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]}

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.