Stephen

Stephen or Steven /ˈstiːvən/ is a masculine first name, derived from the Greek name Στέφανος (Stéfanos), in turn from the Greek word "στέφανος", meaning "wreath, crown, honour, reward", literally "that which surrounds or encompasses". In ancient Greece, a wreath was given to the winner of a contest (from which the crown, symbol of rulers derived). The use of the noun was first recorded in Homer's Iliad. The name is significant to Christians: according to the Book of Acts in the New Testament, Saint Stephen was a deacon who was stoned to death and is regarded as the first Christian martyr. The name has many variants, which include Stephan, Stevan, Stefan and Stevon.

In Middle English, the name Stephen or Stephan was pronounced as a bi-syllabic word — Step-hen or Step-han — much like a Scandinavian surname. Steve was pronounced as it is in Modern English. This etymological usage began a decline in the mid-19th century.

Steve is the common short form, while various diminutives such as Stevie and Ste are also used. Many family names are derived from Stephen: the most common are Stephens/Stevens and Stephenson/Stevenson (others include Stephen, Stephan, Staphan, Stefan, Stevin and Stever).

Kamasi Washington

Kamasi Washington (born February 18, 1981) is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, production editor and band leader. Washington is mainly known for his tenor playing.

Background

Washington was born in Los Angeles, California, United States, to musical parents and educators, and was raised in Inglewood, California. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music of Alexander Hamilton High School (Los Angeles) in the Beverlywood neighborhood. Washington next enrolled in UCLA's Department of Ethnomusicology. There, he began playing with numerous faculty members such as Kenny Burrell, Billy Higgins and band leader and trumpeter Gerald Wilson and released the Young Jazz Giants album in 2004. He has since played along with a musically diverse group of musicians including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Horace Tapscott, Gerald Wilson, Lauryn Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Francisco Aguabella, the Pan Afrikaan People's Orchestra and Raphael Saadiq. Washington played saxophone on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly and released a solo album, The Epic in 2015.

Thundercat

Thundercat was originally the name of a series of snowmobiles produced by Arctic Cat from 1993 to 2002. In 2007, Arctic Cat re-introduced the name for a line of all-terrain vehicles.

Description

The Thundercat series has counterbalanced big-bore case-reed triple cylinder engines available in 900 (1993-1997) or 1000 (1998-2002) cc sizes, which produced up to 175 horsepower. The engines came factory with triple tuned pipes, 38mm Mikuni Carburetors (VM Roundslide 93-99, TM Flatslide 00-02) and forged pistons. The Thundercat has since been replaced by the ZR900 in 2003 and in 2007 was replaced by the F1000 as the companies top performing model. The Arctic Cat Thundercat is a two stroke three-cylinder snowmobile which shares similar engine and performance characteristics with the Arctic Cat ZRT 800, Polaris XCR 800, and the Skidoo Mach Z 800 of the 1990's to early 2000's era.

To this day, there are very few snowmobiles from any brand that can come close to the speed and performance of the Thundercat in stock form. The Thundercat set the NSSR 1000' stock class speed run record every year it was in production, a record that is still held by a 1998 Thundercat 1000 to this day, 120.1mph.

Ronald Bruner, Jr.

Ronald Bruner, Jr., is a Grammy Award-winning drummer, composer and producer.

Early life

Bruner has been playing the drums since the age of two. His earliest influence was his father, Ronald Bruner, Sr., a world class drummer who has performed and recorded with Diana Ross, The Temptations, Randy Crawford, and Gladys Knight. He is the older brother of bassist Thundercat and Jameel Bruner of The Internet.

Professional career

Bruner began his professional career at the age of 15, at the Thelonious Monk Institute, which opened the door for him to perform with many great artists such as Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, and Ron Carter. A few years later he became a regular member of Kenny Garrett's band. Over the years his style has diversified, including hardcore punk/crossover thrash with the band Suicidal Tendencies.

His other extensive credits already include Lee Ritenour, Roy Hargrove, Tribal Tech, Larry Carlton, Marcus Miller, George Duke, Kirk Whalum, Robben Ford, Patrice Rushen, Clark Terry, Stanley Clarke, Johnny Hodges, Gerald Albright, Allan Holdsworth and experimental Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus. Ronald is currently working with Grammy winning producer/engineer Dennis MacKay on his first solo album.

Written By

Written By (simplified Chinese: 再生号; traditional Chinese: 再生號) is a 2009 Hong Kong fantasy drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Wai Ka-Fai, and starring Lau Ching-Wan and Kelly Lin. Lau plays a lawyer who is killed in an accident, leaving behind his wife, daughter, and son. He is resurrected as a character in his daughter's novel, where he finds himself a grieving husband who lost his family and his sight during a car accident, living in an alternate reality. The film premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival in June 2009, and was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 10 July 2009.

Plot

"Lau Ching-Wan plays a lawyer who dies in a car wreck just before answering his daughters question about ghosts, leaving behind his wife, daughter and son. To console herself, his daughter (blind from the crash) writes a novel where she, her mother and brother have died in a car wreck but her father(but blind) has survived. To her surprise, the character of her father in her book decides that HE needs to write a novel to console himself and in his novel he has died but his wife and daughter have lived...and on and on in an endlessly recursive loop, as wounded characters desperately apply fiction to try and dull the sharp edges of their grief."