at in diameter and in height.


title: Biggest ball of twine

text: In Cawker City, Kansas, Frank Stoeber created a ball that had 1.6 million feet (490,000 m) of twine and when he died in 1974. Cawker City built an open-air gazebo over Stoeber's ball where every August a "Twine-a-thon" is held and more twine is added to the ball. By 2006, the twine ball had reached 17,886 pounds (8,111 kg, 8.9 US tons), a circumference of , and a length of . In 2013, its weight was estimated at 19,973 pounds. In August 2014, the ball measures in circumference, in diameter and in height, and is still growing.


title: Biggest ball of twine

text: Darwin, Minnesota, is the home of a ball of baler twine rolled by Francis A. Johnson. It is in diameter and weighs . Johnson began rolling the twine in March 1950, and wrapped four hours every day for 29 years. It is currently housed in an enclosed gazebo across from the town park on Main Street at () to prevent the public from touching it. The town celebrates "Twine Ball Day" on the second Saturday in August every year. An adjacent volunteer-run, free to visit museum and gift shop has information on the history of the ball, as well as selling a variety of souvenirs. It was the long-standing holder of the "biggest ball of twine" title in the Guinness Book of World Records, holding the title from its completion in 1979 until 1994, and was referenced by "Weird Al" Yankovic in his 1989 song "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota."


title: Biggest ball of twine

text: In Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, James Frank Kotera claims to have made the heaviest ball of twine ever built. He started it in 1979 and is still working. Kotera estimates, by measuring the weight of each bag of twine that he winds on, that the ball weighs 10,931 kg (24,100 pounds), making it the heaviest ball of twine ever built. The ball is housed in an open-air enclosure in Kotera's lawn. The ball has a smaller companion, "Junior", that is made of string.


title: Biggest ball of twine

text: In Branson, Missouri, a ball of nylon twine built by J. C. Payne of Valley View, Texas, is on display in Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. The ball, which measures 41.5 feet (12.6 m) in circumference, was certified as the world's largest ball of twine by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1993. It is, however, the lightest of the four contenders, weighing 12,000 pounds.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Frank Anthony Grillo (born June 8, 1965) is an American actor and martial artist. He played Brock Rumlow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films "" (2014), "" (2016), "" (2019), and animated series "What If...?" (2021). He had his first leading role in the action-horror film "" (2014), portraying Sergeant Leo Barnes, a role he reprised in "" (2016), and has also appeared in "Warrior" (2011), "The Grey" (2012), "End of Watch" (2012), "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Wheelman" (both 2017), and "Boss Level" (2021). Grillo's television work includes the lead role in "Kingdom" (2014–2017) and recurring roles in "Battery Park" (2000), "For the People" (2002–2003), "The Shield" (2002–2003), "Prison Break" (2005–2006), "Blind Justice" (2005), "The Kill Point" (2007) and "Billions" (2020).


title: Frank Grillo

text: Grillo was born in New York City to a working-class Italian-American family of Calabrian origin. He was raised in the Bronx and in Rockland County, New York. Grillo began wrestling at eight years old, and took up boxing at eighteen. In 1991, he started practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, in which he has studied under Rickson Gracie and holds a brown belt. Grillo graduated from New York University with a business degree and spent a year on Wall Street before being asked to do a Miller Genuine Draft beer commercial. On the podcast "The Fighter and the Kid", he stated that he holds Italian citizenship.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Grillo started his acting career by appearing in commercials, for companies such as American Express and Sure deodorant. His first film role was in 1992's "The Mambo Kings", and he went on to appear in the films "Minority Report" (2002), "April's Shower" (2006), and both "iMurders" and New Line Cinema's "Pride and Glory" in 2008.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Grillo was in the 2010 horror film "Mother's Day" in the role of Daniel Sohapi and the following year, had a supporting role in the 2011 film "Warrior" as MMA trainer Frank Campana. In 2012, he played Diaz in the survival thriller "The Grey" with Liam Neeson and as Sarge in "End of Watch" with Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2013, he starred with Jaimie Alexander in the romantic thriller film "Collision" and had a bit role in the action film "Homefront" with Jason Statham.


title: Frank Grillo

text: In 2014, Grillo was cast as HYDRA agent Brock Rumlow in the 2014 film "". The same year, he starred as Sergeant Leo Barnes in the sequel "", and reprised his role in 2016's "". He also reprised the role of Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in the third installment of the "Captain America" film series, "", which was released on May 6, 2016.


title: Frank Grillo

text: In October 2013, Grillo started filming for "The Crash", starring alongside Academy Award nominee Minnie Driver, Ed Westwick, AnnaSophia Robb, Dianna Agron, John Leguizamo, Mary McCormack, Christopher McDonald and Maggie Q. The film is directed by Aram Rappaport and produced by Hilary Shor, Atit Shah and Aaron Becker. "The Crash" was released on January 31, 2017.


title: Frank Grillo

text: In 2015, Grillo starred in the films "Demonic" and "Big Sky". Another film in which he stars, "Beyond Skyline", was originally set for release in 2015, and was ultimately released on Netflix in December 2017.


title: Frank Grillo

text: In 2018, Grillo starred opposite Bruce Willis and Johnathon Schaech in the action film "Reprisal". Years after its release, the film made it on Netflix's U.S. top five in October 2021.


title: Frank Grillo

text: In 2019, "Variety" announced that Grillo has signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Grillo produced and starred in "Boss Level", which was announced in November 2017 and was originally scheduled to be released by Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures on August 16, 2019, but was delayed. It was subsequently bought by Hulu, which released it on March 5, 2021. He also appeared in the sequel "Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard" with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.


title: Frank Grillo

text: More recently, he has appeared in the films "This Is the Night" with Naomi Watts, "Copshop" with Gerard Butler, "Ida Red" with Melissa Leo, "The Yacht" with Ruby Rose and "A Day to Die" with Bruce Willis.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Grillo first appeared on television in episodes of "Silk Stalkings" (1993), and "" (1996) before being cast as oil tycoon Hart Jessup on the daytime soap opera "Guiding Light" in 1996 up until 1999. In 2002, he was cast in the series "For the People" as Det. J.C. Hunter and played Hunter until 2003. One of his more notable television roles was on the crime drama "Prison Break" where he played Nick Savrinn from 2005 to 2006. During that time, he also appeared on the "Blind Justice" as Marty Russo.


title: Frank Grillo

text: He was in the first and only season of "The Kill Point" in 2007, and played the role of Jimmy in the "" episode "," which aired in November 2007. In 2010, he starred in the sci-fi series "The Gates" opposite Marisol Nichols and Rhona Mitra. The series only lasted one season.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Between 2014 and 2017, Grillo starred in the DirecTV drama series "Kingdom" as MMA coach Alvey Kulina alongside Nick Jonas and Jonathan Tucker.


title: Frank Grillo

text: Grillo was a season 5 regular on the drama series "Billions", starring as artist Nico Tanner opposite Damian Lewis and Maggie Siff. He also reprised the role of Crossbones by voicing the character on the Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series "What If..."


title: Frank Grillo

text: He married his first wife Kathy in 1991, but the couple divorced in 1998. They had one son together, born in 1997. Grillo met fellow actress Wendy Moniz in 1996 on the set of "Guiding Light." The couple were married on October 28, 2000, and divorced in 2020. They have two sons together, born in 2004 and 2008.


title: Naveen Andrews

text: Naveen William Sidney Andrews (born 17 January 1969) is a British-American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series "Lost" (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as winning a Screen Actors Guild Award along with the cast. He has also appeared in films such as "The English Patient" (1996), "Mighty Joe Young" (1998), "Rollerball" (2002), "Bride and Prejudice" (2004), "Planet Terror" (2007), "The Brave One" (2007), and "Diana" (2013). In 2022, he starred in the miniseries "The Dropout".


title: Naveen Andrews

text: Andrews was born in Lambeth, London, to Nirmala, a psychologist, and Stanley Andrews, a businessman, both immigrants from Kerala, India. He was brought up in Wandsworth as a Methodist, and attended Earlsfield Junior School on Tranmere Road. Andrews described his upbringing as "very repressive". At 16, while at Emanuel School, he started a relationship with his 30-year-old mathematics teacher, Geraldine Feakins, whom he moved in with to escape his abusive home; their son, Jaisal, was born seven years later, in 1992. Andrews was shunned by his parents after this and they died before a reconciliation. He has said that he has forgiven them.


title: Naveen Andrews

text: Andrews auditioned for drama school and was accepted at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Ewan McGregor and David Thewlis. His studies paid off when he won a role in Hanif Kureshi's film "London Kills Me" (1991). Andrews starred in the 1993 BBC miniseries "Buddha of Suburbia". He portrayed Kip Singh in "The English Patient" (1996) and Sayid Jarrah in the popular television series "Lost" (2004–10). In 2006, he was voted one of "People" magazine's World's Most Beautiful People. He starred in "" (1996), "Mighty Joe Young" (1998), "Bride and Prejudice" (2004), and as Jafar in the American fantasy drama "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland" (2013–14). In 2014, he provided the voice of Sabal in the video game "Far Cry 4". From 2015 to 2017, he starred in the series "Sense8" (created by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski) as Jonas. From 2018 to 2019, he co-starred as ex-MI6 and CIA officer Julian Cousins in the series "Instinct", starring Alan Cumming and Bojana Novakovic. In 2022 Andrews co-starred with Amanda Seyfried as Theranos COO Sunny Balwani in the hulu limited series "The Dropout".


title: Naveen Andrews

text: Andrews's relationship with Geraldine Feakins lasted from 1985 to 1991. Their son, Jaisal Andrews, was born in 1992. He was later in a relationship with actress Barbara Hershey in Los Angeles, starting in 1998. The couple separated briefly in 2005 and, during that time, Andrews had a son with Czech-French actress Elena Eustache. He and Hershey later reconciled, but in 2010, they announced that they had separated. Andrews was in a long custody dispute with Eustache over their son, and on 7 January 2009, he was granted sole legal and physical custody.


title: Naveen Andrews

text: Andrews has spoken about his alcoholism and his two-year addiction to heroin in the mid-'90s. He has described an incident in which he collapsed on set and was treated by emergency services.


title: Naveen Andrews

text: He plays guitar and sings, while tap dancing to his own tune as a hobby. He became a naturalised U.S. citizen on 27 May 2010.


title: Method Man

text: Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of the hip hop duo Method Man & Redman. He took his stage name from the 1979 film "Method Man". In 1996, Smith won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, for "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By", featuring American R&B singer Mary J. Blige, whom he currently stars with in "", a spin-off of its original show "Power".


title: Method Man

text: Smith has appeared in films such as "187" (1997), "Belly" (1998), "How High" (2001), "Garden State" (2004), "The Wackness" (2008), "Venom" (2005), "Red Tails" (2012), "Keanu" (2016), and "The Cobbler" (2014). On television, he and frequent collaborator, fellow East Coast rapper Redman, co-starred on the short-lived Fox sitcom "Method & Red". He has also had recurring roles in three HBO series, as Tug Daniels in "Oz", Melvin "Cheese" Wagstaff in "The Wire", and Rodney in "The Deuce". Method Man also appears in the TBS comedy "The Last O.G.".


title: Method Man

text: Born on March 2, 1971, in Hempstead, Long Island, Smith divided his childhood between his father's Long Island residence and his mother's home in the Park Hill section of Clifton, Staten Island, locally known as Killa Hill. Growing up in Hempstead, Smith began playing lacrosse at a young age and continues to be a passionate supporter of the sport. He attended New Dorp High School, where he became friends with Remedy. He has two sisters, Terri and Missy.


title: Method Man

text: As Wu-Tang Clan ascended to hip hop stardom, Method Man was always one of the most visible members of the collective. He was one of only two members to get a solo song on the group's debut album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" and he was the first to release a solo album under the Clan's unusual contract which allowed its members to release albums under any record label. Method Man chose to sign with rap label Def Jam Recordings, although Elektra Records A&R man Dante Ross initially wanted to sign him around the same time Ross signed fellow group member Ol' Dirty Bastard. Method Man's solo debut, "Tical" (1994), was critically acclaimed and well received, entering the American charts at #4 and eventually selling in excess of one million copies. That album featured the hit single "All I Need", later remixed featuring Mary J. Blige, which won a Grammy ("I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need"). During this time Method Man also became close friends with fellow New York City-based rapper The Notorious B.I.G., and was the only guest rapper featured on his debut album "Ready to Die". He was also featured on Spice 1's album "AmeriKKKa's Nightmare" on the track "Hard 2 Kill". In 1995, he was also featured on "Got the Flava" off Showbiz and A.G.'s album "Goodfellas". He also appeared on the Batman Forever soundtrack. His track, The Riddler, produced by RZA included a video with clips from the film. In 1996, Method Man appeared on Tupac Shakur's album "All Eyez on Me", on the song "Got My Mind Made Up" alongside his rhyme partner Redman, the Dogg Pound (Daz and Kurupt) and Inspectah Deck, whose verse did not make the released album version (although his nickname "Rebel INS" can be heard as the song fades). He was also featured on Redman's 1996 album "Muddy Waters" on the track "Do What Ya Feel".


title: Method Man

text: On June 3, 1997, the Wu-Tang Clan released their Grammy-nominated multiplatinum double CD "Wu-Tang Forever", the long-awaited follow up to "36 Chambers". The album has sold over 2 million copies to date worldwide.


title: Method Man

text: In 1996, the movie, Space Jam was released. Method Man, alongside LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, B-Real and Coolio released a song from the Space Jam Soundtrack called, Hit 'em High. Method Man would go on to feature on LL Cool J's, 4,3,2,1 the following year.


title: Method Man

text: His second solo album was "", released in 1998, which was heavily influenced by the apocalypse theories surrounding the forthcoming end of the millennium, and which featured myriad guest appearances from his fellow Wu-Tang MCs. The album was certified double platinum. Other guest appearances include Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, D'Angelo, Chris Rock, Mobb Deep, Redman, and brief cameos from Russell Simmons, Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, Janet Jackson, and Donald Trump. The album sold better than his first fueled by the party track "Judgment Day" and the D'Angelo collaboration "Break Ups 2 Make Ups", earning Platinum and Gold certifications in the U.S. and Canada respectively. Reviews for the album were mixed and its long runtime and abundance of intermittent comedy skits were widely criticized. Producers on this album included True Master, 4th Disciple and the RZA.


title: Method Man

text: In 1997, Scottish rock band, Texas, had found some success with their single, Say what you want. In 1998 a re-imagined version of the song titled Say What You Want (All Day, Every Day) featured Method Man verses and RZA production. It was later included in the Greatest Hits album released by Texas.


title: Method Man

text: Method Man was part of the very successful Hard Knock Life Tour with Jay-Z, Redman, Ja Rule, and DMX. During this tour, Method Man & Redman recorded "Blackout!", a light-hearted, bass-heavy, profanity-laced, party record with an EPMD-evoking emphasis on funky beats and the mischievous wit and cool flows and good rhythm of the two MCs. The album reached platinum status quickly, both in the U.S. and Canada, fueled by "Da Rockwilder", "Cereal Killa", "1, 2, 1, 2", "Tear It Off" and "Y.O.U." This album also featured three previously released tracks on which the two collaborated.


title: Method Man

text: Their success would lead the duo on to star in movies and TV shows, become product spokespersons and household names, but also associated them with marijuana use in the media. The most immediate results of their success was their co-starring roles in the major motion picture film "How High", their endorsement deal for "Right Guard", Redman's starring role in "Seed of Chucky" and a short-lived sitcom on Fox Television entitled "Method & Red".


title: Method Man

text: In 2000, Method Man performed Know Your Role which was included on the album titled, WWF Aggression. The song is focused on the popularity of professional wrestler at the time Dwayne Johnson whose wrestling name was 'The Rock' and the main line in the song is The Rock's most famous caption "Do you smell what The Rock is cookin'?".


title: Method Man

text: The Wu-Tang Clan released "The W" on November 21, 2000, and Iron Flag on December 18, 2001. "The W" received both critical and commercial success for the group, while "Iron Flag" did receive some but not to the effect of "The W". The efforts earned two more platinum plaques for the Wu-Tang Clan.


title: Method Man

text: In 2004, Meth released his third solo album "", which featured the hit party single "What's Happenin'" with Busta Rhymes. Hip hop critics voiced their displeasure with the album, many agreeing that "Tical 0" felt like generic party rap and featured too many mainstream guests, detracting from his own performances. Regardless, this album sold reasonably well and was certified gold record by the RIAA relatively quickly, but would not see the platinum success of his previous solo releases. There was trouble before the album's release when Method apparently complained to the press about excessive interference from Def Jam over the album's beats (Meth supposedly desired more input from Wu-Tang leader RZA). On its release, many fans and critics were taken aback by its strong "mainstream" or "commercial" sound, highlighted by the guest appearances of pop-rap stars like Missy Elliott and P. Diddy, two artists that are involved with much different facets of rap music.


title: Method Man

text: P. Diddy was one of the executive producers for the album, although Meth later voiced his displeasure with the final product. "On the third LP, it was suggested (by Def Jam) to bring in Harve Pierre and P. Diddy. Who am I to argue? Puff knows how to sell some records. But that wasn't the direction to go in, and I know that."


title: Method Man

text: Method Man's fourth album, entitled "" was released in August 2006 with a star lineup of producers featuring Havoc, Erick Sermon, Scott Storch, Allah Mathematics, Mr. Porter, and, most importantly to Meth, RZA. This time around, a more focused Method Man went back to his hip hop roots and both hip hop fans and the media took notice. He did an interview on the ItsHipHop.Tv. Despite this being one of Meth's strongest solo efforts to date, the album failed to do well commercially due to it having no single or video, which Method Man has held discontent towards his own label for. However, he toured strongly all over the world to promote the album, and appeared onstage with fellow Wu-Tang member Inspectah Deck, as well as New York up and comers Saigon, and Gat Murdah. Meth contributed various reasons for the problems between him and his label, Def Jam. While he puts most of the blame on personal agendas in the Def Jam offices, Meth did take some blame, himself, for giving in to his record label.


title: Method Man

text: In early May 2007, Method Man's camp leaked the street single "New York New York" which became a popular track on the internet.


title: Method Man

text: On March 27, 2007, Redman confirmed on BET's Rap City: Tha Bassment that a sequel to "How High" is currently being written.


title: Method Man

text: In an April 10, 2007 Onion A.V. Club interview, Redman hinted that there would be a second collaborative album with Method Man, with work beginning in midsummer or early September.


title: Method Man

text: In early 2008, a remake of the Smooth da Hustler and Trigger tha Gambler classic "Broken Language" was released to the internet by the duo entitled "Broken Language 2008", fueling rumors of a "Blackout!" sequel coming soon. This rumor was further fueled by the duo while performing in Gainesville, Florida at the University of Florida. "Blackout! 2" was scheduled for a December 9, 2008, release but was pushed back to the first quarter of 2009, with a new release date of May 19, 2009. Bun B confirmed that he guest starred on "Blackout! 2" – in April 2009, a single was released titled "City Lights", produced by Nasty Kutt Also producers such as Erick Sermon, Rockwilder and Pete Rock announced their presence on the album.


title: Method Man

text: The duo has finished their "Still High" tour with Termanalogy, the Alchemist, and Evidence of Dilated Peoples.


title: Method Man

text: "Crystal Meth" is to be Method Man's upcoming fifth and final studio album. The album has no confirmed release date. The "Crystal Meth" album was first announced before Method Man began working on his and Redman's second collaboration album, "Blackout! 2", during which time it was tentatively titled "The Crystal Method". In the liner notes of that album, it was given a scheduled release date for 2009. The album, however, was further postponed until it was later mentioned in an MTV interview it would be released in early 2010. At a concert on December 23, 2010, Method Man told the crowd to look for his album in March 2011. However, the album was postponed again.


title: Method Man

text: In an April 2011 interview with "The Come Up Show", following a recent performance in Canada, Method Man replied to a question regarding his "weed-loving" image: "When you get older and you've got kids and your kids are going to school and you know [their] teachers...and they see how active you are and concerned [you are] with your kids' education or well being, it's hard to sit there and be taken seriously if people are always talking about he's always high...which is totally not the case", he said. "When I first came out, I was young, we were doing our thing, we smoked a lot...and we didn't care if the world knew. Now, I have to use more discretion because of my kids. This is not for me; everything I do is for them now, so I use a bit more discretion and I don't put weed as a forefront any more."


title: Method Man

text: On October 5, 2011, a new single from Method Man, entitled "World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids)", was released on iTunes. In July 2012, he confirmed that the album will come out in 2013 & will be produced by RZA, although he has also stated that RZA would not entirely produce the album, but instead be just one of a few producers which includes RZA, Erick Sermon, Rockwilder, and some new younger producers such as Diggilo. He also expressed a desire to work with Odd Future frontman Tyler, The Creator. Throughout 2013, Method Man worked on material for "Crystal Meth" and significantly worked on the Wu-Tang Clan's sixth studio album, "A Better Tomorrow". He also toured with Redman throughout the year. On January 1, 2014, Method Man announced that a mixtape titled "The Meth Lab" would be released in March 2014 and that "Crystal Meth" would be released in August 2014 on Tommy Boy Entertainment. However, Method Man released "The Meth Lab" as a mixtape album through Tommy Boy on August 21, 2015. In 2019 Method Man featured on the record 'Winnebago' with South London rapper Blue Meth. The music video was directed by Nick Donnelly


title: Method Man

text: In the late 1990s, Smith began a career in acting. He has had recurring roles in critically acclaimed television shows such as HBO's "Oz" as Tug Daniels, HBO's "The Wire" as Prop Joe's nephew Cheese, "The Twilight Zone", and "", in which Smith portrays Drops, a wealthy Las Vegas party promoter who clashes with the CSI team (specifically investigator Nick Stokes) in their investigations involving Drops' clubs or entourage, in the episodes "Poppin' Tags" (2006), "Big Shots" (2007), and "Drops Out" (2008).


title: Method Man

text: Smith and Redman hosted a pilot on MTV called "Stung". Additionally, Smith has made numerous appearances as himself on TV shows such as "Mind of Mencia" and "Chappelle's Show".


title: Method Man

text: His first prominent role came in with the film "Belly" (1998), along with fellow rappers Nas and DMX. Smith has since added many credits to his name, including roles in the films "Garden State", "One Eight Seven", and many others, with starring roles in feature films such as "How High" and "Soul Plane". Method Man had a cameo in the horror movie "Venom" (2005), where he played a deputy who is killed shortly into the movie. On March 27, 2007, Redman confirmed on BET's show "Rap City" that the sequel to "How High" was being written; the script for "How High 2" is being written by Dustin Lee Abraham of "CSI", who also wrote the first movie. Smith also appeared in the 2008 movies "The Wackness" (2008) and "Meet the Spartans" (2008).


title: Method Man

text: Method Man stars in the "Law & Order SVU" episode "Snitch" as the main antagonist. The episode was first broadcast December 4, 2007.


title: Method Man

text: Method Man appeared in the "Def Jam" series of video games. In "" he voiced Blaze, one of the main characters. In "", he voiced Gooch, a major character in the storyline. In "Underground", he voiced Meth, one of the major characters.


title: Method Man

text: He made a guest appearance in the music video for "If I Ain't Got You" (2003) by Alicia Keys, where he played the role of her boyfriend. He also appeared in Beanie Sigel's music video "Feel It in the Air", where Method Man played an undercover cop leading an operation against Sigel.


title: Method Man

text: Smith played the main antagonist, an arsonist wealthy executive, in an episode of the FOX TV show "The Good Guys".


title: Method Man

text: Method Man appears as Valentine, a hip hop business mogul, in the episode "Bad Blood" in season 2 of "Burn Notice".


title: Method Man

text: Method Man had a cameo appearance in the film "Cop Land" (1997), as a violent criminal who, while fleeing, throws Peter Berg's character off of a New York rooftop. Method Man has also appeared in the TV drama "Wonderland", as a patient in a mental hospital.


title: Method Man

text: Method Man plays a small role in the film "The Sitter" (2011), starring Jonah Hill. He also played crewman "Sticks" in the George Lucas movie "Red Tails" (2012), about the Tuskegee Airmen.


title: Method Man

text: In 2016, he played himself in "Difficult People", "Marvel's Luke Cage", and "Paterson". Also that year, he portrayed "Cheddar" in the film "Keanu".


title: Method Man

text: In 2017, he became the host of the TBS series "Drop the Mic", based on the popular recurring segment on "The Late Late Show with James Corden".


title: Method Man

text: In 2019, Smith voiced Ben Urich in the scripted podcast "Marvels". He also appeared in Shaft as Freddie P, an acquaintance of John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson).


title: Method Man

text: In 2020, Smith appeared as a recurring character in the Netflix original series "Teenage Bounty Hunters" as Terrance Coin, Bowser's rival bounty hunter.


title: Method Man

text: Method Man appeared in the documentary entitled "The Show" (1995). There is a scene in which Method Man, on a train in Japan, gets into an argument with U-God and Ghostface Killah, over camera time, radio interviews, and clothing mishaps.