title: CeCe Peniston

text: On February 4, 2011, Peniston signed a recording contract with the independent label West Swagg Music Group (WWMG), established by Lupe Rose in 2010. The company currently has a deal with Bungalo Records, which is exclusively distributed by Universal Music Group Distribution. Peniston's first single on the label, "Stoopid!" was officially released on April 26 as a download single. One month prior to that, Peniston contributed to the March-issued various artists digital compilation titled "Miami 2011" with "Make Me Say Oh", which is her fourth track recorded in collaboration with Ron Carroll (their previous works included songs "My Boo", "I'm Feelin' U" and "In Love with a DJ"). On August 9, WWMG released "Keep On Flossing" (a remixed version of her former single from the '90s) recorded as a duet with her fellow rapper Lavon Collins (aka L.C.) While on October 3, a new version of "Finally" by Paul Oakenfold followed. Another track called "Celebrate" was released on March 27.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: In 1992, subsequent to the release of the debut album "Finally", Peniston was briefly married to Malik Byrd, who co-wrote "Inside That I Cried" and appeared by her side also in its video. In 2003, Peniston married real estate professional Frank Martin from Halifax, Massachusetts. The couple divorced in 2011. On reality TV series "Celebrity Wife Swap" in August 2015, she dated personal trainer Marcus Matthews. This relationship ended soon after the series ended.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: While Peniston's late mother, Barbara Anne Quick Peniston (born August 25, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York), was also her manager, one of Peniston's brothers, Gregory, now manages Cece. She previously had a financial struggle with a former account manager, Alvin Grubman, of Grubman and Associates out of New York City. Grubman and Associates created a tax debt for Peniston.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: With the exception of her formative years when she was crowned a beauty queen, Peniston was struggling with her weight constantly. "When I first got in this business, People were actually erupting in fits of laughter when I introduced myself, but I was comfortable with who I was, but that was an issue for the record company", she disclosed in 2006. "But see in this day and age where I'm at, it wouldn't be a problem for the record company, I'm going to make sure that it's not. But for somebody who's getting into the business, realize that you're a commodity, and if the record company's investing in you, make sure that you invest in yourself. Look is important because people see the physical first," she was advising up-comers in the "5 Magazine" interview.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: However, three years later, in November 2009, Peniston herself was spotted in Culver City, California posing for "Inside Edition" (produced daily at the CBS Broadcast Center in N.Y.C.), which first revealed details about her radical physical makeover and tumescent liposuction she, reportedly, got recommended by her new record executives.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: In addition, she was featured in several national celebrity news and fashion magazines, including the national "Us Weekly", which tracked her progress as she sought to lose weight through plastic surgery. The surgery was a “hit” for Peniston, who then claimed to ""feel great"" after having liposuction, fat removed from her neck.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: American R&B singer Monica, whose first two singles made her the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the U.S. "Billboard" Top R&B Singles chart in 1995 was interviewed by a gossip blog in 2008. The young singer outspokenly talked about her professional life, upcoming wedding as well as her past relationships. During the interview she recalled her manager-cousin Melinda asking CeCe Peniston, "who was huge at that time", if Monica could sing for her. Monica remembered Peniston being "rude" and doing "everything she possibly could while I sang", and that she was "devastated" by the experience.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: A friend of Peniston had brought the article to her attention later, and she responded to Monica via the social networking website MySpace.com, saying that she did not recall the event but wanted to apologize for it, saying she had always encouraged and supported children and speculating that she may have been distracted by her staff at the time. Peniston said "At that time I was young and still pretty new to the industry myself, and so I hadn't learned how to balance everything just yet. It really hurts me that I made you feel like that." Monica thanked her for the apology, and for caring "after all the years have passed".


title: CeCe Peniston

text: Originally in 1997, singer, along with her friend Heather, founded the CeCe Peniston Youth Foundation to help raise funds for many other organizations, particularly those concerned with HIV/AIDS, women and children in need, hunger and the equality of mankind. After the September 11, 2001 tragedy, Michael Jackson requested her presence for his "United We Stand" concert to benefit the families of 9/11. She has also blazed two tracks ("The Christmas Song" and "What a Wonderful World) on the albums "" and "", with proceeds going to multiple sclerosis. She had been requested to perform for U.S. troops on the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1993, and has continued to travel to entertain the U.S. troops overseas since.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: Later in 2006, the foundation was to be re-named as the LOTS Foundation (Lifting Others To Succeed), after her statement in the interview for "5 Mag" in June the same year, and she was planning doing a benefit for cancer research, because of her father, a cancer survivor.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: In October 2008, singer was along with Dara Torres named a National Ambassador for the Parent Teacher Association, which is the largest volunteer child advocacy organization with more than 5 million members. In her new role, she visited with hundreds of children across the country to reinforce the importance of an arts education and pursuing their dreams. She also joined parents and educators to work toward improving the lives of children, as well as urging families to be more involved.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: Following this announcement, Peniston started to record the official PTA anthem, "Above Horizons", which was released on the organization's recording label, National PTA Recordings in June 2009, as its first music release. The single was available in three different mixes ("Original Mix", "Status Mix" and "Aaron-Carl Mix") at PTAmusic.org, and its release coincided with PTA's unofficial announcement of Downloadfundraiser.com as a PTA National Member Benefits Provider, and the "category exclusive" digital music retailer for National PTA.


title: CeCe Peniston

text: Peniston has acted in theatrical productions such plays as "The Wiz", "Treat Her Like a Lady" or "When a Woman's Fed Up", and later also wrapped up shooting two independent films of the same genre (both released on Maverick Spirit in 2005). The first of them, "Don't Touch If You Ain't Prayed", featured gospel music performed by Peniston herself, while the second, "Pastor Jones", was another urban film appealing to the Christian market.


title: Mactan

text: Mactan is a densely populated island located a few kilometers (~1 mile) east of Cebu Island in the Philippines. The island is part of Cebu province and it is divided into the city of Lapu-Lapu and the municipality of Cordova. The island is separated from Cebu by the Mactan Channel which is presently crossed by three bridges: the Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), the Mactan–Mandaue Bridge, and the Marcelo Fernan Bridge. The island covers some and has a population of 527,071 as of 2020, making it the nation's most densely populated island. Along with Olango Island Group, the isles are administered by a city and a municipality covering .


title: Mactan

text: The modern name Mactan descended from an earlier form, "Manctan". However, evidence of this earlier form is scant as, even as early as the 17th century, the island was already named Mactan. This form is attested in the original copy of the Philippine Declaration of Independence, where Lapu-Lapu was mentioned as the king of ""Manktan"". This is supported by oral histories, which claim that the name Mactan evolved from the name "Mangatang". The name means "pirate" (lit. "those who lie in wait"), and was acquired during a period where the island's population would prey on passing trade ships on the way to the harbors of Sugbu. The ancient name of the island in precolonial times is Opong, which became the name of the Spanish settlement of Opon (renamed to Lapu-Lapu in 1961).


title: Mactan

text: The island was already a thriving settlement before it was even colonized by Spain in the 16th century. It is a strong ally of the Lakanate of Lawan, a prosperous kingdom in Samar. Datu Hadi Iberein ruled the Lakanate of Lawan. He was described by historian William Henry Scott as a “Samar datu by the name of Iberein was rowed out to a Spanish vessel anchored in his harbor in 1543 by oarsmen collared in gold; while wearing on his own person earrings and chains.” Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães arrived on the island in 1521 and became involved in warfare among the kingdoms, only to be killed in battle by the warriors of Datu Lapu-Lapu, the sovereign in the island. However, oral tradition also dictates that the island where the Battle of Mactan might have taken place in is Poro Island in the northeast instead. The oral tradition is backed by recent archaeological evidence of such a battle taking place in Poro island during the 16th century.


title: Mactan

text: By 1730, the Catholic Augustinian friars established the town of Opon. It was later renamed as the city of Lapu-Lapu by means of the Republic Act 3134, signed by Pres. Carlos P. Garcia on June 17, 1961. Congressman Manuel A. Zosa, the representative of the Sixth District of Cebu, sponsored the Bill converting the former municipality of Opon into the present day City of Lapu-Lapu.


title: Mactan

text: Apart from the airport, today the island is known for its industrial factories, which are some of the most successful industrial ventures in the Philippines. Many of them are located at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ), an industrial tax-free zone opened in 1979 that includes over 35 business ventures, about 50 percent of which are Japanese-owned.


title: Mactan

text: Also important to the island is its high-class tourism industry and the production of furniture, as well as guitars, ukuleles and other musical instruments.


title: Mactan

text: Being one of the major tourist islands of Cebu, Mactan Island boasts of a diverse collection of tourist spots and attractions. Being a coral island, Mactan offers some of the best diving, snorkeling, island hopping, jet ski, sailing and cultural activities of any island in the Philippines.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: The Assignment (also known as Tomboy, and formerly known as (Re) Assignment and Tomboy: A Revenger's Tale) is an action crime thriller film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Denis Hamill. The film stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Caitlin Gerard, and Sigourney Weaver.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2016. It was released on March 3, 2017, through video on demand, prior to a limited release on April 7, 2017, by Saban Films.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Dr. Rachel Jane is a rogue plastic surgeon with a twisted vision of a better world. After losing her medical license, she began an illegal practice and performed unwanted surgical experiments on impoverished homeless people. The film is split between a present-day timeline in which she has been institutionalized and her condition is being assessed by Dr. Ralph Galen, and a second timeline two years into the past.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Three years prior, Jane's brother Sebastian was murdered by professional killer Frank Kitchen. After discovering Frank's identity, Dr. Jane hires Honest John Baconian to double-cross him. Seeking revenge, but also seeing an opportunity to assess how much physical identity matters, Jane performs gender reassignment surgery on Frank and makes him physically female.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Horrified by his new appearance, Frank has a mental breakdown. Finding a box in the room with hormones and a tape recorder, Frank discovers a message left to him by Jane encouraging him to start over. Leaving the hotel, Frank contacts a woman he hooked up with named Johnnie and asks to stay at her home while he recovers.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: The police do not believe Frank exists, frustrating Jane. When Galen contradicts her, she attacks him in a fit of rage before being restrained. A short time later, she asks for a legal deposition so that she can confess. She recounts the events surrounding Frank's surgery and the murders at her clinic that led to her incarceration, but ultimately expresses no remorse for her actions.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Frank sets out to kill everyone involved in his operation, including the men on Honest John's payroll. After learning that the surgery cannot be reversed, he interrogates Honest John, demanding the identity of his surgeon. Honest John implies that Johnnie knows the doctor and that Johnnie is involved. Frank kills Honest John and confronts Johnnie. She admits that the doctor hired her to monitor Frank, but does not know her name. She admits that she only did it in the first place because she was afraid if she didn’t, the doctor’s guards would kill her. It also becomes apparent that she developed feelings for Frank in the process. While tempted to kill her, Frank chooses to spare her and send her to Reno, Nevada. She agrees to help him lay a trap for the doctor. However, the doctor's bodyguards were expecting Frank, and they sedate him.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Frank awakens in a straitjacket and finally comes face to face with Dr. Jane. She announces her intention to perform another surgery on him to remove his right arm, so he can never kill again. Frank manages to overpower and kill all of Jane's bodyguards, and her surgical assistant. Jane reappears, threatening Frank with a large knife, noting that he has run out of bullets. Admitting she is a coward "when it comes to life and death situations", Jane suggests that they go their separate ways amicably. Frank refuses, reloads his gun with a bullet he had taped to the sole of his boot and shoots Jane, non-fatally. After staging the scene to look as if Jane's assistant killed everyone, Frank is seen holding Jane's knife over her unconscious body.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: After completing his revenge, Frank records a video in which he tells his side of the story, to be released after his death. He reveals that Johnnie decided to stay in Reno. At her final meeting with Galen, Dr. Jane reveals that she had hoped to convince him to help her be deemed mentally fit for trial, but realized that it was over when she attacked him. She instead decided to accept her fate, while using the deposition as a means to tell her side of the story for anyone interested. The film ends with Jane examining her mutilated hands; Frank had severed her fingers to ensure she would never practice again.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: In 1978 Denis Hamill wrote the first draft of a script called "Tom Boy". It was about a juvenile delinquent who rapes and murders a woman whose husband is a plastic surgeon. He's arrested and goes to prison, but the surgeon captures him and turns him into a woman. The character goes on to commit a series of murders. Walter Hill recalls, "I liked its audacity, and its potential to be ... this always sounds patronizing, but a kind of really terrific B movie. You know, the kind of movie that doesn't get much love when it comes out, but you love watching it on TV years later, much more than you do the 'big' movies of the day."


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Hill optioned the script with his own money around ten years after he first read it. He tried to write a different version but could not get it to work. He put the project aside until he found a copy of the first draft fifteen years later. He believed he knew how to do it this time and re-optioned the script.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Hill had success releasing a graphic novel in France and was looking for a follow up. He wrote up the project as a graphic novel.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Hill's agent introduced him to a producer, Saïd Ben Saïd, who was willing to invest. "The only rules he laid down was that it'd have to be made for very cheap, and there had to be some name value in the cast," said Hill.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: "This movie totally comes out of the same animus as my "Tales From the Crypt" shows," said Hill. "I mean, these are nasty people, caught in a nasty situation, that out of the experience are somewhat chastened and wiser for it. Assuming they survive—not all survive! Which was certainly out of the old EC Comics. So it's a very small movie, but it's a king-size "Tales from the Crypt"."


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Walter Hill directed the revenge thriller based on a script he co-wrote with Denis Hamill, which Saïd Ben Saïd produced along with Michel Merkt through SBS Productions.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: It took Michelle Rodriguez four hours each day she wore male prosthetics and makeup. She chose for her character to have the largest penis available.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: The soundtrack is by Giorgio Moroder. The end title theme is composed by Guns N' Roses keyboardist Melissa Reese.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: In May 2016, Saban Films acquired distribution rights to the film. It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2016. It was released through video on demand on March 3, 2017, prior to opening in a limited release on April 7, 2017.


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: "The Assignment" received negative reviews from critics. It holds a rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 63 reviews, with a weighted average of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Assignment"s premise is bizarrely intriguing; unfortunately, it's also just one of many ingredients fumbled in a disappointing misfire from director Walter Hill." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 34 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave the film a positive review, writing: "Hill's most entertaining and...accomplished film in some time", and "an instant cult item". Dennis Harvey of "Variety" gave the film a negative review, writing: "Gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime-melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny 'Oh no! I'm a chick now!!' gender-change narrative hook." Wendy Ide of "Screen International" also gave the film a negative review, writing: "Despite liberally quoting Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe, the screenplay is just not sharp enough to make the audience feel vindicated about dumbing down." Michelle Rodriguez won best actress from .


title: The Assignment (2016 film)

text: The transgender community was largely disappointed by the image of forced gender reassignment surgery and a boycott was created in response. The director Walter Hill responded by stating, "I wouldn't make a movie that hurt transgender people. Some of them have had a tough time of it, and the last thing I want to do is make anyone's road harder. But look, I understand the concern. Is it lurid? Yes. Is it lowbrow? Well, maybe. Is it offensive? No. I'm just trying to honor the B movies that we grew up with."


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Royston Ricky Drenthe (born 8 April 1987) is a Dutch footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Murcia. Although primarily a left winger, he has also played as a left-back.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe started his professional career with Eredivisie side Feyenoord in 2005, having graduated from the club's youth academy. He made 37 appearances for the side before switching to La Liga club Real Madrid in 2007. During his five years in Madrid, he made 65 appearances for the club, spending time on loan at Hércules and Premier League side Everton, making 19 and 27 appearances for those clubs respectively. He then joined Russian Premier League side Alania Vladikavkaz in February 2013 on a free transfer, making six appearances in a brief spell at the club, before he joined Reading in June 2013. In January 2015, he joined Kayseri Erciyessor, before moving to UAE Pro League side Baniyas Club in September 2015. After being released by Baniyas in July 2016, Drenthe announced his retirement from playing. He has since begun recording music under the name Roya2Faces. After two years, Drenthe came out of retirement to play for Sparta Rotterdam in 2018.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe made 17 appearances for the Netherlands under-21s between 2006 and 2008, and was a member of the team that won the 2007 European Championship. Since then, he has made one appearance for the Netherlands B team, and one appearance for the full national team.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Born in Rotterdam, Drenthe of Surinamese descent joined local side Feyenoord's youth system at the age of 13, playing mainly as a winger during his junior years. After disciplinary issues during a trip to Switzerland with the B-side, coach Marcel Bout wanted him to leave the club, but the issues were resolved after the intervention of Rob Baan, the club's director of football.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Bout hardly used Drenthe in his subsequent lineups, and at the end of the season, the 16-year-old was named as one of eleven players whose future at the club was questionable. He eventually moved to Feyenoord feeder club Excelsior.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe improved during the two years he played at Excelsior, with manager Marco van Lochem successfully playing him as left back. After impressing his former side's coaching staff, he was asked to rejoin the club, which he accepted.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: In the 2005–06 season, Drenthe was promoted to Feyenoord's first team, managed by his former youth coach Henk Fräser, and had to compete for first-choice status with Mohammed Hammouti. After scoring three goals against Ajax in the Otten Cup – a youth tournament organized by PSV – as a winger, he began training with the main squad, while still appearing for the reserves.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: In the same week where he helped his club to a 5–1 win at Ajax with the second team, Drenthe was offered a professional contract at Feyenoord. Manager Erwin Koeman handed him his Eredivisie debut against Vitesse at the Gelredome, and the player finished the season with three matches.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: In 2006–07, Feyenoord signed veteran Belgian Philippe Léonard, while Pascal Bosschaart was also still part of the squad. After the former suffered an injury and the latter was transferred to ADO Den Haag, Drenthe became first-choice as Feyenoord finished seventh in the league.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: After winning the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship with the Netherlands, Feyenoord accepted a €14 million bid by Real Madrid after Drenthe threatened to take his club to court if they did not want to let him go.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe was presented as a Real Madrid player on 13 August 2007, alongside compatriot Wesley Sneijder. He made his official debut as a midfielder in the second leg of the season's Spanish Supercup against Sevilla, and scored the 1–1 equaliser from 40 yards out, with the ball hitting the crossbar and crossing the line. The "Merengues", however, lost 3–5 at home and 3–6 on aggregate.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe played regularly for Real Madrid in his debut season, in both left-wing positions, but began appearing less after the development of Marcelo, being dropped from the list of 18 by manager Bernd Schuster in several games. At one time, after being left out for the match against Valencia, Drenthe stormed out of the training ground. He finished the campaign with 18 league appearances (plus four in the season's UEFA Champions League), scoring his first league goal against Real Valladolid in a 7–0 home routing on 10 February 2008.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Despite rumours of him leaving the club on loan, Drenthe featured in 15 of Real Madrid's first 18 games of the 2008–09 season. However, he also suffered from anxiety issues after being booed by the club's supporters during a 1–0 home win against Deportivo de La Coruña and did not feature for the club for a period, although manager Juande Ramos offered the player his support and insisted he would help him. The manager later revealed that the player asked not to be picked for the three games after the Deportivo fixture.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: On 31 August 2010, after having appeared rarely in his third season, Drenthe was loaned to Hércules in a season-long move. He made his debut on 11 September in a 2–0 away win against Barcelona, and scored his first goal for the club on 14 November, netting from a free kick against Real Sociedad in a 2–1 home victory. His performances with the Alicante team were subsequently praised by the Spanish press. However, the player would soon fall out of favour with the club's board of directors and coaching staff after arriving one week after the winter break ended, citing a "loss of confidence in Hércules management", rather than what was previously perceived as "a protest over unpaid wages".


title: Royston Drenthe

text: On 3 April 2011, in his second game after his suspension, Drenthe scored twice to help Hércules to its first away win since September, a 3–1 against Real Sociedad. He ended the season with 15 starts in 1,299 minutes of action, with his team being finally relegated.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: On 31 August 2011, Drenthe joined Premier League club Everton on a season-long loan deal. He made his Premier League debut as a second-half substitute in the 2–2 home draw against Aston Villa, on 10 September. Again from the bench, against Wigan Athletic, he scored in the 97th minute to round off a 3–1 home victory.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe made his first start for Everton on 21 September 2011 in a League Cup match against West Bromwich Albion, assisting the winning goal for Phil Neville in the 13th minute of extra time (2–1 home win). On his full league debut, at Fulham on 23 October, he found the net just three minutes into the game in an eventual 3–1 win.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: On 21 December 2011, after three weeks out of the game due to an ankle injury, Drenthe assisted Leon Osman for the game's only goal at home against Swansea City. On 18 February 2012, in a match against Blackpool for the season's FA Cup, he scored after just 49 seconds in a 2–0 home success. Drenthe started in the next game for Everton, scoring a powerful low drive from 20 yards out for the first goal of the 1–1 away draw against Queens Park Rangers.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: In March 2012, Drenthe was given a leave of absence on compassionate grounds and, upon returning, he reported late for training. This resulted in manager David Moyes omitting the player from Everton's FA Cup semi-final squad; he was also told to stay away from the club. In a magazine interview published in April, he accused Barcelona's Lionel Messi of racially abusing him on more than one occasion, repeatedly addressing him as "negro".


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe left Real Madrid after his contract expired on 30 June 2012. In December, he signed a deal with Russian club Alania Vladikavkaz, which came into effect on 2 February of the following year. Drenthe made his league debut for his new team on 9 March 2013, against Rostov. After the game, coach Valery Gazzaev called him a "great professional and an example for the youth". On 15 April, in only his fifth game for the club, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 home win over relegation competitors Mordovia Saransk.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Reading officially confirmed the signing of free agent Drenthe on a two-year contract with the option of a third, on 21 June 2013. On 8 March 2014, Drenthe scored his first goal for the club in a 1–1 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion after he cut in from the right and fired a left-footed shot into the bottom corner. Drenthe then scored his second goal for the club on 11 March in a 4–2 away win against Leeds United with a free-kick just after half-time. In July 2014, Drenthe was told he could leave Reading after only one season with the club, whilst being stripped of his squad number when the official squad numbers were announced on 14 July 2014.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe joined Sheffield Wednesday on a six-month loan on 1 September 2014, halfway through transfer deadline day. He made his Owls debut as a second-half substitute for Chris Maguire in the 0–0 away draw against Bolton Wanderers on 13 September. His only Owls goal came in the 1–1 away draw at Charlton Athletic on 1 November.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Unable to find a club, Drenthe announced a hiatus from professional football, saying that he was 'no longer a footballer'.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: After training with the side for a few weeks, on 6 July 2018 Sparta Rotterdam announced they had signed Drenthe to a one-year deal. After Sparta Rotterdam promoted to the Eredivisie during the Keukenkampioen 2018–2019 season, the club decided not to extend his contract.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: On January 6, 2021, Drenthe returned to Spain and signed with Racing Murcia. On January 30, 2022, Drenthe was loaned to Real Murcia, playing in the same city but a tier above Racing.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: After his first full season at Feyenoord, Drenthe was called by Dutch under-21 coach Foppe de Haan to be part of his squad for the 2007 UEFA European Championship, which was held in the Netherlands. He was one of the most important players in the second consecutive title of the competition for the "Jong Oranje", being chosen by UEFA as Player of the Tournament. The following year, he represented the nation at the 2008 Summer Olympics.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: On 14 November 2010, Drenthe was selected for the first time for the Dutch senior team, as coach Bert van Marwijk picked him as a late replacement for the injured Urby Emanuelson. Three days later, he made his debut, coming on as a second-half substitute in the 1–0 friendly win over Turkey.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Drenthe's younger brother, Giovanni, is also a footballer. The striker opted to represent Suriname internationally.


title: Royston Drenthe

text: Early Drenthe was contracted by the Spanish sports program El Chiringuito de Jugones as commentator, on March 1, 2021.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Apoorva Raagangal (; ) is a 1975 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars Kamal Haasan, Sundarrajan, Srividya and Jayasudha, while Nagesh and Rajinikanth, in his feature film debut, play supporting roles. The film revolves around Prasanna (Haasan) who falls in love with the much older Bhairavi (Srividya) while Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani (Jayasudha) is drawn to Prasanna's father Mahendran (Sundarrajan).


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal"s theme was based on a riddle featured in the Indian folktale collection "Baital Pachisi" about a king marrying a woman and his son marrying her mother, and Vetala, the riddler asking Vikramaditya what would be their kinship relations if these couples were to beget children. The film was produced by V. Govindarajan and J. Duraisamy under the Kalakendra Films banner, photographed by B. S. Lokanath and edited by N. R. Kittu; the music is composed by M. S. Viswanathan. Unlike many contemporaneous Tamil films, it was shot entirely in actual houses for their interiors without building sets, as Balachander wanted to convey a more authentic narration.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal" was released on 15 August 1975. Despite exploring the concept of relationships between people with wide age gaps, which challenged Indian social mores, it received critical acclaim and became a commercial success, and a breakthrough for Srividya and Haasan. The film won three National Film Awards, including Best Feature Film in Tamil, and three Filmfare Awards South in the Tamil branch: Best Feature Film, Best Director for Balachander and Best Actor for Haasan, and a Special Award for Srividya. It was remade in Telugu as "Thoorpu Padamara" (1976) where Srividya and Nagesh reprised their roles, and in Hindi by Balachander as "Ek Nai Paheli" (1984) where Haasan reprised his role.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Prasanna is a young man who indulges in several revolutionary activities against the wishes of his father Mahendran, a widower. After Prasanna tells him that, due to the price of rice increasing, he stole rice from a lorry, distributed it to the poor and set fire to the lorry before the police arrived, a disgusted Mahendran helps the police arrest him, widening the already existing rift between them. After his release, Prasanna opts to stay away from his hometown, Bangalore, and reaches Madras.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: One day, Prasanna is beaten up for abusing the passengers of a car that splashed water on him. Carnatic singer Bhairavi, returning home after a katcheri, notices him lying unconscious on the roadside, takes him home and her doctor friend Suri treats him. At Bhairavi's request, Prasanna continues to live in her house even after he recovers. He slowly develops passionate feelings for her even though she is much older.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Before Prasanna's arrival, Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani, who believes she was adopted, learns that she is actually Bhairavi's biological daughter born out of wedlock. Unable to digest her mother's hypocrisy, she runs away from home and meets Mahendran in Bangalore while trying to sell some items. She ends up staying at his house for a few days at his request. Impressed by his love for his deceased wife, his longing for his son Prasanna who left him, and his commitment to help her, she expresses a desire to marry him, despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Both Bhairavi and Mahendran reject Prasanna and Ranjani's proposals, citing their age difference and other situations, but with perseverance, Prasanna and Ranjani are able to convince them that their respective marriages could work. Bhairavi is forced to accept Prasanna's proposal when he ends his revolutionary activities and takes up music for her sake, becoming a mridangam player. Prasanna is happy that Bhairavi has accepted his proposal, but Pandiyan, her ex-lover and Ranjani's father, turns up to meet her and to apologise. Prasanna does not allow this and, as Pandiyan is dying from blood cancer, takes him away for treatment at his place. He tells Pandiyan of his plan to marry Bhairavi and seeks his co-operation. Pandiyan agrees not to meet her.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Mahendran, seeing an advertisement placed by Bhairavi about her missing daughter, comes to meet Bhairavi at her house and sees Prasanna's photograph there. He realises they are in love. Mahendran advertises for his missing son. Bhairavi sees the advertisement so she tells Prasanna to get his father's consent before marrying her. They both meet Mahendran, who introduces Ranjani as Prasanna's future mother since she is his future wife. A riddle is explained: Prasanna's wife will be the mother of his father's wife, meaning Ranjani will be the mother-in-law of her own mother and Mahendran will be the son-in-law of his own son. Mahendran asks Prasanna how this riddle is going to be cleared in their case.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: During Bhairavi's next katcheri, where Prasanna is a mridangam player, she sings "Kelviyin Nayagane, Indha Kelvikku Badhil Edhayya?" (Oh hero of the question, what is the answer to this question?). Ranjani changes her mind and joins her mother by singing at the concert. Observing this, Prasanna also changes his mind and joins his father. When all these issues are cleared, Pandiyan sends a note to Bhairavi in the middle of the katcheri. Bhairavi searches for him after it ends and finds him dead with a note in his hand, wishing her well with Prasanna. She erases the kumkuma from her forehead to declare herself a widow and leaves with Ranjani, while Prasanna joins Mahendran.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Kannadasan, Jaishankar and members of the Madras-based United Amateur Artistes make "friendly appearances".


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: The Indian folktale collection "Baital Pachisi" features many stories where the ghost-like being Vetala poses many riddles to Vikramaditya. In the final riddle, a king marries a woman and his son marries her mother; Vetala asks, "If these couples were to beget children, what would be their kinship relations?" and Vikramaditya keeps quiet since it does not have an answer. This riddle inspired K. Balachander to write the script of "Apoorva Raagangal", which he would also direct. V. Govindarajan and J. Duraisamy produced the film under their production banner, Kalakendra Films. B. S. Lokanath was chosen as the cinematographer, N. R. Kittu as the editor, and Ramasamy as the art director.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Before the film's release, author N. R. Dasan accused Balachander of plagiarising "Verum Mann", a story he had written for the magazine "Kannadasan". The matter was taken to the Madras High Court, and Dasan won the case. Although he did not seek money, the judge ordered Balachander to pay him as a fine.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Kamal Haasan was cast as the protagonist Prasanna. He spent seven months learning to play the mridangam required for the role. The film was the debut of Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, who later became one of Tamil cinema's biggest stars, Rajinikanth. He was a student at the Madras Film Institute, when Balachander, who came there, met him. Balachander was impressed by his appearance: his "fragile" health, "powerful" eyes, "chiselled" face and dark skin and did not view them as negatives. He sought to "give him a good role, and see what can be drawn out of him". The script of "Apoorva Raagangal" had been readied, and Balachander wanted Gaekwad to play a "small but interesting part", which he agreed to. The part was that of Bhairavi's (Srividya) ex-lover Pandiyan.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: As Gaekwad, who primarily spoke Kannada and his native Marathi, was only "tangentially familiar" with Tamil, Balachander advised him to learn the language. Gaekwad practised by speaking only Tamil with his friend Raja Bahaddur, a native Tamil speaker; he mastered the language in 20 days. After meeting Balachander again, and impressing him with his Tamil, he was given the part. When it came to giving Gaekwad a screen name, Balachander had three options: Rajinikanth, Chandrakanth and Srikanth. He chose Rajinikanth, the name of A. V. M. Rajan's character from his 1966 film "Major Chandrakanth"; the name means "colour of night", referring to Gaekwad's skin colour, though it was misspelled in the credits as "Rajanikanth".


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Unlike many contemporaneous Tamil films, "Apoorva Raagangal" was shot entirely in actual houses for interiors without building sets, as Balachander wanted a more authentic narration to be conveyed. With Lokanath's help, he found houses which belonged to A. V. Meiyappan's family members, one of which was Meiyappan's house, Chettiar Bungalow. For Prasanna's look, Haasan kept his moustache thin and hair long, and had him sporting bell-bottoms and polo shirts. According to historian G. Dhananjayan, the song "Athisaya Raagam" was filmed at the cashew farms of VGP Golden Beach; however, Roshne Balasubramanian of "The Indian Express" says it was filmed at the Theosophical Society Adyar. The camera was moved manually by the cameraperson at this time, without the use of a dolly. In a 2000 interview with Rediff, Jayasudha, who portrayed Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani, recalled that it was hard portraying a girl in love with the much older Mahendran (Sundarrajan): "Balachander Sir was a very tough taskmaster. He would not be satisfied unless he got 100 per cent from you. He used to reprimand me and shout at me if I messed up." She also had to wear a sari and needed help since she had never worn one before.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: The scene where Pandiyan opens the gate of Bhairavi's house was filmed at a house in 1st Crescent Park Road, Gandhi Nagar. The scene was shot on 27 March 1975, the same day that Balachander gave Rajinikanth his name; it was approved after only five or six takes. For the character's looks, Rajinikanth sported stubble and wore a loose-fitting suit consisting of a dusty coat, loosely worn tie, untucked shirt and trousers; his make-up was done by R. Sundaramoorthy. During the initial stages of principal photography, Rajinikanth found Balachander's directing methods very difficult to follow. Nagesh, who portrayed the doctor Suri who lives a double life as a drunkard named Hari, observed his difficulty and told him, "Don't get tensed up. Just imitate whatever Balachander is doing. That's what I’m doing as well!" After listening to Nagesh's advice, it became easier for Rajinikanth to complete his portions in the film. The final reel length of the film was .


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal" explores the concept of relationships between couples with a large disparity in their ages, which challenged Indian social mores. Although it is based on a "Baital Pachisi" riddle, it has frequently been compared to the American film "40 Carats" (1973), which tells the story of a widow who falls in love with a much younger man. In "Apoorva Raagangal", Ranjani often poses the riddle "Ennudaya appa yaarukku maamanaro, avarudaya marumagalin appa en maganukku maamanar. Appa avarukkum enakkum enna uravu?" (My father is father-in-law to someone; that person's daughter-in-law's father is my son's father-in-law. What is the relationship between him and me?), summing up the film's theme. While the source riddle in "Baital Pachisi" does not have an answer, G. Dhananjayan believes the answer to the film's riddle is, "for a husband, the relation is his wife and for the wife, the relation is her husband".


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Because one of the lead characters is a Carnatic singer, the film uses various Carnatic music terms as placeholders to carry forward the narrative. The first is "sarali varisai", referring to the beginner lessons that Carnatic music students learn; "mohanam", meaning enchantment or infatuation, appears when Prasanna falls in love; and the film ends with "mangalam", referring to the closing part of a katcheri. The female lead characters are named after the Carnatic ragas Bhairavi and Ranjani. V. Ramji of the "Hindu Tamil Thisai" believes the scene where Prasanna beats up a man for not standing still when "Jana Gana Mana" (the Indian national anthem) is playing, reflects Balachander's penchant for depicting patriotism. During Pandiyan's first appearance, "Sruthi Bedham" (Change of Sruthi) appears. Historian Mohan Raman said that by including these words, Balachander "meant that the man who changed the course of the story would also the change the industry". Anand Kumar RS, of "The News Minute", however, says the term which also means "pitch distortion", was used to symbolise Pandiyan making "an entry at the wrong time".


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Balachander said Pandiyan's first shot was deliberate and representative of Rajinikanth making his first appearance in cinema. According to critic Naman Ramachandran, the character is not entirely villainous despite popular belief since he commits no villainous act on screen. Having deserted Bhairavi after impregnating her offscreen, in the present he voluntarily agrees to stay away from her after realising she is content with Prasanna. Ramachandran said three things that happen soon after Pandiyan's death prove he is not a villain: the music playing in the background is the type usually played when a sympathetic character dies; Bhairavi erases her kumkuma, like any Indian woman would upon becoming a widow; and Pandiyan is found to be holding a note saying his last wish is to see the raga and tala meet, referring to the proposed joint performance of Bhairavi the singer and Prasanna the mridangam player. Dhananjayan considers the entire story of the film is conveyed through the song "Kelviyin Nayagane".


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: The film's soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan; the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. It was released as an LP on the EMI label with an HMV logo. Two songs are ragamalikas, i.e. compositions having different verses set to different ragas. "Yezhu Swarangalukkul" is set in Panthuvarali, Kambhoji, Sindhu Bhairavi and Ranjani. "Athisaya Raagam" begins in Mahati, and shifts to Bhairavi with the line "Oru Puram Paarthaal". "Kelviyin Nayagane" is set in a single raga, Darbari Kanada.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: Singer M. Balamuralikrishna recalled in a 2006 interview, "I ran into [M. S. Viswanathan] in AIR who was setting music for the movie. As the story revolved around strange relationships, the music director wanted to introduce new ragas to go with the ambient theme. I offered my `Mahati' scale and the records created then are history now." "Yezhu Swarangalukkul" became "the rage everywhere" and was a breakthrough for its singer Vani Jairam.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal" was released on 15 August 1975. When the film was released in Bangalore's Kapali theatre, Rajinikanth and Raja Bahaddur went to watch it. The latter recalled, "Nobody knew that he had acted in a film, We saw the film. When we came out, he started crying. I asked him, "Why are you crying?" He said, "I'm on the screen finally, I'm so happy. These are tears of joy". Despite being released on the same day as "Sholay", which went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film at the time, "Apoorva Raagangal" became a box office success, completing a 100-day theatrical run. On its 100th day, Balachander held a ceremony in Madras to reward the cast and crew. The ceremony was attended by M. Karunanidhi, then the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal" received critical acclaim. On 22 August 1975, "The Hindu" said, "K. Balachander has contributed a unique story, dialogues and superb direction in Kala Kendra's ["Apoorva Raagangal"]. A film with a revolutionary offbeat theme it provides poetic experience". The reviewer praised the performances of the main cast, Nagesh's dual role performance as a doctor and a drunkard, and called Rajinikanth "dignified and impressive". They also appreciated the music and Vani Jairam's singing, and Lokanath's cinematography. The reviewer concluded, "Some of the most memorable scenes in this outstanding film emerge from the clash of personalities between the two odd pairs. The end should satisfy even conservative tastes and carries a subtle message about loving too well but not wisely." On 31 August, M. S. Udhayamurthy, writing for the Tamil magazine "Ananda Vikatan", appreciated the film overwhelmingly for its quality, calling it one big musical concert happening before his eyes. He said he got so involved with the characters, to the point of forgetting they were artistes who were enacting their roles and started living with and empathising with them at the end. On the same day, Kanthan of "Kalki" praised the film for the screenplay and characters being innovative, along with the cast performances and music. Though some reviewers criticised Rajinikanth's performance and told him to improve, he complemented them over the reviewers praising his performance.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: In 1976, "Apoorva Raagangal" was remade by Dasari Narayana Rao in Telugu as "Thoorpu Padamara"; Srividya and Nagesh reprised their roles. In 1984, the film was remade in Hindi as "Ek Nai Paheli" by Balachander himself, with Haasan reprising his role.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal" became a landmark in Tamil cinema, and a breakthrough for Srividya and Haasan. "The Times of India" wrote that it was "innovative for the way it brought out the O Henry sort of twist in the plot. [...] It was experimental in bringing out complexities involved in relationships and how certain relationships, no matter what, do not leave you and emerge abruptly to create new equations." Chitra Mahesh of "The Hindu" wrote that it "was bold and unapologetic about love transcending age, caste and all barriers one can think of". In 2011, after Balachander had been given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff called the film one of his best and wrote, "Many filmmakers of that time would have hesitated to touch a subject like this, particularly at a time when relationships were still being gingerly tested on celluloid. But not K Balachander." The scene where a drunk Hari talks to his own shadow and hurls the empty glass at it while saying "Cheers" led to filmgoers imitating him and throwing cups on the lobby walls in theatres.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: In 2003, Rediff wrote, "In an era where every other moviemaker claims to have come up with a daring, original, premise, this 28-year-old film is worth remembering. A trademark K Balachander film, this was the first to showcase Kamal's histrionic abilities." In 2015, Tamil Canadian journalist D. B. S. Jeyaraj wrote, "Though Nagesh has acted in many different roles in Balachander films, one sequence that is perhaps best remembered is the drunkard-doctor of ["Apoorva Raagangal"]." Director Mani Ratnam credited Balachander, with Mahendran and C. V. Sridhar, for "weaning the audience away from theatricality", citing a scene in "Apoorva Raagangal" as an example: "The shadow of the woman upstairs drying her hair falls across the path of the rebellious young man sneaking out of the house. It is enough to stop him. This scene could have been dramatic, with lot of dialogue. Instead you get a silent visual." The film was novelised in 2008 by Vikatan Prasuram.


title: Apoorva Raagangal

text: "Apoorva Raagangal" has been referenced in other Rajinikanth films. In "Athisaya Piravi" (1990), Yama (Vinu Chakravarthy) has to restore Kaalai (Rajinikanth) to life by putting him in the body of a lookalike. He shows him numerous alternatives, one of which is Pandiyan from "Apoorva Raagangal"; Kaalai refuses after learning that Pandiyan is going to die of blood cancer. In "Petta" (2019), Kaali (Rajinikanth) opens the gates to a house in a scene that director Karthik Subbaraj confirmed was inspired by Pandiyan's first scene in "Apoorva Raagangal".


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: William J. Hochul Jr. (born April 1, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as United States attorney for the Western District of New York from 2010 to 2016. Hochul has been the first gentleman of New York since August 2021, when his wife, Kathy Hochul, ascended to the governorship following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo. He was previously the second gentleman while his wife was lieutenant governor from 2015 to 2021.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: Hochul is currently senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary to Delaware North, a Buffalo-based casino and hospitality company.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: William J. Hochul Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York in 1959. His grandparents were all Jewish immigrants from Poland. He graduated from Cheektowaga Central High School in Cheektowaga, New York, just outside Buffalo. Hochul earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1984. Hochul won the Law School's Moot Court competition. He also earned the Top Oralist award at the National Constitutional Moot Court Competition held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1982.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: Hochul served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of New York from 1991 to 2010. During that time, he served as chief of the Anti-Terrorism Unit from 2002 to 2007 and as chief of the National Security Division from 2007 to 2010.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: William J. Hochul Jr. was one of the 18 members of the Buffalo Joint Terrorism Task Force awarded the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the highest award of the Department of Justice, for "their exemplary performance in the dismantlement of the Lackawanna, New York terrorist cell" which resulted in the 2003 convictions of six Yemeni-American for providing material support to Al-Qaeda. Over his career, Hochul became one of the most highly-decorated federal prosecutors in the history of the Department of Justice, receiving over four dozen honors and awards for his work. Hochul is also generally recognized as the first prosecutor to use the nation's racketeering laws to dismantle violent street gangs.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: In 2006, William J. Hochul Jr. unsuccessfully applied to a counterterrorism position in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. A 2008 report by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General revealed that Hochul's appointment was one of several appointments that were inappropriately blocked by G.W. Bush's Department of Justice official Monica Goodling due to political considerations. The report found that Hochul was passed over in favor of "a much less experienced, but politically acceptable, attorney". Hochul, who has variously registered to vote as both an independent and Democrat, is married to Kathleen C. Hochul, a longtime, politically-active Democrat. The report concluded that Goodling found Hochul objectionable "because of his and his wife's political affiliation" and instead appointed a registered Republican who lacked counterterrorism experience and did not have the requisite five years of experience as a federal prosecutor.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: On December 23, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Hochul to serve as the United States attorney for the Western District of New York. He was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on March 10, 2010. According to the "Am-Pol Eagle", Hochul is the first Polish-American to serve as a federal prosecutor for Western New York State.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: In 2016, Hochul became senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary to Delaware North, a hospitality and gambling company. Hochul speaks frequently on topics related to corporate culture, compliance, and governance issues. While at the Department of Justice, Hochul lectured frequently, domestically and abroad, on corruption and other criminal law and justice matters.


title: William J. Hochul Jr.

text: Hochul is married to former Congresswoman and current New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who previously served as the county clerk of Erie County, New York from 2007 to 2011. They have two children.


title: Swing (dance)

text: Swing dance is a group of social dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origins of each dance predating the popular "swing era". Hundreds of styles of swing dancing were developed; those that have survived beyond that era include Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Charleston. Today, the best-known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, which originated in Harlem in the early 1930s. While the majority of swing dances began in African American communities as vernacular African American dances, some influenced swing-era dances, like Balboa, developed outside of these communities.


title: Swing (dance)

text: "Swing dance" was not commonly used to identify a group of dances until the latter half of the 20th century. Historically, the term "Swing" referred to the style of jazz music, which inspired the evolution of the dance. Jitterbug is any form of swing dance, though it is often used as a synonym for the six-count derivative of Lindy Hop called "East Coast Swing". It was also common to use the word to identify a kind of dancer (i.e., a "swing dancer"). A "jitterbug" might prefer to dance Lindy Hop, Shag, or any of the other swing dances. The term was famously associated with swing era band leader Cab Calloway because, as he put it, "[The dancers] look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor due to their fast, often bouncy movements."


title: Swing (dance)

text: The term "swing dancing" is often extended to include other dances that do not have certain characteristics of traditional swing dances: West Coast Swing, Carolina Shag, East Coast Swing, Hand Dancing, Jive, Rock and Roll, Modern Jive, and other dances developed during the 1940s and later. A strong tradition of social and competitive boogie woogie and Rock 'n' Roll in Europe add these dances to their local swing dance cultures.


title: Swing (dance)

text: Swing dancing was most popular in the 1930s and 1940s, but it still continues today. Dance moves have evolved with the music. Swing dancing styles are the foundation of many other dance styles including disco, country line dancing, and hip hop. Swing dancing clubs and contests are still held around the world.


title: Swing (dance)

text: The levels are Newcomer, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and All-Star. There is no official system in the United States to ensure that couples dance at the appropriate level of experience. The World Swing Dance Council holds a Registry of all points attained at different levels of competition.


title: Swing (dance)

text: Swing dancing falls under the American Rhythm category. There are several different categories at competitions depending on what type of dance you do.


title: Swing (dance)

text: Most competition dance floors can only hold about 12 couples dancing at a time. If the number of participants is larger than what the floor can hold, the competition will hold qualifying rounds. Once they get to 24 couples there will then be the quarterfinal round (2 separate rounds of about 12 each), then the semifinal (1 round of about 12), and finally the final round (1 round, usually 6 or 7 couples).


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: Limelight is a 1952 American comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, based on a novella by Chaplin titled "Footlights". The score was composed by Chaplin and arranged by Ray Rasch.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: The film stars Chaplin as a washed-up comedian who saves a suicidal dancer, played by Claire Bloom, from killing herself, and both try to get through life; additional roles are provided by Nigel Bruce, Sydney Earl Chaplin, Wheeler Dryden, and Norman Lloyd, with an appearance from Buster Keaton. In dance scenes, Bloom is doubled by Melissa Hayden.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: Upon the film's release, critics' reception was divided; it was heavily boycotted in the United States because of Chaplin's alleged communist sympathies, and failed commercially. However, the film was re-released in the United States in 1972, which included its first screening in Los Angeles. This allowed the decades-old film to be in contention for the 45th Academy Awards where Chaplin won his only competitive Oscar. Today, the film is sometimes regarded as one of Chaplin's best and most personal works, and has attained a cult following.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: The movie is set in London in 1914, on the eve of World War I, and the year Chaplin made his first film. Calvero (Charlie Chaplin), once a famous stage clown, but now a washed-up drunk, saves a young dancer, Thereza "Terry" Ambrose (Claire Bloom), from a suicide attempt. Nursing her back to health, Calvero helps Terry regain her self-esteem and resume her dancing career. In doing so, he regains his own self-confidence, but an attempt to make a comeback is met with failure. Terry says she wants to marry Calvero despite their age difference; however, she has befriended Neville (Sydney Earl Chaplin), a young composer who Calvero believes would be better suited to her. In order to give them a chance, Calvero leaves home and becomes a street entertainer. Terry, now starring in her own show, eventually finds Calvero and persuades him to return to the stage for a benefit concert. Reunited with an old partner (Buster Keaton), Calvero gives a triumphant comeback performance. He suffers a heart attack during a routine, however, and dies in the wings while watching Terry, the second act on the bill, dance on stage.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: Although the film is set in London, it was entirely filmed in the Hollywood area, mostly at the Chaplin Studios. The street where Calvero lives was a redressed set at Paramount Studios, the music hall scenes were filmed at RKO-Pathé studios, and some exterior scenes use back-projected footage of London. Filming took 55 days. Chaplin prominently featured members of his family in the film, including five of his children and his half-brother Wheeler Dryden. Chaplin chose stage actress Claire Bloom for the role of Terry, her first major film role. Chaplin told his older sons he expected "Limelight" to be his last film. By all accounts, he was very happy and energized during production, a fact often attributed to the joy of recreating his early career in the music hall. Chaplin biographers have assumed that his character in the film was based on his father, Charles Chaplin Sr., who had also lost his audience and became an alcoholic, which led to his death in 1901. In both his 1964 autobiography and his 1974 book, "My Life in Pictures", however, Chaplin insists that Calvero is based on the life of stage actor Frank Tinney. "Limelight" was made during a time where Chaplin was starting to lose his audience, too; in many ways, the movie was highly autobiographical.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: The pairing of Chaplin and Buster Keaton in the final musical number is historic for being the only time the two performed together on film. Chaplin, at first, had not written the part for Keaton, because he believed that the role was too small. It was not until he learned that Keaton was going through hard times that Chaplin insisted Keaton be cast in the film: Before "Limelight", Keaton had gone through a disastrous marriage, lost most of his fortune in the divorce process, and had appeared infrequently in films in the preceding years. A rumor has persisted, fueled by the intense rivalry among fans of the two comics, that Keaton gave such a superior performance that Chaplin jealously cut his scenes so he would not be upstaged by his rival. A close associate of Chaplin claimed that Chaplin not only did not feel threatened by Keaton's performance, but also heavily edited his own footage of the duet while enhancing Keaton's. According to Keaton's biographer Rudi Blesh, Chaplin eased his notoriously rigid directorial style to give Keaton free rein to invent his own comic business during this sequence. Keaton's widow Eleanor said that he was thrilled with his appearance in the film, and believed that his business partner, Raymond Rohauer, started and fueled the rumors. Chaplin's son, Sydney, who also appeared in the film, said that even if some of Keaton's best scenes were cut, which he did not believe, the storyline would not logically allow a supporting actor to suddenly appear and upstage the climactic comeback of Chaplin's character.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: While filming was underway, Chaplin's friend and former publicist Harry Crocker invited a large number of reporters to the set to watch the actors work.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: The film opened October 23, 1952 at the Astor Theatre and at the Trans-Lux 60th Street theatre in New York City and was shown for three months to good business.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: Contemporary reviews found much to admire in the film, but commonly faulted it as excessively long and verbose. Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" called it "a brilliant weaving of comic and tragic strands, eloquent, tearful and beguiling with supreme virtuosity," though he conceded, "One tangible weakness of the film is the garrulous discussion of human foibles and paradoxes that Mr. Chaplin permits himself." Gene Arneel of "Variety" wrote, "As the focal character on the screen, Chaplin is, at times, magnificent. He has departed from the baggy-pants but still manages to work in some sock pantomime stuff. However, the role he gave himself calls for too much talk, and some of this grows tedious." "Harrison's Reports" called it "an excellent human drama ... Chaplin does an outstanding job in every department, thus proving his genius. The one criticism that may be made is its excessive length; in some of the scenes Chaplin indulges in too much talk, preaching and moralizing in what impresses one as an attempt to get over his personal philosophy on life in general." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" declared, "Mr. Chaplin's gentle picture, over-long and under-disciplined it may be, restates the timeless lesson of human companionship that is the theme of philosophers and preachers. For all its shortcomings, 'Limelight' is a creative, distinguished film." John McCarten of "The New Yorker" wrote, "Regrettably, Mr. Chaplin isn't as quick as Shakespeare in getting the point across. There are, however, rewarding flashes of the sort of comedy and pathos that distinguished Mr. Chaplin's work in the past, and his portrait of an eminent performer who has fallen out of public favor carries a sad conviction." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" of Britain wrote that the film "is not perfect; it is perhaps ten minutes too long; there are moments when sentiment slips over into sentimentality. The weaknesses are slight and insignificant. The qualities of "Limelight" — the affection, the humour, the almost overpowering sadness in the portrayal of Calvero — are unerringly those of the screen's greatest humanist."


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: While touring Britain to promote the film, Chaplin learned that he had been refused a re-entry visa to the United States because of his alleged communist sympathies, and many American theaters refused to play "Limelight". Outside of cinemas in several East Coast cities, the film was not seen by the American moviegoing public. It was not until 1972 that the film was finally seen in wide American release. "Limelight" currently holds an excellent 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was massively popular in Japan. It was enormously successful in Europe and around the world. However, in the U.S. it was a relative disappointment, only taking in $1 million.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: "Limelight" enjoyed a cumulative worldwide gross of $8 million. Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance notes that the film's reputation has slowly grown over the decades. Vance maintains ""Limelight" is Chaplin's last great film, and it plays like a self-conscious summing up of his life and career. As a journey back to his beginnings and an often rapier-sharp self-critique, "Limelight" is Chaplin's most deeply personal and introspective film."


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: The instrumental theme to the film, composed by Chaplin and titled "The Terry Theme", became a popular and often-covered song as "Eternally", with lyrics by Geoff Parsons and John Turner. In 1973, over 20 years after the film's first release, Chaplin and his musical collaborators Raymond Rasch and Larry Russell were awarded an Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score. In the case of Larry Russell, JazzWax journalist Marc Myers has written that this was a case of mistaken identity and Russell Garcia was the actual composer who should have been awarded the 1972 Oscar. Larry Russell's family denies the report. Regardless, it was the only competitive Academy Award that Chaplin ever received (he had previously received two Honorary Oscars).


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: In 2000, "Limelight" was released in the United States on DVD from Image Entertainment, which later went out of print. In 2003, it was released on a special edition two-disc DVD set from Warner Home Video, which also later went out of print. The Criterion Collection released the film on both Blu-ray and DVD in the United States on May 19, 2015. A four-minute scene, featuring Stapleton Kent as an armless violin player, had been cut for the film's worldwide release, but was included in the set as a bonus feature. This scene was also included as an extra on the Image DVD release. The only home video release that contains the full-length uncut American theatrical premiere version with the deleted scene intact is the 1993 laserdisc release on the CBS/Fox Video label, which was prepared by film restorationist David Shepard.


title: Limelight (1952 film)

text: The sixtieth anniversary of "Limelight" was celebrated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a reception, panel, and film screening at their Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, on October 3, 2012. Cast members Claire Bloom and Norman Lloyd shared their recollections in a conversation moderated by Chaplin biographer and archivist Jeffrey Vance.


title: The Devil Next Door

text: The Devil Next Door is a documentary series about John Demjanjuk, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out while serving as a guard at Nazi extermination camps during World War II, who spent years living in Cleveland. The show premiered on Netflix in 2019.


title: The Devil Next Door

text: The documentary shows the legal battles of Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker in Cleveland accused of being a German-Nazi prison camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." Arrested, denaturalized as an American citizen and extradited to Israel in 1986, Demjanjuk was tried as a war criminal in a highly-publicized trial. Several survivors questioned at trial identified Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible. He was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to death, but his conviction was overturned by reasonable doubt, based in part on documents released after the Cold War that identified a different guard as Ivan the Terrible.


title: The Devil Next Door

text: Although there was not enough evidence to identify Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible, he was identified as a Nazi guard at the Sobibor extermination camp and several other camps. He was deported from the United States to Germany in 2009 and was charged with over 27,900 counts of accessory to murder. He was again found guilty in May 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison. Demjanjuk died in prison while his case was on appeal and so the German legal system will no longer seek a determination on his guilt or innocence.


title: The Devil Next Door

text: The documentary interviews several figures from the trial, including Demjanjuk's attorney and family members and Israeli and American prosecutors, journalists, and academics. It contains extensive footage from his first trial, including testimony from Holocaust survivors and historical footage from concentration camps.


title: The Devil Next Door

text: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the documentary for including a modern-day map of Poland, with the location of Nazi death camps marked on it. Morawiecki considered that implied that Poland was responsible for the death camps, instead of Nazi Germany. The map was shown as part of a segment from a 1985 television report that first detailed the allegations against Demjanjuk. The map was shown "repeatedly in various versions of the series", with no explanation that the camps were run by Germans.


title: The Devil Next Door

text: Morawiecki sent a letter to Netflix about the map, which was from a British press report in 1985. In response, in November 2019, Netflix agreed to "provide more information" onscreen to clearly show the camps were operated by the Germans. Netflix was thanked by Morawiecki. "Vanity Fair" on November 15, 2019 noted that it was "unclear" when the tweaks would be made by Netflix.


title: Lake Van

text: Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake, receiving water from many small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. It is one of the world's few endorheic lakes (a lake having no outlet) of size greater than and has 38% of the country's surface water (including rivers). A volcanic eruption blocked its original outlet in prehistoric times. It is situated at above sea level. Despite the high altitude and winter highs below , high salinity usually prevents it from freezing; the shallow northern section can freeze, but rarely.


title: Lake Van

text: Lake Van is across at its widest point. It averages deep. Its greatest known depth is . The surface lies above sea level and the shore length is . It covers and contains (has volume of) .


title: Lake Van

text: The western portion of the lake is deepest, with a large basin deeper than lying northeast of Tatvan and south of Ahlat. The eastern arms of the lake are shallower. The Van-Ahtamar portion shelves gradually, with a maximum depth of about on its northwest side where it joins the rest of the lake. The Erciş arm is much shallower, mostly less than , with a maximum depth of about .


title: Lake Van

text: The lake water is strongly alkaline (pH 9.7–9.8) and rich in sodium carbonate and other salts. Some is extracted in salt evaporation ponds alongside, used in or as detergents.


title: Lake Van

text: Lake Van is primarily a tectonic lake, formed more than 600,000 years ago by the gradual subsidence of a large block of the earth's crust due to movement on several major faults that run through this portion of Eastern Anatolia. The lake's southern margin demarcates: a metamorphic rock zone of the Bitlis Massif and volcanic strata of the Neogene and Quaternary periods. The deep, western portion of the lake is an antidome basin in a tectonic depression. This was formed by normal and strike-slip faulting and thrusting.


title: Lake Van

text: The lake's proximity to the Karlıova Triple Junction has led to molten fluids of the Earth's mantle accumulating in the strata beneath, still driving gradual change. Dominating the lake's northern shore is the stratovolcano Mount Süphan. The broad crater of a second, dormant volcano, Mount Nemrut, is close to the western tip of the lake. There is hydrothermal activity throughout the region.


title: Lake Van

text: For much of its history, until the Pleistocene, Lake Van has had an outlet towards the southwest. However, the level of this threshold has varied over time, as the lake has been blocked by successive lava flows from Nemrut volcano westward towards the Muş Plain. This threshold has then been lowered at times by erosion.


title: Lake Van

text: Land terraces (remnant dry, upper banks from previous shorelines) above the present shore have long been recognized. On a visit in 1898, geologist Felix Oswald noted three raised beaches at 15, 50 and 100 feet (5, 15 and 30 meters) above the lake then, as well as recently drowned trees. Research in the past century has identified many similar terraces, and the lake's level has fluctuated significantly during that time.


title: Lake Van

text: The water level has vacillated greatly. Investigation by a team including Degens in the early 1980s determined that the highest lake levels ( above the current height) had been during the last ice age, about 18,000 years ago. Approximately 9,500 years ago there was a dramatic drop to more than below the present level. This was followed by an equally-dramatic rise around 6,500 years ago.


title: Lake Van

text: As a deep lake with no outlet, Lake Van has accumulated great amounts of sediment washed in from surrounding plains and valleys, and occasionally deposited as ash from eruptions of nearby volcanoes.


title: Lake Van

text: This layer of sediment is estimated to be up to thick in places, and has attracted climatologists and vulcanologists interested in drilling cores to examine the layered sediments.


title: Lake Van

text: In 1989 and 1990, an international team of geologists led by Stephan Kempe from the University of Hamburg retrieved ten sediment cores from depths up to . Although these cores only penetrated the first few meters of sediment, they provided sufficient varves to give proxy climate data for up to 14,570 years BP.


title: Lake Van

text: A team of scientists headed by palaeontologist Professor Thomas Litt at the University of Bonn has applied for funding from the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) for an akin deeper-drilling project. This expects to find it "stores the climate history of the last 800,000 years—an incomparable treasure house of data which we want to tap for at least the last 500,000 years." A test drilling in 2004 detected evidence of 15 volcanic eruptions in the past 20,000 years.


title: Lake Van

text: Similar but smaller fluctuations have been seen recently. The level of the lake rose by at least during the 1990s, drowning much agricultural land, and (after a brief period of stability and then retreat) seems to be rising again. The level rose approximately in the 10 years immediately prior to 2004.


title: Lake Van

text: It is in the highest and largest region of Turkey, which has a Mediterranean-influenced humid continental climate. Average temperatures in July are between 22 and 25 °C, and in January between −3 °C to −12 °C. On some cold winter nights the temperature has reached −30 °C.


title: Lake Van

text: The lake, particularly on urban townscape shore tempers the climate, in the city of Van, where the average temperature in July is 22.5 °C, and in January −3.5 °C. The average annual rainfall in the basin, ranges from 400 to 700 mm.


title: Lake Van

text: Prior to 2018, the only fish known to live in the brackish water of Lake Van was "Chalcalburnus tarichi" or Pearl Mullet (), a Cyprinid fish related to chub and dace, which is caught during the spring floods. In May and June, these fish migrate from the lake to less alkaline water, spawning either near the mouths of the rivers feeding the lake or in the rivers themselves. After spawning season it returns to the lake. In 2018, a new species of fish, which is deemed as "Oxynoemacheilus ercisianus", has been discovered inside a microbialite.


title: Lake Van

text: 103 species of phytoplankton have been recorded in the lake including cyanobacteria, flagellates, diatoms, green algae, and brown algae. 36 species of zooplankton have also been recorded including Rotatoria, Cladocera, and Copepoda in the lake.


title: Lake Van

text: In 1991, researchers reported the discovery of tall microbialites in the lake. These are solid towers on the lake bed formed by coccoid cyanobacteria ("Pleurocapsa" group) these create mats of aragonite that combine with calcite precipitating out of the lake water.


title: Lake Van

text: The region hosts the rare Van cat breed of cat, having – among other things – an unusual fascination with water. The lake is mainly surrounded by fruit orchards and grain fields, interspersed by some non-agricultural trees.


title: Lake Van

text: According to legend, the lake hosts the mysterious Lake Van Monster that lurks below the surface, 30 to 40 ft long with brown scaly skin, an elongated reptilian head and flippers. Apart from some amateur photographs and videos, there is no physical evidence to prove its existence. The profile resembles an extinct mosasaurus or basilosaurus.


title: Lake Van

text: Tushpa, the capital of Urartu, near the shores, on the site of what became medieval Van's castle, west of present-day Van city. The ruins of the medieval city of Van are still visible below the southern slopes of the rock on which Van Castle stands.


title: Lake Van

text: In 2017, archaeologists from Van Yüzüncü Yil University and a team of independent divers who were exploring Lake Van reported the discovery of a large underwater fortress spanning roughly one kilometer. The team estimates that this fortress was constructed during the Urartian period, based on their visual assessments. The archaeologists believe that the fortress, along with other parts of the ancient city that surrounded it at the time, had slowly become submerged over the millennia by the gradually rising lake.


title: Lake Van

text: The lake was the centre of the Armenian kingdom of Ararat from about 1000 BC, afterwards of the Satrapy of Armenia, Kingdom of Greater Armenia, and the Armenian Kingdom of Vaspurakan.


title: Lake Van

text: Along with Lake Sevan in today's Armenia and Lake Urmia in today's Iran, Van was one of the three great lakes of the Armenian Kingdom, referred to as "the seas of Armenia" (in ancient Assyrian sources: "tâmtu ša mât Nairi" (Upper Sea of Nairi), the Lower Sea being Lake Urmia). Over time, the lake was known by various Armenian names, including .


title: Lake Van

text: By the 11th century the lake was on the border between the East Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, and the Turko-Persian Seljuk Empire, with its capital at Isfahan. In the uneasy peace between the two empires, local Armenian-Byzantine landowners employed Turcoman gazis and Byzantine akritai for protection. The Greek-speaking Byzantines called the lake "Thospitis limne" ().


title: Lake Van

text: In the second half of the 11th century Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes launched a campaign to re-conquer Armenia and head off growing Seljuk control. Diogenes and his large army crossed the Euphrates and confronted a much smaller Seljuk force led by Alp Arslan at the Battle of Manzikert, north of Lake Van on 26 August 1071. Despite their greater numbers, the cumbersome Byzantine force was defeated by the more mobile Turkish horsemen and Diogenes was captured.


title: Lake Van

text: Alp Arslan divided the conquered eastern portions of the Byzantine empire among his Turcoman generals, with each ruled as a hereditary beylik, under overall sovereignty of the Seljuq Empire. Alp Arslan gave the region around Lake Van to his commander Sökmen el-Kutbî, who set up his capital at Ahlat on the western side of the lake. The dynasty of Shah-Armens, also known as "Sökmenler", ruled this area from 1085 to 1192.


title: Lake Van

text: Following the disintegration of the Seljuq-ruled Sultanate of Rum, Lake Van and its surroundings were conquered by the Ilkhanate Mongols, and later switched hands between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran until Sultan Selim I took control for good.


title: Lake Van

text: Reports of the Lake Van Monster surfaced in the late 1800s and gained popularity. A news article was published by "Saadet Gazetesi" issue number 1323, dated 28 Shaban 1306 Hijri year, corresponding to 29 April 1889 during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.


title: Lake Van

text: Near the Van Fortress and the southern shore, on Akdamar Island lies the 10th century Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Aghtamar (, Surb Khach), which served as a royal church to the kingdom of Vaspurakan. The ruins of Armenian monasteries also exist on the other three islands of Lake Van: Lim, Arter, and Ktuts. The area around Lake Van was also the home to a large number Armenian monasteries, among the most prominent of these being the 10th century Narekavank and the 11th century Varagavank, the former now destroyed.


title: Lake Van

text: The Ahlatshahs left a large number of historic headstones in and around the town of Ahlat. Local administrators are currently trying to have the tombstones included in UNESCO's World Heritage List, where they are currently listed tentatively.


title: Lake Van

text: The railway connecting Turkey and Iran was built in the 1970s, sponsored by CENTO. It uses a train ferry (ferry for decanted passengers) across between the cities Tatvan and Van, rather than building tracks around rugged terrain. This limits passenger capacity. In May 2008 talks started between Turkey and Iran to replace the ferry with a double-track electrified railway.


title: Lake Van

text: In December 2015 the new generation of train ferries operated by the Turkish State Railways, the largest of their kind in Turkey, entered service in Lake Van.


title: Lake Van

text: Ferit Melen Airport abuts Van. Turkish Airlines, AnadoluJet, Pegasus Airlines, and SunExpress are the airlines which have regular flights.


title: Lake Van

text: Lake Van occasionally hosts several water sports, sailing, and inshore powerboat racing events, such as the UIM World Offshore 225 Championship's IOC Van Grand Prix, and the Van Lake Festival.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: On August 31, 2020, Ronald Merle McNutt, a 33-year-old American man, fatally shot himself under the chin during a Facebook livestream, which went viral on social media platforms. The case became notable for both the callous attitude expressed towards McNutt's death by some internet users, as well as Facebook's slow response to the video, which had been shared to numerous other platforms and amassed a large view count before finally being taken down. Video platform TikTok was also slow to respond to the video, which had appeared in many user feeds and constant re-uploads, leading to many users choosing to boycott the platform. The case has raised awareness about both suicide prevention and what duty of care social media platforms owe to protect users and victim reputations online when it comes to graphic content.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: Ronald Merle McNutt (May 23, 1987 – August 31, 2020) was a resident of Mississippi in the United States, and had served in the military in Iraq. McNutt worked at a Toyota plant in New Albany, and had lived a seemingly stable life; however, he was known to have suffered from a variety of mental health problems, such as depression as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the latter of which was a direct consequence of his time served in the Iraq War. In addition to this, he was also dealing with a recent break-up with his girlfriend; some media reports also said that he lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, though "Rolling Stone" disputed this. McNutt was a Christian who regularly attended church.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: On August 31, 2020, McNutt began a livestream on the social media website Facebook. His best friend, Joshua Steen, encountered the stream. He did not initially find it unusual, as McNutt had routinely done livestreams in the past, but he became alarmed when he realized that McNutt was intoxicated and holding a single-shot rifle. Steen allegedly attempted to intervene numerous times, particularly when McNutt misfired the rifle, hoping that Facebook would cut off the stream and end the video feed, preventing people from seeing into McNutt's home while Steen sought police intervention. Facebook refused to cut the stream, claiming that the stream was not in any violation of its platform's guidelines. As the stream went on, McNutt's mobile phone rang frequently. The last call he received was from his ex-girlfriend to which he answered, leading to a brief argument between the two. Immediately after McNutt would hang the phone up on her, he exclaimed "Hey guys, I guess that's it." before proceeding to fatally shoot himself under the chin, prompting his friend's pet dog to wander into the room. The stream was captured by multiple attending parties. The New Albany Police Department was called to the scene during the livestream, but did not enter McNutt's apartment until after he had died. Police Chief Chris Robertson had secured the perimeter, evacuating nearby residents and attempting to communicate with McNutt via speakerphone, to no avail.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: A final message by Ronnie McNutt was later discovered on Facebook, declaring, "Someone in your life needs to hear that they matter. That they are loved. That they have a future. Be the one to tell them".


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: Two days after his suicide, McNutt was buried in Snowdown Church of Christ Cemetery in Prentiss County, Mississippi.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: The video of McNutt's suicide was uploaded by users across social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, often as a short video clip set to pop up in the feeds of unsuspecting users. McNutt had not expressed any intent for the viral spread to occur. Variants of the video appeared in TikTok's "FYP" ('For You'-Page), so that users would scroll upon it without warning as the suicide automatically played, with the apparent intention of frightening or upsetting viewers as a form of trolling. The #ronniemcnutt hashtag had 15.6 million views on TikTok within the first few days after the suicide. Though the platforms worked to remove the videos, new uploads of it would appear from separate accounts, while links to the video also began to appear in Reddit's true crime communities. As TikTok caught onto the video with its algorithms, uploaders evaded detection by placing the video after pictures of unrelated, innocuous content.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: The incident was compared to the filmed suicides of anchorwoman Christine Chubbuck and politician Budd Dwyer. A large margin of the response online was one of sympathy towards McNutt, with users using the case as an opportunity to discuss mental health and suicide prevention, as well as concern over the video's prevalence online. Some TikTok users announced boycotts of the platform until the suicide video was completely taken down, while other users began posting prayers and messages of respect and commemoration for McNutt in the comments sections of the video uploads.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: Many parents reported that their children were highly distressed after encountering the video, with one girl becoming physically ill and needing to sleep with the lights on. Another parent argued that she fears her children, who accidentally discovered the video on TikTok, may have post-traumatic stress disorder. "Institute of Mums" circulated further warnings for parents about seemingly benign video content hiding the McNutt video, stating, "Alarmingly, there are also reports of the video being sandwiched in the middle of cute and funny cat videos, which begin with viewer-friendly footage before quickly changing to the disturbing suicide." Then Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the video something that "no child should be exposed to", while cybersecurity expert Susan McLean publicly recommended that parents prevent minor children from accessing the TikTok app until the video was fully removed.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: The case sparked a debate over what legal liability is owed by internet platforms that fail to promptly remove graphic and disturbing footage from public view, with the blame generally being placed on Facebook for failing to cut off the livestream during the initial suicide attempt itself. Josh Steen had called Facebook multiple times, and had called the police, neither of which stopped the stream before McNutt had already committed suicide. Steen declared, "if some woman posts a topless photo, their software will detect "that", remove it, and ban their account. That's apparently more offensive than my friend killing himself." It was argued by the two platforms that the "dark web" was responsible for the ongoing circulation of the video.


title: Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

text: TikTok released a public statement saying, "Our systems have been automatically detecting and flagging these clips for violating our policies against content that displays, praises, glorifies, or promotes suicide. We appreciate our community members who've reported content and warned others against watching, engaging or sharing such videos on any platform, out of respect for the person and their family." Facebook, likewise, publicly stated, "We removed the original video from Facebook last month, on the day it was streamed, and have used automation technology to remove copies and uploads since that time. Our thoughts remain with Ronnie's family and friends during this difficult time."


title: Red Tornado

text: Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dick Dillin, the sentient android Red Tornado first appeared in "Justice League of America" #64 (August 1968). The Red Tornado name had previously been used for comical superheroine Ma Hunkel, who was introduced in "All-American Comics" in 1939 as a supporting character in "Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist". She started using the Red Tornado name in 1940.


title: Red Tornado

text: The 1968 Red Tornado was a sentient android able to generate tornado-speed winds enabling it to fly and perform other wind-related feats. Originally a member of the Justice Society of America, it moved to another dimension and joined the Justice League of America. The Red Tornado's body was characteristically damaged or destroyed. It was retconned in 1981, briefly programmed with Ma Hunkel's memory (rather than being sentient) until an older alien supervillain (the Tornado Champion) inhabits the android body. In a 1984 retcon, the Tornado Champion never inhabited the android body. Instead, elemental air occupied the android. A 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe, The New 52, eliminated the Red Tornado from DC Comics (although other characters have hinted at its existence).


title: Red Tornado

text: The Red Tornado was formed with the merger of two entities: an android body created by supervillain T. O. Morrow and the Tornado Champion from the Earth-One planet Rann. The Tornado Champion was the morally good part of a sentient tornado on Rann. Known as Ulthoon, the Tornado Tyrant of Rann, this being was defeated by Adam Strange and "contemplated the nature of good and evil and decided that good was the superior force". Ulthoon is aware of Strange's adventure with the Justice League of America (JLA), and in a 1963 story decides to move to an uninhabited replica of Earth. Ulthoon takes on the form of the Justice League. Its evil side, later known as the Tornado Tyrant, emerges and defeats Ulthoon-Justice League. Determined to understand its failure, the Tornado Champion goes to Earth (where the Tornado Tyrant emerges again and defeats the real Justice League). In a second attack, the Justice League banishes the Tornado Tyrant to an "anti-matter universe" and (they believe) is destroyed. The Tornado Champion ends his experiment with a duplicate Earth and JLA, and decides to continue being a hero. This story is retconned in "Justice League of America" #193, where the Tornado Champion tells JLA member Firestorm that it alone traveled to Earth in 1963 to "recreate" its failed battle against the Tornado Tyrant. After learning how to defeat its evil half it returned to the replica Earth, defeated its evil half and banished it "forever".


title: Red Tornado

text: The next step in the Red Tornado's evolution came in summer 1968, although the story was not published until 1981. The Tornado Champion, seeking an Earth where no one recognizes it, goes to the alternate dimension known in the DC Comics universe as Earth-Two. It encounters T.O. Morrow, a supervillain from Earth-One who is creating an android to use against the Justice Society of America. Morrow, attempting to dupe the JSA, gives the android Ma Hunkel's memory. The Tornado Champion enters the android's body, causing a short circuit in Morrow's computer which erases its memory.


title: Red Tornado

text: In 1968, Red Tornado appears at JSA headquarters on Earth-Two claiming to be the "original" Red Tornado. Although the JSA is suspicious, Red Tornado has all of Hunkel's memories. Morrow has other robots attack a museum and vaporize relics, and the JSA responds. Red Tornado, programmed to appear inept (and keep the JSA from realizing its true nature), exposes the JSA to the dust created by the vaporization and all except Doctor Fate fall into a coma. It then returns to Morrow's lair as programmed. Morrow's computer predicts that keeping Red Tornado active will allow Morrow to continue his criminal activity. Doctor Fate awakens the remaining JSA members from their coma, and Red Tornado betrays his fellow JSA members by telling them to use Morrow's energy weapons. The devices, rigged to explode, put the JSA and Red Tornado into a coma and Morrow returns to Earth-One to attack the Justice League. He puts the JLA into comas twice: once with energy duplicates and a second time with energy duplicates of their deadliest enemies. Red Tornado (who was not incapacitated by the energy backfire on Earth-Two) travels to Earth-One and revives the JLA members, who capture Morrow. It returns to Earth-Two and revives the JSA, which admits Red Tornado to full membership in gratitude.


title: Red Tornado

text: With no Justice Society comic book published at the time, Red Tornado's appearances were limited to JSA-JLA collaborations. These were popular, and DC Comics usually published one a year. Red Tornado appeared again in 1969, traveling alone to Earth-One with a warning. The JLA ignores him as they battle a gang and try to save Hawkman, who has been turned into a pillar of salt. As the JLA battles the demons responsible, Red Tornado (investigating where they came from) unleashes a gas which restores Hawkman. It then delivers its message: Aquarius, a "living star", has wiped out the Earth-Two universe. Two weeks earlier, Doctor Fate protected the JSA and Black Canary's husband (police detective Larry Lance) in a magic bubble. The JLA rush into the Earth-Two universe and finding themselves in Doctor Fate's bubble. Aquarius forces the mind-controlled JSA to do battle against the JLA, but his hold over them is broken when Larry Lance sacrifices himself to save Black Canary. The JLA tricks Aquarius into entering an antimatter universe, where he is destroyed.