title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The pre-1935 U.S. territorial administration, or Insular Government, was headed by a governor general who was appointed by the president of the United States. In December 1932, the U.S. Congress passed the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act with the premise of granting Filipinos independence. Provisions of the law included reserving several military and naval bases for the United States, as well as imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. When it reached him for possible signature, President Herbert Hoover vetoed the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act, but the American Congress overrode Hoover's veto in 1933 and passed the law over Hoover's objections. The bill, however, was opposed by the then-Philippine Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and was also rejected by the Philippine Senate.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: This led to the creation and passing of the Tydings–McDuffie Act or the Philippine Independence Act, which allowed the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines with a ten-year period of peaceful transition to full independence – the date of which was to be on the 4th of July following the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Commonwealth.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: A Constitutional Convention was convened in Manila on July 30, 1934. On February 8, 1935, the 1935 Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines was approved by the convention by a vote of 177 to 1. The constitution was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 25, 1935, and ratified by popular vote on May 14, 1935.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: On September 16, 1935, presidential elections were held. Candidates included former president Emilio Aguinaldo, the "Iglesia Filipina Independiente" leader Gregorio Aglipay, and others. Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña of the Nacionalista Party were proclaimed the winners, winning the seats of president and vice-president, respectively.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The Commonwealth government was inaugurated on the morning of November 15, 1935, in ceremonies held on the steps of the Legislative Building in Manila. The event was attended by a crowd of around 300,000 people.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The new government embarked on ambitious nation-building policies in preparation for economic and political independence. These included national defense (such as the National Defense Act of 1935, which organized a conscription for service in the country), greater control over the economy, the perfection of democratic institutions, reforms in education, improvement of transport, the promotion of local capital, industrialization, and the colonization of Mindanao.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: However, uncertainties, especially in the diplomatic and military situation in Southeast Asia, in the level of U.S. commitment to the future Republic of the Philippines, and in the economy due to the Great Depression, proved to be major problems. The situation was further complicated by the presence of agrarian unrest, and of power struggles between Osmeña and Quezon, especially after Quezon was permitted to be re-elected after one six-year term.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: A proper evaluation of the policies' effectiveness or failure is difficult due to Japanese invasion and occupation during World War II.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Japan launched a surprise attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941. The Commonwealth government drafted the Philippine Army into the U.S. Army Forces Far East, which would resist Japanese occupation. Manila was declared an open city to prevent its destruction, and it was occupied by the Japanese on January 2, 1942. Meanwhile, battles against the Japanese continued on the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor, and Leyte until the final surrender of United States-Philippine forces in May 1942.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Quezon and Osmeña were escorted by troops from Manila to Corregidor, and later left for Australia prior to going to the U.S., where they set up a government in exile, based at the Shoreham Hotel, in Washington, D.C. This government participated in the Pacific War Council as well as the Declaration by United Nations. Quezon became ill with tuberculosis and died from it, with Osmeña succeeding him as president.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The main general headquarters of the Philippine Commonwealth Army (PCA), located on the military station in Ermita, Manila, was closed down on December 24, 1941. It was taken over by the Japanese Imperial forces when these occupied the city on January 2, 1942. Elsewhere in the country, other military posts of the PCA in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao engaged in military action against the Japanese.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Meanwhile, the Japanese military organized a new government in the Philippines known as the Second Philippine Republic, headed by president José P. Laurel. This pro-Japanese government became very unpopular.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Resistance to the Japanese occupation continued in the Philippines. This included the "Hukbalahap" ("People's Army Against the Japanese"), which consisted of 30,000 armed men and controlled much of Central Luzon; they attacked both the Japanese and other non-Huk guerrillas. Remnants of the Philippine Army, as well as unsurrendered Americans, also successfully fought the Japanese through guerrilla warfare. These efforts eventually liberated all but 12 of the 48 provinces.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: General Douglas MacArthur's army landed on Leyte on October 20, 1944, as well as the Philippine Commonwealth troops who arrived in other amphibious landings. The Philippine Constabulary was placed on active service with the Philippine Commonwealth Army and re-established on October 28, 1944, to June 30, 1946, during the Allied liberation to Post-World War II era. Fighting continued in remote corners of the Philippines until Japan's surrender in August 1945, which was signed on September 2 in Tokyo Bay. Estimates of Filipino war dead reached one million, and Manila was extensively damaged when Japanese marines refused to vacate the city when ordered to do so by the Japanese High Command.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: After the war in the Philippines, the Commonwealth was restored and a one-year transitional period in preparation for independence began. Elections followed in April 1946 with Manuel Roxas winning as the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines and Elpidio Quirino winning as vice-president.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The Commonwealth ended when the U.S. recognized Philippine independence on July 4, 1946, as scheduled. However, the economy remained dependent on the U.S. This was due to the Bell Trade Act, otherwise known as the Philippine Trade Act, which was a precondition for receiving war rehabilitation grants from the United States.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: During the Commonwealth period, tenant farmers held grievances often rooted to debt caused by the sharecropping system, as well as by the dramatic increase in population, which added economic pressure to the tenant farmers' families. As a result, an agrarian reform program was initiated by the Commonwealth. However, success of the program was hampered by ongoing clashes between tenants and landowners.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: An example of these clashes includes one initiated by Benigno Ramos through his "Sakdalista" movement, which advocated tax reductions, land reforms, the breakup of the large estates or "haciendas", and the severing of American ties. The uprising, which occurred in Central Luzon in May 1935, claimed about a hundred lives.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: As per the 1935 constitution, the commonwealth had two official languages: English and Spanish. Due to the diverse number of Philippine languages, a provision calling for the "development and adoption of a common national language based on the existing native dialects" was drafted into the 1935 constitution. In 1936, the national assembly enacted Commonwealth Act No. 184, creating the "Surián ng Wikang Pambansà" (National Language Institute). This body was initially composed of President Quezon and six other members from various ethnic groups. In 1937. after deliberations, the body selected Tagalog as the basis for the national language. This was made official on December 30, 1937 in an executive order which became effective two years after issuance.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: In 1940, the government authorized the creation of a dictionary and grammar book for the language. In that same year, Commonwealth Act 570 was passed, allowing Filipino to become an official language upon independence.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The cash economy of the Commonwealth was mostly agriculture-based. Products included abaca, coconuts and coconut oil, sugar, and timber. Numerous other crops and livestock were grown for local consumption by the Filipino people. Other sources for foreign income included the spin-off from money spent at American military bases on the Philippines such as the naval base at Subic Bay and Clark Air Base (with U.S. Army airplanes there as early as 1919), both on the island of Luzon.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The performance of the economy was initially good despite challenges from various agrarian uprisings. Taxes collected from a robust coconut industry helped boost the economy by funding infrastructure and other development projects. However, growth was halted due to the outbreak of World War II.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: In 1939, a census of the Philippines was taken and determined that it had a population of 16,000,303; of these 15.7 million were counted as "Brown", 141.8 thousand as "Yellow", 50.5 thousand as "Mixed", 29.1 thousand as "Negro", 19.3 thousand as "White", and under 1 thousand "Other". In 1941, the estimated population of the Philippines reached 17,000,000; there were 117,000 Chinese, 30,000 Japanese, and 9,000 Americans. English was spoken by 26.3% of the population, according to the 1939 Census. Spanish, after English overtook it beginning in the 1920s, became a language for the elite and in government; it was later banned during the Japanese occupation.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The Commonwealth had its own constitution, which remained effective after independence until 1973, and was self-governing although foreign policy and military affairs would be under the responsibility of the United States, and Laws passed by the legislature affecting immigration, foreign trade, and the currency system had to be approved by the United States president. Despite maintaining ultimate sovereignty, in some ways the US Government treated the Commonwealth as a sovereign state, and the Philippines sometimes acted in a state capacity in international relations.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: During the 1935–41 period, the Commonwealth of the Philippines featured a very strong executive, a unicameral National Assembly, and a Supreme Court, all composed entirely of Filipinos, as well as an elected Resident Commissioner to the United States House of Representatives (as Puerto Rico does today). An American High Commissioner and an American Military Advisor, Douglas MacArthur headed the latter office from 1937 until the advent of World War II in 1941, holding the military rank of Field Marshal of the Philippines. After 1946, the rank of field marshal disappeared from the Philippine military.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: During 1939 and 1940, after an amendment in the Commonwealth's Constitution, a bicameral Congress, consisting of a Senate, and of a House of Representatives, was restored, replacing the National Assembly.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: In 1935 Quezon won the Philippines' first national presidential election under the banner of the Nacionalista Party. He obtained nearly 68% of the vote against his two main rivals, Emilio Aguinaldo and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay. Quezon was inaugurated on November 15, 1935. He is recognized as the second President of the Philippines. When Manuel L. Quezon was inaugurated President of the Philippines in 1935, he became the first Filipino to head a government of the Philippines since Emilio Aguinaldo and the Malolos Republic in 1898. However, in January 2008, Congressman Rodolfo Valencia of Oriental Mindoro filed a bill seeking instead to declare General Miguel Malvar as the second Philippine President, who took control over all Filipino forces after American soldiers captured President Emilio Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela on March 23, 1901.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Quezon had originally been barred by the Philippine constitution from seeking re-election. However, in 1940, constitutional amendments were ratified allowing him to seek re-election for a fresh term ending in 1943. In the 1941 presidential elections, Quezon was re-elected over former Senator Juan Sumulong with nearly 82% of the vote.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: In a notable humanitarian act, Quezon, in cooperation with U.S. High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, facilitated the entry into the Philippines of Jewish refugees fleeing fascist regimes in Europe. Quezon was also instrumental in promoting a project to resettle the refugees in Mindanao.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: The Japanese invasion of the Philippines began with an invasion of Batan Island on December 8, 1941. When advancing Japanese forces threatened Manila, President Quezon, other senior officials of the Commonwealth government, and senior American military commanders relocated to Corregidor island, and Manila was declared an open city. On February 20, Quezon, his family, and senior officials of the Commonwealth government were evacuated from the island by submarine on the first leg of what came to be a relocation of the Commonwealth government in exile to the U.S.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Quezon suffered from tuberculosis and spent his last years in a "cure cottage" in Saranac Lake, NY, where he died on August 1, 1944. He was initially buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His body was later carried by the and re-interred in Manila at the Manila North Cemetery in 1979, his remains were moved to Quezon City within the monument at the Quezon Memorial Circle.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Osmeña became president of the Commonwealth on Quezon's death in 1944. He returned to the Philippines the same year with General Douglas MacArthur and the liberation forces. After the war Osmeña restored the Commonwealth government and the various executive departments. He continued the fight for Philippine independence.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: For the presidential election of 1946 Osmeña refused to campaign, saying that the Filipino people knew of his record of 40 years of honest and faithful service. Nevertheless, he was defeated by Manuel Roxas, who won 54% of the vote and became the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: Roxas served as the President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in a brief period, from his subsequent election on May 28, 1946 to July 4, 1946, the scheduled date of the proclamation of Philippine Independence. Roxas prepared the groundwork for the advent of a free and independent Philippines, assisted by the Congress (reorganized May 25, 1946), with Senator José Avelino as the Senate President and Congressman Eugenio Pérez as the House of Representatives Speaker. On June 3, 1946, Roxas appeared for the first time before the joint session of the Congress to deliver his first state of the nation address. Among other things, he told the members of the Congress the grave problems and difficulties the Philippines were set to face and reported on his special trip to the U.S. – the approval for independence.


title: Commonwealth of the Philippines

text: On June 21, he reappeared in another joint session of the Congress and urged the acceptance of two important laws passed by the U.S. Congress on April 30, 1946, regarding the Philippine lands. They are the Philippine Rehabilitation Act and the Philippine Trade Act. Both recommendations were accepted by the Congress.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: The Patriarca crime family (, ), also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia, or The Office is an Italian-American Mafia family in New England. It has two distinct factions, one based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. The family is currently led by Carmen "The Cheese Man" Dinunzio, who is part of the Boston faction. The family is primarily active in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut with other territory throughout New England.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Two separate Mafia families emerged in New England before the start of Prohibition one based in Boston, Massachusetts and the other based in Providence, Rhode Island. The "Boston crime family" was founded in 1910s by Gaspare DiCola, who lead the group until his murder on September 21, 1916. After DiCola's murder in 1916, Gaspare Messina became the new boss of the Boston Mafia family.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: The Providence Mafia group was formed by Frank Morelli in 1917, and he went on control bootlegging and illegal gambling operations in Providence, Maine, and Connecticut. In 1924, Gaspare Messina stepped down as Boston's Mafia boss, assuming a businessman's role while working with Frank Cucchiara and Paolo Pagnotta from a grocery store on Prince Street in Boston's North End.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: A Mafia power struggle ensued in Boston, as rival gangs fought for illegal gambling, bootlegging, and loan sharking rackets, and East Boston mobster Filippo Buccola emerged as the boss of the Boston family. In December 1930 or early 1931, a Mafia meeting was held and Messina was elected the temporary "capo dei capi" of the American Mafia. He retired from Mafia affairs in the early 1930s and died in June 1957 in his Somerville, Massachusetts home.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: During the early 1930s, Buccola battled other ethnic gangs for territory in Boston, along with his underboss Joseph Lombardo, another mobster from the North End. In December 1931, Lombardo arranged the murder of Frank Wallace, the boss of South Boston's Irish Gustin Gang. Then in 1932, Morelli merged his Providence family with Buccola's Boston family, forming the New England crime family. Buccola ruled as boss of the combined family from East Boston as he continued to fatally dispatch his competition. After the murder of Jewish mob boss Charles "King" Solomon at Buccola's command, Buccola became the most powerful gangster in Boston. On April 27, 1952, Buccola held a party in Johnston, Rhode Island, to celebrate his retirement and Raymond Patriarca's ascension to boss of the family. He retired to Sicily in 1954, where he ran a chicken farm. He died in 1987 of natural causes at the age of 101.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: In 1956, Patriarca made drastic changes in the family, the biggest being the relocation of their base of operations to Providence, using the National Cigarette Service Company and Coin-O-Matic Distributors, a vending machine and pinball business on Atwells Avenue, as a front organization. The business was known to family members as "The Office."


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Patriarca was a strict and ruthless leader; he ran the family for decades and made it clear that other Mafia organizations were not permitted to operate in New England. He was skilled at warding off police and maintaining a low profile, thus receiving little hindrance from law enforcement. The family ventured into new rackets such as pornography and narcotics, though mob informer Vincent Teresa insisted that Patriarca forbade the family to deal in drugs.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: During his reign as boss, Patriarca formed strong relationships with the New York-based Genovese crime family and Colombo crime family, deciding that the Connecticut River would be the dividing line between their territory and his own. His long-time underboss, Enrico Tameleo, was also a member of New York's Bonanno crime family. The New England family controlled organized crime in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, where Genovese capo Carlo Mastrototaro reigned as local boss for half a century, as well as the state of Maine; while the Genovese family controlled organized crime in Hartford, Connecticut, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Albany, New York.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: In addition to having close ties to the powerful Five Families, Patriarca also sat on the Commission and had investments in two Las Vegas casinos. Another of his underbosses, Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo, was involved in the numbers racket in Boston, and was being shaken down by rival mobsters because he was not a "made" member. Angiulo solved this problem by paying Patriarca $50,000 and agreeing to pay him $100,000 a year to become a made member of the family. Angiulo continued to control his large illegal gambling network in Boston.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: In 1957, more than sixty of the country's most powerful Mafia bosses, including Joe Bonanno, Carlo Gambino, and Vito Genovese, met in Apalachin, a hamlet in upstate New York. Patriarca was also in attendance and was subsequently arrested when the meeting was suddenly raided by police, drawing much attention to him from the press, the public, and law enforcement.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: The situation became worse for Patriarca in 1961, when U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy began an assault on organized crime. Law enforcement agencies worked to develop informants within the Mafia and finally succeeded in 1966, when Joe Barboza, a Patriarca family hitman, was arrested on a concealed weapons charge. Barboza claimed to have killed 26 people, but became concerned when Patriarca did not raise his bail and two of his friends were killed for trying to do so. He soon decided to turn informant.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Based on Barboza's testimony, Patriarca and Enrico Tameleo were indicted in 1967 for the murder of Providence bookmaker Willie Marfeo. Patriarca was convicted and began serving time in 1969, and Angiulo served as acting boss. Patriarca resumed control of the family after his release from prison in 1974. For his testimony, Barboza was given a one-year prison term, including time served. He was paroled in March 1969 and told to leave Massachusetts permanently. In 1971, he pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge in California and sentenced to five years at Folsom Prison; he was murdered in San Francisco by Joseph "J. R." Russo on February 11, 1976, less than three months after his release.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Patriarca was plagued by law enforcement for the rest of his life, and he was charged numerous times for a variety of crimes until his death. In 1978, Vincent Teresa testified that Patriarca had participated in a 1960 attempt by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Fidel Castro that was never carried out. In 1983, Patriarca was charged with the murder of Raymond Curcio, and he was arrested in 1984 for the murder of Robert Candos, whom Patriarca believed was an informant. Patriarca died of a heart attack on July 11, 1984, aged 76.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: After Patriarca's death, the New England family began a long period of decline, resulting from both legal prosecution and internal violence. Angiulo attempted to take over as boss from behind bars, while Larry Zannino, the family's top lieutenant, backed Patriarca's son Raymond Patriarca, Jr. for the position. The Commission approved Patriarca, Jr.'s ascendancy to leadership and his position was confirmed. Zannino was made "consigliere", but he was sentenced to thirty years in prison in 1987. Angiulo was sentenced to 45 years in prison on racketeering charges. Other senior members died or were imprisoned, such as Henry Tameleo and Francesco Intiso.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: William "The Wild Man" Grasso, an East Hartford-based gangster, became underboss because of the younger Patriarca's weak leadership. Some investigators believed that Grasso was actually in charge, but these rumors ended when Grasso was found dead in June 1989, slain by a gangster from Springfield as factions of the family began fighting each other for dominance. Grasso's murder weakened Patriarca, Jr.'s position. Nicholas Bianco was eventually indicted for the murder, but he became acting underboss before taking over the family's Providence operations.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On March 26, 1990, Patriarca, Jr. and twenty other family members and associates were indicted on charges of racketeering, extortion, narcotics, gambling, and murder. The indictments included underboss Bianco, "consigliere" Joseph Russo, and lieutenants Biagio DiGiacomo, Vincent Ferrara, Matthew Guglielmetti, Joseph A. Tiberi Sr, Dennis Lepore, Gaetano J. Milano, Jack Johns, John "Sonny" Castagna, Louis Fallia, Frank and Louis Pugliono, Frank Colontoni and Robert Carrozza. The arrests were described as "the most sweeping attack ever launched on a single organized crime family." One of the most damaging pieces of evidence was a tape recording of a Mafia induction ceremony, at which thirteen "mafiosi" were present. Because of this embarrassment, Patriarca was replaced as boss by Bianco, who maintained a very low profile. However, Bianco was sentenced to eleven years in prison in 1991, while eight other family members were convicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges. Bianco died in prison in 1994.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On January 6, 1992, all of the defendants in the RICO trial pleaded guilty and received lengthy sentences and large fines. Patriarca, Jr. was sentenced to eight years in prison in June 1992 after pleading guilty to racketeering charges. In 1993, 26 others were indicted and convicted for running a bookmaking operation.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Frank Salemme took control of the family after the RICO trial of Patriarca Jr. which moved the family's base of power to Boston. With Salemme's ascension to the boss sparked tension among the family's factions.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On March 31, 1994, Patriarca soldiers Ronald Coppola and Pete Scarpellini were shot and killed at a social club in Cranston, Rhode Island, by another Patriarca soldier, Nino Cucinotta, during a card game. On October 20, 1994, Joe Souza was shot inside an East Boston phone booth, dying from his injuries at the hospital on October 31. On December 11, 1994, 25-year old drug dealer and Salemme loyalist Paul Strazzulla was shot and killed, his body recovered inside of his fire-torched car in Revere, Massachusetts.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: In January 1995, Salemme was indicted along with Stephen Flemmi and James "Whitey" Bulger on extortion and racketeering charges, and Salemme discovered through court documents that his close allies Flemmi and Bulger were long-time FBI informants. Bulger's friend, FBI agent John Connolly, let him run his criminal operations with impunity for informing on the Patriarca family.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: After Salemme was imprisoned, a renegade faction led by Robert F. Carrozza, Anthony Ciampi, Stephen Foye, and Michael P. Romano, Sr. waged war on the Salemme faction. On April 3, 1996, 63-year old Richard "Vinnie the Pig" DeVincent was shot and killed in Medford, Massachusetts, after refusing to pay street tax from Salemme loyalists. In April 1997, the FBI indicted fifteen members of the renegade faction, including Carrozza, Ciampi, Romano, and others. The grand jury testimony that resulted in the indictments was dominated by Sean Thomas Cote, who was the first of four indicted members to turn state's evidence. The jury ultimately acquitted the defendants of most charges but was deadlocked on murder and racketeering charges. Following Salemme's indictment, Providence family member Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio took control of the family.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Several of the defendants changed their pleas to guilty during a second trial, including Ciampi and Eugene Rida. Salemme pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on December 9, 1999, and was sentenced to eleven years in prison on February 23, 2000. In early 2001, Salemme agreed to testify against Flemmi and Bulger.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: The New England family is estimated to have about sixty made members active in the New England area, especially in the cities of Boston and Providence. In recent years, the family has been hit with several RICO indictments, and two Caporegimes (Mark Rossetti and Robert DeLuca) have become government informants. The power structure was said to have moved back to Boston entering the 2010s.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Peter "Chief Crazy Horse" Limone took over as boss of the family in 2009. Limone was arrested that year and charged with racketeering; he was given a suspended sentence on July 1, 2010.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Retired boss Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on January 19, 2011, and was charged with extortion and conspiracy. Manocchio had stepped down as boss in 2009, after the FBI began investigating two strip clubs in late 2008. In February 2012, Manocchio agreed to plead guilty and was sentenced to 5½ years in prison for extortion on May 11, 2012.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On December 17, 2011, family consigliere Anthony "Ponytail Tony" Parrillo was arrested after a physical altercation at his establishment in Providence, Club 295, and was later charged with two counts of felony assault. Parrello had his bouncers attack patron Jack Fernandes after misidentifying him for another man who had engaged in sexual acts in the club's bathroom then stabbed a security guard when he confronted him about it: Fernandes was using the same bathroom stall as the aggressor. The assault began in the bathroom and continued in the back alley of the club where Fernandes's wife, Sumiya Majeed, was injured as well. Fernandes suffered a broken nose, broken ribs and a shattered eye socket. Parrillo was sentenced to serve five years from a 15-year sentence in prison on April 11, 2016, but appealed his conviction to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He was released on bail pending the appeal, but his motion was denied and he began his sentence on August 5, 2020.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: In late 2009, Anthony DiNunzio became the acting boss after Limone's arrest. DiNunzio operates from Boston's North End and is the younger brother to Carmen DiNunzio. In 2010, DiNunzio extorted Rhode Island strip clubs with members of the Gambino crime family. On April 25, 2012, DiNunzio was arrested and charged with racketeering and extortion. On September 13, 2012, DiNunzio pleaded guilty to shaking down Rhode Island strip clubs, and was sentenced to six years on November 14, 2012.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On October 2, 2014, acting boss Antonio L. "Spucky" Spagnolo, 72, and reputed made man Pryce "Stretch" Quintina, 74, were arrested for allegedly extorting thousands of dollars in protection payments from a video poker machine company, which installed machines for illegal gambling in bars and social clubs. Spagnolo took over as acting boss after DiNunzio was arrested back in 2012. Both Spagnolo and Quintina are reputedly old members of the Patriarca crime family's Boston faction.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Family underboss Carmen "The Cheese Man" DiNunzio was released from prison on February 17, 2015 after serving five and a half years on bribery charges. Upon his release, he was thought to renew his position within the family and reconvene with his old North End crew. DiNunzio reportedly inducted his nephew, Louis "Baby Cheese" DiNunzio and two other members of his crew, Johnny Scarpelli and Salvatore "Tea Party Tore" Marino into the family during a ceremony held in the basement of a North End restaurant and attended by boss Peter Limone, acting boss Anthony "Spucky" Spagnolo and Providence capo Matthew "Good-Looking Matty" Guglielmetti. At that same event, DiNunzio promoted his bodyguard Gregory "Fat Boy" Costa to capo of the North End crew.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: Family boss Peter Limone died of cancer on June 19, 2017. He was succeeded by his acting boss Carmen DiNunzio, who is the current family leader. DiNunzio led an administration consisting of underboss Matthew "Good-Looking Matty" Guglielmetti and consigliere Joseph "Joe the Bishop" Achille, both members of the Providence faction. Achille died on August 7, 2018. Since at least 2020, Guglielmetti relinquished the position of underboss to Edward "Eddie" Lato due to health concerns and regained the rank of capo.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On July 18, 2022, former boxer and actor Dino Guilmette was arrested on drug trafficking charges in Cranston, Rhode Island. He had been the target of a two-year investigation by the Rhode Island State Police into the sale of cocaine and lorazepam, which he reportedly engaged in in September and November 2021. According to a State Police affidavit, Guilmette has ties to the New England Mafia and dealt in narcotics trafficking under the authorization of Providence capo Matthew Guglielmetti. Several evidence files in the case were taken from surveillance records of the Toscan Social Club, an organized crime meeting place for which Guilmette was vice president.


title: Patriarca crime family

text: On October 27, 2022, Rhode Island State House senior deputy chief of staff John Conti resigned from his post amid allegations that he was a silent partner in a marijuana growing business with Patriarca family associate Raymond "Scarface" Jenkins. A State Police probe revealed the two shared an interest in the Organic Bees marijuana grow operation, which started in 2017 and shut down in 2022 because Conti and Jenkins would not disclose their involvement in the business. Conti and Jenkins were also surveilled in December 2020 camera recordings meeting just outside the State House and conversing for approximately 20 minutes. The former chief of staff was also mentioned meeting with several other high-ranking Patriarca mobsters, including a 2020 Christmas party at a Providence restaurant attended by Conti, capo Matthew Guglielmetti and underboss Edward "Eddie" Lato. Conti's attorney Jimmy Burchfield Jr. stated to WPRI "Mr. Conti had no role in the business organization, Organic Bees […] Mr. Conti has been employed by the House of Representatives honorably, serving under four speakers since first hired in December 2006."


title: Patriarca crime family

text: In December 2022, former boss Frank Salemme, who later became a government informant died in federal prison.


title: FetLife

text: FetLife is a social networking website that serves people interested in BDSM, fetishism, and kink. On its homepage, FetLife describes itself as "Like Facebook, but run by kinksters like you and me." The "Fet" in the name refers to "fetish". FetLife distinguishes itself from competitors by emphasizing itself as a social network rather than a dating site. It is on principle supportive of fringe sexual practices.


title: FetLife

text: FetLife was launched in January 2008 by John Kopanas (also known by his username "John Baku"), a software engineer in Montreal, Quebec. Frustrated by attempts to find women who had the same sexual interests as he did, Baku created a website in 2007 called "FriendsWithFetishes". While working on release 2.0 of FriendsWithFetishes, Baku decided to launch it as a separate site and named it FetLife. James Golick served as chief technology officer. In 2009 Baku received the Community Choice (Man) Award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.


title: FetLife

text: In the past, any member could create a group devoted to whatever fetish they chose. However, in January 2017, FetLife temporarily shut down the ability to create new groups. At the same time, they deleted hundreds of existing groups, including anything with the words blood, needles, rape and incest. The ability to create new groups was reinstated shortly afterwards.


title: FetLife

text: All new members are by default enrolled in the group Fetlife Announcements, which has () over 6 million members.


title: FetLife

text: There are many groups devoted to answering thematic questions, such as "Ask a Submissive", "Ask a Mistress", "Ask a Dominant", "Ask a Stripper", "Novices & Newbies" and so on. Groups can be searched for by words in the group title.


title: FetLife

text: In addition, there is a separate "directory" of fetishes which a member may indicate their interest in. Any member can create a new fetish.


title: FetLife

text: Any member can post an Event with date, location, cost, dress code, and other information. Location can be concealed and only revealed individually by the Event owner to participants. Users, on an Event's page, can indicate that they "will attend" or "might attend".


title: FetLife

text: All members have a personal profile. A member may have multiple affiliate profiles, but sockpuppets are against the site's terms of use. There are 12 possible "sexual orientation" choices, plus "Not Applicable" and over 60 "role" choices. The groups the member belongs to and the fetishes the member is "into" or "curious about" are displayed as part of the profile. Beyond this, the member may write text that is automatically posted on their profile, with no limitation on length. All profiles are by default visible to all members, though a member can block another member.


title: FetLife

text: Members can indicate that they are "Friends" with another member, and thus receive notification of the Friend's activity (for example, which groups the Friend joins and what posts they make). Confirmation from the proposed Friend is required.


title: FetLife

text: Members can also indicate that they are in one or more relationships. A separate menu allows a member to indicate more specifically any D/s (Dominant/submissive) relationships they may be in. Both optionally allow the member to specify someone on their friends list.


title: FetLife

text: Members can exchange private messages with any other member. A limited chat function was implemented in 2013, allowing members to chat to others with whom they were friends: this function was discontinued in 2016. In 2020 it became possible to select if one wishes to receive messages from any member or just from followers and friends.


title: FetLife

text: Each member can post writings (journal entries, erotica, and notes), photographs, and videos. Posting of photographs or videos not taken by the member themself is not permitted unless they are photos or videos of the member. While membership is free, videos can only be viewed by financial supporters. Those who make a financial contribution receive an "I Support FetLife" badge on their profile.


title: FetLife

text: Any member may comment on another member's piece of writing, photo, or video. Comments are public and cannot be changed after posting.


title: FetLife

text: The search feature is deliberately limited to prevent members from finding users with specific characteristics, such as age or gender. Also, writings cannot be searched by topic or keyword; they are only available via the author's profile page. From 2020 it is possible to add tags to writings and search a writing via tags.


title: FetLife

text: Members are encouraged to report illegal content as well as terms of use violations to the administrators of FetLife.


title: FetLife

text: In 2012, FetLife found itself at the center of a controversy regarding its policy that users pledge not to "make criminal accusations against another member in a public forum". This policy has been objected to by users on the basis that censoring posts of sexual assault victims that name predatory users prevents them from warning others. FetLife's reasoning behind this policy is that it allows users to accuse others of a crime, which could be libelous if the allegations are false or unprovable.


title: FetLife

text: An account is required to view content on FetLife, although membership is free. The site is not indexed by search engines and, partly because of this, critics have argued that FetLife presents itself as being more private than it is.


title: FetLife

text: In April 2017, FetLife was accessed by Brendt Christensen, the killer of Yingying Zhang, to explore topics such as "Abduction 101" and sub-threads such as "Perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Solar Power is the third studio album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. It was released on 20 August 2021, by Universal Music New Zealand. Lorde wrote and produced the album with American musician Jack Antonoff, with whom she also worked on her second studio album, "Melodrama" (2017).


title: Solar Power (album)

text: The album was preceded by "Going South", a June 2021 memoir documenting Lorde's 2019 visit to Antarctica, which she dubbed as the precursor to the album. She stated the title "Solar Power" was inspired by the trip, and that she "felt like [she] could just chill out and flex a little bit" while creating the record. Three singles were released before the album: the lead single and title track, "Solar Power", was released on a solar eclipse and entered the charts in various countries, reaching number two on the New Zealand Singles Chart. It was followed by "Stoned at the Nail Salon" and "Mood Ring", leading up to the album's release.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Classified by Lorde as her "weed album", "Solar Power" is a psychedelic pop and indie folk effort driven by acoustic guitar arrangements, marking a departure from the synth-heavy, dance-oriented music of her previous works. The album's lyrics revolve around solipsism and summer escapism, mainly focusing on Lorde's leisure time in her homeland New Zealand, simultaneously expressing her disdain for fame and celebrity culture. "Solar Power" was met with polarizing reviews from music critics, who admired Lorde's matured vocals, but were divided over its songwriting; some reviewers praised the laid-back music and perceptive themes, while others considered its sound unfinished and lyrics dispassionate.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Commercially, "Solar Power" reached number one in Australia and New Zealand, and charted inside the top-10 in Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It additionally topped the US "Billboard" Alternative Albums chart. Lorde opted against manufacturing CDs for environmental reasons, releasing "Solar Power" to digital music platforms, streaming services, and as vinyl LPs only. A Māori-language EP, titled "Te Ao Mārama", was released on 9 September 2021 as a companion project to "Solar Power". It consists of the Māori versions of five tracks from the album. To promote the album, Lorde embarked on her third concert tour, the Solar Power Tour, visiting North America, Latin America, Europe, and Oceania.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: On 16 June 2017, Lorde released her second studio album, "Melodrama", to universal critical acclaim. It topped several year-end best albums lists by music critics, but trailed commercially compared to her debut studio album, "Pure Heroine". It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. In November 2018, Lorde revealed to fans in a newsletter that she had been learning the piano and expected her third album to be "born out of" the instrument; however, she also divulged that despite this she hadn't "started properly on the next record yet" and was unsure as to when it would be completed. On the second anniversary of "Melodrama"s release, Lorde confirmed to fans on Instagram that the album was "in the oven," and she also revealed that she had taken up bread baking and adopted a dog and a cat.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: The singer made her first public performance following the conclusion of her Melodrama World Tour in April 2019 at a benefit concert for victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings, which had occurred the previous month. Later that year, Lorde disclosed that the album release would be postponed indefinitely following the death of her dog Pearl, who had been suffering from various illnesses; she explained that the dog had been an important part of the creative process of the record and that "it's going to take some time and re-calibration, now that there's no shepherd ahead of [her], to see what the work is going to be." She added that the album would not "be the same work" due to the impact of Pearl's death, writing: "When this great loss crystallises inside me, and my chest rebuilds around it, hopefully I'll be able to finish up, and share it with you, and we'll all grow together, as we always do."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In an interview with Triple J in March 2020, Lorde revealed that she had been working on "bits and pieces" that were "starting to take a very exciting shape," but added that she still had "no idea when things will happen." When asked whether she had been working on new material in separate interview the following month, she replied that "it's been a very productive year." That May, the singer wrote in a newsletter that she had returned to the studio in the previous December and recorded music with Jack Antonoff, whom she collaborated with on "Melodrama". She added that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two were working remotely. Malay also disclosed that he had been heavily involved in the creation of her third album.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In an August 2021 interview for "The New York Times", Lorde stated: "I haven't made a Jack Antonoff record, I've made a Lorde record and he's helped me make it and very much deferred to me on production and arrangement". She also said she used only a single 808 drum machine in the entire album, and that "there's definitely not a smash [...] because I don't even know really what the smashes are now", commenting on the commercial prospects of "Solar Power", in which she "felt like I could just chill out and flex a little bit." She also stated in the interview that she was influenced by "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard and "How to Do Nothing" by Jenny Odell. She described the album's opening track, "The Path", as "a sort of thesis statement for the album".


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In an interview with Stephen Colbert, Lorde revealed that the album cover was photographed by her friend Ophelia on the beach while she jumped over them. Colbert could not show the cover on TV, with Lorde saying that it is "a little hardcore, but it was so joyful to me" and "a little bit feral". In some markets, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Lorde's buttocks are censored by a bright sunlight lens flare.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Critics described "Solar Power" as an indie folk, folk-pop, and psychedelic record, specifically the psychedelic folk and psychedelic pop styles. It emphasises guitars, usually acoustic, complemented by soft rock and electronic elements. Eschewing the prominent 808s, dance, and synth-focused sounds of Lorde's past works, "Solar Power" opts for a more "organic", "earthier", unplugged sound, with stripped-down arrangements, unpredictable chord progressions, sparse percussions, and minimal drums. The album's subject matter expresses escapism, retrospection, introspection, and solipsism, discussing topics like social life, celebrity culture, grief, climate crisis, and reconnection with nature. In an interview with Viva Magazine, Lorde said on the topic of being naff that "That’s my biggest achievement with this album and I feel like no one got it. I say, ‘Let the bliss begin.’ I say a lot of crazy naff shit on this album."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In a newsletter published in June 2022, Lorde wrote that she agreed with a friend who said that "it’s clearly one of those works that gets made between peaks, the kind that’s necessary for makers sometimes, no less precious, in fact, there can’t be peaks at all without such works."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: The album's first track, "The Path", features "dark and moody flute melodies" beneath Lorde's vocals, with the line "if you're looking for a savior, that's not me" directed to her fans. The song also addresses themes of the pressures of fame, with the lyric of "teen millionaire having nightmares from the camera flash," and incorporates direct references to star-studded moments of Lorde's career, namely her attendance at the 2016 Met Gala. Musically, "The Path" is set in the key of F major with a tempo of 92 beats per minute. After the title track, the third song on "Solar Power" is "California", which begins with a reference to Lorde's hit single "Royals" being awarded the Grammy for Song of the Year by Carole King in 2014. "The Daily Telegraph" called "California" a "a playful goodbye to Hollywood," while Lorde claimed it as the song she was most excited to dance to on tour in a July 2021 interview. The Mamas & the Papas also served as a direct melodic reference when inventing the song.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Lorde began writing the fourth track and second single off the album, "Stoned at the Nail Salon," roughly six months after finishing her Melodrama World Tour, and later recorded it in Antonoff's home studio. A contemplative folk ballad, Lorde said in an email to fans the song was borne out of insecure feelings of fading into irrelevance and becoming out of touch with pop culture; "I was sure that I was building a beautiful life for myself, but I wasn’t sure if that life was going to satisfy the same thirsty, fearless person who could tear apart a festival stage or be in seven countries in seven days." Track five on the album is "Fallen Fruit", which Laura Snapes of "The Guardian" described prior to the album's release as a "crushed flower-power lament for the spoiled Eden her generation inherited". It serves as a condemnation for prior generations over their inaction on climate change. "Fallen Fruit" is also the only song on the album to feature an 808 drum machine in its production.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All)" is an upbeat pop tune meant to take on the form of advice to a past version of oneself. Lorde considers "Secrets" to be a response to "Pure Heroine"'s "Ribs," with the former reversing the primary chords of the latter's verses and the lyrics containing future wisdom wrought from lived experience; "This song is me in communication with another version of me, trying to send along the wisdom I’ve started to gather along the way." The British music group Eurythmics are credited as having inspired some of the melody, as well as Swedish singer-songwriter Robyn, who contributes a spoken-word interlude at the end of the song in the role of a "blissed-out flight attendant" coaching the listener through the confrontation of emotional turmoil.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "Solar Power"'s B-side largely drops in tempo, starting with "The Man With the Axe," a love ballad which Lorde initially conceived as a poem after a party. She cites the minimal editing required to transform the original piece into a song as one of the record's greatest accomplishments. It remains the only song of the album Lorde has yet to perform live. The following track, "Dominoes," was recorded at Electric Lady Studios with the doors open, which contributed non-diegetic and unintended sounds from outside to the final production, including audible police sirens. The song has been described as a satirical exploration of tropes of people seeking wellness and utopia, with the unnamed man referenced in the lyrics of the song to be one such representation.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "Big Star" is a tribute to Lorde's dog, Pearl, whose death in late 2019 took a heavy toll on the singer and caused a reconfiguration of the album as a whole. Lorde began writing it on the piano with Pearl at her side; "I looked down and was like . . . 'You big dummy. You're never going to know that I'm writing this song about how much I love you.'" "Big Star" also features an interpolation of a lyric from the "Melodrama" song "Liability," with the latter's "Every perfect summer's eating me alive until you're gone" transformed into the former's "Every perfect summer's gotta say goodnight." Lorde had previously attributed the lyric as her favorite of her sophomore album in a 2017 interview, described as a pillar of the record. In bringing the line back for "Solar Power", she found it to be a thoughtful invocation of the line's original power, "while giving it new meaning for a new life stage."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: The penultimate track and third "Solar Power" single, "Mood Ring," is a critique of wellness culture and the contrived methods of spiritual connectivity in the digital world. A "full satire" of material pursuits for emotional clarity, the lyrics contain references to popular new-age pseudoscientific practices, including crystal therapy, sun salutations, and astrology. Melodically, "Mood Ring" was meant to blend early-2000s musical trends with the psychedelic pop of the 1960s and 1970s. "Solar Power"'s final track, "Oceanic Feeling," is Lorde's longest song to date, and one of the two songs on the album with O'Connor's exclusive writing credits (alongside the album's opener, "The Path"). Its title comes from Romain Rolland's concept of a feeling of oneness with the world. The song primarily consists of two chords, described as "moving back and forth," with lyrics that pay homage to Lorde's home, her loved ones, a past relationship with celebrity culture, and a future family of her own. New Zealand singer Marlon Williams contributed vocals to the production. In the song's concluding lines, Lorde alludes to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and muses about the imagery of robes and choirs she had previously song about in "Pure Heroine"s "White Teeth Teens."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In October 2020, Lorde urged her fans to vote in New Zealand's general election as well as the referendums on the personal use of cannabis and euthanasia, and added: "next year I'll give you something in return." The following month, she announced the release of "Going South", a memoir documenting her visit to Antarctica in early 2019, and added that the book was "a sort of perfect precursor [...] in an abstract way" to her upcoming album. Lorde later revealed that the album title was inspired by the trip. On 25 May 2021, she was announced as a headliner for the 2022 Primavera Sound music festival, with the festival's website revealing that she "will emerge from her retirement with her third album." On 7 June, fans leaked the title and cover art for a single titled "Solar Power". Lorde consequently teased its release on her website alongside a message stating: "Arriving in 2021...Patience is a virtue." On 10 June, the song was leaked on dbree.org, a cloud storage website, and briefly made available on Apple Music and Tidal in select countries before being promptly taken down. It was officially released later that evening, coinciding with that day's solar eclipse. Lorde further confirmed that her upcoming third album would also be titled "Solar Power" in her newsletter. On 21 June, the track listing and release date for the album were revealed. Lorde began the Solar Power Tour on 3 April 2022, with concert dates in Oceania, North America, and Europe.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In a video titled "73 Questions with Lorde", published on 27 July 2021, "Vogue" interviewed Lorde about her fame, childhood dreams, and "Solar Power". She discussed the album with "The New York Times", in an article published on 12 August 2021.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "Solar Power", the title track, was released on 11 June 2021 as the lead single from "Solar Power". The release was accompanied by a music video, directed by Lorde and Joel Kefali, which was released on the singer's official YouTube channel the same day. It charted in many countries, including a peak of number 2 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, number 14 on Australia's ARIA Singles, and number 64 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "Stoned at the Nail Salon" was released as the second single on 22 July. The song had minor chart placement in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: On 18 August 2021, "Mood Ring" was released as the third single from the album. A music video for the track premiered alongside the release. It reached the top 10 on the New Zealand Singles Chart and peaked at number 93 on the "Billboard" Global 200.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: On 2 November 2021, "Fallen Fruit" was released as the fourth single from the album, coinciding with the release of the album's bonus tracks, "Helen of Troy" and "Hold No Grudge", to streaming services.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Despite versions of her two previous albums existing for the medium, Lorde did not release "Solar Power" via CD. She stated that she does not want to "make something that would end up in a landfill in 2 years". Instead, an eco-friendly "music box" with handwritten notes, exclusive photographs, and a download card is available for those wanting a physical manifestation of the album in addition to the digital release. Lorde stated that, with the music box, she wanted to "create an environmentally kind, forward-thinking alternative to the CD" that would provide a high-quality download of the music similar to CD quality. Music trade publication "Hits" noted that the traditional CDs and their jewel cases are plastic materials that pollute the world's oceans. Vinyl LPs of the album were pressed, despite some researchers noting that vinyl records are also plastic products, and that "although digital audio files seem virtual, they rely on infrastructures of data storage, processing and transmission that have potentially higher greenhouse gas emissions than the petrochemical plastics used in the production of more obviously physical formats [...]"


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "Solar Power" polarized music critics upon release. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from several publications, "Solar Power" received an average score of 69, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Spencer Kornhaber of "The Atlantic" hailed the album as a "near masterpiece", admiring its social critique and simplistic instrumentation, while "NME" critic Rhian Daly regarded it a beautifully produced album "that grows in quiet stature with every listen", aside wise lyrics. Mikael Wood of "Los Angeles Times" described "Solar Power" as a "low-key" album depicting Lorde's burdens of fame. "Rolling Stone" critic Brittany Spanos branded it a "smooth and beachy" record that has Lorde search for peace whilst meandering through her quarter-life crisis. Chris Willman of "Variety" found the album's lyrics compelling and its melodies concise. Observing influences from the Doors and the Mamas & the Papas, Lucy Harbron of "Clash" underlined "Solar Power" "isn't a fully sun-soaked album", but rather "sun-stroked", delivering her usual introspection under a "bright and hazy" tone. Lean Greenblatt of "Entertainment Weekly" said it has a subdued quality, purposely retiring the unfiltered vigour of her earlier albums, and delving into ease and "cool observation". Appreciating Lorde's vocals and "poetic" lyrics, "The New Zealand Herald" Lydia Burgham felt the album is a "slow burn" that abandons chart-friendly pop songs. Kate Solomon of "i" stated "Solar Power" gives up "dance anthems" for "warm, gentle, Laurel Canyon-inspired ruminations."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Some reviews were more critical of "Solar Power". "Paste" reviewer Matt Mitchell wrote it is a "happy, charming juxtaposition" to the "sad-girl melancholia" of its predecessors, but its production by Antonoff is "not as rhapsodic" as his other works. Music journalist Alexis Petridis, writing for "The Guardian", stated "Solar Power" sees Lorde flee celebrity life in favour of "homespun wisdom". He said the album sounds "undernourished" at its worst moments, but delivers overall. Sal Cinquemani of "Slant" opined Lorde rejects fame in the album, presenting herself as a "pop star in exile". He appreciated its acoustic composition, but felt it loses momentum in the second half. "The Daily Telegraph" Neil McCormick liked the album's lyrics, vocals, and the "utterly gorgeous" sound, but found it "underpowered" due to Lorde's new "over-privileged solipsist" perspectives. Bobby Olivier of "Spin" complimented Lorde's deft songwriting, but labelled "Solar Power" her "least vital project". In her "Consequence" review, Abby Jones called it a "collection of luminous psych-pop", citing static production and clumsy pop culture references as its flaws, nevertheless.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: "The Sydney Morning Herald" Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen noted flower child elements, and summarised, although "Solar Power" is "a perfectly fine record", it is an "anticlimax" that is lacking the "power and passion" of her past work. Alex Behan of Stuff wrote its songs have "understated elegance and charming harmonies", but its lyrics can be hackneyed and jarring. "Stereogum" critic James Rettig admired Lorde's voice and certain parts of the album which he thought were catchy, but thought the holistic concept was "muddy", lacking "deeper engagement", and sometimes "too laid back" and indistinct. "Evening Standard" David Smyth, "The Independent" Helen Brown, and David Cobbald of "The Line of Best Fit" gave negative reviews: Smyth felt the songs on "Solar Power" "seem to take pride in their lack of ambition", Brown dismissed it as a disappointing, tuneless "collection of heat haze hippy noodlings", deficit of memorable hooks, while Cobbald deemed it Lorde's fall from grace, saying "it's a tired old story, hearing about a rich white woman discovering crystals and then raving about the planet, peace, and love."


title: Solar Power (album)

text: Two weeks before its release on 20 August 2021, "Solar Power" rose to number one on the Apple Music pre-add chart for the week dated 30 July to 5 August 2021.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In the United States, "Solar Power" entered the "Billboard" 200 chart at number five with 56,000 album-equivalent units moved, consisting of 34,000 album sales, and 22,000 units calculated from the 28.38 million on-demand streams the album earned in its opening week. "Solar Power" is Lorde's third top-five album on the chart, following "Pure Heroine" (number three in 2013) and "Melodrama" (number one in 2017). "Hits" criticised "Billboard" for not counting the sales of "Solar Power" "Music box", which are disc-less box sets containing a download card linked to a digital copy of the album, a 32-page booklet, a poster and some limited-edition goods, for the "Billboard" 200 chart; their own "Hits" Top 50 chart and the "Rolling Stone" Top 200 chart included the music box sales and placed "Solar Power" at number three in those charts. According to "Billboard" long-standing rule, a box set must contain a physical copy of the album. It also reached number one on the US Top Alternative Albums chart.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: In Australia, "Solar Power" debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart and stayed on it for 6 weeks. It also reached number one in New Zealand and the top ten in 14 countries, including the UK where it landed at number two. In Canada, it peaked at number six on the Canadian Albums Chart.


title: Solar Power (album)

text: On 9 September 2021, Lorde released a five-song companion EP to "Solar Power" titled "Te Ao Mārama", meaning "World of Light" in Māori. The EP features five re-recordings of songs from "Solar Power" sung in the Māori language. Although Lorde herself isn't Māori, she worked with Māori language experts, including Sir Tīmoti Kāretu, and collaborated with Kiwi singers Bic Runga and Marlon Williams in order to highlight "the long history of injustices that Maori language and culture has suffered and the inequities that persist today, specifically in New Zealand's music industry." Proceeds from the EP will be donated to the charities Forest and Bird and Te Hua Kawariki Charitable Trust.


title: Mad World

text: "Mad World" is a 1982 song by British band Tears for Fears. Written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith, it was the band's third single release and first chart hit, reaching number three on the UK Singles Chart in November 1982. Both "Mad World" and its B-side, "Ideas as Opiates", appeared on the band's debut LP "The Hurting" (1983). This single was also the band's first international success, reaching the Top 40 in several countries in 1982–83.


title: Mad World

text: "Mad World" has since been covered by various artists, including a 2001 version recorded by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack of the film "Donnie Darko"; a 2003 single release of the song reached number one in the UK for three consecutive weeks and won Orzabal his second Ivor Novello Award. A 2021 rendition of the song was included on Demi Lovato's album "Dancing with the Devil... the Art of Starting Over".


title: Mad World

text: "Mad World" was originally written on acoustic guitar when Orzabal was 19 after being inspired to write a new wave song in the vein of Duran Duran's "Girls on Film". After a few false starts with Orzabal on vocals, he suggested Smith sing it and "suddenly it sounded fabulous".


title: Mad World

text: "Mad World" was intended to be the B-side for the band's second single "Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)", but their record company stated that "Mad World" could be a single in its own right. The band then opted to re-record "Mad World" with producers Ross Cullum and Chris Hughes, the latter a former drummer with Adam and the Ants.


title: Mad World

text: Curt Smith's ad lib in the song's final chorus resulted in a mondegreen. Smith clarified the actual lyric in 2010:


title: Mad World

text: The song was influenced by the theories of Arthur Janov, author of "The Primal Scream". The lyric "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests that dreams of intense experiences such as death will be the best at releasing tension.


title: Mad World

text: "Cash Box" said that the song "grows on you, expanding from a soft dance tune to a shy Britisher's confessions of his darkest dreams."


title: Mad World

text: "Ideas as Opiates" is a song that originally served as the B-side to the "Mad World" single, and was later re-recorded for inclusion on "The Hurting". The song takes its name from a chapter title in Arthur Janov's book "Prisoners of Pain" and features lyrics related to the concept of primal therapy. The song is musically sparse, featuring just a piano, drum machine, and saxophone. An alternative version of this song titled "Saxophones as Opiates" was included as a B-side on the 12-inch single and is mostly instrumental.


title: Mad World

text: The promotional video for "Mad World" was filmed in late summer 1982, in the grounds of Knebworth House. It was Tears for Fears' first music video, and features Curt Smith staring out of a window while Roland Orzabal dances outside on a lakeside jetty. A brief party scene in the video features friends and family of the band, including Smith's mother as well as his then-wife Lynne.


title: Mad World

text: According to Curt Smith, "When we made the video in a country estate on the cheap, we bussed all our friends and family up from Bath and had a fun day. The woman who's having the birthday party in the video is my mum."


title: Mad World

text: The music video was directed by Clive Richardson who was notable for his work at that time with Depeche Mode.


title: Mad World

text: "Mad World" achieved a second round of success 20 years after its release, when it was covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the film "Donnie Darko" (2001). While the Tears for Fears version featured synthesisers and heavy percussion, the Andrews/Jules version was stripped down; instead of a full musical backing, it used only a set of piano chords, a mellotron imitating a cello, very light touches of electric piano, and modest use of a vocoder on the chorus.


title: Mad World

text: Their version was originally released on CD in 2002 on the film's soundtrack, but an increasing cult-following spawned by the film's DVD release finally prompted Jules and Andrews to issue the song as a proper single. It was released through Sanctuary Records on 15 December 2003, in time for the race for the UK's Christmas number one, beating "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" by the Darkness to take the title the following week.


title: Mad World

text: This version was used in 2005 as the soundtrack for the opening section of the Season 6 episode "Room Service" of "".


title: Mad World

text: For the soundtrack to the film "Donnie Darko" (2001), director Richard Kelly commissioned Michael Andrews, a San Diego musician and television and film composer who had worked as a member of a range of bands, including the Origin with Gary Jules (whose two solo albums he had produced), and the Greyboy Allstars. Kelly said he was confident that Andrews could do the job: "I met with Michael and I just knew right away that he was really, really talented and that he could come up with a really original score. He would allow me to be in there and be really kind of editorial with how I wanted the score to be." Andrews relocated to Los Angeles to work on the film between October and December 2000. As Andrews states, the low budget for the project encouraged him to play a diverse range of instruments for the soundtrack:


title: Mad World

text: The film was pretty low budget so my portion of the money was pretty thin. I couldn't hire anyone, it was just me. I played everything; piano, mellotron, mini marimba, xylophone, ukulele, organ. I also brought in two female vocalists Sam Shelton and Tori Haberman. But no guitar because Richard said no guitar or drums; he just wasn't into it. I was down with that—I've played guitar my whole life.


title: Mad World

text: Like many of his role models for soundtrack composing (such as John Barry and Ennio Morricone), Andrews wanted to put a song on his otherwise instrumental score. He eventually chose "Mad World", as Tears for Fears were one of his and childhood friend Jules' favourite bands growing up. Andrews enlisted Jules to sing the song, while Andrews himself played the piano; together they recorded the song in an hour and a half.


title: Mad World

text: Despite being critically acclaimed, "Donnie Darko" was not a commercial success, but it sold very well on DVD and became a cult film, and demand grew for Andrews and Jules' cover of "Mad World" to be released as a proper single. This prompted Andrews to give the song an official release.


title: Mad World

text: Jules said that he believed the song was easy for people to relate to: "I think it's a really beautiful example of a person struggling with the fact that life is mad. I honestly think it's one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard and the way it's stripped down now just pins people." He went on to say, "Every so often a song with just vocals, piano and cello creeps up on you and says something about who you are, where you're going which stops you in your tracks."


title: Mad World

text: Despite "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" by the Darkness being the bookmakers' favourite to become the 2003 Christmas number one in the UK, "Mad World" upset the odds and took the title on 21 December 2003. It remained at number one on the UK Singles Chart for three consecutive weeks. The song's success in the UK did not, however, translate to the United States, where it reached number 30 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart in the issue dated 27 March 2004.


title: Mad World

text: Jules performed "Mad World" with Mylène Farmer on her "Timeless 2013 Tour." In 2006, the song was included in the commercial to the video game "Gears of War", which helped move it up the charts. A performance on the eighth season of "American Idol" by Adam Lambert also briefly increased its sales and interest in the song. The song reached No. 11 on the Rock Digital Songs chart.


title: Mad World

text: The music video was directed by Michel Gondry and was filmed at Hoboken Middle School (formally AJ Demarest School) in Hoboken, New Jersey. It begins with an aerial shot of the school; the bell rings and children go out onto the pavement. The rest of the video sees the children forming different shapes whilst Jules stands on the roof and watches from above. On two occasions the camera pans towards Jules looking down at the children, whilst a third pan away sees Andrews playing a piano as the song ends. The video has over 160 million views since it was uploaded to YouTube on 9 January 2006.


title: Mad World

text: Curt Smith paid tribute to the Jules and Andrews version in April 2020 while staying home under general quarantine orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He and his daughter Diva performed an acoustic guitar rendition of "Mad World" using the style of Jules and Andrews, uploading the video to YouTube. Their version went viral, picking up more than a million views in one week, and four million views in the first month.


title: Chroma key

text: Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues (chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video – particularly the newscasting, motion picture, and video game industries. A colour range in the foreground footage is made transparent, allowing separately filmed background footage or a static image to be inserted into the scene. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production. This technique is also referred to as colour keying, colour-separation overlay (CSO; primarily by the BBC), or by various terms for specific colour-related variants such as green screen or blue screen; chroma keying can be done with backgrounds of any colour that are uniform and distinct, but green and blue backgrounds are more commonly used because they differ most distinctly in hue from any human skin colour. No part of the subject being filmed or photographed may duplicate the colour used as the backing, or the part may be erroneously identified as part of the backing.


title: Chroma key

text: It is commonly used for weather forecast broadcasts in which a news presenter is usually seen standing in front of a large CGI map during live television newscasts, but it is really a large blue or green background. Using a blue screen, different weather maps are added on the parts of the image in which the colour is blue. If the news presenter wears blue clothes, their clothes will also be replaced with the background video. Chroma keying is also common in the entertainment industry for visual effects in movies and video games. Rotoscopy may instead be carried out on subjects that are not in front of a green (or blue) screen. Motion tracking can also be used in conjunction with chroma keying, such as to move the background as the subject moves.


title: Chroma key

text: Prior to the introduction of travelling mattes and optical printing, double exposure was used to introduce elements into a scene which were not present in the initial exposure. This was done using black draping where a green screen would be used today. George Albert Smith first used this approach in 1898. In 1903, "The Great Train Robbery" by Edwin S. Porter used double exposure to add background scenes to windows which were black when filmed on set, using a garbage matte to expose only the window areas.


title: Chroma key

text: In order to have figures in one exposure actually move in front of a substituted background in the other, a travelling matte was needed, to occlude the correct portion of the background in each frame. In 1918 Frank Williams patented a travelling matte technique, again based on using a black background. This was used in many films, such as "The Invisible Man".


title: Chroma key

text: In the 1920s, Walt Disney used a white backdrop to include human actors with cartoon characters and backgrounds in his "Alice Comedies".


title: Chroma key

text: The blue screen method was developed in the 1930s at RKO Radio Pictures. At RKO, Linwood Dunn used an early version of the travelling matte to create "wipes" – where there were transitions like a windshield wiper in films such as "Flying Down to Rio" (1933). Credited to Larry Butler, a scene featuring a genie escaping from a bottle was the first use of a proper bluescreen process to create a traveling matte for "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940), which won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects that year. In 1950, Warner Brothers employee and ex-Kodak researcher Arthur Widmer began working on an ultraviolet travelling matte process. He also began developing bluescreen techniques: one of the first films to use them was the 1958 adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novella, "The Old Man and the Sea", starring Spencer Tracy.


title: Chroma key

text: The name "Chroma-Key" was RCA's trade name for the process, as used on its NBC television broadcasts, incorporating patents granted to RCA's Albert N. Goldsmith. A very early broadcast use was NBC's George Gobel Show in fall 1957.


title: Chroma key

text: Petro Vlahos was awarded an Academy Award for his refinement of these techniques in 1964. His technique exploits the fact that most objects in real-world scenes have a colour whose blue-colour component is similar in intensity to their green-colour component. Zbigniew Rybczyński also contributed to bluescreen technology. An optical printer with two projectors, a film camera and a "beam splitter", was used to combine the actor in front of a blue screen together with the background footage, one frame at a time. In the early 1970s, American and British television networks began using green backdrops instead of blue for their newscasts. During the 1980s, minicomputers were used to control the optical printer. For the film "The Empire Strikes Back", Richard Edlund created a "quad optical printer" that accelerated the process considerably and saved money. He received a special Academy Award for his innovation.


title: Chroma key

text: For decades, travelling matte shots had to be done "locked-down", so that neither the matted subject nor the background could shift their camera perspective at all. Later, computer-timed, motion-control cameras alleviated this problem, as both the foreground and background could be filmed with the same camera moves.


title: Chroma key

text: Meteorologists on television often use a field monitor, to the side of the screen, to see where they are putting their hands against the background images. A newer technique is to project a faint image onto the screen.


title: Chroma key

text: Some films make heavy use of chroma key to add backgrounds that are constructed entirely using computer-generated imagery (CGI). Performances from different takes can be composited together, which allows actors to be filmed separately and then placed together in the same scene. Chroma key allows performers to appear to be in any location without leaving the studio.


title: Chroma key

text: Advances in computer technology have simplified the incorporation of motion into composited shots, even when using handheld cameras. Reference points such as a painted grid, X's marked with tape, or equally spaced tennis balls attached to the wall, can be placed onto the coloured background to serve as markers. In post-production, a computer can use these markers to compute the camera's position and thus render an image that matches the perspective and movement of the foreground perfectly. Modern advances in software and computational power have eliminated the need to accurately place the markers — the software figures out their position in space; a potential disadvantage of this is that it requires camera movement, possibly contributing to modern cinematographic techniques whereby the camera is always in motion.


title: Chroma key

text: The principal subject is filmed or photographed against a background consisting of a single colour or a relatively narrow range of colours, usually blue or green because these colours are considered to be the furthest away from skin tone. The portions of the video which match the pre-selected colour are replaced by the alternate background video. This process is commonly known as "keying", "keying out" or simply a "key".


title: Chroma key

text: Green is used as a backdrop for TV and electronic cinematography more than any other colour because television weather presenters tended to wear blue suits. When chroma keying first came into use in television production, the blue screen that was then the norm in the movie industry was used out of habit, until other practical considerations caused the television industry to move from blue to green screens. Broadcast quality colour television cameras use separate red, green and blue image sensors, and early analog TV chroma keyers required RGB component video to work reliably. From a technological perspective it was equally possible to use the blue or green channel, but because blue clothing was an ongoing challenge, the green screen came into common use. Newscasters sometimes forget the chroma key dress code, and when the key is applied to clothing of the same colour as the background, the person would seem to disappear into the key. Because green clothing is less common than blue, it soon became apparent that it was easier to use a green matte screen than it was to constantly police the clothing choices of on-air talent. Also, because the human eye is more sensitive to green wavelengths, which lie in the middle of the visible light spectrum, the green analog video channel typically carried more signal strength, giving a better signal to noise ratio compared to the other component video channels, so green screen keys could produce the cleanest key. In the digital television and cinema age, much of the tweaking that was required to make a good quality key has been automated. However, the one constant that remains is some level of colour coordination to keep foreground subjects from being keyed out.


title: Chroma key

text: Before electronic chroma keying, compositing was done on (chemical) film. The camera colour negative was printed onto high-contrast black and white negative, using either a filter or the high contrast film's colour sensitivity to expose only blue (and higher) frequencies. Blue light only shines through the colour negative where there is "not" blue in the scene, so this left the film clear where the blue screen was, and opaque elsewhere, except it also produced clear for any white objects (since they also contained blue). Removing these spots could be done by a suitable double-exposure with the colour positive (thus turning any area containing red or green opaque), and many other techniques. The result was film that was clear where the blue screen was, and opaque everywhere else. This is called a "female matte", similar to an "alpha matte" in digital keying. Copying this film onto another high-contrast negative produced the opposite "male matte". The background negative was then packed with the female matte and exposed onto a final strip of film, then the camera negative was packed with the male matte and was double-printed onto this same film. These two images combined creates the final effect.


title: Chroma key

text: The most important factor for a key is the colour separation of the foreground (the subject) and background (the screen) – a blue screen will be used if the subject is predominantly green (for example plants), despite the camera being more sensitive to green light.


title: Chroma key

text: In analog television, colour is represented by the phase of the chroma subcarrier relative to a reference oscillator. Chroma key is achieved by comparing the phase of the video to the phase corresponding to the pre-selected colour. In-phase portions of the video are replaced by the alternate background video.


title: Chroma key

text: In digital colour TV, colour is represented by three numbers (red, green, blue intensity levels). Chroma key is achieved by a simple numerical comparison between the video and the pre-selected colour. If the colour at a particular point on the screen matches (either exactly, or in a range), then the video at that point is replaced by the alternate background.


title: Chroma key

text: In order to create an illusion that characters and objects filmed are present in the intended background scene, the lighting in the two scenes must be a reasonable match. For outdoor scenes, overcast days create a diffuse, evenly coloured light which can be easier to match in the studio, whereas direct sunlight needs to be matched in both direction and overall colour based on time of day.


title: Chroma key

text: A studio shot taken in front of a green screen will naturally have ambient light the same colour as the screen, due to its light scattering. This effect is known as "spill". This can look unnatural or cause portions of the characters to disappear, so must be compensated for, or avoided by using a larger screen placed far from the actors.


title: Chroma key

text: The depth of field used to record the scene in front of the coloured screen should match that of the background. This can mean recording the actors with a larger depth of field than normal.


title: Chroma key

text: A chroma key subject must avoid wearing clothes which are similar in colour to the chroma key colour(s) (unless intentional e.g., wearing a green top to make it appear that the subject has no body), because the clothing may be replaced with the background image/video. An example of intentional use of this is when an actor wears a blue covering over a part of his body to make it invisible in the final shot. This technique can be used to achieve an effect similar to that used in the "Harry Potter" films to create the effect of an invisibility cloak. The actor can also be filmed against a chroma-key background and inserted into the background shot with a distortion effect, in order to create a cloak that is marginally detectable.


title: Chroma key

text: Difficulties emerge with blue screen when a costume in an effects shot must be blue, such as Superman's traditional blue outfit. In the 2002 film "Spider-Man", in scenes where both Spider-Man and the Green Goblin are in the air, Spider-Man had to be shot in front of a green screen and the Green Goblin had to be shot in front of a blue screen. The colour difference is because Spider-Man wears a costume which is red and blue in colour and the Green Goblin wears a costume which is entirely green in colour. If both were shot in front of the same screen, parts of one character would be erased from the shot.


title: Chroma key

text: For a clean division of foreground from background, it is also important that clothing and hair in the foreground shot have a fairly simple silhouette, as fine details such as frizzy hair may not resolve properly. Similarly, partially transparent elements of the costume cause problems.


title: Chroma key

text: Blue was originally used for TV chroma keying special effects because the film industry used blue backgrounds for similar purposes. The colour blue was tied to the blue emulsion layer of film having comparable grain and detail in comparison to the red and green layers of the emulsion. In television and digital filmmaking, however, green has become the favoured colour because of some practical considerations, and because lossy compression algorithms used in both analog and digital TV distribution retain more detail in the green channel. The choice of colour is up to the effects artists and the needs of the specific shot. Whereas the blue screen was introduced to the television industry by the film industry, the use of green screen visual effects has been introduced to the film industry as electronic imaging has augmented and replaced the use of chemical film stock in cinema. Also, the green background is favoured over blue for outdoor filming where the blue sky might appear in the frame and could accidentally be replaced in the process. Although green and blue are the most common in part because red, green and blue components are used to encode the visible light spectrum, any key colour can be used. Red is avoided for human subjects due to its prevalence in white skin tones, but can be often used for objects and scenes which do not involve people.


title: Chroma key

text: A so-called "yellow screen" is accomplished with a white backdrop. Ordinary stage lighting is used in combination with a bright yellow sodium lamp. The sodium light falls almost entirely in a narrow frequency band, which can then be separated from the other light using a prism, and projected onto a separate but synchronized film carrier within the camera. This second film is high-contrast black and white, and is processed to produce the matte.


title: Chroma key

text: Occasionally, a magenta background is used, as in some software applications where the magenta or fuchsia is sometimes referred to as "magic pink".


title: Chroma key

text: A newer technique is to use a retroreflective curtain in the background, along with a ring of bright LEDs around the camera lens. This requires no light to shine on the background other than the LEDs, which use an extremely small amount of power and space unlike big stage lights, and require no rigging. This advance was made possible by the invention in the 1990s of practical blue LEDs, which also allow for emerald green LEDs.


title: Chroma key

text: There is also a form of colour keying that uses light spectrum invisible to human eye. Called Thermo-Key, it uses infrared as the key colour, which would not be replaced by background image during postprocessing.


title: Chroma key

text: For "", an ultraviolet light matting process was proposed by Don Lee of CIS Hollywood and developed by Gary Hutzel and the staff of Image G. This involved a fluorescent orange backdrop which made it easier to generate a holdout matte, thus allowing the effects team to produce effects in a quarter of the time needed for other methods.


title: Chroma key

text: In principle, any type of still background can be used as a chroma key instead of a solid colour. First the background is captured without actors or other foreground elements; then the scene is recorded. The image of the background is used to cancel the background in the actual footage; for example in a digital image, each pixel will have a different chroma key. This is sometimes referred to as a "difference matte". However, this makes it easy for objects to be accidentally removed if they happen to be similar to the background, or for the background to remain due to camera noise or if it happens to change slightly from the reference footage. A background with a repeating pattern alleviates many of these issues, and can be less sensitive to wardrobe colour than solid-colour backdrops.


title: Chroma key

text: The biggest challenge when setting up a blue screen or green screen is even lighting and the avoidance of shadow because it is best to have as narrow a colour range as possible being replaced. A shadow would present itself as a darker colour to the camera and might not register for replacement. This can sometimes be seen in low-budget or live broadcasts where the errors cannot be manually repaired or scenes reshot. The material being used affects the quality and ease of having it evenly lit. Materials which are shiny will be far less successful than those that are not. A shiny surface will have areas that reflect the lights making them appear pale, while other areas may be darkened. A matte surface will diffuse the reflected light and have a more even colour range. In order to get the cleanest key from shooting green screen, it is necessary to create a value difference between the subject and the green screen. In order to differentiate the subject from the screen, a two-stop difference can be used, either by making the green screen two stops higher than the subject, or vice versa.


title: Chroma key

text: Sometimes a shadow can be used to create a visual effect. Areas of the blue screen or green screen with a shadow on them can be replaced with a darker version of the desired background video image, making it look like the person is casting a shadow on them. Any spill of the chroma key colour will make the result look unnatural. A difference in the focal length of the lenses used can affect the success of chroma key.


title: Chroma key

text: Another challenge for blue screen or green screen is proper camera exposure. Underexposing or overexposing a coloured backdrop can lead to poor saturation levels. In the case of video cameras, underexposed images can contain high amounts of noise, as well. The background must be bright enough to allow the camera to create a bright and saturated image.


title: Chroma key

text: There are several different quality- and speed-optimised techniques for implementing colour keying in software.


title: Chroma key

text: In most versions, a function (, , ) → is applied to every pixel in the image.  (alpha) has a meaning similar to that in alpha compositing techniques.  ≤ 0 means the pixel is fully in the green screen,  ≥ 1 means the pixel is fully in the foreground object, and intermediate values indicate the pixel is partially covered by the foreground object (or it is transparent). A further function (, "g", "b") → (, "g", "b") is needed to remove green spill on the foreground objects.


title: Chroma key

text: A very simple () function for green screen is (+"b") − where and are user adjustable constants with a default value of 1.0. A very simple () is ("r", min("g","b"), "b"). This is fairly close to the capabilities of analog and film-based screen pulling.


title: Chroma key

text: Modern examples of these functions are best described by two closed nested surfaces in 3D RGB space, often quite complex. Colours inside the inner surface are considered green screen. Colours outside the outer surface are opaque foreground. Colours between the surfaces are partially covered, they are more opaque the closer they are to the outer surface. Sometimes more closed surfaces are used to determine how to remove green spill. It is also very common for () to depend on more than just the current pixel's colour, it may also use the ("x", "y") position, the values of nearby pixels, the value from reference images or a statistical colour model of the scene, and values from user-drawn masks. These produce closed surfaces in space with more than three dimensions.


title: Chroma key

text: A different class of algorithm tries to figure out a 2D path that separates the foreground from the background. This path can be the output, or the image can be drawn by filling the path with  = 1 as a final step. An example of such an algorithm is the use of active contour. Most research in recent years has been into these algorithms.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: Wild 'N Out is an American sketch comedy and improv game show series that was created and is hosted by musician and comedian Nick Cannon currently airing on VH1. It debuted on July 28, 2005 on MTV.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: In April 2019, the series had been renewed through Season 16, with 90 new episodes to be produced. On June 19, 2019, it was announced that "Wild 'N Out" would expand to VH1, with a special Summer season premiering on July 7, 2019.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: Similar in premise to shows such as "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", the series puts two teams of comedians against each other in a series of "Wild 'n Out" games which are all basically "improvisational" comedy games. The Teams are the "Red Squad", which was the team name until Season 5 where they became the "Platinum Squad" and were permanently captained by Cannon; and the "Black Squad", led by a celebrity guest until Season 7 where the situation was reversed with Cannon becoming the Black Squad team captain and the celebrity guest leading the Platinum Squad.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: For Season 8, the colors were revamped once again with the Gold Squad replacing the Black Squad. The Gold Squad was led by Cannon while the celebrity guest remained captain of the Platinum Squad. For Seasons 9-14, Cannon led his original Red Squad team color while the Black Squad team color returned also.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: For Season 15, the teams were revamped as Nick Cannon leads the Old School team, comprising older cast members and a legendary special guest, and cast member DC Young Fly and another celebrity guest lead the New School Team, comprising some newer cast members.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: For Season 16, the teams changed once again. In a format similar to Old School vs New School, Nick Cannon leads Team Revolution and the celebrity guest, appearing as a hologram, leads Team Evolution.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: For Season 17, it's reverted back to the "Old School" vs. "New School" format. Cannon and a legendary special guest will lead the "Old School" team, and the celebrity guest will lead the "New School" team.


title: Wild 'n Out

text: After three such games, the two teams square off against each other in the final round of the game called 'WildStyle', in which they must deliver a punchline directed at their opponent's team member(s) within a freestyle rap. The comedians "beef" with each other; however, some are impersonal jokes. Although similar to "Whose Line", the "points don't matter", the teams score one point per round victory during the normal rounds, plus one point per favorably judged punchline during 'Wild Style', which makes it similar in format to the improv show ComedySportz.