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The Organ (band)

The Organ was a Canadian post-punk band formed in Vancouver in 2001. They officially broke up in 2006 due to illness and personal conflicts in the band.

Early years
The Organ were conceived in 2001 by frontwoman Katie Sketch in Vancouver, BC. Sketch's musical training started at the age of three, when she began classical training on the violin. Her childhood was spent largely in ignorance of the underground sounds of The Smiths, The Cure, and Joy Division, whom The Organ would later often be favorably compared to. "Tiffany and Bon Jovi – that was my take on '80s music."

Sketch has said of the time of the formation of the band, when she and the band members were in their early to mid-twenties. "I was in a musical lull, I couldn't stand what I was listening to," naming Sleater-Kinney as one example. "The local scene was also pretty shitty, and of course the radio was brutal. Then, by total fluke, my mom's friend's husband, Ron Obvious, hired me to help with the audio wiring for a studio he was building for Bryan Adams." Obvious introduced Katie to the world of independent music, and what she calls "that '80s sound." He created mix-tapes of bands he thought she'd appreciate as a violinist (Roxy Music, Ultravox) and singers with an "amazing natural vocal pitch" (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nina Hagen, Kate Bush)). This job also led Sketch to Tara Nelson, the engineer who would later record the Organ's first EP.

It was at this time that Katie joined with her friends Sarah "Sketch" Efron (on bass and keyboards) and Barb "Sketch" Choit (Hammond organ, guitar, bass) to form the instrumental trio Full Sketch.

"I met Katie Sketch when we worked morning shifts at a wretched cinnamon bun shop," says Efron, "but we really became friends on a road trip where we ended up breaking down in the redneck town of Hermiston, Oregon. On this trip, we decided to form a band and call it Full Sketch." Katie, though she was already a proficient multi-instrumentalist, decided this would be a good time to try her hand at drums.

"The concept was, 'Let's start a band where you play an instrument that you've never played before.' It was basically drunken ridiculousness, but all of a sudden I felt like life made more sense. Sarah was involved in CiTR, and Barb was big into indie rock, so what started off as a joke got me out going to see shows. The way The Organ began was as an offshoot of Full Sketch—I wanted to take the same sound and do it with singing."

Efron was also the news director at UBC's CiTR, where she, Sketch and Choit co-hosted a raunchy late-night call-in program called "The Dead Air Show."

After about a year, Barb Sketch left the band to focus on her career as an artist and Full Sketch ended. According to Katie Sketch, "Barb Sketch is now in suburban California. She's long forgotten her Canadian roots and lives on a ranch with her man and a team of horses." At this point, organist Jenny Smyth (born Genoa Smith), replaced Choit on keyboards. Together with Efron, they founded The Organ.

In 2001, a long audition process began. Eventually, Sketch "tired of auditions," and decided to "just hire some people." After finding a handful of like-minded musicians, Katie assigned them instruments and taught them to play. Taught is a relative term though—Debbie had been playing guitar for three years, and Sketch has expressed distaste in interviews when portrayed as a "music teacher" to the girls: "[The press seems] to think they had a lot of help or something, but mostly it's just the drive to be able to learn the instruments and play them," Sketch said. "[My teaching them] was maybe a half-an-hour, hour process."

Sinking Hearts EP
The full formation of the band that would appear on their first EP took three years. "It's not like the five of us got together and spontaneously created this," Sketch once commented in an interview. "Jenny and I had a direction we wanted to go in and then we slowly recruited people. We could tell if someone didn't get it, which is why we had to get rid of so many players. It's funny, sometimes people say the band's moving really quickly, but I feel like I've been doing this forever."

The original group eventually rounded out with Katie, Jenny, Sarah, drummer Shelby Stocks, and guitarist Debora Cohen. In summer 2002, The Organ made their debut with the release of the Sinking Hearts EP. The Canadian press and indie publications across America praised The Organ's dreampop-inflected presentation. By January, The Organ was signed to Chad Kroeger's 604 imprint and Mint Records. However, before the year was out, Efron would leave to focus on her journalism career and be replaced by Ashley Webber.

"The rock n' roll lifestyle wasn't for me," said Efron, who is currently working for the financial section of The National Post, a conservative Canadian newspaper.

Even with the band finally complete and their first EP released, it would take years before they would release their first proper album; the process of writing and recording (the album would end up being pieced together in four different studios) would take years—two, to be exact, to finish up as Grab That Gun, an album that barely breaks a half hour in length and recycles four of its eleven tracks from Sinking Hearts.

"We knew we had a problem when the album was being mixed," comments Cohen. "When we heard it, we knew that it didn't sound like us. It was too, I don't know, crisp."

After much agonizing, the Organ decided to scrap the Dahle sessions and rerecord the album with producer Paul Forgues, who Sketch knew from her days at the Warehouse Studio.

"It was a really, really hard choice to make," Stocks says. "We had a window where we could have just released something that we weren't totally happy with. There was so much hype at that time, but we were like, 'No way. Let's fuck the hype and start over.' And I think that we ended up with a great album. I know that people who like us for being amateur and really simple are going to get it."

Grab That Gun
Despite numerous set-backs, their five years of slow going had produced a relatively sizable fan-following, and their new material showed even more promise than their first EP, which had done very well indeed, especially for a record that had gone largely unpromoted. As such, Grab That Gun spent more time on top of the Canadian campus-radio charts than any other record released that year.

That December (2004), Ashley Webber left the band.

"I think it's the usual reasons," explained Sketch in an interview. "I mean, I love Ashley, but we had different ideas. And then she wanted to try being in other musical projects, and we support her in that … [but our band has] got to be a high priority, I guess that's what it comes down to."

However, with their first international tour looming and no replacement in sight, Webber was asked back and subsequently rejoined the band in the new year.

The Organ began touring heavily across Canada, the United States and Europe. They also produced a music video for "Brother," (directed by Robert Morfitt) arguably the strongest of the seven new tracks appearing on the record. The video consisted of a fairly straightforward montage of the band performing on a moodily lit stage. A fictitious reenactment of the video shoot for "Brother" can be seen during season two, episode two of the Showtime original series The L Word. "Brother" also appears on The L Word's season two soundtrack.

Following the well received promotion of "Brother," The Organ began production on the far more ambitious "Memorize the City" video, which depicted a dizzying tour through a city of sound, light, and color. The higher artistic standard and production quality of this video reflects an amazing amount of growth for the band in a very short period, and is very impressive considering that it was shot at a time when the band was engaged in the biggest tour of their careers. That July (2005) the standalone 7-inch single, Let the Bells Ring, was released on Go Metric Records. The title track was paired with a remix of "Memorize the City" by Dustin Hawthorne. Later that year, a second remix appeared on the French CD release of Grab That Gun.

During another North American tour promoting Grab That Gun, Ashley Webber left for good. She was then replaced with Katie Sketch's sister, Shmoo, who affirmed that she was "definitely permanent in the band" before it broke up in 2006.

On November 14, 2005, The Organ appeared live on BBC Radio 6 Music with their new bass player. They gave a brief interview and performed live renditions of the songs "Nothing I Can Do" and "Love, Love, Love." On the 27th, a little over a week later, The Organ announced via their website that they had just been signed to Too Pure Records, through which Grab That Gun would be available throughout the world in February 2006.

The album cover was designed by David Cuesta at 7th Avenue house, and is based on a grid constructed around the Fibonacci sequence, to match musical scales. He also designed the logo based on sketches by Katie and Jenny.

Breaking up
On August 23, 2006, the band released a statement on MySpace saying they were canceling the remaining portion of their UK tour which included dates at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. The reason given was illness to a band member and they assured fans the band were not splitting up.

On December 7, 2006, the band released a statement on their MySpace and official site stating that they were breaking up. The statement read:

 * "We are sad to announce that we're breaking up. We want to thank our friends, fans, and family for all the support you gave to us. Thank you.
 * Shelby, Jenny, Katie, Debora, and Shmoo."

In an interview on CBC Radio 3 the following day, Jenny declined to discuss the reasons for the breakup saying that there were issues they preferred to keep private but implied that it had little or nothing to do with either geography or Katie's modeling career. "There were," she said, "so many reasons," she "wouldn't know where to start."

Two years later, Katie Sketch would later go on to detail the full story behind the break-up in a 2008 interview:

"When the band ended, I was really burnt out. I thought if I took a few months off then I wouldn't be burnt out, but now, when I think about it, I wouldn't have the energy to do touring right now. I just feel absolutely exhausted with it, and band politics, and all that stuff. I am still writing music, but it's not my first priority any more. [My first priority now is] getting my life back together. We'd been touring for so long and working so hard that I didn't know how to function on a daily basis. So just little things, like, I'm going to have breakfast today, or I'm going to the gym, or I'm going to get a job. I didn't really have any concept of how to do it any more […] I spent the majority of my twenties wanting to be in a band and it's all I ever thought about. And by the time the band ended I was in really bad health. Like drinking was a problem, and not knowing how to deal with personal crises. I was in bad shape. […] If a band is really supportive of one another and can help each other through things, it works really well, but at the end we were completely unable to communicate. We'd all become self-deprecating, we were fighting all the time... we were basically just drunk all the time. We had no time to separate, so it was like being in a bad domestic situation, all the time. […] When you're five girls touring in really terrible circumstances, where you're all in the same van and all sleep in the same hotel room every night, and you're drinking a lot, you have a lot of really fun times, but there's always fighting, there's always something going on. Towards the end, where things were becoming irreparable, it got to the point where we should have been in therapy as a group. And we should have taken breaks. And I knew that, and I was pushing for that. But the way our career had gone, we released the record in Canada, then somewhere else, then somewhere else, touring the same record. It was staggered, so we were always touring where the fanbase was hearing it for the first time. We built it like that, which is how a lot of bands do it, but it was gruelling. […] We were at that point where everyone in a band wants to get, right where the financial stuff isn't going to be such a big deal, where we'd be able to tour and take personal space, but our relationships had deteriorated so much by that point. […] It's like, you're doing everything that you dreamed of your whole life, and yet you've never been more miserable. You can't get away from these people. It's like you're married to them, basically. And we had other problems as well. What I consider to be a major part of our break-up is that this whole entire time that we were touring and doing all the stuff, we were never signed in the States. And to not have a record label in the States is to not have a career. We live in Canada so it's right there, but whenever we'd play in the States it would be to nobody. So we worked really, really hard to get a label in the States and when we finally had label interest there, and a label we wanted to sign to, our Canadian record label, who own our record, wouldn't let us go with what we wanted to do. It felt like we'd been busting our asses for however long, and we felt like we had no control. So what was going to happen? We'd finally sign in the States when I was 35, and we'd do gruelling tours then? You know what I mean? That was a major knock-down for us.

[…] By the end, I feel like everybody in the band was mentally ill. […] Quite frankly, I was not mentally well. […] I needed to get away from it, or something really bad was going to happen. […] We really needed a break and the record label, everybody, was pushing, pushing, pushing. And there's always the feeling that you're in financial debt too. The more you do it, the more money you make, and we felt like we owed it to people. And that's how management and the record company played it – "you kind of owe it to us to do another tour right now.

[After the breakup,] I moved to Toronto, had a mental breakdown, then I just got a job working for a doctor […] I interview people with drug problems, and alcoholics. […] Jenny the organ player just moved to Toronto and she and I bought a restaurant bar about two months ago. We're renovating it and we live above it in a teeny weeny apartment together. […] It'll be a brunch place in the day, and we have a liquor license so it will be a bar at night. [Now that Jenny and I live together,] it's constantly like, "Remember the time when we..." and we'll laugh and it's hilarious. So the whole thing wasn't horrible. It's not like I'm saying "don't start a band". I'm just saying, you've got to set your personal boundaries, as far as touring goes. As far as the grind. It's really important to take a break and we never got one."

Thieves EP
Less than two years after their breakup, the band released one last EP of unreleased material titled, Thieves, on October 14, 2008. In the same October 16 interview where she would finally reveal the reasons behind the band's breakup, Katie Sketch would give insight into the motivating factors which caused the band to reunite in the studio one last time.

"I had heard a rumor that my record label was going to release songs that we hadn't released, from some demo recording we had done earlier. I was not happy with that. At all. Threatening isn't the right word, but I heard they were thinking about releasing it. So I freaked out, and during that freak-out period I realized that I really like the songs. People have been writing us, fans, asking about the songs, so I thought we should record them while we still remember them. […] I can only speak for myself, but I found that [the recording process for the Thieves EP] was extremely emotionally draining. I made sure we did it under our own terms. I had a friend who engineered it and we did it at my mum's house in BC. She lives on this island, so it was really relaxed. And we did it in stages so the band was never there at the same time, so we couldn't fall back into the band dynamic because "the band" was never there. I gave my friend strict instructions, like, sit in the back seat and don't offer any opinion. We need it to be the easiest session ever, because people are really sensitive, and if one person says, "Fuck this, I'm leaving," then it won't work. So we did it like that. [Having to release the EP on the same record label] is fine. I've really separated myself from the situation. But that sort of thing, being bound by a contract, straight up, that's a major obstacle in my desire to do music any more."

Post-breakup solo projects
Since the band's breakup in 2006, several of the members have gone on to pursue solo projects.

Debora Cohen released demo tracks under the name, "Lovers Love Haters", which she renamed "Dancer in the Dark", with additional single releases.

Shmoo Ritchie fronted Vancouver hardcore band, Keep Tidy. She created a project, "Die Cowboy Die", and released a five-track eponymous album, and a 7-track album, AllCaps (2011).

A video of Katie Sketch performing with a new band called "Mermaids" as early as October 31, 2007, has surfaced on the internet too. Sketch has publicly stated that she fully intends to release a solo effort, but that legal complications have thus far prevented the band from officially releasing any music. According to Sketch:

"I feel like, OK, so I'm going to write a solo record and pour every part of myself into it, and I won't have control over where it's released in the United States again? [With regard to the possibility of releasing solo material independently,] I'm arguably bound by contract. […] It's seriously debatable and is being debated and has been for the last two years. I like to think that I'm not, and they like to think that I am. And that stress alone, honestly, keeps me from sitting down and working on music. I have no control over my own career. […] I can play live, but when it comes to releasing a record, they've straight up said to me, if you release any music you will be sued. And that kind of pressure, after all the work that I've done, really isn't like anything I need in my life right now."

Katie Sketch is now performing with Gentleman Reg and has been seen in some shows at the Gladstone Hotel and the Beaver in Toronto, Ontario.

In 2008, along with former Organ member Jenny Smyth, Sketch opened a gay-friendly Toronto bar and hang-out, The Henhouse. As of November 2016, Katie is the bassist of a Toronto-based all-female band, Vag Halen.

Albums

 * Grab that Gun (2004)

Singles and EPs

 * "Full Sketch" (CD, 2000):
 * "Picky" — "Cooler Than Clean" — "Steven Smith" — "Soundtrack" — "Sketchersize" — "Ice Fishing"
 * "The Organ" (7-inch, 2002):
 * "It's Time to Go" — "We've Got to Meet"
 * "Sinking Hearts" (CD, 2002):
 * "We've Got to Meet" — "I Am Not Surprised" — "It's Time to Go" — "Sinking Hearts" — "There Is Nothing I Can Do" — "No One Has Ever Looked so Dead"
 * "Memorize The City" (7-inch, 2005):
 * "Memorize The City" — "There Is Nothing I Can Do"
 * "Memorize The City" (CD, 2005):
 * "Memorize The City" — "There Is Nothing I Can Do" — "Memorize The City [Remixed by Simon Bookish]"
 * "Let the Bells Ring" (7-inch, 2005):
 * "Let the Bells Ring" — "Memorize the City [Remixed by Dustin Hawthorne]"
 * "Brother" (CD + 7-inch, 2006):
 * "Brother" — "Love Love Love" (Gideon Coe BBC Radio 6 Music Session 14/11/05)
 * "Memorize the City" (CD + 7-inch, 2006):
 * "Memorize the City"— "No One Has Ever Looked So Dead" (Gideon Coe BBC Radio 6 Music Session 14/11/05)
 * "Thieves" (CD, 2008):
 * "Even In The Night" — "Oh What A Feeling" — "Let The Bells Ring" — "Fire In The Ocean" — "Can You Tell Me One Thing" — "Don't Be Angry"

title: The Organ (band)


text:
Lick High School

Lick High School may refer to:

 * James Lick High School
 * Lick-Wilmerding High School

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

title: Lick High School


text:
William C. Overfelt High School

William C. Overfelt High School is a public high school in the East San Jose area of San Jose, California. The principal is Vito Chiala. Overfelt opened in 1962, making it the third-oldest school in the East Side Union High School District. Since 2005, most of the classrooms have been replaced or modernized. Overfelt's yearbook, the Citadel, won National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker awards in 1994, 1998, and 2000.

Notable alumni

 * Carol Speed: Actress, best known for her roles in films during the 1970s blaxploitation era.
 * Lee Evans: Olympic Gold medal winner.
 * Carl Monroe: NFL running back who scored a touchdown for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XIX.
 * Jim Plunkett: NFL quarterback who won two Super Bowls.
 * Nora Campos: politician, served on the San Jose City Council and in the California State Assembly.

title: William C. Overfelt High School


text:
Didinga people

The Didinga (Didinga) are a Surmic ethnic group that occupy the Didinga Mountains region in Budi County, Eastern Equatoria State in South Sudan. They live in the valleys, on the plateaus and slopes, and on the adjacent plains of the region. Their neighbors include the Toposa, Turkana, Boya, Ketebo, Logir, Ik, Dodos and Dongotona peoples - groups with whom the Didinga have had frequent conflicts due to economic pressures.

Language and history
Driberg's 1922 study states that "The Didinga have a very strong tradition that they arrived at their present habitat from the S. E., travelling through country now inhabited by Dodoth round the S. Shore of Lake Rudolph. The date of this migration is entirely unknown, but it was probably comparatively recent. In the XVI century this area was inhabited by tribes of the Shilluk cluster until they were dispersed by semi-Hamitic invaders from the East. These gradually tended to extend and drift southwards (vide the Masai), and it is possible that some ancient metal workings traceable in old slag-heaps at Latome, Lotyathe and other parts of the present Didinga country may be attributed to these XVI century invaders." Driberg published a small collection of their songs and poems.

The Didinga, Boya, Tennet, Murle and Mursi of Southwest Ethiopia share a language that distinguishes them from all other groups in the Sudan. Their language, often called the Murle-Didinga language, is also spoken by a group living in southwest Ethiopia. The Didinga claim to have lived in southwest Ethiopia two hundred years ago. During their migration to the Didinga Hills, the Didinga, Murle, Tennet and Boya were one group. They lived in harmony in Sudan until a hunting-party dispute caused the Murle to leave. Later, a famine caused the Boya to withdraw. Today, though the groups have separated, their language remains the same. Their most urban town is Chukudum, a historic town that hosted the first Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) National Convention in 1994.

During the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005) tensions with the Dinka people built up after the Dinka-dominated SPLA forces moved into the area in 1985. They came to a head in 1999 when the Didinga officer Peter Lorot was passed over for promotion in favor of a Dinka, assassinated his rival and took to the woods with his supporters. The fighting with Lorot's forces displaced about 16,800 people from Chukudum to nearby villages in the highlands. The "Chukudom Crisis" was resolved in August 2002 during a Peace Conference organized by  the  New Sudan Council of Churches. An attempt by the SPLA in June 2006 to disarm Lorot's militia was ignored, with the group threatening to start fighting again.

Lifestyle
For many years, the Didinga enjoyed a quiet, rural life. They took great pride in raising cattle and owned large herds that were supervised by the young single Didinga men. However, in 1963, a political disturbance which lasted until 1973 caused many Didinga to leave their cattle behind and to migrate to Uganda. While in Uganda, for the first time in their lives, Didinga were exposed to large-scale farming. Also, their children were introduced to education. These experiences created in the people the desires to make money and to gain knowledge, things which had been unimportant in the Hills.

When they returned to Sudan in 1973, the people were filled with a new vision for a more advanced life. They hoped to incorporate into their own culture many of the ideas and concepts they had learned in Uganda. They were met, however, with a drastic decrease in the numbers in their herds: clansmen who had remained in the Hills had failed to restock the cattle during the disturbance. Today, many Didinga are still working to enlarge their herds. They purchase cattle either through the exchange of grain or beer, or with money.

At present, farming and the desire for an education are as important to the Didinga as the herding of cattle is. The traditional values associated with raising cattle remain embedded in all Didinga. Many still take great pleasure in owning large herds. Their new-found hope for change that was brought back from their temporary migration also remains instilled in their daily lives. The Didinga use their cattle not only as a means of wealth, but also for their milk that is consumed daily and made into butter. Didinga also consume fresh blood drawn from the necks of cattle with miniature arrows. The Didinga do not fish at all, because the eating of fish is taboo in their culture.

The Didinga live in scattered homesteads, with each clan grouped together. Homes are round with cone-shaped roofs. During certain seasons and during grazing periods, the Didinga also live in rustic camps. An important aspect of Didinga society is the organization of 'Nyekerehet' (age-grades) for boys. Every three to five years, boys who are around eight years old are placed together to form a new "age-grade." These boys work and play together until they are married.

Beliefs
Their traditional beliefs and religious practices include having a tribal rainmaker who is entrusted with performing certain rituals to bring rain. Didinga also worship and sacrifice to spirits and gods and place great importance upon the worship of dead ancestors.

title: Didinga people


text:
The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle is a 1926 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables (1908).

The story is set during the early 1900s in the fictional town of Deerwood, located in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. Deerwood is based on Bala, Ontario, which Montgomery visited in 1922. Maps of the two towns show similarities.

This novel is considered one of L.M. Montgomery's few adult works of fiction, along with A Tangled Web, and is the only book she wrote that is entirely set outside of Prince Edward Island. It has grown in popularity since being republished in 1990. The book was adapted for the stage twice; in 1982 it was made into a successful Polish musical, and ten years later Canadian playwright Hank Stinson authored another version, The Blue Castle: A Musical Love Story.

Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds, evidently used The Blue Castle as the basis of her novel The Ladies of Missalonghi—subconsciously, as she alleged—to the point of provoking accusations of plagiarism.

Plot summary
Valancy is, at twenty-nine, the old maid of the Stirling clan, which is a reputable family that has lived in the same region for over fifty years. As an only child, her entire life has been spent with her nagging mother, her perpetually down-trodden aunt, and a gossipy extended family, who, in spirit of the Victorian and middle class, actively discourage happiness and treat Valancy like a child, telling her what to do every day and constantly comparing her with her beautiful cousin, Olive, putting her down, and calling her by the baby name "Doss." Her only respites come from daydreaming of her "Blue Castle" and the handsome men who would reside in it with her, along with reading the nature books of John Foster.

Valancy is shockingly diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment when she goes in for a checkup, a fact she keeps secret from all of her family, since she goes to a doctor that isn't considered the 'right' one, because her family has a long-lived feud with his family.

Believing she has very little time left to live, she decides to break free from the oppressive constrains, expectations, and obligations her ever-judging family has laid on her since birth. She has always judged them objectively and secretly laughed at their hypocrisy, self-righteousness. Now she decides that she shouldn't let her ever-judging relatives stop her from having a chance to 'live', letting everyone know what she thinks of them and their everyday, strife-filled actions. She starts saying aloud what she thinks of them, causing the Stirlings to conclude that she has suddenly gone 'dippy' and that they must somehow 'fix' her through prayer for her soul, guilting her, and pretending that what she does won't make them think that she is a heretic.

Valancy then scandalizes the clan even more by moving out of her mother's house and taking a position as a housekeeper for her very ill childhood friend Cissy Gay and her father, who is a master carpenter and notorious town drunk named Roaring Abel. Cissy is dying of consumption, but is socially ostracized for having had a child out of wedlock one summer. The child died soon after being born, and Cissy wasted away from her sickness and the perpetual misery of losing her beloved baby. Cissy and Valancy share a room and renew their friendship. Valancy enjoys earning a salary and spending her money in ways her family would not approve of – such as purchasing a brightly-coloured, low-necked dress. But her real satisfaction comes from doing something worthwhile, and doing it well. She also meets and spends time with Barney Snaith, who is a good friend of both Abel and Cissy, but whom town gossips are convinced is a criminal in hiding, a horrible drunk like Roaring Abel, and/or the father of Cissy's illegitimate, now-deceased child.

Towards the end Cissy confides in Valancy, telling her about the man she fell in love with but refused to marry because he no longer loved her. Her baby compensated for her heartache, but when the infant died she was devastated. Cissy passes away quietly and Valancy makes all the funeral arrangements, setting the house in order for Abel before leaving.

All this time, the Stirling prestige has suffered from Valancy's actions, her 'going into service' and associating with 'lowlifes"; several unsuccessful attempts are made to have her come 'home.' Now they assume she will move back to live with her mother and aunt, having magnanimously decided to forgive her recent behaviour and gloss it over as an act of 'Christian charity'. They are appeased after the funeral when Valancy agrees that she will not stay with Roaring Abel - unaware that she has other plans. She proposes marriage to Barney, revealing that she is dying and wants to enjoy the remaining time she has left. She does not confess her love for him, instead telling him that she is 'crazy about him' and that it's one of the reasons why she picked him as a potential husband. Barney agrees to marry her, and they have a quiet ceremony the next day in the next town over. Valancy's family, who found a good match for her while she was housekeeping, are horrified by her marriage to such a 'disreputable' man (whose real crime is being unconventional and not being related to a 'good family' from the area) and effectively disown her.

Barney takes Valancy to his home on a wooded island located on Lake 'Mistawis,' which Valancy sees as the 'Blue Castle' of her imaginings. They build a contented life together, though he forbids her from ever entering a certain room which she dubs 'Bluebeard's Chamber', claiming that he could have multiple wives strung up on the walls by their hair. Barney and Valancy share wonderful conversations and take long walks on the mainland, she often quoting from books by John Foster, which he abhors and refuses to listen to. They celebrate Christmas, he giving her the only gift she asked for: a necklace of pearl beads.

Valancy also takes the time to exorcise old demons, building a large sand pile to make up for one that her cousin Olive had stolen from her when they were in grade school. Also, while Valancy is collecting moss and flowers to decorate their cabin, she comes upon Allan Tierney, a celebrated painter of beautiful women, who, when he sees her, hastens to find Barney and asks to paint her portrait, which he declines. Valancy agrees with his decision, although she wishes that Olive, her snooty cousin, would hear that Allan Tierney wanted to paint her.

The year that she had to live is almost over when Valancy is nearly killed by an oncoming train, her fancy heeled shoe caught in a train track. Barney saves her in the nick of time, risking his own life to do so. After the shock passes, Valancy realizes that she should have died of it - the doctor warned that any sudden shock would kill her. Barney is likewise stunned by the experience and retreats to his beloved woods and Bluebeard's Chamber to think. Valancy assumes that he has left because, having married her out of pity, he now realizes he is trapped in a marriage he doesn't desire.

Valancy returns to the doctor, who discovers that he sent Valancy "Stirling" a letter with a diagnosis meant for Miss "Sterling," an elderly, spinster patient who visited him on the same day and had a fatal heart condition; Valancy's letter went to her instead. While equally painful, Valancy's condition was temporary and could be healed from a sudden jolt of happiness, sadness, or adrenaline.

Arriving home from the doctor depressed, with Barney still away, she finds a gaudily dressed man waiting near their home. He introduces himself as Barney's father, Dr. Redfern, the multi-millionaire inventor of Dr. Redfern's patent medicines. Dr. Redfern explains that a decade earlier Bernard Snaith Redfern abruptly left home without a word, having dumped the girlfriend he thought loved him, finding out she was a gold-digger. Dr. Redfern had no idea where his son was (as Barney was constantly traveling and only sent a few postcards) until Barney withdrew $15,000 (+/-$226,000 in 2023) from his bank account to purchase a pearl necklace from a reputable jewelry house. Dr. Redfern is a genial man overall, and although sad that he wasn't invited to the wedding, is pleased that Barney has settled down and asks that Barney come home as he is the only family he has.

Thinking that Barney believes she tricked him into marriage and that he still loves his ex-girlfriend, Valancy decides to leave him and return to her mother's house. While searching for pen and paper to write Barney an explanatory note, she unthinkingly goes into 'Bluebeard's Chamber' and discovers that he is also 'John Foster,' her favourite author. She writes the note, explaining the mix-up behind her diagnosis and asking for a divorce, knowing now that he can afford it and leaves behind the necklace, which she had thought an expensive imitation.

Valancy returns home despondent and reveals to her family that Barney is the son of famous and wealthy Dr. Redfern, as well as the noted literary figure John Foster. Barney's wealth instantly erases any misgivings her family had about him, and they are determined that Barney and Valancy should stay together; her wealthy uncle, Benjamin, knowing now that she has married a millionaire's son - therefore redeeming herself - un-disowns her.

Barney, after meeting his father, finds Valancy's note and rushes to town to see her and ask her to come back. Barney's absence after the train incident was due to the stunned realization that he had grown to love her so much, he would not want to live without her and so he was contemplating contacting his father for the first time in a decade to ask for money to pay for expensive medical treatments that could somehow heal her. At first she refuses, believing that he is only asking out of pity, but when he becomes angry, thinking she is ashamed of his father's patent medicine business just like his ex-girlfriend was, she realizes he does love her and agrees to return.

Barney reconciles with his father but will not live with him; they will build a home of their own out in the country, but near enough to visit. Meanwhile Barney and Valancy prepare to go on the honeymoon they never had, albeit extended and while touring Europe, knowing their summer home on Barney's small island - her 'Blue Castle' - will be waiting for them.

In a post-credit-like page, Olive is writing to her fiancee, Cecil Bruce, telling him about Valancy marrying Barney and how they discovered he was a millionaire in his own right, and how now every single relative is positively fawning over the couple. In an almost jealous diatribe, she wonders why some people can make their entire lives an utter mess with their adventures and yet end up married to a rich person, and she says that if this is what happens when someone runs away and flouts family expectations, then what is the use in behaving?

Characters

 * Valancy Jane Stirling, called "Doss" by her family
 * Barney Snaith, actually Bernard Snaith Redfern, and author 'John Foster'
 * Mrs. Frederick Stirling (Amelia), Valancy's mother
 * Cousin Christine Stickles, a widowed aunt who lives with Valancy and her mother
 * Cousin Olive, Valancy's much courted and beautiful cousin
 * Cousin Georgiana, another elderly widow
 * Uncle Benjamin, bachelor proprietor of the local general store
 * Aunt Alberta & Uncle Herbert, the Stirling's 'power couple'
 * Aunt & Uncle Wellington
 * Dr. Trent, the doctor who misdiagnoses Valancy
 * Cecilia "Cissy" Gay, a childhood friend of Valancy's
 * Roaring Abel Gay, Cissy Gay's unruly father
 * Dr. Stalling, the reverend of the Stirlings' Anglican church
 * Mr. Towers, the pastor of Valancy's favorite Free Methodist church
 * Edward Beck, an elderly widower who contemplates marriage with Valancy
 * Ethel Traverse, a woman Barney had previously been in love with
 * Dr. Redfern, Barney's multi-millionaire father

First Edition notes
Almost all editions of The Blue Castle lack dust jackets. The true first edition does not have a castle on the front boards, it was added after Montgomery had commented, "Not so pretty. A plain cover."

title: The Blue Castle


text:
Soha Ali Khan

Soha Ali Khan Pataudi (born 4 October 1978) is an Indian actress who has worked in Hindi, Bengali and English films. She is the younger daughter of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and former India cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan, of Bhopal, and the younger sister of actor Saif Ali Khan and Saba Ali Khan. She started her acting career with the romantic comedy film Dil Maange More (2004), and is best known for her role in the drama film Rang De Basanti (2006). In 2017, she authored a book The Perils of Being Moderately Famous that won the Crossword Book Award in 2018.

Early life and background
Khan was born on 4 October 1978 in New Delhi, India, to the Pataudi family as the Nawab of Pataudis. Hailing from Barech Pashtun ancestry, she is the youngest daughter of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the 9th Nawab of Pataudi, and Sharmila Tagore, an Indian actress. Both her father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and paternal grandfather Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi were former captains of the Indian cricket team, while her grandmother, Sajida Sultan Pataudi, was the Begum of Bhopal.

Khan's elder brother Saif Ali Khan is a Bollywood actor and her elder sister, Saba Ali Khan, is a jewellery designer and the mutawalli of Auqaf-e-Shahi. The titular Begum of Bhopal, Saleha Sultan, was her aunt, and through her, she is the first cousin of cricketer, Saad Bin Jung. The late major general of Pakistan, Sher Ali Khan Pataudi, is her great-granduncle, and the diplomat Shahryar Khan is her uncle, through her grandaunt Abida Sultan. She is the aunt of Sara Ali Khan and the sister-in-law of Kareena Kapoor.

Khan attended The British School, in New Delhi, studied modern history at Balliol College, Oxford and earned a master's degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Career
Khan made her acting debut with the Bollywood film Dil Maange More!!! (2004). She performed in the Bengali film Antar Mahal (2005), and was also a part of Rang De Basanti (2006). Her performance in the film received positive reviews and earned her the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in Khoya Khoya Chand and in the 2009 film, 99. Her next release was Tum Mile, opposite Emraan Hashmi. Khan hosted the game show Godrej Khelo Jeeto Jiyo. She also appeared in the film Mr Joe B. Carvalho. Khan's debut book, The Perils of Being Moderately Famous, which features a collection of humorous anecdotes about her life, was published in 2017. In 2017, she acted in a short film, Soundproof, which was directed by Aditya Kelgaonkar. It was screened at various film festivals and won awards at the New York Indian Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Houston, Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards, where it won best short film award; International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, where it won award for best short fiction; and Belgaum International Short Film Festival.

Off-screen work

In addition to her acting career, Khan is a celebrity endorser for brands and products such as Club Mahindra, House of Pataudi and Earthraga among others. In 2022, she was appointed as the brand advocate for New Zealand education in India.

Khan authored her memoir named, The Perils of Being Moderately Famous, which was released in 2017. In 2018, Khan won the Crossword Book Award for her book.

Personal life

Khan was in a relationship with actor Kunal Khemu since 2009. Khan got engaged to Khemu in July 2014 in Paris and married him in Mumbai on 25 January 2015. She gave birth to their daughter, Inaaya Naumi Khemu Khan on 29 September 2017.

title: Soha Ali Khan


text: Category:Databases

title: Category:Databases


text:
Humongous (1982 film)

Humongous is a 1982 Canadian slasher film directed by Paul Lynch, and starring Janet Julian, John Wildman, and David Wallace. The story centers on a group of young adults who become stranded on a deserted island, where they are stalked and murdered by a monstrous assailant.

Plot
During Labor Day weekend in 1946, young Ida Parsons is chased into the woods and raped by a houseguest. Her dogs break out of their pen and attack and kill Ida's rapist.

In 1982, brothers Eric and Nick borrow their father's yacht to take their girlfriends, Sandy and Donna, and their sister, Carla, on a weekend outing to St. Martin Island. That night, Eric and Nick discover and rescue a shipwrecked fisherman named Bert. Bert was wrecked offshore Dog Island, the home of lumber baroness Ida Parsons, who has used her family fortune to hole herself up on the island for the past thirty-five years, only making two annual voyages to the mainland for supplies, and never speaking to anyone. Recovering from the onset of hypothermia, Bert tells a campfire story about the wild dogs which roam Ida's island, acting as her sentries.

Donna, Eric, Sandy, Nick, and Bert wreck their boat and wash up on Dog Island. Bert is wounded, and Carla is nowhere to be found. Nick wanders off into the woods, and is killed by a hulking figure. The next morning, Sandy and Eric go onto the island, hoping Ida Parsons will help them get back to the mainland. After they leave the beach, Bert goes into shock, and Donna tries to warm him. The same figure which killed Nick sneaks up behind Donna and Bert, hurling Donna against a rock wall and decapitating Bert.

At the center of the island, Sandy and Eric discover Ida's fortified cabin. All of Ida's dogs are dead, their mutilated skeletons lying in their pens. In Ida's boathouse, Sandy and Eric discover Carla hiding under a tarp; she washed up at another point and made it to the compound during the night. Exploring Ida's compound, Eric, Sandy and Carla discover a dust-covered nursery full of antique toys, a crib, and Ida's diary, which contains insane, rambling passages about giving birth to a sick child, which she intends to keep sinless by secluding him from the evils of the outside world. Sandy comes across Ida's skeletal corpse in her bedroom. The group decides to collect supplies and escape from the island in Ida's old rowboat. While exploring the basement, they discover the corpses of Nick and Donna and flee to the beach in a panic.

Eric and Sandy deduce that Ida's 35-year-old mutant son is the one behind the murders, left insane by his life of solitude. With nothing to do but learn from Ida and explore the wilderness, he became immensely strong, a capable hunter, and is convinced that all outsiders are a threat to him and his mother. With the death of Ida, he was left without any basis for reality and ate the dogs to survive.

Eric and Sandy go back to the house and get the matches Sandy dropped. Ida's son attacks, breaking down the door. Eric fights using a broken branch, but the mutant fatally breaks his back. He then chases Sandy upstairs into his mother's bedroom. She wraps a blanket around her head and, playing Ida, convinces the mutant to leave his mother's bedroom. When Sandy leaves, the mutant pursues her to the boathouse, where she runs headlong into Carla. The mutant grabs Carla and kills her. Sandy sets Ida's boathouse on fire; although severely burned in the blaze, he attacks Sandy, chasing her up a hill. She yanks a sharp signpost from the ground and impales him. Traumatized by the deaths of her friends and the killing she committed, Sandy sits alone on Ida's dock, strongly resembling a scarred and traumatized Ida.

Cast

 * Janet Julian as Sandy Ralston
 * David Wallace as Eric Simmons
 * John Wildman as Nick Simmons
 * Janit Baldwin as Carla Simmons
 * Joy Boushel as Donna Blake
 * Layne Coleman as Bert Defoe (as Lane Coleman)
 * Shay Garner as Ida Parsons (as Shea Garner)
 * Page Fletcher as Tom Rice
 * John McFadyen as Ed Parsons
 * Garry Robbins as Ida's son

Filming locations
The filming of the movie took place in Ontario, Canada.

Release
Humongous was first released in the United States, in a version which was rated R by the MPA, and was only later given a domestic release in Canada, which instead saw an unrated cut of the film.

Critical reception
Humongous has received mostly negative reviews. On Sneak Previews, Roger Ebert made Humongous his pick for "Dog of the Week", citing its ponderous pacing and repetitive sequences.

In a retrospective review, author and film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film one and a half out of a possible four stars, calling the film "slow-moving", and criticizing the film's overuse of cliches, lack of visibility, and lack of clear shots of the monster. AllMovie's review called it a "plodding horror bore" and commented, "whatever interest this deathly dull flick may have mustered is completely obscured by some of the murkiest cinematography on record; the fact that nearly every scene is shrouded in complete darkness may prove a blessing in disguise." Tim Brayton from Antagony & Ecstasy called the film "Junk" and criticized the characterization as being "of limited interest" but complimented the unique villain and said the acting is better than in most slasher films. Justin Kerswell from Hysteria Lives! awarded the film 2.5/5 stars, writing, "HUMONGOUS seems to desperately want to be a hefty helping of true American Gothic, but in reality it's far too cheesy to be very macabre or even generate many true thrills."

For the film's 35th Anniversary, Dave J. Wilson from Dread Central wrote a retrospective on the film, noting its similarities with Joe D'Amato's 1980 film Antropophagus, but arguing that it was superior to that earlier effort. Wilson stated that, while the film was no classic, it did not deserve the obscurity and low user ratings that it was given. Wilson remarked that the characters Nick and Donna are obnoxious and unlikable, but concluded his assessment, "Atmospheric, brutal, sleazy, suspenseful and tense, a monstrous villain, and an energetic finale, this is an entertaining little slasher flick."

Todd Martin from HorrorNews.net called the film a "great little flick that has gone somewhat unnoticed for way too long". In his review, Martin commended the premise, death scenes, soundtrack, and suspense, while criticizing the poor lighting of some scenes. Kurt Dahlke from DVD Talk wrote in his review of the film, "Though derivative of other Slasher Movies, plagued by the annoying improbabilities of all A-to-B horror efforts, filled with bickering dorks, and pretty slow to get started, Humongous eventually gets to a weird, frenetic payoff". Tom Becker from DVD Verdict commented, "While it might not be the shocker it should be, Humongous is a pretty entertaining bit of horror fluff from the days when people took this stuff seriously". Jack Sommersby from eFilmCritic.com awarded the film a score of 3/4 stating, "It's perfect for audiences looking for an undemanding, scary good time, along with those longing to see the drop-dead gorgeous Janet Julian in a skimpy bikini".

Home media
Humongous made its debut on DVD on Nov 15, 2011, published by Scorpion Releasing. It has also been released on Blu-ray by Scorpion Releasing.

title: Humongous (1982 film)


text:
Talk:Room a Thousand Years Wide

2005-07-19t00:24 edit.
and question at User talk:Jeandré.

 * 1) I incorporated the track listing into the opening paragraph because 2 items didn't seem enough for a bulleted list and section, but if there is a preference for sections listing tracks in articles about singles, feel free to put it back.
 * 2) I added light year because I thought that the song title, like Black Hole Sun showed an understanding of astronomy not often found in popular music and wanted to hilite that. A light year is a distance, and it seems that the "years" in the song title is how the room's "wide" is measured. Feel free to take it out if I misinterpreted it.
 * 3) While we don't capitalize the first letter of every word here on Wikipedia, the title of the song should probably be kept as it is on the single booklet, eventho it grates as much as ALL CAPS.
 * 4) Thanks for fixing the song length, I didn't know it was different from the album version.
 * 5) While the lyrics of that one verse is probably fair use, I now agree that it's not encyclopedia material and agree with your removal of it. — Jeandré, 2005-07-20t23:23z

singles chronology
this was apparently a single for sub pop before they signed to A&M, thus it should appear earlier in the chronology, before the Louder than Love singles.

Fair use rationale for Image:Roomathousandyears.gif
Image:Roomathousandyears.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 07:25, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Time signatures
What time signatures is "Room a Thousand Years Wide" in? 38.118.23.20 (talk) 12:12, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Room a Thousand Years Wide


text:
When in Rome

When in Rome may refer to:

 * "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", a saying attributed to Ambrose

Film and television

 * When in Rome (1952 film), an American comedy drama starring Van Johnson and Paul Douglas
 * When in Rome (2002 film), an American direct-to-video film starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
 * When in Rome (2010 film), an American romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel
 * "When in Rome..." (And Just Like That...), a 2021 TV episode
 * "When in Rome..." (The Suite Life on Deck), a 2009 TV episode

Literature

 * When in Rome (novel), a 1970 Roderick Alleyn mystery by Ngaio Marsh
 * Catwoman: When in Rome, a 2004 DC Comics miniseries
 * "When in Rome", a poem by Mari Evans

Music

 * When in Rome (band), an English synth-pop/new wave trio

Albums

 * When in Rome (Cliff Richard album), 1965
 * When in Rome (When in Rome album), 1988
 * When in Rome (Penguin Cafe Orchestra album), 1988
 * When in Rome 2007, a live DVD by Genesis, 2008

Songs

 * "When in Rome (Do the Jerk)", by Rocket from the Crypt, 1998
 * "When in Rome", by Billy Joel from Storm Front, 1989
 * "When in Rome", by Mac Miller from GO:OD AM, 2015
 * "When in Rome", by Mudhoney from Piece of Cake, 1992
 * "When in Rome", by Nickel Creek from Why Should the Fire Die?, 2005
 * "When in Rome", by Phil Ochs from Tape from California, 1968
 * "When in Rome", by Supagroup, 2001
 * "When in Rome", by Travis Tritt from My Honky Tonk History, 2004
 * "When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)", by Barbra Streisand from People, 1964

Other uses

 * When in Rome, a comedy tour by Alex Horne

title: When in Rome


text:
1997 Tour de France

The 1997 Tour de France was the 84th edition of the Tour de France and took place from 5 to 27 July. Jan Ullrich's victory margin of 9:09 was the largest margin of victory since Laurent Fignon won the 1984 Tour de France by 10:32. Since 1997 no rider has had this convincing of a win with the closest margin to Ullrich's victory being Vincenzo Nibali winning the 2014 Tour de France with a gap of 7:39. Ullrich's simultaneous victories in both the general classification and the young riders' classification marked the first time the same rider had won both categories in the same Tour since Laurent Fignon in 1983. The points classification was won by Ullrich's teammate Erik Zabel, for the second time, and their team also won the team classification. The mountains classification was won by Richard Virenque for the fourth time.

Teams
198 riders in 22 teams commenced the 1997 Tour de France. 139 riders finished. The 16 teams with the highest UCI ranking at the start of 1997 were automatically qualified. Six wildcard invitations were also given.

The teams entering the race were:

Qualified teams

Invited teams

Route and stages
The highest point of elevation in the race was 2408 m at the summit of the Port d'Envalira mountain pass on stages 10 and 11.

Race overview
The Prologue was won by Time Trial Specialist Chris Boardman giving him the Yellow Jersey for stage one with Ullrich just two seconds behind. Defending champion Bjarne Riis, who had been preparing for and seeking a repeat victory with Ullrich acting as his Super-Domestique finished outside the top 10 but was in no way concerned as he had come into the Tour in good form. The first four stages were flat stages, the first two of which were won by the infamous Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini with the third going to Erik Zabel and the fourth being won by Nicola Minali. Cipollini would wear the Yellow Jersey following the first few stages due to bonus seconds during the sprint finishes. During the 261 km stage five from Chantonnay to Le Chatre Cédric Vasseur survived a breakaway and finished nearly two and a half minutes ahead of the Peloton to claim the stage win and the Yellow Jersey, which he would hold on to until the race reached the high mountains.

Stage 6 was won by Jeroen Blijlevens in a sprint finish with Djamolidine Abdoujaparov finishing 2nd which would be his highest placing in this final TDF of his impressive career. Stages 7 and 8 followed rounding out the first week with sprint finishes, both of which were won by Erik Zabel as he bested Jaan Kirsipuu and Blijlevens in stage 7 and Minali and Blijlevens in stage 8. Zabel had donned the Green Jersey following stage 3 and would hold it all the way to Paris. Stage 9 was the first stage in the Pyrenees which included the Col d'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet as two of the five categorized climbs. Laurent Brochard won the stage with the elite group of Richard Virenque, Pantani and Ullrich finishing 0:14 behind. Surprisingly to some defending champion Riis lost nearly thirty seconds to the other contenders coming across in 8th putting him in a tie for 4th in the overall standings with Virenque at 1:43 behind Vasseur after the first major mountain stage. Spaniard Abraham Olano was in 3rd at 1:14 behind and the next closest GC favorite was Ullrich 0:14 behind him.

Stage 10 was another high mountain stage with five climbs and was won convincingly by Ullrich by 1:06 over Virenque and Pantani as Riis and Olano each lost more than three minutes. With the victory Ullrich became the first German rider to wear the maillot jaune since Klaus-Peter Thaler in the 1978 Tour de France and only 3rd overall as "Didi" Dietrich Thurau wore it for 15 days in the 1977 Tour de France. Stage 11 was an intermediate stage in which Laurent Desbiens survived to finish 0:18 ahead of the bunch together with two other riders whom he outsprinted to take the stage win. There were no major attacks by the GC riders in this stage so going into the ITT in Stage 12 Ullrich was convincingly in the lead at 2:38 over Virenque, 4:46 over Olano and 4:53 over his teammate Riis, who at this point remained confident he was still the leader of Team Telekom with Ullrich continuing to ride for him as a Super-Domestique.

The individual time trial extinguished any and all doubts who was in command of the race as Ullrich put more than three minutes into all of his competitors and teammates with 2nd place Virenque now approaching a six-minute deficit in the overall standings and Pantani, Olano and Riis each being eight minutes or more behind. Stage 13 was Alpe d'Huez and the only rider able to drop Ullrich was Pantani who had to put in one of the fastest recorded times up Alpe d'Huez in TDF history in order to do so. Virenque finished 3rd 1:27 behind Pantani and Francesco Casagrande finished 4th on the stage while also moving to 6th place in the overall standings. Riis finished 5th, losing nearly another two minutes to Ullrich. In stage 14 Virenque made an attack to win back time on Ullrich, helped by his entire team. The margin was never more than two minutes, and Ullrich was able to get back to Virenque before the final climb. Virenque won the stage, but Ullrich finished in the same time. In stage 15 it was the Pirate attacking and winning his second stage and while he remained more than ten minutes behind Ullrich he did jump Riis in the standings to move in the final podium position.

Ullrich remained fully in command as the race progressed and aside from suffering a major crash or failing a doping control there wasn't much chance of him losing the Tour. Stage 18 was the final mountain stage and included a rare climb up the Ballon d'Alsace, which was a popular stage early in TDF history but hadn't been included since the 1982 Tour de France and was added to the route for only the 4th time since World War II. Frenchman Didier Rous would win the stage beating the next closest breakaway riders in Pascal Hervé, Bobby Julich and Laurent Roux by more than five minutes to finish the mountain stages with there being no further changes among the general classification favorites.

The final ITT in Stage 20 was won by Olano with Ullrich taking second 0:45 back. The final stage on the Champs-Élysées was won by Nicola Minali who beat out Zabel, Blijlevens, Henk Vogel, Robbie McEwen and George Hincapie in the mass sprint finish. Afterwards on the podiums Erik Zabel was awarded the green jersey, Richard Virenque won the King of the Mountains as well as the Most Combative Rider, in 3rd place on the podium was Marco Pantani, in 2nd was Virenque and in 1st overall winning the best young rider award, as well as the yellow jersey as champion of the Tour de France was Jan Ullrich.

Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1997 Tour de France. The most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour.

Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a green jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey.

There was also a mountains classification. The organisation had categorised some climbs as either hors catégorie, first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and wore a white jersey with red polka dots.

The fourth individual classification was the young rider classification, which was not marked by a jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders under 26 years were eligible.

For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time.

In addition, there was a combativity award given after each mass-start stage to the cyclist considered most combative. The decision was made by a jury composed of journalists who gave points. The cyclist with the most points from votes in all stages led the combativity classification. Richard Virenque won this classification, and was given overall the super-combativity award. The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass the summit of the Port d'Envalira on stage 10. This prize was won by Virenque for the third time, the most by any rider in Tour history.

 * In stage 1, Jan Ullrich wore the green jersey.
 * In stage 2, Tom Steels wore the green jersey.
 * In stage 3, Erik Zabel wore the green jersey.

Aftermath
After Ullrich's domination of the 1997 Tour de France at his young age, it was believed that Ullrich would dominate the Tour de France for the next years. However, Ullrich would never win the Tour again, although he did reach the podium four more times finishing second to Pantani in 1998 and standing 2nd on the podium to Lance Armstrong three times. He also reached the podium in the 2005 Tour de France, but that result was later voided. Ullrich would win another Grand Tour however, the 1999 Vuelta a España.

title: 1997 Tour de France