Club career.

Early life and career.

Van Dijk was born in Breda to a Dutch father and a Surinamese mother. Growing up he would play football wherever he could – on the streets, in concrete cages, and eventually Saturday morning matches. He combined his time playing at the Willem II academy with a part-time job as a dishwasher. Having previously and unsuccessfully featured as a right-back, Van Dijk was shifted into a central defensive position in 2008, aged 17, after he grew in height by around 18 centimetres. Despite the positional shift and Van Dijk's physical growth, Willem II's reserve manager at the time Edwin Hermans believed he had "too many limitations" which prevented him from breaking into the first team. In 2010, he was scouted by former Dutch international Martin Koeman, who was working for FC Groningen at the time, and he ended up completing a free transfer to the club in the same year.

Groningen.

Van Dijk initially struggled to break into Groningen's first team with club staff believing he was "overtired" after extensive playing time with Willem II's academy and reserve sides. He made his professional debut for the club on 1 May 2011, coming on as a 72nd-minute substitute for Petter Andersson during a 4–2 victory against ADO Den Haag. On 29 May, and against the same opposition, he made his first start for Groningen and scored his first professional goals, netting twice in a 5–1 win in a UEFA Europa League play-off match.  During the 2011–12 Eredivisie season, Van Dijk made 23 league appearances for the Eredivisie team, and scored his first regular-season goal during the club's 6–0 victory over Feyenoord on 30 October 2011. He suffered a personal setback during the campaign, however, as soon after his 20th birthday he was admitted to hospital with peritonitis and kidney poisoning. Van Dijk later revealed that he had been close to dying as a result of the medical emergency and that the hospital had even gone so far as to ask him to sign a "sort of will" in the event of his passing.  He did, however, return to Groningen and continued to impress the following season. At the end of the campaign, and with Van Dijk having "outgrown" the club, he was offered to a number of bigger Eredivisie clubs, including Ajax, all of whom elected not to sign him. Instead, in June 2013, he joined Scottish side Celtic.

Celtic.

2013–14 season.

On 21 June 2013, Van Dijk signed with Celtic for a fee of around £2.6 million, on a four-year deal including a 10% selling-on fee for Groningen. He made his debut on 17 August, replacing Efe Ambrose for the final 13 minutes of a 2–0 Scottish Premiership win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie Stadium. A week later, he made his first start, in a 2–2 draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Celtic Park. On 9 November, Van Dijk scored his first Celtic goals, heading one in each half of a 4–1 win against Ross County. After a solo run, he scored the only goal of a victory over St Johnstone on 26 December.  Van Dijk scored again on 26 January 2014, in a 4–0 win versus Hibernian for Celtic's 11th consecutive league win. On 25 February, he was sent off after 13 minutes of an eventual 2–1 loss at Aberdeen, for a professional foul on Peter Pawlett; it was Celtic's first defeat of the season. With Celtic having already won the league, Van Dijk netted again on 7 May to put his team 3–1 up away to St Johnstone, in an eventual 3–3 draw. He was one of three Celtic players named in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year. Van Dijk was nominated for the PFA Scotland Players' Player of the Year award, but lost out to fellow Celtic player Kris Commons

2014–15 season.

On 22 July 2014, Van Dijk and Teemu Pukki each scored twice in a 4–0 home win over KR in a UEFA Champions League qualifier, putting their team into the next round 5–0 on aggregate. His first goal of the Premiership season came on 9 November, finishing from Stefan Johansen's last-minute corner for a 2–1 win at Aberdeen. Three weeks later, Van Dijk scored the first and last goals of Celtic's 4–0 win versus Heart of Midlothian in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. Four days after that, his sixth goal of the season was enough for victory in a home match against Glasgow neighbours Partick Thistle.  Van Dijk was again on target on 21 January 2015, opening a 4–0 home win over Motherwell. On 26 February, he was sent off in the 36th minute against Inter Milan for a foul on Mauro Icardi, as Celtic lost 1–0 on the night, 4–3 on aggregate in the last 32 of the UEFA Europa League. He was again sent off on 8 March in the Cup quarter-final away to Dundee United at Tannadice Park, receiving a red card after eleven minutes for a confrontation with Calum Butcher. His suspension for the following week's Scottish League Cup Final was overturned on appeal, as was that of Paul Paton, who was sent off when mistaken for Butcher. Van Dijk played the full 90 minutes of the final at Hampden Park, which Celtic won 2–0. On 18 March, Celtic's third consecutive match against Dundee United, Van Dijk scored in the last minute to confirm a 4–0 win in a Cup replay.  On 19 April, Celtic contested the Cup semi-final against Inverness at Hampden, and Van Dijk opened the scoring with a free kick. After the dismissal of goalkeeper Craig Gordon, Celtic fell 3–2, ending their chance of a treble. Three days later, again from a free kick, he confirmed a 2–1 win away to Dundee. His team again won the league, and Van Dijk was included in the league's Team of the Season for the second consecutive campaign. He was again shortlisted for the PFA Scotland Players' Player award, but lost out to another teammate, this time Stefan Johansen.  Van Dijk was reportedly "considering his future" in Glasgow after Celtic were knocked out of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League in the qualifying rounds to Malmö of Sweden.

Southampton.

On 1 September 2015, Van Dijk signed a five-year contract with Premier League club Southampton, managed by Ronald Koeman, for a reported £13 million transfer fee.

2015–16 season.

He made his debut for Southampton on 12 September in a 0–0 draw against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns. Two weeks later, Van Dijk marked his third Premier League appearance with his first goal for the club, which came in the form of a header in the 11th minute to put Southampton in front, following a set-piece from James Ward-Prowse in a 3–1 home win over Swansea City. On 7 May 2016, Van Dijk signed a new six-year contract with the Saints.

2016–17 season.

On 22 January 2017, he was named team captain of Southampton, after the departure of José Fonte. On the same day, he suffered an ankle injury against Leicester City. This ruled him out of the 2017 EFL Cup Final, which Southampton lost to Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.  After a successful 2016–17 season at Southampton, Van Dijk was subject to interest from Liverpool, who apologised to Southampton for an illegal approach for the player after having reportedly made clear his interest in a move to Liverpool. On 7 August 2017, Van Dijk handed in a transfer request to Southampton and released a statement along with it, emphasising his wish to join a different club in the transfer window.

2017–18 season.

Van Dijk remained with Southampton for the start of the 2017–18 season and made his first appearance since being injured in January, coming on as a late substitute in a 1–0 victory at Crystal Palace on 26 September. He made what turned out to be his final appearance for Southampton on 13 December 2017, in a 4–1 home defeat to Leicester. It was also his last appearance in any of Southampton's matchday squads, as he was omitted from the squad for the rest of his tenure at the club in light of speculation surrounding his future.

Liverpool.

On 27 December 2017, it was announced that Van Dijk would join Liverpool when the winter transfer window opened on 1 January 2018 for a reported fee of £75 million. Former club Celtic would receive 10% of Van Dijk's transfer fee, due to a sell-on clause placed in his Southampton contract. Southampton claimed the undisclosed transfer fee would constitute a world record fee in football for a defender.

2017–18 season.

He made his debut for Liverpool on 5 January in the third round of the FA Cup and scored the winning goal with a late header in a 2–1 victory against local rivals Everton. In doing so, he became the first player since Bill White in 1901 to score on his debut in the Merseyside derby. Van Dijk and Dejan Lovren built a strong partnership at the heart of Liverpool's defence, with the Dutchman being credited for improving Liverpool's previous defensive issues.  Van Dijk was included in the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season, despite playing just half of the season in the Champions League, with the "UEFA Technical Observers" saying: "Van Dijk arrived at Anfield and provided composure and stability in the competition's knockout stages." Van Dijk played the full 90 minutes in the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final against Real Madrid, which Liverpool lost 1–3. Van Dijk played 22 games in all competitions in his first season with the club, scoring 1 goal.

2018–19 season.

On 20 August 2018, Van Dijk was voted Man of the Match by BBC Sport and Sky Sports for his performance in a 2–0 win over Crystal Palace. Van Dijk received the Liverpool Standard Chartered Player of the Month award for his performances in August. On 2 December, Van Dijk was awarded an assist for the winning goal in a derby match against city rivals Everton. Liverpool won 1–0 thanks to Divock Origi's 96th-minute goal, set up by a Van Dijk volley and a subsequent error from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. The Dutchman was ultimately awarded the PFA Player of the Month for November 2018. On 21 December, Van Dijk scored his first goal in the Premier League for Liverpool in a 2–0 away win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Dutchman continued his impressive form in the 2018–19 season by winning the Premier League Player of the Month prize for December 2018.  On 27 February 2019, Van Dijk scored twice in a 5–0 win against Watford. The following month, he scored once - his first goal in the Champions League for the club - and assisted another in a 3–1 win over Bayern Munich. In doing so, he became the first player since Craig Bellamy in 2007 to score and assist a goal for Liverpool in a knock-out stage match away from home in the competition.  On 20 April, he was one of six players nominated for the PFA Players' Player of the Year award alongside teammate Sadio Mané. Four days later, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year alongside Liverpool teammates, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mané and Andrew Robertson. On 28 April 2019, he was named the PFA Player of the Year. Following Liverpool's 2–0 victory over Tottenham in the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final on 1 June, Van Dijk was named UEFA's "Man of the match".

2019–20 season.

In August 2019, Van Dijk won UEFA player of the year award. On 2 September 2019, he was shortlisted in the final three of the best FIFA football awards. On 23 September 2019, he was voted runner up in The Best FIFA Men's Player and into the FIFA FIFpro Men's World 11. In October 2019, Van Dijk was shortlisted as one in 30 football players for the Ballon d'Or. At the event in December, he finished runner-up behind Lionel Messi. On 21 December 2019, after missing the semi-final of the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup with illness, Van Dijk played in the final against Flamengo with Liverpool winning the trophy for the first time in the club’s history.  Van Dijk received further recognition following the turn of the year, when he was named in the 2019 UEFA Team of the Year. On 19 January 2020, Van Dijk scored his first North-West Derby goal against Manchester United in Liverpool’s 2–0 win at Anfield in the Premier League.

International career.

Van Dijk made his full international debut for Netherlands on 10 October 2015, in a 2–1 victory away from home against Kazakhstan in a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier.  He was awarded the captaincy of his country by manager Ronald Koeman on 22 March 2018, and his first match as captain was a 1–0 home friendly defeat by England the next day. On 26 March, he scored his first international goal to conclude a 3–0 win over European champions Portugal at the Stade de Genève. On 13 October, he scored in a 3–0 win over 2014 World Cup champions Germany in the UEFA Nations League.

Style of play.

Van Dijk is a physically strong, right-footed centre-back, who usually features on the left-hand side of central defence, although he can also play as a right-sided centre-back. He is gifted with pace, good technique, and an eye for goal, and is an effective set-piece taker. Regarding his ability, former Celtic teammate Kris Commons commented that Van Dijk was "comfortable on the ball", also noting that "He had good technique and a wonderful right foot. He was good on set-pieces, some of the free-kicks he scored for Celtic are absolute wonders. He could read the game well. He had an aura about him, a confidence, because I think he knew he was good."  Neil McGuinness, senior scout at Celtic when Van Dijk was signed, called him "everything you would want if you could create a profile of the ideal central defender", praising him as a "very smooth ball-playing defender" who possesses aerial prowess, skills from dead ball situations, and "strong leadership qualities", while commenting that since his move to England, he is "more tactically aware now [...] his anticipation and timing has improved and he is a lot more of an all-rounder". McGuinness believes Van Dijk's "biggest problem" is that he "can switch off when the game is comfortable".  In a 2019 interview with "Marca", when Lionel Messi was asked why Van Dijk was so difficult to beat, the Argentine responded: "He is a defender who knows how to judge his timing and wait for the right moment to challenge or jockey [the attacker]. He is very fast and big, but he has a lot of agility for his height. He is fast because of its [sic] great stride, and he is impressive both in defence and attack because he scores lots of goals. That same year, Paul Merson described Van Dijk as "the best in the world, and I think by a long way, as a defensive centre-half."

Sponsorship.

Van Dijk features as the cover star of the champions edition of EA Sports' "FIFA" video game "FIFA 20". He is endorsed by sportswear company Nike.

Personal life.

Van Dijk commonly uses only his first name on the kit. According to his uncle Steven, this is because of a feud with his father.

Honours.

Celtic  Liverpool  Netherlands  Individual

Virgil van Dijk (; born 8 July 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for English club Liverpool and captains the Netherlands national team. Considered to be one of the best defenders in the world, he is known for his strength, leadership and aerial ability. In 2019 he was named the UEFA Men's Player of the Year, and finished runner-up for the Ballon d'Or and The Best FIFA Men's Player.

Virgil van Dijk (* 8. července 1991, Breda, Nizozemsko) je nizozemský fotbalový obránce a reprezentant, od ledna 2018 hráč klubu Liverpool FC. Hraje na postu stopera (středního obránce).


Biography.

Robinson excelled in school, and as a National Merit semi-finalist she earned a scholarship to Salem College in West Virginia. Halfway to her degree, money and music proved a stronger draw, so she left school to front a touring top-40 band for several years. Burnout on the road brought her back to college; this time to the California Institute of the Arts to study music.  She toured as back-up singer for Cohen in 1979 and 1980, and then again during 2008–2013. They collaborated on writing the songs "Everybody Knows" and "Waiting for the Miracle", released in 1988 and 1992 respectively. In 2001 she co-wrote, produced, arranged and performed the backing tracks (as well as appearing alongside Cohen on the cover) for his album "Ten New Songs". Robinson also contributed to three tracks on Cohen's 2004 album "Dear Heather", and duetted with Cohen on "The Letters".  She was awarded a Grammy in 1985 for the song "New Attitude" (from the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack), recorded by Patti LaBelle.  In 2004, Robinson gave a full-length interview discussing her life, career and work with Leonard Cohen.  In 2005, Robinson wrote the song "The High Road" specifically for Bettye LaVette for her album "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise", which was picked as #59 at Amazon's best of 2005 Editor's picks. Robinson's recent work also includes the songs written for Chris Botti. In 2008, Robinson released her debut solo album "Everybody Knows", which includes three songs she co-wrote with Cohen: "Alexandra Leaving", "Everybody Knows", and "Summertime", their first collaboration, originally recorded by Diana Ross for her 1987 album "Red Hot Rhythm & Blues". The set also includes "The High Road", and six new tracks written by Robinson.  On October 27, 2008, Vibrant Records released "Everybody Knows" in the United Kingdom and Europe, replacing the original artwork from Leonard Cohen with a photo of Robinson. In February 2009, Vibrant Records closed due to the bankruptcy of its distributor Pinnacle. In April 2009, UK label Freeworld Records re-released "Everybody Knows" in Europe with the original Leonard Cohen-drawn cover art. Robinson self-released the album in the U.S.  In 2008 Robinson joined The Leonard Cohen World Tour which lasted until December 2013. In August 2013 she was profiled in a cover story in the "Financial Times". A book of her photographs was released in December 2014 along with exhibits in New York and Los Angeles, and performances in those cities and Toronto.  Sharon Robinson appeared on Cohen's 2012 album "Old Ideas" singing, arranging choirs and playing synth bass on four tracks.  Robinson performed songs from both her albums and also songs she co-wrote with Cohen on a tour in March and April 2015, coinciding with the release of her second solo album, entitled "Caffeine", singing in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, Ireland, Scotland and England. "Caffeine" included 10 new tracks written and produced by Sharon Robinson herself, with one song, "Lucky", co-written with Cohen in the 1980s but not recorded.  In 2015 Robinson released a four-track EP titled "Sharon Robinson EP 1", with the songs by Tom Waits, Otis Redding, Bruce Hornsby, and Eric Clapton. After her second 2015 tour was postponed, she toured in Europe again in August and September 2016. In August 2016, she was the guest of honor at the 10th Leonard Cohen Event, held in Amsterdam.

Sharon Robinson (born 1958 in San Francisco) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. She is best known as a frequent writing collaborator with Leonard Cohen, although she has written songs for a number of other artists as well, including The Pointer Sisters, Aaron Neville, Brenda Russell, Diana Ross, Don Henley, Michael Bolton, Randy Crawford, Patti LaBelle, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Bettye LaVette and others.

Sharon Robinson (* 1958, San Francisco) je americká hudebnice, hudební producentka a skladatelka. V roce 1979 začala spolupracovat s kanadským hudebníkem Leonardem Cohenem; právě téhož roku odehrála turné coby doprovodná zpěvačka v jeho kapele a v následujících letech se ke spolupráci několikrát vrátila. V roce 2001 například vyšlo Cohenovo album "Ten New Songs", které Robinson produkuje a je autorkou hudby pro všechny písně. Podílela se ale také na mnoha jeho dalších nahrávkách. V roce 1985 získala cenu Grammy za píseň „New Attitude“, kterou napsala pro zpěvačku Patti LaBelle. V roce 2008 vydala sólové album "Everybody Knows".


Meaning.

The song's oblique lyric is suggestive of religious and end time themes with references to prayer, meaningful birthmarks and signs in the sky. Ben Hewitt writing for "The Guardian" in 2015 drew attention to the lyric's apocalyptic nature, imagining Cohen "greedily eyeing world domination like a Bond villain". "Rolling Stone" magazine's Mikal Gilmore similarly described the song as a threatening vision of "social collapse and a terrorist's revenge". "The Daily Telegraph's" Robert Sandall likewise observed the prophetic character of the song, but emphasized the song's political statement, placing it in the context of the last days of the Soviet Union.  Cohen explained himself in a backstage interview: "I think it means exactly what it says. It is a terrorist song. I think it's a response to terrorism. There's something about terrorism that I've always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don't like it when it's manifested on the physical plane – I don't really enjoy the terrorist activities – but Psychic Terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read, I'll give you a paraphrase of it. It was 'well, you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there', he says. 'But our terrorists, Jesus, Freud, Marx, Einstein. The whole world is still quaking.'"

Jennifer Warnes version.

Warnes' original recording is notable for the distinctive driving lead guitar played by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Producer Roscoe Beck was from Austin, Texas and friends with Vaughan. In late February 1986, at the annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Beck asked Vaughan to record the guitar for the song. In a 2007 interview, Beck recalls that Vaughan did not have his guitar or amp with him, and used one of Beck's old Strats instead. After working on a few technical problems, the finished recording was achieved after two or three takes. According to Jennifer Warnes' official site, Vaughan finished recording his takes at 4 AM.

Music video.

The music video for Warnes' version of "First We Take Manhattan" was directed by Paula Walker. Filmed in New York City, the video features Stevie Ray Vaughan playing his weathered "Number One" guitar (with its distinctive "SRV" logo) on the Brooklyn Bridge. Cohen also appears with Warnes in the video. The 20th anniversary edition of the music video contains a German intro about the 1986 West Berlin discotheque bombing.  The album version of the song is 3:47 in length, whereas the single is 3:32 long. A promotional 12-inch single version, entitled "Jennifer Warnes — First We Take Manhattan, Radio Remix — featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan", contained extended and edited versions.

Leonard Cohen version.

Leonard Cohen's own quasi-synthpop version of "First We Take Manhattan" (with additional verses) was released in 1988 as the first track on his album "I'm Your Man". Cohen's then-girlfriend, Dominique Issermann, shot a black and white promotional video for Cohen's version of the track.  On his 1988 tour, instead of the original, Euro-disco-influenced arrangement of his studio version, Cohen introduced the new, funk-influenced arrangement, suggested by his backing singers Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen. He continued to perform the song this way in 1993, 2008 and 2009 tours.  Cohen's studio recording plays over the closing credits of the 2009 film "Watchmen".

Other cover versions.

The song has been covered dozens of times. Most notably, R.E.M. contributed a cover for the Cohen tribute album "I'm Your Fan". Their presence on the compilation led to a re-arranging of the "I'm Your Fan" track list. In the US release of the tribute, R.E.M.'s cover appeared as the first track, rather than House of Love's "Who by Fire" which was the starting track in all other countries. The song also appeared as a B-side on some versions of the single "Drive".  Joe Cocker covered "First We Take Manhattan" on his 1999 album "No Ordinary World".  Other artists to cover the song include Show of Hands, Cookies 'N' Beans, Boris Grebenshchikov, Yasmine, Sirenia, Maxx Klaxon, Tyskarna från Lund, Enrique Morente, and Widespread Panic.

"First We Take Manhattan" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. It was originally recorded by American singer Jennifer Warnes on her 1986 Cohen tribute album "Famous Blue Raincoat", which consisted entirely of songs written or co-written by Cohen.

First We Take Manhattan je singlová píseň kanadského hudebníka Leonarda Cohena, která se v roce 1988 objevila jako součást jeho alba "I'm Your Man". Černobílý videoklip k této písni se zřetelnými prvky synthpopu natočila Cohenova někdejší přítelkyně Dominique Issermannová. Píseň First We Take Manhattan byla také použita v závěrečných titulcích k filmu Strážci – Watchmen. Ještě před Cohenem samotným tuto píseň nahrála zpěvačka Jennifer Warnes na své album "Famous Blue Raincoat". Anglický zpěvák Joe Cocker ji nahrál na své album "No Ordinary World" z roku 1999. Na albu "I'm Your Fan" (1991), kde různí umělci nahráli Cohenovy písně, ji vydala skupina R.E.M.


Family.

The Wass family has traced its descent from the age of Árpád, and is one of the oldest noble families in Transylvania. The family received the title of count from Maria Theresia in 1744.  His grandfather, Béla Wass, was a parliamentarian and Lord Lieutenant (főispán) of Szolnok-Doboka county. His father was Count Endre Wass (1886–1975), his mother Baroness Ilona Bánffy de Losonc (1883–1960).  He has six sons: Vid Wass de Czege, Csaba Wass de Czege, Huba Wass de Czege, Miklós Wass de Czege, Geza Wass de Czege and Endre (Andreas) Wass von Czege.

Youth.

Albert Wass was born in "Válaszút" (today Răscruci) at the Bánffy mansion of Válaszút, distinct from the nearby Bánffy castle of Bonchida. His parents divorced early, and he was mostly brought up by his grandfather, Béla Wass. He received his baccalaureate from the Reformed Church Secondary School in Cluj on Farkas Street and subsequently earned a diploma of forestry from the Academy of Economics in Debrecen, Hungary. He continued his studies of forestry and horticulture in Hohenheim, Germany and Sorbonne, Paris, where he received additional diplomas. He returned to Transylvania in 1932, as his father fell ill. He had to attend obligatory military service in the Romanian Army, and later settled to run the family estate in the Transylvanian Plain.  His first wife was his cousin Baroness Éva Siemers (1914–1991) of Hamburg. "Due to pressure from my family, I had to marry my cousin in 1935 (...) this was the only way to avoid bankruptcy of the family lands", Wass wrote later.  He had six children (Vid, Csaba, Huba, Miklós, Géza, Endre); Csaba died at age 3. Huba Wass de Czege, born in 1941 in Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) had a significant career in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of brigadier general. He is known as a principal designer of the "AirLand Battle" military doctrine and took part in the planning of Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991.  Wass started to write poems, short stories and articles. His first books were published in 1927 and 1929 in Cluj. In 1934, his novel "Farkasverem" ("Wolfpit") was published by the Transylvanian Guild of Arts. In 1935, he was accepted member of the Transylvanian Guild of Arts, and at the same time he was the first young Transylvanian to be awarded the Baumgarten Prize.  After the Second Vienna Award (30 August 1940), northern Transylvania was reassigned to Hungary, so in 1941, Wass was nominated as primary forest monitor in the Ministry of Agriculture for the area near Dés (now Dej).

During World War II.

From May 1942 he took part in military training with the Hungarian Cavalry as a reserve officer, achieving rank of ensign. In his memoirs, Wass claims to have become chief editor of "Ellenzék" in May 1943, as his boss was drafted into the army. He writes:  two soldiers of Gestapo entered the editorial, showing the order they have to monitor the newspaper. I simply left the building, and walked up the mountains. Two weeks later, my father sent me a message that the Germans are looking for me. To avoid conflict, General Veress, the commander of military troops in North Transylvania has given me a uniform, and as master sergeant he sent me to Ukraine with 9th Hungarian Cavalry, from which I returned only at Christmas. Wass became the aide-de-camp of General Lajos Veress in 1944. As the war was drawing to an end and the Soviet (and later Romanian) troops were drawing forward into Transylvania, as an officer, he did not wait for the occupation of North Transylvania, but on Easter 1945, crossed the border and chose emigration.

World War II sentence for war crimes.

In May 1946, both Albert Wass and his father, Endre Wass, were sentenced to death "in absentia" by a Romanian tribunal for ordering the killing of Romanian peasants from Sucutard and Mureșenii de Câmpie and their possessions were confiscated, by Romanian People's Tribunal, a tribunal set up by the post-World War II government of Romania, overseen by the Allied Control Commission to trial suspected war criminals, in line with Article 14 of the Armistice Agreement with Romania. The tribunal were to a large extent set up on the model of the Nürnberg International Tribunal. The two were accused for events that happened in September 1940, when the Hungarian forces marched into North Transylvania, when a Hungarian lieutenant, Pakucs, arrested six inhabitants (a Romanian priest and his family, his Hungarian servant, also Romanian peasants, and a local Jewish merchant and his family) of Sucutard ("Szentgothárd"), and then shot to death two Romanian men and two Jewish women, Eszter and Róza Mihály in Ţaga ("Czege"), at the order of Albert and Endre Wass, when they allegedly attempted to escape. Albert Wass was also accused for, as the alleged instigator, for the shootings at Mureşenii de Câmpie ("Omboztelke"), when Hungarian soldiers, led by Lieutenant Gergely Csordás, killed 11 Jews. Wass defended himself as not present at the killings.  Romanian authorities tried several times to have him extradited to Romania, however in 1979, after several revisions, the U.S. Department of Justice refused the petition due to lack of evidence. This was confirmed even after the Wiesenthal Center denounced him, as he was among the people who were accused of killing Jews. After the analysis of the case, the U.S. dropped the charges against him. Wass continued to insist that he had nothing to do with the killings, and claimed he was the victim of a "Zionist-Romanian" conspiracy.  Albert Wass claimed several times that the secret police of Communist Romania, the Securitate, was trying to assassinate him, but he was not able to prove it. In 1986, he shot a film on bullet marks allegedly resulting from an attempt to kill him, but no solid evidence was found to link it to the Securitate. The two perpetrators of that attempt have been captured by American police, but they were released on account of their Romanian diplomatic passport.  In 2008, his son, Andreas Wass, appealed to the Romanian courts to annul the sentence, but the Romanian courts found that no new evidence was presented and as such, the sentence was upheld.

Emigration.

First traveling to Sopron, he then moved onward to Bleichbach and Hamburg, Germany, and lived there till 1951, where the family of his first wife, Éva Siemers, had been living. He found a job as a nightwatchman at a construction site.  In 1951, Wass emigrated to the United States, together with four of his sons (Vid, Huba, Miklós, and Géza). Due to pulmonary disease, his wife was unable to receive approval for emigration from the US administration and was subsequently left behind in Germany with their other son Endre. The couple later divorced.  In 1952, he married Elizabeth McClain (1905–1987).  Wass founded the American Hungarian Guild of Arts, managing its academic work and publishing activities, and editing its newsletter. He launched his own publishing house, the Danubian Press, which published not only books but English language magazines of the American Hungarian Guild of Arts, too. The Transylvanian Quarterly dealing with Transylvania and related issues, then the Hungarian Quarterly undertaking the general problems of the Hungarian nation became the most important anti-Bolshevik forum of Hungarian exiles.  On 20 August 1993 he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit by president Árpád Göncz according to the proposal of prime minister József Antall, received the next year from the Hungarian consul of Florida and Sándor Csoóri at his home.  Wass's application for naturalization in Hungary was first refused by the government between 1994 and 1998, as his death sentence in Hungary had not been revoked, then impeded by a reply that the naturalization certificate of the 90-year-old author would have been valid for only a year from the date of issue.  Wass committed suicide on February 17, 1998 at age 90 in his Florida residence after a long struggle with a medical condition. His final wish was to have his remains placed in the garden of Kemény villa in Brâncoveneşti, Mureş County, next to the tomb of author János Kemény.

Citizenship and rehabilitation attempts.

It was a long debate in the Hungarian press about the fact that Albert Wass has not received Hungarian citizenship, in spite of his several applications, the explanation given being that he had again became a Romanian citizen after the 1946 Paris Peace Conference.  In 2007, Hungarian members of parliament István Simicskó (KDNP, Christian Democrats) and Mihály Babák (Fidesz, Young Democrats) have asked president László Sólyom to grant Albert Wass citizenship posthumously, but were replied that this is not possible for several reasons, for example, he had already received citizenship in 1997, so the writer has died as Hungarian,, however, the certificate of citizenship (but not the citizenship itself) was valid only for one year and he refused it as being offensive.  In recent years, some representatives of the Hungarian minority in Romania and his family attempted his rehabilitation. His son's request for a retrial of the case was rejected by the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice in 2007.  His life has never been examined thoroughly in court, so as a consequence it is a predominant view among Romanians that Albert Wass is a criminal, responsible for the murdering of Romanians and Jews and his condemnation by the Tribunal is just. The rehabilitation attempts are seen as immoral particularly by relatives of those he was accused of murdering.  On May 22, 2004, a statue was unveiled in Odorheiu Secuiesc bearing no name, only the Hungarian inscription "Vándor Székely" (Wandering Szekler). The sculpture was interpreted in the Romanian press as being of Albert Wass. Two statues of Wass have been moved to the interior of the Hungarian churches in Reghin and Lunca Mureșului.  Although Romanian law forbids the cult of those condemned for "offence against peace and mankind or promoting fascist, racist or xenophobe ideology", some Romanian localities predominantly inhabited by Hungarian ethnics still retain commemorative statues of Albert Wass. They argue the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Romania on 21 June 2004 in written declared - in another trial -:  "Regarding the analysis of the relevant international laws applied for war crimes and offence against peace and mankind that also Romania ratified (Geneva Conventions 12. 08. 1949 - "...") the conclusion is the activities of Albert Wass convict are not belonging to those crimes that are summarized in these international conventions. Conclusion: "..." Albert Wass was not condemned for offence against peace and mankind"  In another trial, a person was charged because he put a statue in his own yard in Sovata. Finally he was released from the charge and the authorities were obligated to restore the statue to its original place.  Albert Wass also has commemorative statues in several localities in Hungary, where he is considered by some on the Right to be a hero and a victim of the regime.  The representatives of the ruling Fidesz party and the radical nationalist Jobbik party together voted in early 2011 that several public squares be named after him in Budapest.

Novels, publications.

In his 1939 work "Farkasverem" ("Wolfpit"), he described how the Trianon generation found their feet again: the unity of the presentation of social reality, the quest for meting out justice in history, together with ancient language, music, rhythm conquered the hearts of many readers in Hungary. In 1939, he was elected member of the Transylvanian Literary Society and the Kisfaludy Society. In 1940, he was awarded the Baumgarten Prize the second time.  In 1942, he received the Klebelsberg Award and in the same year on a memorable tour in Hungary he represented Transylvanian literature together with three of his peers. He was even elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as appreciation for his knowledge in forestry.  His writings were patriotic but did not exacerbate the tensions between the Romanian and Hungarian population during the recover of Northern Transylvania as a consequence of the Second Vienna Award.  His fable "A patkányok honfoglalása – Tanulságos mese fiatal magyaroknak" ("The Conquest by the Rats - A Fable for Young Hungarians"), which tells how rats take over a house, because they are tolerated by the magnanimous landowner, is considered paradigmatic for antisemitic story-telling.

Count Albert Wass de Szentegyed et Czege (Hungarian "gróf szentegyedi és czegei Wass Albert"; Válaszút, Austria-Hungary (now Răscruci, Cluj County, Romania), January 8. 1908 – Astor Park, Florida, February 17, 1998) was a Hungarian nobleman, forest engineer, novelist, poet and member of the Wass de Czege family.

Albert Wass (8. ledna 1908, Válaszút – 17. února 1998 Astor, Florida) byl sedmihradský maďarský spisovatel, který byl po 2. světové válce odsouzen v nepřítomnosti za válečné zločiny k trestu smrti. Tou dobou však již žil v emigraci.


Musical career.

1999–2000: Debut album.

Bachman got his musical break when executives at EMI Music Publishing in New York City heard a demo tape, and aided him in securing a record deal with Columbia Records. Bob Rock (of Metallica, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, and Skid Row fame) signed on to co-produce his debut album. His first album, "Tal Bachman", featured what would eventually become his hit single, "She's So High", which reached No. 1 on three different radio formats in Canada. The song became a multi-format Top 10 hit in the United States and internationally, earning BMI's "Song of the Year" award. The album earned Bachman two Juno awards in Canada, and much media exposure, including appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, MTV, MuchMusic, and E Network; and profiles, interviews, and reviews in "Rolling Stone", "Q Magazine", "USA Today", "Interview", and the "Los Angeles Times". In support of the record, Bachman toured as an opening act for Bryan Adams and the Barenaked Ladies, and also toured in his own right.

2004–2005: "Staring Down the Sun".

Bachman's second album, "Staring Down the Sun", was released in Canada on Sextant Records in August 2004 and was released in the United States by Artemis Records in 2006. The single "Aeroplane" reached No. 20 on the Canadian charts and was used in the 2005 film, "". It was played as an instrumental and during the credits.

Personal life.

Bachman lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and is the son of Canadian rocker Randy Bachman of the classic rock bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. His sister Lorelei Bachman is also a writer and a musician.  He is a former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and went on a two-year mission to Argentina, but after two years of research into that church's origins, Bachman concluded that the church's founder Joseph Smith had invented his stories, and severed his ties to that church. He talks about Mormonism in the 2008 documentary film "Religulous" with Bill Maher.  As the holder of a bachelor's degree in political science, Bachman has moonlighted as a political commentator.  He plays right-wing and outside-centre for the Victoria, BC rugby club Castaway Wanderers RFC.  In 2006, Bachman was interviewed for the 2007 PBS documentary called "The Mormons". In it, he discussed his departure from the LDS church. In 2008, Bachman also discussed his departure from the LDS church when interviewed for the Bill Maher documentary "Religulous".

Awards.

Third Annual Canadian Radio Music Awards (2000)  29th Annual Juno Awards (2000)

Talmage Charles Robert "Tal" Bachman (born August 13, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his late 1998 hit, "She's So High", a pop rock tune from his self-titled 1999 album that led to a BMI award.

Talmage Bachman (* 13. srpna 1968 Winnipeg, Manitoba) je kanadský zpěvák-skladatel a hudebník. Je známý především díky hitu She's So High z roku 1999 z jeho stejnojmenného alba.


Design paradigm.

Specifying the general idea of a microkernel, Liedtke states:  A concept is tolerated inside the microkernel only if moving it outside the kernel, i.e., permitting competing implementations, would prevent the implementation of the system's required functionality.  In this spirit, the L4 microkernel provides few basic mechanisms: address spaces (abstracting page tables and providing memory protection), threads and scheduling (abstracting execution and providing temporal protection), and inter-process communication (for controlled communication across isolation boundaries).  An operating system based on a microkernel like L4 provides services as servers in user space that monolithic kernels like Linux or older generation microkernels include internally. For example, in order to implement a secure Unix-like system, servers must provide the rights management that Mach included inside the kernel.

History.

The poor performance of first-generation microkernels, such as Mach, led a number of developers to re-examine the entire microkernel concept in the mid-1990s. The asynchronous in-kernel-buffering process communication concept used in Mach turned out to be one of the main reasons for its poor performance. This induced developers of Mach-based operating systems to move some time-critical components, like file systems or drivers, back inside the kernel. While this somewhat ameliorated the performance issues, it plainly violates the minimality concept of a true microkernel (and squanders their major advantages).  Detailed analysis of the Mach bottleneck indicated that, among other things, its working set is too large: the IPC code expresses poor spatial locality; that is, it results in too many cache misses, of which most are in-kernel. This analysis gave rise to the principle that an efficient microkernel should be small enough that the majority of performance-critical code fits into the (first-level) cache (preferably a small fraction of said cache).

L3.

Jochen Liedtke set out to prove that a well designed thinner IPC layer, with careful attention to performance and machine-specific (as opposed to platform independent) design could yield massive real-world performance improvements. Instead of Mach's complex IPC system, his L3 microkernel simply passed the message without any additional overhead. Defining and implementing the required security policies were considered to be duties of the user space servers. The role of the kernel was only to provide the necessary mechanism to enable the user-level servers to enforce the policies. L3, developed in 1988, proved itself a safe and robust operating system, used for many years for example by TÜV SÜD.

L4.

After some experience using L3, Liedtke came to the conclusion that several other Mach concepts were also misplaced. By simplifying the microkernel concepts even further he developed the first L4 kernel which was primarily designed with high performance in mind. In order to wring out every bit of performance the entire kernel was written in assembly language, and its IPC was 20 times faster than Mach's. Such dramatic performance increases are a rare event in operating systems, and Liedtke's work triggered new L4 implementations and work on L4-based systems at a number of universities and research institutes, including IBM, where Liedtke started to work in 1996, TU Dresden and UNSW. At IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center Liedtke and his colleagues continued research on L4 and microkernel based systems in general, especially the Sawmill OS.

L4Ka::Hazelnut.

In 1999, Liedtke took over the Systems Architecture Group at the University of Karlsruhe, where he continued the research into microkernel systems. As a proof of concept that a high performance microkernel could also be constructed in a higher level language, the group developed L4Ka::Hazelnut, a C++ version of the kernel that ran on IA-32- and ARM-based machines. The effort was a success — performance was still acceptable — and with its release the pure assembly language versions of the kernels were effectively discontinued.

L4/Fiasco.

In parallel to the development of L4Ka::Hazelnut, in 1998 the Operating Systems Group TUD:OS of the TU Dresden (Dresden University of Technology) started to develop their own C++ implementation of the L4 kernel interface, called L4/Fiasco. In contrast to L4Ka::Hazelnut, which does not allow concurrency in the kernel at all and its successor L4Ka::Pistachio, which allows interrupts in the kernel only at specific preemption points, L4/Fiasco was fully preemptible (with the exception of extremely short atomic operations) to achieve a low interrupt latency. This was considered necessary because L4/Fiasco is used as the basis of DROPS, a hard real-time capable operating system, also developed at the TU Dresden. However, the complexities of a fully preemptible design prompted later versions of Fiasco to return to the traditional L4 approach of running the kernel with interrupts disabled, except for a limited number of preemption points.

Platform independence.

L4Ka::Pistachio.

Up until the release of L4Ka::Pistachio and newer versions of Fiasco, all L4 microkernels had been inherently tied close to the underlying CPU architecture. The next big shift in L4 development was the development of a platform-independent API that still retained the high performance characteristics despite its higher level of portability. Although the underlying concepts of the kernel were the same, the new API provided many significant changes relative to previous L4 versions, including better support for multi-processor systems, looser ties between threads and address spaces, and the introduction of user-level thread control blocks (UTCBs) and virtual registers. After releasing the new L4 API (Version X.2 a.k.a. Version 4) in early 2001, the System Architecture Group at the University of Karlsruhe implemented a new kernel, L4Ka::Pistachio, completely from scratch, now with focus on both high performance as well as portability. It was released under the two-clause BSD license.

Newer Fiasco versions.

The L4/Fiasco microkernel has also been extensively improved over the years. It now supports several hardware platforms ranging from x86 through AMD64 to several ARM platforms. Notably, a version of Fiasco (Fiasco-UX) can run as a user-level application on top of Linux.  L4/Fiasco implements several extensions to the L4v2 API. Exception IPC enables the kernel to send CPU exceptions to user-level handler applications. With the help of alien threads it is possible to perform fine-grained control over system calls. X.2-style UTCBs have been added. Furthermore, Fiasco contains mechanisms for controlling communication rights as well as kernel-level resource consumption. On top of Fiasco a collection of basic user level services are developed (called L4Env) that amongst others are used to para-virtualise current Linux version (4.19 as of May 2019) (called L4Linux).

University of New South Wales and NICTA.

Development also took place at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where developers implemented L4 on several 64-bit platforms. Their work resulted in L4/MIPS and L4/Alpha, resulting in Liedtke's original version being retrospectively named L4/x86. Like Liedtke's original kernels, the UNSW kernels (written in a mixture of assembly and C) were unportable and each implemented from scratch. With the release of the highly portable L4Ka::Pistachio, the UNSW group abandoned their own kernels in favor of producing highly tuned ports of L4Ka::Pistachio, including the fastest-ever reported implementation of message passing (36 cycles on the Itanium architecture). The group has also demonstrated that user-level device drivers can perform as well as in-kernel drivers, and developed Wombat, a highly portable version of Linux on L4 that runs on x86, ARM and MIPS processors. On XScale processors, Wombat demonstrates context-switching costs that are up to 50 times lower than in native Linux.  Later the UNSW group, at their new home at NICTA, forked L4Ka::Pistachio into a new L4 version called NICTA::L4-embedded. As the name implies, this was aimed at use in commercial embedded systems, and consequently the implementation trade-offs favored small memory footprints and aimed to reduce complexity. The API was modified to keep almost all system calls short enough that they do not need preemption points to ensure high real-time responsiveness.

Commercial deployment.

In November 2005, NICTA announced that Qualcomm was deploying NICTA's L4 version on their "Mobile Station Modem" chipsets. This led to the use of L4 in mobile phone handsets on sale from late 2006. In August 2006, ERTOS leader and UNSW professor Gernot Heiser spun out a company called Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs) to support commercial L4 users and further develop L4 for commercial use under the brand name OKL4, in close collaboration with NICTA. OKL4 Version 2.1, released in April 2008, was the first generally available version of L4 which featured capability-based security. OKL4 3.0, released in October 2008, was the last open-source version of OKL4. More recent versions are closed source and based on a rewrite to support a native hypervisor variant called the OKL4 Microvisor. OK Labs also distributed a paravirtualized Linux called OK:Linux, a descendant of Wombat, as well as paravirtualized versions of SymbianOS and Android. OK Labs also acquired the rights to seL4 from NICTA.  OKL4 shipments exceeded 1.5 billion in early 2012, mostly on Qualcomm wireless modem chips. Other deployments include automotive infotainment systems.  Apple mobile application processors beginning with the A7 contain a Secure Enclave coprocessor running an L4 operating system based on the L4-embedded kernel developed at NICTA in 2006. This implies that L4 is now shipping on all iOS devices, the total shipment of which is estimated at 310 million for the year 2015.

High assurance: seL4.

In 2006, the NICTA group commenced a from-scratch design of a third-generation microkernel, called seL4, with the aim of providing a basis for highly secure and reliable systems, suitable for satisfying security requirements such as those of Common Criteria and beyond. From the beginning, development aimed for formal verification of the kernel. To ease meeting the sometimes conflicting requirements of performance and verification, the team used a middle-out software process starting from an executable specification written in Haskell. seL4 uses capability-based access control to enable formal reasoning about object accessibility.  A formal proof of functional correctness was completed in 2009. The proof provides a guarantee that the kernel's implementation is correct against its specification, and implies that it is free of implementation bugs such as deadlocks, livelocks, buffer overflows, arithmetic exceptions or use of uninitialised variables. seL4 is claimed to be the first-ever general-purpose operating-system kernel that has been verified.  seL4 takes a novel approach to kernel resource management, exporting the management of kernel resources to user level and subjects them to the same capability-based access control as user resources. This model, which was also adopted by Barrelfish, simplifies reasoning about isolation properties, and was an enabler for later proofs that seL4 enforces the core security properties of integrity and confidentiality. The NICTA team also proved correctness of the translation from C to executable machine code, taking the compiler out of the trusted computing base of seL4. This implies that the high-level security proofs hold for the kernel executable. seL4 is also the first published protected-mode OS kernel with a complete and sound worst-case execution-time (WCET) analysis, a prerequisite for its use in hard real-time systems.  On 29 July 2014, NICTA and General Dynamics C4 Systems announced that seL4, with end to end proofs, was now released under open-source licenses. The kernel source and proofs are under GPLv2, and most libraries and tools are under the 2-clause BSD license.  The researchers state that the cost of formal software verification is lower than the cost of engineering traditional "high-assurance" software despite providing much more reliable results. Specifically, the cost of one line of code during the development of seL4 was estimated at around, compared to for traditional high-assurance systems.  Under the DARPA High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) program, NICTA together with project partners Rockwell Collins, Galois Inc, the University of Minnesota and Boeing developed a high-assurance drone based on seL4, along with other assurance tools and software, with planned technology transfer onto the optionally piloted autonomous Unmanned Little Bird helicopter under development by Boeing. Final demonstration of the HACMS technology took place in Sterling, VA in April 2017. DARPA also funded several Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts related to seL4 under a program started by Dr. John Launchbury. Small businesses receiving an seL4-related SBIR included: DornerWorks, Techshot, Wearable Inc, Real Time Innovations, and Critical Technologies.

Other research and development.

Osker, an OS written in Haskell, targeted the L4 specification; although this project focused on the use of a functional programming language for OS development, not on microkernel research per se.  CodeZero is an L4 microkernel targeting embedded systems with a focus on virtualization and implementation of native OS services. There is a GPL-licensed version, and a version that was relicensed by the developers as closed source and forked in 2010.  The NOVA OS Virtualization Architecture is a research project with focus on constructing a secure and efficient virtualization environment with a small trusted computing base. NOVA consists of a microhypervisor, a user level virtual-machine monitor, and an unprivileged componentised multi-server user environment running on top of it called NUL. NOVA runs on x86-based multi-core systems.

L4 is a family of second-generation microkernels, generally used to implement Unix-like operating systems, but also used in a variety of other systems.

L4 je rodina mikrojader druhé generace nejčastěji používaných pro implementaci un*xových operačních systémů, ale používaných také v různých jiných systémech.


Background.

Wu was originally a minor state east of Chu, which was a major power of the Spring and Autumn Period and was frequently at war with the state of Jin, the other major power north of Chu. In order to check Chu's expansion, Jin made an alliance with Wu, trained the Wu army, and taught them to use chariots. Wu gradually grew stronger, and in 584 BC defeated Chu for the first time and annexed the Chu city of Zhoulai. In the following 70 years Chu and Wu fought ten wars, with Wu winning most of them.  During the reign of King Ping of Chu, the corrupt official Fei Wuji induced the king to marry the bride of Crown Prince Jian. Fearing the revenge of the prince when he would become king, Fei persuaded King Ping to exile Prince Jian and kill his advisor Wu She along with his son Wu Shang. Wu She's second son Wu Zixu escaped to the state of Wu and vowed revenge. Fei Wuji was later executed by Nang Wa and Shen Yin Shu.  In the kingdom of Wu, Wu Zixu became a trusted advisor of Prince Guang and helped him assassinate his cousin King Liao of Wu. Prince Guang ascended the throne and was known as King Helü of Wu.

Beginning of the Wu-Chu War.

"Zuo Zhuan", one of the earliest Chinese works of narrative history compiled in the 4th century BC, gives a detailed account of the battle and the larger war.  In 506 BC, during the reign of King Zhao of Chu, King Helü decided to invade Chu. The king personally led the army, along with his younger brother Fugai and Wu Zixu. Wu was joined by the minor states of Cai and Tang whose monarchs had been held prisoners by the Chu prime minister Nang Wa. The Wu army sailed up the Huai River and then left their ships and marched to the east bank of the Han River. In response, Nang Wa and chief military commander Shen Yin Shu led the Chu army to the west bank of the Han, across the river from the invaders.  Shen Yin Shu devised a plan in which Nang Wa would take up defensive positions with the main army along the Han River, while Shen would go north to Fangcheng on Chu's northern frontier, and lead the troops stationed there to destroy the Wu ships left on the Huai River as well as block the three passes on the Wu army's return route. Nang Wa would then cross the Han River and the two forces would simultaneously attack the Wu army from both the front and the back. Nang accepted the plan, and Shen departed for Fangcheng.  After Shen's departure, however, the historiographer Shi Huang () said to Nang Wa that the people of Chu hated Nang and loved Shen Yin Shu, and that if he followed Shen's plan then Shen would take all the credit for the victory and Nang would be doomed. Nang had a change of heart and decided to cross the river and attack right away.  The two armies fought three battles between the Xiaobie (southeast of present-day Hanchuan) and Dabie Mountains and the Wu forces were victorious. Convinced that he could not win, Nang Wa wanted to flee but was dissuaded by Shi Huang.  On the 19th day of the 11th month (Chinese calendar), the two armies were drawn up at Boju. Fugai asked King Helü for permission to attack, saying that Nang Wa was cruel and his soldiers had no will to fight, and that if he attacked the Chu soldiers were sure to flee. King Helü denied his request, but Fugai decided to disobey the king and attack anyway with his own force of 5,000 men. As he predicted, the Chu soldiers fled and the Chu army was routed. Shi Huang was killed in the battle and Nang Wa escaped to the state of Zheng.  Fugai then pursued the Chu army to Qingfa River, waited until half of them had crossed the river, and then attacked and defeated them again. Later, the Wu army caught up with the Chu soldiers when they were having their meal. The Chu soldiers fled, and the Wu troops ate their food, resumed the pursuit, and defeated them again at Yongshi River (雍澨, present-day Sima River in Jingshan County). After winning five battles, the Wu army reached Ying, the capital of Chu. King Zhao of Chu escaped first to Yun, and then to the state of Sui, and the Wu army captured Ying.  Shen Yin Shu had by now returned and defeated the Wu forces at Yongshi, but he was wounded three times in as many battles. Not wanting to be captured alive, he ordered officer Wu Goubi to kill him and bring his head home.

Aftermath.

After the fall of Ying, Shen Baoxu, an official of Chu and a former friend of Wu Zixu, went to the State of Qin to plead for assistance. At first the Qin ruler Duke Ai refused to help, but after Shen spent seven days crying in the palace courtyard, Duke Ai was moved by his devotion and agreed to send troops to assist Chu.  In 505 BC, the Qin and Chu armies jointly defeated Wu in several battles. In September, Fugai returned to Wu and declared himself king. King Helü was therefore forced to return and defeated Fugai, who fled and sought refuge in Chu. King Zhao of Chu then returned to the capital Ying.

Legacy.

Historian Fan Wenlan considers the Battle of Boju and the Wu-Chu War the first large-scale war of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Chu, one of the most powerful states in the Spring and Autumn Period, would never regain its former strength and Wu reached the zenith of its power. However, Wu was unable to hold on to its territorial gains and its strength would not last for long. In 473 BC, only three decades after it almost conquered the Kingdom of Chu, the Kingdom of Wu itself would be conquered by the rising power of Yue to its south.  The battle is largely attributed to the famous Chinese general Sun Tzu. In the "Art of War" it was said that Sun Tzu led the forces of Wu during the battle. However, there has been no records of his participation in the battle. The "Zuozhuan", the primary source of the battle, does not mention Sun Tzu at all.

The Battle of Boju () was the decisive battle of the war fought in 506 BC between Wu and Chu, two major kingdoms during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. The Wu forces were led by King Helü, his brother Fugai, and Chu exile Wu Zixu. According to Sima Qian's "Shiji", Sun Tzu, the author of "The Art of War", was a main commander of the Wu army, but he was not mentioned in the "Zuo Zhuan" and other earlier historical texts. The Chu forces were led by "Lingyin" (prime minister) Nang Wa (also known as Zichang) and "Sima" (chief military commander) Shen Yin Shu. The Wu were victorious, and captured and destroyed the Chu capital Ying.

Bitva u Paj-tu se odehrála v roce 506 př. n. l., ke konci Období Jar a podzimů, mezi státy Wu a Čchu. Vítězné vojsko státu Wu bylo vedeno legendárním Sun-c’.


Plot summary.

The book is about at the end of the nineteenth century. The protagonist is a 14-year-old boy named Jay Berry Lee, who had enjoyed an idyllic childhood. Born to Missouri sharecroppers, he moves with his family to Oklahoma after his grandfather offers them free land. Daisy, his sister, has a crippled leg, and they devote much effort to gaining enough money to pay for reconstructive surgery. One day, while looking for their lost milk cow, Jay Berry discovers monkeys in a nearby river bottom. Visiting his grandfather's store, he learns that they have escaped from a traveling circus, which has offered a vast reward for their capture: $100 for the chief monkey, "Jimbo", and $2 each for the others. Jay Berry makes multiple attempts to capture them using traps and a net borrowed from his grandfather, but he gains only scratches and bites from them, at one point even losing his pants in the process.  Under the direction of his grandfather, Jay Berry contacts the circus and is advised to attempt to befriend Jimbo. Upon returning to the monkeys' grove, he finds them around a hidden still; the drunken monkeys indeed befriend him, but their gesture of friendship is a gift of whiskey that leaves him drunk. After returning to his shocked family, he goes with his grandfather to a nearby town to visit the library and discover alternate methods of monkey-catching. Having bought supplies, they return home, but the monkeys steal it all.  Daisy discovers a fairy ring, and believing it capable of granting wishes, secretly wishes that Jay Berry may be able to buy the pony and rifle that he has long desired. Soon afterward, a fierce storm frightens the monkeys into accompanying him into captivity, and he quickly returns them to the circus for his reward. Although he considers buying the pony and rifle, he chooses to finance Daisy's surgery instead. By the conclusion, he and his grandfather have accumulated enough money to buy him a paint pony. Daisy was able to gather enough money to get him a.22 gun while she was in the city.

Film adaptation.

Summer of the Monkeys is a 1998 American family adventure-drama film directed by Michael Anderson and stars Corey Sevier as Jay Berry Lee, a young boy who discovers circus monkeys living in the forest near his home. The movie also stars Michael Ontkean and Leslie Hope as Jay Berry's parents, as well as Katie Stuart, Don Francks, and Wilford Brimley.  The book was made into the movie in 1997 by Edge Productions in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and received a limited theatrical release in both Canada and the United States in 1998 and was released on home video in the United States by Walt Disney Home Video, a subsidiary of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.

Summer of the Monkeys is a 1976 children's story written by Wilson Rawls. It was published by Doubleday (later released by Yearling Books) and was the winner of the William Allen White Book Award and the California Young Reader Medal.

Léto s opicemi (1976, Summer of the Monkeys) je úsměvný, dojemný i dobrodružný román pro mládež s autobiografickými motivy od amerického spisovatele Wilsona Rawlse


Biography.

Bob Henrit was originally the drummer with Buster Meikle & the Day Breakers, together with Russ Ballard on guitar and Roy Ballard, Russ's older brother, on piano. He then enjoyed initial success as a member of the Roulettes (1962–1967), who, in addition to a recording career of their own, backed the popular music singer, Adam Faith, on tour and on record. After the demise of the Roulettes, Henrit briefly (1968) worked with Unit 4 + 2, an association which went back to his session drumming on their biggest hit, "Concrete and Clay" (1965).  In late 1968, Henrit teamed up with Russ Ballard, Jim Rodford and Rod Argent to form Argent, and remained with them until the band ended in 1976. After a brief spell with Rodford and John Verity as Phoenix, Henrit's post-Argent career included work with a number of artists, including Charlie, after their 1978 tour opening for The Kinks, and Ian Matthews.  As a session drummer, he worked with the Who vocalist, Roger Daltrey, and was present on Dave Davies' "Glamour" (1981) and "Chosen People" (1983) solo albums. He also worked regularly with the GB Blues Band which, in addition to Rodford, included former members of the Mike Cotton Sound. In a 1972 interview, Keith Moon identified Henrit as one of his favourite drummers.  Henrit replaced the long-serving drummer of the Kinks, Mick Avory, after Avory's departure in 1984. He worked with the act until their seemingly final demise in 1997.  Henrit is currently touring with the re-formed Argent and occasionally deputises for Mick Avory in the Kast Off Kinks.  Henrit published his autobiography, "Banging On", in November 2013.

Robert John "Bob" Henrit (born 2 May 1944, in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England) is an English drummer who has been a member of several musical groups, including Buster Meikle & The Daybreakers, Unit 4 + 2, the Roulettes, Argent and the Kinks.

Robert John "Bob" Henrit (* 2. května 1944, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, Anglie) je anglický bubeník, který byl členem několika kapel, včetně Buster Meikle & The Daybreakers, Unit 4 + 2, The Roulettes, Argent a The Kinks.


History.

As VH1 Smooth (1998–1999).

VH1 Smooth launched on August 1, 1998 as a part of the "Suite" digital package, delaying the original launch date of July 31, 1998. The channel focused on smooth jazz, new age, and adult contemporary music. The first music video to play on the channel was a cover of "Makin' Whoopee" by Branford Marsalis.

As VH1 Classic (1999–2016).

Relaunched on August 1, 1999 as VH1 Classic Rock, the channel primarily featured a mainstream rock/adult hits-formatted mix of music videos and concert footage from the 1960s to the 1980s, though it originally included a wider range of genres and time periods. The channel name was quickly changed to VH1 Classic in 2000.  The network played only music videos upon launch, but quickly expanded to a varied line-up of music-themed programs. This included themed music video compilation blocks (with categories such as Heavy Metal music, or popular music of the 1980s), full-length concerts, music documentaries such as the "Classic Albums" and "Behind the Music" series, music-oriented movies (such as "Purple Rain" and "The Blues Brothers"), and an original talk show, "That Metal Show". They also re-broadcast programs first shown on the main VH1 channel, including "Pop-Up Video" and "I Love the '80s".  From January 28 to February 15, 2015, VH1 Classic aired a 24-hour, nineteen-day marathon of "Saturday Night Live" in celebration of the show's 40th anniversary. As a result, the network broke a previous record for the longest continuous marathon in television history set by FXX's twelve-day marathon of "The Simpsons".

As MTV Classic (2016–present).

In July 2016, Viacom announced that on August 1, the 35th anniversary of the original MTV's launch, the network would rebrand as MTV Classic. The channel's programming continues to focus on classic music videos and programming (including notable episodes of "MTV Unplugged" and "Storytellers"), but skews more towards from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s to the early 2010s. The rebranded network schedule also included reruns of past MTV original series such as the 2011 "Beavis and Butt-head" revival and "". The network's relaunch took place at 6:00 a.m. ET with a rebroadcast of MTV's first hour on the air, which was also simulcast on MTV and online via Facebook live streaming, branded as "MTV Hour One" (the channel, as VH1 Classic, had previously aired it to mark the network's 30th anniversary in 2011). Several VH1 Classic programs were retained in the existing schedule, albeit in late night hours.  Three days leading up to January 1, 2017, MTV Classic aired 24-hour block "Decade-a-thons" consisting of music videos from the 1980s leading up to the 2000s. Afterwards, MTV Classic unveiled a new automated all-music video schedule, with all of the older MTV and VH1 Classic series content removed. Since then, the only deviation from the automation has been "roadblock" simulcasts of the annual "MTV Video Music Awards" and "MTV Movie & TV Awards" to remove any competition from fellow ViacomCBS networks, as well occasional marathons of older MTV shows to promote new series or season launches (as was done with "The Hills" to promote "").  As of the end of 2016, the channel was the least-watched English-language channel on all of U.S. subscription providers, averaging only 30–35,000 viewers on an average night in primetime (a decline of nearly a third from the already-low numbers VH1 Classic had netted in 2015), which was likely a factor in the network quickly abandoning their new format after five months. As of the end of May 2017, its numbers have slipped even further to an average of 14,000 viewers per night, only ahead of the moribund Esquire Network and beIN Sports, which at that time of the year is in its non-prime sports season. Even those low numbers were halved by the end of July 2017, as that month's ratings showed it averaging 7,000 viewers per night, ahead of only the beIN networks. If not for the addition of the seven Entertainment Studios Networks to Nielsen monitoring at the end of 2017, along with a decline in beIN Sports's ratings, it would have been the lowest rated English-language network in 2017 with a 14,000 viewer/night average. Since then, it has steadily remained the fourth-to-last ranked network, behind beIN Sports and ESN's Comedy.TV and its five-network cumulative "ESN Lifestyles" entry for the remainder of its networks. As of June 2020, MTV Classic's ratings are no longer reported by Nielsen.

MTV Classic (formerly VH1 Smooth, VH1 Classic Rock, and VH1 Classic) is an American pay television network owned by ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks. It was originally launched in 1998 as VH1 Smooth, an adult contemporary and smooth jazz channel. It was relaunched as VH1 Classic Rock in 1999 (later renamed VH1 Classic), with an emphasis on classic rock. On August 1, 2016, in honor of MTV's 35th anniversary, the channel was rebranded as MTV Classic, and now exclusively shows music videos from all genres from the 1980s to the 2010s.

VH1 Classic je americká hudební televizní stanice, která nahradila původní MTV Classic ke dni 1. července 1999, ve Spojeném království. O necelý rok později začala vysílat i ve Spojených státech. Primárně se zaměřuje na mainstreamové hity nebo záznamy z koncertů v rozmezí let 1970 až 1990. Také se zabývá hudební dokumentací klasických hudebních alb. Původně také přebrala hudební programy z její sesterské stanice VH1 jako například "Pop-Up Video" nebo "I Love the '80s". Vlastníkem obou stanic je společnost MTV Networks z mediální skupiny Viacom. Stanice má několik regionálních mutací, jako např. VH1 Classic Europe nebo VH1 Classic US.


Early life.

Posey was born in Santa Monica, California, to actor/writer John Posey and Cyndi Terese Posey (nee Garcia). He grew up in Santa Clarita, California. Posey has two brothers: Derek and Jesse.  His mother, who was of Mexican descent, died of breast cancer in December 2014. Season 5 of "Teen Wolf" was dedicated to her memory.

Career.

Posey has worked steadily in film and television. In February 2002, he appeared in the film "Collateral Damage"; in December of that year, he played Jennifer Lopez's son in the romantic comedy "Maid in Manhattan". He auditioned for the role of Jacob Black in the "Twilight" film series in 2007 but lost the role to his friend Taylor Lautner. The two regularly went for the same roles as child actors.  That same year, Posey voiced a character in the pilot of the Disney original cartoon "SheZow", which aired on May 4 as a part of the Shorty McShorts' Shorts miniseries. In 2012, he co-starred with "Twilight" actor Booboo Stewart in the film "White Frog". In 2011, Posey was cast in his breakout role as the lead in the MTV television series "Teen Wolf," which is based on the 1985 film. Posey plays high school student Scott McCall, who is bitten by a werewolf and must keep this fact secret while protecting his loved ones from a host of supernatural threats and beings. In 2015, he also became a co-producer for the fifth season of "Teen Wolf".  On May 24, 2017, Posey was cast as Lucas Moreno in the Blumhouse supernatural thriller film "Truth or Dare". The film was released in theaters on April 13, 2018.  On September 25, 2017, it was announced that Posey would join the third season of the VH1 slasher television series "Scream", starring in the role of Shane. The season premiered on July 8, 2019.  On February 20, 2019, it was announced that Posey would star as Michael Emerson in The CW's television reboot series of "The Lost Boys". On July 29, 2019, it was announced The CW was unhappy with the pilot and that Posey, along with most of the rest of the cast, would be recast.  On November 18, 2019, it was announced that Posey would star in Netflix's animated "Fast & Furious" television series "" which would premiere on December 26, 2019.

Other work.

Posey used to front and play guitar in the band Disappearing Jamie, formerly known as Lost in Kostko. Their first performance was at The Roxy in Los Angeles in 2012.  In December 2016, Posey was a guest DJ at Emo Nite LA's second anniversary at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. Posey played guitar and contributed vocals in the pop punk band PVMNTS along with guitarist/bassist/vocalist Freddy Ramirez and drummer Nick Guzman. The trio released the song "Standing (On My Own Two Feet)" on June 14, 2018, on which Posey wrote about the passing of his mother in 2014. The band self-released their six-track EP "Better Days" on August 17, 2018. In April 2019, it was announced that Posey had left the band and was pursuing another music venture, which turned out to be punk rock band Five North, whose debut single This Mess was released on October 4, 2019.

Personal life.

Posey became engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Seana Gorlick, in 2013. The couple broke off the engagement that same year, after a ten-year relationship.

Tyler Garcia Posey (born October 18, 1991) is an American actor, musician, model, director and producer, best known for his role as Scott McCall on the MTV series "Teen Wolf" (2011–2017).

Tyler Garcia Posey (* 18. října 1991 Santa Monica, Kalifornie, USA) je americký herec a hudebník, syn herce a scenáristy Johna Poseyho. Účinkoval již v raných letech v řadě dětských filmových a televizních rolí, za něž byl dvakrát nominován na cenu Young Artist Award. Nejvýraznější byl jako Raul Garcia v seriálu "Doc" (2001–2004) či Ty Ventura ve filmu "Krásná pokojská" (2002). V dospělosti je znám především jako představitel ústřední postavy Scotta McCalla z televizního seriálu stanice MTV "Vlčí mládě" ("Teen Wolf", od roku 2011). Na přelomu let 2011–2012 získal řadu mládežnických hereckých ocenění včetně Teen Choice Award a na některá další byl nominován. Hudebně působil několik let ve skupině Lost in Kostko, kterou v roce 2009 spoluzakládal.


Plot.

Mike (Tom Hanks) observes his two sons fighting, with one insisting that a promise doesn't mean anything. To make them understand that a promise does mean something, he tells them the story of his youth. In 1969 Young Mike (Elijah Wood), his little brother, Bobby, their mother, Mary, and their German Shepherd, Shane, all move to a new town after their father/husband leaves them. There, Mary marries a new man, Jack, who requires the children to call him "The King". Unbeknownst to Mary, the King is an alcoholic who often gets drunk and beats Bobby. The King also plays Hank Williams’s Jambalaya (On the Bayou)  Seeing that Mary has found happiness at last with the King, Bobby insists Mike not tell their mother of the abuse, to which he complies. Instead of withstanding The King’s brutal abuse, the two boys take adventures to occupy the time that would otherwise be spent with The King. After the King beats Bobby so badly that he ends up in the hospital, the King is arrested. However, following the death of his mother, the King is released and returns to their house promising never to drink/ abuse Bobby again. Unfortunately, while the boys are at school, the King lied about the promise and nearly kills Shane in a fit of rage. In the process, the brothers devise a plan for Bobby to escape the King once and for all. Mary also starts to catch on to Jack's true nature and, in the end, requests a divorce due to all the times he beat Bobby and for his heavy drinking.  Inspired by the urban legend of a boy named Fisher who attempted to fly away on his bicycle over a cliff nicknamed “The Wishing Spot”, the two convert their eponymous Radio Flyer toy wagon into an airplane. With it, Bobby flies away, and the King is finally arrested by Officer Daugherty, a friendly and caring police officer. Though Mike never sees Bobby again, he continues to receive postcards from him from places all over the world. At the end of the film, adult Mike states to his children "That’s how I like to remember it."

Production.

David Mickey Evans' script for "Radio Flyer" was a hot property around Hollywood, and Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures started a bidding war around it in November 1989. Warners had eyes on it as a vehicle for veteran director Richard Donner, while Columbia was buying it on behalf of Michael Douglas's production outfit Stonebridge Entertainment, which had a major production deal with the latter studio. Just before Thanksgiving, Columbia gave Evans a huge sum for a first-time Hollywood screenwriter: $1.25 million. The deal also gave Evans the opportunity to direct, even though he had no experience in said field; Douglas believed he had the vision to pull it off. This was the first film Columbia put into production under the ownership of Sony, as well as one of the first films to be greenlit by the studio's new management, led by Peter Guber and Jon Peters.  Filming started on June 18, 1990. Under Evans' direction, the film starred Rosanna Arquette as the mother, Tomas Arana as The King, and Luke Edwards and James Badge Dale as the children. The budget was set at $17–18 million after Evans agreed to cut some expensive effects sequences. However, Stonebridge executives found the dailies disappointing, and after 10 days of filming, Douglas shut down production, at a loss of $5 million. Douglas then recruited Richard Donner as the film's new director. With Evans' blessing, Donner accepted with a $5 million paycheck, while his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner came on board. Evans remained on the film as an executive producer. With the major players recast, "Radio Flyer" resumed production that October. Donner had Evans rewrite the script extensively to find a way to balance escapist fantasy and child abuse without alienating the audience.  The film's original ending featured a present-day coda where a now-adult Mike, played by Tom Hanks, takes his children to the National Air and Space Museum, where the Radio Flyer/Plane hybrid is displayed next to the Wright Brothers' flying machine. Test audiences were confused by this ending and re-shoots led to the modern-day prologue and epilogue seen in the final film.

Reception.

The film opened to mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics and lackluster box office results. It currently holds a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews with the consensus: "Overlaying its whimsical concept onto a gritty story of domestic abuse, "Radio Flyer" is a family film that is too harrowing for children and too saccharine for their parents."  Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin both criticized the film for presenting fantasy as a way of escaping child abuse. Said Ebert, "I was so appalled, watching this kid hurtling down the hill in his pathetic contraption, that I didn't know which ending would be worse. If he fell to his death, that would be unthinkable, but if he soared up to the moon, it would be unforgivable—because you can't escape from child abuse in little red wagons, and even the people who made this picture should have been ashamed to suggest otherwise."  Because the film in fact ends with Bobby successfully evading his stepfather forever, viewers (including Ebert himself) have taken to speculating on the "true" ending, assuming that the one presented was a case of an unreliable narrator.

Dedication.

The film is dedicated to the memory of script supervisor Nancy Benta Hansen and uncredited production assistant Simone Fuentes, "whose professionalism and humor we miss."

Radio Flyer is a 1992 American drama-fantasy film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Mickey Evans. It stars Lorraine Bracco, John Heard, Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello, Adam Baldwin and Ben Johnson. Evans was to make his directorial debut on the film but was replaced by Donner. Michael Douglas and Evans were executive producers. Filming locations included Novato, California, and Columbia Airport in Columbia, California.

Radio Flyer (v americkém originále: Radio Flyer) je americký dramatický film z roku 1992. Režisérem filmu je duo Richard Donner a David M. Evans. Hlavní role ve filmu ztvárnili Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello, Tom Hanks, Lorraine Bracco a John Heard.


Plot summary.

Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) defies his father (Tom Hanks) and leaves law school to pursue his dream of becoming a writer in Los Angeles. To support himself, he takes a job as a road manager for "The Great" Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a fading mentalist. Troy comes to enjoy traveling with Buck to performances in smaller venues such as Bakersfield and Akron. In particular, Troy sincerely admires Buck's signature trick: having someone in the audience hide his fee for that night's performance, which he then unfailingly discovers. (Kreskin is said to have actually performed this feat 6,000 times, only failing to find the money nine times.)  A reluctant publicist, Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt), is sent to join them in Cincinnati as a replacement for a more senior colleague to promote Buck's still secret attempt to resurrect his career. Valerie is disgusted by Buck's verbal abuse towards her and Troy, with whom she becomes romantically involved. Buck reveals that his comeback will involve putting "hundreds" of people (actually only a few dozen) to sleep and then awakening them as if from the dead. The trick works, but despite a large press turnout, no one is there to record the act, since the news media is called away at the last second to cover a car accident involving Jerry Springer. Furious, Buck unfairly blames the mishap on Troy and Valerie, and then faints from exhaustion. In the hospital, Buck and Troy discover that the media absence actually worked in Buck's favor, as rumors reported by the news media exaggerate the scope of Buck's act; as a result, Buck returns to the limelight as a retro-"hip" phenomenon. He appears on television shows such as those of Jon Stewart, Regis Philbin, Conan O'Brien, and more. Buck is reunited with his estranged friend, George Takei, who sings "What the World Needs Now".  Buck finally gets the call he has been waiting for: To perform once again on "The Tonight Show". He previously had performed with Johnny Carson 61 times during the height of his career, but never since the show has been hosted by Jay Leno. Buck is bumped by Tom Arnold, who has too much material and uses up Buck's time. Buck refuses an immediate offer to come back and appear on "The Tonight Show" the following week, but agrees to receive an offer to headline a date in Las Vegas. When the limelight on Buck dims once more after he fails to find his money for the first time ever during his Las Vegas premiere, Troy leaves him and through Valerie's connections, lands a job with a celebrated TV writer (Griffin Dunne). After some time, Troy sees from an ad in the paper that Buck is doing his show again in Bakersfield. Buck is clearly back where he feels most comfortable, and once again successfully performs his signature trick, leaving Troy to wonder whether Buck doesn't have some mysterious talent after all.

Reception.

"The Great Buck Howard" received generally positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 71% of critics gave it positive reviews based on 94 reviews, with an average score of 6.45/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "By turns fluffy and biting, this show biz comedy is given girth by comic heavyweight John Malkovich and made all the more charming by Emily Blunt." The film was released to the general public on March 20, 2009, grossing $115,004 in the opening weekend. It was run in 55 theaters, equaling to an average of $2,091 per theater. The worldwide gross stands at $900,689.

The Great Buck Howard is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by Sean McGinly that stars Colin Hanks and John Malkovich. Tom Hanks also appears as the father of his real-life son's character. The character Buck Howard is inspired by the mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, whose popularity was at its height in the 1970s. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2008. It is the first Walden Media film to be distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

Velký Buck Howard (v americkém originále: The Great Buck Howard) je americká filmová komedie z roku 2008. Režisérem filmu je Sean McGinly. Hlavní role ve filmu ztvárnili John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Ricky Jay a Steve Zahn.


Career.

Ortiz took up judo aged 10 and was included in the national team at 15. At the age of 18, she became the youngest Olympic medalist in the heavyweight category, winning a bronze medal in 2008.

Beijing Olympics.

In her first match at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she stood against a big (170 lb) Egyptian judoka Samah Ramadan. Ramadan stayed and waited for an opportunity to use her, possibly only, technique of immobilizing her opponent by lying on top. During the match, Ortiz tried many techniques for ippon but none were successful, except for the last move just a few seconds before the end of the match, when Samah Ramadan was already tired.  In her second match in Beijing, Ortiz went against Janelle Shepherd from Australia. The match had a good tempo and ended quickly with Ortiz making an ippon (an "okuri-eri-jime"). In the third match, the semifinals, she went against later Olympic champion and controversial judoka Tong Wen from China. This was a close match full of action and could have gone either way. However, Wen won the match as one of Ortiz's techniques was counted as yuko. Ortiz won the bronze medal in her match against Dorjgotovyn Tserenkhand from Mongolia, winning with a nice ippon (O-goshi).

2012 Summer Olympics.

At the 2012 Olympics, Ortiz won the gold medal. She beat Adysângela Moniz with a tsuri-goshi in her first match. She then beat Yelena Ivashchenko before avenging her 2008 defeat by Tong Wen, beating her with a te-guruma. She then beat Mika Sugimoto in the final. She was the first non-Asian winner of the heavyweight category, and the first Cuban judo gold medalist in 12 years.  At the 2015 Pan American Championships she beat Vanessa Zambotti in the final, having beaten Nina Cutro-Kelly in the semifinals. It was one of 3 gold medals for Cuba.

2016 Summer Olympics.

At the 2016 Olympics, Ortiz completed her medal collection, winning a silver medal. She beat Kseniya Chibisova with a tawara-gaeshi, then Kim Min-Jeong with a yoko-shiho-gatame. In the semifinal she beat Kanae Yamabe with a uki-goshi before losing the final to Émilie Andéol. She finished the season ranked world number one, having won 5 IJF events along with her Olympic silver.  She won the bronze medal in the 2017 World Openweight Championships, beating Romane Dicko with a shime-waza.  In 2018, she won her first IJF title since 2016. She was also part of the Cuba team that won 5 gold medals at the 2018 Pan American Championships.  Ortiz credits her success to hard training, 7 hours a day, and a regime that involves training against men, because of the few women in her weight category.

Idalys Ortiz Bocourt (born 27 September 1989) is a Cuban judoka. She competed in the over 78 kg division at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and won a medal on each occasion.

Idalis (Idalys) Ortíz-Bocourt, (* 27. září 1989 v Candelarii, Kuba) je kubánská zápasnice – judistka. Je olympijskou vítězkou z roku 2012.