LiveJournal

LiveJournal / LJ or Zhivoy Zhurnal (Russian: Живой Журнал)/ZheZhe (Russian: ЖЖ) in Russia, is a social networking service based in San Francisco, California, where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. A wide variety of political pundits also use the service for political commentary, particularly in Russia, where it partners with the online newspaper Gazeta.ru. As with many other social networks, a wide variety of public figures use the network.

LiveJournal was started on April 15, 1999 by American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. In January 2005, blogging software company Six Apart purchased Danga Interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick. Six Apart sold LiveJournal to Russian media company SUP Media in 2007, but continued to develop the site by the San Francisco-based company LiveJournal, Inc. In January 2009 LiveJournal laid off some employees and moved product development and design functions to Russia.

Beyond the Black Stump (comic strip)

Beyond the Black Stump is an Australian comic strip written by Sean Leahy. It debuted in 1988 and won the "Best Comic Strip" at the 2003 National Coffs Harbour Cartoon Awards and the "Comic Strip Cartoonist of the Year" at the Australian Cartoonist's Association's Stanley Award the same year.

The strip follows a cast of Australian wildlife who deal with the day-to-day stresses of marriage, parenting and friendship.

Characters

Frank (Amy Winehouse album)

Frank is the debut studio album by English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse, released on 20 October 2003 by Island Records. Production for the album took place during 2002 to 2003 and was handled by Winehouse, Salaam Remi, Gordon "Comissioner Gordon" Williams, Jimmy Hogarth and Matt Rowe. Its title alludes to the nature and tone of Winehouse's lyrics on the album, as well as one of her influences, Frank Sinatra.

Upon its release, Frank received generally positive reviews from most music critics and earned Winehouse several accolades, including an Ivor Novello Award. The album has sold over one million copies in the United Kingdom and has been certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Background

After playing around with her brother's guitar, Winehouse bought her own when she was 14 and began writing music a year later. Soon after, she began working for a living, including, at one time, as an entertainment journalist for the World Entertainment News Network, in addition to singing with local group the Bolsha Band. In July 2000, she became the featured female vocalist with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra; her influences were to include Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, the latter whom she was already listening to at home.

Rocca

Rocca may refer to:

Places

See also

Rocca (architecture)

Rocca (literally: "rock") is an Italian term meaning a high, fortifiable stronghold, usually located in smaller towns, beneath or on which the village or town clustered, within which its inhabitants might take refuge at times of trouble; under its owners' patronage the settlement might hope to find prosperity in better times. A rocca might in reality be no grander than a fortified farmhouse. A more extensive rocca would be referred to as a castello.

The rocca in Roman times would more likely be a site of a venerable cult than a dwelling, like the highplace of Athens, its Acropolis. Though the earliest documentation is not often earlier than the eleventh century, it was during the Lombard times that farming communities, which had presented a Roman pattern of loosely distributed farmsteads or self-sufficient villas, moved from their traditional places on the fringes of the best arable lands in river valleys, where they were dangerously vulnerable from the Roman roads, to defensive positions, such as had once been occupied by Etruscan settlements, before the settled conditions of the Pax Romana. "At Falerii", J.B. Ward-Perkins notes, "the inhabitants simply transferred their town back from its Roman site on the open plateau to the old cliff-top site of Falerii Veteres, to which they gave the significant name of Civita Castellana, or "the Fortress Town"; just as in antiquity, security was once again the basic consideration." Similarly, in Greek-speaking Calabria, the inhabitants of Paestum finally abandoned their town after raids by Saracens and moved a few miles to the top of a cliff, calling the new settlement Agropoli (ie "acropolis"). Where such fortress villages were sited at the end of a ridge, protected on three sides by steep, cliff-like escarpments, the rocca was often sited to control the narrow access along the crest of the spur.

Rocca (French rapper)

Rocca (full name Sébastian Rocca) is a French-Colombian Rapper and Producer born in April 1975, in Paris. Rocca is known as one of the best lyricist in French Rap. He gained recognition as a rapper during the 1990s as a part of the influential rap group, La Cliqua.

Biography

The La Cliqua years

As a part of La Cliqua, Rocca toured radios and stages, and then released, in 95, a first EP, now considered a master piece of French Rap: "Conçu pour durer" (Built to Last) on Arsenal Records. Rocca delivered, for the first time on record, his then eccentric rhyming style alongside his microphone associates: Daddy Lord C, Kohndo, Raphael and Egosyt. The record was an immediate success in the French Hip-Hop scene. Quickly Arsenal Records signed with major label Barclay, and La Cliqua worked on their next project released in 1996 as a compilation album: "Arsenal Represente le Vrai Hip-Hop" (Arsenal represents the Real Hip-Hop). The record featured all members of La Cliqua and their young affiliates: Petit Boss and Cercle Vicieux. Critically acclaimed, La Cliqua became a major feature on the French Hip-Hop landscape. They opened for Arrested Development at the Olympia in Paris and performed in New York at the Zulu Nation Anniversary. Following in the footsteps of "Represente le Vrai Hip-Hop", Rocca was the first emcee from La Cliqua to release a solo album: "Entre Deux Monde" which featured Kohndo on: "Mot pour mot" and "Rap Contact 2". In 1997, Egosyst, Rocca's rhyme partner on "Coup d’Etat Phonique" decided to leave La Cliqua.