Tom McRae

Tom McRae (born Jeremy Thomas McRae Blackall on 19 March 1969) is an English singer-songwriter.

Career

The son of two Church of England vicars, McRae sang in the church choir and as a teen experimented with his mother's guitar. Initially trying to emulate his heroes, Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Kate Bush, U2, he began to write his own songs and develop his own style. Age 18, he went to City of London Polytechnic achieving a degree in politics and government, and forming his first band, "The Ministers of Orgasm". Subsequently, McRae was involved in bands "Raising Cain" and "Orchid Lounge". A chance meeting with recording engineer and record producer Roger Bechirian, (Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Carlene Carter, The Undertones), led to a working relationship. Bechirian helped to shape McRae's soft-spoken sound, which later gained McRae a deal with Dave Bates's db Records, (db/BMG records). In 2000, director Scott Walker chose McRae to perform at the Meltdown Festival in the Royal Festival Hall. McRae's confessional, self-titled debut appeared in autumn 2001, during the height of the new acoustic movement and earned him comparisons to Nick Drake and Bob Dylan. Critics raved and McRae gained nominations for the Mercury Prize, a Q magazine award and the BRIT Award for Best Newcomer. By then, McRae was working with Oliver ("Oli") Kraus, cellist, and in 2003 was joined by Olli Cunningham on keyboards. McRae's second album, Just Like Blood, was released in the UK in February 2003 produced by Ben Hillier, whose credits include Elbow, Martha Wainwright and Blur. McRae then moved to California, where he wrote and recorded his next album, All Maps Welcome, which was released in May 2005.

Pope Agatho

Pope Agatho (died 10 January 681 AD) served as the Pope from 26 June 678 till his death in 681. He is venerated as a saint by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Little is known of Agatho before his papacy but he may have been among the many Sicilian clergy in Rome at that time, due to the Islamic Caliphate battles against Sicily in the mid-7th century.

Papacy

Shortly after Agatho became Pope, St Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, arrived in Rome to invoke the authority of the Holy See on his behalf. Wilfrid had been deposed from his see by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had carved up Wilfrid's diocese and appointed three bishops to govern the new sees. At a synod which Pope Agatho convoked in the Lateran to investigate the affair, it was decided that Wilfrid's diocese should indeed be divided, but that Wilfrid himself should name the bishops.

The major event of his pontificate was the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680–681), following the end of the Muslim Siege of Constantinople, which suppressed the Monothelite heresy that had been tolerated by previous popes (Honorius among them). The council began when Emperor Constantine IV, wanting to heal the schism that separated the two sides, wrote to Pope Donus suggesting a conference on the matter, but Donus was dead by the time the letter arrived. Agatho was quick to seize the olive branch offered by the Emperor. He ordered councils held throughout the West so that legates could present the universal tradition of the Western Church. Then he sent a large delegation to meet the Easterners at Constantinople.

Park City

Park City is the name of several places in the United States:

Park City is also:

Turin Brakes

Turin Brakes is an English band, comprising original duo Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian, and long term collaborators Rob Allum and Eddie Myer. They had a UK top 5 hit with their song "Painkiller (Summer Rain)". Since starting out in 1999, the band have sold around 1 million records worldwide. They are currently signed to Cooking Vinyl.

History

1999–2001: Formation and The Optimist LP

The band was started by longtime friends Knights and Paridjanian. The two met at a young age and spent much of their childhood together. Although they split after Knights went to film school and Paridjanian attempted to form a band in Toronto, Canada, they soon reunited and collaborated on what would later become their first EP, The Door, which was eventually released through Anvil Records in 1999 as a limited vinyl release. This led to the band attracting the attention of larger record labels. Source Records would eventually release two more EPs, The State of Things EP and Fight or Flight, prompting NME to proclaim "Turin Brakes inhabit a space which is entirely their own, fully formed and brutally emotive... give them the devotion they deserve."

La Grande, Oregon

La Grande /ləˈɡrænd/ is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. Originally named "Brownsville," it was forced to change its name because that name was already being used for a city in Linn County. Its current name comes from an early French settler, Charles Dause, who often used the phrase "La Grande" to describe the area's beauty. The population was 13,082 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Union County. La Grande lies east of the Blue Mountains and southeast of Pendleton.

History

Early settlement

The Grande Ronde Valley had long been a waypoint along the Oregon Trail. The first permanent settler in the La Grande area was Benjamin Brown in 1861. Not long after, the Leasey family and about twenty others settled there. The settlement was originally named after Ben Brown as Brown's Fort, Brown's Town, or Brownsville. There was already a Brownsville in Linn County, so when the post office was established in 1863, a more distinctive name was needed. It was decided to use "La Grande", a phrase used by a Frenchman, Charles Dause, to describe the area's scenic splendor. Before the post office was established, William Currey charged 50 cents a letter to carry the mail on horseback to and from the nearest post office, in Walla Walla, Washington. La Grande was incorporated as a city in 1865, and platted in 1868.