Ernest Nagel (November 16, 1901 – September 20, 1985) was a Czech-American philosopher of science. Along with Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach, and Carl Hempel, he is sometimes seen as one of the major figures of the logical positivist movement.

Nagel was born in Nové Mesto nad Váhom (now in Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). His mother, Frida Weiss, was from the nearby town of Vrbove (or Verbo). He emigrated to the United States at the age of 10 with his family, and became a U.S. citizen in 1919. He received a BSc from the City College of New York in 1923, and earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1931, with a dissertation on the concept of measurement. Except for one year (1966-1967) at Rockefeller University, he spent his entire academic career at Columbia, becoming a University Professor in 1967 until his retirement in 1970, after which he continued to teach. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977.

His work concerned the philosophy of mathematical fields such as geometry and probability, quantum mechanics, and the status of reductive and inductive theories of science. His 1961 masterpiece, ''The Structure of Science'', practically inaugurated the field of analytic philosophy of science. He expounded the different kinds of explanation in different fields, and was sceptical about attempts to unify the nature of scientific laws or explanations. He was the first to propose that by positing analytic equivalencies (or "bridge laws") between the terms of different sciences, one could eliminate all ontological commitments except those required by the most basic science. He also upheld the view that social sciences are scientific, and should adopt the same standards as natural sciences.

Nagel wrote ''An Introduction to Logic and the Scientific Method'' with Morris Raphael Cohen, his CCNY teacher in 1934. In 1958, he published with James R. Newman ''Gödel's proof'', a short book explicating Gödel's incompleteness theorems to those not well trained in mathematical logic. He edited the ''Journal of Philosophy'' (1939–1956) and the ''Journal of Symbolic Logic'' (1940-1946).

He died in New York. He had two sons, Alexander Nagel (professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin) and Sidney Nagel (professor of physics at the University of Chicago).

Books

An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method (with M. R. Cohen, 1934)

The Formation of Modern Conceptions of Formal Logic in the Development of Geometry (1939)

Principles of the Theory of Probability (1939)

The Logic of Measurement

The Meaning of Reduction in the Natural Sciences (1949)

Sovereign Reason (1954)

Logic without Metaphysics (1957)

Gödel’s Proof (with J. R. Newman, 1958)

The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation (1961)

Observation and Theory in Science (with others, 1971)

Teleology Revisited and Other Essays in the Philosophy and History of Science (1979)

References

''American National Biography Online'', accessed 1 February 2010

Category:1901 births Category:1985 deaths Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Philosophers of science Category:People from Prague Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Czech Jews Category:American people of Czech descent Category:Jewish philosophers

ca:Ernest Nagel cs:Ernest Nagel de:Ernest Nagel es:Ernest Nagel fr:Ernest Nagel is:Ernest Nagel nl:Ernest Nagel pl:Ernest Nagel ro:Ernest Nagel ru:Нагель, Эрнест sk:Ernest Nagel fi:Ernest Nagel

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Willie Nelson
alias	Red Headed Stranger Dr. Booger
alt	A red Headed man with white beard smiling. He wears a red bandanna, a black shirt and a red, white and blue guitar strap.
background	solo_singer
birth name	Willie Hugh Nelson
born	April 30, 1933Abbott, TexasUnited States
instrument	Vocals, guitar
genre	Country, country rock, outlaw country, alternative country
occupation	MusicianSongwriterProducerActorActivist
years active	1956–present
label	Liberty, RCA, Atlantic, Columbia, Island, Justice Records, Lost Highway
associated acts	Waylon Jennings, The Highwaymen, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson
website	www.willienelson.com
notable instruments	"Trigger" (Martin N-20) 200px|altA signature penned in black inkSignature of Willie Nelson }}

Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 30, 1933) is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and ''Stardust'' (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed at the end of the 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

Born during the Great Depression, and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the ''Bohemian Fiddlers'' as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote "Family Bible" and recorded the song "Lumberjack" in 1956. In 1960, he signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy". In 1962, he recorded his first album, ''And Then I Wrote''. Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits during the end of 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, and the failure to succeed in music, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas. The rise of the popularity of Hippie music in Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as ''Shotgun Willie'' and ''Phases and Stages''. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album, ''Red Headed Stranger''. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, ''Wanted! The Outlaws'', which he recorded with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. During the mid 1980s, while creating hit albums like ''Honeysuckle Rose'' and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", and "Pancho & Lefty", he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. During 1990 Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, that claimed that he owed US $32,000,000. It was later discovered that his accountants, Price Waterhouse did not pay Nelson's taxes for years. The impossibility of Nelson to pay his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments made by him during the 1980s. Nelson released in 1991 ''The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?'', the profits of the double album, destined to the IRS and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt by 1993. During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. Nelson explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk. Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film, ''The Electric Horseman'', followed by other appearances in movies and on television.

Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which is in favor of marijuana legalization. On the environmental front, Nelson owns the bio-diesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil. Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the Advisory Board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.

Early life

Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas during the Great Depression on April 30, 1933 to Myrle Marie (née Greenhaw) and Ira Doyle Nelson. The Nelson family had moved from Arkansas in 1929, looking for work. Nelson's grandfather, William, worked as a blacksmith, while his father worked as a mechanic. His mother left soon after he was born, and his father remarried and moved away, leaving the grandparents, who both studied music at night via a mail-order course, to bring up Nelson and his sister Bobbie. Nelson's grandfather bought him a guitar when he was six, and taught him a few chords; and with his sister Bobbie he sang gospel songs in the local church. He wrote his first song when he was seven, and played the guitar for the local band ''Bohemian Polka'' at age nine. During the summer, like most of Abbott's inhabitants, the family picked cotton. As Nelson didn't like picking cotton, starting at age thirteen and continuing through high school, he earned money by singing in local dance halls, taverns, and honky tonks. Nelson was influenced musically during his childhood by Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Ernest Tubb, Django Reinhardt, Ray Price and Hank Snow.

Nelson attended Abbott High School where, as well as raising pigs for the Future Farmers of America organization, he was a halfback in the school football team, and also played basketball as a guard, and as a shortstop in baseball. While still at school he sang and played guitar in ''The Texans'', a band formed by his sister's husband, Bud Fletcher. After leaving school in 1950 he joined the United States Air Force for eight to nine months, then worked as a disc jockey at local radio stations. He had short stints with KHBR in Hillsboro, Texas and later with KBOP in Pleasanton, Texas. In 1952, he married Martha Matthews, and from 1954 to 1956 studied agriculture at Baylor University, where he joined the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, but dropped out to pursue success in music.

Music career

Beginnings (1956–1972)

In 1956, Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington to begin his formal musical career. His first record, "No Place For Me" included Leon Payne's "Lumberjack" on the b-side, but was not successful. Nelson continued working as a radio announcer and singing in Vancouver clubs. He sold the song "Family Bible" for US$50 to a guitar instructor, and the song turned into a hit for Claude Gray in 1960. Nelson moved to Nashville in 1960, but no label signed him. Although most of his demos were rejected, thanks to his songwriting and Hank Cochran's help, he signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music. After Ray Price recorded Nelson's "Night Life", Nelson joined Price's touring band as a bass player. While playing with Price and the ''Cherokee Cowboys'', Nelson's songs became hits for other artists, including "Funny How Time Slips Away" (Billy Walker), "Hello Walls" (Faron Young), "Pretty Paper" (Roy Orbison), and, most famously, "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), Unfortunately, further hit singles eluded him. Nelson's tenure at Liberty yielded his first album entitled ''And Then I Wrote'', released in September 1962. Fred Foster of Monument Records signed Nelson in early 1964, but only one single saw the light of day – the excellent but non-charting "I Never Cared For You." After Nelson became a megastar, he aided Foster and his old label by participating in ''The Winning Hand'' in 1982, a double album largely consisting of unreleased tracks (although many were overdubbed with new vocals and instrumentation) with Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, and Brenda Lee. In fact, "Everything's Beautiful (In Its Own Way)," a duet with Parton, became a Top Ten hit.

By the fall of 1964, Nelson had moved to RCA Victor Records at the behest of Chet Atkins, signing a contract for US $10,000 per year. ''Country Willie – His Own Songs'' became Nelson's first RCA album, recorded in April 1965. That same year he joined the Grand Ole Opry. During his first few years on RCA, Nelson had no significant hits, but from November 1966 through March 1969, his singles reached the Top 25 in a consistent manner. "One In a Row" (#19, 1966), "The Party's Over" (#24 during a 16-week chart run in 1967), and his cover of Morecambe & Wise's "Bring Me Sunshine" (#13, March 1969) were Nelson's best-selling records during his time with RCA. After recording his final RCA single – "Mountain Dew" (backed with "Phases, Stages, Circles, Cycles and Scenes") in late April 1972, RCA requested that Nelson renew his contract ahead of schedule, with the implication that RCA would not release his latest recordings if he did not. He signed Neil Rashen as his manager to negotiate with the label, who got RCA to agree to end Nelson's contract upon repayment of US$14,000. During those proceedings, Nelson decided to move to Austin, Texas and take a short break. Austin's burgeoning hippie music scene (see Armadillo World Headquarters) rejuvenated the singer. His popularity in Austin soared as he played his own brand of country music marked by country, folk and jazz influences. Rashen eventually signed Nelson to Atlantic Records for US$25,000 per year, becoming the label's first country artist. By February 1973, Nelson was recording his acclaimed ''Shotgun Willie'' at Atlantic Studios in New York City.

Outlaw country and success (1973–1989)

''Shotgun Willie'', released in May 1973, earned excellent reviews but did not sell well. The album led Nelson to a new style, later stating that ''Shotgun Willie'' had "cleared his throat". His next album, ''Phases and Stages'', released in 1974, was a concept album about a couple's divorce, inspired by his own experience. Side one of the record is from the viewpoint of the man, while the other side is from the viewpoint of the woman. The album included the hit single "Bloody Mary Morning" and a duet of "After the Fire is Gone" with Tracy Nelson. Nelson then moved to Columbia Records, where he signed a contract that gave him complete creative control, made possible by the critical and commercial success of his previous albums. The result was the critically acclaimed, and massively popular 1975 concept album ''Red Headed Stranger''. Although Columbia was reluctant to release an album with primarily a guitar and piano for accompaniment, Nelson and Waylon Jennings insisted. The album included a cover of Fred Rose's 1945 song "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", that had been released as a single previous to the album, and became Nelson's first number one hit as a singer.

As Jennings was also achieving success in country music in the early 1970s, the pair were combined into a genre called outlaw country, since it did not conform to Nashville standards. The album ''Wanted! The Outlaws'' in 1976 with Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser cemented the pair's outlaw image and became country music's first platinum album. Later that year Nelson released ''The Sound in Your Mind'' (certified gold in 1978 and platinum in 2001) and his first gospel album ''Troublemaker'' (certified gold in 1986). In 1978, Nelson released two more platinum albums, ''Waylon & Willie'', a collaboration with Jennings that included "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys", a hit single written and performed by Ed Bruce. His next album, ''Stardust'', an album of standards from the American songbook, was produced by Booker T. Jones. Though observers predicted that ''Stardust'' would ruin his career, it went platinum the same year. Nelson continued to top the charts with hit songs during the late 1970s, including "Good Hearted Woman", "Remember Me", "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time" and "Uncloudy Day".

During the 1980s Nelson recorded a series of hit singles including "Midnight Rider", a 1980 cover of the Allman Brothers song which Nelson recorded for ''The Electric Horseman'', the soundtrack "On the Road Again" from the movie ''Honeysuckle Rose'', and a duet with Julio Iglesias titled "To All the Girls I've Loved Before". ''Pancho & Lefty'', a duet album with Merle Haggard, and ''WWII'', with Jennings, came out in 1982, while ''Take it to the Limit'' was released in 1983, also with Jennings.

In the mid-1980s, Nelson, Jennings, Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash formed The Highwaymen, who achieved platinum record sales and toured the world. Meanwhile, he became more involved with charity work, such as singing on ''We are the World'' in 1984. In 1985, Nelson had another success with ''Half Nelson'', a compilation album of duets with a range of artists such as Ray Charles and Neil Young. In 1980, Nelson performed on the south lawn of the White House. The September 13 concert featured First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Nelson in a duet of Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother". Nelson frequently visited the White House according to his biography, ''Willie Nelson: An Epic Life'', where he smoked marijuana on the White House roof.

IRS and later career (1990–present)

In 1990, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seized most of Nelson's assets, claiming that he owed US$32,000,000. It was later discovered that his accountants, Price Waterhouse, had not been paying Nelson's taxes for years. In addition to the unpaid taxes, Nelson's situation was worsened by the weak investments he had made during the early 1980s. Nelson's attorney negotiated a settlement with the IRS in which he paid US$6,000,000, although Nelson did not comply with the agreement. Nelson released ''The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?'' as a double album, with all profits destined for the IRS. Many of his assets were auctioned and purchased by friends, who donated or rented his possessions to him for a nominal fee. He sued Price Waterhouse, contending that they put him in illegal tax shelters. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount and Nelson cleared his debts by 1993.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson toured continuously, recording several albums including 1998's critically acclaimed ''Teatro'', and performed and recorded with other acts including Phish, Johnny Cash, and Toby Keith. His duet with Keith, "Beer for My Horses", was released as a single and topped the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts for six consecutive weeks in 2003, while the accompanying video won an award for "Best Video" at the 2004 Academy of Country Music Awards. A USA Network television special celebrated Nelson's 70th birthday, and Nelson released ''The Essential Willie Nelson'' as part of the celebration.

Nelson headlined the 2005 Tsunami Relief Austin to Asia concert to benefit the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which raised an estimated US$75,000 for UNICEF. Nelson's 2007 performance with jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis at the Lincoln Center, was released as the live album ''Two Men with the Blues'' in 2008; reaching number one in ''Billboard's'' Top Jazz Albums and number twenty on the ''Billboard 200''. In 2009 Nelson and Marsalis joined with Norah Jones in a tribute concert to Ray Charles, which resulted in the ''Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles'' album, released in 2011. In 2010, Nelson released ''Country Music'', a compilation of standards produced by T-Bone Burnett. The album peaked number four in ''Billboard's'' Top Country Albums, and twenty on the ''Billboard 200''. It was nominated for ''Best Americana Album'' in the 2011 Grammy Awards. In 2011 Nelson participated in the concert ''Kokua For Japan'', a fundraising event for the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan which raised US$1.6 million.

Music style

Nelson uses a variety of music styles to create his own distinctive blend of country music – a hybrid of jazz, pop, blues, rock and folk. His "unique sound", which uses a "relaxed, behind-the-beat singing style and gut-string guitar", and his "nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing", has been responsible for his wide appeal, and has made him a "vital icon in country music", influencing the "new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the '80s and '90s".

Guitars

In 1969, the Baldwin company gave Nelson an amplifier and a three-cord pickup electric guitar, that Nelson played with such intensity he broke it. He sent it to be repaired in Nashville by Shot Jackson, who told Nelson that the damage was too great. Jackson offered him a Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic and, at Nelson's request, moved the pickup to the Martin. Nelson purchased the guitar unseen for US$750 and named it after Roy Rogers' horse "Trigger". The next year Nelson rescued the guitar from his burning ranch.

Constant strumming with a guitar pick over the decades has worn a large sweeping hole into the guitar's body near the sound hole—the N-20 has no pick-guard since classical guitars are meant to be played fingerstyle instead of with picks. Its soundboard has been signed by over a hundred of Nelson's friends and associates, ranging from fellow musicians to lawyers and football coaches. In 1991, during his process with the IRS, Nelson was worried that Trigger could be auctioned off, stating: "When Trigger goes, I'll quit". He asked his daughter, Lana, to take the guitar from the studio before any IRS agent got there, and bring it to him on Maui. Nelson then hid the guitar in his manager's house until his debt was paid in 1993.

Activism

Nelson is active in a number of issues. Along with Neil Young and John Mellencamp, he set up Farm Aid in 1985 to assist and increase awareness of the importance of family farms, after Bob Dylan's comments during the Live Aid concert that he hoped some of the money would help American farmers in danger of losing their farms through mortgage debt. The first concert included Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, and Neil Young among many others, and raised over $9 million for America's family farmers. Besides organizing and performing in the annual concerts, Nelson is the president of the board of Farm Aid.

Nelson is a co-chair of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) advisory board. He has worked with NORML for years, fighting for marijuana legalization. In 2005 Nelson and his family hosted the first annual "Willie Nelson & NORML Benefit Golf Tournament", leading to a cover appearance and inside interview in the January 2008 issue of ''High Times'' magazine. After his arrest for possession in 2010, Nelson created the Tea Pot party under the motto "Tax it, regulate it and legalize it!".

Nelson supported Dennis Kucinich's campaign in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. He raised money, appeared at events, and composed the song "Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?", criticizing the war in Iraq. He recorded a radio advertisement asking for support to put musician/author Kinky Friedman on the ballot as an independent candidate for the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election. Friedman promised Nelson a job in Austin as the head of a new Texas Energy Commission due to his support of bio-fuels. In January 2008, Nelson filed a suit against the Texas Democratic Party, alleging that the party violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution by refusing to allow co-plaintiff Kucinich to appear on the primary ballot because he had scratched out part of the loyalty oath on his application.

In 2004, he and his wife Annie became partners with Bob and Kelly King in the building of two Pacific Bio-diesel plants, one in Salem, Oregon and the other at Carl's Corner, Texas (the Texas plant was founded by Carl Cornelius, a longtime Nelson friend and the namesake for Carl's Corner). In 2005, Nelson and several other business partners formed Willie Nelson Biodiesel ("Bio-Willie"), a company that is marketing bio-diesel bio-fuel to truck stops. The fuel is made from vegetable oil (mainly soybean oil), and can be burned without modification in diesel engines.

Nelson is an advocate for better treatment for horses and has been campaigning for the passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 311) alongside the Animal Welfare Institute. He is on its Board of Directors and has adopted a number of horses from ''Habitat for Horses''. In 2008, Nelson signed on to warn consumers about the cruel-and illegal-living conditions for calves raised to produce milk for dairy products. He wrote letters to Land O'Lakes and Challenge Dairy, two of the major corporations that use milk from calves raised at California's Mendes Calf Ranch, which employs an intensive confinement practice that was the subject of a lawsuit and campaign brought by the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Personal life

Willie Nelson has married four times and fathered seven children. His first marriage was to Martha Matthews; it lasted from 1952 to 1962, and produced three children: Lana, Susie, and Billy. The last committed suicide in 1991. The marriage was marked by violence, with Matthews assaulting Nelson several times. Nelson's next marriage was to Shirley Collie in 1963. The couple divorced in 1971, after Collie found a bill of the maternity ward of a Houston hospital charged to Nelson and Connie Koepke for the birth of Paula Carlene Nelson. Koepke and Nelson married the same year and had two daughters, Paula Carlene and Amy Lee. Following a divorce in 1988, he married his current wife, Annie D'Angelo, in 1991. He had two sons, Lukas Autry and Jacob Micah, with her. Nelson traces his genealogy to the American Revolutionary War, in which his ancestor John Nelson served as a major.

While swimming in Hawaii in 1981, Nelson's lung collapsed. All of his scheduled concerts were canceled and he was taken to the Maui Memorial Hospital. Nelson temporarily stopped smoking cigarettes each time his lungs became congested, and resumed when the congestion ended. In 2008 he started to smoke with a carbon-free system to avoid the effects of smoke in his lungs. In 2004 Nelson underwent surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, as he had damaged his wrists by continuously playing the guitar. By the recommendation of his doctor, he canceled his scheduled concerts and only wrote songs during his recovery.

Nelson has been arrested several times for marijuana possession. The first occasion was in 1974, in Dallas, Texas. Twenty years later, in 1994, highway patrolmen found a marijuana cigarette in his car near Waco, Texas; the resulting court appearance causing him to cancel his appearance at the Grammy awards. While traveling to Ann W. Richards' funeral in 2006, Nelson, along with his manager and his sister, Bobbi, were arrested in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana and charged with possession of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Nelson received six months probation. On November 26, 2010, Nelson was arrested for possession of six ounces of marijuana found in his tour bus while traveling from Los Angeles to Texas. He was released after paying bail of US$2,500. Prosecutor Kit Bramblett supported not sentencing Nelson to jail due to the possession of a small amount, Bramblett sentenced him to pay a US$100 fine and told Nelson that he would have him sing "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" for the court. Judge Becky Dean-Walker stated that Nelson only had to pay the amount of the fine, but did not require him to perform the song, explaining that the prosecutor was joking. Nelson's lawyer Joe Turner reached an agreement with the prosecutor. Nelson was set to pay a US$500 fine to avoid a two-year jail sentence with a 30-day review period, which in case of another incident would end the agreement. The judge later rejected the agreement, claiming that Nelson was receiving preferential treatment for his celebrity status.

Steakhouses

In 2002, Nelson became the official spokesman of the Texas Roadhouse, a chain of steakhouses. Nelson heavily promoted the chain and appeared on a special on Food Network. The chain installed ''Willie's Corner'', a section dedicated to him and decked out with Willie memorabilia, at several locations. In 2008, Nelson reopened Willie's place, a truckstop in Hillsboro, Texas. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court allowed Nelson to invest in it. The establishment currently has about 80 employees and is used as a concert hall with a bar and a dance floor.

Legacy

Nelson is widely recognized as an American icon. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. In 2011, Nelson was inducted to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, for his labor in Farm Aid and other fund risers to benefit farmers.

In 2003 Governor Perry signed bill #2582, introduced by State Representative Elizabeth Ames Jones and Senator Jeff Wentworth, which funded the ''Texas Music Project'', the state's official music charity. Nelson was named Honorary Chairman of the Advisory Board of the project. In 2005, Democratic Texas Senator Gonzalo Barrientos introduced a bill to name of the Travis County section of State Highway 130 after Nelson, and at one point 23 of the 31 state Senators were co-sponsors of the bill. The legislation was dropped after two Republican senators, Florence Shapiro and Wentworth, objected, citing Nelson's lack of connection to the highway, his fundraisers for Democrats, his drinking, and his marijuana advocacy.

An important collection of Willie Nelson materials (1975–1994) became part of the Wittliff collections of Southwestern Writers, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. The collection contains lyrics, screenplays, letters, concert programs, tour itineraries, posters, articles, clippings, personal effects, promotional items, souvenirs, and documents. It documents Nelson's IRS troubles and how Farm Aid contributions were used. Most of the material was collected by Nelson's friend Bill Wittliff, who wrote or co-wrote ''Honeysuckle Rose'', ''Barbarosa'' and ''Red Headed Stranger''.

In April 2010, Nelson received the "Feed the Peace" award from The Nobelity Project for his extensive work with Farm Aid and overall contributions to world peace. On June 23, 2010 he was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. Nelson is an honorary trustee of the Dayton International Peace Museum. In 2010, Austin, Texas renamed Second Street to Willie Nelson Boulevard. The city also planned to honor him with a life-size statue, to be placed at the entrance of ''Austin City Limits''' new studio. The non-profit organization Capital Area Statues commissioned sculptor Clete Shields to execute the project.

For many years, Nelson's image was marked by his red hair, often divided into two long braids partially concealed under a bandanna. In the April 2007 issue of Stuff Magazine Nelson was interviewed about his long locks. "I started braiding my hair when it started getting too long, and that was, I don't know, probably in the 70's." On May 26, 2010, the Associated Press reported that Nelson had cut his hair, and Nashville music journalist Jimmy Carter published a photograph of the pigtail-free Nelson on his website. Reportedly, he wanted a more maintainable hairstyle, as well helping him stay cool more easily at his Maui home.

Nelson's touring and recording group, the ''Family'', is full of longstanding members, including his sister Bobbie Nelson, drummer Paul English, harmonicist Mickey Raphael, Bee Spears, Billy English (Paul's younger brother), and Jody Payne. ''Willie & Family'' tours North America in the bio-diesel bus ''Honeysuckle Rose IV'', which is fueled by Bio-Willie.

Works

As well as recording sixty seven studio albums, Nelson has appeared in over thirty films and TV shows. His acting debut was in the 1979 movie, ''The Electric Horseman'', followed by appearances in ''Honeysuckle Rose'', ''Thief'', and ''Barbarosa''.

In 1988 his first book, ''Willie: An Autobiography'', was published. ''The Facts of Life: and Other Dirty Jokes'', a personal recollection of tour and musical stories from his career, combined with song lyrics, followed in 2002. In 2005 he co-authored ''Farm Aid: A Song for America'', a commemorative book about the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Farm Aid. His third book, ''The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart'', was published in 2006. In 2007 a book advocating the use of bio-diesel and the reduction of gas emissions, ''On The Clean Road Again: Biodiesel and The Future of the Family Farm'', was published. His next book, ''A Tale Out of Luck'', published in 2008 and co-authored by Mike Blakely, was Nelson's first fictional book.

;Recordings

;Films

;Books

''Willie: An Autobiography'', Simon & Schuster, 1988, with Bud Shrake

''The Facts of Life and Other Dirty Jokes'', Random House, 2002

''The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart'', Gotham, 2006, with Turk Pipkin

''A Tale Out of Luck'' (a novel), Center Street, 2008, with Mike Blakely

''On The Clean Road Again: Biodiesel and The Future of the Family Farm'', Fulcrum Publishing, 2007

''Farm Aid: A Song for America'', 2005, Rodale Books, foreword by Willie Nelson

See also

Inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame

List of country musicians

Music of Austin

List of best-selling music artists

References

;Books

Cartwright, Gary (2000), ''Turn out the lights: chronicles of Texas in the 80's and 90's'', University of Texas Press

Dicair, David (2007), ''The First Generation of Country Music Stars'', McFarland

Erlewine, Michael (1997), ''All music guide to country: the experts' guide to the best recordings in country music'', Miller Freeman

Hartman, Gary (2008), ''The History of Texas Music'', Texas A&M; University Press

Jennings, Waylon; Kaye, Lenny (1996), ''Waylon: an Autobiography'', Warner Brooks

Kienzle, Richard; ''Southwest shuffle: pioneers of honky-tonk, Western swing, and country jazz'' (2003), Routledge

Nelson, Willie; Bud Shrake; Edwin Shrake (2000), ''Willie: an Autobiography'', Cooper Square Press

Patoski, Joe Nick (2008), ''Willie Nelson: an Epic Life'', Hachette Digital

Patoski, Joe Nick (2008), ''The Gospel According to Willie", Texas Co-op Power

Reid, Jan (2004), ''The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock: New Edition'', University of Texas Press

Richmond, Clint (2000), ''Willie Nelson: Behind the Music'', Simon & Schuster

Reid Jan; Sahm Shawn (2010), ''Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm'', University of Texas Press

Scobey, Lola (1982), ''Willie Nelson: Country Outlaw'', Kensington Pub Corp

Wolff, Kurt; Duane, Orla (2000), ''Country Music: the Rough Guide'', Rough Guides

;Journals

;Further reading

''The Encyclopedia of Country Music'' ed. Paul Kingsbury, pp. 374–76 "Willie Nelson", Bob Allen, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998

External links

[ Willie Nelson] at Allmusic

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ar:ويلي نيلسون bg:Уили Нелсън ca:Willie Nelson cs:Willie Nelson da:Willie Nelson pdc:Willie Nelson de:Willie Nelson et:Willie Nelson es:Willie Nelson fa:ویلی نلسون fo:Willie Nelson fr:Willie Nelson ko:윌리 넬슨 hr:Willie Nelson id:Willie Nelson it:Willie Nelson lt:Willie Nelson nl:Willie Nelson ja:ウィリー・ネルソン no:Willie Nelson nn:Willie Nelson pl:Willie Nelson pt:Willie Nelson ru:Нельсон, Вилли simple:Willie Nelson sh:Willie Nelson fi:Willie Nelson sv:Willie Nelson tl:Willie Nelson tr:Willie Nelson uk:Віллі Нельсон

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Jacque Fresco
birth date	March 13, 1916
birth place	Brooklyn, New York
residence	Florida
occupation	Futurist, Social Engineer, Structural Engineer, Industrial Designer, Author, Lecturer
nationality	American
known for	The Venus Project, Resource-Based Economy, Sociocyberneering
notable works	''Looking Forward'' (1969), ''The Best That Money Can't Buy'' (2002)
influences	B. F. Skinner, Jacques Loeb, Alfred Korzybski, Buckminster Fuller, Thorstein Veblen, Stuart Chase, Edward Bellamy, H. G. Welles, Howard Scott, Norbert Wiener, Arthur Radebaugh }}

Jacque Fresco (born March 13, 1916), is a self-educated structural designer, philosopher of science, concept artist, educator, and futurist. His interests span a wide range of disciplines including several in philosophy, science, and engineering. Fresco writes and lectures extensively on his view of subjects ranging from the holistic design of sustainable cities, energy efficiency, natural resource management, cybernated technology, advanced automation, and the role of science in society, focusing on the benefits he claims this will bring. With his colleague, Roxanne Meadows, he is the founder and director of an organization known as The Venus Project, located in Venus, Florida.

In contemporary culture he has been popularized by three documentaries, ''Future By Design'', ''Zeitgeist Addendum'', and ''Zeitgeist: Moving Forward'', His Venus Project has been inspirational worldwide, especially to activists.

Early life

Youth

Born on March 13, 1916, Jacque Fresco grew up in the minority neighborhood of Bensonhurst in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Precocious as a child, Fresco's interests did not pertain to the topics presented to him at school. Unwilling, or unable, to conform with the setting of formal education, he sought a self-directed education throughout his later teen years. Fresco spent many days of his youth at the local library. For a short time, Fresco took an interest in attending the Young Communist League wherein he caused commotion. After brief discussion and disagreements with the League president, Fresco was physically removed. Thereafter, Fresco turned his attention to Technocracy. Fresco had long taken an interest in designing flying saucers and tried to interest the aircraft industry at a time when experimental construction was underway. Eventually, Fresco demonstrated such designs in the 1930s. After departing from Douglas due to safety design disagreements, he traveled to Hawaii in late 1939 where he then traveled to the South Sea Islands where he interacted with native islanders. Fresco claims that his visit to these islands effectively helped shape his understanding of cultural relativism and the flexibility of human values in alternate environments. In California, Fresco took various residence in Hermosa Beach and Los Angeles. where he would produce up to forty designs a day. Among Fresco's many designs, a design of a radical variable camber wing attempted to optimize wing thickness for lift and flight. It received a patent and was thereafter given to the Army Air Force. He was eventually discharged.

In the mid-1940s, Fresco began working with Earl Muntz and Michael Shore who employed Fresco to design a new low cost form of modernistic housing. Its design of light weight, high strength, and long lasting materials allowed for reduced production costs and streamlined production which increased its economic viability. The structure was first exhibited in 1947 at Stage 8 of the Warner Brothers Sunset boulevard. It would go on to attract over 20,000 visitors. The proceeds were donated to The Cancer Prevention Society to build part of a new hospital. For the next few years the Trend Home was to undergo mass production and was considered by the U.S. government as a possible solution for soldiers returning from World War II. near Hollywood, where he also lived, lectured, and taught technical design, meanwhile researching and working on inventions as a freelance inventor and scientific consultant. Fresco claims that many of his inventions were patented by his employers. During these years, Fresco had difficulty managing finances and would face auctioneers as they entered his lab to compensate for his lack of payments.

Also during Fresco's years in Los Angeles, he worked as model designer for science-fiction movies Fresco was noted for his high quality models and special effects despite the low budgets of the B-movie productions. His talents were recommended to Roger Corman for the film ''The Beast with a Million Eyes'', but Corman could not accommodate Fresco into the budget (of $23,000). Fresco also worked as technical adviser in the film industry, most notably for the 1956 Oscar nominated documentary ''The Naked Eye''. Eventually, in the mid-1950s, Fresco left California after his lab was commandeered to build the Golden State Freeway.

Midlife

Pursuing his affinity for the tropics, in 1955 Fresco moved to Miami, Florida, where he lived on a boat for a short time. He began practicing private therapy sessions, and at a time when the American Psychological Association was pressuring therapists lacking approved credentials to relinquish their practice, Fresco received criticism for his therapy service. In Miami, Fresco held public lectures throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. On the lecture circuit, Fresco sometimes utilized the title of "Dr." based on a doctorate of philosophy that he obtained from Sierra State University in California. It was not recognized as an accredited university by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. As a result, Fresco's degree came under scrutiny when he was practicing his therapy service. Fresco would eventually hold the doctorates degree only as an honorary title. Eventually, he disregarded the title entirely. Later, he acknowledged his lack of formal credentials as being a detriment in academic circles and has made it difficult for him to gain influence.

From the mid-1950s and throughout the 1960s, Fresco developed what he called "Project Americana." It was a ten year plan for American social change. His vision included a circular city and the application of full cyber-automation of city operations wherein machines direct other machines to operate. Such was Fresco's conception of a "thinking city" in "The Machine-Machine Age." The national plan also included methods for aiding struggling nations by erecting prefabricated factories that produce prefabricated products for building, and a new curriculum for schooling. In 1962, CBS approached Fresco about developing a series on his ideas after appearing on two successive episodes of ''On the Town'' with Fred Fischer.

Fresco spent much of his time in Miami trying to showcase his designs of a circular city and raise funds to get it built. He also designed a three-wheeled car that was to have only 32 moving parts, which he strove to fund as well. Fresco made much of his living working as an industrial designer for various companies such as Alcoa and the Major Realty Corporation and from draftsman inventions through Jacque Fresco Enterprises Inc.

In 1969, with Ken Keyes, a book was written about Fresco's ideas, entitled ''Looking Forward''. The first half of the book was dedicated to detailing some of the causes of many problems in humanity's thinking and behavior, the changes that humanity will have to make as it enters the future, and a description of three components which can be used to best correctly analyze the future: humanity's values, methods of thinking, and tools i.e. technological developments. All three are described as being interdependent much like a set of gears. The second half of the book was dedicated to a speculative look at the future revolving around the experiences of the fictional characters, Scott, and, Hella. It was one of the earliest publications to theorize the possible social implications of a central network knowledge bank (Corcen) used to bring about a "humanized man-machine symbiosis". Fresco and Keyes gave consideration for a wide range of technological and social possibilities resulting from the technologically governed societal design.

Sociocyberneering

Fresco's ideas for Project Americana continued to evolve and became what was known as Sociocyberneering Inc, a non-profit organization founded in 1971 for which Fresco was president. It was a non-political and non-sectarian membership organization having, at its peak, 250 members, many of whom became Fresco's pupils. Fresco frequently hosted educational lectures in Miami Beach and at his home in Coral Gables. His lecture topics pertained to society, social change, science, technology, engineering, architecture, religion, prudence, semantics, anthropology, psychology, systems theory, and education, among other topics. Aside from educating, Fresco worked with members of the organization to produce designs, films, and literature pertaining to the aims and goals of the organization.

The term "sociocyberneering" was defined as "the application of the most sophisticated forms of computer technology in the management of human affairs." The stated goal of Sociocyberneering was to apply "the most sophisticated forms of science and technology toward problem solving ... an approach at the restructuring of society in humanistic terms," and dedicated to finding practical solutions that could be rapidly applied to the many problems that faced society. The primary focus was to "investigate alternative solutions based in conservation of energy, international cooperation in all areas of social endeavor, and the assimilation of a systems approach for the design of cities." There was also heavy emphasis on the prospects of cybernated technology in the societies of human beings, arguing that, "the future of man and his cities does not depend on whether or not this or that design is preferred. It is determined by the forces of social and environmental evolution in which computerized approaches to human and environmental systems will ultimately emerge as the ultimate technique in all areas of the social sequences."

By this time Fresco had designed his circular city to be one mile in diameter with radially connected concentric rings "resembling the spokes of a wheel." Each ring was dedicated to a general function such as agriculture, recreation, housing, among others. At the nucleus center, in the dome, was a supercomputer that was intended to function as the centralized data management system for the automated processes throughout the city.

Throughout the 1970s Fresco worked to expand the organization and elevate its exposure to the general public by lecturing at universities and appearing on radio and television. Fresco became acquainted with Larry King when King's career was emerging out of Miami. King featured Fresco on his television show and radio show several times to discuss, with academics and local callers, the proposals of Sociocyberneering.

At the apex of the organization's membership, they began investing in 40 acres of land in Naples. The organization set out to construct an experimental community in which they would live and expand. They encountered a setback in 1978 when members feared that the Collier County zoning board would complicate implementation. The result was a partial dissolution of Sociocyberneering membership. The investment was abandoned and the land was resold. Fresco sold his home and new land was located in rural Venus. Upon an old tomato patch he established a research center for Sociocyberneering in 1980. With the help of remaining members, Fresco constructed buildings based on the designs of his futuristic renderings. After the move, Sociocyberneering became less popular as many members remained in Miami. Eventually, Sociocyberneering became much less active and through the 1980s Fresco dedicated his time to designing and studying alongside Roxanne Meadows who remained with Fresco as his colleague.

Later life

In 1994, Fresco rebooted Sociocyberneering Inc. under the new title The Venus Project. By this time, Fresco had accumulated a large quantity of designs and models that could represent a general outline of how his vision may look and operate, and were used to gain exposure for the organization through educational films and literature distributed to teachers and universities. Aside from their educational materials, Fresco and Meadows continued to support the project throughout the '90s through freelance structural designing, such as for Pratt and Whitney, industrial engineering, and conventional architectural modeling. In the process, some of Fresco's futuristic designs succeeded in inspiring some development companies. At one point, Fresco claimed that The Venus Project was under consideration for developing plans to build a theme park/experimental city in Turkey. A similar consideration occurred with Dubai. In 2002, Fresco published his main work ''The Best That Money Can't Buy''. In 2006, William Gazecki directed the semi-biographical film about Fresco, "Future by Design" in which Fresco was compared to the Renaissance polymath Leonardo Da Vinci. In 2008, Peter Joseph featured Fresco in the film ''Zeitgeist Addendum'' wherein his vision of the future was presented as a possible solution for the societal and environmental crisis expounded in the film. The reaction that followed was manifested by the development of The Zeitgeist Movement which actively professes Fresco's ideas and considers itself the "activist arm" of The Venus Project.

In 2010, Fresco attempted to trademark the phrase "Resource-Based Economy" in the midst of its popularization to preserve his definition of it. The phrase was reviewed and found to be too generic to qualify. The action to trademark Fresco's specific meaning was therefore blocked. Other small Internet organizations now profess a version of a resource-based economy based on Fresco's original conception.

Throughout 2010, Fresco traveled with Meadows on a world wide tour in response to the growing popularity of The Venus Project. On January 15, 2011, ''Zeitgeist: Moving Forward'' was released in theaters, again featuring Fresco and a more elaborate articulation of his vision as a possible solution for planetary dilemmas. and has initiated the funding of a major motion picture that may be made which will depict The Venus Project future.

The Venus Project

The Venus Project is an organization depicting, as well as professing, the culmination of Fresco's life work and serves as a foundation that represents his vision of a future without poverty, crime, war, corruption, or waste. It was founded in 1980 and took its name in 1994. It is located in central Florida near west Lake Okeechobee about fifty miles northeast of Fort Myers. On its 21.5-acre lot, there are ten buildings designed by Fresco, which showcase limited versions of Fresco's architectural designs. It is partly a research center for Fresco and Roxanne Meadows, and partly an educational center for supporters of the project. They produce videos and literature depicting and explaining the future vision and the goals to actualize it. Among these goals, the salient are to produce a major motion picture portraying the future world the project promotes; constructing a theme park with the intention of exhibiting technologies and the ideas of the Venus Project; and constructing an experimental city in an attempt to test Fresco's hypotheses. Its ultimate aim is to improve society by moving towards a global, sustainable, technological social design that is termed a "resource-based economy".

Personal life and family

Fresco was born to immigrants from Turkey, Isaac and Lena Fresco. His father was born in 1880 and around 1905 immigrated from Istanbul to New York where he worked as a horticulturalist. He died in 1963. Fresco's mother was born in 1887 in Jerusalem and also migrated to New York around 1904. She died in 1988. Fresco was brother to two siblings, a sister, Freda, and a brother, David. His brother was born in 1909. He was a draftsman, a private during World War II, and became a theater actor and a character actor in Hollywood. he resurrected his career in the 1960s eventually appearing in many films and television shows. He died in 1997.

Fresco had one marriage when he lived in Los Angeles, California and through his first couple years in Miami. He divorced in 1957. His wife, Patricia, gave birth to a son, Richard, in 1953 and a daughter, Bambi, in 1956. Richard was an army private and died in 1976. Bambi died of cancer in 2010.

Vision

Fresco's vision has formed as the culmination of many disciplines and schools of thought. The dominant features of it have been compared to earlier thinkers from as early as the nineteenth century. Titles such as ''The Paradise within the Reach of all Men without Labor by Powers of Nature and Machinery'', ''Emigration to the Tropical World for the Melioration of All Classes of People of All Nations'', and ''The New World or Mechanical System'' were written in the 1800s by John Adolphus Etzler who has been described as an early forerunner to Fresco's vision. Likewise, Ebenezer Howard and his book ''Garden Cities of Tomorrow'', as well as the Garden City Movement during the early 1900s has been described as another predecessor. Fresco's vision removes the mechanics of modern economics and his view toward modern economics has been compared to Thorstein Veblen's concept of "the predatory phase in human development." Other facets of Fresco's vision have been labeled a "tabula rasa approach."

Fresco himself cites several theorists and authors for contributing to his vision, such as Jacques Loeb, who established the ''Mechanistic Conception of Life''; Edward Bellamy, who wrote the extremely influential book, ''Looking Backward''; Thorstein Veblen, who influenced the Technocracy movement and Howard Scott, who popularized it; Alfred Korzybski, who originated General Semantics; H. G. Wells, and many others. Fresco has often been heard stating, "I have been able to achieve what I have achieved because I stood on the shoulders of giants," paraphrasing Einstein, (though the metaphore was first made famous by Isaac Newton, and stated by others before him).

Resource-based economy

Primary in Fresco's vision is the concept of a "resource-based economy." It incorporates sustainable cities and values, along with the goals of energy efficiency, natural resource management, and advanced automation, focusing on the benefits that it might bring to humanity as a whole.

According to Fresco, poverty, crime, corruption and war are the result of scarcity created by the present world's profit-based economic system. He theorizes that the profit motive also stifles the progress of socially beneficial technology, and instead he favors a system that fosters the purpose motive. Fresco claims that the progression of technology, if it were carried on independently of its profitability, would make more resources available to more people by producing an abundance of products and materials. This new-found abundance of resources would, according to Fresco, reduce the human tendency toward individualism, corruption, and greed, and instead rely on people helping each other.

A resource-based economy replaces the need for the current monetary economy, which is "scarcity-oriented" or "scarcity-based". Fresco argues that the world is rich in natural resources and energy and that — with modern technology and judicious efficiency — the needs of the global population can be met with abundance, while at the same time removing the current limitations of what is deemed possible due to notions of economic viability.

Reception

Critics and advocates of Fresco's vision are sharply divided. Throughout his life Fresco has been labeled a "dreamer," an "eccentric," an "utopian," an "idealist," a "crackpot," a "charlatan," etc., halfheartedly by some magazine and newspaper writers among others. Some feel that his vision is impractical, idealistic, and/or borderline science fiction. The books ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' or ''Brave New World'' are sometimes referenced in relation to The Venus Project. These attitudes continue today across some Web sites. Even further, some claims have labeled him a cult leader due to his figurehead status in The Zeitgeist Movement. Others accuse him of affiliations with conspirators of a New World Order. Fresco dismisses these accusations.

His hypothesis of a resource-based economy is sometimes equated with Marxism, socialism, communism or technocracy. Fresco responds to these comparisons by stating, "The aims of The Venus Project have no parallel in history, not with communism, socialism, fascism or any other political ideology. This is true because cybernation is of recent origin. With this system, the system of financial influence and control will no longer exist."

One writer notes, "it's also true that his system of governance, in which authority is given to the expert in each field — in this case, specially programmed computers — is one that many writers, including Nobel-prize-winner Friedrich Hayek, have shown to be disastrous."

Another writer reviewing one of Fresco's films writes,

''the more I listened to Fresco's specifics and fuzzy non-specifics it seemed to me I was encountering a God-like hubris coupled with the standard sci-fi dreamer's naivete vis á vis human nature. But just as I was jotting this last down in my notes, Fresco cautioned viewers — and it gave me the shivers, since he seemed to be responding directly to my written reservations — to remember that human nature is not synonymous with human behavior; the latter can be changed. Although Fresco's futurist scenario is — in my humble opinion — rife with problems, it's not every day that somebody comes along ambitious enough to offer a blueprint for re-designing the world.''

Other criticisms have implied a scientistic approach due to Fresco's heavy emphasis on science alone to overcome humanity's obstacles,

''His vision is eminently practical, and although this constitutes an innovative and welcome element with reference to previous utopian projections, his focus on science alone makes him fail as a generalist – the criticism Fresco himself passed on academics and scientists. Today's pressing problems require a holistic approach – various disciplines, arts science, philosophy working on a "convergence mode", unfortunately Fresco's vision seems to consolidate the long established view that the "two cultures" (Science and Art) are antagonistic.''

Focusing on accusations of utopianism, a writer from the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies remarks, "For most people, the promise of the project sounds like an unattainable utopia, but if you examine it more closely, there are surprisingly many scientifically founded arguments that open up an entire new world of possibilities." Another writer for CIFS points out,

''Perhaps the modern interpretation of the word "utopia" is to blame when the Renaissance man and futurist Jacque Fresco says ... he doesn't want to call his life work, The Venus Project, a utopia. However, this visionary idea of a future society has many characteristics in common with the utopia. ... the word utopia carries a double meaning, since in Greek it can mean both the good place (eutopia) and the nonexisting place (outopia). A good place is precisely what Fresco has devoted his life to describing and fighting for."''

In response to association with utopianism, Fresco has stated, "We do not believe in the erroneous notion of a utopian society. There is no such thing. Societies are always in a state of transition. We propose an alternative direction, which addresses the causes of many of our problems. There are no final frontiers for human and technological achievement." One writer suggests instead that "The Venus project is no static utopia, rather a dynamic one: it requires an incremental process driven by an ever-changing extropic ideal."

Art historian Hans-Ulrich Obrist notes, "Fresco's future may, of course, seem outmoded and his writings have been subject to critique for their fascistic undertones of order and similitude, but his contributions are etched in the popular psyche and his eco-friendly concepts continue to influence our present generation of progressive architects, city planners and designers."

When asked by a reporter why he has such difficulty actualizing his many ideas, Fresco responded, "Because I can't get to anybody. I have no credentials." Nevertheless, positive attitudes toward Fresco regard him as "a genius, a prophet, and a visionary." General praise appears among futurists, especially the World Future Society who have considered him a visionary engineer in review of his work in the ''Futurist'', commenting, "Whether the future Fresco envisions is probable or even possible is open to debate, but he succeeds in conveying the power of thinking of the future on a grander scale than we're used to." Fresco's work has been compared to the work of Paolo Soleri and especially Buckminster Fuller for all attempting to actualize their vision against great odds, as well as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Da Vinci for sharing affluence in prolific innovation. The elaborate scope of Fresco's designs intrigued Forest Ackerman and Arthur C. Clarke who, late in his life, briefly tried to help Fresco get exposure for The Venus Project. Synergetics theorist Norman Arthur Coulter appreciated Fresco's vision for his attempt to accomplish it "not for profit, but to meet the needs of human beings." Author, Harold Cober, comments, "Once you've seen the man's ideas and buildings, you can't let go of it." Bruce Eisner mentions that the Venus Project shares similar aims as his Island Sanctuary Project. Commenting on what he sees as Fresco's inspirational and charismatic teaching methods, physicist, Paul G. Hewitt, cites Fresco as being one of the three major sources of inspiration, turning him away from work as a sign painter and toward a career in science.

Psychologist and scientist, Jack Catran, notes,

''Contemplate the staggering realistic views of the future published by Jacque Fresco ... There are many futurists, "geniuses", and self-styled seers in our midst who, upon careful examination, turn out to be disappointingly commercial and exploitive. Most extrapolations into the future are made from fixed and narrow points of view. We are all products of today's mediocrity-breeding culture, but if anyone can be called a genius in our money system society, Jacque Fresco should be singled out as the broadest, most aware, individual of our time.''

At Drexel University, sociologist and futurist, Arthur B. Shostak, often incorporated Fresco's ideas into his writing and teaching, stating,

''His contribution to futuristics is singular, as few, if any around the globe, dare the sweep, the depth, and the drama of his vision. When he writes or speaks, futurists grow quiet, pensive, and finally, appreciative — as his work is sound in its call for a thorough examination of the assumptions under which we labor. While little of his vision may materialize in the lifetime of us all, our grandchildren may yet salute much of what Jacque first helped them set in motion.''

In 2008 the Raelian Movement gave Fresco their Honorary Guide award for dedicating "his life to the betterment of humanity as a whole." In 2010, it was announced that Fresco has been selected to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Exemplar-Zero Initiative in the summer of 2011.

Works

Books

Articles

''Modern Food Production''

''Designing the Future: A Cybernetic City For the Next Century'' in ''The Futurist''. Vol. 28, No. 3. pp. 29–33. (May/June 1994).

''The Future and Beyond'' The Venus Project, Inc. (2000)

with Meadows, Roxanne. ''Beyond Utopia'' in ''Utopian Thinking in Sociology: Creating the Good Society.'' pp. 86–92 edited by Arthur B. Shostak. American Sociological Association. (2001). OCLC 49561995.

with Meadows, Roxanne. ''The Future by Design: Beyond Money and Politics'' in ''Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping a Better World.'' pp. 197–205 edited by Arthur B. Shostak. London/Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. (2003). ISBN 0765611058. OCLC 473852611.

with Meadows, Roxanne. ''Reinventing Iraq'' in ''In the Shadow of War.'' pp. 147–154 edited by Arthur B. Shostak. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House. (2004). ISBN 9781438124681. OCLC 646806392.

Films

''The Venus Project: The Redesign of a Culture'' (1994)

''Welcome to the Future'' (1998)

''Cities in the Sea'' (2002)

''Self-erecting Structures'' (2002)

''Designing the Future'' (2006)

References

Durrani, Noni. (2007). ''The Future: Jacque Fresco On The Future'', ''Forbes''

Gia Films. (2010). ''Frequency of Genius'', Gia Film Productions

Gazecki, William. (2006) ''Future By Design'', Docflix

Hoving, K. (2002). ''Engineering the Impossible'', Discovery Channel

Joseph, Peter. (2008). ''Zeitgeist Addendum'', Gentle Machine Productions

Joseph, Peter. (2011). ''Zeitgeist: Moving Forward'', Gentle Machine Productions

Maja Borg, M. (2011). ''Future For Sale'', Sonja Henrici, SDI Productions Ltd.

Wachtmeister, J. (2007). ''Great Expectations: A Journey through the History of Visionary Architecture'', Solaris Filmproduktion

External links

www.thevenusproject.com — The Venus Project

www.youtube.com/user/thevenusprojectmedia — The Venus Project YouTube channel

Category:1916 births Category:American social sciences writers Category:Futurologists Category:Living people Category:People from Florida Category:Critics of work and the work ethic

cs:Jacques Fresco da:Jacque Fresco de:Jacque Fresco et:Jacque Fresco es:Jacque Fresco eo:Jacque Fresco fr:Jacque Fresco it:Jacque Fresco he:ז'ק פרסקו hu:Jacque Fresco nl:Jacque Fresco pl:Jacque Fresco pt:Jacque Fresco ru:Фреско, Жак fi:Jacque Fresco tr:Jacque Fresco uk:Жак Фреско

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	The Edge
background	solo_singer
birth name	David Howell Evans
birth date	August 08, 1961
Birth place	Barking, Essex, England, United Kingdom
origin	County Dublin, Ireland
instrument	Guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano, bass guitar
genre	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter, activist
years active	1976–present
label	Island, Mercury
associated acts	U2, Passengers
website
notable instruments	Gibson ExplorerFender StratocasterGibson Les PaulFender TelecasterGretsch Country GentlemanGretsch White FalconRickenbacker 330/12 }}

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's ''The Joshua Tree'' and 1991's ''Achtung Baby''. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record ''Zooropa'', and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.

As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical ''Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'' and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of ''A Clockwork Orange''. In 2011, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Personal life

David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital, Essex, England to Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans. When he was one, his family moved to County Dublin, Ireland where he attended St Andrew's National School. He received piano and guitar lessons and often performed with his brother Dik Evans before they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen, Jr. at their school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School, seeking musicians to form a band. The band accepted both of them. This band went through several incarnations before emerging as U2 in March 1978 (Dik Evans left the band just before the name change). U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their debut album, ''Boy'', was released in 1980.

In 1981, leading up to the October tour, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he decided to stay. During this period, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved. Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The Edge married his high school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983. The couple had three daughters together: Hollie in 1984, Arran in 1985 and Blue Angel in 1989. The couple separated in 1990, but were unable to get officially divorced because of Irish laws regarding marriage annulment; divorce was legalised in 1995 and the couple were legally divorced in 1996.

In 1993, The Edge began dating Morleigh Steinberg, a professional dancer and choreographer employed by the band as a belly dancer during the Zoo TV Tour. They had a daughter, Sian (born 1997), and a son, Levi (born 25 October 1999), before marrying on 22 June 2002. He appeared in the 2009 music documentary film ''It Might Get Loud''. The Edge has been criticized for his efforts to build five luxury mansions on a 156 acre plot of land in Malibu, California. The California Coastal Commission voted 8-4 against the plans, with the project described by the commission's executive director, Peter Douglas, as "In 38 years...one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation...It's a contradiction in terms – you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location." The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy agreed to remain neutral on the issue following a $1 million donation from The Edge and a commitment from The Edge to designate 100 acres of the land as open space for public footpaths.

Music style

Guitar playing

As a guitar player, The Edge has a sound typified by a low-key playing style, a chiming, shimmering sound (thanks in part to the sound of VOX AC-30s) that he achieves with extensive use of delay effects and reverb. The feedback delay is often set to a dotted eighth note (3/16 of a measure), and the feedback gain is adjusted until a note played repeats two or three times.

On 1987's ''The Joshua Tree'', The Edge often contributes just a few simple lead lines given depth and richness by an ever-present delay. For example, the introduction to "Where the Streets Have No Name" is simply a repeated six-note arpeggio, broadened by a modulated delay effect. The Edge has said that he views musical notes as "expensive", in that he prefers to play as few notes as possible. He said in 1982 of his style,

"I like a nice ringing sound on guitar, and most of my chords I find two strings and make them ring the same note, so it's almost like a 12-string sound. So for E I might play a B, E, E and B and make it ring. It works very well with the Gibson Explorer. It's funny because the bass end of the Explorer was so awful that I used to stay away from the low strings, and a lot of the chords I played were very trebly, on the first four, or even three strings. I discovered that through using this one area of the fretboard I was developing a very stylized way of doing something that someone else would play in a normal way."

Many different influences have shaped The Edge's guitar technique. His first guitar was an old acoustic guitar that his mother bought him at a local flea market for only a few pounds; he was nine at the time. He and his brother Dik Evans both experimented with this instrument. He said in 1982 of this early experimentation, "I suppose the first link in the chain was a visit to the local jumble sale where I purchased a guitar for a pound. That was my first instrument. It was an acoustic guitar and me and my elder brother Dik both played it, plonking away, all very rudimentary stuff, open chords and all that." The Edge has stated that many of his guitar parts are based around guitar effects. This is especially true from the ''Achtung Baby'' era onwards, although much of the band's 1980s material made heavy use of echos.

Vocals

The Edge also supplies the backing vocals for U2. U2's 1983 live album and video release, ''Under a Blood Red Sky'' and ''Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky'' are good reference points for his singing (as are the live DVDs from the Elevation Tour, ''U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle'' and ''Elevation 2001: Live from Boston''). For example, he sings the chorus to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (Bono harmonizes on the final 'Sunday'). U2 used this tradeoff technique later in "Bullet the Blue Sky" as well. His backing vocals are sometimes in the form of a repeated cry; examples of songs that use this approach include "Beautiful Day", "New Year's Day" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". Another technique he uses in his backing vocals is the falsetto, in songs such as "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", "A Man and a Woman", "The Wanderer", live versions of "The Fly", and "Window in the Skies".

The Edge sings the lead vocal on "Van Diemen's Land" and "Numb", the first half of the song "Seconds", dual vocals with Bono in "Discotheque", and the bridge in the song "Miracle Drug". He also sings the occasional lead vocal in live renditions of other songs (such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during the PopMart Tour and "Party Girl" during the Rotterdam Zoo TV show when it was Bono's birthday). He also plays a solo acoustic version of the song "Love is Blindness" that is featured in the documentary film ''From the Sky Down''.

Other instruments

He has played piano and keyboards on many of the band's songs, including "I Fall Down", "October", "So Cruel", "New Year's Day", "Running to Stand Still", "Miss Sarajevo", "The Hands that Built America", and "Original of the Species" and others. He plays the organ on "Please". In live versions of "New Year's Day", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Your Blue Room", and "Moment of Surrender", he plays both the piano and guitar parts alternately. In most live versions of "Original of the Species," piano is the only instrument played during the song. Although The Edge is the band's lead guitarist, he occasionally plays bass guitar, including the live performances of the song "40" where The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton switch instruments.

Solo recordings

In addition to his regular role within U2, The Edge has also recorded with such artists as Johnny Cash, B. B. King, Tina Turner, Ronnie Wood, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. The Edge connected with Brian Eno and Lanois collaborator Michael Brook (the creator of the infinite guitar, which he regularly uses), working with him on the score to the film ''Captive'' (1986). From this soundtrack the song "Heroine", the vocal of which was sung by a young Sinéad O'Connor was released as a single.

He also created the theme song for season one and two of ''The Batman''. He and fellow U2 member, Bono, wrote the lyrics to the theme of the 1995 James Bond film ''GoldenEye''. The Edge, along with fellow bandmate Bono, recently composed a musical adaptation of Spider-Man. On May 25, 2011, a single titled ''Rise Above 1: Reeve Carney Featuring Bono and The Edge'' was released digitally. The music video was released on July 28, 2011.

Musical equipment

The Edge plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, bass guitar (on "40" and "Race Against Time") and lap steel guitar. Compared to many lead guitarists, The Edge is known for using many more guitars during a show. According to his guitar tech Dallas Schoo, a typical lead guitarist uses four or five different guitars in one night, whereas The Edge takes 45 on the road, and uses 17 to 19 in one 2.5-hour concert. He is estimated to have more than 200 guitars in the studio.

Philanthropy

In 2005, The Edge along with Bob Ezrin and Henry Juszkiewicz co-founded Music Rising, a charity that helped provide replacement instruments for those that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. The instruments were originally only replaced for professional musicians but they soon realized the community churches and schools needed instruments as well. The charity's slogan is "Rebuilding the Gulf Region note by note" and has so far helped over a hundred musicians who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Edge also serves on the board of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global health by advancing angiogenesis-based medicine, diets, and lifestyle.

See also

List of people on stamps of Ireland

Timeline of U2

References

;Footnotes

;Bibliography

External links

U2.com, official U2 site

Music Rising

The Edge – Album Credits

A Study of The Edge's Guitar Delay

The Edge: 'It's all about the vision'

Food Bank For New York City public service announcement

Comment on the mathematical analysis of The Edge's guitar sound

Category:Irish male singers Category:Irish rock guitarists Category:Irish people of Welsh descent Category:People from County Dublin Category:People from Dalkey Category:Lead guitarists Category:Slide guitarists Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Golden Globe Award winning musicians Category:Backing vocalists Category:U2 members Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Pseudonymous musicians Category:Rock songwriters

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Tanya Roberts
birth date	October 15, 1955
birth place	The Bronx, New York City, United States
birth name	Victoria Leigh Blum
yearsactive	1975–present
occupation	Actress
spouse	Barry Roberts (1974-2006) }}

Victoria Leigh Blum (born October 15, 1955), professionally recognized as Tanya Roberts, is an American actress best known for her role in as Julie Rogers on the fifth and final season of ''Charlie's Angels'' (1980-1981) and as Midge Pinciotti on ''That '70s Show'' (1998-2001).

She later headlined the films: ''The Beastmaster'', ''A View to a Kill'', and ''Sheena''. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood sex symbol during the early 1980s.

Early life

Blum was born in The Bronx of Irish and Jewish descent. Her father was an ink pen salesman. Her parents divorced when she was a teenager. She lived with her mother in Toronto for several years, where she started formulating a photo portfolio and laying plans for a career. At age 15, she abandoned her studies to marry and lived for a while hitch-hiking across the United States, until her mother-in-law annulled the union.

She returned to New York City and became a fashion and cover model. After meeting a psychology student, Barry Roberts (while waiting in line for a movie), she proposed to him in a subway station and they were soon married. While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter, she began to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen under the name Tanya Roberts.

Acting career

1970s

Her career began as a model in TV ads for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses. She played serious roles in the Off-Broadway productions, ''Picnic'' and ''Antigone''. She also supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor. Her film debut was the 1975 thriller, ''Forced Entry''. This was followed in 1976 by ''The Yum-Yum Girls'', a comedy.

In 1977, as her husband was securing his own screenwriting career, the couple moved to Hollywood. The following year, Roberts participated in the drama, ''Fingers''. Roles in the 1979 cult-movie, ''Tourist Trap'', ''Racket'' and ''California Dreaming'' followed. Roberts was featured in several television pilots that were never picked up: ''Zuma Beach'' (a 1978 comedy); ''Pleasure Cove'' (1979); and ''Waikiki'' (1980).

1980s

In 1980, Roberts was chosen from some 2,000 candidates to replace Shelley Hack in the television series, ''Charlie's Angels'' (in what would be the last season of the series). She was featured on the February 9, 1981 cover of ''People'' magazine and afterward was offered more ambitious projects. In 1982, Roberts played Kiri in ''The Beastmaster''. She was featured in a nude pictorial in ''Playboy'' to help promote the movie, appearing on that issue's October 1982 cover.

In 1983, Roberts filmed the Italian-made, and little-known adventure, ''Paladini-storia d'armi e d'amori'' (''Paladins—the story of love and arms''; also released as ''Hearts and Armour''), based on the medieval novel, ''Orlando Furioso''. She played the role of Velda, a buxom secretary to private detective, Mike Hammer, in the television movie, ''Murder Me, Murder You''. The two-part pilot spawned the syndicated television series, ''Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer''. She declined to continue the role in the Mike Hammer series so she could work on her next project, ''Sheena: Queen of the Jungle''. The movie was a box office and critical disaster, garnering her a nomination for "Worst Actress" at the Razzie Awards.

Her subsequent appearance as Bond girl, Stacey Sutton, a well-educated and articulate geologist, in ''A View to a Kill'' (1985), which provided her a number of scenes with Roger Moore's James Bond. She again found herself nominated by the critics for a Razzie Award. Her career took a downturn. Later films in the 1980s included ''Body Slam'' (1987), an action movie set in the professional wrestling world; and ''Purgatory'', a movie about a woman wrongfully imprisoned in Africa.

1990spresent

In 1991, Roberts starred in the erotic thriller, ''Inner Sanctum'' (1991), alongside Margaux Hemingway. In 1992, she played Kay Egan in ''Sins of Desire''. She appeared on the cable TV series, ''Hot Line'', in 1994; and in the video game, ''The Pandora Directive'', in 1996.

In 1998, she took the role of Midge Pinciotti on the successful, long-running television sitcom, ''That '70s Show''. Roberts claimed to ''E! True Hollywood Story'' that she left the series in 2001 because her husband, Barry Roberts, had become terminally ill. Barry Roberts died in 2006. In 2008, Tanya Roberts wrote the foreword to the book, ''The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels''.

References

External links

Official website

Category:1955 births Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:People from the Bronx Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Jewish descent

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