document_title: Brown Berets

question_text: who did the brown berets model themselves afterwards

text: Brown Berets

text: Predecessors[edit]

text: This section called Predecessors possibly contains inappropriate or misinterpreted citations that do not verify the text. Please help improve this article by checking for citation inaccuracies. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: In 1966, as part of the Annual Chicano Student Conference in Los Angeles County, a team of high school students discussed different issues affecting Mexican Americans in their barrios and schools. Among the students at the conference were Vickie Castro, Jorge Licón, John Ortiz, David Sanchez, Rachel Ochoa, and Moctesuma Esparza.[3] These high school students formed the Young Citizens for Community Action the same year, and worked together to support Dr. Julian Nava's campaign as a Los Angeles school board member candidate in 1967.[3] Sanchez and Esparza had trained with Father John B. Luce's Social Action Training center at the Church of the Epiphany (Episcopal) in Lincoln Heights and with the Community Service Organization.[4]

tag: p

text: The organization's name was then changed to Young Chicanos For Community Action or "YCCA".[5] In 1967, the YCCA founded the Piranya Coffee House. In September 1967, Sal Castro, a Korean War veteran and teacher at Lincoln High School, met with the YCCA at the Piranya Coffee House. The group decided to wear brown berets as a symbol of unity and resistance against discrimination. As a result, the organization gained the name "Brown Berets". Their agenda was to fight police harassment, inadequate public schools, inadequate health care, inadequate job opportunities, minority education issues, the lack of political representation, and the Vietnam War. It set up branches in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Florida, Chicago, St. Louis and other metropolitan areas with large "raza" populations.[citation needed]

text: Actions[edit]

text:
“
We were a group of young Chicano revolutionaries from the barrios of the Southwest fighting for the self-determination of our people. We organized in our barrios, published the newspaper La Causa, ran a free clinic and fought against police brutality as well as against the U.S. war in Vietnam.[5]
”

text: By September 1968, the Brown Berets became a national organization having opened chapters California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, and Indiana.[6]

text: In 1969, Brown Berets Cristo Cebada produced and distributed a newspaper called "La Causa."[3] They also participated in organizing the first free medical clinics and free breakfast programs. Women held an important role in the writing and distribution of "La Causa", but even though this was so, the Brown Berets, as the rest of the Chicano Movement, did not fully take women into strong leadership positions. The jobs assigned to women in the Brown Berets consisted of office type jobs and clerical/secretarial jobs.[citation needed] Sexism within the Brown Berets was evident. Brown Berets saw themselves as liberated men and ignored the women's struggle because they, male Brown Berets, believed that the feminist movement was a Caucasian women's movement and that above all, first came the liberation of La Raza.[citation needed] One female Brown Beret, Grace Reyes, in charge of writing for La Causa, constantly wrote articles about women within the Brown Berets/the Chicano Movement and the sexist attitudes towards them but they were not published and ignored.[citation needed] Most Brown Beret women believed and insisted that a successful revolution "must have full involvement from both chicanas and chicanos". Carlos Montes, one of the co-founders, in an interview talks about the lessons learned from the Brown Berets, "Building a mass militant movement to the stop the US war drive, for social change and for revolution is key. Also rebuilding grassroots militant organizations in the community that fight for self-determination, social justice and liberation - not just for reforms. We need an organization that includes the participation of the entire family and that values and promotes the leadership of women."[5]

text: The Brown Berets also came to be known for their direct action against police brutality.[7] They protested killings and abuses perpetrated by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department at the station in the barrio. They supported the United Farm Workers movement[7] and the Land Grant Movement in New Mexico. In 1969, they participated in the first Rainbow Coalition (Fred Hampton) which originally included the Young Patriots with William (Preacherman) Fesperman and the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez and the Lincoln Park Poor People's Coalition. In 1969, the Young Lords were invited to be part of the first Chicano Youth Liberation Movement organized by Corky Gonzales in Denver, Colorado.[citation needed]

text: The Brown Berets organized the first Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War in 1970,[7] and a few months later the National Chicano Moratorium[7] in which close to 20,000 Chicanos marched and protested the high casualty rate of Chicanos in Vietnam and the military draft. This peaceful protest became chaotic when the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department decided to end the event by attacking attendees.[8] Three Chicano activists were killed (two of them Brown Berets), including journalist Rubén Salazar.[8]

text: Also in 1970, The Brown Berets de Aztlan and other community activist organizations took over a piece of land in Logan Heights (a community of San Diego) because the city of San Diego wanted to build a California Highway Patrol Substation and the community didn't want that. That little piece of land just under the Coronado Bridge, marked by Chicano graffiti-art on the first bridge pillars, is now called Chicano Park.[9]

text: In 1972, twenty-six Brown Berets occupied the Santa Catalina Island and claimed it for Mexico. However, by this time, the organization had been weakened by internal conflicts and police and FBI infiltration.[10]

text: Geography[edit]

text: By 1969, 28 cities had Brown Beret chapters and established mostly in California but units were also established in Albuquerque, Denver, Detroit, San Antonio, St. Paul, and Seattle.[11] The Brown Berets were involved in marches, anti-war protests, student-walkouts, and gained significant national media attention when they staged an invasion of the Catalina Islands near Los Angeles in August 1972.[12] Another important direct action was their mobilization of the East Los Angeles blowouts in 1968 where they acted as the security force for the thousands of protesting youth.

text: The Brown Berets high visibility and paramilitary stance made them a key target for infiltration, attacks, and harassment by local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the Brown Berets were disbanded by Prime Minister David Sanchez in 1972, a total of 36 chapters had been established primarily near college and university campuses.

text: Activity in other regions[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The Brown Berets set up the Benito Juarez Health Clinic (BJHC) in Chicago in 1972. This was a health clinic that provided free medical care to everyone in the Chicago area. Working in conjunction with Cook County Hospital and other major hospitals in the Chicago area, BJHC served the needs of the uninsured and those with no ability to pay for health care services. It was located at 1831 S. Racine, in the Casa Aztlán Center, the community building located on the south side of Chicago, just outside downtown Chicago. The Center Director was Ms. Dorthy Cutler.

text: The Brown Berets also fought on public education issues. The organization occupied a middle high school called Frobel Middle 9th Grade School. The Brown Berets, alongside families, community members and students, took over the school for a full day. At the end of the day, the Chicago Police arrived to remove people from the occupied school. That evening, a riot broke out, in which many rioters and one policeman were injured as the police were trying to disperse the crowd. Six police cars were also destroyed. The community wanted a school built in their community, and in 1979 a school was built in the Pilsen community, now called the Benito Juarez High School.

text: In El Monte, California, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Brown Berets often supported each other in marches against the Vietnam War and jail conditions at the Bexar County Jail. SNCC ran African American candidates for State offices under the La Raza Unida Party and often supported Mexican American activists.

text: In Washington State, the Brown Berets originated in Granger, Washington. The group was then transplanted to Seattle as students from the Yakima Valley were recruited to the University of Washington in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Seattle Chapter worked with the chapter in Yakima, Washington in attempting to organize various projects including the formation of a 'La Raza Unida Party' in Washington. It is believed that the group was initiated first in 1968, with the Seattle chapter emerging in 1969. The organization would attract over 200 members throughout the state.

text: Although having a short-lived presence (approximately from 1968 to 1984), the Brown Berets would be instrumental in organizing youth and college students. Of note was the organization's partaking in the occupation of the old Beacon Hill School in Seattle, which led to the founding of El Centro de la Raza, now one of Seattle's most prominent civil rights organizations. Activism also transcended the organization's early phase, with many former member establishing various community institutions to meet the needs of the local community.

text: April 22, 1970[edit]

text: The San Diego Brown Berets (now known as National Brown Berets de Aztlan) took over a piece of land in Logan Heights that was supposed to be a highway patrol sub-station. That piece of land under the Coronado bridge is now known as Chicano Park.

text: November 1, 1972[edit]

text: Brown Berets were infiltrated by government employees and subversives working for outside organizations including but not limited to the FBI, LAPD, CWP, ATF, and other law enforcement agencies and organizations working to co-opt the Movimiento Chicano to ensure protection of the United States. The then Prime Minister David Sanchez tried to disband the organization After a National meeting held in Albuquerque, NM at the Alianza Headquarters where thousands of Brown Beret Members voted Sanchez out. Then to save face he called for a Press Conference to dis-ban the organization.

text: January 2011[edit]

text: During a session discussing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act at California State University, Fresno on January 6, 2011, a Brown Beret member spoke out of turn and was taken out of the building by the police officers and detectives. In agreement, others in the audience argued that California lands that had previously belonged to Mexico were acquired by the United States in an unlawful manner.[13]

text: Brown Berets Watsonville, California[edit]

text: See main article Brown Berets (Watsonville) of a 1994 autonomous group.


document_title: New Kids on the Block

question_text: when did new kids on the block come out

question_tokens: when did new kids on the block come out

root

text: New Kids on the Block

text: History[edit]

text: 1984–1985: Early career[edit]

text: In the early 1980s, Maurice Starr discovered R&B/pop quintet New Edition, and guided their early success. After breaking ties with them, Starr and his business partner, Mary Alford, sought to create a white counterpart act.[8] Fifteen-year-old Donnie Wahlberg immediately impressed Starr and Alford with his rapping skills, dancing ability and showmanship, becoming the group's first member. Wahlberg assisted in helping to recruit other members. Among them were his younger brother Mark including his best friends Danny Wood and Jamie Kelly. He also coaxed one-time schoolmate Jordan Knight - who sang an exceptional falsetto - into auditioning for Starr as well. Upon Knight's passing the audition, his older brother Jonathan was accepted into the group as well.[9]

text: As the group began to take shape, Mark Wahlberg left and was briefly replaced by Jamie Kelly. When a search was made to find a Michael Jackson-esque singer to fill the role, Starr replaced Mark with 12-year-old Joey McIntyre, whom the other members initially resented for being the one to replace their friend. With the final line-up in place, Starr rehearsed the boys diligently, after school and on weekends, and eventually secured the group [Nynuk][10] a recording contract at Columbia Records. However, the label demanded Starr change the name of the group. Subsequently, they settled on New Kids on the Block, after a rap song that Donnie Wahlberg had written and arranged for their first album.[9]

text: 1986: New Kids on the Block (debut album)[edit]

text: In April 1986, Columbia Records released the group's self-titled debut album. The album, almost exclusively written and produced by Maurice Starr, featured mid 80s bubblegum pop material. The first single, "Be My Girl", received minor airplay around the group's native Boston, but failed to capture nationwide attention. The album's second single, "Stop It Girl", fared even worse. The New Kids went on tour around the New England states, singing wherever Starr could book them: in bars, school dances, and clubs. Nevertheless, Starr remained diligent and persuaded the label to allow the group to record a second album.

text: 1988–1989: Hangin' Tough[edit]

text: After the failure of the first album, Starr had the group back in the studio for most of 1987 and 1988 recording their second album. Dissatisfied with the excessively bubblegum sound of their first album, the group wanted to have more input on their look, direction and song material. As a result, Wahlberg, Wood and Jordan Knight received associate producer credit on the final product. The album's first single was "Please Don't Go Girl", a ballad released in the spring of 1988. Failure seemed destined a second time when the song became another that went unnoticed by the listening public, and Columbia Records made plans to drop the New Kids from the label. At the eleventh hour, however, a radio station in Florida began playing the song. Scoring listener approval, it soon became the most requested song on their play list. When Columbia caught wind of the positive response, they decided to keep the group on its roster and put more effort into promoting the single. Columbia decided to re-shoot a music video for "Please Don't Go Girl", hiring director Doug Nichol, and sent the video to thousands of radio stations across the country to show the group's visual appeal. National attention soon followed and "Please Don't Go Girl" eventually climbed to No. 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart—becoming the group's first hit.[11]

text: New Kids on the Block's second album, Hangin' Tough, was released to modest fanfare in September. In the meantime, the group began making national televised appearances on such music programs as Showtime at the Apollo, and Soul Train. Producer Maurice Starr then held auditions to secure a band of musicians suitable for touring with the New Kids approving musical director and Keyboardist Greg McPherson, bassist David Dyson, keyboardist Yasko Kubota, guitarist Nerida Rojas, and drummer Derrick Antunes. The New Kids later landed a spot as an opening act for fellow teen-pop act Tiffany on the U.S. leg of her concert tour. Sales of Hangin' Tough steadily increased as the group's national attention slowly rose. At year's end, the album's second single "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" was released. The song was given a huge boost when MTV took notice of the group and began playing the video in regular rotation, including an appearance on Club MTV. By early 1989, it cracked the top five.[11] The New Kids hit pay dirt with their next single, "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)", which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in June.[11] The group had been scheduled to open for Tiffany once again on a second tour, but their sudden popularity caused a reversal, and she wound up opening for them (although the two acts were technically billed as "co-headliners").

text: More top five singles from Hangin' Tough followed into the summer and fall, including the title track and "Cover Girl". Columbia Records also released the single "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" (a cover of The Delfonics' classic hit), from the group's previously overlooked debut album. The song went No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles[11] on the strength of the group's popularity and effectively jump-started the sales of that album as well. By the end of 1989, Hangin' Tough had climbed to number one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and had gone eight-times platinum. They, subsequently, became the first 'teen' act to garner five top ten hits from a single album.

text: Meanwhile, a top ten charting holiday album, Merry, Merry Christmas, was released in the fall—spawning another top 10 hit, "This One's for the Children" and going double platinum in the U.S. The proceeds were donated to United Cerebral Palsy, the New Kids' favorite charitable cause. Hangin' Tough would go on to spend 132 weeks on the chart, and in January 1990, the album won two American Music Awards for "Best Pop/Rock Album", and "Best Pop/Rock Group". With the success of "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)", "Cover Girl", and "This One's For the Children", the group pulled off a rare feat of having three singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, but each from a different album.

text: Columbia Music Video also released a home video "Hangin' Tough", a documentary on the band directed by Doug Nichol and produced by Bryan Johnson, that included their four hit music videos and a live concert recorded during their 1989 tour. It achieved massive sales, earning a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video nomination,[12] and was one of the biggest selling music videos of all time.[13]

text: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts declared April 24, 1989, "New Kids on the Block Day".

text: 1990: Step by Step[edit]

text: By early 1990, New Kids on the Block had become one of the most popular acts in the United States. The following May, they followed up Hangin' Tough with Step by Step, which featured slightly more than half of the songs co-written and produced by the members themselves. The first single, the title track, raced to number one on the Hot 100 Singles Chart[11] and became their biggest selling single. It was followed up with the top ten "Tonight", which extended the consecutive top ten singles chart run to nine records. "Let's Try It Again" hit No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart, whilst "Baby I Believe In You" went No. 1 on the Japanese Chart, further signifying the international appeal of the group. The album was eventually certified triple platinum, selling close to 20 million copies worldwide.[14]

text: The group performed an estimated two hundred concerts a year, with an extravagant worldwide concert tour that summer, called The Magic Summer Tour, sponsored by Coke. The tour ultimately grossed $74 million ($133 million, adjusted for inflation), making the group the top-grossing touring act in the country at the time and one of highest grossing concert tours of the decade. The tour had an overall attendance of 3.2 million people. Their 1990 pay-per-view special broke cable-TV history at the time. During this time, the group became heavily merchandised. NKOTB-licensed merchandise included lunch boxes, buttons, T-shirts, comic books, dolls, trading cards and even a Saturday morning cartoon in their likeness, which was developed by the writing and development team from Pangea Corporation and animated by DIC Entertainment. In 1991, sales for the group's merchandise were estimated at US$400 million.[15]

text: New Kids on the Block's official fan club had a membership of over 200,000 members and was one of the largest fan clubs in the United States.[16] Approximately 100,000 calls per week were dialed to 1-900-909-5KIDs, the Official NKOTB Hotline, as well. In 1991, the group topped Forbes list of highest paid entertainers, beating out the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and Bill Cosby.[17] Further capitalizing on the fame, at year's end, Columbia Records released No More Games/The Remix Album—a compilation of the group's biggest hits remixed, the album also brought along two more released songs in "Call It What You Want" (UK #12) and "Games" (UK #14) in which videos were also released.

text: The group released no new material in 1991, but went overseas and continued to tour throughout Europe and Asia. That summer, Wood and Wahlberg co-wrote and produced the debut album from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch—headed by Mark Wahlberg, Donnie's brother and former New Kid. Mark Wahlberg's album scored a number one hit with "Good Vibrations", and a platinum album.[18][19]

text: 1992: Lip syncing allegations and popularity decline[edit]

text: By late 1990, David Dyson assumed the role of musical director. In early 1992, the group released the stand-alone single "If You Go Away", the only new track on the compilation H.I.T.S.. The song peaked at No. 16 on the US charts and No. 9 in the UK charts. Meanwhile, as the music industry was still reeling from the Milli Vanilli lip-syncing scandal, the group found themselves accused of lip-syncing by Gregory McPherson, also a music teacher at Berklee College of Music, who was listed as an associate producer and string arranger on the group's third album, Step by Step. McPherson alleged that Maurice Starr sang the vocals while the group lip-synced to pre-recorded vocals during their live performances. McPherson also filed a breach of contract and creative infringement lawsuit against Starr.

text: The group immediately responded to the allegations and interrupted the Australian leg of their tour to fly to Los Angeles to perform live on The Arsenio Hall Show.[20] After performing a medley of their previous hits and their new single, the group (along with Starr) was interviewed by Hall. The group admitted to singing with a backing track during live performances and also admitted that Starr sang harmony on some background vocals.[21][22]

text: On February 10, 1992, the New Kids filed a defamation lawsuit against McPherson regarding his lip-syncing allegations. In April 1992, McPherson dropped his suit against Starr and released a statement recanting his previous allegations stating, "They [The New Kids] did sing lead on their vocals".[22]

text: By the time the lip-syncing allegations surfaced, the group was starting to experience a backlash. Despite their success, the group was regularly dismissed by critics for their attempts to promote themselves as an urban act and their practice of using backing vocals for live performances. The group's record sales also began to decline due to a shift in musical tastes to gangsta rap and grunge music.[23]

text: 1993–1994: Face the Music[edit]

text: In 1993, after having split from Maurice Starr, the group shortened their name to the initialism NKOTB. In January 1994, their fourth studio album, Face the Music, was released. Their first studio album in close to four years, Face the Music was a musical departure from the group's previous efforts. Nearly all the songs were written and/or co-produced by the group. In spite of some positive critical reception, the album failed to live up to commercial expectation.[24] The album's final single to chart was "Dirty Dawg" (which featured a rap cameo by Nice & Smooth & Live Instrumentals & Background Vocals by Larry Thomas), peaking at No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100.[11][25] The follow-up single, "Never Let You Go", failed to chart in the U.S., but did reach No. 42 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 18 in the Canadian charts.

text: NKOTB went on tour to support the album, playing smaller venues such as clubs and theaters, as opposed to the arenas and stadiums they were once accustomed to. After experiencing increased panic attacks and anxiety, Jonathan Knight left the band. Shortly thereafter, the remaining four decided to officially disband the group.[26]

text: 1995–2007: Break-up[edit]

text: After the group's split, most of the group members started families and began to venture into other avenues. Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood maintained low profiles, while the other three continued their careers individually. Wahlberg, in particular, followed the lead of his younger brother, Mark Wahlberg, and started an acting career. McIntyre and Jordan Knight recorded solo albums in 1999.

text: In 1999, MTV attempted to reunite the group and get them to perform on that year's VMAs. All of the members were on board for the project, except Jonathan. Without him, the performance did not happen.[27]

text: In 2004, Aamer Haleem, host of VH1's Bands Reunited, also attempted to convince each of the members of New Kids on the Block to reunite for a one-night performance for the show. This time Jonathan agreed. However, McIntyre, Wahlberg, and Wood all declined. While Wood and Wahlberg declined on-camera interviews, McIntyre cited that the only way he would perform with the band was if the group would make the decision to reunite permanently.[28]

text: 2008–2012: Reunion, The Block, & NKOTBSB[edit]

text: In April 2008, after months of speculation, Wahlberg confirmed to CNN that the group had reunited with plans to record new material and to stage a tour.[29] The following month, the group released their first single since reuniting, "Summertime".[30][31] The cover of the single featured the name "New Kids on the Block", re-lengthened from the initials NKOTB.

text: On August 12, 2008, they released their second single, "Single", featuring R&B singer Ne-Yo, followed by the release of the group's first studio album in fourteen years, The Block. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in September 2008.[32] It was certified Gold in October 2008, in Canada.[33]

text: The group's reunion tour, New Kids on the Block: Live, began at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on September 18, 2008. They toured the US with Natasha Bedingfield and Lady Gaga as supporting acts. There are 48 total concerts scheduled for Canada and the United States, nine in the United Kingdom, one in Ireland, one in France, one in Amsterdam, Netherlands and two in Germany. A NKOTB-sponsored "theme" concert cruise (for their fans) departed from Miami, Florida and traveled to the Bahamas from May 15–18, 2009. The group also announced the Full Service Tour for 2009, featuring Jesse McCartney and Jabbawockeez.[34]

text: Group member Jordan Knight announced a new concert cruise for 2010.[35] After the tour, each member took a break on doing other endeavors. McIntyre recorded a few songs written and produced by fellow musicians such as himself, Drew Ryan Scott from boy band After Romeo, Brent Paschke, and Gabe Lopez. Wahlberg worked on his own music as well, releasing a single called "I Got It" featuring Aubrey O'Day (formerly from Danity Kane) and "Rise and Grind" featuring Roscoe Umali.

text: On Friday, August 13, 2010, tickets went on sale for the third annual NKOTB cruise which will take place aboard the Carnival Destiny, leaving from Miami, FL on Thursday, May 12, 2011 to Nassau and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas and returning to Miami, FL on Monday, May 16, 2011. Once again, the cruise sold out the same day it went on sale, with thousands of fans on a 'waitlist' standing by for any openings on the boat due to cancellations.

text: On August 18, 2010, an 'unofficial' announcement was made that NKOTB and the Backstreet Boys will be touring together in 2011 after the successful surprise collaboration performance at Radio City Music Hall on June 19, 2010. On October 8, 2010, Brian Littrell, a member of the Backstreet Boys, gave the tour a 78% chance of happening. He also stated that he and Wahlberg had been working on songs together.[36]

text: On November 3, 2010, an official announcement was made that NKOTB and BSB will be touring together in the summer of 2011 along with Jordin Sparks and Ashlyne Huff.[37] In May 2011, Matthew Morrison confirmed during an interview on talk show Chelsea Lately that he would also be joining the tour.[38] The NKOTBSB Tour began on May 25, 2011 and ended in June 2012. They also released a compilation album NKOTBSB which included 2 new songs.

text: On June 22, 2012, NKOTB was among 24 celebrities selected by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for 2013.[39]

text: McIntyre stated during Summer Mixtape Festival that they were making a new album and unlike their previous album The Block, there will be no collaboration on it.[40]

text: 2013–present: 10, Touring and Thankful[edit]

text: On January 22, 2013, the group appeared on The View and announced that they were going to release a new single titled "Remix (I Like The)" on January 28 and a new album titled 10 would be released on April 2, 2013 via Kobalt Label Services. During the show, they also announced that they were going to tour North America with 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men as their opening acts in summer 2013.[41] 10 was released on April 2, 2013, which met mixed to positive reviews from music critics. The group also appeared on television series to promote the album including The Today Show, The View, and an iHeartRadio concert release party. The album made its debut at number 6 on the Billboard 200 chart marking their 5th top 10 studio album in the US.

text: The group, along with Boyz II Men performed on the Boston Strong telethon on May 30, 2013.

text: On February 3, 2014 the band announced their European Tour 2014. The official website described the tour: 'Kicking-off at the Annex in Stockholm on May 6 and culminating at Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow on June 1, the shows will take place at some of the most intimate venues across Europe, giving our fans a rare opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with the band.' Following the tour the group met up in New York to embark on the 6th annual NKOTB Cruise. Also, in the Spring of 2014 they announced a limited engagement in Las Vegas. The show titled New Kids On The Block After Dark ran for 4 consecutive nights from July 10–13, 2014 at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood.

text: On October 9, 2014, the group received their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[42]

text: In January 2015, the group announced they would be embarking on a summer tour called The Main Event, with the surviving members of TLC and Nelly.

text: The group played themselves on an episode of Fuller House Season 2 on Netflix titled, "New Kids in the House." They performed multiple songs including, "The Right Stuff," and "Please Don't Go Girl." The episode was released on December 9, 2016.[43]

text: In November 2016, the group announced a new tour called The Total Package Tour with Paula Abdul & Boyz II Men. The 44-city North American tour spans from May 12 to July 16 and marks Abdul's first tour in more than 20 years.[44] In March 2017 during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden they performed the new single "One More Night" from the upcoming EP Thankful. The EP was released on May 12 to coincide with the start of the tour.

text: In December 2017, they released an expanded version of the EP titled Thankful (Unwrapped), now including the Target-only track "We Were Here" (featuring DMX) as well as three newly-recorded holiday songs, their new material of holiday music in 28 years. Additionally, they announced a short-film documentary filmed during their summer tour will be released on December 9th.[45][46]

text: Members[edit]

text: Current[edit]

text:
Donnie Wahlberg (1984–1994, 2007–present)
Jordan Knight (1984–1994, 2007–present)
Joey McIntyre (1985–1994, 2007–present)
Jonathan Knight (1984–1994, 2007–present)
Danny Wood (1984–1994, 2007–present)

tag: ul

text: Former[edit]

text:
Mark Wahlberg (1984–1985)
Jamie Kelly (1985)

text: Touring musicians[edit]

text:
Greg McPherson (Musical director/keys) (1989–90)
David Dyson (bassist) (1989-1992) (Musical director/bassist) (1990–92)
Nerida Rojas (guitar) (1989-1990)
Rob Sachs (guitar) (1990-1992)
Yasko Kubota (keyboards) (1989-1992; died 2015)
Derrick Antunes (drums) (1989-1992)
Kevin Antunes (2nd keyboards) (1990-1992)

text: Discography[edit]

text: Studio albums[edit]

text:
New Kids on the Block (1986)
Hangin' Tough (1988)
Merry, Merry Christmas (1989)
Step by Step (1990)
No More Games: The Remix Album (1990)
H.I.T.S (1991)
Tour Souvenir Collection (1991)
Face the Music (1994)
Greatest Hits (1999)
Super Hits (2001)
#1 Hits (2005)
New Kids on the Block: Greatest Hits (2008)
The Block (2008)
10 (2013)

text: With Backstreet Boys[edit]

text: NKOTBSB (2011)

text: Extended plays[edit]

text: Thankful (2017)

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text:
Year
Association
Category
Nominated work
Result

1990
Grammy Awards
Best Music Video, Long Form
"Hangin' Tough"
Nominated

1990
American Music Awards
Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group

Won

Favorite Pop/Rock Album
Hangin' Tough
Won

1991
Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group

Nominated

tag: table


document_title: Brown Eyed Girl

question_text: what is the song brown eyed girl about

question_tokens: what is the song brown eyed girl about

text: Brown Eyed Girl

text: Recording and title[edit]

text: After finishing his contract with Decca Records and the mid-1966 break-up of his band, Them, Morrison returned to Belfast seeking a new recording company. When he received a phone call from Bert Berns, owner of Bang Records, who had produced a number of recordings with Them, he flew to New York City and hastily signed a contract (which biographer Clinton Heylin says probably still gives him sleepless nights).[2] During a two-day recording session starting 28 March 1967, he recorded eight songs intended to be used as four singles.[3] The recording session took place at A & R Studios and "Brown Eyed Girl" was captured on the 22nd take on the first day.[4] Of the musicians Berns had assembled, there were three guitarists – Eric Gale, Hugh McCracken,[5][6] and Al Gorgoni – plus bassist Russ Savakus, pianist Paul Griffin and drummer Gary Chester.[7][8] It was released as a single in mid-June 1967.[9]

text: Originally titled "Brown-Skinned Girl",[10] Morrison changed it to "Brown Eyed Girl" when he recorded it. Morrison remarked on the original title: "That was just a mistake. It was a kind of Jamaican song. Calypso. It just slipped my mind. I changed the title."[11] "After we'd recorded it, I looked at the tape box and didn't even notice that I'd changed the title. I looked at the box where I'd lain it down with my guitar and it said 'Brown Eyed Girl' on the tape box. It's just one of those things that happen."[12][13]

text: Composition[edit]

text:
"Brown Eyed Girl"

An 18-second audio sample of Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

text: The song's nostalgic lyrics about a former love were considered too suggestive at the time to be played on many radio stations. A radio-edit of the song was released which removed the lyrics "making love in the green grass", replacing them with "laughin' and a-runnin', hey hey" from a previous verse. This edited version appears on some copies of the compilation album The Best of Van Morrison. However the remastered CD seems[clarification needed] to have the bowdlerised lyrics in the packaging but the original "racy" lyrics on the disc. Lyrically, it "shows early hints of the idealized pastoral landscapes that would flow through his songs through the decades, a tendency that links him to the Romantic poets, whom Morrison has cited as an influence" according to music journalist Erik Hage.[14]

text: Aftermath[edit]

text: Because of a contract he signed with Bang Records without legal advice, Morrison states that he has never received any royalties for writing or recording this song.[15] The contract made him liable for virtually all recording expenses incurred for all of his Bang Records recordings before royalties would be paid, and after those expenses were recouped, the revenue would become the "subject of some highly creative accounting".[attribution needed][16] Morrison vented frustration about this unjust contract in his sarcastic nonsense song "The Big Royalty Check". Morrison has stated that "Brown Eyed Girl" is not among his favourite songs, remarking "it's not one of my best. I mean I've got about 300 songs that I think are better".[17]

text: To capitalise on the success of the single, producer Berns assembled the album Blowin' Your Mind! without Morrison's input or knowledge. Released in September 1967, the album contained the single as its lead-off track as well as songs recorded by Morrison at the March recording sessions for Berns. The album peaked at No. 182 on the Billboard 200.

text: Legacy[edit]

text: Morrison's original recording of "Brown Eyed Girl" remains widely familiar today, as the uncensored version is regularly played by many "oldies" and "classic rock" radio stations. In 2005, Morrison received a Million-Air certificate by BMI as a "Top European Writer" for reaching 7 million US radio and television airplays for "Brown Eyed Girl" and again in 2007, Morrison was awarded another Million-Air certificate by BMI for 8 million air plays of "Brown Eyed Girl".[18][19] In 2009, "Brown Eyed Girl" was at the top of the list for most played songs at the BMI London awards winning a Million-Air certificate for 9 million air plays.[20] In 2011, "Brown Eyed Girl" joined an elite group of songs as it was honoured for having 10 million US radio air plays and therefore becoming one of the ten songs that have been registered with BMI that have received that number of radio plays.[21] As of 2015, "Brown Eyed Girl" remains the most downloaded and most played song of the entire 1960s decade.[22]

text: Paul Williams included "Brown Eyed Girl" in his book Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles,[23] writing that:

text: "I was going to say this is a song about sex, and it is, and a song about youth and growing up, and memory, and it's also—very much and very wonderfully—a song about singing."

text: This song proved to be the impetus for Morrison's career. It was his first single after leaving his position as lead singer for the Belfast-formed Them and led to his relocation to the United States and an eventual contract with Warner Bros. Records, where he recorded his career-defining album, Astral Weeks.

text: Critical acclaim and influence[edit]

text: Dave Marsh in his 1989 book, The Heart of Rock and Soul, The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever, rated it No. 386.[24] In 1999, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) listed it as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Century.[25] In 2000, it was listed at No. 21 on the Rolling Stone/MTV list of 100 Greatest Pop Songs[26] and as No. 49 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Rock Songs.[27] In 2001, it was ranked No. 131 as one of the RIAAs Songs of the Century, a list of the top 365 songs of the 20th century chosen with historical significance in mind.[28][29]

text: In November 2004, "Brown Eyed Girl" was ranked No. 110 on the Rolling Stone magazine list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[30] At the same year, it was listed as No. 79 on the All Time 885 Greatest Songs compiled by WXPN from listeners' votes.[31] In January 2007, "Brown Eyed Girl" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[32] It was ranked as the 183rd greatest song of all time, as well as the 12th best song of 1967, by Acclaimed Music.[33] It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[34]

text: Personnel[edit]

text:
Van Morrison – vocals, guitar
Eric Gale – guitar
Gary Chester – drums
Russ Savakus – bass guitar
Al Gorgoni – guitar
Hugh McCracken – guitar
Garry Sherman – organ
The Sweet Inspirations – back-up vocals

text: In popular culture[edit]

text:
The song has been featured in several popular films, including the 1983 film The Big Chill, the 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July,[35] and the 1991 film Sleeping with the Enemy, starring Julia Roberts.[36]
Mayor of London Boris Johnson included the song as one of his eight Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 20 April 2003.[37] Fashion designer Betty Jackson also included the song on her list on 28 April 2002,[38] as did  British actor, comedian and singer Hugh Laurie on 23 June 2013.[39]
In April 2005, the White House announced that "Brown Eyed Girl" gets regular rotation on George W. Bush's iPod. Morrison announced before a university performance in England: "Yeah, it's good to hear things like that, you know. But I would have preferred if it was a new song."[40]
A 2008 FoxTrot strip portrays "Brown Eyed Girl", along with "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor and "My Eyes Adored You" by The Four Seasons as music played on the music site EyeTunes.
In March 2009, former US president Bill Clinton picked "Brown Eyed Girl" as top pick on his list of favourite ten tunes included on his signed iPod donated for a charity auction for musical victims of Hurricane Katrina.[41]
The song was played at the end of the funeral for comedian Rik Mayall in June 2014.[42]
The song is featured as a playable track in the 2015 video game Rock Band 4.[43]
In Graeme Simsion's 2017 novel The Best of Adam Sharp, Adam is playing "Brown Eyed Girl" when he first meets Angelina, and it is the song he plays over the phone when they reconnect 22 years later.[44]

text: Chart performance[edit]

text:
Year

Billboard

UK Singles Chart

Hot 100

Hot Ringtones

1967

10[45]

-

-

2006

-

18[46]

-

2013

-

-

60[47]

text: Other releases[edit]

text: "Brown Eyed Girl" was one of the songs included on the 1990 compilation album, The Best of Van Morrison. It is one of the songs performed live at Morrison's concert of performance of 15 September 2006 at the Austin City Limits Festival and is included on the limited CD album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival. "Brown Eyed Girl" was one of the nineteen songs featured on Van Morrison's 2007 compilation album, Van Morrison at the Movies – Soundtrack Hits. The version on this compilation is a recent re-recording of the original version of the song. The original version is one of the hits on the 2007 compilation album, Still on Top – The Greatest Hits. A live version of this song is featured on the 2008 reissue of the live double album It's Too Late to Stop Now.

text: Cover versions[edit]

text:
"Brown Eyed Girl"Single by El Chicanofrom the album CelebrationB-side
"Mas zachate"Released
May 1972Format
7-inchRecorded
1972Studio
The Sound Factory, Los AngelesGenre
Brown eyed soulLength
3:11Label
KappSongwriter(s)
Van MorrisonProducer(s)
Don BudayEl Chicano singles chronology

"Sugar, Sugar" (1971)

"Brown Eyed Girl" (1972)

"Satisfy Me Woman" (1972)

text:
"Brown Eyed Girl"Single by Ian Matthewsfrom the album Go For BrokeB-side
"Steamboat"Released
May 1976Format
7-inchRecorded
1976Studio
Quadrofonic Studio, NashvilleGenre
soft rockLength
3:51Label
ColumbiaSongwriter(s)
Van MorrisonProducer(s)
Norbert Putnam, Glen SpreenIan Matthews singles chronology

"I Don't Want to Talk About It" (1975)

"Brown Eyed Girl" (1976)

"A Fool Like You" (1976)

text: El Chicano remade "Brown Eyed Girl" for their 1972 album Celebration.[48] Kapp Records had invited music journalist Don Buday to produce the album, being impressed by Buday's writings on El Chicano: Buday had the group remake "Brown Eyed Girl" and also the Cream hit "I Feel Free" (Don Buday quote:) "[to try] to give [El Chicano] more of a rock-and-roll identity". Journeyman recording engineer Val Garay, who had his first engineering assignment producing Celebration, would recall (Val Garay quote:) "Don got this brilliant idea of [remaking] 'Brown Eyed Girl'...kind of like the 'Mexican Everly Brothers".[49] Released as the album's lead single, "Brown Eyed Girl" peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100. Chicanismo scholar Dionne Espinoza opined that the El Chicano version of "Brown Eyed Girl" turned the song into "an affirmation of the beauty of brown[-skinned] women".[50]

text: British singer/songwriter Iain Matthews remade "Brown Eyed Girl" for his 1976 album Go for Broke[51] from which it was issued as the lead single, becoming a hit in the Netherlands (No. 22)[52] and in New Zealand (No. 25).[53]

text: An Adult Contemporary hit (No. 13) for Jimmy Buffett as recorded for his One Particular Harbour album (1983),[54] "Brown Eyed Girl" was a 1984 C&W hit for Joe Stampley (No. 29),[54] while a 1980 remake by the Good Brothers was a hit in Canada on both the Country and Adult Contemporary charts, with respective chart peaks of No. 15 and No. 2.

text: "Brown Eyed Girl" has been recorded and performed by many other prominent artists such as: Adele (2008),[55] Busted,[48] Everclear,[48] Johnny Rivers,[48] Bruce Springsteen, U2,[56] Bob Dylan,[48] Brian Kennedy,[57] Steel Pulse,[48] Roberto Jordan (Spanish version "La Chica De Los Ojos Cafes"), Lagwagon,[58] John Anderson,[59] The Black Sorrows,[48] Ronan Keating,[60] Reel Big Fish,[61] and Joe Camilleri.[48]


document_title: P.S. I Love You (1934 song)

question_text: who wrote the song ps i love you

question_tokens: who wrote the song ps i love you

text: P.S. I Love You (1934 song)

text: "P.S. I Love You" is a popular song. The music was written by Gordon Jenkins, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song was published in 1934.[1][2]

text: The original hit version in the 1930s was recorded by Rudy Vallée. It was revived in the 1950s by The Hilltoppers and in the 1960s by The Vogues, and again in 1984 by country music singer Tom T. Hall. A number of other versions have also been recorded.

text: Recorded versions[edit]

text:
The Angels released a version in 1960 while they were still called The Starlets.  The version went to #106 in the U.S.
Rosemary Clooney - Rosemary Clooney Sings the Lyrics of Johnny Mercer (1988)
Bing Crosby
James Darren - Gidget Goes Hawaiian / James Darren Sings Hollywood (1960)
Bob Dylan - Triplicate (2017)
The Four Vagabonds - Apollo 1057 (1947); reissued Lloyds 45-102 (1953)
Tom T. Hall
Lionel Hampton
The Hilltoppers
Don Burke and the Four Hits and a Miss with Gordon Jenkins and his orchestra
Billie Holiday recorded the song for Verve Records on September 3, 1954 in Los Angeles with Her Orchestra, consisting of Harry Edison on trumpet, Willie Smith on alto saxophone, Bobby Tucker on piano, Barney Kessel on guitar, Red Callender on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums.  The song is featured on the 1999 reissue of Lady Sings the Blues.[3]
Bent Jædig
Diana Krall
Nancy LaMott
Ketty Lester - Love Letters (1962)
Anne Lloyd with Larry  Clinton Orchestra - Bell 1004 (1954)
Susannah McCorkle - Ballad Essentials (2002)
Nellie McKay for the 2007 P.S. I Love You film soundtrack
Bette Midler for the 1991 For the Boys film soundtrack
Frank Sinatra - Close to You (1957)
Kay Starr - I Cry By Night/Losers, Weepers (2003)
Lew Stone and His Band - Alan Kane, vocal - UK Decca F.5241 (1934)
Dodie Stevens
Mel Torme
Rudy Vallée and His Connecticut Yankees - Victor 24723 (1934)
Bobby Vinton
The Vogues


document_title: Elections in New York (state)

question_text: was new york a red or blue state

question_tokens: was new york a red or blue state

text: Elections in New York (state)

text: Electoral system[edit]

text: Electoral procedure[edit]

text: Primary elections are elections at which enrolled members of a party nominate party candidates for the general election and elect party officers.[2][3] New York uses closed primaries and only an enrolled member of a party can vote in its primaries.[3] The election district is the basic electoral administrative division, containing a maximum of 950 registered voters (although it may be as large as 1150 registered voters between redistricting) with boundaries determined by the local board of elections.[4][5]

text: The person for party nomination for public office who receives a plurality of the vote is nominated as the party candidate, although for New York City offices a person must receive at least 40% of the votes otherwise a runoff primary election between the top two designees is held.[3] The state central committee of a political party designates people for statewide public offices in the primary election by majority vote, but people who receive at least 25% of the committee votes may contest the primary, and people who receive less than 25% of the committee votes may contest the primary by collecting 25000 petition signatures with at least 100 signatories from each congressional district.[6]

text: The political party county executive committees in cities and towns and the party caucus in villages typically select candidates for local offices, with the local committees ratifying the selections.[5] In New York City, candidates for the citywide offices are designated jointly by the five county executive committees of each party, and a local political club (which is not an official party organization) may also play a major role in nomination and selection.[7][5] Judicial nominating conventions, composed of judicial delegates elected from assembly districts within the judicial district, nominate New York Supreme Court justices.[8] The designation of a person to contest a party nomination for public office, and the nomination of a person for a party office, at a primary election is by designating petition.[9]

text: General elections are held in November in even-numbered years for state offices, in November in odd-numbered years for city and town offices, and in March or June in odd-numbered years for villages offices (unless the village board selects a different date).[10]

text: New York is near unique among the states in that it allows electoral fusion (cross-endorsement), allowing two or more parties to nominate the same person for office.[1] Absentee ballots are allowed for voters who are away from their residence on election day, ill, or physically disabled.[11] The minimum age for suffrage is eighteen years old.[11] Individuals who have been convicted of a felony are disenfranchised while incarcerated or on parole; individuals on probation retain the right to vote.[12] Local boards of elections are required to hold voter registration between the sixth and fourth Saturday before a general election.[10] Voter registration at local boards of elections is closed for thirty days before a general election; voter registration at polling places begins thirty days after a general election, and for ten days before and five days after other elections.[10] Voter registration by mail is allowed.[11] Voters may choose to enroll in a political party during voter registration.[10]

text: Party system[edit]

text: Parties that received at least 50,000 votes in the last New York gubernatorial election qualify for "official" status and automatic statewide ballot access.[1] This also determines the order on the ballot. There are a number of minor parties in New York State which do not qualify for ballot status.

text: The Election Law defines the structure of political parties and requires each party to have county committees and a state committee.[13][5] The county committees are composed of at least two members elected from each election district, as well as two members elected from each assembly district within the county (district leaders).[14][5] In the five counties of New York City, the executive committees of the county committees are composed of the district leaders and other officers; outside New York City, the executive committees are composed of the chairmen of the local political committees (of each city, town, and village within the county, composed of county committee members from those localities) and other officers.[15] In principle, county committee members select the county committee chair, but in New York City the practice is that the district leaders control the choice.[16] Judicial nominating conventions, which nominate New York Supreme Court justices, are composed of judicial delegates elected from assembly districts within the judicial district.[8]

text: The state committees are in practice composed of members determined by county committee chairmen augmented by representatives of other constituency groups according to party bylaws.[17][16][18] In principle, a chairperson and executive committee are chosen by the state committee, although in practice a sitting governor of the party will effectively name the chairperson.[16][18] The state committee chairperson and executive committee select one man and one woman for the national committee, select at-large delegates and chairpersons for the national convention, select candidates for statewide offices, and conduct party activities.[18]

text: Reform[edit]

text: A 2005 study by the Grassroots Initiative found that in New York City more than 50% of committee membership was vacant and that 98% of committee member elections were uncontested.[16] In suburban and rural areas, informed observers estimate that at least one-third of committee membership is vacant.[16] New York's judicial conventions have also been criticized as opaque, brief, and dominated by county party leaders.[19]

text: State electoral history[edit]

text: Elected offices[edit]

text: The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Comptroller and the two U.S. Senators are now the only statewide elected officials. The first state election was held in June 1777, and the Governor and Lieutenant Governor were the only statewide elected officials. Besides them, the Assemblymen were elected in the counties, and the State Senators in the senatorial districts.

text: Until 1821 a state election was held annually, lasting three days, beginning on the last Monday in April. The Assembly was completely and the Senate partly renewed. Every three years, a Governor and a Lieutenant Governor were elected, all other state officials were appointed by the Council of Appointments. From 1822 to 1841, the state elections have been held lasting three days, beginning on the first Monday in November. The Governor and the Lieutenant Governor continued to be the only statewide elected officials. Since November 1842, the election has been held on a single day, the date fixed on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November[20] (the date thus ranging from November 2 to 8). In 1844, four Canal Commissioners were also elected statewide. In 1846, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and two Canal Commissioners were elected. All other statewide officials were elected by joint ballot of the state legislature .

text: The Constitution of 1846 made most of the state offices elective by popular ballot. From 1847 on, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Comptroller, State Treasurer, State Engineer, three Canal Commissioners, three Prison Inspectors, four judges and the Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals were elected statewide with different terms in office.

text: From 1870 on, a Chief Judge and six associate judges of the Court of Appeals were elected, and since then the Clerk of the Court of Appeals has been appointed by the Court. In 1876, the offices of Canal Commissioner and Inspector of State Prisons were abolished, and their successors were appointed by the governor. From 1914 on, the U.S. Senators from New York were elected statewide too. The offices of the Treasurer and the State Engineer were abolished in 1926. The office of Secretary of State became appointive by the Governor in 1927. Since 1938, the legislative term is two years for both state senators and assemblymen, so that state elections are held now only in even-numbered years. Until 1973, judges of the Court of Appeals were occasionally elected in odd-numbered years, and the judges of the New York Court of Appeals became appointed in 1978.

text: Party trends and geography[edit]

text: The balance of the parties was formerly less decided, with a large Democratic majority in populous New York City, Rochester and Buffalo, but Republican dominance in the upstate and the eastern part of Long Island. Historically, the only Democratic outpost in upstate New York was Albany. In recent years, with the political transformation of former Republican strongholds of Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Syracuse area, New York has grown more reliably Democratic. In particular, Westchester County currently has a Democratic county legislature for only the second time in a few decades.

text: Unlike most states, New York electoral law permits electoral fusion; thus New York ballots tend to show a larger number of parties. Some are permanent minor parties that seek to influence the major parties, while others are ephemeral parties formed to give major-party candidates an additional line on the ballot.

text: The total (active plus inactive) enrollment of the various parties in New York State is as follows, according to the New York State Board of Elections report of Enrollment by County dated April 1, 2016.[21] Percentages are of the total with a declared affiliation.

text:
Democratic: 5,792,497 (62.7%)
Republican: 2,731,688 (30.0%)
Conservative: 159,355 (1.7%)
Green: 26,271 (0.3%)
Working Families: 48,344 (0.5%)
Independence: 475,566 (5.1%)
Women's Equality 1,283 (0.0%)
Reform 377 (0.0%)
Other: 5,986 (0.1%)

text: Additionally, 2,485,475 persons were enrolled with no party affiliation.

text: Party balance in state legislatures[edit]

text: Democrats hold a 63-seat supermajority in the Assembly, whose current speaker is Carl Heastie. They have been in the majority since 1975 and for all but five years since 1959.

text: The Assembly has long been controlled by the Democrats, the Senate by the Republicans, and there was little change in membership in elections until those of 2008. As a result, decisions are taken when "three men in a room"—the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Governor—agree.[22] For many years the legislature was unable to pass legislation for which there was supposed to be a consensus, such as reforming the so-called Rockefeller drug laws.

text: The Republicans controlled the State Senate from 1939 until 2008, with the exception of a brief period in 1965. However, in 2008, the Democrats won a narrow two-seat majority in the State Senate. Malcolm Smith of Queens became the new Senate Majority Leader, and he also doubles as acting Lieutenant Governor by virtue of David Paterson ascending to the governorship. Smith replaced Paterson as leader of the Democrats in the State Senate upon Paterson's election as Lieutenant Governor. The Minority Leader is Dean Skelos of Nassau County. After a brief period in June and July 2009 in which Republicans regained control of the chamber, Democrats chose Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx who flipped to the Republicans as their new Majority Leader in order to regain control. John L. Sampson of Brooklyn became the Democratic conference leader, while Malcolm Smith retained his position as President Pro Tempore, and acting Lieutenant Governor.

text: While the Assembly's apportionment strongly favors New York City, Buffalo, Rochester and the Capital District, the Senate's apportionment strongly favors the more conservative Upstate. However, the Republicans have lost many Senate seats in recent years because of the aforementioned political realignments of the New York City suburbs, Long Island and Syracuse. Even when the Democrats won control of the State Senate in 2008, they only won five seats in the Upstate and two seats on Long Island.

text: Federal electoral history[edit]

text: New York State has voted Democratic in national elections since 1988. However, New York City has been the most important source of political fund-raising in the United States for both major parties. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the 2000 presidential campaigns of both George Bush and Al Gore. Republican Presidential candidates have often skipped campaigning in the state, taking it as a loss and focusing on vital swing states.

text: Many of the state's other urban areas, including Albany, Ithaca, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse are also Democratic. Upstate New York, especially in rural areas, is generally more conservative than the cities and historically tended to vote Republican, although Democrats have made dramatic gains upstate in recent elections, and today the region is much more evenly split. Heavily populated suburban areas such as Westchester County and Long Island have swung from reliably Republican to reliably Democratic in federal elections over the past 25 years, although local races there are still often tightly contested.

text: Democrats Al Smith, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and W. Averell Harriman served as governor, as did Republicans Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller, who was elected four times. Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt was Governor of New York before being elected Vice President in 1900.

text: Congressional delegation[edit]

text: New York's delegation to the US House of Representatives is composed mostly of Democrats. Republicans have not held a majority of New York US House seats since the 1950s. This is due almost entirely to the Democrats' near-total domination of local elections in New York City, which contains 13 of the state's 29 districts. Historically, Republicans had a chance to win three NYC districts. However, aside from Staten Island, Republican candidates have not won any city district since the early 1990s.

text: With the defeats of Republican incumbents Sue Kelly and John Sweeney and a Democratic victory in the open seat of Sherwood Boehlert in 2006, New York sent 23 Democrats and six Republicans to the 110th Congress. Two years later, Randy Kuhl was unseated by Eric Massa in the 29th District, and Dan Maffei won the seat of retiring Jim Walsh in the Syracuse area. As a result, New York sent 26 Democrats and three Republicans to the 111th Congress. The number of Republicans is the fewest that have ever represented New York in the House, and only a fourth of the number New York sent to that body only a decade ago. In addition to holding every seat in New York City, Democrats hold all but one seat on Long Island, and hold every House seat in the Hudson Valley. However, in 2010, the Republicans reclaimed 6 seats. Five were in Upstate New York, and one was on Staten Island. They also came within a few hundred votes of unseating 1st district incumbent Tim Bishop of Suffolk County. In 2011, The Democrats won a special election in New York's 26th congressional district, which means that at every seat with the exception of the 3rd congressional district, has elected a Democratic representative at least once in the past ten years.[citation needed]

text: This recent Democratic dominance may be explained by the exodus of non-Hispanic white voters to other parts of the country, in addition to the large influx of predominately Hispanic minorities to the state.[23] With few exceptions, upstate New York and Long Island have historically been dominated by a moderate brand of Republicanism, similar to that of neighboring New England. Since the early 1990s, many voters in traditional Republican strongholds such as Long Island, Syracuse and the Hudson Valley have voted for Democratic candidates at the national level. In addition to New York City, Democrats have held a nearly unbreakable hold on local elections in Rochester, the Capital District and Buffalo.[citation needed] New York City, for instance, has not been carried by a Republican presidential candidate since 1924. The other three areas supported Republican presidential candidates during landslides.

text: U.S. Senators[edit]

text: Currently, New York is represented in the U.S. Senate by Chuck Schumer of Brooklyn and Kirsten Gillibrand of Columbia County, both Democrats.

text: Over the last five decades, New York has elected Democratic Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Robert F. Kennedy, and Hillary Clinton as well as Republican Senators Jacob K. Javits, Alfonse D'Amato and Conservative Senator James Buckley. New York politics have recently been dominated by downstate areas such as Westchester County, New York City and Long Island, where a majority of the state's population resides. Before the appointment of Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate in 2009, the most recent US Senator from upstate was Charles Goodell, appointed to fill out the remainder of Robert F. Kennedy's term, serving from 1968 to 1971. Goodell was from (Jamestown). Before the election of Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010, the last senator from upstate to be elected was Kenneth Keating of Rochester, in 1958.

text: Schumer's victory over Republican Alfonse D'Amato in 1998 gave the Democrats both of the state's Senate seats for the first time since 1947. In 2004, conservative Michael Benjamin battled with the New York Republican State Committee for a chance to run against Schumer, which decided in August 2004 there would be no primary and selected moderate Assemblyman Howard Mills as the Republican candidate.[24] Benjamin publicly accused New York GOP Chairman Sandy Treadwell and Governor George Pataki of trying to muscle him out of the Senate race and undermine the democratic process.[25] Many Republican voters were upset when Benjamin was denied the chance to engage in a primary.[26] Benjamin also had significant advantages over Mills in both fundraising and organization.[27] Schumer won the largest victory ever recorded for a candidate running statewide in New York against Mills, carrying all but one of the state's counties.

text: Many New York Republicans were irked again in 2006 when a similar situation unfolded as the state party decided to nominate Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro over conservative lawyer Ed Cox, even though Cox had raised over $1.3 million to Pirro's $400,000.[24] In 2006, Clinton won the third largest victory ever recorded statewide, carrying all but four counties. In both cases, Schumer and Clinton didn't face serious opposition.

text: New York's Democratic tilt also continued into 2010, even when Democrats were suffering heavy losses all around the country. Chuck Schumer easily defeated Jay Townsend to win a third term in the U.S. Senate with 66 percent of the vote. With both Senate seats up in New York, the media was more focused on the Class I seat because when Kirsten Gillibrand was first appointed in 2009, she initially looked very vulnerable due of her A+ rating from the NRA from when she was representing a rural upstate district. That rating was not well received by downstate residents when she was first appointed to the Senate.[28] Then Gillibrand immediately changed her position on the issue of gun control after she was appointed to satisfy the concerns from downstate residents. She then went on to win the special election easily with 62 percent of the vote in 2010. In 2012, Gillibrand was re-elected in a landslide with more than 72% of the vote, the highest statewide vote share ever received by a senatorial candidate in New York State.[29]

text: Presidential elections[edit]

text: In the past, New York was a powerful swing state, forcing presidential candidates to invest a large amount of money and time campaigning there. New York State gave small margins of victory to Democrats John F. Kennedy in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Michael Dukakis in 1988, as well as Republicans Herbert Hoover in 1928, Thomas Dewey in 1948 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. Until the 1970 United States Census, it had the most votes in the U.S. Electoral College. John Kerry won New York State by 18 percentage points in 2004, while Al Gore won by an even greater 25-point margin in New York State in 2000, giving Gore his second highest total in the nation. Bill Clinton twice scored his third best performance in New York in 1992 and 1996. In the 2008 presidential election Barack Obama carried New York with 62.9% of the vote, making it the third most Democratic state in that election, surpassed only by Hawaii and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia. In 2012, Obama carried New York by an even greater margin, taking 63.4% of the vote to Republican Mitt Romney's 35.2%, again making it the third most Democratic state in the nation. [30]

text: Today, although New York (along with Florida) is still the third largest prize in the Electoral College with 29 votes, it is usually considered an uncontested "blue state"—meaning that it is presumed safe for the Democrats. The last time a Republican made a serious effort in the state was George H.W. Bush in 1988. Since 1992, the national Republican Party has effectively ceded New York to the Democrats. In addition, despite having a Republican governor for 12 years, New York appears to have trended more Democratic.

text: Even in the days when New York was considered a swing state, it had a slight Democratic lean. It has only supported a Republican for president six times since the Great Depression—in 1948, 1952, 1956, 1972, 1980 and 1984. Republicans have to do reasonably well in Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester while holding down their deficits in New York City to have a realistic chance of carrying the state. New York has not voted Republican since Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election (53% - 45%).


document_title: Early Christian art and architecture

question_text: the name for a standard subject in christian art

text: Early Christian art and architecture

text: Symbols[edit]

text: During the persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire, Christian art was necessarily and deliberately furtive and ambiguous, using imagery that was shared with pagan culture but had a special meaning for Christians. The earliest surviving Christian art comes from the late 2nd to early 4th centuries on the walls of Christian tombs in the catacombs of Rome.  From literary evidence, there may well have been panel icons which, like almost all classical painting, have disappeared.  Initially Jesus was represented indirectly by pictogram symbols such as the Ichthys (fish), peacock, Lamb of God, or an anchor (the Labarum or Chi-Rho was a later development).  Later personified symbols were used, including Jonah, whose three days in the belly of the whale pre-figured the interval between the death and resurrection of Jesus, Daniel in the lion's den, or Orpheus' charming the animals. The image of "The Good Shepherd", a beardless youth in pastoral scenes collecting sheep, was the most common of these images, and was probably not understood as a portrait of the historical Jesus.[5] These images bear some resemblance to depictions of kouros figures in Greco-Roman art.  The "almost total absence from Christian monuments of the period of persecutions of the plain, unadorned cross" except in the disguised form of the anchor,[6] is notable.  The Cross, symbolizing Jesus' crucifixion on a cross, was not represented explicitly for several centuries, possibly because crucifixion was a punishment meted out to common criminals, but also because literary sources noted that it was a symbol recognised as specifically Christian, as the sign of the cross was made by Christians from very early on.

text: The popular conception that the Christian catacombs were "secret" or had to hide their affiliation is probably wrong; catacombs were large-scale commercial enterprises, usually sited just off major roads to the city, whose existence was well known.  The inexplicit symbolic nature of many early Christian visual motifs may have had a function of discretion in other contexts, but on tombs they probably reflect a lack of any other repertoire of Christian iconography.[7]

text: The dove is a symbol of peace and purity. It can be found with a halo or celestial light. In one of the earliest known Trinitarian images, "the Throne of God as a Trinitarian image" (a marble relief carved c. 400 CE in the collection of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), the dove represents the Spirit. It is flying above an empty throne representing God, in the throne are a chlamys (cloak) and diadem representing the Son.  The Chi-Rho monogram, XP, apparently first used by Constantine I, consists of the first two characters of the name 'Christos' in Greek.

text: Christian art before 313[edit]

text: A general assumption that Early Christianity was generally aniconic, opposed to religious imagery in both theory and practice until about 200, has been challenged by Paul Corby Finney's analysis of Early Christian writing and material remains (1994).  This distinguishes three different sources of attitudes affecting Early Christians on the issue: "first that humans could have a direct vision of God; second that they could not; and, third, that although humans could see God they were best advised not to look, and were strictly forbidden to represent what they had seen".  These derived respectively from Greek and Near Eastern pagan religions, from Ancient Greek philosophy, and from the Jewish tradition and the Old Testament. Of the three, Finney concludes that "overall, Israel's aversion to sacred images influenced early Christianity considerably less than the Greek philosophical tradition of invisible deity apophatically defined", so placing less emphasis on the Jewish background of most of the first Christians than most traditional accounts.[8]  Finney suggests that "the reasons for the non-appearance of Christian art before 200 have nothing to do with principled aversion to art, with other-worldliness, or with anti-materialism. The truth is simple and mundane: Christians lacked land and capital. Art requires both. As soon as they began to acquire land and capital, Christians began to experiment with their own distinctive forms of art".[9]

text: In the Dura-Europos church, of about 230–256, which is in the best condition of the surviving very early churches, there are frescos of biblical scenes including a figure of Jesus, as well as Christ as the Good Shepherd.  The building was a normal house apparently converted to use as a church.[10] The earliest Christian paintings in the Catacombs of Rome are from a few decades before, and these represent the largest body of examples of Christian art from the pre-Constantinian period, with hundreds of examples decorating tombs or family tomb-chambers. Many are simple symbols, but there are numerous figure paintings either showing orants or female praying figures, usually representing the deceased person, or figures or shorthand scenes from the bible or Christian history.

text: The style of the catacomb paintings, and the entirety of many decorative elements, are effectively identical to those of the catacombs of other religious groups, whether conventional pagans following Ancient Roman religion, or Jews or followers of the Roman mystery religions.  The quality of the painting is low compared to the large houses of the rich, which provide the other main corpus of painting surviving from the period, but the shorthand depiction of figures can have an expressive charm.[11]  A similar situation applies at Dura-Europos, where the decoration of the church is comparable in style and quality to that of the (larger and more lavishly painted) Dura-Europos synagogue and the Temple of Bel. At least in such smaller places, it seems that the available artists were used by all religious groups. It may also have been the case that the painted chambers in the cattacombs were decorated in similar style to the best rooms of the homes of the better-off families buried in them,  with Christian scenes and symbols replacing those from mythology, literature, paganism and eroticism, although we lack the evidence to confirm this.[12]  We do have the same scenes on small pieces in media such as pottery or glass,[13] though less often from this pre-Constantinian period.

text: There was a preference for what are sometimes called "abbreviated" representations, small groups of say one to four figures forming a single motif which could be easily recognised as representing a particular incident. These vignettes fitted the Roman style of room decoration, set in compartments in a scheme with a geometrical structure (see gallery below).[14]  Biblical scenes of figures rescued from mortal danger were very popular; these represented both the Resurrection of Jesus, through typology, and the salvation of the soul of the deceased. Jonah and the whale,[15] the Sacrifice of Isaac, Noah praying in the Ark (represented as an orant in a large box, perhaps with a dove carrying a branch), Moses striking the rock, Daniel in the lion's den and the Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace ([Daniel 3:10–30]) were all favourites, that could be easily depicted.[16]

text: Early Christian sarcophagi were a much more expensive option, made of marble and often heavily decorated with scenes in very high relief, worked with drills. Free-standing statues that are unmistakably Christian are very rare, and never very large, as more common subjects such as the Good Shepherd were symbols appealing to several religious and philosophical groups, including Christians, and without context no affiliation can be given to them.  Typically sculptures, where they appear, are of rather high quality. One exceptional group that seems clearly Christian is known as the Cleveland Statuettes of Jonah and the Whale,[17] and consists of a group of small statuettes of about 270, including two busts of a young and fashionably dressed couple, from an unknown find-spot, possibly in modern Turkey.  The other figures tell the story of Jonah in four pieces, with a Good Shepherd; how they were displayed remains mysterious.[18]

text: The depiction of Jesus was well-developed by the end of the pre-Constantinian period. He was typically shown in narrative scenes, with a preference for New Testament miracles, and few of scenes from his Passion.  A variety of different types of appearance were used, including the thin long-faced figure with long centrally-parted hair that was later to become the norm. But in the earliest images as many show a stocky and short-haired beardless figure in a short tunic, who can only be identified by his context. In many images of miracles Jesus carries a stick or wand, which he points at the subject of the miracle rather like a modern stage magician (though the wand is a good deal larger).

text: Saints are fairly often seen, with Peter and Paul, both martyred in Rome, by some way the most common in the catacombs there. Both already have their distinctive appearances, retained throughout the history of Christian art. Other saints may not be identifiable unless labelled with an inscription.  In the same way some images may represent either the Last Supper or a contemporary agape feast.

text:
The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace ([Daniel 3:10–30]), catacomb of Priscilla[19]

Moses striking the rock in the desert, a prototype of baptism[20]

3rd century cover for catacomb burial, engraved with the Adoration of the Magi (cast shown)

Catacomb chamber with (from top): Orants, Jonah and the Whale, Moses striking the rock (left), Noah praying in the ark, Adoration of the Magi. 200–250

text: Christian architecture after 313[edit]

text: In the 4th century, the rapidly growing Christian population, now supported by the state, needed to build larger and grander public buildings for worship than the mostly discreet meeting places they had been using, which were typically in or among domestic buildings. Pagan temples remained in use for their original purposes for some time and, at least in Rome, even when deserted were shunned by Christians until the 6th or 7th centuries, when some were converted to churches.[21] Elsewhere this happened sooner.  Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable, not simply for their pagan associations, but because pagan cult and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, as a windowless backdrop.

text: The usable model at hand, when Emperor Constantine I wanted to memorialize his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilica.  There were several variations of the basic plan of the secular basilica, always some kind of rectangular hall, but the one usually followed for churches had a center nave with one aisle at each side, and an apse at one end opposite to the main door at the other. In, and often also in front of, the apse was a raised platform, where the altar was placed and the clergy officiated.  In secular buildings this plan was more typically used for the smaller audience halls of the emperors, governors, and the very rich than for the great public basilicas functioning as law courts and other public purposes.[22]  This was the normal pattern used for Roman churches, and generally in the Western Empire, but the Eastern Empire, and Roman Africa, were more adventurous, and their models were sometimes copied in the West, for example in Milan.  All variations allowed natural light from windows high in the walls, a departure from the windowless sanctuaries of the temples of most previous religions, and this has remained a consistent feature of Christian church architecture. Formulas giving churches with a large central area were to become preferred in Byzantine architecture, which developed styles of basilica with a dome early on.[23]

text: A particular and short-lived type of building, using the same basilican form, was the funerary hall, which was not a normal church, though the surviving examples long ago became regular churches, and they always offered funeral and memorial services, but a building erected in the Constantinian period as an indoor cemetery on a site connected with early Christian martyrs, such as a catacomb.  The six examples built by Constantine outside the walls of Rome are: Old Saint Peter's Basilica, the older basilica dedicated to Saint Agnes of which Santa Costanza is now the only remaining element, San Sebastiano fuori le mura, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano, and one in the modern park of Villa Gordiani.[24]

text: A martyrium was a building erected on a spot with particular significance, often over the burial of a martyr. No particular architectural form was associated with the type, and they were often small. Many became churches, or chapels in larger churches erected adjoining them.  With baptistries and mausolea, their often smaller size and different function made martyria suitable for architectural experimentation.[25]

text: Among the key buildings, not all surviving in their original form, are:

text:
Constantinian Basilicas:
St. John Lateran
St Mary Major
Old Saint Peter's Basilica
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Nativity
Centralized Plan
Santa Constanza, built as an Imperial mausoleum adjoining a funerary hall, part of the wall of which survives.[26]
See also: Early Christendom in Church architecture

text: Christian art after 313[edit]

text: With the final legalization of Christianity, the existing styles of Christian art continued to develop, and take on a more monumental and iconic character.  Before long very large Christian churches began to be constructed, and the majority of the rich elite adapted Christianity, and public and elite Christian art became grander to suit the new spaces and clients.

text: Although borrowings of motifs such as the Virgin and Child from pagan religious art had been pointed out as far back as the Protestant Reformation, when John Calvin and his followers gleefully used them as a stick with which to beat all Christian art, the belief of André Grabar, Andreas Alföldi, Ernst Kantorowicz and other early 20th-century art historians that Roman Imperial imagery was a much more significant influence "has become universally accepted".  A book by Thomas F. Mathews in 1994 attempted to overturn this thesis, very largely denying influence from Imperial iconography in favour of a range of other secular and religious influence, but was roughly handled by academic reviewers.[27]

text: More complex and expensive works are seen, as the wealthy gradually converted, and more theological complexity appears, as Christianity became subject to acrimonious doctrinal disputes. At the same time a very different type of art is found in the new public churches that were now being constructed.  Somewhat by accident, the best group of survivals of these is from Rome where, together with Constantinople and Jesusalem, they were presumably at their most magnificent. Mosaic now becomes important; fortunately this survives far better than fresco, although it is vulnerable to well-meaning restoration and repair. It seems to have been an innovation of early Christian churches to put mosaics on the wall and use them for sacred subjects; previously the technique had essentially been used for floors and walls in gardens.  By the end of the period the style of gold background had developed that continued to characterize Byzantine images, and many Early Medieval Western ones.

text: With more space, narrative images containing many people develop in churches, and also begin to be seen in later catacomb paintings. Continuous rows of biblical scenes appear (rather high up) along the side walls of churches. The best-preserved 5th century examples are the set of Old Testament scenes along the nave walls of  Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.  These can be compared to the paintings of Dura-Europos, and probably also derive from a lost tradition of both Jewish and Christian illustrated manuscripts, as well as more general Roman precedents.[28]  The large apses contain images in an iconic style, which gradually developed to centre on a large figure, or later just the bust, of Christ, or later of the Virgin Mary. The earliest apses show a range of compositions that are new symbolic images of the Christian life and the Church.

text: No panel paintings, or "icons" from before the 6th century have survived in anything like an original condition, but they were clearly produced, and becoming more important throughout this period.

text: Sculpture, all much smaller than lifesize, has survived in better quantities.  The most famous of a considerable number of surviving Early Christian sarcophagi are perhaps the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus and Dogmatic sarcophagus of the 4th century.  A number of ivory carvings have survived, including the complex late 5th century Brescia Casket, probably a product of Saint Ambrose's episcopate in Milan, then the seat of the Imperial court, and the 6th century Throne of Maximian from the Byzantine Italian capital of Ravenna.

text:
Manuscripts
Quedlinburg Itala fragment – 5th-century Old Testament
Vienna Genesis
Rossano Gospels
Cotton Genesis
Late Antique mosaics in Italy and Early Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East.

text: Gold glass[edit]

text: Gold sandwich glass or gold glass was a technique for fixing a layer of gold leaf with a design between two fused layers of glass, developed in Hellenistic glass and revived in the 3rd century.  There are a very fewer larger designs, but the great majority of the around 500 survivals are roundels that are the cut-off bottoms of wine cups or glasses used to mark and decorate graves in the Catacombs of Rome by pressing them into the mortar. The great majority are 4th century, extending into the 5th century. Most are Christian, but many pagan and a few Jewish, and had probably originally been given as gifts on marriage, or festive occasions such as New Year.  Their iconography has been much studied, although artistically they are relatively unsophisticated.[29]  Their subjects are similar to the catacomb paintings, but with a difference balance including more portraiture of the deceased (usually, it is presumed).  The progression to an increased number of images of saints can be seen in them.[30]  The same technique began to be used for gold tesserae for mosaics in the mid-1st century in Rome, and by the 5th century these had become the standard background for religious mosaics.