The Times’ MMA rankings for December, as compiled by Todd Martin:

Heavyweight

1. Stipe Miocic

2. Francis Ngannou

3. Daniel Cormier

4. Curtis Blaydes

5. Junior Dos Santos

6. Derrick Lewis

7. Alexander Volkov

8. Ryan Bader

9. Vitaly Minakov

10. Jairzinho Rozenstruik

Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alistair Overeem engaged in a strange fight in the main event of a UFC card in Washington, DC. Overeem was winning a cautious, defensive battle before Rozenstruik brought it to a violent end with just seconds remaining in the final round. Rozenstruik’s knockout win showcased his power but also some of his vulnerabilities as he heads into a fight with another knockout artist Francis Ngannou.

Light Heavyweight

1. Jon Jones

2. Ryan Bader

3. Dominick Reyes

4. Thiago Santos

5. Corey Anderson

6. Anthony Smith

7. Glover Teixeira

8. Jan Blachowicz

9. Phil Davis

10. Volkan Oezdemir

Volkan Oezdemir won his second straight bout after a series of losses, besting Aleksandar Rakic with a workman like decision. The Swiss fighter remains in a good position in what is largely still a wide open division.

Middleweight

1. Israel Adesanya

2. Robert Whittaker

3. Paulo Costa

4. Yoel Romero

5. Gegard Mousasi

6. Jared Cannonier

7. Rafael Lovato Jr.

8. Jack Hermansson

9. Darren Till

10. Kelvin Gastelum

It’s been an uneventful period for the middleweight division, but a noteworthy fight was signed for March when former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker takes on emerging contender Jared Cannonier in Las Vegas.

Welterweight

1. Kamaru Usman

2. Tyron Woodley

3. Colby Covington

4. Jorge Masvidal

5. Douglas Lima

6. Stephen Thompson

7. Leon Edwards

8. Rory MacDonald

9. Santiago Ponzinibbio

10. Demian Maia

In a classic title bout, Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington engaged in a back and forth war that culminated with Usman pouring it on in the fifth round and getting the TKO stoppage. There’s no questioning the heart of either man in the cage. Geoff Neal is on the verge of cracking the top 10 after winning his seventh straight with a quick stoppage of Mike Perry. Neal has been taking it to some fearsome opponents.

Lightweight

1. Khabib Nurmagomedov

2. Tony Ferguson

3. Dustin Poirier

4. Justin Gaethje

5. Islam Makhachev

6. Kevin Lee

7. Donald Cerrone

8. Al Iaquinta

9. Gregor Gillespie

10. Paul Felder

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

The lightweight division is home of some of the biggest scheduled fights of 2020 as UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov defends against top contender Tony Ferguson while Conor McGregor returns against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.

Featherweight

1. Alexander Volkanovski

2. Max Holloway

3. Brian Ortega

4. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire

5. Zabit Magomedsharipov

6. Yair Rodriguez

7. Chan Sung Jung

8. Frankie Edgar

9. A.J. McKee

10. Josh Emmett

It’s been a period of turnover in the featherweight division as a new crop of fighters is emerging to challenge the biggest established names. Alexander Volkanovski captured the UFC featherweight title from Max Holloway via well-deserved decision. Chan Sung Jung knocked out former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Although perhaps the most impressive rising fighter in the sport is Bellator’s A.J. McKee, who scored a beautiful submission win over Derek Campos to advance in Bellator’s featherweight grand prix tournament.

Bantamweight

1. Henry Cejudo

2. Marlon Moraes

3. Petr Yan

4. Cory Sandhagen

5. Raphael Assuncao

6. Aljamain Sterling

7. Jose Aldo

8. Jimmie Rivera

9. Pedro Munhoz

10. Cody Stamann

Petr Yan put the rest of the bantamweight division on notice with his brutal demolition of MMA legend Urijah Faber. It’s a deep division full of talent but Yan may be the scariest of them all. Jose Aldo’s UFC bantamweight debut went better than many predicted as he gave Marlon Moraes a tough, competitive fight but in the end Moraes picked up the narrowest of decision wins. Song Yadong had a lot of hype going into his fight with Cody Stamann but Stamann proved to be a tough matchup and Yadong was extremely fortunate to emerge from that bout with a majority draw.

Women’s Bantamweight

1. Amanda Nunes

2. Aspen Ladd

3. Julianna Pena

4. Germaine de Randamie

5. Irene Aldana

6. Ketlen Vieira

7. Raquel Pennington

8. Yana Kunitskaya

9. Holly Holm

10. Marion Reneau

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had to confront a little more trouble than she’s used to, but she still came away from her fight with Germaine de Randamie with a clear unanimous decision victory. Nunes nearly won the fight in the first round but expended a lot of energy and de Randamie came on in the second. However, Nunes relied on her wrestling to take down and control de Randamie the remainder of the fight. Aspen Ladd rebounded from her first career loss to de Randamie by scoring a TKO over Yana Kunitskaya and Ladd is right back in the top mix. Meanwhile, Ketlen Vieira was handed her first career loss by Irene Aldana via brutal knockout. Aldana could be the next challenger for Nunes on the strength of that performance.

Women’s Flyweight

1. Valentina Shevchenko

2. Ilima-Lei Macfarlane

3. Katlyn Chookagian

4. Jessica Eye

5. Jennifer Maia

6. Joanne Calderwood

7. Andrea Lee

8. Liz Carmouche

9. Vanessa Porto

10. Juliana Velasquez

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane took center stage again in Bellator’s return to Hawaii, as the popular and unbeaten Hawaiian took it to Kate Jackson in a dominant unanimous decision win. Next up for Macfarlane could be Juliana Velasquez, who cracks the top 10 after defeating Bruna Ellen to improve to 10-0 on the same card. Jessica Eye rebounded from a title fight defeat to Valentina Shevchenko by beating Viviane Araujo via decision, although Eye missed weight badly for the fight.

Women’s Strawweight

1. Weili Zhang

2. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

3. Jessica Andrade

4. Rose Namajunas

5. Tatiana Suarez

6. Nina Ansaroff

7. Claudia Gadelha

8. Carla Esparza

9. Michelle Waterson

10. Cynthia Calvillo

Weili Zhang’s first UFC strawweight title defense will come in March when she takes on former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. It will be an interesting test of where Zhang’s skills stand against a formidable challenger. Cynthia Calvillo had a competitive fight with Marina Rodriguez that went to a fair majority draw.

MONSEY, N.Y. — 

A man stabbed and wounded five people as they gathered at a rabbi’s home north of New York City to celebrate Hanukkah, in an attack that the governor said Sunday was fueled by intolerance and evidence of a “cancer” in American politics.

Police tracked a fleeing suspect to Manhattan and made an arrest within hours of the attack Saturday night in Monsey. Grafton E. Thomas had blood all over his clothing and smelled of bleach when officers stopped him, prosecutors said.

President Trump condemned the “horrific” attack, saying in a tweet Sunday that “We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism.”

Thomas, 37, was arraigned Sunday and pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Bail was set at $5 million and he remains jailed.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Thomas’ criminal history includes an arrest on suspicion of assaulting a police horse, according to an official briefed on the investigation. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions.

The FBI is seeking a warrant to obtain his online accounts and was scouring digital evidence, the official said. The agency is also looking into whether he has a history of mental illness.

The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Saturday night stabbings north of New York City on the seventh night of Hanukkah come on the heels of a series of attacks targeting Jews in the region, including a massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month. The rabbi’s home is in Monsey, a town not far from the New Jersey state line and one of several in the Hudson Valley that has seen an influx of Hasidic Jews in recent years. The Rockland County town is about 35 miles north of New York City.

One person was seriously wounded, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters, and remained in critical condition. The rabbi’s son was also injured, Cuomo said. His status and that of the other victims was not clear.

Authorities have not provided a motive for the attack, but Cuomo said it was an example of larger problems.

“This is an intolerant time in our country,” he said to reporters outside the rabbi’s home on Sunday morning. “We see anger, we see hatred exploding.”

He added: “It is an American cancer on the body politic.”

He said he thought the crime was an act of domestic terrorism and expected it to be prosecuted that way.

Police said the stabbings happened around 10 p.m. A witness saw the suspect fleeing in a car and alerted police to the license plate number, said Weidel, the police chief in Ramapo, which covers Monsey. That allowed police to find his vehicle as he entered New York City, where police apprehended him.

“It was critical to the case,” said Weidel.

The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region tweeted reports that the stabbings took place at the house of a Hasidic rabbi during a Hanukkah celebration.

The large home remained cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape early Sunday. According to public records, the home belongs to Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who leads the adjacent synagogue. Several state and local officials had described the location of the stabbings as a synagogue.

Aron Kohn told the New York Times he was inside the residence during the stabbings.

“I was praying for my life,” said Kohn, 65. “He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn’t have time to react at all.”

The attack drew condemnation from top state officials, including Cuomo and Atty. Gen. Letitia James, as well as from Israel’s president and prime minister.

“Israel unequivocally condemns the recent expressions of anti-Semitism and the vicious attack in the middle of Hanukkah on the rabbi’s house in Monsey, N.Y.,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We send our wishes of recovery to the wounded. We will cooperate in every way with the local authorities in order to defeat this phenomenon. We offer our help to each and every state.”

Cuomo, who called the stabbings a “cowardly act,” directed the New York State Police hate crimes task force to investigate.

“Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate,” he said in a statement. “In New York we will always stand up and say with one voice to anyone who wishes to divide and spread fear: you do not represent New York and your actions will not go unpunished.”

Jewish communities in the New York City metropolitan area have been left shaken following a deadly Dec. 10 shooting rampage at a Jersey City kosher market. Six people — three people who had been inside the store, a police officer and the two killers — died in the gun battle and standoff that New Jersey Atty. Gen. Gurbir Grewal has said was “fueled” by hatred of Jews and law enforcement.

Last month, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue in the same town that was the site of Saturday night’s attack; he required surgery. It’s unclear whether the assailant has been arrested.

And this past week in New York City itself, police have received at least six reports — eight since Dec. 13 — of attacks possibly motivated by anti-Jewish bias. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that a police presence would increase in Brooklyn neighborhoods home to large Jewish populations.

“I am so sad for this openly #orthodox #Jewish community & the ones across the region,” tweeted Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey who went to the scene in Monsey. “When will a break from this hate come? When will the community be able to be relaxed again? #Hanukkah will never be the same for so many of the #Jews impacted.”

Los Angeles police have stepped up patrols in and around Jewish communities and synagogues after a man stabbed and wounded five people gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in New York.

The increased patrols are “out of an abundance of caution,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore tweeted Sunday morning. The LAPD did not elaborate on the extra security measures.

“The LAPD stands with members of our Jewish community,” Moore tweeted. “There is no place for hate in Los Angeles.”

The stabbings happened on the seventh night of Hanukkah, which the victims had been celebrating in the rabbi’s home north of New York City. One person was seriously wounded and is in critical condition.

It follows a series of attacks targeting Jews in the region, including a shooting at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month that left six dead, including a police officer and three people inside the store.

Beverly Hills police arrested Anton Nathaniel Redding of Millersville, Pa., earlier this month in connection with the ransacking of the city’s Nessah Synagogue in which prayer books were shredded and several Jewish relics damaged.

Redding has been charged with vandalism of a religious property and commercial burglary, charges that include a penalty enhancement for a hate crime, police said.

Hate crimes in Los Angeles County have reached their highest point in nearly a decade, according to an annual report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. Although religious crimes overall declined slightly, anti-Jewish crimes rose 14% and constituted 83% of religion-motivated crimes.

In April, a shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego County that left one dead came exactly six months after 11 worshipers were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Times staff writer Sarah Parvini contributed to this report.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

An Alhambra police officer suffered a minor injury while responding to a domestic violence call over the weekend, authorities said.

Officers responded to the call about 8:35 p.m. in the 1900 block of South Primrose Avenue, police said in a news release. When officers arrived on the scene, the suspect, Juan Gabriel Miranda, fled in his car.

Several minutes later, Miranda returned to the area and officers gave orders for him to stop and exit his vehicle, police said. A gunshot was heard as the man fled in the direction of the officers, “at which time an officer involved shooting occurred.”

When Miranda, 46, drove back into the area moments later, a second officer-involved shooting occurred. The suspect stopped the car “and a short stand-off with the suspect ensued,” police said.

Officers used beanbag rounds and were able to detain the suspect — who was not struck by gunfire — without further incident. No officers were struck by gunfire, but one of them sustained a minor injury.

Miranda was transported to a hospital and will be booked on felony charges stemming from the domestic violence incident, in addition to assault charges on the officers.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

An unarmed security guard was fatally shot Saturday night at a homeless shelter in San Diego’s downtown East Village district.

A San Diego homicide lieutenant said the guard was on the sidewalk outside the Alpha Project’s Imperial Bridge Shelter when he was shot several times in the upper body. The shooter remained at large, police said.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Police said passersby flagged down patrol officers at about the same time as a shelter employee called 911. The victim was transported to the hospital, where he died within the hour, police said.

Several people in the immediate area ran away when they heard gunfire, so no one was able to give police a description of the shooter or even say if the shots came from a vehicle, homicide Lt. Martha Sainz said.

Police were withholding the victim’s name until his family could be notified.

Bob McElroy, CEO of Alpha Project, said he was at the shelter at the time but declined to discuss what happened. Sainz said officers were viewing security camera footage.

The 150-bed structured tent shelter opened Nov. 5 as a “bridge” between living on the streets and permanent housing. McElroy told NBC 7 that there were 128 people in the shelter, which went on lockdown at the time of the shooting.

Several homeless people who were outside waited in the cold for hours while the shooting investigation continued. Crisis counselors were brought in to assist distraught co-workers, according to police.

The Alpha Project website says its outreach program was founded in 1986 to offer work opportunities to homeless men. The organization has since expanded, creating 600 units of affordable rental housing and serving 4,000 people daily through its programs.

Repard writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, Dec. 30. Julia Wick is taking a New Year’s break, so today’s edition is brought to you by L.A. Times Deputy Managing Editor Shelby Grad.

It was the worst maritime disaster in modern California history: On Labor Day, 24 people died in a fire on board the Conception during a weekend diving trip around the Channel Islands. Since then, two questions have been asked over and over: How could this have happened? And how can this be prevented in the future?

Times reporters Mark Puente, Richard Winton and Leila Miller have spent months trying to answer these questions in a series of investigative stories.

Among their findings:

— U.S. Coast Guard records over 20 years show the agency repeatedly rejected some recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board for tougher rules, describing the proposals as “unnecessarily burdensome and a duplication of existing requirements.”

— The Conception was one of about 325 small passenger vessels built before 1996 and given special exemptions from safety standards that the Coast Guard imposed on new vessels, some of which required larger escape hatches and illuminated exit signs.

— More than 100 boats in California were grandfathered with weaker safety rules, according to a searchable Times database.

The reporters’ latest story asks whether the federal rules in place worked. Coast Guard safety rules require at least one crew member roving the vessel whenever passengers are in the bunk area. But even before the Labor Day fire that killed 34 people aboard the Conception, some former captains said this critical rule designed to protect passengers was not followed. “It’s a regulation, but it wasn’t really followed,” one said.

[Read the story: “Before Conception boat fire, some captains say Coast Guard safety rule was ignored” in the Los Angeles Times]

Where is this all going?

In the aftermath of The Times’ reporting, there has been a push to tighten safety regulations. The Coast Guard also said it is now reviewing whether some of the NTSB’s earlier recommendations should be reconsidered. Expect action in Congress in 2020.

And finally, here are biographies of the victims. They were united in tragedy by a love for the sea.

And now, here’s what else is happening around California:

TOP STORIES

The plight of two friends back on the streets shows the challenges L.A. faces not just in getting people into housing, but also in keeping them there. This is the final installment of The Times’ “Street Within” series on homelessness. Los Angeles Times

Plus:

One rapper’s rise from the streets of Koreatown. L.A. Taco

This is one way L.A. can be more humane. Los Angeles Times

2019 was the year homelessness became a true crisis in L.A. Los Angeles Times

Malibu is trying to ban pesticides. But the coastal city is expecting a big fight, and there are some unexpected foes. Los Angeles Times

How new labor laws in California will change the way many people work. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Los Angeles police have stepped up patrols in and around Jewish communities and synagogues after a man stabbed and wounded five people gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in New York. Los Angeles Times

L.A. says it is ready to deal with complaints over Hollywood Hills tour vans. But we’ve heard it before. Los Angeles Times

The Grapevine is at the heart of the California freeway system. As the last week has shown, it also remains vulnerable. Los Angeles Times

A Christmas tree sparked a fire that killed three people in Hemet. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

The story of PG&E: An investigation examines how weak regulators, poor management, misguided strategies and many errors caused so much destruction. Wall Street Journal

Is prison realignment money being misspent in California? Sacramento Bee

Southern California keeps turning bluer. A look at why. Orange County Register

San Jose’s once-struggling airport is taking off. That could mean an expansion for the Silicon Valley hub. Mercury News

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Another historic newspaper in California is closing. This one has a connection to Mark Twain. Los Angeles Times

California is booming. But Californians are cranky at the end of 2019. New York Times

The Netflix series “You” moved from New York to L.A. and picked up a lot of stereotypes along the way. The creators explain why. Los Angeles Times

Playa del Rey is having a moment. And some say it’s affordable … if you are moving from Bel-Air. New York Times

San Francisco’s “Beach Blanket Babylon” is coming to an end and might be perfect for this moment in history. San Francisco Chronicle

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: partly cloudy, 66. San Diego: cloudy, 64. San Francisco: sunny, 57. San Jose: sunny, 58. Sacramento: sunny, 60. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

This week’s birthdays for those who made a mark in California:

Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax (Dec. 30, 1935), Nobel laureate and UC Berkeley cell biology professor Randy Schekman (Dec. 30, 1948), golf pro Tiger Woods (Dec. 30, 1975) Lakers star LeBron James (Dec. 30, 1984) and Snap Chairman Michael Lynton (Jan. 1, 1960).

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

SERIES

Chopped Sweets Four sugar-savvy chefs compete in this new unscripted competition. 9 p.m. Food Network

POV Filmmaker Hassan Fazili’s documentary “Midnight Traveler” is an autobiographical account of the journey he and his family made across Asia and into Europe after the Taliban put a bounty on his head. 10 p.m. KOCE; 11 p.m. KPBS

Food Network Challenge Ian Ziering hosts a flurry of action in the kitchen for four cake artists in this new episode. 10 p.m. Food Network

MOVIES

A Star Is Born TCM airs three versions of the show business drama. Janet Gaynor and Fredric March star in the 1937 original at 5 p.m. Then, at 7, Judy Garland and James Mason star in the 1954 remake. That’s followed at 10:15 by Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in the 1976 version.

Her Smell Elisabeth Moss stars in writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s 2018 drama as a hard-living fictional rock star whose band skyrockets to fame before her wildly self-destructive behavior tears the group apart. Cara Delevingne, Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin, Dan Stevens, Virginia Madsen, Amber Heard and Eric Stoltz also star. 8 p.m. HBO

Pavarotti U2’s Bono narrates Ron Howard’s 2019 documentary celebrating tenor Luciano Pavarotti. 8 p.m. Showtime

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan Chrissy Metz (“This Is Us”); Matt Franco. (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View Kim Kardashian West. 10 a.m. KABC

The Wendy Williams Show Author Whoopi Goldberg (“The Unqualified Hostess”). 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Susan Kelechi Watson; pastry chef Duff Goldman. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS

Tamron Hall Director and producer Ava DuVernay; author Shan Boodram; Montell Jordan performs. 1 p.m. KABC

The Kelly Clarkson Show Tracee Ellis Ross; Detroit Youth Choir; Kobe Bryant. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil A teenage girl has been suspended from school 40 times and parties with gang members. 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Howard Stern. 3 p.m. KNBC

The Doctors Dog saves man’s life; premature birth; compounding pharmacies; spider living in woman’s ear. 3 p.m. KCOP

To the Contrary With Bonnie Erbé “Ageless Vegan: The Secret to Living a Long and Healthy Plant-Based Life.” 6 p.m. KVCR

Amanpour and Company (N) 11 p.m. KCET; 1 a.m. KLCS

Conan Paul Rudd. 11 p.m. TBS

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Ryan Reynolds; Niall Horan; Camila Cabello; DaBaby. 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Adam Driver; Adrienne Warren; the 1975 performs; Jacinda Ardern. 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden Jason Momoa; Alfre Woodard; Hollywood Vampires perform. 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers Gloria Steinem; Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter; Wilco. 12:37 a.m. KNBC

Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC

A Little Late With Lilly Singh Tracee Ellis Ross. 1:38 a.m. KNBC

SPORTS

College Basketball Canisius visits Pittsburgh, 9 a.m. FS Prime; Xavier visits Villanova, 3:30 p.m. FS1; Texas-Rio Grande Valley visits Oklahoma, 4 p.m. FS Prime; Seton Hall visits DePaul, 5:30 p.m. FS1; George Mason visits TCU, 6 p.m. FS Prime

College Football Western Kentucky versus Western Michigan, 9:30 a.m. ESPN; California versus Illinois, 1 p.m. Fox; Music City Bowl: Mississippi State versus Louisville, 1 p.m. ESPN; Orange Bowl: Florida versus Virginia, 5 p.m. ESPN

For more sports on TV, see the Sports section.

To those coming of age in the 1980s and ‘90s, album cover designer Vaughan Oliver created not only the look of the influential British record label 4AD, but conjured an imaginary realm that would influence generations of artists, graphic designers and pretty much anyone with an eye on image.

Oliver, whose death was announced Sunday, crafted abstract, Dada-esque record covers for dozens of bands including the Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Modern English, the Breeders and His Name is Alive. In the process, his aesthetic became a visual touchstone and helped drive listeners to ponder the ways in which sound could influence image and vice versa.

The designer’s death, at age 62, was confirmed by 4AD, which released a note that read, in part: “Without Vaughan, 4AD would not be 4AD, and it’s no understatement to say that his style also helped to shape graphic design in the late 20th century.”

No cause of death was given.

“Vaughan Oliver taught me to appreciate quality. He taught me how to look at the physical world,” wrote Ivo Watts-Russell, who founded 4AD in London in 1980, in a statement.

Calling Oliver “a force of nature,” Watts-Russell added: “It is rare to think of someone in one’s life and know that with absolute certainty that the course of both our lives were irrevocably changed for the better as a result. The results, the fruit, is available for all to see … in pictures at least.”

Oliver’s most recognizable work includes the covers of the Pixies album “Doolittle,” the Cocteau Twins’ “Treasure,” the Breeders’ “Last Splash,” Modern English’s “After the Snow” and Bush’s “Razorblade Suitcase.”

“We always try to reflect the atmosphere of the music,” Oliver explained of his approach, adding that his mission was to create what he dubbed “aesthetic moods derived from the music, from the texture and atmosphere the music itself already had.”

The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle, who worked with Oliver across a series of albums for 4AD, described the designer on Twitter as “an indispensable part of the label’s identity. You can’t mistake it. It holds a disparate roster together, asserts a shared vision. To know about this back then [was] to belong to a secret society.”

At their best, the designer’s covers were endeavors to get lost in, to contemplate and luxuriate over while listening to the echoed guitars of 4AD’s roster at full volume. The art for the Breeders’ “Last Splash” contained a close-up of a vivid candy heart set against a bright green background. The Pixies album “Doolittle” featured an image of a monkey taken by Oliver collaborator Simon Larbalestier, an idea drawn from the album’s lyrics.

Oliver, though, added accents drawn from a conversation he had with the Pixies’ lead singer: “Black Francis broke my heart by telling me that successful pop music was simply the intellectual pursuit of good mathematics. Simple me — I thought it all came from the heart,” Oliver told Time Out. “Then I remembered that ‘golden section’ theory used in the composition of Renaissance painting, so I made my own grid to place over the monkey.”

Each cover was similarly unique, but each also seemed to suggest it was a piece in a larger puzzle to be revealed later. “When you look at all the works together, you might detect a similar texture, even an intention, an outlook, maybe,” Oliver told interviewer Joan Pons. “You can also find unexpected aspects. I simply tried, all through my career, to create a different identity for each band I worked with.”

In one onstage presentation on his oeuvre, Oliver recalled an early experience as a music fan, when he was walking home from the record shop with a new album under his arm. The act and the art, he said, had “cultural and social significance,” and showing off the purchase was “giving a hint as to what I was interested in. How weird could you be?”

For the artist, he added, album art means as much “as how they wear their hair, what they’re singing about and what jeans they’re wearing.”

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Critics and awards voters have been celebrating Martin Scorsese’s monumental mob epic “The Irishman,” making it the Oscar front-runner for best picture. Do you think the Netflix movie has what it takes to win? Grab a loaf of bread, pour some red wine and take this quiz to find out.

1. Gender:

Male. (10)
Female. (2)

2. Age:

You are under 30. (2)
You are under 50. (5)
You just returned from picking out your coffin. (10)

3. You watched “The Irishman”:

In a movie theater. (10)
In your home theater. (5)
On your phone. (0)

4. If you watched “The Irishman” at home, you viewed it:

In a single sitting. (10)
Broken up in segments. (4)
In between binge-watching “The Kominsky Method.” (0)

5. If you took breaks while viewing the movie, what kind were they?

Bathroom breaks. (5)
Smoke breaks. (8)

Breaks to come to terms with your impending oblivion. (10)

6. Favorite collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro:

“Taxi Driver.” (8)
“Goodfellas.” (10)
“Joker.” (0)

7. You own:

Monogrammed shirts. (4)
Gold pinkie rings. (6)
A burial plot. (8)
All of the above. (10)

8. What tastes better?

Vodka-spiked watermelon. (5)
Purloined steaks. (8)
Ice cream sundae eaten after hearing your sworn enemy has been assassinated. (10)

9. Regrets:

I’ve had a few. (5)
None. Never look back. (0)
Bless me, father, for I have sinned. It has been 65 years since my last confession…. (10)

10. Do you have a nickname?

Yes. (8)
No. (4)

11. If you answered yes to above, what is that nickname?

Chief. (3)
Champ. (1)
Ice Pick Willie. (10)

12. When you first saw a de-aged Robert De Niro, you …

Recoiled. (0)
Rejoiced. (7)
Took screen shots and forwarded them to your plastic surgeon for reference. (10)

13. Length of time you’ll wait for someone who’s running late:

As long as it takes. You never know what the other person is going through. (0)
Fifteen minutes. You’ve got to allow for traffic. (5)
You don’t wait for anybody for more than 10 minutes. (10)

14. Key take-away from the movie:

You don’t know how fast time goes until you get there. (10)
Whenever anybody says they’re a little concerned, they’re very concerned. (5)
You charge with a gun. With a knife you run. (5)

15. Anna Paquin has seven words in the movie. That’s:

Too many. (5)
Unconscionable. (0)
Just right. Her silent, withering judgment is worth a thousand words. (10)

16. Marvel movies are:

Cinema. (0)
Mindless entertainment. (4)
A pestilence upon this land. (10)

17. Netflix projects are:

A boon for filmmakers wanting to tell original stories. (10)
TV movies and should be considered for the Emmys, not the Oscars. (0)

18. Current state of your attention span:

Ruined. (2)
I’m making it through this quiz. What more do you want? (8)
Stronger than my bladder. (6)

19. Question you pondered when movie ended:

Did Frank Sheeran really kill Jimmy Hoffa? (8)
How can a person buy a fish and not know what kind it is? (4)
Does Umberto’s Clam House offer a senior discount? (2)

20. Can you live with yourself?

Yes. (0)
No. (5)
It’s what it is. (10)

SCORING:

150 and above: You paint houses.
100-149: You most definitely will be showing your appreciation.
Below 100: Some people — not you — consider this movie a waste of time.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

World War I has been the subject of numerous movies going all the way back to the silent era, when the first Oscar winner for best picture was the 1927 aerial drama “Wings.” The war also has been a favorite subject for a slew of classic directors. Here are a few key entries in the field.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930): This best picture Oscar winner, based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel, follows a group of German schoolboys throughout the war and features hyper-realistic battle scenes.

“Westfront 1918″ (1930): Another lifelike view of trench warfare, from German director G.W. Pabst.

“Grand Illusion” (1937): Director Jean Renoir’s film tells of class relationships among French POWs during the war. Widely regarded as one of world cinema’s greatest films.

“Sergeant York” (1941): Gary Cooper won an Oscar for his portrayal of one of America’s most decorated soldiers in director Howard Hawks’ classic.

“Paths of Glory” (1957): Stanley Kubrick’s sobering film stars Kirk Douglas as a French officer defending three soldiers unjustly accused of cowardice.

“Lawrence of Arabia” (1962): This masterpiece from David Lean follows the title character, played by Peter O’Toole, as he tries to rally Arab tribesmen against the Turks during the war.

“Many Wars Ago” (1970): Extremely downbeat antiwar movie from director Francesco Rosi about Italian soldiers, led by some callously insensitive and incompetent higher-ups, fighting the Austro-Hungarian military.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

“Black and White in Color” (1976): Winner of the foreign-language film Oscar, this antiwar comedy is set in West Africa, and features a laughably terrible French military campaign against a German trading post.

“Gallipoli” (1981): Based on the true story of the disastrous Anzac invasion of Turkey. Directed by Peter Weir, starring Mel Gibson.

“Joyeux Noël” (2005): A dramatization of a real event, the unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front around Christmas 1914. A foreign-language film Oscar nominee.