Xenosaga

Xenosaga (ゼノサーガ, Zenosāga) is a series of science fiction video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Bandai Namco. Xenosaga's main story is in the form of a trilogy of PlayStation 2 video games. There have been three spin-off games and an anime adaptation. The Xenosaga series serves as a spiritual successor to the game Xenogears, which was released in 1998 for the PlayStation by Square. The creator of both Xenogears and Xenosaga is Tetsuya Takahashi, who left Square in 1998 along with Hirohide Sugiura. Using funds from Namco, they started MonolithSoft and the Xenosaga project.

The first game in the trilogy, Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht was released in February 2002 in Japan, and in February 2003 in North America. Xenosaga Freaks, a lighthearted game with a playable demo for Episode II, was released in April 2004 in Japan, but was not released elsewhere. Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse was released in June 2004 in Japan and February 2005 in North America. Xenosaga: The Animation, an anime based on Episode I, premiered on TV Asahi in Japan on January 5, 2005. Xenosaga Pied Piper, a three chapter-long cellphone-based game depicting the history of cyborg "Ziggurat 8" 100 years before the start of Episode I, was released in Japan in July 2004. Released on July 6, 2006, Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra is the final title in the Xenosaga series; six episodes were originally projected, but by the time Episode III was released, Namco had already established that it would be the last entry, effectively halving the series. A retelling of the first two episodes titled Xenosaga I & II was released on the Nintendo DS in March 2006 in Japan.

Ether (song)

"Ether" is the second track on hip hop artist Nas' 2001 album Stillmatic. The song was a response to Jay-Z's "Takeover", a diss track directed towards Nas and Mobb Deep which appears on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, during the Jay-Z vs. Nas feud. Nas named the song Ether because "I was told a long time ago, ghosts and spirits don't like the fumes from ether, and I just wanted to affect him with my weapon and get to his soul".

Song

Jay-Z, who had surpassed Nas in commercial success since 1998, dismissed him as a has-been on the diss track "Takeover." Nas responds to Jay's claims by rapping, "I got this, locked since Nine-One (1991), I am the truest/ Name a rapper that I ain't influenced." The song contains numerous slurs directed at Jay-Z: "When these streets keep calling, heard it when I was sleep/ That this Gay-Z and Cock-A-Fella Records wanted beef", "Then you got the nerve to say that you're better than Big/ Dick-suckin' lips, why don't you let the late great veteran live", "You a dick-ridin' faggot, you love the attention/ Queens niggas run you niggas, ask Russell Simmons" and "Put it together/ I rock hos; y'all rock fellas."

Ether (Fischer-Z album)

Ether was an experimental music project by John Watts, released under the name Fischer-Z. After releasing two successful solo albums and one album of remixes, since the last Fischer-Z album, Stream, John Watts had started to take an interest in creating big beat music. After creating a whole big beat style album in 1999 entitled Bigbeatpoetry, Watts carried on in a similar style for Ether. He recorded a number of songs, featuring only his guitar and voice, and then put them over cut-up beats as a rhythm track. Watts had also added a filmic touch to the project, he travelled throughout Europe and post-9/11 New York City to find musicians at random and record them using his laptop, in their homes and on the street. Sarah Vermeersch filmed & edited the process into a road movie. "Ether" was further released as a John Watts solo album (see: Ether Music & Film), including the road movie DVD and a CD of tracks from the "Ether" album that appeared in the movie.

Track listing

Kick

A kick is a physical strike using the foot, leg, or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of attack is used frequently by hooved animals as well as humans in the context of stand-up fighting. Kicks play a significant role in many forms of martial arts, such as savate, Combat Hopak, taekwondo, sikaran, karate, Pankration, Kung fu, Vovinam, kickboxing, Muay Thai, capoeira, silat, and kalaripayattu.

Kicking is also prominent from its use in many sports, especially those called football. The best known of these sports is association football, also known as soccer.

History

The English verb to kick appears only in the late 14th century, apparently as a loan from Old Norse, originally in the sense of a hooved animal delivering strikes with his hind legs; the oldest use is Biblical.

Kicks as an act of human aggression have likely existed worldwide since prehistory. However, high kicks, aiming above the waist or to the head appear to have originated from Asian martial arts. Such kicks were introduced to the west in the 19th century with early hybrid martial arts inspired by Asian styles such as Bartitsu and Savate. Practice of high kicks became more universal in the second half of the 20th century with the more widespread development of hybrid styles such as kickboxing and eventually mixed martial arts.

Kick (2014 film)

Kick is a 2014 Indian action film produced and directed by Sajid Nadiadwala under his Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment banner. It is an official remake of a Telugu movie Kick which was released in 2009. The film features Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez and Randeep Hooda in the lead roles and Nawazuddin Siddiqui , portraying the main antagonist of the film. The screenplay is adapted by Sajid Nadiadwala and Chetan Bhagat. The film released on 25 July 2014 in about 5,000 screens worldwide.

Plot

Dr. Shaina Mehra (Jacqueline Fernandez) is a psychiatrist living in Warsaw, Poland. One day, her father, Mr. Brijesh Mehra (Saurabh Shukla) brings a marriage proposal and asks her to meet Himanshu Tyagi (Randeep Hooda). Himanshu and Shaina meet in a train, where Shaina reveals that she had an ex-boyfriend, Devi, (Salman Khan) and talks about her experiences with him.

Devi Lal Singh is a highly intelligent but adventurous who is always looking for a 'kick' in his life. Due to his daredevil attitude, he never stays in one job for long. He has resigned from 32 companies as he feels that he is suffering from a lack of kick. When Shaina first meets Devi, she is trying to help her friend Vidhi (Sumona Chakravarti) elope with her lover who turns out to be Devi's friend (Kavin Dave). Devi gets them married in a temple but also helps her mother follow them and reach the temple for 'kick'. Shaina starts to like Devi after seeing a video of him beating the goons. Later Shaina meets Devi's caring but easy going parents including his father Lal Singh (Mithun Chakraborty) and his mother (Archana Puran Singh). Devi and Shaina start dating, and fall in love and get married. On Shaina's suggestion, Devi accepts a job in a chemical lab, but resigns in a few days suffering from the lack of "kick". Upon hearing this, Shaina scolds him. Upset, Devi breaks up with her and moves away.

Kick (video game)

Kick is an action arcade game where the player controls a clown on a unicycle, catching falling balloons and Pac-Man characters on the clown's hat. The game was later renamed Kick Man. It uses the Midway Cart Rack arcade system.

Gameplay

The player moves a character to catch falling objects (balloons and Pac-Man icons). The character can also kick an object into the air to attempt to catch it again. The player loses a life for each object the character misses. Kick also has a bonus stage.

Reception

Electronic Games wrote in 1983 that the game had been unsuccessful despite "top-notch background graphics and special sounds for effects. Can you imagine a game featuring Pac-Man that didn't make it? Kick Man is it." The Commodore 64 version was somewhat better received, gaining a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Arcade-to-Home Video Game/Computer Game Translation" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.

References