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Does This Look Infected?

Does This Look Infected? is the second studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It was released on November 26, 2002.

Music, lyrics and composition
The album is a lot more aggressive, darker and heavier than Sum 41's previous studio album, All Killer No Filler (2001). It also has fewer elements of pop music than All Killer No Filler. Described as heavy metal, horror punk, punk rock, pop punk,  and melodic hardcore, the album uses elements of heavy metal,     hardcore punk, thrash metal, d-beat and, on the song "Thanks for Nothing", hip hop. Although the album has been described as pop punk by some sources, Counterculture.co.uk considered it an album that shows Sum 41 abandoning the pop punk genre for a more standard punk rock style. Amy Sciarretto of ARTISTdirect wrote that Does This Look Infected? soldifies Sum 41 as "true punk stalwarts". The music on Does This Look Infected? has been compared to bands such as The Offspring, P.O.D., Metallica, Rancid, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Bad Religion, NOFX, Green Day and Blink-182.

The album's lyrical topics are darker than the lyrical topics on All Killer No Filler. Sum 41's vocalist/rhythm guitarist Deryck Whibley said, "A lot of stuff happened in the past year that opened our eyes to new things," Whibley said. "The whole last year has been really crazy around the world. There's been so much stuff going on and it's been so televised. I think we've all become more aware. When we were writing the last record everything was happy go lucky. Now this time we've seen a little bit more and our eyes have been opened up a little bit." The album's lyrical topics include hatred, war, internal demons, disliking the world, suicide, drugs, insomnia and HIV. The song "Mr. Amsterdam" is about an embittered man. Whibley said, "'Mr. Amsterdam' is sort of about a guy who hates everything, very bitter person who kind of hates the world." He explains, "He's against the world." The song is also about the complacency of pop culture in 2002, the year that Does This Look Infected? was released, and technology that was new during the year that the album was released. Whibley explained the meaning of "Mr. Amsterdam", saying, "We depend so much on new technology to make sure that we don't have to do anything. Everything's being laid out so we can sit at home and do nothing and never leave our homes. You can order all your groceries from the computer. You can do anything you want. You can just sit there and become fatter. And I think that's bad."

Lead guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh explained the meaning of the song "All Messed Up", saying, "There's a song called 'All Messed Up,' which is about doing drugs . . . just what we feel when we're on drugs." When Whibley spoke about "All Messed Up", he said, "It's about those kinds of nights. It's just about being really messed up and in that whole cracked-out kind of state." "The Hell Song" is about a friend of Sum 41 who contracted HIV. Whibley spoke about "The Hell Song" saying, "It’s one of my favorite songs on the record. It's about this girl I used to date who I've known forever. Just last Christmas she found that she was HIV positive, and it was so brutal. She doesn't sleep around. She's only had two or three boyfriends and one of them used to cheat on her all the time, and then he got it and gave it to her. It's the heaviest thing that's happened in our group of friends." "No Brains" is about a former band member of Sum 41. Whibley explained the song's meaning, saying, "That's just a basic 'fuck you, I'm done' kind of song. This guy was our old singer and I was best friends with him. We had this big falling out." Whibley explained what the song "Over My Head (Better Off Dead)" is about. He said, "It's not about being fucked up or drunk. It's more about the aftermath when you're hearing everything you've just done the night before, and you're like, "Ah, fuck, I'm better off dead." I don't regret any of the things I do and I don't mind doing them, I just hate hearing about it. Being told every morning, "Dude, what did you do last night?" drives me nuts."

"Still Waiting" was written after the September 11 attacks. Whibley explained the meaning of the song, saying, "It's not directly about 9/11 or the war on terrorism. It's about the war on everything. It's about the world as we know it. It's no secret that the world doesn't get along and there's all this hatred. It's everything to do with how this world functions." Whibley stated on the band's DVD, Sake Bombs And Happy Endings, that the album's song "A.N.I.C." is a "special love song" dedicated to Anna Nicole Smith. According to him, "A.N.I.C." stands for 'Anna Nicole is a Cunt'." Lead guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh said that Anna Nicole Smith is "a fuckin' loser" and also said, "Look what she's doing to herself." Sum 41 stopped including the song in their live performances after Smith died of an overdose in 2007. However, they put "A.N.I.C." back into their setlist during the 2012 summer European leg of the Screaming Bloody Murder Tour. When Sum 41 performed the song live after Smith's death, the band would not show any disrespect towards her, with Whibley saying that the song "A.N.I.C." stands for "Deryck Whibley is a Fucking Stupid Cunt". However, since 2018, Whibley has resumed using Anna Nicole's name in the title.

Cover and title
The cover for Does This Look Infected? shows drummer Steve Jocz dressed as a zombie. It was chosen months before the title. The album’s release was almost delayed because the band members did not have a name for it on time until Whibley thought of the name Does This Look Infected?. The whole band laughed at the idea and chose it. The same idea was also used on the band's EP Does This Look Infected Too?, except Jocz was replaced with Whibley, also dressed as a zombie.

Critical reception
Does This Look Infected? has received mostly positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, the album has 75 out of 100. E! Online said that it "has a clutch of songs that mix chord-y abandon with raging rock riffs--and a heck of a lot of good times". Blender also gave it a positive review, saying, "So Sum 41 have grown up... a little.... It's all relative, and, crucially, it still rocks."

Commercial performance
Does This Look Infected? debuted at #8 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 17,000 copies in Canada in its first week. The album gained commercial success, with singles "The Hell Song" and "Still Waiting" mainly gaining success on the modern rock charts. The album has since sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide, but the album did not have as much success as the band's previous album "All Killer No Filler".

Legacy
The album was included at number 28 on Rock Sound's "The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time" list. The band toured to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2012, and its 15th anniversary in 2018, playing the album in its entirety. Whibley himself stated he was not satisfied with how the album was mixed, stating "I’ve always, always hated the way this album sounds. I hated it in the studio and it still bothers me. The demo I made myself at home sounded better than the final mix."

Bonus DVD
The unedited version includes a bonus DVD which is entitled Cross The T's and Gouge Your I's. The DVD has footage of Sum 41's alter ego band, Pain for Pleasure, titled "Reign In Pain", as well as various humorous segments like "Going Going Gonorrhea", "Campus Invasion" and "Pizza Heist and Other Crap". Also included in the DVD are the Pain for Pleasure tracks "Reign In Pain" and "WWVII Parts 1 & 2", the Autopilot Off songs "Long Way to Fall" and "Nothing Frequency", the No Warning songs "Short Fuse" and "Ill Blood", and some web-links.

Personnel
Sum 41
 * Deryck Whibley – lead vocals, rhythm guitar; drums on "Reign in Pain (Heavy Metal Jamboree)" and "WWVII Parts 1 & 2"
 * Dave "Brownsound" Baksh – lead guitar, backing vocals
 * Jason "Cone" McCaslin – bass guitar
 * Steve Jocz – drums; lead vocals on "Reign in Pain (Heavy Metal Jamboree)" and "WWVII Parts 1 & 2"; rapping on "Thanks for Nothing"

Production

 * Greig Nori – producer
 * Ben Sanders – additional vocal recording assistant
 * Ian Bodzasi – assistant engineer
 * Steve Chawley – assistant engineer
 * Chris Gordon – assistant engineer, additional engineer
 * Brian Montgomery – assistant engineer
 * Ross Petersen – assistant engineer
 * Anthony Ruotolo – assistant engineer
 * Owen Tamplin – assistant engineer
 * Phil Wakeford – assistant engineer
 * Josh Wilbur – Pro Tools engineer
 * Ed Krautner – engineer, additional engineering and mixing
 * Femio Hernandez – additional engineer
 * Joel Kazmi – additional engineer
 * L. Stuart Young – additional engineer
 * Dan Moyse – drum technician
 * Artie Smith – guitar technician
 * Tony Vanias – recording administration
 * Andy Wallace – mixing
 * Steve Sisco – mixing assistant
 * Tom Lord-Alge– mixing on "The Hell Song"
 * Howie Weinberg – mastering at Masterdisk, New York City
 * Bernadette Walsh – production coordinator
 * Lewis Largent – A&R
 * Rob Mitchell – A&R, A&R administration
 * Robert Stevenson – A&R
 * Morning Breath – album design
 * Jonathan Mannion – photography

title: Does This Look Infected?


text:
Talk:First minister

The title First Secretary was given to the less powerful home rule administration in Wales.

 * It was initially - see the Government of Wales Act, but the Welsh Cabinet became "ministers" at the time that the coalition cabinet was formed in October 2000, and the National Assembly website (among others) now uses "First Minister". I can't find any formal decision to change the title, and apparently the UK Parliament was a bit lukewarm about it, but it seems to have been accepted. According to some of the press releases on the Assembly website the cahnge was intended to distinguish the ministers, who are politicians, from civil servants, who often have the title "secretary" --rbrwr

I've just checked and yes the Welsh first minister was called the First Secretary or 'Prif Ysgrifennydd y Cynulliad' (Section 53.1. of the Government of Wales Act, 1998) but seem to have been de-facto changed (though without legislative enactment that I can find) to First Minister (though both terms at different times are used in press releases and in media coverage). I know in British cabinet status a Secretary of State is higher in status than a minister, but in terms of home rule governments, the opposite is the case; a first minister is, you could say a Grade II prime minister - with less powers than a full prime minister, but still with with a position as heading an executive - whereas the First Secretary was meant if a prime minister at all to be a Grade III prime minister, inferior in powers and status to the First Ministers and with committee-style cabinet inferior in status to the govts in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In Ireland, civil service heads of government departments used to be called 'Secretary to the Department of {name}' but because internationally at conferences they were often treated as being an ordinary secretary (one was notoriously asked what his typing speed was!) the position was renamed 'Secretary-General'. Something similar may have happened in Wales. Copy of a message I left on Deb's page JTD 00:15 Feb 15, 2003 (UTC)

 * (smiles) Remember the first episode of Yes Minister, where Sir Humphrey goes on at length about secretaries for this, that and the other, at which point the new minister asks, "And do you all type?" The reply is, "No, Mrs So-and-So types.  She's the secretary."

 * Seriously, though, I'm a bit lost now. I never meant to get into all the ins and outs of it, because I just don't have the expertise.  I just thought it needed a cross-reference from Prime Minister. Deb 11:51 Feb 15, 2003 (UTC)

-

In contrast, there is no Deputy First Minister in Scotland.

This is incorrect. Jim Wallace is the Deputy First Minister of Scotland. See.

--hoshie

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:First minister


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Bike (disambiguation)

A bike, or bicycle, is a two-wheeled, pedal-driven vehicle.

Bike may also refer to:

Arts, entertainment, and media

 * Bike (band), a 1990s New Zealand pop band fronted by Andrew Brough
 * Bike (magazine), a UK magazine about motorcycling
 * "Bike" (song), by Pink Floyd
 * Bike (TV channel), a defunct sports channel in Italy and the UK
 * "Bike" (Bluey), an episode of the first season of the animated TV series Bluey

Other uses

 * Bike (given name), a common Turkish given name
 * Bike, Ethiopia
 * BIKE Athletic Company, an American sportswear company
 * Motorbike, a two-wheeled motor vehicle

title: Bike (disambiguation)


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SLC Punk!

SLCPunk! is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by James Merendino. The film centers around Steven "Stevo" Levy, a college graduate and punk living in Salt Lake City during the mid-1980s.

SLCPunk! was chosen as the opening-night feature at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Merendino created the film based on his experience growing up in Salt Lake City. Although the film is not autobiographical, Merendino has said that many characters were based on people he knew.

Plot
The film outlines the daily life of a punk named Stevo in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the fall of 1985. Stevo's best friend, "Heroin" Bob, is also a punk. The nickname "Heroin" is ironic, as Bob is afraid of needles and actually believes that any drug (with the notable exception of alcohol and cigarettes) is inherently dangerous.

Stevo and Bob go from party to party while living in a dilapidated apartment. They spend much of their time fighting with members of other subcultures, particularly rednecks. Stevo has a casual relationship with a girl named Sandy, while Bob is in love with Trish, the owner of a head shop.

The two of them are shaped by their experiences with their parents. Stevo's parents, now divorced, are former hippies who are proud of their youthful endeavors; however, Stevo is revolted by what he perceives as their "selling out" by becoming affluent Reagan Republicans, which they try to justify. Stevo's grades are excellent, and when his father sends an application to Harvard Law School and Stevo is accepted, he nevertheless rejects it because of his beliefs. By contrast, Bob's father is a mentally ill alcoholic who mistakes his son and his friend for Central Intelligence Agency operatives and chases them away with a shotgun when they visit him on his birthday.

Stevo begins to see the drawbacks of living the punk life. Sean, a fellow punk, was a drug dealer who once attempted to stab his mother while under the influence of an entire 100-dose sheet of acid; in the present, Stevo finds him panhandling on the street with some obvious mental issues.

While Stevo understands that his relationship with Sandy is casual, he is still enraged when he discovers her having sex with another man and savagely beats him, later loathing himself because his action contradicts his own belief in anarchism. His social circle also begins to drift away, as his dealer, Mark, and his friend, Mike, both leave Salt Lake City (Mark to return to Miami, Mike to attend the University of Notre Dame). Soon after, Stevo attends a party and falls in love with a rich girl named Brandy, who points out that his clothing and hair are fashion as opposed to true rebellion. Rather than being offended, Stevo takes the criticism thoughtfully, and they passionately kiss.

At the same party, Bob complains of a headache (induced by Spandau Ballet's "She Loved Like Diamond" playing on a stereo), and is given Percodan, which he consumes with alcohol after being told the pills are simply "vitamins" that will help his headache. The accidental drug overdose kills him in his sleep. When Stevo discovers Bob's body, he breaks down completely. At the funeral, he appears with a shaved head and changed clothing, having decided he is done with being a punk. He plans to go to Harvard, and earlier narration suggests that he eventually marries Brandy. He notes in his closing narration that his youthful self would probably kick his future self's ass, wryly describing himself as having been ultimately just another poser.

The "Tribes"
The film features several cliques presented as tribes. The film focuses primarily on the punk tribe, but includes several others as well:
 * Punks: Stevo, Bob, Sean, Megan, and Mike belong to this tribe, although Mike does not dress the part. The punks are rivals of the mods, nazis and rednecks.
 * Mods: Mods wear suits and ties, and they ride scooters. They are generally the rivals of the punks, but the character John the Mod acts as a diplomat who freely moves between the tribes.
 * Rednecks: Rednecks are rural Utah folk who wear trucker caps and flannel, and drive around in big trucks. Punks hate them for their conservative views.
 * Neo-Nazis: Neo-Nazis are white power skinheads who wear pseudo-military fatigues and Nazi armbands. Punks and mods are shown to hate them.
 * The Heavy Metal Guys: They have long hair and flannel. Not much else is known about them, except that Stevo explains that they are predatory toward the new wavers.
 * New Wavers: They are people who dress like new romantics and are said to be the least threatening of the tribes. They are described as being "the new hippies".

Cast

 * Matthew Lillard as Steven "Stevo" Levy
 * Christopher Ogden as young Stevo
 * Michael Goorjian as "Heroin" Bob Williams
 * Francis Capra as young Bob
 * Jason Segel as Mike
 * Annabeth Gish as Trish
 * Jennifer Lien as Sandy
 * Christopher McDonald as Mr. Levy
 * Devon Sawa as Sean the Beggar
 * Adam Pascal as “Mod” Eddie
 * Til Schweiger as Mark
 * James Duval as John the Mod
 * Summer Phoenix as Brandy

Production notes
The film was shot in an aggressive, highly kinetic style, with sweeping crane shots, fast dolly moves, and jump cuts.

Most of the film was shot on location in Salt Lake City, with a scene taking place in Evanston, Wyoming. Numerous scenes took place in locally well-known areas:
 * The high school, which Heroin Bob calls "Southeast High", is West High School near downtown Salt Lake City.
 * The scene where Heroin Bob chastises Stevo for using acid takes place at Presidents Circle at the University of Utah.
 * Stevo introduces the "poseurs" and gives his "Who Started Punk Rock?" speech at the now-defunct Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah. Sean's "women's clothing" job interview takes place inside a Cottonwood Mall storefront.
 * Stevo and Sandy drop acid at Memory Grove Park, a World War I memorial park.
 * Many exterior street scenes occur just north of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in the downtown area. The scene where Stevo and Sandy run into Sean begging was shot on Market Street. You can see The Felt and Boston Buildings in the background. Sean is standing in front of the old Odd Fellows Building which currently houses The Dennis Group Engineering consulting at 26 W Market Street. Trish's head shop was on the 200 block of E 300 S. The Broadway Plaza at 250 E 300 S is visible when Mark walks in.
 * The ECP concert was shot at the old Deseret News Paper Mill at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, posing as The SLC Indian Center.
 * The scenes depicting Heroin Bob's funeral were shot inside and outside The Cathedral of the Madeleine. The cathedral is located just east of downtown Salt Lake City.
 * The apartment where Stevo and Heroin Bob live was the Big D Construction building, across from Pioneer Park.
 * The store where they bought the "Wyoming Beer" is 'Porter's Fireworks and Liquor' on the outskirts of Evanston.

Soundtrack

 * 1) "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" - The Suicide Machines (originally performed by Lynn Anderson)
 * 2) "Sex and Violence" - The Exploited
 * 3) "I Love Livin' in the City" - Fear
 * 4) "1969" - The Stooges
 * 5) "Too Hot" - The Specials
 * 6) "Cretin Hop" - Ramones
 * 7) "Dreaming" - Blondie
 * 8) "Gangsters (song)" - The Specials
 * 9) "Kiss Me Deadly" - Generation X
 * 10) "Rock N' Roll" - The Velvet Underground
 * 11) "Gasoline Rain" - Moondogg
 * 12) "Mirror in the Bathroom" - Fifi (originally performed by The English Beat)
 * 13) "Amoeba (song)" - The Adolescents
 * 14) "Kill the Poor" - Dead Kennedys
 * 15) "Look Back and Laugh" - Minor Threat

Eight Bucks Experiment, the band portraying fictional English band ECP, were featured on a European release of the soundtrack. The three songs they recorded live for the punk concert scene were sent back to the band after filming. They self-released the songs on the One Of These Days EP through their Blue Moon Recordings label website.

Box office
The film premiered in the United States at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 1999. It received a wide release on April 16, 1999, grossing $36,218 on its opening weekend and amassing a total domestic gross of $299,569 by the time it left theaters.

Critical reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 62% on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Merging anarchic spirit with straightforward melodrama, SLC Punk is a hit-and-miss odyssey of youthful rebellion elevated by Matthew Lillard's dramatically potent star turn." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-out-of-four stars, praising Lillard's performance and writing that the film offers "a little something there for all of us". Janet Maslin, writing for The New York Times, called the film "likable for its outlandishness, less so when it shows a self-important streak". Dennis Harvey of Variety called it "energetic but poorly structured", writing that the film "doesn't quite grasp how its slick, flashy package undermines any actual punk cred". Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club wrote that "S.L.C. Punk! takes a potentially fascinating subject and reduces it to a mawkish compendium of film-festival clichés". David Luty of Film Journal International wrote a mostly negative review of the film, stating that it "cannot quite reach the richer depths it grasps for, because it doesn't have the material to support the large dramatic distance Stevo has to travel".

Sequel
In April 2013, director James Merendino announced that a sequel to SLC Punk! titled Punk's Dead would begin filming later in the year and would be released in 2014 with most of the original cast reprising their roles. The film was successfully funded by an Indiegogo campaign launched on October 27, 2013, and completed on January 15, 2014. Merendino said of the sequel, “I made SLC Punk! when I was a kid, and accordingly, the story is naive, and, as just a coming of age story, not finished. The characters are facing big questions, 18 years later, as outsiders, punk rockers… What relevance do they have in a world where all statements have already been made? In the years since I made SLC Punk!, it has found a rather large and supportive following who have been very kind to me. So in making a sequel, I feel I owe it to those people to really do it right."

In May 2014, the film was announced to be shooting in June, with its cast officially announced to include Devon Sawa, Michael Goorjian, Adam Pascal and James Duval returning as Sean, Heroin Bob, Eddie and John the Mod, respectively, with Ben Schnetzer appearing as Heroin Bob's son, Ross, Machine Gun Kelly as Crash, and Hannah Marks and Sarah Clarke portraying the female leads. Also in May, Matthew Lillard and Jason Segel, who starred in the original film, announced through social media that they would not be reprising their roles.

Comic book adaptation
In 1998, SLC Punk! was adapted into a comic book, illustrated by Dean Haspiel.

title: SLC Punk!


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Cycle rickshaw

The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale local means of transport. It is a type of hatchback tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for-hire basis. It is also known by a variety of other names such as bike taxi, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab, cyclo,  beca, becak, trisikad, sikad, tricycle taxi, trishaw, or hatchback bike.

While the rickshaw is pulled by a person on foot, the cycle rickshaw is human-powered by pedaling. By contrast, the auto rickshaw is motorized.

Overview
The first cycle rickshaws were built in the 1880s and were first used widely in 1929 in Singapore. Six years later, they outnumbered pulled rickshaws there. By 1950, cycle rickshaws were found in every south and east Asian country. By the late 1980s, there were an estimated 4 million cycle rickshaws worldwide.

The vehicle is generally pedal-driven by a driver, though some are equipped with an electric motor to assist the driver.

The vehicle is usually a tricycle, though some quadracycle models exist, and some bicycles with trailers are configured as cycle rickshaws. Some cycle rickshaws have gas or electric motors.

Passenger configuration
The configuration of driver and passenger seats varies. Generally the driver sits in front of the passengers to pedal the rickshaw. There are some designs, though, where the cyclist driver sits behind the passengers. In many Asian countries, like Bangladesh, India, and China, the passenger seat is located behind the driver, while in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam the cyclist driver sits behind the passenger. In the Philippines, the passenger seats are usually located beside the driver in a side car. Similar to this, passengers sit alongside the driver in both trishaw, in Singapore, and the sai kaa, in Burma.

Nomenclature
The cycle rickshaw is known by a variety of other names, including:
 * velotaxi (used in Germany)
 * pussuss (used in parts of France)
 * velotram (used in parts of France)
 * bikecab
 * cyclo (used in Vietnam and Cambodia)
 * pedicab (used in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada)
 * bike taxi (used in Buffalo, New York)
 * bicitaxi (used in Mexico)
 * taxi ecologico (used in Mexico)
 * trishaw
 * beca (used in Malaysia)
 * becak (used in Indonesia)
 * helicak (used in Indonesia) it is another version of becak but with engines, not manual pedals
 * traysikad, trisikad, sikad, or padyak (used in the Philippines)

Country overview
Not only are cycle rickshaws used in Asian countries, but they are also used in some cities in Europe and North America. They are used primarily for their novelty value, as an entertaining form of transportation for tourists and locals, but they also have environmental benefits and may be quicker than other forms of transport if traffic congestion is high. Cycle rickshaws used outside Asia often are mechanically more complex, having multiple gears, more powerful brakes, and in some cases electrical motors to provide additional power.

Madagascar
In Madagascar rickshaws, including cycle rickshaws or cyclo-pousse, are a common form of transportation in a number of cities. Rickshaws are known as pousse-pousse, meaning push-push, reportedly for the pulled rickshaws that required a second person to push the vehicles up hills. Cycles are more common in the hillier areas, like Toamasina.

Canada
In Canada there are pedicabs in operation in Victoria, British Columbia, and Vancouver, British Columbia. They are regulated in Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mexico
In Mexico, they are called bicitaxi or taxi ecologico (literally "ecological taxi").

United States
In many major cities, pedicabs can be found rolling about city centers, nightlife districts, park lands, sports stadiums, and tourist-heavy areas. Myriad uses have been discovered in the states, including car-park-to-event transport at large events nationwide. Thousands of pedicabs today operate on streets in locales including Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas; Manhattan, New York; Chicago, Illinois; San Diego and San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Miami, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; Nashville, Tennessee; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and dozens of other hot spots. Manhattan sports the largest collection of pedicabs operating within city limits, and the City of New York itself has mandated that approximately 850 pedicabs always sport operating permits issued by the city.

Pedicabs in the United States seem to have gotten their start at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.

Bangladesh
Cycle rickshaws (রিকশা riksha) are the most popular modes of transport in Bangladesh and are available for hire throughout the country including the capital city Dhaka, known as the "Rickshaw Capital of the World". They are either pedal or motor-powered. They were introduced here about 1938 and by the end of the 20th century there were 300,000+ cycle rickshaws in Dhaka.

Approximately 400,000 cycle rickshaws run each day. Cycle rickshaws in Bangladesh are also more convenient than the other public modes of transports in the country namely auto rickshaws, cabs and buses. They are mostly convertible, decorated, rickshaws with folding hoods and are the only kind of vehicles that can be driven in many neighbourhoods of the city with narrow streets and lanes. However, increasing traffic congestion and the resulting collisions have led to the banning of rickshaws on many major streets in the city. Urban employment in Bangladesh also largely depend on cycle rickshaws. Because of inflation and unemployment in the rural areas, people from villages crowd in the cities to become rickshaw drivers locally called the riksha-wala (রিকশাওয়ালা).

Cambodia
Cycle rickshaws are known as cyclo (pronounced see-clo) in Cambodia, derived from the French cyclo.

China
Since the 1950s, when the pulled rickshaw was phased out, mid-city and large city passengers may travel using three-wheeled pedicabs, or cycle rickshaws. The Chinese term for the conveyance is sanlunche (三轮车). The vehicles may be pedal- or motor-powered. In Shanghai, most of the vehicles are powered by electricity.

Tourists are warned to beware of over-charging vendors, especially who wear an "old fashioned costume" or are located near tourist locations.

Whilst many local tourism authorities still issue licences for rickshaw drivers to carry passengers, authorities in China are tightening rules in order to alleviate cheating of tourists and to reduce traffic congestion (e.g. a typical Chinese cycle-rickshaw will travel at less than 10 $km⁄h$ and is wide enough to fill an entire motor or bicycle lane and therefore are blamed as a major cause of traffic congestion), and have been banned in many cities already.

India

The first attempt of improving the existing cycle rickshaws and then converting them to electric ones was done by the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute in the late 1990s.

Service availability
Cycle rickshaws were used in Kolkata starting about 1930 and are now common in rural and urban areas of India.

Ecocabs and similar service
Navdeep Asija started a dial-a-cycle rickshaw concept known as Ecocabs, Environmental friendly Ecocabs operate in the Punjab towns of Fazilka, Amritsar. Central Delhi and Kolkata. Passengers may call to request transport service, similar to dial-up taxi cab operations.

In November 2010, Patiala GreenCABS, similar to Ecocabs, were introduced in the city by the local non governmental organisation (NGO) the Patiala Foundation.

Financing
In West Bengal the Rotaract Club of Serampore finances cycle rickshaw purchases so that unemployed people can begin their own rickshaw business. The loans are repaid from the workers' earnings. When paid in full, the rickshaw workers own their rickshaw and other unemployed individuals are entered into the program.

Soleckshaw
The Soleckshaw is a battery-electric assisted cycle rickshaw. The battery is designed to be charged or exchanged at centralised solar-powered charging stations. Developed by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, it was launched in Delhi in October 2008. However, in September 2010 it was reported that no Soleckshaws had been sold on a commercial basis, and the approximately 30 demonstration units, initially deployed in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dhanbad, Durgapur, Jaipur, and Kolkata, were "not in operation due to various local administrative and management problems", and the charging stations "are not being used at this point of time as the vehicles are not in operation at those locations".

The 2010 Union budget of India had a concessional excise duty of 4% on solar cycle rickshaws.

Indonesia
Cycle rickshaws in Indonesia are called becak (pronounced ). They began being used in Jakarta about 1936. Becak were considered an icon of the capital city of Jakarta prior to its ban in the 1970s. Citing concerns of public order, the city government forbade them on the city's main streets. Scenes of the anti-becak campaign appear in the 1971 Canadian film Wet Earth and Warm People, a documentary by Michael Rubbo. Despite the attempts at eradication, however, many becak still operate near slums throughout the city. Attempts at reinforcing the ban resulted in large-scale seizures of the vehicle in the late 1990s and in 2007. In 2018, Governor Anies Baswedan attempted to allow becak again because of a political contract with becak drivers during his campaign.

There are two types of "becak" in Indonesia: the first type is the driver sitting behind the passenger (similar to Dutch-style cargo bikes), the other one which mainly found in Sumatra is the driver sitting beside the passenger. "Becak" is still being used in various part of Indonesia, especially in smaller cities and town.

Malaysia
In Malaysia, pedestrian-pulled rickshaws were gradually replaced by cycle rickshaws (beca in Malay, from Hokkien bé-chhia 馬車 "horse cart"). Cycle rickshaws were ubiquitous up to the 1970s in cities. Since then, rapid urbanisation has increased demand for more efficient public transport, resulting in dwindling cycle rickshaw numbers. Today, cycle rickshaws are operated mostly as a tourist attraction, with small numbers operating in Malacca, Penang, Kelantan, and Terengganu.

Myanmar
In Myanmar, cycle rickshaws or trishaws (ဆိုက်ကား, directly pronounced as in the English word 'side car') came first into wide use in 1938, when the year-1300 revolution, which originated from the Chauk oil-field strike, inspired the people in Mandalay to have a consciousness of nationalism and to boycott British goods and services. The auto body technician Saya Nyo built the first trishaw in Mandalay by attaching a side-car to the side of an old bicycle. So two passengers are on the right of the driver.

Only two forms of transportation were then available in the city; the cab and the electric train. The latter could run only on six-mile tracks. Trishaws could reach every nook and cranny, so the spirit of nationalism plus the advantage of trishaws reaching everywhere made them so popular among Mandalayans that even the train company had to stop its business.

Nepal
In the Terai region of Nepal, cycle rickshaws are still the most popular means of public transport for short-distance commuting. Most big cities in the Terai have hundreds of cycle rickshaws that carry local commuters and travellers, and are also used for carrying goods. Since the Terai region is bordered with India, cycle rickshaws are also popular means for shoppers, businessmen and travellers to travel in and out of the country freely. The free border between India and Nepal enable the rickshaw owners from both countries to operate across the border without any restriction.

However, in Hilly regions of Nepal, cycle rickshaws are primarily used to attract tourists who can relax and travel around the popular streets and markets at reasonable fares. Cycle rickshaws are particularly popular among tourists to roam around the popular streets and markets of Thamel, Kathmandu.

Pakistan
The Cycle and Pulled rickshaw were banned in Pakistan in November 1991.

Philippines
In the Philippines, it is called a pedicab, traysikad, trisikad—or simply sikad or padyak, from the Philippine word meaning to tramp or stamp one's feet. It is made by mounting a sidecar to a regular bicycle. They are used mainly to ferry passengers short distances along smaller, more residential streets, often to or from jeepneys or other public utility vehicles. They are also used for transporting cargo too heavy to carry by hand and over a distance too short or roads too congested for motor transport, such as a live pig. During rainy seasons, they are useful as a way to avoid walking through flood waters. Along with the jeepney, the motorcycle-powered tricycle, and the engine-powered kuliglig, the open-air pedicab provides shade when needed.

Thailand
In Thailand, any three-wheeler is called (สามล้อ), whether motorised or not, including pedicabs, motorcycles with attached vending carts or sidecars, etc. The driver is also called .

Vietnam
Cycle rickshaws are known as xích lô (pronounced sick-low, from the French cyclo) in Vietnam. Cyclo was an invention of a french named P. Coupeaid, which was introduced in Cambodia and Saigon in 1939. From 2008 to 03/2012, due to the traffic obstruction, cyclos were totally forbidden in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces, except cyclo tours organised by tourist agencies. Another similar vehicle, a pedicab called xe lôi of the Mekong Delta, are now rarely found in some provinces such as Sóc Trăng, Vĩnh Long, and Châu Đốc. They are on their way to disappear.

Cyclo, a 1995 film about a cyclo driver, won the Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival.

Beyond their practical utility, cyclos held cultural significance in Saigon. They appeared in literature, art, and cinema, becoming emblematic of the city’s identity. From romantic rendezvous to everyday commutes, cyclos featured prominently in the daily lives of Saigonese residents.

Despite the challenges, efforts are underway to preserve the legacy of cyclo in Saigon. Some organizations are restoring vintage models, while others are promoting eco-friendly alternatives to traditional cyclos. These initiatives aim to celebrate the cultural heritage of these iconic vehicles and ensure their continued presence in the city.

Europe
Cycle rickshaws, also called pedicabs, are used in most large continental European cities.

Denmark
Copenhagen and Odense have pedicab service.

Finland
Cycle rickshaws are available for rent at Kaivopuisto in Helsinki. The rental company brought the vehicles from the city of Lappeenranta in 2009.

France
Most French cities have one or more pedicabs, locally known as PussPuss or VeloTaxi. Most common in Paris, Nantes, Lyon, Montpellier and Valence, these cities operate one or more units. France have pedicab vendors.

Germany
Lake Constance, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, and Hamburg offer cycle rickshaw, also called pedicab, service.

Velotaxi
In the 1990s, German-made cycle rickshaws called velotaxis were created. They are about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of regular taxis. Velotaxis are three-wheeled vehicles with a "space-age lightweight plastic cab that is open on both sides", a space for a driver, and behind the driver, space for two passengers. They have been made in Berlin, Germany, by Ludger Matuszewski, the founder of "Velotaxi GmbH" company. Velotaxis are often used for group functions like weddings. Under German traffic laws, transporting people on bicycles was forbidden.

Electric assist pedicabs
Berlin's Senate, police, and taxi associations finally agreed that the "cult-flitzer" could be integrated into the city's traffic flow. Germany's highest court later ruled that transporting people on bikes was legal. It is a modern and newly designed pedicab (CityCruiser) with a 500-watt electric assist motor. Although these electric-assist pedicabs were engineered in Germany they are manufactured in the Czech Republic and some clones are now also produced in China. The Chinese clone can be purchased for about 3,000 US dollars; the German original is around 6,000 US dollars (the newest version, 9000+ €). The batteries last about 4 hours with a full charge. As with a few recumbent and semi-recumbent designs, some drivers may suffer with knee and joint pain due to the weight of the vehicle (145 kg).

Hungary
Pedicab service is available in Budapest.

Ireland
Pedicabs operate in Cork and Dublin, Ireland.

Italy
Pedicab service is available in Florence, Milan, Rome, Bari.

The Netherlands
Pedicab service is available in Amsterdam, The Hague and in the Caribbean, at Willemstad.

Thomas Lundy of Amsterdam adapted his battery-electric assisted cycle rickshaw to become what he terms "semi-solar powered", resulting in a video report on Reuters.

Norway
Pedicab service is available in Oslo, Fredrikstad, Bergen, Porsgrunn, and Tønsberg.

Poland
During World War II, when Poland was under Nazi German occupation, the German authorities confiscated most privately owned cars and many of the streetcars and buses. Because of that, public transport was partially replaced by cycle rickshaws, at first improvised and with time mass-produced by bicycle factories. Cycle rickshaws became popular in Warsaw and by the start of the Warsaw Uprising were a common sight on the city's streets.

Pedicabs still can be found in most large cities in Poland from Łódź to Warsaw.

Spain
Alicante, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Málaga, San Sebastian, and Seville have pedicab service.

United Kingdom
Cycle rickshaws operate in central London, including Soho, Piccadilly, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden. Pedal Me is a pedicab company using electric cargo bikes to transport passengers and cargo across Central and Inner London. Rickshaws and pedicabs are found in the centre of Edinburgh where vendors are hired like taxis and provide tours. Pedicabs and their variants are also available in Oxford.

Australia
Two companies operate pedicabs in Sydney. Pedapod operate 'pod' styled cabs from Queen Victoria Buildings to Circular Quay. Tikki Tikki Australia operate more advanced 'classic' styled cabs from the Central Railway Station to Circular Quay and up to Kings Cross and down to Star City Casino.Tikki Tikki also has pedicabs and rickshaws in London and Vancouver

Pedicabs are also found in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, Perth, Gold Coast, Cairns, Townsville, Newcastle, and Byron Bay.

New Zealand
New Zealand has had pedicabs since the early 1990s. Auckland currently has 19 bikes mainly run by Bikeman and a few owner-operators.

Queenstown also has a fleet of Danish-made rickshaws run by a local entrepreneur.

Economics
In many Asian cities where they are widely used, cycle rickshaw driving provides essential employment for recent immigrants from rural areas, generally impoverished men. One study in Bangladesh showed that cycle rickshaw driving was connected with some increases in income for poor agricultural labourers who moved to urban areas, but that the extreme physical demands of the job meant that these benefits decreased for long-term drivers. In Jakarta, most cycle rickshaw drivers in the 1980s were former landless agricultural labourers from rural areas of Java.

In 2003, Dhaka cycle rickshaw drivers earned an estimated average of Tk 143 (US$2.38) per day, of which they paid about Tk 50 (US$0.80) to rent the cycle rickshaw for a day. Older, long-term drivers earned substantially less. A 1988–89 survey found that Jakarta drivers earned a daily average of Rp. 2722 (US$1.57). These wages, while widely considered very low for such physically demanding work, do in some situations compare favourably to jobs available to unskilled workers.

In many cities, most drivers do not own their own cycle rickshaws; instead, they rent them from their owners, some of whom own many cycle rickshaws. Driver-ownership rates vary widely. In Delhi, a 1980 study found only one per cent of drivers owned their vehicles, but ownership rates in several other Indian cities were much higher, including fifteen per cent in Hyderabad and twenty-two per cent in Faridabad. A 1977 study in Chiang Mai, Thailand found that 44% of cycle rickshaw drivers were owners. In Bangladesh, driver-ownership is usually highest in rural areas and lowest in the larger cities. Most cycle rickshaws in that country are owned by individuals who have only one or two of them, but some owners in the largest cities own several hundred.

Social aspects
In 2012 Ole Kassow, a resident of Copenhagen, wanted to help the elderly get back on their bicycles, but he had to find a solution to their limited mobility. The answer was a cycle rickshaw, and he started offering free cycle rickshaw rides to residents of a nearby nursing home. He then got in touch with a civil society consultant at the City of Copenhagen, Dorthe Pedersen, who was intrigued by the idea, and together they bought five cycle rickshaws and launched an organisation called Cycling Without Age, which has now spread to all corners of Denmark, and since 2015 to another 50 countries around the world.

Legislation
Some countries and cities have banned or restricted cycle rickshaws. They are often prohibited in congested areas of major cities. For example, they were banned in Bangkok in the mid-1960s as not fitting the modern image of the city being promoted by the government. In Dhaka and Jakarta, they are no longer permitted on major roads, but are still used to provide transportation within individual urban neighbourhoods. They are banned entirely in Pakistan. While they have been criticised for causing congestion, cycle rickshaws are also often hailed as environmentally-friendly, inexpensive modes of transportation.

In Taiwan, the Road Traffic Security Rules require pedicabs to be registered by their owners with the police before they can be legally driven on public roads, or risk an administrative fine of 300 new Taiwan dollars (TWD). Their drivers must carry the police registration documents or risk a fine of 180 TWD, but no driver licence is required. The administrative fines are based on Articles 69 and 71 of the Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road traffic Regulations. As Taiwanese road traffic is now heavily motorised, most pedicabs have been replaced by taxicabs, but they can still be found at limited places, such as Cijin District of Kaohsiung City.

Electric-assist pedicabs were banned in New York City in January 2008, the city council decided to allow pedicabs propelled only by muscle power. The city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has decided not to issue permits to electric-assist pedicabs.

Arts
As a key part of the urban landscape in many cities, cycle rickshaws have been the subject of films and other artwork, as well as being extensively decorated themselves. The cycle rickshaw in Dhaka is especially well known as a major medium for Bengali folk art, as plasticine cutouts and handpainted figures adorn many cycle rickshaws.

Films featuring cycle rickshaws and their drivers include Kickboxer and Sammo Hung's 1989 martial arts film Pedicab Driver, which dealt with a group of pedicab drivers and their problems with romance and organised crime. Cyclo, a 1995 film by Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, is centered on a cycle rickshaw driver. Tollywood films with cycle rickshaw themes include Orey Rickshaw ("Orey" literally means "Hey", in a derogatory tone), which tells a story sympathising with the downtrodden, and Rickshavodu ("Rickshaw Guy").

title: Cycle rickshaw


text:
Buddha (album)

Buddha is a demo album by the American rock band Blink-182. Recorded and released in January 1994 under the name Blink, it was the band's first recording to be sold and distributed. The band had recorded two previous demos in drummer Scott Raynor's bedroom—Flyswatter and Demo No.2—using a four track recorder. Most of the tracks from Buddha were re-recorded for the band's subsequent releases; seven were re-recorded for their debut album Cheshire Cat and one was re-recorded for their second album Dude Ranch.

The demo was originally released on the label Filter Records. In the early days of the band, Hoppus worked at the record store The Wherehouse, and became friends with his supervisor, Pat Secor. Hoping to start his own record label, Secor pulled money from his savings and helped finance and produce Buddha. The demo was recorded live at local Santee studio Doubletime, comprising nearly all of the songs the trio had written up to that point. Hoppus and friends Cam Jones and Kerry Key photographed the cassette inserts, and the original packaging was compiled by the band and Hoppus' family. Upon completion, the demo was locally distributed to several San Diego record stores, and was available for purchase at early concerts. Buddha helped the trio cement an audience and was a deciding factor in their signing to local label Cargo in 1993.

The recording became the subject of a legal dispute between the band and Secor several years later. The group accused Secor of selling the tape without paying royalties, and attempted to put a stop to his distribution with help of lawyer Joe Escalante of the Vandals, who also owned independent record label Kung Fu Records. Kung Fu remixed and remastered the demo, giving it a wider commercial reissue in October 1998. This edition deletes two original tracks for other recordings from the original session. Kung Fu has since reportedly sold 300,000 copies of Buddha. It is currently their only commercially available demo. In announcing the band's 2019 album Nine, Hoppus stated that he counted their studio albums beginning with Buddha.

Background
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb outside of San Diego, in August 1992. After Mark Hoppus graduated from high school in Ridgecrest, he relocated to San Diego to work at a record store and attend college. Tom DeLonge was kicked out of Poway High for attending a basketball game drunk and was forced to attend another local school for one semester. At Rancho Bernardo High School, he befriended Kerry Key, also interested in punk music. Key's girlfriend, Anne Hoppus, introduced her brother Mark to DeLonge on August 2, 1992. The two bonded instantly and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became "Carousel". DeLonge recruited friend Scott Raynor for drums, whom he met at a Rancho Bernado Battle of the Bands competition. Raynor was by far the youngest member of the trio at 14, and his event account differs significantly: he claims he and DeLonge formed the group after meeting at the Battle of the Bands and worked through a variety of bassists before meeting Hoppus.

The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending hours together writing music, attending punk shows and movies, and playing practical jokes. Hoppus and DeLonge would alternate singing vocal parts. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend was angered by her boyfriend's constant attention for the band and demanded him to make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band shortly after formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an avid surfing, skating and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups, Blink included, typically introduced more melodic aspects to their music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", but the band's popularity grew as did California punk rock concurrently in the mainstream.

The band's first performance was at a local high school during lunch, and soon the trio graduated to San Diego's Spirit Club and influential local shop Alley Kat Records. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as calling up local high schools convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong anti-drug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. The band soon became part of a circuit that also included the likes of Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and they found their way onto the bill as the opening band for local acts at SOMA, a local all-ages venue which they longed to headline. The band's equipment was piled into a blue station wagon for touring purposes and they first began to play shows outside San Diego.

Recording and production
Buddha was financed by Pat Secor, Hoppus' boss at Wherehouse Music in San Diego. Secor wanted to start his own record label and offered to help pay for costs. "He was like, hey, I'll front you the money, and we'll split the profits until you pay me back," recalled Hoppus in 2001. The two had met when Secor transferred from a north San Diego location. The two became friends quickly, despite Secor's seniority of post. "At that point they'd played around enough to get their chops up so I took all the money I had in savings and we went into the studio for two days," said Secor.

The recording sessions at Doubletime Studios in Santee, California took place in January 1994, and were scheduled around work and school commitments. Hoppus was sick at the time of recording. Despite this, the band carried on and the demo was complete within two days. "Buddha was cut live then we added the vocals. Two days and they were done – including the mix. It's quite standard for a young punk band to do that," said engineer Jeff Forrest. Despite this, the liner notes for the cassette claim it was recorded in twelve hours, while the later remaster of Buddha contend it was recorded "over three rainy nights." The trio were "super stoked" about a sound effects tape they found at the studio, and took time out to add in applause and laughter tracks because they deemed it humorous.

Hoppus and DeLonge took the songwriting for their first legitimate release very seriously. The two strove for perfection writing songs that they felt would be relatable. Blink also recorded joke tracks, as they felt that, in addition to the serious songs, "it was almost as important to make people laugh." DeLonge recalled that the band spent more time at the end of production on Buddha trying to perfect the joke songs rather than their serious tracks. The band's main influence on Buddha, according to DeLonge, was the Descendents. "I was trying to emulate that band. Really punchy guitars, fast, simple and formulaic nursery rhyme love songs," he said in 2012.

Packaging and release
The photographs in the original cassette release of Buddha were photographs taken by friend of the band Cam Jones. Kerry Key, drummer for the Iconoclasts and friend of the band, also is credited with artwork in the original cassette. To produce the artwork, Hoppus and Jones spent an afternoon together taking "artsy" photographs in and around Raynor's backyard. The cover art is a picture of a Budai statue (commonly mistaken in the west for statues of the Buddha, hence the demo title). The statue was a present from Hoppus' stepfather that the bassist grabbed on the way to Raynor's for the photos. After developing the photos, they took them to a copy shop to run off color copies. Afterwards, they cut, pasted and rearranged them until they found something suitable. The lyric sheets were handwritten and photocopied. Hoppus and his family in Ridgecrest would spend hours folding and combining pieces of artwork to compile the Buddha cassette. When this was complete, Hoppus would load the cassettes into his car and deliver them to local record stores around town.

"'I totally remember driving around to all the record stores to drop off tapes to sell. I'd go to Lou's Records, and Off the Record, and Music Trader. It was so cool because the tapes were actually selling, that's why I had to keep going back every week. Music Trader would have sold one copy, Off the Record sold two, or whatever. But that meant people were actually walking into a music store and buying something we had written and recorded. It was awesome.'"

The demo tape, which was originally untitled, came to be known by the name Buddha, and was released by Filter Records in 1994. Cassette copies of Buddha were also sold at early Blink concerts, alongside homemade T-shirts.

Re-release
The rights to Buddha and its associated recordings were the subject of a dispute between the band and Secor in later years. According to Secor, he and the band had a gentleman's agreement: he would pay for the costs of recording and manufacturing the tape, and in exchange would receive half of all the profits from it. According to Raynor, the oral agreement was that Secor would invest $1,000 and when that money was recouped, the band would have complete ownership of the work product. Secor helped the band sign to Cargo Music in 1994 using his connections at the label; he felt that by helping the briskly growing band sign a deal he could build his own label, Filter Records, in the wake of Blink's success. According to Secor, he attempted to contact the band to discuss the rights to the tape, but would only receive comments such as "Oh, let me call my manager and I'll call you right back." Secor asserted he should have the rights to the master tapes, having financed the entire production. He alleged that Cargo Music began calling him and making threats, and he could not afford to fight back and was unlikely to win since he had no written contract with the band. In 1996, Blink-182 signed a joint-venture deal with major label MCA Records, who Secor also said began calling him. "Try going up against that," he remarked in 2001.

The band began to grow suspicious that Secor was keeping all the money from selling copies of the Buddha cassette, and contacted their lawyer, Joe Escalante of the Vandals, who also owned independent record label Kung Fu Records. They informed Escalante that they believed "someone's bootlegging it," and requested his legal help to stop Secor. In exchange for legal fees, Blink-182 would allow Kung Fu Records to re-release Buddha on compact disc. The band had told Secor not to sell any more copies of the cassette, but suspected that he was still doing so. Escalante anonymously ordered a tape from Secor, and Secor sold it to him. Blink-182 asserted that they were not receiving royalties for these sales. "I paid off all of the royalties for the remaining stash of tapes that I had of Buddha," said Secor in 2001. "It was about 25. The tapes sold for five bucks, and I gave them half of what their profit would be. I wanted to have a few to give to people and to have on hand." Secor felt it was his right to sell his stock of the cassettes, since the band "had been paid royalties for that already."

Kung Fu re-released Buddha on CD and cassette in November 1998, and has since re-released the recording on vinyl and retains digital distribution. The remaster cleans and sharpens the sound of tracks, and contains a slightly different track listing. "They'd already sold 60,000 copies of Cheshire Cat, said Escalante, "and I thought, 'Man, if I can sell just 10% of that that would be great for the label,' and of course it sold a lot more because they went on to be superstars." In 2001 the label had reportedly sold 300,000 copies of Buddha. "At this point it's not even the money," Secor said at the time. "It's the fact that there is no mention of my work anywhere; no credit has been given to me."

Reception
Reviewing the 1998 re-release of Buddha for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated it three stars out of five, calling it a "promising debut" and "a solid skatepunk record that illustrates the group's flair for speedy, catchy hooks and irreverent humor." Rolling Stone viewed it, alongside proper debut album Cheshire Cat (1995) as "slapped together lilting melodies and racing beats in an attempt to connect emo and skate punk, a sort of pop hardcore." "This fast and furious beauty may have been recorded in two days, but it soon had the labels knocking at DeLonge and co's door," said Total Guitar in 2012.

Personnel
Blink
 * Mark Hoppus – vocals, bass
 * Tom DeLonge – vocals, guitar
 * Scott Raynor – drums

Production
 * Pat Secor – production
 * Jeff Forrest – mixing engineer

Design
 * Kerry Key and Cam Jones – cover art
 * Grace Walker – art direction (reissue)

title: Buddha (album)


text:
Cheshire Cat (Blink-182 album)

Cheshire Cat is the debut studio album by American rock band Blink-182 (then known as simply "Blink"), released on February 17, 1995, by Cargo Music. The trio, composed of guitarist Tom DeLonge, bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Scott Raynor, formed in 1992 and recorded three demos that impressed the San Diego–based Cargo label. In addition, their reputation as an irreverent local live act at venues such as SOMA alerted the label, who was seeking to expand into different genres.

Due to budget constraints, the album was recorded quickly with producer Otis Barthoulameu at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles. Producer Steve Kravac engineered the recording and advised the trio to record additional overdubs. As such, the band spent an additional week re-recording several tracks at Santee, California's Doubletime Studios. The album was originally released with the band's name as Blink, until an Irish band of the same name threatened legal action, after which the band appended "-182" to the end of their name.

Released during the breakthrough year for punk rock in California, the album brought the band great success in and outside of the San Diego skate punk scene. "M+M's" and "Wasting Time" were released as singles to promote the album, and received popularity locally through radio play. The band toured in support of the album vigorously, most notably on the GoodTimes Tour in 1995, which brought them outside of California for the first time. Cheshire Cat is cited by bands and fans as an iconic release, and has sold over 250,000 copies as of 2001.

Background
San Diego-based trio Blink-182, formed in 1992, first promoted itself by recording low-fi demos to distribute to local record stores and at concerts. The three eventually were playing concerts at local venues such as SOMA, which alerted local independent record label Cargo Music. Cargo was at the heart of San Diego's music scene, which was not particularly thriving but still produced several skate punk acts. Pat Secor, who funded the trio's demo Buddha and was the former boss of Hoppus, pulled for Blink's move to Cargo through a roommate who knew Cargo executives. Otis Barthoulameu, guitarist of local Cargo Music-signed act Fluf, saw potential in the young band and pushed them from the beginning. Eric Goodis, president of Cargo, wanted to diversify the label by incorporating different styles of music. His son, Brahm Goodis, thought Blink and their style of Southern California punk fit the bill and encouraged his father to listen to a tape. Together, Barthoulameu and Brahm Goodis convinced Eric Goodis to attend a live performance of the band.

Goodis invited the three musicians into his office and made the band an offer: he wanted to "start small" by releasing a 7-inch with the band. Blink were more interested in pursuing a full-length release; they had already saved money for a budget and made arrangements with a friend from a local band to record and release one on their own. Upon knowledge of this information, Goodis withdrew his original offer and signed the band on a trial basis. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. DeLonge has said that Goodis did not favor the band, and invented the Grilled Cheese imprint of Cargo in order to keep them away from the main label. The Cheshire Cat sessions were to be the last performance with the band for Raynor, whose family had moved to Reno, Nevada. Raynor stayed with his sister for the summer of 1994 in order to rehearse for the recording of their debut album. The band rehearsed in DeLonge's garage, where they wrote "M+M's".

Recording and production
The deal was completed and Blink immediately set off to record their debut at the famous Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles. DeLonge and Hoppus were excited, as the "hallowed ground" had hosted their influences Bad Religion, NOFX, Face to Face, and Ten Foot Pole. Raynor recalled the sessions: "Westbeach was where all the Epitaph bands had been recording at this time. I spent the whole time thinking, 'Greg Graffin probably sat in this chair', 'Brett Gurewitz probably stood in this doorway,' etc." Fueled by "some great, terrible Chinese food," the band were forced to record and mix the sixteen tracks in three days, once again recording under serious time constraints. Despite the fact that the band were now in possession of a contract with the biggest indie label in San Diego, Cargo were still not in a position to offer more than a few days' worth of finances to record the trio's first efforts for their new home.

Unfamiliar with the area, the trio got lost on their first day of recording, arriving at the studio three hours late. Blink got to work immediately, setting up Raynor's drums and beginning to lay down tracks. "We were working ten- to twelve-hours straight, hardly even breaking for food or anything," recalled Hoppus in 2001. The band made reservations at local hotel not far from the studio for a room with two double beds. Despite the request, the band were stuck with one king-size bed, with the three musicians sleeping three-across in one bed. DeLonge recorded through Bad Religion guitarist Gurewitz's amp, and also accidentally broke his microphones. Producer Steve Kravac was the engineer for the album, and the trio made an immediate impression on him with their humor and eagerness. Kravac set the trio up and recorded most of Cheshire Cat live, and there were few retakes, which would lead to the record's raw appeal.

Kravac pleaded with a frustrated DeLonge and Hoppus (who was "try[ing] to make the best of it") to book more time for overdubs. According to Jeff Forrest, the band eventually decamped to more familiar surroundings of Doubletime Studios in Santee, California, where they recorded Buddha. The trio booked the studio for one week to allow time for additional recording. Still, recording progressed quickly at Doubletime according to Forrest, and the record was mixed as they went along. Forrest suggested a line ("In my town you can't drive naked") for "Wasting Time" while Hoppus was recording his vocals for the track. Despite the lost time and the pressure of limited resources, the recording went well. When completed, the quality of the recording was "near perfect" to the young band. As it was, Raynor moved to Reno and was replaced briefly with school friend Mike Krull. Hoppus and DeLonge wanted Raynor back, and Raynor moved back to San Diego to live with Hoppus and his family.

Artwork
The album's title and cover artwork originated from a calendar DeLonge had purchased. His day job in the first years of the band was hauling bags of concrete. While at work at an industrial park warehouse, a foreign salesman going door-to-door approached him with the calendar, which showcased photographs of cats. DeLonge found the calendars offbeat and showed Hoppus, who likened a photo of a Siamese cat with intensely colored eyes to the famous character from the Lewis Carroll novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The band's request to use the photo was denied by the calendar company, however, the band employed Cargo's art department to computer enhance the photo until the band was safe from copyright infringement. DeLonge joked in 2020 that it was the "worst album cover ever".

Music
DeLonge, at the time of its release, called the album's musical style "not punk rock [...] We're nothing like the Sex Pistols, but our music kind of flowed from this genre of fast music with melody." The Los Angeles Times described the album's lyrical themes in a 1995 profile: "Most of blink-182's songs poke fun at their own youthful escapades, focusing on raging hormones, candy, masturbation, intestinal gas and other topics of interest to adolescents." The refusal to grow up, which arises in many later Blink-182 songs (most notably "What's My Age Again?") is a common lyrical theme on the record. The album's sound is inspired by punk groups the band idolized, such as the Vandals, the Descendents and NOFX. "Every song of ours is a version of another punk song that I've heard and tried to make better," DeLonge remarked at the time. "In the end, ours wind up a little different, but I know where the influence came from, and I think it's important to acknowledge that." A number of the tracks on Cheshire Cat are recycled from the band's previous demos.

"Carousel" is the record's first track, which also opened the Filter cassette demo Buddha. The song had its genesis in the very first jam session between Hoppus and DeLonge in 1992. It contains skate punk influences and has been described as "a satisfyingly fast-assed punk song in the vein of NOFX with some very adept dynamic breakdowns." The record's first single, "M+M's", follows, which is based around power chords and Hoppus' lead vocal of a vacation elsewhere. Track three, "Fentoozler" is another recycled song from Buddha. "Touchdown Boy" is written about being "the hero who always gets the girl." It is based around a school friend the trio knew and originally included his name, until the band thought better and toned it down. "Strings" follows, and "Peggy Sue" afterward, which is about "holding off from being aggressive when other people are telling you what to do."

"Sometimes" carries on the relationship theme, and "Does My Breath Smell?" has been described as "[DeLonge] singing some self-searching lyrics over a subdued riff" that later "[slams] into mosh-melting territory ... with one of the most economical lead guitar counterpoints to the layered vocals so far." The following track, "Cacophony" is slower-paced and revolves around a relationship in which confusion reigns due to the imbalance of enthusiasm between both involved. Shooman writes that "the lyrics are unguarded and show a sensitive side of Blink that's quite often been somewhat obfuscated over the years by the popular perception of the band as goons goofing off." "TV" asserts that television is a vital part of life, and the recycled "Toast and Bananas" follows. "Wasting Time", which became the record's second and final single, is sung by Hoppus, longing for the object of his affection. "Romeo and Rebecca", likewise, argues that the object of his affection, and the fairer sex as a whole are a waste of time. Three more tracks close out Cheshire Cat, all of which are joke tracks, "Ben Wah Balls," "Just About Done," and, "Depends."

Release and reception
Cheshire Cat was released through Cargo Music on February 17, 1995, on cassette. Initially, Goodis bet DeLonge the album would only sell 3,000 copies; by 2001, over 250,000 copies of the debut were sold. A CD release of the album occurred in 1995, and a vinyl version was released in small quantities in 1996. Along with the re-release of Buddha in November 1998, Cheshire Cat was re-released and received national distribution for the first time. Cheshire Cat has been called an iconic release by bands and fans. As an independent release, very few reviews were published upon initial release. Retrospective reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three out of five stars and wrote that "the group is rather scattershot here, hitting the target as often as they miss it," noting that the release is better suited to more involved fans. Rolling Stone would rate the record at two and a half stars in 2001, describing it as "slapped together lilting melodies and racing beats in an attempt to connect emo and skate punk, a sort of pop hardcore." Website AbsolutePunk called Cheshire Cat a "good early indicator of what Blink-182 would turn out to be. Their sound wasn’t quite as polished, but they were certainly miles ahead of a lot of their peers at the time." At Fuse, it was list as one of the "strongest" pop-punk debut albums by Marie Sheyman, who added "they made the punk rock they loved even catchier". Cheshire Cat was a strong seller for an independent band, despite the fact that popularity grew in the form of unauthorized CD copies across the country. The band were acquiring legions of new fans and radio play, and the buzz created by the album inspired manager Rick DeVoe to call Hoppus, wanting to manage the band. DeLonge threw together a crude "press kit" for DeVoe, which included photocopies of fanzines, reviews, and some cartoons drawn by DeLonge. The band members were ecstatic when DeVoe signed on with the band, as he promoted larger bands such as Pennywise, NOFX, and The Offspring. The attention also brought forth calls from Rick Bonde, of the Tahoe Agency, a booking agency based out of Lake Tahoe that worked with big punk and ska names such as Sublime. The husband-and-wife team of Rick and Jean Bonde, who owned and operated the company, began arranging shows for the band and minitours that gave Blink their first promotion outside of San Diego.

Mike Halloran, disc jockey at XETRA-FM (branded on-air as 91X), made "M+M's" a regular part of his radio show playlist, which Hoppus cites as the first person to play the band. When DeLonge first heard their song on the radio while driving in his car, he rolled down his window, "yelling at everyone to turn their damn radios on." The single was a local success and Cargo offered the band a small budget ($10,000) to film a music video. Darren Doane, who had previously worked with MxPx and Pennywise, directed the clip. "We weren't planning on doing anything with that video except hoping it got on a surf video or something," said Hoppus. A Cargo Music employee presented the video to MTV, but network executives "threw the tape out" upon seeing guns in the film. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of an Irish techno band, also named Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the band, demanding to "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.

The band also received their first profile in the Los Angeles Times in December 1995, which praised the album but questioned their authenticity and "punk" label. "I mean, is it the retro rock of England's Exploited, the anarchy of the Ramones or the political focus of Bad Religion? Punk has gone off in so many different directions that you can't really classify it anymore," DeLonge said. "People said Elvis Costello was punk when he first came out."

Touring and GoodTimes
The band expanded their fan-base outside of San Diego by embarking on their first national tour shortly after the release of Cheshire Cat. Alongside 7 Seconds and Unwritten Law, the band travelled in a small convoy of cars, being too young and broke to afford a van. Unwritten Law loaned the band their van, named "The Cock", for their first out-of-town gig in Reno, Nevada, and it broke before they were able to make it back. The band eventually purchased a Chevy Beauville tour van they christened "The Millennium Falcon". Through new manager Rick DeVoe's connections, the band broke through the surf/snowboarding scene by appearing on the surf video GoodTimes. The video was financed by Taylor Steele, friend of DeVoe, who wanted to put together a tour in support of the tape.

The GoodTimes Tour of October 1995, featuring the aforementioned bands and Sprung Monkey, introduced the trio to the south and east and was the band's first national tour. The trip was not without its incidents: DeLonge was arrested for underage drinking on Halloween 1995 in Jacksonville, Florida, and on another occasion, a small riot broke out between bouncers using excessive force and fans. The trio desperately wanted to continue on the second leg of the tour in Australia but lacked the funds; the members of Pennywise helped out and bought the band's plane tickets. Raynor recalled the tour fondly in 2010: "Honestly, the shows went well. We always got a good reaction, and the next time we came around we had more fans and better floors to sleep on — some with carpet!" Hoppus' sister, Anne, made T-shirts and described the tour: "Any money made goes back into the gas fund. You only have five dollars and it has to feed you all day. You eat nothing but crappy fast food, or on a good night, Denny's."

Early 1996 saw the three trekking to Alaska to perform and compete in a King of the Hill snowboarding contest. It was the site of an infamous prank fight between the members of the band and Pennywise that ended with local police being called and hotel security banning them. The band's first headlining tour took place afterward, and the following February dates — later dubbed the "Shitty Weather" tour — found the band performing through a harsh rain and snow. A seventeen-hour drive to Quebec City found DeLonge driving the entire way, unable to see through a snowstorm ("the biggest to hit the Northeast in forty years"). By March 1996, major labels began courting the band and the trio signed a joint-venture deal with MCA Records to distribute their sophomore effort, Dude Ranch, to be recorded that winter.

In all, the group toured the US three times and went to Alaska, Australia and Hawaii twice. "It's tiring," DeLonge told Thrasher in November 1996. "Then again, I just remember I used to work at this stupid job. I think about that, and I realize I'm not that bad off."

Personnel
Blink-182
 * Mark Hoppus – bass, vocals
 * Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
 * Scott Raynor – drums

Artwork
 * Jeff Motch – cover layout and design

Additional musicians
 * Matt Houts – additional vocals on "Ben Wah Balls"

Production
 * O – production
 * Steve Kravac – mixing engineer, co-producer
 * Jeff Forrest ("The King of Santee") – mixing engineer, additional lyrics on "Wasting Time"

title: Cheshire Cat (Blink-182 album)


text:
The Sword in the Stone (novel)

The Sword in the Stone is a 1938 novel by British writer T. H. White. First published by Collins in the United Kingdom as a stand-alone work, it later became the first part of a tetralogy, The Once and Future King. A fantasy of the boyhood of King Arthur, it is a sui generis work which combines elements of legend, history, fantasy, and comedy. Walt Disney Productions adapted the story to an animated film, and the BBC adapted it to radio.

Time included the novel in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time. In 2014, The Sword in the Stone was awarded a retrospective Hugo Award for Best Novel for 1939.

Background
The premise is that Arthur's youth, not dealt with in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485), was a time when he was tutored by Merlyn to prepare him for the use of power and royal life. Merlyn magically turns him into various animals at times, and he also has more human adventures. The setting is loosely based on Medieval England, and in places it incorporates White's considerable knowledge of medieval culture (e.g., hunting, falconry and jousting). However, it makes no attempt at consistent historical accuracy, and incorporates some obvious anachronisms.

Plot of the Once and Future King version
The Wart is an orphan boy being raised by Sir Ector in the Castle Sauvage surrounded by the Forest of the same name. Alongside Ector's son Kay, Wart is training as a knight, although he can only rise to be Kay's squire because he is of common birth. Chasing a tiercel goshawk that Kay had let get away during their falconry practice, Wart gets lost in the Forest Sauvage. He is shot at by an unseen bowman, and he encounters King Pellinore who is busy hunting the Questing Beast. Eventually, he meets the wizard Merlyn who is living backward in time, and frequently speaks of things that he has seen in the future.

Wart and Merlyn return to Ector's castle, and the wizard becomes the boys' tutor. He pays special attention to Wart. Merlyn turns him into a fish, and together they explore the castle's moat. In one of their excursions, the boys and Merlyn encounter Little John, who leads them to Robin Hood (referred to as Robin Wood) and Marian. Their extended stay with Robin culminates in an encounter with a griffin. Kay manages to slay the beast, taking its head as a trophy. During the fray, the griffin breaks the Wart's collar bone.

While Wart is stuck in bed, Merlyn sends a spell through his bedroom keyhole to turn him into an ant. Wart crawls into the ant farms in his room and learns that ants think in binary terms of "Done" or "Not Done". After his clavicle heals, Merlyn later changes Wart into a badger, and then a wild goose that flies so high as to not be able to perceive national boundaries, a pacifist message. Wart is confused about why he is tasked with keeping watch while the other geese eat. He assumes that he is meant to look out for rival geese, but the very notion that geese would eat their own kind is offensive to them.

When Kay is ready to be knighted, Sir Ector and his retinue travel to London, where he owns some property. As Kay approaches the tournament field, he realizes that he has left his sword back at the inn. Wart is sent back to retrieve it, but finds the inn locked. He finds a sword stuck in an anvil atop a stone in a churchyard. When Wart touches the sword, his senses heighten. He is unable to pull it out, but as he tries again, the voices of all the animals and friends he has made give him encouragement and remind him of the lessons they taught him. On the third try, the sword comes loose, and Wart rushes to Kay with it.

When Kay learns that Wart pulled it from the anvil, he knows it is the sword that will determine Uther Pendragon's successor. He tells Sir Ector that he pulled it from the stone. However, when Ector asks him to replicate the feat, Kay admits that Wart was responsible. Wart is terrified when Sir Ector and Kay bow to him as their King.

After he is crowned, Wart is given gifts from all over the world and from his friends, both animal and human. Sir Ector sends him a dunce cap, which transforms into Merlyn. The wizard explains that Wart is Uther's son, and that his real name is Arthur.

Revisions
The English Collins first edition was partially rewritten for Putnam in America.

The version appearing in 1958 in the tetralogy was substantially revised, partly to incorporate events and themes that White had originally intended to cover in a fifth volume (which was finally published after his death, as The Book of Merlyn). To this end, the revised version includes several new episodes, including the ant and goose episodes, but leaves out some of the episodes that had appeared in the original (e.g. Merlyn's battle with Madam Mim which appeared in the Disney film). Some critics considered the revised version to be inferior to the original. Publishers have tended to carry on using the original versions when they were published independently of the tetralogy.

Film
Walt Disney made an animated film adaptation of The Sword in the Stone, first released on 25 December 1963 by Buena Vista Distribution. Similar to many Disney films, it is based on the general plot of the original story, but much of the substance and depth of the story is considerably changed.

Radio dramatization
The BBC broadcast a six-part radio dramatisation in 1939, with incidental music by Benjamin Britten. A single surviving 25-minute episode, Wart and the Hawks, is available to stream online. It was revived in 1952, following re-discovery of Britten's score after it had been thought lost. A further BBC radio adaptation in 1982 starred Michael Hordern as Merlyn. Hordern had already starred as another famous wizard, Gandalf, in the BBC's 1981 radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

title: The Sword in the Stone (novel)