title: Indo people

text: During World War II the European colonies in South East Asia, including the Dutch East Indies, were invaded and annexed by the Japanese Empire. The Japanese sought to eradicate anything reminiscent of European government. Many of the Indies Dutch had spent World War II in Japanese concentration camps. All full blooded Europeans were put in Japanese concentration camps while the larger (Indo) European population, who could prove close native ancestry, were subjected to a curfew, usually in their homes, which was known as Buiten Kampers (Dutch for outside campers). First the POWs, then all male adults and finally all females with their children and adolescents were interned. Boys of 10 years old and older were separated from their mothers and put into a boys camp usually together with old men. While the women were interned with children in women's camps, Vrouwenkampen all working age men were interned as forced unpaid labor. The Japanese failed in their attempts to win over the Indo community, and Indos were made subject to the same forceful measures.


title: Indo people

text: "Nine-tenths of the so-called Europeans are the offspring of whites married to native women. These mixed people are called Indo-Europeans… They have formed the backbone of officialdom. In general they feel the same loyalty to the Netherlands as do the white Dutch. They have full rights as Dutch citizens and they are Christians and follow Dutch customs. This group has suffered more than any other during the Japanese occupation".


title: Indo people

text: Leaders of the Indonesian independence movement cooperated with the Japanese to realise an independent nation. Two days after Japan's surrender in August 1945, the independence leaders declared an independent Republic of Indonesia. The majority of Indo males were either captive or in hiding and remained oblivious to these developments. During the occupation, the Japanese had imprisoned some 42,000 Dutch military personnel and around 100,000 civilians, mostly Dutch people who could not provide proof of Indonesian descent. During the Japanese occupation, the Dutch were put into the lowest class. Native blood was the only thing that could free Indos from being put into concentration camps. 160,000 Indos (Eurasians) were not herded into camps.


title: Indo people

text: On 24 November 1945, Sutomo leaked propaganda to specifically kill the Dutch, Indo, Ambonese and unarmed civilians. Hundreds of Eurasians were killed in attacks by fanatical nationalistic Indonesian youth groups in the Bersiap Period during the last quarter of 1945.


title: Indo people

text: Over 10% of the "Indo-Europeans" took Indonesian citizenship after Indonesian independence. Most retained full Dutch citizenship after the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia in 1949.


title: Indo people

text: In 1949, 300,000 Eurasians who had been socialized into many Dutch customs were repatriated. The Dutch established a repatriation program which lasted until 1967. Over a 15-year period after the Republic of Indonesia became an independent state, virtually the entire Dutch population, Indische Nederlanders (Dutch Indonesians), estimated at between 250,000 and 300,000, left the former Dutch East Indies.


title: Indo people

text: Most of them moved to the Netherlands. Many had never been there before. Some of them went to Australia, the United States or Canada. 18.5% departed for the United States. In 1959, Dutch people who did not embrace Indonesian citizenship were expelled. An estimated 60,000 immigrated to the United States in the 1960s.


title: Indo people

text: The migration pattern of the so-called Repatriation progressed in five distinct waves over a period of 20 years.


title: Indo people

text: Many Indos who left for the Netherlands often continued the journey of their diaspora to warmer places, such as California and Florida in the United States. A 2005 study estimates the number of Indos who went to Australia around 10,000. Research has shown that most Indo immigrants are assimilating into their host societies. The Indos are disappearing as a group.


title: Indo people

text: Notable Americans whose families came from the Dutch East Indies include the musicians Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Michelle Branch, the actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and the video game designer Henk Rogers.


title: Indo people

text: During the 1950s and 1960s an estimated 60,000 Indos arrived in the US, where they have integrated into mainstream American society. These Indos were sometimes also referred to as "Indo-Europeans" and "Amerindos". They are a relatively small Eurasian refugee-immigrant group in the US.


title: Indo people

text: Indos who emigrated to the US following Indonesian independence assimilated into their new country, marrying people outside the community; most never returned to Indonesia. Migration to the US occurred under legislative refugee measures; these immigrants were sponsored by Christian organizations such as the Church World Service and the Catholic Relief Services. An accurate count of Indo immigrants is not available, as the US Census classified people according to their self-determined ethnic affiliation. The Indos may have been included in overlapping categories of "country of origin", "other Asians," "total foreign", "mixed parentage", "total foreign-born" and "foreign mother tongue". However the Indos who settled via the legislative refugee measures number at least 25,000.


title: Indo people

text: The original post-war refugee legislation of 1948, already adhering to a strict 'affidavit of support' policy, was still maintaining a color bar making it difficult for Indos to emigrate to the US. By 1951, US consulates in the Netherlands registered 33,500 requests and had waiting times of 3 to 5 years. Also the US Walter-McCarran Act (1953) adhered to the traditional American policy of limiting immigrants from Asia. The yearly quota for Indonesia was limited to 100 visas, even though Dutch foreign affairs attempted to profile Indos as refugees from the alleged pro-communist Sukarno administration.


title: Indo people

text: The 1953 flood disaster in the Netherlands resulted in the US Refugee Relief Act including a slot for 15,000 ethnic Dutch who had at least 50% European blood (one year later loosened to Dutch citizens with at least two Dutch grandparents) and a clean legal and political record. In 1954, only 187 visas were actually granted. Partly influenced by the anti-western rhetoric and policies of the Sukarno administration, anti-communist US Representative Francis E. Walter pleaded for a second term of the Refugee Relief Act in 1957 and an additional slot of 15,000 visas in 1958.


title: Indo people

text: In 1958 the US Pastore-Walter Act ("Act for the relief of certain distressed aliens") was passed allowing for a one-off acceptance of 10,000 Dutchmen from Indonesia (excluding the regular annual quota of 3,136 visas). It was hoped however that only 10% of these Dutch refugees would in fact be racially mixed Indos and the American embassy in The Hague was frustrated with the fact that Canada, which was more strict in ethnic profiling, was getting the full–blooded Dutch and the US was getting Dutch "all rather heavily dark". Still in 1960 senators Pastore and Walter managed to get a second 2-year term for their act which was used by a great number of Indo '' (Repentis).


title: Indo people

text: The Indos who immigrated and their descendants can be found in all fifty US states, with a majority in southern California. The 1970 US Census recorded 28,000 foreign-born Dutch (Dutch not born in the Netherlands) in California, while the six traditional states with strong Dutch population numbers (Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington and Florida) hosted most of the other 50,000 foreign-born Dutch. The formation of Indo enclaves did not occur because of various factors. Indos settled initially with their sponsors or in locations offered them by the sponsor. Indos also had a wide variety of occupations and in this respect were not limited to certain geographic areas. There were no forces in the host society limiting the choice of location; there was a full choice as to where to settle.


title: Indo people

text: Unlike in the Netherlands, US Indos do not increase numerically because of their relative small numbers and their geographical dispersion. Also the disappearance of a proverbial "old country" able to supply a continual influx of new immigrants stimulates the rapid assimilation of Indos into the US. Although several Indo clubs have existed throughout the second half of the 20th century, the community's elders are passing away steadily. Some experts expect that within the lifespan of the second and third generation descendants, the community will be assimilated and disappear completely into American multicultural society. The great leap in technological innovation of the 20th and 21st centuries, in the areas of communication and media, is mitigating the geographical dispersion and diversity of American Indos. Triggered by the loss of family and community elders, US Indos are starting to rapidly reclaim their cultural heritage as well as sense of community.


title: Indo people

text: Notwithstanding Australia's ‘White Australia policy’ during the 1950s and 1960s, approximately 10,000 Indos migrated to Australia, mostly via the Netherlands. With regard to mixed-race Eurasians, who were called NPEO (Non Pure European Origine) by the Australian Ministries, subjective decision-making became the norm of the policy until the 1970s.


title: Indo people

text: During WWII a large refugee community from the Dutch East Indies existed in Australia of which 1,000 chose to stay in Australia after the War. The Dutch-Australian agreement (1951), to stimulate immigration to Australia did not bypass Australia's overall 'White Australia Policy', which considerably hampered the immigration of Indos.


title: Indo people

text: In the early 1950s, Australian immigration officials based in the Netherlands screened potential Indo migrants on skin color and western orientation. Refusals were never explained. Notes to the applicants contained this standard sentence in English: ""It is not the policy of the department to give reasons so please do not ask"." In 1956 an Australian security official publicly stated in the Australian newspaper that Dutch Eurasians may become a serious social problem and even an Asian fifth column.


title: Indo people

text: In the early 1960s, only vocationally skilled migrants were accepted to Australia. Originally applicants were required to be of 100% European descent. Later Indos were required to show a family tree proving 75% European descent. Eventually the key question posed by Australian officials was: "Would they be noticed, if they walked down the streets of Canberra or Melbourne or Sydney, as being European or non-European?"


title: Indo people

text: In the 1970s, in an attempt to make the policy more objective, a procedure was implemented that gave the applicant the opportunity to ask for a second opinion by a different official. Both decisions were then weighed by a higher official. Moreover, Anti-Asian migration policies started to change and in 1976 Australian immigration officials were even dispatched to Asia. Consequently, Indo migrants were less and less subject to discrimination based on skin color.


title: Indo people

text: Indos in the Netherlands are not considered an ethnic minority, and most of them are of mixed European-Indonesian origin bearing European family names.


title: Indo people

text: In 1990, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) registered the number of first-generation Indos living in the Netherlands at around 180,000 people. In 2001 official registration, including the second generation, accumulate their numbers to around half a million. Based on this the estimations, which include the third generation descendants, reach up to at least 800,000 people. However researcher Dr. Peter Post of the NIOD estimates 1.5 to 2 million people with Indo blood living in the Netherlands. The Indo Dutch living abroad were not included. That makes them by far the largest minority community in the Netherlands.


title: Indo people

text: The Indo community is considered the best-integrated ethnic and cultural minority in the Netherlands. Statistical data compiled by CBS shows that Indos belong to the group with the country's lowest crime rates.


title: Indo people

text: A 1999 CBS study reveals that of all foreign-born groups living in the Netherlands, only the Indos have an average income similar to that of citizens born in the Netherlands. Job participation in government, education and health care is similar as well. A 2005 CBS study, among foreign-born citizens and their children living in the Netherlands, shows that on average, Indos own the largest number of independent enterprises. A 2007 CBS study shows that over 50% of first-generation Indos have married a native-born Dutch person, which increased to 80% for the second generation. One of the first and oldest Indo organisations that supported the integration of Indo repatriates into the Netherlands is Pelita.


title: Indo people

text: Although Indo repatriates, being born overseas, are officially registered as Dutch citizens of foreign descent, their Eurasian background puts them in the Western sub-class instead of the Non-Western (Asian) sub-class.


title: Indo people

text: Two factors are usually attributed to the essence of their apparently seamless assimilation into Dutch society: Dutch citizenship, and the amount of 'Dutch cultural capital', in the form of school attainments and familiarity with the Dutch language and culture, which Indos already possessed before migrating to the Netherlands.


title: Indo people

text: There were few public signs of the Indo culture. The most visible one was the yearly event Pasar Malam Besar (the Great Night Market) in The Hague that currently continues under the name Tong Tong Fair.


title: Indo people

text: Indo culinary culture has made an enduring impact on Dutch society. There is no other place outside Indonesia with such an abundance of Indonesian food available. Indos played a pivotal role in introducing both Indonesian cuisine and Indo fusion cuisine to the Netherlands, making it so popular that some consider it an integral part of Dutch cuisine. The Countess C. van Limburg Stirum writes in her book "The Art of Dutch Cooking" (1962): "here exist countless Indonesian dishes, some of which take hours to prepare; but a few easy ones have become so popular that they can be regarded as "national dishes"". She provides recipes for dishes that have become commonplace in the Netherlands: "nasi goreng" (fried rice), "pisang goreng" (fried bananas), "lumpia goreng" (fried spring rolls), "bami" (fried noodles), satay (grilled skewered meat), satay sauce(peanut sauce), and "sambal ulek" (chilli paste). Most towns in the Netherlands will have an Indies or Indonesian restaurant and toko (shop). Even most Chinese restaurants have added Indonesian dishes to their menu such as "babi panggang" (roasted pork), and many now call themselves "Chinese Indies Restaurants".


title: Indo people

text: An important champion of Indo culture was the writer Tjalie Robinson (1911–1974), who co-founded the Tong Tong Fair. Louis Couperus' "Of Old People, the Things that Pass" (Van oude mensen, de dingen die voorbij gaan, 1906) is a well-known example of an older Indies narrative. Maria Dermoût is known as a nostalgic Indies writer. Marion Bloem's postmemory work evolves around an artistic exploration of Indo identity and culture, which puts her in the tradition of Tjalie Robinson.


title: Indo people

text: Eurasians were officially part of the European legal class. They were formally considered to be Dutch and held Dutch passports.


title: Indo people

text: Notwithstanding the fact that Indos in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies were officially part of the European legal class and were formally considered to be Dutch nationals, the Dutch government always practiced an official policy of discouragement with regard to the post-WWII repatriation of Indos to the Netherlands. While Dutch policy was in fact aimed at stimulating Indos to give up Dutch citizenship and opt for Indonesian citizenship, simultaneously the young Indonesian Republic implemented policies increasingly intolerant towards anything remotely reminiscent of Dutch influence. Even though actual aggression against Indos decreased after the extreme violence of the Bersiap period, all Dutch (language) institutions, schools and businesses were gradually eliminated and public discrimination and racism against Indos in the Indonesian job market continued. In the end 98% of the original community moved to Europe.


title: Indo people

text: In the Netherlands, the first generation immigrants quickly adapted to the host society's culture and at least outwardly adopted its customs. Exactly as was the case in the old colony the necessity to blend in with dominant Dutch culture remained paramount for social and professional advancement.


title: Indo people

text: Unlike in the Dutch East Indies, pressure to assimilate invaded even the intimacy of the private household. On a regular basis, Indos who were lodged in guest houses were carefully screened by social workers for so–called 'oriental practices', including the private use of any language other than Dutch, the home preparation of Indonesian food, wearing clothing from the Indies, using water for hygiene in the toilet and even the practice of taking daily baths.


title: Indo people

text: Dutch society does not impose a compulsory ethnic identity on "Dutch Eurasians" because no community exists. Although third- and fourth-generation Indos are part of a fairly large minority community in the Netherlands, the path of assimilation ventured by their parents and grandparents has left them with little knowledge of their actual roots and history, even to the point that they find it hard to recognise their own cultural features. Some Indos find it hard to grasp the concept of their Eurasian identity and tend to either disregard their Indonesian roots or attempt to profile themselves as Indonesian. In recent years the reinvigorated search for roots and identity has also produced several academic studies.


title: Indo people

text: In her master thesis published in 2010, Dutch scholar Nora Iburg argues that for third-generation descendants of Indos in the Netherlands there is no need to define the essence of a common Indo group identity and concludes that for them there is in fact no true essence of Indo identity except for its hybrid nature.


title: Indo people

text: During colonial times Indos were not always formally recognized and registered as Europeans. A considerable number of Indos integrated into their respective local indigenous societies and have never been officially registered as either European or Eurasian sub-group. The exact numbers are unknown.


title: Indo people

text: In Malang the Indo upper class is clustered in particular neighbourhoods and Sunday ceremony in the Sion Church is still in Dutch. In Bandung over 2000 poor Indos are supported by overseas organisations such as Halin and the Alan Neys Memorial Fund. In Jakarta, some services in Immanuel Church are still in Dutch. Cities like Semarang, Surabaya, Magelang and Sukabumi still have significant communities.


title: Indo people

text: Another place with a relatively large Dutch-speaking Indo community is Depok, on Java. Smaller communities still exist in places such as Kampung Tugu in Koja, Jakarta. Recently after the Aceh region in Sumatra became more widely accessible, following post-tsunami relief work, the media also discovered a closed Indo Eurasian community of devout Muslims in the Lamno area, mostly of Portuguese origin.


title: Indo people

text: During the Suharto era, like the Chinese minority in Indonesia also most Indos have changed their family names to blend into the Pribumi-dominated society and prevent discrimination. The latest trend among Indo-Chinese and Indo-Europeans is to change them back.


title: Channel Orange

text: Channel Orange (stylized as channel ORANGE) is the debut studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Frank Ocean. It was released on July 10, 2012, by Def Jam Recordings. After releasing his mixtape "Nostalgia, Ultra" the previous year, Ocean began writing new songs with Malay, a producer and songwriter who then assisted him with recording "Channel Orange" at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. Rather than rely on samples as he had with his mixtape, Ocean wanted to approach sound and song structure differently on the album. Other producers who worked on the album included Om'Mas Keith and Pharrell Williams. Its recording also featured guest appearances from Odd Future rappers Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator, vocalist/songwriter André 3000, and guitarist John Mayer.


title: Channel Orange

text: Noted by writers as musically unconventional, "Channel Orange" draws on electro-funk, pop-soul, jazz-funk, and psychedelic styles, as well as nonmusical sounds such as film dialogue and ambient noise that function as interludes. Vocally, Ocean uses a free-form flow as well as alternating falsetto and tenor registers throughout the album. His songwriting explores themes of unrequited love, decadence, social class, and drugs through the use of surrealistic imagery, conversational devices, and descriptive narratives depicting dark characters. He titled the album as a reference to the neurological phenomenon grapheme–color synesthesia, through which he had perceived the color orange during the summer he first fell in love.


title: Channel Orange

text: To prevent "Channel Orange" from leaking onto the Internet, Ocean and Def Jam released the album digitally one week earlier than its publicly announced date. It was promoted with five singles, including Ocean's highest charting single "Thinkin Bout You" (number 32 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100) and a supporting concert tour in July 2012. "Channel Orange" debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 and sold 131,000 copies in its first week, eventually selling 621,000 copies in the US by September 2014. Critically, it was the best-reviewed album of 2012 and the year's top-ranked album in numerous critics' lists, including the American Pazz & Jop and the British HMV Poll of Polls. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, "Channel Orange" was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Urban Contemporary Album. Since then, it has featured in several professional lists ranking the best albums from the 2010s as well as all time.


title: Channel Orange

text: Frustrated with Def Jam Recordings' inactivity in his recording career, Frank Ocean released his debut mixtape "Nostalgia, Ultra" online for free in February 2011. It showcased the singer's original tracks, repurposed songs by other recording acts, and featured musical and lyrical elements unconventional in R&B. Although it lacked conventional promotion, the mixtape attained a following among listeners and received critical acclaim. Ocean and Def Jam eventually mended their relationship, and while a planned contracted edition of "Nostalgia, Ultra" never materialized, the label released two of its songs as singles, including the "Billboard" charting "Novacane". An agreement was then reached to release a tentative follow-up album for 2012.


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean started writing songs for "Channel Orange" in February 2011 with songwriter and producer Malay, his friend and creative partner since their start in the music industry as songwriters. They originally met in Atlanta and worked for the same publishing company, through which they reconnected after Malay moved to Los Angeles. Ocean spent more time with Malay, introducing him to his Odd Future collective, while connecting creatively through their respective songwriting, which led to their partnership for "Channel Orange". For the album, Ocean wrote his lyrics to complement Malay's ideas for the music. Occasionally, they wrote songs together by improvising musical ideas from Malay's keyboard and guitar playing. "Channel Orange" was written in two weeks, according to the singer.


title: Channel Orange

text: Although Ocean had creative freedom for both projects, he felt more confident as a songwriter for "Channel Orange" and typed his lyrics on a laptop rather than composing in his head as he had done for "Nostalgia, Ultra". Since transitioning from writing for other artists, he had been influenced by his "gloriously painful love life" when writing songs. For his lyrics, Ocean used both his past personal experiences and imagination to compose narratives for songs. He was inspired to write the song "Crack Rock" by stories he heard sitting in on Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous groups mentored by his grandfather, who also dealt with substance abuse in his youth. In an interview for "The Guardian", Ocean expressed uncertainty about his penchant for darker subject matter, but speculated that "those were the colours I had to work with on those days. ... I mean, 'experience' is an interesting word. I just bear witness."


title: Channel Orange

text: In June 2012, news outlets and music journalists from pre-release listening events for "Channel Orange" raised questions about certain songs' lyrics and Ocean's sexuality. The lyrics addressed a male object of love and deviated from the heterosexual perspective of his past songs. Scrapping his original plan of including it in the album's liner notes, Ocean published a TextEdit file as an open letter through his Tumblr blog on July 4. Originally written in December 2011, it recounted his unrequited feelings for a man when he was 19 years old, citing the experience as his first love. Ocean's disclosure was received with support from Def Jam and praise from other recording artists and cultural commentators. He also remarked on writing "Channel Orange" after years of emotional struggle with the experience, stating in the letter, "I wrote to keep myself busy and sane. I wanted to create worlds that were rosier than mine. I tried to channel overwhelming emotions."


title: Channel Orange

text: During their writing sessions, Malay noticed Ocean's use of gender pronouns in his lyrics, but attributed it to Ocean's poetic license rather than his sexuality. In an interview after Ocean's open letter, Malay called him "the new hybrid of what an MC used to be in the '80s or '90s ... the true storyteller" and said of the lyrics, "I don't think anyone during any given point during the creative process knew what was happening ... when he's singing maybe from a female perspective or whatever, it's a story, it's a world that he created. It's not necessarily his personal—like something that he's experiencing. Maybe it is and it's a metaphor the way he did it". They finished writing "Channel Orange" in two to three months. Ocean said of the album's development in an interview for "Rap-Up", "It succinctly defines me as an artist for where I am right now and that was the aim. It's about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story and all kinds of sonic goodness."


title: Channel Orange

text: Once the songs were written, Ocean ordered them into what ultimately became the album's track listing and began recording them in that order. He recorded most of the album at EastWest Studios in Hollywood, near where he was renting a home at the time. The studio complex featured recording equipment from the 1960s. Other recording locations included Henson Recording Studios and the Record Plant in Hollywood, Westlake Recording Studios and Studio for the Talented and Gifted in Los Angeles, Manhattan Sound Recording in New York City, and San Ysidro in Beverly Hills. He originally planned to rent recording equipment and the Beverly Hills mansion alone rather than rent a studio for $1,600 a day. He had a maid at the mansion and enjoyed amenities such as a pool and a sauna, but ended up recording only three songs there—"Lost", "Pyramids", and "Analog 2", a collaboration with fellow Odd Future member Tyler, the Creator.


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean recorded his vocals alone for several months, striving intensively for high performance standards, before rejoining Malay for the album's production. Ocean produced most of "Channel Orange" and was assisted by Malay, who also played guitar, bass, keyboards, and brass instruments. He described his own contributions as "behind the scenes" to Ocean's "diligent" work ethic. Ocean wanted to experiment sonically and approach song structure differently than he had before. For inspiration, he and Malay listened to older records to either use as musical references or set a mood at the studio, listening to music by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix. They also put up posters of Pink Floyd and Bruce Lee, and projected inaudible old movies in the studio's background.


title: Channel Orange

text: Their production also emphasized instrumentation and was a departure for Ocean after "Nostalgia, Ultra"s reliance on samples. In the studio, they reworked the musical ideas from their writing sessions, incorporated live production, and ornamented their songs musically. Ocean enlisted Los Angeles-based producer Om'Mas Keith to help him rework the songs. They added live drums to "Crack Rock", "Monks", and "Sweet Life", which was originally produced as a digital track. Originally written by Ocean for singer Bridget Kelly, "Thinkin Bout You" had been recorded as an early take by him and posted on his Tumblr account in July. Ocean and Malay's final mix of the song for the album added a strings intro. For "Bad Religion", engineer Jeff Ellis tried to compensate for the few string players they had by arranging seating for a large string section in EastWest's Studio 1 and using a pair of old stereo ribbon microphones to capture the sound. They sat players in different seats each time they played along with the track in order to mix all of the takes together and give the impression of a larger ensemble.


title: Channel Orange

text: In the wake of "Nostalgia, Ultra", other artists took interest in Ocean and contacted him about working together, leading to collaborations on "Channel Orange". He previewed songs at different stages of completion to get feedback from guest artists, some of whom he cited as his "creative heroes", including record producer Pharrell Williams, who co-wrote and co-produced "Sweet Life" with Ocean. Ocean and Malay previewed songs to rock musician John Mayer, which inspired his guitar playing for both "Pyramids" and "White". For the latter track, they used the instrumental of the song of the same name from Odd Future's 2012 album "The OF Tape Vol. 2", recorded atmospheric instrumentation by Mayer and other musicians, and tracked it to the original instrumental.


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean reached out to rappers André 3000 and Big Boi of hip hop duo Outkast to appear on "Pink Matter". However, André 3000 did not want to reunite with Big Boi as a duo on another artist's album. The former ended up rapping alone and playing guitar on the song. Ocean told him to tell any kind of story with his verse for "Pink Matter". As André 3000 recalled, "when I got the track, I just started writing to it and I was just, I'm just happy to be a part of that whole movement and his whole movement because he has become a whole 'nother kind of icon in today's age."


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean and Malay mixed "Channel Orange" at Studio for the Talented and Gifted, and engineer Spike Stent mixed parts of the album at The Mix Suite in Los Angeles. It was mastered by Vlado Meller at Masterdisk in New York City. Malay said that he and Ocean focused on sonic "intricacies" such as interludes and skits on tracks when mixing the album, which he referred to as their "art project". Ocean said that he admires "the anonymity that directors can have about their films" and explained his use of interludes on the album, saying that "the work is the work. The work is not me ... Even though it's my voice, I'm a storyteller."


title: Channel Orange

text: According to music journalists, "Channel Orange" has an unconventional musical style, with influences from psychedelic, pop-soul, jazz-funk, and electro-funk genres. "HipHopDX" categorized it as an alternative R&B album, while Evan Rytlewski from "The A.V. Club" called it a neo soul record and "Time Out New York"s Hank Shteamer described it as progressive soul. Sputnikmusic's Sobhi Youssef remarked that, although its production "pull[s] from a spectrum of popular modern and classic influences", they are used "within the 'constraints' of R&B without any singular genre taking over the record." Songs on the album are characterized by electronic keyboard, muted percussion, fluctuating backing tracks, shifting synthesizers, vamps, vibrant guitar, and hazy electronic effects such as dub reverb. "Tiny Mix Tapes" wrote that first half's "spacious" production recalls the "electric soul influence" of Shuggie Otis, while Jody Rosen observed "chord changes straight out of [Stevie] Wonder's "Innervisions", airy vamps that nod to [Marvin] Gaye's "Here, My Dear", [and] snarling guitars that recall Prince's "Purple Rain"". Chris Richards of "The Washington Post" compared its melodic sensibilities to those of Gaye and Wonder, and its loose song structures to those of D'Angelo, Maxwell, and Erykah Badu. "Time" magazine's Melissa Locker noted melodramatic elements such as "haunting melodies" similar to The-Dream's 2007 album "Love/Hate".


title: Channel Orange

text: Less melodic and hook-oriented than "Nostalgia, Ultra", "Channel Orange" features subtle melodies and articulation, spatial arrangements, and mid-tempo drum beats, although the more ruminative songs feature slower tempos. Robert Christgau asserted that, without its predecessor's reliance on samples, "Ocean resists making a show of himself—resists the dope hook, the smart tempo, the transcendent falsetto itself." Ocean, a baritone, sings with casually expressive vocals, free-form flow, conversational crooning, and alternating falsetto and tenor registers.


title: Channel Orange

text: Similar to "Nostalgia, Ultra", "Channel Orange" has interludes that feature sounds of organs, waves, tape decks, car doors, channel surfing, white noise, and dialogue. They exhibit an analog sound quality, and some end abruptly. Writers interpret them to represent the limited attention span of listeners, moments in Ocean's life, the distortion inside his mind, nostalgic ephemera, or a synesthesia-inspired theme. Jesse Cataldo of "Slant Magazine" viewed that the segues, along with the other songs' disparate lengths, give the album the feel of a mixtape. According to Hayley Louise Brown from "Clash", the songs are "interwoven by the ambient noise of middle America – video games, TV commercials, aeroplanes and car doors".


title: Channel Orange

text: "Channel Orange" has themes of unrequited love, sex, and existential longing. Allusions to Ocean's own experience with unrequited love are featured in several songs, including "Thinkin Bout You", "Bad Religion", and "Forrest Gump". Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" found the album to be "rife with the sting of unrequited love, both on the receiving and inflicting ends", with "lovers who tantalize but remain at arm's length." Ryan Dombal from "Pitchfork" said Ocean exhibits "a timeless philosophy ... one of hard-won acceptance and the acknowledgement that love and sex and loss will always draw legends to them." The album also explores decadence, the trappings of class disparity, drug dependency, and the tension between spirituality and secularity, a prevalent theme in soul music. Music journalist Sasha Frere-Jones noted "a combination of decadence and spiritual ache similar to Prince's". Greg Kot wrote that Ocean presents "a dialogue between his self-gratifying lust and more selfless conscience", with Prince-like "psychedelic-gospel inflections" and Marvin Gaye-like overdubbing of Ocean's vocals, which give the impression of voices in conversation with one another. Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" viewed that Ocean examines love in the context of money, drugs, and sex.


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean's songwriting uses descriptive narratives, dense metre, surrealistic imagery, empathic sentiments, deadpan humor, overt metaphors, and conversational devices. John Calvert of "The Quietus" wrote that his lyrics treat love as "innocent", and feature "flying-as-love" metaphors and "respectful euphemisms" for sex such as a flight on a "fighter jet". Embling of "Tiny Mix Tapes" regarded "Channel Orange" as a "songwriter's album" and views that, although "the emotions, mood, and melodies are broad enough to draw listeners in", Ocean's lyrics are "apocryphal, allowing for personal interpretations". Ocean's narratives generally depict dark, broken characters, and a Southern California setting, with references to its sunny, coastal environment in both the lyrics and melodies. Randall Roberts of the "Los Angeles Times" categorized "Channel Orange" as a concept album about "the twentysomething experience in Los Angeles", while Greg Kot interpreted the California setting to be "a state of mind in Ocean['s] world: numb, deceptively luxurious and self-satisfied, where the denizens live disconnected from one another and the world."


title: Channel Orange

text: The opening track "Start" is a snippet of ambient sounds, bits of silence, and flickers of noise, including a PlayStation booting up. The low-key torch song "Thinkin Bout You" features soothing synth cycles, sparse keyboards, muffled electronic percussion, and lyrics addressing a lover with white lies in the verses and thoughts of eternal love in the chorus. "Fertilizer" is based on James Fauntleroy's 2010 song of the same name, repurposed on the album as an AM radio jingle and interlude about "bullshit". "Sierra Leone" incorporates chillwave and quiet storm styles, wind chime sounds, lo-fi beats, and polyphony similar to Prince's 1985 song "Paisley Park". Its lyrics address sex, conception, early parenthood, and childhood dreams. It recounts the narrator's lust for a girl as a teenager, and compares their relationship to the vicissitudes of Sierra Leone such as diamonds and civil war. Ocean's singing exhibits quickly descending chord succession and is overdubbed against his spoken vocals.


title: Channel Orange

text: "Sweet Life" and "Super Rich Kids" depict decadent, alluring rich people, and are tied together by "Not Just Money", a spoken interlude with a woman discussing the importance of money on happiness. "Super Rich Kids" references the thumping piano line of Elton John's 1973 song "Bennie and the Jets" and addresses young, wealthy characters' ennui and fears of the financial crisis with dry humor. "Pilot Jones" employs magic realism and escapist imagery, and depicts an emotional dependency between drug addicts, who confuse friendship with sexual love in their support of each other. The swooning song contains hazy electronic blips, impressionistic textures, experimental beat patterns, refracted sound effects, and vocal improvisation expressing the narrator's "high". "Crack Rock" depicts a crack addict, likens love to the highs and lows of drug use, and broadly addresses corruption, broken homes, gun violence, and government indifference to rising crack-related deaths. It has fleeting multi-tracked harmonies, a non-sequitur chorus, and Ocean's occasionally fractured breathiness conveying an addict's voice.


title: Channel Orange

text: "Pyramids" is cited by writers as the album's centerpiece. Brice Ezell from "PopMatters" wrote that it denotes "the vital midpoint of the overarching narrative", where "the wittier tone of the record's front half gives way to an emotionally dense second half." Veering from synth-funk to slow jam styles, the song has a lyrical conceit that uses Ancient Egyptian and Biblical imagery, and contrasts the legendary fall of Cleopatra with the circumstances of a latter-day working girl, who dances at a strip club called the Pyramid to support her man's gaudy aspirations. The new wave-styled "Lost" is about a perplexed addict, who hopes for a better life for him and his drug-cooking girlfriend. "Monks", a funk rock song, is about finding nirvana and deals with topics such as casual sex and devout religion in a narrative that shifts from an exciting concert to a metaphorical jungle. "Bad Religion" features melodramatic, orchestral music and a series of figures, including strings, handclaps, marching band snare drums, and mournful organ chords. The lyrics follow an emotional confession to a taxi driver by a narrator brooding over a secretive intimate relationship. Music journalist Alexis Petridis asserted that the song "repurpos[es] the battle between religion and lust that's been at the heart of soul music since it ceded from gospel".


title: Channel Orange

text: "Pink Matter" is a bluesy lament with themes of sex and betrayal, as its narrator struggles between pleasure and universal meaning. Its lyrics allude to philosophical conundrums, extraterrestrial life, Japanese manga comics, and cotton candy. The playful "Forrest Gump" likens the titular film character to an adolescent crush, with homoerotic, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and allusions to scenes in the film. It has a bright, Motown-inspired chorus, a simple rhythmic cadence, gently strummed guitar, wistful vocals, and a perkily whistled coda. The skit "End" depicts an exchange between Ocean and a woman as they make love in the backseat of a car with his 2012 song "Voodoo" playing over the stereo. She says to him, "You're special. I wish you could see what I see", repurposing a line from the 2006 film "ATL", and Ocean leaves the car in response, walks home through the rain, and sets his keys down with a sigh. The lighthearted, lovelorn "Golden Girl" has up-tempo synths, gradual fades, and Tyler, The Creator rapping in a low-pitched, demonic voice. It is about a girl that provides salvation and peace of mind for the narrator, who likens her to an island.


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean titled the album in reference to his experience with grapheme–color synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which an individual's perception of numbers and letters is associated with the experience of colors. He discussed the phenomenon with Pharrell Williams, who had also experienced it and similarly referenced it for the title of his side project N.E.R.D.'s 2008 album "Seeing Sounds". The title also alludes to the first time that Ocean fell in love, as it was summer and he perceived everything to be orange. Ocean's mother called it "a perfect summertime album" after attending a listening session.


title: Channel Orange

text: According to Malay, Kanye West helped Ocean during the album's final stages by providing "a mentorship situation" and connecting him with his "visual people". Malay recalled how he and Ocean were "somewhat oblivious to how quickly everything happened" and Ocean's name "continuing to get bigger and bigger" as they completed the album. To downplay himself from being "the focal point" of the album, Ocean did not want his name on the cover and had Everest, his Bernese Mountain Dog, credited as the executive producer instead.


title: Channel Orange

text: The album artwork was designed by Thomas Mastorakos, Aaron Martinez, and Phil Toselli, with photography by Dave Eggar. The front cover features an orange background superimposed by the title – "channel" rendered in lower-case Cooper Black font and "orange" rendered in all upper-case Sans-serif, with the former overlaid by an image of colored spots from a camera flash. The cover was revealed on June 23, 2012, via online media outlets. In November 2013, it was ranked at number nine on "Complex" magazine's list of "The 50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years", with contributing journalist Dale Eisinger writing in an accompanying essay: "Ocean took a simple route with the cover … Employing the classic Cooper Black font — a staple of his Odd Future crew and hip-hop history, alike — next to a more modern, Sans-Serif font shows just how smart this dude is, looking back to the past, while clearly aware of his surroundings."


title: Channel Orange

text: To prevent "Channel Orange" from leaking onto the Internet, Ocean planned to release it digitally one week earlier than its publicly announced date. He was inspired by West and Jay-Z, who prevented their 2011 album "Watch the Throne" from leaking by announcing several misleading release dates. On June 8, Ocean announced a July 17 release date and released a trailer for the album directed by Nabil Elderkin. On July 9, he made his television debut on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and performed "Bad Religion" with backing from the show's house band The Roots and a strings section. The show announced the album's actual release date and vendor, Universal Music Group, who made it available on July 10 as a digital download on iTunes. Ocean said at the time, "I haven't even held one in my hands ... The [CDs] are done, but when we sent them in, they were locked down at the manufacturer. They haven't left. They never went on trucks [to stores] because that's where things leak."


title: Channel Orange

text: "Channel Orange" was sold exclusively through iTunes until July 17, when it was released to other digital retailers. Although its wide physical release was scheduled for July 17, Universal encouraged physical retailers to start selling it immediately after they receive shipments of the album. Retail company Target did not approve of its early release to iTunes and chose not to stock the album. Ocean's manager Christian Clancy responded in a message on Twitter that he found it "interesting" that Target "also donates to non-equal rights organizations", suggesting their decision was influenced by Ocean's coming out. Target representatives dismissed Clancy's claims as "absolutely false" in a subsequent statement to MTV News, saying that the company "supports inclusivity and diversity in every aspect of our business. Our assortment decisions are based on a number of factors, including guest demand."


title: Channel Orange

text: In its first week of release, "Channel Orange" sold 131,000 copies and debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 on July 18, 2012. The majority of its first-week sales were digital copies from iTunes, while approximately 3,000 of the sales were physical copies. Digital copies sold for $2.99 at Amazon were excluded from Nielsen SoundScan's sales data, as "Billboard"s chart policy disqualified albums sold for less than $3.49 from charting. The album sold 54,000 copies in its second week, excluding discounted copies sold by Amazon.com, which "Billboard" estimated to be approximately 15,000 copies. "Channel Orange" also debuted at number two on the British albums chart with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. It was the first album to chart within the top 20 in the United Kingdom solely on digital sales. In Canada, the album debuted at number three on first-week sales of 6,700 copies.


title: Channel Orange

text: Five singles were released from the album—"Thinkin Bout You" on April 17, 2012, "Pyramids" on June 8, "Sweet Life" on July 6, "Lost" on December 17, and "Super Rich Kids" on March 17, 2013. "Thinkin Bout You" became Ocean's highest charting single in the US, peaking at number 32 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Ocean performed the song on the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards on September 6, 2012. and the following week, "Channel Orange" sold almost 14,000 more copies. Ocean also performed "Thinkin Bout You" and "Pyramids" on "Saturday Night Live" on September 15, the latter of which featured John Mayer on guitar. By September 2016, the album had sold 686,000 copies in United States.


title: Channel Orange

text: Ocean embarked on a 14-date North American tour in July 2012 supporting the album. Announced on June 8, the tour had sold out by July 9. On its number of shows, Ocean explained that he wanted to provide quality over quantity and said that "it's not about let's do a million things right now. It's about let's just do our best to do the best things right now." Malay joined him as the tour's musical director and said that it would expand on the production of Ocean's previous concerts for "Nostalgia, Ultra". Their stage setup featured a guitarist, bassist, drummer, two pianos, and a DJ setup behind television monitor props, which showed ever-changing images.


title: Channel Orange

text: Along with songs from "Nostalgia, Ultra" and "Channel Orange", Ocean performed "Made in America", his unreleased songs "Summer Remains" and "Voodoo", and covers of Prince's "When You Were Mine" (1980), Beyoncé's "I Miss You" (2011), and Sade's "By Your Side" (2000). Reviewers of the shows noted Ocean's low-key stage presence and observed crowd screams and audience members singing-along to songs. After his performance at the in Washington, D.C., Ocean reflected on the tour and wrote on his Twitter account, "This tourlife takes some getting used to. I get to zone out and be someones hero or deviant fantasy or whatever for and some change every night though. That's special, and the women still scream in the front row." Ocean cancelled his tour-closing show at Saint Andrew's Hall in Detroit on August 1 due to illness.


title: Channel Orange

text: After the tour, Ocean was slated to perform at several music festivals, including Lollapalooza, where he headlined the second day of the festival. During an August performance at Øyafestivalen in Norway, Ocean lost his voice and ended his set early. He later withdrew from his European tour dates altogether, including English rock band Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto Tour, on which he would have been the opening act during the tour's European leg in August and September. Although he did not specify his reason, Ocean issued a statement to organizers of the Way Out West Festival in Sweden, saying that "Let me start by saying I feel like an asshole right now, but a tough decision had to be made in regard to my schedule over the next months ... Sorry as fuck, I'll be back if you'll have me." He returned to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in New York City on September 21.


title: Channel Orange

text: "Channel Orange" was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 92, based on 46 reviews. According to the website's editor Jason Dietz, it was the "best-reviewed major album" of 2012, as well as "one of the best-reviewed albums of the past decade". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.9 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Channel Orange

text: Reviewing in July 2012 for "The Daily Telegraph", Neil McCormick said Ocean has drawn on a variety of musical ideas and pushed the boundaries of the electronic, beat-driven sounds currently dominating popular music. He summarized "Channel Orange" as "accessible enough for broad popularity yet operating in a pioneering realm closer to the avant-garde." The album was called "an expansive, slow-burning classic that repays patience and close attention" by Killian Fox in "The Observer", while "musicOMH" critic Laurence Green described the music as "a cherry-picking of life's cacophony repainted into the most enchanting of collages". "Slant Magazine"s Jesse Cataldo hailed it as a "mosaic work ... so textured, complex, and mature that Ocean's recent coming out feels like a footnote". For AllMusic, Andy Kellman wrote that Ocean's "descriptive and subtle storytelling is taken to a higher level" than on "Nostalgia, Ultra", while Mike Powell from "Spin" considered his tempered singing to be a sign of "exceptional wisdom and repose". Fellow "Spin" writer Barry Walters identified the album as a key release of alternative R&B, alongside others by contemporaries Drake, the Weeknd, and Miguel, while adding that "Ocean's singer-songwriter candor combined with arrangements that stretch from EDM to prog-rock and progressive soul could be the tipping point for a type of rock/R&B crossover that's taken place under different labels since Jimi Hendrix got Experienced." "State" journalist Fintan Walsh said Ocean's lyrics capture "the modern youth" just as Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds" album had in 1966, calling "Channel Orange" "a masterful, dynamic and evocative collection of conversations between his inner-self and the listener".


title: Channel Orange

text: Some reviewers were more qualified in their praise. In "Rolling Stone", Jody Rosen preferred the album's more structured songs and argued that Ocean sometimes seems to be "less a songwriter than a purveyor of formless grooves". Priya Elan of "NME" said the "inventive and spirited" album's music occasionally sounds overindulgent. Writing for "MSN Music", Robert Christgau believed Ocean's musical compositions are more consistent here than on "Nostalgia, Ultra" but questioned the singer's topical fascinations with the "haut-monde demimonde", finding the lyrics less relatable and interesting.


title: Channel Orange

text: At the end of 2012, "Channel Orange" was named the year's best album by numerous publications, including the "Chicago Sun-Times", "Chicago Tribune", "Billboard", "Entertainment Weekly", "The Guardian", the "Los Angeles Times", "The Sydney Morning Herald", "Now", "Paste", "PopMatters", "Slant Magazine", "Spin", and "The Washington Post". It was named "Album of the Year" in HMV's Poll of Polls, an annual survey of British journalists from national print and online publications. It was also voted the best album of 2012 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by "The Village Voice". In an essay for the poll, the newspaper's Eric Sundermann deemed the victory unsurprising as Ocean "dominated most music discussions this past year" and had an equalizing effect on listeners of all music genres. Overall, it was the "top-ranked" album in year-end lists, according to Metacritic.


title: Channel Orange

text: "Channel Orange" also earned Ocean several industry awards. It won him the Album of the Year award at the 2012 Soul Train Music Awards and Outstanding Music Artist at the 2013 GLAAD Media Awards. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, it garnered the singer nominations for Album of the Year, Best New Artist, and Record of the Year (for "Thinkin Bout You"), winning for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Ocean agreed to perform at the awards show only if they let him play the song he wanted, "Forrest Gump".


title: Channel Orange

text: Since then, "Channel Orange" has appeared on several decade-end and all-time critics' lists. In 2013, it was ranked 147th on "NME"s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The following year, it was included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In 2019, "The Guardian" ranked it 12th in a list of the 100 best albums from the 21st century, while on rankings of the 2010s' top albums, "Uproxx" placed it 13th and "Pitchfork" placed it 10th. According to Acclaimed Music, based on such lists, "Channel Orange" is the third most acclaimed album of the 2010s and the 66th most acclaimed album in history. In 2020, "Rolling Stone" ranked the album at number 148 on the magazine's revision to the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Two years later, they also ranked it at number 13 on their 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time list.


title: Channel Orange

text: Credits are adapted from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Tidal.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The parables of Jesus are found in the Synoptic Gospels and some of the non-canonical gospels. They form approximately one third of his recorded teachings. Christians place great emphasis on these parables, which they generally regard as the words of Jesus.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Jesus's parables are seemingly simple and memorable stories, often with imagery, and all teach a lesson in our daily lives. Scholars have commented that although these parables seem simple, the messages they convey are deep, and central to the teachings of Jesus. Christian authors view them not as mere similitudes that serve the purpose of illustration, but as internal analogies in which nature becomes a witness for the spiritual world.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Many of Jesus's parables refer to simple everyday things, such as a woman baking bread (the parable of the Leaven), a man knocking on his neighbor's door at night (the parable of the Friend at Night), or the aftermath of a roadside mugging (the parable of the Good Samaritan); yet they deal with major religious themes, such as the growth of the Kingdom of God, the importance of prayer, and the meaning of love.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: In Western civilization, these parables formed the prototype for the term "parable" and in the modern age, even among those who know little of the Bible, the parables of Jesus remain some of the best-known stories in the world.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: As a translation of the Hebrew word מָשָׁל "mashal", the word "parable" can also refer to a riddle. In all times in their history the Jews were familiar with teaching by means of parables and a number of parables also exist in the Old Testament. The use of parables by Jesus was hence a natural teaching method that fit into the tradition of his time. The parables of Jesus have been quoted, taught, and discussed since the very beginnings of Christianity.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Parables are one of the many literary forms in the Bible, but are especially seen in the gospels of the New Testament. Parables are generally considered to be short stories such as the Good Samaritan, and are differentiated from metaphorical statements such as, "You are the salt of the earth." A true parable may be regarded as an extended simile. Adolf Jülicher viewed parables as extended metaphors with a picture part ("Bildhälfte"), a reality part ("Sachhälfte"), and a point of comparison (tertium comparationis) between the picture part and the reality part. For example, the following parable in Luke 7:31–32 illustrates Jülicher's approach to parables:


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Although some suggest parables are essentially extended allegories, others emphatically argue the opposite. Dr. Kenneth Boa states that "Parables are extended figures of comparison that often use short stories to teach a truth or answer a question. While the story in a parable is not historical, it is true to life, not a fairy tale. As a form of oral literature, the parable exploits realistic situations but makes effective use of the imagination... Some of the parables [of Christ] were designed to reveal mysteries to those on the inside and to conceal the truth to those on the outside who would not hear."


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The three synoptic gospels contain the parables of Jesus. There are a growing number of scholars who also find parables in the Gospel of John, such as the little stories of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1–5) or the childbearing woman (John 16:21). Otherwise, John includes allegories but no parables. Several authors such as Barbara Reid, Arland Hultgren or Donald Griggs comment that "parables are noticeably absent from the Gospel of John".


title: Parables of Jesus

text: William Barry states in the "Catholic Encyclopedia" (1913) "There are no parables in St. John's Gospel. In the Synoptics ... we reckon thirty-three in all; but some have raised the number even to sixty, by including proverbial expressions". The Gospel of Luke contains both the largest total number of parables (24) and eighteen unique parables; the Gospel of Matthew contains 23 parables of which eleven are unique; and the Gospel of Mark contains eight parables of which two are unique.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: In "Harmony of the Gospels", Cox and Easley provide a Gospel harmony for the parables based on the following counts: Only in Matthew: 11, only in Mark: 2, only in Luke: 18, Matthew and Luke: 4, Matthew, Mark and Luke: 6. They list no parables for the Gospel of John.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Parables attributed to Jesus are also found in other documents apart from the Bible. Some of these overlap those in the canonical gospels and some are not part of the Bible. The non-canonical Gospel of Thomas contains up to fifteen parables, eleven of which have parallels in the four canonical Gospels. The unknown author of the Gospel of Thomas did not have a special word for "parable", making it difficult to know what he considered a parable. Those unique to Thomas include the Parable of the Assassin and the Parable of the Empty Jar.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The noncanonical Apocryphon of James also contains three unique parables attributed to Jesus. They are known as "The Parable of the Ear of Grain", "The Parable of the Grain of Wheat", and "The Parable of the Date-Palm Shoot".


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The hypothetical Q document is seen as a source for some of the parables in Matthew, Luke, and Thomas.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: While and may suggest that Jesus would only speak to the "crowds" in parables, while in private explaining everything to his disciples, modern scholars do not support the private explanations argument and surmise that Jesus used parables as a teaching method. Dwight Pentecost suggests that given that Jesus often preached to a mixed audience of believers and non-believers, he used parables to reveal the truth to some, but hide it from others.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The Anglican bishop of Montreal, Ashton Oxenden, suggests that Jesus constructed his parables based on his divine knowledge of how man can be taught:


title: Parables of Jesus

text: In the 19th century, Lisco and Fairbairn stated that in the parables of Jesus, "the image borrowed from the visible world is accompanied by a truth from the invisible (spiritual) world" and that the parables of Jesus are not "mere similitudes which serve the purpose of illustration, but are internal analogies where nature becomes a witness for the spiritual world".


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Similarly, in the 20th century, calling a parable "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning", William Barclay states that the parables of Jesus use familiar examples to lead men's minds towards heavenly concepts. He suggests that Jesus did not form his parables merely as analogies but based on an "inward affinity between the natural and the spiritual order."


title: Parables of Jesus

text: A number of parables that are adjacent in one or more gospels have similar themes. The parable of the Leaven follows the parable of the Mustard Seed in Matthew and Luke, and shares the theme of the Kingdom of Heaven growing from small beginnings. The parable of the Hidden Treasure and parable of the Pearl form a pair illustrating the great value of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the need for action in attaining it.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The parables of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost (Prodigal) Son form a trio in Luke dealing with loss and redemption.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: The parable of the Faithful Servant and parable of the Ten Virgins, adjacent in Matthew, involve waiting for a bridegroom, and have an eschatological theme: be prepared for the day of reckoning. The parable of the Tares the parable of the Rich Fool, the parable of the budding fig tree, and the parable of the barren fig tree also have eschatological themes.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Other parables stand alone, such as the parable of the unforgiving servant, dealing with forgiveness; the parable of the Good Samaritan, dealing with practical love; and the parable of the Friend at Night, dealing with persistence in prayer.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Of the thirty or so parables in the canonical Gospels, four were shown in medieval art almost to the exclusion of the others, but not mixed in with the narrative scenes of the "Life of Christ". These were: the Ten Virgins, the Rich man and Lazarus, the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. Artists famous for depicting parables include Martin Schongauer, Pieter the Elder Bruegal and Albrecht Dürer. The Workers in the Vineyard also appears in Early Medieval works. From the Renaissance the numbers shown widened slightly, and the various scenes of the Prodigal Son became the clear favorite, with the Good Samaritan also popular. Albrecht Dürer made a famous engraving of the "Prodigal Son" amongst the pigs (1496), a popular subject in the Northern Renaissance, and Rembrandt depicted the story several times, although at least one of his works, "The Prodigal Son in the Tavern", a portrait of himself as the Son, revelling with his wife, is like many artists' depictions, a way of dignifying a genre tavern scene. His late "The Return of the Prodigal Son" (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) is one of his most popular works. In 1857 the Brothers Dalziel commissioned John Everett Millais to illustrate the parables, and this work was published in 1864 in London.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: As well as being depicted in art and discussed in prose, a number of parables form the inspiration for religious poetry and hymns. For example, the hymn "The Ninety and Nine" by Elizabeth C. Clephane (1868) is inspired by the parable of the Lost Sheep:


title: Parables of Jesus

text: Similarly, "My Hope Is Built" (Edward Mote, c. 1834) is inspired by the parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders, and "How Kind the Good Samaritan" (John Newton, c. 1779) is inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: A sample Gospel harmony for the parables based on the list of key episodes in the Canonical Gospels is presented in the table below. For the sake of consistency, this table is automatically sub-selected from the main harmony table in the Gospel harmony article, based on the list of key episodes in the Canonical Gospels. Usually, no parables are associated with the Gospel of John, just allegories.


title: Parables of Jesus

text: A number of parables have parallels in non-canonical gospels, the Didache, and the letters of Apostolic Fathers. However, given that the non-canonical gospels generally have no time sequence, this table is not a Gospel harmony.


title: Joan Chen

text: Joan Chen (born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese-American actress and film director. In China, she performed in the 1979 film and came to the attention of American audiences for her performance in the 1987 film "The Last Emperor". She is also known for her roles in "Twin Peaks", "Red Rose White Rose", "Saving Face", and "The Home Song Stories", and for directing the feature film "".


title: Joan Chen

text: Chen was born in Shanghai, to a family of pharmacologists. She and her older brother, Chase, were raised during the Cultural Revolution. At the age of 14, Chen was discovered on the school rifle range by Jiang Qing, the wife of leader Mao Zedong and major Chinese Communist Party figure, for excelling at marksmanship. This led to her being selected for the Actors' Training Program by the Shanghai Film Studio in 1975, where she was discovered by veteran director Xie Jin who chose her to star in his 1977 film as a deaf mute whose senses are restored by an army medical team. Chen graduated from high school a year in advance, and at the age of 17 entered Shanghai International Studies University, where she majored in English.


title: Joan Chen

text: Chen performed alongside Tang Guoqiang in Zhang Zheng's () in 1979, for which she won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress. Chen portrayed a pre-Maoist revolutionary's daughter, who, reunited with her brother, a wounded Communist soldier, later learned that his doctor was her biological mother. "Little Flower" was her second film and she soon achieved the status of China's most-loved actress; she was dubbed "the Elizabeth Taylor of China" by "Time" magazine for having achieved stardom while still a teenager.


title: Joan Chen

text: In addition, Chen was in the 1979 film . The film directed by Ou Fan () and Xing Jitian () depicts an overseas Chinese family that returns to China from Southeast Asia out of their patriotic feelings but encounter political troubles during the Cultural Revolution. The songs, "I Love You, China" and "High Flies the Petrel" (), sung by Chen's character, are perennial favorites in China. In 1981, Chen starred in "Awakening" (), directed by .


title: Joan Chen

text: At age 20, Chen moved to the United States, where she studied filmmaking at California State University, Northridge.


title: Joan Chen

text: Her first Hollywood movie was "Tai-Pan", filmed on location in China. In 1985 she appeared in the U.S. television show "Miami Vice" as May Ying, former wife of Martin Castillo and husband to Ma Sek in the episode "Golden Triangle (Part II)". She went on to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" in 1987 and the David Lynch/Mark Frost television series "Twin Peaks" as Josie Packard. She starred alongside Rutger Hauer in 1989's "The Blood of Heroes", written and directed by David Webb Peoples. In 1993 she co-starred in Oliver Stone's "Heaven & Earth". She portrayed two different characters in Clara Law's "Temptation of a Monk": a seductive princess of Tang dynasty, and a dangerous temptress. She shaved her head on-screen for the role. The award-winning film was adapted from a novel by Lilian Lee.


title: Joan Chen

text: In 1994 she co-starred with Steven Seagal in the action-adventure "On Deadly Ground"; she returned to Shanghai to star in Stanley Kwan's "Red Rose White Rose" opposite Winston Chao, and subsequently won a Golden Horse Award and a Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award for her performance. In 1996, she was a member of the jury at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Joan Chen

text: Tired of being cast as an exotic beauty in Hollywood films, Chen moved into directing in 1998 with the critically acclaimed "", adapted from the novella "Celestial Bath" () by her friend Yan Geling. She later directed "Autumn in New York", starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder, in 2000.


title: Joan Chen

text: In the middle of the 2000s, Chen made a comeback in acting and began to work intensely, alternating between English and Chinese-language roles.


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2004, she starred in Hou Yong's family saga "Jasmine Women", alongside Zhang Ziyi, in which they played multiple roles as daughters and mothers across three generations in Shanghai. She also starred in the Asian-American comedy "Saving Face" as a widowed mother, who is shunned by the Chinese-American community for being pregnant and unwed and has come to live with her lesbian daughter.


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2005, she appeared in Zhang Yang's family saga "Sunflower", as a mother whose husband and son have a troubled father-son relationship over 30 years. She starred in the Asian American independent film "Americanese" and in Michael Almereyda's "Tonight at Noon", the first part of a two part project, scheduled to be released in 2009.


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2007, Chen was acclaimed for her performance in Tony Ayres' drama "The Home Song Stories". She portrayed a glamorous and unstable Chinese nightclub singer who struggles to survive in 1970s Australia with her two children. The role earned her four awards including the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress and the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress. The same year saw her co-starring in two other acclaimed films: Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution", opposite Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, and Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises", opposite Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, for which she received an Asian Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2008, she starred alongside Sam Chow () in "Shi Qi" (), directed by Joe Chow (), as a rural mother of a 17-year-old in eastern Zhejiang province. The same year Joan Chen portrayed a factory worker in Jia Zhangke's "24 City" once fancied because she resembled Chen herself in the 1979 film "Little Flower", but who missed her chance at love.


title: Joan Chen

text: She co-starred in Bruce Beresford's 2009 adaptation of the autobiography of dancer Li Cunxin, "Mao's Last Dancer", along with Wang Shuangbao () and Kyle MacLachlan.


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2009, Chen starred alongside Feng Yuanzheng and in the Chinese TV series "Newcomers to the Middle-Aged" (), directed by Dou Qi (), in which she played a female doctor facing middle-age problems. She also played the part of goddess Guan Yin in the 2010 Chinese TV adaptation of "Journey to the West", directed by Cheng Lidong ().


title: Joan Chen

text: In October 2009 Joan Chen was the curator of the first Singapore Sun Film Festival, whose theme was "The Art of Living Well". She selected and curated five films for screening during the festival: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", "Dead Man Walking", "Hannah and Her Sisters", "Still Life" and "Edward Scissorhands".


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2010, Chen joined the cast of Leehom Wang's directorial debut "Love in Disguise", Alexi Tan's () "Color Me Love" (; alongside Liu Ye), Ilkka Järvi-Laturi's "Kiss, His First" (alongside Tony Leung Ka-fai and Gwei Lun-mei) and veteran acting coach Larry Moss' "Relative Insanity" (along with Juliette Binoche). In May 2010, she was set to star and direct one of the three parts of the anthology film "Seeing Red".


title: Joan Chen

text: In 2011, she played Secretary Bishop's girlfriend on the television series "Fringe" episode "Immortality". Chen was cast as the Mongol Yuan Dynasty empress Chabi in the 2014 American television series "Marco Polo". Being somewhat unfamiliar with the Mongols, Chen read "The Secret History of the Mongol Queens" in order to prepare for the role. She also appeared in several episodes of the 2018 Chinese television drama "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" as Ula Nara Yixiu (the Empress Xiaojingxian).


title: Joan Chen

text: Chen was formerly married to actor Jim "Jimmy" Lau from 1985 to 1990. Chen married her second husband, cardiologist Peter Hui, on January 18, 1992. They have two daughters. They live in San Francisco, California.


title: Joan Chen

text: During her early years in California, Chen attended California State University, Northridge. In 1989, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. On April 9, 2008, Chen wrote an article entitled "Let the Games Go On" for the "Washington Post" objecting to the politicization of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.


title: Joan Chen

text: In May 2008, Chen appeared alongside James Kyson Lee, Silas Flensted, and Amy Hanaialiʻi Gilliom in a public service announcement for the Banyan Tree Project campaign to stop HIV/AIDS-related stigma in Asian & Pacific Islander communities.


title: Joan Chen

text: In October 2008, Chen made the cover of Trends Health magazine alongside actresses Ke Lan () and Ma Yili () to promote the Chinese Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Prevention campaign.


title: Joan Chen

text: On January 8, 2010, Chen attended, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Nicole Kidman, and Joe Torre, the ceremony to help Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new center located in the Presidio of San Francisco intended to combat violence against women and children. During the ceremony, Chen performed an excerpt from the documentary play "The Thumbprint of Mukhtar Mai" (presented as part of "Seven").


title: Joan Chen

text: On January 15, 2010, Chen was set to appear, along with other Asian American personalities, in a series of videos supporting the Center for the Pacific Asian Family.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Gillingham Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent, England. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, the "Gills" play their home matches at Priestfield Stadium. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system, in the 2022–23 season. Paul Scally has been the club's owner and chairman since 1995.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The club was founded in 1893 as New Brompton Football Club, a name retained until 1912, and played in the Southern League before joining the Football League in 1920. After 18 unsuccessful seasons, Gillingham were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, and returned to the Southern League. The club was voted back into the Football League in 1950, when it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 they narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference. Between 2000 and 2005, Gillingham were in the second tier of the English football league system for the only time in their history, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The club originally played in black and white striped shirts but switched to blue shirts in the 1930s. The club crest has traditionally depicted the white horse symbol of the county of Kent. Priestfield Stadium has been the club's home ground throughout its existence; it once held up to 30,000 fans but in the modern era the capacity is less than half that figure. The club has twice won the championship of English football's fourth tier, in the 1963–64 and 2012–13 seasons, under managers Freddie Cox and Martin Allen respectively.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The local success of a junior football side, Chatham Excelsior F.C., encouraged a group of businessmen to meet with a view to creating a football club which could compete in larger competitions. New Brompton F.C. was formed at the meeting, held on 18 May 1893. The founders also purchased the plot of land which later became Priestfield Stadium. The new club played its first match on 2 September 1893, losing 5–1 to Woolwich Arsenal's reserve side in front of a crowd of 2,000. New Brompton were among the founder members of the Southern League upon its creation in 1894, and were placed in Division Two. They were named Champions in the first season (1894–95) going on to defeat Swindon Town in a test match to win promotion.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: In the seasons that followed, the club struggled in Division One, finishing bottom in the 1907–08 season, avoiding relegation only due to expansion of the league. Whilst the club's league performance was disappointing, the side did manage a famous cup victory over Football League First Division Sunderland and held Manchester City to a draw before losing in the replay. In 1912 the directors passed a resolution to change the club's name to Gillingham F.C., and the team played under this name throughout the 1912–13 season, although the change was not officially ratified by the shareholders until the following year. The team finished bottom of Division One in the 1919–20 season but for a third time avoided relegation, due to the subsequent elevation of all Southern League Division One clubs to form the new Football League Division Three.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: In the first season of the newly created Football League Division Three, the 1920–21 season, Gillingham again finished bottom, and in the years to follow there was little improvement on this, the club continually finishing in the lower reaches of the bottom division. In 1938 the team finished bottom of the Third Division (South) and were required to apply for re-election for the fifth time since joining the league. This bid for re-election failed, with Gillingham returning to the Southern League and Ipswich Town being promoted in their place. Gillingham quickly established themselves as one of the stronger sides in the league, winning a local double of the Kent League and Kent Senior Cup in the 1945–46 season. In the 1946–47 season the team won both the Southern League Cup and the Southern League championship, during which they recorded a club record 12–1 victory over Gloucester City. The Gills also won the league title in 1948–49.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: In 1950, plans were announced to expand the Football League Division Three (South) from 22 to 24 teams and, taking into account their local success in the interim, Gillingham were re-elected to the Football League with a landslide vote. The team spent eight seasons in Division Three (South) before the restructuring of the league system for the 1958–59 season saw them placed in the newly created Fourth Division. They remained in this division until 1964, when manager Freddie Cox led them to promotion, winning the first championship in the club's history. The team finished the season level on 60 points with Carlisle United, but with a fractionally better goal average (1.967 against 1.948).


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: After relegation back to the Fourth Division in 1970–71, the Gills were soon promoted back to the Third Division in the 1973–74 season. After this the club seemed to find its level in Division Three, regularly mounting a challenge for promotion which ultimately fell short each time, coming particularly close to promotion in 1986–87 when they reached the play-offs only to lose in the final to Swindon Town. During this period the club produced future stars Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino, who was famously bought from non-league Crockenhill in exchange for a set of tracksuits.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: In 1987, the Gills hit the headlines when, on consecutive Saturdays, they beat Southend United 8–1 and Chesterfield 10–0, the latter a club record for a Football League match. Just a few months later, however, manager Keith Peacock was controversially sacked, and within 18 months the club had fallen into Division Four. The ensuing spell in the lower division brought little success, and in the 1992–93 Division Three campaign the Gills narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Beset with financial problems, the club went into administration in January 1995, and by the end of the 1994–95 season faced the threat of being expelled from the Football League and closed down. In June 1995, however, a London-based businessman, Paul Scally, stepped in and bought the club. He brought in new manager Tony Pulis, who led Gillingham to promotion in his first season, finishing second in the old Division Three (now Football League Two). In 1999 the Gills made the play-offs but lost in the final to Manchester City. The Gills were 2–0 up with less than two minutes left only to see City score twice, the equaliser in injury time, and go on to win 3–1 in a penalty shoot-out. Soon after the play-off loss, Pulis was sacked for gross misconduct, and Peter Taylor appointed manager. In the 1999–00 season Gillingham qualified for the play-offs again, where they faced Wigan Athletic in the final at Wembley Stadium. The game finished 1–1 after 90 minutes, but, thanks to goals in extra time from substitutes Steve Butler and Andy Thomson, the Gills won 3–2 and were promoted to Division One for the first time.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Taylor then left to manage Leicester City, and Andy Hessenthaler was appointed as player-manager. He led the club to their best ever league finish of eleventh in the 2002–03 season, but the following season saw the club narrowly avoid relegation on goal difference. Hessenthaler resigned as manager in November 2004, and new boss Stan Ternent was unable to prevent the Gills' relegation to League One. At the end of the 2007–08 season the club was relegated again, this time to League Two, but an immediate return to the third level was secured via the play-offs after beating Shrewsbury Town in the final. In the 2009–10 season, however, the Gills slipped into the bottom four on the last day, and were relegated back to League Two, having failed to win a single away game in the league all season. This resulted in manager Mark Stimson having his contract terminated, and Andy Hessenthaler was appointed as manager of the club for the second time. At the start of the 2012–13 season Hessenthaler was replaced by Martin Allen, who led the club to promotion as League Two champions in his first season in charge. However, shortly after winning League Two, Allen was sacked in what many saw as a surprise after a poor start to the season. The club remained in League One from 2013 up until 2022, with a best finish of ninth, achieved in the 2015–16 season. In the 2021-22 season, Gillingham were relegated back into League Two.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The Gills have played at Priestfield Stadium throughout their existence. The ground was originally purchased by the founders of the club through an issue of 1,500 £1 shares. Sources differ on whether the ground was named after the road on which the land stood, Priestfield Road, or whether the road was named after the ground; if the latter is the case then the origin of the ground's name is unknown. The ground was extensively developed prior to the 1930s, but there was then little change until the late 1990s and the arrival of Paul Scally as chairman. Three of the four stands were demolished and rebuilt between 1995 and 2000. The fourth stand, known as the Town End, was demolished to make way for a new stand, to be named the Brian Moore Stand after television sports commentator Brian Moore, who was a well-known Gills fan, but the club's financial situation has not allowed the new stand to be built. A temporary stand was erected in 2003 and remains in place as of 2022. From 2007 until 2010 the stadium was officially named KRBS Priestfield Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal with the Kent Reliance Building Society. In 2011 it was rebranded again, this time, to MEMS Priestfield Stadium under another such agreement.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: At its peak in the 1940s the official capacity of the stadium was listed as "between 25,000 and 30,000" but subsequent redevelopments, the removal of terraces and building of new facilities have seen this reduced to a current capacity of 11,582. In the 2018–19 season, the most recent to be completed in full with full crowd capacity permitted, the average attendance at home matches was 5,128. The ground has also hosted home fixtures of the England women's national football team. The club's training ground is Beechings Cross, in Grange Road, Gillingham. In 2012 the club was involved in a dispute with the local council, who alleged that Gillingham owed over £30,000 in unpaid bills relating to the training facility.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Although Gillingham have long been associated with the colours blue and white, the original New Brompton side wore a strip consisting of black and white striped shirts with black shorts. In 1913 the black and white strip was dropped in favour of red shirts with blue sleeves, emblazoned with the borough's coat of arms. The striped shirts returned after World War One, before finally being replaced with the now-familiar combination of plain blue shirts and white shorts in 1931. More recent years have seen several variations on the blue and white colour scheme. In the late 1990s the team wore blue and black striped shirts, recalling the original New Brompton stripes. In the summer of 2003 it was controversially announced that the club's first choice shirts for the following season would be predominantly white, rather than blue. The announcement received such a hostile response from supporters that the white strip was replaced by one featuring blue and black hoops, which had originally been earmarked as the team's third choice kit. In March 2010 the club announced a return to the black and blue stripes for the 2010–11 season. In recognition of the centenary of the renaming of the club, the 2012–13 kit was red with blue sleeves and collar, and the club's crest was replaced by the town's crest. After winning the League Two title in 2012–13, the club gave season ticket holders the chance to vote on what colours the club would play in for the 2013–14 season, with the fans choosing to return to a blue and white kit. Blue and white, or blue with black stripes, have been used since.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The club's current crest is a shield divided vertically into halves of black and white stripes and solid blue, reflecting the club's original and modern kits. On the blue half is the county emblem of Kent, a white horse rampant, albeit slightly altered from its normal form as its mane is stylised into the letters of the word "Gills". This side has been sometimes given a red or pink background, to coordinate with away kits featuring those colours. The club's motto, which appears on a scroll below the crest, is "Domus clamantium", the Latin for "the home of the shouting men", a traditional epithet associated with the town of Gillingham. In keeping with the crest, the club's mascot, Tommy Trewblu, takes the form of a horse. He first appeared at a match against Macclesfield Town in October 1998.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The first sponsor's name to appear on Gillingham shirts was that of Italian home appliance manufacturers Zanussi, who sponsored the club in the mid-1980s. Subsequent sponsors have included Chatham Maritime, Medway Toyota, Cannon Tool Hire, Invicta FM, Kool, Medway News, SeaFrance, MHS Homes Group, Kent Reliance Building Society, Automatic Retailing, MEMS Power Generation, and Medway Council.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Gillingham's Player of the Season award is voted for by the club's supporters. It was first introduced in the 1968–69 season.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: For the first three years of the club's existence, team matters were handled by a committee. In 1896 William Ironside Groombridge, the club's secretary, took sole charge of team affairs to become Gillingham's first recognised manager. Former England international Stephen Smith was appointed as full-time manager in 1906, but left in 1908, with Groombridge once again taking on team responsibilities. Groombridge was associated with the club, as manager and secretary, for over 25 years. When the club was admitted to the Football League in 1920, Robert Brown was appointed as manager, but he resigned a month later before the season had even begun. His replacement, Scotsman John McMillan, thus became the first manager to take charge of the team in a Football League match.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: In 1939, a year after the club was voted back out of the Football League, Archie Clark took over as manager, and was still in charge when the club was elected back to the Football League in 1950. Clark remained in the job until 1957. Freddie Cox took over in 1962 and led the club to the Football League Fourth Division championship in the 1963–64 season, making him the first manager to win a Football League divisional title with the club. Basil Hayward was sacked in 1971 after the club was relegated back to the Fourth Division in the 1970–71 season, but his successor Andy Nelson led the club to promotion back to Division Three three years later before controversially resigning.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Tony Pulis took over in 1995, with Gillingham once again in the bottom division, and managed the club to promotion in his first season in charge. Three years later he led the team to the Second Division play-off final, but was sacked immediately after this after being accused of gross misconduct. Peter Taylor replaced him and took the club to a second consecutive play-off final, where Gillingham gained promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time. In 2013 Martin Allen became the second manager to lead the Gills to a divisional title in the Football League, as the team won the championship of League Two. The team is currently managed by Neil Harris, who was appointed in January 2022.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: Goalkeeper Ron Hillyard holds the record for Gillingham appearances, having played 657 matches in all competitions between 1974 and 1990, while the record for appearances solely in the Football League is held by another goalkeeper, John Simpson, with 571 between 1957 and 1972. Brian Yeo is the club's all-time leading league goalscorer, having scored a total of 136 goals between 1963 and 1975. He also jointly holds the club record for the most Football League goals scored in a single season, having scored 31 goals in the 1973–74 season, equalling the record set by Ernie Morgan in 1954–55. The highest number of goals scored by a player in a single game at a professional level is the six registered by Fred Cheesmur against Merthyr Town in April 1930. The highest transfer fee received by the club is £1.5 million for Robert Taylor, paid by Manchester City in 1999, and the highest fee paid by Gillingham is £600,000 for Carl Asaba, signed from Reading in 1998.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The club's record home attendance is 23,002, for an FA Cup match against Queens Park Rangers on 10 January 1948, a record which will almost certainly never be broken unless the club relocates to a larger ground, given that Priestfield Stadium's current capacity is approximately half that figure. The team's biggest ever professional win was a 10–0 defeat of Chesterfield in September 1987,


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: although they had previously registered a 12–1 win against Gloucester City in the Southern League in November 1946. The Gills hold the record for the fewest goals conceded by a team in the course of a 46-game Football League season, set in the 1995–96 season, during which goalkeeper Jim Stannard kept 29 clean sheets.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: The 2003 Football Fans Census revealed that no other team's supporters considered Gillingham to be among their club's main rivals. Millwall are considered to be the closest the Gills have to local rivals. Swindon Town are seen by many fans as the club's biggest rivals, stemming from bad-tempered matches between the two teams in the past. While Swindon fans generally do not consider Gillingham among their biggest rivals, there was violence when they met at Priestfield in the 2005–06 season, their first meeting since a promotion play-off match in 1987. Following their promotion in 1989, Maidstone United became Kent's second League side. A rivalry with Gillingham developed over the following seasons, until Maidstone's financial troubles forced them to resign from the League in 1992. A minor rivalry between Gillingham and Fulham has developed arising from the death of a Fulham fan who was killed during a clash between both sets of fans outside Priestfield Stadium in March 1998.


title: Gillingham F.C.

text: In 1956, comedian Fred Emney filmed a scene for his sitcom "Emney Enterprises" prior to the start of a match between Gillingham and Brighton & Hove Albion. The footage featured the overweight Emney, wearing a flat cap and monocle and smoking a cigar, dribbling the ball past the entire Gills defence and scoring a goal. The 2005 film "Green Street" makes use of action sequences filmed during a match between Gillingham and West Ham United, although the dialogue states that the team playing West Ham is Birmingham City to align with the narrative of the film. A film entitled "The Shouting Men", released in March 2010, centres on a group of Gillingham fans and features scenes shot at Priestfield.


title: Boston (album)

text: Boston is the debut studio album by American rock band Boston, released on August 25, 1976, by Epic Records. It was produced by Tom Scholz and John Boylan. A multi-instrumentalist and engineer who had been involved in the Boston music scene since the late 1960s, Scholz started to write and record demos in his apartment basement with singer Brad Delp, but received numerous rejections from major record labels. The demo tape fell into the hands of CBS-owned Epic, who signed the band in 1975.


title: Boston (album)

text: Defying Epic Records's insistence on recording the album professionally in Los Angeles, California, Scholz and Boylan tricked the label into thinking the band was recording on the West Coast, when in reality, the bulk was being tracked solely by Scholz at his Massachusetts home. The album's contents are a complete recreation of the band's demo tape, and contain songs written and composed many years prior. The album's style, often referred to as the "Boston sound", was developed through Scholz's love of classical music, melodic hooks and early guitar-heavy rock groups such as the Kinks and the Yardbirds, as well as a number of analogue electronic effects developed by Scholz in his home studio. Besides Scholz, who played most of the instruments on nearly all of the tracks, and Delp, other musicians appear on the album such as drummers Jim Masdea and Sib Hashian, guitarist Barry Goudreau and bassist Fran Sheehan. All except Masdea became full-time band members.


title: Boston (album)

text: The album was released by Epic in August 1976 and broke sales records, becoming the best-selling debut LP in the US at the time, and winning the RIAA Century Award as best selling debut album. The album's singles, "More Than a Feeling", "Peace of Mind" and "Foreplay/Long Time", were major AM and FM hits, and nearly the entire album receives constant airplay on classic rock radio. The album has been referred to as a staple in '70s rock and has been included on many lists of essential albums. It has sold at least 17 million copies in the United States alone and at least 20 million worldwide making it one of the best selling debut albums of all time.


title: Boston (album)

text: In the late 1960s, Tom Scholz began attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he first wrote music. After graduating with a master's degree, he began working for the Polaroid Corporation in the product development division. By night, he played keyboards for bands in the Boston bar and club scene, where he collaborated with drummer Jim Masdea. The two - who shared a concept of the perfect rock band, one "with crystal-clear vocals and bone-crunching guitars" - viewed themselves as only part-time musicians. Despite this, the duo built a small studio near Watertown, Massachusetts to record ideas. Scholz recorded for hours on end, often re-recording, erasing and discarding tapes in an effort to create "a perfect song".


title: Boston (album)

text: Both musicians later joined Mother's Milk, a band featuring guitarist Barry Goudreau, that vied for recognition in the Boston music scene. Scholz quickly went from keyboardist to lead songwriter, and the band went through dozens of lead vocalists before Brad Delp auditioned.


title: Boston (album)

text: Delp, a former factory worker at a Danvers electric coil company, spent much of his weekends in cover bands. Delp drove to Revere Beach, where the three-piece were performing at a club named Jojo's.