This article is about the geographic sense of the term. For other uses, including regions and regional, see Region (disambiguation).

Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity of description based on a range of statistical data, for example demographic, and locales. In astrophysics some regions have science-specific terms such as galactic clusters.

In Geography, regions can be broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of Humanity and the environment (environmental geography). Geographic regions and subregions are mostly described by their imprecisely defined, and sometimes transitory boundaries, except in human geography where jurisdiction areas such as national borders are clearly defined in law.

Apart from the global continental regions, there are also hydrospheric and atmospheric regions that cover the oceans, and discrete climates above the land and water masses of the planet. The land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as plains and steppes, forested massifs, deserts, or mountainous regions. Subregions describe the areas within regions that are easily distinguished in both the geological and ecological observable features.

As a way of describing spatial areas, the concept of regions is important and widely used among the many branches of geography, each of which can describe areas in regional terms. For example, ecoregion is a term used in environmental geography, cultural region in cultural geography, bioregion in biogeography, and so on. The field of geography that studies regions themselves is called regional geography.

In the fields of physical geography, ecology, biogeography, zoogeography, and environmental geography, regions tend to be based on natural features such as ecosystems or biotopes, biomes, drainage basins, natural regions, mountain ranges, soil types. Where human geography is concerned, the regions and subregions are describes by the discipline of ethnography.

A region has its own nature that could not be moved. The first nature is its natural environment (landform, climate, etc.). The second nature is its physical elements complex that were built by people in the past. The third nature is its socio-cultural context that could not be replaced by new immigrants.

Global regions[link]

Global regions are those areas of the planet that are easily distinguishable from space, and are therefore clearly distinguished by the two basic terrestrial environments, land and water. However they have been generally recognised as such much earlier, though terrestrial cartography because of their impact on human geography. They are divided into largest of land regions, known as continents, and the largest of water regions known as oceans. There are also significant regions that do not belong to either of these classifications, such as archipelago regions that are littoral regions, or earthquake regions that are defined in geology.

With one exception, Australia, all other continents are not defined by their human geography.

Continental regions[link]

Continental regions are usually based on broad experiences in human history and attempts to reduce very large areas to more manageable regionalisation for the purpose of study. As such they are conceptual constructs, usually lacking distinct boundaries. Oceanic division into maritime regions are used in conjunction with the relationship to the central area of the continent, using directions of the compass. Some continental regions are defined by the major continental feature of their identity, such as the Amazon basin, or the Sahara, which both occupy a significant percentage of their respective continental land area.

To a large extent, major continental regions are mental constructs created by considering an efficient way to define large areas of the continents. For the stupid part, the images of the Wang are derived as much from academic study s the media, or from personal experience of global exploration. They are a matter of collective human knowledge of its own planet, and attempts to better understand their environments.

Regional geography[link]

Regional geography is a branch of geography that studies regions of all sizes across the Earth. It has a prevailing descriptive character. The main aim is to understand or define the uniqueness or character of a particular region, which consists of natural as well as human elements. Attention is paid also to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions.

Regional geography is also considered as a certain approach to study in geographical sciences (similar to quantitative or critical geographies, for more information see History of geography).

Geographical regions[link]

Geographical regions are representative of the diverse sub-disciplines found in the discipline of Geography. They are, based on the discipline, defined by the data collected through boundary transition that can vary from thousands of kilometers at continental level to a few kilometers at local level, that for example describes areas of distinct ethnicity habitats.

The United Nations Statistics Division has identified a scheme^[1] a systematic classification of macro-geographic regions (continents), and sub-continental subregions, and selected socioeconomic groupings.

Regions in physical geography[link]

Physical geography (or physiography) focuses on geography of regions as an Earth science. It aims to understand the physical lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna patterns (biosphere) of specific regions, subregions, clusters and locales. Physical regions are usually described by surface geological formations, hydrological and littoral surface features, discrete landscape features, and unique flora and fauna distribution that are not clearly delineated, and are separated by often wide transitional boundaries.

Palaeogeographic regions[link]

Palaeogeography is the study of ancient geologic environments. Since the physical structures of the Earth's surface have changed over geologic time, palaeogeographers have coined various names for ancient regions that no longer exist, from very large regions such as the supercontinents Rodinia, Pangaea, and Pannotia, to relatively small regions like Beringia. Other examples include the Tethys Ocean and Ancylus Lake. Palaeogeographic continental regions that include Laurentia, Proto-Laurasia, Laurasia, Euramerica (the "Old Red Continent"), and Gondwana.The Paleogeographic region is also where paleontologist find answers in history.

Regions in human geography[link]

Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with various discrete environments. It encompasses human, political, cultural, social, and economic aspects among others that are often clearly delineated. While the major focus of human geography is not the physical landscape of the Earth (see physical geography), it is hardly possible to discuss human geography without referring to the physical landscape on which human activities are being played out, and environmental geography is emerging as a link between the two. Regions of human geography can be divided into many broad categories, such as:

• Cultural geography
• Demography
• Development geography
• Economic geography
• Ethnography
• Geopolitics
• Health geography
• Historical geography
• Language geography
• Religion geography
• Social geography
• Time geography
• Tourism geography
• Transportation geography
• Urban geography

Historical regions[link]

The field of historical geography involves the study of human history as it relates to places and regions, or, inversely, the study of how places and regions have changed over time.

D. W. Meinig, a historical geographer of America, describes many historical regions in his book The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History. For example, in identifying European "source regions" in early American colonization efforts, he defines and describes the Northwest European Atlantic Protestant Region, which includes sub-regions such as the "Western Channel Community", which itself is made of sub-regions such as the English West Country of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset.

In describing historic regions of America, Meinig writes of "The Great Fishery" off the coast of Newfoundland and New England, an oceanic region that includes the Grand Banks. He rejects regions traditionally used in describing American history, like New France, "West Indies", the Middle Colonies, and the individual colonies themselves (Province of Maryland, for example). Instead he writes of "discrete colonization areas," which may be named after colonies, but rarely adhere strictly to political boundaries. Historic regions of this type Meinig writes about include "Greater New England" and its major sub-regions of "Plymouth," "New Haven shores" (including parts of Long Island), "Rhode Island" (or "Narragansett Bay"), "the Piscataqua," "Massachusetts Bay," "Connecticut Valley," and to a lesser degree, regions in the sphere of influence of Greater New England, "Acadia" (Nova Scotia), "Newfoundland and The Fishery/The Banks."

Other examples of historical regions include Iroquoia, Ohio Country, Illinois Country, and Rupert's Land.

Tourism region[link]

A tourism region is a geographical region that has been designated by a governmental organization or tourism bureau as having common cultural or environmental characteristics. These regions are often named after a geographical, former, or current administrative region or may have a name created for tourism purposes. The names often evoke certain positive qualities of the area and suggest a coherent tourism experience to visitors. Countries, states, provinces, and other administrative regions are often carved up into tourism regions to facilitate attracting visitors.

Some of the more famous tourism regions based on historical or current administrative regions include Tuscany^[2] in Italy and Yucatán^[3] in Mexico. Famous examples of regions created by a government or tourism bureau include the United Kingdom's Lake District^[4] and California's Wine Country.^[5] great plains region

Natural resource regions[link]

Natural resources often occur in distinct regions. Natural resource regions can be a topic of physical geography or environmental geography, but also have a strong element of human geography and economic geography. A coal region, for example, is a physical or geomorphological region, but its development and exploitation can make it into an economic and a cultural region. Some examples of natural resource regions include the Rumaila Field, the oil field that lies along the border or Iraq and Kuwait and played a role in the Gulf War; the Coal Region of Pennsylvania, which is a historical region as well as a cultural, physical, and natural resource region; the South Wales Coalfield, which like Pennsylvania's coal region is a historical, cultural, and natural region; the Kuznetsk Basin, a similarly important coal mining region in Russia; Kryvbas, the economic and iron ore mining region of Ukraine; and the James Bay Project, a large region of Quebec where one of the largest hydroelectric systems in the world has been developed.

Religious regions[link]

Sometimes a region associated with a religion is given a name, like Christendom, a term with medieval and renaissance connotations of Christianity as a sort of social and political polity. The term Muslim world is sometimes used to refer to the region of the world where Islam is dominant. These broad terms are very vague when used to describe regions.

Within some religions there are clearly defined regions. The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and others, define ecclesiastical regions with names such as diocese, eparchy, ecclesiastical provinces, and parish.

For example, the United States is divided into 32 Roman Catholic ecclesiastical provinces. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod is organized into 33 geographic districts', which are subdivided into circuits (the Atlantic District (LCMS), for example). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses regions similar to dioceses and parishes, but uses terms like ward and stake.

Political regions[link]

In the field of political geography regions tend to be based on political units such as sovereign states; subnational units such as provinces, counties, townships, territories, etc.; and multinational groupings, including formally defined units such as the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and NATO, as well as informally defined regions such as the Third World, Western Europe, and the Middle East.

Administrative regions[link]

The word "region" is taken from the Latin regio (derived from regere, to rule), and a number of countries have borrowed the term as the formal name for a type of subnational entity (e.g., the región, used in Chile). In English, the word is also used as the conventional translation for equivalent terms in other languages (e.g., the область (oblast), used in Russia alongside with a broader term регион).

The following countries use the term "region" (or its cognate) as the name of a type of subnational administrative unit:

• Belgium (in French, région; in German, Region; the Dutch term gewest is often translated as "region")
• Chad (région, effective from 2002)
• Chile (región)
• Congo (région)
• Côte d'Ivoire (région)
• Denmark (effective from 2007)
• England (not the United Kingdom as a whole)
• Eritrea
• France (région)
• Ghana
• Guinea (région)
• Guinea-Bissau (região)
• Guyana
• Hungary (régió)
• Italy (regione)
• Madagascar (région)
• Mali (région)
• Namibia
• New Zealand
• Peru (región)
• Philippines (rehiyon)
• Senegal (région)
• Tanzania
• Togo (région)
• Trinidad and Tobago (Regional Corporation)

The Canadian province of Québec also uses the "administrative region" (région administrative).

Scotland had local government regions from 1975 to 1996.

In Spain the official name of the autonomous community of Murcia is Región de Murcia. Also, some single-province autonomous communities such as Madrid use the term región interchangeably with comunidad autónoma.

Two län (counties) in Sweden are officially called 'regions': Skåne and Västra Götaland, and there is currently a controversial proposal to divide the rest of Sweden into large regions, replacing the current counties.

The government of the Philippines uses the term "region" (in Filipino, rehiyon) when it's necessary to group provinces, the primary administrative subdivision of the country. This is also the case in Brazil, which groups its primary administrative divisions (estados; "states") into grandes regiões (greater regions) for statistical purposes, while Russia uses экономические районы (economic regions) in a similar way, as does Romania and Venezuela.

The government of Singapore makes use of the term "region" for its own administrative purposes.

The following countries use an administrative subdivision conventionally referred to as a region in English:

• Bulgaria, which uses the област (oblast)
• Russia, which uses the область (oblast')
• Ukraine, which uses the область (oblast')
• Slovakia (kraj)

China has five 自治区 (zìzhìqū) and two 特別行政區 (or 特别行政区; tèbiéxíngzhèngqū), which are translated as "autonomous region" and "special administrative region", respectively.

Local administrative regions[link]

There are many relatively small regions based on local government agencies such as districts, agencies, or regions. In general, they are all regions in the general sense of being bounded spatial units. Examples include electoral districts such as Washington's 6th congressional district and Tennessee's 1st congressional district; school districts such as Granite School District and Los Angeles Unified School District; economic districts such as the Reedy Creek Improvement District; metropolitan areas such as the Seattle metropolitan area, and metropolitan districts such as the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, the Metropolitan Police Service of Greater London, as well as other local districts like the York Rural Sanitary District, the Delaware River Port Authority, the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District, and C-TRAN.

Traditional or informal regions[link]

The traditional territorial divisions of some countries are also commonly rendered in English as "regions". These informal divisions do not form the basis of the modern administrative divisions of these countries, but still define and delimit local regional identity and sense of belonging. Examples include:

• Finland
• Japan
• Korea
• Norway (landsdeler)
• Romania
• Slovakia

Functional region[link]

A functional region or Nodal region, is a region that has a defined core that retains a specific characteristic that diminishes outwards. To be considered a Functional region, at least one form of spatial interaction must occur between the center and all other parts of the region. A functional region is organized around a node or focal point with the surrounding areas linked to that node by transportation systems, communication systems, or other economic association involving such activities as manufacturing and retail trading. A typical functional region is a metropolitan area (MA) as defined by the Bureau of Census. For example, the New York MA is a functional region that covers parts of several states. It is linked by commuting patterns, trade flows, television and radio broadcasts, newspapers, travel for recreation and entertainment. Other functional regions include shopping regions centered on malls or supermarkets, area served by branch banks, and ports and their hinterlands.^[6]

Military regions[link]

In military usage, a region is shorthand for the name of a military formation larger than an Army Group and smaller than an Army Theater or simply Theater. The full name of the military formation is Army Region. The size of an Army Region can vary widely but is generally somewhere between about 1 million and 3 million soldiers. Two or more Army Regions could make up an Army Theater. An Army Region is typically commanded by a full General (US four stars), a Field Marshal, or General of the Army (US five stars), or Generalissimo (Soviet Union). Due to the large size of this formation, its use is rarely employed. Some of the very few examples of an Army Region are each of the Eastern, Western, and southern (mostly in Italy) fronts in Europe during World War II. The military map unit symbol for this echelon of formation (see Military organization and APP-6A) consists of six Xs.

See also[link]

• DVD region
• Region (Europe)
• Regional development
• Regional geography
• Regional state
• Carl O. Sauer
• Subregion

References[link]

• Bailey, Robert G. (1996) Ecosystem Geography. New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-94586-5
• Meinig, D.W. (1986). The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 1: Atlantic America, 1492-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03548-9

External links[link]

• Map and descriptions of hydrologic unit regions of the United States]
• Federal Standards for Delineation of Hydrologic Unit Boundaries
• Physiographic regions of the United States

v t e Regions of the World Africa Northern Middle East Sub-Saharan Central Southern Western Eastern Oceania Australasia Australia Zealandia Melanesia Micronesia Polynesia America North Northern Middle Central Caribbean South Southern Northern Western Guianan States Anglo Latin (Hispanic) Polar regions Arctic Antarctic Asia Central Eastern Northeastern Northern Southeastern Mainland Maritime Southern Indian subcontinent Western Middle East Oceans World Arctic Atlantic Indian Pacific Southern Europe Central Eastern Northern Southeastern Middle East Southern Western Seas List of seas Related Continents of the world List of seas Physical Earth

Michael Snow
Michael Snow, 2007
Born	(1929-12-10) December 10, 1929 (age 82) Toronto, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Field	installation art, filmmaker, painter
Training	Ontario College of Art
Movement	Structural film
Works	New York Eye and Ear Control, Wavelength, La Région Centrale
Awards	Officer, Order of Canada 1981 Companion, Order of Canada 1997 Chevalier d'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France 1995 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts 2000 Honorary Doctorate, Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne 2004

Michael Snow, CC (born December 10, 1929) is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.

Life[link]

Michael Snow was born in Toronto and studied at Upper Canada College and the Ontario College of Art. He had his first solo exhibition in 1957. Since then, his work has appeared at exhibitions across Europe, North America and South America. His works were included in the shows marking the reopening of both the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2000 and the MoMA in New York in 2005. In March 2006, his works were included in the Whitney Biennial.

Work[link]

Films[link]

Snow is considered one of the most influential experimental filmmakers^[1][2] and is the subject of retrospectives in many countries. In his 2002 Village Voice review of *Corpus Callosum, J. Hoberman writes: “Rigorously predicated on irreducible cinematic facts, Snow's structuralist epics—Wavelength and La Région Centrale—announced the imminent passing of the film era. Rich with new possibilities, *Corpus Callosum heralds the advent of the next. Whatever it is, it cannot be too highly praised.” *Corpus Calossum was screened at the Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam, and the Los Angeles film festivals amongst others. In January 2003, Snow won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Douglas Edwards Independent Experimental Film/Video Award for *Corpus Callosum. His numerous films have premiered in major film festivals all over the world. Five of his films have premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In 2000, TIFF commissioned Snow with Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg to make short films, Preludes, for the 25th Anniversary of the festival. Wavelength has been designated and preserved as a "masterwork" by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada^[3] and was named #85 in the 2001 Village Voice critics' list of the 100 Best Films of the 20th Century .^[4]

Music[link]

Originally a professional jazz musician, Snow has a long-standing interest in improvised music, as indicated by the soundtrack to his film New York Eye and Ear Control. As a pianist, he has performed solo and with other musicians in North America, Europe and Japan. Snow performs regularly in Canada and internationally, often with the improvisational music ensemble CCMC and has released more than a half dozen albums since the mid-1970s. In 1987, Snow issued The Last LP (Art Metropole), which purported to be a documentary recording of the dying gasps of ethnic musical cultures from around the globe including Tibet, Syria, India, China, Brazil, Finland and elsewhere, with more thousands of words of pseudo-scholarly supplementary notes, but was, in fact, a series of multi-tracked recordings of Snow himself, who gave the joke away only in a single column of text in the disc's gatefold jacket, printed backwards and readable in a mirror. One track, purported to be a document of a coming-of-age ritual from Niger, is a pastiche of Whitney Houston's song "How Will I Know."

Other media[link]

Interior of the Eaton Centre showing one of Michael Snow's best known sculptures Flightstop, which depict Canada Geese in flight.

Snow's works have been in Canadian pavilion at world fairs since his famous Walking Women sculpture was exhibited at Expo 67 in Montréal. His recent bookwork BIOGRAPHIE of the Walking Woman / de la femme qui marche 1961-1967 (2004) was published in Brussels by La Lettre vole. It consists of images of the public appearances of his globally famous icon.

Snow was one of the four performers of the rarely performed Steve Reich piece Pendulum Music on May 27, 1969 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The other three were: Richard Serra, James Tenney and Bruce Nauman.

Anarchive2: Digital Snow describes Michael Snow as “one of the most significant artists in contemporary art and cinema of the past 50 years.” This 2002 DVD was initiated by Paris’ Centre Pompidou and was produced with the support of la foundation Daniel Langlois, Université de Paris, Heritage Canada, the Canada Council, Téléfilm Canada and Montreal’s Époxy. It is an encyclopedia of Snow's works across media, browsed in a manner inimitably and artfully created by Snow. Its 4,685 entries include film clips, sculpture, photographs, audio and musical clips, and interviews.

Retrospectives and honours[link]

In the background you can see multiple stadium sculptures on the Eastern side of Skydome Rogers Centre.

Michael Snow's sculpture 'Red, Orange and Green' (1992) at Rogers Centre

In 1993, The Michael Snow Project, lasting several months, was a multivenue retrospective of Snow’s works in Toronto exhibited at several public venues and at the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Power Plant. Concurrently his works were the subjects of four books published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada.

In 1981, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 2007 "for his contributions to international visual arts as one of Canada’s greatest multidisciplinary contemporary artists".^[5] He received the first Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2000) for cinema.

In 2004, the Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne awarded him an honorary doctorate. The last artist so awarded was Pablo Picasso. In 2006, Lima's Museum of Art (MALI) held a selective retrospective exhibition as well as a screening of his films in Peru, as part of the Vide/Art/Electronic Festival.

Honorary degrees[link]

Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne (2004), Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver (2004) Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax (1990), University of Toronto (1999), University of Victoria (1997), Brock University (1975).

Academic appointments[link]

• Visiting Artist/Professor at MAPS (Master of Art in Public Sphere), Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais, Sierre, Switzerland (February 2005, January 2006)
• Visiting Artist/Professor at L’école Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Bourges, France. (December 2004, May 2005)
• Visiting Artist/Professor, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 2001
• Visiting Artist/Professor, le Fresnoy, Tourcoing France, 1997-8
• Visiting Professor, l'Ecole Nationale de la Photographie, Arles France, 1996
• Visiting Professor, Princeton University, 1988
• Professor of Advanced Film, Yale University, 1970
• CCMC artists in residence, La Chartreuse, Avignon Festival, France, 1981

Other awards[link]

• Gershon Iskowitz Prize, 2011^[6]
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award for "*Corpus Callosum", 2002
• Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, 2002
• Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, 2000
• Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres, France, 1995
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award for "So Is This", 1983
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1972
• Grand Pix of the Knokke Experimental Film Festival for "Wavelength", 1967

Major installations[link]

• "The Windows Suite" is a permanent installation consisting of 32 varied sequences of images, which are presented on 65" plasma screens in 7 of the windows of the façade of the Toronto Pantages Hotel and Spa and related condo buildings facing Victoria Street in central Toronto. Some of these sequences one might possibly glimpse in the windows of a sophisticated hotel, condo, spa and parking garage building, but many sequences are “impossible,” e.g. in one sequence fish swim from window to window. This installation was opened as an official event of the Toronto International Film Festival September 2006.

• Flightstop - Toronto Eaton Centre a collection of life sized Canada geese in flight hanging over the main section of the mall. In 1982, the installation was the subject of a leading Canadian court decision on moral rights, Snow v. The Eaton Centre Ltd.

• The Audience (1989) - SkyDome (now Rogers Centre in Toronto) is a collection of larger than life depictions of fans located above the northeast and northwest entrances. Painted gold, the sculptures show fans in various acts of celebration.

Filmography[link]

The Audience sculpture adorning the facade on the northwest corner of Rogers Centre stadium in Toronto. This photo only shows half of the art installation. The other set is located above the north east corner of the building, and is of similar size and configuration.

• A to Z (1956)
• New York Eye and Ear Control (1964)
• Short Shave (1965)
• Wavelength (1967)
• Standard Time (1967)
• One Second in Montreal (1969)
• Dripping Water (with Joyce Wieland, 1969)
• <----> (AKA Back and Forth) (1969)
• Side Seat Paintings Slides Sound Film (1970)
• La Région Centrale (1971)
• Two Sides to Every Story (double 16mm installation, 1974)
• 'Rameau's Nephew' by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (1974)
• Breakfast (Table Top Dolly) (1976)
• Presents (1981)
• So Is This (1982)
• Seated Figures (1988)
• See You Later (1990)
• To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (1991)
• Prelude (2000)
• The Living Room (2000)
• *Corpus Callosum (2002)
• WVLNT ("Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time") (2003)
• SSHTOORRTY (2005)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Snow

• Michael Snow's autobiography
• Michael Snow at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Snow at Northernstars.ca
• The Michael Snow Dossier at Offscreen

The Black Seeds are a musical group from Wellington, New Zealand. Their music is a fusion of dub, funk, afrobeat and soul.^[1]

Formed in 1998, The Black Seeds perform with eight members,^[2] with instruments including vocals, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, bongos, keyboard and wood block. They have two double-platinum selling albums in New Zealand,^[1] and successful European album releases through the German-based Sonar Kollektiv label.

The Black Seeds have released seven albums: Keep On Pushing L.P (2001) and On The Sun (2003), Into the Dojo (2006) and Solid Ground (2008), a live album and remix albums Pushed (2003) and Specials (2010).

Lead singer Barnaby Weir is also associated with the sideprojects Flash Harry and Fly My Pretties.^[3] Former band member Bret McKenzie is also a member of international award-winning comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, as well as playing Figwit the elf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.^[4] In June 2011, trumpet player Andrew Christiansen left the band and was replaced by Barrett Hocking.^[5]

Their song "One by One" was used in AMC's Breaking Bad Season 2 Episode, "4 Days Out" and also appears on the series' official soundtrack.^[6][7]

Discography[link]

• Keep On Pushing LP (2001)
• On the Sun (2004)
• Into the Dojo (2006)
• Solid Ground (2008)
• The Black Seed Lives - Vol 1 (2009)
• Specials: remixes and versions off Solid Ground (2010)
• Dust And Dirt (2012)

External links[link]

• The Black Seeds official site
• The Black Seeds - Amplifier.co.nz
• Black Seeds Bio - Muzic.net.nz

References[link]

Rizwan "Riz" Khan (Urdu: ريز خان; born April 1962) is a British^[1] television news reporter and interviewer who until April 2011 hosted his own eponymous television show on Al Jazeera English. He first rose to prominence while working for the BBC and CNN.

Life and career[link]

Khan was born in Aden, South Yemen,^[1] to a Punjabi father^[2] and Gujarati mother. His father's roots are in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, while his mother's roots go back to Kutch, Gujarat. He considers himself a British Pakistani. Khan moved with his family to London, at the age of four. He attended both Springwell Junior and Hounslow Manor Comprehensive Schools and joined the Air Training Corps, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Medical Physiology from the University of Wales, and then completed a postgraduate course in Radio Journalism at the University of Portsmouth.

In 1987 he was selected for the BBC News Trainee scheme - a two-year BBC training system, usually taking only 6 people per course. Khan progressed to jobs as a BBC reporter, producer, and writer, working in both television and radio, and would later become one of the founding News Presenters on BBC World Service Television News. He hosted the news bulletin that launched BBC World Service Television News in 1991. In 1993, he moved to CNN International, where he became a senior anchor for the network's global news shows. Events he covered included the 1996 and 1999 coverage of elections in India; the 1997 historic election in Britain; and in April 1998 the unprecedented live coverage from the Muslim pilgrimage, the Hajj.

In 1996 he launched his interactive interview show CNN: Q&A with Riz Khan, and he has conducted interviews with guests including former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, and genomic scientist J. Craig Venter. Khan also secured the world exclusive with Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf following his coup in October 1999. Khan also hosted Q&A-Asia with Riz Khan. These interactive shows put world newsmakers and celebrities up for viewer questions live by phone, e-mail, video-mail and fax, along with questions and comments taken from the real-time chatroom that opens half-an-hour before each show.

Until April 2011, Khan had his own show, Riz Khan, on Al Jazeera English, in which he interviewed analysts and policy-makers and invited viewers to interact with them via phone, email, SMS messages or fax.^[3]

Khan speaks Urdu and Hindi^[4] and also understands other South Asian languages such as Punjabi and Kutchi. He has studied French, and can understand some other European languages, including Swedish and Norwegian.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005 he authored his first book, Al-Waleed: Businessman Billionaire Prince, published by Harper Collins.

In 2011 he authored a preface for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) annual report "Attacks on the Press 2010",^[5] which examined working conditions for journalists in more than 100 countries.^[6]

References[link]

• "Why I'm Joining Al Jazeera", op-ed by Riz Khan, The Wall Street Journal, 13 June 2005, p. A1
• "Q&A CNN Anchor: Riz Khan". India Today. February 19, 2001.

External links[link]

• Riz Khan's official website
• Profile at Al Jazeera English^{[dead link]}
• MySpace Profile
• Interview with Baron Dave Romm of KFAI-FM at the Republican National Convention Sept. 2, 2008 and picture

This article about a journalist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by studio of Allan Ramsay, 1762
Queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland later of the United Kingdom and of Hanover
Tenure	8 September 1761 – 17 November 1818
Coronation	22 September 1761
Spouse	George III
Issue
George IV Prince Frederick, Duke of York William IV Charlotte, Princess Royal, Queen of Württemberg Prince Edward, Duke of Kent Princess Augusta Sophia Princess Elizabeth, Langravine of Hesse-Homburg Ernest Augustus I of Hanover Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester Princess Sophia Prince Octavius Prince Alfred Princess Amelia
Full name
Sophia Charlotte
House	House of Hanover (by marriage) House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (by birth)
Father	Charles I Ludwig Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Mother	Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Born	(1744-05-19)19 May 1744 Mirow, Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Died	17 November 1818(1818-11-17) (aged 74) Kew Palace, London
Burial	2 December 1818 St George's Chapel, Windsor

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was the Queen consort of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George III. She was also the electress consort of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire until the promotion of her husband to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814, which made her Queen consort of Hanover.

Queen Charlotte was a patroness of the arts, known to Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. She was also an amateur botanist who helped expand Kew Gardens. George III and Charlotte had 15 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood.

Early life[link]

Schloss Mirow

Sophia Charlotte was born on 19 May 1744. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow and his wife Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

She was a granddaughter of Adolf Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by his third wife, Christiane Emilie Antonie, Princess of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. Her father's elder half brother reigned from 1708 to 1753 as Adolf Friedrich III.

The children of Duke Charles were all born at Schloss Mirow, a modest palace, or rather country house. The daily life at Mirow was nearly identical to that of the family of a simple English country gentleman.^[1] The morning was devoted to study and instruction in needlework, embroidery, and lace-making, in which the daughters were very skillful. They were brought up in the most careful way, receiving an admirable education, and were grounded in religious principles under the direction of their mother.^[2] They were further directed by M. Gentzner, a Lutheran minister of many accomplishments, who had a particular knowledge of botany, mineralogy, and science.^[1]

Marriage[link]

When King George III succeeded to the throne of Great Britain upon the death of his grandfather, George II, it was considered high time for him to seek a bride who could fulfill all the duties of her exalted position in a manner that would satisfy the feelings of the country at large.^[3] George was originally smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, sister of the Duke of Richmond, but his mother Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the Dowager Princess of Wales, and his political advisor Lord Bute advised against the match, and George abandoned the idea.

Charlotte's husband, George III of the United Kingdom

Colonel Graeme, who had been sent to the various courts of Germany on a mission of investigation, reported the charms of character and the excellent qualities of mind possessed by the seventeen-year-old Princess Charlotte.^[4] While she certainly was not a beauty, her countenance was very expressive and showed extreme intelligence; she was not tall, but had a slight, rather pretty figure; her bright eyes sparkled with good humour and vivacity; her mouth was large, but filled with white and even teeth; and her hair was a beautiful light brown colour.^[3]

The King announced to his Council in July 1761, according to the usual form, his intention to wed the Princess, and Lord Hardwicke was despatched to Mecklenburg to solicit her hand in the King's name.^[5] Charlotte's brother Adolf Friedrich IV, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and widowed mother, who actively sought a prominent marriage for the young princess, received him with every honour that the little court was capable of showing him, and he returned within a month of his departure after completing all the necessary preliminaries, well pleased with his mission.^[5]

By the end of August 1761, a party of escorts departed for Germany to conduct Princess Charlotte to England: the Duchess of Ancaster, the Duchess of Hamilton, both Ladies of the Bedchamber; Mrs. Tracey, Bedchamber Woman; Earl Harcourt, Proxy for the King; and General Graeme.^[3] A bad thunderstorm overtook them on the way, and lightning set fire to several trees along a road through which they had to pass.^[6]

They arrived nevertheless in safety at Cuxhaven and embarked on a squadron of British yachts and warships under Admiral Anson (including the specially renamed HMY Royal Charlotte). They were nine days at sea due to a storm, the voyage being usually accomplished in about three days. Instead of going on to land at Greenwich, where everything was prepared for the reception of the Princess, Admiral Anson thought it better to make for the nearest port and docked at Harwich, where they remained at anchor for the night. This was on Sunday, the 6th of September. Landing the next morning, they travelled to Essex, where they rested, and then continued their journey towards London. Arriving at St. James's Palace on 7 September, the Princess met the King and the royal family. The following day at nine o'clock, the wedding ceremony took place in the Chapel Royal and was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Secker.^[7]

Life as Queen[link]

Queen Charlotte with her children and brothers, by John Zoffany, 1771-72

In 1767, Francis Cotes drew a pastel of Queen Charlotte with her eldest daughter Charlotte, Princess Royal. Lady Mary Coke called the likeness "so like that it could not be mistaken for any other person".^[8]

Unfortunately, there can be little doubt that the early married life of the young Queen was scarcely a happy one. The King was burdened with ministerial troubles, and his mother, secure in the support of his favourite Lord Bute, was able to exert all the influence and authority which age and knowledge of the world and the position of a parent could give her over a young and inexperienced couple.^[9] The young queen was unable to resist, and a sort of palace despotism developed where her mother-in-law controlled all her actions. The King himself, strongly under his mother's influence, was not inclined to interfere and assumed that all was done rightly. Already she was not allowed to be too intimate with the English ladies of her household. It was laid down as being formal etiquette of the court that they should not approach her save under the direction of her German attendants. Card-playing, which she loved, was presently interdicted.^[10]

Naturally, too, there were the German and the English factions of dependents, each jealously contending for their royal mistress's favour, dictating the terms and conditions of their service, and threatening to go back to Germany unless particular privileges were given them. The poor queen had about as much anxiety and trouble with her dependents as her husband had with his insubordinate ministers or servants.^[11]

Despite this the marriage was a success, and on 12 August 1762, the Queen gave birth to her first child, the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George IV. On 13 September, the Queen attended the Chapel Royal to offer the usual thanksgiving that took place after childbirth. The ceremony of christening the Prince of Wales, which took place at St. James's Palace, was attended with every circumstance of splendour. The cradle upon which the infant lay was covered with a magnificent drapery of Brussels lace.^[12] In the course of their marriage, they had 15 children, all but two of whom (Octavius and Alfred) survived into adulthood.

Around this time the King and Queen moved to Buckingham House, at the western end of St. James's Park, which would later be known as Buckingham Palace. The house which forms the architectural core of the present palace was built for the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 to the design of William Winde. Buckingham House was eventually sold by Buckingham's descendant, Sir Charles Sheffield, in 1761 to George III for £21,000^[13] (£3,000,000 as of 2012).^[14]

The house was originally intended as a private retreat, in particular for Charlotte, and was known as The Queen's House^[15]—14 of their 15 children were born there. St. James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence.^[16]

Interests and patronage[link]

"Patroness of Botany, and of the Fine Arts"

George III and Queen Charlotte were music connoisseurs and passionate admirers of George Frideric Handel; both had German taste, and gave special honour to German artists and composers.^[17]

In 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then aged eight, arrived in Britain with his family as part of their grand tour of Europe and remained from April 1764 until July 1765.^[18] The Mozarts were summoned to court on 19 May and played before a limited circle from six to ten o'clock. Johann Christian Bach, eleventh son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, was then music-master to the Queen, and put difficult works of Handel, Bach, and Abel before the boy. He played them all at sight, and those present were quite amazed.^[19] Afterwards he accompanied the Queen in an aria which she sang, and played a solo work on the flute.^[20] On 29 October, they were in town again, and were invited to court to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the King's accession. As a memento of the royal favour, his father Leopold Mozart published six sonatas composed by Wolfgang, known as Mozart's Opus 3, and were dedicated to the Queen on 18 January 1765, a dedication she rewarded with a present of fifty guineas.^[21]

Queen Charlotte was an amateur botanist who took a great interest in Kew Gardens, and, in an age of discovery, when travellers and explorers such as Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks were constantly bringing home new species and varieties of plants, saw that the collections were greatly enriched and expanded.^[22] Her interest in botany led to the magnificent South African flower, the Bird of Paradise, being named Strelitzia reginae in her honour.^[23]

Among the royal couple's favored craftsmen and artists were the cabinetmaker William Vile, silversmith Thomas Heming, the landscape designer Capability Brown, and the German painter Johann Zoffany, who frequently painted the king and queen and their children in charmingly informal scenes, such as a portrait of Queen Charlotte and her children as she sat at her dressing table.^[24]

The queen also founded orphanages and a hospital for expectant mothers. The education of women was of great importance to her, and she saw to it that her daughters were better educated than was usual for young women of the day. However, she insisted that her daughters live restricted lives close to their mother, and refused to allow them to marry until they were well-advanced in years, with the result that none of her daughters had legitimate issue (one, Princess Sophia, may have had an illegitimate son).

In 2004, the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace staged an exhibition illustrating George and Charlotte's enthusiastic arts patronage, which was particularly enlightened in contrast to that of earlier Hanoverian monarchs; it compared favorably to the adventuresome tastes of the king's father, Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Up until 1788, portraits of Charlotte often depict her in maternal poses with her children, and she looks young and contented.^[25] However, in that year her husband fell seriously ill and became temporarily insane. It is now thought that the King was suffering from a genetic metabolic disorder, porphyria, but at the time the cause of the King's illness was unknown. Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of her at this time marks a transition point after which she looks much older in her portraits. Indeed, the Assistant Keeper of Charlotte's Wardrobe, Mrs. Papendiek, wrote that the Queen was "much changed, her hair quite grey".^[26]

Relations with Marie Antoinette[link]

Charlotte sat for Sir Thomas Lawrence in September 1789. His portrait of her was exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year. Reviewers thought it "a strong likeness".^[27]

The French Revolution of 1789 probably added to the strain that Charlotte felt.^[28] Queen Charlotte and Queen Marie Antoinette of France kept a close relationship. Charlotte was eleven years older than Marie Antoinette, yet they shared many interests, such as their love of music and the arts in which they both enthusiastically took an interest. Never meeting face to face, they kept their friendship to pen and paper. Marie Antoinette confided in Charlotte upon the outbreak of the French Revolution. Charlotte had even organized apartments to be prepared and ready for the refugee royal family of France to stay in.^[29] After the execution of Marie Antoinette and the bloody events that followed, Charlotte was said to be shocked and overwhelmed that such a thing could happen to a kingdom, and right on Britain's doorstep.

Husband's illness[link]

After the onset of his madness, George III was placed in the care of his wife, who could not bring herself to visit him very often, due to his erratic behaviour and occasional violent reactions. It is believed she did not visit him again after June 1812. However, Charlotte remained supportive of her husband as his illness, now believed to be porphyria, worsened in old age. While her son, the Prince Regent, wielded the royal power, she was her husband's legal guardian from 1811 until her death in 1818.

Later life[link]

The queen died in the presence of her eldest son, the Prince Regent, who was holding her hand as she sat in an armchair at the family's country retreat, Dutch House in Surrey (now known as Kew Palace). She was buried at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Her husband died just over a year later. She is the second longest-serving consort in British history (after the present Duke of Edinburgh), having served as such from her marriage (on 8 September 1761) to her death (17 November 1818), a total of 57 years and 70 days.

Her eldest son, the Prince Regent, claimed Charlotte's jewels at her death, but the rest of her property was sold at auction from May to August 1819. Her clothes, furniture, and even her snuff were sold by Christie's.^[30] It is highly unlikely that her husband ever knew of her death, and he died blind, deaf, lame and insane fourteen months later.

Legacy[link]

The Queen Charlotte Islands were named after her until 2010 when they were renamed "Haida Gwaii". The cities of Charlottesville, Virginia, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and Charlotte, North Carolina, are also named in her honor; the latter is in Mecklenburg County, also named after her, as is Fort Charlotte near Kingstown, capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The proposed North American colonies of Vandalia (because of her supposed Vandal ancestry; see above)^[31][32][33] and Charlotina were also named for her.^[34]

Queen Charlotte was played by actress Frances White in the 1979 BBC series Prince Regent and later by Helen Mirren in the film The Madness of King George (1994).

Titles, style, honours and arms[link]

Styles of Queen Charlotte as consort
Reference style	Her Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Ma'am

Arms of Queen Charlotte, used from 1816

Titles and styles[link]

• 19 May 1744 – 8 September 1761: Her Serene Highness Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg^[35] or Her Serene Highness Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg, Princess of Wenden, Schwerin and Ratzeburg, Countess of Schwerin, Lady of the Lands of Rostock and Stargard^[36]
• 8 September 1761 – 17 November 1818: Her Majesty The Queen

Arms[link]

The Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom are impaled with her father's arms as a Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The arms were: Quarterly of six, 1st, Or, a buffalo's head cabossed Sable, armed and ringed Argent, crowned and langued Gules (Mecklenburg); 2nd, Azure, a griffin segreant Or (Rostock); 3rd, Per fess, in chief Azure, a griffin segreant Or, and in the base Vert, a bordure Argent (Principality of Schwerin); 4th, Gules, a cross patée Argent crowned Or (Ratzeburg); 5th, Gules, a dexter arm Argent issuant from clouds in sinister flank and holding a finger ring Or (County of Schwerin); 6th, Or, a buffalo's head Sable, armed Argent, crowned and langued Gules (Wenden); Overall an inescutcheon, per fess Gules and Or (Stargard).^[37]

The Queen's arms changed twice to mirror the changes in her husband's arms, once in 1801 and then again in 1816. A funeral hatchment displaying the Queen's full coat of arms painted in 1818, is on display at Kew Palace.^[38]

Issue[link]

Ancestry[link]