Reading Log (Biography)

Hello, I'm Rafi, enjoy your time, and happy reading ^_^

Reading Log (Biography)

 

Name :         Muhammad Rafi Al Ghifari
 Class  :         D
 NPM  :         222122145

 

Day 1 Monday Date: 27 February 2023 Time: 20.00-20.30
First Person
His/Her Biography	Megawati Sukarnoputri, in full Dyah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri, (born January 23, 1947, Jakarta, Indonesia), Indonesian politician who was the fifth president of Indonesia (2001–04) and the first woman to hold the post. The daughter of Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, Megawati studied psychology and agriculture in college but did not take a degree. In 1987 she entered politics and was elected to the People’s Consultative Assembly (national parliament), becoming head of the Indonesian Democratic Party (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia; PDI) in 1993. She grew to be a threat to Indonesian president Suharto (who had replaced Sukarno in 1967), and in June 1996 the government engineered her removal as head of the PDI, thereby disqualifying her from running for president in the 1998 elections. Protests by her supporters in Jakarta in July prompted a government crackdown that spawned the worst riots and fires in the capital city in more than 20 years. Megawati was barred from running in the 1996 parliamentary elections. In October 1998, after Suharto had resigned from office (May), Megawati and her supporters formed the left-of-centre Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan; PDI-P), and in the June 1999 parliamentary elections PDI-P took 34 percent of the vote, the best showing of any party. When Bacharuddin Jusuf (“B.J.”) Habibie, the unpopular interim president who had succeeded Suharto, withdrew, it was widely thought that the People’s Consultative Assembly would elect Megawati president. However, on October 20, the assembly chose Abdurrahman Wahid of the National Awakening Party, unleashing widespread protests by Megawati’s supporters; the next day she was chosen the country’s vice president. Faced with growing criticism of his administration, Wahid in 2000 handed over much of the day-to-day operations to Megawati, but his difficulties continued. On July 23, 2001, the People’s Consultative Assembly removed Wahid from office and named Megawati president, and she was sworn in later that day. As president, Megawati faced a number of problems, including a failing economy, a separatist movement in the province of Aceh, and terrorist attacks. In October 2002 more than 200 people were killed and some 300 injured when a car bomb exploded outside a Bali nightclub; the attack was attributed to an Islamic militant group. Later that year she oversaw the signing of a cease-fire with Aceh separatists, but the fighting soon resumed, and in 2003 the government launched a major military offensive against the rebels. More bombings followed, including an attack on the Indonesian parliament. Megawati’s government was also beset by charges of corruption and was criticized for its inability to lower the country’s high unemployment rate. Megawati and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (her former security minister) prevailed in the first round of the 2004 presidential election, but he easily won a subsequent runoff vote and succeeded her in October. In July 2009 Megawati again ran for president, but she once more was defeated by Yudhoyono.
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/Megawati-Sukarnoputri
The Amount of Words on Text	479 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	Because she was becoming head of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDIP), and has been a President of Indonesia.
Comment After Reading	Wow, she was really good female and also very good leader that really care to the commoners. As example, she once cried for the poor because of rising fuel prices at Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono era’s.
New Vocabularies Found	Prompted, Crackdown, Riots, Barred, Interim, Unleashing, Widespread, Beset, Prevailed

 

Day 1 Monday Date: 27 February 2023 Time: 20.30-21.00
Second Person	Xi Jinping
His/Her Biography	Xi Jinping, (born June 15?, 1953, Fuping county, Shaanxi province, China), Chinese politician and government official who served as vice president of the People’s Republic of China (2008–13), general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP; 2012– ), and president of China (2013– ). Early life Xi Jinping was the son of Xi Zhongxun, who once served as deputy prime minister of China and was an early comrade-in-arms of Mao Zedong. The elder Xi, however, was often out of favour with his party and government, especially before and during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and after he openly criticized the government’s actions during the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. The younger Xi’s early childhood was largely spent in the relative luxury of the residential compound of China’s ruling elite in Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution, however, with his father purged and out of favour, Xi Jinping was sent to the countryside in 1969 (he went to largely rural Shaanxi province), where he worked for six years as a manual labourer on an agricultural commune. During that period he developed an especially good relationship with the local peasantry, which would aid the wellborn Xi’s credibility in his eventual rise through the ranks of the CCP. Entry into the CCP, education, and marriage In 1974 Xi became an official party member, serving as a branch secretary, and the following year he began attending Beijing’s Tsinghua University, where he studied chemical engineering. After graduating in 1979, he worked for three years as secretary to Geng Biao, who was then the vice premier and minister of national defense in the central Chinese government. In 1982 Xi gave up that post, choosing instead to leave Beijing and work as a deputy secretary for the CCP in Hebei province. He was based there until 1985, when he was appointed a party committee member and a vice mayor of Xiamen (Amoy) in Fujian province. While living in Fujian, Xi married the well-known folksinger Peng Liyuan in 1987. He continued to work his way upward, and by 1995 he had ascended to the post of deputy provincial party secretary. Ascension in the CCP In 1999 Xi became acting governor of Fujian, and he became governor the following year. Among his concerns as Fujian’s head were environmental conservation and cooperation with nearby Taiwan. He held both the deputy secretarial and governing posts until 2002, when he was elevated yet again: that year marked his move to Zhejiang province, where he served as acting governor and, from 2003, party secretary. While there he focused on restructuring the province’s industrial infrastructure in order to promote sustainable development. Xi’s fortunes got another boost in early 2007 when a scandal surrounding the upper leadership of Shanghai led to his taking over as the city’s party secretary. His predecessor in the position was among those who had been tainted by a wide-ranging pension fund scheme. In contrast to his reformist father, Xi had a reputation for prudence and for following the party line, and as Shanghai’s secretary his focus was squarely on promoting stability and rehabilitation of the city’s financial image. He held the position for only a brief period, however, as he was selected in October 2007 as one of the nine members of the standing committee of the CCP’s Political Bureau (Politburo), the highest ruling body in the party. With that promotion, Xi was put on a short list of likely successors to Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CCP since 2002 and president of the People’s Republic since 2003. Xi’s status became more assured when in March 2008 he was elected vice president of China. In that role he focused on conservation efforts and on improving international relations. In October 2010 Xi was named vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), a post once held by Hu (who since 2004 had been chair of the commission) and generally considered a major stepping-stone to the presidency. In November 2012, during the CCP’s 18th party congress, Xi was again elected to the standing committee of the Political Bureau (reduced to seven members), and he succeeded Hu as general secretary of the party. At that time Hu also relinquished the chair of the CMC to Xi. On March 14, 2013, he was elected president of China by the National People’s Congress. Consolidation of power Among Xi’s first initiatives was a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that soon saw the removal of thousands of high and low officials (both “tigers” and “flies”). Xi also emphasized the importance of the “rule of law,” calling for adherence to the Chinese constitution and greater professionalization of the judiciary as a means of developing “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Under Xi’s leadership China was increasingly assertive in international affairs, insisting upon its claim of territorial sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea despite an adverse ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and promoting its “One Belt, One Road” initiative for joint trade, infrastructure, and development projects with East Asian, Central Asian, and European countries. Xi managed to consolidate power at a rapid pace during his first term as China’s president. The success of his anti-corruption campaign continued, with more than one million corrupt officials being punished by late 2017; the campaign also served to remove many of Xi’s political rivals, further bolstering his efforts to eliminate dissent and strengthen his grip on power. In October 2016 the CCP bestowed upon him the title of “core leader,” which previously had been given only to influential party figures Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin; the title immediately raised his stature. A year later the CCP voted to enshrine Xi’s name and ideology, described as “thought” (“Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era”), in the party’s constitution, an honour previously awarded only to Mao. Xi’s ideology was later enshrined in the country’s constitution by an amendment passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 2018. During the same legislative session, the NPC also passed other amendments to the constitution, including one that abolished term limits for the country’s president and vice president; this change would allow Xi to remain in office beyond 2023, when he would have been due to step down. The NPC also unanimously elected Xi to a second term as president of the country in March. Xi’s power and influence were bolstered in 2021 when the CCP passed a historical resolution in November that reviewed the party’s “major achievements and historical experience” of the past 100 years and looked to future plans as well. It featured praise for Xi’s leadership; more than half of the document was devoted to the accomplishments under Xi in the nine years he had led the party, such as reducing poverty and curbing corruption. It was only the third such resolution in the party’s history—the previous two were passed under Mao and Deng—and it elevated Xi’s status, ensuring that he would be seen as a significant figure in the party’s history.
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/Xi-Jinping
The Amount of Words on Text	1171 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	First of all he is a President of China Republic, and he was one of the people who had great influence, and great power in this world.
Comment After Reading	Xi Jinping’s campaign is really good, I really like his campaign about Anti-Corrupt campaign.
New Vocabularies Found	Comrade-in-arms, Labourer, Predecessor, Tainted, Pension, Prudence, Assured, Stepping-stone, Emphasized, Adherence, Assertive, Sovereignty, Bolstering, Dissent, Bestowed, Enshrined, Abolished, Curbing,

 

Day 2 Tuesday Date: 28 February 2023 Time: 20.00-20.30
Third Person	Saddam Hussein
His/Her Biography	Saddam Hussein, also spelled Ṣaddām Ḥusayn, in full Ṣaddām Ḥusayn al-Tikrītī, (born April 28, 1937, Al-ʿAwjah, Iraq—died December 30, 2006, Baghdad), president of Iraq (1979–2003) whose brutal rule was marked by costly and unsuccessful wars against neighbouring countries. Early life Saddam, the son of peasants, was born in a village near the city of Tikrīt in northern Iraq. The area was one of the poorest in the country, and Saddam himself grew up in poverty. His father died before he was born, and he went at an early age to live with an uncle in Baghdad. He joined the Baʿath Party in 1957. In 1959 he participated in an unsuccessful attempt by Baʿathists to assassinate the Iraqi prime minister, ʿAbd al-Karīm Qāsim; Saddam was wounded in the attempt and escaped first to Syria and then to Egypt. He attended Cairo Law School (1962–63) and continued his studies at Baghdad Law College after the Baʿathists took power in Iraq in 1963. The Baʿathists were overthrown that same year, however, and Saddam spent several years in prison in Iraq. He escaped, becoming a leader of the Baʿath Party, and was instrumental in the coup that brought the party back to power in 1968. Saddam effectively held power in Iraq along with the head of state, Pres. Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, and in 1972 he directed the nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry.   Presidency Saddam began to assert open control of the government in 1979 and became president upon Bakr’s resignation. He then became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and prime minister, among other positions. He used an extensive secret-police establishment to suppress any internal opposition to his rule, and he made himself the object of an extensive personality cult among the Iraqi public. His goals as president were to supplant Egypt as leader of the Arab world and to achieve hegemony over the Persian Gulf. Saddam launched an invasion of Iran’s oil fields in September 1980, but the campaign bogged down in a war of attrition. The cost of the war and the interruption of Iraq’s oil exports caused Saddam to scale down his ambitious programs for economic development. The Iran-Iraq War dragged on in a stalemate until 1988, when both countries accepted a cease-fire that ended the fighting. Despite the large foreign debt with which Iraq found itself saddled by war’s end, Saddam continued to build up his armed forces. In August 1990 the Iraqi army overran neighbouring Kuwait. Saddam apparently intended to use that nation’s vast oil revenues to bolster Iraq’s economy, but his occupation of Kuwait quickly triggered a worldwide trade embargo against Iraq. He ignored appeals to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, despite the buildup of a large U.S.-led military force in Saudi Arabia and the passage of United Nations (UN) resolutions condemning the occupation and authorizing the use of force to end it. The Persian Gulf War began on January 16, 1991, and ended six weeks later when the allied military coalition drove Iraq’s armies out of Kuwait. Iraq’s crushing defeat triggered internal rebellions by both Shiʿis and Kurds, but Saddam suppressed their uprisings, causing thousands to flee to refugee camps along the country’s northern border. Untold thousands more were tortured and murdered, many simply disappearing into the regime’s prisons, such as the notorious Abu Ghraib. As part of the cease-fire agreement with the UN, Iraq was prohibited from producing or possessing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Numerous sanctions were leveled on the country pending compliance, and those caused severe disruption of the economy. Saddam’s continued refusal to cooperate with UN arms inspectors led to a four-day air strike by the United States and Great Britain in late 1998 (Operation Desert Fox). Both countries announced that they would support efforts of the Iraqi opposition to unseat Saddam, whose regime had grown increasingly brutal under UN sanctions, but the Iraqi leader barred UN weapons inspectors from entering his country. In the interim it became clear that Saddam was grooming one of his sons—Uday or Qusay—to succeed him. Both were elevated to senior positions, and both mirrored the brutality of their father. Moreover, Saddam continued to solidify his control at home, while he struck a profoundly defiant and anti-American stance in his rhetoric. Though increasingly feared at home, Saddam was viewed by many in the Arab world as the only regional leader willing to stand up to what they saw as American aggression. In the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the U.S. government, asserting that Saddam might provide terrorist groups with chemical or biological weapons, sought to renew the disarmament process. Though Saddam allowed UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq in November 2002, his failure to cooperate fully with the investigations frustrated the United States and Great Britain and led them to declare an end to diplomacy. On March 17, 2003, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush ordered Saddam to step down from office and leave Iraq within 48 hours or face war; he also indicated that, even if Saddam left the country, U.S. forces might be needed to stabilize the new government and search for weapons of mass destruction. When Saddam refused to leave, U.S. and allied forces launched an attack on Iraq on March 20. The opening salvo of the Iraq War was an assault by U.S. aircraft on a bunker complex in which Saddam was thought to be meeting with subordinates. Although the attack failed to kill the Iraqi leader, subsequent attacks directed against Saddam made it clear that eliminating him was a major goal of the invasion. Always obstinate in his tone, Saddam exhorted Iraqis to lay down their lives to stop U.S. and British forces, but resistance to the invasion soon crumbled, and on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to U.S. soldiers, Saddam fled into hiding. He took with him the bulk of the national treasury and was initially able to evade capture by U.S. troops. His sons, Uday and Qusay, were cornered and killed in Mosul on July 22, but it was not until December 13 that Saddam was finally captured. The once dapper leader was pulled, disheveled and dirty, from a small underground hiding place near a farmhouse in the vicinity of Tikrīt. Although he was armed, Saddam surrendered to U.S. soldiers without firing a shot. Trial and execution In October 2005 Saddam went on trial before the Iraqi High Tribunal, a panel court established to try officials of the former Iraqi government. He and several codefendants were charged with the killing of 148 townspeople in Al-Dujayl, a mainly Shiʿi town, in 1982. Throughout the nine-month trial, Saddam interrupted the proceedings with angry outbursts, claiming that the tribunal was a sham and that U.S. interests were behind it. The tribunal finally adjourned in July 2006 and handed down its verdicts in November. Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity—including willful killing, illegal imprisonment, deportation, and torture—and was sentenced to death by hanging. Saddam’s half brother (an intelligence officer) and Iraq’s former chief judge were also sentenced to death. Days after an Iraqi court upheld his sentence in December 2006, Saddam was executed
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein
The Amount of Words on Text	1194 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	Because he was a President of Iraq before the aggression from America to Iraq under George W. Bush words. Even Saddam Hussein is a Dictator, but lot of Iraqi people said that they country was more better before the aggression from America.
Comment After Reading	Before I read about his biography, I’ve watch lot of documentary video on youtube about this wars, but Sadly, Saddam was killed and executed but the American especially George W. Bush not getting any punishment, as if the United Nations closed their ears and closed their eyes.
New Vocabularies Found	Poverty. Overthrown, Assert, Resignation, Hegemony, Bogged, Disruption, Profoundly, Defiant, Asserting, Cornered, Codefendants, Torture,

 

Day 2 Tuesday Date: 28 February 2023  Time: 20.30-21.00
Fourth Person	Billie Holiday
His/Her Biography	Billie Holiday, birth name Elinore Harris, byname Lady Day, (born April 7, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died July 17, 1959, New York City, New York), American jazz singer, one of the greatest from the 1930s to the ’50s. Eleanora (her preferred spelling) Harris was the daughter of Clarence Holiday, a professional musician who for a time played guitar with the Fletcher Henderson band. She and her mother used her maternal grandfather’s surname, Fagan, for a time; then in 1920 her mother married a man surnamed Gough, and both she and Eleanora adopted his name. It is probable that in neither case did her mother have Eleanora’s name legally changed. The singer later adopted her natural father’s last name and took the name Billie from a favourite movie actress, Billie Dove. In 1928 she moved with her mother from Baltimore, Maryland (where she had spent her childhood), to New York City, and after three years of subsisting by various means, she found a job singing in a Harlem nightclub. She had had no formal musical training, but, with an instinctive sense of musical structure and with a wealth of experience gathered at the root level of jazz and blues, she developed a singing style that was deeply moving and individual. In 1933 Holiday made her first recordings, with Benny Goodman and others. Two years later a series of recordings with Teddy Wilson and members of Count Basie’s band brought her wider recognition and launched her career as the leading jazz singer of her time. She toured with Basie and with Artie Shaw in 1937 and 1938 and in the latter year opened at the plush Café Society in New York City. About 1940 she began to perform exclusively in cabarets and in concert. Her recordings between 1936 and 1942 marked her peak years. During that period she was often associated with saxophonist Lester Young, who gave her the nickname “Lady Day.” In 1947 Holiday was arrested for a narcotics violation and spent a year in a rehabilitation centre. No longer able to obtain a cabaret license to work in New York City, Holiday nonetheless packed New York’s Carnegie Hall 10 days after her release. She continued to perform in concert and in clubs outside of New York City, and she made several tours during her later years. Her constant struggle with heroin addiction ravaged her voice, although not her technique. Holiday’s dramatic intensity rendered the most banal lyric profound. Among the songs identified with her were “Strange Fruit,” “Fine and Mellow,” “The Man I Love,” “Billie’s Blues,” “God Bless the Child,” and “I Wished on the Moon.” The vintage years of Holiday’s professional and private liaison with Young were marked by some of the best recordings of the interplay between a vocal line and an instrumental obbligato. In 1956 she wrote an autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues (with William Dufty), that was made into a motion picture starring Diana Ross in 1972. Holiday’s health began to fail because of drug and alcohol abuse, and she died in 1959
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/Billie-Holiday
The Amount of Words on Text	507 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	Billie holiday is one of my favourite musician, especially in her field is about jazz. I really love when she singing “Gloomy Sunday”
Comment After Reading
New Vocabularies Found	Maternal, Subsisting, Cabaret, Nonetheless, Rendered,

 

Day 3 Wednesday Date: 29 February 2023 Time: 20.00-20.30
Fifth Person	John Lennon
His/Her Biography	John Lennon, in full John Winston Ono Lennon, (born October 9, 1940, Liverpool, England—died December 8, 1980, New York, New York, U.S.), leader or coleader of the British rock group the Beatles, author and graphic artist, solo recording artist, and collaborator with Yoko Ono on recordings and other art projects. Lennon’s fun-loving working-class parents married briefly and late and declined to raise their quick, sensitive, gifted son. Separated traumatically from each of them by age five, he was raised strictly (in Woolton, a Liverpool suburb) by his maternal aunt, Mimi Smith, whose husband died during Lennon’s adolescence, as did his biological mother, who had taught him to play the banjo. Such circumstances were not uncommon in the wake of World War II, but in Lennon they generated anger that he sublimated with brilliance and difficulty and an intense need for human connection. At age 21 he married the supportive, traditional Cynthia Powell, whom he divorced in 1968. At age 28 he married the independent, unconventional Yoko Ono. And much earlier, at age 16, he founded a skiffle band that evolved into the Beatles, the most important musical group of the second half of the 20th century. The Beatles were essentially a joint venture between practical pop adept Paul McCartney and alienated rock-and-roll rebel Lennon, but, as a disruptive cultural force, they always bore Lennon’s stamp. Musically, just two of countless examples are the forthright candour his vocal added to Smokey Robinson’s vulnerable “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” in 1964 and the “I used to be cruel to my woman” bridge he added to McCartney’s positive-thinking “Getting Better” in 1967. Culturally too, Lennon assumed the role of the candid provocateur. All four Beatles were witty, all four irreverent. But only Lennon would have observed “We’re more popular than Jesus now” or boiled the story of youth culture down to “America had teenagers and everywhere else just had people.” Lennon’s genius encompassed writing and the visual arts, the only field in which he received formal training. His natural gifts in both were considerable, but in the end he proved a minor humorist and a casual if indelible cartoonist. In music, he had less inborn facility, though his paternal grandfather worked for years as a blackface minstrel. But music was where he put his substance. Lennon was one of the great rock rhythm guitarists, his signature a nervous rest-one-two-and-rest that complicated his foursquare attack, and his strong, nasal singing overshadowed McCartney’s more physically capable rocking and crooning. Declarative where the rockabilly singers he admired were frantic, almost a blues shouter in spirit if not in timbre, Lennon often undercut the masculinity of this approach with a canny, playful high voice deployed to humorous and even campy effect. Such layered, contradictory meanings typified the Beatles, part of whose power lay in the multiplicity and collectivity they projected. But as Lennon began to withdraw from the Beatles, a process accelerated as of 1968 by his relationship with Ono, his declarative side took over. This dovetailed with the artistic ideas of Ono, a well-born Japanese avant-gardist seven years his senior. Lennon was first fascinated and then influenced by her terse, sometimes paradoxical directives, such as: “Count all the words in the book instead of reading them” (“Number Piece 1,” from the book Grapefruit [1964]). Much of the music Lennon recorded after 1968—from “Yer Blues” and “I’m So Tired” on The Beatles (1968) through the solo debut Plastic Ono Band (1970) through his half of Double Fantasy (1980)—reflects Ono’s belief in art without artifice. Whether or not they actually eschewed artifice, that was one impression they strove to create. Until Double Fantasy, most of the films and recordings Lennon created with Ono were of limited public usefulness. But the stark Plastic Ono Band is generally considered a masterpiece, and the more conventional Lennon album that followed, Imagine (1971), is a major work keynoted by its beloved title track, a hymn of hope whose concept he attributed to Ono. Like the earlier “Give Peace a Chance,” “Imagine” is living proof of the political orientation that dominated Lennon’s public life with Ono, which came to a head in 1972 with the failed agitprop album Some Time in New York City and the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern by incumbent Pres. Richard Nixon, whose administration was attempting to deport Lennon, a vocal and adamant opponent of the Vietnam War. Lennon’s most enduring political commitment was to feminism. When he and Ono separated in the fall of 1973, he spent a “lost weekend” of more than a year drinking and making highly uneven music in Los Angeles. When the couple reunited, they soon conceived a son, Sean, born on Lennon’s birthday in 1975. Lennon retreated from music and became a reclusive househusband, leaving his business affairs to Ono. The details of this very private period are unclear, although it is unlikely that the couple’s domestic arrangements were as idyllic as they pretended. Nevertheless, as a piece of art, their marriage projected as powerful an image as their activism had. It ended as fact when Lennon was shot to death by a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, in front of his Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980. But it continues as part of Lennon’s legend, which remains undiminished.
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Lennon
The Amount of Words on Text	884 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	John Lennon is one of my favourite musician, especially in his field is about Rock.
Comment After Reading
New Vocabularies Found	Circumstances, Sublimated, Divorced, Alienated, Witty, Irreverent, Indelible, Blackface, Minstrel, Overshadowed, Eschewed, Artifice, Strove, Agitprop, Idyllic, Nevertheless, Deranged, Undiminished.

 

Day 3 Wednesday Date: 29 February 2023 Time: 20.30-21.00
Sixth Person	Chuck Berry
His/Her Biography	Chuck Berry, in full Charles Edward Anderson Berry, (born October 18, 1926, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died March 18, 2017, St. Charles county, Missouri), American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who was one of the most popular and influential performers in rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll music in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. Raised in a working-class African American neighbourhood on the north side of the highly segregated city of St. Louis, Berry grew up in a family proud of its African American and Native American ancestry. He gained early exposure to music through his family’s participation in the choir of the Antioch Baptist Church, through the blues and country-western music he heard on the radio, and through music classes, especially at Sumner High School. Berry was still attending high school when he was sent to a Missouri prison for young offenders to serve three years for armed robbery. After his release and return to St. Louis, he worked at an auto plant, studied hairdressing, and played music in small nightclubs. Berry traveled to Chicago in search of a recording contract, and Muddy Waters directed him to the Chess brothers. Leonard and Phil Chess signed him for their Chess label, and in 1955 his first recording session produced “Maybellene” (a country-and-western-influenced song that Berry had originally titled “Ida Red”), which stayed on the pop charts for 11 weeks, cresting at number five. Berry followed this success with extensive tours and hit after hit, including “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “School Day” (1957), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957), “Sweet Little Sixteen” (1958), “Johnny B. Goode” (1958), and “Reelin’ and Rockin’” (1958). His vivid descriptions of consumer culture and teenage life, the distinctive sounds he coaxed from his guitar, and the rhythmic and melodic virtuosity of his piano player (Johnny Johnson) made Berry’s songs staples in the repertoire of almost every rock-and-roll band. At the peak of his popularity, federal authorities prosecuted Berry for violating the Mann Act, alleging that he transported an underage female across state lines “for immoral purposes.” After two trials tainted by racist overtones, Berry was convicted and remanded to prison. Upon his release he placed new hits on the pop charts, including “No Particular Place to Go” in 1964, at the height of the British Invasion, whose prime movers, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, were hugely influenced by Berry (as were the Beach Boys). In 1972 Berry achieved his first number one hit, “My Ding-A-Ling.” Although he recorded more sporadically in the 1970s and ’80s, he continued to appear in concert, most often performing with backing bands comprising local musicians. Berry’s public visibility increased in 1987 with the publication of his book Chuck Berry: The Autobiography and the release of the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, featuring footage from his 60th birthday concert and guest appearances by Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen. Berry is undeniably one of the most influential figures in the history of rock music. In helping to create rock and roll from the crucible of rhythm and blues, he combined clever lyrics, distinctive guitar sounds, boogie-woogie rhythms, precise diction, an astounding stage show, and musical devices characteristic of country-western music and the blues in his many best-selling single records and albums. A distinctive if not technically dazzling guitarist, Berry used electronic effects to replicate the ringing sounds of bottleneck blues guitarists in his recordings. He drew upon a broad range of musical genres in his compositions, displaying an especially strong interest in Caribbean music on “Havana Moon” (1957) and “Man and the Donkey” (1963), among others. Influenced by a wide variety of artists—including guitar players Carl Hogan, Charlie Christian, and T-Bone Walker and vocalists Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, and Charles Brown—Berry played a major role in broadening the appeal of rhythm-and-blues music during the 1950s. He fashioned his lyrics to appeal to the growing teenage market by presenting vivid and humorous descriptions of high-school life, teen dances, and consumer culture. His recordings serve as a rich repository of the core lyrical and musical building blocks of rock and roll. In addition to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt, and a multitude of significant popular-music performers have recorded Berry’s songs. An appropriate tribute to Berry’s centrality to rock and roll came when his song “Johnny B. Goode” was among the pieces of music placed on a gold-plated copper phonograph record that was attached to the side of the Voyager 1 space probe and sent hurtling through outer space in order to give distant or future civilizations a chance to acquaint themselves with the culture of the planet Earth in the 20th century. In 1984 he was presented with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chuck-Berry
The Amount of Words on Text	800 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	Chuck Berry is one of my favourite musician, especially in his field is about Rock.
Comment After Reading
New Vocabularies Found	Segregated, Virtuosity, Repertoire, Prosecuted, Convicted, Remanded, Tainted, Sporadically, Undeniably, Crucible, Distinctive, Astounding, Boogie-woogie, Acquaint

 

Day 4 Thursday Date: 1 March 2023 Time: 20.00-20.30
Seventh Person	Bob Marley
His/Her Biography	Bob Marley, in full Robert Nesta Marley, (born February 6, 1945, Nine Miles, St. Ann, Jamaica—died May 11, 1981, Miami, Florida, U.S.), Jamaican singer-songwriter whose thoughtful ongoing distillation of early ska, rock steady, and reggae musical forms blossomed in the 1970s into an electrifying rock-influenced hybrid that made him an international superstar. Marley—whose parents were Norval Sinclair Marley, a white rural overseer, and the former Cedella Malcolm, the Black daughter of a local custos (respected backwoods squire)—would forever remain the unique product of parallel worlds. His poetic worldview was shaped by the countryside, his music by the tough West Kingston ghetto streets. Marley’s maternal grandfather was not just a prosperous farmer but also a bush doctor adept at the mysticism-steeped herbal healing that guaranteed respect in Jamaica’s remote hill country. As a child, Marley was known for his shy aloofness, his startling stare, and his penchant for palm reading. Virtually kidnapped by his absentee father (who had been disinherited by his own prominent family for marrying a Black woman), the preadolescent Marley was taken to live with an elderly woman in Kingston until a family friend rediscovered the boy by chance and returned him to Nine Miles. By his early teens Marley was back in West Kingston, living in a government-subsidized tenement in Trench Town, a desperately poor slum often compared to an open sewer. In the early 1960s, while a schoolboy serving an apprenticeship as a welder (along with fellow aspiring singer Desmond Dekker), Marley was exposed to the languid jazz-infected shuffle-beat rhythms of ska, a Jamaican amalgam of American rhythm and blues and native mento (folk-calypso) strains then catching on commercially. Marley was a fan of Fats Domino, the Moonglows, and pop singer Ricky Nelson, but, when his big chance came in 1961 to record with producer Leslie Kong, he cut “Judge Not,” a peppy ballad he had written based on rural maxims learned from his grandfather. Among his other early tracks was “One Cup of Coffee” (a rendition of a 1961 hit by Texas country crooner Claude Gray), issued in 1963 in England on Chris Blackwell’s Anglo-Jamaican Island Records label. Marley also formed a vocal group in Trench Town with friends who would later be known as Peter Tosh (original name Winston Hubert MacIntosh) and Bunny Wailer (original name Neville O’Reilly Livingston). The trio, which named itself the Wailers (because, as Marley stated, “We started out crying”), received vocal coaching by noted singer Joe Higgs. Later they were joined by vocalist Junior Braithwaite and backup singers Beverly Kelso and Cherry Green. In December 1963 the Wailers entered Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One facilities to cut “Simmer Down,” a song by Marley that he had used to win a talent contest in Kingston. Unlike the playful mento music that drifted from the porches of local tourist hotels or the pop and rhythm and blues filtering into Jamaica from American radio stations, “Simmer Down” was an urgent anthem from the shantytown precincts of the Kingston underclass. A huge overnight smash, it played an important role in recasting the agenda for stardom in Jamaican music circles. No longer did one have to parrot the stylings of overseas entertainers; it was possible to write raw, uncompromising songs for and about the disenfranchised people of the West Indian slums.   This bold stance transformed both Marley and his island nation, engendering the urban poor with a pride that would become a pronounced source of identity (and a catalyst for class-related tension) in Jamaican culture—as would the Wailers’ Rastafarian faith, a creed popular among the impoverished people of the Caribbean, who worshiped the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I as the African redeemer foretold in popular quasi-biblical prophecy. The Wailers did well in Jamaica during the mid-1960s with their ska records, even during Marley’s sojourn to Delaware in 1966 to visit his relocated mother and find temporary work. Reggae material created in 1969–71 with producer Lee Perry increased the contemporary stature of the Wailers; and, once they signed in 1972 with the (by that time) international label Island and released Catch a Fire (the first reggae album conceived as more than a mere singles compilation), their uniquely rock-contoured reggae gained a global audience. It also earned the charismatic Marley superstar status, which gradually led to the dissolution of the original triumvirate about early 1974. Although Peter Tosh would enjoy a distinguished solo career before his murder in 1987, many of his best solo albums (such as Equal Rights [1977]) were underappreciated, as was Bunny Wailer’s excellent solo album Blackheart Man (1976). Eric Clapton’s version of the Wailers’ “I Shot the Sheriff” in 1974 spread Marley’s fame. Meanwhile, Marley continued to guide the skilled Wailers band through a series of potent, topical albums. By this point Marley also was backed by a trio of female vocalists that included his wife, Rita; she, like many of Marley’s children, later experienced her own recording success. Featuring eloquent songs like “No Woman No Cry,” “Exodus,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Coming in from the Cold,” “Jamming”, and “Redemption Song,” Marley’s landmark albums included Natty Dread (1974), Live! (1975), Rastaman Vibration (1976), Exodus (1977), Kaya (1978), Uprising (1980), and the posthumous Confrontation (1983). Exploding in Marley’s reedy tenor, his songs were public expressions of personal truths—eloquent in their uncommon mesh of rhythm and blues, rock, and venturesome reggae forms and electrifying in their narrative might. Making music that transcended all its stylistic roots, Marley fashioned an impassioned body of work that was sui generis. He also loomed large as a political figure and in 1976 survived what was believed to have been a politically motivated assassination attempt. Marley’s attempt to broker a truce between Jamaica’s warring political factions led in April 1978 to his headlining the “One Love” peace concert. His sociopolitical clout also earned him an invitation to perform in 1980 at the ceremonies celebrating majority rule and internationally recognized independence for Zimbabwe. In April 1981, the Jamaican government awarded Marley the Order of Merit. A month later he died of cancer. Although his songs were some of the best-liked and most critically acclaimed music in the popular canon, Marley was far more renowned in death than he had been in life. Legend (1984), a retrospective of his work, became the best-selling reggae album ever, with international sales of more than 12 million copies.
His/Her Photo
Sources	https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bob-Marley
The Amount of Words on Text	1060 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	Bob Marley is one of my favourite musician, especially in his field is about Reggae Genre. I really love when he singing “No Woman No Cry”
Comment After Reading
New Vocabularies Found	Thoughtful, Distillation, Prosperous, Startling, Aloofness, Penchant, Disinherited, Prominent, Preadolescent, Poor slum, Apprenticeship, Languid, Shantytown Precincts, Disenfranchised, Engendering, Dissolution, Triumvirate, Eloquent, Venturesome, Clout.

 

Day 4 Thursday Date: 1 March 2023 Time: 20.30-21.00
Eighth Person	Yiruma
His/Her Biography	Yiruma's musical journey began at age five with his fascination with the piano. At age ten , he moved to England to pursue his passion for music at the Purcell School of Music. During his time at Purcell , he was invited to participate in a special classical album for Decca Records. After graduating in 1997. Yiruma attended London University of King's College to further pursue his aspirations in both music and composition. During his time at King's College, Yiruma studied under Harrison Birtwistle, a master of modern music, from whom he learned classical and modern music, as well as composition. In 2001, Yiruma released his first album 「Love Scenes」.With its friendly melodies complemented by his polished performance skills gained from his training in classical music , this soft and mellow musical style gained great interest from the general public as well as from professional critics.Yiruma went on to release his second album「First Love」, ( 2001which included his No. 1 piece 'River Flows in You'   In 2002. Yiruma received an invitation to perform at the 2002 Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale ( MIDEMin Cannes, France, the first Korean musician to receive such an honor. That same year, his piece When the Love Falls was included on the original sound track album for Winter Sonata:the drama that started the sensation now known as the Korean wave.His music has been held synonymous with popular works of cinema, including many Korean dramas as well as the Hollywood hit 'Twilight' which did not include Yiruma's piece on its original soundtrack but included scenes that many viewers associated with his piece 'River Flows in You' !   Yiruma's success has also continued in the domestic market, where his third album 「From the Yellow Room」 ( 2003was released. His concerts in Korea, including venues such as the Hoam Art Hall and Young San Art Hall in 2003. the Drama concert in 2004, and the Winter Story concert in 2005. Regularly draw tremendous, sell-out crowds.He has also performed at places where live performances are rarely held , such as hospitals, schools, churches, and during his time in the military-on various military bases.Since his discharge from the Navy in 2008, all of his domestic concerts have successfully sold out.   In the years that followed.Yiruma's repertoire grew from live performances to hosting radio shows and making appearances on a variety of other shows.He started as a DJ for KBS1FM's < Music from All Around the World > and an MC for < MBC's Wednesday Art Stage >. He was also the DJ for MBC FM4U's radio show <Golden Disc > For his achievements in the field of radio entertainment, he was awarded the Radio DJ Rookie Award at the 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards.   Yiruma has supplemented his domestic activities with significant international activity as well, beginning in Japan in 2003 after the success of 'Winter Sonata ! In 2012 he made an appearance on the German TV show < Wilkommen Bei Carmen Nebels and in the following year, he held solo concerts in Poland and Russia.In 2013. Yiruma had his promotion tour around Australia with media interviews and television appearances. In 2014. Yiruma released album in Malaysia in response to popular demand, allowing his album to reach Platinum level Yiruma then held performances in Malaysia , Hong Kong , and China.In 2014 and 2015 his Singapore show sold out to an audience of more than 5.000.To date, Yiruma has released numerous albums that encompass elements of boththe contemporary and classical music genre Yiruma's videos on YouTube have reached over 400 million views, which is a strong indication of his worldwide popularity and appeal.His simple, yet melodic and emotional pieces resonate well with the modern listener, millions around the world are moved by his music.   Yiruma is not a traditional pianist by any means, rather than being stuck in the traditional boundaries of a performer-composer, he continues to extend his musical reach by collaborating with a number of artists, including those from the K-Pop genre , notably 2AM , Ailee , and Baek Ji Young. His record speaks on his behalf regarding his popularity among classical artists in South Korea.Yiruma holds records for both the largest audience at a single concert and the greatest number of concerts by a single artist.   Yiruma has said that he wants his music to heal, inspire, and remind the audience of love and hope. With each piece, Yiruma prays that he can show God's love by interwining this inspiration into his music.
His/Her Photo
Sources	http://yiruma.com/biography/?lang=en&ckattempt=1
The Amount of Words on Text	759 Words
What Makes You Interested in This Person	Yiruma is the most of my favourite Pianist and Artist, I really love all of his music. When im sad, I really often do listen his Piano perform, especially when he playing “River Flow On You”, ”Kiss The Rain”
Comment After Reading
New Vocabularies Found	Fascination, Tremendous, boundaries, interwining.