text:
Alternative metal

Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by heavily downtuned, mid-paced guitar riffs, a mixture of accessible melodic vocals and harsh vocals and sometimes sounds that are unconventional within other heavy metal styles. The term has been in use since the 1980s, although it came into prominence in the 1990s.

Other genres considered part of the alternative metal movement included rap metal and funk metal, both of which influenced another prominent subgenre, nu metal. Nu metal expands the alternative metal sound, combining its vocal stylings and downtuned riffs with elements of other genres, such as hip hop, funk, thrash metal, hardcore punk and industrial metal.

Alternative metal began in the 1980s with bands like Faith No More, Living Colour, Soundgarden, and Jane's Addiction. The genre achieved success in the 1990s with the popularity of bands like Helmet, Tool, and Alice in Chains. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nu metal achieved mainstream popularity with the mainstream success of bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, P.O.D., Papa Roach, Disturbed, Godsmack, System of a Down, Linkin Park, Slipknot, and Staind. After 2003, nu metal's popularity began to decline, with bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and P.O.D. experiencing a decline in album sales and many nu metal bands moving on to other genres. Nonetheless, alternative metal's popularity continued in the mid–late 2000s with the continued success of bands like Disturbed, Godsmack and System of a Down and the mainstream success of emerging bands like Evanescence, Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin.

Characteristics

The genre is generally considered a fusion between alternative rock and heavy metal, although AllMusic states "alt-metal is a far-reaching term that has been used to describe everyone from Hammerlock to Neurosis to Ministry to Limp Bizkit". They also remarked that alternative metal was originally "a style united by its nonconformist sensibility rather than any immediately classifiable sound."

One of the main characteristics of alternative metal and its subgenres are heavily downtuned, mid-paced "chug"-like guitar riffs. However, funk metal bands often use a more conventional riffing style influenced by 1980s thrash metal. Alternative metal features clean and melodic vocals, influenced by those of alternative rock, in contrast to other heavy metal subgenres. Later bands frequently incorporated vocal styles that alternated between clean singing, growls and screaming. Examples include alternative metal bands associated with the nu metal movement, such as Korn and Deftones, who have been described as having "bipolar vocals".

Jonathan Gold of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1990 "Just as rock has an alternative, [left] wing-bands like the Replacements and Dinosaur Jr.-so does metal. Alternative metal is alternative music that rocks. And alternative metal these days can reach 10 times the audience of other alternative rock. Jane's Addiction plays an intense brand of '70s-influenced arty metal; so does Soundgarden. In fact, the arty meanderings of Sabbath and Zeppelin themselves would be considered alternative metal." Houston Press has described the genre as being a "compromise for people for whom Nirvana was not heavy enough but Metallica was too heavy."

The first wave of alternative metal bands emerged from many backgrounds, including hardcore punk (Bad Brains, Rollins Band, Life of Agony, Corrosion of Conformity), noise rock (Helmet, the Jesus Lizard, Today Is the Day), Seattle's grunge scene (Alice in Chains, Soundgarden), stoner rock (Clutch, Kyuss), sludge metal (Fudge Tunnel, Melvins), gothic metal (Type O Negative), groove metal (Pantera, White Zombie) and industrial (Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry). These bands never formed a distinct movement or scene; rather they were bound by their incorporation of traditional metal influences and openness to experimentation. Jane's Addiction borrowed from art rock and progressive rock, Quicksand blended post-hardcore and Living Colour injected funk into their sound, for example, while Primus were influenced by progressive rock, thrash metal and funk and Faith No More mixed progressive rock, R&B, funk and hip hop. Fudge Tunnel's style of alternative metal included influences from both sludge metal and noise rock.

Origins (1980s)
The origins of the genre can be traced back to funk rock music of the early to mid-1980s, when alternative bands like Fishbone, Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers started mixing heavy metal with funk, creating the alternative metal subgenre funk metal. Other early bands in the genre also came from hardcore punk backgrounds. Bands such as Faith No More, Jane's Addiction and Soundgarden are recognized as some of the earliest alternative metal acts, with all three of these bands emerging around the same time, and setting the template for the genre by mixing heavy metal music with a variety of different genres in the mid to late 1980s. During the 1980s, alternative metal appealed mainly to alternative rock fans, since virtually all 1980s alt-metal bands had their roots in the American independent rock scene. Living Colour was another alternative metal band that combined the genre with funk metal. Faith No More and Living Colour both achieved brief mainstream success with their albums The Real Thing (1989) and Vivid (1988), which went platinum and double platinum, respectively.

Expansion and mainstream popularity (early–mid 1990s)

The emergence of grunge as a popular style of rock music in the early 1990s helped make alternative metal more acceptable to a mainstream audience, with alternative metal soon becoming the most popular metal style of the 1990s. Several bands associated with the genre denied their status as metal bands. Helmet drummer John Stanier said "We fell into the whole metal thing by accident, we always hated it when people mentioned metal in conjunction with us." Helmet's Meantime (1992) album became one of the most influential heavy metal albums of the 1990s. Saby Reyes-Kulkarni of Pitchfork Media stated "bands like Faith No More, Soundgarden, Primus, Helmet, the Rollins Band, and dozens more were initially marketed as quasi-metal acts. This was only possible in a climate where record labels, journalists, and college radio DJs understood that the metal audience could embrace new, albeit arty variations on the form." The alternative music festival Lollapalooza conceived by Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell, helped bands associated with the movement such as Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Primus, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains gain exposure. The progressive rock-influenced band Tool became a leading band in the alternative metal genre with the release of their 1993 debut album Undertow; Tool's popularity in the mid-'90s helped kick off an era of bands with alt-metal tendencies also classified in other genres like industrial (Nine Inch Nails) and rap rock (Rage Against the Machine). Spin stated in August 1998 that "It was Helmet that spawned the idea of alternative metal with the punk crutch of 1992's Meantime [and] bands such as Rage Against the Machine took the concept a crucial step further, integrating hip hop to connect with skate rat kids raised on Metallica and Run D.M.C." Many established 1980s metal bands released albums in the 1990s that were described as alternative metal, including Anthrax, Metallica and Mötley Crüe. Marilyn Manson achieved mainstream success in the mid-late 1990s starting with his 1996 album Antichrist Superstar, which went platinum in the United States. Bands like Life of Agony combined alternative metal with hardcore punk influences. Life of Agony's debut album River Runs Red combined alternative metal with influences of hardcore punk, with lyrics about depression and suicide.

Emergence of nu metal and commercial peak (late 1990s – early 2000s)

In the latter part of the 1990s, a second, more aggressive wave of alternative metal emerged; dubbed nu metal, it often relied on hardcore punk, groove/thrash metal, industrial and hip hop influences, as opposed to the influences of the first wave of alternative metal bands, with this style subsequently becoming more popular than regular alternative metal. It resulted in a more standardized sound among alternative metal bands, in contrast to the more eccentric and unclassifiable early alternative metal bands. Korn, a band formed in 1993, released their self-titled debut the following year, which is widely considered to be the first nu metal release. MTV stated that Korn "arrived in 1993 into the burgeoning alternative metal scene, which would morph into nü-metal the way college rock became alternative rock." Stereogum similarly claimed that nu metal was a "weird outgrowth of the Lollapalooza-era alt-metal scene". During the late 1990s and early 2000s, nu metal was prevalent in the mainstream, with bands such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Slipknot and Staind all attaining success. AllMusic has compared nu and alternative metal's commercial success during this period to the rise of the glam metal phenomenon in the 1980s, stating that it is "ironic, given alternative metal's vehement rejection of hair metal's attitude." Some nu metal bands managed to push musical boundaries while still remaining commercially viable, such as Mudvayne (who combined progressive elements) and Deftones, who have incorporated post-hardcore and dream pop influences.

Korn's 1998 album Follow the Leader and 1999 album Issues sold 3.6 million and 3.2 million copies in the United States, respectively, and the band's 2002 album Untouchables sold 1.4 million. Korn's eponymous debut (1994) and second album Life is Peachy (1996) sold 2.1 million and 1.8 million copies, respectively. Limp Bizkit's Significant Other (1999) and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000) sold over seven million and six million, respectively. Korn and Limp Bizkit were frequently featured on MTV, often hitting number 1 and having multiple retired videos on the popular MTV show Total Request Live, competing on the show with boy bands like N'Sync and Backstreet Boys. Papa Roach's album Infest (2000) went triple platinum and was supported by the hit single "Last Resort". Bands like P.O.D. and Linkin Park also had widespread popularity, with Linkin Park's 2000 album Hybrid Theory being certified diamond in the United States, bringing nu metal to its peak popularity. Bands like Staind, Godsmack, Disturbed and System of a Down also achieved multi-platinum mainstream success with the albums Break the Cycle (2001), Godsmack (1998), The Sickness (2000) and Toxicity (2001), respectively.

Joel McIver believes that the band Tool is important to the development of this genre; he wrote in his book Unleashed: The Story of Tool, "By 1996 and '97 the wave of alternative metal spearheaded by Tool in the wake of grunge was beginning to evolve into nu-metal". However, Tool's vocalist Maynard James Keenan was quick to separate himself from this movement saying "I'm sick of that whole attitude. The one that puts Tool in with [nu] metal bands. The press... can't seem to distinguish between alternative and metal." Other alternative metal bands considered influential to the nu metal genre such as Helmet have also tried to distance themselves from the movement.

Decline in nu metal and continuity in popularity of alternative metal (2003–2009)
In 2004, nu metal's popularity was declining, with bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and P.O.D. having a decline in album sales. Instead, post-grunge bands like Nickelback were selling the most records and being promoted the most on radio. Additionally, many nu metal bands began to move away from the nu metal genre and moved on to other genres. Nonetheless, the popularity of alternative metal persisted throughout the 2000s with the success of several bands. Evanescence's 2003 album Fallen went 7× platinum in the United States. Godsmack, Disturbed and System of a Down also continued in popularity with number 1 albums. Bands like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin also broke into the mainstream, with Three Days Grace achieving multiple hit singles, including the song "Animal I Have Become".

Mainstream decline (2010s)
In 2016, Jason Heller of Vice wrote "The term alternative metal still pops up from time to time, but it’s no more relevant or meaningful today than alternative rock. Instead, it’s a relic. But the brief, nebulous era of alternative metal in the late 80s and early 90s remains a snapshot of a vibrant time when a brash new generation of heavy-leaning bands threw everything against the wall to see what stuck."

title: Alternative metal


text:
Northern saw-whet owl

The northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) is a species of small owl in the family Strigidae. The species is native to North America. Saw-whet owls of the genus Aegolius are some of the smallest owl species in North America. They can be found in dense thickets, often at eye level, although they can also be found some 20 ft up. Saw-whets are often in danger of being preyed upon by larger birds of prey. The northern saw-whet owl is a migratory bird without any strict pattern.

Taxonomy
The northern saw-whet owl was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other owls in the genus Strix and coined the binomial name Strix acadicus. Gmelin based his description on the "Acadian owl" from Nova Scotia that had been described and illustrated in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. The northern saw-whet owl is now one of five species placed in the genus Aegolius that was introduced in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup. The genus name is Latin for a screech owl, the word came from the Ancient Greek aigōlios meaning "a bird of ill omen". The specific epithet acadicus is from "Acadia", the name of a former French colony in Nova Scotia.

Two subspecies are recognised:
 * A. a. acadicus (Gmelin, JF, 1788) – south Alaska, Canada, north, southwest USA and north Mexico
 * A. a. brooksi (Fleming, JH, 1916) – Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) (off British Columbia, Canada)

Description
The scientific description of one of the subspecies of this owl is attributed to the Rev. John Henry Keen, a missionary in Canada in 1896. Adults are 17 - 22 cm long with a 42 - 56.3 cm wingspan. They can weigh from 54 to 151 g with an average of around 80 g, making them one of the smallest owls in North America. They are similar in size to the American robin. Northern saw-whet owls do not exhibit sexual dimorphism through their plumage and were often sexed by size dimorphism, where females are larger than males. Females on average weigh 100 g and males on average weigh 75 g. Northern saw-whet owls have porphyrin pigments in their flight feathers. When exposed to a UV light, feathers on the ventral side of the wing fluoresce a neon pink. This is used in order to estimate molt and age in adults.

The northern saw-whet owl has a round, light, white face with brown and cream streaks; they also have a dark beak and yellow eyes. Juveniles have a dark brown head and wings, and a tawny rust-colored breast and belly. There is also a distinct white, Y-shaped coloration between their eyes. The juveniles can often be confused with the juvenile Boreal owls. Northern saw-whet owls resemble the short-eared owl, because they also lack ear tufts, but are much smaller. The underparts are pale with dark shaded areas; the upper parts are brown or reddish with white spots. They are quite common, but hard to spot.

There are two subspecies of the northern saw-whet owl: the Aegolius acadicus acadicus found all around North America and the non-migratory Aegolius acadicus brooksi endemic to the Haida Gwaii archipelago in British Columbia. A. a. brooksi is identified by a darker, buffier plumage and has been proposed as a separate species, the Haida Gwaii saw-whet owl. Isolated populations of northern saw-whet owls in the Allegheny Plateau and Southern Appalachian Mountains have been found to be morphologically different to mid-range owls and as genetically distinct as the subspecies A.a.brooksi in British Columbia.

Vocalisation
The northern saw-whet owl makes a repeated tooting whistle sound. Some say they sound like a saw being sharpened on a whetstone. They usually make these sounds to find a mate, so they can be heard more often April through June when they are looking for mates. Despite being more common in spring, they do vocalize year round. The advertising too-too-too call has been heard up to 300 meters away through forest. At least 11 different vocalizations have been reported for the northern saw-whet owl. These include the Advertising call, the Rapid call, Whine, Ksew call, Tssst call, Squeaks, Twittering call (similar to an American Woodcock), Guttural chuck, and begging calls of nestlings. Two additional calls only recorded in brooksi include the Transition Call and Alternate Whine. Non-vocal sounds such as bill snapping are used as a warning call by adults, juveniles and nestlings usually when approached up close or when in the hand.

Distribution and habitat
The bird's habitat is coniferous forests, sometimes mixed or deciduous woods, across North America. Most birds nest in coniferous type forests of the North but winter in mixed or deciduous woods. They also love riparian areas because of the abundance of prey there. They live in tree cavities and old nests made by other small raptors. Some are permanent residents, while others may migrate south in winter or move down from higher elevations. Their range covers most of North America south of the boreal forest, including southeastern and southcentral Alaska, southern Canada, most of the United States and the central mountains in Mexico.

Some have begun to move more southeast in Indiana and neighboring states. Buidin et al. did a study of how far north the northern saw-whet owls breed and they found that they can breed northward of 50° N, farther than ever recorded before. Their range is quite extensive and they can even breed in the far north where most birds migrate from to breed. They are an adaptive species that can do well in the cold.

There are two semi-isolated permanent populations in the eastern part of the United States. This first is a population along the West Virginia border in the Allegheny Plateau. The second population is in the higher elevations (>4000 ft) of the southern Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. Although there are abundant populations in the Northern and Western Regions of North America, in some counties of North Carolina, it is currently listed as a threatened species due to a decline in suitable habitat. This is due to loss of boreal forests from hemlock woolly adelgid, logging, and pollution.

Breeding
Northern saw-whet owls lay about four or six white-colored eggs in natural tree cavities or woodpecker holes. Males will often sing from a nest site and cache food in nest sites in order to attract a female. The father does the hunting while the mother watches and sits on her eggs. Females can have more than one clutch of eggs each breeding season with different males. Once the offspring in the first nest have developed their feathers the mother will leave the father to care for them and go find another male to reproduce with. This type of mating is sequential polyandry. They compete with boreal owls, starlings and squirrels for nest cavities and their nests may be destroyed or the nestlings eaten by those creatures as well as nest predators such as martens and corvids. Saw-whet owls of all ages may be predated by any larger species of hawks or owls, of which there are at least a dozen that overlap in range including Accipiter hawks, which share with the saw-whet owls a preference for wooded habitats with dense thickets or brush.

In 2014 nesting northern saw-whet owls were found in breeding nest boxes in the Southern Appalachian mountains. This is the most southeastern known breeding area in the United States.

Food and feeding
The northern saw-whet owl has vertically asymmetrical ears and different shapes of the ear openings. Because the sound reaches the ears at a different time and is of different intensity, the northern saw-whet owl can very precisely localize its prey. Such accurate sound localization allows it to hunt in complete darkness by hearing alone. A study by Beatini et al showed that the northern saw-whet owl had a possible frequency sensitivity of 0.7 to 8.6 kHz with the best sensitivity ranging from 1.6 to 7.1 kHz. This allows it to hunt in the dark purely by sound. The birds wait on a high perch at night and swoop down on prey. They mainly eat small organisms with a strong focus on small mammals in their diet. Swengel and Swengel (1992) reviewed ten studies that found northern saw-whet owls eating almost exclusively mammals (88% to 100%), with most of the mammals being rodents (85% to 99+%). Specifically in their Wisconsin study, the Swengels counted saw-whet owls as most often eating deer mice (Peromyscus; ~68% of captured prey), voles (Microtis pennsylvunicus and M. ochrogaster; ~16%), and shrews (~9%; Blarina brevicauda and Sorex cinereus). A similar study by Holt and Leroux (1996) in Montana found saw-whet owls eating more voles (60%) than other mammal species. Engel et al. (2015) also found in the saw-whet owl a strong preference for small mammals (89%), with 55% of prey being two species of voles.

Holt and Leroux compared the eating habits of northern saw-whet owls to northern pygmy owls and found that they prey on different animals for their main food source, with the saw-whet owl's diet 98% small mammals, while for pygmy owls over one-third of their prey was birds. Their study concluded that these owls could adapt depending on the prey and also with the other predators in the areas where they live. Engel et al. (2015) in Chain O'Lakes State Park, Illinois, during the winter of 1987–88, compared northern saw-whet owls to long-eared owls. Engel confirmed the saw-whet owl's strong preference for small mammals. Their diet appeared varied in the winter, and was less tied to one mammal than was the long-eared owl; at times, northern saw-whet owls hunted larger prey, such as the meadow vole (M. pennsylvanicus).

Other mammals preyed on occasionally include shrews, squirrels (largely chipmunks and red squirrels), various other mice species, flying squirrels, moles and bats. Also supplementing the diet are small birds, with passerines such as swallows, sparrows, kinglets and chickadees favored. However, larger birds, up to the size of rock dove (which are typically about 4 times as heavy as a saw-whet owl) can even be taken. On the Pacific coast they may also eat crustaceans, frogs and aquatic insects. Like many owls, these birds have excellent hearing and exceptional vision in low light.

Popular culture
An adult female northern saw-whet owl was found dehydrated and hungry within the wrapped branches of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree during its installation on November 16, 2020. The bird was discovered by workers who transported the spruce 170 mi from Oneonta, New York to New York City. The feathered stowaway, named Rockefeller (Rocky), endured the three-day road trip and generated much public interest and media coverage. She was taken to a wildlife center for a check-up and nursed to full strength before being released on the grounds of the wildlife center in Saugerties, New York. Rocky gained more fame when Frontier Airlines announced that her image will be featured on the aircraft tails in their fleet.

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

title: Northern saw-whet owl


text:
Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. He did his last performance with the San Francisco Symphony in January 2024 amid an ongoing battle with brain cancer.

Biography
Tilson Thomas was born in Los Angeles, California, to Ted and Roberta Thomas, a Broadway stage manager and a middle school history teacher, respectively. He is the grandson of noted Yiddish theater stars Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, who performed in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan. The family talent goes back to Tilson Thomas's great-grandfather, Pincus, an actor and playwright, and before that to a long line of cantors; his father, Theodor Herzl Tomashefsky (Ted Thomas), was also a poet and painter.

He was an only child and musical prodigy. Tilson Thomas studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting under Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California, where he graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music '67 and MM '76. As a student of Friedelind Wagner, Tilson Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.

Tilson Thomas lives in San Francisco with his husband and partner of over 40 years, Joshua Robison. The couple married on November 2, 2014. On August 6, 2021, Tilson Thomas disclosed publicly for the first time that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, called glioblastoma multiforme.

On January 9, 2022, Tilson Thomas returned to his hometown to conduct—for the first time since his cancer disclosure—the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Despite the small audience at Walt Disney Hall due to more than 43,000 newly-diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in L.A. County, Tilson Thomas was greeted warmly by the appreciative audience. He proceeded to lead an acclaimed concert of works by Gabriel Fauré, Tilson Thomas' own Meditations on Rilke—wistful reflections on life and death as the composer turned 75 in 2019—and to conclude, a stunning performance of Sergei Prokofiev's monumental 5th Symphony.

Career
Tilson Thomas has conducted a wide variety of music and is a particular champion of modern American works. He is also renowned for his interpretation of the works of Gustav Mahler; he has recorded all nine Mahler symphonies and other major orchestral works with the San Francisco Symphony. These recordings have been released on the high-resolution audio format Super Audio CD on the San Francisco Symphony's own recording label. Tilson Thomas is also known as a premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Steve Reich.

A sampling of Tilson Thomas's own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990), Shówa/Shoáh (1995, memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima), Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002) and Urban Legend (2002).

Tilson Thomas has also been devoted to music education. He leads a series of education programs titled Keeping Score which offers insight into the lives and works of great composers, and led a series of Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987. Most recently, Tilson Thomas has led two incarnations of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which brings young musicians from around the world together for a week of music making and learning.

Tilson Thomas currently serves as president of the Tomashefsky Project, a $2 million undertaking formed in 2017 that is intended to record and preserve his grandparents' theatrical achievements, and is on the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

Due to health concerns, Tilson Thomas announced on March 2, 2022, he would be stepping down as the Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and instead serve as the Artistic Director Laureate.

Boston, Buffalo, New York, and Los Angeles
From 1968 to 1994, Tilson Thomas was the Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival seven times. After winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, Tilson Thomas was named Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. That same year, he made his conducting debut with the orchestra, replacing an unwell William Steinberg mid-concert and thereby coming into international recognition at the age of 24. He stayed with the Boston Symphony as Principal Guest Conductor until 1974 and made several recordings with the orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. He was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1971 to 1979, and recorded for Columbia Records with the orchestra. Between 1971 and 1977, he also conducted the series of Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic as well as the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra based in Los Angeles. From 1981 to 1985, he was principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. During a 1985 performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl, a (police) helicopter flew over the venue, disrupting the concert. Tilson temporarily left the stage.

In 2007, he returned to the Hollywood Bowl leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic again in the Mahler Eighth, announcing jokingly, "Now where were we?"

New World and London
In 1987, Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, an orchestral academy for gifted young musicians whose stated mission is "to prepare highly-gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in orchestras and ensembles around the world." He played an instrumental role in the development of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach, which opened in 2011, and currently maintains a relationship with the organization as Artistic Director Laureate. (The two had personal history, with Gehry sometimes having baby-sat for Tilson Thomas back when both were growing up in Los Angeles. ) In March 2022, Tilson Thomas announced that he is to stand down as Artistic Director of the New World Symphony as of June 1, 2022.

From 1988 to 1995, Tilson Thomas was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), and recorded with them for such labels as Columbia (now Sony Classical), including the Symphony No. 3 of Mahler. From 1995, he held the title of principal guest conductor with the LSO, and became conductor laureate in 2016.

San Francisco
Tilson Thomas became the San Francisco Symphony's 11th Music Director in 1995. He originally made his debut with the orchestra in January 1974 conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 9. During his first season with the San Francisco Symphony, Tilson Thomas included a work by an American composer on nearly every one of his programs, including the first performances ever by the orchestra of music by Lou Harrison, and culminated with "An American Festival," a two-week focus on American music.

In June 2000, Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony presented a landmark 12-concert American Mavericks Festival, recognizing the innovative works of 20th century American composers. Additional season-ending festivals in Davies Symphony Hall have included explorations of the music of Wagner, Prokofiev, Mahler, Stravinsky, Beethoven and Weill, including semi-staged productions of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera-ballet Mlada, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

During his tenure, the orchestra began to issue recordings on its own SFS Media label.

In April 2005, he conducted the Carnegie Hall premiere of The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, partly as a tribute to his own grandparents. Other American orchestras have since performed this production, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New World Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. It has also been recorded for future broadcast on PBS.

Tilson Thomas collaborated with YouTube in 2009 to help create the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra whose members were selected from 30 countries based on more than 3,000 video auditions on YouTube. The Orchestra, as well as such soloists as Mason Bates, Measha Brueggergosman, Joshua Roman, Gil Shaham, Yuja Wang, and Jess Larsen, and participated in a classical music summit in New York City at the Juilliard School over three days. The event culminated in a live concert at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, April 15. The concert was later made available on YouTube. On March 20, 2011, Tilson Thomas also conducted the "YTSO2" (YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2) in Sydney.

In October 2017, the orchestra announced that Tilson Thomas would conclude his tenure as its music director at the close of the 2019–2020 season, and subsequently take the title of music director laureate.

Film and TV
His first television appearances were in the Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, airing from 1971 to 1977. He has also made regular appearances on PBS, with broadcasts featuring Tilson Thomas airing from 1972 through 2008. Eight episodes of WNET's Great Performances series have featured Tilson Thomas. He has also been featured on Japan's NHK and the BBC many times in the last three decades.

In 1976, Tilson Thomas appeared alongside Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in a prime-time special, Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals, a combined live action/animated broadcast of The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns.

In 2011, he hosted a concert stage show celebrating his grandparents and the music of American Yiddish theatre The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, which aired in 2012 on the PBS series "Great Performances."

Tilson Thomas hosted the Keeping Score television series, nine one-hour documentary-style episodes and eight live-concert programs, which began airing nationally on PBS stations in early November 2006. He and the San Francisco Symphony have examined the lives and music of Gustav Mahler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Charles Ives, Hector Berlioz, Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

 * Keeping Score discography
 * Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony – 2004
 * Beethoven's Eroica – 2006
 * Copland and the American Sound – 2006
 * Stravinsky's Rite of Spring – 2006
 * Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique – 2009
 * Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 – 2009
 * Ives' Holiday Symphony – 2009
 * Mahler: Origins and Legacy – 2011

Partial discography
Tilson Thomas has made more than 120 recordings, including works by Bach, Mahler, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Stravinsky as well as his pioneering work with the music of Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Steve Reich, John Cage, Ingolf Dahl, Morton Feldman, George Gershwin, John McLaughlin and Elvis Costello. He has recorded the complete orchestral works of Gustav Mahler with the San Francisco Symphony.

Orchestra

 * From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990) for narrator and orchestra
 * Shówa/Shoáh (1995)
 * Agnegram (1998)
 * Whitman Songs (1999) for vocal baritone and orchestra
 * Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002) for vocal soprano and orchestra
 * Urban Legend (2002) for contrabassoon and orchestra
 * Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind (2016) for mezzo-soprano, 2 female back-up singers, chamber orchestra, and bar band
 * Meditations on Rilke (2019) for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra

Chamber ensemble

 * Street Song for Symphonic Brass (1988) for 3 C trumpets, B-flat flugelhorn, 4 horns in F, 2 trombones, bass trombone, and tuba
 * Street Song for Brass Quintet (1988) for brass quintet
 * Five Songs (1988) for vocal baritone and piano
 * Grace (1993) for vocal soprano
 * Fame, from Poems of Emily Dickinson (2001)
 * Island Music (2003) for 2 solo marimba, 2 tutti marimba, and 2 percussion
 * Notturno (2005) for flute and string quintet + harp (also available for flute and piano)
 * Stay Together (2006) for electronics

Awards
Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium
 * 2021 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations on Rilke

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance
 * 2013 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Adams: Harmonielehre & Short Ride in a Fast Machine
 * 2006 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 7.
 * 2003 Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 6.
 * 2000 Conducting the Ragazzi, the Peninsula Boys Chorus, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, performing Stravinsky: The Firebird; The Rite of Spring; Perséphone.
 * 1997 Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, performing Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (scenes).

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album
 * 2010 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 8.
 * 2006 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 7.
 * 2004 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Kindertotenlieder.
 * 2000 Conducting the Ragazzi, the Peninsula Boy Chorus, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, performing Stravinsky: The Firebird; The Rite of Spring; Perséphone.

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
 * 2010 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 8.
 * 1976 Conducting the Cleveland Boys Choir and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, performing Orff: Carmina Burana.

Peabody Award
 * 2007 The MTT Files produced by Tom Voegeli and American Public Media.

National Medal of Arts
 * 2009 National Medal of Arts.

Kennedy Center Honor
 * 2019 Kennedy Center Honor was presented December 8, 2019.

title: Michael Tilson Thomas


text:
Talk:Adam's Bridge

Frequently asked questions; please read before posting
This question arises frequently on the talk page concerning Adam's Bridge.

 * Why is the article titled Adam's Bridge instead of Rama Setu, Rama's Bridge, Shree Ramsetu, Ram Setu or something else?

For the origins of different names, see the.

English Wikipedia's policy on article titles and guideline on naming conventions require that the title of an article be the modern name generally used in English-language reliable sources, such as (in this case) scholarly works on geography, history, and religion. Several discussions requesting the retitling of the article have been held since 2011, and the Wikipedia community's consensus has been that Adam's Bridge is the proper title in accordance with Wikipedia policy and guidelines. There is currently a WP:MORATORIUM on such discussions, which ends 12 May, 2024.

 * Why was my request or comment removed?

Because of the frequency of meritless and disruptive requests, any further requests to move the page or to change the name will be removed without consideration, unless the request complies with all relevant Wikipedia guidelines, including WP:Requested moves, WP:Common name, WP:Article titles, and WP:Reliable sources.

This section is permanently on this talk page and does not get archived. It is for mobile-device users for whom the the normal talk page header and FAQ are not shown.

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 29 January 2024
According to archeological survey of India,the ram satu i.e Adam's bridge is a man-made bridge built about 7000 years ago while ramayan i.e also 7000 years old.This proves the ram setu build or formed during ramanaya epic. I REQUEST WIKIPEDIA TO MAKE THIS CHANGE,THIS A SENSITIVE TOPIC. Avi4rag (talk) 04:33, 29 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Unsourced, and more than a bit dubious that this is man-made. Meters (talk) 05:32, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Editwar at Ram Setu (film)
Your input is welcome at Talk:Ram_Setu_(film). Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 19:13, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Adam's Bridge


text:
Microsoft Comic Chat

Microsoft Comic Chat (later Microsoft Chat) is a graphical IRC client created by Microsoft, first released with Internet Explorer 3.0 in 1996. Comic Chat was developed by Microsoft Researcher David Kurlander, with Microsoft Research's Virtual Worlds Group and later a group he managed in Microsoft's Internet Division.

Overview
Comic Chat's main feature, which set it apart from other IRC clients, is that it enabled comic avatars to represent a user; this character could express a specified emotion, possibly making IRC chatting a more emotive and expressive experience. All of the comic characters and backgrounds were initially created by comic artist Jim Woodring. Later, tools became available that allowed user-created characters and backgrounds.

Comic Chat started out as a research project, and a paper describing the technology was published at SIGGRAPH '96. It was an experiment in automatic illustration construction and layout. The algorithms used in Comic Chat attempted to mimic some basic illustration techniques of comic artists (particularly Jim Woodring). Character placement, the choice of gestures and expressions, and word balloon construction and layout, were all chosen automatically. A widget called the "emotion wheel" allowed users to override the program's choice of expression.

Although Comic Chat could be used in text-based chat rooms as well, it added a code at the beginning of every message to communicate the character's expression to other chat clients. This had a somewhat annoying effect on non-Comic Chat users (although it could be disabled).

Comic Chat was released with the full downloads of Internet Explorer 3, 4, and 5, as well as in the Windows 98 and Windows 2000 distributions. It also became the official chat client of MSN. It was localized into 24 different languages. Although the program can still be downloaded and still works with most IRC servers, it is infrequently used today because MSN decided to get out of the chat business, and turned off its servers.

In December 1996, The Microsoft Network introduced a show-based format, in which high quality multimedia content was produced around several themes. MSN's MotorWeb was built around an automobile theme. MSN entered into a partnership with NPR’s CarTalk, and each day featured a new online Car Talk caller from the popular NPR radio duo of "Click and Clack" (Tom and Ray Magliozzi).

Created and produced at MSN by Mike Klozar, the "Chat Show," as it was called, was an innovative combination of on-demand streaming audio, text (as cartoon bubbles) and comic strip characters all synchronized to display an animated cartoon comic strip created dynamically from the text input. An example of the show can be found at David Kurlander's project site, under [MSN CarTalk Comic Chat Show].

Each episode depicted a caller (as a black and white default character) and color caricatures of Tom & Ray interacting in a unique closed visual chat. The visuals were generated dynamically by the Comic Chat client (already residing on the PC), given a timed, textual transcript of the show. This allowed an online comic strip to draw in exact timing with the audio/dialogue that was streamed via Real Audio (14.4 modems were the norm at this time). The show ran for one year. MSN moved away from the "show" format the following year, and CarTalk signed a contract with Cars.com. The online chat show ended at that time.

Microsoft Comic Chat installed a custom font, Comic Sans MS, that users could use in other applications and documents. In 1996 it was bundled with several other fonts in Microsoft's Core Fonts for the Web project and subsequent versions of Microsoft Windows, leading to its notoriety among the digerati.

It was renamed as Microsoft Chat 2.0, and was bundled with Internet Explorer along with the then new Outlook Express, in the late 1990s. Version 2.5 bundled with Internet Explorer 5 was the last update.

Microsoft Comic Chat was removed with Internet Explorer 6.

title: Microsoft Comic Chat


text:
Henry Halleck

Henry Wager Halleck (January 16, 1815 – January 9, 1872) was a senior United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory: "Old Brains". He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer. Halleck served as the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States from 1862 to 1864, and then became Chief of Staff for the remainder of the war when Ulysses S. Grant was appointed to that position.

Early in the American Civil War, Halleck was a senior Union Army commander in the Western Theater. He commanded operations in the West from 1861 until 1862, during which time, while the Union armies in the East were repeatedly defeated and held back, the troops under Halleck's command won many important victories. However, Halleck was not present at those battles, and his subordinates earned most of the recognition. The only operation in which Halleck exercised field command was the so-called siege of Corinth in the spring of 1862, a Union victory which he conducted with unnecessary caution, which allowed the Confederate force to escape. Halleck also developed rivalries with several of his subordinate generals, such as Grant and Don Carlos Buell. In July 1862, following Major General George B. McClellan's failed Peninsula Campaign in the Eastern Theater, Halleck was promoted to general-in-chief. Halleck served in this capacity for about a year and a half.

Halleck was a cautious general who believed strongly in thorough preparations for battle and in the value of defensive fortifications over quick, aggressive action. He was a master of administration, logistics, and the politics necessary at the top of the military hierarchy, but exerted little effective control over field operations from his post in Washington, D.C. As general-in-chief he refused to give orders to his subordinate commanders, instead offering advice, but leaving the final decisions up to the generals in the field. As a result, his subordinates frequently criticized him and often ignored his instructions. Still, Halleck's earlier contributions to military theory are credited with encouraging a new spirit of professionalism in the army.

In March 1864, Grant was promoted to general-in-chief, locating his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac in the field, while Halleck was relegated to serving as chief of staff in Washington, providing the necessary administrative support to fulfill Grant's orders to the various armies. Without the pressure of having to control the movements of the armies, Halleck performed capably in this task, ensuring that the Union armies were as well-equipped and supplied as possible.

Early life
Halleck was born on a farm in Westernville, Oneida County, New York, the third child of 14 of Joseph Halleck, a lieutenant who served in the War of 1812, and Catherine Wager Halleck. Young Henry detested the thought of an agricultural life and ran away from home at an early age to be raised by an uncle, David Wager of Utica. He attended Hudson Academy, Union College in Schenectady, New York, then the United States Military Academy. He became a favorite of military theorist Dennis Hart Mahan and was allowed to teach classes while still a cadet. He graduated in 1839, third in his class of 31 cadets, as a second lieutenant of engineers. After spending some time as a member of the teaching staff at the academy, and a few years improving the defenses of New York Harbor, he wrote a report for the United States Senate on seacoast defenses, Report on the Means of National Defence, which pleased General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, who rewarded Halleck with a trip to Europe in 1844 to study European fortifications and the French military. Returning home as a first lieutenant, Halleck gave a series of twelve lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston that were subsequently published in 1846 as Elements of Military Art and Science. His work, one of the first expressions of American military professionalism, was well received by his colleagues and was considered one of the definitive tactical treatises used by officers in the coming Civil War. His scholarly pursuits earned him the later derogatory nickname "Old Brains".

During the Mexican–American War, Halleck was assigned to duty in California. During his seven-month journey on the transport USS Lexington around Cape Horn, assigned as aide-de-camp to Commodore William Shubrick, he translated Henri Jomini's Vie politique et militaire de Napoleon ("Political and Military Life of Napoleon"), which further enhanced his reputation for scholarship. He spent several months in California constructing fortifications, then was first exposed to combat on November 11, 1847, during William Shubrick's capture of the port of Mazatlán; Lt. Halleck served as lieutenant governor of the occupied city. He was awarded a brevet promotion to captain in 1847 for his "gallant and meritorious service" in California and Mexico, and would later be appointed captain in the regular army on July 1, 1853. He was transferred north to serve under General Bennet Riley, the governor general of the California Territory. Halleck was soon appointed military secretary of state, a position which made him the governor's representative at the 1849 convention in Monterey where the California state constitution was written. Halleck became one of the principal authors of the document. The California State Military Museum writes that Halleck "was [at the convention] and in a lone measure its brains because he had given more studious thought to the subject than any other, and General Riley had instructed him to help frame the new constitution." He was nominated during the convention to be one of two men to represent the new state in the United States Senate, but received only enough votes for third place. During his political activities, he found time to join a law firm in San Francisco, Halleck, Peachy & Billings, which became so successful that he resigned his commission in 1854. The following year, he married Elizabeth Hamilton, granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton and sister of Union general Schuyler Hamilton. Their only child, Henry Wager Halleck Jr., was born in 1856, and died in 1882.

Halleck became a wealthy man as a lawyer and land speculator, and a noted collector of "Californiana". He obtained thousands of pages of official documents on the Spanish missions and colonization of California, which were copied and are now maintained by the Bancroft Library of the University of California, the originals having been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. He built the Montgomery Block, San Francisco's first fireproof building, home to lawyers, businessmen, and later, the city's Bohemian writers and newspapers. He was a director of the Almaden Quicksilver (Mercury) Company in San Jose, president of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, a builder in Monterey, and owner of the 30,000 acre (120 km2) Rancho Nicasio in Marin County. But he remained involved in military affairs and by early 1861 he was a major general of the California Militia.

Western Theater
As the Civil War began, Halleck was nominally a Democrat and was sympathetic to the South, but he had a strong belief in the value of the Union. His reputation as a military scholar and an urgent recommendation from Winfield Scott earned him the rank of major general in the regular army, effective August 19, 1861, making him the fourth most senior general, after Scott, George B. McClellan, and John C. Frémont. He was assigned to command the Department of the Missouri, replacing Frémont in St. Louis on November 9, and his talent for administration quickly sorted out the chaos of fraud and disorder left by his predecessor. He set to work on the "twin goals of expanding his command and making sure that no blame of any sort fell on him."

Halleck established an uncomfortable relationship with the man who would become his most successful subordinate and future commander, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The pugnacious Grant had just been repulsed at the minor, but bloody, Battle of Belmont but had ambitious plans for amphibious operations on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Halleck, by nature a cautious general, but also judging that Grant's reputation for alcoholism in the prewar period made him unreliable, twice rejected Grant's plans. However, under pressure from President Lincoln to take offensive action, Halleck reconsidered and Grant conducted operations with naval and land forces against Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, capturing both, along with 14,000 Confederates.

Grant had delivered the first major Union victory of the war. Halleck obtained a promotion for him to major general of volunteers, along with some other generals in his department, and used the victory as an opportunity to request overall command in the Western Theater, which he currently shared with Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, but which was not granted. He briefly relieved Grant of field command of a newly ordered expedition up the Tennessee River after Grant left his district to meet Buell in Nashville, failed to provide returns of his force, and allegedly did not immediately stop looting at the two captured forts. It was later determined that the requests from Halleck about Grant's force never made it to Grant. Halleck also cited rumors of renewed alcoholism, but then restored Grant to field command – pressure by Lincoln and the War Department may have been a factor in this about-face. Explaining the reinstatement to Grant, Halleck portrayed it as his effort to correct an injustice, not revealing to Grant that the injustice had originated with him. When Grant wrote to Halleck suggesting "I must have enemies between you and myself," Halleck replied, "You are mistaken. There is no enemy between you and me."

Halleck's department performed well in early 1862, driving the Confederates from the state of Missouri and advancing into Arkansas. They held all of West Tennessee and half of Middle Tennessee. Grant, not yet aware of the political maneuvering behind his back, regarded Halleck as "one of the greatest men of the age" and Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman described him as the "directing genius" of the events that had given the Union cause such a "tremendous lift" in the previous months. This performance can be attributed to Halleck's strategy, administrative skills, and his good management of resources, and to the excellent execution by his subordinates – Grant, Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis at Pea Ridge, and Maj. Gen. John Pope at Island Number 10. Military historians disagree about Halleck's personal role in providing these victories. Some offer him the credit based on his overall command of the department; others, particularly those viewing his career through the lens of later events, believe that his subordinates were the primary factor.

On March 11, 1862, Halleck's command was enlarged to include Ohio and Kansas, along with Buell's Army of the Ohio, and was renamed the Department of the Mississippi. On April 6, Grant's Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, was the victim of a surprise attack due to his negligence, but both sides suffered heavy casualties in the ensuing Battle of Shiloh. With the arrival of the bulk of the Army of the Ohio, Grant and Buell managed to repulse the Confederate Army on April 7. General P.G.T. Beauregard had taken command of the Confederates after General Albert Sidney Johnston died on the first day. Pursuant to his earlier plan, Halleck arrived to take personal command of the massive army in the field for the first time. Grant was under public attack over the slaughter at Shiloh, and Halleck replaced Grant as a wing commander and assigned him instead to serve as second-in-command of the entire 100,000 man force, a job with virtually no responsibilities, which Grant complained was a censure and allegedly akin to an arrest. Halleck, disliking the volunteer generals who ranked just behind Grant, covered up the surprise attack for Grant's sake. Halleck proceeded to conduct operations against Beauregard's army in Corinth, Mississippi, called the siege of Corinth because Halleck's army, twice the size of Beauregard's, moved so cautiously and stopped daily to erect elaborate field fortifications. The army waited so long to begin and their movement was so slow that by the time they reached the city, Beauregard had already abandoned Corinth without a fight, deceiving Halleck into thinking that Confederate reinforcements were arriving by train, when, in fact, the trains were taking away the Rebel army's materiel.

General-in-Chief

In the aftermath of the failed Peninsula Campaign in Virginia, President Lincoln summoned Halleck to the East to become General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, as of July 23, 1862. Lincoln hoped that Halleck could prod his subordinate generals into taking more coordinated, aggressive actions across all of the theaters of war, but he was quickly disappointed, and was quoted as regarding him as "little more than a first rate clerk." Grant replaced Halleck in command of most forces in the West, but Buell's Army of the Ohio was separated and Buell reported directly to Halleck, as a peer of Grant. Halleck began transferring divisions from Grant to Buell; by September, four divisions had moved, leaving Grant with 46,000 men.

In Washington, Halleck continued to excel at administrative issues and facilitated the training, equipping, and deployment of thousands of Union soldiers over vast areas. He was unsuccessful, however, as a commander of the field armies or as a grand strategist. His cold, abrasive personality alienated his subordinates; one observer described him as a "cold, calculating owl." Historian Steven E. Woodworth wrote, "Beneath the ponderous dome of his high forehead, the General would gaze goggle-eyed at those who spoke to him, reflecting long before answering and simultaneously rubbing both elbows all the while, leading one observer to quip that "the great intelligence he was reputed to possess must be located in his elbows." This disposition also made him unpopular with the Union press corps, who criticized him frequently.

Halleck, more a bureaucrat than a combat soldier, was able to impose little discipline or direction on his field commanders. Strong personalities such as George B. McClellan, John Pope, and Ambrose Burnside routinely ignored his advice and instructions. A telling example of his lack of control was during the Northern Virginia Campaign of 1862, when Halleck was unable to motivate McClellan to reinforce Pope in a timely manner, contributing to the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. It was from this incident that Halleck fell from grace. Abraham Lincoln said that he had given Halleck full power and responsibility as general-in-chief. "He ran it on that basis till Pope's defeat; but ever since that event he has shrunk from responsibility whenever it was possible."

In Halleck's defense, his subordinate commanders in the Eastern Theater, whom he did not select, were reluctant to move against General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Many of his generals in the West, other than Grant, also lacked aggressiveness. And despite Lincoln's pledge to give the general in chief full control, both he and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton micromanaged many aspects of the military strategy of the nation. Halleck wrote to Sherman in February 1864, "I am simply a military advisor of the Secretary of War and the President, and must obey and carry out what they decide upon, whether I concur in their decisions or not. As a good soldier I obey the orders of my superiors. If I disagree with them I say so, but when they decide, it is my duty faithfully to carry out their decision." However, biographer John F. Marszalek points out that this role was one that Halleck had crafted for himself by his failure to take responsibility and issue orders to his subordinates. Lincoln and Stanton had brought Halleck to Washington to command the Union armies and get results such as he had in the West, but Halleck drew back from the task.

That Lincoln and Stanton were serious in their willingness to cede control to Halleck – after removing McClellan as general-in-chief, the two has performed that role between themselves – can be seen by their behavior with Grant when he came East to take the same role. Although they offered advice and broad strategic goals, they left Grant alone, and Grant took the challenge in a way that Halleck never did.

Chief of staff
On March 12, 1864, after Ulysses S. Grant, Halleck's former subordinate in the West, was promoted to lieutenant general and general-in-chief, Halleck was relegated to chief of staff, responsible for the administration of the vast U.S. armies. Grant and the War Department took special care to let Halleck down gently. Their orders stated that Halleck had been relieved as general-in-chief "at his own request."

Now that there was an aggressive general in the field, Halleck's administrative capabilities complemented Grant's field operations and they worked well together. Throughout the arduous Overland Campaign and Richmond-Petersburg Campaign of 1864, Halleck saw to it that Grant was properly supplied, equipped, and reinforced on a scale that wore down the Confederates. Grant had also transferred responsibility to Halleck for oversight of operations outside of Virginia during this campaign. Halleck agreed with Grant and Sherman on the implementation of a hard war toward the Southern economy and endorsed both Sherman's March to the Sea and Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's destruction of the Shenandoah Valley. However, the 1864 Red River Campaign, a doomed attempt to occupy Eastern Texas, had been advocated by Halleck, over the objections of Grant and Nathaniel P. Banks, who commanded the operation. When the campaign failed, Halleck claimed to Grant that it had been Banks' idea in the first place, not his – an example of Halleck's habit of deflecting blame.

Richmond
Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of War Edward M. Stanton took it upon himself to reassign Halleck to head the Army's department in the defeated Confederate capital, Richmond; by doing so Halleck lost his position as chief-of-staff.

In April 1865, after Sherman exceeded his authority and offered absurdly generous surrender terms to Joseph E. Johnston – Sherman apparently believed that he was following Lincoln's desires as expressed at a meeting at City Point, Virginia – it was very badly received in official Washington. Newspapers and officials – including Stanton – began to talk about Sherman possibly being a traitor. Probably to ingratiate himself with Stanton, Halleck took up this position, and instructed other generals to ignore orders coming from Sherman. This enraged Sherman, resulting in a vituperative exchange of letters in which Halleck attempted to explain away his behavior. This caused a rift between Halleck and Sherman, who, up until this time, had publicly and privately lauded Halleck, ever since Sherman had a mental breakdown while he was in charge of the Department of Kentucky, and was transferred into Halleck's department, where he was given the chance to work his way back into being of service to the country.

The rift between the two generals was so strong that when Sherman's army marched from North Carolina to Washington to take part in the final grand review of the Union armies and passed through Richmond, where Halleck was in command, Halleck ordered one of Sherman's corps to pass him in review, an order that an insubordinate Sherman countermanded. Sherman ordered his troops to pass through Richmond "with colors flying and drums beating as a matter of right and not by H's leave." No salute of any kind was offered to Halleck as the troops passed by his house, even though Halleck was standing on the porch.

Halleck, realizing that losing Sherman's friendship was more important to him than gaining Stanton's regard, wrote a letter to Sherman in which he completely humbled himself, but Sherman remained incensed, in particular at Halleck's telling Sherman's subordinates not to follow his orders. He rejected Halleck entreaties, and the two men remained estranged. Still, when Sherman wrote his memoirs in the 1880s he praised Halleck to the extent he thought was deserved.

Evaluation by others
General George B. McClellan, who, when he was General-in-Chief, appointed Halleck to replace Frémont in the West, said of Halleck:

"Of all the men who I have encountered in high position, Halleck was the most helplessly stupid. It was more difficult to get an idea through his head than can be conceived by anyone who never made the attempt. I do not think he ever had a correct military idea from beginning to end."

McClellan told his wife that although Halleck had some good qualities as a soldier, "he does not understand strategy and should never plan a campaign."

Historian Kendall Gott described Halleck as a department commander:

"Although he had impressive credentials, Henry Halleck was not an easy man to work for. The nature of his job and his personality often provoked antagonism, hatred, and contempt. Halleck's strengths were organizing, coordinating, planning, and managing. He could also advise and suggest, and he sometimes ordered subordinates where and when to make a move, but he never was comfortable doing it himself. Halleck seldom worked openly, and as a department commander, he was always at headquarters, separated and aloof from the men. His decisions were the result of neither snap judgments nor friendly discussion, but calculated thinking. He was also prone to violent hatred and never cultivated close relationships. Overall, he generated no love, confidence, or respect."

British general and military historian J. F. C. Fuller described Halleck as "a cautious, witless pedant who had studied war, and imagined that adherence to certain strategical and tactical maxims constituted the height of generalship." Fuller approvingly quotes W. E. Woodward's description of Halleck as "a large emptiness surrounded by an education." Fuller also opines that Halleck, after the Siege of Corinth, when he was in direct command of an army of 115,000 men, could have, and should have, crushed P. G. T. Beauregard's army, taken Vicksburg, and occupied Chattanooga, being then in a position to threaten Richmond via the Allegheny Mountains. Instead, by taking so long to move from Pittsburg Landing to Corinth, Halleck allowed the Confederates to escape, then chose to break up his army into small pieces and spread them around the Western theatre. Therefore, according to Fuller, Halleck's being called to Washington by Lincoln to be General-in-Chief was a blessing to the North, because it eliminated from the field a sub-standard general (Halleck) and left Grant free to develop his strategic thinking, and, by taking Vicksburg and opening the Mississippi River, to deal the Confederacy a blow from which it never recovered.

However helpful it was to the Union for Grant to be free of Halleck's supervision in the West, in Washington, D.C. Halleck did not perform well in his role as General-in-Chief. President Abraham Lincoln, growing tired of Halleck's inability to control the Union's generals and make them obey Lincoln's wishes, once described him as "little more than a first rate clerk." Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, who kept a diary throughout the war, said of him "Halleck originates nothing, anticipates nothing to assist others; takes no responsibility, plans nothing, suggests nothing, is good for nothing." Welles later commented that although Halleck was intelligent and educated, he was "a moral coward, worth but little except as a critic and director of operations..." When Jubal Early's army was threatening Washington from the Shenandoah Valley and the city was panicking, Welles described Halleck as contributing to the chaos. He was "in a perfect maze, bewildered, without intelligent decision or self-reliance." Count Adam Gurowski, a Radical Republican Polish émigré who was a minor State Department official, as well as a member of the editorial staff of the New York Tribune, agreed, saying "All the incapacity, all the blunderings are exclusively Halleck's work ... History has not on record military conduct so below any honor or manhood as that of Halleck..."

Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who had begun by being a supporter of Halleck, said during the Siege of Chattanooga that Halleck was "good for nothing, and everybody knew it but the President."

Historian John F. Marszalek, the author of the only complete biography of Halleck – Stephen E. Ambrose's Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff is an expansion of his dissertation – writes:

"Halleck saw himself as a subordinate, not a decision maker, a follower, not a leader. This was a deeply felt sentiment, long present in his character, but made conspicuous under the stress of war. ... Halleck's personality and his performance as a Civil War general were largely the result of deeply ingrained psychological factors and the physical ailments that developed as a result. [His] drive to succeed, his many accomplishments, and his eventual failure to reach his potential all stemmed from deeply embedded conscious and unconscious forces. The powerful man of success was also the tormented child, and, under the stress of war, the torment won out over the power. Indecision became his surrender to, his way of coping with, the turmoil he felt all his life."

Postwar career

After Grant forced Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Halleck was assigned to command the Military Division of the James, headquartered at Richmond. Prior to that, he was present at Lincoln's death and was a pall-bearer and representative of the military at Lincoln's funeral. In August 1865 he was transferred to the Division of the Pacific in California, essentially in military exile. While holding this command he accompanied photographer Eadweard Muybridge to the newly purchased Russian America (Alaska). He and Senator Charles Sumner are credited with applying the name "Alaska" to that region. In March 1869, he was assigned to command the Military Division of the South, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

Death
Halleck became ill in January 1872 and his condition was diagnosed as edema caused by liver disease. He died at his post in Louisville on January 9, just 7 days short of his 57th birthday. He was buried in the family plot in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York, on January 25.

Halleck is commemorated by a street named for him in San Francisco and a statue in Golden Gate Park. He left no memoirs for posterity and apparently destroyed his private correspondence and memoranda. His estate at his death showed a net value of $474,773.16 ($0 in dollars). His widow, Elizabeth, married Halleck's best friend, Col. George Washington Cullum in 1875. Cullum had served as Halleck's chief of staff in the Western Theater and then on his staff in Washington.

Selected works

 * (editor) Bitumen: Its Varieties, Properties, and Uses (1841)
 * Report on the Means of National Defence (1843)
 * Elements of Military Art and Science (1846)
 * (translator) A Collection of Mining Laws of Spain and Mexico (1859)
 * International law, or, Rules regulating the intercourse of states in peace and war (1861)
 * (translator) Life of Napoleon by Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini (1864) published by David Van Nostrand, link from Google books
 * The Mexican War in Baja California: the memorandum of Captain Henry W. Halleck concerning his expeditions in Lower California, 1846–1848 (posthumous, 1977)

Legacy

 * A statue of Halleck by sculptor Carl H. Conrads is located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. On JFK Drive near the tennis courts, it was a gift of Halleck's good friend George W. Cullum.
 * Halleck Street in San Francisco near the Presidio.
 * Fort Halleck (1862–66): Military outpost in Dakota Territory built to protect travelers on the Overland Trail.
 * Halleck, Nevada, an unincorporated community founded in 1869, which took its name from Camp Halleck (1867–1879) – later Fort Halleck (1879–1886) – which was built to protect the California Trail. Both were named after General Halleck.  With the closing of the fort and the consolidation of small ranches into larger corporate ones, the town began its decline; it now consists of two buildings, one of which is the post office.
 * Halleck Cottage was the name given to one of the homes at the San Francisco Protestant Orphanage (current name: Edgewood Center) in remembrance to a donation made to Mrs. Haight and Mrs. Waller who served as board managers at the time for the San Francisco Orphan Asylum Society (SFOA).

In popular culture

 * Halleck is a character in some American Civil War alternate histories, including the novels Stars and Stripes Forever (1998) by Harry Harrison and Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War (2003) by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. In Harrison's novel, while Halleck's role is fairly important, he does not personally appear.
 * In the 1941 film They Died With Their Boots On, Sydney Greenstreet plays General Winfield Scott, however, the fictionalized Scott is a conflation partly based on Halleck.
 * In 1862 Septimus Winner wrote the march Gen. Halleck's Grand March.

title: Henry Halleck