Competitiveness and performance.

The car was an instant success, with Nico Rosberg winning the season-opening by 27 seconds. Lewis Hamilton went on to win the,, and successively. The car was said to be so dominant because of an innovative design feature on the PU106A, the car's engine. Sky Sports F1 reported that the compressor and turbo were packaged at opposite ends of the internal combustion engine, which gave them the edge in packaging, aerodynamic efficiency, and battery usage. Lewis Hamilton described it as the best car he has ever driven.  At the halfway point of the season, Mercedes had secured all but one win – in Canada, won by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo – and one pole, when Williams driver Felipe Massa did so in Austria. This came after Hamilton won the and Rosberg won the Monaco, Austrian and German Grands Prix. The team clinched the Constructors' Championship at the, the 16th race of the season. In the nineteen races, the F1 W05 Hybrid took sixteen wins (eleven for Hamilton and five for Rosberg), eighteen pole positions (seven for Hamilton and eleven for Rosberg), twelve fastest laps (seven for Hamilton and five for Rosberg), twelve front row lockouts and eleven 1–2 finishes.

Season summary.

The form the F1 W05 Hybrid enjoyed from the start of the season to the, was the most dominant performance in the first four races of the season in the history of the sport. The car qualified on pole for each race, led every racing lap, won every race, and set every fastest lap. At the fifth race of the season, the, the car led every lap with both Hamilton (from pole) and Rosberg leading for portions of the race, but Sebastian Vettel recorded the fastest lap. The car claimed every pole, led every lap, and won every race in the season up to the. The F1 W05 Hybrid's streak ended at the where Daniel Ricciardo beat Nico Rosberg to the win, after the car's motor generator unit for kinetic energy (MGU-K) failed. Felipe Massa ended the F1 W05 Hybrid's streak of pole positions during qualifying for the, but Mercedes would regain their form, with a 1–2 result, despite concerns of brake issues and threat from the Williams duo of Massa and Valtteri Bottas.  The next race of the season was the where the fight between Hamilton and Rosberg got closer. Rosberg's car failed to complete the race and Hamilton won in front of his home fans. The had two different stories at Mercedes. The one saw Hamilton have a brake disc explode in qualifying and the other saw Rosberg win pole and the race. The last race before the summer break was the. Hamilton entered the weekend hoping to win his third straight Hungarian Grand Prix. Again like Germany there were two extremely different stories. Hamilton again had an issue in qualifying, with a broken fuel line causing a fire, while Rosberg won pole again. The race was very chaotic, between the rain and safety cars, Hamilton found himself ahead of his teammate to take home third, which extended Mercedes's consecutive podium finishes streak to eleven races. Rosberg and Hamilton qualified first and second for the first time since Canada at the, but contact between the two, whilst battling for the lead on the second lap resulted in a puncture for Hamilton and a damaged front wing for Rosberg. Rosberg recovered to finish second but Hamilton had to retire late in the race. The two Mercedes again locked out the front row at and Hamilton was on pole for the first time since Spain. The two controlled the race and came home first and second for the seventh time in the season. At the, Hamilton and Rosberg locked out the front row for the seventh time in 2014. Rosberg's car developed an electrical fault and he therefore had to start from the pit lane. He retired after just 15 laps, when his car would not restart at his first pit stop; it was his second retirement of the season. Hamilton however dominated the race, taking fastest lap and leading all but two laps in the process, and won his seventh race of the season to take the Drivers' Championship lead for the first time since Spain, by a margin of three points heading to Suzuka. Mercedes took another 1–2 with Hamilton extending his championship lead to 10 points at the. Rosberg and Hamilton locked out the front row for the eighth time, with Rosberg taking his eighth pole. The race was wet throughout and Mercedes again dominated but Rosberg could not hold off Hamilton, who took his eighth win of the season, while Rosberg took his eighth second place and Mercedes's eighth 1–2 in the process. The power advantage of the car was shown when they opened up a 17-second lead over third place in just the first three racing laps.  At the, Mercedes clinched their first Constructors' Championship after yet another 1–2 finish. They locked out the front row out for the fifth successive race and Hamilton won comfortably by 13 seconds from Rosberg, who after locking up at turn one on the first lap and pitting recovered and finished second, again proving the true pace of the Mercedes. At the, Mercedes locked the front row out for the sixth successive race – and tenth time in 2014 – with Rosberg taking his ninth pole of the season. The two again dominated the race taking the team's tenth 1–2 finish of the season. Hamilton, as had been the case in the previous races, stuck behind in the first half of the race, overtook Rosberg around the halfway point and then controlled the race from there; he won his tenth race of the season, and his fifth in succession. At the, Mercedes secured a seventh consecutive (and eleventh of 2014) front row lock out, with Rosberg finishing 41 seconds ahead of Felipe Massa in 3rd place. Rosberg and Hamilton finished 1–2 for a record 11th time, beating McLaren's 26-year-old record of 10. Rosberg won the race and cut the gap down to 17 points going into the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Mercedes locked out the front row once again, with Rosberg on pole again. In the race, Hamilton moved ahead of Rosberg at the start and controlled the race throughout, but Rosberg suffered an ERS failure midway through the race. Rosberg carried on but could only manage 14th position (the only time the team finished a race outside the points in the entire season), while Hamilton won his 11th race of the season and with it the World Championship.

Complete Formula One results.

‡ — Teams and drivers scored double points at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, originally known as the Mercedes F1 W05, was a highly successful Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Aldo Costa, Paddy Lowe, Geoff Willis and Mike Elliott to compete in the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship. The cars were driven by World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, both of whom remained with the team for a second and fifth season, respectively. The F1 W05 was designed to use Mercedes's new 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engine, the PU106A Hybrid.

Mercedes W05 je vůz formule 1 týmu Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 nasazený pro rok 2014. Vozidlo pilotovali Němec Nico Rosberg a Brit Lewis Hamilton. Monopost byl představen 28. ledna 2014 v Jerezu.


Brief history.

FC Yavir Krasnopillia.

FC Sumy's predecessor, FC Yavir Krasnopillia, was established back in 1982 at the Krasnopillia Forestry and competed at regional competitions of Sumy Oblast. In 1991 the club entered the republican amateur competitions. After dissolution of the Soviet Union, the club was admitted to the Ukrainian Transitional League. Yavir Krasnopillia became a champion of the 1994–95 Ukrainian Second League and was promoted to the First League.  After the main team of the Sumy Oblast, FC Ahrotekhservis Sumy, was relegated out of the Second League in 1996, there were talks to revive football in Sumy. On the initiative of the regional government in 1998 Yavir was transferred to the regional center and renamed as Yavir-Sumy. Later it was transformed into FC Spartak Sumy. With that the main city stadium, formerly Spartak Stadium was finally finished and renamed as Yuvileinyi Stadium.  In 2000 Yavir Krasnopillia was revived in its home town and restarted its participation in regional competitions, while Spartak Sumy competed in the First League. In 2002 Yavir again was admitted to the Second League. In 2006 Spartak Sumy went bankrupt and was dissolved. Again there surfaced talks about bringing big football back to Sumy. In 2008 the new Yavir was again moved to Sumy.

FC Sumy.

The city of Sumy for quite some time used to have its own football teams during the Soviet period, such as Spartak, Frunzenets, and others which eventually were disbanded. The "FC Sumy" football project was another attempt to reestablish the football tradition in the city.  FC Sumy played in the vastly superior Yuvileiny Stadium which can hold 25,830 spectators.  In the fall of 2008 they changed their name once again to FC Sumy. They play in the yellow and green colors of their former stadium "Kolos", which can accommodate up to 3,000 spectators. After the 2009–10 Ukrainian Second League season the club again found itself in financial distress and failed attestation, which was followed by their license being withdrawn by the PFL. On 16 June 2010 it was announced that the club is being sponsored by the Russian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin (through "Sumy Engineering"). In July 2010 FC Sumy were readmitted to the Ukrainian Second League – please refer to 2010–11 Ukrainian Second League for details.  In June 2017 it was announced that "Sumy Engineering" transferred its corporate rights on the club to the Romny-based company "Ahrobiznes TSK". Ahrobiznes TSK has its own football club since 2014 that was playing at amateur and regional levels.  In April 2018 the local news media announced a sudden death of director of Romny Ahrobiznes and a member of regional council. On 15 June 2018 FC Ahrobiznes TSK Romny announced that it is dissolved due to financial difficulties.  On 13 August 2018 head coach of PFC Sumy Zolotnytskyi announced that the club has salary debts to players and is forced to get relocated to Okhtyrka. which team recently was dissolved. In October PFC Sumy acknowledged that it has problems with financing, in addition earlier this month it was accused in match-fixing.  On 9 January 2019 there appeared information that the club might not finish the 2018–19 Ukrainian First League. On 11 April 2019 the Ukrainian Football Federation indeed did deprived the club of its professional status. This was done due to match fixing by players of the club who were also banned from playing professional football (they were Serhiy Harashchenkov, Taras Duray and Ehor Luhovyi) in addition to president of the club Rostyslav Kozar.  PFC Sumy received new ownership during winter break of the 2018–19 season in the face of Serhiy Vashchenko who earlier that season was supposed to become the owner of Kobra Kharkiv. The new head coach was announced also former head coach of Kobra, Oleksandr Oliynyk. According to the former club's director Anatoliy Boiko, on 1 December 2018 PFC Sumy did not have any players on contract. On 11 April 2019, the FFU Control and Disciplinary Committee adopted its decision to strip the club of professional status and exclude the club from any competitions that it is participating currently or in the future. However the club has a right to file an appeal. Additional separate sanctions will be also applied against the club's playing and administrative personnel. On 14 April 2019, the chairman of the FFU committee of ethics and fair play Francesco Baranka noted that PFC Sumy has earned some 10 million euros in match fixing. More to it, Ukrainian coach Oleksandr Sevidov who held post of head coach consultant in PFC Sumy and previously managed FC Illichivets Mariupol received a lifetime disqualification.  On 1 October 2019 there appeared some information that the club has intentions to resume its participation in football competitions for the 2020–21 season.  On 10 October 2019 the chief editor of magazine "Futbol" Artem Frankov informed the UAF Committee of Appeals cancelled the decision of the UAF Control and Disciplinary Committee in regards to PFC Sumy.

PFC Sumy was a professional Ukrainian football team based in the city of Sumy, which last played in the Persha Liha. In April 2019 the Ukrainian Football Federation deprived the club of its professional status.

Profesijnyj futbolnyj klub Sumy (ukrajinsky: Професійний футбольний клуб «Суми») je ukrajinský fotbalový klub sídlící ve městě Sumy. Své domácí zápasy odehrává na stadionu Juvilejnyj s kapacitou 25 830 diváků.


Background.

After the communist coup of February 1948, thousands of opponents of the communist regime tried to escape the country. Although the border was guarded, in the year after the coup approximately 10,000 people -- including 50 prominent politicians -- escaped. In response to this, the Czechoslovak secret police, also known by the Czech acronym StB, set up parts of the country's border fortifications about 50 km away from the actual border with the American occupation zone in West Germany. The idea of using a false border to catch defecting refugees has been traced to Antonín Prchal, a colonel of the StB.

Implementation.

False border crossings were constructed in the areas of Aš, Cheb, Mariánské Lázně, Chodský Újezd, Domažlice, Kdyně, and Všeruby. The false crossings consisted of signs, border stones, administrative buildings, and guardhouses. Similar arrangements had been used by the Gestapo of Nazi Germany and the NKVD of the Soviet Union.  The StB used the fake border crossings to catch and arrest would-be refugees who believed they had crossed into the safety of democratic West Germany. In many cases, the victims had been encouraged to flee the country by undercover StB agents posing as members of the underground anti-communist opposition. At the fake border post, the refugees were introduced to another StB agent posing as a smuggler or a bribed border guard, who offered to lead the refugees into the forest and across the border at night in exchange for payment. After crossing the fake border, refugees were welcomed and interviewed by supposed agents of the US Counter Intelligence Corps. In these interviews the refugees were asked about their connections to and knowledge of the anti-communist opposition in Czechoslovakia; in many cases, the refugees willingly told the "Americans" about members of their family or social circle who would support the overthrow of the communist regime, in the belief that the Americans could provide assistance to those family or friends. In this way the StB learned the identities of other opponents of communist rule, who were imprisoned along with the would-be refugees.  After the interviews with the fake American agents, the operation could follow different scripts. In most cases, refugees were instructed bring transcripts of their interviews to another American post. On their way the refugees would be discovered and arrested by Czechoslovak border guards. Once caught in this way, the refugees could not claim to be innocent, since they carried signed statements describing their anti-communist views and activities. Many victims believed that every stage of the operation was genuine, and their capture was a result of straying too close to the Czechoslovak border after getting lost in the forest on the West German side.  In some other cases, the StB agents posing as Americans would inform the refugees that their asylum applications had been rejected, and turn them over to the Czechoslovak border guards. This was done so that, when these attempted refugees returned to Czechoslovakia, they would spread the news that they had been betrayed by the US. The spread of such news in prisons and in the rest of society was intended to convince the population that the US was not genuinely supportive of the anti-communist cause and that there was no hope of successful escape.  Regardless of how the operation proceeded, the victims were sentenced to prison or hard labor. Some received life sentences, and some were sentenced to death; others were released after sentences of 15-20 years. In many cases, the victims' property and possessions were confiscated by the StB officers involved, who sold these for personal gain.

End of the Operation.

The US learned of the false border operation from Stanislav Liska, the chief of police in Všeruby, who since 1945 had been part of a network in Czechoslovakia sharing intelligence with the US. The operation was shut down after Radio Free Europe broadcast a warning about it in 1951, although some sources state that the operation continued in some form for another seven years.

Operation Border Stone, also known as Operation Kamen () was an operation of the intelligence services of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic during the Cold War, lasting from 1948 to 1951. According to some sources, the operation continued until 1958. Its goal was to capture citizens who attempted to defect from socialist Czechoslovakia to West Germany, across the Iron Curtain. The plan was initiated in the aftermath of the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'etat, in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, seized control of the government of Czechoslovakia.

Akce Kámen (občas chybně uváděná jako Akce Kameny) byla provokační metoda, kterou využívala StB proti těm československým občanům, kteří se po únoru 1948 snažili odejít bez vědomí komunistických úřadů do zahraničí. Konkrétně šlo o ty, kteří použili nejběžnější cestu, tedy pěšky přes státní hranici do americké okupační zóny v Německu.


Early life.

Resnais was born in 1922 at Vannes in Brittany, where his father was a pharmacist. An only child, he was often ill with asthma in childhood, which led to his being withdrawn from school and educated at home. He was an eager reader, in a range that extended from classics to comic books, but from the age of 10 he became fascinated by films. For his twelfth birthday his parents gave him a Kodak 8mm camera with which he began to make his own short films, including a three-minute version of "Fantômas". Around the age of 14, he discovered surrealism and through that an interest in the works of André Breton.  Visits to the theatre in Paris gave Resnais the desire to be an actor, and in 1939 he moved to Paris to become an assistant in Georges Pitoëff's company at the Théâtre des Mathurins. From 1940 to 1942 he studied acting in the Cours René-Simon (and one of his small jobs at this time was as an extra in the film "Les Visiteurs du soir"), but he then decided in 1943 to apply to the newly formed film school IDHEC to study film editing. The film-maker Jean Grémillon was one of the teachers who had the most influence on him at that period.  Resnais left in 1945 to do his military service which took him to Germany and Austria with the occupying forces, as well as making him a temporary member of a travelling theatre company, Les Arlequins. He returned to Paris in 1946 to start his career as a film editor, but also began making short films of his own. Finding himself to be a neighbour of the actor Gérard Philipe, he persuaded him to appear in a 16mm surrealist short, "Schéma d'une identification" (now lost). A more ambitious feature-length work, "Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire", has also vanished without trace.

Career.

1946–1958: short films.

After beginning with a series of short documentary films showing artists at work in their studios, as well as a few commercial commissions, Resnais was invited in 1948 to make a film about the paintings of Van Gogh, to coincide with an exhibition that was being mounted in Paris. He filmed it at first in 16mm, but when the producer Pierre Braunberger saw the results, Resnais was asked to remake it in 35mm. "Van Gogh" received a prize at the Venice Biennale in 1948, and also won an Oscar for Best 2-reel Short in 1949. (Braunberger went on to act as producer for several of Resnais's films in the following decade.) Resnais continued to address artistic subjects in "Gauguin" (1950) and "Guernica" (1950), which examined the Picasso painting based on the 1937 bombing of the town, and presented it to the accompaniment of a text written by Paul Éluard. A political perspective on art also underpinned his next project (co-directed with Chris Marker), "Les statues meurent aussi" ("Statues Also Die", 1953), a polemic about the destruction of African art by French cultural colonialism.  "Nuit et Brouillard" ("Night and Fog", 1956) was one of the first documentaries about the Nazi concentration camps, but it deals more with the memory of the camps than with their actual past existence. Realising that standard documentary techniques would be incapable of confronting the enormity of the horror (and even risked humanising it), Resnais chose to use a distancing technique by alternating historical black-and-white images of the camps with contemporary colour footage of the sites in long tracking shots. The accompanying narration (written by Jean Cayrol, himself a survivor of the camps) was intentionally understated to add to the distancing effect. Although the film encountered censorship problems with the French government, its impact was immense and it remains one of the director's most admired works.  A different kind of collective memory was considered in "Toute la mémoire du monde" (1956), in which the seemingly endless spaces and bibliographic riches of the Bibliothèque nationale were explored in another compendium of long travelling shots. In 1958 Resnais undertook a commission from the Pechiney company to make short film, in colour and wide-screen, extolling the merits of plastics, "Le Chant du styrène". Poetry was brought to the project, literally, by Raymond Queneau who wrote the narration for the film in rhyming couplets.  In his decade of making documentary short films, Resnais established his interest in and talent for collaboration with leading figures in other branches of the arts: with the painters who were the subjects of his early works; with writers (Eluard in "Guernica", Cayrol in "Nuit et Brouillard", Queneau in "Le Chant du styrène"); with musicians (Darius Milhaud in "Gauguin", Hanns Eisler in "Nuit et Brouillard", Pierre Barbaud in "Le Chant du styrène"); and with other film-makers (Resnais was the editor of Agnès Varda's first film, "La Pointe courte", and co-directed with Chris Marker "Les statues meurent aussi"). Similar collaborations underpinned his future work in feature films.

1959–1968.

Resnais's first feature film was "Hiroshima mon amour" (1959). It originated as a commission from the producers of "Nuit et Brouillard" (Anatole Dauman and Argos Films) to make a documentary about the atomic bomb, but Resnais initially declined, thinking that it would be too similar to the earlier film about the concentration camps and that it presented the same problem of how to film incomprehensible suffering. However, in discussion with the novelist Marguerite Duras a fusion of fiction and documentary was developed which acknowledged the impossibility of speaking "about" Hiroshima; one could only speak about the impossibility of speaking about Hiroshima. In the film, the themes of memory and forgetting are explored via new narrative techniques which balance images with narrated text and ignore conventional notions of plot and story development. The film was shown at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, alongside Truffaut's "Les Quatre Cents Coups" ("The 400 Blows"), and its success became associated with the emerging movement of the French New Wave.  Resnais's next film was "L'Année dernière à Marienbad" ("Last Year at Marienbad", 1961), which he made in collaboration with the novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. The fragmented and shifting narrative presents three principal characters, a woman and two men, in the opulent setting of a grand European hotel or château where the possibility of a previous encounter a year ago is repeatedly asserted and questioned and contradicted. After winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the film attracted great attention and provoked many divergent interpretations of how it should be understood, encouraged by interviews in which Robbe-Grillet and Resnais themselves appeared to give conflicting explanations of the film. There was little doubt however that it represented a significant challenge to the traditional concept of narrative construction in cinema.  At the beginning of the 1960s France remained deeply divided by the Algerian War, and in 1960 the Manifesto of the 121, which protested against French military policy in Algeria, was signed by a group of leading intellectuals and artists who included Resnais. The war, and the difficulty of coming to terms with its horrors, was a central theme of his next film "Muriel" (1963), which used a fractured narrative to explore the mental states of its characters. It was among the first French films to comment, even indirectly, on the Algerian experience.  A contemporary political issue also formed the background for "La guerre est finie" ("The War Is Over", 1966), this time the clandestine activities of left-wing opponents of the Franco government in Spain. Resnais's scriptwriter on this film was the Spanish author Jorge Semprun, himself an ex-member of the Spanish Communist Party now in voluntary exile in France. Both men denied that the film was "about" Spain, but when it was entered for the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966, an objection from the Spanish government caused it to be withdrawn and it was shown out of competition. In 1967 Resnais participated with six other directors, including Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard, in a collective work about the Vietnam war, "Loin du Vietnam" ("Far from Vietnam").  From 1968 onwards, Resnais's films no longer addressed, at least directly, big political issues in the way that a number of his previous ones had done, and his next project seemed to mark a change of direction. "Je t'aime, je t'aime" (1968) drew upon the traditions of science-fiction for a story of a man sent back into his past, a theme which enabled Resnais again to present a narrative of fragmented time. Alain Resnais's scriptwriter on this film was the author Jacques Sternberg. The film was unlucky in its release (its planned screening at Cannes was cancelled amid the political events of May 1968), and it was almost five years before Resnais was able to direct another film.

1969–1980.

Resnais spent some time in America working on various unfulfilled projects, including one about the Marquis de Sade. He also published "Repérages", a volume of his photographs, taken between 1948 and 1971, of locations in London, Scotland, Paris, Nevers, Lyon, New York and Hiroshima; Jorge Semprun wrote the introductory text. Some of the photographs relate to a long-cherished but unfulfilled idea for a film based on the Harry Dickson stories by Jean Ray.  After contributing an episode to "L'An 01 (The Year 01)" (1973), a collective film organised by Jacques Doillon, Resnais made a second collaboration with Jorge Semprun for "Stavisky" (1974), based on the life of the notorious financier and embezzler whose death in 1934 provoked a political scandal. With glamorous costumes and sets, a musical score by Stephen Sondheim, and Jean-Paul Belmondo in the title role, it was seen as Resnais's most commercial film to date, but its complex narrative structure showed clear links with the formal preoccupations of his earlier films.  With "Providence" (1977), Resnais made his first film in English, with a screenplay written by David Mercer, and a cast that included John Gielgud and Dirk Bogarde. The story shows an ageing, maybe dying, novelist grappling with alternative versions of his own past as he adapts them for his fiction. Resnais was eager that the dark subject should remain humorous, and he described it as "a macabre divertissement". Formal innovation characterised "Mon oncle d'Amérique" ("My American Uncle", 1980) in which the theories of the neurobiologist Henri Laborit about animal behaviour are juxtaposed with three interwoven fictional stories; and a further counterpoint to the fictional characters is provided by the inclusion of film extracts of the classic French film actors with whom they identify. The film won several international awards including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and it also proved to be one of Resnais's most successful with the public.

1981–2014.

From the 1980s onwards Resnais showed a particular interest in integrating material from other forms of popular culture into his films, drawing especially on music and the theatre. In almost all of his remaining films he chose to work repeatedly with a core group of actors comprising Sabine Azéma, Pierre Arditi, and André Dussollier, sometimes accompanied by Fanny Ardant or Lambert Wilson. The first four of these were among the large cast of "La vie est un roman" ("Life Is a Bed of Roses", 1983), a comic fantasy about utopian dreams in which three stories, from different eras and told in different styles, are interwoven within a shared setting. The action is punctuated by episodes of song which develop towards the end into scenes that are almost operatic; Resnais said that his starting point had been the desire to make a film in which dialogue and song would alternate.  Music, very differently used, was a major component of "L'Amour à mort" ("Love unto Death", 1984). For this intense chamber work with four principal actors (Azéma, Arditi, Ardant and Dussollier), Resnais asked Hans Werner Henze to compose musical episodes which would act as a "fifth character", not an accompaniment but a fully integrated element of the drama with which the speech of the actors would interact. In subsequent years, Resnais gave his attention to music of more popular styles. He made "Gershwin" (1992), an innovative TV documentary in which the American composer's life and works were reviewed through the testimonies of performers and filmmakers, juxtaposed with commissioned paintings by Guy Peellaert. In "On connaît la chanson" ("Same Old Song", 1997), his tribute to television works of Dennis Potter, the characters express their key emotions or private thoughts by bursting into snatches of well-known (recorded) popular songs without interrupting the dramatic situation. A long-neglected operetta from the 1920s was the unexpected basis for Resnais's next film "Pas sur la bouche" ("Not on the Lips", 2003), in which he sought to reinvigorate an unfashionable form of entertainment by recreating its theatricality for the camera and entrusting most of its musical numbers to actors rather than to trained singers.  There are many references to the theatre throughout Resnais's filmmaking ("Marienbad", "Muriel", "Stavisky", "Mon oncle d'Amérique"), but he first undertook the challenge of taking a complete stage work and giving it new cinematic life in "Mélo" (1986), an adaptation of Henri Bernstein's 1929 play of the same name. Resnais remained entirely faithful to the play (apart from shortening it) and he emphasised its theatricality by filming in long takes on large sets of evidently artificial design, as well as by marking off the acts of the play with the fall of a curtain. After an excursion into the world of comic books and cartoons in "I Want to Go Home" (1989), an ambitious theatrical adaptation followed with the diptych of "Smoking/No Smoking" (1993). Resnais, having admired the plays of Alan Ayckbourn for many years, chose to adapt what appeared the most intractable of them, "Intimate Exchanges", a series of eight interlinked plays which follow the consequences of a casual choice to sixteen possible endings. Resnais slightly reduced the number of permuted endings and compressed the plays into two films, each having a common starting point, and to be seen in any order. Sabine Azéma and Pierre Arditi played all the parts, and the theatricality of the undertaking was again emphasised by the studio set designs for a fictional English village. Resnais returned to Ayckbourn in the following decade for his adaptation of "Private Fears in Public Places" to which he gave the film title of "Cœurs" (2006). Among the stage/film effects which contribute to its mood of "cheerful desolation" is the artificial snow which is continually seen through set windows until eventually it falls on the studio interior as well.  Speaking in 1986, Resnais said that he did not make a separation between cinema and theatre and refused to make enemies of them. He preferred working with "people of the theatre", and he said that he would never want to film a novel. It was therefore something of a departure when he chose "L'Incident", a novel by Christian Gailly, as the basis for "Les Herbes folles" ("Wild Grass", 2009). He explained however that what initially attracted him to the book was the quality of its dialogue, which he retained largely unchanged for the film. When "Les Herbes folles" was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, it was the occasion for a special jury award to Resnais "for his work and exceptional contribution to the history of cinema".  In his final two films, Resnais again drew his source material from the theatre. "Vous n'avez encore rien vu" ("You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!", 2012) was adapted from two plays by Jean Anouilh, and it assembled thirteen actors (many of them regular performers in Resnais's earlier films) who have been summoned by the dying wish of an author to witness a new performance their roles in one of his plays. The film was shown in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. "Aimer, boire et chanter" (2014) was the third film which Resnais adapted from a play by Alan Ayckbourn, in this case "Life of Riley", in which three couples are thrown into confusion by the news that a shared friend has a terminal illness. Three weeks before Resnais's death, the film received its premiere in the competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2014, where it won a Silver Bear award "for a feature film that opens new perspectives". At the time of his death, Resnais was preparing a further Ayckbourn project, based on the 2013 play "Arrivals & Departures".

Reputation.

Resnais was often linked with the group of French filmmakers who made their breakthrough as the New Wave or "nouvelle vague" in the late 1950s, but by then he had already established a significant reputation through his ten years of work on documentary short films. He defined his own relationship by saying: "Although I was not fully part of the New Wave because of my age, there was some mutual sympathy and respect between myself and Rivette, Bazin, Demy, Truffaut... So I felt friendly with that team." He nevertheless acknowledged his debt to the New Wave because it created the conditions of production, and particularly the financial conditions, which allowed him to make a film like "Hiroshima mon amour", his first feature film.  Resnais was more often associated with a "Left Bank" group of writers and filmmakers who included Agnès Varda, Chris Marker, Jean Cayrol, Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet (with all of whom he collaborated in the earlier part of his career). They were distinguished by their interests in documentary, left-wing politics, and the literary experiments of the "nouveau roman". At the same time, Resnais was also a devotee of popular culture. He owned the largest private collection of comic books in France and in 1962 became the vice president and co-founder of an International Society for Comic Books, "Le Club des bandes dessinées", renamed two years later as "Centre d'Études des Littératures d'Expression Graphique (CELEG)". CELEG members also included Resnais' artistic collaborators Marker and Robbe-Grillet.  The importance of creative collaboration in Resnais's films has been noted by many commentators. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he always refused to write his own screenplays and attached great importance to the contribution of his chosen writer, whose status in the shared "authorship" of the film he fully acknowledged. He was also known to treat the completed screenplay with great fidelity, to the extent that some of his screenwriters remarked on how closely the finished film realised their intentions. (On the few occasions when he did participate in writing the script, particularly for his last three films, his contribution is acknowledged under the pseudonym Alex Reval, since he did not want his name to appear more than once in the credits.)  Time and memory have regularly been identified as two of the principal themes of Resnais's work, at least in his earlier films. He however consistently tried to modify this view of his concerns: "I prefer to speak of the imaginary, or of consciousness. What interests me in the mind is that faculty we have to imagine what is going to happen in our heads, or to remember what has happened". He also described his films as an attempt, however imperfect, to approach the complexity of thought and its mechanism.  Another view of the evolution of Resnais's career saw him moving progressively away from a realistic treatment of 'big' subjects and overtly political themes towards films that are increasingly personal and playful. Resnais himself offered an explanation of this shift in terms of challenging what was the norm in film-making at the time: having made his early films when escapist cinema was predominant, he progressively felt the need to move away from exploration of social and political issues as that itself became almost the norm in contemporary cinema. Experimentation with narrative forms and genre conventions instead became a central focus of his films.  A frequent criticism of Resnais's films among English-language commentators has been that they are emotionally cold; that they are all about technique without grasp of character or subject, that his understanding of beauty is compromised by a lack of sensuousness, and that his seriousness of intent fails to communicate itself to audiences. Elsewhere however it is suggested that such views are partly based on a misreading of the films, especially his earlier ones, which has impeded an appreciation of the humour and irony which pervade his work; and other viewers have been able to make the connection between the film's form and its human dimension.  There is general agreement about Resnais's attachment to formalism in his approach to film; he himself regarded it as the starting point of his work, and usually had an idea of a form, or method of construction, in his head even before the plot or the characters took shape. For him this was also the basis for the communication of feeling: "There cannot be any communication except through form. If there is no form, you cannot create emotion in the spectator."  Another term which appears in commentaries on Resnais throughout his career is "surrealism", from his documentary portrait of a library in "Toute la mémoire du monde", through the dreamlike innovations of "Marienbad", to the latterday playfulness of "Les Herbes folles". Resnais himself traced a link to his teenage discovery of surrealism in the works of André Breton: "I hope that I always remain faithful to André Breton who refused to suppose that imaginary life was not a part of real life".

Personal life.

In 1969 Resnais married Florence Malraux (daughter of the French statesman and writer André Malraux). She was a regular member of his production team, working as assistant director on most of his films from 1961 to 1986. His second wife was Sabine Azéma, who acted in the majority of his films from 1983 onwards; they were married in the English town of Scarborough in 1998.  Alain Resnais died in Paris on 1 March 2014; he was buried in Montparnasse cemetery.

References.

Notes Further reading

Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included "Night and Fog" (1956), an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.

Alain Resnais (3. června 1922 − 1. března 2014) byl francouzský filmový režisér. Této činnosti se začal věnovat ve druhé polovině čtyřicátých let. Mezi jeho nejvýznamnější díla patří například film "Hirošima, má láska" z roku 1959. Za svůj film "Stará známá písnička" z roku 1997 získal Césara pro nejlepší film; za film "Smoking/No Smoking" z roku 1994 pak Césara pro nejlepšího režiséra. Natočil mnoho dalších filmů, jako například "Loni v Marienbadu" (1961), "Muriel neboli v čase návratu" (1963), "Můj strýček z Ameriky" (1980) nebo "Ještě jste nic neviděli" (2012). Zemřel v roce 2014 ve svých jedenadevadesáti letech.


Description.

"Holcus mollis" is a rhizomatous perennial grass found in woods and hedgerows, growing to tall. It has rhizomes that occur around deep in soil or sometimes deeper. Rhizome growth occurs in the period May to November but is fastest from mid-June to mid-July. The rhizomes have many dormant buds that do not develop unless the rhizomes are disturbed and then fresh aerial shoots may arise from the broken fragments. It flowers from June to July.  The main distinguishing characteristics from "H. lanatus" are the presence of rhizomes, and the bearded nodes or 'hairy knees' on the culm.

Habitat.

"Holcus mollis" is favoured by conditions in woodland clearings and at the early stages of coppicing. Growth and flowering are restricted as the tree canopy develops. It is often a relict of former woodland vegetation, surviving in open grassland and grassy heaths after woodland clearance despite being a shade lover. It is found mostly on moist, freely-drained acid soils, normally light to medium texture and high in organic matter; it is absent from areas of calcareous or base rich soil, and often grows with bracken.

Insect foodplant.

The caterpillars of some Lepidoptera use it as a food plant, e.g. the Essex skipper ("Thymelicus lineola").

Status as a weed.

In a survey of weeds in conventional cereals in central southern England in 1982, it was found in 1% of winter barley but not at all in winter wheat or spring barley.  Each small piece of rhizome is capable of developing into a new plant. Research shows that within of the surface, of rhizome infested soil may contain up to of rhizome, the weight of roots and rhizomes being estimated at 7.5 tons per acre.

Varieties and hybridisation.

A pentaploid variant of "H. mollis" is common in Britain; it is sterile but spreads vegetatively. "H. mollis" var. "variegatus" has striped green and white leaves; it is sometimes cultivated.  A male sterile hybrid with "Holcus lanatus" exists with 2"n" = 21 chromosomes. Hybrids tend to resemble "H. lanatus" in their morphology.

Holcus mollis, known as creeping soft grass or creeping velvet grass, is a species of grass, native to Europe and western Asia.

Medyněk měkký ("Holcus mollis") je druh trav rodu medyněk ("Holcus") čeledi lipnicovitých ("Poaceae"). Patří mezi vytrvalé byliny, a dorůstá výšky 30–80 centimetrů. Roste na úhorech, loukách a pastvinách, někdy i ve světlých lesích (často degradovaných). Od podobného medyňku vlnatého ("Holcus lanatus") se liší pochvami, listovými čepelemi a osinami klásků.


Playing career.

A former midfielder, Pastoor spent most of his career at FC Volendam, playing with the North-Hollanders from 1989 to 1995. Later on he continued his career at SC Heerenveen, and then in Belgium (with KRC Harelbeke) and Austria (with Austria Lustenau) before retiring in 2001.

Coaching career.

After his retirement from football as a player, Pastoor entered into management as youth coach of AZ Alkmaar in the 2001–02 season. From 2002 to 2005 he stayed in Alkmaar, serving as head coach of local amateurs AFC'34. He was successively appointed as reserve team coach of Fenerbahçe for the 2005–06 season, and then as Gertjan Verbeek's assistant at his former club SC Heerenveen from 2006 to 2008. He was then appointed as youth coach of top-ranked Dutch club Feyenoord for the 2008–09 season.  In July 2009, he took his first head coaching job at a professional level, becoming the boss of Rotterdam-based club SBV Excelsior, a satellite club of Feyenoord. Under his tenure, the small Eerste Divisie side, mostly composed by youngsters on loan from the parent club (and thus all former players of Pastoor under his tenure at Feyenoord), went on to end the regular season in third place and qualify to the promotion playoffs, where they defeated crosstown rivals Sparta Rotterdam in a tense two-legged final and ensured a historic promotion to the Eredivisie. On 3 March 2014 Pastoor was appointed manager at SK Slavia Prague. After a short time in the club, he decided not to extend his contract and instead took the assistant coach role at AZ Alkmaar, coached by Marco van Basten. On 15 September 2014, Alex Pastoor was assigned as caretaker after health problems resulted in Marco van Basten having to step down to the position of assistant. He was sacked by the club after refusing to sign a contract for only nine months.

Alexander "Alex" Pastoor (; born 26 October 1966 in Amsterdam), is a Dutch football manager and former player, who currently is the manager of Austrian side Rheindorf Altach.

Alexander „Alex“ Pastoor (* 26. října 1966) je bývalý nizozemský fotbalový záložník a současný fotbalový trenér. Stal se prvním nizozemským trenérem v 1. české lize, kde vedl Slavii Praha. Ctí tradiční rozestavení nizozemské fotbalové školy 4-3-3.


Founding.

It was founded as a railway station in the 1870s, when Poti-Tbilisi permanent way was built. So kharagauli assumed an administrative, later-an economic function.

West entrance.

The most beautiful is its west entrance. In kandeshi rock beautiful and narrow gorge the river Chkherimena flows. The most attractive for foreigners are two big holes on the right bank of the river. Here a primitive man's upper Paleolithic era man's natural shelter is, called "the giant's hole". A bit aloof, on the left bank, there are giants statues, so the place is called "the giants" due to those beautiful holes.

Fortress ruins.

Near the place, up the Chkherimela river gorge there is an old fortress ruins. It is a typical construction of the Middle Ages, mentioned sometimes as Khandi, or kharagauli fortress.  It was in Kharagauli fortress that the king Vakhtang VI got married.  There is a district called "small kharagauli" there, people settled here first, later - on the borough territory. On its mountain there are tombs of 14th - 11th centuries BC. There was a Jesus church, a basilica construction on the cemetery territory, now it is ruined.  Beautiful nature, pleasant people, hospitality tradition become muse for many foreigners. The Georgian "king of poets" Galaktion Tabidze dedicated a poem to Kharagauli.

Administration building.

There is a three-story administration building in the center of the borough. There are also culture, household, customized objects, a perfect Regional Studies Museum and a big park on the riverbank. There are three secondary schools in the region, one seminary, two kindergartens, hospital, polyclinic, library, musical school, theatre, count, post office and communication departments, wines, cognac plants. Perfect, ecologically pure cognacs Ubisa and Nunisi are produced there on "kharagauli" spring water. There is also industrial manufacturing and furniture factory.

Kharagauli () is an administrative center of Kharagauli district in Georgia. It is situated on both banks of Chkherimela river in a narrow and deep gorge, 280-400m above the sea level.

Charagauli (gruzínsky: ხარაგაული), za sovětské éry Ordžonikidze, je administrativním střediskem okresu Charagauli v kraji Imeretie v Gruzii. Leží na obou březích řeky Čcherimely, v úzké a hluboké soutěsce, 280–400 m nad mořem.


Life and works.

Early life.

Meher Baba was an Irani born in Poona, India, to a Zoroastrian family. His given name was Merwan Sheriar Irani. He was the second son of Sheriar Irani, a Persian Zoroastrian who had spent years wandering in search of spiritual experience before settling in Poona (now Pune), and Shireen Irani.  As a boy, he formed the Cosmopolitan Club, which was dedicated to remaining informed in world affairs and donating money to charity. He was a multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in several languages, he was especially fond of the poetry of Hafez, Shakespeare, and Shelley. After that he contacted other spiritual figures, who, along with Babajan, he later said were the five "Perfect Masters" of the age, namely Tajuddin Baba, Narayan Maharaj, Sai Baba of Shirdi, and Upasni Maharaj.  Upasni Maharaj, he later said, helped him to integrate his mystical experiences with normal consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realization. In late 1921, at the age of 27, after living for seven years with Upasni, Merwan began to attract a following of his own. His early followers gave him the name Meher Baba (Compassionate Father).  In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established Manzil-e-Meem (House of the Master) in Bombay (now Mumbai). There, Baba commenced his practice of demanding strict discipline and obedience from his disciples. A year later, Baba and his mandali moved to an area a few miles outside Ahmednagar that he named Meherabad (Garden of Blessing). This ashram would become the center for his work. During the 1920s, Meher Baba opened a school, hospital and dispensary at Meherabad, all three free and open to all castes and faiths.  From July 1925 onwards, Meher Baba initiated a life-long period of self-imposed silence, which would last forty-four years, until the end of his life. He now communicated by use of chalk and slate, then by an alphabet board, and later via self-styled hand gestures. In January 1927 he gave up writing with pen or pencil also.

1930s – First contact with the West.

In the 1930s, Meher Baba began a period of extensive world travel and took several trips to Europe and the United States. It was during this period that he established contact with his first close group of Western disciples. He traveled on a Persian passport because he had given up writing as well as speaking and would not sign the forms required by the British government of India.  On his first trip to England in 1931, he traveled on the "SS Rajputana", the same ship that was carrying Mahatma Gandhi, who was sailing to the second Round Table Conference in London. Baba and Gandhi had three meetings on board, one of which lasted for three hours. The British press publicized these meetings, but an aide to Gandhi said, "You may say emphatically that Gandhi never asked Meher Baba for help or for spiritual or other advice."  In the West, Meher Baba met with a number of celebrities and artists, amongst them Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Tallulah Bankhead, Boris Karloff, Tom Mix, Maurice Chevalier, and Ernst Lubitsch. On 1 June 1932, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. held a reception for Baba at Pickfair at which he delivered a message to Hollywood. As a result, says Robert S. Ellwood, Meher Baba emerged as "one of the enthusiasms of the '30s".  In 1934, after announcing that he would break his self-imposed silence in the Hollywood Bowl, Baba changed his plans abruptly, boarded the RMS "Empress of Canada", and sailed to Hong Kong without explanation. The Associated Press reported that "Baba had decided to postpone the word-fast breaking until next February because 'conditions are not yet ripe'." He returned to England in 1936 but did not return to the United States again until the early 1950s.  In the late 1930s, Meher Baba invited a group of Western women to join him in India, where he arranged a series of trips throughout India and British Ceylon that became known as the Blue Bus Tours. When the tour returned home, many newspapers treated their journey as an occasion for scandal. Time Magazine's 1936 review of "God is my Adventure" describes the US's fascination with the "long-haired, silky-mustached Parsee named Shri Sadgaru [sic] Meher Baba" four years earlier.

1940s – Masts and the New Life.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Meher Baba worked extensively with masts, persons "intoxicated with God". According to Baba, these individuals are disabled by their enchanting experience of the higher spiritual planes. Although outwardly masts may appear irrational or insane, Baba claimed that their spiritual status was elevated, and that by meeting with them he helped them to move forward spiritually while enlisting their aid in his spiritual work. One of the best known of these masts, known as Mohammed Mast, lived at Meher Baba's encampment at Meherabad until his death in 2003.  During his journey in 1946, he went to Sehwan Sharif to meet a well known sufi saint and a successor of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Murshid Nadir Ali Shah. Baba called him an advanced pilgrim.  In 1949 Baba began an enigmatic period that he called the New Life. Following a series of questions on their readiness to obey even the most difficult of his requests, Baba selected twenty companions to join him in a life of complete "hopelessness and helplessness".  He made provisions for those dependent on him, after which he and his companions otherwise gave up nearly all property and financial responsibilities. They traveled about India incognito while begging for food and carrying out Baba's instructions in accordance with a strict set of "conditions of the New Life". These included absolute acceptance of any circumstance and consistent good cheer in the face of any difficulty. Companions who failed to comply were sent away.  Concerning the New Life Meher Baba wrote: This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust; and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving; who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward; who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies. This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it.  Meher Baba ended the New Life in February 1952 and once again began a round of public appearances throughout India and the West.

1950s – "God Speaks" and automobile accidents.

In the 1950s, Baba established two centers outside of India, namely the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the United States and Avatar's Abode near Brisbane, Australia. He inaugurated the Meher Spiritual Center in April 1952. On 24 May 1952, en route from the Spiritual Center to Meher Mount in Ojai, California, the car in which he was a passenger was struck head-on near Prague, Oklahoma. He and his companions were thrown from the vehicle and suffered many injuries. Baba's leg was severely broken and he sustained facial injuries which included a broken nose. The injured were treated at Duke Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, after which they returned to Myrtle Beach to recuperate. While recuperating at Youpon Dunes, a home owned by Elizabeth Patterson, in Myrtle Beach, he worked on the charter for a group of Sufis, which he named Sufism Reoriented.  Meher Baba began dictating his major book, "God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose", using an alphabet board in Dehradun, August 1953. In September 1954, Meher Baba gave a men-only sahavas at Meherabad that later became known as the Three Incredible Weeks. During this time Baba issued a declaration, "Meher Baba's Call", wherein he once again affirmed his Avatarhood "irrespective of the doubts and convictions" of others. At the end of this sahavas Meher Baba gave the completed manuscript of his book "God Speaks" to two members of Sufism Reoriented, Ludwig H. Dimpfl and Don E. Stevens, for editing and publication in America. The book was subsequently published by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year.  On 30 September 1954 Meher Baba gave his Final Declaration message, in which he made enigmatic predictions.  In October 1954, Meher Baba discarded his alphabet board and began using a unique set of hand gestures to communicate, which he used for the remainder of his life.  On 2 December 1956, outside Satara, India, the car in which Baba was being driven went out of control and a second serious automobile accident occurred. Baba suffered a fractured pelvis and other severe injuries. Nilu, one of Baba's mandali, was killed. This collision seriously incapacitated Baba. Despite his physicians' predictions to the contrary, Baba began to walk again after great effort, but from that point on he was in constant pain and was severely limited in his ability to move. During his trip to the West in 1958 he often needed to be carried from venue to venue.  In 1956, during his fifth visit to the US, Baba stayed at New York's Hotel Delmonico before traveling to the Meher Center at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In July he traveled to Washington, D.C., and received friends and disciples at the home of Ivy Duce, wife of James Terry Duce, the vice-president of the Arabian American Oil Co. He then traveled to Meher Mount at Ojai, California before continuing on to Australia. His final visits to the United States and Australia were made in 1958.

1960s – Later years and message on drugs.

In 1962, Baba gave one of his last public functions, a series of meetings he called "The East-West Gathering." At these meetings, at which his western followers were invited to meet his Indian disciples, Baba gave darshan to many thousands of people despite the physical strain this caused him.  In the mid-1960s Baba became concerned with the drug culture in the West and began correspondences with several Western academics, including Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, in which he discouraged the use of hallucinogenic drugs for spiritual purposes. In 1966 Baba's responses to questions on drugs were published in a pamphlet titled "God in a Pill?" Meher Baba stated that drug use was spiritually damaging and that if enlightenment were possible through drugs then "God is not worthy of being God". Meher Baba instructed his young Western disciples to spread this message; in doing so, they increased awareness of Meher Baba's teachings. In an interview with Frederick Chapman, a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar who met Baba during a year of study in India, Baba described LSD as "harmful physically, mentally and spiritually" and warned that "[its continued use] leads to madness or death".  An anti-drug campaign was initiated by Baba lovers in the United States, Europe and Australia. The campaign was mostly futile, but won Baba new followers, and some of Baba's views found their way into academic debate on the merits and dangers of hallucinogens.  From the East-West Gathering of 1962 onward, Baba's health deteriorated. Despite the physical toll it took on his body, he continued to undergo periods of seclusion and fasting. In late July 1968, Baba completed a particularly taxing period of seclusion and stated that by then his work was "completed 100% to my satisfaction". He was by then using a wheelchair. Within a few months, his condition had worsened and he was bedridden, wracked by muscle spasms that had no clear medical origin. Despite the care of several doctors the spasms worsened.

Death and aftermath.

On 31 January 1969, Meher Baba died at his home in Meherazad. He conveyed by his last gestures, "Do not forget that I am God." In time, his devotees called the anniversary of his death "Amartithi" (deathless day). Meher Baba's body was placed at his samadhi at Meherabad, covered with roses and cooled by ice. His body was kept available to the public for one week before its final burial. Prior to his death, Meher Baba had made extensive preparations for a public darshan program to be held in Poona. His mandali decided to proceed with the arrangements despite the absence of the host. Several thousand attended this "Last Darshan," including many hundreds from the United States, Europe, and Australia.

Silence.

From 10 July 1925, until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala. Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise but solely in connection with his universal work. Man's inability to live God's words makes the Avatar's teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence.  Meher Baba often signaled the moment "that he would 'break' his silence by speaking the 'Word' in every heart, thereby giving a spiritual push forward to all living things". When I break My Silence, the impact of My Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am the Divine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of My Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self. According to him, the breaking of his silence would be a defining event in the spiritual evolution of the world. When I speak that Word, I shall lay the foundation for that which is to take place during the next seven hundred years. On many occasions Meher Baba promised to break his silence with an audible word before he died, often stating a specific time and place when this would occur, but according to all contemporary accounts, Meher Baba remained silent until his death. His failure to break his silence disappointed some of his followers, while others regarded these broken promises as a test of their faith. A number of his followers speculate that "the Word" will yet be "spoken" or that Meher Baba broke his silence in a spiritual rather than a physical way.  Baba, for many years, asked his followers to undertake austerities on 10 July, the anniversary of the day his silence began, such as keeping silence, fasting and praying. In his final Silence Day request to his followers in 1968, he asked only that they keep silent. Many followers continue to celebrate Silence Day by keeping silence in his honor.

Teachings.

Meher Baba's teachings can roughly be divided into two main categories: his metaphysics on the nature of the soul and the Universe, and practical advice for the spiritual aspirant. The two are interrelated. His metaphysics is mostly found in his principal book on the subject, "God Speaks". It contains detailed statements on his cosmology and the purpose of life as well as the progression of the soul, while his elucidations on the practical spiritual life are mostly contained in "Discourses", although it also covers many metaphysical areas mirroring or amplifying "God Speaks".

"God Speaks".

In "God Speaks", Meher Baba describes the journey of the soul from its original state of unconscious divinity to the ultimate attainment of conscious divinity. The whole journey is a journey of imagination, where the original indivisible state of God imagines becoming countless individualized souls which he likens to bubbles within an ocean of infinite size. Each soul, powered by the desire to become conscious, starts its journey in the most rudimentary form of consciousness. This limitation brings the need of a more developed form to advance it towards an increasingly conscious state. Consciousness grows in relation to the impressions each form is capable of gathering.  According to Baba, each soul pursues conscious divinity by evolving, that is, experiencing itself in a succession of imagined forms through seven "kingdoms" of stone/metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird, animal, and human. The soul identifies itself with each successive form, becoming thus tied to illusion. During this evolution of forms, the power of thought increases, until in human form thought becomes infinite. Although in human form, the soul is capable of conscious divinity, all the impressions that it has gathered during evolution are illusory ones that create a barrier against the soul knowing itself. For this barrier to be overcome, further births in human form are needed in a process known as reincarnation.  The soul will reach a stage where its previously gathered impressions grow thin or weak enough that it enters a final stage called involution. This stage also requires a series of human births, during which the soul begins an inner journey, by which it realizes its true identity as God. Baba breaks this inner journey of Realization into seven stages he called "planes." The process culminates, at the seventh plane, with God-realization, at which the goal of life for the soul is reached.

"Discourses".

The "Discourses" are a collection of explanations and elucidations that Meher Baba has given on many topics that concern the advancement of the spiritual aspirant. Some of the most important topics treated are: sanskaras (mental impressions), Maya (the principle of illusion), the nature of the ego, reincarnation, karma, violence and non-violence, meditation, love, discipleship, and God-realization. His explanations often include stories from the lore of India and the Sufi culture. One such story, the wise man and the ghost, shows the power that superstitious beliefs can have on a person, while another, Majnun and Layla, show how selfless love, even in human relations, can lead one to discipleship.  Thus Meher Baba offers many suggestions that keep one moving towards God-realization. These suggestions include putting theory into practice, the internal renunciation of desires, offering selfless service to humanity or the master, spontaneity, while avoiding actions that bind one to illusion. But rather than lay out moral rules, Baba offers an understanding as to why some actions bind the individual whereas some others help towards his emancipation. Many chapters offer a better understanding of the mechanisms by which consciousness gets caught up between the opposites of experience, such as pleasure and pain, good and evil, and point to a way of transcending them.

Perfect Masters and the Avatar.

Baba related that there are 56 incarnate God-realized souls on Earth at any given time. Of these souls there are always five who constitute the five Perfect Masters of their era. When one of the five Perfect Masters dies, according to Baba, another God-realized soul among the 56 would replace him or her at once.  The Avatar, according to Baba, is a special Perfect Master, the first soul to achieve God-realization. This soul, the "original" Perfect Master, or Ancient One, never ceases to incarnate. Baba indicated that this particular soul personifies the state of God called Vishnu in Hinduism and Parvardigar in Sufism, i.e. the sustainer or preserver state of God. The Avatar, in Baba's testimony, appears on Earth every 700–1400 years and is "brought down" into human form by the five Perfect Masters of the time to aid in the process of moving creation in its never-ending journey toward Godhood. Baba claimed that in other ages this role had been fulfilled by Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad.  Baba described the Avatar as "a gauge against which man can measure what he is and what he may become. He trues the standard of human values by interpreting them in terms of divinely human life."  The majority of Meher Baba's followers accept his claim of avatarhood, and he is said to be "revered by millions around the world as the Avatar of the age and a God-realized being".

Legacy.

Baba's travels and teachings left a legacy of followers and devotees worldwide.  The Avatar Meher Baba Charitable Trust, established by Meher Baba in 1959, maintains his tomb and pilgrimage facilities, as well as a free school and dispensary, a cataract clinic, and a veterinary clinic. The Trust follows the charter left for it by Meher Baba in his lifetime, but does not act as spiritual authority over groups. Likewise, the Trust does not engage in propaganda, promote creeds or dogmas, or seek converts. Baba discouraged evangelizing, stating, "I need no propaganda or publicity." Rather, he encouraged his followers to "let your life itself be my message of love and truth to others" and to "spread my message of Love and Truth as far and wide as possible". Followers of Meher Baba have no established rituals. Many do, however, perform practices of choice such as pujas, aartis, prayers, music, plays, viewing films of Baba and so forth, but the choice is personal. The primary focus for followers is living a life Meher Baba would approve of, for example, refraining from the use of psychedelic drugs, including marijuana, and trying to remember God with love.  Gatherings of Baba followers are generally informal. Special effort is made to gather together on Amartithi, the anniversary of Baba's death, and on his birthday. Many Baba followers keep silent on 10 July (Silence Day), observing the request Baba frequently made of his followers during his lifetime. Aarti is performed morning and evening at Baba's samadhi in India. Also at Meherabad, his followers maintain Baba's practice of lighting a dhuni fire on the 12th of each month.  Although Baba had initially begun gaining public attention in the West as early as 1932 as the result of contacts with some celebrities of the time and from the rather disillusioned account of Paul Brunton ("A Search in Secret India", 1934), he received further attention after his death through various mentions in western pop-culture.  Pete Townshend of The Who, who became a follower of Baba, dedicated his 1969 rock-opera "Tommy" to Meher Baba in the record's gatefold. The Who's 1971 song "Baba O'Riley" was named in part after Meher Baba, and Townshend recorded several Meher Baba tribute albums including "Happy Birthday", "I Am", "Who Came First", and "With Love". In 1970, Melanie Safka mentioned Baba in the spoken word intro to her song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)". Listed as a standalone piece entitled Candles In The Rain, the lyrics are "Meher Baba lives again". Bobby McFerrin's 1988 Grammy Award-winning song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was inspired by a popular quote of Baba seen in numerous Baba posters and inspirational cards. Concepts of Meher Baba's philosophy, as well as a character based on Baba but unnamed, have also frequently appeared in works of comic book writer J. M. DeMatteis, including "Doctor Fate" and "Seekers into the Mystery".  In 2012, the feature film "Nema Aviona za Zagreb" premiered in the Netherlands with an exclusive interview with Meher Baba filmed in 1967. In the interview Baba explains the difference between God-realization and drug-induced hallucinations and the scene plays a pivotal role in the documentary's narrative.

External links.

Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spiritual master who claimed he was an Avatar — God in human form.

Meher Baba (25. února 1894 – 31. ledna 1969), rodným jménem Merwan Sheriar Irani, byl indický duchovní učitel, který prohlásil, že je Avatár, Bůh v lidské podobě.


Location and topography.

Lagodekhi Protected Areas are in north-eastern Georgia, on the southern slopes of the Caucasus, bordering Azerbaijan and the Dagestan republic of Russia. They comprise (strict nature reserve) and (managed nature reserve), extending from above sea level, including several gorges. The major rivers flowing through the reserve are the Ninoskhevi, Shromiskhevi, Lagodekhistskali and Matsimistskali; at the higher elevations there are glacial lakes, of which the largest is Black Cliff Lake, on the Russian border, with a depth of. There are also sulphur springs.  The bulk of the strict nature reserve is accessible only for research purposes; the managed nature reserve contains tourist facilities including five trails: to Grouse Waterfall, to Ninoskhevi Waterfall, to the 11th-century Machi (or Machistsikhe) Castle, to Black Rock Lake and a knowledge of nature trail; the Black Rock Route also crosses the strict nature reserve. An agreement between Azerbaijan and Georgia allows hikers to cross the border freely to and from the reserve.

Flora and fauna.

The reserves extend from beech forests (broadleaf woodland dominated by Oriental beech) to the Alpine zone. Approximately 70% of the area is forested; the second and third most prominent trees are European hornbeam and various species of maple (particularly velvet maple, Cappadocian maple, field maple and Norway maple). The forest includes a wide variety of plant species; reputedly almost two thirds of those found in the entire country; and the lowland parts have been compared to the warm temperate vegetation in the Black Sea region (locally called "subtropical"). Lagodekhi is also known for its animal life, and has been famous for its hunting. It is one of the major reserves for the East Caucasian tur and also has many chamois and red deer. Major predators include Eurasian lynx, grey wolf, brown bear, and the raptors bearded vulture, eastern imperial eagle, golden eagle and steppe eagle. Altogether 150 species of birds, 53 mammals, 5 amphibians, 12 reptiles, and 4 fish are found in the reserves; 26 of the plants and more than 40 of the animals are in the Red Data Book of Georgia listing of rare and endangered species.  The raccoon, an alien species, is also present in the Lagodekhi reserves.

History.

The Lagodekhi reserves include archaeological traces of Bronze Age settlement and burials, especially in the village of Ulianovka.  The reserves originated with the Polish army officer and amateur naturalist Ludwik Młokosiewicz, who established a regimental park at the settlement of Lagodekhi while stationed with the garrison there. After resigning from the army out of pacifism in 1861, he was ultimately arrested on returning to Tiflis and sent back to Poland, but returned in 1867 and spent the rest of his life living with his family on a cottage farm in the forest, studying the flora and fauna of the area as Inspector of Forests for the Signakhi District. He discovered more than 60 species and supplied specimens to collections in other countries. Beginning in 1889, Młokosiewicz urged that the area be protected, but this did not occur until 1912, after advocacy by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and by Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov, a professor of geobotany at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu). In response to his report and the society's urging that the forest no longer be used for firewood, the Tsar's viceregent in the Caucasus region accepted the application for a strict nature reserve, the first reserve to be established in the Caucasus region.  After the Russian Revolution, poaching and probably wood gathering were problems in the reserve. In 1929 it was again declared a strict nature reserve (zapovednik). The Soviets created other nature reserves as well as hunting reserves in Georgia, and in 1935, 1945 and 1970 increased the size of the Lagodekhi reserve; but conversely in 1951 they eliminated all zapovedniks in Georgia except for Lagodekhi, and again in 1962–64 reduced the number of such reserves while leaving Lagodekhi intact. It was also not used for experiments in rehabilitation of endangered species from other regions, as were some other strict reserves.  After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the re-establishment of independent Georgia in 1991, a period of war led to a great increase in poaching and reduction in the animal populations at Lagodekhi. In 1996 the country adopted the Laws on Protected Areas System and reclassified its natural areas under the International Union for Conservation of Nature schema, and in 2003 were added to the reserve at Lagodekhi and it was divided into a large strict reserve and a small managed reserve in the strip of land between the strict reserve and the neighbouring villages, in which tourist facilities including an information building and trails were created. Following a pilot project involving the IUCN, the Georgian Society of Nature Friends and the Mlokosevich Society of Lagodekhi, an advisory board has been created, including representatives of Lagodekhi Municipality and local guides.

Lagodekhi Protected Areas, also known as Lagodekhi National Park, is a pair of protected areas in the Kakheti district of Georgia: Lagodekhi Strict Nature Reserve and Lagodekhi Managed Nature Reserve (divided in 2003). The combined area of the two is. The reserves are located in north-eastern Georgia on the southern slopes of the Caucasus and border on Azerbaijan and Dagestan. Lagodekhi preserves a variety of rare local flora and fauna and was originally protected in 1912, under the Russian Empire, the first nature preserve in Georgia. Their ecoregion is that of the Caucasus mixed forests.

Přírodní rezervace Lagodechi (, "lagodechis sachelmzipo nakrdzali") je přírodní rezervace se stupněm ochrany Ia podle IUCN (přísná přírodní rezervace) v kraji Kachetie ve východní části Gruzie na jižním svahu Velkého Kavkazu, při trojmezí Gruzie, Ruska a Ázerbájdžánu. Je současně nejstarší chráněnou oblastí na celém Kavkazu a v bývalém Sovětském svazu.


Definition and purpose.

The term "skeuomorph" is compounded from "skeuos" (σκεῦος), meaning "container or tool", and "morphḗ" (μορφή), meaning "shape". It has been applied to material objects since 1890 and is now also used to describe computer and mobile interfaces.  A similar alternative definition of skeuomorph is "a physical ornament or design on an object made to resemble another material or technique". This definition is broader in scope, as it can be applied to design elements that still serve the same function as they did in a previous design.  Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make a new look more familiar and comfortable, or may be the result of cultural influences and norms on the designer. They may be artistic expression on the part of the designer. The usability researcher and academic Don Norman describes skeuomorphism in terms of cultural constraints: interactions with a system that are learned only through culture. Norman also popularized perceived affordances, where the user can tell what an object provides or does based on its appearance, which skeuomorphism can make easy.  The concept of skeuomorphism overlaps with other design concepts. Mimesis is an imitation, coming directly from the Greek word. Archetype is the original idea or model that is emulated, where the emulations can be skeuomorphic. Skeuomorphism is parallel to, but different from, path dependence in technology, where an element's functional behavior is maintained even when the original reasons for its design no longer exist.

Physical examples.

Many features of wooden buildings were repeated in stone by the Ancient Greeks when they transitioned from wood to masonry construction. Decorative stone features in the Doric order of classical architecture in Greek temples such as triglyphs, mutules, guttae, and modillions are supposed to be derived from true structural and functional features of the early wooden temples. The triglyph and guttae are seen as recreating in stone functional features of the wooden temples that preceded them, respectively the carved beam-ends and six wooden pegs driven in to secure the beam in place. Historically, high-status items such as the Minoans' elaborate and expensive silver cups were recreated for a wider market using pottery, a cheaper material. The exchange of shapes between metalwork and ceramics, often from the former to the latter, is near-constant in the history of the decorative arts. Sometimes pellets of clay are used to evoke the rivets of the metal originals.  There is also evidence of skeuomorphism in material transitions. Leather and pottery often carry over features from the wooden counterparts of previous generations. Clay pottery has also been found bearing rope-shaped protrusions, pointing to craftsmen seeking familiar shapes and processes while working with new materials. In this context, skeuomorphs exist as traits sought in other objects, either for their social desirability or psychological comforts.  In the modern era, cheaper plastic items often attempt to mimic more expensive wooden and metal products, though they are only skeuomorphic if new ornamentation references the original functionality, such as molded screw heads in molded plastic items. Another well-known skeuomorph is the plastic Adirondack chair. The physical "arm" lever on a "one-armed bandit" gambling machine is a skeuomorphic throwback feature on modern computerized slot machines, since it is no longer required to set physical mechanisms and gears into motion.  Automotive design has historically been full of physical skeuomorphisms, such as thinly chrome-plated plastic components and imitation leather, gold, wood, pearl, or crystal jeweled elements. In the 1970s, opera windows and vinyl roofs on many luxury sedan cars imitated carriage work from the horse and buggy era., most electric cars feature prominent front grilles, even though there is little need for intake of air to cool an absent internal combustion engine.

Virtual examples.

Many computer programs have a skeuomorphic graphical user interface that emulates the aesthetics of physical objects. Examples include a digital contact list resembling a Rolodex, and IBM's 1998 RealThings package. A more extreme example is found in some music synthesis and audio processing software packages, which closely emulate physical musical instruments and audio equipment complete with buttons and dials. On a smaller scale, the icons of GUIs may remain skeuomorphic representations of physical objects that are not longer directly applicable to the task they represent (such as a drawing of a floppy disk to represent "save").  Apple Inc., while under the direction of Steve Jobs, was known for its wide usage of skeuomorphic designs in various applications. This changed after Jobs' death when Scott Forstall, described as "the most vocal and high-ranking proponent of the visual design style favored by Mr. Jobs", resigned. Apple designer Jonathan Ive took over some of Forstall's responsibilities and had "made his distaste for the visual ornamentation in Apple's mobile software known within the company". With the announcement of iOS 7 at WWDC in 2013, Apple officially shifted from skeuomorphism to a more simplified design, thus beginning the so-called "death of skeuomorphism" at Apple.  Other virtual skeuomorphs do not employ literal images of some physical object; but rather allude to ritual human heuristics or heuristic motifs, such as slider bars that emulate linear potentiometers and visual tabs that behave like physical tabbed file folders. Another example is the swiping hand gesture for turning the "pages" or screens of a tablet display.  Virtual skeuomorphs can also be auditory. The shutter-click sound emitted by most camera phones when taking a picture is an auditory skeuomorph.

In design.

Retrofuturism incorporates spatial motifs from previous iterations of the future; especially visions of electro-industrialism. This is frequently incorporated in retrowave or synthwave illustrations. Skeumorphic time is closely linked with metamodernism.  Skeuomorphic design seems to be preferred by older recipient groups often referred to as digital immigrants while digital natives tend to favor flat design over skeuomorphisms. However, younger people are still able to understand the signifiers that skeuomorphic design employs. A better user experience could be measured for each respective design philosophy among digital natives and immigrants.  Although it is often proven that digital immigrants are more likely able to perceive and understand all available functions in an application, it has been found out that some affordances that do not have direct signifiers e.g. the function to flip pages in an ebook by simple swiping from right to left are less likely to be found by older users. However, all associated Functions should be included when a certain metaphor is used. For example users are likely to feel frustrated when trying to pull a file into the trash bin only to find out that this gesture does not delete the file.

Arguments in favor.

An argument in favor of skeuomorphic design is that it makes it easier for those familiar with the original device to use the digital emulation by making certain signifiers to affordances stronger. Interactions with computer devices are mostly cultural and learned. Once a process is learned and adopted in a society, it develops persistence. Proposals for change, especially radical change, often result in debate between proponents and opponents. Don Norman describes this process as a form of cultural heritage.  Compared to flat design skeuomorphic design seems to facilitate a fast navigation through graphic user interfaces, supposedly because icons are more easily recognized than their minimalistic counterparts found in flat design.

Arguments against.

The arguments against virtual skeuomorphic design are that skeuomorphic interface elements use metaphors that are more difficult to operate and take up more screen space than standard interface elements, that this breaks operating system interface design standards, that it causes an inconsistent look and feel between applications, that skeuomorphic interface elements rarely incorporate numeric input or feedback for accurately setting a value, that many users may have no experience with the original device being emulated, that skeuomorphic design can increase cognitive load with visual noise that after a few uses gives little or no value to the user, that skeuomorphic design limits creativity by grounding the experience to physical counterparts, and that skeuomorphic designs often do not accurately represent underlying system state or data types due to inappropriate mimesis, such as analog gauges in a digital interface.  In the case of an electric tea kettle, such designs can be dangerous. If it is used in the manner of the original tea kettles, catastrophe can ensue, resulting in property damage or injury.

A skeuomorph () is a derivative object that retains nonfunctional ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were inherent to the original. Examples include pottery embellished with imitation rivets reminiscent of similar pots made of metal and a software calendar that imitates the appearance of binding on a paper desk calendar.

Skeumorf (/ˈskjuːəˌmɔːrf, ˈskjuːoʊ-/) je odvozený objekt (nebo jeho zobrazení), který imituje (pro objekt již nepotřebné) funkční prvky originálu. Skeumorfismus označuje vytváření takovýchto skeumorfů.


Composition.

Overview.

"Who Are You" was recorded at the time when punk rock became highly popular. However, this was not reflected in the album's music, which incorporates elements of progressive rock and, according to biographer Tony Fletcher, it was produced in such a way as to appeal to commercial rock radio at the time. The album showcased some of Townshend's most complicated arrangements, with multiple layers of synthesizer and strings. Many of the songs also revisited themes from Townshend's long-contemplated "Lifehouse" project, featuring lyrics about songwriting and music as a metaphor for life, as indicated by titles like "Guitar and Pen", "New Song", "Music Must Change", and "Sister Disco". The latter two, along with "Who Are You", ultimately appeared on "Lifehouse Chronicles", Townshend's later actualization of the project. Several of the song's lyrics also reflect Townshend's uncertainty about the Who's continued relevance in the wake of punk rock, and his dissatisfaction with the music industry.  There was a three-year hiatus between "Who Are You" and the Who's previous album, "The Who by Numbers". The band was drifting apart during this period, as band members were working on various solo projects, and Moon was driving deeper into drug and alcohol abuse. The initial sessions at Ramport Studios, produced by Glyn Johns and Jon Astley, were lackadaisical; Jon Astley recalled that "no one wanted to work", and the members looked forward more to drinking and reminiscing at six in the evening. Astley felt that he and Johns pushed Moon too hard to play a simpler style, while Johns believed that Moon had "lost confidence in his ability" and would deliberately go out of his way to resist his suggestions.  Moon's health was especially an object of concern, as his drumming skills had noticeably deteriorated and his performances for most of the sessions were substandard. He was unable to play in 6/8 time on the track "Music Must Change", so the drums were removed completely from the track, and replaced with the sound of footsteps and a few cymbal crashes. Bassist John Entwistle remarked that Moon "couldn't think of anything to play." On another occasion, Astley recalled, "I was doing a drum track, and he hadn't learned the song. I actually had to stand up and conduct. He said, 'Can you give me a cue when you get to the middle part?' [...] He hadn't done his homework." Entwistle similarly described Moon as "really out of condition", and "disgusted with himself" as a result.  The recording was further delayed when lead singer Roger Daltrey underwent throat surgery, and when during a lengthy Christmas break, Townshend sliced his hand in a window during an argument with his parents. Former Zombies and Argent member Rod Argent was also called in to replace session keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick after Bundrick suffered a broken arm falling out of a taxi at the studio door. When the sessions resumed in March, they were moved to RAK Studios, which caused further delays due to the equipment malfunctioning, including the wiping of a backing track. Astley stated that the RAK equipment made the existing material sound different when played back, necessitating further delays as he attempted to fix the audio problems. In one incident, Daltrey punched Johns in the face due to an argument over a rough mix, rendering him unconscious. The argument was fueled by Ted Astley adding a string arrangement to "Had Enough", which Daltrey derided as "slushy". After a long and frustrating day, Townshend planned to fire Moon from the band unless he cleaned up his act. The plan drove Moon to attempt to kick his alcohol habit and work more enthusiastically. Due to a prior commitment to produce the Joan Armatrading album "To the Limit", Johns had to leave in April, with Astley remaining as sole producer. Under Astley's command, the sessions returned to Ramport, with all of the drums except for "Who Are You" recorded in the last two weeks of production. "Who Are You" was released on 18 August 1978.  Moon died on 7 September 1978, just under a month after the album's release; on the cover, he is shown sitting in a chair labelled "Not to be taken away". Photographer Terry O'Neil had insisted Moon sit with the back of the chair facing the camera so as to hide his distended stomach, a result of his alcoholism.

"Sister Disco".

"Sister Disco" seemed to mourn the death of disco, although it could be construed to be a criticism of it. It featured complicated synthesiser tracks that were the result of hours Townshend spent programming an ARP 2600 synthesiser.  The song was never performed with Moon. However, it was performed regularly when the Who toured with Kenney Jones as drummer, and quickly became a live favourite. It was included on the band's 2002 "Ultimate Collection" album. It was also revived for their fall 2008 tour.

"Empty Glass".

The song "Empty Glass" appeared as a bonus track on reissues of the album. The lyrics in this version were notable for having more suicidal undertones than those in the final version, which appeared on Pete Townshend's 1980 solo album "Empty Glass". Most notably, the line, "Killing each other, then we jump off the ledge" was changed to "Killing each other by driving a wedge" for the latest version.

Reception.

The album was a commercial success, going 2× platinum in the US and Canada, gold in UK, and peaking at number 2 on the "Billboard" Pop Albums chart. The soundtrack to "Grease" prevented "Who Are You" from achieving number 1 status in the US. The success of "Who Are You" generated excitement at the prospect of a new Who tour for the album. The songs on the album were later performed on tour in 1979, when the Who were joined by new drummer Kenney Jones and keyboardist John Bundrick. Bundrick had been invited to play on the album, but broke his arm falling out of a taxi at the studio door and was unable to participate.  Reviewing in "" (1981), Robert Christgau said: "Every time I concentrate I get off on some new detail in Daltrey's singing or Townshend's lyrics or Entwistle's bass parts--though not in Moon's drumming, and I still don't relate to the synthesizer. But I never learn anything new, and this is not my idea of fun rock and roll. It ought to be one or the other, if not both."

Live performances.

Across the band's entire career, just slightly less than half of the album has been played live.  "Who Are You" was the first of the album's songs to be performed live; this was at a concert in the band's 1976 tour at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, albeit in a very raw and abbreviated version extremely different from the finished product. Another early and abbreviated live performance with Moon can be found on the DVD "". It was also played as part of the encore for the Who's 2012 "Quadrophenia and More" tour.  On the Who's 1979 tour, only four songs were played live: "Sister Disco", "Music Must Change", "Trick of the Light", and "Who Are You". On that tour, "Sister Disco" was played quite close to the studio version, except that the guitar outro was changed from country-style to a more bluesy one, except in 1989, where Townshend used acoustics, and 2008–09, where he could switch his Fender from 'electric mode' to 'acoustic mode'. Townshend actually stated in an interview that this was one of his least favourite songs to perform live (the other being "Dreaming from the Waist"), as Daltrey encouraged Townshend to share a microphone whilst harmonizing on the final vocal tag, evoking a camaraderie Townshend stated didn't really exist. It was played in the tours of 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1989, 2008 and 2009.  "Music Must Change" was often given an extended workout live, with performances usually ranging from seven to nine minutes. It was played in the 1979, 1980 and 1981 tours; it was rehearsed for the 2002 tour, but Entwistle died before the start of that tour and the band were not able to perform the song.  The Who have not been known to play "New Song", "Had Enough", "905", "Guitar and Pen", and "Love Is Coming Down". However, the John Entwistle Band used to play the Entwistle-penned songs.

Re-releases.

In 1985, MCA Records released the album on CD. There were no extra tracks on this CD, as it only contained songs from the original LP.  In 1996, the album was reissued on CD. This re-release was remixed and remastered by Jon Astley and Andy Macpherson; some of the elements from the original mixes were eliminated or changed, including an alternate guitar track on "Music Must Change", while other elements were restored, such as "Trick of the Light" being restored to its full length of 4:45. This remaster included five bonus tracks: outtakes "Empty Glass" and "No Road Romance", and alternate mixes for "Guitar and Pen", "Love Is Coming Down", and "Who Are You".  On 24 December 2011, Universal Japan reissued the original analogue mixes of the album on limited, numbered edition SHM-CD, remastered by Jon Astley. The bonus tracks from the 1996 album were also included using vintage mixes where possible; however, the full band version of "No Road Romance" was included instead of Townshend's demo from the 1996 issue. The album was reissued in a miniature replica of the vinyl album for CD. In 2014, the album was released in its original mixes on HDtracks and iTunes, along with the rest of the Who's catalog.

Track listing.

All songs written by Pete Townshend, except where noted.  Original LP Release and MCA Records 1985 CD re-release

Who Are You is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Who, released on 18 August 1978 by Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and MCA Records in the United States. The album received mixed reviews from critics, though it was a commercial success, peaking at number 2 on the US charts and number 6 on the UK charts.

Who Are You je osmé studiové album anglické rockové kapely The Who, které bylo ve Spojeném království vydáno společností Polydor Records a ve Spojených státech společností MCA Records. Je to poslední album The Who s Keithem Moonem, který zemřel dvacet dnů po vydání tohoto alba.