IS

IS,

Language

Organisations

Places

The 2i's Coffee Bar

The 2i's Coffee Bar was a coffee bar at 59 Old Compton Street, Soho, London, between 1956 and 1970. It played a formative role in the emergence of Britain's pop music culture in the late 1950s, and several major stars including Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were first discovered performing there.

History

The name of the 2i's derived from earlier owners, Freddie and Sammy Irani, who ran the venue until 1955. It was then taken over by Paul Lincoln – an Australian wrestler and wrestling promoter known as "Dr. Death" – and Ray Hunter. They opened it as a coffee bar on 22 April 1956. Tom Littlewood, previously its doorman and a judo instructor, became its manager in 1958.

The basement of the coffee bar had live music making use of a small, 18-inch wide stage. Lincoln and Hunter started putting on skiffle groups; the first resident group were the Vipers, who included Wally Whyton. It soon won a clientele attracted because of its rock'n'roll music, and for a time became "the most famous music venue in England," and attracted talent spotters and music promoters such as Jack Good, Larry Parnes and Don Arden.

IS (manga)

IS: Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei (IS 男でも女でもない性), is a completed drama manga series by Chiyo Rokuhana, first published in Japan in 2003. The IS of the title stands for intersex and the story follows the pain and troubles such people go through in their lives, such as gaining acceptance for who they are and their inability to reproduce.

Story

The first volume of IS is a collection stories about two different intersex characters and their separate troubles. Volumes 2 and onward deal with the life of intersex Haru Hoshino, starting just before his birth and continuing past high school.

Characters

Television drama

The manga was adapted into a ten-episode Japanese television drama, which was broadcast on TV Tokyo between July 18, and September 19, 2011. It starred Saki Fukuda as Haru Hoshino and Ayame Gōriki as Miwako Aihara, a girl that became a close friend of Hoshino. On November 25, 2011, all episodes were released on a DVD box set.

Reception

IS won the 2007 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo manga.