Elisabeth Vreede (16 July 1879, in The Hague – 31 August 1943, in Ascona) was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer and anthroposophist.

Early life and education

Elisabeth Vreede was born in The Hague in 1879. She was her parents' second child. Her father was a lawyer and her mother devoted her time to charitable work. She was a sensitive person and later on played an important part in the Anthroposophical life in the Netherlands.

Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, read the works of Camille Flammarion and learned French at the same time. She first went to school at the age of seven. She completed her years in primary and higher schools and afterwards took private studies for two years, so as to gain qualifications for university entrance.

At the University of Leyden she studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy (especially Hegel) and Sanskrit. She was also actively involved in student life, founding a boatclub, and was a council member of the students' union.

Her first meeting with Rudolf Steiner took place at the Theosophical Congress in London in 1903. Her parents were theosophists and she, too, was a member of the Theosophical Society. At the congress Rudolf Steiner straightaway made a great impression on her. A year later she heard Steiner's lecture on 'Mathematics and Occultism' given at the Congress of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society at Amsterdam in 1904. The next European Congress was in 1906 when Steiner held a cycle of 18 lectures there.

Teaching and anthroposophy
After receiving her diploma in 1906, she gave instruction in mathematics at a higher girls school until 1910. From 1910, she lived in Berlin, working on her dissertation and occasionally working as a secretary for Rudolf Steiner. In April 1914 she moved to Dornach to help in the work for the first Goetheanum, where she would often be found carving the wood required for the building.

M. P. van Deventer who would become Vreede's biographer first met her in the summer of 1915. She was living with her parents in a small house in Neu-Reinach. From an  elevated position there was a beautiful view over the building and over the chain of the Canton of Jura, with the Gempen.

During the War years 1916/17 Elisabeth Vreede broke off from her residence in Dornach to work in Berlin as a coworker of Elisabeth Rotten, caring for prisoners of war.

After the War, Rudolf Steiner developed his idea of the threefold social order. Vreede had an intense interest in this initiative and work and she was the first to bring this idea to England. Around 1918 she began to construct the library and archive at the Goetheanum, using her own means to purchase the expensive lecture transcripts as soon as they were typed from the stenogram. Occasionally friends contributed to her efforts to build an archive.

In 1920 Vreede moved to Arlesheim where she had built a small house of her own. It was the second dwelling-house for which Rudolf Steiner himself had given the model in 1919. There, in Arlesheim, Ita Wegman founded the first anthroposophical medical clinic in 1921.

In December 1923 Vreede was appointed as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. She belonged to the board of directors (Vorstand) of the General Anthroposophical Society from December 1923 to 1935. In 1924 she attended the Agriculture Course of Rudolf Steiner at Koberwitz which laid the foundations for the development of biodynamic agriculture. Between September 1927 and August 1930, in her capacity as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section, she wrote a monthly letter, then available by subscription, about both modern astronomy and classical astrology in the light of spiritual science. The letters included explanations of the fundamentals of astronomy and discussions of astrology in the modern world, with reference to such topics as nutation, precession of the equinoxes, comets, solar eclipses and lunar eclipses and the meaning of the Christian holidays such as Easter and Whitsun. The Letters in English translation were published in 2007 with the title Astronomy and Spiritual Science.

On 9 and 11 July 1930 she held two lectures in Stuttgart with the title The Bodhisattva Question in the History of the Anthroposophical Society, published in English translation in 1993.

Later life
When the separation within the Anthroposophical Society took place in 1935 Vreede was expelled from the Vorstand and her Section passed into other hands. This resulted after internal discussions in the Anthroposophical Society. On her exclusion from the Vorstand along with Ita Wegman, Vreede was cut off from the observatory and archives that she herself helped assemble.

The last years of her life became more lonely. She was cut off from her friends abroad by the War. The death of Ita Wegman at the beginning of March, 1943, was a great shock for her. At the internal commemoration in the clinic she spoke words at her eulogy. It was the first time she faced her former colleagues on the Vorstand.

On the anniversary of Rudolf Steiner's death (30 March) she spoke to the circle of friends and co-workers in Ita Wegman's clinic at Arlesheim. They wanted to commemorate not just Rudolf Steiner but also the many who had been leading Anthroposophists but who to most were no longer known. She spoke in a devoted way of Edith Maryon, and with a fine characterization of her being about Alice Sauerwein. She portrayed Count Keyserlingk and Louis Werbeck. Finally she told about Caroline von Heydebrand and Eugen Kolisko.

At the beginning of May she spoke once more on the 400th anniversary of the death of Copernicus. At the lecture it was noticed that only by exceptional exertion could she keep herself upright. A few days later, on 6 May, she had to take her bed. She, who had never before been ill nor depended on people, was treated at home thanks to the devoted care of Frl. Schunemann.

It was a case of septic disease. Phases of high fever with shivering fits repeatedly recurred. Nourishment could not be taken and complications supervened, like cardiac insuffiency and blood-poisoning. For her treatment Dr. Kaelin and Dr. Martin stood beside her biographer, M. P. van Deventer, with advice and help. The septicaemia spread rapidly. After a  slight improvement she went finally to Ascona, where the Casa Andrea Cristoforo clinic had been founded by Ita Wegman, and died there on 31 August 1943.
.

References

External links
Brief Profile of Elisabeth Vreede at Steinerbooks
Biographical details
Dr. Elisabeth Vreede (1879-1943) biography

1879 births
1943 deaths
Scientists from The Hague
Anthroposophists
20th-century Dutch mathematicians
Women mathematicians
Mathematics educators


Daniel Siboni (born June 2, 1959) is a French photographer. He is known for his artistic accomplishments in interior architecture, fashion photography, street art,<ref>Staff – "Street of the Art: Photographer Daniel Siboni Examines the Idiosyncrasies of Urban Life" (Bigger Than Life magazine, Issue 02). His work in fashion photography has included numerous covers for ‘’Elle Magazine throughout 2004, 2005 and 2006, ‘’Dior advertisements, Chanel, Levis, ‘’Vogue as well as ad campaigns for designers such as Christian Audigier, Elite Model’s Fashion, 7 for All Mankind, Marisa K, Faust (Summer 2004), Monahmour, Seven7 jeans, Lee Cooper, Cointreau, Le Printemps, Collette Dinigan, Christian Lacroix, Keita Maruyama and many more.
</ref> and street photography.

Siboni’s fine art photography has been shown in venues such as the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Art Basel Miami show "In Fashion ‘07" and the "Year of Fashion" – so designated by the Photography Institute of New York for 2009.

Biography

Early life and education

Daniel Siboni was born in Rabat, Morocco and raised in Place de la Victoire, Bordeaux, France.

At age 15, Daniel Siboni participated in a young photography competition in Paris sponsored by "La Ville de Paris". In addition to winning professional photography equipment, his winning photo "City of Paris" was published in different Parisian magazines. At age 24, he entered the "Ecole des Beaux Arts" in Paris to study interior architecture and photography.

Career

During his studies, he was recruited to work for a private architectural firm to develop interior design concepts for some of Paris’ most famous restaurants and private homes such as "Drugstore Opera," "Le Grand Echiquier," "Le Chevalier de temple," "Station de nuit," "Le Vouvray," "Les Rois Fainéants"

After ten years working at a private architectural firm, Da Neil Siboni decided to launch his own concept restaurant bar, Zinc Bar, in the 11th arrondissement district of Paris.

Three months after opening, he was approached by the publisher of Lola Mag, a famous Parisian fashion magazine, to feature one of his photos "New York City." In 1982 at age 34, he became the director of photography for Lola Mag'' with responsibility for overseeing the production, coordination and shooting of all magazine covers and fashion spreads.

Two years later, Daniel Siboni opened his own photography studio/gallery "Studio 101" in "Place de la Victoire" in Paris.

In addition to running his gallery, he expanded his international business by launching Eden Productions in Majorca, Spain.

From 2003 to 2012, in went to live in Los Angeles as fashion photographer for ELITE and VOGUE, he also opened two Street Art Galleries: the "Melrose Art Gallery" and the "Studio on 3rd" . He created the GLAMHOUSE concept of ecologic design houses. (https://glamhouse.la).

In 2013, he opened a Gallery in Tel Aviv in Israel (Urban Secret Gallery) and the "Daniel Siboni Factory" in 2017 and was the Art Director of the museum of Tel Aviv exhibition "80th Batman birthday". (https://m.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-votes-Batman-Can-the-worlds-greatest-detective-form-a-govt-611861)

In 2018, the DAN GROUP entrusted to Daniel Siboni the conception and artistic direction of a Street Art hotel's line., the first of which has the link hotel and hub, a gallery on 8 floors in Tel Aviv.

References

danielsiboni.com

1959 births
French photographers
Fashion photographers
Living people
French people of Moroccan-Jewish descent
Portrait photographers


Men's single skating was contested during the figure skating events at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

This individual event was structured in a similar manner to the pairs event, with a short program and a free skating. 30 skaters entered the short program, but only the top 24 competitors continued to the free skating.

The 2002 Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin from Russia did not defend his title because he announced retirement in 2003. On the other hand, reigning World Champion Stéphane Lambiel from Switzerland did compete.

The clear favorite before the competition was three-time world champion Evgeni Plushenko, who withdrew from the 2005 World Championships due to injury. Reigning world champion Stéphane Lambiel was considered Plushenko's main competition for the gold. Other notable competitors coming into the event included Canadians Jeffrey Buttle (the reigning world silver medalist) and Emanuel Sandhu, France's Brian Joubert, Japan's Daisuke Takahashi, and the strong American team of Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek (reigning world bronze medalist), and Matt Savoie.

Short program
The men's short program took place on February 14. Plushenko took the early lead after the short program. He set a new personal best (also the world record) score with a massive 90.66 points, over 10 points ahead of Weir, who finished in second with 80.00 points. Lambiel doubled his planned triple Axel but still ended up in third place with a score of 79.04 points, less than a point behind Weir. Joubert was fourth in the short program with 77.77 points, followed by Takahashi and Buttle with 73.77 and 73.29 points respectively. Buttle and fellow Canadian Sandhu, who ranked seventh, both had trouble with their jumps, but their high program component scores kept them in contention for medals. Savoie had a solid skate to finish eighth, while teammate Lysacek fell on his triple Axel and doubled his triple flip to finish a disappointing tenth in this phase of the competition.

Free skating
In the free skating, completed on February 16, Plushenko set another world record by garnering 167.67 points for his free skating. He started his program off with quad-triple-double and had only one flaw, doubling his triple flip. He finished with the highest technical and program component scores of the night.

Despite struggling with his jumps in his free skating (completing no triple Axels), Lambiel's opening quad combination and exquisite spins kept him in second overall, though he finished only fourth in the free skating. Buttle's free skating, although marred by a fall on his quad attempt, had the second highest program components scores which helped to finish him second in the free skating and third overall. Joubert had a crowd-pleasing free skating but made several jump errors and finished a disappointing seventh in the free skating, sixth overall.

The Americans got off to a strong start in the free skating led by Lysacek. He skated his best free of the year and landed two triple Axels, getting 152.28 points. This was the third best free of the night and a huge improvement from his short, moving him up to fourth overall. Weir omitted his planned quad toe loop and only had one jump combination, which left him short on technical content and in sixth place in the free skating. Overall, he finished right behind Lysacek in fifth. Savoie had a solid skate, though he doubled his two final planned triples to finish fifth in the free and seventh overall.

Takahashi skated fairly strongly in his free but was penalized in the marking for repeating too many jumps and underrotating others. He finished ninth in the free and eighth overall. Belgium's Kevin van der Perren made huge leaps in the free with 132.03 points and moving up from thirteenth in the short to ninth overall. Sandhu, on the other hand, fell apart in his free skating, falling twice and popping a couple of jumps. His high program component scores couldn't keep him in the top ten. He finished thirteenth overall.

Results

Short program

Free skating

Final standings

Referee:
 Rita Zonnekeyn

Technical Controller:
 Fabio Bianchetti

Technical Specialist:
 Katerina Kamberska

Assistant Technical Specialist:
 Viktor Petrenko

Judges:
 Kenji Amako
 Hermann Schulz
 Mona Jonsson
 Patrick Ibens
 Alexander Penchev
 Raffaella Locatelli
 Jiang Yibing
 Nicolae Bellu
 Alexei Shirshov
 Philippe Meriguet
 Steve Winkler
 William Thompson

References

External links

 Men's Protocol
 https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/20060218_SKATEMENS_GRAPHIC/index.html

Men
2006 in figure skating
Men's events at the 2006 Winter Olympics


Michael Mak Kwok-fung () (born 23 August 1955 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong politician. He is an elected representative of the Wan Chai District. He was the founding deputy chairman of the League of Social Democrats, and was elected to the Advisory Council of the party in 2010. He is a registered mental nurse, was elected into the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 2000 to 2004 through the health services functional constituency. He worked with Castle Peak Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital, and retired from the post of Department Operations Manager at Kwai Chung Hospital in September 2015.

In 2008, Mak was denied entry to Macau to attend a meeting on nursing when the Olympic torch relay was being held in there.

References

External links
Blog of Michael Mak

1955 births
Living people
Hong Kong nurses
District councillors of Wan Chai District
League of Social Democrats politicians
HK LegCo Members 2000–2004


Ice dance was contested during the figure skating events at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

This competition began with a compulsory dance, the Ravensburg Waltz, on February 17, in which all couples performed the same dance. The original dance, in which skaters performed to a designated set of rhythms (Latin combination), was held two days later, and the 4-minute free dance concluded the competition on February 20. 24 couples entered the competition, and all of them continued through to the free dance. Coming into the competition, Russians Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomarov, the reigning world champions, were the clear favorites. Tanith Belbin / Benjamin Agosto, who won silver medals at the last World Championships, aimed to win the first Olympic medals in ice dance for USA since 1976. Teams from Ukraine, France, Canada, Israel, Lithuania, Italy, and Bulgaria were also vying for a medal.

Compulsory dance
There were a few surprises during the Compulsory Dance, which saw reigning world champions (undefeated this season) Navka / Kostomarov finishing second to the Italian team of Barbara Fusar-Poli / Maurizio Margaglio. The Italians, who were bronze medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, decided to make a comeback at these Olympic Games and had not competed at any international events since the last Games. They edged the Russians in the technical score and tied them in program components. Bulgaria's Albena Denkova / Maxim Staviski were another surprise finishing in third after the CD, followed by Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil / Patrice Lauzon. Reigning world bronze medalists, Ukrainians Elena Grushina / Ruslan Goncharov, finished in fifth. The biggest surprise was the sixth-place finish of Belbin / Agosto, who were originally seen as the main pair who could really challenge the Russian domination of Navka / Kostomarov. The French team of Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Schoenfelder follow, while another team making a comeback, Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko / Povilas Vanagas, who finished third at the 2006 European Championships, sit in eighth. The Israeli team of Galit Chait / Sergei Sakhnovski found themselves in thirteenth after a fall during a step sequence. The Italian leaders and sixth placed Tanith Belbin / Ben Agosto were separated by just over a point, so the Americans could easily make up that difference.

Original dance
In the second portion of the dance competition, mistakes prevailed. Navka / Kostomarov did not seem to be affected by this and gave a solid performance to finish first in this portion and overall. Belbin / Agosto gave a crowd-pleasing performance which was placed second by the judges, putting them just over 1 point behind the Russians overall.

CD leaders Fusar-Poli / Margaglio had a very disappointing skate with Margaglio losing his balance causing both to fall. They finished tenth in the OD, keeping them well out of contention for a gold medal with Navka / Kostomarov almost 10 points ahead of them. At the end of the performance, Fusar-Poli gave her partner a withering glare and broke down in tears in the "kiss and cry" area just offstage. They were seventh overall heading into the free dance.

Grushina / Goncharov were good enough to finish third in the OD and overall, while Delobel / Schoenfelder were right behind. Despite troubles on their combination spin, Denkova / Staviski were able to land in the top five. Chait / Sakhnovski finished sixth in the OD and ninth overall, followed by Dubreuil / Lauzon who received a 2-point deduction for a painful fall that required Lauzon to carry his partner off the ice. Drobiazko / Vanagas also received deductions for a fall and for holding a lift for too long.

Free dance
Dubreuil / Lauzon announced they would withdraw from the free dance portion of the competition after Dubreuil's nasty fall on a rotational lift in the original dance, leaving them out of medal contention. Dubreuil had fallen on her right hip during the original dance, leaving her too badly injured to compete effectively.

Navka / Kostomarov were clearly in a class above their competition. Skating their passionate dance to Carmen, the Russian favorites received the highest technical and program components scores. Finishing behind them in the free dance and fourth overall were Delobel / Schoenfelder, with strong elements as well. Bronze medalists Grushina / Goncharov finished third in the free dance with a clean, yet slow skate. Belbin / Agosto captured the audience's attention with a powerful and exciting skate as they danced to flamenco music, but made tiny mistakes in their final twizzles and step sequence. This put them in fourth for the free dance but second overall. Their silver medal is the first for the Americans in 30 years. Fifth in the free and overall, Denkova / Staviski had strong technical content, but lost two points because of extending one of their lifts. Drobiazko / Vanagas finished sixth in the free, followed by Chait / Sakhnovski, skating to the classic dance music Bolero. Fusar-Poli / Margaglio finished eighth in the free with a solid program, but the most memorable moment of their skate was at the end, when Fusar-Poli fell to her knees in tears, forgiving her partner for the fall in the OD.

Results

Compulsory dance

Original dance

Free dance

Final standings

 WD = Withdrawn

Referee:
 Janet Colton

Technical Controller:
 Olga Gilardini

Technical Specialist:
 Andrzej Dostatni

Assistant Technical Specialist:
 Marie Bowness

Judges (CD):
 Alla Shekhovtseva
 John Greenwood
 Rolf Pipoh
 Walter Zuccaro
 Evgenia Karnolska
 Katalin Alpern
 Mayumi Kato
 Linda Leaver
 Odette Coulson
 Christine Hurth
 Anastassia Makarova
 Akos Pethes

Judges (OD):
 Evgenia Karnolska
 Walter Zuccaro
 Rolf Pipoh
 Alla Shekhovtseva
 John Greenwood
 Christine Hurth
 Linda Leaver
 Odette Coulson
 Akos Pethes
 Mayumi Kato
 Anastassia Makarova
 Katalin Alpern

Judges (FD):
 Alla Shekhovtseva
 John Greenwood
 Katalin Alpern
 Evgenia Karnolska
 Walter Zuccaro
 Odette Coulson
 Akos Pethes
 Mayumi Kato
 Linda Leaver
 Rolf Pipoh
 Christine Hurth
 Anastassia Makarova

References

External links

 Dance Protocol

Ice dance
2006 in figure skating
2006
Mixed events at the 2006 Winter Olympics


Bionic is the sixth studio album by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was released on June 4, 2010, by RCA Records. Inspired by Aguilera's taste for electronic music, Bionic is characterized as an electropop, futurepop and R&B record. The first half consists of electronic songs incorporating synthesizers and electronic beats, while the second half displays a balladic production. The album's main themes include sex and feminism.

Bionic received mixed reviews from music critics upon its debut. The record opened at a peak of number three on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 110,000 copies, selling 500,000 album-equivalents as of June 2018. Internationally, the album peaked inside the top ten in most countries, including a number-one debut on the UK Albums Chart. At the time of its release, Bionic was the lowest-selling UK Albums Chart number-one album of the last eight years.

The album spawned a number of singles: "Not Myself Tonight" was released in April 2010, and "You Lost Me" was released in June; "Woohoo" was released in the United States and some European countries, while "I Hate Boys" was released exclusively in Oceania. Bionic was promoted in mid-2010 by television performances, such as Aguilera's appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the ninth season of American Idol, Today and MTV Movie Awards. A concert tour, titled The Bionic Tour, was initially planned to support the album, but was ultimately canceled due to Aguilera's heavy promotional schedule for the album and then-upcoming film Burlesque (2010).

Background and development

After a successful 2006, during which Aguilera released her critically acclaimed and commercially successful fifth studio album Back to Basics, Aguilera received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards (2007) and won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for its lead single "Ain't No Other Man". While on the Asian leg of the Back to Basics Tour, during the summer of 2007, Aguilera said that her upcoming album would be "short, sweet and completely different" from its predecessor. After the birth of her son Max, Aguilera stated in an interview with Ryan Seacrest that her forthcoming album would include a completely new aspect of herself as an artist, because of the pregnancy with her son. In a February 2008 interview with People, Aguilera stated that she was going to start recording new material for her forthcoming album at her Beverly Hills, California residence. DJ Premier, who, at the time, was working on projects for his record label Year Round Records, shared plans to head back into the studio with Aguilera, and stated: "She's doing an all pop album again, but she wants me to keep the tone like what we did before. She's ready to start next month." Linda Perry, who had previously worked with Aguilera was to be included in the project too. In an interview with Billboard in October 2008, Aguilera said that the album would be mostly produced by Perry.

During the initial recording sessions, Aguilera released her first greatest hits album Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits (2008), which featured two new songs that were derived from electronic music, and she announced that the compilation was in the vein of where the upcoming album was going to go, which was a very futuristic approach to music. "I get off on working with creative energy", Aguilera said, and added: "That's when I'm most at home and feel happiest. And all these people brought about new sides of me. It was a big collaboration-fest, and it felt so good and rewarding in the end, because I was just so happy with the work and the new territories that I ventured out to." Aguilera also remarked that her son inspired her to experiment in ways "that maybe I've been afraid to do in the past, to allow myself to go to a place of 'less singing'", adding: "[It] is just about the future – my son in my life, motivating me to want to play and have fun."

Recording and production

Aguilera set about contacting collaborators on her own accord, at the behest of then-husband Jordan Bratman, without relying on the record label A&R. She stated: "Going into [each of these partnerships], I said, 'I'm a really big fan of yours, and I'm interested in stepping into your world and what you do'", adding: "'I want to combine that with my sound, and let's see what happens.' I feel like I can do so much with my voice. I would be so bored sitting on a stool singing ballad after ballad just because I can." Australian singer-songwriter Sia and her collaborator Samuel Dixon worked with Aguilera on a number of tracks for the album. Aguilera told Billboard that she was a big fan of Furler and stated that she was thrilled when Furler said that she wanted to work with her as well. They recorded together at a studio in January 2009, and, according to Furler's blog, wrote four songs together during the sessions. Members of British electronic band Ladytron, Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu, went to Los Angeles to meet Aguilera in December 2008 after hearing that they were one of her favorite bands. During the meeting, Aguilera identified what kind of Ladytron songs she liked, with Hunt later saying: "We were impressed because she had a real deep knowledge of our music – album tracks, not just the singles!". The band stated: "We went in with no expectations; the whole thing was a massive surprise. But it was incredible. She was so musically talented, a vocalist who really knows her voice. The first takes sounded really amazing, and while we'd made demos, it was only when her voice was on them that it all came to life." They finished working with Aguilera in March 2009 and produced four or five songs, but only three made the final cut. Two songs produced by the band – "Birds of Prey" and "Little Dreamer" – appeared on the deluxe edition of the album. Meanwhile, the third song "Kimono Girl" did not make the final cut, although it has been highly anticipated by fans. British duo Goldfrapp said in a January 2010 interview that they did not finish the studio sessions and did not know whether their songs would make the final cut.

The Australian said that the production team The Neptunes were to work with Aguilera on the album. In an interview with HitQuarters, Dr. Dre protege Focus... said: "We did a song and an interlude together." He produced the beats for "Sex for Breakfast", which were then worked on by Aguilera and producer Noel "Detail" Fisher. Focus... got involved with the project because he and Aguilera share a loyal and longtime engineer Oscar Ramirez; Ramirez suggested and arranged the pairing. Focus... commented about the experience: "[Aguilera] knows exactly what she is looking for and is not afraid to tell you. It was the first project I've ever worked on where someone sent me examples and showed me exact parts in the song they were looking for." Aguilera announced on her E! television special that she was going to be working with American dance-punk band Le Tigre. In August 2009, Aguilera said that she co-wrote tracks with British Tamil rapper and singer–songwriter M.I.A. and American singer Santigold, and according to American producer Tricky Stewart, Flo Rida would be featured on the album. Producer Polow da Don, who produced two of the four singles released from the project, was the only producer to be suggested by RCA Records and not contacted by Aguilera personally. Additionally, Stewart and Claude Kelly wrote the song "Glam", which was described as "a hard club song that's about high fashion. It's really for the ladies about getting dressed and looking your best, working it in the club and getting glam and sexy before you go out. ... It will surprise people. I'm calling it a modern day "Vogue." I wouldn't say it unless I believed it." Kelly also co-wrote three other tracks for the album, including the first two singles "Not Myself Tonight" and "Woohoo". He described the four tracks as being "up-tempo and fun, they're party anthems but at the same time have underlying messages." Commenting on the experience of working with Aguilera, Kelly said: "What people don't know about her is that she's actually a really good writer. She has good ideas, good melodies, good concepts ... She's really involved from the very beginning to the very end."

Composition

Music and lyrics

Bionic is musically inspired by Aguilera's taste of electronic subgenres, including electronica. The album was mostly described as futurepop, while Andy Gill of The Independent noted the hybrid of electro and R&B on the project, and The New York Timess Alex Hagwood characterized it as an electropop album. Bionic consists of eighteen tracks on the standard edition, and twenty-three on the deluxe edition. The standard edition consists mostly of electropop songs, heavily incorporating synthesizers and electronic beats. Mike Usinger from The Georgia Straight opined that the accompaniment of synthesizers on the project "offers up a rise-of-the-fembots strain of robo-pop that sounds like LCD Soundsystem-era Williamsburg." A few tracks are done up with Auto-Tune. Multiple music critics recognized sex as the main theme of Bionic. Eric Handerson of Slant elaborated that the album "[is] all in service of routine pop sex, the sort of standard-issue sleaze that [...] stood in stark contrast against." Echoing Handerson's point of view, The Georgia Straights Mike Usinger commented: "Where past Xtina efforts have hinted that's she's horny to the core, Bionic makes a concrete case that she's the dirtiest girl working in mainstream pop." Bionic also displays feminism as a prominent theme; Kitty Empire from The Observer labelled Bionic a "cranking post-feminist party album". According to Mike Wass of Idolator some of the explored subjects on the album are sex positivity and female empowerment. In June 2020, Aguilera stated that Bionic is "all about being unabashedly yourself".

Songs
The first seven songs are uptempo and club-inspired. The album's titled and opening track "Bionic" is an electronic track, featuring tribal house drums, Morse code riffs, and synthesizers. "Not Myself Tonight" takes influence from tribal house and incorporates synthesizers, pulsing basslines, and house drums in its instrumentation. On the song, Aguilera explicitly announces her new persona and style adopted on Bionic, declaring that "The old me's gone I feel brand new / And if you don't like it, fuck you." The third track "Woohoo", featuring rapper Nicki Minaj, was detailed as an electro number, and speaks about oral sex, containing lyrics such as: "All the boys think it's cake when they taste my woohoo / You don't even need a plate, just your face." The following track "Elastic Love" draws elements from 1980s new wave, and features "808-esque backbeat" in its foundation. On the song, Aguilera uses office supplies such as rubber bands as a metaphor for her relationship. "Desnudate", which means "get naked" in Spanish, is a bilingual Spanish and English song in which Aguilera calls herself the "supplier of lust, love and fire." Musically, it achieves electro horns. "Love & Glamour (Intro)", which is a fashion-themed spoken interlude, follows, and is succeeded by "Glam", a "throbbing" dance-pop and electro song about high fashion and making up before going out, which was characterized as a hip hop-influenced throwback to Madonna's song "Vogue" (1990). "Prima Donna" is a retro styled combination of classic pop, dance-pop and electronic music. It talks about strong women, with background vocals from Lil Jon, who encourages them to "work yo' body" in the track.

The second half of Bionic explores a more balladic production. It begins with "Morning Dessert (Intro)", a soft soul interlude, which describes sex as a daily routine of Aguilera and her husband. On "Sex for Breakfast", which is an R&B ballad, Aguilera characterized her lover's penis as a "honey drip." The song is, according to musicOMH's Michael Cragg, similar to works by Janet Jackson. Aguilera explores her personal issues, such as motherhood and insecurities on ballads, which The Guardians Alexis Petridis deemed "patented self-help ballads." The next four ballads "Lift Me Up", "All I Need", "I Am", and "You Lost Me" are piano-driven tracks that, in the words of Bent Koepp for Beats per Minute, "have Aguilera showcasing some of her best vocal performances to date." "All I Need" is dedicated to Aguilera's son, while "I Am" expresses Aguilera's self-consciousness, and "You Lost Me" is about an unfaithful man. "I Am" and "You Lost Me" also feature string instruments. Leah Greenblatt, writing for Entertainment Weekly, compared the ballads to Fiona Apple's songs. The standard edition of Bionic concludes with three uptempo tracks, the electropop song "I Hate Boys" which features Aguilera insulting men, the electro-disco song "My Girls" featuring Peaches, on which Aguilera sings about her company enjoying a party, including lyrics such as "My girls, we're stronger than one", and the disco song "Vanity", which was detailed as "an ode to the greatness of Aguilera cloaked in a paean to female empowerment" by Allison Stewart from The Washington Post, depicts Aguilera as a "harmless, mirror-kissing vamp." At the track's end, she questions: "Who owns the throne?", which her son as a toddler replies to: "You do, mommy".

The deluxe edition includes five bonus tracks – four new songs and an acoustic version of "I Am" entitled "I Am (Stripped)". "Monday Morning" is a new wave track, which is accompanied on a funk guitar and handclaps. "Bobblehead" is a hip hop-inspired song that features a "clattering, chanting" beat. It berates women who, encouraged by a sexist culture, want to be valued more for their appearance than for their intellect. "Birds of Prey" is an synthpop-influenced electro song backed by "cool" synthesizers, and Aguilera's vocals are delivered in a whispered manner. "Stronger Than Ever" is a "mournful" ballad. The iTunes Store deluxe edition of Bionic also includes the "electro nursery rhyme" "Little Dreamer". It's a mid-tempo electropop ballad, characterized by "a skittering beat filled with beeps, glitches and trills," according to the Billboard magazine. Aguilera's vocals are a farewell to her titular dreamer.

Title and artwork
The album was originally titled Light & Darkness; however, in February 2010, Aguilera announced that it would be titled Bionic. Bionics cover artwork was designed by D*Face. The album's cover, which was unveiled on March 25, 2010, features half of Aguilera's face and half of a robot, with platinum curled hair locks, bright red lips, and long eyelashes. Ruth Doherty from InStyle called the cover "super-cool" and compared Aguilera's look to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator film series. MTV Newsroom's Kyle Anderson named it "delightfully strange" and opined that the cover artwork features references the cover artwork for Tokio Hotel's third studio album Humanoid (2009) and Madonna's music video for "Bedtime Story" (1994).

Release and promotion
Originally entitled Light & Darkness, the album was set to be released in September 2009. In an interview for the February 2010 issue of Marie Claire, Aguilera announced that the project was entitled Bionic and would be made available in March 2010. However, on March 25 of that year, Aguilera re-confirmed that the album would be released on June 8. In May of that year, the fan edition of the project was made available for pre-order via Sony Music Entertainment. The release included exclusive features, including a 12-inch × 12-inch box, a triple vinyl set, a deluxe edition CD of Bionic, and two exclusive photographs of Aguilera. On June 4, 2010, Bionic was released for CD and digital download in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. In the United States and Canada, the album was released on June 8.

Aguilera made several appearances on television shows in mid-2010 to promote Bionic. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 7 and performed the lead single "Not Myself Tonight". On May 26, Aguilera performed "You Lost Me" at the season finale of the ninth season of American Idol. The following month, Aguilera opened the 2010 MTV Movie Awards on June 6 with a medley of "Bionic", "Not Myself Tonight" and "Woohoo", and appeared on Today on June 8, where she performed "Bionic", "Not Myself Tonight", "You Lost Me", and two previous singles "Beautiful" and "Fighter". Later that month, she performed "You Lost Me" on the Late Show with David Letterman on June 9, and "Not Myself Tonight", "You Lost Me", "Fighter" and a medley of "Genie in a Bottle" and "What a Girl Wants" on The Early Show on June 11. A VH1 Storytellers episode featuring Aguilera's performances aired on June 13.

Aguilera initially planned to further promote the album by embarking on The Bionic Tour. It was announced in early May 2010 that twenty shows had been scheduled in North America, which would run from July 15, 2010, to August 19, 2010. British singer Leona Lewis was said to be a supporting act and the tour would be in conjunction with North American leg of Lewis's tour The Labyrinth (2010). Later that month, Aguilera announced that she would postponed the tour until 2011, however, that never happened. In a message from tour promoter Live Nation, Aguilera stated that due to the excessive promotion of the album and her then upcoming film debut in Burlesque, she felt it was necessary to take more time to rehearse the show and with less than a month between the album release and the tour, it was impossible to create a show as her fans' expectation.

Singles

"Not Myself Tonight" was released as Bionics lead single on April 2, 2010. It debuted and peaked at number twenty-three on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Aguilera's third highest solo debut on the chart after "Keeps Gettin' Better" (2008) and "Ain't No Other Man" (2006). Internationally, the song was a moderate commercial success, peaking at number twelve in the United Kingdom, and within the top forty in Australia, Austria, New Zealand and Sweden. The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its club nature and Aguilera's vocals on the track; some reviewers also referred to it as her best uptempo recording since her single "Dirrty" (2002). The accompanying music video, directed by Hype Williams, featured a S&M theme with Aguilera sporting different bondage-inspired looks. Paying homage to Madonna's music videos for "Express Yourself" (1989) and "Human Nature" (1995), the video received mixed reviews from critics, who complimented its aesthetic but called it unoriginal.

"Woohoo", featuring rapper Nicki Minaj, was released as the second single from Bionic. It was made available exclusively to the iTunes Store on May 18, 2010 before being serviced to rhythmic contemporary radio on May 25, 2010. The song peaked at number one-hundred-and-forty-eight on the UK Singles Chart due to high digital sales, but was never released as a single there. It received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising Minaj's appearance in the song and commending Aguilera's powerful vocals.

"You Lost Me" was released as the album's third single on June 27, 2010. The song was sent to contemporary hit radio on June 29, 2010, in the United States. Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly called "You Lost Me" a "lovely" ballad and Amber James said the song was a "somber track" that brings the "honesty and emotion that have made Aguilera one of the premier balladeers of our time." The music video premiered on Aguilera's official Vevo account on July 22. The music video's director Anthony Mandler also wrote the concept for the video, which features a series of connected vignettes. The song topped the US Dance Club Songs, making it the second single from Bionic to do so, after "Not Myself Tonight".

"I Hate Boys" was released as the fourth single from the album exclusively in Australia and New Zealand. It was sent to Australian radio stations on June 28, 2010, and released digitally on September 3, 2010 in a two-track single format. It was the eighth most-added song to radio stations in Australia from the week ending July 23, 2010. It peaked at number twenty-eight on the Australian Airplay Chart.

Critical reception

Initial response

Bionic received generally mixed reviews from music critics at the time of its release. In a positive review, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine opined that the "robot-diva hybrids are often interesting even when they stumble". Margaret Wappler of the Los Angeles Times said that Aguilera's "hyper-sexed lover bot" persona is the album's "most successful vein". Pete Paphides of The Times gave the album four out of five stars and found it sounding "older and more confident" than her previous work. Kitty Empire, writing in The Observer, found it to be "very strong, but only in parts", and said that its strength "lies in its core limb-shaking sass, even as it confuses girl-on-girl action with sisterhood." Drew Hinshaw of The Village Voice called it "precisely produced club-pop that moves bodies, if not spirits." Alexis Petridis, writing in The Guardian, commented that Bionic is an "occasionally brilliant and brave, occasionally teeth-gritting and stupid album."

It was criticized as an attempt to take advantage of electropop's popularity and imitate the sound and image of Lady Gaga. Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson said that it is as "efficient a pop entertainment" as was Britney Spears' Circus, but felt that its attempt at hedonistic themes "feels synthetic and compulsory." Andy Gill of The Independent said that, apart from its basic R&B balladry, the album imitates Spears' and Janet Jackson's "electro-R&B schtick" to disguise Aguilera's "lack of any original approach." Jon Pareles, writing in The New York Times, remarked that its musical direction "makes her sound as peer-pressured as a pop singer can be." Omar Kholeif of PopMatters said that the album is not good because of "Aguilera's overzealous penchant for excess", while Entertainment Weeklys Leah Greenblatt blamed her "penchant for stock step-class beats and an aggressive, exhausting hypersexuality." The A.V. Clubs Genevieve Koski wrote that the album sounds "muddled" because of its heavy reliance on a cadre of songwriters and producers. Dan Martin of NME said that the occasionally "daring" tracks are marred by ordinary house licks that inhibit Aguilera's singing.

Billboard described the album as the "best mainstream pop album of the year thus far" upon its release. Conversely, Entertainment Weekly later named Bionic the fifth worst album of 2010 in a year-end list.

Retrospective commentary
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of hundred to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 56, based on twenty-one reviews. Sam Lansky wrote for MTV Buzzworthy in July 2012 that the album was "precociously brilliant" and most of its songs were "thrilling", claiming that "the songs on the deluxe edition are forward-thinking and even timeless, galactic pop with subversive, ambient production." Lansky added that "In its own way, Bionic neatly illustrates the dangers artists face when aggressively trying to keep up with 'current' music. As a result, futuristic pop tracks can already sound dated by the time they're released. And even when they don't, those chart-chasing songs don't age particularly gracefully. But two years after the fact, Bionics moments of greatness remain about as good as it gets." In similar vein, Mike Wass of Idolator asserted four months later that "the album holds up better than expected, and is actually an intriguing — if somewhat disjointed and often meandering — collection of songs."

While reviewing Aguilera's eighth studio album Liberation in June 2018, Pitchfork writer Claire Lobenfield retrospectively hailed Bionic as a record with "cutting-edge singles" that was "perhaps too forward-thinking, a risk that could have reaped the rewards of poptimism if the album had only been released a few years later." The following October, Joey Guerra of Houston Chronicle echoed these statements regarding the progressive nature of the album, calling Bionic "a forward-thinking assertion of independence like Madonna's Erotica and Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope."

10 years after the release of Bionic, Glen Rowley of Billboard wrote the record had become "something of a cult favorite LP" over time and noted that since its release there were regular calls for "#JusticeForBionic" — the online campaign — on social media. Daniel Megarry of the Gay Times shared the same sentiment, calling it a "cult" record among the LGBTQ+ community, and believed it "will likely be re-discovered as a forgotten jewel by pop music fans for years to come". Wass opined that "Few albums have as many layers. Xtina blessed us with pitch-perfect bangers, beautiful ballads, quirky experiments and sexy slow jams. There is literally a bop for every mood." He also declared Bionic to be Aguilera's "misunderstood opus" and "a sex-positive, genre-bending triumph".

An album track, "Birds of Prey", was ranked by Billboard as one of the hundred best deep cuts by 21st century pop stars.

Accolades

Commercial performance
Unlike Aguilera's previous studio albums, Bionic had trouble maintaining commercial success in the international markets. On the week ending June 26, 2010, the album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 110,000 copies. However, those first-week sales were comparatively less than those of Aguilera's previous studio album Back to Basics (2006), which peaked at number one with 346,000 copies sold. The following week the album fell to number nine with sales of 36,388 copies. In its third week, Bionic dropped to number twenty-two. Bionic has sold over 1.15 million tracks in the United States. As of August 2019, the album has sold 332,000 copies in the United States.
As of June 2018, the album has moved 500,000 album-equivalent units in the United States, being certified by RIAA as Gold.

The album ranked as the year's seventy-sixth best-selling album in the United States. On the week ending June 26, 2010, Bionic debuted at its peak position, number three, on the Canadian Albums Chart. The following week, it charted at number nine. In the United Kingdom, Bionic debuted atop the UK Albums Chart, becoming Aguilera's second consecutive studio album to debut atop the chart with 24,000 copies sold. It became the lowest-selling UK Albums Chart number-one album in eight years but the record was later broken by Marina and the Diamonds and Newton Faulkner in 2012. However, in the album's second week on the chart, it made the UK Albums Chart history when, on June 20, it registered the largest drop in chart history for a number one album by falling twenty-eight places to number twenty-nine, selling 9,754 copies that week. This was beat by The Vamps in 2017, when their album Night & Day fell thirty-four places from number one to number thirty-five. Bionic has been certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Bionic fared somewhat better in mainland Europe. It debuted atop the European Top 100 Albums, becoming Aguilera's second consecutive studio album to top the chart, staying atop the chart for one week. During the twenty-third week of 2010, the album debuted atop the Greek Top 50 Albums, replacing Soulfly's Omen, and receiving a gold certification from IFPI Greece. Another successful charting territory for Bionic was Switzerland, where the album peaked at number two, staying within the chart's top twenty-five for five consecutive weeks. The album also managed to peak within the top ten in Austria, Belgian region of Flanders, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain and Sweden. On the week ending June 12, Bionic debuted at number twenty-three on the French Albums Chart. As of December 2010, it has sold over 10,000 copies in the country.

The album peaked within the top ten in both Australia and New Zealand. On the week commencing June 14, the album debuted and peaked at number three on the Australian Albums Chart. It remained in the top five in its second week, and descended to number sixteen in its third week. In New Zealand, the album peaked at number six. Bionic was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments exceeding 35,000 copies.

Track listing

Notes
  signifies a vocal producer
"Woohoo" contains a sample from "Add Már, Uram Az Esőt!" performed by Kati Kovács.
"I Hate Boys" contains a sample from "Jungle Juice", written by Bill Wellings and J.J. Hunter, and performed by Elektrik Cokernut.
In China "Woohoo", "Morning Dessert (Intro)" and "Sex for Breakfast" are not included on the track listing.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Bionic

 Christina Aguilera – vocals
 John Salvatore Scaglione - electric guitar
 Leo Abrahams – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
 Brett Banducci – viola
 Felix Bloxsom – percussion, drums
 Denise Briese – contrabass
 Alejandro Carballo – trombone
 Daphne Chen – violin, concert mistress
 Matt Cooker – cello
 Pablo Correa – percussion
 Ester Dean – background vocals
 Samuel Dixon – acoustic guitar, bass, piano, celeste
 Richard Dodd – cello
 Stefanie Fife – cello
 Sam Fischer – violin
 Jimmy Hogarth – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
 Chauncey "Hit-Boy" Hollis – keyboards
 Paul Ill – bass
 Claude Kelly – background vocals
 James King – flute, alto sax, baritone sax, tenor sax, snake
 Anna Kostyuchek – violin
 Oliver Kraus – strings, string arrangements, string engineering
 John Krovoza – cello
 Marisa Kuney – violin
 Victoria Lanier – violin
 Juan Manuel-Leguizamón – percussion
 Ami Levy – violin
 Abe Liebhaber – cello
 Nicki Minaj – vocals (track 3)
 Diego Miralles – cello
 Julio Miranda – guitar
 Karolina Naziemiec – viola
 Neli Nikolaeva – violin
 Cameron Patrick – violin
 Peaches – rap
 Linda Perry – bass, guitar, percussion, piano, keyboards
 Radu Pieptea – violin
 Melissa Reiner – violin
 David Sage – viola
 Kellii Scott – drums
 Arturo Solar – trumpet
 Audrey Solomon – violin
 Jenny Takamatsu – violin
 Tom Tally – viola
 Jason Torreano – contrabass
 Jessica van Velzen – viola
 Amy Wickman – violin
 Rodney Wirtz – viola
 Richard Worn – contrabass
 Alwyn Wright – violin
 Deantoni Parks – drums ("Monday Morning")
 Thomas Aiezza – assistant engineer
 Brian "Fluff" Allison – assistant engineer
 Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli – conductor
 Matt Benefield – assistant engineer, assistant
 Richard Brown – assistant engineer
 Dan Carey – mixing
 Andrew Chavez – Pro-Tools
 Cameron Craig – engineering
 Ester Dean – production
 Detail – vocal production
 Samuel Dixon – programming, production, engineering
 D Face – artwork
 Sia Furler – vocal production
 Brian Gardner – mastering
 Terry Glenny – violin
 Larry Goldings – piano
 Eric Gorfain – string arrangements
 Josh Gudwin – engineering
 Kuk Harrell – engineering
 John Hill – production, engineering, instrumentation
 Jimmy Hogarth – engineering
 Jaycen Joshua – mixing
 Josh Mosser – engineering
 Claude Kelly – vocal production
 Alex Leader – engineering, assistant engineer
 Giancarlo Lino – assistant
 Erik Madrid – assistant
 Alix Malka – photography
 Manny Marroquin – engineering, mixing
 Kyle Moorman – Pro-Tools
 Bryan Morton – engineering
 Luis Navarro – assistant
 Linda Perry – programming, production, engineering
 Christian Plata – assistant
 Polow da Don – production
 Oscar Ramirez – engineering, vocal engineering
 TheRealFocus... – production, instrumentation
 Andros Rodriguez - engineer
 Alexis Smith – assistant engineer
 Eric Spring – engineering
 Jay Stevenson – assistant engineer
 Jeremy Stevenson – engineering
 Christopher Stewart – production
 Subskrpt – engineering, assistant engineer
 Switch – production, engineering, mixing, instrumentation
 Brian "B-Luv" Thomas – engineering
 Pat Thrall – engineering
 Le Tigre – production
 Randy Urbanski – assistant
 Eli Walker – engineering
 Cory Williams – engineering
 Andrew Wuepper – engineering
 Reuben Wu – production

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

 Urban Outfitters exclusive black and grey splattered clear vinyl.

References

External links
 Official website

2010 albums
Albums produced by Focus...
Albums produced by Linda Perry
Albums produced by Polow da Don
Albums produced by Samuel Dixon
Albums produced by Tricky Stewart
Christina Aguilera albums
RCA Records albums
Electropop albums
Futurepop albums


Choi Eun-taek (Hangul: 최은택, Hanja: 崔殷澤; 1938 – February 5, 2007) was a South Korean football manager and former football player.

References

1938 births
2007 deaths
People from Chaeryong County
South Korean men's footballers
South Korean football managers
Pohang Steelers managers
Deaths from lung cancer in South Korea
Men's association football midfielders
South Korean people of North Korean origin


Neville John Sillitoe  (24 April 1925 – 20 June 2021) was an Australian athletics coach.

Sillitoe competed for the Coburg Athletic Club. Upon his retirement, he took up athletics coaching and helped lay the foundations for one of the most successful eras of Australian sprinting with the East Melbourne Harriers Athletic Club. Australian representatives that Sillitoe has coached include Peter Norman, Gary Holdsworth, Greg Lewis, Aaron Rouge-Serret, Colin McQueen, Denise Boyd, Richard James, Bruce Frayne, Tamsyn Lewis and Ken Hall. He was the coach of the 1982 Commonwealth Games Team and held a long serving athletics coaching post with Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne from 1983 to 2014.

Sillitoe was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2018 for services to athletics.

Sillitoe died on 20 June 2021. He is buried at the Fawkner Cemetery.

See also
 Australian athletics champions
 List of Caulfield Grammar School people

References

1925 births
2021 deaths
Australian athletics coaches
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia


Ladies' single skating was contested during the figure skating events at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

This individual event was structured in a similar manner to the pairs event, with a short program and a free skating. 30 skaters entered the short program, but only the top 24 competitors continued to the free skating. Unlike the men's event, the free skating is only 4 minutes long. The short program was held on February 21 and the free skating on February 23.

The leading contender heading into the Olympics was 2005 World champion Russia's Irina Slutskaya, the first woman to win the European Championship seven times. Prior to the Olympic Games, she had only been beaten once this season, by Japan's Mao Asada, who was too young to compete at these Olympics.

Favorite Michelle Kwan, who had previously won silver at the 1998 Winter Olympics and bronze at the 2002 Winter Olympics, was forced to withdraw due to a groin injury. As a 5-time world champion and 9-time U.S. champion, the Olympic gold was the only major title missing from her resume. U.S. national bronze medalist Emily Hughes (the younger sister of the last Olympic champion Sarah Hughes) took her place on the American team, joining two-time world silver medalist and U.S. national champion Sasha Cohen and U.S. national silver medalist Kimmie Meissner, the second American woman to land the triple Axel in competition.

Japan also sent a very strong ladies contingent to Turin with 2004 world champion Shizuka Arakawa, two-time world bronze medalist Fumie Suguri and two-time Japanese national champion Miki Ando. Other potential medal contenders included Russia's Elena Sokolova, who won world silver in 2003; two-time Canadian champion Joannie Rochette; 2005 world bronze medalist Carolina Kostner; 2005 European silver medalist Susanna Pöykiö; five-time Swiss champion Sarah Meier; 2005 European bronze medalist Elena Liashenko; and 2004 European champion Júlia Sebestyén.

Arakawa made history by winning Japan's first ever ladies' figure skating gold in the Winter Olympics and the only medal for Japan at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Short program
Skating last in the short, Cohen wowed the crowd and the judges with a flawless program. Completing her three jump elements and having the best spins and spirals of the night, Cohen came in first place. Slutskaya, beating Cohen technically but not artistically, finished behind Cohen by just 0.03 points. Arakawa also had a clean skate, finished behind Slutskaya by only 0.70 points. With the top three being so close, the winner of the free would likely win the gold.

Suguri had a strong skate but a lack of level 4 spins and spirals kept her out of the top three. Meissner, the second skater in the short and finishing fifth in the short, skated cleanly in her first major international event with a triple Lutz - triple toe combination, one of the few landed in the competition. The surprise in the top six was Georgia's Elene Gedevanishvili, who performed a triple flip - triple toe combination.

Besides a slight stumble in her serpentine steps, Hughes also had a strong debut at her first major international event, finishing seventh in the short. Her sister Sarah was in the stands cheering her on. Rounding out the top ten was Ando, stepping out of her combination; Rochette, putting her hand down on the triple flip; and Sarah Meier, who skated a clean program. Kostner fell on her triple flip combination and finished just out of the top ten but had strong program component marks and the support of the crowd. Skating early in the competition, Sokolova took herself out of the running for a medal when she fell out of her Lutz and singled a loop. She finished 18th in the short.

Free skating
Arakawa, despite media pressure and being labeled an underdog, performed a five triple jump program which was enough to win the gold medal. Skating right after Cohen, Arakawa's skating was conservative but solid, no triple - triple combinations. She ended up doubling her loop jump, her nemesis jump. Skating with elegance and power, Arakawa had the highest technical and program component scores of the night.

Cohen, looking much more nervous than in the short and having her groin wrapped due to an injury, fell on her opening triple Lutz, then stepped out of the triple flip with her hand down, her next jump. Despite these early mistakes, Cohen was able to pull herself together and land the rest of her jumps and execute her trademark spins and spirals. Her only other flaw in the skate was two-footing the second jump of her triple toe - triple salchow sequence.

Slutskaya, skating last in the free like she did in 2002, was trying to become the first Russian woman to win the Olympic title. However, she came up short, doubling a flip, then falling on a triple loop. Her lower technical difficulty (only four triple jumps) and lower program component scores kept Slutskaya behind Cohen but ahead of Suguri.

Suguri had a solid skate that left her in tears and placed her fourth overall. Technically, she scored higher than Slutskaya despite having two jump combinations that were doubles, but finished behind her in program components. Rochette had one of the best skates of the night, completing six clean triples, the most of the top ladies during the free skating. Combined with strong choreography, Rochette's skate was able to move her up to fifth in the free and overall. Meissner was unable to complete her triple - triple combinations in the free and fell to sixth overall, while Hughes finished in seventh, despite a fall on the triple loop. Despite not accomplishing what American teens Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes did before them (winning Olympic gold), Meissner and Hughes had respectable debuts at the Olympics, and ostensibly Lipinski and the elder Hughes had already medalled at major international competitions while Meissner and the younger Hughes had not.

Meier finished eighth with a relatively clean skate but singled an Axel and doubled a Lutz jump. Kostner finished ninth overall after making major mistakes. Gedevanishvilli's program was marred by mistakes, but she was able to finish in the top ten.

Results

Short program

Free skating

Final standings

Referee:
 Yang Jiasheng

Technical Controller:
 Igor Prokop

Technical Specialist:
 Michael Slipchuk

Assistant Technical Specialist:
 Anett Pötzsch-Rauschenbach

Judges:
 Gloria Morandi
 Annette Boeren-Maas
 Diana Barbacci Levy
 Tatiana Danilenko
 Susan Lynch
 Benoit Lavoie
 Laura McNair
 Gale Tanger
 Zsofia Wagner
 Katarina Henriksson
 Yuri Kliushnikov
 Elisabeth Louesdon

References

External links

 Ladies' Protocol

Ladies
Oly
Women's events at the 2006 Winter Olympics


Clarens  or the Clarens Estate is a 19th-century Federal-style mansion in Alexandria, Virginia. Clarens is best known as the residence of James Murray Mason (November 3, 1798–April 28, 1871), a United States representative and United States senator from Virginia and grandson of George Mason, a Founding Father of the United States.

While it was located within Fairfax County, Virginia, Clarens is now located inside the boundaries of the independent city of Alexandria at 318 North Quaker Lane.

History
Clarens was constructed between 1814 and 1816 in what was then Fairfax County, Virginia, three miles (5 km) to the west of Alexandria.  The neighborhood later became known as Seminary Hill because of the proximity to the Virginia Theological Seminary. Reverend George Smith operated his prominent "Fairfax School" at Clarens. Notable Fairfax School attendees included George Washington Custis Lee and George M. Dallas. During the American Civil War, Clarens was used as a hospital for Union Army soldiers.

After the war, James Murray Mason selected Clarens as the estate at which he planned to retire. On September 24, 1869, Mason officially took possession of Clarens. While residing at Clarens, one of Mason's chief occupations was his correspondences. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis visited Clarens in 1870 for his final meeting with Mason and Confederate Army General Samuel Cooper. Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee also visited Mason at Clarens after the war. Mason died at Clarens on April 28, 1871.

After Mason's death, Clarens subsequently became a girls school. It was later owned by William G. Thomas. Upon his sale of the property in the late 1980s, Clarens was subdivided. The mansion is currently located on approximately .

Before Thomas bought Clarens it was owned by Conrad M Strong; after his death it passed to his second wife Edna Johnson Strong.  Mr Strong bought it from his cousin Colonel Byrd Willis, with a contingency that his wife Ann Crenshaw Willis live in the wing until she died.  This she did.  Mr Strong was the great great nephew of George Washington.  His mother, Mary Byrd Dallas, was the daughter of Commandore Alexander James Dallas, [brother to the vice-president ] and Mary Byrd Willis.  His first wife, Frances T. Perry was the daughter of General Edward A. Perry [of civil war fame] Mr Strong built the guest house, the well house with bridge over a stream, bell tower, colonnade, potting house and  log cabin on the crest of the hill overlooking the valley.  He designed the circular drive, low walls, and laid out the extensive gardens, field of daffodils, large rose garden etc.

References

Mason family residences
Houses in Fairfax County, Virginia
Houses completed in 1816
Federal architecture in Virginia
Fairfax County in the American Civil War
Houses in Alexandria, Virginia
1816 establishments in Virginia


:30 Seconds is an Australian comedy series produced for The Comedy Channel which satirises Australian advertising companies and advertising industry. The name of the show comes from the advertising slots on television that are normally 30 seconds long. The show has had many guest appearances from famous Australians such as Claudia Karvan, Peter Helliar, Bridie Carter, Matthew Newton and Guy Pearce.

Plot
The show revolves around a fictitious advertising agency, BND which is a global advertising network, with 61 offices worldwide. The show takes place in one of the Australian offices.

Production

Location
The show was shot on location at the offices of real-life Sydney production company Blacksheep Productions, located in Mountain Street, Ultimo.

Lazzi
:30 Seconds occasionally has parts closely resembling a lazzi. This occurs sporadically throughout the show when Martin Manning sees a product. The product that Martin sees becomes centerpiece, while a culmination of the product in Martin's eyes, and how the product could be advertised. For example, the first use in the show occurs in the first scene, when Martin first looks at an Orange Juice container. Suddenly the packet animates and a stereotypical advertising voice over sounds saying: "Now with added goodatives". The scene returns to normal after this brief lazzi, and the scene continues on.

Cast
 Joel Tobeck as Martin Manning
 Stephen Curry as McBaney
 Gyton Grantley as Sumo
 Kat Stewart as Marion West
 Peter O'Brien as Bill Brooker
 Jenna Lind as Kath Bullock
 Emily Brennan as Barbara Main
 Oliver Brookes as Joel

Episodes

See also

List of Australian television series

Notes

References

External links
:30 Seconds - Comedy Channel

2000s Australian comedy television series
2009 Australian television series debuts
2009 Australian television series endings
The Comedy Channel original programming
Television series about advertising


Tim Nolan (born 1960) is a British-born bassist living in Singapore.

Early life
Nolan was born in Oldham, Lancashire, United Kingdom in 1960. In the early 1980s he played with Nottingham-based jazz band Pinski Zoo, recording three albums; - "Introduce me to the Doctor", which garnered the review from NME of "Pinski Zoo have put the animal back into music," and which included the track 'Stutter Strut'. Other albums featuring Nolan included "The Dizzy Dance Record" and "The City Can't Have It Back". During this time the band gained popularity, with features in music papers such as the NME and Melody Maker, and by playing and touring with such bands as The Eurythmics, Pigbag, and Alexis Korner.  After leaving Pinski Zoo, Nolan played with The Howdy Boys, also based in Nottingham.

Popland
From 1998 to 2006, he was in the Singapore band Popland with Kevin Mathews, where they produced 3 CDs, the first being 'Pop', released in 1997 under the name 'The Crowd'  (which they later changed to avoid confusion with a U.S. band of the same name). They followed this with 1998's 'Groovy', featuring well-known Singaporean musician Ray Aziz on drums. Aziz appeared live with the band, delivering inventive and powerful rhythms to complement the power-pop of Mathews' and Nolan's songs. He also played drums on their 2002 release 'Action', released on Zip Records. Since then they have been profiled by Singapore's national newspaper, The Straits Times, have played on several Singapore TV shows, been heard worldwide on various radio stations and their music was used in the Warner Bros hit TV show 'High School Reunion'. The band split in 2006.

References

Living people
1960 births
Musicians from Oldham


"Carolina in My Mind" is a song originally written and performed by American singer-songwriter James Taylor. It was Taylor's second single from his 1968 self-titled debut album. Taylor wrote Carolina in My Mind while in England recording for the Beatles' label Apple Records, and the song's themes reflect his homesickness at the time. Released as a single in 1969, the song earned critical praise but not commercial success. It was re-recorded for Taylor's 1976 Greatest Hits album in the version that is most familiar to listeners. It has been a staple of Taylor's concert performances over the decades of his career. Carolina in My Mind is one of the most covered contemporary folk songs of all time, the most famous of which being covers by American singer-songwriter John Denver and American rock music duo the Everly Brothers.

The song was a modest hit on the country charts in 1969 for North Carolinian singer George Hamilton IV, released as the first single from his 1970 album Back Where It's At (see George Hamilton IV discography). Strongly tied to a sense of geographic place, "Carolina in My Mind" has been called an unofficial state anthem for North Carolina. It is also an unofficial song of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, being played at athletic events and pep rallies and sung by the graduating class at every university commencement. The association of the song with the state is also made in written works of both fiction and non-fiction. It has become one of Taylor's most critically praised songs and one that has great popularity and significance for his audience.

Song and recordings
The song references Taylor's years growing up in North Carolina. Taylor wrote it while overseas recording for the Beatles' label Apple Records. He started writing the song at producer Peter Asher's London flat on Marylebone High Street, resumed work on it while on holiday on the Mediterranean island of Formentera, and then completed it while stranded on the nearby island of Ibiza with Karin, a Swedish girl he had just met. The song reflects Taylor's homesickness at the time, as he was missing his family, his dog and his state.

Dark and silent late last night,
I think I might have heard the highway calling ...
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
And signs that might be omens say I'm going, I'm going
I'm gone to Carolina in my mind.

The original recording of the song was done at London's Trident Studios during the July to October 1968 period, and was produced by Asher. The song's lyric "holy host of others standing around me" makes reference to the Beatles, who were recording The Beatles in the same studio where Taylor was recording his album. Indeed, the recording of "Carolina in My Mind" includes a credited appearance by Paul McCartney on bass guitar and an uncredited one by George Harrison on backing vocals. The other players were Freddie Redd on organ, Joel "Bishop" O'Brien on drums, and Mick Wayne providing a second guitar alongside Taylor's. Taylor and Asher also did backing vocals and Asher added a tambourine. Richard Hewson arranged and conducted a string part; an even more ambitious 30-piece orchestra part was recorded but not used. The song itself earned critical praise, with Jon Landau's April 1969 review for Rolling Stone calling it "beautiful" and one of the "two most deeply affecting cuts" on the album and praising McCartney's bass playing as "extraordinary". Taylor biographer Timothy White calls the song "the album's quiet masterpiece". In a 50-years-later retrospective of the album's release, Billboard calls the song "a mellow Taylor classic" and a "stone-classic".

The song was first released on Taylor's eponymous debut album in December 1968 (February 1969 in the United States), and was later released as a single in the UK in February 1969 and in the United States in March 1969. However, owing to the same problems which plagued the release of the album (namely, Taylor's inability to promote it due to his hospitalization for drug addiction), the single's original release reached only No. 118 on US pop charts and failed to chart in the UK. Indeed, Taylor had fallen back into addiction during the London recording sessions, and his line about being surrounded by Beatles had been immediately followed by "Still I'm on the dark side of the moon". Following the success of Taylor's second album, Sweet Baby James, and its hit single "Fire and Rain", "Carolina in My Mind" was reissued by Apple as a single in October 1970 and rose to No. 67 on the U.S. charts.  (A previously unreleased acoustic demo of "Carolina in My Mind" was issued as a bonus track on the 2010 Apple Records remastering of James Taylor.) In Canada, the song peaked at No. 64 in the spring of 1969, then recharted in the fall of 1970, reaching No. 39.

Different versions of both this song and "Something in the Way She Moves" were remade by Taylor for use on his 1976 Greatest Hits album because of the difficulty of obtaining licensing rights from Apple during the 1970s and because of uncertainty about where the Apple masters were. The new recordings were done in October 1976 at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles and production was again done by Peter Asher.

This rendition of "Carolina in My Mind" had a slower tempo than the original, and accompanying Taylor on acoustic guitar were experienced LA session musicians Dan Dugmore on pedal steel guitar (highlighted in the descending note sequences at the song's conclusion), Lee Sklar on bass, Russ Kunkel on drums, Clarence McDonald on piano, Andrew Gold on harmonium, and Byron Berline on fiddle. Backing vocals were handled by Gold and Taylor.  Greatest Hits became a diamond record, selling more than 11 million copies in the United States by 2001, and this is the version of "Carolina in My Mind" that became best known. The remake earned even more critical praise than the original.  Bill Janovitz of Allmusic said of the 1976 recording that it "accent[ed] the languid, plaintive and wistful country melancholy of the song", while in the 1979 Rolling Stone Record Guide, critic Stephen Holden said that the "stunning" remake showed how much Taylor's singing had strengthened in the intervening years. Biographer White believed that the song benefited from the removal of the original's orchestration.

The 1976 re-recording was also included on Taylor's 2003 compilation The Best of James Taylor.

Chart history

James Taylor:

George Hamilton IV:

Crystal Mansion:

Later appearances

"Carolina in My Mind" became a staple of Taylor's concert repertoire, appearing in the set list of virtually every Taylor tour.
A 1992 performance of it was included near the end of Taylor's first live album, 1993's Live. The audience reaction demonstrates that the song has great popularity despite never being a hit single: there is immediate cheering as the first notes are picked out on Taylor's acoustic guitar, and further cheering as soon as he starts to sing. By this era Taylor's always-excellent touring band was using four backing singers.  Arnold McCuller, David Lasley, Kate Markowitz, and Valerie Carter featured strongly in the arrangement, continuing the emphasis on the song's harmonies that had begun with the 1976 remake.

The song has been included in a number of Taylor's concert video releases, including 1980's James Taylor: In Concert at the Blossom Music Center, 1988's James Taylor: In Concert at Boston's Colonial Theatre, and 2002's Pull Over. It was performed in collaboration with the Dixie Chicks in 2002 for the CMT Crossroads program.   In 2004, Taylor and the Chicks again performed the song together during the Vote for Change tour, with Taylor dedicating it to former North Carolina Senator and U.S. vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. On the 2006 A Musicares Person of the Year Tribute Honoring James Taylor tribute show and video release, "Carolina in My Mind" was performed by Alison Krauss and Jerry Douglas. The song was then included in Taylor's 2006–2007 One Man Band Tour; accompanied only by Larry Goldings on piano and harmonium, Taylor introduced the song with visual material and by relating its composition on Formentera and other locations. He talked about the Karin of the lyrics, whom he had known only briefly and never seen since, and related various humorous notions about how to find her again. One such performance was documented on the 2007 album and video release One Man Band. Another live performance appeared on Taylor's 2010 live CD/DVD combo release with Carole King, Live at The Troubadour. James Taylor appeared on The Colbert Report on January 19, 2012, and sang "Carolina in My Mind" along with Stephen Colbert, and then performed it on the final day of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he greeted "fellow Tar Heels and Democrats".

In a 2020 interview with Parade, Taylor stated that "Carolina in My Mind" was his favorite song to perform, explaining, "Because my audience responds well to it, and because it wears well, I like 'Carolina In My Mind'. I play it almost every time I perform, and I haven't tired of it."

Other versions
While "Carolina in My Mind" did not gain much attention from the public upon its original release, it did from other artists. It was a No. 29 hit on the American country charts and No. 3 hit in Canada in 1969 for North Carolinian singer George Hamilton IV. The Everly Brothers also released it as a single in 1969, under the variant title "Carolina on My Mind", but it failed to chart; this was later collected on their 1994 box set Heartaches and Harmonies. Evie Sands also touched upon it in her 1969 album Any Way That You Want Me.

The song was recorded by Melanie on her hit April 1970 album Candles in the Rain; the arrangement and vocal phrasing are different from Taylor's, and Allmusic writes that her version "exist[s] on an entirely separate plane from the original". It was also recorded in more conventional folk rock form by John Denver on his May 1970 album Take Me to Tomorrow. Philadelphia-based pop group Crystal Mansion released a version in October 1970 that reached No. 73 on the U.S. pop singles chart. Dawn included a version of it on their 1970 debut album Candida. About the same time, Glen Campbell was performing the song as a sped-up country duet with Linda Ronstadt on his popular television series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour; this was later collected on his 2007 video release Good Times Again.

The song subsequently became so identified with Taylor that other artists recorded it less frequently, but still by the late 2000s there were some 60 albums (including compilation reappearances and albums from Taylor himself) that featured it.

Sense of place

"Carolina in My Mind" is strongly associated with its geographical place and has been referred to a number of times as an unofficial state anthem of North Carolina. Taylor had grown up in Carrboro, outside Chapel Hill, where his father taught at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Taylor later reflected: "Chapel Hill, the piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people." More broadly, the song has been associated with The South. Author James L. Peacock sees it akin to Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" and other songs and works of literature in establishing "the South's sense of place", even if that sense is sometimes an exercise in projected nostalgia. Author Ken Emerson also sees a connection to that quintessential American songwriter, with the Taylor song resembling Foster's "Sitting By My Own Cabin Door" in its sense of longing for home amid personal and contextual dislocation. Recognizing the association with the state, the Chapel Hill Museum opened an ongoing exhibit "Carolina in My Mind: The James Taylor Story" in 2003 that includes memorabilia from Taylor's years in the area and a video documentary.

"Carolina in My Mind" is also an unofficial song of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is played at athletic events and pep rallies, and is sung by the graduating class at every university graduation. In 2019 the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel ran a piece detailing how the song often stayed with students beyond their years on campus. The song is also frequently performed by popular UNC campus a cappella groups, including the Clef Hangers. The Clef Hangers' Fall Concert 2007 performances of the song featured future American Idol season 8 finalist Anoop Desai handling the lead vocal on the closing part of the song. The Clef Hangers, joined by university chancellor Holden Thorp, again performed it in March 2009 at the first anniversary memorial service for murdered student president Eve Carson. In 2019, one former Clef Hanger recalled that, "Pretty quickly ... I realized that the song had a lot of significance. We also sing it at graduation every year, as a send off, so there's more significance behind it ... we treat it like our special thing we get to bring during private events or even situations like graduation."

In October 2006, Taylor returned to the campus to receive the school's Carolina Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. University chancellor James Moeser said to Taylor, "We love you. We love what you do and how you represent this university." Taylor said, "It's strange but somehow compelling to come home and sing it. It draws a line through my own personal history and connects me again to a place that I go to in my dreams, a landscape that will forever be a part of me."

"Carolina in My Mind" is the corps song for the Carolina Crown Drum & Bugle Corps; the corps sings the song before every performance.
The 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army, stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, sponsors a group of singing soldiers known as the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus. They recorded a version of the song on their 2009 album A Soldier's Heart, and the song is part of their concert repertoire.

Some of the song's lyrics are used as an epigraph in the 2001 Celebrate the States series volume on North Carolina and in the 1983 reference book America the Quotable.  News providers have used "Carolina in My Mind" as a title for stories about the state's politics, economy, and outdoor activities. The song's geographical association also appears in fiction, including in Carly Alexander's 2004 novel The Eggnog Chronicles and North Carolinian Sharyn McCrumb's 2006 novel St. Dale.

Although it was North Carolina that inspired the song, it is popular in South Carolina too, tying for first place on a South Carolina Information Highway's construction of a soundtrack regarding the state. It has been used as the theme for the television coverage of the annual Family Circle Cup tennis event in South Carolina.

"Carolina in My Mind" has been mentioned by members of the Carolinian diaspora. Prize-winning North Carolinian writer Jill McCorkle, living in Massachusetts, refers to it as "the chosen anthem of misplaced Carolinians". In Kathy Reichs' initial Temperance Brennan novel, Déjà Dead, the protagonist (like the author) is from North Carolina but working in Montreal as a forensic anthropologist, and alludes to the song as part of a Carolinian reverie in the midst of a horrid murder case. One person who had moved to California said, "Still to this day I get nostalgic whenever I hear it on the radio. It's a song that makes anyone who grew up in North Carolina homesick. In a way, it's become an anthem song for people who left the state."

References

External links
 Lyrics of this song

1968 songs
1969 debut singles
1970 singles
Apple Records singles
George Hamilton IV songs
Glen Campbell songs
James Taylor songs
John Denver songs
Melanie (singer) songs
Music of North Carolina
Song recordings produced by Peter Asher
Songs about North Carolina
Songs written by James Taylor
The Everly Brothers songs
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill