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This particular project began back in January of 2010, and it started with the name. I worked with her in refining her business name. She didn't want the typical dental name incorporating the word "smiles" like everyone else. Something clean, simple, and reflects the nature of the business. We went back and forth several times and one word kept on sticking, and it wasn't taken. It was the word "pure", and it sounded really nice with the word "dental". "Pure" represents cleanliness, and that's why we go to the dentist – to keep our teeth/mouth as clean as possible. Then the word "spa" was thrown into the name, because this new office was going to embody spa-like services. There is this new trend called "dental spa" where dental offices want their offices to now be soothing and comforting for their client visits. And we all know, dental offices aren't at the top of anyone's list for places to go visit.
With the name down, Pure Dental Spa, it was time to develop the identity. As soon as the name was selected, I had a good idea on how it was going to look, and the client was totally one the same page with me; it was great. The fact that I knew I was going to be working on the interior decor of her office, it helped me build her brand colors since she really wanted an avocado-like green color on her office wall. I envisioned in my mind seeing the word "pure" all in white against the green wall, and it truly brought out the essence of clean in the word and the nature of the business.
Pure Dental Spa color palette: white, grey & green. White is pure and clean. Grey represents a brushed aluminum material and the sterilized equipment that is used to clean our teeth. And green is fresh, calming, and it is all "spa".
For the logo identity, I used a very clean, modern typeface, Helvetica Neue, and balanced the weights and the kerning between the letters. "Pure" is the boldest and "dental" is the second heaviest weight. Those two words have the most emphasis in weights, because they are the most important. "Spa" is secondary, but still important to the overall vision.
For the logo identity, I used a very clean, modern typeface, Helvetica Neue, and balanced the weights and the kerning between the letters. "Pure" is the boldest and "dental" is the second heaviest weight. Those two words have the most emphasis in weights, because they are the most important. "Spa" is secondary, but still important to the overall vision.
For the business/appointment cards, I knew we had to print them with a very cool technique called blind embossing – where an image is raised up from the flat surface of the paper. This was how I was able to keep the word "pure" white on white paper. And on the reverse-side, the paper was flooded with green, and where the word "pure" was embossed, it was kept white also. These are some well-designed appointment cards I must say.
Originally, I wasn't planning on designing her website since I am not a huge fan of website design. I always felt it was one of my weaknesses. I thought I was going to be handing over logo files, color codes and some images. But after we saw the first round from the programmers, I knew I had to get my feet wet and guide the overall structure, because it wasn't meshing with her brand essence, and I couldn't let that happen.
To see more custom design projects, visit www.designwithchon.com
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Design With Chon (DWC), a boutique design studio with defined niches in (1) visual communication, (2) event design and (3) interiors. Each of these industries are huge in themselves, but DWC has an understanding that bridges them together — color, balance, texture, order and a good eye for design. DWC’s goal is to achieve good design in all its various forms, whether it’s from the branding of your business to saying “I do” to transforming a dwelling in your home. Let me, “Chon," be your go-to person for good design, color, great photography and art. A balanced environment makes you feel good, and I am here to inspire your surroundings.
If you’re interested in sharing an idea or a project, drop me a line at designwithchon[at]gmail.com to start the conversation.
©Design With Chon. All Rights Reserved.
July Challenge: Bold Colors
I know, it isn't the boldest or brightest, but it is what I had.
Plus, I love this places crab cake sandwich!
here's introducing the boldest of Bebe's babies... he/she is also the bigger one out of the whole batch... I decided to call her 'Babyface'.... the picture was taken around sunset a few days ago, and it was raining... large: www.flickr.com/photos/rioazul/3936583873/sizes/o/
402 Commercial Avenue. This ornate brick building, the first of its kind in Skagit County, was constructed by Lewis & Dryden Engineers of Portland, Oregon. It was originally chartered as the Bank of Anacortes. The Bank closed during the depression of 1893. Two vaults and other bank-related features have survived alterations.
Emboldened and eager to take the first plunge before his group of friends, the boldest boy has a change of heart in the face of the vast lagoon.
Bonhams : the Zoute Sale
Estimated : € 15.000 - 25.000
Sold for € 20.700
Zoute Grand Prix 2019
Knokke - Zoute
België - Belgium
October 2019
"What BMC created with the Moke was, to put it mildly, uncharacteristic of that organisation. If the Mini was arresting and advanced, the Moke was off-the-wall and utterly out-of-place." – Chris Rees, Complete Classic Mini.
Like that other great cult car of the post-WW2 era - the Volkswagen 'Beetle' - the Mini proved amenable to all manner of imaginative interpretations by devotees, though its boldest reinvention - the Jeep-like Moke - came from BMC itself.
Conceived as a military vehicle but rejected by the Army, the Moke was redeveloped for the civilian market, deliveries commencing in 1964. The car's open design meant that it was not the ideal vehicle for the British climate and the vast majority ended up overseas. Sold overseas as a utility vehicle but in Britain viewed more as a fashion accessory, the Moke captured the 1960s' spirit of freedom and self-expression more effectively than any other car. The Moke's prominent role in Patrick McGoohan's cult TV series The Prisoner has only served to maintain its popularity and today this quirky Mini variant remains highly sought after.
Strikingly finished in black with matching leather interior, this charming Mini Moke was restored in 2017 and is described by the vendor as in very good condition throughout. Affording the convenience of automatic transmission – rare in a Moke – it is ideal for having fun on the beach or cruising stylishly around the resorts of the Côte d'Azur and the top list of holiday destinations. Petrol-engined Mini Mokes becoming rare in the street view, this example is offered with Belgian 'oldtimer' registration papers.
Mendeleev's discovery of the periodic law and his periodic table of the elements was first announced to European scientists in a short article in the german journal Zeitschrift fur Chemie (Journal of Chemistry) in 1869, which is on display. Mendeleev discovered the periodic law during the time he was engaged in writing the first edition of a chemistry textbook, Osnovy Khimii (Principles of Chemistry). Mendeleev based his periodic table on 'four aspects of matter' that revealed close relationships between certain chemical elements. These four aspects were isomorphism, the specific volumes of similar compounds or elements, the composition of compound salts, and relations among the atomic weights of elements. Since the periodic law was dependent upon the quantitative relation between atomic weight, as an independent variable, and an element's physical and chemical properties, Mendeleev in 1869 took up the problem of developing and entire 'natural system of elements'. He employed deduction to reach the boldest and most far-reaching logical consequences of the law that he had discovered, so that he might, by verification of these consequences, confirm the law itself. Among these consequences were predictions of the chemical properties of several unknown elements. Two of these elements, which we now know as gallium and germanium, were discovered in the 1870s and possessed almost exactly the properties Mendeleev had predicted for them. Mendeleev's periodic table is one of the most important chemical discoveries of the nineteenth century; it remains today a central unifying principle in the science of chemistry. The first edition of Osnovy Khimii (shown here) is exceedingly rare as only about six copies exist in the US. The copy on display is unusual in that volume 2 is evidently a previously unrecorded first issue. It consists of only the first half of volume 2, the title page is green instead of the usual white, and the publication date is 1870 instead of the usual 1871. The title page says that this is the third part of Osnovy Khimii, the first two parts evidently corresponding to what normally is issued as volume 1. This part 3 is complete, as judged from the fact that the number of illustrations indicated on the title page agrees with the number that appear in the text. The large folding table, which was included in the 1871 issue of the full volume 2, is missing in this present copy. Presumably, the folding table, which consists of an improved version of the 1869 periodic table that appears in volume 1, was not devised until after 1870.
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rare Book Room Exhibit
Momentum Monday At The Five Eleven Foundry
Kick off the work week with a surge of energy and the hottest dance beats on the grid! This isn’t your typical Monday—tonight is all about fierce music, bold moves, and serious attitude.
🕕 6–10 PM SLT
🔥 DJ Arwen returns at 6 PM to light up the floor with electrifying energy, followed by the unstoppable Mr. D at 8 PM, dropping beats that’ll keep you moving all night long.
📍 The Five Eleven Foundry — our raw, industrial space built for unforgettable nights and next-level parties.
👗 Dress Code: Not Safe for Business Casual — bring your boldest looks and your best moves.
Don’t just survive Monday—own it. See you on the dancefloor!
Bonhams : the Zoute Sale
Estimated : € 15.000 - 25.000
Sold for € 20.700
Zoute Grand Prix 2019
Knokke - Zoute
België - Belgium
October 2019
"What BMC created with the Moke was, to put it mildly, uncharacteristic of that organisation. If the Mini was arresting and advanced, the Moke was off-the-wall and utterly out-of-place." – Chris Rees, Complete Classic Mini.
Like that other great cult car of the post-WW2 era - the Volkswagen 'Beetle' - the Mini proved amenable to all manner of imaginative interpretations by devotees, though its boldest reinvention - the Jeep-like Moke - came from BMC itself.
Conceived as a military vehicle but rejected by the Army, the Moke was redeveloped for the civilian market, deliveries commencing in 1964. The car's open design meant that it was not the ideal vehicle for the British climate and the vast majority ended up overseas. Sold overseas as a utility vehicle but in Britain viewed more as a fashion accessory, the Moke captured the 1960s' spirit of freedom and self-expression more effectively than any other car. The Moke's prominent role in Patrick McGoohan's cult TV series The Prisoner has only served to maintain its popularity and today this quirky Mini variant remains highly sought after.
Strikingly finished in black with matching leather interior, this charming Mini Moke was restored in 2017 and is described by the vendor as in very good condition throughout. Affording the convenience of automatic transmission – rare in a Moke – it is ideal for having fun on the beach or cruising stylishly around the resorts of the Côte d'Azur and the top list of holiday destinations. Petrol-engined Mini Mokes becoming rare in the street view, this example is offered with Belgian 'oldtimer' registration papers.
The following is a brief biography of Fredric Brown (1906-1972) from the Goodreads website (at www.goodreads.com/author/show/51503.Fredric_Brown):
"Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was one of the boldest early writers in genre fiction in his use of narrative experimentation. While never in the front rank of popularity in his lifetime, Brown has developed a considerable cult following in the almost half century since he last wrote. His works have been periodically reprinted and he has a worldwide fan base, most notably in the U.S. and Europe, and especially in France, where there have been several recent movie adaptations of his work. He also remains popular in Japan.
"Never financially secure, Brown - like many other pulp writers - often wrote at a furious pace in order to pay bills. This accounts, at least in part, for the uneven quality of his work. A newspaperman by profession, Brown was only able to devote 14 years of his life as a full-time fiction writer. Brown was also a heavy drinker, and this at times doubtless affected his productivity. A cultured man and omnivorous reader whose interests ranged far beyond those of most pulp writers, Brown had a lifelong interest in the flute, chess, poker, and the works of Lewis Carroll. Brown married twice and was the father of two sons."
Mayor Eric Adams talks with people in custody on Rikers Island on Thursday, July 7, 2022. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Other than some commonly claimed but unfounded allegations about China, this article correctly points out many of the pitfalls of the Biden administration's latest attempt to slow China's economic growth. Many experts have said these new export controls may work in the short or even medium term, but they won't stop China to inevitably overtake the U.S. to become the largest economy. In a way, the export controls are similar to the Minsk Agreements. The Minsk Agreements gave Ukraine time to build up its military. These export controls gives the U.S. more time to remain at the world's number one economic spot. Unfortunately, Ukraine has all but lost the war. The U.S. will too, if it stays on the same hegemonic course.
www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/15/china-tech-deco...
The Fevered Anti-China Attitude in Washington Is Going to Backfire
America has embarked on a difficult challenge: reversing decades of technological integration with China without damaging the U.S. economy or antagonizing allies. Unfortunately, the U.S. is going too far.
Opinion by Jon Bateman
With little fanfare or public debate, America has embarked on one of its most difficult and dangerous international challenges since the Cold War. The task: reversing decades of economic and technological integration with its chief rival, China.
This technological decoupling, if done selectively, will help to preserve America’s military edge, protect key U.S. industries from unfair competition, and push back on Beijing’s human rights abuses. But if decoupling goes too far, it will drag down the U.S. economy, drive away allies, stymie efforts to address global crises like climate change, and increase the odds of a catastrophic war.
Balancing these grave risks is a high-wire act for U.S. leaders, but unfortunately, their policies have begun to teeter toward excess. Hawkish figures in the Biden administration, in Congress and in the foreign policy establishment who seek to lunge further and faster toward decoupling are leading the country’s current approach. This “restrictionist” camp is unfailingly confident in anti-China measures like sanctions and blacklists. Its rising influence can be seen in proposals for open-ended investment controls and extraordinary financial sanctions. Most recently, the White House spearheaded new export controls on semiconductors and chip-making equipment, the boldest U.S. leap toward decoupling so far.
Restrictions on Chinese technology make sense when they match the scale of specific threats and buy time for America to bolster its own tech base. But Washington seems intent on a grander crusade — to hobble China at a fundamental level — with little regard for the risks to global stability, the U.S. economy and American alliances. Many U.S. officials and analysts think that every Chinese firm is another Huawei, every Chinese technology is a loaded gun pointed at the heart of America, and every restrictive tool available to Washington is still much too underutilized. A righteous panic has set in, flattening complex uncertainties.
This fevered atmosphere all but guarantees an intensifying surge of new U.S. export controls, investment curbs, financial sanctions, visa restrictions and the like. While many will celebrate “tough” responses to China’s genuinely troubling behavior, Americans and others may soon find themselves experiencing carelessly broken supply chains and a fracturing economic order. They could face slower innovation, higher inflation, rockier trade among friendly nations and spiraling instability with an emerging Asian superpower. And the more decoupling accelerates, the harder it becomes to control. If anyone believes they know what kind of world will emerge from the maelstrom, they’re fooling themselves.
There is a better way forward: The U.S. government must strike a delicate balance between too much decoupling and not enough — a stance that requires agility, precision and a keen sense of the countervailing risks of any U.S. action. Unfortunately, Washington has mistaken this tightrope for a cakewalk. Such false certitude has led to terrible foreign policy blunders in the past, and it now threatens to do so again at a critical juncture in American history.
Richard Nixon’s seminal visit to China, 50 years ago, remains a useful prism for understanding the bilateral relationship. From the outset, U.S.-China ties have been built upon pragmatic calculations by both sides, not trust or affection. Washington was never at ease with China’s state-led economy, dismal human rights record and worrisome military intentions. Likewise, Beijing has always seen the United States as overly hegemonic and a potential threat to regime stability. Even so, the two countries chose to deepen their economic integration. Generations of U.S. leaders believed that trade, investment and people-to-people ties could make America more prosperous and push China to become freer and friendlier.
This strategic bargain led to a remarkable economic symbiosis. China became America’s biggest supplier of imported goods and its top source of international students, while the United States is now China’s number one export destination and its most important foreign financial partner. Technological links are particularly thick. China sends more STEM PhD students to the United States than any other country, and is second only to India as a source of foreign STEM workers and high-skilled H-1B visa holders in the United States. Interdependence is everywhere you look, from semiconductors (the U.S. chip industry gets one third of its revenue from China) to manufacturing (China is a critical hub for companies like Apple and Tesla) to science (Chinese and American scientists author more joint papers than any other country pair).
But in the last decade, the strategic foundations underpinning this economic relationship have steadily eroded. Contrary to U.S. hopes, China under President Xi Jinping grew more assertive abroad and more repressive at home. And as Chinese companies climbed the value chain — from manufacturing textiles to televisions to telecommunications equipment — longstanding U.S. concerns about unfair trade took on new urgency. The Obama administration, which at first looked forward to “a positive, constructive, and comprehensive relationship with China,” would eventually announce “the return of great power competition.”
This pivot coincided with Washington’s embrace of techno-nationalism — the idea, already long accepted in most other countries, that technology must be guided and harnessed by the state rather than global market forces. Decades of free-wheeling digital globalization had enriched Silicon Valley, projected American values around the world and enabled a “golden age” of U.S. intelligence collection. But a rising tide of foreign cyber threats — especially Chinese intellectual property theft and Russian election interference — caused Washington to see U.S. digital openness as a source of vulnerability. At same time, China’s breakout success in emerging strategic sectors like 5G and AI led U.S. policymakers to conclude that bilateral tech ties were no longer working to America’s advantage.
The Trump administration marked the decisive point when America’s new, China-focused techno-nationalism began to transform U.S. policy. Export controls targeting China were greatly intensified, most notably via the Department of Commerce’s Entity List that restricts foreign companies from importing U.S. products. The number of unique Chinese firms on this list quadrupled from 2018-2022. And telecoms giant Huawei — once the golden child of China’s tech sector — faced a supercharged Entity List designation that has crippled the company. Alongside export controls, a bevy of other U.S. measures worked to curb the flow of technology to and from China. The Trump administration tightened screening on Chinese investments, imposed broad-based tariffs on Chinese items, and restricted the use of Chinese equipment by federal agencies, contractors and grantees. Chinese students and researchers found it harder to get visas, and some faced criminal investigation and prosecution for downplaying ties to Beijing.
These actions were ill-coordinated and poorly communicated but, often, basically reasonable. Many of Trump’s moves addressed high-impact threats in proportional ways. China had been racing toward global dominance of telecommunications equipment — the ultimate strategic terrain in cyberspace — so the U.S. campaign against Huawei worked to buy precious time for alternatives to emerge. Core elements of the U.S. power grid were vulnerable to sabotage that might take months or years to repair, so Chinese equipment was banned from specific systems serving critical military bases. Several Chinese tech companies had actively facilitated Beijing’s genocidal repression of the Uyghur minority, so the Entity List was used to prevent U.S. exports from supporting these abuses.
In other cases, however, the Trump administration went too far. There were overzealous restrictions that threatened to do more harm than good, and unprincipled decisions whose logic seemed to lead toward broad-based decoupling. The Justice Department, for example, launched a quixotic quest to find Chinese moles on campus — resulting in a number of failed prosecutions and driving away many talented academics. Blanket bans on Chinese apps like TikTok were based on no real analysis, and the WeChat ban threatened to stymie U.S. firms’ communications in China. The Pentagon barred Americans from investing in Xiaomi, a consumer electronics maker, just because the company had a general interest in 5G and AI and was once praised by Beijing — criteria that could describe nearly any big Chinese firm.
President Joe Biden undid each of these errors. Better still, Biden sought to complement sanctions and blacklists with positive efforts on the home front. While Trump relied almost exclusively on restrictive measures to counter Chinese tech threats, Biden worked with Congress to secure huge investments in America’s own tech ecosystem. Defensive tools like export controls simply aren’t powerful enough to hold China at bay forever, but they can buy time for the United States to make long-term improvements in its technological leadership and resilience.
But the administration didn’t stop there. It also put in place a steady stream of new China-focused restrictions. Biden filled some important gaps — requiring proof, for example, that imports from Xinjiang weren’t made with forced labor. And he sought to discipline Trump’s chaotic processes — undertaking serious investigations of Chinese tech companies rather than knee-jerk bans, and publishing more detailed criteria for when such bans would be imposed.
Even so, there were growing hints of a more aggressive agenda. First came reports in May that America’s most severe sanctions list — populated with terrorists, drug lords and war criminals — might for the first time target a major Chinese tech firm. Then came the bombshell announcement in October of new export controls on semiconductors and chip-making equipment. This latest move represents the sharpest escalation of decoupling yet, and a clear example of the larger problems with overbroad restrictions.
The new U.S. export controls block China from importing high-end foreign semiconductors it needs to train artificial intelligence algorithms. At the same time, Washington sought to stop China from making homegrown versions of such chips, or even the mid-range chips that power the Internet of Things and other lesser devices. It therefore barred Chinese chip-makers from importing advanced manufacturing equipment and from working with U.S. personnel.
As usual when rolling out such measures, the White House said it had imposed “carefully tailored restrictions” based on “straightforward national security concerns.” Officials cited the fact that advanced processors can help Beijing model nuclear explosions and missile aerodynamics. But these military applications comprise a tiny fraction of the countless important uses for powerful semiconductors and AI. The vast majority are benign: business process automation, e-commerce, cybersecurity, disease diagnosis and much more. Some uses, like climate change research, would actually benefit the United States and the world. If the new controls succeed, they will hamper a broad range of commercial and scientific innovation throughout China — shaving up to 0.6 percent off its GDP, according to Barclays. The most hawkish U.S. officials will welcome this result, though they won’t publicly admit it. Other policymakers have said they simply don’t care.
Biden’s move was a triumph for the restrictionists. It dealt the most powerful blow yet to China’s technological ambitions, and it signaled that more harsh measures are coming. Alan Estevez, a senior official who oversees export controls, captured the gung-ho mood in late October: “I meet with my staff once a week and say, ‘Okay, what’s next? What are we going to do next? Who’s being bad? Where is the technology area that we need to address?” He said that future controls on biotech, quantum technology, and AI software and algorithms are likely.
But we cannot charge forward without first taking stock of the profound escalation already underway, and the burgeoning risks to U.S. interests. Most obviously, America’s own economy has much to lose. U.S. semiconductor firms have forecast billions of dollars of lost revenue from the latest round of export controls, reducing the funds available for R&D to sustain global competitiveness and improve the world’s computing power. Moreover, as technology progresses, the class of superior chips and equipment subject to control will become an ever-larger segment of the market, gradually widening the revenue hole for U.S. companies. Although Washington is showering the semiconductor sector with subsidies, analysts have warned that such sums won’t go as far as many expect. And Congress will not be as generous with every U.S. industry facing future export controls.
Second, the United States runs the risks of alienating the very allies and partners it needs to achieve larger economic and technological aspirations. Key parts of the new export controls have extraterritorial scope — restricting Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese and Dutch sales and work in China — but were imposed unilaterally. Having failed to secure the support of these governments, the United States went ahead without them, and not for the first time. This has elicited grumbles at an already-sensitive time in economic diplomacy. U.S. allies are enraged at America’s discriminatory new subsidies for electric vehicles, semiconductor manufacturing and other sectors. Washington hopes to align subsidies with its friends, but it risks triggering a wasteful, uncoordinated subsidy race, if not a full-blown trade war. Right now we need to unify allies, not antagonize them.
Finally, Washington’s embrace of a quasi-containment strategy will intensify the downward spiral of U.S.-China relations, making cooperation even harder and increasing the odds of crisis. The Biden administration protests the word “containment,” but how else to describe an embargo on what the White House itself calls “the foundational technologies of the 21st century”? Whatever the label, the U.S. government is clearly comfortable with inflicting broad damage on China’s economy in pursuit of narrow national security objectives. (China’s military modernization poses a serious threat, but these export controls don’t have much obvious relevance to a potential Taiwan strait conflict in the medium term.) Xi has, of course, come to expect tough U.S. actions. Yet their severity and timing still matter. Ever-harsher U.S. economic penalties add another unpredictable element to an increasingly dangerous rivalry.
To be sure, the United States faces genuine threats from China, and the Biden administration confronts real dilemmas in addressing them. No risk-free options exist to manage interdependence with a strategic competitor. The most we can ask are realistic assessments and reasoned decisions based on the best information available. Unfortunately, U.S. policy debates often fail this test. Analysis of China-tech issues has become increasingly one-sided and simplistic, leading to obvious miscalculations.
One problem is that real Chinese tech threats are routinely exaggerated. For example, there is some reason to worry that Beijing might spy on sensitive American military facilities by co-opting Chinese-made drones, but it is absurd to fear Chinese surveillance of U.S. national forests and parks. Yet the Department of Interior has refused to fly drones made with Chinese components, hindering its own efforts to monitor and fight wildfires.
Additionally, the costs of U.S. restrictive measures are commonly underestimated. In 2020, for instance, the Department of Justice arrested six Chinese researchers on security grounds. This crackdown prompted more than one thousand other Chinese academics to leave the country — something U.S. officials hadn’t predicted. The department eventually dropped charges against five of the six academics and mothballed its larger China Initiative. We’ll never know how much legitimate scientific research was lost in the process.
Perhaps the biggest problem for U.S. decisionmakers is groupthink. Tough anti-China measures now receive broad bipartisan support in Congress, think tanks and beyond. Uncritical assent from progressive voices has been particularly striking. For example, Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias have both called for banning TikTok — though neither of them seriously considered regulatory alternatives. The Washington Post has editorialized in favor of unprecedented sanctions on the Chinese surveillance firm Hikvision — even while admitting “the move could accelerate a broad-scale technological decoupling for which this country isn’t prepared.” (The Post helpfully offered that preventing such an outcome “shouldn’t be too difficult a task.”) Every week brings fresh proposals for China-focused restrictions. Yet the reverse isn’t true. No American political figure has prominently highlighted the risks or costs of decoupling. Even business leaders have largely retreated from public debates for fear of political blowback.
Students of history, take note. Hegemons often suffer more from their own overreach than from any foreign adversary. The United States, too, has been down this road before. This isn’t the first time that American leaders have become preoccupied with a poorly defined threat, overconfident in a muscular U.S. response, and dismissive of doubting citizens and allies. It hasn’t ended well. Much of today’s China commentary bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the writings of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, whose failure to interrogate the case for war in Iraq came to symbolize the nation’s heedless march toward our greatest modern blunder.
The China fever in Washington won’t be easily broken. What’s needed is political space to question the current trajectory and conduct more rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Leaders like Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who often profess no intent to decouple from China, must go further and articulate a robust, positive vision for the economic relationship — citing specific linkages worth preserving and explaining their importance to the American people. Businesspeople, state and local officials, and universities must help make the case that overreach has costs, as a handful of voices have recently begun to do. Think tanks and journalists should place a higher priority on filling gaps in our lopsided discourse than on cranking out the unmpteenth report highlighting China-tech threats. And everyone should listen more attentively to America’s allies and partners, who share U.S. concerns about China but favor more temperate responses.
A partial American decoupling from China was both inevitable and warranted. But there must be some stopping point. With each new restrictive measure, the risks of interdependence diminish and the odds of overkill grow. Yet U.S. restrictions are speeding up, not slowing down, and calls for caution have gotten quieter, not louder. This is dangerous. If Washington doesn’t take a breath and steady itself, it might tumble over the edge.
Jon Bateman is a senior fellow in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
This particular project began back in January of 2010, and it started with the name. I worked with her in refining her business name. She didn't want the typical dental name incorporating the word "smiles" like everyone else. Something clean, simple, and reflects the nature of the business. We went back and forth several times and one word kept on sticking, and it wasn't taken. It was the word "pure", and it sounded really nice with the word "dental". "Pure" represents cleanliness, and that's why we go to the dentist – to keep our teeth/mouth as clean as possible. Then the word "spa" was thrown into the name, because this new office was going to embody spa-like services. There is this new trend called "dental spa" where dental offices want their offices to now be soothing and comforting for their client visits. And we all know, dental offices aren't at the top of anyone's list for places to go visit.
With the name down, Pure Dental Spa, it was time to develop the identity. As soon as the name was selected, I had a good idea on how it was going to look, and the client was totally one the same page with me; it was great. The fact that I knew I was going to be working on the interior decor of her office, it helped me build her brand colors since she really wanted an avocado-like green color on her office wall. I envisioned in my mind seeing the word "pure" all in white against the green wall, and it truly brought out the essence of clean in the word and the nature of the business.
Pure Dental Spa color palette: white, grey & green. White is pure and clean. Grey represents a brushed aluminum material and the sterilized equipment that is used to clean our teeth. And green is fresh, calming, and it is all "spa".
For the logo identity, I used a very clean, modern typeface, Helvetica Neue, and balanced the weights and the kerning between the letters. "Pure" is the boldest and "dental" is the second heaviest weight. Those two words have the most emphasis in weights, because they are the most important. "Spa" is secondary, but still important to the overall vision.
For the logo identity, I used a very clean, modern typeface, Helvetica Neue, and balanced the weights and the kerning between the letters. "Pure" is the boldest and "dental" is the second heaviest weight. Those two words have the most emphasis in weights, because they are the most important. "Spa" is secondary, but still important to the overall vision.
For the business/appointment cards, I knew we had to print them with a very cool technique called blind embossing – where an image is raised up from the flat surface of the paper. This was how I was able to keep the word "pure" white on white paper. And on the reverse-side, the paper was flooded with green, and where the word "pure" was embossed, it was kept white also. These are some well-designed appointment cards I must say.
Originally, I wasn't planning on designing her website since I am not a huge fan of website design. I always felt it was one of my weaknesses. I thought I was going to be handing over logo files, color codes and some images. But after we saw the first round from the programmers, I knew I had to get my feet wet and guide the overall structure, because it wasn't meshing with her brand essence, and I couldn't let that happen.
To see more custom design projects, visit www.designwithchon.com
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8th February 2005: Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Each year on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, Ashbourne becomes a war zone! The majority of the ablebodied men, women and children take to the streets to play what is probally the largets football game in the world! - The two teams number in the hundreds, and the palying field is 3 miles long, 2 miles wide and has the town of Ashbourne in the middle!
Shops are boarded up, only an idiot (or an unsuspecting visitor!) would park his or her car anywhere in the town!
The origin of this game is lost in the mists of time, and it is thought to date from Elizabethan times. The earliest reference seems to be in a poam by Charles Cotton in 1683 :-
Burlesque upon the Great Frost
Two towns, that long that war had raged
Being at football now engaged
For honour, as both sides pretend,
Left the brave trial to be ended
Till the next thaw for they were frozen
On either part at least a dozen,
With a good handsome space between 'em
Like Rollerich stones, if you've seen 'em
And could no more run, kick, or trip ye
Than I can quaff off Aganippe.
Charles Cotton (1630-1687)
The game is played by those Ashburnians who were born on the north side of the Henmore river - the Up'ards, against those born on the south side - the Down'ards.
The kick-off or "turning up" of the specially made and painted ball takes place from a brick built plinth in the town centre at the Shawcroft carpark, by a local or national figure. (It was the then Prince of Wales - later Edward VII - who turned up the ball in 1928 and thus giving the game its "Royal" title.)
Our current Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles, turned the ball up in 2003. (Click here to download the speech he made in the Green Man prior to the start)
The game starts each day at 2 pm when the ball is "turned up" in the Shaw Croft Carpark (behind the supermarkets in the town centre). The game then lasts until 10 pm. If a goal is scored before 6 pm, then a new ball is "turned up" again and a new game started. If the goal is after 6 pm then the game ends for that day. Link to Andy Savage's interactive map of the "pitch"
The two goals are situated 3 miles apart - one at Sturston, and one at Clifton. The goals were originally the mill wheels at two local mills, the miles are long since gone, the goals now being two purpose built structures.
A goal is scored by tapping the ball three times against a marker board attached to the stone goal plinth.
The rules are quite complex when it comes to scoring the goal - the actual person who scores is pre-chosen. When the ball reaches the goal, the game is paused and the ball is then handed to the member of that team who has been given the honour of actually gaoling the ball. Gaoling consists of knocking the ball against the goal stone.
Its a bit like cricket - difficult to explain - no doubt a native Ashburnian could explain them to you better then I can.
Needless to say - the pubs remain open all day during the game, all the shops and banks have wooden barriers up against their windows and some close for the day (looks like Beirut a bit). If you did not know about the game and you drove into Ashbourne - you would probably think that there is a major case of civil unrest going on!
If you visit Ashbourne on these days - be careful where you park your car!! If you find a street that has no parking restrictions but no cars parked there - think on, the locals know something you don't!! There's a reason why wildebeest go around in large herds!!
The Balls
The balls used for the Shrovetide games are made by Ashbourne man John Harrison. The ball is larger than a conventional football and, unlike its modern counterpart, is rarely kicked. The hand-sewn, leather balls are filled with Portuguese cork chippings (to help them float when they land in the River Henmore).
The balls are usually painted in a design relevant to the person turning up the ball. The balls are real works of art and take about a month to paint. If a ball is gaoled, then it will become the proud possession of the person who has gaoled it. If no-one goals it, then the person named on the ball gets to take it home.
The Anthem
The song was written for a concert in 1891 which was held in aid of funds to pay fines for playing the game in the street. It is now sung each day at the pre-game luncheon in the Green Man Royal Hotel.
Words to the song
There's a town still plays this glorious game
Tho' tis but a little spot.
And year by year the contest's fought
From the field that's called Shaw Croft.
Then friend meets friend in friendly strife
The leather for to gain,
'And they play the game right manfully,
In snow, sunshine or rain.
Chorus
'Tis a glorious game, deny it who can
That tries the pluck of an Englishman.
For loyal the Game shall ever be
No matter when or where,
And treat that Game as ought but the free,
Is more than the boldest dare.
Though the up's and down's of its chequered life
May the ball still ever roll,
Until by fair and gallant strife
We've reached the treasur'd goal.
Chorus
'Tis a glorious game, deny it who can
That tries the pluck of an Englishman.
Banksy stages surprise exhibition in Bristol
Jun 13 2009
GRAFFITI artist Banksy pulled off one of his boldest stunts to date to launch his biggest-ever exhibition yesterday.
The anonymous "guerrilla" artist has taken over Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery.
January 2021
Two day’s work in Merthyr with many hours to spare.
Snaps of notable buildings, including many notably derelict buildings.
he Merthyr Hebrew congregation was established in 1848 with the first synagogue built on Bethesda Street, and the second on Tramroad Side North in 1852 . In the early 1870's it was decided that the Tramroad Side North synagogue was too small for the congregation and an appeal was put out to raise funds for a new building. An article in the Merthyr Telegraph and General Advertiser, 23rd October 1874, stated that there were upwards of 60 Jewish families living in Merthyr, including upwards of 70 children, in need of a new synagogue and school accommodation. The estimated cost of the proposed building was £1,800, providing seating for 200 and a number of 'free seats'. The tender for the building of a synagogue, school and ministers house was awarded to the architect Charles Taylor of Merthyr and the builder Mr John Williams of Castle Street, Merthyr.
The style of the building will be ancient Gothic, the approach being by a handsome double flight of steps. On the first floor will be a school-room and a class-room, the synagogue will be reached by a flight of stairs on the next floor.'
The synagogue was opened at the end of June 1877, the ceremony described as 'One of the most interesting ceremonies ... ever witnessed here' and the building 'Classed as one of the finest and boldest looking buildings in the town.'
coflein.gov.uk
Built in 1938-1940, this Modern International-style concert hall was designed by Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen to house performance spaces for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and other local musical organizations. Named by Edward L. Kleinhans, whom donated the money for the building’s construction in 1934, the building was named in the memory of his wife, Mary Seaton Kleinhans, and his mother, Mary Livingston Kleinhans. The performance hall was partially funded with money from the New Deal-era Public Works Administration (PWA), with local architects F. J. and W. A. Kidd assisting with the building’s design and construction, with lighting consultant Stanley McCandless and acoustical consultant Charles C. Potwin assisting with the design of the building’s performance spaces. The building was opened on October 19, 1940 with a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1964, the concert hall was the site of a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, whom was running to be elected as a Democratic Senator representing New York, which he gave in front of an audience of 6,000 people, and in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in the building’s main auditorium titled “The Future of Integration.”
The footprint of the building features two opposing parabolic curves, which make up the walls at the rear of the larger main auditorium and the smaller Mary Seaton Room, with the main auditorium being shaped like a triangle with curved sides and a curved vertex at the rear of the building, with a low one-story wing framing the main auditorium, consisting of offices and support spaces, as well as slender canopies and entrance vestibules. On the sides of the exterior of the main auditorium are stair-stepping walls that contain stairways to the upper balcony inside the auditorium, and a lobby cuts through the building between the two auditoriums, connecting the entrance vestibules on either side of the building, which contains open stairways to an upper level that provides access to the balcony of the main auditorium. The building’s exterior is clad in buff brick with limestone trim panels on the canopies, framing the entrance doors, the Mary Seaton Room, and on the walls framing the front reflecting pool, with an aluminum curtain wall containing exit doors and glazing on either side of the rear portion of the Mary Seaton Room, providing a visual break in the building’s exterior between the main volume of the performance hall and the larger adjacent structure that houses the lobby and main auditorium. The building’s interior is relatively simple with unadorned walls, clean lines, wood paneling and doors, ceilings in the auditoriums with ceilings featuring multiple bulkheads that conceal lightings and vents, as well as improve the acoustics of the performance spaces, and cantilevered stairways in the lobby.
The Kleinhans Music Hall is a notable early example of Modernism and the International Style in the United States, and is also notable for being one of the boldest early designs by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the latter going on to design the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles Airport Terminal in Virginia near Washington, DC, and the TWA Terminal at New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport during the 1960s, with the parabolic curves utilized in this building being more heavily emphasized in those later structures. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Today, the building remains a major concert hall in the city of Buffalo, and still houses the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Buffalo Chamber Music Society, with the building’s various performance, lobby, and rehearsal spaces being rented out for local performing arts groups and events.
at the Royal Thai Police HQ....
many photos have been set to private in order to avoid Thailand's censorship / lese majeste / computer crimes laws.
- - - - - -
Prayut’s ‘lawfare’ risks blowing Thailand’s political divide wide open
Thai Public Broadcasting Service - November 20, 2020
Fear is growing that Thailand’s ongoing political conflict will intensify, with no visible way out, after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha declared that “all existing laws” would be wielded against anti-establishment protesters.
Critics voiced concern that the draconian lese majeste law, which has not been used for some time, may be deployed to shackle the youth-led movement.
Prayut’s statement, which was released on Thursday, said the current situation was not heading in a positive direction, with conflicts now escalating into violence.
If not dealt with, it could damage the country and the “beloved institution”, as well as the peace and safety of people and their property, he added.
“The government and security agencies find it necessary to enforce all existing laws and all articles to take action against protesters who violate the law or who trespass on other people’s rights, in accordance with international standards of justice,” the statement said.
Yuthaporn Issarachai, a political scientist from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, said Prayut’s announcement would make it more difficult to find a way out of the conflict, as protesters were bound to react strongly.
Although Prayut did not specifically refer to Article 112 – the lese majeste law which penalises criticism of the monarchy with jail terms of up to 15 years – Yuthaporn believes it may well be used to prosecute protesters.
Prayut had said in June that the King, out of clemency, gave instructions not to use Article 112 against people.
However, royalists on Thursday stepped up their demand that police invoke it against protesters after an offensive remark was spray-painted on the portrait of a Royal outside police headquarters during a protest on Wednesday night.
Following the premier’s statement, police announced they were ready to use the lese majeste law against any demonstrator who offends or insults the monarchy.
However, Metha Matkhao, secretary-general of the Campaign for Popular Democracy, commented that using Article 112 against pro-democracy protesters would contradict the King’s wishes.
“Enforcing it would be a direct violation of the King’s remark and cause damage to the monarchy,” Metha said in a Facebook post, adding that the lese majeste law had long been used as a weapon to destroy political opponents.
He said the government would only add fuel to the fire by issuing such a threat, because it will further polarise Thai society.
“It [the PM’s statement] is not a step towards restoring reconciliation efforts, but a counter-step using legal mechanisms,” the activist said.
Prayut’s statement came after lawmakers on Wednesday passed two draft amendment bills in the first reading that would pave the way for a new Constitution. However, they rejected the so-called “people’s draft” sponsored by rights group Internet Dialogue on Law Reform (iLaw) and supported by more than 100,000 people.
The rejection angered protesters, who supported the draft because it not only paves the way for a new Constitution, but would also reform the monarchy – one of their three core demands. Their other demands are for the removal of Prayut as PM and a more democratic Constitution.
The protesters have announced their next rally will be held on Wednesday (November 25) outside the Crown Property Bureau. Observers suggest Prayut’s statement was issued as a warning against this rally.
Early this month, young anti-establishment protesters took their boldest move so far by symbolically mailing letters to the King, calling for reform of the revered institution.
Free Youth, one of the movement’s allies, suggested Prayut’s statement was a declaration of “lawfare” on the peaceful protesters, in which the government would wield all legal “weapons” including Article 112.
“Is this a declaration of ‘war’ against the people? This is the last straw … Please be prepared to deal with a failed state,” the group posted on Twitter.
WINTER HAVEN, FL -- LEGOLAND® Florida Water Park splashes into a second year of family fun with twice as many LEGO® bricks for all to enjoy. Two million LEGO bricks have been added since its debut last year bringing the total to an astounding four million LEGO bricks found in impressive models throughout the water park. Opening for the season on March 9, the LEGOLAND Water Park is unique in that it is specifically geared toward families with children ages two to 12 offering interactive, water play fun for the most timid of tikes to the boldest of tweens. (PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND)
8th February 2005: Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Each year on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, Ashbourne becomes a war zone! The majority of the ablebodied men, women and children take to the streets to play what is probally the largets football game in the world! - The two teams number in the hundreds, and the palying field is 3 miles long, 2 miles wide and has the town of Ashbourne in the middle!
Shops are boarded up, only an idiot (or an unsuspecting visitor!) would park his or her car anywhere in the town!
The origin of this game is lost in the mists of time, and it is thought to date from Elizabethan times. The earliest reference seems to be in a poam by Charles Cotton in 1683 :-
Burlesque upon the Great Frost
Two towns, that long that war had raged
Being at football now engaged
For honour, as both sides pretend,
Left the brave trial to be ended
Till the next thaw for they were frozen
On either part at least a dozen,
With a good handsome space between 'em
Like Rollerich stones, if you've seen 'em
And could no more run, kick, or trip ye
Than I can quaff off Aganippe.
Charles Cotton (1630-1687)
The game is played by those Ashburnians who were born on the north side of the Henmore river - the Up'ards, against those born on the south side - the Down'ards.
The kick-off or "turning up" of the specially made and painted ball takes place from a brick built plinth in the town centre at the Shawcroft carpark, by a local or national figure. (It was the then Prince of Wales - later Edward VII - who turned up the ball in 1928 and thus giving the game its "Royal" title.)
Our current Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles, turned the ball up in 2003. (Click here to download the speech he made in the Green Man prior to the start)
The game starts each day at 2 pm when the ball is "turned up" in the Shaw Croft Carpark (behind the supermarkets in the town centre). The game then lasts until 10 pm. If a goal is scored before 6 pm, then a new ball is "turned up" again and a new game started. If the goal is after 6 pm then the game ends for that day. Link to Andy Savage's interactive map of the "pitch"
The two goals are situated 3 miles apart - one at Sturston, and one at Clifton. The goals were originally the mill wheels at two local mills, the miles are long since gone, the goals now being two purpose built structures.
A goal is scored by tapping the ball three times against a marker board attached to the stone goal plinth.
The rules are quite complex when it comes to scoring the goal - the actual person who scores is pre-chosen. When the ball reaches the goal, the game is paused and the ball is then handed to the member of that team who has been given the honour of actually gaoling the ball. Gaoling consists of knocking the ball against the goal stone.
Its a bit like cricket - difficult to explain - no doubt a native Ashburnian could explain them to you better then I can.
Needless to say - the pubs remain open all day during the game, all the shops and banks have wooden barriers up against their windows and some close for the day (looks like Beirut a bit). If you did not know about the game and you drove into Ashbourne - you would probably think that there is a major case of civil unrest going on!
If you visit Ashbourne on these days - be careful where you park your car!! If you find a street that has no parking restrictions but no cars parked there - think on, the locals know something you don't!! There's a reason why wildebeest go around in large herds!!
The Balls
The balls used for the Shrovetide games are made by Ashbourne man John Harrison. The ball is larger than a conventional football and, unlike its modern counterpart, is rarely kicked. The hand-sewn, leather balls are filled with Portuguese cork chippings (to help them float when they land in the River Henmore).
The balls are usually painted in a design relevant to the person turning up the ball. The balls are real works of art and take about a month to paint. If a ball is gaoled, then it will become the proud possession of the person who has gaoled it. If no-one goals it, then the person named on the ball gets to take it home.
The Anthem
The song was written for a concert in 1891 which was held in aid of funds to pay fines for playing the game in the street. It is now sung each day at the pre-game luncheon in the Green Man Royal Hotel.
Words to the song
There's a town still plays this glorious game
Tho' tis but a little spot.
And year by year the contest's fought
From the field that's called Shaw Croft.
Then friend meets friend in friendly strife
The leather for to gain,
'And they play the game right manfully,
In snow, sunshine or rain.
Chorus
'Tis a glorious game, deny it who can
That tries the pluck of an Englishman.
For loyal the Game shall ever be
No matter when or where,
And treat that Game as ought but the free,
Is more than the boldest dare.
Though the up's and down's of its chequered life
May the ball still ever roll,
Until by fair and gallant strife
We've reached the treasur'd goal.
Chorus
'Tis a glorious game, deny it who can
That tries the pluck of an Englishman.
Alexanders are an edible wild plant that you can find growing from February to June. Pick the tender young stems and steam them for a unique flavour experience. They taste like a combination of asparagus, celery, and elderflower
In early spring Alexanders are the biggest and boldest plants in hedgerows across Britain. If you’re looking for them and they grow in your area then you really can’t miss them. They grow up to three feet tall and spread outwards with their thick stems and green leaves. Each stem is topped by an umbel of yellow-green flowers that attract insects and bees from far and wide.
Cricket is perhaps my family’s boldest legacy in the World.
—
Leica D-Lux 8 (Leica DC Vario-Summilux 24-75mm f/1.7-2.8 ASPH).
Built in 1938-1940, this Modern International-style concert hall was designed by Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen to house performance spaces for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and other local musical organizations. Named by Edward L. Kleinhans, whom donated the money for the building’s construction in 1934, the building was named in the memory of his wife, Mary Seaton Kleinhans, and his mother, Mary Livingston Kleinhans. The performance hall was partially funded with money from the New Deal-era Public Works Administration (PWA), with local architects F. J. and W. A. Kidd assisting with the building’s design and construction, with lighting consultant Stanley McCandless and acoustical consultant Charles C. Potwin assisting with the design of the building’s performance spaces. The building was opened on October 19, 1940 with a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1964, the concert hall was the site of a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, whom was running to be elected as a Democratic Senator representing New York, which he gave in front of an audience of 6,000 people, and in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in the building’s main auditorium titled “The Future of Integration.”
The footprint of the building features two opposing parabolic curves, which make up the walls at the rear of the larger main auditorium and the smaller Mary Seaton Room, with the main auditorium being shaped like a triangle with curved sides and a curved vertex at the rear of the building, with a low one-story wing framing the main auditorium, consisting of offices and support spaces, as well as slender canopies and entrance vestibules. On the sides of the exterior of the main auditorium are stair-stepping walls that contain stairways to the upper balcony inside the auditorium, and a lobby cuts through the building between the two auditoriums, connecting the entrance vestibules on either side of the building, which contains open stairways to an upper level that provides access to the balcony of the main auditorium. The building’s exterior is clad in buff brick with limestone trim panels on the canopies, framing the entrance doors, the Mary Seaton Room, and on the walls framing the front reflecting pool, with an aluminum curtain wall containing exit doors and glazing on either side of the rear portion of the Mary Seaton Room, providing a visual break in the building’s exterior between the main volume of the performance hall and the larger adjacent structure that houses the lobby and main auditorium. The building’s interior is relatively simple with unadorned walls, clean lines, wood paneling and doors, ceilings in the auditoriums with ceilings featuring multiple bulkheads that conceal lightings and vents, as well as improve the acoustics of the performance spaces, and cantilevered stairways in the lobby.
The Kleinhans Music Hall is a notable early example of Modernism and the International Style in the United States, and is also notable for being one of the boldest early designs by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the latter going on to design the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles Airport Terminal in Virginia near Washington, DC, and the TWA Terminal at New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport during the 1960s, with the parabolic curves utilized in this building being more heavily emphasized in those later structures. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Today, the building remains a major concert hall in the city of Buffalo, and still houses the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Buffalo Chamber Music Society, with the building’s various performance, lobby, and rehearsal spaces being rented out for local performing arts groups and events.
Combing the Hair ('La Coiffure') Ca.1896.
Women combing their hair, or having it combed, often appear in Degas’s work, and this painting is one of his boldest treatments of the subject. A maid, wearing her servant’s uniform, combs the hair of her seated mistress, who is not yet fully dressed. Pulled back by the force of the strokes, the mistress raises her right hand to her head as if to steady herself or hold her hair in place.
The composition is sketched in with bold sweeps of the brush, and Degas mainly limits the colours to variations of a fiery orange-red painted over a creamy white ground, which is still visible on the left of the canvas. Some areas are more defined than others – the objects on the table, for example, look unfinished. Degas probably planned to work further on the painting, but it was never completed and remained in his studio. After his death, it was bought by Henri Matisse.
The National Gallery, London.
from Trois Primitifs
by J.-K. Huysmans
Translated by Robert Baldick
Phaidon Press Ltd., 1958
MATTHIAS GRÜNEWALD, the painter of the Cassel Crucifixion which I described in Là-bas and which is now in the Karlsruhe Museum, has fascinated me for many years. Whence did he come, what was his life, where and how did he die? Nobody knows for certain; his very name has been disputed, and the relevant documents are lacking; the pictures now accepted as his work were formerly attributed in turn to Albrecht Dürer, Martin Schongauer and Hans Baldung Grien, while others which he never painted are conceded to him by countless handbooks and museum catalogues...
It is not to Mainz, Aschaffenburg, Eisenach, or even to Isenheim, whose monastery is dead, that we must go to find Grünewald's works, but to Colmar, where the master displays his genius in a magnificent ensemble, a polyptych composed of nine pieces.
There, in the old Unterlinden convent, he seizes on you the moment you go in and promptly strikes you dumb with the fearsome nightmare of a Calvary. It is as if a typhoon of art had been let loose and was sweeping you away, and you need a few minutes to recover from the impact, to surmount the impression of awful horror made by the huge crucified Christ dominating the nave of this museum, which is installed in the old disaffected chapel of the convent.
The scene is arranged as follows:
In the centre of the picture a gigantic Christ, of disproportionate size if compared with the figures grouped around him, is nailed to a cross which has been roughly trimmed so that patches of bare wood are exposed here and there; the transverse branch, dragged down by the hands, is bent as in the Karlsruhe Crucifixion into the shape of a bow. The body looks much the same in the two works: pale and shiny, dotted with spots of blood, and bristling like a chestnut-burr with splinters that the rods have left in the wounds; at the ends of the unnaturally long arms the hands twist convulsively and claw the air; the knees are turned in so that the bulbous knee-caps almost touch; while the feet, nailed one on top of the other, are just a jumbled heap of muscles underneath rotting, discoloured flesh and blue toe-nails; as for the head, it lolls on the bulging, sack-like chest patterned with stripes by the cage of the ribs. This crucified Christ would be a faithful replica of the one at Karlsruhe if the facial expression were not entirely different. Here, in fact, Jesus no longer wears the fearful rictus of tetanus; the jaw is no longer contracted, but hangs loosely, with open mouth and slavering lips.
Christ is less frightening here, but more humanly vulgar, more obviously dead. In the Karlsruhe panel the terrifying effect of the trismus, of the strident laugh, served to conceal the brutishness of the features, now accentuated by this imbecile slackness of the mouth. The Man-God of Colmar is nothing but a common thief who has met his end on the gallows.
That is not the only difference to be noted between the two works, for here the grouping of the figures is also dissimilar. At Karlsruhe the Virgin stands, as usual, on one side of the cross and St. John on the other; at Colmar the traditional arrangement is flouted, and the astonishing visionary that was Grünewald asserts himself, at once ingenious and ingenuous, a barbarian and a theologian, unique among religious painters.
On the right of the cross there are three figures: the Virgin, St. John and Magdalen. St. John, looking rather like an old German student with his peaky, clean-shaven face and his fair hair falling in long, dry wisps over a red robe, is holding in his arms a quite extraordinary Virgin, clad and coifed in white, who has fallen into a swoon, her face white as a sheet, her eyes shut, her lips parted to reveal her teeth. Her features are fine and delicate, and entirely modern; if it were not for the dark green dress which can be glimpsed close to the tighdy clenched hands, you might take her for a dead nun; she is pitiable and charming, young and beautiful. Kneeling in front of her is a little woman who is leaning back with her hands clasped together and raised towards Christ. This oldish, fair-haired creature, wearing a pink dress with a myrtle-green lining, her face cut in half below the eyes by a veil on a level with the nose, is Magdalen. She is ugly and ungainly, but so obviously inconsolable that she grips your heart and moves it to compassion.
On the other side of the picture, to the left of the cross, there stands a tall, strange figure with a shock of sandy hair cut straight across the forehead, limpid eyes, a shaggy beard, and bare arms, legs and feet, holding an open book in one hand and pointing to Christ with the other.
This tough old soldier from Franconia, with his camel-hair fleece showing under a loosely draped cloak and a belt tied in a big knot, is St. John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead, and in order to explain the emphatic, dogmatic gesture of the long, curling forefinger pointed at the Redeemer, the following inscription has been set beside his arm: Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui. 'He must increase, but I must decrease.'
He who decreased to make way for the Messiah, who in turn died to ensure the predominance of the Word in the world, is alive here, while He who was alive when he was defunct, is dead. It seems as if, in coming to life again, he is foreshadowing the triumph of the Resurrection, and that after proclaiming the Nativity before Jesus was born on earth, he is now proclaiming that Christ is born in Heaven, and heralding Easter. He has come back to bear witness to the accomplishment of the prophecies, to reveal the truth of the Scriptures; he has come back to ratify, as it were, the exactness of those words of his which will later be recorded in the Gospel of that other St. John whose place he has taken on the left of Calvary--St. John the Apostle, who does not listen to him now, who does not even see him, so engrossed is he with the Mother of Christ, as if numbed and paralysed by the manchineel of sorrow that is the cross.
So, alone in the midst of the sobbing and the awful spasms of the sacrifice, this witness of the past and the future, standing stolidly upright, neither weeps nor laments: he certifies and promulgates, impassive and resolute. And at his feet is the Lamb of the World that he baptized, carrying a cross, with a stream of blood pouring into a chalice from its wounded breast.
Thus arranged, the figures stand out against a background of gathering darkness. Behind the gibbet, which is planted on a river bank, there flows a stream of sadness, swift-moving yet the colour of stagnant water; and the somewhat theatrical presentation of the drama seems justified, so completely does it harmonize with this dismal setting, this gloom which is more than twilight but not yet night. Repelled by the sombre hues of the background, the eye inevitably turns from the glossy fleshtints of the Redeemer, whose enormous proportions no longer hold the attention, and fastens instead upon the dazzling whiteness of the Virgin's cloak, which, seconded by the vermilion of the apostle's clothes, attracts notice at the expense of the other parts, and almost makes Mary the principal figure in the work.
That would spoil the whole picture, but the balance, about to be upset in favour of the group on the right, is maintained by the unexpected gesture of the Precursor, who in his turn seizes your attention, only to direct it towards the Son.
One might almost say that, coming to this Calvary, one goes from right to left before arriving at the centre.
This is undoubtedly what the artist intended, as is the effect produced by the disproportion between the various figures, for Grünewald is a master of pictorial equilibrium and in his other works keeps everything in proportion. When he exaggerated the stature of his Christ he was trying to create a striking impression of profound suffering and great strength; similarly he made this figure more than usually remarkable in order to keep it in the foreground and prevent it from being completely eclipsed by the great patch of white that is the Virgin.
As for her, it is easy to see why he gave her such prominence, easy to understand his predilection for her--because never before had he succeeded in painting a Madonna of such divine loveliness, such super-human sorrow. Indeed, it is astonishing that she should appear at all in the rebarbative work of this artist, so completely does she differ from the type of individual he has chosen to represent God and his saints.
His Jesus is a thief, his St. John a social outcast, his Precursor a common soldier. Even assuming that they are nothing more than German peasants, she is obviously of very different extraction; she is a queen who has taken the veil, a marvellous orchid growing among weeds.
Anyone who has seen both pictures--the one at Karlsruhe and the one at Colmar--will agree that there is a clear distinction between them. The Karlsruhe Calvary is better balanced and there is no danger of one's attention wandering from the principal subject. It is also less trivial, more awe-inspiring. You have only to compare the hideous rictus of its Christ and the possibly more plebeian but certainly less degraded face of its St. John with the coma of the Colmar Christ and the world-weary grimace of the disciple for the Karlsruhe panel to appear less conjectural, more penetrating, more effective, and, in its apparent simplicity, more powerful; on the other hand, it lacks the exquisite white Virgin and it is more conventional, less novel and unexpected. The Colmar Crucifixion introduces a new element into a scene treated in the same stereotyped fashion by every other painter; it dispenses with the old moulds and discards the traditional patterns. On reflexion, it seems to be the more imposing and profound of the two works, but it must be admitted that introducing the Precursor into the tragedy of Golgotha is more the idea of a theologian and a mystic than of an artist; here it is quite likely that there was some sort of collaboration between the painter and the purchaser, a commission described in the minutest detail by Guido Guersi, the Abbot of Isenheim, in whose chapel this picture was placed.
That, incidentally, was still the normal procedure long after the Middle Ages. All the archives of the period show that when contracting with image-carvers and painters--who regarded themselves as nothing more than craftsmen--the bishops or monks used to draw a plan of the proposed work, often even indicating the number of figures to be included and explaining their significance; there was accordingly only limited scope for the artist's own initiative, as he had to work to order within strictly defined bounds.
But to return to the picture, it takes up the whole of two wood panels which, in closing, cut one of Christ's arms in two, and, when closed, bring the two groups together. The back of the picture (for it has two faces on either side) has a separate scene on each panel: a Resurrection on one and an Annunciation on the other. Let me say straight away that the latter is bad, so that we can have done with it.
The scene is an oratory, where a book painted with deceptive realism lies open to reveal the prophecy of Isaiah, whose distorted figure, topped with a turban, is floating about in a corner of the picture, near the ceiling; on her knees in front of the book we see a fair-haired, puffy-faced woman, with a complexion reddened by the cooking-stove, pouting somewhat peevishly at a great lout with a no less ruddy complexion who is pointing two extremely long fingers at her in a truly comical attitude of reproach. It must be admitted that the Precursor's solemn gesture in the Crucifixion is utterly ridiculous in this unhappy imitation, where the two fingers are extended in what looks like insolent derision. As for the curly-wigged fellow himself, with that coarse, fat, red face you would take him for a grocer rather than an angel, if it were not for the sceptre he is holding in one hand and the green-and-red wings stuck to his back. And one can but wonder how the artist who created the little white Virgin could possibly represent Our Lord's Mother in the guise of this disagreeable slut with a smirk on her swollen lips, all rigged up in her Sunday best, a rich green dress set off by a bright vermilion lining.
But if this wing leaves you with a rather painful impression, the other one sends you into raptures, for it is a truly magnificent work--unique, I would say, among the world's paintings. In it Grünewald shows himself to be the boldest painter who has ever lived, the first artist who has tried to convey, through the wretched colours of this earth, a vision of the Godhead in abeyance on the cross and then renewed, visible to the naked eye, on rising from the tomb. With him we are, mystically speaking, in at the death, contemplating an art with its back to the wall and forced further into the beyond, this time, than any theologian could have instructed the artist to go. The scene is as follows:
As the sepulchre opens, some drunks in helmet and armour are knocked head over heels to lie sprawling in the foreground, sword in hand; one of them turns a somersault further off, behind the tomb, and lands on his head, while Christ surges upwards, stretching out his arms and displaying the bloody commas on his hands.
This is a strong and handsome Christ, fair-haired and brown-eyed, with nothing in common with the Goliath whom we watched decomposing a moment ago, fastened by nails to the still green wood of a gibbet. All round this soaring body are rays emanating from it which have begun to blur its outline; already the contours of the face are fluctuating, the features hazing over, the hair dissolving into a halo of melting gold. The light spreads out in immense curves ranging from bright yellow to purple, and finally shading off little by little into a pale blue which in turn merges with the dark blue of the night.
We witness here the revival of a Godhead ablaze with life: the formation of a glorified body gradually escaping from the carnal shell, which is disappearing in an apotheosis of flames of which it is itself the source and seat.
Christ, completely transfigured, rises aloft in smiling majesty; and one is tempted to regard the enormous halo which encircles him, shining brilliantly in the starry night like that star of the Magi in whose smaller orb Grünewald's contemporaries used to place the infant Jesus when painting the Bethlehem story--one is tempted to regard this halo as the morning star returning, like the Precursor in the Crucifixion, at night: as the Christmas star grown larger since its birth in the sky, like the Messiah's body since his Nativity on earth.
Having dared to attempt this tour de force, Grünewald has carried it out with wonderful skill. In clothing the Saviour he has tried to render the changing colours of the fabrics as they are volatilized with Christ. Thus the scarlet robe turns a bright yellow, the closer it gets to the light--source of the head and neck, while the material grows lighter, becoming almost diaphanous in this river of gold. As for the white shroud which Jesus is carrying off with him, it reminds one of those Japanese fabrics which by subtle gradations change from one colour to another, for as it rises it takes on a lilac tint first of all, then becomes pure violet, and finally, like the last blue circle of the nimbus, merges into the indigo-black of the night.
The triumphant nature of this ascension is admirably conveyed. For once the apparently meaningless phrase 'the contemplative life of painting' takes on a meaning, for with Grünewald we enter into the domain of the most exalted mysticism and glimpse, through the simulacra of colour and line, the well-nigh tangible emergence of the Godhead from its physical shell.
It is here, rather than in his horrific Calvaries, that the undeniable originality of this prodigious artist is to be seen.
This Crucifixion and this Resurrection are obviously the Colmar Museum's brightest jewels, but the amazing colourist that was Grünewald did not exhaust the resources of his art with these two pictures; we shall find more of his work, this time stranger yet less exalted, in another double-faced diptych which also stands in the middle of the old nave.
It depicts, on one side the Nativity and a concert of angels, on the other a visit from the Patriarch of the Cenobites to St. Paul the Hermit, and the temptation of St. Anthony.
In point of fact, this Nativity, which is rather an exaltation of the divine Motherhood, is one with the concert of angels, as is shown by the utensils, which overlap from one wing to the other and are cut in two when the panels are brought together.
The subject of this dual painting is admittedly obscure. In the left-hand wing the Virgin is seen against a distant, bluish landscape dominated by a monastery on a hill--doubtless Isenheim Abbey; on her left, beside a crib, a tub and a pot, a fig-tree is growing, and a rose-tree on her right. Fair-haired, with a florid complexion, thick lips, a high, bare brow and a straight nose, she is wearing a blue cloak over a carmine-coloured dress. She is not the servant-girl type, and has not come straight from the sheep-pen like her sister in the Annunciation, but for all that she is still just an honest German woman bred on beer and sausages: a farmer's wife, if you like, with servant-girls under her who look like the Mary of that other picture, but nothing more. As for the Child, who is very lifelike and very skilfully portrayed, he is a sturdy little Swabian peasant, with a snub nose, sharp eyes, and a pink, smiling face. And finally, in the sky above Jesus and Mary and below God the Father, who is smothered in clouds of orange and gold, swarms of angels are whirling about like scattered petals caught in a shower of saffron sunbeams.
All these figures are completely earthbound, and the artist seems to have realized this, for there is a radiance emanating from the Child's head and lighting up the Mother's fingers and face. Grünewald obviously wanted to convey the idea of divinity by means of these gleams of light filtering through the flesh, but this time he was not bold enough to achieve the desired effect: the luminous glow fails to conceal either the vulgarity of the face or the coarseness of the features.
So far, in any event, the subject is clear enough, but the same cannot be said of the complementary scene on the right-hand wing.
Here, in an ultra-Gothic chapel, with gold-scumbled pinnacles bristling with sinuous statues of prophets nestling among chicory, hop, knapweed and holly leaves, on top of slender pillars entwined by plants with singularly jagged leaves and twisted stems, are angels of every description, some in human form and others appearing simply as heads fitted into haloes shaped like funeral wreaths or collarettes: angels with pink or blue faces, angels with multicoloured or monochrome wings, angels playing the angelot or the theorbo or the viola d'amore, and all of them, like the pasty-faced, unhealthy-looking one in the foreground, gazing in adoration at the great Virgin in the other wing.
The effect is decidedly odd, but even odder is the appearance, beside these pure spirits and between two of the slender columns in the chapel, of another, smaller Virgin, this time crowned with a diadem of red-hot iron, who, her face suffused with a golden halo, her eyes cast down and her hands joined in prayer, is kneeling before the other Virgin and the Child.
What is the significance of this strange creature, who evokes the same weird impression as the girl with the cock and the money-pouch in Rembrandt's Night Watch--a girl likewise nimbed with a gentle radiance? Is this phantom queen a diminutive St. Anne or some other saint? She looks just like a Madonna, and a Madonna is what she must be. In painting her Grünewald has clearly tried to reproduce the light effect which blurs the features of Christ in his Resurrection, but it is difficult to see why he should do so here. It may be, of course, that he wanted to represent the Virgin, crowned after her Assumption, returning to earth with her angelic retinue to pay homage to that Motherhood which was her supreme glory; or, on the other hand, she may still be in this world, foreseeing the celebration of her triumph after her painful life among us. But this last hypothesis is promptly demolished by Mary's unheeding attitude, for she appears to be completely unaware of the presence of the winged musicians, and intent only on amusing the Child. In fact, these are all unsupported theories, and it would be simpler to admit that we just do not understand. I need only add that these two pictures are painted in loud colours which are sometimes positively shrill to make it clear that this faery spectacle presented in a crazy Gothic setting leaves one feeling vaguely uncomfortable.
As a refreshing contrast, however, one can always linger in front of the panel showing St. Anthony talking with St. Paul; it is the only restful picture in the whole series, and one is already so accustomed to the vehemence of the others that one is almost tempted to find it too unexciting, to consider it too anodyne.
In a rural setting that is all bright blue and moss green, the two recluses are sitting face to face: St. Anthony curiously attired, for a man who has just crossed the desert, in a pearl-grey cloak, a blue robe and a pink cap; St. Paul dressed in his famous robe of palms, which has here become a mere robe of rushes, with a doe at his feet and the traditional raven flying through the trees to bring him the usual hermit's meal of a loaf of bread.
In this picture the colouring is quiet and delicate, the composition superb: the subject may have put a certain restraint upon Grünewald, but he has lost none of the qualities which make him a great painter. To anyone who prefers the cordial, expected welcome of a pleasing picture to the uncertainties of a visit to some more turbulent work of art, this wing will undoubtedly seem the nicest, soundest and sanest of them all. It constitutes a halt in the man's mad gallop--but only a brief halt, for he sets off again almost at once, and in the next wing we find him giving free rein to his fancy, caracolling along dangerous paths, and sounding a full fanfare of colours--as violent and tempestuous as he was in his other works.
The Temptation of St. Anthony must have given him enormous pleasure, for this picture of a demons' sabbath waging war on the good monk called for the most convulsive attitudes, the most extravagant forms and the most vehement colours. Nor was he slow to grasp this opportunity of exploiting the droller side of the supernatural. But if there is extraordinary life and colour in the Temptation, there is also utter confusion. Indeed, the picture is in such a tangle that it is impossible to distinguish between the limbs of the various devils, and one would be hard put to it to say which paw or wing beating or scratching the Saint belonged to which animal or bird.
The frantic hurly-burly in which these creatures are taking part is none the less captivating for that. It is true that Grünewald cannot match the ingenious variety and the very orderly disorder of a Bruegel or a Hieronymus Bosch, and that there is nothing here to compare with the diversity of clearly delineated and discreetly insane larvae which you find in the Fall of the Angels in the Brussels Museum: our painter has a more restricted fancy, a more limited imagination. He gives us a few demons' heads stuck with stags' antlers or straight horns, a shark's maw, and what appears to be the muzzle of a walrus or a calf; the rest of his superall belong to the bird family, and with arms in place of feet look like the offspring of empuses that have been covered by angry cocks.
All these escapees from an infernal aviary are clustered excitedly around the anchorite, who has been thrown on his back and is being dragged along by his hair. Looking rather like a Dutch version of Father Becker with his flowing beard, St. Anthony is screaming with fear, trying to protect his face with one hand, and in the other clutching his stick and his rosary, which are being pecked at furiously by a hen wearing a carapace in lieu of feathers. The monstrous creatures are all closing in for the kill; a sort of giant parrot, with a green head, crimson arms, yellow claws and grey-gold plumage, is on the point of clubbing the monk, while another demon is pulling off his grey cloak and chewing it up, and yet others are joining in, swinging rib-bones and frantically tearing his clothes to get at him.
Considered simply as a man, St. Anthony is wonderfully lifelike in gesture and expression; and once you have taken your fill of the whole dizzy scramble, you may notice two thought-provoking details which you overlooked at first, hidden as they seem to be in the bottom corners. One, in the right-hand corner, is a sheet of paper on which a few lines are written; the other is a weird, hooded creature, sitting quite naked beside the Saint, and writhing in agony.
The paper bears this inscription: Ubi eras Jhesu bone, ubi eras, quare non affuisti ut sanares vulnera mea?--which can be translated as: 'Where were you, good Jesus, where were you? And why did you not come and dress my wounds?'
This plaint, doubtless uttered by the hermit in his distress, is heard and answered, for if you look right at the top of the picture you will see a legion of angels coming down to release the captive and overpower the demons.
It may be asked whether this desperate appeal is not also being made by the monster lying in the opposite corner of the picture and raising his weary head heavenwards. And is this creature a larva or a man? Whatever it may be, one thing is certain: no painter has ever gone so far in the representation of putrefaction, nor does any medical textbook contain a more frightening illustration of skin disease. This bloated body, moulded in greasy white soap mottled with blue, and mamillated with boils and carbuncles, is the hosanna of gangrene, the song of triumph of decay!
Was Grünewald's intention to depict a demon in its most despicable form? I think not. On careful examination the figure in question is seen to be a decomposing, suffering human being. And if it is recalled that this picture, like the others, comes from the Anthonite Abbey of Isenheim, everything becomes clear. A brief account of the aims of this Order will, I think, suffice to explain the riddle. The Anthonite or Anthonine Order was founded in the Dauphiné in 1093 by a nobleman called Gaston whose son was cured of the burning sickness through the intercession of St. Anthony; its raison d'être was the care of people suffering from this type of disease. Placed under the Rule of St. Augustine, the Order spread rapidly across France and Germany, and became so popular in the latter country that during Grünewald's lifetime, in 1502, the Emperor Maximilian I granted it, as a mark of esteem, the right to bear the Imperial arms on its escutcheon, together with the blue tau which the monks themselves were to wear on their black habit.
Now there was at that time an Anthonite abbey at Isenheim which had already stood there for over a century. The burning sickness was still rife, so that the monastery was in fact a hospital. We know too that it was the Abbot of Isenheim, or rather, to use the terminology of this Order, the Preceptor, Guido Guersi, who commissioned this polyptych from Grünewald.
It is now easy to understand the inclusion of St. Anthony in this series of paintings. It is also easy to understand the terrifying realism and meticulous accuracy of Grünewald's Christ-figures, which he obviously modelled on the corpses in the hospital mortuary; the proof is that Dr. Richet, examining his Crucifixions from the medical point of view, states that 'attention to detail is carried to the point of indicating the inflammatory halo which develops around minor wounds'. Above all, it is easy to understand the picture--painted from life in the hospital ward--of that hideous, agonized figure in the Temptation, which is neither a larva nor a demon, but simply a poor wretch suffering from the burning sickness.
It should be added that the written descriptions of this scourge which have come down to us correspond in every respect with Grünewald's pictorial description, so that any doctor who wants to know what form this happily extinct disease took can go and study the sores and the affected tissues shown in the painting at Colmar.
Two doctors have given their attention to this figure: Charcot and Richet. The former, in Les Syphilitiques dans l'art, sees it above all as a picture of the so--called 'Neapolitan disease'; the latter, in L'Art et la Médecine, hesitates between a disease of that type and leprosy.
The burning sickness, also known as holy fire, hell fire and St. Anthony's fire, first appeared in Europe in the tenth century, and swept the whole continent. It partook of both gangrenous ergotism and the plague, showing itself in the form of apostems and abscesses, gradually spreading to the arms and legs, and after burning them up, detaching them little by little from the torso. That at least is how it was described in the fifteenth century by the biographers of St. Lydwine, who was afflicted with the disease. Dom Félibien likewise mentions it in his History of Paris, where he says of the epidemic which ravaged France in the twelfth century: 'The victims' blood was affected by a poisonous inflammation which consumed the whole body, producing tumours which developed into incurable ulcers and caused thousands of deaths.'
What is certain is that not a single remedy proved successful in checking the disease, and that often it was cured only by the intercession of the Virgin and the saints.
The Virgin's intervention is still commemorated by the shrine of Notre-Dame des Ardents in Picardy, and there is a well-known cult of the holy candle of Arras. As for the saints, apart from St. Anthony, people invoked St. Martin, who had saved the lives of a number of victims gathered together in a church dedicated to him; prayers were also said to St. Israel, Canon of Le Dorat, to St. Gilbert, Bishop of Meaux, and finally to Geneviève. This was because, one day in the reign of Louis the Fat when her shrine was being carried in solemn procession around the Cathedral of Paris, she cured a crowd of people afflicted with the disease who had taken refuge in the basilica, and this miracle caused such a stir that, in order to preserve the memory of it, a church was built in the same city under the invocation of Sainte-Geneviève des Ardents; it no longer exists, but the Parisian Breviary still celebrates the Saint's feast-day under that name.
But to return to Grünewald, who, I repeat, has clearly left us a truthful picture of a victim of this type of gangrene, the Colmar Museum also contains a predella Entombment, with a livid Christ speckled with flecks of blood, a hard-faced St. John with pale ochre-coloured hair, a heavily veiled Virgin and a Magdalen disfigured by tears. However, this predella is merely a feeble echo of Grünewald's great Crucifixions: it would be astounding, seen on its own in a collection of canvases by other painters, but here it is not even astonishing.
Mention must be made as well of two rectangular wings: one depicting a little bandy-legged St. Sebastian larded with arrows; the other--a panel cited by Sandrart--St. Anthony holding the Tau, the crozier of his Order--a St. Anthony so solemn and so thoughtful that he can even ignore the demon busily breaking window-panes behind him. And that brings us to the end of our review of this master-painter's works. You take leave of him spellbound for ever. And if you look for his origins you will look in vain, for none of the painters who preceded him or who were his contemporaries resembles him.
One can perhaps discern a certain foreign influence in Grünewald's work; as Goutzwiller points out in his booklet on the Colmar Museum, it is possible to see a reminiscence or a vague imitation of the contemporary Italian landscape manner in the way in which he plans his settings and sprinkles his skies with blue. Had he travelled in Italy, or had he seen pictures by Italian masters in Germany--perhaps at Isenheim itself, since the Preceptor Guido Guersi, to judge by his name, hailed from beyond the Alps? No one knows; but in any event, the very existence of this influence is open to question. It is, in fact, by no means certain that this man who anticipates modern painting, reminding one sometimes of Renoir with his acid colours and of the Japanese with his skilful nuances, did not arrange his landscapes without benefit of memories or copies, painting them from nature as he found them in the countryside of Thuringia or Swabia; for he could easily have seen the bright bluish backcloth of his Nativity in those parts. Nor do I share Goutzwiller's opinion that there is an unmistakable 'Italian touch' in the inclusion of a cluster of palm-trees in the picture of the two anchorites. The introduction of this type of tree into an Oriental landscape is so natural and so clearly called for by the subject that it does not imply any outside suggestion or influence. In any event, if Grünewald did know the work of foreign artists, it is surprising that he should have confined himself to borrowing their method of arranging and depicting skies and woods, while refraining from copying their technique of composition and their way of painting Jesus and the Virgin, the angels and the saints.
His landscapes, I repeat, are definitely German, as is proved by certain details. These may strike many people as having been invented to create an effect, to add a note of pathos to the drama of Calvary, yet in fact they are strictly accurate. This is certainly true of the bloody soil in which the Karlsruhe cross is planted, and which is no product of the imagination. Grünewald did much of his painting in Thuringia, where the earth, saturated with iron oxide, is red; I myself have seen it sodden with rain and looking like the mud of a slaughter-house, a swamp of blood.
As for his human figures, they are all typically German, and he owes just as little to Italian art when it comes to the arrangement of dress fabrics. These he has really woven himself, and they are so distinctive that they would be sufficient in themselves to identify his pictures among those of all other painters. With him we are far removed from the little puffs, the sharp elbows and the short frills of the Primitives; he drapes his clothes magnificently in flowing movements and long folds, using materials that are closely woven and deeply dyed. In the Karlsruhe Crucifixion they have something about them suggestive of bark ripped from a tree: the same harsh quality as the picture itself. At Colmar this impression is not so pronounced, but they still reveal the multiplicity of layers, the slight stiffness of texture, the ridges and the hollows which are the hallmark of Grünewald's work; this is particularly true of Christ's loincloth and St. John the Baptist's cloak.
Here again he is nobody's pupil, and we have no alternative but to put him down in the history of painting as an exceptional artist, a barbarian of genius who bawls out coloured prayers in an original dialect, an outlandish tongue.
His tempestuous soul goes from one extreme to another, restless and storm-tossed even during moments of deliberate repose; but just as it is deeply moving when meditating on the episodes of the Passion, so it is erratic and well-nigh baroque when reflecting on the joys of the Nativity. The truth is that it simpers and stammers when there is no torturing to be done, for Gruenwald is the painter of tombs rather than cribs, and he can only depict the Virgin successfully when he makes her suffer. Otherwise he sees her as red-faced and vulgar, and there is such a difference between his Madonnas of the sorrowful mysteries and his Madonnas of the joyful mysteries that one wonders whether he was not following an aesthetic system, a scheme of intentional antitheses.
It is, indeed, quite likely that he decided that the quality of divine Motherhood would only come out clearly under the stress of the suffering endured at the foot of the cross. This theory would certainly fit in with the one he adopted whenever he wished to glorify the divine nature of the Son, for he always painted the living Christ as the Psalmist and Isaiah pictured him--as the poorest and ugliest of men--and only restored his divine appearance to him after his Passion and death. In other words, Grünewald made the ugliness of the crucified Messiah the symbol of all the sins of the world which Christ took upon himself, thus illustrating a doctrine which was expounded by Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Cyril, St. Justin and countless others, and which was current for a good part of the Middle Ages.
He may also have been the victim of a technique which Rembrandt was to use after him: the technique of suggesting the idea of divinity by means of the light emanating from the very face that is supposed to represent it. Admirable in his Resurrection of Christ, this secretion of light is less convincing when he applies it to the little Virgin in the Angelic Concert and completely ineffective when he uses it to portray the fundamentally vulgar Child in the Nativity.
He probably placed too much reliance on these devices, crediting them with an efficacy they could not possess. It should, indeed, be noted that, if the light spinning like an artificial sun around the risen Christ suggests to us a vision of a divine world, it is because Christ's face lends itself to that idea by its gentle beauty. It strengthens rather than weakens the significance and effect of that huge halo, which in turn softens and enhances the features, veiling them in a mist of gold.
Such is the complete Grünewald polyptych in the Colmar Museum. I do not intend to deal here with those paintings attributed to him which are scattered among other art-galleries and churches, and which for the most part are not his work. I shall also pass over the Munich St. Erasmus and St. Maurice, which, if it must be accepted as his work, is cold and uncharacteristic; I shall even set aside the Fall of Jesus, which like the famous Crucifixion has been transferred from Cassel to Karlsruhe, and which is undoubtedly genuine. It shows a blue-clad Christ on his knees, dragging his cross, in the midst of a group of soldiers dressed in red and executioners dressed in white with pistachio stripes. He is gritting his teeth and digging his fingernails into the wood, but his expression is less of suffering than of anger, and he looks like a damned soul. This, in short, is a bad Grünewald.
Confining myself therefore to the brilliant, awe-inspiring flower of his art, the Karlsruhe Crucifixion and the nine pieces at Colmar, I find that his work can only be defined by coupling together contradictory terms.
The man is, in fact, a mass of paradoxes and contrasts. This Orlando furioso of painting is forever leaping from one extravagance to another, but when necessary the frenzied demoniac turns into a highly skilled artist who is up to every trick of the trade. Though he loves nothing better than a startling clash of colours, he can also display, when in good form, an extremely delicate sense of light and shade--his Resurrection is proof of that--and he knows how to combine the most hostile hues by gently coaxing them together with adroit chromatic diplomacy.
He is at once naturalistic and mystical, savage and sophisticated, ingenuous and deceitful. One might say that he personifies the fierce and pettifogging spirit of the Germany of his time, a Germany excited by the ideas of the Reformation. Was he involved, like Cranach and Dürer, in that emotional religious movement which was to end in the most austere coldness of the heart, once the Protestant swamp had frozen over? I cannot say-- though he certainly lacks nothing of the harsh fervour and vulgar faith which characterized the illusory springtide of the early sixteenth century. For me, however, he personifies still more the religious piety of the sick and the poor. That awful Christ who hung dying over the altar of the Isenheim hospital would seem to have been made in the image of the ergotics who prayed to him; they must surely have found consolation in the thought that this God they invoked had suffered the same torments as themselves, and had become flesh in a form as repulsive as their own; and they must have felt less forsaken, less contemptible. It is easy to see why Grünewald's name, unlike the names of Holbein, Cranach and Dürer, is not to be found in the account-books or the records of commissions left by emperors and princes. His pestiferous Christ would have offended the taste of the courts; he could only be understood by the sick, the unhappy and the monks, by the suffering members of Christ.
“Martians, Go Home” is a broad satire of the human race as seen through the eyes of a billion jeering, invulnerable Martians who arrive not to conquer the world but to drive it crazy.
The following is a brief biography of Fredric Brown from the Goodreads website (at www.goodreads.com/author/show/51503.Fredric_Brown):
"Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was one of the boldest early writers in genre fiction in his use of narrative experimentation. While never in the front rank of popularity in his lifetime, Brown has developed a considerable cult following in the almost half century since he last wrote. His works have been periodically reprinted and he has a worldwide fan base, most notably in the U.S. and Europe, and especially in France, where there have been several recent movie adaptations of his work. He also remains popular in Japan.
"Never financially secure, Brown - like many other pulp writers - often wrote at a furious pace in order to pay bills. This accounts, at least in part, for the uneven quality of his work. A newspaperman by profession, Brown was only able to devote 14 years of his life as a full-time fiction writer. Brown was also a heavy drinker, and this at times doubtless affected his productivity. A cultured man and omnivorous reader whose interests ranged far beyond those of most pulp writers, Brown had a lifelong interest in the flute, chess, poker, and the works of Lewis Carroll. Brown married twice and was the father of two sons."
The Democrats have lost the Senate, and what happens next is going to depend a lot on what President Obama is willing to stand up and fight for. Here are some reasons why we lost. Yes WE, as in We The People. Unless you are among the richest 1% of Americans, you are one of US regardless of how you feel about the two major political parties. If you are one of the richest 1%, then you are probably one of my political enemies or a fool who does their dirty work. So help us fix the Jackass party so we can go hunt Wooly Mammoths and make them extinct.
•We were up against hundreds of millions of dollars in spending by right wing extremists and billionaires.
•Our electoral system is rigged in perverse ways by backward state legislatures and election officials in order to SUPRESS the act of VOTING among minorities and the progressive base.
•Democratic Party committees and candidate campaigns wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on ineffective negative television advertising. If this money had been invested in voter mobilization on the ground instead, Democrats would not have lost the Senate. Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaigns work.
Given the massive amounts of money dominating our political system, putting organizers on the ground in key states to build a community of motivated and hardworking volunteers who will go door-to-door and call their neighbors about why their vote matters is the only way we win.
The progressive base turnout was down in this election in part because President Obama has been far too reluctant to use his executive power to deliver victories on key progressive issues from climate to immigration to economic justice.
To make matters worse, the Republicans now in control of the Senate and House will do everything in their power to advance their Tea Party agenda – including what Democrats refused to do, like getting rid of the filibuster for legislation, using reconciliation to pass bills with only 51 votes, and continuing to refuse to compromise in the face of Democrats all too willing to cave preemptively.
President Obama can no longer credibly suggest that there is a bipartisan path to progress – though his advisors may urge him to do just that. He needs to take executive action. He must refuse to cave to Republicans. He cannot waste time negotiating with bad faith partners who have no intention of compromising ever. Whenever President Obama has gotten tough with those cowardly “tea party” hacks, they always get the hell out of his way. Compromise, cooperation, and being nice to them do not work because they are not the traditional “loyal opposition” of yesteryear.
Here are 10 things President Obama needs to do IMMEDIATELY -- and 10 things that aren’t likely to happen if we don’t make him do it.
1.No deals on cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
2.Strengthen the power plant carbon rule to make it our boldest action yet on climate.
3.Immediately suspend deportations of millions of aspiring Americans until comprehensive immigration reform can be passed.
4.Don’t commit ground troops to Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.
5.Reject the Keystone XL pipeline, and apply the climate test to all federal decision making.
6.Save the Internet by making Net Neutrality the law of the land.
7.Empower your Federal Election Commission to enforce election laws and limit money in politics.
8.Fill all federal judicial vacancies before the end of this Congress.
9.Fight back against the Republican war on women with NO compromises.
10.Use federal powers to end abusive, militarized and biased policing targeting African Americans and Latinos.
Here is what YOU TELL President Obama: act.credoaction.com/sign/10_things_obama/?t=5&akid=12... . That’s right, YOU tell him to get off his butt and lead by example. This is not a request. Do it NOW if you are an American.
This was edited from a letter by Credo Action.com 5 November 2014 and expanded with my words. The gun and knife in the photo are real but powerless weapons for this fight.
8th February 2005: Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Each year on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, Ashbourne becomes a war zone! The majority of the ablebodied men, women and children take to the streets to play what is probally the largets football game in the world! - The two teams number in the hundreds, and the palying field is 3 miles long, 2 miles wide and has the town of Ashbourne in the middle!
Shops are boarded up, only an idiot (or an unsuspecting visitor!) would park his or her car anywhere in the town!
The origin of this game is lost in the mists of time, and it is thought to date from Elizabethan times. The earliest reference seems to be in a poam by Charles Cotton in 1683 :-
Burlesque upon the Great Frost
Two towns, that long that war had raged
Being at football now engaged
For honour, as both sides pretend,
Left the brave trial to be ended
Till the next thaw for they were frozen
On either part at least a dozen,
With a good handsome space between 'em
Like Rollerich stones, if you've seen 'em
And could no more run, kick, or trip ye
Than I can quaff off Aganippe.
Charles Cotton (1630-1687)
The game is played by those Ashburnians who were born on the north side of the Henmore river - the Up'ards, against those born on the south side - the Down'ards.
The kick-off or "turning up" of the specially made and painted ball takes place from a brick built plinth in the town centre at the Shawcroft carpark, by a local or national figure. (It was the then Prince of Wales - later Edward VII - who turned up the ball in 1928 and thus giving the game its "Royal" title.)
Our current Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles, turned the ball up in 2003. (Click here to download the speech he made in the Green Man prior to the start)
The game starts each day at 2 pm when the ball is "turned up" in the Shaw Croft Carpark (behind the supermarkets in the town centre). The game then lasts until 10 pm. If a goal is scored before 6 pm, then a new ball is "turned up" again and a new game started. If the goal is after 6 pm then the game ends for that day. Link to Andy Savage's interactive map of the "pitch"
The two goals are situated 3 miles apart - one at Sturston, and one at Clifton. The goals were originally the mill wheels at two local mills, the miles are long since gone, the goals now being two purpose built structures.
A goal is scored by tapping the ball three times against a marker board attached to the stone goal plinth.
The rules are quite complex when it comes to scoring the goal - the actual person who scores is pre-chosen. When the ball reaches the goal, the game is paused and the ball is then handed to the member of that team who has been given the honour of actually gaoling the ball. Gaoling consists of knocking the ball against the goal stone.
Its a bit like cricket - difficult to explain - no doubt a native Ashburnian could explain them to you better then I can.
Needless to say - the pubs remain open all day during the game, all the shops and banks have wooden barriers up against their windows and some close for the day (looks like Beirut a bit). If you did not know about the game and you drove into Ashbourne - you would probably think that there is a major case of civil unrest going on!
If you visit Ashbourne on these days - be careful where you park your car!! If you find a street that has no parking restrictions but no cars parked there - think on, the locals know something you don't!! There's a reason why wildebeest go around in large herds!!
The Balls
The balls used for the Shrovetide games are made by Ashbourne man John Harrison. The ball is larger than a conventional football and, unlike its modern counterpart, is rarely kicked. The hand-sewn, leather balls are filled with Portuguese cork chippings (to help them float when they land in the River Henmore).
The balls are usually painted in a design relevant to the person turning up the ball. The balls are real works of art and take about a month to paint. If a ball is gaoled, then it will become the proud possession of the person who has gaoled it. If no-one goals it, then the person named on the ball gets to take it home.
The Anthem
The song was written for a concert in 1891 which was held in aid of funds to pay fines for playing the game in the street. It is now sung each day at the pre-game luncheon in the Green Man Royal Hotel.
Words to the song
There's a town still plays this glorious game
Tho' tis but a little spot.
And year by year the contest's fought
From the field that's called Shaw Croft.
Then friend meets friend in friendly strife
The leather for to gain,
'And they play the game right manfully,
In snow, sunshine or rain.
Chorus
'Tis a glorious game, deny it who can
That tries the pluck of an Englishman.
For loyal the Game shall ever be
No matter when or where,
And treat that Game as ought but the free,
Is more than the boldest dare.
Though the up's and down's of its chequered life
May the ball still ever roll,
Until by fair and gallant strife
We've reached the treasur'd goal.
Chorus
'Tis a glorious game, deny it who can
That tries the pluck of an Englishman.
She's an indoor cat that is afraid of her own shadow. But there is just something about rolling around on the concrete outside that turns her into the boldest of cats. That is of course, until she sees her shadow.
Blogged here: Outside
MACLEAN, WILLIAM FINDLAY, newspaperman and politician; b. 10 Aug. 1854 in Ancaster, Upper Canada, eldest son of John Maclean, a journalist, and Isabella Findlay; m. 3 June 1885 Catherine Gwynne Lewis in Toronto, and they had a son and a daughter; d. 7 Dec. 1929 near Toronto.
Of Scottish background, William Findlay Maclean was educated at schools in Hamilton and at the University of Toronto (ba 1880). He followed his father’s career path and strong protectionist views. In the early 1870s he was a copyboy and writer for the Hamilton Times; in 1875 he became parliamentary correspondent for the Toronto Liberal [see John Cameron*] and then joined the Globe as John Gordon Brown’s secretary and city editor.
Maclean’s journalistic and political interests were closely intertwined. In August 1880 he and Globe reporter Albert Horton founded the World to support Liberal candidate Peter Ryan in a local by-election. After Maclean bought out Horton in October 1881, the paper would become a family affair, with his father, his brothers (James Hector, John, and Wallace), and eventually his son (Hugh John) working on it. It emulated the local papers founded by John Ross Robertson*, who had introduced the American-style “penny” press for the mass market. Bright and iconoclastic, the World gave Torontonians a taste of the populist crusades and sensationalism pioneered by the New York Herald. The new one-cent daily had an immediate impact; some found it the “editorially boldest,” others viewed it as decidedly downscale.
The World’s irreverence, noisy exposés of civic corruption, skilful skirting of libel, and opposition to the religious establishment made it the favourite of Toronto’s trolley-travelling working class. Maclean tweaked Sabbatarian sensitivity in 1891 by establishing the weekly Sunday World. In addition, persistent campaigning by the World from 1894 helped lead to the referendum of 1897 that allowed streetcars on Sundays. When Maclean entered the fray in 1907 in support of a municipally owned electrical utility to compete with Toronto Electric Light, he spoke from a strong populist base, reinforced by the brilliant cartoon work of Samuel Hunter. Maclean’s espousal of public interest spread through his training of such prominent newsmen as Hector Willoughby Charlesworth*, Joseph E. Atkinson*, and John Bayne Maclean. Charlesworth remembered “W. F.” (others called him Billy) taking on any task – sweeping, hefting newsprint, “grinding out little witty paragraphs shrewd as rapier thrusts.”
Maclean’s populist inclinations had probably hastened his entry into politics. Initially the World had identified itself as an “Independent Liberal” journal, but by the mid 1880s it was criticizing Ontario’s Liberal premier, Oliver Mowat*, over liquor licensing and other issues. Maclean ran unsuccessfully for the provincial legislature in 1890 as a Conservative in Wentworth North. Federally the following year he almost upset former prime minister Alexander Mackenzie* in York East. Victorious in the by-election there on 11 May 1892, he was repeatedly re-elected in this Toronto-area riding and, from 1904, in York South.
In the House of Commons, he was as mercurial as he was at his newspaper. Nominally a Conservative, particularly on the protective tariff, he gained a reputation for unpredictable independence. As early as 1894 some Conservatives called him the “man with the knife” because of his role in breaking the news of Prime Minister Sir John Sparrow David Thompson*’s serious state of health. Maclean’s attempts to undermine Ontario Conservative leader James Pliny Whitney* and then federal leader Robert Laird Borden*, combined with rumours of his involvement in starting new parties, led the Daily Mail and Empire to read him out of the party in 1905. He subsequently ran as an independent Conservative. In 1907 his connivance to help the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier* led to his acclamation the following year; at his nomination he lashed out at big business, appeared to befriend labour, and posted himself as the harbinger of “new ideas and new things for my party’s platform. . . . The party system’s all right, but I am not a machine.” Conservative distrust deepened when he supported Laurier’s naval policy in 1910. In 1926 the maverick mp was defeated by a bona fide Conservative, Robert Henry McGregor.
If Maclean’s independence cost him respect, his 34 years as a backbencher and unrelenting promotion of radical causes gained him notoriety. His favourite demands included a “Bank of Canada,” a national currency, the public ownership of railways, hydroelectricity, and telephones, and a uniform passenger rate on trains. His nationalism, expressed in his opposition to reciprocity and his calls for a Canadian-made constitution and a Canadian head of state, could occasionally take an eccentric turn. He argued, for example, that Hudson Bay should be renamed “Canada’s Sea.” In 1902, in the midst of his federal career, he had contested the mayoralty of Toronto. Dismissed by incumbent Oliver Aiken Howland as a bid to “revolutionize everything,” Maclean’s platform embraced public ownership, a doubtful concern for labour, and a vigorous hostility to big corporations and monopoly. He managed to poll 8,816 votes to Howland’s 13,424, a result that reflected his perennial popularity.
Maclean’s political career was further hobbled because, as the Globe pointed out, he was the “poorest of business men.” The World always teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. This precarious state led Maclean to some questionable practices, giving the impression that his editorial views were for sale; in 1887 Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald* had been advised that he could be bought for $10,000. Though he remained stubbornly independent, his advocacy of some causes was tainted by self-interest. He accepted money from a grateful Toronto Railway Company after the successful Sunday battle. In 1911 the Globe claimed that the World had solicited deposits for the “rotten” Farmers Bank of Canada in exchange for its financial support. Later, Maclean’s campaign for the construction of a viaduct over the Don River in Toronto was compromised by his ownership of Donlands, his farm west of the valley.
The decline of the financially troubled World, which was sold to the Daily Mail and Empire in 1921, was attributed by Hector Charlesworth to “the divided ambition of its chief,” his constant shift between the editor’s desk and the “turmoils” of politics. At his death the Globe would conclude, “That quality of independence which had made him shine in journalism also made him a personality in Parliament, but it finally spelled his political ruin.” Maclean died in 1929 in York Township at Bayview, the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Henry Arthur Sifton, and was buried in the cemetery of St John’s Anglican Church, York Mills (Toronto).
WINTER HAVEN, FL -- LEGOLAND® Florida Water Park splashes into a second year of family fun with twice as many LEGO® bricks for all to enjoy. Two million LEGO bricks have been added since its debut last year bringing the total to an astounding four million LEGO bricks found in impressive models throughout the water park. Opening for the season on March 9, the LEGOLAND Water Park is unique in that it is specifically geared toward families with children ages two to 12 offering interactive, water play fun for the most timid of tikes to the boldest of tweens. (PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND)
MACLEAN, WILLIAM FINDLAY, newspaperman and politician; b. 10 Aug. 1854 in Ancaster, Upper Canada, eldest son of John Maclean, a journalist, and Isabella Findlay; m. 3 June 1885 Catherine Gwynne Lewis in Toronto, and they had a son and a daughter; d. 7 Dec. 1929 near Toronto.
Of Scottish background, William Findlay Maclean was educated at schools in Hamilton and at the University of Toronto (ba 1880). He followed his father's career path and strong protectionist views. In the early 1870s he was a copyboy and writer for the Hamilton Times; in 1875 he became parliamentary correspondent for the Toronto Liberal [see John Cameron*] and then joined the Globe as John Gordon Brown's secretary and city editor.
Maclean's journalistic and political interests were closely intertwined. In August 1880 he and Globe reporter Albert Horton founded the World to support Liberal candidate Peter Ryan in a local by-election. After Maclean bought out Horton in October 1881, the paper would become a family affair, with his father, his brothers (James Hector, John, and Wallace), and eventually his son (Hugh John) working on it. It emulated the local papers founded by John Ross Robertson*, who had introduced the American-style "penny" press for the mass market. Bright and iconoclastic, the World gave Torontonians a taste of the populist crusades and sensationalism pioneered by the New York Herald. The new one-cent daily had an immediate impact; some found it the "editorially boldest," others viewed it as decidedly downscale.
The World's irreverence, noisy exposés of civic corruption, skilful skirting of libel, and opposition to the religious establishment made it the favourite of Toronto's trolley-travelling working class. Maclean tweaked Sabbatarian sensitivity in 1891 by establishing the weekly Sunday World. In addition, persistent campaigning by the World from 1894 helped lead to the referendum of 1897 that allowed streetcars on Sundays. When Maclean entered the fray in 1907 in support of a municipally owned electrical utility to compete with Toronto Electric Light, he spoke from a strong populist base, reinforced by the brilliant cartoon work of Samuel Hunter. Maclean's espousal of public interest spread through his training of such prominent newsmen as Hector Willoughby Charlesworth*, Joseph E. Atkinson*, and John Bayne Maclean. Charlesworth remembered "W. F." (others called him Billy) taking on any task – sweeping, hefting newsprint, "grinding out little witty paragraphs shrewd as rapier thrusts."
Maclean's populist inclinations had probably hastened his entry into politics. Initially the World had identified itself as an "Independent Liberal" journal, but by the mid 1880s it was criticizing Ontario's Liberal premier, Oliver Mowat*, over liquor licensing and other issues. Maclean ran unsuccessfully for the provincial legislature in 1890 as a Conservative in Wentworth North. Federally the following year he almost upset former prime minister Alexander Mackenzie* in York East. Victorious in the by-election there on 11 May 1892, he was repeatedly re-elected in this Toronto-area riding and, from 1904, in York South.
In the House of Commons, he was as mercurial as he was at his newspaper. Nominally a Conservative, particularly on the protective tariff, he gained a reputation for unpredictable independence. As early as 1894 some Conservatives called him the "man with the knife" because of his role in breaking the news of Prime Minister Sir John Sparrow David Thompson*'s serious state of health. Maclean's attempts to undermine Ontario Conservative leader James Pliny Whitney* and then federal leader Robert Laird Borden*, combined with rumours of his involvement in starting new parties, led the Daily Mail and Empire to read him out of the party in 1905. He subsequently ran as an independent Conservative. In 1907 his connivance to help the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier* led to his acclamation the following year; at his nomination he lashed out at big business, appeared to befriend labour, and posted himself as the harbinger of "new ideas and new things for my party's platform. . . . The party system's all right, but I am not a machine." Conservative distrust deepened when he supported Laurier's naval policy in 1910. In 1926 the maverick mp was defeated by a bona fide Conservative, Robert Henry McGregor.
If Maclean's independence cost him respect, his 34 years as a backbencher and unrelenting promotion of radical causes gained him notoriety. His favourite demands included a "Bank of Canada," a national currency, the public ownership of railways, hydroelectricity, and telephones, and a uniform passenger rate on trains. His nationalism, expressed in his opposition to reciprocity and his calls for a Canadian-made constitution and a Canadian head of state, could occasionally take an eccentric turn. He argued, for example, that Hudson Bay should be renamed "Canada's Sea." In 1902, in the midst of his federal career, he had contested the mayoralty of Toronto. Dismissed by incumbent Oliver Aiken Howland as a bid to "revolutionize everything," Maclean's platform embraced public ownership, a doubtful concern for labour, and a vigorous hostility to big corporations and monopoly. He managed to poll 8,816 votes to Howland's 13,424, a result that reflected his perennial popularity.
Maclean's political career was further hobbled because, as the Globe pointed out, he was the "poorest of business men." The World always teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. This precarious state led Maclean to some questionable practices, giving the impression that his editorial views were for sale; in 1887 Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald* had been advised that he could be bought for $10,000. Though he remained stubbornly independent, his advocacy of some causes was tainted by self-interest. He accepted money from a grateful Toronto Railway Company after the successful Sunday battle. In 1911 the Globe claimed that the World had solicited deposits for the "rotten" Farmers Bank of Canada in exchange for its financial support. Later, Maclean's campaign for the construction of a viaduct over the Don River in Toronto was compromised by his ownership of Donlands, his farm west of the valley.
The decline of the financially troubled World, which was sold to the Daily Mail and Empire in 1921, was attributed by Hector Charlesworth to "the divided ambition of its chief," his constant shift between the editor's desk and the "turmoils" of politics. At his death the Globe would conclude, "That quality of independence which had made him shine in journalism also made him a personality in Parliament, but it finally spelled his political ruin." Maclean died in 1929 in York Township at Bayview, the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Henry Arthur Sifton, and was buried in the cemetery of St John's Anglican Church, York Mills (Toronto).
This Red-Whiskered Bulbul was the boldest I met on my trip.
Other Bulbuls used to fly away the moment I got them into focus. This one stayed put while my camera shot a thousand pictures on continuous mode. I wanted a shot of her taking off and flying away, but this one didn't!
However, she gave me this expansive demonstration of her wings and beauty.
Mayor Eric Adams talks with people in custody on Rikers Island on Thursday, July 7, 2022. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Thousands of Thai protesters call for royal reform in biggest gathering since 2014 coup
The Telegraph - 20th September 2020
Thousands of protesters cheered as activists installed a new plaque on Sunday declaring that Thailand "belongs to the people" - the boldest show of defiance in a youth-led movement which has questioned the unassailable monarchy's role in the kingdom.
Thailand has seen near-daily protests for the past two months led by student activists calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a former army chief who masterminded a 2014 coup.
Demonstrators spent Saturday rallying in Bangkok's historic Sanam Luang field next to the Grand Palace, where organisers took a stronger line on monarchical reform, calling for the royal family to stay out of the kingdom's politics.
Authorities said the demonstration drew 18,000, though AFP reporters on the ground estimated a 30,000-strong crowd at its peak - making it the largest gathering the kingdom has seen since the 2014 coup.
On Sunday at dawn, student activists installed a commemorative "People's Plaque" on the paved area adjacent to Sanam Luang field.
"Down with feudalism, long live the people," shouted protest organiser Parit Chiwarak to the cheering crowd.
The new plaque states the date Sept 20, 2020, followed by the proclamation: "The people have expressed the intention that this country belongs to the people, and not the king."
The movement is pushing frank questioning of the royal family's role in the kingdom into the public - once a taboo topic due to Thailand's draconian royal defamation laws.
The newly installed medallion references the original brass one embedded for decades in the ground of Bangkok's Royal Plaza.
It commemorated the end of royal absolutism in 1932 after a revolution that transitioned the kingdom into a constitutional monarchy.
But it mysteriously disappeared in 2017 - after King Maha Vajiralongkorn took power following the death of his father - replaced with one bearing a reminder for Thais to remain loyal to the "nation, religion, king".
Activists say the missing plaque is emblematic of a wider whitewashing of Thai political history.
Palace officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Organisers had initially planned to march to Government House, but a last-minute change of plans saw protesters move to the Privy Council's office - opposite the Grand Palace - to submit a list of requests.
The highly influential board of royal advisors wields significant influence in Thailand.
Dozens of officers stood guard, alongside water cannon trucks in front of the palace.
The leaderless youth-organised movement, inspired by Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, is calling for Prayut's government to be dissolved, a rewrite of the 2017 military-scripted constitution, and for authorities to stop "harassing" political opponents.
Some factions within the movement - including the organisers of the weekend demonstrations - have also called for frank discussion of the monarchy.
Their demands include greater accounting of the palace's finances, the abolition of royal defamation laws and a call for the king to remain outside of politics.
The ultra-wealthy King Maha Vajiralongkorn sits at the apex of Thai power, bolstered by a powerful military and conservative establishment.
The monarch spends long periods in Europe, his absence from Thailand raising ire on social media in recent months as the kingdom's economy tumbled due to pandemic closures.
The newly installed plaque in Sanam Luang will be regarded "as an immediate challenge", said analyst Paul Chambers, warning that "the growing acrimony could lead to heightened state violence against protesters".
Prayut has said Thailand would be "engulfed in flames" if the students push too hard, though he vowed "softer measures" against the weekend's protesters.
Since 1932, the military has staged more than a dozen coups following bouts of violent protests - which arch-royalist generals have claimed in the past was necessary to defend the king.
The recent wave of pro-democracy demonstrations have so far been peaceful.
But authorities have arrested more than two dozen activists, charging them with sedition before releasing them on bail.
WINTER HAVEN, FL -- LEGOLAND® Florida Water Park splashes into a second year of family fun with twice as many LEGO® bricks for all to enjoy. Two million LEGO bricks have been added since its debut last year bringing the total to an astounding four million LEGO bricks found in impressive models throughout the water park. Opening for the season on March 9, the LEGOLAND Water Park is unique in that it is specifically geared toward families with children ages two to 12 offering interactive, water play fun for the most timid of tikes to the boldest of tweens. (PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND)
Our New York location is proud to present a selection of limited edition silkscreen art prints from Methane Studios based out of Atlanta, Georgia. We have been carrying their prints for many, many, many years and its nice to have such a great selection on display and available at one time. Their aesthetic is very pleasing and the quality of the prints is top notch!
September 1 - October 23, 2022
Methane Studios is an award winning illustration and
design studio located in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1998 when Mark McDevitt and Robert Lee formed a partnership to
produce silk screen posters for some of the best independent bands in the late 1990s. The medium of screen printing allows for each ink pigment to live and breathe at its boldest and purest form. It is a craft that has been around for hundreds of years. The process has evolved and new techniques have been introduced but screen printing – in its purest form – hasn’t changed much. It’s an art form Methane preserves
with their hand crafted limited edition silk screen prints.
Built in 1938-1940, this Modern International-style concert hall was designed by Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen to house performance spaces for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and other local musical organizations. Named by Edward L. Kleinhans, whom donated the money for the building’s construction in 1934, the building was named in the memory of his wife, Mary Seaton Kleinhans, and his mother, Mary Livingston Kleinhans. The performance hall was partially funded with money from the New Deal-era Public Works Administration (PWA), with local architects F. J. and W. A. Kidd assisting with the building’s design and construction, with lighting consultant Stanley McCandless and acoustical consultant Charles C. Potwin assisting with the design of the building’s performance spaces. The building was opened on October 19, 1940 with a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1964, the concert hall was the site of a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, whom was running to be elected as a Democratic Senator representing New York, which he gave in front of an audience of 6,000 people, and in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in the building’s main auditorium titled “The Future of Integration.”
The footprint of the building features two opposing parabolic curves, which make up the walls at the rear of the larger main auditorium and the smaller Mary Seaton Room, with the main auditorium being shaped like a triangle with curved sides and a curved vertex at the rear of the building, with a low one-story wing framing the main auditorium, consisting of offices and support spaces, as well as slender canopies and entrance vestibules. On the sides of the exterior of the main auditorium are stair-stepping walls that contain stairways to the upper balcony inside the auditorium, and a lobby cuts through the building between the two auditoriums, connecting the entrance vestibules on either side of the building, which contains open stairways to an upper level that provides access to the balcony of the main auditorium. The building’s exterior is clad in buff brick with limestone trim panels on the canopies, framing the entrance doors, the Mary Seaton Room, and on the walls framing the front reflecting pool, with an aluminum curtain wall containing exit doors and glazing on either side of the rear portion of the Mary Seaton Room, providing a visual break in the building’s exterior between the main volume of the performance hall and the larger adjacent structure that houses the lobby and main auditorium. The building’s interior is relatively simple with unadorned walls, clean lines, wood paneling and doors, ceilings in the auditoriums with ceilings featuring multiple bulkheads that conceal lightings and vents, as well as improve the acoustics of the performance spaces, and cantilevered stairways in the lobby.
The Kleinhans Music Hall is a notable early example of Modernism and the International Style in the United States, and is also notable for being one of the boldest early designs by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the latter going on to design the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles Airport Terminal in Virginia near Washington, DC, and the TWA Terminal at New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport during the 1960s, with the parabolic curves utilized in this building being more heavily emphasized in those later structures. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Today, the building remains a major concert hall in the city of Buffalo, and still houses the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Buffalo Chamber Music Society, with the building’s various performance, lobby, and rehearsal spaces being rented out for local performing arts groups and events.
The peaks of the Teton Range, regal and imposing as they stand nearly 7,000 feet above the valley floor, make one of the boldest geologic statements in the Rockies. Unencumbered by foothills, they rise through steep coniferous forest into alpine meadows strewn with wildflowers, past blue and white glaciers to naked granite pinnacles.