Monday, July 29, 2013

BARBECUE chapter I

Barbecue Blues
Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931) was an early American Piedmont blues musician. His nickname came from the fact that he was a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two extant photographs of Bob show him playing his guitar while wearing a full length white apron and cook's hat.

Early life
He was born in Walnut Grove, Georgia. He and his brother, Charlie Hicks, together with Curley Weaver, were taught how to play the guitar by Curley's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver. Bob began playing the 6-string guitar but picked up the 12-string guitar after moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1923–1924. He became one of the prominent performers of the newly developing early Atlanta blues style.

In Atlanta, Hicks worked a variety of jobs, playing music on the side. While working at Tidwells' Barbecue in a north Atlanta suburb, Hicks came to the attention of Columbia Records talent scout Dan Hornsby. Hornsby recorded him and decided to use Hicks's job as a gimmick, having him pose in chef's whites and hat for publicity photos and dubbing him "Barbecue Bob".

Career
During his short career he recorded 68 78-rpm sides. He recorded his first side, "Barbecue Blues", in March 1927. The record quickly sold 15,000 copies and made him a best selling artist for Columbia's race series. Despite this initial success, it was not until his second recording session, in New York during June 1927, that he firmly established himself on the race market. At this session he recorded "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues", a song inspired by the major floods taking place in Mississippi at that time. This song, as well as his other blues releases, gained considerable popularity, and his records sold much better than those of other local blues musicians.
He died in Lithonia, Georgia, of a combination of tuberculosis and pneumonia brought on by influenza, at the age of 29, on October 21, 1931. His recording of "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" was apparently played at his graveside before burial.
 
Barbecue Blues lyrics
Woke up this morning gal
'Twixt midnight and day
With my hand around my pillow
Where my brownie used to lay

I know I ain't good looking
Teeth don't shine like pearls
So glad, good looks
Don't take you through this world

Going to starch my jumper mama
Iron my overalls
My brown done quit me
God knows she had it all

I'm going to tell you now gal
Like gypsy told the Jew
If you don't want me
It's a cinch I don't want you

Did you ever dream lucky
Wake up cold in hand
That's a mighty true sign
Your brown got some other man

My mama told me
Papa told me too
Some brown skin woman
Going to be the death of you

Pop meets the Classics 2

"Hate Me Now" is a 1999 hip hop single by rapper Nas featuring Puff Daddy. The backbeat is inspired by, and contains some samples from, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. It was ranked 119 on xxl's best songs of the 90's.

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (born September 14, 1973), better known simply as Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is the son of jazz musician Olu Dara. Since 1994, Nas has released eight consecutive platinum and multi-platinum albums and sold over 25 million records worldwide. Aside from rapping and acting, Nas is an entrepreneur through his own record label, retail sneaker store, and magazine publishing. He currently serves as Mass Appeal Magazine's associate publisher as well as an owner of a Fila sneaker store.

His musical career began in 1991 when he was featured on Main Source's track "Live at the Barbeque". His debut album Illmatic, released in 1994, received universal acclaim from both critics and the hip hop community. It is frequently ranked as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. His follow-up album It Was Written debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Charts, stayed on top for four consecutive weeks, went platinum twice in only two months, and made Nas internationally known.

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis (Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images.) Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the cantata Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last movements are called "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" (Fortune, Empress of the World) and start with the very well known "O Fortuna".

Carl Orff (July 10, 1895 – March 29, 1982) was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana (1937). In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential approach of music education for children.
Orff was born in Munich. His family was Bavarian and was active in the Army of the German Empire. His paternal grandfather was a Jew who converted to Catholicism.

Orff started studying the piano at the age of five, and he also took organ and cello lessons. However, he was more interested in composing original music than in studying to be a performer. Orff wrote and staged puppet shows for his family, composing music for piano, violin, zither, and glockenspiel to accompany them. He had a short story published in a children's magazine in 1905 and started to write a book about nature. In his spare time he enjoyed collecting insects.

By the time he was a teenager, Orff was writing songs, although he had not studied harmony or composition; his mother helped him set down his first works in musical notation. Orff wrote his own texts and he learned the art of composing, without a teacher, by studying classical masterworks on his own.
In 1911, at age 16, some of Orff's music was published. Many of his youthful works were songs, often settings of German poetry. They fell into the style of Richard Strauss and other German composers of the day, but with hints of what would become Orff's distinctive musical language.
Orff's relationship with German fascism and the Nazi Party has been a matter of considerable debate and analysis. His Carmina Burana was hugely popular in Nazi Germany after its premiere in Frankfurt in 1937. Given Orff's previous lack of commercial success, the monetary factor of Carmina Burana's acclaim was significant to him. But the composition, with its unfamiliar rhythms, was also denounced with racist taunts. He was one of the few German composers under the Nazi regime who responded to the official call to write new incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream after the music of Felix Mendelssohn had been banned. Defenders of Orff note that he had already composed music for this play as early as 1917 and 1927, long before this was a favor for the Nazi regime.

VICARS & TARTS PARTY @ T.R.A.C.S

We wanted to welcome all our pious guests at our Vicars & Tarts Party - and the less pious ones too - but we a had lesser guest than we have normally. 

DJ Dean was not to blame because he had made a great set of songs.

I did set the prize money, of the Vicars & Tarts TRIVIA for a right answer, higher because I thought the questions were difficult. But we had much good answers.

Here are the pictures I made. 

Saturday, July 27, 2013

JJ Cale dies, aged 74

US singer-songwriter JJ Cale has died of heart attack at the age of 74. An announcement on his personal website said he had passed away at a hospital in La Jolla, California, on Friday.

John Weldon Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013), also known as JJ Cale or J.J. Cale, was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and musician. Cale was one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back".

Songs written by Cale that have been covered by other musicians include "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton,"Cajun Moon" by Randy Crawford, "Clyde" and "Louisiana Women" by Waylon Jennings, "Magnolia" by Jai, "Bringing It Back" by Kansas, "Call Me the Breeze" and "I Got the Same Old Blues" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "I'd Like to Love You, Baby" by Tom Petty, "Travelin' Light" and "Ride Me High" by Widespread Panic, "Tijuana" by Harry Manx, "Sensitive Kind" by Carlos Santana, "Cajun Moon" by Herbie Mann with Cissy Houston, and "Same Old Blues" by Captain Beefheart.
Cale always described himself as a songwriter rather than a singer, and his songs tended to enjoy greater success when performed by others - notably Tom Petty, Santana and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Pop meets the Classics 1

"Someone to Call My Lover" is a song by American recording artist Janet Jackson from her seventh studio album, All for You. Written and produced by Jackson and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the song was released as the album's second single on June 26, 2001.
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television appearances, and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture since the early 1970s. The youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career appearing on the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear on other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Fame.

The song's looped guitar riff is sampled from America's 1972 hit "Ventura Highway". The loop played throughout the chorus is an interpolation of "Gymnopédie No. 1" by French classical composer Erik Satie, played in 4/4 time instead of the original 3/4. Jackson had searched for years for the catchy Satie track. "When I was a little girl and I used to come home from school, there was something called "The 3:30 Movie", and they used to play the MGM Musicals. There was a commercial. I remember watching Singin' in the Rain and there was a commercial with the lady all in white, and I don't know if it was for Dove or something like that, but they would play this, 'Da, da, da.' It was the Erik Satie. I never knew who the composer was, and this song never left me."

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (signed his name Erik Satie after 1884) (17 May 18661 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.

An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds") preferring this designation to that of a "musician", after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Vicars & Tarts Party at T.R.A.C.S

A Vicars and Tarts party is a costume party (a fancy dress party in British English). It is based on the theme that you either dress as something sinfully sexy, or holy such as a priest.

BLOG POST NUMBER ONE THOUSAND

 For all who expected another blog post from Chris at this place, I (Tim) have to disappoint you as you will have to read my first humble attempts as a guest blogger.
But I wanted to use this opportunity, for sure also in the name of all other followers, for a big thank you to Chris for nearly 5 years and 999 blog posts full of information, entertainment, and fun all around his fantastic builds on our sim, the awesome T.R.A.C.S parties with never ending new creative themes, our countless visits at other parties like at Sweetgrass, of exploring Second Life, lots of music and not to forget the hilarious fail compilations.
Through all the ups and downs, besides all the other activities, Chris did always continue and got a higher and higher number of followers (not only because he likes to ask Trivia questions on parties based on his posts) and fellow bloggers he got connected with.
I am sure you all looking forward to his next post....so I will not keep you longer reading...and will end with thanking Chris for all his efforts and hoping there will be much more years and thousands blogs more to come !
We love you Chris !
Tim

Thursday, July 25, 2013

VICARS & TARTS chapter II

VICAR
A vicar (Latin: vicarius) is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant. Linguistically, vicar is the root of the English prefix "vice", similarly meaning "deputy".

The title appears in a number of Christian ecclesiastical contexts, but also as an administrative title, or title modifier, in the Roman Empire. In addition, in the Holy Roman Empire a local representative of the emperor, perhaps an archduke, might be styled "vicar".

Notable vicars
In either tradition, a vicar can be the priest of a "chapel of ease", a building within the parish which is not the parish church. Non-resident canons led also to the institution of vicars choral, each canon having his own vicar, who sat in his stall in his absence.

Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) and Honoré de Balzac's The Curate of Tours (Le Curé de Tours) (1832) evoke the impoverished world of the 18th- and 19th-century vicar. Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire are peopled with churchmen of varying situations, from wealthy to impoverished; the income differences prompted a digression in Framley Parsonage (chapter 14) on the incomprehensible logic that made one vicar rich and another poor. The 18th-century satirical ballad "The Vicar of Bray" reveals the changes of conscience a vicar (whether of the Bray in Berkshire or of that in County Wicklow) might undergo in order to retain his meagre post, between the 1680s and 1720s. "The Curate of Ars" (usually in French: Le Curé d'Ars) is a style often used to refer to Saint Jean Vianney, a French parish priest canonized on account of his piety and simplicity of life.
The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007. The Vicar of Dibley is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes in the Church of England that permitted the ordination of women. The main character was an invention of Richard Curtis, but he and Dawn French extensively consulted the Revd Joy Carroll, one of the first female priests, and garnered many character traits and much information.
Collection of the Jokes from the end of the Vicar of Dibley

TART
The word have several meanings in English (UK).  
One is a very informal disapproving a woman who intentionally wears the type of clothes and make-up that attract sexual attention in a way that is too obvious
Etymology:  From sweetheart or jam tart (“attractive woman”) by shortening
By extension, any woman with loose sexual morals.
Old-fashioned slang (UK) a female prostitute

People who sell sex or are promiscuous

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

VICARS & TARTS chapter I

The House of the Rising Sun
A blues song of anonymous authorship, “House of the Rising Sun”, also sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues", which tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans.  is a tale of sin, sexual ruin and a tortured soul in New Orleans. The song has been recorded by various artists including Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton
Many debate the true meaning of the title, arguing that it could be a euphemism for a whorehouse, a jail, a slave plantation or a specific establishment in the French Quarter. The most famous version of the song was by the British-Invasion-era band The Animals, who maintained it was an old English folk song emigrants brought to America (originally it was a Soho brothel instead of a New Orleans one). Thanks to Eric Burdon’s (Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) English singer-songwriter best known as a member and vocalist of rock band The Animals and the funk band War and for his aggressive stage performance) chilling howls, the Animals’ adaptation would become a classic in its own right and would make Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time. 
Origin and early versions
Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun" is uncertain. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads such as The Unfortunate Rake of the 18th century and that English emigrants took the song to America where it was adapted to its later New Orleans setting. Alan Price of The Animals has even claimed that the song was originally a sixteenth-century English folk song about a Soho brothel.

The oldest known existing recording is by Appalachian artists Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster, who recorded it for Vocalion Records in 1934. Ashley said he had learned it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley.
The song was among those collected by folklorist Alan Lomax, who, along with his father, was a curator of the Archive of American Folk Song for the Library of Congress. On an expedition with his wife to eastern Kentucky, Lomax set up his recording equipment in Middlesborough, Kentucky, in the house of a singer and activist named Tilman Cadle. In 1937 he recorded a performance by Georgia Turner, the 16-year-old daughter of a local miner. He called it "The Rising Sun Blues". Lomax later recorded a different version sung by Bert Martin and a third sung by Daw Henson, both eastern Kentucky singers. In his 1941 songbook Our Singing Country'F', Lomax credits the lyrics to Turner, with reference to Martin's version. According to his later writing, the melody bears similarities to the traditional English ballad "Matty Groves".

Roy Acuff, an "early-day friend and apprentice" of Ashley, learned it from him and later recorded it as "Rising Sun". In 1941, Woody Guthrie recorded a version. A recording made in 1947 by Josh White, who is also credited with having written new words and music that have subsequently been popularized in the versions made by many other later artists, was released by Mercury Records in 1950. Lead Belly recorded two versions of the song in February 1944 and in October 1948, called "In New Orleans" and "The House of the Rising Sun" respectively; the latter was recorded in sessions that later became the album Lead Belly's Last Sessions (1994, Smithsonian Folkways).

In 1957 Glenn Yarbrough recorded the song for Elektra Records. The song is also credited to Ronnie Gilbert on one of The Weavers albums released in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Pete Seeger released a version on Folkways Records in 1958, which was re-released by Smithsonian Folkways in 2009. Frankie Laine recorded the song then titled "New Orleans" on his 1959 album Balladeer. Actor and comedian Andy Griffith recorded the song on his 1959 album Andy Griffith Shouts The Blues And Old Timey Songs. Joan Baez recorded it in 1960 on her debut album; she frequently performed the song in concert throughout her career. In 1960 Miriam Makeba recorded the song on her eponymous RCA album.

In late 1961, Bob Dylan recorded the song for his debut album, released in March 1962. That release had no songwriting credit, but the liner notes indicate that Dylan learned this version of the song from Dave Van Ronk. In an interview on the documentary No Direction Home, Van Ronk said that he was intending to record the song, and that Dylan copied his version. He recorded it soon thereafter on Just Dave Van Ronk.

"I had learned it sometime in the 1950s, from a recording by Hally Wood, the Texas singer and collector, who had got it from an Alan Lomax field recording by a Kentucky woman named Georgia Turner. I put a different spin on it by altering the chords and using a bass line that descended in half steps—a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers. By the early 1960s, the song had become one of my signature pieces, and I could hardly get off the stage without doing it."
Nina Simone recorded her first version on Nina at the Village Gate in 1962. Later versions include the 1965 recording in Colombia by Los Speakers in Spanish called "La casa del sol naciente", which was also the title of their second album. They earned a silver record (for sales of over 15,000 copies). The Chambers Brothers recorded a version on "Feelin' The Blues", released on Vault records.

The House of the Rising Sun

There is a house in New Orleans
 They call the Rising Sun
 And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
 And God I know I'm one

My mother was a tailor
 She sewed my new bluejeans
 My father was a gamblin' man
 Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs
 Is a suitcase and trunk
 And the only time he's satisfied
 Is when he's on a drunk

Oh mother tell your children
 Not to do what I have done
 Spend your lives in sin and misery
 In the House of the Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform
 The other foot on the train
 I'm goin' back to New Orleans
 To wear that ball and chain

Well, there is a house in New Orleans
 They call the Rising Sun
 And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

 And God I know I'm one

Eric Burdon & The Animals - 'House of the Rising Sun',
at the San Javier International Jazz Festival, Spain, July 22nd, 2011.

A real location?
Various places in New Orleans, Louisiana have been proposed as the inspiration for the song, with varying plausibility. The phrase "House of the Rising Sun" is often understood as a euphemism for a brothel, but it is not known whether or not the house described in the lyrics was an actual or fictitious place. One theory speculated the song is about a daughter who killed her father, an alcoholic gambler who had beaten his wife. Therefore, the House of the Rising Sun may be a jail-house, from which one would be the first person to see the sun rise (an idea supported by the lyric mentioning "a ball and chain", though that phrase has been used as slang to describe marital relationships for at least as long as the song has been in print). Because the song was often sung by women, another theory is that the House of the Rising Sun was where prostitutes were detained while they were treated for syphilis. Since cures with mercury were ineffective, going back was very unlikely.

Only three candidates have historical documentation as using the name "Rising Sun", from listings in old period city directories and newspapers. The first was a small short-lived hotel on Conti Street in the French Quarter in the 1820s. It burned down in 1822. An excavation and document search in early 2005 found evidence supporting this claim, including an advertisement with language that may have euphemistically indicated prostitution. An unusually large number of pots of rouge and cosmetics were found by archaeologists at the site.
The second possibility was a late 19th-century "Rising Sun Hall" listed in late 19th century city directories on what is now Cherokee Street at the riverfront of the uptown Carrollton neighborhood, which seems to have been a building owned and used for meetings of a Social Aid & Pleasure Club, commonly rented out for dances and functions. It also is no longer extant. Definite links to gambling or prostitution (if any) are undocumented for either of these buildings.

A third was "The Rising Sun", which advertised in several local newspapers in the 1860s, located on what is now the lake side of the 100 block of Decatur Street. In various advertisements described as a "Restaurant", a "Lager Beer Salon", and a "Coffee House" - at the time, businesses in New Orleans listed as "coffee houses" often also sold alcoholic beverages.

Bizarre New Orleans, a guide book on New Orleans, asserts that the real house was at 1614 Esplanade Avenue between 1862 and 1874 and was purportedly named for its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant whose name translates from French as "the rising sun".

It is also possible that the "House of the Rising Sun" is a metaphor for either the slave pens of the plantation, the plantation house, or the plantation itself, which were the subjects and themes of many traditional blues songs. Dave van Ronk claimed in his autobiography that he had seen pictures of the old Orleans Parish Women's Prison, the entrance to which was decorated with a rising sun design. He considered this proof that the House of the Rising Sun had been a nickname for the prison.

The gender of the singer is flexible. Earlier versions of the song are often sung from the female perspective, a woman who followed a drunk or a gambler to New Orleans and became a prostitute in the House of the Rising Sun (or, depending on one's interpretation, an inmate in a prison of the same name), such as in Joan Baez's version on her self-titled 1960 debut album, or Jody Miller's 1973 single. The Animals version was sung from a perspective of a male, for whom the house has been his "ruin". Bob Dylan's 1962 version and Shawn Mullins' covered version on his album 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor is sung from the female perspective.

Not everyone, however, believes that the house actually existed. Pamela D. Arceneaux, a research librarian working at the Williams Research Center in New Orleans, is quoted as saying:
"I have made a study of the history of prostitution in New Orleans and have often confronted the perennial question, "Where is the House of the Rising Sun?" without finding a satisfactory answer. Although it is generally assumed that the singer is referring to a brothel, there is actually nothing in the lyrics that indicate that the "house" is a brothel. Many knowledgeable persons have conjectured that a better case can be made for either a gambling hall or a prison; however, to paraphrase Freud: sometimes lyrics are just lyrics."

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

DIA DO AMIGO @ T.R.A.C.S

It was not the easiest theme but our guests are very creative. 
Especially want to mention Caasper who came as hand. "Best friend of pleasure." No wonder that Caasper got a lot of votes and became one of the winners.

Rik played a great set, he made, of Friends Songs.

After I crashed it took me a long time to get back in world, so I was not ably to make many pictures.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

DIA DO AMIGO @ T.R.A.C.S

Friend's Day (Portuguese: Dia do Amigo) is observed every year on July 20 in Brazil.
At the village at River Island

FRIEND and FRIENDSHIP chapter VI

Friendship Day
The International Friendship Day celebrations traditionally take place on the first Sunday of August in many places in the world. There are other places in the world that celebrate a Friendship Day on another date.

During the twentieth century, there were several initiatives for the celebration of Friendship Day around the world. In the United States and parts of Asia, the first Sunday of August was reported as the date of greeting and presenting gifts to friends, and at various times similar celebrations were formed in different countries of South America and Europe.

Friendship Day was originally promoted by Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark cards in 1930, intended to be 2 August and a day when people celebrated their friendships by sending cards. The second of August was chosen as the centre of the largest lull between holiday celebrations. Friendship Day was promoted by the greeting card National Association during the 1920s but met with consumer resistance - given that it was her too obviously a commercial gimmick to promote greetings cards. By the 1940s the number of Friendship Day cards available in the US had dwindled and the holiday largely died out there. There is no evidence to date for its uptake in Europe; however, it has been kept alive and revitalised in Asia, where several countries have adopted it.

The idea of a World Friendship Day was first proposed on 20 July 1958 by Dr. Artemio Bracho during a dinner with friends in Puerto Pinasco, a town on the River Paraguay about 200 miles north of Asuncion, Paraguay.
The initiative to establish an internationally recognized Friendship Day had a historical antecedent, the World Friendship Crusade (Cruzada Mundial de la Amistad). Designed by Dr. Ramón Artemio Bracho in Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, in 1958, it was a campaign aimed to promote friendship between human beings so that a culture of peace would be fostered. As a result of this idea, July 30 was set as Friendship Day (Día de la Amistad).

In Argentina, Dr. Enrique Ernesto Febbraro, a native of Lomas de Zamora (which in recognition of his initiative is the Provincial Capital of Friendship by city ordinance and also the headquarters of the World Association for Understanding), professor of psychology, philosophy, and history, musician, dentist, and founder of the Rotary Clubs of San Cristóbal and Balvanera in Buenos Aires, created Friend's Day after sending four thousand letters to a hundred countries around the world (to which he received 700 replies) upon realizing that, by watching the Apollo 11 landing, for the first time all mankind was united. The first official recognition of the day came from the government of Buenos Aires Province with Decree 235/79, which authorized the celebration and made it official.

In Argentina the Friend's Day exists since 1968 and that is the 20th of July. According to a document from the Brazilian Government, Friend's Day in Brazil is the 18th of April! But, the same document says that the 20th of July is Friendship Day.
 
Friend's Day (Spanish: Día del Amigo, Portuguese: Dia do Amigo) is observed every year on July 20 in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and on July 30 in Paraguay.

In honor of Friendship Day in 1998, Nane Annan, wife of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship at the United Nations. The event was co-sponsored by the U.N. Department of Public Information and Disney Enterprises, and was co-hosted by Kathy Lee Gifford. 

On  27 July 2011 the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 30 July as "International Day of Friendship".

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

FRIEND and FRIENDSHIP chapter III

You've Got a Friend
"You've Got a Friend" is a friendship song from 1971, written by Carole King, and included in her album Tapestry and James Taylor's album Mud Slide Slim, which were recorded simultaneously in 1971 with shared musicians. Taylor's version was released as a single, and reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

"You've Got a Friend" won Grammy Awards both for Taylor (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance) and King (Song of the Year). Various artists have recorded the song over the years, including Dusty Springfield, Michael Jackson, and Donny Hathaway. Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Gloria Estefan, and Carole King performed the song at the VH1 Divas Live concert in 1998.

History
"You've Got a Friend" was written by Carole King during the January 1971 recording sessions for her own album Tapestry, and James Taylor's album Mud Slide Slim. King's album was recorded in an overlap with Taylor's, and King, Danny Kortchmar, and Joni Mitchell perform on both. The song is included on both albums; King said in a 1972 interview, that she "didn't write it with James or anybody really specifically in mind. But when James heard it he really liked it and wanted to record it".
Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer and songwriter. Her career began in the 1960s when King, along with her former husband Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists, many of which have become standards and she has continued writing for other artists since then. She had her first number 1hit as a songwriter in 1960 at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason", which was a hit for Celine Dion.

Her success as a performer in her own right did not come until the the 1970s, when she would sing her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.

In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99 because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2005 music historian Stuart Devoy found her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts 1952-2005.

King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent noncompilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor that reached number 4 on the charts in its first week and has sold over 600,000 copies.

James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first No. 1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend", a recording of Carole King's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including Hourglass, October Road and Covers) were released.

You've Got A Friend lyrics

When you're down and troubled.
And you need some love and care.
And nothing, nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
and soon i will be there
to brighten up even your darkest night.

You just call out my name.
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running, to see you again.
winter, spring, summer or fall
all ya have to do is call.
And i'll be there yeah, yeah, yeah
You've got a friend

If the sky above you
close dark and full of clouds.
And that old north wind begins to blow.
Keep your head together.
and call my name out loud.

And soon you hear me knocking at your door

You just call out my name.
And you know whereever I am
I'll come running, to see you again.
winter, spring, summer or fall
all ya have to do is call.
And i'll be there yes is will

Now ain't it good to know that you've got a friend?
When people can be so cold.
The'll hurt you yes and desert you.
And the'll take your soul if you let them.
Oh but don't you let them.

You just call out my name.
And you know whereever I am
I'll come running, to see you again.
winter, spring, summer or fall
all ya have to do is call.
And i'll be there yes is will

You've got a friend
You've got a friend
Ain't it good to know
You've got a friend

Ain't it good to know
Ain't it good to know
Ain't it good to know
You've got a friend

Oh yeah now
You've got a friend
Yeah baby
You've got a friend
Oh yeah

You've got a friend 

FRIEND and FRIENDSHIP chapter II

Friendship part 2
Cultural variations
Ancient Greece
Friendship was a topic of moral philosophy greatly discussed by Plato, Aristotle, and Stoics. The topic was less discussed in the modern era, until the re-emergence of contextualist and feminist approaches to ethics. In Ancient Greece, openness in friendship was seen as an enlargement of the self. Aristotle wrote, "The excellent person is related to his friend in the same way as he is related to himself, since, a friend is another self; and therefore, just as his own being is choice worthy for him, the friend's being is choice-worthy for him in the same or a similar way." In Ancient Greek, the same word was used for "friend" and "lover".

Central Asia
In Central Asia, male friendships tend to be reserved and respectful in nature. They may use nicknames and diminutive forms of their first names.
East Asia
In East Asia male friendships start at a young age. The respect that friends have in East Asian culture is understood to be formed from a young age. Different forms of relationships in social media and online chats are not considered an official friendship in East Asian culture. Both female and male friendships in East Asia start at a younger age and grow stronger through years of schooling and working together. Different people in East Asian culture have a close, tight knit, group of friends that they call their “best friends.” In Western Culture, many people refer to multiple people as their “best friends”, as compared to East Asian culture, where best friends are the 2-3 people closest to a particular person. Being someone’s best friend in East Asian culture is considered an honor and privilege. In a Chinese context, there is a very strong orientation towards maintaining and enhancing interpersonal relationships. The relationships between friends in East and Central Asian culture holds a tight bond that is usually never broken until someone geographically moves to another part of the county or out of the country.

Germany
Germans typically have relatively few friends, although their friendships typically last a lifetime, as loyalty is held in high regard. German friendships provide a substantial amount of commitment and support. Germans may appear aloof to people from other countries, as they tend to be cautious and keep their distance when it comes to developing deeper relationships with new people. They draw a strong distinction between their few friends and their many associates, co-workers, neighbors, and others. A relationship's transition from one of associates to one of friends can take months or years, if it ever happens.

Islamic cultures
In the Middle East and East Africa men hold hands as a sign of friendship.
In Islamic cultures, friendship is also known as companionship or ashab. The concept is taken seriously, and numerous important attributes of a worthwhile friend have emerged in Islamic media, such as the notion of a righteous (or saalih) person, who can appropriately delineate between that which is good and that which is evil. Concordance with the perspectives and knowledge of others is considered to be important; forgiveness regarding mistakes and loyalty between friends is emphasized, and a "love for the sake of Allah" is considered to be a relationship of the highest significance between two humans.

Middle East
It is believed that in some parts of the Middle East (or Near East), friendship is more demanding when compared with other cultures; friends are people who respect each other, regardless of shortcomings, and will make personal sacrifices in order to assist another friend, without considering the experience an imposition.

Many Arab people perceive friendship seriously, and deeply consider personal attributes such as social influence and the nature of a person's character before engaging in such a relationship.

Russia
Many of the qualities of modern Russia's culture date back to Soviet times. Scarcity in the Soviet Union led people had to create relationships with people in certain businesses in order to get the things they needed, such as a hospital employee to help obtain medical attention. Such practices led to a community spirit and interpersonal connections. Many of these practices have continued to the present day. Inefficiencies on the part of the government, so Russians may find it easier to rely on their friends and family than on any company or business. These traditional types of relationships are valued greatly in Russia.

Other conditions in the Soviet period made it harder for Russians to form relationships. Confiding in another person opened the risk of being reported to the state, especially for dissent. As in Germany, people in Soviet communities had very few friends, but the friends they did have were extremely close. These trends have continued in modern Russia.
United States
The friendship bracelet is an American example of the exchange of small tokens of friendship.
In the United States, many types of relationships are deemed friendships. From the time children enter elementary school, many teachers and adults call their peers "friends" to children, and in most classrooms or social settings, children are instructed as to how to behave with their friends, and are told who their friends are. This type of open approach to friendship has led many Americans, adolescents in particular, to designate a "best friend" with whom they are especially close. Many psychologists see this term as dangerous for American children, because it allows for discrimination and cliques, which can lead to bullying.

For Americans, friends tend to be people whom they encounter fairly frequently, and that are similar to themselves in demographics, attitude, and activities. While many other cultures value deep trust and meaning in their friendships, Americans will use the word "friend" to describe most people who have such qualities. There is also a difference in the US between men and women who have friendships with the same sex. According to research, American men have less deep and meaningful friendships with other men. In the abstract, many men and women in the United States have similar definitions of intimacy, but women are more likely to practice intimacy in friendships. Many studies have also found that Americans eventually lose touch with friends. This can be an unusual occurrence in many other cultures.

According to a study documented in the June 2006 issue of the American Sociological Review, Americans are thought to be suffering a loss in the quality and quantity of close friendships since at least 1985. The study states that one quarter of all Americans have no close confidants, and that the average total number of confidants per person has dropped from four to two.

Divorce also contributes to the decline in friendship among Americans. "In international comparisons, the divorce rate in the United States is higher than that of 34 other countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia". In divorce, many couples end up losing friends through the process, as certain friends "side with" one member of the relationship and lose the other.

The advance of technology has also been blamed for declining friendships in the United States. Ethan J. Leib, author of the book Friend vs. Friend and law professor at the University of California-Hastings, suggests that longer hours of work and a large amount of online communication take away from personal communication, making it harder to form friendships. New media such as Facebook and Twitter have also been said to decrease the amount of personal communication in everyday life, and to make emotional attachments more difficult.

Types of friendships
Agentic friendship
In an agentic friendship, both parties look to each other for help in achieving practical goals in their personal and professional lives. Agentic friends may help with completing projects, studying for an exam, or helping move houses. They value sharing time together, but only when they have time available to help each other. These relationships typically do not include the sharing of emotions or personal information.

Best friend (or close friend)
Best friends share extremely strong interpersonal ties with each other.

Blood brother or sister
This term can either refer to people related by birth or to friends who swear loyalty by mixing their blood together. The latter usage has been practiced throughout history, but is rarely continued today due to the dangers of blood-borne diseases.

Boston marriage
This antiquated American term was used during the 19th and 20th centuries to denote two women who lived together in the same household independent of male support. These relationships were not necessarily sexual. The term was used to quell fears of lesbians after World War I.

Bromance
A portmanteau of bro and romance, a bromance is a close, non-sexual relationship between two or more men.

Buddy
Sometimes used as a synonym for friend generally, "buddy" can specifically denote a friend or partner with whom one engages in a particular activity, such as a "study buddy."

Casual relationship or "friends with benefits"
Also referred to as a "hook-up," this term denotes a sexual or near-sexual relationship between two people who do not expect or demand to share a formal romantic relationship.

Communal friendship
As defined by Steven McCornack, this is a friendship in which friends gather often to provide encouragement and emotional support in times of great need. This type of friendship tends to last only when the involved parties fulfill the expectations of support.

Comrade
This term denotes an ally, friend, or colleague, especially in a military or political context. Comradeship may arise in time of war, or when people have a mutual enemy or even a common goal, in circumstances where ordinary friendships might not have formed. In English, the term is associated with the Soviet Union, in which the Russian equivalent term, tovarishch (Russian: това́рищ), was used as a common form of address.

Family friend
This term can denote the friend of a family member or the family member of a friend.

Frenemy
A portmanteau of the words "friend" and "enemy," the term "frenemy" refers to either an enemy disguised as a friend (a proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing) or a person who is both a friend and a rival. This may take the form of a love–hate relationship. The term was reportedly coined by a sister of author and journalist Jessica Mitford in 1977 and popularized more than twenty years later on the third season of Sex and the City. One study by psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad found that unpredictable love–hate relationships can lead to elevations in blood pressure. In a previous study, the same researcher found that blood pressure is higher around people for whom one has mixed feelings than it is people whom one clearly dislikes.

Imaginary friend
An imaginary friend is a non-physical friend, usually of a child. These friends may be human or animal, such as the human-sized rabbit in the 1950 Jimmy Stewart film Harvey. Creation of an imaginary friend may be seen as bad behavior or even taboo, but is most commonly regarded as harmless, typical childhood behavior.

Internet relationship
An internet friendship is a form of friendship or romance which takes place exclusively over the internet. This may evolve into a real-life friendship. Internet friendships are in similar context to pen pals. People in these friendships may not use their true identities; parties in an internet relationship may engage in catfishing.

Mate
Primarily used in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, "mate" is a friendly reference a same-sex friend, especially among males. In the UK, as well as Australia, the term also has been taken up by women. "Bloke" is used similarly.

Opposite-sex friendship
Opposite-sex friendships, which are nonsexual, are not always socially accepted. Although complications can arise in such relationships, opposite sex friendships can be strong and emotionally rewarding.
Pen pal
Pen pals are people who have a relationship primarily through mail correspondence. They may or may not have met each other in person. This type of correspondence was encouraged in many elementary school children; it was thought that an outside source of information or a different person's experience would help the child become more worldly. In modern times, internet relationships have largely replaced pen pals, though the practice does continue.

Monday, July 15, 2013

FRIEND and FRIENDSHIP chapter I

Friend 
English
Etymology (the study of the history of words)
From Middle English frende, frend, freond, from Old English frēond (“friend, relative, lover”, literally “loving-[one]”), from Proto-Germanic frijōndz (“lover, friend”), from Proto-Indo-European prēy-, prāy- (“to like, love”). Cognate with West Frisian freon, froen, freondinne (“friend”), Dutch vriend (“friend”), Low German frund, fründ (“friend, relative”), German Freund (“friend”), Danish frænde (“kinsman”), Swedish frände (“kinsman, relative”), Icelandic frændi (“kinsman”).
 Noun (a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea.)
 Friend
  1.  A person other than a family member, spouse or lover whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.                                                                                                                   John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college.                                      Trust is important between friends.                                                                                                        I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.
  2. A boyfriend or girlfriend.
  3. An associate who provides assistance.                                                                                              The Automobile Association is every motorist’s friend.                                                                      The police is every law abiding citizen’s friend.
  4. A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted                                                                   a friend of a friend                                                                                                                                I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know him.
  5. A person who backs or supports something.                                                                                               I’m not a friend of cheap wine.
  6. An object or idea that can be used for good.                                                                               Google is your friend.
  7. Used as a form of address when warning someone.                                                                             You’d better watch it, friend.
  8. In object-oriented programming, a function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
  9. A paramour of either sex. 
Synonyms (words with the same or similar meanings)
  •  (person whose company one enjoys): bud (US, Canada), buddy (US, Canada), chum (British), mate (British), pal, crony, amigo, bro
  •  (boyfriend or girlfriend): boyfriend, girlfriend, lover
  •  (person with whom you are acquainted): acquaintance
  •  (person who provides assistance): ally
  •  (person who backs something): admirer, booster, champion, protagonist, supporter
  •  (form of address used in warning someone): buster, mate (British), pal, buddy
Friendship part 1
Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people. Friendship is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an association. Friendship has been studied in academic fields such as sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. Various academic theories of friendship have been proposed, including social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles. A World Happiness Database study found that people with close friendships are happier.
Although there are many forms of friendship, some of which may vary from place to place, certain characteristics are present in many types of friendship. Such characteristics include affection, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, mutual understanding and compassion, enjoyment of each other's company, trust, and the ability to be oneself, express one's feelings, and make mistakes without fear of judgment from the friend. While there is no practical limit on what types of people can form a friendship, friends tend to share common backgrounds, occupations, or interests, and have similar demographics.
to be continued