IN: Dixy Lee Ray (September 3, 1914 - January 2, 1994) was an American scientist and politician who served as the 17th Governor of the U.S. state of Washington. Variously described as idiosyncratic, and "ridiculously smart," she was the state's first female governor and was governor during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. She was a supporter of atomic energy. A graduate of Mills College and Stanford University, where she earned a doctorate in biology, Ray became an associate professor at the University of Washington in 1957.

To the surprise of many, Ray announced in 1975 she would seek election as Governor of Washington. Later asked why she decided to make her first run for public office the highest office in the state, she would reason that "I was much too old to start at the bottom, so I decided to start at the top." Though previously politically unaffiliated, she declared herself a Democrat.  Ray displayed a blunt, sometimes confrontational, style on the campaign trail, for which she would later become known. During a visit with the Dorian Society, a Seattle gay rights group, she was asked by one member if she had met any gay federal employees and if they ever felt under pressure. Ray responded, "I don't know any - you can't tell by looking at them," drawing applause from attendees. In another instance, she declared Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Shelby Scates, who had deluged her with tough questions on the campaign trail, would "learn what the words persona non grata really mean" after her election.  Ray narrowly won the Democratic nomination over Seattle mayor Wes Uhlman, having spent almost no money on her campaign, having no experience in running for elected office, and having little support from the state's political class. Despite opposition from all major newspapers and predictions from pundits that the state was not ready "for an unmarried woman who gave herself a chainsaw for Christmas," Ray went on to win the general election with a victory over King County Executive John D. Spellman, 53%-44%. On election night, asked by a reporter to explain her surprise victory, she offered, "it can't be because I'm so pretty?"

What were some of the changes she made as governor?

OUT: 


IN: Stereolab were an English-French avant-pop band from London, formed in 1990 by Tim Gane (guitar/keyboards) and Laetitia Sadier (vocals/keyboards/guitar) who both remained at the songwriting helm across many line-up changes. Other long-time members included Mary Hansen (backing vocals/keyboards/guitar), who joined in 1992 and remained in the line-up until her accidental death in 2002, and Andy Ramsay (drums), who joined in 1993 and is still in the official line-up. Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas was a member from 1993 to 1994, and continued appearing on later records for occasional guest appearances. The group's music combined influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music.

Stereolab's music is politically and philosophically charged. Laetitia Sadier, who writes the group's lyrics, said that her inspiration was most recently her anger towards the Iraq War. The Surrealist and Situationist cultural and political movements were also influences, as noted by Sadier and Gane in a 1999 Salon.com interview. Stewart Mason commented in an AllMusic review that the lyrics from the 1997 song "Miss Modular" "sound influenced by the Situationist theory of the 'spectacle'."  Critics have noted Marxist allusions in the band's lyrics, and have gone so far as to call the band members themselves Marxist. Music journalist Simon Reynolds commented that Sadier's lyrics tend to lean towards Marxist social commentary rather than "affairs of the heart". "Ping Pong", a 1994 single included on the album Mars Audiac Quintet, was noted for its alleged Marxist lyrics. In the song, Sadier sings "about capitalism's cruel cycles of slump and recovery" with lyrics that constitute "a plainspoken explanation of one of the central tenets of Marxian economic analysis" (said critics Simon Reynolds and Stewart Mason, respectively).  Band members have resisted attempts to link the group and its music to Marxism. In a 1999 interview, Gane stated that "none of us are Marxists ... I've never even read Marx." Gane said that although Sadier's lyrics touch on political topics, they do not cross the line into "sloganeering". Sadier also said that she had read very little Marx. In contrast, Cornelius Castoriadis, a radical political philosopher but strong critic of Marxism, has been cited as a marking influence in Sadier's thinking. The name of her side project, Monade, and its debut album title, Socialisme ou Barbarie, are also references to the work of Castoriadis.  Stereolab's album and song titles occasionally reference avant-garde political groups and artists. Gane said that the title of their 1999 album Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night contains the names of two Surrealist organisations, "CoBrA" and "Phases Group", "Brakhage", the title of the first song on the 1997 album Dots and Loops, is a nod to experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Other examples are the 1992 compilation Switched On, named after Wendy Carlos' 1968 album Switched on Bach, and the 1992 single "John Cage Bubblegum", named after experimental composer John Cage.

what was special about the lyrics?

OUT: Stereolab's music is politically and philosophically charged.


IN: Michael John Harrison (born 26 July 1945), known for publication purposes primarily as M. John Harrison, is an English author and literary critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories (1971-1984), Climbers (1989), and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, which consists of Light (2002), Nova Swing (2006) and Empty Space (2012). He is widely considered one of the major stylists of modern fantasy and science fiction, and a "genre contrarian". The Times Literary Supplement described him as 'a singular stylist' and the Literary Review called him 'a witty and truly imaginative writer'.

Harrison was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, in 1945 to an engineering family. His father died when he was a teenager and he found himself "bored, alienated, resentful and entrapped", playing truant from Dunsmore School (now Ashlawn School). An English teacher introduced him to George Bernard Shaw which resulted in an interest in polemic. He ended school during 1963 at age 18; he worked at various times as a groom (for the Atherstone Hunt), a student teacher (1963-65), and a clerk for the Royal Masonic Charity Institute, London (1966). His hobbies included electric guitars and writing pastiches of H. H. Munro.  His first short story was published during 1966 by Kyril Bonfiglioli at Science Fantasy magazine, on the strength of which he relocated to London. He there met Michael Moorcock, who was editing New Worlds magazine. He began writing reviews and short fiction for New Worlds, and by 1968 he was appointed books editor. Harrison was critical of what he perceived as the complacency of much genre fiction of the time. During 1970, Harrison scripted comic stories illustrated by R.G. Jones for such forums as Cyclops and Finger. An illustration by Jones appears in the first edition of Harrison's The Committed Men (1971).  In an interview with Zone magazine, Harrison says "I liked anything bizarre, from being about four years old. I started on Dan Dare and worked up to the Absurdists. At 15 you could catch me with a pile of books that contained an Alfred Bester, a Samuel Beckett, a Charles Williams, the two or three available J. G. Ballards, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, some Keats, some Allen Ginsberg, maybe a Thorne Smith. I've always been pick 'n' mix: now it's a philosophy."

When did he bein writing?

OUT:
His hobbies included electric guitars and writing pastiches of H. H. Munro.