Swift
The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any of the passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.
Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.
The family name, Apodidae, is derived from the Greek ἄπους (ápous), meaning "footless", a reference to the small, weak legs of these most aerial of birds. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet.
Some species of swifts are among the fastest animals on the planet, with some of the fastest measured flight speeds of any bird.
Taxonomy
Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds, a judgement corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae (apparently swift-like hummingbird-relatives) and of primitive hummingbirds such as Eurotrochilus. Traditional taxonomies place the hummingbird family (Trochilidae) in the same order as the swifts and treeswifts (and no other birds); the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy treated this group as a superorder in which the swift order was called Trochiliformes.
D12
D12, an initialism for The Dirty Dozen, is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. D12 has had chart-topping albums in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. D12 was formed in 1996, and achieved mainstream success after Eminem rose to international fame. D12 released the album Devil's Night in 2001 and D12 World in 2004, spawning numerous hits such as "Fight Music", "Purple Pills", "My Band", "How Come" and "Shit on You" throughout that period. Since 2006, Eminem's hiatus and the death of the member Proof resulted in them being less active in subsequent years.
History
Early career (1996–98)
In order to make up the dozen, it was decided the six members at the time would each create an alter-ego. Proof's was Dirty Harry, Bizarre's was Peter S. Bizarre, Kuniva's was Hannz G. (which later became Rondell Beene), Kon Artis's was Mr. Porter, Bugz' was Robert Beck and Eminem created the famous character Slim Shady.
In 1997, they released their debut album, The Underground EP, which was recorded between 1996 and 1997. In 1997 and through 1998, its members began establishing reputations locally. Bizarre was named Inner City Entertainment's "Flava of the Week" and went on to release an album called Attack of the Weirdos. Along with Eminem, Rah Digga and Young Zee, he became an honorary member of The Outsidaz. Proof won a freestyling competition run by The Source. In 1999, Bugz released an EP called These Streets EP, and made several appearances on other rapper's songs.
Monty Are I
Monty Are I (formerly known as Monty's Fan Club and Monty) is an American rock band from Cranston, Rhode Island. Monty Are I is titled after the band instructor, Arthur Montanaro. The "Are I" portion of the name is a pun on "RI", Rhode Island's postal abbreviation.
History and achievements
Monty Are I won Takeover Records' "Sign My Band" contest on MySpace in 2005. They also won the WBRU "Rock Hunt" in 2002 and the Ernie Ball sponsored "Battle of the Bands" in 2003. The group signed to Stolen Transmission, and were upstreamed to Island Records.
Monty has many national tours under their belt, including five years on Vans Warped Tour, and tours with Just Surrender, Secondhand Serenade, Amber Pacific, Anberlin, Powerspace, Rx Bandits, My Chemical Romance, Story of the Year, Sum41, Taking Back Sunday, Yellowcard, Hawthorne Heights and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
Monty Are I's song "In This Legacy" is featured in the Xbox/PS2 games: ATV Offroad Fury 4 and Tony Hawk's Project 8.
Their first album exclusively under Island/DefJam is titled Break Through The Silence and was released on September 22, 2009. "One in a Million" was the first single, released on August 25, 2009.
Monty (TV series)
Monty is an American sitcom that aired on the FOX network in 1994. The series starred Henry Winkler as Monty Richardson, a loud, obnoxious conservative TV commentator. Richardson had also written a best-selling book titled I'm Right. I'm Right. I'm Right. Shut Up. The series also starred Tom McGowan as his executive producer and David Schwimmer as his left-leaning son. Monty hoped to capitalize on the same family dynamic that made the television show All in the Family a success in the 1970s. However, the show was canceled after five episodes.
