title: Japanese writing system

text: The post-war reforms have mostly survived, although some of the restrictions have been relaxed. The replacement of the "tōyō kanji" in 1981 with the 1,945 —a modification of the "tōyō kanji"—was accompanied by a change from "restriction" to "recommendation", and in general the educational authorities have become less active in further script reform.


title: Japanese writing system

text: In 2004, the , maintained by the Ministry of Justice for use in personal names, was significantly enlarged. The "jōyō kanji" list was extended to 2,136 characters in 2010.


title: Japanese writing system

text: There are a number of methods of rendering Japanese in Roman letters. The Hepburn method of romanization, designed for English speakers, is a de facto standard widely used inside and outside Japan. The "Kunrei-shiki" system has a better correspondence with Japanese phonology, which makes it easier for native speakers to learn. It is officially endorsed by the Ministry of Education and often used by non-native speakers who are learning Japanese as a second language. Other systems of romanization include "Nihon-shiki", JSL, and "Wāpuro rōmaji".


title: Portal (video game)

text: Portal is a 2007 puzzle-platform game developed and published by Valve. It was released in a bundle, "The Orange Box," for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and has been since ported to other systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, Android (via Nvidia Shield), and Nintendo Switch.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and simple objects using "the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device", often referred to as the "portal gun", a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes. The player-character, Chell, is challenged and taunted by an artificial intelligence named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete each puzzle in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center using the portal gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed. The game's unique physics allows kinetic energy to be retained through portals, requiring creative use of portals to maneuver through the test chambers. This gameplay element is based on a similar concept from the game "Narbacular Drop"; many of the team members from the DigiPen Institute of Technology who worked on "Narbacular Drop" were hired by Valve for the creation of "Portal", making it a spiritual successor to the game.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" was acclaimed as one of the most original games of 2007, despite criticisms for its short duration and limited story. It received praise for its originality, unique gameplay and dark story with a humorous series of dialogue. GLaDOS, voiced by Ellen McLain in the English-language version, received acclaim for her unique characterization, and the end credits song "Still Alive", written by Jonathan Coulton for the game, was praised for its original composition and humorous twist. "Portal" is often cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. Excluding Steam download sales, over four million copies of the game have been sold since its release, spawning official merchandise from Valve including plush Companion Cubes, as well as fan recreations of the cake and portal gun.


title: Portal (video game)

text: A standalone version with extra puzzles, "Portal: Still Alive", was also published by Valve on the Xbox Live Arcade service in October 2008 exclusively for Xbox 360. A sequel, "Portal 2", was released in 2011, which expanded on the storyline, adding several gameplay mechanics and a cooperative multiplayer mode.


title: Portal (video game)

text: In "Portal", the player controls the protagonist, Chell, from a first-person perspective as she is challenged to navigate through a series of test chambers using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or portal gun, under the watchful supervision of the artificial intelligence GLaDOS. The portal gun can create two distinct portal ends, orange and blue. The portals create a visual and physical connection between two different locations in three-dimensional space. Neither end is specifically an entrance or exit; all objects that travel through one portal will exit through the other. An important aspect of the game's physics is momentum redirection and conservation. As moving objects pass through portals, they come through the exit portal at the same direction that the exit portal is facing and with the same speed with which they passed through the entrance portal. For example, a common maneuver is to place a portal some distance below the player on the floor, jump down through it, gaining speed in freefall, and emerge through the other portal on a wall, flying over a gap or another obstacle. This process of gaining speed and then redirecting that speed towards another area of a puzzle allows the player to launch objects or Chell over great distances, both vertically and horizontally, referred to as 'flinging' by Valve. As GLaDOS puts it, "In layman's terms: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out." If portal ends are not on parallel planes, the character passing through is reoriented to be upright with respect to gravity after leaving a portal end.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Chell and all other objects in the game that can fit into the portal ends will pass through the portal. However, a portal shot cannot pass through an open portal; it will simply deactivate or create a new portal in an offset position. Creating a portal end instantly deactivates an existing portal end of the same color. Moving objects, glass, special wall surfaces, liquids, or areas that are too small will not be able to anchor portals. Chell is sometimes provided with cubes that she can pick up and use to climb on or to hold down large buttons that open doors or activate mechanisms. Particle fields, known as "Emancipation Grills", occasionally called "Fizzlers" in the developer commentary, exist at the end of all and within some test chambers; when passed through, they will deactivate any active portals and disintegrate any object carried through. These fields also block attempts to fire portals through them.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Although Chell is equipped with mechanized heel springs to prevent damage from falling, she can be killed by various other hazards in the test chambers, such as turret guns, bouncing balls of energy, and toxic liquid. She can also be killed by objects hitting her at high speeds, and by a series of crushers that appear in certain levels. Unlike most action games at the time, there is no health indicator; Chell dies if she is dealt a certain amount of damage in a short period, but returns to full health fairly quickly. Some obstacles, such as the energy balls and crushing pistons, deal fatal damage with a single blow.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Many solutions exist for completing each puzzle. Two additional modes are unlocked upon the completion of the game that challenge the player to work out alternative methods of solving each test chamber. Challenge maps are unlocked near the halfway point and Advanced Chambers are unlocked when the game is completed. In Challenge mode, levels are revisited with the added goal of completing the test chamber either with as little time, with the fewest portals, or with the fewest footsteps possible. In Advanced mode, certain levels are made more complex with the addition of more obstacles and hazards.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The game features two characters: the player-controlled silent protagonist named Chell, and GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), a computer artificial intelligence that monitors and directs the player. In the English-language version, GLaDOS is voiced by Ellen McLain, though her voice has been altered to sound more artificial. The only background information presented about Chell is given by GLaDOS; the credibility of these facts, such as Chell being adopted, an orphan, and having no friends, is questionable at best, as GLaDOS is a liar by her own admission. In the "Lab Rat" comic created by Valve to bridge the gap between "Portal" and "Portal 2", Chell's records reveal she was ultimately rejected as a test subject for having "too much tenacity"—the main reason Doug Rattman, a former employee of Aperture Science, moved Chell to the top of the test queue.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" takes place in the Aperture Science Laboratories Computer-Aided Enrichment Center—Aperture Science for short—which is a research facility responsible for the creation of the portal gun. According to information presented in "Portal 2", the location of the complex is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Aperture Science exists in the same universe as the "Half-Life" series, although connections between the two franchises are limited to references.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Information about the company, developed by Valve for creating the setting of the game, is revealed during the game and via the real-world promotional website. According to the Aperture Science website, Cave Johnson founded the company in 1943 for the sole purpose of making shower curtains for the U.S. military. However, after becoming mentally unstable from "moon rock poisoning" in 1978, Johnson created a three-tier research and development plan to make his organization successful. The first two tiers, the Counter-Heimlich Maneuver (a maneuver designed to ensure choking) and the Take-A-Wish Foundation (a program to give the wishes of terminally ill children to adults in need of dreams), were commercial failures and led to an investigation of the company by the U.S. Senate. However, when the investigative committee heard of the success of the third tier—a person-sized, ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space, with a possible application as a shower curtain—it recessed permanently and gave Aperture Science an open-ended contract to continue its research. The development of GLaDOS, an artificially intelligent research assistant and disk-operating system, began in 1986 in response to Black Mesa's work on similar portal technology. A presentation seen during gameplay reveals that GLaDOS was also included in a proposed bid for de-icing fuel lines, incorporated as a fully functional disk-operation system that is arguably alive, unlike Black Mesa's proposal, which inhibits ice, nothing more. Roughly thirteen years later, work on GLaDOS was completed and the untested AI was activated during the company's bring-your-daughter-to-work day in May 2000. Immediately after activation, the facility was flooded with deadly neurotoxin by the AI. Events of the first "Half-Life" game occur shortly after that, presumably leaving the facility forgotten by the outside world due to apocalyptic happenings. Wolpaw, in describing the ending of "Portal 2", affirmed that the Combine invasion, chronologically taking place after "Half-Life" and before "Half-Life 2", had occurred before "Portal 2"s events.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The areas of the Enrichment Center that Chell explores suggest that it is part of a massive research installation. At the time of events depicted in "Portal", the facility seems to be long-deserted, although most of its equipment remains operational without human control. During its development, "" featured a chapter set on Aperture Science's icebreaker ship "Borealis", but this was abandoned and removed before release.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The game begins with Chell waking up from a stasis bed and hearing instructions from GLaDOS, an artificial intelligence, about upcoming tests. Chell enters into sequential distinct chambers that introduce her to varying challenges to solve using her portal gun, with GLaDOS as her only interaction. GLaDOS promises cake as a reward for Chell if she completes all the test chambers. As Chell nears completion, GLaDOS's motives and behavior turn more sinister, suggesting insincerity and callous disregard for the safety and well-being of test subjects. The test chambers become increasingly dangerous as Chell proceeds, including a live-fire course designed for military androids, as well as chambers flooded with a hazardous liquid. In one chamber, GLaDOS forces Chell to "euthanize" a Weighted Companion Cube in an incinerator, after Chell uses it for assistance.


title: Portal (video game)

text: After Chell completes the final test chamber, GLaDOS manoeuvres Chell into an incinerator in an attempt to kill her. Chell escapes with the portal gun and makes her way through the maintenance areas within the Enrichment Center. GLaDOS panics and insists that she was pretending to kill Chell as part of testing, while it becomes clear that GLaDOS had previously killed all the inhabitants of the center. Chell travels further through the maintenance areas, discovering dilapidated backstage areas covered in graffiti that includes statements such as "the cake is a lie", and pastiches of quotes from famous poets such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Emily Brontë.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Despite GLaDOS's attempts to dissuade her with lies and threats, Chell proceeds and eventually confronts GLaDOS in a large chamber where her hardware hangs overhead. A sphere soon falls off of GLaDOS and Chell drops it in an incinerator. GLaDOS reveals that the sphere was the morality core of her conscience, one of multiple personality cores that Aperture Science employees installed after she flooded the center with neurotoxin gas; with the core removed, she can access its emitters again. A six-minute countdown starts as Chell dislodges and incinerates more of GLaDOS' personality cores, while GLaDOS mocks and attacks her. After Chell destroys the last personality core, a malfunction tears the room apart and transports everything to the surface. Chell lies outside the facility's gates amid the remains of GLaDOS, but is promptly dragged away by an unseen robotic entity.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The final scene, viewed within the bowels of the facility, shows a candlelit Black Forest cake, and a Weighted Companion Cube, surrounded by shelves containing dozens of inactive personality cores. The cores begin to light up, before a robotic arm descends and extinguishes the candle on the cake, casting the room into darkness. Over the credits, GLaDOS delivers a concluding report through the song "Still Alive", declaring the experiment to be a success.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" is Valve's spiritual successor to the freeware game "Narbacular Drop", the 2005 independent game released by students of the DigiPen Institute of Technology; the original "Narbacular Drop" team was subsequently hired by Valve. Valve became interested in "Narbacular Drop" after seeing the game at DigiPen's annual career fair; Robin Walker, one of Valve's developers, saw the game at the fair and later contacted the team providing them with advice and offering to show their game at Valve's offices. After their presentation, Valve's president Gabe Newell quickly offered the entire team jobs at Valve to develop the game further. Newell later commented that he was impressed with the DigiPen team as "they had actually carried the concept through", already having included the interaction between portals and physics, completing most of the work that Valve would have had to commit on their own. To test the effectiveness of the portal mechanic, the team made a prototype in an in-house 2D game engine that is used in DigiPen. Certain elements have been retained from "Narbacular Drop", such as the system of identifying the two unique portal endpoints with the colors orange and blue. A key difference in the signature portal mechanic between the two games, however, is that "Portal"s portal gun cannot create a portal through an existing portal unlike in "Narbacular Drop". The game's original setting, of a princess trying to escape a dungeon, was dropped in favor of the Aperture Science approach. "Portal" took approximately two years and four months to complete after the DigiPen team was brought into Valve, and no more than ten people were involved with its development. "Portal" writer Erik Wolpaw, who, along with fellow writer Chet Faliszek, was hired by Valve for the game, claimed that "Without the constraints, "Portal" would not be as good a game".


title: Portal (video game)

text: For the first year of development, the team focused mostly on the gameplay without any narrative structure. Playtesters found the game to be fun but asked about what these test chambers were leading towards. This prompted the team to come up with a narrative for "Portal". The "Portal" team worked with "Half-Life" series writer Marc Laidlaw on fitting the game into the series' plot. This was done, in part, due to the limited art capabilities of the small team; instead of creating new assets for "Portal", they decided to tie the game to an existing franchise—"Half-Life"—to allow them to reuse the "Half-Life 2" art assets. Wolpaw and Faliszek were put to work on the dialogue for "Portal". The concept of a computer AI guiding the player through experimental facilities to test the portal gun was arrived at early in the writing process. They drafted early lines for the yet-named "polite" AI with humorous situations, such as requesting the player's character to "assume the party escort submission position", and found this style of approach to be well-suited to the game they wanted to create, ultimately leading to the creation of the GLaDOS character. GLaDOS was central to the plot, as Wolpaw notes "We designed the game to have a very clear beginning, middle, and end, and we wanted GLaDOS to go through a personality shift at each of these points." Wolpaw further describes the idea of using cake as the reward came about as "at the beginning of the "Portal" development process, we sat down as a group to decide what philosopher or school of philosophy our game would be based on. That was followed by about 15 minutes of silence and then someone mentioned that a lot of people like cake." The cake element, along with additional messages given to the player in the behind-the-scenes areas, were written and drawn by Kim Swift.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The austere settings in the game came about because testers spent too much time trying to complete the puzzles using decorative but non-functional elements. As a result, the setting was minimized to make the usable aspects of the puzzle easier to spot, using the clinical feel of the setting in the film "The Island" as reference. While there were plans for a third area, an office space, to be included after the test chambers and the maintenance areas, the team ran out of time to include it. They also dropped the introduction of the Rat Man, a character who left the messages in the maintenance areas, to avoid creating too much narrative for the game, though the character was developed further in a tie-in comic "Lab Rat", that ties "Portal" and "Portal 2"s story together. According to project lead Kim Swift, the final battle with GLaDOS went through many iterations, including having the player chased by James Bond lasers, which was partially applied to the turrets, Portal Kombat where the player would have needed to redirect rockets while avoiding turret fire, and a chase sequence following a fleeing GLaDOS. Eventually, they found that playtesters enjoyed a rather simple puzzle with a countdown timer near the end; Swift noted, "Time pressure makes people think something is a lot more complicated than it really is", and Wolpaw admitted, "It was really cheap to make [the neurotoxin gas]" in order to simplify the dialogue during the battle.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Chell's face and body are modeled after Alésia Glidewell, an American freelance actress and voice-over artist, selected by Valve from a local modeling agency for her face and body structure. Ellen McLain provided the voice of the antagonist GLaDOS. Erik Wolpaw noted, "When we were still fishing around for the turret voice, Ellen did a sultry version. It didn't work for the turrets, but we liked it a lot, and so a slightly modified version of that became the model for GLaDOS's final incarnation."


title: Portal (video game)

text: The Weighted Companion Cube inspiration was from project lead Kim Swift with additional input from Wolpaw from reading some "declassified government interrogation thing" whereby "isolation leads subjects to begin to attach to inanimate objects"; Swift commented, "We had a long level called Box Marathon; we wanted players to bring this box with them from the beginning to the end. But people would forget about the box, so we added dialogue, applied the heart to the cube, and continued to up the ante until people became attached to the box. Later on, we added the incineration idea. The artistic expression grew from the gameplay." Wolpaw further noted that the need to incinerate the Weighted Companion Cube came as a result of the final boss battle design; they recognized they had not introduced the idea of incineration necessary to complete the boss battle, and by training the player to do it with the Weighted Companion Cube, found the narrative "way stronger" with its "death". Swift noted that any similarities to psychological situations in the Milgram experiment or "" are entirely coincidental.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The portal gun's full name, Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, can be abbreviated as ASHPD, which resembles a shortening of the name Adrian Shephard, the protagonist of "". Fans noticed this similarity before the game's release; as a result, the team placed a red herring in the game by having the letters of Adrian Shephard highlighted on keyboards found within the game. According to Kim Swift, the cake is a Black Forest cake that she thought looked the best at the nearby Regent Bakery and Café in Redmond, Washington, and, as an Easter egg within the game, its recipe is scattered among various screens showing lines of binary code. The Regent Bakery has stated that since the release of the game, its Black Forest cake has been one of its more popular items.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Most of the soundtrack is non-lyrical ambient music composed by Kelly Bailey and Mike Morasky, somewhat dark and mysterious to match the mood of the environments. The closing credits song, "Still Alive", was written by Jonathan Coulton and sung by Ellen McLain (a classically-trained operatic soprano) as the GLaDOS character. A brief instrumental version of "Still Alive" is played in an uptempo Latin style over radios in-game. Wolpaw notes that Coulton was invited to Valve a year before the release of "Portal", though it was not yet clear where Coulton would contribute. "Once Kim [Swift] and I met with him, it quickly became apparent that he had the perfect sensibility to write a song for GLaDOS." The use of the song over the closing credits was based on a similar concept from the game "God Hand", one of Wolpaw's favorite titles. The song was released as a free downloadable song for the music video game "Rock Band" on April 1, 2008. The soundtrack for "Portal" was released as a part of "The Orange Box Original Soundtrack".


title: Portal (video game)

text: The soundtrack was released in a four-disc retail bundle, "Portal 2: Songs To Test By (Collector's Edition)", on October 30, 2012, featuring music from both games. The soundtrack was released via Steam Music on September 24, 2014.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" was first released as part of "The Orange Box" for Windows and Xbox 360 on October 10, 2007, and for the PlayStation 3 on December 11, 2007. The Windows version of the game is also available for download separately through Valve's content delivery system, Steam, and was released as a standalone retail product on April 9, 2008. In addition to "Portal", the "Box" also included "Half-Life 2" and its two add-on episodes, as well as "Team Fortress 2". "Portal"s inclusion within the "Box" was considered an experiment by Valve; having no idea of the success of "Portal", the "Box" provided it a "safety net" via means of these other games. "Portal" was kept to a modest length in case the game did not go over well with players.


title: Portal (video game)

text: In January 2008, Valve released a special demo version titled "Portal: The First Slice", free for any Steam user using Nvidia graphics hardware as part of a collaboration between the two companies. It also comes packaged with "", "Peggle Extreme", and "". The demo includes test chambers 00 to 10 (eleven in total). Valve has since made the demo available to all Steam users.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" is the first Valve-developed game to be added to the OS X-compatible list of games available on the launch of the Steam client for Mac on May 12, 2010, supporting Steam Play, in which buying the game on Macintosh or Windows computer makes it playable on both. As part of the promotion, "Portal" was offered as a free game for any Steam user during the two weeks following the Mac client's launch. Within the first week of this offer, over 1.5 million copies of the game were downloaded through Steam. A similar promotion was held in September 2011, near the start of a traditional school year, encouraging the use of the game as an educational tool for science and mathematics. Valve wrote that they felt that "Portal" "makes physics, math, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool, and fun", a necessary feature to draw children into learning. This was tied to Digital Promise, a United States Department of Education initiative to help develop new digital tools for education, and which Valve is part of.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal: Still Alive" was announced as an exclusive Xbox Live Arcade game at the 2008 E3 convention, and was released on October 22, 2008. It features the original game, 14 new challenges, and new achievements. The additional content was based on levels from the map pack "Portal: The Flash Version" created by We Create Stuff and contains no additional story-related levels. According to Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi, Microsoft had previously rejected "Portal" on the platform due to its large size. "Portal: Still Alive" was well received by reviewers. 1UP.com's Andrew Hayward stated that, with the easier access and lower cost than paying for "The Orange Box", "Portal" is now "stronger than ever". IGN editor Cam Shea ranked it fifth on his top 10 list of Xbox Live Arcade games. He stated that it was debatable whether an owner of "The Orange Box" should purchase this, as its added levels do not add to the plot. However, he praised the quality of the new maps included in the game. The game ranked 7th in a later list of top Xbox Live Arcade titles compiled by IGN's staff in September 2010.


title: Portal (video game)

text: During 2014 GPU Technology Conference on March 25, 2014, Nvidia announced a port of "Portal" to the Nvidia Shield, their Android handheld; the port was released on May 12, 2014. Alongside "Portal 2", "Portal" was released on the Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2022 as part of "Portal: Companion Collection", developed by Valve and Nvidia Lightspeed Studios. Nvidia announced "Portal With RTX", a remaster intended to show off the functionality of the company's GeForce 40 series cards with real-time ray tracing, for release as a free DLC, initially planned for November 2022. It was released on December 8, 2022.


title: Portal (video game)

text: "Portal" received critical acclaim, often earning more praise than either "Half-Life 2: Episode Two" or "Team Fortress 2", two titles also included in "The Orange Box". It was praised for its unique gameplay and dark, deadpan humor. Eurogamer cited that "the way the game progresses from being a simple set of perfunctory tasks to a full-on part of the "Half-Life" story is absolute genius", while GameSpy noted, "What "Portal" lacks in length, it more than makes up for in exhilaration." The game was criticized for sparse environments, and both criticized and praised for its short length. Aggregate reviews for the standalone PC version of "Portal" gave the game a 90/100 through 28 reviews on Metacritic. In 2011, Valve stated that "Portal" had sold more than four million copies through the retail versions, including the standalone game and "The Orange Box", and from the Xbox Live Arcade version.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The game generated a fan following for the Weighted Companion Cube—even though the cube itself does not talk or act in the game. Fans have created plush and papercraft versions of the cube and the various turrets, as well as PC case mods and models of the Portal cake and portal gun. Jeep Barnett, a programmer for "Portal", noted that players have told Valve that they had found it more emotional to incinerate the Weighted Companion Cube than to harm one of the "Little Sisters" from "BioShock". Both GLaDOS and the Weighted Companion Cube were nominated for the Best New Character Award on G4, with GLaDOS winning the award for "having lines that will be quoted by gamers for years to come." Ben Croshaw of "Zero Punctuation" praised the game as "absolutely sublime from start to finish ... I went in expecting a slew of interesting portal-based puzzles and that's exactly what I got, but what I wasn't expecting was some of the funniest pitch black humor I've ever heard in a game". He felt the short length was ideal as it did not outstay its welcome.


title: Portal (video game)

text: Writing for GameSetWatch in 2009, columnist Daniel Johnson pointed out similarities between "Portal" and Erving Goffman's essay on dramaturgy, "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life", which equates one's persona to the front and backstage areas of a theater. The game was also made part of the required course material among other classical and contemporary works, including Goffman's work, for a freshman course "devoted to engaging students with fundamental questions of humanity from multiple perspectives and fostering a sense of community" for Wabash College in 2010. "Portal" has also been cited as a strong example of instructional scaffolding that can be adapted for more academic learning situations, as the player, through careful design of levels by Valve, is first hand-held in solving simple puzzles with many hints at the correct solution, but this support is slowly removed as the player progresses in the game, and completely removed when the player reaches the second half of the game. Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Hamish Todd considered "Portal" as an exemplary means of game design by demonstrating a series of chambers after the player has obtained the portal gun that gently introduce the concept of flinging without any explicit instructions. "Portal" was exhibited at the Smithsonian Art Exhibition in America from February 14 through September 30, 2012. "Portal" won the "Action" section for the platform "Modern Windows".


title: Portal (video game)

text: Since its release "Portal" is still considered one of the best video games of all time, having been included on several cumulative "Top Games of All Time" lists through 2018.


title: Portal (video game)

text: The popularity of the game and its characters led Valve to develop merchandise for "Portal" made available through its online Valve physical merchandise store. Some of the more popular items were the Weighted Companion Cube plush toys and fuzzy dice. When first released, both were sold out in under 24 hours. Other products available through the Valve store include T-shirts and Aperture Science coffee mugs and parking stickers, and merchandise relating to the phrase "the cake is a lie", which has become an internet meme. Wolpaw noted they did not expect certain elements of the game to be as popular as they were, while other elements they had expected to become fads were ignored, such as a giant hoop that rolls on-screen during the final scene of the game that the team had named Hoopy.


title: Portal (video game)

text: A modding community has developed around "Portal", with users creating their own test chambers and other in-game modifications. The group "We Create Stuff" created an Adobe Flash version of "Portal", titled "Portal: The Flash Version", just before release of "The Orange Box". This flash version was well received by the community and the group has since converted it to a map pack for the published game. Another mod, "Portal: Prelude", is an unofficial prequel developed by an independent team of three that focuses on the pre-GLaDOS era of Aperture Science, and contains nineteen additional "crafty and challenging" test chambers. An ASCII version of "Portal" was created by Joe Larson. An unofficial port of "Portal" to the iPhone using the Unity game engine was created but only consisted of a single room from the game. "Mari0" is a fan-made four-player coop mashup of the original "Super Mario Bros." and "Portal".


title: Portal (video game)

text: Swift stated that future "Portal" developments would depend on the community's reactions, saying, "We're still playing it by ear at this point, figuring out if we want to do multiplayer next, or "Portal 2", or release map packs." Some rumors regarding a sequel arose due to casting calls for voice actors. On March 10, 2010, "Portal 2" was officially announced for a release late in that year; the announcement was preceded by an alternate reality game based on unexpected patches made to "Portal" that contained cryptic messages in relation to "Portal 2"s announcement, including an update to the game, creating a different ending for the fate of Chell. The original game left her in a deserted parking lot after destroying GLaDOS, but the update involved Chell being dragged back into the facility by a "Party Escort Bot". Though "Portal 2" was originally announced for a Q4 2010 release, the game was released on April 19, 2011.


title: Portal (video game)

text: A film adaptation has been in development hell since 2013, and it was reported in May 25, 2021 that the project is still in development by Bad Robot Productions and the script has been written.


title: Tonsil

text: The tonsils are a set of lymphoid organs facing into the aerodigestive tract, which is known as Waldeyer's tonsillar ring and consists of the adenoid tonsil, two tubal tonsils, two palatine tonsils, and the lingual tonsils. These organs play an important role in the immune system.


title: Tonsil

text: When used unqualified, the term most commonly refers specifically to the palatine tonsils, which are two lymphoid organs situated at either side of the back of the human throat. The palatine tonsils and the adenoid tonsil are organs consisting of lymphoepithelial tissue located near the oropharynx and nasopharynx (parts of the throat).


title: Tonsil

text: Humans are born with four types of tonsils: the pharyngeal tonsil, two tubal tonsils, two palatine tonsils and the lingual tonsils.


title: Tonsil

text: The palatine tonsils tend to reach their largest size in puberty, and they gradually undergo atrophy thereafter. However, they are largest relative to the diameter of the throat in young children. In adults, each palatine tonsil normally measures up to 2.5 cm in length, 2.0 cm in width and 1.2 cm in thickness.


title: Tonsil

text: The adenoid grows until the age of 5, starts to shrink at the age of 7 and becomes very small in adulthood.


title: Tonsil

text: The tonsils are immunocompetent organs which serve as the immune system's first line of defense against ingested or inhaled foreign pathogens, and as such frequently engorge with blood to assist in immune responses to common illnesses such as the common cold. The tonsils have on their surface specialized antigen capture cells called Microfold cell (M cells) that allow for the uptake of antigens produced by pathogens. These M cells then alert the B cells and T cells in the tonsil that a pathogen is present and an immune response is stimulated. B cells are activated and proliferate in areas called germinal centers in the tonsil. These germinal centers are places where B memory cells are created and secretory antibody (IgA) is produced.


title: Tonsil

text: A 2012 study provided evidence that the tonsils also produce T cells themselves, in a manner similar to the way the thymus does.


title: Tonsil

text: The palatine tonsils can become enlarged (adenotonsillar hyperplasia) or inflamed (tonsillitis). The most common way to treat tonsillitis is with anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, or if bacterial in origin, antibiotics, e.g. amoxicillin and azithromycin. Surgical removal (tonsillectomy) may be advised if the tonsils obstruct the airway or interfere with swallowing, or in patients with severe or recurrent tonsillitis. However, different mechanisms of pathogenesis for these two subtypes of tonsillar hypertrophy have been described, and may have different responses to identical therapeutic efforts. In older patients, asymmetric tonsils (also known as asymmetric tonsil hypertrophy) may be an indicator of virally infected tonsils, or tumors such as lymphoma or squamous cell carcinoma.


title: Tonsil

text: A tonsillolith (also known as a “tonsil stone”) is material that accumulates on the palatine tonsil. This can reach the size of a peppercorn and is white or cream in color. The main substance is mostly calcium, but it has a strong unpleasant odor because of hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan and other chemicals.


title: Tonsil

text: Palatine tonsil enlargement can affect speech, making it hypernasal and giving it the sound of velopharyngeal incompetence (when space in the mouth is not fully separated from the nose's air space). Tonsil size may have a more significant impact on upper airway obstruction for obese children than for those of average weight.


title: Tonsil

text: As mucosal lymphatic tissue of the aerodigestive tract, the palatine tonsils are viewed in some classifications as belonging to both the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) and the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT). Other viewpoints treat them (and the spleen and thymus) as large lymphatic organs contradistinguished from the smaller tissue loci of GALT and MALT.


title: The Ronettes

text: The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. They had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as "The Darling Sisters". Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector's Philles Records in March 1963 and changed their name to "The Ronettes".


title: The Ronettes

text: The Ronettes placed nine songs on the "Billboard" Hot 100, six of which became Top 40 hits. Among their hit songs are "Be My Baby", which peaked at No. 2, their only contemporary top 10 hit, "Baby, I Love You", "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" and "Walking in the Rain". In 1964, the group released their only studio album, "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica". That year, the Rolling Stones were their opening act when they toured the UK. The Ronettes opened for the Beatles on their 1966 US tour, becoming the only girl group to tour with them, before splitting up in 1967. In the 1970s, the group was briefly revived as Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes.


title: The Ronettes

text: Their song "Be My Baby" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. "Rolling Stone" ranked their album "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica" No. 422 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The Ronettes were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. The group also holds the record for the longest gap between top ten hits in "Billboard" history, with a just over 58-year gap.


title: The Ronettes

text: The Ronettes began as a family act where the girls grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan. According to Nedra Talley, they started singing during childhood visits to their grandmother's home. "Estelle and Veronica are sisters," she said in a later interview. "I'm their cousin. Our mothers are sisters. We came out of a family that, on Saturday nights, home for us was at our grandmother's, entertaining each other." The Bennetts' mother was African-American and Cherokee; their father was Irish-American. Their cousin, Talley, is African-American, Cherokee and Puerto Rican. The trio also had a great-grandfather who was Chinese. "By the time I was eight, I was already working up whole numbers for our family's little weekend shows," Ronnie Spector later recalled. "Then Estelle would get up onstage and do a song, or she'd join Nedra or my cousin Elaine and me in a number we'd worked out in three-part harmony."


title: The Ronettes

text: Furthering their interest in show business, Estelle was enrolled at Startime, a popular dancing school in the 1950s, while Ronnie became fascinated with Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. In 1957, Ronnie formed the group which would later become known as the Ronettes. Composed of Ronnie, her sister Estelle, and their cousins Nedra, Diane, and Elaine, the five girls learned how to perfect their harmonies first at their grandmother's house, and they became proficient in songs such as "Goodnight Sweetheart" and "Red Red Robin". Emulating Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the girls added their male cousin Ira to the group and signed up for a Wednesday night amateur show at the Apollo Theater run by a friend of Ronnie and Estelle's mother. The show started out as a disaster; when the house band started playing Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", Ira did not sing a word, so Ronnie took over. "I strutted out across the stage, singing as loud as I could," Ronnie later recalled. "When I finally heard a few hands of scattered applause, I sang even louder. That brought a little more applause, which was all I needed."


title: The Ronettes

text: After their night at the Apollo, Ira, Elaine, and Diane left the group. After the curious renaming of the group to "Ronnie and the Relatives", Ronnie, Estelle, and Nedra began taking singing lessons two afternoons per week. Appearing at local bar mitzvahs and sock hops, they met Phil Halikus, who introduced them to Colpix Records producer Stu Phillips. According to Ronnie, Phillips played the piano while the women auditioned for him, singing "What's So Sweet About Sweet Sixteen". The audition was successful, and the group was brought into the studio in June 1961 and recorded four tracks: "I Want a Boy", "What's So Sweet About Sweet Sixteen", "I'm Gonna Quit While I'm Ahead", and "My Guiding Angel". Colpix released "I Want a Boy" in August 1961 and "I'm Gonna Quit While I'm Ahead" in January 1962, the first singles credited to Ronnie and the Relatives.


title: The Ronettes

text: While both singles failed to chart on the "Billboard" Top 100, fate intervened in advancing the group's success. A fortuitous case of mistaken identity led to Ronnie and the Relatives making their debut – as dancers rather than a singing act – at New York City's hip Peppermint Lounge in 1961. It was the height of the Twist craze, and under-aged Nedra and Ronnie disguised themselves to get in. The girls' mothers showed them how to put on make-up and fix their hair to make them look at least 23. When they arrived outside the club, its manager mistook Ronnie, Estelle, and Nedra for the trio supposed to dance behind house band Joey Dee and the Starliters for the evening. He led them in and put them onstage to perform in their place. During the show, Starliter David Brigati even handed the mike over to Ronnie when she started to sing Ray Charles' "What'd I Say". Soon afterward, Ronnie and the Relatives became a permanent act at The Peppermint Lounge, each earning $10 per night to dance The Twist and usually sing a song at some point in the show.


title: The Ronettes

text: Ronnie and the Relatives soon became "The Ronettes". Colpix issued the first two singles credited to the Ronettes, "Silhouettes" and a re-issue of "I'm Gonna Quit While I'm Ahead", on its May label in April and June 1962, respectively. Both singles disappointingly failed to chart. Later that year, they were flown to Miami to open a Florida branch of The Peppermint Lounge. After their performance at the Miami gala, radio host Murray the K came backstage and introduced himself to them. He asked the women to begin appearing at his shows at The Brooklyn Fox in New York. They agreed, taking the Fox stage in 1962 and completing a transition from Murray the K's "Dancing Girls", to back-up singing for other acts, to performing as the Ronettes before year's end. It was during this time that the women evolved their iconic look, wearing ever more exaggerated eye make-up while teasing their hair to impossible proportions. "We'd look pretty wild by the time we got out onstage," Ronnie later recalled, "and the kids loved it." Colpix's May label issued a final single by the Ronettes in March 1963. When "Good Girls" failed to chart, the women decided to look elsewhere for studio work.


title: The Ronettes

text: In early 1963, fed up with Colpix Records and the group's lack of success, sister Estelle placed a phone call to producer Phil Spector and told him the Ronettes would like to audition for him. Spector agreed and met the women soon after at Mira Sound Studios in New York City. Later, Spector told Ronnie that he had seen them at The Brooklyn Fox several times and was impressed with their performances. At the audition, Spector was sitting at a piano, and when the group began singing "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", he suddenly jumped up from his seat and shouted: "That's it! That's it! That's the voice I've been looking for!"


title: The Ronettes

text: After their successful audition, Spector decided to sign the group. Originally, he wanted to sign Ronnie as a solo act, until her mother told him either he signed the Ronettes as a group or it was no deal. He agreed to sign the group and instructed Ronnie's mother to inform Colpix Records that the women had "given up" on show business so the studio would release their contract. By March 1963, the group was officially signed to Spector's Philles Records.


title: The Ronettes

text: The first song the Ronettes rehearsed and recorded with Phil Spector was written by Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich called "Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love". They brought the women out to California to make the record, but, once it was completed, Spector declined to release it. They recorded more songs for Spector, including covers of "The Twist", "The Wah-Watusi" (lead vocals by Nedra), "Mashed Potato Time", and "Hot Pastrami". These four songs were released, but were credited to The Crystals on their 1963 Philles LP "The Crystals Sing Their Greatest Hits, Volume 1".


title: The Ronettes

text: After having been denied a release of their song as well as having credit for their next four recordings go to another group, the Ronettes went to work on the Phil Spector/Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich song "Be My Baby". The Ronettes recorded "Be My Baby" in July 1963, and it was released by August. "Be My Baby" was a smash record for the Ronettes. Radio stations played the song throughout the fall of 1963, and the Ronettes were invited to tour the country with Dick Clark on his "Caravan of Stars" tour. "Be My Baby" inspired a legion of Ronettes fans, including Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who clearly intended "Don't Worry Baby" as an homage to the group. By autumn that year, it was a Top 10 hit and peaked at number 2 on the "Billboard" Top 100. "Our lives were turned upside down," Ronnie later recalled. "All the things I'd ever dreamed about were finally coming true."


title: The Ronettes

text: "Be My Baby" was the first recording by Cher, who performed back-up vocals with Estelle, Nedra, and Sonny Bono. As the girlfriend of Bono, who was working for Phil Spector at the time, Cher was asked to join the back-up singers when one was a no-show. "'Be My Baby' was the first record I ever sang on," Cher later wrote. "I went out and stood in front of this big speaker and sang 'be my, be my baby' with the Ronettes and all these other singers." After "Be My Baby", Cher became a permanent back-up singer on recordings by the Ronettes, as well as other songs Phil Spector produced until "You've Lost That Loving Feeling".


title: The Ronettes

text: After the overnight success of their first Phil Spector single, Spector was eager to do a follow-up with the Ronettes. He wrote "Baby, I Love You", again with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and urged the Ronettes to leave New York for California to record the song at Gold Star Studios. A problem arose when the Ronettes were scheduled to leave for Dick Clark's "Caravan of Stars" tour across the United States. In lieu of having the Ronettes skip the Dick Clark tour, Spector decided Estelle and Nedra would do the tour with cousin Elaine, a former member of the group. Ronnie left for California to record "Baby, I Love You" with Darlene Love, Cher, and Sonny Bono subbing for Estelle and Nedra on back-up vocals. "Baby, I Love You" had an even denser arrangement, featuring Leon Russell on piano. The song was recorded in the early fall of 1963 and released in November that year. It was slightly less successful than "Be My Baby" on the charts, reaching number 24 Pop, number 6 R&B in the United States and number 11 in the United Kingdom.


title: The Ronettes

text: All three Ronettes, along with every other artist who was signed with Phil Spector in 1963, were featured on the Christmas LP "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector". For this album, the Ronettes recorded three songs: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Sleigh Ride". All artists sang on the album's finale, "Silent Night", which opened with a spoken message from Phil Spector, wishing a Merry Christmas and thanking everyone for supporting the cooperative artists.


title: The Ronettes

text: In his desire for absolute perfection on the album, Spector pushed his artists to belt out their lyrics as powerfully as they could. "The Christmas album was the one where I'd thought I'd lost it mentally." Nedra later said. "I heard the parts. I swore I'd put them down, but they said it wasn't on the tape."


title: The Ronettes

text: The album was released on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. It was not a success upon its initial release but it was re-released by Apple Records in 1972 and reached No. 6 on "Billboard"′s list of Christmas Albums that year.


title: The Ronettes

text: In January 1964, the Ronettes left for their first tour of the UK, where they made a strong impact from the very beginning. "We must have been quite a sight in the Heathrow waiting room," Ronnie Spector later recalled, "three black American girls sitting with their legs all crossed the same way, our three identical, enormous hairdos piled a foot or so over our heads. When our young chaperon finally showed up, he was all smiles."


title: The Ronettes

text: On their first night in the UK, the women attended a party at Tony Hall's house where they met the Beatles. After meeting, Ronnie and John Lennon quickly became friends and Estelle dated George Harrison. But for Ronnie, one of the biggest thrills was meeting Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, who were the opening act for the Ronettes on their UK tour. The feeling was mutually shared by Richards, who wrote of his relationship with Ronnie: "The first time I ever went to heaven was when I awoke with Ronnie (later Spector!) Bennett asleep with a smile on her face. We were kids. It doesn't get any better than that."


title: The Ronettes

text: When the women returned home from their British tour, they went right back into the studio to record "Keep on Dancing" and "Girls Can Tell", two songs written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. The group's recording of "Keep on Dancing" is notable because it features Ronnie and Nedra singing in unison, but Spector refused to release the single. Around this time, The Crystals also recorded a version of "Girls Can Tell", which also went unreleased.


title: The Ronettes

text: "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" was subsequently recorded by the Ronettes. According to Ronnie, Spector was especially enthusiastic about the song. "When Phil loved a song as much as he loved '(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up,'" she later wrote, "he could work on it for days without ever getting tired." Released in April 1964, the song did not fare as well as the group's previous two singles, though it did manage to briefly break into the "Billboard" Top 40. In June 1964, the group's following single, "Do I Love You?", was released, also breaking into the Top 40, beating their previous single by five positions.


title: The Ronettes

text: As the British Invasion took full force on the American music scene in 1964, the Ronettes were one of the few groups that were able to maintain their relevance. When they toured the UK in January 1964, they had been asked by John Lennon to accompany the Beatles on their flight to America on February 7, 1964, but Spector denied them the opportunity to do so. Instead, throughout 1964, the group appeared on numerous television shows such as "Shindig!", "American Bandstand", "Hullabaloo", and British TV show "Ready, Steady, Go!" As the popularity of other groups such as The Crystals, The Marvelettes, and The Angels began to wane, that of the Ronettes continued to grow.


title: The Ronettes

text: In the summer of 1964, Ronnie went into the studio to record her lead on the group's next single, "Walking in the Rain". She later recalled that the writers – Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil – were still adjusting the lyrics right up to the minute she recorded it. Ronnie recalled Phil placing headphones on her and telling her to listen closely. "Everything was quiet," she later wrote, "Then all of a sudden I heard a low rumble, like there was thunder coming from every corner of the room." The thunder was used for the introduction and was featured prominently throughout the remainder of the song, the only one of which Ronnie recorded in a single take. "Walking in the Rain" became the group's most successful single since "Be My Baby" (released over a year earlier) and peaked at number 23 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: The Ronettes

text: Following the successful release of "Walking in the Rain", Philles Records released the group's first studio album, "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica", in late 1964. The album proved only to be marginally successful, peaking at number 96 on the "Billboard" charts, but for the first time Phil Spector publicly promoted lead singer Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett over Estelle Bennett and Nedra Talley. Every Ronettes single after this referred to the group as "The Ronettes featuring Veronica" on the record labels.


title: The Ronettes

text: After the success of "Walking in the Rain", the Ronettes' popularity had clearly begun to wane. In February 1965, Philles Records released the group's next single, "Born to Be Together", which only reached number 52 on the "Billboard" 100. Over the course of the next year, the Ronettes recorded a song catalog which, once completed, Phil Spector refused to release. Many attribute this to his insecurities and growing love for Ronnie. As the popularity of the group rose, their relationship grew deeper, and soon they were living together. Spector allegedly did not want the Ronettes to become too popular, in fear they would one day outshine him, perhaps explaining why he did not release recordings the Ronettes were contractually obligated to make. This allowed for the Motown group the Supremes to eclipse them to become the most popular female group of the time.


title: The Ronettes

text: Some recorded yet unreleased songs include: "Paradise", "Everything Under the Sun", and "I Wish I Never Saw the Sun Shine". All three have since been covered by among others, the Shangri-Las, the Supremes, and Ike & Tina Turner. Regrettably, Spector's choice was to not release the Spector/ Jeff Barry/ Ellie Greenwich song "Chapel of Love", initially recorded by the Ronettes in early 1964. By the time their version finally was released, another recording by The Dixie Cups had gained attention. "We thought it was such a great record that we practically begged [Phil Spector] to put it out," Ronnie Spector later wrote. "Then the Dixie Cups' version came out, and it was a smash! It was so depressing."


title: The Ronettes

text: In June 1965, the Ronettes' next single, "Is This What I Get For Loving You?", was released, becoming a minor hit, reaching only number 75 on the "Billboard" 100. However, the song proved popular for TV appearances on "Hullabaloo", "Hollywood A Go-Go", and "Shivaree". The Ronettes failed to achieve another Top 10 hit, while the Supremes scored their fifth consecutive number-one song with "Back in My Arms Again". Some have attributed the decline of their popularity partially to Phil Spector's unenthusiastic promotions of the Ronettes, possibly from insecurities stemming from his intimate relationship with Ronnie.


title: The Ronettes

text: There were internal problems within the group as well. "You also have to remember that Nedra and Estelle stood in the background while I got to bask in the spotlight," Ronnie later wrote. "I was the one who flew out to California and sang lead on all our records. I was the one deejays wanted to talk to. And I was the one our producer was in love with, which meant I get the preferential treatment in all kinds of other ways which [quite understandably] drove them crazy." "I hated the 'dog-eat-dog' side of show-business," Nedra Talley later commented. "I hated pushing for the next record and the feeling of failure if we didn't get it. There was a continual demand on us to produce that I thought was unfair. My personality didn't like that." Nedra's disdain for show business fueled her choice to marry Scott Ross.


title: The Ronettes

text: After "Is This What I Get for Loving You?" was released in June 1965, over a year passed before the Ronettes' next single was released. "I Can Hear Music", written by Phil Spector/Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich and produced by Barry, was issued in October 1966, barely making it into the "Billboard" 100 by peaking at number 100 for exactly one week before it fell off the charts. The song was covered by the Beach Boys in 1969 with much greater success.


title: The Ronettes

text: After "Be My Baby", the Ronettes became headliners at several Murray the K Holiday Shows in New York City and did package tours in the US and England. By late 1965, even without a recent hit, the group continued to make appearances at leading night clubs and on television shows, grace the covers of music magazines, and be featured on "The Big TNT Show", produced by Phil Spector as a concert, and filmed and released as a TV movie.


title: The Ronettes

text: In August 1966, the Ronettes joined the bill with the Beatles for a 14-city tour across America. Phil Spector became so enraged when Ronnie expressed a desire to accompany Estelle and Nedra on the tour that Ronnie was forced to remain in California with him while the girls' cousin Elaine, who had previously been in the group, filled her slot on the tour, while Nedra or Estelle assumed the lead vocals on stage. A picture published in the November 1966 issue of "Ebony" magazine showed Nedra Talley singing lead, while Estelle and Elaine stood behind her singing harmony.


title: The Ronettes

text: After their tour with the Beatles ended, and "I Can Hear Music" failed to make an impact, the Ronettes left for a tour in Germany in early 1967, after which they agreed to break up and go their separate ways. Soon afterward, Nedra Talley married her boyfriend Scott Ross, Ronnie Bennett married Phil Spector, and Estelle Bennett settled down with Joe Dong, a long-time boyfriend.


title: The Ronettes

text: According to her accounts, Phil Spector kept Ronnie a virtual prisoner in their 23-room mansion in California. He brought her into the studio only once during their marriage. During this session, which took place in early 1969 at A&M Records, she recorded "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered!" The song was released in March 1969, failing to make an impact on radio stations, which were now playing music in the style of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick. Later in 1969, Ronnie and Estelle were invited into the studio by Jimi Hendrix to record backing vocals on "Earth Blues". Their work on the song earned the Ronettes a credit on the LP "Rainbow Bridge."


title: The Ronettes

text: Ronnie left Phil on June 12, 1972, and their divorce was finalized in 1974. As she made an attempt to revive her career, she decided to reform the Ronettes. Nedra had no interest in returning to the group, and Estelle mentally could no longer handle the burden of performing as she was suffering from mental illness. Ronnie replaced them with Chip Fields (mother of actress Kim Fields) and Denise Edwards. They recorded some songs for Buddah Records in 1973, one of which was a cover of "I Wish I Never Saw the Sun Shine", a song Ronnie had first done in 1965, though Phil Spector had refused to release it. The stint at Buddah was not successful, and by 1975, Ronnie had abandoned the idea of continuing the Ronettes and began her solo career.


title: The Ronettes

text: In 2017, Ronnie Spector released a new single "Love Power" under the name "Ronnie Spector and The Ronettes" making it the first Ronettes single in decades.


title: The Ronettes

text: In 1988, the original Ronettes sued Phil Spector for $10 million over unpaid royalties and for unpaid income he made from licensing of Ronettes’ music. It took the case a decade to make its way to trial. In 2000, Phil was ordered to pay them more than $2.6 million. Phil appealed and in 2001 the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division upheld a lower court finding that he had violated his 1963 contract. He appealed that ruling as well, taking the case to the New York State Supreme Court in 2002. In its ruling, the State Court of Appeals said it found the Ronettes' "plight sympathetic, because they have earned less than $15,000 in royalties from songs that topped the charts and made them famous," but the judge found that their contract gave Spector unconditional rights to the recordings. The judge also reversed a lower court's ruling that they were entitled to the music industry's standard 50 percent royalty rate on sales of records, tapes and compact discs. However, it was ruled that Spector was entitled to her share of the royalties; she had argued that she was forced to sign away her rights to royalties in her 1974 divorce settlement. The royalties of the group's other two members were not in dispute.


title: The Ronettes

text: Ronnie died on January 12, 2022, following a brief battle with cancer at the age of 78, leaving Nedra Talley the last surviving original member of the trio.


title: The Ronettes

text: The Ronettes were nominated for a Grammy Award in 1965 for "Walking in the Rain". They were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "Be My Baby" in 1999. The Ronettes were also inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004 and the People's Hall of Rock and Roll Legends in 2010. The Ronettes' influence on music was significant. In addition to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen have both cited Ronnie Bennett as an influence. The Ronettes' fashion style was emulated by British musician Amy Winehouse.


title: The Ronettes

text: It was reported that Phil Spector, in his capacity as a member of the Board of Governors, prevented the Ronettes from being nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, although they had been eligible for a considerable length of time. In a letter obtained by Ronnie's lawyers, addressed to the Rock Hall's nominating committee, Phil claimed that, apart from Ronnie, the group members did not appear on their records, and that they did not make the contribution required for induction. While he was awaiting trial on a murder charge, the Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. They were inducted by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Ronnie and Nedra performed "Baby, I Love You", "Walking in the Rain", and "Be My Baby". Estelle was present to accept her award but was not well enough to perform, so Tricia Scotti (a regular backup singer with Ronnie) took her place behind the microphone.


title: Eric McCormack

text: Eric James McCormack (born April 18, 1963) is a Canadian-American actor and singer, known for his roles as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace", Grant MacLaren in Netflix's "Travelers" and Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama "Perception".


title: Eric McCormack

text: Born in Toronto, McCormack started acting by performing in high school plays. He left Ryerson University in 1985 to accept a position with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where he spent five years performing in numerous stage productions.


title: Eric McCormack

text: For much of the late 1990s, he lived in Los Angeles and had minor roles. He made his feature film debut in the 1992 science-fiction adventure film "The Lost World". McCormack appeared in several television series, including "Top Cops", "Street Justice", "", "Townies", and "Ally McBeal". McCormack later gained worldwide recognition for playing Will Truman in "Will & Grace", which premiered in September 1998. His performance has earned him six Golden Globe nominations and four Emmy nominations, ultimately winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2001.


title: Eric McCormack

text: Aside from appearing in television, he made his Broadway debut in the 2001 production of "The Music Man" and starred in the 2005 film "The Sisters". Following the series conclusion of "Will & Grace" in 2006, McCormack starred as the leading role in the New York production of "Some Girl(s)". He starred in the television miniseries "The Andromeda Strain" (2008) and returned to television in 2009 in the TNT drama "Trust Me", which was cancelled after one season. Also in 2009, McCormack was cast in the science-fiction movie "Alien Trespass". In addition, he starred as Dr. Daniel Pierce for three seasons of the TNT crime drama "Perception", and provided the voice of "Lucky" on The Hub's "Pound Puppies". From 2009 to 2010 he starred as Dr. Max Kershaw, the psychiatrist turned boyfriend of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' title character in "The New Adventures of Old Christine."


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the son of Doris (1932–2006), a homemaker, and James "Keith" McCormack, an oil company financial analyst who died from cancer in 2008. He is the eldest of three siblings. McCormack has Scottish ancestry. While he was growing up, he was shy and did not play sports but was involved in theatre from an early age: "I was a bit of an outsider, but I discovered theatre very early on, which got me through." McCormack later attended Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario, where he was a classmate of David Furnish. There, he enrolled in theatre classes and performed in high school productions of "Godspell" and "Pippin". McCormack recalls that after performing in "Godspell", his feelings toward becoming an actor solidified and he decided to pursue a career in acting. "I remember after the first performance of that... I knew where to fit in. That was the beginning of my life as an actor. It changed me in that the concept of any other options disappeared. From that moment there was no question. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I'm lucky that way."


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack graduated from high school in 1982 and then enrolled at Ryerson University School of Theatre in Toronto to further improve his acting. He left Ryerson in 1985, several months before graduating, to accept a position with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, where he spent five seasons performing. "It was all I wanted, to be a classical actor for the rest of my life, but during the last couple of years I was there, I started to realise that it wasn't for me. Perhaps I didn't have to give my Hamlet before I died, that the world might be an OK place without my Hamlet, in fact." McCormack appeared in productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Henry V", "Murder in the Cathedral" and "Three Sisters". McCormack later performed with the Manitoba Theatre Centre in a production of "Burn This", as well as with Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre in "Biloxi Blues".


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack made his Canadian television debut in the 1986 movie ''The Boys from Syracuse"." McCormack moved to Los Angeles, California, and made his US television debut in a 1991 episode of the CBS crime series "Top Cops". He appeared in the 1992 theatrical films "The Lost World", based on Conan Doyle's novel of the same name and in its sequel, "Return to the Lost World", also released in 1992. By 1993, he landed a recurring role as a detective in the crime drama "Street Justice". Also in 1993, McCormack appeared in the television movie "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble", playing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's father.


title: Eric McCormack

text: He played the role of Colonel Francis Clay Mosby in 42 episodes of the Western television series "" (1994), which was later renamed "" (1995). McCormack commented that it was a "fantastic role". In an interview with "The Guardian" in 2003, McCormack admitted to auditioning "two or three times" for the part of Ross Geller, which ultimately went to David Schwimmer, for the situation comedy "Friends". In 1995, he appeared in the television film "The Man Who Wouldn't Die". He was cast in the 1997 made-for-television movie "Borrowed Hearts", where he portrayed a selfish businessman who learns to love, and in the HBO film "Exception to the Rule", in which he played a cheating husband.


title: Eric McCormack

text: Also in 1997, he had minor roles in the comedy shows "Townies", "Veronica's Closet", and "Ally McBeal". Originally, McCormack was scheduled to appear as a series regular in the NBC sitcom "Jenny", but was fired after the pilot due to the network cutting his character. In addition, McCormack had a recurring role in season five of the comedy series "The New Adventures of Old Christine", in which he played a therapist and love interest for Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character, Christine.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack received his breakthrough role in 1998 when he was cast as gay lawyer Will Truman on the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace". McCormack said that when the part came along, he was convinced he was right for the role. "At the end of the audition, Max Mutchnick, co-creator and executive producer of the show said 'That was perfect. Just to let you know, you never have to be more gay than that.'" He explained that when he first read the script, "what hit me immediately was that this was me. I mean, sexual orientation aside, Will was so much like me. He's a great host, he's relatively funny and he has great friends and he's a good friend to them ... the gay issue just wasn't really a big thing." The show debuted on September 21, 1998, and was watched by almost 8.6 million American viewers. "Will & Grace" quickly developed a loyal audience, with the show and McCormack receiving strong reviews. John Carman of the "San Francisco Chronicle" commented that McCormack and costar Debra Messing (who played Will's best friend Grace Adler) worked "nicely" together. Kay McFadden of "The Seattle Times" also praised McCormack, Messing, and the supporting cast as "very funny". For this performance, he earned four Emmy Award nominations (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005), one of which resulted in a win (2001), for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. In addition, he received five Golden Globe Award nominations.


title: Eric McCormack

text: Also in 1998, McCormack appeared in Stephen Herek's comedy film "Holy Man". The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. The following year he starred in the comedy movie "Free Enterprise" (1999), a movie about two filmmakers (McCormack and Rafer Weigel) obsessed with actor William Shatner and "Star Trek". Film critic Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that McCormack and Weigel "both make a strong impression". In 2000, McCormack appeared in the ABC television movie "The Audrey Hepburn Story", portraying actor Mel Ferrer.


title: Eric McCormack

text: During the 2001 Broadway season, McCormack briefly portrayed Professor Harold Hill (replacing Craig Bierko) in the Susan Stroman revival of "The Music Man" at the Neil Simon Theatre. In August 2002, as part of the Hollywood Bowl's summer concert series, he reprised the role of Harold Hill for a one-night only appearance in which he and other actors recreated the songs from the production. McCormack hosted the fourth episode of the 28th season of the sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" on November 2, 2002. In 2004, he had a recurring role as Ray Summers on Showtime's comedy drama "Dead Like Me". The following year, McCormack starred in the film "The Sisters", based on Anton Chekhov's play "Three Sisters". The film premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.


title: Eric McCormack

text: "Will & Grace"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s eighth and (at the time) final season ended with the series finale on May 18, 2006. The finale garnered 18 million American viewers, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast in six years.


title: Eric McCormack

text: In January 2017, NBC closed a deal for a new, 10-episode season of Will & Grace during the 2017–18 season. The new show has been branded as a "reboot", or "revival", taking place 11 years after the original series' finale episode, and McCormack has reprised his role of the beloved Will Truman. In April 2017, the episode order was increased to 12 episodes. In August 2017, it was extended again, to 16 episodes, and a second 13-episode season was ordered. In March 2018, NBC ordered five more episodes for the revival's second season, bringing the total to 18 episodes, and also renewed the show for an 18-episode third season. Eric McCormack continued his role of Will Truman for all of the announced seasons of the revival.


title: Eric McCormack

text: Following the end of "Will & Grace", McCormack starred on the New York stage opposite Fran Drescher, Judy Reyes, Brooke Smith, and Maura Tierney, in Neil LaBute's off-Broadway play "Some Girl(s)" at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. He plays a writer who is ready to settle down and marry, but decides to visit four ex-girlfriends first. For his performance, McCormack received critical reviews. "New York Times" contributor Ben Brantley, in review of the production, wrote: "Playing a thoughtless, woman-despising heterosexual, Mr. McCormack isn't much different from when he was playing a thoughtful, woman-worshiping homosexual. As in "Will & Grace", he italicizes every other line for maximum comic spin and punctuates his dialogue by earnestly furrowing his features". Brantley went on to say that McCormack's interpretation of the character is "certainly a more slickly sustained performance" than the one delivered by David Schwimmer in 2005. Melissa Rose Bernardo of "Entertainment Weekly" commented that McCormack and Maura Tierney "have incredible chemistry".


title: Eric McCormack

text: In the same year, McCormack produced the Lifetime comedy "Lovespring International", a show that revolves around six employees at Lovespring International, a dating agency located in California as an "elite Beverly Hills" company. The series debuted to ambivalent reviews, with Matthew Gilbert of "The Boston Globe" commenting that "Lovespring International" is "a lively little cable exercise in over-the-top characters, bad taste, satire, and political incorrectness." The show was cancelled that same year.


title: Eric McCormack

text: In 2008, McCormack co-starred in the A&E television miniseries "The Andromeda Strain", a remake of the 1971 movie based on the novel by Michael Crichton. In the miniseries, he played Jack Nash, a television reporter who battles an addiction to cocaine. "The Andromeda Strain" received mixed reviews, and McCormack's performance was criticized. Joanna Weiss of the "Boston Globe" wrote, "The presence of Eric McCormack, as an intrepid TV reporter, is especially extraneous (no disrespect to intrepid reporters)." Robert Bianco of "USA Today" commented, "The central cast is completed by ... poor Eric McCormack as a crusading, coke-addicted journalist who spends the second half of the movie playing Rambo in the desert. Let's just say McCormack does the best he can with what he's given, and leave it at that." On September 5, 2008, McCormack made a guest appearance in the seventh season and 100th episode of the television series "Monk", where he played an unctuous host of a television crime docudrama.


title: Eric McCormack

text: In January 2009, McCormack returned to television in the TNT drama "Trust Me", co-starring Tom Cavanagh. The series, set around a fictional advertising firm, starred McCormack as Mason McGuire, the firm's newly promoted creative director, and deals with his best friend's (Cavanagh) unpredictable behavior. In an interview with "USA Weekend", McCormack revealed he was not afraid of being typecast. McCormack's decision to do the show was due to "great writing". The show debuted on January 26, 2009, and was watched by almost 3.4 million viewers. "Trust Me" debuted to very positive reviews, with Tim Goodman of the "San Francisco Chronicle" writing, "...the series is surprisingly solid." Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that McCormack and Cavanagh "manage to keep their characters sharply defined but low-key. They are opposites but not in an ash-smudged, Windex-wielding Felix and Oscar way." The series, however, was cancelled after one season, due to poor ratings.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack starred in the science-fiction film "Alien Trespass" (2009), in which he played Doctor Ted Lewis, who gets possessed by an alien marshal, Urp, after he crash-lands on Earth. When asked about his interpretation on the character, McCormack commented that his first instinct was to make Ted Lewis more alien, sounding like Spock. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.


title: Eric McCormack

text: In May 2009, he portrayed "El Gallo" in Reprise Theatre Company's revival of the 1960s musical "The Fantasticks" at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. McCormack had a supporting role in Richard Loncraine's comedy "My One and Only", which was released in August 2009.


title: Eric McCormack

text: On September 30, 2009, he guest-starred on the police procedural drama "" in the second episode of its playing an owner of a dating website.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack portrayed con artist Clark Rockefeller in the Lifetime television movie "Who Is Clark Rockefeller?", which premiered on March 13, 2010. To prepare for the role, he read everything on the case, including coverage of the case and Rockefeller's jailhouse interview. "Who Is Clark Rockefeller?" received mixed reaction, but McCormack's performance was favored by critics, with "Variety"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Brian Lowry concluding, "...the real kitsch factor resides in Eric McCormack's performance as the suave charmer, which adds an element of high camp to the proceedings."


title: Eric McCormack

text: In June 2010, McCormack received the NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction at the Banff TV Festival. In October 2010, McCormack received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2018, McCormack received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television industry.


title: Eric McCormack

text: In October 2010, it was reported that McCormack would star in a new TNT television drama, "Perception", playing a crime-solving neuroscientist named Dr. Daniel Pierce, who works with the federal government to solve cases using his knowledge and imaginative view of the world. "Perception" premiered on July 9, 2012. McCormack also serves as producer for the show. He also provides the voice of "Lucky" on The Hub's "Pound Puppies" series, which premiered October 10, 2010.


title: Eric McCormack

text: From March 6 through July 8, 2012, he played the role of Senator Joseph Cantwell in the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal’s "The Best Man."


title: Eric McCormack

text: In February 2015, he guest-starred on an episode of NBC's "The Mysteries of Laura" which stars Debra Messing, his former co-star on "Will & Grace".


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack starred in "Travelers", a science fiction drama which first aired in October 2016 and ran for three seasons.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack has set up his own production company called Big Cattle Productions to develop ideas for television. The projects produced by the company include "Lovespring International" and "Imperfect Union". In 2003, it was confirmed that he would write, direct, and star in the romantic comedy "What You Wish For".


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack recorded a song, "The Greatest Discovery", which was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin in 1970, for the 2006 album "Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars". He also wrote and sang a song called "Living with Grace" for the 2004 soundtrack to "Will & Grace" with piano music provided by Barry Manilow.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack has been married to Janet Leigh Holden, whom he met on the set of "Lonesome Dove", since August 1997. They have a son. McCormack maintains residences in Los Angeles and Vancouver. He became a US citizen in 1999 and holds dual Canadian and US citizenship.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack is involved in many Los Angeles and Canadian-based charitable organizations including Project Angel Food. The Wellness Community West Los Angeles Tribute to the Human Spirit Awards dinner presented an award to McCormack for his breast cancer awareness advocacy. He shared with the audience how his comedy helped his mother, Doris McCormack, endure her breast cancer treatments. Doris was honored at the Lifetime's Breast Cancer Heroes Luncheon in 2004. He serves as an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and was given the MMRF Spirit of Hope Award in October 2006.


title: Eric McCormack

text: McCormack sang both the American and Canadian national anthems at the 2004 NHL All-Star game in Minnesota. McCormack is a supporter of same-sex marriage and attended a march in Fresno, California, on May 30, 2009, after the Supreme Court of California upheld a ban on same-sex marriage approved by voters in November by ballot Proposition 8.


title: Zak Starkey

text: Zak Richard Starkey (born 13 September 1965) is an English rock drummer who has performed and recorded with English rock band the Who since 1996. He is also the third drummer to have appeared with English rock band Oasis. In 2020, Starkey toured Brazil with U-Roy as guitarist. Other musicians and bands he has worked with include Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, the Icicle Works, the Waterboys, Bobby Womack, ASAP, the Lightning Seeds, John Entwistle, Sly & Robbie, Toots & The Maytals, Mykal Rose, Freddie McGregor, Big Youth, Jesse Royal, Tanya Stevens, Cecile and Sshh Liguz. Starkey is a son of the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr.


title: Zak Starkey

text: Zak Richard Starkey was born on 13 September 1965, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, to the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) and Maureen Starkey, Starr's first wife. He grew up at Sunny Heights at St George's Hill in Surrey and Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill, Berkshire, and attended Highgate School in London until 1981.


title: Zak Starkey

text: At the age of eight, Starkey was given a drum kit by the Who's drummer, Keith Moon. Moon (known to young Zak as "Uncle Keith") was one of his father's closest friends and Starkey's godfather. Although they never sat together at a drum kit, Moon discussed drumming with him as a boy. The drum kit was later sold at Sotheby's for £12,000.


title: Zak Starkey

text: Starkey subsequently began teaching himself to play the drums. His father gave him only one lesson, but he discouraged his growing interest because of the desire not to see him in the same business. Although Starr has praised his son's abilities, he had always regarded him as a future lawyer or doctor. Starr's close friend, Kenney Jones, drummer for the Faces and Moon's replacement in the Who, stated that he "virtually taught" the young Starkey to play drums. By the age of twelve, Starkey was performing in pubs as a member of the garage band The Next. After Moon's death, Jones gifted the teenage Starkey a white drum kit formerly owned by Moon, which had been kept in storage by the Who.


title: Zak Starkey

text: In the early 1980s, Starkey appeared with a re-formed Spencer Davis Group. His daughter Tatia was born on 7 September 1985. He briefly joined The Semantics, replacing founding drummer Jody Spence, during the recording process for their album "Powerbill", which ended up being unreleased except in Japan. He joined the band when they moved from Nashville to Los Angeles, and played in some shows and some recording sessions, but the band broke up less than a year after he joined.


title: Zak Starkey

text: In 1985 he played on John Entwistle's solo album "The Rock" (released in 1996). Starkey replaced Chris Sharrock as the drummer in the Icicle Works in 1989, leaving the band the next year without appearing on any recordings with them. A B-side later issued by founder member Ian McNabb, featured him on drums and is presumed to date from his tenure with the group. Starkey also played on the 1989 album "Silver and Gold", a solo work released by Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith.


title: Zak Starkey

text: In 1985, he joined his father on "Sun City" by Artists United Against Apartheid and during 1992 and 1995, Starkey toured with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, having previously guested on the band's 1989 tour. Starkey performed at Ringo Starr's 70th birthday party on 7 July 2010 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He joined his father and guest stars Yoko Ono, Nils Lofgren, Steven Van Zandt and Jeff Lynne for "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Give Peace a Chance".


title: Zak Starkey

text: In 1994, he joined John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey of the Who on a tour entitled "Daltrey Sings Townshend", which had developed from a two-night performance at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Daltrey's fiftieth birthday. In 1996, Starkey left his band Face, to work with the Who on their "Quadrophenia" tour. He received good reviews in this role and was praised by the music press for his strong drumming presence, without trying to emulate the band's original drummer Keith Moon. Both Townshend and Daltrey stated that Starkey was the best match for the band since the death of Keith Moon.


title: Zak Starkey

text: On 20 October 2001, he performed with the Who at the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. This was heralded as the Who's "comeback" performance and they stole the show. "Rolling Stone" called their performance "one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll". It was also one of John Entwistle's final appearances with the band.


title: Zak Starkey

text: On 7 February 2010, Starkey appeared with the Who during the half-time show of Super Bowl XLIV at the Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida.


title: Zak Starkey

text: Starkey was not available to record for most of the Who's 2006 album" Endless Wire", as he had been on the road with Oasis and only had time to play on one track. However, he did join the Who for The Who Tour 2006-2007 in support of the album, during which they headlined at Glastonbury Festival in 2007. The tour finished at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland on 9 July 2007. Pete Townshend's official website stated that Starkey was afterwards invited to become a full member of the Who, stating: "Some of you may have noticed in one of my recent diary postings that I welcomed Zak into the Who as a permanent member. This is something he doesn't feel he needs or wants. Let's just say that the door is always open to this amazing musician and whenever we can, we will always try to make it possible for Zak to work with the Who in the future." On 12 July 2008, Starkey played drums for the Who at the 3rd annual VH1 Rock Honors, which celebrated the band's long career.


title: Zak Starkey

text: On 30 March 2010, he played with the band during their performance of "Quadrophenia" at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.


title: Zak Starkey

text: On 12 August 2012, he played with the Who at the finale of the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and later that year, on 12 December, he joined them at . Starkey also joined the Who on their 2012–13 Quadrophenia and More tour, but he had to back out in February 2013 when he developed tendonitis but he re-joined the Who in September 2014 for their Who Hits 50 tour of UK and Europe and North America. in July 2015 and other shows during this year as part of The Who Hits 50! tour, which had started in 2014. This tour went on to include the Who at Desert Trip concert at Coachella Festival in California on 28 June 2015. Starkey also appeared with the Who when they performed as the headline act at the Glastonbury Festival. During this time, Starkey also played shows with Mick Jones of The Clash and formed The Silver Machine with Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes, Glen Matlock and Little Barrie.


title: Zak Starkey

text: In September 2016, Starkey was interviewed by "Rolling Stone" about the new covers album he was working on with Sharna Liguz, compiled with songs that had influenced them. They recorded these with the original members from each of the relevant bands. Funding for album's ten tracks was raised by a crowdfunding campaign through the Pledgemusic site. Under the name SSHH, Starkey and Liguz also recorded other tracks.


title: Zak Starkey

text: In 2000, Starkey was a founding member of Johnny Marr & The Healers, although their first album, "Boomslang", would not be released for another three years after which the band did a world tour in 2003. On 14 April 2001, he featured in both of the backing bands for the "Steve Marriott Tribute Concert", in which he appeared along with Rick Wills, Rabbit Bundrick, Bobby Tench, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller.


title: Zak Starkey

text: During 2004, Starkey joined the Britpop band Oasis and was also featured on two tracks included on the Who's biographic album, "". In May 2005, Noel Gallagher revealed to the BBC that Starkey had participated in the recording sessions for "Don't Believe the Truth". Starkey had recorded all but one track of these sessions which were originally called "Mucky Fingers" and were also for an official promotional video for the album. After the completion of these sessions Starkey stated: "It was amazing. They're all singers, they're all guitar players, they're all songwriters, they're all producers and they're all drummers."


title: Zak Starkey

text: He travelled as a sideman on the year-long Oasis tour that followed and appeared in promotional videos for the associated singles. Despite this, he was not an official member of the band and rarely appeared with them in promotions. In April 2005, Noel Gallagher confirmed that he had been invited to be their official drummer and added that this could not materialize before his current working engagements with the Who were completed in mid-2007. Their former drummer also had to be "paid out" contractually out of the band. On 14 February 2007, Starkey appeared with Oasis when they received the BRIT Award for outstanding contribution to music.


title: Zak Starkey

text: His participation in the making of the Oasis album, "Dig Out Your Soul", was confirmed on 11 December 2007, when the official Oasis website published a picture of him with the other band members. However, it was announced that he would not perform on the Dig Out Your Soul Tour after falling out with Noel Gallagher subsequently departing in 2008 and was replaced by Chris Sharrock. A year later he recalled that playing with them was "massive" and called the band "some of the smartest musicians I've ever met".


title: Zak Starkey

text: In 2008, Starkey formed the band Penguins Rising which had previously been called Penguin, along with his partner Sharna Liguz. The band's original line up also included his daughter Tatia. Penguins Rising went on to support Kasabian and Beady Eye on their respective tours. They released an album under the moniker of Pengu!ns, entitled "Hatemale", in 2011. Sshh signed to BMG as a solo artist in 2018, and the duo toured Australia opening for Primal Scream and then Liam Gallagher in support of the Sshh single "Rising Tide".


title: Zak Starkey

text: Starkey went on to build a studio in Ocho Rios and formed the in-house recording group with Sshh Liguz, Sly & Robbie, Tony Chin, Cyril Neville and Robbie Lyn. In 2016, he launched the record label Trojan Jamaica based on the island, co-funded by BMG Rights Management. The Trojan name was licensed for use from the Trojan Records label. The label was formed with a mandate to reflect music from Jamaica along with soul and blues from America. Recording on Trojan Jamaica and with the roles of co-producer and guitarist he is credited on the albums 'Red Gold Green & Blue', 'Red Gold Green & Blue RMXZ' both released in 2019. In 2020, "RGGB RMXZ" was released, while "Got To Be Tough" by Toots & The Maytals followed the same year. This won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album that year. Additionally, the album "Solid Gold" was released by U-Roy, featuring Ziggy Marley, Santigold, Shaggy, Big Youth, Mick Jones of the Clash (Starkey has previously gigged with Jones), Richie Spice, Tarrus Riley, Jesse Royal, and Rygin King. At this time, Starkey and his partner's band Shhh appeared at the invitation of the Peter Tosh Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, performing their version of Get Up, Stand Up (featuring Soul Syndicate and Eddie Vedder).


title: Zak Starkey

text: Starkey married Sharna Liguz, his partner of 18 years, on March 21, 2022. The couple had chosen the date in honour of their daughter Luna Lee Lightnin, who was born a year earlier. The wedding was held at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood, California. Eddie Vedder and Johnny Marr served as Starkey's best men, while reggae musician Pato Banton officiated the ceremony.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: Al Ahly Sporting Club (; ), commonly referred to as Al Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo. It is the most successful football club worldwide based on total trophies won. Its professional football team plays in the Egyptian Premier League, founded on 24 April 1907, as a gathering place for Cairo's Student Unions.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: Al Ahly has a record of 42 national league titles, 37 national cup titles and 12 national super cup titles, The club has never been relegated to the Egyptian Second Division. Al Ahly is the most successful club in Africa and is one of the continent's giants.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: In international competitions, the club has won a record 10 CAF Champions League titles, a CAF Confederation Cup, a record eight CAF Super Cups, a record four African Cup Winners' Cups, an Afro-Asian Club Championship, an Arab Club Champions Cup, an Arab Cup Winners' Cup, a record two Arab Super Cups, and has won three bronze medals in the FIFA Club World Cup. With 24 continental titles, Al Ahly is the most successful football club in African history, and was voted by CAF as African club of the 20th century.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: The idea of establishing Al Ahly in the first 10 years of the 20th century was raised by Omar Lotfy who was a student in the Egyptian Law School during his presidency of the High School Students Club, which was established in 1905. The establishment of a club of high school students was for political reasons, and the students needed a sports club to gather them for leisure and exercise.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: He discussed the idea of establishing the club with a group of friends who were enthusiastic about it, and in 1907 Al Ahly was established.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: The club was first headed by Alfred Mitchell-Innes, who was a British advisor to the Ministry of Finance at the time, in order to facilitate financial support for the club. An official meeting of the club's board was held on 24 April 1907. The committee met at 5:30 pm in the house of Mitchell-Innes in Giza under his chairmanship and the membership of Idris Ragheb Bey, Ismael Seri Pasha, Amin Sami Pasha, Omar Lotfi Bek and Mohamed Effendi Sherif as secretary.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: The establishment of the club was approved and architect Ismail Seri designed the main building of the club, which was revised by Mitchell-Innes to place the building in the south-eastern corner of the land, so that the building main entrance would face north. A civil company on behalf of Al Ahly Sports Club was established. Shares of the company were worth £E5 each, and it was the goal of the club when it was established to raise £E5,000. Only £E3,165 were collected over a year, which was not enough. This forced the club to borrow £E1,000 from the National Bank of Egypt in March 1908 by Omar Sultan and Idris Ragheb and Talaat Harb contributed £E100 to the establishment of the club.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: The first honorary president of the club was the Minister of Education Saad Zaghloul. The name of Al Ahly Sporting Club was suggested by Amine Samy Amin, to serve the students and graduates of high schools who were the mainstay of the revolution against the British occupation. On 2 April 1908, Mitchell-Innes stepped down as president of the club. Aziz Ezzat was appointed as the new president and became the first Egyptian president of Al Ahly. The official opening ceremony of the club was held in its main building on 26 February 1908.


title: Al Ahly SC

text: The game of football was not one of the goals of the founders of Al Ahly club, but rather to open its doors to students of higher schools to meet and practice political dialogues. However, the graduates of high schools who were members of the club fell in love with football, which prompted Ahly to build the first stadium in 1909. They used to call it at the time (Al-Hawsh); a colloquial word from the Egyptian dialect, meaning "the courtyard" in Arabic. The stadium was developed over the years to become Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium.