Sequoia

Sequoyah (1767–1843), inventor of the Cherokee syllabary.

Sequoia, Sequoya or Sequoyah may also refer to:

Biology

Geography

Sequoia (composition)

Sequoia is an orchestral composition by the American composer Joan Tower. The work was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra with support from the Jerome Foundation. It was first performed on May 18, 1981 in Alice Tully Hall by the American Composers Orchestra under the conductor Dennis Russell Davies. The piece is dedicated to the concertmistress and first horn player of the orchestra, Jean and Paul Ingraham, respectively.Sequoia was Tower's first major orchestral composition and one of the composer's most performed works.

Composition

Sequoia has a duration of roughly 16 minutes and is composed in three continuous movements. The music is abstractly inspired by the genus of redwood coniferous trees called sequoias of the Northern California coastal forests. Tower described her influences in the score program notes, writing:

In Sequoia, that concept is not only very much present in the score but it actually led to the title (which is meant in an abstract rather than a pictorial sense). What fascinated me about sequoias, those giant California redwood trees, was the balancing act nature had achieved in giving them such great height.

Sequoia (genus)

Sequoia is a genus of redwood coniferous trees in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. The only extant species of the genus is Sequoia sempervirens in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion of Northern California and Southwestern Oregon in the United States. The two other genera, Sequoiadendron and Metasequoia, in the subfamily Sequoioideae are closely related to Sequoia. It includes the largest trees in the world.

Several extinct species have been named from fossils, including Sequoia affinis, Sequoia chinensis of China, Sequoia langsdorfii, Sequoia dakotensis of South Dakota (Maastrichtian), and Sequoia magnifica.

Etymology

The name Sequoia was first published as a genus name by the Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher in 1847. However, he left no specific reasons for choosing that name, and there is no record of anyone else speaking to him about its origin.

The most common modern guess is that Endlicher, a published linguist as well as a botanist, named the genus in honor of Sequoyah, the inventor of the first Cherokee writing system. As far back as the 1860s, it has also been suggested that the name is instead an alteration of the Latin word for "sequence", since the species is known to be a follower or remnant of massive ancient, extinct species, and thus the next in a sequence.

Disaster!

Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You! was a dark ride partial tram tour and show at Universal Studios Florida. Set on a soundstage of a fictitious movie company, Disaster! was a based on the park's former Earthquake: The Big One ride, which comically illustrates how special effects are filmed for use in movies. The attraction's climax casted the riders as movie extras for a movie finale scene involving an earthquake in a subway station. Using high-speed editing techniques, the riders got to see themselves in the form of a movie trailer that included film sequences shot throughout the attraction's pre-show and main ride.

In August 2015, Universal announced that the attraction would close on September 8, 2015 to make way for Fast & Furious: Supercharged, based on the blockbuster film franchise.

Attraction history

Earthquake: The Big One was one of Universal Studios Florida's original attractions, opening with the park on June 7, 1990. While the attraction was principally based on a portion of the Universal Studios Hollywood's Backlot Studio Tour, its main inspiration came from the 1974 disaster film epic Earthquake. Over the years, however, fewer and fewer guests knew about the film referenced, so as part of a renovation project, Universal Studios detached the attraction from any existing film property and instead crafted a fictional premise around it by reinventing its storyline.

Disaster (film)

Disaster is a 1948 American drama film directed by William H. Pine and written by Thomas Ahearn. The film stars Richard Denning, Trudy Marshall, Damian O'Flynn, Will Wright, James Millican and Jack Lambert. The film was released on December 3, 1948, by Paramount Pictures.

Cast

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External links

Disaster: Day of Crisis

Disaster: Day of Crisis is a video game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. It is an action-adventure survival game, where the player must survive through various natural disasters, all the while also battling terrorists and rescuing civilians. According to Nintendo, the game features “cutting-edge physics and gripping visuals” to re-create the sheer terror of major catastrophes.

Plot

Similar in style to Disaster Report, the game revolves around Raymond Bryce, a former US Marine and International Rescue Team member. When Ray and his partner Steve Hewitt were performing a routine rescue mission near the dormant volcano, Mt. Aguilas, tragedy struck when the volcano unexpectedly erupted. During their escape, Steve's life was lost as he fell into the magma below, having let himself go from Ray's grasp as he knew only one of them would be able to escape to safety. During the eruption, Steve passed on an antique compass to Ray, and made him promise to give it to his sister Lisa, just in case Steve didn't make it.