Floating (Jape song)

"Floating" is a 2004 single by the Irish band Jape, taken from the second studio album, The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me and described as "Jape's trademark song". Co-produced by David Kitt, the single was the first release from the album and was generally viewed by critics as the standout track on the album. In 2007, it featured on the EP, Jape is Grape, for which a video was made. Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs is a known admirer of the song and has performed a cover version during live shows.

Reception

"Floating" was a popular single on late night alternative music radio shows in Ireland. The national broadcaster RTÉ described the song as "part drugs story and part love song" and noted its "quirky instrumentation and Gregorian chanting". It described the lyrics as having "a definite feel of amateur philosophy at 5am" but it said that that was "not necessarily a bad thing".

Cover versions

The song was famously overheard being played in Whelan's in Dublin by the musician Brendan Benson who immediately requested a copy of the album. A friend at the venue informed the band of this development following a show at The Bloom Festival during The Rose of Tralee festival in County Kerry. Benson then praised Jape in The Guardian (however, the newspaper spelt it "Jabe") and rang the song's writer to inform him he would be covering "Floating" with his band The Raconteurs. Benson did not actually receive permission to cover the track although it has been said that he would have been allowed to had he asked. Jape witnessed the cover live at the Olympia Theatre and was later to describe it as "a great moment". "Floating" is also covered by the Belgian bastard pop duo Soulwax during their DJ sets.

Damping

Damping is an influence within or upon an oscillatory system that has the effect of reducing, restricting or preventing its oscillations. In physical systems, damping is produced by processes that dissipate the energy stored in the oscillation. Examples include viscous drag in mechanical systems, resistance in electronic oscillators, and absorption and scattering of light in optical oscillators. Damping not based on energy loss can be important in other oscillating systems such as those that occur in biological systems.

The damping of a system can be described as being one of the following:

For example, consider a door that uses a spring to close the door once open. This can lead to any of the above types of damping depending on the strength of the damping. If the door is undamped it will swing back and forth forever at a particular resonant frequency. If it is underdamped it will swing back and forth with decreasing size of the swing until it comes to a stop. If it is critically damped then it will return to closed as quickly as possible without oscillating. Finally, if it is overdamped it will return to closed without oscillating but more slowly depending on how overdamped it is. Different levels of damping are desired for different types of systems.

Floating (play)

Floating is the name of a stage production created and performed by "emerging Welsh performance artist" Hugh Hughes, in collaboration with British touring theatre company Hoipolloi. It tells the story of the Isle of Anglesey floating away from the mainland of Wales and voyaging around the world. Hughes performs alongside actor Sioned Rowlands. Hughes introduces the story to the audience and re-enacts the story, playing himself, with Rowlands playing all the other parts.

Floating won a Total Theatre Award at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Following its run in Edinburgh, the show has continued to tour to venues and festivals across the World including Sydney Opera House, Barbican Centre, Barrow Street Theatre in New York and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver.

Since Floating, Hugh Hughes has created two new stage shows, Story of a Rabbit and 360.

In September 2011, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new version of Floating as an Afternoon Play.

References

Circus (building)

The Roman circus (from Latin, "circle") was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. The circuses were similar to the ancient Greek hippodromes, although circuses served varying purposes and differed in design and construction. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the main entertainment sites of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and performances that commemorated important events of the empire were performed there. For events that involved re-enactments of naval battles, the circus was flooded with water.

According to Edward Gibbon, in Chapter XXXI of his work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman people, at the start of the 5th century:

Architectural design

The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds the track, joined at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with an undivided section of track closed (in most cases) by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thereby creating a circuit for the races. The Circus of Maxentius epitomises the design.

Circus (2009 film)

Circus is a 2009 Kannada film directed and produced by Dayal Padmanabhan who previously acted with Ganesh in Gaalipata. Music was composed by Emil. The film stars Ganesh and Archana Gupta in the lead roles, Archana Gupta who had earlier done leading role in Telugu film Andamaina Manasulo. The film released statewide on 15 January 2009.

Plot

Circus has a tag line along with its sub title Nodi Maja Maadi. Dayaal, who spoke with emotional overtones in the film, said that he will be completing the film after sixty days of schedule. He said, nearly seventy percent of the shooting will be done near or on a train. I had to toil hard to get the required permission for the shoot. The story starts from Mysore station and ends in Bangalore station. director has taken permission from Railway authorities to shoot the film in Railway station and tracks in Mysore, Konkan Railway and Railway line stretching in Sakleshpura and Subramanya Ghat section.

A joke gone bad, the story is about Dhanush (Ganesh) and his group of friends who live in the railway colony and their meeting point is the railway station.

Circus (Lenny Kravitz album)

Circus is the fourth studio album by American rock musician Lenny Kravitz, released in 1995 by Virgin Records. It reached number 10 on the Billboard 200 and number 5 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Kravitz's first top 10 album in the US and second in the UK. As of March 2008, Circus has sold 534,000 units in the US.

Album information

The album deals with different topics, such as rock star lifestyles on "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and religion on "God Is Love" and "The Resurrection". Kravitz is quoted as saying that the making of the album was a very tedious process. He was unhappy with the music business at the time. Also, his mother's illness was weighing on his mind.

Track listing