After five years of going nowhere, Richard and Karen Carpenter wanted to sign with a record label, but were constantly rejected. Joe Osborn, a bass player, had recording studio and let Richard and Karen record demo tapes. They sent in those demo tapes to a man named Herb Alpert. Herb Alpert appreciated Richard and Karen's music, and agreed to sign the two to his record label, A&M Records.
In April of 1969, Richard and Karen Carpenter signed to A&M Records as "Carpenters." They released their first album that year as well. It was called "Offering." It did not have any popular songs on there, except for a song called "Ticket to Ride." When they released it as a single, the public's reaction was somewhat less than great. Too many people were accustomed to the Beatles' version.
The next year, Herb Alpert recommended a song called "(They Long to Be) Close to You." After being given the music, Richard Carpenter worked on arranging it to invent their own sound. This song was their first major hit. It went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Later that year, the Carpenters recorded another song, called "We've Only Just Begun." It was originally for a commercial for a bank called "Crocker Bank", but Richard saw potential in it. He again began working on the arrangement and the song was released. Ultimately, "We've Only Just Begun" released it as a single, went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Throughout their career, Karen and Richard continued to be successful and release great singles. All of them placed in the top 20 until 1977. In 1977, both singles released only peaked at #32 and #35. Their last top 20 released in 1981 "Touch Me When We're Dancing" peaked at #16. This was seen as a successful "come back" for the Carpenters however Karen would pass away just two years later.
Karen also recorded her first and only solo album entitled "Karen Carpenter" in 1979-1980 while her brother Richard took time off to recover from an addiction to prescription sleeping pills. The album was not released during Karen's lifetime and would remain the A&M vaults until 1996 when Richard Carpenter finally felt the time was right to release it. Karen dedicated her solo to her brother "Dedicated to my brother Richard... With all my heart..." Karen's fans have had a mixed reaction to her solo album but the majority believe the album was strong enough to be released at the time that it was recorded and would have had few strong hits for the singer. However Karen choose to shelve the album after it was negatively received by the powers that be at A&M Records and her brother.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. It is a physiological disorder that is characterized by undereating, due to an inaccurate body image. Victims of this disorder are typically perfectionists that have trouble showing their emotions. Karen Carpenter's eating disorder started in 1967, when the group "Spectrum" was still playing. Because she was moderately overweight, her doctor advised her to lose weight. Her doctor then suggested a diet called the "Stillman Diet." She drank 8 cups of water everyday and avoided high calorie foods. Karen lost about 25 pounds from the Stillman Diet. After she became successful, she decided that she needed to lose more weight. In 1975, she lost so much weight that she became ill. At one time, she was only 80 pounds and 5'4" tall (five feet, four inches). A woman her height should be between 124 and 138 pounds. Becoming aware of her illness, she decided to gain weight. In 1982, she was the healthiest she'd been, but her heart failed. It's been proven that she had been abusing laxatives and thyroid pills. She may have also abused syrup of ipecac to induce vomiting, but that has not been proven. On February 4, 1983, Karen Carpenter died at the age of 32 from heart failure.
With the Carpenters, Karen Carpenter had a lot of records. Here is a list of them. The "italicized" words are the names of the records, and the things in the (parentheses) are the years that the records were released.
Luke the Evangelist
Luke the Evangelist is said to be the man who wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Irenaeus, Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome say that he was a friend of Saint Paul and a doctor, and that he accompanied Paul on some of his travels. These people also say that he was of Greek origin, from Antioch in Syria.
Modern-day scholars think that the person that wrote the two books was not the same that accompanied Paul. Paul had a theology that was special, and slightly different from that of other writers of the New Testament. The two books written by Luke never refer to this theology. Also, the name of Paul's companion is never linked to writing the two books. The Acts of the Apostles often tell things about Paul which Paul does not tell himself in his letters.
Luke wrote about the Three Wise Men who visited Jesus in the Bible. Luke never said there were 3 wise men, only wise men from the east.
Walid Eido
Walid Eido (in Arabic: وليد عيدو) (Beirut, 1942 - Beirut, June 13, 2007) was a Lebanese man who worked for the Lebanese Parliament, a government building in Beirut. He died with his son on June 13, 2007, with eight other people, when a bomb blew up just outside a famous amusement park. This was at the waterside of north Beirut.
Walid Eido was Sunni Muslim. He was born in the Bachoura area of Beirut. He finished his studies at the Lebanese University in 1966. In the late 1990s, he worked for the Lebanese law of north Lebanon, but, in the year 2000, he quit to go into political life with Mr. Rafic Hariri and to be in the Lebanese parliament. Later on, he worked for the Lebanese Parliament. He used to belong to Al-Murabitun militant group at the time of the Lebanese civil war, he left the Murabitun when this group starts to expand and take bad members in.
Eido was married with three sons named Khaled, Zaher and Mazen. Eido was a good swimmer and the bomb exploded outside his favorite Beirut beach resort, Sporting Club.
Toyama Prefecture
The area of Toyama Prefecture comes from Etchū Province.
The Itai-itai disease, whose origin is from polluted water with cadmium, occurred in Toyama around 1950.
Toyama Prefecture is bordered by Ishikawa Prefecture to the west, Niigata Prefecture to the northeast, Nagano Prefecture to the southeast, Gifu Prefecture to the south and the Sea of Japan to the north.
The most famous mountain in Toyama is Mount Tate.
Toyama is known for its great mountains and rich fishery. , and mass product of tulip industry are also famous.
Toyama is an industrial prefecture because companies like YKK and Sankyo Aluminum have been able to take advantage of cheap hydro-electricity generated by rivers flowing from its high mountains.
National Parks are established in about 30% of the total land area of the prefecture, including
"Takase taisha", "Keta jinja", and "Oyama jinja" are the chief Shinto shrines ("ichinomiya") in the prefecture.
Fouad Siniora
Fouad Siniora (in Arabic: فؤاد السنيورة, Fu'ād As-Sanyūrah) was the Prime Minister of Lebanon. He served as Prime Minister since July 19, 2005, after Najib Mikati left office. His term ended on November 9, 2009. He was succeed by Saad Hariri. He was also acting President from November 2007 to May 2008.
Fouad Siniora is a Sunni Muslim, who was born in Sidon in 1943. He finished his studies at the American University of Beirut. Then, he worked for Citibank, and in the 1970s, he became a teacher at the American University of Beirut. Later, he worked for the Central Bank. In 1982, he started to work for the late Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. He became part of Hariri's business. Siniora was Minister of Finance in Lebanon after the civil war ended.
Hassan Nasrallah