title: Contact lens

text: ChromaGen contact lenses have been used and shown to have some limitations with vision at night although otherwise producing significant improvements in color vision. An earlier study showed very significant improvements in color vision and patient satisfaction.


title: Contact lens

text: Later work that used these ChromaGen lenses with people with dyslexia in a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial showed highly significant improvements in reading ability over reading without the lenses. This system has been granted FDA approval for use in the United States.


title: Contact lens

text: Magnification is another area being researched for future contact lens applications. Embedding of telescopic lenses and electronic components suggests that future uses of contact lenses may become extremely diverse.


title: Contact lens

text: A cosmetic contact lens is designed to change the appearance of the eye. These lenses may also correct refractive error. Although many brands of contact lenses are lightly tinted to make them easier to handle, cosmetic lenses worn to change eye color are far less common, accounting for only 3% of contact lens fits in 2004.


title: Contact lens

text: In the United States, the FDA labels non-corrective cosmetic contact lenses as "decorative contact lenses". Like any contact lens, cosmetic lenses carry risks of mild to serious complications, including ocular redness, irritation and infection.


title: Contact lens

text: Due to their medical nature, colored contact lenses, similar to regular ones, are illegal to purchase in the United States without a valid prescription. Those with perfect vision can buy color contacts for cosmetic reasons, but they still need their eyes to be measured for a "plano" prescription, meaning one with zero vision correction. This is for safety reasons so the lenses will fit the eye without causing irritation or redness.


title: Contact lens

text: Some colored contact lenses completely cover the iris, thus dramatically changing eye colour. Other colored contact lenses merely tint the iris, highlighting its natural colour. A new trend in Japan, South Korea and China is the circle contact lens, which extend the appearance of the iris onto the sclera by having a dark tinted area all around. The result is an appearance of a bigger, wider iris, a look reminiscent of dolls' eyes.


title: Contact lens

text: Cosmetic lenses can have more direct medical applications. For example, some contact lenses can restore the appearance and, to some extent the function, of a damaged or missing iris.


title: Contact lens

text: A scleral lens is a large, firm, transparent, oxygen-permeable contact lens that rests on the sclera and creates a tear-filled vault over the cornea. The cause of this unique positioning is usually relevant to a specific patient whose cornea is too sensitive to support the lens directly. Scleral lenses may be used to improve vision and reduce pain and light sensitivity for people with disorders or injuries to the eye, such as severe dry eye syndrome (keratoconjunctivitis sicca), microphthalmia, keratoconus, corneal ectasia, Stevens–Johnson syndrome, Sjögren's syndrome, aniridia, neurotrophic keratitis (anesthetic corneas), complications post-LASIK, high order aberrations of the eye, complications post-corneal transplant and pellucid degeneration. Injuries to the eye such as surgical complications, distorted corneal implants, as well as chemical and burn injuries also may be treated with scleral lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Soft lenses are often used in the treatment and management of non-refractive disorders of the eye. A bandage contact lens allows the patient to see while protecting an injured or diseased cornea from the constant rubbing of blinking eyelids, thereby allowing it to heal. They are used in the treatment of conditions including bullous keratopathy, dry eyes, corneal abrasions and erosion, keratitis, corneal edema, descemetocele, corneal ectasia, Mooren's ulcer, anterior corneal dystrophy, and neurotrophic keratoconjunctivitis. Contact lenses that deliver drugs to the eye have also been developed.


title: Contact lens

text: Glass lenses were never comfortable enough to gain widespread popularity. The first lenses to do so were those made from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA or Perspex/Plexiglas), now commonly referred to as "hard" lenses. Their main disadvantage is they do not allow oxygen to pass through to the cornea, which can cause a number of adverse, and often serious, clinical events. Starting in the late 1970s, improved rigid materials which were oxygen-permeable were developed. Contact lenses made from these materials are called rigid gas permeable lenses or 'RGPs'.


title: Contact lens

text: A rigid lens is able to cover the natural shape of the cornea with a new refracting surface. This means that a spherical rigid contact lens can correct corneal astigmatism. Rigid lenses can also be made as a front-toric, back-toric, or bitoric. Rigid lenses can also correct corneas with irregular geometries, such as those with keratoconus or post surgical ectasias. In most cases, patients with keratoconus see better through rigid lenses than through glasses. Rigid lenses are more chemically inert, allowing them to be worn in more challenging environments where chemical inertia is important compared to soft lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Soft lenses are more flexible than rigid lenses, and can be gently rolled or folded without damaging the lens. While rigid lenses require a period of adaptation before comfort is achieved, new soft lens wearers typically report lens awareness rather than pain or discomfort.


title: Contact lens

text: Hydrogel lenses rely on their water content to transmit oxygen through the lens to the cornea. As a result, higher water content lenses allowed more oxygen to the cornea. In 1998, silicone hydrogel, or Si-hy lenses became available. These materials have both the extremely high oxygen permeability of silicone and the comfort and clinical performance of the conventional hydrogels. Because silicone allows more oxygen permeability than water, oxygen permeability of silicone hydrogels is not tied to the lenses' water content. Lenses have now been developed with so much oxygen permeability that they are approved for overnight wear (extended wear). Lenses approved for daily wear are also available in silicone hydrogel materials.


title: Contact lens

text: Disadvantages of silicone hydrogels are that they are slightly stiffer and the lens surface can be hydrophobic, thus less "wettable" – factors that can influence comfort of lens use. New manufacturing techniques and changes to multipurpose solutions have minimized these effects. Those new techniques are often broken down into 3 generations:


title: Contact lens

text: Current brands of soft lenses are either traditional hydrogel or silicone hydrogel. Because of drastic differences in oxygen permeability, replacement schedule, and other design characteristics, it is very important to follow the instructions of the eye care professional prescribing the lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: A small number of hybrid lenses exist. Typically these contact lenses consist of a rigid center and a soft "skirt". A similar technique is the "piggybacking" of a smaller, rigid lens on the surface of a larger, soft lens. These techniques are often chosen to give the vision correction benefits of a rigid lens and the comfort of a soft lens.


title: Contact lens

text: A "daily wear" (DW) contact lens is designed to be worn for one day and removed before sleeping. An "extended wear" (EW) contact lens is designed for continuous overnight wear, typically for up to 6 consecutive nights. Newer materials, such as silicone hydrogels, allow for even longer wear periods of up to 30 consecutive nights; these longer-wear lenses are often referred to as "continuous wear" (CW). EW and CW contact lenses can be worn overnight because of their high oxygen permeability. While awake, the eyes are mostly open, allowing oxygen from the air to dissolve into the tears and pass through the lens to the cornea. While asleep, oxygen is supplied from the blood vessels in the back of the eyelid. A lens hindering passage of oxygen to the cornea causes corneal hypoxia which can result in serious complications, such as corneal ulcer that, if left untreated, can permanently decrease vision. EW and CW contact lenses typically allow for a transfer of 5–6 times more oxygen than conventional softs, allowing the cornea to remain healthy, even with closed eyelids.


title: Contact lens

text: Wearing lenses designed for daily wear overnight has an increased risk for corneal infections, corneal ulcers and corneal neovascularization—this latter condition, once it sets in, cannot be reversed and will eventually spoil vision acuity through diminishing corneal transparency. The most common complication of extended wear is giant papillary conjunctivitis (GPC), sometimes associated with a poorly fitting contact lens.


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lenses are often categorized by their replacement schedule. Single use lenses (called 1-day or daily disposables) are discarded after one use. Because they do not have to stand up to the wear and tear of repeated uses, these lenses can be made thinner and lighter, greatly improving their comfort. Lenses replaced frequently gather fewer deposits of allergens and germs, making these lenses preferable for patients with ocular allergies or for those who are prone to infection. Single-use lenses are also useful for people who wear contact lenses infrequently, or when losing a lens is likely or not easily replaced (such as when on vacation). They are also considered useful for children because cleaning or disinfecting is not needed, leading to improved compliance.


title: Contact lens

text: Other disposable contact lenses are designed for replacement every two or four weeks. Quarterly or annual lenses, which used to be very common, are now much less so. Rigid gas permeable lenses are very durable and may last for several years without the need for replacement. PMMA hards were very durable and were commonly worn for 5 to 10 years, but had several drawbacks.


title: Contact lens

text: Lenses with different replacement schedules can be made of the same material. Although the materials are alike, differences in the manufacturing processes determine if the resulting lens will be a "daily disposable" or one recommended for two or four week replacement. However, sometimes manufacturers use absolutely identical lenses and just repackage them with different labels.


title: Contact lens

text: Typically, soft contact lenses are mass-produced, while rigids are custom-made to exact specifications for the individual patient.


title: Contact lens

text: Prescriptions for contact lenses and glasses may be similar, but are not interchangeable. Prescribing of contact lenses is usually restricted to various combinations of ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians. An eye examination is needed to determine an individual's suitability for contact lens wear. This typically includes a refraction to determine the proper power of the lens and an assessment of the health of the eye's anterior segment. Many eye diseases prohibits contact lens wear, such as active infections, allergies, and dry eye. Keratometry is especially important in the fitting of rigid lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lenses are prescribed by ophthalmologists, optometrists, or specially licensed opticians under the supervision of an eye doctor. They are typically ordered at the same office that conducts the eye exam and fitting. But the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act guarantees consumers a copy of their contact lens prescription, allowing them to obtain lenses at the provider of their choice.


title: Contact lens

text: Before touching the contact lens or the eye, it is important to wash hands thoroughly with soap and rinse well. Soaps containing moisturizers or allergens should be avoided as these can cause eye irritation. Drying of hands using towels or tissues before handling contact lenses can transfer lint (fluff) to the hands and, subsequently, to the lenses, causing irritation upon insertion. Towels, unless freshly laundered on high temperature wash, are frequently contaminated with large quantities of bacteria and, as such, should be avoided when handling lenses. Dust, lint and other debris may collect on the outside of contact lenses. Again, hand contact with this material, before handling contact lenses, may transfer it to the lenses themselves. Rinsing the case under a source of clean running water, before opening it, can help alleviate this problem. Next the lens should be removed from its case and inspected for defects (e.g. splits, folds, lint). A 'gritty' or rough appearance to the lens surface may indicate that a considerable quantity of proteins, lipids and debris has built up on it and that additional cleaning is required; this is often accompanied and felt by unusually high irritation upon insertion.


title: Contact lens

text: Care should be taken to ensure the soft lens is not inserted inside-out. The edge of a lens turned inside out has a different appearance, especially when the lens is slightly folded. Insertion of an inside-out lens for a brief time (less than one minute) should not cause any damage to the eye. Some brands of lenses have markings on the rim that make it easier to tell the front of the lens apart from the back.


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lenses are typically inserted into the eye by placing them on the pad of the index or middle finger with the concave side upward and then using that finger to place the lens on the eye. Rigid lenses should be placed directly on the cornea. Soft lenses may be placed on the sclera (white of the eye) and then slid into place. Another finger of the same hand, or a finger of the other hand, is used to keep the eye wide open. Alternatively, the user may close their eyes and then look towards their nose, sliding the lens into place over the cornea. Problems may arise if the lens folds, turns inside-out, slides off the finger prematurely, or adheres more tightly to the finger than the eye surface. A drop of solution may help the lens adhere to the eye.


title: Contact lens

text: When the lens first contacts the eye, it should be comfortable. A brief period of irritation may occur, caused by a difference in pH and/or salinity between that of the lens solution and the tear. This discomfort fades quickly as the solution drains away and is replaced by the natural tears. However, if irritation persists, the cause could be a dirty, damaged, or inside-out lens. Removing and inspecting it for damage and proper orientation, and re-cleaning if necessary, should correct the problem. If discomfort continues, the lens should not be worn. In some cases, taking a break from lens wear for a day may correct the problem. In case of severe discomfort, or if it does not resolve by the next day, the person should be seen as soon as possible by an eye doctor to rule out potentially serious complications.


title: Contact lens

text: Removing contact lenses incorrectly can result in damage to the lens and injury to the eye, so certain precautions must be taken. Rigid contact lenses can best be removed by pulling the eyelid tight and then blinking, whereupon the lens drops out. With one finger on the outer corner of the eyelids, or lateral canthus, the person stretches the eyelids towards the ear; the increased tension of the eyelid margins against the edge of lens allows the blink to break the capillary action that adheres the lens to the eye. The other hand is typically cupped underneath the eye to catch the lens as it drops out. For soft lenses, which have a stronger adherence to the eye surface, this technique is less suitable.


title: Contact lens

text: A soft contact lens may be removed by pinching the edge between the thumb and index finger. Moving the lens off the cornea first can improve comfort during removal and reduce risk of scratching the cornea with a fingernail. It is also possible to push or pull a soft lens far enough to the side or bottom of the eyeball to get it to fold then fall out, without pinching and thereby damaging it. If these techniques are used with a rigid lens, it may scratch the cornea.


title: Contact lens

text: There are also small tools specifically for removing lenses. Usually made of flexible plastic, they resemble small tweezers, or plungers that suction onto the front of the lens. Typically, these tools are used only with rigid lenses. Extreme care must be exercised when using mechanical tools or fingernails to insert or remove contact lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Lens care varies depending on material and wear schedule. Daily disposables are discarded after a single use and thus require no cleaning. Other lenses need regular cleaning and disinfecting to prevent surface coating and infections.


title: Contact lens

text: There are many ways to clean and care for contact lenses, typically called care systems or lens solutions:


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lenses can be mechanically cleaned of more substantial protein, lipid and debris build up by rubbing them between the clean pad of a finger and the palm of a hand, using a small amount of cleaning fluid as a lubricant; and by rinsing thereafter. This "rub and rinse" method is thought to be the most effective method for multipurpose solutions, and is the method indicated by the American Academy of Ophthalmology regardless of cleaning solution used. In 2010, the FDA recommended that manufacturers removed the "no rub" from product labeling, "because rub-and-rinse regimens help prevent microbial adhesion to the contact lens, help prevent formation of biofilms, and generally reduce the microbial load on the lens and the lens case."


title: Contact lens

text: This type of devices mimic digital rubbing. The lenses are sandwiched by silicone parts inside the portable device. The device applies a gentle yet high speed rubbing action on the lens surface and remove debris.


title: Contact lens

text: Water is not recommended for cleaning contact lenses. Insufficiently chlorinated tap water can lead to lens contamination, particularly by Acanthamoeba. On the other hand, sterile water will not kill any contaminant that get in from the environment.


title: Contact lens

text: Aside from cleaning the contact lenses, contact lens case should also be kept clean and be replaced at minimum every 3 months.


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lens solutions often contain preservatives such as benzalkonium chloride and benzyl alcohol. Preservative-free products usually have shorter shelf lives, but are better suited for individuals with an allergy or sensitivity to a preservative. In the past, thiomersal was used as a preservative. In 1989, thiomersal was responsible for about 10% of problems related to contact lenses. As a result, most products no longer contain thiomersal.


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lenses are generally safe as long as they are used correctly. Complications from contact lens wear affect roughly 5% of wearers yearly. Factors leading to eye damage varies, and improper use of a contact lens may affect the eyelid, the conjunctiva, and, most of all, the whole structure of the cornea. Poor lens care can lead to infections by various microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, and "Acanthamoeba" ("Acanthamoeba" keratitis).


title: Contact lens

text: Many complications arise when contact lenses are worn not as prescribed (improper wear schedule or lens replacement). Sleeping in lenses not designed or approved for extended wear is a common cause of complications. Many people go too long before replacing their contacts, wearing lenses designed for 1, 14, or 30 days of wear for multiple months or years. While this does save on the cost of lenses, it risks permanent damage to the eye and even loss of sight.


title: Contact lens

text: For non Silicone-Hydrogel lenses, one of the major factors that causes complications is that the contact lens is an oxygen barrier. The cornea needs a constant supply of oxygen to remain completely transparent and function as it should; it normally gets that oxygen from the surrounding air while awake, and from the blood vessels in the back of the eyelid while asleep. The most prominent risks associated with long-term, chronic low oxygen to the cornea include corneal neovascularization, increased epithelial permeability, bacterial adherence, microcysts, corneal edema, endothelial polymegethism, dry eye and potential increase in myopia. Much of the research into soft and rigid contact lens materials has centered on improving oxygen transmission through the lens.


title: Contact lens

text: Mishandling of contact lenses can also cause problems. Corneal abrasions can increase the chances of infection. When combined with improper cleaning and disinfection of the lens, a risk of infection further increases. Decreased corneal sensitivity after extended contact lens wear may cause a patient to miss some of the earliest symptoms of such complications.


title: Contact lens

text: The way contact lenses interact with the natural tear layer is a major factor in determining lens comfort and visual clarity. People with dry eyes are particularly vulnerable to discomfort and episodes of brief blurry vision. Proper lens selection can minimize these effects.


title: Contact lens

text: Long-term wear (over five years) of contact lenses may "decrease the entire corneal thickness and increase the corneal curvature and surface irregularity." Long-term wear of rigid contacts is associated with decreased corneal keratocyte density and increased number of epithelial Langerhans cells.


title: Contact lens

text: All contact lenses sold in the United States are studied and approved as safe by the FDA when specific handling and care procedures, wear schedules, and replacement schedules are followed.


title: Contact lens

text: Contact lens sensors to monitor the ocular temperature have been demonstrated. A large segment of current contact lens research is directed towards the treatment and prevention of conditions resulting from contact lens contamination and colonization by foreign organisms. Clinicians tend to agree that the most significant complication of contact lens wear is microbial keratitis and that the most predominant microbial pathogen is "Pseudomonas aeruginosa". Other organisms are also major causative factors in bacterial keratitis associated with contact lens wear, although their prevalence varies across different locations. These include both the "Staphylococcus" species ("aureus" and "epidermidis") and the "Streptococcus" species, among others. Microbial keratitis is a serious focal point of current research due to its potentially devastating effect on the eye, including severe vision loss.


title: Contact lens

text: One specific research topic of interest is how microbes such as "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" invade the eye and cause infection. Although the pathogenesis of microbial keratitis is not well understood, many different factors have been investigated. One group of researchers showed that corneal hypoxia exacerbated "Pseudomonas" binding to the corneal epithelium, internalization of the microbes, and induction of the inflammatory response. One way to alleviate hypoxia is to increase the amount of oxygen transmitted to the cornea. Although silicone-hydrogel lenses almost eliminate hypoxia in patients due to their very high levels of oxygen transmissibility, they also seem to provide a more efficient platform for bacterial contamination and corneal infiltration than other conventional hydrogel soft contact lenses. One study showed that "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" and "Staphylococcus epidermis" adhere much more strongly to unworn silicone hydrogel contact lenses than conventional hydrogel lenses and that adhesion of "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" was 20 times stronger than that of "Staphylococcus epidermidis". This might partly explain why "Pseudomonas" infections are the most predominant. However, another study conducted with worn and unworn silicone and conventional hydrogel contact lenses showed that worn silicone contact lenses were less prone to "Staphylococcus epidermidis" colonization than conventional hydrogel lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Besides bacterial adhesion and cleaning, micro and nano pollutants (biological and manmade) is an area of contact lens research that is growing. Small physical pollutants ranging from nanoplastics to fungi spores to plant pollen adhere to contact lens surfaces in high concentrations. It has been found that multipurpose solution and rubbing with fingers does not significantly clean the lenses. A group of researchers have suggested an alternative cleaning solution, PoPPR (polymer on polymer pollution removal). This cleaning technique takes advantage of a soft and porous polymer to physically peal pollutants off of contact lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Another important area of contact lens research deals with patient compliance. Compliance is a major issue pertaining to the use of contact lenses because patient noncompliance often leads to contamination of the lens, storage case, or both. However, careful users can extend the wear of lenses through proper handling: there is, unfortunately, no disinterested research on the issue of "compliance" or the length of time a user can safely wear a lens beyond its stated use. The introduction of multipurpose solutions and daily disposable lenses have helped to alleviate some of the problems observed from inadequate cleaning but new methods of combating microbial contamination are currently being developed. A silver-impregnated lens case has been developed which helps to eradicate any potentially contaminating microbes that come in contact with the lens case. Additionally, a number of antimicrobial agents are being developed that have been embedded into contact lenses themselves. Lenses with covalently attached selenium molecules have been shown to reduce bacterial colonization without adversely affecting the cornea of a rabbit eye and octyl glucoside used as a lens surfactant significantly decreases bacterial adhesion. These compounds are of particular interest to contact lens manufacturers and prescribing optometrists because they do not require any patient compliance to effectively attenuate the effects of bacterial colonization.


title: Contact lens

text: One area of research is in the field of bionic lenses. These are visual displays that include built-in electric circuits and light-emitting diodes and can harvest radio waves for their electric power. Bionic lenses can display information beamed from a mobile device overcoming the small display size problem. The technology involves embedding nano and microscale electronic devices in lenses. These lenses will also need to have an array of microlenses to focus the image so that it appears suspended in front of the wearer's eyes. The lens could also serve as a head-up display for pilots or gamers.


title: Contact lens

text: Drug administration through contact lenses is also becoming an area of research. One application is a lens that releases anesthesia to the eye for post-surgery pain relief, especially after PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) in which the healing process takes several days. One experiment shows that silicone contact lenses that contain vitamin E deliver pain medication for up to seven days compared with less than two hours in usual lenses.


title: Contact lens

text: Another study of the usage of contact lens is aimed to address the issue of macular degeneration (AMD or age-related macular degeneration). An international collaboration of researchers was able to develop a contact lens that can shift between magnified and normal vision. Previous solutions to AMD included bulky glasses or surgical implants. But the development of this new contact lens, which is made of polymethyl methacrylate, could offer an unobtrusive solution.


title: Contact lens

text: One of the earliest known motion pictures to introduce the use of contact lenses as a make-up artist's device for enhancing the eyes was by the innovative actor Lon Chaney in the 1926 film "The Road to Mandalay" to create the effect of a character who had a blind eye. Dr. Rueben Greenspoon applied them to Orson Welles for the film "Citizen Kane" in 1940. In the 1950s, contact lenses were starting to be used in British color horror films. An early example of this is the British actor Christopher Lee as the Dracula character in the 1958 color horror film "Dracula", which helped to emphasize his horrific looking black pupils and red bloodshot eyes. Tony Curtis wore them in the 1968 film "The Boston Strangler". Contact lenses were also used to better emphasize the sinister gaze of the demonic characters in 1968's "Rosemary's Baby" and 1973's "The Exorcist". Colored custom-made contact lenses are now standard makeup for a number of special effects-based movies.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: David Cloud Berman (born David Craig Berman; January 4, 1967 – August 7, 2019) was an American musician, singer and poet. In 1989, he founded the indie rock band Silver Jews with Pavement's Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, and he was its only constant member until its dissolution in 2009. Berman wrote Silver Jews' lyrics; further, with Malkmus, he developed the simple country-rock sound that characterized their early lo-fi recordings. His abstract and autobiographical lyrics, which he extensively labored over, were his creative priority.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: His only published volume of poetry, "Actual Air", appeared in 1999, by which time heroin and crack cocaine addictions loomed large. His struggle with substance abuse, depression and anxiety overcame his career, and he attempted suicide in 2003. Afterward, he underwent rehabilitation, and engaged with Judaism. Alongside his wife Cassie Berman, he adopted the band name Purple Mountains and released an eponymous debut album that July. Although he had planned a tour to pay off a $100,000 credit card debt, he died by suicide in August 2019.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Although Berman believed his work was unappreciated, he cultivated a passionate following and is regarded as a significant and influential indie rock cult figure.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: David Craig Berman was born on January 4, 1967, in Williamsburg, Virginia. At that time, his father Richard Berman worked as an attorney practicing labor law for the United States Chamber of Commerce, while his mother was a housewife. He came from a secular Jewish family, who he said had no literary or artistic inclinations. Raised mostly in Texas, he did not personally know or interact with many other Jews. He later said he had identified with Jews because he "felt like an outsider" in his youth. For most of his life Berman identified as "ethnically Jewish" but not religious. His mother had undergone conversion to Judaism without the supervision of an Orthodox rabbi, and for that reason neither she nor he would be considered Jews under certain criteria.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman's parents divorced when he was seven. Thereafter, he split time between each parent's household until he entered college. His father relocated to Dallas for a position as a lobbyist on behalf of foodservice businesses, while his mother moved back in with her parents in Wooster, Ohio, and became a teacher there. He later described his childhood as "grindingly painful" and said he kept "mostly independent of family things" into his adulthood. While he was an adolescent, his father rose to prominence as a corporate lobbyist representing firearms, alcohol, and other industries. Berman came to dislike his father at an early age. He was compelled to live with his father after 1979, despite his wishes to the contrary, because of concern he was "growing up to be a wimp".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: He attended high school at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas. During his teenage years, his father sent him to see a psychiatrist. Berman suffered from depression throughout his life and later said the condition had become resistant to treatment. By the age of 15, he said he began taking "every drug in every way", and claimed to have smoked PCP on a daily basis during his second year of college.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: For Berman, the burgeoning new wave scene in Dallas served as an early source of musical inspiration. He took an interest in a friend's rare Fairlight keyboard, and in the music of bands like Art of Noise, Prefab Sprout, X, the Replacements, the Cure, New Order, and Echo and the Bunnymen. In high school, he began experimenting with poetry by writing to girlfriends, considering the line "A cartoon lake. Wolf on skates" to be his first true foray into poetry. Berman hoped that his poetry would resemble the lyrics of punk singers Jello Biafra and Exene Cervenka. He read Henry Miller's "The Rosy Crucifixion" when he was 14: "It gave me permission to enjoy life". Reading significantly in his life, Berman said, reinforced his empathy, especially for those also troubled; he cited William Faulkner as an influence of his.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman went to the University of Virginia in 1985. He had been—by his own admission—"too lazy" to apply for college, so his father's secretary completed and submitted applications on his behalf. At university, Berman met fellow students Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, and James McNew. He frequently attended concerts, shared records, and discussed obscure bands with Malkmus and Nastanovich, having first encountered the former in a carpool to a show. The quartet formed the band Ectoslavia. He graduated in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English literature.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Upon graduation, Berman, Malkmus, and Nastanovich moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, where they shared an apartment. In 1989, they adopted the band name Silver Jews and recorded discordant tapes in their living room – that same year, Malkmus's band Pavement released their debut extended play (EP), "". The Whitney Museum of American Art – where Malkmus and Berman worked as security guards – and its contents (such as the art of Bruce Nauman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sherri Levine and Louise Lawler) was an influence to Berman. He wrote lyrics and poems while working shifts at the museum, occasionally in collaboration with Malkmus, who along with Berman would "get high" at Central Park on their lunch breaks. According to Berman's longtime friend Kevin Guthrie, Malkmus and Berman had a harmonious friendship, and Nastanovich revered both artists' creativity. "It was mostly drinking beer and seeing grunge bands" Malkmus said regarding this time period and recalled that Berman appeared as a somewhat "scary goth" but was kind and enthusiastic, strongly desiring to be involved with Jewish culture.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Though Berman sometimes felt irritated by a common view that Silver Jews were merely a side project to Pavement, the connection led to his signing with indie label Drag City, which would later release all of his albums. The band's relation to Pavement was responsible for them amassing a "national audience", a notice great enough that the resulting sales meant Berman did not have to tour. The band's first extended-plays (EPs) "Dime Map of the Reef" and "The Arizona Record" were not commercially successful but gained them attention. Kim Gordon was an admirer and Will Oldham said "Dime Map of the Reef" inspired him to send recordings to Drag City.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Following the EPs, Berman began studying for a master's degree in poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dubbing this time an "academic exile", Matthew Shaer, in a 2006 "Boston Globe" article, speculated that Berman's extended time studying may have been an attempt to distance himself from Pavement. Three years earlier, Berman reflected upon his time there: after "meet[ing] grown dignified men who play with fucking words all day," he felt he had "permission to believe that I could try for that life". He tried to get poems published in the " American Poetry Review" but was rejected, which increased his interest in music, "despite scarcely knowing how to sing or play guitar". As of 2005, Berman's public appearances mostly consisted of poetry readings.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: By October 1994, Silver Jews had enough material for their debut album "Starlite Walker." The release established respect in the indie rock scene, although with some detractors. Malkmus and Nastanovich's involvement with Pavement meant they were unavailable for the next Silver Jews album "The Natural Bridge", and only Berman and Peyton Pinkerton continued writing for it. Pavement's success proved difficult for Berman, who became suspicious of fame and resented the people with whom he interacted, deeming them "cruel". He felt somewhat abandoned by Malkmus and Nastanovich, although he understood the circumstances permitted little else. Berman's personal life was affected by the deaths of friends, which would influence his songwriting. A close friendship between Oldham and Berman arose at this time and the two conceptualized a collaborative project, entitled "Silver Palace".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Silver Jews was part of a "moment in underground music" of songwriters who looked to the 1970s and 1980s for inspiration, and were one of Drag City's seminal groups alongside Smog, Pavement, Royal Trux, and Palace, bands that "made American music frightening again by tapping into its most tangled roots". Berman wished to "distinguish his brand of songwriting from the depressive-narcissistic strain of 1990s rock" and later sought to break away from Drag City's "cryptic and prankish" style. The line-up of Silver Jews constantly changed around Berman, who remained its principal songwriter and "main creative driver" and led the band's creative direction since the start. "Malkmus and Nastanovich [were] there to serve his ideas more than offer their own," said Ian Gormely of "Exclaim!".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: The composition of "The Natural Bridge" (1996) left Berman distraught; he appeared to be "haunted by ghosts" and was hospitalized with sleep deprivation. "When the songs were being recorded, things got darker in my life", he recollected, also noting that "recording was a process of calming myself down"—although doing so was so "searing that I couldn't listen to music". According to Oldham, the album's producer Mark Nevers "had sort of held Berman's hand". Although it received positive reviews in music publications—Berman having now "established himself as a world-class rock lyricist"—he chose not to tour due to a fear of performing. During this time, Berman thought of touring as too significant a commitment and considered the stress to be intolerable. Playing live appeared to him as "like some unnecessary post-invention marketing effort" and had not elicited much "satisfaction" when he had done so. After "The Natural Bridge", Berman decided he wanted Malkmus and Nastanovich, both of whom felt betrayed by Berman's hostility toward them, to be involved with all subsequent Silver Jews albums.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: The pain that Berman felt around "The Natural Bridge" helped him to formulate a new Silver Jews album with Malkmus, "American Water". It was significant to Berman and the band's progression. They had now "stepped out of Pavement's shadow ... This was clearly his project and represented his vision", his songwriting has been at the foreground of the former album. By this point he felt confident in his musical career. Berman's drug use continued, and he was using them during studio sessions. Despite his personal turmoil, Berman wanted the album to be joyous like "other people['s] records" rather than grim. The band intended to tour in late 1998 but plans were ended after a fistfight led to his eardrum rupturing.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: "Actual Air", Berman's first collection of poetry was released in 1999 by Open City Books, which had been founded to publish the collection. "Actual Air" amassed critical acclaim—Carl Wilson called it "even better than [Berman's] albums". The book's unusually high sales of over 20,000 copies bolstered Berman's musical career. Its marketing was akin to that of an album, which contributed to its success; Drag City and record stores were the avenues from which a "significant portion of those sales" arose. In 2001, he was offered a job as poet-in-residence on a postgraduate course. The prospect thrilled Berman; however, he chose not to apply out of apprehension. Four years later, when asked in an interview if he would accept a lecturing role at university, he expressed uncertainty on genuinely taking an offer: "I should stay away from the rock clubs and the English departments if I can."


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Although he did publish some poems afterward—his poetry is featured in journals such as "The Baffler", "Open City" and "The Believer"—and had reported working on a follow-up, "Actual Air" remained his only book of poetry. In his later years, Berman stopped writing poetry because of diminished motivation and a feeling of partial inadequacy in comparison to younger poets; another collection failed to materialize due to a lack of purpose and innovation. By 2003, his perception of songwriting and poetry as unified was no more, and felt that older age rendered him less capable of working in both mediums. "Poetry can never counter-propaganda. A song might be able to."


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Around this time, Berman, who no longer to work", estimated he made $23,000 a year; by 2001, he earned $45,000 from his music. That year saw the release of the Silver Jews album "Bright Flight", which featured his wife Cassie Berman. Their relationship started two years earlier at a party; Berman awoke in Cassie's house and learned she owned every Silver Jews album. "I was really depressed and had nothing to lose at that time. I was so ugly". Cassie was a source of relief for Berman and she helped him feel young, Berman later considering their relationship the "best thing that ever happened to me". They lived together in Nashville for 19 years, where they moved to aid Berman's music career; later buying a house there alleviated quandaries for Berman; it was a relief to Berman to live in a city where he felt pursuing a career in music was well accepted.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman began to take hard drugs in 1998, during a period of depression. He began to take heroin, methamphetamine and crack cocaine, with his use of the latter reaching the point of addiction; he sought existential insight from drugs but eventually his dependency led to reculsion and dejection. Several of Berman's friends died in the years that followed, including Robert Bingham, the founder and editor of Open City, who died in 1999 after a heroin overdose. Berman twice unintentionally overdosed; one incident followed the release party for "Bright Flight." That album's darker sound reflected his struggles with substance abuse.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: On November 19, 2003, Berman attempted suicide in Nashville by consuming crack cocaine, alcohol and tranquilizers. He wrote a short note to Cassie—the brevity of which Berman would later regret—put on his wedding suit, and went to a "crack house" he frequented. When discovered by Cassie, he verbally lashed out and refused treatment. He was eventually taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, awakening three days later.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Around a year later, Berman checked in for drug rehabilitation, which was paid for by his father, and encouraged by his mother and Cassie. Berman said he had relapsed but that by August 2005 he was not using drugs. During his rehabilitation, Berman embraced Judaism, choosing to study the Torah and sought to be a "better person" who was "easier" to Cassie and staff at Drag City; he would soon consider Judaism as an integral aspect of his life, which he intended to continuously labor over. Reading the Torah helped him learn more about poetry; David, described in the Hebrew Bible as a king of the United Monarchy of Israel and Judah, was also an influence of Berman's. He described Judaism as having an affirmative effect on his life.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Reflecting upon his suicide attempt, five years later, Berman noted that he was not unprivileged and without career opportunities, although this was not evident to him at the time. He began to excessively take antidepressants, and his sobriety made him more receptive to candidness. In 2005, and by means of "", Silver Jews, with a lineup including Cassie, Malkmus, Nastanovich, Bobby Bare Jr., Paz Lenchantin, and William Tyler, released "Tanglewood Numbers". Soon after, the band began to tour, with 100 shows from 2006 to 2009 taking place; to cope with the hectic nature, he became "a daily pot smoker". Before Berman toured, he occasionally made caricatures of fans, considering them more rewarding.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: By this time, Silver Jews had sold 250,000 records. Berman and Cassie still experienced financial difficulties; Cassie worked an office job and Berman struggled to get medical insurance for the removal of a keratoconus, eventually acquiring it from the Country Music Association. In 2005, Jeremy Blake enlisted Berman for "Sodium Fox", a conceptual artwork centered around Berman. Blake's suicide and Berman's eye operation would affect the next Silver Jews album—before the operation Berman reported feeling "less aggressive and less tenacious". "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea" was released in 2008 to lukewarm reviews"." The album was their most commercially successful.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman's decision to tour, no longer dependent on drugs, was based upon his greater age, his expanded discography, and a desire to interact with his audience, which resultingly "softened his naturally gruff exterior". Berman found touring with Cassie eased the experience, of which he had mixed feelings. He considered her a necessary component, and noted that if he was alone he would likely act to his detriment.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: On January 22, 2009, Berman disbanded Silver Jews, and their final show was played the following week at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee. "I always said we would stop before we got bad", and during the performance at Cumberland Caverns, claimed that "I always wanted to go out on top, but I much prefer this". According to "Nashville Scene"'s Sean L. Maloney, due to Silver Jews' impact on Nashville's mid-2000s music scene, the final show meant "a chapter in this city's artistic evolution closed".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Alongside the news of the band's dissolution, Berman publicly announced, for the first time, that his father was the lobbyist Richard Berman, who he viewed as markedly loathsome and from whom he had been estranged since 2006. Berman reported owing Richard money, and once donated to a supposed investigation of Richard, initiated by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who called upon the Internal Revenue Service's intervention. Upon considering the commercialization of modern musicians, he began to see his and Richard's lives intertwining; Berman's guilt about his father and said consideration were the reasons he retired Silver Jews, saying:


title: David Berman (musician)

text: After Silver Jews disbanded, Berman became a recluse. The "hermit, solitary aspect to the way [Berman] " predated this time, according to a 2008 interview—and Nastanovich reflected two years earlier that Berman had "gotten more reclusive". In 2005, posed with the question of whether he had chosen between vulgarity or loneliness, Berman said "it's been loneliness up till now but it looks like things are changing for the better/worse". His public perception became intertwined with fiction—significant speculation upon the events of his suicide attempt had reportedly occurred before this time. His seclusion, according to Stephen Hyden of "Uproxx", concoted a perceived "mythology".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman published a 2009 book of surreal, minimalist cartoons called "The Portable February" to mixed reviews. He would later work with German artist Friedrich Kunath on the book "You Owe Me a Feeling" (2012), which features paintings and poetry by Kunath and Berman, respectively. Cassie sought a career in pediatric therapy. In 2010, he spoke about his difficulties with writing a book about his father—seeking to become his "nemesis"; HBO nearly adapted the book, but Berman canceled production, saying he did not want to glamorize his father. In an article about Berman, Derek Robertson said that a significant amount of his personal life was an "explicit rebuke" to Richard and an attempt to evade institutional power—Thomas Beller interpreted Berman's disdain as both political and personal.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: By 2016, Berman had experienced the deaths of both his friend Dave Cloud and his mother, which compelled him to adopt the middle name Cloud and write the song "I Loved Being My Mother's Son", respectively. He was still in contact with Malkmus and maintained a close relationship with Silver Jews drummer Brian Kotzur. According to Nastanovich, at one point Berman intended to write new Silver Jews songs; he ultimately became more interested in a new style. As noted by "Jewish Currents" Nathan Goldman, Berman soon "inaugurated...a different artistic phase with a series of songs about the disappointments of expectations unfulfilled", contrasting the "odes to the open field of possibility" that closely proceeded the Silver Jews' conclusion.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: In 2018, Berman and Cassie separated. Lacking money and living off royalties from Drag City, from June he lived in a room above the label's Chicago office. According to Berman, they "never had the kind of conflict that results in divorce" but had a "kind of need to live [their] lives without the other one". Berman thought his chronic depression meant he was "unfit to be anyone's husband". He and Cassie maintained a shared bank account and owned a house together, while he considered her an integral part of his family. He briefly lived in Miller Beach and Gary, Indiana. At one point, he asked a friend to give him heroin but was refused, for which he was ultimately grateful, having not used heroin or cocaine since October 2003.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: He had grown disillusioned with Judaism, saying his belief in God lasted from 2004 to 2010; in 2008 he voiced a disconnect from Judaism, positioning himself as adjacent to Jews. In his withdrawal, he "[fixed] himself in Jewish tradition", said Goldman and Arielle Angel of "Jewish Currents," viewing Berman as archetypal of Jews. His once-passion for Judaism made him eager to tour Israel; there he met Yonatan Gat and helped get him signed to Drag City—"[The] shows we played in Israel were pretty much the most amazing experience of my life". In 2018, Berman co-produced Gat's album "Universalists." By that year, Berman had conceptualized a more conspicuous return to music: a new moniker, entitled Purple Mountains.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Following the release of two singles under his new moniker, an eponymous debut album was released in July 2019. An "instantly mythologized" album, Berman received heightened attention and very positive reviews: ""Purple Mountains" looked like the start to an unexpected second act for David Berman". Berman worked on "Purple Mountains" with Woods and Berman's friend Dan Auerbach, with whom he had worked in 2015; Auerbach called Berman "one of [his] heroes".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman's financial difficulties, the breakdown of his marriage, and encouragement from Drag City's president Dan Koretzky were impetuses for Berman's new music. Berman hoped to resolve the $100,000 of loan and credit card debt he had amassed as a result of his drug use; in a 2005 interview, he said: "I've got a credit card rotisserie system that would dazzle the ancients". He stated this was the only reason he intended to tour. Berman discussed the idea of a collaborative tour with Bill Callahan and Oldham, which ultimately did not occur. He expressed worries about the tour and notified the accompanying band that his depression may interfere but was excited for his "solitude to end".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: In June 2019, Berman said: "There were probably 100 nights over the last 10 years where I was sure I wouldn't make it to the morning". Berman died on August 7, 2019, having hanged himself in an apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. It is unclear whether Berman's suicide was spontaneous or deliberated upon; according to "The Philadelphia Inquirer" Dan DeLuca: "The warning signs were all over "Purple Mountains"". Will Reisman of "SF Weekly" reflected that by the time of "Purple Mountains"' release, Berman appeared as a "grim visage...Tinted sunglasses covered a set of weary, stricken eyes, his neck-length hair was thinning and reedy, and a pursed, lifeless expression graced [his] face". A private funeral attended by "Friends and family, along with the Jewish community" took place on August 16—a memorial, by filmmaker Lance Bangs, at New York's Met Breuer Museum, the former location of the Whitney, was held earlier.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Having given up on albums because he was unable to complete the lyrics, Berman spent most of his creative time working on the lyrics, to the point of obsession; Koretzky reportedly saw Berman spend months working on a single line. Berman's process involved considering his audience's understanding; he juxtaposed his abstract lyrics with simple melodies and rhyme schemes. He recalled a disconnect to his audience—"an indie rock crowd"—while writing "Bright Flight" due to the dysfunctional lives of his associates. Berman deemed all of this a "major problem". He had a didactic approach with "Tanglewood Numbers" and "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea", wanting to give "instructions" on forgoing depression with the former. Mark Richardson, writing for "Pitchfork", and Randall Roberts of the "Los Angeles Times", noted Berman's proficiency for minimalist compression.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman's songs often use country music tropes and his themes tend to focus on music, nature, beauty, disconnection, drugs, sports, America and god. An influence on his writing, Berman thought highly of America although hoped for a "redemption". His artistic perception of America has been noted as idiosyncratic, narrow and poignant, while forlornness often arose as humor. Religion is a recurring element in Silver Jews albums, while "Purple Mountains" evokes Jewish mysticism.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: From "Bright Flight" onwards, his lyrics became more autobiographical, in a dramatic framework, and he came to view the preceding works as "make-believe"; on "Tanglewood Numbers" he documented his struggle with substance abuse. Roberts called "Purple Mountains" "nearly as autobiographical as a memoir". Berman discussed his isolation, divorce—Silver Jews songs about Cassie having been plentiful—and death, which had a particular presence. By this point, his music had less humor, misdirection, irony or embellishment; he was interested in being direct.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: On the Silver Jews albums, Berman represented his alienation via substitutes, his characters composed of traits originating from either real-life people, fictional characters or archetypes. His fictional narratives often start relatively straightforwardly and then become bizarre; the songs of "American Water" conjure an "absurdist landscape" and "grow more obtuse in proportion to tunefulness". His stories present a literary aesthetic that is "equal parts rural shack and gothic zen" and his characters often reside in "half-empty country-and-western bars and backwater burgs".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Having found a wider audience with "Actual Air", Berman's lyrics were held to a higher standard; and he has been praised for diverging from his peers. His lyrics have been credited as being influential for indie rock and other musicians. "Pitchfork" deemed him one of "the most influential" musicians of the quarter-century following the publication's launch in 1996.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Silver Jews' early work is defined by an ultra lo-fi aesthetic, starting as ostensibly "avant-gardist" within the framework of "traditional" pop songs. Their work before "Starlite Walker" is "regarded as the lowest fidelity recordings of the first lo-fi movement". The changing line-up influenced the sound, Berman's musical approach became simplified and the band moved further towards a country sound; "Purple Mountains" eschewed the previous punk rock strand. "Purple Mountains" is Berman's most direct, conventional album, said Spencer Kornhaber of "The Atlantic," although all of Berman's discography is relatively conventional. Berman's vocal delivery has been identified as brusque, dry and mostly uninflected—his register was described as baritone and he would concurrently sing and speak. Reviewing "Starlite Walker" for "The Guardian", Jonathan Romney described Berman's approach as "whiny, archetypally slackerish" with "vaguely country inflections"—the early country aspects being mostly humorous.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Silver Jews' songs were often sparse, usually with three or four chords, of novice difficulty. Berman understood his musical abilities were limited, the lo-fi sound initially obscuring his abilities. For a while, he wondered as to why he was without natural talent, eventually renouncing his creative insecurity and becoming assertive in his design.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman spent significant time without playing his guitar and said his process of creating albums began with conceptualization and then daily refinement, typically writing the music first. For the first four Silver Jews albums, Berman wrote all the songs. Malkmus and Berman had differing approaches and were "longtime musical foil". With "Tanglewood Numbers", Berman exercised greater care and control—Shaer observed soon after its release that the album "represents Berman's most comprehensive effort to focus his songwriting".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Cassie and Berman "shared a brightening chemistry", the former's calm disposition onstage provided stability to Berman's electric presence. Everett True and Berman concurred that he was a natural performer. Berman also performed in a rigid manner, reading sheet music "like it's a literary reading"; Marc Hirsh of the "Boston Globe" said Berman used a music stand to create a barrier between himself and the audience. Cassie compared Berman's early showmanship to a child beginning to ride a bicycle. She did recall that their first performance belied his reluctance, as he was talkative to the extensive audience.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman began to write poems in response to insecurites concering his musical abilites, the prospect arising from a competitive spirit. With regards to composition, he allocated the same time to both: two or three hours, in a daily manner, poetry being the more vigorous undertaking. His writings all saw extensive and meticulous rewriting, which he was initially averse to. He began to pursue the prospect of publication by age 22—two years before, by his judgement, his "first worthwhile song". Although his lyrics and poetry remain distinct from each other, critics have found they share certain defining characteristics, such as:


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Unlike his music, Berman's poetry did not feature rhyme and the poems in "Actual Air" were written in free verse—he composed his poems using written notes and disclosed that he "didn't know anything about form, rhythm or meter", surmising his structure to be accidental or instinctual. Berman has mentioned various poets as influences of his: James Tate—discernible via a similar and blunt approach to surrealism and, in "Actual Air", per style and focus upon location and person; Russell Edson, Kenneth Koch, Wallace Stevens, Charles Wright and Emily Dickinson.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman once expressed dismay that poetry offered too much freedom. Tate, under whom Berman studied, said the poems are "narratives that freeze life in impossible contortions", whereas Berman called them "psychedelic soap operas"; Heidi Julavits noted that Berman often distorted familiar concepts in his poetry. Scott Timberg cites "New York, New York" as an example of how "A typical Berman poem starts with an image almost iconic in its ordinariness, delivered in a flat tone".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Written with direct attention on emotions, "Actual Air" poems include small-scale scenes and situations Berman extensively explored, the collection compared to a novel by one critic. The world concocted, analogous to that in his songs, is eccentric—with "plausible contexts" quickly altered by "an odd word" and domestic scenes "tinged with gothic weirdness". Using various styles of prose, Berman depicts, among other occurrences, "police officers [who] slowdance with target range silhouettes" and "blue deer [that] speak Fortran in the restroom".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman's poetry has amassed admiration, including from Dara Wier and Billy Collins—Collins featuring him in an anthology. Rich Smith of "The Stranger" summarized Berman's poetic output as a "master[y of] the opening line, the surprising image, the lyric narrative, the warm abstraction, and the crucial skill of knowing when to use the Latin word or the German word". Aaron Calvin, writing for "Pitchfork", wrote that the intersection of Berman's lyrics and poetry bolsters his legacy.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman was acutely self-conscious with his public image. After the release of "Purple Mountains" he feared he would be seen as a depressive, and had earlier wished he could convey a less abrasive persona; on said album, he mused about "the self-created narratives that ha[d] haunted his dark nights of the soul". The cover for "Tanglewood Numbers" was a "deliberate, self-conscious identification with rock tradition", rather than previous outsiderdom. He kept note of musicians who had mentioned him in interviews and believed his music was unappreciated, having never held his work in esteem, besides his lyrical capability. Berman did not view Silver Jews as a "band that other bands would namedrop", in contrast to the likes of Smog or Will Oldham's bands. Although he once expressed a need for outside validation, he refused to read reviews or articles concerning him. By 2005, hoping to separate his self-perception from others, he had installed an external blocking device on his computer for this very reason.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Although he later just considered himself an artist, Berman had been surprised that his songwriting gained more attention than his poetry, thinking of himself as more a poet than a songwriter. He didn't "fully identify as a songwriter" until the time of "Tanglewood Numbers"' release. Others perceived him as an earnest poet; Rothband considered Berman "synonymous with what he created". In music and poetry, Berman felt his peers saw him as "moonlighting". He once expressed interest in remaining "a stranger" in both fields.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Berman was seen as a "cult hero" due in part to his aversion to promotion, and his initial refusal to tour generated a sense of mystique. As of 2005, Silver Jews had only purchased one advertisement in "Alternative Press" in 1994, for "The Arizona Record". He reportedly refused to let Drag City promote his music. Berman relied upon word of mouth and positive reviews, although he dismissed the notion of being critically acclaimed—he felt disregarded by critics; he resented and ruminated upon some who reviewed his work, vexed by reviewers preoccupied with his struggles, and hoped to sabotage their careers. He expressed ambivalence toward his inability to reach a larger audience. Eric Clark of "The Gazette" and Berman recognized the band's sound as the source of their relative obscurity; Berman further credited his singing and was motivated by such a status.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Timothy Michalik of "Under The Radar" said Berman had a simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow persona to which fans could relate; by 2006, Berman, according to Leon Neyfakh, was "increasingly well-known as an eccentric outsider artist". He had amassed a reputation as "perhaps the finest lyricist of his generation" with his diligence being a frequent point of discussion. Berman's return to music prompted a jovial and personal response from major publications, with concern for Berman having been identified as instrumental to his fervent fanbase. "David Berman was a friend to many, even if we never met him in person", wrote Jesse Locke for "Now". Reception of "Purple Mountains" was significantly altered following Berman's suicide: critics wrote "it [is] impossible to hear this album in any other context", and instead of worrying, you mourn".


title: David Berman (musician)

text: Many artists paid tribute to Berman following his suicide. Malkmus and Nastanovich both commented on his death and performed shows in his honor. Drag City released a tribute cover of "The Wild Kindness" sung by Callahan, Oldham, and Cassie. The cover albums "Approaching Perfection: A Tribute To DC Berman" and "Late Homework: The Songs of David Berman" were released two months after his death.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: A number of musicians referenced and/or paid tribute to Berman in albums: The Avalanches and Cassandra Jenkins quoted Berman. Fleet Foxes and Mogwai memorialized Berman on their respective songs "Sunblind" and "Ritchie Sacramento". Callahan described his and Oldham's collaborative album "Blind Date Party" as "all of Drag City coming together for David". The Mountain Goats dedicated their song "Arguing With the Ghost of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review" to Berman. Daniel Blumberg and John Vanderslice dedicated their respective works "On&On" and "I can't believe civilization is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love DCB" to Berman.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: The Tennessee Titans, Berman's favorite football team, displayed the message "Nashville (and the world) will always love David Berman" on its Jumbotron during a home game on November 10, 2019. Major publications: "The Atlantic", "The New Yorker", "The New York Times", "Pitchfork", "Rolling Stone", "Slate", "Spin" and "The Washington Post" wrote obituaries and tributes. Fans shared lyrics and other tributes on social media; according to "Pitchfork" Sam Sodomsky: "In the wake of Berman's death ... His voice never felt louder or more vital". The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards omitted Berman from its in memoriam segment, drawing criticism from some viewers.


title: David Berman (musician)

text: After his son's death, Richard Berman released the following statement: "Despite his difficulties, he always remained my special son. I will miss him more than he was able to realize."


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The "Arihant"-class ( in Sanskrit) is a class of Indian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines being built for the Indian Navy. They were developed under the "Advanced Technology Vessel" (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines. These vessels are classified as 'strategic strike nuclear submarines' by India.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The lead vessel of the class, was launched in 2009, and after extensive sea trials, was confirmed to be commissioned in August 2016.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: "Arihant" holds the distinction of being the first ballistic missile submarine to have been built by a country other than one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: In December 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, US President Richard Nixon sent a carrier battle group named Task Force 74, led by the nuclear-powered into the international waters of the Bay of Bengal in a show of force. Task Force 74 remained in international waters, where it was legally entitled to be. The records of Nixon-Kissinger communications show no contingency nor any plan under which "Enterprise" would enter Indian or Pakistani waters, or otherwise intervene in the conflict. In response, the Soviet Union sent a submarine armed with nuclear missiles from Vladivostok to trail the US task force. The event demonstrated the significance of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile submarines to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Following the 1974 Smiling Buddha nuclear test, the Director of Marine Engineering (DME) at Naval Headquarters initiated a technical feasibility study for an indigenous nuclear propulsion system (Project 932).


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The Indian Navy's "Advanced Technology Vessel" project to design and construct a nuclear submarine took shape in the 1990s. Then Defence Minister George Fernandes confirmed the project in 1998. The initial intent of the project was to design nuclear-powered fast attack submarines, though following nuclear tests conducted by India in 1998 at Pokhran Test Range and the Indian pledge of no first use, the project was re-aligned towards the design of a ballistic missile submarine in order to complete India's nuclear triad.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The "Arihant"-class submarines are nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines built under the "Advanced Technology Vessel" (ATV) project. They will be the first nuclear submarines designed and built by India. The submarines are long with a beam of , a draught of , displacement of . The complement is about 95, including officers and sailors. The boats are powered by a single seven blade propeller powered by an 83 MW pressurised water reactor and can achieve a maximum speed of when surfaced and when submerged.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The submarines have four launch tubes in their hump and can carry up to twelve K-15 Sagarika missiles with one warhead each (with a range of ) or four K-4 missiles (with a range of ). The third and fourth submarines will have a larger configuration, carrying twenty-four K-15 Sagarika or eight K-4 missiles. The Indian Navy will train on , an Akula-class submarine leased from Russia in 2012.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The submarine's K-15 missiles can reach most of Pakistan and it's K-4 can target all of Pakistan. The K-4 may also be capable of targeting Beijing, but would need to be in the northern most waters of Bay of Bengal. Deployment of the Arihant to the Pacific Ocean is unlikely given the submarine's noise issues.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The submarines are powered by a pressurised water reactor with highly enriched uranium fuel. The miniaturised version of the reactor was designed and built by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam. It included a section of the submarine's pressure hull containing the shielding tank with water and the reactor, a control room, as well as an auxiliary control room for monitoring safety parameters. The prototype reactor became critical on 11 November 2003 and was declared operational on 22 September 2006. Successful operation of the prototype for three years enabled the production version of the reactor for "Arihant". The reactor subsystems were tested at the Machinery Test Center in Visakhapatnam. Facilities for loading and replacing the fuel cores of the naval reactors in berthed submarines were also established. The prototype 83 MW light water reactor that was installed at Kalpakkam by BARC is codenamed S1 and is used to train nuclear submariners.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: In 2007, then finance minister P. Chidambaram, who was a member of the political committee which monitors the ATV programme, questioned the huge amount of money being spent on submarines with just 4 missile launch tubes. Hence the ATV project team tweaked the Arihant design by adding a 10-metre-long section for four more K-4 SLBMs to be integrated into the boat codenamed S4. After it became evident that the larger S5 class of SSBNs will take more time to develop, an additional unit, codenamed S4*, was sanctioned in 2012 to ensure that the production line doesn't go idle.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: The detailed engineering of the design was implemented at Larsen & Toubro's submarine design centre at their Hazira shipbuilding facility. Tata Power SED built the control systems for the submarine. The steam turbines and associated systems integrated with the reactor were supplied by Walchandnagar Industries. The lead vessel underwent a long and extensive process of testing after its launch in July 2009. The propulsion and power systems were tested with high-pressure steam trials followed by harbor-acceptance trials that included submersion tests by flooding its ballast tanks and controlled dives to limited depths. INS "Arihant"s reactor went critical for the first time on 10 August 2013. On 13 December 2014, the submarine set off for its extensive sea trials.


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: Four boats of this class are planned. The first boat of the class, , was commissioned in August 2016. The first four vessels are expected to be commissioned by 2025. In December 2014, the work on a second nuclear reactor began and the second boat, whose sea trials which started in 2017, is now completed and is scheduled to be commissioned in August, 2022 along with INS Vikrant. The final two ships INS Aridhaman and S4* in the class are expected to be larger, displacing over 1,000 tonnes more than the "Arihant" and have 8 missile launch tubes to carry up to 8 K4 or K5 and a more powerful pressurized water reactor than INS "Arihant". INS Aridhaman was launched in November 2021 and expected to be commission in 2024


title: Arihant-class submarine

text: , a larger follow on class to the "Arihant" class, designated by the codename S5, was planned, with three boats of the class projected. Missile capacity is expected to be 12 to 16 LRBMs.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: The Light Between Oceans is a 2016 romantic drama film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance and based on the 2012 novel of the same name by M. L. Stedman. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States, India and Canada, the film stars Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Bryan Brown, and Jack Thompson. The film tells the story of a lighthouse keeper and his wife who rescue and adopt an infant girl adrift at sea. Years later, the couple discover the child's true parentage and are faced with the moral dilemma of their actions.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: "The Light Between Oceans" had its world premiere at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2016, where it competed for the Golden Lion. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures in North America on September 2, 2016, being the last DreamWorks Pictures film distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through their 2011 output deal. The film was released in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2016, by Entertainment One Films. It received mixed reviews and grossed $26 million worldwide. This is the last film to be released by Touchstone before it went defunct.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: In December 1918, Tom Sherbourne – a traumatised and withdrawn hero of World War I – is hired as a lightkeeper at Janus Rock, a lighthouse off the coast of Australia. He falls in love with a local girl, Isabel Graysmark, and they marry. Isabel loses two pregnancies over two years and fears she may never become a mother.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Shortly after Isabel's second miscarriage, a rowboat containing a dead man and a newborn baby girl washes ashore near the lighthouse. Tom knows that he is required by law to report the discovery. However, Isabel fears that the baby will almost certainly be sent to an orphanage and persuades Tom to pass the baby off as their own daughter, to which he grudgingly agrees. He buries the man on the island, and the couple names the infant girl Lucy.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: As Tom and Isabel are about to have Lucy christened on the mainland, Tom sees a woman, Hannah Roennfeldt, kneeling in front of a grave bearing the names of Franz Johannes Roennfeldt and his baby daughter Grace Ellen, who were lost at sea on the day they found Lucy, 26 April 1923. Tom fears that little Lucy may very well be Hannah's missing infant daughter. He writes anonymously to Hannah to tell her that her husband is dead but that her infant daughter is safe, loved and well cared for.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Four years later, Tom, Isabel and young Lucy, enjoying an idyllic life together, attend a ceremony for the anniversary of Tom's lighthouse. They strike up a conversation with Hannah and her sister, Gwendolyn "Gwen" Potts and learn that Franz was a German, that Hannah's marrying him so soon after the First World War was controversial, and that he had been accosted in the street by a drunken crowd. Franz jumped into a rowboat and fled with his baby daughter.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Tormented by his conscience, Tom sends Hannah a small grey rattle that was found with Lucy on the boat. One of Tom's co-workers recognizes the rattle on a reward poster and reports him to the police. Accused of murdering Franz, Tom takes full responsibility, claiming he bullied Isabel into complying. Isabel is enraged that Tom is willing to give Lucy away and breaks off contact with him after his arrest. The police are unable to obtain an answer from the distraught Isabel as to whether or not Franz was dead when they discovered him.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Little Lucy is returned to her biological family but initially rejects and hates them, due to having no memory of them whatsoever. She refuses to answer to her given name. Lucy runs away in an effort to return to the Lighthouse and her "real parents", and a search team is sent to rescue her. She is found and returned to Hannah, but the events lead Hannah to realize that Lucy now belongs to Isabel.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Hannah promises to return Lucy to Isabel as soon as Isabel testifies against Tom. Just as Tom is about to be taken by boat to Albany for trial, Isabel reads a letter which Tom had sent her, confiding he had not deserved his happiness with Lucy and how carrying the blame will assuage his guilt for surviving the war.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Isabel jumps on the boat and confesses everything. Moved by their gesture and reminded by Franz's words to always forgive others, Hannah offers to speak on their behalf at trial. Lucy has at last begun to bond with her biological mother and maternal grandfather, who agrees to call her "Lucy Grace" as a compromise.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: In 1950, 27-year-old Lucy Grace Rutherford, accompanied by her baby son Christopher, tracks Tom down. She has not been in contact with the Sherbournes for over eighteen years, as they had agreed not to contact her for the rest of her girlhood. Isabel has recently died, still tormented with guilt for her actions, and Tom gives Lucy Grace a letter that her adopted mother had written in case she ever made contact. An emotionally sorrowful Lucy Grace thanks Tom, the only father she ever knew, for rescuing and raising her for the four years of her life on Janus Rock, and she asks if she can visit again. She and Tom embrace before she leaves. Tom sits on his rocking chair, now content with what life had given him.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: DreamWorks acquired the rights to the novel on November 27, 2012, with David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford producing through Heyday Films. DreamWorks approached Derek Cianfrance at the behest of Steven Spielberg, who was impressed by Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine". In September 2013, Cianfrance was announced to direct the film. In May 2014, Michael Fassbender was announced in the film. In June 2014, Alicia Vikander joined the cast of the film, followed by Rachel Weisz in July 2014. Participant Media joined the production in August 2014.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Principal photography started in September 2014, with filming locations in New Zealand and Australia. Filming took place in Dunedin, Port Chalmers and on the Otago Peninsula, Saint Bathans in Central Otago and at the Cape Campbell Lighthouse in Marlborough. Filming sites included the former Dunedin Prison in Dunedin and Stuart Street at the former King Edward Technical College building.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Footage aboard a steam train was filmed in October inside a refurbished wooden "bird cage" passenger carriage from the Pleasant Point Railway in South Canterbury. Mainline Steam Heritage Trust used Ja 1240 "Jessica" for the movie and it was transferred from the trust's Christchurch depot to Dunedin for filming to take place. While the scene in which the locomotive is used was set in 1918, locomotive Ja 1240 was built in 1947 and was the second New Zealand Railways JA class locomotive to be built. Built at New Zealand Railways Hillside workshops in Dunedin it ran exclusively in the South Island of New Zealand from 1947 until 1971.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: In November the production moved to Australia and filming began in Stanley, Tasmania where the crews transformed some locations in the town including the pier, which was refurbished, and the road, which was covered in gravel. Production wrapped on November 24, 2014.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Cianfrance spent a year editing the film, with little breaks in between with the first cut of the film ending up at 2 hours and 20 minutes.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: A writer/director (Joseph Nobile) alleged that Margot Louise Watts, aka M. L. Stedman, knowingly and willfully copied, plagiarized, pirated and misappropriated expressive content from his screenplay entitled, The Rootcutter, subsequently retitled, A Tale of Two Humans, originally copyrighted in 2001. On January 26, 2017, Nobile filed suit against Watt's publishers, Simon & Schuster, DreamWorks et al. Although the defendants had had the opportunity to access the plaintiff's screenplay, the US District Court in New York ruled against Nobile on October 16, 2017, and subsequently granted the defendants' motions for Attorney Fees due to the objective unreasonability of the plaintiff's claims, and to dissuade other would-be plaintiffs from filing baseless suits. Nobile appealed, but on September 21, 2018, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original decisions.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: "The Light Between Oceans" held its world premiere at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2016. The film was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through the Touchstone Pictures banner, being the last DreamWorks film to be released under the original agreement with Walt Disney Studios, and the final film released by Touchstone before it became defunct. Disney released the film in the United States on September 2, 2016. Disney opted not to give the film a limited release, a method often used by studios for adult dramas, and instead issued the film in general wide release at 1,500 locations with focus on upscale venues.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Distribution was handled by Mister Smith Entertainment through other third-party film distributors in all other regions except for India; Entertainment One in the United Kingdom, and Australia, Arthouse in Russia, and Phantom Film in Japan. Reliance Entertainment released the film in India.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: "The Light Between Oceans" was released by Touchstone Home Entertainment on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on January 24, 2017. It was also released by Entertainment One through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on March 13, 2017.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: "The Light Between Oceans" grossed $12.5 million in North America and $13.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $26 million, against a budget of $20 million.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: In the United States, the film was released on September 2, 2016, alongside "Morgan", and was projected to gross $6–9 million from around 1,500 theaters in its opening weekend. It grossed $1.4 million on its first day and $4.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing 6th at the box office.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: "The Light Between Oceans" received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 61%, based on 236 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Light Between Oceans" presents a well-acted and handsomely mounted adaptation of its bestselling source material, but ultimately tugs on the heartstrings too often to be effective." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 60 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+", on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "The actors hurl themselves into their roles with sufficient commitment and feeling that you believe in Tom and Isabel completely, even when the creaky narrative machinery around them begins to trigger your skepticism."


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Owen Gleiberman of Variety said it "winds up taking one too many self-serious twists and turns. The film earns its darkness, but it might have been even more affecting if it didn’t shrink from the light."


title: The Light Between Oceans (film)

text: Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "A gorgeous but plodding and borderline ludicrous period-piece weeper."


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: Beast Wars: Transformers (titled Beasties: Transformers in Canada) is a computer animated television series that debuted in 1996 and ended on March 7, 1999, serving as the flagship of the "" franchise. It was one of the earliest CGI television shows. The series is set in the future of the , 300 years after the events of "The Transformers", and features the Maximals and Predacons, descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons respectively. While engaged in battle, small teams from each faction crash land on an unknown planet, and must find a way to return home while continuing their war.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The "Beast Wars" TV series was the first Transformers series to feature computer-animated characters, and was produced by Mainframe Entertainment of Vancouver, British Columbia; its story editors were Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio. The production designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on "Beast Wars."


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: A sequel television series, "", aired from 1999 to 2000. Additional "Beast Wars" limited comic book series have been released by Dreamwave Productions and IDW Publishing.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the Maximals are the descendants of the Autobots and the Predacons are the descendants of the Decepticons. (In the sequel series "", the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade.")


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The leader of the Predacon team is Megatron, a namesake of the original Decepticon commander. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as Energon. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the Golden Disk and Megatron's stolen ship, the "Darksyde", which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the "Axalon", led by Optimus Primal, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a time/space phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, in such extreme amounts that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, and invertebrates.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: Before crashing, the "Axalon" deploys its cargo of "stasis pods" containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. This plays a larger part in the IDW series, "The Gathering". Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons. The stasis pods are used as a plot device to introduce new characters.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, equivalent to the traditional Autobots and Decepticons. Most of the Maximals are based on mammals, birds or fish, while the Predacons are based on reptiles, amphibians or invertebrates. Dinobot changes sides, starting as a Predacon and becoming a Maximal, and was later created as an artificial Predacon clone by Megatron in season 3. This made Dinobot the only reptile-based Maximal, as he is based on a Utahraptor. Additionally certain "Predacons" like Inferno and Blackarachnia were created from Maximal protoforms, but were fitted with Predacon shell programs, fighting instead for the Predacons. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from Rattrap, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: There have been two "Beast Wars" video games. The first game, "", was released for the PlayStation and PC. It is a third-person shooter, based on the first season of the show, in which players control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. The PC conversion added a multiplayer feature that allowed up to 8 players to play over LAN, with its own playrooms in the MS Gaming Zone. The playrooms have since been removed.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The second game, "", is a "Fighting-Vipers"-style fighting-game based on the second season released by Bay-Area-Multimedia. Most of the cast-members from the show reprised their voice-roles.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: A third game was in the works for the PlayStation 2, but was scrapped in pre-production, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The series was originally released on DVD in Region 1 by Kid Rhino Entertainment (a division part of and distributed by WBFE and part of WEA/Warner Music Group) (under its "Rhinomation" classic animation entertainment brand) in 2003/2004.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: On February 8, 2011, Shout! Factory announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned to rerelease it. They subsequently rereleased season 1 on DVD on June 7, 2011 as well as a complete series set on the same day. Both releases contain extensive bonus features including interviews, featurettes and special 24 page comic book, "Transformers Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past." Season 2 & 3 were rereleased on October 4, 2011.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: In Region 4, Madman Entertainment released all three seasons on DVD in Australia in 2006. On June 24, 2009, they released "Transformers: Beast Wars – Complete Collection". The 10-disc box-set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: In a 2011 retrospective of the "Transformers" franchise, "IGN" commented that while "Beast Wars" used the same basic story template as previous series in the franchise, it "featured some of the best writing and story development in a "Transformers" series". Reviewing the season 2 DVD release, "DVD Talk" similarly remarked that "Beast Wars" used the same basic story as the 1984 "Transformers" series, but stood out from other series of its time by delivering messages to children without becoming preachy and utilizing considerable continuity, both from episode-to-episode and eventually with the 1984 "Transformers" series. The reviewer said the animation was dated by modern standards but the interesting and fun story content outweighed it. In a review of the season 3 DVD, the same critic praised the season's more rapid pace and darker tone, and said it was arguably the best season of the series. He concluded, ""Beast Wars" may have been a marketing tool for Hasbro, but it also told some good stories without pandering to the lowest common denominator."


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The show was succeeded by "", with a new creative team in charge of production. The traditionally animated Japanese series "Beast Wars II" and "Beast Wars Neo" were created to fill the gap while the second and third seasons of "Beast Wars" were being translated into Japanese (called "Beast Wars: Metals"). Several and were also produced. The show's production companies, Mainframe Entertainment and Alliance Atlantis, are also the same creators of the world's first ever computer animated TV series, "ReBoot", which ran from 1994–2001.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: In June 2017, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that a film adaptation of "Beast Wars" was not in plans, as he explained: "I'm probably not the one to be asking that question to because I don't get "Beast Wars", but you know, thankfully I'm not the only vote on it. I've never quite understood, they kind of feel like incompatible to me, you have animals, robots, we're used to cars." Both a follow-up to "Bumblebee", and an adaptation of "Beast Wars" were reported to be in development, written separately by Joby Harold and James Vanderbilt, respectively. It was later reworked as a hybrid adaptation named "" that will feature the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons.


title: Beast Wars: Transformers

text: The third and final chapter of "" titled "Kingdom" features the Autobots and the Maximals teaming up against the Decepticons and the Predacons.


title: Mezzanine

text: A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a mezzanino) is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped walls. However, the term is often used loosely for the floor above the ground floor, especially where a very high-ceilinged original ground floor has been split horizontally into two floors.


title: Mezzanine

text: Mezzanines may serve a wide variety of functions. Industrial mezzanines, such as those used in warehouses, may be temporary or semi-permanent structures.


title: Mezzanine

text: In Royal Italian architecture, "mezzanino" also means a chamber created by partitioning that does not go up all the way to the arch vaulting or ceiling; these were historically common in Italy and France, for example in the palaces for the nobility at the Quirinal Palace.


title: Mezzanine

text: A mezzanine is an intermediate floor (or floors) in a building which is open to the floor below. It is placed halfway ("mezzo" means 'half' in Italian) up the wall on a floor which has a ceiling at least twice as high as a floor with minimum height. A mezzanine does not count as one of the floors in a building, and generally does not count in determining maximum floorspace. The International Building Code permits a mezzanine to have as much as one-third of the floor space of the floor below. Local building codes may vary somewhat from this standard. A space may have more than one mezzanine, as long as the sum total of floor space of all the mezzanines is not greater than one-third the floor space of the complete floor below.


title: Mezzanine

text: Mezzanines help to make a high-ceilinged space feel more personal and less vast, and can create additional floor space. Mezzanines, however, may have lower-than-normal ceilings due to their location. The term "mezzanine" does not imply any particular function; mezzanines can be used for a wide array of purposes.


title: Mezzanine

text: Mezzanines are commonly used in modern architecture, which places a heavy emphasis on light and space.


title: Mezzanine

text: In industrial settings, mezzanines may be installed (rather than built as part of the structure) in high-ceilinged spaces such as warehouses. These semi-permanent structures are usually free-standing, can be dismantled and relocated, and are sold commercially. Industrial mezzanine structures can be supported by structural steel columns and elements, or by racks or shelves. Depending on the span and the run of the mezzanine, different materials may be used for the mezzanine's deck like fibre cement boards. Some industrial mezzanines may also include enclosed, paneled office space on their upper levels. There are three basic types of industrial mezzanines: custom, standard or modular.