Abrams may refer to:

• Abrams (name)
• Abrams v. United States 250 U.S. 616 (1919), U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding free speech during times of war
• M1 Abrams, main battle tank
• Abrams, Wisconsin, U.S. town
• Abrams (community), Wisconsin, US unincorporated community
• Abrams Books, U.S. publishing house

See also[link]

• Abram
• Abramson

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Casey Abrams
Background information
Born	(1991-02-12) February 12, 1991 (age 21) Austin, Texas
Origin	Idyllwild, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, rock, blues
Occupations	Musician, singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, double bass, bass guitar, keyboard, guitar, piano, melodica, accordion, sitar, clarinet, drums, cello[1]
Years active	2011–present
Labels	19, Concord Records
Website	http://iamcaseyabrams.com/

Casey Abrams (born February 12, 1991) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist from Idyllwild, California who finished in sixth place on the tenth season of American Idol. He was eliminated from the competition on April 28, 2011, five weeks after being the third finalist to be saved from elimination by the judges.

Early life[link]

Abrams was born on February 12, 1991 in Austin, Texas, to Pam Pierce and Ira Abrams.^[2][3] His father is Jewish and his mother is from a Catholic background, and Abrams grew up in an interfaith family.^[4] He spent his early years in the Chicago area, first in Evanston, Illinois, then in Wilmette, where he attended McKenzie Elementary School.^[5]

Abrams later moved to California and attended middle school and high school there. He was a student at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, California,^[6] where his father teaches film production.^[2] At Idyllwild Arts, he studied classical bass instruction and improvisation, and participted in the jazz ensembles, gaining a foundation in music history, piano, and jazz piano, and learning to write musical scores for films.^[7]

After graduating from Idyllwild in 2009, he attended University of Colorado at Boulder as a music major.^[8] He worked as a film camp counselor at Idyllwild Arts Summer Camp prior to his appearance on American Idol.

Abrams suffers from ulcerative colitis,^[9] an inflammatory disease which causes ulceration and inflammation of the colon, and that occasionally requires blood transfusions, which resulted in his having been hospitalized while on American Idol.^[10]

Abrams lists as his musical influences Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson, and James Taylor, as well as Marshall Hawkins, head of the jazz department at Idyllwild Arts Academy.^[11]

[edit] American Idol

Overview[link]

Abrams auditioned for the tenth season of American Idol in Austin, Texas. He was selected as one of the Top 24 semi-finalists, but two days before he was due to perform for the semi-finals, he suffered severe stomach pains and was rushed to the hospital.^[12] He was well enough to perform on performance night, and was one of the five male vote receivers to advance to the Top 13;^[13] however, he missed the Top 13 results show due to his illness. He was the lowest vote receiver on the Top 11 result show, but was saved by the judges; they chose to save him immediately, stopping his supposedly last performance on the show halfway through it. He is the third finalist to be saved by the judges in three seasons.

Abrams was eliminated from the competition on April 28, 2011, finishing in sixth place. During his last performance he sang "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a song he had performed during the semifinals. During the performance he kissed audience members, rolled onto the stage, thanked the judges, and sang the last two words ("you're mine") to fellow contestant Haley Reinhart.

On May 25, 2011, Abrams sang "Fat Bottomed Girls" with Jack Black on the American Idol finale.

Performances and results[link]

• ^Note 1 Abrams received the lowest number of votes; however, the judges decided to use their one save of the season to allow him to remain in the competition, resulting in two eliminations the following week.
• ^Note 2 Due to the judges using their one save on Abrams, the Top 11 remained intact for another week.

[edit] Post-Idol

Abrams appeared and performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in April 2011, and Live with Regis and Kelly, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and MTV's The Seven in May of the same year. He was one of the performers in the 2011 American Idols Live Tour, which began in West Valley City, Utah in July 2011, and ended in Manila, Philippines in September 2011.^{[not in citation given][14]}

In August 2011, Abrams became a spokesman in a national campaign called IBD Icons to raise awareness of inflammatory bowel disease.^[15]

Abrams is managed by 19 Entertainment. Abrams and former American Idol Season 10 contestant Haley Reinhart recorded a holiday song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside", in November 2011^[16]—also released on video.^[17]

On January 8, 2012 Abrams signed with Concord Music Group.^[18] Abrams’ linking with Concord Music Group marks the second signing of a contestant from season ten to a non-Universal Music Group-owned label.^{[citation needed]} His first album is self-titled, Casey Abrams, and is scheduled for release on June 26, 2012.^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Casey Abrams on American Idol

Gabe Newell
Newell at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
Born	(1962-11-03) November 3, 1962 (age 49)
Alma mater	Harvard University (dropped out)
Occupation	Managing director of Valve Corporation
Net worth	Est. $1.5 billion[1]

Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962) is the co-founder and managing director of the video game development and online distribution company Valve Corporation.

Work[link]

After having dropped out of Harvard University^[2] Newell spent thirteen years working for Microsoft Corporation, ultimately becoming a "Microsoft Millionaire". Newell has described himself as "producer on the first three releases of Windows".^[3] Inspired by Michael Abrash, who left Microsoft to work on the computer game Quake at id Software, Newell and another Microsoft employee, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to found Valve in 1996.^[3] He and Harrington used their money to fund Valve through the development of Half-Life.

During production on Half-Life 2, he spent several months focusing on the Steam project.^[4]

In 2007, Newell openly expressed his displeasure over developing his software for gaming consoles, particularly the PlayStation 3. In regard to the system, Newell was once quoted as claiming that developing processes for the console in general was "a waste of everybody's time"^[5] and "a disaster on many levels ... I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a do over. Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it'."^[6] Nevertheless, at E3 in 2010, Newell appeared on stage at Sony's keynote; while acknowledging his past outspoken comments on console development, he discussed the open nature of Sony's PlayStation 3 platform, and announced Portal 2 for the console, remarking that with Steamworks support it would be the best version for any console.^[7] Newell has also criticized the Xbox Live service, referring to it as "a train wreck".^[8]

In December 2010, Forbes named Newell as "A Name You Should Know" mainly for his work on Steam having partnerships with multiple major developers.^[9][10] In March 2012, Forbes estimated the net worth of Newell as $1.5 billion dollars, ranking 854th out of 1,226 global billionaires.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Gabe is married to Lisa Newell and has two sons.^[12] He suffered from Fuchs' dystrophy, a congenital disease which affects the cornea, but was cured by two cornea transplants in 2006 and 2007.^[13]

His favorite games are Super Mario 64, Doom, and Star Trek played on a Burroughs mainframe computer. Doom convinced him that video games were the future of entertainment, and Super Mario 64 convinced him video games were art.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gabe Newell

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gabe Newell

• Gabe Newell at the Valve Developer Community wiki

Interviews:

• Discussing Valve at Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Interview from August 2007 at Eurogamer
• The story of the development of Half-Life 2 at Gamespot
• Gabe Newell on Half-Life 2 at HL2 Central

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2010)

Colonel Abrams is a house and urban musician who was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in New York City, New York. He graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School currently known as Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics which is in East Harlem section of Manhattan, there he met a fellow student and a guitar player named Joe Webb.

Career[link]

Colonel Abrams (his real name)^[1][2] moved with his family to New York City when he was ten years old due to his father (a construction worker) getting a job there.^[3] The family moved to the East Village in Manhattan on East 13 Street. From an early age, he began playing the guitar and piano. He was in several early bands, among them was Heavy Impact which he played both guitar and keyboards, Joe Webb (guitar), Lemar Washington (guitar), Marston Freeman (bass guitar), Ronald Simmons (drums), and Barbara Mills (saxophone). Later he formed Conservative Manor (mid-1970s), 94 East (the band featuring Prince on lead guitar), and the New Jersey band Surprise Package.^[1]

Hits in the mid-1980s including "Leave the Message Behind the Door" and "Music Is the Answer" established him as a solo artist, initially in Europe and later in the US.^[2] In 1985 he signed to Steven Machat"s Label/Production company, AMI. Machat, who was working with the New Zealand producer Richard Burgess and hired him against conventional wisdom to produce Colonel Abrams for his company the album Colonel Abrams. Machat then talked MCA into signing the Colonel recordings to have them released throughout the world. AMI also at this time had Ready for the World and the New Edition/Bobby Brown with MCA. This collaboration with the British producer Richard James Burgess produced the hits "Trapped", "I'm Not Gonna Let You" and urban contemporary ballad "Table for Two".

"Trapped" reached the top five and went gold in the UK Singles Chart and topped the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1985,^[3] followed by the Colonel Abrams album, which spent two weeks at number one the following year. It was estimated by the Phonographic Association that "Trapped" sold over 5 million copies worldwide by spring 1987. An electronic remix of "Trapped" was later released in 1995 by Boards of Canada under the pseudonym Hell Interface. A new version of "Trapped" ("Trapped 2006") was released in the UK.

"I'm Not Gonna Let You" also spent a week at number one in the dance chart in 1986. The album peaked at number 75 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart and number 13 on the U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Abrams had a number of entries on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, including four entries that hit number one. In 1987 he had his fourth number-one U.S. dance hit with "How Soon We Forget", the same year that he released his second album, You and Me Equals Us.

On January 9, 2007, Colonel Abrams released the single "Just When You Thought." It became the third single released on his own record label, Colonel Records, the others being "Heartbreaker" and "Let Us All Be Friends". On April 2, 2007, Colonel also released a dance smash called "Never Be". In 2007, Abrams released "Just Like Mathematics" and "True Stories". . June 2008 saw the release of his single, "Only a Few". The Colonel will be performing at the 80s Reunion in August 2011.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Colonel Abrams, 1985 MCA Records (#75 U.S., #1 U.S. Dance)
• You and Me Equals Us, 1987 MCA Records
• About Romance, 1992 RCA Records
• Victim of Loving You, 1995 Strictly Rhythm
• Make a Difference, 1996 Dancefloor
• Best of Colonel Abrams, 2000 Universal Special Products
• Should Be Dancin' (The Album), 2008 Colonel Records,Traxsource.com exclusive
• Tribute To My Brother, 2009 Colonel Records
• Strapped,The Remixes, 2010 Famous Records

Singles[link]

• 1984: "Music Is The Answer" (#84 UK,^[4] #11 U.S. Dance)
• 1985: "The Truth" (#53 UK,^[4] #78 R&B)
• 1985: "Trapped" (#3 UK,^[4] #6 NL #1 U.S. Dance, #20 U.S. R&B)
• 1985: "Over and Over" (#45 U.S. Dance, #68 U.S. R&B)
• 1986: "LP Cuts" (Mix of several different songs) (#1 U.S. Dance)^[5]
• 1986: "I'm Not Gonna Let You" (#24 UK,^[4] #1 U.S. Dance, #7 U.S. R&B)
• 1986: "Speculation" (#15 U.S. Dance)
• 1987: "How Soon We Forget" (#75 UK,^[4] #1 U.S. Dance, #6 U.S. R&B)
• 1987: "Nameless" (#54 U.S. R&B)
• 1987: "Soon You'll Be Gone"
• 1990: "Bad Timing"
• 1991: "I'm Not Gonna Let You (1991)"
• 1991: "You Don't Know (Somebody Tell Me)" (#58 U.S. R&B)
• 1992: "When Somebody Loves Somebody" (#70 U.S. R&B)
• 1992: "Never Be Another One" (#22 U.S. Dance)
• 1993: "I'm Caught Up"
• 1993: "As Quiet as It's Kept"
• 1994: "So Confused" (#15 U.S. Dance)
• 1994: "So Proud"
• 1995: "Victim of Loving You"
• 1996: "Heartbreaker"
• 1996: "99½"
• 1996: "As I Take You Back"
• 1996/7: "Get With You"
• 1997: "Make a Difference"
• 1997: "Trapped '97"
• 2000: "Music Is My Life"
• 2001: "Don't Give Me a Love That I Can't Use"
• 2002: "Hurt My Feelings"
• 2002: "Could It Be"

See also[link]

• List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References[link]

External links[link]

• Colonel Abrams – fansite
• Colonel Abrams discography at Discogs