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Queen Esther (1878) as imagined by Edwin Long.

Esther ( /ˈɛstər/; Hebrew: אֶסְתֵּר, Modern Ester Tiberian ʼEstēr), born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther. According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid empire. Her story is the basis for the celebration of Purim in Jewish tradition.

Biblical story[link]

King Xerxes held a 180-day feast in Susa (Shoushan). While in "high spirits" from the wine, he ordered his queen, Vashti, to appear before him and his guests to display her beauty. But when the attendants delivered the king's command to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. Furious at her refusal to obey, the king asked his wise men what should be done. One of them said that all the women in the empire would hear that "The King Xerxes commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not." Then the women of the empire would despise their husbands. And this would cause many problems in the kingdom. Therefore it would be good to depose her.^[1]

To find a new queen suitable to King Xerxes, it was decreed that beautiful young virgins be gathered to the palace from every province of his kingdom. Each woman underwent twelve months of beautification in his harem, after which she would go to the king. When the woman's turn came, she was given anything she wanted to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. She would then go to the king in the evening, and in the morning go to the harem where the concubines stayed. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased enough with her to summon her again by name.^[2]

For his wife and queen, King Xerxes chose Esther, an orphan raised by her cousin^[3] Mordecai, to replace the recalcitrant Queen Vashti. Esther was originally named Hadassah, meaning myrtle.

"Esther 2:7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter." Esther was the daughter of a Benjamite, Abihail. When Cyrus gave permission for the exiles to return unto Jerusalem she stayed with Mordecai.

Shortly, when Mordecai was sitting at the king's gates, he overheard two of the king's officers guarding the gates plotting to assassinate the king. Mordecai let Esther know, and she warned the king about it, and Mordecai was given credit. The two conspirators were hanged on a gallows.

Soon after this, the king granted Haman the Agagite,^[4] one of the most prominent princes of the realm, special honours. All the people were to bow down to Haman when he rode his horse through the streets. All complied except for Mordecai, a Jew, who would bow to no one but his God. This enraged Haman, who, with his wife and advisers, plotted against the Jews, making a plan to kill and extirpate all Jews throughout the Persian empire, selecting the date for this act by the drawing of lots (Esther 3:7). After laying charges of sedition against the Jews, Haman gained the king's approval to write a decree for their destruction; offering ten thousand silver talents to the king for approval of this plan, but the king refused to take them (Esther 3:9-11).

Mordecai tore his robes and put ash on his head (signs of mourning or grieving/anguish) on hearing this news. Esther sent clean clothes to him, but he refused them, explaining that deliverance for the Jews would come from some other place, but that Esther would be killed if she did not do what she could to stop this genocide — by talking to the king. Esther was not permitted to see the king unless he had asked for her, otherwise she could be put to death. Esther was terrified of this (she had not been called to the king in 30 days), so she and her maid-servants and her people the Jews of Persia fasted earnestly for three days before she built up the courage to enter the king's presence. When King Xerxes saw Esther, he was pleased and held out his scepter to her, showing that he accepted her visit. He then asked Esther what she wished of from him, promising to grant even up to half his kingdom should she ask. Esther requested a banquet with the king and Haman. During the banquet, she requested another banquet with the king and Haman the following day.

"Ahasuerus and Haman at Esther's Feast," by Rembrandt

After the banquet Haman ordered a gallows constructed, 75 feet (23 m) high, on which to hang Mordecai. Meanwhile, the king was having trouble sleeping, and had some histories read to him. From the reading the king remembered that Mordecai had saved him from an assassination attempt, and had received no reward in return. Early the next morning, Haman came to the king to ask permission to hang Mordecai, but before he could, the king asked him "What should be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?" Haman thought the king meant himself, so he said that the man should wear a royal robe and be led on one of the king's horses through the city streets proclaiming before him, "This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!" The king thought this well, then asked Haman to lead Mordecai through the streets in this way, to honor him for previously telling the king of a plot against him. After doing this, Haman rushed home, full of grief. His wife said to him, "You will surely come to ruin!"

That night, during the banquet, Esther told the king of Haman's plan to massacre all Jews in the Persian Empire, and acknowledged her own Jewish ethnicity. Haman then pleaded with Esther to save his life. Seeing Haman on Esther's couch begging, the king became further enraged and had him hung on the gallows built for Mordecai. The king then appointed Mordecai as his prime minister, and gave the Jews the right to defend themselves against any enemy. The king also issued a second edict allowing the Jews to arm themselves, and kill not only their enemies but also their enemies' wives and children, as well as partake of the plunder (Esther 8:11). This precipitated a series of reprisals by the Jews against their enemies. This fight began on the 13th of Adar, the date the Jews were originally slated to be exterminated. The Jews went on to kill only their would-be executioners, and not their wives and children^{[citation needed]}, altogether eight hundred killed in Susa alone, 75,000 in the rest of the empire. The Jews also took no plunder (Esther 9:10,9:15-16).

Jews established an annual feast, the feast of Purim, in memory of their deliverance. According to traditional rabbinic dating, this took place about fifty-two years after the start of the Babylonian Exile.^{[citation needed]}

Origin and meaning[link]

According to Esther 2:7, Esther was originally named Hadassah. Hadassah means "myrtle" in Hebrew. It has been conjectured that the name Esther is derived from a reconstructed Median word astra meaning myrtle.^[5]

An alternative view is that Esther is derived from the theonym Ishtar. The Book of Daniel provides accounts of Jews in exile being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods and "Mordecai" is understood to mean servant of Marduk, a Babylonian god. "Esther" may have been a different Hebrew interpretation from the Proto-Semitic root "*?aθtar- 'morning/evening star'",^[6] which descended with the /th/ into the Ugaritic Athtiratu^[7] and Arabian Athtar.^[8] The derivation must then have been secondary for the initial ayin to be confused with an aleph (both represented by vowels in Akkadian), and the second consonant descended as a /s/ (like in the Aramaic asthr "bright star"), rather than a /sh/ as in Hebrew and most commonly in Akkadian.

Wilson, who identified Ahasuerus with Xerxes I and Vashti with Amestris, suggested that both "Amestris" and "Esther" derived from Akkadian Ammi-Ishtar or Ummi-Ishtar.^[9] Hoschander alternatively suggested Ishtar-udda-sha ("Ishtar is her light") as the origin with the possibility of -udda-sha being connected with the similarly sounding Hebrew name Hadassah. These names however remain unattested in sources, and come from the original Babylonian Empire from 2000 BCE,^{[citation needed]} not the Chaldean Empire or Persian Empire of the Book of Esther.^{[citation needed]}

The Targum^[10] connects the name with the Persian word for "star", ستاره setareh, explaining that Esther was so named for being as beautiful as the Morning Star. In the Talmud (Tractate Yoma 29a), Esther is compared to the "morning star", and is considered the subject of Psalm 22, because its introduction is a "song for the morning star".

Interpretations[link]

Esther is considered a prophet in Judaism. She is also commemorated as a matriarch in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod on May 24.

Dianne Tidball argues that while Vashti is a "feminist icon", Esther is a post-feminist icon.^[11]

Abraham Kuyper notes some "disagreeable aspects" to her character — that she should not have agreed to take Vashti's place, that she refrained from saving her nation until her own life was threatened, and that she carries out bloodthirsty vengeance.^[12]

Persian culture[link]

The Shrine of Esther and Mordechai in Hamedan, Iran

Tomb of Ester and Mordechai

Given the great historical link between Persian and Jewish history, modern day Persian Jews are called "Esther's Children". A building known as the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai is located in Hamadan, Iran,^[13][14] although the village of Kfar Bar'am in northern Israel also claims to be the burial place of Queen Esther.^[15]

Modern retelling[link]

• The Italian Renaissance poet Lucrezia Tornabuoni chose Esther as one of biblical figures on which she wrote poetry.^[16]
• In 1689, Jean Baptiste Racine wrote Esther, a tragedy, at the request of Louis XIV's wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon.
• In 1718, Handel wrote the oratorio Esther based on Racine's play.
• In 1958, a book entitled "Behold Your Queen!", was written by Gladys Malvern, and illustrated by her sister, Corinne Malvern. It was chosen as a selection of the Junior Literary Guild.
• The play entitled Esther (1960), written by Welsh dramatist Saunders Lewis, is a retelling of the story in Welsh.
• A movie about the story, Esther and the King
• 1962 musical entitled Swan Esther was written by J. Edward Oliver and Nick Munns and has been performed by the Young Vic and some amateur groups.
• A 1978 miniseries entitled The Greatest Heroes of the Bible starred Victoria Principal as Esther, Robert Mandan as Xerxes, and Michael Ansara as Haman.
• Episode 25 of the 1981 anime series Superbook involves this story.
• The novel 'Hadassah' by J. Francis Hudson (Lion Publishing 1996) integrates the Biblical narrative with ancient Greek accounts of the reign of Xerxes (Ahasuerus).
• A 1986 Israeli film directed by Amos Gitai entitled Esther.
• A 1999 TV movie from the Bible Collection that follows the biblical account very closely, Esther, starred Louise Lombard in the title role and F. Murray Abraham as Mordecai.
• In 2000, VeggieTales released "Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen."
• In May 2005 the musical Luv Esther was first shown. It is written by Ray Goudie.
• A 2006 movie about Esther and Ahasuerus, entitled One Night with the King, stars Tiffany Dupont and Luke Goss. It was based on the novel Hadassah: One Night with the King by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen.
• In the 2006 Melbourne Fringe Festival, The Backyard Bard toured a Biblical Storytelling production of 'Esther', featuring four women storytellers telling the story word-for-word from the Biblical account.
• In the anime Trinity Blood Esther is the main character, a nun with a star on her side. She is prophesied to be "the morning star" who will lead the people to peace.
• In the 2008 HBO television movie Recount, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (portrayed by Laura Dern) compares herself to Queen Esther, of whom she says "was willing to sacrifice herself to save the lovely Jewish people."
• Esther is one of the five heroines of the Order of the Eastern Star.
• Esther (opera) was composed by Hugo Weisgall.
• Debra Spark's 2009 Novel, Good for the Jews is a modern day retelling of Esther set in Madison, Wisconsin.
• On March 8, 2011, the Maccabeats released a music video called "Purim Song"^[17]
• "A Reluctant Queen" by Joan Wolf is a fictionalized re-telling of Esther's story.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Beal, Timothy K. The Book of Hiding: Gender, Ethnicity, Annihilation, and Esther. NY: Routledge, 1997. Postmodern theoretical apparatus, e.g., Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas
• Michael V. Fox Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 2001. 333 pp.
• Robin, Diana Maury, Larsen, Anne R. and Levin, Carole (2007). Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 
• Sasson, Jack M. "Esther" in Alter and Kermode, pp. 335–341, literary
• Webberley, Helen The Book of Esther in C17th Dutch Art, AAANZ National Conference, Art Gallery NSW, 2002
• Webberley, Helen Rembrandt and The Purim Story, in The Jewish Magazine, Feb 2008, [1]
• White, Sidnie Ann. "Esther: A Feminine Model for Jewish Diaspora" in Newsom

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Esther

v t e Purim / פּוּרִים Overview Gragger Purim spiel Purim Torah Purim foods Hamantash Fazuelos Kreplach Mishloach manot Historical Book of Esther Esther (rl) Haman (rl) Mordecai Ahasuerus Vashti Zeresh Religious Fast of Esther Shushan Purim Purim HaMeshulash Purim Katan

Amon Tobin
Tobin performing live in Luxembourg City
Background information
Birth name	Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin
Also known as	Cujo
Born	(1972-02-07) February 7, 1972 (age 40)
Origin	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Genres	Electronic, IDM, drum and bass, breakbeat
Occupations	DJ Producer Musician
Instruments	Synthesizers, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drums, saxophone, theremin, chapman stick, drum machine, sampler
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Ninja Tune Ninebar
Associated acts	Two Fingers, Eskamon
Website	amontobin.com

Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin (born February 7, 1972), known as Amon Tobin, is a Brazilian musician, composer and producer of electronic music.^[1] He is described as a virtuoso sound designer ^[2] and is considered to be one of the most influential electronic music artists in the world.^[3] He has released seven major studio albums since 1996 under the London-based Ninja Tune record label.

He is noted for his unusual methodology in sound design and music production. In 2007 he released Foley Room an album based entirely on the manipulation of field recordings. His latest album, 2011's ISAM, included "female" vocals made from his own voice synthesised.^[4] His music has been used in numerous major motion pictures including The Italian Job and 21. Tobin has created songs for several independent films, including the 2006 Hungarian film Taxidermia, and had his music used in other independent films such as the 2002 Cannes Palme d'Or winner Divine Intervention (Easy Muffin remixed by Bonobo). A selection of his tracks were also featured in the 2005 anime, IGPX. He has also dabbled in video game scores. In 2005, he created the musical score to Ubisoft's critically acclaimed and successful video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as well as Sucker Punch's game Infamous.

Biography[link]

Early career (1995–1997)[link]

Tobin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the age of 2, he and his family left Brazil to live in Morocco, the Netherlands, London, Portugal and Madeira.^[1] Tobin settled in Brighton, England as a teenager which remained his permanent residence until 2002.^[5] There he began producing electronic music in his bedroom with samplers and other audio equipment such as an Amstrad Studio 100 4-track,^[6] although he was "not really involved in the [music] scene" at that time.^[7] While taking an editorial photography class at a university in Brighton, he responded to a magazine promotion for the London-based Ninebar record label asking artists to send in demos of their songs. Ninebar signed Tobin to the label in 1996 after hearing his early work, and he traveled between his home in Brighton and the studios in London to produce his first official works. He also spent some time living in Montreal before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008.

Under his original moniker Cujo (in Portuguese, the word for whose), he released a series of original compositions on 12-inch vinyl.^[8] Allmusic called them "head-turning" in a review.^[9] Many of those tracks were later included on his first full-length album Adventures in Foam, originally released in 1996 by Ninebar to a limited release of 5,000 copies.^[10]

The larger Ninja Tune record label had been growing in the United Kingdom at the time with help from their successful artists such as DJ Food, Funki Porcini, The Herbaliser, and Coldcut.^[11] DJ Food and Funki Porcini noticed Tobin's work on Adventures in Foam and prompted the label to approach him. Ninja Tune signed Tobin in late 1996, this time under his abbreviated name "Amon Tobin".^[12] The official Ninja Tune website has said that Adventures in Foam had been re-released without permission by the US-based Shadow Records that same year and that this unauthorized version, labeled the "US release", included only 7 of the original songs, different cover art, and that some tracks were titled incorrectly.^[13] In 1997 Ninja Tune acquired the proper licenses from Ninebar and re-released the album themselves. This version included the original album in its entirety, and a second disc containing previously unreleased material. As of 2008, copies of Shadow Record's "US version" are still sold by online retailer Amazon.com.^[14] Over the course of its production, Adventures in Foam has been reviewed favorably. Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork Media said that its break-beat style "got totally out of hand", but that it "never fails to let the listener know who's in charge."^[15] The album was released for a fourth time in 2002, again by Ninja Tune.^[16]

Defining albums (1997–2002)[link]

	Amon Tobin "Sordid" (1998) noicon "Sordid" by Amon Tobin, from the album Permutation
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Over the next several years, Tobin released three albums. Bricolage, released in 1997, was the culmination of two projects Tobin had started after his debut album earlier that year. His third album Permutation was released in 1998. In the late 1990s, sample-based music was becoming more popular with a wide range of emerging and developing genres, but Tobin himself was still largely unknown. Tobin's style of music was not seen as definitively belonging to one genre or another.^[17] The critics that commented on Bricolage and Permutation gave them positive reviews and they are often mentioned, by later reviewers and interviewers, as classic albums of the time. Pitchfork Media acclaimed the use of jazz instrument samples, comparing him to famous composers Quincy Jones and Miles Davis.^[18] In a 1999 review, they awarded Bricolage a very rare 10/10 and said that it was "one of the most inventive records of the decade."^[15]

Tobin released his fourth album, Supermodified in 2000.^[19] The album is regarded as his most commercial album to date.^[20] Critic reviews were generally positive, with Pitchfork rating the album 9.1/10,^[21] and Stylus Magazine saying, "Not many studio-bound electronic musicians could put forward such a vivid and dynamic statement or make it as entertaining and downright funky as Supermodified has managed to do."^[22]

Montreal (2002–present)[link]

	Amon Tobin "Back From Space" (2002) noicon "Back From Space" by Amon Tobin, from the album Out From Out Where
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In 2002, Tobin relocated to Montreal, Canada where he had spent time previously at Ninja Tune's North American Headquarters.^[5] Tobin lived in the industrial area of Old Montreal to avoid noise complaints from neighbors after dark.^[23] There he produced his fifth album Out From Out Where released that same year. This was his first album created primarily in a professional studio.^[24] He later released a single, Verbal, taken from Out From Out Where.^[25] Otis Hart of Dusted Magazine said that Tobin's style of producing had come into its own. He acclaimed Tobin's "refined sense of tempo".^[26]

In January 2004, Tobin was contracted by video game company Ubisoft Montreal to compose the soundtrack for the third installment of their critically successful Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. To facilitate using the music in a video game, where the level of action or plot can change in real-time, each track was broken down by Tobin into four distinct but similar parts based on their level of intensity. The game's developers could then use each section to provide music based on the actions of the player.^[27] Despite not being an official album in Tobin's discography, it was considered a ground breaking work in the world of video game sound tracks described as "an entirely new era of media" by Tiny Mix Tapes^[28]

The album continued the trend Tobin started with Out From Out Where, as he used more field recordings during production.^[29] In addition to being included with the game, Ninja Tune released the score as an individual album in 2005, titled Chaos Theory – Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack, several months before the game's release. It was received well, benefiting from a wider audience of reviewers in both the music and gaming industries. Ben Hogwood of MusicOMH.com applauded Tobin's use of melody and texture, adding that he controlled the sounds with the "clarity of a classical orchestrator."^[30] He later recorded a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound version of the album with audio engineer Bobby Azinsky in a dedicated Solid State Logic studio in Los Angeles.^[31]

Tobin's sixth studio album, Foley Room, was released in 2007. The title alludes to the "foley rooms" used by recording engineers and foley artists to record sound effects in the movie industry. On this album, Tobin concluded his transition away from prerecorded source material that started with Out From Out Where. All of the samples used for production were recorded by himself using an omnidirectional microphone.^[32] Recorded primarily in Montreal, San Francisco, and Seattle, the samples came from a wide range of sources including motorbikes, tigers, insects, and water falling from a tap.^[33] Also contributing to the album were the string quartet Kronos Quartet, drummer Stefan Schneider, and harpist Sarah Pagé.^[34] Foley Room's use of field-recordings was used to help promote the album, including two official pre-release trailers posted to YouTube. Nate Dorr of PopMatters.com called it a "smooth, natural progression" from his work on Supermodified.^[35] The first single, "Bloodstone", was released to the iTunes Music Store months before the rest of the album. Ninja Tune also published a DVD titled Foley Room: Found Footage which documented the recording process.^[33]

In 2008, Tobin announced he was working on a new video game soundtrack for an "undisclosed PS3 title".^[36] This was later revealed to be the PlayStation 3 exclusive game, inFamous, and in 2010, Tobin announced that he would be working on the music for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction.^[37] Recent works include "Hey Mr. Tree" as a 'Bonus Joint' to accompany his earlier 'Monthly Joint' collection, a remix of Noisia's "Machine Gun" released alongside remixes by 16 Bit and Spor, and a collaboration with ESKMO dubbed Eskamon. Eskamon has released a single "Fine Objects". A new AT record has also been officially announced via www.amontobin.com, for which he is "researching and developing new production tools and techniques" and using "a whole new array of gadgetry from the past and the future".

Amon Tobin's sounds and samples are frequently used in the British car-based TV show Top Gear, and his song "Four Ton Mantis" has been used in a few of the more recent Nissan Qashqai and Juke advertisements.

Musical style and influences[link]

Tobin is best known for his use of audio manipulation techniques, where any given source material is transformed to produce a new sound.^[38] His use of this technique has changed over the course of his career. On his original singles under Ninebar and his first three albums, Tobin acquired all of the sound sources to produce music from his personal collection of vinyl records. He manipulates the sounds with a combination of audio hardware and software such as Cubase,^[39] often leaving the original source unrecognizable in its new context.^[40] The majority of his early work focused on reordering the break beats from jazz and blues music into faster more complex patterns.^[24][41] Guido Farnell of InTheMix.com, wrote about his use of this technique, saying that Tobin has "taken the art to new and dizzying heights."^[29] His fifth album Out From Out Where, began the gradual shift away from prerecorded material by incorporating original guitar samples. His techniques began branching into technical sound design, taking break beats or single instruments, modifying specific frequencies, and producing new sounds.^[42] This trend continued through his video game score Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Soundtrack, and by his sixth album, Foley Room, all of the source material was recorded in the field by himself. Speaking about the creativity of sample-based music compared to traditional instruments, he says that "creative input is not determined by your source material but in how you edit and manipulate the sounds."^[40]

Tobin experimented with various instruments. He does not come from a music family, nor has he had any formal training in music theory.^[43] About his music in general, Tobin says that he sees it as a "genuine" expression of the time he lives in, as he says that by contrast, blues, jazz, and Brazilian genres were "genuine" expressions of the 1960s.^[44] Despite his indirect connection with Brazilian genres, Tobin collaborated with a number of artists on Bebel Gilberto's 2000 bossa nova album Tanto Tempo.^[45] Tobin's albums are often compared to soundtracks,^[5] and he says that movies by David Lynch have influenced him. In addition, he has stated to like films by the Coen brothers, Dario Argento, and Roman Polanski.^[46]

Live performances[link]

Tobin performing at l'Ososphère music festival in Strasbourg

Tobin began performing live shows in clubs with other Ninja Tune artists after releasing his second album, Bricolage.^[47] His shows generally contained music that he had produced during his career, mixed with modified songs from drum and bass, hip-hop, or other genres.^[40] Because his music was entirely produced in a studio with electronics, Tobin was not interested in adapting his music to suit a Live PA incorporating musicians. He instead used turntables which he felt had more in common with his approach to music production. He is known for building Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound speaker systems for his performances.

In 2011 Tobin has developed a live show in support of the album ISAM fitting his criteria for a performance that is both live and purely electronic. He told Wired Magazine “The idea was to integrate myself, quite literally, into an audio and visual presentation of the album,”.^[48] It incorporates the use of new video mapping techniques that are projected onto a large cubic structure from which Tobin performs. The show has been met with international acclaim described by Vice Magazine's Creators Project as "revolutionizing the live music experience".^[49]

Tobin has performed individual shows in many countries including tours in Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States. His 2003 live performance in Melbourne, Australia was used for the fourth album in Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series because Tobin was not available to record a studio mix at the time.^[31] Many songs from the original recording were omitted because of copyright issues with the original artists, including the R&B group Destiny's Child.^[50]

A second Solid Steel album called Foley Room Recorded Live In Brussels was recorded in Brussels at the Ancienne Belgique in 2007 and was released for free in November 2008. According to Tobin's official website, "After months of back and forth and despite everyone’s best efforts the mix was in danger of being edited into the ground to accommodate big labels and publishers. Rather than release a compromised version commercially, the decision was made to give it away for free instead."^[51]

Discography[link]

Tobin has released eight major studio albums:

• 1996: Adventures in Foam
• 1997: Bricolage
• 1998: Permutation
• 2000: Supermodified
• 2002: Out From Out Where
• 2005: Chaos Theory – Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack
• 2007: Foley Room
• 2011: ISAM

In addition, his body of work includes 21 extended play (EP) albums which contain several B-sides each, a live album for Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series, new material for various compilation albums, and original tracks available as free downloads on his website.^[52][53]

Tobin's music has been used in several major motion pictures including The Italian Job and 21.^[54][55] He has also produced tracks for a number of independent films, such as The Last Minute,^[56] and has created production music for the BMG Zomba commercial library which is used in various films.^[57] In 2006 he scored the soundtrack for the Hungarian horror film Taxidermia which was made available on his website.^[58] He also produced the score for the 2009 documentary Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space.^[59]

In 2006 he began collaborating on a hip-hop oriented project with drum & bass/jungle producer Doubleclick and a number of guest vocalists. Under the name Two Fingers, the pair have released several singles^[29] followed by their self-titled debut album in 2009.

In April 2010, a small body of work Tobin composed and produced for the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction was available for streaming on his website.^[60]

In January 2011, his artist page was updated on Ninja Tune's official website, announcing a new album in 2011, called ISAM, as well as a Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory remix album. Later, the official Ping Pong Facebook page suggested that ISAM would be released on May 9, 2011. After being leaked by a journalist with a press copy of the album, ISAM was instead released on April 20, 2011.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official Amon Tobin Website
• Official Two Fingers Website
• Official Amon Tobin page at Ninja Tune website
• Amon Tobin discography at Discogs
• Amon Tobin at Allmusic
• Amon Tobin at rolldabeats
• Amon Tobin career retrospective article at PopMatters
• Video on the Infamous Soundtrack

Esther Williams
from the trailer for Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
Born	Esther Jane Williams (1921-08-08) August 8, 1921 (age 90) Inglewood, California
Occupation	Actress/Swimmer
Years active	1942-1963
Spouse	Leonard Kovner (m.1940-1944; divorced) Ben Gage (m.1945-1959; divorced) Fernando Lamas (m.1969-1982; his death) Edward Bell (m.1994-present)
Website
http://www.esther-williams.com/

Esther Jane Williams (born August 8, 1921 [although some sources cite 1922])^{[1][2] [3]} is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star.

Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, Williams joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. There, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic swimmer and Tarzan star, Johnny Weissmuller.^[4]

It was at the Aquacade that Williams caught the attention of MGM scouts. After appearing in several small roles, alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and future five time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronized swimming and diving.

From 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film listed among the 20 highest grossing films of the year.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which would go on to become her nickname while at MGM.^[10] Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.

Since her retirement from film in the 1960s, Williams has become a businesswoman, lending her name to a line of swimming pools and retro swimwear, instructional swimming videos for children, and serving as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. As of 2011 Williams lives with her fourth husband, Edward Bell, in Beverly Hills.

Early years[link]

Born in Inglewood, California, Williams was the fifth and youngest child of Louis Stanton Williams (January 19, 1886  – June 10, 1968) and Bula Myrtle (née Gilpin; October 8, 1885 – 1975).^[11] Louis Williams was a sign painter and Bula Williams was a psychologist. The two lived on neighboring farms in Kansas and carried on a nine year courtship until June 1, 1908, when they eloped and set off for California. However, they ran out of money in Salt Lake City, Utah, and settled there. Williams's brother, Stanton (September 4, 1912 – March 3, 1929) was discovered by actress Marjorie Rambeau, which led to the family (including sisters Maurine and June and brother David) moving to the Los Angeles area to be near the studios. Louis Williams purchased a small piece of land in southwest area of town, and had a small house built there. Esther was born in the living room, which was also where the family slept until Louis Williams was able to add bedrooms. In 1929, Stanton Williams died after his colon burst.^[12]

In 1935, Bula Williams invited 16-year-old Buddy McClure to live with her family. McClure had recently lost his mother and Mrs Williams was still grieving over the death of her son. Esther recounted in her autobiography that one night, when the rest of the family was visiting relatives in Alhambra, McClure raped her. She was terrified to tell anyone about the incident and waited two years before finally revealing the truth to her parents. They seemed unsure about her story, claiming McClure was "sensitive" and were sympathetic towards him when he admitted his guilt. After Williams stood up to him and banished him from her home, McClure joined the Coast Guard, and Williams never saw him again.^[13]

Swimming star[link]

Williams at the L.A. Athletic Club in 1939.

Williams was enthusiastic about swimming in her youth. Her older sister, Maurine, took her to Manhattan Beach and to the local pool.

She took a job counting towels at the pool to pay the five cent entry fee, and while there, had swimming lessons from the male lifeguards. From them, she learned the 'male only' swimming strokes, including the butterfly breaststroke, with which she would later break records.^[14]

Her medley team set the record for the 300-yard relay at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1939,^[15] and was also National AAU champion in the 100 meter freestyle, with a record-breaking time of 1 minute 0.09 seconds.^[16] By age 16, Williams had won three U.S. National championships in breaststroke and freestyle swimming.^[17] Williams planned to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics but it was cancelled because of the outbreak of World War II.

Williams graduated from Washington Preparatory High School in 1939, where she served as class Vice President, and later President.^[18][19][20] However, Williams never trained in swimming while there.^[21]

During her senior year of high school, Williams received a D in her algebra course, preventing her from getting a scholarship from the University of Southern California.^[22] She enrolled in Los Angeles City College to retake the course. In 1939, Williams expressed interest in pursuing a degree in physical education in order to teach it one day.^[21] To earn money to pay tuition, Williams took a job as a stock girl at I. Magnin department store, where she also modelled clothing for customers and appeared in newspaper advertisements.^[23]

While Williams was working at I. Magnin, she was contacted by Billy Rose's assistant and asked to audition as a replacement for Eleanor Holm in his Aquacade show. Williams impressed Rose, and she got the role.^[4][24] The Aquacade was part of the Golden Gate International Exposition, and Williams was partnered with Olympic swimmer and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller,^[25] who, as Williams wrote in her autobiography, repeatedly tried to seduce her during the show's run. Despite this, Williams remained with the show until it closed on September 29, 1940.^[26]

Film career[link]

It was at Aquacade that Williams first attracted attention from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts. MGM's head, Louis B. Mayer, had been looking for a female sports star for the studio to compete with Fox's figure skating star, Sonja Henie.^[27] Williams signed her contract with MGM in 1941.^[28]

In her contract were two clauses: the first being that she receive a guest pass to The Beverly Hills Hotel where she could swim in the pool every day, and the second that she would not appear on camera for nine months to allow for acting, singing, dancing and diction lessons. Williams wrote in her autobiography, "If it took nine months for a baby to be born, I figured my 'birth' from Esther Williams the swimmer to Esther Williams the movie actress would not be much different."^[29]

A pin-up of Williams from a 1945 issue of Yank, the Army Weekly.

While top stars at the studios such as Judy Garland, Betty Grable and Shirley Temple took part in bond tours during the war, Williams was asked to take in hospital tours. At this point, Williams had achieved pin-up status because of the number of photographs of her in bathing suits.^[30] To prepare, Williams and her publicity assistant would listen to Bob Hope and Jack Benny's radio programs, retelling the funniest jokes while at the hospitals. Williams also invited GIs to dance with her on stage and take part in mock screen tests. The men would receive a card telling them their lines, and they would act out the scene in front of the other soldiers. These tests were always romantic scenes and included Williams begging the men to make love to her character, to which they were required to refuse ... multiple times. When the men said the final, "No," Williams would pull at her tear-away skirt and sweater leaving nothing but a gold lamé swimsuit. The scenes would always end with the men giving in and kissing her after that stunt. Her hospital tours continued into the 1950s.^[31][32] A (forged) signed, waterproof portrait of Williams was circulated among men in the US Navy for a "capture the Esther" competition.^[18] This competition continues to this day in the Royal Australian Navy, which holds in its archives an 'original' forged signed portrait while maintaining a 'capturable' image for use in the fleet.

1940s[link]

Three weeks after signing her contract, George Sidney directed William's first screen test. The studio was impressed, and when Lana Turner eloped with Artie Shaw, Williams screen tested with the leading man Clark Gable, for the film Somewhere I'll Find You.^[33] However, Turner divorced Shaw after four months of marriage, and rejoined the cast of the film.^[34] Following several short subject films, Williams appeared as Sheila Brooks in Andy Hardy's Double Life. Sheila was a coed with whom Andy falls in love.^[35][36] Next was a small part in the film A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne. It was here that she first worked with Van Johnson- later partnering in five films.^[37]

Bathing Beauty, previously titled Mr. Coed, starred Red Skelton as a man who enrolls in a women's college to win back his swimming instructor fiancee, played by Williams. This was her first Technicolor musical. The studio changed the title of the film to showcase Williams. Almost all of the film's posters featured Williams in a bathing suit, though the swimming sequences make up a small portion of the film. Her date to the premiere at the Astor Theater in New York City was future husband Ben Gage. For the event, MGM publicity set up a six story-tall billboard of Williams diving into Times Square with a large sign that said "Come on in! The story's fine!"^[38]

Williams appeared in the film Ziegfeld Follies as herself. This was followed by the musical Thrill of a Romance. Van Johnson co-starred as a decorated war veteran who falls in love with Williams while on her honeymoon. Thrill of a Romance was the 8th highest grossing film of 1945.^[5] Williams had to help Johnson swim, and she placed her hand under his back to keep him afloat. The studio's publicity department tried to put the two together in public as much as possible in the hopes of encouraging a romance, even though Williams was involved with Gage at the time. When asked why they didn't date, Johnson replied, "because I'm afraid she can't get her webbed feet into a pair of evening sandals."

Williams tried a more serious role in 1946's The Hoodlum Saint, with William Powell. Audiences expected Powell's Nick Charles persona and rejected the idea of a romance between Williams and Powell onscreen.^[39] She also appeared in Easy to Wed, a remake of 1936's Libeled Lady, with Johnson and Lucille Ball.

Williams as Maria in Fiesta

Fiesta (originally called Fiesta Brava)^[40] starred Williams as Ricardo Montalbán's twin sister, Maria, who pretends to be her bullfighting brother in hopes of luring him back home. Audiences, and Williams, thought the film was silly as Williams and Montalbán had vastly different accents. Montalbán was born in Mexico and was a native Spanish speaker while Williams had a midwestern accent picked up from her Kansas-born parents. Production was difficult with a multitude of problems. By 1947, Gage and Williams were married and Gage had traveled to Mexico for the making of the film. He got into a fight with an employee of the cast's hotel, was arrested, and subsequently thrown out of the country.^[41]The director of photography, Sidney Wagner, and one other crew member died of cholera from eating contaminated street food. Many of the film's stuntmen were sent to the hospital after being gored by bulls. Director Dick Thorpe hadn't wanted the bulls killed (as they usually were at the end of a bullfight) because he believed them to be too expensive to replace.^[42]

After filming was completed on Fiesta, Williams appeared in the romance film This Time for Keeps with singer Johnnie Johnston. In 1948, Williams signed a contract with swimwear company Cole of California to appear as their spokesperson. Because of this, Williams and the other swimmers in her films wear Cole swimsuits. Since the aqua-musicals were an entirely new genre, the studio's costume designers had little experience creating practical swimsuits.^[43] William's plaid flannel swimsuit for Thrill of a Romance was so heavy that she was dragged to the bottom of the pool, and had to unzip the suit, swimming naked to the edge of the pool to avoid drowning. Cole swimsuits used latex, which meant zippers were no longer necessary. While filming 1952's Skirts Ahoy, Williams discovered that members of the WAVES program received thin, cotton, shapeless swimsuits as part of their uniforms. Williams modeled a Cole swimsuit for the Secretary of the Navy and explained that the new swimsuits helped support women's figures. The United States Navy ordered 50,000 suits immediately.^[44]

In 1949, Williams began filming Take Me Out to the Ball Game.. It was a period musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra as players on a baseball team owned by Williams's character, K.C. Higgins. In her autobiography, she described filming as "pure misery," claiming that Kelly and writer Stanley Donen treated her with contempt and went out of their way to make jokes at her expense. The film was well-received critically and became a major commercial success, raking in $3.4 million in rentals and becoming the 11th highest earning film of the year.^[9] Williams also made Neptune's Daughter that year, co-starring Ricardo Montalbán, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett, who had also been in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. ^[45] In the film, Williams sings the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Montalbán. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 22nd Academy Awards. Williams and Montalbán were originally slated to sing "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China", but studio censors thought the song was too sexual (interpreting the word "get" as "have") and instead gave them "Baby, It's Cold Outside".^[46] Neptune's Daughter went on to be the 10th highest grossing film of 1949.^[9]

1950s[link]

Williams as Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid.

In 1952's Million Dollar Mermaid, Williams played Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimming and diving star. Williams co-starred with Victor Mature, who played Kellerman's husband and manager, James Sullivan. The two engaged in a passionate affair during filming. Williams has often called this her favorite film, and named her autobiography after it.^[47] Williams also won the Henrietta Award at the 1952 Golden Globes, for World Film Favorite – Female.^[48]

1953's Easy to Love (also with Van Johnson) was filmed on location in Cypress Gardens, where a Florida-shaped pool had been built specifically for the film. Williams was pregnant during shooting, but still performed her own waterskiing stunts.^[49]

In Dangerous When Wet, Williams worked with three important males – Tom and Jerry and future husband Fernando Lamas. During casting, Lamas told Williams he did not want to star in the film with her because he only wanted to be involved in "important pictures". His part had to be rewritten to convince him to take part in the film.

Williams then made Duchess of Idaho, shot on location in Sun Valley, Idaho, co-starring Van Johnson.^[50] MGM next paired her with Howard Keel for two films, Pagan Love Song and Jupiter's Darling. They both had cameos in the film Callaway Went Thataway.^[51]

In 1953, Williams had been on maternity leave for three months while pregnant with daughter Susan, and had assumed that she would get straight to work on the film Athena when she got back.^[52] However, production started without her, and the studio cast Jane Powell in the lead role,^[53] rewriting much of the premise that Williams and writers Leo Pogostin and Chuck Walters had come up with. The studio moved her to Jupiter's Darling. Two more films were planned, Bermuda Encounter and Olympic Venus, about the first Olympic swimmers, however, these were never made.^[54][55][56]

Many of her MGM films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid and Jupiter's Darling, contained elaborately staged synchronized swimming scenes, with considerable risk to Williams. She broke her neck filming a 115 ft dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for the film Million Dollar Mermaid which landed her in a body cast for seven months. She subsequently recovered, though still suffers headaches as a result of the accident. Her many hours spent submerged in a studio tank resulted in ruptured eardrums numerous times. She also nearly drowned after not being able to find the trap door in the ceiling of a tank. The walls and ceiling were painted black and the trap door blended in. Williams was pulled out only because a member of the crew realized the door wasn't opening.

After MGM[link]

After 15 years of appearing in films, Williams was threatened with contract suspension from MGM after refusing to play the lead role in the 1956 film The Opposite Sex, a musical remake of 1939's The Women. The role of Mary would have been rewritten to be an aquacade star (and was eventually filled by June Allyson as "Kay", a nightclub singer). Williams redecorated her dressing room to accommodate returning star Grace Kelly, packed her terry cloth robes and swimsuits and drove off the studio lot.

As a result of leaving her contract, Williams lost almost $3 million in deferred contract payments, which had been taken from her paychecks over the previous 14 years and put aside as both a nest egg and a tax dodge. She was, however, still able to collect on the $50,000 signing bonus from when she first signed her contract.^[57]

In 1956, she moved to Universal International and appeared in a non-musical dramatic film, The Unguarded Moment. After that, her film career slowly wound down. She later admitted that husband Fernando Lamas preferred her not to continue in films. She would, however, make occasional appearances on television, including mystery guest appearances for What's My Line?, The Ed Sullivan Show and two aqua-specials, The Esther Williams Aqua Spectacle in 1956 and Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens on August 8, 1960.^[58] More than half of all television sets in use in the United States were tuned in to watch the Cypress Gardens special.^[59] She also starred in an aqua-special in Wembley Stadium.^[10]

In 1966, Williams was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.^[17]

A Republican, Williams made an appearance at the 1953 Republican Rally^[60].

Later years[link]

Williams retired from acting in the early 1960s and currently lends her name to a line of retro women's swimwear. "Women worldwide are fighting a thing called gravity," said Williams. "I say to women when I talk to them, You girls of 18 have until about 25, 30 at the most, and then you have to report to me. My suits are quality fabric."^[46] "I put you in a suit that contains you and you will swim in. I don't want you to be in two Dixie cups and a fish line."^[61]

She is also the namesake of a company that manufactures swimming pools and swimming pool accessories. She came out with a line of Swim, Baby, Swim videos, which helped parents teach their children how to swim. She also appeared as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Williams met her fourth husband as a result of his calling her to coordinate her appearance.^[46] She co-wrote her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999) with popular media critic and author Digby Diehl.^[47]

In a 2007 interview with Diane Sawyer, Williams admitted that she had recently had a stroke. "I opened my eyes and I could see, but I couldn't remember anything from the past", she said. She has been recovering since then.^[62]

In June 2008, Williams went to the funeral of Cyd Charisse in a wheelchair.^[63]

In April 2010, Williams appeared at the first Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, California, alongside two time co-star Betty Garrett.^[64] Her 1949 film Neptune's Daughter was screened at the pool of the Roosevelt Hotel, along with a performance of the Williams-inspired synchronized swimming troupe, The Waterlilies.^[65][66] South Beach Miami's 2010 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swim, a showcase of designer swimwear, included an Esther Williams suite, complete with a beach summer theme and sand palette with aqua accents.^[67]

Personal life[link]

Marriages[link]

Williams has been married four times. She met her first husband Leonard Kovner while attending Los Angeles City College. She later wrote in her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid that "he was smart, handsome, dependable...and dull. I respected his intelligence, and his dedication to a future career in medicine. He loved me, or so he said, and even asked me to marry him." They were married in the San Francisco suburb of Los Altos on June 27, 1940.^[68][69][70] On their split she said "I found, much to my relief, that all I needed for my emotional and personal security was my own resolve and determination. I didn't need a marriage and a ring. I had come to realize all too quickly that Leonard Kovner was not a man I could ever really love."^[71] They divorced on September 12, 1944.^[70][72]

She married singer/actor Ben Gage on November 25, 1945;^[73][74] they had three children, Benjamin Stanton (born August 6, 1949),^[41][75] Kimball Austin (October 30, 1950 – May 6, 2008)^[76] and Susan Tenney (born October 1, 1953).^[77] In her autobiography, she portrayed Gage as an alcoholic parasite who squandered $10 million of her earnings. Gage and Williams separated in 1952,^[78] and divorced in April 1959.^[79]

While Williams was pregnant with her first child, Ben, Williams reduced her amount of water exercise, but began working with a program that taught blind children how to swim.

During her filming of Pagan Love Song in Hawaii, Williams found out she was pregnant with her third child, and she needed to notify the studio back in California. Gage had met a man at the hotel who owned a ham radio and convinced the man to let them use it to call California. What they failed to realize at the time, though, was that anyone could be listening in on their conversation, and news of her pregnancy was broadcast to the entire West Coast.^[80]

She also disclosed in her autobiography that she had a passionate affair with actor Victor Mature while they were working on Million Dollar Mermaid, citing that at the time her marriage was in trouble and, feeling lonely, she turned to Mature for love and affection, and he gave her all she wanted. The affair stopped while Williams was recovering from her fall during the shooting of Million Dollar Mermaid. She was romantically linked with Jeff Chandler. She claims in her autiobiography Chandler was a cross dresser and she broke off the relationship. ^[81] According to the Los Angeles Times, many friends and colleagues of Chandler's refuted Williams' claims. Jane Russell commented, "I've never heard of such a thing. Cross-dressing is the last thing I would expect of Jeff. He was a sweet guy, definitely all man."^[82]

She then married former lover, Argentine actor/director, Fernando Lamas on December 31, 1969. For 22 years, she lived in total submission to him, where she had to stop being "Esther Williams" and could not have her children live with her. In return, he would be faithful.^[46][83] They were married until his death from pancreatic cancer on October 8, 1982.^[84]

She currently resides in Beverly Hills with actor husband Edward Bell, whom she married on October 24, 1994.^[85]

LSD[link]

In September 1959, Cary Grant confessed to Look magazine that he had taken LSD under a doctor's supervision, and it had changed his life. Grant's therapist, Dr. Mortimer Hartman, described LSD as "a psychic energizer which empties the subconscious and intensifies emotion and memory a thousand times." Grant said that, with the help of LSD, he had "found that [he] had a tough inner core of strength," and that when he was young, he "was very dependent upon older men and women. Now, people [came] to [him] for help." Williams stated that she wanted to be one of those people. As she said in Million Dollar Mermaid, "At that point, I really didn’t know who I was. Was I that glamorous femme fatale?… Was I just another broken-down divorcée whose husband left her with all the bills and three kids?” Shortly after reading the article, she contacted Grant. He called his doctor and made an appointment for her. Williams said that LSD seemed like instant psychoanalysis, and allowed her insight into why she had taken on the role of the older brother, Stanton.^[86][87]

Tributes[link]

In 2000 Esther Williams' life and career was portrayed in the Swedish book Esther Williams — Skenbiografin (i.E ~ "Esther Williams — The Fake Biography") by Jane Magnusson;^[88] where the author shares with the readers her own fascination for art swimming as a genre and, here, in particular, Williams as — to the author — both a bewildering and mesmerizing front figure and icon in this field.^[89]

There has been a resurgence of interest in the work of Esther Williams and her legacy typified by the Los Angeles based, water ballet dance company Aqualillies,^[90] and TCM surrounding the release of Million Dollar Mermaid on TCM and more recently for her 90th birthday for which Aqualillies released a tribute video.

Filmography[link]

Short Subjects

• Personalities (1942)
• Inflation (1942)
• Some of the Best (1949)
• 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood, City of Stars (1956)

Box Office Rankings[link]

At the height of her career, Williams was frequently ranked by exhibitors among the most popular stars in the US and Canada.