cchoi1022/wikitext-103-v1 · Datasets at Hugging Face

text stringlengths 0 6.86k
the altarpiece 's date is uncertain but believed to be between 1435 and 1438 van der weyden was made painter to the city of brussels in 1435 and it is believed to have been painted after this appointment the national gallery gives before 1438 art historian john ward notes that the altarpiece was one of van der weyden 's first masterpieces created early in his career when he was still heavily influenced by robert campin he proposes a c 1437 date based on similarities to campin 's werl altarpiece
because van der weyden like most of the early netherlandish painters was not rediscovered until the early 19th century many of his works were wrongly attributed or dated and major pieces such as the berlin miraflores altarpiece continue to emerge conversely when a number of pieces considered either by van der weyden or assistants under his supervision were cleaned in the mid to late 20th century his hand or direct influence was disproved or in the case of the magdalen associated with other images whose attribution had been uncertain
the magdalen reading can first be traced to an 1811 sale of the estate of cassino a little @@ known collector in haarlem when the work was already cut down the painting is recorded in the inventory of demoiselles <unk> also of haarlem after passing to the nieuwenhuys brothers who were leading dealers in art of the early netherlandish period it moved to the collector edmond <unk> in paris whose small but choice collection of early netherlandish paintings was purchased for the national gallery london by charles lock eastlake in 1860 an acquisition that also included two robert campin portraits and panels by simon marmion ( 1425 1489 ) this was during a period of acquisition intended to establish the international prestige of the gallery probably before 1811 all the background except the red robe on the left and the alabaster jar and floorboards was overpainted in plain brown which was not removed until the cleaning begun in 1955 in general the painted surface is in very good condition although better in the parts that were not overpainted and there are a few small losses
the magdalen reading was transferred from its original oak to a mahogany panel ( west indian <unk> ) by unknown craftsmen sometime between 1828 and when the national gallery acquired it in 1860 campbell states that the transfer was certainly after 1828 probably after 1845 and certainly before 1860 the year it was acquired by the national gallery artificial ultramarine @@ coloured paint found in the transfer ground indicates that the change of panel took place after 1830 the heads in lisbon are still on their original oak panels the stockholm drawing was discovered in a german inventory c 1916 and is likely of swedish origin it was bequeathed by a norwegian collector christian <unk> to the swedish national museum of fine arts in 1918

= = gallery = =



= rosemary 's baby ( 30 rock ) =

rosemary 's baby is the fourth episode of the second season of 30 rock and the twenty @@ fifth episode overall it was written by jack burditt and was directed by michael engler the episode first aired on october 25 2007 on the nbc network in the united states guest stars in this episode include elijah cook carrie fisher marcella roy paul scheer megan blake stevenson jean villepique and stuart <unk>
the episode focuses on liz lemon 's ( tina fey ) escapade with her idol rosemary howard ( carrie fisher ) tracy jordan 's ( tracy morgan ) family problems and jenna maroney 's ( jane krakowski ) attempt to replace kenneth parcell 's ( jack mcbrayer ) burnt page jacket the episode was praised by critics with alec baldwin winning the primetime emmy award for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

= = <unk> = =

jack donaghy ( alec baldwin ) announces that liz lemon is the winner of the ge <unk> award a prize awarded to the ge employee who best exemplifies a follower which also includes $ 10 @@ 000 liz takes pete hornberger ( scott adsit ) to a book signing to meet rosemary howard ( carrie fisher ) her idol when she was a girl and invites her to be a guest writer on the girlie show rosemary pitches several controversial ideas to jack who orders liz to fire her but when liz refuses jack fires them both liz goes to rosemary 's house and once she realizes that rosemary is crazy she flees liz goes back to jack 's office and begs for her job back and he happily rehires her jack promises to help liz invest her prize money and she swears that she will send rosemary $ 400 a month for the rest of her life
when tracy causes a stir at a public event jack assures him that as a movie star he can do anything he wants except for dog fighting jack finds tracy disobeying his order but tracy shouts that jack is not his dad jack and tracy meet with an nbc shrink and jack role @@ plays tracy 's father tracy and tracy 's mom among several other people from tracy 's childhood conveying the message that even though tracy 's parents may have divorced they still loved him this comforts tracy and affirms that while he loves his family they are crazy and he needs to stay away from them tracy hugs jack and tells him that he is the only family he needs
jenna accidentally burns kenneth 's page jacket on a hot plate and kenneth worries that head page donny lawson ( paul scheer ) will punish him jenna finds donny backstage at the studio who is ecstatic that he finally has a reason to send kenneth to cnbc in new jersey donny offers kenneth a choice go to new jersey or compete in a page off a contest of physical stamina and nbc trivia jenna agrees to the page off before the event starts pete comes in and yells at the pages to get back to work he forces donny to give kenneth a new jacket but donny swears to jenna and kenneth that he will get back at them

= = production = =

rosemary 's baby was mainly filmed on september 11 2007 while fisher 's scenes were filmed the next day on september 12 2007 star wars is frequently referenced in 30 rock beginning with the pilot episode where tracy jordan is seen shouting that he is a jedi liz lemon admits to being a huge fan of star wars saying that she had watched it many times with pete hornberger and dressed up as the star wars character princess leia during four recent halloweens star wars is also referenced when tracy jordan takes on the identity of the character chewbacca fey a fan of star wars herself said that the weekly star wars joke or reference started happening organically when the crew realized that they had a star wars reference in almost every show fey said that from then on it became a thing where [ they ] tried to keep it going and that even though they could not include one in every episode they still had a pretty high batting average fey attributed most of the references to robert carlock who she described as the resident expert prior to the airing of the episode fans were raving about the much awaited guest appearance of fisher fisher 's last line in the episode help me liz lemon you 're my only hope was a spoof of the line help me obi @@ wan kenobi you 're my only hope from her past role in the original star wars trilogy in which she played princess leia

= = reception = =

according to the nielsen ratings system rosemary 's baby was viewed by an average of 6 @@ 5 million american viewers the episode achieved a 3 @@ 1 / 8 in key 18 49 demographic the 3 @@ 1 rating refers to 3 @@ 1 of all 18 to 49 @@ year @@ olds in the us and the 8 share refers to 8 of all 18 to 49 @@ year @@ olds watching television at the time of the broadcast in the us rosemary 's baby was up by 19 in the rating demographic compared to the previous episode the collection receiving its highest result since the second season premiere episode seinfeldvision on october 4 2007
rosemary 's baby was named as one of the top 11 tv episodes of 2007 by ugo and ranked thirteenth on the futon critic 's list of the 50 best episodes of 2007 both citing the baldwin and morgan therapy scene as the reason matt webb mitovich of tv guide declared it as one of 30 rock 's best episodes ever webb mitovich praised carrie fisher 's guest appearance but felt that baldwin 's role @@ playing during morgan 's therapy session stole the show bob sassone of tv squad felt that even though the plot was insane the episode still managed to have a heart at its core sassone called the therapy scene one of the funniest scenes on tv this season robert canning of ign felt that the episode has great storylines to great guest stars making it one of the best the series has produced so far canning called the therapy scene the best moment of the episode entertainment weekly put it on its end @@ of @@ the @@ decade best @@ of list saying between carrie fisher 's delightfully bonkers guest role and jack donaghy 's hijacking of tracy jordan 's therapy session this 2007 episode was so wrong and so good
michael engler the director of this episode was nominated for the directors guild of america award for outstanding directing comedy series this episode also earned carrie fisher a primetime emmy award nomination for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series and earned jack burditt a nomination for outstanding writing for a comedy series


= polka party =

polka party is the fourth studio album by weird al yankovic released in 1986 the album is the fourth of yankovic 's to be produced by former the mccoys guitarist rick derringer recorded between april 1986 and september 1986 the album was yankovic 's follow @@ up to his successful 1985 release dare to be stupid the album 's lead single was living with a hernia although it was not a hit and did not chart
the music on polka party is built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the mid @@ 1980s featuring jabs at james brown mick jagger el debarge and robert palmer the album also features many style parodies or musical imitations that come close to but do not copy existing artists these style parodies include imitations of specific artists like the talking heads as well as imitations of various musical genres like country music
peaking at only number 177 on the billboard 200 polka party was met with mixed reviews and was considered a commercial and critical failure despite this the album was nominated for a grammy award for best comedy recording in 1986 polka party is one of yankovic 's few studio albums not to be certified either gold or platinum by the recording industry association of america ( riaa ) and was later demoted to a budget release in 2009

= = production = =


= = = recording = = =

in april 1986 yankovic entered the recording studio to begin the sessions to his follow @@ up to 1985 's dare to be stupid to produce the album yankovic brought in former the mccoys guitarist rick derringer who had also produced yankovic 's previous albums backing yankovic were jon bermuda schwartz on drums steve jay on bass and jim west on guitar the album was recorded in roughly three sessions the first session took place between april 22 and 23 and yielded four originals don 't wear those shoes one of those days dog eat dog and christmas at ground zero the second session which spanned august 4 5 produced three parodies living with a hernia addicted to spuds and here 's johnny the final session which lasted from august 29 to september 1 produced the parody toothless people an original song named good enough for now and the album 's titular polka medley thematically yankovic described the record as not a whole lot different than the other albums he had recorded calling the process even a bit formulaic

= = = originals = = =

on april 22 1986 yankovic began recording three new original songs for his next album don 't wear those shoes one of those days and dog eat dog although don 't wear those shoes is an original composition yankovic admitted that the intro was inspired by the style of the kinks lyrically the song is a plea by the singer to his wife not to not wear certain shoes which he cannot stand one of those days is a song detailing horrible things as if they were everyday annoyances each horrible thing escalates up to global annihilation while more mundane annoyances pop up at different times
dog eat dog is a style parody of the talking heads described as a tongue @@ in @@ cheek look at office life the song was inspired by yankovic 's past experience of working in the <unk> as well as the traffic department at westwood one radio station he noted at first i thought [ the job ] was kinda cool that i had a phone and a desk and a little cubicle to call my own but after a while i felt like my soul had been sucked out of me the song features a line directly parodying the talking heads song once in a lifetime sometimes i tell myself this is not my beautiful stapler / sometimes i tell myself this is not my beautiful chair this mirrors a similar line in the talking heads song you may tell yourself this is not my beautiful house / you may tell yourself this is not my beautiful wife
on april 23 yankovic recorded christmas at ground zero the song a cheery little tune about death destruction and the end of the world was the result of scotti brothers records ' insistence that yankovic record a christmas record after yankovic presented the song to his label they relented because it was a little different from what they were expecting after the song 's release some radio stations banned the record a move that yankovic attributes to most people [ not wanting ] to hear about nuclear annihilation during the holiday season following the september 11 attacks when the general term ground zero was co @@ opted as a proper name for the world trade center site where two of those attacks took place the disturbing lyrics caused this song to be banned largely from radio yankovic wanted the song to receive a video but due to budget reasons his label did not agree yankovic however directed one himself which was mostly made up of stock footage with a live action finale that was filmed in an economically devastated part of the bronx new york that looked like a bomb had gone off the final original that was recorded was good enough for now a country music pastiche about how the singer 's lover who while not the best will do for now

= = = parodies and polka = = =

on august 4 yankovic began recording parodies starting with living with a hernia the song a spoof of living in america by james brown which was also the theme to the 1985 film rocky iv is about hernias when it came time to pick a song to parody as the lead single for polka party scotti brothers records had some very strong ideas and wished to have yankovic parody a musician who was signed on the same label after living in america became a hit the record label insisted that yankovic parody the song to which yankovic obliged in order to accurately write the song yankovic researched the various types of hernias yankovic noted that it was a real thrill to do james brown i 'm a total non @@ dancer never went to any dances in high school but if i analytically dissect a dance routine i can figure it out a choreographer named chester whitmore was hired to accurately create the dance scenes featured in the video which was shot on the concert set actually used in the movie rocky iv the second parody recorded was addicted to spuds a pastiche of addicted to love by robert palmer about a man 's obsession for potatoes and potato @@ based dishes a music video for the song was never made to the song because there was a strict budget for videos for the album and yankovic felt that the video would be one big joke and not really worth its own video a parody of palmer 's video however was later inserted into al 's uhf video
on august 5 yankovic recorded here 's johnny a parody of who 's johnny by el debarge the song a loving ode to the tonight show starring johnny carson announcer ed mcmahon features john roarke of the television series fridays fame doing an impression of mcmahon 's voice according to yankovic peter wolf the man who wrote who 's johnny enjoyed the parody idea so much that he personally brought the floppy disc program that had all the synthesizer parts for the original song into the studio when yankovic was recording his parody the final parody recorded for the album was toothless people a play on mick jagger 's ruthless people which was recorded on august 29 1986 the song about elderly people who are missing their teeth was written after yankovic heard it would be the theme to the 1986 film ruthless people assuming the song would be a hit yankovic requested and received permission from jagger to record a parody version when jagger 's song failed to crack the top 40 yankovic considered not recording his version but because jagger had authorized the parody he decided failing to produce it would be an insult to the artist therefore he recorded the spoof anyway
the album 's polka medley the titular polka party was recorded on the same day as here 's johnny this was yankovic 's third polka medley and his only medley to bear the same name as an album like his other medleys the song is a conglomeration of then @@ popular songs in music

= = reception = =


= = = promotion = = =

to promote the album 's release scotti brothers records purchased full @@ page ads in billboard magazine that advertised the release as yankovic 's biggest bash yet unlike previous albums yankovic did not undertake a tour to promote polka party instead he opened for the american rock band the monkees yankovic later joked that the monkees merely closed for me yankovic explained that while it was a fun tour and that the crowds were very enthusiastic the tension between the monkees was obvious on his website he wrote that while the band members are all terrific people individually they didn 't seem to get along all that great when they weren 't on stage

= = = critical response = = =

polka party received mixed to negative reviews from critics allmusic reviewer eugene chadbourne gave the album three stars and wrote that just about anyone could feel let down by this album chadbourne was largely critical of the parody choices noting that many of the original versions would be forgotten in fifteen years christopher thelen from the daily vault gave polka party an f and described it as an album that seemed like it could well have been the ' last call ' for yankovic thelen heavily criticized the record writing that both the parodies and originals were not good and that yankovic [ was ] going through the motions rolling stone awarded the album three @@ and @@ a @@ half stars tying it with the 1992 album off the deep end and the 1999 release running with scissors as yankovic 's best @@ rated album although it was not a critical success the album was nominated for a grammy award for best comedy recording in 1987 but lost to bill cosby 's those of you with or without children you 'll understand
despite the album 's lackluster reception many of the songs on the album such as dog eat dog addicted to spuds and christmas at ground zero went on to become fan favorites and live staples two of the album 's tracks living with a hernia and addicted to spuds appeared on yankovic 's first greatest hits album ( 1988 ) christmas at ground zero appeared on the second volume ( 1994 ) in addition the 1994 box set permanent record al in the box contained five of the album 's songs addicted to spuds dog eat dog here 's johnny living with a hernia and christmas at ground zero only dog eat dog however appeared on yankovic 's 2009 essential collection although the 3 @@ 0 version contained living with a hernia

= = = commercial performance = = =

polka party was released october 21 1986 after it was released the album peaked at number 177 on the billboard 200 compared to yankovic 's previous albums dare to be stupid peaked at number 50 and in 3 @@ d peaked at number 17 polka party was a major commercial disappointment for the comedian the album was the lowest @@ charting studio album released by yankovic and is one of his few studio albums not to be certified either gold or platinum by the recording industry association of america ( riaa ) the others include the soundtrack to his film uhf ( 1989 ) and poodle hat ( 2003 ) due to low sales the album was demoted to a budget release along with various other yankovic albums in august 2009
yankovic was dismayed by the album 's lackluster reception he noted that he thought it was the end of [ his ] career yankovic explained that i figured i 'd peaked with ' eat it ' and ' like a surgeon ' and now people were slowly forgetting about me and i was well on my way to obscurity however yankovic 's next album even worse would resurrect his career and become his best @@ selling album at the time the experience led yankovic to realize that careers have peaks and valleys and whenever i go through the rough times another peak might be right around the corner

= = track listing = =

the following is adapted from the album liner notes

= = credits and personnel = =


= = charts and certifications = =


= = = charts = = =



= trees ( poem ) =

trees is a lyric poem by american poet joyce kilmer written in february 1913 it was first published in poetry a magazine of verse that august and included in kilmer 's 1914 collection trees and other poems the poem in twelve lines of rhyming couplets of iambic tetrameter verse describes what kilmer perceives as the inability of art created by humankind to replicate the beauty achieved by nature
kilmer is most remembered for trees which has been the subject of frequent parodies and references in popular culture kilmer 's work is often disparaged by critics and dismissed by scholars as being too simple and overly sentimental and that his style was far too traditional and even archaic despite this the popular appeal of trees has contributed to its endurance literary critic guy davenport considers it the one poem known by practically everybody trees is frequently included in poetry anthologies and has been set to music several times including a popular rendition by oscar rasbach performed by singers nelson eddy robert merrill and paul robeson
the location for a specific tree as the possible inspiration for the poem has been claimed by several places and institutions connected to kilmer 's life among these are rutgers university the university of notre dame and towns across the country that kilmer visited however kilmer 's eldest son kenton declares that the poem does not apply to any one tree that it could apply equally to any trees was written in an upstairs bedroom at the family 's home in mahwah new jersey that looked out down a hill on our well @@ wooded lawn ironically kenton kilmer stated that while his father was widely known for his affection for trees his affection was certainly not sentimental the most distinguished feature of kilmer 's property was a colossal woodpile outside his home

= = writing = =


= = = mahwah february 1913 = = =

according to kilmer 's oldest son kenton trees was written on 2 february 1913 when the family resided in mahwah new jersey in the northwestern corner of bergen county the kilmers lived on the southwest corner of the intersection of <unk> road and armour road in mahwah for five years and the house overlooked the ramapo valley
it was written in the afternoon in the intervals of some other writing the desk was in an upstairs room by a window looking down a wooded hill it was written in a little notebook in which his father and mother wrote out copies of several of their poems and in most cases added the date of composition on one page the first two lines of ' trees ' appear with the date february 2 1913 and on another page further on in the book is the full text of the poem it was dedicated to his wife 's mother mrs henry mills alden who was endeared to all her family

the altarpiece 's date is uncertain but believed to be between 1435 and 1438 van der weyden was made painter to the city of brussels in 1435 and it is believed to have been painted after this appointment the national gallery gives before 1438 art historian john ward notes that the altarpiece was one of van der weyden 's first masterpieces created early in his career when he was still heavily influenced by robert campin he proposes a c 1437 date based on similarities to campin 's werl altarpiece

because van der weyden like most of the early netherlandish painters was not rediscovered until the early 19th century many of his works were wrongly attributed or dated and major pieces such as the berlin miraflores altarpiece continue to emerge conversely when a number of pieces considered either by van der weyden or assistants under his supervision were cleaned in the mid to late 20th century his hand or direct influence was disproved or in the case of the magdalen associated with other images whose attribution had been uncertain

the magdalen reading can first be traced to an 1811 sale of the estate of cassino a little @@ known collector in haarlem when the work was already cut down the painting is recorded in the inventory of demoiselles <unk> also of haarlem after passing to the nieuwenhuys brothers who were leading dealers in art of the early netherlandish period it moved to the collector edmond <unk> in paris whose small but choice collection of early netherlandish paintings was purchased for the national gallery london by charles lock eastlake in 1860 an acquisition that also included two robert campin portraits and panels by simon marmion ( 1425 1489 ) this was during a period of acquisition intended to establish the international prestige of the gallery probably before 1811 all the background except the red robe on the left and the alabaster jar and floorboards was overpainted in plain brown which was not removed until the cleaning begun in 1955 in general the painted surface is in very good condition although better in the parts that were not overpainted and there are a few small losses

the magdalen reading was transferred from its original oak to a mahogany panel ( west indian <unk> ) by unknown craftsmen sometime between 1828 and when the national gallery acquired it in 1860 campbell states that the transfer was certainly after 1828 probably after 1845 and certainly before 1860 the year it was acquired by the national gallery artificial ultramarine @@ coloured paint found in the transfer ground indicates that the change of panel took place after 1830 the heads in lisbon are still on their original oak panels the stockholm drawing was discovered in a german inventory c 1916 and is likely of swedish origin it was bequeathed by a norwegian collector christian <unk> to the swedish national museum of fine arts in 1918

= = gallery = =

= rosemary 's baby ( 30 rock ) =

rosemary 's baby is the fourth episode of the second season of 30 rock and the twenty @@ fifth episode overall it was written by jack burditt and was directed by michael engler the episode first aired on october 25 2007 on the nbc network in the united states guest stars in this episode include elijah cook carrie fisher marcella roy paul scheer megan blake stevenson jean villepique and stuart <unk>

the episode focuses on liz lemon 's ( tina fey ) escapade with her idol rosemary howard ( carrie fisher ) tracy jordan 's ( tracy morgan ) family problems and jenna maroney 's ( jane krakowski ) attempt to replace kenneth parcell 's ( jack mcbrayer ) burnt page jacket the episode was praised by critics with alec baldwin winning the primetime emmy award for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

= = <unk> = =

jack donaghy ( alec baldwin ) announces that liz lemon is the winner of the ge <unk> award a prize awarded to the ge employee who best exemplifies a follower which also includes $ 10 @@ 000 liz takes pete hornberger ( scott adsit ) to a book signing to meet rosemary howard ( carrie fisher ) her idol when she was a girl and invites her to be a guest writer on the girlie show rosemary pitches several controversial ideas to jack who orders liz to fire her but when liz refuses jack fires them both liz goes to rosemary 's house and once she realizes that rosemary is crazy she flees liz goes back to jack 's office and begs for her job back and he happily rehires her jack promises to help liz invest her prize money and she swears that she will send rosemary $ 400 a month for the rest of her life

when tracy causes a stir at a public event jack assures him that as a movie star he can do anything he wants except for dog fighting jack finds tracy disobeying his order but tracy shouts that jack is not his dad jack and tracy meet with an nbc shrink and jack role @@ plays tracy 's father tracy and tracy 's mom among several other people from tracy 's childhood conveying the message that even though tracy 's parents may have divorced they still loved him this comforts tracy and affirms that while he loves his family they are crazy and he needs to stay away from them tracy hugs jack and tells him that he is the only family he needs

jenna accidentally burns kenneth 's page jacket on a hot plate and kenneth worries that head page donny lawson ( paul scheer ) will punish him jenna finds donny backstage at the studio who is ecstatic that he finally has a reason to send kenneth to cnbc in new jersey donny offers kenneth a choice go to new jersey or compete in a page off a contest of physical stamina and nbc trivia jenna agrees to the page off before the event starts pete comes in and yells at the pages to get back to work he forces donny to give kenneth a new jacket but donny swears to jenna and kenneth that he will get back at them

= = production = =

rosemary 's baby was mainly filmed on september 11 2007 while fisher 's scenes were filmed the next day on september 12 2007 star wars is frequently referenced in 30 rock beginning with the pilot episode where tracy jordan is seen shouting that he is a jedi liz lemon admits to being a huge fan of star wars saying that she had watched it many times with pete hornberger and dressed up as the star wars character princess leia during four recent halloweens star wars is also referenced when tracy jordan takes on the identity of the character chewbacca fey a fan of star wars herself said that the weekly star wars joke or reference started happening organically when the crew realized that they had a star wars reference in almost every show fey said that from then on it became a thing where [ they ] tried to keep it going and that even though they could not include one in every episode they still had a pretty high batting average fey attributed most of the references to robert carlock who she described as the resident expert prior to the airing of the episode fans were raving about the much awaited guest appearance of fisher fisher 's last line in the episode help me liz lemon you 're my only hope was a spoof of the line help me obi @@ wan kenobi you 're my only hope from her past role in the original star wars trilogy in which she played princess leia

= = reception = =

according to the nielsen ratings system rosemary 's baby was viewed by an average of 6 @@ 5 million american viewers the episode achieved a 3 @@ 1 / 8 in key 18 49 demographic the 3 @@ 1 rating refers to 3 @@ 1 of all 18 to 49 @@ year @@ olds in the us and the 8 share refers to 8 of all 18 to 49 @@ year @@ olds watching television at the time of the broadcast in the us rosemary 's baby was up by 19 in the rating demographic compared to the previous episode the collection receiving its highest result since the second season premiere episode seinfeldvision on october 4 2007

rosemary 's baby was named as one of the top 11 tv episodes of 2007 by ugo and ranked thirteenth on the futon critic 's list of the 50 best episodes of 2007 both citing the baldwin and morgan therapy scene as the reason matt webb mitovich of tv guide declared it as one of 30 rock 's best episodes ever webb mitovich praised carrie fisher 's guest appearance but felt that baldwin 's role @@ playing during morgan 's therapy session stole the show bob sassone of tv squad felt that even though the plot was insane the episode still managed to have a heart at its core sassone called the therapy scene one of the funniest scenes on tv this season robert canning of ign felt that the episode has great storylines to great guest stars making it one of the best the series has produced so far canning called the therapy scene the best moment of the episode entertainment weekly put it on its end @@ of @@ the @@ decade best @@ of list saying between carrie fisher 's delightfully bonkers guest role and jack donaghy 's hijacking of tracy jordan 's therapy session this 2007 episode was so wrong and so good

michael engler the director of this episode was nominated for the directors guild of america award for outstanding directing comedy series this episode also earned carrie fisher a primetime emmy award nomination for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series and earned jack burditt a nomination for outstanding writing for a comedy series

= polka party =

polka party is the fourth studio album by weird al yankovic released in 1986 the album is the fourth of yankovic 's to be produced by former the mccoys guitarist rick derringer recorded between april 1986 and september 1986 the album was yankovic 's follow @@ up to his successful 1985 release dare to be stupid the album 's lead single was living with a hernia although it was not a hit and did not chart

the music on polka party is built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the mid @@ 1980s featuring jabs at james brown mick jagger el debarge and robert palmer the album also features many style parodies or musical imitations that come close to but do not copy existing artists these style parodies include imitations of specific artists like the talking heads as well as imitations of various musical genres like country music

peaking at only number 177 on the billboard 200 polka party was met with mixed reviews and was considered a commercial and critical failure despite this the album was nominated for a grammy award for best comedy recording in 1986 polka party is one of yankovic 's few studio albums not to be certified either gold or platinum by the recording industry association of america ( riaa ) and was later demoted to a budget release in 2009

= = production = =

= = = recording = = =

in april 1986 yankovic entered the recording studio to begin the sessions to his follow @@ up to 1985 's dare to be stupid to produce the album yankovic brought in former the mccoys guitarist rick derringer who had also produced yankovic 's previous albums backing yankovic were jon bermuda schwartz on drums steve jay on bass and jim west on guitar the album was recorded in roughly three sessions the first session took place between april 22 and 23 and yielded four originals don 't wear those shoes one of those days dog eat dog and christmas at ground zero the second session which spanned august 4 5 produced three parodies living with a hernia addicted to spuds and here 's johnny the final session which lasted from august 29 to september 1 produced the parody toothless people an original song named good enough for now and the album 's titular polka medley thematically yankovic described the record as not a whole lot different than the other albums he had recorded calling the process even a bit formulaic

= = = originals = = =

on april 22 1986 yankovic began recording three new original songs for his next album don 't wear those shoes one of those days and dog eat dog although don 't wear those shoes is an original composition yankovic admitted that the intro was inspired by the style of the kinks lyrically the song is a plea by the singer to his wife not to not wear certain shoes which he cannot stand one of those days is a song detailing horrible things as if they were everyday annoyances each horrible thing escalates up to global annihilation while more mundane annoyances pop up at different times

dog eat dog is a style parody of the talking heads described as a tongue @@ in @@ cheek look at office life the song was inspired by yankovic 's past experience of working in the <unk> as well as the traffic department at westwood one radio station he noted at first i thought [ the job ] was kinda cool that i had a phone and a desk and a little cubicle to call my own but after a while i felt like my soul had been sucked out of me the song features a line directly parodying the talking heads song once in a lifetime sometimes i tell myself this is not my beautiful stapler / sometimes i tell myself this is not my beautiful chair this mirrors a similar line in the talking heads song you may tell yourself this is not my beautiful house / you may tell yourself this is not my beautiful wife

on april 23 yankovic recorded christmas at ground zero the song a cheery little tune about death destruction and the end of the world was the result of scotti brothers records ' insistence that yankovic record a christmas record after yankovic presented the song to his label they relented because it was a little different from what they were expecting after the song 's release some radio stations banned the record a move that yankovic attributes to most people [ not wanting ] to hear about nuclear annihilation during the holiday season following the september 11 attacks when the general term ground zero was co @@ opted as a proper name for the world trade center site where two of those attacks took place the disturbing lyrics caused this song to be banned largely from radio yankovic wanted the song to receive a video but due to budget reasons his label did not agree yankovic however directed one himself which was mostly made up of stock footage with a live action finale that was filmed in an economically devastated part of the bronx new york that looked like a bomb had gone off the final original that was recorded was good enough for now a country music pastiche about how the singer 's lover who while not the best will do for now

= = = parodies and polka = = =

on august 4 yankovic began recording parodies starting with living with a hernia the song a spoof of living in america by james brown which was also the theme to the 1985 film rocky iv is about hernias when it came time to pick a song to parody as the lead single for polka party scotti brothers records had some very strong ideas and wished to have yankovic parody a musician who was signed on the same label after living in america became a hit the record label insisted that yankovic parody the song to which yankovic obliged in order to accurately write the song yankovic researched the various types of hernias yankovic noted that it was a real thrill to do james brown i 'm a total non @@ dancer never went to any dances in high school but if i analytically dissect a dance routine i can figure it out a choreographer named chester whitmore was hired to accurately create the dance scenes featured in the video which was shot on the concert set actually used in the movie rocky iv the second parody recorded was addicted to spuds a pastiche of addicted to love by robert palmer about a man 's obsession for potatoes and potato @@ based dishes a music video for the song was never made to the song because there was a strict budget for videos for the album and yankovic felt that the video would be one big joke and not really worth its own video a parody of palmer 's video however was later inserted into al 's uhf video

on august 5 yankovic recorded here 's johnny a parody of who 's johnny by el debarge the song a loving ode to the tonight show starring johnny carson announcer ed mcmahon features john roarke of the television series fridays fame doing an impression of mcmahon 's voice according to yankovic peter wolf the man who wrote who 's johnny enjoyed the parody idea so much that he personally brought the floppy disc program that had all the synthesizer parts for the original song into the studio when yankovic was recording his parody the final parody recorded for the album was toothless people a play on mick jagger 's ruthless people which was recorded on august 29 1986 the song about elderly people who are missing their teeth was written after yankovic heard it would be the theme to the 1986 film ruthless people assuming the song would be a hit yankovic requested and received permission from jagger to record a parody version when jagger 's song failed to crack the top 40 yankovic considered not recording his version but because jagger had authorized the parody he decided failing to produce it would be an insult to the artist therefore he recorded the spoof anyway

the album 's polka medley the titular polka party was recorded on the same day as here 's johnny this was yankovic 's third polka medley and his only medley to bear the same name as an album like his other medleys the song is a conglomeration of then @@ popular songs in music

= = reception = =

= = = promotion = = =

to promote the album 's release scotti brothers records purchased full @@ page ads in billboard magazine that advertised the release as yankovic 's biggest bash yet unlike previous albums yankovic did not undertake a tour to promote polka party instead he opened for the american rock band the monkees yankovic later joked that the monkees merely closed for me yankovic explained that while it was a fun tour and that the crowds were very enthusiastic the tension between the monkees was obvious on his website he wrote that while the band members are all terrific people individually they didn 't seem to get along all that great when they weren 't on stage

= = = critical response = = =

polka party received mixed to negative reviews from critics allmusic reviewer eugene chadbourne gave the album three stars and wrote that just about anyone could feel let down by this album chadbourne was largely critical of the parody choices noting that many of the original versions would be forgotten in fifteen years christopher thelen from the daily vault gave polka party an f and described it as an album that seemed like it could well have been the ' last call ' for yankovic thelen heavily criticized the record writing that both the parodies and originals were not good and that yankovic [ was ] going through the motions rolling stone awarded the album three @@ and @@ a @@ half stars tying it with the 1992 album off the deep end and the 1999 release running with scissors as yankovic 's best @@ rated album although it was not a critical success the album was nominated for a grammy award for best comedy recording in 1987 but lost to bill cosby 's those of you with or without children you 'll understand

despite the album 's lackluster reception many of the songs on the album such as dog eat dog addicted to spuds and christmas at ground zero went on to become fan favorites and live staples two of the album 's tracks living with a hernia and addicted to spuds appeared on yankovic 's first greatest hits album ( 1988 ) christmas at ground zero appeared on the second volume ( 1994 ) in addition the 1994 box set permanent record al in the box contained five of the album 's songs addicted to spuds dog eat dog here 's johnny living with a hernia and christmas at ground zero only dog eat dog however appeared on yankovic 's 2009 essential collection although the 3 @@ 0 version contained living with a hernia

= = = commercial performance = = =

polka party was released october 21 1986 after it was released the album peaked at number 177 on the billboard 200 compared to yankovic 's previous albums dare to be stupid peaked at number 50 and in 3 @@ d peaked at number 17 polka party was a major commercial disappointment for the comedian the album was the lowest @@ charting studio album released by yankovic and is one of his few studio albums not to be certified either gold or platinum by the recording industry association of america ( riaa ) the others include the soundtrack to his film uhf ( 1989 ) and poodle hat ( 2003 ) due to low sales the album was demoted to a budget release along with various other yankovic albums in august 2009

yankovic was dismayed by the album 's lackluster reception he noted that he thought it was the end of [ his ] career yankovic explained that i figured i 'd peaked with ' eat it ' and ' like a surgeon ' and now people were slowly forgetting about me and i was well on my way to obscurity however yankovic 's next album even worse would resurrect his career and become his best @@ selling album at the time the experience led yankovic to realize that careers have peaks and valleys and whenever i go through the rough times another peak might be right around the corner

= = track listing = =

the following is adapted from the album liner notes

= = credits and personnel = =

= = charts and certifications = =

= = = charts = = =

= trees ( poem ) =

trees is a lyric poem by american poet joyce kilmer written in february 1913 it was first published in poetry a magazine of verse that august and included in kilmer 's 1914 collection trees and other poems the poem in twelve lines of rhyming couplets of iambic tetrameter verse describes what kilmer perceives as the inability of art created by humankind to replicate the beauty achieved by nature

kilmer is most remembered for trees which has been the subject of frequent parodies and references in popular culture kilmer 's work is often disparaged by critics and dismissed by scholars as being too simple and overly sentimental and that his style was far too traditional and even archaic despite this the popular appeal of trees has contributed to its endurance literary critic guy davenport considers it the one poem known by practically everybody trees is frequently included in poetry anthologies and has been set to music several times including a popular rendition by oscar rasbach performed by singers nelson eddy robert merrill and paul robeson

the location for a specific tree as the possible inspiration for the poem has been claimed by several places and institutions connected to kilmer 's life among these are rutgers university the university of notre dame and towns across the country that kilmer visited however kilmer 's eldest son kenton declares that the poem does not apply to any one tree that it could apply equally to any trees was written in an upstairs bedroom at the family 's home in mahwah new jersey that looked out down a hill on our well @@ wooded lawn ironically kenton kilmer stated that while his father was widely known for his affection for trees his affection was certainly not sentimental the most distinguished feature of kilmer 's property was a colossal woodpile outside his home

= = writing = =

= = = mahwah february 1913 = = =

according to kilmer 's oldest son kenton trees was written on 2 february 1913 when the family resided in mahwah new jersey in the northwestern corner of bergen county the kilmers lived on the southwest corner of the intersection of <unk> road and armour road in mahwah for five years and the house overlooked the ramapo valley

it was written in the afternoon in the intervals of some other writing the desk was in an upstairs room by a window looking down a wooded hill it was written in a little notebook in which his father and mother wrote out copies of several of their poems and in most cases added the date of composition on one page the first two lines of ' trees ' appear with the date february 2 1913 and on another page further on in the book is the full text of the poem it was dedicated to his wife 's mother mrs henry mills alden who was endeared to all her family