title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: As with HIV, the development of an effective vaccine against FIV is difficult because of the high number of, and differences between, variations of the virus strains. "Single-strain" vaccines, i.e., vaccines that only protect against a single virus variant, have already demonstrated a good efficacy against homologous FIV strains. A dual-subtype vaccine for FIV released in 2002 called Fel-O-Vax made it possible to immunize cats against more FIV strains. It was developed using inactivated isolates of two of the five FIV subtypes (or clades): A Petaluma and D Shizuoka. The vaccine was shown to be moderately protective (82% of cats were protected) against subtype A FIV, but a later study showed it to offer no protection against subtype A. It has shown 100% effectiveness against two different subtype B FIV strains. Vaccination will cause cats to have positive results on FIV tests, making diagnosis more difficult. For these reasons the vaccine is considered "non-core", and the decision to vaccinate should be made after discussion with a veterinarian and consideration of the risks vs. the effectiveness.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: FIV displays a similar structure to the primate and ungulate lentiviruses. The virion has a diameter from 80 to 100 nanometers and is pleomorphic. The viral envelope also has surface projections that are small, 8 nm, and evenly cover the surface.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: The FIV virus genome is diploid. It consists of two identical single-strands of RNA in each case about 9400 nucleotides existing in plus-strand orientation. It has the typical genomic structure of retroviruses and includes LTR, "vif", "pol", "gag", "orfA", "env", and "rev" genes. The Gag polyprotein is cleaved into matrix (MA), capsid (CA) and nucleocapsid (NC) proteins. Cleavage between CA and NC releases a nine amino acid peptide, while cleavage at the C-terminus of NC releases a 2kDa fragment (p2). The Pol polyprotein is translated by ribosomal frame-shifting, a feature shared with HIV. Cleavage of Pol by the viral protease releases the protease itself (PR), reverse transcriptase (RT), deoxyuridine triphosphatase (dUTPase or DU) and integrase (IN). The Env polyprotein consists of a leader peptide (L), surface (SU) and transmembrane (TM) glycoproteins. In common with other lentiviruses, the FIV genome encodes additional short open reading frames (ORFs) encoding the Vif and Rev proteins. An additional short ORF termed "orfA" (also known as "orf2") precedes the "env" gene. The function of OrfA in viral replication is unclear, however the "orfA"-encoded product may display many of the attributes of HIV-1 accessory gene products such as Vpr, Vpu or Nef.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: Among these subtypes, genetic sequences are mostly conserved; however, wide-ranging genetic differences exist between species specific FIV subtypes. Of FIV's genome, "Pol" is the most conserved across FIV strains along with "gag". On the contrary, "env", "vif", "orfa", and "rev" are the least conserved and exhibit the most genetic diversity among FIV strains.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: The capsid protein derived from the polyprotein Gag is assembled into a viral core (the protein shell of a virus) and the matrix protein also derived from Gag forms a shell immediately inside of the lipid bilayer. The Env polyprotein encodes the surface glycoprotein (SU) and transmembrane glycoprotein (TM). Both SU and TM glycoproteins are heavily glycosylated, a characteristic that scientists believe may mask the B-cell epitopes of the Env glycoprotein giving the virus resistance to the virus neutralizing antibodies.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: Like HIV-1, FIV has been engineered into a viral vector for gene therapy. Like other lentiviral vectors, FIV vectors integrate into the chromosome of the host cell, where it can generate long-term stable transgene expression. Furthermore, the vectors can be used on dividing and non-dividing cells. FIV vectors could potentially be used to treat neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, and have already been used for transfer RNAi, which may find use as gene therapy for cancer.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: The exact origins and emergence of FIV in felids is unknown; however, studies of viral phylogenetics, felidae speciation, and FIV occurrence alludes to origins in Africa. Analysis of viral phylogenetics shows phylogenetic trees with a starburst phylogenetic pattern which is usually demonstrated by viruses that are a recent emergence with rapid evolution. However, differences in topology, branch lengths, high genetic divergence suggest a more ancient origin in felidae species. Fossil records indicate extant felids arose from a common ancestor in Asia approximately 10.8 million years ago, and since then thirty eight species from eight distinct evolutionary lineages have spread and successfully inhabited every continent but Antarctica. Despite felidae origins in Asia, FIV is absent from felidae species in Asia except for the Mongolian Pallas cat; however, FIV is highly endemic in Africa with four out of five felids having seropositive PCR results. Due to the widespread occurrence and interspecies divergence of FIV strains in Africa, it's suggested that FIV arose in Africa before disseminating worldwide. The high genetic diversity and divergence between FIV strains in African felidae species and the presence of hyena FIV-Ccr, is consistent with a long residence time giving rise to increased opportunities for inter-species transmission among species. Additionally, lentiviruses are also highly endemic in Africa infecting not only felids, but also primates, and ungulate species. This suggests to the origins of all lentiviruses and supports FIV origins in Africa; however, further research is needed.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: The spread of FIV from Africa might have occurred during two points of felidae migration. The earliest migration across the Bering Strait into North America occurred approximately 4.5 million years ago during a period of low sea levels. Early felids in North America descended into seven species of the ocelot lineage, two species of the puma lineage, and four of the modern species of lynx. The most recent migration of Asian lions and jaguars across Eurasia into North and South America occurred during the Pliocene/early Pleistocene. These migrations events increased opportunities for FIV transmission among felids and established infections globally for felidae species.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: Comparisons of FIV subtypes illustrate rapid evolution and highlights divergence in FIV strains. FIV-Pco, which is specific to American pumas, has two highly divergent subtypes. Several studies have demonstrated subtypes A and B to have long branch lengths and low geographic similarities which indicates the possibility of two separate FIV introductions into populations coupled with a long residence time. In the late Pleistocene, pumas fell victim to the ice age, went extinct in North America except for a small inbred population in Florida, and did not re-emerge until 10-12,000 years ago. Phylogenetic analysis of FIV-Pco strains in Central, South, and North America show Central and South American strains are more closely related to North American strains than to each other. This suggests FIV-Pco was already present in South American pumas which repopulated North America.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: In African lions, FIV-Ple has diverged in to six subtypes A-F which exhibit distinct geographical endemicity to some degree. Approximately 2 million years ago, African lions arose and dispersed throughout Africa, Asia, and North, Central, and South America. Modern lions currently reside only on the African continent except for a small population in India. There is no documented disease association of FIV, but seroprevalence in free- ranging lion populations are estimated to be roughly 90%. Phylogenetic analysis of FIV-Ple subtypes A, B, and C show high intra and interindividual genetic diversity and sequence divergence comparable to genetic differences to strains from other Felidae species. These findings indicate these strains evolved in geographically distant lion populations; however, recent occurrences of these strains within populations in Serengeti National Park suggests recent convergence in the same population.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: In domestic cats, FIV-Fca is pathogenic and can lead to feline AIDS symptoms and subsequent death. Phylogenetic analysis shows FIV to be a monophyletic branch that diverges into three subtypes A, B, and C. Domestic cats arose more recently than other felidae species approximately around 10,000 years ago from a subspecies of wildcat "Felis silvestris" which inhabited East Asia. Genetic analysis indicates lower genetic diversity of FIV in the domestic cat compared to wild Felidae species, higher evolutionary rates, and higher mortality rates when compared to FIV-Ple and FIV-Pco. This suggests the emergence of FIV in domestic cats was recent since newly emerged viruses tend to have higher evolutionary rates with little to no co-adaption between virus and new host species occurring. Additionally, seroprevalence studies show companion cats to have a 4–12% occurrence while feral cats have an 8–19% prevalence which is much lower compared to wild felidae species which supports the hypothesis of FIV's recent emergence in this species.


title: Feline immunodeficiency virus

text: FIV and feline leukemia virus (FeLV) are sometimes mistaken for one another though the viruses differ in many ways. Although they are both in the same retroviral subfamily (orthoretrovirinae), they are classified in different genera (FeLV is a gamma-retrovirus and FIV is a lentivirus like HIV-1). Their shapes are quite different: FeLV is more circular while FIV is elongated. The two viruses are also quite different genetically, and their protein coats differ in size and composition. Although many of the diseases caused by FeLV and FIV are similar, the specific ways in which they are caused actually differ. Also, while the feline leukemia virus may cause symptomatic illness in an infected cat, an FIV infected cat can remain completely asymptomatic its entire lifetime.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Outside (stylised as 1. Outside and subtitled The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper-cycle) is the 20th studio album by English musician David Bowie. It was released on 25September 1995 through Virgin Records in the United States and Arista Records, BMG and RCA Records in other territories. It reunited Bowie and musician Brian Eno following the late 1970s Berlin Trilogy. The two were inspired by concepts "outside" the mainstream, such as various outsider and performance artists. Recording began in March 1994 in Switzerland and continued on and off until November. During the experimental sessions, Bowie conceived a world where "art crimes", such as murder, pervade society, resulting in the "Leon" project, which initially faced resistance from labels due to its uncommercial nature. After the project was bootlegged, additional sessions were conducted in early 1995 in New York City to record more commercial material and revise the "Leon" concept after Bowie wrote a diary for "Q" magazine.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Influenced by the television series "Twin Peaks", the story of "Outside" concerns the residents of the fictional Oxford Town, New Jersey and is presented in a nonlinear narrative. It follows detective Nathan Adler as he investigates the murder of a 14-year-old girl. Individual tracks show perspectives of specific characters, while spoken word between-song segues convey more ideals from the characters. The story and Adler's diary entries were presented in the album's CD booklet. Musically, "Outside" displays a wide variety of styles, including art rock, industrial rock, jazz, electronica and ambient. It also contains elements found on Bowie's previous works. The album cover is a painting made by Bowie himself.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The album was preceded by the lead single "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", which performed poorly on the US and UK charts. Released at the height of Britpop in the UK, "Outside" initially received mixed reviews from critics. While most praised the music, others found the concept pretentious and hard to follow. Nevertheless, many considered it Bowie's finest record since 1980's "Scary Monsters". "Outside" peaked at number 8 in the UK and number 21 in the US, partially due to the acknowledgement of Bowie's influence by several American artists. Two more singles accompanied the album, "Strangers When We Meet" and a remix of "Hallo Spaceboy" featuring Pet Shop Boys, both of which performed well in the UK.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Bowie supported the album through the Outside Tour, but was criticised for not playing older hits. The opening act in America were Nine Inch Nails, which led to multiple collaborations between frontman Trent Reznor and Bowie in subsequent years. Multiple planned sequels to "Outside" never came to fruition, leaving the album's story on a cliffhanger. Instead, Bowie used musical ideas from the album and tour for his next record, "Earthling" (1997). Retrospectively, "Outside" has received more positive assessments, with most continuing to praise the music but criticising the story and length. The album was reissued in 2003 and remastered in 2021 as part of the box set "Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001)".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: David Bowie formalised his marriage to model Iman in a June 1992 ceremony that featured numerous celebrity guests, one of whom was multi-instrumentalist Brian Eno, whom Bowie previously worked with on his late 1970s Berlin Trilogy. Primarily known for his work in the ambient genre at that time, by 1992, Eno was a highly respected producer; his recent work on U2's "Achtung Baby" (1991) received considerable praise. BBC radio presenter John Peel commented: "He's one of those people...who has drifted into a kind of elder statesman media role where people take everything he says terribly seriously." At the wedding, Bowie gave Eno a tape that showcased the styles Bowie would explore on his then-upcoming album "Black Tie White Noise" (1993). It piqued Eno's interest and the two discussed the idea of collaborating again. After hearing "The Buddha of Suburbia" (1993), Eno contacted Bowie and agreed to collaborate.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In late 1993, Bowie and Eno sent each other ideas or, in Bowie's words, "mini-manifestos" so they would be prepared before going into the studio. Bowie's former Tin Machine bandmate Reeves Gabrels, who would work on all of Bowie's projects for the remainder of the 1990s, received some of these faxes while on tour with Paul Rodgers, recalling that one idea was the equivalent of "a mathematical problem". According to biographer Paul Trynka, the ideas formed by Bowie and Eno "harked back" to the former's discovery of numerous musical styles during his first trip to America in early 1971. Looking for inspiration, the pair visited the Gugging psychiatric hospital near Vienna, Austria, in January 1994, which contained a wing that encouraged patients to express creativity in a form of therapy. Speaking with "Ray Gun" magazine, Bowie stated: "They paint and they sculpt and they do all these fantastic things, and they're allowed to sell their work;" the patients were well-known for their "Outsider art". Bowie later told "Interview" magazine: "Some of them don't even do [their art] as an expression of themselves; they do it because their work is them." The experience gave the upcoming album its title.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Additionally, Bowie was intrigued by the mythical figure from classical antiquity known as the Minotaur. He painted the figure throughout the early 1990s and, after seeing a "New York Times" article discussing it, incorporated it as a motif for "Outside". By 1994, Bowie's interest in contemporary art grew to the point where he joined the editorial board of "Modern Painters" magazine. His interest in performance artists such as Rudolf Schwarzkogler, a Viennese Actionist who posed among imagery themed around self-harm, to the extent where he was falsely rumored to have castrated himself; Ron Athey, a man who impaled himself with needles; Chris Burden, whose work included being shot; and Damien Hirst, who displayed a series a dead animal exhibits, all influenced the concept of the new album. Regarding the concept of death as art, Bowie told "Vox" magazine:


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Recording for "Outside" began in March 1994 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. Production was handled by Bowie, Eno and David Richards, who previously co-produced "Never Let Me Down" (1987) and "The Buddha of Suburbia". Before going into the studio, Bowie and Eno were adamant about creating something different from the Berlin albums. Eno explained: "We don't want to make another record of a bunch of songs. There's got to be a bigger landscape in play than that." Bowie recruited players from across his entire career. Gabrels returned on guitar, Turkish musician Erdal Kızılçay returned on bass after contributing to "Never Let Me Down" and "The Buddha of Suburbia", while pianist Mike Garson, a regular in the mid-1970s, returned after guesting on "Black Tie White Noise" and "Buddha". Also returning from "Black Tie" was Soul Asylum drummer Sterling Campbell, whom Bowie described as "spontaneous and extremely inventive. [He] plays a song differently every time; there are different shades of his teacher, Dennis Davis."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The majority of the tracks were composed on the spot in the studio, a departure from the process of Bowie's most recent works; some were entirely improvised. During the sessions, Bowie and Eno used experimental techniques they previously used when composing the Berlin Trilogy, such as Eno's Oblique Strategies cards, which are described by biographer Chris O'Leary as "part-fortune cookie, part-"Monopoly" 'Chance' cards", intended to spark creative ideas. Bowie elaborated: "What Brian did, which was really useful, is he provided everybody with at the beginning of the day. On each one, a character was written, like 'You are the disgruntled member of a South African rock band. Play the notes that were suppressed.' [...] Because that set the tone for the day, the music would take on all those obscure areas. And it would very rarely lapse into the cliché." Eno stated in his 1995 diary "A Year with Swollen Appendices" that he did this as a way for the musicians to "free you from being yourself". Although Garson and Gabrels responded favourably to the cards, Kızılçay was oppressive at first, finding them confusing and useless. He later complained about Eno's methods to biographer Marc Spitz, stating "he cannot even play four bars...[nor] play two harmonies together. [...] I don't know how he became so famous."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Bowie primarily painted during the sessions. According to Eno, he "almost sat out on the first few days of that record. [...] We were creating musical situations and occasionally he would join in if it became interesting." Bowie wrote in his diary on 3 March 1994 that he was happy with the current musical direction and had plans to remake the "Buddha" track "Dead Against It", although this never came to fruition. To compose the lyrics, Bowie ran words through an Apple Macintosh program. The ending result mirrored the William S. Burroughs-inspired cut-up technique Bowie had previously used for albums such as "Diamond Dogs" (1974). He explained: "I used bits of poems and articles out of magazines and newspapers, and I retyped them out and put them into the computer...it spews it all back out again, and I make of it what I will." Each musician received their own corner of the studio, which Trynka states contributed to the overall arrangement "as an art happening". Discussing the studio atmosphere, Garson told biographer David Buckley: "It was one of the most creative environments I have ever been in. We would just start playing. There was no key given, no tonal centre, no form, no nothing." The sessions were also filmed by a camera crew; Garson commented that "[the crew] knew it was special on some level."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, the backing tracks were completed in 10 days, while overdubs continued on and off until November 1994. Roughly 25 to 30 hours of material was recorded, which was initially edited down to two CDs worth of content: an "improvised opera" titled "Leon". The material was mixed at Westside Studios in London. Eno initially wanted to release the work with black cover artwork and no name attached. Gabrels elaborated: "Let it leak that it was David Bowie but put it out as a completely separate entity, like Prince's "The Black Album" [1994]. Use it as a work of art and lapse something that creates interest for the next project." According to O'Leary, the contents were bootlegged which contributed to Bowie's dismissal of the "Leon" concept. Gabrels commented on his website in 2003 that "Leon" "would have been a very serious musical statement, and maybe pissed off more people than Tin Machine".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Bowie initially faced opposition from record labels due to the uncommercial nature of the "Leon" recordings. Gabrels told Buckley: "It was never said to me that it had been rejected for want of commercial material. I just thought the decision was made that ["Leon"] would have been insane to put out from a commercial point of view...and that we needed to rerecord some more songs." As such, Bowie elected to record some more conventional tracks, for which sessions took place at the Hit Factory in New York City from January to February 1995. Songs recorded in New York included the title track, "Thru These Architects Eyes", "We Prick You", "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town", "No Control", a rerecording of the "Buddha" track "Strangers When We Meet", and reworkings of "Hallo Spaceboy" and "I'm Deranged". New additions to the lineup included guitarist Carlos Alomar, Bowie's former bandleader who was fired following the 1987 Glass Spider Tour; Tin Machine contributor Kevin Armstrong on "Thru These Architects Eyes"; and jazz drummer Joey Baron, whom Bowie felt was "so steady" that "metronomes shake in fear". Armstrong's song "Now", first attempted by Tin Machine during the sessions for their 1989 debut album, was adapted into the title track for "Outside". According to Trynka, Armstrong recorded his contributions at Westside.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The concept of "Outside" originated on 12March 1994, during what Bowie called a "blindingly orgiastic" recording session. As the band improvised, Bowie conceived numerous new characters on the spot, playing each out "for maybe five minutes at a time". He later revealed that "Almost the entire genesis for ["Outside"] is contained in those three and a half hours". In what Bowie labeled a "non-linear Gothic drama hyper-cycle", he developed a world where "Art crimes", which Jason Draper of "Dig!" magazine described as "murder and mutilation for public consumption", pervade society, and "concept muggings" merit their own police division funded by the "Arts Protectorate of London".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In late 1994, "Q" magazine asked Bowie to write a diary for 10 days as a way to contribute to their 100th issue. Fearing the diary would be boring if presented as a pure day-by-day account, he revised the "Leon" concept and wrote what became the basis for "Outside": "The Diary of Nathan Adler or the Art-Ritual Murder of Baby Grace Belew". The same story, with mild revisions, appeared in the CD booklet for "Outside". According to Gabrels, "David...looked into [the "Leon" concept] further and revised and rewrote. [...] The order and plot were imposed/invented...after the fact." While characters were, in O'Leary's words, "moving in and out of focus" on "Leon", they now had distinct personalities and motives on "Outside", similar to the board game "Cluedo" or "Clue". Taking influences from the television series "Twin Peaks", "Outside" concerns the fictional Oxford Town, New Jersey and its inhabitants, including: a detective named Nathan Adler; a jeweler named Ramona A. Stone; a 14-year-old girl named Baby Grace Blue; a 78-year-old loner named Algeria Touchshriek; a mixed-race "Outsider" named Leon Blank; Paddy, one of Adler's informants; and a shadowy figure named The Artist/Minotaur. Bowie stated that he based all the characters on himself, which Roch Parisien of AllMusic found "therefore, a component of all the previous personas Bowie has enacted over the years."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The story of "Outside" takes place over the course of 23 years, between 1977 and 1999, and is presented in a nonlinear narrative. Additionally, Bowie portrays all seven characters. The album's CD booklet contained the diary entries of Adler alongside the song lyrics which were sometimes distorted and unreadable. The album also invokes several spoken word segments as between-song segues, which give more insight into the story and characters' thoughts. Parisien considered the segues reminiscent of the "Cockney campiness" of Bowie's 1960s tracks "Please Mr. Gravedigger" and "The Laughing Gnome". Described by reviewers as a concept album, Paul Gorman of "Music Week" found the use of narrative on "Outside" a callback to "Ziggy Stardust" (1972) and "Diamond Dogs". The protagonist is Adler, whom Bowie described as an individual who uses nostalgia to look back on simpler times: "He's really rather despondent that things are broken into this fragmented chaotic kind of state." O'Leary considers the character "more terse" on "Outside" than in "Leon". Adler's perspective is shown in "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", "No Control" and two segues. The villain is Stone, who begins as a punk rock "no-future priestess" and ends as a "good time drone" running a jewelry store. To portray her voice, Bowie manipulated his own using various synthesisers. Stone's point of view is given in a segue and "I Am with Name".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The dismembered body of Baby Grace Blue is found in a town museum. The scene is described in detail in the CD booklet while on the album, the girl's last words appear in a cassette tape ("Segue – Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)"). Bowie stated that Grace's voice meant the most to him as he based it on a close friend who was struggling with a relationship at the time. After the body is found, Adler's primary goal is to find the murderer. The character of Algeria Touchshriek "deals in art-drugs and DNA prints". Based on numerous characters from Bowie's 1960s songs, Touchshriek is described in a segue as walking near the museum where the body was found and that he "knew Leon once". Blank, one of Stone's former lovers, is an outsider artist and murder suspect. Bowie characterised him as a blend of musician Tricky and painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Throughout the album, he is primarily viewed through the eyes of others ("Leon Takes Us Outside", "The Motel" and "Strangers When We Meet"), but is given his own perspective on "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town", where he denies his involvement with the killings; Blank is also ascribed to "Thru' These Architects Eyes", although the track has little to do with the "Outside" narrative. The Artist/Minotaur is a figure who "lurks behind the art-ritual murder" at the narrative's centre. His point of view is given during "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty)", "Wishful Beginnings" and "I'm Deranged". The residents of Oxford Town convey thoughts on "A Small Plot of Land", while "We Prick You" concerns the ideals of the Members of the Court of Justice.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: "Outside" contains a wide variety of musical styles, including rock, jazz, electronica, industrial rock and ambient. Writers for "The Independent" and BBC News retrospectively categorised it as art rock and industrial rock. Adam Trainer of "PopMatters" similarly described the music as "chiefly industrial and trip hop, as filtered through the lens of art rock". He further argued that the album's "soundscapes" showcased "the rock/electronic hybridity" that would be labeled by music analysts and the mainstream as post-rock. Biographer Christopher Sandford finds the music evocative of the "faux-jazz stylings" found on "Aladdin Sane" (1973), while in "Spin" magazine, Barry Walters noted the presence of progressive rock. Other commentators, including Nick DeRiso of "Ultimate Classic Rock", recognised styles of techno, grunge and industrial over "the electronic soundbeds" that exemplified the Berlin Trilogy. Bowie's biographers also acknowledged the presence of dark ambient ("Leon Takes Us Outside"), acid jazz ("The Hearts Filthy Lesson"), funk ("I Have Not Been to Oxford Town", "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty)"), avant-garde jazz and classical ("The Motel", "A Small Plot of Land"), and conventional pop ("I Have Not Been to Oxford Town", "Strangers When We Meet"); Furthermore, biographers note that certain tracks, such as "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", "I'm Deranged" and "We Prick You", combine elements of jungle and drum and bass, genres Bowie would fully explore on his next studio album, "Earthling" (1997).


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Discussing the overall sound of "Outside", Buckley describes it as "dense and textural, underpinned by a booming rhythm section". Writing for "Rock and Roll Globe", Lee Zimmerman stated: "The music flow[s] in a continuous surge of sound and expression, a forward thrust that left little room for melody, but shared an intriguing atmospheric ambiance instead." Indeed, author James Perone finds many tracks act as "mood pieces" for the entire album rather than as standalone tracks. According to writer Alan Franks: "The songs have a slow, careful build into the pay-off line but they're absolutely not written as pop songs and they're not particularly written as rock songs. It's almost like what Jacques Brel would be going now if he'd gone heavy." Biographers have also compared certain sounds on "Outside" to Bowie's previous albums, such as "Diamond Dogs", "Lodger" (1979), "Scary Monsters" (1980), and "Tonight" (1984). Regarding the segues, Pegg characterises their musical styles as mostly ambient, with guitar, piano and synthesiser backings. Trainer commented that they "speak to the role of the "Leon" suites in the development of "Outside"".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The album opens with "Leon Takes Us Outside", which segues into the title track. Both tracks musically set the stage for the rest of the album. "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" contains an almost atonal groove that Pegg calls "a slab of industrial techno-rock" over an "eccentric jazz-piano figure". Continuing the jazz flavour is "A Small Plot of Land", which builds to a climax to become, in Pegg's words, one of the album's "more challenging tracks". "Hallo Spaceboy", which was developed from an instrumental written by Gabrels titled "Moondust", is an industrial track characterised by Pegg as "a hardcore maelstrom of sci-fi noise, hypnotic high-speed drumming and an insistent, speaker-hopping four-note guitar riff." Spitz calls it Bowie's "most convincing rocker" since "Rebel Rebel" (1974). "The Motel", described by Pegg as the album's centrepiece, is compared by Buckley to the Walker Brothers' "The Electrician" (1978), while Perone compares "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town" to Queen's "We Will Rock You" (1977). "No Control" brings a darker tone to the album, featuring a "hard-edged synth bassline". Later on, "I Am with Name" reprises the "atmospherics" of the album's opening. "Wishful Beginnings" evokes "a mysterious, abstract melody over slowly building, layered, synthesized electronic sounds." "I'm Deranged" conveys similar musical styles that pervade the rest of the album. Compared to the original "Buddha of Suburbia" version, the remake of "Strangers When We Meet" contains a more lush arrangement influenced by U2's "The Joshua Tree" (1987), which Eno had co-produced. Pegg writes that it resolves the album's "angst and black comedy" with a "soothing slice of conventional pop". On the other hand, Trainer considered it an "odd" way to end the album, writing that it was "clearly an attempt to...inject a sense of calm whilst perpetuating the noir-ish air of mystery".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Described by Gabrels as a "three-hour improvised opus", the "Leon" recordings are available through bootlegs in three separate "suites", each between 22 and 27 minutes long. A fully mixed 70-minute reel was also released by a private collector in 2003. According to Pegg, the released piece is significantly more uncommercial than the final "Outside" album, featuring a slew of "ambient soundscapes" and longer versions of the segues found on "Outside". It also features numerous repetitive phrases and loops amongst interplay between the musicians. Trainer found the recordings to be "underdeveloped" compared to "Outside", describing them more as "loose jams" characterised by "plodding beats and unformed repetitive structures that lack the dynamics [the finished "Outside" album] would yield".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The first suite is divided into three movements. The first, titled "I Am with Name", is a ten-minute track that contains longer and more obscene variations of the Stone and first Adler segues. O'Leary notes that more voices appear on "Leon" than "Outside", highlighting a character who "sounds as if rats are climbing over his body" four minutes into the suite. A more melodic five-minute movement titled "We'll Creep Together" follows, which features Garson's "rippling" piano over a slew of sound effects such as gunshot noises. "I'd Rather Be Chrome" follows, which displays a repeating phrase throughout and contains more narration from Adler over, in Pegg's words, a "prowling, catchy riff", before the lyrics delve into topics previously explored on "Low".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The next suite, titled "The Enemy Is Fragile", is categorised by O'Leary as the centrepiece of "Leon". It features patterns similar to "A Small Plot of Land", along with funk playing from the backing musicians, numerous sound effects and narration from Adler and Stone. Some of the narration reflects themes present in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). The piece builds to a climax with various repeated phrases before ending with a drum fill. The rest of the suite consists of the first appearance of "the Artist/Minotaur" and various synthesisers, with additional piano and saxophone. One section, titled "Nothing to Be Desired", was issued as a bonus track on "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" CD single, and remains the only material from "Leon" that was officially released. Following "Nothing to Be Desired" is lengthy variations of the "Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)" and "Algeria Touchshriek" segues.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The final suite, titled "Leon Takes Us Outside", further develops the character of Blank; the opening section became the opening to "Outside". It begins as a jazzy instrumental with guitar, piano and synthesisers, with more repetitive phrases and narration from Adler and Stone; one sequence fully conveys Adler's story. According to O'Leary, the suite closes with feedback and a drum fill. Shortly after the release of "Outside", Bowie expressed interest in making the "Leon" material officially available, although the idea never came to fruition.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: By 1994, Bowie was without a label for the third time in three years. "Outside"s release was delayed while Bowie attempted to find an American distributor, later commenting, "Nobody would take "Outside" when we first recorded it." In June 1995, Bowie signed a contract with Virgin America Records, telling "Music Connection" in September that the label were "extremely supportive" regarding the "Outside" concept and allowed Bowie full creative control in the studio. Additionally, Virgin acquired the rights to Bowie's work from "Let's Dance" (1983) to "Tin Machine", reissuing them throughout the rest of the year with bonus tracks. In Britain, Bowie entered a new deal with BMG, who issued "Black Tie" and "Buddha" in the country. BMG were now affiliated with RCA Records, Bowie's label throughout the 1970s and whom he had departed in 1982.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The album's release was preceded by "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" as the lead single on 11September 1995. It was accompanied by a music video directed by Samuel Bayer, the director of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991). The video featured provocative imagery that caused its initial banning from MTV until an edited version was provided. Bowie asked Ron Athey to appear in the video but he declined. Commercially, the single performed poorly, peaking at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart and number 92 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. Pegg and Trynka state that Bowie desired to display a video of "artistic merit" rather than for chart appeal.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: "1. Outside – The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper-cycle" was released on 25September 1995 by Virgin America in the US and Arista, BMG and RCA in other territories on LP and CD formats. The CD release was the full 75-minute album, while the LP release was an abridged version titled "Excerpts From 1. Outside". The single LP featured shortened edits of "Leon Takes Us Outside" and "The Motel" and removed the tracks "No Control", "Wishful Beginnings", "Thru' These Architects Eyes", "Strangers When We Meet", along with multiple segues. The Japanese CD release included the outtake "Get Real". The cover artwork is a 1995 painting on canvas by Bowie himself titled "Head of DB". Commercially, "Outside" peaked at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart and number 21 on the US "Billboard" 200; Bowie's profile in America had been raised through the popularity of Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged" version of "The Man Who Sold the World", as well as artists who cited Bowie's influence such as Nine Inch Nails, the Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson. Due to advance orders, "Outside" became Bowie's fastest-selling album since "Tonight".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Bowie promoted "Outside" through various television appearances. "Strangers When We Meet" was issued as a double A-side single with a new recording of "The Man Who Sold the World" mixed by Eno on 20November 1995. It peaked at number 39 in the UK and was supported by a music video, again directed by Bayer. Bowie performed the song at the European MTV Awards the same month. "Hallo Spaceboy" was released as the third and final single on 19February 1996 in a new remix featuring English duo Pet Shop Boys. The idea for the remix came from Pet Shop Boys member Neil Tennant, who insisted on adding lines referencing Major Tom from "Space Oddity" (1969). Although Bowie was hesitant at first, he accepted. Pet Shop Boys subsequently appeared in the song's music video, directed by longtime Bowie director David Mallet, and performed the song with Bowie at the Brit Awards in February and on "Top of the Pops" on 1 March. The single itself performed well commercially, peaking at number 12 in the UK. The remix later replaced "Wishful Beginnings" on the March 1996 European reissue of "Outside" titled "1. Outside Version 2".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In 1995, the UK music scene was dominated by Britpop bands such as Suede, Blur, Pulp and Oasis, all of whom were indebted to Bowie's 1970s works. In his book "The Last Party", British journalist John Harris states, "David Bowie was a far greater influence on Britpop than any artist of the '60s." Pegg writes that while older artists such as Paul Weller and Adam Ant were releasing successful Britpop records in 1995, Bowie stood in tangent with industrial rock artists such as Nine Inch Nails and techno artists such as Tricky, Goldie and the Chemical Brothers. Buckley contends that the only record that was stylistically similar to "Outside" at the time was Scott Walker's "Tilt", released four months ahead of "Outside". Further analysing the cultural landscape beyond music at that time, Pegg states that "Outside" arrived alongside the "glamorous cruelty" of "Pulp Fiction" (1994); it "inhabited the trashy cyberpunk "milieu"" of films such as "Judge Dredd", "Tank Girl" and "12 Monkeys" (all 1995); and exhibited elements of "extraterrestrial conspiracy theories" brought to the forefront by the television series "The X-Files". Pegg also notes "Outside" as one of the first albums in the age of the internet and showcased the same "pre-millennial angst" as Pulp's "Disco 2000", released in late 1995. Tracks from "Outside" were also used in entertainment. "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" was played over the end credits for the 1995 film "Seven", while "A Small Plot of Land" was the theme song for the 1996 BBC miniseries "A History of British Art". Ultimately, Pegg concludes: "For the first time since [1980's] "Scary Monsters", Bowie had released an album that accessed the zeitgeist at all levels."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Critical reviews of "Outside" were mixed on release. While the majority praised the music as challenging, many felt the overarching concept was hard to follow, with some finding it "pretentious". Among positive reviews, critics considered "Outside" Bowie's best record since "Scary Monsters". A writer for "Time Out" magazine elaborated: "[The] edifice of sounds, cultures, rhythms, samples and textures, with randomised lyrics that don't much tell a story as create word-moods, regards the open-minded listener with Bowie's best album for 15 years." In "The Daily Telegraph", Charles Shaar Murray welcomed "an excellent David Bowie album, a genuine creative rebirth. Threatening and murky... His gift for the charismatically disturbing seems to have reasserted itself." Later on in "Mojo" magazine, Murray considered it Bowie's "official" comeback album. He praised the music as a callback to the Berlin Trilogy and concluded: "[It's] a mad, bad, dangerous album – by turns, chlling, pretty, ugly, scary, gripping and vastly intriguing."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Some reviewers found the music among Bowie's most innovative; a writer for "Melody Maker" announced that Bowie "is poised to be a healthy influence once more on a fifth generation of glamorous chameleons." Furthermore, an "NME" reviewer stated, "Bowie's scalpel is certainly closer to the pulse than for years." While most praised the music, other publications, such as "Today", considered Bowie's vocal performances throughout the record some of his finest. Regarding the lyrics, David Fricke of "Rolling Stone" appreciated them as "smart", "effective" and "sly", especially on "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town" and "A Small Plot of Land". However, he criticised the spoken segues, arguing that they "damn near sink the record". Likewise, a "Billboard" reviewer found the album "stumbles" on the segues, stating that they "advance the plotline but hold little musical interest". They argued that if listeners "cherry-pick" throughout, "Outside" "stands a chance of reestablishing Bowie as a vital artist".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Other reviewers expressed more mixed assessments. "Entertainment Weekly"s David Browne found the majority of the record sounding like "fodder" and felt that it would benefit from a visual aid, such as through tour performances. Sandy Masuo of the "Los Angeles Times" was also mixed, praising certain tracks but felt overall, Bowie was experimenting in genres that, by 1995, were being made more successfully by other artists. "Select" magazine's Gareth Grundy also found a lack of innovation in the music, albeit highlighting "Hallo Spaceboy", "No Control" and "We Prick You" as standouts. Some reviewers believed the album would appeal to Bowie's longtime fans, but displease newer ones. "Q"s Tom Doyle explained: "Regulars might feel short-changed on the tune front and those legions who came in on "Let's Dance" will most certainly be left completely and utterly bewildered. Perhaps, though, that's entirely the point." The album also attracted negative responses. Grundy, in particular, negatively compared "Outside" to Bowie's previous collaborations with Eno, describing it as "the daftest thing Bowie's done" since the Glass Spider Tour. Additionally, "Ikon"s Taylor Parkes complained that "Bowie's desperate desire to be considered 'highbrow' has snuffed out any potential of accidental alchemy" and promptly dismissed the record as a "sorry sack of shit... facile, confused and immature... quite simply, rubbish."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In an interview with "Music Week" in early 1995, Bowie expressed no interest in performing the "Outside" material live, calling it "far too ambitious a project". Nevertheless, after enduring pressure from Virgin, Bowie rescinded and began rehearsals to tour America in August 1995, thereafter extending the number of dates by early September and adding a European leg; it would become Bowie's biggest tour since Sound+Vision (1990). The lineup for the Outside Tour included Gabrels, Garson and Alomar, with new additions including vocalist George Simms from the 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour, musical director Peter Schwartz, drummer Zachary Alford and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, both of whom would continue to work with Bowie frequently in subsequent years. The tour commenced on 14September.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The opening act for the tour's American leg were Nine Inch Nails. Frontman Trent Reznor was initially hesitant about the idea, finding it intimidating, but graciously accepted. For the setlist, Bowie mostly played tracks from "Outside" and more unknown tracks from his career, along with reworkings of older tracks to fit the new album's styles; he refused to play any older hits. Towards the end of the opening sets, Bowie joined Nine Inch Nails on stage, where the two artists played songs from their own catalogues such as "Subterraneans" (1977) and "Hurt" (1994), respectively. The fusion of the two artists was initially met with resistance from both artists' fanbases. "Mojo"s Chris Jones reported that during one performance, Bowie was pelted with debris from the confused crowd. The American leg concluded at the end of October. The tour's partnership between Bowie and Reznor facilitated the latter's undertaking of numerous "Outside" and "Earthling" remixes, as well as his appearance in the music video for "I'm Afraid of Americans" (1997).


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The European leg commenced in November with shows at the Wembley Arena in London. The opening act was Morrissey, who was promoting his newest album "Southpaw Grammar" (1995). Tensions between the Bowie and Morrissey rose, leading the latter to depart shortly into the tour's leg; the remaining dates were opened by various local bands. The tour concluded on 20February 1996. The UK shows, particularly Morrissey's appearances, were generally panned by concert reviewers. Throughout the tour, many criticised Bowie's decision not to sing well-known hits, to which he replied: "If they didn't know that I wasn't going to be [playing the hits], they must have been living under a rock." Despite the tour's poor reception from contemporary reviewers, Pegg states that it showcased Bowie's musical progression and was his finest tour in 20 years. Recordings from the tour were later released in 2020 on the live albums "Ouvrez le Chien (Live Dallas 95)" and "No Trendy Réchauffé (Live Birmingham 95)", as part of the series "Brilliant Live Adventures" (2020–2021).


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: The story of "Outside" ends on a cliffhanger, with a "to be continued..." tagline in the CD booklet. Bowie initially envisioned the album as the first in a series of instalments that would be released each year until the end of the millennium. He stated, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, by a narrative device, to chronicle the final five years of the millennium. The over-ambitious intention is to carry this through to the year 2000." He further explained to "Ikon":


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Having recorded hours of extra material during the sessions, he considered releasing a companion album to "Outside" before revealing in early 1997 the follow-up album would be called "2. Contamination", and had sketched out characters for the project (including some "17th-century people"). In 1995, he also mentioned the possibility of releasing an album called "Inside" which would have been a making-of about "Outside": "Our working method [will be] detailed on it, a couple of jams and more of those voices." However, none of these projects came to fruition. Following his experience on the Outside Tour, Bowie took musical ideas and themes from "Outside" and utilised them for "Earthling".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In 2016, one day after Bowie's death, Eno recalled: "About a year ago we started talking about "Outside" – the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: "Outside" has since garnered a more positive reception. Following Bowie's death, the editors of "Prog" magazine stated that "Outside" would be due for a re-evaluation as one of his finest works. Parisien argued: "The effort required to adequately 'process' [the album] pays off in a richly voyeuristic experience where Bowie once again reflects fringe culture onto the mainstream and forces us to consider that the differences are not so great." On the other hand, Zimmerman discovered that beyond the tracklisting itself, the album "offered little in the way of cohesive melodies". Reviewing "Outside" on its 25th anniversary, Trainer deduced that it stands out as "an odd, infuriatingly dense, and often brilliant record from (and of) an artist sho ["sic"], having been one of popular music's leading lights in the 70s, was newly inspired". He criticised the production as dated and concept as too underdeveloped to have a long-lasting impact, but noted that its best tracks rank among Bowie's greatest. He concluded that the record "remains a compelling, complicated, frustrating and flawed listen", particularly in regards to its incomplete state, which he argued is for the fans to finish on their own. In 2021, "Pitchfork"s Sean T. Collins also criticised its unfinished state, but found the music innovative.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: "Outside" has been criticised for its length; at nearly 75 minutes, it is Bowie's longest studio album. At the time, Bowie remarked that it was "extremely long by most current CD standards" and that accessibility was not a top priority when making it. However, he and Eno later regretted its long duration, with the former stating in 1997, "There's too much on it. I really should have made it two CDs." Sandford agrees, stating that it could have used more polishing and trimming. Furthermore, Perone finds that it "really begs to be listened to [in one] sitting", while Trainer deduced that the second half drags.


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In a 2016 retrospective ranking all of Bowie's 26 studio albums from worst to best, Bryan Wawzenek of "Ultimate Classic Rock" placed "Outside" at number 19, writing, "It's a solid framework for Bowie and Eno to get creative within – the backgrounds are reliably intriguing, if not always satisfying." Two years later, the writers of "Consequence of Sound" ranked "Outside" number seven in a similar list, above acclaimed records such as "Blackstar" (2016) and "Station to Station" (1976), stating that the album "succeeded because Bowie bought in completely to its concept and strangeness".


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: Bowie's biographers have given "Outside" mixed reactions. Perone argues that due to its nonlinear structure, the album can be hard to follow, and requires more attention and thought than traditional concept albums. He further criticises the pieces specifically tied to the album's theme, finding they prove ineffective as standalone tracks. Trynka states that these pieces assisted in the album initially falling out of public favour, but years later, in the age of iTunes and nonlinear listening patterns through shuffling, "Outside" is now viewed more positively, with Garson later calling it a career highlight. Trynka summarises it as "challenging, complex, often thrilling, overlong, and—in the spoken segues—undoubtedly self-indulgent", viewing the segues as detrimental to the album's overall enjoyment. Sandford similarly finds the concept "self-indulgent", noting that at its worst, "Outside" "wallowed in [its] own misery". However, he also writes that it contains some of Bowie's "most devastating music". Some biographers found the production dated, with Spitz writing: "Rather than being ahead of its time or behind its time, it's simply Bowie's most of-its-time work since his late-sixties hippie folk material." Nevertheless, he considers "Outside" "as good a record" as "Low", ""Heroes"", or "Lodger". Incidentally, Pegg finds "Outside" was made for fans of "Diamond Dogs", "Low" and "Lodger" rather than fans of "Let's Dance". Describing it as "a triumphantly queasy, deliciously unpleasant album", he concludes: ""Outside" remains as brilliant and intriguingly inconclusive as it was surely always supposed to be."


title: Outside (David Bowie album)

text: In 2003, Columbia Records reissued "Outside" on CD in the UK, with another reissue following a year later that contained bonus tracks, including 14 remixes and B-sides. In 2015, almost 20 years after its original release, Friday Music released the full-length album on vinyl as a double LP set. In 2021, the album was remastered and included as part of the box set "Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001)".


title: Susan Anton

text: Anton attended Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, California, and graduated in 1968. After high school, Anton attended San Bernardino Valley College. She first experienced fame by winning the nearby Miss Redlands and later the Miss California beauty contests in 1969 and tied as second runner-up in the 1969 Miss America Scholarship Pageant held September 6 that year.


title: Susan Anton

text: Starting in 1976, Anton developed a following for her Muriel Cigar commercials where she sang, "Let Muriel turn you on / That is my desire / Muriel lights a flame in me / Where there's Muriel smoke, there's fire". Later in the 1970s, Anton appeared approximately 30 times on Merv Griffin's TV show. She was frequently seen and heard in television, print and radio ads for the Perfect Sleeper mattress by Serta. In these ads, she announced her name and sang the company's jingle.


title: Susan Anton

text: In 1978, ABC gave her and country singer Mel Tillis a summertime variety series, "Mel and Susan Together", produced by the Osmond Brothers. The pairing of Anton and Tillis was an unlikely one: he was popular in country music circles but hardly a national household name while Susan was barely known at all. The show disappeared after four weeks; nevertheless, she was later chosen as one of "Time Magazine"s "Most Promising Faces of 1979".


title: Susan Anton

text: She later starred in her own variety show, "Presenting Susan Anton," "Stop Susan Williams" (one of three serials in the Cliffhangers series), and in the films "Goldengirl," "Spring Fever," and "Cannonball Run II." She also recorded music, her biggest hit being "Killin' Time" in 1980, a duet with country singer Fred Knoblock. The record made Top 10 on the country charts and hit #28 on "Billboard's" Hot 100. In 1990, Anton appeared on the TV comedy series "Night Court" in an episode called "The Talk Show" where she played talk show producer Margo Hunter.


title: Susan Anton

text: Anton is on the cover of the mass trade paperback edition of "Goldengirl," written by Peter Lovesey (using the pen name Peter Lear). She had appeared as the title character in the film version which starred James Coburn and was directed by Joseph Sargent.


title: Susan Anton

text: Anton was the host of the successful "Great Radio City Music Hall Spectacular" show at the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas for over 5,000 performances until July 31, 2000. She also appeared in the Las Vegas company of the musical "Hairspray" and on Broadway in "The Will Rogers Follies," "Hurlyburly," and "All Shook Up."


title: Susan Anton

text: She had a recurring role on the TV series "Baywatch" from 1992 to 1994 and has appeared as herself on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (2006), "The Larry Sanders Show" (1993) and "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (1987), as well as in several films. Most recently she appeared in the movie in 2016.


title: Susan Anton

text: She was scheduled to reprise her role as Velma Von Tussle in "Hairspray" at the Hollywood Bowl production slated to run from August 5 to 7, 2011.


title: Susan Anton

text: In 2020, Anton starred in the feature psychological thriller film "Painter" as the character Carree Tole.


title: Susan Anton

text: Anton was involved in a much publicized relationship with English film and TV star Dudley Moore in the early 1980s, with much being made of their height difference: Moore being and Anton . Anton married television actor Jeff Lester on August 15, 1992, her second marriage.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: Feel the Beat is a 2020 American family dance comedy-drama film directed by Elissa Down, written by Michael Armbruster and Shawn Ku and starring Sofia Carson, Enrico Colantoni and Wolfgang Novogratz.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: April Dibrina, a young dancer seeking success on Broadway, steals a cab from an old lady during a rainstorm to get to an audition. She performs well, but sponsor Ruth Zimmer, meets the potential dancers. When she recognizes April (from the taxi incident), she vows that no one on Broadway will hire her. While trying to explain, she accidentally knocks Ruth off stage, inflicting serious injury. It is posted on social media, publicly embarrassing April.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: Evicted, April returns to her hometown in Wisconsin. While at the grocery store, she bumps into the New Hope dance teacher Miss Barb, who invites her to come to the dance studio. April also sees her ex Nick, whom she left to pursue a career in New York City.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: In the dance studio, she visits the class of dancers: Lucia, a forgetful girl with glasses; Oona, a nervous girl; Kari, who secretly earns her own classes; Ruby, with no self-confidence; Zuzu, a deaf girl; Sarah, Nick’s stubborn little sister; and June and Michelle, the youngest. Zuzu’s little brother, Dicky, also watches.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: Barb asks April to coach the town's dance team for a competition. At first, she declines, but later realizes it can give her a chance to perform in front of Welly Wong, saving her career. April accepts, beginning a harsh training regimen that alienates the young dancers, including causing Ruby to quit.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: The New Hope dance team advances through several rounds of the competition; they improve as April bonds with them, becoming a better teacher, including learning some sign language to communicate with Zuzu. One day, the dance studio ceiling collapses after April tells the dancers they "don't suck," so they know they are improving. Unable to afford repairs to the studio, the team moves practice to the football field and eventually move to April's father's barn, which Nick has helped repair.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: April and Nick begin to rekindle their relationship as the dance team advances to state. Dancers from another troupe taunt her about her failure in New York, causing her to lose focus during one dance, though she recovers.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: In the mini’s 6-and-under category, the two youngest dancers, June and Michelle, are struck with stage fright. Dicky, who has memorized all the girl's choreography while they practiced, runs out and starts to dance. June and Michelle recover, and they all dance together. Dicky now trains with the dance troupe.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: After passing state finals, April calls her NYC friend Deco to help make costumes. One day, as the small dancers are rehearsing a lift in the barn, April calls on Sarah and R.J., the football player whom Sarah has a crush and she wants to impress, to demonstrate. When R.J. lifts her, her silicone bra cup falls on the floor, and she runs off, embarrassed and crying. April finds her in the field and comforts her.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: The dancers' families raise the money to send the team to Atlantic City for the finals. April reconnects with Nick's younger sister Sarah, who had felt abandoned when her mother died and April moved to New York. Once in Atlantic City, after a performance, Welly Wong is so impressed with April he offers her the lead in his new show on the spot. April and Welly leave the competition immediately for rehearsal in NYC, devastating the team.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: The next day, April realizes her mistake and abandons the rehearsal, proclaiming to Welly that she must honor her commitment to New Hope. She calls Deco again to drive her back to Atlantic City just in time to encourage the team before the performance. After reconciling with her dancers, April and Nick kiss, and Welly keeps her on despite leaving rehearsal.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: April performs in Welly Wong's show in NYC and continues teaching her dance class in Wisconsin via video chat. On opening night, Welly surprises April by bringing the New Hope team over for a dance party. Everyone dances in the street, and Ruth Zimmer drives by momentarily, appalled.


title: Feel the Beat (film)

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of .


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: The Wise Man's Fear is a fantasy novel written by American author Patrick Rothfuss and the second volume in "The Kingkiller Chronicle". It was published on March 1, 2011, by DAW Books. It is the sequel to 2007's "The Name of the Wind".


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: On the second day of his recounting the story of his life to Chronicler at the Waystone Inn, Kvothe continues the narrative commenced in "The Name of the Wind", wherein a younger Kvothe pursues his education at the University. There, he carries on a feud with fellow student Ambrose, culminating in Ambrose getting him brought up on charges of Consortation with Demonic Powers, a capital crime, for having called the Name of the Wind. Despite successfully defending himself in court, Kvothe has guaranteed himself an extremely high term tuition due to the negative attention he has attracted at the University. Kvothe follows the advice of his friends and teachers at the University and decides to take a term off to chase the wind. To postpone having to pay his debt to the loan shark Devi, he uses several of his more prized possessions as collateral before setting off.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: Count Threpe arranges for Kvothe to travel by ship to the city of Severen, in Vintas, in order to aid the Maershon Lerand Alveron in courting the only bride suitable for his high station, Meluan Lackless, with the hope that Kvothe might earn a writ of patronage in return. Kvothe writes songs and letters that successfully woo the Maer's bride and, soon after arriving, inadvertently discovers and thwarts a plot to kill the Maer, which earns him the Maer's respect and trust. He also discovers Denna living in Severen and, after several weeks in her company, gets to know the song she is working on, but the lyrics violate the very core of Kvothe's knowledge about the fall of Myr Tariniel. Not able to share his history, Kvothe argues with Denna about the song's meaning and the two part ways after an ugly fight.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: As a final task, the Maer charges Kvothe with hunting a group of bandits that have been waylaying taxmen in The Eld. He is accompanied by a crew of four other mercenaries as they track and confront the bandits; Kvothe cleverly employs his knowledge of sympathy and a bit of luck to swiftly and efficiently rout the bandits, killing most of them, though their leader escapes mysteriously. Kvothe then follows the nymph-like Felurian, a being of the Fae, into her own realm, where he stays for an indeterminable time as time passes differently in this realm. During this time, he sleeps with Felurian and meets and speaks to the Cthaeh, a malicious, oracular being who reveals disturbing hints of his possible future. The Cthaeh also reveals that the leader of the group of bandits was in fact Cinder, one of the Chandrian who had long ago murdered Kvothe's troupe, and that Denna suffers cruel physical abuse at the hands of her mysterious patron. These revelations greatly distress Kvothe and weigh heavy on his heart and mind causing him to leave the realm of the Fae to continue on his journey.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: Upon reuniting with his mercenary companions, he learns that only three days have passed in the mortal world. On the return trip to Severen, one of the mercenaries, an Adem warrior named Tempi, is ordered to stand trial for teaching Kvothe the Ketan, a secretive form of martial arts; Kvothe accompanies Tempi to the distant country of Ademre, where he completes his training in the Ketan and in the Lethani philosophy to justify Tempi's teaching him. Upon passing a series of final tests, Kvothe is rewarded with an ancient sword he names Caesura, and an Adem legend regarding the names and signs of the "Rhinta"—known to Kvothe as the Chandrian.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: Again on the road to Severen, Kvothe kills a troupe of robbers who pose as Edema Ruh after having murdered the original troupers. He then returns to the Maer and presents the waylaid taxes. The Maer and his wife show him a family heirloom, a box with no visible lid or lock, and ask for his help in learning about it, but Kvothe is unable to come to any substantial conclusions. While justifying his execution of the robbers and defending the Edema Ruh, he reveals that he himself is of Edema Ruh. This earns him utter condemnation from the Maer's wife, who detests all Edema Ruh for stealing her sister and forces the Maer to send Kvothe away despite his considerable service. The Maer shows his gratitude by pardoning him for killing the robbers, providing a writ of performance, and ensuring Kvothe's University tuition is forever compensated. Back home, Kvothe achieves financial stability in a deal with the University's bursar, deliberately fumbling his academic examinations in order to raise his own tuition and receive half of the tuition money above a certain amount. He also begins to hear stories of his own exploits, many greatly distorted or fabricated by their tellers.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: In the frame story, Kvothe's friend and disciple Bast prompts two soldiers to rob the Waystone Inn in an attempt to revitalize Kvothe, who loses the fight, whereupon Bast (it is implied) subsequently kills the soldiers. At the end of the novel Kvothe takes one "perfect step" seemingly remembering the Ketan and trying to become his old self once again.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: Before its release, an excerpt from the novel was released as a short story titled "The Road to Levinshir", which won the Writers of the Future contest in 2002.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: The first draft of the manuscript was submitted to the editor on May 11, 2009, and the book was released in 2011.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: Brilliance Audio released the US audiobook versions of "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear" narrated by Nick Podehl, and Orion Audio released the UK and Rest of World versions of the audiobooks of "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear", narrated by Rupert Degas.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: The game of "Tak" described in the book was developed into a commercial boardgame by Rothfuss and James Ernest in 2016.


title: The Wise Man's Fear

text: The book was a critical and commercial success, debuting at the top of the "New York Times" Fantasy list. It also reached the top of the "New York Times" Hardcover Fiction list approximately three weeks after its release. Author George R.R. Martin blogged that ""The Wise Man's Fear" was worth the wait. I gulped it down in a day, staying up almost to dawn reading, and I am already itching for the next one. He's bloody good, this Rothfuss guy". Locus stated that ""The Wise Man’s Fear" fairly leaps off the page, whatever the setting and circumstances". "Publishers Weekly"'s review was glowing, claiming that "as seamless and lyrical as a song from the lute-playing adventurer and arcanist Kvothe, this mesmerizing sequel to Rothfuss's 2007's debut, "The Name of the Wind", is a towering work of fantasy". The San Diego Union Tribune, however, opines that Rothfuss "lingers too long in subplots, resorts occasionally to coincidences to advance his story, and relies heavily on cliches and anachronisms" and despite "brilliant moments" of storytelling, "there's little, if any, movement forward in Kvothe's search for the Chandrian".


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 NFL season was the 89th regular season of the National Football League, themed with the slogan "Believe in Now."


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 1, 2009, with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out victorious over the Arizona Cardinals and winning their NFL-record sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Conversely, the Detroit Lions became the first NFL team with a winless season since the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season, finishing their season 0–16. For the first time since the NFL expanded to the sixteen-game season in 1978, three teams won two or fewer games: the Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the St. Louis Rams. Previously two teams won two or fewer games in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1992, and 2001. Also, for the first time since the 1985 Denver Broncos, a team finishing with an 11–5 record missed the playoffs. Also, for the first time, two divisions (the NFC East and the NFC South) had no team finish with a losing record.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The regular season began on September 4 with the defending Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants defeating the Washington Redskins.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 NFL Draft was held from April 26 to 27, 2008 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. With the first pick, the Miami Dolphins selected offensive tackle Jake Long from the University of Michigan.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Gerald Austin and Larry Nemmers retired. Carl Cheffers and Alberto Riveron were promoted to referee. Ron Blum also retired from line judge position.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The following rule changes were passed at the league's annual owners’ meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, during the week of March 31:


title: 2008 NFL season

text: In preseason games, the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was played August 3 between the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins, which aired on NBC. Washington won the game, 30–16. Other preseason highlights included the first game of the Toronto Series, which was played August 14 between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Toronto's Rogers Centre. The Bills won that game, 24–21.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2008 were:


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The annual NFL Kickoff Game to start the season took place on September 4 and featured the Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants winning over their division rivals, the Washington, at Giants Stadium by a score of 16–7. The game's kickoff was ninety minutes earlier than previous years, at 7 p.m. EDT, because of a time conflict with the 2008 Republican National Convention.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Other featured games during the opening week included the NBC Sunday Night Football game between the Chicago and the Indianapolis (the first regular season game at Lucas Oil Stadium and a rematch of Super Bowl XLI), in which the Kyle Orton-led Bears upset the Colts 29–13. In addition, there were two Monday Night Football contests, both division rivalries, as part of the now annual doubleheader: The Minnesota at the Green Bay (the Packers’ first Monday night game without Brett Favre since 1992) in which Aaron Rodgers helped the Packers win, 24–19, and the Denver at the Oakland, where Jay Cutler and Eddie Royal led the Broncos in beating the Raiders, 41–14. Also, New England quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season-ending injury against Kansas City.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 season also was the third season of the use of the "flexible scheduling" for Sunday games starting with Week 11.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: As had happened in 2007, a team played on consecutive Sunday nights due to a game being moved into the Sunday night time slot. The originally scheduled New York Giants-Dallas game on December 14 was followed by a flexed December 21 home game for the Giants against the Carolina; the Giants-Panthers game was flexed because it carried serious playoff implications, as the winner would clinch the NFC's top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. This was the second of three flexed games, with a December 7 interconference matchup between the Baltimore and Washington. The league filled the open spot on December 28 with a game between the Denver and San Diego with major playoff implications, as the winner of that game would win the AFC West and earn a home game in the playoffs while the loser would be eliminated.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: This was the second consecutive season that the league played at least one regular season game outside the United States as part of the NFL International Series. The contest between the San Diego and the New Orleans was played at Wembley Stadium in London on October 26, with New Orleans winning 37–32. The Chargers played at Buffalo the week beforehand on October 19 so they could immediately travel to London afterward in order to get used to the time difference.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The league has also approved the Bills’ request to play at least one regular season home game at Toronto's Rogers Centre over each of the next five seasons. Team owner Ralph Wilson petitioned the league to play at least one game in Canada to strengthen his club's fan base in Ontario. The game in Toronto was on December 7, after the end of the 2008 CFL season, against the Miami; Miami won 16–3. CBS televised both games regionally; the Toronto game was carried across Canada on Rogers Sportsnet and City TV.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The traditional Thanksgiving Day games were held on November 27, with the Detroit hosting the Tennessee at 12:30 PM EST on CBS (with the then 10–1 Titans handily defeating the then 0–11 Lions by a 47–10 score), and the Dallas a home game following suit on Fox at 4:15 PM EST against the Seattle (Dallas Cowboys defeated the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 34–9). A third game on NFL Network, featuring the Arizona and the Philadelphia followed at 8:15 PM EST. It was the first home game for the Eagles on Thanksgiving Day since 1940, and their first Thanksgiving game at any location since the infamous Bounty Bowl Game in 1989; the Eagles defeated the Cardinals by a score of 48–20. (The Cardinals and Eagles would, two months later, rematch in the NFC Championship Game, with Arizona winning this time by a score of 32–25.)


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Despite NFL tradition to play games on Christmas if the holiday lands on a day of the week when the NFL normally plays, and the fact that Christmas landed on a Thursday in 2008, the NFL opted not to hold a Christmas game this season, instead scheduling all of its week 17 matchups for Sunday, December 28.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The NFL's Pro Bowl all-star game at the end of the season was played at Aloha Stadium in the Honolulu, Hawaii, for the 30th consecutive season. The league had the option under their current contract to hold the game elsewhere, including the possibility of moving it to the host site of the Super Bowl.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Week 2: The Baltimore–Houston game, originally scheduled for Sunday at 4:15 p.m. ET, was postponed to Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET due to Hurricane Ike. The game was later postponed to November 9 at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Week 10: The Cincinnati–Houston game, originally scheduled for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET, was rescheduled to October 26 at 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS, to accommodate the Baltimore–Houston game from Week 2.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Week 11: The Tennessee–Jacksonville game, originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET, was flexed to 4:15 p.m. ET on CBS.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Week 12: The Carolina–Atlanta game, originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET, was flexed to 4:15 p.m. ET on Fox.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Week 14: The Washington–Baltimore game, originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET on Fox, was flexed into NBC Sunday Night Football at 8:15 p.m. ET, replacing the New England–Seattle game, which was moved to 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Week 15: The Denver–Carolina and Pittsburgh–Baltimore games, originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET, was flexed to 4:15 p.m. ET on CBS.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The playoffs began with Wild Card Weekend on January 3–4, 2009. The Divisional Playoffs were played on January 10–11 and the Conference Championship Games on January 18. Super Bowl XLIII was played on February 1 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, with the Pittsburgh Steelers winning their record sixth Super Bowl.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 Detroit Lions would mark the capstone of the ill decisions of President/General Manager Matt Millen since arriving on the job in 2001. After an 0–3 start, the Lions fired Millen on September 23 after seven seasons, during the team's bye week. During that time, the Lions compiled the worst record in the league (31–84, .270 percentage) and had many questionable draft choices.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: However, by that point, the damage had been done. The Lions went on to lose every game and finished 0–16, the first winless season in the NFL since the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season saw the Baltimore Colts finish 0–8–1, and the first full-season imperfect season since the expansion 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished 0–14. It marked the first time that a non-expansion team, non-strike shortened team, non-merged team finished winless since the 1944 Brooklyn Tigers finished 0–10. It was the second winless season for the Lions, who finished 0–11 in 1942. The 0–16 record would be later matched by the 2017 Cleveland Browns.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 season marked the first time since September 20, 1992, that someone other than Brett Favre started at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, as Aaron Rodgers became the new offensive "Leader of The Pack." At first, this was given Favre's announcement on March 4, 2008, that he would retire from the league after seventeen seasons. He owns many NFL records, including most wins as a quarterback, most touchdowns thrown, (broken by Peyton Manning in 2014) and most consecutive starts at quarterback, as well as most interceptions. He started every Packers game, regular season and postseason, for nearly sixteen full seasons (September 27, 1992 – January 20, 2008).


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Packers were scheduled to retire Favre's #4 jersey in a ceremony during the first week of the season. However, on July 2, 2008, he publicly indicated that he wanted to play again as the starting quarterback. On July 11, 2008, Favre sent a letter to the Packers management asking for an unconditional release which will allow him to play for another team. The Packers did not give it to him, but they were unwilling to release him for fear that he would sign with division rival Minnesota Vikings (Favre's choice for an alternate team). Also, the Packers would not start him as quarterback if he came back to the team, and named the other Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers as the starting quarterback and Favre as the backup.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: From July 14 to 15, Favre did TV interviews discussing his comeback, Rodgers taking his place, and frustrations on the Packers for not being honest with him, personally and publicly.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On July 16, 2008, the Packers filed tampering charges against the Vikings for alleged improper communication between Favre, Vikings head coach Brad Childress and Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. Favre filed for reinstatement on July 29, 2008, and by August 4, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Favre.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Three days later on August 7, the Packers traded Favre to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick. He played well for most of the year, but entering December he suffered a shoulder injury which dropped the Jets out of playoff contention. Favre again retired following the 2008 season. The Jets then released Favre in favor of moving in the direction of getting a star college quarterback in the draft, eventually landing Mark Sanchez. Another protracted "will he/won’t he retire’ saga emerged in 2009 which concluded in August of that year when Favre signed with, as expected, the Minnesota Vikings.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Hurricane Ike forced several changes to the 2008 schedule. The Houston Texans' Week 2 home game against the Baltimore Ravens was first postponed to Monday, September 15, before Ike made landfall; damage to Reliant Stadium forced a further postponement, to Week 10, on Sunday, November 9, giving the Texans and the Ravens their bye weeks in Week 2. Furthermore, to accommodate this move, the Texans’ home game against the Cincinnati Bengals was moved forward from November 9 to Sunday, October 26, pushing the Bengals’ bye week from Week 8 to Week 10. Although no other games were postponed, Ike and its remnants also impacted several other Week 2 games on September 14.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Texans ended up having to wait until Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts to have their home opener, the latest an NFL team went into the season before playing at home since the New Orleans Saints played their entire schedule on the road in 2005 due to the damages of the city of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina. (Every other NFL team had at least one home game by the end of Week 2.) With the Ravens eventually advancing to the AFC Championship Game against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers (and having to enter the playoffs as a wild card team), the impromptu decision to give the Ravens and Texans their bye week so early in the season ended up having the unintended effect of the Ravens playing in an NFL-record 18 consecutive weeks without a break in the schedule.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 season saw a marked increase in the use of two new offensive philosophies (at least for the NFL, these offenses previously saw extensive use in college or Canadian football for a few years): the "wildcat formation," a formation based on the halfback option play, the "spread offense," which uses multiple wide-receiver sets and the quarterback frequently in shotgun, and the "Suggs package," which features two quarterbacks on the field at once. In week 3 of the season, the wildcat formation, used up until this point primarily as a trick play, was used eight times, including four times in a Miami Dolphins game and three times in a game between the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills. Season-ending injuries to the starting and backup quarterbacks for the Chiefs prompted the team's offensive coordinator Chan Gailey to switch to a spread offense after six games. In Baltimore, the Ravens, led by rookie head coach John Harbaugh, implemented the "Suggs package", which places two quarterbacks on the field at once, Joe Flacco and Troy Smith. Due mainly to the new formations, 837 points were scored league wide in Week 12, the most ever for one NFL weekend. The wildcat formation in particular was credited with turning the Miami Dolphins from a last-place team into the winner of the AFC East, and four of the top ten plays ranked by NFL.com were directly based on the wildcat (two others featured wide receivers throwing passes).


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On November 16, during Week 11, a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium ended in a 13–13 tie, the first NFL tie game since November 10, 2002, when the Atlanta Falcons and the Pittsburgh Steelers ended in a 34–34 draw. After the game, Donovan McNabb mentioned that he did not know there were ties in the NFL, apparently confusing the NFL's postseason rules (where teams can and have played double overtime games because those contests continue until a team finally wins) with the regular season rules. This drew the ire of many fans, who thought that a quarterback of his caliber should know some fundamental rules; however, none of McNabb's critics accused him of not playing to win during the overtime period in Cincinnati, and his play was tied into a game that was widely derided as one of the ugliest, most disjointed, and controversial results in NFL history.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Ironically, the tie game ultimately helped the Eagles make the playoffs, as it was the deciding tiebreaker for the #6 seed in the NFC; the Eagles went on to lose to the Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On January 18, 2008, Georgia Frontiere, owner of the St. Louis Rams died due to complications with breast cancer. The Rams wore a commemorative patch in her honor, with her signature on their left shoulder.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On January 31, 2008, Clark Hunt, chairman of the board for the Kansas City Chiefs announced that henceforth the team's Lamar Hunt/American Football League tribute patch that was introduced in the 2007 season will be a permanent part of the Chiefs’ uniform. joining the Chicago Bears (with George Halas) and the Cleveland Browns (with Al Lerner) with such a patch.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The stretch of highway outside Ralph Wilson Stadium along U.S. Route 20A in Orchard Park, New York, has been named the Timothy J. Russert Highway. Russert, who was NBC News's chief Washington bureau correspondent and the host of "Meet the Press", was a Buffalo native and noted Buffalo Bills fan. He died of a heart attack in June 2008.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The league honored National Football League Players Association leader Gene Upshaw, who died suddenly at age 63 on August 20 just three days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For the entire season, the Oakland Raiders wore a patch on the left chest of the jerseys with the initials "GU" and his number 63, his jersey number with the Raiders. All NFL teams also honored Upshaw with a video tribute and a replica of the uniform patch painted onto the field during the opening weekend. Originally, the patch on the field and the video tribute were only going to be done in Oakland at the Raiders' home opener against the Denver Broncos as Upshaw played his entire 15-year Hall of Fame career with the Raiders, and at Giants Stadium, when the Giants and Redskins opened the NFL season on September 4. All players wore the same patch during Week One, and later changed to a smaller helmet decal. The Raiders wore the patch through the remainder of the season.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Washington Redskins honored the anniversary of death of Sean Taylor this season in a home game against the visiting New York Giants.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On July 7, 2008, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including Art Rooney's five sons who own 80% of the franchise, looked to restructure the ownership plan of the franchise in order to comply with NFL ownership regulations. Current Steelers Chairman, Dan Rooney, and his son, Art Rooney II, President of the franchise, wished to stay involved with the franchise, while the remainder of the brothers – Art Jr., Timothy, Patrick and John – wished to further pursue racetracks that they own in Florida and New York. Since 2006, many of the racetracks have added video slot machines, causing them to violate "NFL policy that prohibits involvement with racetrack and gambling interests". On July 11, it was confirmed that investor Stanley Druckenmiller had been in discussion with the five Rooney brothers. A Steelers fan for many years, Druckenmiller "has been known to paint his face black and gold" during games. Coach Mike Tomlin stated that the situation could become a distraction, but "I'm here to coach, they're [the players] here to play. Those questions will be answered by the Rooneys." On September 18, Druckenmiller withdrew his bid to purchase the team.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: NFL owners unanimously approved the restructuring of ownership on December 17, 2008, with Dan and Art II getting the mandated 30% stake. Meanwhile, brothers Timothy and Patrick (the ones who own race tracks with slot machines, which violate NFL ownership rules) sold their shares outright, while Art Jr., John, and the McGinley family selling some shares but retaining smaller ownership roles, with the brothers reducing their shares from 16% to 6% and the McGinley family reducing their shares from 20% to 10%. Joining the ownership group were Pilot Travel Centers president Jim Haslam III, Legendary Pictures president and CEO Thomas Tull, and the Paul family each getting a 16% stake in the team. Dan Rooney mentioned he has no ill will towards Druckenmiller, mentioning he's a great Steelers fan and wishes he remains one.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The firing of Kiffin and Linehan marked the first time since the AFL–NFL merger in 1970 that multiple head coaches were fired before Week 5 of the season, and the first since 1989 that any coach was fired this early in a season. Both were released heading into their teams’ respective bye weeks, while Nolan was released prior to the game just before the 49ers’ bye.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: In addition to the Bills playing one home game in Toronto's Rogers Centre, this was the first season that the Indianapolis Colts played their home games at Lucas Oil Stadium.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: 2008 was the final year that the Dallas Cowboys played at Texas Stadium; they moved to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2009.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: McAfee Coliseum reverted to the Oakland Coliseum after McAfee declined to renew the naming rights. In addition, Monster Park reverted to Candlestick Park permanently after the naming right deal with Monster Cable expired, per the terms of Proposition H, passed by San Francisco voters in 2004, that prohibited the city from accepting another naming rights deals for that stadium.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Tennessee Titans switched their home jerseys. They changed their alternate Columbia blue jersey to make it their primary color while the navy blue jersey became the alternate jersey.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Denver Broncos brought back the alternate orange jerseys after a three-year hiatus and wore them for games against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: In their first two home games, the New England Patriots wore their white jerseys against the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. It was the first time the Patriots had worn white at home since 1994.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: For the first time in the team's history, the Oakland Raiders wore their white jerseys at home against the San Diego Chargers.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: 2008 was the first season that the NFL used a new, updated logo. Unveiled on August 31, 2007, in "USA Today", the new design features eight white stars, representing each of the league's eight divisions, instead of 25 on the old logo. The football has been redesigned and rotated to the same angle as the one on the top of the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl champion. Darker shades of red and blue, specifically navy blue, are also used, along with font lettering to that of the league's current typeface for other logos. The new logo officially made its debut during the 2008 NFL Draft on April 26.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The 2008 season marked just the third time in the salary cap era (and first since 2001) that no NFL team made major changes to their uniforms or logo. Since 1993, half of the league's teams (Arizona, Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Denver, Minnesota, New England, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee) have completely redesigned their uniforms (The Patriots doing it four times, though none since 2000) while another five (Detroit, Green Bay, Miami, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh) making minor, though noticeable, changes. The Titans are swapping home and alternate designations on their light blue and navy blue jerseys though.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Detroit Lions, in celebration of their 75th season in Motown as well as by popular demand by the fans, abandoned their black third jerseys in favor of their 1950s style throwback uniforms. They wore these uniforms against Jacksonville (November 9) and Tennessee (Thanksgiving Day – November 27). In addition, the Pittsburgh Steelers will make their throwbacks from the previous season their alternate uniform, wearing them against the Baltimore Ravens on September 29 and the New York Giants on October 26. The Jets wore their New York Titans throwbacks at home against Arizona on September 28 and Cincinnati on October 12 this season, and the Bills donned their retro uniforms at home against Oakland Raiders September 21.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: This was the third season under the league's television contracts with its American broadcast partners. CBS Sports and Fox Sports televised Sunday afternoon AFC and NFC away games, respectively. For primetime games, NBC broadcast "Sunday Night Football" and ESPN airs "Monday Night Football". The NFL Network's "Run to the Playoffs" also broadcast seven Thursday and one Saturday late season night games, although there were reportedly negotiations to move those games to ESPN Classic.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: This was also the last NFL season to be broadcast over the air in analog television in the United States; the digital television transition occurred in June 2009. Border stations in Canada and Mexico will continue to broadcast in analog; cable stations are unaffected and will be distributed in the format of the cable provider's choice.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: NBC broadcast Super Bowl XLIII, their first Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXII at the end of the 1997 season.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: ESPN reduced the on-air roles of sideline reporters Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber during the "Monday Night Football" telecast. Also, Emmitt Smith has been replaced on "Sunday NFL Countdown" by Cris Carter, who came over from HBO.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Meanwhile, NBC's "Football Night in America" reunited Dan Patrick with Keith Olbermann on television for the first time since 1997 when they co-hosted "SportsCenter". At "Fox NFL Sunday", former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan joined the show as an analyst.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The in-house NFL Network saw Bryant Gumbel resign as their play-by-play announcer after two seasons on the network's "Run to the Playoffs" package after critics described his play-by-play calling as "lackluster." New York Giants radio announcer Bob Papa took his place.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: Additionally, NFL Films-produced "Inside the NFL" changed premium cable homes from Time Warner's HBO after three decades to CBS’ Showtime. Also changed: James Brown (from the parent network's "The NFL Today") as host and Phil Simms as one of the analysts. Cris Collinsworth is staying, but Dan Marino has been dropped as a studio analyst, and the aforementioned Cris Carter moved to ESPN. Taking their place is Warren Sapp.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On December 4, the NFL Network broadcast its game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers to theaters in New York City, Boston and Los Angeles using state of the art 3-D technology. The viewings, which were limited to NFL and consumer electronics executives, served as a test for future use of 3D in NFL television games. Because of a technical glitch, the first half was not shown.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On radio, Westwood One separated from its longtime corporate sister, CBS Radio and the Sports USA Radio Network, another syndicator, has been sold along with parent company Jones Radio Networks to the Triton Media Group.. This led to the former "NFL on Westwood One" giving way in 2011 to "NFL on Dial Global".


title: 2008 NFL season

text: On Internet television, both NFL.com and NBCSports.com carried complete live games of "NBC Sunday Night Football" for the first time ever. NFL.com continued its live coverage of "Thursday and Saturday Night Football", which began in 2007, however for the first time the complete game rather than live look-ins was shown.


title: 2008 NFL season

text: The Pittsburgh Steelers 2008 season/Super Bowl XLIII championship home video went on sale on DVD on February 24, 2009. One week later on March 3, it was released on Blu-ray Disc, making it the first NFL Films home video release to be on Blu-ray Disc. The Blu-ray copy is "officially" sold exclusively through Amazon.com, though it is also available through the Sports Illustrated Super Bowl offer as well as eBay. Among its exclusive content included having most of the features in high-definition video as well as the NFL on Fox fourth-quarter coverage of the Steelers matchup against the Dallas Cowboys at Heinz Field in its entirety. The matchup, which took place during and renewed the rivalry the two teams had in the 1970s & 1990s, saw the Steelers come back from a 4th quarter ten-point deficit to win 20–13.