Opus

Opus may refer to:

Books and magazines

Theatre

Computing

Organisations

Transport

Opus (play)

Opus is a 2006 play written by Michael Hollinger.

Plot

The play involves the Lazara Quartet, a foursome at the top of their field but with a sudden need to replace violist Dorian, who was just fired. Dorian is a mix of an emotionally unstable man who needs medication and a musical genius who demands the best of the other three. Dorian and his lover Elliot, the first violinist of the quartet, have frequent outbursts, which have slowed the quartet’s progress to the point that Dorian is fired because he "steals" an expensive Lazara violin that was given to the group and is played by Elliot. The three remaining members recruit Grace, a talented, younger musician who is unsure of her career path. The four work to perfect their skills as a team preparing for a special White House performance. We also find out that Carl has cancer and is probably dying.

The play culminates after the White House performance with the abrupt reappearance of Dorian. Behind the scenes, Dorian proposed to Carl that the group fire Elliot, rehire Dorian, and keep Grace. Carl, Alan, Grace, and Dorian unite as a bloc and fire Elliot. An argument over possession of the Lazara violin explodes, and Carl takes the instrument from Elliot and smashes it to pieces, saying that the quartet must have "perspective". In the final words of the play, Alan says, "Elliot, Dorian, Carl and me, all of us in our nineties… playing the Adagio from Opus fifty-nine… And we come to a rest in the middle of the movement and stop, just...stop."

Opus (comic strip)

Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland.

Set in Bloom County, the strip documented the adventures of Breathed's popular character Opus the Penguin, parodying both pop culture and politics along the way. It was launched with much fanfare on November 23, 2003, and was syndicated by Washington Post Writers Group. In early October 2008 the author declared he was terminating the strip because of his expectation that the United States is going to face tough times and his desire to depart from his most famous character "on a lighter note".

Characters

Opus

Opus is the title character and protagonist of the strip. Though he returned to Antarctica at the end of Outland, Opus traveled back home to Bloom County, only to find that time has changed everything and everyone he once held dear. His employment usually depended on the week's joke – since Opus began, he has so far been a political operative, a garbageman, and a newspaper ombudsman – but he was most often depicted as a syndicated cartoonist.

Flesh (album)

Flesh is the second studio album by David Gray, initially released in September 1994, and re-released along with Gray's debut album A Century Ends on July 2, 2001. In the United States, the album featured a photo of a storefront's window display as its album cover.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by David Gray. 

Credits

Musicians

Production

Human skin color

Human skin color ranges in variety from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. An individual's skin pigmentation is the result of genetics, being the product of both of the individual's biological parents' genetic makeup. In evolution, skin pigmentation in human beings evolved by a process of natural selection primarily to regulate the amount of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin, controlling its biochemical effects.

The actual skin color of different humans is affected by many substances, although the single most important substance is the pigment melanin. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes and it is the main determinant of the skin color of darker-skinned humans. The skin color of people with light skin is determined mainly by the bluish-white connective tissue under the dermis and by the hemoglobin circulating in the veins of the dermis. The red color underlying the skin becomes more visible, especially in the face, when, as consequence of physical exercise or the stimulation of the nervous system (anger, fear), arterioles dilate.