A minaret (Turkish: minare, from Arabic manārah (lighthouse)مناره, sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery. Styles vary regionally and by period. Minarets provide a visual focal point and are used for the call to prayer (adhan).

As well as providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the main function of the minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer is made. The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhan is called from the musallah, or prayer hall, via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret. Minarets also function as air conditioning mechanisms: as the sun heats the dome, air is drawn in through open windows then up and out of the minaret, thereby providing natural ventilation.^{[citation needed]}

Tomáš Klus (born May 15, 1986) is a Czech musician and songwriter from the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic.

Klus was born in the industrial town of Třinec, where he spent most of his childhood. Both his parents were folk music fans, taking Tomáš with them to many different concerts and music festivals. Growing up he was heavily influenced by musicians Karel Plíhal, Karel Kryl and Jaromír Nohavica who were a big inspiration to the young Tomáš, especially Nohavica, who remains one of his favourite musicians, and whose style his own closely resembles.

Klus won a gold medal with his team in 2002 in modern pentathlon on a European championship, but became more interested in performance art and music after moving to Prague, where he initially moved aged 15 to pursue a sporting career.

In 2007 he was the winner of the Czech Talent Zlín competition.

In 2008 he released his debut album, Cesta do záhu(d)by. The single "Do Nebe," featured in the album, was played on Czech Radio previous to the album release. He also produced music for Czech film Anglické jahody ("English Strawberries").

Erik Truffaz (born 1960 in Switzerland) is a Swiss-born French jazz trumpeter, infusing elements of hip hop, rock and roll and dance music into his compositions. He signed with the French EMI label in 1996. Truffaz gained international attention with his second album on Blue Note, The Dawn, produced together with Pat Muller, Marcello Giuliani and Mark Erbetta. Since then they have produced many Blue Note albums together such as Bending New Corners, which became a Silver Album in France. The 2007 release Arkhangelsk is a mixture of pop songs, French chanson, and jazz-groove. In 2007 he and Ed Harcourt appeared in a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon.

John Vanderslice (born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician and songwriter. Previously a member of the band Mk Ultra, he now records and performs as a solo artist.

Vanderslice grew up in Florida and Georgia, before his family moved to Maryland when he was 11. After playing in several bands in his teenage years, he spent five years as a member of the experimental pop band MK Ultra, with whom he released three albums in the 1990s.

During this period, he also founded a recording studio, Tiny Telephone, in the Mission District of San Francisco. Established in 1997, the studio was initially used as a rehearsal space before being developed as a full-time, all-analog recording studio. Bands who have recorded in the studio include Death Cab for Cutie, Okkervil River, Deerhoof, The Magnetic Fields, and Spoon.

In 2000, Vanderslice released his first solo album, Mass Suicide Occult Figurines, and briefly gained some national media attention for the single "Bill Gates Must Die" after concocting a hoax in which Microsoft supposedly threatened legal action over the song; Vanderslice then however had trouble manufacturing the CD because the artwork resembled that of a Windows installation disc, and at least one manufacturer was wary of legal action. During the controversy, he was interviewed by Spin, Wired, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Issey Miyake (三宅 一生, Miyake Issei^?, born 22 April 1938) is a Japanese fashion designer. He is known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.

Miyake was born 22 April 1938 in Hiroshima, Japan. As a seven year-old, he witnessed and survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. He studied graphic design at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, graduating in 1964. After graduation, he worked in Paris and New York City. Returning to Tokyo in 1970, he founded the Miyake Design Studio, a high-end producer of women's fashion.

In the late 1980s, he began to experiment with new methods of pleating that would allow both flexibility of movement for the wearer as well as ease of care and production. This eventually resulted in a new technique called garment pleating in 1993's Pleats Please in which the garments are cut and sewn first, then sandwiched between layers of paper and fed into a heat press, where they are pleated. The fabric's 'memory' holds the pleats and when the garments are liberated from their paper cocoon, they are ready-to wear. He did the costume for Ballett Frankfurt with pleats in a piece named "the Loss of Small Detail" William Forsythe and also work on ballet "Garden in the setting".