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Halo 4…the long anticipated futuristic based experience has finally launched. November 6th was a day that we all looked forward to, I can't say the midnight launch was exactly "enjoyable" as I was surrounded by modern day plebeian individuals that knocked me out of the Halo mood a bit before my copy was handed to me.
As most of you are aware, i've had high hopes toward this installment to one of my favorite franchises. I'm happy to affirm that Halo 4 has delighted me with the most gratifying, exciting, emotional, cinematic and overall revolutionarily diverse virtual journey that we have waited five years for.
I have been completely captivated by Halo 4, and I have yet to discover a noticeably irritating imperfection. The obvious effort 343 Industries put into this continuation has definitely shown, never have I seen a company with the responsibility of such an expansive universe and community provide for all factions of that community. In the Halo community you have the fans who cherish the lore and recognize all regions of the story by not only playing through each installment but by reading the books and various texts, then you have those who have only played the games, and to follow that you have individuals who lack common knowledge of the franchise but most importantly enjoy it, and 343 Industries has treated all of the above with a satisfying and beautifully done story along with innovative multiplayer additions while keeping the traditional Halo components that we all love.
Campaign
Halo 4's campaign was easily the first on my list of the excitement toward this continuity, and by the end of it all I was intoxicatingly thrilled. From the trailers, you gain an idea of the basics, but then there are questions like "Why are there blue and orange Prometheans?" Little details like that prove to be key stabilizers that connect this grand story. Most cut scenes wouldn't have been as emotionally striking as they were without the fantastic use of facial capture, and our favorite characters were truly brought to life with the added realism. By the time you are awakened to a universe with a different atmosphere then before, to the point where the journey comes to a close, you are faced with the responsibility to accept that things will never be the same again in this extraordinary fantasy.
Spartan Ops
Sixth months after a brutal Forerunner rampage, the story continues but with the main character(s) being the Spartan IV fire team "Crimson". A lot can happen in four years, and during the four years while The Master Chief was in cryogenic sleep the UNSC created a new generation of spartans with the Spartan IV program. Spartan Ops has begun it's episodic triumph with it's first episode which spans over five missions, each containing dialogue and objectives as we face the Storm Covenant and the Prometheans. What I found to be quite obvious is that due to the fact that Spartan Ops has replaced Firefight, we encounter quite a few enemies as if 343 wanted to ensure the perfect replacement for the beloved playlist. Unless confronted on Heroic or harder, the five missions for the first episode last only a short ten minutes of pure carnage. I personally look forward to each cinematic that the episodes provide, which are so well animated it feels just barely short of live action.
Infinity Multiplayer : War Games
I've spent more time in War Games then anything else in Halo 4, mainly because absence results in falling behind in rank as others progress around you. Anyway, something that I very much appreciated was the application of matchmaking playlists into the story of Halo 4. Story wise, War Games is basically a virtual training program for Spartan IVs aboard the UNSC Infinity though I do tend to forget all about that minor addition quite often. Newly designed and well balanced maps, load outs, armor customization, and playlists all sum up to take the mantle of a much needed refreshing multiplayer that has the endless replay-ability. With gorgeous environments and sounds, War Games makes for the most fun matchmaking system i've ever experienced and I look forward to the long road of effort to achieve many ranks ahead.
Infinity Multiplayer : Forge
I'm not going to be dishonest here when I say that Forge could have been paid more attention to. The maps just like the rest are absolutely gorgeous and give off the Halo vibe we all know and love. However, though there may be more conveniences and various small additions I have encountered many inconveniences relating to connection performance issues, and quite a few "Return to the Battlefield" barriers that make you feel imprisoned. Also the speed from changing from the monitor mode to your spartan is much slower while playing with friends than ever before. I haven't attempted a full on custom map as I have focused on War Games, but I look forward to future maps built by others.
Infinity Multiplayer : Theatre
What is there to say? It's theatre mode, the perfect way to turn your favorite moments into memories to save and share with others. Though theatre is incapable of replaying campaign missions for you. For individuals such as me, who don't own a HDPVR this was pretty disappointing.
I was only able to write this because I reached the daily XP limit for the third day in a row… ;)
Please refrain from spoilers in the comments section, thanks!
Welcome home, John.
The Kristall is the forerunner of the Zenit and appears to be a Zorki 6 made into an SLR. The Helios 40 is of course, well a Helios 40,
20210310_175554(1)
So I decided to redo my flood design. I like this one much better, considering I actually used a reference picture picture (last time was just from memory). Completely purist, hope you like it.
Please comment!
Cortana: "I was put into service eight years ago. A.I.s deteriorate after seven, Chief."
Master Chief: "If we can just get back to Earth, and find Halsey, she can fix this."
Cortana: "Don't…make a girl a promise, you can't keep."
Well guys Halo 4 is only 48 days away, and I think it's about time to get posting some recreation shots :)
A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, infraorder Anisoptera (from Greek ἄνισος anisos, "unequal" and πτερόν pteron, "wing", because the hindwing is broader than the forewing). Adult dragonflies are characterized by large, multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong, transparent wings, sometimes with coloured patches, and an elongated body. Dragonflies can be mistaken for the related group, damselflies (Zygoptera), which are similar in structure, though usually lighter in build; however, the wings of most dragonflies are held flat and away from the body, while damselflies hold their wings folded at rest, along or above the abdomen. Dragonflies are agile fliers, while damselflies have a weaker, fluttery flight. Many dragonflies have brilliant iridescent or metallic colours produced by structural colouration, making them conspicuous in flight. An adult dragonfly's compound eyes have nearly 24,000 ommatidia each.
Fossils of very large dragonfly-like insects, sometimes called griffinflies, are found from 325 million years ago (Mya) in Upper Carboniferous rocks; these had wingspans up to about 750 mm (30 in), but were only distant ancestors, not true dragonflies. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threatens dragonfly populations around the world.
Dragonflies are predators, both in their aquatic nymphs stage (also known as naiads) and as adults. In some species, the nymphal stage lasts for up to five years, and the adult stage may be as long as ten weeks, but most species have an adult lifespan in the order of five weeks or less, and some survive for only a few days. They are fast, agile fliers, sometimes migrating across oceans, and often live near water. They have a uniquely complex mode of reproduction involving indirect insemination, delayed fertilization, and sperm competition. During mating, the male grasps the female at the back of the head, and the female curls her abdomen under her body to pick up sperm from the male's secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen, forming the "heart" or "wheel" posture.
Dragonflies are represented in human culture on artefacts such as pottery, rock paintings, statues and Art Nouveau jewellery. They are used in traditional medicine in Japan and China, and caught for food in Indonesia. They are symbols of courage, strength, and happiness in Japan, but seen as sinister in European folklore. Their bright colours and agile flight are admired in the poetry of Lord Tennyson and the prose of H. E. Bates.
Evolution
Dragonflies and their relatives are similar in structure to an ancient group, meganisoptera, from the 325 Mya Upper Carboniferous of Europe, a group that included the largest insect that ever lived, Meganeuropsis permiana from the Early Permian, with a wingspan around 750 mm (30 in);. Known informally as "griffinflies", their fossil record ends with the Permian–Triassic extinction event (about 247 Mya). The Protanisoptera, another ancestral group that lacks certain wing vein characters found in modern Odonata, lived from the Early to Late Permian age until the end Permian event, and are known from fossil wings from current-day United States, Russia, and Australia, suggesting they might have been cosmopolitan in distribution. While both of those groups are sometimes referred to as "giant dragonflies", in fact true dragonflies/odonata are more modern insects that had not evolved yet.
Modern dragonflies do retain some traits of their distant predecessors, and are in a group known as palaeoptera, ancient-winged. They, like the gigantic pre-dinosaur griffinflies, lack the ability to fold their wings up against their bodies in the way modern insects do, although some evolved their own different way to do so. The forerunners of modern Odonata are included in a clade called the Panodonata, which include the basal Zygoptera (damselflies) and the Anisoptera (true dragonflies). Today, some 3,000 species are extant around the world.
The relationships of anisopteran families are not fully resolved as of 2013, but all the families are monophyletic except the Corduliidae; the Gomphidae are a sister taxon to all other Anisoptera, the Austropetaliidae are sister to the Aeshnoidea, and the Chlorogomphidae are sister to a clade that includes the Synthemistidae and Libellulidae. On the cladogram, dashed lines indicate unresolved relationships; English names are given (in parentheses)
Distribution and diversity
About 3,012 species of dragonflies were known in 2010; these are classified into 348 genera in 11 families. The distribution of diversity within the biogeographical regions are summarized below (the world numbers are not ordinary totals, as overlaps in species occur).
Dragonflies live on every continent except Antarctica. In contrast to the damselflies (Zygoptera), which tend to have restricted distributions, some genera and species are spread across continents. For example, the blue-eyed darner Rhionaeschna multicolor lives all across North America, and in Central America; emperors Anax live throughout the Americas from as far north as Newfoundland to as far south as Bahia Blanca in Argentina, across Europe to central Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. The globe skimmer Pantala flavescens is probably the most widespread dragonfly species in the world; it is cosmopolitan, occurring on all continents in the warmer regions. Most Anisoptera species are tropical, with far fewer species in temperate regions.
Some dragonflies, including libellulids and aeshnids, live in desert pools, for example in the Mojave Desert, where they are active in shade temperatures between 18 and 45 °C (64.4 to 113 °F); these insects were able to survive body temperatures above the thermal death point of insects of the same species in cooler places.
Dragonflies live from sea level up to the mountains, decreasing in species diversity with altitude. Their altitudinal limit is about 3700 m, represented by a species of Aeshna in the Pamirs.
Dragonflies become scarce at higher latitudes. They are not native to Iceland, but individuals are occasionally swept in by strong winds, including a Hemianax ephippiger native to North Africa, and an unidentified darter species. In Kamchatka, only a few species of dragonfly including the treeline emerald Somatochlora arctica and some aeshnids such as Aeshna subarctica are found, possibly because of the low temperature of the lakes there. The treeline emerald also lives in northern Alaska, within the Arctic Circle, making it the most northerly of all dragonflies.
General description
Dragonflies (suborder Anisoptera) are heavy-bodied, strong-flying insects that hold their wings horizontally both in flight and at rest. By contrast, damselflies (suborder Zygoptera) have slender bodies and fly more weakly; most species fold their wings over the abdomen when stationary, and the eyes are well separated on the sides of the head.
An adult dragonfly has three distinct segments, the head, thorax, and abdomen, as in all insects. It has a chitinous exoskeleton of hard plates held together with flexible membranes. The head is large with very short antennae. It is dominated by the two compound eyes, which cover most of its surface. The compound eyes are made up of ommatidia, the numbers being greater in the larger species. Aeshna interrupta has 22650 ommatidia of two varying sizes, 4500 being large. The facets facing downward tend to be smaller. Petalura gigantea has 23890 ommatidia of just one size. These facets provide complete vision in the frontal hemisphere of the dragonfly. The compound eyes meet at the top of the head (except in the Petaluridae and Gomphidae, as also in the genus Epiophlebia). Also, they have three simple eyes or ocelli. The mouthparts are adapted for biting with a toothed jaw; the flap-like labrum, at the front of the mouth, can be shot rapidly forward to catch prey. The head has a system for locking it in place that consists of muscles and small hairs on the back of the head that grip structures on the front of the first thoracic segment. This arrester system is unique to the Odonata, and is activated when feeding and during tandem flight.
The thorax consists of three segments as in all insects. The prothorax is small and is flattened dorsally into a shield-like disc, which has two transverse ridges. The mesothorax and metathorax are fused into a rigid, box-like structure with internal bracing, and provide a robust attachment for the powerful wing muscles inside. The thorax bears two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs. The wings are long, veined, and membranous, narrower at the tip and wider at the base. The hindwings are broader than the forewings and the venation is different at the base. The veins carry haemolymph, which is analogous to blood in vertebrates, and carries out many similar functions, but which also serves a hydraulic function to expand the body between nymphal stages (instars) and to expand and stiffen the wings after the adult emerges from the final nymphal stage. The leading edge of each wing has a node where other veins join the marginal vein, and the wing is able to flex at this point. In most large species of dragonflies, the wings of females are shorter and broader than those of males. The legs are rarely used for walking, but are used to catch and hold prey, for perching, and for climbing on plants. Each has two short basal joints, two long joints, and a three-jointed foot, armed with a pair of claws. The long leg joints bear rows of spines, and in males, one row of spines on each front leg is modified to form an "eyebrush", for cleaning the surface of the compound eye.
The abdomen is long and slender and consists of 10 segments. Three terminal appendages are on segment 10; a pair of superiors (claspers) and an inferior. The second and third segments are enlarged, and in males, on the underside of the second segment has a cleft, forming the secondary genitalia consisting of the lamina, hamule, genital lobe, and penis. There are remarkable variations in the presence and the form of the penis and the related structures, the flagellum, cornua, and genital lobes. Sperm is produced at the 9th segment, and is transferred to the secondary genitalia prior to mating. The male holds the female behind the head using a pair of claspers on the terminal segment. In females, the genital opening is on the underside of the eighth segment, and is covered by a simple flap (vulvar lamina) or an ovipositor, depending on species and the method of egg-laying. Dragonflies having simple flaps shed the eggs in water, mostly in flight. Dragonflies having ovipositors use them to puncture soft tissues of plants and place the eggs singly in each puncture they make.
Dragonfly nymphs vary in form with species, and are loosely classed into claspers, sprawlers, hiders, and burrowers. The first instar is known as a prolarva, a relatively inactive stage from which it quickly moults into the more active nymphal form. The general body plan is similar to that of an adult, but the nymph lacks wings and reproductive organs. The lower jaw has a huge, extensible labium, armed with hooks and spines, which is used for catching prey. This labium is folded under the body at rest and struck out at great speed by hydraulic pressure created by the abdominal muscles. Whereas damselfly nymphs have three feathery external gills, dragonfly nymphs have internal gills, located around the fourth and fifth abdominal segments. Water is pumped in and out of the abdomen through an opening at the tip. The naiads of some clubtails (Gomphidae) that burrow into the sediment, have a snorkel-like tube at the end of the abdomen enabling them to draw in clean water while they are buried in mud. Naiads can forcefully expel a jet of water to propel themselves with great rapidity.
Colouration
Many adult dragonflies have brilliant iridescent or metallic colours produced by structural colouration, making them conspicuous in flight. Their overall colouration is often a combination of yellow, red, brown, and black pigments, with structural colours. Blues are typically created by microstructures in the cuticle that reflect blue light. Greens often combine a structural blue with a yellow pigment. Freshly emerged adults, known as tenerals, are often pale-coloured and obtain their typical colours after a few days, some have their bodies covered with a pale blue, waxy powderiness called pruinosity; it wears off when scraped during mating, leaving darker areas.
Some dragonflies, such as the green darner, Anax junius, have a noniridescent blue that is produced structurally by scatter from arrays of tiny spheres in the endoplasmic reticulum of epidermal cells underneath the cuticle.
The wings of dragonflies are generally clear, apart from the dark veins and pterostigmata. In the chasers (Libellulidae), however, many genera have areas of colour on the wings: for example, groundlings (Brachythemis) have brown bands on all four wings, while some scarlets (Crocothemis) and dropwings (Trithemis) have bright orange patches at the wing bases. Some aeshnids such as the brown hawker (Aeshna grandis) have translucent, pale yellow wings.
Dragonfly nymphs are usually a well-camouflaged blend of dull brown, green, and grey.
Biology
Ecology
Dragonflies and damselflies are predatory both in the aquatic nymphal and adult stages. Nymphs feed on a range of freshwater invertebrates and larger ones can prey on tadpoles and small fish. Adults capture insect prey in the air, making use of their acute vision and highly controlled flight. The mating system of dragonflies is complex, and they are among the few insect groups that have a system of indirect sperm transfer along with sperm storage, delayed fertilization, and sperm competition.
Adult males vigorously defend territories near water; these areas provide suitable habitat for the nymphs to develop, and for females to lay their eggs. Swarms of feeding adults aggregate to prey on swarming prey such as emerging flying ants or termites.
Dragonflies as a group occupy a considerable variety of habitats, but many species, and some families, have their own specific environmental requirements. Some species prefer flowing waters, while others prefer standing water. For example, the Gomphidae (clubtails) live in running water, and the Libellulidae (skimmers) live in still water. Some species live in temporary water pools and are capable of tolerating changes in water level, desiccation, and the resulting variations in temperature, but some genera such as Sympetrum (darters) have eggs and nymphs that can resist drought and are stimulated to grow rapidly in warm, shallow pools, also often benefiting from the absence of predators there. Vegetation and its characteristics including submerged, floating, emergent, or waterside are also important. Adults may require emergent or waterside plants to use as perches; others may need specific submerged or floating plants on which to lay eggs. Requirements may be highly specific, as in Aeshna viridis (green hawker), which lives in swamps with the water-soldier, Stratiotes aloides. The chemistry of the water, including its trophic status (degree of enrichment with nutrients) and pH can also affect its use by dragonflies. Most species need moderate conditions, not too eutrophic, not too acidic; a few species such as Sympetrum danae (black darter) and Libellula quadrimaculata (four-spotted chaser) prefer acidic waters such as peat bogs, while others such as Libellula fulva (scarce chaser) need slow-moving, eutrophic waters with reeds or similar waterside plants.
Behaviour
Many dragonflies, particularly males, are territorial. Some defend a territory against others of their own species, some against other species of dragonfly and a few against insects in unrelated groups. A particular perch may give a dragonfly a good view over an insect-rich feeding ground; males of many species such as the Pachydiplax longipennis (blue dasher) jostle other dragonflies to maintain the right to alight there. Defending a breeding territory is common among male dragonflies, especially in species that congregate around ponds. The territory contains desirable features such as a sunlit stretch of shallow water, a special plant species, or the preferred substrate for egg-laying. The territory may be small or large, depending on its quality, the time of day, and the number of competitors, and may be held for a few minutes or several hours. Dragonflies including Tramea lacerata (black saddlebags) may notice landmarks that assist in defining the boundaries of the territory. Landmarks may reduce the costs of territory establishment, or might serve as a spatial reference. Some dragonflies signal ownership with striking colours on the face, abdomen, legs, or wings. The Plathemis lydia (common whitetail) dashes towards an intruder holding its white abdomen aloft like a flag. Other dragonflies engage in aerial dogfights or high-speed chases. A female must mate with the territory holder before laying her eggs. There is also conflict between the males and females. Females may sometimes be harassed by males to the extent that it affects their normal activities including foraging and in some dimorphic species females have evolved multiple forms with some forms appearing deceptively like males. In some species females have evolved behavioural responses such as feigning death to escape the attention of males. Similarly, selection of habitat by adult dragonflies is not random, and terrestrial habitat patches may be held for up to 3 months. A species tightly linked to its birth site utilises a foraging area that is several orders of magnitude larger than the birth site.
Reproduction
Mating in dragonflies is a complex, precisely choreographed process. First, the male has to attract a female to his territory, continually driving off rival males. When he is ready to mate, he transfers a packet of sperm from his primary genital opening on segment 9, near the end of his abdomen, to his secondary genitalia on segments 2–3, near the base of his abdomen. The male then grasps the female by the head with the claspers at the end of his abdomen; the structure of the claspers varies between species, and may help to prevent interspecific mating. The pair flies in tandem with the male in front, typically perching on a twig or plant stem. The female then curls her abdomen downwards and forwards under her body to pick up the sperm from the male's secondary genitalia, while the male uses his "tail" claspers to grip the female behind the head: this distinctive posture is called the "heart" or "wheel"; the pair may also be described as being "in cop".
Egg-laying (ovipositing) involves not only the female darting over floating or waterside vegetation to deposit eggs on a suitable substrate, but also the male hovering above her or continuing to clasp her and flying in tandem. The male attempts to prevent rivals from removing his sperm and inserting their own, something made possible by delayed fertilisation and driven by sexual selection. If successful, a rival male uses his penis to compress or scrape out the sperm inserted previously; this activity takes up much of the time that a copulating pair remains in the heart posture. Flying in tandem has the advantage that less effort is needed by the female for flight and more can be expended on egg-laying, and when the female submerges to deposit eggs, the male may help to pull her out of the water.
Egg-laying takes two different forms depending on the species. The female in some families has a sharp-edged ovipositor with which she slits open a stem or leaf of a plant on or near the water, so she can push her eggs inside. In other families such as clubtails (Gomphidae), cruisers (Macromiidae), emeralds (Corduliidae), and skimmers (Libellulidae), the female lays eggs by tapping the surface of the water repeatedly with her abdomen, by shaking the eggs out of her abdomen as she flies along, or by placing the eggs on vegetation. In a few species, the eggs are laid on emergent plants above the water, and development is delayed until these have withered and become immersed.
Life cycle
Dragonflies are hemimetabolous insects; they do not have a pupal stage and undergo an incomplete metamorphosis with a series of nymphal stages from which the adult emerges. Eggs laid inside plant tissues are usually shaped like grains of rice, while other eggs are the size of a pinhead, ellipsoidal, or nearly spherical. A clutch may have as many as 1500 eggs, and they take about a week to hatch into aquatic nymphs or naiads which moult between six and 15 times (depending on species) as they grow. Most of a dragonfly's life is spent as a nymph, beneath the water's surface. The nymph extends its hinged labium (a toothed mouthpart similar to a lower mandible, which is sometimes termed as a "mask" as it is normally folded and held before the face) that can extend forward and retract rapidly to capture prey such as mosquito larvae, tadpoles, and small fish. They breathe through gills in their rectum, and can rapidly propel themselves by suddenly expelling water through the anus. Some naiads, such as the later stages of Antipodophlebia asthenes, hunt on land.
The nymph stage of dragonflies lasts up to five years in large species, and between two months and three years in smaller species. When the naiad is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it stops feeding and makes its way to the surface, generally at night. It remains stationary with its head out of the water, while its respiration system adapts to breathing air, then climbs up a reed or other emergent plant, and moults (ecdysis). Anchoring itself firmly in a vertical position with its claws, its skin begins to split at a weak spot behind the head. The adult dragonfly crawls out of its nymph skin, the exuvia, arching backwards when all but the tip of its abdomen is free, to allow its exoskeleton to harden. Curling back upwards, it completes its emergence, swallowing air, which plumps out its body, and pumping haemolymph into its wings, which causes them to expand to their full extent.
Dragonflies in temperate areas can be categorized into two groups, an early group and a later one. In any one area, individuals of a particular "spring species" emerge within a few days of each other. The springtime darner (Basiaeschna janata), for example, is suddenly very common in the spring, but disappears a few weeks later and is not seen again until the following year. By contrast, a "summer species" emerges over a period of weeks or months, later in the year. They may be seen on the wing for several months, but this may represent a whole series of individuals, with new adults hatching out as earlier ones complete their lifespans.
Sex ratios
The sex ratio of male to female dragonflies varies both temporally and spatially. Adult dragonflies have a high male-biased ratio at breeding habitats. The male-bias ratio has contributed partially to the females using different habitats to avoid male harassment. As seen in Hine's emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora hineana), male populations use wetland habitats, while females use dry meadows and marginal breeding habitats, only migrating to the wetlands to lay their eggs or to find mating partners. Unwanted mating is energetically costly for females because it affects the amount of time that they are able to spend foraging.
Flight
Dragonflies are powerful and agile fliers, capable of migrating across the sea, moving in any direction, and changing direction suddenly. In flight, the adult dragonfly can propel itself in six directions: upward, downward, forward, backward, to left and to right. They have four different styles of flight: A number of flying modes are used that include counter-stroking, with forewings beating 180° out of phase with the hindwings, is used for hovering and slow flight. This style is efficient and generates a large amount of lift; phased-stroking, with the hindwings beating 90° ahead of the forewings, is used for fast flight. This style creates more thrust, but less lift than counter-stroking; synchronised-stroking, with forewings and hindwings beating together, is used when changing direction rapidly, as it maximises thrust; and gliding, with the wings held out, is used in three situations: free gliding, for a few seconds in between bursts of powered flight; gliding in the updraft at the crest of a hill, effectively hovering by falling at the same speed as the updraft; and in certain dragonflies such as darters, when "in cop" with a male, the female sometimes simply glides while the male pulls the pair along by beating his wings.
The wings are powered directly, unlike most families of insects, with the flight muscles attached to the wing bases. Dragonflies have a high power/weight ratio, and have been documented accelerating at 4 G linearly and 9 G in sharp turns while pursuing prey.
Dragonflies generate lift in at least four ways at different times, including classical lift like an aircraft wing; supercritical lift with the wing above the critical angle, generating high lift and using very short strokes to avoid stalling; and creating and shedding vortices. Some families appear to use special mechanisms, as for example the Libellulidae which take off rapidly, their wings beginning pointed far forward and twisted almost vertically. Dragonfly wings behave highly dynamically during flight, flexing and twisting during each beat. Among the variables are wing curvature, length and speed of stroke, angle of attack, forward/back position of wing, and phase relative to the other wings.
Flight speed
Old and unreliable claims are made that dragonflies such as the southern giant darner can fly up to 97 km/h (60 mph). However, the greatest reliable flight speed records are for other types of insects. In general, large dragonflies like the hawkers have a maximum speed of 36–54 km/h (22–34 mph) with average cruising speed of about 16 km/h (9.9 mph). Dragonflies can travel at 100 body-lengths per second in forward flight, and three lengths per second backwards.
Motion camouflage
n high-speed territorial battles between male Australian emperors (Hemianax papuensis), the fighting dragonflies adjust their flight paths to appear stationary to their rivals, minimizing the chance of being detected as they approach.[a] To achieve the effect, the attacking dragonfly flies towards his rival, choosing his path to remain on a line between the rival and the start of his attack path. The attacker thus looms larger as he closes on the rival, but does not otherwise appear to move. Researchers found that six of 15 encounters involved motion camouflage.
Temperature control
The flight muscles need to be kept at a suitable temperature for the dragonfly to be able to fly. Being cold-blooded, they can raise their temperature by basking in the sun. Early in the morning, they may choose to perch in a vertical position with the wings outstretched, while in the middle of the day, a horizontal stance may be chosen. Another method of warming up used by some larger dragonflies is wing-whirring, a rapid vibration of the wings that causes heat to be generated in the flight muscles. The green darner (Anax junius) is known for its long-distance migrations, and often resorts to wing-whirring before dawn to enable it to make an early start.
Becoming too hot is another hazard, and a sunny or shady position for perching can be selected according to the ambient temperature. Some species have dark patches on the wings which can provide shade for the body, and a few use the obelisk posture to avoid overheating. This behaviour involves doing a "handstand", perching with the body raised and the abdomen pointing towards the sun, thus minimising the amount of solar radiation received. On a hot day, dragonflies sometimes adjust their body temperature by skimming over a water surface and briefly touching it, often three times in quick succession. This may also help to avoid desiccation.
Feeding
Adult dragonflies hunt on the wing using their exceptionally acute eyesight and strong, agile flight. They are almost exclusively carnivorous, eating a wide variety of insects ranging from small midges and mosquitoes to butterflies, moths, damselflies, and smaller dragonflies. A large prey item is subdued by being bitten on the head and is carried by the legs to a perch. Here, the wings are discarded and the prey usually ingested head first. A dragonfly may consume as much as a fifth of its body weight in prey per day. Dragonflies are also some of the insect world's most efficient hunters, catching up to 95% of the prey they pursue.
The nymphs are voracious predators, eating most living things that are smaller than they are. Their staple diet is mostly bloodworms and other insect larvae, but they also feed on tadpoles and small fish. A few species, especially those that live in temporary waters, are likely to leave the water to feed. Nymphs of Cordulegaster bidentata sometimes hunt small arthropods on the ground at night, while some species in the Anax genus have even been observed leaping out of the water to attack and kill full-grown tree frogs.
Eyesight
Dragonfly vision is thought to be like slow motion for humans. Dragonflies see faster than we do; they see around 200 images per second. A dragonfly can see in 360 degrees, and nearly 80 percent of the insect's brain is dedicated to its sight.
Predators
Although dragonflies are swift and agile fliers, some predators are fast enough to catch them. These include falcons such as the American kestrel, the merlin, and the hobby; nighthawks, swifts, flycatchers and swallows also take some adults; some species of wasps, too, prey on dragonflies, using them to provision their nests, laying an egg on each captured insect. In the water, various species of ducks and herons eat dragonfly nymphs and they are also preyed on by newts, frogs, fish, and water spiders. Amur falcons, which migrate over the Indian Ocean at a period that coincides with the migration of the globe skimmer dragonfly, Pantala flavescens, may actually be feeding on them while on the wing.
Parasites
Dragonflies are affected by three major groups of parasites: water mites, gregarine protozoa, and trematode flatworms (flukes). Water mites, Hydracarina, can kill smaller dragonfly nymphs, and may also be seen on adults. Gregarines infect the gut and may cause blockage and secondary infection. Trematodes are parasites of vertebrates such as frogs, with complex life cycles often involving a period as a stage called a cercaria in a secondary host, a snail. Dragonfly nymphs may swallow cercariae, or these may tunnel through a nymph's body wall; they then enter the gut and form a cyst or metacercaria, which remains in the nymph for the whole of its development. If the nymph is eaten by a frog, the amphibian becomes infected by the adult or fluke stage of the trematode.
Dragonflies and humans
Conservation
Most odonatologists live in temperate areas and the dragonflies of North America and Europe have been the subject of much research. However, the majority of species live in tropical areas and have been little studied. With the destruction of rainforest habitats, many of these species are in danger of becoming extinct before they have even been named. The greatest cause of decline is forest clearance with the consequent drying up of streams and pools which become clogged with silt. The damming of rivers for hydroelectric schemes and the drainage of low-lying land has reduced suitable habitat, as has pollution and the introduction of alien species.
In 1997, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up a status survey and conservation action plan for dragonflies. This proposes the establishment of protected areas around the world and the management of these areas to provide suitable habitat for dragonflies. Outside these areas, encouragement should be given to modify forestry, agricultural, and industrial practices to enhance conservation. At the same time, more research into dragonflies needs to be done, consideration should be given to pollution control and the public should be educated about the importance of biodiversity.
Habitat degradation has reduced dragonfly populations across the world, for example in Japan. Over 60% of Japan's wetlands were lost in the 20th century, so its dragonflies now depend largely on rice fields, ponds, and creeks. Dragonflies feed on pest insects in rice, acting as a natural pest control. Dragonflies are steadily declining in Africa, and represent a conservation priority.
The dragonfly's long lifespan and low population density makes it vulnerable to disturbance, such as from collisions with vehicles on roads built near wetlands. Species that fly low and slow may be most at risk.
Dragonflies are attracted to shiny surfaces that produce polarization which they can mistake for water, and they have been known to aggregate close to polished gravestones, solar panels, automobiles, and other such structures on which they attempt to lay eggs. These can have a local impact on dragonfly populations; methods of reducing the attractiveness of structures such as solar panels are under experimentation.
In culture
A blue-glazed faience dragonfly amulet was found by Flinders Petrie at Lahun, from the Late Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
Many Native American tribes consider dragonflies to be medicine animals that had special powers. For example, the southwestern tribes, including the Pueblo, Hopi, and Zuni, associated dragonflies with transformation. They referred to dragonflies as "snake doctors" because they believed dragonflies followed snakes into the ground and healed them if they were injured. For the Navajo, dragonflies symbolize pure water. Often stylized in a double-barred cross design, dragonflies are a common motif in Zuni pottery, as well as Hopi rock art and Pueblo necklaces.: 20–26
As a seasonal symbol in Japan, the dragonflies are associated with season of autumn. In Japan, they are symbols of rebirth, courage, strength, and happiness. They are also depicted frequently in Japanese art and literature, especially haiku poetry. Japanese children catch large dragonflies as a game, using a hair with a small pebble tied to each end, which they throw into the air. The dragonfly mistakes the pebbles for prey, gets tangled in the hair, and is dragged to the ground by the weight.: 38
In Chinese culture, dragonflies symbolize both change and instability. They are also symbols in the Chinese practices of Feng Shui, where placements of dragonfly statues and artwork in parts of a home or office are believed to bring new insights and positive changes.
In both China and Japan, dragonflies have been used in traditional medicine. In Indonesia, adult dragonflies are caught on poles made sticky with birdlime, then fried in oil as a delicacy.
Images of dragonflies are common in Art Nouveau, especially in jewellery designs. They have also been used as a decorative motif on fabrics and home furnishings. Douglas, a British motorcycle manufacturer based in Bristol, named its innovatively designed postwar 350-cc flat-twin model the Dragonfly.
Among the classical names of Japan are Akitsukuni (秋津国), Akitsushima (秋津島), Toyo-akitsushima (豊秋津島). Akitsu is an old word for dragonfly, so one interpretation of Akitsushima is "Dragonfly Island". This is attributed to a legend in which Japan's mythical founder, Emperor Jimmu, was bitten by a mosquito, which was then eaten by a dragonfly.
In Europe, dragonflies have often been seen as sinister. Some English vernacular names, such as "horse-stinger", "devil's darning needle", and "ear cutter", link them with evil or injury. Swedish folklore holds that the devil uses dragonflies to weigh people's souls.: 25–27 The Norwegian name for dragonflies is Øyenstikker ("eye-poker"), and in Portugal, they are sometimes called tira-olhos ("eyes-snatcher"). They are often associated with snakes, as in the Welsh name gwas-y-neidr, "adder's servant". The Southern United States terms "snake doctor" and "snake feeder" refer to a folk belief that dragonflies catch insects for snakes or follow snakes around and stitch them back together if they are injured. Interestingly, the Hungarian name for dragonfly is szitakötő ("sieve-knitter").
The watercolourist Moses Harris (1731–1785), known for his The Aurelian or natural history of English insects (1766), published in 1780, the first scientific descriptions of several Odonata including the banded demoiselle, Calopteryx splendens. He was the first English artist to make illustrations of dragonflies accurate enough to be identified to species (Aeshna grandis at top left of plate illustrated), though his rough drawing of a nymph (at lower left) with the mask extended appears to be plagiarised.[b]
More recently, dragonfly watching has become popular in America as some birdwatchers seek new groups to observe.
In heraldry, like other winged insects, the dragonfly is typically depicted tergiant (with its back facing the viewer), with its head to chief.
In poetry and literature
Lafcadio Hearn wrote in his 1901 book A Japanese Miscellany that Japanese poets had created dragonfly haiku "almost as numerous as are the dragonflies themselves in the early autumn." The poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) wrote haiku such as "Crimson pepper pod / add two pairs of wings, and look / darting dragonfly", relating the autumn season to the dragonfly. Hori Bakusui (1718–1783) similarly wrote "Dyed he is with the / Colour of autumnal days, / O red dragonfly."
The poet Lord Tennyson, described a dragonfly splitting its old skin and emerging shining metallic blue like "sapphire mail" in his 1842 poem "The Two Voices", with the lines "An inner impulse rent the veil / Of his old husk: from head to tail / Came out clear plates of sapphire mail."
The novelist H. E. Bates described the rapid, agile flight of dragonflies in his 1937 nonfiction book Down the River:
I saw, once, an endless procession, just over an area of water-lilies, of small sapphire dragonflies, a continuous play of blue gauze over the snowy flowers above the sun-glassy water. It was all confined, in true dragonfly fashion, to one small space. It was a continuous turning and returning, an endless darting, poising, striking and hovering, so swift that it was often lost in sunlight.
In technology
A dragonfly has been genetically modified with light-sensitive "steering neurons" in its nerve cord to create a cyborg-like "DragonflEye". The neurons contain genes like those in the eye to make them sensitive to light. Miniature sensors, a computer chip and a solar panel were fitted in a "backpack" over the insect's thorax in front of its wings. Light is sent down flexible light-pipes named optrodes[c] from the backpack into the nerve cord to give steering commands to the insect. The result is a "micro-aerial vehicle that's smaller, lighter and stealthier than anything else that's manmade".
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org/]
Smiths Happiway - Spencers were the forerunner of the now defunct Shearings Holidays although that former tour operator is now a name only brand after it collapsed during 2020. Smiths bought forty-three of the AEC Reliance/Duple Dominant combination and also had three earlier Reliance's re-bodied with Duple Dominant coach work. This fine example, new in 06/1979, was delivered in the last batch of seven and was the penultimate one in that batch. It is seen here having had a re-fuel when leaving the Stagecoach in Cumbria Lillyhall depot open-day on 24/05/2003.
The camera being a Pentax MZ-M with the film being a Fujichrome Colourslide.
I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 2003.
One of the world's classic airliners, the Boeing 727 was built to carry on the successful legacy of its forerunner, the 707. With a low-altitude, high-speed cruising capability, it provided economic jet travel on short- and medium-range routes and was able to serve smaller airports. Its production run extended from 1963 to 1984, producing a total of 1,832 units that were flown by more than 100 different airlines. It was the world's best-selling passenger jet in its time, until it was surpassed by the next generation of airliners, the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
The 727 is instantly recognizable by its tail-mounted, tri-jet configuration. The key to its short runway performance was its innovative high-lift system of triple-slotted trailing edge flaps, outboard leading edge slats, and inboard leading-edge Krueger flaps. The 727 was the first Boeing jetliner to undergo now-standard fatigue testing, the first to have completely hydraulically powered flight controls, and the first to incorporate an auxiliary power unit (APU) to provide ground power at remote locations. The initial 727-100 model was superseded by the stretched 727-200 in 1965.
Another characteristic 727 feature is its hydraulically actuated aft air-stairs. Although intended for ground use only, this portal entered local aviation lore when hijacker D. B. Cooper used it to parachute out of a Northwest Airlines 727 on November 24, 1971.
The Museum's airplane was the first 727 ever produced. Following the conclusion of Boeing's flight-test program in 1964, it entered regular passenger service with United Airlines. For its donation to the Museum in 1991, UAL repainted the historic aircraft in its original delivery colors. On March 2, 2016, this aircraft made one last flight from the Museum's Restoration Center at Paine Field in Everett, Washington to Boeing Field, where it moved into permanent display in the Aviation Pavilion in the fall of 2016.
A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
..........It consists of a cylinder with images from a set of sequenced drawings.
.....As the cylinder spins the user looks and sees a rapid succession of images producing an illusion of motion.
..........The earliest projected moving images were displayed by using a 'magic lantern' zoetrope.
.....It was this principle of the ' Persistence of vision ' that was the forerunner to the earliest Television pictures.
www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/algarve/faro/index.html
The Ria Formosa lagoon attracted human occupants from the Palaeolithic age until the end of pre-history. During that time a settlement grew up - Ossonoba - which was an important town during the period of Roman occupation and, according to historians, the forerunner of present-day Faro. From the 3rd century onwards and during the Visigothic period it was the site of an Episcopal see. With the advent of Moorish rule in the 8th centurh Ossonoba retained its status as the most important town in the southwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula. In the 9th century it became the capital of a shortlived princedom and was fortified with a ring of defensive walls. At this time the name Santa Maria began to be used instead of Ossonoba. Later on the town was known as Harune, whence its current name, Faro. After a traumatic period attributable to the political and military fragility of the town's Moorish rulers, in 1249 Faro became part of Portuguese territory. thus completing the Christian reconquest of what is now Portugal. In the centuries that followed Faro became a prosperous place, thanks to its geographical position, its safe harbour and growing trade - in salt and agricultural products from the interior of the Algarve - increased by the voyages of exploration known as the Discoveries. At this time the town had a large and active Jewish population: the first Portuguese book was printed locally on the Jewish community's initiative at the end of the 15th century. Recognising the town's growth, in 1499 King Manuel set in motion major changes to the urban. fabric, with the construction of new facilities - a hospital, the Espirito Santo (Holy Spirit) church (later rebuilt and run by the "Misericordia" (charity and welfare institution), a customs house, a slaughterhouse and so on, outside the city walls and along the coast. In 1540 Faro was elevated to the status of a city and in 1577 it became the site of the Episcopal see of the Bishop of the Algarve, who had previously had his throne in Silves. In 1596 it suffered a severe mauling at the hands of raiding soldiers led by the Earl of Essex, Essex's men sacked the city, then set it alight, damaging its fortifi'catious and its churches. The 17th and 18th centuries were a period of expansion for Faro. A new series of battlements was built during the Wars of Restoration (1640-1668), enclosing the urban area and tracts of arable land in a huge semi-circle facing the Ria. The city remained within these confines until the end of the 19th century. After years of steady but unspectacular growth, its expansion has accelerated significantly in the last few decades.
Its elevation to the status of a city, in 1540, and the transfer. in 1577, of the Episcopal see which had until that point been located in Silves, were important steps in Faro's history. Its steady, growth and its importance in the regional context were such that it was chosen as capital of the Algarve province at the time of the administrative reorganisation which took place in the 19th century. The last few decades have made a decisive contribution to Faro's position, injecting new economic life and confirming its vocation as a service centre for the whole of the Algarve. The construction of an international airport on the outskirts of the city in 1965 made Faro a hub for tourist traffic across the region. Other items of infrastructure uvhich have had a positive impact on the economic, social and cultural life of the city are the University of the Algarve and the Conservatorio Regional (Music Regional College), both of which have their headquarters in Faro and attract students from the rest of the region and from other parts of Portugal, and the district hospital. With its rich artistic heritage and many museums, hotels, restaurants and other facilities, not to mention the many attractions offered by the surrounding area, from the long beaches of Faro, Farol and Culatra Islands to the important Roman ruins at Milreu, Faro is also a city, with a strong vocation for tourism.
"War takes. But it leaves us with legends; it leaves us with heroes - and heroes never die!"
A quote from a Halo : Combat Evolved Anniversary Living Monument live action trailer. This is my first "dramatic" shot with the Nikon D5100, I decided to sacrifice the resolution benefits to implement the UNSC Infinity.
Drents Museum, Assen.
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Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While he was most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Both in his urban and rural scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern American life.
Hopper was born in 1882 in Upper Nyack, New York, a yacht-building center on the Hudson River north of New York City. He was one of two children of a comfortably well-to-do family. His parents, of mostly Dutch ancestry, were Elizabeth Griffiths Smith and Garret Henry Hopper, a dry-goods merchant. Although not so successful as his forebears, Garrett provided well for his two children with considerable help from his wife's inheritance. He retired at age forty-nine. Edward and his only sister Marion attended both private and public schools. They were raised in a strict Baptist home. His father had a mild nature, and the household was dominated by women: Hopper's mother, grandmother, sister, and maid.
His birthplace and boyhood home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. It is now operated as the Edward Hopper House Art Center. It serves as a nonprofit community cultural center featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, performances, and special events.
Hopper was a good student in grade school and showed talent in drawing at age five. He readily absorbed his father's intellectual tendencies and love of French and Russian cultures. He also demonstrated his mother's artistic heritage. Hopper's parents encouraged his art and kept him amply supplied with materials, instructional magazines, and illustrated books. By his teens, he was working in pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor, and oil—drawing from nature as well as making political cartoons. In 1895, he created his first signed oil painting, Rowboat in Rocky Cove. It shows his early interest in nautical subjects.
In his early self-portraits, Hopper tended to represent himself as skinny, ungraceful, and homely. Though a tall and quiet teenager, his prankish sense of humor found outlet in his art, sometimes in depictions of immigrants or of women dominating men in comic situations. Later in life, he mostly depicted women as the figures in his paintings. In high school, he dreamed of being a naval architect, but after graduation he declared his intention to follow an art career. Hopper's parents insisted that he study commercial art to have a reliable means of income. In developing his self-image and individualistic philosophy of life, Hopper was influenced by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He later said, "I admire him greatly...I read him over and over again."
Hopper began art studies with a correspondence course in 1899. Soon he transferred to the New York School of Art and Design, the forerunner of Parsons The New School for Design. There he studied for six years, with teachers including William Merritt Chase, who instructed him in oil painting. Early on, Hopper modeled his style after Chase and French Impressionist masters Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Sketching from live models proved a challenge and a shock for the conservatively raised Hopper.
Another of his teachers, artist Robert Henri, taught life class. Henri encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world". He also advised his students, "It isn't the subject that counts but what you feel about it" and "Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life." In this manner, Henri influenced Hopper, as well as notable future artists George Bellows and Rockwell Kent. He encouraged them to imbue a modern spirit in their work. Some artists in Henri's circle, including John Sloan, became members of "The Eight", also known as the Ashcan School of American Art. Hopper's first existing oil painting to hint at his famous interiors was Solitary Figure in a Theater (c. 1904). During his student years, he also painted dozens of nudes, still life studies, landscapes, and portraits, including his self-portraits.
In 1905, Hopper landed a part-time job with an advertising agency, where he created cover designs for trade magazines. Hopper came to detest illustration. He was bound to it by economic necessity until the mid-1920s. He temporarily escaped by making three trips to Europe, each centered in Paris, ostensibly to study the emerging art scene there. In fact, however, he studied alone and seemed mostly unaffected by the new currents in art. Later he said that he "didn't remember having heard of Picasso at all." He was highly impressed by Rembrandt, particularly his Night Watch, which he said was "the most wonderful thing of his I have seen; it's past belief in its reality."
Hopper began painting urban and architectural scenes in a dark palette. Then he shifted to the lighter palette of the Impressionists before returning to the darker palette with which he was comfortable. Hopper later said, "I got over that and later things done in Paris were more the kind of things I do now." Hopper spent much of his time drawing street and café scenes, and going to the theater and opera. Unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, Hopper was attracted to realist art. Later, he admitted to no European influences other than French engraver Charles Méryon, whose moody Paris scenes Hopper imitated.
After returning from his last European trip, Hopper rented a studio in New York City, where he struggled to define his own style. Reluctantly, he returned to illustration to support himself. Being a freelancer, Hopper was forced to solicit for projects, and had to knock on the doors of magazine and agency offices to find business. His painting languished: "it's hard for me to decide what I want to paint. I go for months without finding it sometimes. It comes slowly." His fellow illustrator, Walter Tittle, described Hopper's depressed emotional state in sharper terms, seeing his friend "suffering...from long periods of unconquerable inertia, sitting for days at a time before his easel in helpless unhappiness, unable to raise a hand to break the spell."
In 1912, Hopper traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to seek some inspiration and made his first outdoor paintings in America. He painted Squam Light, the first of many lighthouse paintings to come.
In 1913, at the famous Armory Show, Hopper earned $250 when he sold his first painting, Sailing (1911), which he had painted over an earlier self-portrait. Hopper was thirty-one, and although he hoped his first sale would lead to others in short order, his career would not catch on for many more years. He continued to participate in group exhibitions at smaller venues, such as the MacDowell Club of New York. Shortly after his father's death that same year, Hopper moved to the 3 Washington Square North apartment in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, where he would live for the rest of his life.
The following year he received a commission to make some movie posters and handle publicity for a movie company. Although he did not like the illustration work, Hopper was a lifelong devotee of the cinema and the theatre, both of which he treated as subjects for his paintings. Each form influenced his compositional methods.
At an impasse over his oil paintings, in 1915 Hopper turned to etching. By 1923 he had produced most of his approximately 70 works in this medium, many of urban scenes of both Paris and New York. He also produced some posters for the war effort, as well as continuing with occasional commercial projects. When he could, Hopper did some outdoor watercolors on visits to New England, especially at the art colonies at Ogunquit, and Monhegan Island.
During the early 1920s his etchings began to receive public recognition. They expressed some of his later themes, as in Night on the El Train (couples in silence), Evening Wind (solitary female), and The Catboat (simple nautical scene). Two notable oil paintings of this time were New York Interior (1921) and New York Restaurant (1922). He also painted two of his many "window" paintings to come: Girl at Sewing Machine and Moonlight Interior, both of which show a figure (clothed or nude) near a window of an apartment viewed as gazing out or from the point of view from the outside looking in.
Although these were frustrating years, Hopper gained some recognition. In 1918, Hopper was awarded the U.S. Shipping Board Prize for his war poster, "Smash the Hun." He participated in three exhibitions: in 1917 with the Society of Independent Artists, in January 1920 (a one-man exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club, which was the precursor to the Whitney Museum), and in 1922 (again with the Whitney Studio Club). In 1923, Hopper received two awards for his etchings: the Logan Prize from the Chicago Society of Etchers, and the W. A. Bryan Prize.
By 1923, Hopper's slow climb finally produced a breakthrough. He re-encountered Josephine Nivison, an artist and former student of Robert Henri, during a summer painting trip in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They were opposites: she was short, open, gregarious, sociable, and liberal, while he was tall, secretive, shy, quiet, introspective, and conservative. They married a year later. She remarked famously, "Sometimes talking to Eddie is just like dropping a stone in a well, except that it doesn't thump when it hits bottom." She subordinated her career to his and shared his reclusive life style. The rest of their lives revolved around their spare walk-up apartment in the city and their summers in South Truro on Cape Cod. She managed his career and his interviews, was his primary model, and was his life companion.
With Nivison's help, six of Hopper's Gloucester watercolors were admitted to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 1923. One of them, The Mansard Roof, was purchased by the museum for its permanent collection for the sum of $100. The critics generally raved about his work; one stated, "What vitality, force and directness! Observe what can be done with the homeliest subject." Hopper sold all his watercolors at a one-man show the following year and finally decided to put illustration behind him.
The artist had demonstrated his ability to transfer his attraction to Parisian architecture to American urban and rural architecture. According to Boston Museum of Fine Arts curator Carol Troyen, "Hopper really liked the way these houses, with their turrets and towers and porches and mansard roofs and ornament cast wonderful shadows. He always said that his favorite thing was painting sunlight on the side of a house."
At forty-one, Hopper received further recognition for his work. He continued to harbor bitterness about his career, later turning down appearances and awards. With his financial stability secured by steady sales, Hopper would live a simple, stable life and continue creating art in his distinctive style for four more decades.
His Two on the Aisle (1927) sold for a personal record $1,500, enabling Hopper to purchase an automobile, which he used to make field trips to remote areas of New England. In 1929, he produced Chop Suey and Railroad Sunset. The following year, art patron Stephen Clark donated House by the Railroad (1925) to the Museum of Modern Art, the first oil painting that it acquired for its collection. Hopper painted his last self-portrait in oil around 1930. Although Josephine posed for many of his paintings, she sat for only one formal oil portrait by her husband, Jo Painting (1936).
Hopper fared better than many other artists during the Great Depression. His stature took a sharp rise in 1931 when major museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, paid thousands of dollars for his works. He sold 30 paintings that year, including 13 watercolors. The following year he participated in the first Whitney Annual, and he continued to exhibit in every annual at the museum for the rest of his life. In 1933, the Museum of Modern Art gave Hopper his first large-scale retrospective.
In 1930, the Hoppers rented a cottage on Cape Cod in South Truro, Massachusetts. They returned to South Truro every summer for the rest of their lives, building a summer house there in 1934. From there, they would take driving trips into other areas when Edward needed to search for fresh material to paint. In the summers of 1937 and '38, the Hoppers spent extended sojourns on Wagon Wheels Farm in South Royalton, Vermont, where Edward painted a series of watercolors along the White River. These scenes are atypical among Hopper's mature works, as most are "pure" landscapes, devoid of architecture or human figures. First Branch of the White River (1938), now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the most well-known of Hopper's Vermont landscapes.
Hopper was very productive through the 1930s and early 1940s, producing among many important works New York Movie (1939), Girlie Show (1941), Nighthawks (1942), Hotel Lobby (1943), and Morning in a City (1944). During the late 1940s, however, he suffered a period of relative inactivity. He admitted, "I wish I could paint more. I get sick of reading and going to the movies." During the next two decades, his health faltered, and he had several prostate surgeries and other medical problems. But, in the 1950s and early 1960s, he created several more major works, including First Row Orchestra (1951); as well as Morning Sun and Hotel by a Railroad, both in 1952; and Intermission in 1963.
Hopper died in his studio near Washington Square in New York City on May 15, 1967. He was buried two days later in the family's grave at Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York, his place of birth. His wife died ten months later.
His wife bequeathed their joint collection of more than three thousand works to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Other significant paintings by Hopper are held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Always reluctant to discuss himself and his art, Hopper simply said, "The whole answer is there on the canvas." Hopper was stoic and fatalistic—a quiet introverted man with a gentle sense of humor and a frank manner. Hopper was someone drawn to an emblematic, anti-narrative symbolism, who "painted short isolated moments of configuration, saturated with suggestion". His silent spaces and uneasy encounters "touch us where we are most vulnerable",[ and have "a suggestion of melancholy, that melancholy being enacted". His sense of color revealed him as a pure painter as he "turned the Puritan into the purist, in his quiet canvasses where blemishes and blessings balance". According to critic Lloyd Goodrich, he was "an eminently native painter, who more than any other was getting more of the quality of America into his canvases".
Conservative in politics and social matters (Hopper asserted for example that "artists' lives should be written by people very close to them"), he accepted things as they were and displayed a lack of idealism. Cultured and sophisticated, he was well-read, and many of his paintings show figures reading. He was generally good company and unperturbed by silences, though sometimes taciturn, grumpy, or detached. He was always serious about his art and the art of others, and when asked would return frank opinions.
Hopper's most systematic declaration of his philosophy as an artist was given in a handwritten note, entitled "Statement", submitted in 1953 to the journal, Reality:
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the human intellect for a private imaginative conception.
The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design.
The term life used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it.
Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again become great.
Though Hopper claimed that he didn't consciously embed psychological meaning in his paintings, he was deeply interested in Freud and the power of the subconscious mind. He wrote in 1939, "So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect."
Although he is best known for his oil paintings, Hopper initially achieved recognition for his watercolors and he also produced some commercially successful etchings. Additionally, his notebooks contain high-quality pen and pencil sketches, which were never meant for public viewing.
Hopper paid particular attention to geometrical design and the careful placement of human figures in proper balance with their environment. He was a slow and methodical artist; as he wrote, "It takes a long time for an idea to strike. Then I have to think about it for a long time. I don't start painting until I have it all worked out in my mind. I'm all right when I get to the easel". He often made preparatory sketches to work out his carefully calculated compositions. He and his wife kept a detailed ledger of their works noting such items as "sad face of woman unlit", "electric light from ceiling", and "thighs cooler".
For New York Movie (1939), Hopper demonstrates his thorough preparation with more than 53 sketches of the theater interior and the figure of the pensive usherette.
The effective use of light and shadow to create mood also is central to Hopper's methods. Bright sunlight (as an emblem of insight or revelation), and the shadows it casts, also play symbolically powerful roles in Hopper paintings such as Early Sunday Morning (1930), Summertime (1943), Seven A.M. (1948), and Sun in an Empty Room (1963). His use of light and shadow effects have been compared to the cinematography of film noir.
Although a realist painter, Hopper's "soft" realism simplified shapes and details. He used saturated color to heighten contrast and create mood.
Hopper derived his subject matter from two primary sources: one, the common features of American life (gas stations, motels, restaurants, theaters, railroads, and street scenes) and its inhabitants; and two, seascapes and rural landscapes. Regarding his style, Hopper defined himself as "an amalgam of many races" and not a member of any school, particularly the "Ashcan School".[69] Once Hopper achieved his mature style, his art remained consistent and self-contained, in spite of the numerous art trends that came and went during his long career.
Hopper's seascapes fall into three main groups: pure landscapes of rocks, sea, and beach grass; lighthouses and farmhouses; and sailboats. Sometimes he combined these elements. Most of these paintings depict strong light and fair weather; he showed little interest in snow or rain scenes, or in seasonal color changes. He painted the majority of the pure seascapes in the period between 1916 and 1919 on Monhegan Island. Hopper's The Long Leg (1935) is a nearly all-blue sailing picture with the simplest of elements, while his Ground Swell (1939) is more complex and depicts a group of youngsters out for a sail, a theme reminiscent of Winslow Homer's iconic Breezing Up (1876).
Urban architecture and cityscapes also were major subjects for Hopper. He was fascinated with the American urban scene, "our native architecture with its hideous beauty, its fantastic roofs, pseudo-gothic, French Mansard, Colonial, mongrel or what not, with eye-searing color or delicate harmonies of faded paint, shouldering one another along interminable streets that taper off into swamps or dump heaps."
In 1925, he produced House by the Railroad. This classic work depicts an isolated Victorian wood mansion, partly obscured by the raised embankment of a railroad. It marked Hopper's artistic maturity. Lloyd Goodrich praised the work as "one of the most poignant and desolating pieces of realism." The work is the first of a series of stark rural and urban scenes that uses sharp lines and large shapes, played upon by unusual lighting to capture the lonely mood of his subjects. Although critics and viewers interpret meaning and mood in these cityscapes, Hopper insisted "I was more interested in the sunlight on the buildings and on the figures than any symbolism." As if to prove the point, his late painting Sun in an Empty Room (1963) is a pure study of sunlight.
Most of Hopper's figure paintings focus on the subtle interaction of human beings with their environment—carried out with solo figures, couples, or groups. His primary emotional themes are solitude, loneliness, regret, boredom, and resignation. He expresses the emotions in various environments, including the office, in public places, in apartments, on the road, or on vacation. As if he were creating stills for a movie or tableaux in a play, Hopper positioned his characters as if they were captured just before or just after the climax of a scene.
Hopper's solitary figures are mostly women—dressed, semi-clad, and nude—often reading or looking out a window, or in the workplace. In the early 1920s, Hopper painted his first such images Girl at Sewing Machine (1921), New York Interior (another woman sewing) (1921), and Moonlight Interior (a nude getting into bed) (1923). Automat (1927) and Hotel Room (1931), however, are more representative of his mature style, emphasizing the solitude more overtly.
As Hopper scholar, Gail Levin, wrote of Hotel Room:
The spare vertical and diagonal bands of color and sharp electric shadows create a concise and intense drama in the night...Combining poignant subject matter with such a powerful formal arrangement, Hopper's composition is pure enough to approach an almost abstract sensibility, yet layered with a poetic meaning for the observer.
Hopper's Room in New York (1932) and Cape Cod Evening (1939) are prime examples of his "couple" paintings. In the first, a young couple appear alienated and uncommunicative—he reading the newspaper while she idles by the piano. The viewer takes on the role of a voyeur, as if looking with a telescope through the window of the apartment to spy on the couple's lack of intimacy. In the latter painting, an older couple with little to say to each other, are playing with their dog, whose own attention is drawn away from his masters.[80] Hopper takes the couple theme to a more ambitious level with Excursion into Philosophy (1959). A middle-aged man sits dejectedly on the edge of a bed. Beside him lies an open book and a partially clad woman. A shaft of light illuminates the floor in front of him. Jo Hopper noted in their log book, "[T]he open book is Plato, reread too late".
Levin interprets the painting:
Plato's philosopher, in search of the real and the true, must turn away from this transitory realm and contemplate the eternal Forms and Ideas. The pensive man in Hopper's painting is positioned between the lure of the earthly domain, figured by the woman, and the call of the higher spiritual domain, represented by the ethereal lightfall. The pain of thinking about this choice and its consequences, after reading Plato all night, is evident. He is paralysed by the fervent inner labour of the melancholic.
In Office at Night (1940), another "couple" painting, Hopper creates a psychological puzzle. The painting shows a man focusing on his work papers, while nearby his attractive female secretary pulls a file. Several studies for the painting show how Hopper experimented with the positioning of the two figures, perhaps to heighten the eroticism and the tension. Hopper presents the viewer with the possibilities that the man is either truly uninterested in the woman's appeal or that he is working hard to ignore her. Another interesting aspect of the painting is how Hopper employs three light sources, from a desk lamp, through a window and indirect light from above. Hopper went on to make several "office" pictures, but none with a sensual undercurrent.
The best-known of Hopper's paintings, Nighthawks (1942), is one of his paintings of groups. It shows customers sitting at the counter of an all-night diner. The shapes and diagonals are carefully constructed. The viewpoint is cinematic—from the sidewalk, as if the viewer were approaching the restaurant. The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the dark night outside, enhancing the mood and subtle emotion.[82] As in many Hopper paintings, the interaction is minimal. The restaurant depicted was inspired by one in Greenwich Village. Both Hopper and his wife posed for the figures, and Jo Hopper gave the painting its title. The inspiration for the picture may have come from Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers", which Hopper greatly admired, or from the more philosophical "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place".[83] In keeping with the title of his painting, Hopper later said, Nighthawks has more to do with the possibility of predators in the night than with loneliness.
His second most recognizable painting after Nighthawks is another urban painting, Early Sunday Morning (originally called Seventh Avenue Shops), which shows an empty street scene in sharp side light, with a fire hydrant and a barber pole as stand-ins for human figures. Originally Hopper intended to put figures in the upstairs windows but left them empty to heighten the feeling of desolation.
Hopper's rural New England scenes, such as Gas (1940), are no less meaningful. Gas represents "a different, equally clean, well-lighted refuge ... ke[pt] open for those in need as they navigate the night, traveling their own miles to go before they sleep." The work presents a fusion of several Hopper themes: the solitary figure, the melancholy of dusk, and the lonely road.
Hopper approaches Surrealism with Rooms by the Sea (1951), where an open door gives a view of the ocean, without an apparent ladder or steps and no indication of a beach.
After his student years, Hopper's nudes were all women. Unlike past artists who painted the female nude to glorify the female form and to highlight female eroticism, Hopper's nudes are solitary women who are psychologically exposed. One audacious exception is Girlie Show (1941), where a red-headed strip-tease queen strides confidently across a stage to the accompaniment of the musicians in the pit. Girlie Show was inspired by Hopper's visit to a burlesque show a few days earlier. Hopper's wife, as usual, posed for him for the painting, and noted in her diary, "Ed beginning a new canvas—a burlesque queen doing a strip tease—and I posing without a stitch on in front of the stove—nothing but high heels in a lottery dance pose."
Hopper's portraits and self-portraits were relatively few after his student years.[91] Hopper did produce a commissioned "portrait" of a house, The MacArthurs' Home (1939), where he faithfully details the Victorian architecture of the home of actress Helen Hayes. She reported later, "I guess I never met a more misanthropic, grumpy individual in my life." Hopper grumbled throughout the project and never again accepted a commission.[92] Hopper also painted Portrait of Orleans (1950), a "portrait" of the Cape Cod town from its main street.
Though very interested in the American Civil War and Mathew Brady's battlefield photographs, Hopper made only two historical paintings. Both depicted soldiers on their way to Gettysburg. Also rare among his themes are paintings showing action. The best example of an action painting is Bridle Path (1939), but Hopper's struggle with the proper anatomy of the horses may have discouraged him from similar attempts.
Hopper's final oil painting, Two Comedians (1966), painted one year before his death, focuses on his love of the theater. Two French pantomime actors, one male and one female, both dressed in bright white costumes, take their bow in front of a darkened stage. Jo Hopper confirmed that her husband intended the figures to suggest their taking their life's last bows together as husband and wife.
Hopper's paintings have often been seen by others as having a narrative or thematic content that the artist may not have intended. Much meaning can be added to a painting by its title, but the titles of Hopper's paintings were sometimes chosen by others, or were selected by Hopper and his wife in a way that makes it unclear whether they have any real connection with the artist's meaning. For example, Hopper once told an interviewer that he was "fond of Early Sunday Morning... but it wasn't necessarily Sunday. That word was tacked on later by someone else."
The tendency to read thematic or narrative content into Hopper's paintings, that Hopper had not intended, extended even to his wife. When Jo Hopper commented on the figure in Cape Cod Morning "It's a woman looking out to see if the weather's good enough to hang out her wash," Hopper retorted, "Did I say that? You're making it Norman Rockwell. From my point of view she's just looking out the window." Another example of the same phenomenon is recorded in a 1948 article in Time:
Hopper's Summer Evening, a young couple talking in the harsh light of a cottage porch, is inescapably romantic, but Hopper was hurt by one critic's suggestion that it would do for an illustration in "any woman's magazine." Hopper had the painting in the back of his head "for 20 years and I never thought of putting the figures in until I actually started last summer. Why any art director would tear the picture apart. The figures were not what interested me; it was the light streaming down, and the night all around."
Place in American art
In focusing primarily on quiet moments, very rarely showing action, Hopper employed a form of realism adopted by another leading American realist, Andrew Wyeth, but Hopper's technique was completely different from Wyeth's hyper-detailed style.[46] In league with some of his contemporaries, Hopper shared his urban sensibility with John Sloan and George Bellows, but avoided their overt action and violence. Where Joseph Stella and Georgia O'Keeffe glamorized the monumental structures of the city, Hopper reduced them to everyday geometrics and he depicted the pulse of the city as desolate and dangerous rather than "elegant or seductive".
Charles Burchfield, whom Hopper admired and to whom he was compared, said of Hopper, "he achieves such a complete verity that you can read into his interpretations of houses and conceptions of New York life any human implications you wish." He also attributed Hopper's success to his "bold individualism. ... In him we have regained that sturdy American independence which Thomas Eakins gave us, but which for a time was lost." Hopper considered this a high compliment since he considered Eakins the greatest American painter.
Hopper scholar, Deborah Lyons, writes, "Our own moments of revelation are often mirrored, transcendent, in his work. Once seen, Hopper's interpretations exist in our consciousness in tandem with our own experience. We forever see a certain type of house as a Hopper house, invested perhaps with a mystery that Hopper implanted in our own vision." Hopper's paintings highlight the seemingly mundane and typical scenes in our everyday life and give them cause for epiphany. In this way Hopper's art takes the gritty American landscape and lonely gas stations and creates within them a sense of beautiful anticipation.
Although compared to his contemporary Norman Rockwell in terms of subject matter, Hopper did not like the comparison. Hopper considered himself more subtle, less illustrative, and certainly not sentimental. Hopper also rejected comparisons with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton stating "I think the American Scene painters caricatured America. I always wanted to do myself."
Hopper's influence on the art world and pop culture is undeniable. Though he had no formal students, many artists have cited him as an influence, including Willem de Kooning, Jim Dine, and Mark Rothko.[69] An illustration of Hopper's influence is Rothko's early work Composition I (c. 1931), which is a direct paraphrase of Hopper's Chop Suey.
Hopper's cinematic compositions and dramatic use of light and dark has made him a favorite among filmmakers. For example, House by the Railroad is reported to have heavily influenced the iconic house in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho.[108] The same painting has also been cited as being an influence on the home in the Terrence Malick film Days of Heaven. The 1981 film Pennies from Heaven includes a tableau vivant of Nighthawks, with the lead actors in the places of the diners. German director Wim Wenders also cites Hopper influence. His 1997 film The End of Violence also incorporates a tableau vivant of Nighthawks, recreated by actors. Noted surrealist horror film director Dario Argento went so far as to recreate the diner and the patrons in Nighthawks as part of a set for his 1976 film Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso). Ridley Scott has cited the same painting as a visual inspiration for Blade Runner. To establish the lighting of scenes in the 2002 film Road to Perdition, director Sam Mendes drew from the paintings of Hopper as a source of inspiration, particularly New York Movie.
Homages to Nighthawks featuring cartoon characters or famous pop culture icons such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are often found in poster stores and gift shops. The cable television channel Turner Classic Movies sometimes runs animated clips based on Hopper paintings prior to airing its films. Hopper's painting New York Movie was featured in the television show Dead Like Me; the girl standing in the corner resembles Daisy Adair. In a 1998 episode of That '70s Show titled "Drive In," Red and Kitty settle in at a diner and create a reproduction of Nighthawks.
Musical influences include singer/songwriter Tom Waits's 1975 live-in-the-studio album titled Nighthawks at the Diner, after the painting. In 1993, Madonna was inspired sufficiently by Hopper's 1941 painting Girlie Show that she named her world tour after it and incorporated many of the theatrical elements and mood of the painting into the show. In 2004, British guitarist John Squire (formerly of The Stone Roses) released a concept album based on Hopper's work entitled Marshall's House. Each song on the album is inspired by, and shares its title with, a painting by Hopper. Canadian rock group The Weakerthans released their album Reunion Tour in 2007 featuring two songs inspired by and named after Hopper paintings, "Sun in an Empty Room", and "Night Windows", and have also referenced him in songs such as "Hospital Vespers". Hopper's Compartment C, Car 293 inspired Polish composer Paweł Szymański's Compartment 2, Car 7 for violin, viola, cello and vibraphone (2003), as well as Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine's song Compartiment C Voiture 293 Edward Hopper 1938 (2011). Hopper's work has influenced multiple recordings by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Early Sunday Morning was the inspiration for the sleeve of Crush (1985). The same band's 2013 single "Night Café" was influenced by Nighthawks and mentions Hopper by name. Seven of his paintings are referenced in the lyrics.[110]
Each of the twelve chapters in New Zealander Chris Bell's 2004 novel Liquidambar (UKA Press/PABD) interprets one of Hopper's paintings to create a surreal detective story.
Hopper's influence reached the Japanese animation world in the dark cyberpunk thriller Texhnolyze. His artwork was used as the basis for the surface world in Texhnolyze as well as for much of the 2008 animated film Bolt (Wikipedia).
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1219. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The Marx Brothers was the name for a group of American-Jewish comedians from the first half of the 20th century who were actually brothers. Their career started in theatre, but they became world-famous through their films. They are known for their wild, anarchic and often surrealist humour. Their jokes consist of slapstick, but also puns and intelligent dialogue. With their rebellious jokes, they were the forerunners of generations of anti-sentimental comedians. Five brothers together formed The Marx Brothers, even though the five of them never actually performed at the same time: Harpo, Chico, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo.
The eldest brother, Chico (1887-1961) was born Leonard Marx. Manfred was actually the eldest, but he died as a child. Chico was the one who decided to make musical comedies with his other brothers. At the time, he had learnt an Italian accent to convince any anti-Semites in the neighbourhood that he was Italian and not a Jew. This accent, along with his talent as a piano player, became one of his trademarks. In the films, he usually fulfilled the role of a sly and shady con man, the confidant of Harpo, a confident pianist and the sceptical assistant of Groucho.
Harpo (1888-1964) was born Adolph and changed his name to Arthur in WWI because he found the name too German. As an actor, Harpo played the role of a mute, who never speaks but expresses himself through sign language, whistling and using his horn. Like a cross between a child and a wild beast, he sets everything in motion, harassing everyone, pulling the most peculiar things out of his coat (such as a candle burning on two sides, a coiled rope, a pin-up poster, etc.), and chasing women with his horn. His pseudonym "Harpo" was derived from the fact that he played the harp, for which there was a musical interlude in almost every film.
Groucho (1890-1977) was born Julius Henry Marx. His trademarks were his grin, thick cigar, waddling gait and sarcastic remarks, insults and puns. In the films, he was constantly trying to get money or women, talking everyone under the table with his witty and intelligent remarks. He was also a singer and some of his songs have become classics, such as 'Lydia the Tattooed Lady'.
Gummo (1892-1977) was born Milton and was the least-known Marx Brother. He was the one who first performed with Groucho, but before the big Broadway success came he had stopped acting. For years, he was his brother's manager.
Zeppo (1901-1979) was born Herbert Marx and was the youngest of the Marx Brothers. He took over the role of Gummo when the latter quit. Zeppo was the romantic declarer. Though he could take on more versatile roles, he was typecast as the most serious of the four.
The Marx Brothers were the five surviving sons of Sam and Minnie Marx. The family lived in Yorkville on New York's Upper East Side, a neighbourhood sandwiched between the Irish-German and Italian quarters. Their career already began at the beginning of the century in vaudeville shows, with which their maternal uncle, Al Shean, had already been successful. Groucho was the first to embark on a career on stage, but initially with very little success. Their mother and sister also appeared on stage with their sons at times. However, the focus soon shifted from music and singing with humorous segues to comedy with musical interludes. The different roles of musicians and comedians crystallised relatively early. While Chico developed the stereotype of the womaniser with an Italian accent who was always chasing the chicks, Groucho dropped his accent as a German during the First World War due to a lack of popularity. Harpo remained speechless on stage, as he had the greatest successes playing his jokes as a mime in a red or, in films, blond curly wig, or playing his grandmother's old harp. A classroom sketch in which Groucho tried to teach his brothers evolved into the comedy show 'I'll Say She Is which became their first success on Bradway and in England. This was followed by two more Broadway hits: 'The Cocoanuts' and 'Animal Crackers'. The Marx Brothers' shows became popular at a time when Hollywood was experiencing the transition from silent film to talkies. The brothers signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and thus launched their film career.
The last two Broadway shows of The Marx Brothers became their first films, The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey, 1929) and Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930). Their next film was Money Business (Norman Z. McLeod, 1931). Between 1932 and 1933, a total of 26 episodes of the radio show 'Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel' were made, with Groucho voicing the lawyer Waldorf T. Flywheel and Chico voicing his sidekick Emmanuel Ravelli. The first three episodes were broadcast under the title 'Beagle, Shyster & Beagle'. The title was then changed after a New York lawyer named "Beagle" threatened to sue. Some of the dialogue from the radio broadcasts was later used in the Marx Brothers films. Their most successful film of the early period was Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod, 1932), a satire on the American college system. But Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933), generally considered their masterpiece, had much less success. It marked their break with Paramount. Zeppo, who always played serious roles, stopped making films after this. The Marx Brothers' first five films are generally considered their best, expressing their surrealist and anarchic humour in its purest form. The three remaining brothers moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and changed the formula of their subsequent films. Their remaining films were given romantic plots and serious musical interludes, often intended as resting points between the often hilarious comic sketches. In A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935), a satire on the opera world, the brothers help two young singers in love. The film was very successful and was followed by the equally popular A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 1937), where they kicked up a fuss at a race track. Several less memorable films followed until 1941. After the war, two more films A Night in Casablanca (Archie Mayo, 1946) and Love Happy (David Miller, 1949) followed to pay off Chico's gambling debts. This was followed by the mediocre film The Story of Mankind (Irwin Allen, 1957), and a television special The Incredible Jewel Robbery (1959). These productions were already interludes, while each brother had already picked up a career of his own. Chico and Harpo continued on stage and Groucho had started a career as a radio and television entertainer. With his television and radio show 'You Bet Your Life', he became one of the most popular show hosts of the 1950s in the USA. The first episodes of the show were still broadcast live, as was customary at the time. But because Groucho's unbridled wordplay caused headaches for those in charge of the show, they deviated from this for later episodes and the programme was broadcast as a recording. He also wrote a number of books. Gummo and Zeppo ran a theatre agency together. A final film project planned for 1960, starring the Marx Brothers once again and directed by Billy Wilder, did not materialise due to Chico's poor health. It was to be an anti-war satire in the style of Duck Soup. Even Groucho, who at the time was no longer very interested in further Marx Brothers films, is said to have been enthusiastic about the project because he considered Billy Wilder to be one of the best directors.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and German) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Other forerunners to what has become CSX. ACL #501 is an EMD E-3 Unit that saw duty on the crack passenger train The Champion. 8016 is ex Clinchfield #800 and F3 unit.
"She smiles, for though they have bound her, she cannot be a prisoner."
-Thomas Merton, Hagia Sophia, 1962
“I had a pious thought, but I am not going to write it down."
-Thomas Merton
/****************************************************************************/
If you seek a heavenly light I,
Solitude, am your professor!
I go before you into emptiness,
Raise strange suns for your new mornings,
Opening the windows Of your innermost apartment.
When I, loneliness,
give my special signal Follow my silence,
follow where I beckon!
Fear not, little beast,
little spirit (Thou word and animal) I,
Solitude, am angel And have prayed in your name.
Look at the empty,
wealthy night The pilgrim moon!
I am the appointed hour,
The “now” that cuts Time like a blade.
I am the unexpected flash Beyond “yes,” beyond “no,”
The forerunner of the Word of God.
Follow my ways and I will lead you To golden-haired suns,
Logos and music,
blameless joys,
Innocent of questions And beyond answers:
For I, Solitude, am thine own self:
I, Nothingness, am thy All.
I, Silence, am thy Amen!
(Merton-Emblems of a Season of Fury, 1963)
“The most amazing, most deadly machine science could invent. The nation owning it would rule the world. [Forerunner of the Death Star]
“This machine, built in an orbit 10,000 miles above the earth, would be a second moon, obeying the same basic laws. Like the moon it would circle the earth on a steady path. Engineers have already worked out plans for building and operating such a devastator as this. It would by the world’s most powerful weapon. No nation could go to war with the threat of instant destruction of their cities by concentrated sunlight beams. It would eliminate war. But its uses would be beneficial in other ways. Weather could be controlled. Cities could be sunlit at night. Icebergs could be melted. Sun-power plants could be operated. It would be the perfect observatory. It would be a boon to space travel, as a landing station. It could communicate with ships and planets far away by light rays.” [Accompanying description]
Thankfully, a “Space Devastator” was never built. The closest we ever came to it was President Ronald Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.” It was a plan that read like science fiction: A system armed with an array of space-based X-ray lasers. The system would detect and deflect any nukes headed our way using concentrated laser beams. Over the course of 10 years (1983-1993), the government spent up to $30 billion on developing the concept, but the futuristic program remained just that – futuristic. It was formally scrapped by President Bill Clinton. [Source: History.com]
[Note: When the "Space Devastator" becomes feasible, you bet someone will want to build it.]
Minolta 9000 with very old Ilford XP2 400 ( Forerunner of 'XP2 400 SUPER' ) Second cut length of the film. I processed longer in C41 this time. OUT OF FOCUS as 'Auto-Focus FAILED' BUT it may be 'Of Interest ----- ' Ha ha ! Minolta AF Zoom 35-70mm f3.5-4.5
Strongheart was a real-life German Shepherd who came from Germany and became a popular movie star during the silent era. He was the forerunner of such dogs as Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin. The 3 of them are the only animals with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
LaVern La Rue recalls her early days in films during the Jazz Age:
LaVern: "Some of the things performers used to have to do for publicity would make me wish I could say--illogically--even as I was doing them, 'What happens here stays here.' Yet, at the same time, certain ridiculous things I was a part of were also fun, in an absurd way."
"For instance, soon after I started making films, the studio had me go to a very ritzy hotel in New York to appear with Strongheart, who was there on a publicity tour. The publicity angle was that photographers would be taking pictures of him sitting on a sofa in a room at the Waldorf Astoria along with "Mrs. Strongheart." The photos would make it seem as if we were in the happiest place on earth, as in a fairy tale. Actually, they would go on to have puppies who would grow up and appear in small roles in films. I doubt, however, that the Mr. and Mrs. ever got a marriage certificate!"*
*On YouTube, there's a short film about the real Strongheart that shows him and Mrs. Strongheart sitting on the sofa in a hotel room.
American postcard by Ludlow Sales, New York, N.Y, no. FC-105-50. Photo: MGM. The Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 1935).
The Marx Brothers was the name for a group of American-Jewish comedians from the first half of the 20th century who were actually brothers. Their career started in theatre, but they became world-famous through their films. They are known for their wild, anarchic and often surrealist humour. Their jokes consist of slapstick, but also puns and intelligent dialogue. With their rebellious jokes, they were the forerunners of generations of anti-sentimental comedians. Five brothers together formed The Marx Brothers, even though the five of them never actually performed at the same time: Harpo, Chico, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo.
The eldest brother, Chico (1887-1961) was born Leonard Marx. Manfred was actually the eldest, but he died as a child. Chico was the one who decided to make musical comedies with his other brothers. At the time, he had learnt an Italian accent to convince any anti-Semites in the neighbourhood that he was Italian and not a Jew. This accent, along with his talent as a piano player, became one of his trademarks. In the films, he usually fulfilled the role of a sly and shady con man, the confidant of Harpo, a confident pianist and the sceptical assistant of Groucho.
Harpo (1888-1964) was born Adolph and changed his name to Arthur in WWI because he found the name too German. As an actor, Harpo played the role of a mute, who never speaks but expresses himself through sign language, whistling and using his horn. Like a cross between a child and a wild beast, he sets everything in motion, harassing everyone, pulling the most peculiar things out of his coat (such as a candle burning on two sides, a coiled rope, a pin-up poster, etc.), and chasing women with his horn. His pseudonym "Harpo" was derived from the fact that he played the harp, for which there was a musical interlude in almost every film.
Groucho (1890-1977) was born Julius Henry Marx. His trademarks were his grin, thick cigar, waddling gait and sarcastic remarks, insults and puns. In the films, he was constantly trying to get money or women, talking everyone under the table with his witty and intelligent remarks. He was also a singer and some of his songs have become classics, such as 'Lydia the Tattooed Lady'.
Gummo (1892-1977) was born Milton and was the least-known Marx Brother. He was the one who first performed with Groucho, but before the big Broadway success came he had stopped acting. For years, he was his brother's manager.
Zeppo (1901-1979) was born Herbert Marx and was the youngest of the Marx Brothers. He took over the role of Gummo when the latter quit. Zeppo was the romantic declarer. Though he could take on more versatile roles, he was typecast as the most serious of the four.
The Marx Brothers were the five surviving sons of Sam and Minnie Marx. The family lived in Yorkville on New York's Upper East Side, a neighbourhood sandwiched between the Irish-German and Italian quarters. Their career already began at the beginning of the century in vaudeville shows, with which their maternal uncle, Al Shean, had already been successful. Groucho was the first to embark on a career on stage, but initially with very little success. Their mother and sister also appeared on stage with their sons at times. However, the focus soon shifted from music and singing with humorous segues to comedy with musical interludes. The different roles of musicians and comedians crystallised relatively early. While Chico developed the stereotype of the womaniser with an Italian accent who was always chasing the chicks, Groucho dropped his accent as a German during the First World War due to a lack of popularity. Harpo remained speechless on stage, as he had the greatest successes playing his jokes as a mime in a red or, in films, blond curly wig, or playing his grandmother's old harp. A classroom sketch in which Groucho tried to teach his brothers evolved into the comedy show 'I'll Say She Is which became their first success on Bradway and in England. This was followed by two more Broadway hits: 'The Cocoanuts' and 'Animal Crackers'. The Marx Brothers' shows became popular at a time when Hollywood was experiencing the transition from silent film to talkies. The brothers signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and thus launched their film career.
The last two Broadway shows of The Marx Brothers became their first films, The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey, 1929) and Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930). Their next film was Money Business (Norman Z. McLeod, 1931). Between 1932 and 1933, a total of 26 episodes of the radio show 'Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel' were made, with Groucho voicing the lawyer Waldorf T. Flywheel and Chico voicing his sidekick Emmanuel Ravelli. The first three episodes were broadcast under the title 'Beagle, Shyster & Beagle'. The title was then changed after a New York lawyer named "Beagle" threatened to sue. Some of the dialogue from the radio broadcasts was later used in the Marx Brothers films. Their most successful film of the early period was Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod, 1932), a satire on the American college system. But Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933), generally considered their masterpiece, had much less success. It marked their break with Paramount. Zeppo, who always played serious roles, stopped making films after this. The Marx Brothers' first five films are generally considered their best, expressing their surrealist and anarchic humour in its purest form. The three remaining brothers moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and changed the formula of their subsequent films. Their remaining films were given romantic plots and serious musical interludes, often intended as resting points between the often hilarious comic sketches. In A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935), a satire on the opera world, the brothers help two young singers in love. The film was very successful and was followed by the equally popular A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 1937), where they kicked up a fuss at a race track. Several less memorable films followed until 1941. After the war, two more films A Night in Casablanca (Archie Mayo, 1946) and Love Happy (David Miller, 1949) followed to pay off Chico's gambling debts. This was followed by the mediocre film The Story of Mankind (Irwin Allen, 1957), and a television special The Incredible Jewel Robbery (1959). These productions were already interludes, while each brother had already picked up a career of his own. Chico and Harpo continued on stage and Groucho had started a career as a radio and television entertainer. With his television and radio show 'You Bet Your Life', he became one of the most popular show hosts of the 1950s in the USA. The first episodes of the show were still broadcast live, as was customary at the time. But because Groucho's unbridled wordplay caused headaches for those in charge of the show, they deviated from this for later episodes and the programme was broadcast as a recording. He also wrote a number of books. Gummo and Zeppo ran a theatre agency together. A final film project planned for 1960, starring the Marx Brothers once again and directed by Billy Wilder, did not materialise due to Chico's poor health. It was to be an anti-war satire in the style of Duck Soup. Even Groucho, who at the time was no longer very interested in further Marx Brothers films, is said to have been enthusiastic about the project because he considered Billy Wilder to be one of the best directors.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and German) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
A Forerunner chasm, part of the Silent Cartographer facility, appears to extend down indefinitely deep into the superstructure of Installation 04. This effect was achieved by two 11"x11" mirrors, one at the bottom and one at the top of the shaft to provide an "infinite" reflection.
I've started a series now, completely by accident!
Well, I realized since I have Halo 3 and 4 photos, I guess I'll make 1 and 2.
The RTA, forerunner of Metra, ordered the first batch of F40PH's in 1977 and they began arriving on the property later that year and into 1978. The 100, first of the new order, sits among the veterans, Rock Island E's 663 and 660 at the Rock's yard in Blue Island. I don't think they were happy to see the new blue baby.
On April 2, 1595 the First Dutch Expedition to Indonesia set out from Texel funded by the the Compagnie van Verre (Company for Faraway), a forerunner of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC). The small fleet of four ships - the Amsterdam, Hollandia, Mauritius and Duyfken - sailed by way of the Canary islands, Cape Verde Islands and Brazil, arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in early August. Then up north to the east coast of Madagascar where storms delayed their departure to the Indonesian islands until February 1596. After many adventures and especially misfortunes - e.g. mutiny and a devastating fire - the much diminished expedition via St. Helena made it back to Holland in the late Summer of 1597. The profits in spices were very meagre... and the loss in lives great.
But the the benefit to the sciences was large. With regard to botany a careful examination of the collected specimens was made especially by Carolus Clusius (1526-1609), and he published his findings in his Ten Books on Exotics (1605). It's here that the first full European description of our Protea is found. But Clusius mistakenly writes that this 'most elegant Thistle' was found at the Baya d'Anton-Gil on the northeast coast of Madagascar; that would have been in January 1596, when the fleet had finally been able to make landfall there. But the provenance of the specimens must have gotten mixed up because Our Protea is endemic to South Africa; such a mixup is hardly surprising given the adventurous voyage.
Clusius in his marvellous book also provides a detailed sketch of a dried flower of Our Protea. That flower is probably the very first botanical specimen from South Africa to have arrived in Europe.
In the title above I've used the Afrikaans: Bearded Sugar Bush because it sounds more interesting and descriptive of the flower than Oleanderleaf Protea.
"American manned lunar rover. Study 1968. The Bendix Local Science Survey Module was a forerunner of the Lunar Rover. The LSSM was a small size vehicle used to support a local manned survey. It was proposed for delivery with an LM Shelter.
AKA: Local Scientific Survey Module.
Status: Study 1968.
Payload: 320 kg (700 lb).
Gross mass: 900 kg (1,980 lb).
The typical, one-man configuration weighed on the order of 450 kg, was battery powered and had a total range capability of 200 km per mission. The crew sat in an open cockpit.
As envisioned in 1968, the single-person battery-powered go-cart would have four individually driven wheels, and be capable of a 14-day mission after 90 days of storage on the surface of the moon (it was expected to be delivered by an unmanned cargo carrier before the manned mission arrived). It had a nominal operating speed of 8 km/hour, an individual sortie duration of three to six hours, an 8 km radius of operation, with a total range of 25 km per sortie or 200 km per mission. The 900 kg operational mass consisted of 450 kg for the basic vehicle, 320 kg of cargo, and 130 kg for one astronaut and his space suit. Bendix built a prototype, but the far lighter and somewhat less capable two-crew Lunar Rover was developed instead.
Crew Size: 1.
Crew: 130 kg (280 lb)."
All above per the comprehensive Astronautix website, at:
www.astronautix.com/l/lssm.html
Additionally:
www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/auction-classic/auction-clas...
Specifically:
i2.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016...
i2.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016...
Credit: CURBSIDE CLASSIC website
Photo, with associated MSFC description, at:
mix.msfc.nasa.gov/abstracts.php?p=3217
Specifically:
mix.msfc.nasa.gov/images/HIGH/0401762.jpg
Credit: MSFC MiX website
And, referred to as the generic "Mobility Test Article":
images.nasa.gov/details-0401757
archive.org/details/MSFC-0401762
Credit: Internet Archive website
While I understand the cushioning & shock absorption intent of the unique wheel design, what’s up with the smooth treadless contact surface? If you hit a patch of black ice on those, like, say when tooling around Shackleton Crater...you’re toast.
Note also the modified lunar module, with what appears to be the LSSM cradle/housing fixture...at the level of the ascent stage. And check out the snout-like appearance of front of the ascent stage. Doesn’t it look like it should house a chute/slide? Hmm...possibly a method of egress that NASA didn’t want any of us to know about? Actually makes the rope idea look pretty good.
...upon further research - not even for this - it's a LM shelter...I should've known. AND, check this out:
Credit: AstroCryptoTriviology website - ALWAYS a wonderful resource!
Last, but NOT least, another small win for preserving the memory of the myriad artists & illustrators that brought to life what was envisioned/planned! This is one of many wonderful works by Mr. Renato Moncini!
Also seen here:
archive.org/details/MSFC-0401762
Credit: Internet Archive website
Other outstanding presentations by Mr. Moncini, obviously in a series he created for Bendix:
archive.org/details/MSFC-0401764
archive.org/details/MSFC-0401765
archive.org/details/MSFC-0401766
archive.org/details/MSFC-0401767
Credit: Internet Archive website
IR 201 class 'River Cummeragh' heads a Dublin - Cork train of Mk3's on the Curragh, Co Kildare (June 09). The much loved mk'3's along with iconic CIE/Irish Rail Orange & Black livery was retired a few months later in Sept 09. The IE general motors 201 class was the passenger design forerunner of the European freight class 66, here's a similar viewpoint to compare..
www.flickr.com/photos/2cme/6794808318/in/set-721576232630...
more info on the 201's & mk'3 below
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IE_201_Class
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching_stock_of_Ireland#Mark_3_.2...
Best on Black..
h
Zoute Sale - Bonhams
Estimated : € 180.000 - 200.000
Sold for € 178.250
Zoute Grand Prix 2022
Knokke - Zoute
België - Belgium
October 2022
"Carrozzeria Bertone unveiled one of its motor show sensations at the 1967 Geneva event, the Marzal. This dramatic concept car was seen as an approach to a four-seat Lamborghini... and it turned out to be a forerunner of the Espada, a genuine four-seater and a distinctive 1960s supercar." – David Hodges, 'Lamborghini – The Legend'.
Ferruccio Lamborghini's first production car, the Touring-styled 350 GT, had debuted at the 1964 Geneva Motor Show. The work of two of Italy's most illustrious automobile engineers, the 350 GT featured a glorious 3.5-litre, four-cam V12 designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, housed in a chassis penned by Gianpaolo Dallara. The 350 GT's four camshafts and all-independent suspension meant that it upstaged the best that Ferrari offered at the time; but to compete with his Maranello rival's larger models Lamborghini needed a nominal four-seater, and the 4.0-litre 400 GT 2+2 duly appeared in 1966. Despite its novice status as an automobile manufacturer, Lamborghini had quickly dispelled any lingering doubts about its ability to compete with the world's best Gran Turismos.
Named after a matador's sword and unveiled at the 1968 Geneva Motor Show, the Espada was styled by Bertone's Marcello Gandini - creator of the incomparable Miura - along lines similar to those of the stillborn, rear-engined, six-cylinder Marzal but carried its 4.0-litre, four-cam V12 up front. The latter - first seen in the 400 GT and used also by the contemporary Islero - produced 325bhp, an output sufficient to propel the distinctive coupé to 150mph. Islero running gear was employed but wedded to a platform-type, semi-monocoque chassis rather than the former's tubular frame.
Introduced in January 1970, the Series II cars came with an extra 25bhp, 155mph (249km/h) top speed, an improved dashboard layout, and the option of power assisted steering. The dashboard was revised yet again in late 1972 for the Series III, which also incorporated power steering as standard, up-rated brakes, minor suspension improvements, and a restyled front grille. Espada production ceased in 1978 after 1,217 of these imposing cars had been built, of which 575 were Series II examples. Even today there are few cars that can match the on-road presence of the Espada.
Beautifully finished in light green metallic with dark brown leather interior, this Series II Espada was delivered new to Switzerland to a well-known (and still existing) textile manufacturer in the Appenzell area. In 1978 the Lamborghini was imported into France but remained in the same company's ownership until 1988, when it was sold to its first private owner in Buxy, Burgundy. A subsequent owner from Nantes kept the Espada from circa 2008 to late 2013 when it was purchased by the current vendor for his exclusive private collection in Germany via the well-respected Hamburg-based dealer, Eberhard Thiesen.
In total more than €77,000 has been spent on this Espada since 2011 and we recommend close inspection of the history file. A brief summary of the works carried out and documented by invoices (some with pictures) is as follows:
• Invoices (some of them for parts directly supplied by Lamborghini) in its early life
• Some correspondence from the factory in 1988 suggesting that the car might have gone back to the factory for a service
• Invoice from 2011 from a French carrosserie relating to the restoration of the car including a repaint of the inside and outside and engine compartment for a total of almost €22,000; restoration of the original leather interior with the WaterfloW system for circa €4,400 (also in 2011)
• While in the custody of the current owner: new tyres and sundry maintenance in October 2021 for circa €3,600; comprehensive carburettor and timing service in 2019 for more than €5,000
• In 2018 new air conditioning compressor, etc for €1,500; comprehensive mechanical service and repair for more than €32,000 in 2018 by well-respected Swiss specialists Graber Sportgarage in Toffen, Switzerland
• In 2016 new correct ANSA exhaust, etc for €5,700
• In 2014 further invoices for €3,100 and circa € 6,400 (including the installation of power-assisted steering)
The car is offered with German registration documents, copies of the aforementioned invoices and an owner's manual. With a comprehensive history file dating from its first years to the present day, and benefiting from a no-expense-spared approach with regard to its upkeep by the current and previous custodians, this Espada should not be compared to lesser examples and is worthy of the closest inspection.
A forerunner of the Parthenon is the Temple of Concord at Agrigento which used the same architectural touches that were perfected in the Parthenon.
Metro Last Light Redux
3840x1718 • ReShade + MasterEffect Reborn • SweetFX • mgr.inz.Player's CT - Freecam
Coney Island
FISH & CHIPS
A Specialty
Candy, Cigarettes
Hot Dogs, Hamburgers
Sandwiches
Drop in and
Say Hello
Wanda & Tony
656 Washington Ave.
WHITE ROCK
B.C.
EDDY MATCH CO. LIMITED
CANADA B
CLOSE COVER BEFORE STRIKING MATCH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie and May operated Charlie's Fish and Chips (forerunner of Coney Island) on the east beach area of White Rock.
Charlie Harry Francis Davey
(b. 10 April 1911 in Kamsack, Saskatchewan - d. 20 April 1989 at age 78 in White Rock, British Columbia) - LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/5b... - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/120994296/obituary-for-charles-ha...
Harry belonged to an early pioneer family of the area and was a long time supporter and organizer of the Fastball Association at Semiahmoo Park.
His wife - Margaret "May" Agnes (nee Webb) Davey
(b. 17 June 1911 in Calgary, Alberta - d. 18 March 1997 at age 85 in White Rock, British Columbia)
They put their Fish & Chip store up for sale in May of 1945 - they had been in business for 20 years. LINK to the advertisement - www.newspapers.com/clip/120993004/charlies-fish-and-chips/ Tony & Wanda Kropp purchased Charlie's Fish and Chips and renamed it - CONEY ISLAND FISH & CHIPS
Anthony "Tony" Kropp
(b. 22 February 1897 in Ukraine - d. 17 August 1973 at age 75 in Surrey, British Columbia / Delta, British Columbia) - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/120314573/obituary-for-tony-kropp/ LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/c5...
His wife - Wanda (nee Sawry) Kropp
(b. 15 May 1900 in Venlaw, Manitoba - d. 15 April 1991 at age 90 in Surrey, British Columbia) - LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/120314704/obituary-for-wanda-kropp/ LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/54...
The occasion brought well-wishes from scores of former customers, who remembered Wanda and Tony's fish and chips which over the past twenty years have brought diners from as far away as Portland to repeatedly enjoy the Kropps' specialty.
Operating a cafe and fish and chip shop was a dream of Mrs. Kropp since her girlhood days in Venlow, Manitoba. Mr. Kropp had emigrated from his native Austria with his parents. They settled at nearby Dauphin. where his father homesteaded successfully. As one of ten children Tony found work on nearby farms and found himself accepting a position from Wanda's father. With Wanda cooking for the threshing crew, Tony had opportunity to test her culinary skills, and although he is loathe to admit it. this could be what initiated the romance. Following their marriage in Dauphin the Kropp's lived temporarily at the farm of Tony's father before moving east to farm at Dougall and then to White, Ontario. Tony took a position with a meat packing firm in Winnipeg in 1945 and it was here Wanda bought her first cafe, hired a staff of 18, and immediately put her culinary art to work. They purchased a cafe on East Hastings Street in 1947, with Wanda's fish and chins again a specialty, but within a year had heard of White Rock's potential so decided to come out to see for themselves. They purchased a waterfront cafe (Charlie's Fish and Chips) which was to become known at the "standing room only" cafe during the peak summer months. Wanda named her new premises the "Coney Island" just because she liked the name. Wanda and Tony recall working around the clock and all next day one particular Labour Day week-end in order to serve their clientele. During a five-month summer period in 1956 Wanda served a total of 27,000 plates and orders through her open cafe window, in addition to dinners and counter orders in the cafe itself. Wanda's fame spread until she became a legend on the White Rock waterfront. Beachgoers from the Greater Vancouver area would head for the Coney Island, either to enjoy her specialty before or after a swim or to munch on in the car en route home. She insisted on several basic rules. Her chipped potatoes were never to be stacked deeply in the storage baskets. She felt heavy packing resulted in heavy, soggy chips and Wanda felt they must always be light and tempting. But it was her fish batter that was her chief pride. Never did she use an electric beater, but rather a wire hand beater and elbow grease. Ill health forced Wanda to close in June of 1958 just when another peak season was upon her. She and Tony went into semi - retirement for three years following the sale of the Coney Island but they missed meeting the public and before long they were considering the establishment of a Hilltop Cafe where Wanda's specialty could again be the menu's first choice. They opened Wanda's cafe on Johnston Road in 1961. Ill health again interfered, with Wanda and Tony deciding to retire for good in August of this year. Mr. and Mrs. P. Coulobome are the new proprietors. LINK to the complete newspaper article - www.newspapers.com/clip/120315357/coney-island-kropp/
WANDA'S CAFE was located at 1357 Johnston Road (Hilltop) in White Rock, British Columbia - she was in business from 1961 to 1966 until they sold it to Mr. and Mrs. P. Coulobome. LINK - www.newspapers.com/clip/121066898/wandas-cafe-under-new-m... it then became the "Canton House Restaurant" LINK - www.newspapers.com/clip/121067193/canton-house-restaurant/ and then became - "Shochi Ku Sushi".
In 1966 Coney Island Fish and Chips was located at 15491 Marine Drive - Phone - 531-4152 - The Best in Town - Light Lunches - Soft Drinks - Peters Ice Cream.
Battle of White Rock’s Best Fish And Chips - Fish and chips is the official meal of the summer, or at least they should be in White Rock. Whether it be the huge stretch of saltwater beaches, the famous pier, or the beautiful oceanfront views that bring you here every summer, we can all agree that the intoxicating smell of deliciously fried fish makes thousands flock to the many fish and chips restaurants that adorn the boardwalk and beyond. It’s only fitting to eat fish and chips when you’re right by the ocean anyways! LINK to the complete article - medium.com/@matthewrafael98/fish-and-chips-is-the-officia...
A Welsh Black, part of one of the few Welsh Black herds in East Anglia, on Herringfleet marshes, Suffolk.
The Welsh Black is a native British breed descended from cattle of pre-Roman Britain in the rough mountain and hill country of Wales. There is evidence that the breed, or its forerunners, existed in Roman times and it has been suggested that the breed is based on cattle from the Iberian Peninsula. It has been speculated that the extinct black cattle of Cornwall was a breed closely related to the Welsh Black.
Certainly black cattle have been bred in Wales for well over 1,000 years and, as in Scotland and many other parts of Britain, were often used as currency. This gave rise to the description of the Welsh Black as 'the black gold from the Welsh hills'.
Up until the early 1970's the Welsh Black was regarded as a dual purpose breed for both dairy and beef production. There were two distinct strains of the breed, the stocky North Wales beef type and the more dairy like South Wales or Castlemartin animal. The successful intermingling of these types over the past 90 years has resulted in an optimum sized animal with an emphasis on beef production. The unique traits of the breed are a result of this heredity and environment.
Welsh Black cattle are large sized animals with the average body weight of a mature cow being about 1,325 to 1,760 lb. (600 to 800 kg) and a mature bulls weighing on average about 2,100 to 2,535 lb. (950 to 1150 kg), and sometimes more. The majority are black, varying from rusty black to jet black. Red individuals occur occasionally, red and other colours were more common in the past. They generally have white horns with black tips, but these may be removed, and there are also naturally hornless (polled) animals, both black and red.
The Welsh Black's formidable reputation has been built on the breed’s capability to thrive on marginal and upland areas. There, its foraging habit makes it ideal for rough pasture such as heathland and moorland, and for conservation grazing. The breed is hardy and adaptable, neither cold or rain seem to worry them, as the experience of Canadian and New Zealand breeders have confirmed. It is common to see them grazing happily in the open in driving rain or snow when other types of cattle have gone in search of shelter. They develop a thick winter coat, which is usually shed in spring.
In the past Welsh drovers would drive their herds to English markets. Herds from south west Wales travelled towards Hereford and Gloucester up the Tywi Valley to Llandovery. Herds from South Cardiganshire reached Llandovery through Llanybydder and Llansawel. The drovers would then return to Wales with large amounts of money, which made them targets of bandits and highwaymen. The result was the formation in 1799 of the Banc yr Eidon in Llandovery, the Bank of the Black Ox, which was later purchased by Lloyds Bank.
Today Welsh Blacks found throughout the UK, however they are on the list of endangered native breeds in Wales. Over the past 30 years they have travelled to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Uganda and Jamaica.
French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Saint-Dié, no. CA 5. Caption: Groucho - Harpo - Chico Marx.
The Marx Brothers was the name for a group of American-Jewish comedians from the first half of the 20th century who were actually brothers. Their career started in theatre, but they became world-famous through their films. They are known for their wild, anarchic and often surrealist humour. Their jokes consist of slapstick, but also puns and intelligent dialogue. With their rebellious jokes, they were the forerunners of generations of anti-sentimental comedians. Five brothers together formed The Marx Brothers, even though the five of them never actually performed at the same time: Harpo, Chico, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo.
The eldest brother, Chico (1887-1961) was born Leonard Marx. Manfred was actually the eldest, but he died as a child. Chico was the one who decided to make musical comedies with his other brothers. At the time, he had learnt an Italian accent to convince any anti-Semites in the neighbourhood that he was Italian and not a Jew. This accent, along with his talent as a piano player, became one of his trademarks. In the films, he usually fulfilled the role of a sly and shady con man, the confidant of Harpo, a confident pianist and the sceptical assistant of Groucho.
Harpo (1888-1964) was born Adolph and changed his name to Arthur in WWI because he found the name too German. As an actor, Harpo played the role of a mute, who never speaks but expresses himself through sign language, whistling and using his horn. Like a cross between a child and a wild beast, he sets everything in motion, harassing everyone, pulling the most peculiar things out of his coat (such as a candle burning on two sides, a coiled rope, a pin-up poster, etc.), and chasing women with his horn. His pseudonym "Harpo" was derived from the fact that he played the harp, for which there was a musical interlude in almost every film.
Groucho (1890-1977) was born Julius Henry Marx. His trademarks were his grin, thick cigar, waddling gait and sarcastic remarks, insults and puns. In the films, he was constantly trying to get money or women, talking everyone under the table with his witty and intelligent remarks. He was also a singer and some of his songs have become classics, such as 'Lydia the Tattooed Lady'.
Gummo (1892-1977) was born Milton and was the least-known Marx Brother. He was the one who first performed with Groucho, but before the big Broadway success came he had stopped acting. For years, he was his brother's manager.
Zeppo (1901-1979) was born Herbert Marx and was the youngest of the Marx Brothers. He took over the role of Gummo when the latter quit. Zeppo was the romantic declarer. Though he could take on more versatile roles, he was typecast as the most serious of the four.
The Marx Brothers were the five surviving sons of Sam and Minnie Marx. The family lived in Yorkville on New York's Upper East Side, a neighbourhood sandwiched between the Irish-German and Italian quarters. Their career already began at the beginning of the century in vaudeville shows, with which their maternal uncle, Al Shean, had already been successful. Groucho was the first to embark on a career on stage, but initially with very little success. Their mother and sister also appeared on stage with their sons at times. However, the focus soon shifted from music and singing with humorous segues to comedy with musical interludes. The different roles of musicians and comedians crystallised relatively early. While Chico developed the stereotype of the womaniser with an Italian accent who was always chasing the chicks, Groucho dropped his accent as a German during the First World War due to a lack of popularity. Harpo remained speechless on stage, as he had the greatest successes playing his jokes as a mime in a red or, in films, blond curly wig, or playing his grandmother's old harp. A classroom sketch in which Groucho tried to teach his brothers evolved into the comedy show 'I'll Say She Is which became their first success on Bradway and in England. This was followed by two more Broadway hits: 'The Cocoanuts' and 'Animal Crackers'. The Marx Brothers' shows became popular at a time when Hollywood was experiencing the transition from silent film to talkies. The brothers signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and thus launched their film career.
The last two Broadway shows of The Marx Brothers became their first films, The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey, 1929) and Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930). Their next film was Money Business (Norman Z. McLeod, 1931). Between 1932 and 1933, a total of 26 episodes of the radio show 'Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel' were made, with Groucho voicing the lawyer Waldorf T. Flywheel and Chico voicing his sidekick Emmanuel Ravelli. The first three episodes were broadcast under the title 'Beagle, Shyster & Beagle'. The title was then changed after a New York lawyer named "Beagle" threatened to sue. Some of the dialogue from the radio broadcasts was later used in the Marx Brothers films. Their most successful film of the early period was Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod, 1932), a satire on the American college system. But Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933), generally considered their masterpiece, had much less success. It marked their break with Paramount. Zeppo, who always played serious roles, stopped making films after this. The Marx Brothers' first five films are generally considered their best, expressing their surrealist and anarchic humour in its purest form. The three remaining brothers moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and changed the formula of their subsequent films. Their remaining films were given romantic plots and serious musical interludes, often intended as resting points between the often hilarious comic sketches. In A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935), a satire on the opera world, the brothers help two young singers in love. The film was very successful and was followed by the equally popular A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 1937), where they kicked up a fuss at a race track. Several less memorable films followed until 1941. After the war, two more films A Night in Casablanca (Archie Mayo, 1946) and Love Happy (David Miller, 1949) followed to pay off Chico's gambling debts. This was followed by the mediocre film The Story of Mankind (Irwin Allen, 1957), and a television special The Incredible Jewel Robbery (1959). These productions were already interludes, while each brother had already picked up a career of his own. Chico and Harpo continued on stage and Groucho had started a career as a radio and television entertainer. With his television and radio show 'You Bet Your Life', he became one of the most popular show hosts of the 1950s in the USA. The first episodes of the show were still broadcast live, as was customary at the time. But because Groucho's unbridled wordplay caused headaches for those in charge of the show, they deviated from this for later episodes and the programme was broadcast as a recording. He also wrote a number of books. Gummo and Zeppo ran a theatre agency together. A final film project planned for 1960, starring the Marx Brothers once again and directed by Billy Wilder, did not materialise due to Chico's poor health. It was to be an anti-war satire in the style of Duck Soup. Even Groucho, who at the time was no longer very interested in further Marx Brothers films, is said to have been enthusiastic about the project because he considered Billy Wilder to be one of the best directors.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and German) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
American postcard from the Marx Brothers Postcard Book by Green Wood, no. 1992. Caption: The Four Marx Brothers, Chico, Zeppo, Groucho and Harpo.
The Marx Brothers was the name for a group of American-Jewish comedians from the first half of the 20th century who were actually brothers. Their career started in theatre, but they became world-famous through their films. They are known for their wild, anarchic and often surrealist humour. Their jokes consist of slapstick, but also puns and intelligent dialogue. With their rebellious jokes, they were the forerunners of generations of anti-sentimental comedians. Five brothers together formed The Marx Brothers, even though the five of them never actually performed at the same time: Harpo, Chico, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo.
The eldest brother, Chico (1887-1961) was born Leonard Marx. Manfred was actually the eldest, but he died as a child. Chico was the one who decided to make musical comedies with his other brothers. At the time, he had learnt an Italian accent to convince any anti-Semites in the neighbourhood that he was Italian and not a Jew. This accent, along with his talent as a piano player, became one of his trademarks. In the films, he usually fulfilled the role of a sly and shady con man, the confidant of Harpo, a confident pianist and the sceptical assistant of Groucho.
Harpo (1888-1964) was born Adolph and changed his name to Arthur in WWI because he found the name too German. As an actor, Harpo played the role of a mute, who never speaks but expresses himself through sign language, whistling and using his horn. Like a cross between a child and a wild beast, he sets everything in motion, harassing everyone, pulling the most peculiar things out of his coat (such as a candle burning on two sides, a coiled rope, a pin-up poster, etc.), and chasing women with his horn. His pseudonym "Harpo" was derived from the fact that he played the harp, for which there was a musical interlude in almost every film.
Groucho (1890-1977) was born Julius Henry Marx. His trademarks were his grin, thick cigar, waddling gait and sarcastic remarks, insults and puns. In the films, he was constantly trying to get money or women, talking everyone under the table with his witty and intelligent remarks. He was also a singer and some of his songs have become classics, such as 'Lydia the Tattooed Lady'.
Gummo (1892-1977) was born Milton and was the least-known Marx Brother. He was the one who first performed with Groucho, but before the big Broadway success came he had stopped acting. For years, he was his brother's manager.
Zeppo (1901-1979) was born Herbert Marx and was the youngest of the Marx Brothers. He took over the role of Gummo when the latter quit. Zeppo was the romantic declarer. Though he could take on more versatile roles, he was typecast as the most serious of the four.
The Marx Brothers were the five surviving sons of Sam and Minnie Marx. The family lived in Yorkville on New York's Upper East Side, a neighbourhood sandwiched between the Irish-German and Italian quarters. Their career already began at the beginning of the century in vaudeville shows, with which their maternal uncle, Al Shean, had already been successful. Groucho was the first to embark on a career on stage, but initially with very little success. Their mother and sister also appeared on stage with their sons at times. However, the focus soon shifted from music and singing with humorous segues to comedy with musical interludes. The different roles of musicians and comedians crystallised relatively early. While Chico developed the stereotype of the womaniser with an Italian accent who was always chasing the chicks, Groucho dropped his accent as a German during the First World War due to a lack of popularity. Harpo remained speechless on stage, as he had the greatest successes playing his jokes as a mime in a red or, in films, blond curly wig, or playing his grandmother's old harp. A classroom sketch in which Groucho tried to teach his brothers evolved into the comedy show 'I'll Say She Is which became their first success on Bradway and in England. This was followed by two more Broadway hits: 'The Cocoanuts' and 'Animal Crackers'. The Marx Brothers' shows became popular at a time when Hollywood was experiencing the transition from silent film to talkies. The brothers signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and thus launched their film career.
The last two Broadway shows of The Marx Brothers became their first films, The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey, 1929) and Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930). Their next film was Money Business (Norman Z. McLeod, 1931). Between 1932 and 1933, a total of 26 episodes of the radio show 'Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel' were made, with Groucho voicing the lawyer Waldorf T. Flywheel and Chico voicing his sidekick Emmanuel Ravelli. The first three episodes were broadcast under the title 'Beagle, Shyster & Beagle'. The title was then changed after a New York lawyer named "Beagle" threatened to sue. Some of the dialogue from the radio broadcasts was later used in the Marx Brothers films. Their most successful film of the early period was Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod, 1932), a satire on the American college system. But Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933), generally considered their masterpiece, had much less success. It marked their break with Paramount. Zeppo, who always played serious roles, stopped making films after this. The Marx Brothers' first five films are generally considered their best, expressing their surrealist and anarchic humour in its purest form. The three remaining brothers moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and changed the formula of their subsequent films. Their remaining films were given romantic plots and serious musical interludes, often intended as resting points between the often hilarious comic sketches. In A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935), a satire on the opera world, the brothers help two young singers in love. The film was very successful and was followed by the equally popular A Day at the Races (Sam Wood, 1937), where they kicked up a fuss at a race track. Several less memorable films followed until 1941. After the war, two more films A Night in Casablanca (Archie Mayo, 1946) and Love Happy (David Miller, 1949) followed to pay off Chico's gambling debts. This was followed by the mediocre film The Story of Mankind (Irwin Allen, 1957), and a television special The Incredible Jewel Robbery (1959). These productions were already interludes, while each brother had already picked up a career of his own. Chico and Harpo continued on stage and Groucho had started a career as a radio and television entertainer. With his television and radio show 'You Bet Your Life', he became one of the most popular show hosts of the 1950s in the USA. The first episodes of the show were still broadcast live, as was customary at the time. But because Groucho's unbridled wordplay caused headaches for those in charge of the show, they deviated from this for later episodes and the programme was broadcast as a recording. He also wrote a number of books. Gummo and Zeppo ran a theatre agency together. A final film project planned for 1960, starring the Marx Brothers once again and directed by Billy Wilder, did not materialise due to Chico's poor health. It was to be an anti-war satire in the style of Duck Soup. Even Groucho, who at the time was no longer very interested in further Marx Brothers films, is said to have been enthusiastic about the project because he considered Billy Wilder to be one of the best directors.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and German) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
The North Adelaide Grammar School established 1854 by John Whinham, on land purchased by George Fife Angas, was the forerunner to this landmark Whinham College.
In 1873 John Whinham retired and his son Robert took the reins. In 1881, following an influx of scholars, plans were drawn up by architect Thomas Frost for the construction of new school buildings at the corner of Ward and Jeffcott Streets. The new buildings opened 1882.
It was reputed to be the most modern, best equipped secondary school in South Australia.
The main building with frontage to Jeffcott Street comprised centre building and two storeyed wings. Wings at the rear with transepts enclosed three sides of an open court.
The total, in Elizabethan style, contains more than 40 rooms. Its prominent feature is the clock tower of white and coloured bricks, with freestone columns that have carved caps.
In 1884 Robert Whinham was killed in a fall from a horse and John Whinham resumed control. He died in 1886, the school declined and closed in 1898.
From 1898 the property then became a training school for lady missionaries and known as Angas College.
In 1916 the army took possession of the property for use as a repatriation hospital.
In 1922 the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia purchased the property for £13,500.
In 1923, Immanuel College and Seminary were officially opened. They operated until the Air Force commandeered the building in 1942, giving ten days’ notice to vacate.
In 2003 the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in Australia changed the name of the Seminary to Australian Lutheran College, to take effect 1 January 2004.
Ref: ALC - Australian Lutheran College Site History Brochure.
North Adelaide Institutions + Colleges DPA.