Girdwood is an unincorporated year-round ski resort community within the Municipality of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska. It lies in a valley in the Chugach Mountains near the end of the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, 36 miles (61 km) southeast of Anchorage proper.

It is surrounded by seven permanent glaciers. Summer activities include hiking, fishing and rafting, but Girdwood is best known for winter skiing and snowboarding at Alyeska Resort on Mount Alyeska. Girdwood also hosts the Girdwood Forest Fair every summer. Girdwood has the northernmost rain forest in the world.

Originally called "Glacier City," Girdwood was founded as a supply camp for placer gold miners with claims along the creeks feeding Turnagain Arm. It was renamed for Colonel James Girdwood, a Belfast-born, Scots-Irish entrepreneur and linen merchant who staked the first four gold claims along Crow Creek in 1896.

The town was moved 2.5 miles (4 km) up the valley after the devastating Good Friday Earthquake of 1964, when the land under the original townsite subsided into Turnagain Arm, putting much of the town below high tide. The land has not all since been reclaimed, as one can still see 'drowned' cabins in the marshy areas where the city formerly extended. Significant earthquakes are a relatively common occurrence for Girdwood and the Kenai peninsula. Evidence has been discovered that indicates the area has seen six major quakes in the past 3300 years.

"Cortez the Killer" is a song by Neil Young from his 1975 album, Zuma. It was recorded with Young's band Crazy Horse and ranked #39 on Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos and #321 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Young has stated in concert that he wrote the song while studying history in high school in Winnipeg. The song was banned in Spain under Francisco Franco, according to Young's notes for the album Decade. Young's claim is dubious, since Franco was on his death bed on Nov. 10, 1975, the date the song was released. However, this would not necessarily have affected the nature of how the Spanish Censors would have viewed such a song. Franco died on Nov. 20, 1975 after a long illness during which he was incapacitated.

The song is about Hernán Cortez, a conquistador who conquered Mexico for Spain in the 16th century. "Cortez the Killer" also makes reference to the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II and other events that occurred in the Spanish conquest of the New World.

J Mascis ( /ˈmæskɪs/ MASS-kiss; born Joseph Donald Mascis on December 10, 1965) is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr.. In 2011, he was ranked 86th in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Mascis was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of an orthodontist. His family name is Italian, from the province of Foggia (region Puglia) in the south of Italy. His mother is an avid golfer.

Mascis formed the short-lived hardcore group Deep Wound with Lou Barlow, Scott Helland, and Charlie Nakajima in the early 1980s. He started out on drums, but moved to guitar when he went on to found Dinosaur Jr. with bassist Barlow and drummer Emmett Jefferson "Patrick" Murphy (aka "Murph") in 1984 and achieved national success. His vocals have been described as "Neil Young-like" and his guitar riffs as "monolithic." Mascis dismissed Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. in 1989 and over the next eight years recorded several more Dinosaur Jr. albums, including the 1996 acoustic solo album Martin + Me.