My Favorite

My Favorite are an indie pop band formed in Long Island, New York in the early 1990s, later of Brooklyn and Queens. After releasing two full-length CDs, the original band split in 2005, but reformed in 2014.

Formation and original era

My Favorite formed in Long Island in the early 1990s, and eventually migrated to the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The original lineup consisted of founder and principal songwriter Michael Grace Jr., vocalist Andrea Vaughn, guitarist Darren Amadio, bassist Gil Abad and drummer Todd "Todbot" Karasik.

Their main influences included The Smiths, David Bowie, New Order and various singles from influential labels like Factory, Rough Trade, Cherry Red and Sarah. In negotiating these influences and impulses, they were contemporaries of Magnetic Fields and Belle and Sebastian, two bands they performed alongside in New York.

The band released two full-length CDs (Love at Absolute Zero and The Happiest Days of Our Lives: The Complete Joan of Arc Tapes), and several EPs and limited-edition, vinyl-only singles. They also made two music videos.

Talking Tom and Friends

Talking Tom and Friends is the flagship franchise of multinational entertainment company Outfit7 Limited. As of August 2015 there are six characters (Talking Tom, Talking Angela, Talking Ginger, Talking Ben, Talking Hank, and Talking Pierre) and 15 apps within the Talking Tom and Friends umbrella brand. Since June 2010 the apps have achieved more than 3 billion downloads.

The characters

Talking Tom

Talking Tom is the lead character in the Talking Tom and Friends franchise. Tom is a wisecracking, adventure-seeking anthropomorphic cat, described as the "world’s most popular cat."

Talking Tom is a fully animated interactive 3D character that users can tickle, poke and play with in the apps. Users can also get Tom to repeat what they say. The original Talking Tom Cat app was launched in July 2010 for iOS, closely followed by Talking Tom 2 in 2011.

The My Talking Tom app was launched in November 2013. This interactive app sees users raise their very own Tom from a kitten to a fully-grown tomcat, caring for him and customizing his fur, clothes and home. My Talking Tom had over 11 million downloads and was the top games app in 135 countries worldwide within 10 days of its launch.

Talking Angela

Talking Angela is a chatterbot app developed by Outfit7 as part of the Talking Tom and Friends series. It was released in December 2012 for iPhone and iPad, January 2013 for Android, and January 2014 for Google Play. The My Talking Angela app was released in December 2014.

Internet personal information hoax

In February 2013, Talking Angela was the subject of an Internet hoax claiming that it encourages children to disclose personal information about themselves, which is ostensibly then used by pedophiles to identify the location of these children. The rumor, which was widely circulated on Facebook, claims that Angela, the game's main character, asks the game's user for private personal information using the game's text-chat feature. (This feature is turned off when "child mode" is turned on in the game's preferences.) Other versions of the rumor even attribute the disappearance of a child to the app, or claim that it is run by a pedophile ring. The former rumor originated from an article on Huzlers.com, which has since been shown to be fake, as are many articles on the (satirical) website.

Mac Miller

Malcolm James McCormick (born January 19, 1992), best known by his stage name Mac Miller, is an American rapper from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also a noted record producer under the pseudonym Larry Fisherman. Miller is also becoming known for taking on multiple alter-egos, under the aliases Delusional Thomas, Larry Lovestein and The Velvet Revival, respectively.

In early 2010, Miller signed a record deal with Pittsburgh-based indie record label Rostrum Records. He subsequently began recording his debut studio album Blue Slide Park, and released it on November 8, 2011. The album went on to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, making it the first independently distributed debut album to top the chart since Tha Dogg Pound's 1995 album, Dogg Food.

In early 2013, Miller launched REMember Music, his own record label imprint, named after a friend who died. Miller's second album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, was released on June 18, 2013. In January 2014, Miller announced he was no longer signed to Rostrum Records. In October 2014, it was reported Miller signed a record deal for him and his label REMember, with Warner Bros. Records.

Favourite

A favourite or favorite (American English) was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler. It is especially a phenomenon of the 16th and 17th centuries, when government had become too complex for many hereditary rulers with no great interest in or talent for it, and political institutions were still evolving. The period 1600-1660 saw particular successions of all-powerful minister-favourites in much of Europe, particularly in Spain, England, France and Sweden.

The term is also sometimes employed by conservative writers who want to avoid terms such as "royal mistress", or "friend", "companion" or "lover" of either sex. Several favourites had sexual relations with the monarch (or the monarch's spouse), but the feelings of the monarch for the favourite covered the full gamut from a simple faith in the favourite's abilities, through various degrees of emotional affection and dependence, to sexual infatuation.