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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ) is a 1998 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in November 1998 and in PAL regions the following month. Ocarina of Time is the first game in The Legend of Zelda series with 3D graphics.

The game was developed by Nintendo EAD, led by five directors, including Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi, produced by series co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto, and written by Kensuke Tanabe. Veteran Zelda series composer Koji Kondo composed the musical score. The player controls Link in the realm of Hyrule on a quest to stop the evil king Ganondorf by traveling through time and navigating dungeons and an overworld. The game introduced features such as a target-lock system and context-sensitive buttons, which have since become common in 3D adventure games. The player must play songs on an ocarina to progress.

Ocarina of Time was acclaimed by critics and consumers, who praised its visuals, sound, gameplay, soundtrack, and writing, and won several awards and accolades. It has been ranked by numerous publications as the greatest video game of all time and is the highest-rated game of all time on the review aggregator Metacritic. It was commercially successful, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide. In the United States, it received more than three times more pre-orders than any other game at the time. The Legend of Zelda has been cited by the Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed video game of all time.

A direct sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, was released in 2000. Since its release, Ocarina of Time has been re-released on every one of Nintendo's home consoles and on the iQue Player in China. An enhanced version of the game for the Nintendo 3DS, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, was released in 2011. Master Quest, an alternative version of the game including new puzzles and increased difficulty, is included in one of the GameCube releases and the 3D version.

Gameplay
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a fantasy action-adventure game set in a three-dimensional world with an expansive environment. The player controls series protagonist Link from a third-person perspective. Link primarily fights with a sword and shield. but can also use other weapons such as projectiles, bombs, and magic spells. The control scheme introduced techniques such as context-sensitive actions and a targeting system called "Z-targeting", which allows the player to have Link focus on enemies or objects. When using this technique, the camera follows the target and Link constantly faces it. Projectile attacks are automatically directed at the target and do not require manual aiming. Context-sensitive actions allow multiple tasks to be assigned to one button, simplifying the control scheme. The on-screen display shows what will happen when the button is pushed and changes depending on what the character is doing. For example, the button that causes Link to push a box if he is standing next to it will have him climb on the box if the analog stick is pushed toward it. Much of the game is spent exploring and fighting, but some parts require stealth.

Link gains abilities by collecting items and weapons found in dungeons or in the overworld, including several optional side quests and minor objectives. Side quests can reward new weapons or abilities. In one side quest, Link trades items with non-player characters in a trading sequence that features ten items and ends with him receiving the two-handed Biggoron Sword, which is the strongest sword in the game. In another side quest, Link can acquire a horse who allows him to travel faster but restricts him to attacking with arrows while riding.

Link is given an ocarina near the beginning of the game, which is later replaced by the Ocarina of Time. Throughout the game, Link learns twelve melodies that allow him to solve music-based puzzles and teleport to previously visited locations. The Ocarina of Time is also used to claim the Master Sword in the Temple of Time, which causes Link to be transported seven years into the future and become an adult. Young Link and adult Link have different abilities. For example, only adult Link can use the Fairy Bow, and only young Link can fit through certain small passages. After completing certain tasks, Link can travel freely between the two time periods by replacing and taking the sword.

Setting
Ocarina of Time is set in the fictional kingdom of Hyrule, the setting of most Legend of Zelda games. Hyrule Field serves as the central hub, and is connected to several outlying areas with diverse topography which are home to the races of Hyrule.

Story
The fairy Navi awakens Link from a nightmare in which he watches a man in black armor pursuing a young girl on horseback. Navi brings Link to the Great Deku Tree, who has been cursed and is near death. The Deku Tree tells Link that a "wicked man of the desert" cursed him and that Link must stop him from conquering the world. Before dying, the Great Deku Tree gives Link the Spiritual Stone of the Forest and sends him to Hyrule Castle to speak with Hyrule's princess.

At the Hyrule Castle garden, Link meets Princess Zelda, who believes Ganondorf, the evil Gerudo king, is seeking the Triforce, a holy relic that gives its holder godlike power. Zelda asks Link to obtain the three Spiritual Stones to enter the Sacred Realm and claim the Triforce before Ganondorf reaches it. Link collects the other two stones: the first from Darunia, leader of the Gorons, and the second from Ruto, princess of the Zoras. Link returns to Hyrule Castle, where he sees Ganondorf pursue Zelda and her caretaker Impa on horseback, like in his nightmare, and unsuccessfully attempts to stop him. Inside the Temple of Time, he uses the Ocarina of Time, a gift from Zelda, and the Spiritual Stones to open the door to the Sacred Realm. There, he finds the Master Sword, but as he pulls it from its pedestal, he is incapacitated. Ganondorf, who snuck into the Temple after Link, appears and claims the Triforce.

Seven years later, an older Link awakens in the Sacred Realm and is met by Rauru, one of the seven Sages who protects the entrance to the Sacred Realm. Rauru explains that Link's spirit was sealed for seven years until he was old enough to wield the Master Sword and defeat Ganondorf, who has taken over Hyrule. The seven sages have the ability to imprison Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm, but five are unaware of their identities as sages. Link is returned to the Temple of Time and meets the mysterious Sheik, who guides him to free five temples from Ganondorf's control and allow their sages to awaken. Link befriended all five sages as a child: his childhood friend Saria, the Sage of the Forest Temple; Darunia, the Sage of the Fire Temple; Ruto, the Sage of the Water Temple; Impa, the Sage of the Shadow Temple; and Nabooru, leader of the Gerudo in Ganondorf's absence, the Sage of the Spirit Temple. After the five sages awaken, Sheik reveals herself to be Zelda in disguise and the seventh sage. She explains that Ganondorf's heart was unbalanced, causing the Triforce to split into three pieces. Ganondorf acquired only the Triforce of Power, while Zelda received the Triforce of Wisdom and Link the Triforce of Courage.

Ganondorf appears and captures Zelda, imprisoning her in a large crystal in his castle. The other six sages help Link enter the stronghold, where he frees Zelda after defeating Ganondorf, who destroys the castle in an attempt to kill Link and Zelda. After they escape the collapsing castle, Ganondorf emerges from the rubble and transforms into a boar-like beast named Ganon using the Triforce of Power. He knocks the Master Sword from Link's hand, but with Zelda's aid, Link retrieves the Master Sword and defeats Ganon. The seven sages seal Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm, but he vows revenge on their descendants using the Triforce of Power. Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to his childhood. Navi departs and young Link meets Zelda in the castle garden once more, where he retains knowledge of Hyrule's fate, preventing its decline.

Development
Ocarina of Time was developed concurrently with Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64 by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) division, for more than $12 million with a staff of more than 200.

Development was migrated from the 64DD disk drive peripheral to cartridge due to the high data throughput of streaming 500 motion-captured character animations throughout gameplay. Initially targeting 16-megabytes, it was increased to 32 megabytes, as Nintendo's largest game ever. Early in development, the team had concerns about the data storage constraints of the cartridge; in the worst-case scenario, Ocarina of Time would follow a similar structure to Super Mario 64, with Link restricted to Ganondorf's castle as a central hub, using a portal system similar to the paintings that Mario uses to traverse the realm. An idea that arose from this stage of development, a battle with a doppelganger of Ganondorf that rides through paintings, was used as the boss of the Forest Temple dungeon.

While series co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto had been the principal director and producer of Super Mario 64, he was involved in the game's production and now in charge of five directors by acting as a producer and supervisor of Ocarina of Time. Different parts were handled by different directors, a new strategy for Nintendo EAD. Four or five initial teams grew over time, each working on different basic experiments, including scenario and planning, Link's actions, transforming classic 2D items into improved 3D form, camera experiments, motion capture, sound, special effects, and the flow of time. The dungeons were designed by Eiji Aonuma.

Although the development team was new to 3D games, assistant director Makoto Miyanaga recalled a "passion for creating something new and unprecedented". When creating Hyrule Castle's market, Miyamoto traveled to Germany for inspiration of its half-timbered architecture in Lower Franconia, spending a few weeks in northern Bavaria. Despite the setting being a "medieval tale of sword and sorcery", Miyamoto used the chanbara (samurai) genre of Japanese sword fighting as a model for the game's combat and was content with the positive worldwide reception. The development involved more than 120 people, including stunt performers used to capture the effects of sword fighting and Link's movement. Miyamoto initially intended Ocarina of Time to be played in a first-person perspective to enable players to take in the vast terrain of Hyrule Field better and let the team focus more on developing enemies and environments. The concept was abandoned once the idea of a child Link was introduced, and Miyamoto believed it necessary for Link to be visible on screen. Originally Z-targeting involved a generic marker, but Koizumi changed the design to that of a fairy to make it less "robotic". The fairy gained the name of the "Fairy Navigation System" amongst staff, and ultimately, this turned into the nickname "Navi", which in turn resulted in the "birth" of Navi's character. The "birth" of Navi was a pivotal point in the story's development.

Miyamoto wanted to make a game that was cinematic yet distinguished from films. Takumi Kawagoe, who creates cutscenes for Nintendo, said that his priority was to have the player feel in control of the action. To promote this instantaneous continuity of cinematic gameplay, the cutscenes in Ocarina of Time are completely generated with real-time computing on the Nintendo 64 and do not use prerendered full-motion video. Miyamoto's vision required this real-time architecture for the total of more than 90 minutes of cutscenes, regardless of whether the console had a vast medium like CD-ROM on which to store prerendered versions. Toru Osawa created the scenario for the game, based on a story idea by Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi. He was supported by A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening script writer Kensuke Tanabe. Miyamoto said the real-time rendering engine allowed his small team of 3 to 7 cinematic developers to rapidly adjust the storyline and to focus on developing additional gameplay elements even up to the final few months of development, instead of waiting on a repeated prerendering process.

Some of Miyamoto's ideas were instead used in Super Mario 64, since it was to be released first. Other ideas were not used due to time constraints. A storytelling shopkeep character named "Hobbit" that was initially to be cut was eventually repurposed as the Deku Scrubs later in development. Ocarina of Time originally ran on the same engine as Super Mario 64 but was so heavily modified that Miyamoto considers the final products different engines. One major difference between the two is camera control; the player has a lot of control over the camera in Super Mario 64, but the camera in Ocarina of Time is largely controlled by the game AI. Miyamoto said the camera controls for Ocarina of Time are intended to reflect a focus on the game's world, whereas those of Super Mario 64 are centered on the character of Mario. Miyamoto wanted the difficulty to be easy enough to make the game accessible to all players and said in particular that he wanted it to be easier than Super Mario 64.

Music
Ocarina of Time music was written by Koji Kondo, the composer in charge of music for most of the games in The Legend of Zelda series. In addition to characters having musical themes, areas of Hyrule are also associated with pieces of music. This has been called leitmotif in reverse—instead of music announcing an entering character, it now introduces a stationary environment as the player approaches. In some locations, the music is a variation of an ocarina tune the player learns, related to that area.

Beyond providing a backdrop for the setting, music plays an integral role in gameplay. The button layout of the Nintendo 64 controller resembles the holes of the ocarinas in the game, and players must learn to play several songs to complete the game. All songs are played using the five notes available on an ocarina, although by bending pitches via the analog stick, players can play additional tones. Kondo said that creating distinct themes on the limited scale was a "major challenge" but feels that the result is very natural. The popularity of Ocarina of Time led to an increase in ocarina sales.

The official soundtrack of Ocarina of Time was published by Pony Canyon and released in Japan on December 18, 1998. It comprises one compact disc with 82 tracks. A U.S. version was also released, although with fewer tracks and different packaging artwork. Many critics praised the music in Ocarina of Time, although IGN was disappointed that the traditional Zelda overworld theme was not included. In 2001, three years after the initial release of Ocarina of Time, GameSpot labeled it as one of the top ten video game soundtracks. The soundtrack, at the time, was not released in Europe or Australia. In 2011, however, a 51-track limited edition soundtrack for the 3DS version was available in a free mail out through a Club Nintendo offer to owners of the 3DS edition, as an incentive to register the product. The original musical theme for the Fire Temple area was altered for later revisions of the game, due to Nintendo's policy of not including real religious references in their products, with the altered theme simply removing the chanting samples.

Hero of Time, an orchestral recording of Ocarina of Time's score performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, was released by video game label Materia Collective in 2017. A vinyl version was published by iam8bit. It was nominated for "Best Game Music Cover/Remix" at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Release
Ocarina of Time was first shown as a technical and thematic demonstration video at Nintendo's Shoshinkai trade show in December 1995. Nintendo planned to release Super Mario 64 as a launch game for the Nintendo 64 and later release Ocarina of Time for the 64DD, a disk drive peripheral for the system that was still in development. Issues regarding performance of the 64DD peripheral led to development being moved from disk to cartridge media, and thus the game would miss its scheduled 1997 holiday season release and was delayed into 1998. They planned to follow its release with a 64DD expansion disk. Miyamoto additionally attributed the delay to Nintendo prioritizing development efforts to Yoshi's Story after that game missed its planned second quarter release slot.

Throughout the late 1990s, the Nintendo 64 was said to lack hit first-party games. Next Generation wrote that "Nintendo absolutely can't afford another holiday season without a real marquee title" and that Zelda was "one of the most anticipated games of the decade", upon which the Nintendo 64's fate depended. Nintendo spent $10 million on Ocarina of Time's marketing. In March 1998, it was the most anticipated Nintendo 64 game in Japan. Chairman Howard Lincoln insisted at E3 1998 that Zelda ship on time and become Nintendo's reinvigorating blockbuster, akin to a hit Hollywood movie.

Customers in North America who pre-ordered the Ocarina of Time received a limited-edition box with a golden plastic card reading "Collector's Edition". This edition contained a gold-colored cartridge, a tradition that began with the original Legend of Zelda (1986) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Demand was so great that Electronics Boutique stopped pre-selling the game on November 3, 1998.

Several versions of Ocarina of Time were produced, with later revisions featuring minor changes such as glitch repairs, the recoloring of Ganondorf's blood from crimson to green, and the alteration of the music heard in the Fire Temple dungeon to remove a sample of an Islamic prayer chant. The sample was taken from a commercially available sound library, but the developers did not realize it contained Islamic references. Although popularly believed to have been changed due to public outcry, the chanting was removed after Nintendo discovered it violated policy of avoiding religious material, and the altered versions of Ocarina of Time were made prior to the original release.

Rereleases
Nintendo ported Ocarina of Time to its next console, the GameCube, as part of The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition, a compilation of Zelda games. This port is an emulation of the original Nintendo 64 version. The emulated port runs at a resolution of 640×480, quadruple that of the original, and supports progressive scan. Another GameCube release included the original game and a second, more difficult version titled Master Quest that was included as a pre-order bonus with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002) in Japan and North America and included in GameCube bundles worldwide. It was also given to those who registered certain hardware and software or subscribed to official magazines and clubs. In November 2003, Ocarina of Time was ported to China's iQue Player as one of the five games available on its release.

In February 2007, Ocarina of Time was released for the Wii Virtual Console service for 1000 Wii Points. This version is also an emulation of the Nintendo 64 version. Because this version does not support controller vibration, the "Stone of Agony" item – which employs vibrations via the Rumble Pak controller accessory – has no function. A five-minute demo of the game can be unlocked in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008). Ocarina of Time was rereleased on the Wii U Virtual Console worldwide on July 2, 2015, this time including the original controller vibration. It was also released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on October 25, 2021.

Nintendo 3DS remake
In June 2011, Nintendo released Ocarina of Time 3D, an enhanced port for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console. It was developed by Nintendo EAD with Grezzo, an independent Japanese studio headed by Koichi Ishii. The game includes Master Quest and adds features including touchscreen and gyroscope controls, a "Boss Challenge" mode, instructional videos to guide stuck players, and a modified version of the Water Temple with reduced difficulty.

Master Quest
After completing Ocarina of Time, Nintendo developed a new version of the game for the then-unreleased 64DD peripheral with the working title Ura Zelda, commonly translated as "Another Zelda". Described as a second version of Ocarina with rearranged dungeons, it contains new content, some that had been cut from Ocarina due to time and storage constraints. In 1998, Ura Zelda was delayed indefinitely following problems with the development of the 64DD, and was canceled due to the 64DD's commercial failure. In August 2000, Miyamoto stated that Ura Zelda had been finished and that no online functions had ever been planned.

Ura Zelda was released on the GameCube in 2002 in Japan as Zeruda no Densetsu: Toki no Okarina GC Ura (ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ GC裏) and in 2003 in North America and Europe as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. According to Miyamoto, Ura Zelda was simple to port as it used few of the 64DD features. Master Quest uses the same engine and plot of Ocarina of Time but with increased difficulty and altered dungeons and puzzles.

IGN's Peer Schneider gave Master Quest a mostly positive review, likening the concept to the second quest of the original Legend of Zelda. He said that some redesigned areas were poorer than the original Ocarina of Time and speculated that they may have been constructed from "second choice" designs created during development. He described the port as graphically improved but containing no substantial improvement to the frame rate. He also expressed that controls translated to the GameCube controller felt clumsy. Nonetheless, he summarized Master Quest as a "sweet surprise for any Zelda fan" and wrote that he would have recommended it even at full price. Zachary Lewis of RPG Gamer praised the revised puzzles, which require precise timing and find new uses for the Ocarina items, but wrote that players would be enthralled or frustrated by the increased difficulty.

Reception
Upon its initial Nintendo 64 release, Ocarina of Time received critical acclaim. It garnered perfect review scores from the majority of gaming publications that reviewed it, including AllGame, Famitsu, Next Generation, Edge, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameSpot, and IGN. The review aggregator websites Metacritic and GameRankings both rank the original Nintendo 64 version as the highest reviewed game of all time, with average scores of 99/100 from Metacritic and 98% from GameRankings. The reviews praised multiple aspects of the game, particularly its level design, gameplay mechanics, sound, and cinematics. GameSpot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann wrote that Ocarina of Time is "a game that can't be called anything other than flawless", and IGN called it "the new benchmark for interactive entertainment" that could "shape the action RPG genre for years to come". Editors of GameTrailers called it a "walking patent office" due to the number of features it contains that became "industry standard". Scott Alan Marriott of AllGame described it as "completely unforgettable" and "an incredible adventure".

The graphics were praised for their depth and detail, although reviewers noted they were not always the best the console had to offer. GameRevolution noted the characters' faces, the "toughest graphical challenge on 3D characters", saying that the characters' expressions and animation featured "surprising grace". IGN believed that Ocarina of Time improved on the graphics of Super Mario 64, giving a larger sense of scale. Impressive draw distances and large boss characters were also mentioned as graphical highlights. Although excelling in the use of color and the visibility and detail of the environment, reviewers noted that some graphical elements of Ocarina of Time did not perform as well as Banjo-Kazooie, a game released for the same platform earlier that year. IGN said that the frame rate and textures of Ocarina of Time were not as good as those of Banjo-Kazooie, particularly in the marketplace of Hyrule Castle, which was called "blurry".

Gameplay was generally praised as detailed, with many side quests to occupy players' time. IGN said players would be "amazed at the detail" of the environment and the "amount of thought that went into designing it". IGN praised the cinematics, citing great emotional impact and "flawless camera work". EGM enjoyed that Nintendo was able to take the elements of the older, 2D Zelda games and "translate it all into 3D flawlessly". Nintendo Power cited Ocarina of Time, along with Super Mario 64, as two games that "blazed trails" into the 3D era. The context-sensitive control system was seen as one of the strongest elements of the gameplay. Reviewers noted that it allowed for simpler control using fewer buttons but that it occasionally caused the player to perform unintended actions. The camera control was quoted as making combat "second nature", although the new system took time for the player to get used to.

The game's audio was generally well received, with IGN comparing some of Koji Kondo's pieces to the work of Philip Glass. Many atmospheric sounds and surround sound were designed to effectively immerse the player in the game world. Some reviewers complained that the audio samples used in the game sounded dated; others considered this a benefit, calling them "retro". GameRevolution called the sound "good for the Nintendo, but not great in the larger scheme of things" and noted that the cartridge format necessitated "MIDI tunes that range from fair to terrible". Pitchfork gave the official soundtrack album a 9 out of 10.

Sales
Assisted by a large marketing campaign, Ocarina of Time was a commercial success. In the United States, over 500,000 pre-orders were placed, more than tripling the number of pre-orders for any previous game, for which it was awarded the Guinness World Record for Most Advance Orders for a Game. Upon release, more than 1 million copies were sold there in less than a week. In 1998, 2.5 million copies were sold, although it was released only 39 days before the end of the year; it earned US$150,000,000 in U.S. revenues, higher than any Hollywood film in the last six weeks of 1998. It was the best-selling video game of 1998 in the United States. In Japan, 920,000 copies were sold in 1998, becoming the eighth best-selling game of that year; a reported 386,234 copies were sold in its first week there, surpassing the 316,000 first-week sales of Metal Gear Solid.

In Europe, Ocarina of Time was the fifth-bestselling game of 1998, grossing more than €39,000,000 or US$,000,000 1998. In the UK, it was the fastest-ever-selling game until the release of Gran Turismo 2 in 2000, selling 61,232 copies during its first weekend. 1.14 million Nintendo 64 copies were sold in Japan and 7.6 million copies worldwide. By 2000, Ocarina of Time had sold 7 million cartridges and grossed about US$400,000,000 1998 worldwide.

Awards
In 1998, Ocarina of Time won the Grand Prize in the Interactive Art division at the Japan Media Arts Festival. Ocarina of Time won six awards at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards: "Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", "Console Adventure Game of the Year", "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design", and "Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering"; it also received a nomination for "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development". Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it both the editors' choice and readers' choice awards for "Game of the Year for All Systems", "Nintendo 64 Game of the Year" and "Action RPG of the Year" as well as the readers' choice awards for "Best Music" and "Best Graphics", and it was runner-up for the reader's choice "Best Sound Effects" award. Edge gave it the awards for "Game of the Year" and "Gameplay Innovation" and placed it 2nd place for "Graphical Achievement" (behind Virtua Fighter 3tb).

Legacy
After publication, Ocarina of Time was featured on a number of compiled lists of best or most influential games. It was ranked the greatest video game of all time by numerous publications including Computer and Video Games, Edge,   Entertainment Weekly, GameTrailers, IGN,  Next Generation, Nintendo Power,  Game Informer, Slant, FHM, and PALGN. It also appeared on other lists of greatest games including those of Electronic Gaming Monthly and IGN. The game was placed second in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 greatest Nintendo games of all time", behind only Super Mario Bros. Game Informer ranked it as its 11th favorite game of all time and described it as "untouchable". In May 2011, IGN held a tournament-style competition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original The Legend of Zelda's release in which fans voted Ocarina of Time the greatest Zelda game; it beat Majora's Mask in the final round. Ocarina of Time has consistently been placed at number one in Edge's "top 100 games" lists: a staff-voted list in January 2000, a staff- and reader-voted list in July 2007, a list of "The 100 Best Games to Play Today" in March 2009, and a 2013 readers' poll selecting the 20 best games released since the magazine's launch in 1993. Edge concluded its 2009 list with: "Ocarina of Time is here in the list not because Nintendo had the power and wisdom to make a great game, but because it had the courage to make a unique one". In 2022, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Ocarina of Time to its World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Reception for the Master Quest and Virtual Console rereleases was positive; while some considered aspects of the graphics and audio to be outdated, most thought that the game had aged well. The Master Quest version holds an average score of 89.50% on GameRankings and 91/100 on Metacritic. IGN said in their review that "Ocarina of Time has aged extremely well", and noted in regard to the game's graphics, while the textures and models look dated, the game's visual presentation stood the test of time. Game Revolution said that although the game has "noticeably aged compared to brand new RPGs ... it's still a terrific game", awarding 91 out of 100. In 2007, former GameSpot editor Jeff Gerstmann gave the Virtual Console port 8.9 out of 10: "Even after nine years, Ocarina of Time holds up surprisingly well, offering a lengthy and often-amazing adventure".

In November 2021, enthusiasts fully decompiled Ocarina of Time 's ROM into human-readable C code. In March 2022, a group called "Harbour Masters" publicly released a PC port under the name "Ship of Harkinian", which includes widescreen support and an increased framerate, among other features.

Impact
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's gameplay system popularized features such as a target lock system and context-sensitive buttons that have since become common elements in 3D adventure games.

Multiple members of the video game industry have expressed how the game impacted them and the industry. Former Rockstar Games vice president of creativity Dan Houser stated in 2012 that "anyone who makes 3-D games who says they've not borrowed something from Mario or Zelda [on the Nintendo 64] is lying". Rockstar founder and Grand Theft Auto director Sam Houser also cited the game's influence, describing Grand Theft Auto III as "Zelda meets Goodfellas". Ōkami director Hideki Kamiya (Capcom, PlatinumGames) said that he had been influenced by Zelda when he developed Okami. Soul Reaver and Uncharted director, Amy Hennig (Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog), cited Zelda as an influence for the Legacy of Kain series, noting Ocarina of Time's influence on Soul Reaver.

Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki (FromSoftware) said that "The Legend of Zelda became a sort of textbook for 3D action games". Ico director Fumito Ueda (Team Ico) cited Zelda as an influence on Shadow of the Colossus. Darksiders director David Adams (Vigil Games) cited Zelda as an influence on his work. CD Projekt Red (The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077) cited Zelda as an influence on The Witcher series, including The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015). Final Fantasy and The 3rd Birthday director Hajime Tabata (Square Enix) cited Ocarina of Time as inspiration for the seamless open world of Final Fantasy XV.

title: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time


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Easy listening

Easy listening (including mood music ) is a popular music genre  and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, non-rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates the rock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It was differentiated from the mostly instrumental beautiful music format by its variety of styles, including a percentage of vocals, arrangements and tempos to fit various parts of the broadcast day.

Easy listening music is often confused with lounge music, but while it was popular in some of the same venues it was meant to be listened to for enjoyment rather than as background sound.

History
The style has been synonymous with the tag "with strings". String instruments had been used in sweet bands in the 1930s and was the dominant soundtrack to movies of Hollywood's Golden Age. In the 1940s and 1950s strings had been used in jazz and popular music contexts. As examples in the jazz genre, there are recordings of Frank Sinatra. Another example of a practitioner in the popular context was Dinah Washington's "What a Difference a Day Makes". In the 1950s the use of strings quickly became a main feature of the developing easy listening genre.

Jackie Gleason, a master at this genre, whose first ten albums went gold, expressed the goal of producing "musical wallpaper that should never be intrusive, but conducive".

Similarly, in 1956 John Serry Sr. sought to utilize the accordion within the context of a jazz sextet in order to create a soothing mood ideally suited for "low pressure" listening on his album Squeeze Play. Jerry Murad also contributed to the music, including a variety of types of harmonica.

Reception
The magazines Billboard and Record World featured easy listening singles in independently audited record charts. Generally 40 positions in length, they charted airplay on stations such as WNEW-FM, New York City, WWEZ, Cincinnati, and KMPC, Los Angeles. Record World began their listings January 29, 1967, and ended these charts in the early 1970s. Billboard's Easy Listening chart morphed into the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979, and continues to this day.

During the format's heyday in the 1960s, it was not at all uncommon for easy listening instrumental singles to reach the top of the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 (and stay there for several weeks).

Beautiful music, which grew up alongside easy listening music, had rigid standards for instrumentation, e.g., few or no saxophones (at the time, the saxophone was associated with less refined styles such as jazz and rock and roll, although Billy Vaughn was an exception to the rule), and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour. The easy listening radio format has been generally, but not completely, superseded by the soft adult contemporary format.

According to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, "The public prominence and profitability of easy listening [in the postwar years] led to its close association with the so-called 'Establishment' that would eventually be demonized by the rock counterculture." In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), rock critic Robert Christgau said "semiclassical music is a systematic dilution of highbrow preferences".

Easy listening singers
Easy listening/lounge singers have a lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. Easy listening music featured popular vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Patti Page, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Perry Como, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Carpenters, The Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, Julie London, and many others. The somewhat derisive term lounge lizard was coined then, and less well-known lounge singers have often been ridiculed as dinosaurs of past eras and parodied for their smarmy delivery of standards.

In the early 1990s the lounge revival was in full swing and included such groups as Combustible Edison, Love Jones, The Cocktails, Pink Martini and Nightcaps. Alternative band Stereolab demonstrated the influence of lounge with releases such as Space Age Bachelor Pad Music and the Ultra-Lounge series of lounge music albums. The lounge style was a direct contradiction to the grunge music that dominated the period.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Easy listening


text:
Pierre Daniel Huet

Pierre Daniel Huet (Huetius; 8 February 1630 – 26 January 1721) was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics, founder of the Académie de Physique in Caen (1662–1672) and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 to 1689 and afterwards of Avranches.

Life
He was born in Caen in 1630, and educated at the Jesuit school there. He also received lessons from a Protestant pastor, Samuel Bochart. By the age of twenty he was recognized as one of the most promising scholars of his time. In 1651 he went to Paris, where he formed a friendship with Gabriel Naudé, conservator of the Mazarin Library. In the following year Samuel Bochart, being invited by Queen Christina of Sweden to her court at Stockholm, took his friend Huet with him. This journey, in which he saw Leiden, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, as well as Stockholm, resulted chiefly in the discovery, in the Swedish royal library, of some fragments of Origen's Commentary on St Matthew, which gave Huet the idea of editing and translating Origen into Latin, a task he completed in 1668. He eventually quarrelled with Bochart, who accused him of having suppressed a line in Origen in the Eucharistic controversy. While working on Origen's Greek text, Huet wrote a separate treatise on translation history, theory, and practice, the "De optimo genere interpretandi" ("On the best kind of translating") in two books (first published 1660; 3rd and last ed. Amsterdam, 1683).

Huet was also the cofounder of the Académie de Physique in Caen, the first provincial academy of science to be granted a royal charter (1668). Huet was the initial patron of the academy, and along with Andre Graindorge, directed the work of the group, which focused on the empirical study of nature, with a special emphasis on anatomy and dissections. Huet's presence was critical to the success of the academy, which floundered without his continued presence. He acted as head of the group from 1662 to 1667, and again in 1668, when he left Caen again for Paris. He also ended his financial support of the academy at this time, as it began to receive royal funding and direction from the royal representative in Normandy, Guy Chamillart.

In Paris he entered into close relations with Jean Chapelain. During the famous "dispute of Ancients and Moderns", Huet took the side of the Ancients against Charles Perrault and Jean Desmarets. Among his friends at this period were Valentin Conrart and Paul Pellisson. His taste for mathematics led him to the study of astronomy. He next turned his attention to anatomy, and, being short-sighted, devoted his inquiries mainly to the question of vision and the formation of the eye. In the course of this study, he made more than 800 dissections. He then learned all that was then to be learned in chemistry, and wrote a Latin poem on salt.

All this time he was a frequent visitor to the salons of Mlle de Scudéry and the studios of painters; his scientific researches did not interfere with his classical studies, for during this time he was discussing with Bochart the origin of certain medals, and was learning Syriac and Arabic under the Jesuit Adrien Parvilliers.

Huet was admitted to the Académie française in 1674. He took holy orders in 1676, and two years later the king made him abbot of Aunay. In 1685 he became Bishop of Soissons, but after waiting for installation for four years he took the bishopric of Avranches instead. He exchanged the cares of his bishopric for what he thought would be the easier chair of the Abbey of Fontenay, but there he was vexed with continual lawsuits. At length he retired to the Jesuits' House in the Rue Saint-Antoine at Paris, where he died in 1721. His great library and manuscripts, after being bequeathed to the Jesuits, were bought by the king for the royal library.

Works

He translated the pastorals of Longus, wrote a tale called Diane de Castro, and gave with his Traitté de l'origine des romans (1670), his Treatise on the Origin of Romances the first world history of fiction. On being appointed assistant tutor to the Dauphin in 1670, he edited, with the assistance of Anne Lefêvre (afterwards Madame Dacier) and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the well-known book series, the Delphin Classics (referred to in the original Latin as the "Ad usum Delphini" series). This series published comprehensive editions of the Latin classics in about sixty volumes, and each work was accompanied by a Latin commentary, ordo verborum, and verbal index. The original volumes have each an engraving of Arion and a dolphin, and the appropriate inscription in usum serenissimi Delphini.

In addition to Huet's edition and translation of the ancient Greek theologian Origen, Huet published two works on the history and process of translation itself, "De optimo genere interpretandi" ("On the best kind of translating") and "De claris interpretibus" ("On famous translators"; 3rd and last ed. 1683).

He issued one of his major works, the Demonstratio evangelica, in 1679. At Aulnay he wrote his Questiones Aletuanae (Caen, 1690), his Censura philosophiae Cartesianae (Paris, 1689), his Nouveau mémoire pour servir à l'histoire du Cartésianisme (New Memoirs to Serve The History of Cartesianism, 1692), and his discussion with Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux on the Sublime.

A. E. Housman described Huet as "a critic of uncommon exactness, sobriety, and malevolence". In the Huetiana (1722) of the abbé d'Olivet will be found material for arriving at an idea of his prodigious labours, exact memory and wide scholarship. Another posthumous work was his Traité philosophique de la faiblesse de l'esprit humain (original spelling: Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain) (Amsterdam, 1723), which he considered to be his best work. His autobiography, found in his Commentarius de rebus ad eum pertinentibus (Paris, 1718), has been translated into French and into English.

According to Maurice Rat, Huet "was after Ménage the best etymologist of his time". For example, it was he who understood that the final "bec" of certain toponyms of French Normandy (as Houlbec) means "stream" and is related to the German word of the same meaning "Bach", also present at the end of many toponyms.

Legacy
The lycée in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, Calvados, was formerly named after Huet, though it has now ceased to be so.

title: Pierre Daniel Huet


text:
Jean Desmarets

Jean Desmarets, Sieur de Saint-Sorlin (1595 – 28 October 1676) was a French writer and dramatist. He was a founding member, and the first to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1634.

Biography
Born in Paris, Desmarets was introduced to Cardinal Richelieu, and became one of the band of writers who carried out the cardinal's literary ideas when he was about thirty years old. His inclination, however, was to writing novels, and the success of his romance L'Ariane in 1632 led to his formal admission to a circle of writers that met at the house of Valentin Conrart. When this circle later developed into the Académie française, Desmarets became its first chancellor. He was related to Marie Dupré.

His success led to official preferment, and he was made conseiller du roi, contrôleur-général de l'extraordinaire des guerres, and secretary-general of the fleet of the Levant.

Works
It was at Richelieu's request that he began to write for the theatre. In this genre he produced a comedy long regarded as a masterpiece, Les Visionnaires (1637), where, slightly disguised, real personages such as Madeleine de Sablé, la marquise de Rambouillet et Madame de Chavigny are staged; a prose-tragedy, Erigone (1638); and Scipion (1639), a tragedy in verse.

His long epic Clovis (1657) is noteworthy because Desmarets rejected the traditional pagan background, and maintained that Christian imagery should supplant it. With this standpoint he contributed several works in defence of the moderns in the famous quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns.

In his later years Desmarets devoted himself chiefly to producing a number of religious poems, of which the best known is perhaps his verse translation of the Office de la Vierge (1645). He was an outspoken opponent of the Jansenists, against whom he wrote a Réponse à l'insolente apologie de Port-Royal (1666). He died in Paris on 28 October 1676.

title: Jean Desmarets


text:
Talk:Lewisham Deptford (UK Parliament constituency)

Untitled
I've tried making Conservative a lighter blue, in the hope that the link will stand out better. Thoughts? --rbrwr

Don't use colour. We can't guarantee that users will see it, it may render text unreadable. -- Tarquin 13:39 Jan 5, 2003 (UTC)

 * I think you're right. (I didn't put the colours in, just tried to improve them) --rbrwr

Adding a new candidate to the election list?
Hello, I wanted to ask if it was possible to add Phillip Badger of the Democratic Reform Party to the table as standing in the upcoming general election?

I would use either of these three sites: http://www.phillipbadger.co.uk/, http://whyvote4me.co.uk/elections/2015-general-election/candidate/phillip-badger or http://www.democraticreform.co.uk/#!150126/c52v as references if they are acceptable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.156.105.29 (talk) 14:38, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Lewisham Deptford (UK Parliament constituency). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101106204053/http://www.boundarycommissionforengland.org.uk/electoral-figures/electoral-figures.htm to http://www.boundarycommissionforengland.org.uk/electoral-figures/electoral-figures.htm

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text:
Lenny Kravitz

Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actor.

Born in New York to TV news producer Sy Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker, Kravitz was exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age. Kravitz grew up in a musically diverse environment. His childhood was split between Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles, leading to his early passion for music, inspired by several genres and seeing The Jackson 5 live. Kravitz released his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989. This marked the beginning of a career characterized by a blend of rock, funk, reggae, hard rock, soul, and R&B.

Kravitz has had hit singles, including "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over" (1991) and "Again" (2000), each of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Top 100 chart; other hits include "Let Love Rule" (1989), "Always on the Run" (1991), "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (1993), "Fly Away" (1998), and "American Woman" (1999), each of which reached the top 10 on the Alternative Airplay chart. His other albums include Mama Said, and Are You Gonna Go My Way.

Kravitz has won several awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, which he received four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category, and setting the record for most consecutive wins in one category by a male performer. He has won other awards, including American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, Brit Awards, and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Kravitz has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and was ranked 93 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".

Aside from his music career, Kravitz has acted in films including Precious (2009) and the first two installments of The Hunger Games film series (2012–13). He also set up Kravitz Design Inc. He was previously married to Lisa Bonet, with whom he has a daughter, Zoë Kravitz.

Early life
Kravitz was born on May 26, 1964, in New York City, the only child of NBC television news producer Sy Kravitz (1924–2005) and actress Roxie Roker (1929–1995). His mother came from a Christian family that was of African-American and Bahamian descent. His father was of Ukrainian-Jewish origin. Through his mother, Kravitz is a second cousin of television weather presenter Al Roker, as their grandfathers were brothers. Kravitz was named after his uncle, Leonard M. Kravitz, a private first class who was killed in action in the Korean War at the age of 20, while single-handedly holding off a Chinese attack, enabling most of his platoon to escape.

During his early years, Kravitz did not grow up in a religious environment. After a spiritual experience when he was 13, he started attending church and later became a non-denominational Christian. Kravitz grew up spending weekdays on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his parents, attending P.S. 6 for elementary school, and spending weekends at his grandmother Bessie's house in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Kravitz began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of three. He decided that he wanted to be a musician at the age of five. He began playing the drums and soon added guitar. He grew up listening to the music his parents listened to: R&B, jazz, classical, opera, gospel, and blues. He said, "My parents were very supportive of the fact that I loved music early on, and they took me to a lot of shows." Around the age of seven, he saw the Jackson 5 perform at Madison Square Garden, and they became his favorite performers. His father, who was also a jazz promoter, was friends with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, Miles Davis, and other jazz greats; Ellington even played "Happy Birthday" for him on his fifth birthday.

In 1974, at the age of 10, Kravitz relocated to Los Angeles with his parents when his mother landed her role on The Jeffersons. At his mother's urging, he joined the California Boys Choir for three years, where he performed a classical repertoire, and sang with the Metropolitan Opera. He took part in Mahler's Third Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl. It was in Los Angeles that Kravitz was introduced to rock music, listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Kiss, Pink Floyd, and the Who, and he said he was "attracted to the cool style, the girls, the rock 'n' roll lifestyle." During his junior high school years, he was also introduced to marijuana; he has stated that he was a "pothead" during his youth. His other musical influences at the time included Fela Kuti, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Pharoah Sanders, and Miles Davis. Later influences came in the form of John Lennon and Bob Marley. Kravitz attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was classmates with Maria McKee, Nicolas Cage, and Slash. He taught himself to play piano and bass and made friends with Zoro, who would later become his long-time collaborator. His parents divorced in 1985.

Kravitz is the honorary nephew of Diahann Carroll, whom he called Aunt D, and actress Cicely Tyson was his godmother.

1985–1990: Virgin Records and career debut
With record labels still telling him his music was not "black enough" or "white enough", Kravitz decided to record an album on his own under the name Romeo Blue. Kravitz had met the recording engineer, keyboardist, and bassist Henry Hirsch in 1985 when recording a demo at his Hoboken, New Jersey, recording studio. The two shared an interest in using real instruments and vintage recording equipment, as well as a love of R&B, jazz, and rock. Kravitz would go on to collaborate with Hirsch on most of his albums. Kravitz began working on his debut album with Hirsch over the next year and a half, with Kravitz's father paying for the studio time. Kravitz met saxophonist Karl Denson and invited him to play on the song "Let Love Rule". Kravitz was so impressed with his playing that Denson played on much of the album. Beginning in the late 1980s, Denson toured with Kravitz for five years.

In October 1988, after completing most of the recording, Kravitz approached friend Stephen Elvis Smith, who had served as the music supervisor on Lisa Bonet's The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World. Smith had also worked with Kravitz's mother on the hit sitcom The Jeffersons. Kravitz urged Smith to manage his career and assist him in finding a record deal. In less than a month of shopping the recordings, five labels (Warner Bros, Elektra, Geffen, Capitol, and Virgin) were in a bidding war for Kravitz. Eventually, a deal was made with Virgin Records in January 1989, and signed by Virgin A&R executive Nancy Jeffries. The label was "excited" about the music he was making, music inspired by his relationship with wife Bonet and their new daughter, Zoe. On Smith's urging, Kravitz dropped the name Romeo Blue and reclaimed the Lenny Kravitz moniker. About his time as Romeo Blue, Kravitz said, "Ultimately, it got me back to myself. And when I finally did accept myself for myself, music started flowing out of me."

Kravitz released his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989, a combination of rock and funk with a 1960s vibe. Music critics were mixed: some felt Kravitz was a gifted new artist, others felt he was overpowered by his musical influences. The album was a moderate success in the United States, but became an instant hit outside of the US, especially in Europe. Lisa Bonet directed the debut music video for the title track, "Let Love Rule". Stephen Smith signed Kravitz with talent booking agency CAA, who soon were fielding offers for Kravitz, first on a club tour, and then in opening slots for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. Having played essentially all of the instruments on the album, Kravitz had to quickly assemble a touring band to support the Let Love Rule release. In May 2009, a 20th-anniversary deluxe edition of Let Love Rule was released worldwide by Virgin. Kravitz launched a LLR(20) tour of Europe and the United States in support of the re-release.

1991–2001: Popularity established
In May 1990, he performed the song "Cold Turkey" at the John Lennon Memorial concert. In 1990, Kravitz produced the song "Justify My Love" for Madonna, which he co-wrote with Ingrid Chavez. The song, which appeared on her greatest hits album The Immaculate Collection and created controversy because of its explicit video, went to number 1 for two consecutive weeks. Kravitz appeared as a member of Peace Choir that performed "Give Peace a Chance" in 1991 in protest of the Gulf War.

Kravitz separated from Lisa Bonet in 1991, amid rumors of an affair between him and Madonna. Kravitz has denied any infidelity. Kravitz and Bonet divorced in 1993. Kravitz produced the self-titled album Vanessa Paradis (1991) for French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis. He played most of the instruments and co-wrote most of the songs on the album.

In 1991, Kravitz released his second album, Mama Said, which was his first album to reach the Top 40. The songs on the album were about Bonet and dedicated to her, documenting his depression over their breakup. The single, "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over", went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. A second single "Always on the Run", a tribute to his mother, featured Slash on guitar. "Stand by My Woman" and "What Goes Around Comes Around" followed. Sean Lennon co-wrote and played piano on the song "All I Ever Wanted".

In 1993, Kravitz wrote "Line Up" for Aerosmith, and appeared on Mick Jagger's solo album, Wandering Spirit, on a cover of the Bill Withers soul classic "Use Me", and played guitar on the title track of David Bowie's The Buddha of Suburbia. That year Kravitz also worked with idols Al Green and Curtis Mayfield. In 1993, Are You Gonna Go My Way was released, reaching number 12 on the Billboard 200 and Kravitz earned a BRIT Award for best international male artist in 1994. The title track won a MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video for the video produced by Mark Romanek, in which Kravitz slung his dreadlocks and wore high-heeled platform boots. During the presentation of the MTV Video Music Awards, he performed the song with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass. Several singles from the album would follow, including "Believe", "Is There Any Love In Your Heart", and "Heaven Help/Spinning Around Over You". This album was the first to feature guitarist Craig Ross, who has also played on all his subsequent albums. One song, "Eleutheria", was influenced by the island Eleuthera in The Bahamas where Kravitz built a house and recording studio. In 1993, he also released the EP Spinning Around Over You, which included four live tracks from his Universal Love Tour. A feature documentary about his 1994 tour entitled Alive from Planet Earth was directed by Doug Nichol and released.

In 1994, Kravitz recorded "Main Squeeze" with Teena Marie from her Passion Play CD. Kravitz also made a video to pay tribute to Teena Marie when she suddenly died on December 26, 2010. He recorded a funk-rock version of the song "Deuce" for the KISS cover album Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved. The track featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and background vocals. This song was one of three radio singles from the album, and was also the album's lead-off track. Roxie Roker, Kravitz's mother, died in California on December 2, 1995, of breast cancer at the age of 66. In 1995, Kravitz released the album Circus, which went to number 10 on the Billboard chart on the back of his past achievement. However, the album only had two hit singles: "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and "Can't Get You Off My Mind".

With 5 (1998), Kravitz embraced digital technology such as Pro Tools and samplers for the first time. Recorded in both his own New York City carriage house, and Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas, Kravitz employed engineer/producer Terry Manning to handle the recording duties. 5 introduced his music to an even wider audience thanks to the hit single "Fly Away" being featured prominently in both car manufacturer and airline commercials. 5 would reach number 28 on the Billboard 200, with "Fly Away" peaking at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100, topping both the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts, and also topping the charts in Iceland and the United Kingdom. He would win the first of his four consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1999. Other hits from the album included "If You Can't Say No", that was remixed by dance producer Brian Transeau, and "I Belong to You". For the "I Belong to You" video Kravitz can be seen without his signature dreadlocks. In 1999 he produced and sang with Cree Summer on her solo album Street Faërie.

His cover version of the Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2000 and helped the Guess Who's song reach a new audience. Kravitz's version of the song originally came from the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and was added to 5 as a bonus track in 1999. Kravitz worked on two songs for Michael Jackson's Invincible album released in 2001; a snippet of "Another Day" was leaked, and the full version was officially released on the album Michael in 2010.

Kravitz released a Greatest Hits album in 2000. It proved to be his most successful album, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 and selling nearly 11 million copies worldwide and ultimately becoming one of the most commercially successful albums of the decade. The single "Again" earned him his third consecutive Grammy for the Best Male Rock Vocal in the Grammy Awards of 2001 and peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Kravitz also co-wrote the song "God Gave Me Everything" with Mick Jagger in this period, appearing on Jagger's 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway and in the film Being Mick. In 2001, Kravitz participated in a benefit auction for the Red Hot Organization, in conjunction with Amazon.com to increase public AIDS awareness, which ran from February 28 until April 11, 2001. The event featured rare RHO memorabilia and the work of Rolling Stone photographer Mark Seliger.

2001–2005: Lenny and Baptism

Kravitz released his sixth album Lenny in October 2001. The album was recorded in Miami. Kravitz wrote the song "Bank Robber Man" after the Miami Police Department detained and cuffed him while walking to the gym with his trainer because police stated that he matched the description of a bank robber. Kravitz did not have any identification with him at the time and the police on the scene did not believe that he was indeed Lenny Kravitz. The bank teller who was robbed was then brought to the scene and said Kravitz was not the bank robber. Miami Police later sent officers to Kravitz's home to apologize for the detention. When asked if he thought the incident was a case of racial profiling, Kravitz said he was not sure although some of the lyrics in the song suggest otherwise. The first single from the album, "Dig In", went to number 1 in Argentina and the top 10 in Italy and Portugal. The video for "Dig In" was originally supposed to be shot at the top of the Empire State Building on September 12, 2001, but the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, caused the location to be moved. The video was later shot off the coast of Miami. He won his fourth Grammy in 2002. "Stillness of Heart", "Believe in Me", and "If I Could Fall In Love" were subsequent singles from the album.

Kravitz was the subject of a photo book by former chief photographer for Rolling Stone, Mark Seliger. Published in November 2001, Seliger captures Kravitz on tour, with family, with friends, and in posed portraits. Jay-Z invited Kravitz to appear on the track "Guns and Roses" on his 2002 The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse. Kravitz would also join P. Diddy, Pharrell, and Loon on the track "Show Me Your Soul" from the Bad Boys II Soundtrack. In September 2002, Kravitz appeared alongside other rock stars in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" of The Simpsons. In early 2003, Kravitz released the track "We Want Peace" as a download-only track as a protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he performed this alongside famous Iraqi singer Kazem Al Saher at Rock the Vote. The track reached #1 on the world internet download charts and MP3.com download chart. Kravitz also appeared on Unity, the official album of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and performed a cover of "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)" on the album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

Kravitz's seventh album Baptism was released in May 2004. The first single was "Where Are We Runnin'?" The single "California" failed to be commercially successful, but "Storm", featuring Jay-Z, reached the charts. "Calling All Angels" was successful in various countries and a huge hit in Brazil, however it was "Lady" that became the album's surprise hit, making the US Top 30 and propelling Baptism to gold status. Also in 2004, he appeared on N.E.R.D's album Fly or Die. From March 2005, Kravitz toured all over the world with the tour Electric Church, which ended at the Brixton Academy, London in July 2005. Kravitz served as the opening act for Aerosmith who are long-term friends of Kravitz on their fall 2005 tour. The tour began on October 30 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The night before that tour started, October 29, 2005, Kravitz's father, TV producer Seymour "Sy" Kravitz, died. During that first show, Kravitz broke the news to the stunned crowd and stated it was not a time to be sad, but rather a time to celebrate because he is now in Heaven. Kravitz then dedicated Let Love Rule to his father. That tour was so successful that it was extended through February 25, 2006, and ended in Anaheim, California.

2006–2009: Live Earth, charity work, and It Is Time for a Love Revolution
In January 2006, Kravitz contributed "Breathe" to absoluttracks, a project sponsored by Absolut Vodka. This song was re-mixed by ten musical producers and distributed via the internet. Kravitz appeared in the audience of Madonna's Confessions Tour (2006) during numerous shows. He later joined Madonna live on stage to play guitar on the song, "I Love New York", at the last of four Paris shows. Kravitz founded a design firm named Kravitz Design, stating if he hadn't been a musician he would have been a designer. Kravitz Design, focused on interior and furniture design, has designed residential spaces, as well as a chandelier for the crystal company Swarovski, named "Casino Royale".

On July 7, 2007, Kravitz performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth in Rio de Janeiro, making him one of three major international rock stars to perform two huge free concerts at the world-famous Copacabana Beach along with Macy Gray and the Rolling Stones. Kravitz had already played there on March 21, 2005, drawing 300,000 people on a concert of his own. The Live Earth concert, with eight other acts on the bill, including Pharrell and Macy Gray had an audience of 400,000 on the beach. Also in 2007, Kravitz released a version of "Cold Turkey" by John Lennon on the charity CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Kravitz also spent time recording his latest album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, released February 5, 2008. On September 25, 2007, the Fats Domino tribute album Goin' Home; A Tribute To Fats Domino was released. Kravitz was on the song "Whole Lotta Lovin'" along with Rebirth Brass Band, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, and Maceo Parker.

Kravitz performed at the Grey Cup halftime show in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on November 25, 2007, where the Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23–19. The original video for "I'll Be Waiting" was shot in Central Park in New York City with Marc Webb directing but that video was later shelved and a new version, which Kravitz co-directed with Philip Andelman, was filmed in Kravitz's New York City recording studio. The video premiered on VH1's Top 20 Countdown at number 3. On January 17, 2008, Kravitz embarked on a nine-city mini-tour to promote his new album It Is Time for a Love Revolution. The tour started in Santa Monica, California and ended in New York City on February 1.

On February 11, 2008, Kravitz was admitted to Miami Hospital suffering from severe bronchitis. He had been suffering from a series of severe respiratory tract infections since mid-January, and the illness developed into bronchitis. Kravitz's illness had forced him to postpone Canadian dates and his trip to Europe to promote his album It Is Time for a Love Revolution. On March 19, 2008, he canceled the South American part of his tour due to the same illness. The decision affected planned concerts in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. In Argentina Kravitz had a performance in the biggest rock festival there, Quilmes Rock Fest. On July 15, 2008, Kravitz was honored in Milan, Italy with the key to the city in a special toast ceremony for his work with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to end world poverty.

Kravitz made his feature film acting debut in Precious which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. During the Italian leg of his 53 date Let Love Rule 2009 European tour, Kravitz was instructed to cancel some shows due to another bad bout of bronchitis. Under strict orders from his doctor, the singer was told to rest so that he could make a quick recovery and return to the stage for the rest of his tour. Shows scheduled for Rome on June 5 and Brescia on June 17 were postponed to late July.

2009–2011: U2 tour and Black and White America
Kravitz's next album, tentatively titled Funk, was tentatively re-titled Negrophilia and was due out sometime in 2010. This is believed to be a project that Kravitz has been working on since 1997. Some of the original tracks for Funk were recorded while he was in New Orleans at Allen Toussaint's studio while taking a break for several months from recording in New York City. A video on Kravitz's Twitter page shows him working on one of the songs for the album, called "Super Love", in his GTS studios in the Bahamas. Another video shows him working on another track titled "Life Ain't Never Been Better Than It Is Now" in his GTS Studios. On his Twitter page, Kravitz said that the album title was Negrophilia but then "felt like something else". Eventually, the album was later named Black and White America. The album was released on August 22, 2011, in Europe and August 30, 2011, in the US.

On February 20, 2011, the first single "Come on Get It" was released. On June 6, 2011, the second single "Stand" was released. It was announced that Kravitz would be supporting U2 on their 360 Tour on the second North American leg in 2010. Kravitz agreed to support them for four shows. Though the shows were postponed until 2011, Kravitz remained committed for four of the shows.

In June 2010 it was announced that Kravitz would guest star on an episode of the upcoming season of Entourage.

In 2011 Kravitz was honored with one of the highest cultural awards in France when he was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French cultural minister Frederic Mitterrand in Paris. Kravitz stated he was "particularly touched" to receive the award in France as his success in the country pre-dated his success in the United States and still enjoys great record sales in the country today. Kravitz joined other American recipients such as Martin Scorsese, George Clooney, and Bob Dylan. On February 26, 2012, he performed at the Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500, the opening race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. A sample of "Are You Gonna Go My Way" was used in American singer Chris Willis's single "Too Much In Love", released on August 16, 2011.

2012–present: The Hunger Games films, Super Bowl performance, and further albums

Lenny Kravitz played the part of Katniss' creative stylist, Cinna, in the first two Hunger Games films, The Hunger Games released on March 23, 2012 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire released on November 22, 2013.

In 2014 Lenny Kravitz released his tenth studio album Strut on his own Roxie Records via Kobalt Label Services. In 2015, Kravitz performed alongside Katy Perry at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show.

In 2015, during a guitar solo at a concert in Stockholm, Kravitz squatted down, causing his leather pants to rip. Because Kravitz was not wearing underpants, his genitals were briefly exposed to the audience. He did not face any legal repercussions from the incident.

As a designer, Kravitz launched a furniture collection in partnership with CB2 in 2015.

In 2015 he became a furniture designer for the first time ever launching a collection of furniture products marketed under the label CB2 x Kravitz design through retailer CB2. The collection was apparently inspired by the 70s and by the work of Italian designer Gabriella Crespi.

In 2016 he guest starred on the FX Television show Better Things playing the part of Mel Trueblood. In 2017 he earned a spot on the Fox Television series Star playing the part of Roland Crane in his first recurring television role.

The Raise Vibration world tour (2018) coincided with the release of his 11th studio album.

In April 2018, Kravitz signed with BMG Rights Management for a new worldwide publishing music deal to go with his new album Raise Vibration, released in September 2018. BMG had acquired Kravitz's music publishing rights in 2013, as part of Virgin Music Publishing.

In the same Rolling Stone interview it was confirmed that Kravitz had already begun work on a follow-up to Raise Vibration, as well as a possible soundtrack to a future film project.

In July 2022, Kravitz was named one of 2022's Most Beautiful Vegan Celebrities by PETA.

In 2023, Kravitz wrote and performed a song for the film Rustin entitled "Road to Freedom". The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In December 2023, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced shortlists for the 96th Oscars ceremony, and "Road to Freedom" was included in the Best Original Song category. Kravitz won Music Icon of the Year at the 49th People's Choice Awards.

In 2024, Kravitz was among several nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On May 16, 2024, he was chosen as the main event of the 2024 UEFA Champions League final, between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.

Photography and collaboration with Leica
Kravitz has partnered with Leica on two occasions. In 2015 a Leica M-P edition titled "The Correspondent", and again in 2019 with a Monochrom edition titled "Drifter." The 2019 collaboration also included a gallery of his own work, which was unveiled on May 24, 2019, and was on display until August 25 of 2019 in the Leica Gallery in Wetzlar Germany.

Kravitz Design
Kravitz Design Inc. is a New York City–based company founded by Kravitz in 2003. Kravitz Design focuses on commercial, residential and product creative direction and design.

Among its clients are the Morgans Hotel Group, Swarovski Crystal, and The Setai Group. Swarovski selected Kravitz Design Inc. in 2005 and 2006 to participate in their Crystal Palace Collection. Kravitz Design also envisioned a luxury recording studio for The Setai Resort and Residences in Miami Beach, New York, Paris, and New Orleans. In 2010, Kravitz Design collaborated with Flavor Paper wallpaper on the Tropicalismo Collection, a line inspired by Brazil's Tropicalia art movement of the late 1960s.

Personal life

In 1985, Kravitz met Cosby Show actress Lisa Bonet backstage at a New Edition concert in California. They were close friends for two years before beginning a relationship. In 1987 Kravitz moved back to New York City, where The Cosby Show was produced, to move in with Bonet. They eloped in Las Vegas on November 16, 1987, her 20th birthday. Kravitz, still known as Romeo Blue at the time, suddenly found himself in the headlines of tabloids. He and Bonet had a daughter, Zoë Isabella Kravitz, on December 1, 1988, who became an actress, singer and model. Kravitz and Bonet separated in 1991. They divorced amicably in 1993.

Kravitz dated French singer and model Vanessa Paradis from 1991 to 1996. He began dating Brazilian model Adriana Lima in 2001, and they lived together before becoming engaged in 2002. The engagement was called off in August 2003. Lima was featured in the music video for Kravitz's 2002 single "Yesterday Is Gone (My Dear Kay)". He then briefly dated and was engaged to Australian actress Nicole Kidman from 2003 to 2004.

Kravitz identifies himself as a Christian in a religious sense "through choice" but states, "I'm also a Jew. It's all the same to me." During another interview, he stated, "I'm half Jewish, I'm half black, I look in-between." He also notes that spirituality "has been an important issue in [his] growth", citing his upbringing by parents of different faiths. Such spirituality is prominently featured in many of his songs, such as the lyrics on his album Baptism, and a tattoo on his back which is inscribed with "My Heart Belongs to Jesus Christ". In 2011, he stated that his 2005 religious commitment to remain celibate until remarriage was unchanged. In a 2014 interview with Men's Health, however, he reconsidered his previous stance.

He currently owns a house in Paris, a farm compound in Brazil, and a trailer with the surrounding land in the Bahamas.

He follows veganism with a primarily raw vegan diet, and uses his land in Brazil and the Bahamas to grow his own food. PETA named Kravitz one of the Most Beautiful Vegan Celebrities of 2022, along with singer/songwriter Anitta.

He is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism, with whom he worked on a radio PSA.

Discography
Studio albums
 * Let Love Rule (1989)
 * Mama Said (1991)
 * Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)
 * Circus (1995)
 * 5 (1998)
 * Lenny (2001)
 * Baptism (2004)
 * It Is Time for a Love Revolution (2008)
 * Black and White America (2011)
 * Strut (2014)
 * Raise Vibration (2018)
 * Blue Electric Light (2024)

Tours

 * Let Love Rule Tour (1990)
 * There Is Only One Truth Tour (1991)
 * Universal Love Tour (1993)
 * Are You Gonna Go My Way Tour (1994) (opening for The Rolling Stones)
 * Circus Tour (1995–96)
 * The Freedom Tour (1998–99)
 * Lenny Tour (2002)
 * The Baptism Tour (2004)
 * Celebration Tour (2005)
 * Electric Church Tour: One Night Only (2005)
 * Get on the Bus Mini-Tour (2008)
 * Love Revolution Tour (2008)
 * LLR 20(09) Tour (2009)
 * Black and White Tour (2011)
 * Strut Tour (2014–15)
 * Raise Vibration Tour (2018–19)
 * Here to Love Tour (2020)
 * Blue Electric Light Tour (2024)

Billboard Music Awards

 * rowspan=3|1993
 * "Are You Gonna Go My Way"
 * Top Album Rock Track
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=4|Himself
 * Top Album Rock Tracks Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|Top Modern Rock Tracks Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=3|1999
 * Nominated
 * Top Hot 100 Artist - Male
 * Nominated
 * "Fly Away"
 * Top Mainstream Rock Track
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2001
 * rowspan=2|Himself
 * Top Male Artist
 * Nominated
 * Top Billboard 200 Artist - Male
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2001
 * rowspan=2|Himself
 * Top Male Artist
 * Nominated
 * Top Billboard 200 Artist - Male
 * Nominated
 * Top Billboard 200 Artist - Male
 * Nominated

Žebřík Music Awards
!Ref.
 * rowspan=5|1998
 * rowspan=3|Himself
 * Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=15|
 * Best International Instrumentalist
 * Nominated
 * Best International Personality
 * Nominated
 * 5
 * Best International Album
 * Nominated
 * "I Belong to You"
 * Best International Song
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|1999
 * rowspan=4|Himself
 * Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|Best International Instrumentalist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=4|2000
 * Nominated
 * Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|"Again"
 * Best International Song
 * Nominated
 * Best International Video
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=3|2001
 * Lenny
 * Best International Album
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=6|Himself
 * Best International Personality
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=5|Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * 2002
 * Nominated
 * 2004
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=5|
 * 2007
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2008
 * Won
 * "I'll Be Waiting"
 * Best International Song
 * Nominated
 * 2009
 * rowspan=2|Himself
 * rowspan=2|Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * 2011
 * Nominated
 * 2004
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=5|
 * 2007
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2008
 * Won
 * "I'll Be Waiting"
 * Best International Song
 * Nominated
 * 2009
 * rowspan=2|Himself
 * rowspan=2|Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * 2011
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|Best International Male
 * Nominated
 * 2011
 * Nominated
 * Nominated

General sources

 * di Martino, Dave. Singer-songwriters: Pop music's performer-composers, from A to Zevon, Billboard Books, 1994.
 * Gregory, Hugh. 1000 Great Guitarists: Rock, Jazz, Country, Funk ..., Balafon Books, 1994.
 * la Blanc, Michael (ed.). Contemporary musicians, Vol. 5, Gale Research, 1991.
 * Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness Publishing, 1992.
 * Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 5th edition, Watson-Guptill Publications, 1992.

title: Lenny Kravitz


text:
Valentin Conrart

Valentin Conrart (1603 – 23 September 1675) was a French author, and as a founder of the Académie française, the first occupant of seat 2.

Biography
He was born in Paris of Calvinist parents, and was educated for business. However, after his father's death in 1620, he began to move in literary circles, and soon acquired a reputation, though he wrote nothing for many years. He was made councillor and secretary to the king; and in 1629 his house became the resort of a group who met to talk over literary subjects, and to read and mutually criticize their works.

Cardinal Richelieu offered the society his protection, and in this way (1635) the Académie française was created. Its first meetings were held in Conrart's house. He was unanimously elected secretary, and discharged the duties of his post for forty-three years, till his death.

Works
The most important of Conrart's written works is his Mémoires sur l'histoire de son temps published by Louis Monmerqué in 1825.

title: Valentin Conrart


text:
Jean Chapelain

Jean Chapelain (4 December 1595 – 22 February 1674) was a French poet and critic during the Grand Siècle, best known for his role as an organizer and founding member of the Académie française. Chapelain acquired considerable prestige as a literary critic, but his own major work, an epic poem about Joan of Arc called "La Pucelle," (1656) was lampooned by his contemporary Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux.

Background
Chapelain was born in Paris. His father wanted him to become a notary, but his mother, who had known Pierre de Ronsard, had decided otherwise.

Early education
At an early age Chapelain began to qualify himself for literature, learning, under Nicolas Bourbon, Greek and Latin, and teaching himself Italian and Spanish.

Tutor
Having finished his studies, Chapelain taught Spanish to a young nobleman for a short time, before being appointed tutor to the two sons of Sébastien Le Hardy, lord of la Trousse, grand-prévôt de France, Gouye de Longuemarre, ""Eclaircissemens sur un officier de la maison de nos rois, appelé roi des ribauds", in Constant Leber, ed. Collection des meilleurs dissertations, notices et traités particuliers relatifs à l'histoire de France, part V (1838:234) notes Nicolas Hardi, sieur de la Trousse, grand-prévôt de France; his son Sébastien inherited in 1595; "a M. de la Trousse, grand provost of France". Attached for the next 17 years to this family and given the responsibility of administering their fortune, he seems to have published nothing then but to have acquired a great reputation for potential.

Author
His first published work was a preface for the Adone of Giambattista Marino, who printed and published that notorious poem at Paris. It was followed by a translation of Mateo Alemán's novel, Guzmán de Alfarache and by four extremely indifferent odes, one of them addressed to Cardinal Richelieu.

In a conversation with Richelieu in about 1632, reported by the abbé d'Olivet, Chapelain maintained the importance of maintaining the unities of time, place and action, and it is explicitly stated that the doctrine was new to the cardinal and to the poets who were in his pay. Rewarded with a pension of a thousand crowns and from the first an active member of the newly constituted Academy, Chapelain drew up the plan of the grammar and dictionary, the compilation of which was to be a principal function of the young institution, and at Richelieu's command drew up the Sentiments de l’Académie sur le Cid.

The credit of introducing the law of the dramatic unities into French literature has been claimed for many writers, and especially for the Abbé d'Aubignac, whose Pratique du théâtre appeared in 1657. Aristotle's theory had of course been enunciated in the Art poétique of Julius Caesar Scaliger in 1561, and subsequently by other writers, but undoubtedly it was the action of Chapelain that transferred it from the region of theory to that of actual practice. In 1656 he published, in a magnificent format, the first twelve cantos of his celebrated epic on Joan of Arc, La Pucelle, on which he had been working for twenty years. Six editions of the poem were disposed of in eighteen months. This was the end of the poetic reputation of Chapelain, "the legist of Parnassus." Later the slashing satire of Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux resulted in Chapelain ("Le plus grand poète Français qu'ait jamais été et du plus solide jugement," as he is called in Colbert's list) taking his place among the failures of modern art.

Critic
Chapelain's reputation as a critic survived, and in 1663 he was employed by Colbert to draw up an account of contemporary men of letters, destined to guide the king in his distribution of pensions. In this pamphlet, as in his letters, he shows to far greater advantage than in his unfortunate epic. His prose is incomparably better than his verse; his criticisms are remarkable for their justice and generosity; his erudition and kindliness are well-attested; the royal attention was directed alike towards the author's firmest friends and bitterest enemies. To him the young Jean Racine was indebted not only for advice, but also for the pension of six hundred livres which was so useful to him. The catholicity of Chapelain's taste is shown by his De la lecture des vieux romans (printed 1870), in which he praises the chanson de geste, forgotten by his generation.

Chapelain refused many honours, and his disinterestedness makes it necessary to receive with caution the stories of Gilles Ménage and Tallemant des Réaux, who claimed that he became a miser, and that a considerable fortune was found hoarded in his apartments when he died.

title: Jean Chapelain


text:
Mateo Alemán

 * Aleman is sometimes used to refer to German.

Mateo Alemán y del Nero (Seville, September 1547 – Mexico City, 1614 ) was a Spanish novelist and writer.

Biography
Alemán was born in Seville, Andalucía, where he graduated from the University in 1564. He later studied at Salamanca and Alcalá, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he was arrested on suspicion of malversation, but was speedily released. According to some authors, he was descended from Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism after 1492, and one of his forebears had been burned by the Inquisition for secretly continuing to practice Judaism. In 1599, he published the first part of Guzmán de Alfarache, a celebrated picaresque novel which passed through no less than sixteen editions in five years; a spurious sequel was issued in 1602, but the authentic continuation did not appear until 1604.

In 1571, Alemán married, unhappily, Catalina de Espinosa, and was constantly in money difficulties, being imprisoned for debt at Seville at the end of 1602.

In 1608, Alemán emigrated to America, and is said to have carried on business as a printer in Mexico, where he is assumed to have remained for the rest of his life. His Ortografía castellana (1609), published in Mexico, contains ingenious and practical proposals for the reform of Spanish spelling. Nothing is recorded of Alemán after 1609, but it is sometimes asserted that he was still living in 1617.

Works
In addition to the works already mentioned, Alemán is the author of a life (1604) of St. Anthony of Padua, and versions of two odes of Horace bear witness to his taste and metrical accomplishment. His most famous work, however, is Guzmán de Alfarache, which was translated into French in 1600, into Italian in 1606, into German in 1615, into English in 1622 by James Mabbe, and into Latin in 1623.

title: Mateo Alemán


text:
Xylorimba

The xylorimba (sometimes referred to as xylo-marimba or marimba-xylophone) is a pitched percussion instrument similar to an extended-range xylophone with a range identical to some 5-octave celestas or 5-octave marimbas, though typically an octave higher than the latter. Despite its name, it is not a combination of a xylophone and a marimba; its name has been a source of confusion, as many composers have called for a 'xylorimba', including Alban Berg, Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen, but for parts requiring only a four-octave xylophone. However, Pierre Boulez wrote for two five-octave xylorimbas in Pli selon pli.

Like the xylophone and marimba, the xylorimba consists of a series of wooden bars laid out like a piano keyboard "with a compass sufficiently large to embrace the low-sounding bars of the marimba and the highest-sounding bars of the xylophone." The lower notes of the xylorimba are described as sounding closer to a xylophone than a marimba, on account of its bars being both thicker and narrower, and due to the different size and shape of its resonators; the size and shape of the bars differs to emphasize different overtones.

The xylorimba experienced its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 30s, particularly within vaudeville theatre.

Compositions including xylorimba
(4, 4.5, and 5-octave instruments):
 * Alban Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra (1914–15, revised 1929)
 * Erik Bergman: Hathor Suite for soprano, baritone, mixed chorus and ensemble (cor anglais, flute, harp and percussion) (1971)
 * William Bolcom: Dream Music No. 2 for four players (1982)
 * Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître for alto and six instruments (1953–55, revised 1957)
 * Pierre Boulez: Pli selon pli for soprano and orchestra (1957–62)
 * HK Gruber: Piano Concerto (2016; world premiere)
 * Helmut Lachenmann: Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung)) for three ad hoc players and 14 players (1982/84)
 * Helmut Lachenmann: Souvenir for 41 instruments (1959)
 * Helmut Lachenmann: Accanto for solo clarinet and orchestra (1975–76)
 * Olivier Messiaen: Couleurs de la Cité Céleste for piano and chamber orchestra (1963)
 * Olivier Messiaen: La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ for mixed choir, seven solo instruments and large orchestra (1965–69)
 * Olivier Messiaen: Des Canyons aux étoiles... for piano solo, horn, xylorimba, glockenspiel and orchestra (1971–74)
 * Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise opera (1975–83)
 * Olivier Messiaen: Éclairs sur l'au-delà… for large orchestra (1988–92)
 * Krzysztof Penderecki: Strophen for soprano, voce recitante, and 10 instruments (1959)
 * Carlos Stella: quartet: pastiches, parodies and variations on two themes by stravinsky and berio for piccolo clarinet, trombone, xylorimba and vibraphone (1995)
 * Igor Stravinsky: The Flood: A musical play TV opera (1962)
 * Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gruppen for three orchestras (1955–57) (in the list of instruments for Orchestra III, but the score itself calls for a marimbaphone, as in Orchestra I)
 * Iannis Xenakis: Pléïades for percussion sextet (1978)

title: Xylorimba


text:
Wikipedia:Traffic/2002 traffic data

This is an archive of the data for Traffic for the year 2002. This data was created by using GNU tools and shell scripts to analyse server logs: some log file data was not available for analysis, so there is a gap in the middle of this data.

The values are the total hits (pages, graphics, page edits, etc.) for each 24-hour period according to the server time, which is set to UTC.

2002 Aug 25, 132171 2002 Aug 26, 154806 2002 Aug 27, 222093 2002 Aug 28, 226924 2002 Aug 29, 267607 2002 Aug 30, 166953 2002 Aug 31, 166977 2002 Sep 1, 190552 2002 Sep 2, 206743 2002 Sep 3, 214398 2002 Sep 4, 224615 2002 Sep 5, 173638 2002 Sep 6, 150336 2002 Sep 7, 164840 2002 Sep 8, 190718 2002 Sep 9, 270119 2002 Sep 10, 285444 2002 Sep 11, 260034 2002 Sep 12, 310639 2002 Sep 13, 222975 2002 Sep 14, 159646 2002 Sep 15, 171796 2002 Sep 16, 225129 2002 Sep 17, 236184 2002 Sep 18, 236203 2002 Sep 19, 230573 2002 Sep 20, 253321 2002 Sep 21, 205079 2002 Sep 22, 194714 2002 Sep 23, 246764 2002 Sep 24, 239631 2002 Sep 25, 246979 2002 Sep 26, 234145 2002 Sep 27, 272294 2002 Sep 28, 154471

2002 Oct 23, 153431 2002 Oct 24, 246595 2002 Oct 25, 287936 2002 Oct 26, 151098 2002 Oct 27, 174213 2002 Oct 28, 241510 2002 Oct 29, 290663 2002 Oct 30, 244739 2002 Oct 31, 237261 2002 Nov 01, 252646 2002 Nov 02, 177848 2002 Nov 03, 213332 2002 Nov 04, 261953 2002 Nov 05, 259868 2002 Nov 06, 233607 2002 Nov 07, 302956 2002 Nov 08, 242550 2002 Nov 09, 172080 2002 Nov 10, 210393 2002 Nov 11, 239625 2002 Nov 12, 295723 2002 Nov 13, 281656 2002 Nov 14, 261408 2002 Nov 15, 237670 2002 Nov 16, 164747 2002 Nov 17, 187352 2002 Nov 18, 251086 2002 Nov 19, 265288 2002 Nov 20, 246336 2002 Nov 21, 232333 2002 Nov 22, 209357 2002 Nov 23, 156762 2002 Nov 24, 204843 2002 Nov 25, 245987 2002 Nov 26, 263838 2002 Nov 27, 242330 2002 Nov 28, 181801 2002 Nov 29, 183693 2002 Nov 30, 181270 2002 Dec 01, 257642 2002 Dec 02, 233253 2002 Dec 03, 278224 2002 Dec 04, 317513 2002 Dec 05, 319265 2002 Dec 06, 313785 2002 Dec 07, 202223 2002 Dec 08, 241853 2002 Dec 09, 313553 2002 Dec 10, 322631 2002 Dec 11, 304015 2002 Dec 12, 238493 2002 Dec 13, 270600 2002 Dec 14, 192532 2002 Dec 15, 243627 2002 Dec 16, 273836 2002 Dec 17, 305319 2002 Dec 18, 304498 2002 Dec 19, 294913 2002 Dec 20, 212429 2002 Dec 21, 140055 2002 Dec 22, 148617 2002 Dec 23, 183585 2002 Dec 24, 187106 2002 Dec 25, 157897 2002 Dec 26, 253943 2002 Dec 27, 179261 2002 Dec 28, 170704 2002 Dec 29, 176450 2002 Dec 30, 201314 2002 Dec 31, 175804

title: Wikipedia:Traffic/2002 traffic data