AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Much of Lawrence's economy is from the University of Kansas. The biggest private employer is Maximus Inc. Other big employers are Lawrence Public Schools, Hallmark Cards, the City of Lawrence, and Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
In the 1980s, Lawrence's economy grew. This is because the city created the East Hills Business Park in 1986. This is an industrial park. Some businesses moved to this place. Many of these businesses were from Kansas City, such as PROSOCO.
South Park is a big park in Downtown Lawrence. The park was made of four different parks, but they became just one big park. South Park was created in 1854. A gazebo was built in 1910. Bands play music at the park in the summer.
The Watkins Museum of History is one block north of South Park. It has exhibits about Lawrence and Douglas County. Next to the museum is a Japanese garden made by sister city Hiratsuka, Japan. The University of Kansas has the Natural History Museum in Dyche Hall, the Spencer Museum of Art and the Dole Institute of Politics among others.
Centennial Park was made in 1954 for Lawrence's 100th birthday. The park has many hills, a skatepark, a disc golf area, and a Polaris missile from the Cold War.
The Bowersock Opera House burned in 1911, so people built a new one. It is called "Liberty Hall." Liberty Hall is a small theater which often shows independent movies, and sometimes live acts. Liberty Hall also has a video rental store. The Granada Theater was built in 1928 as a vaudeville theater. In 1934, it became a movie theater. It closed in 1989, but it was reopened in 1993. Today, it shows comedy acts and concerts.
The Eldridge Hotel is a historic hotel. It is one of the oldest buildings in Lawrence. It was built in 1854, but it was burned in 1855. It was rebuilt, but it was burned in Quantrill's Raid. It was built again. In 1925, the hotel was renovated. In 1970, the hotel became apartments. In 1985, people worked to make it a hotel again. In 2004, the building was sold. It was changed to make it look like it was from 1925 again. It is a popular rumor that the ghost of Eldridge haunts the hotel. The Eldridge Hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The University of Kansas (KU) has the Memorial Stadium and the Allen Fieldhouse. They built Memorial Stadium in 1920 for American football games. It is named to remember KU students who died in World War I. They built Allen Fieldhouse in 1955 for basketball games. On November 4, 2010, ESPN's magazine said that Allen Fieldhouse was the loudest basketball stadium in the United States. Mark Whicker, a famous sports writer, said Allen Fieldhouse "...is the best place in America to watch college basketball."
Oak Hill Cemetery is a cemetery in Lawrence for famous people from Lawrence. It was built in 1866. Memorial Park Cemetery is across the street. It has a memorial for James Naismith, the creator of basketball.
Lawrence has many historic houses, and some of them are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Robert Miller House did not burn in Quantrill's Raid, and it was part of the Underground Railroad. Ferdinand Fuller was one of the first people to move to Lawrence. He built his house in the Hillcrest Neighborhood. The John Roberts House is used for many formal events. John G. Haskell, a famous architect (someone who designs buildings), designed the John Roberts House.
Lawrence is known for a thriving music and art culture. "Rolling Stone" said Lawrence is one of the best small college towns in the United States on August 11, 2005. In 2005, "The New York Times" said Lawrence had one of the best music cultures in any city between Chicago and Denver. "Esquire" magazine said The Replay Lounge, a bar and music venue in Lawrence, was one of the best in the United States in 2007.
The University of Kansas has the Lied Center of Kansas. It is a building that shows many Broadway musicals. They have had famous bands perform, including The Beach Boys and Kansas.
In December 2005, the city said it would have "International Dadaism Month" in 2006. This was about the early 20th century art movement. In the spirit of Dada, Mayor Dennis “Boog” Highberger did not choose a calendar month for it. Instead, he chose the dates for the "Month" as February 4, March 28, April 1, July 15, August 2, August 7, August 16, August 26, September 18, September 22, October 1, October 17, and October 26. He chose these dates by rolling dice and pulling numbers out of a hat.
The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival was an annual four-day music festival which began in 2004. It was held at Clinton Lake. Thousands of people went to the festival every year. They had many different kinds of bands play, including The Flaming Lips, STS9, Wilco, Matisyahu, and North Mississippi Allstars. Because of an agreement with the state government, the event was smaller than other festivals. As well as listening to music, people could also play disc golf, do yoga, go hiking, and go swimming. The festival moved to Mulberry Mountain, Arkansas. This happened because of a disagreement between the organizers and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks about the limits on the number of people and the rent.
Every year since 1959, on the third Thursday in July, Lawrence has had the "Massachusetts Street sidewalk sale." It is a big sale on Massachusetts Street. Many stores take part. Often, radio stations and live music are played during this event.
The University of Kansas sports teams are in Lawrence. They are called the Jayhawks. The most famous team is the men's basketball team. Many people watch the men's basketball team. Many fans came together on Massachusetts Street in 2002, 2003, 2008, and 2012. This was when the Jayhawks won or lost the last games in the NCAA tournament. The Jayhawks won the 1952, 1988, and 2008 NCAA tournaments. KU's football team had their best year in 2007–2008. They won 12 games, and they lost only one game. That year, they won the Orange Bowl. The city honored the mascot in 2003 when the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau created 30 statues of the Jayhawk. They placed them around town. They called this event "Jayhawks on Parade." The Jayhawks also have a soccer team, a baseball team, a softball team, track and field teams, a cross country team, and a men's club hockey team. KU also has a club rugby team. The KU Rugby Football Club runs it. They often meet at North Johnny's Tavern. They also run high school rugby teams.
A city commission and city manager run Lawrence. Five people who are elected make up the commission. Every year, three people can be elected. The two people who get the most votes are elected for four years. The person who gets 3rd place is elected for two years. Every April, the commission chooses a mayor and a vice mayor, and they hire a city manager.
Even though Kansas is a Republican state, Lawrence often chooses the Democrat for president. Lawrence has been Democratic since the late 1980s. In the 2004 presidential election, Douglas County was one of two Kansas counties to choose John Kerry. In the 2008 presidential election, Douglas County was one of three Kansas counties to choose Barack Obama. In the 2016 presidential election, Douglas County chose Hillary Clinton. It was one of only two Kansas counties to choose Hillary Clinton. In the 2020 presidential election, Douglas County chose Joe Biden. Douglas County chose the Democratic candidate in the last eight presidential elections.
As of July 2019, Lawrence has four state representatives: Mike Amyx, Eileen Horn, Barbara Ballard, and Dennis "Boog" Highberger. All of them are Democrats. Lawrence has two state senators: Marci Francisco and Tom Holland. Jake LaTurner represents Lawrence in the House of Representatives. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran represent Lawrence in the Senate. All three of them are Republicans. Before 2002, Lawrence was part of the 3rd district. This changed when Lawrence was split in both the 3rd and 2nd districts. Since 2012, all of Lawrence is in the 2nd district.
On May 4, 1995, Lawrence became the first city in Kansas that made discrimination against gay people illegal. On October 4, 2011, Lawrence made discrimination against transgender people illegal. Lawrence was the first city in Kansas to do this. In April 2005, there was a change to the Kansas Constitution which made same-sex marriage and civil unions for gay people illegal. Douglas County was the only county to vote against the change. Lawrence created a domestic partner registry on May 22, 2007. The registry gave unmarried couples —both same-sex and other-sex— some recognition by the city for legal reasons.
Lawrence has 14 elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools. The high schools are Lawrence High School and Lawrence Free State High School. The middle schools are Liberty Memorial Central Middle School, West Middle School, Billy Mills Middle School and Southwest Middle School. The elementary schools are Langston Hughes Elementary, Quail Run Elementary, Broken Arrow Elementary, Cordley Elementary, Hillcrest Elementary, Kennedy, Pinckney Elementary, Prairie Park Elementary, New York Elementary, Schwegler Elementary, Sunflower Elementary, Sunset Hill Elementary, Woodlawn Elementary, and Deerfield Elementary.
The University of Kansas is in Lawrence. It is the biggest university in Kansas and has over 30,000 students. It has more than 170 fields of study. It is a part of the Big 12 Conference, a famous college sports organization. The Haskell Indian Nations University is also in Lawrence. It has more than 1,000 students. It gives free tuition to all Native American students. It also has the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Haskell Cultural Center.
In 2010, MSN, MSNBC, and the American Institute for Economic Research said Lawrence was one of the best college towns in the United States. In 2011, "Parents & Colleges" said Lawrence was one of the 10 best college towns in the United States.
The first library in Lawrence was built in 1854. It was burned in Quantrill's Raid. A new library was built in 1865. In 1902, Andrew Carnegie gave a lot of money to build a new library. Built it in 1904, and it was called the "Lawrence Public Library." A new library was built in 1972. In July 2014, the design changed.
In 2016, the library won an award for the building's beauty.
One of the first businesses started in Lawrence was a newspaper called the "Herald of Freedom". It started in October 1854 and ended in 1859. In August 1885, the newspaper the Lawrence "Daily Journal" started and in June 1895, the "Daily World" started. In 1911, they joined together, and became the "Lawrence Journal-World". There is also a student newspaper published by the University of Kansas. It is called the "University Daily Kansan". "Change of Heart" is a street newspaper sold by homeless people in Lawrence.
Lawrence mostly gets television shows from Kansas City, but people can get them from Topeka, too.
From 1947 to 1981, the Centron Corporation was in Lawrence. The Centron Corporation was a big movie company which made many big industrial and educational movies. Two students from the University of Kansas started the company. Some residents of Lawrence were able to get into the movie industry through Centron. One resident, Herk Harvey, worked at Centron for over 30 years as a director. He created a full-length theatrical movie, "Carnival of Souls", a horror cult movie shot mostly in Lawrence, and released in 1962.
Lawrence has the "Lawrence Journal-World", a local newspaper that publishes every day. Many people also get the University of Kansas student newspaper, "The University Daily Kansan".
These radio stations are in Lawrence, Kansas:
These television stations are in Lawrence, Kansas:
Interstate 70, U.S. Route 40, U.S. Route 59, and U.S. Route 24 go through Lawrence. Interstate 70 goes east-west in the northern part of Lawrence and connects with U.S. Route 59. Route 59 goes north-south along North 2nd Street, Iowa Street, and 6th Street. U.S. Route 40 is about two miles south of Interstate 70. It also goes east-west through northern Lawrence along 6th Street. K-10 is a state highway that goes east-west. It enters Lawrence on 23rd Street, then it goes south. It goes to west Lawrence, and it stops northwest of Lawrence.
Two bus systems are in Lawrence. One is called the Lawrence Transit, and the city runs it. The other is called KU on Wheels, and the University of Kansas runs it. There are 18 bus routes. KU students and teachers can use them for free. Greyhound Lines has a bus stop in Lawrence. It can take people to other cities. Also, the Johnson County, Kansas bus system can take students to and from the colleges in Lawrence and Overland Park. This bus is known as the "K-10 Connector."
The Lawrence Municipal Airport is northeast of Lawrence. It is very close to U.S. Route 40. It is used for people who have airplanes. No airplane companies have planes there. Kansas City International Airport is the closest airport that airplane companies use. It is about 50 miles northeast of downtown Lawrence.
Two Class I railroads go through Lawrence. One railroad is owned by Union Pacific Railroad. The other is owned by BNSF Railway. The BNSF Railroad track starts in the eastern part of Lawrence, and it goes west. It follows the path of the Kansas River. The Union Pacific track also starts in eastern Lawrence and goes west. It also follows the path of the Kansas River. It is north of the Kansas River. The BNSF railroad track is south of the Kansas River. There is an Amtrak station in Lawrence, very close to downtown. Lawrence is a stop on Amtrak's ""Southwest Chief"" route from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Lawrence has one hospital, the "Lawrence Memorial Hospital." It has won awards for good care and quality.
The biggest electric company in Lawrence is Westar Electric. The biggest gas company is Black Hills Energy. Lawrence has television providers including Midco and DirecTV. Lawrence has Internet service providers including Midco, Wicked Broadband, CenturyLink, HughesNet, Allconnect, ViaSat Satellite, Exede, and Wild Blue Internet. Lawrence has telephone providers including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Midco.
Lawrence has three sister cities through Sister Cities International:
Langston Hughes was poet who grew up in Lawrence while his grandmother took care of him. Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford, grew up in Lawrence. He was a member of the Plymouth Congregational Church. George Docking, former Governor of Kansas, went to school in Lawrence and to the University of Kansas. Danny Manning, NBA player and college basketball coach, went to school in Lawrence and at the University of Kansas. Federal judge Sri Srinivasan also went to school in Lawrence.
Some very famous people came to Lawrence to study at the University of Kansas. Wilt Chamberlain played for the Jayhawks basketball team before he joined the Harlem Globetrotters. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was the Jayhawks's first basketball coach. Bob Dole, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican Presidential nominee, studied at the University of Kansas. The Dole Institute is in Lawrence because of him. Many different governors studied there including Jane Dee Hull, the first female Governor of Arizona, Kathleen Sebelius, Sam Brownback, and Alf Landon. Other famous students include Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize winner; Brian McClendon, the creator of Google Earth; Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto; Ronald Evans, a NASA astronaut who went to the Moon; and Vernon L. Smith, the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Lawrence was the setting for many books by science fiction writer James Gunn, including "The Immortals" (1964). The book was used for the ABC television movie and TV series "The Immortal" (1969–1971).
The 1983 television movie "The Day After" was set in Lawrence. Parts of the movie were filmed in the city.
Sam and Dean Winchester, the main characters of the "Supernatural" TV series, are from Lawrence. Lawrence was referenced many times in the show. Lawrence was destroyed in the 2006 TV Series "Jericho".
Josh Ritter, an American folk singer, has a song called "Lawrence KS" on the 2002 album "Golden Age of Radio." Cross Canadian Ragweed's 2007 album "Mission California" has a song entitled "Lawrence." A homeless family the band saw while visiting the town around Christmas inspired the song.
Lawrence is the normal starting place for the map program Google Earth (2005). Brian McClendon chose the place. McClendon graduated from the University of Kansas in 1986, and he was the director of engineering for Google Earth.
Hilo, Hawaii
Hilo () is the second-largest CDP in the State of Hawaii and the largest settlement on the island of Hawaii with a population of 40,759 during the 2000 census.
Hilo is the county seat of Hawaii County, Hawaii, and is situated in the South Hilo District. The town overlooks Hilo Bay.
Hilo is near two shield volcanoes
Some of the best ground-based astronomical observatories are on Mauna Kea.
Hilo is home to the University of Hawaii at Hilo, as well as the Merrie Monarch Festival, a week-long celebration of ancient and modern hula, which takes place every year after Easter. It is also home to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation, one of the world's leading producers of macadamia nuts. It is served by Hilo International Airport, inside the CDP.
Although there is not much archaeological evidence, people lived in the areas along Hilo Bay, Wailuku and Wailoa Rivers before the Western world made contact. They were known as the Hilo. They dominated the high mountaintops until the middle 1800s. Hilo means high mountaintop in the original language of the native peoples who lived on the mountaintops. King Kamehameha, the first king of Hawaii, conquered all the islands and then moved the Hilo mountain settlement to the shore after the arrival of outsiders.
Originally, the name Hilo applied to the whole district of Hilo, now divided into South Hilo District and North Hilo District. When William Ellis visited in 1823, the main settlement in Hilo district was Waiākea on Hilo Bay. Missionaries came to the district in the early to middle 1800s, founding several churches, notably Haili Church, in the area of modern Hilo.
Hilo expanded as sugar plantations in the surrounding area created new jobs and drew in many workers from Asia, making the city a trading center.
A breakwater across Hilo Bay was begun in the 1900s and completed in 1929. On April 1, 1946, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands created a fourteen-meter high tsunami that hit Hilo 4.9 hours later, killing 160 people. In response an early warning system, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, was established in 1949 to track these killer waves and provide warning. This tsunami also meant the end of the Hawaii Consolidated Railway, and instead the Hawaii Belt Road was built north of Hilo using some of the railbed.
On May 23, 1960, another tsunami, caused by a 9.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile the previous day, claimed 61 lives allegedly due to people's failure to heed warning sirens. Low-lying bayfront areas of the city on Waiākea peninsula and along Hilo Bay, previously populated, were rededicated as parks and memorials.
Hilo is located at (19.705520, -155.085918).
Hilo is classified by the United States Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP), and has a total area of , of which is land and of which (7.10%) is water.
Hilo features a tropical rainforest climate (Koppen "Af"), with substantial rainfall throughout the course of the year. Hilo's location on the eastern side of the island of Hawaii (windward relative to the trade winds) makes it the wettest city in the United States and one of the wettest cities in the world. An average of around of rain fell at Hilo International Airport annually between 1971–2000, with 275 days of the year receiving some rain. At some other weather stations in Hilo the annual rainfall is above .
Monthly average temperatures range from in January to in August. The highest recorded temperature was on May 20, 1996, and the lowest on February 21, 1962. The wettest year was 1994 with and the driest year was 1983 with . The most rainfall in one month was in December 1954. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on November 2, 2000.
Hilo's location on the shore of the funnel-shaped Hilo Bay also makes it vulnerable to tsunamis.
There are many educational institutions in Hilo. Some of these are: two post-secondary institutions, the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College.
Lennon–McCartney
Lennon–McCartney (sometimes McCartney–Lennon) was the songwriting partnership between the two English musicians John Lennon (1940-1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942). It is one of the best-known and most successful musical partnerships in history. Between 1962 and 1969, they wrote about 180 credited songs. Most of the songs were recorded by the band they were both part of, The Beatles. Other songs credited to Lennon–McCartney were originally released not by the Beatles but by other artists, especially those managed by Brian Epstein. Recording a Lennon–McCartney song helped start new artists' careers. For example, one of The Rolling Stones' first singles, "I Wanna Be Your Man", was a Lennon–McCartney song.
Birmingham Triennial Music Festival
The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival was a festival of classical music that used to be held in Birmingham, England. It was started in 1784 and continued until 1912. “Triennial” means that it happened once every three years.
The first music festival was held for three days in September 1768. It helped to raise money to complete the new General Hospital on Summer Lane. Another festival was held in 1778 to get more money. The hospital opened in September 1779.
From September 1784 the festival was held every three years. It continued to raise money for the hospital.
The church and theatre where the festival was held became too small, so in 1834 they built Birmingham Town Hall which had much more room.
Many famous musicians performed at the festival. In 1837 Felix Mendelssohn conducted a performance of his oratorio "St. Paul", played the organ, and played the piano part in the first performance of his Piano Concerto No. 2 which had been especially commissioned by the Festival. In the next festival he played his Piano Concerto No. 1. In 1846 (a year before he died) the festival commissioned him to write his oratorio "Elijah". It was a huge success. He was paid 200 guineas. "Elijah" was played at every festival after that.
The festival commissioned other composers to write works, these included: Arthur Sullivan, Max Bruch, Charles Gounod and Antonín Dvořák.
The great conductor Hans Richter was made principal conductor in 1885.
Edward Elgar wrote several works for the festival. In 1900 his oratorio "The Dream of Gerontius" was given its first performance. In 1903 he performed "The Apostles", and 1906 "The Kingdom". In 1912 he wrote "The Music Makers". The principal conductor for 1912 was Henry Wood.
The 1909 and 1912 festivals lost a lot of money and they could not give any money to the hospital. This was soon followed by World War I, so the festival stopped and did not continue after the war.
You Never Give Me Your Money
"You Never Give Me Your Money" is a song by The Beatles that opens the medley on side two of the album "Abbey Road". It was written by Paul McCartney and is credited to Lennon/McCartney.
The Beatles recorded 26 takes of "You Never Give Me Your Money" on May 6, 1969, with McCartney on piano and vocals, Lennon and Harrison on guitar and Starr on drums.
On July 1, McCartney overdubbed lead vocals onto take 30, and added more vocals and chimes on July 15.
"You Never Give Me Your Money" was originally to transition into "Sun King" with a long organ note. This was recorded along with more vocals on July 30. They were scrapped the following day, when McCartney completed the song by adding bass guitar and piano. The "Sun King" crossfade was completed on August 5 with a series of tape loops containing the sounds of bells, birds, bubbles and insects.
Whenever You Need Somebody (song)
"Whenever You Need Somebody" is a song originally sang by Rick Astley. The song's style is pop-dance. It was the second single released by Astley, and it is the title track of Astley's debut album "Whenever You Need Somebody", that was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
It was a successful European hit, following the pattern of the artist previous smash single "Never Gonna Give You Up". It was never released as a single in the U.S.
Sun King (song)
"Sun King" is a song written by John Lennon but credited to Lennon/McCartney and recorded by The Beatles for their "Abbey Road" album.
The working title was "Here Comes the Sun King", but was shortened to "Sun King" to avoid confusion with the song "Here Comes the Sun". The song is in three-part harmony, sung by Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Harrison. At the end of the song, the music stops abruptly and a Ringo Starr drum fill leads into the next track, "Mean Mr. Mustard".
The mixing of Romance languages occurs in the last three lines of the song. In 1969, Lennon was interviewed about these lyrics and said, "We just started joking, you know, singing 'cuando para mucho.' So we just made up... Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, you know. So we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And of course we got 'chicka ferdy' in. That's a Liverpool expression. Just like sort of-- it doesn't mean anything to me but (childish taunting) 'na-na, na-na-na!'"
In 1976, The Bee Gees covered the song for the musical documentary "All This and World War II".
Alan Gray
Alan Gray (born in York, 23 December 1855; died in Cambridge, 27 September 1935) was a British organist and composer.
Gray was born in York. He went to St Peter's School in York, and Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1883 to 1893, he was Director of Music at Wellington College, Berkshire. In 1893, when Stanford left the post of organist at Trinity College, Alan went back there to become organist, and stayed there until 1930.
From 1922-1923 he was president of the Royal College of Organists.
Gray wrote several cantatas as well as chamber music and organ music, but he is mainly remembered for his church music, including an Evening Service in F minor (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis). He also composed several descants to various hymn tunes, several of them are still sung today. He did a lot of work as editor of the Purcell Society.
Alan Gray was a very tall man: 2 metres (nearly 6 ft 7in).
Mean Mr. Mustard
"Mean Mr. Mustard" is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on their album, "Abbey Road". The "Abbey Road" version was recorded with "Sun King" in one continuous piece.
Written in India, Lennon said that the song was inspired by a newspaper story about a miser who hid his cash wherever he could so he can stop people from making him spend it. On reflection, he didn't think highly of the composition, describing it in "Anthology" as "a bit of crap I wrote in India."
A demo version of the song was recorded in May 1968 at Kinfauns, George Harrison's home in Esher, and appears on Anthology 3. In that version, Mustard's sister is named Shirley. Lennon changed it to Pam when he saw the ochance to ease the segue into the song "Polythene Pam", which is after "Mean Mr. Mustard" on the album. According to Lennon, "In 'Mean Mr. Mustard', I said 'his sister Pam'—originally it was 'his sister Shirley' in the lyric. I changed it to Pam to make it sound like it had something to do with it." Additionally, the original version of the song was a quieter acoustic rendition and was over 4 minutes in length.
The version in the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" film was performed by Mean Mr. Mustard (played by Frankie Howerd) and his evil robot companions named the Computerettes. As with the performance of "She's Leaving Home" also in the film, the computerized singing of the Computerettes was performed by the Bee Gees.
The Magnificat is the song that the Virgin Mary sang when she was told by the angel that she was going to give birth to God's son in Christian mythology. This is the story told in the Bible in the book of Luke Chapter 1,verses 46-55. It is also known as the Song of Mary. "Magnificat" is a Latin word meaning "magnifies" (i.e. saying how great (God) is).
The words of the Magnificat have been set to music by many composers. These musical settings were mostly written for church services. In the Anglican Church it is always sung as part of the traditional evening service (Evensong).
Like all other New Testament texts the "Magnificat" was originally written in Koine Greek, but in the Western Church it is most often to be found in Latin or the language of the country.
The Latin text from the Vulgate is as follows:
The English words of the Magnificat in the traditional translation found in the "Book of Common Prayer":
The Magnificat (The soul rejoices in the Lord) found in the Roman Breviary
The Nunc dimittis is a hymn from the Bible. It was sung by Simeon when he saw the baby Jesus.
The story told in the book of Luke was that Simeon, who was a Jew, had been promised by the Holy Ghost that he would not die until he had seen Jesus. When Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for the ceremony of consecration of the firstborn son, Simeon was there, and he took Jesus into his arms and said the words which are now known as the Nunc dimittis. He was saying to God that he could now die happily because he had seen the Saviour.
The words of the Nunc dimittis have been set to music by many composers. In the Anglican Church they are traditionally sung at Evensong.
The English words as found in the "Book of Common Prayer", 1662:
Zangalewa
"Zangaléwa" or "Tsaminamina" is a 1986 hit song, originally sung by a makossa group from Cameroon called Golden Sounds who were popular throughout Africa for their silly dances and costumes. The song was such a hit for Golden Sounds that they eventually changed their name to Zangaléwa, too. The song pays tribute to African skirmishers (a.k.a tirailleurs) during WW2. Most of the band members were in the Cameroonian Army themselves and used make up, fake belly and fake butt for comic relief.
The song is still used today almost everywhere in Africa by soldiers, policemen, boy scouts, sportsmen and their supporters, usually during training or for rallying. It is also widely used in schools throughout the continent especially in Cameroon as a marching song and the lyrics are well-known among Cameroonians. The song was also popular in Colombia where it was known as “The Military” and brought to the country by West African DJs.
The men in the group often dressed in military uniforms, wearing pith helmets and stuffing their clothes with pillows to appear like they had a swollen buttocks from riding the train and overweight stomachs from eating too much. Music historians say the song, or at least part of it, is a criticism of Black military officers who were in league with Whites to oppress their own people. The rest is Cameroonian slang and jargon from the soldiers during the war.
Meaning of the words in Fang language:
Polythene Pam
"Polythene Pam" is a song written by John Lennon, credited to Lennon/McCartney, and performed by The Beatles on their album "Abbey Road".
The name 'Polythene Pam' came from the nickname of an early Beatles' fan from the Cavern Club days, named Pat Hodgett (now Dawson), who would often eat polythene. She became known as 'Polythene Pat'. She said in an interview, "I used to eat polythene all the time. I'd tie it in knots and then eat it. Sometimes I even used to burn it and then eat it when it got cold."
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" is a song written by Paul McCartney (although credited to Lennon/McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on their album "Abbey Road" as part of the "Abbey Road" medley.
McCartney said the song was inspired by Apple scruffs (dedicated fans who would stay outside the Abbey Road studio and the homes of the Beatles), who broke into McCartney's St John's Wood home. Diane Ashley, one of the group, says: "We were bored, he was out and so we decided to pay him a visit. We found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up at the bathroom window which he'd left slightly open. I was the one who climbed up and got in." She then opened the front door to let the others in, and they stole a number of photographs. Another Apple scruff, Margo Bird, remembers being good friends with McCartney - she would often take his dog for walks - and later got a job at Apple Corps. She says that she was asked to get back a certain photograph, which she did.
In the 2006 DVD documentary "The Classic Artists Series: The Moody Blues" (DVD UK, released October 2006), Mike Pinder, the former keyboard player of Birmingham R&B band The Moody Blues, states that the inspiration for the song actually rests with an incident that happened to them—a groupie climbing into an open bathroom window in the band's home and spending the night with band member Ray Thomas. The next day, Pinder and Thomas told the story to McCartney, who—guitar in hand—strummed and sang "She came in through the bathroom window...".
The Beatles recorded the rhythm track for this and Polythene Pam as one piece on 25 July 1969. It took them 39 attempts, after which they added lead vocals and re-recorded the drums and bass guitar parts.
On July 28, they added more vocals, guitar, percussion and piano. The song was completed two days later with additional guitar and percussion.
This song was performed directly after "Polythene Pam", the song on the preceding track, without pause.
At the very beginning of the song, in anticipation to the change of meter, John Lennon says "we'll listen to that now... heh-heh" and then shouts "Oh, look out!" A slower, ethereal version of this song, recorded during the "Let It Be" sessions, appears on "Anthology 3".
The End (Beatles song)
"The End" is a song by The Beatles written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) for the album "Abbey Road". It was the last song recorded by all four of the Beatles, and is the final song of the medley that dominates side two of the LP version of the album.
McCartney said, "I wanted [the medley] to end with a little meaningful couplet, so I followed the Bard [ Shakespeare ] and wrote a couplet." In his 1980 interview with "Playboy", John Lennon said, "That's Paul again ... He had a line in it, 'And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give,' which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think." Lennon misquoted the line slightly; the actual words are, "And, in the end, the love you take/ Is equal to the love you make."
Recording began on July 23, 1969, when the Beatles recorded a one-minute, 20-second master recording that was extended via overdubs to two minutes and five seconds. At this point, the song was called "Ending." The first vocals for the song were added on August 5, more vocals and guitar overdubs were added on August 7, and bass and drums on August 8, the day the "Abbey Road" cover picture was taken. Orchestral overdubs were added August 15, and the closing piano and accompanying vocal on August 18.
All four Beatles have a solo in "The End", including a Ringo Starr drum solo. Starr did not like solos. McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon perform a rotating sequence of three, two-bar guitar solos. The solos begin 53 seconds into the song and end just before the final piano part. Lennon described it in his 1970 interview with "Rolling Stone": "There's a nice little bit I played on "Abbey Road". Paul gave us each a piece, a little break where Paul plays, George plays and I play." The first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, then the sequence repeats. Each has a style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities: McCartney's playing included string bends similar to his lead guitar work on "Another Girl" from the "Help!" album; Harrison's was melodic with slides yet technically advanced and Lennon's was rhythmic, stinging and had the heaviest distortion. Immediately after Lennon's third solo, the piano chords of the final line "And in the end..." begin. Then the orchestration arrangement takes over with a humming chorus and Harrison playing a final guitar solo that ends the song.
Paul and John's last guitar solos and the drum solo were used in the intro to "Get Back" in the Beatles' Love.
"The End" was at first intended to be the final track on "Abbey Road", but it is followed by "Her Majesty". In the first practice mix, "Her Majesty" followed "Mean Mr. Mustard" (on the released version of the album, "Her Majesty" begins with the excised final chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard"). According to sound engineer John Kurlander, McCartney said, "I don't like 'Her Majesty,' throw it away." Kurlander cut it out, but said, "I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor, put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it, and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape." When McCartney heard "Her Majesty" in its new position he liked it and decided that it should remain on the album.
Richie Unterberger of Allmusic said that "The End" was to be "the group's take on the improvised jamming common to heavy rock of the late '60s, though as usual the Beatles did it with far more economic precision than anyone else." John Mendelsohn of "Rolling Stone" said it was "a perfect epitaph for our visit to the world of Beatle daydreams: "The love you take is equal to the love you make.".
History of ancient Israel and Judah
Israel and Judah were Iron Age kingdoms of the old Near East. The area of time covered in this page is from the first mention of the name Israel in the archaeological record (1200 BCE) to the end of a independent Judean kingdom near the time of Jesus Christ.
The two kingdoms arose on the most eastern coast of the Mediterranean, the most western part of the Fertile Crescent, between the old empires of Egypt to the south, Assyria, Babylonia, later Persia to the north and east, Greece and later Rome across the sea to the west. The area is small, maybe only 100 miles north to south and 40 or 50 miles east to west.
Israel and Judah were from the Canaanite culture of the late Bronze Age, and were based on villages that formed and grew in the southern Levant highlands (today for the region between the coastal plain and the Jordan Valley) between c. 1200-1000 BCE. Israel became an important local power in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE before falling to the Assyrians. The southern kingdom, Judah, became rich inside the greater empires of the region before a revolt against Babylon led to it being destroyed early in the 6th century.
Judean exiles returned from Babylon early in the following Persian period, starting a Judahite presence in the province of Yehud, as Judah was now called. Yehud was absorbed into the subsequent Greek-ruled kingdoms which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. In the 2nd century BC, the Jews went up against Greek rule and created the Hasmonean kingdom, which became first a Roman dependency and soon went under the rule of the Roman Empire.
The eastern Mediterranean seaboard - the Levant - goes 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai desert, and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian desert. The coastal area of the southern Levant, large in the south and becoming short to the north, the southernmost part has a zone of foothills, the Shephalah; like the plain this area narrows as it goes northwards, ending at Mount Carmel. East of the plain and the Shephalah is a mountainous ridge, the "hill country of Judah" in the south, the "hill country of Ephraim" north of that, then Galilee and the Lebanon mountains. To the east again lie the steep-sided valley occupied by the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and the wadi of the Arabah, which continues down to the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Beyond the plateau is the Syrian Desert, separating the Levant from Mesopotamia. To the southwest is Egypt, to the northeast Mesopotamia. "The Levant thus constitutes a narrow corridor whose geographical setting made it a constant area of contention between more powerful entities".
The central and northern part of the Levantine coast was known in Classical times as Phoenicia; the southernmost portion was known to the Egyptians as Canaan, by which they seem to have meant all their Asian possessions. In the bible Canaan can mean all of the land west of the Jordan river, or, more narrowly, the coastal strip. By Classical times the name Canaan had been dropped in favour of "Philistia", "Land of the Philistines", despite the fact that the Philistines had long since disappeared. The modern name "Palestine" is derived from this. Northeast of Canaan/Palestine was Aram, later called Syria after the Assyrians, who had likewise long since vanished.
Settlement during the Late Bronze Age was concentrated in the coastal plain and along major communication routes, with the central hill-country only sparsely inhabited; each city had its own ruler, constantly at odds with his neighbours and appealing to the Egyptians to adjudicate his differences. One of these Canaanite states was Jerusalem: letters from the Egyptian archives indicate that it followed the usual Late Bronze pattern of a small city with surrounding farmlands and villages; unlike most other Late Bronze city-states, there is no indication that it was destroyed at the end of the period.
Canaan in the 13th and early 12th centuries had people of various origins, united by a common socioeconomic system of city-states administered and controlled by Egypt. Egyptian power and the Canaanite city-state system collapsed. From the collapse two new communities emerged in the 12th century BCE, the Israelites in the hill country and the Philistines in the southern part of the coastal plain. The Philistines clearly represent the arrival of a considerable number of outsiders, probably from Cyprus, with their own non-indigenous culture. The Israelites are just as clearly indigenous to Canaan: to take linguistics as just one indicator, Judahite and Israelite Hebrew of the early 1st millennium BCE group with Phoenician, Ammonite, Moabite and Edomite; and within that grouping a "core Canaanite" of Israelite and Phoenician can be distinguished from a "fringe Canaanite" of Judahite, Ammonite, Moabite and Edomite.
The causes of the Bronze Age collapse - which extended throughout the eastern Mediterranean - are obscure. Drought, famine and other stresses may be behind the widespread population movements of the time. Whatever the cause, several important Canaanite cities were destroyed at the end of the Bronze Age (over a period of more than a century), and Canaanite culture was gradually absorbed into that of the Philistines, Phoenicians and Israelites.
The Merneptah stele, erected by an Egyptian pharaoh about 1200 BC, contains the first record of the name Israel: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not." This Israel, identified as a people, were probably in the northern part of the central highlands. As chaos spread, people went to live in the previously unsettled highlands: surveys have identified more than 300 small settlements, most of them new and the largest with a population of no more than 300, in the Palestinian highlands during Iron Age I. The villages were bigger and more numerous in the northern regions (biblical Manasseh and Ephraim), although no settlements can be described as urban. The total settled population at the beginning of the period was about 20,000, and double this number by the end. Nevertheless, while Iron Age I villages with features such as four-roomed houses, collar-rim store jars, and hewn water-cisterns are counted as Israelite when found in the highlands, it is in fact impossible to differentiate these from Canaanite sites of the same period; nor is it possible to distinguish between Hebrew and Canaanite inscriptions down to the 10th century.
In Iron Age I the highlands lack any sign of centralised authority, or of temples, shrines, or centralised worship in general (although cult-objects associated with the Canaanite god El have been found); almost the sole marker distinguishing the highland "Israelite" villages from Cannanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether this can be taken as an ethnic marker or is due to other factors remains a matter of dispute.
The same period saw the rise of the kingdoms of the kingdoms of Aram Damascus and Ammon to the east of the northern hill country, Moab (east of the Dead Sea), and Edom (in the Arabah south of the Dead Sea), in that order.
An inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I, probably identical with the biblical Shishak, record a series of campaigns apparently directed at the area immediately north of Jerusalem in the second half of the 10th century BCE. About a hundred years later, in the 9th century BCE, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III names Ahab of Israel among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar (853 BCE), while in the Mesha stele (c.830 BCE) a king of Moab celebrates his success in throwing off the oppression of the "House of Omri" (i.e. Israel). Similarly, the Tel Dan stele tells of the death of a king of Israel, probably Jehoram, at the hands of an Aramaen king about 841 BCE. Excavations at Samaria, the Israelite capital, further reinforce the impression of a powerful, centralised kingdom in the northern highlands during the 9th and 8th centuries. In the second half of the 8th century king Hoshea of Israel revolted against the Assyrians, and was crushed (c.722 BCE). Part of the population was deported, outside settlers were brought in to replace them, and Israel became an Assyrian province.
The first evidence for the existence of an organised kingdom in the southern region comes from the mid 9th century Tel Dan stele, which mentions the death of a king of the "House of David" alongside the king of Israel; the contemporary Mesha stele may also mention the House of David, although the reconstruction which allows this reading is disputed. It is generally assumed that this "House of David" is identical with the biblical dynasty, but the archaeological evidence from surface surveys indicates that during the 10th and 9th centuries Jerusalem was only one of the four large villages in the area, with no sign of primacy over its neighbours. It was only in the last part of the 8th century that Jerusalem experienced a period of rapid growth, achieving a population far greater than at any time before and clear primacy over the surrounding towns. The older scholarly reconstruction of events is that this was due to an influx of refugees from Israel following its conquest by the Assyrians (c.722 BC), but the newer view is that it reflects a cooperative effort between Assyria and the kings of Jerusalem to establish Judah as a pro-Assyrian vassal state exercising control over the valuable olive industry. The sudden collapse of the Assyrian power in the last half of the 7th century led to an unsuccessful bid for independence under king Josiah, followed by the destruction of Jerusalem by Assyria's successor, the neo-Babylonian empire (587/586 BCE).
In 586 BCE, the Babylonians, under king Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple of Solomon, ended the Davidic kingship, and carried the people into captivity. Only the poorest were left behind in Judah, now the Babylonian province of Yehud with its capital at Mizpah in the former territory of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem. A few years later, again according to the bible, the governor of Yehud was murdered by rivals, triggering another exodus of refugees, this time to Egypt. Thus by about 580 the people of Judah were to be found in three separate locations, the elite in Babylon (where, incidentally, they appear to have been well treated), a large community in Egypt, and a remnant in Judah. The Exile ended when Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon (traditionally 538 BCE). The Persians reconstituted Judah/Yehud as a province ("Yehud medinata") within the satrapy "Beyond the River", and over the following century some of the exiles returned to Jerusalem. There they eventually rebuilt the Temple (traditionally 516/515 BCE), but for over a century the administrative capital remained at Mizpah. Samaria, meanwhile, continued as the province of Semarina within the same satrapy as Yehud.