New York City

New York—often called New York City or the City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part—is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York metropolitan area, the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. A global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world.

Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a separate county of New York State. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 8,491,079 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km²), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. By 2014 census estimates, the New York City metropolitan region remains by a significant margin the most populous in the United States, as defined by both the Metropolitan Statistical Area (20.1 million residents) and the Combined Statistical Area (23.6 million residents). In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of nearly US$1.39 trillion, while in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion, both ranking first nationally by a wide margin and behind the GDP of only twelve and eleven countries, respectively.

4NYC

4NYC is an album by Jordan Rudess which was recorded live September 24, 2001 and released September 10, 2002.

The album came about as part of Rudess's reaction to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In an effort to raise money for the American Red Cross and to help ease the pain associated with the great loss he and the people of New York felt, he and his wife organized a benefit concert. The tracks comprise performances from that concert and improvisations done in Rudess's studio the following week.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Jordan Rudess. 

*Performed at the Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center, Nyack, New York, September 24, 2001. All other tracks are studio recordings.

Personnel

826NYC

826NYC is a nonprofit organization located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It provides free after-school tutoring, workshops, in-schools tutoring, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications. Drawing from a volunteer base of over 2,000, which includes many teachers, writers and journalism professionals, 826NYC unites students with tutors. It is a chapter of 826 National.

Facade

826NYC is located in a "secret lair" behind The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, a store similar in eccentricity to 826 Valencia’s storefront pirate shop, and which sells capes, grappling hooks, utility belts (new and vintage), masks, tights, deflector bracelets, bottles of chaos and anti-gravity, secret identity kits, and more. Visitors to the store can try out capes for free in a cape-testing wind tunnel (essentially a series of fans on a pedestal). The store sells new and back issues of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Wholphin, and other McSweeney's publications. The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. also carries a complete stock of publications written and edited by students at 826NYC including Trapped: The Encyclopedia of Escape, Sonny Paine, and issues 1 and 2 of The 826NYC Review. The store front is literally a front for the charitable organization, with all sales going to the organization. The store employs volunteers.

Radio (Darius Rucker song)

"Radio" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Darius Rucker. It was released on July 22, 2013 as the third single from his album True Believers. Rucker wrote the song with Luke Laird and Ashley Gorley.

Content

The song is a reflection on the narrator's teenage years: specifically, of borrowing his mother's car to take his girlfriend for a ride, and listening to songs on the radio while doing so.

Critical reception

The song generally received favorable reviews. Bobby Peacock of Roughstock gave the song four and a half stars out of five, saying that "it sounds like the kind of fun song you would want to hear on the radio at a memorable moment." Peacock praised Rucker's "all-smiles delivery" and the song's "incredibly catchy melody and tight production." He also compared its theme to "I Watched It All (On My Radio)" by Lionel Cartwright. Tammy Ragusa of Country Weekly gave the song an A grade, calling it "the perfect marriage of an artist’s effervescent personality with an upbeat song, this one about the love of music." Billy Dukes of Taste of Country gave the song two and a half stars out of five, writing that "the uptempo tribute to young love, open roads and, of course, the radio is familiar and easy to fall for, especially when powered by Rucker’s unequaled exuberance." However, Dukes also called the song "a little fluffy" and "not difficult to forget."

X-Dream

X-Dream are Marcus Christopher Maichel (born May 1968) and Jan Müller (born February 1970); they are also known as Rough and Rush. They are some of the cult hit producers of psychedelic trance music and hail from Hamburg, Germany.

The latest X-Dream album, We Interface, includes vocals from American singer Ariel Electron.

First work

Muller was educated as a sound engineer. Maichel was a musician familiar with techno and reggae, and was already making electronic music in 1986. In 1989 the pair first met when Marcus was having problems with his PC and someone sent Jan to help fix it. That same year they teamed up to work on a session together. Their first work concentrated on a sound similar to techno with some hip hop elements which got some material released on Tunnel Records.

Trance

During the early 1990s they were first introduced to the trance scene in Hamburg and decided to switch their music to this genre. From 1993 they began releasing several singles on the Hamburg label Tunnel Records, as X-Dream and under many aliases, such as The Pollinator. Two albums followed on Tunnel Records, Trip To Trancesylvania and We Created Our Own Happiness, which were much closer to the original formula of psychedelic trance, although featuring the unmistakable "trippy" early X-Dream sound.

Radioactive (Yelawolf album)

Radioactive (also known as Radioactive: Amazing and Mystifying Chemical Tricks) is the debut studio album by American rapper Yelawolf; it was released on November 21, 2011, by Shady Records and Interscope Records.

Recording

Recording sessions took place at Las Vegas Valley, Nevada in two weeks.

Music composition, style, and lyrics

Radioactive covers many different styles of hip hop fusions, being alternative hip hop as principal musical genre. Hardcore hip hop is represented on the tracks "Radioactive Introduction", "Throw It Up", "Get Away", and "Slumerican Shitizen". A horrorcore rap style is used in "Growin' Up in the Gutter", whereas "Hard White (Up in the Club)" is a crunk party track. "Let's Roll", "Write Your Name", and "Radio" follow a pop rap style, with catchy hooks and beats. "Animal" is a fast-paced hip hop party track with a dubstep influenced beat. "Good Girl" utilizes an R&B-tinged feel, while "The Hardest Love Song in the World" is a g-funk hip hop track. Yelawolf covers a variety of lyrical themes in these album, from gangsta rap lyrics in "Get Away" and "Throw It Up", to more conscious and slightly political tracks such as "Made in the USA", "Slumerican Shitizen", "Write Your Name", and "The Last Song". "Radio" is about the internet taking over how music and music videos are received by fans. It also refers to radio stations playing the same songs constantly and singers being discovered via the internet. The song contains several references to rock and rap artists and their songs from the past. The album's final track, titled "The Last Song" described as very personal about Yelawolf's life, and it's a very emotional final letter to his absent biological father and talks about other past struggles.