title: Tony Schiavone

text: An infamous incident involving Schiavone occurred on the January 4, 1999, "Nitro". "Nitro" was airing live against the pre-taped" WWF Raw is War" on USA Network and was to feature a rematch between WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Nash and former champion Bill Goldberg from "Starrcade", where Nash had ended Goldberg's undefeated streak and taken his title under controversial circumstances. The "Nitro" episode was also the first appearance of "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan since he announced his "retirement" from professional wrestling on the Thanksgiving 1998 edition of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Meanwhile, "Raw" was to feature Mick Foley, who was wrestling as Mankind at the time and who had previously worked for WCW as Cactus Jack, winning his first WWF Championship in a match against The Rock. However, at the time "Raw" was taped while "Nitro" was live, and it was a practice for WCW and executive producer Eric Bischoff to spoil pre-taped "Raw" episodes, by telling the WCW audience the results of the Raw show, and not give fans reasons to change the channel.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: According to Foley, who wrote about the incident in the first chapter of his book "Foley Is Good (and the Real World is Faker than Wrestling)", this was to be a pivotal night for WCW as people believed that WCW, whose record streak of 84 consecutive Monday night wins in the ratings had been snapped by "Raw" in April 1998 and had only eight head-to-head wins after that, would turn the ratings tide back to them and potentially take over the lead in the Monday Night Wars. During the show Schiavone spoiled the result of "Raw's" main event by saying that Foley, the former Cactus Jack, would win, sarcastically remarking "That's gonna put some butts in the seats".


title: Tony Schiavone

text: Foley was genuinely upset by what he had heard and telephoned Schiavone to talk about it. When Schiavone called Foley back, he told Foley that Bischoff had ordered him to reveal Foley's title win over the air. The strategy, however, backfired on Bischoff. Almost immediately after Schiavone spoiled Foley's title win, 600,000 households switched from "Nitro" to "Raw", to watch Foley win the title. This was enough to give the WWF the ratings win for the night, with a 5.7 final rating to "Nitro's" 5.0. WCW's ratings never saw more than a 5.0 going head-to-head with "Raw" again and "Nitro's" rating sank below 5.0 and by the end of the year was struggling to stay above 3.0.


title: Tony Schiavone

text: In a 2002 interview, Schiavone was criticized by Bobby Heenan who claimed that Schiavone would hide finishes and angles from himself and fellow "Nitro" commentator Mike Tenay during broadcasts, claiming Schiavone's key to life is "knowledge is power". Longtime wrestling broadcaster Gene Okerlund concurred with Heenan, and claimed that, while he liked Schiavone and did not have many problems with him, "Tony was the consummate politician" and "Tony watched out for Tony and in doing so, had a tendency to bury people along the way". One tense incident happened on the "Nitro" following the death of Heenan's longtime best friend Gorilla Monsoon, over Schiavone's alleged objection to mentioning Monsoon on-air (as he had never worked for WCW). Heenan was ultimately allowed to speak in honor of Monsoon, albeit only a small statement. Appearing on "The Ross Report" in 2014, Schiavone stated that he never objected to Heenan mentioning Monsoon, only that he asked Heenan if he had first asked WCW president Eric Bischoff about doing so. Schiavone accepted responsibility for the collapse of his relationship with Heenan, and said of Heenan's criticism of him: "I deserve it".


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: Located in the Marien quarter ("Marienviertel"), close to Alexanderplatz in the locality and district of Mitte, the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). It was intended to be both a symbol of Communist power and of the city. It remains a landmark today, visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 metres (including antenna) it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the third-tallest structure in the European Union. When built it was the fourth-tallest freestanding structure in the world after the Ostankino Tower, the Empire State Building and 875 North Michigan Avenue, then known as The John Hancock Center.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: Of the four tallest structures in Europe, it is 2 m shorter than the Torreta de Guardamar, 0.5 m shorter than the Riga Radio and TV Tower, and 8 m taller than the Trbovlje Power Station in 2017. The structure is also more than 220 metres higher than the old Berlin Radio Tower in the western part of the city, which was built in the 1920s.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: In addition to its main function as the location of several radio and television broadcasting stations, the building – internally known as "Fernmeldeturm 32" – serves as a viewing tower with observation deck including a bar at a height of 203 metres, as well as a rotating restaurant. Also, the Berlin TV Tower can be booked as a venue for events. The distinctive city landmark has undergone a radical, symbolic transformation: After German reunification, it changed from a politically charged, national symbol of the GDR into a citywide symbol of a reunited Berlin. Due to its universal and timeless design, it has increasingly been used as a trademark and is identified worldwide with Berlin and Germany. In 1979, the Berlin TV Tower received monument status by the GDR, a status which was perpetuated after the German reunification.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The tower has become one of the most prominent symbols of the country and is often in the establishing shot of films set in Berlin, alongside monuments such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Victory Column and the Reichstag building. It is also one of the ten most popular attractions in Germany with more than 1,000,000 visitors every year.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The original total height of the tower was , but it rose to after the installation of a new antenna in 1997. The Fernsehturm is the fourth tallest free-standing structure in Europe, after Moscow's Ostankino Tower, the Kyiv TV Tower and the Riga Radio and TV Tower. The sphere is a visitor platform and a revolving restaurant in the middle of the sphere. The visitor platform, also called panoramic floor, is at a height of about above the ground and visibility can reach on a clear day. The restaurant "Sphere", which rotates once every 30 minutes, is a few metres above the visitors platform at . When first constructed, it turned once per hour; the speed was later doubled following the tower's 1997 renovation.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: Two lifts transport visitors to the sphere of the tower within 40 seconds. There is also a stairway with 986 steps. Wheelchair users cannot visit the tower due to fire regulations.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: To mark the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, for which the final match was played in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, the sphere was decorated as a football with magenta-coloured pentagons, reflecting the corporate colour of World Cup sponsor and owner of the Fernsehturm, Deutsche Telekom.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The Berlin TV Tower is located southwest of the Alexanderplatz station and northeast of the Marx-Engels Forum. The structure is often erroneously described as being part of the Alexanderplatz that lies to the northeast.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: In addition to the Berlin U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines, several tram and bus lines stop at Alexanderplatz station, from which the middle exit leads to the entrance building of the TV Tower.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The Interhotel Stadt Berlin on Alexanderplatz, planned concurrently to the TV Tower and completed in 1970, is 125 metres high and is now operated as a Park Inn by Radisson Berlin Alexanderplatz. Between 1967 and 1972, the Rathauspassagen shopping arcade was built next to the Rotes Rathaus, directly south of the TV Tower.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: At the European Broadcasting Conference in Stockholm in 1952, which was responsible for the coordination of frequency waves in Europe, the GDR – not recognised politically by most countries at the time – was only allocated two frequency channels. Under these circumstances, it was impossible to cover Berlin's urban area by multiple small broadcasting stations without interference and thus disturbances or gaps in the broadcasting signals. For comprehensive and continuous coverage, a powerful large broadcasting facility at the highest possible location was required. In the 1950s, this task was fulfilled in Berlin by the fragile makeshift stations of Deutscher Fernsehfunk (East German broadcasting organisation).


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: As early as 1952, GDR's Deutsche Post began planning a TV tower for Berlin. The plans initially involved a location in the southeast of Berlin. However, the project was interrupted after construction had started, when it transpired that the site was only eight kilometres away from the Berlin Schönefeld Airport (now part of Berlin Brandenburg Airport) and the tower threatened to jeopardise flight operations due to its height and location at the edge of an airport corridor. After various compromise solutions failed, the construction project was discontinued in 1956. In the following years, alternatives were sought and several sites were discussed, including in Berlin Friedrichshain, but these plans also fell victim to austerity measures triggered by the high costs of building the Berlin Wall.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: In the next few years, the search for a new location was continued. Alongside its actual purpose of providing the best possible broadcasting services, the role of the tower as a new landmark of Berlin was increasingly gaining significance. For this reason, in 1964 the government demanded that the tower be built at a central location, an appeal that was supported by the SED leadership. Ultimately, the choice of location was a political decision. Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart and the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: Various architects were involved in the planning and implementation of the tower between 1965–69, including Hermann Henselmann and Jörg Streitparth, Fritz Dieter, Günter Franke and Werner Ahrendt, as well as Walter Herzog, Gerhard Kosel and Herbert Aust. The construction of the Tower and the surrounding Pavilion building at its base resulted in the razing and clearing of a huge section of the historic centre of the capital of Germany. A medieval church stands next to the tower as a testament to the destruction of the old city.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: Work on the foundation began on 4 August 1965 and was finished by the end of 1965. The concreting of the tower foot began on 15 March 1966. The concreting progressed rapidly, so that the 100-metre mark was exceeded on 4 October 1966. The shaft reached its final height on 16 June 1967. A total of 8,000 cubic metres of concrete was used to build the shaft, which was 248.78 metres high and weighed 26,000 tons.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: While the shaft was being erected, the preliminary work for the tower ball progressed. The working group VEB Ipro had worked out the procedure for assembling the ball on the reinforced concrete shaft, according to which the ball could be pieced together from 120 separate segments on the ground. In April 1967, a 35-metre-high replica of the shaft was erected on the construction site between Marienkirche and the Red Town Hall on which the ball segments were pre-assembled. This work lasted until November 1967. The construction costs had meanwhile skyrocketed from an estimated 33 million to 95 million marks, caused mainly by components and materials that had to be paid in foreign currencies, some of which were imported from West Germany. In February 1968, the assembly of the ball on the shaft was started. The last segment of the ball was finally installed on October 7. A spike was mounted on the tower structure and the antenna structure above the ball, so that work on the interior could be started the following year.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: At the beginning of 1969, water trickled into the interior of the tower, causing considerable damage; the ball had to be sealed again. Until 3 October 1969, the interior was expanded, and the entrance pavilion was completed. After 53 months of actual construction work, the tower was completed in "record-breaking" time in spite of all the adversities. The costs amounted to over 132 million marks.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The building, officially called the Fernseh- und UKW-Turm Berlin (Television and VHF Tower Berlin), was the world's second highest television tower in October 1969. The only TV tower that was taller was the Ostankino in Moscow. It was also the third-highest freestanding building of its time, after the tower in Moscow and the Empire State Building in New York.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: On 3 October 1969 Walter Ulbricht, together with his wife Lotte and a delegation of high-ranking companions, including Günter Mittag, Herbert Warnke, Paul Verner, Rudolph Schulze, Erich Honecker, Werner Lamberz and Erich Mielke, inaugurated the television tower and gave the starting signal for GDR's second state channel, DFF 2, thus launching colour TV on two channels in the GDR. The tower has been accessible to the public since 7 October 1969, Republic Day.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: From 16 February 1970, five FM programmes were broadcast from the tower; a first television programme followed on 4 April 1970. At the beginning of 1972, the two planned pavilions for exhibitions, the Berlin Information Centre, a cinema and gastronomic facilities were completed. Overall, the restaurants offered space for around 1000 guests. After the establishment of a legal basis for the preservation of monuments in 1975, the Berlin TV Tower was awarded this status in 1979. After the fall of the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany enshrined the building's monument status.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: After German reunification in 1990, voices were raised favouring the demolition of the tower. The Federal Republic of Germany decided to keep the building. As the new operator, Deutsche Telekom finally invested more than 50 million marks to overhaul the broadcasting facilities, and a number of renovations were also undertaken on the building. Among other things, the antenna received a new, more powerful tip from the height of 327 metres, increasing the tower's height from originally 365 metres to 368 metres in summer 1997.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The TV Tower is one of the buildings in Berlin that is illuminated by a special light installation for several days during the Festival of Lights held every year in October since 2004. On the occasion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the tower ball was covered to make it look like a magenta football as part of an advertising campaign by the operator Telekom.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm's tiled stainless-steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a Greek cross. Berliners nicknamed the luminous cross "Rache des Papstes", or the "Pope's Revenge", believing the Christian symbol a divine retaliation for the government’s removal of crosses from East Berlin’s churches. For the same reasons, the structure was also called "St. Walter" (from Walter Ulbricht). U.S. President Ronald Reagan mentioned this in his "Tear down this wall" speech on 12 June 1987.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The Berlin TV Tower is not only a broadcasting tower, but also a landmark, tourist attraction and venue. The TV Tower's observation deck and revolving restaurant are run by Magnicity, a group based in France that operates attractions at the top of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris and 360 CHICAGO at the former John Hancock Center in Chicago, among others. The Berlin TV Tower is the highest publicly accessible building in Europe and was the highest publicly accessible observation platform in Germany until 2017, when the TK Elevator Test Tower in Rottweil has overtaken this rank. In the first three years after its inauguration, as many as four million people visited the structure. After the German reunification, the visitor average has levelled off to approximately 1.2 million from some 90 countries a year. Of these, around 60 per cent come from abroad, with Spaniards being the biggest group, accounting for 8.1 per cent, followed by Italians (7.6 per cent) and Danes (6.7 per cent). The maximum admissible number of persons inside the ball is 320 persons. Of the up to 5,000 visitors daily, about 1,500 visit the tower restaurant. In GDR times, the duration of a stay in the Tele-Café was limited to 60 minutes and in the observation deck to 30 minutes.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The two visitor elevators carry 12 people each in about 40 seconds to the observation platform at 203 metres, where Berlin's highest bar is also located. From 60 windows there is a panoramic view over the whole of Berlin and the surrounding areas. The restaurant, which is located 21 steps above the observation platform at 207 metres altitude, rotates 360 degrees in an hour. For fire protection reasons, the main kitchen is located at the foot of the tower. The meals are transported by lift to the restaurant floor, where they are prepared in a small satellite kitchen. Apart from the two evacuation platforms below the tower basket, the fire protection concept includes a strict smoking ban throughout the entire structure. Wheelchair users and persons with current walking disabilities cannot visit the Berlin TV Tower, as they would not be able to use the escape route in case of emergency. Animals, prams and large luggage are also not admitted for safety reasons.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: On 14 June 2011 – almost 42 years after the inauguration – the then Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit welcomed the 50 millionth visitor. The entire city can be viewed from the observation deck of the TV Tower. If there is good visibility, the view reaches as far as the recreational park Tropical Islands Resort, at a distance of almost 60 kilometres.


title: Fernsehturm Berlin

text: The TV Tower, which is open all year to the public, has seasonal opening times. The last ascent to the observation platform is daily at 11.30 pm, whereas the last admission to the restaurant is at 11 pm. The public area can be rented for special events, parties, receptions and other events with a maximum of 200 guests. Civil weddings can also be celebrated on the TV Tower. In this case, the bar area on the observation deck is reserved for an hour for the bridal couple and a wedding party of up to 30 guests.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: The Mists of Avalon is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which the author relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine (Morgan le Fay), a priestess fighting to save her Celtic religion in a country where Christianity threatens to destroy the pagan way of life. The epic is focused on the lives of Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), Viviane, Morgause, Igraine and other women of the Arthurian legend.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: "The Mists of Avalon" is in stark contrast to most other retellings of the Arthurian tales, which consistently cast Morgan le Fay as a distant, one-dimensional evil sorceress, with little or no explanation given for her antagonism to the Round Table. In this case, Morgaine is presented as a woman with unique gifts and responsibilities at a time of enormous political and spiritual upheaval who is called upon to defend her indigenous heritage against impossible odds.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: The story is told in four large parts: "Book One: Mistress of Magic", "Book Two: The High Queen", "Book Three: The King Stag", and "Book Four: The Prisoner in the Oak". The novel was a best-seller upon its publication and remains popular to this day. Bradley and Diana L. Paxson later expanded the book into the "Avalon" series.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: "The Mists of Avalon" is a generations-spanning retelling of the Arthurian legend that brings it back to its Brythonic Celtic roots . The plot tells the story of the women who influence King Arthur, High King of Britain, and those around him.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: The book's protagonist is Morgaine, priestess of Avalon, who is King Arthur's half-sister. Their mother Igraine is married to Uther Pendragon after Morgaine's biological father, Gorlois, is killed in battle. Rumors spread in Avalon that before Igraine knew her husband Gorlois was killed, Uther consulted with the Merlin, who used his magic to transform the king into the likeness of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igraine at Tintagel. He spent the night with her and they conceived a son, Arthur. Morgaine witnesses Uther Pendragon's accession to the throne of Caerleon after his predecessor, Ambrosius, dies of old age. Uther becomes her step-father, and he and Igraine have a son, Arthur, Morgaine's half-brother.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: When Morgaine is eleven years old and Arthur six, an attempt of murder is made on Arthur's life. Their maternal aunt, the high priestess Viviane, arrives in Caerleon and advises Uther to have Arthur fostered far away from the court for his own safety. Uther agrees, and also allows Viviane to take Morgaine to Avalon, where she is trained as a priestess of the Mother Goddess. During this period, Morgaine becomes aware of the rising tension between the old Pagan and the new Christian religions. After seven years of training, Morgaine is initiated as a priestess of the Mother, and Viviane begins grooming her as the next Lady of Avalon.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: Some months after her initiation, Morgaine is given in a fertility rite to the future high king of Britain. Their union is not meant to be personal, but rather a symbolic wedding between the future high king and the land he is to defend. The following morning, Morgaine and Arthur recognize each other and are horrified to realize what they have done. Two months later, Morgaine is devastated to find that she is pregnant.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: After Uther dies in battle against the Saxon invaders, Arthur claims the throne of Britain despite questions about his legitimacy (he had been conceived within days of Igraine's marriage to Uther Pendragon). Since Arthur must now defend Britain against the Saxons, Viviane has Morgaine make him an enchanted scabbard that will prevent him from losing blood and gives him the sacred sword Excalibur. With the combined force of Avalon and Caerleon, Arthur repels the invaders.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: As Morgaine's unborn child grows within her, so do her feelings of anger and betrayal toward Viviane, who she believes tricked her into bearing a child to her own half-brother. Unable to stay in Avalon any longer, she leaves for the court of her aunt Morgause, queen of Lothian, where she bears her son, naming him Gwydion. Spurred by her husband Lot's ambition and her own, Morgause tricks Morgaine into allowing her to rear her son. To escape Lot's unwanted advances, Morgaine leaves Lothian and returns to Arthur's court as a lady-in-waiting to the high queen, Gwenhwyfar. She does not see Gwydion again until he is grown and a Druid priest.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: When Gwenhwyfar fails to produce an heir, she is convinced God is punishing her for her sins. Chiefest among them, as she believes, are her failure to persuade Arthur to outlaw pagan religious practice in Britain and her forbidden love for Galahad, Arthur's cousin and finest knight, who is also known as Lancelet. Although Lancelet reciprocates Gwenhwyfar's love, he is also Arthur's friend and an honorable man. This situation causes terrible suffering to both Lancelet and Gwenhwyfar.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: On the eve of a decisive battle against the Saxons, Gwenhwyfar prevails upon Arthur to put aside his father's Pendragon banner and replace it with her own Christian banner. As her religious fanaticism grows, relations between Avalon and Camelot grow strained. Still, in her desperation over her failure to carry a child to term, she asks Morgaine for help, threatening to have an extramarital affair so she can become pregnant. In an attempt to keep Gwenhwyfar from doing so, Morgaine reveals that Arthur already has a son, though he does not know it.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: After the battle, Arthur moves his court to Camelot, which is more easily defended than Caerleon had been. Seeking to free both Lancelet and Gwenhwyfar from the forbidden love that traps them both, Morgaine tricks Lancelet into marrying Gwenhwyfar's cousin, Elaine. Some time later, during a heated argument with Arthur over their lack of an heir, Gwenhwyfar breaks Morgaine's confidence and tells Arthur he has a son. In growing suspicion and horror, Arthur summons Morgaine and orders her to tell him the truth. Morgaine obeys. Now believing that the lack of a royal heir is God's punishment for Arthur's union, however unwitting, with his own half-sister, Gwenhwyfar urges Arthur to confess the encounter to the bishop, who imposes strict penance upon him. Then she and Arthur arrange for Morgaine to marry into Wales, far from Camelot. But because of a misunderstanding, Morgaine, who had thought she would be marrying the king's younger son Accolon, a Druid priest and warrior, finds herself betrothed to King Uriens of Wales, who is old enough to be her grandfather. Arthur yearns to meet his son Gwydion and perhaps foster him at Camelot, but each time he brings up the subject with Gwenhwyfar, she refuses to discuss it.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: Morgaine marries Uriens and moves to Wales, but in time begins an affair with Accolon. The "old people" of the hills, who keep to the old pagan ways, regard Accolon and Morgaine as their king and queen. King Uriens suspects nothing, but Accolon's older brother, Avalloch, begins to; at one point, he confronts Morgaine in private and tries to blackmail her into sleeping with him as well. Morgaine sends Avalloch out on a boar hunt and is magically present when the boar kills him. In his grief for his eldest son and heir, Uriens abstains from pork for the rest of his life. Morgaine tells Accolon, who is now Uriens's heir, of the sacred marriage she made with Arthur years before. She adds that they must take the kingdom back from Arthur and the Christians and bring it back under the sway of Avalon. The attempted coup fails and Arthur kills Accolon in single combat. As Uriens recovers from the shock of losing a second son, Morgaine leaves Wales forever.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: Gwydion, now grown, goes to the Saxon courts to learn warfare far from Arthur's eye. Impressed by his cleverness, the Saxons name him Mordred ("Evil Counsel"). Years later, at a Pentecost feast at Camelot, he introduces himself as Queen Morgaine's son and Queen Morgause's foster son, though he calls Queen Morgause "Mother" and Morgaine by her name. Because of his close resemblance to Lancelet, he must often tell people that Lancelet is not his father. To earn his knighthood with no suspicion of preferential treatment, Gwydion challenges Lancelet to single combat during a tourney and they fight. As they start to fight in earnest, Gwenhwyfar, who has warmed to Gwydion in the meantime, protests and Arthur interrupts the match. Lancelet makes Gwydion a knight of the Round Table, naming him Mordred.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: Morgaine returns to Camelot under guise with another sister of Avalon during another Pentacost festival. Wielding great magic, Morgaine and her sister make manifest the Holy Grail—one of the sacred regalia of Avalon. The assembled court sees the manifestation of the Grail as a holy revelation. When the knights of the Round Table leave to search for the Holy Grail, Mordred attempts to usurp the throne. In a climactic battle, the armies of Arthur and Mordred fight and Arthur is mortally wounded. Morgaine takes the dying Arthur through the mists to Avalon, reassuring him that he did not fail in his attempt to save Britain from the approaching dark times. Arthur dies in her arms as the shoreline comes into view. Morgaine buries him in Avalon and remains there to tell the tale of Camelot.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: "The Mists of Avalon" is lauded as one of the most original and emotional retellings of the familiar Arthurian legend. Bradley received much praise for her convincing portrayal of the main protagonists, respectful handling of the Pagan ways of Avalon and for telling a story in which there is neither black and white nor good and evil, but several truths. Isaac Asimov called it "the best retelling of the Arthurian Saga I have ever read", and Jean Auel noted "I loved this book so much I went out and bought it for a friend, and have told many people about it." The "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" calls the book "a convincing revision of the Arthurian cycle," and said that the victory of Christianity over the "sane but dying paganism" of Avalon "ensures eons of repression for women and the vital principles they espouse." It won the 1984 Locus Award for "Best Fantasy Novel" and spent four months on the "New York Times" best seller list in hardcover. The trade paperback edition of "Mists of Avalon" has ranked among the top five trade paperbacks on the monthly Locus bestseller lists for almost four years.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: "The Mists of Avalon" was adapted for television into a TNT miniseries in 2001, directed by Uli Edel.


title: The Mists of Avalon

text: Bradley, along with Diana L. Paxson, later expanded the book into a series, including "The Fall of Atlantis", "Ancestors of Avalon", "Sword of Avalon", "Ravens of Avalon", "The Forest House", "Lady of Avalon", and "Priestess of Avalon". J.S. Morgane's "The Spirituality of Avalon" discusses the religious aspects of the Avalon series and gives insights into a modern Western understanding of spirituality and its construction in epic fantasy fiction.


title: UFC 263

text: UFC 263: Adesanya vs. Vettori 2 was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on June 12, 2021, at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, United States.


title: UFC 263

text: The event was the second that the promotion has contested in Glendale, following in April 2018. Zuffa had previously hosted the final World Extreme Cagefighting event, WEC 53, at the arena in December 2010.


title: UFC 263

text: A UFC Middleweight Championship bout between then champion Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori headlined the event. The pair previously met at , where Adesanya won via split decision.


title: UFC 263

text: A UFC Flyweight Championship rematch between champion Deiveson Figueiredo and former title challenger Brandon Moreno took place as the co-main event. The pairing previously met in December 2020 at UFC 256, where Figueiredo retained the title after the bout was scored a majority draw.


title: UFC 263

text: A light heavyweight bout between Paul Craig and Jamahal Hill took place at the event. The pairing was previously scheduled to take place at , but Hill withdrew from that event on March 10 after testing positive for COVID-19.


title: UFC 263

text: A welterweight fight between Leon Edwards and former UFC Lightweight Championship challenger Nate Diaz (also The Ultimate Fighter 5 lightweight winner) was expected to take place at UFC 262. However, Diaz pulled out due to a minor injury in early May and the bout took place at this event. Despite the different date, the pairing retained its original status, marking the first time in UFC history that a non-title bout other than the main event was scheduled for five rounds.


title: UFC 263

text: A women's bantamweight bout between Karol Rosa and Sijara Eubanks was scheduled to take place at the event. However, Rosa pulled out of the fight in late-May citing an eye injury. In turn, Eubanks was removed from the card and will face Priscila Cachoeira six weeks later at instead.


title: UFC 263

text: A lightweight bout between Frank Camacho and Matt Frevola was originally scheduled to take place at in June 2020, but Frevola was pulled from the fight during the week leading up to the event after teammate and cornerman Billy Quarantillo tested positive for COVID-19. Despite two negative tests, Frevola was removed from the bout in an abundance of caution. They were then rescheduled for this event. In turn, Camacho pulled out of the fight four days before the event after being injured in a car accident. Frevola faced promotional newcomer Terrance McKinney instead.


title: UFC 263

text: At the weigh-ins, Steven Peterson weighed in at 148.5 pounds, two and a half pounds over the featherweight non-title fight limit. His bout proceeded at catchweight and he was fined 20% of his purse, which went to his opponent Chase Hooper.


title: UFC 263

text: The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported by the Arizona Department of Gaming. It does not include sponsor money and also does not include the UFC's traditional "fight night" bonuses. Total disclosed purses for the event was $3,233,000.


title: UFC 263

text: ¹ "Although not recognized on the official pay sheet, Steven Peterson was fined 20 percent of his purse ($9,200) for failing to make the required weight for his fight with Chase Hooper. That money was issued to Hooper, an ADOG official confirmed."


title: UFC 263

text: The event broke the record for the most decisions on a single UFC card with 11, breaking the five-way tie with UFC 169, , , , and . This event was also the longest UFC event with 3:19:32 of fight time.


title: Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021

text: One day, Nobita picks a small rocket from which a small-sized humanoid alien named Papi comes out. He comes to Earth from a planet name Pirika to escape its evil PCIA army. At first, Doraemon and his friends are confused by Papi's small size, but with the gadget "Small Light", they shrink and play together.


text: However, the whale-shaped battleship which was chasing Papi comes to Earth and attacks them. Papi blames himself for having involved everyone but, tries to fight against the PCIA army. In order to protect Papi and his planet, Doraemon and his friends travel to Pirika.


text: Kazuaki Imai, who directed the previous Doraemon feature film , was replaced by Susumu Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi quoted, "I used to participate only in drawing, but it was over, but I thought, I want to make a Doraemon film before I die. So I took the initiative and took action under the name of 'five-year plan'." He worked on the production of TV specials and movies, and appealed to the production team to direct the film. As a result, he was finally called out. However, because the production of an original film was difficult due to the schedules, Yamaguchi decided to remake "". According to Yamaguchi, was also recommended, was not finalized because of the difficulty to animate scenes in underwater.


text: Dai Satō wrote the screenplay of the film, who has worked on many works including the Science fiction anime series "Cowboy Bebop". Yamaguchi said that he was glad with his screenplay.


text: Koichi Maruyama was selected from the TV series for character design, and Junya Ishigaki was in charge of mechanical design.


text: Sato had written his own plot to make the remake compatible to the 2020's age. After that, it had turned out that director Susumu Yamaguchi had also written a plot based on similar changes. Therefore, the two decided to pursue the character of Papi, the guest character of this work. In the original story, Papi was separated from Nobita and others by PCIA in the first half of the story, but since it was not possible to show the interaction between Papi and Nobita and Papi's feeling about it, Sato had consulted with Yamaguchi and had decided to write the first half of the original shorter. For the same reason, Papi's older sister Piina had been introduced as a new character. In addition, the original Papi was depicted as "an intelligent life form far superior to earthlings," which was slightly changed in the remake to make it compatible to the modern times. For this reason, a scene in which Papi becomes emotionally angry was included.


text: For characters other than Papi, a deep digging of the character was done. For example, in the case of Suneo, he was portrayed as a representative of the majority of people who want to be brave enough to do heroic things, but they only keep things to themselves. Also, in the original work, Suneo showed a war-weary attitude which remained in the remake, but scenes were increased where Suneo was reluctant to fight. Mayu Matsuoka, who voiced Piina, said in a stage greeting on 27 March 2022 that she had been encouraged by Suneo's honest expression of his fear of fighting.


text: On the other hand, Nobita had been depicted clumsy sometimes because they thought Nobita could be 'too heroic'.


text: In addition, in the original manga, the defeat of Gilmore by the public was easily drawn in one page. Sato said that he had focused on Gilmore's coronation ceremony, which had been only mentioned in the original manga, while it had been difficult to come up with a good idea, although it had lacked balance if he followed the depiction of the final stage because he had strengthened other part.


text: Gilmore's coronation ceremony had been set with Papi's death penalty, and the content of Papi's speech was based on his interaction with Nobita and others. Also Papi's scream to Gilmore in the original was the scene when the death sentence was announced, but since the public did not witness the scene and it looked like a loser's howl, in the remake it was changed to Gilmore's coronation ceremony, which led the public to an uprising.


text: Among the guest voice actors, Mayu Matsuoka was selected as Papi's older sister , Piina. In an interview with Animate Times, Yamaguchi revealed that when he heard Matsuoka's first line, 'Doracoluru', he felt that Matsuoka was a good choice. In addition, the leader of the underground organization and the pilot of the Free Alliance, who were collaborators of Doraemon and others, were played by the comedy duo Milk Boy, Takashi Utsumi and Takashi Komaba respectively. In an interview with the Animate Times, Yamaguchi said that the two characters in the play are not comedy relief, but rather young people who are desperate to save their nation. Teruyuki Kagawa was appointed as Gilmore, the dictator of the planet Pirika. Yamaguchi revealed in an interview with Animate Times that he had asked Kagawa to play 'the most hated person' in a letter. He also said that Kagawa was acting with his body and gestures. Romi Park, Yuki Kaji and Junichi Suwabe were selected as Papi, Rokoroko and Dorakoruru respectively.


text: Care was taken to keep the character designs close to the original, but not too old-fashioned. Also, in the remake, as a respect for special effects films of the 20th century, real miniatures are used as part of the background in some scenes, which is the first time in the Doraemon film series.


text: On 16 November 2020, it was announced that the film would get release on 5 March 2021. Major staff and theme song artist were also announced. On 9 January 2021, The theme song "Universe" by Official Hige Dandism was published on the YouTube channel of the pop band. The release date of the film got postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic on 29 January 2021. After almost six months, on 17 July 2021 it was announced that the film would get release in early 2022. On 9 November 2021, the new release date, 4 March 2022 was announced and guest voice actors were announced of the following two characters, Piina and Gilmore. After nine days, on 18 November 2021, a new trailer was published on the official YouTube channel and voice actors of Papi, Rokoroko and Dorakoruru were announced. On 17 January 2022, insert song artist was announced. Two more guest voice artists were announced on 25 January 2022.


text: The film was released in theaters on 4 March 2022 in Japan after being postponed from 5 March 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic. Vietnamese film distributor CGV released this film in Vietnam on 27 May 2022. It was released in China on 28 May 2022. The film was released by Odex in Malaysia on 16 June 2022. Odex opened a fan screening of the film on 9 July 2022 and SM Cinema generally released it in theatres in Philippines on 13 July 2022. In Taiwan it was released on 15 July 2022. Odex also released the film in Azerbaijan and Mauritius on 30 June 2022, in Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon on 7 July 2022, in Egypt on 20 July 2022, in Cyprus on 21 July 2022, and in South Africa on 5 August 2022. The film was also released in South Korea on 3 August 2022. It got a release in Turkey on 5 August 2022, with a Turkish-language dub.


text: It has been streaming on Amazon Prime Japan from August 2022. It is also scheduled to released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Japan in December 7, 2022. The upcoming releases will also contains bonus materials.


text: "Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021" debuted at no. 1 in its first weekend, with a sell of about 350,000 tickets in its first three days. According to Box Office Mojo, it grossed $22,060,623 at the box office.


text: In Vietnam, the movie also debuted at no.1 in its first weekend, grossed 119.8 billion dong ($5115.94) and surpassed "" in the Vietnamese box office.


text: A week before its release, the Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun. As a result, the story of the film is compared with the incident. Among them, RealSound 's Kazuma Kubota points out that the pendant Papi wears in the film is the same color as the Ukrainian flag.


text: Writer Kaeru Inaka, in an article of 'Real Sound', praised the opening scene from Papi's escape to Nobita's movie shooting and also commented about the fast-going events of the first part of the film. Inaka also evaluated that the scene where Nobita and his friends became small, played with Papi and enjoyed the extraordinary life was a good link between the everyday scene and the upcoming war. In addition, Inaka pointed out that recent Doraemon movies tend to exaggerate emotional expressions so that even children can understand, but the animations had been done carefully so that it did not seem to be a joke. He said that the staff had been succeeded in making the film so that even children feel the terror of war.


text: Writer Hodaka Sugimoto wrote an article on the anime-specialized news site AnimeAnime.jp. He says that the pitifulness of dictatorship can be understood well through the contrast between Dorakoruru and Gilmore. In addition, Sugimoto pointed out that the bravery of the common people of Pirika was emphasized more than the original manga and the and highlighted that not an external military force, but the common people living in the planet overthrow the oppressive regime.


text: A Nintendo Switch game based on the film and created by FuRyu was scheduled to be released on 4 March 2021, but its release was postponed, along with the film, due to COVID-19 pandemic. The game was released on 4 March 2022.


title: Aby Rosen

text: Aby J. Rosen (born May 16, 1960) is a German-American real estate tycoon living in New York City. He co-founded RFR Holding, which owns a portfolio of 93 properties valued over $15.5 billion in cities including New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Tel Aviv. Highlights include the Seagram Building, W South Beach, The Jaffa Tel Aviv, Gramercy Park Hotel, Paramount Hotel, and Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, among other properties. Rosen is also a member of, a founding investor in, and the landlord of the CORE Club in New York.


title: Aby Rosen

text: Rosen is a noted collector of modern and contemporary art, owning more than 800 postwar pieces, including 100-plus works by Andy Warhol. His collection includes pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons.


title: Aby Rosen

text: Rosen was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, in 1960, the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors. His mother, Anni, spent World War II hiding in a Belgian farmhouse, while his father, Isak, was held in concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland. After the war, Anni became a painter and Isak a real estate developer. Rosen attended local schools before going to Wolfgang Goethe University, where he graduated with a business degree. His parents moved to Israel by the 1990s, living in Tel Aviv.


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 1987, Rosen moved to New York City. He apprenticed at a real estate brokerage firm selling properties to German investors.


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 1991, he founded the partnership RFR Holding LLC with his childhood friend Michael Fuchs, also a son of Holocaust survivors. The real estate market was in a downturn at the time, but they had access to capital, initially using properties they owned in Germany as collateral. Later they leveraged their access to German investors. Their strategy was to purchase large, vacant office buildings in need of an upgrade and hire architects to refurbish them to high standards. In the 15 years after RFR Holding was established in 1991, Rosen acquired a large portfolio of office buildings, including the Seagram Building, purchased for $375 million from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association in 2000, and Lever House.


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 2006, Rosen partnered with Ian Schrager, a longtime friend and co-founder of Studio 54, to transform the 123-year-old Gramercy Park Hotel with minimalist architect John Pawson. In 2014, they put the hotel on the market for $260 million, after completing a four-year, $200 million renovation.


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 2006, Rosen announced plans to develop the site at 610 Lexington Avenue in NYC (directly behind the Seagram Building) into a glass hotel and condominium tower to be designed by Sir Norman Foster.


title: Aby Rosen

text: The Lever House Art Collection is a collection of works commissioned by Rosen for display at the Lever House. It is curated by Richard Marshall, an art historian and associate curator for the Whitney Museum. The Lever House Art Collection was inaugurated in 2004 featuring a work by Jorge Pardo. Other works have included "Bride Fight" by E.V. Day, "Hulks" by Jeff Koons, and "Hello Kitty" by Tom Sachs.


title: Aby Rosen

text: Rosen and Fuchs hold a large real estate portfolio in Germany, especially in Frankfurt. In early 2007, they bought the headquarters building of the European Central Bank. The company also owns the Swift Haus Jungfernstieg in Hamburg. This portfolio is administered by their office in Frankfurt.


title: Aby Rosen

text: Rosen has been married twice. In 1991, he married Elizabeth Mina Wechsler in a Jewish ceremony at The Pierre in Manhattan. Before their separation in 2000 and divorce in 2004, they had two sons, Gabriel (born 1994) and Charles (born 1996).


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 2005, Rosen married Dr. Samantha Boardman, a psychiatrist and socialite. Boardman is the daughter of D. Dixon Boardman, who founded the hedge fund Optima Fund Management, and Pauline Pitt, a banking heiress. Boardman graduated from Harvard University and Cornell University medical school. She converted to Judaism. Together, they have two children, Alexander (born 2006) and Vivian (born 2007).


title: Aby Rosen

text: Rosen resides on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his wife and their two children. The family summers in Southampton, New York, where they have a $21.5 million home.


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 2011, Rosen bought the A. Conger Goodyear House in Old Westbury, New York on Long Island for $3.4 million. The house was designed and built in 1938 by Edward Durell Stone in the International Style for Anson Conger Goodyear, the first president of the Museum of Modern Art. Rosen completed a several-year renovation of the property. He keeps many of his important pieces of art there, including "The Virgin Mother", a 13-ton, 33-foot-high bronze sculpture by Damien Hirst of a pregnant woman with peeled skin and an exposed fetus.


title: Aby Rosen

text: In 2012, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar, reportedly bought Rosen's 71st Street New York townhouse for $47 million. Rosen is also reported to own a $36 million vacation home in Saint Barthélemy.


title: Aby Rosen

text: Rosen is known for his annual dinner party at the W South Beach during Art Basel. It has drawn a mix of celebrities and business leaders.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: The Legend of Dragoon is a role-playing video game developed by Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation in 1999 in Japan, 2000 in North America, and 2001 in Europe. Set in a high fantasy fictional world called Endiness, the game follows a group of warriors led by the protagonist, Dart, as they attempt to stop the destruction of the world. The player controls a party of 3D character models through pre-rendered, linear environments. Combat uses a combination of turn-based mechanics and real-time commands. Notably, the game includes a quick time event called "addition" during each attack, requiring the player to press a button when two squares converge.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Development began in 1996 and took three years with a production team of over one hundred, and cost $16 million, notably high for the time. The game's use of realistic CGI cutscenes drew attention from the press. On release, "The Legend of Dragoon" received mixed reviews, with critics comparing it unfavourably to the "Final Fantasy" series. "The Legend of Dragoon" sold more than one million copies worldwide, with most of those sales coming from North America. An album of the game's soundtrack was released in 2000, as well as a novel and manga inspired by the game.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: "The Legend of Dragoon" features three modes of play: the area map, the field, and the battle screen. Players explore the world of "The Legend of Dragoon" by following predetermined routes on a linear 3D map. At the end of each route are various representations of areas for the player to enter, including towns and dungeons. As the game progresses more routes are revealed for the player to traverse. In the field map, the player navigates fully scaled versions of the areas represented on the world map, which are superimposed on pre-rendered backgrounds. The player can explore the environment, talk with characters and advance the story.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: At random intervals on the area map and in field mode, and at specific moments in the story, the game will enter the battle screen. A maximum of three characters are used in each battle. On a party member’s turn, the player chooses a command for their character to take such as attacking with a weapon, guarding to recover health, using items, or running away. When the "attack" option is selected a quick-time event mechanic is activated called “addition”. Two blue squares appear on the screen and start to converge. If the player presses a button when the squares overlap the character will continue the addition and do more damage. Characters will receive multiple additions over the course of the game, which have longer chains and deal more damage. The longer additions, however, allow enemies the opportunity to counter and the player needs to press a different button to continue their attack. A player can also select a magic attack item where the player can increase the strength of the attack by repeatedly pressing a button.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: During the game's story, a character will obtain a Dragoon Spirit which gives them the ability to transform into "Dragoon form" while in combat. Dragoon form changes the character's appearance, giving them wings and making them float in the air. The character can only become a Dragoon during a battle if they have obtained spirit points, which are received after successfully executing an addition attack. In Dragoon form, the character receives a boost to their damage and damage resistance, and their commands of attack, guard, items, and run are replaced with Dragoon Attack and Dragoon Magic. If Dragoon Attack is selected, the player enters a new quick time event to extend the number of attacks they execute. A circle appears with a line that moves clockwise and when the line reaches the top of the circle, the player must press X to execute an additional attack. Dragoon Magic allows the player to execute a powerful offensive or defensive spell. The Dragoon form is only usable for a limited number of turns and must recharge to be used again.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: When not in battle, the player can use the menu screen. This screen is used to review each character's status and statistics, use items and abilities, save the game (when on the world map or at a save point), and select an addition attack for use in battle.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: "The Legend of Dragoon" takes place on a world referred to in-game as "Endiness". Its aesthetic resembles the Middle Ages with fantasy elements such as swords, magic and dragons. The world contains a variety of species including Humans, Dragons and Winglies. Humans live as farmers while Dragons look like winged creatures and possess Dragon Spirits. Winglies are an aggressive species who are able to fly and enslaved humans 10,000 years before the start of the game. Humans became Dragoons by obtaining the help of Dragons to defeat the Winglies and, at the time of the game's events, live in relative peace.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: There are nine playable protagonists in the game. The main protagonist is Dart, a warrior who is searching for the Black Monster. Shana is Dart's childhood friend and love interest. Rose is a warrior who teaches Dart how to fight as a Dragoon. Albert is the king of Basil, a duchy within the game and Lavitz is his loyal knight who fights with a spear. Meru is a dancer from a flower town and Kongol is the last of his species alive in the game's world. Haschel is an elderly man searching for his daughter and Miranda is a magician.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Dart is travelling to his hometown when he is attacked by a dragon. He is saved by Rose, who informs Dart that the Sandora army has attacked the town. As he arrives he discovers that the town has been destroyed and his childhood friend Shana has been taken to a prison.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: After rescuing Shana with the help of Lavitz, King Albert sends the party to defend the fort-city of Hoax. During a surprise attack, Dart gains the ability to transform into a Dragoon. With the fort safe, the party travels to Lohan where they meet Lloyd and discover that he kidnapped King Albert and took the Moon Gem from him, an ancient artifact held by the Royal Family. The king is rescued, but Lloyd escapes with the Moon Gem, killing Lavitz in the process. The party discovers that Lloyd is gathering similar artifacts held by royalty across the continent and while the party tries to reverse his work, Lloyd obtains all three of the artifacts. Dart and the party defeat Lloyd, who agrees to take them to Emperor Diaz.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Diaz reveals that during the Wingly reign 10,000 years ago a creature called the Virage Embryo, also known as the God of Destruction, came to the world to end all other life. Before it could be born, the Winglies used their magic to separate its body from its soul and cast the body into the sky, where it became the Moon That Never Sets. They sealed the moon with magical Signets placed in each of the Wingly cities to prevent the soul and body from reuniting. The soul of the God of Destruction was originally placed inside the Crystal Sphere, which was worn by the Wingly ruler Melbu Frahma to increase his power. The Crystal Sphere was shattered when Dragoons attacked the Wingly capital of Kadessa.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: The soul of the God of Destruction has wandered the Earth and every one hundred and eight years possesses the body of a human child in an attempt to return to its body. The body can be summoned if the Signets are destroyed, which is done using the immense magical power contained within the artifacts that Lloyd gathered. In the present day, the human that is the soul of the God of Destruction is Shana. Emperor Diaz reveals himself to be Zieg Feld, Dart's father and leader of the Dragoons 10,000 years ago. Melbu Frahma cast a spell that both petrified Zieg and kept his own spirit alive within Zieg's body.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Zieg – possessed by Melbu Frahma – takes Shana and destroys the remaining Signet Spheres that seal the Moon That Never Sets, causing it to fall from the sky. He carries Shana to the body of the God of Destruction so that the body will sense the presence of its soul and prepare to restore itself. Instead, Melbu Frahma unites with the body himself, taking the form and power of the God of Destruction. Zieg is released from Melbu Frahma's possession and the party is able to defeat Melbu. Zieg and Rose sacrifice themselves to destroy Melbu Frahma and the surviving party members return to various points on the continent and live separate lives.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: "The Legend of Dragoon" was developed in-house by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. The game was directed and designed by Yasuyuki Hasebe, who also created the story outline. The producer was Shuhei Yoshida, and this game was both one of the last and largest projects he worked on prior to leaving Japan Studio. Kenichi Iwata was the game's art director and designer of the Dragoon armor, working on character designs alongside Tatsuya Nakamura. The game's monsters were designed by Itsuo Itoh, and the dragons were created by Hirohiko Iyoku. The script was written and supervised by Takehiro Kaminagayoshi. Sony's internal studio Polyphony Digital assisted in creating the game's CGI cutscenes.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Production of the game lasted three years. At the beginning of its development in 1996 the company was also creating "Ape Escape" and "Ico", so "The Legend of Dragoon" began with a very small team. The production team grew to over 100 staff members and had a budget of $16 million, both considered very large for a PlayStation game. The "Addition" battle system was designed to make players feel like they were actively participating in a battle rather than selecting commands and waiting for actions to finish. The team's strive for realism resulted in magic — a common character ability in RPGs — only being incorporated into the Dragoon state or through items with equivalent effects.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: There were originally no plans for CGI movies as the character models were polygon-based and there would be a disconnect between real-time and CGI graphics. The development team acquiesced to use CGI movies for key events because they looked impressive and they wanted to showcase the characters flying through the air. It was challenging for the developers to create smoke because it was their first time attempting this effect. The game's real-time lighting was designed to emulate the lighting used in CGI cutscenes so the development team focused on the parts that the player would be drawn to, allowing its economical use. The number of CGI movies and pre-rendered backgrounds meant that the game had to be spread across four CDs, which was the maximum number of discs possible for a single PlayStation case.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: According to Yoshida, a dedicated team of ten artists worked on the game's concept art. The team chose the character's names by writing down 100 names between the letters A to N and then choosing the names they liked best and attaching them to the characters who fit the proposed name. Iwata was chosen to design the main characters after other designers proposed an anime aesthetic, which was rejected. Iwata originally only designed Dart and Rose, with Rose's hair being bright green. As the setting shifted towards a more realistic tone, elements such as Rose's green hair were removed. The characters were given key colors so players could easily distinguish them from each other, with each color matching a character's personality.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: The music of "The Legend of Dragoon" was co-composed by Dennis Martin and Takeo Miratsu. Martin was an American-born composer with a resume including Japanese television series "Rasen" for TV Asahi, while Miratsu had worked on the music of "Jumping Flash!" and its sequel in addition to forming one half of the duo Twin Amadeus. Martin was both the soundtrack programmer and pianist. The soundtrack featured contributions from guitarist Chuei Yoshikawa, bass work by New York musicians Jonathan Maron (Groove Collective), percussion from Ray Grappone (Hipbone Records), and saxophone by Jay Rodriguez (also of Groove Collective). The synthesizer operator was Tetsuo Yamazaki. The music recording sessions were split between the Tokyo-based SEDIC and the Sound On Sound studio in New York. Mixing was also done at Sound On Sound. "The Legend of Dragoon" was Martin's first work for a video game, and was chosen because Sony wanted a different musical style to other RPGs at the time. Martin was originally supposed to compose the game's music himself, but the game's 4 CD-length made this impractical and the Japanese staff hired Miratsu to create additional soundtracks. Martin and Miratsu did not meet each other while working on the game although Martin stated that having a native Japanese composer with a different style to his broadened the soundtrack's variety.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Martin had trouble creating music during the early stages of development and credited the patience of the main production team as instrumental in finding a suitable style and pace for the music. When creating the soundtrack, he needed to fulfill requests from the production team on the soundtrack's overall style and individual pieces but was given creative licence within these parameters. His early work focused on what Martin described as a "percussive/ethnic approach", but the team wanted stronger melodies. Martin was afraid such melodies would get tiresome because the music would loop several times during gameplay, so he added groove elements to negate the issue as he felt groove "[could] loop forever". Martin used the game's artwork and storyboards for inspiration when creating the tracks. One of the two demo discs Martin submitted became the music for the opening CGI cutscene. Martin found the limited PlayStation hardware frustrating for compositions. The game's main theme, "If You Still Believe", was performed by Elsa Raven. The song was composed, written and produced and Martin. The recording of the theme song was split between Tokyo and New York.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: "The Legend of Dragoon" was announced in September 1999 after cutscenes from the game were shown at that year's SIGGRAPH event. It was among the games displayed at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show. The game released in Japan on December 2, 1999.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: A North American release was confirmed by Sony in January 2000 and released on June 14, 2000. Yoshida supervised the North American release following his move to Sony's North American branch. The gameplay was adjusted to become less difficult after feedback from Japanese players, with Yoshida calling the North American release the "complete" version. The game was released in Europe on January 19, 2001. The game was re-released as a PlayStation Classic through PlayStation Network on December 22, 2010 in Japan and May 1, 2012 in North America. In a retrospective article about the series, Yoshida stated that a sequel was in pre-production after Yoshida left Japan, but was cancelled for unknown reasons.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: "The Legend of Dragoon" was given a score of 74 out of 100 by review aggregation website Metacritic based on 12 reviews, indicating a "mixed or average" reception. The game was nominated at the 2001 D.I.C.E. Awards in the "Console Role-Playing Game" category.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: The game was praised by David Smith in his review for IGN for its cinematics and graphics, which are cited as major drawing points for the game. The addition quick-time events were criticised for requiring too much precision, and the titular element of Dragoon transformation was deemed inconsequential to the gameplay. He also criticised the excessive frequency of random encounters. Eric Bratcher reviewed the game for "Next Generation" and stated it was "a vast, majestic game that emulates the weaknesses of "FFVIII" as well as the strengths. Still, it's a fantastic title with an incredibly compelling concept." Jeuxvideo.com said the gameplay did not surpass the "Final Fantasy" series while Gamekult said it presented some interesting concepts but "does not have the magic of "Final Fantasy IX"." Ken Chu, in reviewing the Japanese version, said that it would be considered a good game if it was evaluated on its own merits, instead of in comparison to other video game titles.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: GameSpot's Peter Bartholow was more critical of the game, calling it a "highly generic RPG" that "borrows too heavily from other games and lacks that 'hook' to make it worth dealing with excessive defending." Citan Uzuki from RPGFan declared it was an "average RPG." When reviewing its re-release in 2012, Neal Chandran noted that ""The Legend of Dragoon" is one of the most underrated RPGs in the PlayStation era" and that it was enjoyable once the reviewer was comfortable with its gameplay mechanics and changes from traditional RPG characteristics.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: Upon its debut in Japan, "The Legend of Dragoon" reached second place in sales behind "Pokémon Gold" and "Silver", selling over 160,000 units and becoming the best-selling new release that week. By the end of 1999, the game had sold over 280,000 copies in Japan. According to Yoshida, sales in the United States were stronger than those in Japan, allowing the game to recoup its large budget. By 2007, "The Legend of Dragoon" had sold 960,000 copies in the United States and 355,240 copies in Japan, for a total of units sold in these regions.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: The game's PSN release topped the PlayStation Classics sales charts and remained in the top five for the next three months.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: An original soundtrack album for the game was released in Japan on January 21, 2000, by SPE Visual Works. RPGFan's Lucy Rzeminski called the album "a passable CD if you give it a chance to sink in", praising some tracks but finding most of the album lacking in both quality and variety. Chris Greening of Square Enix Music Online gave the album a score of 6/10, saying that while innovative at the time, had been superseded in quality by later soundtracks. He recommended that fans buy the soundtrack despite the album missing several tracks from the game. Both critics praised the main theme of "If You Still Believe" as a high-quality theme song. "If You Still Believe" was included in the compilation album "Game Music Collection ～Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Best～", published by King Records on January 23, 2005.


title: The Legend of Dragoon

text: The series was twice adapted following its Japanese release; a novelization written by Hiranari Izuno and published by Famitsu Bunko in March 2000, and a short-lived manga created by Ataru Cagiva published in a tankōbon by Enterbrain in June the same year. Dart was also intended to be a downloadable content character for "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale".


title: The Layover (film)

text: The Layover is a 2017 American sex comedy film directed by William H. Macy and written by David Hornsby and Lance Krall, starring Alexandra Daddario, Kate Upton, Matt Barr, Matt L. Jones, Rob Corddry, Kal Penn, and Molly Shannon. Filming began early May 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was completed early June 2015.


title: The Layover (film)

text: The film was released on August 3, 2017, through DirecTV Cinema, and then began a limited release and playing video on demand on September 1, 2017, by Vertical Entertainment.


title: The Layover (film)

text: Kate and Meg are childhood friends and roommates in Seattle experiencing stressful times. Kate is a high school English teacher who is being pressured by Principal Moss to resign, while Meg is a struggling cosmetics saleswoman. After a night of drinking, Meg suggests they go on vacation together to escape their stressful lives. Kate is reluctant, but ultimately acquiesces as Meg had already booked non-refundable tickets to Fort Lauderdale using Kate's frequent flyer miles.


title: The Layover (film)

text: On the plane, Kate and Meg are seated next to Ryan, a handsome firefighter on his way to a wedding. Both women are immediately attracted to him and begin to shamelessly flirt with him. A few hours into the flight, the plane is diverted to St. Louis due to a hurricane warning. The women are taken to the local Sheraton and run into Ryan, who invites them to drinks at the hotel club. Before going to bed, Kate tells Meg that she will fight her for Ryan's affections.


title: The Layover (film)

text: When it is learned the hurricane will move away from Florida, Ryan manages to get a ride from Craig, a jewelry salesman who had taken a liking to Meg but had been continually rebuffed by her, and the women ask to tag along. Kate shows embarrassing childhood photos of Meg to the men for their amusement and in response, Meg locks Kate in a gas station bathroom, forcing Kate to escape through a high window covered in feces. Back in the car, Kate fakes an injury to get a massage from Ryan, prompting Meg to place sleeping pills into a bottle of wine to give to Kate. When Kate declines to drink, Craig, who is driving, takes it instead, much to Meg's horror. After a few hours, Craig eventually passes out and crashes the car, forcing the four to spend the night at a motel.


title: The Layover (film)

text: When Kate sees the pills in the bottle, she asks for a hotel room for herself. Meg says that she can have Ryan, but Kate proclaims she never wanted Ryan and merely did not want Meg to have him. Meg decides to go to a local bar where Craig joins her. When Craig fails to impress Meg, he suggests to her that she should be open to the qualities of other men. Back at the hotel, Ryan makes a pass at Kate, who gives in and has rigorous sex with him. In the morning at breakfast, Meg tells Kate they should not jeopardize their friendship over a man, but when Meg lets slip that Ryan has a misshaped penis, something Kate had seen from having sex with him, Kate realizes Meg had sex with Ryan as well and the two get into a physical fight, making a mess of the motel lobby in the process. Their fight ends when the motel manager calls the police on them.


title: The Layover (film)

text: Craig reveals to the police that Ryan had taken his car to reach the wedding on time. When he looks up Ryan's Google Plus profile, he sees that Ryan is the one getting married, revealing this to the women. Appalled, they beg to be released to stop the wedding, and are let go after paying for the damage to the lobby. The two arrive at the hotel in Fort Lauderdale where the wedding is taking place, but it is too late to stop it. The women confront Ryan, who calls them out on throwing themselves at him. The women still claim it was wrong for him to sleep with both of them the night before his wedding and not tell them he was the one being married. Ryan admits he had been with his now-wife Genevieve since freshman year of college and has not been able to get with anyone else. When the women meet Genevieve, they see that she is controlling and demanding of Ryan, and decide not to tell her about his actions, feeling Ryan will suffer enough in his marriage. With a few hours before their flight back to Seattle, Meg tracks down Craig at his jewelry shop to apologize for brushing him off, kissing him before she leaves. At the airport, Meg tells Kate that they should not live together anymore, to which Kate tearfully agrees, as they have been too dependent on each other.


title: The Layover (film)

text: Kate returns to her job with renewed vigor, and she requests of Principal Moss that her students be allowed to indulge their creativity more instead of just following the standard curriculum. Moss reveals to Kate that he had no intention of firing her; he actually wants to offer her the assistant volleyball coach position. Meg starts taking classes and is in a long-distance relationship with Craig. Meanwhile, Meg has moved into an apartment only a few doors down from Kate so the two can still be close.


title: The Layover (film)

text: On March 25, 2015, it was announced that William H. Macy would direct and star in a road-trip sex comedy film, titled "The Layover", scripted by David Hornsby and Lance Krall. Keith Kjarval would produce through Unified Pictures, along with Aaron L. Gilbert through Bron Studios. Lea Michele and Kate Upton were cast to play best friends who decide to take a vacation to avoid their problems. On April 24, 2015, "TheWrap" revealed that Alexandra Daddario joined the film; she replaced Michele after she left the project. Rob Corddry, Kal Penn and Matt Barr were confirmed for the cast on May 7, 2015, and Matt L. Jones was also added. Macy ultimately did not appear in the film.


title: The Layover (film)

text: Filming began in the first week of May 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and wrapped in the second week of June 2015.


title: The Layover (film)

text: The film debuted on DirecTV Cinema on August 3, 2017, followed by a limited release through Vertical Entertainment on September 1, 2017.


title: The Layover (film)

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 0%, based on reviews from 18 critics, with an average rating of 2.1/10. On Metacritic, it has a score of 15 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, indicating an "overwhelming dislike".


title: The Layover (film)

text: Ben Kenigsberg, writing for "The New York Times", states that the film is just about fighting over a man. Richard Roeper, writing for "Chicago Sun-Times", compared the movie to the unpleasantness of enduring a layover at O'Hare International Airport, decried the performance of Upton, and expressed surprise that Macy could be responsible for directing such "an unholy mess".


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: Thaddeus Moss (born May 14, 1998) is an American football tight end who is currently a free agent. He played college football at NC State before transferring to LSU, where he caught two touchdowns in their 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship game victory. Moss signed as an undrafted free agent with the Washington Football Team in 2020, but did not play with them due to injury and was released the following offseason. He is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss. Thaddeus Moss was formerly apart of the Washington Football Team and most recently the Cincinatti Bengals.


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: Moss initially attended Boone County High School in Florence, Kentucky, where he caught 12 passes for 157 yards on offense and had 32 tackles on defense. Was coached by Greg Nieman, also known as YG who works for HitSeekers Sports Cards as a breaker on Loupe, while attending Boone County. He then transferred to St. Albans School in St. Albans, West Virginia midway through his freshman year. He attended Lincoln High School in Rhode Island for his sophomore year before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina as a junior. He attended Victory Christian Center as a junior and transferred to Mallard Creek High School for his senior year. As a senior, Moss caught 54 passes for 831 yards and 13 touchdowns. Moss committed to play college football at NC State over offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Texas A&M.


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: Moss began his collegiate career at NC State. As a true freshman, he caught six passes for 49 yards and a touchdown. Moss announced his intent to transfer during the summer after his freshman year and chose LSU. He missed the entire 2017 season due to NCAA transfer rules. He also missed the entire 2018 season due to a foot injury and was granted a medical redshirt.


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: As a redshirt junior, Moss finished the season with 47 receptions for 570 receiving yards, both school records for tight ends, and four touchdowns. Moss caught four passes for 99 yards and scored a touchdown on a 62-yard reception against Oklahoma in the 2019 Peach Bowl. In the 2020 National Championship Game, he scored two touchdowns on five receptions for 36 yards. His two scores allowed quarterback and 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow to tie and break the NCAA single season record for touchdown passes. On January 17, 2020, Moss announced that he would forgo his senior year by declaring for the 2020 NFL Draft.


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: Moss signed with the Washington Football Team as an undrafted free agent following the 2020 NFL Draft, choosing them over the New England Patriots and Cincinnati Bengals. He was waived with an injury designation on August 21, 2020, and reverted to the team's injured reserve list the following day. Moss was waived on April 9, 2021.


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: This move reunited Moss with his former LSU teammates Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase. He was waived on August 31, 2021. He signed with their practice squad the following day. Moss would be elevated to the active roster on November 27, 2021 ahead of the Bengals' home game against the 5-4-1 Pittsburgh Steelers. However, Moss would not play in that game because of a hamstring injury Moss suffered in pregame warmups.


title: Thaddeus Moss

text: On February 15, 2022, Moss signed a reserve/future contract. He was waived on August 30, 2022 and signed to the practice squad the next day. He was waived from the practice squad on September 5, 2022.


title: Gallowglass

text: The Gallowglass (also spelled galloglass, gallowglas or galloglas; from meaning foreign warriors) were a class of elite mercenary warriors who were principally members of the Norse-Gaelic clans of Ireland between the mid 13th century and late 16th century. Originally applied to Scots, who shared a common background and language with the Irish, but as they were descendants of 10th-century Norse settlers who had intermarried with the local population in western Scotland, the Irish called them ("foreign Gaels").


title: Gallowglass

text: An early family of gallowglasses was the MacSweeneys, settled by the O'Donnells in north Donegal. These were followed by MacDonnells, MacCabes and several other groups settled by powerful Irish nobles in different areas. The gallowglasses were attractive as heavily armoured, trained infantry to be relied upon as a strong defence for holding a position, unlike most Irish foot soldiers, who were less well armoured than the typical Irish noble who fought as cavalry. Soon most gallowglasses were native Irish and the term came to mean a type of warrior, rather than any ethnic designation.


title: Gallowglass

text: They were a significant part of Irish infantry before the advent of gunpowder, and depended upon seasonal service with Irish chieftains. A military leader would often choose a gallowglass to serve as his personal aide and bodyguard because, as a foreigner, the gallowglass would be less subject to local feuds and influences.


title: Gallowglass

text: The term is an anglicisation of the Irish "gallóglaigh" (lit. "foreign young warriors"), with the English plural "-s" added to the end. The singular of "gallóglaigh" is "gallóglach". The word "óglach" comes from Old Irish "oac" (meaning "youth") and Old Irish "lóeg" (meaning "calf" but later becoming a word for a hero). Although the English term comes from an Irish plural, Encarta specifies the plural of gallowglass to be "gallowglasses". Shakespeare uses the form "gallowglasses" in "Macbeth".


title: Gallowglass

text: The "Oxford English Dictionary" prefers the spelling "galloglass" and provides several examples attesting to ordinary English plural forms of the word, dating back to a use of "galloglasseis". "The etymologically correct form galloglagh appears later than the erroneous galloglass, which was probably the result of the plural gallogla(gh)s; in some early instances galloglas seems to be used as a plural, but galloglasses is found already in our earliest quot."


title: Gallowglass

text: The gallowglass were from the western coast of Scotland, principally Argyll and the Western Isles although some could be found in the Norse settlements in Ulster as well. Their weapons were swords and axes. Each was usually accompanied by a man to see to his weapons and armour and a boy to carry provisions. The kinship between the Irish and the Gaels of western Scotland allowed the Gallowglass to integrate easily into Gaelic Ireland and they were ideal mercenaries as they shared a language and culture with the Irish without being involved in the local politics.


title: Gallowglass

text: A description from 1600 speaks of the gallowglass as "pycked and seelected men of great and mightie bodies, crewell without compassion. The greatest force of the battell consisteth in them, chosinge rather to dye then to yeelde, so that when yt cometh to handy blowes they are quickly slayne or win the feilde".


title: Gallowglass

text: The first record of gallowglass service was in 1259, when Aedh Ó Conchobair, King of Connacht, received a dowry of 160 Scottish warriors from the daughter of Dubhghall mac Ruaidhri, the King of the Hebrides. They were organised into groups known as a "corrughadh", which consisted of about 100 men.


title: Gallowglass

text: The importation of gallowglasses into Ireland was a major factor in containing the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century, as their ranks stiffened the resistance of the Irish lordships. Throughout the Middle Ages in Ireland, gallowglass troops were maintained by Gaelic Irish and Hiberno-Norman lords alike. Even the English Lord Deputy of Ireland usually kept a company of them in his service.


title: Gallowglass

text: In return for military service, gallowglass contingents were given land and settled in Irish lordships, where they were entitled to receive supplies from the local population.


title: Gallowglass

text: By 1512, there were reported to be fifty-nine groups throughout the country under the control of the Irish nobility. Though initially they were mercenaries, over time they settled and their ranks became filled with both Scots-Norse and many native Irish men.


title: Gallowglass

text: In 1569, Turlough Luineach O'Neill (the O'Neill) married Lady Agnes Campbell, daughter of Colin Campbell, 3rd Earl of Argyll, and widow of James MacDonald, 6th of Dunnyveg. Her dowry consisted of at least 1,200 gallowglass fighters. Along with two young men as support and friends on top to assist or fight this could easily have numbered over 5,000 current and future gallowglasses coming into the area.


title: Gallowglass

text: They were noted for wielding the massive two-handed sparth axe (a custom noted by Geraldus Cambrensis, died c. 1223, to have derived from their Norse heritage) and broadsword or claymore ("claidheamh mór"). For armour, the gallowglass wore a mail shirt over a padded jacket and an iron helmet; he was usually accompanied by two boys (like a knight's squires), one of whom carried his throwing spears while the other carried his provisions.


title: Gallowglass

text: Shakespeare mentions gallowglasses in "Macbeth", although along with other aspects of the play it is an anachronism, as the historical Macbeth lived in the 11th century:


title: Gallowglass

text: In the paper "A Description of the Power of Irishmen", written early in the 16th century, the Irish forces of Leinster are numbered at 522 horses and five battalions of gallowglass (gallóglaigh) and 1,432 kerne, and those of the other provinces were in like proportion. Mac Cárthaigh Mór commanded 40 horses, two battalions of gallowglass, and 2,000 kerne; the Earl of Desmond 400 horses, three battalions of gallowglass, and 3,000 kerne, besides a battalion of crossbowmen and gunners, the smaller chieftains supplying each their quota of men.


title: Gallowglass

text: In 1517, "when the reformacion of the countrye was taken in hand", it was reported that the Irish forces in Thomond were 750 horses, 2,324 kerne, and six "batayles" of gallowglass, the latter including 60 to 80 footmen harnessed with spears; each of these had a man to bear his harness, some of whom themselves carried spears or bows.


title: Gallowglass

text: Every kerne had a bow, a "skieve" or quiver, three spears, a sword, and a skene or sgian (Irish "scian" or Scottish Gaelic "sgian"), each two of them having a lad to carry their weapons. The horsemen had two horses apiece, some three, the second bearing the "knave" or his attendant.


title: Gallowglass

text: The 16th century in Ireland saw an escalation in military conflict, caused by the Tudor conquest of Ireland. Gallowglass fighters were joined by native Irish mercenaries called "buanadha" (literally "quartered men") and by newer Scottish mercenaries known as "redshanks". During the First Desmond Rebellion, Lord President of Munster Sir William Drury ordered the execution of 700 captured gallowglasses.


title: Gallowglass

text: Despite the increased use of firearms in Irish warfare, gallowglasses remained an important part of Hugh Ó Neill's forces in the Nine Years' War. After the combined Irish defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, recruitment of gallowglasses waned, although Scottish Highland mercenaries continued to come to Ireland until the 1640s (notably Alasdair Mac Colla). They fought under the Irish general Owen Roe O'Neill at the Battle of Benburb when O'Neill had an overwhelming victory in 1646. The gallowglasses of the Mac Cárthaigh Riabhaigh are recorded as having attacked Mallow in County Cork as late as 1645.


title: Gallowglass

text: Images of gallowglasses fighting as mercenaries in European mainland armies were sketched by Dürer in 1521 and later by French and Dutch artists. Gallowglasses served in the Dutch Blue Guards, Swiss Guard, the French Scottish Guard, and the forces of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in his invasion of Livonia during the Thirty Years' War.


title: Gallowglass

text: Millford in County Donegal, historically called Ballynagalloglagh (from Irish: "Baile na nGallóglach"), is a small town and townland whose Irish name means "town of the gallowglasses". A battle between the Irish (helped by gallóglaigh) and the English took place on a hill in the townland and this is where the name comes from.


title: Humanz

text: Humanz is the fifth studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was released on 28 April 2017 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone and in the United States by Warner Bros. Records. The album was announced on the band's official Instagram page on 23 March 2017. According to a press release, it was recorded in London, Paris, New York City, Chicago, and Jamaica, and was produced by The Twilite Tone and Remi Kabaka Jr. It was the band's first studio album since 2010's "The Fall", and features collaborations with Jehnny Beth, Grace Jones, Kali Uchis, Vince Staples, Popcaan, D.R.A.M., Anthony Hamilton, De La Soul, Danny Brown, Kelela, Mavis Staples, Pusha T, and Benjamin Clementine.


title: Humanz

text: "Humanz" debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the US "Billboard" 200, selling over 140,000 copies in its first week of sales. It also debuted at number one in Austria and Switzerland, and at number three in Belgium. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, losing to The National's "Sleep Well Beast". "Humanz" reached the top 10 on the Albums chart in 23 countries.


title: Humanz

text: After the release of their 2010 album "The Fall", rumours began to circulate on the internet that Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett had fallen out, and that this had led to the band split; "People" subsequently reported this to be true. Representatives for the band denied the rumours in a statement to "Pitchfork". Gorillaz released a single with James Murphy and André 3000 commissioned by Converse, titled "DoYaThing", on 23 February 2012. In April 2012, in an interview with "The Guardian", Albarn stated that Gorillaz were "unlikely" to release new music, citing Hewlett's dissatisfaction that his animation had become less central to the band and their performances. In June 2013, Hewlett said that he "believe[s] there is a future for the Gorillaz. But Gorillaz is quite a complicated and expensive thing to produce. So, I think we need to wait a little bit to see what happens because usually in the music industry everything changes."


title: Humanz

text: On 25 April 2014, Albarn released the solo album "Everyday Robots". Hewlett revealed that he and Albarn decided to revive Gorillaz after Albarn had played a gig, stating: "...we were at a party afterwards. We'd had a bit to drink, and he said, 'Do you want to do another one?' And I said, 'Do you?' and he said, 'Do you?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure.' I started work on it straight away, learning to draw the characters again. I played around by myself for eight months while he was performing with Blur in 2015." In October 2014, Albarn was said to be "in the process of reactivating Gorillaz for a 2016 release." In an Instagram post on 30 January 2015, Hewlett posted new drawings of fictional band members Murdoc and Noodle. He also responded to a fan's query by stating, "Yes Gorillaz Returns." Albarn's band Blur released their eighth studio album "The Magic Whip" on 27 April 2015. Before Blur's tour in support of "The Magic Whip", Albarn said, "I'm starting recording in September for a new Gorillaz record." On 19 January 2017, Gorillaz released the first track from the album, "Hallelujah Money" featuring Benjamin Clementine, accompanied by a music video as a non-commercial single on Uproxx's YouTube channel.


title: Humanz

text: Prior to studio recording, Albarn made use of iPad applications such as GarageBand to create the framework for each song. Albarn had previously utilised his iPad as an audio workstation for "The Fall", touting its convenience over the 4-Track recorder he'd previously used for preliminary music production.


title: Humanz

text: To guide collaborators into the "dark fantasy" setting that Albarn envisioned for "Humanz", Albarn instructed guest artists to imagine a future in which Donald Trump had won the 2016 United States presidential election. As recording for "Humanz" began well before Trump had secured the Republican presidential nomination, much less the presidency, the possibility of a Trump presidency was still considered remote by many; collaborator Pusha T (who recorded his contribution in early 2016) later commented on Albarn's inadvertent foresight, saying: "I wrote from the perspective of this day, I was writing from the perspective of a Trump win. When this really happened, I was like 'Wait a minute, what type of crystal ball did this guy have? Why are you even asking me to think along these lines?' I don't think he thought that [Trump] would win, I'm not gonna go that far, but he definitely conceptualized this whole thing."


title: Humanz

text: In April 2016, Hewlett uploaded two video clips onto his Instagram showing the continued work on the album. The first clip featured Liam Bailey and the Twilite Tone. The second clip was a time-lapse video featuring Albarn, Remi Kabaka Jr, the Twilite Tone and Jean-Michel Jarre. On 17 May 2016, Gorillaz were in the studio with Chicago-based hip hop artist Vic Mensa, although Bailey and Mensa's contributions were ultimately left off of the finished album.


title: Humanz

text: In an interview with "Q" magazine, Albarn revealed that he reached out to collaborate with a number of different artists, many of whom turned him down, including English musician Morrissey, Dionne Warwick – who was unwilling to collaborate as some lyrics on the record conflicted with her religious views, singer Sade, and American rapper Rick Ross. Albarn also revealed in an interview with Song Exploder, that the song "Andromeda", featured a more prominent role for rapper D.R.A.M and at one point, featured contributions from Rag'n'Bone Man (which was ultimately discarded) and with French singer-songwriter Christine and the Queens, which was also unsuccessful. The group also reportedly recorded with Erykah Badu, whom Albarn had previously worked with on his "Rocket Juice & the Moon" project.


title: Humanz

text: The song "Charger" with Grace Jones was a result of Jones singing over the song's instrumental for four hours, ad-libbing and vibing to it. Overwhelmed by the length of the vocals recorded, Albarn had his studio floor covered in cut up pieces of paper with everything Jones had recorded, finding the fragments that worked and eventually crafting the song from there. A photo of this was also uploaded to Kabaka's Instagram, with the album's other executive producer the Twilite Tone, attempting to place the lyrics in an order for the song. Albarn also revealed that an unnamed collaborator's original vocals were removed from the song, so as to accommodate Jones' vocals. Album recording engineer Stephen Sedgwick's final mix session of "Charger" contains 90 separate tracks.


title: Humanz

text: "We Got the Power" features guest vocals from Jehnny Beth, the lead singer of the British rock band Savages, as well as backing vocals from American rapper D.R.A.M and English singer Noel Gallagher. Albarn welcomed the arrival of Beth as the album was meant to be "a series of conversations between men and women". He hailed her performance, saying: "She sounds like herself, but there are also strong echoes of Siouxsie Sioux. She's brilliant." The song is a particular landmark for Albarn and Gallagher, after their public dislike of each other during what was dubbed by the media as "The Battle of Britpop" in the 1990s. At one point, the song featured backing vocals from Albarn's Blur bandmate Graham Coxon, however his vocals were removed from the final version of the song. "At one point this song had Graham, Noel and me on it and it was sort of heading slightly in the wrong direction. It was becoming almost retro in its sort of spirit and way too rocky for this record so I kind of stripped it right back down again. We play it slightly different live than how it is on the record. It's sort of the song that comes on during the final titles of a film. The climax. I thought Jehnny would take a bit of the testosterone off", Albarn said in an interview with Radio X. He also spoke of working with Gallagher for the first time, which Albarn was very complimentary: "He's fantastic in the studio. It's nice when you see how someone goes about their business. He's great". The song itself started after Albarn was given a Casio MT-40 for his birthday and he began composing the barebones of a demo, which was later fleshed out to become "We Got the Power". The idea to include Jehnny Beth came about after XL Recordings founder Richard Russell said that Gallagher and Albarn "were two rich middle-aged men singing about having the power, which is not a good look". Beth wrote her own lyrics to be included on the song as well as the lyrics that Albarn and Gallagher had also written.


title: Humanz

text: "Andromeda", the album's fourth single, was dedicated to Ethel, the mother of Albarn's longtime partner Suzi Winstanley, who died while Albarn was writing the song. Ethel's death reminded Albarn of Bobby Womack, who had appeared on the group's single "Stylo" and "Cloud of Unknowing" from their album "Plastic Beach" and appeared on the song "Bobby in Phoenix" from "The Fall". Albarn and Russell had also produced Womack's comeback album "The Bravest Man in the Universe", prior to Womack's death in June 2014. The sentimentality Albarn felt for lost family and friends was instrumental in the creation of "Andromeda", with Albarn commenting on the song's message: "Take the worst possible outcome, be brave, and remember all the goodness that preceded that... all the beauty that preceded that." Albarn also stated that after a conversation with producer the Twilite Tone, he tried to evoke the sound of Michael Jackson's 1983 single "Billie Jean" from his iconic "Thriller" album and Hall & Oates' single "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", from their album "Private Eyes". Twilite Tone produced the song, while Albarn took care of lyrics. The song features D.R.A.M, who originally had a more prominent feature on the song, with a full chorus and verse, however, Albarn stripped the vocals back as the song felt more complete. At one point, the song's name was "I Can't Go for Billie Jean", as a reference to the aforementioned Michael Jackson song and Hall and Oates' song.


title: Humanz

text: De La Soul had previously appeared on Gorillaz previous albums "Demon Days" and "Plastic Beach" on the songs "Feel Good Inc." and "Superfast Jellyfish" respectively, and appear on the album's fifth track "Momentz". Albarn revealed that the song was initially supposed to feature American stand-up comedian and actor Dave Chappelle, however, he became convinced after chatting to De La Soul member, Posdnuos. "I didn't hear De La Soul for that. Posdnous shows up. He said, 'I want to do something.' We were trying to get Dave Chappelle to do that. But he knows Pos, and somehow, that's how that happened."