Billy Pilgrim

Billy Pilgrim is a fictional character and protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five, who has appeared in adaptations of the novel for film and the stage. Billy Pilgrim was based on Vonnegut's comrade-in-arms Edward R. Crone, Jr.

Biographical summary

Prior story

Billy Pilgrim was born in Ilium, New York on the Fourth of July of 1922. After Billy graduated from high school, he enrolled in the Ilium School of Optometry. He is tall at 6 feet 3 inches, but weak and skinny at around 140 pounds. He is also friendly and kind toward others, even when others are rude or accusatory towards him. Billy also tries to pass on wise advice or information that he has learned from the Tralfamadorians.

Plot summary from "Slaughterhouse Five"

Billy Pilgrim was born in 1922, in Ilium, New York, the only son of a barber there. A few of his childhood memories are shown: such as when his father attempted to teach him to swim by throwing him into the water and a trip to the Grand Canyon when he is twelve.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim

Sweet Billy Pilgrim are an English genre spanning band, composed of bassist/banjo player Anthony Bishop, guitarist and singer Jana Carpenter, singer, guitarist and singer Tim Elsenburg, and drummer/percussionist Alistair Hamer. Often described as Rock, Folk Rock, Folktronica, Americana, Alternative, Art Rock, Electronica, Pop or Prog, they describe their sound as "Thrash Pastel".

Biography

The original three members met while at school. Elsenburg and Bishop are from Wingrave and Hamer from Wendover, both near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. American born Carpenter joined the band in 2010.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim formed in 2003 after their previous band, Cordisto, came to an end. The band are named after the main character in Kurt Vonnegut's book Slaughterhouse 5.

After repeated rejections from both major and independent record labels, Elsenburg bought a Power Book, they installed Logic, and the band began to record themselves. Due to financial restraints, the early Sweet Billy Pilgrim recordings up until 2012's "Crown and Treaty" were (apart from the acoustic drums) produced in a garden shed using a laptop and one quite good microphone. The band feel this has had a positive influence on their sound.

Pilgrim

A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. In the spiritual literature of Christianity, the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude.

History

Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions, including the faiths of ancient Egypt, Persia in the Mithraic period, India, China, and Japan. The Greek and Roman customs of consulting the gods at local oracles, such as those at Dodona or Delphi, both in Greece, are widely known. In Greece, pilgrimages could either be personal or state-sponsored.

In the early period of Hebrew history, pilgrims traveled to Shiloh, Dan, Bethel, and eventually Jerusalem (see also Three Pilgrimage Festivals, a practice followed by other Abrahamic religions). While many pilgrims travel toward a specific location, a physical destination is not always a necessity. One group of pilgrims in early Celtic Christianity were the Peregrinari Pro Christ, (Pilgrims for Christ), or "white martyrs", who left their homes to wander in the world. This sort of pilgrimage was an ascetic religious practice, as the pilgrim left the security of home and the clan for an unknown destination, trusting completely in Divine Providence. These travels often resulted in the founding of new abbeys and the spread of Christianity among the pagan population in Britain and in continental.

Future Perfect

Future Perfect is the debut full-length album by Autolux, released November 21, 2004 on T-Bone Burnett's label, DMZ, via Columbia. Future Perfect was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles and was produced by Burnett. The opening track on the album, "Turnstile Blues", was known for its heavy, distinctive drumbeat and musical atmosphere. A Pitchfork review stated, "In the first 10 seconds of the album opener, Carla Azar shames most every beat-maker with her ridiculous Leibezeit-cum-Bonham percussion."

Track listing

Album credits

Vinyl releases

DMZ also released Future Perfect as a two-LP set, which later went out of print. After the label's demise, Autolux reissued the album themselves (listed as Autolux Music Entertainment) in 2009 on one 180-gram LP on via their website (with no edits or changes to the track listing despite the long running time), and again in 2015 (as The Autolux Empire).

Billy

Billy may refer to:

People

Places