Auckland Town Hall is a historic building on Queen Street in the Auckland CBD, New Zealand, known both for its original and ongoing use for administrative functions, as well as its famed Great Hall and separate Concert Chamber. Auckland Town Hall and its surrounding context is protected as a'Category A' heritage site in the Auckland District Plan. Opened on 14 December 1911 by Lord Islington, Governor of New Zealand, the building is one of the most prominent heritage structures on Queen Street. Costing £126,000 to construct, it was designed by Australian architects, JJ & EJ Clarke, their Italian Renaissance Revival building design being selected from among 46 proposals; the five-storey building was specially designed to fit the wedge-shaped piece of land, acquired for it in the 1870s at the junction of Queen Street and Grey Street. It bears a striking resemblance to the Lambeth Town Hall at Brixton, built at around the same time; the Town Hall formed Auckland's first permanent seat of both administration and entertainment in the city's history, with its Great Hall modelled on the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, considered as having among the finest acoustics in the world.

The exterior is constructed of two types of stone. Oamaru limestone from the south island was used for the upper part of the building; the lower part is assumed to be Auckland basalt but was sourced from Melbourne, in Australia. This was due to the architects having a history of sourcing good quality stone from the quarries there, as well as the availability of heavy duty steam saws to handle the notoriously difficult stone; the interior contains several varieties of English ceramic surfaces - tessellated floors and glazed ceramic wall tiles. The semi-circular Council Chamber is fitted with wood panelling and Art-Nouveau-style electric light fittings, while stained glass is a feature of all the main rooms; the ceilings throughout all the main floors are ornamented with good quality plasterwork, the Great Chamber being the most elaborate. The great four-sided clock in the building's tower was donated by Arthur Myers and the Great Hall's pipe organ by Sir Henry Brett; the Town Hall project was championed by Myers before and during his time as mayor, one of his last acts in office was to lay the foundation stone.

The Town Hall's interior was extensively restored from 1994–1997 at a cost of NZ$33 million because the unreinforced masonry structure did not meet earthquake standards. Australian engineering firm Sinclair Knight Merz pioneered various techniques to reinforce the structure without changing the heritage character of the building. In 2007, the exterior underwent additional restoration work. A number of ornamental details on the exterior had been removed in the 1950s due to earthquake concerns, some of the Oamaru limestone was damaged during aggressive stone cleaning. After careful research and analysis, these were replaced by limestone sourced from the same levels of the North Otago quarry that provided the original stone. Interior acoustic performance was corrected by the removal of earlier ill-judged and obtrusive intervention measures and their replacement by less-visible and more effective treatments. Interior paintwork was restored throughout to the original Edwardian-era colours. Complex fragmented porcelain and glazed ceramic tiling was restored with exact, new purpose-made replicas in the lavish main entrance foyer.

The original carpet was recreated. The stained glass windows were restored and and the entire building was unobtrusively fire protected; the Town Hall Organ, dating from 1911, is the largest musical instrument in the country, is itself a'Protected Object' in New Zealand law. It was extensively remodelled in 1969–1970 when the organ reform movement reached New Zealand altering and reducing its original Romantic-era power, discarding many parts of the original, adding new ones to produce a then-fashionable Baroque sound; the resulting compromised instrument was dismantled in January 2008 for rebuilding. The rebuilt organ, incorporating remaining parts of the 1911 original, some recovered components, new elements, was built by Orgelbau Klais of Bonn, Germany, it returned to the Great Hall at the end of 2008, was reassembled as the country's largest, organ. Auckland City had committed itself to providing NZ$3 million to the restoration project, with a $500,000 remainder obtained via private fundraising.

The restored organ was unveiled on 21 March 2010, with a specially commissioned symphony. In early February 2016, the administration staff of New Zealand's largest metropolitan orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, moved into the vacant former mayoral office suite, making Auckland Town Hall, where the orchestra performs, its new home. Auckland Town Hall "Auckland Town Hall". Register of Historic Places. Heritage New Zealand. Photographs of Auckland Town Hall held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections

Rise and Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story is a 1994 American drama film directed by Michael Dinner and written by Sally Nemeth, John Miglis and Mark Levin. It is based on the 1993 book Rise and Walk: The Trial and Triumph of Dennis Byrd by Dennis Byrd and Mike D'Orso; the film stars Peter Berg, Kathryn Morris, Wolfgang Bodison, Johann Carlo, Steve Fitchpatrick and Patrick Warburton. The film premiered on Fox on February 28, 1994. Peter Berg as Dennis Byrd Kathryn Morris as Angela Wolfgang Bodison as Marvin Washington Johann Carlo as Joanne Steve Fitchpatrick as Jeff Lageman Patrick Warburton as Scott Mersereau Carrie Snodgress as Mrs. Byrd Zakes Mokae as Harding Steven Anderson William Forward Dennis Howard Allan Royal Richie Allan Bert Remsen as Mr. Robinson Dan Lauria as The Coach James Troesh as Mr. Montrose Ryan Slater as Young Dennis Brent O'Plotnik as Young Doug Jay Michael Ferguson as Young Danny Johnny Judkins as Doug David Harrod as Danny McKenzie Smith as Ashtin Matthew Tompkins as Eddie David Eversole as Tulsa Coach Juli Erickson as Grandma Larry Flynn as Cooley Mitch Jelniker as Mike Jacklin Reverend McNabb as Himself Walker Randall as Darnell Allan Graf as Jets Assistant Coach David Allen as Lineman Reese Morrison as Kansas City QB Ryan Phillips as Tulsa Defensive Capt. Keith Warrior as Tulsa Quarterback Nathan Wooten as Dodson William Pulley as Angela's Father Wanda Wooley as Angela's Mother Rise and Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story on IMDb

Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon is a woodcut of 1498 by Albrecht Dürer, part of his Apocalypse series, illustrating the Book of Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John. "And there was war in heaven: his angels fought against the dragon. As recounted by the Revelation of Saint John, at the end of the world war will break at between Heaven and Hell, between good and evil; as the commander of the Army of God, Archangel Michael leads the other angels in the fight against evil, represented in this picture by a seven-headed dragon. Each of the dragon's heads represents one of the seven deadly sins. Dürer chose to capture this fight between good and evil at the moment when Saint Michael is thrusting his spear into one of the heads. Surrounding Saint Michael are three other angels ready to attack. Beneath the fighting lies a calm and serene landscape with mountains and a small town, highlighted by a church with a tall spire, in the distance. At the bottom in the center of the page Dürer has placed his distinctive "AD" monogram, in all of his engravings.

Albrecht Dürer considered printmaking to be one of the most important art forms even equal to the art of painting. His technical skill is well demonstrated in St. Michael Fighting the Dragon; the influence of Dürer's training under Michael Wolgemut on the quality of Dürer's works can be seen in the vast amount of detail in the print. Dürer includes details ranging from the small trees surrounding the town to details of St. Michael's face. Dürer uses atmospheric perspective to create the illusion of space by depicting the mountains with less detail the farther away they are supposed to be, he creates different dark tones through his use of lines. In respect to the poses of the figures Archangel Michael, Dürer broke with the traditional pose for a hero fighting against evil, more elegant and instead put St. Michael in a pose that captures the magnitude of the task at hand. St. Michael's eyebrows are furrowed with concentration and his hands are on the sword, about to fiercely attack the dragon.

All original woodcuts in the series were made on pear wood. Beginning in the 14th century with the work of Petrarch, the father of humanism, humanist ideals began to spread throughout Europe. Early humanists stressed the importance of studying the classics and Roman works, learning the liberal arts. During the 15th century, Renaissance humanists applied humanism to their civic lives and stated that people should use their knowledge in the service of the state, they believed that individuals had a great potential to succeed and could use that potential to improve society. In northern Europe, Christian Humanists combined humanist ideals with Christianity by emphasizing both education and scriptural knowledge. Artistically, humanists encouraged the study of the human form to portray the beauty of the human body. One of the leading Christian Humanists was Desiderius Erasmus, who became a friend of Albrecht Dürer when Dürer visited the Netherlands in 1520 and 1521. Well before that visit, Dürer traveled to Italy in the autumn of 1494 and talked with many Italian humanists.

He visited the workshops of numerous Italian humanist artists, including Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. Due to this exposure to humanism and Italian art, Dürer became fascinated with how to best capture the proportions of the human body and spent much time studying the human body and anatomical proportions; this interest can not only be seen in many of his paintings, but in a number of his engravings, including St. Michael Fighting the Dragon. Another major influence on Dürer's works was the rise of Nuremberg as an intellectual center and as a leader in engravings. One of the main reasons behind Nuremberg's prominence was the release of the Nuremberg Chronicle in 1493; this book contained around 650 original illustrations from Michael Wolgemut, one of the leading engravers of the late-Gothic era, his workshop. The Nuremberg Chronicle not only demonstrated the capabilities of the new printing press, but paved the way for the work of Albrecht Dürer in the coming years. Albrecht Dürer was an apprentice under Wolgemut and learned the art of engraving from one of the most well known engravers of the time.

Technically, the development of better printing presses in Nuremberg allowed for Dürer to include much more detail in his work, from depicting St. Michael's hair with little curls to capturing the sails of two boats off in the distance, it allowed for his work to be more distributed. Kleiner, Fred S. and Helen Gardner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History. Boston, MA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2009. "Sixteenth Century." Sixteenth Century: A Heavenly Craft, The Woodcut in Early Printed Books. 3 October 2005. Library of Congress. 7 March 2010 <https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/heavenlycraft/heavenly-16th.html>. "St. Michael Fighting the Dragon by Albrecht Durer." BackToClassics.com Virtual Art Gallery. 2009. BackToClassicals.com. 1 March 2010 <http://www.backtoclassics.com/gallery/albrechtdurer/stmichaelfightingthedragon/>. "The Revelation of St John: 11. St Michael Fighting the Dragon." Web Gallery of Art. 28 February 2010. <http://www.wga.hu/index1.html>. Zuffi, Stefano. Dürer. London: DK, 1999. Print. Web Gallery of Art Back to Classics Article Sixteenth Century: A Heavenly Craft