The Drugged and the Dead

The brilliance of artists works always interesting to be discussed. In the Greek era many people considered the brilliance of the artists was caused by the madness in the neurotic level. They also considered that brilliant artists differ from the other because of their subconscious world which is transformed into their works. Many artists did some rituals and distinctive habits to get the brilliant inspiration. However, the effort of many artists to be considered brilliant is still going on.

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Frank Zappa; A Brief Biography

Once, Robert Shelton wrote in The New York Times in December 1966, the most original new group to simmer out of the steaming rock n'roll underground in the last hour and one-half is an audacious crew from the West Coast called The Mothers of Invention.' It was Frank Zappa the leader of the band who led the band in to a totally different flow from the main stream of that time, precisely the hippies psychedelia. Along with The Mothers of Invention Zappa devoted his creativity into a wide scheme of music, from rock music, jazz ensembles, symphonic orchestra, to synthesizers as well as music works constructed from pre-recorded, synthesized or sampled sources.
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Rapidshare Premium Free Account

Here is a good opportunity for bloggers and webmasters to get Rapidshare Premium Accounts for free. GeniusHackers.Com, a blog about Windows tweaks and registry hacks is giving away premium accounts to bloggers and webmasters.

To get Rapidshare Premium account, you have to post about this contest on your blog or website and after that mail GeniusHackers with the link to your post using the contact form given here. You will get the premium account with user name and password in your email inbox.
Here is the link to the post:

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Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream is the second book written by US Senator Barack Obama.[1] It was the number three bestseller on The New York Times nonfiction list as of October 2006.[2] The book represents Obama's personal manifesto for his 2008 campaign for the Presidency. The book advance from the publisher of $1.9 million contracted for three books.

The title of The Audacity of Hope was derived from a sermon delivered by Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. While a Senate candidate, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, entitled The Audacity of Hope that propelled him to national prominence. In the less than 20 minutes it took to deliver the speech, Obama was catapulted to sudden fame, with many analysts predicting that he might be well-positioned to enter a future presidential race. In 2006, Obama released The Audacity of Hope, a book-length account that expanded upon many of the same themes he originally addressed in the convention speech.

In his speech addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama said:

“In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!”

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Barack Obama; Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir by current United States Presidential candidate Barack Obama of Illinois. It was first published in 1995 after Obama was elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, but before his political career began. The book was re-released in 2004 following Senator Obama's widely admired keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (DNC); the 2004 edition includes a new introduction by Senator Obama as well as his DNC keynote address.

The autobiographical narrative tells the story of the future Senator's life up to his entry in Harvard Law School. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Harvard University-educated economist Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., of Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. At the time of Obama's birth, both his parents were students at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and divorced when he was four. Obama formed an image of his absent father from stories told by his mother and her parents.

Ann Dunham Obama then married Lolo Soetoro, an East-West Center student from Indonesia. The family moved to Jakarta. When Obama was ten, he returned to Hawaii under the care of his grandparents (and later his mother) for the better educational opportunities available in Hawaii. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, a private college-preparatory school. Obama was one of three Black students among the majority Asian-American population at that school.In an American school, Obama first became conscious of racism and what it means to be an African-American. At this point, his father came to visit him and his family; it was the last time that Obama would see him before his father's death in a car accident in 1982.

Upon finishing high school, Obama enrolled at Occidental College, where he describes living a "party" lifestyle of drug and alcohol use. He transferred to Columbia College at Columbia University, where he majored in political science.Upon graduation, he worked for a year in business. He then moved to Chicago, where he took up community organizing in the Altgeld Gardens housing project on the city's South Side. Obama recounts the difficulty of the experience, as his program faced resistance from entrenched community leaders and apathy on the part of the established bureaucracy. It was during his time spent here that Obama joined Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.
In the book, Obama recalls a sermon by pastor Jeremiah Wright called "The Audacity to Hope," from which Obama would take the title of his second book.Obama quotes Wright, describing the world as one "where white folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere … That’s the world, On which hope sits!"

Before attending Harvard Law School, Obama decided to visit relatives in Kenya. He uses part of his experience there as the setting for the book's final, emotional scene.

As well as relating the story of Obama's life, the book includes a good deal of reflection on his own personal experiences with race and race relations in the United States.(wikipedia)

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Avantasia: The Metal Opera Part I

Avantasia is a symphonic metal project created by Tobias Sammet, vocalist and frontman of the power metal group Edguy. The project's title is a portmanteau of the words "avalon" and "fantasia" ("fantasy") and describes "a world beyond human imagination" (a quotation from the booklet). The project consists of a self-titled single, two full-length albums with the subtitle The Metal Opera, two EPs called Lost in Space, and the recently released album The Scarecrow.

In Spring 1999, during Edguy's Theater of Salvation tour, Tobias Sammet began to write down his ideas for a metal opera, a concept album with many guest musicians. When the tour was finished, he carried this plan out, recruiting well-known metal players like Kai Hansen and the ex-Helloween singer Michael Kiske. The project was recorded with a core band of four members - Sammet playing keyboards and arranging orchestration, Henjo Richter playing guitar, Markus Grosskopf playing bass, and Alex Holzwarth on drums. In 2001, the self-titled single and the first full-length album, The Metal Opera, were released. The project was completed in September 2002 with the release of The Metal Opera Part II.[1] At the end of 2006, Sammet confirmed the rumours of a third Avantasia album, due for release in 2008. On March 24, 2007, the name was confirmed to be "The Scarecrow".[1] The album was released on January 25, 2008, and includes special guests such as Rudolf Schenker, Sascha Paeth, drummer Eric Singer, and singers Bob Catley, Jørn Lande, Michael Kiske, Alice Cooper, Roy Khan and Oliver Hartmann.

1.Prelude
2.Reach Out for the Light
3.Serpents in Paradise
4.Malleus Maleficarum
5.Breaking Away
6.Farewell
7.The Glory of Rome
8.In Nomine Patris
9.Avantasia
10.A New Dimension
11.Inside
12.Sign of the Cross
13.The Tower
Total playing time 59:08
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Symphony X: Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is the seventh studio album by progressive metal band Symphony X. Although it's not a concept album, it deals greatly with John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. Its release had been delayed numerous times since the announcement on November 16, 2005 that they were going to "start pulling it all together". The album was released on June 26, 2007.

In a fan club chat on March 18, 2006, Michael Romeo, the lead guitarist and writer, said that the album is "a bit darker—the direction is still the same—for the most part," and went on to say that "the classical stuff was getting to a point where we need to evolve the music a bit. There is still a lot of classic influence in there—not as obvious as '[Out of the] Ashes', say." He went on to suggest that there may be a song or songs on the album themed around the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and that there would be "A BIG tune on here … Paradise Lost is the theme as of now," lending rumor to the title of the album.

In August 2006, some preliminary cover art was leaked on the internet, confirming suspicions that the title of the album would be the same as the song "Paradise Lost". The album art originally leaked and categorized by the band as only "preliminary" artwork has been revealed to be the official artwork, with the full panorama (including the back cover) being made available on the official Symphony X website on May 12, 2007 here.

At one point it was announced that the album would be released in late 2006, but the date was pushed back several times before its final release date of June 26, 2007. On May 12, 2007, the song "The Serpent's Kiss" was made available on the band's Myspace page. Also, MP3 samples from the album are available courtesy of SPV. In a first for the band, the album included a special DVD of footage shot by the band throughout their history, exclusively available in FYE stores. (wikipedia)

The album was released to more fanfare than previous Symphony X albums in the U.S., reaching #1 on the Top Heatseekers Chart, and #123 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart.

Personnel
* Russell Allen – vocals
* Michael Romeo – guitars, orchestral keyboards and programming
* Michael Pinnella – piano, keyboards
* Michael Lepond – bass
* Jason Rullo – drums

Track listing
1. "Oculus ex Inferni" – 2:34
2. "Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies)" – 5:55
3. "Domination" – 6:29
4. "The Serpent's Kiss" – 5:03
5. "Paradise Lost" – 6:32
6. "Eve of Seduction" – 5:04
7. "The Walls of Babylon" – 8:16
8. "Seven" – 7:01
9. "The Sacrifice" – 4:49
10. "Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)" – 9:17
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