title: Pergamon

text: The 80 m long and 55 m wide 'Lower Agora' was built under Eumenes II and was not significantly altered until Late Antiquity. As with the Upper Agora, the rectangular form of the agora was adapted to the steep terrain. The construction consisted in total of three levels. Of these the Upper Level and the 'Main Level' opened onto a central courtyard. On the lower level there were rooms only on the south and east sides because of the slope of the land, which led through a colonnade to the exterior of the space. The whole market area extended over two levels with a large columned hall in the centre, which contained small shop spaces and miscellaneous rooms.


title: Pergamon

text: The course of the main street, which winds up the hill to the Acropolis with a series of hairpin turns, is typical of the street system of Pergamon. On this street were shops and warehouses. The surface of the street consisted of andesite blocks up to 5 metres wide, 1 metre long and 30 cm deep. The street included a drainage system, which carried the water down the slope. Since it was the most important street of the city, the quality of the material used in its construction was very high.


title: Pergamon

text: Philetairos' design of the city was shaped above all by circumstantial considerations. Only under Eumenes II was this approach discarded and the city plan begins to show signs of an overall plan. Contrary to earlier attempts at an orthogonal street system, a fan-shaped design seems to have been adopted for the area around the gymnasium, with streets up to four metres wide, apparently intended to enable effective traffic flow. In contrast to it, Philetairos' system of alleys was created unsystematically, although the topic is still under investigation. Where the lay of the land prevented the laying of a street, small alleys were installed as connections instead. In general, therefore, there are large, broad streets ("plateiai") and small, narrow connecting streets ("stenopoi").


title: Pergamon

text: The nearly 200 metre wide Pergamon Bridge under the forecourt of the Red Basilica in the centre of Bergama is the largest bridge substruction from antiquity.


title: Pergamon

text: The inhabitants of Pergamon were supplied with water by an effective system. In addition to cisterns, there was a system of nine pipes (seven Hellenistic ceramic pipes and two open Roman channels. The system provided around 30,000–35,000 cubic metres of water per day.


title: Pergamon

text: The Madradağ aqueduct was a ceramic pipe with a diameter of 18 cm which already brought water to the citadel from a source over 40 kilometres away in the Madradağ mountains at 1174 m above sea level in the Hellenistic period. Their significance for architectural history lies in the form of the last kilometres from the mountains through a valley to the Akropolis. The pipe consisted of three channels, which ended 3 km north of the citadel, before reaching the valley, and emptied into a pool, which included a double sedimentation tank. This pool was 35 metres higher than the summit of the citadel. The pipe from the pool to the Acropolis consisted of only a single channel – a lead pipe pressurised to 200 mH2O. The water was able to cross the valley between the pool and the citadel with the help of this pressurised conduit. It functioned as a communicating vessel, such that the water rose to the height of the citadel on its own as a result of the pressurised pipe.


title: Pergamon

text: The most famous structure from the city is the monumental altar, which was probably dedicated to Zeus and Athena. The foundations are still located in the Upper city, but the remains of the Pergamon frieze, which originally decorated it, are displayed in the Pergamon museum in Berlin, where the parts of the frieze taken to Germany have been installed in a partial reconstruction.


title: Pergamon

text: For the altar's construction, the required flat area was skillfully created through terracing, in order to allow it to be oriented in relation to the neighbouring Temple of Athena. The base of the altar measured around 36 x 33 metres and was decorated on the outside with a detailed depiction in high relief of the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants. The frieze is 2.30 metres high and has a total length of 113 metres, making it the second longest frieze surviving from antiquity, after the Parthenon Frieze in Athens. A staircase cut into the base on the western side leads up to the upper structure, which is surrounded by a colonnade, and consists of a colonnaded courtyard, separated from the staircase by a colonnade. The interior walls of this colonnade had a further frieze, depicting the life of Telephus, the son of Heracles and mythical founder of Pergamon. This frieze is around 1.60 metres high and thus is clearly smaller than the outer frieze.


title: Pergamon

text: In the New Testament Book of Revelation, the faith of the Pergamon believers, who "dwell where Satan’s throne is" is commended by the author. Many scholars believe that the "seat of Satan" refers to the Pergamon Altar, due to its resemblance to a gigantic throne.


title: Pergamon

text: The well-preserved dates from the Hellenistic period and had space for around 10,000 people, in 78 rows of seats. At a height of 36 metres, it is the steepest of all ancient theatres. The seating area ("koilon") is divided horizontally by two walkways, called "diazomata", and vertically by stairways into seven sections in the lowest part of the theatre and six in the middle and upper sections. Below the theatre is a and up to terrace, which rested on a high retaining wall and was framed on the long side by a stoa. Coming from the Upper market, one could enter this from a tower-building at the south end. This terrace had no space for the circular orchestra, which was normal in a Greek theatre, so only a wooden stage building was built which could be taken down when there was no performance taking place. Thus, the view along the terrace to the Temple of Dionysos at the northern end was unimpeded. A marble stage building was only built in the 1st century BC. Additional theatres were built in the Roman period, one in the Roman new city and the other in the sanctuary of Asclepius.


title: Pergamon

text: On the highest point of the citadel is the Temple for Trajan and Zeus Philios. The temple sits on a podium on top of a vaulted terrace. The temple itself was a Corinthian peripteros temple, about 18 metres wide with six columns on the short sides and nine columns on the long sides, and two rows of columns in antis. To the north, the area was closed off by a high stoa, while on the west and east sides it was surrounded by simple ashlar walls, until further stoas were inserted in Hadrian's reign.


title: Pergamon

text: During the excavations fragments of statues of Trajan and Hadrian were found in the rubble of the cella, including their portrait heads, as well as fragments of the cult statue of Zeus Philios.


title: Pergamon

text: At Pergamon, Dionysus had the epithet "Kathegemon", 'the guide', and was already worshiped in the last third of the 3rd century BC, when the Attalids made him the chief god of their dynasty. In the 2nd century BC, Eumenes II (probably) built a temple for Dionysus at the northern end of the theatre terrace. The marble temple sits on a podium, 4.5 metres above the level of the theatre terrace and was an Ionic prostyle temple. The pronaos was four columns wide and two columns deep and was accessed by a staircase of twenty-five steps. Only a few traces of the Hellenistic structure survive. The majority of the surviving structure derives from a reconstruction of the temple which probably took place under Caracalla, or perhaps under Hadrian.


title: Pergamon

text: Pergamon's oldest temple is a sanctuary of Athena from the 4th century BC. It was a north-facing Doric peripteros temple with six columns on the short side and ten on the long side and a cella divided into two rooms. The foundations, measuring around 12.70 x 21.80 metres, are still visible today. The columns were around 5.25 metres high, 0.75 metres in diameter, and the distance between the columns was 1.62 metres, so the colonnade was very light for a temple of this period. This is matched by the shape of the triglyphs, which usually consist of a sequence of two triglyphs and two metopes, but are instead composed of three of triglyphs and three metopes. The columns of the temple are unfluted and retained bossage, but it is not clear whether this was a result of carelessness or incompleteness.


title: Pergamon

text: A two-story stoa surrounding the temple on three sides was added under Eumenes II, along with the propylon in the southeast corner, which is now found, largely reconstructed, in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The balustrade of the upper level of the north and east stoas was decorated with reliefs depicting weapons which commemorated Eumenes II's military victory. The construction mixed Ionic columns and Doric triglyphs (of which five triglyphs and metopes survive). In the area of the sanctuary, Attalos I and Eumenes II constructed victory monuments, most notably the Gallic dedications. The northern stoa seems to have been the site of the Library of Pergamon.


title: Pergamon

text: The Library of Pergamon was the second largest in the ancient Greek world after the Library of Alexandria, containing at least 200,000 scrolls. The location of the library building is not certain. Since the 19th century excavations, it has generally been identified with an annex of the northern stoa of the sanctuary of Athena in the Upper Citadel, which was built by Eumenes II. Inscriptions in the gymnasium which mention a library might indicate, however, that the building was located in that area.


title: Pergamon

text: The site is today easily accessible by the Bergama Acropolis Gondola from the base station in northeastern Bergama.


title: Pergamon

text: A large gymnasium area was built in the 2nd century BC on the south side of the Acropolis. It consisted of three terraces, with the main entrance at the southeast corner of the lowest terrace. The lowest and southernmost terrace is small and almost free of buildings. It is known as the Lower Gymnasium and has been identified as the boys' gymnasium. The middle terrace was around 250 metres long and 70 metres wide at the centre. On its north side there was a two-story hall. In the east part of the terrace there was a small prostyle temple in the Corinthian order. A roofed stadium, known as the Basement Stadium is located between the middle terrace and the upper terrace.


title: Pergamon

text: The upper terrace measured 150 x 70 metres square, making it the largest of the three terraces. It consisted of a courtyard surrounded by stoas and other structures, measuring roughly 36 x 74 metres. This complex is identified as a palaestra and had a theatre-shaped lecture hall beyond the northern stoa, which is probably of Roman date and a large banquet hall in the centre. Further rooms of uncertain function were accessible from the stoas. In the west was a south-facing Ionic antae temple, the central sanctuary of the gymnasium. The eastern area was replaced with a bath complex in Roman times. Further Roman baths were constructed to the west of the Ionic temple.


title: Pergamon

text: The sanctuary of Hera Basileia ('the Queen') lay north of the upper terrace of the gymnasium. Its structure sits on two parallel terraces, the south one about 107.4 metres above sea level and the north one about 109.8 metres above sea level. The Temple of Hera sat in the middle of the upper terrace, facing to the south, with a exedra to the west and a building whose function is very unclear to the east. The two terraces were linked by a staircase of eleven steps around 7.5 metres wide, descending from the front of the temple.


title: Pergamon

text: The temple was about 7 metres wide by 12 metres long, and sat on a three-stepped foundation. It was a Doric tetrastyle prostyle temple, with three triglyphs and metopes for each span in the entablature. All the other buildings in the sanctuary were made out of trachyte, but the visible part of the temple was made of marble, or at least had a marble cladding. The base of the cult image inside the cella supported three cult statues.


title: Pergamon

text: The surviving remains of the inscription on the architrave indicate that the building was the temple of Hera Basileia and that it was erected by Attalus II.


title: Pergamon

text: The Sanctuary of Demeter occupied an area of 50 x 110 metres on the middle level of the south slope of the citadel. The sanctuary was old; its activity can be traced back to the fourth century BC.


title: Pergamon

text: The sanctuary was entered through a Propylon from the east, which led to a courtyard surrounded by stoas on three sides. In the centre of the western half of this courtyard, stood the Ionic temple of Demeter, a straightforward Antae temple, measuring 6.45 x 12.7 metres, with a porch in the Corinthian order which was added in the time of Antoninus Pius. The rest of the structure was of Hellenistic date, built in local marble and had a marble frieze decorated with bucrania. About 9.5 metres in front of the east-facing building, there was an altar, which was 7 metres long and 2.3 metres wide. The temple and the altar were built for Demeter by Philetaerus, his brother Eumenes, and their mother Boa.


title: Pergamon

text: In the east part of the courtyard, there were more than ten rows of seating laid out in front of the northern stoa for participants in the mysteries of Demeter. Roughly 800 initiates could fit in these seats.


title: Pergamon

text: south of the Acropolis at (39° 7′ 9″ N, 27° 9′ 56″ E), down in the valley, there was the Sanctuary of Asclepius (also known as the Asclepium), the god of healing. The Asclepium was approached along an 820-meter colonnaded sacred way. In this place people with health problems could bathe in the water of the sacred spring, and in the patients' dreams Asclepius would appear in a vision to tell them how to cure their illness. Archeology has found many gifts and dedications that people would make afterwards, such as small terracotta body parts, no doubt representing what had been healed. Galen, the most famous doctor in the ancient Roman Empire and personal physician of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, worked in the Asclepium for many years. Notable extant structures in the Asclepium include:


title: Pergamon

text: Pergamon's other notable structure is the great temple of the Egyptian gods Isis and/or Serapis, known today as the "Red Basilica" (or "Kızıl Avlu" in Turkish), about south of the Acropolis at (39 7' 19" N, 27 11' 1" E). It consists of a main building and two round towers within an enormous "temenos" or sacred area. The temple towers flanking the main building had courtyards with pools used for ablutions at each end, flanked by stoas on three sides. The forecourt of the Temple of Isis/Sarapis is still supported by the Pergamon Bridge, the largest bridge substruction of antiquity.


title: Pergamon

text: According to Christian tradition, in the year 92 Saint Antipas, the first bishop of Pergamum ordained by John the Apostle, was a victim of an early clash between Serapis worshippers and Christians. An angry mob is said to have burned Saint Antipas alive in front of the Temple inside a brazen bull-like incense burner, which represented the bull god Apis. His martyrdom is one of the first recorded in Christian history, highlighted by the Christian Scripture itself through the message sent to the Pergamon Church in the Book of Revelation.


title: Pergamon

text: Greek inscriptions discovered at Pergamon include the rules of the town clerks, the so-called Astynomoi inscription, which has added to understanding of Greek municipal laws and regulations, including how roads were kept in repair, regulations regarding the public and private water supply and lavatories.


title: Pergamon

text: The archaeological reports from Pergamon are published in German as "Altertümer von Pergamon" (de Gruyter, Berlin).


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: Amaury Nolasco Garrido (born December 24, 1970) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer, best known for the role of Fernando Sucre on the Fox television series "Prison Break", and for his role in "Transformers".


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: Nolasco was born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents. After various acting gigs, Nolasco moved to New York City.


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: Nolasco has guest-starred in various television series such as "Arli$$", "", and "ER". His first role on a feature film was in Takeshi Kitano's "Brother", along others as "Orange Julius" in Universal's "2 Fast 2 Furious". He then went on to co-star opposite Bernie Mac in "Mr. 3000".


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: Nolasco's additional television and film credits include roles on "George Lopez" and "", and in "The Benchwarmers". He also appeared on "Mind of Mencia" as a guest on Sunday, April 29, 2007. He also starred in Director Michael Bay's "Transformers", released during the summer of 2007. Bay offered to cast Nolasco in the sequel "", but he declined due to scheduling conflicts. His most high-profile role was "Prison Break".


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: In November 2009, Nolasco made an appearance in Wisin & Yandel's music video "Imagínate" featuring T-Pain alongside Wilmer Valderrama. He plays a jealous mobster who murders Valderrama's character for sleeping with his girlfriend. He also appears in Calle 13's music video "La Perla".


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: In March 2010, Nolasco guest-starred in three episodes during the second season of "Southland", as Detective Rene Cordero.


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: From September 2010 to May 2011, he costarred in the NBC show "Chase", a one-season show about U.S. Marshals that hunt down fugitives. He starred in the short-lived ABC television series "Work It" which premiered on January 3, 2012.


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: Nolasco was featured in the sitcom "Telenovela", as Rodrigo Suarez, Ana Sofia's eccentric co-star who plays the show's villain.


title: Amaury Nolasco

text: Nolasco began dating Jennifer Morrison in 2009, and the relationship reportedly lasted three years. He was a supporter of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. For the second year in a row, Nolasco was the host of the "Amaury Nolasco & Friends Golf Classic" that took place in El Conquistador Hotel in Fajardo, Puerto Rico from June 10–11, 2011. The "Amaury Nolasco & Friends Golf Classic" is a celebrity golf tournament, where all the profits go to non-profit Puerto Rican organizations. For the second season, the profits went to the University of Puerto Rico Pediatric Hospital and to the VAL Foundation (Vive Alegre Luchando), an organization that gives their funding to pediatric cancer patients.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: An American in Paris is a 1951 American musical comedy film inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin. Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron (her film debut), Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, and Nina Foch, the film is set in Paris, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli from a script by Alan Jay Lerner. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira, with additional music by Johnny Green, and Saul Chaplin, the music directors.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: The story of the film is interspersed with dance numbers choreographed by Gene Kelly and set to Gershwin's music. MGM executive Arthur Freed bought the Gershwin musical catalog from George's brother Ira in the late 1940s, since George died in 1937. Some of the tunes in this catalog were included in the movie, such as "I Got Rhythm" and "Love Is Here to Stay". Other songs in the movie include "I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise" and 'S Wonderful". The climax of the film is "The American in Paris" ballet, a 17-minute dialogue-free dance featuring Kelly and Caron set to Gershwin's "An American in Paris". The ballet sequence cost almost half a million dollars to shoot. It was filmed on 44 sets in MGM's back lot. According to Leslie Caron in a 2009 interview on Paul O'Grady's interview show the film ran into controversy with the Hays Office over part of her dance sequence with a chair; the censor viewing the scene called it "sexually provocative", which surprised Caron, who answered "What can you do with a chair?"


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: "An American in Paris" was an enormous success, garnering eight Academy Award nominations and winning six (including Best Picture), as well as earning other industry honors. In 1993, it was selected for preservation by the United States Library of Congress in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is ranked number nine among AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: American World War II veteran Jerry Mulligan lives in Paris trying to succeed as an artist. His friend and neighbor Adam Cook is a struggling concert pianist and longtime associate of French singer Henri Baurel. At the ground-floor bar in their building, Henri tells Adam about his girlfriend, Lise Bouvier. Jerry then joins them before going out to try and sell his art.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Lonely heiress Milo Roberts notices Jerry displaying his work in Montmartre. She buys two paintings, then brings Jerry to her apartment to pay him. Jerry accepts an invitation to her dinner party for that evening, and on the way home, he sings "I Got Rhythm" with some local children. Upon discovering he is Milo's sole dinner guest, an offended Jerry says he is uninterested in being a paid escort. Milo insists she only wants to support his career.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: At a crowded bar, Milo offers to sponsor an art show for Jerry. Milo's friends show up and while everyone is talking, Jerry notices a beautiful young girl at the next table. He pretends they know each other and asks her to dance, unaware it is Lise, the girl Henri loves. When Jerry wants her phone number, Lise, uninterested, gives a fake one. Someone at her table misunderstands and says the correct number. Milo, upset that Jerry flirted with another girl in her presence, wants to leave and later criticizes him for being rude.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: The next day, Jerry calls Lise, but she refuses to see him. Meanwhile, Milo has arranged a showing with a collector interested in Jerry's work. Before the meeting, Jerry goes to the parfumerie where Lise works. She agrees to a late dinner but wants to avoid public places; they share a romantic song and dance along the banks of the Seine River. She then rushes off to meet Henri after his performance ("I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise"). Henri tells Lise he is going on tour in America and proposes marriage to her.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Later, Adam humorously daydreams he is performing Gershwin's "Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra" in a concert hall. As the scene progresses, Adam is also the conductor, other musicians, and even an audience member enthusiastically applauding at the end.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Milo rents Jerry an art studio and says she is planning an exhibition of his work in three months time. Jerry initially refuses the studio, but accepts on condition he will repay Milo when his work sells. After a month of courting, Jerry brings Lise to his apartment building. Jerry is confused when Lise takes off in the taxi in which she was waiting. He complains about it to Adam, who realizes that Henri and Jerry love the same girl. Henri and Jerry later discuss the girl they each love ('S Wonderful") without realizing it is Lise.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: That night, Jerry and Lise reunite by the Seine. Lise says she and Henri are to be married and going to America. Lise feels duty-bound to Henri for protecting her during the war. Jerry and Lise proclaim their love for each other before parting.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: A dejected Jerry invites Milo to the art students' masked ball where they run into Henri and Lise. Jerry admits to Milo that he loves Lise. When Henri overhears Jerry and Lise saying goodbye, he realizes the truth. As Henri and Lise drive away, Jerry fantasizes through a diverse and extended dance scene with Lise, all over Paris, and set to George Gershwin's "An American in Paris". A car horn breaks Jerry's reverie; Henri returns Lise to him. They embrace and walk off together as the Gershwin composition (and the film) ends.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Hayden Rorke, best known for playing Dr. Alfred Bellows on the TV series "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965–1970), has an uncredited part as a friend of Milo. Noel Neill, who had already portrayed Lois Lane in the two Columbia Pictures forties Superman serials, and would later do so again on the TV series "The Adventures of Superman", has a small role as an American art student who tries to criticize Jerry's paintings. Jazz musician Benny Carter plays the leader of a jazz ensemble performing in the club where Milo first takes Jerry.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Madge Blake, best known for playing Dick Grayson's aunt Harriet Cooper on the TV series "Batman" (1966–1968), and for her role as Larry Mondello's mother, Margaret Mondello, on the CBS/ABC sitcom Leave It to Beaver, has an uncredited part as a customer in the perfume shop in which Lise works. Judy Landon, better known for her appearance in Kelly's next musical "Singin' in the Rain" (and as the wife of Brian Keith), and Sue Casey appear as dancers in the "Stairway to Paradise" sequence.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: The 17-minute ballet sequence, with sets and costumes referencing French painters including Raoul Dufy, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, Henri Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec, is the climax of the film, and cost the studio approximately $450,000 to produce. Some of the backdrops for this sequence measured 300 feet wide and 40 feet high. Production on the film was halted on September15, 1950. Minnelli left to direct another film, "Father's Little Dividend". Upon completion of that film in late October, he returned to film the ballet sequence.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" gave a mostly positive review largely on the strength of the closing dance number which he called "one of the finest ever put upon the screen", as well as Leslie Caron's performance, writing that the film "takes on its own glow of magic when Miss Caron is on the screen. When she isn't, it bumps along slowly as a patched-up, conventional music show." "Variety" called the film "one of the most imaginative musical confections turned out by Hollywood in years ... Kelly is the picture's top star and rates every inch of his billing. His diversified dancing is great as ever and his thesping is standout." "Harrison's Reports" deemed it "an excellent entertainment, a delight to the eye and ear, presented in a way that will give all types of audiences extreme pleasure". Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" called it "the best musical movie I've ever seen", praising its "spirit of crisp originality and sophistication rarely found in a screen musical". John McCarten of "The New Yorker" called it "a thoroughly pleasant musical film ... Never too tightly confined by its slender story, "An American in Paris" skips from love in the moonlight to handsome ballets with the greatest of ease, and Mr. Kelly is always ready, willing, and able to execute a tap dance." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" called it "merely a good musical, far more attractive than most, but considerably less than the material seemed to promise. This is due in part to unimaginative use of the Paris settings—a very obvious tourist's view—and to the rather curious way in which the story, after building up interest in Jerry's painting and in his one-man show, simply shelves the whole issue."


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Reviewing the film in 2011, James Berardinelli wrote that it "falls into the category of a weak Oscar winner. The movie is enjoyable enough to watch, but it represents a poor choice as the standard-bearer of the 1951 roster ... It's a fine, fun film with a lot of great songs and dancing but there's nothing about this production that causes it to stand out when compared to one of dozens of musicals from the era."


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: According to MGM records, the film earned $3,750,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $3,231,000 in other countries during its initial theatrical release. This resulted in the studio making a $1,346,000 profit.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: Gene Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award that year for "his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film". It was his only Oscar.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: In 1993, "An American in Paris" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: A stage version of the musical was adapted by Ken Ludwig, and began previews at the Alley Theatre (Houston) on April29, 2008, officially opening on May 18 and running through June22. The production, directed by Alley artistic director Gregory Boyd with choreography by Randy Skinner, starred Harry Groener and Kerry O'Malley. The musical had many of the film's original songs, and also incorporated other Gershwin songs, such as "They All Laughed", "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", and "Love Walked In".


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: In 2014, a stage adaptation premiered in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet, with Robert Fairchild as Jerry Mulligan and Leanne Cope as Lise Bouvier (here renamed Lise Dassin and turned into an aspiring ballet dancer). The production, which ran from November to January 2015, was directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, written by Craig Lucas and designed by Bob Crowley. The musical then transferred to Broadway, with previews at Palace Theatre beginning on March13, 2015, before officially opening there on April12.


title: An American in Paris (film)

text: The epilogue of the 2016 musical film "La La Land" references the set design and costuming of "An American in Paris", which director Damien Chazelle called "a movie that we just pillaged".


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna [c. 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)] was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. Jan Westerhoff considers him to be "one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Asian philosophy."


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna is widely considered to be the founder of the Madhyamaka (centrism, middle-way) school of Buddhist philosophy and a defender of the Mahāyāna movement. His "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā" (Root Verses on Madhyamaka, or MMK) is the most important text on the madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness. The MMK inspired a large number of commentaries in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese and continues to be studied today.


title: Nagarjuna

text: India in the first and second centuries CE was politically divided into various states, including the Kushan Empire and the Satavahana Kingdom. At this point in Buddhist history, the Buddhist community was already divided into various Buddhist schools and had spread throughout India.


title: Nagarjuna

text: At this time, there was already a small and nascent Mahāyāna movement. Mahāyāna ideas were held by a minority of Buddhists in India at the time. As Joseph Walser writes, "Mahāyāna before the fifth century was largely invisible and probably existed only as a minority and largely unrecognized movement within the fold of nikāya Buddhism." By the second century, early Mahāyāna Sūtras such as the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā" were already circulating among certain Mahāyāna circles.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Very little is reliably known of the life of Nāgārjuna and modern historians do not agree on a specific date (1st to 3rd century CE) or place (multiple places in India suggested) for him. The earliest surviving accounts were written in Chinese and Tibetan centuries after his death and are mostly hagiographical accounts that are historically unverifiable.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Some scholars such as Joseph Walser argue that Nāgārjuna was an advisor to a king of the Sātavāhana dynasty which ruled the Deccan Plateau in the second century. This is supported by most of the traditional hagiographical sources as well. Archaeological evidence at Amarāvatī indicates that if this is true, the king may have been Yajña Śrī Śātakarṇi (c. second half of the 2nd century). On the basis of this association, Nāgārjuna is conventionally placed at around 150–250 CE.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Walser thinks that it is most likely that when Nāgārjuna wrote the "Ratnavali", he lived in a mixed monastery (with Mahāyānists and non-Mahāyānists) in which Mahāyānists were the minority. The most likely sectarian affiliation of the monastery according to Walser was Purvasailya, Aparasailya, or Caityaka (which were Mahāsāṃghika sub-schools).


title: Nagarjuna

text: He also argues that "it is plausible that he wrote the "Ratnavali" within a thirty-year period at the end of the second century in the Andhra region around Dhanyakataka (modern-day Amaravati)."


title: Nagarjuna

text: According to Walser, "the earliest extant legends about Nāgārjuna are compiled into Kumārajīva’s biography of Nāgārjuna, which he translated into Chinese in about 405 c.e." According to this biography, Nāgārjuna was born into a Brahmin family and later became a Buddhist. The traditional religious hagiographies place Nāgārjuna in various regions of India (Kumārajīva and Candrakirti place him in Vidarbha region of South India, Xuanzang in south Kosala)


title: Nagarjuna

text: Traditional religious hagiographies credit Nāgārjuna with being associated with the teaching of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras as well as with having revealed these scriptures to the world after they had remained hidden for some time. The sources differ on where this happened and how Nāgārjuna retrieved the sutras. Some sources say he retrieved the sutras from the land of the nāgas.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Indeed, Nāgārjuna is often depicted in composite form comprising human and nāga characteristics. Nāgas are snake-like supernatural beings of great magical power that feature in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain mythology. Nāgas are found throughout Indian religious culture, and typically signify intelligent serpents or dragons that are responsible for rain, lakes, and other bodies of water. In Buddhism, a naga can be a symbol of a realised arhat or wise person.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Traditional sources also claim that Nāgārjuna practiced ayurvedic alchemy (rasayāna). Kumārajīva's biography for example, has Nāgārjuna making an elixir of invisibility, and Bus-ton, Taranatha and Xuanzang all state that he could turn rocks into gold.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Tibetan hagiographies also state that Nāgārjuna studied at Nālanda University. However, according to Walser, this university was not a strong monastic center until about 425. Also, as Walser notes, "Xuanzang and Yijing both spent considerable time at Nālanda and studied Nāgārjuna’s texts there. It is strange that they would have spent so much time there and yet chose not to report any local tales of a man whose works played such an important part in the curriculum."


title: Nagarjuna

text: Some sources (Bu-ston and the other Tibetan historians) claim that in his later years, Nāgārjuna lived on the mountain of Śrīparvata near the city that would later be called Nāgārjunakoṇḍa ("Hill of Nāgārjuna"). The ruins of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa are located in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. The Caitika and Bahuśrutīya nikāyas are known to have had monasteries in Nāgārjunakoṇḍa. The archaeological finds at Nāgārjunakoṇḍa have not resulted in any evidence that the site was associated with Nagarjuna. The name "Nāgārjunakoṇḍa" dates from the medieval period, and the 3rd-4th century inscriptions found at the site make it clear that it was known as "Vijayapuri" in the ancient period.


title: Nagarjuna

text: There are a multitude of texts attributed to "Nāgārjuna", many of these texts date from much later periods. This has caused much confusion for the traditional Buddhist biographers and doxographers. Modern scholars are divided on how to classify these later texts and how many later writers called "Nāgārjuna" existed (the name remains still popular today in Andhra Pradesh).


title: Nagarjuna

text: Some scholars have posited that there was a separate Aryuvedic writer called Nāgārjuna who wrote numerous treatises on Rasayana. Also, there is a later Tantric Buddhist author by the same name who may have been a scholar at Nālandā University and wrote on Buddhist tantra . According to Donald S. Lopez Jr., he originally belonged to a Brahmin family from eastern India and later became Buddhist.


title: Nagarjuna

text: There is also a Jain figure of the same name who was said to have traveled to the Himalayas. Walser thinks that it is possible that stories related to this figure influenced Buddhist legends as well.


title: Nagarjuna

text: There exist a number of influential texts attributed to Nāgārjuna; however, as there are many pseudepigrapha attributed to him, lively controversy exists over which are his authentic works.


title: Nagarjuna

text: The "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā" is Nāgārjuna's best-known work. It is "not only a grand commentary on the Buddha's discourse to Kaccayana, the only discourse cited by name, but also a detailed and careful analysis of most of the important discourses included in the Nikayas and the Agamas, especially those of the "Atthakavagga" of the "Sutta-nipata".


title: Nagarjuna

text: In the "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā", "[A]ll experienced phenomena are empty ("sunya"). This did not mean that they are not experienced and, therefore, non-existent; only that they are devoid of a permanent and eternal substance ("svabhava") because, like a dream, they are mere projections of human consciousness. Since these imaginary fictions are experienced, they are not mere names ("prajnapti")."


title: Nagarjuna

text: According to David Seyfort Ruegg, the "Madhyamakasastrastuti" attributed to Candrakirti (c. 600 – c. 650) refers to eight texts by Nagarjuna:the "(Madhyamaka)karikas", the "Yuktisastika", the "Sunyatasaptati", the "Vigrahavyavartani", the "Vidala" (i.e. "Vaidalyasutra/Vaidalyaprakarana"), the "Ratnavali", the "Sutrasamuccaya", and "Samstutis" (Hymns). This list covers not only much less than the grand total of works ascribed to Nagarjuna in the Chinese and Tibetan collections, but it does not even include all such works that Candrakirti has himself cited in his writings.According to one view, that of Christian Lindtner, the works definitely written by Nāgārjuna are:


title: Nagarjuna

text: Other scholars have challenged and argued against some of the above works being Nagarjuna's. David F. Burton notes that Christian Lindtner is "rather liberal" with his list of works and that other scholars have called some of these into question. He notes how Paul Williams argued convincingly that the must be a later text. In his study, Burton relies on the texts that he considers "least controversial": "Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikā, Vigrahavyāvartanī, Śūnyatāsaptati, ", , and "Ratnāvalī".


title: Nagarjuna

text: Similarly, Jan Westerhoff notes how there is uncertainty about the attribution of Nagarjuna's works (and about his life in general). He relies on six works: MMK, "Vigrahavyāvartanī, Śūnyatāsaptati, ", and "Ratnāvalī," all of which "expound a single, coherent philosophical system," and are attributed to Nagarjuna by a variety of Indian and Tibetan sources.


title: Nagarjuna

text: The Tibetan historian Buston considers the first six to be the main treatises of Nāgārjuna (this is called the "yukti corpus", "rigs chogs"), while according to Tāranātha only the first five are the works of Nāgārjuna. TRV Murti considers "Ratnāvalī", "Pratītyasamutpādahṝdaya" and "Sūtrasamuccaya" to be works of Nāgārjuna as the first two are quoted profusely by Chandrakirti and the third by Shantideva.


title: Nagarjuna

text: In addition to works mentioned above, numerous other works are attributed to Nāgārjuna, many of which are dubious attributions and later works. There is an ongoing, lively controversy over which of those works are authentic. Christian Lindtner divides the various attributed works as "1) correctly attributed, 2) wrongly attributed to him, and 3) those which may or may not be genuine."


title: Nagarjuna

text: Lindtner further divides the third category of dubious or questionable texts into those which are "perhaps authentic" and those who are unlikely to be authentic.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Ruegg notes various works of uncertain authorship which have been attributed to Nagarjuna, including the "Dharmadhatustava" (Hymn to the Dharmadhatu, which shows later influences), "Mahayanavimsika, Salistambakarikas," the "Bhavasamkranti," and the "Dasabhumtkavibhāsā." Furthermore, Ruegg writes that "three collections of stanzas on the virtues of intelligence and moral conduct ascribed to Nagarjuna are extant in Tibetan translation": "Prajñasatakaprakarana", "Nitisastra-Jantuposanabindu" and "Niti-sastra-Prajñadanda."


title: Nagarjuna

text: Meanwhile, those texts that Lindtner considers as questionable and likely inauthentic are: "Aksarasataka, Akutobhaya (Mulamadhyamakavrtti), Aryabhattaraka-Manjusriparamarthastuti, Kayatrayastotra, Narakoddharastava, Niruttarastava, Vandanastava, Dharmasamgraha, Dharmadhatugarbhavivarana, Ekaslokasastra, Isvarakartrtvanirakrtih (A refutation of God/Isvara), Sattvaradhanastava, Upayahrdaya, Astadasasunyatasastra, Dharmadhatustava, Yogaratnamala."Meanwhile, Lindtner's list of outright wrong attributions is: "Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa (Dà zhìdù lùn), Abudhabodhakaprakarana", "Guhyasamajatantratika", "Dvadasadvaraka", "Prajñaparamitastotra," and "Svabhavatrayapravesasiddhi."Notably, the "Dà zhìdù lùn" (Taisho 1509, "Commentary on the great prajñaparamita") which has been influential in Chinese Buddhism, has been questioned as a genuine work of Nāgārjuna by various scholars including Lamotte. This work is also only attested in a Chinese translation by Kumārajīva and is unknown in the Tibetan and Indian traditions.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Other works are extant only in Chinese, one of these is the "Shih-erh-men-lun" or 'Twelve-topic treatise' (*"Dvadasanikaya" or *"Dvadasamukha-sastra"); one of the three basic treatises of the Sanlun school (East Asian Madhyamaka).


title: Nagarjuna

text: Several works considered important in esoteric Buddhism are attributed to Nāgārjuna and his disciples by traditional historians like Tāranātha from 17th century Tibet. These historians try to account for chronological difficulties with various theories, such as seeing later writings as mystical revelations. For a useful summary of this tradition, see Wedemeyer 2007. Lindtner sees the author of some of these tantric works as being a tantric Nagarjuna who lives much later, sometimes called "Nagarjuna II".


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna's major thematic focus is the concept of śūnyatā (translated into English as "emptiness") which brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anātman "not-self" and pratītyasamutpāda "dependent origination", to refute the metaphysics of some of his contemporaries. For Nāgārjuna, as for the Buddha in the early texts, it is not merely sentient beings that are "selfless" or non-substantial; all phenomena (dhammas) are without any svabhāva, literally "own-being", "self-nature", or "inherent existence" and thus without any underlying essence. They are "empty" of being independently existent; thus the heterodox theories of svabhāva circulating at the time were refuted on the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism. This is so because all things arise always dependently: not by their own power, but by depending on conditions leading to their coming into existence, as opposed to being.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna means by real any entity which has a nature of its own (svabhāva), which is not produced by causes (akrtaka), which is not dependent on anything else (paratra nirapeksha).


title: Nagarjuna

text: Chapter 24 verse 14 of the "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā" provides one of Nāgārjuna's most famous quotations on emptiness and co-arising:


title: Nagarjuna

text: As part of his analysis of the emptiness of phenomena in the "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā", Nāgārjuna critiques svabhāva in several different concepts. He discusses the problems of positing any sort of inherent essence to causation, movement, change and personal identity. Nāgārjuna makes use of the Indian logical tool of the tetralemma to attack any essentialist conceptions. Nāgārjuna's logical analysis is based on four basic propositions:


title: Nagarjuna

text: To say that all things are 'empty' is to deny any kind of ontological foundation; therefore Nāgārjuna's view is often seen as a kind of ontological anti-foundationalism or a metaphysical anti-realism.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Understanding the nature of the emptiness of phenomena is simply a means to an end, which is nirvana. Thus Nāgārjuna's philosophical project is ultimately a soteriological one meant to correct our everyday cognitive processes which mistakenly posits svabhāva on the flow of experience.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Some scholars such as Fyodor Shcherbatskoy and T.R.V. Murti held that Nāgārjuna was the inventor of the Shunyata doctrine; however, more recent work by scholars such as Choong Mun-keat, Yin Shun and Dhammajothi Thero has argued that Nāgārjuna was not an innovator by putting forth this theory, but that, in the words of Shi Huifeng, "the connection between emptiness and dependent origination is not an innovation or creation of Nāgārjuna".


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna was also instrumental in the development of the two truths doctrine, which claims that there are two levels of truth in Buddhist teaching, the ultimate truth ("paramārtha satya") and the conventional or superficial truth ("saṃvṛtisatya"). The ultimate truth to Nāgārjuna is the truth that everything is empty of essence, this includes emptiness itself ('the emptiness of emptiness'). While some (Murti, 1955) have interpreted this by positing Nāgārjuna as a neo-Kantian and thus making ultimate truth a metaphysical noumenon or an "ineffable ultimate that transcends the capacities of discursive reason", others such as Mark Siderits and Jay L. Garfield have argued that Nāgārjuna's view is that "the ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth" (Siderits) and that Nāgārjuna is a "semantic anti-dualist" who posits that there are only conventional truths. Hence according to Garfield:


title: Nagarjuna

text: Suppose that we take a conventional entity, such as a table. We analyze it to demonstrate its emptiness, finding that there is no table apart from its parts […]. So we conclude that it is empty. But now let us analyze that emptiness […]. What do we find? Nothing at all but the table’s lack of inherent existence. […]. To see the table as empty […] is to see the table as conventional, as dependent.


title: Nagarjuna

text: In articulating this notion in the "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā", Nāgārjuna drew on an early source in the "Kaccānagotta Sutta", which distinguishes definitive meaning ("nītārtha") from interpretable meaning ("neyārtha"):


title: Nagarjuna

text: The version linked to is the one found in the nikayas, and is slightly different from the one found in the "Samyuktagama". Both contain the concept of teaching via the middle between the extremes of existence and non-existence. Nagarjuna does not make reference to "everything" when he quotes the agamic text in his "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā".


title: Nagarjuna

text: Jay L. Garfield describes that Nāgārjuna approached causality from the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination. Nāgārjuna distinguished two dependent origination views in a causal process, that which causes effects and that which causes conditions. This is predicated in the two truth doctrine, as conventional truth and ultimate truth held together, in which both are empty in existence. The distinction between effects and conditions is controversial. In Nāgārjuna's approach, cause means an event or state that has power to bring an effect. Conditions, refer to proliferating causes that bring a further event, state or process; without a metaphysical commitment to an occult connection between explaining and explanans. He argues nonexistent causes and various existing conditions. The argument draws from unreal causal power. Things conventional exist and are ultimately nonexistent to rest in the Middle Way in both causal existence and nonexistence as casual emptiness within the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā doctrine. Although seeming strange to Westerners, this is seen as an attack on a reified view of causality.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna also taught the idea of relativity; in the Ratnāvalī, he gives the example that shortness exists only in relation to the idea of length. The determination of a thing or object is only possible in relation to other things or objects, especially by way of contrast. He held that the relationship between the ideas of "short" and "long" is not due to intrinsic nature (svabhāva). This idea is also found in the Pali Nikāyas and Chinese Āgamas, in which the idea of relativity is expressed similarly: "That which is the element of light ... is seen to exist on account of [in relation to] darkness; that which is the element of good is seen to exist on account of bad; that which is the element of space is seen to exist on account of form."


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna was fully acquainted with the classical Hindu philosophies of Samkhya and even the Vaiseshika. Nāgārjuna assumes a knowledge of the definitions of the sixteen categories as given in the Nyaya Sutras, the chief text of the Hindu Nyaya school, and wrote a treatise on the pramanas where he reduced the syllogism of five members into one of three. In the Vigrahavyavartani Karika, Nāgārjuna criticises the Nyaya theory of pramanas (means of knowledge)


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna was conversant with many of the Śrāvaka philosophies and with the Mahāyāna tradition; however, determining Nāgārjuna's affiliation with a specific nikāya is difficult, considering much of this material has been lost. If the most commonly accepted attribution of texts (that of Christian Lindtner) holds, then he was clearly a Māhayānist, but his philosophy holds assiduously to the Śrāvaka "Tripiṭaka", and while he does make explicit references to Mahāyāna texts, he is always careful to stay within the parameters set out by the Śrāvaka canon.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Nāgārjuna may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the āgamas. In the eyes of Nāgārjuna, the Buddha was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the Madhyamaka system. David Kalupahana sees Nāgārjuna as a successor to Moggaliputta-Tissa in being a champion of the middle-way and a reviver of the original philosophical ideals of the Buddha.


title: Nagarjuna

text: Because of the high degree of similarity between Nāgārjuna's philosophy and Pyrrhonism, particularly the surviving works of Sextus Empiricus, Thomas McEvilley speculates that Nāgārjuna was influenced by Greek Pyrrhonist texts imported into India. Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-c. 270 BCE), the founder of this school of sceptical philosophy, was himself influenced by Indian philosophy. Pyrrho traveled to India with Alexander the Great's army and studied with the gymnosophists. According to Christopher I. Beckwith, Pyrrho's teachings are based on Buddhism, because the Greek terms "adiaphora", "astathmēta" and "anepikrita" in the "Aristocles Passage" resemble the Buddhist three marks of existence. According to him, the key innovative tenets of Pyrrho's scepticism were only found in Indian philosophy at the time and not in Greece.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: Ne Zha (), also spelled Nezha, is a 2019 Chinese 3D computer animation fantasy adventure film directed and written by Yu Yang, credited as Jiaozi. Its animation production is done by the director's own Chengdu Coco Cartoon. Featuring the popular Chinese mythological character Nezha, the plot is loosely based on the classic 16th-century novel "Investiture of the Gods", attributed to Xu Zhonglin.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: It was released in China exclusively in IMAX and China Film Giant Screen theatres on 13 July 2019, followed by other theatres on 26 July, distributed by Beijing Enlight Pictures. It is the first Chinese-produced animated feature released in IMAX format, and, despite being the debut feature of its director and animation studio, and having no widely known actors in its voice cast, it has been one of the biggest commercial successes in Chinese cinema, setting numerous records for box-office grosses: as of August 2019, the film is the highest-grossing animated film in China, the worldwide highest-grossing non-U.S. animated film, and the second worldwide highest-grossing non-English-language film of all time at the time of its release. With a gross of over $725 million, it was that year's fourth-highest-grossing animated film, and China's all time third-highest-grossing film.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: It began a North American release on 29 August 2019 in select IMAX 3D theatres, before a nationwide rollout on 6 September. It was selected as the Chinese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, becoming the first animated film from China to ever do so, but it was not nominated.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: A second film set in the same universe, titled "Legend of Deification", was released on 1 October 2020, which is National Day in China.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: A Chaos Pearl, birthed from primordial essences, begins siphoning energies gluttonously. Yuanshi Tianzun dispatches his disciples Taiyi Zhenren and Shen Gongbao to subdue the sentient pearl. Due to its ability to absorb energy, Taiyi and Shen are unable to gain the upper hand. Eventually Tianzun separates the pearl into two opposite components: the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb. Tianzun places a heavenly curse upon the Demon Orb: in three years time it will be destroyed by a powerful lightning strike. Tianzun then instructs Taiyi to take the Spirit Pearl to be reincarnated as the third son of Li Jing, to be named Ne Zha.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: Shen conspires to steal the Spirit Pearl and in the ensuing battle, the Demon Orb is placed on the ritual altar instead, causing Li Jing's pregnant wife Lady Yin to give birth to a child, Ne Zha, whose demonic nature is apparent. Taiyi tells them that Ne Zha's fate is sealed: in three years' time the heavenly curse placed upon the Demonic Orb will kill him regardless. Li travels to Heaven with Taiyi in an attempt to plead for Ne Zha's life, but is told that the curse is unremovable.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: Meanwhile, it is revealed that Shen stole the Spirit Pearl for the Dragon King to reincarnate as his son, Ao Bing. The dragons resent their role as jailers of the Heavenly Court and being confined to a hellish existence on the ocean floor. They hope that through the blessed nature of a son born from the Spirit Pearl that dragon kind would be deemed worthy by Heaven, allowing the dragons to ascend. The Dragon King allows Shen to take Ao Bing as a student.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: To tame his demonic nature and to make him happy, Ne Zha's parents lie to him, telling him that he was born of the Spirit Pearl and is destined to be a great demon hunter. Ne Zha studies under Taiyi and acquires great skills. Eventually becoming impatient, the impetuous Ne Zha escapes his confines to hunt demons. While chasing a water demon, he burns down a fishing village. Ao Bing also comes to fight the demon, but is eventually defeated. Ne Zha cleverly overcomes the water demon and rescues both Ao Bing and a little girl, but is nevertheless misunderstood by the townsfolk. In a rage, Ne Zha lashes out at the villagers, hurting many of them.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The Li household organizes a lavish birthday party for their son, inviting a nervous town to attend. Shen visits Ne Zha before the party, revealing the truth of his nature to him. Angry and upset, Ne Zha unleashes his true demonic form and nearly kills his father. Feeling betrayed, Ne Zha leaves to await his fate.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: Shen says that if his deceit is revealed to Tianzun then not only will he be punished, all of dragon kind will be condemned forever. Ao Bing, not wanting to betray his kind, decides to bury the town alive under a massive sheet of ice so there are no witnesses. Meanwhile, Ne Zha learns that while visiting Heaven to plead for his life, his father sought an enchantment that would allow him to trade his life for Ne Zha's. Moved by his father's sacrifice, Ne Zha returns to the village to stop Ao Bing. Eventually unleashing his full demonic form, Ne Zha defeats Ao Bing but spares his life, calling him his only friend.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: When the heavenly lightning approaches, Ne Zha surrenders to his fate but is unexpectedly joined by Ao Bing. Linking hands, they unleash the power of the Chaos Pearl, which has the ability to absorb energy. Their mortal bodies prove too weak to contain the energy of the strike. Though their bodies are destroyed, the townsfolk kneel before Ao Bing and Ne Zha in their spirit forms.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: In the mid and post credits scenes, the Dragon King vows vengeance on the citizens of Chentangguan for what happened to Ao Bing, while in an unknown location, Jiang Ziya is introduced.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The film tells the mythological origins of Nezha, who is a protection deity in Chinese folk religion, and its story is loosely based on the literary version of the myth that forms two chapters of "Investiture of the Gods", a Ming-dynasty "shenmo" novel, traditionally attributed to Xu Zhonglin, which incorporates various existing myths into a wider narrative.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The story has been adapted for the screen many times before, at least as early as 1927 or 1928, whether on its own (as in the 1979 traditionally-animated film "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King") or as part of adaptations of the whole of "Investiture of the Gods" (such as the 2016 live-action film "League of Gods").


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: Director Jiaozi spent two years in total to write the screenplay, and the film was in production for three years.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The film has more than 1,318 special effects shots, and it took over 20 Chinese special effects studios, employing more than 1,600 people, to realize the film's fairy tale setting, the mysterious Dragon King's Palace, and a complex fight between fire and water. One scene alone took two months to complete.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: Executive production company and distributor Beijing Enlight Pictures premiered "Ne Zha" on 11 July 2019 in Beijing, followed by an encore on 12 July. The film was given a limited release in IMAX and China Film Giant Screen premium large format theatres on 13 July, and was released nationwide on 26 July.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The film grossed 600 million yuan ("est." $84 million) in its first three days alone. It broke local records with a $91.5 million opening, the highest ever for an animated film in China.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: On August 2, 2019, It became the highest-grossing animated film of all time in China, a record held by "Zootopia" ($235.6 million) since 2016. On 7 August 2019, "Ne Zha" became the fastest animated film to reach $400 million (in 12 days). It is currently the highest-grossing animated film of all time in a single market ($703.71 million in China) overtaking "Incredibles 2" (2018) ($608.5 million in North America), the highest-grossing non-Disney or Pixar animated film in a single market, overtaking "Shrek 2" (2004) ($441.2 million in North America), and the highest-grossing non-English spoken animated film, overtaking "Spirited Away" (2001) ($361.1 million worldwide). Upon reaching $700 million (in 46 days), it became the first ever animated feature film in film history to reach that milestone in a single market.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The film was released in cinemas in English-speaking regions in Mandarin with English subtitles around the end of August and beginning of September 2019.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: It was released in Australia on 23 August and in New Zealand on 29 August, distributed by CMC Pictures.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: It was released in the United States and Canada in select IMAX 3D venues on 29 August, followed by other cinemas on 6 September, distributed by Well Go USA Entertainment.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: It was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including in select IMAX 3D venues, on 30 August, distributed by CMC Pictures in collaboration with Cine Asia.


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


title: Ne Zha (2019 film)

text: The creative team behind the film has announced that "Ne Zha" will be the first installment in a fictional universe based on the stories told in the "Fengshen Yanyi". The next film in the franchise was announced to be "Legend of Deification", featuring Jiang Ziya. It was slated for release on 25 January 2020 in China, but following the COVID-19 pandemic, all Chinese New Year releases were cancelled. It was released on the 1st of October 2020, which aligned with China's national day, in both China and the U.S.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Mastic () is a resin obtained from the mastic tree ("Pistacia lentiscus"). It is also known as tears of Chios, being traditionally produced on the island Chios, and, like other natural resins, is produced in "tears" or droplets.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Mastic is excreted by the resin glands of certain trees and dries into pieces of brittle, translucent resin. When chewed, the resin softens and becomes a bright white and opaque gum. The flavor is bitter at first, but after some chewing, it releases a refreshing flavor similar to pine and cedar.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Mastic has been harvested for at least 2,500 years since Greek antiquity. The word "mastic" is derived from , 'to gnash the teeth', which is also the source of the English word "masticate". The first mention of actual mastic 'tears' was by Hippocrates. Hippocrates used mastic for the prevention of digestive problems, colds and as a breath freshener. Romans used mastic along with honey, pepper, and egg in the spiced wine "conditum paradoxum". Under the Byzantine Empire, the mastic trade became the Emperor's monopoly. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan gathered the finest mastic crop to send it to his harem.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: During the Ottoman rule of Chios, mastic was worth its weight in gold. The penalty for stealing mastic was execution by order of the sultans. In the Chios Massacre of 1822, the people of the Mastichochoria region were spared by the sultan to provide mastic to him and his harem. , the Turkish name for the island of Chios, means 'gum island'. The mastic villages are fortress-like, out of sight from the sea, surrounded by high walls and with no doors at street level (meaning that the villages were entered only by ladders), in order to protect the sap from invaders.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Although the liqueur is much younger, it is still tied up with Greek history. Digestive liqueurs, similar to Mastichato (Mastika), but made with grapes, were known as Greek elixirs before the French Revolution.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: The production of mastic was threatened by the Chios forest fire that destroyed some mastic groves in August 2012.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Producing the mastic resin is a whole-year process for the local growers. The harvest is known as "kentos" and takes place from the beginning of July to the beginning of October. First, the area around the trees is cleared and sprinkled with inert calcium carbonate. Then, every 4–5 days, 5–10 incisions are made in the bark of each tree to release the resin. As these clear drops hang from the tree, and sparkle in the sunlight, they are said to resemble crystalline teardrops; for this reason, the mastic resin is known as the "tears of Chios". It takes about 15–20 days for the first resin crystals to harden and fall to the ground. The farmers then collect the pieces of dry mastic and wash them in natural spring water, and spend most of the winter cleaning and separating the tears from the sand. This cleaning process is performed by hand and is regulated by the legislative framework of the Mastic Growers' Association. In addition to mastic, mastic oil is also produced.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: there were twenty-four mastichochoria, or mastic villages, on the island of Chios dedicated to the cultivation and production of mastic. Mastic production in Chios is protected by a European Union protected designation of origin.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: The island's mastic production is controlled by a co-operative. Founded in 1938, the Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association (), abbreviated "CGMGA", is a secondary cooperative organisation and acts as the collective representative organ of twenty primary cooperatives founded in the twenty-four mastic villages. it has the exclusive management of natural Chios Mastiha in Greece and abroad.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: The Chios Mastic Museum offers a permanent exhibition about mastic production on the island, explaining its history and cultivation techniques as well as demonstrating its different uses today.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Traditionally there has also been limited production of mastic on the Çeşme peninsula, on the Turkish coast eight nautical miles from Chios, with similar ecological conditions suitable for mastic production. The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA) has led an effort to protect the native Turkish mastic trees and to plant new ones in the Çeşme peninsula to revive viable commercial production of the product. As part of this project, which was expected to last through 2016, over 3,000 mastic tree saplings were planted between 2008 and October 2011 to over 368 acres (149 hectares) of dedicated farm land provided by the Izmir Institute of Technology.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: In the Eastern Mediterranean, mastic is commonly used in brioches, ice cream, and other desserts. In Syria, mastic is added to booza (Syrian ice cream), and in Turkey, mastic is widely used in desserts such as Turkish delight and dondurma, in puddings such as sütlaç, salep, tavuk göğsü, mamelika, and in soft drinks. Mastic syrup is added to Turkish coffee on the Aegean coast. In Greece, mastic is used in liqueurs such as Mastika (or Mastichato), in a spoon sweet known as a "submarine" (), in beverages, chewing gum, sweets, desserts, breads and cheese. It is also used to stabilise "loukoumi" and ice cream.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: In the Maghreb, mastic is used mainly in cakes, sweets, and pastries and as a stabilizer in meringue and nougat. In Morocco, mastic is used in the preparation of smoked foods.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: One of the earliest uses of mastic was as chewing gum. Mastic-flavored chewing gum is sold in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Greece. Jordanian chewing gum company, Sharawi Bros. (علكة شعراوي اخوان) uses mastic as one of the main ingredients in their gums.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Some scholars identify the "bakha" mentioned in the Bible with the mastic plant. "Bakha" appears to be derived from , weeping, and is thought to refer to the "tears" of resin secreted by the mastic plant.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Ancient Jewish halachic sources indicate mastic as a treatment for bad breath: "Mastic is not chewed on shabbat. When [is it permissible to chew mastic on shabbat]? When the intention is medicinal. If it is used for bad breath, it is permissible."


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Mastic is an essential ingredient of chrism, the holy oil used for anointing by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.


title: Mastic (plant resin)

text: Mastic is used in some varnishes. Mastic varnish was used to protect and preserve photographic negatives. Mastic is also used in perfumes, cosmetics, soap, body oils, and body lotion. In ancient Egypt, mastic was used in embalming. In its hardened form, mastic can be used, like frankincense or Boswellia resin, to produce incense.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: "Tik Tok" (stylized as "TiK ToK" and pronounced as "tick tock") is the debut single by American singer Kesha, who co-wrote the song with its producers Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco. It was released on August 7, 2009, as the lead single from her debut studio album, "Animal" (2010). The opening line of the song came from an experience where Kesha woke up surrounded by beautiful women, to which she imagined P. Diddy being in a similar scenario. The experience prompted the writing of the song which she later brought to her producer, Dr. Luke, who was then contacted by P. Diddy in hopes of a collaboration; he came to the studio the same day and recorded his lines, and the song was completed.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: According to Kesha, the song's lyrics are representative of her and based on her life. In the lyrics, which have a carefree message, the narrator talks about not letting anything bring them down. "Tik Tok" is an electropop and dance-pop song incorporating Auto-Tune and a minimalist bitpop beat interspersed with handclaps and synthesizers. The verses use a rap/sing vocal style while the chorus is sung. Some critics complimented the production as catchy, but others took issue with it as generic and disposable compared to the mainstream pop-music scene.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: In the United States, "Tik Tok" spent nine weeks atop the "Billboard" Hot 100 and was certified eightfold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Topping the charts in many other countries including Australia—where it was certified ninefold platinum, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland, it was the best-selling single worldwide in 2010, selling 12.8 million copies. As of 2019, the song has sold over 18 million digital copies worldwide. "Tik Tok" was listed 61st on the all-time "Billboard" Hot 100 chart published in 2018.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: In 2005, Dr. Luke had just finished producing tracks for Kelly Clarkson's album "Breakaway" (2004) and was looking to expand further on his writing and producing credits. Luke solicited around to different people in the music business asking for demos from unknown artists. Two of the demos he received were from Katy Perry and Kesha. He was particularly taken with Kesha's demos which consisted of a self-penned country ballad and trip-hop track. The latter of the demos caught Luke off guard when she ran out of lyrics and started to rap, "I'm a white girl/From the 'Ville/Nashville, bitch. Uhh. Uhhhhh." The improvisation made her stand out from other artists that Luke had listened to, which he recalled: "That's when I was like, 'OK, I like this girl's personality. When you're listening to 100 CDs, that kind of bravado and chutzpah stand out." Following this, at the age of eighteen, Kesha signed to Luke's label, Kemosabe Records, and his publishing company, Prescription Songs.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: After being signed to Luke's label she also signed to David Sonenberg's DAS management company. While at the label she worked with record producer Greg Wells, which she attributes to developing her sound on her first record, "Animal" (2010). Although she was signed to Luke and his label, Kesha never took priority as he was busy with other projects at the time. It was not until 2008 when Luke was working with Flo Rida on "Right Round" that he pulled Kesha in to contribute, giving her the female hook. Within a few months, the song became a worldwide hit. The event lead to different labels sparking interest in signing her, including RCA Records, to which she eventually signed.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: "Tik Tok" was written by Kesha, alongside Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco and was co-produced by Luke and Blanco. Kesha said the inspiration behind the song came from coming home half-drunk and stumbling after a night out of partying. She would then write down a few words to a song, then the following morning she would wake up with the story waiting to be told. The opening line came from an experience where she woke up surrounded by "beautiful women", leading to her imagining P. Diddy being in a similar scenario. She then proceeded to bring the song to her producer Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco and the song was written. Four hours later, Diddy called Luke and said that they should do a song together. Diddy came to the studio later that day to contribute his lines and the collaboration was completed.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Engineering of the song was done by Emily Wright and Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. While Kesha was in the studio with Dr. Luke and Blanco, she took three takes to get the song correct as she jokingly "white-girl rapped" over the beat. At one point in the song's production, she had wanted to re-write the verses of the song because she did not think that they were "funny or clever", feeling that they "kind of sucked." She elaborated, "I thought it was just another song, I thought it was just like all the other ones I'd written. I didn't even know if it was very good. I wanted to rewrite the verses, I didn't think it was funny or clever. I thought it kind of sucked. But everyone else liked it." Kesha ultimately did not end up rewriting any of the song's lyrics. She further described the theme of the song in an interview, emphasizing that it embodied her own lifestyle,


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: We're [Kesha and her friends] all young and broke and it doesn't matter. We can find clothes on the side of the street and go out and look fantastic, and kill it. If we don't have a car that doesn't stop us, because we'll take the bus. If we can't afford drinks, we'll bring a bottle in our purse. It's just about not letting anything bring you down.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: "Tik Tok" is an upbeat dance-pop and electropop song that incorporates the sound of '80s video game noises in its production, to earn a bitpop beat.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Kesha uses a spoken word rap style on the verses while the chorus is sung. Throughout the song Kesha's vocals are heavily enhanced by Auto-Tune. The song also features two lines by P. Diddy ("Hey, what up girl?", which is said after he is mentioned in the lyrics, and "Let's go!") Lyrically, the song speaks about "excess pleasures, from drinking ("Ain't got a care in the world but I got plenty of beer") to men ("We kick 'em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger")." According to Kesha the lyrics are representative of herself, stating, "It's about my life. It's 100 percent me."


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Kesha uses a rap vocal delivery which was influenced by the Beastie Boys. She claims that the track's creation would not have happened if it was not for their influence on her music. While the song was being crafted she took a different vocal approach to the song than in her earlier records, explaining, "I've done the country, done the pop-rock, done the super-hard electro, ... I was like, whatever, throw some rap in there, why not?" The song is in common time with a moderate beat rate of 120 beats per minute. The song is set in the key of D minor. It has the sequence of B–C–Dm as its chord progression and Kesha's vocals span from D to D, similar to that of "California Gurls" by Katy Perry. Musically, the song has been compared to Lady Gaga's debut single, "Just Dance", for their similar composition and lyrical context and to Fergie for their similar rap style.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: In July 2009, the song was offered as a free download on Kesha's Myspace page for over a month before its official sale release. The song was later released to iTunes on August 7, 2009, and on August 25, 2009, in the United States. Barry Weiss of RCA/Jive Label Group relied on a similar marketing scheme to that of Britney Spears' in 1999 when choosing to give the song away for free. The song's marketing relied heavily on radio once she had achieved a strong online interest, but its radio release was delayed until October in order to capitalize on social media interest in her. The song quickly topped iTunes charts after. The song appeared in the film "". It was also featured in the notorious "couch gag" for the television show "The Simpsons".To promote the single, Kesha made several television appearances and performances across the world. The first televised performance of the song was on a part of "MTV Push", a program broadcast on MTV Networks worldwide, where she performed the song alongside her other tracks "Blah Blah Blah" and "Dinosaur". She performed the song alongside "Blah Blah Blah", "Take It Off", "Your Love Is My Drug" and "Dirty Picture" in a set for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. On May 29, 2010, Kesha performed "Tik Tok" alongside "Your Love Is My Drug" at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Kesha has also made appearances on "It's On with Alexa Chung", "The Wendy Williams Show", "Lopez Tonight", "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to perform the song. This song was also performed on "Saturday Night Live" on April 17, 2010. On August 13, 2010, Kesha performed "Tik Tok" on "Today". On November 7, 2010, Kesha performed the song at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Throughout the performance she was seen wearing a leotard with day-glow makeup. The performance featured a backing consisting of flashing lights and background dancers. The song's bridge was changed during the performance and featured a more "amping house music vibe".


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Kelsey Paine of "Billboard" called the song "a love letter to DJs everywhere, with hand claps that build to a crescendo of pure, infectious dance-pop." Paine, referring to her appearance on "Right Round", wrote that she "offers her own fun and frivolous ode to a wild night out" as she sings about drinking and men. The review was concluded with the consensus the Kesha's debut "reveals a knack for getting the party started." Jim Farber of the "New York Daily News" called the song "a vintage lick of dance candy too tooth-rottingly sweet to resist" that featured a "stabbing synthesizer hook". Fraser McAlpine of the BBC, giving the single four out of a possible five stars, called it a "dirty little ditty" that had "'hit' written all over it". McAlpine noted its similarities to Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" for their partying subject matter, but concedes that "she does make it sound kinda fun though." Billy Johnson Jr. of Yahoo! compared "Tik Tok" to the 1980s L'Trimm hit "Cars That Go Boom" and notes that Kesha has "take[n] on L'Trimm's vocal styling for her own hit."


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Nick Levine of Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars, he spoke of the song giving Kesha a "hussy image" but described the lyrics in a positive manner. Levine said the use of auto-tune was "fun" and described Dr. Luke's backing track as "bouncy" and "bubblegummy". The review highlighted the song's chorus with Levine calling it "stonking great" and "completely trashy in the best possible way." David Jeffries of Allmusic called the track "fun", listing it as one of the album's best tracks. David Renshaw of Drowned in Sound felt that the song was effective in what it was trying to do, writing: "Trashy and rambunctious, it’s a brash summer anthem about getting drunk and partying hard. World rocking it might not be, but as a piece of disposable pop it captures a moment and boasts a huge hook which, really, is all you need to rule the radio, TV and ringtone airwaves." Mikael Wood of "Entertainment Weekly" listed the song as the recommended download off of "Animal", writing that "her Valley Girl sneer with electro-glam arrangements that make brushing one's teeth 'with a bottle of Jack' sound like an awesome way to kill the morning-after blues."


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Jonah Weiner of "Slate Magazine" gave the song a negative review saying that "the song sets up ship on the fault line between charmingly daft and deeply irritating." He then compared the song to work by other artists, stating that "the rapped verses are sub-Fergie-grade, proudly stuffed with groaners and to-hell-with-the-expiration-date slang." Weiner echoed the sentiment that the plotline seemed like "a sequel" to "Just Dance", summing it up as "girl wakes up drunk, stays drunk, finds a dance floor and (spoiler alert) gets even drunker." Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" described the song as "a zippy and salacious celebration of late nights and mornings-after." He noted that "some have compared Kesha, unfavorably, to Uffie, who is signed to the influential French electronic music label Ed Banger and whose sass-rap predated Kesha’s by a couple of years." However, he thought that "if anyone should feel fleeced by 'Tik Tok', though, it’s Lady Gaga, who probably hears significant chunks of her hit 'Just Dance' in its melody and subject matter."


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: In the United States, "Tik Tok" debuted at number 79 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on the week ending October 24, 2009. It was the first Hot 100 number one of the 2010s decade and stayed at the top for nine consecutive weeks. On the ending December 27, 2009, "Tik Tok" broke the record for the highest U.S. single-week sales, selling 610,000 digital downloads. The record was surpassed by Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (2012) when it sold 623,000 digital copies in its debut week. On the week ending February 6, 2010, "Tik Tok" topped Pop Songs with 11,224 spins on airplay, breaking the record by Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" for the most single-week plays on pop radio. On "Billboard"'s year-end charts of 2010, it topped the Hot 100 and placed at number seven on Radio Songs and number eight on Digital Songs. "Tik Tok" was certified eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for eight million units based on sales and streaming, and by March 2016, had sold 6.8 million downloads.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: The single also peaked atop the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified seven times platinum by Music Canada. "Tik Tok" peaked atop the singles charts of European and Oceanic countries including Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand Norway, and Switzerland. It was certified nine times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association and double platinum by Recorded Music NZ. In the United Kingdom, "Tik Tok" peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and by 2012, ranked at number 100 on the Official Charts Company's list of the 150 best-selling singles of the 21st century. In South Korea, "Tik Tok" was the best-selling digital single by a foreign artist of 2010, selling 1.4 million downloads.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the single sold 12.8 million digital copies worldwide in 2010, making it the best-selling single of the year. As of August 2019, it had sold over 18 million copies worldwide.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: The music video for "Tik Tok" was directed by Syndrome. It was shot in Kesha's old neighborhood and the car featured in the video belongs to her. Kesha explained the experience saying, "the video I'm excited about because I actually got to shoot it in my old neighborhood and the guy driving my gold car is a friend of mine". The video's party scene was shot in her friend's house, which they refer to as the "drunk tank". The singer said "the last party scene is in this house called the drunk tank, which is one of my friend's houses that we all go party at. So I like it cause its super-honest and genuine."


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: The video begins with Kesha waking in a bathtub in a home as she stumbles out and begins to look for a toothbrush in the restroom. She makes her way down a staircase looking at the pictures lining the wall. Kesha makes her way to the kitchen and walks in on a family who are having breakfast, startling them. She shrugs and then leaves the home as the family gets up and follows her. When she arrives at the sidewalk, she picks up a gold bicycle lying against a fallen fence and rides off. Kesha meets a group of children and trades the bicycle for their boombox. The video cuts to another scene where she rejects a guy and is picked up by a man portrayed by Simon Rex who drives her in a gold 1978 Trans Am. They are pulled over by the police, who handcuff Kesha. The scene then pans to her singing while standing in the T-top as she dangles the handcuffs hanging from her left arm. The next scene shows Kesha in an empty room filled with glitter. She then attends a party with Rex for the final scene. The video comes to an end with Kesha lying in a different bathtub from the one she woke up in, while Spanish voices in Mexican accent are heard in a market-like way, implying she ended up crossing the border. The official music video has received over 550 million views on YouTube as of February 2021.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: The second-most-viewed YouTube video of the year 2010, behind only "The Bed Intruder Song", was a parody of "Tik Tok" posted by The Key of Awesome. "Weird Al" Yankovic included the chorus in his polka medley "Polka Face" from his 2011 album "Alpocalypse". The song was also parodied by British comedy group The Midnight Beast. The parody discusses youthful subjects such as attempting to view the nude bodies of women and dodging parents' anger. Released to iTunes on January 15, 2010, the parody peaked at number four on the Australian Singles Chart, and at thirty-nine on the Irish Singles Chart. Comedian Julie Brown parodied the song with the single "Another Drunk Chick" on her album "Smell the Glamour" (2011). Jarett Wiselman of "The New York Post" stated it was "one of the year's best comedy albums." Avril Lavigne performed an acoustic version of the song in her setlist for BBC's Radio 1.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: Another parody came about when Israel Defense Forces soldiers created IDF Tik Tok in 2010, a viral dance video that opens with six infantry soldiers on patrol in Hebron, walking cautiously down a deserted street, armed and wearing full combat gear, when "Tik Tok" begins to play, and the soldiers break into choreographed dance moves. "Tik Tok" was used in the opening sequence for "The Simpsons" episode "To Surveil with Love", in which the entire cast lip-synced to the song.


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: The cast of FOX musical series "Glee" performed this song on the episode "Blame It on the Alcohol", with Heather Morris' character, Brittany Pierce, taking the lead. The episode revolved around teen drinking and its dangers. The members of Glee Club are asked to perform at the school's alcohol awareness assembly, in which "Tik Tok" is one of the songs performed. Emily VanDerWerff of "The A.V. Club" wrote that the song's inclusion in the episode was superfluous, stating that it was just an excuse to get a Kesha song on "Glee". VanDerWerff however, wrote that she "REALLY liked Heather Morris'" rendition of the song. Sandra Gonzalez of "Entertainment Weekly" praised Brittany's choreography and overall performance in "Tik Tok", writing, "The huge star of this number was clearly Brittany, who more and more every week proves that she needs to be moved to the forefront of this show's big performances and storylines." Gonzalez gave the cover version of "Tik Tok" a B, calling it "pure, fun entertainment up until we got to the part straight out of the mind of Gordie LaChance." Erica Futterman of "Rolling Stone" gave the cover version of "Tik Tok" a mostly positive review, writing, "Love Brittany as we do, we wish Rachel or Mercedes stepped up to the mic. The performance is less risqué than their Pep Rally "Push It" but winds up causing more controversy when Brittany pukes on Rachel and Santana also vomits up grey slush. It's a fitting end to the song, and the episode."


title: Tik Tok (song)

text: During the fifth season of the Masked Singer, Caitlyn Jenner sang the song disguised as “The Phoenix”. Jenner's rendition went viral and Kesha eventually reacted to it on the coincidentally similarly named app TikTok.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: During the Dachau liberation reprisals, German SS troops were killed by U.S. soldiers and concentration camp internees at the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, during World War II. It is unclear how many SS men were killed in the incident, but most estimates place the number killed at around 35–50. In the days before the camp's liberation, SS guards at the camp had forced 7,000 inmates on a death march that resulted in the death of many from exposure and shooting. When Allied soldiers liberated Dachau, they were variously shocked, horrified, disturbed, and angered at finding the massed corpses of internees, and by the combativeness of some of the remaining guards who allegedly fired on them.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: On April 29, 1945, soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Felix L. Sparks, approaching the sprawling Dachau complex from the southwest, found 39 railway boxcars containing some 2,000 skeletal corpses parked on rail tracks just outside the complex itself. Brain tissue was splattered on the ground from one victim found nearby with a crushed skull. The smell of decaying bodies and human excrement, and the sight of naked, emaciated bodies induced vomiting, crying, disbelief, and rage in the advancing troops. Advancing soldiers from H Company, 22nd Regiment used a loudspeaker to call on the SS to surrender, but they continued to fire in bursts.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Upon moving deeper into the complex, and the prisoner area itself, the soldiers found more bodies. Some had been dead for hours or days before the camp's capture and lay where they had died. Soldiers reported seeing a row of concrete structures that contained rooms full of hundreds of naked and barely clothed dead bodies piled floor to ceiling, a coal-fired crematorium, and a gas chamber. "The stench of death was overpowering," Sparks recalled.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: According to Harold Marcuse, American professor of German history, camp commander "SS-Hauptsturmführer" Martin Weiss, together with the camp guards and the SS garrisons, had fled the camp before the arrival of U.S. troops. "SS-Untersturmführer" Heinrich Wicker (killed after the surrender) was left in charge and had roughly 560 personnel at his disposal; these came from conscripted inmates of the SS disciplinary prison inside the Dachau concentration camp and Hungarian Waffen-SS troops.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: On April 29, Dachau was surrendered to Brigadier General Henning Linden of the 42nd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army by "Untersturmführer" Wicker. According to Linden, he arrived at the command post in Dachau at about 15:00 and proceeded to make his way across the Amper River to the site of the complex, approximately one-half kilometre south of the bridge he crossed. He proceeded to take control of the camp in some tumult; thereafter, he toured the camp with a group of reporters (including Marguerite Higgins). A description of the surrender appears in Linden's memorandum to Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins, entitled "Report on Surrender of Dachau Concentration Camp":


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a "communiqué" regarding the capture of Dachau concentration camp: "Our forces liberated and mopped up the infamous concentration camp at Dachau. Approximately 32,000 prisoners were liberated; 300 SS camp guards were quickly neutralized."


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Lt. Col. Sparks, a battalion commander of the 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division wrote about the incident. Sparks watched as about 50 German prisoners captured by the 157th Infantry Regiment were confined in an area that had been used for storing coal. The area was partially enclosed by an L-shaped masonry wall about high and next to a hospital. The German POWs were watched over by a machine gun team from Company I. He left those men behind to head towards the center of the camp where there were SS who had not yet surrendered; he had only gone a short distance when he heard a soldier yell, "They're trying to get away!" and then machine-gun fire coming from the area he had just left. He ran back and kicked a 19-year-old soldier nicknamed "Birdeye" who was manning the machine gun and who had killed about 12 of the prisoners and wounded several more. The gunner, who was crying hysterically, said that the prisoners had tried to escape. Sparks said that he doubted the story; Sparks placed an NCO on the gun before resuming his journey towards the center of the camp. Sparks further stated:


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: In the U.S. military "Investigation of Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau" conducted by Lt. Col. Joseph Whitaker, the account given by Howard Buechner (then a first lieutenant in the United States Army and medical officer with the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry) to Whitaker on May 5, 1945, did not contradict the Sparks account. Buechner's sworn testimony was that around 16:00 he arrived in the yard where the German soldiers had been shot, and that he "saw 15 or 16 dead and wounded German soldiers lying along the wall". He noted that some of the wounded soldiers were still moving, but he did not examine any of them. He answered "Yes, sir" when asked if he was the surgeon of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry, at that time, and did not know if any medical attention was called for the wounded.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: According to Buechner's 1986 book, "Dachau: The Hour of the Avenger: An Eyewitness Account", U.S. forces killed 520 German soldiers, including 346 killed on the orders of 1st Lt. Jack Bushyhead, in an alleged mass execution in the coal yard several hours after the first hospital shooting. Buechner did not witness the alleged incident, and his sworn testimony was that he "saw 15 or 16 dead and wounded German soldiers lying along the wall." His sworn testimony in the official investigation report also did not include any mention of a second shooting. David L. Israel disputed this account in his book "The Day the Thunderbird Cried":


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Abram Sachar reported, "Some of the Nazis were rounded up and summarily executed along with the guard dogs."


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: According to Jürgen Zarusky (originally published in a 1997 article in "Dachauer Hefte"), 16 SS men were shot in the coal yard (one more killed by a camp inmate), 17 at Tower B, and perhaps a few more killed by U.S. soldiers in the incident. Anywhere from a few to 25 or 50 more were killed by inmates. Zarusky's research makes use of the detailed interrogation records contained in Whitaker's official May 1945 investigation report, which became accessible in 1992, as well as a collection of documents compiled by General Henning Linden's son.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: The Dachau liberation reprisals were documented among others by U.S. Army photographers Paul Averitt, George Gaberlavage, Sidney Rachlin and Ed Royce, Sr.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Walenty Lenarczyk, a prisoner at Dachau, stated that following the camp's liberation "prisoners swarmed over the wire and grabbed the Americans and lifted them to their shoulders... other prisoners caught the SS men... The first SS man elbowed one or two prisoners out of his way, but the courage of the prisoners mounted, they knocked them down and nobody could see whether they were stomped or what, but they were killed." Elsewhere in the camp SS men, Kapos and informers were beaten badly with fists, sticks and shovels. There was at least one incident where US soldiers looked away as two prisoners beat a German guard to death with a shovel, and Lt. Bill Walsh witnessed one such beating. Another soldier witnessed an inmate stomping on an SS trooper's face until "there wasn't much left." When the soldier said to him, "You've got a lot of hate in your heart," he simply nodded.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: An American chaplain was told by three young Jewish men, who had left the camp during liberation, that they had beaten to death one of the more sadistic SS guards when they discovered him hiding in a barn, dressed as a peasant.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Lt. Col. Joseph Whitaker, the Seventh Army's Assistant Inspector General, was ordered to investigate after witnesses came forward testifying about the killings. He issued a report on June 8, 1945, called the "Investigation of Alleged Mistreatment of German Guards at Dachau", also known as "The I.G. Report". In 1991, an archived copy was found in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and made public.


title: Dachau liberation reprisals

text: Whitaker reported that close to the back entrance to the camp, Lt. William P. Walsh, commander of Company "I", 157th Infantry, shot four German soldiers in a boxcar who had surrendered to him. Pvt. Albert C. Pruitt then climbed into the boxcar and performed a "coup de grâce" on the wounded men.