Plot.

In June 1969 Oklahoma, young Jo Thornton and her family are awakened by an approaching F5 tornado. The family seeks refuge in their storm cellar, but the tornado rips the cellar door off and pulls Jo's father to his death.  Twenty-seven years after the death of Jo's father, the National Severe Storms Laboratory predicts a record outbreak of tornadoes in Oklahoma over a 24-hour period. Now an adult, Jo, a meteorologist and storm chaser, is reunited with her estranged husband, Bill Harding, a former weather researcher and fellow storm chaser, who has since moved on to become a television weather reporter; he is planning to marry reproductive therapist Melissa Reeves. However, his plans are delayed until Jo signs her long-overdue divorce papers. Visiting to Jo's camp to get her to complete the forms, he finds that she and her team have built four tornado research devices called DOROTHY based on Bill's design. Each unit contains hundreds of sensors that, if picked up by a tornado, will provide data that could lead to breakthroughs in meteorological research. Before Jo can finish the paperwork, her team rushes to intercept a nearby forming F1 tornado, forcing Bill and Melissa to chase after her. Bill encounters Dr. Jonas Miller, a corporate-funded meteorologist and long-time rival storm chaser, and learns that he has created a device called DOT-3, a blatant copy of DOROTHY. Bill vows to help Jo deploy DOROTHY before Jonas can deploy DOT-3 and claim credit for the idea.  In an attempt to deploy DOROTHY and get back to his regular life, Bill maneuvers Jo's Jeep Gladiator off-road into a muddy ditch towards the rapidly growing tornado. They collide with a small wooden bridge and find themselves trapped in the direct path of the oncoming tornado. As they take cover, Jo's truck and DOROTHY I are both picked up and destroyed by the tornado.  A second tornado is spotted. Jonas and his team are also moving to intercept the storm cell, which has at this point grown into an F2 tornado. However, Bill's intuition that the tornado will shift towards another direction sends them off seemingly in the right direction. Bill, Jo, and Melissa have a dangerous encounter with twin waterspout tornadoes on a enclosed road and they're spun round, which leaves Melissa shaken. The rest of the team, however, is ecstatic about the encounter and convince Jo to let them go visit Jo's Aunt Meg in the nearby town of Wakita for food and rest.  While there, the team informs Melissa about Jo's backstory, explaining that Jo has since become obsessed with ensuring nobody else suffers the same fate as her father. Jo, realizing she is falling in love with Bill again, isolates herself from the rest of the group and is confronted by Aunt Meg, who tells her that no matter what happens, they will always end up together.  They learn an F3 tornado is quickly forming in a neighboring county. As the team attempts to intercept the F3, the tornado initially fails to appear. They make yet another attempt to deploy a DOROTHY unit, but the tornado forms on top of them, damaging the truck and destroying DOROTHY II in the process. Overwhelmed by these recent events and racked with guilt over her father's death, Jo begins to despair. As their emotions run high, Bill tells Jo that he's still in love with her, unaware that Melissa is hearing the conversation over CB radio.  That night, the team stays in a hotel next to a drive-in cinema. Jo decides to fill out the remaining divorce papers but is interrupted when an F4 tornado forms nearby, forcing her team as well as townspeople caught in the storm to take shelter. The theater, a repair shop, and much of the team’s equipment is heavily damaged. Finding herself traumatized by the recent near-death experiences and recognizing the re-blossoming love between Bill and Jo, Melissa peacefully ends her relationship with Bill and makes her own way home. The tornado continues on to devastate the town of Wakita, injuring Aunt Meg and flattening her home. Aunt Meg is taken to a nearby hospital but pushes Jo not to give up, reminding her of Wakita having essentially been hit blind by the tornado as they had no warning, the tornado sirens having barely gone off before it struck. The team hears that an F5 is forming close by and in a brief moment of quiet, Jo absently watches Aunt Meg's wind chimes. The image inspires an epiphany and she begins to form a plan to improve and deploy the next DOROTHY unit.  As the sun starts to rise, the team sets out to intercept the F5 tornado, which has grown to be over a mile wide. Bill and Jo lay the newly-altered DOROTHY III directly in the F5's path, but it is destroyed by an uprooted tree. Meanwhile, Jonas attempts to deploy DOT-3 in a similar fashion, ignoring Bill's repeated warnings that his team is too close and that the tornado is shifting directly towards them. A metal tower impales Jonas' driver, Eddie, and their vehicle is swept into the tornado and thrown to the ground, killing both men and destroying DOT-3 in the resulting explosion. Bill and Jo press on, realizing that the only way to successfully deploy DOROTHY IV is by driving directly into the tornado and jumping out before Bill's truck is swept away. The plan works and the rest of the team celebrates the successful deployment of DOROTHY IV. However, Bill and Jo's celebration is cut short when the F5 shifts direction towards them. They flee into the nearby cornfields and take shelter in a water pump facility, fastening themselves to deeply rooted pipes. As the tornado passes overhead, they are able to see the interior of the tornado, before the storm dissipates altogether. The rest of the team arrives on scene to celebrate the achievement while Jo and Bill excitedly plan the next phase of research, deciding to run their own lab and rekindle their marriage.

Cast.

Gary England, Jeff Lazalier, and Rick Mitchell appear as themselves on local television news reports.

Production.

"Twister" was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, with financial backing from Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures. In return, Warner Bros. was given the North American distribution rights while Universal's joint venture distribution company UIP got the international distribution. The original concept and 10-page tornado-chaser story were presented to Amblin Entertainment in 1992 by screenwriter Jeffrey Hilton. Steven Spielberg then presented the concept to writer Michael Crichton. Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin, were paid a reported $2.5 million to write the screenplay.  After spending more than half a year of pre-production on "Godzilla", director Jan de Bont left the project after a dispute over its budget, and quickly signed on for "Twister".  The production was plagued with problems. Joss Whedon was brought in to rewrite through the early spring of 1995. When he got bronchitis, Steven Zaillian was brought in. Whedon returned and worked on revisions right through the start of shooting in May 1995, then left the project after getting married. Two weeks into production, Jeff Nathanson was flown to the set and worked on the script until principal photography ended.  Filming was to originally take place in California, but De Bont insisted the film be shot on location in Oklahoma. Shooting commenced all over the state; several scenes, including the opening scene where the characters meet each other, as well as the first tornado chase in the Jeep pickup, were filmed in Fairfax, Oklahoma and Ralston, Oklahoma. The scene at the automotive repair shop was filmed in Maysville, Oklahoma and Norman, Oklahoma. The waterspouts were filmed on Kaw Lake near Kaw City, Oklahoma. The drive-in scene was filmed at a real drive-in theater in Guthrie, Oklahoma, though some of the scene, such as Melissa's hotel room, was filmed in Stillwater, Oklahoma near Oklahoma State University's campus. The real town of Wakita, Oklahoma was used during filming, and a section of the older part of town was demolished for the film. Additional scenes and B-roll were filmed near Ponca City and Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, among several other smaller farm towns across the state. However, due to changing seasons that massively transformed the look of Oklahoma's topography, filming was moved to Iowa. The climactic scene with the F5 tornado was almost entirely shot around Eldora, Iowa, with the cornfield the characters run through being located near Ames, Iowa. The "twister hill" scene was shot on 130th Street near the small town of Pilot Mound, Iowa. After primary filming had wrapped, additional pick-up shots and reshoots, which included the opening scene and additional footage of the drive-in tornado, took place in Bolton, Ontario.  Halfway through filming, both Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were temporarily blinded by bright electronic lamps used to make the sky behind the two actors look dark and stormy. Paxton remembers that "these things literally sunburned our eyeballs. I got back to my room, I couldn't see". To solve the problem, a Plexiglas filter was placed in front of the beams. The actors took eye drops and wore special glasses for a few days to recuperate. After filming in a particularly unsanitary ditch, Hunt and Paxton needed hepatitis shots. During the same sequence, Hunt repeatedly hit her head on a low wooden bridge, so exhausted from the demanding shoot that she stood up so quickly her head struck a beam. During one stunt in which Hunt opened the door of a vehicle speeding through a cornfield, she momentarily let go of the door and it struck her on the side of the head. Some sources claim she received a concussion in the incident. De Bont said, "I love Helen to death, but you know, she can be also a little bit clumsy. " She responded, "Clumsy? The guy burned my retinas, but I'm clumsy... I thought I was a good sport. I don't know ultimately if Jan chalks me up as that or not, but one would hope so".  Some crew members, feeling that De Bont was "out of control", left the five weeks into filming. The camera crew led by Don Burgess claimed De Bont "didn't know what he wanted till he saw it. He would shoot one direction, with all the equipment behind the view of the camera, and then he'd want to shoot in the other direction right away and we'd have to move [everything] and he'd get angry that we took too long... and it was always everybody else's fault, never his". De Bont claims that they had to schedule at least three scenes every day because the weather changed so often, and "Don had trouble adjusting to that". When De Bont knocked over a camera assistant in a fit of rage who missed a cue, Burgess and his crew walked off the set, much to the shock of the cast. They remained one more week until Jack N. Green's crew agreed to replace them. Two days before the end of filming, Green was injured when a hydraulic house set, designed to collapse on cue, was mistakenly activated with him inside it. A rigged ceiling hit him in the head and injured his back, requiring him to be hospitalized. De Bont took over as his own director of photography for the remaining shots.  Because overcast skies were not always available, De Bont had to shoot many of the film's tornado-chasing scenes in bright sunlight, requiring Industrial Light & Magic to more than double its original plan for 150 "digital sky-replacement" shots. Principal photography was originally given a deadline to allow Hunt to return to appear in another season of "Mad About You", but when shooting ran over schedule, series creator and actor Paul Reiser agreed to delay the show's production for two-and-a-half weeks so "Twister" could finish. De Bont insisted on using multiple cameras, which led to the exposure of 1.3 million feet of film, compared to the usual maximum of 300,000 feet.  De Bont claims that "Twister" cost close to $70 million, of which $2–3 million went to the director. It was speculated that last-minute re-shoots in March and April 1996 (to clarify a scene about Jo as a child) and overtime requirements in post-production and at ILM, raised the budget to $90 million. Warner Bros. moved up the film's release date from May 17 to 10, to give it two weekends before "" opened.  "Twister" is known for its successful product placement, featuring a Dodge Ram pickup truck and several other new vehicle models.  Prints of "Twister" came with a note from De Bont, suggesting that exhibitors play the film at a higher volume than normal for full effect.

Soundtrack.

"Twister" featured both a traditional orchestral film score by Mark Mancina and several rock music songs, including an instrumental theme song composed and performed for the film by Van Halen. The film's music was released on compact disc.

Twister: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack.

There is also some other music, such as Deep Purple's "Child in Time" (heard when the team takes the road at the beginning and the assistant maximises the volume in his truck).  The song queued up on a TV in Dusty's van is Eric Clapton's "Motherless Child".

Twister: Motion Picture Score.

There are some orchestrated tracks that were in the movie but were not released on the orchestral score, most notably the orchestrated intro to "Humans Being" from when Jo's team left Wakita to chase the Hailstorm Hill tornado. Other, lesser-known tracks omitted include an extended version of "Going Green" (when we first meet Jonas) and a short track from when the first tornado is initially spotted.

Twister: Expanded Archival Collection.

In January 2017, La-La Land Records released a limited edition remastered and expanded album containing Mark Mancina's entire score plus four additional tracks.

Reception.

Critical response.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on 54 reviews, and an average rating of 5.94/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A high-concept blockbuster that emphasizes special effects over three-dimensional characters, "Twister"s visceral thrills are often offset by the film's generic plot." On Metacritic the film was assigned a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.  Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "You want loud, dumb, skillful, escapist entertainment? "Twister" works. You want to think? Think twice about seeing it". In her review for "The New York Times", Janet Maslin wrote, "Somehow "Twister" stays as uptempo and exuberant as a roller-coaster ride, neatly avoiding the idea of real danger". "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "B" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote, "Yet the images that linger longest in my memory are those of windswept livestock. And that, in a teacup, sums up everything that's right, and wrong, about this appealingly noisy but ultimately flyaway first blockbuster of summer". In his review for the "Los Angeles Times", Kenneth Turan wrote, "But the ringmaster of this circus, the man without whom nothing would be possible, is director De Bont, who now must be considered Hollywood's top action specialist. An expert in making audiences squirm and twist, at making us feel the rush of experience right along with the actors, De Bont choreographs action and suspense so beautifully he makes it seem like a snap." "Time" magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "when action is never shown to have deadly or pitiable consequences, it tends toward abstraction. Pretty soon you're not tornado watching, you're special-effects watching". In his review for the "Washington Post" Desson Howe wrote, "it's a triumph of technology over storytelling and the actors' craft. Characters exist merely to tell a couple of jokes, cower in fear of downdrafts and otherwise kill time between tornadoes".

Box office.

The film opened on May 10, 1996, and earned $41 million from 2,414 total theaters, making it the number-one movie at the North American box office. It went on to earn a total of $241.7 million at the North American box office. It earned a worldwide total of $494.5. It sits at number 76 on the all-time North American box office charts. Worldwide, it sits at number 105 on the all-time earners list, not adjusted for inflation. It was the second-highest-grossing film of 1996 after "Independence Day" and became Warner Bros.' most successful film at that time.

Release.

Home media.

Twister was released on home video on March 24, 1997 in the United States, and is considered to be the first home release of a movie to use the now widely used DVD optical media technology. Subsequent special editions on DVD and Blu-ray followed.

Legacy.

On May 24, 1996, a tornado destroyed Screen No. 3 at the Can-View Drive-In, a drive-in theater in Thorold, Ontario, which was scheduled to show "Twister" later that evening, in a real-life parallel to a scene in the film in which a tornado destroys a drive-in during a showing of the film "The Shining". The facts of this incident were exaggerated into an urban legend that the theater was actually playing "Twister" during the tornado.  On May 10, 2010, a tornado struck Fairfax, Oklahoma, destroying the farmhouse where numerous scenes in "Twister" were shot. J. Berry Harrison, the owner of the home and a former Oklahoma state senator, commented that the tornado appeared eerily similar to the fictitious one in the film. He had lived in the home since 1978.  Bill Paxton would later narrate storm chaser Sean Casey's 2011 documentary "Tornado Alley". After the death of Paxton in February 2017, hundreds of storm chasers and users of the Spotter Network used their markers to spell out his initials across the states of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma in tribute to the late actor.  A Twister museum located in Wakita, where much of the particularly destructive scenes of the movie were shot, contains various memorabilia and artifacts related to the film.

In other media.

Pinball.

On April 3, 1996, Sega Pinball released Twister, a pinball machine themed to the same name of the film. It features modes including Canister Multiball, Chase Multiball and more.

Theme park attraction.

The film was used as the basis for the attraction "Twister...Ride It Out" at Universal Studios Florida, which features filmed introductions by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. The attraction opened on May 4, 1998 and closed on November 2, 2015 to make way for "Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon".

Book tie-in.

The original screenplay, written by Crichton and then wife Anne Marie Martin, was released as a mass-market paperback in conjunction with the film.

Video games.

The story of Bill's drunken encounter with a tornado is referenced in "" downloadable content when asking the bartender of the Retching Netch in Raven Rock, Geldis Sadri, about how the inn got its name. He explains about a Dark Elf (Dunmer) that was one of his regular customers and very drunk offering his drink to a netch, before tossing the bottle at the netch. The netch apparently caught and swallowed some of the alcohol as the bottle never hit the ground, but this caused the netch to become intoxicated itself, and this resulted in it throwing up due to the drink making it very sick.

Twister is a 1996 American disaster film directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. Its executive producers were Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Gerald R. Molen. The film stars Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz and Cary Elwes, and depicts a group of storm chasers researching tornadoes during a severe outbreak in Oklahoma.

Twister je americký katastrofický filmový thriller z roku 1996, který natočil Jan de Bont. Scénář je dílem Michaela Crichtona a Anne-Marie Martinové, jako poradci se na něm podíleli i Joss Whedon, Steven Zaillian a Jeff Nathanson.


Early life, education and career.

Herbert was born in American Fork, the son of Carol (Boley) and Paul Richard Peters. His parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother soon remarried to Duane Barlow Herbert, who legally adopted him. His biological father also remarried, but Herbert and his paternal half-siblings were raised in different households and had minimal contact with each other. Governor Herbert grew up in Orem, Utah. He graduated from Orem High School, served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Eastern States Mission and later attended Brigham Young University, but did not graduate.  He is married to Jeanette Snelson Herbert; they have six children and sixteen grandchildren. Mrs. Herbert was born in Preston, Idaho, and moved with her family as a young child to Springville, Utah. She is Honorary Chair of the Governor's Commission on Literacy.  Herbert served for six years as a member of the Utah Army National Guard, becoming a staff sergeant. Following his time in the National Guard, he set up a real estate firm, Herbert and Associates Realtors. Herbert was president of the Utah Association of Counties and Utah Association of Realtors. Mrs Herbert ran a child care service, The Kids Connection.

Political career.

Utah County Commission.

Between 1990 and 2004, Herbert served as a commissioner on the Utah County Commission. He replaced Brent Morris in 1990. During his time as a commissioner, Herbert also served as presidents of the Utah Association of Counties and the Utah Association of Realtors. Larry Ellertson succeeded Herbert as County Commissioner.

2004 election.

In November 2003, Herbert began campaigning for the Republican nomination for Governor of Utah. In April 2004, a month before the state convention at which the gubernatorial nominee would be selected, Herbert joined forces with then-rival Jon Huntsman, Jr., becoming the latter's running mate. The Huntsman-Herbert ticket defeated incumbent governor Olene S. Walker at the convention, before going on to win in the November election. Herbert subsequently became lieutenant governor.

Lieutenant Governor of Utah.

Herbert's central role as lieutenant governor was running the state electoral office and managing the campaign disclosure system. His record on those responsibilities was somewhat mixed, improving standards marginally but seeing the state slip overall on nationwide rankings published by the Campaign Disclosure Project. Moreover, Herbert's office was criticized for failing to enforce campaign disclosure laws more vigorously. In 2007, Herbert oversaw the first statewide voter referendum to take place since the creation of the Lieutenant Governor's post.  During his time as lieutenant governor, Herbert also served as the chairman of numerous statewide commissions, including the Commission on Volunteers and the Commission on Civic and Character Education and the Emergency Management Administrative Council.

2008 election.

Huntsman and Herbert faced little opposition during their 2008 campaign for re-election, avoiding a primary election after achieving a plurality of votes at the state Republican Party convention. The Republican ticket was re-elected to office with a record 77 percent of the vote.

Governor of Utah.

2010.

Herbert became Governor of Utah on August 11, 2009, following the resignation of Governor Jon Huntsman to become Ambassador to China. As the Republican gubernatorial nominee in the 2010 special election, he defeated his Democratic opponent, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, by 64% to 32%.

2012.

In 2012, Herbert defeated his Democratic opponent, retired Major General Peter Cooke, winning election to a full four-year term by 69% to 28%.  Important legislation included the passage of the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act which Herbert signed into law on 23 March 2012, and will become effective after 2014.

2015.

From 2014-2015, Herbert served as the vice chair for the National Governors Association and is serving as the chair of the association for the year 2015-2016.

2016.

Herbert won re-election to a second full term, defeating Democratic nominee, entrepreneur Mike Weinholtz.

Political positions.

Economics.

In a 2010 statement, Herbert took partial credit for Utah's relatively quick recovery from the economic crisis which began in 2008, stating:

Education.

As of December 1, 2009, the Utah State Governor's website showed that Herbert listed "public and higher education" as one of four "priorities." (The other three listed priorities were "economic development", "energy security" and "infrastructure"). The Governor's site explained that Utah must improve its public education system to remain competitive and to empower its individual citizens to succeed, and the site said that "attracting and retaining the best teachers into our schools" was a way Utah could accomplish educational excellence. In his 2012 re-election bid, Herbert was endorsed by the Utah Education Association.  In March 2012, Herbert vetoed a controversial sex education bill, HB363, which would have allowed schools to stop teaching sex education entirely and would have required those that kept the lessons to teach abstinence only. In vetoing it, Herbert said "HB363 simply goes too far by constricting parental options... I cannot sign a bill that deprives parents of their choice".

LGBT rights.

Salt Lake City has passed a non-discrimination ordinance which would protect gay and lesbian people from discrimination in employment and housing. A member of the Utah Legislature has indicated he would seek a statewide law to prevent cities from passing ordinances related to civil rights. As a strong supporter of local control, Herbert has said he believes municipalities should have the right to pass rules and ordinances absent state interference.  On August 27, 2009, Herbert indicated at a news conference that he did not support making sexual orientation a legally protected class, saying: "We don't have to have a rule for everybody to do the right thing. We ought to just do the right thing because it's the right thing to do and we don't have to have a law that punishes us if we don't."  The gay rights advocacy group Equality Utah, which seeks to expand anti-discrimination laws to cover gay people, criticised Herbert's statements and expressed the view that he did not fully comprehend the challenges faced by gay people in Utah.  Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Utah by a US district court ruling on December 20, 2013, Herbert's office issued a statement immediately following the ruling: "I am very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah. I am working with my legal counsel and the acting Attorney General to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah." Shortly thereafter, the Attorney General's office did indeed request an emergency stay to stop further same-sex marriages from occurring in the state.  After elected officials in Oregon and Pennsylvania chose not to defend same-sex marriage bans from constitutional challenge, Herbert expressed his disappointment by saying, "For elected officials... to, say, pick and choose which laws they will enforce, I think, is a tragedy and the next step toward anarchy." He disagreed with the comparison between same-sex marriage and interracial marriage, saying, "Clearly the actions involved in sexual activity ultimately end up being choices. What your attraction may be is something else, but how you act upon those impulses is a choice."  On March 12, 2015, Herbert, in a special ceremony, signed into law a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing in the state of Utah, becoming the 19th state to do so. Later that year, Herbert was criticized by LGBT activists for planning to hold the welcome address at the World Congress of Families' congress in Salt Lake City.  In February 2019, Herbert supported a ban on conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice aimed at changing one's sexual orientation, being used on minors. He said he believed such therapies are not productive. In addition, Herbert said he might support a hate crime law covering sexual orientation and gender identity.

Gun rights.

Herbert is a moderate supporter of the right to bear arms, in 2010 signing state Senate Bill 11, which protects the right of Utah-based companies to manufacture firearms for sale and use within the State. However, Herbert vetoed a Constitutional Carry bill in 2013 (The bill would have allowed open or concealed carry without a permit by anyone who can legally possess a handgun.), and in a 2018 interview, he said "I don't know that there's any reason to have anything more than a seven- or nine-shot magazine. Once you get past a typical size when you go out hunting, you're probably having excess baggage you don't need."

Medicaid expansion.

In February 2019, Herbert defied the result of a ballot initiative where voters voted for an expansion of Medicaid. Herbert instead supported a GOP-authored bill which implemented a restricted version of Medicaid; this version insured 60,000 fewer people than the expansion in the ballot initiative and was estimated to initially cost the state more.

Medical Marijuana.

Herbert has openly opposed the legalization of medical marijuana in fear that it would lead to recreational use. He did, however, sign the passage of HB195 and HB197, which allows people who have an estimated six months or less left to live to have access to marijuana.

Free-Range Parenting.

Herbert supported and signed the Free-Range Parenting bill for Utah in March 2018. After the implementation of the law, in May 2018, Utah became the first state in America to legalize free-range parenting.

Utah Inland Port.

Governor Herbert has supported the creation of a Utah Inland Port. He signed HB234, a bill which created an Inland Port Authority, and HB433, a bill to increase the extent of the port and the powers of the Port Authority. Earlier, Herbert had created an Inland Port Exploratory Committee to "drive the development" of an inland port in Utah. At the time, he stated that "despite anti-trade, isolationist rhetoric at the national level, Utah remains committed to promoting international trade."

Controversies.

Campaign contributions.

2009-2010.

Merit gave separate $25,000 checks to the Herbert campaign on November 2, 2009, and January 21, 2010, and Herbert and Lampropoulos met in October 2009. In December 2009, Merit got $4.4 million in tax credits. Lampropoulos has publicly endorsed Herbert and appears in a television commercial supporting Herbert's reelection bid.  In February 2010, "The Deseret News" reported that Herbert's campaign had received a $10,000 donation from Alton Coal Development, a coal company that had complained about delays in regulators issuing a permit for strip-mining. The Associated Press reported that a memorandum they had obtained showed that state regulators later agreed to fast-track a decision regarding the permit, despite environmental concerns from local residents. According to a businessman who lives near the proposed mine, regulators arrived within days of a meeting between Herbert and the coal company, and they felt pressure to make a quick decision. A Utah regulator said that this was not the case and that Herbert did not make any orders about whether to issue a permit. A spokeswoman for Herbert said that he was not aware of the donation, and that given his long-term support of the energy industry, it was not surprising that Alton made a donation.  In September 2010, KSL TV reported another instance of Herbert accepting campaign donations from companies who benefited from state contracts related to the I-15 CORE rebuild in Utah County—the state's biggest ever road project. Three teams vied for the contract. One gave the governor's campaign no money, another gave $35,000. The third team, Provo River Constructors, gave Herbert's campaign much more. Wadsworth Brothers Construction and partners Ames, Ralph Wadsworth and Fluor have contributed more than $80,000. Around the time most of those donations came in Guy Wadsworth got two meetings with the governor, apparently something no other bidding team had. A month later, the state awarded the $1.725 billion contract to Provo River.  KSL TV also reported that Herbert had meetings with, and received donations from Fred Lampropoulos, CEO of Merit Medical, months before the Governor's Office of Economic Development awarded a tax break to Merit to expand its business in Utah.

2016.

In May 2016, Herbert was criticized for unethical campaign fund-raising activity. In a tape that was made without his knowledge, as Herbert was trying to get donors to contribute his campaign finance money, Herbert said that he would go anywhere and do whatever it takes. "I'm available. I'm available Jones!" he was heard saying on the tape. Although he did say that there would be no quid pro quo he also said to the lobbyists in attendance that even if he did not agree with them that he would make them happy. Herbert's Republican challenger Jonathan E. Johnson said that he was so upset that he was physically shaking when he heard what Herbert did. Herbert's Democratic opponent Mike Weinholtz promised that if he were elected to be Utah's governor, that he work to change the laws of Utah so that what Herbert did "would" be illegal.  Later in May 2016, Herbert apologized, saying that he regretted his actions and the actions of his campaign, but he said that he did nothing wrong. Herbert said that he was apologizing for his remarks earlier in the month, when he said "I'm available. I'm available Jones." which was a saying from a character in Lil Abner comic strips in which the character was always available to do something for a price.

UDOT's $13,000,000 payment to second-place finisher in highway bidding.

On September 13, 2010, Utah Department of Transportation admitted to paying $13,000,000 to prevent a lawsuit by the second-place finisher Flatiron/Skanska/Zachry (FSZ) for the Interstate 15 rebuild project in Utah County. UDOT admitted that after "adjustments" were made to the scoring system, the 1.7 billion dollar contract was awarded to Provo River Constructors (PRC) after winning the bidding process by a single point. UDOT claimed the $13,000,000 payment to FSZ was to avoid any further or pending legal action. Peter Corroon's campaign questioned whether this was related to a $87,500 donation made by PRC to Herbert's campaign. In a press conference on the same day, Herbert denied any knowledge of the $13,000,000 payoff to FSZ. However, on September 21, 2010 ABC4 reported that on September 9 four days before Herbert press conference UDOT informed Jason Perry, the Governor's Chief of Staff of a payment. On September 13, hours before Herbert's press conference, UDOT again informed Perry of a payoff and also specified the amount of the payment.

Governor signs House Bill 477.

During the 2011 legislative session, Herbert signed into law House Bill 477 after it passed through the legislature in three days. The bill would have drastically reduced the ability of citizens to access public records, especially records of Legislators. After large public outcry, Herbert announced he would sign the bill yet also call a special session to repeal the new law. The law was repealed two weeks later, and Herbert was criticized for costing the state $30,000 for not simply vetoing the bill when he first had a chance.

Governor signs House Bill 187.

On March 20, 2012, Herbert signed into law House Bill 187, dealing with "Agricultural Operation Interference" despite several individuals and organizations urging him veto it. The new law makes it a crime to take pictures or sound recordings while on the property of any agricultural production facility, even if the person is not trespassing (e.g. an employee of said facility) and even if the person is not interfering with anything (i.e. if nobody knows the recording is taking place). Offenders are guilty of a class B misdemeanor. Critics of the bill say that the law creates a safe haven for animal abuse and other criminal activity and that it adds nothing beneficial to legitimate operations. Proponents of the bill state that the purpose of the legislation is to prevent whistleblowers from unfairly damaging farming operations. The Humane Society has many examples of undercover videos that this bill is meant to prevent.

Governor signs Senate Bill 136.

On March 20, 2018 Herbert signed S.B. 136 (sponsored by Wayne Harper and Mike Schultz) into law. Among other provisions, S.B. 136 includes an additional annual registration fee of up to $120 on clean air vehicles. The additional fees were opposed by air quality advocates such as the nonprofits Breathe Utah, and Utah Clean Energy which has stated the fees are misguided. Clean air advocates have voiced concerns that the additional fees will slow electric vehicle adoption and promote poorer air quality in Utah. There are an estimated 1,000–2,000 deaths in Utah annually due to poor air quality, and emissions from gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, are the primary cause of pollution.

Media appearances.

Herbert had a cameo in the low budget movie "" alongside Dan Farr of Salt Lake Comic Con.

Gary Richard Herbert (born May 7, 1947) is an American politician serving as the 17th and current Governor of Utah since 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the National Governors Association during the 2015–2016 cycle.

Gary Richard Herbert (* 7. května 1947 American Fork, Utah, USA) je americký republikánský politik. Šest let působil v armádě. V letech 2005−2009 zastával funkci viceguvernéra Utahu, od roku 2009 je jeho v pořadí 17. guvernérem. Guvernérem se stal 11. srpna 2009 po rezignaci Jona Huntsmana.


Background.

George Harrison's 1971–72 humanitarian aid project for the new nation of Bangladesh had left him an international hero, but also exhausted and frustrated in his efforts to ensure that the money raised would find its way to those in need. Rather than record a follow-up to his acclaimed 1970 triple album, "All Things Must Pass", Harrison put his solo career on hold for over a year following the two Concert for Bangladesh shows, held at Madison Square Garden, New York, in August 1971. In an interview with "Disc and Music Echo" magazine in December that year, pianist Nicky Hopkins spoke of having just attended the New York sessions for John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single, where Harrison had played them "about two or three hours" worth of new songs, adding: "They were really incredible."<ref name="Tyler/Disc">Andrew Tyler, "Nicky Hopkins", "Disc and Music Echo", 4 December 1971; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required; retrieved 30 August 2012).</ref> Hopkins suggested that work on Harrison's next solo album was to begin in January or February at his new home studio at Friar Park, but any such plan was undone by Harrison's commitment to the Bangladesh relief project. While he found time during

Songs.

Rather than revisit compositions left over from the "All Things Must Pass" sessions, Harrison's material for "Living in the Material World" was drawn from the 1971–72 period, with the exception of "Try Some, Buy Some", which he wrote in 1970 and recorded with former Ronette Ronnie Spector in February 1971. The songs reflected his spiritual devotion – in the case of "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)", "Living in the Material World", "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and "Try Some, Buy Some" – as well as his feelings before and after the Bangladesh benefit concerts, with "Miss O'Dell" and "The Day the World Gets 'Round".  Both "The Lord Loves the One" and the album's title track were directly inspired by Prabhupada's teachings. Greene writes of Harrison adapting a passage from the Bhagavad Gita into his lyrics for "Living in the Material World" and adds: "Some of the songs distilled spiritual concepts into phrases so elegant they resembled Vedic "sutras": short codes that contain volumes of meaning." On "Give Me Love", Harrison blended the Hindu bhajan style (or devotional song) with Western gospel music, repeating the formula of his 1970–71 international hit "My Sweet Lord". In his 1980 autobiography, "I Me Mine", he describes the song as "a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it".  Whereas Harrison's Krishna devotionals on "All Things Must Pass" had been uplifting celebrations of faith, his latest compositions betrayed a more austere quality, partly as a result of the Bangladesh experience. His

Production.

After the grand, Wall of Sound production of "All Things Must Pass", Harrison wanted a more understated sound this time around, to "liberate" the songs, as he later put it.<ref name="Howlett/liner notes">Kevin Howlett, booklet accompanying "Living in the Material World" reissue (EMI Records, 2006; produced by Dhani & Olivia Harrison).</ref> He had intended to co-produce with Phil Spector as before, although the latter's erratic behaviour and alcohol consumption ensured that, once sessions were under way in October 1972, Harrison was the project's sole producer. Spector received a credit for "Try Some, Buy Some", however, since Harrison used the same 1971 recording, featuring musicians such as Leon Russell, Jim Gordon, Pete Ham and Barham, that they had made for Ronnie Spector's abandoned solo album.  A release date was planned for January or February 1973, with the album title rumoured to be "The Light That Has Lighted the World". Within a month, the title was announced as "The Magic Is Here Again", with an erroneous report in "Rolling Stone" magazine claiming that Eric Clapton was co-producing and that the album was set for release on 20 December 1972.

Recording.

In another contrast with his 1970 triple album, Harrison engaged a small core group of musicians to support him on "Living in the Material World". Gary Wright, who shared Harrison's spiritual preoccupations, and Klaus Voormann returned, on keyboards and bass, respectively, and John Barham again provided orchestral arrangements. They were joined by Jim Keltner, who had impressed at the 1971 Bangladesh concerts, and Nicky Hopkins, whose musical link to Harrison went back to the 1968 Jackie Lomax single "Sour Milk Sea". Ringo Starr also contributed to the album, when his burgeoning film career allowed, and Jim Horn, another musician from the Concert for Bangladesh band, supplied horns and flutes. The recording engineer was Phil McDonald, who had worked in the same role on "All Things Must Pass".  All the rhythm and lead guitar parts were performed by Harrison alone – the ex-Beatle stepping out from the "looming shadow" of Clapton for the first time, Leng has noted. Most of the basic tracks were recorded with Harrison on acoustic guitar; only "Living in the Material

Overdubbing and mixing.

After hosting a visit by Bob Dylan and his wife Sara at Friar Park, Harrison resumed work on the album in January 1973, at Apple. "Sue Me, Sue You Blues", which he had originally given to Jesse Ed Davis to record in 1971, was taped at this point. The lyrics' courtroom theme had a new relevance in early 1973, as he, Lennon and Starr looked to sever all legal ties with manager Allen Klein, who had been the prime cause for McCartney's earlier litigation.  For the rest of January and through February, extensive overdubs were carried out on the album's basic tracks – comprising vocals, percussion, Harrison's

Album artwork.

As he had done with "All Things Must Pass" and "The Concert for Bangladesh", Harrison entrusted the album's art design to Tom Wilkes, and the latter's new business partner, Craig Baun. The gatefold and lyric insert sleeves for "Living in the Material World" were much commented-on at the time of release, Stephen Holden of "Rolling Stone" describing the record as "beautifully-packaged with symbolic hand-print covers and the dedication, 'All Glories to Sri Krsna'", while author Nicholas Schaffner likewise admired the "color representations of the Hindu scriptures", in the form of a painting from a Prabhupada-published edition of the Bhagavad Gita. Reproduced on the lyric insert sheet (on the back of which was a red Om symbol with yellow surround), this painting features Krishna with Arjuna, the legendary archer and warrior, in a chariot, being pulled by the enchanted seven-headed horse Uchchaihshravas. With the album arriving at the height of the glam or glitter rock musical trend, Clayson writes of this image: "a British teenager might have still dug the gear worn by Krishna in his chariot... Androgynous in beaded kaftan, jewelled fez and peacock feather, and strikingly pretty, the Supreme Personality of Godhead was not unlike some of the new breed of theatrical British chartbusters."  For the album's striking front-cover image, Wilkes used a Kirlian photograph of

Release.

Due to the extended recording period, "Living in the Material World" was issued at the end of a busy Apple release schedule, with April and May 1973 having already been set aside for the Beatles compilations "1962–1966" and "1967–1970" and for Paul McCartney & Wings' second album, "Red Rose Speedway". Schaffner recorded in his book "The Beatles Forever": "For a while there... album charts were reminiscent of the golden age of Beatlemania." Preceding Harrison's long-awaited release was the acoustic single "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)", which became his second number 1 hit in the United States. This was accompanied by a billboard and print advertising campaign, including a three-panel poster combining the album's front and back covers, and an Apple publicity photo showing Harrison, now free of the heavy beard familiar from the "All Things Must Pass"–Concert for Bangladesh era, with his hand outstretched, mirroring Wilkes' album cover image.  "Living in the Material World" was issued on 30 May 1973 in

Critical reception.

Contemporary reviews.

Leng describes "Living the Material World" as "one of the most keenly anticipated discs of the decade" and its unveiling "a major event". Among expectant music critics, Stephen Holden began his highly favourable review in "Rolling Stone" with the words "At last it's here", before hailing the new Harrison album as a "pop classic" and a "profoundly seductive record".<ref name="Holden/RS">Stephen Holden, "George Harrison, "Living in the Material World"", "Rolling Stone", 19 July 1973, p. 54 (retrieved 12 April 2014).</ref> "Happily, the album is not just a commercial event," he wrote, "it is the most concise, universally conceived work by a former Beatle since "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band"." "Billboard" magazine noted the twin themes found throughout the album – "the Beatles and their mish-mash" versus a "spiritual undercoat" – and described Harrison's vocals as "first-rate".<ref name="BB review/google">Eliot Tiegel (ed.), "Top Album Picks:

Retrospective assessment.

In the decades following its release, "Living in the Material World" gained a reputation as "a forgotten blockbuster" – a term used by Simon Leng and echoed by commentators such as Robert Rodriguez and AllMusic's Bruce Eder. The latter describes Harrison's 1973 album as "an underrated minor masterpiece" that "represent[s] his solo playing and songwriting at something of a peak". John Metzger of "The Music Box" refers to "Material World" as "the most underrated and overlooked album of [Harrison]'s career", adding that it "coalesces around its songs... and the Zen-like beauty that emanates from Harrison's hymns to a higher power inevitably becomes subtly affecting."  Writing in "Rolling Stone" in 2002, Greg Kot found the album "drearily monochromatic" compared to its predecessor, and to PopMatters' Zeth Lundy, it suffers from "a more anonymous tract" next to the "cathedral-grade significance" of "All Things Must Pass". Reviewing Harrison's solo career for "Goldmine" magazine in 2002, Dave Thompson considered the 1973 album to be the equal of "All Things

2014 appraisal and legacy.

Reviewing the 2014 reissue, Blogcritics' Chaz Lipp writes that "this chart-topping classic is, in terms of production, arguably preferable to its predecessor", adding: "The sinewy 'Sue Me, Sue You Blues,' galloping title track, and soaring 'Don't Let Me Wait Too Long' rank right alongside Harrison's best work." Alex Franquelli of PopMatters refers to it as "a worthy successor" to "All Things Must Pass" and an album that "raises the bar of social awareness that had only been touched on lightly in the previous release". Franquelli concludes: "It is a work that enjoys a more elaborate dynamic development, where layers are kept together by Harrison’s clever work behind the mixing desk."<ref name="Franquelli/PM">Alex Franquelli, "George Harrison: The Apple Years 1968–75", PopMatters, 30 October 2014 (retrieved 1 November 2014).</ref> In another 2014 review, for "Classic Rock", Paul Trynka writes: "All these years on, it's his most overtly spiritual album that sparkles today... The well-known songs, such as 'Sue Me, Sue You Blues' (dedicated to the rapacious Allen Klein), stand up well, but it's the more restrained tracks – 'Don't Let Me Wait Too Long', 'Who Can See It' – that entrance: gorgeous pop songs,

Reissues.

2006.

While solo works by Lennon, McCartney and Starr had all been remastered as part of repackaging campaigns during the 1990s and early 21st century, Harrison's "Living in the Material World" was "neglected over the years", author Bruce Spizer wrote in 2005, an "unfortunate" situation considering the quality of its songs. On 25 September 2006, EMI reissued the album in the UK, on CD and in a deluxe CD/DVD package, with Capitol Records' US release following the next day.<ref name="Menze/BB">Jill Menze, "Billboard Bits: George Harrison, Family Values, Antony", billboard.com, 21 June 2006 (retrieved 26 November 2014).</ref> The remastered "Material World" featured two additional tracks, neither of which had previously been available on an album: "Deep Blue" and "Miss O'Dell", popular B-sides, respectively, to the

2014.

"Living in the Material World" was remastered again for inclusion in the Harrison box set "The Apple Years 1968–75", issued in September 2014.<ref name="Grow/RSonline">Kory Grow, "George Harrison's First Six Studio Albums to Get Lavish Reissues", rollingstone.com, 2 September 2014 (retrieved 1 October 2014).</ref> Also available as a separate CD, the reissue reproduces Howlett's 2006 essay and

Track listing.

All songs written by George Harrison.

Original release.

Side one

2006 remaster.

Bonus tracks

2014 remaster.

Living in the Material World is the fourth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in 1973 on Apple Records. As the follow-up to 1970's critically acclaimed "All Things Must Pass" and his pioneering charity project, the Concert for Bangladesh, it was among the most highly anticipated releases of that year. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America two days after release, on its way to becoming Harrison's second number 1 album in the United States, and produced the international hit "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)". It also topped albums charts in Canada and Australia, and reached number 2 in Britain.

Living in the Material World je čtvrté sólové studiové album George Harrisona. Jeho nahrávání probíhalo na různých místech v období února a března 1971 a znovu od října 1972 do března 1973. Album produkoval Harrison a Phil Spector a vyšlo v květnu 1973 u vydavatelství Apple Records.


Playing career.

Junior.

Yakupov was selected second overall by the Sarnia Sting in the 2010 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft. Prior to this, he played in the Russian Minor Hockey League (MHL) for his hometown team, Reaktor Nizhnekamsk, but thought that trying to join the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) would be a quicker path to his dream to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).  Yakupov scored his first OHL goal against the Windsor Spitfires on 24 September 2010. After winning OHL Rookie of the Month for the month of October, Yakupov participated in the 11 November game of the Subway Super Series for Team Russia, at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario; Russia lost the game 4–0.  On 3 February 2011, Yakupov was named the 'Kal Tire OHL Rookie of the Month' for January, which he had previously won in October 2010. He later won the title for the month of February as well. At the end of the season, Yakupov was named winner of the Emms Family Award as OHL Rookie of the Year, becoming the first Sting player to receive the honour. He was also named to the first All-Rookie team for the season. On 28 May, he was also awarded the title for CHL Rookie of the Year, as the top rookie in the Canadian junior circuit.  On 28 February 2011, at 3:07 in the first period of a game against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Yakupov scored his 43rd goal of the 2010–11 OHL season, giving him the new goal-scoring record for a rookie for the Sarnia Sting. On 19 March 2011, in Sarnia's last game of the 2010–11 season, he scored an assist on the first goal as well as the third goal for Sarnia to obtain his 100th point of the season; he also scored another assist with 80 seconds left in the game to finish the season with 101 points.  Early in the 2011–12 season, Yakupov took the scoring lead with 25 points in 10 games. A 12-point week landed him CHL Player of the Week honours for the first time on 18 October 2011.

Professional.

Edmonton Oilers.

During the 2012 NHL Entry Draft on 23 June 2012, Yakupov was picked first overall by the Edmonton Oilers. On 23 July, the Oilers signed Yakupov to a three-year entry level contract.  As a result of the 2012–13 NHL lockout, the Oilers had assigned Yakupov to Sarnia for the 2012–13 season. Reports indicated, however, that Yakupov would instead return to Russia and play for HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Yakupov had played for the organization previously as a member of its junior teams. His first game with the team was on 22 September against Traktor Chelyabinsk. After two games with Neftekhimik, Yakupov was suspended temporarily by the KHL, as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) declared that he was not eligible to play in the league. According to IIHF rules, players moving between teams in different countries need to have a transfer card signed by the outgoing national ice hockey federation and the incoming federation. Hockey Canada, the governing body of ice hockey in Canada, had not signed Yakupov's card, making him ineligible to play in Russia. That required him to return to Canada and play with Sarnia for the remainder of the season. The reason they stated was that Yakupov had signed an entry-level contract with the Oilers, and according to an NHL–CHL agreement, players who sign such contracts have to either play in the NHL or for their CHL teams. Due to the NHL lockout, Yakupov could not play in the NHL and was therefore required to play in Sarnia. Within a few days, however, Hockey Canada decided that Yakupov was free to return to Russia, and signed his card; they "determined that Yakupov had no independent legal advice when, at the age of 17 years, he signed his contract with Sarnia."  The lockout ended in January 2013 and Yakupov returned to North America to play for the Oilers. A fan of Pavel Bure growing up, Yakupov wanted to have the number 10 on his jersey, the same one Bure wore for most of his career. However, since Shawn Horcoff wore that number at the time, Yakupov instead chose to wear number 64, as the two digits added up to 10. Yakupov played his first NHL game in the first Oilers game on 20 January 2013, against the Vancouver Canucks. He scored his first goal during the next game, the Oilers' home opener, against Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks on 22 January.  On 27 April 2013, Yakupov recorded his first career hat trick in a 7–2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, with all three goals coming in the third period. Yakupov finished his rookie season leading all rookies in goals with 17, and tied with Jonathan Huberdeau for points with 31. Yakupov also scored 11 goals in the month of April, second only to fellow countryman Alexander Ovechkin.

St. Louis Blues.

On October 7, 2016, Yakupov's tenure with the Oilers ended in the lead up to the 2016–17 season, as he was traded to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for prospect Zach Pochiro and a conditional third-round pick in 2017. After attending training camp and pre-season, he made the Blues opening night roster, making his debut in a 5–2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on October 12, 2016. In his next game the following day, he scored his first goal with the Blues and added an assist in a 3–2 victory over the Minnesota Wild. After initially providing an offensive spark with 4 points in his first 6 games, Yakupov's contributions dried up and he was made a healthy scratch by the Blues 12th game under head coach Ken Hitchcock. Appearing in a depth role with the Blues, Yakupov was exposed to limited ice time. After Hitchcock's departure, Yakupov appeared in just 11 further games out of 27 after he was made a frequent healthy scratch by Mike Yeo. His season was ended prematurely after suffering a knee injury, which required surgery, against the Colorado Avalanche on March 31, 2017. He completed his season with 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points in 40 games, all career lows.

Colorado Avalanche.

Yakupov was set to be a restricted free agent, but with a $2.5 million qualifying offer the Blues declined to renew, he became an unrestricted free agent. Despite gaining KHL interest, Yakupov was determined to continue in the NHL, and on July 4, 2017, he signed a one-year, $875,000 contract with the Colorado Avalanche.

Return to the KHL.

As a free agent, Yakupov opted to leave the NHL and return to Russia to further develop his game. He agreed to a two-year contract with perennial contending club, SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL on July 3, 2018. In the 2018–19 season, Yakupov enjoyed initial success, registering 23 goals and 33 points through 47 regular season games. His production dipped in the playoffs, totalling 4 goals in 18 games.  On June 19, 2019, Yakupov was signed to an improved three-year contract extension with SKA Saint Petersburg. In the following 2019–20 season, Yakupov was unable to build upon his previous season and suffered a drop in production and role, registering 10 goals and 20 points in 46 games of the COVID-19 affected season.  With two years remaining on his contract, Yakupov was traded by SKA to HC Vityaz in exchange for Pavel Koltygin on May 8, 2020. While continuing in the off-season, Yakupov was then traded on by Vityaz just over a month from his initial acquisition, to Amur Khabarovsk in exchange for financial compensation on June 14, 2020.

International play.

Yakupov was part of Team Russia in the 2011 World Junior U18 championship. He scored a hat trick in the bronze-medal game, including an empty-net goal with four seconds left, helping defeat Team Canada (with Sting teammate Brett Ritchie) 6–4.  Yakupov was part of the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, joining Russia. His team defeated Canada in the semi-finals, but lost 1–0 to Sweden in the gold medal game, acquiring a silver medal.

Personal life.

Nail Yakupov is an ethnic Volga Tatar and a Muslim. He is the first Tatar and only Muslim ever to be selected first overall at the NHL Entry Draft. With his draft selection, Yakupov surpassed Nazem Kadri as being the highest drafted Muslim player in NHL history. His father, Rail, worked with the HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk hockey team as a coach and executive. Yakupov first skated when he was four-years-old, but was more interested in soccer and the English Premier League club Chelsea than hockey.

Nail Railovich Yakupov (, ; born 6 October 1993) is a Russian professional ice hockey forward who is currently playing with Amur Khabarovsk in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He was selected first overall by the Edmonton Oilers at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, and also played with the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche. Yakupov grew up within the HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk junior program and moved to North America in 2010 to further his career. He joined the Sarnia Sting, a major junior team in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he played for two years before being selected in the NHL Entry Draft. Yakupov played for the Russian national junior team, winning medals in all three tournaments he participated in.

Nail Jakupov (rusky Наиль Раилович Якупов, * 6. října 1993, Nižněkamsk, Tatarstán, Rusko) je profesionální hokejový útočník a bývalá velká naděje ruského hokeje. Momentálně hraje v KHL za klub SKA Petrohrad. V roce 2012 si jej jako jedničku draftu vybral tým Edmonton Oilers.


Background.

Due to increased public assumption that Disney films were aimed at children and families, films produced by the Walt Disney Productions began to falter at the box office as a result. In late 1979, Disney Productions released "The Black Hole", a science-fiction movie that was the studio's first production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed via Buena Vista Distribution its first PG-rated film, "Take Down" almost a year before the release of "The Black Hole").  Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the 1981 films—the horror-mystery "The Watcher in the Woods", the spy-themed comedy "Condorman" and the Paramount Pictures co-produced fantasy epic "Dragonslayer". With Disney's 1982 slate of PG-rated films—including the thriller drama "Night Crossing", and the science-fiction film "Tron"—the company lost over $27 million. "Tron" was considered a potential "Star Wars"-level success film by the film division.  In late 1982, Disney vice president of production Tom Wilhite announced that they would produce and release more mature films under a new brand. Wilhite elaborated to the "New York Times": <nowiki>"</nowiki>We won't get into horror or exploitive sex, but using a non-Disney name will allow us wider latitude in the maturity of the subject matter and the edge we can add to the humor.<nowiki>"</nowiki> One of the first films expected to be released under this new brand included "Trenchcoat", a comedy caper starring Margot Kidder and Robert Hays; by the time the film opened in March 1983, no production company credit was included in the released prints.  A loss of $33 million was registered by the film division in 1983 with the majority resulting from films such as the horror-fantasy adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel "Something Wicked This Way Comes", a horror-comedy starring Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby "The Devil and Max Devlin", two dramas "Tex" and "Never Cry Wolf", a latter PG release that featured male nudity, did well as the studio downplayed the film's association with the Disney brand.

History.

Touchstone Films.

Touchstone Films was started by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller on February 15, 1984 as a label for their PG films with an expected three to four movies released under the label. Touchstone's first film was "Splash", a huge hit for grossing $68 million at the domestic box office was released that year. Incoming Disney CEO Michael Eisner and film chief Jeffrey Katzenberg considered renaming the label to Hollywood Pictures.  In 1986, "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" was another early success for Touchstone and was Disney's first R-rated film, followed in 1987 by Disney's first PG-13 rated film, "Adventures in Babysitting". Disney increased the momentum with additional PG-13 and R-rated films with "Ruthless People" (1986), "Outrageous Fortune" (1987), "Tin Men" (1987), and other top movies. In April 1985, Touchstone Films were licensed to Showtime/The Movie Channel for five years starting in 1986.

Touchstone Pictures.

Touchstone Films was renamed Touchstone Pictures after the film "Ruthless People" in 1986. With the Touchstone movies, Disney moved to the top of box office receipts beating out all the other major film studios by 1988. In April 1988, Touchstone became a unit of Walt Disney Pictures with newly appointed president Ricardo Mestres.  On October 23, 1990, The Walt Disney Company formed Touchwood Pacific Partners I to supplant the Silver Screen Partners partnership series as their movie studios' primary funding source.  With several production companies getting out of film production or closing shop by December 1988, the Walt Disney Studios announced the formation of the Hollywood Pictures division, which would only share marketing and distribution with Touchstone, to fill the void. Mestres was appointed president of Hollywood. In July 1992, Touchstone agreed to an exclusive, first-look production and distribution agreement with Merchant Ivory Productions to last three years.  Following the success of the Disney-branded PG-13-rated "" in 2003, and other films that in the 1980s and 1990s would have been released as Touchstone or Hollywood Pictures films, Disney weighed distribution of films more toward Disney-branded films and away from Touchstone Pictures, though not entirely disbanding them as it continued to use the Touchstone label for R and most PG-13 rated fare. In 2006, Disney limited Touchstone's output to two or three films in favor of Walt Disney Pictures titles due to an increase in film industry costs. Disney indicated scaling back on using multiple brands in 2007 with the renaming of Touchstone Television to ABC Television Studio in February and the outright elimination of the Buena Vista brand in April. Two Touchstone co-productions flopped at the box office minimized by its co-producers financial contributions to the movies.

Distribution label.

Disney revived Touchstone in 2009 to serve as a distribution label for DreamWorks Studios' films. Disney financed DreamWorks productions with $90 million more available under its agreement if DreamWorks cannot get additional equity funding. In 2012, Disney reportedly was in early stages in considering Touchstone's fate, including a possible sale.  Following Disney's decision not to renew their long-standing deal with Jerry Bruckheimer Films in 2013, producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that he insisted on revitalizing the Touchstone label for production. Disney was uninterested, with studio chairman Alan Horn admitting that Touchstone's output had been reduced to distributing DreamWorks' films as those films are in the label's wheelhouse. In addition to DreamWorks' films, Touchstone also released non Disney-branded animated films such as "Gnomeo & Juliet", "The Wind Rises" and "Strange Magic".  By the end of the DreamWorks deal in August 2016, Disney had distributed fourteen of DreamWorks' original 30-picture agreement, with thirteen through Touchstone. The deal ended with "The Light Between Oceans" being the final theatrical film released by Disney under the Touchstone banner. Universal Pictures then replaced Disney as DreamWorks' distributor. Disney retained the film rights to these DreamWorks films in perpetuity as compensation for the studio's outstanding loan.

Filmography.

Some well-known Touchstone Pictures releases include "Beaches", "Turner & Hooch", "Splash", "The Color of Money", "Good Morning, Vietnam", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Dead Poets Society", "Pretty Woman", "Sister Act", "Ed Wood", "The Insider", "The Royal Tenenbaums", "Sweet Home Alabama", "The Help", "War Horse", "Lincoln," and "Bridge of Spies". Its highest-grossing film release is "Armageddon". Although animated films are primarily released by Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone's animated releases include the original theatrical release of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Gnomeo & Juliet", "The Wind Rises", and "Strange Magic". Six Touchstone films have received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture; "Dead Poets Society", "The Insider", "The Help", "War Horse", "Lincoln", and "Bridge of Spies".  Through Touchstone, Disney's first R-rated film, "Down and Out in Beverly Hills", came on January 31, 1986 and was a large box-office success. "Ruthless People" followed on June 27, 1986 and was also very successful. Both of these pictures starred Bette Midler, who had signed a six-picture deal with Disney and became a major film star again with these hits as well as "Beaches" and "Outrageous Fortune".  One of the key producers behind Touchstone films was Jerry Bruckheimer, who had a production deal with Disney from 1993 to 2014. His Touchstone titles include "The Ref", "Con Air", "Armageddon", "Enemy of the State", "Gone in 60 Seconds", "Coyote Ugly", and "Pearl Harbor". In addition, Bruckheimer has also produced several other films released under the Disney and Hollywood labels.

Distribution.

Releases from Touchstone Pictures are distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and through home media platforms by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (branded as "Touchstone Home Entertainment"). Touchstone is also a distribution label for Disney.

Related units.

Touchstone Television.

Disney's former non-Disney branded television division Touchstone Television Productions, LLC (formerly known as Touchstone Films Television Division, Touchstone Films Television, Touchstone Pictures Television and Touchstone Pictures and Television [itself an alternate version of the Walt Disney Television names] and later Touchstone Television) is known for being the production company of the series "The Golden Girls", "Blossom", "Home Improvement", "The Sinbad Show", "Boy Meets World" (all five began before Disney's ABC acquisition), "My Wife and Kids", "Desperate Housewives", "Lost", "Grey's Anatomy", "Scrubs", "Miracles," and "Monk".  On February 8, 2007, at the Disney Investor Conference, then-Disney–ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney, announced that they would rebrand Touchstone Television to ABC Television Studio in order to tie its successful productions more closely with the ABC brand. The announcement was made as part of a company-wide strategy to focus on three core brands, Disney, ABC, and ESPN. In May 2007, the television production company yet again changed its name, this time to ABC Studios.

Touchstone Games.

By the end of 2007, Disney's video game subsidiary Buena Vista Games began to produce material under its own Touchstone imprint. As is the case with its motion picture and television counterparts, Touchstone Games merely acted as a label/imprint of Disney Interactive and not its own entity. The first such release was the "Turok" video game in 2008.

Touchstone Pictures is an American film distribution studio and label of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, created and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label are produced and financed by The Walt Disney Studios, and feature more mature themes targeted towards adult audiences, than those films released under the studio's flagship Walt Disney Pictures banner. As such, Touchstone is merely a pseudonym brand for the studio, and does not exist as a distinct business operation.

Touchstone Pictures je dceřiná značka (label) a produkční firma koncernu Walt Disney Pictures. Vznikla v roce 1984 a zaměřuje se obvykle na vážnější filmová témata než je obvyklé u mateřské značky Disney. Pod tímto labelem jsou uváděny pouze filmy studia Disney popřípadě televizních stanic a televizních kanálů vlastněných koncernem Disney.


History.

"Covergirl" (2001–2002).

Groove Coverage released a few dance singles, most notably "Are U Ready" and "Hit Me" before going on to release the breakthrough single "Moonlight Shadow" (a cover of the Mike Oldfield song) peaking at #3 in the German media control charts in June 2002. At the end of 2002, the band released their debut album "Covergirl", with the follow up single "God is a Girl". Mell was pregnant during the production of the Moonlight Shadow music clip, which was filmed in Budapest, and was replaced by model Henrika Spillner.

"7 Years and 50 Days" and international breakthrough (2003–2004).

After the success of the singles "Moonlight Shadow" and "God Is A Girl", Groove Coverage went on to release a new single titled "The End", which was released in April 2003, peaking at #14 in the German Media Control Charts. In late 2003 came the next top 10 hit single, a cover of Alice Cooper's hit "Poison", followed by the second studio album "7 Years and 50 Days" in March 2004, which spawned out five top 20 singles in Germany: "The End", "Poison", "7 Years and 50 Days", "She" and "Runaway".

"21st Century" and "Greatest Hits" (2005–2007).

In 2005, "7 Years and 50 Days" reached platinum sales in Asia, as well as being hugely successful in Indonesia. In the UK and Ireland, the band's cover of "Poison" became a top 40 hit, peaking at #32 in the Official UK Singles Chart which helped the band reach to new territories such as Spain and China, where "God Is a Girl" became the most successful song of 2007, having been downloaded more than 1.5 million times.  In July 2006, the band released their third studio album "21st Century", which included their recent singles "Holy Virgin", "On the Radio" and "21st Century Digital Girl".  With only moderate success with their third album, Groove Coverage did not release any more music until late 2007, where they released the single "Because I Love You" to promote their first "Greatest Hits" compilation. Again the band only experienced moderate success with the new single and album, and were dropped by their label Universal Music Germany.

"Riot on the Dancefloor" (2010–2012).

In 2010, Groove Coverage celebrated their new music contract with Sony Music / Columbia. For this, they released the highly anticipated new single "Innocent", another Mike Oldfield cover. The single became the highest new entry in the German Media Control Charts, peaking at #38.  In Spring 2011, the single "Angeline" was released, peaking at #22 in the German Media Control Charts; the single proved to be a massive success for the band, staying in the German top 50 Charts for over 16 weeks, as well as peaking at #1 in both the DJ Top 100 International charts, and the MusicLoad digital charts.  In March 2012, the highly anticipated fourth studio album "Riot On The Dancefloor" was released.

"Tell Me", "Wait", and "Million Tears" (2013–2016).

On 1 December 2013, the band launched their new website, where they announced that they had finished work on the new single and that it would be out soon. "Tell Me" was released on 31 January 2014. The music video premiered a few days before its release and features many guest appearances including Rameez, DJane HouseKat, Verena Rehm, Micaela Schaefer and Shaun Baker.  On 19 December 2014, Groove Coverage surprised fans with the release of their single "Wait". A music video for the release was published on 17 December 2014.  On 29 May 2015, the band is planning to release their eighteenth single, "Million Tears". The track was originally featured on their 2002 album "Covergirl", but it was never released as a single for it. The single version has been re-recorded with a new production.

New single "Wake Up" (2017).

On June 1st the group changed their Facebook picture with the message "Our next single is ready, and now we're looking for fresh re-mixers." Seeking re-mixers or producers caring to try their own version of the track 110 to 130 bpm in any kind of genre. No title or release date was given yet. fans expected release fall of 2017.  The group wrote on their official Facebook-page that the new single would be out in autumn and they premiered their video for "Wake Up" on their facebook-page 11/16/17.  "Wake Up" includes a vocal loop, inspired/resembling a similar melody and lyrics of Spice Girls 1998 song "Viva Forever". Covers are a common theme often found in their production, in respect to the band's name Groove Coverage. Some of their songs, not all, are exact or partial covers re-created in the Trance or Electronic Dance style. The instrumental of "Wake up" is reminiscent of their own classic Euro-Trance aesthetic. The song is a 128 BPM Festival Trance song, layered in synths, melancholic melodies, and 4 on the floor drumbeats. Production of this track is similar to "God Is A Girl" (a song Groove Coverage released 15 years prior) "Moonlight Shadow" and "The End" as well as the majority of their discography.  Tour 2019

Groove Coverage is a German dance band which consists of Axel Konrad, DJ Novus, Melanie Munch, better known as Mell (lead singer), and Verena Rehm (former stage performer, backing singer, occasional lead singer). Producers of the band are Ole Wierk and Axel Konrad. The project was founded in the summer of 2001 by DJ Novus, in co-operation with Suprime Music (Konrad). With eleven singles in the German Top 50 and over 13 million records sold worldwide, Groove Coverage is one of the most successful German dance artists.

Groove Coverage je německá dance-popová a eurotrancová hudební skupina, jejímiž členy jsou Axel Konrad, DJ Novus, Melanie Munchová (hlavní zpěvačka, známá více jako Mell) a Verena Rehmová (příležitostní hlavní zpěvačka). Producenty kapely jsou Ole Wierk a Lou Bega, kteří se podíleli jen na několika textech k písním. Skupinu založil v roce 2001 DJ Novus ve spolupráci s vydavatelstvím Suprime Music (kde působil Alex Konrad). Celkem 11 jejich hitů se umístilo do první 50 německé hitparády. Celosvětově kapela Groove Coverage prodala přes 5 milionů alb a stala se jednou z nejúspěšnějších tanečních skupin v Německu. Za svou dosavadní kariéru vydali celkem čtyři studiová alba, 17 singlů a pět kompilací největších hitů.


Background.

By 1985, there was a considerable amount of conflict between band members. Lead singer Joey Ramone went so far as to withdraw from the writing process, after having been a vital part of it on previous records. Joey recalled: "I'd had it with the Ramones. 'Mental Hell' is about that. Part of it came from breaking up with [then girlfriend] Angela. The other part of it was that I had really had it with the band." In later interviews, however, Joey stated that it was not the conflict that made him stop writing, but rather that he'd had "ideas on the backburner." Bassist Dee Dee Ramone claimed guitarist Johnny Ramone was the reason for much of the stress, alleging that Johnny did not want to do songs Joey wrote for multiple reasons: "Joey will present a great tune and Johnny won't do it because it's this or it's that. 'I'm not going to play minor chords. I'm not going to play lead. I'm not going to come to England.' For God's sake! That's why Joey gotta do his solo album."  Consequently, the somewhat recently added drummer Richie Ramone stepped up to the writing process, resulting in the hit song "Somebody Put Something in My Drink," released as a single and later appearing on the band's first compilation album, "Ramones Mania" (1988). "Joey was always encouraging me to write songs," explained Richie, "but I didn't really need the encouragement." This would be the first time the band featured the drummer as a songwriter since original drummer Tommy Ramone, with Joey reasoning that he wanted to make Richie feel like a part of the band; he felt past drummers had not been so much a part of the band, nor any good at writing, and called Richie a "regular Phil Collins." Johnny would later say the album needed better production quality, commenting that the guitar moments did not sound like he had performed them. "The producer on ["Animal Boy"], Jean Beauvoir," Johnny related, "was selected by the label, not us."

Marketing and promotion.

For the album's front cover, the band wanted to take a photo with a monkey from the Bronx Zoo. George DuBose originally took the picture in the zoo's monkey house, but this photo was rejected by the zoo director. The zoo would not allow the band to borrow a chimp for photographing, so DuBose decided to try hiring Zippy the Chimp, a baby chimpanzee who had appeared on "Late Night With David Letterman" and was successful. The resulting idea was to take the picture of the band standing in front of a gorilla cage with Punk Magazine founder Legs McNeil in a gorilla costume. Richie is holding Zippy, and DuBose had to refrain from flashing light so as not to frighten it. However, according to DuBose, the chimp was already out of control. "Zippy was getting wild," Dubose recalled. "He wasn't looking at the camera and was fucking around with the guys. I wasn't getting the picture because the chimp was out of control, so finally the trainer goes up to Zippy and whacks him across the face." The lack of flash resulted in a lowlighted, warmer colored photograph, which would be used as the album's cover.  In addition to touring, Sire Records and Beggars Banquet Records in the UK released four singles to help promote the album in hopes of receiving more radio airplay. The first single from "Animal Boy" was "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)," issued by Beggars Banquet in June 1985. "Go Home Anne" was the B-side, produced by Ed Stasium and mixed by Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer of Motörhead. There were multiple explanations given for why the single was not released in the United States: the product manager at Sire Records explained that it was both a "financial and political" decision, while the parent company, Warner Bros. Records, claimed that "It just wasn't considered a good enough record." The single's jacket cover depicted President Reagan giving a speech at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp before going to Bitburg, but the image was removed from later pressings. British newspaper "Melody Maker" claimed it was removed because the band received pressure from "Moral Majority, the Patriotic League of the Alamo, and the SS."  The music video for "Something to Believe In" was a parody of both the Live Aid benefit concert and Hands Across America. The video was described by author Everett True to be "reassuringly foolish" and "a welcome return to [the Ramones'] old sense of humor." Several guests are featured in the video, including The B52s, Weird Al Yankovic, Spinal Tap, Ted Nugent, The Circle Jerks, Toni Basil, Rodney Bingenheimer, Holly Beth Vincent, and Afrika Bambaataa. Because the music video was praised by Warner Bros., they released "Something to Believe In" as a double A-side with "Somebody Put Something in My Drink." "Something to Believe In" was also released with "Animal Boy" in the United States and "Crummy Stuff" in the UK through Beggars Banquet.

Lyrics and composition.

"Animal Boy" featured a range of genres and musical elements that were completely new to the band and had not been featured on previous albums. Frequent use of synthesizers, as well as minimalistic "gimmicky" lyrics, caused critics and fans to feel as though the Ramones had strayed far away from their early, raw punk sound, despite "Animal Boy"s predecessor "Too Tough Too Die" being acclaimed for the band returning to their roots. "The main problem with "Animal Boy"," explained author Everett True, "was that there was no longer one discernible Ramones sound: it sounds as disjointed as the band members probably felt. The guitar parts could've been played by anyone, and Richie's drumming was slipping away from Tommy's original template. The Ramones were turning into a 9-5 job, night not day." The album begins with Joey singing "Somebody Put Something in My Drink," written by Richie, who stated that he came up with the lyrics while he was dating Frankie Valli's daughter and mistakenly drank after someone else in a nightclub. "Rolling Stone" editor David Fricke described Joey's vocal performance in the song as an "exaggerated wino growl while Johnny crushes the chord changes with his trash-compactor guitar." "Animal Boy" and "Apeman Hop" were compositionally similar to "Cretin Hop" from 1977's "Rocket To Russia," but were described by True to be "a thousandth as good." "Love Kills" was inspired by the Alex Cox biopic "Sid and Nancy" (also known as "Sid and Nancy: Love Kills"). The lyrics relate that the couple will never be able to win with drugs, despite the fact that the song's writer himself, Dee Dee, would later succumb to a heroin overdose. "Animal Boy"s fifth track, "She Belongs to Me," is a ballad written by Dee Dee and Beauvoir regarding unrequited love, and features heavy use of synthesizers, while earlier albums would have used a soft acoustic guitar or occasionally strings for ballad-type songs. Side A of the album concludes with "Crummy Stuff," played in a pop punk style, with repetitive lyrics based on the band's past of being chaotic and never meeting expectations.  Side B begins with one of the band's only politically based songs, "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)." The lyrics encapsulated the feelings of Joey, Dee Dee and Beauviour while watching US President Ronald Reagan visit a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany to pay tribute to the victims of Nazism. In an interview with "East Coast Rocker", Joey explained: "What Reagan did was fucked up. Everybody told him not to go, all his people told him not to go, and he went anyway. How can you fuckin' forgive the Holocaust? How can you say, 'Oh well, it's OK now?' That's crazy!" Dee Dee also asserted that Johnny had made the band seem right winged. "It was the first time we could make a statement to show we weren't prejudiced," he explained. "We'd just had these skinheads at our gigs, punks walking around wearing swastikas." Johnny disliked the song and refused to play the song live, saying that Reagan was his favorite president of his lifetime.  "Mental Hell," the next track and the second written by Joey, dealt with his recent stress with the band and his relationship with his girlfriend, Angela, ending. Author Dave Thompson described "Eat That Rat" as "reaching back to their pure punk past." While "Eat That Rat" is one minute and thirty-seven seconds long, the shortest track on the album is the next song, "Freak of Nature," which clocks in at one minute and thirty-two seconds. Johnny explained that it was written by him and Dee Dee while changing reels in an open-reel audio tape recording at the studio. "Hair of the Dog," a piece about the guilt of alcoholism, is the third and final song written by Joey. The album's last track, "Something to Believe In," was influenced heavily by British pop, and was described by Susan Cummings of "Spin" as a "pseudo-AOR attempted teen anthem" and by author Scott Schnider as a "surging, yearning anthem."

Reception.

The album received mixed reviews from critics. Music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "B+" and considered both "She Belongs to Me" and "Crummy Stuff" to be "defensive-sounding," but called "Something to Believe In" an anthem and praised "My Head Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)." "Rolling Stone" critic David Fricke deemed the album a "reductionist masterpiece" that "proves they still have a lot more to give," claiming that it rivaled previous albums "Leave Home" and "Rocket to Russia".  Eduardo Rivadavia, editor for AllMusic, later criticized the album for using more modern commercial conventions and for its heavy use of synthesizers and keyboards in an attempt to reinvent the band's style. Rivadavia specifically pointed to "Somebody Put Something in My Drink," which he claimed "wastes an aggressive vocal performance from Joey Ramone by supporting it with a shamelessly polished synthesizer backing track," and referred to "Something to Believe In" as "unbearably soft." He concluded that the album had been a "career low" for the Ramones, but still rated it three out of five stars.  In the United States, the album entered the "Billboard" 200 on June 21, 1986 at #146, and rose to #143 the following week. Despite staying on the chart for six weeks, the album's peak position did not rise above #143. It entered the UK Album Charts on May 31, 1986, where it stayed for two weeks and reached a peak position of #38. The album entered the Canadian charts on June 7, 1986 at #96, moving up to #94 a week later. The album returned to position #96 on June 21, leaving the chart on July 12. On June 11, it entered the Swedish Sverigetopplistan charts, where it remained on the chart for one week at #37.

Track listing.

Track listing adapted from the "Animal Boy" liner notes.

Personnel.

All information credited to Allmusic except where noted.  Ramones  Production and additional musicians

Animal Boy is the ninth studio album by American punk band the Ramones, released through Sire Records on May 19, 1986. Due to conflicts within the group, the album features less of lead singer Joey Ramone, both in performing and writing, and less performing from guitarist Johnny Ramone. Bassist Dee Dee Ramone wrote and sang more on this album than on previous albums, and Richie Ramone became the first drummer to write songs for the band since Tommy Ramone, the band's original drummer. The album spawned four singles, all of which charted on the UK Singles Chart, as well as other charts. In addition to singles, the band promoted their album using a music video for "Something to Believe In," which parodied the contemporary benefit concert Live Aid and Hands Across America.

Animal Boy je deváté studiové album americké punk rockové skupiny Ramones. Jeho nahrávání probíhalo v prosinci 1985 a vyšlo v květnu následujícího roku u vydavatelství Sire Records. Album produkoval Jean Beauvoir.