Hard Times is a 1915 British silent drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Bransby Williams, Leon M. Lion and Dorothy Bellew. It is based on the 1854 novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens.
The Genius Sings the Blues is an album by Ray Charles, released in October 1961 on Atlantic Records. The album was his last release for Atlantic, compiling twelve blues songs from various sessions during his tenure for the label. The album showcases Charles's stylistic development with a combination of piano blues, jazz, and southern R&B. The photo for the album cover was taken by renowned photographer Lee Friedlander. The Genius Sings the Blues was reissued in 2003 by Rhino Entertainment with liner notes by Billy Taylor.
Hailing from Greenville, Florida, Ray Charles assimilated much of the Southern black man's musical heritage with its various blues stories, folk songs, and gospel revelations. Charles studied music at a school for blind children in St. Augstine and developed a characteristic modern jazz style of playing and writing by listening to Art Tatum, Nat "King" Cole, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, and other contemporaries who played in the styles fashionable around the time Charles moved to Seattle. He molded many disparate musical elements into a style with unique harmony and traditional rhythmic patterns.
A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. They are typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic material to seal the surface and mark the playing lines, while providing some cushioning. Historically, hardwood surfaces were also in use in indoor settings, similar to an indoor basketball court, but these are now rare.
Tennis hard courts are made of synthetic/acrylic layers on top of a concrete or asphalt foundation and can vary in color. These courts tend to play medium-fast to fast because there is little energy absorption by the court, like in grass courts. The ball tends to bounce high and players are able to apply many types of spin during play. Flat balls are favored on hard courts because of the extremely quick play style. Speed of rebound after tennis balls bounce on hard courts is determined by how much sand is in the synthetic/acrylic layer placed on top of the asphalt foundation. More sand will result in a slower bounce due to more friction.
Hard is the fourth studio album by American R&B group Jagged Edge, released on October 14, 2003 (see 2003 in music). The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 178,000 copies in the US. It has been certified Gold by the RIAA and has currently sold 871,000 copies in the US.
The album also spawned two singles, the top ten single "Walked Outta Heaven" and the song "What's It Like."
The album track "Visions," includes background vocals from former Anjel member, Tiffany Beaudoin. In addition, the song has an interpolation from the song, "You Are My Starship", a 1976 song released by Norman Connors.
The Jīva or Atman (/ˈɑːtmən/; Sanskrit: आत्मन्) is a philosophical term used within Jainism to identify the soul. It is one's true self (hence generally translated into English as 'Self') beyond identification with the phenomenal reality of worldly existence. As per the Jain cosmology, jīva or soul is also the principle of sentience and is one of the tattvas or one of the fundamental substances forming part of the universe. According to The Theosophist, "some religionists hold that Atman (Spirit) and Paramatman (God) are one, while others assert that they are distinct ; but a Jain will say that Atman and Paramatman are one as well as distinct." In Jainism, spiritual disciplines, such as abstinence, aid in freeing the jīva "from the body by diminishing and finally extinguishing the functions of the body." Jain philosophy is essentially dualistic. It differentiates two substances, the self and the non-self.
According to the Jain text, Samayasāra (The Nature of the Self):-
Life (Japanese: ライフ, Hepburn: Raifu) is a shōjo manga series created by Keiko Suenobu, a manga creator well known for her work on Vitamin and Happy Tomorrow. Life was serialized in Bessatsu Friend, a publication of Kodansha, and deals with many controversial topics such as self-mutilation, bullying, rape, suicide, and manipulation. In 2006, it won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.
The English language version of the manga, published by Tokyopop, was originally rated OT (Older Teen; 16+), but starting with the release of Volume 6 and carrying back over to future reprintings of the previous five, the rating was changed to M (Mature; 18+) for extremely explicit content in that volume. As of June 2008, nine volumes have been released in the United States; Volume 10 was scheduled for a September 2008 release, but on August 31, 2009, Kodansha (original Japanese publisher of the series) announced that they would drop their manga licensing contract with Tokyopop, leaving Life and other well-known series such as Rave Master unfinished, whether permanently or until picked up by other manga publishing companies (Dark Horse Manga and Del Rey Manga have already picked up certain titles). Kodansha also did not offer an explanation for their decision. The future of the English version of the manga is unknown, as Tokyopop itself shut down in May 2011 after they were faced with bankruptcy.
Life is the third studio album by funk/soul band Sly and the Family Stone, released in September 1968 on Epic/CBS Records.
Unlike its predecessor, Dance to the Music, Life was not a commercial success, although it has received mostly positive reviews from music critics over the years. Many of its songs, including "M'Lady", "Fun", "Love City", as well as the title track, became popular staples in the Family Stone's live show. A middle ground between the fiery A Whole New Thing and the more commercial Dance to the Music, Life features very little use of studio effects, and is instead more driven by frontman Sly Stone's compositions. Topics for the album's songs include the dating scene ("Dynamite!", "Chicken", "M'Lady"), groupies ("Jane is a Groupee"), and "plastic" (or "fake") people (the Beatlesque "Plastic Jim"). Of particular note is that the Family Stone's main themes of unity and integration are explored here in several songs ("Fun", "Harmony", "Life", and "Love City"). The next Family Stone LP, Stand!, would focus almost exclusively on these topics.
[killah priest]
The prophecies of a poor man end on a train
Take his last breath
Slumps over drops his last bit of change
A mother pacing by her window pane
Staring hopeless at the gentle rain
When the messenger returns telling her
That her child was slain
She reaches for his picture frame
Open up the good book read the scriptures
And sighs his name
The skies full of flames
Streets are gothic
Twelve niggaz lay dead in front of their projects
Reminding d's of a classic mob hit
Bitches gossip, about they men being targets, or suspects
Niggaz in the lab taking golden seal
For tomorrows drug test
Scared niggaz hugging they techs
Don't want to get plugged next
Outside there's a bloodfeast
We all product, faced with hard luck
Since the wrath of God struck
Now we like "yo tone let me borrow a buck"
He like "yo what the fuck"
Niggaz was born to be skeletons
Or was it the curse of this dark melanin
When I die will I open my eyes in hell again
With these jealous men
Lord forgive me but I smell a gin
On the lips of winos
Sent a plaque turned 'em all into albinos
With horns coming from their foreheads like rhinos
Read it in my last testament and my hidden scrolls
See my icon straight faced with a torn robe
A beard and some cornrows
The whole globe hears when I perform my shows
[chorus 2x: killah priest]
We go from hard times to part-times
From part-time back to hard times
That's the start of crime
Till the day we see the father shine
Light on us, trying to warn us
We play the corners
[killah priest]
I visit monasteries
Where dons were buried
Approached the bench with teary eyes
Tryin to con the jury
Christ said those of you without sin, cast the first stone
Those of you without ends, blast the first chrome
Is it the prophecies of deuteronomy
That drove us to this poverty?
Trapped with starvin seeds
Fightin for sovereignty
Cold nights make the toddler freeze
Blood over my wallabies
Raining mahogany
Here's a dollar for the trees
We worship weed like idolatry
Silly bitches with conniving thoughts
Sticking knives and folks
Don't understand what it's like to be a black man in court
Niggaz up screamin all night
Complaining that their handcuffs are too tight
Kicking on the cell till they cut out the lights
It's like a curse
Walk besides white women they start holding they purse
I just ask you for the time bitch
What you got anyway? some of the indians turf
The beauty that once flowed from the nile
Like the moses child
The hand that writes is a good as the hand that holds the plow
[chorus]
[killah priest]
Some say the spirit of a dead angel lies within me
Look in my eyes, they're empty
Poverty stricken beaten with the rod ol envy
Lurking through the shadows of death
Dragging my wings, saw the image of a beast
Ram, dragon and queen, heard the bragging of kings
Whose laughter was as bitter as a scorpion sting?
Forced in the ring with idiots so many cliques
Letting out automatic clips
A dead lady combing the hair of a bastard bitch
I spit graphic shit you ain't hear half of it
From my fucked up marriages
To dealing with miscarriages
From drinking with savages
Driving hazardous
I'm here today to meet the man from nazareth
Where's the pastor? show me where that chapter is