title: Axial Age

text: The historical validity of the Axial Age is disputed. Some criticisms of Jasper's include the lack of a demonstrable common denominator between the intellectual developments that are supposed to have developed in unison across ancient Greece, Israel, India, and China; lack of any radical discontinuity with "preaxial" and "postaxial" periods; and exclusion of pivotal figures that do not fit the definition (for example, Jesus, Muhammad, and Akhenaten). Despite these criticisms, the Axial Age continues to be an influential idea, with many scholars accepting that profound changes in religious and philosophical discourse did indeed take place but disagreeing as to the underlying reasons. To quote Robert Bellah and Hans Joas, "The notion that in significant parts of Eurasia the middle centuries of the first millennium BC mark a significant transition in human cultural history, and that this period can be referred to as the Axial Age, has become widely, but not universally, accepted."


title: Axial Age

text: Jaspers introduced the concept of an Axial Age in his book ("The Origin and Goal of History"), published in 1949. The simultaneous appearance of thinkers and philosophers in different areas of the world had been remarked by numerous authors since the 18th century, notably by the French Indologist Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron. Jaspers explicitly cited some of these authors, including Victor von Strauß (1859) and Ernst von Lasaulx (1870). He was unaware of the first fully nuanced theory from 1873 by John Stuart Stuart-Glennie, forgotten by Jaspers' time, and which Stuart-Glennie termed "the moral revolution". Stuart-Glennie and Jaspers both claimed that the Axial Age should be viewed as an objective empirical fact of history, independently of religious considerations. Jaspers argued that during the Axial Age, "the spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently in China, India, Persia, Judea, and Greece. And these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today."


title: Axial Age

text: Jaspers identified a number of key thinkers as having had a profound influence on future philosophies and religions, and identified characteristics common to each area from which those thinkers emerged. Jaspers held up this age as unique and one to which the rest of the history of human thought might be compared.


title: Axial Age

text: Jaspers described the Axial Age as "an interregnum between two ages of great empire, a pause for liberty, a deep breath bringing the most lucid consciousness". It has also been suggested that the Axial Age was a historically liminal period, when old certainties had lost their validity and new ones were still not ready.


title: Axial Age

text: Jaspers had a particular interest in the similarities in circumstance and thought of its figures. Similarities included an engagement in the quest for human meaning and the rise of a new elite class of religious leaders and thinkers in China, India and the Mediterranean.


title: Axial Age

text: These spiritual foundations were laid by individual thinkers within a framework of a changing social environment. Jaspers argues that the characteristics appeared under similar political circumstances: China, India, the Middle East and the Occident each comprised multiple small states engaged in internal and external struggles.


title: Axial Age

text: The three regions all gave birth to, and then institutionalized, a tradition of travelling scholars, who roamed from city to city to exchange ideas. After the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, Taoism and Confucianism emerged in China. In other regions, the scholars were largely from extant religious traditions; in India, from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism; in Persia, from Zoroastrianism; in the Levant, from Judaism; and in Greece, from Sophism and other classical philosophies.


title: Axial Age

text: Many of the cultures of the axial age were considered second-generation societies because they were built on the societies which preceded them.


title: Axial Age

text: In China, the Hundred Schools of Thought (c. 6th century BCE) were in contention and Confucianism and Taoism arose during this era, and in this area it remains a profound influence on social and religious life.


title: Axial Age

text: Zoroastrianism, another of Jaspers' examples, is one of the first monotheistic religions. William W. Malandra and R. C. Zaehner, suggest that Zoroaster may indeed have been an early contemporary of Cyrus the Great living around 550 BCE. Mary Boyce and other leading scholars who once supported much earlier dates for Zarathustra/Zoroaster have recently changed their position on the time when he likely lived, so that there is an emerging consensus regarding him as a contemporary or near-contemporary of Cyrus the Great.


title: Axial Age

text: Jainism propagated the religion of sramanas (previous Tirthankaras) and influenced Indian philosophy by propounding the principles of ahimsa (non-violence), karma, samsara, and asceticism. Mahavira (24th Tirthankara in the 5th century BCE), known as a fordmaker of Jainism and a contemporary with the Buddha, lived during this age.


title: Axial Age

text: Buddhism, also of the sramana tradition of India, was another of the world's most influential philosophies, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha, who lived c. 5th century BCE; its spread was aided by Ashoka, who lived late in the period.


title: Axial Age

text: Jaspers' axial shifts included the rise of Platonism (c. 4th century BCE) and Neoplatonism (3rd century AD), which would later become a major influence on the Western world through both Christianity and secular thought throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.


title: Axial Age

text: In addition to Jaspers, the philosopher Eric Voegelin referred to this age as "The Great Leap of Being", constituting a new spiritual awakening and a shift of perception from societal to individual values. Thinkers and teachers like the Buddha, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Anaxagoras contributed to such awakenings which Plato would later call "anamnesis", or a remembering of things forgotten.


title: Axial Age

text: David Christian notes that the first "universal religions" appeared in the age of the first universal empires and of the first all-encompassing trading networks. This conclusion overlooks the fact that Venus statues, for example, are found across much of Eurasia, and date back many millenia before the first empires. What some regard as the emergence of religion is more likely the emergence of institutionalized and codified religion.


title: Axial Age

text: Anthropologist David Graeber has pointed out that "the core period of Jasper's Axial age ... corresponds almost exactly to the period in which coinage was invented. What's more, the three parts of the world where coins were first invented were also the very parts of the world where those sages lived; in fact, they became the epicenters of Axial Age religious and philosophical creativity." Drawing on the work of classicist Richard Seaford and literary theorist Marc Shell on the relation between coinage and early Greek thought, Graeber argues that an understanding of the rise of markets is necessary to grasp the context in which the religious and philosophical insights of the Axial age arose. The ultimate effect of the introduction of coinage was, he argues, an "ideal division of spheres of human activity that endures to this day: on the one hand the market, on the other, religion".


title: Axial Age

text: German sociologist Max Weber played an important role in Jaspers' thinking. Shmuel Eisenstadt argues in the introduction to "The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations" that Weber's work in his "", "" and "Ancient Judaism" provided a background for the importance of the period, and notes parallels with Eric Voegelin's "Order and History". Wider acknowledgement of Jaspers' work came after it was presented at a conference and published in "Daedalus" in 1975, and Jaspers' suggestion that the period was uniquely transformative generated important discussion among other scholars, such as Johann Arnason. In literature, Gore Vidal in his novel "Creation" covers much of this Axial Age through the fictional perspective of a Persian adventurer.


title: Axial Age

text: Religious historian Karen Armstrong explored the period in her book "The Great Transformation", and the theory has been the focus of numerous academic conferences.


title: Axial Age

text: Usage of the term has expanded beyond Jaspers' original formulation. Yves Lambert argues that the Enlightenment was a Second Axial Age, including thinkers such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, wherein relationships between religion, secularism, and traditional thought are changing.


title: Axial Age

text: In 2006 Diarmaid MacCulloch called the Jaspers thesis "a baggy monster, which tries to bundle up all sorts of diversities over four very different civilisations, only two of which had much contact with each other during the six centuries that (after adjustments) he eventually singled out, between 800 and 200 BCE".


title: Axial Age

text: In 2013, another comprehensive critique appears in Iain Provan's book "Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World That Never Was".


title: Axial Age

text: In 2018, contrary to Suzuki and Provan, and similar to Whitaker, Stephen Sanderson published another book dealing somewhat with the axial age and its religious contributions, arguing that religions and religious change in general are essentially biosocial adaptations to changing environments.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marxian class theory asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position. A class is those who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests, and engage in collective action which advances those interests. Within Marxian class theory, the structure of the production process forms the basis of class construction.


title: Marxian class theory

text: To Marx, a class is a group with intrinsic tendencies and interests that differ from those of other groups within society, the basis of a fundamental antagonism between such groups. For example, it is in the laborer's best interest to maximize wages and benefits and in the capitalist's best interest to maximize profit at the expense of such, leading to a contradiction within the capitalist system, even if the laborers and capitalists themselves are unaware of the clash of interests.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marxian class theory has been open to a range of alternate positions, most notably from scholars such as E. P. Thompson and Mario Tronti. Both Thompson and Tronti suggest class consciousness within the production process precedes the formation of productive relationships. In this sense, Marxian class theory often relates to discussion over pre-existing class struggles.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Karl Marx's class theory derives from a range of philosophical schools of thought including left Hegelianism, Scottish Empiricism, and Anglo-French political-economics. Marx's view of class originated from a series of personal interests relating to social alienation and human struggle, whereby the formation of class structure relates to acute historical consciousness. Political-economics also contributed to Marx's theories, centering on the concept of "origin of income" where society is divided into three sub-groups: Rentiers, Capitalist, and Worker. This construction is based on David Ricardo's theory of capitalism. Marx strengthened this with a discussion over verifiable class relationships.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marx sought to define class as embedded in productive relations rather than social status. His political and economic thought developed towards an interest in production as opposed to distribution, and this henceforth became a central theme in his concept of class.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marx distinguishes one class from another on the basis of two criteria: ownership of the means of production and control of the labor power of others. From this, Marx states "Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other":


title: Marxian class theory

text: II. Workers, or proletariat, do not own any means of production or the ability to purchase the labor power of others. Rather, they sell their own labor power.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Class is thus determined by property relations, not by income or status. These factors are determined by distribution and consumption, which mirror the production and power relations of classes.


title: Marxian class theory

text: The Manifesto of the Communist Party describes two additional classes that “decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry”:


title: Marxian class theory

text: III. A small, transitional class known as the petite bourgeoisie own sufficient means of production but do not purchase labor power. Marx's Communist Manifesto fails to properly define the petite bourgeoisie beyond “smaller capitalists” (Marx and Engels, 1848, 25).


title: Marxian class theory

text: IV. The “dangerous class”, or Lumpenproletariat, “the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society.”


title: Marxian class theory

text: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles… Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstruction of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes... The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.” – Communist Manifesto


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marx established conflict as the key driving force of history and the main determinant of social trajectories (Kingston). However, in order to understand the nature of “class conflict,” we must first understand that such conflict arises from a unified class interest, also known as class consciousness. Class consciousness is an aspect of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of social classes, the capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Moreover, by definition, the objective interests of classes are fundamentally in opposition; consequently, these opposing interests and consciousnesses eventually lead to class conflict.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marx first saw the development of class conflict confined to individual factories and capitalists. However, given the maturation of capitalism, the life conditions of bourgeoisie and proletariat began to grow more disparate. This increased polarization and homogenization within classes fostered an environment for individual struggles to become more generalized. When increasing class conflict is manifested at the societal level, class consciousness and common interests are also increased. Consequently, when class consciousness is augmented, policies are organized to ensure the duration of such interest for the ruling class. Here begins the use of the struggle for political power and classes become political forces.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Since the distribution of political power is determined by power over production, or power over capital, it is no surprise that the bourgeois class uses their wealth to legitimatize and protect their property and consequent social relations. Thus the ruling class is those who hold the economic power and make the decisions (Dahrendorf).


title: Marxian class theory

text: In Marxist theory, the capitalist stage of production consists of two main classes: the bourgeoisie, the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat (or 'working class') who must sell their own labour power (See also: wage labour). This is the fundamental economic structure of work and property (See also: wage labour), a state of inequality that is normalised and reproduced through cultural ideology. Thus the proletariat, in itself, is forced into a subservient position by the power of capital, which has stripped the means of production from them. As the proletariat becomes conscious of its situation and power, organizes itself, and takes collective political action it becomes a class for itself which has the revolutionary potential to become the ruling class.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Max Weber critiqued historical materialism, positing that stratification is not based purely on economic inequalities but on other status and power differentials. Social class pertaining broadly to material wealth may be distinguished from status class based on honour, prestige, religious affiliation, and so on. The conditions of capitalism and its class system came together due to a variety of "elective affinities".


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marxists explain the history of "civilized" societies in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who produce the goods or services in society. In the Marxist view of capitalism, this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (the proletariat). For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods—in capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which: "..the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (Communist Manifesto) This would mark the beginning of a classless society in which human needs rather than profit would be motive for production. In a society with democratic control and production for use, there would be no class, no state and no need for money.


title: Marxian class theory

text: The first criterion divides a society into the owners and non-owners of means of production. In capitalism, these are capitalist (bourgeoisie) and proletariat. Finer divisions can be made, however: the most important subgroup in capitalism being petite bourgeoisie (small bourgeoisie), people who possess their own means of production but utilize it primarily by working on it themselves rather than hiring others to work on it. They include self-employed artisans, small shopkeepers, and many professionals. Jon Elster has found mention in Marx of 15 classes from various historical periods.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Vladimir Lenin has defined classes as "large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organization of labor, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it."


title: Marxian class theory

text: The most important transformation of society for Marxists has been the massive and rapid growth of the proletariat over the last two hundred and fifty years. Starting with agricultural and domestic textile laborers in England and Flanders, more and more occupations only provide a living through wages or salaries. Private manufacturing, leading to self-employment, is no longer as viable as it was before the industrial revolution, because automation made manufacturing very cheap. Many people who once controlled their own labor-time were converted into proletarians through industrialization. Today groups which in the past subsisted on stipends or private wealth—like doctors, academics or lawyers—are now increasingly working as wage laborers. Marxists call this process proletarianization, and point to it as the major factor in the proletariat being the largest class in current societies in the rich countries of the "first world."


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marx predicts revolution in capitalist society into socialist society because of eventual discontent. The socialization of labor, in the growth of large-scale production, capitalist interest groups and organizations, as well as in the enormous increase in the dimensions and power of finance capital provides the principal material foundation for the unavoidable arrival of socialism. The physical, intellectual and moral perpetrator of this transformation is the proletariat. The proletariat's struggle against the bourgeoisie inevitably becomes a political struggle with the goal of political conquest by the proletariat. With the domination of the proletariat, the socialization of production cannot help but lead to the means of production to become the property of society. The direct consequences of this transformation are a drop in labor productivity, a shorter working day, and the replacement of small-scale unified production by collective and improved labor conditions.


title: Marxian class theory

text: Capitalism breaks for all time the ties between producer and owner, once held by the bond of class conflict. Now a new union will be formed based on the conscious application of science and the concentration of collective labor.


title: Marxian class theory

text: He also extended this redistribution to the structure of power in families. Marx imagined that with socialism women's status would increase, leading to the break-up of the patriarchal family.


title: Marxian class theory

text: "Modern industry, by assigning as it does, an important part in the socially organized process of production, outside the domestic sphere, to women, to young persons, and to children of both sexes, creates a new economic foundation for a higher form of the family and of the relations between the sexes… Moreover, it is obvious that the fact of the collective working group being composed of individuals of both sexes and all ages, must necessarily, under suitable conditions, become a source of human development; although in its spontaneously developed, brutal, capitalistic form, where the laborer exists for the process of production, and not the process of production for the laborer, that fact is a pestiferous source of corruption and slavery." (Capital, Vol. I, Chapter 13).


title: Marxian class theory

text: Marxism has a rather heavily defined dialectic between objective factors (i.e., material conditions, the social structure) and subjective factors (i.e. the conscious organization of class members). While most forms of Marxism analyses sees people's class based on objective factors (class structure), major Marxist trends have made greater use of subjective factors in understanding the history of the working class. E.P. Thompson's "The Making of the English Working Class" is a definitive example of this "subjective" Marxist trend. Thompson analyses the English working class as a group of people with shared material conditions coming to a positive self-consciousness of their social position. This feature of social class is commonly termed class consciousness in Marxism, a concept which became famous with Georg Lukács' "History and Class Consciousness" (1923). It is seen as the process of a "class in itself" moving in the direction of a "class for itself", a collective agent that changes history rather than simply being a victim of the historical process. In Lukács' words, the proletariat was the "subject–object of history", and the first class which could separate false consciousness (inherent to the bourgeois's consciousness), which reified economic laws as universal (whereas they are only a consequence of historic capitalism).


title: Marxian class theory

text: Globalization theorists, such as William I. Robinson, Leslie Sklair, Kees Van Der Pijl, and Jerry Harris, argue that today a transnational capitalist class has emerged.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: Guggenheim Partners is a global investment and advisory financial services firm that engages in investment banking, asset management, capital markets services, and insurance services.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: The firm is headquartered in New York City and Chicago. It has more than $325 billion of assets under management. The firm's CEO is Mark Walter.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: Guggenheim Partners provides services across asset management, investment banking, and broker dealer services including capital markets. Guggenheim Investment Advisors oversees about $50 billion in assets.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In October 2009, Guggenheim hired former J.P. Morgan head of Media Investment Banking Mark Van Lith as Senior Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking and former Apollo Global Management director and vice chairman Henry Silverman as vice chairman of asset management.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In January 2013, Guggenheim named former Yahoo! interim CEO Ross Levinsohn as CEO of private equity unit Guggenheim Digital Media.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In May & June 2013, the firm also hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s co-head of U.S. leveraged finance capital markets Tom Stein, former Barclays head of retail investment banking and vice chairman Andrew Taussig, as well as managing directors Spencer Hart, Matthew Pilla, Ken Harada and Ryan Mash.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In September 2013, Guggenheim Securities was named a financial adviser to Verizon in connection with its $130 billion acquisition of Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In March 2014, Guggenheim Securities hired Eric Mandl as a Senior Managing Director focusing on Technology, Media and Telecom Investment Banking.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, the investment arm of Guggenheim Partners, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with failure to disclose a $50 million loan made in 2010 to a senior executive from a client. The firm paid $20 million in 2015 to settle the charges. The government agency also found that Guggenheim's compliance program did not prevent violations of federal securities laws. According to the SEC, the firm's employees did not report dozens of trips on clients' private airplanes and had overbilled a client $6.5 million in fees, taking nearly two years to reimburse them.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: On December 17, 2015, it was reported that the company would spin out its media properties into a new holding company, Eldridge Industries, owned by an investment group led by Guggenheim president Todd Boehly, consisting of Mediabistro, "Billboard" and "The Hollywood Reporter", and Dick Clark Productions.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In April 2018, Invesco Ltd. announced that it completed its previously announced acquisition of Guggenheim Investments’ exchange-traded funds (ETF) business, which consisted of $38.8 billion of assets under management (as of Feb. 28, 2018) for $1.2 billion in cash.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In October 2018, Guggenheim Securities was named the lead financial adviser to Red Hat in connection with its $34 billion sale to IBM. The Red Hat sale was, at the time, the largest software transaction in history.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In September 2019, Donini was named to the additional role of Chief Operating Officer of Guggenheim Partners and Andrew Rosenfield, a managing partner, was appointed president. Also in September 2019, Guggenheim hired former Deputy United States Attorney and Director of the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission Robert S. Khuzami as a Managing Partner and Chief Legal Officer. In the private sector Khuzami was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and worked at Deutsche Bank AG, including as General Counsel for the Americas.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In May 2009, Guggenheim Partners acquired a controlling interest in financial services firm Transparent Value LLC. In July 2009, it acquired Claymore Group, a firm known for its Exchange-traded funds and unit investment trusts. In December 2009, Guggenheim acquired a division of Wellmark and renamed it Guggenheim Life & Annuity. In February 2010, Guggenheim Partners acquired Security Benefit Corp, parent company of Rydex Funds. In October 2011, it acquired the life insurance company EquiTrust from FBL Financial Group. In 2012, Guggenheim affiliates acquired the US annuities business of Canadian insurers Industrial Alliance and Sun Life Financial.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In July 2014, Guggenheim announced the launch of a representative office in Tokyo and the hiring of Atsuhito Sakai as Senior Managing Director and Guggenheim’s Representative in Japan. Also in 2014, the firm acquired the London operations of Lazard Capital Markets. Guggenheim Securities expanded its investment banking business in July 2019 in Chicago with the hiring of two senior bankers from William Blair’s technology group, James Suprenant and Scott Stevens.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: That September, Guggenheim bought a stake in the entertainment production company Dick Clark Productions, which produces specials such as the "American Music Awards" and the "Golden Globe Awards" and other television programming.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In January 2013, the company bought out the remainder of the business-to-business media company Prometheus Global Media and acquired CardCash in November of the same year. In February 2014, Guggenheim Partners acquired the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.


title: Guggenheim Partners

text: In November 2021, it was reported that Guggenheim Investments, alongside the actor Channing Tatum and fellow investment company Endeavor, had agreed to backstop the planned $1 billion merger between Los Angeles-based blank-check firm Bright Lights and Manscaped.


title: Ron Clements

text: Ronald Francis Clements (born April 25, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director John Musker and is best known for writing and directing the Disney films "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986), "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "Aladdin" (1992), "Hercules" (1997), "Treasure Planet" (2002), "The Princess and the Frog" (2009), and "Moana" (2016).


title: Ron Clements

text: Clements began his career as an animator for Hanna-Barbera. After a few months there, he was accepted into Disney's Talent Development Program, an animator training ground and workshop. After that, he served a two-year apprenticeship with famed animator Frank Thomas, a supervising animator of Disney films such as "Peter Pan" (1953), "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), and "The Aristocats" (1970). Clements made his feature debut as a character animator on "The Rescuers" and "Pete's Dragon" in 1977. In 1981, he became the supervising animator on "The Fox and the Hound". Future partner John Musker worked as a character animator under him, and Clements later teamed up with Musker as story artists on "The Black Cauldron" before they were removed from the project. In 1982, Clements proposed adapting the children's book series "Basil of Baker Street" by Eve Titus into an animated feature and, along with story artist Pete Young, it was pitched to Ron Miller. Because the animators were displeased with the direction of "The Black Cauldron" was heading, "Basil of Baker Street" was approved as an alternative project. Burny Mattinson and Musker were assigned as the original directors while Dave Michener was brought in as an additional director. Due to a shortened production schedule and multiple story rewrites, Roy E. Disney assigned Mattinson to serve as director/producer while Clements was brought in as another director.


title: Ron Clements

text: While working on "The Great Mouse Detective", newly appointed Disney CEO and chairman Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg issued invitations to the animation staff for their first held "gong show" session. Demanding only five new ideas, Clements went to a bookstore and discovered Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid". Clements wrote and presented a two-page treatment of "Mermaid" to Disney Studios Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg at a "gong show" idea suggestion meeting, as well as conceptualized the idea of "Treasure Planet". At the gong show session, "Mermaid" was rejected for its similarities to "Splash" while "Planet" was rejected by Eisner because Paramount Pictures was developing a "Star Trek" sequel with a "Treasure Island" angle (that went eventually unproduced). The next morning, Katzenberg approached Clements and asked him to expand his initial treatment. With "Mermaid" in production in 1986, Clements and Musker were later joined by Off-Broadway musical composers Howard Ashman and Alan Menken who collaborated on the song and musical score. Released in November 1989, "The Little Mermaid" was praised as a milestone in rebirth of Disney animation by film critics and collected a domestic gross of $84 million, cumulatively receiving $184.2 million worldwide. When work on "Mermaid" was wrapped, Clements and Musker re-developed their idea for "Treasure Planet", but the studio still expressed disinterest. Instead, the two directors were offered three projects in development: "Swan Lake", "King of the Jungle", and "Aladdin". The directors chose "Aladdin" because they thought the story would suit a wackier, faster-paced, and more contemporary mood than that found in then-recent Disney animated films.


title: Ron Clements

text: Working from Ashman and Menken's treatment and musical score, the two delivered a story reel to Katzenberg in April 1991, which was strongly disapproved of. Jettisoning multiple characters and story ideas and adding Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio as co-screenwriters, the production team restructured the entire story in eight days. Released in November 1992, "Aladdin" received positive reviews from critics, and became the first animated film to gross over $200 million domestically. Following work on "Aladdin", Clements, along with Musker, resumed their work on "Treasure Planet", which was again turned down by Katzenberg in 1993, who disapproved of setting the adaptation of a classic adventure tale in outer space. A deal was struck with the two directors to create another commercial film before he would approve "Treasure Planet". Rejecting projects in development such as "Don Quixote", "The Odyssey", and "Around the World in Eighty Days", they were later informed of animator Joe Haidar's pitch for a "Hercules" feature, and signed onto the project. During production on "Hercules", in 1995, Clements and Musker signed a seven-year contract deal with the studio which stipulated following "Hercules", the studio would produce "Treasure Planet" or another project of their choosing.


title: Ron Clements

text: "Treasure Planet" was eventually approved for production and subsequently released in 2002 to mixed critical reception. The film performed poorly at the box office, costing $140 million to create while earning only $38 million in the United States and Canada and just shy of $110 million worldwide. Despite this, it was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, marking his first Academy Award nomination.


title: Ron Clements

text: Following "Treasure Planet", Clements and Musker later inherited "Fraidy Cat", which was originally a project developed by Dutch animation director Piet Kroon. However, David Stainton, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, refused to green-light the project, which was followed with Clements and Musker's resignation from Disney in September 2005. When John Lasseter was appointed chief creative officer over Disney Feature Animation in February 2006, he invited Clements and Musker back to Disney to oversee production on "The Frog Princess", and were officially confirmed as directors in the following July. Later re-titled "The Princess and the Frog", the film received positive reviews and grossed $267 million worldwide.


title: Ron Clements

text: After directing "The Princess and the Frog", Clements and Musker started working on an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's "Mort", but obtaining the film rights prevented them from continuing with the project. To avoid similar problems, they pitched three new ideas, where by 2011, the two directors started developing the film based on an original idea. In late 2012, the duo announced that they will be directing a new film in the future, but they have their lips sealed for the title, the plot, and the animation style. In July 2013, it was revealed that the film, titled "Moana", would be "a Polynesian tale involving the island folk and the idols made famous the world over". On November 10, 2014, Disney confirmed "Moana" would be released on November 23, 2016.


title: Organized Noize

text: Organized Noize is an American production team from Atlanta, Georgia composed of Rico Wade, Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown.


title: Organized Noize

text: Among the hit records they have worked on include TLC's "Waterfalls", En Vogue's "Don't Let Go (Love)", and Ludacris' "Saturday (Oooh! Ooooh!)". They are most notable for producing a large amount of material for Outkast (including all of "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" and "So Fresh, So Clean" from "Stankonia") and Goodie Mob (including all of "Soul Food" and "They Don't Dance No Mo" from "Still Standing"). Both groups are part of Organized Noize's Dungeon Family collective, which also includes Slimm Cutta Calhoun and Joi, among others. In an interview with "Billboard", Big Boi of Outkast explained that Organized Noize helped them early on in the music business, saying, "They were our big brothers, and they did a production deal with LaFace Records. They were the ones that gave us our first shot and we been doing music with them since the beginning."


title: Organized Noize

text: They also contributed on the soundtrack of the 1996 critically acclaimed heist film "Set It Off". In 2006, they contributed additional music to the film "Miami Vice". In 2010 they produced several songs on the critically acclaimed Island/Def Jam solo debut from Big Boi titled "". In 2011, they produced the album "Nappy Dot Org" for Nappy Roots.


title: Organized Noize

text: The documentary feature "The Art of Organized Noize" premiered on Netflix on March 22, 2016. The documentary, directed by Quincy Jones III, details the formation of the group, who met through Tionne Watkins of TLC, and the early days of their Dungeon Family collective.


title: Organized Noize

text: On May 5, 2017, Organized Noize released an eponymous, seven-song EP, which had been in production for over 20 years. Ahead of the official EP release, the track "Kush" was released on April 20, 2017. The project was generally well-received, with Cult MTL writer Mr. Wavvy calling it "an enjoyable listen for any fans of the original Dungeon Family/Dirty South movement."


title: Organized Noize

text: Organized Noize are credited with jumpstarting the rise of Southern hip-hop in the early-to-mid 1990s. The group has been described as being, "the...production team behind some of the greatest songs ever," and "one of the most respected production teams in rap history," by "NPR" and "Spin" respectively. "Billboard" has stated that Organized Noize "pioneered the Dirty South sound."


title: Jo Stafford

text: Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music, and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist. Her 1952 song "You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, becoming the second single to top the UK Singles Chart, and the first by a female artist to do so.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Born in remote oil-rich Coalinga, California, near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, Stafford made her first musical appearance at age 12. While still at high school, she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named the Stafford Sisters, who found moderate success on radio and in film. In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox's production of "Alexander's Ragtime Band", Stafford met the future members of the Pied Pipers and became the group's lead singer. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey hired them in 1939 to perform vocals with his orchestra. From 1940 to 1942, the group often performed with Dorsey’s new male singer, Frank Sinatra.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In addition to her singing with the Pied Pipers, Stafford was featured in solo performances with Dorsey. After leaving the group in 1944, she recorded a series of pop songs now regarded as standards for Capitol Records and Columbia Records. Many of her recordings were backed by the orchestra of Paul Weston. She also performed duets with Gordon MacRae and Frankie Laine. Her work with the United Service Organizations giving concerts for soldiers during World War II earned her the nickname "G.I. Jo". Starting in 1945, Stafford was a regular host of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio series "The Chesterfield Supper Club" and later appeared in television specialsincluding two series called "The Jo Stafford Show", in 1954 in the U.S. and in 1961 in the UK.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford married twice, first in 1937 to musician John Huddleston (the couple divorced in 1943), then in 1952 to Paul Weston, with whom she had two children. She and Weston developed a comedy routine in which they assumed the identity of an incompetent lounge act named Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, parodying well-known songs. The act proved popular at parties and among the wider public when the couple released an album as the Edwardses in 1957. In 1961, the album "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris" won Stafford her only Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, and was the first commercially successful parody album. Stafford largely retired as a performer in the mid-1960s, but continued in the music business. She had a brief resurgence in popularity in the late 1970s when she recorded a cover of the Bee Gees hit, "Stayin' Alive" as Darlene Edwards. In the 1990s, she began re-releasing some of her material through Corinthian Records, a label founded by Weston. She died in 2008 in Century City, Los Angeles, and is interred with Weston at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. Her work in radio, television, and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born in Coalinga, California, in 1917, to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna Stafford (née York)a second cousin of World War I hero Sergeant Alvin York. She was the third of four children. She had two older sisters, Christine and Pauline, and one younger sister, Betty. Both her parents enjoyed singing and sharing music with their family. Stafford's father hoped for success in the California oil fields when he moved his family from Gainesboro, Tennessee, but worked in a succession of unrelated jobs. Her mother was an accomplished banjo player, playing and singing many of the folk songs that influenced Stafford's later career. Anna insisted that her children should take piano lessons, but Jo was the only one among her sisters who took a keen interest in it, and through this, she learned to read music.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford's first public singing appearance was in Long Beach, where the family lived when she was 12. She sang "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms", a Stafford family favorite. Her second was far more dramatic. As a student at Long Beach Polytechnic High School with the lead in the school musical, she was rehearsing on stage when the 1933 Long Beach earthquake destroyed part of the school. With her mother's encouragement, Stafford originally planned to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child, taking private lessons from Foster Rucker, an announcer on California radio station KNX. Because of the Great Depression, she abandoned that idea and joined her older sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group the Stafford Sisters. The two older Staffords were already part of a trio with an unrelated third member when the act got a big booking at Long Beach's West Coast Theater. Pauline was too ill to perform, and Jo was drafted in to take her place so they could keep the engagement. She asked her glee club teacher for a week's absence from school, saying her mother needed her at home, and this was granted. The performance was a success, and Jo became a permanent member of the group.


title: Jo Stafford

text: The Staffords' first radio appearance was on Los Angeles station KHJ as part of "The Happy Go Lucky Hour" when Jo was 16, a role they secured after hopefuls at the audition were asked if they had their own musical accompanist(s). Christine Stafford said that Jo played piano, and the sisters were hired, though she had not previously given a public piano performance. The Staffords were subsequently heard on KNX's "The Singing Crockett Family of Kentucky", and "California Melodies", a network radio show aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System. While Stafford worked on "The Jack Oakie Show", she met John Huddlestona backing singer on the program, and they were married in October 1937. The couple divorced in 1943.


title: Jo Stafford

text: The sisters found work in the film industry as backup vocalists, and immediately after graduating from high school, Jo worked on film soundtracks. The Stafford Sisters made their first recording,"Let's Get Together and Swing" with Louis Prima, in 1936. In 1937, Jo worked behind the scenes with Fred Astaire on the soundtrack of "A Damsel in Distress", creating the arrangements for the film, and with her sisters she arranged the backing vocals for "Nice Work If You Can Get It". Stafford said that her arrangement had to be adapted because Astaire had difficulty with some of the syncopation. In her words: "The man with the syncopated shoes couldn't do the syncopated notes".


title: Jo Stafford

text: By 1938, the Staffords were involved with Twentieth Century Fox's production of "Alexander's Ragtime Band". The studio brought in many vocal groups to work on the film, including the Four Esquires, the Rhythm Kings, and the King Sisters, who began to sing and socialized between takes. The Stafford Sisters, the Four Esquires and the Rhythm Kings became a new vocal group called the Pied Pipers. Stafford later said, "We started singing together just for fun, and these sessions led to the formation of an eight-voice singing group that we christened 'The Pied Pipers. The group consisted of eight members, including StaffordJohn Huddleston, Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill.


title: Jo Stafford

text: As the Pied Pipers, they worked on local radio and movie soundtracks. When Alyce and Yvonne King threw a party for their boyfriends' visit to Los Angeles, the group was invited to perform. The King Sisters' boyfriends were Tommy Dorsey's arrangers Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston, who became interested in the group. Weston said the group's vocals were unique for its time and that their vocal arrangements were much like those for orchestral instruments.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Weston persuaded Dorsey to audition the group in 1938, and the eight drove together to New York City. Dorsey liked them and signed them for 10 weeks. After their second broadcast, the sponsor visiting from overseas heard the group sing "Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)". Until this point, the sponsor knew only that he was paying for Dorsey's program and that its ratings were very good; transcription discs mailed to him by his advertising agency always arrived broken. He thought that the performance was terrible, and pressured the advertising agency representing his brand to fire the group. They stayed in New York for several months, landing one job that paid them $3.60 each, and they recorded some material for RCA Victor Records. Weston later said that Stordahl and he felt responsibility for the group, since Weston had arranged their audition with Dorsey. After six months in New York and with no work there for them, the Pied Pipers returned to Los Angeles, where four of their members left the group to seek regular employment. Shortly afterwards, Stafford received a telephone call from Dorsey, who told her he wished to hire the group, but wanted only four of them, including Stafford. After she agreed to the offer, the remaining Pied PipersStafford, Huddleston, Lowry, and Wilsontraveled to Chicago in 1939. The decision led to success for the group, especially Stafford, who featured in both collective and solo performances with Dorsey's orchestra.


title: Jo Stafford

text: When Frank Sinatra joined the Dorsey band, the Pied Pipers provided backing vocals for his recordings. Their version of "I'll Never Smile Again" topped the "Billboard" Chart for 12 weeks in 1940 and helped to establish Sinatra as a singer. Stafford, Sinatra, and the Pied Pipers toured extensively with Dorsey during their three years as part of his orchestra, giving concerts at venues across the United States. Stafford made her first solo recording"Little Man with a Candy Cigar"in 1941, after Dorsey agreed to her request to record solo. Her public debut as a soloist with the band occurred at New York's Hotel Astor in May 1942. Bill Davidson of "Collier's" reported in 1951 that because Stafford weighed in excess of 180 lb, Dorsey was reluctant to give her a leading vocal role in his orchestra, believing she was not sufficiently glamorous for the part. However, Peter Levinson's 2005 biography of Dorsey offers a different account. Stafford recalls that she was overweight, but Dorsey did not try hiding her because of it.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In November 1942, the Pied Pipers had a disagreement with Dorsey when he fired Clark Yocum, a guitarist and vocalist who had replaced Billy Wilson in the lineup, when he mistakenly gave the bandleader misdirections at a railroad station in Portland, Oregon. The remaining three members then quit in an act of solidarity. At the time, the number-one song in the United States was "There Are Such Things" by Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers. Sinatra also left Dorsey that year. Following their departure from the orchestra, the Pied Pipers played a series of vaudeville dates in the Eastern United States; when they returned to California, they were signed to appear in the 1943 Universal Pictures movie "Gals Incorporated". From there, they joined the NBC Radio show "Bob Crosby and Company". In addition to working with Bob Crosby, they also appeared on radio shows hosted by Sinatra and Johnny Mercer, and were one of the first groups signed to Mercer's new label, Capitol Records, which was founded in 1942. Weston, who left Dorsey's band in 1940 to work with Dinah Shore, became music director at Capitol.


title: Jo Stafford

text: While Stafford was still working for Dorsey, Johnny Mercer told her, "Some day I'm going to have my own record company, and you're going to record for me." She subsequently became the first solo artist signed to Capitol after leaving the Pied Pipers in 1944. A key figure in helping Stafford to develop her solo career was Mike Nidorf, an agent who first heard her as a member of the Pied Pipers while he was serving as a captain in the United States Army. Having previously discovered artists such as Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, Nidorf was impressed by Stafford's voice, and contacted her when he was demobilized in 1944. After she agreed to let him represent her, he encouraged her to reduce her weight and arranged a string of engagements that raised her profile and confidence.


title: Jo Stafford

text: The success of Stafford's solo career led to a demand for personal appearances, and from February 1945, she embarked on a six-month residency at New York's La Martinique nightclub. Her performance was well-received; an article in the July 1945 edition of "Band Leaders" magazine described it as "sensational", but Stafford did not enjoy singing before live audiences, and it was the only nightclub venue she ever played. Speaking about her discomfort with live performances, Stafford told a 1996 interview with "The New Yorker"s Nancy Franklin, "I'm basically a singer, period, and I think I'm really lousy up in front of an audienceit's just not me."


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford's tenure with the United Service Organizations during World War II, which often had her perform for soldiers stationed in the U.S., led to her acquiring the nickname "G.I. Jo". On returning from the Pacific theater, a veteran told Stafford that the Japanese would play her records on loudspeakers in an attempt to make the U.S. troops homesick enough to surrender. She replied personally to all the letters she received from servicemen. Stafford was a favorite of many servicemen during both World War II and the Korean War; her recordings received extensive airplay on the American Forces radio and in some military hospitals at lights-out. Stafford's involvement with servicemen led to an interest in military history and a sound knowledge of it. Years after World War II, Stafford was a guest at a dinner party with a retired naval officer. When the discussion turned to a wartime action off Mindanao, the officer tried to correct Stafford, who held to her point. He countered her by saying, "Madame, I was there". A few days after the party, Stafford received a note of apology from him, saying he had reread his logs and that she was correct.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Beginning on December 11, 1945, Stafford hosted the Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts of NBC musical variety radio program "The Chesterfield Supper Club". On April 5, 1946, the entire cast, including Stafford and Perry Como, participated in the first commercial radio broadcast from an airplane. The initial plan was to use the stand-held microphones used in studios, but when these proved to be problematic, the cast switched to hand-held microphones, which because of the plane's cabin pressure became difficult to hold. Three flights were made that day; a rehearsal in the afternoon, then two in the eveningone for the initial 6:00 pm broadcast and another at 10:00 pm for the West Coast broadcast.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford moved from New York to California in November 1946, continuing to host "Chesterfield Supper Club" from Hollywood. In 1948, she restricted her appearances on the show to Tuesdays, and Peggy Lee hosted the Thursday broadcasts. Stafford left the show when it was expanded to 30 minutes, making her final appearance on September 2, 1949. She returned to the program in 1954; it ended its run on NBC Radio the following year. During her time with "Chesterfield Supper Club", Stafford revisited some of the folk music she had enjoyed as a child. Weston, her conductor on the program, suggested using some of the folk music for the show. With her renewed interest in folk tunes came an interest in folklore; Stafford established a contest to award a prize to the best collection of American folklore submitted by a college student. The annual Jo Stafford Prize for American Folklore was handled by the American Folklore Society, with the first prize of $250 awarded in 1949.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford continued to record. She duetted with Gordon MacRae on a number of songs. In 1948, their version of "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" sold over a million copies. The following year, they repeated their success with "My Happiness", and Stafford and MacRae recorded "Whispering Hope" together. Stafford began hosting a weekly program on Radio Luxembourg in 1950; working unpaid, she recorded the voice portions of the shows in Hollywood. At the time, she was hosting "Club Fifteen" with Bob Crosby for CBS Radio.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Weston moved from Capitol to Columbia Records, and in 1950, Stafford followed suit. Content and very comfortable working with him, Stafford had had a clause inserted in her contract with Capitol stating that if Weston left that label, she would automatically be released from her obligations to them. When that happened, Capitol wanted Stafford to record eight more songs before December 15, 1950, and she found herself in the unusual situation of simultaneously working for two competing record companies, an instance that was very rare in an industry where musicians were seen as assets. In 1954, Stafford became the second artist after Bing Crosby to sell 25 million records for Columbia. She was presented with a diamond-studded disc to mark the occasion.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In 1950, Stafford began working for Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government broadcaster transmitting programmes overseas to undermine the influence of communism. She presented a weekly show that aired in Eastern Europe, and "Collier's" published an article about the program in its April 21, 1951, issue that discussed her worldwide popularity, including in countries behind the Iron Curtain. The article, titled "Jo Stafford: Her Songs Upset Joe Stalin", earned her the wrath of the U.S. Communist "Daily Worker" newspaper, which published a column critical of Stafford and VOA.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Although Stafford and Paul Weston had known each other since their introduction at the King Sisters' party, they did not become romantically involved until 1945, when Weston traveled to New York to see Stafford perform at La Martinique. They were married in a Roman Catholic ceremony on February 26, 1952, before which Stafford converted to Catholicism. The wedding was conducted at St Gregory's Catholic Church in Los Angeles by Father Joe Kearney, a former guitarist with the Bob Crosby band, who left the music business, trained as a priest, and served as head of the Catholic Labor Institute. The couple left for Europe for a combined honeymoon and business trip: Stafford had an engagement at the London Palladium. Stafford and Weston had two children; Tim was born in 1952 and Amy in 1956. Both children followed their parents into the music industry. Tim Weston became an arranger and producer who took charge of Corinthian Records, his father's music label, and Amy Weston became a session singer, performing with a trio, Daddy's Money, and singing in commercials.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In the 1950s, Stafford had a string of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted. Their duet of the Hank Williams song "Hey Good Lookin'" made the top 10 in 1951. She had her best-known hits"Jambalaya", "Shrimp Boats", "Make Love to Me", and "You Belong to Me"around this time. "You Belong to Me" was Stafford's biggest hit, topping the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the UK, it was the first song by a female singer to top the chart. The record first appeared on U.S. charts on August 1, 1952, and remained there for 24 weeks. In the UK, it entered the charts on November 14, 1952, at number 2, reached number one on January 16, 1953, and stayed on the charts for 19 weeks. In a July 1953 interview, Paul Weston said his wife's big hit was really the "B" side of the single "Pretty Boy", which both Weston and Columbia Records believed would be the big seller.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In 1953, Stafford signed a 4-year $1 million deal with CBS-TV. She hosted the 15-minute "The Jo Stafford Show" on CBS from 1954 to 1955, with Weston as her conductor and music arranger. She appeared on NBC's "Club Oasis" in 1958, and on the ABC series "The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom" in 1959. In the early 1960s, Stafford hosted a series of television specials called "The Jo Stafford Show", which were centered around music. The shows were produced in England and featured British and American guests including Claire Bloom, Stanley Holloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Rosemary Clooney.<ref name="Kloss/Milwaukee Journal"></ref>


title: Jo Stafford

text: Both Stafford and Weston returned to Capitol in 1961. During her second stint at Capitol, Stafford also recorded for Sinatra's label Reprise Records. The albums issued by Reprise were released between 1961 and 1964, and were mostly remakes of songs from her past. Sinatra sold Reprise to Warner Bros. in 1963, and they retargeted the label at a teenage audience, letting go many of the original artists who had signed up with Sinatra. In late 1965, both Stafford and Weston signed to Dot Records.


title: Jo Stafford

text: During the 1940s, Stafford briefly performed comedy songs under the name "Cinderella G. Stump" with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. In 1947, she recorded a hillbilly-style parody of "Temptation", pronouncing its title "Tim-tayshun". Stafford created Stump after Weston suggested her for the role when Ingle said his female vocalist was unavailable for the recording session. After meeting Ingle at a recording studio, she gave an impromptu performance. The speed of her voice was intentionally increased for the song, giving it the hillbilly sound, and the listening public did not initially know that her voice was on the record. Because it was a lighthearted, impromptu performance and she accepted the standard scale pay, Stafford waived all royalties from the record. Stafford, along with Ingle and Weston, made a personal appearance tour in 1949, and she performed "Temptation" as Cinderella G. Stump. Stafford and Ingle performed the song on network television in 1960 for "Startime". Stafford recorded a second song with Ingle in 1948. "The Prisoner of Love's Song" was a parody of "Prisoner of Love", and featured in an advertisement for Capitol releases in the January 8, 1949, edition of "Billboard" magazine.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Throughout the 1950s, Stafford and Weston entertained party guests by performing skits in which they impersonated a poor lounge act. Stafford sang off-key in a high pitched voice and Weston played songs on the piano in unconventional rhythms. Weston began his impression of an unskilled pianist in or around 1955, assuming the guise "when things got a little quiet, or when people began taking themselves too seriously at a Hollywood party." He put on an impromptu performance of the act the following year at a Columbia Records sales convention in Key West, Florida, after hearing a particularly bad hotel pianist. The audience was very appreciative of his rendition of "Stardust", particularly Columbia executives George Avakian and Irving Townsend, who encouraged Weston to make an album of such songs. Avakian named Weston's character Jonathan Edwards, for the 18th century Calvinist preacher of the same name, and asked him to record under this alias. Weston worried that he might not be able to find enough material for an entire album, and he asked his wife to join the project. Stafford named her off-key vocalist persona Darlene Edwards.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford's creation of Darlene Edwards had its roots in the novelty songs that Mitch Miller, the head of Columbia's artists and repertoire department, had been selecting for her to sing. These included songs such as "Underneath the Overpass", and because she did not agree with Miller's music choices for her, Stafford and her studio musicians often recorded their own renditions of the music, performing the songs according to their feelings about them. Because she had some unused studio time at a 1957 recording session, as a joke Stafford recorded a track as Darlene Edwards. Those who heard bootlegs of the recording responded positively, and later that year, Stafford and Weston recorded an album of songs as Jonathan and Darlene, entitled "The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards".


title: Jo Stafford

text: As a publicity stunt, Weston and Stafford claimed that Jonathan and Darlene Edwards were a New Jersey lounge act they had discovered, and denied any personal connection. This ruse led to much speculation about the Edwardses' identities. In an article titled "Two Right Hands" in September 1957, "Time" reported that some people believed the performers were Harry and Margaret Truman, but the same piece identified Weston and Stafford as the Edwardses. In 1958, Stafford and Weston appeared as the Edwardses on Jack Benny's television program "Shower of Stars", and in 1960 on "The Garry Moore Show". "The Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards" was followed up with an album of popular music standards, "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris", which was released in 1960 and won that year's Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. The Academy issued two awards for the category that year; Bob Newhart also received an award for "Spoken Word Comedy" for his album "The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!" The Grammy was Stafford's only major award.


title: Jo Stafford

text: The couple continued to release comedy albums for several years, and in 1977 released a cover of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" as a single, with an Edwards interpretation of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" as its "B" side. The same year, a brief resurgence in the popularity of Jonathan and Darlene albums occurred when their cover of "Carioca" was featured as the opening and closing theme to "The Kentucky Fried Movie". Their last release, "Darlene Remembers Duke, Jonathan Plays Fats", was issued in 1982. To mark the occasion, an interview with Stafford and Westonin which they assumed the persona of the Edwardsesappeared in the December 1982 edition of "Los Angeles Magazine".


title: Jo Stafford

text: In 1959, Stafford was offered a contract to perform at Las Vegas, but declined it to concentrate on her family life. Because she disliked continuously traveling for television appearances that took her away from her children, and no longer found the music business fun, she went into semiretirement in the mid-1960s. She retired fully in 1975. Except for the Jonathan and Darlene Edwards material, and re-recording her favorite song "Whispering Hope" with her daughter Amy in 1978, Stafford did not perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra. The Westons devoted more time to Share Inc., a charity aiding people with developmental disabilities in which they had been active for many years. Around 1983, Concord Records tried to persuade Stafford to change her mind and come out of retirement, but although an album was planned, she did not feel she would be satisfied with the finished product, and the project was shelved.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against her former record label Columbia in the early 1990s. Because of a clause concerning the payment of royalties in her contract, she secured the rights to all of the recordings she made with the company, including those Weston and she made as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. After the lawsuit was settled, Stafford and her son Tim reactivated Corinthian Records, which Weston, a devout Christian, had started as a label for religious music in the 1970s, and they began releasing some of her old material.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In 1996, Paul Weston died of natural causes; Stafford continued to operate Corinthian Records. In 2006, she donated the couple's library, including music arrangements, photographs, business correspondence and recordings, to the University of Arizona. Stafford began suffering from congestive heart failure in October 2007, from which she died aged 90 on July 16, 2008. She was buried with her husband at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford was admired by critics and the listening public for the purity of her voice, and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of her era. Peter Levinson said that she was a coloratura soprano, whose operatic training allowed her to sing a natural falsetto. Her style encompassed a number of genres, including big band, ballads, jazz, folk and comedy. Music critic Terry Teachout described her as "rhythmically fluid without ever sounding self-consciously 'jazzy' ", while Rosemary Clooney said of her, "The voice says it all: beautiful, pure, straightforward, no artifice, matchless intonation, instantly recognizable. Those things describe the woman, too." Writing for the "New York Sun", Will Friedwald described her 1947 interpretation of "Haunted Heart" as "effective because it's so subtle, because Stafford holds something back and doesn't shove her emotion in the listener's face." Nancy Franklin described Stafford's version of the folk song "He's Gone Away" as "wistful and tender, as if she had picked up a piece of clothing once worn by a loved one and begun singing." Frank Sinatra said, "It was a joy to sit on the bandstand and listen to her". The singer Judy Collins has cited Stafford's folk recordings as an influence on her own musical career. Country singer Patsy Cline was also inspired by Stafford's work.


title: Jo Stafford

text: In their guise of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, Weston and Stafford earned admiration from their show-business peers. Pianist George Shearing was a fan and would play "Autumn in New York" in the style of Edwards if he knew the couple were in the audience. Ray Charles also enjoyed their performance. Art Carney, who played Ed Norton in the comedy series "The Honeymooners", once wrote the Edwardses a fan letter as Norton. However, not everybody appreciated the Edwards act. Mitch Miller blamed the couple's 1962 album "Sing Along With Jonathan and Darlene Edwards" for ending his sing-along albums and television show, while in 2003, Stafford told Michael Feinstein that the Bee Gees had disliked the Edwards' version of "Stayin' Alive".


title: Jo Stafford

text: In 1960, Stafford said working closely with Weston had good and bad points. His knowledge of her made arranging her music easy for him, but sometimes it caused difficulties. Weston knew Stafford's abilities and would write or arrange elaborate music because he knew she was capable of performing it. She also said she did not believe she could perform in Broadway musicals because she thought her voice was not powerful enough for stage work. In 2003, she recalled that rehearsal time was often limited before she recorded a song, and how Weston would sometimes slip musical arrangements under the bathroom door as she was in the bath getting ready to go to the studio.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Her work in radio, television, and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1952, listeners of Radio Luxembourg voted Stafford their favorite female singer. The New York Fashion Academy named her one of the Best Dressed Women of 1955. "Songbirds" magazine has reported that, by 1955, Stafford had amassed more worldwide record sales than any other female artist, and that she was ranked fifth overall. She was nominated in the Best Female Singer category at the 1955 Emmy Awards. She won a Grammy for "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris", and The Pied Pipers' recording of "I'll Never Smile Again" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982, as was Stafford's version of "You Belong to Me" in 1998. She was inducted into the Big Band Academy of America's Golden Bandstand in April 2007. Stafford and Weston were founding members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford's music has been referenced in popular culture. Her recording of "Blues in the Night" features in a scene of James Michener's novel "The Drifters" (1971), while a Marine Corps sergeant major in Walter Murphy's "The Vicar of Christ" (1979) hears a radio broadcast of her singing "On Top of Old Smoky" shortly before a battle in Korea. Commenting on the latter reference for his 1989 book "Singers and the Song", which includes a chapter about Stafford, author Gene Lees says, "[it] somehow sets Stafford's place in the American culture. You're getting pretty famous when your name turns up in crossword puzzles; you are woven into a nation's history when you turn up in its fiction."


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford was a Democrat, supporting John F. Kennedy for president in 1960. She later performed for President Kennedy at a dinner in his honor given by the Southern California Democratic Committee.


title: Jo Stafford

text: Stafford appeared in films from the 1930s onwards, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band". Her final on-screen appearance was in the Frank Sinatra tribute "Sinatra 75: The Best Is Yet to Come" in 1990. She declined several offers of television work because she was forced to memorize scripts (as she was unable to read the cue cards without her glasses), and the bright studio lights caused her discomfort.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: USS "Alaska" was the lead ship of the of large cruisers which served with the United States Navy during the end of World War II. She was the first of two ships of her class to be completed, followed only by ; four other ships were ordered but were not completed before the end of the war. "Alaska" was the third vessel of the US Navy to be named after what was then the territory of Alaska, and was assigned the hull number CB-1. She was laid down on 17 December 1941, ten days after the United States entered the war, was launched in August 1943 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, in Camden, New Jersey, and was commissioned in June 1944. She was armed with a main battery of nine guns in three triple turrets and had a top speed of .


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: Due to being commissioned late in the war, "Alaska" saw relatively limited service. She participated in operations off Iwo Jima and Okinawa in February–July 1945, including providing anti-aircraft defense for various carrier task forces and conducting limited shore bombardment operations. She shot down several Japanese aircraft off Okinawa, including a possible Ohka piloted missile. In July–August 1945 she participated in sweeps for Japanese shipping in the East China and Yellow Seas. After the end of the war, she assisted in the occupation of Korea and transported a contingent of US Army troops back to the United States. She was decommissioned in February 1947 and placed in reserve, where she remained until she was stricken in 1960 and sold for scrapping the following year.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: "Alaska" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and up to at full load. The ship had a flush deck with a flared bow and a rounded cruiser stern. She had a large superstructure that included an armored conning tower with a tall tower mast, along with a smaller, secondary conning position further aft. She carried four OS2U Kingfisher or SC Seahawk floatplanes, with a pair of catapults mounted amidships.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: The ship was powered by four sets of General Electric geared steam turbines, each driving a screw propeller. Steam for the turbines was generated by eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers, which were vented through a large funnel located amidships. The propulsion system was rated to produce , generating a top speed of . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of .


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: The ship was armed with a main battery of nine L/50 Mark 8 guns in three triple gun turrets, two in a superfiring pair forward and one aft of the superstructure. The secondary battery consisted of twelve L/38 dual-purpose guns in six twin turrets. Two were placed on the centerline superfiring over the main battery turrets, fore and aft, and the remaining four turrets were placed on the corners of the superstructure. The light anti-aircraft battery consisted of 56 quad-mounted Bofors guns and 34 single-mounted Oerlikon guns. A pair of Mk 34 gun directors aided gun laying for the main battery, while two Mk 37 directors controlled the 5-inch guns and a Mk 57 director aided the 40 mm guns.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: The main armor belt was thick in the central portion of the hull, where it protected the propulsion machinery spaces and the ammunition magazines, thinning to 5 inches at either end. The main armor deck was thick. Her conning tower received of armor plate on the sides. The gun turrets had thick faces.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: "Alaska" was authorized under the Fleet Expansion Act on 19 July 1940, and ordered on 9 September. On 17 December 1941 she was laid down at New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 15 August 1943, sponsored by Dorothy Smith Gruening, the wife of Governor Ernest Gruening of Alaska, after which fitting-out work was effected. The ship was completed by June 1944, and was commissioned into the US Navy on 17 June, under the command of Captain Peter K. Fischler.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: After her commissioning, "Alaska" steamed down to Hampton Roads, escorted by the destroyers and . The ship was then deployed for a shakedown cruise, first in the Chesapeake Bay and then into the Caribbean, off Trinidad. On the cruise, she was escorted by the destroyers and . After completing the cruise, "Alaska" returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for some minor alterations, including the installation of four Mk 57 fire control directors for her 5-inch guns. On 12 November, she left Philadelphia in the company of the destroyer-minelayer , bound for two weeks of sea trials off Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. On 2 December, she left Cuba for the Pacific, transiting the Panama Canal two days later, and reaching San Diego on 12 December. There her gun crews trained for shore bombardment and anti-aircraft fire.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: On 8 January 1945, "Alaska" left California for Hawaii, arriving in Pearl Harbor on 13 January. There she participated in further training and was assigned to Task Group 12.2, which departed for Ulithi on 29 January. The Task Group reached Ulithi on 6 February and was merged into Task Group 58.5, part of Task Force 58, the Fast Carrier Task Force. Task Group 58.5 was assigned to provide anti-aircraft defense for the aircraft carriers; "Alaska" was assigned to the carriers and . The fleet sailed for Japan on 10 February to conduct air strikes against Tokyo and the surrounding airfields. The Japanese did not attack the fleet during the operation. "Alaska" was then transferred to Task Group 58.4 and assigned to support the assault on Iwo Jima. She served in the screen for the carriers off Iwo Jima for nineteen days, after which time she had to return to Ulithi to replenish fuel and supplies.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: "Alaska" remained with TG 58.4 for the Battle of Okinawa. She was assigned to screen the carriers and ; the fleet left Ulithi on 14 March and reached its operational area southeast of Kyushu four days later. The first air strikes on Okinawa began that day, and claimed 17 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground. Here, "Alaska" finally saw combat, as the Japanese launched a major air strike on the American fleet. Her anti-aircraft gunners destroyed a Yokosuka P1Y bomber attempting to crash into "Intrepid". Shortly thereafter, "Alaska" was warned that American aircraft were in the vicinity. About ten minutes later, her gunners spotted an unidentified aircraft, approaching in what they thought was a threatening manner; they shot down what turned out to be a Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, though the pilot was uninjured. Later that afternoon, "Alaska" shot down a second Japanese bomber, a Yokosuka D4Y.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: The following day, the carrier was badly damaged by several bomb hits and a kamikaze. "Alaska" and her sister , two other cruisers, and several destroyers were detached to create Task Group 58.2.9 to escort the crippled "Franklin" back to Ulithi. On the voyage back to port, another D4Y bomber attacked "Franklin", though the ships were unable to shoot it down. Gunfire from one of the 5-inch guns accidentally caused flash burns on several men standing nearby; these were the only casualties suffered by her crew during the war. "Alaska" then took on the role of fighter director; using her air search radar, she vectored fighters to intercept and destroy a Kawasaki Ki-45 heavy fighter. On 22 March, the ships reached Ulithi and "Alaska" was detached to rejoin TG 58.4.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: After returning to her unit, "Alaska" continued to screen for the aircraft carriers off Okinawa. On 27 March, she was detached to conduct a bombardment of Minamidaitō. She was joined by "Guam", two light cruisers, and Destroyer Squadron 47. On the night of 27–28 March, she fired forty-five 12-inch shells and three hundred and fifty-two 5-inch rounds at the island. The ships rejoined TG 58.4 at a refueling point, after which they returned to Okinawa to support the landings when they began on 1 April. On the evening of 11 April, "Alaska" shot down one Japanese plane, assisted in the destruction of another, and claimed what might have been an Ohka piloted rocket-bomb. On 16 April, the ship shot down another three aircraft and assisted with three others. Throughout the rest of the month, her heavy anti-aircraft fire succeeded in driving off Japanese bombers.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: "Alaska" then returned to Ulithi to resupply, arriving on 14 May. She was then assigned to TG 38.4, the reorganized carrier task force. The fleet then returned to Okinawa, where "Alaska" continued in her anti-aircraft defense role. On 9 June, she and "Guam" bombarded Oki Daitō. TG 38.4 then steamed to San Pedro Bay in the Leyte Gulf for rest and maintenance; the ship remained there from 13 June until 13 July, when she was assigned to Cruiser Task Force 95 along with her sister "Guam", under the command of Rear Admiral Francis S. Low. On 16 July, "Alaska" and "Guam" conducted a sweep into the East China and Yellow Seas to sink Japanese shipping vessels. They had only limited success, however, and returned to the fleet on 23 July. They then joined a major raid, which included three battleships and three escort carriers, into the estuary of the Yangtze River off Shanghai. Again, the operation met with limited success. In the course of her service during World War II, "Alaska" was awarded three battle stars.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: On 30 August, "Alaska" left Okinawa for Japan to participate in the 7th Fleet occupation force. She arrived in Incheon, Korea, on 8 September and supported Army operations there until 26 September, when she left for Tsingtao, China, arriving the following day. There, she supported the 6th Marine Division until 13 November, when she returned to Incheon to take on Army soldiers as part of Operation Magic Carpet, the mass repatriation of millions of American servicemen from Asia and Europe. "Alaska" left Incheon with a contingent of soldiers bound for San Francisco. After reaching San Francisco, she left for the Atlantic, via the Panama Canal, which she transited on 13 December. The ship arrived in the Boston Navy Yard on 18 December, where preparations were made to place the ship in reserve. She left Boston on 1 February 1946 for Bayonne, New Jersey, where she would be berthed in reserve. She arrived there the following day, and on 13 August, she was removed from active service, though she would not be decommissioned until 17 February 1947.


title: USS Alaska (CB-1)

text: In 1958, the Bureau of Ships prepared two feasibility studies to see if "Alaska" and "Guam" were suitable to be converted to guided missile cruisers. The first study involved removing all of the guns in favor of four different missile systems. At $160 million this was seen as too costly, so a second study was conducted. This study left the forward batteries—the two 12-inch triple turrets and three of the 5-inch dual turrets—in place and added a reduced version of the first plan for the aft. This would have cost $82 million, and was still seen as too costly. As a result, the conversion proposal was abandoned and the ship was instead stricken from the "Naval Vessel Register" on 1 June 1960. On 30 June, she was sold to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers to be broken up for scrap.


title: Villarreal

text: Villarreal () is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain.


title: Villarreal

text: The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital (Castelló de la Plana). Villarreal is separated from Castelló de la Plana by the Millars River. It has 51,367 inhabitants (2010 data), most of them living in the urban area that covers about 10.7% of its "comarca's" 55.4 km surface. Ranked by population, it is the second-largest city in the province (after the capital), and fifteenth in the Valencian Community.


title: Villarreal

text: The town was founded with royal status by King James I of Aragon in 1274 during his campaign to regain Muslim territory in present-day Valencia during the Reconquista. It later became an agricultural centre for orange cultivation, and more recently a centre for the ceramics industry.


title: Villarreal

text: The city is the birthplace of Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea (1852–1909) who was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the Romantic period. He is also the composer of "Gran Vals", an excerpt of which was used in a popular Nokia ringtone. In modern times Vila-real is well known for its football club that bears the city's name, a club that, in spite of the city's small size, has won the Europa League, reached the semi-finals of the Champions League (twice) and has since finished amongst the top clubs in Spain on several occasions.


title: Villarreal

text: Both the Castilian Spanish "Villarreal" and Valencian "Vila-real" are cognates meaning 'Royal Village', due to the city's foundation by King James I of Aragon. Throughout the Middle Ages, as were most European settlements, it was officially known by its Latinised name "Villae Regalis". A 1592 tapestry of the Valencian Parliament shows the city's representative with the old Valencian name "Vilareal". It was in the late 18th century, as Spain became more centralised, that the Castilian name took over. The city was renamed in 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, as "Villarreal de los Infantes" (Royal Town of the Infantes), to avoid confusion with other Spanish localities with the same name. It is sometimes still referred to under this extended version.


title: Villarreal

text: On 27 February 2006, the municipal corporation voted the Valencian name to become the exclusive official name for the municipality. The agreement was thus published in the "Boletín Oficial del Estado" in January 2007, and the dual official name Villarreal/Vila-real removed.


title: Villarreal

text: Inhabitants of the city are known as "vila-realencs" (male) or "vila-realenques" (female) in Valencian, and "villarrealenses" in Spanish.


title: Villarreal

text: Villarreal was founded on 20 February 1274 by King James I of Aragon (hence its royal status), to strengthen his reconquest of Eastern Spain from the Moors. It was placed strategically on the ancient Via Augusta 65 km north from Valencia, and in the outskirts of the then-Muslim stronghold of Borriana. It was founded with royal status, with representation in the Valencian Parliament and Delegation of the Kingdom, and had the privilege of using the royal standard as its ensign. Villarreal was part of the royal sector of the Valencian Parliament and had an active say in its affairs.


title: Villarreal

text: The original town was surrounded by walls, but expanded outside these limits beginning in the 14th century due to an increase in population. The demographic and economic imbalances which characterise the 15th century carried on into the beginning of the 16th with constant conflicts between the Christian population and the Mudéjars (Muslims who still lived in Christian majority Spain) who lived in the area.


title: Villarreal

text: During the 16th century, productive farm land was extended and enhanced by drilling wells to obtain water and convert dry land into irrigated fields, making it possible to begin commercial agriculture in the 17th century. After the city's disastrous participation in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the second half of the 18th century, the first industries were established, mainly for textiles. Also during that time, the city became involved in various revolts and wars which changed Spain's political make-up.


title: Villarreal

text: In the 19th century, the cultivation and trade of oranges was introduced, which gave the town great economic progress, led both by businessmen and by farmers' associations or "cooperatives". After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the earnings obtained from the orange trade allowed several entrepreneurs to build ceramic tile factories as a way to diversify their industries. Ceramics has continued to expand up to the present day, and is now Villarreal's main economic activity.


title: Villarreal

text: Villarreal's economy has evolved since the days of cultivation and trade of oranges in the last century to the manufacturing of ceramic tiles, which today is its most important source of income.


title: Villarreal

text: It hosts 4 of Spain's 500 largest businesses, all of which trade in the ceramic tile industry. Other industries in the city include financial services, bricks and other clay products, and basic metals.


title: Villarreal

text: The town is home to Villarreal CF, a football club in La Liga, Spain's highest tier of football. Founded in 1923, the club reached the national divisions in 1956 and the top-tier in 1998. During a successful spell in La Liga, the side were League runners-up in the 2007–08 season. They were UEFA Champions League semi-finalists in 2006 and again in 2022 and they won their first European trophy by winning the Europa League final in 2021. Villarreal have also been semi-finalists in 2004, 2011 and 2016. The team play at the Estadio de la Cerámica which, with a 25,000-seat capacity, could fit half of the population of the town.


title: Villarreal

text: Villarreal CF full-back Joan Capdevila played in the Spain national squad that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Capdevila and Villarreal teammate Marcos Senna played in the Spain national squad that won UEFA Euro 2008.


title: Corey Coleman

text: Corey Defians Coleman (born July 6, 1994) is an American football wide receiver who is a free agent. He played college football at Baylor and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft.


title: Corey Coleman

text: Coleman attended J. J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas, where he was a three-sport star in football, basketball and track. In football, he excelled as a rusher, receiver and returner under head coach Randy Robertson and was named first-team 2011 All-Area by The Dallas Morning News SportsDay (as WR/RB/QB) and earned 2011 first-team Class 4A All-State and District 10-4A MVP honors as a wide receiver. As a sophomore, he totaled 707 yards and 10 touchdowns on 91 rushes as well as 19 receptions for 229 yards and one more score, earning second-team All-District 10-4A honors. He had 69 receptions for 1,003 yards and 11 touchdowns as well as 97 carries for 426 yards and 13 touchdowns as junior in 2010; he also made two interceptions at cornerback en route to 2010 All-District 10-4A honors. As a senior in 2011, he totaled 69 receptions for 932 yards and 11 touchdowns, 567 yards and 15 touchdowns on 84 rushes and threw for 106 yards on 5-of-6 passing. In his final three seasons, Coleman amassed 3,864 all-purpose yards and 61 touchdowns. Following his senior season, he was selected to play for the 2012 U.S. Under-19 National Football Team in the February International Bowl (formerly known as Team USA vs. The World).


title: Corey Coleman

text: Coleman also participated on the track & field team, where he was a standout sprinter and jumper. As a junior in 2011, he placed second at the District 10-4A meet in the triple jump with a leap of 13.70 meters (44'11.5"). He posted a personal-best time of 10.83 seconds in the 100-meter dash at the 48th Annual Jesuit-Sheaner Relays, placing sixth in the finals. At the Region II-4A meet, he recorded a career-best time of 21.76 seconds in the 200-meter dash en route to an 8th-place finish; he was also a finalist in the jumping events, finishing second in the long jump (6.99m or 22'11") and third in the high jump (2.0m or 6'6.75"), while also running the third leg on the 4 × 100 m relay squad, helping them earn a fourth-place finish with a time of 41.97 seconds. Before his senior year, he ran the fastest 40-yard dash (4.32 seconds) at a SPARQ Combine in Oregon, which featured some of the nation's top recruits. As senior in 2012, he finished eighth at Texas UIL 3A state meet in the high jump with a 1.93m (6'4") mark.


title: Corey Coleman

text: Coleman was rated by Rivals.com as a four-star recruit. He committed to Baylor University to play college football.


title: Corey Coleman

text: After redshirting in 2012, Coleman started 10 of 13 games as a redshirt freshman in 2013. For the season, he had 35 receptions for 527 yards and two touchdowns. Coleman missed the first three games of his sophomore season due to a hamstring injury. In his first game back he had 12 receptions for 154 yards and a touchdown. Overall, he appeared in 10 games and recorded 64 receptions for 1,119 yards and 11 touchdowns. During the second game of his junior year in 2015, Coleman set the school record with four touchdown receptions in a single game. Coleman finished the year with 74 catches, 1,363 yards an 18.4 yard average per catch, and 20 touchdowns. Coleman capped off the year by winning the 2015 Fred Biletnikoff Award for the nation's best wide receiver. On December 23, 2015, Coleman underwent a sports hernia surgery, causing him to miss the Russell Athletic Bowl. A few days following his surgery, he decided to forgo his senior year and enter the 2016 NFL Draft.


title: Corey Coleman

text: Coleman was drafted 15th overall by the Cleveland Browns in the 2016 NFL Draft. On May 13, 2016, he signed a four-year, $11.65 million contract. Coleman did not play for most of the preseason due to injury, but the Browns expected to start him in the first several games of the season due to the suspension of starting wide receiver Josh Gordon.


title: Corey Coleman

text: In his first regular season game on September 11, 2016, Coleman recorded two receptions for 69 yards. In Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, Coleman made five receptions for 104 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Coleman broke his hand during practice on September 21, and was ruled out 4–6 weeks.


title: Corey Coleman

text: In Week 1 of the 2017 season, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Coleman caught the first career touchdown pass from quarterback DeShone Kizer. He finished the game with five receptions for 53 yards. In Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, Coleman suffered another broken hand, the same hand that hindered him in the 2016 season. He had surgery on the hand on September 18, 2017 and was ruled out 6–8 weeks. He was placed on injured reserve the next day. He was activated off injured reserve to the active roster on November 16, 2017. On December 31, 2017, he dropped a pass late in the fourth quarter to seal the Browns' 0–16 season.


title: Corey Coleman

text: During the HBO series "Hard Knocks", Coleman became frustrated with not getting any first team reps and demanded to be traded. On August 5, 2018, Coleman was traded to the Buffalo Bills for a 2020 seventh-round pick. He was released by the Bills on September 1, 2018.


title: Corey Coleman

text: On September 11, 2018, Coleman was signed by the New England Patriots. Coleman was released on September 17, 2018, to create a roster spot for his former Browns teammate Josh Gordon. On September 20, 2018, Coleman was re-signed to the Patriots practice squad. On September 29, 2018, Coleman was released from the practice squad.


title: Corey Coleman

text: On October 19, 2018, the New York Giants signed Coleman to their practice squad. On October 25, 2018, he was promoted to the active roster.


title: Corey Coleman

text: Coleman, as a restricted free agent, had a $2.025 million tender placed on him by the Giants on March 7, 2019. On July 25, 2019, Coleman suffered a torn ACL on the first day of training camp with the Giants and was ruled out for the season.


title: Corey Coleman

text: On March 30, 2020, Coleman re-signed with the Giants on a one-year deal. On September 6, 2020, Coleman was released from the Giants. He was re-signed to their practice squad on October 27. On November 24, 2020, the Giants released Coleman from their practice squad.


title: Corey Coleman

text: On January 19, 2021, Coleman was suspended for the first six games of the 2021 season by the NFL for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy.


title: Corey Coleman

text: After not playing for the entire 2021 season, Coleman signed with the Kansas City Chiefs on March 24, 2022. Coleman was cut from the team on August 30, 2022. He re-signed to the practice squad on September 13, 2022. He was released on October 4, 2022.


title: Wigger

text: Wigger, or wigga, is a term for a white person of European ethnic origin, who emulates the perceived mannerisms, language, and fashions associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop. The term is a portmanteau of "white" and "nigger".


title: Wigger

text: One dictionary defines the term as a slang, derogatory reference to "...a white youth who adopts black youth culture by adopting its speech, wearing its clothes, and listening to its music." Another dictionary defines the term as "offensive slang" referring to a "...white person, usually a teenager or young adult, who adopts the fashions, the tastes, and often the mannerisms considered typical of urban black youth."