Icelandic folk music

Icelandic folk music includes a number of styles that are together a prominent part of the music of Iceland. When speaking of traditional Icelandic music, there are two very important vocal performance styles, one using the term kveða and the other syngja. The first a performance practice referred to as kveðskapur or kvæðaskapur. Kveðskapur is also the generic Icelandic term for poetry. The term syngja translates as to sing. Kveðskapur was very connected to sagnadansar or the dances who were accompanied with the kveðskapur. Víkivaki is the best known of the sagnadansar, and its origin can be traced to the 11th century. Víkivaki saw a decline in the beginning of the 20th century, although efforts are being made to keep it alive.

Traditional Icelandic folk music remained widely performed into the last decades of the 19th century, when folk collecting began in the country. However, the advent of Western classical music and other foreign influences in the same period began leading to a decline in traditional music. Later, the arrival of popular music furthered this change; some folk music was recorded between the World Wars, but intense collecting did not begin in earnest until recently.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles (ⁱ/lɒs ˈændʒəlᵻs/ loss AN-jə-ləs or loss AN-jə-liss) (Spanish for "The Angels"), officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the second-largest city in the United States after New York City, the most populous city in the state of California, and the county seat of Los Angeles County.

Situated in Southern California, Los Angeles is known for its mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, sprawling metropolis, and as a major center of the American entertainment industry. Los Angeles lies in a large coastal basin surrounded on three sides by mountains reaching up to and over 10,000 feet (3,000 m).

Historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was officially founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood. The city experienced rapid growth with the discovery of oil.

Greater Los Angeles Area

The Greater Los Angeles Area is the second-largest urban region in the United States, encompassing five counties in Southern California, extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County on the east, with Los Angeles County and Orange County in the center.

Throughout the 20th century, it was one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, although growth has slowed since 2000. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of nearly 13 million residents. Meanwhile, the larger metropolitan region's population at the 2010 census was estimated to be over 17.8 million residents, and a 2014 estimate reported a population of about 18.5 million. Either definition makes it the second largest metropolitan region in the country, behind the New York metropolitan area, as well as one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world.

The agglomeration of the urbanized Greater Los Angeles area surrounds the urban core of Los Angeles County. The regional term is defined to refer to the more-or-less continuously urbanized area stretching from Ventura County to the southern border of Orange County and from the Pacific Ocean to the Coachella Valley in the Inland Empire.

KVEA

KVEA, virtual channel 52 (UHF digital channel 39), is a Telemundo owned-and-operated television station broadcasting in Los Angeles, California, United States. Licensed in Corona, it is Telemundo's West Coast flagship station. KVEA is owned by the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal as part of a duopoly with NBC owned-and-operated station KNBC (channel 4). The stations share studios at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, and KVEA's transmitter is atop Mount Wilson.

History

KVEA first went on the air on June 29, 1966 as independent station KMTW-TV. The station was founded by Mount Wilson Broadcasting, which planned to expand into the television market. Mount Wilson Broadcasting sold the station's license to Kaiser Broadcasting (which owned UHF independents in several large media markets) before KMTW's debut. It was the third commercial UHF station in Los Angeles, after KIIX-TV (channel 22, now KWHY-TV) and KMEX-TV (channel 34). Kaiser changed channel 52's call letters to KBSC-TV, standing for "Kaiser Broadcasting Southern California" (KMTW is currently a MyNetworkTV affiliate in Wichita, Kansas).

Red carpet

A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events.

History

The earliest known reference to walking a red carpet in literature is in the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus, written in 458 BC. When the title character returns from Troy, he is greeted by his vengeful wife Clytemnestra who offers him a red path to walk upon:

Agamemnon, knowing that only gods walk on such luxury, responds with trepidation:

Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting often show rugs and carpets, patterned but with red often the main background colour, laid on the steps to a throne, or on a dais where rulers or sacred figures are placed.

A red carpet was rolled out to a river to welcome the arrival of United States president James Monroe in 1821. In 1902, The New York Central Railroad used plush crimson carpets to direct people as they boarded their 20th Century Limited passenger train. This is believed to be the origin of the phrase "red-carpet treatment". Film premieres are often laid down with red carpets.