Just Like the Fambly Cat

Just Like the Fambly Cat is the fourth and final studio album by American indie rock band Grandaddy. It was released on May 9, 2006 by record label V2.

The album reached No. 171 on the Billboard 200 and No. 10 on the Top Independent Albums chart, as well as No. 50 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was well-received by critics.

Background

The album's title is a reference to frontman Jason Lytle's desire to leave his home town of Modesto, California without any fuss, stating "[cats will] do that, almost out of respect and not wanting to put people out [...] because when the family cat dies, he doesn't make a big deal about it... He just disappears".

Recording

Lytle spent eighteen months recording the album at a studio in Modesto, California. Regarding the recording process, Lytle noted "During the one-and-a-half years that I recorded this album I lost my girl, my friends, my home, estranged my family, got sober, got wasted... I got too many things going on. The band breaking up only became a reality at the end of the recording. Many songs that people claim to be directly related to the band are actually directly related to other things I had going on."

What Happened

What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception is an auto-biographical bestseller by Scott McClellan, who served as White House Press Secretary from 2003 until 2006 under President George W. Bush. The book was scheduled to be released on June 2, 2008; however, excerpts were released to the press a week before publication. The book quickly became a media sensation for its candid, insider's critique of the Bush administration and ran as a leading story on most top news outlets days after the content became public. It was listed as a number-one bestseller by the New York Times and on Amazon.com when it first went on sale.

Content

McClellan harshly criticizes the Bush administration over its Iraq war-making campaign, though he writes in detail about his personal admiration for President Bush. He accuses Bush of "self-deception" and of maintaining a "permanent campaign approach" to governing, rather than making the best choices. McClellan stops short of saying Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq (in fact, stating flatly that he did not believe that Bush would intentionally lie), writing that the administration was not "employing out-and-out deception" to make the case for war in 2002, though he does assert the administration relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war. The book is also critical of the press corps for being too accepting of the administration's perspective on the Iraq War, and of Condoleezza Rice for being "too accommodating" and overly careful about protecting her own reputation.

Ti (concept)

Ti (simplified Chinese: 体; traditional Chinese: 體; pinyin: tǐ; Wade–Giles: t'i) is the Chinese word for substance or body. In Neo-Confucianism, this concept is often associated with yong, which means "use" or "function."

T.I.

Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. (born September 25, 1980), better known by his stage names T.I. and Tip (stylized as TIP), is an American rapper, actor, and entrepreneur from Atlanta, Georgia. He signed his first major-label record deal in 1999, with Arista Records subsidiary, LaFace Records. In 2001, T.I. formed the Southern hip hop group Pimp Squad Click (P$C), alongside his longtime friends and fellow Atlanta-based rappers. Upon being released from Arista, T.I. signed to Atlantic Records and subsequently became the co-chief executive officer (CEO) of his own label imprint, Grand Hustle Records, which he launched in 2003. T.I. is perhaps best known as one of the artists who popularized the hip hop subgenre, trap music, along with Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane.

T.I. has released nine studio albums, with seven of them reaching the top five of the US Billboard 200 chart. Throughout his career, T.I. has also released several highly successful singles, including "Bring Em Out", "Whatever You Like", "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna), "Dead and Gone" (featuring Justin Timberlake), "Ball" (featuring Lil Wayne) and "No Mediocre" (featuring Iggy Azalea). He began to gain major recognition in 2003, following his first high-profile feature, on fellow Atlanta-based rapper Bone Crusher's hit single, "Never Scared". He earned more prominence with the release of Trap Muzik (2003), which includes the Top 40 hits, "Rubber Band Man" and "Let's Get Away". The next year, T.I. appeared on Destiny's Child's international hit, "Soldier", alongside Lil Wayne. His subsequent albums, King and T.I. vs. T.I.P., generated high record sales and were supported by popular singles, such as "What You Know" and "Big Shit Poppin'", respectively.

Tui (bird)

The tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand. It is one of the largest members of the diverse honeyeater family. The name tui is from the Māori name tūī and is the species' formal common name. The plural is tui in modern English, or ngā tūī in Māori usage; some speakers still use the '-s' suffix to produce the Anglicised form tuis to indicate plurality, but this practice is becoming less common. The early European colonists called it the parson bird, but, as with many New Zealand birds, the Maori name tui is now the common name and the English term is archaic.

Description

At first glance the bird appears completely black except for a small tuft of white feathers at its neck and a small white wing patch, causing it to resemble a parson in clerical attire. On closer inspection (see image) it can be seen that tui have brown feathers on the back and flanks, a multicoloured iridescent sheen that varies with the angle from which the light strikes them, and a dusting of small, white-shafted feathers on the back and sides of the neck that produce a lacy collar.