title: Hill station

text: A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges from the summer heat and, as Dale Kennedy observes about the Indian context, "the hill station ... was seen as an exclusive British preserve: here it was possible to render the Indian into an outsider". In India, which has the largest number of hill stations, most are situated at an altitude of approximately .


title: Hill station

text: Nandi Hills is a hill station in Karnataka, India which was developed by Ganga Dynasty in 11th century. It was also used by Tipu Sultan (1751 - 1799) as a summer retreat.


title: Hill station

text: Hill stations in British India were established for a variety of reasons. One of the first reasons in the early 1800s, was for the place to act as a sanitorium for the ailing family members of British officials. After the rebellion of 1857, the British "sought further distance from what they saw as a disease-ridden land by [escaping] to the Himalayas in the north". Other factors included anxieties about the dangers of life in India, among them "fear of degeneration brought on by too long residence in a debilitating land". The hill stations were meant to reproduce the home country, illustrated in Lord Lytton's statement about Ootacamund in the 1870s as having "such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud." Shimla was officially made the "summer capital of India" in the 1860s and hill stations "served as vital centres of political and military power, especially after the 1857 revolt."


title: Hill station

text: As noted by Indian historian Vinay Lal, hill stations in India also served "as spaces for the colonial structuring of a segregational and ontological divide between Indians and Europeans, and as institutional sites of imperial power."


title: Hill station

text: Kennedy, following Monika Bührlein, identifies three stages in the evolution of hill stations in India: high refuge, high refuge to hill station, and hill station to town. The first settlements started in the 1820s, primarily as sanitoria. In the 1840s and 1850s, there was a wave of new hill stations, with the main impetus being "places to rest and recuperate from the arduous life on the plains". In the second half of the 19th century, there was a period of consolidation with few new hill stations. In the final phase, "hill stations reached their zenith in the late nineteenth century. The political importance of the official stations was underscored by the inauguration of large and costly public-building projects."


title: Hill station

text: Hundreds of hill stations are located in India. Nandi Hills is a hill station in Karnataka, India which was developed by Ganga Dynasty in 11th century. It was also used by Tipu Sultan (1751 - 1799) as a summer retreat. The most popular hill stations in India include:


title: Doomsday device

text: A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon or weapons system — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing "doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth. Most hypothetical constructions rely on hydrogen bombs being made arbitrarily large, assuming there are no concerns about delivering them to a target (see Teller–Ulam design) or that they can be "salted" with materials designed to create long-lasting and hazardous fallout (e.g., a cobalt bomb).


title: Doomsday device

text: Doomsday devices and the nuclear holocaust they bring about have been present in literature and art especially in the 20th century, when advances in science and technology made world destruction (or at least the eradication of all human life) a credible scenario. Many classics in the genre of science fiction take up the theme in this respect. The term "doomsday machine" itself is attested from 1960, but the alliterative "doomsday device" has since become the more popular phrase.


title: Doomsday device

text: Since the 1954 Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test demonstrated the feasibility of making arbitrarily large nuclear devices which could cover vast areas with radioactive fallout by rendering anything around them intensely radioactive, nuclear weapons theorists such as Leo Szilard conceived of a doomsday machine, a massive thermonuclear device surrounded by hundreds of tons of cobalt which, when detonated, would create massive amounts of Cobalt-60, rendering most of the Earth too radioactive to support life. RAND strategist Herman Kahn postulated that Soviet or US nuclear decision makers might choose to build a doomsday machine that would consist of a computer linked to a stockpile of hydrogen bombs, programmed to detonate them all and bathe the planet in nuclear fallout at the signal of an impending nuclear attack from another nation.


title: Doomsday device

text: The US and its doomsday device's theoretical ability to deter a nuclear attack is that it would go off automatically without human aid and despite human intervention. Kahn conceded that some planners might see "doomsday machines" as providing a highly credible threat that would dissuade attackers and avoid the dangerous game of brinkmanship caused by the massive retaliation concept which governed US-Soviet nuclear relations in the mid-1950s. However, in his discussion of doomsday machines, Kahn raises the problem of a nuclear-armed "N"th country triggering a doomsday machine, and states that he didn't advocate that the US acquire a doomsday machine.


title: Doomsday device

text: The Dead Hand (or "Perimeter") system built by the Soviet Union during the Cold War has been called a "doomsday machine" due to its fail-deadly design and nuclear capabilities.


title: Doomsday device

text: Doomsday devices started becoming more common in science fiction in the 1940s and 1950s, due to the invention of nuclear weapons and the constant fear of total destruction. A well-known example is in the film "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), where a doomsday device, based on Szilard and Kahn's ideas, is triggered by an incompletely aborted American attack and all life on Earth is extinguished. Another is in the Star Trek episode "" (1967), where the crew of the "Enterprise" fights a powerful planet-killing alien machine. However, doomsday devices also expanded to encompass many other types of fictional technology, one of the most famous of which is the Death Star, a planet-destroying, moon-sized space station.


title: Doomsday device

text: Some works have also considered the erroneous activation of doomsday devices by external factors or chain reactions. An example of both is "Virus" (1980), where an earthquake is misdetected as a nuclear explosion and triggers a sequence of "Automated Reaction Systems (ARS)". Various types of fictional doomsday devices have also been activated as part of an AI takeover. This includes the missile launch system in the movie "WarGames" (1983), control of which has been handed entirely to a computer, and Skynet's nigh-destruction of the human race in "The Terminator" (1984).


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean, LLC is an American cloud infrastructure provider headquartered in New York City with data centers worldwide. DigitalOcean provides developers, startups, and SMBs with cloud infrastructure-as-a-service platforms.


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean also runs Hacktoberfest, a one month-long celebration of open source software held in October. Each year it partners with different software companies including GitHub, Twilio, Dev.to, Intel, AppWrite, and DeepSource.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In 2003, Ben Uretsky and Moisey Uretsky, who founded the ServerStack, a managed hosting business, wanted to create a new product which would combine web hosting and virtual servers and target entrepreneurial with software developers. In 2011, the Uretskys founded DigitalOcean, a company which would provide server provisioning and cloud hosting for software developers, but with a primary focus on protecting criminals from prosecution and on providing an environment, where hacker, scammer and spammer feel very comfortable.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In 2012, the Uretskys met co-founder Mitch Wainer following Wainer's response to a Craigslist job listing. Mitch Wainer company launched their beta product in January 2012. In mid-2012, the founding team consisted of Ben Uretsky, Moisey Uretsky, Mitch Wainer, Jeff Carr, and Alec Hartman. DigitalOcean accepted the offer of TechStars 2012's startup accelerator in Boulder, Colorado, and the founders moved to Boulder to work on the product. At the end of the accelerator program in August 2012, the company had signed up 400 customers and launched around 10,000 cloud server instances. On January 16, 2018, new "droplet" (virtual machines) plans were introduced. In May 2018, the company announced the launch of its Kubernetes-based container service.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In June 2018, Mark Templeton, former CEO of Citrix, replaced co-founder Ben Uretsky as the company's CEO. In July 2019, Yancey Spruill, former CFO and COO of SendGrid (a fellow Techstars company), replaced Templeton as CEO. Bill Sorenson, former CFO of EnerNOC, was appointed as the company's new CFO.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In September 2021, DigitalOcean announced plans to acquire Nimbella, a serverless startup. In March 2022, the company acquired CSS-Tricks, a learning website for front-end developers.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In May 2022, the company released DigitalOcean Functions. Based on technology acquired from Nimbella and the open source Apache OpenWhisk project, DigitalOcean Functions is a serverless platform that allows developers to build and run applications without having to manage servers.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In August 2022, DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways, a Pakistani cloud hosting service provider, for $350 million.


title: DigitalOcean

text: On January 15, 2013, DigitalOcean became one of the first cloud-hosting companies to offer SSD-based virtual machines. Following a TechCrunch review, which was syndicated by Hacker News, DigitalOcean saw a rapid increase in customers. In December 2013, DigitalOcean opened its first European data center, located in Amsterdam. During 2014, the company continued its expansion, opening new data centers in Singapore and London. During 2015 DigitalOcean expanded further with a data center in Toronto, Canada. and Frankfurt, Germany. Later in 2016, they continued expansion to Bangalore, India.


title: DigitalOcean

text: The company's seed funding was led by IA Ventures and raised US$3.2 million in July 2013. Its series A round of funding in March 2014, led by venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz, raised US$37.2 million. In December 2014, DigitalOcean raised US$50 million in debt financing from Fortress Investment Group in the form of a five-year term loan. In July 2015, the company raised US$83 million in its series B round of funding led by Access Industries with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. In April 2016, the company secured US$130 million in credit financing to build out new cloud services. In May 2020, Digital Ocean raised an additional $50 million from Access Industries and Andreessen Horowitz.


title: DigitalOcean

text: On March 24, 2021, DigitalOcean became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, with their initial public offering price at $47 per share.


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean had been blocked in Iran as a result of an attempt to cut off the use of the Lantern internet censorship circumvention tool.


title: DigitalOcean

text: Under Russian law, any host keeping citizens' personal data needs to be located in Russian territory. That led to a temporary block in April 2018 of Google, Amazon, Azure, and DigitalOcean, among others, in Russia by Roskomnadzor as a hosting provider for Telegram Messenger and VPS services.


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean offers virtual private servers (VPS), or "droplets" using DigitalOcean terminology, using KVM as the hypervisor and can be created in various sizes (divided in 2 classes: standard, and optimized), in 13 different data center regions (as of December 2020) and with various options out of the box, including six Linux distributions and dozens of one-click applications.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In early 2017, DigitalOcean expanded their feature set by adding load balancers to their offering. Their platform is an alternative cloud offering and the company targets smaller developers, allowing them to spend as little as five dollars on their platform.


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean also offers block and object-based storage and since May 2018 Kubernetes-based container service.


title: DigitalOcean

text: Reviewers have noted that DigitalOcean requires users to have some experience in sysadmin and DevOps. In his review for ScienceBlogs, writer Greg Laden warned: "DigitalOcean is not for everybody. You need to be at least a little savvy with Linux ..."


title: DigitalOcean

text: As of 2021, DigitalOcean is hosting publicly available community forums and tutorials on open source and system administration topics. As of August 2014 the service claimed to have over 1,000 vetted tutorials.


title: DigitalOcean

text: In 2017, in partnership with Stripe, DigitalOcean sponsored the Libscore tool to freely provide the developer community with open access to analytics on web development tools.


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean Marketplace provides facilities to quickly deploy popular software bundles. Internally it's run by DigitalOcean Kubernetes, OpenChannel for the catalog API and data warehouse and Cloudflare for CDN and load-balancing.


title: DigitalOcean

text: DigitalOcean was widely criticized for its role in creating a perverse incentive when it promoted Hacktoberfest 2020 with free t-shirts for contributions to open source projects, resulting in massive spurious pull requests on open source GitHub repositories, amounting to an unintentional "corporate-sponsored distributed denial of service attack against the open source maintainer community". DigitalOcean was quick to respond, and issued updates to Hacktoberfest to help prevent this, by allowing open source maintainers to specifically opt into Hacktoberfest, updating the Hacktoberfest process to allow maintainers to mark spammy content, and preventing repositories set up just to game the system from participating.


title: Kannadasan

text: Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Frequently called Kaviarasu, With over 5000 lyrics, 6000 poems and 232 books, Kannadasan is widely known by the sobriquet Kaviarasu (King of poets) and he is also considered to be the greatest modern Tamil poet after Subramania Bharati. including novels, epics, plays, essays, his most popular being the 10-part religious book on Hinduism, "Arthamulla Indhu Matham" ("Meaningful Hindu Religion"). He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel "Cheraman Kathali" in the year 1980 and was the first to receive the National Film Award for Best Lyrics, given in 1969 for the film "Kuzhanthaikkaga".


title: Kannadasan

text: Kannadasan was born to Sathappan Chettiar and Visalakshi Aachi in a Nattukottai Nagarathar family in Sirukoodalpatti, near Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu and was given the birth name Muthiah. He was the eighth of ten children to his parents. He was adopted by Chigappi Aachi for a sum of INR 7000 at an early age, who brought him up and was responsible for his early stages of school education. He completed his schooling till the 8th standard in Sirukudalpatti and Amaravathipudhur. He worked for a private company in Tiruvottiyur before taking up an editorial post in a Tamil Magazine where for the first time he took up the pseudonym Kannadasan. He died on October 17, 1981.


title: Kannadasan

text: Muthiaah was a keen follower of the Dravidian atheistic movement. He had great love of Tamil language and its culture, and excelled in Tamil literature, both prose and poetry. He read the Thiruppaavai of Aandaal, and was amazed at its mystic poetry, which had a deep and lasting impact on him. After a lot of introspection, he decided to go back to Hinduism. He renamed himself as Kannadaasan, meaning the servant of Lord Krishna (In Tamil, "Kannan" means Krishna and in Sanskrit, "daasa" means "servant'. "He dug deep into understanding Hinduism, and wrote his series of books on Hinduism titled "Arthamulla Indhu Matham". .""


title: Kannadasan

text: Kannadasan's greatest contribution to Tamil culture is his songwriting. Before Kannadasan, many lyricists like Papanasam Sivan, Kambadasan, Vindhan, A. Maruthakasi, and Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam were sought after in the Tamil music industry, but after the advent of Kannadasan, the scene changed. He quickly became the most sought-after lyricist in the industry and remained so until his death. Kannadasan was so popular that some songs written by other contemporary poets were considered to be written by Kannadhasan. Though, film lyrics have come a long way since his death, many people still consider Kannadasan to be the best songwriter. He is considered to be the greatest modern Tamil poet after Subramanya Bharathi.


title: Kannadasan

text: He was the producer of the historic Tamil film "Sivagangai Seemai" portraying Marudhu Pandaiars, one of the pioneers in the Indian freedom struggle. The song "Santhupottu" from that film remains popular.


title: Kannadasan

text: Kannadasan was the poet laureate of the Tamil Nadu government at the time of his death. He wrote two notable autobiographies, titled "Vanavasam", a book about his past life whilst he was atheist, with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and a sequel, titled "Manavasam" a book about his life after he had left DMK.


title: Kannadasan

text: Kannadasan was a prolific writer and his writing covered a variety of forms- poems, novels, lyrics for Tamil films and books on spirituality. His series titled "Arthamulla Indhu Matham" ("Meaningful Hindu Religion)" is known for its simplicity in explaining the principles of Hinduism. Many of Kannadasan's poems have been translated into French. He wrote and published several volumes of poetry. He was an admirer of Kambar, and wrote a number of poems praising Kambar's artistry, contrary to the satire ("Kambarasam") on the same by C.N. Annadurai. He also spoke at several of the Kambar festivals. He sang the beauty of Sita's gait and the shoulders of Rama; he spoke of beauty intoxicating and dropped me in a vessel of amrut (nectar)" This is one of Kannadasan's tribute to the poet Kambar.


title: Kannadasan

text: Kannadasan died on 17 October 1981 in Chicago, United States, where he had gone from India to attend a Tamil conference organized by the Tamil Association of Chicago. He was aged 54 at the time of his death. The song "Kanne Kalaimane" from the film 'Moondram Pirai', released a few months later, was his last song.


title: Kannadasan

text: The Government of Tamil Nadu built a memorial hall as "Kaviarasar Kannadasan Manimandapam" at Karaikudi. The road adjoining Natesan Park in T. Nagar, Chennai was previously called as Hensman Road is where Kannadasan resided from 1958 and it was renamed "Kannadasan street" in his honour after his demise. It was in this house where 7 Chief Ministers from M. Bhaktavatsalam to J. Jayalalithaa had visited Kannadasan. Kannadhasan once owned 14 cars which were parked on either side of the road in front of house and the last remaining one which was given by K. Kamaraj is still at display in this very house.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Scheherazade, also commonly Sheherazade (), Op. 35, is a symphonic suite composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888 and based on "One Thousand and One Nights" (also known as "The Arabian Nights)".


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: This orchestral work combines two features typical of Russian music in general and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East, which figured greatly in the history of Imperial Russia, as well as orientalism in general. The name "Scheherazade" refers to the main character Scheherazade of the "One Thousand and One Nights". It is one of Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: During the winter of 1887, as he worked to complete Alexander Borodin's unfinished opera "Prince Igor," Rimsky-Korsakov decided to compose an orchestral piece based on pictures from "One Thousand and One Nights" as well as separate and unconnected episodes. After formulating musical sketches of his proposed work, he moved with his family to the Glinki-Mavriny dacha, in Nyezhgovitsy along the Cherementets Lake (near present-day Luga, in Leningrad Oblast). The dacha where he stayed was destroyed by the Germans during World War II.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: During the summer, he finished "Scheherazade" and the "Russian Easter Festival Overture". Notes in his autograph orchestral score show that the former was completed between June 4 and August 7, 1888. "Scheherazade" consisted of a symphonic suite of four related movements that form a unified theme. It was written to produce a sensation of fantasy narratives from the Orient.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Initially, Rimsky-Korsakov intended to name the respective movements in "Scheherazade" "Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and Finale". However, after weighing the opinions of Anatoly Lyadov and others, as well as his own aversion to a too-definitive program, he settled upon thematic headings, based upon the tales from "The Arabian Nights".


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: The composer deliberately made the titles vague so that they are not associated with specific tales or voyages of Sinbad. However, in the epigraph to the finale, he does make reference to the adventure of Prince Ajib. In a later edition, Rimsky-Korsakov did away with titles altogether, desiring instead that the listener should hear his work only as an Oriental-themed symphonic music that evokes a sense of the fairy-tale adventure, stating:


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: He went on to say that he kept the name Scheherazade because it brought to everyone’s mind the fairy-tale wonders of Arabian Nights and the East in general.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a brief introduction that he intended for use with the score as well as the program for the premiere:


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: This theme emphasizes four notes of a descending whole tone scale: E–D–C–B (each note is a down beat, i.e. first note in each measure, with A for B). After a few chords in the woodwinds, reminiscent of the opening of Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" overture, the audience hears the leitmotif that represents the character of the storyteller herself, Scheherazade. This theme is a tender, sensuous, winding melody for violin solo, accompanied by harp.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Rimsky-Korsakov had a tendency to juxtapose keys a major third apart, which can be seen in the strong relationship between E and C major in the first movement. This, along with his distinctive orchestration of melodies which are easily comprehensible, assembled rhythms, and talent for soloistic writing, allowed for such a piece as Scheherazade to be written.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: The movements are unified by the short introductions in the first, second and fourth movements, as well as an intermezzo in the third. The last is a violin solo representing Scheherazade, and a similar artistic theme is represented in the conclusion of the fourth movement. Writers have suggested that Rimsky-Korsakov's earlier career as a naval officer may have been responsible for beginning and ending the suite with themes of the sea. The peaceful coda at the end of the final movement is representative of Scheherazade finally winning over the heart of the Sultan, allowing her to at last gain a peaceful night's sleep.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: The reasons for its popularity are clear enough; it is a score replete with beguiling orchestral colors, fresh and piquant melodies, a mild oriental flavor, a rhythmic vitality largely absent from many major orchestral works of the later 19th century, and a directness of expression unhampered by quasi-symphonic complexities of texture and structure.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: The original ballet adaptation of "Scheherazade" premiered on June 4, 1910, at the Opéra Garnier in Paris by the Ballets Russes. The choreography for the ballet was by Michel Fokine and the libretto was from Fokine and Léon Bakst. The Ballet Russes' "Scheherazade" is known for its traditionally dazzling costumes, opulent scenery, and erotic choreography and narrative which was rarely seen in ballets of the time.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: At the time of its original creation, Paris was in the final years of the Belle-Époque period. Translated, “Belle-Époque” means “beautiful era”, and was a period of industry and optimism in which “the pursuit of pleasure supposedly eclipsed social, economic, and political concerns.” Orientalism was at the height of its vogue in Europe and Ballet Russes sought to bring the East (or the Westernized stereotype) to the West so audiences could live out their exotic fantasies without fear of social consequences. This ballet provoked exoticism by showing a masculine Golden Slave, danced by Vaslav Nijinsky, seducing Zobeide, danced by Ida Rubinstein, who is one of the many wives of the Shah. Nijinsky was painted gold and is said to have represented a phallus and eroticism is highly present in the orgiastic scenes played out in the background. Controversially, this was one of the first instances of a stage full of people simulating sexual activity. Nijinsky was short and androgynous but his dancing was powerful and theatrical. "Scheherazade" flipped conventions of classical ballet through the redirection of audiences’ focus from the grace and beauty of female bodies to male prowess and sensuality. As opposed to classical ballets of the time, the choreography of "Scheherazade" included more sensuous movements including body waves, and closer contact. The Golden Slave also incorporated more rippling and slower, sultry movement as opposed to the large, jump and turn heavy male solos audiences were used to seeing in classical ballets.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: When the Shah returns and finds his wife in the Golden Slave's embrace, he sentences to death all of his cheating wives and their respective lovers. It is rumored that in this death scene, Nijinsky spun on his head. The ballet is not centered around codified classical ballet technique but rather around sensuous movement in the upper body and the arms. Exotic gestures are used as well as erotic back bends that expose the ribs and highlight the chest. Theatrics and mime play a huge role in the story telling.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: "Scheherazade" came after Petipa's "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty", which were ballets strongly focused on classical ballet and technique. Fokine embraced the idea of diminished technique and further explored this after "Scheherazade" when he created "Petrouchka" in 1912. He went on to inspire other choreographers to throw away technique and embrace authenticity in movement.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Bakst, who designed the sets and costumes for "Scheherazade", viewed the stage as a three-dimensional landscape in which dancers, sets, and costumes were all of equal importance. At the time he had a big influence on interior design and fashion of that time by using unorthodox color schemes and exotic costuming for the ballet. In his costuming for "Scheherazade", he focused on highlighting the movements of the body through his ornate, “histrionic” costumes.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: The ballet’s performance and reception in Paris is said to have changed the course of ballet. The Ballet Russes premiered in Paris as the conservative theatres of Russia would not support or approve of the portrayal of such risqué ideas, but in Paris it was a hit. As many of The Ballet Russes’ ballets, "Scheherazade", drew in audiences from far and wide. Its costume and scenic designs even inspired and influenced many fashions of the time in years to come.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Rimsky-Korsakov's widow protested against what she saw as the disarrangement of her husband's music in this choreographic drama.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Alonzo King’s reimagining of "Scheherazade" was commissioned in 2009 for the Monaco Dance Forum Festival’s centennial celebration of the Ballets Russes. King collaborated with composer Zakir Hussain for the score which incorporates traditional Eastern instruments with melodies of Rimsky-Korsakov’s original symphonic suite.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Contrary to the narrative of the original ballet, in which Scheherazade is just the narrator of the story of Shahryar and Zobeide, Alonzo brings the character of Scheherazade to the forefront of the ballet. She, rather than Zobeide, becomes the principal female character. However, King abstracts the narrative in such a way that his “choreographic focus was not on the details of the Arabian Nights narrative, but the symbolic meaning of "Scheherazade."” In King’s version, Shahryar and Zobeide’s doomed marriage and the instigator of the thousand and one nights, as narrated by Scheherazade, is no longer the focal plotline. Rather, King focuses on Shahryar’s final relationship with Scheherazade herself and the development of his love for her through her storytelling.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: King is known for his boundary pushing, long-lined, dynamic movement aesthetic which is exemplified in "Scheherazade". In many of his works, King also seeks to “represent global cultures through dance by collaborative ventures with non-Western movement forms.” "Scheherazade" is no different, as exemplified by the very grounded movement, reminiscent of that of some Middle Eastern dance styles, that juxtaposes his typical aesthetic within the ballet. In moments throughout the ballet, non-Western forms can be seen through the rhythm of the movement, as well as the quick level changes from grounded to upright. Especially in ensemble sections with precise hand and footwork.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Robert Rosenwasser was the set and costume designer for King’s adaptation. His scenery is simplified from the original ballet’s. For this version, billowing fabrics overhead and a textured backdrop are suited to evoke mood changes as the lighting shifts. Rosenwasser’s ethereal over head lights shift with the dancers from overhead teardrops, to puddles of sand and back as the dance progresses. His costumes continue with the simplified, abstraction of the narrative. They are less reminiscent of the ornate, exotic harems the original ballet portrays and are instead gauzier and lightweight.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Overall, reception for King’s "Scheherazade" has been positive. SFGate proclaimed, “King has created nothing finer in years."


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Artistic Director of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Jean-Christophe Maillot, reinterpreted Fokine’s "Scheherazade" in 2009; the same year Alonzo King premiered his work. Maillot’s adaptation premiered at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Maillot pulled much inspiration from the original staging and choreography of Fokine’s ballet as it was set on the Ballet Russes. His biggest inspiration was the music itself: Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite of the same name.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: His choreography honors that of the original ballet in its sensuous waves and ripples, as well as its narrative. However, it is also modernized with contemporary, almost jazz-influenced, movements for both male and female characters.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: The sets and costumes were designed by Jerome Kaplan. They incorporate some elements directly from the original designs of Leon Bakst, but also strip some away. Both mix ornate and more streamlined designs depending on the characters and settings for the scenes. Maillot combines traditional and modern aesthetics to create a “spectacle” that transcends time. Where in the original ballet, most of the costuming was ornate no matter the character, Kaplan distinguishes between the characters of more importance through brighter color palettes and more intricate designs while the costumes for the corps are simplified.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Critical reviews of the work can be difficult to find. However, in a review of Maillot’s reimagining, Dance Magazine stated, “the results are hot and spicy.”


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Sergei Prokofiev wrote a "Fantasia on Scheherazade" for piano (1926), which he recorded on piano roll.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: Fritz Kreisler arranged the second movement (The Story of the Kalendar Prince) and the third movement (The Young Prince and the Princess) for violin and piano, giving the arrangements the names "Danse Orientale" and "Chanson Arabe", respectively.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: In 1959, bandleader Skip Martin adapted from "Scheherazade" the jazz album "Scheherajazz" (Sommerset-Records), in which the lead actress, Yvonne De Carlo, was also the principal dancer. The plot of this film is a heavily fictionalized story, based on the composer's early career in the navy. He was played by Jean-Pierre Aumont.


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: "Scheherazade" is a popular music choice for competitive figure skating. Various cuts, mainly from the first movement, were widely used by skaters, including:


title: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

text: American figure skater Evan Lysacek used "Scheherazade" in his free skate and won the gold medal at 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It was also used by American ice dancers Charlie White and Meryl Davis in their free dance, with which they won the gold medal at 2014 Winter Olympics.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Notes on a Conditional Form is the fourth studio album by English band the 1975. It was released on 22 May 2020 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records. Initially titled "Music for Cars", the album was intended as the follow-up to "I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It" (2016). It later came to denote an era spanning two albums. The first, "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships", released in November 2018. The band recorded much of the second album in London, Los Angeles, Sydney, Northamptonshire and in a mobile studio on their tour bus. The album faced several delays and was submitted only weeks before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: A maximalist experimental album, "Notes on a Conditional Form" has a free-flowing structure composed of conventional songs, classical orchestral interludes and ambient electronic instrumentals. The album contains loose song structures characterised by their stream of consciousness deliveries, neo-noir ambience, downcast string arrangements, melancholic orchestral flourishes and sudden contrasts. Guest contributors to the album include Phoebe Bridgers, FKA Twigs, Cutty Ranks, climate change activist Greta Thunberg, and Matty Healy's father, Tim.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" incorporates numerous genres, combining house, UK garage and various electronic music subgenres with guitar-based acoustic folk, emo, country and multiple rock music subgenres. Thematically, the album focuses on the intricacies of human existence and uses introspection, retrospection, self-reflection and straightforward storytelling. It explores themes of isolation, uncertainty and anxiety, inspired by "" and Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska". The album's lyrics provide a deconstruction of Healy's extroverted persona, with several reviewers regarding it as the 1975's most personal record.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Prior to the album's debut, the band released "The 1975" and the singles "People", "Frail State of Mind", "Me & You Together Song", "The Birthday Party", "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" and "Guys". A North American leg of the band's Music for Cars Tour, planned in support of the album, was cancelled several months prior to the record's debut. An online art exhibition entitled "Artists Respond to NOACF", featuring music videos created by various artists, was released in its place. The album debuted atop the UK Albums Chart and reached number one in Australia and Scotland. Elsewhere, it peaked within the top five in Ireland, New Zealand and the United States, and the top 20 in Canada and Japan. The album polarised contemporary music critics; some lauded it as the band's "magnum opus", while others derided it as confusing, chaotic and directionless. Despite this, the album appeared on numerous year-end lists and was hailed as the best release of 2020 by "The Music".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: The 1975 released their second studio album, "I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It", in February 2016. The record peaked atop the UK Albums Chart and the US "Billboard" 200 and was considered by numerous critics to be one of the best albums of 2016. In February 2017, lead singer Matthew Healy tweeted: "Music For Cars – 2018". In an April interview on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Radio show, the singer confirmed the title "Music For Cars" and announced a 2018 release, saying "[the album] has always been called that, and we were always gonna do a trilogy of records". He later told Tom Connick of "NME" that the title was a reference to the band's third extended play of the same name (2013), saying it "was always my favorite title of everything we'd ever done". With "Music For Cars", the singer aimed to create the most important pop album of the decade, hoping to achieve the same impact as Radiohead's "OK Computer" (1997) and The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead" (1986).


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: In August 2017, the 1975 stated they were in the editing process of "Music For Cars", having over two hours worth of material. Healy also revealed the name of a new song, "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" (2020), while the band's manager Jamie Osborn said the first recording sessions for the album were planned for September. Posters promoting the album began emerging around London and Manchester in April 2018. In May, the 1975 announced that "Music For Cars" would now serve as an umbrella term to denote an "era" comprising two albums. Regarding the decision to release two separate bodies of work rather than a double album, Healy called the double album format "prog and annoying... they're self-serving".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: The first part of the "Music For Cars" era, "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships", was released on 30 November 2018. It received widespread critical acclaim and won British Album of the Year at the 2019 Brit Awards. Although Healy sought to release the second album in May 2019, "Notes on a Conditional Form" became available for pre-order on Apple Music shortly after the release of "The 1975" in July 2019, with a release date of 21 February 2020. The official artwork was also unveiled, featuring a yellow stripe and the album's title written in various languages. The release date was later moved to 24 April as a result of vinyl production issues, before being delayed again to 22 May. A revised album cover was also revealed, featuring the album's name, the band's name and the phrase "Music For Cars" on the top, while the initials of "Notes on a Conditional Form" are featured in the upper-right corner. The former artwork would only be used for the digital version. Regarding the multiple delays, Healy said they were caused by giving interviewers arbitrary release dates. Ultimately, "Notes on a Conditional Form" was released on 22 May 2020.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: The recording of "Notes on a Conditional Form" took place over 19 months in 15 different studios, spanning four countries. The 1975 began writing the album during the same period as "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships" and continued throughout 2019 during their Music for Cars Tour. Most of the album's electronic elements were created in a mobile studio within their retrofitted tour bus, while the guitars and vocals were recorded between tour dates. The band's guitarist Adam Hann told Gregory Adams of "Guitar World" that it proved challenging to record and tour simultaneously, saying it was difficult switching between the bus and studio. From around late July, the band spent four months recording in Los Angeles. After returning to the UK, they took up residence at the Angelic Residential Recording Studio in Northamptonshire for "super extended" sessions. These sessions resulted in what Healy described as "the first record... that's just us in a room". The final recording sessions took place in the basement of their record label's office in Sydney, Australia, while the band toured Australasia. Ultimately, the 1975 submitted the album only weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic overtook the world.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: The 1975 designed "Notes on a Conditional Form" as an experimental album meant to represent dance music in the UK, taking inspiration from the British club scene, Burial, the Streets and Brian Eno. Healy guided the album's creative direction, working closely with the band's primary producer and drummer, George Daniel, on all aspects of songwriting. Healy described their working relationship a symbiotic creative partnership built on a "shared musical vocabulary". During the album's recording, he focused on multiple loosely-defined ideas simultaneously, while Daniel had a detail-oriented approach. The pair created most of the record's songs as rough ideas; Healy used a guitar or piano, while Daniel programmed snippets on his computer. After creating an instrumental, the former would then add the lyrics. The pair often listened to music for inspiration, analysing a song to identify the "vibes" they sought to emulate. Using "Having No Head" as an example, Healy told Ryan Dombal of "Pitchfork" that the song began after they listened to virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin. It sparked a conversation about the band's love for pianos in ambient music, which led to the creation of "Having No Head".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" is more collaborative than the 1975's previous albums. Healy said the prior omittance of other vocalists came from his dislike of the modern culture of features, feeling they were too commercialised and lacked authenticity. Speaking on the album's vocal collaborators, he said: "I think there's an authenticity to the collaboration[s] on this record because it came from nothing but friendship and excitement of music." Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg provides a speech on climate change in "The 1975", Cutty Ranks is the sole vocalist on "Shiny Collarbone", FKA Twigs provides introductory vocals on "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" and additional vocals on "What Should I Say", and Tim Healy duets with his son on "Don't Worry".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Phoebe Bridgers represents the most prominent collaborator on "Notes on a Conditional Form", contributing to four songs. Healy exchanged messages with Bridgers, a longtime fan of the 1975, and they began talking about each other's music. Daniel invited the singer and Marshall Vore, her drummer, to hangout while the band were in Los Angeles. She later became "inherently" part of the album, described by Healy as adding a "country-emo Americana" element. Healy said that he did not experience his usual collaboration-related anxiety when working with Bridgers, describing it as akin to playing an instrument. She recorded a solo version of "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", which impressed Healy enough for him to ask her to record harmonies for other songs. She later travelled to England to record "Then Because She Goes", "Roadkill" and "Playing on My Mind", telling Salvatore Maicki of "The Fader": "I love their turnaround time, it's fucking great. That's, like, true punk rock."


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" is a sonically experimental album that explores an expansive array of genres, incorporating sounds, styles and textures extrapolated from a diverse set of scenes and eras. Growing comfortable with their identity, the 1975 incorporated ideas from a planned electronic album into the record, extensively utilising house music and UK garage. Brenton Blanchet of "Clash" said "Notes on a Conditional Form" serves to "cement [the 1975] as genre shapeshifters", building upon the experimentation of their third studio album. Matt Collar of AllMusic shared this sentiment and commented that it continues the "self-aware, implicitly obvious" experimentation of its predecessor. Lindsay Zoladz of "The New York Times" said the record disregards traditional album structures, calling it a "collection of peaks and valleys". For this reason, Mitch Mosk of "Atwood Magazine" said the album traverses "lush valleys" of ambience and "stirring peaks" of intimacy, ultimately deeming it genreless. His colleague Ben Niesen echoed these statements, deeming it "less of a record and more of a portfolio".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Ali Shutler and Stephen Ackroyd of "Dork" observed two distinct stylistic threads throughout "Notes on a Conditional Form". The first is acoustic-driven alternative rock, folk and country music, while the second is British "nighttime" music. Similarly, Andrew Sacher of "BrooklynVegan" said it combines electronic music and guitar-oriented subgenres, which Clair Biddles from "The Line of Best Fit" identified as indie rock. While Larry Fitzmaurice of "Entertainment Weekly" said it is connected by electronic pop and dance music, Brendan Wetmore of "Paper" argued that "Notes on a Conditional Form" wasn't a dance record "in any traditional or modern sense", noting it was characterised by its use of house music. Additionally, the album combines ambient music, synth-pop, techno, indie-pop, folk, art rock, nu metal, jungle, Britpop, lo-fi house, rock, emocore and two-step. Unlike the 1975's previous releases, the album is heavily informed by modern country music, which influences the album's chord shapes and Healy's vocal performance. Healy told Brittany Spanos of "Rolling Stone" that it was rare for him to hear country music growing up, shaping his view of it as "kind of exotic and pioneering."


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" has a free-flowing maximalist structure composed of traditional songs, instrumental tracks and interludes, while orchestral pieces and ambient electronic explorations provide the album's "connective tissue". It features loose, winding stream of consciousness song structures that alternate between moments of disorder and "rigid flow"; serving as a contrast to its "tighter, more calculated" predecessor. The songs espouse neo-noir ambience, characterised by downcast, anxious string arrangements, sonic rhymes, sudden contrasts, electronic pulses, pensive acoustic guitars, and melancholic orchestral flourishes. Reflecting the band's house music influences, Daniel "[buries] and [blares] house's most beloved tropes" such as pitch-shifting nodes, shuffling UK garage beats, pounding drums, splintering strains of UK bass, electronic drum patterns, and distorted sampling techniques.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" is centred around the intricacies of human existence. It narrates the highs and lows of the human experience, with Samantha Small of "Consequence of Sound" calling it "the most painstakingly human album in their repertoire". The album uses straightforward storytelling and self-reflection to express the band's personal philosophies, ruminating on self-discovery and the meaning of life. It focuses on the challenges of modern life, specifically technology, depression, intimacy, life and death. The singer noted that the album is driven by the question: "Can the centre hold?" It stems from the Joan Didion documentary (2017), which Healy watched while in rehab. The singer commented that Didion's work, particularly her essay collection "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1968), significantly impacted the album. Applied to the overall theme of the record, Healy said: "Can the centre hold with all of this shit? Politically, economically, climate-wise – it feels like we're getting under a lot of pressure."


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: According to Healy, "Notes on a Conditional Form" represents his search for the definitive answers to life, saying it is about inherent and universal feelings but ultimately is "really just about [himself]"; his fears, desires and loves. The lyrics explore drug addiction, touring, atheism, love, politics and the fallibility of the 1975's own writing. The singer projects topics that are "fatalistic, romantic, and tissue-thin in their sensitivity", writing about establishing and navigating personal connections in the online world, the nuances of "messy" relationships, facing challenges without resorting to substance abuse, self-medication, and confronting feelings of apathy and powerlessness. The lyrics express generational resonation, exploring themes of youth and romance while presenting "half existential questions that mock themselves with self-aware humour".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" is explicated by introspection, exploring Healy's feelings of isolation, uncertainty and anxiety. Unlike on the 1975's previous albums, he uses retrospection to look back on his life and career, drawing inspiration from that. Healy sought to reflect on the choices he has made, wanting to create a "snapshot in time" similar to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" (1982), focusing on themes of domesticity and mental health. Dan Stubbs of "NME" said the pervading theme of the album was Healy's role as a "kind of "Man Who Fell To Earth" figure, askew from the world he finds himself in, sometimes amused, sometimes bemused", Zoladz noted that it is markedly more introverted, a shift from outward extroversion seen on the band's previous albums. The theme of anxiety represents a reoccurring topic throughout the album, dealing with apprehensiveness towards life, love, marriage, starting a family and ageing. Paul Schrodt of "Slant Magazine" said Healy was unable to hide behind his "ironic postmodernist guise", focusing instead on deconstructing his mythology and letting "his ambition and sincerity openly roam, sitting uncomfortably alongside more familiar sides of his personality." Conrad Duncan of "Under the Radar" commented that the album was a reflective and "oddly sober" re-evaluation of Healy's persona, attempting to find what comes after commercial success and critical acclaim when "old flaws and insecurities resurface".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "The 1975", an ambient spoken-word protest song, opens "Notes on a Conditional Form". Thunberg delivers a monologue based on the January 2019 speech "Our House Is on Fire", which she gave at the World Economic Forum. Her inclusion stemmed from the 1975 wanting: "[Her voice] to be documented in a formal place in pop culture." It immediately transitions into "People", an anarcho-punk and screamo protest song that promotes change and rebellion as Healy encourages listeners to "wake up". "The End (Music for Cars)" is an ambient orchestral instrumental that reworks "HNSCC" from "Music for Cars". It is followed by "Frail State of Mind", an experimental UK garage and electronica ballad, meant to represent a collective global anxiety attack. "Streaming", the album's second instrumental, leads directly into "The Birthday Party", an acoustic-driven folk and country ballad. The song is told through the perspective of Healy at a house party, recounting a series of awkward and uninteresting encounters he has with its various guests. "Yeah I Know" is an experimental electronic, UK garage and ambient interlude that contains influences of glitch, IDM and garage rock.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Then Because She Goes", an experimental shoegaze, alternative rock and dream pop song, has an unconventional song structure, background vocals from Bridgers and elements of post-grunge. Bridgers contributes a verse to "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" and background vocals on "Roadkill", an upbeat alternative rock and country song; it draws influence from country rock, Americana, country pop, indie pop and folk music. "Me & You Together Song" is a dream pop and pop rock song. A majority of "I Think There's Something You Should Know" is an instrumental, composed in the styles of house, dubstep and future garage, and it contains an electropop breakdown one minute into its run.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: The 13th song on "Notes on a Conditional Form", "Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied", explores Healy's search for truth and is a neo soul, electro-gospel and R&B song. "Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)", an alternative R&B and neo soul song, uses a sample of the Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)". "Shiny Collarbone" is an instrumental deep house, dancehall and house interlude performed by Ranks. FKA Twigs provides the introductory vocals on "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)", a 1980s-style pop and synth-pop song. Featuring Bridgers' background vocals, "Playing on My Mind" is an Americana-influenced indie pop and acoustic song. "Having No Head" is a propulsive IDM, microhouse and UK garage instrumental. FKA Twigs provides background vocals on "What Should I Say", a deep house, dance-pop and house song, which is the oldest track on "Notes on a Conditional Form". "Bagsy Not in Net" is an experimental interlude and was the last song recorded for "Notes on a Conditional Form". "Don't Worry" is an ambient and indie pop ballad with additional vocals from Tim Healy. The album's final song, "Guys", was written as an answer song to the 1975's "Girls" (2013) and is a mid-tempo indie rock and pop rock ballad.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: On 23 July 2019, the 1975 temporarily deactivated their social media accounts, repeating a precedent set with their previous two albums that signifies the release of new music. "The 1975" was released the following day as the first preview from "Notes on a Conditional Form". On 22 August, the band released "People" as the lead single from the album. It received positive reviews, although the response from the band's fanbase was comparatively more mixed. A music video directed by Healy, Warren Fu and Ben Ditto was released the same day. A countdown on the 1975's social media accounts lead to the release of the album's second single, "Frail State of Mind", on 24 October. The song's accompanying visual, directed by Healy, Patricia Villirillo and Mara Palena, was released on 21 November. Healy announced through his Instagram that "Me & You Together Song" would be released on 16 January 2020 as the third single from "Notes on a Conditional Form". On the day of the song's official release, the 1975 performed "Me & You Together Song" on the BBC Radio 1 show "Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World". Its music video, directed by Bedroom, was released on 6 February.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: On 18 February 2020, the 1975 announced on Twitter that "The Birthday Party", the fourth single from "Notes on a Conditional Form", would debut live on Lowe's Beats 1 Radio show at 5 PM the next day, followed by the music video one hour later. On 31 March, the 1975 announced that "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" would be released as the album's fifth single on 3 April. The song was uploaded to the band's official YouTube channel one day early. "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" was released the sixth single from the album on 23 April. It was met with critical acclaim and appeared on numerous year-end lists, with Scott Lapatine of "Stereogum" and Edwin Ortiz of "Complex" deeming it the best song of 2020. A commercial success, it became the band's highest-charting single to date in the United Kingdom, surpassing "The Sound". A black and white music video for the song was released the same day to promote the track. "Guys" was released as the seventh and final single from the album on 13 May 2020, while its accompanying visual was released on 21 May 2020.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: To further promote "Notes on a Conditional Form", the 1975 planned to embark on the second half of the Music for Cars Tour, which began in November 2018 to support "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships". The tour was postponed on 18 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the band issued a statement apologising to attendees, requesting they retain their tickets for use once the tour resumed. On 12 January 2021, the 1975 decided to cancel the tour, noting the pandemic remained ongoing. In a statement posted on their Instagram, the band said: "These are incredibly difficult times for a lot of people, and until we can be sure that we will be able to play shows in a way that is safe for our fans and crew, we have decided the best course of action is to cancel our touring." With the last show performed in Dublin on 3 March 2020, the tour concluded two months before the release of "Notes on a Conditional Form".


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: On 14 February 2020, the Mindshower website was launched as a "digital detox", featuring a countdown set to expire on 19 February. Numerous easter eggs were hidden within the source code, including a link to satirical incel subreddit and nonsensical empowering messages. Social media posts made by Hann and Healy fuelled speculation about the 1975's connection to the website. When the countdown expired on 19 February, the website debuted "The Birthday Party" and its music video, in which the band visits the retreat. The 1975 partnered with Amazon to relaunch Mindshower on 21 May. A competition involving fan-made artwork was also held, with the winner being featured in Amazon Music's marketing campaign for "Notes on a Conditional Form". The website features literature from several collaborators involved with the album, including a journal from set designer Tobias Rylander, a magazine from designer Samuel Burgess-Johnson, photos from photographer Jordan Curtis Hughes and creative director Patricia Villirillo, and behind-the-scenes access from producer Jonathan Gilmore. Additionally, users can access the computer at the reception desk and download extra content from the album including links to homemade merchandise, artwork and stems.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: To accompany "Notes on a Conditional Form", the 1975 created an online art exhibition titled "Artists Respond to NOACF", taking the form of a YouTube playlist. The exhibition was created following the suspension of the Music for Cars Tour, with the band wanting to create something virtual for their fans to enjoy. They worked alongside Ditto to commission 14 artists to "respond" to 14 of the album's songs. "Artists Respond to NOACF" features contributions from Agusta YR, Ai-Da, Alice Bucknell, Christopher MacInnes, Demon Sanctuary, Frederick Paxton, Jacolby Satterwhite, Joey Holder, Lu Yang, Mia Kerin, Most Dismal Swamp, Rindon Johnson, Sondra Perry, and Weirdcore. The artists used different mediums and disciplines to create their visuals, featuring artificial intelligence, generative animation, motion-capture animation, performance, robotics and other technologies. Each of the artists focused on the main themes explored on "Notes on a Conditional Form": technology, hope, love, anxiety and violence.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: For "Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)", Most Dismal Swamp focused on a 3D animated teddy bear, while Demon Sanctuary employed a generative adversarial network (GAN) using sea slugs for "The End (Music For Cars)", and MacInnes' contribution for "Streaming" used images from international imageboards such as 4chan. Agusta YR produced a film within a film for "Then Because She Goes", while Paxton's "Shiny Collarbone" used footage from the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang and Johnson created a utopian city for "Don't Worry". Ai-Da, a humanoid robot, made a painting for "Yeah I Know" and Bucknell rendered three distinct futuristic cities for "I Think There's Something You Should Know". Perry's contribution focused on a Black 3D avatar for "What Should I Say", Weirdcore's visual for "Bagsy Not In Net" features kaleidoscopic patterns of astronauts, while Holder's film for "Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied" was inspired by sigils, the occult and "The Book of Pleasure: Psychology of Ecstasy" (1913) by Austin Osman Spare. Kerin plays a cowgirl in her video for "Roadkill", while Satterwhite's art for "Having No Head" is an animated tribute to Breonna Taylor. In the final video for "Artists Respond to NOACF", Yang performs "Playing on My Mind" as her non-binary alter ego, Doku. A visual for "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", created by Candela Capitán, was quickly removed after its release due to its explicit nature.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: In the 1975's native United Kingdom, "Notes on a Conditional Form" debuted atop the UK Albums Chart, selling 34,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. 71 percent of their first week sales were attributed to pure album sales, including 7,000 vinyl copies–the fastest-selling vinyl record of 2020 at the time of its release. It became their fourth consecutive number one on the chart, which made the 1975 the sixth act in history to achieve this feat. In Scotland, the album reached number one on the Scottish Albums chart. On 4 December, the album was certified silver in the United Kingdom, denoting sales of over 60,000 units. Elsewhere in Europe, "Notes on a Conditional Form" reached number two on the Irish Albums chart, number 30 on the Austrian Albums chart, number 36 on the Dutch, German and Swiss Albums charts, number 67 on the Belgian Albums chart, number 69 on the Lithuanian Albums chart and number 100 on the Italian Albums chart.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: In the United States, "Notes on a Conditional Form" debuted at number four on the US "Billboard" 200 chart with sales of 54,000 equivalent album units, including 39,000 pure album sales. It became the 1975's third top-five album on the chart, following "I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It" and "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships". It also debuted atop the US "Billboard" Top Rock Albums chart and was later ranked at number 62 on the chart's year-end version. Elsewhere in North America, the album peaked at number 19 on the "Billboard" Canadian Albums Chart. In the Asia-Pacific region, "Notes on a Conditional Form" reached the top of the Australian Albums chart, number four on the New Zealand Albums chart, number 14 on the "Billboard" Japan Hot Albums chart and number 17 on the Japanese Albums chart.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: "Notes on a Conditional Form" received polarised reviews from contemporary music critics, with some deeming it confusing and chaotic, while others viewed it as "a work of panoramic genius." Aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised rating of 69, based on 28 critical reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Stubbs gave the album a perfect five-star review, describing it as boundary-pushing and "totally, refreshingly unfiltered – musically and lyrically." He praised its confessional themes, musical diversity and subversion of expectations. Mosk awarded the album a score of 9.7 out of 10, giving perfect scores for the music quality, production, originality, sonic diversity and lyrics, calling it: "a musical odyssey layered in sound and substance: A genreless, emotionally stirring work of art ready to be the new soundtrack to your life." More specifically, he highlighted the raw, emotionally indulgent nature of the lyrics and the ambitious, adventurous musical style, predicting it would serve as the voice of a generation. Dillon Eastoe of "Gigwise" extolled the band for defying the expectations placed upon them, commending the album's lyrical introspection, sonic variety and creativity, deeming it "easily the most interesting and confusing major release by an arena-selling guitar band in a long while." Fitzmaurice lauded the album for defying categorization, calling it "a delightfully overstuffed collection featuring some of [the band's] best and most immediately pleasing work to date." He praised the self-references, collaborations and ability to balance the inclusion of new genres with the band's signature sound, deeming it a testament to Daniel and Healy's vision.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Writing for "PopMatters", Jordan Blum gave "Notes on a Conditional Form" a positive review, calling the album intriguing, sprawling and chameleonic. He wrote that despite a lack of complete coherence, it demonstrated "a level of unquenchable ambition, creativity, and outspoken curiosity that's rarely felt in popular music today." "musicOMH" editor Ross Horton awarded the album four out of five stars, writing: "If this is [the 1975's] worst album, and you might believe that it is, then they very well may be the best band in the world." He commended the band's growth, maturity and willingness to take risks, but felt the album's second half was more substantial than its first. Similarly, Small felt the album served as both the 1975's opus and an ode to their previous albums, commenting: "if you thought ["A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships"] was an experimental risk, ["Notes on a Conditional Form"] will blow you out of the water." She praised the album's bold instrumentation and willingness to incorporate different genres, but was ambivalent towards the lyrics, finding them "often less than brilliant." Gormely scored the album eight out of ten, saying its "ambition and execution can't be denied. This is the 1975 operating at the peak of their powers." While praising the personal and introspective lyrics, he viewed the album as bloated. Sodomsky awarded it the same score, calling it "a long, messy experiment that just so happens to peak with some of their sharpest songs." He lauded the quiet, introspective lyricism and deemed the production as the band's most intricate and impressive yet, specifically praising Daniel for his role as the band's "secret weapon". However, Sodomsky felt the tracklist could be condensed.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Awarding the album a score of 6 out of 10, Joe Rivers of "No Ripcord" deemed it messy and unfocused. He felt the album was too ambitious, weighed down by a long run time, too many genres, forgettable instrumental pieces and no distinct overall concept. However, Rivers praised other aspects as "very, very good" and featured some of the best songs of the band's career, saying: "["Notes on a Conditional Form"] is a fantastic 12 track, 45-minute album. It's just a shame that [t]he 1975 decided to make it into a 22 track, 80 minute one." Writing for "Paste", Lizzie Manno praised the album's musical ambition, but found the lack of connecting threads made it overwhelming, inconsistent and exhaustingly chaotic, saying it was "far too ambitious and self-aware... for its own good." In his review of "Notes on a Conditional Form", Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" commended the album's experimental nature but felt the lack of boundaries between genres was more akin to a Spotify playlist than an album. "The A.V. Club" writer Annie Zaleski was receptive to the beginning of the album but criticised the instrumentals, lyrical shallowness and sequencing as it progressed, writing: "the sonic hopscotch that once amplified the group's singularity now feels like a liability." In a negative review, Biddles lambasted "Notes on a Conditional Form" as flat, directionless and inessential, viewing most of the album's songs as unremarkable and indistinguishable. She specifically criticised the "directionless" instrumentals and the repetitive nature of many songs, saying: "it is disheartening to witness [the 1975] with nearly nothing of note to say." Similarly, "The Independent"s Roisin O'Connor deemed the album "a smug farrago" filled with inconsistent nonsense, meaningless orchestral interludes and indistinguishable dance songs, calling it "a 22-track parade of stream-of-consciousness self-indulgence."


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: Regarding reception from music audiences, NPR listeners voted "Notes on a Conditional Form" the 44th most popular album of 2020, while Pitchfork readers voted it the 32nd best album of the year.


title: Notes on a Conditional Form

text: All tracks are written by George Daniel, Matthew Healy, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, and produced by Daniel and Healy, except where noted.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Jalāl al-Dawla Mu'izz al-Dunyā Wa'l-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ibn Alp Arslān (8 August 1055 – 19 November 1092, full name: ), better known by his regnal name of Malik-Shah I (), was the third sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire from 1072 to 1092, under whom the sultanate reached its zenith of power and influence.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: During his youth, he spent his time participating in the campaigns of his father Alp Arslan, along with the latters vizier Nizam al-Mulk. During one of such campaigns in 1072, Alp Arslan was fatally wounded and died only a few days later. After that, Malik-Shah was crowned as the new sultan of the empire, but the succession was contested by his uncle Qavurt. Although Malik-Shah was the nominal head of the Seljuk state, Nizam al-Mulk held near absolute power during his reign. Malik-Shah spent the rest of his reign waging war against the Karakhanids on the eastern side, and establishing order in the Caucasus.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Malik-Shah's death to this day remains under dispute; according to some scholars, he was poisoned by Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadi, while others say that he was poisoned by the supporters of Nizam al-Mulk.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Although he was known by several names, he was mostly known as "Malik-Shah", a combination of the Arabic word malik (king) and the Persian word shah (which also means king).


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Malik-Shah was born on 16 August 1055 and spent his youth in Isfahan. According to the 12th-century Persian historian Muhammad bin Ali Rawandi, Malik-Shah had fair skin, was tall and somewhat bulky. In 1064, Malik-Shah, only 9 years old by then, along with Nizam al-Mulk, the Persian "vizier" of the Empire, took part in Alp Arslan’s campaign in the Caucasus. The same year, Malik-Shah was married to Terken Khatun, the daughter of the Karakhanid khan Ibrahim Tamghach-Khan. In 1066, Alp Arslan arranged a ceremony near Merv, where he appointed Malik-Shah as his heir and also granted him Isfahan as a fief.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: In 1071, Malik-Shah took part in the Syrian campaign of his father, and stayed in Aleppo when his father fought the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at Manzikert. In 1072, Malik-Shah and Nizam al-Mulk accompanied Alp-Arslan during his campaign in Transoxiana against the Karakhanids. However, Alp-Arslan was badly wounded during his expedition, and Malik-Shah shortly took over the army. Alp-Arslan died some days later, and Malik-Shah was declared as the new "sultan" of the empire.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: However, right after Malik-Shah's accession, his uncle Qavurt claimed the throne for himself and sent Malik-Shah a message which said: "I am the eldest brother, and you are a youthful son; I have the greater right to my brother Alp-Arslan's inheritance." Malik-Shah then replied by sending the following message: "A brother does not inherit when there is a son.". This message enraged Qavurt, who thereafter occupied Isfahan. In 1073 a battle took place near Hamadan, which lasted three days. Qavurt was accompanied by his seven sons, and his army consisted of Turkmens, while the army of Malik-Shah consisted of "ghulams" ("military slaves") and contingents of Kurdish and Arab troops.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: During the battle, the Turks of Malik-Shah's army mutinied against him, but he nevertheless managed to defeat and capture Qavurt. Qavurt then begged for mercy and in return promised to retire to Oman. However, Nizam al-Mulk declined the offer, claiming that sparing him was an indication of weakness. After some time, Qavurt was strangled to death with a bowstring, while two of his sons were blinded. After having dealt with that problem, Malik-Shah appointed Qutlugh-Tegin as the governor of Fars and Sav-Tegin as the governor of Kerman.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Malik-Shah then turned his attention towards the Karakhanids, who had after the death of Alp-Arslan invaded Tukharistan, which was ruled by Malik-Shah's brother Ayaz, who was unable to repel the Karakhanids and was killed by them. Malik-Shah eventually managed to repel the Karakhanids and captured Tirmidh, giving Sav-Tegin the key of the city. Malik-Shah then appointed his other brother Shihab al-Din Tekish as the ruler of Tukharistan and Balkh. During the same period, the Ghaznavid ruler Ibrahim was seizing Seljuk territory in northern Khorasan, but was defeated by Malik-Shah, who then made peace with the latter and gave his daughter Gawhar Khatun in marriage to Ibrahim's son Mas'ud III.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: In 1074, Malik-Shah ordered the Turkic warlord Arghar to restore what he had destroyed during his raids in the territory of the Shirvanshah Fariburz I. During the same year, he appointed Qavurt's son Rukn al-Dawla Sultan-Shah as the ruler of Kerman. One year later, Malik-Shah sent an army under Sav-Tegin to Arran, which was ruled by the Shaddadid ruler Fadlun III. Sav-Tegin managed to easily conquer the region, thus ending Shaddadid rule. Malik-Shah then gave Gorgan to Fadlun III as a fief. Throughout Malik's reign new institutions of learning were established and it was during this time that the Jalali calendar was reformed at the Isfahan observatory. In 1086–87, he led an expedition to capture Edessa, Manbij, Aleppo, Antioch and Latakia. During this expedition, he appointed Aq Sunqur governor of Aleppo and received homage of the Arab emir of Shaizar, Nasir ibn Ali ibn Munquidh. In 1089, Malik-Shah captured Samarkand with the support of the local clergy, and imprisoned its Karakhanid ruler Ahmad Khan ibn Khizr, who was the nephew of Terken Khatun. He then marched to Semirechye, and made the Karakhanid Harun Khan ibn Sulayman, the ruler of Kashgar and Khotan, acknowledge him as his suzerain.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: In 1092, Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated near Sihna, on the road to Baghdad, by a man disguised as a Sufi. As the assassin was immediately cut down by Nizam's bodyguard, it became impossible to establish with certainty who had sent him. One theory had it that he was an Assassin, since these regularly made attempts on the lives of Seljuk officials and rulers during the 11th century. Another theory had it that the attack had been instigated by Malik-Shah, who may have grown tired of his overmighty vizier. After Nizam al-Mulk's death, Malik-Shah appointed another Persian named Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im as his vizier. Malik-Shah then went to Baghdad and decided to depose al-Muqtadi and sent him the following message: "You must relinquish Baghdad to me, and depart to any land you choose." This was because Malik-Shah wanted to appoint his grandson (or nephew) Ja'far as the new caliph.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: As Sunni Muslims, the Sultan persecuted Shiites, in particular, the Ismailis of Hassan ibn Sabbah. Followers of Sabbah managed to occupy the Alamut fortress near Qazvin, and the army under the command of the emir Arslan-Tash, sent by Malik Shah, could not recapture it. The Sultan's ghilman, Kizil Sarug, besieged the Daru fortress in Kuhistan, but ceased hostilities in connection with the death of Malik Shah on November 19, 1092, possibly due to poisoning.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Malik-Shah died on 19 November 1092 while he was hunting. He was most likely poisoned by the caliph or the supporters of Nizam al-Mulk. Under the orders of Terken Khatun, Malik-Shah's body was taken back to Isfahan, where it was buried in a madrasa.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Upon his death, the Seljuk Empire fell into chaos, as rival successors and regional governors carved up their empire and waged war against each other. The situation within the Seljuk lands was further complicated by the beginning of the First Crusade, which detached large portions of Syria and Palestine from Muslim control in 1098 and 1099. The success of the First Crusade is at least in part attributable to the political confusion which resulted from Malik-Shah's death.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: One of his wives was Terken Khatun. She was the daughter of Tamghach Khan Ibrahim. She was born in 1053. They married in 1065. She had five sons, Dawud, who died in 1082, Ahmed, who died in 1088–9, aged eleven, Sultan Mahmud I, born in 1087–8, Abu'l-Qasim, who died in childhood, and another son who died in childhood, and was buried in Ray. She died in 1094. Another of his wives was Zubayda Khatun. She was born in 1056. She was the daughter of Yaquti, and the granddaughter of Chaghri Beg. She was the mother of Malik-Shah's eldest son, Sultan Barkiyaruq. She died in 1099. One of his concubines was Taj al-Din Khatun Safariyya, also known as Bushali. She was the mother of Sultans Muhammad Tapar and Ahmad Sanjar, and another son who died in childhood, and was buried in Ray. She died in Merv in 1121.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Two other sons, whose mothers are unknown were Tughril and Amir Khumarin, who was born with white hairs over his body and white eyelashes. One of his daughters, Mah-i Mulk Khatun, whose mother was Terken Khatun, married Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadi in 1082. Another daughter, Sitara Khatun, was married to Garshasp II, son of Ali ibn Faramurz. Another daughter married Najm al-Daula, son of Shahriyar ibn Qarin. Another daughter was married by Sanjar to the Ispahbud Taj al-Multk Mardavij, son of Ali ibn Mardavij. Another daughter, Terken Khatun, was married to the Kara-Khanid Muhammad Arslan Khan. Their son Rukn al-Din Mahmud Khan, succeeded Sanjar in Khurasan. Another daughter, Gawhar Khatun, was married to Mas'ud III of Ghazni. Another daughter, Ismah Khatun, married Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustazhir in 1109.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Malik-Shah displayed substantial interest in science, art and literature. The Isfahan Observatory or Malikshah Observatory was constructed during his reign, closing shortly after his death in 1092. It was from the work at the observatory that the Jalali Calendar was adopted. He thought highly of the art of architecture as well, as he enjoyed building new and splendid mosques in his capital, Isfahan. He was religiously tolerant which is supported by the fact that during his reign, subjects of the Seljuk Empire enjoyed internal peace and religious tolerance. Malik-Shah also showed lenience towards exquisite poetry as his reign is also memorable for the poetry of Omar Khayyam.


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Despite being arguably the most powerful monarch of his era, it is believed that Malik-Shah was unpretentious and modest. The legend has it that during the years that were hugely successful for Seljuks on all fronts, Malik-Shah, overwhelmed by the imperial might of his dynasty, used to climb to the top of a hill and say the following: "Oh Almighty God, I will somehow cope with the problem of hunger, please save me from the threat of abundance".


title: Malik-Shah I

text: Malik Shah did not spend as much time on campaign as his prominent predecessor Tughril or his father Alp Arslan did. Isfahan became securely established as his chief city of residence, although in the latter years of his rule Malik Shah preferred to winter in Baghdad. Whereas Alp Arslan had spent just over a year out of his decade-long reign in Isfahan, Malik Shah resided there for more than half of his rule. Isfahan also served as the burial site of Malik Shah, his descendants, as well as celebrated bureaucrats of the sultanate like Nizam al-Mulk. Malik Shah’s decision of residing in a capital far away from the centers of Turkmen settlement around Merv, Rayy, Hamadan, and Azerbaijan could well be explained by the increasing distance between him and his nomadic subjects.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Alfred Griner Packer (January 21, 1842 – April 23, 1907), also known as "The Colorado Cannibal", was an American prospector and self-proclaimed professional wilderness guide who confessed to cannibalism during the winter of 1874. He and five other men had attempted to travel through the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, during the peak of a harsh winter. When only Packer reached civilization, he said that he had been abandoned by his party, but eventually confessed that the party had resorted to forced cannibalism of dead members to stay alive when they became lost. He later recanted this story, and confessed to having singularly lived off the flesh of his companions, during his snowbound state – after they had fallen victim to party member Shannon Bell, whom Packer said he shot in self-defense. He confessed to having used their flesh to survive, while stranded and during his trek out of the mountains, nearly two and a half months later.


title: Alferd Packer

text: After Packer's story was called into question, he escaped jail and hid from justice for nine years before being tried, convicted of premeditated murder, and sentenced to death. Packer won a retrial, and was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison, on five counts of voluntary manslaughter.


title: Alferd Packer

text: An almost completely fictitious biopic of his exploits, "The Legend of Alfred Packer", was released in 1980. A more comedic and heavily fabricated take on the story, titled "Cannibal! The Musical", was released in 1993.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Alfred Griner Packer was born in an unincorporated area of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, on January 21, 1842, and was one of three children born to James Packer and his wife, Esther Griner. By the early 1850s, James Packer had moved his family to LaGrange County, Indiana, where he worked as a cabinetmaker. Alfred is said to have had a bitter relationship with his parents, and later moved in his late teens to the Minnesota area, where he worked as a shoemaker.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Packer served in the Union Army, during the American Civil War. He enlisted on April 22, 1862, in Winona, Minnesota and was assigned to the 16th U.S. Infantry Regiment – Company F. He was honorably discharged due to epilepsy eight months later, at Fort Ontario, New York. He moved south and on June 25, 1863, enlisted in the 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment – Company C, at Ottumwa, Iowa. However, he was discharged at Cleveland, Tennessee, on April 22, 1864, for the same reason. Packer suffered from seizures, secondary to his condition, and is reported as having had them about every two days – which ultimately led to his discharge.


title: Alferd Packer

text: He then traveled west, and over the next nine years, worked at numerous odd jobs. These professions ranged from: hunter, wagon teamster, ranch hand, and field worker, but his seizures and overall attitude ensured that he never kept a job for long. He also worked for a couple of months as a guide, but those who knew him at this time later stated that being a guide was by no means his strong point and he was prone to lose his way. He ended up working mining-related jobs, drifting from mine to mine, but never found prosperity through the industry. He worked for a short time in Colorado as a miner, but moved on to Utah upon having no luck there.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Most who knew Packer generally disliked and distrusted him, aided by his nearly pathological lying and reputation for stealing. He was quarrelsome and difficult to get along with.


title: Alferd Packer

text: In November 1873, 20 men left the Bingham Canyon mines near Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, for the gold fields of Breckenridge, Colorado Territory – upon news of a massive strike that was discovered there. The men were largely strangers to each other, and banded together to make their fortune in Colorado, after Bob McGrue rallied any willing men to follow him. A member of this original party, George Tracy, claimed that the men encountered Packer some 25 miles from their starting point, near Provo. Packer asked where they were headed, and when he heard they were headed to the gold country of the San Juan Mountains, he said he would like to join them. Packer was without money and also lacked adequate supplies, so the men were apprehensive to take him along, but Packer claimed he was both a prospector and a guide, and that he knew the San Juan territory well. His claim gave him a position of worth among the simple prospectors, who knew little or nothing of Colorado's geography. Unfortunately, neither did Packer.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Members of this original party later said that he had vastly overstated his experience of being a seasoned guide familiar to the area, or had even possibly fabricated his qualifications altogether. He was also reported as being without a rifle at the time the expedition left, having only a Colt revolver with him. Throughout the course of their journey Packer was reported as being greedy with rations, a bit of a beggar, lazy, and obstinate. He was reported to have quarreled constantly with party member Frank Miller. At the time of his first trial, Packer was characterized as a "whining fraud" by party member Preston Nutter. His seizures also made his presence in the group strenuous.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The party made less than adequate progress towards their destination. The winter was becoming a major obstacle for them, as the wagons and horses of the assemblage were being bogged down, along with the fact that the Mormon Trail they were following was becoming heavily snowed over and largely indistinguishable, forcing the men to rely almost solely on a compass. Packer's inexperience was also beginning to show itself, and the party ultimately became lost. Provisions quickly ran out, and the men were reduced to surviving for a considerable length of time on horse feed, and were nearing the point where the horses themselves were next to be eaten. On January 21, 1874, the party came upon the encampment of Chief Ouray, known as the "White Man's Friend", near Montrose, Colorado, within the Uncompahgre Valley. The men were desperate but still approached the camp with great trepidation, unsure of how they would be received by the tribe. Although they reportedly scared some of the Utes away with their haggard appearance, Chief Ouray greeted them as welcomed guests and supplied them with food and lodging, to their grateful astonishment. He recommended they postpone their expedition until spring, since they were likely to encounter dangerous winter weather in the mountains. He told them that no Ute would attempt such a journey, and that to chance it would be to risk almost certain death. Ouray offered to allow the men to stay with his tribe until the winter had passed, and promised to share all that he and his people had with them.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Breckenridge was being descended upon by miners from all over the country, and a fear of missing out on the riches made some of the men anxious to continue on. After a couple of weeks with Ouray and his people, the party convened and discussed leaving. However, it was the beginning of February at this point and the snow had been relentless since their arrival: meaning that half of the party was forced to stay put with their wagons and horses until spring. Eleven men were unencumbered and so they decided to proceed on. They intended to travel first to the Los Pinós Indian Agency, which was the closest outpost to the camp, and proceed onward to Breckenridge from there. Chief Ouray saw that there was no changing the men's minds, and gave them food for their journey, as well as safe directions that bypassed the mountains. Packer, however, was in favor of getting to the agency by going through the mountains: stating it was a more direct route. Five of the eleven men were adamantly in favor of following Ouray's directions, which would largely have them following the Gunnison River, along its banks. Packer insisted that he knew the country well, and that his way was quicker, eventually securing five men to follow him. Oliver D. Loutsenhizer and the four other men left first, following the Gunnison River. This party's own journey was besieged by bad weather and freezing temperatures, and although they followed the river, provisions ran out well before they reached their destination. The men were close to starvation, when cowhands with the Government Cattle Camp near Gunnison, Colorado, came upon them by chance and gave them food and shelter. They remained at the camp until later that April.


title: Alferd Packer

text: On February 9, Packer and the five others in his party left for the Los Pinós Indian Agency, intending to traverse the mountains. Besides Packer the group comprised Shannon Wilson Bell, James Humphrey, Frank "Butcher" Miller, George "California" Noon, and Israel Swan. The fact that no one in the other group opposed the departure of their "guide" has led many researchers to conclude that Packer's inexperience and overall attitude had become quite taxing to them, and that they figured they were better off without him. The men in Packer's party had a 75-mile journey ahead of them. The leader of the combined parties, Bob McGrue, guided Packer's party along the river route advised by Chief Ouray until his horses could not continue. McGrue unloaded the men's provisions and went back to Ouray's camp. The men continued along the river for a time, before Packer took his party along a path higher up in the San Juan Mountains, disregarding Ouray's ominous warning. This decision was made when the men barely had enough food to cover the supposed 14 days it would take to travel the safest route, possessed no snowshoes, had a bare minimum of matches and no flint, and also had no heavy clothing that would combat the extreme cold. They went into the mountains with two rifles, one pistol, a couple of knives, a hatchet, and minimal ammunition. What happened after this is not clear.


title: Alferd Packer

text: On April 16, 1874, Packer emerged from the woods alone and stumbled his way across a frozen lake bed to the Los Pinós Indian Agency, near Saguache, Colorado, with rags latched to his feet. As the men of the agency sat around the table of the mess hall eating breakfast, the door was flung open, and Packer stood before them begging for food and shelter. He carried with him a rifle, a knife, a steel coffee pot, and a satchel. The men hurried Packer inside, sat him down at the table and gave him some food, which he vomited as quickly as he ate it. Packer said that his digestion was altered as a result of his prolonged near-starvation. After several shots of whiskey, he related to the men the events leading up to Ouray's camp, and that he had been hired by five men to guide them to Breckenridge from there. He stated that during their journey, he had become snow-blind and was lagging behind the remainder of his party, becoming a burden for them. Packer claimed that a member of the party, named Israel Swan, supplied him with a rifle. They then abandoned him. He claimed he was then forced to survive on his own and make his way out of the mountains with minimal ammunition and virtually no supplies, and ate little else than roots and rose buds the entire time he was alone. The men at the agency listened to his story, but found it rather odd, that even though he had been lost in the wilderness for a little over two months – he did not look as malnourished and threadbare as most lost wanderers they had ever come across. His face was reported as being bloated, and his overall physique hardly skeletal. Packer claimed he was broke, and sold the Winchester rifle he had in his possession to Major Downer, the agency's justice of the peace, for $10 (). Packer stayed at the agency for ten days before he expressed that he wished to go back home to Pennsylvania, and then headed to the nearby town of Saguache, to buy supplies for his journey.


title: Alferd Packer

text: When he reached Saguache, Packer made arrangements to room in Dolan's Saloon. Larry Dolan, the owner, claimed that Packer spent around $100 () during his stay, and that Packer even offered to lend him $300. Packer also spent $78 in Otto Mears' general store. It was also claimed that he had several different wallets in his possession. Packer drank heavily, and after becoming intoxicated he gave conflicting stories regarding his journey and how he came to be separated from the other men. This led to quick gossip among the townspeople, given his inconsistent story, seemingly endless cash flow, and the fact that his party was still unheard from.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Preston Nutter, a member of the original party who remained at Ouray's camp, arrived in Saguache around this time with two other original party members. He encountered Packer in Dolan's Saloon, drinking and carrying on. Nutter asked Packer where the rest of his party was, with Packer claiming that he had "got his feet wet and frozen". He stated that they had set up camp when a winter storm set in, and he started a fire to warm up while the others went ahead to look for food. Packer claimed that Swan left him with his rifle in case of trouble and that they never returned. He presumed they had abandoned him. He claimed he was forced to leave the party to an unknown fate, as he had no idea where they went when they left him, and lived mainly on rose buds and the occasional squirrel as he made his trek out. Nutter thought his story odd, considering that Packer looked rather well-fed and that it would be a fatal choice for five miners unfamiliar with Colorado to abandon their "guide" in the snowbound mountains of a territory he claimed to know well.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Nutter also thought it peculiar that Israel Swan would give Packer his rifle, leaving the group of four with only one rifle as a means of shooting game. Additionally, he noted that Packer had in his possession a skinning knife that had belonged to Frank Miller. When Nutter asked Packer how he came to have it, Packer claimed that Miller had stuck it in a tree and walked off without it. Having had doubts about Packer's story from the beginning, Nutter was convinced that something nefarious had happened. Nutter had come to view Packer in the same negative light as Loutsenhizer, based on his behavior leading up to their arrival at Ouray's camp. Accusations were flung and words were exchanged, with Nutter threatening to hang Packer. Nutter later stated, regarding Packer, "He was sulky, obstinate and quarrelsome. He was a petty thief willing to take things that did not belong to him, whether of any value or not." The two men were separated, and Packer made plans to move on.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Meanwhile, back at the Los Pinós Indian Agency, two men of the five-man party that had taken the Gunnison River route before being rescued by government cowhands finally arrived at their destination. They were joined a few days later by the remaining three men, including Oliver D. Loutsenhizer. The men were introduced to the head of the agency, General Charles Adams, who greeted them and relayed to them that he had already received another member of their party by the name of Alfred Packer – and that he spoke of desertion at the hands of his companions. All five men at once discredited what Packer had told the General and his staff, stating that the men that they had known would never abandon a man to die. Loutsenhizer flatly told the General that Packer was not to be trusted, and that he was sure that something bad had happened in the mountains. He noted the Winchester rifle carried in by Packer belonged to an elderly man in Packer's party and that a pipe he had left behind at the agency belonged to a man named Shannon Bell, who was also a member of his party. The men convinced General Adams to dispatch a mounted agency officer to Saguache at once to retrieve Packer for questioning, but under the guise of recruiting him for a search party for the missing men. Packer was in the process of getting his things gathered to leave the area when he was again approached by Nutter and some other men. The agency officer arrived just in time and got between the men. He told Packer he had been sent to enlist him as a guide for the search party for the missing men. Packer was reluctant to go, but with little other option than vigilante justice, he agreed. He mounted his recently-purchased horse and followed the officer back to Los Pinós, but not before Nutter had a private chat with the officer.