Recording session.

The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. Perkins, who by this time had already met success with "Blue Suede Shoes", had come into the studios that day accompanied by his brothers Clayton and Jay and by drummer W.S. Holland, their aim being to record some new material, including a revamped version of an old blues song, "Matchbox". Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, who wanted to try to fatten this sparse rockabilly instrumentation, had brought in his latest acquisition, Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to play piano (at the time, a Wurlitzer Spinet) on the Perkins session. Lewis's first Sun single would be released a few days later. Sometime in the early afternoon, 21-year-old Elvis Presley, a former Sun artist now with RCA Victor, arrived to pay a casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans.  After chatting with Phillips in the control room, Presley listened to the playback of Perkins's session, which he pronounced to be good. Then he went into the studio and some time later, the jam session began. At some point during the session, Sun artist Johnny Cash, who had recently enjoyed a few hit records on the country charts, arrived as well. (Cash wrote in his autobiography "Cash" that he had been first to arrive at the Sun Studio that day, wanting to listen in on the Perkins recording session.) Jack Clement was engineering that day and remembers saying to himself "I think I'd be remiss not to record this," and so he did. After running through a number of songs, Elvis and girlfriend Evans slipped out as Jerry Lee pounded away on the piano. Cash wrote in "Cash" that "no one wanted to follow Jerry Lee, not even Elvis." Whatever Elvis's feelings may or may not have been in regard to "following" Lewis, Presley was clearly the "star" of the impromptu jam session, which consisted largely of snippets of gospel songs that the four artists had all grown up singing. The recordings show Elvis, the most nationally and internationally famous of the four at the time, to be the focal point of what was a casual, spur-of-the-moment gathering of four artists who would each go on to contribute greatly to the seismic shift in popular music in the late 1950s.  During the session, Phillips called a local newspaper, the "Memphis Press-Scimitar". Bob Johnson, the newspaper's entertainment editor, came over to the studios with UPI representative Leo Sora with photographer George Pierce. Johnson wrote an article about the session, which appeared the following day in the "Press-Scimitar" under the headline "Million Dollar Quartet". The article contained the now-famous photograph of Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Lewis, Perkins and Cash (the uncropped version of the photo also includes Evans, shown seated atop the piano).

Releases.

In 1969, Shelby Singleton bought Sun Records. He began a long search of the Sun catalogue, browsing through more than 10,000 hours of tape. At the same time, Singleton licensed much, if not all, of the Sun catalogue to the British Charly label for reissue in Europe. As a result of Singleton's and Charly's searches, a portion of the session came to light. This was issued in Europe in 1981 as "Charly/Sun" LP #1006 "The Million Dollar Quartet", and it contained 17 tracks, focusing on gospel/spiritual music from the session.  Several years later, additional material was discovered. This resulted in the release of the 1987 "Charly/Sun" 2-LP set #CDX 20 "The Complete Million Dollar Session", together with their simultaneous issue in CD format in Europe. In 1990, they were replicated by RCA for US distribution as a CD and LP, titled, "Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet" (RCA CD # 2023-2-R), the sleeve notes of which were written by Colin Escott of Showtime Music, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  In 2006, RCA used a copy of the session recordings owned by Presley to create a 50th-anniversary issue of the session. The new release placed the titles in the original recorded sequence and contained about twelve minutes of previously unavailable material.  According to Ernst Jorgensen, an authority on Elvis who consults for RCA, the published material contains about 95 percent of the master recordings. "We found three reels", he says, "You could always argue that there were more. But in the first you can hear Elvis arriving and in the last you can hear him leaving. I doubt that there are more."  In his liner notes to "The Survivors Live", a 1982 album that reunited Cash, Lewis and Perkins, Cash claims that Elvis performed "This Train is Bound for Glory" and "Vacation in Heaven" during the 1956 session, but neither track has surfaced.  The released albums contain 46 musical tracks, most of which are incomplete and are interspersed with chatter between the participants. They are not pristine, well rehearsed studio recordings, which were meant for commercial release, but rather the sound of a group of friends gathered to play old favorites and share the pleasure of making music. Bob Johnson described it as "an old fashioned barrel-house session with barber shop harmonies resulting."

Songs.

Country music and country gospel loom large in the choice of songs. The songs of such country and Western legends as Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow and Gene Autry are among those featured. Lewis played most of the piano and Presley took nearly all of the lead vocals. The other participants easily follow Presley's lead with what seems a close familiarity with his choice of songs. Critics have remarked on the irony of his choices as rock & roll was branded as satanic music at the time.  Carl Perkins took the lead on only "Keeper Of The Key" and seemed content to play guitar and supply harmony vocals. He had, however, been singing all afternoon. Clayton Perkins and Jay Perkins and drummer W. S. Holland can be heard on the earliest titles. The rhythm guitar on the earlier songs was played by Charles Underwood, who was a writer for Phillips's publishing companies. Presley also brought with him another aspiring singer, Cliff Gleaves, who might be participating on some of the ensemble parts.  Jerry Lee Lewis can be heard more frequently, often singing in duet with Presley and at the end of the session, when Presley got up to leave, he swiftly took over the piano and whipped off five piano ravers in rapid succession, including a rousing "Crazy Arms" (his debut Sun single) and a soulful make-over of Gene Autry's "You're the Only Star in My Blue Heaven".  Colin Escott, author of the sleeve notes for "Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet", reported that according to Sun employee and session participant Charles Underwood, Presley and Phillips went into the control room while Lewis was playing and Presley commented to Bob Johnson that "[Lewis] could go. I think he has a great future ahead of him. He had a different style and the way he plays piano gets inside me."  Johnny Cash's voice does not seem to appear on any of the released tracks. Since his voice is not obvious on the tracks, the point at which Cash arrived at the studio has been a matter of discussion. Carl Perkins and others have stated that Cash was already at the studios when Presley arrived, with Perkins adding that Cash had stopped into the studios to "get some money".  Colin Escott reports that according to attendee Bob Johnson (whose article was published in the "Memphis Press-Scimitar" the day after the session), Cash joined Presley, Perkins and Lewis on "Blueberry Hill" and "Isle Of Golden Dreams." This was confirmed by Carl Perkins in a 1972 interview, when he stated that "we did things like 'Blueberry Hill', 'Island Of Golden Dreams', 'I Won't Have To Cross The Jordan Alone', 'The Old Rugged Cross', 'Peace in the Valley', 'Tutti Frutti', and 'Big Boss Man'." Of these, only "Peace in the Valley" has been released.  Cash himself, in his 1997 book "" commented, "I was there - I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, contrary to what has been written - but I was just there to watch Carl record, which he did until mid-afternoon, when Elvis came in with his girlfriend. At that point the session stopped and we all started laughing and cutting up together. Then Elvis sat down at the piano, and we started singing gospel songs we all knew, then some Bill Monroe songs. Elvis wanted to hear songs Bill had written besides "Blue Moon of Kentucky", and I knew the whole repertoire. So, again contrary to what some people have written, my voice is on the tape. It's not obvious, because I was farthest away from the mic and I was singing a lot higher than I usually did in order to stay in key with Elvis, but I guarantee you, I'm there."  Other reports, including one in a very detailed account in Peter Guralnick's book, "Last Train To Memphis - The Rise of Elvis Presley", suggest that Cash stayed for only a short time and then left, possibly to do some Christmas shopping. Colin Escott also reports that Cash might have been brought in for the last part of the session, after Sam Phillips had decided to call the "Memphis Press Scimitar".  Cash's presence for the entire session might be confirmed, or denied, by four pieces of "chatter" caught on the tapes. In the first, another Sun artist, Smokey Joe Baugh, came by and his gravelly voice can be heard after "I Shall Not Be Moved", saying "You oughta get up a quartet", which could either mean that they should add a fourth, or could also mean that the four of them should become an official quartet. In the second, a female voice can be heard asking if "This Rover Boys Trio can sing 'Farther Along'?", which could imply that only three (trio) were present at that point. (Elvis' then girlfriend, Marilyn Evans, confirmed in 2008 that the voice was not hers, though she is later heard requesting the song "End of the Road.") Yet on the track prior to this Elvis can be heard saying "take it easy, boy" as someone exits the session. In the third piece of chatter, Elvis is plainly heard mentioning Cash by name on the track "As We Travel Along The Jericho Road", at the 0:07 mark, although the form of the reference leaves it ambiguous as to whether Cash was on premises at that point. Finally, Elvis can also be heard saying goodbye to someone named Johnny during the "Elvis Says Goodbye" track that closes the 50th anniversary release which seems to indicate that Presley was present when Cash left the session.  Country music was not the only choice of the participants; they performed "Home! Sweet Home!", a sentimental ballad as an energetic rockabilly clip. They can also be heard turning their attention to the hit parade of the day. Presley led the session with "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind," an R & B song popularized by the Five Keys. Meanwhile, Lewis sings one line of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" which leads into Lewis and Presley experimenting with snippets of Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man." Elvis can also be heard singing a snippet of Little Richard's "Rip It Up" (with a ribald change in the lyric) and Pat Boone's hit of the day, "Don't Forbid Me" which Elvis on the tape claims was first offered to him but the demo "sat around my house" without being played.  In addition, Presley previewed material that he was considering for up-coming RCA Victor sessions in January and February 1957. He sang "Is It So Strange," "Peace In The Valley," and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin," which he acknowledges on the tape as having been one of the songs he recorded for Sun during his demo session a couple of years earlier, and which he would record again for RCA Victor a month later. In the case of "Is It So Strange", he comments, "Ol' Faron Young wrote this song sent to me to record."  The title which most critics seem to highlight is Presley's rendition of "Don't Be Cruel," one of his major hits of 1956 (see 1956 in music). This is not Presley singing Presley, but his imitation of Jackie Wilson, then the lead singer with Billy Ward's Dominoes, imitating him. It appears as though the Presley entourage spent a few days in Las Vegas (most likely during Presley's short-lived tenure earlier in the year at the Frontier Hotel) and went to watch Wilson, who had obviously built an impersonation of Presley into his act.  Presley describes Jackie Wilson tearing up Las Vegas audiences with a house-on-fire rendition of "Don't Be Cruel". He goes on to say that, "He tried so hard until he got much better, boy, much better than that record of mine... I went back four nights straight and heard that guy do that," he says, imitating Wilson's bluesy smolder and big finish.  "He sung the hell out of the song," Elvis can be heard saying with admiration, adding with a laugh, "I was on the table lookin' at him, 'Get 'im off, get 'im off!'" Obviously on a roll, Presley, then ripped into a slower, sassier version of "Paralyzed," a song recorded for his second album and also released on an extended play 45. He was backed up by Perkins and his trio.  According to the "Rolling Stone" review of the album, "'The Complete Million Dollar Session' provides a rare post-Sun glimpse of Elvis Presley momentarily free of the golden shackles of stardom and the manipulative grasp of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. His singing, especially on the gospel numbers, is natural and relaxed, minus some of the trademark mannerisms of his official RCA releases."  Colin Escott has said, "They mixed and matched their disparate styles – and their innate musicality ensured that what emerged had the rarest of all musical qualities: originality."  The surviving members of the Quartet session would reunite several times in years to come, with Cash, Lewis and Perkins uniting in 1982 for the concert album "The Survivors Live" and again, in 1985, Perkins, Lewis, Cash and Roy Orbison, also a Sun recording artist in 1956, went back into the Sun Studios to record the album "Class of '55".

Musical.

The stage musical "Million Dollar Quartet", with a book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, dramatizes the Million Dollar Quartet session. It premiered at Florida's Seaside Music Theatre and was then staged at Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington (a Seattle suburb) in 2007, breaking box office records. The musical opened for a limited run at Chicago's Goodman Theatre on September 27, 2008. Mutrux co-directed the Chicago production with Eric D. Schaeffer, of Virginia's Signature Theatre. The show transferred to Chicago's Apollo Theater where it opened on October 31, 2008.  The Broadway production opened at the Nederlander Theatre on April 11, 2010. The Broadway production closed on June 12, 2011 after 489 performances and 34 previews, and then re-opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages. "Million Dollar Quartet" then opened in the West End at the Noël Coward Theatre on February 28, 2011, with previews from February 8.  The Broadway play was nominated for three Tony Awards in 2010: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical for Escott and Mutrux, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Levi Kreis. Kreis won, marking the show's sole Tony win.

"Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956, at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. An article about the session was published in the "Memphis Press-Scimitar" under the title "Million Dollar Quartet". The recording was first released in Europe in 1981 as "The Million Dollar Quartet" with 17 tracks. A few years later more tracks were discovered and released as "The Complete Million Dollar Session". In 1990, the recordings were released in the United States as "Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet". This session is considered a seminal moment in rock and roll.


History.

Cultural history of Poland can be traced back to the Middle Ages. In its entirety, it can be divided into the following historical, philosophical and artistic periods: Culture of medieval Poland (from the late 10th to late 15th century), Renaissance (late 15th to the late 16th century), Baroque (late 16th to the mid-18th century), Enlightenment (second half of the 18th century), Romanticism (from around 1820 until the suppression of the 1863 January uprising against the Russian Empire), Positivism (lasting until the turn of the 20th century), Young Poland (between 1890 and 1918), Interbellum (1918–1939), World War II (1939–1945), People's Republic of Poland (until the 1989 Autumn of Nations), and Modern.

Language.

Polish ("język polski", "polszczyzna") is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages (also spelled Lechitic) composed of Polish, Kashubian, Silesian and its archaic variant Slovincian, and the extinct Polabian language. All these languages except Polish are sometimes classified as a Pomeranian subgroup. The West Slavic Languages are a subfamily of the Slavic Languages, a descendant of the Indo-European Languages. In the early Middle Ages, before their speakers had become Germanized, Pomeranian languages and dialects were spoken along the Baltic in an area extending from the lower Vistula River to the lower Oder River." used throughout Poland (being that country's official language) and by Polish minorities in other countries. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which corresponds to the Latin alphabet with several additions. Despite the pressure of non-Polish administrations in Poland, who have often attempted to suppress the Polish language, a rich literature has developed over the centuries. The language is currently the largest, in speakers, of the West Slavic group. It is the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian and ahead of Ukrainian. Polish is mainly spoken in Poland. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their mother tongue.

Philosophy.

Polish philosophy drew upon the broader currents of European philosophy, and in turn contributed to their growth. Among the most momentous Polish contributions were made, in the thirteenth century, by the Scholastic philosopher and scientist Vitello, by Paweł Włodkowic - in early fifteen and, by the Renaissance polymath Nicolaus Copernicus in the sixteenth century.  Subsequently, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth partook in the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment, which for the multi-ethnic Commonwealth ended not long after the partitions and political annihilation that would last for the next 123 years, until the collapse of the three partitioning empires in World War I.  The period of Messianism, between the November 1830 and January 1863 Uprisings, reflected European Romantic and Idealist trends, as well as a Polish yearning for political resurrection. It was a period of maximalist metaphysical systems.  The collapse of the January 1863 Uprising prompted an agonizing reappraisal of Poland's situation. Poles gave up their earlier practice of "measuring their goals by their aspirations" (Adam Mickiewicz) and buckled down to hard work and study. "[A] Positivist," wrote the novelist Bolesław Prus's friend, Julian Ochorowicz, was "anyone who bases assertions on verifiable evidence; who does not express himself categorically about doubtful things, and does not speak at all about those that are inaccessible."  The twentieth century brought a new quickening to Polish philosophy. There was growing interest in western philosophical currents. Rigorously trained Polish philosophers made substantial contributions to specialized fields—to psychology, the history of philosophy, the theory of knowledge, and especially mathematical logic. Jan Łukasiewicz gained world fame with his concept of many-valued logic and his "Polish notation." Alfred Tarski's work in truth theory won him world renown.  After World War II, for over four decades, world-class Polish philosophers and historians of philosophy such as Władysław Tatarkiewicz continued their work, often in the face of adversities occasioned by the dominance of a politically enforced official philosophy. The phenomenologist Roman Ingarden did influential work in esthetics and in a Husserl-style metaphysics; his student Karol Wojtyła acquired a unique influence on the world stage as Pope John Paul II.

Cuisine.

Polish foods include kiełbasa, pierogi (filled with meat, potatoes, cabbage, cheese or holiday fruits), pyzy (meat-filled dough balls), kopytka, gołąbki (meat and rice stuffed cabbage), śledzie (herring), bigos, schabowy, oscypek and much more. Traditionally, food such as soups flaki, rosół, zupa ogórkowa, zupa grzybowa (mushroom soup), żurek, zupa pomidorowa (tomato soup) have been prepared in large vessels intended for groups, often necessitating the use of devices such as oars in their preparation. Traditionally, hospitality is very important.  In the Middle Ages, as the cities of Poland grew larger in size and the food markets developed, the culinary exchange of ideas progressed & people got acquainted with new dishes and recipes. Some regions became well known for the type of sausage they made and many sausages of today still carry those original names. The peasants acknowledged their honorable judgment, allowing them to maintain nourished for longer periods of time.  The most important drink is vodka. The first known written mention of the drink was in 1405 in "Akta Grodzkie", the court documents from the Palatinate of Sandomierz in Poland. At the time, the word vodka (wódka), referred to chemical compounds such as medicines and cosmetics' cleansers, while the popular beverage was called "gorzałka" (from the Old Polish "gorzeć" meaning "to burn"), which is also the source of Ukrainian "horilka" (горілка). The word "vodka" written in Cyrillic appeared first in 1533, in relation to a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the merchants of Kievan Rus'.  According to a 2009 Ernst & Young report, Poland is Europe's third largest beer producer: Germany with 103 million hectolitres, UK with 49.5 million hl, Poland with 36.9 million hl. Following consecutive growth in the home market, Polish Union of the Brewing Industry Employers (Związek Pracodawców Przemysłu Piwowarskiego), which represents approximately 90% of the Polish beer market, announced during the annual brewing industry conference that consumption of beer in 2008 rose to 94 litres per capita, or 35,624 million hectolitres sold on domestic market. Statistically, a Polish consumer drinks some 92 litres of beer a year, which places it a third behind Germany. Drinking beer as a basic drink was typical during the Middle Ages. Wine is recently becoming more popular. In fact, Polish mead, a honey wine was a traditional drink dating back also to the Middle Ages.  Soft drinks include "napoje gazowane" (carbonated drinks), "napoje bezalkoholowe" (non-alcoholic drinks) like water, tea, juice, coffee or kompot. Kompot is a non-alcoholic beverage made of boiled fruit, optionally with sugar and spices (clove or cinnamon), served hot or cold. It can be made of one type of fruit or a mixture, including apples, peaches, pears, strawberries or sour cherries. Also, Susz is type of kompot made with dried fruits, most commonly apples, apricots, figs. Traditionally served on Christmas Eve.  Among holiday meals, there is a traditional Christmas Eve supper called Wigilia. Another special occasion is Fat Thursday ("Tłusty Czwartek"), a Catholic feast celebrated on the last Thursday before the Lent. Traditionally it is a day when people eat large amounts of sweets and cakes that are afterwards forbidden until Easter day (see also: the Polish traditional Easter Breakfast).

Architecture.

Polish cities and towns reflect the whole spectrum of European styles. Poland's (along with Hungary's) eastern frontiers used to mark the outermost boundary of the influences of Western architecture on the continent.  History has not been good to Poland's architectural monuments. However, ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately buildings, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed after being destroyed in the Second World War, including the Old Town and Royal Castle in Warsaw, as well as the Old Towns of Gdańsk and Wrocław.  The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly Hanseatic, common in cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is representative of German architecture, since it was a part of the German states for centuries. The center of Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula is a good example of a well-preserved medieval town, also local variation of Renaissance architecture has been developed called Lublin Renaissance it has preserved in Lublin as Lublin Old Town and Old City of Zamość in Zamość. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe. Meanwhile, the legacy of the Kresy Marchlands of Poland's eastern regions with Wilno and Lwów (now Vilnius and Lviv) as two major centers for the arts played a special role in these developments with Roman-Catholic church architecture deserving special attention. In Vilnius (Lithuania) there are about 40 baroque and Renaissance churches. In Lviv (Ukraine) there are Gothic, Renaissance, and baroque urban churches with influences of the orthodox and Armenian church.  One of the best-preserved examples of the Modernist architecture in Europe is located in Katowice, Upper Silesia, designed and built in the 1930s. Interesting buildings were also constructed during the Communist era in the style of Socialist Realism; some remarkable examples of modern architecture were erected more recently.

Art.

Polish art has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków school of Historicist painting developed by Jan Matejko produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism in Polish art, its main representative being Jozef Chełmoński. The Młoda Polska (Young Poland) movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski (Symbolism), Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Artists of the twentieth-century Avant-Garde represented various schools and trends. The art of Tadeusz Makowski was influenced by Cubism; while Władysław Strzemiński and Henryk Stażewski worked within the Constructivist idiom. Distinguished contemporary artists include Monika Sosnowska, Roman Opałka, Leon Tarasewicz, Jerzy Nowosielski, Mirosław Bałka, and Katarzyna Kozyra and Zbigniew Wąsiel in the younger generation. The most celebrated Polish sculptors include Xawery Dunikowski, Katarzyna Kobro, Alina Szapocznikow and Magdalena Abakanowicz. Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide recognition. In the sixties the Polish Poster School was formed, with Henryk Tomaszewski and Waldemar Świerzy at its head.

Music.

Artists from Poland, including famous composers like Karol Lipiński, Frédéric Chopin or Witold Lutosławski and traditional, regionalized folk musicians, create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as poezja śpiewana. Today in Poland you can find trance, techno, House music, and heavy metal.  The origin of Polish music can be traced as far back as the 13th century, from which manuscripts have been found in Stary Sącz, containing polyphonic compositions related to the Parisian Notre Dame School. Other early compositions, such as the melody of "Bogurodzica", may also date back to this period. The first known notable composer, however, Mikołaj z Radomia, lived in the 15th century. The melody of "Bóg się rodzi" by an unknown composer was a coronation polonaise for Polish kings.  During the 16th century, mostly two musical groups – both based in Kraków and belonging to the King and Archbishop of Wawel – led the rapid innovation of Polish music. Composers writing during this period include Wacław z Szamotuł, Mikołaj Zieleński, and Mikołaj Gomółka. Diomedes Cato, a native-born Italian who lived in Kraków from about the age of five, became one of the most famous lutenists at the court of Sigismund III. He imported some of the musical styles from southern Europe and blended them with native folk music.  Among the best classical Modern Composers are Polish musicians Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Górecki. The Polish world renown virtuosos of classical music of all time include composers Karol Lipiński, Artur Rubinstein, Ignacy Paderewski, Mieczysław Horszowski, Grażyna Bacewicz, Wanda Wilkomirska and Krystian Zimerman.  Jazz musician Krzysztof Komeda was known after WWII especially for his movie soundtracks, including movies directed by Roman Polański, but also for his 1966 album "Astigmatic".  Poland has one of the strongest and best-respected electronic dance music (EDM) scenes in Europe. One of the biggest record labels of EDM in Poland is Empire Records. The Death Metal band Vader is considered the most successful Polish Metal act and have gained commercial and critical praise internationally. Their career spans more than three decades with many international tours. They are often seen as a huge inspiration on modern Death Metal. Behemoth and Decapitated have found significant success inside and outside Poland. Both have toured extensively across Europe, America and, in the case of Decapitated, have recently toured Australia and New Zealand. Recently Indukti, Hate, Trauma, Crionics, Lost Soul and Lux Occulta have started to become well known outside of Poland. There is also an active grindcore, and a healthy black metals scenes as well, the later led by Graveland, Darzamat, Kataxu, Infernal War and Vesania.

Literature.

Since the arrival of Christianity and the subsequent access to Western European civilization, Poles developed a significant literary production in Latin. Conspicuous authors of the Middle Ages are among others Gallus Anonymus, Wincenty Kadłubek and Jan Długosz, an author of the monumental work on the history of Poland. With the arrival of the Renaissance, Poles came under the influence of the artistic patterns of the humanistic style, actively participating in the European issues of that time with their Latin works. The origins of Polish literature written in Polish go back beyond the 14th century. In the 16th century the poetic works of Jan Kochanowski established him as a leading representative of European Renaissance literature. Baroque and Neo-Classicist belle letters made a significant contribution to the cementing of Poland's peoples of many cultural backgrounds. The early 19th century novel "Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse" by Count Jan Potocki, which survived in its Polish translation after the loss of the original in French, became a world classic. Wojciech Has's film based on it, a favourite of Luis Buñuel, later became a cult film on university campuses. Poland's great Romantic literature flourished in the 19th century when the country had lost its independence. The poets Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński, the "Three Bards", became the spiritual leaders of a nation deprived of its sovereignty, and prophesied its revival. The novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, who won the Nobel Prize in 1905, eulogised the historical tradition. It is difficult to grasp fully the detailed tradition of Polish Romanticism and its consequences for Polish literature without a thorough knowledge of Polish history.  In the early 20th century many outstanding Polish literary works emerged from the new cultural exchange and Avant-Garde experimentation. The legacy of the Kresy marshlands of Poland's eastern regions with Wilno and Lwów (now Vilnius and Lviv) as two major centres for the arts, played a special role in these developments. This was also a region in which Jewish tradition and the mystic movement of Hasidism thrived. The Kresy were a cultural trysting-place for numerous ethnic and national groups whose achievements were inspiring each other. The works of Bruno Schulz, Bolesław Leśmian, and Józef Czechowicz were written there. In the south of Poland, Zakopane was the birthplace of the avant-garde works of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy). And, last but not least, Władysław Reymont was awarded the 1924 Nobel prize in literature for his novel Chłopi (The Peasants).  After the Second World War many Polish writers found themselves in exile, with many of them clustered around the Paris-based "Kultura" publishing venture run by Jerzy Giedroyc. The group of emigre writers included Witold Gombrowicz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, Czesław Miłosz, and Sławomir Mrożek.  Zbigniew Herbert, Tadeusz Różewicz, Czesław Miłosz, and Wisława Szymborska are among the most outstanding 20th century Polish poets, including novelists and playwrights Witold Gombrowicz, Sławomir Mrożek, and Stanisław Lem (science fiction). The long list includes Hanna Krall whose work focuses mainly on the war-time Jewish experience, and Ryszard Kapuściński with books translated into many languages.

The culture of Poland () is the product of its geography and distinct historical evolution which is closely connected to its intricate thousand-year history. Polish culture forms an important part of western civilization and the western world, with significant contributions to art, music, philosophy, mathematics, science, politics and literature.


Plot introduction.

The novel is set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictional Eleven Kingdoms. Gwynedd itself is a medieval kingdom similar to the British Isles of the 12th century, with a powerful Holy Church (based on the Roman Catholic Church), and a feudal government ruled by a hereditary monarchy. The population of Gwynedd includes both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent physic and magical abilities who have been brutally persecuted and suppressed for over two centuries. The novel begins four months after the conclusion of "The Bishop's Heir", and the plot details the continuing efforts of King Kelson Haldane to defeat the combined forces of a political adversary and a fanatical religious enemy.

Plot summary.

The plot of "The King's Justice" spans a period of two months, from May 1124 to July 1124. The novel begins as King Kelson Haldane is making final preparations to launch a military campaign into the province of Meara. Although Meara has been a part of Gwynedd for over a century, a descendant of the ancient Mearan rulers, Caitrin Quinnell, has gathered an army and risen against Kelson to secure her place as queen of an independent and sovereign Meara. Additionally, Caitrin has allied herself with Edmund Loris, the rabidly anti-Deryni former-Archbishop who has managed to escape from his imprisonment.  Kelson plans to set the Haldane potential in his uncle, Prince Nigel Haldane, before his departure, ensuring that his family's legacy of magic will not perish if Kelson should not survive the war. However, Kelson's plan deeply concerns the Camberian Council, who has long believed that multiple Haldanes cannot wield the Haldane magic simultaneously. Further complicating matters is the ill-timed return of Kelson's mother, Queen Jehana, whose anti-Deryni sentiments cause considerable friction with her son. Nonetheless, Kelson carries through with his plan and sets the Haldane potential in his uncle. The following day, Kelson sends off the first half of his army, placing it under the command of Bishop Duncan McLain and Earl Dhugal MacArdry.  As Caitrin's forces prepare to do battle with Kelson's armies, Kelson receives the homage of King Liam Lajos II Furstán of Torenth, who travels to Rhemuth to acknowledge Kelson as Overlord of Torenth. However, Kelson decides to take both Liam and his mother as honorable hostages, ensuring that Torenth will make no aggressive move against Gwynedd while Kelson is occupied with the Mearan situation. Shortly thereafter, Kelson and Duke Alaric Morgan lead the second half of the royal army out from Rhemuth to meet the Mearan rebels.  Over the following weeks, the Gwyneddan armies attempt to hunt down and destroy the Mearan forces. In the north, Loris and Sicard MacArdry, Caitrin's husband, continually elude Duncan and Dhugal. Meanwhile, in the south, Kelson and Morgan chase after Caitrin's son, Prince Ithel, whose own acts of rape and destruction have fueled Kelson's anger. Kelson eventually succeeds in capturing Ithel, who is summarily executed for his crimes. On the same day, Sicard and Loris lure the northern Gwyneddan army into a trap. Realizing that Loris is determined to capture him, Duncan orders Dhugal to flee the battle, hoping that the rest of the army will survive. Dhugal manages to escape the battle, but Duncan is defeated and captured. In Rhemuth, Jehana suffers a crisis of conscience when her own Deryni powers enable her to discover a Torenthi plot to assassinate Nigel. Jehana finally decides to warn Nigel, and the assassination attempt is foiled.  Loris tortures Duncan horribly, mutilating the Deryni bishop in an attempt to force him to confess to charges of heresy. That night, Dhugal succeeds in contacting Kelson and informs the king of Duncan's plight. As Kelson's army marches through the night to rescue their comrades, Loris prepares to burn Duncan at the stake. However, Duncan's execution is interrupted by the arrival of Kelson's army. Both Kelson and Morgan use their Deryni powers to protect Duncan, but it is ultimately Dhugal who rescues the bishop. Kelson corners Sicard, but the Pretender's husband refuses to surrender. Unwilling to allow Sicard's defiance to cost additional lives, Kelson kills Sicard with a single arrow. The remaining Mearan soldiers throw down their arms, and the Gwyneddan army is victorious.  After several days of resting the army, Kelson leads his host to Laas, the Mearan city to which Caitrin has fled. Kelson demands the Pretender's surrender, and Dhugal convinces his aunt to accede to the king's terms. After Kelson's army takes possession of the city, Loris and his aide are executed for their crimes, and Kelson reluctantly orders the execution of the last member of Caitrin's family, Prince Judhael. With the Pretender's bloodline extinguished and her army defeated, Kelson secures his authority over the land of Meara.

Awards and nominations.

In 1986, "The King's Justice" was ranked 6th in an annual poll of fantasy novels by "Locus magazine" readers, placing it between Jack Vance's "The Green Pearl" and Guy Gavriel Kay's "The Summer Tree". The poll was won by Roger Zelazny for his novel, "Trumps of Doom". (Kurtz and Zelazny were also finalists for the 1971 and 1973 Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards.) This was the highest ranking for any of Kurtz' Deryni novels on the annual poll, matching the sixth-place ranking of Kurtz' "Camber the Heretic" in the 1982 poll.

The King's Justice is a historical fantasy novel by American-born author Katherine Kurtz. It was first published by Del Rey Books in 1985. It was the eighth of Kurtz' Deryni novels to be published, and the second book in her third Deryni trilogy, The Histories of King Kelson. Although The Legends of Camber of Culdi trilogy was published immediately prior to the "Histories" trilogy, the "Histories" trilogy is a direct sequel to Kurtz' first Deryni series, The Chronicles of the Deryni.


Early life.

Chapman was born in Holguín, Cuba, on February 28, 1988. He lived in a three-room house with his parents and two sisters. Chapman's father was a boxing trainer and then later worked for the city. His mother did not work outside the home. Chapman's paternal grandparents had emigrated from Jamaica to Cuba in order to get a better education, The Chapmans, whose last name can be traced to English settlers in Jamaica in the late 1600s, were not a prominent family.  A friend of Chapman invited him to join a local baseball team at the age of 15. He began playing as a first baseman until the coach noticed that Chapman could throw well enough to become a pitcher, which Chapman began in 2003.

Cuban career.

Chapman joined the Holguín Sabuesos of the Cuban National Series League in 2006. In 327 career innings, Chapman compiled a 24–19 win–loss record, a 3.74 earned run average (ERA), and 365 strikeouts. He was used mainly as a starting pitcher, although he made 11 relief appearances in the 2007 season.  Chapman was part of the Cuban national team at the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

American career.

Defection.

After a failed attempt to defect in the spring of 2008, Chapman reported to Havana to meet with Cuban president Raúl Castro who gave him a conditional reprieve, suspending him for the remainder of the National Series season and also keeping him off Cuba's national team for the 2008 Summer Olympics but allowing him to return to the National Series and play in the WBC in 2009.  Chapman successfully defected from Cuba while in Rotterdam, Netherlands where the Cuban national team was participating in the World Port Tournament on July 1, 2009; Chapman walked out the front door of the team hotel and entered into an automobile driven by an acquaintance. Gerardo Concepción defected from the Cuban national team in the same tournament. Chapman eventually established residency in Andorra and petitioned MLB to be granted free agent status.

Cincinnati Reds.

On January 10, 2010, Chapman agreed to a long-term contract with the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds announced that they had signed Chapman to a six-year contract, worth $30.25 million according to MLB sources. The Associated Press reported that the bonus totals $100.25 million, paid annually over 11 years, with an additional bonus if he became eligible for salary arbitration in 2012 or 2013.

2010 season.

Chapman began the 2010 season assigned to the Triple-A Louisville Bats, and made his professional debut with the Louisville Bats on Sunday, April 11, in Toledo against the Mud Hens, where he pitched innings, giving up 1 unearned run, while striking out 9. Chapman made 13 starts with Louisville, pitching to a 4.11 ERA, and pitched to a 2.40 ERA after the team used him as a relief pitcher.  Chapman made his Major League debut August 31, 2010, in the eighth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers; his first pitch was clocked at 98 mph (158 km/h) as a called strike (which was promptly tossed to the dugout by catcher Ryan Hanigan, to be saved). In nine pitches he retired the side. He recorded his first Major League win on September 1 after pitching an inning of relief against the Brewers. Chapman threw the fastest pitch recognized by MLB on September 24, 2010, at Petco Park in San Diego, California. It was clocked at 105.1 mph to Tony Gwynn Jr. in the eighth inning.  In Game 2 of the 2010 NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, Chapman allowed 3 runs (all unearned) due to miscues of the outfielders. He got his first career postseason loss and the Reds lost the division series to the Phillies in a three-game sweep.

2011 season.

Chapman served solely as a relief pitcher in 2011, appearing in 54 regular season games and finishing the season with a 3.60 ERA. He also struck out 71 batters in just 50 innings of work that season.

2012 season.

Chapman was due to be introduced as a starter for the 2012 season, but preseason injuries to closer Ryan Madson and middle relievers Bill Bray and Nick Masset led manager Dusty Baker to put Chapman in the setup role. Interim closer Sean Marshall struggled early in the season, and Chapman was given the closer role in late May.  On July 1, 2012, Chapman was named to his first All-Star Game. Chapman won the MLB Delivery Man of the Month Award for July 2012, in which he recorded 13 saves while not allowing a run in innings while striking out 31 batters—more than 60% of the batters he faced. It was the third month of the season in which he did not allow a single run. He was named the August Delivery Man of the Month. Chapman finished the 2012 season with a 1.51 ERA and 38 saves in 43 chances, recording 122 strikeouts and 23 walks in innings.

2013 season.

In March 2013, it was announced that Chapman would be the closer for the Cincinnati Reds. He was an All-Star selection for the second season in a row. He finished the 2013 year with 38 saves, a 4–5 record, 112 strikeouts, and a 2.54 ERA.

2014 season.

During a spring training game against the Kansas City Royals on March 19, 2014, Chapman was struck in the head by a line drive from Salvador Pérez. The spring-training game between the Reds and the Royals was ended at that point with Kansas City leading 8-3. Chapman underwent surgery to fix a skull fracture above his left eye. A metal plate was inserted into his head to stabilize the fracture.  Chapman began the 2014 season on the 15-day disabled list. On April 18, Chapman was cleared to begin throwing batting practice sessions. Reds manager Bryan Price said that he wasn't sure when Chapman would throw but said it likely would be during the team's 10-game trip that ended April 27. He was activated from the disabled list on May 10. Chapman recorded his 100th save against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 29, 2014, becoming the eighth-fastest pitcher to reach the milestone. In the 20-pitch appearance, Chapman threw 15 fastballs, all of which were above 100 mph. In 54 appearances, Chapman produced 106 strikeouts with 36 saves going 0–3 with an ERA of exactly 2.00.

2015 season.

Chapman and the Reds agreed to a one-year, $8.05 million contract on February 13, 2015. Chapman was selected to the 2015 MLB All-Star Game. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning and struck out the side on 14 pitches, 12 of which were recorded at 100 mph or greater. His fastest pitch in 2016 was 103.9 mph, best in MLB. His four-seam fastball had the highest average speed of any MLB pitcher's pitches in 2015, at 100.0 mph. In the 2015 season, Chapman made 65 relief appearances with a 4–4 record, a 1.63 ERA, and 33 saves.

New York Yankees.

On December 28, 2015, Chapman was traded to the New York Yankees. Cincinnati received four minor league players including right-handed pitchers Caleb Cotham and Rookie Davis, and infielders Eric Jagielo and Tony Renda in the exchange. On January 11, 2016, manager Joe Girardi named Chapman the team's new closer. He avoided arbitration on February 12, 2016, by agreeing to a one-year contract worth $11.325 million. Chapman was suspended for the first 30 games of the season due to an off-season personal conduct policy violation related to domestic violence. He made his first appearance for the Yankees on May 9, 2016 striking out 2 and allowing a run as the Yankees won 6–3 over the Kansas City Royals. On July 18 against the Orioles, Chapman threw for 105 mph twice in the top of the ninth inning, averaging 103.2 mph with his fastball.

Chicago Cubs.

On July 25, 2016, the Yankees traded Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney, Adam Warren, and Rashad Crawford. In an interview with ESPN, Chapman stated he was thrilled that the Cubs went after him, especially considering the recent success of Héctor Rondón. Chapman made his first appearance as a member of the Cubs on July 27, pitching a 1–2–3 ninth and striking out two batters in a non-save situation. His fastest pitch in 2016 was 105.1 miles an hour, best in MLB. His four-seam fastball had the highest average speed of any MLB pitcher's pitches in 2016, at 100.9 mph, and his two-seam fastball had the third-highest average speed, at 100.4 mph.  Chapman made three saves in four opportunities in the 2016 National League Division Series against the San Francisco Giants to tie and set new Division Series records respectively; Wade Davis tied his record in the 2017 National League Division Series, but did it in each of his opportunities.  Chapman made four appearances during the 2016 National League Championship Series (NLCS) against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Chapman blew a save opportunity during the first game of the NLCS, but the Cubs rallied back and Chapman remained in the game to earn the win. He pitched the final innings of Game 6 to secure the Cubs' first pennant since 1945.  Chapman's workload in the 2016 World Series escalated with the Cubs facing elimination at the hands of the Cleveland Indians. Down 3–1 in the series, Chapman pitched through the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings of Game 5, allowing only one hit and preserving the Cubs' 3–2 lead. He was called upon again in the seventh and eighth innings of Game 6, where he allowed one hit and one run en route to a 9–3 victory. Chapman appeared the next day to close out Game 7 with a 6–3 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, but blew the save opportunity, allowing Cleveland to tie the game on a two-run homer by Rajai Davis. Chapman pitched through the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Cubs tallied the game-winning run in the 10th inning, making Chapman the winning pitcher and giving him his first World Series title.

New York Yankees (second stint).

On December 15, 2016, Chapman signed a five-year, $86 million contract to return to the Yankees. This was the largest contract given to a relief pitcher as of 2017.  On May 14, 2017, Chapman was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to rotator cuff inflammation in his left shoulder. Although MRIs revealed no structure damage, Chapman was ruled out for at least two weeks. On June 18, the Yankees activated Chapman from the DL and he pitched that afternoon against the Oakland A's.  On August 13, Chapman gave up a home run to Rafael Devers of the Boston Red Sox. The pitch was clocked at 103 mph, making it the fastest pitch hit for a home run in the Statcast era (breaking Kurt Suzuki's home run off of a Chapman 102 mph pitch the previous year). It was also Chapman's first home run given up to a left-handed batter since Luke Scott of the Baltimore Orioles did so in 2011. Later that month, Chapman gave up only his third home run off a left-hander when Yonder Alonso of the Seattle Mariners hit one of his 101 mph fastballs out. His fastest pitch of 2017 was 104.3 miles an hour, best in MLB. His four-seam fastball had the highest average speed of any MLB pitcher's pitches in 2017, at 99.7 mph.  In 2018 Chapman was elected as an MLB All-Star, representing the American League. On July 13, 2018, he announced that he would skip the All Star Game to rest his knee due to tendinitis. On August 22, Chapman was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to left knee tendinitis. His fastest pitch of 2018 was 104.4 miles an hour, second-best in MLB only to pitches by Jordan Hicks. His sinker had the highest average speed of any MLB pitcher's pitches in 2018, at 100.9 mph. In 2018, he had the lowest swing rate for his in-strike-zone sliders of any pitcher in baseball (42.5%).  In 2019, he was 3-2 with 37 saves and a 2.21 ERA, as in 60 relief appearances he struck out 85 batters in 57.0 innings (13.4 per 9 innings). Chapman logged one save in the American League Division Series and one in the American League Championship Series but gave up a walk-off home run to José Altuve with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the ALCS, eliminating the Yankees from the playoffs.  Entrance from the Bullpen  Due to the high velocity of pitches that Chapman throws, before he comes in, the Yankees play a video on the scoreboards showing Chapman's name on fire, and fiery looking videos of him, as high velocity pitches are commonly called "heat."

Pitching style.

Repertoire.

With a three-quarters delivery, Chapman throws three pitches: a four-seam fastball averaging, a slider averaging, and a change-up. His fastball averaged in 2010, but that declined to in 2011 and through August 2012. This more modest speed might have been part of an attempt to better control his fastball. By 2015 Chapman's fastball averaged. That same year, Statcast revealed that Chapman threw the 62 fastest pitches of the season, topping out at.  Both pitches have extraordinarily high whiff rates—33% for the fastball and 58% for the slider. These have given Chapman a career strikeouts per nine innings rate of 14.66, second all-time to Craig Kimbrel, and the third-highest career percentage of pitches for swinging strikes (16.5%).  Scouts worried about his control issues and lack of a solid third pitch, noting that these issues could affect his ability to be a Major League starter, but Chapman's control seemed to improve. After issuing 41 walks in 50 innings the previous season, Chapman walked 23 batters in 2012 over innings.

Speed records.

On September 24, 2010, against the San Diego Padres, Chapman was clocked at 105.1 mph (169.1 km/h), according to PITCHf/x, the fastest pitch ever recorded in Major League Baseball. On July 19, 2016, Chapman matched his previous record of 105.1 mph with a ball to Baltimore's J. J. Hardy.  On April 18, 2011, Chapman threw a pitch to Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen that the scoreboard at Great American Ball Park clocked at 106 mph (170.6 km/h), but the box on Fox Sports Ohio's broadcast listed it at 105 mph (169 km/h) and the PITCHf/x system calculated a release speed of 102.4 mph (164.8 km/h). The disparity between these speeds has been widely discussed and questioned.

Mechanics.

"Sports Illustrated" writer Joe Posnanski wrote of Chapman, "There is no violence at all in his motion; he's like the anti-Bob Gibson in that way. Just a slow beginning, a fluid motion, and BLAMMO the ball just fires out like the Batmobile rolling out of the cave." A more technical analysis reveals that One scout noted that although "[t]here are no obvious flaws in Chapman's delivery... Chapman has to coordinate a lot of moving parts," which may limit his consistency. Chapman's extreme pitch speed may also pose an injury risk to his pitching arm over time.

Personal life.

When Chapman left Cuba, he left behind his father, mother, two sisters, girlfriend Raidelmis Mendosa Santiestelas, and newborn baby, Ashanty Brianna. He reunited with them when he helped them transfer to the U.S.A.; the details of how they transferred remain confidential. On June 30, 2014, his son, Atticus Gabriel Chapman, was born in Cincinnati. In May 2012, it was reported that Chapman was being sued for allegedly serving as "an informant for Cuban state authorities after a failed defection attempt and help[ing] turn in another man in order to get back on the country's national baseball team."  On December 7, 2015, news broke that he was involved in an alleged domestic violence incident with his girlfriend in Davie, Florida at his home on October 30, 2015. A pending trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers was put on hold as MLB announced it would investigate the incident as part of its personal conduct policy. In the incident, he was accused of choking his girlfriend and firing eight gunshots. No charges were filed by the police due to inconsistency in his girlfriend's reports and lack of physical evidence, and his attorney issued a statement denying the allegations. The trade to the Dodgers was canceled and the Reds traded Chapman to the Yankees three weeks later. Although he was not charged, MLB suspended him for 30 games as a result of Chapman's "use of a firearm and the impact of that behavior on his partner," ending May 9, 2016. He was the first player disciplined by the new personal conduct policy enacted in August 2015, which empowered MLB to suspend a player from games without a final sentence.  Chapman became an American citizen in April 2016.

Albertín Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz (; born February 28, 1988) is a Cuban-born American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs and in the Cuban National Series for Holguín. Chapman bats and throws left-handed, and is nicknamed the Cuban Missile or the Cuban Flame Thrower.


Early success.

He was born in Hope, North Dakota in 1898 and originally worked as an assistant director during the silent era. In 1929 he directed his first film, the comedy "Three Live Ghosts". He enjoyed an early success with the Eddie Cantor Technicolor musical "Whoopie!" (1930) and much of his subsequent work was in musicals and comedies.  In 1933, he directed "Flying Down to Rio" which launched the screen partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers although it had originally been designed as a starring vehicle for the Mexican actress Dolores del Río. The following year Freeland made a film version of the long-running Broadway revue "George White's Scandals".

Britain.

In 1935 Freeland went to London to make the musical comedy "Brewster's Millions" starring Jack Buchanan. He was to work in Britain for the remainder of the decade. In 1936 he made "Accused" at Isleworth Studios, which was produced by and starred his fellow American Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. who had also moved to Britain at the time. A Paris-set murder mystery, the film also featured Dolores Del Rio. He directed Fairbanks again in the costume drama "The Amateur Gentleman" the same year.  Britain was experiencing a major boom in filmmaking at the time, and many of Freeland's projects were made with an eye to the international market. However he also directed comedies with more local appeal such as "Skylarks" (1936) featuring Nervo and Knox and "Hold My Hand" (1938) with Stanley Lupino. During his time in England Freeland worked for a variety of companies, many of which were independents which had been established during the boom. Amongst these was Capitol Films for whom he made "Jericho", a drama with Paul Robeson. By 1937 the boom was over and his final films in England were made by better-established studios such as London Films and Associated British. His last film to be released in the decade was a Jack Buchanan comedy-thriller "The Gang's All Here".

Later career.

He returned to the United States during World War II, and made two films in Hollywood. In the late 1940s he returned to Britain to make a final three films. Following the release of the comedy "Dear Mr. Prohack" (1949) he retired from directing.  He was married to the American actress June Clyde. Like her husband Clyde spent much of the 1930s working in British films.

Thornton Freeland (February 10, 1898 – May 22, 1987) was an American film director who directed 26 British and American films in a career that lasted from 1924 to 1949.


Construction.

In the following description, call the 3 containers: And three pipes:  It is okay if A is closed and airtight, but it doesn't need to. B and C, however, need to be airtight, and resistant to atmospheric pressure. Plastic bottles will do, but a glass container will do better; balloons will just not work. This is because the fountain works the following way:  These principles explain the construction:

Motion.

Heron's fountain is not a perpetual motion machine. If the nozzle of the spout is narrow, it may play for several minutes, but it eventually comes to a stop. The water coming out of the tube may go higher than the level in any container, but the net flow of water is downward. If, however, the volumes of the air supply and fountain supply containers are designed to be much larger than the volume of the basin, with the flow rate of water from the nozzle of the spout being held constant, the fountain could operate for a far greater time interval.  Its action may seem less paradoxical if considered as a siphon, but with the upper arch of the tube removed, and the air pressure between the two lower containers providing the positive pressure to lift the water over the arch. The device is also known as Heron's siphon.  The gravitational potential energy of the water which falls a long way from the basin into the lower container is transferred by pneumatic pressure tube (only air is moved upwards at this stage) to push the water from the upper container a short way above the basin.  The fountain can spout (almost) as high above the upper container as the water falls from the basin into the lower container. For maximum effect, place the upper container as closely beneath the basin as possible and place the lower container a long way beneath both.  As soon as the water level in the upper container has dropped so low that the water bearing tube no longer touches the water surface, the fountain stops. In order to make the fountain play again, the air supply container is emptied of water, and the fountain supply container and the basin are refilled. Lifting the water provides the energy required.

Reiterative motion and variants.

As previously mentioned, the fountain will stop working when water from B has dropped to C. There are ways, however, to make it work again, such as:  There also exist fountains with two liquids of different colors and density.

Geological phenomena.

It is possible that geysers operate via this mechanism, with the distinction that the spouting of the water at the surface occurs discontinuously. Furthermore, unlike Heron's fountain, which requires that the air supply container be manually emptied of water, geysers have an analogous "air supply container" that is steadily heated by geothermal energy. When the water level in the air supply container becomes too high, the geothermal heat flux causes the water to boil off and therefore naturally empty the container of water and replace it with water vapor instead of air.

In popular culture.

An example of Heron's fountain, built by Larry Fleinhardt, was featured in the 8th episode (titled "Tabu") of the 4th season of the television show "Numb3rs".  Heron's Fountain was featured in the first episode of "How Britain Worked" hosted by Guy Martin.

Heron's fountain is a hydraulic machine invented by the 1st century AD inventor, mathematician, and physicist Heron of Alexandria (also known as Hero of Alexandria).


Background.

Abe Burrows, who had previously written the books for the successful musicals "Guys and Dolls", "Can-Can", and "Say, Darling", wrote the book for a new musical adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". The score was credited to three authors: George Weiss, Robert Goldman, and Glenn Paxton, though composer Jule Styne, who produced the show under the auspices of the "Jule Styne Organization", was said to have augmented the score. The score mixes early-19th-century "period" music with standard Broadway idioms of the 1950s. The musical was originally titled "A Perfect Evening", but before rehearsals began, the show's creators changed it to "First Impressions", Austen's original, pre-publication title for "Pride and Prejudice."  The show was not a success. Burrows thought critics were hard on him because they wondered why a comedy guy would take on a "tired period drama," but he also took some unusual liberties with the story. The musical concentrates more than the novel does on Mrs. Bennet's perspective and on her tireless attempts to marry off her five marriageable daughters despite the family's lack of money. The emphasis on Mrs. Bennet is the result of having cast a star (Hermione Gingold) in what was meant by Austen to be a secondary role.  When Jane Austen wrote her first novel, a novel about the Bennet family of Longbourn, she called it First Impressions, but she couldn't find a publisher. However, once "Sense & Sensibility", Austen's second novel, became a popular success, T. Egerton of Whitehall, the publisher of "Sense & Sensibility", agreed to release First Impressions with a new name: "Pride & Prejudice". In this early instance of successful branding, a novel called "First Impressions" went nowhere, but given a new title, "Pride & Prejudice" quickly became one of the great classics of Western literature.

Production.

The Broadway production premiered at the Alvin Theater, New York City, on March 19, 1959, and played 84 performances. The stars of the original cast were Hermione Gingold (as Mrs. Bennet), Polly Bergen (as Elizabeth Bennet), and Farley Granger (as Mr. Darcy), supported by Phyllis Newman (Jane Bennet), Ellen Hanley (Charlotte Lucas), Christopher Hewett (Mr. Collins), Donald Madden (Charles Bingley), and James Mitchell (Capt. Wickham). Hewett replaced Hiram Sherman after the show's out-of-town tryout, while Hanley replaced Bergen shortly into the run.  According to Granger, the musical was beset by a series of disasters, the most notable all involving the frequently dangerous sets. Granger said several dancers were injured during rehearsals and the tryout in New Haven. Moreover, reports Granger, Gingold, and Bergen disliked each other, and Mitchell felt ill-used. Stuart Hodes Mitchell's understudy and one of the injured dancers, says that Granger's account was exaggerated. Hodes also notes that Lucas's several replacements as choreographer included an uncredited Herbert Ross.  Fifteen-year-old Lauri Peters, who played Kitty Bennet, left a good enough first impression on Richard Rodgers that he invited her to audition for his next show, "The Sound of Music". Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II cast her in the role of Liesl, the eldest daughter, in the 1959 original Broadway production of "The Sound of Music". Peters shared a Tony Award nomination for the role, and stayed with the show for two years.

Synopsis.

Like the novel, the musical is concerned primarily with the rocky courtship between Elizabeth Bennet, a poor gentleman's daughter with four sisters, and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy aristocrat who arrives in Miss Elizabeth's rural village in 1813. The course of true love is hindered by minor character flaws on both sides—his pride and reserve, which look like arrogance to her, and her tendency to jump to erroneous conclusions based on little evidence, as well as her verbal assertiveness, which mildly scandalizes him. Both eventually realize that they have misjudged each other, however, and find that they are actually ideally suited for each other.

Songs.

After decades out of print, the original cast album was rereleased on CD in 2002.

First Impressions is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by George Weiss, Bo Goldman, and Glenn Paxton, and book by Abe Burrows, who also directed the musical. It is based on Helen Jerome's 1935 stage adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel "Pride and Prejudice".


Biography.

Background.

Masse was educated at the Université de Montréal and pursued graduate work in Paris. He worked as a high school teacher in Joliette, Quebec from 1962 to 1966.

Provincial politics.

In the 1966 Quebec provincial election, he was elected to the Quebec legislative assembly in the riding of Montcalm as a member of the Union Nationale (UN), a conservative political party. He served as a minister in the governments of Quebec premiers Daniel Johnson (1966–1968) and Jean-Jacques Bertrand (1968–1970).  Masse was re-elected in 1970. He was a leadership candidate at the party convention of 1971, but lost by 21 votes. He left the Union Nationale to sit as an independent until his term expired in 1973. In 1974, Masse was hired by the engineering firm Lavalin as an administrator.

Federal politics.

He attempted to win a seat in the House of Commons of Canada as a Progressive Conservative candidate, but was defeated in the 1974 and 1980 federal elections. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Frontenac in the 1984 election that brought Brian Mulroney and the Tories to power.  Prime Minister Mulroney appointed Masse to the position of Minister of Communications. Masse resigned from the Canadian Cabinet on September 25, 1985, during an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of alleged overspending during his election campaign. He returned to Cabinet on November 30 after being cleared of any wrongdoing.  As Communications Minister, Masse was responsible for Canada's cultural policy. He argued against measures that would undermine the country's cultural sovereignty during negotiations leading to the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement. He was moved out of the Communications portfolio to that of Minister of Energy in 1986 when it appeared to Mulroney that Masse might be an obstacle to the free trade negotiations. Masse was moved back to Communications following the 1988 election and the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement.  In 1991, Masse became Minister of National Defence. He resigned from cabinet in January 1993 along with a number of other ministers who were not intending to run in the 1993 election.

Retirement.

Since leaving federal politics Masse, a moderate Quebec nationalist, has served in a number of positions under the "Parti Québécois" governments of Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard. He was head of one of fourteen regional committees that held public hearings on Quebec independence in 1995 in the run up to the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty. He served as president of the "Conseil de la langue française du Québec" in 1995, and as Quebec's delegate-general in France from 1996 to 1997. He has also served as chair of the "Commission des biens culturels du Québec".  In 1995, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. In 1989, he was made a Commander of the Order of La Pléiade and an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1999. He is also a Commander of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Death.

Masse died on August 25, 2014. Circumstances of his death were not immediately disclosed.

Marcel Masse, (May 27, 1936 – August 25, 2014) was a Canadian politician. He served as a Quebec MLA, federal MP and federal cabinet minister.


Background.

Sparta and its allies, with the exception of Corinth, were almost exclusively land based powers, able to summon large land armies that were very nearly unbeatable. In the face of a combined campaign on land from Sparta and its allies beginning in 431 BC, the Athenians, under the direction of Pericles, pursued a policy of retreat within the city walls of Athens, relying on Athenian maritime supremacy for supply while the superior Athenian navy harassed Spartan troop movements. Unfortunately, the strategy also resulted in massive migration from the Attic countryside into an already highly-populated city, generating overpopulation and resource shortage. Due to the close quarters and poor hygiene exhibited at that time, Athens became a breeding ground for disease and many citizens died. In the history of epidemics, the 'Plague' of Athens is remarkable for the one-sidedness of the affliction as well as for its influence on the ultimate outcome of the war.  In his "History of the Peloponnesian War", the historian Thucydides, who was present and contracted the disease himself and survived, describes the epidemic. He writes of a disease coming from Ethiopia and passing through Egypt and Libya into the Greek world and spreading throughout the wider Mediterranean; a plague so severe and deadly that no one could recall anywhere its like, and physicians ignorant of its nature not only were helpless but themselves died the fastest, having had the most contact with the sick. In overcrowded Athens, the disease killed an estimated 25% of the population. The sight of the burning funeral pyres of Athens caused the Spartans to withdraw their troops, being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy. Many of Athens' infantry and expert seamen died. According to Thucydides, not until 415 BC had Athens recovered sufficiently to mount a major offensive, the disastrous Sicilian Expedition.  The first corroboration of the plague was not revealed until 1994-95 where excavation revealed the first mass grave. Upon this discovery, Thucydides' accounts of the event as well as analysis of the remains had been used to try and identify the cause of the epidemic.

Social implications.

Accounts of the Athenian plague graphically describe the social consequences of an epidemic. Thucydides' account clearly details the complete disappearance of social morals during the time of the plague:  This perceived impact of the Athenian plague on collective social and religious behavior echoes accounts of the medieval pandemic best known as the Black Death, although scholars have disputed its objective veracity in both instances, citing a historical link between epidemic disease and unsubstantiated moral panic.

Fear of the law.

Thucydides states that people ceased fearing the law since they felt they were already living under a death sentence. Likewise, people started spending money indiscriminately. Many felt they would not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of wise investment, while some of the poor unexpectedly became wealthy by inheriting the property of their relatives. It is also recorded that people refused to behave honorably because most did not expect to live long enough to enjoy a good reputation for it.

Care for the sick and dead.

Another reason for the lack of honorable behavior was the sheer contagiousness of the illness. Those who tended to the ill were most vulnerable to catching the disease. This meant that many people died alone because no one was willing to risk caring for them. The dead were heaped on top of each other, left to rot, or shoved into mass graves. Sometimes those carrying the dead would come across an already burning funeral pyre, dump a new body on it, and walk away. Others appropriated prepared pyres so as to have enough fuel to cremate their own dead. Those lucky enough to survive the plague developed an immunity and so became the main caretakers of those who later fell ill.  A mass grave and nearly 1,000 tombs, dated between 430 and 426 BC, have been found just outside Athens' ancient Kerameikos cemetery. The mass grave was bordered by a low wall that seems to have protected the cemetery from a wetland. Excavated during 1994–95, the shaft-shaped grave may have contained a total of 240 individuals, at least ten of them children. Skeletons in the graves were randomly placed with no layers of soil between them.  Excavator Efi Baziotopoulou-Valavani, of the Third Ephoreia (Directorate) of Antiquities, reported that "[t]he mass grave did not have a monumental character. The offerings we found consisted of common, even cheap, burial vessels; black-finished ones, some small red-figured, as well as white lekythoi (oil flasks) of the second half of the 5th century BC. The bodies were placed in the pit within a day or two. These [factors] point to a mass burial in a state of panic, quite possibly due to a plague."  During this time refugees from the Peloponnesian war had immigrated within the Long Walls of Athens, inflating the populations of both the polis of Athens and the port of Piraeus. The population had tripled in this time increasing chance of infection along with poor hygiene.

Religious strife.

The plague also caused religious uncertainty and doubt. Since the disease struck without regard to a person's piety toward the gods, people felt abandoned by the gods and there seemed to be no benefit to worshiping them. The temples themselves were sites of great misery, as refugees from the Athenian countryside had been forced to find accommodation in the temples. Soon the sacred buildings were filled with the dead and dying. The Athenians pointed to the plague as evidence that the gods favored Sparta, and this was supported by an oracle that Apollo himself (the god of disease and medicine) would fight for Sparta if they fought with all their might. An earlier oracle had warned that "A Dorian [Spartan] war will come, and bring a pestilence with it".  Thucydides is skeptical of these conclusions and believes that people were simply being superstitious. He relies upon the prevailing medical theory of the day, Hippocratic theory, and strives to gather evidence through direct observation. He notes that carrion-eating birds and animals disappeared as a result, though he leaves it an open question whether they died after eating the corpses or refused to eat them and were driven away:

Aftermath.

The plague was an unforeseen event that resulted in one of the largest recorded loss of life in ancient Greece as well as a breakdown of Athenian society. The balance of power between citizens had changed due to many of the rich dying and their fortunes being inherited by remaining relatives of the lower class. According to Thucydides, those who had become ill and survived were the most sympathetic to others suffering: believing that they could no longer succumb to any illness, a number of survivors offered to assist with the remaining sick. The plague had also contributed to Athens' overall loss of power and ability to expand. Many of the remaining Athenians were found to be metics who had forged their documentation or had bribed officials to hide their original status. A number of these people were reduced to slaves once they were caught. This resulted in stricter laws dictating who can become an Athenian citizen, reducing both their number of potential soldiers and amount of political power, but also a decline in treatment and rights for metics in Athens.  The plague dealt massive damage to Athens two years into the Peloponnesian War, from which it never recovered. Their political strength had weakened and morale among their armies as well as the citizens had fallen significantly. Athens would then go on to be defeated by Sparta and fall from being a major superpower in Ancient Greece.

Symptoms.

According to Thucydides, the Plague of Athens, the illness began by showing symptoms in the head as it worked its way through the rest of the body. He also describes in detail the symptoms victims of the plague experienced.

Possible causes.

Historians have long tried to identify the disease behind the Plague of Athens. The disease has traditionally been considered an outbreak of the bubonic plague in its many forms, but reconsideration of the reported symptoms and epidemiology have led scholars to advance alternative explanations. These include typhus, smallpox, measles, and toxic shock syndrome. Based upon striking descriptive similarities with recent outbreaks in Africa, as well as the fact that the Athenian plague itself apparently came from Africa (as Thucydides recorded), Ebola or a related viral hemorrhagic fever has been considered.  Given the possibility that profiles of a known disease may have changed over time, or that the plague was caused by a disease that no longer exists, the exact nature of the Athenian plague may never be known. In addition, crowding caused by the influx of refugees into the city led to inadequate food and water supplies and a probable proportionate increase in insects, lice, rats, and waste. These conditions would have encouraged more than one epidemic disease during the outbreak.

Typhus.

In January 1999, the University of Maryland devoted their fifth annual medical conference, dedicated to notorious case histories, to the Plague of Athens. They concluded that the disease that killed the Greeks was typhus. "Epidemic typhus fever is the best explanation," said Dr. David Durack, consulting professor of medicine at Duke University. "It hits hardest in times of war and privation, it has about 20 percent mortality, it kills the victim after about seven days, and it sometimes causes a striking complication: gangrene of the tips of the fingers and toes. The Plague of Athens had all these features." In typhus cases, progressive dehydration, debilitation and cardiovascular collapse ultimately cause the patient's death.  This medical opinion is supported by the opinion of A. W. Gomme, who wrote a comprehensive annotated edition of Thucydides and who also believed typhus was the cause of the epidemic. This opinion is expressed in his monumental work "Historic Comments on Thucydides", completed after Gomme's death by A. Andrewes and K. J. Dover. Angelos Vlachos (), a member of the Academy of Athens and a diplomat, in his "Remarks on Thucydides" (, [1992] I: 177–178) acknowledges and supports Gomme's opinion: "Today, according to Gomme, it is generally acceptable that it was typhus" (""). The theory has also found support recent in a study of the plague by Greek epidemiologists.

Typhoid.

Symptoms.

Symptoms generally associated with typhoid resemble Thucydides' description. They include:  Some characteristics of typhoid are at clear variance from Thucydides' description. Scavenger animals do not die from infection with typhoid, the onset of fever in typhoid is typically slow and subtle, and typhoid generally kills later in the disease course. As typhoid is most commonly transmitted through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions in crowded urban areas, it is an unlikely cause of a plague emerging in the less urbanized Africa, as reported by Thucydides.

DNA analysis.

A 2005 DNA study of dental pulp from teeth recovered from an ancient Greek burial pit, led by the orthodontist Dr. Manolis Papagrigorakis of the University of Athens, found DNA sequences similar to those of "Salmonella enterica" ("S. enterica"), the organism that causes typhoid fever.  A second group of researchers, including American evolutionary molecular biologist Dr. Beth Shapiro of the University of California, Santa Cruz, disputed the Papagrigorakis team's findings, citing what they claim are serious methodological flaws. In a letter to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Shapiro et al. stated that "while this DNA analysis confirms that the Athens sequence is possibly "Salmonella", it demonstrates clearly that it is not typhoid."  The technique used by the Papagrigorakis team (PCR) has shown itself to be prone to contamination-induced false-positive results, and the source burial site is known to have been heavily trafficked in antiquity by hogs, carriers of another "Salmonella" serovar that may have been confused with the one that causes typhoid fever. Nonetheless, the Papagrigorakis team assert that the basis of this refutation is flimsy, and that the methodology used by the Shapiro team has historically produced conflicting results.

Viral hemorrhagic fever.

Thucydides' narrative pointedly refers to increased risk among caregivers, more typical of the person-to-person contact spread of viral hemorrhagic fever (e.g., Ebola virus disease or Marburg virus) than typhus or typhoid. Unusual in the history of plagues during military operations, besieging Spartan troops are described as not having been afflicted by the illness raging near them within the city. Thucydides' description further invites comparison with VHF in the character and sequence of symptoms developed, and of the usual fatal outcome on about the eighth day. Some scientists have interpreted Thucydides' expression "" () as the unusual symptom of hiccups, which is now recognized as a common finding in Ebola virus disease. Outbreaks of VHF in Africa in 2012 and 2014 reinforced observations of the increased hazard to caregivers and the necessity of barrier precautions for preventing disease spread related to grief rituals and funerary rites. The 2015 west African Ebola outbreak noted persistence of effects on genitalia and eyes in some survivors, both described by Thucydides. With an up to 21-day clinical incubation period, and up to 565-day infectious potential recently demonstrated in a semen-transmitted infection, movement of Ebola via Nile commerce into the busy port of Piraeus is plausible. Ancient Greek intimacy with African sources is reflected in accurate renditions of monkeys in art of frescoes and pottery, most notably guenons ("Cercopithecus"), the type of primates responsible for transmitting Marburg virus into Germany and Yugoslavia when that disease was first characterized in 1967. Circumstantially tantalizing is the requirement for the large quantity of ivory used in the Athenian sculptor Phidias’ two monumental ivory and gold statues of Athena and of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders), which were fabricated in the same decade. Never again in antiquity was ivory used on such a large scale.  A second ancient narrative suggesting hemorrhagic fever etiology is that of Titus Lucretius Carus. Writing in the 1st century BC, Lucretius characterized the Athenian plague as having "bloody" or black discharges from bodily orifices. Lucretius cited and was an admirer of scientific predecessors in Greek Sicily Empedocles and Acron. While none of the original works of Acron, a physician, are extant, it is reported that he died c. 430 BC after travel to Athens to combat the plague.  Unfortunately DNA sequence-based identification is limited by the inability of some important pathogens to leave a "footprint" retrievable from archaeological remains after several millennia. The lack of a durable signature by RNA viruses means some etiologies, notably the hemorrhagic fever viruses, are not testable hypotheses using currently available scientific techniques.

The Plague of Athens (, ) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC) when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. The plague killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people and is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies. Much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw an outbreak of the disease, albeit with less impact.


Amateur career.

Snider played for the Mill Creek Little League team at 1999 Little League Western Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, California. He attended Henry M. Jackson High School, where he played as an outfielder for the baseball team and as a running back and linebacker in football.

Professional career.

Toronto Blue Jays.

The Toronto Blue Jays selected Snider in the first round, with the 14th overall selection, of the 2006 MLB Draft. Snider began his professional career in 2006 with the Pulaski Blue Jays in the Appalachian League. He excelled in his debut and ended up winning the Short Season Player of The Year honors for Appalachian League. In 2007, he was promoted to the Class A Lansing Lugnuts, he spent the whole season in Lansing and led the league in many hitting categories and he represented Lansing in the 2007 Midwest League All-Star Game.  Snider began the 2008 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League. Coming out of spring training he had suffered an injury to his throwing elbow so for the first portion of the season he was the team's designated hitter exclusively. Snider performed well in High A and he was promoted to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League on May 21, 2008. Initially at Double-A, Snider struggled but as he regained his health and started to play in the outfield again he began hitting well. Snider won the Eastern League Home Run Derby with an impressive performance, hitting 10 home runs in the semifinals in front of a record crowd at the Fisher Cats stadium. Snider was nicknamed "the Franchise" by New Hampshire Union Leader reporter Kevin Gray. On August 6, 2008 the Blue Jays promoted Snider to Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. Snider continued to play well at Triple-A and would only play 18 games at that level before being promoted.

2008–2010.

Snider was promoted to the Toronto Blue Jays on August 29, 2008, and became the youngest position player in the majors. He made his debut later that day, playing left field and batting ninth at Yankee Stadium. Facing Carl Pavano, Snider lined out to shortstop in his first at-bat. He later doubled off Pavano for his first big-league hit. On September 4, 2008, Snider launched his first career home run at Rogers Centre off Kevin Slowey of the Minnesota Twins. Snider is the fourth youngest Blue Jay to hit a home run. After his first season with Toronto, he finished hitting.301 with two home runs and 13 RBI in 24 games.  Baseball America ranked Snider sixth on their annual ranking of the best baseball prospects, moving him up five spots from the previous year's rankings.  He had a home run and double on Opening Day, 2009. He had his first two home run game on April 13, 2009 against the Minnesota Twins and became the youngest player in Blue Jays history to hit two home runs in a game. He was sent back to Triple-A Las Vegas 51s in May, after a prolonged hitting slump, but was recalled by the Blue Jays in August, going on to hit a home run in his next at-bat.  On August 1, 2010, he became the first Blue Jays player since 1978 to hit 2 doubles in one inning against the New York Yankees (pitchers A. J. Burnett and Boone Logan). This was part of an AL record tying 6 doubles in an inning by the Toronto Blue Jays.

2011.

After opening the season with just a.184 batting average with 1 home run and 12 RBI through 25 games, Snider was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas on April 28. On July 3 Travis was recalled by the Blue Jays. On the nights of July 8 and 20th, 2011, Snider had 5 RBI – a career best. On August 4, Snider was optioned back to Triple-A Las Vegas to make room for Brett Lawrie. He was diagnosed with tendinitis in his right wrist on August 25, ending his 2011 season.

2012.

Snider was a spring training invitee, but was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas before the end of spring. He was in competition with Eric Thames for the starting left field position. He was recalled to the Blue Jays on July 20. Mid-game against the Seattle Mariners on July 30, Snider was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for pitcher Brad Lincoln.

Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 50 games with the Pirates to finish 2012, Snider hit.250 with 1 HR and 9 RBI.

2013.

Snider began 2013 in a platoon in right field with José Tábata, with Garrett Jones also getting occasional starts when he wasn't at first base. The platoon dissolved when Tábata went on the disabled list with a strained oblique, and Snider got most of the starts during Tábata's stint on the DL. To that point, Snider was hitting.252 with 2 HR, 14 RBI and 31 strikeouts. After hitting.171 in June, Snider was relegated to a pinch-hitting role upon Tábata's return on July 3. On July 28, Snider was placed on the disabled list with discomfort in his left big toe, which had been bothering him for over a month. Snider was activated from the disabled list when the rosters expanded on September 1, and was used in a pinch-hitting role to finish the season. In 111 games (53 starts) in 2013, Snider hit.215/.281/.333 with 5 HR and 25 RBI.

2014.

On June 18, 2014, Snider pitched the top of 9th inning. He allowed two runs, one hit, and two walks in that inning but managed to strike out Joey Votto. Snider finished the 2014 season with a.264 average with 13 home runs and 38 RBIs in 140 games.

Baltimore Orioles.

On January 27, 2015, Snider was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for minor league pitcher Stephen Tarpley and a player to be named later, eventually revealed as minor league pitcher Steven Brault. He was designated for assignment on August 7, and released on August 15.

Second stint with the Pirates.

On August 19, 2015, Snider signed a minor league deal to return to the Pirates. He elected free agency on October 22.

Kansas City Royals.

On January 30, 2016, Snider signed a minor league contact with the Kansas City Royals, with an invitation to spring training. He was released on March 30, and re-signed to a minor league contract on April 1. He was released on July 30, 2016.

Texas Rangers.

On January 6, 2017, Snider signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers.

New York Mets.

On August 15, 2017, the Rangers traded Snider to the New York Mets for cash. He elected free agency on November 6, 2017.

Long Island Ducks.

On April 5, 2018, Snider signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He became a free agent following the 2018 season.

Arizona Diamondbacks.

On January 10, 2019, Snider signed a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He elected free agency on November 7, 2019. On January 15, 2020, Snider re-signed with the Diamondbacks organization, and was released in late May.

Personal life.

From Lynnwood, Washington, Snider faced many challenges in his teen years. In a two-year span he had lost two grandparents, a coach, and a close friend. He then later lost his mother in an accident. Snider says this made his teen years tough but also helped him work hard to get to the major leagues.

Travis James Snider (born February 2, 1988) is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Baltimore Orioles.


Musical background.

It is not known whether Browning was thinking of any one piece by Galuppi; in Galuppi's time, the terms "toccata" and "sonata" were less clearly differentiated than they later became, and were used interchangeably. A number of Galuppi's sonatas have been suggested as Browning's inspiration, but as Charles van den Borren wrote in "The Musical Times", "every poet has the right to evade the prosaic minutiae of fact", and it is impossible to state with confidence that one Galuppi piece has more claim than another to be the inspiration for the poem.  Commentators have remarked on the musicality of the poem. Browning was trained extensively in music, both in composition and musical theory. Professional musicians and musicologists have been dismissive of his use of musical terms, but the music scholar Deryck Cooke writes of the poet's precise grasp of fine musical detail in this work. David Parkinson identifies "a link between each syllable of the poem and the musical notes of a scale." Stephen H. Ford contends that the whole poem is constructed "on a double octave form". Marc R. Plamondon argues that Browning's subjective interpretation produces "not just a commentary on music, but a complex portrait of the person attempting to interpret the music." The critic Robert C. Schweik argues that the poem does not require the reader to know Galuppi's music, and that Browning does not provide any description of what the music is really like.

Themes.

The poem is written in the first person, but the voice is not that of Browning himself: the speaker, unlike the poet, has never been out of England, and is picturing life in 18th-century Venice through his response to Galuppi's music. Schweik comments that the speaker's remarks on Venice include "typical bits and snatches of commonplace, second-hand information" and "misunderstandings that would be characteristic of an Englishman who really knows very little about Venice." The speaker, more interested in science than the arts, even gives Galuppi the wrong first name ("Baldassaro" for the correct "Baldassare", an error perpetuated by some literary critics).  After the speaker's fanciful and superficial evocation of old Venice, in stanzas I to IX, the voice goes on to muse on the nature of immortality, first of art and then of life itself. In stanza X, the speaker ponders on the deaths of Galuppi's original audiences, and in the following stanzas he contemplates his own mortality. By the final stanza, XV, the speaker has come so far from his original complacency as to have real empathy with the people of 18th-century Venice.

Musical settings.

The poem inspired a 1989 setting, in modern idiom but with musical quotations from Galuppi's works, by the composer Dominick Argento. The singer-songwriter Kris Delmhorst based her song "Galuppi Baldassare", the first track of her 2006 album "Strange Conversation" on the poem, using many of the words and theme as a basis for her own lyrics.

"A Toccata of Galuppi's" is a poem by Robert Browning, originally published in the 1855 collection "Men and Women". The title refers to the fact that the speaker is either playing or listening to a toccata by the 18th-century Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi. The poem consists of fifteen rhymed tercets; its prevailing meter is trochaic octameter catalectic.