title: St. John's International Airport

text: On October 18, 1941, three American B-17 Flying Fortress and one RCAF Digby made the first unofficial landings on the only serviceable runway available. Later that month a British Overseas Airways Corporation B-24 Liberator en route from Prestwick, Scotland, to Gander, made the first sanctioned landing during a weather emergency. The first commercial air service at the facility went into operation on May 1, 1942, with the arrival at Torbay of a Trans-Canada Air Lines Lockheed Lodestar aircraft with five passengers and three crew. The first terminal building at the site was constructed in 1943. The small wooden structure was replaced by a larger brick building in 1958.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: In approximately 1942 the aerodrome was listed as RCAF Aerodrome - Torbay, Newfoundland at with a variation of 29 degrees west and elevation of . The field was listed as "all hard surfaced" and had three runways listed as follows:


title: St. John's International Airport

text: In 1954 a rescue unit was established, 107 Rescue Unit, by the RCAF to replace the existing detachment of the 103 Rescue Unit. It would remain here until 1964.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: Although the airfield was not used as much as Argentia, Gander, Stephenville and Goose Bay airports in the movement of large numbers of aircraft to England, it was still quite busy. The Royal Air Force had its own squadron of fighters, surveillance and weather aircraft stationed there. The RCAF personnel strength on the station during the peak war years was well over 2000. Through an agreement between the US, Canadian and Newfoundland governments early in 1947, the United States Air Force (USAF) took over the use of the airport facilities and used about ten of the airport buildings. The US Military Air Transport Service (MATS) needed Torbay Airport in order to complete its assigned mission at that time. Maintenance of the airport and facilities was done by the Canadian Department of Transport.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: On April 1, 1946, the airport became a civilian operation under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Department of Transport. Confusion was caused by the presence of American military personnel at a civilian airport operated by the Canadian government in a foreign country. Consequently, on 1 April 1953 control was returned to the Department of National Defence. On April 15, 1953, the RCAF Station at Torbay was reactivated and RCAF personnel started to move in and to provide the necessary administration and operation of the facility to support the mission of its co-tenant, the USAF. In early 1954 a rental agreement was signed between the USAF and the RCAF, and the USAF acquired use of additional buildings.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: The control tower constructed during the war burned down in an extensive fire on March 16, 1946, which caused $1.5 million worth of damage. Construction was not begun on a new tower until 1951; it was opened in June 1952. A new Tower/Communications Building replaced that structure in March 1976. The tower was equipped with radio navigation and landing aids including precision approach radar, non-directional beacon and VHF omni-directional range.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: The Transport Department maintained control over the terminal building. The facility remained RCAF Station Torbay until April 1, 1964, when it was returned to the jurisdiction of the Transport Department under the name St. John's Airport.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: St. John's Airport is still commonly referred to as "Torbay" within the aviation community. For example, in aeronautical radio communications, air traffic controllers, flight dispatchers and pilots refer to the weather in "Torbay" and in flight clearances controllers commonly clear aircraft to or over St. John's with the phrase "Cleared direct Torbay". In the latter case this is a clearance to the VOR (VHF beacon) serving the region, which continues to be named Torbay on all official aeronautical charts. In addition to tradition, this usage avoids confusion with Saint John, New Brunswick, also in Atlantic Canada. Additionally the "T" in airport codes CYYT and YYT continues to reflect the Torbay origin.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: In 1981 the terminal building housed the offices of the airport manager and staff. There were ticket offices for Eastern Provincial Airways, Air Canada, Gander Aviation and Labrador Airways, a large waiting area, a secure departure lounge, a self-serve restaurant, a licensed lounge, a number of food concessions and car rental facilities. In 1981 a small museum was prepared to house the story of aviation in Newfoundland and related memorabilia.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: The airport underwent a $50 million renovation in 2002. The air terminal was completely renovated, expanded and modernized to meet the standards of other airport terminals its size across North America. The airport has undergone more renovations in 2016. In 2019, the airport plans to prepare of land to build an industrial park adjacent to the airport.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: The airport was designated as one of five Canadian airports suitable as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle orbiter.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: From the 1940s to 2006, St. John's maintained nonstop, year-round flights to Europe. Attributing its decision to the route's poor economic performance, Air Canada terminated a link to London-Heathrow that year. After receiving complaints from St. John's residents, the company stated it would convert the flight to a seasonal operation beginning in 2007. Meanwhile, British carrier Astraeus Airlines introduced service to London's Gatwick Airport in May 2007, initially intending to ply the route year-round. The airline ended the flight only three months later, however; St. John's airport officials observed that passengers had primarily opted to travel with Air Canada to the British capital. In September 2007, Air Canada also withdrew its London route, leaving St. John's without any flights to Europe.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: Air Canada resumed flights to London-Heathrow on a seasonal basis in 2010, and it made the service year-round in 2014. That year, the St. John's airport acquired another transatlantic destination when WestJet commenced a summer route to Dublin, Ireland. WestJet added a seasonal connection to London's Gatwick Airport in 2016. However, the airline had ceased flights to both cities by 2018.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: Fixed-base operators based at St. John's International Airport are Provincial Airlines and Cougar Helicopters.


title: St. John's International Airport

text: St. John's International Airport Emergency Services is responsible for fire and rescue needs at the airport. Apparatus and crew are housed in a single fire station is located within the Combined Services Building.


title: Hidden track

text: In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener. In some cases, the piece of music may simply have been left off the track listing, while in other cases, more elaborate methods are used. In rare cases, a 'hidden track' is actually the result of an error that occurred during the mastering stage production of the recorded media. However, since the rise of digital and streaming services such as iTunes and Spotify in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the inclusion of hidden tracks has declined on studio albums.


title: Hidden track

text: It is occasionally unclear whether a piece of music is 'hidden.' For example, "Her Majesty," which is preceded by fourteen seconds of silence, was originally unlisted on The Beatles' "Abbey Road" but is listed on current versions of the album. That song and others push the definition of the term, causing a lack of consensus on what is considered a hidden track. Alternatively, such things are instead labeled as vague audio experiments, errors, or simply an integral part of an adjacent song on the record.


title: Hidden track

text: A vinyl record may be double-grooved, with the second groove containing the hidden tracks. Examples of double-grooving include Monty Python's 'three-sided' "Matching Tie and Handkerchief", Tool's "Opiate" EP, and Mr. Bungle's "Disco Volante".


title: Hidden track

text: Grooves cannot be read from digital media such as compact discs, so alternate methods were conceived. With a similar aim of concealment, unlisted tracks are sometimes given their own separate index point on digital media. Songs can be placed in the pregap of the first track of certain CD formats, so that the CD must first be cued to the track, and then manually back-scanned. These are often referred to as Track 0 or Hidden Track One Audio (HTOA). A CD player will not play these tracks without manual intervention, and some models (including many computers operating systems) are unable to read such content. On Super Furry Animals' third studio album, "The Citizens Band" is found in the pre-gap approximately five minutes before the beginning of track one. A glossary of terms used in the song's lyrics are printed on the interior of the cardboard outer sleeve of the CD. This essentially renders them inaccessible without taking the sleeve apart, hiding the glossary in a parallel way to the song itself.


title: Hidden track

text: A less concealed method is to place the song at the end of another track, typically the last track on the album, following a period of silence. For example, Nirvana's song "Endless, Nameless" was included as a hidden track in this way on their 1991 CD "Nevermind", after 10 minutes of complete silence within the track listed as the final song. Although it was not the first hidden song to use this technique, it gained significant attention. Similarly, short tracks of silence can be layered before the hidden track plays. On Lazlo Bane's debut album, "11 Transistor", the eleventh song is followed by 57 silent tracks four seconds each, with "Prada Wallet" (sometimes referred to as "The Birthday Song") being the 69th track on the album. The total length of silence between the two songs is 3:48.


title: Hidden track

text: It is possible for a track to be playable only through a computer, such as the '15th' track on Marilyn Manson's "Mechanical Animals" album, which can only be accessed through an Enhanced CD executable.


title: Hidden track

text: There are yet-deeper ways a track can be hidden. A "ghost" track can be subtly mixed to play concurrently with other, dominant audio, or heavily distorted in a way which must be undone to be played. For example, on a DVD included with the deluxe and 'ultra-deluxe' editions of Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts I–IV", two hidden bonus tracks ("37 Ghosts" and "38 Ghosts") are included as digital multitrack files, from which the songs may be reconstructed.


title: Hidden track

text: Some hidden tracks are historically significant, have become well known and even occasionally received radio airplay and climbed the charts.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: Skull and Bones is an upcoming action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Singapore and published by Ubisoft. The game is set to release in March 2023 for Amazon Luna, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. A version for Google Stadia was planned before the service's shutdown. The game revolves around piracy and naval warfare.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: "Skull and Bones" is a tactical action game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. Players take control of a customizable pirate captain, and may choose to sail the Indian Ocean by themselves and set off on a single-player campaign, or gather up to five other players to ally in player versus player gameplay in Disputed Waters.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: Wind positioning can be assessed to gain an advantage in battle. Players may collect additional ships throughout the game, such as sloops-of-war, frigates and brigantines, whose weapons include mortars, broadside cannons, and rockets. Ships can be charged into with brute force and boarded. The rate of inflicted damage is gauged by the health bar. A core component is the multiplayer mode Loot Hunt, where two groups of players are challenged in treasure hunting to further accumulate their riches. Each given ship's crow's nest is scalable for use as a lookout point and spyglasses can be availed of as well. Microtransactions will be an added feature.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: "Skull and Bones" is the first video game led by developer Ubisoft Singapore, which drew inspiration from the naval battles of "". The game began development in 2013, being initially envisioned as an expansion of "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag", then an MMO spinoff title under the name "Black Flag Infinite". It was then spun off as an independent project, in part due to its initial technology becoming outdated.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: According to a "Kotaku" report, the game has undergone multiple changes in direction and scope during development, exceeding its budget multiple times. Initially set in the Caribbean, it was moved to the fantastical Hyperborea, then finally the Indian Ocean. Gameplay was redesigned multiple times, focusing variously on naval exploration and ship-to-ship combat, before both were scrapped in favour of land-based survival elements inspired by games like "Rust". Developers contacted by journalist Ethan Gach attributed these difficulties to conflicting ideas, management issues, and lack of consistent direction. The project reportedly cost Ubisoft more than $120 million.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: It was revealed during Ubisoft's press conference at E3 2017. It was confirmed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with enhancements for PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. Alongside the game, Ubisoft Singapore announced the "Keepers of the Code" program, designed to allow players to aid in the fine-tuning of its live-service aspects.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: Originally set to be released in Q3/Q4 2018, the game was later delayed into 2019, and again to sometime after March 2020. On a call with investors in October 2019, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the game had been pushed back to at least the April 2021–March 2022 fiscal year. In May 2021, Ubisoft announced a subsequent delay to the April 2022–March 2023 fiscal year. In July 2022, the company revealed a November 8 release date for the game. In September 2022, Ubisoft announced that the release was pushed back to March 9, 2023.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: In September 2020, it was revealed that, while development was continuing, a "new vision" for the game had emerged, which resulted in the release delays as more development time was needed. As well, it was stated that additional Ubisoft Studios, such as Ubisoft Berlin, were co-developing the game alongside Ubisoft Singapore.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: Following E3 2017, "Skull and Bones" was nominated for Game Critics Awards' Best Original Game and Best Online Multiplayer awards.


title: Skull and Bones (video game)

text: It was announced in early 2019 that Ubisoft was partnering with Atlas Entertainment to adapt "Skull and Bones" into a television show. It will be executive produced by Danielle Kreinik, Jason Altman, Andy Horwitz, Richard Suckle and Amanda Segel, who is slated to write the pilot episode.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Brian Wilson Presents Smile (also referred to as Smile or the abbreviation BWPS) is the fifth studio album by American musician Brian Wilson, released on September 28, 2004 on Nonesuch. It features all-new recordings of music that he had originally created for "Smile", an unfinished album by the Beach Boys that he abandoned in 1967. Revisiting "Smile" was an intense emotional undertaking for Wilson, as he had been deeply traumatized by the circumstances that had originally surrounded the project.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Wilson initially agreed to revisit "Smile" in the form of a live concert performance as a follow-up to his 2000–2002 "Pet Sounds" tour. From October to November 2003, he worked with keyboardist Darian Sahanaja and original lyricist Van Dyke Parks in assembling a three-movement structure for "BWPS" while embellishing the material with newly written lyrics and melodies. Wilson and his band premiered it at the Royal Festival Hall in London on February 20, 2004. Motivated by the positive reception, he then adapted the performance as a studio-recorded solo album. None of the other Beach Boys were involved with "BWPS", nor with the documentary that covered its making, "".


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: "BWPS" was universally acclaimed by critics and peaked at number 13 in the US and number 7 in the UK. It earned Wilson his first Grammy Award, winning in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". In 2011, the album's sequencing served as a blueprint for "The Smile Sessions", a compilation dedicated to the original Beach Boys recordings. In 2020, "BWPS" was ranked number 399 on "Rolling Stone"s list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It has been certified platinum by the RIAA, indicating one hundred thousand units sold.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In 1967, due to numerous difficulties surrounding the project, Brian Wilson abandoned "Smile", an unfinished album that he had recorded with his band the Beach Boys, lyricist Van Dyke Parks, and numerous session musicians. The band substituted its release with "Smiley Smile", a downscaled version, and a legend subsequently grew around the original "Smile" recordings. In the 1980s, unreleased material from its recording sessions began circulating widely on bootlegs, which inspired many fans to compile a hypothetical version of the completed album. Among these fans were Los Angeles-based musicians Darian Sahanaja, Probyn Gregory, and Nick Walusko, all of whom later formed the band Wondermints.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In 1995, Wilson reteamed with Parks for the collaborative album "Orange Crate Art", which provoked speculation regarding a future release of "Smile". Instead, Wilson indicated that he was more interested in completing a forthcoming collaboration with musician Andy Paley. That year, Paley invited Wilson to a concert at the Morgan-Wixon Theater in Los Angeles, a show which featured the Wondermints performing a rendition of "Surf's Up". After the concert, Wilson remarked to Paley, "If I'd had these guys back in '67, I could've taken "Smile" on the road."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In late 1998, the Wondermints accepted an offer from Wilson's wife Melinda Ledbetter to join Wilson's live band, a group that included guitarist Jeffrey Foskett, multi-instrumentalist Scott Bennett, reed player Paul Mertens, bassist Bob Lizik, and backing vocalist Taylor Mills. Their first tour was successful, and from 2000 to 2002, Wilson followed up with another, this time playing the "Pet Sounds" album in its entirety.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Wilson had been psychologically scarred by the making of "Smile" and regarded the album as his life's greatest failure. Sahanaja recalled, "When I first met Brian, you couldn't even mention the words 'Heroes and Villains'; he'd turn around and walk away or he'd say, 'I don't want to talk about it.'" In December 2000, while at a Christmas party at Bennett's house, Wilson was playing songs on piano when the wife of biographer David Leaf called out a request for "Heroes and Villains". To the astonishment of everyone present, Wilson began playing and singing the song. He then agreed to perform the song with his band at a forthcoming tribute show held in his honor at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. At the concert, various artists performed renditions of Wilson's songs, including "Our Prayer" and "Surf's Up", with Wilson's band providing accompaniment. A performance of "Cabinessence" was considered, but dropped due to its complexity.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Following the concert, Ledbetter and Sahanaja successfully petitioned Wilson to add "Our Prayer" and "Surf's Up" into his regular setlists. "Heroes and Villains" and a medley of "Wonderful" and "Cabinessence" were also added. Within a few months, Wilson performed "Prayer" and "Heroes" during his appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". According to Sahanaja, "It was like little baby steps all the way." While rehearsing for the "Pet Sounds" concerts in January 2002, Sahanaja attended a lunch meeting with Wilson, Ledbetter, and "Pet Sounds" show promoter Glenn Maxx. At one point, someone joked, "The only thing that could ever top this is to do music from "Smile"". Unusual for Wilson, he did not voice an objection to the idea.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In 2003, during the recording of his forthcoming album "Gettin' in over My Head", Wilson permitted his managers to schedule shows that would include the live debut of "Smile". On May 22, while he was in London to accept an Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement, it was announced that Wilson and his band would perform a live interpretation of "Smile" in February 2004 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Parks, who had attended the Radio City Music Hall concert, was not originally involved, nor was he contacted about the project beforehand, and only learned about it through the press.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: The news elicited some mixed reactions from fans of Wilson who felt that his attempt to complete "Smile" would destroy the legendary quality associated with the project. Sahanaja remembered that, during their meetings over the summer, Wilson did not appear interested in the project. He said, "I knew there were a lot of people who were very familiar with this stuff, and for most of them even touching "Smile" was sacrilege. I was of that same mindset, but then Brian gradually started getting into it."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: The project was not approached as an attempt to complete "Smile". Initially, the band's goal was only to assemble a cohesive live set of "Smile" material that had been released to that point. To assist with the assembly, Sahanaja was assigned the role of "musical secretary" for Wilson, and in early autumn 2003, was sent to the Beach Boys' tape vaults to download select recordings to his laptop. Sahanaja consulted bootlegs that he had amassed since the early 1980s, as well as an archive of literature belonging to David Leaf, which included photocopies of handwritten lyric sheets that were originally given to illustrator Frank Holmes in 1966.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: With Pro Tools session files loaded onto his Apple G3 iBook, Sahanaja joined Wilson at his home on numerous occasions to listen to the recordings and determine how they were originally supposed to function together. To relieve Wilson from the burden of deconstructing and reconstructing his own music, Sahanaja handled the task for him by transcribing the recordings as much as he possibly could, then presenting the resultant work back to him for necessary adjustments. At first, Sahanaja presented only the recurring motifs and chord patterns of the songs before moving onto any lyrics. Wilson had resisted listening to the original recordings, but eventually went through with the task. He later said that listening to the recordings "reawakened the bad feelings of the drugs, not the music. The music was good vibes. The drugs were bad vibes. I had a bad flashback, but we got over it right away."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In Sahanaja's recollection, "He'd be saying, 'Oh yeah, that's supposed to be a part of this song,' or 'Use that bit to connect these two songs here,' and it was really neat." However, on another occasion, Sahanaja said that Wilson did not assert his original ideas for the album: "Brian Wilson is not going to tell you in October/November of 2003, 'No, this was supposed to be like this.' If anything, he was terrified at first, but as he became more comfortable, we just went with his gut. And nine times out of ten, his gut is "Smile"."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Early in these sessions, the pair were working on the song "Do You Like Worms?" when they ran into issues reading the handwriting of its lyric sheet. Wilson swiftly phoned Parks, who he had not spoken to in years, and immediately asked what word came after "cheering". Parks asked Wilson to fax him the lyric sheet, and within minutes, Parks called back and clarified that the word was "Indians". After Wilson and Sahanaja finished their work for that day, Wilson called Parks again and had a lengthier conversation, during which Parks accepted the invitation to join the project.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Parks returned to his original role as the project's lyricist. In the interest of preserving the "integrity" of their work, Sahanaja took on a less active role, contributing to the discussions only when the songwriters were struggling with "how to pull something off live". Wilson later stated that he could recall very little of "Smile" until Parks entered the project. Parks himself had not listened to any of the "Smile" music in decades. According to Sahanaja,


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Wilson, Parks, and Sahanaja configured the presentation into three movements. The third effectively constituted songs that were leftover from the other two movements, and in Sahanaja's description, "the stuff that was the riskiest" from Wilson's point of view. Sahanaja said: "At that point, he [Brian] and Van Dyke were talking as if they were finishing "Smile"."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: According to Wilson, "BWPS" reimagined the original "Smile" concept "from scratch". Asked for a comparison, he responded that the new version was "different, much different. Much more progressive, much happier, much more uplifting." Parks provided lyrics that had been written in the 1960s but not previously documented, and some that were newly written for the project. He believed that a hypothetical 1967 version of "Smile" would not have been significantly different from their 2004 version.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Sahanaja believed that there were two exceptions in which Wilson clearly recalled ideas that he had originally conceived for the "Smile" album. One was the verse melody of "Do You Like Worms?"; the other was the pairing of "Wonderful" and "Look". Regarding the latter, Sahanaja said that "Brian just butted those two together and said, 'Yeah, that's it! That's how it goes!'" When he asked Parks if an idea was part of the original concept, Parks would only respond with, "It was inevitable."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: A number of short, orchestral segues between songs were newly written for the project by Wilson, Parks, Sahanaja, and Paul Mertens. They also wrote a string arrangement for the second part of "Surf's Up", an idea that Wilson said he originally intended for the piece. Some of the titles of the original tracks were changed, including "Do You Like Worms?", which was renamed "Roll Plymouth Rock". Wilson explained that this was because "we wanted something a little more appropriate". When Wilson was presented "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", he began humming the melody from "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter", which was then incorporated into the piece.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In Wilson's words, "We [first] thought of it as 2-movement rock opera. Then we added a third [and] we called it a 3-movement rock opera." The subtitles for these movements ("Americana", "Cycle of Life", and "Spiritual Rebirth—Elements") were the invention of music writer Peter Reum. In a 2011 interview, Sahanaja stated that Wilson never mentioned an "elemental" concept during these sessions: "whenever I did bring up the concept he didn't seem to react to it with any enthusiasm. I brought it up again while Van Dyke was around and didn't get a clear reaction from him either."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Besides the tracks that made it into the final presentation, nothing else from the original "Smile" sessions was worked on, although some recordings were presented to Wilson for consideration. Among the rejected ideas that Sahanaja played for Wilson was "He Gives Speeches", "With Me Tonight", "She's Goin' Bald", and the alternate "rock with me, Henry" version of "Wonderful".


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Rehearsals began in January 2004, at which point Leaf had arrived with a film crew set on documenting the project. Wilson was still intensely troubled by his memories of "Smile" and the prospects of performing it live. He began struggling with a resurgence of auditory hallucinations. Sahanaja recalled that, after the holiday break, when he returned to Wilson's house to prepare for the forthcoming vocal rehearsals, "I remember him shaking and he sat down and he started crying and yelling 'I'm fucked! I'm fucked!'" They attempted to work on a few songs before Wilson threw the lyric sheet across the room and began shouting from the other room, "Darian! Darian! They are trying to kill me! They are trying to kill me!"


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: On the first day of rehearsals, Wilson had a panic attack and drove himself to the emergency room at a nearby hospital, but calmed down within hours. His attendance for the rest of the rehearsal dates remained inconsistent, as he would leave prematurely on some days, and on others, skip them entirely. Sahanaja told biographer Mark Dillon, "There's always the question of whether you're forcing Brian to do something he doesn't want to do. But in the end, do you want a Brian Wilson who just sits at home, watching TV, or should you try to put a spark under him and get him going to the point where it is a productive, positive thing for him?"


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" premiered at the Royal Festival Hall on February 20, 2004. It was bookended by two setlists consisting of regular Beach Boys hits such as "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows", lesser-known songs such as "You're Welcome" and "Time to Get Alone", and songs from "Gettin' in Over My Head". The first set was played acoustically in the style of "Beach Boys' Party!"; Wilson sat on a stool surrounded by his supporting band, who provided additional vocals, two guitars, bongos, and an occasional flute or harmonica part.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: When "Smile" completed its debut, Wilson received a ten-minute standing ovation before he was able to invite Parks, who was in tears, onstage. According to Sahanaja, "the standing ovation was indescribable. I had never seen anything like it as an audience member or a performer. [...]They wouldn't let him speak or say anything. [...] I stepped up to him and said, 'Uh, Brian... I think they like "SMiLE".'" For the encore, Parks performed shaker on "Do It Again". Sahanaja reported that, after the show, Wilson rocked back and forth backstage—out of relief that he had finally conquered his fear of "Smile"—exclaiming "Darian! Darian! We did it! We did it!"


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: The concerts were repeated at the same venue for every night until February 26, with each playing recorded by engineer Mark Linett for posterity on film and a 48-track Genex hard disk recorder. All the dates were sold-out, with attendees including Paul McCartney, George Martin, and Jason Pierce of Spiritualized. A brief tour followed in England and Europe.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Critical reaction was highly favorable. "The Guardian" declared that it was "one of the greatest of American symphonies." John Mulvey wrote in "NME"; "It's rare that you can honestly say you were present at a moment of genuine historic significance. And it's rarer still that the reality of these occasions measures up to the hype." In March, "GQ" ranked "BWPS" among the "Top Five Gigs of All Time". Parks attended several more of Wilson's shows, commenting, "It's absolutely thrilling. I did two shows in London, two in New York and two in LA, and you can't help but be engaged in seeing the performance. The audience was very much a part of what the performance was all about."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Conversely, "The Times" Stephen Dalton was skeptical of the album's myth and felt that most of the performance "sounded like whimsical juvenilia. It was clearly adventurous for its era but, with the best will in the world, it is not difficult to see why Wilson's [...] fellow Beach Boys balked at releasing it." "Mojo"s Jim Irvin was similarly underwhelmed; although he enjoyed the songs, he wrote, "To claim that this show was transcendent is to disregard the figure at its heart, a bewildered-looking man of 61 who barely plays the piano he's perched behind. [...] its hard to feel uplifted, as such." Critic Barney Hoskyns wrote that it was "a pretty magnificent evening", although Wilson's apathetic demeanor resembled that of an autistic person's. Hoskyns mused, "As bizarrely not-there as Brian seemed through all of this, he seemed to be enjoying himself as much as he is able to. Occasionally he flapped his arms about, and he made a big point of introducing 'Marcella' as a real 'rock'n'roll' song – as though that were what we secretly craved."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Motivated by the positive reception, Wilson agreed to record a studio version of "Smile" after two weeks of consideration. Recording began on April 13, 2004 with his ten-piece touring band, augmented by a ten-piece string section and an acoustic bassist. The basic tracks were recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in four days, with overdubbing and mixing continuing until July with some stops at engineer Mark Linett's Your Place or Mine studio.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: When played live, digital keyboards were used to replicate the sound of various instruments such as harpsichord and tack piano, and electric drums were used in place of timpanis. These digital keyboards were kept for the album's recording, though a real upright piano and timpani was used. Some alterations were also made to tracks' specific arrangements, since they had been arranged with an audience in mind, along with the logistics of only having ten performers on stage. Linett explained: "For the studio version of "Smile", Brian and the band eliminated some of the flourishes that were designed just for live performance and substantially reworked the instrumental arrangements." Most engineering for the album followed practices that were common during the 1960s, and tracks were recorded and sequenced in discrete sections the same as they would have been on the original "Smile". The vocals were recorded using a Universal Audio tube mixing console identical to the one used by the Beach Boys at United Western Recorders in the 1960s.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: The album was recorded onto a custom Pro Tools HD rig. Mixing was completed in late July, just as the band were to begin their tour of Europe. Wilson mostly avoided the mixing sessions. Linett said, "Brian would come in, make comments, take stuff home, then make more comments. The third time he came in, I gave him a CD and I said: 'Hey, there it is. "Smile", ready to play on your CD player.' I swear you could see something change in him. And he's been different ever since." According to Sahanaja, Wilson held the CD to his chest and said, "'I'm going to hold this dear to my heart.' He was trembling."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In an interview from October 2004, Wilson was asked what completing "Smile" had meant to him, and he responded:


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: On September 28, 2004, "BWPS" was issued on Nonesuch Records. It debuted at number 13 on the "Billboard" 200, the highest chart position of any album by the Beach Boys or Brian Wilson since 1976's "15 Big Ones", and it was the best-selling album on Amazon for two weeks. On September 28, Wilson appeared on "The Tonight Show" performing "Heroes and Villains". On October 5, Leaf's documentary "" premiered on the Showtime network. The film included interviews with Wilson and dozens of his associates, albeit none of his surviving bandmates from the Beach Boys, who declined to appear in the film. It was later included on the DVD of a "Smile" concert performed in Los Angeles. By February 2005, Nielson Soundscan had reported that the album had sold over 300,000 copies. It was certified platinum in combination with its international sales.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: From autumn 2004 to summer 2005, Wilson supported the album with a world tour that included stops in the US, Europe, and Japan. In March 2005, Wilson, Parks, and Leaf held a panel at the annual South by Southwest convention in Austin, Texas to discuss "Smile". Asked if he would permit the release of the original Beach Boys recordings, Wilson responded: "Never. Those are gone forever. I don't want those made public because they bring up bad memories. I don't think about the old days anymore. I never do." Sahanaja told "Australian Musician", "In six years of touring this is the happiest we've ever seen Brian, I mean consistently happy and it's got to be because of the music. [...] Who would have thought … of all things…"Smile"."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: "BWPS" received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, "Smile" received an average score of 97 based on 29 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: "Rolling Stone"s Robert Christgau, who was skeptical of "Smile" back in the 1960s, praised Parks' lyrics and wrote, "what elevates them into something approaching a utopian vision is Wilson's orchestrations: brief bridge melodies, youthful harmonies [...] and an enthralling profusion of instrumental colors." Dominique Leone of "Pitchfork" declared, "As the mythical follow-up to "Pet Sounds", it delivers, and despite his age, Wilson's voice even sounds fantastic, still carrying the weight of these angelic melodies." "The Village Voice"s Tom Smucker felt that it might go on to be considered "album of the year" and described it as "the first successfully conceptualized Beach Boys release since "Kokomo", the most moving since "Pet Sounds", and the funniest since "Smiley Smile"".


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In Britain, "The Guardian"s Alexis Petridis wrote that news of the album's release caused "an outbreak of mild hysteria" and provoked a journalist from the newspaper to solicit an opinion from the British government, who then supplied a comment from defense secretary Geoff Hoon. Petridis concluded, "Despite the hype, it is hard not to be impressed with the new "Smile". [...] the songs Wilson wrote for "Smile" still sound like nothing else rock music has ever produced. Its release may not warrant a quote from the defence secretary, but only the hardest heart would not be gladdened by its contents."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: "NME"s reviewer compared "BWPS" favorably to Sergei Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kijé" ("its interweaved and repeated melodic strands"), Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" ("its sheer contemplative beauty"), and the work of George Gershwin and Aaron Copland ("its appropriation of American folk"). In his review for "Mojo", Mark Paytress rated "BWPS" higher than the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", as well as any "latter-day art-rock classic, say, Radiohead's "OK Computer"". Acknowledging the "issues of authenticity that arise out of this 'reconstruction'", he added, "as someone with a small collection of "Smile"("s") — and thus with one eyebrow sharply raised — I'm amazed how easy it is to believe that this is, perhaps, the genuine "Smile"."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Less favorably, music critic Paul Morley felt that "BWPS" represented "a breathtaking example of ultimately banal thinkers attempting self-consciously to make art, a square version of freaking out, musically sophisticated, aesthetically conservative [...] I needed a quick shower of Ramones, Dre and Hendrix afterwards, just to rinse away the clingy bits of fake myth." John Bush of AllMusic believed "BWPS" was "a remarkably unified, irresistible piece of pop music", yet decreed that it was "no musical watershed on par with "Sgt. Pepper's" [...] or Wilson's masterpiece, "Pet Sounds"". Writing in his 2005 book about "Smile", Domenic Priore opined, "The recording sessions for the album at Sunset Sound came and went very quickly, and the mix suffers because of this; the emphasis on bass is not what it should be, and the tracks should breathe more. Some felt that there was too much singing, compared with the instrumental texture of the original tapes."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: "BWPS" received three nominations for the 2005 Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (for Mark Linett). It won one Grammy, in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "". "Smile" also finished in second place in the Pazz & Jop, an annual critics poll run by "The Village Voice". "Pitchfork" named it fifth best album of 2004 and the 25th best album released between 2000 and 2004.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Mike Love gave his thoughts on the album in a November 2004 interview: "I guess it's a good thing for Brian to do. A friend sent me a copy, but I haven't had time to hear it yet because we've been on tour." In an earlier interview, he had said he would have no interest in listening to the album and, citing the legal concept of "corporate opportunity", mentioned that it had possibly infringed on the Beach Boys' intellectual property rights. Love argued that, because the group had collectively paid for the 1960s recording sessions and all contributed work on the original tracks, "I would have thought it would have been more honorable to put it together as the Beach Boys."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In many interviews he gave around the album's release, Wilson disparaged the Beach Boys, calling them inferior to his current band. In a 2007 interview, Love expressed that he was disappointed to hear about Wilson's remarks. "I'm glad that he's happy with the people he's performing with, but, you know, I think it's sad that he thinks that. My personal feeling is that the original group recordings on "Smile" have got to be better." Bruce Johnston took offense as well, writing in an email to biographer Peter Ames Carlin: "I spent years showing full support for Brian, but now that's all changed because of his current point of view." Johnston said of the album in a 2008 interview, "I think as an exercise in keeping [Wilson] occupied, it's interesting. [...] I talk to him every once in a while. But I'm never going to tell him that I'll take "Pet Sounds" over what he's doing now."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: One of the promotions for the album was a free CD issued through the "Mail on Sunday" in September 2004. The 10-track compilation included Beach Boys songs Wilson had recently rerecorded, five of which he coauthored with Love. The "Mail on Sunday" distributed 2.6 million copies of the compilation. In November 2005, Love filed a lawsuit in which he claimed the promotion hurt the sales of the original recordings. Love's suit was dismissed in 2007 when a judge determined that there were "no triable issues of material fact".


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Al Jardine said in 2013 that he "didn't give it a whole lot of thought; I didn't want to go there at that time. They were good enough to send me a copy. So I dropped the needle, as they used to say, and listened to a few cuts, and it was very nice. But there's nothin' like the [vintage recordings]."


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Although critics widely referred to Wilson's 2004 version as the "Smile" album completed, many fans disputed the notion. Bootleggers continued to compile their own versions of the Beach Boys' album. In 2011, "The Smile Sessions" was released containing an approximation of what the band's finished album might have sounded like, using "BWPS" as a blueprint. Linett co-produced the compilation with Wilson. According to Sahanaja, Wilson "lobbied hard" for the album's sequence to be based on "BWPS". In a 2015 interview, Wilson stated that he ultimately preferred his solo version.


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: Reviewing "BWPS" on the tenth anniversary of its release, Chris Shields of the "St. Cloud Times" wrote that "the sequencing raised a question mark or two, and there were mixing quibbles (I would have loved to hear more bass), but [...] [t]he lyrical beauty, the majesty of the music, the shifting (yet somehow fixed) meanings that intertwine throughout it all, still elate me, still fill me with hope and joy." "PopMatters" contributor Sean Murphy opined that the album was "crucial", but rendered "less significant" with the availability of "The Smile Sessions". Writing for "NewMusicBox", Frank Oteri called "BWPS" "a wonderful album, but it is also not quite right. It is not and can never be a substitute for "SMiLE"". Music historian Clinton Heylin, who felt that the original "Smile" recordings failed to live up to the myth, characterized "BWPS" as "a pale shadow full of digital tweaks, and precious little sweet inspiration; showing if anything that there "never" was a realised record".


title: Brian Wilson Presents Smile

text: In 2009, "BWPS" was named the 88th best album of the decade by "Rolling Stone". In 2010, it was included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In 2020, it was ranked number 399 on "Rolling Stone"s list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The editors wrote, "Close your eyes and you can imagine how it might've changed the world in 1968 , but with Wilson's influence still all over scads of indie bands in 2004, it sounds and feels majestically modern." In 2022, it was ranked number 102 on "Uncut"s list of the greatest albums released since 1997, as well as number 21 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the greatest concept albums in history.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The interphalangeal joints of the hand are the hinge joints between the phalanges of the fingers that provide flexion towards the palm of the hand.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: Anatomically, the proximal and distal interphalangeal joints are very similar. There are some minor differences in how the palmar plates are attached proximally and in the segmentation of the flexor tendon sheath, but the major differences are the smaller dimension and reduced mobility of the distal joint.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The PIP joint exhibits great lateral stability. Its transverse diameter is greater than its antero-posterior diameter and its thick collateral ligaments are tight in all positions during flexion, contrary to those in the metacarpophalangeal joint.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The capsule, extensor tendon, and skin are very thin and lax dorsally, allowing for both phalanx bones to flex more than 100° until the base of the middle phalanx makes contact with the condylar notch of the proximal phalanx.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: At the level of the PIP joint the extensor mechanism splits into three bands. The central slip attaches to the dorsal tubercle of the middle phalanx near the PIP joint. The pair of lateral bands, to which contribute the extensor tendons, continue past the PIP joint dorsally to the joint axis. These three bands are united by a transverse retinacular ligament, which runs from the palmar border of the lateral band to the flexor sheath at the level of the joint and which prevents dorsal displacement of that lateral band. On the palmar side of the joint axis of motion, lies the oblique retinacular ligament [of Landsmeer] which stretches from the flexor sheath over the proximal phalanx to the terminal extensor tendon. In extension, the oblique ligament prevents passive DIP flexion and PIP hyperextension as it tightens and pulls the terminal extensor tendon proximally.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: In contrast, on the palmar side, a thick ligament prevents hyperextension. The distal part of the palmar ligament, called the palmar plate, is thick and has a fibrocartilaginous structure. The presence of chondroitin and keratan sulfate in the dorsal and palmar plates is important in resisting compression forces against the condyles of the proximal phalanx. Together these structures protect the tendons passing in front and behind the joint. These tendons can sustain traction forces thanks to their collagen fibers.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The palmar ligament is thinner and more flexible in its central-proximal part. On both sides it is reinforced by the so-called check rein ligaments. The accessory collateral ligaments (ACL) originate at the proximal phalanx and are inserted distally at the base of the middle phalanx below the collateral ligaments.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The accessory ligament and the proximal margin of the palmar plate are flexible and fold back upon themselves during flexion. The flexor tendon sheaths are firmly attached to the proximal and middle phalanges by annular pulleys A2 and A4, while the A3 pulley and the proximal fibres of the C1 ligament attach the sheaths to the mobile volar ligament at the PIP joint. During flexion this arrangement produces a space at the neck of the proximal phalanx which is filled by the folding palmar plate.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The palmar plate is supported by a ligament on either side of the joint called the collateral ligaments, which prevent deviation of the joint from side to side. The ligaments can partially or fully tear and can avulse with a small fracture fragment when the finger is forced backwards into hyperextension. This is called a "palmar plate, or volar plate injury".


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The palmar plate forms a semi-rigid floor and the collateral ligaments the walls in a mobile box which moves together with the distal part of the joint and provides stability to the joint during its entire range of motion. Because the palmar plate adheres to the flexor digitorum superficialis near the distal attachment of the muscle, it also increases the moment of flexor action. In the PIP joint, extension is more limited because of the two so called check-rein ligaments, which attach the palmar plate to the proximal phalanx.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: The relative length of the digit varies during motion of the IP joints. The length of the palmar aspect decreases during flexion while the dorsal aspect increases by about 24 mm. The useful range of motion of the PIP joint is 30–70°, increasing from the index finger to the little finger. During maximum flexion the base of the middle phalanx is firmly pressed into the retrocondylar recess of the proximal phalanx, which provides maximum stability to the joint. The stability of the PIP joint is dependent of the tendons passing around it.


title: Interphalangeal joints of the hand

text: Rheumatoid arthritis generally spares the distal interphalangeal joints. Therefore, arthritis of the distal interphalangeal joints strongly suggests the presence of osteoarthritis or psoriatic arthritis.


title: Catching Killers

text: Catching Killers is a true crime docuseries produced by Simon Dekker and Diana Sole Walko, released on Netflix on November 4, 2021. The series follows police and prosecutors as they investigate, arrest and convict the world's most violent killers.


title: Catching Killers

text: Each episode focuses on some infamous serial killer cases, from the detectives' perspectives. The investigators tell their own struggles, mistakes and efforts to catch the elusive perpetrators, and how did it affected their lives (both personal and career).


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The Canterbury Tales () is a 1972 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on the medieval narrative poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. The second film in Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", preceded by "The Decameron" and followed by "Arabian Nights", it won the Golden Bear at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: With the Trilogy of Life, Pasolini sought to adapt vibrant, erotic tales from classical literature. With "The Decameron", Pasolini adapted an important work from the early era of the Italian language. With "The Canterbury Tales" he set his sights to the earthy Middle English tales of Chaucer. Behind the scenes, Pasolini broke up with Ninetto Davoli and said in retrospect, he was not in the right frame of mind for this kind of silly, lighthearted trilogy. Yet it remains one of his most important films.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The movie came after a string of movies of the late 1960s in which Pasolini had a major ideological bent. Though this movie is much more light-hearted in nature Pasolini nonetheless considered it among his most "ideological". The film can be seen as an attack on the stiff sexual mores of both Chaucer and Pasolini's times.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The adaptation covers eight of the 24 tales and contains abundant nudity, sex, and slapstick humour. Many of these scenes are present or at least alluded to in the original as well, but some are Pasolini's own additions.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The film sometimes diverges from Chaucer. For example, "The Friar's Tale" is significantly expanded upon: where the Friar leads in with a general account of the archdeacon's severity and the summoner's corruption, Pasolini illustrates this with a specific incident which has no parallel in Chaucer. After men are caught having sex at a local inn, one is able to bribe his way out of trouble, but the other, poorer man is less fortunate: he is convicted of sodomy and sentenced to death. As a foretaste of Hell, he is burned alive inside an iron cage ("roasted on a griddle" in the words of one spectator) while vendors sell roasted foods to the spectators. Likewise, The Cook's Tale which is 58 lines is turned into a slapstick farce to give Ninetto Davoli a starring role.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Set in England in the Middle Ages, stories of peasants, noblemen, clergy and demons are interwoven with brief scenes from Chaucer's home life and experiences implied to be the basis for the Canterbury Tales. Each episode does not take the form of a story told by different pilgrim, as is the case in Chaucer's stories, but simply appear in sequence, seemingly without regard for the way that the tales relate to one another in the original text. All the stories are linked to the arrival of a group of pilgrims at Canterbury, among whom is the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, played by Pasolini himself.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The film credits role as the traditional ballad "Ould Piper" plays over top, about an elderly piper from Ballymoney who dies and is sent to Hell where he annoys the Devil with his terrible singing. The characters from the later stories are introduced chattering to one another at the Tabard inn. Chaucer (played by Pasolini himself) enters through the gate and bumps into a heavy man covered in woad tattooing, injuring his nose. The wife of Bath delivers long-winded monologues to disinterested listeners about her weaving skills and sexual prowess. The Pardoner unsuccessfully attempts to sell what he claims are pieces of cloth from the sail of St. Peter's boat and the Holy Virgin's veil. Some other travelers enter and suggest they tell stories to make the journey more entertaining which leads into the main stories of the film. Chaucer opens his book and begins to write down their stories.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The elderly merchant Sir January decides to marry May, a young woman who has little interest in him. After they are married, the merchant suddenly becomes blind, and insists on constantly holding on to his wife' wrist as consolation for the fact that he cannot see her. Meanwhile, Damian, a young man whom May has interest in decides to take advantage of the situation. May has a key to January's personal garden made. While the two are walking in the private garden, May asks to eat mulberries from one of the trees. Taking advantage of her husband's blindness, she meets with Damian inside of the tree, but is thwarted when the god Pluto, who has been watching over the couple in the garden, suddenly restores January's sight. January briefly sees May and her lover together and is furious. Fortunately for May, the goddess Persephone who also happens to be in the same garden fills her head with decent excuses to calm her husband's wrath. May convinces January that he has hallucinated and the two walk off together merrily.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: A vendor witnesses a summoner who is spying on two different men committing sodomy. He catches both and turns them over to the authorities. While one man manages to escape persecution by bribing the authorities, the other is sentenced to burn on a "griddle". During his execution, the vendor walks through the crowd selling griddle cakes. Afterwards, the vendor meets the summoner, who is unaware he was being followed. The two vow to be friends but the vendor reveals himself to be the devil. The summoner does not care about this and says they will make great partners as they are both out for profit. The summoner then explains that he must collect money from a miserly old woman. When they meet the old woman, the summoner levies false charges against her and tells her that she must appear before the ecclesiastical court but says that if she pays him a bribe in the amount she owes, she will be excused. The old woman accuses him of lying, and curses him to be taken away by the devil if he does not repent. She says the devil can take him and the pitcher she owns which is her most valuable possession. The devil asks her if she truly means what she says and she assents. The summoner refuses to repent and the devil proceeds to take him (and the pitcher) to hell as they are now his by divine right.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The travelers at the Tabard Inn have all fallen asleep save for Chaucer. He begins to jot down more of their tales starting with the Cook's Tale.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Perkin, a Chaplin-esque fool who carries a cane and wears a hat resembling a bowler, steals food from bystanders and causes havoc. He is chased by the police who he escapes from by ducking out of the way while they trip into the Thames River. Perkin crashes a wedding where he steals the attention of the bride and smashes a wedding cake into the face of the feckless husband. This enrages the father-in-law who throws him out. Perkin goes home where he is scolded by his midget father. His mother is more sympathetic and steals food for him. She hopes he will find work tomorrow. Perkin next finds work polishing eggs. While his employer is away, Perkin is distracted by a group of men playing a dice game nearby and joins them. He steals money from his employer to use but is soon discovered and fired. Perkin accompanies one of the men home, where he shares a bed with the man and his wife, who is a prostitute. That night, he dreams he is dancing with naked women in a similar manner to how the party guests were dancing at the wedding he had previously crashed. Two police officers who Perkin evaded earlier discover him there and awaken him. Perkin is arrested and put in the stocks where he drunkenly sings "The Ould Piper" while bystanders and minstrels cheer and shout.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Chaucer reads a funny story from The Decameron. His wife scolds him for wasting time so he sits down to write his own story. This is the Miller's Tale.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Nicholas, a young student lives next door to an overweight, elderly carpenter named John. He notices that John has left for Osney so he goes next door to seduce his much younger wife Alison, whom secretly detests him. Absolon, another youth is also in love with Alison. He and his homosexual friend Martin go to Alison later and serenade her with the ballad "The Gower Wassail" much to her and her now returned husband's chagrin. In order to deceive the carpenter, Nicholas pretends to be in a holy trance. When the carpenter enters the room to see what is wrong, Nicholas convinces him that a massive flood is about to occur, and claims that he, the carpenter, and Allison should all three wait in buckets tied to the ceiling rafters to escape drowning. The carpenter does as he says and they hide in the buckets. While the carpenter waits in his bucket, he drifts off to sleep. Nicholas and Alison come out of their buckets and sneak away to have sex. Meanwhile, Absolon returns but Alison scolds him and tells him that she does not love him. He accepts but asks only for a kiss. Allison answers him by inviting him to climb up to her window and then when he puckers his lips, she sticks her buttocks out the window and farts in his face (a departure from the original, in which it is Nicholas, not Alison, who farts in his face). Absolon is offended and runs to a blacksmith's shop where he borrows a hot poker, and then returns to the carpenter's house and asks for another kiss. On this occasion, Nicholas goes to the window instead of Alison, and has his buttocks scalded. Nicholas then cries out for water, leading the carpenter to awaken and believe that the flood has arrived. The carpenter then cuts the rope holding his bucket in the air, and violently falls to the ground.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: In Bath, a middle-aged woman's fourth husband falls ill during sex and dies soon after. The wife meets a young student named Jenkin and is instantly smitten by him after watching him bathing. Her friend who is lodging the student sets up for her to meet Jenkin alone during an 'Obby 'Oss celebration that is coming up. At the celebration, she gets Jenkin alone and gives him a handjob. She tells him that he must marry her because she had a prophetic dream that he was trying to kill her and that she was covered in blood. Blood means gold. She buries her husband and marries Jenkin in quick succession, literally running from her late husband's funeral in one wing of a cathedral to her wedding in another wing. On their wedding night, the wife of Bath's fifth husband reads to her from a book denouncing the evils of historical women such as Eve and Xanthippe. The wife of Bath demands that he not tell her about her own business, and destroys the book. Her husband pushes her away, and she falls onto her back and moans on the floor. She feigns injury and tells him that she is dying. She curses him for plotting to take her land and inheritance. When he leans over to comfort her, however, she bites his nose. This episode is derived from the prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale rather than the tale itself.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: In Cambridge, a manciple falls ill and is unable to perform his duties so two students named Alan and John are tasked with performing them for him. They bring a sack of grain to a mill to be milled into flour. Simkin the Miller tricks the youths by freeing their horse and switching their flour for bran while they chase after it. When they return with the horse, it is late in the evening, and the students ask to stay the night. The Miller agrees to let them stay, and the two share a pallet bed next to one shared by the Miller and his wife. During the night, Alan seduces Molly, the Miller's daughter, being careful not to wake the Miller. John is angered by this as he is left alone and feels foolish. The Miller's wife, meanwhile, gets up to urinate, and stumbles over the crib at the foot of her and the Miller's pallet. John gets an idea and before she returns, he moves the crib to the foot of his own pallet, tricking the miller's wife into sleeping with him instead of the Miller. Alan finishes having sex with Molly, and she confesses that she and father have stolen his flour. Alan then gets into bed with the Miller and tells him about his exploits with Molly, thinking that the Miller is his companion. The Miller then attacks the scholar, causing his wife and John to come to the scholar's defense in the dark room and knock him out. The scholars then ride away with their flour as Molly forlornly says farewell.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: In Flanders, four young men spend their time carousing in a brothel that is full of prostitutes who specialize in BDSM and cleaning smegma. One of the boys, Rufus, is drunk and yells at the other customers for their immorality before urinating on them. The next day, Rufus is killed by a thief. The other boys hear about this and misunderstand the news they are told. They believe Rufus was literally murdered by a man named Death. They agree to seek out Death for themselves and get revenge on him for murdering their friend. The youths then encounter an old man, who they accuse of conspiring with Death in order to kill the young, and demand at knifepoint that he tell them where Death is located. The old man tells them to look around a nearby oak tree, where they find instead an abundance of treasure. While two of the youths wait by the treasure, a third (Dick the Sparrow) leaves for town, returning later with three casks of wine, two of which he has poisoned. When he reaches the tree, the two youths drink the poisoned wine and stab their companion, then succumb to the poison.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: In the final tale, a gluttonous friar tries to extract as many donations as possible from a bedridden parishioner. The parishioner then offers him his most valuable possession, provided he promises to distribute it equally among all the friars. The parishioner claims that this possession is located beneath his buttocks. When the friar reaches down to retrieve the item, the bedridden man farts into his hands. That night, an angel visits the friar and brings him to hell, where Satan expels hundreds of corrupt friars from his rectum. This segment with Satan defecating corrupt friars is from the Summoner's prologue rather than the main tale.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The film ends with the pilgrims arriving at Canterbury Cathedral, and Chaucer at home writing (in ) "Here ends the Canterbury Tales, told only for the pleasure of telling them. Amen": a line original to the film. The brief scene differs starkly from the original text. While the real Chaucer asks his Christian readers to forgive the more immoral and unsavoury aspects of his book, Pasolini's Chaucer is unashamed of sexuality and pleased to tell these ribald tales.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Production lasted from September 16, 1971 to November 23, 1971. Pier Paolo Pasolini was very unhappy during the production of this film as Ninetto Davoli was in the process of leaving him to marry a woman.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The cinematography of this film is based on Medieval and Renaissance paintings. The shots of Chaucer at work in his study are based on the painting of Saint Jerome in His Study by Antonello da Messina. The background here is changed from open spaces and rolling hills to large bookcases and small windows showing only empty white. This was to show the cramped spaces in which Chaucer worked. The depiction of Hell at the very end of the film is also based on the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Giotto di Bondone and Peter Bruegel also served as visual references.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Atypical of a Pasolini film, he chose some of the finest British actors such as Hugh Griffith and Josephine Chaplin. This has probably the most famous cast of a Pasolini film. However, in other roles he also chose unknown actors from off the London streets and back alleys. According to Mimmo Cattarnich who worked as the scenery photographer on the film, fights would often break out among the non-professional actors on set with knives and clubs.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: This film also uses Pasolini regulars such as Ninetto Davoli and Franco Citti. Franco Citti plays the Devil in this film which follows a theme in The "Trilogy of Life" of Citti playing demonic and immoral characters (he plays Ser Ciappelletto in The Decameron and is an ifrit in Arabian Nights).


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The film was shot in England, and all the dialogue was filmed in English, which Pasolini considered the primary language of the film. No live sound was recorded, and so English and Italian dialogue were both dubbed over the film afterwards. For written scenes in the movie, both Italian and English language shots were filmed. In the Italian version, the dubbing is done by actors from Lombardy. Pasolini made this choice because in Italy, the Lombard accent is considered prim and sophisticated making it a suitable stand-in for English accents. Pasolini chose actors from the outskirts on the edge of Bergamo because he considered the pure Lombard accent tainted by writers such as Giovanni Testori. Most of the voice actors were illiterate so Pasolini would have to actually tell them what to say. Neither version uses the original Chaucerian English. For this movie's script, Pasolini used a modern colloquial English adaptation of the original Middle English which was then translated into Italian. This has been described by film commentator Sam Rohdie as "like Chaucerian English but not Chaucerian English.”


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The film commentator Colin MacCabe wrote that with this film Pasolini was "not aiming for an accurate representation of the time but a modern re-creation of its spirit." The film attempts to capture a quintessentially British atmosphere though it also is the cause of some anachronisms. Most of the traditional ballads sung throughout the film are from the 19th and 20th centuries. Molly in the Reeve's Tale and the naked women in Perkin's dream also have very noticeable tan lines from bikinis. The opposite is also in effect for the man who bumps into Pasolini's Chaucer in the opening of the film. He is covered in woad tattooing though the custom died out in the British Isles before Roman times.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The appearance of Chaucer's wife Philippa Roet in one of the interlude scenes is also anachronistic as she was already long dead by the time Chaucer began writing "The Canterbury Tales".


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Pasolini shot, edited and dubbed a version of the Tale of Sir Thopas that was later removed from the film and lost. This scene was shot at Mt. Etna in Sicily. In the deleted scene, the Host of the Tabard berates Chaucer for not being more lively and telling a tale of his own to the other guests. Chaucer looks down at his shoes and then tells his tale, the tale of Sir Thopas. In the story, Thopas is a gallant knight from Flanders who one day gets an erection after being visited in his dream by the Queen of Fairies. He next comes across the wicked Sir Elephant, who insults and challenges him, but he runs away during the middle of the challenge and is pelted in the head with rocks. He then returns to his own castle where he is doted on by his servants and makes ready for the fight. The host abruptly cuts his story off here as he is bored. This angers Chaucer who returns home to write down the tales in peace. The shots of Chaucer at home are left in the film but this crucial exposition is removed, making the jump from Chaucer at the Tabard to Chaucer writing at home a bit odd. Other exposition segments were also removed from the original script and the tales were rearranged in a different order. Besides the cut tale of Sir Thopas, 20 other scenes in addition were removed. Laura Betti claimed that in total 40 minutes of film was removed because of the runtime. The other scenes removed included


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Pasolini also changed the order of these tales after removing the introduction scenes. In the original version, the tales proceeded as follows: The Miller's Tale > The Reeve's Tale> The Cook's Tale > Sir Thopas> The Wife of Bath's Tale > The Merchant's Tale> The Friar's Tale> The Summoner's Tale > The Pardoner's Tale.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The score is largely composed of folk songs from the British Isles. Many of them are bawdy suiting the ribaldry of the tales on screen. The songs used often reflect the themes of the stories in which they are used. For example, the Irish ballad "Oxford City" about a love triangle between a woman and two men that results in the spurned man getting revenge by poisoning the others parallels very closely the Miller's Tale. In the Reeve's Tale, Molly sings "The Little Beggarman", about a beggar who goes from town to town sleeping with different women and then abandoning them in the morning which is exactly what Alan and John do to her and her mother in the story. Though the music is all traditional British music much of it is heavily anachronistic to the time of Chaucer. Sir January sings the forebitter "Paddy West" though it was composed in 1951. The use of Camborne Hill is also quite unlikely for the period as it commemorates a locomotive. The following are the complete list of songs used by Pasolini in the film:


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: The Latin chant Veni Sancte Spiritus is also sang throughout the film, particularly the line "flecte quod est rigidum" which means "Soften that which is rigid." In the Miller's Tale, Nicholas sings it while he's thinking of Alison and later on, he, Alison and her cuckolded husband all sing the refrain while they are getting into the barrels to prepare for Noah's flood. Alan and John also sing this after leaving Simkin's wife and daughter in the Reeve's Tale. The Latin chant "Haec Dies" is also used in the Pardoner's Tale.


title: The Canterbury Tales (film)

text: Some of the music was composed by Ennio Morricone on period accurate instruments. He said he did not enjoy working with bagpipes so the film was a bit challenging for him.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Count Sam Dracula, commonly known as Grandpa, is a fictional character from the American sitcom "The Munsters", originally played by Al Lewis. He is an undead vampire and the doting, irritable, and sarcastic father of Lily Munster. The role was later played by Howard Morton in the 1980s television series "The Munsters Today".


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: The character's full name is given as "Sam Dracula, Count of Transylvania". A running gag in both the original series and follow up "The Munsters Today" is his extreme age—his car, the DRAG-U-LA, bearing his gravestone, reads "born 1367–?". Grandpa talks of having personally known various figures throughout history, including Nero, King Arthur, Richard the Lionheart and Jack the Ripper. Grandpa declares his age as 378 years in the episode "Grandpa's Lost Wife", placing his date of birth around 1588. In "The Munsters Today" episode "Its My Party and I'll Die if I Want To", Grandpa celebrates his 402nd birthday. The family uses a time machine and brings back significant people from his life, including his friend Genghis Khan, brother Yorga (played by Sandy Baron who played Grandpa in the 1995 TV movie "The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas"), a former girlfriend "Shirley Zlebnik", and his overbearing mother (played by actress Ruth Buzzi).


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: In the episode "Munster Masquerade", Grandpa describes having been married "167 times", and although his wives are "all dead", he still keeps "in touch with them". Grandpa's last wife, Katja, who is also Lily's mother, makes an emotional appearance in "The Munsters Today" in the 1990 episode "Once in a Blue Moon". She also appears in a photograph in the original series which was taken during Herman and Lily's wedding.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Grandpa's identity as Count Dracula is alluded to in both the original series and "The Munsters Today". In the 1965 episode "The Musician", Mr. Gateman refers to him as "Count Dracula" when he comes to dinner. In "The Fregosi Emerald", Grandpa refers to himself as Count Dracula to an operator in Transylvania. He is also referred to as "The Count" various times in "The Munsters Today", most notably in the season one episode "Farewell Grandpa", when the family find out he isn't an American citizen, with the threat of being deported back to Transylvania by the U.S. government. In the episode "Happy 100th Anniversary", Lily notes her maiden name is Dracula. Throughout "The Munsters Today," Grandpa is referred to as "Vladimir Dracula".


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Grandpa keeps a laboratory in the cellar of the house, and often refers to "going down to the lab." The potions and magic spells he devises there are central to many of the show's stories. Many of his inventions are less than successful, but he never stops thinking up new ones.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Grandpa can transform himself into a wolf or a bat, as per Bram Stoker's "Dracula". In "Herman's Sorority Caper" and "Munster, Go Home!" it is revealed that he takes special pills to turn himself into these creatures. In later episodes, however, and in all episodes of "The Munsters Today" he changes to and from a bat simply at will.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Grandpa has an extremely sarcastic personality, and often insults his son-in-law, Herman. Despite this, Grandpa and Herman are quite close; in one episode, Lily says that if not for Herman, Grandpa would be "living in a cave picking fleas out of his wings". Many episodes of "The Munsters" revolve around the zany schemes Grandpa and Herman concoct, which either end successfully or result in Lily scolding the two for their failure.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: While Grandpa is generally considered the wisest member of the family, he also has a decidedly stubborn streak. If he feels he isn't getting his due respect, he will let everyone know it, and often sulk or go to extreme lengths to demonstrate his offense at a perceived slight. While generally a successful mad scientist and magician, his experiments tend to be comically absurd, in keeping with the genre.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Grandpa is depicted as a goofish yet loveable mad scientist. He has a pet bat named Igor who "hangs around" in Grandpa's lab. And much like a bat, Grandpa sleeps hanging upside down from the ceiling: usually in the living room, the attic, or the lab (the interior of his bedroom was shown in the season two episode "Underground Munster", Grandpa was having breakfast in bed, which was a marble slab). In "The Munsters Today", Grandpa's companion was Leonard the skeleton, whom he met at college back in Transylvania. Flashbacks to the events at college and to how Leonard and Grandpa met are part of the storyline in "The Munsters Today" episode "Never Say Die".


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Grandpa doesn't always display the traits that are commonly associated with vampires. For example, in one episode of "The Munsters," he looks in the mirror and casts a reflection. However, he does not cast a reflection in later incarnations, nor does he appear on film or in pictures. Traditionally, vampires (including Sesame Street's Count von Count) do not cast reflections. Additionally, Grandpa, as well as Lily, is seen several times outdoors during day light hours without the sunlight having any effect on him. Vampires in most lore only come out at night and usually perish when out in daylight.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: A running gag on the show, later adopted in "The Munsters Today", is Grandpa's attempts to bite someone on the arm which usually ends in failure.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: Al Lewis was the only actor from the original series to reprise his role in a 1973 unsold pilot for an animated cartoon titled "The Mini-Munsters". In 1987, he reprised the character as the host of SuperStation TBS's "Super Scary Saturday" movie block. The program aired each Saturday at noon from October 1987 to fall 1989. The name "Munsters" was never referred to in the show or its promotion and Lewis' character was simply referred to as "Grandpa". Lewis also played the role in 1-900 commercials around the same time.


title: Grandpa (The Munsters)

text: In 1990, Atari Corporation released "Midnight Mutants", a video game featuring "Grampa" as played by Al Lewis.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Greg Gumbel (born May 3, 1946) is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports (most notably, the National Football League and NCAA basketball). The older brother of news and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, he became the first African-American announcer to call play-by-play of a major sports championship in the United States when he announced Super Bowl XXXV for the CBS network in 2001. Gumbel is currently a play-by-play broadcaster for the "NFL on CBS" as well as the studio host for CBS' men's college basketball coverage.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Gumbel was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the first child of parents Richard Gumbel, a judge, and Rhea Alice LeCesne. As a young man, Gumbel grew up on Chicago's South Side, where he was raised Catholic, attending and graduating from De La Salle Institute. Before becoming a broadcaster, Gumbel graduated with a B.A. degree in English from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa where he also played on the baseball team. He also has two sisters, Renee Gumbel-Farrahi and Rhonda Gumbel-Thomas.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: In 1973, Greg's brother Bryant, then working as a television sportscaster at KNBC in Los Angeles, informed him that another NBC owned and operated station, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, was auditioning for a sports announcer. At the time, Greg was selling hospital supplies in Detroit. He ultimately got the job, returned to Chicago and worked at WMAQ-TV for seven years. The sportscaster he replaced, Dennis Swanson, went on to become president of ABC Sports.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Prior to his rising to prominence at CBS, Gumbel worked for MSG, ESPN, and WFAN radio in New York City. At ESPN, he anchored the show "SportsCenter" and did "play-by-play" for early NBA games. On MSG, Gumbel served as a backup announcer for Marv Albert on New York Knicks broadcasts as well as providing coverage for college basketball. When MSG signed a huge contract to broadcast New York Yankees games in 1989, Gumbel served as host of the pregame and postgame shows. In addition to his MSG duties, he was the host of the first radio morning show on radio station WFAN. However, station management replaced him with WNBC Radio personality Don Imus once WFAN took over WNBC's AM 660 frequency.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Gumbel's CBS career began with part-time work as an NFL announcer in 1988. Also in 1989, Gumbel began announcing college basketball as well. He became host of "The NFL Today" (alongside Terry Bradshaw) for the 1990 to 1993 seasons. He also anchored CBS' coverage of Major League Baseball, college football, and, in 1999, CBS' coverage for the Daytona 500.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Besides his hosting duties, Gumbel provided play-by-play for the NBA (alongside Quinn Buckner), Major League Baseball including the 1993 American League Championship Series (alongside Jim Kaat), and College World Series baseball.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: He was the prime time anchor for the 1994 Winter Olympic Games from Lillehammer, Norway and co-anchor for the weekday morning broadcasts of the 1992 Winter Olympics from Albertville, France.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Gumbel moved to NBC in 1994 following CBS' losses of the NFL and Major League Baseball broadcasting contracts (Gumbel's last on-air assignment for CBS was providing play-by-play for the College World Series). While at NBC, Gumbel hosted NBC's coverage of the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He also did play-by-play for the 1995 Major League Baseball National League Division Series and National League Championship Series (on both occasions, teaming with Joe Morgan), did play-by-play for "The NBA on NBC", hosted NBC's daytime coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics from Atlanta, Georgia, hosted the 1995 World Championships of Figure Skating, and served as the studio host for "The NFL on NBC".


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Gumbel left NBC after the network broadcast of Super Bowl XXXII to return to CBS. His first major assignment was to serve as studio host for the network's coverage of college basketball, including the NCAA men's basketball tournament, something he continues to do to this day.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: As CBS had just acquired the rights to NBC's previous NFL package, Gumbel joined the broadcast team as the lead announcer with fellow NBC alumnus Phil Simms as his color man. Gumbel was the lead announcer for the "NFL on CBS" between 1998 and 2003, calling Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII. For the 2004 NFL season, Gumbel traded positions with Jim Nantz as host of "The NFL Today" with Nantz taking over as lead announcer.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: At the end of the 2005 NFL season, Gumbel was replaced as studio host of "The NFL Today" by James Brown. Gumbel returned to the broadcast booth as the #2 play-by-play man, replacing Dick Enberg, alongside color man Dan Dierdorf until Dierdorf retired after the 2013–14 NFL season. Gumbel also worked alongside Trent Green in the #3 team from 2014 until 2019. He worked in a three-man booth with Green and Bruce Arians for the 2018 NFL season. Gumbel then traded spots with Kevin Harlan in 2020, teaming with Rich Gannon. Adam Archuleta became Gumbel's partner in the #4 slot the following year after CBS declined to renew Gannon's contract.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Greg, his wife Marcy, and Greg's married daughter Michelle all reside in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: In 1999, Gumbel refused to attend a NASCAR banquet honoring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, on the basis that he disagreed with Thomas' positions on political issues. He has regularly appeared on Howard Stern's radio show. Along similar lines, Gumbel said of Rush Limbaugh, "I find him someone whose words and opinions I can do without."


title: Greg Gumbel

text: Gumbel is the third man to serve as both host and play-by-play announcer for Super Bowls (the first two were Dick Enberg and Al Michaels respectively). He hosted Super Bowls XXVI, XXX, and XXXII before calling Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII. Jim Nantz became the fourth man to do so after he called Super Bowl XLI for CBS.


title: Greg Gumbel

text: During his tenure as the chief anchor of "The NFL Today", he served alongside co-anchors Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe, and Boomer Esiason. The group was known to call him by his nickname "Gumby".


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: The Blues (known as the Auckland Blues from 1996 to 2000) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Auckland, who play in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby teams, the Blues were established by the NZRU in 1996. One of the most successful teams in Super Rugby history, the Blues won the competition in its first two seasons, 1996 and 1997, and again in 2003. Additionally, the team were finalists in 1998 and 2022 and semi-finalists in 2007 and 2011.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: Along with New Zealand's other Super Rugby sides, the Blues were established by the NZRU to take part in the newly formed Super 12 competition which, involved teams from South Africa and Australia in addition to New Zealand. Each of New Zealand's five sides represented a number of provincial unions, with the Blues representing the Auckland, Counties Manukau and Thames Valley unions, while the neighbouring Waikato Chiefs representing the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, King Country, Northland and North Harbour unions. As the amount of international representatives in the Auckland region was thought to be unfair, it was split up between The Blues and The Chiefs. During this era, the Blues played the majority of their home matches at Eden Park, with round robin fixtures occasionally held at Growers Stadium in Pukekohe.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: The Blues tasted immediate success, winning the Super 12 back-to-back in 1996 and 1997. In 1996 the side won eight of eleven round robin matches and finished the regular season in second place (behind the Queensland Reds on 41 points. They then went on to defeat Northern Transvaaal, now the Bulls, 48–11 in the semi-final at Eden Park. This result secured a home final, where the Blues comfortably defeated the 45–21. In 1997, the side improved on their previous season, comfortably topping the table with 50 points after going undefeated in the regular season, the sole blemish on an otherwise perfect season being a draw with Northern Transvaal in a re-match of the previous season's semi-final. The Blues once again easily won their semi-final, defeating the 55–36 at Eden Park and again securing a home final. The 1997 final was a more hard fought encounter than the previous year's, with the Blues defeating the ACT Brumbies 23–7.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: By the end of the 1990s the number of international representatives from the Blues region had decreased. This led the Blues and the Chiefs to arrange a swap, where the Chiefs would represent the Thames Valley and Counties Manukau provincial unions in exchange for the Blues representing the Northland and North Harbour unions in addition to Auckland. Although in the seasons leading up to the trade North Harbour and Northland had outperformed Counties Manukau and Thames Valley in provincial rugby (thus potentially widening the already sizeable gap between the Blues' and Chiefs' on-field performance), it enabled both teams to represent unions in closer geographical proximity. Because of this trade, the Blues lost the area colloquially referred to as "South Auckland", (excluding those portions of the South Auckland to the north of Manurewa). Thus, the Blues traded a portion of South Auckland for the Northern portion of the Auckland region and Northland, and still do not represent the entire Auckland region. Generally supporters in the South Auckland region identify as Blues supporters even though they are technically in the Chiefs region. In 2000, the Auckland Blues dropped the Auckland prefix from their name, and became known simply as 'Blues'.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: The 1998 season saw the Blues again top the points table with 43 points at the conclusion of the round robin, with nine wins and two losses to their credit. They defeated the Otago Highlanders by 37–31 in the side's third consecutive home semi-final, securing a home final against the Crusaders, a match which promised a great deal due to Auckland's traditional sporting rivalry with Canterbury. The Crusaders ultimately won the match by 20–13, putting an end to the Blues' dominance of the competition.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: From 1999 – 2002 the Blues' onfield performance was poor, missing the playoffs every season, finishing at an all-time low of 11th on the ladder in 2001 with just four wins for the season. The club was able to turn its from around in the 2003 season, topping the ladder with 49 points and 10 wins from 11 matches. The team went on to defeat the ACT Brumbies by 42–21 in the semi-final, before beating the Crusaders 21–17 in the final for the team's third Super Rugby title. The Blues were unable to follow their 2003 success up in 2004 and 2005 however, missing the playoffs in both seasons.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: The expanded 14 team competition could not have started worse for the Blues, who were in 2006 forced by the NZRU to include North Harbour captain Rua Tipoki in their squad of 24 players who are 'protected' from the draft. Tipoki was originally to be excluded from the draft due to personal circumstances to stay in Auckland. Andrew Mehrtens had in the past done this with the Crusaders. The NZRU however forced coach David Nucifora to pick Tipoki in his 24-man squad and hence drop another player. It is believed the NZRU was in favour of dropping players such as Isa Nacewa who are ineligible to play for the All Blacks. Instead, Nucifora excluded All Black Isaia Toeava, who subsequently played for the Hurricanes in 2006. Following the draft fiasco, and the forgettable season which followed, the Blues showed signs of resurgence in 2007, finishing the round robin in fourth place, securing a semi-final against the Sharks in Durban. The travel and form of the opposition were too difficult to overcome, however, with the Blues losing to the eventual runners-up by 34 – 18. The 2008 season, the final under coach David Nucifora, saw the team finish the season with an 8 – 5 record and a sixth-place finish on the ladder. In 2009, Pat Lam was appointed as coach, however the team was not able to make significant improvements under his leadership for the remainder of Super 14, missing the playoffs in both the 2009 and 2010 seasons.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: In 2011 the Super Rugby competition was expanded to 15 teams and adopted a conference format. The Blues had a successful start to the season, defeating the Crusaders by 24–22 at Eden Park. This was followed by a win and a loss on their South African tour, followed by a 22-all draw against the Western Force in Perth. This was followed by a seven match winning streak between rounds five and twelve. However, the mid-season winning streak came to an abrupt end with a 37 – 31 loss to the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, which initiated a four match losing-streak. In the final round-robin match of the season, the Blues defeated the Highlanders by 33–16 at Eden Park, securing the side's first playoff appearance since 2007 and first home playoff match since 2003. The team subsequently defeated the New South Wales Waratahs 26 – 13 to secure a semi-final against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, which they lost 30–13.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: The 2011 season also marked the departure of Kurtis Haiu, who was diagnosed with a bone tumour in April. Following his diagnosis, he took an indefinite break from rugby to focus on his health.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: 2012, the team's fourth season under coach Pat Lam, saw the arrival of former Hurricanes icons, and 2011 Rugby World Cup winners, Ma'a Nonu and Piri Weepu. The regular season began on 24 February against the Crusaders at Eden Park. Following two successive losses to start the season, the side's first victory came away to the Bulls, with starting debutant Gareth Anscombe scoring all of the Blues points in the 29–23 win. In doing so, Anscombe set a team record for most points in a match. In the same match, Rene Ranger became the first Blues player to receive a White Card, which resulted in a two-week suspension. Seven consecutive losses followed, beginning with the Stormers in round four, and finishing with the Hurricanes in round eleven. Growing frustration amongst fans was evident during this period, with racist remarks directed at coach Pat Lam via social media, talkback radio and the Blues own website. Lam, who is of Samoan descent, received support from a number of former Blues players during this period, including Michael Jones and Eroni Clarke. After beating the Lions in round twelve, the Blues suffered the biggest defeat in club history with a 59 – 12 loss away to the Crusaders, which was followed by losses at home to the Highlanders and table-topping Chiefs. The Blues finished the season on a high note, with wins against the Western Force and Brumbies.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: On 17 July, Pat Lam was released. On the same day, Sir John Kirwan was appointed as head coach for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. In August, the Blues' full coaching staff for the 2013 season was announced, with Sir Graham Henry taking on a role as technical advisor and defensive coach, Mick Byrne appointed forwards and kicking coach, and Grant Doorey appointed skills and backline coach.


title: Blues (Super Rugby)

text: The 2013 season saw an all new Blues team with many players leaving, including Ma'a Nonu to the Highlanders and Gareth Anscombe to the Chiefs. On the morning of 31 October 2012 new coach Sir John Kirwan announced the 2013 Blues squad which included 14 Super Rugby debutants, and Ali Williams taking over as captain. Handed a bye on the first round the Blues started the regular season on 23 February 2013 with a 34–20 away win against the Hurricanes, followed by a 34–15 home win against the Crusaders the next week. 3 consecutive losses followed, including the Bulls first victory at Eden Park. The Blues regained some form again, winning 4 of the next 5 games. Beating the Highlanders at home and completing the double over the Hurricanes with a 28–6 win at Eden Park before losing a close game against the Reds. The Blues then defeated both the Stormers and the Rebels before losing 3 games in a row to the Crusaders, Brumbies, and Highlanders respectively. The Blues then travelled to South Africa with two must win games against the Sharks and the Cheetahs, unfortunately losing both and ending the Blues chances of making the play-offs. Ali Williams played his 100th game for the Blues against the Sharks. The Blues returned to New Zealand with a last home game against the already play-off qualified Chiefs. Despite a red card to Kane Barrett for stomping in the 23rd minute, the Blues played a remarkably strong game, taking the lead just after half-time but a yellow card to first-five Baden Kerr struck another blow for the Blues. The mounting Chiefs pressure paid off resulting in a Ben Tameifuna try with 17 minutes to go, winning the game for the Chiefs. The Blues walked off the field to a standing ovation from their fans, the first time an Eden Park crowd had been upstanding for a defeat.