title: Cystocele

text: Lateral cystocele forms when both the pelviperineal muscle and its ligamentous–fascial develop a defect. The ligamentous– fascial creates a 'hammock-like' suspension and support for the lateral sides of the vagina. Defects in this lateral support system results in a lack of bladder support. Cystocele that develops laterally is associated with an anatomic imbalance between anterior vaginal wall and the arcus tendineus fasciae pelvis – the essential ligament structure.


title: Cystocele

text: Cystocele may be mild enough not to result in symptoms that are troubling to a woman. In this case, steps to prevent it from worsening include:


title: Cystocele

text: Treatment options range from no treatment for a mild cystocele to surgery for a more extensive cystocele. If a cystocele is not bothersome, the clinician may only recommend avoiding heavy lifting or straining that could cause the cystocele to worsen. If symptoms are moderately bothersome, the doctor may recommend a pessary, a device placed in the vagina to hold the bladder in place and to block protrusion. Treatment can consist of a combination of non-surgical and surgical management. Treatment choice is also related to age, desire to have children, severity of impairment, desire to continue sexual intercourse and other diseases that a woman may have.


title: Cystocele

text: The surgery to repair the anterior vaginal wall may be combined with other procedures that will repair the other points of pelvic organ support such as anterior-posterior repair and anterior colporrhaphy. Treatment of cystocele often accompanies the more invasive hysterectomy. Since the failure rate in cystocele repair remains high, additional surgery may be needed. Women who have surgery to repair a cystocele have a 17% of needing another operation within the next ten years.


title: Cystocele

text: The surgical treatment of cystocele will depend on the cause of the defect and whether it occurs at the top (apex), middle, or lower part of the anterior vaginal wall. The type of surgery will also depend on the type of damage that exists between supporting structures and the vaginal wall. One of the most common surgical repairs is colporrhaphy. This surgical procedure consists of making a longitudinal folding of the vaginal tissue, suturing it into place and creating a stronger point of resistance to the intruding bladder wall. Surgical mesh is sometimes used to strengthen the anterior vaginal wall. It has a 10–50% failure rate. In some cases a surgeon may choose to use surgical mesh to strengthen the repair.


title: Cystocele

text: During surgery, the repair of the vaginal wall consists of folding over and then suturing the existing tissue between the vagina and bladder to strengthen it. This tightens the layers of tissue to promote the replacement of the pelvic organs into their normal place. The surgery also provides more support for the bladder. This surgery is done by a surgeon specializing in gynecology and is performed in a hospital. Anesthesia varies according to the needs of each woman. Recovery may take four to six weeks. Other surgical treatment may be performed to treat cystocele. Support for the vaginal wall is accomplished with the paravaginal defect repair. This is a surgery, usually laproscopic, that is done to the ligaments and fascia through the abdomen. The lateral ligaments and supportive structures are repaired, sometimes shortened to provide additional support to the vaginal wall.


title: Cystocele

text: Sacrocolpopexy is a procedure that stabilizes the vaginal vault (the uppermost portion of the vagina) and is often chosen as the treatment for cystocele, especially if previous surgeries were not successful. The procedure consists of attaching the vaginal vault to the sacrum. It has a success rate of 90%. Some women choose not to have surgery to close the vagina. This surgery, called colpocleisis, treats cystocele by closing the vaginal opening. This can be an option for women who no longer want to have vaginal intercourse.


title: Cystocele

text: If an enterocele/sigmoidocele, or prolapse of the rectum/colon, is also present, the surgical treatment will take this concurrent condition into account while planning and performing the repairs. Estrogen that is administered vaginally before surgical repair can strengthen the vaginal tissue providing a more successful outcome when mesh or sutures are used for the repair. Vaginal thickness increases after estrogen therapy. Another review on the surgical management of cystocele describes a more successful treatment that more strongly attaches the ligaments and fascia to the vagina to lift and stabilize it.


title: Cystocele

text: Post surgical complications can develop. The complications following surgical treatment of cystocele are:


title: Cystocele

text: After surgery, a woman is instructed to restrict her activities and monitor herself for signs of infection such as an elevated temperature, discharge with a foul odor and consistent pain. Clinicians may recommend that sneezing, coughing, and constipation are to be avoided. Splinting the abdomen while coughing provides support to an incised area and decreases pain on coughing. This is accomplished by applying gentle pressure to the surgical site for bracing during a cough.


title: Cystocele

text: Recurrent surgery on the pelvic organs may not be due to a failure of the surgery to correct the cystocele. Subsequent surgeries can be directly or indirectly relating to the primary surgery. Prolapse can occur at a different site in the vagina. Further surgery after the initial repair can be to treat complications of mesh displacement, pain, or bleeding. Further surgery may be needed to treat incontinence.


title: Cystocele

text: One goal of surgical treatment is to restore the vagina and other pelvic organs to their anatomically normal positions. This may not be the outcome that is most important to the woman being treated who may only want relief of symptoms and an improvement in her quality of life. The International Urogynecological Association (IUGA) has recommended that the data collected regarding the success of cystocele and pelvic organ repairs include the presence or absence of symptoms, satisfaction and Quality of Life. Other measures of a successful outcome should include perioperative data, such as operative time and hospital stay. Standardized Healthcare Quality of Life should be part of the measure of a successful resolution of cystocele. Data regarding short- and long-term complications is included in the recommendations of the IUGA to better assess the risk–benefit ratio of each procedure. Current investigations into the superiority of using biological grafting versus native tissue or surgical mesh indicates that using grafts provides better results.


title: Cystocele

text: A large study found a rate of 29% over the lifetime of a woman. Other studies indicate a recurrence rate as low as 3%.


title: Cystocele

text: In the US, greater than 200,000 surgeries are performed each year for pelvic organ prolapse and 81% of these are to correct cystocele. Cystocele occurs most frequently compared to the prolapse of other pelvic organs and structure. Cystocele is found to be three times as common as vaginal vault prolapse and twice as often as posterior vaginal wall defects. The incidence of cystocele is around 9 per 100 women-years. The highest incidence of symptoms occurs between ages of 70 and 79 years. Based on population growth statistics, the number of women with prolapse will increase by a minimum of 46% by the year 2050 in the US. Surgery to correct prolapse after hysterectomy is 3.6 per 1,000 women-years.


title: Cystocele

text: Notable is the mention of cystocele in many older cultures and locations. In 1500 B.C. Egyptians wrote about the "falling of the womb". In 400 B.C. a Greek physician documented his observations and treatments:


title: Cystocele

text: "After the patient had been tied to a ladder-like frame, she was tipped upward so that her head was toward the bottom of the frame. The frame was then moved upward and downward more or less rapidly for approximately 3–5 min. As the patient was in an inverted position, it was thought that the prolapsing organs of the genital tract would be returned to their normal position by the force of gravity and the shaking motion."


title: Cystocele

text: Hippocrates had his own theories regarding the cause of prolapse. He thought that recent childbirth, wet feet, 'sexual excesses', exertion, and fatigue may have contributed to the condition. Polybus, Hippocrates's son-in-law, wrote: "a prolapsed uterus was treated by using local astringent lotions, a natural sponge packed into the vagina, or placement of half a pomegranate in the vagina." In 350 A.D., another practitioner named Soranus described his treatments which stated that the pomegranate should be dipped into vinegar before insertion. Success could be enhanced if the woman was on bed rest and reduced intake of fluid and food. If the treatment was still not successful, the woman's legs were tied together for three days.


title: Cystocele

text: In 1521, Berengario da Carpi performed the first surgical treatment for prolapse. This was to tie a rope around the prolapse, tighten it for two days until it was no longer viable and cut it off. Wine, aloe, and honey were then applied to the stump.


title: Cystocele

text: In the 1700s, a Swiss gynecologist, Peyer, published a description of a cystocele. He was able to describe and document both cystocele and uterine prolapse. In 1730, Halder associated cystocele with childbirth. During this same time, efforts began to standardize the terminology that is still familiar today. In the 1800s, the surgical advancements of anesthesia, suturing, suturing materials and acceptance of Joseph Lister's theories of antisepsis improved outcomes for women with cystocele. The first surgical techniques were practiced on female cadavers. In 1823, Geradin proposed that an incision and resection may provide treatment. In 1830, the first dissection of the vagina was performed by Dieffenbach on a living woman. In 1834, Mendé proposed that dissecting and repair of the edges of the tissues could be done. In 1859, Huguier proposed the amputation of the cervix was going to solve the problem for elongation.


title: Cystocele

text: In 1866, a method of correcting a cystocele was proposed that resembled current procedures. Sim subsequently developed another procedure that did not require the full-thickness dissection of the vaginal wall. In 1888, another method of treating anterior vaginal wall Manchester combined an anterior vaginal wall repair with an amputation of the cervix and a perineorrhaphy. In 1909, White noted the high rate of recurrence of cystocele repair. At this time it was proposed that reattaching the vagina to support structures was more successful and resulted in less recurrence. This same proposal was proposed again in 1976 but further studies indicated that the recurrence rate was not better.


title: Cystocele

text: In 1888, treatments were tried that entered the abdomen to make reattachments. Some did not agree with this and suggested an approach through the inguinal canal. In 1898, further abdominal approaches were proposed. No further advances have been noted until 1961 when reattachment of the anterior vaginal wall to Cooper's ligament began to be used. Unfortunately, posterior vaginal wall prolapse occurred in some patients even though the anterior repair was successful.


title: Cystocele

text: In 1955, using mesh to support pelvic structures came into use. In 1970, tissue from pigs began to be used to strengthen the anterior vaginal wall in surgery. Beginning in 1976, improvement in suturing began along with the surgical removal of the vagina being used to treat prolapse of the bladder. In 1991, assumptions about the detailed anatomy of the pelvic support structures began to be questioned regarding the existence of some pelvic structures and the non-existence of others. More recently, the use of stem cells, robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery are being used to treat cystocele.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: Learning to Crawl is the third studio album by British-American rock band The Pretenders. It was released on 21 January 1984 after a hiatus during which band members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon died of drug overdoses. The album's title of "Learning to Crawl" was given in honor of Chrissie Hynde's then-infant daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde. She was learning to crawl at the time that Hynde was trying to determine a title for the album.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: "Learning to Crawl" was a critical and commercial success, reaching number 11 on the UK Albums Chart. In the United States, it peaked at number five on the "Billboard" 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: After Farndon's dismissal from the band and Honeyman-Scott's death, Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers initially recruited Rockpile's Billy Bremner and Big Country's Tony Butler to fill in a caretaker line-up of the band in 1982. Bremner played guitar and Butler played bass on the band's September 1982 single "Back on the Chain Gang" and its B-side "My City Was Gone", both songs which were later included on "Learning to Crawl". As the album sessions got underway, Bremner, Graham Parker's bass player Andrew Bodnar, and Paul Carrack (formerly of Squeeze, Ace and Roxy Music) played guitar, bass and piano respectively for the track "Thin Line Between Love and Hate".


title: Learning to Crawl

text: Finally, Robbie McIntosh (guitar) and Malcolm Foster (bass) were recruited to join Hynde and Chambers, and the band was now officially a quartet. It was this line-up that recorded the rest of the tracks featured on "Learning to Crawl".


title: Learning to Crawl

text: The November 1983 single "2000 Miles" was the newly reconstituted foursome's first release, followed shortly by the full "Learning to Crawl" album in January 1984.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: Hynde noted in the booklet for the expanded edition of "Learning to Crawl" that guitarist Robbie McIntosh came up with the opening guitar riff for "2000 Miles". She stated that she probably should have credited McIntosh as co-writer of the song for providing the opening to the song.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: "2000 Miles" became a popular Christmas song in the UK. Often interpreted as a tale of two lovers apart during the holidays, it is a song written by Hynde for her former bandmate James Honeyman-Scott after he died prior to beginning work on the band's third album.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: "My City Was Gone" is largely an autobiographical song written about the changes that she observed when she went back to her native city of Akron, Ohio. The instrumental introduction of the song would later be adopted as the theme of the EIB Network radio brand, originally Rush Limbaugh and currently Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.


title: Learning to Crawl

text: "Watching the Clothes" was an older song written before the band's debut album. Hynde was inspired to write the song after a close friend had died.


title: Baby Vox

text: Baby V.O.X () was a South Korean K-pop group formed in 1997, whose final and best-known line-up consisted of Kim E-Z, Lee Hee-jin, Kan Mi-youn, Shim Eun-jin, and Yoon Eun-hye. They are considered one of the most prominent "first generation" K-pop girl groups of the late 1990s and early 2000s along with S.E.S and Fin.K.L, and they are recognized as being one of the groups at the forefront of the Korean Wave, having broken into the Chinese market. The group released seven studio albums and disbanded in 2006.


title: Baby Vox

text: Baby V.O.X debuted in 1997 as a five-member group consisting of Kim E-Z, Lee Hee-jin, Jung Hyun-jeon, Cha Yu-mi, and Jung Shi-woon. Their debut single was entitled "Hair Cut" and taken from the album "Equalizeher", released on July 10, 1997. The group displayed a style inspired by Spice Girls, but their 1st album was not successful due to their edgy concept. Cha Yumi was injured during their performance, so she was then replaced by Kan Miyoun. Hyun-jeon and Shi-woon left the group due to internal conflict, so they were replaced by Shim Eun Jin, and Lee Gai. The group adopted a more modest and cutesy style, used by popular groups such as S.E.S. and Fin.K.L. From the album "Baby V.O.X II," the single, "Ya Ya Ya" became a success, reaching number seven on the Korean pop charts. It was followed by a second single, "Change". Following the release, Lee Gai was forced out by DR Music, because she had been lying about her age. She had debuted with the trio Setorae over ten years previously under her birth name Lee Hee-jung.


title: Baby Vox

text: In June 1999, Yoon Eun Hye replaced Lee Gai and this lineup became permanent and was their final. Their single "Get Up" was released. For the first time, they reached the number one spot on the Korean music pop charts. Another single "Killer" also hit the first place on the music charts and earned the 'Top Excellency Award' in Seoul Music Award in 1999. The third single 'Missing You' was also included on the album "Come Come Come Baby" (1999).


title: Baby Vox

text: In the years that followed, Baby VOX made a number of appearances in variety shows. After their success of the third album, they started promoting themselves internationally, including China, Japan and other Southeast Asian countries. The fourth album, "Why", featured the two singles; "Why" and "배신 (Betrayal)", while they also featured as a show host in SBS variety program, "Beautiful Sunday-Cruise to the Korea Strait". Their fifth album, "Boyish Story" was released in 2001 and included the singles "Game Over", "인형 (Doll)", "I Wish You are My Love".


title: Baby Vox

text: As well as their success in Asian markets, Baby VOX released a special hits album were from their first five albums, with two single hits 우연 ("Coincidence)" and "Go". With "Coincidence", the group hit number one in the Korean music charts for the first time in three years. "Coincidence" was also released in a World Cup version, and performed all around Korea during the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup season, and remained popular throughout the summer. In addition to that, they managed to have a Live Concert in Seoul, which was hugely popular. Baby VOX Music Award was also created in China.


title: Baby Vox

text: The group held a concert in Mongolia in 2004, being the first Korean idol band to do so. The group also performed in Pyongyang, North Korea in 2003, and was the second girl-group to perform in North Korea.


title: Baby Vox

text: In spring of 2003, Baby VOX released their sixth album "Devotion". Baby VOX topped the Chinese music chart with the Chinese single "I'm Still Loving You", 3rd place with 나 어떡해 "(What Should I Do)" and 4th place with the same single in Thailand as well. In addition, pre-orders in the album in several countries ar as follows: 200,000+ in China, 50,000+ in Taiwan, 30,000+ in Hong Kong and 120,000+ in Thailand, with a total of 400,000 pre-orders plus the album sales in South Korea alone (210,000+) with now a total of 610,000+ of album sales. However, this was also when the group's fortunes started to change. While 'What Should I Do' hit the number one spot in the Korean music chart, their second single, 바램 "(The Wish)" wasn't as popular.


title: Baby Vox

text: The group's seventh and final album "Ride West", released in April 2004, featured songs in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, as well as appearances by well-known American hip hop artists, such as Tupac Shakur, Jennifer Lopez, & independent rapper Floss P, although Tupac's "appearance" was a freestyle rap that he recorded while in prison. The rights for the sample of Tupac's verse were not cleared, and this resulted in a court case pursued by the rapper's mother, Afeni Shakur. A music video for the album's feature song, "Xcstasy", was done in English and emulated of the hip-hop videos popular in the United States at the time. A member of Korean hip hop group DJ DOC, offended by their alleged misuse of Tupac Shakur's lyrics, denounced them in the media, but later apologized. The group were forced to abandon the release of the single. A second single, "Play Remix" featuring Jennifer Lopez, was promoted for a short while, but sales were lower than from its previous albums.


title: Baby Vox

text: Shim Eun-jin officially left the group in October 2004. Stating that she "didn't like the direction where their company was going".


title: Baby Vox

text: After May 2005, Baby VOX went into hiatus and Yoon Eun-hye departed the group in April 2005. In February 2006, Baby VOX was officially disbanded.


title: Baby Vox

text: On December 26, 2006, DR Music unveiled the members of the 2nd generation Baby V.O.X, a spinoff group called "Baby V.O.X. Re.V" (pronounced "reeve"). Like the original group, there is one lead vocalist, three "sub-vocalists", and a singer/rapper.


title: Baby Vox

text: RaNia debuted in April 2011. It was originally scheduled to debut in mid-2010. However, their company, DR Music decided to rebrand them as a new group with eight members. RaNia is the 3rd generation of Baby V.O.X.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen Buddhism, an originally Chinese Mahāyāna school of Buddhism that strongly emphasizes dhyāna, the meditative training of awareness and equanimity. This practice, according to Zen proponents, gives insight into one's true nature, or the emptiness of inherent existence, which opens the way to a liberated way of living.


title: Japanese Zen

text: According to tradition, Zen originated in India, when Gautama Buddha held up a flower and Mahākāśyapa smiled. With this smile he showed that he had understood the wordless essence of the dharma. This way the dharma was transmitted to Mahākāśyapa, the second patriarch of Zen.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 ("chán"), an abbreviation of 禪那 ("chánnà"), which is a Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word of "dhyāna" ("meditation"). Buddhism was introduced from India to China in the first century AD. According to tradition, Chan was introduced around 500 C.E. by Bodhidharma, an Indian monk teaching dhyāna. He was the 28th Indian patriarch of Zen and the first Chinese patriarch.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Zen was first introduced into Japan as early as 653-656 C.E. in the Asuka period (538–710 C.E.), at the time when the set of Zen monastic regulations was still nonexistent and Chan masters were willing to instruct anyone regardless of buddhist ordination. Dōshō (道昭, 629–700 C.E.) went over to China in 653 C.E., where he learned Chan from the famed Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (玄奘, 602 – 664 C.E.), and he studied more fully with a disciple of the second Chinese patriarch, Huike (慧可, 487–593 C.E.) . After returning home, Dōshō established the Hossō school, basing it on Yogācāra philosophy and built a Meditation Hall for the purpose of practising Zen in the Gangō-ji in Nara. In the Nara period (710 to 794 C.E.), the Chan master, Dao-xuan (道璿, 702-760 C.E.), arrived in Japan, he taught meditation techniques to the monk Gyōhyō (行表, 720–797 C.E.), who in turn was to instruct Saichō (最澄, 767-822 C.E.), founder of the Japanese Tendai sect of Buddhism. Saicho visited Tang China in 804 C.E. as part of an official embassy sent by Emperor Kammu (桓武天皇, 781-806 C.E.). There he studied four branches of Buddhism including Chan and Tiantai, which he was, by that time, already familiar with.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The first attempt of establishing Zen as an independent doctrine was in 815, when the Chinese monk Yikong (義空) visited Japan as the representative of Chan's Southern-school lineage, based on the teachings of the master Mazu Daoyi (馬祖道一, 709–788 C.E.), who was the mentor of Baizhang (百丈懐海, 720–814 C.E.), the supposed author of the initial set of Zen monastic regulations. Yikong arrived in 815 C.E. and tried unsuccessfully to transmit Zen systematically to the eastern nation. It is recorded in an inscription left at the famous Rashõmon gate protecting the southern entryway to Kyoto that, on leaving to return to China, Yikong said he was aware of the futility of his efforts due to hostility and opposition he experienced from the dominant Tendai Buddhist school. What existed of Zen in the Heian period (794-1185 C.E.) was incorporated into and subordinate to the Tendai tradition . The early phase of Japanese Zen has been labeled "syncretic" because Chan teachings and practices were initially combined with familiar Tendai and Shingon forms.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Zen found difficulties in establishing itself as a separate school in Japan until the 12th century, largely because of opposition, influence, power and criticism by the Tendai school. During the Kamakura period (1185–1333 C.E.), Nōnin established the first independent Zen school on Japanese soil, known as the short-lived and disapproved Daruma school. In 1189 Nōnin sent two students to China, to meet with Cho-an Te-kuang (1121–1203 C.E.), and ask for the recognition of Nōnin as a Zen-master. This recognition was granted.


title: Japanese Zen

text: In 1168 C.E., Eisai traveled to China, whereafter he studied Tendai for twenty years. In 1187 C.E. he went to China again, and returned to establish a local branch of the Linji school, which is known in Japan as the Rinzai school. Decades later, (1235–1308 C.E.) also studied Linji teachings in China before founding the Japanese Ōtōkan lineage, the most influential branch of Rinzai.


title: Japanese Zen

text: In 1215 C.E., Dōgen, a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed to China himself, where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Rujing. After his return, Dōgen established the Sōtō school, the Japanese branch of Caodong.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Zen fit the way of life of the samurai: confronting death without fear, and acting in a spontaneous and intuitive way.


title: Japanese Zen

text: During this period the Five Mountain System was established, which institutionalized an influential part of the Rinzai school. It consisted of the five most famous Zen temples of Kamakura: Kenchō-ji, Engaku-ji, Jufuku-ji, Jōmyō-ji and Jōchi-ji.


title: Japanese Zen

text: During the Muromachi period the Rinzai school was the most successful of the schools, since it was favoured by the "shōgun".


title: Japanese Zen

text: In the beginning of the Muromachi period the Gozan system was fully worked out. The final version contained five temples of both Kyoto and Kamakura. A second tier of the system consisted of Ten Temples. This system was extended throughout Japan, effectively giving control to the central government, which administered this system. The monks, often well educated and skilled, were employed by the "shōgun" for the governing of state affairs.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Not all Rinzai Zen organisations were under such strict state control. The Rinka monasteries, which were primarily located in rural areas rather than cities, had a greater degree of independence. The O-to-kan lineage, that centered on Daitoku-ji, also had a greater degree of freedom. It was founded by Nampo Jomyo, Shuho Myocho, and Kanzan Egen. A well-known teacher from Daitoku-ji was Ikkyū.


title: Japanese Zen

text: After a period of war Japan was re-united in the Azuchi–Momoyama period. This decreased the power of Buddhism, which had become a strong political and military force in Japan. Neo-Confucianism gained influence at the expense of Buddhism, which came under strict state control. Japan closed the gates to the rest of the world. The only traders to be allowed were Dutchmen admitted to the island of Dejima. New doctrines and methods were not to be introduced, nor were new temples and schools. The only exception was the Ōbaku lineage, which was introduced in the 17th century during the Edo period by Ingen, a Chinese monk. Ingen had been a member of the Linji school, the Chinese equivalent of Rinzai, which had developed separately from the Japanese branch for hundreds of years. Thus, when Ingen journeyed to Japan following the fall of the Ming dynasty to the Manchu people, his teachings were seen as a separate school. The Ōbaku school was named after , which had been Ingen's home in China.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Well-known Zen masters from this period are Bankei, Bashō and Hakuin. Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢?, 1622–1693 C.E.) became a classic example of a man driven by the "great doubt". Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉?, 1644 – November 28, 1694) became a great Zen poet. In the 18th century Hakuin Ekaku (白隠 慧鶴?, 1686–1768) revived the Rinzai school. His influence was so immense that almost all contemporary Rinzai lineages are traced back to him.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The Meiji period (1868–1912 C.E.) saw the Emperor's power reinstated after a coup in 1868 C.E.. At that time Japan was forced to open to Western trade which brought influence and, eventually, a restructuring of all government and commercial structures to Western standards. Shinto became the officiated state religion and Buddhism was coerced to adapt to the new regime. The Buddhist establishment saw the Western world as a threat, but also as a challenge to stand up to.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Buddhist institutions had a simple choice: adapt or perish. Rinzai and Soto Zen chose to adapt, trying to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese identity. This Japanese identity was being articulated in the Nihonjinron philosophy, the "Japanese uniqueness" theory. A broad range of subjects was taken as typical of Japanese culture. D.T. Suzuki contributed to the Nihonjinron-philosophy by taking Zen as the distinctive token of Asian spirituality, showing its unique character in the Japanese culture


title: Japanese Zen

text: This resulted in support for the war activities of the Japanese imperial system by the Japanese Zen establishment—including the Sōtō sect, the major branches of Rinzai, and several renowned teachers. According to Sharf,


title: Japanese Zen

text: War endeavours against Russia, China and finally during the Pacific War were supported by the Zen establishment.


title: Japanese Zen

text: A notable work on this subject was "Zen at War" (1998) by Brian Victoria, an American-born Sōtō priest. One of his assertions was that some Zen masters known for their post-war internationalism and promotion of "world peace" were open Japanese nationalists in the inter-war years. Among them as an example Hakuun Yasutani, the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan School, even voiced antisemitic and nationalistic opinions after World War II. Only after international protests in the 1990s, following the publication of Victoria's 'Zen at war', did the Sanbo Kyodan express apologies for this support This involvement was not limited to the Zen schools, as all orthodox Japanese schools of Buddhism supported the militarist state. Victoria's particular claims about D. T. Suzuki's involvement in militarism have been much disputed by other scholars.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Some contemporary Japanese Zen teachers, such as Harada Daiun Sogaku and Shunryū Suzuki, have criticized Japanese Zen as being a formalized system of empty rituals in which very few Zen practitioners ever actually attained realization. They assert that almost all Japanese temples have become family businesses handed down from father to son, and the Zen priest's function has largely been reduced to officiating at funerals, a practice sardonically referred to in Japan as . For example, the Sōtō school published statistics stating that 80 percent of laity visited temples only for reasons having to do with funerals and death.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Mahayana Buddhism teaches śūnyatā, "emptiness", which is also emphasized by Zen. But another important doctrine is the buddha-nature, the idea that all human beings have the possibility to awaken. All living creatures are supposed to have the Buddha-nature, but don't realize this as long as they are not awakened. The doctrine of an essential nature can easily lead to the idea that there is an unchanging essential nature or reality behind the changing world of appearances.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The difference and reconciliation of these two doctrines is the central theme of the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra".


title: Japanese Zen

text: The primary goal of Rinzai Zen is "kensho", seeing one's true nature, and "mujodo no taigen", expression of this insight in daily life.


title: Japanese Zen

text: "Seeing one's true nature" means seeing that there is no essential 'I' or 'self', that our true nature is empty.


title: Japanese Zen

text: "Expression in daily life" means that this is not only a contemplative insight, but that our lives are expressions of this selfless existence.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Zen emphasizes zazen, meditation c.q. dhyana in a sitting position. In Soto, the emphasis is on shikantaza, 'just sitting', while Rinzai also uses koans to train the mind. In alternation with zazen, there is walking meditation, "kinhin", in which one walks with full attention.


title: Japanese Zen

text: To facilitate insight, a Zen teacher can assign a kōan. This is a short anecdote, which seems irrational, but contains subtle references to the Buddhist teachings. An example of a kōan is Joshu's 'Mu': "A monk asked: "Does a dog have buddha-nature?" Joshu responded: "Mu!""


title: Japanese Zen

text: Zen-meditation aims at "non-thinking," in Japanese "fu shiryō" and "hi shiryō". According to Zhu, the two terms negate two different cognitive functions both called "manas" in Yogacara, namely "intentionality" or self-centered thinking, and "discriminative thinking" ("vikalpa"). The usage of two different terms for "non-thinking" points to a crucial difference between Sōtō and Rinzai in their interpretation of the negation of these two cognitive functions. According to Rui, Rinzai Zen starts with "hi shiryō", negating discriminative thinking, and culminates in "fu shiryō", negating intentional or self-centered thinking; Sōtō starts with "fu shiryō", which is displaced and absorbed by "hi shiryō".


title: Japanese Zen

text: The traditional institutional traditions ("su") of Zen in contemporary Japan are Sōtō (), Rinzai (), and Ōbaku (). Sōtō and Rinzai dominate, while Ōbaku is smaller. Besides these there are modern Zen organizations which have especially attracted Western lay followers, namely the Sanbo Kyodan and the FAS Society.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Sōtō emphasizes meditation and the inseparable nature of practice and insight. Its founder Dogen is still highly revered. Soto is characterized by its flexibility and openness. No commitment to study is expected and practice can be resumed voluntarily.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Rinzai emphasizes kōan study and kensho. The Rinzai organisation includes fifteen subschools based on temple affiliation. The best known of these main temples are Myoshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tofuku-ji. Rinzai is characterized by its stringent regiments of meditation through every second of life. Whether a practitioner is practicing seated meditation, walking meditation, working, or even out in public, meditation can be applied to each instance of a Rinzai student's life.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The Sanbo Kyodan is a small Japanese school, established by Hakuun Yasutani, which has been very influential in the West. Well-known teachers from this school are Philip Kapleau and Taizan Maezumi. Maezumi's influence stretches further through his dharma heirs, such as Joko Beck, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, and especially Dennis Merzel, who has appointed more than a dozen dharma heirs.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The FAS Society is a non-sectarian organization, founded by Shin'ichi Hisamatsu. Its aim is to modernize Zen and adapt it to the modern world. In Europe it is influential through such teachers as Jeff Shore and Ton Lathouwers.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Zen as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners pursuing a serious interest in Zen, other than descendants of Asian immigrants, reached a significant level.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Eugen Herrigel's book "Zen in the Art of Archery" describing his training in the Zen-influenced martial art of Kyūdō, inspired many of the Western world's early Zen practitioners. However, many scholars, such as Yamada Shoji, are quick to criticize this book.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The single most influential person for the spread of Zen Buddhism was D. T. Suzuki. A lay student of Zen, he became acquainted with Western culture at a young age. He wrote many books on Zen which became widely read in the Western world, but he has been criticised for giving a one-sided and overly romanticized vision of Zen.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964) was an Englishman who went to Japan in 1940 to further his study of Zen. He was interned during World War II and started writing in prison. While imprisoned he met Robert Aitken, who was later to become a roshi in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage. Blyth was tutor to the Crown Prince after the war. His greatest work is the 5-volume "Zen and Zen Classics", published in the 1960s. Here he discusses Zen themes from a philosophical standpoint, often in conjunction with Christian elements in a comparative spirit. His essays include "God, Buddha, and Buddhahood" and "Zen, Sin, and Death".


title: Japanese Zen

text: The British philosopher Alan Watts took a close interest in Zen Buddhism and wrote and lectured extensively on it during the 1950s. He understood Zen as a vehicle for a mystical transformation of consciousness, and also as a historical example of a non-Western, non-Christian way of life that had fostered both the practical and fine arts.


title: Japanese Zen

text: "The Dharma Bums", a novel written by Jack Kerouac and published in 1959, gave its readers a look at how a fascination with Buddhism and Zen was being absorbed into the bohemian lifestyles of a small group of American youths, primarily on the West Coast. Beside the narrator, the main character in this novel was "Japhy Ryder", a thinly veiled depiction of Gary Snyder. The story was based on actual events taking place while Snyder prepared, in California, for the formal Zen studies that he would pursue in Japanese monasteries between 1956 and 1968.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Thomas Merton (1915–1968) was a Catholic Trappist monk and priest. Like his friend, the late D.T. Suzuki, Merton believed that there must be a little of Zen in all authentic creative and spiritual experience. The dialogue between Merton and Suzuki explores the many congruencies of Christian mysticism and Zen.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle (1898–1990) was a Jesuit who became a missionary in Japan in 1929. In 1956 he started to study Zen with Harada Daiun Sogaku. He was the superior of Heinrich Dumoulin, the well-known author on the history of Zen. Enomiya-lassalle introduced Westerners to Zen meditation.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Robert Kennedy (roshi), a Catholic Jesuit priest, professor, psychotherapist and Zen roshi in the White Plum lineage has written a number of books about what he labels as the benefits of Zen practice to Christianity. He was ordained a Catholic priest in Japan in 1965, and studied with Yamada Koun in Japan in the 1970s. He was installed as a Zen teacher of the White Plum Asanga lineage in 1991 and was given the title 'Roshi' in 1997.


title: Japanese Zen

text: In 1989, the Vatican released a document which states some Catholic appreciation of the use of Zen in Christian prayer. According to the text none of the methods proposed by non-Christian religions should be rejected out of hand simply because they are not Christian:


title: Japanese Zen

text: While "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", by Robert M. Pirsig, was a 1974 bestseller, it in fact has little to do with Zen as a religious practice, nor with motorcycle maintenance for that matter. Rather it deals with the notion of the metaphysics of "quality" from the point of view of the main character. Pirsig was attending the Minnesota Zen Center at the time of writing the book. He has stated that, despite its title, the book "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice". Though it may not deal with orthodox Zen Buddhist practice, Pirsig's book in fact deals with many of the more subtle facets of Zen living and Zen mentality without drawing attention to any religion or religious organization.


title: Japanese Zen

text: A number of contemporary authors have explored the relationship between Zen and a number of other disciplines, including parenting, teaching, and leadership. This typically involves the use of Zen stories to explain leadership strategies.


title: Japanese Zen

text: In Europe, the Expressionist and Dada movements in art tend to have much in common thematically with the study of kōans and actual Zen. The early French surrealist René Daumal translated D.T. Suzuki as well as Sanskrit Buddhist texts.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Over the last fifty years mainstream forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia and their successors, have begun to take root in the West.


title: Japanese Zen

text: In North America, the Zen lineages derived from the Sanbo Kyodan school are the most numerous. The Sanbo Kyodan is a Japan-based reformist Zen group, founded in 1954 by Yasutani Hakuun, which has had a significant influence on Zen in the West. Sanbo Kyodan Zen is based primarily on the Soto tradition, but also incorporates Rinzai-style kōan practice. Yasutani's approach to Zen first became prominent in the English-speaking world through Philip Kapleau's book "The Three Pillars of Zen" (1965), which was one of the first books to introduce Western audiences to Zen as a practice rather than simply a philosophy. Among the Zen groups in North America, Hawaii, Europe, and New Zealand which derive from Sanbo Kyodan are those associated with Kapleau, Robert Aitken, and John Tarrant.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The most widespread are the lineages founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and the White Plum Asanga. Maezumi's successors include Susan Myoyu Andersen, John Daido Loori, Chozen Bays, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Dennis Merzel, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts, and Charlotte Joko Beck.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Soto has gained prominence via Shunryu Suzuki, who established the San Francisco Zen Center. In 1967 the Center established Tassajara, the first Zen Monastery in America, in the mountains near Big Sur.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The Katagiri lineage, founded by Dainin Katagiri, has a significant presence in the Midwest. Note that both Taizan Maezumi and Dainin Katagiri served as priests at Zenshuji Soto Mission in the 1960s.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Taisen Deshimaru, a student of Kodo Sawaki, was a Soto Zen priest from Japan who taught in France. The International Zen Association, which he founded, remains influential. The American Zen Association, headquartered at the New Orleans Zen Temple, is one of the North American organizations practicing in the Deshimaru tradition.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Soyu Matsuoka established the Long Beach Zen Buddhist Temple and Zen Center in 1971, where he resided until his death in 1998. The Temple was headquarters to Zen centers in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Everett, Washington.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Matsuoka created several dharma heirs, three of whom are still alive and leading Zen teachers within the lineage: Hogaku ShoZen McGuire, Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston Sensei, and Kaiten John Dennis Govert.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Brad Warner is a Soto priest appointed by Gudo Wafu Nishijima. He is not a traditional Zen teacher, but is influential via his blogs on Zen.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Rinzai gained prominence in the West via D.T. Suzuki and the lineage of Soen Nakagawa and his student Eido Shimano. Soen Nakagawa had personal ties to Yamada Koun, the dharma heir of Hakuun Yasutani, who founded the Sanbo Kyodan. They established Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji in New York. In Europe there is Havredal Zendo established by a Dharma Heir of Eido Shimano, Egmund Sommer (Denko Mortensen).


title: Japanese Zen

text: Some of the more prominent Rinzai Zen centers in North America include Rinzai-ji founded by Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi in California, Chozen-ji founded by Omori Sogen Roshi in Hawaii, Daiyuzenji founded by Dogen Hosokawa Roshi (a student of Omori Sogen Roshi) in Chicago, Illinois, and Chobo-Ji founded by Genki Takabayshi Roshi in Seattle, Washington.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey was founded as a sister monastery to Shasta Abbey in California by Master Reverend Jiyu Kennett Roshi. It has a number of dispersed priories and centres. Jiyu Kennett, an Englishwoman, was ordained as a priest and Zen master in Shoji-ji, one of the two main Soto Zen temples in Japan. The Order is called the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. There are several affiliated temples across the UK, including the Norwich Zen Buddhist Priory.


title: Japanese Zen

text: Zenways is a Rinzai school organisation in South London. It is led by Daizan Roshi a British teacher who received Dharma transmission from Shinzan Miyamae Roshi.


title: Japanese Zen

text: The Western Chan Fellowship is an association of lay Chán practitioners based in the UK. They are registered as a charity in England and Wales, but also have contacts in Europe, principally in Norway, Poland, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland and the US.


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: Dmitry Ilyich Gordon (, ; born October 21, 1967) is a Ukrainian journalist, interviewer, politician and singer. He is also the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Boulevard" (from June 1995), later – "Gordon Boulevard". In June 2019, Gordon became the head of the election headquarters of the party Strength and Honor.


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: Dmitry was born on the 21-st of October 1967 in Kyiv to a Jewish family. His father, Ilya Gordon, was a civil engineer and his mother, Mina Gordon, was an engineer-economist. Gordon started school at the age of six and finished it at 15. During his school years, he read a lot, was interested in the history of the Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. He was also keen on theatre, modern music and football. When he was in the fifth grade, he wrote about one hundred letters to famous people asking them to send him their photos with the signature. He got two replies: from Leonid Utyosov and Joseph Kobzon.


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: In 1988, he graduated from Kyiv Civil Engineering Institute. To tell the truth, as he recalls, all five institute years were a complete torture as this occupation was not his cup of tea. In his second year he started to collaborate with the leading Kyiv newspapers. During his years of study he published in the best Ukrainian newspapers such as "Vechirniy Kyiv" (literally "Evening Kyiv"), "Komsomolskoye Znamya" (literally "The Banner of Komsomol"), "Molodaya Ukraina" (literally "Young Ukraine"), "Sportivnaya Gazeta" (literally "Sports Newspaper"), "Molodaya Gvardiya" (literally "The Young Guard"), "Prapor Komunizmu" (literally "Banner of Communism"), and "Komsomolskaya Pravda" (literally "Komsomol Truth"). After the graduation Gordon worked for the newspapers "Vechirniy Kyiv", "Kievskiye Vedomosti" (literally "Kyiv Bulletin") and "All-Ukraine Vedomosti" (literally "All-Ukraine Bulletin").


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: Since 1995, he has been editing his own newspaper, a weekly of society columns "Boulevard" (since 2005 "Gordon Boulevard"). Today in Ukraine "Gordon Boulevard" is one of the most popular newspapers with high circulation. The readers of the weekly count more than 2.5 million people. The newspaper is distributed in Russia, the United States, Israel, Spain, Italy and Germany as well.


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: In June 2019, one month before the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Gordon became the head of the election headquarters of the party Strength and Honor.


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: Gordon is the father of seven children. The elder son, Rostislav (born in 1992), is the student of Kyiv Institute of International Relations. The second son Dmitry, (born in 1995), is the four times champion of Europe in united combat sport in youth age group. He is also a composer of instrumental music and he plays the piano. Since 2012, he is a student of Berklee College of Music in Boston. Elizaveta (born in 1999) and Lev (born in 2001) are schoolchildren. His wife is Alesia Batsman – the editor of "Shuster Live". With Alesia, they have three daughters: Santa (2012), Alice (2016), Liana (2019).


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: Against Dmitry Gordon, not a Russian citizen, a criminal case was opened by Russian Investigative Committee. Russian authorities falsely accused Gordon of dissemination of fake information about the Russian army.


title: Dmitry Gordon

text: Dmitry combines his job in the newspaper “Gordon Boulevard” with the publishing of his own books. There have been published more than 39 books up to now, including “The Heroes of Interlunation” in eight volumes. Dmitry is also the author of the TV program «Visiting Dmitry Gordon» (on Ukrainian TV since 2000). More than 500 celebrities were the heroes of the program: poets, writers, artists, directors, public figures, politicians and sportsmen, among them Mikhail Gorbachev, Sergei Khrushchev, Nikolai Amosov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Vitaly Korotich, Roman Viktyuk, Viktor Chernomyrdin, Leonid Kravchuk and Nikita Mikhalkov. The interviews are frank talks with famous people. Besides journalism, Dmitry is passionate about modern music. He recorded about 60 songs and released six albums. He made 8 video clips with Valery Leontiev, Alexander Rosenbaum, Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Natalia Mohylevska, Natalia Buchynska and solo.


title: Republic of New Granada

text: The Republic of New Granada was a 1831–1858 centralist unitary republic consisting primarily of present-day Colombia and Panama with smaller portions of today's Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. On 9 May 1834, the national flag was adopted and was used until 26 November 1861, with the Gran Colombian colours in Veles' arrangement. The merchant ensign had the eight-pointed star in white.


title: Republic of New Granada

text: In 1851, a civil war broke out when conservative and pro-slavery groups from Cauca and Antioquia departments, led by Manuel Ibánez, Julio Arboleda and Eusebio Borrero, revolted against liberal president José Hilario López, in an attempt to prevent emancipation of disenfranchised groups and abolition of slavery, in addition to a number of religious issues.


title: Republic of New Granada

text: One of the prime features of the political climate of the republic was the position of the Roman Catholic Church and the level of autonomy for the federal states. In 1839, a dispute arose over the dissolution of monasteries by the Congress of New Granada. This soon escalated into the War of the Supremes, which raged for the next two years and transformed into a conflict about regional autonomy.


title: Republic of New Granada

text: New Granada was reorganised in 1858 to form the Granadine Confederation in response to demands for a decentralized administration for the country.


title: Republic of New Granada

text: The territory of the republic was divided into provinces. Each province was composed of one or more cantons, each canton was divided into several districts.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: "Hush, Little Baby" is a traditional lullaby, thought to have been written in the Southern United States. The lyrics promise various rewards to the child for remaining quiet. The simple structure allows more verses to be added ad lib. It has a Roud number of 470.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: Like most folk songs, the author and date of origin are unknown. The English folklorist Cecil Sharp collected and notated a version from Endicott, Franklin County, Virginia in 1918, and another version sung by a Julie Boone of Micaville, North Carolina, with a complete version of the lyrics. A version recorded on a wax cylinder around 1929–35 in Durham, North Carolina by James Madison Carpenter can be heard online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: Alan Lomax recorded several varying traditional renditions of the song in the southern United States in the 1930s and 40s, including from the traditional singer Texas Gladden. All of these versions differ melodically and lyrically, to varying degrees, from the now popular version.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: One of the versions recorded by Lomax was that of the influential Appalachian musician Jean Ritchie, who performed a version in 1949 that had been passed down in her family.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: The Ritchie family version is identical to the versions which would later become famous. Due to the melodic and lyrical diversity of other traditional recordings and the fact that Ritchie shared a stage with and directly influenced artists who would later record the song such as The Weavers and Joan Baez, it is likely that the popular version of the song descends from Jean Ritchie's Kentucky family.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: The song has been performed and recorded by many artists including Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Regina Spektor, Nina Simone, The Weavers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Additionally, the song has been adapted into pop songs such as Maurice King's "Hambone", Inez and Charlie Foxx's "Mockingbird" and Bo Diddley's eponymous song "Bo Diddley", as well as Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma's "Hush Little Baby" and Eminem's "Mockingbird".


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Etta James, Taj Mahal and Dusty Springfield have each recorded "Mockingbird", which is an R&B variant of the song.


title: Hush, Little Baby

text: There are a multitude of different versions of the song. It has a simple structure consisting of a series of rhyming couplets, where a gift is given to the little baby. In the next couplet, the gift is found faulty in some way, and a new gift is presented. The song continues in this pattern as long as the singer likes; and can come up with new gifts that fit the rhyming pattern. An example of some common couplets used in the transcript of the Target commercial "Strawberry Shortcake" (2004):


title: Elvis (miniseries)

text: Elvis (also known as Elvis: The Miniseries or Elvis: The Early Years) is a 2005 biographical CBS miniseries written by Patrick Sheane Duncan and directed by James Steven Sadwith. It chronicles the rise of American music icon Elvis Presley from his high school years to his international superstardom.


title: Elvis (miniseries)

text: The cast includes Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Elvis, Rose McGowan as Ann-Margret, Randy Quaid as "Colonel" Tom Parker, Camryn Manheim as Gladys Presley, Robert Patrick as Vernon Presley, Tim Guinee as Sam Phillips, Jack Noseworthy as Steve Binder, Antonia Bernath as Priscilla Presley, Stuart Greer as Captain Beaulieu, Clay Steakley as Bill Black, Mark Adam as Scotty Moore, John Boyd West as Red West and Randy McDowell as Gene Smith.


title: Elvis (miniseries)

text: Meyers won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his performance as Elvis Presley.


title: 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs

text: The 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs (branded as the 2021 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for sponsorship reasons) was the 26th edition of the MLS Cup Playoffs, the post-season championship of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The tournament culminated the 2021 MLS regular season. The tournament began on November 20 and concluded with MLS Cup 2021 on December 11.


title: 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs

text: The Columbus Crew were the defending MLS Cup champions, but failed to qualify for the playoffs after finishing ninth in the Eastern Conference.


title: 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs

text: The 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs marked the first time since 2004 that no club from Texas qualified, and the first time ever that no club from California qualified.


title: 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs

text: The top seven teams in the Eastern and Western Conference qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs, with the conference champions receiving second round byes. Background colors denote playoff teams, with green also qualifying for the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League.


title: 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs

text: The second through fourth seeded teams in each conference hosted the first round matches. The top seeds in each conference got a bye to the Conference Semifinals.


title: 2015 French Open – Men's singles

text: Stan Wawrinka defeated Novak Djokovic in the final, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–4 to win the men's singles tennis title at the 2015 French Open. It was Wawrinka's second major title. As he did when he won the 2014 Australian Open, Wawrinka defeated the world No. 1 and world No. 2 en route to the title. Djokovic was attempting to complete the career Grand Slam.


title: 2015 French Open – Men's singles

text: Rafael Nadal was the five-time defending champion, but lost to Djokovic in the quarterfinals. This was only Nadal's second career defeat at the French Open (the previous one being in 2009 to Robin Söderling) and ended his record win streak at the tournament of 39 matches. Nadal had won all six of his prior matches against Djokovic at the French Open. Nadal fell to world No. 10 in rankings after the loss, his lowest position since April 18, 2005.


title: 2015 French Open – Men's singles

text: Roger Federer was attempting to become the first male player in the Open Era to achieve the double career Grand Slam, but lost to Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.


title: Lantern Entertainment

text: Lantern Entertainment, LLC is an American independent film studio. It was formed by Lantern Capital Partners after it acquired the assets of The Weinstein Company on July 16, 2018, after the latter company's bankruptcy filing (which was a result of co-founder Harvey Weinstein being convicted of sexual harassment, assault, and rape). Lantern is a separate company unaffiliated with the Weinsteins and purchased the entire assets of the former studio in a bankruptcy auction.


title: Lantern Entertainment

text: On July 16, 2018, the Dallas-based equity firm Lantern Capital Partners bought the assets of The Weinstein Company (TWC) for $289 million. Lantern Entertainment was formed and assumed the rights to TWC's 277-film library. In November 2018, Lantern acquired full control of three Quentin Tarantino films ("Inglourious Basterds", "Django Unchained" and "The Hateful Eight"), originally released by The Weinstein Company, for $5.5 million.


title: Lantern Entertainment

text: In February 2019, Lantern was reported to be reaching a settlement with The Walt Disney Company, regarding several films that Lantern did not acquire (including "Scream 4" and "The Matador").


title: Lantern Entertainment

text: On March 13, 2019, Lantern and Gary Barber relaunched Spyglass Media Group, which will host the former TWC library. Italian film distributor Eagle Pictures, cinema chain Cineworld (which owned and operated Regal Cinemas) and later WarnerMedia/AT&T's Warner Bros. were brought in as minority holders. Lantern made a majority investment including its film library to Spyglass. In March 2020, a federal judge ruled that Spyglass was not responsible for any of TWC's outgoing royalties.


title: Lantern Entertainment

text: In July 2019, Spyglass settled two major claims, including $11 million for Viacom regarding the TV series "Scream" (whose last season was delayed until July 2019, three years after the second season finale) and the film "" (which Lantern did not acquire).


title: Lantern Entertainment

text: Radius (stylized as RADiUS; formerly Radius-TWC) is a dormant film label to Lantern Entertainment, formerly to TWC's division, for distribution of multi-platform video-on-demand and theatrical productions. It was launched in 2012, and specialized in niche and independent films rather than those aimed at mainstream audiences. , Radius had released about 35 films, including "Bachelorette", "Butter", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Only God Forgives", "Lovelace", "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane", "Man of Tai Chi", "Fed Up", "Snowpiercer", "Citizenfour", "Horns", "The Last Five Years", and "It Follows".


title: Françoise Yip

text: Françoise Fong-Wa Yip (葉芳華; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian actress. She first became known for her performances in Hong Kong films, before later also starring in North American films and television shows. She is best known to international audiences for her roles in action films opposite Jackie Chan and Jet Li.


title: Françoise Yip

text: Yip was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was raised in Toronto, Ontario. Her father is a Canadian of Chinese descent and her mother is French-Canadian.


title: Françoise Yip

text: Yip is known for her roles in Stanley Tong's "Rumble in the Bronx" and Daniel Lee's "Black Mask". She did two movies with Jet Li, the first in a starring role in "Black Mask" and the second in "Romeo Must Die", where she played a Chinese gangster motorcycle assassin. She also starred in the Doris Yeung film "Motherland" and appeared in the American action horror films "" and "".


title: Françoise Yip

text: Yip appeared in the television series "Andromeda" as two different characters, and guest-starred in the Canadian TV show "Blood Ties".


title: Marnette Patterson

text: Patterson was raised as an only child by her mother in Los Angeles, California, where she was born. Her name is her mother's middle name: Marnette. Her aunt is Dana Dillaway, former child actress who appeared in "Giant" (1956) as Elizabeth Taylor's and Rock Hudson's daughter Judy (age 4), along with a couple of "Twilight Zone" episodes.


title: Marnette Patterson

text: In 1986, she played "Dorrie" in Mama's Family, 'Santa Mama' (S3-E13) a little girl who asked Santa for things just for her family.


title: Marnette Patterson

text: In 1996, Patterson appeared briefly as a volleyball schoolgirl attracting the attentions of Tommy in the premiere episode of "3rd Rock From The Sun".


title: Marnette Patterson

text: Patterson starred in the short-lived WB sitcom "Movie Stars" and the made-for-TV movie "The Stalking of Laurie Show". Patterson made appearance in "That '70s Show" as Shelly in the episode: "Eric's Panties" in 2000. "Who's Your Daddy?" (2003), "Pope Dreams" (2005), and "Cloud 9" (2005). She also voiced Lucy van Pelt in "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" and "It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown". In 2004, Patterson appeared on "Grounded for Life" as an underage drinker. In 2005, she guest starred on "Supernatural" as a high school student, Charlie, in the episode Bloody Mary.


title: Marnette Patterson

text: In 2006, Patterson landed the role of Christy Jenkins on the eighth and final season of "Charmed". Her character was a witch who was kidnapped by demons as a child and had been held captive in The Underworld for many years. Her sister, Billie Jenkins, played by Kaley Cuoco, sought help of the Charmed ones to rescue Christy.


title: Marnette Patterson

text: Patterson also portrayed Holly Little in the 2008 film "". She then starred as Maggie Schaffer on the web series, called "". In 2009, she appeared on an episode of the TV series "House", where she starred as Ashley. In 2011, she appeared briefly on an episode of "The Mentalist" ("Every Rose Has Its Thorn") as a con artist who would sleep with wealthy men and then blackmail them. Her character was named Naomi/Victoria. Patterson is close friends with Jennifer Finnigan, her co-star on "The Stalking of Laurie Show".


title: Marnette Patterson

text: Patterson's charity work includes an animal advocacy group called the Amanda Foundation. Her hobbies include singing, horseback riding, hiking, kickboxing, and cooking.


title: Marnette Patterson

text: On September 4, 2011, she married James Verzino, a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual Los Angeles, at a ranch in Malibu, California. They have two children, a son, Hudson, and a daughter, London.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The Caves of Steel is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just being a limited genre in itself.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The book was first published as a serial in "Galaxy" magazine, from October to December 1953. A Doubleday hardcover followed in 1954.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: At the time of writing, Asimov conceived of "The Caves of Steel" as completely distinct from his Foundation Trilogy, published a few years earlier. Decades later, however, Asimov linked them, making the time of "Caves of Steel" a much earlier part of an extensive Future history leading up to the rise of the Galactic Empire, its fall and the rise of two Foundations to replace it – with the Robot R. Daneel Olivaw, introduced in "Caves of Steel", turning out to have survived over tens of thousands of years and have played a key role in the eras of both the Empire and the Foundation(s).


title: The Caves of Steel

text: Isaac Asimov introduces Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw, later his favorite protagonists. They live roughly three millennia in Earth's future, a time when hyperspace travel has been discovered and a few worlds relatively close to Earth have been colonized – fifty planets known as the "Spacer worlds". The Spacer worlds are rich, have low population density (average population of one hundred million each), and use robot labor heavily. Meanwhile, Earth is overpopulated with eight billion people, three times that of Asimov's 1950s, with strict rules against robots. In "The Caves of Steel" and its sequels (the first of which is "The Naked Sun"), Asimov paints a grim situation of an Earth dealing with an extremely large population and of luxury-seeking Spacers, who limit birth to permit great wealth and privacy.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: Asimov was a claustrophile: "I wrote a novel in 1953 which pictured a world in which everyone lived in underground cities, comfortably enclosed away from the open air. People would say, 'How could you imagine such a nightmarish situation?' And I would answer in astonishment, 'What nightmarish situation? The "caves of steel" are vast city complexes covered by huge metallic domes, capable of supporting tens of millions each: the New York City of that era (wherein much of the story is set) encompasses present-day New York City as well as large tracts of New Jersey. Asimov imagines the present day underground transit connected to malls and apartment blocks, until no one ever exits the domes and most of the population suffer from extreme fear of leaving them. (Even though the "Robot" and "Foundation" series were not made part of the same fictional universe until much later, the "caves of steel" resemble the planet Trantor.)


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The novel's central plot device is a murder, which takes place before it opens. (This is an Asimov trademark, which he attributed to his squeamishness plus John Campbell's advice to begin as late in the story as possible.) The victim is Roj Nemmenuh Sarton, a Spacer Ambassador who lives in Spacetown, the Spacer outpost just outside New York City. For some time, he has tried to convince the Earth government to loosen its anti-robot restrictions. One morning, he is discovered outside his home, his chest imploded by an energy blaster. The New York police commissioner charges Elijah with finding the murderer, in cooperation with a highly advanced robot named R. Daneel Olivaw who is visually identical to a human and is equipped with a scanner that is able to detect human emotions through their encephalographic waves.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: A faction of Spacers have come to the realization that Spacer culture is effete, stagnating due to negative population growth and excessive longevity. Their solution is to encourage further space exploration and colonization by Earthmen in concert with robots. However, Earthmen would first need to overcome their irrational antagonism toward robots. To this end, the faction have established habitations on Earth through which they hope to introduce humanoid robots to Earth.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: New York City Police Commissioner Julius Enderby is secretly a member of the Medievalists, a subversive anti-robot group which pines for the 'olden days' where men did not live in the 'caves of steel'. He uses his position to engineer meetings with Spacer Dr. Sarton under the guise of further cooperation, but he actually intends to destroy R. Daneel - who lives with and resembles Dr. Sarton. Enderby orders R. Sammy to bring a blaster through the unmonitored 'open air' (something that no Earthman could countenance), but in the heat of the moment Enderby drops his glasses and fails to distinguish between the human and robot, accidentally shooting the human. Knowing that Baley's wife is also a Medievalist, he assigns Baley to the case, working with R. Daneel who represents the Spacers, and spreads a rumour about humanoid robots amongst the subversives to throw suspicion on Baley when Enderby later destroys R. Sammy with radiation. Daneel rules out Enderby as the murderer as his brain patterns show him incapable of deliberately killing.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The novel follows Baley and Olivaw as Baley begins to suspect Olivaw but is proved wrong twice. Olivaw gradually learns more about Earth humans and starts to display curiosity about aspects of human behaviour and Earth technology. As part of the investigation, Baley makes a visit to Spacetown where he meets with Dr. Fastolfe, who injects him with a mildly suggestive drug while speaking about the relative merits and shortcomings of Earth and Spacer society. Baley is converted to the cause of spreading humanity throughout the galaxy. Although the Spacers deem Baley inadequate to convert enough Earthmen, they find their target when Baley arrests Clousarr on suspicion of inciting a riot and Olivaw provides him with suggestive statements. Their job accomplished, the Spacers make plans to leave Earth as their continued presence would be to the detriment of their cause; they accept Dr. Sarton's unsolved death as a necessary sacrifice. This leaves Baley with ninety minutes to find the killer, which he is convinced will also clear him of the destruction of R. Sammy.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: Baley has a flash of inspiration when he connects Enderby's emotional highs and lows to how close or far away Baley was to solving the murder. Obtaining a recording of the crime scene, he manages to demonstrate that fragments of Enderby's glasses remain in situ. Given that the Spacers have already accepted that Sarton's death is unsolved, they are willing to not prosecute Enderby for the accident if he agrees to work with them to promote colonization of other worlds amongst the Medievalists.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: Another recurring theme is the tension between Baley's wife as "Jessie" or "Jezebel", and her resentment at Baley for explaining that the Biblical Jezebel story was misinterpreted, stifling her fantasy.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: Reviewer Groff Conklin praised the novel for the way Asimov "combines his interest in robotics with his consuming preoccupation with the sociology of a technology-mad, bureaucratically tethered world of tomorrow." Boucher and McComas praised "The Caves of Steel" as "Asimov's best long work to date", saying that it was "the most successful attempt yet to combine" the detective and science fiction novel. P. Schuyler Miller called it "as honest a combination of science fiction and detection as we've seen." Villiers Gerson of "The New York Times" wrote: "Here is an unusually exciting and engrossing detective story set in a science fictional background convincingly worked out."


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The novel was adapted for television by the BBC and shown in 1964: only a few short excerpts still exist. In June 1989, the book was adapted by Bert Coules as a radio play for the BBC, with Ed Bishop as Elijah Baley and Sam Dastor as R. Daneel Olivaw. In 2016, Akiva Goldsman had been hired to produce a movie.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: An adaptation of "The Caves of Steel" was produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 on 5 June 1964 as part of an anthology strand called "Story Parade", which specialized in adaptations of modern novels. It starred Peter Cushing as Elijah Baley and John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw. The adaptation was the brainchild of "Story Parade" story editor Irene Shubik, who was an enthusiast of science fiction, once describing him as "one of the most interesting and amusing men I have ever met". Shubik had previously devised and story edited the science fiction anthology series "Out of This World", which had adapted Asimov's short story "Little Lost Robot" in 1962. The adaptation of the novel was handled by Terry Nation, who by now had created the Daleks for "Doctor Who".


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The screenplay was generally faithful to the plot of the novel. The only major deviation was the conclusion – in the television version the murderer commits suicide when he is unmasked, although in the novel he agrees to work to convince the Medievalists to change their ways. The other major change is that the roboticist Dr. Gerrigel is a female character in the television version.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: "The Caves of Steel" garnered good reviews: "The Daily Telegraph" said the play "proved again that science fiction can be exciting, carry a message and be intellectually stimulating" while "The Listener", citing the play as the best of the "Story Parade" series, described it as "a fascinating mixture of science fiction and whodunit which worked remarkably well". The play was repeated on BBC1 on 28 August 1964. As was common practice at the time, the master videotapes of "The Caves of Steel" were wiped some time after broadcast and the play remains missing. A few short extracts survive: the opening titles and the murder of Sarton; Elijah and Daneel meeting Dr. Gerrigel (Naomi Chance) and Elijah and Daneel confronting the Medievalist Clousarr (John Boyd-Brent).


title: The Caves of Steel

text: The success of "The Caves of Steel" led Irene Shubik to devise the science fiction anthology series "Out of the Unknown", during which she oversaw the adaptation of six more Asimov stories, including "The Caves of Steel"s sequel "The Naked Sun".


title: The Caves of Steel

text: In 1989 BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation by Bert Coules, directed by Matthew Walters and starring Ed Bishop as Baley with Sam Dastor as Olivaw.


title: The Caves of Steel

text: In 1988 Kodak produced a VCR game entitled "Isaac Asimov's Robots" that contained a 45-minute film loosely based on "The Caves of Steel." It featured many of the characters and settings from the novel, but an altered plotline to fit the needs of a VCR game. Elements from "The Robots of Dawn" (including the characters Giskard Reventlov and Kelden Amadiro) were incorporated, as well. Similar to the BBC2 version, Dr. Gerrigel was replaced by a woman, named Sophia Quintana (after an unrelated character from "Robots and Empire").


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The Sons of the Pioneers are one of the United States' earliest Western singing groups. Known for their vocal performances, their musicianship, and their songwriting, they produced innovative recordings that have inspired many Western music performers and remained popular through the years. Since 1933, through many changes in membership, the Sons of the Pioneers have remained one of the longest-surviving country music vocal groups.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In the spring of 1931, Ohio-born Leonard Slye, the cowboy singer who would later change his name to Roy Rogers, arrived in California and found work as a truck driver, and later as a fruit picker for the Del Monte company in California's Central Valley. He entered an amateur singing contest on a Los Angeles radio show called Midnight Frolics and a few days later got an invitation to join a group called the Rocky Mountaineers.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In September 1931, Canadian-born Bob Nolan answered a classified ad in the "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner" that read, "Yodeler for old-time act, to travel. Tenor preferred." The band was The Rocky Mountaineers, by then led by Leonard Slye. After listening to the tall, slender, tanned Nolan sing and yodel, Slye hired Nolan on the spot. Although Nolan stayed with the group only a short time, he stayed in touch with Slye. Nolan was replaced by Tim Spencer, who had been working in a Safeway Stores warehouse.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In the spring of 1932, Slye, Spencer, and another singer, Slumber Nichols, left the Rocky Mountaineers to form a trio, which soon failed. Throughout most of 1932, Slye and Spencer moved through a series of short-lived groups like the International Cowboys and the O-Bar-O Cowboys. Spencer left the O-Bar-O Cowboys and quit music for a while. Slye joined Jack LeFevre and His Texas Outlaws, who were a popular act on a local Los Angeles radio station.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In early 1933, Slye, Nolan, and Spencer formed a group called the Pioneer Trio. The three young singers rehearsed for weeks honing their singing. While Slye continued to work with his radio singing group, Spencer and Nolan began writing songs for the group.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: By early 1934, the group consisted of Leonard Slye, Bob Nolan, and Tim Spencer on vocals, with Nolan playing string bass and Slye playing rhythm guitar. During that time, fiddle player Hugh Farr joined the group, adding a bass voice to the group's vocal arrangements. He also sang lead on some songs. Later that year, the "Pioneers Trio" became the "Sons of the Pioneers" through a radio station announcer's chance remark. Asked why he'd changed their name, the announcer said they were too young to have been pioneers, but that they could be sons of pioneers. The name was received well and fit the group, who were no longer a trio.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: By the summer of 1934, the Sons of the Pioneers' popularity and fame extended beyond the Los Angeles area and quickly spread across the United States through short syndicated radio segments that were rebroadcast all over the country. They signed a recording contract with the newly founded Decca label, and on August 8, 1934, the Sons of the Pioneers made their first commercial recording. That same day, the immensely popular crooner Bing Crosby also made his first Decca session.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: One of the first songs recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers during that first August session was written by Bob Nolan, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", that would soon become a staple in their repertoire. The original title "Tumbling Leaves" was changed to give the song a western character. Over the next two years the group would record 32 songs for Decca. Their output includes a 1937 recording of "The Blue Juniata," by Marion Dix Sullivan.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: Between 1935 and 1984, the Sons of the Pioneers appeared in 87 films, several short films, and a television series. In 1935 they signed with Columbia Pictures to supply the music for the studio's Charles Starrett westerns. In 1937, Leonard Slye was offered a contract as an actor with rival Republic Pictures. Part of that deal required him to leave the singing group. Leonard Slye was rechristened Roy Rogers, and went on to achieve major success as a singing cowboy in the movies. Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers remained close throughout the coming years. When the Starrett unit disbanded temporarily at the end of the 1941 season, the Pioneers rejoined Rogers at Republic and were soon appearing as highly popular supporting players in the Rogers westerns.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: By this time the group was billed as "Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers." Nolan was reluctant to be the "leader" of the group, which had been formed as a co-operative outfit with no formal leader, but he bowed to the demands of show business. Agents, music publishers, and recording companies insisted that co-operative bands needed a name to promote them (as in Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra). Because Bob Nolan's featured appearances with Starrett had made him the most recognizable of the Pioneers, Nolan reluctantly became the "front" for the group. The group, as "Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers," made guest appearances in the Warner Bros. all-star revue "Hollywood Canteen" (1944, singing "Tumbling Tumbleweeds") and the RKO Hollywood-themed comedy "Ding Dong Williams" (1945, singing "Cool Water").


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The Sons of the Pioneers always valued radio exposure, and appeared often on radio broadcasts. They had three network shows of their own: "10-2-4 Ranch" (1941-45, for Dr. Pepper), "Radio Rodeo" (for the Mutual Broadcasting System, 1941-42), and "The Lucky U Ranch" (1951-53, for Planters Peanuts).


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The group also began making transcription records for broadcast in 1934. These were syndicated by Standard Transcriptions (1934-36), Mutual (1939, as "The Sunshine Ranch"), RCA (1940, as "Symphonies of the Sage"), the Armed Forces Radio Service (1942-45, as "Melody Roundup"), and Teleways (1947-49, as "The Sons of the Pioneers Show").


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The Teleways series was intended as a daily 15-minute show but could be programmed anywhere on a station's schedule, at the station's discretion. The group prepared a demonstration record for radio stations and their potential local sponsors, with announcer Art Gilmore reading promotional copy between songs. The informal, semi-scripted show had Bob Nolan acting as master of ceremonies, bantering with the other singers between numbers. The group was careful to program a variety of choral music, including cowboy songs, barbershop harmony, and spirituals, to appeal to the widest possible audience. The personnel was Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, Lloyd Perryman, Pat Brady, Hugh "Foghorn" Farr, Karl Farr, and Ken Carson. The earliest shows include Ivan Ditmars accompanying them on piano and organ; Nolan appreciated Ditmars's efforts but preferred that the group's established sound should be preserved for the radio series, so Ditmars was released.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In 1949 Tim Spencer retired from performing with the group, to devote himself to handling the group's business interests; his place in the group was taken by singer Ken Curtis. That same year, Bob Nolan left the group; he was replaced by Tommy Doss, who sounded almost exactly like him. Lloyd Perryman took over Nolan's emcee duties. Nolan returned to the group in 1955 at the insistence of RCA Victor, which valued the group's distinctive sound with Nolan, and refused to record the Sons of the Pioneers unless Nolan was present. Nolan's participation was limited to RCA records through 1958; he no longer appeared with the group. Similarly, Tim Spencer still participated in the RCA recording sessions through 1957.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In 1971, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer were both elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1972, most of the surviving members of the Sons of the Pioneers, including the original Pioneer Trio of Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan, and Tim Spencer, gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles for one last performance. In 1980, the Sons of the Pioneers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In 1979, Bob Nolan returned to the studio for the final time and recorded a successful solo album of classics and newer compositions titled "Bob Nolan – The Sound of a Pioneer".


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The late 1970s saw the passing of an era, as many of the founding members of the group died. Tim Spencer died on April 26, 1976. Lloyd Perryman, who had been with the group since 1936, died on May 31, 1977. Hugh Farr, who had retired from the group in 1958, died on April 17, 1980. Bob Nolan died on June 16, 1980.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: Following the death of Lloyd Perryman in 1977, Dale Warren, who had joined the group in 1952, took over the leadership of the Sons of the Pioneers, guiding them into the 2000s until his death on August 8, 2008. They continued to perform in concert and recorded as well with a lineup that featured, among many others, Luther Nallie (guitar, vocals), Rusty Richards (vocals), Billy Armstrong (fiddle), Billy Liebert (accordion), Gary LeMaster (lead guitar), and Rome Johnson (vocals).


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The current "Trail Boss" of the Sons of the Pioneers is Tommy Nallie (vocals, bass), who joined the group in 1983. Other current band members are Ken Lattimore (vocals, fiddle), Roy ("Dusty") Rogers, Jr. (vocals, MC), John Fullerton (vocals, guitar), Paul Elliott (fiddle), and Chuck Ervin (bass, vocals).


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In 2001, a book about the group was published, titled "The Sons of the Pioneers" by Bill O'Neal and Fred Goodwin. Another book about the group, first published in 1974, is called "Hear My Song, The Story of the Celebrated Sons of the Pioneers" by Ken Griffis, and is available on The Pioneers' website.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In addition to their appearances and filmed performances, their music was used in numerous other films and television shows. and for John Ford movies "Wagon Master" in 1949 and "Rio Grande" in 1950, and performed the theme song for the John Ford classic "The Searchers" in 1956. The Sons of the Pioneers made an appearance along with Roy Rogers in the 1983, season 2, episode 11 of the TV show "The Fall Guy", titled "Happy Trails" "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" was used in the Coen Brothers film "The Big Lebowski" in 1998.In 1977, the Smithsonian Institution, which designates certain artists and performers who have made a noteworthy contribution to the arts and culture of America, named the Sons of the Pioneers as "National Treasures".


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: In 1995, the Sons of the Pioneers were inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The Sons of the Pioneers were the first Country and Western group to sing at Carnegie Hall, and the first to perform at the lavish nightclubs in Las Vegas. The group has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6845 Hollywood Blvd. for recording.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: Pioneertown, California was named for the Sons of the Pioneers who were original investors. It was built in 1946 as an old west movie set.


title: Sons of the Pioneers

text: The Sons of the Pioneers Transcription Disc Collection resides at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill within the Southern Folklife Collection.


title: Selina Meyer

text: Selina Catherine Meyer ( ; née Eaton) is a fictional character portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the HBO television comedy series "Veep". Louis-Dreyfus has been critically acclaimed for the role, earning a record-breaking six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series awards and five Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy nominations.


title: Selina Meyer

text: Meyer is a former United States Senator and the vice president of the United States following an unsuccessful run for president. During the first season, as vice president she was powerless and disregarded by most other important officials, leading to various humiliations and indignities. During the second season, she begins to amass some power and influence. In the third season, she contemplates challenging the incumbent president for their unnamed party's nomination in light of his political weakness, but the issue is mooted when he abruptly resigns, allowing her to become the president. In the fourth season, she has assumed office but is facing strong primary and general-election challengers of her own. The general election results in a tie, setting the stage for the fifth season, as the United States House of Representatives prepares to choose the president. She ultimately loses but spends the sixth and seventh seasons clawing her way back into the White House.


title: Selina Meyer

text: The role garnered Louis-Dreyfus several milestone accolades: her fourteenth Primetime Emmy Award nomination for a role in the regular cast of a comedy series surpassed Lucille Ball as the most ever. Her Primetime Emmy Award for her third different regular cast role also was a record-setting achievement for a comedy actress. Her six consecutive Primetime Emmy Lead Actress wins set a record, as did her seven overall Primetime Emmy Lead Actress nominations.


title: Selina Meyer

text: Meyer was born Selina Catherine Eaton to mother Catherine Calvert Eaton and Gordon Dunn Eaton. In her childhood, she loved her father (whom she affectionately called Daddy), but resented her narcissistic mother. It is later revealed that Selina's father was an adulterer who died from a heart attack while having sex with his secretary and that her mother only stayed with him to provide for her. In fact, it was her father's secretary (childless due to their affairs and a series of pressured abortions) who acted most like a parent towards Selina, giving her a childhood snow-globe collection as a surrogate child. Selina attended Smith College and Yale Law School. As a young woman, she married Andrew Meyer, a shady real estate developer, with whom she has a daughter, Catherine. She eventually divorces Andrew for repeatedly cheating on her and shows little (if any) maternal instinct towards her daughter.


title: Selina Meyer

text: The show's original opening sequence details some of her career. She was a United States senator from Maryland (where she was born and raised). Furthering her connection to the state of Maryland, the first season established Meyer as being a fan of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens and she also hosted an event at Oriole Park at Camden Yards the home field of MLB's Baltimore Orioles. She announced her candidacy for the 2012 presidential election. Media outlets initially praised her and had high hopes for her becoming the president, with headlines such as "Magic Meyer" and "Is this Meyer's Moment?". Despite strong initial victories, she ultimately is defeated by primary challenger Stuart Hughes on Super Tuesday, and suspends her campaign. He then selects her as his running mate and is elected to the presidency.


title: Selina Meyer

text: As the vice president, Meyer finds herself increasingly ignored by the president, and often demoted to trivial matters. Whatever programs that Meyer pursued which she genuinely believed in, such as the Clean Jobs Initiative or Senate filibuster reform, were often stymied at the president's insistence. When the sitting president decides that he will not seek a second term, his chief of staff, Ben Cafferty, encourages Meyer to run, which she ultimately does. She faces a primary challenge from war veteran and Governor of Minnesota Danny Chung, Secretary of Defense George Maddox, freshman Congressman Owen Pierce, and baseball coach Joe Thornhill. During the course of the primary season, President Hughes resigns abruptly to care for his ailing wife, and Meyer ascends to the presidency. Headlines question whether Meyer will be "the 8-month president", confirming that Hughes' term was near over, and Meyer is constitutionally eligible to serve two full terms as president. Though she chooses Senator Andrew Doyle to become her vice president, he declines to serve as her running mate for a full term as vice president. She offers the running mate position to Senator Tom James when she secures the party nomination, albeit after Danny Chung declines, George Maddox proves himself an inept candidate, and Meyer rules out the prospect of a female running mate.


title: Selina Meyer

text: Meyer is challenged in the general election by Arizona Senator Bill O'Brien. The election ends in an Electoral College tie, but with Meyer having won the popular vote. After an ambiguous result in Nevada, the Meyer campaign successfully lobbies for a recount. The recount backfires, and O'Brien keeps Nevada as a victory, as well as overtaking Meyer's lead in the national popular vote. Congress must then decide who will be the president. After the House of Representatives fails to elect the president, Meyer agrees to be vice president for her running mate Tom James. However, the Senate instead elects O'Brien's running mate Laura Montez as vice president, with Vice President Doyle as President of the Senate casting the deciding vote in favour of Montez to become Secretary of State after Meyer broke her promise to appoint him to the position. Due to the tied vote in the House, the office of the president is left vacant, meaning that Vice President Montez immediately ascends to the presidency. As a result, James makes plans to return to the private sector while Meyer, now completely out of office, contemplates her future. It is mentioned throughout the final two seasons that she went to an insane asylum during the year after her loss in the House vote (although she later tells reporters that her deceased mother and Catherine went).


title: Selina Meyer

text: Throughout the sixth season, which is set in 2018, Selina Meyer begins her presidential memoir with the help of her ghostwriter and former Press Secretary Mike McLintock. She also enlists several of her former aides with help running her namesake charity, The Meyer Fund for Adult Literacy, AIDS, the Advancement of Global Democracy, Military Family Assistance, & Childhood Obesity. As part of her work with democracy, she supervises Georgian elections in which both sides offer to bribe her. Meyer believes that President Montez will nominate her to be a justice on the Supreme Court; instead, former president Hughes is nominated. She also begins working on trying to secure a place for her library; although Smith College initially accepts, the college turns her down due to controversies resulting from the firing of her painter because she had sex with Andrew Meyer. McLintock loses his diary detailing the Meyer presidency, leading to "The Washington Post" releasing bombshell stories surrounding controversies in her administration; this is quickly overshadowed by the revelation that it was the Meyer team that had participated in talks regarding the freedom of Tibet. This wave of support leads Meyer to conclude that she has a political future, and she declares her run for president in 2019.


title: Selina Meyer

text: In 2019, she begins running a fierce campaign against Representative Jonah Ryan of New Hampshire (a former member of Meyer's staff), James, and Nevada Governor Buddy Calhoun. In trying to attract large-scale fundraisers, she inadvertently influences Senator Kemi Talbot to run as well. She enlists much of her old team, with the notable addition of her campaign manager Keith Quinn, who has suspicious ties to the Chinese government. During the first primary debate, she creates the slogan "Man Up!" in response to Senator Talbot; also, it comes to light that her ex-husband Andrew committed several crimes, such as embezzlement, with funds from The Meyer Fund. Though Meyer loses Iowa, she wins New Hampshire; in South Carolina, however, she faces a demographic disadvantage. She enlists the help of the Chinese government with the help of Quinn, who uses voter suppression techniques in African-American neighbourhoods in the state, leading to her victory. Quinn also orders Andrew's murder; it is hinted at throughout the latter half of the season that Andrew survived. Meyer, on a trip to Norway to receive recognition from the Nobel Committee for her work in Tibet, receives an extradition warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes after it is revealed she ordered a drone strike on a wedding in Pakistan. She escapes with the help of Murman Shalikashvili, one of the candidates in the Georgian election; she also has immense American support before the revelation that the drone strike killed an elephant.


title: Selina Meyer

text: During the series finale, she wins the brokered convention of her party in Charlotte, North Carolina by offering Ryan the vice presidency to get his delegates and (supposedly superficially) opposing same-sex marriage to get those of the socially conservative Calhoun; the latter causes a permanent rift between her and her lesbian daughter Catherine who is married to Marjorie, a former member of Selina’s Secret Service detail. She also frames Gary for impropriety with the Meyer Fund and ousts Tom James from the running after pressuring his campaign manager Michelle Yorke to reveal his sexual impropriety towards her. These acts of compromise and chicanery were pursued to avoid Meyer having to appoint Talbot as her running mate (or to serve as Talbot's running mate herself). Ultimately, Meyer wins the nomination and the presidency. However the latter was a result of Chinese election interference in collusion with the Meyer campaign in exchange for the unchallenged re-annexation of Tibet; Montez would otherwise have been guaranteed re-election in spite of her own poor approval ratings, according to Chinese polling data.


title: Selina Meyer

text: Meyer's final, single presidential term is shaky and lonely; she has no friends during this time, and her presidency is politely described as “underrated”, remembered only for the brief liberation of Tibet and the permanent overturning of same-sex marriage. As vice president, Ryan is sidelined within the administration just as Meyer had been before him, eventually being impeached with Meyer probably encouraging it behind the scenes. She dies in 2045 aged between 75 and 77 (the uncertainty being due to her constantly lying about her age), and her funeral is attended by her close associates, who remember the Meyer years as a turbulent time. Coverage of her funeral is upstaged by the death of Tom Hanks the same day, a call back from season 1.