title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Colonial officials believed that many crypto-Jews were going to Mexico during the 16th century and complained in written documents to Spain that Spanish society in Mexico would become significantly Jewish. Officials found and condemned clandestine synagogues in Mexico City. At this point, colonial administrators instituted the Law of the Pure Blood, which prohibited migration to Mexico for New Christians (Cristiano Nuevo), i.e. anyone who could not prove to be Old Christians for at least the last three generations. In addition, the administration initiated the Mexican Inquisition to ensure the Catholic orthodoxy of all migrants to Mexico. The Mexico Inquisition was also deployed in the traditional manner to ensure orthodoxy of converted indigenous peoples. The first victims of burnings (or "autos de fé") of the Mexican Inquisition were indigenous converts convicted of heresy or crypto-Jews convicted of relapsing into their ancestral faith.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Except for those allowed to settle the province of Nuevo Leon under an exemption from the Blood Purity Laws, the number of conversos migrating to the New World was reduced.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: The colonization of New Spain took place as a northward expansion over increasingly harsh geography, in regions that were occupied by tribes angered at the encroachment; they formed loose confederations of indigenous peoples to resist the settlers. Spain financed the expansion by exploiting mineral wealth, enslaving, or forcing indigenous peoples to labor in mines. It established encomiendas for raising livestock, thereby displacing the local people. The indigenous peoples of the North-Eastern quadrant of New Spain (Nueva España) proved particularly resistant to colonial pressures. The Chichimec, Apache, and other tribes resisted conversion to Christianity and avoided being impressed as laborers or slaves on Spanish ranches and in mines. The Spanish believed such peoples made the frontier ("frontera") a lawless region.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, a royal accountant, was a Portuguese New Christian. He received a royal charter from the Spanish Crown to settle Nuevo León, a large expanse of land in the hostile frontier. Because of the dangers and difficulties of this region, Carvajal y de la Cueva received an exemption in his charter from the usual requirement that he prove that all new settlers were "Old Christians" (of at least three generations) rather than recently converted Jews or Muslims. This exemption allowed people to go to Nuevo León who were legally barred from entering New Spain elsewhere. Carvajal was authorized to bring 100 soldiers and 60 laborers to New Spain; many have been documented as crypto-Jews.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: With Carvajal as governor, Monterrey was established as the center (now in the state of Nuevo León). Within a few years, some people reported to authorities in Mexico City that Jewish rites were being performed in the Northern Province and efforts to convert heathen indigenous peoples were lax. The principal economic activity of Carvajal and his associates seems to have been capturing Indians and selling them into slavery. Carvajal's Lieutenant Governor, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, led a large expedition to New Mexico in 1591 in an effort to establish a colony. Castaño was arrested for this unauthorized expedition and sentenced to exile in the Philippines. The sentence was later reversed, but he had already been killed in the Molucca Islands when the Chinese slaves on his ship mutinied.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Governor Carvajal, his immediate family members, and others of his entourage were called to appear before the Inquisition in Mexico City. They were arrested and jailed. The governor subsequently died in jail, prior to a sentence of exile. His niece Anna Carvajal had been tortured and implicated all the family in so-called charges. They were all executed by burning at the stake for relapsing into Judaism, except for one nephew who escaped arrest.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: The governor's nephews changed their surname to Lumbroso. One of these was Joseph Lumbroso, also known as Luis de Carvajal el Mozo, who is said to have circumcised himself in the desert to conform to Jewish law. He was garroted to avoid being burned at the stake. His memoirs, letters and inquisition record were preserved and are held in the archive. Two other nephews also changed their names to Lumbroso and migrated to Italy, where they became noted rabbis.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: When Carvajal was in office, the city of Monterrey became a destination for other crypto-Jews who wanted to escape the Mexican Inquisition in the south of the territory. Thus, Nuevo León and the founding of Monterrey are significant as they attracted crypto-Jewish migrants from all parts of New Spain. They created one of the earliest Jewish-related communities in Mexico. (The Jewish communities in modern Mexico, which practice their Judaism openly, were not established until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, after considerable immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe, and Mizrahi Jews from Turkey and Syria.)


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Due to the Inquisition activities in Nuevo León, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to frontier colonies further west, using the trade routes passing through the towns of the Sierra Madre Occidental and Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Cananea, and to the north on the trade route to Paso del Norte and Santa Fe (both cities in the colonial Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico). Some even traveled to Alta California on the Pacific Coast.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: In the late 20th century, in modern-day Southwestern United States specifically New Mexico, which was a former territory of New Spain, several Hispanos of New Mexico have stated a belief that they are descended from crypto-Jews of the colonial period. While most maintain their Roman Catholic and Christian faiths, they often cite as evidence memories of older relatives practicing Jewish traditions. Since the 1990s, the crypto-Jews of New Mexico have been extensively studied and documented by several research scholars, including Stanley M. Hordes, Janet Liebman Jacobs, Schulamith Halevy, and Seth D. Kunin, who calls them "Hispanos". Kunin noted that most of this group in New Mexico has not formally embraced Judaism nor joined the organized Jewish community. Though some have been sceptical, such as Folklorist Judith Neulander arguing that people could be referring to traditions of modern Ashkenazi Jews migrants and Evangelical Protestant Christians who purposely acquired and employed Jewish traditions. More recently, Evangelical Protestant Christians have opened missionary groups aimed at cultivating evangelical doctrine in Southwestern American communities where crypto-Judaism had survived. The highly influential Hordes has been charged with "single-minded speculation based on largely ephemeral or highly ambiguous evidence" for his conclusion that modern-day Hispanos who claim crypto-Jewish roots are heirs to an unbroken chain of transmission. Kunin responded to some of this criticism in his book "Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among the Crypto-Jews", in the response Kunin iterated that these scholars were misunderstanding New Mexican identity which, while authentically tied to Christian and Pueblo historicity, is in line with other Spanish converso histories.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: In Peru, conversos arrived at the time of the Spanish Conquest. At first, they had lived without restrictions because the Inquisition was not active there at the beginning of the Viceroyalty. With the advent of the Inquisition, New Christians began to be persecuted, and in some cases executed. The descendants of these colonial Sephardic Jewish descent converts to Christianity settled mainly in the north of the Andes and of the high jungle of Peru, where they married local women and became assimilated.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: In the department of Antioquia, Colombia, as well as in the greater Paisa region, some families also hold traditions and oral accounts of Jewish descent. In this population, Y-DNA genetic analysis has shown an origin of male founders predominantly from "southern Spain but also suggest that a fraction came from northern Iberia and that some possibly had a Sephardic origin". Medellín has a tradition of the "marranada", where a pig is slaughtered, butchered and consumed on the streets of every neighborhood each Christmas. This custom has been interpreted as an annual affirmation of the rejection of Jewish law.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: A safe haven destination for Sephardic Conversos during the Spanish colonial era was Santa Cruz de la Sierra. In 1557 many crypto-Jews joined Ñuflo de Chávez and were among the pioneers who founded the city. During the 16th century more crypto-Jews that faced persecution from the Inquisition and local authorities in nearby Potosí, La Paz and La Plata moved to Santa Cruz, as it was the most isolated urban settlement and because the Inquisition did not bother the Conversos there; Some settled in the city of Santa Cruz and its adjacent towns, including Vallegrande, Postrervalle, Portachuelo, Terevinto, Pucará, and Cotoca.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Several of the oldest Catholic families in Santa Cruz are of Jewish ancestry; some families still practice certain traditions of Judaism. As recently as the 1920s, several families preserved seven-branched candlesticks and served dishes cooked with kosher practices. It is still customary among certain old families to light candles on Friday at sunset and to mourn the deaths of close relatives by sitting on the floor. After almost five centuries, some of the descendants of these families acknowledge having some Jewish ancestry, but practice Catholicism.


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: Some crypto-Jews established themselves in the outskirts of San José, Costa Rica in the 16th century. They passed as Catholics in public and practiced their Jewish rituals in privacy. In the town of Itzkazú (modern day Escazú), some crypto-Jewish families did not maintain secrecy. Locals started to associate their rituals and unintelligible prayers in Hebrew with witchcraft. Since then, Escazú has been known in Costa Rican folklore as the "city of the witches".


title: Crypto-Judaism

text: In addition to these communities, Roman Catholic-professing communities descended from male and female crypto-Jews are said to exist in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and in various other countries of South America, such as Brazil(see Synagogue Kahal Zur Israel in Recife), Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and Ecuador. From these communities comes the proverb, "Catholic by faith, Jewish by blood".


title: Neturei Karta

text: Neturei Karta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: , , ) is a religious group of Haredi Jews, formally created in Jerusalem, then in Mandatory Palestine, in 1938, splitting off from Agudas Yisrael. Neturei Karta opposes Zionism and calls for a "peaceful dismantling" of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of the Jewish Messiah and that the state of Israel is a rebellion against God. While the Neturei Karta describe themselves as true traditional Jews, the more secular US-based Jewish Anti-Defamation League has described them as "the farthest fringes of Judaism".


title: Neturei Karta

text: In Israel, some members also pray at affiliated "beit midrash", in Jerusalem's Meah Shearim neighborhood and in Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet. Neturei Karta states that no official count of the number of members exists. The Anti-Defamation League estimates that fewer than 100 members of the community take part in anti-Israel activism. According to the Anti-Defamation League, members of Neturei Karta have a long history of "extremist statements" and support for notable anti-Zionists and Islamists.


title: Neturei Karta

text: The name Neturei Karta is a name usually given to those people who regularly pray in the Neturei Karta synagogues (Torah Ve'Yirah Jerusalem, Torah U'Tefillah London, Torah U'Tefillah NY, Beis Yehudi Upstate NY, etc.), study in or send their children to educational institutions run by Neturei Karta, or actively participate in activities, assemblies or demonstrations called by the Neturei Karta.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Originally, the organization was called Chevrat HaChayim (Society of Life); however, this name was quickly supplanted in favor of the name Neturei Karta.


title: Neturei Karta

text: The name "Neturei Karta" literally means "Guardians of the City" in Aramaic and is derived from a narrative on page 76c of Tractate Hagigah in the Jerusalem Talmud. There, it is related that Rabbi Judah haNasi sent two rabbis on a tour of inspection:


title: Neturei Karta

text: In one town they asked to see the "guardians of the city" and the city guard was paraded before them. They said that these were not the guardians of the city but its destroyers, which prompted the citizens to ask who, then, could be considered the guardians. The rabbis answered, "The scribes and the scholars," referring them to "Tehillim" (Psalms) Chapter 127.


title: Neturei Karta

text: It is this role that Neturei Karta see themselves as fulfilling by defending what they believe is "the position of the Torah and authentic unadulterated Judaism."


title: Neturei Karta

text: Generally, members of Neturei Karta are descendants of Hungarian Jews and Lithuanian Jews who were students of the Gaon of Vilna (known as "Perushim") who had settled in Jerusalem in the early nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century, their ancestors participated in the creation of new neighborhoods outside the city walls to alleviate overcrowding in the Old City, and most are now concentrated in the neighborhood of Batei Ungarin and the larger Meah Shearim neighborhood. Members of the Malachim are also prominently represented within Neturei Karta.


title: Neturei Karta

text: At the time, they were vocal opponents to the new political ideology of Zionism that was attempting to assert Jewish sovereignty in Ottoman-controlled Palestine. They resented the new arrivals, who were predominantly non-religious, while they asserted that Jewish redemption could be brought about only by the Jewish messiah.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Neturei Karta was founded by Rabbi Amram Blau and Rabbi Aharon Katzenelbogen. Rabbi Blau was a native of Meah Shearim in Jerusalem and was active in the Agudat Israel during the British Mandate era. However, by the 1930s, the Aguda began to adopt a more compromising and accommodationist approach to the Zionist movement. This caused Rabbi Blau to split with the Aguda in 1937 and cofound Chevrat HaChayim (with Rabbi Katzenelbogen), which was soon to be known thereafter as Neturei Karta.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Other Orthodox Jewish movements, including some who oppose Zionism, have denounced the activities of the radical branch of Neturei Karta. According to "The Guardian", "[e]ven among Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox circles, the Neturei Karta are regarded as a wild fringe". Neturei Karta is sometimes confused with Satmar, due to both being anti-Zionist; however, they are separate groups and have had disagreements. For example, Satmar criticized Neturei Karta for attending a 2006 holocaust revisionist conference in Iran. Neturei Karta asserts that the mass media deliberately downplays their viewpoint and makes them out to be few in number. Their protests in America are usually attended by, at most, a few dozen people. In Israel, the group's protests typically attract several hundred participants, depending on the nature of the protest and its location.


title: Neturei Karta

text: In July 2013, the Shin Bet arrested a 46-year-old member of Neturei Karta for allegedly attempting to spy on Israel for Iran. As part of a plea deal, the man was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Neturei Karta has denied that he had ever been a member of their group.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Neturei Karta's website states that its members "frequently participate[s] in public burning of the Israeli flag." On the Jewish holiday of Purim, Neturei Karta members have routinely burned Israeli flags in celebrations in cities such as London, Brooklyn and Jerusalem.


title: Neturei Karta

text: While many in Neturei Karta chose to simply ignore the State of Israel, this has become more difficult. Some took steps to condemn Israel and bring about its eventual dismantling until the coming of the Messiah. Chief among these was Moshe Hirsch, leader of an activist branch of Neturei Karta, who served in Yasser Arafat's cabinet as Minister for Jewish Affairs.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Neturei Karta stress what is said in the mussaf Shemona Esrei ("The Standing Prayer") of Yom Tov, that because of their sins, the Jewish people went into exile from the Land of Israel (""umipnei chatoeinu golinu meiartzeinu"). Additionally, they maintain the view – based on the Babylonian Talmud – that any form of forceful recapture of the Land of Israel is a violation of divine will. They believe that the restoration of the Land of Israel to the Jews should happen only with the coming of the Messiah, not by self-determination.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Neturei Karta believe that the exile of the Jews can end only with the arrival of the Messiah, and that human attempts to establish Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel are sinful. In Neturei Karta's view, Zionism is a presumptuous affront against God. Chief among their arguments against Zionism is the Talmudic concept of the so-called Three Oaths, extracted from the discussion of certain portions of the Bible. It states that a pact consisting of three oaths was made between God, the Jewish people, and the nations of the world, when the Jews were sent into exile. One provision of the pact was that the Jews would not rebel against the non-Jewish world that gave them sanctuary; a second was that they would not immigrate en masse to the Land of Israel. In return, the gentile nations promised not to persecute the Jews. By rebelling against this pact, they argued, the Jewish people were engaging in rebellion against God.


title: Neturei Karta

text: The Neturei Karta synagogues follow the customs of the Gaon of Vilna, due to Neturei Karta's origin within the Lithuanian rather than Hasidic branch of Haredi Judaism. Neturei Karta is not a Hasidic but a Litvish group; they are often mistaken for Hasidim because their style of dress (including a shtreimel on Shabbos) is very similar to that of Hasidim. This style of dress is not unique to Neturei Karta, but is also the style of other Jerusalem Litvaks, such as Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv and his followers. Furthermore, Shomer Emunim, a Hasidic group with a similar anti-Zionist ideology, is often bundled together with Neturei Karta. Typically, the Jerusalem Neturei Karta will keep the customs of the "Old "Yishuv" of the city of Jerusalem even when living outside of Jerusalem or even when living abroad, as a demonstration of their love for and connection to the Holy Land.


title: Neturei Karta

text: In the United States, the Neturei Karta were led by Moshe Ber Beck of Monsey, New York until his death in 2021. They affiliate with the radical branch that was led by Moshe Hirsch. Beck had courted controversy by meeting with Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has been accused of inciting antisemitism and of describing Judaism as a "gutter religion" (although Farrakhan insists his words were misinterpreted). In addition, after meeting with the representatives from Neturei Karta, Farrakhan indicated he would be more cautious in his choice of words in the future.


title: Neturei Karta

text: After two men associated with the radical branch of Neturei Karta participated in a 2004 prayer vigil for Yasser Arafat outside the Percy Military Hospital in Paris, France, where he lay on his death bed, the radical branch of Neturei Karta was widely condemned by other Orthodox Jewish organizations, including many other anti-Zionist Haredi organizations both in New York and Jerusalem. Moshe Hirsch, and what Hirsch's faction described as an "impressive contingent" of other members, attended Arafat's funeral in Ramallah.


title: Neturei Karta

text: Almost a year after the Gaza War a group of Neturei Karta members crossed into Gaza as part of the Gaza Freedom March to celebrate Jewish "Shabbos" to show support for Palestinians in the Hamas ruled enclave.


title: Neturei Karta

text: In October 2005, Neturei Karta leader Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss issued a statement criticising Jewish attacks on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Weiss wrote that Ahmadinejad's statements were not "indicative of anti-Jewish sentiments", but rather, "a yearning for a better, more peaceful world", and "re-stating the beliefs and statements of Ayatollah Khomeini, who always emphasized and practiced the respect and protection of Jews and Judaism."


title: Neturei Karta

text: In March 2006, several members of a Neturei Karta's faction visited Iran where they met with Iranian leaders, including the Vice-President, and praised Ahmadinejad for calling for the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem to vanish from the pages of time. The spokesmen commented that they shared Ahmadinejad's aspiration for "a disintegration of the Israeli government". In an interview with Iranian television reporters, Rabbi Weiss remarked: "The Zionists use the Holocaust issue to their benefit. We, Jews who perished in the Holocaust, do not use it to advance our interests. We stress that there are hundreds of thousands Jews around the world who identify with our opposition to the Zionist ideology and who feel that Zionism is not Jewish, but a political agenda. ... What we want is not a withdrawal to the '67 borders, but to everything included in it, so the country can go back to the Palestinians and we could live with them ..."


title: Neturei Karta

text: In December 2006, members of Neturei Karta, including Yisroel Dovid Weiss, attended the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, a controversial conference being held in Tehran, Iran that attracted a number of high-profile Holocaust deniers.


title: Neturei Karta

text: In his speech, Weiss explained that the occurrence of the Nazi Holocaust was irrefutable and spoke about the murder of his own grandparents at Auschwitz, but claimed that Zionists had "collaborated with the Nazis" and "thwarted...efforts to save...Jews" and expressed solidarity with the Iranian position of anti-Zionism. Yonah Metzger, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, immediately called for those who went to Tehran to be put into 'cherem', a form of excommunication. Subsequently, the Satmar Hassidism court called on Jews "to keep away from them and condemn their actions".


title: Neturei Karta

text: On 21 December, the Edah HaChareidis rabbinical council of Jerusalem also released a statement calling on the public to distance itself from those who went to Iran. The Edah's statement followed, in major lines, the Satmar statement released a few days earlier. In January 2007, a group of protesters stood outside the radical Neturei Karta synagogue in Monsey, New York, demanding that they leave Monsey and move to Iran. Neturei Karta and their sympathisers from Monsey's Orthodox community responded with a counter-protest.


title: Neturei Karta

text: One of the targets of the 2008 Mumbai attacks was the Nariman House, which was operated by the Jewish Chabad movement. Neturei Karta subsequently issued a leaflet criticising the Chabad movement for its relations with "the filthy, deplorable traitors – the cursed Zionists that are your friends." It added that the Chabad movement has been imbued with "false national sentiment" and criticised the organisation for allowing all Jews to stay in its centres, without differentiating "between good and evil, right and wrong, pure and impure, a Jew and a person who joins another religion, a believer and a heretic." The leaflet also criticised the invitation of Israeli state officials to the funerals of the victims, claiming that they "uttered words of heresy and blasphemy." The leaflet concluded that "the road [Chabad] have taken is the road of death and it leads to doom, assimilation and the uprooting of the Torah."


title: Neturei Karta

text: A radical breakaway faction called "Sikrikim" is based in Israel, mainly in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The group's engagement in acts of vandalism, "mafia-like intimidation" and violent protests caused several people, including authority figures, to push for officially labeling them as a terrorist group, along with Neturei Karta.


title: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip

text: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip is the debut studio album by American girl group TLC, released on February 25, 1992, by LaFace Records. The title of the album comes from the last line of Left Eye's rap on "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg".


title: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip

text: The album peaked at number 14 on the US "Billboard" 200 and has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments in excess of four million copies in the United States. It is also TLC's third most successful album (after "CrazySexyCool" and "FanMail", respectively), having sold over six million copies worldwide.


title: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip

text: TLC signed their first contract with LaFace Records on February 28, 1991 (amended April 3, 1991, with Thomas), and began production on their debut album. For the album, TLC collaborated with Babyface, L.A. Reid, Dallas Austin, Da Funky Bunch, Jermaine Dupri, and Marley Marl, who helped Lopes with the songwriting. Production finished in December 1991.


title: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip

text: Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" praised the effort as well as the group and its message, calling TLC "a perfect pop group for the times." In a fairly positive review, Steve Huey of AllMusic states that "although it's uneven, the best moments of "On the TLC Tip" deserved their popularity, and set the stage for the group's blockbuster success the next time out."


title: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip

text: "Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip" debuted at number 105 on the US "Billboard" 200, and reached number 14 on the chart and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on May 1, 1996, and by October 2003, it had sold 2.5 million copies in the United States. The album had sold over six million copies worldwide as of December 2011.


title: Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip

text: Oooooooohhh... On the Video Tip is a compilation video album by TLC, containing all the music videos made for the group's debut album, as well as making-of features for the videos "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg", "Hat 2 da Back", "Baby-Baby-Baby", "Get It Up", "What About Your Friends" and "Sleigh Ride". Additional material includes, interviews, live performances and specially filmed segues. The compilation peaked at number seven on "Billboard"s Top Music Videos chart.


title: Music of Japan

text: In Japan, music includes a wide array of distinct genres, both traditional and modern. The word for "music" in Japanese is 音楽 ("ongaku"), combining the kanji 音 "on" (sound) with the kanji 楽 "gaku" (music, comfort). Japan is the world's largest market for music on physical media and the second-largest overall music market, with a retail value of US$2.7 billion in 2017.


title: Music of Japan

text: both of which date to the Nara (710–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods. Gagaku classical music has been performed at the Imperial court since the Heian period. Kagura-uta (神楽歌), Azuma-asobi (東遊) and Yamato-uta (大和歌) are indigenous repertories. Tōgaku (唐楽) and komagaku emerged during the Tang dynasty (618–907) via the Korean Peninsula. In addition, gagaku splits into kangen (管弦) (instrumental music) and bugaku (舞楽) (dance accompanied by gagaku).


title: Music of Japan

text: Samurai listened to and performed these music activities, in their practices of enriching their lives and understanding.


title: Music of Japan

text: The biwa (琵琶 - Chinese: pipa), a form of short-necked lute, was played by a group of itinerant performers (biwa hōshi). The root of Biwa music was The Tale of the Heike". Biwa hōshi" organized into a guild-like association. The biwa is Japan's traditional instrument.""


title: Music of Japan

text: Lafcadio Hearn related in his book "" (1903) "Mimi-nashi Hoichi" (Hoichi the Earless), a Japanese ghost story about a blind biwa hōshi who performs "The Tale of the Heike".


title: Music of Japan

text: Blind women, known as goze (瞽女), toured beginning in the medieval era, sang and played accompanying music on a lap drum. From the seventeenth century they often played the koto or the shamisen. Goze organizations sprung up in many places, and existed until the 21st century in Niigata Prefecture.


title: Music of Japan

text: Wadaiko, a Japanese drum, comes in various sizes and is used in variety of musical genres. It has become particularly popular in recent years as the central instrument of percussion ensembles whose repertory is based on a variety of folk- and festival-music of the past. Such taiko music is played by large drum ensembles called "kumi-daiko". Its origins remain uncertain, but can be traced to the 7th century, when a clay figure of a drummer documented its existence. Chinese influences followed, but the instrument and its music remained uniquely Japanese. Taiko drums during this period were used during battle to intimidate the enemy and to communicate commands. Taiko continue to be used in the religious music of Buddhism and Shintō. In the past players were holy men who played only at special occasions and in small groups, but in time secular men (rarely women) also played the taiko in semi-religious festivals such as the bon dance.


title: Music of Japan

text: Modern ensemble taiko was invented by Daihachi Oguchi in 1951. A jazz drummer, Oguchi incorporated his musical background into large ensembles of his design. His energetic style made his group popular throughout Japan, and made the Hokuriku region a center for taiko music. Musical groups to arise from this wave of popularity included Oedo Sukeroku Taiko, founded by Seido Kobayashi. 1969 saw a group called Za Ondekoza; Za Ondekoza gathered young performers who innovated a new roots revival taiko, which was used as a way of life in communal lifestyles. During the 1970s the Japanese government allocated funds to preserve Japanese culture, and many community taiko groups formed. Later in the century, taiko groups spread across the world, especially to the United States. The video game "Taiko no Tatsujin" is based around taiko.


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese folk songs ("min'yō") can be grouped and classified in many ways but it is often convenient to think of four main categories:


title: Music of Japan

text: In min'yō, three-stringed lute known as the shamisen, taiko drums, and a bamboo flute called shakuhachi typically accompany the singers. Other instruments that could accompany include a transverse flute known as the shinobue, a bell known as kane, a hand drum called the tsuzumi, and/or a 13-stringed zither known as the koto. In Okinawa the main instrument is the sanshin. These are traditional Japanese instruments, but modern instrumentation, such as electric guitars and synthesizers, is also used in this day and age, when enka singers cover traditional min'yō songs (enka being a Japanese music genre all its own).


title: Music of Japan

text: An ondo generally describes any folk song with a distinctive swing that may be heard as 2/4 time rhythm (though performers usually do not group beats). The typical folk song heard at Obon festival dances is typically an ondo. A bushi ("melody" or "rhythm") is a song with a distinctive melody. The word is rarely used on its own, but is usually prefixed by a term referring to occupation, location, personal name or the like. Bon uta are songs for Obon, the lantern festival of the dead. Komori uta are lullabies. The names of min'yo songs often include a descriptive term, usually at the end. For example: Tokyo Ondo, Kushimoto Bushi, Hokkai Bon Uta, and Itsuki no Komoriuta.


title: Music of Japan

text: Many of these songs include extra stress on certain syllables as well as pitched shouts (kakegoe). Kakegoe are generally shouts of cheer but in min'yō, they are often included as parts of choruses. There are many kakegoe, though they vary from region to region. In Okinawa Min'yō, for example, the common "ha iya sasa!" appears. In mainland Japan, however, "a yoisho!," "sate!," or "a sore!" are more common. Others include "a donto koi!," and "dokoisho!"


title: Music of Japan

text: Recently a guild-based system known as the iemoto system has been applied to some forms of min'yō. This system originally developed for transmitting classical genres such as nagauta, shakuhachi, or koto music, but since it proved profitable to teachers and was supported by students who wished to obtain certificates of proficiency. It continues to spread to genres such as min'yō, Tsugaru-jamisen and other forms of music that were traditionally transmitted more informally. Today some min'yō are passed on in such pseudo-family organizations and long apprenticeships are common.


title: Music of Japan

text: Umui, religious songs, shima uta, dance songs, and, especially kachāshī, lively celebratory music, were all popular on the island. Okinawan folk music differs from mainland Japanese folk music in several ways.


title: Music of Japan

text: Okinawan folk music is often accompanied by the sanshin, whereas in mainland Japan the shamisen accompanies instead. Other Okinawan instruments include the sanba (which produce a clicking sound similar to that of castanets), taiko and a sharp finger whistle called .


title: Music of Japan

text: A pentatonic scale is often used in min'yō from the main islands of Japan. In this pentatonic scale the subdominant and leading tone (scale degrees 4 and 7 of the Western major scale) are omitted, resulting in a musical scale with no half steps between each note. (Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La in solfeggio, or scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6). Okinawan min'yō, however, uses scales that include the half-steps omitted in the aforementioned pentatonic scale, when analyzed in the Western discipline of music. In fact, the most common scale used in Okinawan min'yō includes scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.


title: Music of Japan

text: After the Meiji Restoration introduced Western musical instruction, Izawa Shuji (a bureaucrat) compiled songs like "Auld Lang Syne". Two major forms of music that developed during this period were shōka, which was composed to bring western music to schools, and gunka.


title: Music of Japan

text: As Japan moved towards representative democracy in the late 19th century, leaders hired singers to sell copies of songs that aired their messages, since the leaders themselves were usually prohibited from speaking in public.


title: Music of Japan

text: A distinctively Japanese form of tango called "dodompa" emerged. Kayōkyoku became associated with traditional Japanese structures influenced by Enka. Famous enka singers include Hibari Misora, Saburo Kitajima, Ikuzo Yoshi and Haruo Minami.


title: Music of Japan

text: Shuji Isawa (1851–1917) studied music at Bridgewater Normal School and Harvard University and was an important figure in the development of Western-influenced Japanese music in the Meiji Era (1868-1912). On returning to Japan in 1879, Isawa formed the Ongaku-Torishirabe-Gakari (Music Investigation Agency), a national research center for Western music; it was later renamed the Tokyo Music School (Tôkyô ongaku gakkô). In 1880, Isawa's American friend and teacher, Luther Whiting Mason, accepted a two-year appointment. Kosaku Yamada, Yoshinao Nakada, and Toru Takemitsu are Japanese composers who have successively developed what is now known as Japanese Classical Music.


title: Music of Japan

text: Western classical music established a strong presence in Japan, making the country one of the most important markets for this music tradition. Toru Takemitsu composed avant-garde music, contemporary classical music, and movie scoring.


title: Music of Japan

text: Besides traditional symphony orchestras, Japan is internationally prominent in the field of wind bands. The All-Japan Band Association is the governing body for wind band competitions in the country.


title: Music of Japan

text: From the 1930s on (except during World War II, when it was repressed as music of the enemy) jazz maintained a strong presence in Japan. The country is an important market for the music, and it is common that recordings unavailable in the United States or Europe are available there. A number of Japanese jazz musicians, such as June (born in Japan) and Sadao Watanabe have a large fan base outside their native country.


title: Music of Japan

text: J-pop, an abbreviation for Japanese pop is a loosely defined musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. J-pop has its roots in 1960s pop and rock music, such as the Beatles, which 70s rock bands fused rock with Japanese music. J-pop was further defined by Japanese new wave bands such as Southern All Stars in the late 1970s. Eventually, J-pop replaced "kayōkyoku" ("Lyric Singing Music", a term for Japanese pop music from the 1920s to the 1980s) in the Japanese music scene. The term was coined by the Japanese media to distinguish Japanese music from foreign music.


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese idol musical artists are a significant part of the market, with girl groups and boy bands regularly topping the singles chart. These include boy band Arashi, which had the best-selling singles of 2008 and 2009, and girl group AKB48, which have had the best-selling singles each year since 2010. Since the end of the 2010s, more and more idol groups have emerged. Their success is sometimes termed "Idol sengoku jidai" (アイドル戦国時代; lit. Idol war age). In 2014, about 486,000 people attended Momoiro Clover Z's live concerts, which was the highest record for female musicians in Japan for this year. SMAP was a Japanese boy band, recognized. The group was created in 1988. Nogizaka 46 and Keyakizaka 46 were also popular.


title: Music of Japan

text: In 1984, American musician Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" became the first album by a Western artist to sell over one million copies in Japanese Oricon charts history. His style is cited as one of the models for Japanese dance music, leading the popularity of Avex Group musicians and dancers.


title: Music of Japan

text: In 1990, Avex Trax began to release the Super Eurobeat series in Japan. Eurobeat in Japan led the popularity of group dance form Para Para. While Avex's artists such as Every Little Thing and Ayumi Hamasaki became popular in the 1990s, in the late 1990s Hikaru Utada and Morning Musume emerged. Hikaru Utada's debut album, "First Love", became the highest-selling album in Japan selling over 7 million copies, while Ayumi Hamasaki became Japan's top selling female and solo artist, and Morning Musume remains one of the most well-known girl groups in the Japanese pop music industry.


title: Music of Japan

text: In the 1960s, many Japanese rock bands were influenced by Western rock, along with Appalachian folk music, psychedelic rock, mod and similar genres: a phenomenon called Group Sounds (G.S.). John Lennon became one of the most popular Western musicians in Japan. Late 1960s, Group Sounds bands such as The Tempters, the Tigers, the Golden Cups, the Spiders, the Jaguars, the Ox, the Village Singers, the Carnabeats, the Wild Ones, the Mops were popular. After the boom of Group Sounds came folk singer-songwriters. the Tigers was the most popular Group Sounds band in the era. Later, some of the members of the Tigers, the Tempters and the Spiders formed the first Japanese supergroup Pyg.


title: Music of Japan

text: Kenji Sawada and Kenichi Hagiwara started their solo career in the early 1970s along with rock bands such as the Power House, Blues Creation, and late 70s hard rock bands like Murasaki, Condition Green, Bow Wow. Carol (led by Eikichi Yazawa), RC Succession and Funny Company helped define the rock sound. In the late 70s, Creation and Char performed Jeff Beck-style rock. Beginning in the late sixties, but mostly in the seventies, musicians mixed rock with American-style folk and pop elements, usually labelled folk rock because of their regular use of the acoustic guitar. This includes bands like Tulip, Banban, and Garo. Rock artists include and early Southern All Stars.


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese musicians began experimenting with electronic rock in the 1970s. The most notable was Isao Tomita, whose 1972 album "Electric Samurai: Switched on Rock" featured electronic synthesizer renditions of contemporary rock and pop songs. Other early examples of electronic rock records include Inoue Yousui's folk rock and pop rock album "Ice World" (1973) and Osamu Kitajima's progressive psychedelic rock album "Benzaiten" (1974), both of which involved contributions from Haruomi Hosono, who later started the electronic music group "Yellow Magic Band" (later known as Yellow Magic Orchestra) in 1977.


title: Music of Japan

text: In the 1980s, Yutaka Ozaki was popular in young rock fans. Pop rock group such as C-C-B, Tokyo JAP, and Red Wariors gained hit songs. Boøwy inspired alternative rock bands like Shonen Knife, the Pillows, and Tama & Little Creatures as well as more experimental bands such as Boredoms and mainstream bands such as Glay. In 1980, Huruoma and Ry Cooder, an American musician, collaborated on a rock album with Shoukichi Kina, driving force behind the aforementioned Okinawan band Champloose. They were followed by Sandii & the Sunsetz, who further mixed Japanese and Okinawan influences. Also during the 1980s, Japanese metal and rock bands gave birth to the movement known as visual kei, represented during its history by bands like X Japan, Buck-Tick, Luna Sea, Malice Mizer and many others, some of which experienced national, and international success in the latest years.


title: Music of Japan

text: In the 1990s, Japanese rock musicians such as B'z, Mr. Children, Glay, Southern All Stars, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Tube, Spitz, Wands, T-Bolan, Judy and Mary, Asian Kung–Fu Generation, Field of View, Deen, Lindberg, Sharam Q, the Yellow Monkey, the Brilliant Green and Dragon Ash achieved great commercial success. B'z is the #1 best selling act in Japanese music since Oricon started to count., followed by Mr. Children. In the 1990s, pop songs were often used in films, anime, television advertisement and dramatic programming, becoming some of Japan's best-sellers. The rise of disposable pop has been linked with the popularity of karaoke, leading to criticism that it is consumerist: Kazufumi Miyazawa of the Boom said "I hate that buy, listen, and throw away and sing at a karaoke bar mentality." Of the visual kei bands, Luna Sea, whose members toned down their on-stage attire with on-going success, was very successful, while Malice Mizer, La'cryma Christi, Shazna, Janne Da Arc, and Fanatic Crisis also achieved commercial success in the late 1990s.


title: Music of Japan

text: The rock band Supercar, which was characterized as having "almost foundational importance to 21st century Japanese indie rock", released its influential first album in 1998. They remained active through 2005, with their later albums containing more electronic rock.


title: Music of Japan

text: The first Fuji Rock Festival opened in 1997. Rising Sun Rock Festival opened in 1999. Summer Sonic Festival and Rock in Japan Festival opened in 2000. Though the rock scene in the 2000s was not as strong, bands such as Bump of Chicken, One Ok Rock, Sambomaster, Flow, Orange Range, Remioromen, Uverworld and Aqua Timez achieved success. Orange Range also ventured into hip hop. Established bands as B'z, Mr. Children, Glay, and L'Arc-en-Ciel continued to top charts, though B'z and Mr. Children are the only bands to maintain high sales through the years.


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese rock has a vibrant underground rock scene, best known internationally for noise rock bands such as Boredoms and Melt Banana, as well as stoner rock bands such as Boris, psychedelic rock bands such as Acid Mothers Temple, and alternative acts such as Shonen Knife (who were championed in the West by Kurt Cobain), Pizzicato Five and the Pillows (who gained international attention in 1999 for the "FLCL" soundtrack). More conventional indie rock artists such as Eastern Youth, the Band Apart and Number Girl found some success in Japan, but little recognition outside of their home country. Other notable international touring indie rock acts are Mono and Nisennenmondai.


title: Music of Japan

text: Early examples of punk rock include SS, the Star Club, the Stalin, , , Bomb Factory, Lizard (who were produced by the Stranglers) and Friction (whose guitarist Reck played with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks before returning to Tokyo) and the Blue Hearts. The early punk scene was filmed by Sogo Ishii, who directed the 1982 film "Burst City" featuring a cast of punk bands/musicians and also filmed videos for The Stalin. In the 1980s, hardcore bands such as GISM, Gauze, Confuse, Lip Cream and Systematic Death began appearing, some incorporating crossover elements. The independent scene also included a diverse number of alternative/post-punk/new wave artists such as Aburadako, P-Model, Uchoten, Auto-Mod, Buck-Tick, Guernica and Yapoos (both of which featured Jun Togawa), G-Schmitt, Totsuzen Danball and Jagatara, along with noise/industrial bands such as Hijokaidan and Hanatarashi.


title: Music of Japan

text: Ska-punk bands of the late nineties extending in the years 2000 include Shakalabbits and 175R (pronounced "inago rider").


title: Music of Japan

text: Japan is a successful market for metal bands. Notable examples are Judas Priest's "Unleashed in the East", Deep Purple's "Made in Japan", Iron Maiden's "Maiden Japan", Michael Schenker Group's "One Night at Budokan" and Dream Theater's "Live at Budokan".


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese metal emerged in the late 1970s, pioneered by bands like Bow Wow, formed in 1975 by guitarist Kyoji Yamamoto, and Loudness, formed in 1981 by guitarist Akira Takasaki. Contemporary bands like Earthshaker, Anthem and 44 Magnum released their debut albums only around the mid eighties. The first overseas live performances were by Bow Wow in 1978 in Hong Kong, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Reading Festival in England in 1982. In 1983, Loudness toured United States and Europe. In 1985, the first Japanese metal act was signed to a major US label. Their albums "Thunder in the East" and "Lightning Strikes", released in 1985 and 1986, peaked at number 74 (while number 4 in homeland Oricon chart), and number 64 in the "Billboard" 200 charts respectively. Till the end of the eighties only two other bands, Ezo and Dead End, released albums in the United States. In the eighties few bands had a female member, like the all-female band Show-Ya fronted by Keiko Terada, and Terra Rosa with Kazue Akao on vocals. In September 1989, Show-Ya's album "Outerlimits" was released, reaching #3 on the Oricon album chart. Heavy metal bands reached their peak in the late 1980s and then many disbanded until the mid-1990s.


title: Music of Japan

text: In 1982, some of the first Japanese glam metal bands were formed, like Seikima-II with Kabuki-inspired makeup, and X Japan who pioneered the Japanese movement known as visual kei, and became the best-selling metal band. In 1985, Seikima-II's album "Seikima-II - Akuma ga Kitarite Heavy Metal" was released and although it reached number 48 on the Oricon album chart, it exceeded 100,000 in sales, the first time for any Japanese metal band. Their albums charted regularly in the top ten until the mid 1990s. In April 1989, X Japan's second album "Blue Blood" was released and went to number 6, and after 108 weeks on charts sold 712,000 copies. Their third and best-selling album "Jealousy" was released in July 1991; it topped the charts and sold 1.11 million copies. Two number one studio albums, "Art of Life" and "Dahlia", a singles compilation "X Singles", all sold more than half a million, ending up with thirteen top five singles before disbanding in 1997.


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese metal came to global attention in 2014 with the success of "kawaii metal" band Babymetal. They recorded viral YouTube hits like "Gimme Chocolate!!" as well as international performances including at the UK's Sonisphere Festival 2014 and Canada's Heavy Montréal alongside the likes of Metallica and Slayer. Babymetal was the opening act to five of Lady Gaga's concerts in her 2014 tour. Babymetal won numerous awards including Kerrang!'s The Spirit of Independence Award and Metal Hammer's Breakthrough Band Award.


title: Music of Japan

text: Japanese extreme metal bands formed in the wake of the American and European wave, but didn't get any bigger exposure until the 1990s, and the genre took underground form in Japan. The first thrash metal bands formed in the early 1980s, like United, whose music incorporates death metal elements, and Outrage. United performed in Los Angeles at the metal festival "Foundations Forum" in September 1995 and released a few albums in North America. Formed in the mid 1980s, Doom played in the United States in October 1988 at CBGB, and was active until 2000 when it disbanded.


title: Music of Japan

text: The first bands to play black metal music were Sabbat, who is still active, and Bellzlleb, who was active until the early 1990s. Other notable acts are Sigh, Abigail, and Gallhammer.


title: Music of Japan

text: Doom metal also gained an audience in Japan. The two best-known Japanese doom metal acts are Church of Misery and Boris: both gained considerable popularity outside the country.


title: Music of Japan

text: In the 2000s, Japanese metalcore bands such as Tokyo's Crystal Lake, Nagoya natives Coldrain and Deathgaze, Kobe's Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Osaka's Crossfaith formed.


title: Music of Japan

text: Hip-hop came in the late 1980s and continues to thrive. This was mainly due to the music world's belief that "Japanese sentences were not capable of forming the rhyming effect that was contained in American rappers' songs."


title: Music of Japan

text: Different "families" of rappers perform on stage at a genba, or nightclub. A family is essentially a collection of rap groups that are usually headed by one of the more famous Tokyo acts, which also include proteges. They are important because they are "the key to understanding stylistic differences between groups." Hip-hop fans in the audience are in control of the club. They judge who is the winner in rap contests on stage. An example of this can be seen with the battle between rap artists Dabo (a major label artist) and Kan (an indie artist). Kan challenged Dabo while Dabo was mid-performance. The event highlighted showed "the openness of the scene and the fluidity of boundaries in clubs."


title: Music of Japan

text: Grime is a British electronic genre that emerged in the early 2000s derived from UK garage and jungle, and draws influence from dancehall, ragga, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 140 bpm, and often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound. Rapping is a significant element, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.


title: Music of Japan

text: In 2004, Japanese DJ's began to play grime. In 2008 that MC's, primarily from Osaka, began to emerge. The MC's were inspired by British grime crew Roll Deep, and their mixtape "Rules And Regulations." The Osaka MC's consisted of pioneers MC Dekishi, MC Duff and MC Tacquilacci. MC Dekishi released the first ever Japanese grime mixtape in 2009, titled "Grime City Volume 1". Osaka MC's are known for rapping extremely fast. Another scene sprung up in the Tokyo region of Shibuya led by Carpainter, Double Clapperz, MC ONJUICY, PAKIN and Sakana Lavenda.


title: Music of Japan

text: Synth-pop in Japan was influenced by German electronic and techno artists such as Kraftwerk. New wave and synth-pop bands such as Hikasyuu, P-Model and The Plastics were popular. Many musicians of the 1970s and 80s who were known for pop music turned to techno production such as C-C-B and Akiko Yano. In the 1990s, Denki Groove formed and became mainstays of the Japanese electronica scene. Artists such as Polysics pay explicit homage to this era. Capsule's Yasutaka Nakata has been involved behind the scenes of popular electropop acts Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, both of which had domestic and international success; Kyary in particular was dubbed the "Kawaii Harajuku Ambassador".


title: Music of Japan

text: Kawaii Future Bass is a subgenre of Future Bass, with a generally upbeat sound and heavily inspired by Japanese culture, and often includes Japanese lyrics or references to anime or manga. It began to see success around 2015, mostly pioneered by Snail's House. Due to Japan's increasing influence in foreign countries, Kawaii Future Bass grew popular around the world.


title: Music of Japan

text: In the late 1980s, roots bands like Shang Shang Typhoon and the Boom became popular. Okinawan roots bands like Nenes and Kina were also commercially and critically successful. This led to a second wave of Okinawan music, led by the sudden success of Rinken Band. Bands followed, including the comebacks of Champluse and Kina, as led by Kawachiya Kikusuimaru; very similar to kawachi ondo is Tadamaru Sakuragawa's goshu ondo.


title: Music of Japan

text: J-country is a form of J-pop that originated in the 1960s, during the international popularity of Westerns. Early artists included Biji Kuroda, Jimmie Tokita, The Blue Rangers, Wagon Aces, and Tomi Fujiyama. It continues to have a dedicated following, with major companies such as Nintendo and Sony continuing to produce country and Western music within Japan. Some other musicians associated with this movement include Charlie Nagatani, J.T. Kanehira, Dicky Kitano, and Manami Sekiya.


title: Music of Japan

text: Music from Indonesia, Jamaica and elsewhere were assimilated. African soukous and Latin music, like Orquesta de la Luz (オルケスタ・デ・ラ・ルス), was popular as was Jamaican reggae and ska, exemplified by Mice Teeth, Mute Beat, La-ppisch, Home Grown and Ska Flames, Determinations, and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.


title: Music of Japan

text: Another recognized music form from Japan is noise music. The noise from this country is called Japanoise. Its most prominent representative is Masami Akita with his project Merzbow.


title: Music of Japan

text: Theme music for films, anime, tokusatsu () and dorama are considered a separate music genre. While musicians and bands from all genres have recorded for Japanese television and film, several artists and groups have spent most of their careers performing theme songs and composing soundtracks for visual media. Such artists include Masato Shimon (current holder of the world record for most successful single in Japan for "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun"), Ichirou Mizuki, all of the members of JAM Project (i.e. Hironobu Kageyama who sung the openings for "Dengeki Sentai Changeman" and "Dragon Ball Z"), Akira Kushida, members of Project.R, Isao Sasaki and Mitsuko Horie. Notable composers of Japanese theme music include Joe Hisaishi, Michiru Oshima, Yoko Kanno, Toshihiko Sahashi, Yuki Kajiura, Kōtarō Nakagawa, Shunsuke Kikuchi and Yuki Hayashi.


title: Music of Japan

text: When the first electronic games were sold, they had rudimentary sound chips with which to produce music. As the technology advanced, quality increased dramatically. The first game to take credit for its music was "Xevious", also noteworthy (at that time) for its deeply constructed stories. One of the most important games in the history of the video game music is "Dragon Quest". Koichi Sugiyama, who composed for various anime and TV shows, including "Cyborg 009" and a feature film of "Godzilla vs. Biollante", got involved in the project out of curiosity and proved that games can have serious soundtracks. Until his involvement, music and sounds were often neglected in the development of video games and programmers with little musical knowledge were forced to write the soundtracks as well. Undaunted by technological limits, Sugiyama worked with only 8-part polyphony to create a soundtrack that would not tire the player despite hours of gameplay.


title: Music of Japan

text: A well-known author of game music is Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu's earlier compositions for the game series, "Final Fantasy", on Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System in America), were arranged for full orchestral score. In 2003, he took his rock-based tunes from their original MIDI format and created the Black Mages. Yasunori Mitsuda is the composer of music for such games as "Xenogears", "Xenosaga Episode I", "Chrono Cross", and "Chrono Trigger". Koji Kondo, the sound manager for Nintendo, wrote themes for "Zelda" and "Mario". Jun Senoue composed for "Sonic the Hedgehog". He also is the main guitarist of Crush 40, which is known for creating the theme songs to "Sonic Adventure", "Sonic Adventure 2", "Sonic Heroes", "Shadow the Hedgehog", and "Sonic and the Black Knight", as well as other "Sonic" games. Motoi Sakuraba composed the "Tales", "Dark Souls", "Eternal Sonata", "Star Ocean", "Valkyrie Profile", "Golden Sun", and the "" games, as well as numerous Mario sports games. Yuzo Koshiro composed electronic music-influenced soundtracks for games such as "Revenge of Shinobi" and the "Streets of Rage" series.


title: Giant Steps

text: Giant Steps is the fifth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane as leader. It was released in February 1960 on Atlantic Records. This was his first album as leader for Atlantic Records, with which he had signed a new contract the previous year. The record is regarded as one of the most influential jazz albums of all time. Many of its tracks have become practice templates for jazz saxophonists. In 2004, it was one of fifty recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It attained gold record status in 2018, having sold 500,000 copies.


title: Giant Steps

text: Two tracks, "Naima" and "Syeeda's Song Flute", are respectively named after Coltrane's wife at the time and her daughter, whom he adopted. A third, "Mr. P.C.", takes its name from the initials of bassist Paul Chambers, who played on the album. A fourth, "Cousin Mary", is named in honor of Mary Lyerly, Coltrane's younger cousin.


title: Giant Steps

text: In 1959, Miles Davis's business manager Harold Lovett negotiated a record contract for Coltrane with Atlantic, the terms of which included a $7,000 annual guarantee (). Initial sessions for this album, the second recording date for Coltrane under his new contract after a January 15 date led by Milt Jackson, took place on March 26, 1959. Coltrane was dissatisfied with the results of this session with Cedar Walton and Lex Humphries, and hence they were not used for the album, but appeared on subsequent compilations and reissues. Principal recording for the album took place on May 4 and 5, two weeks after Coltrane had participated in the final session for "Kind of Blue". The track "Naima" was recorded on December 2 with Coltrane's bandmates, the rhythm section from the Miles Davis Quintet, who would provide the backing for most of his next album, "Coltrane Jazz".


title: Giant Steps

text: Coltrane's improvisation exemplifies the melodic phrasing that came to be known as sheets of sound, and features his explorations into third-related chord movements that came to be known as Coltrane changes. The Giant Steps chord progression consists of a distinctive set of chords that create key centers a major third apart. Jazz musicians ever since have used it as a practice piece, its difficult chord changes presenting a "kind of ultimate harmonic challenge", and serving as a gateway into modern jazz improvisation. Several pieces on this album went on to become jazz standards, most prominently "Naima" and "Giant Steps".


title: Giant Steps

text: "The Penguin Guide to Jazz" selected this album as part of its suggested "Core Collection" calling it "Trane's first genuinely iconic record." In 2003, the album was ranked number 102 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 103 in a 2012 revised list, and 232 in a 2020 revised list.


title: Giant Steps

text: On March 3, 1998, Rhino Records reissued "Giant Steps" as part of its Atlantic 50th Anniversary Jazz Gallery series. Included were eight bonus tracks, five of which had appeared in 1975 on the Atlantic compilation "Alternate Takes", the remaining three earlier issued on "" in 1995.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Paul Dominique Laxalt (; August 2, 1922 – August 6, 2018) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 22nd governor of Nevada from 1967 to 1971 and a United States senator from Nevada from 1974 until 1987. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of Ronald Reagan's closest friends in politics. After Reagan was elected president in 1980, many in the national press referred to Laxalt as "the first friend". He was the older brother of writer Robert Laxalt and grandfather of Adam Laxalt, who served as the 33rd attorney general of Nevada from 2015 to 2019.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt was born on August 2, 1922, in Reno, Nevada. He was the son of Basque parents, Therese (née Alpetche) and Dominique Laxalt, who emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s from their homeland in the French Pyrenees. A shepherd, Dominique became wealthy in the sheep industry. After losing everything in the early 1920s, he returned to shepherding for the rest of his career. Therese, who had been trained at Paris's "Le Cordon Bleu" cooking school, eventually opened a restaurant called The French Hotel in Carson City, Nevada.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Therese and Dominique had six children: Paul, Robert (born in 1923), Suzanne (1925), John (1926), Marie (1928) and Peter (1931). Robert became an author; Suzanne, a Roman Catholic nun; John, a lawyer and political consultant; Marie, a school teacher; and Peter (Mick), an attorney. The Laxalt children were raised largely by their mother, as Dominique spent long periods of time away from the household tending his sheep in the deserts and mountains of Nevada. The children all helped Therese at The French Hotel.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Paul played on the 1938 state basketball champion team at Carson High School before graduating and attending Santa Clara University. When World War II broke out, Paul joined the U.S. Army and served as a medic, seeing action in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines. After the war, he graduated from the Sturm College of Law.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: After graduating from law school and after serving as a district attorney, Laxalt enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer. His clients included George Whittell, who owned a large portion of the Lake Tahoe frontage on the Nevada side of the lake, Harvey and Llewellyn Gross, who built and ran Harvey's Wagon Wheel on Lake Tahoe's south shore, and Dick Graves, founder of the Sparks Nugget. While representing Graves, Laxalt helped win the famous "Golden Rooster case" in which the federal government tried to confiscate a 15-pound solid gold rooster that Graves displayed near the entrance of his Golden Rooster restaurant.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Paul Laxalt's first attempt for public office was in 1950 when he ran for District Attorney of Ormsby County, Nevada, turning out the incumbent D.A. He served from 1950 to 1954. Laxalt's first run for statewide office came in 1962 when he ran for Lieutenant Governor against former Rep. Berkeley L. Bunker. Using innovative television ads and personal television appearances, Laxalt was able to introduce himself to the electorate, particularly in Southern Nevada where he was virtually unknown. In the middle of the campaign, at a Fourth of July rally in Las Vegas, Republican gubernatorial candidate and then-Lt. Gov. Rex Bell, a former Hollywood actor who had persuaded Laxalt to run with him on the GOP "ticket", died of a heart attack. A great amount of pressure was applied to Laxalt to run in Bell's place, but the young attorney demurred, and he remained in the lieutenant governor's race. He ended up defeating Bunker by a comfortable margin. Laxalt served one term as lieutenant governor from 1963 to 1967.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: In 1964, while serving as lieutenant governor, Laxalt ran for the United States Senate against freshman Democratic incumbent Sen. Howard Cannon. Laxalt had wanted to remain lieutenant governor. However, he declared his candidacy in mid-1964 after no other serious Republican contenders expressed interest. He did not have to give up his lieutenant governor's post for this race, since he was not up for reelection until 1966.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Republican candidates, running concurrently with the 1964 federal election, were undermined by the unpopularity of Sen. Barry Goldwater from Arizona, the Republican nominee for President against incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, and the leader of their political ticket. Not long before election day, Goldwater scheduled a visit to Las Vegas. Laxalt's advisors told him he should "duck" Goldwater, as they feared any association with Goldwater would spell trouble. Laxalt, who often described Goldwater as his "political Godfather", reportedly told his aides, "Listen, Barry Goldwater is my friend. If I snubbed him now, I could never look him in the face again. I would rather lose." The Laxalt-Goldwater meeting on the tarmac was splashed on the front pages of local newspapers. (Goldwater lost Nevada by 28,000 votes.) Still, the Laxalt-Cannon race remained far closer than expected. As he watched the returns come in from his home in Carson City, Laxalt was stunned when one of the television networks actually declared him the winner. The next morning he flew to Las Vegas where he was told that certain precincts reported late and that Cannon had won by 48 votes, among the narrowest margins in a popular election for the U.S. Senate. The race was the subject of intense controversy for years.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt then decided to challenge two-term Governor Grant Sawyer. Although the election would not take place until November of 1966, Laxalt launched his campaign in the middle of 1965. One of the most hotly debated issues during the campaign was the federal government's involvement in Nevada gaming operations. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Justice Department had deep suspicions about organized crime's involvement in the gambling industry. Sawyer took the position that the federal government should stay out of Nevada's affairs. Laxalt took the position that Nevada had to cooperate with "the Feds" in order to be in a position to regulate gambling credibly. (In fact, one of Laxalt's first moves after his election was to meet with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to express Nevada's desire to establish a cooperative relationship.) During the gubernatorial campaign, Laxalt also led a movement to purge members of the John Birch Society from the state Republican Party. Sawyer was defeated by an unexpectedly wide margin (nearly 6,000 votes). Laxalt served one term as governor, from January 1967 to January 1971.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt's tenure as governor was noteworthy for coinciding with the purchase of several hotel-casinos by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Laxalt allowed Hughes to secure his gaming license without appearing before the state's gaming regulatory authorities because he thought having an internationally acclaimed businessman involved in Nevada gaming would send a positive signal about the legitimacy of the industry. Laxalt also supported corporate ownership of gaming operations in Nevada, which helped pave the way for modern-day gambling. With the financial support of Hughes, Laxalt helped establish the state's first community colleges and Nevada's first medical school.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Along with Gov. Ronald Reagan of neighboring California, Laxalt helped create the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, to protect scenic Lake Tahoe. He also expanded the park system and promoted prison reform in Nevada. On one occasion, Laxalt, against the advice of his staff, went to the Nevada State Penitentiary during a prisoner uprising. He met personally with several prisoners who described to the governor the deplorable conditions under which they were living. Laxalt sympathized with their concerns and ordered the prison staff to address the problems. When he was later asked by the media if he had qualms about entering the prison yard, Laxalt, a former trial lawyer, said, "No, not really. Many of them were my former clients!"


title: Paul Laxalt

text: In 1970, Laxalt lobbied President Richard Nixon to reduce the prison sentence of notorious Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa after Hoffa was convicted of attempting to bribe Sen. Howard Cannon, whom Laxalt had unsuccessfully challenged in 1964. While governor, Laxalt worked with Teamster officials on gambling investments in Nevada.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt governed Nevada as a fiscal conservative, but felt compelled to raise taxes at the outset of his administration because of the budget situation. Laxalt did not seek a second term. He bequeathed a budget surplus to his successor, Gov. Mike O'Callaghan. He left office saying that he had "a gut-full" of politics.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: After leaving the governor's mansion, Laxalt and his family opened a hotel/casino in Carson City. In 1974, when twenty-year Democratic incumbent Sen. Alan Bible announced his retirement, Republican political insiders pressed Laxalt to re-enter politics and seek the open U.S. Senate seat. He eventually agreed and wound up running against the Democratic nominee, then-Lt. Gov. Harry Reid. At that time the Watergate scandal was a burden for all Republicans running for national office in 1974. Nonetheless, early in the campaign, Laxalt enjoyed a consistent but tight lead over Reid in most polls. However, after President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon, Laxalt's prospects, like Republican prospects everywhere, suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse. Laxalt compared it to having "a hundred pound weight around my neck." Still, he managed a victory by fewer than one thousand votes. To give Laxalt a leg-up in seniority, Sen. Bible resigned three weeks early on December 18, 1974. Gov. Mike O'Callaghan (Laxalt's successor as governor) appointed Laxalt to finish out Bible's term.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: In his first term in the United States Senate, Laxalt was active in many legislative battles. In 1977, he led the fight against President Jimmy Carter's proposal to transfer the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government. Despite being in the minority in the Senate, Laxalt helped build a coalition opposed to the Panama Canal Treaties. Opponents successfully built a grassroots campaign designed to put pressure on the Senate. On the day of the vote, Laxalt was confident that he would be able to secure the 34 votes needed to defeat the treaties. However, his colleague, Sen. Howard Cannon (also from Nevada), decided to support the treaties. Even in defeat, Laxalt had won plaudits from both sides of the aisle for the manner in which he led the opposition. Indeed, throughout his Senate tenure, Laxalt remained popular among his colleagues, principally because he was viewed as a "straight shooter" and someone who never allowed political differences to turn personal. He was good friends with conservative Sen. Jesse Helms from North Carolina and liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts. (At the request of Sen. Kennedy, Laxalt arranged to have President Ronald Reagan present Ethel Kennedy with the original copy of the medal honoring her late husband Robert F. Kennedy.)


title: Paul Laxalt

text: During Laxalt's two terms in the U.S. Senate, he served on several influential committees, including the Labor and Public Welfare Committee, the Appropriations Committee, and the Judiciary Committee. When Republicans took control of the Senate in 1981, Laxalt became chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Regulatory Reform Subcommittee, and the Appropriations Committee's State, Justice and Commerce Subcommittee. In 1986, while serving on the Judiciary Committee, Laxalt played a key behind-the-scenes role in securing the committee's approval of President Reagan's nomination of then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Negotiating principally with Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden from Delaware, Laxalt was able to strike a deal that allowed the committee to vote on the nomination. Rehnquist was subsequently approved by the full Senate by a margin of 65–33.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt had become close friends with Ronald Reagan during his time as governor, when Reagan was also in his first term as governor of neighboring California. They worked on many issues of mutual interest to both states, particularly those dealing with the preservation of Lake Tahoe. During Reagan's presidency, Laxalt was sometimes referred to as "The First Friend". Laxalt was national chairman of three Reagan presidential campaigns and placed Reagan's name in nomination at the Republican National Conventions of 1976, 1980, and 1984. During the 1980 Republican National Convention, Laxalt's name was floated as a potential Vice Presidential nominee for the Reagan ticket, but George H. W. Bush was chosen instead. At the behest of President Reagan, Laxalt served in the then-unprecedented role of General Chairman of the Republican Party from 1983 to 1987.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: In fact, during Laxalt's second Senate term, several Nevadans came to Washington, D.C., due in large measure to his relationship with Reagan, to serve in prominent governmental and campaign positions. His long-time aide, Barbara Vucanovich, had been elected to serve in the House in 1982, becoming the first female elected to a federal position from Nevada. A long-time friend and prominent Nevada trial attorney, Frank Fahrenkopf, was elected to serve as Chairman of the Republican National Committee where he helped oversee Reagan's re-election and the 1988 election of President George H. W. Bush. Bob Broadbent of Boulder City became Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in the Department of the Interior; Bob Horton of Reno became Director of the Bureau of Mines; Cameron Batjer of Reno, a former Nevada Supreme Court Justice, served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission; Reese Taylor of Las Vegas served as Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission; and Ed Allison of Reno, Sig Rogich of Las Vegas, and Ralph V. Whitworth of Winnemucca all served in key roles in Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign. Laxalt's former Press Secretary and Chief of Staff, Tom Loranger, joined Laxalt in his post-Senate government consulting practice and now runs the D.C. office of the Ferraro Group, a Nevada government-relations firm founded by former Laxalt aide Greg Ferraro. In early 1987, Laxalt was at the top of the short list to replace Donald Regan as White House Chief of Staff, but he declined because he intended to run for President in 1988. Instead, he recommended former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Majority Howard Baker, who took the job.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: It was the 1976 Republican presidential race that may have cemented the tight political friendship between Laxalt and former-Gov. Reagan. In 1976, Reagan had decided to run for president, challenging President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination. Ford enjoyed widespread support among the Republican establishment, particularly in Washington, D.C. Reagan decided that having Laxalt serve as his national chairman would give his campaign credibility it was otherwise lacking. Although Laxalt was not well-known on a national level, he was well liked and respected in the U.S. Congress, and he was similarly respected by many prominent members of the national media. Laxalt eventually acceded to Reagan's request, even though doing so severely jeopardized his relationship with the Ford White House. Laxalt campaigned all over the United States on behalf of Reagan, often campaigning by his side.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: With his back to the wall, Reagan won shocking victories in North Carolina and Texas, which propelled the race all the way to the national convention in Kansas City. Laxalt nominated Reagan at the convention. Eventually, the Reagan campaign lost a key procedural vote to Ford and the sitting President eked out a victory. Although he was on the losing side, Laxalt's national profile increased dramatically as a result of his efforts on behalf of Reagan. When Reagan defeated Democratic incumbent President Jimmy Carter in 1980, with Laxalt again serving as national chairman of Reagan's campaign, Laxalt's profile rose even higher.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: As a long-time public official in Nevada, where individuals with alleged ties to organized crime were prominent in the early Las Vegas gaming industry, Laxalt came under scrutiny for his relationships with certain individuals. In 1983, during Laxalt's second Senate term and on the eve of Reagan's re-election bid, the Sacramento "Bee" published two articles about Laxalt's business dealings while his family owned the Ormsby House, a hotel-casino in Carson City, in the early 1970s. The articles claimed that certain Federal agents had alleged that the casino had been skimmed of profits while owned by the Laxalt family. Laxalt sued the "Bee" for libel, claiming that the articles' allegations were false, and that the implication that Laxalt associated with members of organized crime was defamatory. He also denied knowing about skimming activities and, in fact, denied that any skimming whatsoever had taken place.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt sought $250 million in damages. In 1987, the lawsuit was settled. In a statement, the "Bee" acknowledged that pretrial discovery "had not shown that there was a skim" at the Ormsby House. Laxalt declared that pretrial investigations had found no evidence of the wrongdoing at issue. The "Bee" maintained that it did not commit libel because it had not stated that Laxalt was involved in wrongdoing; it had merely reported that a third party held suspicions that wrongdoing had taken place at the Ormsby House. Under the settlement, the two sides agreed to allow the question of attorneys' fees to be decided by a panel of former federal judges.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: In March 1988, after an extensive review, the judges awarded Laxalt $647,452.52 in fees and costs. One of the panelists, former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell, who had served under President Jimmy Carter, said that he would have preferred awarding $2 million, but he felt the final amount was "fair." "The Washington Post" described the judges' decision as a "slap" at the "Bee" newspapers. Laxalt was quoted as saying that the case had proven the "Bee"s allegations to be without basis.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt retired from the Senate in 1987 and was replaced by the man he had defeated in 1974, Harry Reid, who would go on to become the Senate Majority Leader and the longest-serving U.S. Senator from Nevada. Laxalt made a brief run for the Republican presidential nomination for the 1988 election in 1987. The campaign lasted only four months after Laxalt determined that the effort had fallen short of its fundraising goals. Political commentators at the time concluded that he had waited too long to enter the race, which meant that not only did his competitors have a leg up in organization, but also many of the top political strategists and fundraisers had already signed on with other camps. He was eventually named a co-chairman of George H. W. Bush's successful presidential campaign. Eight years later, he served in a similar capacity in Bob Dole's failed presidential bid in the 1996 election.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt was a partner in the New York City-based law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey and its successor law firm, Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc. He later formed a small government consulting firm known as The Paul Laxalt Group. After his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Laxalt was named by President George H. W. Bush to a prestigious deficit reduction panel that consisted of current and former members of Congress and other prominent Americans. The commission eventually deadlocked on how best to address federal budget deficits. Laxalt was honored in various ways both during and after his public service career. The Paul Laxalt Mineral Engineering Center, an $11 million building that was completed in 1983, has been described as a giant step forward for the University of Nevada-Reno and the School of Mines. The 60,000-square-foot building houses classrooms and laboratories for mining engineering, chemical and materials engineering, and geological sciences. The Paul Laxalt State Building in Carson City was formerly the U.S. Post Office (built in 1891) and the first Federal building erected in Nevada. It is located in the center of Carson City's Historic District.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: One of Laxalt's initiatives that gave him great personal satisfaction was the "Intern" program he established during his two terms in the United States Senate. The program was designed to bring college-age students to Washington, D.C., to work in Laxalt's Senate office for the equivalent of a college semester. The program produced several individuals who went on to prominent careers in government and business, including Brian Sandoval, former Governor of Nevada.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: On August 2, 2012, Governor Sandoval issued a proclamation declaring that date, Laxalt's 90th birthday, as "Paul Laxalt Day" in the state of Nevada.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt was married in 1946 to Jackalyn Ross (1927–2004), the daughter of John Rolly Ross, who was a federal judge in Nevada. The couple had five daughters (Gail, Sheila, Michelle, Kevin, and Kathleen) and one son (John Paul). They divorced in 1972. Laxalt was married to his second wife, Carol, until his death. She had one daughter (Denise) from a previous marriage. After he retired from the Senate, Paul and Carol Laxalt continued to reside in northern Virginia. Laxalt had twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: In 1978, Laxalt's daughter Michelle had a son, Adam Laxalt, with Laxalt's then-Senate colleague, Pete Domenici of New Mexico. Michelle Laxalt raised Adam as a single parent. Adam Laxalt's paternity was not publicly acknowledged by his parents until 2013. At that time, Domenici acknowledged that Laxalt was his son and was born as a result of an extramarital liaison. Laxalt's grandson Adam served as Attorney General of Nevada from 2015 to 2019. In the 2022 midterm elections Adam narrowly lost his bid to unseat Catherine Cortez Masto, the incumbent United States Senator from Nevada.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Laxalt died on August 6, 2018, at a health care facility in McLean, Virginia, four days after his 96th birthday.


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement after Laxalt's death: “We came from different political parties and backgrounds, but that didn't matter to Paul Laxalt. He was the epitome of a gentleman. He treated me, and everyone, with the utmost respect and friendship."


title: Paul Laxalt

text: Nevada governor Brian Sandoval remarked that “Paul Laxalt was many things – a statesman, a gentleman and a class act – above all, he was a champion for his beloved Nevada and our country."


title: Paul Laxalt

text: On September 6, 2018, a funeral service was held for Senator Laxalt at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Attendees included former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and scores of Nevadans who made the trek to the nation's capital to pay their last respects to Laxalt. Just before Thanksgiving, a memorial service took place at the Governor's Mansion in Nevada's capital and Laxalt's hometown, Carson City. Speakers included Governor Sandoval, Greg Ferraro, Frank Fahrenkopf, Ed Allison and Sig Rogich. Attendees included former Governors Bob List, Richard Bryan and Bob Miller. In addition, several former Laxalt staff members attended including Doug Fuller, Robbie Aiken, Hal Furman and Gene Drakulich. A few weeks later, with family and close friends present, and in honor of his service during World War II, Laxalt was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. A 21-gun salute concluded the ceremony.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: The Canadian Open (), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. The men's competition is a Masters 1000 event on the ATP Tour, and the women's competition is a WTA 1000 tournament on the WTA Tour. The competition is played on outdoor hard courts.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: Prior to 2011, they were held during separate weeks in the July–August period; now the two competitions are held during the same week in August. The events alternate from year to year between the cities of Montreal and Toronto. Since 2021 in even-numbered years the men's tournament is held in Montreal, while the women's tournament is held in Toronto, and vice versa in odd-numbered years. The Toronto tournament is held at Sobeys Stadium and the Montreal tournament is held at IGA Stadium.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: The current singles champions as of 2022 are Pablo Carreño Busta (def. Hubert Hurkacz) and Simona Halep (def. Beatriz Haddad Maia).


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: The men's tournament began in July 1881, and was held at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club, while the women's competition was first held in 1892. Of the extant tennis tournaments in the world today, only Wimbledon has been around longer.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: Prior to 1968 the tournament was known as the Canadian National Championships. Between 1970 and 1989 it was a major event of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour as part of the Grand Prix Super Series between 1972 and 1973, 1978–1989. The tournament was sponsored for a number of years by tobacco brands. In the 1970s, Rothmans International was the chief sponsor, followed by Player's Limited in the 1980s, and then Du Maurier from 1997 to 2000. However, Canadian federal legislation then came into effect banning tobacco advertising. Rogers Communications, a Canadian communications and media company, took over as the new presenting sponsor.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: The event was played on clay until 1979 when it switched permanently to hard courts. Both the men's and women's tournaments were played as a single combined tournament at the National Tennis Centre in Toronto until 1981, when the men's tournament was played at the Jarry Park Stadium in Montreal for the first time. Similarly 1982 was the first year in which the women's tournament was played in Montreal.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: In 1989, two Canadian male tennis players, Grant Connell and Andrew Sznajder, reached the quarterfinals of the event. They were eliminated by Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi during that round. Lendl went on to defeat Agassi in the semi-finals and John McEnroe in the finals of that edition. Lendl has been the tournament's most successful singles player, reaching the final nine times and winning the title in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1988, and 1989.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: In 1995, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras met in the final, the third of the four times that the two top-ranked men's players would meet that year, after the Australian Open and Indian Wells Masters. Agassi's tournament win helped him regain the number-one ranking, which he lost to Sampras after they played each other again at the US Open.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: In 1997, the Canadian federal government introduced legislation restricting the ability of tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events. The tournament was faced with losing its title sponsor, and eventually du Maurier was replaced.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: In 2000, International Sport and Leisure signed a 10-year agreement with the ATP Tour for all Masters series events, including the men's tournament. Rogers and AT&T Canada became the title sponsors for the women's event in 2001. ISL went bankrupt, leaving the men's tournament without a sponsor. Serena Williams won the women's tournament for the first time, defeating top-seeded and previous winner Jennifer Capriati. In 2004, the tournament became part of the US Open Series, in the build-up to the US Open grand slam tournament. The women's tournament was moved to just before the US Open grand slam tournament. Consequently, top players sometimes withdrew from the tournament at the last minute to rest for the upcoming US Open.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: In 2005, Rogers Communications became the title sponsor for the men's tournament. It was already the sponsor for the women's event, and both events became known as the Rogers Cup. Rafael Nadal won the men's tournament for his first time, defeating three-time champion Andre Agassi. In 2007, Novak Djokovic won the men's tournament for the first time, becoming the first man to defeat both Nadal and Roger Federer in the same event.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: In 2009, WTA CEO Stacey Allaster implemented rules reclassifying the women's event as a Premier 5 event, which guaranteed at least seven of the top ten players. The WTA's rules required each year-end top-10 player from 2008 to participate in at least four Premier 5 tournaments in the 2009 season, or face the threat of fines or docked ranking points. Consequently, 19 of the top 20 female players took part in the 2009 Rogers Cup draw. The ATP mandated participation for the men's tournament as a "1000-level" series event.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: Beginning in 2011, the men's and women's tournaments were held during the same week, with each event alternating between Montreal and Toronto.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: Bianca Andreescu won the women's tournament in 2019, becoming the first Canadian to win the tournament since Faye Urban in 1969.


title: Canadian Open (tennis)

text: On February 2, 2021, Tennis Canada announced that National Bank would become the title sponsor of the tournament under a 10-year agreement, renaming it the National Bank Open. Rogers remained as the presenting sponsor.


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is derived from the terms "ideo" (idea, or mental representation) and "motor" (muscular action). The phrase is most commonly used in reference to the process whereby a thought or mental image brings about a seemingly "reflexive" or automatic muscular reaction, often of minuscule degree, and potentially outside of the awareness of the subject. As in responses to pain, the body sometimes reacts reflexively with an ideomotor effect to ideas alone without the person consciously deciding to take action. The effects of automatic writing, dowsing, facilitated communication, applied kinesiology, and ouija boards have been attributed to the phenomenon.


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: The associated term "ideo-"dynamic" response" (or "reflex") applies to a wider domain, and extends to the description of all bodily reactions (including ideo-motor and ideo-sensory responses) caused in a similar manner by certain ideas, e.g., the salivation often caused by imagining sucking a lemon, which is a secretory response. The notion of an ideo-dynamic response contributed to James Braid's first neuropsychological explanation of the principle through which suggestion operated in hypnotism.


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: With the rise of Spiritualism in 1840s, mediums devised and refined a variety of techniques for communicating, ostensibly, with the spirit world including table-turning and planchette writing boards (the precursor to later Ouija boards). These phenomena and devices quickly became the subject of scientific investigation.


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: The term Ideomotor was first used in a scientific paper discussing the means through which these spiritualistic phenomena produced effect, by William Benjamin Carpenter in 1852, hence the alternative term "Carpenter effect". Carpenter derived the word "ideomotor" from the components "ideo", meaning "idea" or "mental representation", and "motor", meaning "muscular action". In the paper, Carpenter explained his theory that muscular movement can be independent of conscious desires or emotions.


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: Carpenter was a friend and collaborator of James Braid, the founder of modern hypnotism. Braid soon adopted Carpenter's ideo-motor terminology, to facilitate the transmission of his most fundamental views, based upon those of his teacher, the philosopher Thomas Brown, that the efficacy of hypnotic suggestion was contingent upon the subject's concentration upon a single (thus, "dominant") idea. In 1855, Braid explained his decision to abandon his earlier term "mono-ideo-motor", based on Carpenter's (1852) "ideo-motor principle", and adopt the more appropriate and more descriptive term "mono-ideo-dynamic". His decision was based upon suggestions made to Carpenter (in 1854) by their friend in common, Daniel Noble, that the activity that Carpenter was describing would be more accurately understood in its wider applications (viz., wider than pendulums and ouija boards) if it were to denominated the "ideo-dynamic principle":In order that I may do full justice to two esteemed friends, I beg to state, in connection with this term "monoideo-dynamics", that, several years ago, Dr. W. B. Carpenter introduced the term "ideo-motor" to characterise the reflex or automatic muscular motions which arise merely from ideas associated with motion existing in the mind, without any conscious effort of volition. In 1853, in referring to this term, Daniel Noble said, ""Ideo-dynamic" would probably constitute a phraseology more appropriate, as applicable to a wider range of phenomena." In this opinion I quite concurred, because I was well aware that an idea could "arrest" as well as "excite" motion automatically, not only in the muscles of voluntary motion, but also as regards the condition of "every other function of the body". I have, therefore, adopted the term "monoideo-dynamics", as still more comprehensive and characteristic as regards the true mental relations which subsist during all dynamic changes which take place, in every other function of the body, as well as in the muscles of voluntary motion.Scientific tests by the English scientist Michael Faraday, Manchester surgeon James Braid, the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, and the American psychologists William James and Ray Hyman have demonstrated that many phenomena attributed to spiritual or paranormal forces, or to mysterious "energies", are actually due to ideomotor action. Furthermore, these tests demonstrate that "honest, intelligent people can unconsciously engage in muscular activity that is consistent with their expectations". They also show that suggestions that can guide behavior can be given by subtle clues (Hyman 1977).


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: Some operators claim to use ideomotor responses to communicate with a subject's "unconscious mind" using a system of physical signals (such as finger movements) for the unconscious mind to indicate "yes", "no", "I don't know", or "I'm not ready to know that consciously".


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: A simple experiment to demonstrate the ideomotor effect is to allow a hand-held pendulum to hover over a sheet of paper. The paper has words such as "yes", "no", and "maybe" printed on it. Small movements in the hand, in response to questions, can cause the pendulum to move towards the words on the paper. This technique has been used for experiments in extrasensory perception, lie detection, and ouija boards. This type of experiment was used by Kreskin and has also been used by illusionists such as Derren Brown.


title: Ideomotor phenomenon

text: It is strongly associated with the practice of analytical hypnotherapy based on "uncovering techniques" such as Watkins' "affect bridge", whereby a subject's "yes", "no", "I don't know", or "I don't want to answer" responses to an operator's questions are indicated by physical movements rather than verbal signals; and are produced "per medium" of a pre-determined (between operator and subject) and pre-calibrated set of responses.


title: Transformers (toy line)

text: The is a line of mecha toys produced by Japanese company Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) and American toy company Hasbro. Initially a line of transforming mecha toys rebranded from Takara's "Diaclone" and "Micro Change" toy lines, it spawned the "Transformers" media franchise.


title: Transformers (toy line)

text: The premise behind the "Transformers" toy line is that an individual toy's parts can be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a robot action figure and back again. The franchise's taglines, "More Than Meets the Eye" and "Robots in Disguise", reflect this ability.


title: Transformers (toy line)

text: The "Transformers" toy-line is typically divided into two main factions: the heroic Autobots and their opponents, the evil Decepticons. They are known in Japan as the Cybertrons and Destrons, respectively, although more recent releases often use the English terms.


title: Transformers (toy line)

text: Many spin-offs are based on the toys including a comic book series, an animated television series, and the feature-length animated "". The original TV series has a number of spin-offs and reboots. A live-action film series was launched in 2007 by director Michael Bay and had 5 movies.