Stan Ridgway

Stanard "Stan" Ridgway (born April 5, 1954) is an American multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and film and television composer known for his distinctive voice, dramatic lyrical narratives, and eclectic solo albums. He was the original lead singer of the band Wall of Voodoo.

Wall of Voodoo

The band was named Wall of Voodoo by Ridgway before their first gig, in reference to a comment made by a friend of Ridgway's while recording and overdubbing a Kalamazoo Rhythm Ace drum machine. While listening to some of the music that created in the studio, Ridgway jokingly compared the multiple-drum-machine- and Farfisa-organ-laden recordings to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, whereupon the friend commented it sounded more like a "wall of voodoo" and the name stuck.

Ridgway's WoV music could fairly be described as a cross between early synthesizer pop and Ennio Morricone's soundtracks for Italian director Sergio Leone's epic western films of the 1960s. Adding to the music's distinctiveness was percussive and textural experimentation, i.e. mixing drum machines with unconventional instruments such as pots, pans and various kitchen utensils, raw electronics with interlocking melodic figures as well as twangy spaghetti-western guitar. On top of the mix was Ridgway's unusual vocal style and highly stylized, cinematic narratives heavily influenced by science fiction and film noir, sung from the perspective of ordinary folks and characters wrestling with ironies inside the American Dream.

-stan

The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان‎‎ -stān) is Persian for "place of" or "country". It appears in the names of many regions, especially in Central and South Asia, but also in the Caucasus and Russia; areas where significant amounts of Persian culture were spread or adopted. The suffix is also used more generally, as in Persian and Urdu rigestân (ریگستان) "place of sand, desert", Pakistan "land of the pure", Hindustan "land of the Hindus", golestan (گلستان) "place of flowers, garden", etc.

Etymology and cognates

The suffix, originally an independent noun, but evolving into a suffix by virtue of appearing frequently as the last part in nominal compounds, is of Indo-Iranian and ultimately Indo-European origin: It is cognate with Sanskrit sthā́na (Devanagari: स्थान [st̪ʰaːna]), meaning "the act of standing", from which many further meanings derive, including "place, location", and ultimately descends from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sthāna-.

The Proto-Indo-European root from which this noun is derived is *steh₂- (older reconstruction *stā-) "to stand" (or "to stand up, to step (somewhere), to position (oneself)"), which is also the source of English to stand, Latin stāre, and Ancient Greek histamai (ἵσταμαι), all meaning "to stand" and Russian стан (stan, meaning "settlement" or "semi-permanent camp"). In Polish and Ukrainian, stan means "state" or "condition", while in Serbo-Croatian it translates as "apartment" (a Slovenian word "stanovanje" means apartment or other closed space of living is an obvious derivative of stan) in its modern usage, while its original meaning was "habitat". In Czech and Slovak, it means "tent" or, in military terms, "headquarters". Also in Germanic languages, the root can be found in Stand ("place, location"), and in Stadt (German), stad/sted (Dutch/Scandinavian), stêd (West Frisian) and stead (English), all meaning either "place" or "city". The suffix -stan is analogous to the suffix -land, present in many country and location names.

Stan!

Stan! (born Steven Brown on 16 October 1964 in Brooklyn, New York City, United States) is an American author, cartoonist, and game designer. He is sometimes credited as Stan Brown.

Biography

Brown was born and grew up on Long Island and attended Binghamton University. Brown began publishing fiction, cartoons, and games professionally in 1982, usually under the pen name "Stan!." He is the author of numerous short stories, novels, roleplaying products, comics and cartoons. He has served as a graphic designer and line editor for West End Games; an editor and game designer for TSR, Inc.; and an author, senior game designer, and creative director for Wizards of the Coast, Inc. He has also been the creative content manager at Upper Deck Entertainment.

In 2007, R. Hyrum Savage formed a subsidiary of his OtherWorld Creations with Brown called Super Genius Games. He has also worked as the creative content manager for Upper Deck Entertainment, and the creative vice president for The Game Mechanics, Inc. Brown is the Creative Director for Super Genius Games. He co-founded The Game Mechanics with JD Wiker, Marc Schmalz, and Rich Redman.

Stan (fan)

A stan is an avid fan and supporter of a celebrity, franchise, or group, often a rock/pop musician. The object of the stan's affection is often called their fave. Based on the song "Stan" by American rapper Eminem, the term has frequently been used to describe artist devotees whose fanaticism matches the severity of the obsessive character named Stan in the 2000 Eminem song. The word has been described as a portmanteau of "stalker" and "fan".

Behavior

A website known as "Stan Wars" or "stanipedia" sprouted up to host discussions and flame wars between rival fanbases. In a response to stan culture, David Monger, an amateur cartoonist developed a web series on YouTube titled The Nekci Menij Show. The show strives to satirize public perceptions of female pop stars, simultaneously parodying it. The series features numerous pop stars including Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Kesha, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Lana Del Rey, Rihanna, and Adele. The series employs an artistic style reminiscent of the Dolan Duck Internet meme.