Piano

The piano (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjaːno]; an abbreviation of pianoforte [pjanoˈfɔrte]) is a musical instrument played using a keyboard. It is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, and for composing and rehearsal. Although the piano is not portable and often expensive, its versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world's most familiar musical instruments.

An acoustic piano usually has a protective wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings, and a row of 88 black and white keys (52 white, 36 black). The strings are sounded when the keys are pressed, and silenced when the keys are released. The note can be sustained, even when the keys are released, by the use of pedals.

Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a padded (often with felt) hammer to strike strings. The hammer rebounds, and the strings continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air. When the key is released, a damper stops the strings' vibration, ending the sound. Although an acoustic piano has strings, it is usually classified as a percussion instrument because the strings are struck rather than plucked (as with a harpsichord or spinet); in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of instrument classification, pianos are considered chordophones. With technological advances, electric, electronic, and digital pianos have also been developed.

Mania

Mania is the mood of an abnormally elevated arousal energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together with lability of affect." Although mania is often conceived as a “mirror image” to depression, the heightened mood can be either euphoric or irritable; indeed, as the mania worsens, irritability often becomes more pronounced and may eventuate in violence.

The nosology of the various stages of a manic episode has changed over the decades. The word derives from the Greek μανία (mania), "madness, frenzy" and the verb μαίνομαι (mainomai), "to be mad, to rage, to be furious".

In current DSM-5 nomenclature, hypomanic episodes are separated from the more severe full manic episodes, which, in turn, are characterized as either mild, moderate, or severe, with specifiers with regard to certain symptomatic features (e.g., catatonic, psychotic). Mania, however, may be divided into three stages: hypomania, or stage I; acute mania, or stage II; and delirious mania, or stage III. This “staging” of a manic episode is, in particular, very useful from a descriptive and differential diagnostic point of view.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones. It is filmed in a Belfast studio and on location elsewhere in Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Spain, Scotland, and the United States, and premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011. The series has been renewed for a sixth season, which will premiere on April 24, 2016.

The series is set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and interweaves several plot lines with a large ensemble cast. The first narrative arc follows a civil war among several noble houses for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms; the second covers the attempts to reclaim the throne by the exiled last scion of the realm's deposed ruling dynasty; the third chronicles the rising threat of the impending winter and the legendary creatures and fierce peoples of the North.

The Rains

The Rains Ep is the first recording by supergroup Some Girls.

Track listing

The Rains of Castamere

"The Rains of Castamere" is the ninth episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 29th episode of the series. The episode was written by executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by David Nutter. It aired on June 2, 2013 (2013-06-02).

The episode is centered on the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey, one of the most memorable events of the book series, commonly named "The Red Wedding." Other storylines include Bran Stark's group having to separate, Jon Snow's loyalties being tested, and Daenerys plotting her invasion of the city of Yunkai.

This episode earned David Benioff and D.B. Weiss a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series nomination.

Plot

In the North

North of the Wall, Sam (John Bradley) and Gilly (Hannah Murray) continue their march south. Sam tells Gilly he plans for them to cross the Wall using the entrance at the Nightfort, an abandoned castle along the Wall.

South of the Wall, Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and his group take shelter in an abandoned mill. Nearby, Jon (Kit Harington) and the wildling party raid an elderly horse breeder's home, taking his horses and gold while the old man flees. While in the mill, Bran and Jojen Reed (Thomas Brodie Sangster) discuss how they plan to cross the Wall, before Meera (Ellie Kendrick) spots the old horse breeder riding nearby. After the old man is captured by the wildlings, Hodor (Kristian Nairn)—scared by the thunder—begins yelling, which threatens to give away their location to the wildlings. Bran uses his warg abilities to enter Hodor's mind and knocks him out.