Spastic

Derived via Latin from the Greek spastikos ("drawing in" or "tugging"), the word at its root still refers to an alteration in muscle tone affected by the medical condition spasticity, which is seen in spastic diplegia and many other forms of cerebral palsy and also in terms such as "spastic colon". In this usage, which is still today the word's main environment, the word spastic has no negative connotation, because it is accurately descriptive of the condition. In India, 'The Spastics Society of India' (now known as 'ADAPT - Able Disable All People Together'), a non-profit and non-governmental organization, kept its name for many years without being criticised.

Colloquially, the word spastic can be, but is not necessarily, pejorative; largely this depends on whether one understands the word as it is used in the United States or the United Kingdom. In British English today the mention of the word spastic is typically extremely inappropriate, as in the UK it is considered an offensive way to refer to disabled people.

Spazz (band)

Spazz was an influential American powerviolence band active between 1992 and 2000. The trio released numerous records within this time, many of which are now highly collectible due to their relative rarity. The band's releases often showcased their unusual sense of humour: absurdly long and nonsensical song titles, audio samples from b-movies and kung-fu films between songs and the occasional use of hip hop beats as well as saxophones, banjos and other instruments rarely associated with hardcore punk. All three of the members shared vocal duties, usually changing in sequence from line to line.

After Spazz

Spazz vocalist and bassist Chris Dodge's record label, Slap a Ham Records, was a fixture during the rapid rise and decline of power violence in the late '80s and early '90s, releasing influential records by the likes of Neanderthal, No Comment, Crossed Out, Infest and Spazz, amongst others. The label's Fiesta Grande was an annual power violence festival held at 924 Gilman during its heyday, from 1992 to the band's demise in 2000. Since then, he has been involved in several musical projects, most notably East West Blast Test with highly regarded extreme music drummer Dave Witte, formerly of Discordance Axis, Melt Banana and many others. Spazz vocalist and drummer Max Ward's label, 625 Thrashcore, has started their own festival, 'Super Sabado Gigante', in a similar vein. Spazz vocalist and guitarist Dan Boleri makes hip hop music under the alias DJ Eons One.

Cartel

In economics, a cartel is an agreement between competing firms to control prices or exclude entry of a new competitor in a market. It is a formal organization of sellers or buyers that agree to fix selling prices, purchase prices, or reduce production using a variety of tactics. Cartels usually arise in an oligopolistic industry, where the number of sellers is small or sales are highly concentrated and the products being traded are usually commodities. Cartel members may agree on such matters as setting minimum or target prices (price fixing), reducing total industry output, fixing market shares, allocating customers, allocating territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, altering the conditions of sale, or combination of these. The aim of such collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members' profits by reducing competition. If the cartelists do not agree on market shares, they must have a plan to share the extra monopoly profits generated by the cartel.

Cartel (hip hop album)

Cartel is a German hip hop album released in 1995 featuring various artists of Turkish descent. The compilation contains five tracks by Nuremberg artist Karakan, three songs from the Kiel group Da Crime Posse, three songs by Erci E. from West Berlin and a communal recording by all of the artists entitled Cartel.

Spyce Records facilitated the recording of this album under the supervision of their manager Ozan Sinan. Cartel was initially released by Mercury/Polygram, and by RAKS/Polygram in Turkey. The Turkish market consumed over 300,000 copies, providing for widespread notoriety for each of the contributing artists. The German-Turkish community also received the album enthusiastically, although only 20,000 copies were sold within Germany.

The album cover is a blatant allusion to the Turkish flag in that the "c" is manifested by the crescent of Islam. Album manager Oznan Sinan justifies this symbolism by stating that "Our targer-group are the Turks not the German society". Similarly, the beats were enriched with samples from Turkish folk music and attempted to unify an ethnic minority within Germany.

Cartel (Cartel album)

Cartel is the second studio album American rock band Cartel. It released in stores on August 21, 2007 despite being announced by the band's lead singer as coming out on July 24, 2007. It was officially completed at sometime around 8:00 p.m. on June 10, 2007 and features "Lose It" as the first single.

The Bubble

The album was completed in 20 days inside a giant glass bubble as part of the Band in a Bubble program sponsored by Dr Pepper, MTV and KFC. The band was forced to live inside the bubble for 20 days without being able to leave. The first single, "Lose It", was performed from the bubble live on June 1 for TRL's Spankin' New Music Week. Throughout the recording of the album, the band was watched constantly by fans through 23 webcams that were positioned all through the bubble. The album was finished two days before the set time and was completed with 13 songs. The album was performed by Cartel after they left the bubble on June 12, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.

Reception

The album received mixed reviews by critics.