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| Look At Me !! I'm A Toon! |
| Can I count to 3? DAMN YOU ALL! |
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| For God's Sakes I'm already shooting at a 5th grade level. |
STEWIE GRIFFIN IS A 1-YEAR-OLD BABY WITH A SINGLE GOAL: TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION. HE HAS THE VOICE AND MANNER OF AN EVIL REX
HARRISON, BUT HE'S ONLY RECENTLY CELEBRATED THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HIS ESCAPE FROM HIS MOTHER'S "CURSED OVARIAN BASTILLE,"
IN WHICH HE WAS
INCARCERATED FOR NINE GRUELING MONTHS!
JUST BECAUSE LOIS HAS NARROWLY ESCAPED SEVERAL ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE THUS FAR (FROM A BOX OF CHOCOLATES FILLED WITH ACTIVE
GRENADES TO A BARRAGE OF ARROWS SHOT STRAIGHT FOR HER HEAD) DOESN'T MEAN SHE'S IN THE CLEAR YET. STEWIE MIGHT BEGRUDGE LOIS
A MODICUM OF RESPECT FOR BEING THE WORTHY ADVERSARY SHE IS, BUT DON'T BE FOOLED. ONE DAY HER UPPANCE SHALL COME!
IN FACT, IF IT WERE NOT FOR HIS LACK OF MUSCLE TONE, TOILET TRAINING AND HIS NEED FOR PARENTALLY PROVIDED SUSTENANCE; STEWIE
WOULD HAVE ALREADY GAINED CONTROL OVER MOST OF THE THIRD WORLD, INCLUDING CANADA. UNTIL HIS DOMINION OVER ALL MANKIND COMES
TO FRUITION, ANYONE OR ANYTHING THAT INTERFERES WITH HIS GRAND PLAN SHALL BE DESTROYED. AND IF HE CAN CREATE A MACHINE THAT
CONTROLS THE WEATHER, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK HE WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTROL YOU, HMMM?
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| RACHMANINOFF, SERGEY VASILYEVICH |
Russian-American
composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the most brilliant pianists of the 20th century, whose compositions are considered
the last major musical expression of the romantic era. Rachmaninoff was born near Novgorod. He began studying piano at an early age and in 1885 entered the Moscow Conservatory.
There his piano teachers included the stringent disciplinarian Nikolay Zverov and Rachmaninoff's cousin Aleksandr Siloti,
who gave him the heritage of his own teacher, Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt. There also, Rachmaninoff studied
with three eminent Russian composers: Anton Arensky, Sergey Taneyev, and his most important musical mentor, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
Rachmaninoff's
Prelude in C-sharp Minor (1892), for piano and orchestra, and his opera Aleko (1893) established his reputation as a composer.
Also written in 1893 was his second Trio élégiaque, in memory of Tchaikovsky, who died in November of that year.
In
1897 Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 in D Minor was performed. Its disastrous reception caused him to stop composing, and for
three years he worked solely as a pianist and conductor. His Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor (1900) marked Rachmaninoff's
return to composition.
From
the next 17 years his Symphony No. 2 in E Minor (1906); the symphonic poem The
Isle of the Dead (1909); the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1910), for choir; the choral symphony The Bells (1913), based on a poem by American writer Edgar
Allan Poe; the All-Night Vigil (1915), also known as the Vesper Mass, for unaccompanied choir; and many highly admired songs.
Except
for a period in Dresden, Germany (1906-1908), he worked
mainly in Moscow; from 1904 to 1906 he conducted at the Bolshoi Theater.
Rachmaninoff
left Russia in 1917 and settled
in the United States the following year. In exile he concentrated
on his piano and conducting careers, making recordings in both fields. His few compositions after 1917 include the Variations
on a Theme of Corelli (1934), for piano; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1936), for piano and orchestra; the Symphony No.
3 in A Minor (1936); and the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor (1937). Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills, California, on March 28, 1943.
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