title: Tea Party movement

text: In early July 2010, the North Iowa Tea Party (NITP) posted a billboard showing a photo of Adolf Hitler with the heading "National Socialism", one of Barack Obama with the heading "Democrat Socialism", and one of Vladimir Lenin with the heading "Marxist Socialism", all three marked with the word "change" and the statement "Radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive". It received sharp criticism, including some from other Tea Party activists. NITP co-founder Bob Johnson acknowledged the anti-socialist message may have gotten lost amid the fascist and communist images. Following a request from the NITP, the billboard was removed on July 14.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Porcupine Tree are an English rock band formed by musician Steven Wilson in 1987. During an initial career spanning more than twenty years, they earned critical acclaim from critics and fellow musicians, developed a cult following, and became an influence for new artists. The group carved out a career at a certain distance away from mainstream music, being described by publications such as "Classic Rock" and "PopMatters" as "the most important band you’d never heard of".


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band began as a solo project for Wilson, who initially created all of the band's music himself. By late 1993, however, he wanted to work in a band environment, bringing on frequent collaborators Richard Barbieri as keyboardist, Colin Edwin as bassist, and Chris Maitland as drummer to form the first permanent lineup. With Wilson as lead vocalist and guitarist, this remained the lineup until February 2002, when Maitland left the band and Gavin Harrison was recruited to replace him. Porcupine Tree's early sound evoked various styles of psychedelic rock, space rock and experimental rock, later moving towards a more progressive/space rock direction comparable to that of Pink Floyd. Upon signing with Kscope record label in the late 1990s, the band began to approach a more mainstream alternative rock sound. By the early 2000s, the band had signed to a major record label and shifted their sound again, this time in a more progressive metal direction.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In 2010, after the tour in support of their 2009 studio album "The Incident", the band became publicly inactive as Wilson committed himself to his solo work and other members began working on their own separate projects. However, Wilson, Barbieri and Harrison continued to intermittently work on material in secrecy over the course of the following decade, leading to the release of their album "Closure/Continuation" on 24 June 2022.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Porcupine Tree originated in 1987 as a collaborative hoax project by Steven Wilson and Malcolm Stocks. Partially inspired by the psychedelic/progressive bands of the 1970s, such as Pink Floyd, that had dominated the music scene during their youth, the two decided to form a fictional legendary rock band named The Porcupine Tree. The two fabricated a detailed back-story including information on alleged band members and album titles, as well as a "colourful" history which purportedly included events such as a meeting at a 1970s rock festival and several trips in and out of prison. As soon as he had put aside enough money to buy his own studio equipment, Wilson obliged this creation with several hours of music to provide "evidence" of its existence. Although Stocks provided a few passages of treated vocals and experimental guitar playing, his role in the project was mostly offering occasional ideas, with the bulk of the material being written, recorded, played, and sung by Wilson.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: At this point, Porcupine Tree was little more than a joke and a private amusement, as Wilson was concentrating on his other project, No-Man, an endeavour with UK based singer and songwriter Tim Bowness. However, by 1989, he began to consider some of the Porcupine Tree music as potentially marketable. Wilson created an 80-minute-long cassette titled "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm" under the name of Porcupine Tree. Still showing the spirit of his joke, Wilson included an eight-page inlay which further revealed the hoaxed Porcupine Tree backstory, including references to fictitious band members such as Sir Tarquin Underspoon and Timothy Tadpole-Jones.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Wilson sent out copies of "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm" to several people he felt would be interested in the recordings. Nick Saloman, the cult UK guitarist better known as The Bevis Frond, had suggested that he send one to Richard Allen, a writer for the UK counter-cultural magazine "Encyclopaedia Psychedelica" and co-editor of the UK psychedelic garage rock magazine "Freakbeat". Allen reviewed the tape in both magazines. Whilst he disliked some of the material, he gave much of it a positive review. Several months later, Allen invited Wilson to contribute a track to the double LP "A Psychedelic Psauna" that was being put together to launch the new Delerium label. Allen would also become the band's manager, press agent, and promoter until 2004, his role in marketing the band's image decreasing after "The Sky Moves Sideways" album. In the meantime, Wilson had continued to work on new material. In 1990, he released the "Love, Death & Mussolini" EP, issued in a very limited run of 10 copies. The EP remains an extremely rare, collectible piece. It was composed of nine at-the-time-unreleased tracks, as a preview for the upcoming second album. In 1991, Wilson released a second full-length Porcupine Tree cassette called "The Nostalgia Factory", which further expanded Porcupine Tree's underground fanbase, although at this point, the band was still carrying on the charade of being 1970s rock legends. By this point, Porcupine Tree was entirely a solo project, with Stocks having amicably moved on to other activities.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Along with the "A Psychedelic Psauna" compilation, which featured the Porcupine Tree track "Linton Samuel Dawson", the newly formed Delerium label, formed by "Freakbeat" editors Richard Allen and Ivor Trueman, offered to reissue the cassettes "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm" and "The Nostalgia Factory". Two hundred copies of each cassette were sold through "Freakbeat's" mail order, The Freak Emporium, and soon Porcupine Tree became known as a mysterious new act amongst the then UK underground psychedelic music scene.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Shortly thereafter, Delerium invited Wilson to sign as one of the label's founder artists. The first release after this, a double vinyl album and single CD compiling the best material from his two cassettes, was released in mid-1992 as "On the Sunday of Life", a title chosen from a long list of possible nonsense titles compiled by Richard Allen. The rest of the music from the initial tapes was released on the limited edition compilation album "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape".


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In 1992, Delerium released "On the Sunday of Life" as an edition of 1,000 copies, complete with a deluxe gatefold sleeve. The album sold very well, particularly in Italy, and it was briefly repressed on vinyl and has remained in print on CD ever since its release. The album featured future concert favourite and frequent encore song "Radioactive Toy". By 2000, "On the Sunday of Life..." had accumulated sales of more than 20,000 copies. "On the Sunday of Life" was originally meant to be a quadruple (LP)/double (CD) album compiling both cassettes in full, but changed to the best (according to Wilson) songs from the tapes. In 2004, Wilson remixed and remastered all three tapes, releasing them as a three-CD box set called "Footprints: Cassette Music 1988-1992". This box was only distributed to family and friends.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In the midst of Porcupine Tree's rising success, Wilson's other band, No-Man, had been getting excellent UK press, which led to the band being signed to leading UK independent music publisher, Hit & Run Music Publishing, in 1991, which resulted in recording agreements with One Little Indian Records, and Epic 440/Sony in the US. No-Man's success gave Wilson the opportunity to leave his regular job and devote his time solely to music. All of the Delirium releases were published by Hit & Run, whose executive Dave Massey had signed No-Man and continued to be closely involved in Wilson's Porcupine Tree project.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In May 1993, the second Porcupine Tree album, "Up the Downstair", was released, another prospective double album that was finally slimmed down to a single record. "Voyage 34" was actually going to take up the second disc, but it was last decided to be released alone as a single. The album was highly praised, "Melody Maker" describing it as "a psychedelic masterpiece... one of the albums of the year." The album continued the fusion of electronic music and rock and also featured guest appearances from two future Porcupine Tree members, Richard Barbieri, of 1970s-80s art rock band Japan, and Colin Edwin.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In November 1993, "Voyage 34" was reissued alongside an additional 12-inch remix by Astralasia. The album managed to enter the "NME" indie chart for six weeks and became an underground chill-out classic, even without radio play.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The profile of Porcupine Tree had now grown to the extent that Wilson wanted to expand into live performances. Thus, in December 1993, Porcupine Tree became a live unit featuring Steven Wilson on lead vocals/guitar, Colin Edwin on bass, Chris Maitland on drums, and Richard Barbieri on keyboards.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: All three new members of the group had worked with Wilson on various projects over the preceding years, especially Barbieri and Maitland, who had been part of No-Man's touring band. The new line-up's first live album, "Spiral Circus", contained recordings from their first three performances, including a BBC Radio One session for Mark Radcliffe, an early champion of the group.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Porcupine Tree's next album did not emerge until early 1995, but was preceded by the "Moonloop" EP, the last two tracks of which were recorded during the album sessions and were the first to feature the new band. Released in 1995, the band's third studio album, "The Sky Moves Sideways" became a success among progressive rock fans and Porcupine Tree were hailed as the Pink Floyd of the 1990s. Wilson later lamented this, stating, "I can't help that. It's true that during the period of "The Sky Moves Sideways", I had done a little too much of it in the sense of satisfying, in a way, the fans of Pink Floyd who were listening to us because that group doesn't make albums any more. Moreover, I regret it".


title: Porcupine Tree

text: "The Sky Moves Sideways" was an expansive soundscape of melody and ambient rock experimentation, but proved to be a transitional work with half recorded before the formation of the band and half recorded after. Most of the album was taken up with the 35-minute title track, which at one point Steven had intended to be long enough to occupy the whole album. An alternate version of the track, containing some of the excised music, was included on the 2004 remastered version of the album. It also entered the "NME", "Melody Maker", and "Music Week" charts. Together with the "Moonloop" EP, this album was the first Porcupine Tree music issued in America in the autumn of 1995, and attracted favourable press on both sides of the Atlantic. The band supported the album with numerous concerts throughout the year at major music venues in the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, and Greece.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Partly unsatisfied with the half band/half solo nature of "The Sky Moves Sideways", Porcupine Tree promptly got down to the task of recording the first proper band record. Wilson admitted he was always "in love with the idea of the rock band" because "bands have a kind of glamour, and appeal, and a romance about them the solo projects just don't have." The band worked sporadically over the next year on developing a tighter and more ambitious rock sound.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: After the release of the first real Porcupine Tree single, "Waiting", which entered all UK indie charts and the UK National chart and attracting airplay all over Europe, "Signify" was released in September 1996. The album was a mixture of instrumental tracks and more song-oriented tunes, blending numerous rock and "avant-garde" styles, such as krautrock. Wilson expressed satisfaction in the direction of the album, stating "...tracks like 'Every Home Is Wired' and 'Dark Matter' totally transcend both genre and comparison. Finally, I think we are making a completely original and 1990s form of music, but which still has its root in progressive music." The musicians received writing credits for some tracks, most notably for "Intermediate Jesus", which evolved from a jam session later released as "Metanoia" at the end of 1998. A large amount of major European media interest accompanied the album's release.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In March 1997, they played three nights in Rome to an audience that surpassed 5,000 people. All three dates were recorded for use in the 1997 live album "Coma Divine – Recorded Live in Rome" that was released as a goodbye to Delerium Records, which felt it could no longer offer the kind of resources the band needed to continue to build its profile worldwide. In late 1997 Porcupine Tree's first three albums were remastered and reissued. "Signify" also was released in the US on Miles Copeland's Ark 21 label.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Wilson, Barbieri, Edwin, and Maitland spent all of 1998 recording their fifth studio album, a release that reflected the band's move towards a more song-oriented writing. Wilson acknowledged this time he was "much more interested in songwriting as an art form, as opposed to soundscape development" and commented he took influence from The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", Todd Rundgren, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and "anything with really good ensemble singing". He also indicated that he was "interested in the idea of the pop song as a kind of experimental symphony".


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band recorded the album without a label, but signed with Snapper/Kscope before releasing "Stupid Dream", in March 1999. The album was supported by a tour of the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, and the United States. The three singles taken from the album: "Piano Lessons", "Stranger by the Minute", and "Pure Narcotic", all achieved mainstream exposure in the US and in Europe, and placed well in the UK independent charts and on radio-station playlists. Although the album was a departure from their earlier sound, it brought the band new-found popularity and went on to become the band's best-selling and most acclaimed release up to that time.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Completed for February 2000, with string arrangements provided by Dave Gregory of XTC, Porcupine Tree's sixth studio album, "Lightbulb Sun", built on the mix of songwriting, soundscaping, and rock dynamics of "Stupid Dream". The album was released in May 2000, preceded by the single "Four Chords That Made a Million". A sold-out show at the Scala in London began a short run of UK shows, that were followed later in the year by European festival dates and a major tour supporting Dream Theater. The band continued touring through the end of 2000 and start of 2001, including their first major tour of Germany. A special double CD edition of the "Lightbulb Sun" album was issued in Israel and Germany.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In May, the band released a compilation B-side album called "Recordings", which featured nine tracks from the "Stupid Dream" and "Lightbulb Sun" sessions that had been left off both albums. In May 2001, Porcupine Tree did three consecutive dates as a support band to Marillion, in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. In June, the band played a short US tour, starting with an appearance in NEARfest of Pennsylvania, and culminating in a sold-out show at The Bottom Line in New York City. Shortly afterwards, the band announced that they had signed a new international record deal with Lava/Atlantic Records.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In February 2002, Porcupine Tree's first line-up change occurred when drummer Chris Maitland was dismissed after eight years with the band. The band welcomed drummer and longtime acquaintance Gavin Harrison as his replacement. In March 2002, a box set of the band's early work was released, "", and the band commenced recording their first major label album, drawing from a pool of 30 new songs written by Wilson in the previous two years. Recording sessions took place at Avatar Studios in New York and London, with veteran audio engineer Paul Northfield and string arranger Dave Gregory also playing major roles in the making of the record. The album was mixed in Los Angeles in May with Tim Palmer.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The resulting album, "In Absentia", was released by Lava Records in September 2002. The band also released a 5.1 surround-sound version of the album, mixed by Grammy Award-winning producer Elliot Scheiner. The surround-sound version of the album won the award for best 5.1 mix at the 2004 Surround Sound Music awards in Los Angeles.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: To promote the album, the band undertook four tours of Europe and North America, including one with acclaimed Swedish metal band Opeth. On tour, the new line-up of the band was further augmented by additional touring vocalist/guitarist John Wesley. During these tours, the visual element of the band's performance was taken to new heights with the involvement of filmmaker and photographer Lasse Hoile, who had created the cover art for "In Absentia" and now went on to create a dark and surreal visual to Porcupine Tree's music. The long promotional campaign for "In Absentia" ended on 30 November 2003, as the band played a homecoming show to a sold-out London Astoria.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: During 2003, Porcupine Tree set up their own label, Transmission, with an online store hosted by Burning Shed record label. The first release on the Transmission label was a studio session recorded for XM Radio, Washington, DC, followed in 2004 by a recording from Polish radio in 2001. The band used the label to issue supplemental content, such as EPs, demos, and live recordings. Additionally, a reissue/remaster campaign also began in 2003, with many of the early albums expanded to double CDs. These reissues included re-recorded/remixed double-CD versions of the "Up the Downstair", "The Sky Moves Sideways", and "Signify" albums, and the reissue of "Stupid Dream" and "Lightbulb Sun", both consisting of a CD with a new stereo mix of the album plus a DVD-Audio with a 5.1 surround mix.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In early 2004, the band embarked on the recording sessions for their next record, "Deadwing", their second for Lava/Atlantic. The album takes its inspiration from a film script written by Wilson with his filmmaker friend Mike Bennion. The album sessions completed in November 2004, and "Deadwing" was released in Europe and the US during the spring of 2005 as both a stereo and 5.1 surround-sound album, preceded by the release of two singles, "Shallow" in the US and "Lazarus" in Europe. The album benefited from guest appearances by Adrian Belew from King Crimson and Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt, and was a commercial success, due in part to "Shallow" receiving airplay, peaking at number 26 on "Billboard's" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. Additionally, "Lazarus" entered the German singles Top 100 at number 91. The song "Shallow" was also featured in the soundtrack for the film "Four Brothers".


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The album won the Surround Music Awards for "Best Made-For-Surround Title" the same year of its release and was voted number-two album of 2005 in "Sound & Vision", the most widely distributed US magazine in the field of home electronics and entertainment. Porcupine Tree released "Deadwing" in Japan on 22 March 2006, the first album by the band to be released in that country.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The tour to promote the album commenced in the UK at the end of March, and continued throughout the year. Mike Bennion created a Myspace page dedicated to the prospective "Deadwing" film, in which he posted the first 15 pages of the script and included a trailer. However, whilst the scripts are finished, the project is still on hiatus due to lack of budget.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In August 2006, Porcupine Tree announced that the band had signed with Roadrunner Records UK. Prior to their first release on Roadrunner, the band released their first live concert DVD, "Arriving Somewhere...", on 10 October 2006. It was accompanied by a brief tour in which the group performed 50 minutes of new material from the forthcoming studio album for the first half of the shows. Supporting acts included Swedish band Paatos in Europe and ProjeKct Six in the United States.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band announced the next album's title would be "Fear of a Blank Planet" in January 2007 and the album was released on 16 April 2007. The album charted in almost all European countries, and peaked at number 59 on the "Billboard" 200. A 92-date tour for 2007 took the band to countries where they had never performed, such as Finland and Mexico. The tour included appearances in multiple music festivals such as the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans, the German twin-festivals, Hurricane and Southside, and the Download Festival of Donington Park. The band performed their first ever shows in Australia in 2008.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The lyrics of the album deal with some common behaviour tendencies concerning society, especially youth, in the beginning of the 21st century, such as bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder, drug abuse, alienation, and deprivation caused by mass media. The concept of the album was inspired by Bret Easton Ellis novel "Lunar Park" and the title alludes to Public Enemy's album, "Fear of a Black Planet", both sharing the particularity of reflecting notorious conflicts affecting society in the world at some time. Wilson notes that whilst race relationship was the main issue among young people when Public Enemy's album was released, it was replaced in the 21st century by a general superficiality, boredom, and introversion. The album features contributions from Rush's Alex Lifeson and King Crimson's Robert Fripp.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Wilson: "My fear is that the current generation of kids who're being born into this information revolution, growing up with the Internet, cell phones, iPods, this download culture, 'American Idol,' reality TV, prescription drugs, PlayStations—all of these things kind of distract people from what's important about life, which is to develop a sense of curiosity about what's out there."


title: Porcupine Tree

text: On 5 November 2007, "Fear of a Blank Planet" won the Album of the Year award for the 2007 "Classic Rock" magazine awards. In December 2007, it was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Surround Sound Album" though "Love" by The Beatles won the award.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: A new EP called "Nil Recurring" was released on 17 September 2007, featuring four unreleased tracks from the "Fear of a Blank Planet" sessions and including another contribution from Robert Fripp. The second leg of the tour started on 3 October 2007, now promoting new music from the EP. "Nil Recurring" entered the UK Top 30 Independent Label Albums at number eight. The EP was reissued on 18 February 2008 through Peaceville Records.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: A recording from a 4 October 2007 in-store, mostly acoustic, performance at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida, was released on 18 February 2008 on CD under the name of "We Lost The Skyline". The title is a reference to the lyrics of "The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One)", which was the opening song on the live set. The album was released on vinyl of 21 March 2008. While intended to be a full-band show, the lack of space in the store only allowed the two guitarists, Wilson and John Wesley, to play.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band played a short European tour in October 2008 to shoot their second live-concert film, "Anesthetize", preceded by three concerts in Australia in April. The filming took place on 15 and 16 October in the Netherlands at the 013 Tilburg venue. During one of these shows, Wilson mentioned that Porcupine Tree had started work on material for their next album, with an eye toward a release in 2009. The live-concert film on DVD and Blu-ray was released on 20 May 2010.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band started recording their tenth studio album, "The Incident", in February 2009. This was confirmed by the band, stating, "Writing for the next PT studio record is well underway, with the band recently spending two weeks scheduled in the English countryside working on new tracks. Recording of these pieces and a new 35-minute SW song cycle were due to start in February..." Months later, Wilson commented the 35-minute song kept evolving and now it has become a 55-minute song, occupying the entire disc.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: On 12 June 2009, details were revealed on the Porcupine Tree website, "the record is set to be released via Roadrunner Records worldwide on 21 September, as a double CD. The centrepiece is the title track, which takes up the whole of the first disc. The 55-minute work is described as a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that ‘after this, things will never be the same again.’ The self-produced album is completed by four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December – Flicker, Bonnie The Cat, Black Dahlia, and Remember Me Lover feature on a separate EP-length disc to stress their independence from the song cycle." The album was the band's biggest commercial success to date, reaching number 23 in the UK album charts and also reaching the US" Billboard "Top 25.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band also released another live album, "Atlanta", in June 2010. The performance was actually recorded during the tour of "Fear of a Blank Planet" at the Roxy theatre, Atlanta, on 29 October 2007. It was released via online distribution only, with all the sale proceeds donated to Mick Karn for his treatment against cancer.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: After finishing the touring cycle for "The Incident" in 2010, Wilson spent the rest of the year, and 2011, recording and releasing his second solo album, "Grace for Drowning", and Blackfield's third album, "Welcome to my DNA". Initially, the band had mentioned the possibility of working on new music in 2012, with Wilson mentioning "early 2012", and Harrison guessing they would start work in 2012 and release music in 2013. However, this soon changed, with Wilson announcing that he would continue to focus his future on his solo career. This new focus included a second leg of touring in support of "Grace for Drowning" in the first half of 2012, recording a third solo album in the second half of the year with his touring band, releasing it in early 2013, and then touring in support of the third solo album for "much of the year" – throughout 2013. Wilson still maintained that the band "haven’t split up" and that there are "no intentions of splitting up", but he also said there were no specific plans for a new album either. While he said that he still "want(s) to get Porcupine Tree back together at some point", he said that he was not sure what direction he wants to take the band, only that he is "tired of metal music", and that one member of the band does not like jazz, so it won't go into the direction of his solo project either.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In June 2012, Wilson re-emphasised his continued focus on his solo career, with his answer to the question "...is (there) a danger that Porcupine Tree might fall by the wayside?" being, "The honest answer is I don’t know. The solo career for me now is probably the most important. I think about it more than anything else, I’m more focused on it than anything else, I enjoy it more than anything else..." A two-disc live album titled "Octane Twisted" was released that following November by their record label, Kscope, containing a live recording of "The Incident" in its entirety, from material recorded at 2010 concerts at the Riviera Theater, Chicago, and the Royal Albert Hall. In May 2013, Wilson reiterated his stance on the band's status, stating that it's "...not to say the band has broken up or anything like that. It’s always conceivable that we could get back together in a year or five years, or 10 years. I really can’t say – there are no plans at the moment." Edwin's stance mirrored this.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: After Wilson released his third solo album, "The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)" in February 2013, and toured in support of it for the remainder of the year, its success led Wilson to commit to writing and recording a fourth solo album "Hand. Cannot. Erase." over the course of 2014 and releasing it in 2015, pushing hypothetical work with Porcupine Tree into at least 2016. In March 2015, Wilson commented, “if Porcupine Tree [were] to get back together—and, by the way, I have never ruled that out—it will be a side project. There should be no question in anyone's mind that this is now my main musical path, my solo work.”


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Moving into 2016, Wilson's views on a re-formation were conflicting. In February 2016, in an interview with "Prog Magazine", he stated that there was a "strong possibility" of Porcupine Tree re-forming for another studio album at an undisclosed time in the future. However, in response to a question in August 2016 regarding a hypothetical Porcupine Tree performance, Wilson claimed, "you'd be waiting for a long time, that band doesn't exist anymore." In August 2017, Wilson explained: "It's no coincidence that since my solo project has taken off, other collaborations have receded to the background. Porcupine Tree hasn't made a record since 2009 and No-Man hasn't made a record since 2008. I feel less need now to be creatively involved in something other than my solo work. My solo work fulfills the musical needs I have now."


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In a March 2018 interview when asked about the chances of further activity from Porcupine Tree he responded; "Honestly, I would say zero, because I’m just not that kind of person. I don’t go backwards. I’m not interested in going backwards; I want to move forwards, I want to do different things, I want to work with different people, I want to explore different kinds of music. That would seem like a terribly backward step to me. I’m proud of the catalogue; it’s there, it exists, but it’s kind of closed, it’s finished." These statements caused an increased tension between him and Barbieri, who was waiting for Wilson to return to Porcupine Tree. However, in February 2021, Wilson suggested that a re-formation was still possible someday, when it was least expected.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: On 27 October 2021, Porcupine Tree, Wilson, and Harrison all shared a teaser video and mailing list link across their social media accounts, along with a stylised "P/T C/C" image. On 1 November the band announced their eleventh album, "Closure/Continuation", to be released in June 2022 on Music For Nations, along with their first single in over 12 years, "Harridan". The lineup of the band now features just Wilson, Harrison, and Barbieri, with guitarist Randy McStine and bassist Nate Navarro being added to the touring lineup. The album was recorded over 11 years in complete secrecy. Wilson explained Edwin's absence with the two losing contact when the project went on hiatus and stylistic differences, though Barbieri was adamant to say "I don’t want any of this to negatively impact Colin or imply this was somehow his fault." "Closure/Continuation" was released on 24 June 2022.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In a March 2022 interview with "The Guardian", Wilson addressed the band's future, stating that he was unsure whether this would be the final project by the band or if the reunion would continue past the album. He then stated it was most likely their last album, as he hoped to end the band on a strong note. In a late June of 2022 interview with Under The Radar, however, Wilson expressed his interest in making another Porcupine Tree record that will be more keyboard dominant.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band began the first leg of the Closure/Continuation tour in September 2022, with shows in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Chile. The tour's second leg, starting in October 2022 and carrying through until November 2022, was composed of select cities in Europe and a single performance in the UK at London's Wembley Arena. The Closure/Continuation tour is the band's first concert tour since 2010, and Wilson has hinted at it possibly being the band's final tour.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Some of the inherent musical background of Porcupine Tree goes back to Wilson's childhood, when his parents gave Christmas presents to each other. His father received Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" whilst his mother got Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby", both of which Wilson listened to heavily. These albums influenced his further songwriting. Other influences include The Beatles, Camel and Karlheinz Stockhausen.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Later in his teens, Wilson briefly became a fan of the new wave of British heavy metal, but as soon as he discovered 1970s music and progressive rock, his interest in metal diminished in favour of experimental music. He later (in the 2000s) discovered bands in the likes of Gojira, Sunn O))), Neurosis, and Meshuggah, which restored his faith in metal music. "For a long time, I couldn't find where all these creative musicians were going...", said Wilson, "and I found them, they were working in extreme metal." Shortly thereafter, he went on to produce three consecutive albums by Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth, which had a considerable influence in his further songwriting.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The influence of electronic music and krautrock is present, with Wilson namechecking bands such as Can, Neu!, Tangerine Dream, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin and artists such as Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler, among others. He has mentioned on multiple occasions that he admires the work of American musician Trent Reznor, the founding member of Nine Inch Nails. Wilson has also cited English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), along with other potentially "surprising" influences such as ABBA, The Carpenters, Electric Light Orchestra, and the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack album (1977), largely written and performed by the Bee Gees.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The music of Porcupine Tree is often described as melancholic. Wilson has stated music is a way for him to channel all his negative feelings, and "an exorcism of those elements within", finding it "easier to write songs about the negative side of the world than it is about the happy side of the world." In the "Warszawa" live radio broadcast album, before performing "Stop Swimming", Wilson can be heard saying "the saddest music is often the most beautiful."


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Porcupine Tree is an album-oriented band, making records where many songs are related to each other. Wilson has said: "The important thing with Porcupine Tree is that all our songs have a unique sound world that they inhabit. I don't like the idea of any song sounding like any other song. So most of the time it's a case of finding the sound world first whether it be a texture or a drum rhythm that sets you off on a certain musical path, or particular musical atmosphere, or flavour." For their recordings, the band has included mellotron, banjo, hammered dulcimer, and guimbri, among other instruments unusual for rock bands.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Above all, Porcupine Tree's music has maintained a strong textural and experimental quality, often fusing many genres in a single track. The band's work is noted for its atmospheric nature, largely due to Barbieri's keyboard style and sound-processing abilities, and Wilson's cinematic scope, as a declared fan of American filmmaker David Lynch, whose films are renowned for their sonic content. "Very layered, very produced, very arranged and [with] complex arrangements" is the way Wilson describes the sound of the band. Apart from their regular edition, the albums "Stupid Dream", "Lightbulb Sun", "In Absentia", "Deadwing", "Fear of a Blank Planet", and "The Incident" are available in DTS (5.1 Surround Sound) mix; this mixing technique has become a tradition for the band in recent years.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: The band's live performances have also been praised, with Music Radar placing them fourth in their list of "The 30 greatest live acts in the world today" in 2010.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Porcupine Tree are often categorised as a progressive rock band. Although many listeners familiar with the group label them as such, Steven Wilson has been noted in the past to express a certain dislike for the use of the term "progressive" to refer to them. However, more recently, he made note that he has since become more relaxed toward the word considering it is becoming "a much broader term" as time passes. He has frequently stated that he dislikes the press comparing Porcupine Tree with neo prog bands or citing them as 'the New Pink Floyd'.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: Anders Nyström of the Swedish group Katatonia has cited the work of Porcupine Tree as a large influence for the band in their post-death metal eras. Luc Lemay, leader of the technical death metal band Gorguts, said that "The Incident" was "a big revelation" for him, inspiring his more recent songwriting. He singled out the concert of its tour as one of the two most important he has attended. Electronic producer Seven Lions also cited them as an inspiration for his dubstep and drum and bass compositions.


title: Porcupine Tree

text: In addition to those artists who state that Porcupine Tree has been a direct influence on their own careers, other artists have been quoted expressing admiration for their work including Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson, Adrian Belew, Jordan Rudess, Mike Portnoy, Arjen Lucassen, Rob Swire, Haken and many others.


title: The Bell Jar

text: The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. The book is often regarded as a "roman à clef" because the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar II disorder. Plath died by suicide a month after its first United Kingdom publication. The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, and her mother. The novel has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.


title: The Bell Jar

text: In 1953, Esther Greenwood, a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student from the suburbs of Boston, is awarded a summer internship at the fictional "Ladies' Day" magazine in New York City. During the internship, Esther feels neither stimulated nor excited by the work, fashion, and big-city lifestyle that her peers in the program seem to adore. She finds herself struggling to feel anything at all aside from anxiety and disorientation. Esther appreciates the witty sarcasm and adventurousness of another intern Doreen, but also identifies with the piety of Betsy, an old-fashioned and naïve young woman. Esther has a benefactress in Philomena Guinea, a formerly successful writer of women's fiction, who funds the scholarship through which Esther – from a working-class family – is enrolled at her college.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Esther describes in detail several seriocomic incidents that occur during her internship, beginning with mass food-poisoning of the interns from a lunch thrown by the staff of the magazine. She reminisces about her boyfriend Buddy, whom she has dated more or less seriously, and who considers himself her de facto fiancé. Esther's internal monologue often lingers on musings of death and violence. Shortly before the internship ends, she attends a country club party with Doreen and is set up with a man who treats her roughly and sexually assaults her, before she breaks his nose and leaves. That night, after returning to the hotel, she impulsively throws all of her brand-new and fashionable gifted clothing off the roof.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Esther returns to her Massachusetts home that she shares with her widowed mother. She has been hoping for another scholarly opportunity once she is back in Massachusetts, a writing course taught by a world-famous author, but on her return she is immediately told by her mother that she was not accepted for the course and finds her plans derailed. She decides to spend the summer potentially writing a novel, although she feels she lacks enough life experience to write convincingly. All of her identity has been centered upon doing well academically; she is unsure of what to make of her life once she leaves school, and none of the choices presented to her (motherhood, as exemplified by the prolific child-bearer Dodo Conway, Esther's neighbor, or stereotypical female careers such as stenography) appeal to her. Esther becomes increasingly depressed, and finds herself unable to sleep. Her mother instructs her to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon, whom Esther mistrusts because he is attractive and doesn't seem to listen to her. He prescribes electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); afterward, she tells her mother that she will not go back.


title: The Bell Jar

text: The ECT is not effective, and Esther's mental state worsens. She makes several half-hearted attempts at suicide, including swimming far out to sea, before making a serious attempt. Esther crawls into a well-hidden hole in the cellar and swallows many sleeping pills that had been prescribed for her insomnia. The newspapers presume her kidnapping and death, but she is discovered alive under her house after an indeterminate amount of time. She is sent to several different mental hospitals until her college benefactress, Philomena Guinea, supports her stay at an elite treatment center where she meets Dr. Nolan, a female therapist. Along with regular psychotherapy sessions, Esther is given huge amounts of insulin to produce a "reaction" (a common – and now disproven – psychiatric treatment at the time) and again receives shock treatments, with Dr. Nolan ensuring that they are properly administered. While there, she describes her depression as a feeling of being trapped under a bell jar, struggling for breath. Eventually, Esther describes the ECT as beneficial in that it has a sort of antidepressant effect; it lifts the metaphorical bell jar in which she has felt trapped and stifled. While there, she also becomes reacquainted with Joan Gilling, who also used to date Buddy. Whilst Esther and Joan are hospitalized, Joan commits suicide unexpectedly. The novel heavily implies that Joan is homosexual, and attracted to or interested in Esther.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Esther tells Dr. Nolan how she envies the freedom that men have and how she, as a woman, worries about getting pregnant. Dr. Nolan refers her to a doctor who fits her for a diaphragm. Esther now feels free from her fears about the consequences of sex; free from previous pressures to get married, potentially to the wrong man. Under Dr. Nolan, Esther improves. Various significant events, such as having sex for the first time, being hospitalized as a result, and Joan's suicide, provide her with new perspective. Esther interacts with Buddy once again towards the end of the novel, when he visits her to ask if it was something about him that drove women to insanity given that he dated both Joan and Esther. Buddy later wonders out loud who will marry Esther now that she has been hospitalized, effectively ending their commitment to get engaged. Esther feels relieved.


title: The Bell Jar

text: The novel ends with Esther entering a conference with her doctors, who will decide whether she can leave the hospital and return to school.


title: The Bell Jar

text: According to her husband, Plath began writing the novel in 1961, after publishing "The Colossus", her first collection of poetry. Plath finished writing the novel in August 1961. After she separated from Hughes, Plath moved to a smaller flat in London, "giving her time and place to work uninterruptedly. Then at top speed and with very little revision from start to finish she wrote "The Bell Jar"," he explained.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Plath was writing the novel under the sponsorship of the Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship, affiliated with publisher Harper & Row, but it was disappointed by the manuscript and withdrew, calling it "disappointing, juvenile and overwrought". Early working titles of the novel included "Diary of a Suicide" and "The Girl in the Mirror".


title: The Bell Jar

text: The novel is written using a series of flashbacks that reveal parts of Esther's past. The flashbacks primarily deal with Esther's relationship with Buddy Willard. The reader also learns more about her early college years.


title: The Bell Jar

text: "The Bell Jar" addresses the question of socially acceptable identity. It examines Esther's "quest to forge her own identity, to be herself rather than what others expect her to be." Esther is expected to become a housewife, and a self-sufficient woman, without the options to achieve independence. Esther feels she is a prisoner to domestic duties and she fears the loss of her inner self. "The Bell Jar" sets out to highlight the problems with oppressive patriarchal society in mid-20th-century America.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Esther Greenwood, the main character in "The Bell Jar", describes her life as being suffocated by a bell jar. A bell jar is a thick glass display container sometimes used to create a vacuum space. Here, it stands for "Esther's mental suffocation by the unavoidable settling of depression upon her psyche". Throughout the novel, Esther talks of it suffocating her, and recognizes moments of clarity when it is lifted. These moments correlate to her mental state and the effect of her depression. Scholars argue about the nature of Esther's "bell jar" and what it can stand for. Some say it is a retaliation against suburban lifestyle, others believe it represents the standards set for a woman's life. However, when considering the nature of Sylvia Plath's own life and death and the parallels between "The Bell Jar" and her life, it is hard to ignore the theme of mental illness.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Psychiatrist Aaron Beck studied Esther's mental illness and notes two causes of depression evident in her life. The first is formed from early traumatic experiences, her father's death when she was 9 years old. It is evident how affected she is by this loss when she wonders, "I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old." The second cause of her depression is from her perfectionist ideologies. Esther is a woman of many achievements – college, internships and perfect grades. It is this success that puts the unattainable goals into her head, and when she doesn't achieve them, her mental health suffers. Esther laments, "The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it."


title: The Bell Jar

text: Esther Greenwood has an obvious mental break – that being her suicide attempt which dictates the latter half of the novel. However, Esther's entire life shows warning signs that cause this depressive downfall. The novel begins with her negative thoughts surrounding all her past and current life decisions. It is this mindset mixed with the childhood trauma and perfectionist attitude that causes her descent that leads her to attempt suicide.


title: The Bell Jar

text: This novel gives an account of the treatment of mental health in the 1950s. Plath speaks through Esther's narrative to describe her experience of her mental health treatment. Just as this novel gives way to feminist discourse and challenges the way of life for women in the 1950s, it also gives a case study of a woman struggling with mental health.


title: The Bell Jar

text: The book contains many references to real people and events in Plath's life. Plath's magazine scholarship was at "Mademoiselle" magazine beginning in 1953. Philomena Guinea is based on author Olive Higgins Prouty, Plath's own patron, who funded Plath's scholarship to study at Smith College. Plath was rejected from a Harvard course taught by Frank O'Connor. Dr. Nolan is thought to be based on Ruth Beuscher, Plath's therapist, whom she continued seeing after her release from the hospital. A good portion of this part of the novel closely resembles the experiences chronicled by Mary Jane Ward in her autobiographical novel "The Snake Pit"; Plath later stated that she had seen reviews of "The Snake Pit" and believed the public wanted to see "mental health stuff", so she deliberately based details of Esther's hospitalization on the procedures and methods outlined in Ward's book. Plath was a patient at McLean Hospital, an upscale facility which resembled the "snake pit" much less than wards in the Metropolitan State Hospital, which may have been where Mary Jane Ward was hospitalized.


title: The Bell Jar

text: In a 2006 interview, Joanne Greenberg said that she had been interviewed in 1986 by one of the women who had worked on "Mademoiselle" with Plath in the college guest editors group. The woman claimed that Plath had put so many details of the students' lives into "The Bell Jar" that "they could never look at each other again", and that it had caused the breakup of her marriage and possibly others.


title: The Bell Jar

text: Janet McCann links Plath's search for female independence with a self-described neurotic psychology. Ted Hughes, Plath's husband, suggested that "The Bell Jar" might have been written as a response to many years of electroshock treatment and the scars it left.


title: The Bell Jar

text: "The Bell Jar" received "warily positive reviews". The short time span between the publication of the book and Plath's suicide resulted in "few innocent readings" of the novel.


title: The Bell Jar

text: The majority of early readers focused primarily on autobiographical connections from Plath to the protagonist. In response to autobiographical criticism, critic Elizabeth Hardwick urged that readers distinguish between Plath as a writer and Plath as an "event". Robert Scholes, writing for "The New York Times", praised the novel's "sharp and uncanny descriptions". Mason Harris of the "West Coast Review" complimented the novel as using "the 'distorted lens' of madness [to give] an authentic vision of a period which exalted the most oppressive ideal of reason and stability." Howard Moss of "The New Yorker" gave a mixed review, praising the "black comedy" of the novel, but added that there was "something girlish in its manner [that] betrays the hand of the amateur novelist".


title: The Bell Jar

text: On November 5, 2019, the "BBC News" listed "The Bell Jar" on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels.


title: The Bell Jar

text: "The Bell Jar" has been referred to many times in popular media. Iris Jamahl Dunkle wrote of the novel that "often, when the novel appears in American films and television series, it stands as a symbol for teenage angst."


title: The Bell Jar

text: Larry Peerce's "The Bell Jar" (1979) starred Marilyn Hassett as Esther Greenwood, and featured the tagline: "Sometimes just being a woman is an act of courage." In the film, Joan attempts to get Esther to agree to a suicide pact, which does not occur in the book.


title: The Bell Jar

text: In July 2016, it was announced that Kirsten Dunst would be making her directorial debut with an adaptation of "The Bell Jar" starring Dakota Fanning as Esther Greenwood. In August 2019, it was announced Dunst was no longer attached and "Bell Jar" will become a limited TV series from Showtime.


title: Devo

text: Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic lineup consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 "Billboard" chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", the song that gave the band mainstream popularity.


title: Devo

text: Devo's music and visual presentation (including stage shows and costumes) mingle kitsch science fiction themes, deadpan surrealist humor and mordantly satirical social commentary. The band's namesake, the tongue-in-cheek social theory of "de-evolution", was an integral concept in their early work, which was marked by experimental and dissonant art punk that merged rock music with electronics. Their output in the 1980s embraced synth-pop and a more mainstream, less conceptual style, though the band's satirical and quirky humor remained intact. Their music has proven influential on subsequent movements, particularly on new wave, industrial, and alternative rock artists. Devo (most enthusiastically Gerald Casale) was also a pioneer of the music video format.


title: Devo

text: The name "Devo" comes from the concept of "de-evolution" and the band's related idea that instead of continuing to evolve, mankind had begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society. In the late 1960s, this idea was developed as a joke by Kent State University art students Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis, who created a number of satirical art pieces in a devolution vein. At this time, Casale had also performed with the local band 15-60-75 (The Numbers Band). They met Mark Mothersbaugh around 1970, a talented keyboardist who had been playing with the band Flossy Bobbitt. Mothersbaugh brought a more humorous feel to the band, introducing them to material like the pamphlet "Jocko Homo Heavenbound", which includes an illustration of a winged devil labelled "D-EVOLUTION" and would later inspire the song "Jocko Homo". The "joke" about de-evolution became serious following the Kent State massacre of May 4, 1970. This event would be cited multiple times as the impetus for forming the band Devo. Throughout the band's career, they have often been considered a "joke band" by the music press.


title: Devo

text: The first form of Devo was the "Sextet Devo" which performed at the 1973 Kent State performing arts festival. It included Casale, Lewis and Mothersbaugh, as well as Gerald's brother Bob Casale on guitar, and friends Rod Reisman and Fred Weber on drums and vocals, respectively. This performance was filmed and an excerpt was later included on the home video release "The Complete Truth About De-Evolution". This lineup performed only once. Devo returned to perform in the Student Governance Center (featured prominently in the film) at the 1974 Creative Arts Festival with a lineup including the Casale brothers, Bob Lewis, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Jim Mothersbaugh on drums.


title: Devo

text: The band continued to perform, generally as a quartet, but with a fluid lineup including Mark's brothers Bob Mothersbaugh and Jim Mothersbaugh. Bob played electric guitar, and Jim provided percussion using a set of home-made electronic drums. Their first two music videos, "Secret Agent Man" and "Jocko Homo", which both appeared in "The Truth About De-Evolution", were filmed in Akron, and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the hometown of most members. This lineup of Devo lasted until late 1975 when Jim left the band. Lewis would sometimes play guitar during this period, but mainly stayed in a managerial role. In concert, Devo would often perform in the guise of theatrical characters, such as Booji Boy and the Chinaman. Live concerts from this period were often confrontational, and would remain so until 1977. A recording of an early Devo performance from 1975 with the quartet lineup appears on "" (1992), ending with the promoters unplugging Devo's equipment.


title: Devo

text: Following Jim Mothersbaugh's departure, Bob Mothersbaugh found a new drummer, Alan Myers, who played on a conventional, acoustic drum kit. Casale re-recruited his brother Bob Casale, and the lineup of Devo remained the same for nearly ten years.


title: Devo

text: Devo gained some fame in 1976 when their short film "The Truth About De-Evolution", directed by Chuck Statler, won a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. This attracted the attention of David Bowie, who began work to get the band a recording contract with Warner Music Group. In 1977, Devo were asked by Neil Young to participate in the making of his film "Human Highway". Released in 1982, the film featured the band as "nuclear garbagemen". The band members were asked to write their own parts and Mark Mothersbaugh scored and recorded much of the soundtrack, his first of many.


title: Devo

text: In March 1977, Devo released their first single, "Mongoloid" backed with "Jocko Homo", the B-side of which came from the soundtrack to "The Truth About De-Evolution", on their independent label Booji Boy. This was followed by a cover of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".


title: Devo

text: In 1978, the "B Stiff" EP was released by British independent label Stiff, which included the single "Be Stiff" plus two previous Booji Boy releases. "Mechanical Man", a 4-track 7-inch extended play (EP) of demos, an apparent bootleg, but actually put out by the band, was also released that year.


title: Devo

text: Recommendations from David Bowie and Iggy Pop enabled Devo to secure a recording contract with Warner Bros. in 1978. After Bowie backed out of the business deal due to previous commitments, their first album, "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" was produced by Brian Eno and featured re-recordings of their previous singles "Mongoloid" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". On October 14, 1978, Devo gained national exposure with an appearance on the late-night show "Saturday Night Live", a week after the Rolling Stones, performing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Jocko Homo".


title: Devo

text: The band followed up with "Duty Now for the Future" in 1979, which moved the band more towards electronic instrumentation. While not as successful as their first album, it did produce some fan favorites with the songs "Blockhead" and "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize" , as well as a cover of the Johnny Rivers hit "Secret Agent Man". "Secret Agent Man" had been recorded first in 1974 for Devo's first film and performed live as early as 1976. In 1979, Devo traveled to Japan for the first time, and a live show from this tour was partially recorded. Devo appeared on "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" in 1979, performing "Blockhead", "Secret Agent Man", "Uncontrollable Urge", and "Mongoloid". Also in 1979, Rhino, in conjunction with the Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM, released "Devotees", a tribute album. It contained a set of covers of Devo songs interspersed with renditions of popular songs in Devo's style.


title: Devo

text: Devo actively embraced the parody religion Church of the SubGenius. In concert, Devo sometimes performed as their own opening act, pretending to be a Christian soft rock band called "Dove (the Band of Love)", which is an anagram of "Devo". They appeared as Dove in the 1980 televangelism spoof film "Pray TV".


title: Devo

text: Devo gained a new level of visibility with 1980's "Freedom of Choice". This album included their best-known hit, "Whip It", which quickly became a Top 40 hit. The album moved to an almost completely electronic sound, with the exception of acoustic drums and Bob Mothersbaugh's guitar. The tour for "Freedom of Choice" was ambitious for the band, including dates in Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Canada. The band used a minimalist set including large custom light boxes which could be laid on their back to form a second, smaller stage during the second half of the set. Other popular songs from "Freedom of Choice" were "Girl U Want", the title-track, and "Gates of Steel". The band released popular music videos for "Whip It" and "Girl U Want". Devo made two appearances on the TV show "Fridays" in 1980, as well as on "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert", "American Bandstand", and other shows. The band members often wore red, terraced energy dome hats as part of its stage outfit. The dome was first worn during the band's "Freedom of Choice" campaign of 1980. It reappeared in the 1981, 1982, and 1988 tours, as well as in most of their performances since 1997. Devo also recorded two albums of their own songs as elevator music for their fan club, Club Devo, released on cassette in 1981 and 1984. These were later re-released on the album "E-Z Listening Disc" (1987), with all but two of the original Club Devo songs. These songs were often played as house music before Devo concerts.


title: Devo

text: In August 1981, the band's "DEV-O Live" EP spent three weeks at the top of the Australian charts. In 1982, they toured Australia and appeared on the TV show "Countdown". Devo enjoyed continued popularity in Australia, where the nationally broadcast 1970s–1980s pop TV show "Countdown" was one of the first programs in the world to broadcast their video clips. They were given consistent radio support by Sydney-based non-commercial rock station Double Jay (2JJ) and Brisbane-based independent community station Triple Zed (4ZZZ), two of the first rock stations outside America to play their recordings. The late-night music program "Nightmoves" aired "The Truth About De-Evolution".


title: Devo

text: In 1981, Devo contributed a cover of "Working in the Coal Mine", recorded during the "Freedom of Choice" sessions, to the film "Heavy Metal". They offered the song to be used in the film when Warner Bros. refused to include it on the album. Warner then included it as an independent bonus single accompanying their 1981 release, "New Traditionalists". For this album Devo wore self-described "Utopian Boy Scout uniforms" topped with a "New Traditionalist Pomp"—a plastic half-wig modeled on the hairstyle of John F. Kennedy. Among the singles from the album was "Through Being Cool", written as a reaction to their new-found fame from "Whip It" and seen as a response to new fans who had misinterpreted the message behind the hit song. The album's accompanying tour featured the band performing an intensely physical show with treadmills and a large Greek temple set. That same year they served as Toni Basil's backing band on "Word of Mouth", her debut album, which included versions of three Devo songs, recorded with Basil singing lead.


title: Devo

text: "Oh, No! It's Devo" followed in 1982. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the album featured a more synth-pop-oriented sound than its predecessors. According to Gerald Casale, the album's sound was inspired by reviewers alternately describing them as both "fascists" and "clowns". The album's tour featured the band performing seven songs in front of a 12-foot high rear-projection screen with synchronized video, an image recreated using blue screen effects in the album's accompanying music videos. Devo also contributed two songs, "Theme from Doctor Detroit" and "Luv-Luv", to the 1983 Dan Aykroyd film "Doctor Detroit", and produced a music video for "Theme from Doctor Detroit" featuring clips from the film interspersed with live-action segments.


title: Devo

text: The band's sixth studio album, "Shout" (1984), which featured extensive use of the Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer, was received poorly, and the expensive music video they'd produced for their cover of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Are You Experienced?" was criticized by some as being "disrespectful", all of which caused Warner Bros. to buy out the remainder of Devo's contract. Shortly thereafter, Myers left the band, citing creative unfulfillment.


title: Devo

text: In the interim, Mark Mothersbaugh began composing music for the TV show "Pee-wee's Playhouse" and released an elaborately packaged solo cassette, "Musik for Insomniaks", which was later expanded and released as two CDs in 1988.


title: Devo

text: In 1987, Devo re-formed with former Sparks drummer David Kendrick to replace Myers. Their first project was a soundtrack for the horror film "Slaughterhouse Rock" (1988), starring Toni Basil. The band released the album "Total Devo" in 1988, on Enigma Records. This album included two songs used in the "Slaughterhouse Rock" soundtrack. The song "Baby Doll" was used that same year in the comedy film "Tapeheads", with newly recorded Swedish lyrics, and was credited to (and shown in a music video by) a fictitious Swedish band called Cube-Squared. Devo followed this up with a world tour, and released the live album "" in 1989. However, "Total Devo" was not a commercial success and received poor critical reviews.


title: Devo

text: In 1989, members of Devo were involved in the project Visiting Kids, releasing a self-titled EP on the New Rose label in 1990. The band featured Mark's then-wife Nancye Ferguson, as well as David Kendrick, Bob Mothersbaugh, and Bob's daughter Alex Mothersbaugh. Their record was produced by Bob Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, and Mark also co-wrote some of the songs. Visiting Kids appeared on the soundtrack to the film "Rockula", as well as on "Late Night with David Letterman". A promotional video was filmed for the song "Trilobites".


title: Devo

text: In 1990, "Smooth Noodle Maps", Devo's last album for twenty years, was released. It too was a critical and commercial failure which, along with its two singles "Stuck in a Loop" and "Post Post-Modern Man", were Devo's worst-selling efforts; all failed to appear on the U.S. charts. Devo launched a concert tour in support of the album, but poor ticket sales and the bankruptcy and dissolution of Enigma Records, which was responsible for organizing and financing the tour, caused it to be cancelled part way through.


title: Devo

text: In 1990, the members of Devo, bar Bob Mothersbaugh, appeared in the film "The Spirit of '76". Two albums of demo recordings from 1974–1977, namely "" (1990) and "" (1991), were released on Rykodisc, as well as an album of early live recordings, "Devo Live: The Mongoloid Years" (1992).


title: Devo

text: The band played one final show in March 1991 before breaking up. In an interview with Mark Mothersbaugh concerning their 1996 computer game "Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol", he explained, "Around '88, '89, '90 maybe, we did our last tour in Europe, and it was kind of at that point, We were watching "This Is Spinal Tap" on the bus and said, 'Oh my God, that's our life.' And we just said, 'Things have to change.' So we kind of agreed from there that we wouldn't do live shows anymore."


title: Devo

text: Following the split, Mark Mothersbaugh established Mutato Muzika, a commercial music production studio, along with Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale. Mothersbaugh meant to further a career as a composer, and the latter worked as an audio engineer. Mothersbaugh has had considerable success writing and producing music for television programs, including "Pee-wee's Playhouse" and "Rugrats", video games, cartoons, and films, where he worked alongside director Wes Anderson. David Kendrick also worked at Mutato for a period during the early 1990s. Gerald Casale began a career as a director of music videos and commercials, working with bands including Rush, Soundgarden, Silverchair and the Foo Fighters. In the wake of Devo's dissolution, Bob Mothersbaugh attempted to start a solo career with The Bob I Band, recording an album that was never released. The tapes for this are now lost, though a bootleg recording of the band in concert exists and can be obtained through the bootleg aggregator Booji Boy's Basement.


title: Devo

text: While they did not release any studio albums during this period, Devo sporadically reconvened to record a number of songs for various films and compilations, including a new recording of "Girl U Want" on the soundtrack to the 1995 film "Tank Girl" and a cover of the Nine Inch Nails hit "Head Like a Hole" for the 1996 North American version of the film "Supercop".


title: Devo

text: In January 1996, Devo performed a reunion concert at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The band performed on part of the 1996 Lollapalooza tour in the rotating Mystery Spot. On these tours and most subsequent tours, Devo performed a set-list mostly composed of material from between 1978 and 1982, ignoring their Enigma Records-era material. Also in 1996, Devo released a multimedia CD-ROM adventure game, "Adventures of the Smart Patrol" with Inscape. The game was not a success, but the Lollapalooza tour was received well enough to allow Devo to return in 1997 as a headliner. Devo performed sporadically from 1997 onwards.


title: Devo

text: In 1999, the "Oh, No! It's Devo" era outtakes "Faster and Faster" and "One Dumb Thing", as well as the "Shout" era outtake "Modern Life", were restored, completed and used in the video game "Interstate '82", developed by Activision and released. Also that year, Mothersbaugh started the Devo side-project The Wipeouters, after their band in junior high, featuring himself (keyboards, organ), Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar), Bob Casale (guitar), and Mutato Muzika composer Josh Mancell (drums). The Wipeouters performed the theme song to the Nickelodeon animated series "Rocket Power", and in 2001 they released an album of surf rock material, titled "P'Twaaang!!!".


title: Devo

text: Around this same time, Devo's online fandom continued to grow, leading to 'Devotional', a Devo fan convention held annually in Cleveland, Ohio. The festival was most recently held in September 2022.


title: Devo

text: In 2005, Devo recorded a new version of "Whip It" to be used in Swiffer television commercials, a decision they have said they regretted. During an interview with the "Dallas Observer", Gerald Casale said, "It's just aesthetically offensive. It's got everything a commercial that turns people off has." The song "Beautiful World" was also used in a re-recorded form for an advertisement for Target stores. Due to rights issues with their back catalog, Devo has re-recorded songs for films and advertisements.


title: Devo

text: In 2005, Gerald Casale announced his "solo" project, Jihad Jerry & the Evildoers (the Evildoers, including the other members of Devo), and released the first EP, "Army Girls Gone Wild" in 2006. A full-length album, "Mine Is Not a Holy War", was released on September 12, 2006, after a several-month delay. It featured mostly new material, plus re-recordings of four obscure Devo songs: "I Need a Chick" and "I Been Refused" (from ""), "Find Out" (which appeared on the single and EP of "Peek-a-Boo!" in 1982), and "Beehive" (which was recorded by the band in 1974, whereupon it was apparently abandoned, with the exception of one appearance at a special show in 2001). Devo continued to tour actively in 2005 and 2006, unveiling a new stage show at appearances in October 2006, with the Jihad Jerry character performing "Beautiful World" as an encore.


title: Devo

text: Also in 2006, Devo worked on a project with Disney known as Devo 2.0. A band of child performers was assembled and re-recorded Devo songs. A quote from the "Akron Beacon Journal" stated, "Devo recently finished a new project in cahoots with Disney called Devo 2.0, which features the band playing old songs and two new ones with vocals provided by children. Their debut album, a two disc CD/DVD combo entitled "DEV2.0", was released on March 14, 2006. The lyrics of some of the songs were changed for family-friendly airplay, which has been claimed by the band to be a play on irony of the messages of their classic hits."


title: Devo

text: In an April 2007 interview, Gerald Casale mentioned a tentative project for a biographical film about Devo's early days. According to Casale, a script was supposedly in development, called "The Beginning Was the End". Devo played their first European tour since 1990 in the summer of 2007, including a performance at Festival Internacional de Benicàssim.


title: Devo

text: In December 2007, Devo released their first new single since 1990, "Watch Us Work It", which was featured in a commercial for Dell. The song features a sampled drum track from the "New Traditionalists" song "The Super Thing". Casale said that the song was chosen from a batch that the band was working on, and that it was the closest the band had been to releasing a new album.


title: Devo

text: Devo performed at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in March 2009, unveiling a new stage show with synchronized video backdrops (similar to the 1982 tour), new costumes, and three new songs: "Don't Shoot, I'm a Man!", "What We Do", and "Fresh". On September 16, Warner Bros. and Devo announced re-releases of "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" and "Freedom of Choice", as well as a subsequent tour, where they would perform both albums in their entirety.


title: Devo

text: A new album, "Something for Everybody", was eventually released on June 15, 2010, preceded by a 12-inch single of "Fresh"/"What We Do" on June 10. Devo was awarded the first Moog Innovator Award on October 29, during Moogfest 2010 in Asheville, North Carolina. The Moog Innovator Award has been said to celebrate "pioneering artists whose genre-defying work exemplifies the bold, innovative spirit of Bob Moog". Devo was scheduled to perform at Moogfest, but Bob Mothersbaugh severely injured his hand three days prior, and the band was forced to cancel. Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale collaborated with Austin-based band the Octopus Project to perform "Girl U Want" and "Beautiful World" at the event instead.


title: Devo

text: The band split from Warner Bros in 2012 and launched a new "post-Warner Brothers" website that would offer "new protective gear" and "unreleased material from the archives in vinyl disc format". In August of that year, the band released a single called "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro (Seamus Unleashed)", dedicated to the Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney's former pet dog Seamus. The title refers to the Mitt Romney dog incident of 1983, when Romney travelled twelve hours with the dog in a crate on his car's roof rack.


title: Devo

text: On June 24, 2013, the group's former drummer Alan Myers died of stomach cancer in Los Angeles, California. He was 58. News reports at the time of his death incorrectly cited brain cancer as the cause. One month later, Devo released their "Something Else for Everybody" album, which collected "Unreleased Demos and Focus Group Rejects" from 2006–2009. Gerald Casale had earlier teased the album in a 2012 interview with "Billboard" magazine.


title: Devo

text: On February 17, 2014, founding member Bob Casale died of heart failure at age 61. Shortly afterwards, the group, now a quartet, embarked on their Hardcore Devo Tour, a ten-show tour across the US and Canada between June 18 and July 2, 2014. Partial proceeds for the ten shows went to support Bob Casale's family after his sudden death. The show featured the group performing material written during 1974–1977. The June 28 Oakland show was filmed and later released as the concert film "Hardcore Devo Live!", released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Video on Demand on February 10, 2015, accompanied by CD and double-vinyl audio releases.


title: Devo

text: After a short break, Devo continued to tour for the rest of 2014. Josh Hager joined the band at this time, playing both keyboards and guitar. On April 29, 2016, Devo performed at Will Ferrell and Chad Smith's Red Hot Benefit. On May 22, Robert Mothersbaugh Sr., father of Mark, Bob, and Jim Mothersbaugh, died. Robert portrayed General Boy in various Devo films.


title: Devo

text: On September 23, 2017, the official Twitter account for the band's "Are We Not Men?" documentary film, which had been in production since 2009, stated that "the film was finished years ago" and that "mm [Mark Mothersbaugh] is blocking its release". Jeff Winner, who was consulting producer for the Devo documentary, went on to state that he and Pemberton had "delivered the film that was contracted, and on schedule. It's now in the hands of the band to decide when/how it's released/distributed."


title: Devo

text: After a hiatus from live performances, Devo headlined the Burger Boogaloo festival in Oakland, California, on June 30, 2018. Comedian and former Trenchmouth drummer Fred Armisen filled in for Josh Freese on drums. On October 12, 2020, Devo performed at the Desert Daze festival, with Jeff Friedl on drums.


title: Devo

text: In January 2021, Funko released two Devo Funko Pops inspired by the group's "Whip It" and "Satisfaction" music videos. One month later, the band starred in "Devolution: A Devo Theory", a television documentary based entirely on their theory of devolution, which had been completed in 2020. In September, Devo performed a short three-date tour of the USA, including a show at Riot Fest. These performances marked the return of Josh Freese on drums, who had not played live with Devo in over five years.


title: Devo

text: Shortly afterwards, Gerald Casale announced the release of an official Devo potato-based vodka through the Trust Me Vodka brand. The packaging for the drink was themed around Devo imagery and featured original artwork. It was signed by the group's co-founders Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, as well as Bob Mothersbaugh.


title: Devo

text: On October 24, 2021, John Hinckley Jr posted on Twitter that he had not received any royalties for Devo's song "I Desire" in 35 years. "I Desire" had been written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale for their 1982 album "Oh, No! It's Devo", inspired by a poem written by Hinckley that was published in a tabloid newspaper, following his attempt to assassinate then-current president Ronald Reagan. Hinckley had been adequately credited for his contributions through a co-writing credit on all releases. Casale claimed that Devo were not at fault, as it was the publishing company's duty to pay him, not the band's.


title: Devo

text: Devotional 2021, an annual convention for Devo fans, was held on November 5–6, with the annual 5KDEVO race taking place on the 7th. On November 15, it was announced that Devo would perform a one-off show at the Rooftop at Pier 17 on May 18, 2022, in order to make up for their cancelled Radio City Music Hall gig in September 2021. Tickets went on sale on the 18th.


title: Devo

text: In December, it was announced that rare images of Devo would feature in a book of rock photography from 1977–1980 titled "HARD + FAST", to be released on February 1, 2022. The book will also include a 7-inch single of live recordings from the band, which were also released on SoundCloud prior to the book's release. The recordings were dated 1977, but the performances are identical to those found on an audience bootleg recorded on October 10, 1978.


title: Devo

text: On May 14 and 15, 2022, Devo performed at the Cruel World Festival at the Rose Bowl's Brookside golf course in Pasadena, California.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin (, ; ; born 9 May 1981) is a Russian and Ukrainian politician who is serving as the acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) from 4 October, 2022.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: Pushilin is the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, a Russian federal subject in Ukrainian territory claimed by Russia (before 30 September 2022 ithe DPR was a self-proclaimed puppet republic controlled by Russia).


title: Denis Pushilin

text: He had previously served as Chairman of the People's Council, and became the acting head of state following the assassination of incumbent Alexander Zakharchenko amidst the conflict in the east Ukraine region. He successfully ran for election to a full term in the 2018 elections, which were widely held to be illegitimate.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: Pushilin was born 9 May 1981 in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Pushilin is the son of workers of the Makiivka Metallurgical Factory, Vladimir Pushilin and Valentina Khasanova. He graduated in 1998 from Makiivka Lyceum No. 1, a school combining secondary and professional education. From 1999 to 2000, he served in the National Guard of Ukraine in a special assignment battalion in Crimea. After leaving the military, he studied Enterprise Economics at Donbas National Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, but did not receive a degree. From 2002 to 2006, Pushilin worked for a trading firm, Solodkye Zhittya ("Sweet Life”).


title: Denis Pushilin

text: From 1989 to 1994, a Russian Ponzi scheme called MMM cost its participants millions of dollars prior to disbanding. In 2011, Sergei Mavrodi launched a new MMM. Pushilin volunteered for this successor company from 2011 to 2013 and became a key leader. The new MMM openly admitted to being a pyramid scheme. Pushilin was not shy in promoting involvement with the company.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine allowed registration of the MMM Party under the chairmanship of Mavrodi. It is interpreted as an abbreviation for "We Have a Goal" (). Pushilin joined this new party in 2012. Opposing Yanukovych and unknown in the Kyiv region, Pushilin got 0.08% of the votes and failed to win a seat in the December 2013 repeat elections of the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election in the 94th district (located in Obukhiv). According to his December 2013 election information, Pushilin was "not working" at the time.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: On 5 April 2014, Pushilin led a rally in Donetsk, identifying himself as deputy to Pavel Gubarev, the "People's Governor" of Donetsk. Pushilin demanded a referendum, like that of Crimea, on the question independence from the new Ukrainian government in Kyiv.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: By the end of April, the European Union (EU) had placed sanctions on Pushilin, which included freezing assets and banning him from entering EU member states. In June, the United States added Pushilin to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. His name has since been added to sanction lists of Australia, Canada, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: On 19 May 2014, Pushilin became the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Donetsk People's Republic, and under the draft constitution adopted on May 15, the new republic's head of state. In June 2014, he announced that DPR businesses which engaged in tax evasion would be nationalized. Pushilin did not envision the Donetsk People's Republic becoming an independent state but preferred to join the Russian Federation (which he saw as a potential renewed Russian Empire).


title: Denis Pushilin

text: Pushilin survived two assassination attempts, both occurring within a week on the 7th and 12th of June 2014. Pushilin was in Moscow on those dates, as was widely reported at the time.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: Pushilin resigned from his post of the Chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic in July 2014. From 14 November 2014 to 4 September 2015, he served as a vice-chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic Council then he replaced Andrei Purgin and became the Chairman of the council once again.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: From 2014 to 2018, Pushilin officially represented the DPR at the Trilateral Contact Group and the Minsk II agreements. The Minsk II agreements subsequently failed, with each side accusing the other of violating the ceasefire terms.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: On 31 August 2018, DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko was assassinated in a bombing of a restaurant in Donetsk. After a week-long interim leadership by Dmitry Trapeznikov, Pushilin was appointed acting Head of the DPR on 7 September 2018; he was to hold this position until elections on 11 November 2018.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: On 21 September 2018, he submitted documents to be registered in the November election. He won with 60.85% of the vote. On 6 December 2021 Pushilin became a member of the Russian ruling party United Russia. United Russia chairman Dmitry Medvedev personally handed him his party ticket during the party's annual congress in Moscow.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: On 21 February 2022, Pushilin signed an agreement for friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance between the Donetsk People's Republic and the Russian Federation. At this ceremony were also signed an agreement between the LPR and Russia, and executive orders by President Putin to officially recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR.


title: Denis Pushilin

text: In April 2022, news outlets noted that during Pushilin's visit to Mariupol, he awarded Senior Lieutenant Roman Vorobyov a medal, while he was wearing patches affiliated with neo-Nazism: the "Totenkopf" used by the 3rd SS Panzer Division, and the "valknut".


title: Denis Pushilin

text: In September 2022, Pushilin suggested coordinating a joint referendum with Luhansk People's Republic leader Leonid Pasechnik on the question of joining the Russian Federation. The referendum, also organised in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, received widespread international condemnation, and passed in Donetsk with over 99% approval, according to official figures. Pushilin said in an interview with TASS that he would be heading to Moscow with the final protocol of a recent referendum on joining Russia "to formalize reunification." On September 30, Pushilin attended in Moscow the ceremony in which Vladimir Putin formally announced the annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, together with the other pro-Russian occupation heads Volodymyr Saldo, Leonid Pasechnik and Yevgeny Balitsky.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: Paul DePodesta (born December 16, 1972) is an American football executive and former baseball executive who is the chief strategy officer and de facto president of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as a front-office assistant for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, and New York Mets. DePodesta was also general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is also known for his appearance in the book and movie "Moneyball" about his early career as an assistant with the Oakland Athletics.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: DePodesta is a native of Alexandria, Virginia, where he grew up with Thad Levine. He attended Episcopal High School ('91) and then Harvard University, where he played baseball and football and graduated in 1995 with a degree in economics. He has worked for the Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League and the Baltimore Bandits of the American Hockey League.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: In 1996, DePodesta got his first baseball job with the Cleveland Indians, where he spent three seasons. He served as an advance scout for two years and in his final month with the club was appointed special assistant to general manager John Hart.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: In 1999, he joined the Oakland Athletics organization as an assistant to general manager Billy Beane. DePodesta was a key figure in Michael Lewis's book "Moneyball". The book thrust the analytical principles of sabermetrics into the mainstream.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: At the age of 31, DePodesta was named general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers on February 16, 2004, making him the fifth-youngest general manager in baseball history.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: DePodesta's reliance on sabermetric principles has been somewhat controversial. He is often considered part of a new breed of front-office executives whose personnel decisions depend heavily on analysis of performance data, often at the perceived expense of more traditional methods of scouting and observation.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: One of DePodesta's most notable moves was made at the 2004 trading deadline. He traded catcher Paul Lo Duca, relief pitcher Guillermo Mota and outfielder Juan Encarnación to the Florida Marlins in exchange for pitcher Brad Penny, first baseman Hee Seop Choi and pitcher Bill Murphy, in what was reportedly an attempt to pick up pieces to acquire pitcher Randy Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks. DePodesta was heavily criticized in the local and national baseball media for this trade, because Lo Duca was thought to be the "heart and soul" of the team. The Dodgers made the playoffs anyway, with Penny developing into one of the better pitchers in the National League during his stint with the Dodgers, which lasted until the end of the 2008 season. Choi, however, was a disappointment, batting just .161 in 2004 and .253 in 2005, and striking out 80 times in 320 at bats. Bill Murphy was traded that year to acquire Steve Finley, who hit 13 homers in 58 games, including a memorable grand slam that clinched the division title. Lo Duca played through 2005 with the Marlins and then went to the New York Mets, the Washington Nationals and back to the Marlins, making his final Major League appearance in September 2008.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: During the 2004 off-season, Adrián Beltré, who had hit 48 home runs in 2004, signed with Seattle as a free agent, spurning DePodesta's offer of 3 years for $30 million for Seattle's offer of 5 years for $64 million. DePodesta signed J. D. Drew, Jeff Kent, and Derek Lowe. Drew enjoyed two productive seasons as a Dodger and then used an opt-out clause in his contract to sign a new 5-year deal with the Boston Red Sox. Both Kent and Lowe put in four productive seasons for the Dodgers and cut ties with the franchise at the end of the 2008 season with Kent retiring and Lowe signing a contract with the Atlanta Braves.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: Coming off the successes of 2004, the 2005 season saw the Dodgers lose a number of players to significant stints on the disabled list. Many of the players lost to injury were expected to produce heavily for the team, including J. D. Drew, Milton Bradley, Éric Gagné, Jayson Werth, César Izturis and Odalis Pérez. The 2005 season resulted in the team's worst record since 1992 and second worst since moving to Los Angeles in 1958. On October 29, 2005, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt fired DePodesta, citing his desire to see the club win and that DePodesta had not met those expectations. Reports surfaced that the real reason McCourt had fired DePodesta was his inability to find satisfactory managerial candidates to replace Jim Tracy. He was later replaced by Ned Colletti, who hired Grady Little as manager. Some have speculated that McCourt fired DePodesta in response to media criticism from "Los Angeles Times" sports columnists T.J. Simers and Bill Plaschke, who were vehemently "anti-Moneyball" and referred to DePodesta pejoratively as "Google Boy."


title: Paul DePodesta

text: On June 30, 2006, DePodesta was hired as the Special Assistant for Baseball Operations for the San Diego Padres and was promoted to Executive Vice President on November 10, 2008.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: On November 8, 2010, DePodesta was hired as the vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets by general manager Sandy Alderson, with whom DePodesta worked when Alderson was CEO of the Padres.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: On January 5, 2016, DePodesta was hired by the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) as their chief strategy officer.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: On July 31, 2021, it was reported that the Browns and DePodesta had agreed to a 5-year contract extension.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: On March 18, 2022, DePodesta helped to facilitate a controversial trade for Deshaun Watson, who was accused by over 20 women for sexual misconduct. Watson and the Texans' 2024 sixth-round draft pick were traded to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for the Browns' first-round draft picks in 2022, 2023, and 2024, as well as the Browns' third-round pick in 2023 and fourth-round picks in 2022 and 2024. As part of the trade, Watson signed a new, fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million deal with the Browns, making it the largest contract and most guaranteed money in NFL history.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: On December 13, 2012, DePodesta was elected to the Board of Directors of Sears Holdings Corporation. He has also served as a keynote speaker at numerous business conventions and been recognized by several publications, including "Baseball Prospectus" and "Fortune Magazine", which named him one of the Top 10 innovators under the age of 40.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: DePodesta is married to artist and philanthropist Karen Deicas and has three sons and a daughter. In 2016, Deicas launched the Sports Mind Institute, which seeks to connect lessons learned from figures in professional sports, athletes, team executives, and coaches, to help others apply them to life and the business sector. The family resides in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: In 2003, author Michael Lewis was interested in how Oakland Athletics general manager (GM) Billy Beane tried to find quality players to improve the team while struggling with one of the smallest payrolls in Major League Baseball. He first wanted to write an article on the subject, but the idea eventually blossomed into a book named "". Lewis's interests included how Beane hired DePodesta as his assistant to incorporate sabermetrics, an approach that consists of more sophisticated analyses of baseball statistics, which is at least partially credited for their 2002 20-game winning streak which set an American League record.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: Lewis's book examines the lives and careers of various baseball personalities and explains the art of sabermetrics. Bill James, who coined the term sabermetrics for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), is also a major focus. James published "The Bill James Baseball Abstract" from 1977 to 1988 and wrote several sabermetrics books. Beane and DePodesta had studied James's work and were inspired by his knowledge of baseball analysis.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: DePodesta did not feel comfortable in the spotlight after the book's release, nor did he care for the secrets revealed about his scouting methods. The book earned DePodesta a reputation as a cold calculator, choosing players based only on their numbers. In addition, he was thought of as a guy who knew nothing of "real baseball."


title: Paul DePodesta

text: In reality, DePodesta played football in college and wanted to be a football coach, seen in a photo wearing number 17. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in economics, he became an intern for the Canadian Football League's Baltimore Stallions in 1995. In early 1996, he got his first baseball job with the Cleveland Indians, where he worked as a scout. In October 1996, at age 24, he was promoted to the position of advance scout. In October 1998, he became assistant to the General Manager for the team. Those experiences led to him being hired by Beane as his assistant with the Oakland A's in November 1998.


title: Paul DePodesta

text: When the movie "Moneyball" was adapted from the book, DePodesta did not approve of the way his character was portrayed. "There were a handful of things. Some were factual, others were more ephemeral." He had no objection to Jonah Hill's performance. "Jonah was awesome. He was so respectful of me and my time. It would have been flattering to be portrayed by someone of his expertise. It had nothing to do with the casting," DePodesta said in 2010. "I just could never get comfortable with the idea of somebody else portraying me to the rest of the world. Like any movie, to make it interesting, there has to be some conflict there. In some respects, a lot of the conflict is going to revolve around my character, and that was never really the case in reality," he said in 2011. He also talked about the focus that was brought on him, first in 2003 and again in 2011. "The other problem was I wasn't all that interested in the attention. It had already happened from the book. And I didn't necessarily need to relive it."


title: Paul DePodesta

text: The role was originally going to be given DePodesta's name and portrayed by Demetri Martin, but DePodesta did not want his name or likeness to be used in the movie, so the character was named Peter Brand. Brand is a composite of Beane's assistants in Oakland, not an accurate representation of any specific person. But "Moneyball"s director, Bennett Miller, has credited DePodesta for being generous and helpful in the making of the film. Hill was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 6)

text: The sixth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" premiered on June 24 and concluded on September 2, 2021. The first two episodes of the season aired on the same day. On August 20, 2020, VH1 renewed both "RuPaul's Drag Race" and "All Stars" for its thirteenth and sixth season respectively. On February 24, 2021, ViacomCBS announced the sixth season of the show would move from VH1 to Paramount+, an online streaming service. However, the season is still broadcast by the same networks abroad.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 6)

text: The winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" received a one-year supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills Cosmetics and a cash prize of $100,000. Kylie Sonique Love was declared as the winner, with Eureka!, Ginger Minj, and Ra'Jah O'Hara as runners-up.


title: Leech

text: Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels.