title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880December 21, 1964) was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel "Nigger Heaven". In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult life, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs over his lifetime.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he was the youngest child of Charles Duane Van Vechten and Ada Amanda Van Vechten (née Fitch). Both of his parents were well educated. His father was a wealthy and prominent banker. His mother established the Cedar Rapids Public Library and had great musical talent. As a child, Van Vechten developed a passion for music and theatre. He graduated from Washington High School in 1898.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: After high school, Van Vechten was eager to take the next steps in his life, but found it difficult to pursue his passions in Iowa. He described his hometown as "that unloved town". To advance his education, he decided in 1899 to study at the University of Chicago, where he studied a variety of topics including music, art and opera. As a student, he became increasingly interested in writing and wrote for the college newspaper, the "University of Chicago Weekly".


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: After graduating from college in 1903, Van Vechten accepted a job as a columnist for the "Chicago American". In his column "The Chaperone", Van Vechten covered many different topics through a style of semi-autobiographical gossip and criticism. During his time with the "Chicago American", he was occasionally asked to include photographs with his column. This was the first time he was thought to have experimented with photography, which later became one of his greatest passions. Van Vechten was fired from his position with the "Chicago American" because of what was described as an elaborate and complicated style of writing. Some described his contributions to the paper as "lowering the tone of the Hearst papers". In 1906, he moved to New York City. He was hired as the assistant music critic at "The New York Times". His interest in opera had him take a leave of absence from the paper in 1907 to travel to Europe and explore opera.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: While in England, he married Anna Snyder, his long-time friend from Cedar Rapids. He returned to his job at "The New York Times" in 1909, where he became the first American critic of modern dance. Through the guidance of his mentor, Mabel Dodge Luhan, he became engrossed in the avant garde. He began to frequently attend groundbreaking musical premieres at the time when Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, and Loie Fuller were performing in New York City. He also attended premieres in Paris where he met American author and poet Gertrude Stein in 1913. He became a devoted friend and champion of Stein and was considered to be one of Stein's most enthusiastic fans. They continued corresponding for the remainder of Stein's life, and, at her death, she appointed Van Vechten her literary executor; he helped to bring into print her unpublished writings. A collection of the letters between Van Vechten and Stein has been published.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Van Vechten wrote a piece called "How to Read Gertrude Stein" for the arts magazine "The Trend". In his piece, Van Vechten attempted to demystify Stein and bring clarity to her works. Van Vechten came to the conclusion that Stein can be best understood when one has been guided through her work by an "expert insider". He writes that "special writers require special readers".


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: The marriage to Anna Snyder ended in divorce in 1912, and he wed actress Fania Marinoff in 1914. Van Vechten and Marinoff were known for ignoring the social separation of races during the times and for inviting blacks to their home for social gatherings. They were also known to attend public gatherings for black people and to visit black friends in their homes.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Although Van Vechten's marriage to his wife Fania Marinoff lasted for 50 years, they often had arguments about Van Vechten's affairs with men. Van Vechten was known to have romantic and sexual relationships with men, especially Mark Lutz. Lutz (1901–1968) grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and was introduced to Van Vechten by Hunter Stagg in New York in 1931. Lutz was a model for some of Van Vechten's earliest experiments with photography. The friendship lasted until Van Vechten's death. At Lutz's death, as per his wishes, the correspondence with Van Vechten, amounting to 10,000 letters, was destroyed. Lutz donated his collection of Van Vechten's photographs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Several books of Van Vechten's essays on various subjects, such as music and literature, were published between 1915 and 1920, and Van Vechten also served as an informal scout for the newly formed Alfred A. Knopf. Between 1922 and 1930 Knopf published seven novels by him, starting with "Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works" and ending with "Parties." His sexuality is most clearly reflected in his intensely homoerotic portraits of working-class men.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: As an appreciator of the arts, Van Vechten was extremely intrigued by the explosion of creativity which was occurring in Harlem. He was drawn towards the tolerance of Harlem society and the excitement it generated among black writers and artists. He also felt most accepted there as a gay man. Van Vechten promoted many of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Ethel Waters, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and Wallace Thurman. Van Vechten's controversial novel "Nigger Heaven" was published in 1926. His essay "Negro Blues Singers" was published in "Vanity Fair" in 1926. Biographer Edward White suggests Van Vechten was convinced that negro culture was the essence of America.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Van Vechten played a critical role in the Harlem Renaissance and helped to bring greater clarity to the African-American movement. However, for a long time he was also seen as a very controversial figure. In Van Vechten's early writings, he claimed that black people were born to be entertainers and sexually "free". In other words, he believed that black people should be free to explore their sexuality and singers should follow their natural talents such as jazz, spirituals and blues. Van Vechten wrote about his experiences of attending a Bessie Smith concert at the Orpheum Theatre in Newark, New Jersey, in 1925.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: In Harlem, Van Vechten often attended opera and cabarets. He was credited for the surge in white interest in Harlem nightlife and culture as well as involved in helping well-respected writers such as Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen to find publishers for their early works.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: In 2001, Emily Bernard published "Remember Me to Harlem". This was a collection of letters which documented the long friendship between Van Vechten and Langston Hughes, who publicly defended "Nigger Heaven". Bernard's book "Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White" explores the messy and uncomfortable realities of race, and the complicated tangle of black and white in America.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: His older brother Ralph Van Vechten died on June 28, 1927; when Ralph's widow Fannie died in 1928, Van Vechten inherited $1 million invested in a trust fund, which was unaffected by the stock market crash of 1929 and provided financial support for Carl and Fania.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: By the start of the 1930s and at the age of 50, Van Vechten was finished with writing and took up photography, using his apartment at 150 West 55th Street as a studio, where he photographed many notable people.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: After the 1930s Van Vechten published little writing, though he continued writing letters to many correspondents.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Van Vechten died in 1964 at the age of 84 in New York City. His ashes were scattered over the Shakespeare garden in Central Park. He was the subject of a 1968 biography by Bruce Kellner, "Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades", as well as Edward White's 2014 biography, "The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America".


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: At age 40, Van Vechten wrote the book "Peter Whiffle", which established him as a respected novelist. This novel was recognized as contemporary and an important work to the collection of Harlem Renaissance history. In his novel, autobiographical facts were arranged into a fictional form. In addition to "Peter Whiffle", Van Vechten wrote several other novels. One is "The Tattooed Countess", a disguised manipulation of his memories of growing up in Cedar Rapids. His book "the Tiger in the House" explores the quirks and qualities of Van Vechten's most beloved animal, the cat.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: One of his more controversial novels, "Nigger Heaven", was received with both controversy and praise. Van Vechten called this book "my Negro novel". He intended for this novel to depict how African Americans were living in Harlem and not about the suffering of blacks in the South who were dealing with racism and lynchings. Although many encouraged Van Vechten to reconsider giving his novel such a controversial name, he could not resist having an incendiary title. Some worried that his title would take away from the content of the book. In one letter, his father wrote to him, "Whatever you may be compelled to say in the book," he wrote, "your present title will not be understood & I feel certain you should change it."


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Many black readers were divided over how the novel depicted African Americans. Some felt that it depicted black people as "alien and strange", and others valued the novel for its representation of African Americans as everyday people, with complexity and flaws just like typical white characters. The novel's supporters included Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes and Gertrude Stein, who all defended the novel for bringing Harlem society and racial issues to the forefront of America.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: His supporters also sent him letters to voice their opinions of the novel. Alain Locke sent Van Vechten a letter from Berlin citing his novel "Nigger Heaven" and the excitement surrounding its release as his primary reason for making an imminent return home. Gertrude Stein sent Van Vechten a letter from France writing that the novel was the best thing he had ever written. Stein also played an important role in the development of the novel.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Well-known critics of this novel included African-American scholar W. E. B. Du Bois and black novelist Wallace Thurman. Du Bois dismissed the novel as "cheap melodrama". Decades after the book was published, literary critic and scholar Ralph Ellison remembered Van Vechten as a bad influence, an unpleasant character who "introduced a note of decadence into Afro-American literary matters which was not needed". In 1981, David Levering Lewis, historian and author of a classic study of the Harlem Renaissance, called "Nigger Heaven" a "colossal fraud", a seemingly uplifting book with a message that was overshadowed by "the throb of the tom-tom". He viewed Van Vechten as being driven by "a mixture of commercialism and patronizing sympathy".


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: Most of Van Vechten's personal papers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. The Beinecke Library also holds a collection titled "Living Portraits: Carl Van Vechten's Color Photographs of African Americans, 1939–1964", a collection of 1,884 color Kodachrome slides.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: The Library of Congress has a collection of approximately 1,400 photographs which it acquired in 1966 from Saul Mauriber (May 21, 1915 – February 12, 2003). There is also a collection of Van Vechten's photographs in the Prentiss Taylor collection in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, and a Van Vechten collection at Fisk University. The Museum of the City of New York's collection includes 2,174 of Carl Van Vechten's photographs. Brandeis University's department of Archives & Special Collections holds 1,689 Carl Van Vechten portraits. Van Vechten also donated materials to Fisk University to form the George Gershwin Memorial Collection of Music and Musical Literature.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: The Philadelphia Museum of Art currently holds one of the largest collection of photographs by Van Vechten in the United States. The collection began in 1949 when Van Vechten made a gift of sixty of his photographs to the museum. In 1965, Mark Lutz made a gift to the museum of over 12,000 photographs by Van Vechten from his personal collection. Included in the collection are images from extensive portrait sessions with figures of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Cab Calloway; artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, and Frida Kahlo; and countless other actors, musicians, and cultural figures. Also included in the Mark Lutz gift is an extensive body of photographs Van Vechten took at the 1939 New York World's Fair as well as a large number of photographs depicting scenes across Western Europe and Northern Africa taken during Van Vechten's travels in 1935–1936.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: In 1980, concerned that Van Vechten's fragile 35 mm nitrate negatives were fast deteriorating, photographer Richard Benson, in conjunction with the Eakins Press Foundation, transformed 50 of the portraits into handmade gravure prints. The album "'O, Write My Name': American Portraits, Harlem Heroes" was completed in 1983. That year, the National Endowment for the Arts transferred the Eakins Press Foundation's prototype albums to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: The National Portrait Gallery, London, holds 17 of Van Vechten's portraits of leading creative talents of his era.


title: Carl Van Vechten

text: More than 3,000 Van Vechten portraits, most of which come from the Library of Congress collection, are included in Wikimedia Commons. His public domain photographs illustrate countless Wikipedia entries on mid-century (mostly American) notables. "See" examples in the gallery below.


title: Greater Austin

text: The Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (or Greater Austin) is a five-county metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The metropolitan area is situated in Central Texas on the western edge of the and on the eastern edge of the , and borders Greater San Antonio to the south.


title: Greater Austin

text: As of the 2020 U.S. census, the Austin–Round Rock–Georgetown MSA is the 28th largest metropolitan area in the United States, with a total population of 2,352,426. The metropolitan area is centered on the City of Austin—the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 11th-largest city in the United States with a population of 1,028,220 people. Austin's largest suburbs are Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, San Marcos and Pflugerville.


title: Greater Austin

text: The areas in and around Austin have been the site of human habitation since at least 9,000 B.C., and possibly considerably before that. The earliest known inhabitants of the area, during the late Pleistocene (Ice Age), can be linked to the Clovis people around 9200 B.C. just west of Williamson County. But archeology dig sites show a much greater evidence of Archaic Period inhabitants has been recovered from burned rock middens and rock shelters near Round Rock along Brushy Creek, in Georgetown along the San Gabriel River, and in Austin especially near Barton Springs. The earliest known historical occupants of the area, the Tonkawas, were a flint-working, hunting people who followed the buffalo on foot and periodically set fire to the prairie to aid them in their hunts. During the 18th century they made the transition to a horse culture and used firearms to a limited extent. After they were crowded out by white settlement, the Comanches continued to raid settlements in the county until the 1860s. There also appear to have been small numbers of Kiowa, Yojuane, Tawakoni, and Mayeye Indians living in the Travis and Williamson counties at the time of the earliest Anglo settlements.


title: Greater Austin

text: The prehistory of Texas has been studied by both professional and avocational archeologists for many decades. Pre-historic campsites are found throughout the county along streams or other water sources; most are "open occupation" sites, though caves and rockshelters are often found along various rivers and streams.


title: Greater Austin

text: When Europeans first arrived in the area, the Tonkawa tribe was the most prevalent, though the Comanches and Lipan Apaches were known to travel through the area as well. Spanish explorers, including the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition, traveled through the area for centuries though few permanent settlements were created for some time. In the mid-18th century the San Xavier missions were established along the San Gabriel River in what is now western Milam County to facilitate exploration.


title: Greater Austin

text: In 1804 the fort Puesta del Colorado was established by the Spanish in what is now Bastrop. In 1807 the San Marcos de Neve settlement (modern San Marcos) was established on the San Marcos River. Following the independence of Mexico, of which Texas was a part, the empresario Stephen F. Austin issued grants to settlers in what is now Bastrop and Fayette Counties. During the mid-1820s settlements were established along the Colorado River near modern La Grange. The village of Mina (later renamed Bastrop) was established in 1827. Growth of the settlements was stagnant for some time because of conflicts with the Native Americans in the region. Nevertheless, the region sat along an important trade route known as the Camino Real de los Tejas, which ran from Mexico, though San Antonio and San Marcos, to Natchitoches. During the 1830s others, such as Martín Veramendi and Thomas G. McGehee, were issued land grants by the Mexican government to encourage settlement in the region. A string of forts was established east of modern Austin in what was then the western frontier.


title: Greater Austin

text: In 1835 Texans fought for independence in what was known as the Texas Revolution and won. Following independence other settlements were gradually established including Waterloo and Brushy Creek (modern Round Rock). In 1839 a commission appointed by Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar selected Waterloo as the site for the new capital and the name "Austin" was chosen as the town's new name. In 1840 a series of conflicts between the Texas Rangers and the Comanches known as the Council House Fight and the Battle of Plum Creek finally pushed the Comanches westward mostly ending conflicts in Central Texas. Settlement in the area began to expand quickly. Travis County was established in 1840 and the surrounding counties were mostly established within the next two decades. New settlements were established such as Hamilton (now Burnet) in 1852.


title: Greater Austin

text: In 1861, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, voters in Austin, Bastrop, and other Central Texas communities and counties voted against secession. However, as the war progressed and fears of attack by Union forces increased, the communities contributed hundreds of men to the Confederate forces. With the end of the war and the emancipation of Texas slaves, the African American population of the area swelled dramatically. Black communities such as Wheatville, Pleasant Hill, and Clarksville were established around Austin by these newcomers. The postwar period saw dramatic population and economic growth. The town of Bastrop became a significant manufacturing center producing iron, coal, and textiles. The Chisolm Trail, one of the major routes for exporting cattle, passed through the region. The opening of the Houston and Texas Central Railway, connecting Austin with Houston, transformed Austin into the major trading center for the region. However, as new railroads were built through the region in the 1870s, Round Rock and other communities took over much of Austin's role as a trading center. In 1868 the Coronal Institute was established in San Marcos and in 1873 Texas University (later renamed Southwestern University) was opened in Georgetown following the consolidation of five earlier colleges. During the 1880s Austin gained new prominence as the state capitol building was constructed and other universities were established in the area, most notably the University of Texas. Cattle and cotton production were major economic drivers for many outlying communities. In the late 19th century Austin expanded its city limits to more than three times its former area and the Austin Dam was built to power a new street car line and the new municipal water system.


title: Greater Austin

text: In the early 20th century the Texas Oil Boom took hold creating tremendous economic opportunities in Southeast Texas and North Texas. The growth generated by this boom largely passed by Austin at first, with the city slipping from 4th largest to 10th largest in Texas between 1880 and 1920. Bastrop, however, became a significant center for oil drilling and coal mining in the early-to-mid-20th century. San Marcos, and some other communities, established significant manufacturing operations during the world wars substantially diversifying their economies.


title: Greater Austin

text: Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, Austin launched a series of civic development and beautification projects that created much of the city's infrastructure and parks. In addition, the state legislature established the Lower Colorado River Authority that, along with the City of Austin, created the system of dams along the Colorado River that formed the Highland Lakes. These projects were enabled in large part by the fact that Austin received more Depression era relief funds than any other Texas city.


title: Greater Austin

text: During the mid- and later 20th century, Austin became firmly established as the major metropolitan center of what is now Greater Austin. Communities such as Round Rock, Georgetown, and San Marcos increasingly became attractive bedroom communities for Austin, even as each of these communities has maintained its own economic core as well./. In the late 20th century, the face of the Austin community was changing rapidly.


title: Greater Austin

text: Greater Austin is located in Central Texas along the Balcones Fault and Interstate 35, northeast of San Antonio. The bisecting Balcones Fault renders eastern portions relatively flat and western portions—located on the edge of the Texas Hill Country—mildly hilly.


title: Greater Austin

text: The region is crossed by the Colorado River with several man-made lakes, known as the Highland Lakes, along its length. Because the hills to the west are primarily limestone rock with a thin covering of topsoil, the western portions of the area are frequently subjected to flash floods from the runoff caused by thunderstorms. To help control this runoff and to generate hydroelectric power, the Lower Colorado River Authority operates a series of dams that form the lakes.


title: Greater Austin

text: The Austin area is located at the intersection of four major ecological regions and is consequently a temperate-to-hot green oasis with a highly variable climate having some characteristics of the desert, the tropics, and a wetter climate. The area is very diverse ecologically and biologically, and is home to a variety of animals and plants.


title: Greater Austin

text: The soils of Central Texas range from shallow, gravelly clay loams over limestone in the western outskirts to deep, fine sandy loams, silty clay loams, silty clays or clays in the city's eastern part. Some of the clays have pronounced shrink-swell properties and are difficult to work under most moisture conditions. Many of Austin's soils, especially the clay-rich types, are slightly to moderately alkaline and have free calcium carbonate.


title: Greater Austin

text: Greater Austin has a humid subtropical climate, characterized by hot summers and mild winters. On average, the City of Austin receives of rain per year, with most of the precipitation in the spring, and a secondary maximum in the fall. To the east, away from the Hill Country, precipitation is typically higher. For example, Bastrop receives an average of of rain per year. During springtime, severe thunderstorms sometimes occur, though tornados are rare in the city. Austin is usually at least partially sunny.


title: Greater Austin

text: Central Texas summers are usually hot and humid, with average temperatures of approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) from June until September. Temperatures above are common. For the entire year there is an average of 111 days above and 198 days above in the City of Austin. In general temperatures are somewhat cooler to the west in the Hill Country than in the plains to the east. The average August high temperature in Marble Falls is compared to in Bastrop, and the average January low in Marble Falls is compared to in Bastrop.


title: Greater Austin

text: Winters in the Austin area are mild and dry. For the entire year, Austin averages 88 days below and 24 days when the minimum temperature falls below freezing. Snowfall is rare in Central Texas, but the area suffers occasional ice storms each year that freeze over roads and can affect parts of the region for as much as 48 hours or more.


title: Greater Austin

text: As of March 2020, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget defines the Austin–Round Rock-San Marcos MSA as including Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson Counties.


title: Greater Austin

text: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis includes the counties of Blanco, Burnet, Lee, Llano, Mason, and Milam Counties, in addition to the Austin MSA, in its definition of the Austin Economic Area. The Capital Area Council of Governments, an Austin-area intergovernmental cooperative, adds Blanco, Burnet, Fayette, Lee, and Llano Counties to the MSA counties in its definition of the metropolitan area.


title: Greater Austin

text: The following are cities, towns, and villages categorized based on the latest United States Census Bureau 2020 census redistricting data (August 2021). No population estimates are released for census-designated places (CDPs), which are marked with an asterisk (*). These places are categorized based on their 2020 census population.


title: Greater Austin

text: More distant communities such as Marble Falls, Burnet, Johnson City, Killeen, and Lampasas are sometimes considered part of Greater Austin though they fall outside the bounds of the OMB definitions. There are almost 5 million people in the Austin-San Antonio corridor.


title: Greater Austin

text: In 2020, U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in the Austin–Round Rock–Georgetown MSA there were 2,283,371 people, 796,315 households, and 495,990 families. The racial makeup of the metropolitan area was 57.3% White (non-Hispanic White 49.6%), 6.6% African American, 0.9% Native American, 7.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 11.1% from other races, and 16.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.9% of the population.


title: Greater Austin

text: , U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in the Austin–Round Rock–Georgetown MSA there were 1,719,289 people. The racial makeup of the metropolitan area was 72.9% White, 7.4% African American, 0.8% Native American, 4.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 10.9% from other races, and 3.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.4% of the population.


title: Greater Austin

text: The median income for a household in the MSA was $46,512 and the median income for a family was $54,361. Males had a median income of $35,612 versus $27,095 for females. The per capita income for the MSA was $20,721.


title: Greater Austin

text: , the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of the Austin–Round Rock–Georgetown MSA had increased to 1,943,299. In 2010, the urban area population (as defined by the Census Bureau) was estimated to be 1,362,416 while the 2013 population of Austin proper estimated at 885,400.


title: Greater Austin

text: Greater Austin has a diverse economy, anchored by government, technology (particularly software and semiconductors), and education. The Austin-Round Rock MSA had an estimated gross domestic product of $168.4 billion in 2020, making it the 24th largest metropolitan economy in the U.S.


title: Greater Austin

text: As of late 2021, major employers in the Greater Austin area include Accenture, Amazon, Apple, Applied Materials, Austin Independent School District, Ascension Seton HealthCare network, Dell, H-E-B Grocery, IBM, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung Semiconductors, St. David's HealthCare Partnership, the Texas State Government, Tesla, the United States Federal Government, The University of Texas at Austin, Whole Foods, and Wal-Mart.


title: Greater Austin

text: The communities in Greater Austin hold many annual events. In Austin two of the most well known festivals are the "South by Southwest" Music and Film Festival and the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which draw artists and spectators from around the world. Many other Austin festivals take place including the "Old Pecan Street Festival", "Blues on the Green", and the "Laguna Gloria Art Museum Fiesta". The "Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival" is centered in Austin but takes place at restaurants and venues in multiple communities.


title: Greater Austin

text: Outside of Austin many communities host local events of their own. Marble Falls hosts the "Bluebonnet Blues and Fine Arts Festival", an event that attracts artists and performers from around the state to the community's downtown. Burnet hosts the Spring "Bluebonnet Festival", which features a golf tournament, car shows, vintage airplane shows, and other activities. The "Old Settler's Music Festival" in Driftwood features live outdoor performances ranging from folk music to bluegrass and jazz. Some area communities host civic heritage festivals including the "Cedar Park Heritage Festival" and the "Chisolm Trail Round Up" in Lockhart. The "Oktoberfest" celebration in Fredericksburg is one of the largest and most traditional in Texas.


title: Greater Austin

text: Austin has adopted the nickname "Live Music Capital of the World" based on its claim of having the highest percentage of music performers of any other major city. The city has a variety of venues for live music performance of popular and country music including famous clubs such as Antone's and Emo's. The long-running television program Austin City Limits has for decades showcased the city's music scene, as has the South by Southwest festival and other events in the city. Apart from these the city hosts major classical music performances via the Austin Lyric Opera and the Austin Symphony Orchestra.


title: Greater Austin

text: Other communities in the Austin Area host their own music venues and organizations as well. The Williamson County Symphony Orchestra, founded in 2002, offers performances at locations throughout the county. The Starlight Symphony, a community orchestra, offers performances at various venues within the southwestern areas of Greater Austin including San Marcos, Dripping Springs, and Johnson City. The Round Rock Symphony, a recently established organization, offers performances within Round Rock.


title: Greater Austin

text: Austin's sole major-league professional sports team is Austin FC, a Major League Soccer team that debuted in 2021. Until then, the Austin metropolitan area was the second largest market in North America not to have any such franchises, behind the Inland Empire. The area is also home to several minor-league teams, as well as the Texas Longhorns and Texas State Bobcats collegiate sports programs and the Circuit of the Americas motor-racing circuit.


title: Greater Austin

text: Regional professional sports clubs include the Round Rock Express in AAA baseball, the Texas Stars in AHL hockey, the Austin Spurs in G-League basketball, the Austin Aztex in USL soccer, the Austin Outlaws in WFA football, and the Austin Aces in WTT tennis. In professional motorsport, the Circuit of the Americas hosts the United States Grand Prix and the Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas, as well as the X Games. Austin also hosts the Texas Rollergirls flat-track roller derby league.


title: Greater Austin

text: The region is also home to several endurance and multi-sport race events, including the Austin Marathon, the Capitol 10K race, and the Capital of Texas Triathlon. Sizeable running, swimming and bicycling communities make use of a network of trails and greenbelts centered on the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail and local pools like Barton Springs Pool.


title: Greater Austin

text: The Austin area has long been known for its outdoor attractions and is home to numerous parks and nature preserves.


title: Greater Austin

text: Major parks within the City of Austin include McKinney Falls State Park, Emma Long Metropolitan Park, Zilker Park, and Hippie Hollow Park. Mount Bonnell Park is a popular destination, located at one of the highest points in the city. Outside of the Austin various other parks, including Bastrop State Park, Lockhart State Park, and Longhorn Cavern State Park, are available. Further from the area's core is the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, a park near Fredericksburg featuring a large granite mound that is popular with hikers and climbers. Additionally Pedernales Falls State Park in Johnson City, and Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, are among the many other parks available in Central Texas.


title: Greater Austin

text: The largest nature preserve in the area is the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, a preserve northwest of Austin near Burnet and Marble Falls comprising . Other preserves in the area include the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, the Indiangrass Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Onion Creek Wildlife Sanctuary. These preserves are all part of the Heart of Texas Wildlife Trail, a network of trails and sites for viewing wildlife habitats, created by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.


title: Greater Austin

text: The region contains numerous universities. Major area universities include the University of Texas at Austin (flagship of the University of Texas System), Texas State University (flagship of the Texas State University System), and Southwestern University (Georgetown). The city of Austin itself contains numerous other institutions of higher education including Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Concordia University, Huston–Tillotson University, St. Edward's University, Austin Community College, and others. Additional institutions in the suburban communities include Temple College in Taylor and the Texas State University extension in Round Rock.


title: Greater Austin

text: In 2006, 35% of adults in the City of Austin held college degrees, placing fourth among the 77 largest cities in the U.S. this percentage had climbed to 43.3%. In Round Rock 37.2% of adults held degrees, in Pflugerville 40.50% held degrees, in Cedar Park 39.1% held degrees, and in San Marcos 34.1% held degrees. This compares to 23.2% for all of Texas and 24.4% for the entire U.S. making the Austin area one of the most educated metropolitan areas in the U.S.


title: Greater Austin

text: The region is served by numerous school districts. the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce lists 29 public school districts, 17 charter schools, and 69 private schools.


title: Greater Austin

text: The Chamber lists as the primary districts Austin ISD, Bastrop ISD, Del Valle ISD, Eanes ISD, Georgetown ISD, Hays CISD, Lake Travis ISD, Leander ISD, Pflugerville ISD, and Round Rock ISD. Adding to this list the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District, there are a total of 11 core districts. the Texas Education Agency ranks one district, Eanes, as "Exemplary", the highest rating. Three districts, Del Valle, Leander, and Round Rock, are ranked as "Recognized", the second highest rating. All of the others are ranked as "Academically Acceptable". These 12 districts operate 330 individual schools. Of these schools 98 (30%) are ranked as "Exemplary", and 87 (26%) are ranked as "Recognized".


title: Greater Austin

text: Major private schools in the area include Redeemer Lutheran School, Brentwood Christian School, Hill Country Christian School, Hyde Park Baptist School, the Regents School, Round Rock Christian Academy (Round Rock), Summit Christian Academy (Leander), St. Andrew's Episcopal School, and St. Michael's Academy.


title: Greater Austin

text: The principal highways in the metropolitan area are Interstate 35 and the MoPac Expressway (State Highway Loop 1), both of which are the primary north–south roadways. Other important arteries in the city and its immediate vicinity are U.S. Highway 183 (also known as "Research Blvd."), and U.S. Highway 290 which provide East/West thoroughfares. Other important highways include State Highway 71 (also known as "Ben White Blvd.") which connects Austin with Houston to the south, and to Marble Falls and the Highland Lakes chain to the west. And State Highway Loop 360 is a scenic highway which runs to the north–south on the west side of Austin but curves westward into the hills. Loop 360 carries special scenic zoning as well preventing billboards and minimizing views of the surrounding buildings. Austin's new toll roads include State Highway 130, U.S. Highway 183-A, and State Highway 45 discussed below. Interstate 10 also runs through the extreme southern portion of Caldwell County.


title: Greater Austin

text: In November 2006, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) opened the first segment of the region's first toll road system. Both State Highway 130 and State Highway 45 toll roads run through portions of Austin and provide greatly increased mobility to the city. State Highway 130 prior to 2013 ran just south of Austin Bergstrom International Airport at US Highway 183 and ended at Interstate 35 north of Georgetown. It provides mobility and access to the easternmost part of Austin and Travis County, and allows residents in Williamson County easy access to the airport. This project, completed in October 2012, now ends at Interstate 10 just east of Seguin, about 30 miles east-northeast of San Antonio. The speed limit on the newly completed stretch is the highest in the United States at .


title: Greater Austin

text: State Highway 45 is part of an eventual partial loop that runs east from U.S. Highway 183 in Cedar Park to State Highway 130 at Pflugerville (east of Round Rock) where it merges with the SH 130 toll road, and then intersects with the southern portion of SH 45 near Buda, south of Austin. SH 45 is one of the very few East/West connectors in Austin, but it also connects to a tolled extension of Loop 1 (also known locally as the "Mopac Expressway") and allows direct access from to I-35 to Loop 1 by use of flyover connections rather than ground level intersections. The toll roads also provide access to the Dell headquarters and its approximately 16,000 employees. Despite the overwhelming initial opposition to the toll road concept, both toll roads have improved mobility in and around the Austin area and are significantly exceeding their revenue projections.


title: Greater Austin

text: The metro area is served by buses of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro). Capital Metro operates 48 fixed-route, 1 flex-route, and eight express bus services within the city of Austin and several nearby suburbs in Travis and Williamson counties. Capital Metro also operates the shuttles of the University of Texas, which provides limited-stop services to and from neighborhoods where many university students reside. A commuter rail service—the Red line of Capital MetroRail—began service on 22 March 2010, connecting Downtown Austin with the city of Leander.


title: Greater Austin

text: Politically, Greater Austin leans toward the Democratic Party, though it has voted Republican in the past, such as during Texan George W. Bush's presidential victories in 2000 and 2004. However, at a local level, Austin has only one Democrat, Lloyd Doggett, representing any part of it in Congress.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The Alexandrov Ensemble (; commonly known as the Red Army Choir in the West) is an official army choir of the Russian armed forces. Founded during the Soviet era, the ensemble consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The Ensemble has entertained audiences both in Russia and throughout the world, performing a range of music including folk tunes, hymns, operatic arias and popular music. The group's repertoire has included "The Volga Boatmen's Song", "Katyusha", "Kalinka", and "Ave Maria".


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: It is named for its first director, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov (1883–1946). Its formal name since 1998 has been A. V. Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army (), shortened to "Academic Ensemble" () on second reference.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: On 25 December 2016, its artistic director, Valery Khalilov, and 63 other members of the Ensemble were killed in the Russian Defence Ministry aircraft crash of a 1983 Tupolev Tu-154 into the Black Sea just after takeoff from the southern resort city of Sochi, Russia. The Red Army Choir singers and dancers were en route to Syria to entertain Russian troops there for Orthodox Christmas celebrations.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: At the establishment, in 1928, the choir was named Red Army Song Ensemble of the M. V. Frunze Red Army Central House (). In 1935, it was renamed Red-Bannered Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble of the USSR ().


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 1949 the ensemble was officially named the A. V. Alexandrov Twice Red-bannered and Red-starred Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army (Дважды Краснознамённый ордена Красной Звезды ансамбль песни и пляски Советской Армии имени А. В. Александрова ). In 1978 the word "academic" was added to the title ("A. V. Alexandrov Twice Red-bannered and Red-starred Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army"). After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ensemble received its present name in 1998.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Born into a peasant family, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov became the first artistic director of the ensemble, choirmaster, conductor, teacher and the public figure who wrote the music to the State Anthem of the Soviet Union. He came from a musical background of hymns and folk songs, could play the viola and had perfect pitch, so he sang in the church choir and performed at festivals. He was heard singing at the village school by PA Zalivuhin, a soloist in the choir at Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg. Zalivuhin persuaded Alexandrov's parents to let the child go to St Petersburg to learn music. In 1898, the young peasant boy became a pupil of the Saint Petersburg Court Chapel.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: There are two recorded histories of the ensemble: possibly separate elements of the same history. The first says that the initiator of the ensemble was Felix Nikolaevich Danilovich, a theatre director. The first director of the ensemble was chosen from three of Moscow's conductors: Danilin, Chesnokov and Alexandrov. Seen in isolation this would signify that A. V. Alexandrov was not the creator of the ensemble. In this version the first troupe is named as follows. Singers: Tkachenko, Zyukov, Samarin, Rozanov, Koltypin, Tolskov, Golyaev, Charov. Dancers: Maximov, Svetlov. Bayanist: Surdin.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The second version says that the ensemble was formed out of the Frunze Red Army Central House in 1928. There is also a story that Stalin then asked Alexandrov to relocate the choir to Moscow. Under the name Red Army Song Ensemble of the M. V. Frunze Red Army Central House, shortly the ""Red Army Choir"", twelve soldier-performers – a vocal octet, a bayan player, 2 dancers, and a reciter – officially performed for the first time on 12 October 1928 under the direction of their conductor, Alexandr Alexandrov, a young music professor at the Moscow Conservatory. The program, entitled "The 22nd Krasnodar Division in Song", consisted mainly of short musical scenes of military life, including "Songs of the First Cavalry Army", "The Special Far-Eastern Army", and "Song about Magnitostroi".


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 1929, the ensemble visited the far eastern lands of the Soviet Union, entertaining the troops working on the Far Eastern Railway.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: With the goal of developing amateur art within the ranks of the army and to encourage soldiers' interest in good music, the ensemble grew to 300 performers by 1933, comprising three different forces of a male choir, an orchestra, and an ensemble of dancers. Some sources say that in 1933 there were 19 members; in 1935 there were 135 and in August 1937 in Paris and Prague they were 150. The Red Army Choir became known as a propagator of Soviet songs, performing original compositions by composers such as Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy, Anatoli Novikov, Matvey Blanter and Boris Mokrousov.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 1935, the choir was bestowed the Order of the Red Banner and was renamed the "Red-bannered Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble of the USSR".


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Having traveled widely throughout the Soviet Union, from the Arctic north to Tajikistan, the choir performed at the International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life held in 1937 in Paris, France; it won the "Grand Prix", the highest honor bestowed by the jury.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: During World War II, the ensemble gave over 1500 performances at both Soviet fronts, entertaining troops about to go into battle, at gun emplacements, airfields, and in hospitals.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Following the death of Alexander Alexandrov, the ensemble was taken over by his son, Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov. Under his leadership, the ensemble gained fame outside the Soviet Union, making extensive tours worldwide. Boris Alexandrov retired in 1987, and was succeeded by People's Artist of Russia Igor Agafonnikov the same year, with Anatoly Maltsev as the ensemble chief. He retired as the principal conductor in 1994; he died that year and was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery. He was succeeded by Victor Fedorov, the chorus master since 1986.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Under B. A. Alexandrov, the ensemble was highly disciplined. Boris's party trick was to leave the stage and allow the ensemble to perform "En Route" alone. Members were positioned so that they could not all watch one orchestral leader, and this appeared to be a trick, but there was no trick at all. Leonid Kharitonov remembers:


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The Ensemble members were so disciplined and experienced that they could feel the rhythm simultaneously and could sing and play together automatically, without the conductor... In Canada during one concert Alexandrov left the Ensemble to perform alone for half an hour.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Major Vladimir Alexandrov (1910–1978), brother of Boris Alexandrov, also composed for the ensemble. He served as Orchestral Director and Conductor. Vladimir Gordeev was the principal conductor on the 1988 UK tour.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 1948 much of Berlin was still ruined after World War II, and the city was divided into four occupation zones, controlled by the USSR, France, the UK and the United States. This was before the Berlin Wall was built, and it was still possible to travel between zones. An American officer suggested a concert in the Gendarmenmarkt (in the Soviet zone at the time), and the French zone commander supported the suggestion. The musicians were to be provided by the USSR, and the Alexandrov Ensemble was chosen. A temporary stage was set up in the square, with flowers all along the front. 30,000 people came to stand and watch for three hours. In 1994, towards the end of his life, Boris Alexandrov said:


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: "The visit to Germany was unforgettable. It is dominant in the history of the ensemble. It was necessary to make a new creative leap – from wartime military music to postwar relaxing harmony. It was important, and the transition had to be managed on many fronts, including getting the Ensemble back into its original pre-war role, performing the classics and singing folk songs. Before the war the Ensemble had 200 professional singers; following the war it was down to 60."


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: A previous tour to East Germany had been cancelled due to the sudden death of Alexander Alexandrov in 1946 in Potsdam, when in his bed was found an annotated copy of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, showing that A. Alexandrov had been preparing the final chorus for a performance. Now Boris, his son, was ready to follow his father's plan. The 1948 peace concert was to consist of German opera extracts and Russian folk songs ("Nightingales", "Zemlyanka" and "Roads"); and after an intervention by the tenor Victor Nikitin, some German folk songs were also included. The people joined in, singing "Heidenröslein", and Nikitin sang Kalinka three times in a row. The concert was very successful, and very moving.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: However the Berlin Peace Concert did not happen in isolation. It was part of a series of punishing yearly tours to war-torn areas. The main tour season during and just after World War II appears to have run from June to October – perhaps because the large troupe usually had to perform outdoors, to accommodate large audiences. The August 1948 Berlin concert occurred two-thirds of the way through a tour to (20 June to 18 July) Prague, Most, Brno, Devin, Bratislava, Moravská Ostrava, Žilina and Kosice in Czechoslovakia; then apparently without a break (18 July to 10 October) Dresden, Weimar, Magdeburg, Stendal, Schwerin, Potsdam, Berlin, Rathenow, Leipzig, Halle, Lane, Erfurt, Chemnitz, Frankfurt an der Oder and Schwarzenberg in Germany.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 1990, the ensemble participated in Roger Waters' The Wall concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They performed an anti-war song, "Bring the Boys Back Home".


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 1993, the ensemble became an item of pop culture by performing with the Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys in Helsinki, Finland where they performed on the Senate Square in front of 70,000 listeners, and in Berlin. In the German capital, the concert of the Leningrad Cowboys with the ensemble took place on the central Lustgarten and gave the former Red Army's farewell to Berlin and the whole Germany an optimistic overtone. The Finnish concert was made into a rockumentary "Total Balalaika Show" by film director Aki Kaurismäki. That year they also made a CD and played a concert with French singer Jean-Jacques Goldman. The ensemble and the Leningrad Cowboys performed "Sweet Home Alabama" at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Today, the ensemble is led by Honoured Artist of Russia Vyacheslav Korobko, who has been leading it since 2003.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Over the years, the ensemble has collaborated with many popular artists and producers including David Foster, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Steve Barakatt.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Until 1969, the standard uniform for the ensemble choir, soloists and orchestra was the tunic and riding breeches. On 1 January 1970, this was changed to dress uniform, and there have been further variations to the dress uniform as used by the ensemble since 1970.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 2009, The Aleksandrov Red Army Choir took part in the Eurovision Song Contest when the contest was hosted in Moscow as part of a collaboration during the First Semi Final, Featuring The Red Army Dance Ensemble, Moscow Military Music School, Gipsy Theatre Roman as they performed some known Russian folk songs as they get joined by 2003 Representatives t.A.T.u who performed "Not Gonna Get Us" as the final portion of the interval act.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: On 25 December 2016, a Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 carrying 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble Choir went down off the coast of Sochi, Russia while en route to Latakia, Syria for a Christmas celebration with the troops deployed at Khmeimim military base. The plane crashed with no survivors.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: After 5 weeks, the choir was reformed anew in time for Defender of the Fatherland Day celebrations on 18 February 2017. That first concert in weeks marks also the birth of a new era for the Ensemble, with its first international tour following the crash with concerts not just in Russia but also in select European countries. Most of the new members joined through auditions held on 15 and 27 January 2017 by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Since June 7, 2016, Colonel Gennadiy Sachenyuk became Artistic Director then main conductor and Head of the Ensemble since March 24, 2017. In 2019, The Red Army Choir toured around the world to celebrate 90th anniversary of their foundation.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: On 12 October 2018, the Ensemble celebrated the 90th anniversary of its foundation at a special event at the Bolshoi Theatre. Following this event, the leader of the Ensemble Colonel Gennadiy Sachenyuk announced a worldwide tour. The Ensemble performed concerts produced by Thierry Wolf in various countries including France, Switzerland, Belgium, Serbia, the Czech Republic and China. In December 2019, they celebrated Christmas in Montreal during a week of seven concerts at La Maison Symphonique.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The choir consists mainly of vocal sections of tenor, baritone, and bass. In some of the pieces they perform, these sections are divided into as many as eight different vocal lines. From the early 1950s until at least 1965 a typical full division (which varied from song to song) was as follows: (1) countertenors; (2) first tenors; (3) second tenors; (4) baritones; (5) first bass; (6) second bass; (7) basso profundos.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The orchestra, in what became a typical composition for later generations of military ensembles in the Soviet Union, has a mixed composition of Russian traditional instruments and western instruments, including the balalaika, the domra, the bayan, the double bass, woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments. A great guest balalaika player was Boris Stepanovich Feoktistov (Борис Степанович Феоктистов) (1910–1988). In the West his most famous recording is "Kamarinskaya" (1963).


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Among the dances staged by the ensemble are "Zaparozhtsi Dance", "Cossack's Cavalry Dance", "Festive March", "Dance of the Cossacks", "Soldier's Dance", and "Sailor's Dance". Some of these are performed by mixed dancers, while others, such as "Cossack's Cavalry Dance", are performed by male dancers only.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The ballet is under the direction of Lev Nikolaevich Kulikov National Artist of Russia, the main ballet master, and maintains the heights of choreographic art with honour. The priority in its repertoire is taken by the military compositions: "Matroskaya barynya", "Kazachiya cavalry plyaska", "Festive march", "Invitation to dance" and others. The ballet performs a lot of Russian folk dances. The classical repertoire contains "Poloveckie plyasky" from the opera "Prince Igor" written by Alexander Borodin. This is from our dance classics, but we always update the dance repertoire.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The artistic director was Valery Khalilov but he, and 63 other members of the Ensemble, were killed in an aircraft crash on 25 December 2016. The chief choreographer is People's Artist of Russia L. Kulikov; the chief administrator is Honoured Artist of Russia VG Kadin, the choreographer and coach is the Honoured Artist of Russia V. Ermolin; head dresser is Honoured Worker of Culture A. Kormilitsyn; soloists are VI Shtefutsa and EM Labkovsky; with SV Ivanov, PD Bogachev, VP Maystruk, AA Gvozdetsky, BM Mizyuk: all Honoured Artist of Russia.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In the choir are YA Lysenko, Y. Shtrunov, IM Pirogov, IS Sobolev, IF Volkov, OV Filimonov, AN Savitsky, VA Nagorny, VP Kokarev, AA Hristachev, JN Deynekin, VM Bolonenko, VN Antonov, AN Stritenko, AA Toschev: all Honoured Artist of Russia; and VS Buzlov, SP Lapik, VF Orthodox, GU Razgasimov, V. Chekin, MD Mochalina.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In the orchestra are AA Mogulkin, Y. Savkin, MG Chervov, PD Shchennikov, NI Diakov, AI Egorov, VM Predelin: all Honoured Artist of Russia. Vocal coaches are People's Artist of Russia, laureate of competitions, MI Glinka and PI Tchaikovsky, Professor KP Lisovsky. The Principal Concertmaster is Honoured Artist of Russia V. Brodsky.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 2019, the Ensemble touring all over the world with famous soloist as Valery Gavva or Vadim Ananeev but also young soloists such as Alexander Kruze or Maxim Maklakov,former soloit of Kraznodar Opera or very young talent such as Sergey Kuznetsov. Under the direction of conductor Gennadiy Sachenyuk


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: In 2006 and 2007, in Moscow and in Vladikavkaz, Grozny, the ensemble performed a New Year fairy tale show for children, "Ivan the Good, Ivan the Brave", about a soldier helping to save New Year's Day.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: Of course everything depends on the repertoire which is quite large – more than two thousand works. Depending on the concert we choose a special repertoire. We have a rule that we try not to break. In any country we sing 2–3 songs in the native language of the people who live there. As a rule it helps to find a rapport with, and the appreciation of, the audience. And for us it is some kind of musical gift, to honour the host country and its people. For instance in Canada when we sang the National Anthem of Russia people stood up to show respect to our country, and when we finished we sang their country's anthem "O Canada".


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: A million people in our country and abroad like songs like "Kalinka", "Katyusha", "Smuglyanka" and the other songs of the military years as well as "The Day of the Victory", "Dark Eyes", "Vecherny zvon" and "Podmoskovnye vechera". All these songs are known because of the Alexandrov folk song and dance company and people want to hear these songs at every concert. They are not just part of our history; they are great masterpieces. It is interesting that "Svyaschennaya Voyna", written by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov in 1941, helped Soviet soldiers to protect their Motherland and is still popular in Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria. Those audiences listen to it standing up and it touches their hearts and souls.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: For our concerts we search for new musical works because you can't live only in the past. But to tell you the truth it's impossible to imagine our concerts without works of Russian and West-European classical music (Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky), they are part of human history. But our repertoire contains not only songs of the military years and folk songs, arias from operas, songs of the world and spiritual music but also new songs such as Iliya Reznik's "To Serve Russia", and those written by Eduard Hanka, Kim Breytburg, Sergey Sashin and other modern composers and poets.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: It's not a secret that the more you work with children, the greater their prospect of achievement in society. We approached the Ministry of Defence with an appeal to organize this choir and it was approved. October 1st 2007 was the opening day of the Aleksandrovcy creative school for musical and aesthetic education for children. This became an important event in the year of the Ensemble's 80th anniversary.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The first night of the boys' Aleksandrovcy Choir on December 26th at the Cadets' Gold Epaulette Ball went like clockwork. After that night they participated in many concerts. The latest was on Poklonnaya Hill in memory of the Beslan tragedy, as part of City Day on the 3rd and 7th of September. It should be mentioned that we have an excellent director of the school Nina Anatolievna Putilina who puts all her soul into raising this worthy generation.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: We do a lot in order to raise the new generation with regard to physical, spiritual and moral health. Here children begin at the beginning of vocal music and literary speaking; they absorb the best practice of their teachers.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The children's choir has become an integral part of the Ensemble's life and takes part in its important concerts. We plan to have tours together.


title: Alexandrov Ensemble

text: The ensemble under the direction of Boris Alexandrov can be heard singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" in the 1981 film "Das Boot". Members of the ensemble are seen performing "The Internationale" in New York's Grand Central Station in Peter Miller's 2000 documentary "The Internationale". Several films have been made of the ensemble's performances: see Alexandrov Ensemble discography.


title: Endothermic process

text: In thermochemistry, an endothermic process () is any thermodynamic process with an increase in the enthalpy (or internal energy ) of the system. In such a process, a closed system usually absorbs thermal energy from its surroundings, which is heat transfer into the system. Thus, an endothermic reaction generally leads to an increase in the temperature of the system and a decrease in that of the surroundings. It may be a chemical process, such as dissolving ammonium nitrate () in water (), or a physical process, such as the melting of ice cubes.


title: Endothermic process

text: The term was coined by 19th-century French chemist Marcellin Berthelot. The opposite of an endothermic process is an exothermic process, one that releases or "gives out" energy, usually in the form of heat and sometimes as electrical energy. Thus in each term (endothermic and exothermic) the prefix refers to where heat (or electrical energy) goes as the process occurs.


title: Endothermic process

text: Due to bonds breaking and forming during various processes (changes in state, chemical reactions), there is usually a change in energy. If the energy of the forming bonds is greater than the energy of the breaking bonds, then energy is released. This is known as an exothermic reaction. However, if more energy is needed to break the bonds than the energy being released, energy is taken up. Therefore, it is an endothermic reaction.


title: Endothermic process

text: Whether a process can occur spontaneously depends not only on the enthalpy change but also on the entropy change () and absolute temperature . If a process is a spontaneous process at a certain temperature, the products have a lower Gibbs free energy than the reactants (an exergonic process), even if the enthalpy of the products is higher. Thus, an endothermic process usually requires a favorable entropy increase () in the system that overcomes the unfavorable increase in enthalpy so that still . While endothermic phase transitions into more disordered states of higher entropy, e.g. melting and vaporization, are common, spontaneous chemical processes at moderate temperatures are rarely endothermic. The enthalpy increase in a hypothetical strongly endothermic process usually results in , which means that the process will not occur (unless driven by electrical or photon energy). An example of an endothermic and exergonic process is


title: Endothermic process

text: The terms "endothermic" and "endotherm" are both derived from Greek ἔνδον "endon" "within" and θέρμη "thermē" "heat", but depending on context, they can have very different meanings.


title: Endothermic process

text: In physics, thermodynamics applies to processes involving a system and its surroundings, and the term "endothermic" is used to describe a reaction where energy is taken "(with)in" by the system (vs. an "exothermic" reaction, which releases energy "outwards").


title: Endothermic process

text: In biology, thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to maintain its body temperature, and the term "endotherm" refers to an organism that can do so from "within" by using the heat released by its internal bodily functions (vs. an "ectotherm", which relies on external, environmental heat sources) to maintain an adequate temperature.


title: Client (computing)

text: In computing, a client is a piece of computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server as part of the client–server model of computer networks. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network.


title: Client (computing)

text: A client is a computer or a program that, as part of its operation, relies on sending a request to another program or a computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server (which may or may not be located on another computer). For example, web browsers are clients that connect to web servers and retrieve web pages for display. Email clients retrieve email from mail servers. Online chat uses a variety of clients, which vary on the chat protocol being used. Multiplayer video games or online video games may run as a client on each computer. The term "client" may also be applied to computers or devices that run the client software or users that use the client software.


title: Client (computing)

text: A client is part of a client–server model, which is still used today. Clients and servers may be computer programs run on the same machine and connect via inter-process communication techniques. Combined with Internet sockets, programs may connect to a service operating on a possibly remote system through the Internet protocol suite. Servers wait for potential clients to initiate connections that they may accept.


title: Client (computing)

text: The term was first applied to devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via a network. These computer terminals were clients of the time-sharing mainframe computer.


title: Client (computing)

text: In one classification, client computers and devices are either thick clients, thin clients, or diskless nodes.


title: Client (computing)

text: A "thick client", also known as a "rich client" or "fat client", is a client that performs the bulk of any data processing operations itself, and does not necessarily rely on the server. The personal computer is a common example of a fat client, because of its relatively large set of features and capabilities and its light reliance upon a server. For example, a computer running an art program (such as Krita or Sketchup) that ultimately shares the result of its work on a network is a thick client. A computer that runs almost entirely as a standalone machine save to send or receive files via a network is by a standard called a workstation.


title: Client (computing)

text: A "thin client" is a minimal sort of client. Thin "clients" use the resources of the host computer. A thin client generally only presents processed data provided by an application server, which performs the bulk of any required data processing. A device using web application (such as Office Web Apps) is a thin client.


title: Client (computing)

text: A "diskless node" is a mixture of the above two client models. Similar to a fat client, it processes locally, but relies on the server for storing persistent data. This approach offers features from both the fat client (multimedia support, high performance) and the thin client (high manageability, flexibility). A device running an online version of the video game Diablo III is an example of diskless node.


title: Alonzo Church

text: Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American mathematician, computer scientist, logician, philosopher, professor and editor who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science. He is best known for the lambda calculus, the Church–Turing thesis, proving the unsolvability of the Entscheidungsproblem, the Frege–Church ontology, and the Church–Rosser theorem. He also worked on philosophy of language (see e.g. Church 1970). Alongside his student Alan Turing, Church is considered one of the founders of computer science.


title: Alonzo Church

text: Alonzo Church was born on June 14, 1903, in Washington, D.C., where his father, Samuel Robbins Church, was a Justice of the Peace and the judge of the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia. He was the grandson of Alonzo Webster Church (1829-1909), United States Senate Librarian from 1881-1901, and great grandson of Alonzo Church, a Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and 6th President of the University of Georgia. As a young boy, Church was partially blinded by an air gun accident. The family later moved to Virginia after his father lost his position at the university because of failing eyesight. With help from his uncle, also named Alonzo Church, the son attended the private Ridgefield School for Boys in Ridgefield, Connecticut. After graduating from Ridgefield in 1920, Church attended Princeton University, where he was an exceptional student. He published his first paper on Lorentz transformations in 1924 and graduated the same year with a degree in mathematics. He stayed at Princeton for graduate work, earning a Ph.D. in mathematics in three years under Oswald Veblen.


title: Alonzo Church

text: He married Mary Julia Kuczinski in 1925. The couple had three children, Alonzo Jr. (1929), Mary Ann (1933) and Mildred (1938).


title: Alonzo Church

text: After receiving his Ph.D., he taught briefly as an instructor at the University of Chicago. He received a two-year National Research Fellowship that enabled him to attend Harvard University in 1927–1928, and the University of Göttingen and University of Amsterdam the following year.


title: Alonzo Church

text: He taught philosophy and mathematics at Princeton for nearly four decades, 1929–1967. He held the Flint Professorship of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1967–1990. He was a Plenary Speaker at the ICM in 1962 in Stockholm.


title: Alonzo Church

text: He received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Case Western Reserve University in 1969, Princeton University in 1985, and the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in 1990 in connection with an international symposium in his honor organized by John Corcoran.


title: Alonzo Church

text: He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1966, to the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences in 1967, to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978.


title: Alonzo Church

text: A deeply religious person, Church was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian church. He died on August 11, 1995 at the age of 92. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery.


title: Alonzo Church

text: The lambda calculus emerged in his 1936 paper showing the unsolvability of the Entscheidungsproblem. This result preceded Alan Turing's work on the halting problem, which also demonstrated the existence of a problem unsolvable by mechanical means. Upon hearing of Church's work, Turing enrolled at Princeton later that year under Church for a Ph.D. Church and Turing then showed that the lambda calculus and the Turing machine used in Turing's halting problem were equivalent in capabilities, and subsequently demonstrated a variety of alternative "mechanical processes for computation". This resulted in the Church–Turing thesis.


title: Alonzo Church

text: The efforts for automatically generating a controller implementation from specifications originates from his ideas.


title: Alonzo Church

text: The lambda calculus influenced the design of Lisp and functional programming languages in general. The Church encoding is named in his honor.


title: Alonzo Church

text: In his honor the Alonzo Church Award for Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Computation was established in 2015 by the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Logic and Computation (ACM SIGLOG), the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS), the European Association for Computer Science Logic (EACSL), and the Kurt Gödel Society (KGS). The award


title: Alonzo Church

text: is for an outstanding contribution to the field published within the past 25 years and must not yet have received recognition via another major award, such as the Turing Award, the Paris Kanellakis Award, or the Gödel Prize.


title: Alonzo Church

text: Church is also known for the Frege–Church ontology, which he created based on the philosophical ideas of Gottlob Frege.


title: Alonzo Church

text: Over the course of his academic career, Church oversaw 31 doctoral students. Many of them have led distinguished careers in mathematics, computer science, and other academic subjects, including C. Anthony Anderson, Peter B. Andrews, George A. Barnard, David Berlinski, William W. Boone, Martin Davis, Alfred L. Foster, Leon Henkin, John G. Kemeny, Stephen C. Kleene, Simon B. Kochen, Maurice L'Abbé, Isaac Malitz, Gary R. Mar, Michael O. Rabin, Nicholas Rescher, Hartley Rogers, Jr., J. Barkley Rosser, Dana Scott, Raymond Smullyan, and Alan Turing.


Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture is the ninth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Sia. It was released on 12 February 2021 by Monkey Puzzle and Atlantic, in connection with the release of the musical film "Music", which was directed and co-written by Sia.


title: Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture

text: Sia wrote 10 original songs for the film's soundtrack following its transformation into a musical, half of which are included on the album. The album also includes songs inspired by the film, such as "Saved My Life", co-written by Dua Lipa. Primarily a pop album, it received mixed reviews from critics. Three singles preceded the album's release; "Together", the album's lead single, "Courage to Change", co-written with Pink (credited as Alecia Moore), and "Hey Boy". "Floating Through Space", a collaboration with David Guetta, was released as the fourth single shortly after the album came out.


text: At the 2021 ARIA Music Awards, the album was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album.


text: Sia did not conceive "Music" as a musical film. She said that friends told her it would be like "[having] a blank Scrabble chip, and not using it" if she did not make the film as a musical. She stated that the film's budget increased from $4 million to $16 million with its transformation into a musical, as the studio could profit from the soundtrack. Sia wrote 10 original songs for the film. In February 2020, she stated that she had two albums "waiting to go", one of which included her versions of the original soundtrack songs. Along with new material inspired by the film, some of the 10 original songs are featured on "Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture". The album has a total of 14 tracks; the Japanese edition of the album features two domestic bonus tracks, "I'm Still Here", which was first released in 2018, and the Initial Talk remix of "Together".


text: Sia considers this a studio album rather than a soundtrack album. The film's soundtrack was never released separately as an album.


text: The album opens with "Together", a track written by Sia and Jack Antonoff. It is an upbeat pop song that "bounces with joy". "Hey Boy" is a "euphoric", "exuberant", "flirty" and "bouncy" pop and dancehall song, in which, lyrically, Sia expresses a desire for male company. "Saved My Life", co-written by British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa, is a pop ballad that opens up as a piano-based ballad and slowly builds into a grand track filled with strings and an uptempo beat. "Floating Through Space" is a dance-pop track that features electric and upbeat synths and inspiring lyrics. The song bears more resemblance to Sia's style of pop music than her previous collaborations with David Guetta. "Eye to Eye" is an 80s-themed, electropop song that features Moog synths. The album's title track is a "cinematic" power ballad with orchestral influences, while "1+1" is a "breezy", summery track, built on a dance-pop instrumental.


text: "Courage to Change", which interpolates Pink's "Courage", also co-written by Sia, is more downtempo and builds from a "moody" string intro into a "soaring" chorus that has simple, repetitive but "uplifting" chorus lyrics; "Have I the courage to change?/ Have I the courage to change today?". "Play Dumb", a song built around "vintage" synths and bass sounds, is reminiscent of old-school hip hop and has G-funk-influenced production. "Beautiful Things Can Happen" is a piano ballad produced by Labrinth, and filled with Sia's signature vocal cracks. "Lie to Me" is an orchestral ballad that opens with a "delicate" intro with "string-like" orchestrations, before building into a "massive", atmospheric chorus. "Oblivion" features guest vocals from Labrinth, and is a re-recorded version of the same song included on his 2019 album, "Imagination & the Misfit Kid". Musically, it is built around "distorted beats" and a string orchestra. "Miracle" is a tropical song. The album closes with an alternate version of "Hey Boy", featuring Burna Boy, who lends a verse.


text: "Together" and its accompanying music video were released as the album's lead single on 20 May 2020. "Courage to Change" was released as the second single on 24 September 2020. The album was made available for pre-order on 19 November 2020, along with the release of "Hey Boy" as the third single. Sia announced the album's tracklist on 13 January 2021. An alternate version of "Hey Boy" featuring Nigerian singer Burna Boy was released alongside an animated video on 14 January 2021.


text: "Floating Through Space" was originally released as the album's first promotional single with its music video on 4 February 2021, and was serviced to contemporary hit radio in Italy on 19 February 2021. Five of the songs from the album appear on the film's soundtrack: "Together", "Music", "1+1", "Beautiful Things Can Happen", and, as the credits track, "Courage to Change". Remixes of "Eye to Eye" were released on 4 June 2021. Three Banx & Ranx remixes of "1+1" were then released; the first, featuring guest vocals from Israeli-French singer-songwriter Amir Haddad, was released on 13 July 2021. This was followed by a solo version on 23 July, and, on 6 August, a Spanish-lanuage remix featuring Sofía Reyes and Yandel.


text: At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received an average score of 57 based on 6 critic reviews, indicating a "mixed or average" response.


text: Mark Richardson of "The Wall Street Journal" described the album as "feel-good", although "generic". Writing for Associated Press, Mark Kennedy called the album "very, very good" and commented that songs on the record display some of the "most restrained and mature" songwriting Sia has ever done. He stated, however, that as a lyricist Sia's "often gets stuck in repetitive choruses", which he finds to be present in "Music". The "Evening Standard"'s David Smyth gave the album a rating of 3 out of 5 stars, and wrote that the songs' "melodies stick right away" and that there are "enough eccentric touches". Kitty Empire of "The Observer" gave the same rating, writing that the "sound design" on the album is "excellent throughout", but commenting that it would be easier to appreciate the songs without the controversy surrounding the film.


text: Hilary Hughes of "Entertainment Weekly" criticized the album, writing that the lyrical theme of "motivational language" flies "dangerously close to inspiration porn". In "RIFF Magazine", Domenic Strazzabosco wrote that "Music" "fails to strike a chord", commenting that Sia has compiled "a rather monotonous collection of songs" in the album. Keith Harris of "Rolling Stone" wrote that the album "lacks a big hit" to pull together a "competent level of craft". He also opined that the album's highlights are its more upbeat songs, such as "Hey Boy", "1+1" and "Play Dumb". "NME"'s Nick Levine stated that the album offers "glimpses" of Sia's "undeniable greatness", though he also commented that the highlights are not enough to make "Music" "feel as vital as top-notch Sia efforts".


title: Nick Bateman (model)

text: Nicholas Kevin Stanley Yunge-Bateman (born November 18, 1986) is a Canadian model, actor and music producer.


title: Nick Bateman (model)

text: At a young age, Bateman began martial arts training in Gōjū-ryū karate and bō staff. In his teens Bateman won four world titles in the National Blackbelt League's 15-17 age division, with three in weapons as well as one in Japanese forms in Houston and Myrtle Beach in 2003 and 2004 He graduated from Capilano University in Vancouver at age 20, and later opened his own karate school. Shortly thereafter, he began modeling professionally, during which time he lived in Milan, as well as New York City and Miami. He was once chosen for an Abercrombie & Fitch Campaign, which was photographed by Bruce Weber.


title: Nick Bateman (model)

text: Bateman is also a film and television actor and starred in the 2011 film "Hobo with a Shotgun", he also starred in the 2019 Hallmark Channel television film "A Brush With Love" where he played the male lead opposite actress Arielle Kebbel. His last acting role was starring in the 2021 GAC Family movie "A Christmas Miracle for Daisy" alongside Jill Wagner.


title: Nick Bateman (model)

text: Bateman has two dogs, both Yorkies, named Joey and Keeva. He volunteered with PETA to bring hay and repair shelters for dogs kept outside in North Carolina.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products can be traded by the trading platform, over a communication network with a financial intermediary or directly between the participants or members of the trading platform. This includes products such as stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, derivatives and others, with a financial intermediary, such as brokers, market makers, Investment banks or stock exchanges. Such platforms allow electronic trading to be carried out by users from any location and are in contrast to traditional floor trading using open outcry and telephone based trading. Sometimes the term trading platform is also used in reference to the trading software alone.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: Electronic trading platforms typically stream live market prices on which users can trade and may provide additional trading tools, such as charting packages, news feeds and account management functions. Some platforms have been specifically designed to allow individuals to gain access to financial markets that could formerly only be accessed by specialist trading firms. They may also be designed to automatically trade specific strategies based on technical analysis or to do high-frequency trading.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: Electronic trading platforms are usually mobile-friendly and available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: The term 'trading platform' is generally used to avoid confusion with 'trading system' which is more often associated with the trading method or strategy rather than the computer system used to execute orders within financial circles. In this case platform is used to mean a type of computing system or operating environment such as a database or other specific software.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: Transactions have traditionally been handled manually, between brokers or counterparties. However, starting in the 1970s, a greater portion of transactions have migrated to electronic trading platforms. These may include electronic communication networks, alternative trading systems, "dark pools" and others.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: The first electronic trading platforms were typically associated with stock exchanges and allowed brokers to place orders remotely using private dedicated networks and dumb terminals. Early systems would not always provide live streaming prices and instead allowed brokers or clients to place an order which would be confirmed some time later; these were known as 'request for quote' based systems.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: Trading systems evolved to allow for live streaming prices and near instant execution of orders as well as using the internet as the underlying network meaning that location became much less relevant. Some electronic trading platforms have built in scripting tools and even APIs allowing traders to develop automatic or algorithmic trading systems and robots.


title: Electronic trading platform

text: The client graphical user interface of the electronic trading platforms can be used to place various orders and are also sometimes called trading turrets (though this may be a misuse of the term, as some refer to the specialized PBX phones used by traders).


title: Electronic trading platform

text: During the period from 2001 to 2005, the development and proliferation of trading platforms saw the setting up of dedicated online trading portals, which were electronic online venues with a choice of many electronic trading platforms rather than being restricted to one institution's offering.


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: Amazing Adult Fantasy, retitled Amazing Fantasy in its final issue, is an American comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics from 1961 through 1962, with the latter title revived with superhero features in 1995 and in the 2000s. The final 1960s issue, "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (cover-dated Aug. 1962), introduced the popular superhero character Spider-Man. "Amazing Adult Fantasy" premiered with issue #7, taking over the numbering from "Amazing Adventures".


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: The science fiction-fantasy anthology "Amazing Adult Fantasy" began with issue #7 (cover-dated Dec. 1961), having taken over the number of the similar anthology "Amazing Adventures". The earlier issues before the title change featured stories drawn by a number of artists including Jack Kirby, Don Heck and Steve Ditko. "Amazing Adult Fantasy" featured exclusively the quick, quirky, twist-ending tales of artist Ditko and writer-editor Stan Lee that had appeared in "Amazing Adventures" and sister titles primarily featuring rampaging monsters. The cover of the comic carried the motto "The magazine that respects your intelligence".


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: Lee in 2009 described these "short, five-page filler strips that Steve and I did together", originally "placed in any of our comics that had a few extra pages to fill", as "odd fantasy tales that I'd dream up with O. Henry-type [twist] endings". Giving an early example of what would later be known as the "Marvel Method" of writer-artist collaboration, Lee said: "All I had to do was give Steve a one-line description of the plot and he'd be off and running. He'd take those skeleton outlines I had given him and turn them into classic little works of art that ended up being far cooler than I had any right to expect".


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: With issue #15 (Aug. 1962) "Amazing Adult Fantasy" was retitled "Amazing Fantasy". This issue's lead feature introduced the superhero Spider-Man, written by Lee and drawn by Ditko, although Lee rejected Ditko's cover art and commissioned Jack Kirby to pencil a cover that Ditko inked. As Lee explained in 2010: "I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jack's covers". In numerous interviews Lee has recalled how the title had been slated for cancellation, and so with nothing to lose, publisher Martin Goodman reluctantly agreed to allow him to introduce Spider-Man, a new kind of superhero – one who would be a teenager, but not a sidekick, and one who would have everyman doubts, neuroses and money problems. However, while this was indeed the final issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing and that "the Spiderman [sic] ... will appear every month in "Amazing"".


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: Regardless, sales for "Amazing Fantasy" #15 proved to be one of Marvel's highest at the time, so the company launched the series "The Amazing Spider-Man" seven months later.


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: The DVD release of the collector's edition of the "Spider-Man" film included a copy of "Amazing Fantasy" #15. In 2001, Marvel published the 10-issue historical overview "The 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time", with "Amazing Fantasy" #15 topping the list.


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: In 2008, an anonymous donor bequeathed the Library of Congress the original 24 pages of Ditko art for "Amazing Fantasy" #15, including Spider-Man's debut and the stories "The Bell-Ringer", "Man in the Mummy Case", and "There Are Martians Among Us".


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: For decades, no attempts were made to relaunch the title or to continue it with an issue #16. However, in 1995, Marvel editor Danny Fingeroth decided a story gap existed between "Amazing Fantasy" #15 and "The Amazing Spider-Man" #1. In an attempt to fill that gap, Marvel published three Spider-Man flashback stories in "Amazing Fantasy" #16–18 (Dec. 1995 – March 1996), each written by Kurt Busiek and painted chiefly by Paul Lee.


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: The first arc ran through (vol. 2) #1–6 and featured a new teenaged heroine, Araña. The second arc, in (vol. 2) #7–12, published after a short hiatus, featured a revamped, female version of the supervillain the Scorpion. A back-up feature in (vol. 2) #10–12 (Sept.-Nov. 2005) starred the character Nina Price, the Vampire by Night, and (vol. 2) #13–14 (both Dec. 2005) led with the modern-West feature "Vegas", backed up by "Captain Universe". In an attempt to replicate history, Marvel announced that the new issue #15 would introduce a new generation of heroes in a 48-page standalone issue, in the hopes that they would become as popular as Spider-Man. These heroes included Mastermind Excello, Blackjack, the Great Video, Monstro, the Heartbreak Kid, and Positron. The cover to #15 was a revamped version of the original "Amazing Fantasy" #15 cover, complete with Spider-Man swinging through a modern-day New York City, while the new heroes watch in awe in the background.


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: The final arc, in (vol. 2) #16–20 (Feb.-June 2006), introduced Death's Head 3.0, a revamp of the Marvel UK character, written by the original version's creator, Simon Furman. Issues #18–19 contain two "Tales of the New Universe" stories as backup features, while #20 featured a Western backup, "Steamrider".


title: Amazing Fantasy

text: The third volume ran for five issues (cover dated September 2021 - February 2022). Written and drawn by Kaare Andrews, it follows numerous characters who wake up on a mysterious island with no memory of how they arrived.


title: Clara Blandick

text: Clara Blandick (born Clara Blanchard Dickey; June 4, 1876 – April 15, 1962) was an American character, film, stage and theater actress. She played Aunt Em in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).


title: Clara Blandick

text: She was born Clara Blanchard Dickey, the daughter of Isaac B. and Hattie (née Mudgett) Dickey, aboard the "Willard Mudgett" – an American ship captained by her father (named after one of her maternal relatives), and docked in Victoria Harbour, British Hong Kong. She was delivered by Captain William H. Blanchard, whose ship, "Wealthy Pendleton", was anchored nearby. His wife, Clara Pendleton Blanchard, was also present. To thank the Blanchards, Captain and Mrs. Dickey named their daughter Clara Blanchard Dickey. When she became successful as an actress, she took the first syllable of "Blanchard" and the first syllable of "Dickey" to create her stage name, "Clara Blandick". While she often used 1880 as her year of birth for professional purposes, she was actually born in 1876. According to the newspaper "Daily Alta California", both the "Willard Mudgett" and the "Wealthy Pendleton" were in Hong Kong Harbor in June 1876. By 1880, Captain Dickey was in command of a different ship (the "William Hales"), and the rest of the family was in Quincy, Massachusetts.


title: Clara Blandick

text: Her parents had settled in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1879 or 1880. Sources vary on when the Dickeys settled there, and Clara may have been two or three years old when they made the move. In nearby Boston she met the Shakespearean actor E. H. Sothern, with whom she appeared in a production of "Richard Lovelace". She moved from Boston to New York City by 1900, and began pursuing acting as a career.


title: Clara Blandick

text: In 1897, Blandick was an understudy with "The Walking Delegate" company in Boston and her stage debut came in that production at the Tremont Theatre. In 1901, she portrayed Jehanneton in the play "If I Were King", which ran for 56 performances at Garden Theatre (an early component of Madison Square Garden). She achieved acclaim for her role in "The Christian".


title: Clara Blandick

text: In 1903, she played Gwendolyn in the Broadway premiere of E. W. Hornung's "Raffles The Amateur Cracksman" opposite Kyrle Bellew. She started in pictures with the Kalem company in 1908 and made a number of appearances such as in "The Maid's Double" in 1911. Blandick finally broke onto Broadway in 1912, when she was cast as Dolores Pennington in "Widow By Proxy" which ran for 88 performances through early 1913 at George M. Cohan's Theatre on Broadway. During this same period she appeared on stages throughout the Northeastern United States as a member of Sylvester Poli's stock theater company, The Poli Players. She continued to achieve acclaim for her stage work, playing a number of starring roles, including the lead in "Madame Butterfly". By 1914, she was back on the silver screen, as Emily Mason in the film "Mrs. Black is Back".


title: Clara Blandick

text: During World War I, Blandick performed some overseas volunteer work for the American Expeditionary Force in France. She also continued to act on stage and occasionally in silent pictures. In 1924, she earned rave reviews for her supporting role in the Pulitzer Prize winning play "Hell-Bent Fer Heaven", which ran for 122 performances at the Klaw Theatre in New York (later renamed CBS Radio Playhouse No. 2).


title: Clara Blandick

text: In 1929, Blandick moved to Hollywood. By the 1930s, she was well known in theatrical and film circles as an established supporting actress. Though she landed roles like Aunt Polly in the 1930 film "Tom Sawyer" (a role she reprised in the 1931 film "Huckleberry Finn"), she spent much of the decade as a character actor, often going uncredited. In Pre-Code films she often played mothers, including those of characters played by Joan Crawford ("Possessed") and Joan Blondell ("Three on a Match"). At a time when many actors were permanently attached to a single studio, she played a wide number of bit parts for almost every major Hollywood studio (though she would later be under contract with 20th Century Fox). In 1930, she acted in nine films. In 1931 she was in thirteen films. As is the case with some other busy character actors, it is difficult to make an exact tally of the films in which Blandick appeared, but a reasonable estimate would fall between 150 and 200.


title: Clara Blandick

text: In 1939, Blandick landed her most memorable minor role – Aunt Em in MGM's classic "The Wizard of Oz". Though it was a small part (Blandick filmed all her scenes in a single week), the character was an important symbol of protagonist Dorothy's quest to return home to her beloved aunt and uncle. (Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are the only characters from the beginning of the movie, in black-and-white Kansas, not to have alter ego characters in the Land of Oz.) Blandick beat May Robson, Janet Beecher, and Sarah Padden for the role, and earned $750 per week. Some believed Aunt Em's alter ego was to be Glinda, the Good Witch of the North but the studio opted to use different actresses for each role. The reason was they wanted someone younger looking to contrast the good witch from the bad witches, although Billie Burke, who played Glinda, was only eight years younger. Blandick is only credited in the movie's closing credits.


title: Clara Blandick

text: After "The Wizard of Oz", Blandick returned to her staple of character acting in supporting and bit roles. She would continue to act in a wide variety of roles in dozens of films. She played Mrs. Morton Pringle in 1940's "Anne of Windy Poplars", a department store customer in the 1941 Marx Brothers film "The Big Store", a fashionable socialite in the 1944 musical "Can't Help Singing", and a cold-blooded murderer in the 1947 mystery "Philo Vance Returns". Her final two roles both came in 1950 – playing a housekeeper and a landlady in "Key to the City" and "Love That Brute", respectively. She retired from acting at the age of 74 and went into seclusion at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.


title: Clara Blandick

text: Blandick was married on December 7, 1905, in Manhattan, to mining engineer Harry Stanton Elliott. Prior to his mining career, he had been an actor, and they had starred together in "The Christian". They separated by 1910, and are believed to have divorced in 1912. They had no children.