Propeller (Guided by Voices album)

Propeller is the fifth album by Dayton, Ohio indie rock group Guided by Voices.

Description

Conceived initially by Robert Pollard as a farewell album in the face of years of obscurity and mounting debt, the album ended up "propelling" the band to a higher-profile status and influence, affording the band a lasting position in the indie rock canon.

While significant portions were recorded in a professional recording studio (though later to be "lovingly fucked with" by Mike "Rep" Hummel, of Mike Rep and the Quotas), the album is notable for being the first of the band's albums to make extensive use of 4-track cassette and lo-fi recording techniques as an aesthetic unto itself. Songs are frequently punctuated by unexpected blasts of noise, awkward tape edits, sped-up or slowed-down vocal or instrumental parts, and other sonic bric-a-brac. An interesting result of this technique is the intro to the album's opening track, "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox". What appears to be the sound of a band taking the stage before a throng of thousands of fans chanting "G-B-V! G-B-V!" was actually created by Guided by Voices in the studio (the band had not played live in years, and never to more than a handful of people at the time of recording). Nevertheless, the inclusion of this clip ensured the canonization of the "G-B-V!" chant, heard at essentially every Guided by Voices concert thereafter, and the entire opening sequence was faithfully recreated at the band's final show in 2004.

Propeller TV

Propeller TV is broadcast on SKY Channel 189 and is the premium channel for the UK-China community.

Recently Propeller TV was launched on the CIBN platform (China International Broadcasting Network) in China and continues to broadcast across a UK higher education television network covering 230,000 students.

The channel was created with UK government investment and began broadcasting in 2005. In 2009 Propeller TV was bought by the Xiking Group, Beijing.

Propeller TV relaunched during April 2013 with a new weekly schedule and content produced in both the UK and China.

History

The channel launched on 6 February 2006 on British Sky Broadcasting's satellite platform, Sky.

It was run by the Image Channel Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Grimsby Institute in the United Kingdom until it was acquired in June 2009 by the Xiking Group, after six months of talks. There are plans to overhaul the channel and produce programmes promoting Chinese culture, brands and people, with some possibly broadcast in Chinese.

Propeller (theatre company)

Propeller is a theatre company which presents the plays of William Shakespeare in the UK and around the world. The director is Edward Hall, and the casts are exclusively male actors.

Background

In the mid 1990s, the artistic director of the Watermill Theatre, Jill Fraser, offered Edward Hall the opportunity to direct Othello – his first full Shakespeare play. Although a success, Hall determined to use the experience to found an all male Shakespeare company, "mixing a rigorous approach to the text with a modern physical aesthetic".

Hall has set out the rules of his company, “Everyone is paid the same (tiny) wage and if an actor has created a part in a production then they will automatically receive an offer on the next one which they can refuse or take.” The company has seen new members since its start, keeping the group fresh.

Propeller has won several theatre awards, including winner of the 1999 Barclays Theatre Award for Best Director (Edward Hall in Twelfth Night), winner of the 2002 Barclays Theatre Awards Best Touring Production for Rose Rage, winner of the 2003 TMA Theatres Best Touring Production (A Midsummer Night's Dream), winner of 2004 Jeff Award for Best Director, subsequent American production (Edward Hall in Rose Rage), winner of 2007 OBIE Award for The Taming of the Shrew.

Untitled (Selections from 12)

Untitled (Selections From 12) is a 1997 promotional-only EP from German band The Notwist which was released exclusively in the United States. Though the release of the EP was primarily to promote the band's then-current album 12, it contains one track from their 1992 second record Nook as well as the non-album cover of Robert Palmer's "Johnny and Mary". The version of "Torture Day" on this EP features the vocals of Cindy Dall.

Track listing

Untitled (Marc and the Mambas album)

Untitled is the first studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond's band Marc and the Mambas. It was released by Some Bizzare in September 1982.

Background

Untitled was Almond's first album away from Soft Cell and was made concurrently with the latter's The Art of Falling Apart album. Almond collaborated with a number of artists for this album, including Matt Johnson of The The and Anni Hogan. The album was produced by the band, with assistance from Stephen Short (credited as Steeve Short) and Flood.

Jeremy Reed writes in his biography of Almond, The Last Star, that Untitled was "cheap and starkly recorded". He states that Almond received "little support from Phonogram for the Mambas project, the corporate viewing it as non-commercial and a disquieting pointer to the inevitable split that would occur within Soft Cell". An article in Mojo noted that "from the beginning, Almond and Ball had nurtured sideline projects, though only the former's - the 1982 double 12 inch set Untitled - attracted much attention, most of it disapproving." The article mentions that Almond "who preferred to nail a song in one or two takes" stated that it was all "about feel and spontaneity, otherwise it gets too contrived" when accused of singing flat.<ref name"mojo">Paytress, Mark. "We Are The Village Sleaze Preservation Society". Mojo (September 2014): 69. </ref>

Untitled (West)

Untitled is an outdoor 1977 stainless steel sculpture by American artist Bruce West, installed in Portland, Oregon, in the United States.

Description

Bruce West's Untitled is installed along Southwest 6th Avenue between Washington and Stark streets in Portland's Transit Mall. It was one of eleven works chosen in 1977 to make the corridor "more people oriented and attractive" as part of the Portland Transit Mall Art Project. The stainless steel sculptures is 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. It was funded by TriMet and the United States Department of Transportation, and is administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

See also

References

External links