Chopper is a 2000 Australian crime film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the autobiographical books by Mark "Chopper" Read. The film stars Eric Bana as the title character and co-stars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Kate Beahan and David Field. It has a cult following.
In and out of jail since he was 16, Melbourne standover man Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (Eric Bana) is serving a 16-year sentence for kidnapping a supreme court judge to get his childhood friend, Jimmy Loughnan (Simon Lyndon), out of the notorious H Division of maximum security Pentridge Prison. To become leader of the division, he ignites a power struggle which gains him more enemies than admirers. Eventually, even his gang turn their backs on him and Loughnan stabs him several times in a failed assassination attempt. Chopper voluntarily has his ears cut off by a fellow inmate in order to be transferred out of the H Division; this also gains him recognition in and out of the prison.
He is released in 1986, revisiting enemies and friends whom he cannot differentiate anymore. He reunites with his former girlfriend Tanya (Kate Beahan), but suspects that she is involved with one of his old victims, Neville Bartos (Vince Colosimo). He tracks Bartos down, shoots him and takes him to the hospital, unabashedly claiming that he has a "green light" courtesy of the Police "to exterminate scum". When Chopper learns that he is now the target of a death-contract, he goes after his old friend Jimmy, only to find him worn out and poverty stricken by drugs with a daughter and a junkie fiancée who is pregnant with another child.
Archaeologists define a chopper as a pebble tool with an irregular cutting edge formed through the removal of flakes from one side of a stone.
Choppers are crude forms of stone tool and are found in industries as early as the Lower Palaeolithic from around 2.5 million years ago. These earliest known specimens were found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania by Louis Leakey in the 1930s. The name Oldowan was given to the tools after the site in which they were excavated. These types of tools were used an estimated time range of 2.5 to 1.2 million years ago.
To create this tool, one would have to use a hammerstone to chip away flakes on the stone to create a side of the stone with a very sharp edge, allowing for the cutting and hacking of an object. This is a unique type of lithic reduction due to only a single side of the stone being retouched to produce the cutting surface of the stone. The side that does not do the cutting is left unscathed, an unusual practice. These old instruments were made from specific materials. Initially, they were composed of quartz, quartzite, basalt, or obsidian. In the later years of the oldowan age, two other materials were used: flint and chert. These materials could hold an edge while fairly easy to craft into the shape desired. The tool is designed to fit in the palm of the hand, and it is not attached to any other mount that could possibly be used. Known as one of the earliest tools (if not the earliest), its design is a very simple piece of technology, but its performance was very successful in many different scenarios. Seeing the history of these objects and how many cultures used them, it is not a surprise to find spread throughout the world. A potential stone mass found today could be classified as a chopper if a worn edge showing signs of evidence of tool use is present.
A chopper is a propeller design largely of interest for production outboards on fast pad v-bottom boats. Unlike a cleaver the chopper's trailing edge extends aft with a large chord line at each radius. Choppers provide good acceleration and top speed and generally have relatively high rake, which has the effect of increasing the boat's angle of attack without changing the motor trim. This trimming effect is mistakenly called 'bow lift'.
Face is the debut album of Of Cabbages and Kings, released by Purge/Sound League in 1988.
All music composed by Of Cabbages and Kings.
Adapted from the Face liner notes.
The term face idiomatically refers to one's own sense of dignity or prestige in social contexts. In the English-speaking world, the expression "To save face" describes the lengths that an individual may go to in order to preserve their established position in society, taking action to ensure that one is not thought badly of by their peers. It is a fundamental concept in the fields of sociology, sociolinguistics, semantics, politeness theory, psychology, political science, communication, and face negotiation theory, and translates at least somewhat equivalently into many world languages, both Germanic and otherwise.
Although Lin Yutang claimed "Face cannot be translated or defined", compare these definitions:
Face are a Boulder, Colorado-based "all-vocal rock band," or a cappella group performing mostly rock music. National appearances and awards include one of the eight original groups on NBC's premiere season of "The Sing-Off" (2009), two-time Runner-Up and two-time National Audience Favorite at the National Finals of Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival (2005 and 2007), and Runner-Up for Favorite Pop/Rock Group from the Contemporary A Cappella Society's Community Awards (2007). Based in Boulder, Colorado, Face has also garnered numerous local awards including Best Local Band by The Denver Channel's A-List Awards (2013), Best Local Musician by Boulder Weekly's Best of Boulder Awards (2009) and third-place for Best Local Band by The Denver Channel's A-List Awards (2009).
The idea for Face grew out of a university a cappella experience. Both Ben Lunstad and Joseph DiMasi had formed and performed with undergraduate a cappella groups. They met in grad school in 2000 at the University of Colorado in Boulder while singing with CU's In The Buff. Deciding that In The Buff wasn't exactly what they were looking for, Ben and DiMasi co-founded the award-winning Extreme Measures.