Archaeological excavations demonstrate a continuity of life in Calnic (judet Alba), starting with the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements, the Dacian and Roman remains, or from the period of migration to the Middle Ages.

The name of the city, mentioned for the first time in 1269 (villa Kelnuk) is of Slavic-Romanian origin. The name of the place was taken over by the Saxons (Kelling) and the Hungarians (Kelnek).

The Romanesque fortress of Calnic is an old noble residence, which by its small size cannot compete with those of the big cities, but which is considered as very representative of a local civilization, transylvaine and a particular time.

The fortress consists of two rows of walls (enclosures) with an oval path, arranged concentric and reinforced with flanking elements: two towers and a bastion. The front door is defended by a fortified corridor. The belts protect the interior courtyard, at the heart of the fortress, where the chapel, the fountain and the dungeon are located. The latter dominates by its height (27m) and its massiveness (walls of 1m) the whole complex. During the romantic era, this impressive medieval vestige was nicknamed the Siegfried Tower.

The outer enclosure or zwinger has a maximum diameter of around 70 m with a height of 3 m. The inner enclosure is the most imposing with its 7m height. On the small diameter, it is fortified by two towers: the portal tower (NW) and a defense tower (SE). 24 m high, the portal tower is one of the vertical domes of the complex. There are four bells here, which is why the building is also called the bell tower.

Due to its preservation in good condition, in the middle of a locality bearing until now the imprint of the civilization of the German colonists established in Transylvania, the edifice was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List (1999).

This is the final image in a video I created demonstrating the Law of Continuity.

www.ipoxstudios.com/shoppe/mastering-composition-videos/

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft onboard is seen as it launches on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) mission is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat Program's 40-year data record of monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The tension between continuity and change is evident in this photo, captured while cycling home from the embassy. Buddhist monks walked at a brisk pace to reach the evening worship at the nearby Jogyesa temple. Their traditional clothing contrasts with the surrounding businesses, typical of any corner of Seoul.

 

La tensión entre continuidad y cambio es evidente en esta foto, capturada mientras regresaba hacia mi casa en bicicleta desde la embajada. Los monjes budistas caminaban a paso acelerado para llegar al culto vespertino en el cercano templo de Jogyesa. Su vestimenta tradicional contrasta con los negocios del entorno, típicos de cualquier esquina de Seúl.

 

OMDS OM-1 Mark I

Leica DG Summilux 12mm f1.4

Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries, was a mystery religion centred around the god Mithras that was practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to the 4th century CE. The religion was inspired by Persian worship of the god Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), though the Greek Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debated.The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.

Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those “united by the handshake”. They met in underground temples, called mithraea, which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome. Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments.[6] It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive; limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested. The Romans regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources. Since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries. In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity with similarities such as liberator-saviour, hierarchy of adepts (bishops, presbyters, deacons), communal meal and a hard struggle of Good and Evil (bull-killing/crucifixion). The term "Mithraism" is a modern convention. Writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as "Mithraic mysteries", "mysteries of Mithras" or "mysteries of the Persians". Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as "Roman Mithraism" or "Western Mithraism" to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra. The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". However, in Porphyry's Greek text De Abstinentia (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word. Sanskrit Mitra (मित्रः), the name of a god praised in the Rig Veda. In Sanskrit, "mitra" means "friend" or "friendship". the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 BCE. Iranian "Mithra" and Sanskrit "Mitra" are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word mitra meaning contract / agreement / covenant. Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions.On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century BCE, and to whom an old name was applied. Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Empire Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, none the less "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance". Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "...The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol.

 

Banquet

The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene. The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sol Invictus banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter. Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: the blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.

Birth from a rock..Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap. However, there are variations. Sometimes he is shown as coming out of the rock as a child, and in one instance he has a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of the water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, eagles, other birds, lion, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as Oceanus, the water god, and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, Luna, Sol and Saturn also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger to Mithras so that he can perform his mighty deeds. In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds. On some occasions, an amphora is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.

Rituals and worship

"the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of Natalis Invicti, held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras."Mithraic initiates were required to swear an oath of secrecy and dedication, and some grade rituals involved the recital of a catechism, wherein the initiate was asked a series of questions pertaining to the initiation symbolism and had to reply with specific answers.

... He will say: 'Where ... ?

... he is/(you are?) there (then/thereupon?) at a loss?' Say: ... Say: 'Night'. He will say: 'Where ... ?' ... Say: 'All things ...' (He will say): '... you are called ... ?' Say: 'Because of the summery ...' ... having become ... he/it has the fiery ... (He will say): '... did you receive/inherit?' Say: 'In a pit'. He will say: 'Where is your ...?... (Say): '...(in the...) Leonteion.' He will say: 'Will you gird?' The (heavenly?) ...(Say): '... death'. He will say: 'Why, having girded yourself, ...?' '... this (has?) four tassels. Very sharp and ... '... much'. He will say: ...? (Say: '... because of/through?) hot and cold'. He will say: ...? (Say): '... red ... linen'. He will say: 'Why?' Say: '... red border; the linen, however, ...' (He will say): '... has been wrapped?' Say: 'The savior's ...' He will say: 'Who is the father?' Say: 'The one who (begets?) everything ...' (He will say): '('How ?)... did you become a Leo?' Say: 'By the ... of the father'. ... Say: 'Drink and food'. He will say '...?'

 

'... in the seven-...

Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives; with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont. The walls of Mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts. Nevertheless, it is clear from the archeology of numerous Mithraea that most rituals were associated with feasting – as eating utensils and food residues are almost invariably found. These tend to include both animal bones and also very large quantities of fruit residues. The presence of large amounts of cherry-stones in particular would tend to confirm mid-summer (late June, early July) as a season especially associated with Mithraic festivities. The Virunum album, in the form of an inscribed bronze plaque, records a Mithraic festival of commemoration as taking place on 26 June 184. Beck argues that religious celebrations on this date are indicative of special significance being given to the Summer solstice; but this time of the year coincides with ancient recognition of the solar maximum at midsummer, whilst iconographically identical holidays such as Litha, St John's Eve, and Jāņi are observed also. For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the Mithraeum – typically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men. Counterpart dining rooms, or triclinia, were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or collegia. Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the collegia did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman collegia tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed. However, the size of the Mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.Each Mithraeum had several altars at the further end, underneath the representation of the tauroctony, and also commonly contained considerable numbers of subsidiary altars, both in the main Mithraeum chamber and in the ante-chamber or narthex. These altars, which are of the standard Roman pattern, each carry a named dedicatory inscription from a particular initiate, who dedicated the altar to Mithras "in fulfillment of his vow", in gratitude for favours received. Burned residues of animal entrails are commonly found on the main altars indicating regular sacrificial use. However, Mithraea do not commonly appear to have been provided with facilities for ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals (a highly specialised function in Roman religion), and it may be presumed that a Mithraeum would have made arrangements for this service to be provided for them in co-operation with the professional victimarius of the civic cult. Prayers were addressed to the Sun three times a day, and Sunday was especially sacred. It is doubtful whether Mithraism had a monolithic and internally consistent doctrine. It may have varied from location to location.However, the iconography is relatively coherent. It had no predominant sanctuary or cultic centre; and, although each Mithraeum had its own officers and functionaries, there was no central supervisory authority. In some Mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos, wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls, but no named Mithraic sages are known, nor does any reference give the title of any Mithraic scripture or teaching. It is known that intitates could transfer with their grades from one Mithraeum to another. Mithraeum..A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy. Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier; while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria. According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithriac rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum. Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.

For the most part, Mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The Mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure. There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space). In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard; potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to colitores or non-initiated worshippers. Mithraea were the antithesis of this.

Degrees of initiation. In the Suda under the entry "Mithras", it states that "No one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests."Gregory Nazianzen refers to the "tests in the mysteries of Mithras". There were seven grades of initiation into Mithraism, which are listed by St. Jerome.Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Ostia Mithraeum of Felicissimus depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are just symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods. In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were: GradeSymbolsPlanet/tutelary deity Corax, Corux or Corvex (raven or crow)beaker, caduceus Mercury... Nymphus, Nymphobus (Bridegroom)lamp, hand bell, veil, circlet or diadem Venus...Miles (soldier)pouch, helmet, lance, drum, belt, breastplateMars Leo (lion)batillum, sistrum, laurel wreath, thunderbolts Jupiter..Perses (Persian) akinakes, Phrygian cap, sickle, sickle moon and stars, sling pouchLuna

Heliodromus (sun-runner)torch, images of the sun god, Helios whip, robes Sol...Pater (father)patera, Mitre, shepherd's staff, garnet or ruby ring, chasuble or cape, elaborate robes jewel encrusted with metallic threads Saturn 'Note: In the table above, the article or picture links to the religious titles or impedimenta are merely illustrative approximations because, being an orally transmitted mystery cult, few reliable historical references have survived. However, similar contemporary artefacts have been identified, and at the Mithraeum of Constantine, a 2nd-century mosaic does depict several Mithraic implements and symbols. Spade, sistrum, lightning bolt Sword, crescent moon, star, sickle Torch, crown, whip Patera, rod, Phrygian cap, sickle Elsewhere, as at Dura-Europos, Mithraic graffiti survive giving membership lists, in which initiates of a Mithraeum are named with their Mithraic grades. At Virunum, the membership list or album sacratorum was maintained as an inscribed plaque, updated year by year as new members were initiated. By cross-referencing these lists it is possible to track some initiates from one Mithraeum to another; and also speculatively to identify Mithraic initiates with persons on other contemporary lists such as military service rolls, of lists of devotees of non-Mithraic religious sanctuaries. Names of initiates are also found in the dedication inscriptions of altars and other cult objects. Clauss noted in 1990 that overall, only about 14% of Mithriac names inscribed before 250 CE identify the initiate's grade – and hence questioned the traditional view that all initiates belonged to one of the seven grades. Clauss argues that the grades represented a distinct class of priests, sacerdotes. Gordon maintains the former theory of Merkelbach and others, especially noting such examples as Dura where all names are associated with a Mithraic grade. Some scholars maintain that practice may have differed over time, or from one Mithraeum to another. The highest grade, pater, is far the most common found on dedications and inscriptions – and it would appear not to have been unusual for a Mithraeum to have several men with this grade. The form pater patrum (father of fathers) is often found, which appears to indicate the pater with primary status. There are several examples of persons, commonly those of higher social status, joining a Mithraeum with the status pater – especially in Rome during the 'pagan revival' of the 4th century. It has been suggested that some Mithraea may have awarded honorary pater status to sympathetic dignitaries. The initiate into each grade appears to have been required to undertake a specific ordeal or test, involving exposure to heat, cold or threatened peril. An 'ordeal pit', dating to the early 3rd century, has been identified in the Mithraeum at Carrawburgh. Accounts of the cruelty of the emperor Commodus describes his amusing himself by enacting Mithriac initiation ordeals in homicidal form. By the later 3rd century, the enacted trials appear to have been abated in rigor, as 'ordeal pits' were floored over. Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the pater, just as Mithras and Sol shook hands. The initiates were thus referred to as syndexioi (those united by the handshake). The term is used in an inscription by Proficentius and derided by Firmicus Maternus in De errore profanarum religionum,a 4th Century Christian work attacking paganism. In ancient Iran, taking the right hand was the traditional way of concluding a treaty or signifying some solemn understanding between two parties.

Ritual re-enactments Reconstruction of a mithraeum with a mosaic depicting the grades of initiation..Activities of the most prominent deities in Mithraic scenes, Sol and Mithras, were imitated in rituals by the two most senior officers in the cult's hierarchy, the Pater and the Heliodromus. The initiates held a sacramental banquet, replicating the feast of Mithras and Sol.Reliefs on a cup found in Mainz, appear to depict a Mithraic initiation. On the cup, the initiate is depicted as being led into a location where a Pater would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the initiate is a mystagogue, who explains the symbolism and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the 'Water Miracle', in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water. Roger Beck has hypothesized a third processional Mithraic ritual, based on the Mainz cup and Porphyrys. This so-called Procession of the Sun-Runner features the Heliodromus, escorted by two figures representing Cautes and Cautopates (see below) and preceded by an initiate of the grade Miles leading a ritual enactment of the solar journey around the mithraeum, which was intended to represent the cosmos.Consequently, it has been argued that most Mithraic rituals involved a re-enactment by the initiates of episodes in the Mithras narrative,a narrative whose main elements were: birth from the rock, striking water from stone with an arrow shot, the killing of the bull, Sol's submission to Mithras, Mithras and Sol feasting on the bull, the ascent of Mithras to heaven in a chariot. A noticeable feature of this narrative (and of its regular depiction in surviving sets of relief carvings) is the complete absence of female personages.Membership Only male names appear in surviving inscribed membership lists. Historians including Cumont and Richard Gordon have concluded that the cult was for men only.The ancient scholar Porphyry refers to female initiates in Mithraic rites. However, the early 20th-century historian A. S. Geden writes that this may be due to a misunderstanding.According to Geden, while the participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, the predominant military influence in Mithraism makes it unlikely in this instance.[2] It has recently been suggested by David Jonathan that "Women were involved with Mithraic groups in at least some locations of the empire." Soldiers were strongly represented amongst Mithraists, and also merchants, customs officials and minor bureaucrats. Few, if any, initiates came from leading aristocratic or senatorial families until the 'pagan revival' of the mid-4th century; but there were always considerable numbers of freedmen and slaves.

Ethics

Clauss suggests that a statement by Porphyry, that people initiated into the Lion grade must keep their hands pure from everything that brings pain and harm and is impure, means that moral demands were made upon members of congregations. A passage in the Caesares of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras".Tertullian, in his treatise 'On the Military Crown' records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets on the basis of the Mithraic initiation ritual that included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras".

Beginnings of Roman Mithraism

The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues.[111] According to Clauss mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century CE. According to Ulansey, the earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st Century BCE: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 BCE the pirates of Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras. However, according to Daniels, whether any of this relates to the origins of the mysteries is unclear. The unique underground temples or Mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century CE. the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.

 

Mosaic (1st century AD) depicting Mithras emerging from his cave and flanked by Cautes and Cautopates (Constantine Museum) The philosopher Porphyry (3rd–4th century AD) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work De antro nympharum (The Cave of the Nymphs). Citing Eubulus as his source, Porphyry writes that the original temple of Mithras was a natural cave, containing fountains, which Zoroaster found in the mountains of Persia. To Zoroaster, this cave was an image of the whole world, so he consecrated it to Mithras, the creator of the world. Later in the same work, Porphyry links Mithras and the bull with planets and star-signs: Mithras himself is associated with the sign of Aries and the planet Mars, while the bull is associated with Venus. Porphyry is writing close to the demise of the cult, and Robert Turcan has challenged the idea that Porphyry's statements about Mithraism are accurate. His case is that far from representing what Mithraists believed, they are merely representations by the Neoplatonists of what it suited them in the late 4th century to read into the mysteries. However, Merkelbach and Beck believe that Porphyry’s work "is in fact thoroughly coloured with the doctrines of the Mysteries". Beck holds that classical scholars have neglected Porphyry’s evidence and have taken an unnecessarily skeptical view of Porphyry. According to Beck, Porphyry's De antro is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithriac Mysteries and how that intent was realized. David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism." "Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios" was among the gods of the syncretic Greco-Armenian-Iranian royal cult at Nemrut, founded by Antiochus I of Commagene in the mid 1st century BCE. While proposing the theory, Beck says that his scenario may be regarded as Cumontian in two ways. Firstly, because it looks again at Anatolia and Anatolians, and more importantly, because it hews back to the methodology first used by Cumont. Merkelbach suggests that its mysteries were essentially created by a particular person or persons and created in a specific place, the city of Rome, by someone from an eastern province or border state who knew the Iranian myths in detail, which he wove into his new grades of initiation; but that he must have been Greek and Greek-speaking because he incorporated elements of Greek Platonism into it. The myths, he suggests, were probably created in the milieu of the imperial bureaucracy, and for its members. Clauss tends to agree. Beck calls this "the most likely scenario" and states "Until now, Mithraism has generally been treated as if it somehow evolved Topsy-like from its Iranian precursor – a most implausible scenario once it is stated explicitly." Archaeologist Lewis M. Hopfe notes that there are only three Mithraea in Roman Syria, in contrast to further west. He writes: "Archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome ... the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants." Taking a different view from other modern scholars, Ulansey argues that the Mithraic mysteries began in the Greco-Roman world as a religious response to the discovery by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus of the astronomical phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes – a discovery that amounted to discovering that the entire cosmos was moving in a hitherto unknown way. This new cosmic motion, he suggests, was seen by the founders of Mithraism as indicating the existence of a powerful new god capable of shifting the cosmic spheres and thereby controlling the universe. However, A. D. H. Bivar, L. A. Campbell and G. Widengren have variously argued that Roman Mithraism represents a continuation of some form of Iranian Mithra worship. According to Antonia Tripolitis, Roman Mithraism originated in Vedic India and picked up many features of the cultures which it encountered in its westward journey.

The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have happened quite quickly, late in the reign of Antoninus Pius (b. 121 CE, d. 180 CE) and under Marcus Aurelius. By this time all the key elements of the mysteries were in place. Mithraism reached the apogee of its popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, spreading at an "astonishing" rate at the same period when the worship of Sol Invictus was incorporated into the state-sponsored cults.At this period a certain Pallas devoted a monograph to Mithras, and a little later Euboulus wrote a History of Mithras, although both works are now lost. According to the 4th century Historia Augusta, the emperor Commodus participated in its mysteries but it never became one of the state cults. It is difficult to trace when the cult of Mithras came to an end. Beck states that "Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire."Inscriptions from the 4th century are few. Clauss states that inscriptions show Mithras as one of the cults listed on inscriptions by Roman senators who had not converted to Christianity, as part of the "pagan revival" among the elite. Ulansey holds that "Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism."According to Speidel, Christians fought fiercely with this feared enemy and suppressed it during the 4th century. Some Mithraic sanctuaries were destroyed and religion was no longer a matter of personal choice. According to Luther H. Martin, Roman Mithraism came to an end with the anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor Theodosius during the last decade of the 4th century. At some of the mithraeums which have been found below churches, for example the Santa Prisca mithraeum and the San Clemente mithraeum, the ground plan of the church above was made in a way to symbolize Christianity's domination of Mithraism. According to Mark Humphries, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects in some areas suggests that precautions were being taken against Christian attacks. However, in areas like the Rhine frontier, purely religious considerations cannot explain the end of Mithraism and barbarian invasions may also have played a role. There is virtually no evidence for the continuance of the cult of Mithras into the 5th century. In particular large numbers of votive coins deposited by worshippers have been recovered at the Mithraeum at Pons Sarravi (Sarrebourg) in Gallia Belgica, in a series that runs from Gallienus (253–268) to Theodosius I (379–395). These were scattered over the floor when the Mithraeum was destroyed, as Christians apparently regarded the coins as polluted; and they therefore provide reliable dates for the functioning of the Mithraeum.It cannot be shown that any Mithraeum continued in use in the 5th century. The coin series in all Mithraea end at the end of the 4th century at the latest. The cult disappeared earlier than that of Isis. Isis was still remembered in the middle ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in late antiquity. Cumont stated in his book that Mithraism may have survived in certain remote cantons of the Alps and Vosges into the 5th century. The John, the Lord Chamberlain series of historical mystery novels depicts a secret Mithraist community still active in Justinian's court, but there is no historical evidence for such a late survival of the religion.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism

Continuity

 

www.mingthein.com

 

Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book Detective Comics on March 30, 1939. In the DC Universe continuity, Batman is the alias of Bruce Wayne, a wealthy American playboy, philanthropist, and industrialist who resides in Gotham City. Batman's origin story features him swearing vengeance against criminals after witnessing the murder of his parents Thomas and Martha as a child, a vendetta tempered with the ideal of justice. He trains himself physically and intellectually, crafts a bat-inspired persona, and monitors the Gotham streets at night. Kane, Finger, and other creators accompanied Batman with supporting characters, including his sidekicks Robin and Batgirl; allies Alfred Pennyworth, James Gordon, and Catwoman; and foes such as the Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face, and his archenemy, the Joker.

 

Kane conceived Batman in early 1939 to capitalize on the popularity of DC's Superman; although Kane frequently claimed sole creation credit, Finger substantially developed the concept from a generic superhero into something more bat-like. The character received his own spin-off publication, Batman, in 1940. Batman was originally introduced as a ruthless vigilante who frequently killed or maimed criminals, but evolved into a character with a stringent moral code and strong sense of justice. Unlike most superheroes, Batman does not possess any superpowers, instead relying on his intellect, fighting skills, and wealth. The 1960s Batman television series used a camp aesthetic, which continued to be associated with the character for years after the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his darker roots in the 1970s and 1980s, culminating with the 1986 miniseries The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.

 

DC has featured Batman in many comic books, including comics published under its imprints such as Vertigo and Black Label. The longest-running Batman comic, Detective Comics, is the longest-running comic book in the United States. Batman is frequently depicted alongside other DC superheroes, such as Superman and Wonder Woman, as a member of organizations such as the Justice League and the Outsiders. In addition to Bruce Wayne, other characters have taken on the Batman persona on different occasions, such as Jean-Paul Valley / Azrael in the 1993–1994 "Knightfall" story arc; Dick Grayson, the first Robin, from 2009 to 2011; and Jace Fox, son of Wayne's ally Lucius, as of 2021. DC has also published comics featuring alternate versions of Batman, including the incarnation seen in The Dark Knight Returns and its successors, the incarnation from the Flashpoint (2011) event, and numerous interpretations from Elseworlds stories.

 

One of the most iconic characters in popular culture, Batman has been listed among the greatest comic book superheroes and fictional characters ever created. He is one of the most commercially successful superheroes, and his likeness has been licensed and featured in various media and merchandise sold around the world; this includes toy lines such as Lego Batman and video games like the Batman: Arkham series. Batman has been adapted in live-action and animated incarnations, including the 1960s Batman television series played by Adam West and in film by Michael Keaton in Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), and The Flash (2023), Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995), George Clooney in Batman & Robin (1997), Christian Bale in The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012), Ben Affleck in the DC Extended Universe (2016–2023), and Robert Pattinson in The Batman (2022). Kevin Conroy, Diedrich Bader, Jensen Ackles, Troy Baker, and Will Arnett, among others, have provided the character's voice.

 

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

The launch pad tower at SLC-3 is rolled back to reveal the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft onboard on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) mission is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat Program's 40-year data record of monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch later today. (201302110001HQ)

 

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

 

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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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In the midst of clumsiness, there is nothing but chaos lying around. Ways to escape got wrapped within the invisible curtain.

 

Our eyes have become blindfolded by the pseudo-reality. As far we can behold is nothing but the shades of uncertainties that wave to the concealed verity. It is becoming harder to attain a chore for the sake of surviving a day further. It is our surroundings that have quit responding to our pleads.

 

Perhaps a day of betterment could pull the thread of continuity of our life. A promising hand could drag us out from the dungeon we are passing our days in. Or maybe we could help ourselves by cutting the strings that keep us beneath the surface.

 

Merely we get to escape these melted dreams.

 

Merely we can live

in the true forms of ourselves.

architects: BBPR (banfi, barbiano di belgiojoso, peressutti, rogers)

torre velasca, mixed-use tower, milano 1950-1958

 

a london newspaper recently named the torre velasca one of the ugliest buildings in the world, suggesting - if nothing else - that trump is right about the press. dismissed by journalists today as brutalism, the tower was originally dismissed by british brutalists for not being brutal enough. reasons change, stupidity prevails.

 

but so does the house in question, and its reddish concrete panels ablaze in the italian sunset make prefabrication look like a thing of beauty. a certain playfulness in the placement of windows and interior balconies offer the powerful image or fantasy of a vertical city. its exposed neo-gothic frame and violently angular silhouette could only derive from some magnificent ancient source, awaiting discovery. it puzzles, but moves you too.

 

enesto rogers of the BBPR partnership had written and published extensively on the subject of continuity in architecture, on the need for modernism to reinvent itself as a mediation between historical precedent and contemporary culture. yet, looking at the tower, any method in his madness remains elusive. modernism had promised a right way to do architecture, but how do you arrive at the torre velasca?

 

rogers' students, who included aldo rossi and giorgio grassi, would be more rigorous in method and altogether less exciting in execution - perhaps due to the reception of his tower: rayner banham wrote of the Italian retreat from modernism while peter smithson criticised ernesto rogers personally at the final CIAM meeting in 1959, calling his work dangerous and immoral.

 

that same year, 1959, the smithsons began work on a tower of their own, the economist building in london, and it is tempting to read into their design an answer to ernesto rogers and the work of BBPR in milan.

 

rather than stacking different functions and different building depths, the smithsons split their program into three smaller buildings on a shared plinth, minimising its impact on the london skyline. their sensitivity to the surrounding victorian architecture was not only unusual for the period, it was unexpected coming from the famously unsentimental smithsons.

 

it was a more dignified critique of ernesto rogers, too, than the personal attack at the CIAM meeting, except that this sensitivity towards the historical urban fabric was exactly what ernesto rogers had been calling for. the smithsons were outdoing rogers at his own game, even repeating his powerful neo-gothic verticals.

 

and that was the strangest of cross-contaminations, given that neither london nor milan are gothic cities, but rogers' idea of continuity in architecture was ultimately spiritual, as he would have insisted himself, a thing of the mind.

 

more words

more brutalism

the smithsons set.

“The cycle of birth and death moves in continuity.

There is known as cyclic existence.

How does it move ?

The karma is the result of negative and positive accumulations, which push you around.

There are six realms - three lower and three upper realms.

The engine of cyclic existence is kept running by the accumulation of karma.

The positive accumulations push you up to the higher realms of samsara, and the negative actions and accumulations drag you down to the lower realms.

This is why we usually emphasize such things as - do not harm, be helpful and so on and so forth.

Other spiritual beliefs are also teaching this.

It is one way of looking at life, but it should not be the ultimate way.

The ultimate way of looking at live should be to attain realization - realization of the negative as well as the positive accumulations, which are all included in the reality of life.

Accumulation of positive karma with no realization of its own will only take us to one of the three higher realms.

For us who are keen to practice Bodhicitta, we should try to develop the ultimate realization along with the accumulations of merits.”

(His Holiness Jigme Pema Wangchen, the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa)

 

This darchen Prayer-flag pole stands in the main yard of Stok palace, the current residence of the royal family of Ladakh surrounded an amazing Hiamalyan landscape.

It is bound by strips of yak hide and topped by prayer flags, white for wind, red for fire, blue for sky, yellow for earth and green for water.

 

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Hämeenlinna, Finland

Continuities (1956)

Clip Book of Line Art, No. 207

Volk Corporation

 

Back cover

Continuity

 

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The launch pad tower at SLC-3 is rolled back to reveal the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft onboard on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) mission is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat Program's 40-year data record of monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch later today. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

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INTRODUCTION

 

Lauran Hartley (Columbia University)

 

You will be scared of me if I tell you the truth," Grandmother replied gently. With these words, a doting relative begins to recount the sad and heretofore untold tale of her youth to our boy narrator.

 

Storytelling, in its most immediate sense, is at the heart of this poignant collection "Contemporary Tibetan Short Stories," which merits our appreciation and enjoyment in many ways as the literary fruit of what Lama Jabb (2015) has coined the "oral continuities in Tibetan literature." More than two dozen young writers from the Tibetan Plateau have probed their most tender memories and curious encounters to pen tales with characters and circumstances that fascinate, puzzle, disappoint, or leave us pained.

 

Each story is prefaced by introductory remarks from the author describing their inspiration, and many draw on actual occurrences, however surreal. This framing lends an "embedded" effect to several of the works: stories are nested inside stories, sometimes within a yet wider narrative. As these young adult writers prompt their respective elders or friends for details, we are reminded of the vetāla cycle (Tib. ro sgrung), by which the carrier of the narrative (and of a story-telling corpse) is irresistibly drawn to pose another question and thereby a garland of tales unwinds.

 

This anthology, however, offers modern ballads - not fairy tales. Iconic characters stumble through shifting social mores. Whether set in a student dorm or nomadic tent, most of the stories take seed in hope - the promise of school, a new job, a young love, security in old age - only to end in small and quiet tragedies: educations forfeited, children estranged from parents, an ambulance whisking a young woman away in the night. The contrast between the distant homes of these students and their current lives at boarding school is well captured in Dpa' rtse rgyal's "Under the Shadow," when the narrator observes: "At home, my parents chanted om mani padme hum. At school, our mantra was the two-syllable word gaokao 'college entrance examination', the central topic of most discussions, conversations, meetings, and even classes."

 

In some cases, the fall is self-induced - drinking, failure to study, and other poor decisions. Consider, for example, Pad ma dbang chen's "QQ Destiny" and Klu rgyal 'bum's "Who is to Blame?" Elsewhere, the obstacles are situational.

 

Discrimination prevents a would-be-husband from getting a job; village gossip pushes a young woman into an unpromising marriage; the lure of the city and newly found freedom ruin a college student's plans for graduation.

One of the more accomplished writers in the anthology, G.yang mtsho skyid, explains: "I enjoy writing stories because I think they explore social phenomena in ways that other writing cannot." Her story "Set Free from Tragedy" is based on interviews with a woman who decades ago defied village tradition by raising her children single-handedly and even building her own house. In Bkra shis rab brtan's "Young Love," the careful reader will discover, between the lines, even more about local conditions. For example, Mother Sgrol ma wears an artificial lambskin robe, because pastoralists don't keep sheep much anymore and this has driven up the price of wool - details that beg another story. One morning, the offering bowls are full of... ice - unexpected until we realize that the precious water-offerings which line the altar have frozen during the unheated night.

 

Portending signs and supernatural occurrences abound, amid poverty, road construction, forbidden love, elder neglect, suicide, and other inexplicable disappearances. "The sky rapidly vanished, conquered by large clusters of dark, ominous clouds that swept in low to the earth, quickly covering what was left of the sun" (ibid). In stranger-than-fiction accounts, such as 'Jam dbyangs bkra shis's "Powerful Ghost," the extraordinary brings mystery and often tragedy to the otherwise everyday.

 

Many of the tales are laced with anxiety - parents wait at home for children who are later than usual, tensions simmer between two feuding villages, a demon-monk insists on accompanying a pilgrim, a mysterious person trails two boys - often with open endings. These semi-fictional worlds are marked by an "uneasiness," vulnerability and despair, echoing with a profound sense of lack, a restlessness. Absence - a white space, a snowy and windswept plain, around which characters struggle and strive - serves to organize stories such as Rdo rje skyab's "Waiting for the Return." Lack manifests in various forms: a father's sudden departure, the unexplained vanishing of a young man, elopement, escape, the disappearance of a just-married couple who fear admitting that she has used tuition payments to raise their newborn, diplomas never earned.

 

Still, beautiful and decidedly Tibetan metaphors catch our breath. In Rin chen rdo rje's "An Unseen Sign," a nomad sets out from his warm tent as his wife anxiously contemplates the "horsetails of rain showering down." Other imagery reflects the lingering influence of Indic kāvya, aesthetic models that dominated Tibetan belles-lettres up through the mid-twentieth century, such as this endearing depiction of dawn: "Sky elephants wore orange trousers as the sun gradually clambered over East Mountain" (Blo bzang tshe ring, "A Stolen Journey"). Or an evening scene: "The crescent moon was shyly gathering strength amid thousands of shining stars" (Bkra shis rab brtan, "Young Love").

 

This last image aptly serves as a metaphor for a generation of writers who are tapping newly available literary forms: the Tibetan short story was firmly established only by the mid-1980s. These young authors are the first to grow up reading a variety of short fiction in their native language. Of course, the stories in this anthology were written in English, several the impressive results of classroom exercises for advanced English learners. A number of the authors graduated from Qinghai Normal University (where the chief editor used to teach English) and now teach English themselves in small towns throughout Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces. In their detailing of daily customs (a mother who pulls out a metal plate and lights barley flour as an offering, etc.), the writers anticipate that their reading audience might be unfamiliar with local customs or that their classmates, from other provinces, villages or grasslands, may have grown up with different rituals.

 

The stories are short and readable, thanks to extensive and collaborative editing, with some plots more maturely crafted than others. The majority of these works were previously published in various AHP issues from 2009-2011, while a handful debut here. Among these is the work of an especially talented writer, 'Jam dbyangs bkra shis, whose ghost stories may roam your mind for some time, like the zombies in his creative tales. In his introduction to "Powerful Ghost," he recalls how when young, he would often spend nights with his family listening to his grandfather's stories. After leaving for boarding school at age thirteen, however, he observed on his return visits that family members now gathered around the television instead. He notes, "One time in October 2017, I asked Grandfather to tell me a story and he told me this story. He said he also had forgotten many stories because he had not told them for a long time." Thankfully, this collection of tales proves that courageous young Tibetan authors are continuing the tradition.

 

Another successful story is Pad ma rin chen's "Conflict" which details a boy's first experience harvesting caterpillar fungus. His aspiration to collect a bountiful lot and win his mother's approbation, his homesickness, his most delicious meal ever eaten in the warmth of blankets in a tent surrounded by snow after a long day's journey on mule-back... For most western readers, the barren setting is another world and yet the pleasure of simple comfort and other sensations will resonate. These stories reach across temporal and geographic expanses like mountain-cairn testaments to common human endeavors and plights.

 

While conducting fieldwork in Tibet some twenty years ago, and during subsequent visits, I have mused that the art of storytelling was somehow disproportionately doled out among Tibetans. Whether with village elders, college undergraduates, or women friends, I have regularly enjoyed the communal hilarity of an emphatic narrator recounting a recent interaction or past event.

 

Rooted in this tradition, Contemporary Tibetan Short Stories is a sacred portal, like that of Tshe dpag's "God-Door," for readers unfamiliar with Tibetan lives, whether in adobe-style homes on arid hillsides or in yak-hair tents dotting the grasslands. At the same time, readers who have traveled to or otherwise engaged these regions first-hand will also appreciate these contemporary tales for the more intimate experience they offer of the thoughtful perspectives and creative expressions of young Tibetans today, as well as the issues, pressures, and opportunities that concern them. In a busy world, this is a book with which one can simply sit and listen - to the rustling grasslands, the approaching winds, and a budding generation of Tibetan writers who face confusing and changing times and are poised on the threshold of their adult lives.

  

REFERENCE

 

Lama Jabb [Bla ma skyabs]. 2015. Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: the Inescapable Nation. Lanham: Lexington.

 

འགོ་བརྗོད།

 

Lauran Hartley ཁོ་ལུམ་པི་ཡ་སློབ་ཆེན།

ཡིག་སྒྱུར་བ། པདྨ་རིག་འཛིན།

 

རྨོ་བོས་སྐད་འཇམ་པོས། ངས་ཁྱོད་ལ་སྐད་ཆ་དྲང་མོར་བཤད་ཚེ། ཁྱོད་རང་ང་ལ་སྐྲག་སྲིད། ཅེས་བཤད་རྗེས། སྔོན་ཆད་སུ་ལའང་བཤད་མ་མྱོང་བའི་མོའི་གཞོན་དུས་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བའི་སྐྱོ་གར་གྱི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་དེ་རང་གི་ཚ་བོ་སྟེ། དེབ་འདིའི་ནང་གི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་ལ་འཆད་མགོ་བརྩམས།

 

བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་ཀྱིས། དེང་རབས་རྩོམ་རིག་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་ངག་ཐོག་གི་རྒྱུན། ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན། དེང་རབས་བོད་ཀྱི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས། ཅེས་པའི་དེབ་འདིའི་ཆེས་འབུར་དུ་ཐོན་པའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས་ནི་ངག་ཐོག་གི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་རེད། དེས་ཕྱོགས་མང་པོ་ནས་འུ་ཅག་གི་དང་བ་འདྲེན་ངེས་པས་ང་ཚོས་བསྔགས་བརྗོད་བྱེད་འོས། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་འདི་དག་ནི་བོད་བྱང་ཤར་ཁུལ་ནས་ཡོང་བའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ན་གཞོན་འགས་རང་རང་གི་འཚོ་བའི་ཕྱིར་དྲན་ཁྲོད་གྱི་དོན་སྣ་ཚོགས་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ལམ་ནས་བརྗོད་ཡོད་པས། ང་ཚོ་ཀློག་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་དགའ་སྐྱོ་ཆགས་སྡང་འདྲེས་མའི་ཚོར་བ་ཤུགས་དྲག་པོ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག་ངེས།

 

གཏམ་རྒྱུད་རེ་རེའི་མགོ་མ་བརྩམས་སྔོན་ལ། རྩོམ་པ་པོས་གླེང་སློང་བའི་ཚུལ་དུ་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་གསར་རྩོམ་བྱས་པའི་རྒྱབ་ལྗོངས་སྐོར་ངོ་སྤྲོད་བྱས་ཡོད། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་མང་ཆེ་བ་དངོས་བརྒལ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞིག་ཏུ་སྣང་ཡང་དངོས་ཡོད་ཀྱི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་འཚོ་བ་གཞིར་བཟུང་ཡོད། དེ་བས་སྒྲོམ་གཞི་འདིས་བརྩམས་ཆོས་རེ་འགའ་ལ་ཤུགས་རྐྱེན་ཐེབས་ཡོད་དེ། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ནང་ན་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་རུམ་ཡོད་པར་མ་ཟད། ལན་རེར་དེ་ལས་ཀྱང་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་སྒྲིག་གཞི་ཞིག་ལ་རྒྱབ་བཅོལ་ཡོད། གཞོན་སྐྱེས་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་འདི་དག་གིས་རྒན་པ་དང་གྲོགས་པོ་ལས་ཁོ་ཚོའི་འཚོ་བའི་གནས་ཚུལ་ལ་རྒྱུས་ལོན་ཟབ་མོ་བྱེད་ཚུལ་འདིས་ང་ཚོ་ཀློག་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་བོད་ཁམས་སུ་གྲགས་ཆེ་བའི་མི་རོ་རྩེ་སྒྲུང་དྲན་དུ་འཇུག་སྲིད། མི་རོ་རྩེ་སྒྲུང་གི་ནང་དུ་རོ་འཁུར་མཁན་དེས་དྲི་བ་རྒྱུན་མ་ཆད་པར་བཏོན་ཏེ་རོ་སྒྲུང་གི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་དེ་དག་མུ་ནས་མུར་རྒྱུན་བསྐྱངས་ཡོད་པ་རེད།

 

ཡིན་ནའང་། སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་འདི་ནི་དེང་རབས་ཀྱི་སྒྲུང་གཏམ་འབའ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་ལས་ལྷ་སྒྲུང་རྩ་བ་ནས་མ་རེད། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་འདི་དག་གི་ཁྲོད་མཚོན་བྱེད་རང་བཞིན་ལྡན་པའི་མི་སྣས་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་འགྱུར་བཞིན་པའི་རྒྱབ་ལྗོངས་འོག་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་འཕག་འཚག་བྱེད་བཞིན་པའི་རྣམ་པ་སྲོང་པོར་བརྗོད་ཡོད། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་མང་ཆེ་བའི་ནང་མི་སྣ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་སློབ་ཆེན་དང་། ལས་གནས། བརྩེ་དུངས། རང་ཁྱིམ་གྱི་རྒན་རྒོན་སོགས་བརྗོད་གཞིར་བཟུང་ཡོད་པས་འཚོ་བའི་གྲུ་ཟུར་མང་པོ་ནས་མ་འོངས་བ་ལ་རེ་ལྟོས་ཀྱིས་ཁེངས་ཡོད་པ་མངོན་གསལ་ཡིན། ཡིན་ཡང་རེ་བ་དེ་དག་ལ་འཚོ་བ་དངོས་ཀྱི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ཕམ་ཁ་ཆུང་ཆུང་མང་པོ་ཐེབས་ཡོད་པ་རེད། དཔེར་ན། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཁ་ཤས་སུ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ནས་ཕྱིར་ཕུད་པ་དང་། ཕ་མ་དང་བུ་ཕྲུག་དབར་གྱི་ཁ་ཐག་རིང་དུ་གྱེས་པ། ཡང་ན་གཞོན་ནུ་མ་ཞིག་མཚན་མོར་མྱུར་སྐྱོབ་རླངས་འཁོར་གྱིས་དྲུད་སོང་བ་ལྟ་བུའི་དོན་སོགས་ཞིབ་འབྲི་བྱས་ཡོད། དཔའ་རྩེ་རྒྱལ་གྱི། གྲིབ་འོག ཅེས་པའི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་དེའི་ནང་སྔོན་ཆད་སྡེ་བའི་བྱིས་པ་ཚོའི་འཚོ་བ་དང་དེང་གི་བཅའ་སྡོད་སློབ་གྲྭའི་སློབ་མའི་གནས་བབ་སྐོར་གཤིབ་བསྡུར་གྱི་ལམ་ནས་ཞིབ་འབྲི་བྱས་ཡོད། དཔེར་ན། ཕ་ཡུལ་ན་ཡོད་དུས་ངའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ནམ་རྒྱུན་མ་ཎི་ཡིག་དྲུག་འདོན། སློབ་གྲྭ་རུ་ང་ཚོས་མ་ཎི་ཡིག་དྲུག་མཐོ་རྒྱུགས་ཀྱི་རྩོམ་ཡིག་ཏུ་བྲིས་པ་ཡིན། མ་ཎི་ཡིག་དྲུག་ནི་ང་ཚོས་ནམ་རྒྱུན་བགྲོ་གླེང་དང་ཁ་བརྡ། ཚོགས་འདུ། ཐ་ན་སློབ་ཁྲིད་སྐབས་སུའང་ངེས་པར་དུ་གླེང་དགོས་པའི་ནང་དོན་གལ་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཏུ་ཆགས་ཡོད། ཅེས་པ་ལྟ་བུའོ། །

པདྨ་དབང་ཆེན་གྱི། QQ ལས་དབང་། ཞེས་པ་དང་། ཀླུ་རྒྱལ་འབུམ་གྱི། སུ་ལ་འཁང་ར་བྱ། ཞེས་པ་སོགས་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཁ་ཤས་སུ་གནས་ཚུལ་རེ་འགའི་འོག་ཏུ་ཕམ་ཁའི་འབྱུང་རྐྱེན་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་རང་ཉིད་ལ་རག་ལས་པ་བསྟན་ཡོད། དཔེར་ན། ཆང་འཐུང་བ་དང་། སློབ་སྦྱོང་གི་ཕམ་ཁ། གཞན་ཡང་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་བླང་དོར་གྱི་དབྱེ་བ་མ་ཤེས་པར་ནོར་འཁྲུལ་བཟོས་པ་ལྟ་བུ། སྐབས་རེར་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་གྱི་བཀག་རྒྱ་ནི་སྐབས་དེའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་གནས་བབ་དང་འབྲེལ་བ་དམ་ཟབ་ཡོད་པ་དཔེར་ན། སྤྱི་ཚོགས་གྲལ་རིམ་མཐོ་དམན་གྱི་དབྱེ་བས་ལས་ཀ་རེག་པར་བཀག་འགོག་ཐེབས་པ། སྡེ་བའི་དཀྲོག་གཏམ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་དབང་གིས་གཉེན་སྒྲིག་གཏོར་བ། དེ་མིན་ད་དུང་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གྱི་ཟང་ཟིང་དང་རང་དབང་གི་བསླུ་བྲིད་འོག་སློབ་ཆེན་སློབ་མའི་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ལ་བགེགས་དང་བར་ཆད་བཟོས་བ་ལྟ་བུའོ།

 

སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་དེབ་འདིའི་ནང་ཅུང་རྩེར་སོན་པའི་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་གཡང་མཚོ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱིས་བཤད་རྒྱུར། ངས་ཞིབ་འདང་བརྒྱབ་ན། ང་རང་སྒྲུང་གཏམ་འབྲི་བར་མོས་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཕྱོགས་རེ་འགའ་ནས་བལྟས་ན་སྒྲུང་གཏམ་གྱིས་ཐད་ཀར་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་སྣང་ཚུལ་དངོས་ཕྱིར་མངོན་པ་སྟེ། སྒྲུང་གཏམ་ཕུད་པའི་རྩོམ་རིགས་གཞན་གྱིས་དེ་འདྲ་ཡོང་མི་ནུས་པས་ཡིན་སྲིད། ཞེས་མོའི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་། སྐྱོ་གར་ལས་གྲོལ་བ། ཞེས་པ་ནི་བུ་མོ་ཞིག་ལ་བཅར་འདྲི་བྱས་པའི་རྨང་གཞིའི་སྟེང་བརྩམས་པ་ཡིན་ལ། དེའི་ནང་ལོ་བཅུ་ལྷག་གི་སྔོན་ཞིག་ལ་སྡེ་བའི་ན་གཞོན་མ་ཞིག་གིས་སྡེ་བའི་་ལུགས་སྲོལ་དང་འགལ་ཏེ་གཉེན་སྒྲིག་མ་བྱས་པའི་སྔོན་ལ་མངལ་ཆགས་ནས་ཕྲུ་གུ་བཙས་པ་དང་། ཕྲུ་གུ་དེ་ཡང་མོ་རང་གཅིག་པུས་གཉོར་སྐྱོང་བྱས་པར་མ་ཟད། མོས་ད་དུང་རང་ལ་ཁང་པ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་བརྒྱབ་ཡོད། བཀྲ་ཤིས་རབ་བརྟན་གྱི། གཞོན་པའི་བརྩེ་བ། ཞེས་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ནང་ཡུལ་དེའི་འཚོ་བའི་ཆ་རྐྱེན་སྡུག་པོ་ཡིན་པ་ཤུགས་ནས་བསྟན་ཡོད། དཔེར་ན། འབྲོག་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནོར་ལུག་ཡུན་རིང་ལ་འཚོ་སྐྱོང་མ་བྱས་པས་ཨ་མ་སྒྲོལ་མས་ཚ་རུ་རྫུན་མ་གྱོན་པ་དང་བལ་གོང་ཡང་ངང་གིས་འཕར་བ་རེད། དེ་བས་གནད་དོན་འདི་དག་ལས་འཕྲོས་ཏེ་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་སྣ་མང་གླེང་མགོ་བརྩམས་ཆོག་པ་རེད། གཞན་ཡང་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་འདིའི་ནང་། ཨ་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཚང་དུ་མཆོད་བཤམས་བྱས་པའི་ཆུ་ཡོངས་ཆབ་རོམ་དུ་གྱུར་སོང་པའི་ཚན་པ་དེ་བཀླགས་དུས་ད་གཟོད་དགུན་དུས་སུ་འབྲོག་ཁུལ་དུ་གྲང་ངར་ཅི་འདྲ་ཆེ་བ་རྟོགས་ཐུབ།

 

དབུལ་ཞིང་ཕོངས་པ་དང་། གཞུང་ལམ་ལས་ཏེ་ཉིན་གླ་བྱེད་པ། བརྩེ་དུང་འགོག་པ། རྒན་རྒོན་གཉོར་སྐྱོང་དང་བྲལ་བ། ཅི་ཡིན་འདི་ཡིན་མ་ཤེས་པར་མི་གར་སོང་ཆ་མེད་དུ་གྱུར་བ་སོགས་ཀྱིས་མཚོན་པའི་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་ནམ་རྒྱུན་རྟགས་དང་མཚན་མ་ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་གྱིས་ཁེངས་ཡོད་པ་ནི། གློ་བུར་དུ་སྤྲིན་ནག་འཕྱུར་བས་སྔོ་ཞིང་བསངས་པའི་ནམ་མཁའ་དང་ཉི་འོད་ཡལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིང་ས་གཞི་ཡོངས་སྤྲིན་ནག་གིས་གཡོགས་པ། ལྟ་བུ། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཁ་ཤས་ནི་རབ་རྟོག་གི་སྒྲུང་ཙམ་ལས་ཕར་འགོངས་ཡོད་པ་དཔེར་ན་འཇམ་དབྱངས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཀྱིས་བརྩམས་པའི། འདྲེ་མཐུ་བོ་ཆེ། ཞེས་པའི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་དེར་ཉིན་རྒྱུན་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ཡང་གསང་བ་ལྐོག་གྱུར་དང་སྐྱོ་གར་གྱིས་ཁེངས་ཡོད་པ་བསྟན་ཡོད།

 

གཏམ་རྒྱུད་མང་པོའི་ཁྲོད་དོན་དག་གི་བྱུང་རིམ་འཚུབ་ཆ་ཆེ་ལ་མཇུག་འབྲས་གསལ་བོར་ཐོན་མེད། དཔེར་ན་ཕ་མས་ཕྱིར་ཁྱིམ་དུ་ལོག་འཕྱི་བའི་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ་སྒུག་པ་དང་། སྡེ་བ་གཉིས་དབར་གྱི་འཁོན་འཛིང་། གནས་སྐོར་པ་ལ་གདོན་གྱིས་བརླན་པའི་བཙུན་པ་ཞིག་གིས་ལམ་གྲོགས་བྱས་པ། ལྐོག་གྱུར་ཆེ་བའི་མི་ཞིག་གིས་བུ་ཆུང་གཉིས་ཀྱི་རྗེས་འདེད་པ་ལྟ་བུ་སོགས་ཡ་མཚན་པའི་དོན་དག་སྣ་མང་ཡོད། རབ་རྟོག་དང་དངོས་ཡོད་འདྲེས་མའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་འདི་དག་ནི་འཚུབ་ཆ་དང་། ཉམ་ཐག སྐྱོ་སྣང་། ཡིད་ཆད་བཅས་ཟང་ཟིང་ལང་ལོང་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་སྟོང་སྣང་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁེངས་ཡོད། ཁ་བས་གཡོགས་ཤིང་རླུང་གིས་བདས་པའི་ཐང་ཆེན་ན་ཡུལ་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འཕག་འཚག་སྒོས་དཀའ་བ་གདོང་ལེན་བྱེད་བའི་སྟོང་སྣང་དེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྐྱབས་ཀྱིས་བརྩམས་པའི། ཕྱིར་ལོག་པར་སྒུག་པ། སོགས་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་མང་པོའི་རྒྱབ་ལྗོངས་སུ་བྱས་ཡོད། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་འདི་དག་གི་ནང་དུ་སྟོང་སྣང་དེ་གློ་བུར་དུ་ཨ་ཕ་འདས་གྲོངས་སུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དང་། ན་གཞོན་ཞིག་གར་སོང་ཆ་མེད་དུ་གྱུར་བ། རྒྱང་རིང་དུ་བྲོས་ནས་གཉེན་སྒྲིག་ལ་གཡོལ་བ། བྲོས་བྱོལ། གཉེན་བསྒྲིགས་བྱས་མ་ཐག་པའི་བཟའ་ཟླ་ལས་ཆུང་མས་རང་གི་སློབ་ཡོན་བེད་སྤྱད་ནས་བཙས་མ་ཐག་པའི་བྱིས་པ་གསོ་སྐྱོང་བྱེད་པ་དང་། དེ་བས་མོའི་རང་གི་སློབ་ཐོན་ལག་འཁྱེར་གཏན་ནས་ལག་ཏུ་མ་ལོན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ་བཅས་རྣམ་པ་དུ་མའི་ལམ་ནས་བསྟན་ཡོད།

 

གཞན་ཡང་། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་འདི་དག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཡིད་འཕྲོག་ཅིང་ཉམས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བོད་ཀྱི་ཚིག་རྒྱན་སྣ་མང་སྤེལ་ཡོད། དཔེར་ན། རིན་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེའི། མི་མངོན་པའི་རྟགས་ཤིག ཅེས་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་དེའི་ནང་དུ། འབྲོག་པ་ཞིག་རང་གི་དྲོད་ཁོལ་ལྡན་པའི་སྦྲ་གུར་དང་བྲལ་སྐབས་ཆུང་མས་བློ་འཚབ་དང་བཅས། རྟ་རྔ་ལྟར་ཆར་བ་འཇོ་བའི། རྣམ་པ་ཡིད་ལ་འཆར་གྱིན་འདུག གཞན་ཡང་ཚིག་རྒྱན་སྦྱོར་སྟངས་མང་པོར་བོད་དུ་དུས་རབས་ཉི་ཤུའི་དུས་དཀྱིལ་བར་དུ་རྒྱུག་ཆེ་བའི་རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་སྙན་གཞུང་མེ་ལོང་མའི་ཤུགས་རྐྱེན་ཐེབས་ཡོད་དེ། དཔེར་ན། མི་སེམས་ལ་སྤྲོ་སྣང་བསྐྱེད་པར་བྱེད་པའི་སྐྱ་རེངས་ཞིབ་འབྲི་བྱས་པ་བློ་བཟང་ཚེ་རིང་གི ཇག་ལ་སོང་བ། ཞེས་པར། ནམ་མཁའི་གླང་བོས་དམར་སེར་མདངས་ལྡན་ན་གཟའ་གསོལ་དང་བསྟུན། །ཉི་མ་གཞོན་ནུ་སྐྱེངས་སྟབས་ཟོལ་གྱིས་ཤར་རིའི་རྩེ་རུ་འཕགས། །ཡང་ན་མཚན་ལྗོངས་བྲིས་པ། བཀྲ་ཤིས་རབ་བརྟན་གྱི། གཞོན་ནུའི་བརྩེ་བར། ཟླ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་སྐྱེངས་འཛུམ་དང་བཅས་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་གསེབ་ནས་སྐར་ཕྲན་དབུས་སུ་རྒྱུ། ལྟ་བུ།

 

ཚིག་རྒྱན་ཕྱི་མ་འདིའི་གཟུགས་དེས་ལོ་རབས་བརྒྱད་ཅུ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་དུ་ད་གཟོད་རྐང་ཚུགས་པའི་དེང་རབས་བོད་ཀྱི་རྩོམ་རིག་གསར་བ་གསར་རྩོམ་བྱེད་མཁན་གྱི་རྩོམ་པ་པོའི་མི་རབས་དེ་མཚོན་པར་བྱས་ཆོག ན་གཞོན་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་འདི་རྣམས་ནི་རང་སྐད་ཀྱི་ལམ་ནས་བརྩམས་པའི་རྩོམ་རིག་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཤིག་བཀླགས་ནས་འཚར་ལོངས་བྱུང་བ་རེད། ཡིན་ཡང་། སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྡུས་ཀྱི་དེབ་འདིའི་ནང་གི་རྩོམ་རྣམས་ནི་དབྱིན་སྐད་དུ་བྲིས་པ་ཤ་སྟག་རེད། ད་རུང་འགའ་རེ་ནི་དབྱིན་ཡིག་གི་ཆུ་ཚད་བཟང་བའི་སློབ་མའི་ལས་བྱའི་གྲས་ཀྱི་འབྲས་བུ་རྩེར་སོན་པ་དག་ཡིན་འདུག རྩོམ་པ་པོ་ཕལ་ཆེ་བ་ནི་མཚོ་སྔོན་དགེ་ཐོན་སློབ་ཆེན་ ནས་སློབ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་རྗེས། ད་ལྟ་མཚོ་སྔོན་དང་ཀན་སུའུ། ཟི་ཁྲོན་ཞིང་ཆེན་བཅས་ཀྱི་ས་ཁུལ་མང་པོ་རུ་དབྱིན་ཡིག་སློབ་ཁྲིད་བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད། བོད་ཀྱི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་རིག་གནས་ལ་རྒྱུས་ལོན་མེད་པའམ་ཡང་ན་བོད་ཁུལ་གྱི་ས་ཆ་གཞན་དག་ནས་ཡོང་བའི་ཀློག་པ་པོ་ཚོར་གོ་བདེ་བའི་ཆེད་དུ། ཁོ་ཚོས་རང་རང་གི་ཕ་ཡུལ་གྱི་རྒྱུན་ལྡན་འཚོ་བའི་རྣམ་པ་ཞིབ་ཕྲ་ལྡན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་བརྗོད་པ་དཔེར་ན། ཉིན་རེའི་ཞོགས་པར་ཨ་མས་ཚ་གསུར་ཕུད་པ་ལྟ་བུ།

 

རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་གི་གོ་རིམ་ཁྲོད་ཞུ་དག་ལེགས་པོ་བྱུང་ཡོད་པས་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་རྣམས་ཚིག་སྦྱོར་ཡག་ཅིང་ཀློག་བདེ་ལ། གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་བྱུང་རིམ་རེ་འགའ་ཞིབ་བརྗོད་བྱས་པ་ཧ་ཅང་ལེགས། སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕལ་ཆེ་བ་ཨེ་ཤེ་ཡའི་མཐོ་སྒང་ཞེས་པའི་དུས་དེབ་འདོན་ཐེངས་ 2009-2011 པའི་སྟེང་བཀོད་ཟིན་པ་དང་། རྩོམ་མཁན་ཕལ་མོ་ཆེ་ལས་དང་པོ་བ་རྐྱང་རྐྱང་རེད། ཁོ་ཚོའི་གྲས་སུ་རྣམ་དཔྱོད་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡངས་པའི་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཀྱིས་བརྩམས་པའི་གདོན་འདྲེ་སྐོར་གྱི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་དེས་ཁོ་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་གསར་རྩོམ་བྱས་པའི་རོ་ལངས་སྐོར་གྱི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཇི་བཞིན་ཁྱེད་ལ་བག་ཆགས་ཟབ་མོ་ཞིག་འཇོག་སྲིད། ཁོའི། འདྲེ་མཐུ་བོ་ཆེ། ཞེས་པའི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་དེའི་རྒྱབ་ལྗོངས་སྐོར་གླེང་དུས་ཁོ་རང་ཆུང་དུས་སུ་ནམ་རྒྱུན་མཚན་མོར་ཨ་མྱེས་བཤད་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ལ་ཉན་པ་ཡིན། ཡིན་ནའང་། ཁོ་རང་ལོ་བཅུ་གསུམ་གྱི་སྟེང་བཅའ་སྡོད་སློབ་གྲྭར་འགྲིམས་པ་དང་། སྐབས་དེར་ཁོས་མཉམ་འཇོག་བྱུང་བ་ནི་ངལ་གསོའི་སྐབས་ཕྱིར་ཡུལ་ལ་ལོག་ཐེངས་རེར་ཁྱིམ་མི་རྣམས་བརྙན་འཕྲིན་གྱི་མཐའ་ལ་རུབ་ནས་སྡོད་རྒྱུར་དགའ་བ་དེ་རེད། ཁོས། ཉིས་སྟོང་བཅུ་བདུན་ལོའི་ཟླ་བཅུ་བའི་ཉིན་ཞིག་ལ། ངས་ཨ་མྱེས་ལ་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ཅིག་ཤོད་ཅེས་ཞུ་བ་བྱས་པར། ཨ་མྱེས་རང་གིས་ཡུན་རིང་པོར་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་མ་བཤད་པས་ཕལ་ཆེ་བ་བརྗེད་འདུག ཅེས་བརྗོད་སོང་། འོན་ཀྱང་དགའ་འོས་པ་ཞིག་ལ། ཐེངས་འདིའི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་དེབ་འདིས་བོད་ཀྱི་ན་གཞོན་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་འདི་རྒྱུན་སྐྱོང་བཞིན་པ་ར་སྤྲོད་བྱེད་ཐུབ།

 

གཞན་ད་རུང་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ལེགས་ཤོས་གཅིག་ནི་པདྨ་རིན་ཆེན་གྱི། འགལ་ཟླ། ཞེས་པ་དེ་རེད། སྒྲུང་ཐུང་དེའི་ནང་མི་སྣ་གཙོ་བོ་ཐེངས་དང་པོར་རི་མགོར་དབྱར་རྩ་རྐོ་བར་སོང་བའི་སྐོར་ཞིབ་འབྲི་བྱས་ཡོད། གླེང་གཞི་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་དབྱར་རྩྭ་མང་པོ་བཏུས་ནས་ཨ་མའི་བསྟོད་བསྔགས་ཐོབ་པར་བྱ་རྒྱུའི་ཆོད་སེམས་དང་། རང་ཁྱིམ་དྲན་པའི་གདུང་བ། དེ་ཡང་ཁ་བས་གཡོགས་པའི་ཉིན་ཞིག་ལ། དྲེལ་ལ་ཞོན་ནས་ལམ་ཐག་རིང་བོར་བསྐྱོད་མཐར། སྦྲ་ནང་དུ་མལ་ཐུལ་དྲོན་པོའི་ནང་འཛུལ་ནས་ཇ་ཁ་ཆེས་ཞིམ་མངར་ལྡན་པ་ཞིག་ལ་རོལ་བ་སོགས་ཀྱི་མཚོན་པའི་འཚོ་བའི་རྣམ་པ་དེ་ཡིན། ནུབ་གླིང་གི་ཀློག་པ་པོ་མང་ཆེ་བར་མཚོན་ན་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་བོད་ཁུལ་གྱི་ཐང་སྟོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདི་ལ་རྒྱུས་མངའ་མེད་མོད། སྤྱིར་བབ་ཆགས་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ལ་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་བའི་རྣམ་པ་དེ་ཁོ་ཚོའི་ཡིད་ལ་ལྷང་ངེར་འཆར་ངེས། དེ་བས་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་འདི་དག་ནི་ཡུལ་དུས་ཀྱི་བཀག་རྒྱ་ལས་བརྒལ་ནས་འགྲོ་བ་མི་སྤྱིའི་འཚོ་བའི་བདེ་སྡུག་མཚོན་པར་བྱས་ཡོད་སྙམ།

 

ང་རང་གི་བོད་ཁུལ་ཡུལ་དངོས་རྟོག་ཞིབ་ནི་ཧ་ལམ་ལོ་ངོ་ཉི་ཤུའི་གོང་རོལ་ནས་མགོ་ཚུགས་པ་དང་། དེའི་རྗེས་བོད་ཡུལ་དུ་ཐེངས་མང་པོར་ཡུལ་དངོས་རྟོག་ཞིབ་ལ་སོང་བ་ཡིན། སྐབས་དེ་དག་ལ་ངའི་སེམས་སུ་བོད་མི་སོ་སོར་ཚད་མི་འདྲ་བའི་སྒོ་ནས་རང་རང་གི་ཐུན་མིན་གྱི་སྒྲུང་འཆད་པའི་འཇོན་ཐང་ཡོད་པ་ཚོར། སྡེ་བའི་ལོ་ལོན་རྒན་པ་དང་། སློབ་ཆེན་གྱི་སློབ་མ། སྐྱེས་པ་བུད་མེད་སུ་ཞིག་ཡིན་རུང་། ཁོ་ཚོས་མིག་སྔར་བྱུང་བའི་དོན་ནམ་ཡང་ན་འདས་དོན་སྐོར་གླེང་སྐབས་མི་ཚོགས་ཡོངས་དགའ་སྤྲོ་འཕེལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་དེར་ང་རང་ཧ་ཅང་དགའ།

ཚེ་དཔག་གི ལྷ་སྒོ། ཞེས་པའི་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་དེའི་ནང་གི་ལྷ་སྒོ་བཞིན་བོད་ཀྱི་དེང་རབས་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་དེབ་འདི་ནི་རི་སྒང་སྐྱ་བོའི་འདབས་སུ་བསྟར་ལ་ཆགས་པའི་ཤིང་ཁང་དང་། རྩྭ་ཐང་ལ་ཕྲ་ལྟར་བཏབ་པའི་སྦྲ་ནག་སོགས་བོད་རོང་འབྲོག་གི་འཚོ་བའི་རིག་གནས་ལ་ཆ་རྒྱུས་མེད་པའི་ཀློག་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་མཚོན་ན། རིག་གནས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྒོ་མོ་ཞིག་ཡིན། དེ་མིན། བོད་ཁུལ་ལ་ཕེབས་མྱོང་མཁན་དང་ཐད་ཀར་བོད་ཁུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་ཡོད་ལས་ཀ་གཞན་དག་བྱེད་མཁན་སུ་ཞིག་ཡིན་རུང་། ཁོ་ཚོས་སྒྲུང་ཐུང་འདི་དག་ལས་ཕྱིར་མངོན་པའི་དེང་རབས་བོད་ཀྱི་ན་གཞོན་ཚོའི་བསམ་བློ་དང་ལྟ་ཚུལ། འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་གནད་དོན་དང་། གནོན་ཤུགས། གོ་སྐབས་བཅས་ཕྱོགས་སྣེ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་ལ་གཏིང་ཟབ་པོའི་སྒོ་ནས་རྒྱུས་ལོན་བྱེད་ཐུབ། དེང་གི་འཚོ་བའི་བྲེལ་ཟིང་ཁྲོད། སྒྲུང་ཐུང་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་ཀྱི་དེབ་འདི་ནི། ཀློག་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བློ་བདེ་བག་ཕེབས་ངང་ཁ་ཆར་བུ་ཡུག་གི་བསྡམས་པའི་རྩྭ་ཐང་དང་། དུས་རབས་ཀྱི་འཕོ་འགྱུར་གདོང་ལེན་དང་རང་རང་གི་མི་ཚེའི་བརྒྱུད་རིམ་ཁྲོད་མི་དར་མའི་སྒོ་ཐེམ་སླེབས་ལ་ཉེ་བའི་བོད་ཀྱི་གསར་སྐྱེས་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཁོང་རུས་པའི་གཏིང་ནས་མཆེད་འོངས་པའི་འཚོ་བའི་དབྱངས་རྟ་སྙན་མོ་ཞིག་ལ་རོལ་ཆོག་པའི་དེབ་བཟང་ཞིག་ཡིན་པར་འདོད། །

 

དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ།

 

Lama Jabb [Bla ma skyabs བླ་མ་སྐྱབས།]. 2015. Oral and Literary་རྒྱ Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: the ་རྒྱ InescapableཀྱིNation [བོད་ཀྱི་དེང་རབས་རྩོམ་རིག་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་ངག་ཐོག་དང་ཡིག་ཐོག་གཉིས་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་སྟེ་གཡོལ་ཐུབ་མེད་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ།དེbod kyi deng rabs rtsom rig gi yig ngag rtsom rgyun te g.yol thub med pa'i ་རྒྱ rang yul]. Lanham [ལན་ཧམ།]: Lexington [ལེ་ཁི་ཞིན་ཏོན།].

  

藏族短篇故事介绍

 

Lauran Hartley (哥伦比亚大学)

周毛吉 译

 

祖母温柔地回答道: "如果我告诉你真相，你可能会怕我。" 就这样，一个宠爱着孩子的老人开始给我们的小叙述者讲述了她年轻时那个既悲伤，又从未提起过的往事。

 

从最直接意义上讲，讲故事是《当代藏族短篇故事》的核心，在众多方面都值得我们欣赏和品鉴。正如拉玛杰（2015）所说，讲故事是"藏族文学的口头延续。" 来自青藏高原东北部的二十多名青年作家将他们最真实的记忆和传奇经历编制进情节不一的故事里。这些故事令人着迷、困惑、失望、或者痛苦。

每一篇故事里，作者通过开场白来描述他们的灵感，和许多很离奇但又真实的事情。这一框架将"嵌入式"效应引入到作品中:故事中讲述着故事。当这些年轻的成年作家详述各自的长辈或朋友时，我们不经会想起藏族的《说不完的故事》。故事的载体，即一具会讲故事的尸体，被不断提出的问题引导着讲述一个又个故事。

 

这本文集体现的是现代民谣，而不是童话故事。标志性的人物在不断变化的社会习俗中步履蹒跚。无论处在学生的宿舍里还是牧人的帐篷中, 大部分的故事都寄于一份希望的种子。一场场因教育的失败、父子的疏远、或年轻女子的轻生等导致的悲剧在学校给予的一份承诺、新找到的一份工作、或懵懂的一场爱恋中不动声响地终止了。华泽加的《在阴影下》很好地捕捉到了学生们远方的家和他们的寄宿学校之间的生活对比。正如叙述者的描述："我的父母在家里吟诵着六字真言；我们在学校里念叨着成为大多数讨论、对话、会议、甚至课堂中心话题的'高考'二字。"

 

某些情况下，失败是由沉迷饮酒、学习失败、或其它糟糕的决定等自身原因导致的。然而在班玛杭欠的《QQ命运》和李加本的《是谁的错》两篇故事中，挫折由处境因素导致：人们的歧视阻碍了一位丈夫找工作; 村里的流言蜚语把一个年轻女子推入了一段没有希望的婚姻; 城市的诱惑和新发现的自由破坏了一名大学生的毕业计划。

 

作为这本选集中有造诣的作家之一，杨措吉解释说："我喜欢写故事，因为我认为故事以其与众不同的方式探索社会现象。" 她的故事《从悲剧中解放出来》根据对一位妇女的采访，讲述她几十年前以独自一人抚养孩子，甚至自己搭建房子的方式挑战乡村传统的经历。在扎西拉丹的《年轻的爱》中，细心的读者会发现字里行间体现着更多有关当地的情况。例如， 卓玛妈妈穿了一件人造羊羔皮长袍。通过这件事情作者讲述了关于牧民们不再养羊和羊毛涨价等的社会现象。再或者，一个偶然的早晨，当我们无意间发现贡碗里的圣水变成冰时，才意识到藏区寒冷的夜里没有任何供暖设施。

 

在脱贫、道路建设、禁恋、自杀等令人费解的表象中，大量的迹象和非凡的事情开始涌现。正如拉玛杰（2015）所述："天空很快就消失了，被一大片不祥的乌云所征服。这些低低掠过的云迅速地覆盖了太阳的余光。" 如将阳扎西的《强大的鬼魂》，这些比小说更离奇又非凡的故事给人们每天的生活带来了一层神秘和悲伤。

 

许多故事中充满了焦虑：父母在家等着比平时晚归的孩子；两个宿怨的村庄间弥漫着紧张的气氛；一个邪恶的僧人坚持着要陪同一位朝圣者；一个神秘的人尾随着两个小男孩。这些故事没有讲完就被终止，给人更多遐想的空间和余地。这种半虚构的世界以一种不安、脆弱和绝望的特征，与深沉的缺乏感和不安感相呼应。贯穿于故事的这种缺乏感以围绕着故事主人公的一个白色空间或冰雪覆盖的平原形式体现。譬如，多机机的《等待回归》表现出多种的缺乏感：父亲的突然离去；一个年轻人无法解释的消失、及一对新婚夫妇的私奔与逃避。

 

优美、形象的藏族比喻让我们惊喜。在仁青多杰的《一个看不见的符号》中，一位牧民从他温暖的帐篷里出发，可他的妻子正在焦急地注视着"犹如马尾倾斜而下的大雨"。如此比喻在很大程度上受到了印度审美模式的影响，而这种审美模式对藏族文学的影响直至20世纪中叶。洛桑才让的《偷来的旅程》中如此栩栩如生地描述黎明："身着橙色裤子的天空大象随着太阳逐渐爬上东山。" 又或者扎西拉丹在《年轻的爱》中描述傍晚就像 "一轮新月在成千上万颗闪亮的星星中羞涩地汇聚着力量"。

 

这最后一个比喻恰如其分地隐喻了一代作家正在发掘的一个新颖的文学形式：在20世纪80年代中期才开始的藏族短篇小说。这些年轻的作家是第一批通过自己的母语阅读各种短篇小说的人。当然，这本文集里的故事都是用英语写的，因为这些是一群优秀的英语学习者的课堂练习成果。部分故事的作者毕业于青海师范大学。这里也是这本文集的总编曾经教授过英语的一所高校。如今，这些作者在青海、甘肃和四川等省的小城镇教英语。作者们详细地描述了一些日常习俗：如，母亲在一块金属板上点燃一些青稞炒面祭神等。因为他们预计有些读者可能不熟悉当地习俗，或者成长于不同的文化背景。

 

这些故事简短而精炼，有些情节甚至比其它故事更成熟。这些作品中有大部分曾在2009至2011年之间出版的 《亚洲高原视角》（AHP）系列中发表过，还有少部分则是在此选集中首次与读者见面。在这些作品中，出自才华横溢的将阳扎西之手的的鬼故事可能会在你的脑海里游荡一段时间，就像他的故事中的僵尸一样。他在介绍《强大的鬼魂》时回忆说，年轻时他经常和家人一起听祖父讲故事。然而，自从13岁离家去上寄宿学校后，他每次回乡探亲时都发现家人经常聚集在电视机前。他提到："2017年10月，我请爷爷给我讲个故事，他给我讲了这个故事。他说他也忘记了很多故事，因为他很久没有讲故事了。" 值得庆幸的是，这一系列的故事证明了勇敢的年轻藏族作家正在延续这一传统。

 

班玛仁青的《冲突》是另一个成功的故事。故事讲述了一个男孩第一次收获冬虫夏草的经历：他渴望得到一大笔钱，并赢得了母亲的赞许；他的思乡之情；当结束了漫长的一天后，进入被白雪包围的帐篷，披着温暖的毛毯吃起的最美味的一顿饭……。 对于大多数西方读者来说，荒芜的环境是另一个世界，然而这种简单的舒适又是如此的熟悉。这些故事跨越了时间和地域的限制，犹如堆在山顶的石碑，见证着人类共同的努力与约定。

 

二十几年前在西藏进行田野调查时和之后的陆续拜访中，我一直认为讲故事的艺术在藏族中是随处可见的。无论是与村里的长者、大学本科生、还是女性朋友，我都经常很享受叙述者讲述他们的近况或往事而触发的那种共性的欢喜。

 

因为这种传统，对于不熟悉藏区生活的读者来说，《当代藏族短篇故事》是一扇神圣的大门，如同泽和的《神之门》一样。它可以让你领略真实的藏族生活，不管是发生在干旱山坡上的庄廓中，还是发生在草原上的牛毛帐篷里。与此同时，不管是那些曾经前往过，还是首次拜访这些地区的读者，都会欣赏这些当代的故事，因为它们体现了更真实的经历及当今年轻藏族人的思维方式和创造力，还有他们所关注的问题、压力和机遇等内容。在一个繁忙的世界里，这是一本可以简单地坐着就听的书：沙沙作响的草原；即将到来的季风；以及一辈面临着困惑和时代变化、处在成年生活的门槛上的正在成长的藏族作家们。

  

参考目录

 

Lama Jabb [Bla ma skyabs拉玛杰]. 2015. Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: the Inescapable Nation [现代藏族文学的口述和文学延续：不可逃避的民族]. Lanham: Lexington.

 

I posted this photo way back in 2017. I'm moving it up in the queue for continuity.

 

I'm concerned about the impact those power lines have on the environment.

 

Not really, but it does seem oxymoronish to have miles and miles of power poles running up a raperian canyon with that sign in grand display. I wonder what the BLM is really concerned about?

 

PS. Please take this tongue-in-cheek.

0.04 - BBC Continuity

0.06 - BBC Two Ident (Remake 2000)

0.29 - BBC Two (Off-Air Loop)

0.43 - BBC Two Ident (Remake 2001)

0.57 - Dreamworks Ident

1.16 - BBC Continuity

1.21 - BBC Two Ident (2002 Remake)

1.43 - BBC Two Ident (2014 Remake)

2.10 - BBC Two Ident (Sign Zone)

One big roof has continuity from ground floor to top floor. So, indoor makes sense of space.

切妻屋根が1枚どどーんと支える造りがいいですね。

------------------------------------

Gallery : photowork.jp/christinayan01/architectural/archives/7045

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Nezu Museum (根津美術館).

Architect : Kengo Kuma & Associates (設計：隈研吾建築都市設計事務所).

Contractor : Shimizu Corporation (施工：清水建設).

Completed : February 2009 (竣工：2009年2月).

Structured : (構造：).

Costs : $ million (総工費：約億円).

Use : Museum (用途：美術館).

Height : ft (高さ：m).

Floor : 2 (階数：地上2階、地下1階).

Floor area : sq.ft. (延床面積：4,014.08㎡).

Building area : sq.ft. (建築面積：1,947.49㎡).

Site area : sq.ft. (敷地面積：21,625㎡).

Owner : Nezu Museum Foundation (建主：公益財団法人根津美術館).

Location : 6-5-1 Minami-Aoyama, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan (所在地：日本国東京都港区南青山6-5-1).

Referenced :

kkaa.co.jp/works/architecture/nezu-museum/

www.nezu-muse.or.jp/jp/about/outline.html

db1.kitera.ne.jp/building/data/kindaikenchiku/2010/A01002...

元々は1941年に開館。2009年に隈研吾氏がリニューアル

0.04 - Top of The Pops - Christmas Special

0.14 - BBC Continuity

0.54 - BBC Four Ident

1.09 - BBC Music Ident

Bazaar of Carpets, Hamedan (Aug. 2006)

The Silver Age... The 1960's... The modern, sleek, and form-fitting Super-Hero was born!

 

A little continuity before I dive in... The Justice League was not an original idea! In fact this was the second attempt at a Superhero Team-Up series in DC's Publication history. The first of course being The Justice Society of America, penned by none other than Gardner Fox.

The Justice League of America came together for the first time in The Brave and The Bold No. 28. in March of 1960 (also written by Gardner Fox)! Fun fact: the name change from “Society” to “League” was a reflection on the popularity of Baseball among kids at the time (ie. Major League/Minor League Teams)

 

Anyway, this new colorful super-powered baseball team came together to stop hundreds of giant telekinetic space starfish rampaging across Mid-Western America! And what was the only way to stop them?! Teamwork of course!

 

...What a way to start a generation of Superhero alliance's! :P

  

The first seven members (which also established the number) were Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Superman (who is only in three panels of the entire first book! He was too busy punching asteroids to help apparently...)

 

The Justice League was a smash hit from the day it landed on shelves! They eventually held their own solo series, just short of two years after Brave and The Bold brought the team together.

Justice League of America No.9 presented the team's first “Origin story”, where the power of friendship and working together helped defeat an invading alien force (already retconning the Starfish stuff from BaTB No.28 but whatever it was The Silver Age)!

  

As corny as all this sounds though, it's a cool sentiment to think about if you put this book in context to the time I was released (1962). We were amongst the peak of The Space Race! We're in a Post-WWII, Pre Cold War atmosphere. It's the first time in nearly 70 years where there wasn't an impending threat looming over everyone's heads, so with technology advancing for human betterment, the idea that a nation could come together and accomplish anything and literally go to the freaking Moon was astounding!

(PS The Moon is still to this day (2017) the farthest a human has ever traveled away from earth! Crazy!)

 

So having these Super-Human characters come together to stop the forces of evil was almost inevitable! (also they get turned into trees in the same issue, so that's pretty cool) :P

 

Speaking of which, around this time Comic Book Publishers were in the heat of The Comic's Code Authority requiring “Child Appropriate” stories with books branded with the CCA seal. This of course lead the writers to come up with some incredibly independent stories, which amazingly still hold up as entertaining media (not always “good” but certainly entertaining! :P)

 

Gardner Fox came to be one of the more prominent writers of this era. If you can think of a popular JL story or DC concept, Gardner Fox probably created it!

The JSA, Barry Allan, Wally West, (pretty much any Flash supporting character), Doctor Fate, The Crime Syndicate, Adam Strange, Kanjar Ro, Amazo/Dr Ivo... You Betcha! Hell, the whole concept of DC's Multiverse was created by the guy! He also (inadvertently) started that weird trend where every time DC wants to reboot something they use the word “Crisis” (“Crisis on Earth Three!” Justice League of America No.29).

Mr Fox is a topic all his own though, so I'll just leave it here for now, but trust me that guy was everywhere!

 

He's the one that united the seven, and kicked it off (for the second time) the worlds most popular Super-Team!

 

The Justice League of America!

 

:)

  

___________________________________________

  

The history of DC Comics has always astounded me. The mere idea that these characters have out lived their creators is fascinating and something I've wanted to talk about for a while.

With Darwyn Cooke's passing in May of 2016, a project dawned in my head. To take a retrospective look through time, and remember the highlights of DC's comic/media history over the last Seventy-Five-odd years.

As I consulted with the idea of creating a New Frontier type photoshoot, the concept came to me to take a look at DC ten years at a time. To see what changes (for good or bad) that came with the eras. So here we are. The beginnings of a very large project that started almost a year ago that I've been photographing in secret for nearly eight months!

 

Over the following weeks, I'm gonna take you through the decades and talk about some of my favorite aspects of The Justice League in their publication/media history leading up to the 2017 film!

 

Maybe you'll learn a thing or two? :)

  

PS. Wonder Woman's torso is from Poppunkmunky's site. It wasn't my original content, and the original designer did a wonderful job recreating the classic design! All the other Torso reconstructions were done by me :)

 

And remember, Patreon has an exclusive Comic Cover recreation of Brave and The Bold No.28, plus a handful of other really cool stuff! So go check that out too!

 

Next: The 1970s! (You can see it early on Patreon) ;)

  

___________________________________________

 

www.patreon.com/andrewcookston

 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/andrewcookstonphotography/

Continuities (1964)

Paste Pot & Scissors, No. PP&S63

Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio

 

Illustration by Bob Bugg (?)

Garwin Falls, Wilton, NH

20141004-IMG_9237

Technicians encapsulate NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite in its payload fairing in the Astrotech processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

 

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is NASA's eighth satellite in the Landsat series and continues the Landsat program's critical role in monitoring, understanding and managing the resources needed for human sustainment such as food, water and forests. As our population surpasses seven billion people, the impact of human society on the planet will increase, and Landsat monitors those impacts as well as environmental changes.

 

Image credit: NASA/VAFB

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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I have had the personal commitment to complete or rather take my project of last Summer the full distance to see where it leads me.

Well the behemoth is moving again, the bait has been nibbled thoroughly and finally taken. I have a lot of work ahead now.

© 2012 All rights reserved by JulioC.

Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

 

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk - Faro (Portugal) edition - 2012, October 13

 

• Different ways to see my photos •

Most Interesting | Interestingness Timeline | Most Recent | Photo-BloG

 

Even though the construction of the Pavesi Autogrill chain represented an economic and social phenomenon of noteworthy relevance in Italy, it should not go unnoticed that the history of contemporary architecture treated in a very marginal way the description of these works, in some instances, maybe in the post-modern revaluation of a generic Italian highway “landscape” observed at the most for its phenomenological implications rather than for the fact it belonged to the typology of city building through architecture.

 

It is a fact that these buildings were left out of the most authoritative research of the years of economic reprise after World War II. Immediately before, in the years of Reconstruction, the traditional masonry technique was progressively converted into a modern“Neo-Realistic” language for some aspects, especially evident in the first residential INA-Casa neighborhoods, according to specific Italian characteristics of interpretation of the Modernist Movements that became famous worldwide through the works of architects that had already been very unconventional experimenters in the cultural landscape of the years preceding the war: Albini, the BBPR ( and the writings of Ernesto Nathan Rogers), Quaroni, Samonà, Gardella, Ridolfi, that can be contextualized also in the works of a culturally engaged entrepreneur like Adriano Olivetti.

 

The buildings by Angelo Bianchetti for the Pavesi Autogrills designed like bridges crossing the highway are far from this cultural landscape, and were born in the context of those forms of entertainment and leisure time activities brought on by the economic prosperity and by the idea of progress linked to the euphoria of speed and of car travel.

 

Nonetheless these buildings deserve to be considered as works of art at least for two reasons. First of all, because the technological gradient follows the criteria of experimentation of shapes and structural frames in the exposure of beaming, in the projections of the shelves, in the wide, light, and transparent continuous windows, in the slim metal frames well designed to support the advertising billboards: a criteria embedded in the history of architecture whose roots are founded on a continuity of thought and on a modern “spirit of the times” that is daring and evokes emotions.

 

Secondly, we can catch a glimpse of a territorial projection of architecture that shows attraction for large scale dimensions (both geographical and commercial), and for a certain poetical spirit of of “megalithic structures” that in a short period of time became a rather recurrent composition theme especially in the important tenders for the contracts of the directional centers of Turin (1962) and for the Sacca del Tronchetto in Venice (1964), and that were reintroduced in the history of modern architecture by the famous book by Reiner Bahnam[1].

 

As a phenomenon, the bridge architecture of the Pavesi Autogrills is impressed in the collective memory of the Italian highway landscape even though their construction is circumscribed to about twelve such buildings in the course of about ten years, between 1959 and 1972, in the same period in which the Italian highway system developed.

 

Still today, going through these works of “advertising architecture” that nowadays show subdued colors with respect to the surrounding landscape thanks to a restyling, awakens the attention of hasty travelers that can see the Autogrills arising from a great distance or appearing all of a sudden between a sequence of bridges to disappear in a moment at one’s back, leaving an impression in the memory of crossing something extremely vital, like a fragment of a city. Unusual an beautiful perspectives vertiginously attracted by the dynamic perception of vehicles appeared in the eyes of those who stopped there and sat at the tables facing the highway lanes, especially of the countryside of the Po River Valley.

 

Because of this fascination with the landscape of a modern territory, the localization of bridged Autogrills did not follow the false ambition of aesthetics in the quest for a setting that could be compatible with the surrounding scenery or that could be particularly persuasive, but on the contrary, these bridges were located strategically on the territory according to a design that was very coherent with a market strategy that was starting to understand that rest areas for car travelers were a new large commercial sector and a channel for the diffusion of novelty food products.

 

This concept, genuinely based on the market and on novelty foods merchandising, followed a system of modern objects which were strictly connected to a new industrial culture that was developing in those times.

But the real innovation which came was to be that of typology, probably born around a planning table rather than at the design desk by the ideas of architect Bianchetti and entrepreneur Pavesi, and surely in a moment of conjunction between the innovative and open industrial culture ad an architectural culture that even before those times had developed interesting experiences and experimental works through the forms of the Modernist Movement, catching the attention of international culture.

 

Therfore the diffusion of the Pavesi Autogrills started with the intuition that Mario Pavesi had of a possible market for a chain of highway restoration points, and this became a solid reality with the first rest area in Novara along the stretch of the Turin-Milan highway. This industrial strategy, joined with the forms of advertising architectures by Angelo Bianchetti, made it possible to construct about one hundred restoration points in the span of about twenty years from 1959 to 1978, with about fifty of these being full size Autogrills.

 

During an initial phase of formal structuring that cannot be precisely indicated by temporal references, the first rest areas were located laterally with respect to the highway in Lainate (Milan, 1958), in Ronco Scrivia (Genoa, 1958), and in Varazze (Genoa, 1960), and featured large steel arches painted in white that supported the logotype and were placed on top of circular transparent structures containing a bar and shelves to sell products. These still followed the architectural matrix of pavilions made for fair exhibits, but with a substantial difference in the fact that their silhouette stood out against the Italian countryside landscape of the time creating a unique and surprising setting. The bridge typology was the evolution of this asymmetrical disposition of rest areas on one side of the highway with an underpass that made them reachable from the other lane. The first example of bridged rest areas for the Pavesi chain (and perhaps the first one in the world), was the rest area of Fiorenzuola d’Arda (Piacenza, December 21, 1959).

 

Therefore, it seems possible that he phenomenon of the birth and the diffusion of the highway rest areas, especially for what concerns the definition of the bridge typology and for a certain quality of the services offered, originated in Italy. Bianchetti himself attests this in an interesting report of a journey published by the magazine “Quattroruote” (four wheels) in 1960, describing the diffusion of auto-grills areas observed during his travel in the United States and in Germany and comparing it with the Italian situation. In this writing, there is a striking recognition of a contemporary trend in the making of similar structures: Bianchetti illustrates the project of a bridged rest area in Illinois by the Standard Motor Oil chain, and praises the high quality of the environment of the rest areas of the Howard Johnson chain.

 

«I learned that architects Rinford and Genther are building in Chicago an extremely new design, and I reached them by taking a flight. The two architects work for Pace Associates, a studio of Italian origins, and their first constructions are being completed at a few tens of kilometers from the metropolis: it is a series of five restaurants bars. In general, they look like the ones that will be built on our Autostrada del Sole.

I reached one of these areas that has already been completed at about fifty kilometers from Chicago by car. It is built like a bridge on the highway, with the use of prefabricated cement structures, and the rest area, when seen from a distance, looks like a massive overpass.

At night, with the light reflecting on the walls made of smoothed glass, it gives you the idea of a ship. Once again, prefect signposting and the agile game of “four leaf clover” exits facilitate the passage of clientele: the psychological tests confirm that the decision of stopping does not impose any conscious effort of will on the driver. To avoid the problem of stairs and elevators, the builders even provided to raise the entire area of parking lots and platforms. You can reach the level of the “restaurant floor” by car. But how much will one of these colossal structures cost, without considering the cost of parking lots, of lanes, signposting and many more indispensable accessory expenses?

The two architects informed me that the average expense is of about one billion Italian Lire. The surprising kitchen tools made of stainless steel that you can find in detailed description in a book of three hundred pages cost a little less of two hundred million Lire alone. It is a real treatise»[2].

 

Among the bridged Autogrills that followed shortly after this period, we find the Abraham Lincoln Oasis by David Haid on the Northern Illinois Highway of circa 1967, with its elegant and minimal geometries of steel beams and glass and with its use of the criteria of access ramps to parking lots to reach the restaurant level. In Italy, we must take note of some bridged rest areas of the Motta chain in Cantagallo by Melchiorre Bega, and in Limena by Pier Luigi Nervi.

 

In any case, the construction of bridged Autogrills increased the possibilities of access, but their limitations in the possible increase of utility ad renewal seemed perhaps too binding and costly in the massive increase in highway traffic of the 1980s, determining the actual exhaustion of possibilities for this extremely interesting typology, as Angelo Bianchetti himself at the time recalled in one of his short writings of 1979, underlining a paradoxical situation of inadequacy to the market in a climate of full economic recession and energetic crises.

 

«[…] the cost of a bridge with all of its accessories was clearly lower than that of two lateral Autogrills, without mentioning that noteworthy savings on operating costs, both for the installation and for the personnel. The visibility at a distance is much more immediate of that which a later Autogrill offers: let us not forget that a driver traveling at a speed of 120—140 kilometer per hour must decide in a few seconds whether to enter or not the ramp of deceleration.

In conclusion, the advertising image of a bridge is by itself more effective and of sure appeal. […]. Today the situation has changed. The huge increase of costs (fuels, cost of operating machines) has slowed down the flow of traffic and has reduced the user’s spending possibilities.

The cost of construction with respect to 1972 is almost fourfold, and it has increased terribly. All this imposes a revision of the investment policies; the tendency today is not to build new Autogrills but at the most new snack-bars connected to a nearby gas station. It not feasible anymore to build a bridge, unless in an extremely well established service area of large traffic that can guarantee the constant flow and support of travelers»[3].

 

The numerous formal variation of these bridge installation extended the possibilities for signposting through flagpoles dressed up with the Pavesi flags like ships on a dock, or through some functional increases, like the annexation of a motel. The one in Novara (1962), that replaced a previous service station and that was the largest one built, and the one in Osio (Bergamo 1972), the last to be built with bridge typology, were identical in lines and shapes and were perhaps the most successful ones, while the one in Montepulciano (Siena, 1967) features an extremely striking and apparently suspended beaming and a projection of Corten steel. Lastly; the one in Nocera (Salerno, 1971), presents an interesting combination with the function of motel, attempted as an enlargement project in the one in Novara as well, but then never built. The other bridged ones are in Sebino (Brescia, 1962), Feronia (Rome, 1964), Frascati (Rome, 1963), Soave (Verona, 1969), Rezzato Nord (Brescia, 1970).

 

Nonetheless some characteristics remained a constant, like a certain formal uniqueness and sense of completion of the construction that gave a full rounded perception of the buildings even in the headboards frequently crowned by a large cantilever staircase. This can be seen clearly in period photos and it is less noticeable nowadays because of the frequent addition of low lateral tourist market buildings and because of softer colors used. The chromatic treatment of the metal sun shading roofs (a bright red color) became the distinctive feature of Pavesi Autogrills and circumscribed the building itself in the whole, while the balanced collocation of the few billboards did not enter into conflict with the gasoline signposts but on the contrary seemed to match them, and at night these were lit by their own lights. Moreover some gasoline stations designed by Bianchetti like the one in Sabino for Esso, distinguished themselves for the essential nature and elegance of structures with tall and slender signs and prismatic elements for the buildings.

 

The inside was indeed surprising for the type of light that filtered as a reflection and for the continuous perception of the dimension of inner space as a whole due to a longitudinal disposition of the counters and to the a contined set up of the product shelving, evoking a perception of the Autogrill as a self standing unit animated by its own life in the multiplicity of people that entered there.

 

The setting implied a reduction of the strictly communicative aspects to the simple interior design of the space, with a playful sense in the disenchanted and free style collage of Baroque and modern elements like the large glass drops chandelier in Lainate that appeared on the pages of “Life” magazine, or the Vietri ceramic tiles flooring frequently utilized, or the woven wicker baskets used as displays for the Pavesi products, to the concise inner signs that retraced the highway signs and to the essential lines of the American style counters with stools. It was anything but a coordinated image, but in the end it was a greatly coherent setting with regard to expressiveness, and it was handled case by case solely through the architecture, without any apparent preoccupation with the integration of aesthetics except perhaps the idea of a vanguard collage that actually was a trend in the taste in advertising graphic art of those years (especially for Erberto Carboni) and that had its origin in the experiments in modern architecture made between the two wars, as we will shortly see.

 

Lastly, a third typology of construction contemporary with the bridged one was a design foreseeing a restaurant area lateral to the highway with a red sheet metal covering with four layers which was much more flexible in adapting to dimensions.

Alongside with the wide diffusion of Pavesi Autogrills (Alivar- Pavesi), Motta Autogrill and Alemagna Autobar (ex-Unidal) chains developed in Italy, and then were ex-corporate from their respective head companies on February 28, 1977 and regrouped in to the Autogrill spa society that today manages all of the restoration points along the highway.

   

The experimental tradition of “advertising architecture”

The experiences made by Angelo Bianchetti (born in 1911 and died in 1995) before World War II are extremely interesting and represent an very significant anterior fact to understand the reasons that brought to the long collaboration with Pavesi. A graduate in Architecture of the Milan Polytechnic in 1934, he traveled to study in Germany, worked in Berlin for the Mies van del Rohe studio and for the Luckard brothers studio, and met Gropius and Breuer.

 

In Italy, he worked with Giuseppe Pagano on a few projects in 1938 thus completing an itinerary that crossed the most significant episodes of modern architecture of our century, following a tradition of international exchanges that at the time was widely spread. As a project designer, often together with Cesare Pea, he worked on a number of architectural layouts for exhibits and advertising pavilions for fairs, and became one of the main protagonists of a theme of construction that back then was completely new – the theme of exhibit architecture, a culturally important and acknowledged theme in the landscape of modern international architecture.

 

This was a theme on which the most important architects, graphic designers and artists of the cultural Italian scene between the two wars had a lively debate, especially during the era of Fascism, that saw in it a real modernity of communication and a dose of inventive ruthlessness and cultural availability together with the ability to give the large industrial groups occasions to promote their modern and cosmopolitan image (though a dictatorial one) in Italy and abroad through important international expos.

 

Therefore, modern Italian architecture in those years was able to channel the needs of propaganda within the paths of a history of art and within those plastic and figurative values that were more attentive to moral issues. In this sense, the possibilities for formal experimentation that architecture made possible back then established a few solid principles of an Italian rationalistic poetical style that was intended as expression of a lyricism and that had no equal in later years.

The “Casabella -Costruzioni” magazine directed by Giuseppe Pagano, reported on numerous occasions the main exhibits made in the heroic period that goes from 1925 to 1940 in which Angelo Bianchetti took part as the author of beautiful set ups together with other important emerging names like Erberto Carboni, Marcello Nizzoli, Bruno Munari,t the Boggeri studio (that in the years following the war we will find working for Barilla, Olivetti, Agip, …).

 

Of these exhibit set ups, we must mention the pavilions by Edoardo Persico and Marcello Nizzoli for the Italian Aeronautical Expo of Milan in 1934; the Gio Ponti and Erberto Carboni pavilions for the Exhibit of Catholic Press at the Vatican in 1935; the set up of the Hall of Victory at the VI Triennial Expo of Milan of 1936 by Nizzoli, Palanti, Persico, Fontana (in those times already referred to as “a work of rare and highest poetry”); the Italian pavilions for the Paris Expo of 1937 with the intervention of the most important Italian architects; the pavilion by Bianchetti and Pea and the Boggeri Studio for the Isotta Fraschini company at the Fair of Milan in 1938; the luminous surface tensions by Nizzoli and Bianchetti at the National Textiles Exhibit in Rome in 1939; the Bianchetti and Pea pavilions for Raion and for Chatillon at the Milan Fair of 1939, formed by a lightweight frame with three orders and covered by light ad small vaults shaped like a transparent and lyrical honor tribune in the way that only Italian Rationalism was able to do.

 

These operations for temporary set ups connected the languages of abstraction and of the pure forms of international Realism with a Baroque vein expressed in the combination of graphic and sculptural elements, in the use of curtains and of narrative naturalistic elements (from the sculpture by Fontana for the Hall of Victory at the Triennial Expo of 1936 to the advertising signs of the textiles pavilion, according to a poetic and rather unique idea of collage that was very original in the landscape of modern architecture.

 

Very important in order to comprehend the pragmatic spirit of this theme for the architectural modern culture of those times is a writing by Angelo Bianchetti and Cesare Pea of 1941 on the theme of advertising architecture that establishes some characteristics that were undoubtedly reprised in the exhibit architecture of the years after the war and that created the premise for the Italian highway landscape of advertising architecture.

 

First of all, what is striking about this writing is the concept that these architectures can serve the function of contributing in a positive way to the definition of a new urban landscape already projected towards the torments of an undefined territory structured with fair headquarters and sport centers, theme parks, shopping centers and highway congestion points, starting from the occasion of an advertising set up intended in architectural terms.

Secondly, these constructions are not just inserted in a system of means of transportation to guarantee elevated accessibility, but also to accentuate the dynamic perception of the whole, and in this sense the relationship between bridged Autogrills and the highway exalts the aesthetics of kinematics.

 

In third place, it is striking that architecture partially renounced some building aspects to rediscover the values and new aesthetic concept of monument through a combination of signposting, graphic, and visual communication that penetrates indoors, in the furnishings, and recomposes a unity of applied arts.

 

«Le Corbusier and M. Breuer build their advertising architectures on the base of their artistic abilities more that to their architectural skills. An active pictorial imagination gives the project designer the possibility to renounce to give an entirely constructional and formally still aspect to his own pavilion. We think that this can be conceived in such a way to appear based on a single structure with the use of substantially different solutions. The ideal pavilion from the advertising point of view is one composed of fixed elements related to the laws of building statics that at the same time offer to the imagination different possibilities of a practical nature, that can be made also in successive phases. Therefore, not a facade defined architecturally, even though beautiful, but a system of elements and fields in which to express the imaginative spirit of the decorator. In such a way the abilities of a good architect and interior designer can fully develop: the study of the structure will bring him to intuitions of rational architectural order, while the expressive possibility will lead him to use these elements with the highest freedom and to create works of pure artistic design.

The appeal of the suggestive elements that advertising work must express will come from the fusion of these two possibilities. All which modern technique gives the artist as a support, the new materials, new systems of lighting, the cinematographic aspects, the mechanical devices, can concur to the perfection and complexity of the work that the artist conceived with his own imagination. But the use of these elements is part of the generic knowledge of an architect that are not the object of this study.

Instead, the problem that originates from the combination of various pavilions and advertising elements of a Fair or Exhibition forms a chapter of advertising urban planning whose direction would deserve an in depth study»[4].

   

Architecture and the design of new industrial products in Italy after World War II

The concept of industrial and market that arose in the years after WWII in Italy and throughout all of the 1950s and 1960s can be definitely found in the geographical area between Milan and Turin, the area of the initial development of the highway system, and of the modern democratic entrepreneurial cosmopolitan and culturally engaged world of Olivetti, and of Pavesi of Novara.

 

It is not a chane that the magazine “Comunità” (community) founded by Adriano Olivetti was engaged in those years in themes of architecture and urban planning and also with sociology in its different aspects of urban development, mass behavior, industrial production, and published studies on advertising and the unconscious mind on the organization of Shopping Centers in the United States, on the Italian highway landscape, or on food consumption in Italy[5].

 

These themes surfaced with full force in the concerns of the Italian entrepreneurs that frequented the most densely industrialized areas of the United States (especially the West Coast) and in a certain sense these were ideas that could be actualized in Italy as well at least in the smartest industrial sectors that were capable to invest in development.

 

This is certainly the economic context in which the construction of the Pavesi Autogrills was inserted. The idea of modern times and social well being that pervaded the aesthetics of Pavesi Autogrills was based on a completely new food product, the Pavesini cookies and the Crakers, produced on a large industrial scale as never before, and tied to lifestyles and psychologies of use that for the first time in those years surfaced and of which there was full awareness.

 

But because of the structure of Italian cities, in which the residential Ina-Casa neighborhoods typical of the intensive urban growth of the northern cities tended towards a landscape that was still close to that of a compact city, the shopping centers of the time were of a typology of sales too radical to be proposed, while the Autogrills located on the highways cold well enough be interpreted in this sense as a sales point for novelty industrial products diffused on the territory, in which the market strategies could be applied directly without intermediaries and a modern and cosmopolitan image could be promoted.

 

The relationship of entrepreneurship and architectural design between Mario Pavesi and Angelo Bianchetti, as well as the relationship with other intellectuals for other more literary and clearly marked graphic forms of communication should not be intended as a cultured construction of corporate identity, nowadays necessarily corresponding to a quote of production that each industrial activity must possess, but as something more complex and with roots going deep into a specific ability of the Italian industrial culture (that with the refined work of Adriano Olivetti reached its apex) to use as its own the tools of communication in the system of behaviors of producers and consumers.

 

Therefore here it is not solely a matter of refined design of of stylized image but rather of the fine tuning of tools strictly connected to the production and distribution of products, tools in which the aesthetically implications had a place of relevance. A rather significant parallelism involving architecture in the processes of industrial communication happened in the United States at the same time, in the 1950s and 1960s, as the top industries of the time like IBM or the TWA aerial transportation company, for example, asked innovative architects like Charles Eames (who mounted elaborate films and avant-garde multi-vision materials), or Eero Saarinen (who made phantasmagorical theaters for the international expo and to animate the horizons of airports with forms made of cement or crystal and evoking emotions)[6].

 

These companies entrusted them by delegating the task of building the company image according to a culture of conquest of the new that we still find nowadays, but acted in a different environment, more determined and structured in an entrepreneurial way and in which the need for aesthetics of the object of use was less of a priority, for example, even though often reached results of the highest quality.

 

But in Italy everything was different: for example, the design by Marcello Nizzoli for a calculator, or the one by Carlo Scarpa for an Olivetti store, or the one by Erberto Carboni for Barilla pasta, or the advertisement for Pavesi cookies written by Gianni Rodari as children literature, were necessary elements of a new concept of the object of use an the work of intellectuals in this context was instrumental to the comprehension of the new industrial products in a domestic and working landscape that was still formed in part by handcrafted objects (and still today attracted strongly by the components of originality and personality also in the aesthetic choice).

 

Who in Italy would have bought Pavesi, Barilla, and Olivetti products, for example, if a group of food intellectuals had not converted the packaging for food and machines into a new culture of merchandise?

     

Bibliography note

 

We thank for his patience and collaboration architect Jan Jacopo Bianchetti who keeps the archive of Angelo Bianchetti’s work and has given permission for the reproduction of the photographic material, the designs and the publications related to the Pavesi Autogrills.

Among the writings of Angelo Bianchetti we mention: Bianchetti, C. Pea, Architettura pubblicitaria (advertising architectures), in “Casabella-Costruzioni”, n.159-160, 1941, a mono-graphic issue dedicated to the architecture of expos with rich iconography documentation edited by Bianchetti and Pea themselves. ; A. Bianchetti, Le oasi dell’autostrada (highway oasis), in “Quattroruote”, n.1, January 1960; A. Bianchetti, I ponti non convengono più (bridges are not convenient anymore), in “Modo”, n.18, April 1979.

 

Furthermore, it is opportune to cite: Italian luxury for export and those at home, too “Life” 26 September 1960; R. WEST, Italy: the new lean Bread of Eurocrats, “The Sunday Times”, 26 August 1962; C. MUNARI, Lo stile Pavesi (thepavesi style), in “Linea Grafica”, n. 5, September-October 1966, pp. 240-252; A. Colbertaldo, Quando si mangiava sopra i ponti (when we had lunch on bridges), in “Modo”, n. 18, April 1979; M. BELLAVISTA, Uomo di marketing prima del marketing (a marketing man before the times of marketing), in “Il Direttore Commerciale”, n. 7, 1988, pp. 16-21; B. Lemoine, I ponti-autogrill (the auto-grilll bridges), in “Rassegna”, n.48, December 1991.

 

We mention two more accounts of the actual phenomenon of the development of highway landscapes: P. DESIDERI, La città di latta. Favelas di lusso, Autogrill, svincoli stradali e antenne paraboliche (The tin city. Luxury Favelas, Autogrills, highway exits and parabolic antennas), Genova, Costa e Nolan, 1997; P. CIORRA, Autogrill. Spazi e spiazzi per la società su gomma (Autogrills, spaces and platforms for a society n wheels) , in Attraversamenti. I nuovi territori dello spazio pubblico (Crossings. The new territories of public spaes), edited by P. DESIDERI e M. ILARDI, Genova, Costa e Nolan, 1997.

 

[1] R. Banham, Megastructure. Urban future of the recent past, Londra, Thames and Hudson, 1976, the text does not illustrate these highway buildings.

[2] A. BIANCHETTI, Le oasi dell’autostrada (the highway oasis), in “Quattroruote”, n. 1, January 1960.

[3] A. COLBERTALDO, Quando si mangiava sopra i ponti (when we had lunch on top of bridges), in “Modo” n.18, April 1979.

[4] A. BIANCHETTI, C. PEA, Architettura pubblicitaria (advertising architecture), in “Casabella-Costruzioni”, n. 159-160, 1941.

[5] A. CANONICI, Pubblicità ed inconscio (advertising and the unconscious mind) in “Comunità”, n.60, 1958; A. BAROLINI, L’organizzazione dei centri di vendita in America, (the organization of sales points in America) in “Comunità”, n.67, 1959; R. BONELLI, Le autostrade in Italia (highways in Italy), in “Comunità”, n.86, 1961; G. TIBALDI, I consumi alimentari in Italia (food consume in Italy), in “Comunità”, n.115, 1963.

[6] Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Padiglione Ibm alla Fiera mondiale di New Yorkn(the Ibm pavilion at the worl expo of New York), 1964-65, well described by Kevin Roche, Charles Eames, in “Zodiac”, n.11, 1994. #30Glorieuses & Dynamisme @ les kilométres d' #archives cachées d #Mémoire2cité @ les #Constructions #Modernes #BANLIEUE @ l' #Urbanisme & l es #Chantiers d'#ApresGuerre ici #Mémoire2ville le #Logement Collectif* dans tous ses états..#Histoire & #Mémoire de l'#Habitat / Département territoire terroir region ville souvenirs du temps passé d une époque revolue #Archives ANRU / #Rétro #Banlieue / Renouvellement #Urbain / #Urbanisme / #HLM #postwar #postcard #cartepostale twitter.com/Memoire2cite Villes et rénovation urbaine..Tout savoir tout connaitre sur le sujet ici via le PDF de l'UNION SOCIALE POUR L HABITAT (l'USH)... des textes à savoir, à apprendre, des techniques de demolition jusqu a la securisation..& bien plus encore.. union-habitat.org/sites/default/files/articles/documents/...

www.dailymotion.com/video/xk6xui Quatre murs et un toit 1953 - Le Corbusier, l'architecte du bonheur 1957 conceptions architecturales le modulor, l'architecture de la ville radieuse, Chandigarh, Marseille, Nantes www.dailymotion.com/video/xw8prl Un documentaire consacré aux conceptions architecturales et urbanistiques de Le Corbusier.Exposées par l'architecte lui-même et étayées par des plans, dessins et images de ses réalisations en France et à l'étranger, ces théories témoignent d'une réflexion approfondie et originale sur la ville et sa nécessaire adaptation à la vie moderne, notamment Paris dont l'aménagement révolutionnaire rêvé par Le Corbusier est ici exposé. Un classique du documentaire.Les premiers projets de Le Corbusier resteront à l'état de maquette : le plan de modernisation de la ville d'Alger. Certains seront réalisés par d'autres architectes : ministère de l'éducation à Rio de Janeiro, Palais de l'ONU à New York. Dès l'après-guerre en moins de 10 ans, Le Corbusier réalise de grandes unités d'habitation à Marseille, Nantes une chapelle à Ronchamps, une usine à Saint-Dié, une ville Chandigarh en Inde. Par des schémas, l'architecte présente sa théorie de la "ville radieuse", le modulor clef mathématique de son œuvre ainsi que son projet de réorganisation de la campagne, des cités industrielles et urbaine en un regroupement autour d'un système coopératif. Le film expose les conceptions architecturales de Le Corbusier, dans la ligne des précurseurs de l'architecture moderne comme Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. Paris et le désert français 1957 réalisation : Roger Leenhardt et Sydney Jezequel, résoudre le déséquilibre démographique ville campagne www.dailymotion.com/video/x177lrp Film réalisé par Roger Leenhardt et Sydney Jezequel en 1957, d'après le livre de Jean-François Gravier. Document d'information général proposant les solutions de l'époque pour éviter la désertification des campagnes et la folie concentrationnaire des villes. Dès 1957, la désertification des campagnes prend des proportions tragiques. L'exemple est donné pour le village de Gourdon dans le Quercy.

Quelles évolutions proposer pour éviter l'exode rural et le développement anarchique, qui s'amorce, des villes champignons, construites en plein champ sans urbanisme et sans âme ? Le commentaire propose les solutions de l'époque : modernisation de l'agriculture, adaptation de l'artisanat, implantations d'industries dans les provinces. Gazoducs dans le sud-ouest, barrage en Haute-Savoie, polder en Bretagne semblaient à l'époque pouvoir résoudre le déséquilibre ville campagne. Visages de la France 1957 Production - réalisation Atlantic-Film Marcel de Hubsch www.dailymotion.com/video/x19g59p Le film commence avec des vues de villages et d'architecture traditionnelle du Pays Basque, des Landes, de la Touraine, de la Normandie, de la Bretagne, d'Alsace. La voix off s'interroge : faut il transformer la France en un musée de ses vieilles demeures ? et poursuit : pourquoi des maisons de 10 à 15 mètres de hauteur à Honfleur n'ont elles que 3 à 5 mètres de large ? Le commentaire se pose la question du nombre de maisons individuelles dans les villes qui entrainent l'étalement urbain. Lorsque les villes ont bâtit des immeubles, le commentaire se demande que cachent ces façades ? Des coures étroites que le soleil ne visite jamais, un enchevêtrement inouï de constructions hétéroclites. L'époque de grande prospérité de la troisième république n'a rien su construire de grand poursuit la voix off. Ce document nous propose ensuite une animation de maquette pour l'aménagement d'une friche. Dans un premier temps à la façon d'avant avec la maison individuelle. La voix off s'exclame : ce n'est pas autrement que d'affreuses banlieues naquirent que tant de villes furent à jamais enlaidies, essayons autre chose. L'animation se met à empiler les maisons individuelles et propose des bâtiments collectifs dans des jardins. Le commentaire poursuit : maintenant c'est l'heure de l'urbaniste à lui de répartir les constructions dans la cité. Plusieurs organisation de logements collectifs sont proposées en maquettes. La voix off pointe les défauts d'un urbanisme des grands ensemble trop ennuyeux. Puis une solution émerge de l'animation : pour que la cité vive il faut mettre au place d'honneur école, dispensaire, bibliothèque, salle de réunion, puis viennent les deux pièces maîtresse deux grands immeubles puis les rues se glissent dans la composition et enfin les pelouse et les jardins apparaissent et voila conclue le commentaire. Le film montre ensuite de réalisation de grands ensemble et on entre dans un immeuble au sein d'une famille : air et lumière sont au rendes-vous. On voit des enfants faire du patin à roulette dans le parc de l'immeuble la voix off annonce : finit l'individualisme renfrogné de l'échoppe d'antan : la cité tout entière est un jardin, les jeux d'enfants se mêlent aux fleurs. Le film se termine sur des vues de réalisation de grands ensemble sur toute la France (vue entre autre de la cité radieuse de Le Corbusier à Marseille). Production Films Caravelle MRU (ministère de la reconstruction et de l'urbanisme) Scenario et réalisation : Pierre JaLLAUD

 

Sur les routes de France les ponts renaissent 1945 reconstruction de la France après la Seconde Guerre mondiale www.dailymotion.com/video/xuxrii?playlist=x34ije , Quelques mois après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un triste constat s'impose : 5 944 passages sont coupés, soit plus de 110 km de brèches ; de nombreuses villes se trouvent isolées. Les chantiers s'activent dans toute la France pour "gagner la bataille des communications routières". Mais outre la pénurie de main d’œuvre, il faut faire face au manque de matériaux (béton, métal) et donc déployer des trésors d'imagination pour reconstruire les ponts détruits. Si le savoir faire des tailleurs de pierre est exploité, le plus spectaculaire est le relevage des ponts, comme le pont de Galliéni à Lyon, où 7 à 800 tonnes d'acier sont sorti de l'eau avec des moyens de l'époque. En avril 1945, il reste 5 700 ponts à reconstruire soit 200 000 tonnes d'acier, 600 000 tonnes de ciment, 250 000 m3 de bois, 10 millions de journées d'ouvrier, prix de l'effort de reconstruction. Titre : Sur les routes de France les ponts renaissenT Année de réalisation : 1945 Auteurs / réalisateurs : images : G.Delaunay, A.Pol, son : C.Gauguier Production : Direction Technique des Services des Ponts et Chaussées / Ministère des Travaux Publics et des Transports

 

Thèmes principaux : infrastructures-ouvrages d'art Mot clés : chantier, pont, Reconstruction, restauration, béton précontraint, ministère des travaux publics et des transports

 

Lieux : Lyon, Tournon, Caen - Le Bosquel, un village renait 1947 l'album cinématographique de la reconstruction, réalisation Paul de Roubaix production ministère de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme, village prototype, architecte Paul Dufournet, www.dailymotion.com/video/xx5tx8?playlist=x34ije - Demain Paris 1959 dessin animé présentant l'aménagement de la capitale dans les années 60, Animation, dessin animé à vocation pédagogique visant à promouvoir la politique d’aménagement suivie dans les années 60 à Paris.

 

Un raccourci historique sur l’extension de Paris du Moyen Âge au XIXe siècle (Lutèce, œuvres de Turgot, Napoléon, Haussmann), ce dessin animé retrace la naissance de la banlieue et de ses avatars au XXe siècle. Il annonce les grands principes d’aménagement des villes nouvelles et la restructuration du centre de Paris (référence implicite à la charte d’Athènes). Le texte est travaillé en rimes et vers. Une chanson du vieux Paris conclut poétiquement cette vision du futur. Thèmes principaux : Aménagement urbain / planification-aménagement régional Mots-clés : Banlieue, extension spatiale, histoire, quartier, ville, ville nouvelle Lieu géographique : Paris 75 Architectes ou personnalités : Eugène Haussmann, Napoléon, Turgot Réalisateurs : André Martin, Michel Boschet Production : les films Roger Leenhardt

 

www.dailymotion.com/video/xw6lak?playlist=x34ije -Rue neuve 1956 la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, villes, villages, grands ensembles réalisation : Jack Pinoteau , Panorama de la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, ce film de commande évoque les villes et villages français détruits puis reconstruits dans un style respectant la tradition : Saint-Malo, Gien, Thionville, Ammerschwihr, etc. ainsi que la reconstruction en rupture avec l'architecture traditionnelle à Châtenay-Malabry, Arles, Saint Étienne, Évreux, Chambéry, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Abbeville, Le Havre, Marseille, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkerque. Le documentaire explique par exemple la manière dont a été réalisée la reconstruction de Saint-Malo à l'intérieur des rempart de la vieille ville : "c'est la fidélité à l'histoire et la force du souvenir qui a guidé l'architecte". Dans le même esprit à Gien, au trois quart détruite en 1940, seul le château construit en 1494 pour Anne de Beaujeu, fille aînée de Louis XI, fut épargné par les bombardements. La ville fut reconstruite dans le style des rares immeubles restant. Gien est relevé de ses ruines et le nouvel ensemble harmonieux est appelé « Joyau de la Reconstruction française ».

 

Dans un deuxième temps est abordé le chapitre de la construction des cités et des grands ensembles, de l’architecture du renouveau qualifiée de "grandiose incontestablement". S’il est précisé "on peut aimer ou de ne pas aimer ce style", l’emporte au final l’argument suivant : les grands ensembles, c'est la campagne à la ville, un urbanisme plus aéré, plus vert." les films caravelles 1956, Réalisateur : Jack Pinoteau (connu pour être le metteur en scène du film Le Triporteur 1957 qui fit découvrir Darry Cowl)

www.dailymotion.com/video/xuz3o8?playlist=x34ije ,

Film d'archive actualités de 1952 Reconstruction de la France sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale état des lieux de la crise du logement , Actualités de 1952.

Sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre Mondiale état des lieux de la reconstruction de la France et de la crise du logement à l’œuvre, pénurie de logement, logements insalubres. Les actualités montrent des images d'archives de la destruction de la France, les Chars de la division Leclerc qui défilent sur les Champs Elysees. Le commentaire dénonce la lenteur de la reconstruction et notamment des manifestations qui ont eu lieue à Royan afin d''accélérer la reconstruction de la ville détruite.Le film montre à Strasbourg, Mulhouse, des réalisation moderne de grands ensembles et des images d'archive de la reconstruction du Havre de Saint Nazaire.

Le film se termine à Marseille sur les réalisation nouvelles autour du vieux port puis on assiste à l'inauguration de la Cité Radieuse par le ministre de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme Eugène Claudius-Petit en présence de son architecte Le Corbusier à qui le ministre remet la cravate de commandeur de la légion d'honneur. www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1g5j?playlist=x34ije Brigitte Gros - Urbanisme - Filmer les grands ensembles 2016 - par Camille Canteux chercheuse au CHS -Centre d'Histoire Sociale - Jeanne Menjoulet - Ce film du CHS daté de 2014 www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUBwVPNh0s … L'UNION SOCIALE POUR L'HABITAT le Musée des H.L.M. musee-hlm.fr/ / - www.union-habitat.org/ / - www.institutfrancais.com/sites/default/files/dp_expositio... archives-histoire.centraliens.net/pdfs/revues/rev625.pdf tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00554230/document Quatre murs et un toit 1953 - Le Corbusier, l'architecte du bonheur 1957 conceptions architecturales le modulor, l'architecture de la ville radieuse, Chandigarh, Marseille, Nantes www.dailymotion.com/video/xw8prl Un documentaire consacré aux conceptions architecturales et urbanistiques de Le Corbusier.Exposées par l'architecte lui-même et étayées par des plans, dessins et images de ses réalisations en France et à l'étranger, ces théories témoignent d'une réflexion approfondie et originale sur la ville et sa nécessaire adaptation à la vie moderne, notamment Paris dont l'aménagement révolutionnaire rêvé par Le Corbusier est ici exposé. Un classique du documentaire.Les premiers projets de Le Corbusier resteront à l'état de maquette : le plan de modernisation de la ville d'Alger. Certains seront réalisés par d'autres architectes : ministère de l'éducation à Rio de Janeiro, Palais de l'ONU à New York. Dès l'après-guerre en moins de 10 ans, Le Corbusier réalise de grandes unités d'habitation à Marseille, Nantes une chapelle à Ronchamps, une usine à Saint-Dié, une ville Chandigarh en Inde. Par des schémas, l'architecte présente sa théorie de la "ville radieuse", le modulor clef mathématique de son œuvre ainsi que son projet de réorganisation de la campagne, des cités industrielles et urbaine en un regroupement autour d'un système coopératif. Le film expose les conceptions architecturales de Le Corbusier, dans la ligne des précurseurs de l'architecture moderne comme Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. Paris et le désert français 1957 réalisation : Roger Leenhardt et Sydney Jezequel, résoudre le déséquilibre démographique ville campagne www.dailymotion.com/video/x177lrp Film réalisé par Roger Leenhardt et Sydney Jezequel en 1957, d'après le livre de Jean-François Gravier. Document d'information général proposant les solutions de l'époque pour éviter la désertification des campagnes et la folie concentrationnaire des villes. Dès 1957, la désertification des campagnes prend des proportions tragiques. L'exemple est donné pour le village de Gourdon dans le Quercy.Quelles évolutions proposer pour éviter l'exode rural et le développement anarchique, qui s'amorce, des villes champignons, construites en plein champ sans urbanisme et sans âme ? Le commentaire propose les solutions de l'époque : modernisation de l'agriculture, adaptation de l'artisanat, implantations d'industries dans les provinces. Gazoducs dans le sud-ouest, barrage en Haute-Savoie, polder en Bretagne semblaient à l'époque pouvoir résoudre le déséquilibre ville campagne. Visages de la France 1957 Production - réalisation Atlantic-Film Marcel de Hubsch www.dailymotion.com/video/x19g59p Le film commence avec des vues de villages et d'architecture traditionnelle du Pays Basque, des Landes, de la Touraine, de la Normandie, de la Bretagne, d'Alsace. La voix off s'interroge : faut il transformer la France en un musée de ses vieilles demeures ? et poursuit : pourquoi des maisons de 10 à 15 mètres de hauteur à Honfleur n'ont elles que 3 à 5 mètres de large ? Le commentaire se pose la question du nombre de maisons individuelles dans les villes qui entrainent l'étalement urbain. Lorsque les villes ont bâtit des immeubles, le commentaire se demande que cachent ces façades ? Des coures étroites que le soleil ne visite jamais, un enchevêtrement inouï de constructions hétéroclites. L'époque de grande prospérité de la troisième république n'a rien su construire de grand poursuit la voix off. Ce document nous propose ensuite une animation de maquette pour l'aménagement d'une friche. Dans un premier temps à la façon d'avant avec la maison individuelle. La voix off s'exclame : ce n'est pas autrement que d'affreuses banlieues naquirent que tant de villes furent à jamais enlaidies, essayons autre chose. L'animation se met à empiler les maisons individuelles et propose des bâtiments collectifs dans des jardins. Le commentaire poursuit : maintenant c'est l'heure de l'urbaniste à lui de répartir les constructions dans la cité. Plusieurs organisation de logements collectifs sont proposées en maquettes. La voix off pointe les défauts d'un urbanisme des grands ensemble trop ennuyeux. Puis une solution émerge de l'animation : pour que la cité vive il faut mettre au place d'honneur école, dispensaire, bibliothèque, salle de réunion, puis viennent les deux pièces maîtresse deux grands immeubles puis les rues se glissent dans la composition et enfin les pelouse et les jardins apparaissent et voila conclue le commentaire. Le film montre ensuite de réalisation de grands ensemble et on entre dans un immeuble au sein d'une famille : air et lumière sont au rendes-vous. On voit des enfants faire du patin à roulette dans le parc de l'immeuble la voix off annonce : finit l'individualisme renfrogné de l'échoppe d'antan : la cité tout entière est un jardin, les jeux d'enfants se mêlent aux fleurs. Le film se termine sur des vues de réalisation de grands ensemble sur toute la France (vue entre autre de la cité radieuse de Le Corbusier à Marseille). Production Films Caravelle MRU (ministère de la reconstruction et de l'urbanisme) Scenario et réalisation : Pierre JaLLAUD

Sur les routes de France les ponts renaissent 1945 reconstruction de la France après la Seconde Guerre mondiale www.dailymotion.com/video/xuxrii?playlist=x34ije , Quelques mois après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un triste constat s'impose : 5 944 passages sont coupés, soit plus de 110 km de brèches ; de nombreuses villes se trouvent isolées. Les chantiers s'activent dans toute la France pour "gagner la bataille des communications routières". Mais outre la pénurie de main d’œuvre, il faut faire face au manque de matériaux (béton, métal) et donc déployer des trésors d'imagination pour reconstruire les ponts détruits. Si le savoir faire des tailleurs de pierre est exploité, le plus spectaculaire est le relevage des ponts, comme le pont de Galliéni à Lyon, où 7 à 800 tonnes d'acier sont sorti de l'eau avec des moyens de l'époque. En avril 1945, il reste 5 700 ponts à reconstruire soit 200 000 tonnes d'acier, 600 000 tonnes de ciment, 250 000 m3 de bois, 10 millions de journées d'ouvrier, prix de l'effort de reconstruction. Titre : Sur les routes de France les ponts renaissenT Année de réalisation : 1945 Auteurs / réalisateurs : images : G.Delaunay, A.Pol, son : C.Gauguier Production : Direction Technique des Services des Ponts et Chaussées / Ministère des Travaux Publics et des Transport

Lieux : Lyon, Tournon, Caen - Le Bosquel, un village renait 1947 l'album cinématographique de la reconstruction, réalisation Paul de Roubaix production ministère de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme, village prototype, architecte Paul Dufournet, www.dailymotion.com/video/xx5tx8?playlist=x34ije - Demain Paris 1959 dessin animé présentant l'aménagement de la capitale dans les années 60, Animation, dessin animé à vocation pédagogique visant à promouvoir la politique d’aménagement suivie dans les années 60 à Paris.

Un raccourci historique sur l’extension de Paris du Moyen Âge au XIXe siècle (Lutèce, œuvres de Turgot, Napoléon, Haussmann), ce dessin animé retrace la naissance de la banlieue et de ses avatars au XXe siècle. Il annonce les grands principes d’aménagement des villes nouvelles et la restructuration du centre de Paris (référence implicite à la charte d’Athènes). Le texte est travaillé en rimes et vers. Une chanson du vieux Paris conclut poétiquement cette vision du futur. Thèmes principaux : Aménagement urbain / planification-aménagement régional Mots-clés : Banlieue, extension spatiale, histoire, quartier, ville, ville nouvelle Lieu géographique : Paris 75 Architectes ou personnalités : Eugène Haussmann, Napoléon, Turgot Réalisateurs : André Martin, Michel Boschet Production : les films Roger Leenhardt

www.dailymotion.com/video/xw6lak?playlist=x34ije -Rue neuve 1956 la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, villes, villages, grands ensembles réalisation : Jack Pinoteau , Panorama de la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, ce film de commande évoque les villes et villages français détruits puis reconstruits dans un style respectant la tradition : Saint-Malo, Gien, Thionville, Ammerschwihr, etc. ainsi que la reconstruction en rupture avec l'architecture traditionnelle à Châtenay-Malabry, Arles, Saint Étienne, Évreux, Chambéry, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Abbeville, Le Havre, Marseille, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkerque. Le documentaire explique par exemple la manière dont a été réalisée la reconstruction de Saint-Malo à l'intérieur des rempart de la vieille ville : "c'est la fidélité à l'histoire et la force du souvenir qui a guidé l'architecte". Dans le même esprit à Gien, au trois quart détruite en 1940, seul le château construit en 1494 pour Anne de Beaujeu, fille aînée de Louis XI, fut épargné par les bombardements. La ville fut reconstruite dans le style des rares immeubles restant. Gien est relevé de ses ruines et le nouvel ensemble harmonieux est appelé « Joyau de la Reconstruction française ».

Dans un deuxième temps est abordé le chapitre de la construction des cités et des grands ensembles, de l’architecture du renouveau qualifiée de "grandiose incontestablement". S’il est précisé "on peut aimer ou de ne pas aimer ce style", l’emporte au final l’argument suivant : les grands ensembles, c'est la campagne à la ville, un urbanisme plus aéré, plus vert." les films caravelles 1956, Réalisateur : Jack Pinoteau (connu pour être le metteur en scène du film Le Triporteur 1957 qui fit découvrir Darry Cowl)

www.dailymotion.com/video/xuz3o8?playlist=x34ije ,

Film d'archive actualités de 1952 Reconstruction de la France sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale état des lieux de la crise du logement , Actualités de 1952.

Sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre Mondiale état des lieux de la reconstruction de la France et de la crise du logement à l’œuvre, pénurie de logement, logements insalubres. Les actualités montrent des images d'archives de la destruction de la France, les Chars de la division Leclerc qui défilent sur les Champs Elysees. Le commentaire dénonce la lenteur de la reconstruction et notamment des manifestations qui ont eu lieue à Royan afin d''accélérer la reconstruction de la ville détruite.Le film montre à Strasbourg, Mulhouse, des réalisation moderne de grands ensembles et des images d'archive de la reconstruction du Havre de Saint Nazaire.

Le film se termine à Marseille sur les réalisation nouvelles autour du vieux port puis on assiste à l'inauguration de la Cité Radieuse par le ministre de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme Eugène Claudius-Petit en présence de son architecte Le Corbusier à qui le ministre remet la cravate de commandeur de la légion d'honneur. www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1g5j?playlist=x34ije Brigitte Gros - Urbanisme - Filmer les grands ensembles 2016 - par Camille Canteux chercheuse au CHS -Centre d'Histoire Sociale - Jeanne Menjoulet - Ce film du CHS daté de 2014 www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUBwVPNh0s … L'UNION SOCIALE POUR L'HABITAT le Musée des H.L.M. musee-hlm.fr/ / - www.union-habitat.org/ / - www.institutfrancais.com/sites/default/files/dp_expositio... archives-histoire.centraliens.net/pdfs/revues/rev625.pdf tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00554230/document .le Logement Collectif* 50,60,70's, dans tous ses états..Histoire & Mémoire d'H.L.M. de Copropriété Renouvellement Urbain-Réha-NPNRU., twitter.com/Memoire2cite tout içi sig.ville.gouv.fr/atlas/ZUS/ - media/InaEdu01827/la-creatio" rel="noreferrer nofollow">fresques.ina.fr/jalons/fiche-media/InaEdu01827/la-creatio Bâtir mieux plus vite et moins cher 1975 l'industrialisation du bâtiment et ses innovations : www.dailymotion.com/video/xyjudq?playlist=x34ije la préfabrication en usine www.dailymotion.com/video/xx6ob5?playlist=x34ije , le coffrage glissant www.dailymotion.com/video/x19lwab?playlist=x34ije ... De nouvelles perspectives sont nées dans l'industrie du bâtiment avec les principes de bases de l'industrialisation du bâtiment www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a98iz?playlist=x34ije ,

www.dailymotion.com/video/xk6xui?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1dh2?playlist=x34ije : mécanisation, rationalisation et élaboration industrielle de la production. Des exemples concrets sont présentés afin d'illustrer l'utilisation des différentes innovations : les coffrages outils, coffrage glissant, le tunnel, des procédés pour accélérer le durcissement du béton. Le procédé dit de coffrage glissant est illustré sur le chantier des tours Pablo Picasso à Nanterre. Le principe est de s'affranchir des échafaudages : le coffrage épouse le contour du bâtiment, il s'élève avec la construction et permet de réaliser simultanément l'ensemble des murs verticaux. Au centre du plancher de travail, une grue distribue en continu le ferraillage et le béton. Sur un tel chantier les ouvriers se relaient 24h / 24 , www.dailymotion.com/video/xwytke?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bci6m?playlist=x34ije

Le reportage se penche ensuite sur la préfabrication en usine. Ces procédés de préfabrication en usine selon le commentaire sont bien adaptés aux pays en voie de développement, cela est illustré dans le reportage par une réalisation en Libye à Benghazi. Dans la course à l'allégement des matériaux un procédé l'isola béton est présenté. Un chapitre sur la construction métallique explique les avantage de ce procédé. La fabrication de composants ouvre de nouvelles perspectives à l'industrie du bâtiment.

Lieux géographiques : la Grande Borne 91, le Vaudreuil 27, Avoriaz, Avenue de Flandres à Paris, tours Picasso à Nanterre, vues de la défense, Benghazi Libye

www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x34ije_territoiresgouv_cinem... - mémoire2cité - le monde de l'Architecture locative collective et bien plus encore - mémoire2cité - Bâtir mieux plus vite et moins cher 1975 l'industrialisation du bâtiment et ses innovations : www.dailymotion.com/video/xyjudq?playlist=x34ije la préfabrication en usine www.dailymotion.com/video/xx6ob5?playlist=x34ije , le coffrage glissant www.dailymotion.com/video/x19lwab?playlist=x34ije ... De nouvelles perspectives sont nées dans l'industrie du bâtiment avec les principes de bases de l'industrialisation du bâtiment www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a98iz?playlist=x34ije ,

Le Joli Mai (Restauré) - Les grands ensembles BOBIGNY l Abreuvoir www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUY9XzjvWHE … et la www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK26k72xIkU … www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCKF0HEsWWo …

Genève Le Grand Saconnex & la Bulle Pirate - architecte Marçel Lachat -

Un film de Julien Donada içi www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=4E723uQcpnU … … .Genève en 1970. pic.twitter.com/1dbtkAooLM è St-Etienne - La muraille de Chine, en 1973 ce grand immeuble du quartier de Montchovet, existait encore photos la Tribune/Progres.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJAylpe8G48 …, - la tour 80 HLM située au 1 rue Proudhon à Valentigney dans le quartier des Buis Cette tour emblématique du quartier avec ces 15 étages a été abattu par FERRARI DEMOLITION (68). VALENTIGNEY (25700) 1961 - Ville nouvelle-les Buis 3,11 mn www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_GvwSpQUMY … - Au nord-Est de St-Etienne, aux confins de la ville, se dresse une colline Montreynaud la ZUP de Raymond Martin l'architecte & Alexandre Chemetoff pour les paysages de St-Saens.. la vidéo içi * Réalisation : Dominique Bauguil www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqfb27hXMDo … … - www.dailymotion.com/video/xk6xui?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1dh2?playlist=x34ije : mécanisation, rationalisation et élaboration industrielle de la production. Des exemples concrets sont présentés afin d'illustrer l'utilisation des différentes innovations : les coffrages outils, coffrage glissant, le tunnel, des procédés pour accélérer le durcissement du béton. Le procédé dit de coffrage glissant est illustré sur le chantier des tours Pablo Picasso à Nanterre. Le principe est de s'affranchir des échafaudages : le coffrage épouse le contour du bâtiment, il s'élève avec

In the National Museum - the sculpture of the Lao hero Mr Sithong reminds me of Boccioni's classic sculpture: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (Italian: Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio)

St Peter, Walpole St Peter, Norfolk

 

St Peter is one of the dozen most famous parish churches in England. Alec Clifton-Taylor thought it was the best. Of course, claims can made for many big churches; but St Peter is not just special for its size. It is indeed magnificent, but also infinitely subtle, the fruit of circumstance and the ebb and flow of centuries. There is a sense of community and continuity as well; this is no mere museum, and it is not simply St Peter's historic survivals that attract its champions. This is a building to visit again and again, to delight in, and always see something new.

 

Be in no doubt that St Peter is a big church. At 160 feet long it dwarfs other East Anglian giants like Southwold, Blythburgh, Cley and Cawston. Only Salle gives it a run for its money. It is also a welcoming church, as all great churches should be. But even if it were kept locked, there would still be so much to see here that it would be worth the journey.

 

This part of the county has a character more commonly associated with Cambridgeshire, and of course we are only a couple of miles from the Nene which forms the border between the two counties. Walpole St Peter is closer to Peterborough and Cambridge than it is to Norwich. Indeed, it is closer to Leicester than it is to Great Yarmouth at the other end of Norfolk, a reminder that this is a BIG county. Today, the Norfolk marshland villages tend to be rather mundane, apart from their churches of course. In this curiously remote area around the Wash delineated by Lynn, Wisbech and Boston, there is an agri-industrial shabbiness accentuated by the flat of the land. But you need to imagine the enormous wealth of this area in the late medieval period. The silt washed by the great rivers out of the Fens was superb for growing crops. East Anglia, with the densest population in England, provided a ready market, and the proximity of the great ports gave easy access for exports. And then there was the Midlands and the North which could be accessed by the east coast ports.

 

The landowners and merchants became seriously wealthy, and according to custom bequeathed enhancements to their parish churches to encourage their fellow parishioners to pray for their souls after they were dead. This was nothing to do with the size of the local population; in England's Catholic days, these buildings were not intended merely for congregational worship. The fixtures and fittings of the parish churches reflected the volume of devotion, not just the volume of people. In areas where there was serious wealth, the entire church might be rebuilt.

 

But here at Walpole St Peter there was another imperative for rebuilding the church. In the terrible floods of the 1330s, the church here was destroyed, apart from its tower. Before it could be rebuilt in the fashionable Decorated style, the Black Death came along and took away fully half of the local population. However, the economic effects of the pestilence would turn out to be rather good for East Anglia in the long term, and by the early-15th century churches were being rebuilt on a grand scale all over Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Walpole has two late medieval churches - St Andrew on the other side of the village is very fine, but St Peter is the one that puts it in the shade.

 

The nave came first, the chancel following a few decades after. Eventually, the tower would also have been rebuilt, in a similar scale to the rest of the church. How amazing it might have been! We only need to look a few miles over the border to Boston to see what could have been possible. But the English Reformation of the 16th century brought an end to the need for bequests, and so the late 13th century tower remains in place to this day.

 

The vast church sits hemmed in to the north and east by its wide churchyard. The battlemented nave and chancel are a magnificent sight, most commonly first seen from the village street to the north. Rendering accentuates the reddishness of the stone, and the finest moment is probably the conjunction between nave and chancel; spired roodstair turrets rise to the gable, and at the apex is a glorious sanctus bell turret. The stairway on the north side is supported by a small figure who has been variously interpreted as the Greek god Atlas, the Fenland giant Hickathrift, or as anyone else I suppose.

 

The chancel is beautiful, but its most striking feature is the tunnel that goes beneath its eastern end. One of the features of the late medieval English Catholic church was liturgical processions, but when this chancel was extended in the 15th century it took the building right up to the boundary of consecrated ground. To enable processions still to circumnavigate this building, the tunnel was placed beneath the high altar. Such passageways are more common under towers, and there are several examples of this in Norfolk, but that option was obviously not possible here.

 

There are lots of interesting bosses in the vaulting. It isn't just the medieval past that has left its mark here. The floor of the tunnel is flagged, and there are horse-rings in the wall from the 18th and 19th century when it served the more mundane purpose of stabling during services.

 

Views of the south side of the church are hindered by a vast and beautiful copper beech, but there is no hiding the vastness of the south porch, one of the biggest and finest in Norfolk. The parvise window is as big as nave windows elsewhere; the keys of St Peter decorate the footstool of one of the niches.

 

And here are some of the finest medieval bosses in Norfolk. The two main ones are the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and the Last Judgement. There are characterful animals in the other bosses. Figures in niches include a Pieta, a Madonna and child, and a pilgrim with a staff, pack, and shell on his hat. Also in the porch is a sign reminding you to remove your patens, the hardy wooden clogs common to 19th century farm workers.

 

So much to see, then, even before you come to push open the original medieval door! And then you do, and the birdsong and leaf-thresh of the summer morning outside falls away, and you enter the cool of a serious stone space. The first impression is of height, because the vista to the east is cut off by an elegant 17th century screen, as at nearby Terrington St Clement. The unifying of nave and tower, almost a century apart, is accomplished by sprung buttresses high up on the west wall, each carved with a figure. Here are the Elizabethan communion table, a hudd ( the sentry box-like device intended to keep 18th century Rectors dry at the graveside) and the perpendicular light through the west windows.

 

And then you step through the pedimented entrance through the screen into the body of the church, and the building begins to unfold before you. Your journey through it begins.

 

Some huge churches impose themselves on you. St Peter doesn't. It isn't Salle or Long Melford. But neither is it jaunty and immediately accessible like Terrington St Clement or Southwold, nor full of light and air like Blythburgh. St Peter is a complex space, the sum of its parts, like Cley, and yet more than them, with a sense of being an act of worship in itself.

 

One of the delights of Walpole St Peter is that many of the furnishings reveal the hands of local craftsmen; the roodscreen dado Saints, for example. There are twelve of them, their naive character reminiscent of Westhall. The six outer saints are women, the inner ones apostles. The two sets are clearly by different hands, and the late Tom Muckley wondered if they were, in fact, from two different screens.

 

On the north side are St Catherine, the rare subject of the Blessed Virgin and Christchild, St Margaret (the processional cross with which she dispatches the dragon is unfinished), St John, St James and St Thomas. On the south side are St Peter, St Paul, St Andrew, St Mary of Magdala, St Dorothy and St Barbara. I was pleased to be asked recently for the use of my photographs for the information board which explains it.

 

The nave has a feel that is at once ancient and vital, not so much of age as of timelessness, of continuity. It's the sheer mixture of woodwork that impresses - silvery oak broods in the white light from the high windows. The best of the medieval work is in the south aisle, where the benches are tiered and face inwards. A massive dark wood pulpit and tester broods over the north side. Above all this rises the pale cream of the arcades, topped by the gold of the hanging candelabras, and the towering, serious early 17th century font cover. The font is clearly one of the Seven Sacraments series; but, as at the great churches of Blythburgh and Southwold in Suffolk, the panels have been completely erased. A dedicatory inscription is dated 1537.

 

As well as wood, metal. The candelabras provide a focus, but there is also one of the latten medieval lecterns familiar from elsewhere in Norfolk, the little lions perky at its feet. The south aisle chapel has a lovely parclose screen with a spiked iron gate. In the north aisle, the chapel has been neatly furnished for smaller scale worship.

 

And then you step through into the chancel, and this is something else again. Here is true grandeur. This immense spaces rises fully twenty-one steps from nave floor to high altar. Here is the late medieval imagination writ large, compromised in the years since, but largely restored by the late Victorians. You step from subtlety to richness. Niches and arcading flank the walls leading the eye east, their blankness becoming sedilia. In the high niches where once were images, 17th and 18th century worthies have their memorials. Everything leads the eye to the great east window, where excellent 19th century glass completes your journey through the Queen of the Marshlands.

 

Simon Jenkins, in the often-maligned England's Thousand Best Churches, tends to cast a cold and even sardonic eye on most buildings as he passes by, but at Walpole St Peter even his breath was taken away: it is a place not of curiosity but of subtle proportion, of the play of light on stone and wood. If English churches were Dutch Old Masters, this would be St Pieter de Hooch.

Continuities (1962)

Clip Book of Line Art, No. 103

Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio

 

Illustration by Bob Bugg (?)

One of the first photos taken with my Canon 7D (Yes, now I have a digital camera)

 

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The river Ganga, flowing through the northern and eastern part of India is a continuous thread to the cultural values of this country. As many others, this man comes every morning for a bath in Ganga and collects some water, which is considered holy among hindus... it goes on

"EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE" simulated news broadcasts, messages and other communications that include this frequently said, heard, and seen phrase captures the attention of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Devolution Emergency Response Group (DERG) off-site elements and exercise controllers during Eagle Horizon, a mandatory, annual, integrated continuity exercise for all federal executive branch departments and agencies, to include USDA Departmental Management (DM) Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Coordination (OHSEC), as required by National Continuity Policy, Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. Teams use color-coded vests with job titles to know who does what. The phrase is required to prevent miscommunications with personnel participating in locations throughout the nation and from exercise controllers. Teams use color-coded vests with job titles to know who does what. The Eagle Horizon series of exercises allows the executive branch to implement integrated, overlapping national continuity concepts in order to ensure the preservation of our government and the continuing performance of essential functions. These services provided by governments at all levels and the private sector affect the everyday lives of citizens and customers. In 2001, the Homeland Security office was created as a response to the tragedy that struck the Nation on September 11 of that year. In 2010, OHSEC was formed out of a merger between Homeland Security and the USDA Office of Security Services (OSS) to create a more efficient and effective organization. USDA Multimedia by Lance Cheung.

Continuity of a concept concentrates the cortex.

  

Archaeological excavations demonstrate a continuity of life in Calnic (judet Alba), starting with the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements, the Dacian and Roman remains, or from the period of migration to the Middle Ages.

The name of the city, mentioned for the first time in 1269 (villa Kelnuk) is of Slavic-Romanian origin. The name of the place was taken over by the Saxons (Kelling) and the Hungarians (Kelnek).

The Romanesque fortress of Calnic is an old noble residence, which by its small size cannot compete with those of the big cities, but which is considered as very representative of a local civilization, transylvaine and a particular time.

The fortress consists of two rows of walls (enclosures) with an oval path, arranged concentric and reinforced with flanking elements: two towers and a bastion. The front door is defended by a fortified corridor. The belts protect the interior courtyard, at the heart of the fortress, where the chapel, the fountain and the dungeon are located. The latter dominates by its height (27m) and its massiveness (walls of 1m) the whole complex. During the romantic era, this impressive medieval vestige was nicknamed the Siegfried Tower.

The outer enclosure or zwinger has a maximum diameter of around 70 m with a height of 3 m. The inner enclosure is the most imposing with its 7m height. On the small diameter, it is fortified by two towers: the portal tower (NW) and a defense tower (SE). 24 m high, the portal tower is one of the vertical domes of the complex. There are four bells here, which is why the building is also called the bell tower.

Due to its preservation in good condition, in the middle of a locality bearing until now the imprint of the civilization of the German colonists established in Transylvania, the edifice was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List (1999).

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Kansas Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director and the simulated acting Agriculture Secretary Adrian J. Polansky and other USDA leaders from outside of the simulated major incident area who have also assumed simulated departmental leadership roles for this simulated devolution of leadership, participate in a status briefing as part of a response to a simulated major incident during Eagle Horizon, a mandatory, annual, integrated continuity exercise for all federal executive branch departments and agencies, to include USDA Departmental Management (DM) Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Coordination (OHSEC), as required by National Continuity Policy, Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. The phrase is required to prevent miscommunications with personnel participating in locations throughout the nation and from exercise controllers. The Eagle Horizon series of exercises allows the executive branch to implement integrated, overlapping national continuity concepts in order to ensure the preservation of our government and the continuing performance of essential functions. These services provided by governments at all levels and the private sector affect the everyday lives of citizens and customers. In 2001, the Homeland Security office was created as a response to the tragedy that struck the Nation on September 11 of that year. In 2010, OHSEC was formed out of a merger between Homeland Security and the USDA Office of Security Services (OSS) to create a more efficient and effective organization. USDA Multimedia by Lance Cheung.

This kid makes me so proud. Words cannot express how touching it is to see him be so patient for photography. We spent an afternoon shooting and he meticulously kept choosing angles to get the best shot, even with a point and shoot. Pretty impressive for a 9-year old. I promised I would create a flickr account for him so he can put up his best pictures.

To me the definitive Transformers continuity is an amalgamation of the original cartoon series Japanese version and the Marvel comics... with a pocket somewhere in the middle for Transformers Prime. So you could argue that my idea of the definitive Transformers continuity doesn't exist... so.... shut up.

 

Anyway, the Autobot leaders, from the left:

 

Sentinel Prime: Died near the start of the war. He is usually depicted as one sort of ass or another. He may or may not have been a Matrix Holder.

 

Optimus Prime: At the start of the Great War, he was Orion Pax, and an admirer or penpal of Megatron. He was mortally wounded, and taken to Alpha Trion, (who did not realize he was an original Prime). Alpha Trion gave the Matrix of Leadership to Orion Pax, which then reformatted him into Optimus Prime. Alpha Trion then used the data he gathered from the reformatting to rebuild the wounded warriors into a new generation of Transformers. Optimus Prime was viewed by all as a perfect wartime leader, but he died before the wars end. He was resurrected, when he was able to enjoy some peacetime before death found him again.

 

Rodimus Prime was the reformatted form of Hot Rod when he received the Matrix. Living in the shadow of Optimus Prime, it took some time for him to find the confidence to earn the title of the Greatest of the Primes. Unfortunately, Cybertron was destroyed on his watch. Out of guilt, he left to find a new world for his kind. Before he left, taking the Matrix and some of his troops with him, Rodimus Prime appointed the newly arrived Fortress the new Autobot Leader in his absence.

 

Fortress was the leader of a faction of Autobots on a Micromaster/Minicon colony who had mastered a new technology... Fortress could turn into the head of his Transsector, which could also merge with his Maximus class ship to form Fortress Maximus. Under his leadership the second Great War continued to rage across the galaxy.

 

Genrai was a Japanese truck driver whose heart was in the right place, but stumbled across the pretender Metalhawk's tweak on Fortress' Transsector technology. His Masterforce bracelets enabled the Transector to be powered by a human instead of a Spark, until the Transsector developed it's own spark patterned after the human's. He proved himself a natural leader, and at some point assumed leadership from Fortress.

 

Genrai was mortally wounded coming to the aid of a promising Autobot commander, Star Saber, whose armor was so strong the best way to damage him was in melee combat. Genrai passed on the role of leadership to Star Saber before he died in an experiment to reformat him, but instead it reincarnated him into Victory Leo.

 

Star Saber was eventually severely wounded by an exploding planet. Too wounded to continue in an active role, he passed on leadership to the leader of Big Powered, Dai Atlas.

 

At this point things get confusing, and poorly documented. Rodimus Prime returns, bringing in Star Convoy with him.

There is also a restored Cybertron, which Optimus Primal is surprised to discover has an organic core, meaning he doesn't know it isn't the original Cybertron. At some point there is a Fire Convoy, and the establishment of a convoy council and a council of Autobot Elders.

0.04 - ITV3 Continuity

0.10 - ITV3 Ident

0.39 - ITV3 Continuity (during End Credits)

1.27 - ITV First Look Continuity

1.31 - ITV3 Ident

Early morning bath at Ganga and collecting its water everyday is a common practice among the north and east Indian hindus, the Ganga being one of the continuous thread in India's cultural complex.

This is one retouched version of my one of very earlier photos