Julian Vincent "Mo" Anthoine (1 August 1939 – 12 August 1989) was a British mountaineer who climbed extensively in the Himalayas in the 1970s and 80s.

Born in Kidderminster, he left King Charles I School aged sixteen to become a trainee manager in the carpet industry. It was on an Outward Bound course as part of his management training that he had his first climbing experience, and soon afterwards he left the carpet industry to take a job at the Ogwen Cottage Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Snowdonia. He travelled widely in his early 20s, hitchhiking across Europe, Asia and Australia from 1961 to 1963, paying his way by working in an asbestos mine in Australia and smuggling turquoise into Pakistan.^[1] On his return to Britain he had a spell training and working as a teacher in England, before settling in North Wales in 1968 and starting a business manufacturing climbing helmets.^[2]

Anthoine was a good technical rock climber and made a number of first ascents in North Wales, the best known of which was The Groove on Llech Ddu, a crag on the north side of Carnedd Dafydd.^[2] However, it was for his mountaineering that he is best remembered. In the Alps he was involved in a six day struggle through a storm near the summit of Mont Blanc which killed seven climbers, cajoling others to survive.^[3]

In the 1970s and 80s he took part in a number of Himalayan expeditions. In 1976 he made the first ascent of Trango Tower with Joe Brown.^[1] Two years later on an expedition to The Ogre, he and Clive Rowland saved the lives of Doug Scott (who had broken both legs) and Chris Bonington (who had broken several ribs) on a gruelling seven day descent from close to the top of the mountain.^[4] The incident attracted considerable media attention, but Anthoine, a modest man, was content to remain in the background and take little credit.^[2]

The Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Anthoine and Alvarez bivouacked a third of the way up the north face of the central peak, Cima Grande.

Mo Anthoine might have remained a relatively unknown figure outside climbing circles but for his friendship with the writer and occasional climber Al Alvarez.^[2] He probably saved Alvarez's life in the Dolomites in 1964.^[2] Climbing the 600-metre north face of Cima Grande di Lavaredo, the pair were caught by a snowstorm on the overhanging wall and forced to spend a night on a small ledge with wet clothes in freezing conditions. Alvarez was convinced that they would freeze to death, but Anthoine remained calm and kept the pair's spirits up, pummelling Alvarez all night to keep him awake and keep his circulation going. In the event, both men survived with mild frostbite.^[5] Alvarez wrote a fictionalised account of the incident for The New Yorker in 1971,^[6] followed by a full length biography of Anthoine in 1988. The book's title, Feeding the Rat, derived from Anthoine's characterisation of his need for adventure as a rat which gnawed away at him.^[2]

Anthoine was known as a cautious climber who valued safety, travel and the companionship of friends more than the summit.^[2] He was sometimes criticised for over-caution, but simply responded that "no mountain is worth a mate", and in over twenty years of expeditions, no members of his teams were ever killed.^[3]

His last expedition was a 1988 attempt on Mount Everest led by Brummie Stokes, which failed to reach the summit but did establish a new route on the North East Ridge as far as the junction with the North Ridge.^[7] He died the following year of a brain tumor at his home in Nant Peris.^[2]

References[link]

Antoine Roney (born April 1, 1963) is an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, brother to trumpeter Wallace Roney.^[1]

Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts of the D. C. Public Schools and attended college at the Hartt School of Music of the University of Hartford, where he studied with alto saxophonist, Jackie McLean.

Throughout the 80's and 90's he worked with Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Clifford Jordan, Ted Curson, John Patton, Rashied Ali, Arthur Taylor, Jesse Davis, Ravi Coltrane, Michael Carvin, Geri Allen, Chick Corea and Elvin Jones and has released five albums as a leader.

Discography[link]

• 1992: The Traveler (Muse) with Jacky Terrasson, James Spaulding, Louis Hayes, Wallace Roney
• 1995: Whirling (Muse) with Ronnie Matthews, Santi Debriano, Nasheet Waits

With Elvin Jones

• The Truth: Heard Live at the Blue Note (Half Note, 1999)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Official Myspace
• Stone Quarry Records

Matthew Harding
Matt Harding in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan on January 27, 2007.
Born	Matthew Harding (1976-09-27) September 27, 1976 (age 35)
Internet information
Web alias(es)	Matt
Web hosting service(s)	YouTube
Meme	Where the Hell is Matt?
Website
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Matthew "Matt" Harding (born September 27, 1976), is an American traveler, video game designer, and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations. Harding has since received widespread coverage of his travel exploits in major print and broadcast media outlets,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} and was hired by Visa to star in their Travel Happy campaign.^[6]

He is originally from Westport, Connecticut.^[7] He began his game industry career working for a video game specialty store called Cutting Edge Entertainment. Harding later worked as an editor for GameWeek Magazine in Wilton, Connecticut, and then as a software developer for Activision in Santa Monica, California and then Brisbane, Australia.

Harding claims that a sarcastic joke about the popularity of shoot 'em up games led Pandemic Studios to develop the game Destroy All Humans!, on which he received a conceptual credit. Saying he "didn't want to spend two years of my life writing a game about killing everyone", he quit his job and began traveling, leading to the production of his first video.^[8]

On 11 December 2008, Matt Harding sarcastically revealed at the Entertainment Gathering that the videos were a hoax and that he is an actor, not a game designer, and the videos were made using animatronic puppets and extensive video editing.^[9] A month later, during the MacWorld convention, Matt revealed the "hoax about the hoax" and joked about the fact many people took it seriously and the outrage it caused. He also made it very clear that the videos he made were indeed 100% real.^[10]

Where the Hell is Matt?[link]

Harding was known by his friends for a particular dance, and while video recording each other in Vietnam, his travel companion suggested he add the dance. The videos were uploaded to his website for friends and family to enjoy. Later, Harding edited together 15 dance scenes, all with him center frame, with the background music "Sweet Lullaby" by "Deep Forest". The original Song uses samples from a dying Solomon Islands language which was recorded in 1971 by a French ethnomusicologist at the Solomon Islands near Papua New Guinea. The song, "Rorogwela" was sung by a young woman named Afunakwa. According to the video "Where the Hell is Afunakwa" by Matt Harding, Afunakwa died in 1998.

The video was passed around by e-mail and eventually became viral, with his server getting 20,000 or more hits a day as it was discovered, generally country by country due to language barriers, before the launch of major video upload sites.

Harding created a second version of the video in 2006, with additional dancing scenes from subsequent travels, called "Dancing 2006". At the request of Stride, a gum brand, he accepted sponsorship^[11] of this video, since he usually travels on a limited budget.

Harding released his third dancing video on June 20, 2008. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries. The background music/song of this video is known as "Praan" composed by Garry Schyman and sung by Palbasha Siddique, with lyrics adapted from the poem "Stream of Life," a part of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore.^[12]

As of August 2008, Harding is represented by Creative Artists Agency.^[13] His videos are viewable on YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and his own site wherethehellismatt.com. His "Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)" video has been watched over 40,900,000 times on YouTube since 2011 and Harding's YouTube channel is ranked "#83 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Directors" as of December 22, 2010.^[14][15]

Major media coverage[link]

Harding's video clips have appeared on television shows including:

• The Screen Savers (March 17, 2005)
• MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann (August 18, 2005)
• Inside Edition (August 19, 2005)
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show (October 10, 2005)
• Rude Tube (February 15, 2008)
• 40 Greatest Internet Celebrities on VH1
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (August 6, 2008)
• Enough Rope (August 18, 2008)
• The Daily Show (November 6, 2008)
• Good Morning America (May 31, 2006)

In 2007, Jawed Karim, one of the founders of YouTube, stated that Harding's video is his favorite video posted to YouTube.^[16]

On July 22, 2008 and again on July 25, 2010, NASA featured Harding's third video on their APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website, titled "Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth", making claim of humans worldwide sharing a common love of dance. The website states that "few people are able to watch the above video without smiling".^[17] Harding himself has joked that he is impressed with this, especially since the video has nothing to do with astronomy, nor is a picture.

Videos[link]

Videogame development credits[link]

Harding's development credits include:^[21]

• Destroy All Humans!
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Army Men RTS
• Dark Reign 2
• Battlezone II: Combat Commander
• Battlezone
• Zork: Grand Inquisitor

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Matt Harding

• Official homepage and blog
• Matt Visits Yahoo! Headquarters

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)

Antoine Dufour
Antoine Dufour performing live in 2008
Background information
Born	1979 (age 32–33) L'Épiphanie, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Folk, fingerstyle acoustic, instrumental
Occupations	Guitarist
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	2003 – present
Labels	CandyRat
Website	antoinedufourmusic.com

Antoine Dufour (born 1979 L'Épiphanie, Quebec) is a French-Canadian acoustic guitarist currently signed to CandyRat Records.

Biography[link]

Dufour started playing guitar at the age of fifteen. He went on to study at the CEGEP in Joliette, where he listened to the music of Leo Kottke, Don Ross, and Michael Hedges at the behest of his teacher. Since then, he has gone on to place second at the 2005 Canadian Guitar Festival's Fingerstyle Guitar Championship and first place in the 2006 competition. He also placed third at the 2006 International Finger Style Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas.

Dufour has released five solo albums to date: Naissance, Development, Existence, Convergences, and Sound Pictures. He has garnered a sizeable fanbase through YouTube with live performances of his songs cut in the same studio as fellow guitarist Andy McKee, amongst other CandyRat performers. His most popular video is a cover of "Jerry's Breakdown" performed with Tommy Gauthier, who is himself an expert fiddler, using a single guitar between the two. Dufour has also released a fourth album (Still Strings) with Tommy Gauthier.

Dufour works on the side as a guitar instructor, offering lessons through Skype as well.

Guitar style[link]

Dufour's pieces are characterized by a highly percussive playing style, using slap and natural harmonics frequently. Dufour shares many compositional traits with other fingerstyle guitarists such as Kaki King, Andy McKee, Craig D'Andrea, and Don Ross, especially in terms of his music's technical complexity.

Many pay special attention to the red bandana/scarf tied around the end of his guitar's neck above the nut, seen in most of Dufour's YouTube videos – he has stated in interviews that this is used to mute the strings ringing above the nut as they would resonate after a hard strum followed by a mute of the strings.

Currently, his primary instrument is a Mario Beauregard flat top "Orchestral model" cutaway. He uses medium phosphor bronze Elixir Strings, K&K pick-ups (Trinity System), Phil Jones amps, Radial Tonebone Pz-pre preamps, Spider capos (previously Third Hand Capos) and an Ergoplay guitar support. On several of his pieces, he plays a Duane Noble Harp guitar. Dufour was previously endorsed by Stonebridge guitars; using his own signature Stonebridge model ^[1], in addition to a Stonebridge GS-23-CR. During the period of his first two albums, Dufour used an acoustic Jumbo Larivee in addition to his Stonebridge GS-23-CR.

Dufour wears acrylic artificial fingernails on each finger of his right hand, aside from his thumb. The nails help to create a crisp, clean sound. Regarding these nails, he buys commonly available acrylic nails from a store, and then cuts them down to size. After gluing the nails on, he cuts and files the nails to his preferred length. These fake nails are not worn/glued over the entire fingernail, rather, they are worn on approximately half of the front tip of the nail. Commonly, he uses a Dunlop thumbpick which he files down so that the tip of the pick is shorter and at a more comfortable angle for his playing style. As is commonly seen, Dufour has two rings on his right index and ring finger. These are his wedding and engagement rings. The reason he wears them on his right hand is so that they do not hit the neck of the guitar while he plays. The rings serve no purpose in his playing.

References[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Naissance (2004)
• Development (2006)
• Existence (2008)
• Still Strings (2009) (with Tommy Gauthier)
• Convergences (2010)
• Sound Pictures (2011)

DVDs[link]

• Antoine Dufour / Andy McKee Split DVD (2007)
• Antoine Dufour / Craig D'Andrea / Peter Ciluzzi (2008)

External links[link]

• Antoine Dufour Official Website
• Antoine Dufour (guitarist) on Myspace
• Antoine Dufour at Candyrat Records
• Interview with Antoine Dufour at www.instrumentalcase.com

Ken Block
Ken Block in 2008.
Nationality	American
Born	(1967-11-21) 21 November 1967 (age 44) Long Beach, California
2012 Rally America
Debut season	2005
Current team	Monster World Rally Team
Best finish	2nd Overall in Rally America in 2006 and 2008
Awards
2004[1] 2005[1] 2009	• One of the most influential people (#17) in Sports Business Journal • Ad Age's Marketing 50 • One of the Fast 50 in Fast Company Magazine • 40 Under 40 Awards, Sports Business Journal • Rally America's Rookie of the Year • Gymkhana 2 was 2009's #4 most viewed viral video

Ken Block (born November 21, 1967, in Long Beach, California)^[2] is a professional rally driver with the Monster World Rally Team. Block is also one of the co-founders and recently appointed Chief Brand Officer of DC Shoes.^[1] Block has also competed in many action sports events including skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross.

Rallying[link]

2005[link]

In 2005, Ken Block began his national rallying career with the Vermont SportsCar team.^[3] Vermont SportsCar prepared a 2005 Subaru WRX STi for Block to compete. His first event of the rallying season was Sno*Drift, where he ended up finishing seventh overall and fifth in the Group N class.^[4] During the 2005 season, Block had five top five finishes and placed third overall in the Group N class and fourth overall in the Rally America National Championship.^[3] At the end of his first rallying year, Ken Block had won the Rally America Rookie of the Year award.^[5]

2006[link]

In 2006, Ken Block along with his DC rally teammate Travis Pastrana signed a new sponsorship deal with Subaru.^[3] Through this deal with Subaru, the teammates became known as "Subaru Rally Team USA."^[3] With the new rally season, Block also got a brand new Vermont SportsCar prepped 2006 Subaru WRX STi.^[3] He competed in the first ever X Games rally event at X Games XII.^[3] In the competition, Block ended up finishing third to take the bronze.^[3] He went on to compete in the 2006 Rally America National Championship, where he finished second overall.^[3]

2007[link]

In 2007, Ken Block competed in the X Games XIII rally event, where he placed second overall and won a silver medal.^[5] In the 2007 Rally America National Championship, Block finished third overall.^[5] During this season, Block also entered in a few rounds of the World Rally Championship; Rally Mexico and Rally New Zealand.^[4] In Rally New Zealand, Block recorded two top-five stage times in the Group N class.^[4] At the end of 2007, Block had achieved 19 podiums and 8 overall victories in rally events.^[1]

2008[link]

In 2008, Block was provided with a brand new rally prepped 2008 Subaru WRX STi to compete. Block decided to compete in the Rallye Baie-des Chaleurs of the Canadian Rally Championship to gain some experience with his new 2008 rally car and prepare for the World Rally Championships later this year.^[6] Block gained his first Canadian rally win at the event.^[6] This was only the second event for the new car.^[6] Block and his co-driver were unable to get any championship points at the event due to not having a Canadian competition license.^[6] Block competed in the Rally New York USA competition and finished in first place.^[7] In the X Games XIV rally competition, Block finished tied for third place with Dave Mirra.^[8] This occurrence was due to both competitors having issues with their car. Block, who made it to the semi-finals of the event, had a radiator problem after landing the car awkwardly on a jump. With both bronze place competitors in damaged cars unable to compete, the medals were awarded to both of them.^[8]

Block competed in the 2008 Rally America National championship, which concluded on October 17, 2008. In the event, he finished second overall with a strong victory in the last event. In the Lake Superior Performance Rally stage, Block finished over one minute ahead of his next closest competitor and secured the second overall position.^[9] Next up for Block this rally season is three World Rally Championship events.^[4]

2009[link]

Block appeared in a segment of motoring show Top Gear.^[10]

2010[link]

Ken Block testing Ford Fiesta for the 2010 Rally America season

Block driving a Ford Focus RS WRC at the 2010 Rallye de France

On January 6, 2010 the Monster World Rally Team announced Ken as their driver for selected rounds of the World Rally Championship, in which he will be campaigning the Monster/Ford Racing Focus RS WRC 08. His car will be prepared and run by the North of England based M-Sport, who also prepare the official Ford WRC cars. He will be simultaneously running in his sixth season of the Rally America Championship in an open class Ford Fiesta, as well as his fifth X-games. Ken will also be the first ever American driver to campaign for the World Rally Championship. On February 27, Block won the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood (Rally America) for the 5th consecutive time. This broke the record held by John Buffum.^[11] Ken is currently being trained by former Ford factory driver Markko Märtin. At the Spain rally, he won his first 2 points in World Rally Championship.

2011[link]

On March 23, Block and his co-driver Alex Gelsomino were taken to hospital, having rolled their Ford Fiesta RS WRC during the shakedown stage of the 2011 Rally de Portugal in Faro, Portugal.^[12] A representative of the Monster World Rally team later stated that both men were fine.^[13]

Complete Rally America results[link]

(key)

Complete WRC results[link]

* Season in progress.

PWRC results[link]

Other motorsport activities[link]

On October 15, 2009, it was reported that Block was close to a deal to join the World Rally Championship in a new Ford team. Long time co-driver Alex Gelsomino is also reportedly involved in the deal. Former Subaru WRC driver Chris Atkinson has been reported to be lined up as Block's team-mate in the all-new Monster Energy Drink Ford World Rally Team.^[14]

In 2005, Ken Block along with his DC Shoes associates participated in the Gumball 3000 Rally. For the event they sent out three modified 2004 Subaru WRX STi's sponsored by DC Shoes.^[15][16]

In 2006, Ken Block competed in the One Lap of America competition along with Brian Scotto. They were teamed up in a 2006 Subaru WRX STi and finished forty-fifth overall.^[17]

In 2006, for the Discovery Channel show Stunt Junkies, Ken Block jumped his Subaru WRX STi rally car 171 feet (52 m) and a max height of 25 feet (7.6 m).^[3] The whole episode was dedicated to Ken Block attempting this stunt.

In 2007, Ken Block joined the DC Shoes Snowboarding team at New Zealand's Snow Park.^[3] Block did massive jumps and assisted in snowboarding tricks while driving his rally car on the mountain alongside the snowboarders. The session made the cover of the December 2007 issue of Snowboarder Magazine and closed out the MTN.LAB 1.5 DVD.^[3]

In 2009, for the BBC show Top Gear, Ken took James May out for Gymkhana-style driving at Block's stunt course at Inyokern Airport, an operational California airport, also starring Ricky Carmichael, whom Ken describes as 'a good friend'.

In 2010, for the BBC show Top Gear, Ken took the feature car from the previous episode (a Reliant Robin) for a lap of the Top Gear test track. He rolled the car and was unable to complete a lap but was unhurt.

On January 6, 2010, the announcement is made as Ken joins up with Ford and begins his WRC career driving both a Ford Fiesta and Focus RS WRC.

On August 24, 2010, Block released the first of a three part Gymkhana 3 video release featuring his new Ford Fiesta.^[18]

Ken Block also holds the world record for the world's fastest snow cat, a modified Subaru STI called a Trax STI.^{[citation needed]}

On September 14, 2010, Block's third Gymkhana video, featuring a Ford Fiesta, was released on YouTube.^[19] The video got more than seven million views in its first week.

On August 16, 2011, the fourth Gymkhana video, The Hollywood Megamercial was released on YouTube, featuring Block driving around the Universal Studios backlot.^[20]

Involvement In Colin McRae: Dirt 2 and Dirt 3[link]

Ken Block is featured as a driver in Codemasters Colin McRae: Dirt 2, along with his Subaru Rally Team USA Impreza.
In Dirt 3 he is seen as a driver and Gymkhana teacher, his Monster World Rally Team vehicles are available in the game.

References[link]