title: Blaze Bayley

text: In April 2020, a double live album and DVD, "Live in Czech", was released, as recorded at the venue Melodka in Brno, Czech Republic.


title: Blaze Bayley

text: On 15 December 2020, it was announced on Blaze Bayley's website and social media that pre-order had started for Blaze's new studio album "War Within Me". This was the first full-length Blaze Bayley full metal studio album outside the "Infinite Entanglement" trilogy for almost ten years. Bayley has continued to work with the British heavy metal musicians from Absolva. The album was released digitally on 9 April 2021 and soon after the physical version was released.


title: Blaze Bayley

text: On 14 February 2007, Bayley married Debbie Hartland, his long-time girlfriend, on the island of Gran Canaria. On 6 July 2008, Hartland suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalised. She died on 27 September 2008 after having suffered a stroke two days before.


title: Clive Burr

text: Clive Ronald Burr (8 March 1957 – 13 March 2013) was an English drummer. He was a member of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1979 to 1982.


title: Clive Burr

text: Previously a member of Samson, Burr joined Iron Maiden in 1979. Auditioning and joining upon the recommendation of then-Iron Maiden guitarist Dennis Stratton, Burr played on their first three records: "Iron Maiden", "Killers" and their breakthrough release "The Number of the Beast", the last of which was the Maiden debut of Bruce Dickinson. Burr was fired from the band in 1982 during The Beast on the Road tour. He was replaced by the band's current drummer, Nicko McBrain. Burr co-wrote one song on "The Number of the Beast", "Gangland", and another song, "Total Eclipse", that was cut from the album and showed up as the B-side of the "Run to the Hills" single, and later on the "Number of the Beast" remastered CD re-release. Burr also appeared on "The Number of the Beast", "Run to the Hills" and "Women in Uniform" (a cover of the Australian band Skyhooks).


title: Clive Burr

text: In an interview with "Classic Rock" in February 2011, Burr candidly discussed his split from Maiden. Describing much of what has been written about the split as "hogwash", Burr indicated that he was ousted from the band after taking a break to mourn the recent death of his father, rebutting claims that his departure was due to overindulgence. Bruce Dickinson's 2017 autobiography suggests Burr was ousted due to personality conflicts with Steve Harris which led to the two arguing and acting out during performances.


title: Clive Burr

text: After "leaving" Iron Maiden, Burr briefly played in the French group Trust, thus switching places with McBrain, and briefly with the American band Alcatrazz. Burr was featured in the short-lived NWOBHM supergroup Gogmagog which also included ex-Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno and future Maiden guitarist Janick Gers, ex Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray and ex Def Leppard guitarist Pete Willis. He also had a band known as Clive Burr's Escape (later known as Stratus), featuring former Praying Mantis members, which disbanded after releasing one album. Burr then joined Dee Snider in his post-Twisted Sister outfit Desperado, which was never fully realized due to a falling out with the band's record company. Burr performed with British bands Elixir and Praying Mantis in the 1990s and appears on the Praying Mantis 1996 live album "Captured Alive in Tokyo City", but did not become a full member of either.


title: Clive Burr

text: Burr was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the late 1990s, the treatment of which left him deeply in debt. Iron Maiden staged a series of charity concerts and were involved in the founding of the Clive Burr MS Trust Fund. Burr used a wheelchair due to his condition.


title: Clive Burr

text: He was also the patron of Clive Aid, a charity formed in 2004. Clive Aid has continued to raise awareness and funds for various cancer and multiple sclerosis programs around the world through the staging of rock events. Burr attended many of these events. His partner Mimi was also diagnosed with MS.


title: Clive Burr

text: Burr died in his sleep on 13 March 2013 in London, five days after his 56th birthday, due to complications related to MS.


title: Clive Burr

text: In a statement released on the band's website Iron Maiden bass player Steve Harris stated "This is terribly sad news. Clive was a very old friend of all of us. He was a wonderful person and an amazing drummer who made a valuable contribution to Maiden in the early days when we were starting out. This is a sad day for everyone in the band and those around him and our thoughts and condolences are with his partner Mimi and family at this time."


title: Clive Burr

text: Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson stated "Even during the darkest days of his M.S., Clive never lost his sense of humour or irreverence."


title: Clive Burr

text: Burr's style was influential on many heavy metal drummers. Dave Lombardo, known for his work with bands such as Slayer, Grip Inc., Fantômas and Suicidal Tendencies, stated that "his style was inspiring and the albums he recorded with Iron Maiden are touchstones of my music education". Charlie Benante of Anthrax said: "the drumming on ’Killers’ inspired me to kick it up a notch and I did." According to Dave McClain, drummer for Machine Head, who considers Burr a huge influence, he "brought punk rock drumming into heavy metal".


title: Clive Burr

text: Other drummers like Paul Bostaph (Slayer, Exodus, Testament), Stefan Schwarzmann (Helloween, Krokus), Chris Reifert (Death, Autopsy), Steve Asheim (Deicide), Jan Axel Blomberg (Mayhem), Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall) and Richard Christy (Iced Earth, Death, Charred Walls of the Damned) also cited Burr as an influence.


title: Clive Burr

text: Jeff Waters, guitarist and leader of Annihilator, regards his drumming as an inspiration on the drum parts he writes for his band.


title: Clive Burr

text: Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson considered him to be "...the best drummer the band ever had. That's not taking anything away from [present drummer] Nicko. Technically, Nicko's probably a far more competent drummer than Clive. It's just that Clive had this incredible feel, and you can't learn that, and I regret that he wasn't given more time to try and sort himself out." Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith also praised his drumming ability. "Clive was a great drummer, an Ian Paice-type drummer, steady and solid with a nice feel to everything."


title: The Learning Company

text: The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series "Reader Rabbit", for preschoolers through second graders, and "The ClueFinders", for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, Scooby-Doo, Zoboomafoo, and Caillou.


title: The Learning Company

text: In 1995, the company was acquired by SoftKey in a hostile takeover bid, at which point SoftKey assumed the Learning Company name and brand.


title: The Learning Company

text: The Learning Company was founded in 1980 by Ann McCormick; Leslie Grimm; Teri Perl; and Warren Robinett, a former Atari employee who had programmed the popular game "Adventure". They saw the Apple II as an opportunity to teach young children concepts of math, reading, science, problem-solving, and thinking skills. Part of the original funding for the company came from a National Science Foundation grant.


title: The Learning Company

text: TLC produced launch titles for the PCjr, announced in late 1983. From 1980 through 1984, it created a line of 15 widely acclaimed children's educational software products, which were sold through the U.S. retail and school computer software channels.


title: The Learning Company

text: In the first half of 1985, the board hired as CEO Bill Dinsmore. Shortly thereafter, Reece Duca, a founding Partner of the Investment Group of Santa Barbara (IGSB), became a member of the board of directors and purchased shares from several founders and original venture firms. In late 1986, Duca was elected chairman of the board. At that time, IGSB became The Learning Company's largest shareholder.


title: The Learning Company

text: Between 1985 and 1995, TLC's revenues grew at a 36% compounded rate from $2.4M to $53.2M and profitability increased from breakeven in 1985 to a 20% pre-tax margin. The leading families of products were the "Reader Rabbit" series for ages 2–8, the "Treasure Mountain" Reading-Math-Science series for ages 5–9, the "Super Solver" series for ages 7–12, the "Student Writing & Publishing Center" for ages 7-adult, and the "Foreign Language Learning" series for ages 15-adult.


title: The Learning Company

text: TLC went public on April 28, 1992, in an IPO led by Morgan Stanley and Robertson, Stephens & Co. From 1992 to 1995, TLC achieved 16 consecutive quarters of revenues and profits growth, never experiencing a down quarter or year. TLC's early struggles, followed by 10 consecutive years of outstanding performance, were the subject of case studies at both Harvard and Stanford universities.


title: The Learning Company

text: On December 8, 1995, TLC was acquired by SoftKey for $606M in a hostile takeover bid, and a large percentage of the staff were let go. After the acquisition was complete, SoftKey changed its name to The Learning Company and continued to use its brand.


title: The Learning Company

text: Note: When The Learning Company purchased Broderbund Software and MECC, they gained the rights to the long-running "Carmen Sandiego" and "Trail" series, respectively. Only those games created during the ownership of The Learning Company are included here.


title: The Learning Company

text: Created and published by Davidson & Associates / Knowledge Adventure and re-released by The Learning Company


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: The FEMA camps conspiracy theory is a belief, particularly within the American Patriot movement, that the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is planning to imprison US citizens in concentration camps, following the imposition of martial law in the United States after a major disaster or crisis. In some versions of the theory, only suspected dissidents will be imprisoned. In more extreme versions, large numbers of US citizens will be imprisoned for the purposes of extermination as a New World Order is established.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: The theory has existed since the late 1970s, but its circulation has increased with the advent of the internet and social media platforms.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: The existence of FEMA concentration camps has been debunked, although the US government previously interned US citizens in concentration camps during WWII and developed, but did not implement, contingency plans for mass internment of US citizens in the 1980s.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: FEMA is a United States government agency tasked with the effective management of major emergencies within the country, including ensuring the continuity of government during a large-scale disaster including a nuclear war. It provides federal relief to areas afflicted by natural disasters.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: The precursor agency to FEMA was the Federal Civil Defense Administration established by President Harry S Truman in 1950 pursuant to executive order #10186.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: FEMA was established in 1979 under executive order #12127 by President Jimmy Carter. It was established to coordinate the response to any major disaster that has occurred in the United States that overwhelms local and state authorities.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: In 2002, it was finally codified into law and made a component of the Department of Homeland Security. As well as providing large-scale emergency-management, FEMA is also the largest flood-insurer in the United States, mainly because most private insurance companies do not offer flood-insurance.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Proponents of the conspiracy theory argue FEMA's mission is a cover up for its 'real' purpose — to assume control of the United States following a major disaster or threat — and that the organization is 'the executive arm of the coming police state'.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: The theory in general states that once a disaster or threat of one comes into being, martial law will be declared and FEMA's emergency powers will come into operation, and it will effectively become the government. The Constitution will be suspended, and citizens will be moved into camps.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: In many versions, 'dissidents' (typically defined as constitutionalists/patriots etc...) will merely be imprisoned. Others have gone so far as to argue that they will be sent to these camps to be murdered.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Extreme versions state that plans are in place to imprison and kill apolitical American citizens in camps as part of a 'population control' plot. In April 2014, Snopes posted a claim that FEMA was marking houses by political affiliation to round people up for these camps. In reality the bright, color coded stickers serve varying purposes for newspaper and mail delivery personnel.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Although they do not mention FEMA specifically, the Oath Keepers list of 10 "Orders We Will Not Obey," contains many of the fears shared by proponents of FEMA conspiracy theories.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Proponents often play into racial fear, asserting that FEMA will use 'urban gangs' as auxiliaries to ensure order.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: FEMA conspiracy theories are often woven into larger conspiracy narratives about ushering in a 'New World Order', meaning a totalitarian global government.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: One of the first known references to FEMA concentration camps comes from a newsletter issued by Posse Comitatus in 1982, with the warning that 'hardcore patriots' were to be detained in them. The prevalence of the conspiracy theory increased in line with the rise of the militia movement in the 1990s.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: The conspiracy was part of the rhetoric of the now largely disbanded Militia of Montana. The self-styled congressional analyst David Fletcher was their spokesman and brought it up in meetings, even pointing out "United Nations Reserves" that the government was building concentration camps for in the Northern Cascades.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: A supposed FEMA camp was featured in Linda Thompson's 1994 film "America Under Siege" (in reality, the 'FEMA camp' was an Amtrak repair facility). She accused the government of using "black helicopters" against patriots to prevent them from interfering with plans to establish a "New World Order".


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the conspiracy theory was discussed by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Domestic Terrorism.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Fears of FEMA declined in the early 2000s as foreign terrorists were perceived as the major threat but the late-2000s recession and the election of Barack Obama had renewed opposition among conservatives to the federal government. Obama's election also enabled the theory to reach more mainstream right-wing circles whereas it had previously been confined to the fringes. There was a resurgence in the militia movement and with it a resurgence of the FEMA camps conspiracy theory and a corresponding boom in the "prepper" economy.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann alluded to the theory while in office, as have other Republican Party politicians.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: In December 2011 Camille Marino of the hard-left animal liberation website Negotiation is Over posted an alert on her website titled "Military Now Recruiting Guards for FEMA Domestic Detainment/Internment Camps." containing the usual warnings about the end of civil liberties and the announcement that the U.S. Army is looking for "a Few Good Totalitarians" to herd dissenters into camps.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: In 2015, fears of the FEMA roundup beginning surfaced with the announcement of a domestic military training operation called Jade Helm 15. County and state officials in Texas denounced the fears and the exercise was completed with no one being placed into an internment camp.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Also in 2015 additional speculation about the theory was stoked by retired general Wesley Clark when he called for World War II-style internment camps to be revived to combat Muslim extremism. He stated, "If these people are radicalized and they do not support the United States and they're disloyal to the United States as a matter of principle, fine, that's their right. It’s our right and our obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict."


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: According to the Las Vegas Police Department and witnesses in the weeks leading up to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting gunman Stephen Paddock reportedly espoused right-wing anti-government and conspiratorial views, including FEMA conspiracies. He reportedly told a friend that "sometimes, sacrifices have to be made" in order to encourage the American public to arm themselves.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Conspiracy theorists have used the actual internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in specifically constructed camps as evidence that such a scenario at least has historic precedent.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Proponents have cited a contingency plan (Rex 84) drafted in part by U.S. Marine Colonel Oliver North calling for the suspension of the Constitution and the detainment of citizens in the event of a national crisis. This was aimed at left-wing activists, not the libertarians and right-wingers generally associated with FEMA theories. This has been linked to a 1970 document by Louis Giuffrida (years later, the director of FEMA) calling for the establishment of martial law in the event of an uprising by African American militants and the internment of millions of African Americans.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: "Popular Mechanics" has published a debunking of some of the various claims proponents of the theory make and FOX News personality Glenn Beck did a 2009 interview with James Meigs, editor-in-chief there, where he walked through a debunking of one purported camp. "This video," Meigs said, "actually dates from about 1995. But like so many of these conspiracy theories, it gets re-cut and re-edited and circulated around the Internet."


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: Bloggers at the Skeptic Project have posted detailed lists where they claim to debunk many of the FEMA camp locations in the U.S. elsewhere.


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: "Newsweek" emailed FEMA to inquire about the FEMA camps rumors. Press Secretary Alexa Lopez replied, "We are currently focusing our efforts on providing assistance to disaster survivors, and the ongoing response and recovery efforts in Louisiana. As to your first question, over the years there have been many myths or rumors surrounding FEMA, and I am glad I have the chance to set the record straight with you. There is absolutely no truth to these rumors—they are nothing more than conspiracy theories."


title: FEMA camps conspiracy theory

text: However, an internal FEMA memo shows the management understands the nature of trying to quell the conspiracies: "Most people know us as the agency that responds to natural disasters. Others believe we have a somewhat sinister role. For the latter, it is not realistic to think that we can convince them otherwise and it is advisable not to enter into debate on the subject."


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: Arkadiy Romanovich Abramovich (; born 14 September 1993) is a Russian businessman who is the owner of ARA Capital, a private investment company.


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: Abramovich is one of five children born to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and former Aeroflot stewardess Irina Abramovich ("" Malandina). His parents divorced in 2007. He has one brother, Ilya, and three sisters: Arina, Sofia, and Anna. Arkadiy also has two younger half-siblings: Aaron and Leah Lou.


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: Arkadiy Abramovich is the founder and owner of ARA Capital, a private investment vehicle whose assets include Zoltav Resources PLC. Until February 2022, Zoltav was listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market under the ticker symbol ZOL. Through ARA Capital, Abramovich also bought a 26% stake in Crosby Asset Management. In 2010, it was widely reported that Arkadiy made a bid for leading Danish football team FC Copenhagen; however, no bid materialised.


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: In 2013, Arkadiy started working as an intern at the London office of Russian, VTB Bank. During the same year, he bought a 45% share in the shell company Zoltav Resources, and purchased a stake in an oil field in Siberia for a reported $46 million. $26 million of the $46 million were funneled through Zoltav to purchase CenGeo Holdings - owner of the undeveloped Koltogor oil field in Western Siberia. The remaining $20 million were pledged by ARA Capital to fund the field's development in return for more shares.


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: In 2014, Zoltav completed the acquisition of Royal Atlantic Energy (Cyprus) Limited and began trading on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) department. Zoltav also purchased a full license for gas exploration, extraction and production in the Bortovoy area of Saratov Oblast. Bortovoy contains several active gas fields, 750 billion cubic feet of substantiated gas reserves, 3.9 million barrels of condensate, and a processing plant.


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: In 2015, Arkadiy founded a company called Greenhouse, specializing in vegetable farming. Though the value of the investment remains undisclosed, reports note that the farming venture would focus on growing cucumbers and tomatoes in the Belgorod region, south of Moscow. According to authorities in the Rostov region, earlier the same year Abramovich Jr. began planning a major investment (approx. ) in greenhouse development in the region. The terms are still under negotiation. In 2017, it was reported that Arkadiy had offered to purchase a controlling stake in CSKA Moscow.


title: Arkadiy Abramovich

text: In January 2022, Arkadiy consolidated 98.91% of Zoltav Resources stock under ARA Capital control, following a buyback from minor shareholders and Bandbear Ltd. A month later Zoltav Resources delisted from the London Stock Exchange.


title: Rote learning

text: Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition. The method rests on the premise that the recall of repeated material becomes faster the more one repeats it. Some of the alternatives to rote learning include meaningful learning, associative learning, spaced repetition and active learning.


title: Rote learning

text: Rote learning is widely used in the mastery of foundational knowledge. Examples of school topics where rote learning is frequently used include phonics in reading, the periodic table in chemistry, multiplication tables in mathematics, anatomy in medicine, cases or statutes in law, basic formulae in any science, etc. By definition, rote learning eschews comprehension, so by itself it is an ineffective tool in mastering any complex subject at an advanced level. For instance, one illustration of rote learning can be observed in preparing quickly for exams, a technique which may be colloquially referred to as "cramming".


title: Rote learning

text: Rote learning is sometimes disparaged with the derogative terms "parrot fashion", "regurgitation", "cramming", or "mugging" because one who engages in rote learning may give the wrong impression of having understood what they have written or said. It is strongly discouraged by many new curriculum standards. For example, science and mathematics standards in the United States specifically emphasize the importance of deep understanding over the mere recall of facts, which is seen to be less important. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics stated: More than ever, mathematics must include the mastery of concepts instead of mere memorization and the following of procedures. More than ever, school mathematics must include an understanding of how to use technology to arrive meaningfully at solutions to problems instead of endless attention to increasingly outdated computational tedium.However, advocates of traditional education have criticized the new American standards as slighting learning basic facts and elementary arithmetic, and replacing content with process-based skills. In math and science, rote methods are often used, for example to memorize formulas. There is greater understanding if students commit a formula to memory through exercises that use the formula rather than through rote repetition of the formula. Newer standards often recommend that students derive formulas themselves to achieve the best understanding. Nothing is faster than rote learning if a formula must be learned quickly for an imminent test and rote methods can be helpful for committing an understood fact to memory. However, students who learn with understanding are able to transfer their knowledge to tasks requiring problem-solving with greater success than those who learn only by rote...


title: Rote learning

text: On the other side, those who disagree with the inquiry-based philosophy maintain that students must first develop computational skills before they can understand concepts of mathematics. These people would argue that time is better spent practicing skills rather than in investigations inventing alternatives, or justifying more than one correct answer or method. In this view, estimating answers is insufficient and, in fact, is considered to be dependent on strong foundational skills. Learning abstract concepts of mathematics is perceived to depend on a solid base of knowledge of the tools of the subject. Thus, these people believe that rote learning is an important part of the learning process.


title: Rote learning

text: Rote learning is also used to describe a simple learning pattern used in machine learning, although it does not involve repetition, unlike the usual meaning of rote learning. The machine is programmed to keep a history of calculations and compare new input against its history of inputs and outputs, retrieving the stored output if present. This pattern requires that the machine can be modeled as a pure function — always producing same output for same input — and can be formally described as follows:


title: Rote learning

text: Rote learning was used by Samuel's Checkers on an IBM 701, a milestone in the use of artificial intelligence.


title: Rote learning

text: The flashcard, outline, and mnemonic device are traditional tools for memorizing course material and are examples of rote learning.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Big Bear Lake is a small city in San Bernardino County, California, located in the San Bernardino Mountains along the south shore of Big Bear Lake, and surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. The city is located about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of the city of San Bernardino, and immediately west of the unincorporated town of Big Bear City. The population was approximately 5,019 at the 2010 census, down from 5,438 at the 2000 census. However, since it is a popular year-round resort destination, the actual number of people staying in or visiting the greater Big Bear Valley area regularly surges to over 100,000 during many weekends of the year.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Big Bear Lake was inhabited by the indigenous Serrano people for over 2,000 years before it was explored by Benjamin Wilson and his party. Once populated by only the natives and the grizzly bears, from which the area received its name, the population of the Big Bear Valley grew rapidly during the southern California gold rush from 1861 to 1912. Grizzly bears were not found in the region after 1908. Today, there are black bears in the region since their introduction in 1933, and they are sometimes sighted in residential areas.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: A trip to Big Bear Lake from San Bernardino took two days on horse-drawn coaches. Kirk Phillips was a local who took a trip to New York City and saw the world's first bus line. This inspired him to create the world's second bus line from San Bernardino to Big Bear Valley using White trucks with several rows of seats. This made it possible for the villages to grow and for Big Bear Lake to become the first mountain recreation area in southern California.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Many people traveled to enjoy recreation on the lake. However, another major draw was the natural hot spring. Emile Jesserun bought of land that included the hot spring and built the first major resort in Big Bear, the Pan Hot Springs Hotel, in 1921. This resort was followed with others that strove to be the best by creating a country club atmosphere, complete with the amenities required to lure the Hollywood celebrities of the time including Cecil B. DeMille, Shirley Temple, and Ginger Rogers. By 1924, Big Bear was populated with 44 resorts and a constant stream of vacationers. The Pan Hot Springs Hotel, like many of the other resorts and hotels in Big Bear, was extensively damaged by fire in 1933.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: For Hollywood's film industry, the area has also been a popular place for shooting on location since the silent era. In late November 1915, Universal Studios filmed there for its three-reel production of "John o' the Mountains" starring Sydney Ayres and Louella Maxam. The 1920 version of "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed there as well, as were some scenes for the 1936 film "Daniel Boone", "Gone with the Wind", 20th Century Fox's 1960 film "North to Alaska", Disney's "Old Yeller", the 1969 musical film "Paint Your Wagon", the 1983 movie "War Games", and the 1985 "dark comedy" "Better Off Dead". Many television series have filmed sequences there too, including opening sequences in 1969 for the NBC children's program "H.R. Pufnstuf".


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Winter activities are also popular in Big Bear. The first ski jump in Big Bear was erected in 1929 and quickly claimed a world ski jump record. More jumps were built in Big Bear Lake and the Viking Ski Club of Los Angeles began to use them for competition and events. The move to a winter resort town was solidified in 1952 when Tommy Tyndall opened a resort in Big Bear Lake, now known as Snow Summit. In some winters the area gets little snow, but snow machines keep the resorts in business.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: In the summer of 1968, Caltech began construction of Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) located on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. Due to extensive rain and snow, the lake rose several feet and BBSO was surrounded by water at the time construction was completed using makeshift barges in May 1970. BBSO, now operated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology, is still a major Big Bear Lake landmark connected to the north shore by a dirt and rock causeway.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Since 1970, Big Bear Lake has held its annual Oktoberfest. The Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest also sports the highest beer garden, by elevation, in the United States. Big Bear Lake was incorporated as a city on November 28, 1980.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: During the 1990s, the city became famous as a training spot for boxing champions. Oscar De La Hoya, Mike Tyson, Fernando Vargas, Gennady Golovkin, and Shane Mosley are among the famous boxers who have trained at Big Bear.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: In February 2013, a major manhunt occurred in the Big Bear Lake area to find Christopher Dorner, who by that point had killed three people. A standoff ended in nearby Angelus Oaks.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and of which (2.88%) is water. It is located northeast of the city of San Bernardino, and immediately west of Big Bear City.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has issued a safety advisory for any fish caught in Big Bear Lake due to elevated levels of mercury and PCBs.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: According to the National Weather Service, the warmest month at Big Bear is July, with a daily average temperature of . The coolest month is February, with a daily average temperature of . (January and December are nearly tied, at .) There are an average of 1.7 days each year with highs of or higher. Freezing temperatures have occurred in every month and occur on an average of 186 days each year, on average from September 24 to June 4. With a period of record dating back to only 1960, the highest temperature recorded was , recorded on June 30, 1994, while the lowest was on November 19, 1964.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Due to the elevation of the weather station, precipitation is greater than in the lowlands of southern California, averaging a year. The maximum 24-hour precipitation was on December 6, 1966. Measurable precipitation normally occurs 44.9 days a year. Mountain thunderstorms can produce heavy rainfall, even in midsummer (when most southern California lowland locations are quite dry). Big Bear Lake's climate is "Csb" (Warm-summer Mediterranean) under the Köppen climate classification, bordering a humid continental climate ("Dsb"); it lies within USDA plant hardiness zone 7a. Big Bear Lake is the highest and coldest incorporated city in southern California.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: In contrast to most of southern California, the Big Bear Lake region normally receives significant winter snow because of its high elevation. Snowfall, as measured at lake level, averages per season; upwards of can accumulate on the forested ridges bordering the lake, at elevations above . In February 1990, of snow were recorded. The most snow in 24 hours was on March 27, 1991. The greatest snow depth was on February 3, 1979. Snow has fallen in every month except July and August. There are normally 18 days each year with measurable snow of or more.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Big Bear Lake had a population of 5,019. The population density was . The racial makeup of Big Bear Lake was 4,204 (83.8%) White, (73.3% Non-Hispanic White), 22 (0.4%) African American, 48 (1.0%) Native American, 78 (1.6%) Asian, 10 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 491 (9.8%) from other races, and 166 (3.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,076 persons (21.4%).


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The Census reported that 4,993 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 5 (0.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 21 (0.4%) were institutionalized.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: There were 2,187 households, out of which 563 (25.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them; 1,007 (46.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together; 195 (8.9%) had a female householder with no husband present; 119 (5.4%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 159 (7.3%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 24 (1.1%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 675 households (30.9%) were made up of individuals, and 298 (13.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28. There were 1,321 families (60.4% of all households); the average family size was 2.83.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The population was spread out, with 993 people (19.8%) under the age of 18, 417 people (8.3%) aged 18 to 24, 1,021 people (20.3%) aged 25 to 44, 1,563 people (31.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 1,025 people (20.4%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.8 males.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: There were 9,705 housing units at an average density of , of which 1,271 (58.1%) were owner-occupied, and 916 (41.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 14.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 45.2%. 2,708 people (54.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 2,285 people (45.5%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: According to the 2010 United States Census, Big Bear Lake had a median household income of $32,869, with 16.9% of the population living below the federal poverty line.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 5,438 people, 2,343 households, and 1,494 families residing in the city. The population density was 860.1 inhabitants per square mile (332.2/km). There were 8,705 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 91.2% White, 0.7% African American, 1.0% Native American, 0.8% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.6% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 13.7% of the population.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: There were 2,343 households, out of which 25.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.3% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 29.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.3 and the average family size was 2.8.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 29.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.0 males.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The median income for a household in the city was $100,447, and the median income for a family was $122,848. Males had a median income of $36,316 versus $21,404 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,517. About 11.1% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.9% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Big Bear Lake is Southern California's largest recreation lake. It is about seven miles long and about one mile at its widest. The primary summer attraction in Big Bear was fishing and it still is one of the most common activities there. The most abundant types of fish are trout, bass and catfish. Hiking, mountain biking and horse riding are also very popular. San Bernardino National Forest offers many trails in varying degrees of difficulty. During winter season Big Bear Lake becomes a skiing and snowboarding destination for Southern California. There are two ski resorts: Snow Summit and Bear Mountain. The first Winter X Games were held in Big Bear Lake in 1997. The town was also home to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival from 2000 to 2014.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The community is served by the Big Bear Lake Branch of the San Bernardino County Library. The 8500 square-foot library is located on Garstin Drive near the southern shore of Big Bear Lake and offers books, videos, CDs, DVDs, audio books, e-books, computers, and internet access for patrons. The library was remodeled in 2009, which included additional public computers and a new circulation desk that allows for self check-out. Story times for younger children, teen programs, donated book sales, and special events are also held at the library.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The City of Big Bear Lake is a charter city under the laws of the State of California. It operates under the council/manager form of government. The city manager is Frank Rush. The city council includes five members elected at-large. The mayor is selected annually from among the city council members. The current mayor is Rick Herrick.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: In the state legislature, Big Bear Lake is in the 23rd Senate District, represented by Republican Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, and in the 33rd Assembly District, represented by Republican Assembly Member Thurston "Smitty" Smith.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Big Bear City Airport, a general aviation airport in the Big Bear City section of unincorporated San Bernardino County, serves Big Bear Lake.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: Local bus service is provided by Mountain Transit, formerly known as Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority (MARTA). Mountain Transit provides services on a fixed route in the Big Bear Valley and from downtown San Bernardino to Big Bear Lake.


title: Big Bear Lake, California

text: The Big Bear Valley is accessible by four California state highways: SR 18 from Highland, SR 330 from San Bernardino, SR 38 from Redlands, and SR 18 from Victorville.


title: Exodus (Bob Marley and the Wailers album)

text: Exodus is the ninth studio album by Jamaican reggae band Bob Marley and the Wailers, first released in June 1977 through Island Records, following "Rastaman Vibration" (1976). The album's production has been characterized as laid-back with pulsating bass beats and an emphasis on piano, trumpet and guitar. Unlike previous albums from the band, "Exodus" thematically moves away from cryptic story-telling; instead it revolves around themes of change, religious politics, and sexuality. The album is split into two halves: the first half revolves around religious politics, while the second half is focused on themes of making love and keeping faith.


text: On 3 December 1976, an assassination attempt was made on Bob Marley's life in which his chest was grazed and his arm was struck with a bullet, but he survived. Following the assassination attempt, Marley left Jamaica and was exiled to London, where "Exodus" was recorded.


text: The album was a success both critically and commercially; it received gold certifications in the US, UK and Canada, and was the album that propelled Marley to international stardom. In 2017, "Exodus" was remastered and re-released for its 40th anniversary. There are more tracks from "Exodus" on Marley’s greatest hits compilation "Legend" than from any of his other records. "Exodus" was his tenth album since the debut album "The Wailing Wailers" in 1965, including the live album "Live!" (1975).


text: In 1974, two of the original Wailers left the band. The band continued releasing material as "Bob Marley & The Wailers," as had sometimes been the case in the Lee Perry era (as with the Soul Rebels and Soul Revolution LPs). His current backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Al Anderson and Junior Marvin on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The I Threes, consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals. In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, "No Woman, No Cry", from the "Natty Dread" album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the United States, "Rastaman Vibration" (1976), which became the 48th best-selling album on the Billboard Soul Charts in 1978.


text: In December 1976, Jamaica was going through elections, generating substantial political discourse. In his campaign, Prime Minister Michael Manley used the campaign slogan "We know where we're going." In response Marley wrote "Exodus", which is the title track of the album. The song became a No. 1 hit in Jamaica as well as the United Kingdom and Germany.


text: On 3 December 1976, while he was in his house in Jamaica, an assassination attempt on Marley's life drove him out of his native country: two days after the assassination attempt, Marley performed in the previously scheduled Smile Jamaica concert, then subsequently fled to England where he later recorded the song "Exodus". In addition to Marley's assassination attempt, "his wife Rita — one of the I Threes, whose singing on "Exodus" is first-rate" was also shot and survived.


text: The song "Exodus" became a No. 1 hit in Jamaica as well as a top 20 hit in the United Kingdom where it reached number 14, and Germany.


text: "Exodus" is a reggae album that features a "laid-back" production and a "stoned atmosphere that's simultaneously funky and political" according to Cam, an Emeritus from Sputnikmusic.


text: Cam described the album's musical style as being "different", noting that Marley's style of reggae was not what was prominent in Jamaica during the time, and that the album's music sounds unlike any reggae that came before its release. Emeritus continued to describe the album's sound as being rooted in the blues and soul, with elements of British Rock with a reggae "façade thrown on top" however Emeritus praised this saying "if Exodus was straight reggae, it probably wouldn't be as good as it is."


text: "Exodus" contains elements of pulsating bass beats, pianos and funk along with a "liquid-y bass", drumming and guitars with the inclusion of trumpets in the title track. Unlike previous albums Exodus lyrical content moves away from cryptic story-telling and instead is clearer and more straight forward, the lyrics touch upon themes of change, religious politics and sex. Vocally, Marley provides a minimalist approach, trying not to reach his falsettos.


text: The album's track listing is split over two halves; the first half features songs of religious politics and opens with "Natural Mystic", which is a slow tempo "fade up" song, followed by "So Much Things to Say", which was described by the BBC as being "exuberant" and features a reggae scat. The following two songs "Guiltiness" and "The Heathen" explore darker territory, before ending on the album's title track.


text: Cam from Sputnikmusic gave the album five out of five stars, calling it a "classic". Emeritus praised the album's "laid-back tones" and commended Marley's vocals and lyrical content. As described by "Rolling Stone" magazine, "Exodus" is an album with "the magnificent rhythm section of Aston Barrett, bass, and Carlton Barrett, drums, and the spidery lead guitar of Julian "Junior" Marvin – and the flatness of the material Bob Marley has given them to work with"


text: "Jamming", "Waiting in Vain", "One Love/People Get Ready", and "Three Little Birds" were all major international hits. "Exodus" peaked at number 20 on the "Billboard" 200 and at number 15 on the Black Albums chart, as well as remaining in the UK charts for 56 consecutive weeks, where it peaked at number 8.


text: In 1999, "Time" magazine named "Exodus" the best album of the 20th century. In 2001, the TV network VH1 named it the 26th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 169 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, re-ranking at number 71 in a 2020 revised list.


text: On 3 June 2017, The Marley Family, Island Records and UMe marked the 40th anniversary of the "Exodus" original album with a series of four separate reissues, three of which – titled "Exodus – The Movement Continues" – featuring the special release "Exodus 40", son Ziggy Marley's newly curated "restatement" of the original album:


text: The Super Deluxe, four-LP, two-7" single vinyl version includes the original LP, Ziggy Marley's "Exodus 40" restatement, the "Exodus Live" set (minus the track "Burnin And Lootin"), the "Punky Reggae Party" LP (which includes a previously unreleased extended mix of "Keep On Moving"), and a pair of vinyl 7" singles, including "Waiting in Vain" b/w "Roots" and "Smile Jamaica (Part One)" b/w "Smile Jamaica (Part Two)."


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all (stylized as Three Dollar Bill, Yall$) is the debut studio album by American rap rock band Limp Bizkit, released on July 1, 1997, by Flip and Interscope Records. It established the band's trademark sound with the singles "Counterfeit", which was influenced by hip hop and heavy metal, and "Faith", a cover of the song of the same name by George Michael. Limp Bizkit's rearrangement of the song incorporated heavier guitar playing by Wes Borland and scratching by DJ Lethal.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$" was produced by Ross Robinson, who was introduced to the band through Korn bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, who persuaded Robinson to listen to Limp Bizkit's demo. Robinson was impressed by the band's motivation and sound, and agreed to work with them. The album showcased an intentionally abrasive, angry sound which the band felt would attract a fanbase.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: Wes Borland left Limp Bizkit preceding a successful performance opening for Korn at the Dragonfly in Hollywood due to a disagreement with Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit signed with Mojo, a subsidiary of MCA Records. While heading to California to record their first album, the band wrecked their van, leading Durst to rehire Borland. After a dispute with Mojo, Limp Bizkit signed with Flip, a subsidiary of Interscope Records.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: Reginald Arvizu of the band Korn persuaded Ross Robinson to listen to the band's demo, which consisted of the songs "Pollution", "Counterfeit" and "Stalemate". Robinson finally listened to the tape after it was praised by Robinson's girlfriend. Robinson was impressed by the band's motivation and sound, and produced their debut, which was recorded at Indigo Ranch. During the recording sessions, the band recorded an early version of their song "I'm Broke", but it was decided that the song didn't fit on this album. It was subsequently reworked and recorded for their followup, "Significant Other".


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: Continuing the band's policy of using titles that would hopefully repulse potential listeners, the band named the album by using part of the phrase "queer as a three dollar bill" and adding the word "Y'all" at the end to embody Florida slang into the title, consequently giving the album the name "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all".


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: "Pollution", according to Durst, is about people who say the band's music is "nothing but noise pollution. There's nothing particularly heavy there. No big-time message." In a Q&A, Durst said about the song: "It's like, well, you're preaching and telling me that I'm so wrong—well, that's noise to me because little do you know that my band says a prayer every time before they go on stage and we're not just praying to Buddha or something."


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: Limp Bizkit was inspired to write "Counterfeit" after local bands began to copy their style. According to Borland, "They saw this little thing we built [...] and they were like, 'Oh, let's get baggy pants and dress like kind of hip-hoppy and, you know, play heavy metal and rap.' [...] five or six bands just popped up out of nowhere that became these, you know, groups that were trying to sound like us. It was ridiculous. That's where the song 'Counterfeit' came from." Durst said "Counterfeit" is about people who try to fit in and change who they are.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: The mood and tone set by Robinson in the studio allowed the band to improvise; a recording of the band improvising appeared as the last track on the album, "Everything". The recording of the album also allowed the band to showcase the addition of DJ Lethal, and experimental guitar playing by Borland, who played without a guitar pick, performing with right hand fingers.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: On the song "Stuck", Borland used a sustain pedal in the first bar, and muted riffs in the second bar. Borland's playing on this album features octave shapes, and choppy, eighth-note rhythms, sometimes accompanied by muting his strings with his left hand, creating a percussive sound. Borland also made use of unevenly accented syncopated sixteenth notes and hypnotic, droning licks to create a disorienting effect.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: Despite the success of live performances of the band's cover of George Michael's song "Faith", Robinson was opposed to recording the cover, and tried to persuade the band not to play it on the album. However, the final recording, which incorporated heavier guitar playing and drumming, as well as DJ scratching, impressed Robinson. Robinson also bonded with Borland, who Robinson perceived as not taking the band seriously.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: The alternative metal band Tool provided a strong influence in shaping the album's sound, particularly in the song "Nobody Loves Me", which contains a breakdown in which Durst copied the singing of Maynard James Keenan and the intro which has elements of "Undertow" hidden track "Disgustipated". Durst said "Nobody Loves Me" is about his mother: "When my mom used to ground me and I got upset, she'd say, 'Oh, nobody loves me. I'm going to go eat worms.' So it was like this saying that I used to get pounded with by my mother. She had this little cross-snitch on the wall that said 'Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I think I'll go eat worms.' Here's how I look at it: since nobody loves me, I don't owe you a thing."


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: "Indigo Flow", named after the studio "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all" was recorded in (Indigo Ranch Studio), was Limp Bizkit's gratitude toward those who helped the band get a record deal and make music professionally.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: The completed album featured an abrasive, angry sound which Borland later stated was part of Limp Bizkit's plan to get noticed. "The best way to get our message across is through shock value. That's what grabs people [...] getting people to react by showing something negative, hoping something positive will come out of it. Trying to stay in reality." "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all" has been described as rap metal, nu metal, and rapcore.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all" was released by Interscope Records on July 1, 1997. After the album's release, Limp Bizkit opened for Faith No More on the American leg of their Album of the Year Tour, which was the group's final tour before their break up the following year. Despite citing Faith No More as one of their biggest influences, guitarist Wes Borland has spoken of how touring with them in 1997 was a negative experience for the band. He said "The idea of it was cool, we were really excited about it, about the "idea" of opening for Faith No More. But once we got there, it was a really tough crowd. They have a really tough crowd to please, who are very vocal about not liking you. We opened for Faith No More and Primus in the same year, and the Primus tour went a lot better than the Faith No More tour. I did not get to know Mike Patton on that tour, I got to know him later [through Adam from Tool]." At one show opening for Faith No More, Fred Durst referred to the audience as "faggots" when they started booing Limp Bizkit. Following this show, Durst apologized to Faith No More's keyboardist Roddy Bottum, who unbeknownst to him had come out as gay in the early 1990s. Between March and June 1997, before the album's release, Limp Bizkit had toured North America and Europe with Korn and Helmet, two other artists they cite as influences. This was also Helmet's last tour before their initial break up the following year, with DJ Lethal having earlier collaborated with them on the song "Just Another Victim" when he was in House of Pain. The music video for "Counterfeit" was released in 1997 and was played on music channels like The Box and M2. Limp Bizkit performed on MTV's 1998 Spring Break special "Fashionably Loud", which brought the band attention.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: The album's popularity grew in 1999 as the band's mainstream profile began to increase. In March of that year, it went platinum in the United States, and it eventually went double platinum in July 2001. As of October 1999, "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all" sold 1.8 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The music video for "Faith" received heavy rotation on MTV and ended up on the popular MTV show "Total Request Live".


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: In 1998, controversy erupted when it was revealed Interscope paid $5,000 to guarantee that a Portland radio station play the song "Counterfeit" 50 times, preceded and concluded with an announcement that the air time was paid for by Interscope. The paid air time was criticized by the media, who saw it as "payola". The band's manager Jeff Kwatinetz later termed the plan as a "brilliant marketing move". Durst stated, "It worked, but it's not that cool of a thing." Despite criticism, the paid air time did not increase sales, which stood at only 170,000 in early 1998. Much of the album's resulting sales instead came from consistent touring by the band. Durst directed a music video for the band's single "Faith" in promotion for its appearance in the film "Very Bad Things", but was unsatisfied with it, and directed a second video which paid tribute to tourmates like Primus, Deftones and Mötley Crüe, who appeared in the video. This payola controversy hurt Limp Bizkit's image.


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all" received controversy for its lyrical content, with the lyrics being labeled often as misogynistic. Durst said: "That's because I said the words whore and bitch. My whole record is about my girlfriend who put me through the ringer for three years and my insecurity about it. It became this big thing." Durst also said: "Somebody may hear the word 'bitch' on our songs, but I love women. I will always be ready for my soul mate to fall into my lap. So those people who think it's derogatory towards women are the people that aren't listening to the words."


title: Three Dollar Bill, Y'all

text: "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$" received mostly positive reviews from critics. A 1997 review from the "Gavin Report" stated, "Limp Bizkit has created a sound that will fast be incorporated into the hard rock genre—let's call it grindhop. Even if the name doesn't stick, Limp Bizkit will still appeal to anyone with an ear for innovative music." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic praised the album in his retrospective review, writing "They might not have many original ideas [...] but they do the sound well. They have a powerful rhythm section and memorable hooks, most of which make up for the uneven songwriting." In "The Essential Rock Discography", Martin Charles Strong gave the album a 7 out of 10 rating. Robert Christgau gave the album a negative review. Borland stated in an interview that George Michael, the writer of the song "Faith", hated Limp Bizkit's cover and "hates us for doing it". Durst, however, said: "I heard that he loves the song. We asked him to perform 'Faith' with us on New Year's, but George thought he might come off looking funny. I wouldn't make fun of him." In 2020, "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all" was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1997 by "Metal Hammer" magazine.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Witchfinder General (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General) is a 1968 British period horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Russell and Rupert Davies. The screenplay by Reeves and Tom Baker was based on Ronald Bassett's novel of the same name. The film is a heavily-fictionalised account of the murderous witch-hunting exploits of Matthew Hopkins (Price), a lawyer who falsely claimed to have been appointed as a "" by Parliament during the English Civil War to root out sorcery and witchcraft. The plot follows Roundhead soldier Richard Marshall (Ogilvy), who relentlessly pursues Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne (Russell) after they prey on his fiancée Sara (Dwyer) and execute her priestly uncle John Lowes (Davies).


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the film was produced by Tigon British Film Productions. In the United States, where it was distributed by American International Pictures (AIP), "Witchfinder General" was retitled The Conqueror Worm (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Conqueror Worm) by AIP to link it with their earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations directed by Roger Corman and starring Price; because its narrative bears no relation to any of Poe's stories, American prints book-end the film with the titular poem being read through narration by Price.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: "Witchfinder General" eventually developed into a cult film, partially attributable to Reeves's 1969 death from an alcohol and barbiturate overdose at the age of 25, only nine months after its release. Over the years, several prominent critics have championed the film, including Tim Lucas, J. Hoberman, Danny Peary, Robin Wood and Derek Malcolm; their praise has particularly targeted its direction, performances, and musical score by Paul Ferris. In 2005, the magazine "Total Film" named "Witchfinder General" the 15th-greatest horror film of all time.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In 1645, during the English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins, an opportunist witch hunter, takes advantage of the breakdown in social order to impose a reign of terror in East Anglia. Hopkins and his assistant, John Stearne, visit village after village, brutally torturing confessions out of suspected witches. They charge the local magistrates for the work they carry out.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Richard Marshall is a young Roundhead. After surviving a brief skirmish and killing his first enemy soldier (and thus saving the life of his Captain), he rides home to Brandeston, Suffolk, to visit his lover Sara. Sara is the niece of the village priest, John Lowes. Lowes gives his permission to Marshall to marry Sara, telling him there is trouble coming to the village, and he wants Sara far away before it arrives. Marshall asks Sara why the old man is frightened. She tells him they have been threatened and become outcasts in their own village. Marshall vows to Sara, "rest easy and no one shall harm you. I put my oath to that." At the end of his army leave, Marshall rides back to join his regiment and chances upon Hopkins and Stearne on the path. Marshall gives the two men directions to Brandeston then rides on.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In Brandeston, Hopkins and Stearne immediately begin rounding up suspects. Lowes is accused at his home and tortured. He has needles stuck into his back (in an attempt to locate the so-called "Devil's Mark") and is about to be killed when Sara stops Hopkins by offering him sexual favours in exchange for her uncle's safety. However, soon Hopkins is called away to another village. Stearne takes advantage of Hopkins' absence by raping Sara. When Hopkins returns and finds out what Stearne has done, Hopkins will have nothing further to do with the young woman. He instructs Stearne to begin torturing Lowes again. Shortly before departing the village, Hopkins and Stearne execute Lowes and two women.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Marshall returns to Brandeston and is horrified by what has happened to Sara. He vows to kill both Hopkins and Stearne. After "marrying" Sara in a ceremony of his own devising and instructing her to flee to Lavenham, he rides off by himself. In the meantime, Hopkins and Stearne have become separated after a Roundhead patrol attempts to commandeer their horses. Marshall locates Stearne, but after a brutal fight, Stearne is able to escape. He reunites with Hopkins and informs him of Marshall's desire for revenge.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Hopkins and Stearne enter the village of Lavenham. On a patrol to locate the King, Marshall learns they are there and quickly rides to the village with a group of his soldier friends. However, having earlier learned that Sara was in Lavenham, Hopkins has set a trap to capture Marshall. Hopkins and Stearne frame Marshall and Sara as witches and take them to the castle to be interrogated. Marshall watches as needles are repeatedly jabbed into Sara's back, but he refuses to confess to witchcraft, instead vowing again to kill Hopkins. He breaks free from his bonds and stamps on Stearne's face while his army comrades approach the castle dungeon. Marshall grabs an axe and repeatedly strikes Hopkins. The soldiers enter the room and are horrified to see what their friend has done. One of them, Marshall's friend Trooper Swallow, puts the mutilated but still living Hopkins out of his misery by shooting him dead. Marshall's mind snaps, and he shouts, "You took him from me! You took him from me!" Sara, also apparently on the brink of insanity, screams uncontrollably over and over again.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: From 1645 to 1647, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne travelled the east of England as witch hunters. They harshly interrogated suspected witches (using methods such as sleep deprivation), examined them by pricking for a witch's mark, or sometimes threw an accused witch into water for a "swimming test". Local authorities paid for these services, plus expenses. Shortly before his death from consumption in 1647, Hopkins published "The Discovery of Witches", his treatise on witch hunting. In one of its illustrations, he was labeled the "Witch Finder Generall".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Ronald Bassett's "Witchfinder General", a novel loosely based on the historical Hopkins and Stearne, was published in 1966. Tony Tenser, the founder and chief executive of Tigon British Film Productions, read Bassett's book while it was still in galley form and purchased the film rights on impulse before publication. Tenser felt it "had some scope, had some breadth to it; there was canvas for a film".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Michael Reeves, who had just completed Tigon's "The Sorcerers" (1967) starring Boris Karloff, provided a story outline which met with Tenser's enthusiastic approval. Tenser immediately began putting together a preliminary budget, and requested that Reeves quickly complete a full film script, stressing to Reeves that the production would need to commence by September of that year to avoid shooting during cold weather. Reeves called in his childhood friend Tom Baker (who had co-written "The Sorcerers" with Reeves) to assist him with the script. Reeves and Baker began drafting a screenplay with Donald Pleasence firmly in mind as the film's star. However, once American International Pictures became involved in the production, they insisted that their contract star, Vincent Price, be given the lead, and Pleasence was dropped from the film. With the abrupt change of star, Reeves and Baker had to rethink their original concept of presenting Hopkins as "ineffective and inadequate … a ridiculous authority figure", which they had believed Pleasence could play to perfection. They knew the tall, imposing Price, with his long history of horror roles, would have to be more of a straightforward villain, and they made changes to their script accordingly.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: As was required by law for British film productions of that time, the completed first draft of the screenplay was presented by Tenser to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) on 4 August to determine if any possible censorship issues could be anticipated. On the same day, a preliminary report was issued by a BBFC examiner, who, commenting that Tenser was an "ape", referred to the screenplay as "perfectly beastly" and "ghoulish". The script was returned to Tenser a few days later, with a more detailed report from the same examiner, which described the screenplay as "a study in sadism in which every detail of cruelty and suffering is lovingly dwelt on". After a second draft was written and sent to the BBFC only eleven days after the first draft, the reaction was nearly the same. It was returned to Tenser with a long list of requirements to reduce the film's possible offensiveness.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Reeves and Baker completed a third and final draft that was "substantially toned down" in content from the previous attempts. This version of the screenplay, which was filmed with only a few minor revisions during the production, was missing many of the more explicit moments of violence described in the first submitted drafts: the death spasms of the pre-credits hanging victim, Lowes getting stabbed fifteen times with a steel spike, and a sniper's victim somersaulting through the air and slamming into a tree. A sequence depicting the Battle of Naseby was to be filmed, during which a soldier's head was to be cut off on screen. Most significantly, the film's finale was completely altered. In the original ending, Stearne falls in with a group of gypsies and attempts to rape one of their women, who successfully fights off her attacker by plunging her thumbs into his eyes, blinding him. The gypsies then stake him to death. Marshall arrives and convinces the gypsies to assist him in ambushing Hopkins. Hopkins is viciously beaten by Marshall, who forces a "confession" out of the bloodied man. Marshall partially drowns Hopkins (whose thumbs have been tied to his feet), then finally hangs him. Tenser had previously expressed concerns regarding the scope of the Battle of Naseby sequence as well as the gypsy-ending, as these scenes would both require the employment of additional groups of extras. He asked Reeves and Baker to remove the battle sequence and simplify the ending for the final draft.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Price was not Michael Reeves's choice to play Hopkins; this was the veteran horror star's 75th film and his 17th for American International Pictures. Some of the performances he provided for his previous AIP movies had elements of campy overacting, but in "Witchfinder" he was subtle and deadly serious. The role was a great challenge for Price, as his frequent clashes with Reeves left him unsure as to what the director wanted. Despite this, Price felt he delivered "one of the best performances I've ever given".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Ogilvy had been a friend of Reeves since they were teenagers, and the actor had appeared in many of the director's amateur short films. Ogilvy had also starred in both of Reeves's two previous feature films, "The She Beast" and "The Sorcerers", and was the natural first choice for the role of "Witchfinder"s heroic lead. Describing his working relationship with Reeves, Ogilvy observed that "his mastery of the technical aspects was absolute", but added "Mike never directed the actors. He always said he knew nothing about acting, and preferred to leave it up to us." Ogilvy enjoyed working with Price, finding him to be "very funny, in a 'queeny' sort of way."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: "Witchfinder" was Dwyer's debut feature film. With three years of television work behind her, she had been noticed by Tenser and put under contract with Tigon at the age of 21. She felt Reeves was "just wonderful … He was really inspiring to work with. And because it was my first film I didn't know how lucky I was." She would go on to make several more horror films for AIP, most of them co-starring Price, before leaving acting in the late 1970s to become a producer.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Appearing as Dwyer's uncle, "Witchfinder" was only one of several horror films the British character actor Rupert Davies found himself in during the later stage of his career. Davies was not pleased when he discovered that the filming of his torture scenes was to be augmented with live rats placed on his body. The actor recalled Reeves instructing him, "Don't move! Wait until one of them starts nibbling your jaw then you might move your head a little."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: An often-reported anecdote states that Reeves found Russell's high-pitched voice unsuitable for such a rough character, and had all of his dialogue dubbed by Bernard Kay (who also played the fisherman). However, Bill Kelley doubts this story, saying that Russell's voice in "Inspector Clouseau" (1968) is similar to that which appears in "Witchfinder".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Production began on 18 September 1967 with a budget of £83,000. AIP contributed £32,000, with £12,000 for Price's expenditures and fees, and £20,000 for production costs. Philip Waddilove, a former BBC radio and record producer, contributed £5,000 in return for associate producer billing. Although the film would be the biggest-budgeted title in Tigon's history, AIP's costs represented a relatively small expenditure. AIP heads Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson did not expect a high quality result; the movie was intended to be a tax write-off.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: The interiors were filmed in two specially converted aircraft hangars near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, which were leased for £1,500; this cost-measure resulted in much of the dialogue having to be re-recorded later, because the tin roofs of the hangars caused an echo. The exterior shots range from the Dunwich Coast (for the scene with the fisherman) to Langley Park outside London (for the scene where Stearne escapes capture). The tracking shot of the ambush after the opening credits was filmed at Black Park in southeast Buckinghamshire, a location frequently used by Hammer Film Productions. Lavenham Square (in Lavenham, Suffolk), site of the witch-burning scene, was the real Lavenham Market Square; the crew lowered TV antennas and telephone wires and Waddilove hired a cherry picker from a local utility company for £10, because the unit could not afford a camera crane. The countryside vistas seen in the chase scenes on horseback were shot on the Stanford Battle Area near Thetford, Norfolk—the producer, through connections with the government, was able to lease parts of the area. The church used in the film is St John The Evangelist in Rushford in Norfolk. The moat drowning and hanging scenes were filmed at Kentwell Hall, in Long Melford. The climax of the film was shot at Orford Castle, on the coast of East Anglia, which is an English Heritage property. Filming wrapped as scheduled on 13 November 1967.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: The production went relatively smoothly except for the unrelentingly antagonistic relationship that developed between Reeves and Price. Reeves kept it no secret from everyone associated with the production that the American actor was not his choice for the role, and the director's comments had reached the actor back in the US. Reeves refused the courtesy of meeting Price at Heathrow Airport when he arrived in England, a "deliberate snub calculated to offend both Price and AIP". "Take me to your goddamn young genius", Price reportedly said to co-producer Philip Waddilove, who greeted the actor at the airport instead of Reeves. When Price went on location and met Reeves for the first time, the young director told the actor, "I didn't want you, and I "still" don't want you, but I'm stuck with you!"


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: According to Kim Newman in his book, "Nightmare Movies", when Reeves made a suggestion on the set, Price objected and told the director: "I've made 87 films. What have "you" done?" And Reeves responded: "I've made three good ones." "Reeves hated me," Price later recalled. "He didn't want me at all for the part. I didn't like him, either. It was one of the first times in my life that I've been in a picture where the director and I just clashed." Price felt that all the actors on the set had a difficult time with the director, explaining: "Michael Reeves could not communicate with actors. He would stop me and say, 'Don't move your head like that.' And I would say, 'Like what? What do you mean?' He'd say, 'There—you're doing it again. Don't do that'." Price reportedly became so upset with Reeves that he refused to watch the film's dailies.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In one scene, Reeves needed Price to shoot his flintlock between the ears of the horse he was riding. When Price realised that Reeves had ordered that an actual blank charge was to be used so the weapon's puff of smoke would be visible, he shouted, "What? You want the gun to go bang between the ears of this fucking nag? How do you think he's going to react?" However, Reeves insisted and, when the gun went off, the horse reared and sent Price tumbling onto the ground. Price was not hurt but he was extremely angered by the incident.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: On the final day of shooting, Price showed up on the set visibly intoxicated. Reeves seethed to Waddilove, "He's drunk—how dare he be drunk on my set! I'll kill the bastard." Waddilove soon discovered that Reeves planned to inflict painful revenge on the actor. During preparations for Price's violent death scene, the director was overheard instructing Ogilvy to "really lay into Vincent" with the stage axe. Although when the scene was filmed Ogilvy indeed responded with blows that were not faked, Waddilove had earlier found some foam padding and fitted Price's costume with it, protecting the actor from any injury.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Despite the tension between the two men during the production, when Price saw the film the following year, he admitted that he finally understood what Reeves had been after and wrote the young director a ten-page letter praising the film. Reeves wrote Price back, "I knew you would think so." Years after Reeves's death, Price said, "I realised what he wanted was a low-key, very laid-back, menacing performance. He did get it, but I was fighting him almost every step of the way. Had I known what he wanted, I would have cooperated."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In addition to his difficult relationship with Price, Reeves had to deal with a few production problems during the shooting. On the first day, Price was thrown from his horse and sent back to his hotel to recover. The actor returned to work the following day. Towards the end of filming, a strike was called when the British technicians union learned the production company was not hiring a large enough crew as required by union rules. After an extra man was hired, the crew resumed working. On two occasions, Reeves was short of actors. Waddilove replaced an absent actor as a Roundhead officer during Wymark's one-day scene. Waddilove's wife, Susi, played one of the women in the animal enclosure during the witch-burning sequence.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: The film's violent ending deviated from the script due to a continuity problem. In the scene as written, Trooper Swallow was supposed to use both his and Harcourt's flintlock pistols to shoot both Hopkins and Richard dead. However, only Harcourt was depicted in previous scenes as carrying a pistol, and therefore only one person could be shot. When this plot hole was discovered, Reeves immediately told actor Nicky Henson, "All right, just shoot Vincent and I'll get Ian to scream and shout and go mad and freeze frame on Hilary Dwyer screaming".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Several additional nude scenes were filmed during the production. Set in a pub and involving local "wenches", the sequences were reportedly solely intended for the film's German release version. Reeves refused to take part in the filming of these sequences and they were completed by the crew after the initial versions of the scenes had been shot, with Tigon's Tenser acting as director. According to Waddilove, Louis M. Heyward appeared at the location only to ensure those additional scenes were filmed. The credits read, "Additional scenes by Louis M Heyward". According to Ogilvy, this was an in-joke because for Reeves, "additional scenes" meant "some prick of a producer putting his oar in and messing up what the director had done".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: "Witchfinder General"'s celebrated score was composed by Reeves' friend Paul Ferris, who had previously scored "The Sorcerers", and acted in the film under the alias "Morris Jar" (a reference to his favourite composer, Maurice Jarre). He drew inspiration from the folk song "Greensleeves" in writing the romantic theme "Peaceful Interlude" as a means of evoking its time period, as well as to serve as a counterpoint to the film's violence. Film critic Tim Lucas compared the score to Marcello Giombini's music for the swashbuckler film "Knives of the Avenger" (1966), saying that each film is a "historical melodrama that functions as a metaphoric Western".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Ferris' ambitions clashed with Tenser; the composer hoped to have the score performed with traditional Elizabethan instruments, a creative choice that Tenser vetoed for budgetary reasons. He instead conducted a 55-piece orchestra with whom he recorded at Olympic Studios in February 1968; he paid most of the performers' wages with his own money when Tenser refused to sanction additional funds, although he was later reimbursed after Tenser was impressed with his efforts. Ferris sold the publishing and master rights for the soundtrack to De Wolfe Music, who incorporated it into their large library of stock music and released the score, alongside Peter Knight's music for the Tigon/AIP film "Curse of the Crimson Altar", on their album "Strange Location", credited to the "London Studio Orchestra". Many of Ferris' tracks have been utilised in a wide variety of films and TV programmes. De Wolfe eventually released an official soundtrack album in 2013; the CD release includes a 12-page booklet containing stills from the film and liner notes by Tenser biographer John Hamilton.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: For its time, "Witchfinder General" was considered an unusually sadistic film. British film censor John Trevelyan was reportedly a distant cousin of Michael Reeves and accepted the director's good intentions when Reeves explained why he felt it was necessary to include such intense violence in the movie. Trevelyan nonetheless argued, "The film gave the impression that it was exploiting violence, and in particular, sadism for commercial reasons." Consequently, the film was cut extensively by the British Board of Film Censors for its UK release. Nearly two complete minutes of what was described as "excesses of sadistic brutality" were removed. Reeves agreed to make some of the initial minor cuts himself, but when additional and more extensive demands were made he adamantly refused to take part in any further editing.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Trevelyan claimed that Reeves later wrote him a letter admitting that the cuts were not as harmful as he had expected. No copy of the letter has ever surfaced, and based on several other comments the director subsequently made about how the edits "ruined the film", Reeves's biographer Benjamin Halligan believes Trevelyan may have somehow "misremembered" the existence of this letter, confusing it with an earlier missive from the director in which he made a plea for the BBFC's leniency.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In a piece written for the BFI commemorating the 50th anniversary of "Witchfinder General"'s original release, Adam Scovell identified "weaponised belief"—represented by Hopkins' exploitation of the irrationalities and superstitions of the populace as a means of gaining power and fulfilling his sexual and political ambitions—as the film's primary thematic concern, stating that "belief doesn't create [his] sword, but it most definitely sharpens it". He also describes the use of "pastoral violence", whereby the beauty of the English countryside is juxtaposed with acts of extreme violence, notably in the opening scene depicting the hanging of a condemned witch. Writing for "Cine Outsider", Jerry Whyte believes that the film "brilliantly recreates that sense of social collapse" and finds that its commentary not only has merit in critiquing the policies of historical witch-hunts, but would have also resonated with contemporary audiences in the light of McCarthyism and the Vietnam War.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Expanding on Iain Sinclair's assertion that "The film's success lies in the tension between [Tom] Baker's Utopian permissiveness, his feel for the country, and Reeves' demonic fatalism", Whyte concurs with Newman's categorisation of "Witchfinder" as an "English Western", noting Reeves' long-standing love of the genre and the film's parallels to it, including its Civil War setting, frequent horse-riding sequences, clear distinctions between good and evil, and Marshall's pursuit of revenge against Hopkins. Responding to David Pirie's acclamation of the film as "One of the most personal and mature statements in the history of British Cinema", he also considers the film to be one of the few fictionalised portrayals of the English Civil War (of which there are few such works) to feature a serious, positive depiction of the New Model Army and the Good Old Cause compared to such films as "Cromwell" (1970) and "To Kill a King" (2003), which he described as "detached travesties of truth, mere hagiographies of Cromwell, that lack the vim, vision, intensity and invention of Reeves' low-budget, improvised gem". In light of the brevity of Reeves' career, Halligan notes that the film suggests a pinnacle in his evolution as a filmmaker, with "The She Beast" representing a straightforward approach to the trappings of the horror genre, "The Sorcerers" acting as an allegorical commentary on cinema itself, and "Witchfinder" serving as a work that transcends genre fiction by using its conventions to create "something different altogether".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Even the truncated version was met with considerable controversy by UK film critics. Dilys Powell in "The Sunday Times" complained "17th-century hanging, burning, raping, screaming, and Vincent Price as England's prize torture-overseer. Peculiarly nauseating". "The Guardian" felt the film was filled with "gratuitous sadism". Margaret Hinxman of "The Sunday Telegraph" dismissed it as a "sadistic extravaganza."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Nonetheless, several critics felt the film was worth accolades. John Russell Taylor in the London "Times Saturday Review" said the film "is quite happily and deliberately a horror film: that is to say, it has no particular pretensions to being anything else … There is much in it which would win Michael Reeves an important reputation if he were dealing with some more pretentious, but fundamentally no more serious subject … Mr. Reeves is no longer merely promising. He already has real achievements behind him: not merely good horror films, but good films, period." "Films and Filming" stated: ""Witchfinder General" has no explicit 'message', but it does say something about the springs of despair and it says it forcefully. It is a very frightening film … Matthew Hopkins is the best of Price's recent performances. "Witchfinder General" is emphatically not a horror film; it is, however, a very horrifying one …"


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: "The Monthly Film Bulletin" observed: "Not since "Peeping Tom" has a film aroused such an outcry about nastiness and gratuitous violence as this one … the tone of the film is oddly muted, with torture and death in plenty, but viewed matter-of-factly and without stress … Throughout the whole film there is a vivid sense of a time out of joint, which comes as much from the stray groups of soldiers who skirmish against unseen attackers in the woods or hang wearily about by the wayside waiting for battle to commence, as from the bloody crimes committed in the name of religion by Matthew Hopkins".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Playwright Alan Bennett was particularly repulsed by "Witchfinder". In his regular column in "The Listener", Bennett explained how he felt horror films should always be "punctuated by belly laughs" and attacked Reeves's completely humourless film as "the most persistently sadistic and morally rotten film I have seen. It was a degrading experience by which I mean it made me feel dirty."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Although Reeves was infuriated, his response indicated that he believed Bennett's reaction was proof that his decision to include such extreme violence was the correct approach to the material. In his letter published in "The Listener", Reeves commented: "Surely the most immoral thing in any form of entertainment is the conditioning of the audience to accept and enjoy violence … Violence is horrible, degrading and sordid. Insofar as one is going to show it on the screen at all, it should be presented as such—and the more people it shocks into sickened recognition of these facts the better. I wish I could have witnessed Mr. Bennett frantically attempting to wash away the 'dirty' feeling my film gave him. It would have been proof of the fact that "Witchfinder General" works as intended."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: AIP heads Arkoff and Nicholson had originally contributed their portion of the budget as a tax write-off, but when they were screened the completed film they were astonished by its quality. Nicholson told Louis Heyward, "It is one of the best we have gotten from England. Everybody thinks this is about the best production in the Poe series for the past few years." Arkoff noted that "Michael Reeves brought out some elements in Vincent that hadn't been seen in a long time. Vincent was more savage in the picture. Michael really brought out the balls in him. I was surprised how terrifying Vincent was in that … I hadn't expected it."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In the US, the film was not subject to any censorship at all, and was released virtually intact to AIP's usual mix of drive-ins and grindhouses on a double bill with "The Young, the Evil and the Savage" (1968). However, in an attempt to link the film with Roger Corman's earlier Edgar Allan Poe series of films, it was retitled "The Conqueror Worm". Brief prologue and epilogue narrations (by Price) taken from Poe's poem were added to justify the new title. As Danny Peary noted in his "Cult Movies" book, the film went nearly unnoticed by critics during its US release: "The few snoozing trade reviewers who saw it treated it as just another entry in AIP's Edgar Allan Poe series … and gave it such dismal notices that future bookings were scarce".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Of those who did see it, "Hollywood Citizen News" was appalled by the film: "A disgrace to the producers and scripters, and a sad commentary on the art of filmmaking … a film with such bestial brutality and orgiastic sadism, one wonders how it ever passed customs to be released in this country". The trade journal "Box Office" noted that: "Fans of the horror film will be glad to know that Vincent Price is back to add another portrait to his gallery of arch-fiends … bathed in the most stomach-churning gore imaginable …" "Variety" opined that "Dwyer gives evidence of acting talent, but she and all principals are hampered by Michael Reeves's mediocre script and ordinary direction".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In a more favourable notice written for "The New York Times", Renata Adler expressed that the film featured "any number of attractive young aspiring stars who seem to have been cast … mainly for their ability to scream. … Price has a good time as a materialistic witch-hunter and woman-disfigurer and dismemberer…. There are lines like, "Take three good men and ride into East Anglia", through which a man behind me snored and a middle-aged couple next to him quarreled viciously, but people woke up for the action and particularly cheered when Price was hacked to death". Despite the lack of critical support, the film was a modest success stateside, earning $1.5 million for AIP according to "Cinefantastique" magazine. In his biography of Reeves, Benjamin Halligan claims the film made $10 million in the US.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Very soon after its initial release in the spring of 1968, several critics began championing the film in the UK and US. Robin Wood wrote that ""Witchfinder General" is certainly [Reeves'] most successfully achieved work … what one is immediately struck by is the assurance and intensity of what is on the screen… the English countryside is felt as a real presence: it is difficult to think of other films in which it has been used so sensitively and meaningfully. With it is associated Paul Ferris' theme-music, which suggests a traditional air without being actual quotation. Against the peace and fertility of nature is set the depravity of men."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: David Pirie, who wrote extensively and enthusiastically about the film in his 1973 book "A Heritage of Horror", reviewed the film in 1971 for "Time Out", commenting: "one of the most personal and mature statements in the history of British cinema … The performances are generally excellent, and no film before or since has used the British countryside in quite the same way". Danny Peary said, ""The Conqueror Worm" is a stunning film in many ways, but probably Reeves's greatest achievement is that he was able to maintain an extraordinary momentum throughout, until the film ends as it began, with a woman (this time Sara) screaming."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In 2000, Derek Malcolm included "Witchfinder General" as part of his series "The Century of Films", a list of what he considered to be the one hundred most "artistically or culturally important" films of the 20th Century. Malcolm asserted that it "is one of the most compulsively watchable ever made in Britain" and "transcends its genre with the sheer panache of its making". In 2005, J. Hoberman of the "Village Voice" stated that the film "has long been a cult item—in part because its talented 25-year-old director, Michael Reeves, died of a drug overdose before the film's release, but mainly because it is an extraordinarily bleak story of political evil … Reeves shot on location and the movie has a robust autumnal quality perfectly matched by Price's overripe performance … it remains contemporary, and even frightening, in its evocation of cynical Puritanism and mass deception."


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: A contrary assessment came from Alex Cox, who in his introduction to the film in a 1992 episode of BBC2's "Moviedrome", praised Price's performance as being "untroubled" by his American accent, but otherwise described the film as a "fairly routine Price horror film with none of the excessive genius of the Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe films", finding its violence to be "relatively tame" compared to the "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" films.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Writer Mark Thomas McGee said that "Witchfinder General" "did fantastic business and kicked off a second wave of Edgar Allan Poe movies" produced by American International Pictures. For example, Gordon Hessler's "The Oblong Box" starred Price and was originally scheduled to be directed by Reeves, but was handed over to Hessler after Reeves bowed out a week prior to production. Hessler's "Cry of the Banshee" (1970), which featured Price and Dwyer, was also advertised as being associated with Poe; it was dismissed by AllMovie as "a rehashing of "Witchfinder General"".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: According to AIP's Louis Heyward, "Witchfinder General" "was very successful in Germany—it was the most successful of the violence pictures—it started a vogue". Similar films fully or partially financed by German production companies included "Mark of the Devil" (1970), with Herbert Lom and Udo Kier; "The Bloody Judge" (1970), directed by Jesus Franco and starring Christopher Lee; and "Hexen geschändet und zu Tode gequält" (1973), released in the U.S. years later on video as "Mark of the Devil Part II".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Tigon's own "The Blood on Satan's Claw" (1970) was produced "as a successor, in spirit if not in story" to "Witchfinder General", and borrowed Reeves's usage of "the usually tranquil English countryside as a place of terror". Mark Gatiss has referred to the film as a prime example of a short-lived subgenre he called "folk horror", grouping it with "Satan's Claw" and "The Wicker Man".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: Some critics maintain that Ken Russell's "The Devils" (1971) was influenced by Reeves's film, with one writer calling Russell's film "the apex of the 'historical' witch-persecution films started by "Witchfinder General"". However, Russell said that he hated Reeves's film, describing it as "one of the worst movies I have ever seen and certainly the most nauseous".


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: The film was the inspiration for a BBC Radio 4 play "Vincent Price and The Horror of The English Blood Beast" by Matthew Broughton, first broadcast in March 2010.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: In 2016, director Nicolas Winding Refn and distributor Rupert Preston obtained the remake rights to "Witchfinder General". In 2019, John Hillcoat was announced as the director for the remake.


title: Witchfinder General (film)

text: While some reviewers have praised the film for its ostensible "historical accuracy", others have strongly questioned its adherence to historical fact. Malcolm Gaskill, fellow and former Director of Studies in history at Churchill College, Cambridge, and author of "Witchfinders: A 17th-Century English Tragedy", critiqued the film for the Channel 4 History website, calling it "a travesty of historical truth" while acknowledging that "there is much to be said in favour of "Witchfinder General"—but as a film, not as history". Based purely on its level of historical accuracy, Gaskill gave the film "3 stars" on a scale of 0–10.