Bird

Birds (class Aves) are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m (9 ft) ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at approximately ten thousand, with more than half of these being passerines, sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds.

The fossil record indicates that birds are the last surviving dinosaurs, having evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, and the last common ancestor is estimated to have lived about 95 million years ago. DNA-based evidence finds that birds radiated extensively around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs. Birds in South America survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world via multiple land bridges while diversifying during periods of global cooling. Primitive bird-like "stem-birds" that lie outside class Aves proper, in the group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period. Many of these early stem-birds, such as Archaeopteryx, were not yet capable of fully powered flight, and many retained primitive characteristics like toothy jaws in place of beaks and long bony tails.

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Andrew Bird

Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He was initially known through his work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers before forming Bowl of Fire, and is now best known as a solo musician. Bird's primary instrument is the violin, but he is also proficient at various other instruments including the guitar, the mandolin, the xylophone, whistling, and the glockenspiel. He also wrote "The Whistling Caruso" for The Muppets, and performed the whistling heard in both the film and the soundtrack. He composed the score for the FX original series Baskets, created by Louis C.K., Zach Galifianakis, and Jonathan Krisel, and starring Galifianakis.

History

Early life and the Bowl of Fire (1973–2002)

Trained in the Suzuki method from the age of four, Bird graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1991 and Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in violin performance in 1996. That same year he self-released his first solo album, Music of Hair. Vastly different from his later work, this album showcased his violin skills and paid tribute to his fascination with both American and European folk traditions, as well as jazz and blues. Following this, his initial commercial exposure came through collaborative work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers, appearing on three of their albums (Hot, Sold Out, and Perennial Favorites) between 1996 and 1998.

The Zoo

The Zoo is a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson, writing under the pen name of Bolton Rowe. It premiered on 5 June 1875 at the St. James's Theatre in London (as an afterpiece to W. S. Gilbert's Tom Cobb), concluding its run five weeks later, on 9 July 1875, at the Haymarket Theatre. There were brief revivals in late 1875, and again in 1879, before the opera was shelved.

The farcical story concerns two pairs of lovers. First, a nobleman, who goes to the zoo to woo the girl who sells snacks there. He tries to impress her by buying and eating all of the food. The other couple is a young chemist who believes that he has poisoned his beloved by mixing up her father's prescription with peppermint that he had meant for her.

The score was not published in Sullivan's lifetime, and it lay dormant until Terence Rees purchased the composer's autograph at auction in 1966 and arranged for publication. The opera is in one act without spoken dialogue, running about 40 minutes. Like Trial by Jury and Cox and Box, it has been staged as a curtain-raiser to the shorter Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Triple-bills of Sullivan's three one-act operas have also proved successful.

Paper Bird

Paper Bird is a six-piece indie folk/baroque pop band based in Denver, Colorado. The band is composed of: Genny Patterson (vocals), Carleigh Aikins (vocals), brother and sister Mark (drums) and Sarah Anderson (vocals and cornet/trumpet), Paul DeHaven (guitar), and Caleb Summeril (bass, banjo, guitar).

History

Paper Bird formed in 2006 and their self-released first album, Anything Nameless and Joymaking appeared in 2007 which is a top selling record in Colorado retail. Summer 2008 Paper Bird went on their first national tour with New Belgium Brewery's "Tour de Fat", they have been touring nationally ever since. On their East Coast tour, they had numerous sold-out venues, including some in Philadelphia and New York City. They are very successful locally, and were voted "top band" by 5280 magazine, as well as one of the "Top Ten" best bands by the Denver Post. On June 24, 2009, Paper Bird's first EP titled "A Sky Underground" was released, followed by a summer tour which included stops at High Sierra Music Festival, Oregon Country Fair, Mile High Music Festival and 10,000 Lakes Festival. Paper Bird has shared the stage with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Neko Case, DeVotchKa, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Glen Campbell, Trace Bundy, The Lumineers and many others. The EP A Sky Underground was picked up and re-released digitally April 2010 by Park The Van Records. and the live EP Live at Twist & Shout. In July 2010 the band again self-released their second full length album When the River Took Flight. They also released several EPs.