Blend (album)

Blend is the BoDeans sixth studio album, and was released in 1996. It peaked at number 132 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Overview

After the band achieved fame and a new audience with '"Closer to Free", they resisted the pressure to duplicate the single's success and wanted to avoid rehashing the same formula. Like Go Slow Down, the band chose to record their next album at Hacksville, their studio in a rented storefront, and self-produced the album with the assistance of producer/engineer Greg Goldman. Recording took place over a two-year period during the time in between tours. Bob Clearmountain was hired to mix "The Understanding" and "Hurt By Love", while Tchad Blake mixed the uptempo "Hey Pretty Girl". The result was a more rock-oriented sound than their previous album, though it continued along a similar direction.

Reception

Despite not matching the success of "Closer to Free", "Hurt By Love" saw minor chart success and critics commented on the album's consistency. Music critic Rick Anderson, writing for AllMusic, praised the songwriting though he criticized the lyrics. He said, "'Hurt By Love' is what the BoDeans are trying for throughout this whole album, but they only get there once or twice." However, Chuck Eddy of Entertainment Weekly gave it a mixed review, stating: "Having finally achieved pop stardom via their Party of Five theme song, this long-suffering Wisconsin bar band now tries to preserve their meager integrity by acting as un-Hollywood as possible. With its timid, muffled harmonies over numbing guitar thrumming, Blend has enough forlorn corn to fill every silo in the heartland."

Beauty

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.

The experience of "beauty" often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this can be a subjective experience, it is often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

There is evidence that perceptions of beauty are evolutionarily determined, that things, aspects of people and landscapes considered beautiful are typically found in situations likely to give enhanced survival of the perceiving human's genes.

Etymology

The classical Greek noun that best translates to the English "beauty" or "beautiful" was κάλλος, kallos, and the adjective was καλός, kalos. However, kalos may and is also translated as ″good″ or ″of fine quality″ and thus has a broader meaning than only beautiful. Similarly, kallos was used differently from the English word beauty in that it first and foremost applied to humans and bears an erotic connotation.

List of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo characters

The universe of the manga and anime series Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is a home to a wide array of fictional characters.

Main characters

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Richard Epcar (English)

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (ボボボーボ・ボーボボ, Bobobōbo Bōbobo), or "Bobobo" as he is often called, is the main protagonist and title character. Bobobo is an eccentric man with bodybuilder sized muscles and a giant yellow afro. He fights the forces of evil using his nose hair calling it his "Fist of the Nose Hair" and "Snot Fo-You" technique. He is 27 years old. It is unclear what race he is, or if he is even human. It was never fully explained in the show. His father was a hair ball like creature. His birthday differs between the manga and the anime; the manga lists his birthday as April 1, while the anime claims his birthday to be March 14. His most striking features are his large blond afro and sunglasses. Bo-bobo's full name written in kanji is "母母母ー母・母ー母母". Bo-Bobo closely resembles the Japanese stereotype of an American from the 70's era.

Shaye

Shaye was a Canadian pop group, consisting of singer-songwriters Kim Stockwood, Damhnait Doyle and Tara MacLean. MacLean left the group in 2007 and the band folded by 2009.

Biography

The Bridge

Shaye's debut album The Bridge (produced by Bill Bell and Jay Joyce) was released in 2003 on EMI Canada. The album features songs by Ron Hynes, Sinéad Lohan and Crash Vegas. Support for the album included shows in Canada and Japan. "Happy Baby", the lead single, was nominated for Single of the Year at the 2004 Juno Awards. This was followed by "Beauty" in January 2005.

Lake of Fire

Their 2006 followup, Lake of Fire was released on EMI Canada. It was exclusively available on iTunes in November 2006, then released physically as a cardboard Digipak in February 2007. It was produced by Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin, Tim Finn, Chantal Kreviazuk) and features songs by Van Morrison, Mike Scott of The Waterboys and Ron Sexsmith. Two singles were released from the album and the band toured Canada opening for Willie Nelson.