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<mask> (born 2 February 1951) is a Scottish broadcaster who is best known for hosting his long-running weekday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 1986 to 1990, and then again since 1992. Early life and career
<mask> was born and raised in Glasgow. He attended Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School, Glasgow, before training as a chartered accountant. <mask>'s first job was washing cars. He began his broadcasting career with the Hospital Broadcasting Service in Glasgow. <mask> became a staff announcer for BBC Radio 4 Scotland. Following the launch of BBC Radio Scotland in November 1978, became one of the original presenters of Nightbeat, alongside Iain Purdon.Charles Nove subsequently joined the presentation rota. He also presented a Saturday morning show. In 1980, he took on the mid-morning slot and then, in 1983, he presented a daily afternoon entertainment show. He hosted his mid-morning show on the BBC World Service in the late 1980s. Radio 2

History
His first broadcasts were from Scotland when he took over the presentation of Radio 2 Ballroom from Scotland after the death of BBC Radio Scotland's announcer/presenter of Scottish Dance Music programmes, David Findlay. He presented Radio 2 Ballroom programmes regularly from November 1980 until 1982. He became a stand-in presenter on Radio 2, mainly covering for Ray Moore on the Early show.<mask> also presented shows for BBC Radio Scotland from London. <mask> became a regular presenter for Radio 2 in January 1984 when he assumed hosting duties for the Saturday late night show in addition to his continuing show on BBC Radio Scotland. In January 1985, <mask> left Radio Scotland and took over from Terry Wogan on The Radio 2 Breakfast Show, being replaced himself by Derek Jameson in April 1986. He then began his first stint on the mid-morning show which lasted until the end of March 1990, when he took over the late show until the end of that year. He then hosted the early show throughout 1991, and on 6 January 1992 he returned to the mid-morning slot, where he remains today. As of 14 January 2019, <mask> follows Zoe Ball at 9:30 am and is followed by Jeremy Vine at 12 noon. On Thursday 1 August 2019 it was announced that his show had become the most popular radio programme in the UK, with 8.49m daily listeners, following a fall in the popularity of Zoe Ball's breakfast show.Programme format and features
<mask>'s show emphasises music, including regular live performances. Competitions are usually music-based, with a love song and dedications feature at 10:15 am. A music news slot with (usually) Matt Everitt appears at about 11:10 am on Thursdays. Other regular features include the Record of the Week and the Album of the Week and the Tracks of My Years, where a celebrity picks two songs each day for their particular meaning. The Love Song is played at 10:15 am each day, preceded by dedications, although a number of songs in the rotation are not romantic love songs. As a result of health restrictions imposed due to Covid-19, from 23 March 2020 to 31 May 2021, <mask> self-isolated and presented his show from his home. He returned to Wogan House on 1 June 2021.The show also includes a daily quiz, PopMaster. It previously included other competitions such as Spin It to Win It and Words Don't Come Easily, although these were dropped in 2007 following the phone-in scandal. PopMaster returned in early 2008, although the other competitions did not. Stand-in presenters have included Richard Allinson, Simon Mayo, Aled Jones, Zoe Ball, Michael Ball,  Claudia Winkleman, Fearne Cotton, Trevor Nelson, Gary Davies and Scott Mills. The comedian and impressionist Rob Brydon, who is noted for his mimicry of <mask>, sat in for him on 25 August 2008 and again as an April fool prank in 2011 when Brydon impersonated <mask> throughout. <mask> took his first day off sick in 23 years on 10 September 2008. On that occasion, the show was presented by Richard Allinson.In 2013, the audience for the <mask> Show reached a record 8.17 million. This was surpassed in 2019, as it became the most popular radio programme in the UK, with 8.49m weekly listeners. In 2021, he was named as 'Britain’s favourite radio presenter' in a survey carried out by digital radio manufacturer Pure, coming in front of Roman Kemp and Zoe Ball (in second and third place). PopMaster

PopMaster has run as a feature of <mask>'s show since 16 February 1998. With questions set by music expert Phil Swern, it offers a DAB radio for successfully completing the 3 in 10 bonus round. If the listener fails, they are awarded a Bluetooth speaker (replacing the previous consolation prize of an MP3 player). An earlier consolation prize, a 'Space' radio, has been known to appear on eBay, to <mask>'s amusement.The losing contestant is given a T-shirt with 'One Year Out' printed across the front (a catchphrase <mask> uses in the quiz when a contestant trying to place the year a song was in the charts is out by one year). This 'prize' replaced a CD wallet as of 27 February 2012. The public phone-in PopMaster quiz was suspended after airing on 18 July 2007. A celebrity version was quickly introduced on 20 July 2007, and continued until 18 January 2008. "3 in 10" was not played in the celebrity version and there was no tie-breaker in the event of a draw. It was rumoured that members of the public would be able to play again before Christmas 2007, however this did not happen. Following an announcement by <mask> on 7 January 2008, the normal format returned on 21 January 2008.The game returned with new dramatic, orchestral and guitar based jingles. <mask> himself was a Popmaster contestant during his show on 17 May 2013, when he took part in a special Eurovision edition of the quiz, live from Malmo, Sweden. <mask> competed against Paddy O'Connell with <mask> O'Connor chairing the quiz. Notable events
While <mask> was on holiday in August 2007, he was briefly replaced by Davina McCall. This attracted more than 150 complaints from listeners. During his show on 21 April 2008, theatre producer <mask> told <mask> that Elvis Presley once visited London in 1958 and was taken on a tour of the city by Tommy Steele. It was believed that Presley had never visited England and the claim caused considerable controversy.In December 2008, a crew of fishermen listeners were inadvertently relaying the show to every ship and coastguard station for miles around. It was not possible to contact the vessel, so a request was made to <mask>, who duly said: "If you are on a ship near the Small rocks, please turn me off." Soon after, while duetting with Steve Wright's 'Ask Elvis' (a.k.a. Mitch Benn), <mask> recorded a version of the Andy Stewart song “Donald, Where’s yer Troosers?” for the Bandaged CD to raise money for the charity BBC Children in Need. This was released as a download. In December 2008, <mask> was officially inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame. On April Fools' Day 2011, <mask>'s radio show was presented by comedian Rob Brydon impersonating <mask> throughout.Brydon interviewed "Sir Terry Wogan" (impersonated by Peter Serafinowicz), and <mask> himself appeared at the end of the show as his "brother <mask>n with two Ns". <mask> has spoken about working from home to the BBC website, he said - "We get a lot more people just asking for a simple hello or a mention for relatives just because they are not seeing them as much as they could. Particularly working from home I sympathise with that, because there are lots of people I’m not seeing. We are all kind of feeling we are in this together, so it has brought broadcaster and listener rather closer together. It has made us have to be a little bit more creative with what we include in the programme. We do a lot more saying thank you to people who are keeping our essentials services going, and we are also giving people ideas of things to do while they are in lockdown". <mask> returned to broadcasting from Wogan House in June 2021.Other appearances
<mask> has presented BBC Proms in the Park for many years. Since 1988, he has been Radio 2's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest, having taken over from fellow broadcaster and friend Ray Moore. In 1998, he shared this role with being UK spokesman for that year's contest, reading out the points for the UK telephone vote, taking it over from Colin Berry, who then returned the following year. and presented the Eurovision Song Contest Previews from 1989 to 1991 on BBC1. He is a regular presenter of the long-running Friday Night is Music Night. He occasionally makes appearances in the "Dictionary Corner" on Channel 4's Countdown, the most recent stint being during the week of 11 February 2013. When the original presenter Richard Whiteley died in 2005, <mask> said: "[he was] such a nice man – that was the defining quality of him, a genuinely nice man.And he had no real ego." In November 2007, he appeared on a Never Mind the Buzzcocks special for Children in Need. <mask> holds a PCV (Passenger Carrying Vehicle) driving licence and is the co-owner of a number of AEC Routemaster buses with Charles Nove, Alan Dedicoat and Steve Madden. He has referred to the buses as "a fantastic piece of engineering and such fun to have". On 3 March 2008, <mask> took part in Ready, Steady, Cook, broadcast on BBC Two  with Lynn Bowles. <mask> and Bowles recorded Bring Me Sunshine for charity. On 30 December 2012, <mask> won an edition of Celebrity Mastermind with his specialist subject being the Jeeves novels of P.G.Wodehouse. In 2014, <mask> narrated the BBC One game show Reflex. He appeared in celebrity episodes of  The Chase on 4 October 2014 and 12 December 2021. <mask> featured with his son Charlie on the fifth series of Big Star's Little Star and in October 2018, he appeared as a cameo on Hollyoaks. In 2022, he was interviewed about Pennyhooks Farm and his son, 18-year-old Murray, who is one of several non-verbal people working on the care farm, in the BBC One We Are England documentary Farming England: Farming on the Spectrum -  Oxfordshire. Personal life
<mask> has four sons and two daughters. His youngest son was born in February 2008.He lives with his third wife Kerith near Thame in Oxfordshire. One of his sons is autistic and <mask> is an active charity campaigner for autism. <mask> is a fan of Partick Thistle FC, and occasionally remarks on their fortunes during his show. His autobiography was published on 4 September 2009, entitled The Tracks of My Years: The Autobiography. In September 2018, <mask> became the patron of Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio, replacing former mayor of Aylesbury and long-standing patron and co-founder of the station, Freda Roberts MBE JP. <mask> said "Hospital Radio continues to thrive and I am delighted to take on the role of patron." References

External links
 <mask> (BBC Radio 2)

1951 births
Living people
Scottish radio DJs
Scottish radio personalities
BBC Radio 2 presenters
BBC Radio Scotland presenters
People educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School
Mass media people from Glasgow

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<mask> (, sometimes Kojin; born March 1979) is a contemporary Russian artist. His art varies among genres, such as landscapes, portraits, still life, and historical photography. He also has an excellent knowledge of oil, tempera, and watercolor painting. He paints scenery whilst traveling the world, so there are a series of works such as England, Ireland, Malta, Turkey, Switzerland and others. He also painted a series of works devoted to Russia's war with Napoleon in 1812. Biography
<mask><mask> is the son of father Kozhin Leonid Arcadievitch and mother Kozhina Irina Mikhailovna (Dayshutova). In 1998, he graduated from the Moscow Academic Art Lyceum.N.V. Tomsky. From 1998 to 2003, he studied art at the Fine Arts Academy in Moscow and completed his education in studio landscapes under the direction of Professor V. Afonin. He now lives and works in Moscow. From 2000 to 2010, he participated in exhibitions in Russia and abroad. Exhibition
Exhibitions with the participation of <mask>n:
 2001 - Exhibition hall in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, UK. 2002 - Exhibition of the Primavera creative association at the Central House of Artists, Moscow
 2003 - “Fresh Art”, exhibition mounted at the Business Design Centre, London, UK “All of us are a bit of a horse”, exhibition mounted at the On Staromonetny antiquity art gallery, Moscow
 2004 - “Winter, winter, nothing but winter…”, exhibition mounted at the On Staromonetny antiquity art gallery, Moscow. “Flower Power”, exhibition at the Collyer-Bristow Gallery, London, UK
 2005 - Exhibition of the Primavera creative association at the Central House of Artists, Moscow.Выставка в Лондоне в галерее «Collyer-Bristow», “Russian contemporary”, exhibition at the Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK (an exhibition space within the offices of law firm Collyer Bristow LLP). “Russian Traditions”, exhibition held at the exhibition hall of the State Scientific Research Institute of Restoration, Moscow. “Seasons”, exhibition mounted at the On Staromonetny antiquity art gallery, Moscow “Russian Traditions”, exhibition held at the Russian Embassy in the USA, Washington. “New Russian Painting”, exhibition mounted at the Oriel Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. 2006 - Contemporary Russian Painting, exhibition mounted at the Carlton Hotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland. “London–Paris–New York”, exhibition at the Collyer-Bristow Gallery, London, UK. 2007 - “20th Anniversary of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture”, exhibition at the Manezh Central Exhibition hall, Moscow.“Life Cycles Exhibition”, exhibition mounted in the crypt of St. Pancras Parish Church, London (the exhibition organized by the Bash Art, UK). 2008 - “Poetry of the Truth”, exhibition at Les Oreades Gallery in the Central House of Artists, Moscow. Exhibition in the Electric Systems of Russia central office, Moscow. “The Spring in Europe”, exhibition at the Oriel Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. “Alexander Kolotilov and young landscape painters of Russia”, exhibition at the N-Prospect, St. Petersburg
 2008-2009 - Exhibitions at the Yelena Gallery, Moscow
 2009 - “Contemporary Russian Painting”, exhibition at the Oriel Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. “Traditions of the Present Day”, exhibition in the framework of the project Game of Imagination mounted at the House of Feodor Chaliapin Museum and Exhibition Centre, Moscow. International Exhibition of calligraphy, painting and photography of Northeast Asia, Changchun, People’s Republic of China.“Russian Art Week”, the 6th International Exhibition of contemporary art, Moscow House of Artists, Moscow “Attraction of Realism”, exhibition at the Izmailovo Gallery State Exhibition hall, Moscow. 2010 -“Road to Church”, exhibition at the N-Prospect Gallery, St. Petersburg. “For the First Time at the Central House of Artists”, exhibition initiated by the N-Prospect Gallery, Moscow “Heirs of the Traditions”, exhibition of works of art from the funds of Moscow Academic Art Lyceum at the Museum and Exhibition Centre of the Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow. “Moscow Hospitality”, exhibition at the Russian Estate Gallery, Moscow
 2011 - “Klykovo. Seasons” exhibition mounted at the Image regional picture gallery, Kaluga and at the Kozelsk local history museum “Attraction of Realism”, exhibition mounted at the Izmailovo. Gallery State Exhibition hall, Moscow “Greatness in the Small”, exhibition held in the Central House of Artists, Moscow. “Russian Classical Painting”, exhibition in Yantai People’s Republic of China.“Russian Classical Painting”, exhibition mounted at the Yellow River Art Gallery, Dongying, People’s Republic of China. Participation in the project “P-bus stop” as part of the social art programed curated by the PERMM (Perm Museum of Modern Art), Perm. 2012 - “Visual Visible Images”, exhibition at the exhibition hall of the Russian Auction House in Gostiny Dvor, Moscow. “Dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the victory in the 1812 Patriotic War”, exhibition mounted at the Izmailovo Gallery State Exhibition hall, Moscow. 2012-2015 Exhibition at URALSIB | Bank 121, Moscow. 2015 - The exhibition "Crimean history", as part of the creative association "New itinerants" Central House of Architect. (Moscow) Exhibition of 37 winners of the "Children in the art" as part of the research project "The Imaginary Museum Mikhail Shemyakin.Anthology forms "in the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts. (Kaluga)"The artist's palette. <mask>n. History and Modernity "at the Exhibition Hall" Atrium "The Moscow State Integrated Art and Historical Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve "Kolomenskoye – Izmailovo – Lefortovo - Lublino”. (Moscow)

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Works in collections
 State Central Museum of the Contemporary Russian History, Moscow, Moscow. Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts, Kaluga. Museum Fund of the Moscow Academic Art Lyceum Moscow.Museum of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Moscow. Foundation "Cultural Heritage, St. Petersburg. The Penza Regional Art Gallery of K.A. Savitskiy Penza. The Moscow State Integrated Art and Historical Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve"Kolomenskoye", Moscow. Maloyaroslavets Military History Museum of the 1812 War, Maloyaroslavets. Bibliography
2004 Publication of illustrations of the tale by the Brothers Grimm Rapunzel log TALES in London.2004 Publication of illustrations to the book Luciano Pavarotti in  Korean (published by Montessori). 2005 Publication of the Bank of Petrocommerce calendar with views of Moscow. 2005 Publication of illustrations to a fairy tale  Brothers Grimm Rapunzel
published by Russian mission. Astakhov Y. One Thousand of Russian artists. – Moscow: White Town, 2006.S. 1040.Zlatoverhovnikova O.N. Kozhin <mask>. – Moscow: Print Suite, 2007. S. 234. Astakhov, Y. Historical Paintings. " – Moscow: White Town, 2008.S.936. Zlatoverhovnikova O.N. Kozhin <mask>. – Moscow: White Town, 2009. C. 64. Filmography
2011 — «The Creator - not a craftsman» — a documentary film about creative work <mask>n (directed by Vladislav Artamonov)
2015 — «People who made the earth round» — Artist

Sources
 Kozhin Simon L. / / WHO IS WHO Verlag in Russia: the Biographical Encyclopedia of successful people in Russia. Vol.4 / Ralph Hübner – Moscow: Publishing House WHO IS WHO Verlag, 2010, S. 3012. <mask> <mask>. / / Who's Who – Without Borders: Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 12 – Novosibirsk. : Publishing House Who's who - without Borders, 2011, S. 500. <mask> <mask> / / Album of the creation. Painters.Russian artists. / Zlatoverhovnikova O.N. – Moscow: White City, 2009. C. 64. Т. Т. Салахов, А. И. Рожин, Т. Е. Цветнова Семён Кожин. — М.: Творчество,2015. — С.302. References

External links

 Article "visible image's <mask>n" at the Literaturnaya Gazette
 article "Freedom and nobody needs" at the Literaturnaya Gazette
 Painter Semen Kozhin presents two his works to Penza Picture Gallery
 Т. Т. Салахов, А. И. Рожин, Т. Е. Цветнова Семён Кожин. — М.: Творчество,2015. — С. 302. 100 картин о парке Коломенское Автор: Елена Мякишева ntdtv
 Semen Kozhin Holds Solo Exhibition bib.lv

1979 births
Living people
People from Moscow
Realist painters
Russian landscape painters
20th-century Russian painters
Russian male painters
21st-century Russian painters
Russian watercolorists

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<mask>ff (; born February 28, 1959) is an American lobbyist, businessman, film producer, writer, and convicted felon. He was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation led by Earl Devaney that resulted in his conviction and 21 other people either pleading guilty or being found guilty, including White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and congressional aides. Abramoff was College Republican National Committee National Chairman from 1981 to 1985, a founding member of the International Freedom Foundation, allegedly financed by apartheid South Africa, and served on the board of directors of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank. From 1994 to 2001 he was a top lobbyist for the firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, and then for Greenberg Traurig until March 2004. After a guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff Native American lobbying scandal and his dealings with SunCruz Casinos in January 2006, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials, and tax evasion. He served 43 months before being released on December 3, 2010. After his release from prison, he wrote the autobiographical book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist which was published in November 2011.Abramoff's lobbying and the surrounding scandals and investigation are the subject of two 2010 films: the documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money, released in May 2010, and the feature film Casino Jack, released on December 17, 2010, starring Kevin Spacey as <mask>. Early life
<mask> was born February 28, 1959 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His parents were Jane (née Divac) and Franklin Abramoff, who was president of the Franchises unit of Diners Club credit card company. Abramoff's family moved to Beverly Hills, California, when he was ten (in 1968). After seeing the film version of Fiddler on the Roof at age twelve, Abramoff decided to practice Orthodox Judaism. In California, Abramoff attended Beverly Hills High School. In high school, he played football and became a weight-lifting champion.Pulitzer prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who was the same year at Beverly Hills High as Abramoff, recounted to the Jewish Journal a time when Abramoff pushed him and his cello down a flight of stairs. College and law school years
As an undergraduate at Brandeis University, Abramoff served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans, which organized student volunteers for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. He graduated with a B.A. in English in 1981. He earned his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1986. According to Nina Easton, Abramoff gained much of his credibility in the conservative movement through his father, Franklin Abramoff. As president of Diners Club International, Abramoff's father worked closely with Alfred S. Bloomingdale, a personal friend of Reagan.College Republican National Chairman
After graduating from Brandeis, Abramoff ran for election as chairman of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC). After a campaign which cost over $11,000 and was managed by Grover Norquist, Abramoff won the election. His chief competitor, Amy Moritz was persuaded to drop out. (Later, as Amy Ridenour, she became a founding director of the National Center for Public Policy Research. She was treated to several trips funded by <mask>ff when he was working as a lobbyist.) Abramoff "changed the direction of the [college] committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before", notes the CRNC. "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left", Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report."Our job is to remove them from power permanently." Norquist served as executive director of the committee under Abramoff. He later recruited Ralph Reed, a former president of the University of Georgia College Republicans chapter, as an unpaid intern. According to Reed's book Active Faith, Reed introduced Abramoff to Pamela Clarke Alexander, and they later married. As chair of the CRNC, Abramoff addressed the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas. Long-standing college political alliances
At the CRNC, Abramoff developed political alliances with College Republican chapter presidents across the nation. Many would later hold key roles in state and national politics and business, and some would later interact with Abramoff in his role as a lobbyist.Some of those relationships were at the core of the federal investigation. At the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the "Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate". After Abramoff's election, the trio purged "dissidents" and re-wrote the CRNC's bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization. According to Easton's Gang of Five, Reed was the "hatchet man" and "carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints". In 1983, the CRNC passed a resolution condemning "deliberate planted propaganda by the KGB and Soviet proxy forces" against the government of South Africa, at a time when the country's government was under worldwide criticism for its apartheid regime. In 1984, Abramoff and other College Republicans formed the "USA Foundation", a non-partisan tax-exempt organization which held two days of rallies on college campuses around the United States celebrating the first anniversary of the invasion of Grenada. In a letter to campus Republican leaders, Abramoff claimed:

Citizens for America
In 1985, Abramoff joined Citizens for America, a pro-Reagan group that helped Oliver North build support for the Nicaraguan Contras.Citizens for America staged an unprecedented meeting of anti-Communist rebel leaders known as the Democratic International in Jamba, Angola. This conference included leaders of the Mujahedeen from Afghanistan, UNITA from Angola, the Contras, and opposition groups from Laos. Out of this largely ceremonial conference came the International Freedom Foundation. <mask> helped to organize, and also attended the conference. Abramoff's membership ended on a sour note when Citizens for America's sponsor Lewis Lehrman, a former New York gubernatorial candidate, concluded that Abramoff had spent his money carelessly. In 1986, Reagan appointed <mask> as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Work in film production, and South Africa connections
Abramoff spent 10 years in Hollywood.He developed (wrote the story) and produced, with his brother Robert, the 1989 film Red Scorpion. The film ultimately cost $16 million (from an $8 million initial budget) and starred Dolph Lundgren playing the Spetsnaz-like Soviet commando Nikolai, sent by the USSR to assassinate an African revolutionary in a country similar to Angola. Nikolai sees the evil of the Soviets and changes sides, becoming a freedom fighter for the African side. <mask> also executive-produced its 1994 sequel Red Scorpion 2. The South African government financed the film via the International Freedom Foundation, a front-group chaired by <mask>, as part of its efforts to undermine international sympathy for the African National Congress. The filming location was in South-West Africa (now Namibia). On April 27, 1998, Abramoff wrote a letter to the editor of The Seattle Times rebutting an article critical of him and his alleged role as effectively a Public Relations puppet of the then-apartheid South African military.<mask> rebutted:

The IFF was a conservative group which I headed. It was vigorously anti-Communist, but it was also actively anti-apartheid. In 1987, it was one of the first conservative groups to call for the release of Nelson Mandela, a position for which it was roundly criticized by other conservatives at the time. While I headed the IFF, we accepted funding only from private individuals and corporations and would have absolutely rejected any offer of South African military funding, or any other kind of funding from any government – good or evil. During this period in South Africa, <mask> first met South African-born rabbi David Lapin, who would become his religious advisor. He also met Lapin's brother and fellow rabbi Daniel Lapin, who allegedly introduced Abramoff to Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) at a Washington, DC dinner shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. Lapin later claimed that he did not recall making that introduction.Seattle-based lobbying
In December 1994, <mask> was hired as a lobbyist at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP, the lobbying arm of the law firm Preston Gates & Ellis LLP based in Seattle, Washington. According to The Seattle Times, following the Republican takeover of Congress in 1995, partner Emanuel Rouvelas determined that the firm "didn't have a conservative, Christian Coalition Republican with strong ties to the new Republican leadership". The traditionally Democratic-leaning firm hired <mask> for the specific purpose of attaining these wanted ties. <mask> was described in a press release as having close ties to Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, the former the Republican Speaker of the House and the latter the Republican House Majority Leader. According to The Seattle Times, Abramoff used Preston Gates & Ellis to access a higher pedigree of clientele. Choctaw gambling
In 1995, Abramoff began representing Native American tribes with gambling interests. He became involved with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, a federally recognized tribe.One of <mask>'s first acts as a tribal gaming lobbyist was to defeat a Congressional bill to tax Native American casinos, sponsored by Bill Archer (R-TX) and Ernest Istook (R-OK). According to Washington Business Forward, a lobbying trade magazine, "Tom DeLay was a major factor in those victories, and the fight helped cement the alliance between the two men". DeLay has called <mask> "one of (his) closest and dearest friends". The Washington Post, on December 29, 2005, reported: "<mask> liked to slip into dialogue from The Godfather as he led his lobbying colleagues in planning their next conquest on Capitol Hill. In a favorite bit, he would mimic an ice-cold Michael Corleone facing down a crooked politician's demand for a cut of Mafia gambling profits: 'Senator, you can have my answer now if you like. My offer is this: nothing.'" Salon.com political writer Thomas Frank considers Abramoff to have acted as a con man.Alex Gibney, director and writer of the 2010 documentary film
Casino Jack and the United States of Money, elaborated on Abramoff's criminal modus operandi. Gibney said, "one of his (Abramoff's) great gifts was being able to tell people what they wanted to hear, and this was how he was able to sell things and get them into trouble." He was interviewed with former U.S. Representative Bob Ney and former Greenberg Traurig lobbyist Neil Volz on Kojo Nnamdi's National Public Radio affiliate WAMU-FM radio show. Saipan and Northern Mariana Islands

Abramoff and his law firm were paid at least $6.7 million by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) from 1995 to 2001. It made manufactured goods labeled with "Made in the USA", but it was not subject to U.S. labor and minimum wage laws. After Abramoff paid for DeLay and his staffers to go on trips to the CNMI, they crafted policy that extended exemptions from federal immigration and labor laws to the islands' industries. Abramoff also negotiated with the Marianas for a $1.2 million no-bid contract for "promoting ethics in government" to be awarded to David Lapin, brother of his associate Daniel Lapin.Abramoff secretly funded a trip to the Marianas for Congressmen James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS). In 1999 Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) went on an Abramoff-funded trip to the Marshall Islands with John Doolittle (R-CA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA); delegates of Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands; and eight staffers. Documentation indicates that Abramoff's lobbying team helped prepare Rep. Ralph Hall's (R-TX) statements on the House floor in which he attacked the credibility of escaped teenaged sex worker "Katrina", in an attempt to discredit her testimony regarding the state of the sex slave industry in the Marianas. Ms. magazine reported Abramoff's dealings in the CNMI and the plight of garment workers like Katrina in a major article published in their spring 2006 issue. Abramoff arranged for mailings from a Ralph Reed marketing company to Christian conservative voters. He bribed Roger Stillwell, a high-ranking political appointee at the Department of the Interior who was responsible for some Native American gaming policy; Stillwell pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting gifts from Abramoff. All government officials and employees are prohibited from accepting gifts from consultants, businesses and lobbyists.Naftasib
Executives of Naftasib, a Russian energy company, funneled almost $3.4 million to Abramoff and DeLay advisor Ed Buckham between 1997 and 2005. About $60,000 was spent on a trip to Russia in 1997 for Tom DeLay, Buckham, and Abramoff. In 1998, $1 million was sent to Buckham via his organization U.S. Family Network to "influence DeLay's vote in 1998 on legislation that helped make it possible for the International Monetary Fund to bail out the faltering Russian economy". DeLay voted for the legislation. The money was funneled through the Dutch company Voor Huisen, the Bahamas company Chelsea Enterprises, and the London law firm James & Sarch Co. The executives involved, who met DeLay during the 1997 trip, were Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky. Nevskaya was also involved in Abramoff's support of an Israeli military academy, as indicated by an email sent to Abramoff.eLottery, Inc. In 1999, eLottery hired Abramoff to block the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which he did by enlisting Ralph Reed, Norquist, and Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, Tony Rudy. Emails from 2000 show that Susan Ralston helped Abramoff pass checks from eLottery to Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) and also to Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), en route to Ralph Reed's company, Century Strategies. <mask> joins Greenberg Traurig

On January 8, 2001, Abramoff left Preston Gates to join the Government Relations division of the Washington, D.C. law firm Greenberg Traurig, which once described him as "directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures" and "one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates". With the move to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff took as much as $6 million worth of client business from his old firm, including the Marianas Islands

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 account. At Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff recruited a team of lobbyists known familiarly as "Team Abramoff". The team included many of his former employees from Preston Gates and former senior staffers of members of Congress.Tribal lobbying

Around the time he joined Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's choice of lobbying clients changed to focus much more on Native American tribes. While <mask> was a registered lobbyist for 51 clients while working at Preston Gates, with only four being tribes, <mask> would eventually represent 24 clients for whom he was registered lobbyist at Greenberg Traurig, of which seven were tribes. Tyco International Ltd.
Former White House Deputy Counsel Timothy Flanigan left his job in December 2002 to work as General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco International. He immediately hired <mask> to lobby Congress and the White House on matters relating to Tyco's Bermuda tax-exempt status. Flanigan stated to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Abramoff "bragged" that he could help Tyco avoid tax liability aimed at offshore companies because he "had good relationships with members of Congress". Tyco Inc. claimed in August 2005 that Abramoff had been paid $1.7 million for "astroturfing", or the creation of a fake "grassroots" campaign to oppose proposals to penalize US corporations registered abroad for tax reasons. The work allegedly was never performed, and most of the fee Tyco paid Abramoff to lobby against the legislation was "diverted to entities controlled by Mr. Abramoff".Lobbying for national governments
<mask>'s team represented the government of Malaysia, and worked toward improving Malaysian relations with the United States, particularly with trade relations. <mask> also met with the government of Sudan, offering a plan to deflect criticism from American Christian groups over the regime's alleged role in the Darfur conflict. Abramoff promised to enlist Reed to assist, as well as starting a grassroots campaign to improve the image of Sudan in America. Channel One News
Abramoff was a lobbyist for the school TV news service Channel One News. From 1999 to 2003, Channel One retained him to ensure Congress did not block funds to their service. Not only did Channel One face frequent campaigns by political groups to persuade Congress to limit its presence in schools, but it also derived much of its advertising revenue from U.S. government sources, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy and military recruitment. Since Abramoff and Channel One parted ways, Channel One's advertising revenues have dropped substantially, but a cause-and-effect relationship would be difficult to establish.Telecommunications firm
On October 18, 2005, The Washington Post reported that Bob Ney, as chair of the House Administration Committee, approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House of Representatives. The company, then Foxcom Wireless, an Israeli start-up telecommunications firm, (which has since moved headquarters from Jerusalem to Vienna, Virginia, and been renamed MobileAccess Networks) later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying. It also donated $50,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation charity that Abramoff sometimes used to secretly pay for some of his lobbying activities. In Michael Scanlon's plea agreement, this activity was described as public corruption. Skyboxes, "Signatures", and Scotland

Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of over $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted many fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as Representative John Doolittle (R-CA). Then Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Max Baucus returned $18,892 in contributions that his office found to be connected to Abramoff.Included in the returned donations was an estimated $1,892 that was never reported for Baucus' use of Abramoff's skybox at a professional sports arena and concert venue in downtown Washington in 2001. Abramoff also was co-owner of Signatures Restaurant, a high-end Washington establishment which he used to reward friends and associates. His fellow lobbyist Kevin A. Ring treated Justice Department official Robert E. Coughlin to free tickets to the skyboxes and took him out to Signatures multiple times in exchange for favors. The restaurant, once thriving, was closed once investigations closed in on Abramoff. DeLay, Ney and Florida Republican Representative Tom Feeney have each gone on golf trips to Scotland that were apparently arranged or funded by Abramoff. These trips took place in 2000, 2002 and 2003.Ney and Feeney each claimed that their trips were paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, but the group denied this. Spokespeople for Ney and Feeney blamed others for filing errors. Ney later pleaded guilty to knowing that Abramoff had paid for the trip. A former top procurement official in the Bush administration, David H. Safavian, has been convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in connection with the Abramoff investigation. Safavian, who traveled to Scotland with Reed and Ney on a golf outing arranged by Abramoff, was accused of concealing from federal investigators information about Abramoff's plans to do business with the General Services Administration at the time of the golf trip – in particular, seeking help finding property for his private religious school, Eshkol Academy, and for one of his tribal clients. Safavian was then GSA chief of staff. However, this conviction was overturned on appeal.Access to the Bush administration
<mask>ff was a highly influential figure as lobbyist and activist in the Bush administration. In 2001, Abramoff was a member of the Bush administration's 2001 Transition Advisory Team assigned to the Department of the Interior. Abramoff befriended the incoming Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles. The draft report of the House Government Reform Committee said the documents – largely Abramoff's billing records and e-mails – listed 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials over three years, including 10 with top Bush aide Karl Rove. The report said that of the 485 contacts listed, 345 were described as meetings or other in-person contacts; 71 were described as phone conversations and 69 were e-mail exchanges. In the first ten months of 2001, the Abramoff lobbying team logged almost 200 contacts with the Bush administration. He may have used these senior level contacts to assist in his lobbying for Indian tribes concerning tribal gaming.The Department of the Interior has Federal regulatory authority over tribal affairs such as tribal recognition and gaming. From 2000 to 2003, six Indian tribes paid Abramoff over $80 million in lobbying fees. The Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs has authority over policy and grants to US territories such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). This may have assisted Abramoff in lobbying for textile interests in the islands. U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) and DeLay also heavily lobbied the CNMI for opposing the minimum wage. Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, to arrange a meeting with Bush and directed his fees to an Abramoff-controlled lobbying firm, GrassRoots Interactive.Bongo did meet with Bush in the Oval Office on May 26, 2004. There has been no evidence in the public record that <mask> had any role in organizing the meeting, or that he received any money or had a signed contract with Gabon. White House and State Department officials described Bush's meeting with Bongo, whose government is regularly accused by the United States of human rights abuses, as routine. The officials said they knew of no involvement by <mask> in the arrangements. Officials at Gabon's embassy in Washington did not respond to written questions. Susan Ralston, Rove's assistant since 2001, previously worked as an administrative assistant for both Abramoff and Reed. According to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to arrange a meeting between Mahathir and Bush, allegedly at the direction of The Heritage Foundation.Mahathir insisted that someone unknown to him had paid for the meeting. On May 9, 2001, Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas met with Bush, with <mask> and Norquist in attendance. Abramoff was identified in the background of a photo taken at the meeting. Days before the meeting, the tribe paid $25,000 to Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform at Abramoff's direction. According to the organization's communications director, John Kartch, the meeting was one of several gatherings with Bush sponsored by ATR. On the same day, the chief of the Louisiana Coushattas also attended an ATR-sponsored gathering with Bush. The Coushattas also gave $25,000 to ATR soon before the event.The details of the Kickapoo meeting and a letter dated May 10, 2001, from ATR thanking the Kickapoos for their contribution were revealed to the New York Times in 2006 by former council elder Isidro Garza, who with Raul Garza (no relation), is under indictment in Texas for embezzling tribal money. According to Isidro Garza, Abramoff did not say the donation was required to meet Bush; the White House denied any knowledge of the transaction. Other photos have surfaced of Abramoff and Bush meeting at the White House and Oval Office on either December 22 or 23, 2002. The photos were found on a site that published many pictures of governmental events, ReflectionsOrders.com. The owner of the site removed the photos almost immediately when the presence of Abramoff and Bush together was discovered. Some Internet users located the photos and preserved copies of some of them. The owner of the site gave thousands of dollars to the Bush campaign and Republican National Committee, according to public FEC contribution records.An NPR news report from March 2006 stated that: "... <mask> recently granted a rare press interview to Vanity Fair magazine, where he asserts President Bush and other prominent figures in Washington know him very well. He called them liars for denying contact with him". In June 2006, Abramoff began secretly granting exclusive interviews to former Boston Globe investigative reporter Gary S. Chafetz, without the knowledge of Abramoff's attorneys or the federal prosecutors with whom Abramoff had been cooperating. These interviews – conducted before and during Abramoff's imprisonment – continued until May 2008. In September 2008, Chafetz's book, The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist <mask> was rushed into print prior to the 2008 presidential election. In his book, Chafetz asserted that Abramoff, though guilty of some of the charges, was the victim of misleading and sensational reporting by the Washington Post, vengeance and mendacity on the part of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and strong-arm tactics of the Justice Department who forced Abramoff into confessing to crimes he did not believe he was guilty of. Chafetz also accused federal prosecutors of abusive – and possibly illegal – tactics in their reliance on private and public honest services fraud, which he characterized as vague and controversial.Abramoff organizations

Abramoff has founded or run several non-profit organizations, including Capital Athletic Foundation and Eshkol Academy; as well as lobbying firms and political think tanks such as American International Center, GrassRoots Interactive, and the National Center for Public Policy Research. While these organizations had varying degrees of legitimate activities, it has come to light that Abramoff used these organizations to channel millions of dollars to recipients not related to the organizations. Capital Athletic Foundation and Eshkol Academy

Although Federal tax records show that various Indian tribes donated more than $6 million to the Capital Athletic Foundation, less than 1% of the money went to athletic programs, the stated purpose of the foundation. The majority of the funds went to the Eshkol Academy in Maryland, an Orthodox Jewish school founded by Abramoff in 2002. Hundreds of thousands of dollars from CAF were also spent on golf trips to Scotland for Abramoff, Ney, Ralph Reed Safavian, as well as purchases of camping equipment sent to a high school friend. Abramoff solicited Safavian's help in looking for property deals for Eshkol Academy and tribal clients, leading to Safavian's conviction. GrassRoots Interactive and Kay Gold

GrassRoots Interactive, now defunct, was a small Silver Spring, Maryland, lobbying firm controlled by Abramoff and PJ Johnson.Millions of dollars flowed into GrassRoots Interactive in 2003, the year it was created, and then flowed out again to unusual places. At least $2.3 million went to a California consulting firm that used the same address as the law office of Abramoff's brother, Robert. A separate check for $400,000, from GrassRoots, was made out to Kay Gold LLC, another Abramoff family company. Maldon Institute
Abramoff was a board member and secretary/treasurer of the Maldon Institute for at least five years (1999–2003). He was one of only four board members, including PJ Johnson and John Rees. Scandal and criminal investigations
In late 2004, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee began to investigate Abramoff's lobbying on behalf of American Indian tribes and casinos. In September he was called before the Committee to answer questions about that work, but pleaded the fifth.SunCruz Casinos fraud conviction

On August 11, 2005, <mask> and Adam Kidan were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on fraud charges arising from a 2000 deal to buy SunCruz Casinos from Gus Boulis. <mask> and Kidan are accused of using a fake wire transfer to make lenders believe that they had made a $23 million down payment, in order to qualify for a $60 million loan. Ney also was implicated in helping to consummate the deal. After the partners purchased SunCruz in September 2000, the business relationship with Boulis deteriorated, culminating in a fistfight between Kidan and Boulis in December 2000. In February 2001 Boulis was murdered in his car in a Mafia-style attack. The murder investigation included three individuals who had received payments from Kidan. Two of the suspects received life sentences for the murder charges, while a third associate pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 6 and half years time served already after he testified against his co-conspirators.On January 4, 2006, <mask> pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud in Miami, related to the SunCruz deal. The plea agreement called for a maximum sentence of just over seven years and would run concurrently with the

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 sentence in the Washington corruption case, but could be reduced if Abramoff cooperated fully. The remaining four counts in the Florida indictment were dismissed. On March 29, 2006, Abramoff and Kidan were both sentenced in the SunCruz case to the minimum amount of 70 months, and ordered to pay US$21.7 million in restitution. According to the "memorandum in aid of sentencing", the sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck, received over 260 pleas for leniency from various people, including "rabbis, military officers and even a professional hockey referee." Guam grand jury investigation

In 2002 Abramoff was retained under a secret contract by the Guam Superior Court to lobby against a bill proposing to put the Superior Court under the authority of the Guam Supreme Court. On November 18, 2002, a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding that the administrator of the Guam Superior Court release all records relating to the contract.On November 19, 2002, U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Black, the chief prosecutor for Guam and the instigator of the indictment, was unexpectedly demoted and removed from the office he had held since 1991. The federal grand jury investigation was quickly wound down and took no further action. In 2005 Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks initiated a new investigation of the Abramoff contract, which is continuing. In 2006 California attorney and Marshall Islands lobbyist Howard Hills, and Tony Sanchez, a former administrator of the Guam Superior Court, were indicted for unlawful influence, conspiracy for unlawful influence, theft of property held in trust, and official misconduct for allegedly authorizing 36 payments of $9,000 vis a vis a pre-existing contract between Hills and the Guam Superior Court, each written out to Hills, but funneled to Abramoff. Hills, trusting Sanchez as a court official at face value, assumed that this was a temporary circumstance and agreed to help facilitate transition for what he thought was a standard government contract between Abramoff and the court. For this Hills received no compensation.Before indictments or investigations were initiated, Hills halted his temporary contract with <mask> and reported what he thought was potentially suspicious behavior to public officials when it occurred to him that something may be wrong. In 2007, superseding indictments were issued against Hills and Sanchez, and in 2008 further related indictments were handed down against Abramoff and Abramoff's firm at the time, Greenberg Traurig. The charges against both attorney Howard Hills and Greenberg Traurig have since been dismissed. Native tribes grand jury investigations

Abramoff and his partner, Michael Scanlon (a former Tom DeLay aide), conspired to bilk Native casino gambling interests out of an estimated $85 million in fees. The lobbyists also orchestrated lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services. These practices were the subject both of long-running criminal prosecution and hearings by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. On November 21, 2005, Scanlon pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials.On January 3, 2006, <mask> pleaded guilty to three felony counts – conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion – involving charges stemming principally from his lobbying activities in Washington on behalf of Native American tribes. The four tribes Abramoff and his associates had been involved with included Michigan's Saginaw Chippewas, California's Agua Caliente, the Mississippi Choctaws, and the Louisiana Coushattas. As a result, Abramoff and other defendants must make restitution of at least $25 million that was defrauded from clients, primarily the Native American tribes. Further, Abramoff owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.7 million as a result of his guilty plea to the tax evasion charge. In the agreement, Abramoff admits to bribing public officials, including Ney. Also included: the hiring of congressional staffers and conspiring with them to lobby their former employers – including members of Congress – in violation of a one-year federal ban on such lobbying. Later in 2006 Abramoff lobbyists Neil Volz and Tony Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges; in September 2006 Ney himself pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements.On September 4, 2008, a Washington court found Abramoff guilty of trading expensive gifts, meals and sports trips in exchange for political favors, and U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle sentenced him to a four-year term in prison, to be served concurrently with his previous sentences. Abramoff cooperated in a bribery investigation involving lawmakers, their aides, and members of the Bush administration. People convicted in Abramoff probe
Eventually 24 people were convicted of corruption or bribery. Adam Kidan (an Abramoff associate), was sentenced in Florida in March 2006, serving 27 months in prison, followed by three years of probation. Todd Boulanger, an Abramoff deputy, pleaded guilty to lavishing congressional aides with meals, gifts  and tickets to sporting events, concerts, and the circus in exchange for help with legislation favorable to Abramoff's clients. Sentenced to 30 days and fined. Roger Stillwell (R) Staff in the Department of the Interior under George W. Bush(R).Pleaded guilty and received two years suspended sentence for not reporting hundreds of dollars' worth of sports and concert tickets he received from Abramoff. Steven Griles (R) (former Deputy Interior Secretary) the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. He admitted lying to a Senate committee about his relationship with Abramoff, who repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at Interior on behalf of Indian tribal clients. David Safavian (R) (former White House official), the Bush administration's former top procurement official, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October 2006 after he was found guilty of covering up his dealings with Abramoff. Bob Ney (R-OH) then U. S. Representative, pleaded guilty September 2006, sentenced in January 2007 to 2½ years in prison, acknowledged taking bribes from Abramoff. Ney was in the traveling party on an Abramoff-sponsored golf trip to Scotland at the heart of the case against Safavian. Neil Volz (R) a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, pleaded guilty in May 2006 to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid
William Heaton (R) former chief of staff for Ney, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge involving a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients.Thomas Hart (R) former chief of staff for Ney, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge involving a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients. Italia Federici (R) co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with officials at the Department of the Interior. Jared Carpenter (R) Vice-President of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, was discovered during the Abramoff investigation and pleaded guilty to income tax evasion. He got 45 days, plus 4 years probation. Mark Zachares (R) former aide to U. S. Representative Don Young(R-AL), pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He acknowledged accepting tens of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts and a golf trip to Scotland from Abramoff's team in exchange for official acts on the lobbyist's behalf. Kevin A.Ring (R) former staff to John Doolittle (R-CA) was convicted of five charges of corruption. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison in October 2011. James Hirni (R) US Senate aide, acknowledged bribing Trevor L. Blackann (R) aide to US Senator Kit Bond (R) with meals, concert passes and tickets to the opening game of the 2003 World Series between the Florida Marlins and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, pleaded guilty to using wire communications to defraud taxpayers of congressional aides' honest services. Trevor L. Blackann (R) a former aide to US Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) and then-US Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), pleaded guilty to not reporting $4,100 in gifts from lobbyists in return for helping clients of Abramoff and his associates. Among the gifts were tickets to the World Series and concerts, plus meals and entertainment at a "gentleman's club." Michael Scanlon (R) a former Staff member of Tom DeLay, pled guilty to committing bribery in the course of his work for Abramoff. Tony Rudy (R) another former staff member of Tom DeLay, he also left DeLay to work with Abramoff; pleaded guilty to conspiracy.John Albaugh (R) former Chief of Staff to Ernest Istook (R-OK), pleaded guilty to accepting bribes connected to the Federal Highway Bill. Istook was not charged. (2008)
 Robert E. Coughlin (R) Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division of the Justice Department pleaded guilty to conflict of interest after accepting bribes from <mask>ff. (2008)
 Horace Cooper (R) a former Labor Department official with the Bush administration and aide to US Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), pleaded guilty to falsifying a document when he did not report receiving gifts from Abramoff. Ann Copland (R) a former aide to US Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) pleaded guilty to taking more than $25,000 worth of concert and sporting event tickets in return for helping Abramoff. Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, was sentenced to two years on probation in January 2007 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting hundreds of dollars worth of sports and concert tickets he received from Abramoff. Fraser Verrusio (R) former Transportation Dept official, was found guilty of conspiracy and accepting bribes.Sentenced to 1 day in jail, 2 years' probation and a $1,000 fine. Incarceration
Abramoff served four years of a six-year sentence. On November 15, 2006, he began serving his term in the minimum security prison camp of Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland, Maryland, as inmate number 27593-112. The Justice Department had requested that he serve his sentence there so as to be accessible to agents in Washington for cooperation as the investigations related to his associates intensified. Abramoff worked as a clerk in the prison chaplain's office for 12 cents an hour. He was also teaching courses in public speaking and screenwriting to his fellow inmates and instituted a popular movie night. Post-release activities

On June 8, 2010, he was released from federal prison and was transferred to a halfway house in Baltimore, Maryland, until the end of his six-year sentence.In late June he began working as an accountant at the kosher pizzeria Tov Pizza, working about 40 hours a week from 10:30 a.m. till 5:30 p.m., earning between $7.50 and $10.00 per hour. He finished working at Tov Pizza when he was released from the halfway house on December 3, 2010. Abramoff has returned to lobbying since his release from prison, having attempted to arrange meetings between then President-elect Donald Trump and foreign leaders. He is registered as a lobbyist. On June 25, 2020, Abramoff and CEO Roland Marcus Andrade were charged in San Francisco federal court with fraud in connection with a $5 million cryptocurrency deal. Abramoff agreed to a negotiated plea of guilty. On July 14, 2020, Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and violating the Lobbying Disclosure Act in relation to the AML BitCoin case.Abramoff faces up to five years in prison for each count. Notably, this makes <mask> the first person to be convicted under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which was amended as a result of his previous misconduct. Criticism of lobbying industry

In November 2011, the book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist Abramoff wrote after he was released from prison was published. The 300-page memoir is an account of his life in Washington as a lobbyist. In its last chapter, titled "Path to Reform", Abramoff portrays himself as someone who supports genuine reform and lists a number of proposals to eliminate bribery of government officials, such as barring members of Congress and their aides for life from becoming lobbyists. Abramoff has become a critic of the lobbying industry and has appeared on radio and television, "trying ... to redeem and rebrand himself". He has a Facebook page and game app called "Congressional Jack", and a feature film in the works about the lobbying milieu.He plans to charge for giving talks about corruption in Washington, and has briefed F.B.I. agents on the nature of corruption. He has joined the United Republic anticorruption nonprofit organization and has started in February 2012 as one of the lead bloggers at United Republic's newly launched , described as "an anti-corruption blog focusing on how self-interested dollars are warping the public-interest responsibilities of America's democratic institutions" by the Huffington Post. He has appeared as a guest on CNN to talk about lobbying and the Affordable Care Act healthcare reform law. In July 2012, Premier Networks announced it was launching "The <mask>ff Show" on XM Satellite Radio's "Talk Radio" channel, on which Abramoff would hold forth on political reform. Following Abramoff's return to lobbying after his time in prison, lawmakers passed the Justice Against Corruption on K Street (JACK) Act, which requires convicts such as Abramoff to disclose their criminal history when they re-register to lobby. Personal life
Abramoff has been married to Pamela Clarke <mask> (née Alexander), a co-manager and executive assistant at Capital Athletic Foundation, since July 1986.The couple has five children. Pamela is a convert to Orthodox Judaism. See also
 :Category:<mask>ff scandals
 List of federal political scandals in the United States

References

External links

 Official website

 Posts by <mask>ff at Republic Report

1959 births
Living people
Beverly Hills High School alumni
Businesspeople from California
American film producers
American Orthodox Jews
American lobbyists
American people convicted of tax crimes
Brandeis University alumni
College Republican National Committee chairs
Georgetown University Law Center alumni
Jewish American writers
People from Atlantic City, New Jersey
People from Beverly Hills, California
Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
People convicted of honest services fraud
21st-century American criminals
20th-century American criminals
California Republicans
Washington (state) Republicans
People associated with Greenberg Traurig
Jewish

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<mask> (February 27, 1921 Tokyo, Japan – December 24, 1997 Boston, Massachusetts) was a second-generation distinguished bonsai master who taught traditional Japanese techniques and aesthetics to enthusiasts in the West. Early life and career

<mask> was the second son born to the family of <mask>. Toshiji (1891-1975) was a leader in the bonsai world and one of the top suiseki (viewing stone) authorities in Japan. He was also a co-founder of the Nippon Bonsai Society. Toshiji's father had been a samurai and a renowned garden designer. In April 1952, the 31-year-old <mask>, assisted by German agricultural diplomat Alfred Koehn, began the first bonsai course for foreigners in Tokyo at his Kofu-en nursery. <mask> refused to believe the prevailing wisdom that westerners could not understand, appreciate, or technically master bonsai.The class was an instant success, and within three years over 600 students—mostly foreign dignitaries, military personnel and businessmen and their wives—took the six-lesson course in classical bonsai art. For the class, <mask> grouped the various stylings of bonsai trees into five primary categories. He also systematized much information that previously had only been passed down orally and by example from teacher to student. With the assistance of Giovanna M. Halford, a student of his from England, <mask> worked on a companion text. Empirical information about hundreds of types of plants used for the compositions was also compiled into a detailed database at the end of the book. In 1957, The Japanese Art of Miniature Trees and Landscapes was published by Charles E. Tuttle Co. of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo. Although there had been a few earlier Bonsai books in English by this time, this was the first comprehensive and practical work on the subject.It was received with excitement by those who were eager to learn classical bonsai as refined during the first half of the twentieth century. The book later came to be referred to as the "Bonsai Bible in English". It would go through 37 printings before being reissued in 1996 as The Art of Bonsai: Creation, Care and Enjoyment. <mask> was invited in 1958 to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden by its director George Avery. <mask> came to the United States with over one ton of teaching and demonstrating material, and six weeks later he gave his first course at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, entitled "Bonsai Study & Practice". This very successful course was one of many which <mask> taught on many levels during the spring and autumn of that year while on the C. Stuart Gager fellowship grant. <mask> extended his teaching and lecturing to the West Coast and Hawaii, later returning to teach at Longwood Garden near Philadelphia.In 1962 <mask> spent two months in Australia, where he made a lasting impression. Bonsai was still in its infancy in Australia, and he assisted the early teachers and students, and became the patron of a bonsai group. At the beginning of 1963, <mask> and several of his students founded the Bonsai Society of Greater New York. Within three years there were 555 members, including 339 corresponding members in thirty-one states and several foreign countries. Later career and influence

During 1972, <mask> delivered a lecture in which he spoke of the "dream of American bonsaists for a place where they could give or will their treasures, knowing that the trees would be cared for and viewed by visitors for years to come." Newly appointed Director of the U.S. National Arboretum Dr. John L. Creech was in attendance. Creech had been a frequent visitor to <mask>'s Tokyo garden in the early 1950s and was actually the one who had recommended the bonsai authority to Dr. Avery of the BBG.Impressed by his old friend's thoughts and the fledgling Potomac Bonsai Association's first show at the National Arboretum, Dr. Creech then approached his departmental heads with the suggestion that acquiring a major bonsai collection might play a role in the Department of Agriculture's bicentennial plans. Receiving encouragement, Dr. Creech sought the help of longtime friends in the world of Japanese horticulture. The result was a bicentennial gift to the U.S. from persons and organizations in Japan of fifty-three bonsai and six suiseki (viewing stones) which became the initial collection in the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. His convention and club lectures, workshops, demonstrations, and articles in Western and Japanese specialty magazines spread <mask>'s philosophy. His most important American student was William N. Valavanis. <mask> assisted his student, who became a well-respected teacher in his own right, in launching the premier issue in the Spring of 1979 of the quarterly International Bonsai. The elder sensei also translated its first article -- "Creation of Small Size Satsuki Azalea Bonsai"—from the Japanese magazine source.Valavanis' independent magazine continues to be published to this day. In 1982 <mask> conducted a teaching tour for the bonsai clubs in India. Also that year the National Bonsai Foundation, Inc., a non-profit corporation in Washington, D.C., was formed on behalf of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum of the National Arboretum. John Naka, <mask> <mask>, and now former Arboretum Director Dr. John L. Creech were elected as advisors to the Foundation. In 1984 The Japanese Art of Stone Appreciation, Suiseki and Its Use with Bonsai was published by Charles E. Tuttle Co. The authors were Vincent T. Covello and <mask> <mask>. This would also become a go-to reference work on the subject.The John Y. Naka Pavilion was dedicated in October 1990 to house the National Collection of North American Bonsai. Connected to the Naka Pavilion is the Yoshimura Center housing a lecture and workshop room. Two of <mask>'s bonsai are in the National Collection. The National Bonsai Foundation, Inc. established the Yuji Yoshimura Fund as a permanent endowment to keep this great artist's spirit alive for future generations. Having lived in the Western world for over thirty-five years, <mask> had personally observed the differences in the Eastern and Western cultures as reflected by their arts. Although his students had been primarily of the United States, he taught classical bonsai to thousands of students worldwide. In that <mask> <mask> was a Japanese bonsai artist who lived outside Japan for such a long span of years, he became a direct link between Japanese classical bonsai traditions and the progressive Western approach.The result was an elegant and refined school of bonsai adapted for the modern world. And Yoshimura encouraged the use of native plants and local stylings by enthusiasts around the globe practicing this now widespread art. In 2015, <mask> became the second inductee into the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum's Bonsai Hall of Fame. From October 12 thru November 24, 2019, the Omiya Bonsai Museum in Saitama, Japan, in cooperation with its sister institution the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, hosted an exhibition recognizing the contributions <mask> had made to expand the Japanese art of bonsai across the ocean. Footnotes

Works cited

Golden Statements (September/October 1994)

External links
  "<mask> <mask>, the Father of Popular Bonsai in the Non-Oriental World," www.magiminiland.org/
 William N. Valavanis,  North American Bonsai Foundation Newsletter, No. 3. 1921 births
1997 deaths
People from Tokyo
Japanese aesthetics
Bonsai artists
People from Briarcliff Manor, New York
Japanese expatriates in the United States

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<mask> (born <mask>; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, singer, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art. She wrote, directed and starred in the films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011) and wrote and directed Kajillionaire (2020). She has authored a book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007); a collection of nonfiction short stories, It Chooses You (2011); and the novel The First Bad Man (2015). Early life
<mask> was born in Barre, Vermont, in 1974, the daughter of Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger. Her parents are both writers who taught at Goddard College at the time. They were also the founders of North Atlantic Books, a publisher of alternative health, martial arts, and spiritual titles.Her father was Jewish, and her mother was Protestant. July was encouraged to work on her short fiction by author Rick Moody. She was raised in Berkeley, California, where she first began staging plays at 924 Gilman Street, a local punk rock club. She attended The College Preparatory School in Oakland for high school. When she was 16, she wrote and directed The Lifers, a play for which she cast 20 Latina women. She describes this as an experience that pushed her heavily. She later attended University of California Santa Cruz, but she stopped attending in her second year.Career beginnings
She relocated to Portland, Oregon, and took up performance art, or "one woman shows". Her performances were successful; she has been quoted as saying she has not worked a day job since she was 23 years old. In an interview for the Tate, she explains that she still tries to practice performance, partially due to its stark differences from film making, such as its live audience or how "present" it is in comparison. Portland is also where she began participating in the riot grrrl scene that was beginning to grow in the early 1990s. In the early stages of her film career, she created several small video projects and performances years prior to her feature film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. However, while she worked on her art, July had to work several odd jobs to survive; she worked as a waitress, a tastemaker for Coca-Cola, a locksmith, and a stripper. Film

Joanie4Jackie

<mask> was immersed in the riot grrl scene in Portland and motivated by its do-it-yourself ethos, and she began an effort that she described as "a free alternative distribution system for women movie-makers".One of July's reasons for starting the project was to apply the concepts of riot grrrl into the film making world. The idea was to connect as many women artists as possible, let them see each other's work, and foster a sense of community. Participants sent a self-made short film to July, who mailed back a compilation videotape containing that film and nine others – a "chainletter tape". When it began in 1995, the project was called Big Miss Moviola but was soon renamed Joanie4Jackie. July also credits the project to the loneliness she was experiencing at the time, but felt she learned from the project immensely, saying "that was my film school". July's first film, Atlanta, appears on the second tape of the series. July continued to run the project for years, handing it off to the film department of Bard College in 2003.In Spring 2016, July donated an archive of Joanie4Jackie to the Getty Research Institute. The collection includes more than 200 titles from the 1990s and 2000s, videos from Joanie4Jackie events, booklets, posters, hand-written letters from participants, and other documentation. Thomas W. Gaehtgens, the director of the Getty Research Institute, stated that the acquisition is "an esteemed addition to our Special Collections that connects to work by many important 20th century artists who are also represented in our archives, such as Eleanor Antin, Yvonne Rainer and Carolee Schneemann." Me and You and Everyone We Know

Filmmaker rated her number one in their "25 New Faces of Indie Film" in 2004. After winning a slot in a Sundance workshop, she developed her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which opened in 2005. The film won The Caméra d'Or prize in The Cannes Festival 2005 as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival, Feature Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The Future

On May 16, 2007, July mentioned that she was currently working on a new film.This film was originally titled "Satisfaction" but was later renamed The Future, with July in a lead role. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. Kajillionaire

In March 2018, it was announced July would write and direct a heist film, with Brad Pitt and Youree Henley producing the film, under their Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures banners, respectively. That same month, Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger and Gina Rodriguez joined the cast of the film. In June 2018, Mark Ivanir joined the cast of the film. Principal photography began in May 2018. Its theatrical release was on September 25, 2020.Other film work
Her short video The Amateurist (1998) features a dowdy researcher examining, via her own video monitor, a stereotypical "beautiful woman"; July plays both roles. A lengthier video, the 27-minute Nest of Tens (2000), juxtaposes four unrelated scenarios in which "seemingly everyday people go about acting completely normal while demonstrating distinct abnormality". Nest of Tens has been placed in the permanent online collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wayne Wang consulted with July about aspects of his 2001 feature-length film The Center of the World, for which she received a story credit. <mask> appears as herself in the 2017 documentary Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk. She was interviewed for the film !Women Art Revolution. Music and spoken word
She recorded her first E.P.for Kill Rock Stars in 1996, titled Margie Ruskie Stops Time, with music by The Need. She released two full-length LPs, 10 Million Hours A Mile in 1997 and The Binet-Simon Test in 1998, both on Kill Rock Stars. She collaborated with Calvin Johnson in his musical project Dub Narcotic Sound System, and in 1999 she made a split EP with IQU, released on Johnson's K Records. Acting

<mask> has acted in many of her own short films, including Atlanta, The Amateurist, Nest of Tens, Are You The Favorite Person of Anyone?, and her feature-length films Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future. She also made an appearance in the film Jesus' Son (1998). She appeared in an episode of Portlandia in 2012. She co-starred in Josephine Decker’s 2018 feature film, Madeline's Madeline.Live performance pieces
In 1998, July made Love Diamond, her first full-length multimedia performance piece – in her description, a "live movie." This two-hour stage work had July playing multiple characters, humorously depicting women's perceived cultural roles. This was followed by a second full-length performance piece, The Swan Tool, and a six-minute film, Getting Stronger Every Day (2001). The latter is an abstract view of a grown man and a little girl, seemingly taunted by indistinct floating shapes while an offscreen narrator recounts a tale of real-life pedophilia. The Swan Tool is another "live movie", a one-woman show in which July plays Lisa Cobb, a woman searching for her lost body. Although it's peppered with deadpan comedy, the surrealist story concerns "childhood sexual traumas, adult alienation, and persistent, unfocused guilt". In 2006, after completing her first feature film, she went on to create another multimedia piece, Things We Don't Understand and Definitely Are Not Going To Talk About, which she performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.This stage show contained several ideas that would become key elements of her later film, The Future. In March 2015, July premiered her performance work New Society as part of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival. In the program for the performance, July requested the audience not share details of the show, stating it is now "a rare sensation to sit down in a theater with no idea what will happen." Various art projects
With artist Harrell Fletcher, July founded the online art project called Learning to Love You More (2002–2009). The project's website offered assignments to artists whose submissions became part of "an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world". Over 8,000 people participated in the project. In addition to its internet presentations, Learning to Love You More also compiled exhibitions for the Whitney Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and other hosts.A book version of the project's online art was released in 2007. Starting May 1, 2009 the project's website stopped accepting assignment submissions. In 2010 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired the website, to preserve it as an archive of the project online. July constructed a sculptural exhibition, Eleven Heavy Things, for the 2009 Venice Biennale. Its assortment of cartoonish shapes, made sturdy with fiberglass and steel, were designed for playful interaction by visitors. The exhibition was also shown in New York City at Union Square Park and in Los Angeles at the MOCA Pacific Design Center. In 2013 she organized We Think Alone, an art project involving the private emails of public figures.Unredacted except for the recipients' names, the emails were freely donated by a disparate group of notable persons including author Sheila Heti, theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and actress Kirsten Dunst. July grouped selected emails by topic, and sent a new set to the project's subscribers every week for 20 weeks. As one reviewer described them, the emails are "simultaneously mundane and eerily revealing; they shed light on how people in the public eye craft their private identities... [they] also underscore, in some way, the way all of us present ourselves over email: excessively formal or passive-aggressive, lovey-dovey, flakey, overly excited." In 2014 she created an iOS app, Somebody, which allows users to compose a message to be delivered to someone else in-person, or to deliver someone else's message in-person. When you send your friend a message through Somebody, it goes – not

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 to your friend – but to the Somebody user nearest your friend. This person (likely a stranger) delivers the message verbally, acting as your stand-in. Somebody is a far-reaching public art project that incites performance and twists our love of avatars and outsourcing – every relationship becomes a three-way.The project was funded by Miu Miu. The app closed on October 31, 2015. Writing
As much as a film-maker, July is also an author, mostly of short stories. Writing was something she did years before her first feature premiered. July in a 2016 interview explains that out of all the mediums she pursues, she is the least confident in her film making, partially because of the less familiar and hyper hierarchical and collaborative environment. She knows most people on her sets have never taken orders from a femme film director, and so she explains that there is an air of confidence you need to be that role. Her short story The Boy from Lam Kien was published in 2005 by Cloverfield Press, as a special-edition book with illustration by Elinor Nissley and Emma Hedditch.Another short story, Something That Needs Nothing, was published in the following year by The New Yorker. No One Belongs Here More Than YouNo One Belongs Here More Than You, July's collection of short vignettes, was published by Scribner in 2007. It won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award on September 24, 2007. In The New York Times, Sheelah Kolhatkar gave the collection a mixed review: "A handful of these stories are sweet and revealing, although in many cases the attempt to create 'art' is too self-conscious, and the effort comes off as pointlessly strange." As of 2015 the collection has more than 200,000 copies in circulation. It Chooses You

July's non-fiction story collection It Chooses You was published by McSweeney's in 2011. While procrastinating the writing of her screenplay The Future in 2009, July criss-crossed Los Angeles accompanied by photographer Brigitte Sireto to meet a random selection of PennySaver sellers, glimpsing thirteen surprisingly moving and profoundly specific realities, along the way shaping her film, and herself, in unexpected ways.The work received mixed reviews with fans citing the collection's "lasting impression" of realistic struggle and critics citing the mumblecore-influenced artist's writing style as a "cheap trick" in text-format. The First Bad Man
July's first novel The First Bad Man was published by Scribner in January 2015. The narrative centers around Cheryl Glickman, a middle-aged woman in crisis whose life abruptly changes course when a young woman, named Clee, moves into her home. The novel explores the complex relationship between Cheryl and Clee. In her review for The New York Times Book Review, reviewer Lauren Groff writes The First Bad Man "makes for a wry, smart companion on any day. It's warm. It has a heartbeat and a pulse.This is a book that is painfully alive." Styles and themes
July was heavily inspired by the riot grrrl movement. She was friends with several of the bands who were part of the movement such as Bikini Kill, Excuse 17, and Heavens to Betsy. Her films have a common theme of "intimacy." For example, many of her work's titles use pronouns ("me," "you," "we," etc.). July creates "slice of life" films using ordinary characters and giving them attention within her films. She describes this as her being, "desperate to bring people together."However, as she's aged she's become more interested in how people sabotage coming together. July receives criticism for being too "niche" or trying too hard to seem "quirky." According to The New York Times, "July has come to personify everything infuriating about the Etsy-shopping, Wes Anderson-quoting, McSweeney's-reading, coastal-living category of upscale urban bohemia that flourished in the aughts [sic]." She is often lumped in with directors like Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, but says she gets more push-back than them due to her films being so emotional and feminine, being called "precious" and "twee." In this same interview with The New York Times, <mask> explains that she likes the directors she's been compared to, but they never get criticized for making films about themselves, though she as a female film-maker is often labelled "self-obsessed." In a 2015 Guardian article, July adds, "Yes, it's pretty clear that ‘whimsical’ is a diminishing word, [...] I almost think asking the question is like I'm being asked to gossip about myself. I think it's kind of a female thing, being asked to gossip about yourself.I think I'm maybe done with that." July also often includes the theme of sex in her films. The New York Times describes this theme "as both a sudden surprise and a way to illuminate the inner lives of her characters". July elaborates: “I was always interested in sex, even as a kid. Sex includes shame and humiliation and fantasies and longing. It’s so dense with the kinds of things I’m interested in.”

She has also expressed her interest in the rhythm and feeling of film, rather than being “inspired” by other filmmakers, and states that she wouldn't call herself a “cinephile.”

In between Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future, July began to incorporate some of the oddball avant-garde things she had done in theater performance into her films, some of which was easier to swallow on stage but not on screen, such as the talking cat in The Future, which she was later criticized for by viewers. July also has a strong interest in clothing and costume.She served as the lookbook creative director for Uniqlo UT's 2019 clothing line. Personal life
<mask> is married to film-maker and visual artist Mike Mills, with whom she has a child, born in March 2012. <mask> and Mills met at both of their first Sundance Festival premieres in 2005, and married in mid-2009. In a 2007 interview with Bust magazine, <mask> spoke of the importance which feminism has had in her life, saying, "What's confusing about [being a feminist]? It's just being pro-your ability to do what you need to do. It doesn't mean you don't love your boyfriend or whatever... When I say 'feminist', I mean that in the most complex, interesting, exciting way!"In another interview she had on Idaho's Public Television station, she explains that once she started confronting the racial issues addressed in current day politics, she started contacting publishers and revising her work, realizing not everything she had said was racially and politically sound. She changed her last name to "<mask>" when she was 15, after a character (based on her) in a story by her high school best friend, Johanna Fateman. She changed her name legally in her early 20s. July describes her family as very "DIY", which probably accounts for some of July's makeshift style. Therefore, when July wanted to change her last name, her father was very accepting of the decision. Her father was a workaholic, which is something she believes she picked up from him. Her family also dabbled in practicing New Age religions and discussed spirituality while she was growing up.Works
 Filmography
 Full-length films
 Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) – wrote, directed, and acted
 The Future  (2011) – wrote, directed, and acted
 Kajillionaire (2020) – wrote and directed

 Short films
 I Started Out with Nothing and I Still Have Most of It Left Atlanta (1996) – appeared on Audio-Cinematic Mix Tape (Peripheral Produce)
 A Shape Called Horse (1999) – appeared on Video Fanzine #1 (Kill Rock Stars)
 Nest of Tens (1999) (Peripheral Produce)
 Getting Stronger Every Day (2001) – 6 mins 30 secs, appeared on Peripheral Produce: All-Time Greatest Hits: a collection of experimental films and videos (Peripheral Produce)
 Haysha Royko (2003) – 4 mins
 Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005) – appeared on Wholphin issue 1Somebody (2014), Miu Miu's Women's Tales 8 – 10 mins 14 secsMiranda July Introduces the Miranda (2014) – advertisement for a handbag designed by July and Welcome Companions. With music by JD Samson. Other film work
 Jesus' Son (1999) (Lions Gate Entertainment) – acted
 The Center of the World (2001) – co-wrote story
 Madeline's Madeline (2018) – acted
 Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk (2017) – appearance as herself
 The Portland Girl Convention (1996) by Emily B. Kingan – documentary
 The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal (2001) by Matt McCormick – with narration by July

 Music videos
"Get Up" by Sleater-Kinney (1999) – directed by July
"Top Ranking" by Blonde Redhead (2007) – July acts in the video, directed by Mike Mills
"Hurry On Home" by Sleater-Kinney (2019) – directed, plus a cameo appearance

 Publications
 Full-length publications
 No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories. New York City: Scribner, 2007. . The First Bad Man: A Novel. New York City: Scribner, 2015. .
 Miranda July (artist monograph).Munich: Prestel Publishing, 2020. .

 Collaborative publications
 Learning to Love You More. Munich: Prestel Publishing, 2007. With Harrell Fletcher. . It Chooses You. McSweeney's, Irregulars, 2011. 2002: Creative Capital Emerging Fields Award
2006: You, Me, and Everyone We Know received the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. 2007: No One Belongs Here More Than You won the Frank O’Connor award.2016: July was one of 683 artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as a writer. In popular culture
 (Satirical piece)

See also
 List of female film and television directors

References

Further reading
 Czudaj, Antje. <mask>'s Intermedial Art: The Creative Class Between Self-Help and Individualism; Columbia University Press, 2016. Mörke, Luise. "An Eerily Vulnerable Thing. <mask> July and the Failure of Profundity," Photogénie''. Retrieved February 16, 2021.External links

 Joanie 4 Jackie : "Big Miss Moviola Chainletter"

 Ed Champion. <mask> July Interview - The Bat Segundo Show #405

1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Vermont
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Jewish descent
American performance artists
Artists from Portland, Oregon
Feminist artists
Feminist musicians
Film directors from Oregon
American women film directors
K Records artists
Kill Rock Stars
Musicians from Vermont
Pacific Northwest artists
People from Barre, Vermont
Sundance Film Festival award winners
American women screenwriters
American short story writers
American women short story writers
Filmmakers from Portland, Oregon
Film directors from Vermont
Screenwriters from Oregon
Screenwriters from Vermont
Directors of Caméra d'Or winners
21st-century American women
Women in

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