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Dogville

Dogville is a 2003 arthouse experimental avant-garde film written and directed by Lars von Trier, and starring an ensemble cast led by Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Chloë Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Ben Gazzara, Patricia Clarkson, Harriet Andersson, and James Caan with John Hurt narrating. It is a parable that uses an extremely minimal, stage-like set to tell the story of Grace Mulligan (Kidman), a woman hiding from mobsters, who arrives in the small mountain town of Dogville, Colorado, and is provided refuge in return for physical labor.

The film is the first in von Trier's incomplete USA – Land of Opportunities trilogy, which was followed by Manderlay (2005) and is projected to be completed with Washington. The film was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. It was screened at various film festivals before receiving a limited release in the US on March 26, 2004.

Dogville opened to polarized reviews from critics. Some considered it to be pretentious or exasperating; it was viewed by others as a masterpiece, and has widely grown in stature since its initial release. It was later included in the 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000 conducted by BBC. Filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Denis Villeneuve have praised the film.

Plot structure
The story of Dogville is told in nine chapters and a prologue, with a one-sentence description of each chapter given in the film, in the vein of such chapter headings in many 19th-century novels. These descriptions are given below.

Prologue

 * Which introduces us to the town and its residents

Dogville is a very small American town by an abandoned silver mine in the Rocky Mountains, with a road leading up to it and nowhere else to go but the mountains. The film begins with a prologue in which a dozen or so of the fifteen citizens are introduced. They are portrayed as lovable, good people with small flaws which are easy to forgive.

The town is seen from the point of view of Tom Edison Jr., an aspiring writer and philosopher who procrastinates by trying to get his fellow citizens together for regular meetings on the subject of "moral rearmament". It is clear that Tom wants to succeed his aging father, a physician, as the moral and spiritual leader of the town.

Chapter 1

 * In which Tom hears gunfire and meets Grace

It is Tom who first meets Grace Mulligan, who is on the run from gangsters who presumably shot at her. Grace wishes to keep running, but Tom assures her that the mountains ahead are too difficult to pass. As they talk, the gangsters approach the town, and Tom quickly hides Grace in the nearby mine. One of the gangsters asks Tom if he has seen the woman, which he denies. The gangster then offers him a reward and hands him a card with a phone number to call in case Grace shows up.

Tom decides to use Grace as an "illustration" in his next meeting—a way for the townspeople to prove that they are indeed committed to community values, can receive a gift, and are willing to help the stranger. They remain skeptical, so Tom proposes that Grace should be given a chance to prove that she is a good person. Grace is accepted for two weeks in which, as Tom explains to her after the meeting, she must gain the friendship and trust of the townspeople.

Chapter 2

 * In which Grace follows Tom's plan and embarks upon physical labor

On Tom's suggestion, Grace offers to do chores for the citizens—talking to the lonely, blind Jack McKay, helping to run the small shop, looking after the children of Chuck and Vera, and so forth. After some initial reluctance, the people accept her help in doing those chores that "nobody really needs" but which nevertheless make their lives easier. As a result, she becomes an accepted part of the community.

Chapter 3

 * In which Grace indulges in a shady piece of provocation

In tacit agreement Grace is expected to continue her chores, which she does gladly, and is even paid small wages which she saves up to purchase a set of seven expensive porcelain figurines, one at a time, from Ma Ginger's shop. Grace begins to make friends, including Jack, who pretends that he is not blind. She earns his respect upon tricking him into admitting that he is blind. Once the two weeks are over, everyone votes at the town meeting that Grace should be allowed to stay.

Chapter 4

 * Happy times in Dogville

Things go well in Dogville until the police arrive to place a "Missing" poster featuring Grace's picture and name on the mission house. With the townspeople divided as to whether they should cooperate with the police, the mood of the community darkens somewhat.

Chapter 5

 * Fourth of July after all

Still, things continue as usual until the 4th of July celebrations. After Tom awkwardly admits his love to Grace which she reciprocates and the whole town expresses their agreement that it has become a better place thanks to her, the police arrive again to replace the "Missing" poster with a "Wanted" poster. Grace is now wanted for participation in a bank robbery. Everyone agrees that she must be innocent, since at the time the robbery took place, she was doing chores for the townspeople every day.

Nevertheless, Tom argues that because of the increased risk to the town now that they are harboring someone who is wanted as a criminal, Grace should provide a quid pro quo and do more chores for the townspeople within the same time, for less pay. At this point, what was previously a voluntary arrangement takes on a slightly coercive nature as Grace is clearly uncomfortable with the idea. Still, being very amenable and wanting to please Tom, Grace agrees.

Chapter 6

 * In which Dogville bares its teeth

At this point the situation worsens, as with her additional workload, Grace inevitably makes mistakes, and the people she works for seem to be equally irritated by the new schedule—and take it out on Grace. The situation slowly escalates, with the male citizens making small advances to Grace and the females becoming increasingly critical and abusive. Even the children are perverse: Jason, the 10-year-old son of Chuck and Vera, asks Grace to spank him, until she finally complies after much provocation (von Trier has noted that this is the first point in the film where it is clear how completely Grace's lack of social status and choices makes her vulnerable to other people manipulating her). The hostility towards Grace finally reaches a turning point as well when Chuck rapes her in his home.

Chapter 7

 * In which Grace finally gets enough of Dogville, leaves the town, and again sees the light of day

That evening, Grace tells Tom what happened and he starts to form a plan for her escape. The next day, Vera confronts Grace for spanking her son Jason and Liz informs her that a few people saw Tom leave her shack very late the night before, casting suspicions on her virtue. The next evening, she is confronted again by Vera, Liz and Martha in her shack. Martha witnessed a sexual encounter between Chuck and her in the apple orchard. Vera blames her for seducing her husband and decides to punish Grace by destroying the figurines. Grace begs her to spare them and tries to remind Vera of all the good things she has done for her including teaching her children the philosophy of stoicism. Vera cruelly uses it against her while destroying the figurines she worked hard for, claiming that she will stop smashing them if Grace refrains from crying. Grace goes to Tom that evening and they decide to bribe the freight truck driver Ben to smuggle her out of town in his truck. En route, she is raped by Ben, after which he returns Grace to Dogville.

The town agrees that they must not let her escape again. The money paid to Ben to help Grace escape had been stolen by Tom from his father—but when Grace is blamed for the theft, Tom refuses to admit he did it because, as he explains, this is the only way he can still protect Grace without people getting suspicious. So, Grace finally becomes a slave: she is chained, repeatedly raped, and abused by the people of the town. She is also humiliated by the children who ring the church bell every time she is violated, much to Tom's disgust.

Chapter 8

 * In which there is a meeting where the truth is told and Tom leaves (only to return later)

This culminates in a late-night general assembly in which Grace—following Tom's suggestion—relates calmly all that she has endured from everyone in town, then heads back to her shack. Embarrassed and in complete denial, the townspeople finally decide to turn her over to the mobsters—assuming that Grace will be executed. As Tom tells Grace this, declaring his allegiance to her over the town, he attempts to make love to her. Still chained, she responds to his advances by saying "it would be so beautiful, but from the point of view of our love so completely wrong. We were to meet in freedom." She questions if thoughts of using force against her are in fact why he is so upset, noting that he could have her if he wants—all he needs to do is threaten her to get his way, as the others have done. Tom defends his intentions as pure, but upon reflection realizes that what she says is true. Shaken by self-doubt, he decides it would jeopardize his career as a philosopher if this doubt were allowed to grow. To rid himself of its source, he decides to personally call the mobsters and turn Grace over. Grace, exhausted and faced with yet another bed to make, sees no end to the mundane drudgery of her position in Dogville. She is surprised when she mutters to herself, "Nobody's gonna sleep here." Her "ominous" words echo those of Pirate Jenny and foreshadow doom in Dogville.

Chapter 9 and ending

 * In which Dogville receives the long-awaited visit and the film ends

When the mobsters finally arrive, they are welcomed cordially by Tom and an impromptu committee of other townspeople. Grace is then freed by the indignant henchmen, and her true identity is revealed: she is the daughter of a powerful gang leader who ran away because she could not stand his dirty work. Her father motions her into his Cadillac and argues with her about issues of morality. After some introspection, Grace reverses herself and comes to the conclusion that Dogville's crimes cannot be excused due to the difficulty of their circumstances. Tom, who has become aware that the mobsters pose a threat to himself and the town, is momentarily remorseful, but rapidly descends into rationalization for his actions. Grace sadly returns to her father's car, accepts his power, and uses it to command that Dogville be removed from the earth.

Grace tells the gangsters to make Vera watch her children die, one by one, as punishment for destroying her figurines. She instructs them only to stop killing the children if Vera can refrain from crying, stating that she "owes her that". Dogville is burned to the ground and all of its inhabitants brutally massacred with the exception of Tom, whom she executes personally with a revolver right after he applauds the effectiveness of her use of illustration as an attempt to get her to spare him. After the massacre, the gangsters hear a barking sound from one of the houses. It is the dog Moses. A gangster aims a gun at the dog, but Grace commands that he should live: "He's just angry because I once took his bone." The chalk drawing of Moses becomes a real dog as his barks lead into the credits. The credits show a series of documentary photos of poverty-stricken Americans from Jacob Holdt's American Pictures (1984), accompanied by the song "Young Americans" by David Bowie.

Pilot
Dogville: The Pilot was shot during 2001 in the pre-production phase to test whether the concept of chalk lines and sparse scenery would work. The 15-minute pilot film starred Danish actors Sidse Babett Knudsen (as Grace) and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (as Tom). Eventually Lars von Trier was happy with the overall results. Thus, he and the producers decided to move forward with the production of the feature film. The test pilot was never shown in public, but is featured on the second disc of the Dogville (2003) DVD, released in November 2003.

Staging
The story of Dogville is narrated by John Hurt in nine chapters and takes place on a stage with minimalist scenery. Some walls and furniture are placed on the stage, but the rest of the scenery exists merely as white painted outlines which have big labels on them; for example, the outlines of gooseberry bushes have the text "Gooseberry Bushes" written next to them. While this form of staging is common in black box theaters, it has rarely been attempted on film before—the Western musical Red Garters (1954) and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) being notable exceptions. The bare staging serves to focus the audience's attention on the acting and storytelling, and also reminds them of the film's artificiality. As such it is heavily influenced by the theatre of Bertolt Brecht. (There are also similarities between the song "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny") in Brecht and Kurt Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) and the story of Dogville. Chico Buarque's version of this song, "Geni e o Zepelim" [Geni and the Zeppelin], deals with the more erotic aspects of abjection and bears striking similarity to von Trier's cinematic homage to the song.) The film used carefully designed lighting to suggest natural effects such as the moving shadows of clouds, and sound effects are used to create the presence of non-existent set pieces (e.g., there are no doors, but the doors can always be heard when an actor "opens" or "closes" one).

The film was shot on high-definition video using a Sony HDW-F900 camera in a studio in Trollhättan, Sweden.

Interpretations
According to von Trier, the point of the film is that "evil can arise anywhere, as long as the situation is right".

Film review show At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper criticized Dogville as having a strongly anti-American message, citing, for example, the closing credits sequence with images of poverty-stricken Americans which were taken from Jacob Holdt's documentary book American Pictures (1984), and accompanied by David Bowie's song "Young Americans".

Critical response
Dogville polarised critics upon its United States theatrical release, with Metacritic giving it a score of 61 ("Generally favourable reviews") and the Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus for it stating simply, "A challenging piece of experimental filmmaking." 70% of critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7/10, based on 168 reviews. Many hailed it as an innovative and powerful artistic statement, while others considered it to be an emotionally detached or even misanthropic work. In The Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "For passion, originality, and sustained chutzpah, this austere allegory of failed Christian charity and Old Testament payback is von Trier's strongest movie—a masterpiece, in fact." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3.5/4 stars, praising Kidman's performance and dubbing it "a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." Scott Foundas of LA Weekly described it as a work of "boldness, cutting insight, [and] intermittent hilarity", and interpreted it as "a potent parable of human suffering." In Empire, Alan Morrison wrote that "Dogville, in a didactic and politicised stage tradition, is a great play that shows a deep understanding of human beings as they really are."

In the Los Angeles Times, on the other hand, Manohla Dargis dismissed it as "three hours of tedious experimentation." Richard Corliss of Time argued that von Trier lacked humanity and wrote that the director "presumably wants us to attend to his characters' yearnings and prejudices without the distractions of period furnishings. It's a brilliant idea, for about 10 minutes. Then the bare set is elbowed out of a viewer's mind by the threadbare plot and characterizations." Roger Ebert, who gave it two out of four stars, felt that the film was so pedantic as to make von Trier comparable to a crank, and viewed it as "a demonstration of how a good idea can go wrong." In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sean Axmaker said, "There's no denying von Trier is visually intriguing. ... But as an artist, his contempt for humanity is becoming harder to hide with stylistic flourish." Charles Taylor of Salon additionally responded to allegations of the film's anti-Americanism with the charge that it was "anti-human", and said that it was "as total a misanthropic vision as anything control freak Stanley Kubrick ever turned out"—while personally admitting that he felt von Trier was as deliberate a filmmaker as Kubrick.

Later, Dogville was named one of the greatest films of its decade in The Guardian, The List, and Paste. In 2016, it was ranked one of the 100 greatest motion pictures in a critics' poll conducted by BBC Culture. It was listed the 37th best film of the same time period by The Guardian critics. According to aggregator They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, it is the 15th most acclaimed film since 2000.

American director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino has named the film as one of the 20 best to have been released during the time of his active career as a director; (which was between 1992 and 2009 when he was interviewed) he said that if it had been written for the stage, von Trier would have won a Pulitzer Prize.

Box office
The film grossed $1,535,286 in the US market and $15,145,550 from the rest of the world for a total gross of $16,680,836 worldwide. In the opening US weekend it did poorly, grossing only $88,855. The movie was released in only nine theaters, with an average of $9,872 per theater. In Denmark, the film grossed $1,231,984. The highest-grossing country was Italy, with $3,272,119.

"Best-of" lists
Dogville made many 2004 top-ten lists:
 * 1st – Mark Kermode, BBC Radio Five Live
 * 2nd – J. Hoberman, Village Voice
 * 3rd – Overall, Village Voice
 * 4th – Dennis Lim, Village Voice
 * 5th – Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
 * 8th – J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
 * n/a – David Sterritt, The Christian Science Monitor
 * n/a – Ron Stringer, LA Weekly

The film received nine votes (with six from critics and three from directors) in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls.

title: Dogville


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List of Hindi television channels

Unless noted otherwise, all active channels have Stereo | 2.0 audio.

Rajasthan

 * First India News Rajasthan
 * India News Rajasthan
 * Jan TV
 * News18 Rajasthan
 * Zee Rajasthan

Haryana

 * India News Haryana

Delhi NCR

 * Zee Delhi NCR Haryana

Business news channels

 * CNBC Awaaz
 * ET Now Swadesh
 * Zee Business

Defunct channels

 * Dilli Aaj Tak
 * National Voice
 * India Ahead Hindi
 * News World India
 * Live India

Religious

 * Aastha TV
 * Aastha Bhajan
 * Channel Divya
 * Darshan 24
 * Hare Krsna TV
 * Ishwar TV
 * Lord Buddha TV
 * Paras TV
 * Sadhna TV
 * Sanskar TV
 * Shubh TV
 * Soham TV
 * Vedic TV

Defunct channels

 * Zee Jagran
 * Katyayani
 * Disha TV
 * Mahavira TV
 * Mangal Kalash
 * Tulsi TV
 * Vrinda Tv
 * Vrindavan TV

Sports

 * DD Sports
 * Eurosport
 * Sony Sports Ten 3
 * Sports18 Khel
 * Star Sports 1 Hindi
 * Star Sports 3
 * Star Sports First

Defunct channels

 * NEO Cricket is closed down in 2012.
 * NEO Sports
 * Sony ESPN
 * Sony Kix

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

title: List of Hindi television channels


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List of Gujarati-language television channels

This is a list of Gujarati language television channels.

Audio feed

 * Nickelodeon
 * Nickelodeon Sonic
 * Sony Yay


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The Frontier (Hong Kong)

The Frontier was a pro-democracy political group in Hong Kong. It was founded on 26 August 1996 by a group of Legislative Council members and democratic activists headed by Convenor Emily Lau. It was merged into the Democratic Party, the pro-democracy flagship party on 23 November 2008. A new party bearing the same name was established in 2010 by former members who opposed the previous Frontier joining the Democratic Party.

Beliefs
Among the pro-democratic parties, the Frontier took a relatively radical political agenda than the Democratic Party. Besides upholding human rights, rule of law and fighting for universal suffrage, it called for a new constitution drafted by the Hong Kong people to replace the Hong Kong Basic Law, which led to a direct confrontation to the PRC central government. For its continuing challenge to the central and SAR governments, it was described as a "head-bander" party.

The group had a left wing position on economic matters, with both membership and legislators except Emily Lau heavily involved in labour and worker activities.

History
The Frontier was officially launched on 26 August 1996 by one of Hong Kong's most popular pro-democracy figures, Emily Lau. The founding members included her colleagues in the Legislative Council, Lee Cheuk-yan and Lau Chin-shek from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU), Leung Yiu-chung from the Neighbourhood and Workers Service Centre (NWSC) and Independent Elizabeth Wong, as well as about 100 professionals, students and unionists. It had five seats in the last days in the colonial legislature, making it the second-largest pro-democracy group after the Democratic Party. The Frontier did not regard itself as a political party, but rather as an alliance for "democracy, human rights and the rule of law" in Hong Kong.

In the 1998 LegCo elections, the Frontier won total of three seats, excluding Lau Chin-shek who ran as Democratic Party candidate and Leung Yiu-chung ran as Independent, gaining about 10% of the popular votes just behind the pro-democracy flagship party Democratic Party and pro-Beijing flagship party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB). Emily Lau and Cyd Ho were elected with the highest votes in the New Territories East.

Although Emily Lau, Cyd Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan were re-elected in the 2000 LegCo elections, Lee Cheuk-yan began to run under the banner of the CTU. which made the Frontier's seat in the legislature reduce to two.

In April 2002, a number of radical "Young Turks" faction of the Democratic Party including Andrew To who had earlier formed a group called the Social Democratic Forum (SDF), split from the Democrats to join the Frontier.

In the 2004 LegCo elections, the Frontier won only one seat in the LegCo, occupied by Emily Lau, after Cyd Ho lost in the Hong Kong Island. This was believed to be caused by a tactical mistake by the Democratic Party to absorb too many votes from Cyd Ho which led to the defeat of Ho to DAB's Choy So-yuk.

On 23 November 2008 after the LegCo elections, the Frontier declared to merge with the Democratic Party, but the motion to have it disbanded failed to meet the required support level of 80%. A new party bearing the same name was established on 9 September 2010 by former members who opposed the previous Frontier joining the Democratic Party. Yang Sun-kong, the former Secretary General of the Frontier became the Convenor of the new group which is now part of the radical pro-democracy People Power. Emily Lau became the Vice-Chairwoman of the Democratic Party and was subsequently elected as the party's Chairwoman in 2012 leadership election.

title: The Frontier (Hong Kong)


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Zoot suit

A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit ) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It is most notable for its use as a cultural symbol among the Hepcat and Pachuco subcultures. Originating among African Americans it would later become popular with Mexican, Filipino, Italian, and Japanese Americans in the 1940s.

The zoot suit originated in African American comedy shows in the 1920s. Comedians such as Pigmeat Markham, Stepin Fetchit, and many others would dress in rags or in baggy suits for their comedic routines. This style of oversized suits would later become more stylish and popular in the inner city ghettos. Many tap and Lindy hop dancers would wear loose fitting suits to the clubs and ballrooms. These suits made it much easier to navigate through the dance floor while dancing. Jazz and Jump Blues singers helped popularize the style in the 1930s and 40s. Cab Calloway called them "totally and truly American". The suits were worn mainly by African American men, including a young Malcolm X. During the rationing of World War II, they were criticized as a wasteful use of cloth, wool being rationed then. In 1942, the War Production Board issued restrictions aimed at stopping the sale of zoot suits.

In the so-called Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, groups of predominately Mexican zoot suiters became victims of repeated racial mob violence. Wearing of the zoot suit was never banned, despite a debate of its prohibition by the Los Angeles City Council in the aftermath of the riots. The zoot suit become an important symbol of cultural pride and defiance of oppression in the Chicano Movement. It experienced a brief resurgence in the swing revival scene in the 1990s. The suit is still worn by Chicano in Mexican subcultures for memorialization events, regular celebrations, and special occasions.

Hepcats

The suits were first associated with African-Americans in communities such as Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit in the 1930s, but were made popular nationwide by Jazz and Jump Blues musicians in the 1940s. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "zoot" probably comes from African American Vernacular English and reduplication of suit. The creation of the zoot suit have been variously attributed to Harold C. Fox, a Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter; Charles Klein and Vito Bagnato of New York City; Louis Lettes, a Memphis tailor; and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer.

"A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)" was a 1942 song written by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Bob O'Brien. Jazz bandleader Cab Calloway frequently wore zoot suits on stage, including some with exaggerated details, such as extremely wide shoulders or overly draped jackets. He wore one in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. In his dictionary, Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary (1938), he called the zoot suit "the ultimate in clothes. The only totally and truly American civilian suit."

Pachucos and Pachucas
Pachucos and Pachucas were early Chicano youth who participated in a subculture that fashioned zoot suits. The subculture emerged in El Paso, Texas, in the late 1930s and quickly spread to Los Angeles. Pachucos and Pachucas embraced this style that challenged white American norms around race and gender norms The Mexican American zoot suit style was usually black, sharkskin, charcoal gray, dark blue, or brown in color with pinstripes. African American styles usually incorporated brighter colors, thick chalk stripes, floppy hats, and long chains more often than Mexican Americans. Both Pachucos and Hepcats functioned on the margins in American society. Some Pachucos and Hepcats shared solidarity or respect for one another because of this.

In the early 1940s, Pachucos were associated with violence and criminal behavior by the American media, which fueled anti-Mexican sentiment and especially negative views of the zoot suit style in Los Angeles. Pachucas, some of whom also wore the zoot suit, often with some modifications and additional accessories like dark lipstick, were seen as threatening to ideas of family stability and racial uplift, often shunned by their communities and the wider public. The zoot suits became framed as unpatriotic, referring to the excessiveness of cloth during wartime. In 1942, police from across Los Angeles arrested 600 Mexican Americans in the Sleepy Lagoon murder case, which involved the murder of one man, José Gallardo Díaz, at a party. Almost all of those arrested as allegedly potential suspects were wearing zoot suits.

Media coverage before and after the case sensationalized and further fanned the flames of hostile anti-Mexican sentiments in the city and abroad. This made some Mexican Americans hesitant to wear the zoot suit, since they did not want to be viewed as criminals simply for their style of dress. Some Pachucos became affiliated with early gangs in Los Angeles and embraced their presumed-to-be criminal status with the zoot suit. Others wore the zoot suit, but refused to refer to themselves as 'zoot suiters.' Mexican Americans who rejected Pachucos and zoot suit attire became known as 'squares' who were said to believe in assimilation and racial uplift theory. This tension exploded in 1943 in a series of anti-Mexican riots in Los Angeles that became termed the Zoot Suit Riots. For ten days, white U.S. servicemen cruised Mexican American neighborhoods searching for zoot suiters to attack. In some cases, youth as young as twelve were attacked and dragged out of establishments. Filipinos and Black zoot suiters were also targeted, such as a Black man who had his eye gouged out with a knife by "a crowd of whites." After being attacked, Mexican and Black zoot suiters rioted against white U.S. servicemen. On the fifth day of the riots, the zoot suiters repelled attackers in a coordinated effort. Busloads of police were brought in to rescue "the retreating servicemen," after which "dozens of Mexicans" were arrested. Military officials declared Los Angeles off limits to servicemen the next day.

After hearing of the event, an article for the Pittsburgh [PA] Courier warned that Black zoot suiters could be the next target for "the patriotic lawlessness of men in uniform" and stated that both "Los Angeles Negro and Mexican zoot suiters are closer together than they are to members of their own racial group." Norris J. Nelson, Los Angeles City Council member, proposed outlawing zoot suits, although this did not occur due to questions about its constitutionality.

Cesar Chavez sported zoot suit attire in his younger years and the zoot suit became an important cultural symbol for the Chicano Movement. The earliest youth who reclaimed the word Chicano as an identity of empowerment were in fact Pachucos.

White Americans
Throughout the 1940s, white American views on the zoot suit varied. The jive talk of African American hepcats had spread, or been appropriated, among white middle class youth in the early 1940s. This began to erase the origins of the zoot suit as a Black cultural symbol, which made it more acceptable to white Americans. Prior to the Zoot Suit Riots, the zoot suit was sometimes positioned as a symbol of American individualism and even patriotism in comparison to the fascist uniform attire and regimentation of Nazi Germany. White and Black soldiers would sometimes be seen "zooting" their uniforms in war effort photos, with the press presenting the zoot suit as a symbol of youthful relatability rather than as an oppositional or unpatriotic symbol. Most of the visible tension surrounding the zoot suit prior to the riots was concentrated in the Los Angeles area regarding the spread of anti-Mexican sentiment among whites in the city.

Trinidad
Zoot suits not only played a historical role in the subculture in the United States in the 1940s, but also shaped a new generation of men in Trinidad. These Trinidadian men who adopted this American fashion became referred to as the "saga boys"; they wore these suits and embraced the glamorous lifestyle that they represented. "Their fondness for the zoot suit, in particular signified a rejection of Anglo-centric precepts not only about fashion but, more profoundly, about manhood."

Therefore, although the "saga boys" had the appearance of adapting to the urban American way of life, they were in fact using this clothing and lifestyle as a way to improve their lives in Trinidad, rise above the restrictions that imperialism brought and create through this oppositional dress, a culture of their own.

Swing revival era
In the swing revival era, which started in 1989 and carried to about 1998, the zoot suit experienced a small resurgence mostly based in nostalgia of the 1940s era, yet notably missed many of the racial dynamics that surrounded the zoot suit. Bands included The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Royal Crown Revue, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies. One of the popular songs of the era was the Cherry Poppin' Daddies' "Zoot Suit Riot", which presented the historical moment of the Zoot Suit Riots through a lens of masculine power.

Contemporary
The zoot suit is regularly memorialized by the Chicano community today as a symbol of cultural pride. Some of this is owed to Luis Valdez's 1979 play Zoot Suit and its subsequent 1981 film, which carried knowledge of the era and interest in the style forward. Outside of memorialization events, such as those held on the anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots, the zoot suit is still sometimes worn by Chicanos for special occasions, including proms, usually as a dual display of formal wear and cultural pride. It is also worn in certain urban areas in Mexico for similar purposes.

Characteristics
Traditionally, zoot suits have been worn with a fedora or pork pie hat color-coordinated with the suit, occasionally with a long feather as decoration, and pointy, French-style shoes.

A young Malcolm X, who wore zoot suits in his youth, described the zoot suit as: "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats, and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell".

Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket. A woman accompanying a man wearing a zoot suit would commonly wear a flared skirt and a long coat.

The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items, so much so that the U.S. War Production Board said that they wasted materials that should be devoted to the World War II war effort. When Life published photographs of zoot suiters in 1942, the magazine joked that they were "solid arguments for lowering the Army draft age to include 18-year-olds". This extravagance, which many considered unpatriotic in wartime, was a factor in the Zoot Suit Riots.

To some, wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom and self-determination, even rebelliousness.

Some observers claim that the "Edwardian-look" suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boys in Britain are a derivative of the zoot suit.

Media

 * The Zoot Cat – 1944 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Tom and Jerry short directed by Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It features Tom and Jerry in zoot suit wardrobe
 * Book Revue – 1946 Looney Tunes short directed by Bob Clampett, featuring Daffy Duck wearing a zoot suit
 * Tin-Tan – a Mexican actor from the 1940s who wore zoot suits in his films
 * "Three Arabian Nuts" – 1951 Three Stooges short in which Shemp finds a genie in a lamp. Upon Shemp's wish for a new suit, the genie gives him a zoot suit
 * "Zoot Suit/I'm the Face" – 1964 single by the Who, recorded under the name The High Numbers
 * Zoot-Suit Murders – 1978 murder mystery novel by Thomas Sanchez
 * Zoot Suit – 1978 play by Luis Valdez
 * "Alright" – single by Janet Jackson, the music video of which features Jackson wearing a zoot suit in homage to Cab Calloway
 * Batman: The Animated Series – The Joker is seen frequently wearing a zoot suit
 * The Mask – 1994 film based on the titular comic book character by Dark Horse Comics starring Jim Carrey. The character is featured in a zoot suit
 * Malcolm X – 1992 film based on the political leader Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee. Denzel Washington's portrayal of the young Malcolm X is seen in some scenes wearing a zoot suit
 * Zoot Suit Riot – 1997 compilation album by Cherry Poppin' Daddies
 * The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - 1984 film. Club owner Artie Duncan is shown wearing a yellow checked/plaid zoot suit.
 * Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Popular musical group led by August Darnell. He would often make frequent appearances with the group wearing zoot suit.
 * The comic strip Li'l Abner included a character named Evil Eye Fleagle, who wore a zoot suit.
 * Swing Kids (1993 film) A group of zoot suit-wearing teens adores forbidden Swing music in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.
 * Swing Kids (1993 film) A group of zoot suit-wearing teens adores forbidden Swing music in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.

title: Zoot suit


text:
John McAllion

John McAllion (born 13 February 1948) is a campaigner for the Scottish Socialist Party, as well as a former Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and convenor of Tayside Regional Council. He is also convener of the Scottish Fairtrade Forum.

Early life
McAllion was born in Glasgow, where he was educated at St Augustine's RC Comprehensive School in Milton. Following a brief period spent working as a clerical employee for the Post Office, he was admitted to the University of St Andrews to study modern and medieval history, graduating with a second-class honours degree in 1972. After a further year at Dundee College of Education, he was then employed by the city's education department to teach history at St Saviour's RC High School (1973–78) and social studies at Balgowan School (1978–82).

Political history
McAllion was originally a member of the Scottish Labour Party (SLP) that was formed in 1976 by Jim Sillars; when the SLP collapsed, he chose to join the Labour Party (unlike Sillars, who joined the Scottish National Party). In 1982 he was recruited by the Glasgow Labour MP Bob McTaggart as a research assistant. Two years later, he was elected to Tayside Regional Council, becoming the council's convenor in 1986. At the 1987 general election McAllion was elected as the Labour MP for Dundee East, defeating SNP leader Gordon Wilson, who had been the sitting MP since February 1974.

McAllion was a member of Scottish Labour Action, putting him on the Scottish nationalist wing of the Labour Party, and of the Campaign for Socialism, placing him firmly on the left of the party. As befitted a member of the Scottish Labour Action group he strongly favoured home rule for Scotland, and was often outspoken in his defence of civic-minded Scottish nationalism. In 1999 he was elected to the Scottish Parliament to represent Dundee East.

As an MSP, he furthered his reputation as a left-winger, rebelling several times against the Labour-led Scottish Executive. He was also convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee. In 2000 he helped establish the Scottish Left Review publication. At the 2003 parliament election he lost his seat to Shona Robison, the SNP candidate. The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) pulled out of contesting the seat in favour of McAllion, but ironically this may have assisted his defeat.

After the election defeat, McAllion resigned his membership of the Labour Party, subsequently joining the Scottish Socialist Party. On 9 February 2006, McAllion stood for the SSP in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, coming fifth of nine candidates with 1.6% of the vote.

He was elected to the SSP executive at its conference in March 2006. He was elected co-chair (along with Morag Balfour) at its conference in October 2007, but he stood down during his term of office for personal reasons. However, he has remained active in campaigning with the party, particularly in the run-up to the independence referendum.

title: John McAllion


text:
Pollok

Pollok (Pollag, Powk) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate was built either side of World War II to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,000 at its peak, its population has since declined due to the replacement of substandard housing with lower-density accommodation. As of 2021, the population was recorded at 81,951 people.

The main features of the area are the nearby Pollok Country Park, where the Burrell Collection is now housed, the ruins of Crookston Castle (within the north part of residential Pollok) which Mary, Queen of Scots once visited, and the Silverburn Centre, one of Glasgow's major indoor retail complexes.

Location
The country park and the White Cart Water which flows through it form the northern and eastern boundary of the district, with Corkerhill and Cardonald the closest northern suburbs. Recent developments in the late 20th and early 21st century have created an adjoining neighbourhood to the west of Pollok at Crookston, Glasgow, stretching from Rosshall to Roughmussel and including conversions of the original buildings of Leverndale Hospital, alongside its newer facilities. Haugh Hill Woodland partially provides a natural barrier between Pollok and Crookston.

The Levern Water, a tributary of the White Cart, flows through Pollok from the south-west where the Househillwood and Priesthill residential areas are situated, with the Brock Burn bordering them and meeting the Levern Water in the centre of Pollok. In some contexts these neighbourhoods are referred to as separate localities, and otherwise are considered parts of 'Greater Pollok' (a ward of Glasgow City Council), along with Nitshill, South Nitshill, Parkhouse and Darnley further south which share the same G53 postcode; Househillwood is next to the district's central amenities and bus terminus.

History
Previously farmland   which was purchased by the city from the Stirling-Maxwell family in 1935, Pollok was built by the old Glasgow Corporation and was the first of the 'big four' peripheral housing schemes constructed to improve Glasgow's slum housing conditions in the inner city. The building of Old Pollok, as the first sector retrospectively became known, commenced in the 1930s but was interrupted by World War II. The urgent need for housing after the war along with budgetary constraints meant that the original plan to build a 'garden suburb' was abandoned in favour of higher density, lower quality housing. Unusually, one of the 'new' churches in Pollok (St James') was transplanted from Pollokshields, 2.4 miles away. Pollok suffered the same social problems that also emerged from the other large housing schemes (Castlemilk, Drumchapel and Easterhouse). The slum clearance programme disrupted the networks of the old communities and the extended family. There were few shops (a central shopping centre was not added for three decades), no pubs, cinemas or leisure facilities. Even schools, something which eventually were well provisioned, were not built until some years after the main wave of housing, with pupils being transported to facilitates elsewhere at considerable cost and disruption. People lived far away from their places of work and there were very few employment opportunities locally. The post-war tenement buildings were of poor quality and suffered from damp, condensation and lack of soundproofing. Glasgow Corporation (later Glasgow District Council) could not maintain the buildings in the face of budgetary cuts imposed by central Government. Local manufacturing jobs were outsourced to overseas countries and unemployment rates grew to unprecedented levels. Those who were able to left the area, the remaining population enduring poverty, lack of opportunities, ill-health and lower life expectancy.

In recent years there has been a sustained effort to improve the area. Most of the post-war tenement housing has been demolished or refurbished, and new private housing has also been built among the individual houses, which lasted more successfully than the multi-floor blocks.

To the east of the residential area, Pollok House is a Georgian building constructed in 1752 with many fine paintings, and Pollok Country Park was chosen to house the "Burrell Collection" in a modern contemporary and clean air green space. It is the largest park in Glasgow.

Education
Pollok has one secondary school: St Paul's High School, recognised as one of the 'schools of ambition' in Scotland. It was built on the site of another former school, Craigbank Secondary, which had lain empty for some years, and replaced the area's previous Catholic school, St Robert Bellarmine Secondary which was sited where the southern sector of Silverburn now stands. However, St Paul's associated primary schools are in neighbourhoods to the south of Pollok proper, whereas the Pollok-based primaries are part of the 'learning community' of Lourdes Secondary School in Cardonald.

The nondenominational Rosshall Academy (completed in 2002) serves a large catchment area including much of Pollok, but replaced Penilee Secondary and Crookston Castle Secondary so was built on a site between its predecessors which falls outwith Pollok across the White Cart. In 2009 the area lost a local primary school, Bonnyholm Primary, which was merged with other schools to create Crookston Castle Primary School. It was officially opened in August 2007 on the grounds of the former Crookston Castle Secondary, close to the castle.

The former Cardonald College, now a campus of the merged Glasgow Clyde College, is near to Pollok between Cardonald and Mosspark.

Shopping
Pollok is home to the Silverburn Centre which opened in October 2007, replacing the old Pollok Shopping Centre dating from the late 1970s which itself was previously tenement housing built in the late 1940s which survived barely 30 years before being torn down. The largest of its kind in Scotland, Silverburn has brought hundreds of jobs to the area. Key stores include a 24-hour Tesco Extra adjoining the centre. This was the largest store in Scotland when it opened in July 2006. Other anchor stores are M&S, Debenhams and Next. Altogether, the centre houses 95 shopping units and 14 restaurants and cafés. A cinema complex with further restaurants was later added as an extension in 2015.

Other amenities
Next to the Silverburn Centre is the Pollok civic realm, renovated in 2009 containing an extended Health Centre and the Pollok Library and Swimming Pool. There is another sports centre, Nethercraigs, at the north-east of Pollok near Corkerhill.

Transport
Pollok is about 7 mi from Glasgow International Airport, and 24 mi from Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The area is accessible from Junctions 2 and 3 of the M77 motorway, and the main bus terminus is Silverburn bus station.

Pollok is served by four nearby railway stations which run to central Glasgow, although none in the district itself; these are Nitshill and Priesthill & Darnley to the south on the Glasgow South Western Line, and Mosspark and Crookston to the north on the Paisley Canal line.

title: Pollok


text:
Knights of the Golden Eagle

The Knights of the Golden Eagle was a fraternal organization founded in Baltimore in 1872.

History
The order's original objectives were to help its members find employment and aid them while unemployed. Membership was open to white males over 18, without physical or mental handicaps, who were able to write and support themselves, were law-abiding, of sound moral character, and of the Christian faith. There was a female auxiliary called the Ladies of the Golden Eagle.

In the early years of its existence the group received assistance from other secret societies and fraternal groups. The Odd Fellows helped them become established in Philadelphia in 1875 and the Knights of Pythias helped them become established in Massachusetts in 1880.

Organization
Local lodges were called "Castles," statewide structures were called "Grand Castles", and the overall group "Supreme Castle". In the early 1920s the Knights were headquartered at 814−816 North Broad Street, Philadelphia. The last known headquarters of the group was in North Wales, Pennsylvania.

Membership
Membership was open to Christian white men over 18, who were of good moral character, sound mental and physical health, able to write and support himself and were law abiding citizens. By the early 1920s the group had 73,340 members in 26 states. Membership began to decline in the 1930s. In 1965 the group had 15,000 members, mostly concentrated in Pennsylvania. In the late 1970s scholar Alvin J. Schmidt was unable to locate a current address for the group, and determined that it was extinct.

Ritual
The Knights' ritual worked three degrees, based on the history of the Crusades: the first degree accented the pilgrim and taught the candidate fidelity to God and man; the second degree used the medieval knight as its role model to teach the member to revere religion, fidelity, valor, charity, courtesy and hospitality; the third degree was based on the figure of the crusader and it "equipped the member against the evil of his enemies." Members of the Ladies of the Golden Eagle took one degree, the Temple Degree, upon being initiated. Oaths are sworn on an open Bible.

Eagle Home Association
This was the mutual benefit arm of the Knights, whose object was to protect aged members of the order, as well as their orphans and widows. It was supported by a per capita tax on such Castles as were enrolled in it.

title: Knights of the Golden Eagle


text:
Fanny Howe

Fanny Howe (born October 15, 1940 in Buffalo, New York) is an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Howe has written more than 20 books of poetry and prose. Her major works include poetry such as One Crossed Out, Gone, and Second Childhood, the novels Nod, The Deep North, and Indivisible, and collected essays The Wedding Dress: Meditations on Word and Life and The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation. She was awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize by the Poetry Foundation. She is also the recipient of the Gold Medal for Poetry from the Commonwealth Club of California<ref name="Commonwealth Club of California". In addition, her Selected Poems received the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for the Most Outstanding Book of Poetry Published in 2000 from the Academy of American Poets and she was a finalist for the 2015 International Booker Prize<ref name="The Booker Prize". She has also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Poetry Foundation, the California Council for the Arts, and the Village Voice. She is professor emerita of Writing and Literature at the University of California, San Diego. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Early life and education
Howe was born in Buffalo, New York. When her father Mark De Wolfe Howe left to join the fighting in World War II, Howe and her mother, the Irish playwright Mary Manning, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she grew up. Her father eventually became a colonel and served in Sicily and North Africa and then after the war he went to Potsdam to give legal advice in the reorganization of Europe. After the war, her father continued his work as a lawyer and became a professor at Harvard Law School.

Howe's mother was an actress at the Abbey Theatre of Dublin for some time. Her sister is Susan Howe, who also became a poet. She attended Stanford University for three years, and in 1961—the year she left Stanford—she married Frederick Delafield, whom she divorced two years later. Her aunt was Helen Howe, a monologuist and novelist.

As a Civil Rights activist, she met and married the activist Carl Senna in the 1970s, who is of African-Mexican descent and is also a poet and writer. They are the parents of the novelist Danzy Senna, who writes about growing up biracial in the 1970s and 80s in her novel Caucasia. Howe and Senna also had two other children, Lucien Quincy Senna, and Maceo Senna.

Work
Howe is one of the most widely read of American experimental poets. Her writing career began during the 1960s with a series of paperback original novels she published under the pseudonym Della Field. Known as "Sweet Nurse'" books, each book featured Vietnam nurses as well as women in WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and the WACS (Women's Army Corps).

Howe has continued to publish novels throughout her career, including Lives of the Spirit/Glasstown: Where Something Got Broken (2005). She has also continued to publish in the essay form. Some of her essays have been collected, including The Wedding Dress: Meditations on Word and Life (2003)

Poet Michael Palmer: Fanny Howe employs a sometimes fierce, always passionate, spareness in her lifelong parsing of the exchange between matter and spirit. Her work displays as well a political urgency, that is to say, a profound concern for social justice and for the soundness and fate of the polis, the "city on a hill". Writes Emerson, The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. Here's the luminous and incontrovertible proof.

Joshua Glenn: "Fanny Howe isn't part of the local literary canon. But her seven novels about interracial love and utopian dreaming offer a rich social history of Boston in the 1960s and '70s."

Howe's prose poems, "Everything's a Fake" and "Doubt", were selected by David Lehman for the anthology Great American Prose Poems: from Poe to the Present (2003). Her poem "Catholic" was selected by Lyn Hejinian for the 2004 volume of The Best American Poetry.

Howe's Selected Poems won the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. On the Ground was on the international shortlist for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. Howe received the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

She was a judge for the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize.

Howe has taught at Tufts University, Emerson College, Kenyon College, Columbia University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgetown University.

Poetry

 * Eggs: poems, Houghton Mifflin, 1970
 * The Amerindian Coastline Poem, Telephone Books Press, 1975, ISBN 0-916382-08-7
 * Poem from a Single Pallet, Kelsey Street Press, 1980, ISBN 0-932716-10-5
 * Alsace-Lorraine, Telephone Books Press, 1982, ISBN 0-916382-28-1
 * For Erato: The Meaning of Life, 1984
 * Robeson Street, Alice James Books, 1985, ISBN 978-0-914086-59-8
 * Introduction to the World, Figures, 1986, ISBN 0-935724-21-4
 * The Lives of a Spirit, Sun & Moon Press, 1987, ISBN 0-940650-95-9
 * The Vineyard, Lost Roads Publishers, 1988, ISBN 978-0-918786-37-1
 * [sic], Parentheses Writing Series, October 1988, ISBN 978-0-9620862-2-9
 * The End, Littoral Books, 1992 ISBN 1-55713-145-7
 * The Quietist, O Books, 1992, ISBN 978-1-882022-12-0
 * O'Clock, Reality Street, 1995, ISBN 978-1-874400-07-3
 * One Crossed Out, Graywolf Press, 1997, ISBN 978-1-55597-259-2
 * Forged, Post-Apollo Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-942996-36-4
 * Selected Poems, University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-520-22263-2 (shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize)
 * Tis of Thee, Atelos, 2003, ISBN 978-1-891190-16-2
 * On the Ground, Graywolf Press, 2004, ISBN 978-1-55597-403-9 (also shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize)
 * The Lives of a Spirit/Glasstown: Where Something Got Broken Nightboat Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-9767185-1-2
 * The Lyrics, Graywolf Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-55597-472-5
 * (with Henia Karmel-Wolfe and Ilona Karmel) A Wall of Two: Poems of Resistance and Suffering from Kraków to Buchenwald and Beyond, University of California Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-520-25136-6
 * Outremer, Poetry Magazine, September 2011,
 * Come and See: Poems, Graywolf Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-55597-586-9
 * Love and I: Poems, Graywolf Press, 2019, ISBN 978-1-64445-004-8
 * Manimal Woe, Arrowsmith Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1734641653
 * Love and I: Poems, Graywolf Press, 2019, ISBN 978-1-64445-004-8
 * Manimal Woe, Arrowsmith Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1734641653

Fiction

 * West Coast Nurse (under the pseudonym Della Field), Avon, 1963,
 * Vietnam Nurse (under the pseudonym Della Field), Avon, 1966
 * Forty Whacks, Houghton Mifflin, 1969, ISBN 0-575-00560-2
 * First Marriage HarperCollins, 1974, ISBN 0-380-01850-0
 * Bronte Wilde, Avon Books, 1976, ISBN 978-0-380-00548-2
 * The White Slave, Avon Books, 1980, ISBN 978-0-380-45591-1
 * The Deep North, Sun & Moon Press, 1988, ISBN 978-1-55713-025-9
 * Famous Questions, Ballantine Books, 1989, ISBN 978-0-345-36177-6
 * Saving History, Sun & Moon Press, 1993, ISBN 978-1-55713-100-3
 * Nod, Sun & Moon Press, 1998, ISBN 1-55713-307-7
 * Indivisible, Semiotext(e), 2000, ISBN 978-1-58435-009-5
 * Economics: Stories, Flood Editions, 2002, ISBN 978-0-9710059-4-5
 * Radical Love: 5 Novels, Nightboat Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9767185-3-6
 * Night Philosophy, Divided Publishing, 2020, ISBN 978-1-9164250-2-6
 * London-rose | Beauty Will Save the World, Divided Publishing, 2022, ISBN 978-1-7398431-1-3
 * Night Philosophy, Divided Publishing, 2020, ISBN 978-1-9164250-2-6
 * London-rose | Beauty Will Save the World, Divided Publishing, 2022, ISBN 978-1-7398431-1-3

Young adult fiction

 * The Blue Hills, Avon, 1981, ISBN 0-380-78998-1
 * Yeah, But Avon/Flare, August 1982, ISBN 978-0-380-79186-6
 * Radio City Avon/Flare book, 1984, ISBN 978-0-380-86025-8
 * Taking Care, Avon Books, 1985, ISBN 978-0-380-89864-0
 * Race of the Radical, Viking Kestrel, 1985, ISBN 978-0-670-80557-0
 * What Did I Do Wrong?, Illustrator Colleen McCallion, Flood Editions, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9819520-0-0

Essays

 * The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation, Graywolf Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-55597-520-3
 * The Needle's Eye: Passing through Youth, Graywolf Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1-55597-756-6
 * The Needle's Eye: Passing through Youth, Graywolf Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1-55597-756-6

Reviews

 * "On the Day the Blood Let Fall", Scott Bentley, Jacket 25, February 2004
 * "The Clarity of Fanny Howe's Debut", Kimberly Lamm, University of Washington, Titanic Operas
 * "Fellow Travelers", Karen Volkman, Boston Review, February/March 2004
 * "Spiral-Walking", Janique Vigier, Bookforum, 17 February 2020

title: Fanny Howe


text:
Neal Morse

Neal Morse (born August 2, 1960) is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. In 1999, he joined Dream Theater's co-founder and then drummer Mike Portnoy, together with Flower Kings' Roine Stolt and Marillion's Pete Trewavas they formed the super-group Transatlantic. In 2002, Neal Morse became a born again Christian, left Spock's Beard and began a Christian rock solo career, releasing many progressive rock concept albums about his new religious faith. In the meantime, he continued to play with Transatlantic and formed three new bands with Portnoy, Yellow Matter Custard, Flying Colors and The Neal Morse Band.

Band career
Morse grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles as one of four children. His father was a choral director. Morse started to play the piano at the age of five and started to learn to play the guitar at the age of nine. During his twenties he wrote two musicals (Hit Man and Homeland), did some session jobs, tried to get a deal as a singer-songwriter in Los Angeles, and recorded a few country and western demos with his brother Richard.

After about ten years, having played in small Californian clubs with various groups including Burlesque, Morse founded Spock's Beard together with his brother Alan, to give voice to his great passion for Progressive Rock. Their first album, The Light (1995), was moderately successful. Despite having released the first two Spock's Beard albums to good critical acclaim, Morse found himself struggling economically. His brother Richard advised him to go to Germany to play hit songs as a one-man band in pubs, accompanying himself with piano or guitar, to generate income. Morse then began periodic travel between California and Germany, where from time to time he remained for several weeks to work as a pub musician. During his periods in California, Morse continued to alternate work on new compositions for Spock's Beard, and live performance with them. At that time Morse was also part of the Eric Burdon band, touring with them, too. The popularity of Spock's Beard's continued to grow and they would soon become one of a number of successful progressive rock bands during the late nineties (along with Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and The Flower Kings).

While with Spock's Beard, Morse released two solo albums of more conventional straightforward rock music. In 1999, he joined former Dream Theater co-founder Mike Portnoy, Flower Kings' Roine Stolt and Marillion's Pete Trewavas to form the supergroup Transatlantic. The band has released five studio albums (SMPT:e, Bridge Across Forever, The Whirlwind, Kaleidoscope and The Absolute Universe) plus live albums from the tours behind each studio disc: Live in America, Live in Europe, Whirld Tour 2010: Live in London, More Never Is Enough and KaLIVEoscope. In concert, the group has included Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation, and occasionally Ted Leonard, Morse's eventual replacement in Spock's Beard.

In 2003, Morse, Mike Portnoy, Paul Gilbert and Matt Bissonette formed Yellow Matter Custard as a Beatles tribute supergroup. They took the name from a lyric in The Beatles song "I Am the Walrus": 'Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye...' On March 26, 2012, Morse released the first album of the newly formed band Flying Colors (Mike Portnoy on drums and vocals, Dave LaRue on bass, Neal Morse on keyboards and vocals, Casey McPherson on lead vocals, and guitar, and Steve Morse on lead guitar). In 2014, he gave life to another group, The Neal Morse Band (with Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette and Bill Hubauer), that released its first studio album The Grand Experiment in 2015. The group's second outing, The Similitude of a Dream, was released on November 11, 2016, and the sequel to that album, The Great Adventure, was released on January 25, 2019. Their fourth release, Innocence & Danger was released on August 27, 2021.

Solo career
Morse became a born again Christian in 2002. He left both Spock's Beard and Transatlantic immediately following the release of the Spock's Beard album Snow, in response to a calling to make his personal faith more prominent in his recorded output. He felt this would not be possible or appropriate in a band context. The period leading to this decision is described on the solo album Testimony (2003), an epic, introspective composition which features Kerry Livgren of Kansas and Mike Portnoy. One part of his conversion to Christianity, omitted from Testimony but described in full on Testimony Live and later in the song Jayda on Testimony 2, was that his daughter Jayda had been diagnosed as having a hole in her heart that required open-heart surgery. However, before Jayda received surgery, the hole disappeared following a church service in which Morse's wife and others prayed for God's healing.

In 2004, Morse wrote and recorded a new concept album featuring Portnoy and Randy George (on bass guitar). Guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy made a guest appearance on guitar and vocals. The album, titled One, is about man's relationship with God from his Christian perspective and was released on November 2, 2004. In 2005, Morse released two non-prog Christian albums. In January, Morse recorded Lead Me Lord with the Christian Gospel Temple Choir, his children, and his friends. Morse wrote about half of the tracks. This was released in February and is available for a donation. In July, Morse released God Won't Give Up, which was written around the Snow period. This is a pop album similar to It's Not Too Late, but with Christian lyrics.

In the summer of 2005, a member of his church approached Morse to tell him that he should make an album based on the tabernacle and that he should keep it a secret. Morse nonetheless mentioned that he was working on a secret project before he had written a note or even committed himself to do the project. Mentioning it during a radio interview created enough buzz to convince him to make the album. There was a contest on his message board to guess the participants, theme, and meaning of the album based on a series of clues. The secret project was finally revealed to be ? (also known as The Question Mark album, rumored to be influenced in title by The White Album) and is about the tabernacle in the wilderness and the tabernacle of the heart. The studio band is Neal, Mike Portnoy, and Randy George with guests Mark Leniger, Alan Morse, Roine Stolt, Steve Hackett, and Jordan Rudess.

In 2006, Morse issued Cover to Cover, a collection of cover versions by Mike Portnoy, Randy George and him, recorded during the production of ?, One and Testimony, proving that despite the new focus of his solo career Morse wasn't averse to tackling songs with non-religious themes. In early 2007, Morse released Sola Scriptura, a concept album detailing the life and struggles of the German theologian Martin Luther, and corruption within the medieval Church. Portnoy and George once again teamed with Morse and were joined by Paul Gilbert (of Racer X and Mr. Big) who contributed a few solo parts.

Immediately following Sola Scriptura, Morse released the acoustic folk album Songs from the Highway. The studio album Lifeline was released on September 30, 2008. Morse was once again joined by Portnoy and George, just four months after the release of the Sola Scriptura live DVD. A live album, So Many Roads, recorded with his European band, was released on June 30, 2009. Testimony 2, a sequel and expansion of the autobiographical story from the first Testimony album, was released May 23, 2011. As had become Morse's pattern, he followed that album with a tour and live DVD. Also in 2011, he released a book, Testimony, a continued autobiographical look at his life story and spiritual journey explored in more detail than in the associated Testimony albums.

Momentum was released on September 11, 2012, an album that, in structure, featured several shorter songs and one epic.

In recent years, Morse has recorded two more cover albums with George and Portnoy (Cover 2 Cover in 2012 and Cov3r to Cov3r in 2020), a guest-heavy prog rock musical retelling the life and Passion of Christ (Jesus Christ the Exorcist, released in 2019), a biographical album in the vein of Sola Scriptura based on the conversion and writings of Paul the Apostle (Sola Gratia, released in 2020), and a two-part musical based on the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis (The Dreamer and The Restoration, released in 2023 and 2024, respectively).

During his early solo years, Morse focused most of his touring in Europe and had a band made largely of European musicians. The incarnation that toured in Europe for Sola Scriptura, for example, included Collin Leijenaar (drums, music director), Paul Bielatowicz (guitars), Elisa Krijgsman (guitars), Wilco van Esschoten (bass guitar), Jessica Koomen (vocals, keyboards, percussion) and Henk Doest (keyboards). For Testimony 2, Morse reunited members from the band that toured the initial Testimony album, including Portnoy, George, Rick Altizer and others. He then held a contest to assemble a full-time band, which eventually toured behind Momentum. This new band consisted of Mike Portnoy (drums), Randy George (bass), Eric Gillette (guitars, keyboards) and Bill Hubauer (keyboards). Guitarist Adson Sodré was in the band until visa issues forced his departure.

Guest appearances
In 1997 he became a member of Eric Burdon's I band. They also released the concert film Live at the Coachhouse. In 2000, Morse provided vocals for the song "The First Man on Earth" on The Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer, one of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Ayreon albums. Neal Morse tracks have also appeared on the CPR Volume 1 (2004), CPR Volume 2, and The Tsunami Projekt anthologies. Morse also participated in recording the ProgAID single "All Around the World". The profits for both The Tsunami Projekt and the ProgAID single were donated for victims' relief from the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Morse has been a guest musician on several 2005 albums, including Ajalon's Threshold of Eternity, Roine Stolt's Wallstreet Voodoo, Salem Hill's Mimi's Magic Moment, and Mark Leniger's Walk on Water. Morse was one of several musical guests to appear on Dream Theater's 2007 album Systematic Chaos, on the song "Repentance". These guests were recorded apologizing to important people in their lives for wrongdoings committed in the past. Morse provided vocals for the first track on Jordan Rudess' tribute album The Road Home.

In 2020, he joined Matt Smith of Theocracy in releasing "And the Rest Is Mystery" under the Project Aegis moniker.

Radiant Records and Waterfall
In 1998, Morse founded his own independent record label, Radiant Records. The label serves as an outlet for his work in a variety of capacities—including development, licensing, promotion and distribution.

In 2005, Morse created his fan club, the Inner Circle. The monthly membership provides an email newsletter and special releases to members every other month. Over the years, he has released many behind the scenes features, demo sessions, and bootlegs to the Inner Circle. See Inner Circle discography

In 2019, at the dissatisfaction of current streaming services and their treatment of artists, Morse created his own streaming service, Waterfall. Most of Morse's and his collaborator's discographies can be found exclusively on the platform.

Morsefest
In 2014, Morse created Morsefest, a weekend concert festival held at his local church, New Life Fellowship, in Cross Plains, TN. The name of the event was chosen by Mike Portnoy against Morse's wishes, however the name stuck. The inaugural Morsefest occurred on November 14–15, 2014 and featured the Testimony and One albums played in their entirety with string, horn, percussion, and choir sections as well as a morning Inner Circle acoustic show. This two-day format with a large array of added musicians has continued annually featuring albums and musicians from all of Morse's projects, The Neal Morse Band, Spock's Beard, Flying Colors, and most recently in 2022, Transatlantic.

In 2020 and 2021, Morsefest went on with "Lockdown" editions due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a limited live audience, and for the first time, a virtual streaming option.

In 2023, in addition to the show in Tennessee, Morse took Morsefest on the road to Europe for the first time to The Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Netherlands and again in 2024 to Trinity Church in Essex, United Kingdom. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Morse and the NMB played Testimony along with Testimony 2 in their entirety.

title: Neal Morse