Blak and Blu is the major-label debut studio album by American musician Gary Clark, Jr., released on October 22, 2012. The album touches on a wide variety of traditionally black music genres, including soul ("Please Come Home"), hip-hop/R&B ("The Life"), Chuck Berry-esque rock and roll ("Travis County"), and Clark's trademark, blues ("When My Train Pulls In", "Numb", "Next Door Neighbor Blues"). Blak and Blu netted Clark his first two Grammy Award nominations, one for Best Rock Song ("Ain't Messin Round") and the other for Best Traditional R&B Performance ("Please Come Home") which won. This marked the first time that an artist was nominated in both categories in the same year. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album chart, and number one on the Blues Albums chart.

Critical reception

The album was awarded a 3.5 star rating by Rolling Stone and was listed at #27 on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2012, in which the author said "Clark's brain-frying guitar solos are more about noise nuance and phrasing than speed-trial note-spitting." Not all reviews were entirely positive, however. The Chicago Tribune gave the album a 2.5 out of 4 review, stating that the album lacked cohesiveness and consistency due to the wide variety of genres featured.

Blu or BLU may refer to:

Blu is the pseudonym of an Italian artist who conceals his real identity. He was born in Senigallia. He lives in Bologna and has been active in street art since 1999.

Early career

Blu's fame began in 1999, thanks to a series of illicit graffiti painted in the historical center and suburbs of Bologna, the capital of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region. In the early years of his career his technique was limited to the use of spray paint, the typical medium of graffiti culture. His characteristic style appeared in 2001, however, when Blu started painting with house paint, using rollers mounted on top of telescopic sticks. This new solution allowed him to increase the painted surface area and convey a stronger intensity to his visual vocabulary. Huge human figures, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes dramatic, who looked as if they were borrowed from comics or arcade games, began appearing along the streets of Bologna around this time.

Another aspect that influenced his early career was the practice of a shared artistic action. Artists such as Dem, Sweza, Run and, above all Ericailcane, were his companions during nocturnal raids where an anonymous creative participation overcame the need of signing their pieces. Also, during those years, Blu started experimenting with digital animation and he created short interactive video clips that were used as a visual contribution to the live musical performances of the collective OK NO.

Blu (Bidu) is a character in the Brazilian comic strip Monica's Gang, created in 1959. He was the first character created by Maurício de Sousa, along with his owner Franklin (Franjinha). The character appears in the logo and is the mascot of Mauricio de Sousa Produções, the company founded by Sousa to release his works.

Blu is the only character who appears in two different kinds of stories. In one, he is a normal dog, owned by Franklin, who fears taking baths (but is invariably forced to take them by Franklin), does anything in exchange for a bone, and plays around with the other dogs from the neighborhood. In the other type of stories, he is a director-actor of his own stories, is highly personified (walking with two feet behind the sets, and walking like a normal dog when acting), and is famous for the strips in which he talks to objects, especially the rock called Mrs. Stone.

History

Mauricio says he based both Blu and Franklin on himself and Cuíca, the dog he had when he was a child. His first appearance was in 1959 in the comic strip "Bidu e Franjinha" published in the newspaper Folha da Manhã. His first stories had as protagonist the kid Franklin (the Blu's owner) and his friends Bucky, Jeremiah, Manezinho and Hummer. In 1960 through a partnership with the publisher Editora Outubro, Mauricio de Sousa collaborated making stories of his characters to children's magazine Zás Trás, while in the same year he created an own magazine for Blu and Franklin, titled Bidu by the publisher Editora Continental. But his comic was canceled in the same year with only 8 issues.

Coca-Cola BlāK was a coffee-flavored soft drink introduced by Coca-Cola in 2006 and discontinued in 2008. The mid-calorie drink was introduced first in France, before making its way to the United States and other markets.

Coca-Cola BlāK launched in the United States on April 3, 2006. Coca-Cola BlāK launched in Canada on August 29, 2006 with an event staged in Toronto, Ontario at Dundas Square offering free bottles of the product. On 31 August 2007, trade magazine Beverage Digest announced that Coca-Cola would discontinue the drink's sale within the United States once concentrate supplies ran out.

In February 14, 2007, the drink made its way to Central Europe as it launched in the Czech Republic. French produced Coca-Cola BlāK could also be found in Poland, Slovakia, in some stores in Lithuania and in E.Leclerc stores in Slovenia.

The French and Canadian versions of Coca-Cola BlāK were sweetened only with sugar. The U.S. version of Coca-Cola BlāK replaced sugar with high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium.