The Jayhawks are an American alternative country and rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have released several studio albums. The band formed in 1985. They did not work together between 2005 and 2009, but reunited in 2010.
The band formed with Mark Olson (acoustic guitar and vocals), Gary Louris (electric guitar and vocals), Marc Perlman (bass) and Norm Rogers (drums).
Their first album "The Jayhawks" was released in 1986. Their music at the time, mostly written by Olson, showed a strong roots/country-rock influence. It was released on the Bunkhouse Label, a small independent label.
"Blue Earth", the second album, was released in 1989 on the Twin Tone label. Gary Louris shared more of the songwriting together with Olson for this album. After touring the U.S. in support of "Blue Earth", Spencer left the band. He was replaced by Ken Callahan in 1988 who stayed with the band until 1993.
In 1991, Dave Ayers, the president of Twin Tone, was on a phone call with A&R representative George Drakoulias from Def American while "Blue Earth" played in the background. Drakoulias asked about the music, and eventually met with and signed the band to the label later that year.
In 1992 album "Hollywood Town Hall" was the first to be released on the major label Def American. The album was produced by Drakoulias. The album was a hit, powered by the single "Waiting for the Sun", and it brought the Jayhawks more fans. With Karen Grotberg on the keyboards and vocals, the band toured a lot.
In 1995 they went into the studio to make "Tomorrow the Green Grass". It was released on the renamed American Recordings label. Lead track "Blue" turned out to be a Top 40 hit in Canada (peaking at #33). The record's production had been very expensive and the album did not to sell as was expected in the U.S. Among the album's songs is "Miss Williams' Guitar," a love song for Olson's then-girlfriend, singer-songwriter Victoria Williams (the pair later married, but divorced in February, 2006). Drummer, singer and songwriter Tim O'Reagan joined the band for the 1995 tour.
By the end of 1995, Olson unexpectedly left the band to spend more time with Williams (with whom he would later form the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers). The band continued to record as The Jayhawks, adding Kraig Johnson on guitar.
The album "Sound of Lies" was released in 1997. It has Gary Louris composing most of the songs. The album mixed straight rock (the ironic "Big Star"), psychedelic elements, acoustic elements and even some dub elements. The album did not sound like the band's country-influenced earlier work.
The 2000 album "Smile" was produced by Bob Ezrin. It had more of a pop music feel, which some fans did not like. Though still a member through the recording of the album, Grotberg left the band before the "Smile" tour, and was replaced by Jen Gunderman. The song "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" appeared in a Ralph Lauren commercial.
"Rainy Day Music" (2003) was stripped down and more acoustic. It was generally seen as a return to their alt-country roots. The band now consisted of founding members Louris and Perlman, along with drummer O'Reagan, and touring band member ex-Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy, from Richmond, VA. McCarthy added pedal steel, lap steel, banjo, guitar and backing vocals to the album and subsequent live shows. This lineup toured in 2003 and early 2004.
After not playing together for a number of years, the Jayhawks reunited in 2010 and released Mockingbird Time in 2011. The album sees both Mark Olson and Karen Grotberg playing with the band again. Gary Louris also produced the album.
In addition to their studio albums, the Jayhawks released "Live From the Women's Club", an all-acoustic live recording of Louris/Perlman/O'Reagan from 2002. It was sold only at concerts as an "Official Jayhawks Bootleg."
Olson and Louris toured together in the winter of 2005 and spring of 2006, billed as "From the Jayhawks: An Evening with Mark Olson & Gary Louris, Together Again." Both old and new Jayhawks members progressed to solo efforts and side projects, and the band as a whole was generally considered to be broken up, and not expected to produce new material soon. However, the band members appear to keep in touch, tour together in their other projects, and have been known to "reunite" on occasion.
In September, 2008, the 1995 lineup of Louris, Olson, O'Reagan, Grotberg and Perlman reunited for the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
In January, 2009, Olson and Louris released an acoustic album titled "Ready for the Flood".
Mayan pyramid
The Maya pyramids are structures built in the jungles of Central America by the Maya civilization between 200 and 900 AD. Unlike the straight sides of the more commonly known Egyptian pyramids, the sides of Maya pyramids are stepped–sometimes for the purpose of enabling people to ascend to the top. Moreover, Egyptian pyramids have sharper tips, while Mesoamerican (including Maya) pyramids tend to have flatter tops. These flatter tops accommodate certain ceremonies, such as sacrificial rituals, and temples for gods.
The pyramids served a variety of very important functions. Apart from the religious ceremonies, Maya pyramids were used as landmarks to aid in navigation. In the jungle where these pyramids were built, the pyramids were so tall that they could be seen above the trees. Finally, inside some of the pyramids, there were burial chambers for the highest-ranking officials, just as in Egyptian pyramids.
A whole complex of Maya pyramids can be found at the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Tikal. The pyramids at Tikal were the tallest structures in all of the Americas for around 1,000 years, until 1903, when the Flatiron building was constructed in New York City. There are a total of sixteen pyramids at Tikal, which is now a national park in Guatemala.
Tikal was one of the largest urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Its population may have reached 90,000 people, which is surprising because the swampland at Tikal was unstable for habitation or agriculture. It is located in the tropical rainforests which today is northern Guatemala. The name Tikal comes from "ti ak'al" which means "water hole".
The pyramids at Tikal all face one another. The rooms at the top of the pyramids have depressions in the walls which amplify sound and project it in all directions. Because of this, the normal speaking voice of a person at the top of one pyramid can be heard by someone standing at the top of another pyramid a great distance away.
Edward Tatum
Edward Lawrie Tatum (December 14, 1909 – November 5, 1975) was an American geneticist.
He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 with George Beadle for showing that genes control individual steps in metabolism. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg.
Beadle and Tatum's experiments exposed the bread mold "Neurospora crassa" to x-rays, causing mutations. They showed the mutations caused changes in specific enzymes involved in metabolic pathways. These experiments, published in 1941, led them to propose a direct link between genes and enzymatic reactions, known as the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis.
Tatum went on to study genetics in bacteria. Tatum and his student Lederberg showed that "Escherichia coli" could share genetic information through recombination.
Ed Tatum was born in Boulder, Colorado. He attended college at the University of Chicago and received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1934. Starting in 1937, he worked at Stanford University, where he began his collaboration with Beadle. He then moved to Yale University in 1945 where he mentored Lederberg. He returned to Stanford in 1948 and then joined the faculty of Rockefeller Institute in 1957. A heavy cigarette smoker, he died in New York City of heart failure complicated by chronic emphysema.
François Jacob