Baker

Baker Island
Location of Baker Island in the Pacific Ocean
Geography
Coordinates	0°11′41″N 176°28′46″W / 0.19472°N 176.47944°W / 0.19472; -176.47944
Area	1.64 km2 (0.633 sq mi)
Coastline	4.9 km (3.04 mi)
Highest elevation	8 m (26 ft)
Country
United States
Demographics
Population	0
Additional information
unincorporated

Baker Island ( /ˈbeɪkər/) is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 3,100 kilometers (1,700 nmi; 1,900 mi) southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 68 km (37 nmi; 42 mi) to the north.

Located at 0°11′41″N 176°28′46″W / 0.19472°N 176.47944°W / 0.19472; -176.47944.^[1] the island covers 1.64 km² (0.63 sq mi), with 4.9 km (3.04 mi) of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of any lagoon with its highest point being 8 meters (26 ft) above sea level.

The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S. Its defense is the responsibility of the United States; though uninhabited, it is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For statistical purposes, Baker is grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

Description[link]

A cemetery and rubble from earlier settlements are located near the middle of the west coast, where the boat landing area is located. There are no ports or harbors, with anchorage available only offshore. The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard, so there is a day beacon near the old village site. Baker's abandoned World War II runway, 1,665 m (5,463 ft) long, is completely covered with vegetation and is unserviceable.

The United States claims an Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) and territorial sea of 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) around Baker Island.

During a 1935–1942 colonization attempt, the island was most likely on Hawaii time, which was then 10.5 hours behind UTC.^[2] Since it is uninhabited the island's time zone is unspecified, but it lies within a nautical time zone 12 hours behind UTC.

History[link]

Orthographic projection over Baker Island.

Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket whaling ship Equator, who called the island "New Nantucket". In August 1825 Baker was resighted by Captain Obed Starbuck of the Loper, also a Nantucket whaler. The name goes back to Michael Baker, who visited the island in 1834.^[3] Other references state that he visited in 1832, and again on August 14, 1839, in the whaler Gideon Howland, to bury an American seaman.^[4]

The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claiming it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856.^[5] Its guano deposits were mined by the American Guano Company from 1859 to 1878. John T. Arundel and Company, a British firm using a competing claim to the island by the UK, made the island its headquarters for its guano-digging operations in the Pacific from 1886 to 1891. To clarify American sovereignty, Executive Order 7358 was issued on May 13, 1936.^[6]

In 1935, a short-lived attempt at colonization was begun. The American colonists arrived aboard the USCGC Itasca, the same vessel that brought colonists to neighboring Howland Island, on April 3, 1935. They built a lighthouse, substantial dwellings, and attempted to grow various plants. One sad-looking clump of coconut palms was jokingly called "King-Doyle Park" after two well-known citizens of Hawaii who visited on the Taney in 1938. This clump was the best on the island, planted near a water seep, but the dry climate and sea birds, eager for anything upon which to perch, did not give the trees or shrubs much of a chance to survive.^[7] King-Doyle Park was later adopted as a geographical name by the USGS.

The settlement was named Meyerton after Captain H.A. Meyer of the United States Army, who helped establish the camps for the colonists in 1935. It had a population of four American civilians, who were all evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and naval attacks. During World War II it was occupied by the U.S. military.

LORAN Station Baker[link]

LORAN station Baker was a radio operations base in operation from September 1944 to July 1946. The station unit number was 91 and the radio call sign was NRN-1.^[8]

Flora and fauna[link]

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial view of Baker Island

Baker has no natural fresh water sources. It is treeless, with sparse vegetation consisting of four kinds of grass,^[9] prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs. The island is primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife.

Baker Island is home to a number of threatened and endangered species. The ruddy turnstone, bar-tailed godwit, sanderling, bristle-thighed curlew and Pacific golden plover, considered species of High Concern on the national conservation priority scheme, are shorebirds that inhabit the island. Green turtles and hawksbill turtles, both threatened, can be found along the reef.^[10]

Seabird species such as the lesser frigatebird, brown noddy and sooty tern use the island for nesting and roosting. The island is also believed to be a rest stop for arctic-breeding shorebirds.

National Wildlife Refuge[link]

On June 27, 1974, Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton created Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge which was expanded in 2009 to add submerged lands within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the island. The refuge now includes 531 acres (2.15 km²) of land and 410,184 acres (1,659.96 km²) of water.^[11] Along with six other islands, the island was administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. In January 2009, that entity was upgraded to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President George W. Bush.^[12]

Environmental challenges on the Refuge include abandoned military debris from World War II and illegal fishing offshore.^[13] Invasive exotics introduced by human activity have also displaced native wildlife including cockroaches and coconut palm. Feral cats, first introduced in 1937, were eradicated in 1965.^[14]

Public entry to the island is by special-use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only and is generally restricted to scientists and educators. Representatives from the agency visit the island on average once every two years, often coordinating transportation with amateur radio operators or the U.S. Coast Guard to defray the high cost of logistical support required to visit this remote atoll.^[15]

Ruins and artifacts[link]

Debris from past human occupation is scattered throughout the island and in offshore waters. Most is from the U.S. military occupation of the island from 1942 to 1946. The most noticeable remnant is the 150-foot (46 m) wide, 5,400-foot (1,600 m) long airstrip. It is completely overgrown with vegetation and is unusable. In the northeast section, apparently the main camp area, are the remains of several buildings and heavy equipment. Five wooden antenna poles about 40 feet (12 m) in height remain standing in the camp. Several crashed airplanes and large equipment such as bulldozers are scattered around the island. Numerous bulldozer excavations containing the remnants of metal, fuel, and water drums are scattered about the north central portion and northern edge of the island. The Navy reported the loss of 11 landing craft in the surf during World War II.^[16]

Image gallery[link]

• 

  Baker Island coastline with red-footed booby

• 

  Fish and wildlife sign

• 

  Baker Island day beacon

• Baker Island Day Beacon content.jpg

  Hermit crabs taking shade in day beacon

• 

  Settlement remains, radio tower in background

• Baker Island Gravesite.JPG

  Masked booby on gravestone

• 

  Brown noddies with radio towers in background

• Baker Island wreck.JPG

  Wreckage on Baker Island coast

See also[link]

United States portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Baker Island

• 64th Coast Artillery (United States)
• Howland and Baker islands, includes coverage of the Howland-Baker EEZ
• History of the Pacific Islands
• List of Guano Island claims
• List of islands of the United States
• United States Minor Outlying Islands

References[link]

External links[link]

• Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge
• Baker Island. This article incorporates material from The World Factbook 2000.

v t e Political divisions of the United States States Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Federal district Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) Insular areas American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands Outlying islands Bajo Nuevo Bank Baker Island Howland Island Jarvis Island Johnston Atoll Kingman Reef Midway Atoll Navassa Island Palmyra Atoll Serranilla Bank Wake Island

Kenneth Black (born March 11, 1932) is a former politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal from 1987 to 1990, and was a cabinet minister in the government of David Peterson.

Early life and career[link]

Black was born in Bracebridge, and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1955.^[1] He was a secondary school teacher and principal from 1958 to 1980, and was superintendent of the Muskoka Board of Education from 1980 to 1987.^[2] He has also served as past president of Muskoka Children's Aid.

Politician[link]

Black joined the Ontario Liberal Party in 1985.^[3] He was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate George Beatty in Muskoka–Georgian Bay, a new division created by redistribution. Its primary antecedent, Muskoka, had been held by former Progressive Conservative premier Frank Miller until 1987, and the PCs were historically the dominant party in the area. Black was considered a strong candidate, however, and his victory was not entirely unexpected.^[4] Black credited his victory to a strong campaign team, popular satisfaction with Liberal leader David Peterson, and the fact that some local PCs were unhappy with party leader Larry Grossman.^[5]

In August 1988, Peterson appointed Black as a one-man task force to review government and non-government programs against drug abuse.^[6] His report, issued in mid-October, recommended mandatory drug education starting in the early grades, drug treatment and education programs for offenders, increased training about drugs for social workers and health care workers, and the addition of about thirty-six officers to the provincial drug unit.^[7] Black criticized the "zero tolerance" approach of the American "war on drugs", arguing that it was largely ineffective.^[8]

After the report's release, Black was named special advisor to the premier on drugs with responsibility for co-ordinating and monitoring all government programs against drug abuse.^[9] In December 1988, he announced a pilot project for substance abuse counselling operated by the YMCA of Metropolitan Toronto.^[10]

Cabinet minister[link]

Black was promoted to the provincial cabinet on August 2, 1989, serving as Minister of Tourism and Recreation and Minister responsible for the provincial anti-drug stategy.^[11] He introduced a new provincial anti-drug strategy in November 1989 that fulfilled some of his previous recommendations, including the hiring of more police officers and the introduction of early education programs. It also allocated $4.5 million for community-based pilot projects against drug abuse; in June 1990, Black announced that this funding would to targeted to projects in nine communities.^[12]

Black was critical of the federal Goods and Services Tax introduced by the government of Brian Mulroney, arguing that it would put Ontario's tourism sector at risk of losing jobs and revenue.^[13] Tourism in Ontario declined in this period, due in large part to a continental economic downtown.^[14]

Black travelled to Paris in December 1989 to support Toronto's bid to host Expo 2000.^[15] Toronto lost the bid Hanover, West Germany.

After politics[link]

Black's time in cabinet was brief. The Liberals suffered an upset loss to the New Democratic Party in the 1990 provincial election, and Black finished third in his bid for re-election. He formally resigned from office with the rest of the Peterson cabinet on October 1, 1990. In 1991-92, he was chief organizer for Charles Beer's unsuccessful bid to succeed Peterson as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.^[16] He attempted to return to the provincial legislature in the 1995 election, but finished well behind Progressive Conservative candidate Bill Grimmett.

Black later served as president of the Muskoka Heritage Foundation, and founded the Muskoka Watershed Council in 2001.^[17] He was appointed as a director of the Toront03 Alliance in July 2003.^[18]

Electoral record[link]

References[link]

1. ^ Nomination Category: Community Advocate, Muskoka Awards 2009, accessed 7 December 2009.
2. ^ "Minister's brother to run for Tories", 24 April 1987, A11.
3. ^ Robert Sheppard, "Liberals target Tory heartland in bid for majority", Globe and Mail, 7 September 1987, A1.
4. ^ Alan Christie, "20 key ridings could determine size of victory", Toronto Star, 6 September 1987, A1.
5. ^ Robert Matas, "Heartland of PC vote is pierced by Grits", Globe and Mail, 11 September 1987, A13.
6. ^ Mary Gooderham, "Peterson appoints backbencher to probe abuse of illegal drugs", Globe and Mail, 17 August 1988, A3. The opposition parties argued that the task force should have included more members.
7. ^ Matt Maychak, "Scholls (sic) don't go far enough now, report says", Toronto Star, 17 October 1988, A1.
8. ^ Elaine Carey, "Can we win war on drugs?", Toronto Star, 17 October 1988, A20.
9. ^ Kathleen Kenna, "MPP to advise Peterson in drug war", Toronto Star, 19 October 1988, A1; Kathleen Kenna, "Schools to get up to $6 million in war on drugs", Toronto Star, 20 October 1988, A16.
10. ^ Matt Maychak, "Ontario setting up drug abuse program for Toronto youths", Toronto Star, 8 December 1988, A11.
11. ^ Ken Black, MPP, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, accessed 7 December 2009.
12. ^ Nancy Wood, "Police, schools, communities all involved in blitz", Toronto Star, 20 November 1989, A1; "9 zones spearhead drug war", Toronto Star, 7 June 1990, A1.
13. ^ "MINISTER SAYS PROPOSED FEDERAL GST MAY HARM TOURISM INDUSTRY" [press release], Canada NewsWire, 23 October 1989, 05:21.
14. ^ Lori MacLean, "Tourism in Ontario on decline again", Globe and Mail, 19 July 1990, N3.
15. ^ Jim Byers, "Ontario reported ready to aid world's fair bid", Toronto Star, 6 December 1989, A6; "Peterson climbs aboard Expo 2000 bandwagon", Globe and Mail, 7 December 1989, A17; "SOLICITOR GENERAL PIERRE BLAIS LEADS CANADIAN DELEGATION MAKING FINAL PITCH FOR EXPO 2000" [press release], Canada NewsWire, 14 December 1989, 11:26 am.
16. ^ Gene Allen, "Elston may jump into Liberal race", Globe and Mail, 13 November 1991, A11.
17. ^ Nomination Category: Community Advocate, Muskoka Awards 2009, accessed 7 December 2009.
18. ^ "Toront03 Alliance Announces Board Of Directors" [press release], CNNMatthews (Canada), 15 July 2003.

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (March 2010)

John Landis
John Landis at The Blues Brothers 25th Anniversary
Born	John David Landis (1950-08-03) August 3, 1950 (age 61) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor Director Producer Screenwriter
Spouse	Deborah Nadoolman Landis

John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.

Early life and career[link]

Landis was born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Shirley Levine (née Magaziner) and Marshall Landis, an interior designer and decorator.^[1] His family relocated to Los Angeles when he was four months old.

He began working as a mailboy at 20th Century Fox. His first noteworthy job in Hollywood was working as a "go-fer" and then as an assistant director during filming MGM's Kelly's Heroes in Yugoslavia in 1969; he replaced the film's original assistant director, who suffered from a nervous breakdown and was sent home by the producers.^[2] While filming, he met actors Don Rickles and Donald Sutherland, both of whom he would later cast in his own films. Following this, Landis worked on many films made in Europe (especially in Italy and England), most notably, Once Upon a Time in the West, El Condor and A Town Called Bastard (a.k.a. A Town Called Hell).^[2] Landis also worked as a stunt double.

Landis recalled:

After his experience working as a stunt double, he moved to London and worked as an uncredited co-writer for the film The Spy Who Loved Me.^{[citation needed]}

Career as a director[link]

Beginnings[link]

When Landis was a young boy, he watched The 7th Voyage of Sinbad which, as told to Robert K. Elder for The Film That Changed My Life^[3], inspired him to become a director.

I had complete suspension of disbelief—really, I was eight years old and it transported me. I was on that beach running from that dragon, fighting that Cyclops. It just really dazzled me, and I bought it completely. And so, I actually sat through it twice and when I got home, I asked my mom, “Who does that? Who makes the movie?”^[4]

In 1971, Landis made his feature debut as a director in the US with Schlock. He was 21 years old. The film, which he also wrote and appeared in, is a tribute to monster movies.^[2] The gorilla suit for the film was made by Rick Baker--the beginning of a long-term collaboration between Landis and Baker. Schlock was a failure, and Landis was not offered another directing job for some time.^{[citation needed]}

In his own words, he "parked a lot of cars" during this fallow period.^{[citation needed]} In 1977, Landis directed Kentucky Fried Movie. The film was inspired by the satirical sketch comedy of shows like Monty Python, Free the Army, The National Lampoon Radio Hour and Saturday Night Live.^[2]

Transition to Hollywood[link]

In 1978, Landis directed his first film for Universal Studios, National Lampoon's Animal House, which was both critically and financially successful. This created new opportunities for Landis under Universal's umbrella.

In 1979, Landis co-wrote and directed The Blues Brothers, a comedy starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul legends James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. It was, at the time, one of the most expensive films ever made (cost: almost $30 million) (for comparison: the earlier Steven Spielberg's contemporary 1941 cost $35 million). It is speculated that Spielberg and Landis engaged in a rivalry, the goal of which was to make the more expensive movie.^[2] The rivalry might have been a friendly one, as Spielberg makes a cameo appearance in Blues Brothers (as the unnamed desk clerk near the very end) and Landis had made a cameo in 1941 as a messenger.

In 1981, Landis wrote and directed another cult-status movie, the comedy-horror An American Werewolf in London. American Werewolf was perhaps Landis' most personal project; he had been planning to make it since 1969, while in Yugoslavia.

Landis next directed the opening teaser and first segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983.

Accident and trial[link]

On July 23, 1982, during the filming of Twilight Zone, actor Vic Morrow and child extras Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in an accident involving an out-of-control helicopter. The National Transportation Safety Board reported in October 1984:

Landis and several crew members were subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. The prosecutors attempted to show that Landis was reckless and had violated laws relating to child actors by not telling parents and others of the children's proximity to explosives and helicopters and of limitations on their working hours. Numerous members of the film crew testified that the director was warned, but ignored these dangers. After an extended jury trial, Landis, represented by criminal defense attorney Harland Braun, and other crew members were acquitted of the charges.^[6]

Landis was later reprimanded for circumventing the State of California's child labor laws in hiring the two children killed in the accident. This tragedy resulted in stricter safety measures and enforcement of child labor laws, in the State of California.^[6] The parents of the children sued, and would later settle out of court with the studio for $2 million per family. Morrow's children, one of them being actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was 20 at the time, also settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Despite these settlements, Landis has never publicly accepted responsibility for the accident. During an interview with Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan, Landis said:

Later career[link]

Trading Places, a Prince and the Pauper-style comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy was filmed directly after the Twilight Zone accident. After filming ended, Landis and his family went to London: then he was approached by Michael Jackson to make a video for his song, "Thriller".^[2] "Thriller" forever changed MTV and the concept of music videos; it has won numerous awards, including the Video Vanguard Award for The Greatest Video in the History of the World. In 2009 (months before Jackson died), Landis sued the Jackson estate in a dispute over royalties for the video; he claims to be owed at least four years' worth of royalties.^[7][8]

Next, Landis directed Into The Night, starring Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer and David Bowie (a film was inspired by Hitchcock productions; Landis played in this film a mute member of the quartet of Iranian hitmen). To promote this movie, he collaborated with Jeff Okun to direct a documentary film called B.B. King "Into the Night". Landis directed music videos for three of King's songs as part of the film: "Lucille", "Into the Night" (specially composed by Ira Newborn for movie Into the Night) and "In the Midnight Hour."

His next film, Spies Like Us, (starring co-writer Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase) was an homage to the Road to... films, starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Hope made a cameo in the film as himself. The movie also pays homage to spy movies such as the James Bond series; the crew included special effects makers Ray Harryhausen and Derek Meddings, both of whom had worked on Bond movies. Landis also directed a video for Paul McCartney as part of the promotion for Spies Like Us,^{[citation needed]} and co-wrote the comedy film Clue.

In 1986, Landis directed ¡Three Amigos! for HBO. The film starred Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin. Landis was the second choice to direct; Steven Spielberg had refused. The film was a tribute to old Mexican style westerns and musical movies. Randy Newman wrote three original songs for the film, which was shot in Technicolor to make it look like older Westerns.^{[citation needed]}

Landis next directed the Eddie Murphy film, Coming to America, which was a huge commercial success. It was also the subject of Buchwald v. Paramount, a civil suit filed by Art Buchwald in 1990 against the film's producers. Buchwald claimed that the concept for the film had been stolen from a 1982 script that Paramount optioned from Buchwald. Buchwald won the breach of contract action.^{[citation needed]}

In 1991, Landis collaborated again with Michael Jackson on the music video for the song "Black or White". In the same year, he directed Sylvester Stallone in the title role in Oscar, based on a Claude Magnier stage play. Oscar recreates a 1930 era film, including the gestures along with bit acts and with some slapstick, as a homage to old Hollywood films.^{[citation needed]} In 1992, he directed Innocent Blood, a horror-crime film.

In 1994, Landis directed Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop III. They had previously worked together on Trading Places and Coming to America. In 1996, he directed The Stupids. Landis returned to Universal to direct Blues Brothers 2000 in 1998, the same year he directed Susan's Plan. The four movies did not score with critics and audiences.

Burke and Hare was released in 2010, Landis's first theatrical release for over a decade.

In August 2011 Landis said he would return to horror and will be writing a new film. ^[9]

Upcoming projects[link]

[edit] Some Guy Who Kills People

Landis is set to produce the crime thriller Some Guy Who Kills People, written by Ryan Levin and directed by Jack Perez.^[10] Filming is expected to begin in January 2010^[11] and stars Kevin Corrigan in a lead role.^[12]

Television[link]

Landis directed Kentucky Fried Movie, which is a tribute to television. Later he co-directed Amazon Women on the Moon in the same vein. Landis has been active in television as the executive producer (and often director) of the series Dream On (1990), Weird Science (1994), Sliders (1995), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997), Campus Cops (1995), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1998), Masters of Horror, and various episodes of Psych. He also made commercials for DirecTV, Taco Bell, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg's, and Disney.

Documentaries[link]

His first documentary, Coming Soon from 1982, was released only on VHS. Next, he co-directed B.B. King "Into the Night" (1985) and in 2002 directed Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update, which can be seen as a part of the Animal House DVD extras. Initially, his documentaries were only made to promote his feature films. However, later in his career, he became more serious about the oeuvre and made Slasher (2004), Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007) and the upcoming Starz Inside: Ladies or Gentlemen (2009). All of these documentaries were filmed for television; Landis won a 2008 Emmy Award for Mr. Warmth. He worked currently on the Making of Thriller which will shot in 3-D.^[13] Landis stars in the Spanish documentary The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry, which centers the life and career of Paul Naschy.^[14]

Personal life[link]

Landis is married to Deborah Nadoolman Landis, an Oscar-nominated costume designer, two-term president of the Costume Designers Guild, and chair of The David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design at UCLA. They have two children: Max, writer of the acclaimed film Chronicle and Amnesty, and Rachel, a school teacher with a Master's Degree in Human Development. In a BBC Radio interview he stated that he is an atheist.

Style and techniques[link]

Recurring motifs[link]

See You Next Wednesday[link]

One of Landis' trademarks is to insert references to a fictional film called See You Next Wednesday in movies that he directs. The line is from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey; this is how Frank Poole's parents end their video to him. The line is also mentioned in the opening scene of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", when the police decode a message from Jackson's werecat character.

When in Hollywood, Visit Universal Studios. Ask for Babs[link]

This is an advertisement for the tour at Universal Studios, from John Landis movies made for Universal. This is also referring (shown at the end of the credits) to the character Babs from the movie National Lampoon's Animal House. When in Hollywood... is showing at the end of the credits, and it consists of three blue cards, the first saying "Universal Studios—the Entertainment Center of the World," the second saying "When in Hollywood Visit Universal Studios," and the last adding "Ask for Babs". The new version of this advertisement, which appeared in Blues Brothers 2000 (the first film directed by Landis for Universal since Amazon Women on the Moon) includes only one card: "Universal Studios—Hollywood and Florida. See the stars and ride the movies! (Ask for Babs)." Patrons who asked for Babs were once given a certain degree of reward; any promo was long since discontinued, save a simple smile or acknowledgment from a park staffer. In one DVD release of Animal House, there was a Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update mockumentary that featured, among others, Martha Smith (who played Babs) indeed working the rounds as a tour guide at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

List of films with When in Hollywood, Visit Universal Studios. Ask for Babs:

• National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• An American Werewolf in London (1981)
• Coming Soon (1982)
• Into the Night (1985)
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
• Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
• Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update (2003)

In non-Landis works:

• Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
• Dracula (1979)
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
• More American Graffiti (1979)
• Galactica III: Conquest of the Earth (1980)
• The Nude Bomb (1980)
• E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
• Scarface (1983)
• The Last Starfighter (1984)
• Sixteen Candles (1984)
• The Great Outdoors (1988)
• Uncle Buck (1989)
• Cape Fear (1991)
• Sneakers (1992)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
• Drag Me to Hell (2009)
• Fast Five (2011)
• Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
• Tower Heist (2011)

Closing credits[link]

Landis's films often feature a montage either before or during the end credits, which shows clips or outtakes from the movie, with the names of the featured actors at the bottom of the screen. This device was first used in Animal House, but does not feature in Schlock, The Kentucky Fried Movie, An American Werewolf in London, Three Amigos or Beverly Hills Cop III. The montages for Spies like Us and Innocent Blood also contain jokes.

Directors' cameos[link]

Landis casts famous film directors in cameo appearances in almost all of his movies (Spies Like Us has several in one memorable scene). He frequently invited director Frank Oz to play small parts in his movies, and others such as Roger Vadim, Paul Mazursky, Jim Henson, Jonathan Demme, and David Cronenberg in Into the Night; Terry Gilliam, Joel Coen, Michael Apted in Spies Like Us; Sam Raimi in Spies Like Us and Innocent Blood; George Lucas in Beverly Hills Cop III; Steven Spielberg in Blues Brothers; Dario Argento in Innocent Blood; and Costa-Gavras in The Stupids. In 2011, this trademark was paid homage to when Landis himself was cast to play the part of a director in episode two of the second series of British TV horror-comedy Psychoville. Although he didn't direct the movie, he made a cameo appearance as a doctor in the Sam Raimi movie Darkman, starring Liam Neeson (Landis is one of the doctors examining Neeson after he was burned in the building.)

Break the fourth wall[link]

Several of Landis' films break the fourth wall.^[2] In Animal House, Bluto turns to the camera and raises an eyebrow while peeking through the window of a sorority house. In Trading Places, Billy Ray Valentine shares a glance with the audience while being patronized by the Duke brothers' explanation of commodities markets. In An American Werewolf in London, David stares for a moment into the camera during his first transformation. In Coming to America, Prince Akeem raises his eyes to look at the camera after seeing his new bride make animal sounds at his request. Later in that same movie, Daryl looks up at the camera in surprise as Patrice starts to unzip him after he comes in from the rain. Another example is at the end of the Thriller music video, when Michael Jackson looks back at the camera with the infamous yellow eyes.

Oldsmobiles and car crashes[link]

Many of his films feature references to the Oldsmobile.^[2] It appeared in Animal House (Mayor Carmine DePasto owns an Oldsmobile dealership and allows his vehicles to be used during the parade), Trading Places (Duke & Duke limousine), Thriller (Jackson's car), Twilight Zone (during Prologue), Into the Night (Diana's brother's car), Blues Brothers (while driving through the mall, Elwood said: "The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year"), Three Amigos (during scenes in Santo Poco), and Oscar.

In many Landis movies, there are also car crashes: the final sequence in Animal House; in many scenes in Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000; during the final sequence near Piccadilly Circus in American Werewolf; during the opening sequence in Into the Night (while the crew's credits are showing); during the final sequence in Innocent Blood (when Macelli was run down by bus and taxi); and during one scene in The Stupids (cars crash because of Mrs. Stupid).

References to old movies playing on television[link]

In many scenes, actors do something while we see movies/cartoons playing on television or hear sound from the TV set, which serves as commentary for actors' actions during scenes.^[2] In the television version of Trading Places, Clarence Beeks drugs a security guard and steals the crop report while Sunset Boulevard is showing; in Into the Night in Hamid's apartment, the movie Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is playing while Ed is looking for Diana and later, when Mr. Morris fighting with Mr. Williams. In Spies Like Us Emmit Fitzhume (Chevy Chase) is watching the musical She's Working Her Way Through College (from 1952, starring Ronald Reagan), and later during the press conference, the clips from this movie are showing on TV. In Innocent Blood in several scenes, Phantom of the Rue Morgue (from 1954) is showing on the television during the morgue scenes (with Macielli).

Image of King Kong[link]

Landis created several characters with similarities to King Kong^[15] in his films (including Schlock – the title hero; in Kentucky Fried Movie – animal showing during TV's show; in An American Werewolf in London in ZOO; in Trading Places in the train during New Year's Eve) or inserted images of gorillas in his films as part of production designs: in Blues Brothers on promotional poster of fictional movie called See You Next Wednesday (the same situation in The Stupids) and on the poster in Three Amigos (shows as one of advertisement of Goldsmith Studios), in Innocent Blood we may see a monkey from the movie playing on television; in Blues Brothers 2000 it appears as a huge gorilla's figure in Queen Mousette's House.

Awards[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Nominations

• Schlock for Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
• Twilight Zone: The Movie for Best Film at Fantasporto
• "Dream On" was nominated four times in the Comedy Series category at the CableACE Awards

Awards won

• Schlock won the Best Film award during Fantafestival
• Into the Night won the Special Jury Prize at the Cognac Festival du Film Policier
• "Dream On" won a CableACE Award in the Comedy Series in 1992
• Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project won in the "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special" category at the Emmy Awards

• French government in 1985 (Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres)
• Rimini Cinema Festival in Italy (Federico Fellini Prize)
• George Eastman Scholar, The Eastman House
• Sitges Film Festival in Spain (Time Machine Career Achievement Award)

Significant collaborations[link]

Cast[link]

With Dan Aykroyd

Aykroyd wrote the original script for the movie The Blues Brothers, which at 324 pages was three times longer than a standard screenplay. Landis was given the task of editing the script into a usable screenplay, and the film was released in 1980 as a musical comedy. Aykroyd then starred (along with Murphy) in Trading Places. In the same year (1983) he appeared in Twilight Zone: The Movie. Two years later, he made a cameo in Into the Night and B.B. King "Into the Night" (as one of B.B. King's band members) and starred in (as well as co-wrote) Spies Like Us. This would be Aykroyd's last role in a Landis film until 1998.

With Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy first collaborated with Landis during Trading Places. Murphy frequently collaborated with Landis, and appeared also in Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop III. Murphy made a cameo in Landis's two videos for B.B. King: In the Midnight Hour and My Lucille in which he played band's member as drummer.

With Michael Jackson

When Landis and his family were living in London, he was approached by Michael Jackson to make a video for his song, "Thriller".^[2] "Thriller" forever changed MTV and the concept of music videos; it has won many awards. In 2009, Landis sued Jackson in a dispute over royalties for the video; he claims to be owed four years' worth of royalties,^[7][8] effectively ending their friendship. In 1991 Landis directed a second video for Jackson, "Black or White", in which Landis appeared as himself.

During an interview with Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan Landis said:

With Frank Oz

Landis has cast Oz in small roles in several of his movies. Oz played a corrections officer in Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000. He also had roles in An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Spies Like Us, and Innocent Blood. Even if he's not appeared in a Landis movie, his name is often spoken in the background. During airport scenes in Into the Night and Coming to America, there are announcements on the PA system requesting a 'Mr. Frank Oznowicz' to pick up the white courtesy phone. Oznowicz is Oz's given name. During interview with Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan, Frank Oz said:

Crew[link]

With Deborah Nadoolman Landis

Throughout his career, Landis has utilized his wife, Deborah Nadoolman Landis, as a costume designer. She created such costumes as Bluto's toga in Animal House; black suits, hats and glasses for the Blues Brothers; Michael Jackson's red jacket in Thriller; sheepskin jackets for Spies Like Us; the protagonists' costumes in ¡Three Amigos!; and Prince Akeem's coronation outfit in Coming to America. Deborah Nadoolman was nominated for an Academy Award in 1988 for Coming to America.

With Rick Baker

Richard Baker is an Academy Award-winning special makeup effects artist known for his realistic creature effects. Baker worked with Landis for the first time during Schlock. Baker also created special makeup effects for Landis' An American Werewolf in London (for which he won the Academy Award), Twilight Zone: The Movie, Thriller, and Coming to America (which garnered him an Academy Award nomination). Baker also appeared in Into the Night as a drug dealer.

With George Folsey Jr.

George Folsey is a producer and editor. He edited or co-edited six Landis' films, from Schlock (1973) to The Blues Brothers (1980), Thriller and Coming to America. Folsey produced eleven films directed or co-directed by Landis (Schlock, The Blues Brothers, all films from An American Werewolf in London to Coming to America). He was also second unit director collaborated with Landis during his Trading Places, Into the Night and ¡Three Amigos!.

With Leslie Belzberg

Leslie Belzberg is a film and television producer. She produced ten films directed by Landis, from Into the Night to Susan's Plan) and four TV series in which Landis participated, including The Lost World and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show. Belzberg was George Folsey's assistant during filming Trading Places, and also was Blues Brothers 2000 executive music producer. She won – along with Landis – CableACE Awards for Dream on series and appeared in The Making of "Blues Brothers 2000" as herself.

With Elmer Bernstein

Bernstein composed music for eight of Landis' movies: National Lampoon's Animal House ("Faber College Theme"), Blues Brothers ("God's Music"), An American Werewolf in London (about 7-minutes of score), Trading Places (most of score is variations on Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro"), Thriller ("Scary Music"), Spies Like Us, ¡Three Amigos! and Oscar (score is adaption of "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini). Bernstein was nominated for Academy Award for Trading Places score in 1984.

With Ira Newborn

Newborn composed music for three of Landis' movies: the smoky jazz score for Into the Night, for which he wrote music for B.B. King (included two songs especially wrote for the film soundtrack: My Lucille and Into the Night); 'wallpaper' music for "Mondo Condo" novel from Amazon Women on the Moon and urban jazzy big-band score for Innocent Blood. He supervised and conducted music for Blues Brothers movie. Newborn's music was also used by Landis in a 1985 documentary film directed by Jeff Okun called B.B. King "Into the Night". This film contains three music videos directed by Landis to two songs written by Newborn and one arranged by the composer. Two songs co-written by Newborn were also added to "Into the Night" LP soundtrack edition, but neither of them were used in the film.

With Robert Paynter

Landis worked with cinematographer Robert Paynter on five films: An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Thriller, Into the Night and Spies Like Us. Paynter helped to create a "pop" comic book-style of American Werewolf, Thriller and Into the Night. He also made a cameo in Into the Night (as Security Guard), Spies like Us (as Dr. Gill) and Burke and Hare (as Distinguished Doctor) - his last credit before his death.

With Mac Ahlberg

Landis worked with a Swedish cinematographer Mac Ahlberg on three feature films in early 90s : Oscar, Innocent Blood and Beverly Hills Cop III. Ahlberg was also director of photography of two television episodes from Dream on series: The First Episode and The Second Greatest Story Ever Told - both directed by Landis. Ahlberg and Landis also collaborated on Michael Jackson's Black or White music video.

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

Directed by Landis:

• Schlock (1973) (also writer)
• The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
• National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
• The Blues Brothers (1980) (co-written with Dan Aykroyd)
• An American Werewolf in London (1981) (also writer)
• Trading Places (1983)
• Into the Night (1985)
• Spies Like Us (1985)
• Three Amigos (1986)
• Coming to America (1988)
• Oscar (1991)
• Innocent Blood (1992)
• Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
• The Stupids (1996)
• Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) (co-written with Dan Aykroyd)
• Susan's Plan (1998) (also writer)
• Burke and Hare (2010)

Co-directed by Landis:

• Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) (also writer)
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)

Documentary films[link]

For Video/DVD:

• Coming Soon (1982)
• Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update (2002)

For Television:

• Slasher (2004)
• Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2006)

Co-directed by Landis:

• B.B. King "Into the Night" (video segments, 1985)

Music videos[link]

Shorts films for Michael Jackson:

• Thriller (1983)
• Black or White (1991)

For B.B. King (from film B.B. King "Into the Night"):

• My Lucille
• Into the Night
• In the Midnight Hour

For Paul McCartney:

• Spies Like Us (1986)

Television episodes[link]

• Disneyland's 30th Anniversary Celebration (1 episode, 1985)
• George Burns Comedy Week (1 episode, "Disaster at Buzz Creek", 1985)
• Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration (1 episode, 1990)
• Dream On (9 episodes, 1990–1995)
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1 episode, 1999)
• Masters of Horror

"Deer Woman" (2005)

"Family" (2006)

• The Great Sketch Experiment (segments, 2006)
• Psych (3 episodes, 2007, 2008)
• Fear Itself

"In Sickness and in Health" (2008)

• Psychoville (1 episode, 2011)

Other works[link]

• Universal 360: A Cinesphere Spectacular (2006)

Books about John Landis[link]

• Alberto Farina (1995). "John Landis". Il Castoro. ISBN 978-88-8033-030-1
• Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan (2008). "John Landis". M Press. ISBN 1-59582-041-8

References[link]

External links[link]

• John Landis at the Internet Movie Database
• John Landis at AllRovi
• John Landis at the Notable Names Database
• 80's Movie Rewind Profile about Director
• Daily Variety, May 24, 1994: Spotlight on John Landis — Billion Dollar Director

Interviews

• Interview with John Landis

About Twillight Zone accident

• All about The Twilight Zone tragedy
• NTSB Accident Investigation Report

Nicholson Baker in December 2007.

Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about poetry, literature, library systems, history, politics, time manipulation, youth and sex. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization.

Life[link]

Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 in New York City, and spent much of his youth in the Rochester, New York, area. He studied briefly at the Eastman School of Music and received a B.A. in philosophy from Haverford College. He lives today with his wife and two children in South Berwick, Maine. He received a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 for his nonfiction book Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper.

Baker has been a fervent critic of what he perceives as libraries' unnecessary destruction of paper-based media. He wrote several vehement articles in The New Yorker critical of the San Francisco Public Library for sending thousands of books to a landfill, the elimination of card catalogs, and the destruction of old books and newspapers in favor of microfilm. In 1997, Baker received the San Francisco–based James Madison Freedom of Information Award in recognition of these efforts.

In 1999, Baker established a non-profit corporation, the American Newspaper Repository, to rescue old newspapers from destruction by libraries.^[1] In 2001 he published Double Fold, in which he accuses certain librarians of lying about the decay of materials and being obsessed with technological fads, at the expense of both the public and historical preservation.

Baker describes himself as having "always had pacifist leanings."^[2]

In March 2008, Baker reviewed John Broughton's Wikipedia: The Missing Manual in the New York Review of Books. In the review, Baker described Wikipedia's beginnings, its culture, and his own editing activities under the username "Wageless".^[3] His article, How I fell in love with Wikipedia, was published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK on April 10, 2008.^[4]

Books by Nicholson Baker[link]

• The Mezzanine (1988)
• Room Temperature (1990)
• U and I: A True Story (1991) is a non-fiction study of how a reader engages with an author's work: partly an appreciation of John Updike, and partly a kind of self-exploration. Rather than giving a traditional literary analysis, Baker begins the book by stating that he will read no more Updike than he already has up to that point. All of the Updike quotations used are presented as coming from memory alone, and many are inaccurate, with correct versions and Baker's (later) commentary on the inaccuracy given in brackets.
• Vox (1992) consists of an episode of phone sex between two young single people on a pay-per-minute chat line. The sex scenes in the novel, though quite vivid, nevertheless share the basic approach that Baker has taken since The Mezzanine: in this case, he explores two characters' accumulated thoughts and memories in relation to sex. For some readers, Baker's obsession with detail detracted from a hoped-for pornographic effect. Others, in reading the imaginative sex stories the two protagonists produce for one another, have perceived a budding romantic affection: in the last act they perform before hanging up, the man gives the woman his phone number. The book was Baker's first New York Times bestseller. Monica Lewinsky supposedly once gave a copy to President Bill Clinton.
• The Fermata (1994) also addresses erotic life and fantasy. To quote the dust jacket of one edition: "Arno Strine likes to stop time and take women's clothes off. He is hard at work on his autobiography, 'The Fermata.' It proves in the telling to be a very provocative, funny, and altogether morally confused piece of work." (A fermata is a mark in musical notation indicating a note should be sustained.)
• The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998) was inspired by Baker's daughter Alice, "the informant", to whom he dedicates the book. In this work, Baker tries to see the world through the eyes of a curious nine-year-old American girl attending school in England.
• Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001) is a non-fiction book about preservation, newspapers, and the American library system. An excerpt first appeared in the July 24, 2000, issue of The New Yorker, under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save America's Past." The exhaustively researched work (there are 63 pages of endnotes and 18 pages of references in the paperback edition) details Baker's quest to uncover the fate of thousands of books and newspapers that were replaced and often destroyed during the microfilming boom of the 1980s and 1990s.
• A Box of Matches (2003) is in many ways a continuation of Room Temperature, similarly mining the narrator's store of reflections and memories, many of them domestic. The narrator is now middle-aged and has a family. He rises each morning about 4:00, lights a fire in the fireplace, and ponders. The work is admired, although some have found it rather less exuberant than its predecessor.
• Checkpoint (2004) is composed of dialogue between two old high school friends, Jay and Ben, who discuss Jay's plans to assassinate President George W. Bush. Jay is an unbalanced day laborer who, in the depths of his anger and desperation at Bush's actions and his inability to do anything to stop them, has traveled to Washington, D.C., to kill the president. He considers many far-fetched means of assassination, such as depleted uranium boulders, flying radio-controlled CD saws, homing bullets trained to target the victim by being "marinated" in a tin with a picture of the president, and hypnotized Manchurian scorpions. Ben has met Jay in a Washington, D.C., hotel room, unaware that his friend is planning to commit "a major, major, major crime." Over the course of the novella, Ben discusses what drove Jay to plot an assassination. Reviewers have pointed out that the book is mild, and the planned violence so cartoonish as to be non-threatening.
• Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008) is a history of World War II that questions the commonly held belief that the Allies wanted to avoid the war at all costs but were forced into action by Hitler's unforgiving crusade. It consists largely of official government transcripts and other documents from the time. In form it is similar to Sven Lindqvist's "A History of Bombing" (New York: New Press, 2001), which Baker includes in the book's copious list of references. Baker cites documents that suggest that the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom were provoking Germany into war (showing, for example, that Britain bombed Germany before Germany bombed Britain) and that the leaders of those two nations had ulterior motives for wanting to participate. In the epilogue to the book he suggests that the pacifists (who are often vilified by WWII historians) had it right all along, stating: “They failed, but they were right.” ^[5][6] Some reviewers were dismissive of Human Smoke, the historian Noel Malcolm describing it as a "strangely childish book"^[7] and William Grimes as a "self-important, hand-wringing, moral mess of a book".^[8] Author Christopher Hitchens accused Baker of ahistoricism and wrote that the book served as a reminder of how "fatuous the pacifist position can sound, or indeed can be".^[9] Conservative political commentator R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. awarded his J. Gordon Coogler Award for Worst Book of 2008 to Human Smoke.^[10] Other reviewers praised Baker's use of documentary research and the intricate construction of the text. Colm Toibin wrote in his New York Times review that "the issues Baker wishes to raise, and the stark system he has used to dramatize his point, make his book a serious and conscientious contribution to the debate about pacifism,"^[11] and Mark Kurlansky wrote for the Los Angeles Times that "People are going to get really angry at Baker for criticizing their favorite war. But he hasn't fashioned his tale from gossip. It is documented, with copious notes and attributions. The grace of these well-ordered snapshots is that there is no diatribe; you are left to put things together yourself. [Human Smoke] may be one of the most important books you will ever read."^[12]
• The Anthologist (2009) is narrated by Paul Chowder, a little-known poet, who is attempting to write an introduction to a poetry anthology. Distracted by problems in his life—Chowder's career is going nowhere, and his girlfriend has recently left him—he is unable to begin writing, and instead ruminates on poets and poetry throughout history.
• House of Holes (2011) is a collection of novellas, more or less linked or knotted to each other. The novellas are erotic in the sense of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. Either topics are closed resorts in natural areas for wealthy clients on the run from life-threatening epidemics generated by sexual contact. Other relatives like Alice are waving at the entrance of Holes House, offering such artistic entering techniques as tumbling through a clothes dryer and self-sucking through a soft drink straw.^[13] It is a book of romantic fairy tales called by the author himself ”A book of Raunch”.

Books[link]

Novels[link]

• The Mezzanine (1988, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; ISBN 1-55584-258-5 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-72576-8)
• Room Temperature (1990, Grove Weidenfeld; ISBN 0-8021-1224-2 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6 / 1990, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014212-6 / 1991, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014021-2)
• Vox: A Novel (1992, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58995-5 / 1992, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-74211-5 / 1992, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014057-3)
• The Fermata (1994, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-75933-6)
• The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998, Random House; ISBN 0-679-43933-1 / 1998, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6)
• A Box of Matches (2003, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50287-4 / 2003, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-7402-1)
• Checkpoint (2004, Random House; ISBN 1-4000-4400-6)
• The Anthologist (2009, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-84737-635-5)
• House of Holes, A Book of Raunch (2011, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-4391-8951-X

Non-fiction[link]

• U and I: A True Story (1991, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58994-7 / 1991 Penguin/Granta; ISBN 0-14-014226-6 (hard) / 1992, Penguin/Granta; ISBN 0-14-014040-9 (paper) /1995, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73575-5 / 1998, Granta; ISBN 1-86207-097-0)
• The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber (1996, Random House, ISBN 0-679-43932-3 / 1996, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-77624-9 (paper) / 1996, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-6301-1 (hard) / 1997, Vintage; ISBN 0-09-957971-5 (paper)
• Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50444-3 / 2001, Vintage; ISBN 0-375-72621-7 / 2002, Vintage; ISBN 0-09-942903-9)
• With Margaret Brentano (his wife). The World on Sunday|The World on Sunday: Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898– 1911) (2005, Bulfinch; ISBN 0-8212-6193-2)
• Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 978-1-4165-6784-4)

Further reading[link]

• Cox, Richard J. Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries. Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-32344-5
• Fabre, Claire. "Aux frontières de l’intime : l’intériorité exhibée dans Room Temperature (1984) de Nicholson Baker." Revue française d’études américaines. 2006. 113-121.
• Richardson, Eve, "Space, Projection and the Banal in the Works of Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Nicholson Baker", in Emma Gilby et Katja Haustein (ed.), Space. New Dimensions in French Studies, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Brussels, Francfurt, New York and Vienna, Peter Lang, 2005. ("Modern French Identities", 30)
• Saltzman, Arthur M. Understanding Nicholson Baker. University of South Carolina Press, 1999. ISBN 1-57003-303-X
• Star, Alexander. "The Paper Pusher." The New Republic. May 28, 2001. 38-41.

References[link]

1. ^ American Newspaper Repository
2. ^ McGrath, Charles (2008-03-04) A Debunker on the Road to World War II, New York Times
3. ^ Baker, Nicholson;"The Charms of Wikipedia", The New York Review of Books; Volume 55, Number 4 March 20, 2008.
4. ^ How I fell in love with Wikipedia
5. ^ Toibin, Colm (March 23, 2008). "Their Vilest Hour". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Toibin-t.html?ref=arts. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 
6. ^ 'Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization' by Nicholson Baker - BOOK REVIEW - Los Angeles Times
7. ^ Review, Daily Telegraph, 2 May2008
8. ^ Review, New York Times, 12 March 2008
9. ^ Review, New Statesman, 15 May 2008
10. ^ Tyrell, R. Emmett, Jr., "J. Gordon Coogler Award for 2008," American Spectator; Volume 42, Number 2, March 2009
11. ^ Toibin, Colm (March 23, 2008). "Their Vilest Hour". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Toibin-t.html?ref=arts. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 
12. ^ Review, "Days of infamy 'Smoke' and mirrors," Los Angeles Times March 9, 2008.
13. ^ Elaine Blair (September 29, 2011 • Volume 58, Number 14). "Coming Attractions". Review on "House of Holes". The New York Review of Books. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/sep/29/coming-attractions/. Retrieved September 13, 2011. 

External links[link]

• Nicholson Baker. Faculty profile at European Graduate School, biography, bibliography, photos and video lectures
• Nicholson Baker at Random House, author page
• Nicholson Baker, "A Debunker on the Road to World War II". New York Times, March 4, 2008
• Cox, Richard J. "The Great Newspaper Caper: Backlash in the Digital Age"
• Grimes, William. ""Say What? It Wasn’t a Just War After All?" New York Times Book Review
• "How I fell in love with Wikipedia". Guardian. April 10, 2008
• "The Charms of Wikipedia" New York Review of Books, volume 55, number 4, March 20, 2008.
• Interview about "Human Smoke" on "BackStory" radio program
• "Can the Kindle really improve on the book?" New Yorker, August 3, 2009. On the Kindle reading device.
• A radio interview with Nicholson Baker Aired on the Lewis Burke Frumkes Radio Show.
• Wroe, Nicholas. "A Life in Writing". Guardian, 19 September 2009. An interview.
• KCRW Bookworm Interview May 4, 2002

Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 21 August 1933) is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.^[1]

She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten. During her career, which spanned the 1950s to the 1980s, she was considered an outstanding singing actress and widely admired for her dramatic intensity, perhaps best represented in her famous portrayal as Dido, the tragic heroine of Berlioz's magnum opus Les Troyens.^[2] As a concert performer, Baker was noted for her interpretations of the music of Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar. David Gutman, writing in the Gramophone, described her performance of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder as "intimate, almost self-communing."^[3]

Biography and career[link]

Early life[link]

Baker was born in Hatfield, South Yorkshire, northern England. Her father was an engineer who sang in a male voice choir. Members of her family worked at Bentley pit, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.^{[citation needed]} She attended York College for Girls and then Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Grimsby. The death of her elder brother, Peter, when she was 10 years old, from a heart condition, was a formative moment that made her take responsibility for the rest of her life, she revealed in a BBC Radio 3 Lebrecht Interview in September 2011.^[4]

In her early years Baker worked in a bank, transferring to London in 1953 where she trained with Meriel St Clair and Helene Isepp, whose son Martin became her regular accompanist. Knocked down by a bus in 1956, she suffered concussion and a persistently painful back injury.^[5] That same year, she came second in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition at the Wigmore Hall, winning national attention.

Debut[link]

In 1956, she made her stage debut with the Oxford University Opera Club as Miss Róza in Smetana's The Secret. That year, she also made her debut at Glyndebourne. In 1959, she sang Eduige in the Handel Opera Society's Rodelinda; other Handel roles included Ariodante (1964), of which she later made an outstanding recording with Raymond Leppard, and Orlando (1966), which she sang at the Barber Institute, Birmingham.

Opera[link]

With the English Opera Group at Aldeburgh, Baker sang Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962, Polly (Benjamin Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera) and Lucretia (in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia). At Glyndebourne she appeared again as Dido (1966) and as Diana/Jupiter in Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto, and Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. For Scottish Opera she sang Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Dido, Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The latter was considered her signature role; she sang it everywhere and a videotaped performance from Glyndebourne is available (see below).

In 1966, Baker made her debut as Hermia at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and went on to sing Berlioz's Dido, Kate in Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's Vitellia and Idamante, Cressida in William Walton's Troilus and Cressida and the title role in Gluck's Alceste (1981) there. For the English National Opera, she sang the title role in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (1971),^[6] Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, and the title roles in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Oratorio and song[link]

During this same period she made an equally strong impact on audiences in the concert hall, both in oratorio roles and solo recitals. Among her most notable achievements are her recordings of the Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, made with Sir John Barbirolli in December 1964 and Sir Simon Rattle over twenty years later; her 1965 performances of Elgar's Sea Pictures and Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, also recorded with Barbirolli; and, also from 1965, the first commercial recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Christmas oratorio Hodie under Sir David Willcocks. She performed in 1971 for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston.^[7] In 1976 she premièred the solo cantata Phaedra, written for her by Britten; and Dominick Argento's Pulitzer Prize-winning song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, also written with Baker's voice in mind. She has also been highly praised for her insightful performances of Brahms's Alto Rhapsody, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder as well as solo songs from the French, German and English repertoire.

Retirement[link]

Dame Janet Baker's final operatic appearance was as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, on 17 July 1982, at Glyndebourne.^[8] She published a memoir, Full Circle, in 1982. In 1991, Baker was elected Chancellor of the University of York. She held the position until 2004, when she was succeeded by Greg Dyke. An enthusiastic Patron of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, she gave an address at the closing ceremony of the 2009 event.^[9]

Honours and awards[link]

Baker was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970 and appointed to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976. She was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993. In 1968, she was initiated as an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity by the Alpha Omicron Chapter at Occidental College, California, United States.^[10] She received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize of Denmark in 1979. In 2008, she received the Distinguished Musician Award from the Incorporated Society of Musicians and in 2011 she was installed as an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians at a ceremony in the City of London. This is the highest honour that the Company can bestow on a fellow musician.^{[citation needed]} Baker was voted into Gramophone Magazine's inaugaral Hall of Fame in 2012.^[11]

Private life[link]

She married (James) Keith Shelley in 1957 in Harrow. Following her retirement as a singer she did perform and record some spoken roles, for example the role of the Narrator in Britten's incidental music for The Rescue of Penelope; in later years, apart from occasional public appearances such as the 2009 Leeds event, she now has "nothing to do with anyone except close friends".^[8]

[edit] Recordings

• Mahler: Kindertotenlieder with The Hallé Orchestra; John Barbirolli conducting (EMI LP cat. no. ASD 2338; released 1968)
• Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.
• Handel: Julius Caesar with the English National Opera; Charles Mackerras conducting (Chandos CHAN 3019; recorded 1–7 August 1984; released 1999)
• Schubert: Lieder. A double-CD with pianists Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons, containing forty-two songs. EMI classics, 7243 5 69389 2
• Gluck: Orpheus and Euridice at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, conducted by Raymond Leppard. On video. Copyright 1982 by National Video Corporation, Limited.
• Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Philips.
• Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37
• Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, conducted by Anthony Lewis, English Chamber Orchestra, The St. Anthony Singers; rec. Oct. 1961; with Raimund Herincx as Aeneas. Decca Legendary Performances/UMG. SOL 60047.

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Janet Baker at Allmusic
• IMDb