title: Bicycle wheel

text: French tire manufacturer Hutchinson has introduced a tubeless wheel system, Road Tubeless, that shares many similarities to the UST (Universal System Tubeless) that was developed in conjunction with Mavic and Michelin. Road Tubeless rims, like UST rims, have no spoke holes protruding to the air chamber of the rim. The flange of the Road Tubeless rim is similar to the hook bead of a standard clincher rim but is contoured to very close tolerances to interlock with a Road Tubeless tire, creating an airtight seal between tire and rim. This system eliminates the need for a rim strip and inner tube.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The rim is connected to the hub by a number of spokes, which are rods. While early bicycle wheels used wooden spokes that could be loaded only in compression, modern bicycle wheels almost exclusively use spokes that can only be loaded in tension.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The rear wheel is subjected to greater stress because more weight is carried on the rear wheel. The rear wheel spokes on the right are more likely to fail. The rear wheels are asymmetrical to make room for multisprocket gear clusters. This asymmetry means that the spokes on the right are twice as tight as those on the left. The spokes break due to fatigue and not excessive force.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: One end of each spoke is threaded for a specialized nut, called a nipple, which is used to connect the spoke to the rim and adjust the tension in the spoke. This is normally at the rim end. The hub end normally has a 90-degree bend to pass through the spoke hole in the hub, and a head so it does not slip through the hole. This is the J-bend type. Another type is straight pull spokes, which have no bend at the hub end, just a head. The major materials for spoke nipples are aluminum and brass.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: "Double-butted" spokes have reduced thickness over the center section and are lighter, more elastic, and more aerodynamic than spokes of uniform thickness. "Single-butted" spokes are thicker at the hub and then taper to a thinner section all the way to the threads at the rim. "Triple-butted" spokes also exist and are thickest at the hub, thinner at the threaded end, and thinnest in the middle.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Apart from tubeless wheels, which do not need them, tubed bicycle wheels require rim tapes or strips, a flexible but tough liner strip (usually rubber or woven nylon or similar material) attached to the inner circumference of the wheel to cover the ends of the nipples. Otherwise, the nipple ends wear a hole in the tube causing a flat tire.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: In 2007, Mavic introduced their R-Sys, a new bicycle spoke technology that allows the spokes to be loaded in both tension and compression. This technology is promised to allow for fewer spokes, lower wheel weight and inertia, increased wheel stiffness, with no loss of durability. However, in 2009 Mavic recalled R-Sys front wheels due to spoke failures leading to collapse of the entire wheel.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Spokes are usually circular in cross-section, but high-performance wheels may use spokes of flat or oval cross-section, also known as bladed, to reduce aerodynamic drag. Some spokes are hollow tubes.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The spokes on the vast majority of modern bicycle wheels are steel or stainless steel. Stainless steel spokes are favored by most manufacturers and riders for their durability, stiffness, damage tolerance, and ease of maintenance. Non-stainless steel spokes on older or cheaper bikes are sometimes surface-treated by galvanization, paint, or, more rarely, chrome plating, and can rust eventually. Spokes are also available in titanium, aluminum, or carbon fiber.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Conventional metallic bicycle wheels for single rider bikes commonly have 24, 28, 32 or 36 spokes, while wheels on tandems have as many as 40 or 48 spokes to support the weight of an additional rider. BMX bikes commonly have 36 or 48 spoke wheels. Lowrider bicycles may have as many as 144 spokes per wheel. Wheels with fewer spokes have an aerodynamic advantage, as the aerodynamic drag from the spokes is reduced. On the other hand, the reduced number of spokes results in a larger section of the rim being unsupported, necessitating stronger and often heavier rims. Some wheel designs also locate the spokes unequally into the rim, which requires a stiff rim hoop and correct tension of the spokes. Conventional wheels with spokes distributed evenly across the circumference of the rim are considered more durable and forgiving to poor maintenance. The more general trend in wheel design suggests technological advancement in rim materials may result in further reduction in the number of spokes per wheel.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Lacing is the process of threading spokes through holes in the hub and rim so that they form a spoke pattern. While most manufacturers use the same lacing pattern on both left and right sides of a wheel, it is becoming increasingly common to find specialty wheels with different lacing patterns on each side. A spoke can connect the hub to the rim in a radial fashion, which creates the lightest and most aerodynamic wheel. However, to efficiently transfer torque from the hub to the rim, as with driven wheels or wheels with drum or disc brakes, durability dictates that spokes be mounted at an angle to the hub flange up to a "tangential lacing pattern" to achieve maximum torque capability (but minimum vertical wheel stiffness). Names for various lacing patterns are commonly referenced to the number of spokes that any one spoke crosses.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Conventionally laced 36- or 32-spoke wheels are most commonly built as a cross-3 or a cross-2, however other cross-numbers are also possible. The angle at which the spoke interfaces the hub is not solely determined by the cross-number; as spoke count and hub diameter will lead to significantly different spoke angles. For all common tension-spoke wheels with crossed spokes, a torque applied to the hub will result in one half of the spokes - called "leading spokes" tensioned to drive the rim, while other half - "trailing spokes" are tensioned only to counteract the leading spokes. When forward torque is applied (i.e., during acceleration ), the trailing spokes experience a higher tension, while leading spokes are relieved, thus forcing the rim to rotate. While braking, leading spokes tighten and trailing spokes are relieved. The wheel can thus transfer the hub torque in either direction with the least amount of change in spoke tension, allowing the wheel to stay true while torque is applied.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Wheels that are not required to transfer any significant amount of torque from the hub to the rim are often laced radially. Here, the spokes leave the hub at perpendicular to the axle and go straight to the rim, without crossing any other spokes - e.g., "cross-0". This lacing pattern can not transfer torque as efficiently as tangential lacing. Thus it is generally preferred to build a crossed-spoke wheel where torque forces, whether driving or braking, issue from the hub. Where braking is concerned, the older-style caliper devices that contact the rims to apply braking force are not affected by lacing patterns in this way because braking forces are transferred from the calipers directly to the rim, then to the tires and then to the roadway. Disc brakes, however, transfer their force to the roadway via the spokes from the disc's mounting point on the hub and are therefore affected by the lacing pattern in a manner similar to that of the drive system.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Hubs that have previously been laced in any other pattern should not be used for radial lacing, as the pits and dents created by the spokes can be the weak points along which the hub flange may break. This is not always the case: for example if the hub used has harder, steel flanges like those on a vintage bicycle.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Wheel builders also employ other exotic spoke lacing patterns (such as "crow's foot", which is essentially a mix of radial and tangential lacing) as well as innovative hub geometries. Most of these designs take advantage of new high-strength materials or manufacturing methods to improve wheel performance. As with any structure, however, practical usefulness is not always agreed, and often nonstandard wheel designs may be opted for solely aesthetic reasons.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: There are three aspects of wheel geometry which must be brought into adjustment in order to true a wheel. "Lateral truing" refers to elimination of local deviations of the rim to the left or right of center. "Vertical truing" refers to adjustments of local deviations (known as hop) of the radius, the distance from the rim to the center of the hub. "Dish" refers to the left-right centering of the plane of the rim between the lock nuts on the outside ends of the axle. This plane is itself determined as an average of local deviations in the lateral truing. For most rim-brake bicycles, the dish will be symmetrical on the front wheel. However, on the rear wheel, because most bicycles accommodate a rear sprocket (or group of them), the dishing will often be asymmetrical: it will be dished at a deeper angle on the non-drive side than on the drive side.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: In addition to the three geometrical aspects of truing, the overall tension of the spokes is significant to the wheel's fatigue durability, stiffness, and ability to absorb shock. Too little tension leads to a rim that is easily deformed by impact with rough terrain. Too much tension can deform the rim, making it impossible to true, and can decrease spoke life. Spoke tensiometers are tools which measure the tension in a spoke. Another common method for making rough estimates of spoke tension involves plucking the spokes and listening to the audible tone of the vibrating spoke. The optimum tension depends on the spoke length and spoke gauge (diameter). Tables are available online which list tensions for each spoke length, either in terms of absolute physical tension, or notes on the musical scale which coincide with the approximate tension to which the spoke should be tuned. In the real world, a properly trued wheel will not, in general, have a uniform tension across all spokes, due to variation among the parts from which the wheel is made.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Finally, for best, long-lasting results, spoke wind-up should be minimized. When a nipple turns, it twists the spoke at first, until there is enough torsional stress in the spoke to overcome the friction in the threads between the spoke and the nipple. This is easiest to see with bladed or ovalized spokes, but occurs in round spokes as well. If a wheel is ridden with this torsional stress left in the spokes, they may untwist and cause the wheel to become out of true. Bladed and ovalized spokes may be held straight with an appropriate tool as the nipple is turned. The common practice for minimizing wind-up in round spokes is to turn the nipple past the desired orientation by about a quarter turn, and then turn it back that quarter turn.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: In wheel truing, all these factors must be incrementally brought into balance against each other. A commonly recommended practice is to find the worst spot on the wheel, and bring it slightly more into true before moving on to the next worst spot on the wheel.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: "Truing stands" are mechanical devices for mounting wheels and truing them. It is also possible to true a wheel while it is mounted on the bike: brake pads or some other fixed point may be used as a reference mark, however this is less accurate.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: At one end of each spoke is a specialized nut, called a nipple, which is used to connect the spoke to the rim and adjust the tension in the spoke. The nipple is usually located at the rim end of the spoke but on some wheels is at the hub end to move its weight closer to the axis of the wheel, reducing the moment of inertia. A variant of this is integrating nipples into the hub, its flange containing the threads for usually bladed spokes.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Until recently there were only two types of nipples: brass and aluminum (often referred to as "alloy"). Brass nipples are heavier than aluminum, but they are more durable. Aluminium nipples save weight, but they are less durable than brass and more likely to corrode.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: A nipple at the rim of a wheel usually protrudes from the rim towards the center of the wheel, but in racing wheels may be internal to the rim, offering a slight aerodynamic advantage.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: A wheel can be formed in one piece from a material such as thermoplastic (glass-filled nylon in this case), carbon fiber or aluminium alloy. Thermoplastic is commonly used for inexpensive BMX wheels. They have a low maximum tire pressure of 45 psi (3bars or atmospheres). Carbon fiber is typically used for high-end aerodynamic racing wheels.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Disc wheels are designed to minimize aerodynamic drag. A full disc is usually heavier than traditional spoke wheels, and can be difficult to handle when ridden with a cross wind. For this reason, international cycling organizations often ban disc wheels or limit their use to the rear wheel of a bicycle. However, international triathlon federations were (and are still) less restrictive and this is what led to the wheels' initial usage growth in popularity in the 1980s.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: A disc wheel may simply be a fairing that clips onto a traditional, spoke wheel, addressing the drag that the spokes generate by covering them; or the disc can be integral to the wheel with no spokes inside. In the latter case carbon fiber is the material of choice. A spoke wheel with a disc cover may not be legal under UCI Union Cycliste Internationale rules because it is a non-structural fairing but are again acceptable under ITU International Triathlon Union rules.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: A compromise that reduces weight and improves cross wind performance has a small number (three or four) tension-compression spokes molded integral to the rim – also typically carbon fiber.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: For road bicycle racing performance there are several factors which are generally considered the most important:


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Semi-aerodynamic and aerodynamic wheelsets are now commonplace for road bicycles. Aluminum rims are still the most common, but carbon fiber is also becoming popular. Carbon fiber is also finding use in hub shells to reduce weight; however, because of the hub's proximity to the center of rotation reducing the hub's weight has less effect to the rotational inertia than reducing the rim's weight.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Semi-aerodynamic and aerodynamic wheelsets are characterized by greater rim depth, which is the radial distance between the outermost and the innermost surfaces of the rim; a triangular or pyramidal cross-section; and by fewer numbers of spokes, or no spokes at all—with blades molded of composite material supporting the rim. The spokes are also often flattened in the rotational direction to reduce wind drag. These are called "bladed spokes". However, semi-aerodynamic and aerodynamic wheelsets tend to be heavier than more traditional spoked wheelsets due to the extra shapings of the rims and spokes. More importantly, the rims must be heavier when there are fewer spokes, as the unsupported span between spokes is greater. A number of wheel manufacturers are now producing wheels with roughly half the spokes of the highest performance traditional wheel from the 1980s, with approximately the same rotational inertia and less total weight. These improvements have been made possible primarily through improved aluminum alloys for the rims.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Most clincher carbon fiber wheelsets, such as those made by Zipp and Mavic, still use aluminum parts at the clinching part of the rim. An increased number of all-carbon rims, such as Campagnolo Hyperon Ultra Clincher, Viva v8 wheels, Bontrager's Carbon Clincher wheels, DT Swiss RRC1250, Corima Winium and Aero (also tubeless, see below) and Lightweight Standard C wheelsets are now available.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Touring, race, and cyclo-cross bicycles may have vastly different design goals for their wheels. Aerodynamic performance and low weight are beneficial for road bicycles, while for cyclo-cross strength gains importance, and for touring bicycles, strength becomes more important again. However, this diameter of rim, identical in diameter to the "29er" rim, is by far the most common on these styles of bicycles. Road wheels may be designed for tubular or clincher tires, commonly referred to as "700C" tires.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Mountain bike wheels are described by the approximate outer diameter of the rim plus a wide, ~2+ inch tire.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: 24-inch clincher tires (with inner tubes) are the most common wheel size for junior mountain bikes. The typical 24-inch rim has a diameter of and an outside tire diameter of about .


title: Bicycle wheel

text: 26-inch clincher tires (with inner tubes) were the most common wheel size for new mountain bikes until the early 2010s. This tradition was started initially because the early mountain bike pioneers procured the wheels for their early bikes from American-made bicycles rather than the larger European standards in use. The typical 26-inch rim has a diameter of and an outside tire diameter of about .


title: Bicycle wheel

text: 27.5-inch mountain bike wheels (which some also refer to as 650B use a rim that has a diameter of 584 mm (23.0") with wide, knobby tires (~27.5 x 2.3 / ISO 58-584) are approximately the midway point between the 26-inch (ISO-559mm) and the 29-inch (ISO-622mm) standards. They carry some of the advantages of both formats, with a smoother ride than a 26-inch wheel and more stiffness and durability than a 29" wheel.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: "29-inch wheels", which also conform to the popular 700C (622 mm diameter clincher) wheel standard are becoming more popular for not only cyclocross bikes but also cross-country mountain bikes. Their rim diameter of is identical to most road, hybrid, and touring bicycle wheels, but they are typically reinforced for greater durability in off-road riding. The average 29-inch mountain bike tire is ISO 59-622 - corresponding to an outside diameter of about .


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Usually 20 inches in diameter (rim diameter of 406 mm), BMX wheels are small for several reasons: they are suitable for young and small riders; their lower cost is compatible with inexpensive bicycles; the size makes them stronger to withstand the additional loads generated by BMX jumps and stunts; and to reduce rotational inertia for easier wheel acceleration.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Nominally 20 x 1-1/8" or 20 x 1-3/8", with rim diameter 451 mm. These are intended for racing by lightweight BMX riders, and sometimes referred to as "skinnies". The size is also used on classic British folding or shopping bikes.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Bicycle rims and tires came in many different types and sizes before efforts were made to standardize and improve wheel/tire compatibility. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation (ETRTO) define a modern, unambiguous system of sizing designations and measurement procedures for different types of tires and rims in international standard ISO 5775. For example:


title: Bicycle wheel

text: In practice, most tires (and inner tubes) sold today carry, in addition to the modern ISO 5775-1 designation, some historic size markings, which are still widely used:


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Which designation is most popular varies with region and type of bicycle. For a comprehensive equivalence table between old and new markings, see the ISO 5775 article, the table in Annex A of the ISO 5772 standard, as well as Tire Sizing by Sheldon Brown.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Most road and racing bicycles today use 622 mm diameter (700C) rims, though 650C rims are popular with smaller riders and triathletes. The 650C size has the ISO diameter size of 571 mm. Size 650B is 584 mm and 650A is 590 mm. 650B is being promoted as a 'best of both worlds' size for mountain biking. Most adult mountain bikes use 26 inch wheels. Smaller youth mountain bikes use 24 inch wheels. The larger 700C (29 inch) wheels have enjoyed some recent popularity among off-road bicycle manufacturers. These rims are the same bead seat diameter as 700C wheels and are generally compatible with bicycle frames and tires designed for the 700C standard, however, rims designated as 29 inch are designed for wider tires than rims designated 700C, so frame clearance may be an issue. The formerly popular 27 inch (630 mm) wheel size is now rare.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Children's bicycles are commonly sized primarily based on wheel diameter rather than seat tube length (along the rider's inseam) dimension. Thus, a wide range of small bike wheels are still found, ranging from diameter to .


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Smaller wheel sizes are also found on folding bicycles to minimise the folded size. These range from 16-inch diameter (e.g. Brompton) through 20 inches (e.g. Bike Friday) up to even 26 inches.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Wheel rims also come in a variety of widths to provide optimum performance for different uses. High performance road racing rims are narrow, 18 mm or so. Wider touring or durable off-road tires require rims of 24 mm wide or more.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The common "26-inch" wheel used on mountain bikes and beach cruisers is an American size using a 559 mm rim, traditionally with hooked edges.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: There are four other "26-inch" (British designation) or "650" (French) sizes, from the narrow tires to the widest, which traditionally all measured the same outside diameter.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Widths of tires and corresponding ISO width designations may vary, though the wheel outside diameter remains approximately the same.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Traditionally, there were four different sizes of 28-inch diameter wheels, from the narrow tires to the widest, they all measured the same outside diameter, which coincide with four different families of 700 tire sizes, these are 700, 700A, 700B and 700C. The largest of these rims (ISO 647mm/642mm) with the narrower tires are no longer available.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: There are a number of variables that determine rolling resistance: tire tread, width, diameter, tire construction, tube type (if applicable), and pressure are all important.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Smaller diameter wheels, all else being equal, have higher rolling resistance than larger wheels. "Rolling resistance increases in near proportion as wheel diameter is decreased for a given constant inflation pressure."


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Due to the fact that wheels rotate as well as translate (move in a straight line) when a bicycle moves, more force is required to accelerate a unit of mass on the wheel than on the frame. In wheel design, reducing the rotational inertia has the benefit of more responsive, faster-accelerating wheels. To accomplish this, wheel designs are employing lighter rim materials, moving the spoke nipples to the hub or using lighter nipples such as aluminum. Note however that rotational inertia is a factor only during acceleration (and deceleration/braking). At constant speed, aerodynamics are a significant factor. For climbing, total mass remains important. See Bicycle performance for more detail.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The hub flanges of modern tension-spoked bicycle wheels are always spaced wider than where the spokes attach to the rim. When viewed in cross section, the spokes and hub form a triangle, a structure that is stiff both vertically and laterally. In three dimensions, if the spokes were covered (visualize paper covering the spokes on each side), they would form two cones or "dishes." The greater the separation between the hub flanges, the deeper the dishes, and the stiffer and stronger the wheel can be laterally. The more vertical the spokes, the shallower the dish, and the less stiff the wheel will be laterally.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The dishes on each side of a wheel are not always equal. The cogset (freewheel or cassette) of a rear wheel and disc brake rotors, if installed, takes up width on the hub, and so the flanges may not be located symmetrically about the center plane of the hub or the bike. Since the rim must be centered, but the hub flanges are not, there is a difference in dish between the two sides. Such an asymmetrical wheel is called a "dished" wheel. The side of the wheel with less dish has slightly shorter but significantly higher-tensioned spokes than the side with more dish. Several different techniques have been tried to minimize this spoke asymmetry. In addition to modified hub geometry, some rims have off-center spoke holes, and the mounting of common J-bend spokes at the hub flange can be altered "inboard" or "outboard".


title: Bicycle wheel

text: A truing stand or a dishing gauge, can be used to measure the position of the rim relative to the hub. Thus "dishing" is also used to describe the process of centering the rim on the hub, even in the case of symmetrical wheels.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: The stiffness of a bicycle wheel can be measured in three primary directions: radial, lateral, and torsional. The radial stiffness is primarily a measure of how well the wheel absorbs bumps from the surface on which it rolls. Lateral stiffness, especially of the front wheel influences the handling of the bicycle. Torsional, or tangential stiffness is a measure of how well the wheel transmits propulsive and braking forces, if applied at the hub, as in the case of hub or disc brakes.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Several factors affect these stiffnesses to varying degrees. These include wheel radius, rim bending and torsional stiffness, number of spokes, spoke gauge, lacing pattern, hub stiffness, hub flange spacing, hub radius. In general lateral and radial stiffness decreases with the number of spoke crossings and torsional stiffness increases with the number of spoke crossings. One factor that has little influence on these stiffnesses is spoke tension.


title: Bicycle wheel

text: Too much spoke tension, however, can lead to catastrophic failure in the form of buckling. The "most significant factor affecting the lateral spoke system stiffness" is the angle between the spokes and the wheel midplane. Thus any change that increases this angle, such as increasing the width of the hub, while keeping all other parameters constant, increases the resistance to buckling.


title: Cook Craig

text: Nicholas Roderick "Cook" Craig is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter and is a part of groups King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and the Murlocs. Craig releases music under the name Pipe-Eye.


title: Cook Craig

text: Pipe-Eye's debut EP "Cosmic Blip" was released in 2015 and debut studio album "Laugh About Life" in April 2017, "Inside/Outside" in 2019 and "Dream Themes" in November 2021.


title: Cook Craig

text: Pipe-Eye's debut EP "Cosmic Blip" was released in 2015. The EP was recorded in his bedroom in Fairfield, Victoria. Nicholas Johnson from Brag Magazine gave the EP 4 out of 5 saying "Pipe-Eye know how to spit some serious cosmic wisdom. Then they leave you to ponder it over the course of the 30 to 60 second segue tracks that pepper the record. It adds a nice buffer to what is otherwise essentially a four-track EP by giving it a theatrical feel… It may not resonate with everyone, I'm sure some will feel cheated by the 50 per cent split between songs and noisy interludes. But it gives the songs – all of which would stand quite nicely as singles – a little bit of breathing space without the risk of adding half-baked tracks for the sake of filler."


title: Cook Craig

text: Pipe-Eye's debut studio album "Laugh About Life" was written over two years and released in April 2017.


title: Cook Craig

text: Pipe-Eye's second studio album "Inside/Outside" was released in June 2019. Jonathan Reyoso from "Beat Magazine" gave the album a 6.5 out of 10.


title: Cook Craig

text: In April 2021, Pipe-Eye's re-released "Cosmic Blip" and "Laugh About Life" on limited edition LP. They debuted at numbers one and two on the ARIA Vinyl chart for the week commencing 12 April 2021.


title: Knights of Labor

text: Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also in Great Britain and Australia. Its most important leader was Terence V. Powderly. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the worker, and demanded the eight-hour day. In some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized or funded. It was notable in its ambition to organize across lines of gender and race and in the inclusion of both skilled and unskilled labor. After a rapid expansion in the mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation again. The Knights of Labor had served, however, as the first mass organization of the white working class of the United States.


title: Knights of Labor

text: It was founded by Uriah Stephens on December 28, 1869, reached 28,000 members in 1880, then jumped to 100,000 in 1884. By 1886, 20% of all workers were affiliated, nearly 800,000 members. Its frail organizational structure could not cope as it was battered by charges of failure and violence and calumnies of the association with the Haymarket Square riot. Most members abandoned the movement in 1886–1887, leaving at most 100,000 in 1890. Many opted to join groups that helped to identify their specific needs, instead of the KOL which addressed many different types of issues. The Panic of 1893 terminated the Knights of Labor's importance. Remnants of the Knights of Labor continued in existence until 1949, when the group's last 50-member local dropped its affiliation.


title: Knights of Labor

text: In 1869, Uriah Smith Stephens, James L. Wright, and a small group of Philadelphia tailors founded a secret organization known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. The collapse of the National Labor Union in 1873 left a vacuum for workers looking for organization. The Knights became better organized with a national vision when, in 1879, they replaced Stephens with Terence V. Powderly, who was just 30 years old at the time. The body became popular with Pennsylvania coal miners during the economic depression of the mid-1870s, then it grew rapidly. The KOL was a diverse industrial union open to all workers. The leaders felt that it was best to have a versatile population in order to get points of view from all aspects. The Knights of Labor barred five groups from membership: bankers, land speculators, lawyers, liquor dealers and gamblers. Its members included low skilled workers, railroad workers, immigrants, and steel workers.


title: Knights of Labor

text: As membership expanded, the Knights began to function more as a labor union and less of a secret organization. During the 1880s, the Knights of Labor played a huge role in independent and third-party movements. Local assemblies began not only to emphasize cooperative enterprises, but to initiate strikes to win concessions from employers. The Knights of Labor brought together workers of different religions, races and genders and helped them all create a bond and unify all for the same cause. The new leader Powderly opposed strikes as a "relic of barbarism", but the size and the diversity of the Knights afforded local assemblies a great deal of autonomy.


title: Knights of Labor

text: In 1882, the Knights ended their membership rituals and removed the words "Noble Order" from their name. This was intended to mollify the concerns of Catholic members and the bishops who wanted to avoid any resemblance to freemasonry.


title: Knights of Labor

text: Though initially averse to strikes to advance their goals, the Knights did aid various strikes and boycotts. The Wabash Railroad strike in 1885 saw Powderly finally adapt and support an eventually successful strike against Jay Gould's Wabash Line. Gould met with Powderly and agreed to call off his campaign against the Knights of Labor, which had caused the turmoil originally. This gave momentum to the Knights and membership surged. By 1886, the Knights had more than 700,000 members.


title: Knights of Labor

text: The Knights' primary demand was for the eight-hour workday. They also called for legislation to end child and convict labor as well as a graduated income tax. They also supported cooperatives. The only woman to hold office in the Knights of Labor, Leonora Barry, worked as an investigator. She described the horrific conditions in factories employing women and children. These reports made Barry the first person to collect national statistics on the American working woman.


title: Knights of Labor

text: Powderly and the Knights tried to avoid divisive political issues, but in the early 1880s, many Knights had become followers of Henry George's ideology known now as Georgism. In 1883, Powderly officially recommended George's book and announced his support of "single tax" on land values. During the New York mayoral election of 1886, Powderly was able to successfully push the organization towards the favor of Henry George. In 1886, the Knights became of the part of the short lived United Labor Party, an alliance of labor organizations formed in support of George's campaign in the 1886 New York City mayoral election.


title: Knights of Labor

text: The Knights of Labor helped to bring together many different types of people from all different walks of life; for example Catholic and Protestant Irish-born workers. The KOL appealed to them because they worked very closely with the Irish Land League. The Knights had a mixed record on inclusiveness and exclusiveness. They accepted women and blacks (after 1878) and their employers as members, and advocating the admission of blacks into local assemblies. However, the organization tolerated the segregation of assemblies in the South. Bankers, doctors, lawyers, stockholders, and liquor manufacturers were excluded because they were considered unproductive members of society. Asians were also excluded, and in November 1885, a branch of the Knights in Tacoma, Washington violently expelled the city's Chinese workers, who amounted to nearly a tenth of the overall city population at the time. The Union Pacific Railroad came into conflict with the Knights. When the Knights in Wyoming refused to work more hours in 1885, the railroad hired Chinese workers as strikebreakers and to stir up racial animosity. The result was the Rock Springs massacre, that killed scores of Chinese workers, and drove the rest out of Wyoming. About 50 African-American sugar-cane laborers organized by the Knights went on strike and were murdered by strikebreakers in the 1887 Thibodaux massacre in Louisiana. The Knights strongly supported passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Contract Labor Law of 1885, as did many other labor groups, demonstrating the limits of their commitment to solidarity. While they claimed to not be "against immigration", their anti-Asian racism demonstrated the limits and inconsistency of their anti-racist platform.


title: Knights of Labor

text: The Great Southwest railroad strike of 1886 was a Knights strike involving more than 200,000 workers. Beginning on March 1, 1886, railroad workers in five states struck against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads, owned by Jay Gould. At least ten people were killed. The unravelling of the strike within two months led directly to the collapse of the Knights of Labor and the formation of the American Federation of Labor.


title: Knights of Labor

text: The Knights of Labor attracted many Catholics, who were a large part of the membership, perhaps a majority. Powderly was also a Catholic. However, the Knights's use of secrecy, similar to the Masons, during its early years concerned many bishops of the Church. The Knights used secrecy and deception to help prevent employers from firing members.


title: Knights of Labor

text: After the Archbishop of Quebec condemned the Knights in 1884, twelve American archbishops voted 10 to 2 against doing likewise in the United States. Furthermore, Cardinal James Gibbons and Bishop John Ireland defended the Knights. Gibbons went to the Vatican to talk to the hierarchy.


title: Knights of Labor

text: In 1886, right after the peak of the Knights of Labor, they started to lose more members to the American Federation of Labor. It has been believed that the fall of the Knights of Labor was due to their lack of adaptability and beliefs in the old-style industrial capitalism.


title: Knights of Labor

text: Though often overlooked, the Knights of Labor contributed to the tradition of labor protest songs in America. The Knights frequently included music in their regular meetings, and encouraged local members to write and perform their work. In Chicago, James and Emily Talmadge, printers and supporters of the Knights of Labor, published the songbook "Labor Songs Dedicated to the Knights of Labor" (1885). The song "Hold the Fort" [also "Storm the Fort"], a Knights of Labor pro-labor revision of the hymn by the same name, became the most popular labor song prior to Ralph Chaplin's IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) anthem "Solidarity Forever". Pete Seeger often performed this song and it appears on a number of his recordings. Songwriter and labor singer Bucky Halker includes the Talmadge version, entitled "Our Battle Song," on his CD "Don't Want Your Millions" (Revolting Records 2000). Halker also draws heavily on the Knights songs and poems in his book on labor song and poetry, "For Democracy, Workers and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895" (University of Illinois Press, 1991).


title: Knights of Labor

text: The Knights of Labor supported the Chinese Exclusion Act, claiming that industrialists were using Chinese workers as a wedge to keep wages low.


title: Knights of Labor

text: Anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence were more prevalent among the western chapters of the Knights. In 1880, San Francisco Knights wrote, "They bear the semblance of men, but live like beasts...who eat rice and the offal of the slaughter house. The article also calls Chinese "natural thieves" and states that all Chinese women are prostitutes. In March 1882, Knights joined the San Francisco rally to demand expulsion of the Chinese. Several years later, mobs led by the Knights of Labor, a loosely structured labor federation, rounded up Seattle's Chinese-born workers and campaigned prevent further immigration.


title: Knights of Labor

text: Catharine Collomp notes that "Chinese exclusion was the only issue about which the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor constantly lobbied the Federal government."


title: Mike Hill (sportscaster)

text: James Michael Hill (born August 19, 1970, in The Bronx, New York) is an American television personality and talk show host currently with the Black News Channel and FOX Sports.


title: Mike Hill (sportscaster)

text: Hill, who spent his childhood in both the Bronx and Bessemer, Alabama, enlisted as a reservist in the U.S. Air Force after graduation from high school. He began his career as a sports director at WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland, in early 1995. He got his first anchoring job later that year with KSEE-TV in Fresno, California. From 1997 to 2000, Hill spent time with WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, covering high school football and earning two Emmy Awards. From 2000 to 2002, he spent time as a host at Fox Sports Net in New York City. From 2002 to 2004, in his final job before joining ESPN, he served as a sports anchor at KXAS-TV in Dallas, Texas.


title: Mike Hill (sportscaster)

text: Hill was with ESPN from 2004 to 2013. He hosted "Hill and Schlereth" with Mark Schlereth on ESPN Radio and also hosted a variety of the network's shows including "SportsCenter", "ESPN First Take", "NFL Live", "Baseball Tonight", "Highlight Express", and various remote projects including Cam Newton's 2011 Pro Day at Auburn.


title: Mike Hill (sportscaster)

text: In August 2013, he joined Fox Sports 1 (FS1) where he has guest hosted "Fox Sports Live" and "Fox Football Daily". He also contributes to the networks coverage of college basketball. On April 7, 2014, Hill began hosting "America's Pregame". He hosted the show until its cancellation in September 2015. On June 22, 2018, Hill began hosting BIG3 games on FS1 for their second season; the BIG3 contract would be handed over to CBS Sports following that season. In October 2019, he began hosting "The Mike and Donny Show" on Fox Soul. From March 1, 2021, until the network's closure in March 2022, he co-hosted a morning show "Start Your Day With Sharon and Mike" with Sharon Reed on the Black News Channel.


title: Mike Hill (sportscaster)

text: He got engaged to former model and "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Cynthia Bailey in July 2019, and they married on October 10, 2020. Hill frequently appeared on the show.


title: Multi-Facial

text: Multi-Facial is a 1995 American short drama film written, directed, produced, and scored by Vin Diesel. The film stars Diesel as a multiracial actor and depicts the professional and emotional issues he faces. "Multi-Facial" was noticed by Steven Spielberg, who would cast Diesel in "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). It was released on DVD in 1999.


title: Multi-Facial

text: Mike, a struggling actor with a tattooed arm, auditions for a role as an Italian American man. He delivers a profanity-laced anecdote in a New York Italian accent, about getting into a fight with another man in a restaurant for looking at his girlfriend. The anecdote ends with Mike saying that he discovered the man was a homosexual, so he beat up his girlfriend instead, and is surprised that she doesn't call him anymore. The casting director expresses interest and has Mike speak Italian before telling him they'll get back to him. When the director asks Mike where the monologue came from, Mike says that it's a true story that happened to his friend. Outside, Mike calls his manager and talks with his typical accent, not the one he used for the audition. He complains about the monologue, which wasn't a true story, saying it was offensive and worries that it will keep him from getting the job. He wipes the fake tattoo off his arm and goes to his next audition.


title: Multi-Facial

text: At an audition for a commercial, Mike meets a black actor in the waiting room and the two of them talk about their careers. Mike tells the actor about the audition he just left, and again complains that he thought his monologue was offensive. The actor tells Mike he has just landed a role in an international commercial, but Mike says he doesn't want to do commercials because no great actors have had to do commercials. Before he can audition, the director tells Mike that his skin is "a little too light" and not to bother auditioning. He suggests Mike audition for a Spanish role in a soap opera instead.


title: Multi-Facial

text: Mike goes to another audition and reads with a Cuban accent alongside a Hispanic actress. The two of them are portraying an argument, but when the actress launches into Spanish, Mike is unable to continue. As they leave the audition, the actress guesses correctly that Mike doesn't speak Spanish. She suggests that he try out for a soap opera which is looking for Hispanic actors, but Mike says he doesn't want to do soaps because no great actors have ever done them. Mike attends another audition, where the woman reading with him tells him that she really thinks he could do well. Mike does the reading with her in a heavy urban accent, but the casting directors cut the audition short, saying they're looking for more of a "Wesley type".


title: Multi-Facial

text: Mike moves on to another audition, where they are expecting him from a previous audition. The casting director sees on his resume that Mike can rap; Mike launches into a hip-hop routine. Afterwards, Mike sits down and does a monologue about being a young man watching his father on stage in a performance of "Raisin in the Sun". During his father's performance, Mike came to believe that his father wanted him to be a great black actor. After his father died, Mike realized that his father wanted him to be a great actor full stop. When the monologue is finished, the casting director is impressed with Mike's performance, but admits that they are supposed to be casting an actor with dreadlocks. Mike leaves with a promise that they will contact him if they can cast him instead.


title: Multi-Facial

text: The film cuts to Mike sitting silently and angrily at a booth in a diner. He overhears an actress talking to another man about how frustrated she is to be typecast as a blonde bimbo. When the waitress comes, the actress orders coffee that's "not too light, not too dark". Mike chuckles to himself and mouths the words "not too light, not too dark".


title: Multi-Facial

text: "Multi-Facial" was written, directed, produced, and scored by Vin Diesel. The film is semi-autobiographical, drawing on Diesel's own frustration trying to find work as an actor of mixed ethnicity. In the early 1990s, Diesel returned from Los Angeles to New York, frustrated with his failures in Hollywood. His mother gave him a copy of "Feature Films at Used Car Prices", a book about producing low-budget movies. Diesel said that he found the book "truly empowering" and it motivated him to make his own movies.


title: Multi-Facial

text: Diesel wrote a script for a feature film called "Strays", but as an unknown, he was unable to secure financing for it. He decided to produce a short film instead and wrote the script for "Multi-Facial" in one night. He shot it over the course of three days for three thousand dollars. He also wrote and performed music for the film. However, he became disillusioned by the response to the film and stopped work on it. With encouragement from his stepfather, he finished the final edit and screened the film at the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan. He received a strong response, and the film was accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The film was screened to standing-room only crowds.


title: Multi-Facial

text: At age 27, Diesel "would drive around [Los Angeles] with VHS copies of [the film] in the trunk just in case [he] bumped into someone who could help [him] with [his] dreams". Upon seeing Morgan Freeman outside a Four Seasons hotel, he approached Freeman and handed him a copy of the film. In 1997, Steven Spielberg saw "Strays" (having already been impressed with Diesel's performance in "Multi-Facial") and wrote a role into "Saving Private Ryan" specifically for Diesel as a result, giving him his first major film role.


title: Alice Neel

text: Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity. Her work depicts women through a female gaze, illustrating them as being consciously aware of the objectification by men and the demoralizing effects of the male gaze. Her work contradicts and challenges the traditional and objectified nude depictions of women by her male predecessors. She pursued a career as a figurative painter during a period when abstraction was favored, and she did not begin to gain critical praise for her work until the 1960s. Neel was called "one of the greatest portrait artists of the 20th century" by Barry Walker, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which organized a retrospective of her work in 2010.


title: Alice Neel

text: Alice Neel was born on January 28, 1900, in Merion Square, Pennsylvania. Her father was George Washington Neel, an accountant for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and her mother was Alice Concross Hartley Neel. In mid-1900 her family moved to the rural town of Colwyn, Pennsylvania. Young Alice was the fourth of five children with three brothers and a sister. Her siblings were named Hartley, Albert, Lillian, Alice and George Washington Jr. Her oldest brother, Hartley, died of diphtheria shortly after she was born. He was only eight years old. She was raised into a straight-laced, lower-middle-class family during a time when there were limited expectations and opportunities for women. Her mother had said to her: "I don't know what you expect to do in the world, you're only a girl." From a young age Alice wanted to be an artist, even with little exposure to art.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 1918, after graduating from high school, she took the civil service exam and got a high-paying clerical position in order to help support her parents. After three years of work, taking art classes by night in Philadelphia, Neel enrolled in the fine art program at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art & Design) in 1921. In her student works she rejected impressionism, the popular style at the time, and instead embraced the Ashcan School of Realism. It is believed this influence came from one of the most prominent figures of the Ashcan School, Robert Henri, who also taught at Philadelphia School of Design for Women. At Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art and Design) she won honorable mention in her painting class for the Francisca Naiade Balano Prize two years in a row. In 1925 Neel received the Kern Doge Prize for Best Painting in her life class. She graduated from Philadelphia School of Design for Women in 1925. Neel often said that she chose to attend an all-girls school so as not to be distracted from her art by the temptations of the opposite sex.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 1924, Neel met Carlos Enríquez, an upper-class Cuban painter, at the Chester Springs summer school run by PAFA. The couple married on June 1, 1925, in Colwyn, Pennsylvania. Neel soon moved to Havana to live with Enríquez's family. In Havana, Neel was embraced by the burgeoning Cuban avant-garde, a set of young writers, artists and musicians. In this environment Neel developed the foundations of her lifelong political consciousness and commitment to equality. Neel later said she had her first solo exhibition in Havana, but there are no dates or locations to confirm this. In March 1927, Neel exhibited with her husband in the 12th Salon des Bellas Artes. This exhibition also included Eduardo Abela, Víctor Manuel García Valdés, Marcelo Pogolotti, and Amelia Peláez who were all part of the Cuban Vanguardia Movement. During this time, she had seven servants and lived in a mansion.


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel's daughter, Santillana, was born on December 26, 1926, in Havana. In 1927, though, the couple returned to the United States to live in New York. Just a month before Santillana's first birthday, she died of diphtheria. The trauma caused by Santillana's death infused the content of Neel's paintings, setting a precedent for the themes of motherhood, loss, and anxiety that permeated her work for the duration of her career. Shortly following Santillana's death, Neel became pregnant with her second child. On November 24, 1928, Isabella Lillian (called Isabetta) was born in New York City. Isabetta's birth was the inspiration for Neel's "Well Baby Clinic", a bleak portrait of mothers and babies in a maternity clinic more reminiscent of an insane asylum than a nursery.


title: Alice Neel

text: In the spring of 1930, Carlos had given the impression that he was going overseas to look for a place to live in Paris. Instead, he returned to Cuba, taking Isabetta with him. During the time of Enriquez's absence, Neel sublet her New York apartment and traveled to work in the studio of her friends and fellow painters Ethel V. Ashton and Rhonda Myers.


title: Alice Neel

text: Mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, Neel suffered a massive nervous breakdown, was hospitalized, and attempted suicide. She was placed in the suicide ward of the Philadelphia General Hospital.


title: Alice Neel

text: Deemed stable almost a year later, Neel was released from the sanatorium in 1931 and returned to her parents' home. Following an extended visit with her close friend and frequent subject, Nadya Olyanova, Neel returned to New York.


title: Alice Neel

text: There Neel painted the local characters, including Joe Gould, whom she depicted in 1933 with multiple penises, which represented his inflated ego and "self-deception" about who he was and his unfulfilled ambitions. The painting, a rare survivor of her early works, has been shown at Tate Modern.


title: Alice Neel

text: During the Depression, Neel was one of the first artists to work for the Works Progress Administration. At the end of 1933, Neel was offered $30 a week to participate in the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) during an interview at the Whitney Museum. She had been living in poverty. While Neel participated in the PWAP and the Works Progress Administration (WPA)/Federal Art Project, her work gained some recognition in the art world. While enrolled in these government programs she painted in a realist style and her subjects were mostly Depression-era street scenes and Communist thinkers and leaders. Some of these sitters included Mother Bloor, the poet Kenneth Fearing, and Pat Whalen. She had an affair with a man named Kenneth Doolittle who was a heroin addict and a sailor. In 1934, he set afire 350 of her watercolors, paintings and drawings. At this time, her husband Carlos proposed to reunite, although in the end the couple neither reunited nor officially filed for divorce.


title: Alice Neel

text: Her world was composed of artists, intellectuals, and political leaders of the Communist Party, all of whom became subjects for her paintings. Her work glorified subversion and sexuality, depicting whimsical scenes of lovers and nudes, like a watercolor she made in 1935, "Alice Neel and John Rothschild in the Bathroom", which showed the naked pair peeing. In the 1930s, Neel gained a reputation as an artist, and established a good standing within her circle of downtown intellectuals and Communist Party leaders. While Neel was never an official Communist Party member, her affiliation and sympathy with the ideals of Communism remained constant. In the 1930s, Neel moved to the Spanish Harlem and began painting her neighbors, specifically women and children.


title: Alice Neel

text: The summer of 1930 was a period in her life that she described "as one of her most productive" because that was when she painted her earliest female nudes. Initially Neel preferred painting men to women. She believed women in art represented a dreary way of life consisting of serving men. It was during the time when she felt most vulnerable because of the loss of her children and separation from her husband. That autumn she suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be institutionalized. Neel's subject matter changed; she went from painting portraits of ordinary people, family, friends, strangers, and well-known art critics to female nudes. The female nude in Western art had always represented a "Woman" as vulnerable, anonymous, passive, and ageless and the quintessential object of the male gaze. However, Neel's female nudes contradicted and "satirized the notion and the standards of the female body." By this sharp contrast to this prevailing idealistic idea of how the female body should be portrayed in art, art historians believe that she was able to free her female sitters from this prevailing ideology that in turn gave them an identity and power. Through her use of "expressive line, vibrant palette, and psychological intensity", Neel did not depict the human body in a realistic manner; it was the way she was able to capture and dignify her sitters' psychological and internal standpoint that made the portraits realistic. For this reason, many art critics today describe Neel's female nudes as truthful and honest portraits, although at the time the works were controversial in the art world because they questioned women's traditional role. Neel often painted women in social interaction or in public spaces, starkly challenging the "Spheres of Femininity" that most 19th-century women artists existed and worked within. In other words, it is believed that Neel challenged the norms of women's role in the household and in everyday life from her paintings.


title: Alice Neel

text: One of Neel's best known early female nude portraits is of Ethel V. Ashton (1930). Neel depicted Ethel, her friend from the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now part of Moore College of Art and Design), as many art historians described as "nearly crippled with self conscious by her own exposure". Ethel's body was exposed in a crouched seated position, where she was able to look the viewer directly in the eye. Ethel's eyes were commonly described as "soulful" and expressing a sense a fear. Neel painted her friend through a distorted scale that added to the idea of "vulnerability and fearfulness". Neel said of the image: "She's almost apologizing for living. And look at all the furniture she has to carry all the time." By furniture the artist "referred to her heavy thighs, bulging stomach, and pendulous breasts." The formal elements of the painting, light and shadow, the brushstrokes, and the color are suggested to add pathos and humor to the work but they are done in a precise manner to convey a certain tone, which is vulnerability. The painting was exhibited 43 years later at the Alumni Exhibition, where it was severely criticized by many art critics and the general public. The reaction that the painting received was a firm dislike as it was thought it was going against the norms of how female nudes were supposed to be depicted. Ethel, the female nude, saw it on display and "stormed out of rage". The particular painting of the female nude was neither sexual nor flattering to the female form. However, Neel's aim was not to paint the female body in an idealistic way, she wanted to paint in a truthful and honest manner. For this reason she thought of herself as a realist painter.


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel's second son, Hartley, was born in 1941 to Neel and her lover, the communist intellectual Sam Brody. During the 1940s, Neel made illustrations for the Communist publication, "Masses & Mainstream", and continued to paint portraits from her uptown home. However, in 1943 the Works Progress Administration ceased working with Neel, which made it harder for the artist to support her two sons. During this time Neel would shoplift and was on welfare to help make ends meet. Between 1940 and 1950, Neel's art virtually disappeared from galleries, save for one solo show in 1944. In the 1950s, Neel's friendship with Mike Gold and his admiration for her social realist work garnered her a show at the Communist-inspired New Playwrights Theatre. In 1959, Neel even made a film appearance after the director Robert Frank asked her to appear alongside a young Allen Ginsberg in his beatnik film, "Pull My Daisy" (1959). The following year, her work was first reproduced in "ARTnews" magazine.


title: Alice Neel

text: By the mid-1960s, many of Neel's female friends had become pregnant which inspired her to paint a series of these women nude. The portraits truthfully highlight instead of hiding the physical changes and emotional anxieties that coexist with childbirth. When she was asked why she painted pregnant nudes, Neel replied,


title: Alice Neel

text: It isn't what appeals to me, it's just a fact of life. It's a very important part of life and it was neglected. I feel as a subject it's perfectly legitimate, and people out of a false modesty, or being sissies, never show it, but it is a basic fact of life. Also, plastically, it is very exciting ... I think its part of the human experience. Something that primitives did, but modern painters have shied away from because women were always done as sexual objects. A pregnant woman has a claim staked out; she is not for sale.


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel chose to paint the "basic facts of life" and strongly believed that this form of subject matter is worthy enough to be painted in the nudes, which was what distinguished her from other artists of her time. The pregnant nudes suggested by the art historian, Ann Temkin, allowed Neel to "collapse the imaginary dichotomy that polarizes women into the chaste Madonna or the specter of the dangerous whore" as the portraits were of ordinary women that one sees all around, but not in art.


title: Alice Neel

text: One of her works that depicted a pregnant female nude is "Margaret Evans Pregnant" (1978), now in a private collection. Margaret was painted while sitting on upright chair that forced her to expose her pregnant stomach even more, which became the central point in the canvas. Right behind the chair a mirror was placed which allowed the viewer to see the back of her head and neck. However, the mirrored reflection did not look anything like Margaret's frontal portrait. The motive behind this particular section of the painting remains unknown, but art historian Jeremy Lewison says the image is "an uncanny double of the sitter and the artist, presaging older age", and suggests that the reflection is of an older and wiser woman and perhaps a combination of Margaret and Neel's reflection. Pamela Allara says Neel has been accurately characterized as a "sort of artist–sociologist who revived and redirected the dying genre of ameliorative portraiture by merging objectivity with subjectivity, realism with expressionism. In visually interpreting a person's habitus, Neel understood that she could not be an objective observer, that her depictions would of necessity include her own response."


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel painted Kate Millett in 1970, using photographs of Millett to do so, because Millett had refused to pose for Neel. Kate Millett was the author of "Sexual Politics"., an important text of second-wave feminism. Alice Neel's career was given new life by the feminist art movement, and Kate Millett was a feminist icon of the time. Neel considered herself "a collector of souls" and she aimed to capture Millett's powerful aura. Neel painted this portrait at a time when many independent women, fighting for equal opportunities and being ignored, were looking for a mentor. In this painting, Kate Millett is directly looking at the viewer, and her stare is very commanding. Kate Millett was featured in the September 25, 2017 issue of "Time" magazine, in which "Time" referred to her as the "high priestess" of feminism and to "Sexual Politics" as the feminist bible.


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel painted herself in her eightieth year of life, seated on a chair in her studio. She presented herself fully nude. She wore her glasses and held her paintbrush on right hand and an old cloth on the other hand. The white color of her hair and the several creases and folds of her bare skin indicated her old age. As she painted herself seated on the chair her body faced away from the viewer while head was turned towards the viewer. The portrait was completed in 1980 but she had started to paint it five years earlier, before abandoning it for a period of time. However, she was encouraged by her son Richard to complete it and came back to in her early 80s as she was also invited to take part in an exhibition of self-portraits at the Harold Reed Gallery in New York. When Neel's unconventional self-portrait was showcased it attracted considerable attention. Neel painted herself in a truthful manner as she exposed her saggy breasts and belly for everyone to see. Yet again in her last painting, she challenged the social norms of what was acceptable to be depicted in art. Her self-portrait was one of her last works before she died. On October 13, 1984, Neel died with her family present in her New York City apartment, from advanced colon cancer.


title: Alice Neel

text: Toward the end of the 1960s, interest in Neel's work intensified. The momentum of the women's movement led to increased attention, and Neel became an icon for feminists. In 1970, she was commissioned to paint the feminist activist Kate Millett for the cover of "Time" magazine. Millett refused to sit for Neel; consequently, the magazine cover was based on a photograph.


title: Alice Neel

text: Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.


title: Alice Neel

text: By the mid-1970s, Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important American artist. The American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters elected Neel in 1976. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented her with a National Women's Caucus for Art award for outstanding achievement. Neel's reputation was at its height at the time of her death in 1984.


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel's life and works are featured in the documentary "Alice Neel", which premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was directed by her grandson, Andrew Neel. The film was given a New York theatrical release in April of that year.


title: Alice Neel

text: Her career was used in a 3-episode series of the Freakonomics podcast "The Hidden Side of the Art Market", illustrating that "the art market is so opaque and illiquid that it barely functions like a market at all".


title: Alice Neel

text: Neel's work was included in the 2022 exhibition "Women Painting Women" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 1943, Neel's female nude portrait of Ethel Ashton was exhibited at Alumni Exhibition for the very first time, 13 years after the painting was created, and received brutal criticisms from art critics and the general public.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 1974, Neel's work was given a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and posthumously, in the summer of 2000, also at the Whitney.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 1980. she was invited to take part in an exhibition of self-portraits at the Harold Reed Gallery in New York, where her self-portrait was showcased for the first time.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 2004, the first exhibition dedicated to Neel's works in Europe was held in London, at the Victoria Miro Gallery. Jeremy Lewison, who had worked at the Tate, was the curator of the collection.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 2010, Jeremy Lewison and Barry Walker presented, for Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, "Alice Neel: Painted Truths", on view from March 21 to June 15, 2010, which later went to the Whitechapel Gallery, London and Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 2013, the first major presentation of the artist's watercolors and drawings, as "Alice Neel: Intimate Relations", was on view at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Skärhamn, Sweden.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 2016, the Ateneum, Helsinki presented "Alice Neel: Painter of Modern Life", which later went to the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France, and, in 2018, the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany, from October 10, 2017, to January 14, 2018.


title: Alice Neel

text: In 2017, Hilton Als curated the exhibition "Alice Neel, Uptown" at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London (May 18 – July 29, 2017).


title: Alice Neel

text: In March 2021, a career-spanning retrospective of Neel's work opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Titled "Alice Neel: People Come First", the exhibit featured more than 100 works and was the largest-ever show of Neel's work in New York and the first in two decades.


title: Alice Neel

text: In March 2022, "Alice Neel: People Come First", a retrospective of her work, opened at the de Young Museum on March 12 and running through to July 10.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: The Victoria Memorial is a monument to Queen Victoria, located at the end of The Mall in London, and designed and executed by the sculptor (Sir) Thomas Brock. Designed in 1901, it was unveiled on 16 May 1911, though it was not completed until 1924. It was the centrepiece of an ambitious urban planning scheme, which included the creation of the Queen’s Gardens to a design by Sir Aston Webb, and the refacing of Buckingham Palace (which stands behind the memorial) by the same architect.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Like the earlier Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, commemorating Victoria's consort, the Victoria Memorial has an elaborate scheme of iconographic sculpture. The central pylon of the memorial is of Pentelic marble, and individual statues are in Lasa marble and gilt bronze. The memorial weighs 2,300 tonnes (about 2535 short tons) and is 104 ft wide. In 1970 it was listed at Grade I.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: King Edward VII suggested that a joint Parliamentary committee should be formed to develop plans for a Memorial to Queen Victoria following her death. The first meeting took place on 19 February 1901 at the Foreign Office, Whitehall. The first secretary of the committee was Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham. Initially these meetings were behind closed doors, and the proceedings were not revealed to the public. However the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Joseph Dimsdale, publicly announced that the committee had decided that the memorial should be "monumental".


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, the secretary of the committee, submitted the proposal to the King on 4 March 1901. A number of sites were suggested, and the King visited both Westminster Abbey and the park near the Palace of Westminster. Several ideas were rumoured at this time, including an open square in The Mall near to the school Duke of York Column, and a memorial located in Green Park.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: On 26 March the decision was announced to locate the memorial outside Buckingham Palace and slightly shorten The Mall. It was estimated that the work would cost £250,000 and decided that there would be no grant given by the Government to the construction. Once the site was selected, a competition was conducted for the design. Five architects were chosen to develop designs. This phase lasted until the beginning of July 1901, when the committee selected its primary choice for the construction and took it to the King for approval. It was announced on 21 October 1902 that Thomas Brock had been chosen as the designer. The expectation was that the memorial would cost £200,000.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Funding for the memorial was gathered from around the British Empire as well as the public. The Australian House of Representatives granted a £25,000 contribution for the construction on 17 October 1905. The New Zealand government submitted a cheque for £15,000 towards the fund. By October 1901 some £154,000 had been gathered for the construction of the memorial. During 1902 a number of tribes from the west coast of Africa sent goods to be sold, with the proceeds going towards the fund. Alfred Lewis Jones had arranged for these items to be brought from Africa to Liverpool free of charge on his ships.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Following the public and national donations towards the funds, there was more money collected than was necessary for the construction of the Victoria Memorial. Funds were therefore diverted towards the construction of Admiralty Arch at the other end of The Mall, and a redevelopment to clear a path directly from that road into Trafalgar Square. Sir Aston Webb was put in charge of this project; he built the Arch so economically that enough money was left over to re-front the entirety of Buckingham Palace, a job that was completed in 13 weeks due to the pre-fabrication of the new stonework.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: The initial preparatory stage was to re-route the road and modify The Mall. Brock hoped that work on constructing the memorial itself could be started at some point in 1905. The lower half of the memorial was revealed to the public on 24 May 1909. Thousands of people visited it on the first day.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Following a practice ceremony on 11 March, in the presence of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, the dedication ceremony took place on 16 May 1911, presided over by King George V. His first cousin, Wilhelm II of Germany, was also present. These two were the senior grandsons of Victoria, and arrived, together with their families, in royal procession. Also in attendance were a large number of Members of Parliament, and representatives of various armed forces.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: In his role as Home Secretary, Winston Churchill carried the text of the speeches. Lord Esher addressed the King and the gathered crowd, explaining the history of the memorial. The King replied to this, referring to his involvement in the development of the monument to his grandmother. He talked of the impact of Queen Victoria and of her popularity with the public. In total, the ceremony went on for thirty minutes. Following this, it was revealed to the press that the King had decided that the sculptor of the memorial, Thomas Brock, was to be knighted.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: As part of the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the Victoria Memorial (along with areas in Green Park and Buckingham Palace) was used as a platform for a fireworks display which lasted fourteen minutes with a total of two and three-quarter tonnes of fireworks used. In addition, water jets were added to the fountains in the Victoria Memorial, which fired water up into the air. This display followed a concert held in the Palace forecourt.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: It was announced in February 2012 that the Victoria Memorial would form the centrepiece of the stage for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Concert on 4 June that year. Platforms designed by Mark Fisher were built around the memorial at a cost of £200,000, and were constructed in two weeks. A number of performers appeared from across the sixty years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, including Gary Barlow, Tom Jones, Elton John, Jessie J, Madness, Dame Shirley Bassey and Paul McCartney. Tickets were free and allocated by public ballot; and in addition to being seen live by the 10,000 fans in attendance, the event was broadcast by the BBC and highlights were shown in the United States on ABC.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Later in 2012, the memorial marked the end of "Our Greatest Team Parade" on 10 September 2012. This parade celebrated the successes of the British teams at the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. There were 21 floats holding a total of around 800 athletes, and it was estimated that around a million members of the public cheered them on. The area from Admiralty Arch to the Victoria Memorial down the Mall was reserved for ticket holders. After the arrival at the Victoria Memorial, there was a flypast by helicopters of the Royal Air Force, as well as a British Airways jet and a flight of the Red Arrows. During the games, the Mall and the Victoria Memorial had been used as the finishing point for the Marathon, as well as being on the triathlon route.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: The memorial was damaged by anti-austerity protesters during the "Million Mask March" on 5 November 2013, which took place in central London focused on Trafalgar Square and outside Buckingham Palace. During the following year's protests, the memorial was guarded by police officers.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: At the top of the central pylon stands a gilded bronze "Winged Victory", standing on a globe and with a victor's palm in one hand. Beneath her are personifications of "Constancy", holding a compass with its needle pointing true north, and "Courage", holding a club. Beneath these, on the eastern and western sides, are two eagles with wings outspread, representing Empire. Below these, statues of an enthroned Queen Victoria (facing The Mall) and of "Motherhood" (facing Buckingham Palace), with "Justice" (facing north-west towards Green Park) and "Truth" (facing south-east). These were created from solid blocks of marble, with "Truth" being sculpted from a block weighing 40 tonnes.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: Brock described the symbolism of the memorial, saying that it was devoted to the "qualities which made our Queen so great and so much beloved." He added that the statue of the Queen was placed to face towards the city, while flanked by "Truth" and "Justice" as he felt that "she was just and that she sought the truth always and in circumstances", while the "Motherhood" was to represent her "great love for her people".


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: At the four corners of the monument are massive bronze figures with lions, representing "Peace" (a female figure holding an olive branch), "Progress" (a nude youth holding a flaming torch), "Agriculture" (a woman in peasant dress with a sickle and a sheaf of corn) and "Manufacture" (a blacksmith in modern costume with a hammer and a scroll). The self-bases of the last two groups are inscribed .


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: The whole sculptural programme has a nautical theme, much like the rest of The Mall (Admiralty Arch, for example). This can be seen in the mermaids, mermen and the hippogriff, all of which are suggestive of the United Kingdom's naval power.


title: Victoria Memorial, London

text: The memorial is placed in the middle of an architectural setting of formal gardens and gates designed by the architect Sir Aston Webb.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Romancing SaGa is a 1992 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom. It is the fourth entry in the "SaGa" series. It was subsequently released for the WonderSwan Color in 2001 and mobile phones in 2009. A remake for the PlayStation 2, subtitled "Minstrel Song" in Japan, was released in both Japan and North America in 2005 by Square Enix. A remaster of "Minstrel Song" was released worldwide in 2022 for Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The storyline follows eight different protagonists on quests through the world of Mardias, all culminating in a fight against the dark god Saruin. Gameplay features nonlinear exploration of the game world, with the turn-based battles featuring group formations. As with other "SaGa" titles, there are no experience points and character attributes and skills are dependent on actions taken in battle.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Production began in 1990, with Nintendo requesting Square develop a new "SaGa" entry for the in-production Super Famicom after the success of "SaGa" titles on the Game Boy. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu acted as director, designer and scenario writer. The character designers were created by Tomomi Kobayashi in her first work for the series. The music was solely composed and arranged by Kenji Ito, who had previously co-composed music for "Final Fantasy Legend II". The title ""Romancing SaGa"" was based on the adventure movie "Romancing the Stone".


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Later versions included cut content and features from later "SaGa" titles. The PS2 remake included redrawn artwork by Yusuke Naora and a redone soundtrack from Ito. The Super Famicom version sold over one million copies, and met with positive reception in the region. The PS2 remake sold 500,000 units across Japan and North America, seeing mixed reviews in the West due to its difficulty and art style. The remaster saw some praise for its updates, but several found it unwelcoming for series newcomers. Two more "Romancing SaGa" titles were developed, and gameplay elements from "Romancing SaGa" would be used in subsequent "SaGa" titles.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: "Romancing SaGa" is a role-playing video game where the player takes on the role of eight different protagonists, playing through their narratives and an overarching story in a nonlinear style. After choosing a protagonist, the player explores the game's overworld freely, triggering narrative events, engaging in battles, and performing side activities. Over the course of the game a party of characters is built up, with some recruitable members being the unchosen protagonists. Progression of the main narrative is based on the number of events the player completes, their current strength, and speaking to certain characters. This free exploration is dubbed the Free Scenario System.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Battles trigger when the player encounters enemy sprites in field and dungeon environments. The party engages the enemy in a preset formation arranged on a 3x3 grid, which impacts both attack range and defence from enemies. Equipment for playable characters includes their current weapon and armour. Abilities use a pool of Battle Points (BP). There are no experience points, with character statistics raising at random based on actions in battle. New abilities are unlocked by using weapons enough times in battle. Winning the battle also grants the player money, used to buy items and equipment. If a party member falls, they will return to low health at the end of battle. If the entire party falls, the game ends.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The PlayStation 2 (PS2) remake "Minstrel Song" retains the original narrative and many gameplay concepts including non-linear exploration, but all environments are rendered in 3D and elements from later "SaGa" titles are incorporated. As with the original, once the protagonist is chosen, they can progress as they like through the scenario. The game uses a quick save function, creating a temporary save when the party is in field or dungeon environments. Hard saves can only be done in towns, where merchants selling new weapons and equipment can be utilised.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The player can customise their party through which characters they recruit, and character classes that impact abilities and statistics, magical schools that allow the blending of different elemental magic types, and weapon forging. In addition to statistics rising depending on battle actions, a character learns or upgrades their skills by using it multiple times in battle. If several party members focus on one enemy, they unlock a Combination attack. Character health is two-layered, with standard health and Life Points. LP are limited in number and only renewed by resting at an inn. A character loses LP by being knocked out enough times or through attacks which target LP; if the player character loses all LP, the game ends.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: "Romancing SaGa" is set in the fictional world of Mardias. 1000 years before the game's opening, a war raged between three evil gods—Death, Saruin, and Schirach—and the benevolent deity Elore. By the end, Death and Schirach are stripped of their powers, while Saruin is imprisoned through the combined effort of ten Fatestones and the sacrifice of the hero Mirsa. The Fatestones become scattered through the world, and the powers of darkness gather themselves to free Saruin from his imprisonment.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The game focuses on eight characters, each with their own narrative who are drawn into the quest to recover the Fatestones and defeat Saruin once more. They are Albert, heir to a noble lord in the region of Rosalia; Aisha, a peace-loving member of the nomadic Taralians; Jamil, a thief operating in the city of Estamir; Claudia, a woman raised by a witch in the land of Mazewood; Hawk, a notorious pirate; Sif, a warrior from the snow-covered region of Valhalland; Gray, a treasure-seeking adventurer; and Barbara, member of a travelling band of entertainers.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: While each character has their own personal quest, they are drawn into the quest for the Fatestones. In "Minstrel Song", the characters are overseen in their quest by the Minstrel, a figure who is secretly an avatar of Elore. Once enough Fatestones are collected, the chosen protagonist faces the reawakened Saruin, defeating him for good. If "Minstrel Song" is cleared with all eight characters, a final scene shows them talking together, then setting out as a group watched over by the Minstrel.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Production of "Romancing SaGa" began in 1990, when Nintendo approached series developer Square about developing a new "SaGa" title for their in-development Super Famicom. The request was due to the success of the previous "SaGa" titles on the Game Boy. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased at Nintendo's request, as he could make substantial improvements to his gameplay design on better hardware. There was also demand for a third Game Boy "SaGa", so two projects began in parallel; Kawazu led a team on "Romancing SaGa", while Square's new Osaka studio developed "Final Fantasy Legend III" (known in Japan as "SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha"). During early production, Kawazu wanted to break away from the "SaGa" brand and call the game something different, but ultimately it retained the "SaGa" name. The game's ""Romancing"" title was suggested by Nobuyuki Inoue, inspired by the adventure movie "Romancing the Stone". Kawazu was a little mixed on the impression given by the title, but the illustrations and music helped make the game more in line with the "romantic" style implied by the title. Kawazu acted as director, lead designer, and scenario writer. The producer was Masafumi Miyamoto, founder and former president of Square.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Production was difficult, as while Kawazu had a larger team to work with, they also faced new technical and design issues. Kawazu's aim was to change the gameplay style of having a single path players had to travel, instead creating multiple stories for players to experience at their own pace, giving birth to the Free Scenario System. The Free Scenario System was designed as a direct contrast to the linear story structure of Square's "Final Fantasy" series. The eight protagonists, with their own stories within the same world, drew inspiration from taiga dramas, with the number referencing the Japanese novel "Nansō Satomi Hakkenden". Albert's scenario was the first to be written. The number of characters was also due to Kawazu's wish for the formation system. The narrative was difficult for Kawazu, as he needed to create a central plotline while crafting eight independent narratives. Due to Nintendo's strict cart size limitations, several planned elements had to be cut from the final product.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The characters were designed by artist Tomomi Kobayashi. Kawazu had been looking for a suitable illustrator for some time, and when he saw samples of Kobayashi's work contacted her about working with him. "Romancing SaGa" was Kobayashi's first video game work, so she had to get used to the large amount of creative freedom she had compared to her previous projects. She was only ever sent a name and some elements from Kawazu, but otherwise left to her own devices. Kawazu had a lot of input on what the characters were like, such as Albert being the only left-handed character, but could not have as much influence as he wanted due to other development needs. Hawk's design was inspired by the character Blood from "Princess Knight". Kobayashi's favorite characters were Hawk and main antagonist Saruin. Kobayashi designed 40 unique characters, and at the height of her work was designing six per day.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The sprites were designed by Kazuko Shibuya, who had worked for the company since the 1980s and designed character sprites for the "Final Fantasy" series. She created the character sprites based on Kobayashi's designs. Due to their deep narrative connections, Kawazu asked Kobayashi to design the characters before any sprite work was done. An important part of the sprite design was keeping the "delicate" colours within the limited pixel art style of the game. The game made extensive use of kanji characters, as hiragana writing would take up too much space, but Kawazu needed to make sure the kanji was legible, making them extra-large and going against standard 8x8 pixel limit for writing. Yoshinori Kitase acted as the game's field map designer, creating the world map. The graphic design staff included Inoue, Tetsuya Takahashi and Hiroshi Takai, the latter of whom would work as a designer on future "SaGa" titles.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: "Romancing SaGa" released on January 28, 1992. It was the second Super Famicom title released by Square, following "Final Fantasy IV" in 1991. Three guidebooks for the game were published by NTT Publishing under Square's supervision between February and May 1992. A further guidebook, "Romancing SaGa Destiny Guide", was published on December 20, 2001 by DigiCube. The game received Virtual Console re-releases on the Wii in 2009, the Wii U in 2015, and the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. Gaming magazine "GamePro" reported that "Romancing SaGa" was going to be localised in 1993, releasing under a different title. Ultimately the Super Famicom version of "Romancing SaGa" went unreleased outside Japan, due to a combination of its potentially off-putting complexity and the amount of text needing translation. An English fan translation, which required an official retail cartridge to run, was released online in 2015.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: In September 2000, Square announced it had begun development on an enhanced version of "Romancing SaGa" for the Bandai WonderSwan Color handheld system. The game was ported to the platform by Kan Navi. Square was one of the major supporters for the WonderSwan platform during its tenure. Its non-appearance on the equivalent Game Boy Advance was due to Square and Nintendo's long-standing enmity over Square's break from them to develop for Sony's PlayStation. According to the company, some of the original Super Famicom version's planned material was unable to be added during its original release due to memory restrictions, and that the new hardware would allow for a more "complete" version of the game. The gameplay balance was identical, but they added the ability to dash, avoiding enemy encounters. The newly added material includes an additional story scenario, as well as a side-quest that allows the player to gather all ten "Destiny Stone" items where previously only a few were accessible. The game was released in Japan on December 20, 2001. It formed part of a series dubbed "Square Masterpiece", a series of their classic titles for the WonderSwan platform.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: "Romancing SaGa" was also ported to mobile platforms by Square Enix. This version was based on the WonderSwan port, with some of the graphics adjusted for mobile platforms. It released on March 5, 2009 for i-mode models, March 18 for SoftBank, and July 9, 2009 for EZweb. The mobile version closed in 2018, when the services for older mobile titles were shut down.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: A remake for the PlayStation 2, titled "Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song" in Japan, was developed by Square Enix. Kawazu decided to produce the remake following the release of "Unlimited Saga", which had received much feedback due to its experimental gameplay. The remake was developed by Square Enix's Product Development Division 2, carrying over the original staff while aiming to make the game more approachable than the original version. After the approach used in "Unlimited Saga", Kawazu designed the game to be a more traditional role-playing experience. Kawazu added in many elements for the remake that he originally planned for "Romancing SaGa". The remake featured a number of aesthetic and mechanical changes, originating after Kawazu told the team they could make as many changes as they pleased. Adjustments were made so that players could easily experience all eight character narratives. There were also additional tutorials to explain game mechanics. Kawazu described the purpose of the remake as "a functional compilation of the whole "SaGa" series" that would combine elements from previous "SaGa" titles into one definitive game. Kawazu acted as producer and director. Takai returned to help with the game's design.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The art style referenced the sprite design of the original game, which Kawazu called more original than the prevalent realistic style of series like "Final Fantasy". It also emerged as an expression of the team's taste, without intending to appeal to the Japanese or international market. It was also described as more "explosive" and expressive than the graphical style of "Unlimited Saga". The characters were redrawn by Yusuke Naora, lead artist of "Unlimited Saga". A notable added character was the assassin Darque; Kawazu originally meant him as a new protagonist, but he ultimately became a new recruitable character. The graphical style made use of the "sketch motion" techniques used in "Unlimited Saga", with the original artwork mapped onto 3D models. Kobayashi returned to create new art, including character sketches based on Naora's redesigns. The game's logo made reference to the Minstrel, a recurring figure in the game.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The game was announced in September 2004 via an issue of "Jump", and released in Japan on April 21, 2005. A dedicated guidebook in Square Enix's "Ultimania" was released on July 17, containing gameplay explanations, a strategy guide, interviews with the production team, and a gallery of promotional and concept art. The "Ultimania" also included a novella written by Benny Matsumaya, a long-standing contributor to the "SaGa" series' additional media. The game later re-released through PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 on April 9, 2015 as a PS2 Classic. Its release, together with a special edition which included a download code and a jigsaw with an artwork by Kobayashi, formed part of the company's 25th anniversary celebrations of the "SaGa" series.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: A North American release was announced at E3 2005, featuring alongside other major titles from the company including "Dragon Quest VIII", "Final Fantasy XII" and "Kingdom Hearts II". The game released in North America on October 11. For its Western release, the ""Minstrel Song"" subtitle was dropped as the original had never released outside Japan. The English dub was handled by New Generation Pictures, who had collaborated with Square Enix on several titles within the "Final Fantasy" and "Valkyrie Profile" series. The localized version received no European release. Due to the existence of "Minstrel Song" and its Western release, the original title was not remastered as later "Romancing SaGa" titles were. A remaster of "Minstrel Song" was announced in May 2022 for Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The remaster includes upscaled graphics, improved gameplay and additional elements. The game was released on December 1, 2022.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: The music of "Romancing SaGa" was composed and arranged by Kenji Ito, who had previously worked as co-composer for "Final Fantasy Legend II" (known in Japan as "SaGa 2: Hihō Densetsu") alongside Nobuo Uematsu. Ito had helped with the sound design of "Final Fantasy IV", and knew that much of the cartridge space had been taken up with the graphics, impacting the music's quality. Kawazu gave no specific instructions about songs, but often requested rewrites. Ito delivered most of the score before the final four months of production, and then had more rewrite requests. When creating the score, Ito broke away from the musical style of "Final Fantasy IV", which had emulated fingerstyle playing, instead emulating slapping with help from sound designer Minoru Akao. Compared to the "smooth" sound of "Final Fantasy", Ito described the score of "Romancing SaGa" as "rough", using different instruments to Uematsu's work. Ito was left completely burnt out after his work on the game. Two soundtrack albums were released in by NTT Publishing; the original soundtrack, and an arrange album. A remaster of the original album was reissued in 2019.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Ito returned as composer and arranger for the PS2 remake. Ito found returning to "Romancing SaGa" both enjoyable and painful due to the fan expectations and love surrounding the title. A part he enjoyed was allowing tracks to sound as they were intended outside the hardware limitations of the Super Famicom. Ito worked on the revised score for two years, joined in his work by Tsuyoshi Sekito and Kenichiro Fukui. The battle theme "Passionate Rhythm" featured vocal contributions from Kyoko Kishikawa, who had previously worked with Ito and other composers including Yasunori Mitsuda and Yoshitaka Hirota. Square Enix hired singer-songwriter Masayoshi Yamazaki to perform the remake's theme song "Minuet".


title: Romancing SaGa

text: Upon release, the game topped the "Famitsu" sales charts from February 1992 to March 1992. By 2002, "Romancing SaGa" had sold 970,000 copies in Japan, ranking as the fifth best-selling "SaGa" title at the time. As of 2004, the Super Famicom original has sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide; over 1.1 million were sold in Japan, with further overseas sales adding 150,000.


title: Romancing SaGa

text: "Famitsu" magazine's panel of four reviewers faulted the game's graphics as inferior to those of "Final Fantasy", but lauded the freedom of choice given to players through its narrative and gameplay progression. "Super Famicom Magazine" praised the game's Free Scenario System, which allowed players to repeatedly enjoy the game however they wished. In March 2006, readers of "Famitsu" voted it the 53rd best video game of all time as part of the magazine's "All Time Top 100" poll. Writing in a 2017 retrospective on the original game, Tristan Ettleman of "Vice" praised the game's ambitious open-ended structure compared to other titles of the time, but faulted its execution and confusing battle mechanics.