Drowned God

Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages is a 1996 science fiction adventure game developed by Epic Multimedia Group and published by Inscape. The game propounds the conspiracy theory that all of human history is a lie and that the human race's development and evolution were aided by extraterrestrials. The player attempts to uncover the truth through the course of the game by traveling to a variety of different worlds, interacting with historical and fictional characters, and solving puzzles.
"Drowned God" is based on a forged manuscript written by Harry Horse in 1983, purported to have been written by 19th-century poet Richard Henry Horne, who shares Horse's birth name. After facing legal trouble and fines when he attempted to sell the text, Horse shelved it until playing "Myst" and "The 7th Guest" in the mid-1990s, whereupon he decided a first-person adventure game would be the best way to tell the manuscript's story.
Producer Algy Williams hired a team of multimedia artists and programmers to help Horse develop "Drowned God". Upon its release, the game sold well, but it quickly faded in popularity due to bugs and a lack of patches. "Drowned God"s concept and visuals were widely praised, while its gameplay, audio, and puzzles received more varied responses. A planned sequel never came to fruition.
Plot.
Background.
"Drowned God"'s concept centers around the idea that human history has been manipulated to cover up certain facts. The true history, according to the game, is that aliens from the Orion area of space seeded humanity on Earth thousands of years ago and have since guided its development. An ancient, highly developed civilization was lost millennia ago in the Great Flood. The library of Alexandria housed much of what game writer Harry Horse called "forbidden knowledge" before it was destroyed; the Knights Templar, whose membership included luminaries such as Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton, preserved the information for centuries. In the 20th century, the Philadelphia Experiment opened a gateway into another dimension, first freeing the aliens Horse refers to as "the Legion", and an independent government group spent the subsequent decades in contact with the aliens following the Roswell incident.
Story.
The game's plot begins in a chamber containing the Bequest Globe, a device which the player has recently inherited. The Globe is a giant brass cylinder full of gears, fronted by a clock face made of sliding and rotating plates comprising twenty-two Roman numerals, which represent the Major Arcana, with the Jewish Kabbalah in its center. A voice welcomes the player and tells them the Globe is a gift, then explains that the player must unlock the secret of the drowned god.
The player initially must enter their name into the device, which then displays a series of past lives the player has lived. The name is converted into its numerological equivalent. Above and below the central chamber are two other areas, called Kether and Malchut respectively, each of which houses a display screen with a mask-like face that provides the player with information about the next task. The motivations of the two organizations represented by the faces are murky, although it becomes clear they are acting in opposition to each other. Both masks refer to the player by their assigned number.
The player must enter four different worlds through the Bequest Globe, each of which is an amalgamation of historical and fantastical elements and is named after one of the sefirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The player seeks to recover four lost artifacts: the Rod of Osiris, the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's stone, and the Ark of the Covenant. According to Horse, "The relics you're searching for are not what you think they are". The first world, Binah, includes aspects of Arthurian legend, including Morgan le Fay and the Knights Templar, as well as Stonehenge. The second, Chesed, features Aztec ruins and a submarine interior. The third, Din, centers around an underground transit system, a steampunk carnival, and a mechanical maze. The final world, Chokhmah, takes place outside Area 51.
Throughout the game, the player finds and uses Tarot cards to unlock new areas and gain more information about the true history of the world. Upon returning to the Bequest Globe between worlds, the player sees the Roman numerals in its display light up in relation to the cards that have been recovered. After recovering three of the lost artifacts, the player fails to recover the last one, the Ark of the Covenant, which takes the form of a nuclear warhead. The player is able to choose one of three endings, depending on whether they decide to enter a final doorway in the chambers of one of the two opposing factions represented by Kether and Malchut, or enter a new central chamber via the Bequest Globe.
Choosing either of the two doors results in an ending in which the player is trapped in a dystopian world: either Kether's, a technological police state, or Malchut's, a society of forced genetic manipulation. Both have ominous men in black overseeing the proceedings. If the player instead chooses to open the central chamber, a scene with a group of grey aliens approaching is briefly shown, wherein they say, "We are coming, for we are Legion." All three options lead to the same ending credits, which feature a voice-over describing the murder of Osiris.
Gameplay.
"Drowned God" uses a point and click interface and a first-person perspective typical of games similar to "Myst" of the mid- to late-1990s. The player navigates and interacts with the game world by clicking the mouse on different parts of the screen. The mouse cursor changes shape depending on the action clicking will perform: an arrow for moving to another location, a face with an arrow to pick up or place Tarot cards, and an Eye of Providence for activating or interacting with objects in the environment. Frequent cutscenes provide background information and advance the storyline.
The game is filled with a variety of puzzles that must be solved to advance the story. These include memory games and mazes. Others involve competing against a computer-controlled opponent, completing a sequence in a limited number of moves, operating mechanisms, or using an inventory item. Puzzles do not all have to be completed in a precise order; there is some flexibility in terms of being able to move through game areas and work on different challenges.
One of the best received puzzles in the game involves arranging the pieces of a dialogue between the sculpted heads of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. The player listens to the randomly ordered statements made by each head, then decides how to chronologically arrange the statements to form a coherent conversation based on context.
Development.
Harry Horse conceived the game's ancient planetwide conspiracy. Horse had previously written several children's books and received the Scottish Arts Council Writer of the Year award for his 1983 book "The Ogopogo: My Journey with the Loch Ness Monster". He began forging documents that same year as a way to earn money. The story which became the basis for "Drowned God" was originally a phony manuscript Horse wrote in 1983, ostensibly describing events after the destruction of the lost city of Atlantis. The manuscript, dated 1846, was said to have been written by the English poet Richard Horne, who shares Horse's birth name. Horse's initiation into the concept of an alternate history came in the early 1980s, when he first encountered professor Ian Halpke, who explained to him that information from the Kabbalah and ancient Jewish texts "hide and encipher the secret", namely, human evolution was aided by extraterrestrial intelligence. According to Horse, Halpke believed the Ark of the Covenant was a nuclear device, and that humans and pigs share compatible genes.
Initially, experts determined the manuscript was genuine, as the date Horse picked matched the time period Horne had been alive and active, and the manuscript's topics matched the poet's interests. Horse had written the manuscript without knowing any of these details. After his hoax was discovered, Horse held onto the text for the next decade, until he played "Myst" and "The 7th Guest" and decided the point-and-click adventure genre was a good match for his conspiracy theory-inspired ideas. He later said that while the story of "Myst" did not interest him, the game's artwork and the sense of immersion inspired him to immediately begin working on "Drowned God" in 1994.
The game was originally commissioned by a division of Time Warner and was later taken over by Inscape when that division closed. Horse worked with Inigo Orduna and Anthony McGaw for six months designing the game, then cooperated with the game's artists and modelers until the project's completion. The game's producer, Algy Williams, hired puzzle expert Chris Maslanka, whose output he called "fiendishly difficult", to design the game's puzzles together with John Morris. Williams also employed sculptor Greg Boulton, who had previously worked on the Peter Gabriel video "Sledgehammer". "Drowned God" music was written and performed by an ambient music duo operating under the name Miasma. William S. Burroughs was originally scheduled to narrate the game, but died just before he could begin recording. McGaw and Williams later founded the company Babel Media, which specializes in video game localization.
Release.
"Drowned God" was released on October 31, 1996 for the Windows 95 operating system. Around the same time there was going to be a release for Windows 3.1x but those plans were cancelled. In its first two weeks, it sold 34,000 copies in the United States. It was one of the top ten best-selling video games in United States during the first month after its release, but bugs and poor support from the developers caused it to fall out of favor with gamers by December. By February 1998, the game had sold over 60,000 copies. Around the time of the game's release, Horse stated that its story was incomplete, and that the rest of the story would be revealed in a sequel called "CULT", planned to center around Area 51. However, he killed himself, as well as his wife and pets, a decade after the game's release, and no sequel was ever completed.
Reception.
"Drowned God" received mixed reviews, with many critics complimenting the game's ideas and imagery while giving a less favorable response to its audio, puzzles, and execution. "GameSpot" reviewer Vince Broady wrote that the game sounded very promising, and might "also raise awareness of the thread of deception that runs throughout recorded history." Steve Ramsey of "Quandary" said "Drowned God" presented its massive assortment of conspiracy theories entertainingly. Ray Ivey of Just Adventure called "Drowned God" "the strangest, creepiest, most psychedelic adventure game I've yet to come across." Although Ivey did not understand much of the game, he found it enjoyable, because "it made sense to the game's characters and creators."
T. Liam McDonald of "PC Gamer" wrote that he was "fascinated by the strong sense of style and the intellectual approach to terrific subject matter". Steven Levy and Patricia King of "Newsweek" found the game to be "richly detailed and original". In 2012, Andy Hughes of Topless Robot put the game at the top of his list of "9 Surprising Literary References In Videogames". Hughes wrote that the game was one that could be played from start to finish "without having any idea what the hell's going on", noting its references to a wide variety of subjects, including Egyptian mythology, ", and the Bermuda Triangle.
Broady complimented the graphics, writing, "Drowned God" is loaded with freaky animations and unexpected visual twists". Ramsey praised the visuals and the audio, saying both contributed to the game's "shadowy and secretive feelings". His one significant criticism was that dialogue was difficult to hear, with no option to display text for it. Regarding the game's audio aspect, Broady said, "The soundtrack is less impressive, primarily because of overuse: The background effects drone on mercilessly, and many of the game's narratives (which are universally well-written and finely acted) must be listened to over and over again."
The puzzles, according to Broady, were of uneven quality. He called some "hopelessly difficult" and others extremely derivative. By contrast, he viewed the Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton dialogue puzzle as "brilliant", but said, "Ideas as original as Horse's call for puzzles to match, not rehashes of things we've seen far too many times already." Ramsey thought the puzzles were challenging but not overly difficult, arguing "on almost every occasion I felt that I was making progress, and I never felt bogged down and hopelessly lost." He felt the puzzles were mostly well-integrated, and found those that were not did not detract from his enjoyment. Ivey remarked, "For puzzle lovers, "Drowned God" is a treasure trove. ... This collection of tricky puzzlers are challenging and frequently innovative."
Broady panned the navigation for being confusing, counter-intuitive, and requiring the player to revisit locations multiple times. He concluded his review by saying, "The net effect is that the story—which made this game so intriguing in the first place—is almost totally lost, and that is a shame." GameSpot considered the game one of the most disappointing of 1996 in their annual recap, writing "the great premise is buried like the mysteries of the ages themselves under a mediocre "Myst" clone". Bob Strauss of "Entertainment Weekly" opined that the game tried to be too many things, and quipped, "the result is a game so obscure, you'd be better off perusing something more comprehensible—like the collected works of Zoroaster." Mark Reece and Brooke Adams of "Deseret News" also had mixed feelings about the game, calling it both "clever and deep" and "frustrating and difficult". McDonald wrote that he was "frustrated by the lack of good game play." Hughes called the pace of the game and its puzzles both "tedious" and "ponderous", but said it "had ambition out the genetically modified ears."
The editors of CNET Gamecenter nominated "Drowned God" for their 1996 "Best Adventure Game" award, which ultimately went to "The Neverhood". They wrote, "The "National Enquirer" meets "Myst". For the adventure gamer with a taste for mouse-pounding puzzles—it just didn't get much better than this."


John Guttag

John Vogel Guttag (born March 6, 1949) is an American computer scientist, professor, and former head of the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.
Education and career.
John Guttag was raised in Larchmont, New York, the son of Irwin Guttag (1916–2005) and Marjorie Vogel Guttag.
John Vogel Guttag received a bachelor's degree in English from Brown University in 1971, and a master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Brown in 1972. In 1975, he received a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Southern California from 1975 to 1978, and joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty in 1979.
From 1993 to 1998, he served as associate department head for computer science of MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. From January 1999 through August 2004, he served as head of that department. EECS, with approximately 2000 students and 125 faculty members, is the largest department at MIT.
He helped student Vanu Bose start a company with software-defined radio technology developed at MIT.
Guttag also co-heads the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory's Networks and Mobile Systems Group. This group studies issues related to computer networks, applications of networked and mobile systems, and advanced software-based medical instrumentation and decision systems. He has also done research, published, and lectured in the areas of software engineering, mechanical theorem proving, hardware verification, compilation, software radios, and medical computing.
Guttag serves on the board of directors of Empirix and Avid Technology, and on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2006 he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
He is one of the founders of Health[at]Scale Technologies, a machine learning and artificial intelligence company.


Moonshine Kate

Moonshine Kate (born Rosa Lee Carson, October 10, 1909, Atlanta, Georgia - 1992, Bainbridge, Georgia) was an American country and folk guitarist and banjo player who is best known for recording with her father Fiddlin' John Carson and his band, the Virginia Reelers. Kate was among the earliest recorded women in country music, and arguably her best remembered song was a rendition of her father's composition "Little Mary Phagan".
Carson was born the youngest of nine children in Atlanta, Georgia. As early as the age of five, she appeared as a vocalist and dancer at stage shows and political rallies as an accompaniment to her father's musical act. By age 14, Carson proficiently performed with the guitar and banjo as she played alongside her father on Atlanta's flagship radio station, WSB, and toured with him and the Virginia Reelers throughout Georgia. When Carson graduated from high school, she became a permanent member of the band.
In June 1925, Carson made her recording debut accompanying her father on guitar on four sides for OKeh Records. In the same session, she also recorded two solo efforts, "The Lonely Child", which was about a lonely wandering orphan, and "Little Mary Phagan". The somber ballad was composed by Fiddlin' Jon Carson in 1915, as a response to the notorious, and highly publicized murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, which was allegedly perpetrated by her manager, Leo Frank. She played and recorded with the Virginia Reelers until 1934, adopting the stage name Moonshine Kate in 1928 at the suggestion of Okeh Records man Polk Brockman. Many of Kate's recordings for Okeh play up her name, consisting of short musical passages interspersed with quick-witted dialogues revolving around the moonshine trade.
The Great Depression ended the Carsons' recording days, and she continued to perform intermittently, also working with Eugene Talmadge on his 1932 bid for Governor of Georgia and for the Atlanta Department of Recreation. She married in 1944 and retired in Georgia. In 1983, both she and her father were inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.


Joe Gannon

Joe Gannon is a Philadelphia native, recording producer, director, musical stage lighting and production designer. Gannon operated and managed Frank Zappa’s record company and produced records for CBS. He worked as road manager for Bill Cosby and staged Madonna's first film appearance. He toured internationally as a producer, director and lighting designer for such stars as Alice Cooper, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, Barry Manilow, Julio Iglesias.
Neil Diamond.
In 1970, Gannon was one of the first production designers to use moving sets on rock concert tours while working with Neil Diamond. Joe Gannon was Neil's road manager, lighting director and show consultant in the early 70's. Gannon's involvement was credited as the reason for the great improvement in Neil's stage presentations by the time of the legendary 1972 "Hot August Night" concert series.
Alice Cooper.
Expanding upon creative input from Alice Cooper and Shep Gordon, Gannon was responsible for turning Cooper's vision into a tangible, three-dimensional nightmare reality of magic and wonderment. These set designs resulted in some of the most elaborate stage and light presentations of any rock show, setting a new standard in terms of sheer massive size. In 1974, Gannon directed the documentary film, "Good To See you Again, Alice Cooper", which was re-released in 2005.
The Kingston Trio.
In the early 1950s after serving the Navy, Gannon attended Menlo Park College, School of Business Administration in California. There he met Dave Guard, Nick Reynolds and singer Barbara Bogue (she later became his wife) who together began a singing group called "Dave Guard & the Calypsonians" and later, "The Kingston Quartet". The group performed at college frat parties and were regulars playing the Cracked Pot Club across the street from campus, Gannon playing stand-up bass. He left the group after graduation in 1956, moving to Minneapolis where he went into business. The Calypsonians regrouped with Guard, Reynolds and Bob Shane becoming known as The Kingston Trio. Gannon returned to California and eventually became the long-time road manager, then later business manager for the Trio. In 2000 The Kingston Trio was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
In 1967 Joe was credited as recording engineer on the "Lost Kingston Trio Album", which was recorded at the breakup of the group with John Stewart.
Personal life.
His wife, Beverly Gannon, is a prominent chef in Maui, where one of her three restaurants is named after him.


Diana Vickers

Diana Vickers (born 30 July 1991) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer, who initially came to public attention as a semi-finalist on "The X Factor" in 2008. Vickers signed a record deal with RCA Records and, after touring with her fellow finalists from "The X Factor", played the title role in a West End revival of "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice".
Vickers' 2010 debut single, "Once", charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart and her debut album, "Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree", achieved number one status on the UK Albums Chart. Her follow-up singles, "The Boy Who Murdered Love" and "My Wicked Heart", reached the top 40 and top 20 respectively. Vickers' second album, "Music to Make Boys Cry", followed in 2013, accompanied by the singles "Cinderella", "Music to Make Boys Cry", and "Mad at Me".
Vickers unveiled her debut fashion line in 2011, and her boho-chic approach to fashion has received praise from British fashion media. She made her film debut in "The Perfect Wave" and her television acting debut in the comedy series "Give Out Girls", both of which premiered in 2014.
Early life.
Vickers was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. She studied for A Levels in Theatre Studies, Classics and Psychology at Westholme School in Blackburn. Vickers has been singing since the age of 11, taking singing lessons and participating in local competitions, but did not sing professionally before adulthood.
Music career.
2008–09: "The X Factor".
In 2008 Vickers auditioned for the fifth series of "The X Factor", singing "The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice, after which Louis Walsh commented that she resembled a "little hippie". Vickers was selected for the live shows and was mentored by Cheryl Cole in the girls' category alongside Alexandra Burke and Laura White.
Vickers' live show performances attracted both praise and criticism. While on the show, she often performed with bare feet. Vickers additionally gained attention for her hand gestures on stage coining the nickname "The Claw".
On her first live show, Vickers sang U2's "With or Without You" and Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror", for which she received praise from Dannii Minogue, describing it as "box fresh", with Simon Cowell remarking she was "the one to beat". The following week Vickers performed Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" and Blondie's "Call Me", which again received praise from the judges. In week five of the live show stages, Vickers did not perform due to a bout of laryngitis. She had wanted to perform the Mariah Carey song "Always Be My Baby", but her doctor advised her not to, saying Vickers could do permanent damage to her vocal cords. This was the first time on the show that the producers had excused any act from performing.
In week six, Vickers returned to the programme performing Coldplay's "Yellow", which received a negative reaction from the judges; Dannii Minogue commented that she did not "love the song choice", while Cowell suggested Vickers was still not well enough to perform. In week seven, Vickers performed Take That's "Patience" commenting that she now felt 100%.
In the semi-final of the competition, Vickers performed Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" as her first song and received positive comments from the judges, including Cheryl Cole's comment that "she had got that sparkle back". Vickers followed this with Dido's "White Flag" but was voted out of the competition. She performed a reprise of "White Flag", however, she was too emotional to complete the performance. She achieved fourth place overall. Following the end of the series, she went on tour with the rest of the final eight contestants on "The X Factor" Live tour between February and March 2009.
2009–10: Record deal and "Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree".
Vickers signed to Sony Music's RCA Records. She began work on her debut album in January 2009, commenting that it would not be rushed and that it would be "Diana style". She worked with Cathy Dennis, Eg White, Nerina Pallot, Ellie Goulding, Guy Sigsworth, Chris Braide, Savan Kotecha, Starsmith, Patrick Wolf, and Dev Hynes.
In March 2010, Vickers' first leg of the Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree Tour took place,
followed by a second leg in May 2010 to coincide with the release of her debut album, "Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree", which charted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. "Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree" has since been certified gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000 copies. Vickers' debut single, "Once", was written by Cathy Dennis and Eg White and produced by Mike Spencer. The track was released in the United Kingdom in April 2010 and playlisted on Radio 1, where Vickers performed an acoustic version of "Once" and a cover of Snow Patrol's "Just Say Yes" for the Live Lounge. "Once" entered the UK Singles Chart at number one. "The Boy Who Murdered Love", written and produced by Chris Braide (with lyric contribution from Vickers), was released as the second single and charted at number 36 in the UK. During mid 2010, Vickers performed at numerous music festivals such as the Freedom Festival, iTunes Festival, Oxygen Festival, Radio 1's Big Weekend, Summer Sundae, T in the Park, T4 on the Beach, and V Festival. Vickers also supported Mika at the Eden Sessions in June 2010.
Vickers' third single was a previously unheard track titled "My Wicked Heart", co-written by Vickers and producers Dee Adams and James Earp, which features Vickers playing the trumpet. The single was released in October 2010 and reached number 13 in the UK; the same month, it was reported that Red Hot Chili Peppers was considering legal action over similarities between the chorus of the band's well-known song "Under the Bridge" and "My Wicked Heart". Vickers said in an interview that she had been listening to "Under the Bridge" shortly before working on "My Wicked Heart" and had noticed but decided to ignore the similarities. In an interview to promote the single, Vickers announced the possibility of "Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree" getting a solely digital download re-release, and also stated, "I've been writing so much and got so many tracks under my belt. I think I'm very close to ready for the second album actually." The fourth leg of the Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree Tour began in November 2010 and included dates in Ireland as well as the UK. At the end of 2010, Vickers became RCA's highest grossing domestic artist.
2011–13: "Music to Make Boys Cry" and side projects.
In June 2010, Vickers announced that she had started preparing songs for a second album. She co-wrote material with musicians such as Nerina Pallot, Eg White, Starsmith, Chris Braide, and Dee Adam. In January 2011, Vickers travelled to Los Angeles, United States, to co-write material with John Shanks and Diane Warren, and played her debut USA gig at Cherry Pop in West Hollywood (promoted via Perez Hilton).
Vickers co-wrote the 2011 Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez single "Mouth 2 Mouth" for Iglesias's reissue album "Euphoria Reloaded".
In June 2011, Vickers revealed on her official Tumblr account that she had parted company with RCA Records due to creative differences. It was later reported that her departure was due to wanting to pursue a more indie, less commercial route, coupled with a breakdown in her professional relationship with Sony Music due to the departure from RCA Records of Craig Logan, who had originally signed Vickers to the label. Vickers released two new tracks, "Music to Make Boys Cry" and "Kiss of a Bullet", for free download online in December 2011. In February 2012, she showcased material from her second album in a mini-tour at The Ruby Lounge in Manchester and Cargo in Shoreditch, London. She signed a worldwide record deal with So Recordings in early 2013.
Vickers' second album, "Music to Make Boys Cry", was released in September 2013, later than anticipated due to Vickers starring in an independent film titled "The Perfect Wave". The album charted at number 37 on the UK Albums Chart and reached the top ten on the UK Indie Chart. The lead single, "Cinderella", was released in July 2013 and charted in the top 20 of the UK Indie Chart; the second single, "Music to Make Boys Cry", coincided with the album's release in September. Vickers promoted the album during the 2013 music festival season with appearances at Festival Too, Liverpool International Music Festival, T in the Park, and V Festival; for some of these performances she opened for fellow "The X Factor" alumnus Olly Murs. The third single from "Music to Make Boys Cry", "Mad at Me", was released in December.
In 2013, Vickers appeared as the lead in a music video for the single "Derail" by Leeds rock band Dinosaur Pile-Up. In the music video, Vickers plays the part of a kidnapped girl who subsequently kills a man in the shower after the kidnapping. The same year, Vickers was featured singing on the One Direction television advertisement for the launch of their debut fragrance, Our Moment. Vickers sings a cover of "My Favourite Things", a song from the musical "The Sound of Music".
Lately dedicated in her career in acting, Vickers' launched in August 2015 the song "Chains", which was used to promote the film "Awaiting".
Artistry.
Vickers' musical style includes simple folk-tinged, keyboard and guitar based ballads to more up-tempo indie rock and synth-based songs with full band backing. Her musical style has been compared to Kate Bush, Ellie Goulding, Dido, and Dolores O'Riordan. Vickers additionally showcases an idiosyncratic style of singing described as breathy, raspy and hiccupy. Vickers has cited an array of influences including Florence + The Machine, Kate Bush, Regina Spektor, Kings of Leon, Frou Frou, Sinéad O'Connor and The Sundays. Vickers commented on her musical style and debut album, "Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree" (2010), saying:
For her album "Music to Make the Boys Cry" (2013), Vickers initially described her new musical direction as "sexy", "adventurous" and influenced by indie and rock music, citing the works of The xx, The Doors, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Björk. Later she described the album as "Kylie-esque" and inspired by 1980s acts including Blondie, Cyndi Lauper, and Madonna, saying she had "got to the core of who I am as an artist [...] [my music is] more mature and sophisticated and feels like there’s more of a structure and consistent vibe to it".
Other ventures.
Acting career.
Vickers made her professional acting debut in the title role of a newly revived West End production of Jim Cartwright's "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice" in October 2009 at the Vaudeville Theatre, on The Strand, London. She played Little Voice, impersonating singers such as Shirley Bassey, Edith Piaf and Judy Garland. Mark Owen of Take That wrote "Sunlight", the final song in the play for Vickers to sing. "Sunlight" was featured as a B-side for her debut single, "Once".
Vickers took a break from recording her debut album to star in the production.
Her performance received a positive review in "The Guardian" in which they said that "[Vickers'] singing is impressive, we were surprised at her vocal abilities." Her stint was deemed "magical" in "The Daily Telegraph". She won the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award "London Newcomer of the Year" in February 2010 for her performance, with 34.5% of the vote out of 7 other competitors.
In 2012, it was announced that Vickers had landed her debut film role alongside Clint Eastwood's son in the independent film "The Perfect Wave". Vickers stated, "It's a lot about surfing and it's to do with the power of life and death. It's quite interesting. I'm going to learn how to surf." Vickers travelled to Cape Town, South Africa for the shoot, putting the release of her second album on hold. The film was released in 2014.
In 2013, Sky Living confirmed that Vickers had signed to appear in a six-part comedy series titled "Give Out Girls", which marks Vickers' debut in television acting. The series follows the endeavours and lives of a group of promotions girls. Vickers plays Gemma, the youngest of the group, who is bright and enthusiastic with a naive view of the world. The series filmed in Manchester and is distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide. It premiered on Comedy Central in October 2014.
From December 2013, Vickers played the role of Holly in the West End play "The Duck House" by Dan Patterson and Colin Swash, starring alongside Ben Miller, Nancy Carroll and Simon Shepherd. The show is a farcical political satire based on the 2009 UK parliamentary expenses scandal.
In 2015/2016 Vickers played the role of Janet in Rocky Horror Show UK tour.
In October 2017, Vickers played a version of herself in Josh Widdicombe's comedy series, "Josh".
She starred alongside Shane Richie and the Olivier award-winning Sara Crowe in the 2019 tour production of The Entertainer by John Osbourne
Fashion.
Vickers' fashion sense has been described as boho-chic and hippie-influenced. Her trademark style includes messy, back-combed "bird's nest" hair and vintage inspired clothing. Vickers' fashion icons are Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe. Vickers has encouraged fashion blogs documenting her latest attire and has been labelled a fashionista in the making by "Grazia". In October 2009, she was awarded "Fashionista of the Week" in "The Guardian" and in June 2010, she was nominated for "Best Dressed Woman of The Year" at The Clothes Show Style Awards 2010. Vickers' approach to fashion has received praise from "Grazia", "Look", and "Harpers Bazaar".
In September 2011, Vickers was the face of Collection 2000's autumn and winter make-up line.
Philanthropy.
In March 2010, Vickers supported JLS for a charity performance in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall in London to raise money for teenagers who are suffering from cancer. In July 2010, Vickers performed at a charity event "Give Tilly a Hand", helping to raise funds in a charity evening for meningitis victim Tilly Lockley. For anti-bullying week 2010 in the UK, Vickers uploaded a video to her official website encouraging young people to stand up to bullies. In September 2010, Vickers played an intimate gig as part of the month-long Oxjam Festival, which raised money in support of charity Oxfam.
In March 2011, Vickers launched an eBay competition on behalf of Comic Relief, which encouraged people to bid to become Vickers' Twitter "best friend".


Aparna Raina

Aparna Raina is a National Award Winning Production Designer. She started her Career in 2006 as an Art Assistant with the film Khosla Ka Ghosla and a Set Dresser in the critically Acclaimed film The Namesake. Since then she has worked on Several Films as Art Director and Production Designer. She was recently recognized for her work in the Hit Konkani Film Nachom - ia Kumpasar, for "convincingly recreating spaces from a different era and with minute attention to detail". She was awarded the 62nd National Film Awards for Best Production Design for Nachom - i.e. Kumpasar.
Filmography.
Art Director
Production Designer
Art Department
Awards.
2015 National Film Award for the Best Production Design (Film: Nachom-ia Kumpasar)


Greg Farshtey

Gregory Todd Farshtey (born July 14, 1965) is an American writer, best known for his work on the Bionicle series of novels (2003–2010), the Bionicle comics (2001–2010), and the New York Times-bestselling Ninjago graphic novel series. After the first cancellation of Bionicle, he was set to continue the story by writing online stories. However, after the launch of Ninjago, he has since been unable to complete the project.
Literary career.
Gregory Todd Farshtey was born in Mount Kisco, New York, and subsequently grew up in neighboring Monroe, New York and Stamford, Connecticut.
Farshtey began writing seriously in high school, where he wrote and edited a weekly satirical newsletter, Lunetic News and World Report. After graduating with a B.A in communications from the State University of New York at Geneseo he worked as a reporter and sports editor before securing an editorial position with West End Games.
Over the next seven years, he authored or co-authored over 35 roleplaying game books and helped to create the "Shatterzone" and "Bloodshadows" roleplaying game universes. He also authored a handful of short stories (the anthologies "Dragons Over England" (1992), "Strange Tales from the Nile Empire" (1992) and "Shattered and Other Stories" (1994)) and three novels: "The River of God" (1992), "Hell's Feast" (1994), and "Demon's Dream" (1996).
Farshtey joined the Lego Group in late 2000, writing for the "Lego Mania Magazine" and the Bionicle comic series. He now writes and edits six editions of the bi-monthly "Lego Club Magazine", and "Lego Club Jr. Magazine".
Farshtey is the author of over 80 books, including novels set in the Bionicle, Exo-Force, and Hero Factory universes, the Ninjago graphic novel series, short stories for Chima and Ninjago, and the Bionicle comic series. (At the time of its publication, Bionicle was the most widely distributed comic in the world, with over 2 million readers). His work has been published in English, Russian, Chinese, French, Polish, and German, among other languages. He also wrote the story for the Bionicle DVD movie, "" (2009). He has made numerous public appearances at San Diego Comic-Con, bookstores, and libraries.
He is the Editorial Director at the Lego Company. Farshtey is divorced and lives in Connecticut with his daughter and his cat.


Martine Rose

Martine Rose (born November 24, 1980) is a British-Jamaican menswear designer and founder of the Martine Rose label. Her designs draw inspiration from her experiences and interest in rave, hip-hop and punk subcultures.
Early life and education.
Rose was born in Croydon, South London in 1980; her family is British and Jamaican. Rose’s mother was a nurse and her father was an accountant so she spent much of her time in Tooting with her grandmother and her cousins. After a year at Camberwell College of Arts she enrolled at Middlesex University and graduated in 2002 with a degree in fashion design.
Career.
Rose first started a label LMNOP with now-stylist Tamara Rothstein, a friend and frequent collaborator. The line folded in 2005. In 2007 she established her eponymous label focused on menswear.
Since its inception, Rose has been known for showing her collections in non-traditional spaces, including a street market, a community climbing gym, and a cul-de-sac in Camden, London . She has been known to disregard fashion's seasonal calendar and expectations, sometimes because of financial constraints. Some of her collections have been released via short films, digital lookbooks, and Craigslist.
In 2011 she was supported by new talent showcase Fashion East during London Fashion Week. She also collaborated with workwear boots manufacturer CAT on a limited line of boots.
In 2015, when fashion designer Demna Gvesalia joined Balenciaga as creative director, he hired Rose as a consultant, elevating her profile in the fashion industry.
In 2018 Rose released a collaboration with Nike. The release included Rose's take on the tracksuit and Nike's Monarch model. She was inspired by English and American sports culture. The collection was released on Craigslist in London and later sold at retailers.
Her AW20 show took place at Torriano Primary School, her daughter’s primary school in Kentish Town.
Design.
As a designer, Rose counts her upbringing around her older British-Jamaican cousins who were into raves, reggae, Lovers rock, punk, and dance music as formative. Rose has been influenced by her own experiences at 90s London raves and her awareness of different subcultures in the city coming together around music. Overall, she considers her Jamaican upbringing as a major influence in her attitude towards fashion design and style.
Rose's label developed a cult following, with her designs featuring exaggerated proportions quickly becoming characteristic of her collections earlier on in her career. While considered a menswear designer, Rose designs her pieces with a broad spectrum of people in mind. Her interest in nightlife and music scenes has led her to use fabrics in menswear that are typically more common in womenswear, like fur, satin and lurex.


Eric Dott

A. Eric Dott was a publisher who was involved primarily in role-playing games and miniatures wargames.
Career.
When Charles S. Roberts encountered financial problems in the early 1960s, he decided to get out of the publishing business and turned Avalon Hill over to its two biggest creditors: Monarch Services (his printer) and the Smith Box Company (his box maker) - Monarch Services, under president Eric Dott, would eventually become the sole owner of Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill published the third edition of Chaosium's "RuneQuest" in 1984, which Dott called the "Cadillac" of the Avalon Hill game line.
Dott was the owner of The Avalon Hill Game Company before going public as Monarch Avalon, Inc. and its eventual sale to Hasbro.
Death.
Dott died at Gilchrist Hospice on April 4, 2016 at age 89.


Saye

Saye is a woollen cloth woven in the west and south of England in and around the 15th and 16th centuries. A suburb of Bristol, England is called Sea Mills, this was originally Saye Mills.
On 21 June 1661 recorded purchasing "green Say ... for curtains in my parler".
In 1541 Cecily Aylmer, the daughter of Richard Aylmer, Mayor of Norwich, leaves Mother Manfold 'my best petticoat and an apron of saye', while Mother Plank gets 'my worst petticoat and my worst apron.'
A related sort of cloth was serica, which was finer, since it also contained silk.


LCD games from The Legend of Zelda series

LCD games are electronic games played on an LCD screen. Since the release of the "Zelda" Game & Watch game in August 1989, several LCD games based upon the theme of "The Legend of Zelda" have been licensed by Nintendo to be released for both Japanese and foreign markets. While "Zelda" (Game & Watch) was both developed and manufactured by Nintendo, later LCD games would only be licensed by Nintendo. "The Legend of Zelda" game watch (October 1989) is an LCD wristwatch game produced by Nelsonic as part of their Nelsonic Game Watch series, and is an LCD fighting video game licensed by Nintendo and produced by Epoch Co. for the platform, and released only in Japan.
"Zelda" (Game & Watch).
The "Zelda" Game & Watch (model number "ZL-65") is a multi-screen Game & Watch system developed by Nintendo and released in North America in 1989. Its gameplay was heavily inspired by Nintendo Entertainment System game "", and it featured an original story described on the manual.
Unlike the other LCD games, this was made by Nintendo and appeared on a Nintendo platform. The handheld console would be Nintendo's penultimate release before the release of the Game Boy (the last being "Mario The Juggler").
Gameplay.
Players control Link and fight through labyrinth chambers on the Game & Watch's lower screen. In the labyrinth chambers, Link faces Poe-like Ghosts, up to four Stalfos, and a Moblin-like Goblin mini-boss. Stalfoses and Ghosts cannot be defeated and must be dodged and blocked with the shield respectively. The Goblin must be killed in order to complete the lower-screen labyrinth. Once the Labyrinth is complete, stairs appear and the action shifts to the Dragon's Lair in the upper screen. Here Link battles a dragon on the right hand side of the screen while avoiding its fire and tail attacks. The left hand side of the screen displays the dungeon map and items such as the Tomahawk item—unique to this game—that Link gains while fighting the dragon. Upon defeating the dragon, the game starts again with quicker enemies and retaining the player's high score. This Game & Watch game also features a continue button that allows players to continue the game in the event of the player's death.
Plot.
Eight unruly dragons are creating havoc in the world. After they kidnap Princess Zelda, it is up to Link to defeat them and rescue the princess. The dragons have imprisoned Zelda behind a seal that requires all 8 pieces of the triforce to unlock. After defeating each dragon, Link gains one piece of the triforce.
Development and release.
The "Zelda" Game & Watch was developed by Gunpei Yokoi and Nintendo R&D1.
Reception.
"Zelda" is thought to have pushed the limits of what is possible on the Game & Watch LCD format, though the gameplay is far simpler than the NES original. The game was noted in particular by "Famitsu" as having achieved the excitement and role-playing game-feel of the original series, however the game was criticized for being too easy if the player attained too many power-ups during play. "Retro Gamer" rated it Number 5 in their "Perfect Ten Games" for Game & Watch, noting that "it did capture the feel of the world it was played in."
Today the game frequently fetches high prices on the secondary market with auction values ranging from £25 to £60.
Ports and re-releases.
In 1998, Toymax Inc. was licensed to make the Mini Classics series, keychain-sized remakes of the Game & Watch series, one of them being "Zelda". It has a significantly smaller screen size. This keychain version, along with "Oil Panic" and "Donkey Kong", was only released in Europe. By as early as 2007, Stadlbauer and It's Outrageous! began distributing the Mini Classics version in select locations within the United States, using art from ' and '.
In October 2002, Nintendo included a port of the game as a hidden unlockable extra in "Game & Watch Gallery 4" for the Game Boy Advance. This "Zelda" minigame is the most difficult to unlock, requiring the player to have beaten all other games (and to have earned all 160 stars). Due to limitations of the GBA hardware, the visuals were changed. To fit everything on-screen at once, the screen where the action is not taking place is reduced to about two-thirds of that of the original height.
"The Legend of Zelda" (game watch).
"The Legend of Zelda" game watch is a multi-purpose wristwatch made by Nelsonic (re-released for European markets by Zeon in 1992) as part of their Game Watch line. It tells the time and allows players to play a game. It runs on one battery, size #364 (black watch) or #392 (red watch). The game is based on the NES's original "The Legend of Zelda", and it was manufactured in black, red, white and pink colors.
Gameplay.
The player controls Link as he defeats enemies in caves to retrieve pieces of the Triforce. The game consists of four levels with four cavernous rooms each. In each cave, Link has to collect a boomerang and sword to defeat several enemies. Defeating all of the enemies in the cave grants Link a key to the next room which, on entering, causes Link to lose all of his weapons so that he can collect them again in the new cave. Once all enemies in the fourth cave are killed, the Dragon—the level's boss—appears. After Link defeats the Dragon, a Triforce fragment appears, giving him access to the next level. After collecting all four pieces of the Triforce, the game ends.
Plot.
Plot details for the game are scant to nonexistent. According to the manual, Link enters a cave where he is immediately attacked by Iron Balls, Ferocious bats, and fire breathing Dragons. After obtaining weapons to defeat the enemies presented in each of the 4 caves per level, Link finds a key and fights the fire-breathing Dragon that serves as the boss of the level. When the Dragon is defeated he leaves Link with a piece of the Triforce. After progressing through all 4 levels, Link collects all 4 pieces of Triforce and wins.
Reception.
The game was well received by critics for its stylishness as an article of clothing, however the game was considered to have been largely unsuccessful in evoking the original NES title. While the game was praised for its ability to give the illusion of multiple screens, the gameplay was criticized for its simplicity and the game as a whole was found to be "unrelated to its namesake" and generally "very poor." Positive aspects touched on by reviewers included the game's relatively low price and its portability.
"Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce" (Barcode Battler II).
In 1992, Epoch Co. was licensed to print a series of Nintendo-themed cards for their Barcode Battler II platform. Card sets were printed with both "Mario" and "Zelda" themes. Functioning similarly to an LCD e-Reader, the Barcode Battler II required players to swipe barcodes printed on cards across a visual input in order to enter characters, enemies, items, and spells into the console. The "Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce" set features 30 and is based on the SNES's original "".
Gameplay.
Played in the C2 mode on Barcode Battler II, "Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce" set allows the player to play as either Warrior or Wizard. After choosing the hero card (either "Link" or "Link(Magic)"), the player scans it into the Barcode Battler II where its stats are recorded and displayed on the LCD screen. For each battle, the players choose an enemy and swipe it in to fight against the hero. The battle is conducted based on an algorithm within the Barcode Battler, and the results of the fight are displayed in new character stats on the LCD screen. If the enemy is defeated, the enemy card is discarded and the next enemy card is swiped in. At any point between fights, the player may choose to swipe in and discard one of the ten item cards. Item cards provide a variety of benefits to the hero including boosting weapon stats, restoring life, and increasing defensive stats. Discarded item cards may be returned to the player from the discard pile upon defeating a Wizard enemy. After all other enemies are defeated, the player must swipe the "Ganon" card to fight the final boss. If Ganon is defeated, the player has won.
Plot.
Ganon has transformed the sacred land into the "World of Darkness" and is now plotting to take over the "World of Light" (i.e. Hyrule). To achieve this end, the evil priest Agahnim strives to sacrifice the daughters of the seven sages to break the seal holding Ganon in check.
Link must venture through the Worlds of Light and Darkness to defeat Ganon. Along the way numerous puzzles and monsters await.
Reception.
Both the "Zelda no Densetsu" card set and the "Mario" card set were released as Nintendo-licensed special-edition cards for the Barcode Battler II. The system itself was popular in Japan, inspiring the creation of a comic book series as well as the commission of products for Falcom and NTV.


Alterazioni Video

Alterazioni Video is an artist collective founded in 2004 in Milan, Italy and is now based in New York and Berlin. The members of the group are Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, Alberto Caffarelli, Matteo Erenbourg, Andrea Masu and Giacomo Porfiri.
Alterazioni Video (Art collective).
Since 2004, Alterazioni Video has participated in international exhibitions such as Disobedience ( 2005), 52nd International Art Exhibition (Venice Biennale, 2007), Remote Control (MoCA, Shanghai 2007, Manifesta (Rovereto 2008) and Freak Out (Greene Naftali Gallery, New York 2013). They have also have had solo shows in institutions such as the Chelsea Art Museum (New York, 2006), MAR Museum of Art Ravenna (Ravenna, 2010) and Viafarini (Milan, 2012).
In 2007, for the 52° Venice Biennale, in the main exhibition curated by Robert Storr, the group showed "Painting" (16:9 colour HD, 16' 33", 2007), a work that documents the continued stratification of writings and cancellations on the outer walls of the San Vittore prison in Milan. Writings, images, and attempts at censorship become the linguistic elements of only one work, one large "painting" that documents, in its progress, the life of a community.
They are also known for creating "Incompiuto Siciliano", a term coined by the artist to represent a contemporary architectural movement that produces instant ruins. Since 2006 the collective has catalogued more than 600 unfinished public infrastructures such as bridges, motorways, hospitals, stadia, prisons and theatres, scattered over the Italian territory, defined as an architectural style that represents Italy in the last 50 years. Incompiuto Siciliano has become a subject of study in the polytechnics and is discussed extensively in the Italian media as well as internationally.
In 2009, the group was invited to take part of the Biennial of performing art Performa 09 NY, together with the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson with a performance titled "Symphony n°1."


Elo hell

Elo hell (MMR hell) is a video gaming term used in MOBAs and other multiplayer online games with competitive modes. It refers to portions of the matchmaking ranking spectrum where individual matches are of poor quality, and are often determined by factors such as poor team coordination which are perceived to be outside the individual player's control. This ostensibly makes it difficult for skilled players to "climb" up the matchmaking ranking (and out of Elo hell), due to the difficulty of consistently winning games under these conditions. Its existence in various games has been debated, and while the particular matchmaking process of many games results in a circumstance where "Elo Hell" is a mathematical eventuality, some game developers have called it an illusion caused by cognitive bias.
History.
The term was coined based on the Elo rating system designed by Arpad Elo, which was initially used for chess games but began to be used in video games as well. It was initially used by the "League of Legends" community, but spread in usage to other games that used the same ranking system. In these games, players are ranked based on their individual and team performance. However, the shortcomings in this system are that comparatively unskilled players, with inflated ratings, can be matched via automated matchmaking to legitimately high skilled players and drag them down when they contribute to the loss of a match. Likewise, due to the nature of team-based gameplay, comparatively skilled players can still suffer damage to their rating due to the poor performance of their teammates. At low Elo, a skilled player will likely find it easy to rise in rank, while at high Elo, the quality of players improves. However, there is a certain range where skilled players can remain stuck regardless of their personal skill, which is referred to as Elo hell. In "League of Legends", it is said to occur between the 1300 and 1500 range.
Elo rankings have also been "abused" by players who create parties of their friends in order to "escape" Elo hell. This has been addressed by forcing players who are in groups to play against groups of similar size. Another way players have attempted to bypass Elo hell is by smurfing, or creating new accounts without a skill rating, which allows them to ascend in rank faster than they would with their original account.
Elo hell has also been noted as existing outside of video games, such as in the matchmaking app Tinder, which also uses a variant of the Elo rating system.
Effects.
Supposing that one is in Elo hell has been known to cause frustration and video game rage. This can lead to "toxic" behavior amongst players who are angry at their teammates for sabotaging their Elo rating, whether the grievance is legitimate or not. This has caused games that use the Elo system to be noted as some of the most "toxic" games to play.
Reception.
Esports players of competitive games have recommended that players who are "stuck in Elo hell" "take every game seriously" and focus on winning at all costs. They have also suggested that players should always blame themselves for any losses rather than blaming it on their team. Esports critic and Youtuber Duncan "Thorin" Shields claimed that Elo hell was actually caused by the player themselves, due to their positive illusions about their own skill.
Riot Games claimed in a 2013 update to the matchmaking FAQ of "League of Legends" that Elo hell did not exist, citing the Dunning-Kruger effect and negativity bias from their worst experiences with the game as reasons why players believe the system is "imbalanced". They also claimed that players needed 150-300 games to reach their "true" matchmaking score.
Dom Sacco of Esports News UK claimed that Elo hell does exist in "League of Legends", and that escaping it is possible, but is a "mammoth time sink".
Experiments conducted by two "Dota 2" players appeared to conclude that Elo hell did not exist in that game in a significant way, as an experienced player was able to raise their rank merely by playing well and "carrying" their team.
The third competitive season of "Overwatch" introduced changes in skill rating ostensibly designed to prevent players from being stuck in Elo hell. However, in season five of "Overwatch", in-game "toxic" behavior and community backlash only increased due to tweaks in the game's Elo algorithms, causing the game's competitive mode to become "depressing".


J. Michael Riva

J. Michael Riva (June 28, 1948 – June 7, 2012) was an American production designer.
Early and personal life.
John Michael Riva was born in Manhattan, to William Riva, a Broadway set designer, and Maria Elisabeth Sieber, a German-born actress and the daughter of Marlene Dietrich. Riva had three brothers (John Peter, John Paul and John David). Riva attended the prep school Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland for 6 years before attending UCLA. He and his wife Wendy Riva had two sons Daniel and Adam. He had a son by a previous marriage, John Michael (Mikey) Riva Jr. and an adopted son Jean-Paul Riva from his long relationship with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Career.
Riva had a long and prestigious career as an art director and production designer on numerous films, including the 1985 film "The Color Purple", for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Other credits include "The Goonies" (1985), "Lethal Weapon" (1987), "A Few Good Men" (1992), "Spider-Man 3" (2007), "Iron Man" (2008) and "Iron Man 2" (2010).
His final films, "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Django Unchained", were released posthumously. He was the production designer for the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, as well as for the 74th and 79th Academy Awards in 2002 and 2007, respectively. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on the latter.
Death.
Riva suffered a stroke on June 1, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana, during production of "Django Unchained". He died in a hospital there on June 7, 2012, at age 63. "Django" director Quentin Tarantino commented, "Michael became a dear friend on this picture, as well as a magnificent, talented colleague."
References.
http://vimeo.com/3559547


Aaron S. Rosenberg

Aaron S. Rosenberg (born October 13, 1969) is an American novelist and game designer.
Biography.
Rosenberg has written novels for "Star Trek", "StarCraft", "Warcraft", "Exalted", "Stargate Atlantis", and "Warhammer", as well as other franchises. He also writes educational books, young adult novels, children's books, and tabletop role-playing games. He won an Origins Award in 2003, for "Game Mastering Secrets" (2002), and his young adult novelization "Bandslam: The Novel" won the Scribe Award for best Young Adult novel in 2010. Other young adult and children works of his are his literary adaptions of iCarly and the 2010 computer-animated film Alpha and Omega. Rosenberg wrote the first-ever tie-in novel for the television series Eureka, entitled "Substitution Method", under the house name Cris Ramsay. His second Eureka novel, "Roads Less Traveled", was released in early 2011. He is also the author of the Dread Remora space-opera series and the co-author of the O.C.L.T. occult thriller series, both from Crossroad Press, and the Relicant Chronicles epic fantasy series from Falstaff Books.
Rosenberg is also part of Crazy 8 Press, a cooperative publishing venture he started in 2011 with fellow authors Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, and Howard Weinstein. His science fiction novel "No Small Bills" was released as an e-book from Crazy 8 in September 2011. The sequel, "Too Small for Tall", was released in September 2012 and the next two books in the series, "Three Small Coinkydinks" and "Not for Small Minds", were released in 2014 and 2018, respectively.
Rosenberg lives in New York City with his family.


Herman F. Zimmerman

Herman F. Zimmerman (born 19 April 1935) is an art director and production designer. He is probably best known for his work on "Star Trek".
Career.
Zimmerman initially aspired to be an actor and enrolled at Northwestern University to study acting and directing. He then changed his major to theatre production, in order to take an assistantship in technical theatre. Zimmerman then became an Associate Professor of Drama at Northwestern University for 5 years, where he was a Technical Director and Scene Designer for the university's theatre.
Zimmerman began working for NBC in 1965, as an assistant art director on "Days of Our Lives". Zimmerman has worked on a project with the Institute for Creative Technologies in Southern California, called the "Experience Learning System", which was commissioned by the US Army.
Throughout the 1970s, Zimmerman served as an art director on several of Sid and Marty Kroffts' shows, including "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters", "Land of the Lost", "Far Out Space Nuts", "The Lost Saucer", and "Donny and Marie".
"Star Trek".
Zimmerman began working in the "Star Trek" franchise when he was hired to work on '. Zimmerman also worked on 6 of the "Star Trek" feature films; ', ', "Generations", ', ' and "Nemesis". Zimmerman was also the art director for ' for which he received four Emmy nominations. Zimmerman's final work for the "Star Trek" franchise was the set of "".
Awards and nominations.
Zimmerman won the Art Directors Guild Awards 1996's "Excellence in Production Design Award - Television" for his work on "Deep Space Nine".
Zimmerman's first Emmy nomination, for the pilot episode, "", was shared with art director Randy McIlvain and set decorator Mickey S. Michaels. Zimmerman's next three nominations – for "Trials and Tribble-ations", "Far Beyond the Stars" and "Prodigal Daughter" – were shared with McIlvain and set decorator Laura Richarz.


Seiji Takeda

 is the deputy director of Mainichi Broadcasting System's Tokyo office. Since beginning the network's 6:00pm Saturday timeblock, he has been involved in the planning and production of numerous anime, including various series from the "Gundam" universe, "Code Geass", "Blood+", "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Eureka Seven", "Terra e..." and "Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha".
Biography.
After graduating from the University of Tokyo's school of literature, Takeda joined Mainichi Broadcasting System in 1984, first working at the network's news bureau and later transferring to the network's Tokyo television department. Among the affairs he had covered during his time in the network's news department was the infamous Glico Morinaga case.
After transferring to MBS' television department, Takeda became involved in the production and planning of numerous anime television series, chiefly starting off the network's Saturday 6:00pm timeblock and being involved in its major popularity and success. Beginning with the timeblock's first major series, "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED" and followed by its successors such as "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Blood+" and "Mobile Suit Gundam 00", the slot has enjoyed high ratings since its inception, with Takeda being involved in the planning and production of each of its shows and having been largely credited for its success. He guest appeared as King T@KED@ in "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY".
Takeda has also been involved in collaborations with the satellite anime television network Animax, with Animax having aired numerous of Mainichi Broadcasting System's anime, as well as jump starting several promotional campaigns in magazines and other media which have helped further promote each of the anime programs aired by the network.


Martin Alper

Martin Alper (1942 – June 7, 2015) was a video game designer and the former President of Virgin Interactive, once one of the largest companies in the field. Alper was a co-founder of Mastertronic, which went on to become Virgin Interactive following its acquisition by Richard Branson. He was involved with the development of "Command & Conquer" at Westwood Studios and Shiny Entertainment who developed "The Matrix" and "Earthworm Jim". He was also the person who approached Westwood Studios co-founder Brett Sperry about creating "Dune II".
Alper also provided the voice acting for EVA in the original "".


Composition school

A composition school is a group of composers or a style of composition purportedly shared by a group of composers, often from the same area or who studied in the same place. The membership of almost all groups is assigned by others and disputed. Older groups tend to be larger and are all assigned, while more contemporary groups tend to be more specific and may be self identified.
For example, the title "mighty handful" was coined by music critic Vladimir Stasov in 1867 to describe the composers also referred to as The Five—first by Balakirev in 1870 , while the "Boston Six" were grouped by others and may include ten members. The international members of the Darmstadt School all attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. The Franco-Flemish School (1400–1630) is split into five generations, each of which have at least three members, while Les Six (1920) contains six members.


Dumb Type

Dumb Type is an artist collective based in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded in 1984.
Dumb type is a group of creative art forms that express the new and daily life of the twentieth century modern and technological world of Japan. During the 1980s Dumb Type created their first show representing the idea of how technology is arising a dark matter through people's daily lives. Present day they have created 4 more shows since. The productions are performed among many members who are skilled in music, architecture, visual artists, choreography, and computer programming. The variety of forms helps create an entertaining show like no other.
Members are trained in varied disciplines, including visual arts, theatre, dance, architecture, music composition and computer programming. Their work ranges across such diverse media as art exhibitions, performances, audiovisuals and publications.
Dumb Type is known for portraying a dark, cynical, and humorous world in which technology is a way of life—if not necessarily a welcome one. In a 1990 interview in High Performance, the late Teiji Furuhashi, one of Dumb Type's founding members, described their work as political in nature. "Something Japanese theater never does. Japanese audiences don't want to see that. They want to avoid it. They just want entertainment. Yes, I think we should always have a political view. We should represent that this is Japan." Notable in a country plagued by political apathy, the group has played the unpopular role of AIDS activist, organizing symposia and other events, motivated in part by the fact that Furuhashi died of AIDS in 1995.
"Dumb Type’s" name was influenced by the English words’ “mute” or “stupid.” The founded leader of the group Furuhashi, suggested that the name “Dumb Type” expressed an idea of the reality that Japan has become because it's technology and the attraction to the media. The society around Japan became very superficial and everyone was aware of the media around them but felt overwhelmed with all the information given to them. This inspired the artistic performances expressing their feelings about it.
While based in Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, Dumb Type is oriented more to the global than the local, the contemporary over the traditional. Dumb Type members claim that Japanese art movements have had little influence on their work. Furuhashi explained that the core group—Furuhashi, Toru Koyamada, Yukihiro Hozumi, Shiro Takatani, Takayuki Fujimoto and Hiromasa Tomari—began working together in 1982, while still students at Kyoto City University of Arts. "We were frustrated artists, and wanted to start creating something new with our skills. Most of the time we spent discussing society or whatever, not specific art things. When someone had an idea it would be presented on a piece of paper. If the group was interested, we made it come true. At first the idea would be really open, then gradually it became something very specific. In that way, we're really democratic. Dumb Type is a collaborative group; we don't want a king."
Their work has been exhibited and performed at notable venues internationally.


Don Manley

Don Manley (born 2 June 1945) is a long-serving setter of crosswords in the UK. He has supplied puzzles for the "Radio Times", "The Spectator", "Today", "The Independent", "The Times", "The Daily Telegraph", "The Guardian", and the "Financial Times" and the "Sunday Times" among others. He is crossword editor of "Church Times".
He writes under the pseudonyms Duck, Pasquale, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni, and Izetti (all punningly connected with the name Don or Donald). He has also written a book on devising and solving crosswords, "Chambers Crossword Manual" (1986, 5th edition October 2014).
He has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 panel game, "Puzzle Panel", and anchored the BBC4 documentary "How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword".
Don Manley was brought up in Cullompton, Devon, attending local state schools and Blundell's School, Tiverton as a Foundation Scholar. He read physics at Bristol University. After a short spell in a telecommunications laboratory he worked in academic and educational publishing at The Institute of Physics, Stanley Thornes, Basil Blackwell, and Oxford University Press, which he left in 2002, when crosswords took over as his sole paid occupation. He is married to Dr Susan Manley, a clinical biochemist. They have two married children, two grandsons, and a granddaughter.


Jeannine Oppewall

Jeannine Claudia Oppewall (born November 28, 1946) is an American film art director. She has worked on more than 30 movies in such roles as production designer, set decorator and set designer, and has four Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction for "L.A. Confidential", "Pleasantville", "Seabiscuit" and "The Good Shepherd". Many of her film sets represented different time periods within the 20th century, including the 1930s ("Seabiscuit)", the 1950s ("L.A. Confidential" and "Pleasantville)", and from the 1960s ("The Big Easy", "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Catch Me If You Can)."
Biography.
Early life.
Jeannie Oppewall was born on November 28, 1946 and was raised in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, with a Calvinist upbringing. Her father was a tool and die maker Garrett Oppewall and her mother was Eva Boutiler. According to "The New York Times", Oppewall was determined to be "the family intellectual." Oppewall attended and graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she met future husband, Paul Schrader, who would go on to become a film director and screenwriter.
She then studied medieval history at Bryn Mawr College in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. There she discovered the furniture of designers and filmmakers Charles and Ray Eames, which inspired her to switch her focus to modern design. Oppewall said of the Eames designs, "I was so attracted by the contemporary feeling, the shapely sexy lines: totally different from the Sears, Roebuck middle-class stuff I'd grown up with. I looked at it and said, 'This is me.'"
Oppewall obtained her master's degree from Bryn Mawr in 1969 and moved to Los Angeles, California. At age 22, she was given a job answering phones at the Venice studio of Charles Eames. According to some sources, Paul Schrader arranged an interview between Oppewall and Eames when he was writing a magazine article about the Eameses. Oppewall, however, has claimed she got the job while visiting the Charles Eames office as a guest and, upon leaving, casually asked a secretary whether there were any jobs available. Upon taking the job, Charles Eames told Oppewall, "I can teach you how to draw, I cannot teach you how to think or see. If you can think and you can see, you can stay." Oppewall worked with him for eight years, during which time Eames, in Oppewall's words, "saw something in me I didn't know was there." By the end of her time with Eames, she was helping design and organize Eames museum exhibits. Eames made more than 100 small personal and educational films in that time and, as a result of her exposure to them, Oppewall said she got into the film business "by accident."
Film career.
Oppewall began her film career helping Paul Schrader on his 1979 film "Hardcore", for which she was credited as a "project consultant." Oppewall and Schrader were divorced sometime after the film's release. She began her career as a set and production designer in the early 1980s, with such films as the 1981 Brian De Palma thriller "Blow Out". Oppewall was responsible for overseeing the finding of locations for her films and the design and construction of sets and interiors; according to a profile in "The New York Times", she was "responsible for everything an actor walks in front of, sits on, drives through or picks up."
One of her earlier movies was "Tender Mercies", a 1983 film about an alcoholic country singer played by Robert Duvall. Director Bruce Beresford praised Oppewall as "absolutely brilliant," especially for her attention to very small details, "going from the curtains to the color of the quilts on the floors." A large portion of the movie was filmed in the home of Duvall's character, which Beresford created from an old house that had been sitting abandoned by a highway in Waxahachie, Texas, where the majority of the movie was filmed.
Oppewall said of her career, "What I do for a living is not dissimilar from what an actor does. I have a different set of tools, but it's the same process. The reason that it's fun to design sets is that it allows you to try on personalities that you'd never otherwise experience." Gary Ross, director of "Pleasantville" and "Seabiscuit", said of Oppewall, "Jeannine doesn't suffer fools gladly, and she hasn't suffered me gladly when I've been a fool. She's fastidious, restrained and refined, and yet she has this impulsive side where she just takes off and chases butterflies." Gary Hoblit, who directed the 1996 Oppewall-designed film "Primal Fear", said he particularly appreciated her flexibility and versatility: "While she may prefer a world in which less is more, she can still create an opulent and gooey world that is appropriate for someone unlike her."
Part of the set for "Seabiscuit" was set in Tijuana during the Prohibition era, Oppewall and her staff consulting vintage postcards in order to create the set; she said this part of the film was especially difficult to research because, "A Tijuana Historical Society didn't exactly exist back then." She also built a replica of the ranch owned by Charles S. Howard, the owner of the racehorse Seabiscuit, out of fir planks. Actor Jeff Bridges, who played Howard, was so impressed with the set that he made an unsuccessful attempt to buy it and have it shipped to his property in Montana, despite Oppewall's assurances that it was just a set and was not built to last. In a similar episode, the owners of the Santa Anita racetrack were so impressed with her design for a tote board that they wanted to keep it.
When Oppewall was assigned art director for the 2006 spy film "The Good Shepherd", it took her a week to organize the number of set locations due to the large amounts of settings in the script, which included Cuba, Guatemala, Léopoldville, London, Moscow, New York and New Haven, Connecticut, among other places. Although the vast majority of the movie was filmed in New York, the only scenes that are actually set in New York take place in a house in Far Rockaway, Queens. As a result, many sets had to be constructed under Oppewall's direction, including a Skull and Bones headquarters and the Berlin set, which was built on the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Oppewall built sets based on Skull and Bones, Central Intelligence Agency and other clandestine organizations after she consulted with a former CIA operative and researched books of interviews with spy agency insiders. Since the lead character played by Matt Damon originally aspired to be a poet, Oppewall incorporated many visual poetic symbols into the film, including a large number of mirrors to represent the duplicity of the CIA, full-rigged ships as symbols of the state and eagle symbols, which were used in ironic situations such as suspect interrogations.
 she is a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is also a world-traveled amateur lepidopterist. , she also serves on the Art Directors Guild's education and workplace issues committees. In 2000, Oppewall tore down the bungalow and built a larger modern house in the style of Charles and Ray Eames because she "did not want my house to conflict with my (Eames-designed) furniture," which she bought while working for the Eameses.
Awards and nominations.
Oppewall has been nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Art Direction for "L.A. Confidential" in 1997, "Pleasantville" in 1998, "Seabiscuit" in 2003 and "The Good Shepherd" in 2006.
She was part of the team that won an Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award for the 2002 film "Catch Me If You Can"; Oppewall also received nominations for the same award for the films "L.A. Confidential", "Pleasantville", "Wonder Boys", "Seabiscuit" and "The Good Shepherd".


5th Hum Awards

The 5th Hum Awards ceremony, presented by Pel, powered by QMobile and brought by Kashmir Cooking Oil & Banaspati took place in Lahore on 29 April 2017 at 7:30pm PST. The ceremony was televised in Hum TV on 22 July 2017. During the ceremony, Hum Awards were presented in 25 categories.
The show was hosted by Hareem Farooq, Mikaal Zulfiqar and Nadia Khan while comedy hosting was done by Yasir Hussain and Ahmad Ali Butt.
Nominees.
The public voting was announced in 7 Viewers Choice Award Categories on 8 April 2017 until 18 April 2017.
Winners.
Dramas With Multiple nominations and awards.
The following 11 Dramas received multiple nominations:
The following Seven dramas received multiple awards:
Controversy.
The actor, Yasir Hussain, who co-hosted the show, was alleged for his inappropriate joke on child molestation when granting the award of Best Negative Role to Ahsan Khan.


Andrea Detwiler

Andrea Detwiler is an accomplished costume designer. On April 28, 2006, Detwiler won an Emmy Award in the category of outstanding achievement in costume design/styling for her work on PBSs "Sesame Street".
Education.
She is a 1991 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
Information.
She currently is in England working on the new Muppet movie.


Beaconhouse National University

Beaconhouse National University (BNU) is a private liberal arts university located in Lahore, in the province of Punjab, Pakistan.
Founded in 2003 by its parent company Beaconhouse School System, it is located at Raiwind, a subdivision of Lahore District; the BNU campus is adjacent to the Bahria Town.
BNU offers study programmes in visual design and arts, architecture, liberal arts, computer information technology, psychology and mass communication. It is a member of the Higher Education Commission and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
Faculty.
BNU has a 92 full-time and 150 adjunct faculty members including:


Kevin Wilson (game designer)

Kevin Wilson is a game designer who has worked primarily on board games and role-playing games.
Early life and education.
Wilson received a B.A. in Cognitive Science (Artificial Intelligence) from U.C. Berkeley in 1997, and was active in the interactive fiction community at the time. He wrote several works of interactive fiction — including "Once and Future" and "The Lesson of the Tortoise" — and founded the annual Interactive Fiction Competition and the Internet magazine "SPAG".
Career.
Kevin Wilson has been a game designer since the late 1990s. Wilson co-designed Alderac Entertainment Group's second role-playing game, "7th Sea" (1998), with Jennifer Wick and John Wick. Wilson wrote the adventure "Wonders Out of Time" (2001), the sequel to ' (2001) from Eden Studios's "Eden Odyssey" series of adventures. Wilson is the co-designer of the "Spycraft" roleplaying game. As Fantasy Flight Games's d20 System success grew, they hired Wilson to oversee a retooling of the "Legends & Lairs" line, and he split it into a number of smaller sublines filled with smaller sourcebooks. The wargame, "A Game of Thrones" (2003) by Christian T. Petersen and Wilson, was one of several games published by Fantasy Flight in the American style while the company had been republishing eurogames. Wilson is the author of the RPG book "Spellslinger". Petersen and Wilson created a gaming system for ' (2004), which was later revised and used in ' (2006). Wilson also designed ', as well as "Arkham Horror" second edition (with Richard Launius).
Wilson lives near the Twin Cities.


The London Group

The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was formed from the merger of the Camden Town Group, an all-male group, and the Fitzroy Street Group. It holds open submission exhibitions for members and guest artists.
Overview.
The London Group is composed of working artists. All forms of art are represented. The group functions democratically without dogma or style. It has a written constitution, annually elected officers, working committees and a selection committee. There are usually between 80 and 100 members and an annual fee is charged to cover gallery hire and organisational costs. The group has no permanent exhibition venue and rents gallery space in London, most recently at the Menier Gallery, Bankside Gallery and Cello Factory. New members are elected most years, from nominations made by current members.
History.
The London Group was founded in 1913, when the Camden Town Group came together with the English Vorticists and other independent artists to challenge the domination of the Royal Academy of Arts, which had become unadventurous and conservative.
The London Group emerged from a merger of the Fitzroy Street Group and the male-member-only Camden Town Group organization. Founding members included the patron-artist Ethel Sands, artist Anna Hope Hudson, Walter Sickert, Jacob Epstein, Wyndham Lewis, Robert Bevan and his wife Stanislawa de Karlowska, and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Other early female members included Marjorie Sherlock, Mary Godwin, and Ruth Doggett. Throughout its history, The London Group has held open submission exhibitions to encourage and support other artists struggling to get their work shown in public. The open submissions are shown along with the work of existing members and guest artists. The exhibition Uproar! celebrated the first 50 years of the London Group in 1963, and it highlighted the role played by women and emigre artists in its membership. In 2013–14, the Ben Uri Gallery celebrated The London Group's 100-year anniversary with an exhibition Uproar: The First 50 Years of The London Group 1913-1963 curated by Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall.
One of the oldest standing artist-led organisations in the world, The London Group continues to exist today with over 80 members. In 2011, the open exhibition presented over 140 artists at the Cello Factory. The group celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013 with several shows, both historical and contemporary.


Tony Vilgotsky

Anton "Tony" Vilgotsky (Russian: Антон Вильгоцкий) is a Russian musician, composer, horror and fantasy writer, playwright, and musical columnist. He is mostly known for his fantasy and horror novels ("Chosen by the Pentacle", "Evil Never Sleeps", "The Charmed Roads", "Shepherd of the Dead" and others) as well as his journalist work in such magazines like "Dark City", "Mir Fantastiki", "OM", "KVIR and Darker."
Biography.
Tony was born on July 14, 1980 in the Southern Russian city Rostov-on-Don. He spent some time studying journalism at a local university and then started to work as a correspondent in a local daily newspaper.
Since his adolescence, he admired the horror genre, which inspired him to begin writing horror stories himself. Two issues of his dark fantasy saga, "The Chronicles of Skharn" (Russian: "Хроники Схарны"), were published by Armada Publishing House in December 2008 and May 2009. The first of these novels landed on 7th position in Top 100 bestselling books of this publishing house of several years. Such phenomenal success of debut novel was unexpected even for author himself. This book was nominated for prestigious Russian fiction award "Roscon". The novel "Evil Never Sleeps" was nominated for one of the main awards of the fiction festival "Star Bridge". Vilgotsky's next novel "Little Shop of Horrors" became one of the most anticipated Russian books of the following decade. His books were widely pirated and in 2010 somebody even hacked Vilgotsky's PC with intention to steal his new texts before their official release.
The novels "Eye of Satan", "Suburban Necromancer" and "The Charmed Roads" were released in 2012 by company Litres which is a department of biggest Russian publishing house Eksmo.
During very long period Vilgotsky was the main author of Russian metal magazine Dark City. During this period he interviewed such bands like Amon Amarth, Das Ich, Crematory, Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows, Suicide Commando and many more. For some time he was a literary editor of Russian horror webzine The Darkness (Тьма) and continued to write for its successor, Darker magazine. Also, despite Vilgotsky is not a gay himself, his articles about different gay musicians often can be noticed in Russian LGBT-magazine "Kvir". Also he works as translator and music observer in Russian version of Classic Rock magazine.
He was the first Russian journalist who interviewed American musician and actor Ari Lehman (the first portrayer of Jason Voorhees in the first "Friday the 13th" movie), and famous movie composer Harry Manfredini who scored most of the "Friday" movies. The latter interview was published in Mir Fantastiki Later Vilgotsky interviewed many horror celebrities, including Tom Savini, Felissa Rose, Scott Derrickson, Brian Paulin, Matt Farnsworth, Dieter Laser, Victor Brooke Miller and more.
Since 2012, Vilgotsky began to collaborate with Hollywood horror magazine "Gore Noir". Also he was noticed among authors of Australian horror magazine Midnight Echo.
Vilgotsky is also the first Russian author who created a full biography of Ayn Rand. This book was highly praised by the critics and became a national bestseller in Russia and Ukraine. All copies of the book were sold out during the first month after its release. The novel "Shepherd of the Dead" was listed among best new fiction books of the year just a week after its release. Talking on this book the critics compared Vilgotsky's style to that of Clive Barker. The novel also became a bestseller in Estonia, where all the copies of the book were sold out during one night after their delivery from Russia. By the end of the year 2018 novel "Shepherd of the Dead" became a national bestseller in Russia too. In biggest Russian online book store, Ozon, the book was completely sold out during few months since its release. This book also went to become a bestseller in Armenia. Vilgotsky's novel "Warriors of the Church" was cited in the list of foreign books recommended to Americans who are interested in non-American horror literature.
Illustrations.
In 2017 Tony released a new non-fiction book "Self-Defence by Materials at Hand" with illustrations drawn by himself. This book is intended mostly for a female audience. The book went to come a huge bestseller in Russia.
Music.
In the years 2009-2014 Tony Vilgotsky was active on dark electro stage as a leader of horror electro project Soul Cancer. They released several web albums and then disbanded. In one of the tracks the group collaborated with iconic B-movie actor Dieter Laser. After the end of Soul Cancer's career Tony as musician and composer focused primarily on film and game soundtrack work. His score for American movie Cryptic Plasm was highly appreciated in Poland.
Video game career.
In recent years Tony has quit journalism as his day job, with a goal to focus on his literature works and also to try himself in a world of business. For a year he worked as brand manager and press secretary in one of the largest Russian modeling agencies, Image-Elite, than migrated into video game industry. As it's known, he was a member of at least two game development teams - Aurum Dust and Redox Entertainment, which produced, respectively, such games as "Ash of Gods: Redemption" (Tactical RPG) and "Cows VS Vikings" (tower defense). Also he provided music soundtracks for several indie games.
In December 2016, Vilgotsky announced that he wants to try himself as game designer and that he started to develop his first video game. Details of this project weren't revealed yet. Due to Vilgotsky's popularity over Post-Soviet space, the news about his first game project were widely spread by many sources of the region.
Later was announced that Vilgotsky is planning to release another game before the one that was announced earlier. The name of the game is "Evils Spirits Shotdown" and it's based on his own novel "Warriors of the Church".
Personal life.
As Tony admitted in one of his interviews, he is an enthusiastic gamer who began to play videogames from the early childhood. Among his favorite games he lists such titles as Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, and Assassin's Creed. He's a fan of ambient and world music (because, as he admits, he was tired of extreme metal during his metal observer career).
He is also a fan of "Twin Peaks" and other movies by David Lynch.
Bibliography.
Novels
Short stories
Non-fiction
Scientific researches


Luba Lukova

Luba Lukova is an American visual artist and designer, known for her thought-provoking images and expressive poster designs. Her work has won international acclaim, and is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Denver Art Museum, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
Biography.
Lukova was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. She moved to the United States in 1991, after traveling to participate in the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition; shortly thereafter, she was hired by the New York Times Book Review and established her studio in New York City. Lukova's work is exhibited around the world and has won many awards including: Grand Prix Savignac at the International Poster Salon in Paris, ICOGRADA Excellence Award, and Reisman Foundation Award. She holds an honorary doctoral degree from the Art Institute of Boston.
Work.
Lukova is known for using bold contrasts, visual metaphors, and highly focused concepts to create images that take "only seconds to grasp meaning." Stylistically, her work has been compared to that of German Expressionists, Escher, and Picasso, and she cites inspiration from Goya, Rembrandt, Käthe Kollwitz, folk art, and Chekov. Her art incorporates vivid colors, simplified figures and hand-rendered typography, and frequently comments on social issues including income inequality, censorship, corruption, and environmental conditions. "Her seemingly simple, two- or three-color images carry the emotive power of expressionist wood engravings [...] Lukova's vocabulary is the human body, stretched, deformed, twisted gracefully and grotesquely." These themes are prominent in her "Social Justice 2008" series of posters, as well as works for Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian organizations, universities, Broadway productions, non-profit organizations, Shakespeare plays, choreographers, and the War Resisters League.


Harry Lange (film designer)

Harry Hans-Kurt Lange (December 7, 1930 – May 22, 2008) was a German film production designer and art director.
Lange was born in 1930 in Eisenach, Thuringia. After World War II, Thuringia became part of Soviet-controlled East Germany; Lange went across the border to West Germany, where he studied art before moving to the United States in 1951. Upon arriving in the United States, Lange worked in advertising. During the Korean War, Lange worked for the U.S. military, illustrating flying manuals.
Subsequently, he began working at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and then headed the future projects section at NASA, working on spacecraft designs alongside Wernher von Braun. Whilst at NASA, Lange met the author Arthur C. Clarke, who introduced him to the film director Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick offered Lange a job at his production company, using his astronautical design experience to produce authentic prop and set designs for a project Kubrick and Clarke were working on entitled "Journey to the Stars". The project was renamed as "" (released in 1968), and the film's design team, including Lange, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Although "2001" lost to "Oliver!", Lange and his team did win the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design in that year.
Although best known for "2001", Lange worked on a number of well-known films during his career. He was art director for the James Bond film "Moonraker", and an astronautical consultant on "Superman II". He worked on the three first "Star Wars" films, as an art director and set decorator for "The Empire Strikes Back" (for which he was again nominated for the Art Direction Oscar) and "Return of the Jedi" respectively; he also worked on the original Star Wars, although his work was uncredited. He worked as a production designer on two films for the Jim Henson Company: "The Great Muppet Caper" (1981) and "The Dark Crystal" (1982). He was also production designer for the last Monty Python film "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life".


Vartan (art director)

Vartan Kurjian, better known as Vartan, is a Grammy-winning art director and designer, primarily for MCA Records and Universal Music Group. As of 2014, he had worked on over 600 albums.
Vartan began his career in Japan, working as a graphic artist. In 1979, he joined the art department at MCA Records, becoming a senior art director in 1991. Vartan won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards, in 1992, for "Billie Holiday - The Complete Decca Recordings" performed by Billie Holiday. In 1994, Vartan was promoted to VP of creative packaging.


Techno Source

Techno Source is a handheld electronic game and TV game company selling electronic toys, games and learning aids. Based in Hong Kong with an office in New York City, it is a privately owned company founded in 2000 by Wayne Nathan and Rich Migatz.
Products.
20Q was invented in 1988 as an experiment for artificial intelligence. In 2004, Radica made the game handheld. In 2011, an improved version by Techno Source was introduced, featuring more answers and better interaction.
The company worked in the retro gaming market, creating TV game systems that plugged directly into a television set. After entering into a licensing agreement with Intellivision in 2003, Techno Source introduced the Intellivision 25, which featured 25 original Intellivision games in one plug-and-play unit. Following the release of the Intellivision 25 and its follow-up, the Intellivision 10, Techno Source claimed that they had sold over 1,000,000 units and received the National Parenting Center's "Seal of Approval" in 2004.
This line later included the 2-player Intellivision X2 and the Intellivision 10 2nd Edition. According to the Blue Sky Rangers, the original programmers of the Intellivision games, Techno Source sold more Intellivision games than Mattel Electronics originally sold in the 1980s.
In 2003, Techno Source and Crayola released electronic handheld games and plug-and-play units for pre-school users. Two of their TV Game units, "My First TV Play System" and "My First Electronic Coloring Book", received the National Parenting Center's "Seal of Approval" in 2004 & 2005, and the Dr. Toy Smart "Play Smart" Toy Award in 2005. They were also featured as part of MarketWatch's coverage of the Licensing Show in 2004.
In 2005, the company and Coleco reintroduce their "Head-to-Head" handheld electronic games, which lets two players play against each other in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer simultaneously. Dr. Toy named Techno Source to its list of the 10 Best High-Tech Children's Products as well as one of the 100 Best Products for this assortment in 2005.
They also agreed a licensing partnership with Sesame Street in 2005, producing a series of handheld electronic games and TV games designed to entertainment and promote learning. Several of these products won multiple awards, such as the Dr. Toy Smart Toy Award and the Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom Award in 2006.
The company's handheld Touch Screen Sudoku, which was nominated for Game of the Year by the Toy Industry Association in 2006. A version with embedded Swarovski crystals was given out at the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
On 9 February 2006 the company announced a worldwide licensing agreement with Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATVI) to develop and distribute products based on Activision properties from the 1980s including Pitfall 2, River Raid, Chopper Command, Barnstorming and Kaboom. The deal included TV plug and play Systems and LCD-based handheld games, which were available at retail on September 2006.
On 19 June 2006 the company and Rubik’s announced a line of electronic games based on the original Rubik's Cube.