View allAll Photos Tagged Frantic
Frantically searching for the perfect spot to do a "first look" we found this gorgeous hallway which seemed fitting for such a gorgeous bride.
other build no way, 9 hours left must try. Legs don't work so must build lego.
updates mostly unknown
I spooked these twin whitetail fawns and they bolted. In three directions they could have quickly disappeared, but instead they ran directly toward this fence. Had I been a predator, this would not have ended well for these neophytes. They have a lot of learning ahead.
The Journey so far.
New Model Army played their first gig in Bradford on October 23rd 1980. Its founding members were Justin Sullivan, Stuart Morrow and Phil Tompkins. The threesome had already been together for a couple of years in a number of Bradford bands with other musicians and singers but in the Autumn of 1980, they decided to form a stripped-down three-piece, their music drawing on a wide collection of influences and fuelled by their passions for Punk Rock and Northern Soul. Within a few months drummer Phil Tomkins had left to be replaced by Rob Waddington. The band slowly built up a local following and created a unique style based on Justin's song-writing and Stuart's virtuosity on lead-bass.
In Summer 1982, whispers about this band reached London and they were invited to perform at a couple of showcases. But in a scene hungry for "the next big thing" (the coming "New Romantics"), NMA's fearsome music and northern style did not win over the Major Record Companies and they returned to Bradford empty-handed. Rob Waddington left to be replaced by Robert Heaton, who had been working as a drum tech and occasional drummer for the band ‘Hawkwind‘. Undeterred by the indifference of the Music Business, NMA began to perform more and more around the country and frequently featured as opening act on a series of all-day concerts at the London Lyceum which heralded many of the "Post-Punk" bands. Although this meant traveling for several hours to play a twenty-five minute set for no money, the band embraced the opportunity and their reputation as a live act grew. A first small-label independent single "Bittersweet" was released in the summer of 1983, followed by "Great Expectations" on Abstract Records that autumn, both played frequently on late night radio by John Peel. Suddenly the band had a "Following", people who would travel to every concert around the country to see them.
Early in 1984, the producer of "The Tube", the most important live music show on TV, had seen NMA in concert and invited them to fill the ‘unknown' slot on the programme. Having originally asked the band to perform their provocative anti-anthem, "Vengeance", the TV Company suddenly got cold feet about the song's lyrics minutes before broadcast and asked the band to change songs. It made no difference. Somehow twenty to thirty followers had managed to get into the TV studio and when NMA began with "Christian Militia" the crowd went wild and an electric atmosphere was transmitted around the country. Suddenly NMA were underground news. Their first mini-album, "Vengeance" knocked "The Smiths" from the top of the Independent Charts and the major record companies, who had rejected them less than two years earlier, were now begging to sign the band.
The autumn of 1984 was a time of political turmoil in Britain. After five years of Mrs Thatcher's right-wing government, which had already fuelled so much of NMA's early fury, a final showdown with the National Union of Mineworkers (the strike that had begun in March and had split the country), entered a critical phase and much of Northern England began to resemble a Police State. NMA's last Independent EP "The Price" also featured "1984" a song written directly about the strike and, with their declared left-wing views, NMA's concerts became increasingly intense.
At the end of the year, NMA signed a contract of "complete artist control" with EMI (which included EMI giving a donation to a miners fund). The move surprised many people but the band were already looking beyond the confines of Britain and considered the deal to be the right one. In the Spring of 1985 the album "No Rest For The Wicked" and the single "No Rest" both reached the national top 40, but this success and now relative financial security had done little to soften NMA's confrontational attitude. They appeared on Top Of The Pops wearing T-shirts with a motif reading "Only Stupid Bastards Use Heroin" (a reaction against the fashionable drug of the time).
Then, halfway through the "No Rest" tour, the day after their hometown gig, Stuart Morrow decided to leave the band for personal reasons. Frantic negotiations were made (by a strange unhappy co-incidence, on the very same day as the Bradford City fire disaster killed 56 people at a football match), but to no avail. As a result, Justin and Robert decided to follow up the success of "No Rest" with an acoustic song from the album "Better Than Them" which had not involved Stuart and accompanied it with three specially recorded acoustic tracks, a move of principle which dumbfounded EMI. By the summer, Stuart had been replaced by 17 year-old Jason 'Moose' Harris, whose first gig was at a benefit for the families of the fire tragedy, and the "No Rest" tour continued.
Thatcher's victory over the miners, and by extension over all organised opposition, marked a new political reality. This, coupled with the shock of Stuarts's departure and increasing media hostility, resulted in the band taking an ever more defiant posture, exemplified by a typically fiery performance at the Glastonbury Festival. Then, despite being signed to Capitol Records in North America, all attempts to tour there were prevented when the band were refused visas. Many people, on both sides of the Atlantic, believed that this was for political reasons although this was never possible to prove. Instead, that autumn NMA set out on their first long tour of the European mainland, which unlike many UK acts, they found much to their liking, and later a trip to Japan. The year ended with yet another UK tour in support of a newly recorded EP: "Brave New World", a savage portrait of the Thatcher's Britain and "RIP", an equally furious study of the band's history thus far.
If 1985 had been a traumatic year, then 1986 saw one of the band's many resurrections, with the legendary Glyn Johns agreeing to produce their third album. Though relations between band and producer were often difficult, Justin recalls the sessions as "the biggest musical learning curve of my life". "The Ghost Of Cain" was well received by the critics and audience and many people began to see a band that were capable of developing and changing and adjusting to new realities while still staying true to their own principles; this was a band that were now pursuing their own musical agenda, completely unmoved by the whims of the music industry or the expectations of fans. Outside Britain, their name was slowly becoming known and in December of 1986, they finally made a first short tour of America.
1987 was a year of full bloom. In January, Justin and Robert recorded an album with the poet Joolz Denby. Joolz had been the band's first manager and has remained as a driving force and responsible for all of the band's artwork from the beginning to the present day. She had previously made spoken word albums and a series of EPs with Jah Wobble but it was inevitable that she would collaborate with NMA. The album "Hex" was recorded at the very special Sawmills Studio, a unique place in Cornwall, only reachable at high tide by boat. Although the studio is now well known, at that time it was infrequently used and accommodation was in primitive cabins deep in the woods. From this new setting, and freed from the pressures of "being New Model Army", Justin and Robert were able to explore all kinds of ideas and musical avenues that their experience with Glyn Johns had opened up. Later, they both considered "Hex" to have been one of the creative highlights of their musical partnership, with its strong, romantic soundscapes acting as the perfect accompaniment to Joolz' poetry.
Much of the writing of "Hex" had been done using samplers and the use of this new tool continued to take the band in unexpected directions. That summer they recorded the "Whitecoats" EP with its ecological lyric and mystical atmosphere. An interest in mysticism and spirituality had been becoming more and more apparent in Justin's lyrics (though this was no surprise to those who knew of his family's Quaker roots). The same summer, Red Sky Coven was born out of a group of friends who shared these interests and ideas. It included Justin, Joolz, singer-songwriter and storyteller Rev Hammer and musician Brett Selby. Together, the foursome decided to create a performance based on this friendship, a unique show which continues to tour on an occasional basis.
1987 also saw plenty more NMA concerts, including Reading Festival, a gig with David Bowie in front of the Reichstag in Berlin and a show-stopping performance at the Bizarre Festival at Lorelei in Germany. From time to time, the band added their friend Ricky Warwick as a second guitarist and also enlisted Mark Feltham, the legendary harmonica player who had graced "The Ghost Of Cain" and "Hex" to join them. At the very end of the year and the beginning of 1988, they returned to the Sawmills for two more inspired writing sessions, which laid the foundations for "Thunder and Consolation".
The following months, though, were far more difficult, while NMA chose a producer, another music legend - Tom Dowd - and set about recording the album. It was a long drawn-out process and relationships between band members became increasingly strained, only really maintained by the knowledge that they were making something truly special. "Thunder and Consolation" was finally released early in 1989, striking a perfect balance between the band's fascinations with rock, folk and soul music and Justin's lyrical interest in spirituality, politics and family relationships. The album brought critical praise and new levels of commercial success and the band toured Europe and North America, joined by Ed Alleyne Johnson playing electric violin and keyboards and Chris Mclaughlin on guitar. However, despite the success, relationships at the heart of the band had not really mended and even after Jason Harris left that summer, stresses remained.
By autumn Justin and Robert were back in the Sawmills working towards another album and, in the new year, they were joined by a new (and still current) bass player, Nelson, previously of a number of East Anglian cult bands, and a new second guitarist, Adrian Portas from Sheffield. The new musicians brought a stronger atmosphere to the touring band while, in the studio, Justin and Robert continued to explore different musical ideas. Partly self-produced, "Impurity" was finally finished and mixed by Pat Collier in the summer of 1990. Still featuring Ed Alleyne Johnson' violin, the album was more eclectic than "Thunder" but continued to win new fans and the world-wide tour that followed its release lasted the best part of a year, culminating in a rolling Festival in Germany involving David Bowie, Midnight Oil, The Pixies and NMA.
In mid-1991, "Raw Melody Men", a live album from the tour, was put together and released. It was to be NMA's last album for EMI. Unusually, given the history of the music business, the relationship between band and record company had always remained cordial but had now simply grown stale. There were minor dissatisfactions on both sides and, after lengthy negotiations, it was agreed to simply terminate the contract. NMA's own Management Company also imploded at this time and new management was drawn up. The band was not short of new record company offers and eventually chose Epic, for reasons to do with support in the US.
Although Mrs Thatcher had been ousted by her own Party in 1990 (a memorable night coinciding with NMA's first visit to Rome), the Conservative monolith that had ruled the country for so long remained in power and, against all expectations, won a further election in 1992. Outside Britain though, much was changed: there was recession and instability and a so-called "New World Order" in the wake of the collapse of Soviet Communism and the 1st Gulf War. Already the band was embarked upon a very dark album, driven equally by personal traumas, including Justin's near-death electrocution on stage in Switzerland and the changes in the world around them. Produced by Niko Bolas and mixed by Bob Clearmountain, "The Love Of Hopeless Causes" was not what anyone was expecting. Just as folk-rock, pioneered and inspired in part by NMA, became a fashionable and commercial sound, the band made a deliberate move away from it and straight and into guitar-driven rock music.
Replacing Adrian with Dave Blomberg on guitar, they embarked on the album tour and the European section featured their most successful concerts yet. However NMA's relationship with their new record company quickly deteriorated. Worse still, they found themselves caught in corporate dispute between London and New York, which was in no way related to them. By June, the band found themselves on an exhaustive US tour, in which they had invested much of their own money, with no support of any kind from Epic or any other source. The tour featured many outstanding concerts but it was a bittersweet experience. By the end of the summer, it had been agreed that there should be a year off for everyone to rest and consider the future, while the contract with Epic was quickly terminated.
Justin used 1993-4 to produce other artists (a second collaboration with Joolz entitled "Weird Sister", Rev Hammer's "Bishop Of Buffalo" album and also the unusual Berlin combo, The Inchtabokatables), tour with Red Sky Coven and create another way of performing NMA songs - in a duo with new guitarist Dave Blomberg. Together they went back to Justin's first love - small club touring - and eventually released an album of the live show entitled "Big Guitars in Little Europe", an album, which has proved enduringly popular. Robert's main wish was to spend more time at home with his family, which he was now able to do and Nelson formed a new band "Nelson's Column" which toured England. Ed Alleyne Johnson followed up his first solo album "The Purple Electric Violin Concerto" which had been so successful with a second entitled "Ultraviolet".
After the year was up, Justin and Robert tentatively began work on a new project and in December 1994, the band (with Dean White on keyboards replacing Ed Alleyne Johnson) reassembled to play a short series of concerts. However, the next two years were lost while Justin and Robert, plagued by ill health and personal-life distractions tried unsuccessfully to pin down hundreds of new musical ideas into an album. It became increasingly obvious to both of them (and everyone else in and around the band) that they were now on very different musical paths. In 1997, Tommy Tee who had been the band's Tour Manager in the 1980s returned to take control of the band's drifting affairs. He enlisted producer Simon Dawson to help finish the project and by the autumn "Strange Brotherhood" was completed. Unsurprisingly, it's an album full to the brim with different and contrasting musical ideas while the lyrics range from the politics of the British Road Protest movement (in which Sullivan had been actively involved during 1996) to the deeply personal and sometimes unusually obscure. During the mixing, it was agreed that Justin and Robert would go their separate ways after the tour.
Then, suddenly Robert was diagnosed as having a brain tumour, and though the operation to remove it was successful, any prospect of touring was impossible. So he suggested that his place be taken by Michael Dean, a young drummer who had been working as his technician since 1993. Having watched Robert for some years, Michael was immediately comfortable with the role of drummer and with all other aspects of the band. The "Strange Brotherhood" tour began in the spring of 1998 and, happy to be back on the road at last, for the first couple of months, the band embarked on an ambitious programme of doing two sets each night, a 50 minute acoustic set followed by a full 90 minute rock. The tour continued on and off through to the end of the year.
By now Justin and Tommy Tee had restructured New Model Army's set-up to take account of the changes that the Internet was bringing to the whole music industry. This included making sure that the band owned every aspect of their work, and included their own record label (Attack Attack) to be distributed by different companies in different territories. 1999 began with a review of live shows recorded the previous year and their amalgamation into a live double album entitled "New Model Army and Nobody Else". After this Justin (assisted by Michael) began to write new songs for the next album. This was done quickly and easily for the first time since "Thunder", with Justin claiming to be "reborn as a song-writer." To keep up the momentum, it was decided to self-produce and to record the album in the band's own studio. Again this was done quickly with mostly Justin, Michael and Dean at the controls. (Living 250 and 300 miles from Bradford meant that Nelson and Dave were more occasional contributors for purely geographical reasons). The whole process was very much a reaction to the slow progress of "Strange Brotherhood", with the album given the simple name "Eight" to go with its whole stripped-down approach. It was released in the Spring of 2000 and was followed by more touring.
On October 23rd 2000, the band celebrated their 20th anniversary by playing another two set marathon at Rock City in Nottingham and then three months later, further special concerts in London and Koln which featured four completely different sets spread over two nights - a 57 song marathon in each city attended by over 7000 people.
One of the legacies of the lost years of the mid 1990s was a lot of unfinished material and next, Justin, Michael and Dean worked to finish and assemble this into accessible form, a double album "Lost Songs" released in 2002. Another ‘unfinished' project was Justin's long promised solo album and it was at this moment that he decided to pursue it. Meant to take just a few weeks to record and tour, "Navigating By The Stars" became another marathon. Hooking up with film and TV music producer, Ty Unwin, the first week of working coincided with ‘9/11'. Rather than making a political or angry response to unfolding events, the album's purpose was to ‘make something beautiful in an increasingly ugly World'. The album came out in 2003 to surprised and favourable reaction. At first touring alone with Dean (including a long awaited return to America), Justin was then joined by Michael playing percussion and the threesome bought a large mobile home and set off across Europe. The live album "Tales of the Road", released in 2004 captures their unique sound and stripped-down rearrangements of some of NMA's lesser known songs.
In 2004, an exhibition of all Joolz' artwork for the band plus collected memorabilia was assembled for a touring exhibition. Entitled ‘One Family, One Tribe' it has been on display in art galleries in Otley, York, Bradford and Hamm in Germany and there are plans for more future showings. Meanwhile, the band work began work on a new NMA album, at first focused around Michael's increasing creativity as a drummer. "Carnival" was recorded with producer Chris Tsangerides and mixed by Nat Chan. It's lyrical subjects and musical roots were as usual very eclectic but included many people's favourite NMA track, "Fireworks Night", Justin's emotional response to the sudden and unexpected death of Robert that Autumn. "Carnival" was released in September 2005, but when it came to the tour, Dave Blomberg was unable to participate for family reasons and his place was taken by Marshall Gill, a blues guitarist from Ashton Under Lyne, completing the band's current line-up in what Sullivan calls “the best version of NMA since 1985”.
The Carnival Tour marked another dynamic new beginning for the band, with Nelson sometimes playing as a second drummer, Dean sometimes as third guitarist and Michael and Marshall's energy much in evidence. Such was the sense of momentum and togetherness that for the first time in years, NMA moved quickly on to making another album with major contributions from all members. "High" was written and recorded in five months at the beginning of 2007, produced by old friend (and another production star, Chris Kimsey) and was ‘angrier' than any releases for a while and lyrically very much in tune with current realities.
The "High" tour rolled through 4 continents with the new line up now firmly in tune with itself and Marshall bringing a tougher edge to the band's sound - even managing to re-arrange the classic violin led anthem "Vagabonds" into a guitar led version. This and 16 other songs were released on a new live album, "Fuck Texas, Sing For Us", in November 2008 (the title taken from a chant at the band's New Orleans show that serves as the intro to the album).
The year ended with tours in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the customary December run of London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Koln with the band playing a fiery set of recent material. Remarkably, the band’s main 17 song set featured only two pre-2000 songs, as well as brand new material, a sure sign of the band’s forward momentum - and with their ticket sales up everywhere. Then, at Christmas, manager Tommy Tee died suddenly and unexpectedly. This was a major shock to everyone in and around the band, not only because as he ran all aspects of the band's affairs but also as a major part of the NMA family and history since 1982.
It took a while before the band could refocus but by Spring 2009, they were back in the studio working on their eleventh studio album, “Today Is A Good Day”. Mostly written in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street Collapse (an event celebrated in the white-hot opening title track), it was recorded in the band’s own studio in Bradford with Chris Kimsey once more at the controls. Chris wrote “the NMA 'family business' is back in full swing. The boys sound brave & united.” The album was hailed as one of their very best and the album tour began with a month in North America and went on for a further six months ending with a triumphant return to Glastonbury and other Festivals in the summer.
In the Autumn of 2010, the band celebrated their 30th Anniversary with the release of boxsets, books, DVDs and a full set of retrospective material and set out on the curious and challenging schedule. Promising to play a minimum of four songs from each of their 13 albums (including the two B-sides compilations) over two nights, they performed this marathon in different cities on four continents every weekend from September until Christmas. The final weekend in London was recorded and released in full as a five hour DVD.
After such a hectic year, 2011 was always going to be relatively quiet with the band concentrating on writing material for their next project. Consciously looking for something new after two convincing great rock band recorded live in a studio albums. this is a work in progress interrupted only by a handful of full band shows and rather more of the semi-acoustic Justin and Dean duo concerts. But then, as the year ended, disaster once again struck with a fire, started in the next door furniture outlet, raging through the band's Bradford base destroying pretty their whole studio set-up. No one was injured and the band have remarkably been able to salvage some of their touring gear from inside flight-cases. However, while remaining characteristically upbeat about the future, the band acknowledge that the loss of so much gear and a place to work will delay their plans for 2012. Meanwhile, in the background, BBC/Channel Four diector, Matt Reid, has been putting together a documentary film about the group for release sometime this year.
This is a remarkable band - as hungry and focused as ever, with a continually regenerating audience and insatiable creative ambition.
I am very interested in flesh and skin and wanted to explore how body parts can appear like a human puzzle when isolated in a close up frame.
Frantic activity as 55002 pauses at Manchester Victoria on 29 October 1981 with the 13:05 Liverpool-York.
In memory of Armen --
via Enterprise News Oct 21, 2011 -- Armen Amerigian was frantic when he drove up in front of the West Bridgewater liquor store owned by his nephew Walter Thayer about 11 a.m. Thursday. Amerigian, owner of Armen Amerigian Antiques next door on West Center Street, lowered his minivan’s window and yelled to Thayer, “I’ve been robbed.” “I didn’t have time to even say a word,” Thayer recalled later. He watched as his 82-year-old uncle took off after an armed man who, just minutes earlier, had brandished a handgun during a robbery of Amerigian’s store. Thayer called 911 – but his thoughts were with his elderly uncle, a Marine Corps veteran with a knack for fighting off robbery suspects.
“Armen’s the wrong one to mess with,” West Bridgewater police Sgt. Christopher Werner said. “Armen’s a tough old guy.” Amerigian had kicked another robber on the leg and out of his antiques store in May.
“I don’t want to see him get hurt,” said Thayer, owner of Hockomock Liquors, shortly after Thursday’s robbery. “But that’s the way he is.” About 11 a.m., police say, Robert Tillman, 40, of Easron walked into Amerigian’s antiques store on Route 106, brandished a black semiautomatic handgun, stole jewelry and fled. Early police reports said he was wearing a woman’s wig.
But the 82-year-old Amerigian, also the town’s veterans agent for more than four decades, didn’t back down. Amerigian jumped into his blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan and drove after Tillman, chasing the armed suspect for more than a dozen miles – along North Elm Street in West Bridgewater, through Copeland, Torrey and Pearl streets in Brockton, and along Route 138 in Stoughton to near the Canton line.
“They were all over the place,” Werner said. One police officer was heard on the scanner saying: “Armen will chase him to Boston if he has to.” During the chase, Amerigian made a cell phone call to state police, giving authorities a partial license plate number and description of the suspect’s vehicle, Werner said. The dramatic chase involved state police and officers from Easton, Stoughton, East Bridgewater and Brockton. Amerigian broke off the chase about 11:15 a.m. on Route 138 in Stoughton, because Tillman had run through many red lights, police said. At 11:53 a.m., Easton police officer Lonnie Ataman spotted Tillman’s red truck heading west on Foundry Street, at the Eastman Street intersection on Easton’s west side. Ataman and Sgt. Mike Fox stopped the vehicle, guns drawn, and placed Tillman under arrest.
Easton Police Chief Allen Krajcik said Tillman was “no problem” during his arrest. Police brought Amerigian to identify Tillman at the scene and then transported Tillman to West Bridgewater for booking. State police K-9 units were searching Thursday afternoon for the backpack and firearm that Tillman was suspected of carrying. Tillman, 40, of 658 Foundry St., Easton, was charged with armed robbery and assault and battery on a person over 65, police said. He was also arrested on an Easton default warrant for an unlicensed motor vehicle offense, police said. He was to be arraigned today in Brockton District Court.
On May 16, Amerigian fought back when a suspect walked into the West Center Street shop about 3 p.m., said he had a knife and demanded money. During that robbery, Werner said Amerigian gave the robber “a swift kick.” The elderly man’s feistiness aside, Werner warned business people from going after robbery suspects, especially when they are armed. People should call police.
“You should not chase down the suspect yourself,” Werner said. “Do nothing that endangers any kind of victim’s safety at all.” Amerigian, however, doesn’t back down in any confrontation. When an Enterprise reporter asked him about the chase at his antiques store later on Thursday, Amerigian pointed a finger at the reporter and complained about the media attention he received in May after he tossed that would-be robber from his store, which carries a sign that reads, “Days Gone By.”
“You made all the TV stations come to my house last time,” Amerigian told The Enterprise. Then, Amerigian said he formerly worked as a reporter for the Fall River Herald as a young man. Shaking his head, he sipped his coffee and said he wouldn’t talk about the chase. Staff writer Erik Potter contributed to this report. Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.
Read more: www.enterprisenews.com/answerbook/westbridgewater/x366614...
Over the past few weeks we have been sitting near a pond/dam of water waiting for birds to come in to drink.
The large orange wasps have been coming in for a drink and pick up their mates.
The tryst in the bushes. What unusual mating parts they have.
A elf frantically wrapping presents before Christmas eve, At Macy's 46th Annual Holiday Show - A Day in the Life of an Elf. 8th Floor Downtown Minneapolis.
TAGGED by --> Gingersnap! and that ridiculous long link. www.flickr.com/photos/ashleynorquistphotography/4193396365/
1. My photography class requires a film camera... the only film camera own in my life has a Pokemon on in. I don't even know how to load the thing lol.
2. I ate so many pickles the other day my fingers turned yellow
3. Only indoor pet I ever had was . One albino goldfish name bubbles, when he died i buried him in the driveway.
4. I have two fender guitars, and a prorat fuzz pedal. i'll learn to play those one day.
5. Instead of a project 365, i think I'll do a project 52 (weeks in a year)
6. I just kicked some butt at the board game Settlers of catan! w00t!
7. Wanted to do a portrait or something for the tag but I'm always going somewhere.
8. Only alcohol drinks I kinda like is wine, and rum with coke. BEER YUK!
9. I publicly declared the other day, that a "Those foreign monstrosity of wannabe grandmas Christmas cookies objects, possibly could not come from her house!"
well...they came her house...
10. I watched Monty python and the holy grail for the first time, and didn't laugh once. But I'll differently watch it again.
Keith Weesner is by far one of the coolest artists out there. Just can't get enough of his art. Please check it out sometime.
26 February 1991
1922hrs local
Objective Brass, 40 miles north of the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border
In the fading dusk of the third day of the ground war of Operation Desert Storm, the Warrior IFVs of the 3rd Royal Fusiliers Infantry of the 4th Armoured Brigade of the British Army were taking a short pause to realign their combat formation before continuing their push for Objective Tungsten just north of Kuwait along the main highway to Basra. Over 40 of the Warrior IFVs were arrayed out across the Iraqi desert, interspersed with the Challenger tanks of the 14/20 King's Hussars ("A" Squadron of the King's Hussars had been dispatched earlier in the day to reinforce the 3rd Royal Fusiliers). The day's advance in deteriorating weather and the smoke from oil field fires presented the greatest challenge after the elimination of the core of the Iraqi 52nd Armored Division. The Challengers would take the point and take on enemy armor they encountered, followed by infantry support from the Warrior IFVs to clear out obstacles, trenches, and potential tank ambush sites.
Just two days ago the entire British 1st Armoured Division smashed across the thin defenses of the Iraqi-Saudi border following a breach created by the US Army's "Big Red One", the First Infantry Division. Meeting little resistance over the next 36 hours, the British armored units then swung around to the east as the inner flank of General Schwarzkopf's left hook deep into Iraq to cut off Saddam Hussein's forces in Kuwait. With the US Third Armored Division on their left flank and the US First Mechanized Division on the right flank, they encountered the advance elements of the Iraqi 52nd Armored Division. Within hours a full-scale tank battle ensued that in four hours resulted in the British First Armoured pushing past what was left of the 52nd and the seizure of Objective Brass.
A fierce sandstorm in Riyadh that afternoon had grounded the evening's JSTARS mission and though the new airborne SAR system was still in testing, ground commanders were very impressed with the quality of data JSTARS was feeding them on the disposition and movement of the Iraqi forces. But it would be fate in the fading dusk that a freak sandstorm grounded the planned JSTARS mission to cover the advance of the British and American soldiers of VII Corps this evening.
The rapid fluidity of the battlefield led the American 155mm artillery and MLRS units to hold back on resuming their punishing barrage on entrenched units ahead of the British First Armoured Division. The worsening weather conditions precluded any overhead reconnaissance imagery until the CAOC in Riyadh could dispatch a team of A-10s to scout the area to prevent any friendly fire. It was a pause that gave one of the divisions of the vaunted Republican Guard their only lucky break of the ground war.
In the fog of war, confusion often sneaks up without warning and the intelligence officers of the VII Corps were fairly certain from the recon data so far that the Tawakalana Division of the Republican Guard were far to the north and engaged by the US 2nd Cavalry. But what they didn't know was that the 2nd Cav was encountering scattered elements of the 52nd Armored Division that had retreated to the north to try and link up with the Republican Guard. As fate would have it, the T-72s of the Tawakalana Division were moving south and passed behind the front lines where the remnants of the 52nd were engaged with the 2nd Cav.
With low stratus cloud moving into the area as part of the same weather system that stirred up the dust storm over Riyadh, visibilities were decreasing with light rain showers passing through the area. In this murky soup without the omniscient eye of the JSTARS, the Tawakalana Division was headed straight for the tanks of the British First Armoured with the Warrior IFVs of the 3rd Royal Fusiliers on the flank where they had been scouting the left flank of the main British armored advance.
With several of the officers of the Royal Fusiliers were dismounted from their IFVs and conferring as crews prepared to resume their advance, a thundering boom of a main battle tank's gun startled everyone- the first assumption was that it was one of the Challengers that had fired at something, but the Challenger crews were just as startled...and then the first Warrior IFVs were destroyed in a brilliant flash of light and thunderous clap of an explosion. With men scrambling for their vehicles, the turrets of the Warrior IFVs wheeled around, but the 30mm cannon would be of little use against the 125mm smoothbore cannon of the Tawakalana's T-72s. The Challenger tanks of A Squadron of the King's Hussars attached to the Fusiliers quickly regained their wits and moved to engage the Iraqi tanks advancing on the left. With the training of the British tankers, they would be an even match for the battle hardened Iraqi tankers of the Republican Guard considering their much smaller numbers this evening as the main British armored element was further to the south.
Looking into their sights, the British soldiers saw the unmistakable shape of dismounted soldiers amongst the Iraqi forces. And there were a lot of them, probably having dismounted from their own IFVs behind the line of T-72s that were firing into the British positions.
With British infantrymen dismounting from the Warriors to take positions to keep the Iraqi infantry units from closing the gap with the British forces, the call came in over the close air support frequencies for assistance "with a large mixed force of enemy units". The call went up the ladder to a EC-130 ABCCC that then contacted the nearest airborne attack units- a group of RAF Hawker VSTOL fighters that were outbound from KKMC (King Khalid Military City) to work a kill box deep behind the front lines. The distinctively fork-tailed fighters had the benefit of radars and EO/LLTV equipment to see through the thickening murk of the evening.
Within a matter of minutes, a FAC liason attached to the British units fed the inbound fighters the necessary information in the customary if not frantic nine-line brief and before long more than just rain was falling on the advancing Iraqi units. It was steel rain. Thousands upon thousands of bomblets from BL.755 cluster bombs were raining down as the Hawker fighters dropped their loads across the advancing line of Iraqis. It was as if the evening was lit up with fireworks, only these fireworks were going off at ground level and sowing mass confusion among the Iraqi ranks as soldiers were being cut down enmasse and soft skinned IFVs were being ripped to shreds as the distinctive shriek of the Hawkers' PCB Pegasus engines pierced the coming darkness. With most of the infantry and IFVs out of the way, the guns of the Challenger tanks began to systematically pick off the T-72s, blowing holes in the side of the T-72s with sabot rounds and cooking off the ammunition inside the hulls. The turrets of the T-72s were literally being blown off by secondary explosions.
With the British units holding the line, the Hawker fighters demonstrated their VSTOL flexibility in the close air support role as they dashed back behind the Coalition lines to a FARP (forward arming and refuelling point) 30 miles to the west where RAF Chinooks had flown in fuel bladders, munitions, and ground crew earlier in the day. Though the initial plan was for the Hawkers to use the FARP later in the evening after working their originally assigned kill box, its fortuitous location on a stretch of highway would be instrumental in the battle that would end up raging all night as some of the Hawkers made two trips to the FARP before returning to KKMC. Some missions returned the battlefield with CRV-7 unguided rockets which proved deadly to entrenched units. Later missions that night were flown just using the Hawker's twin 27mm Mauser cannon to devastating effect in strafing runs. With the battlefield stablized as the last of the Hawkers returned to KKMC, American 155mm artillery and MLRS began to systemically grind down the elements of the Tawakalana Division as surviving units retreated eastward towards the main highway to Basra. But it was leftovers and sloppy seconds for the artillery as the fork-tailed VSTOL Hawkers had more than their share of the main course earlier that night.
The speed, avionics, and load-carrying capability of the Hawker P.1216s in the Battle of Objective Brass would have a profound effect on the following year's round of procurement with the US Marine Corps............
Given the performance leap of the P.1216 over the Harrier and even the Harrier II, it's not unreasonable to think of the P.1216 as also filling in the roles undertaken by the RAF Jaguar fleet and that's what got me thinking of some P.1216s in the Desert Sand scheme used by RAF attack aircraft during Operation Desert Storm.
The above illustration is a No. IV Squadron machine but without the flamboyant tail markings (a more subdued tail flash instead). Weapons loadout consists of Sidewinder missiles on the wingtip stations, external tank under each wing, and a total of six BL.755 cluster bombs.
When you frantically run out of fry time on your way to a Super Bowl party, you are faced with leftovers. Those leftovers then become New Hampshire Primary snack food... #squid #calamari #food #democracy
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The Rest of the Dragon Boat Story:
This is the third year I have done this, but for many on our boat it was their first or second year. The boat club purchased new racing boats this year and they are less stable on the water. When it was our turn to race we were being rushed. However, the last racers had not gotten all the life jackets to the people who pass them off to the next group. So, we were 4 short. Then finally we were only one short. While the rest of our boat went to the dock, one girl (who can't swim) was wrestling with her jacket. She was the last one to receive one. The straps were tangled and the zipper didn't want to zip. FINALLY we were able to get all our people to the dock. We kept being rushed, which was the first problem. Then, once we boarded our boat, our steersman said we were left-heavy. But, instead of moving people around to correct that, he was rushed out of the docking area. BAD MOVE! I credit part of the problem with the "sheepherders" on the dock rushing people around. So, we finally backpaddle out of the docking area and get far enough out to where we can start paddling forward. We made about 5 strokes when the steersman made a fatal move, which caused our whole left side to tip over into the ice cold water. I have NEVER seen a dragon boat tip over. I was on the left side of the boat and when I went UNDER, the right side people were on top of me. You know that muffled sound you hear underwater? I hear that with all these frantic movements of arms and hands flailing and muffled yelling above water. I was trying desperately to get my head above water and I couldn't get out from below the people who fell above me. So, I swam out from the boat and finally shot out above water, coughing and coughing. I MUST have swallowed some water. Now, here I am with two pairs of pants on, exercise pants and raingear pants, a pair of running shoes, socks and only a t-shirt on. I was weighed down and cold. Someone was yelling, "Hang onto the boat!" So there was everyone grabbing onto the overturned boat. I couldn't get my hand on it. Then, the effort was made to upturn it, but when we did that, the boat just came up with water in it and tipped back over. My GOD that water was cold! FINALLY the rescue boat came along and we tried swimming to it. People were clinging to the side of that boat while one at a time we tried climbing the ladder to get onto that boat. About three people stayed back at the other boat to tip it back and bail it out. When it was my turn to get on the rescue boat, two sets of hands reached up to pull me over the boat. BAD idea! They start dragging my body over the edge of the gunwhales and my rib caught on the side and it was excruciatingly painful! I yelled at them to let me go. Then, I just tried the rope ladder but it swung to the bottom side of the boat. So, then I just asked for ONE set of hands and I would use my other to hang on. I was finally able to swing my soaking wet and heavy leg over the side and find a spot among the others. At one point THAT boat tipped and we all screamed. LOL But, it didn't go over. Whew! Meanwhile, back on shore, someone made an announcement for extra blankets and towels to be ready for us when we got back in and they were. Once we made it back to the dock, there was applause and cheers for us. Hehe. We were in the local paper the next day. Then, in an editorial a few days later, someone wrote about how well we handled ourselves. We finally did race a couple of hours later, but we were so gunshy from our experience that the least little movement made everyone forget their training and they just lost it. Everytime the boat tipped, paddles came up. Our time was 1:38. Our best time two years ago (my first year) was 1:16, and our best LAST year was 1:13. This year, the best COMPETITIVE race time was 1:14 and the best non-competitive time was 1:19. We could have had our first place trophy this year had we not been rushed and had we had a steersman who knew what he was doing. It was a steersman last year that ALMOST dunked us in the middle of our final heat that lost us a second place trophy! So, that is the story behind these photos. Enjoy!
Oh yeah. My rib and ribcage have been killing me all week so I am going to the doctor Monday to see what is going on.
I visited Motherwell in Glasgow Scotland today Tuesday the 5th of March 2019, I checked Google Maps for recommended places to visit while I was there, this site caught my attention.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, it really was excellent , capturing my visit and archiving here on my Flickr .
Carfin Lourdes Grotto, a Roman Catholic shrine in Scotland dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, was created in the early twentieth century.
The "Carfin Grotto", as the shrine is locally referred to, was the brainchild of Father, later Canon, Thomas N. Taylor (died 1963), parish priest of St. Francis Xavier's Parish in the small, mining village of Carfin, which lies two miles east of Motherwell, in the West of Scotland. Following a trip to France's principal Marian shrine at Lourdes, Canon Taylor's vision was to build a religious memorial in honour of Our Blessed Lady based on the template of the Grotto of Massabielle.
Realizing this vision was to become his life's work. Since its opening in the early 1920s, the "grotto" has attracted pilgrims in the hundreds of thousands and its environs have been modified and enhanced with rich Catholic symbols and buildings. For the past 90 plus years, the grotto shrine has offered a pilgrimage season with Sunday processions, rosaries, outdoor masses and dedicated Feast Day events which runs annually from early May until late September.
Early days
Statue of Mary at Carfin
Work on the Carfin version of the Lourdes Grotto began in the early 1920s.
The shrine was built, by hand, by local parishioners on a site opposite the St. Francis Xavier's parish Church. Many of the builders were coal miners from Carfin and neighbouring villages out of work during the 1921 Coal Miners' Strike. It is said that Fr. Taylor was aware of the need to keep these workers occupied to minimise the effects of unemployment on their morale.
Fr. Taylor inspired hard work and dedication from his workers.
Starting with a bare field in 1920, a frantic period of endeavour driven by the faith and zeal of the volunteers resulted in the shrine being largely complete within two years. It officially opened in 1922.
The grotto's central scene depicted Our Lady's appearance to Saint Bernadette in a bricked, terraced garden which included an altar for outdoor Mass, when the West of Scotland weather allowed. Canon Taylor's book of the shrine's first thirty years records over 300 volunteers working on the grotto in its first two decades. He also records a single pilgrimage of over fifty thousand pilgrims in 1924.
Growth and Development of the Shrine
Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima
The shrine opened in late 1922 and it quickly became a pilgrimage site for Catholics from across Scotland and the rest of the world. Services were held for the Polish and Lithuanian communities that had settled in Scotland. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims of different faiths have visited Carfin.
The shrine expanded beyond a single field to many acres between 1922 and the 1960s. The grotto later added a Glass Chapel situated on a raised "Headland" above the main pilgrim walkway. The grotto grounds house many life-size depictions of Christ, Our Blessed Lady and many saints. It also contains a life-size representation of Jesus' life with Mary and Joseph in their Loretto house and carpentry shop, which is depicted in a cave; a Reliquary; as well as a sunken garden. Many holy statues and artifacts were added to the central Lourdes Grotto scene. Other depictions include the Way of the Cross, a large number of statues of Saints, and a statue honouring Our Lady, Star of the Sea, complete with miniature lakes.
On Sunday afternoons at 3pm, between May and October, Rosary processions are held. These are traditionally attended by thousands of visitors. The rosary is led by the parish priest, a tradition started by Fr. Taylor and carried on by his successor, Fr. George Mullen (later Canon George Mullen).
The priest would stand on the parapet of the Glass Chapel, from which a clear view could be obtained, both of the Grotto itself and of the movement of the procession along the shrine's gravel paths.
Each Sunday procession culminated in Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the upper Glass Chapel. Many local people remember the discomfort of kneeling in the gravel as children, at the moment of adoration in the Benediction service.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
In addition to his devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, Canon Taylor also admired Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the "Little Flower". This admiration began during the Canon's visits to France where devotion to the Carmelite nun rose rapidly following her death in 1897. One catalyst for this growth was the posthumous publication of St. Thérèse's autobiography, "Story of A Soul". Canon Taylor was an acknowledged expert on the life and work of St. Thérèse and authored the first English translation of her autobiography in 1912.
He published subsequent articles in Catholic newspapers of the day to promote devotion to the little Carmelite nun of Lisieux throughout the United Kingdom.
Her enclosed life of devotion to Jesus and her "little way" to God attracted considerable admiration in Scotland, England and Ireland following these publications. Canon Taylor believed that St. Thérèse, a future Doctor of the Church, would become an important figure early in the new century. He also spoke to the Vatican Committee which considered St. Thérèse's cause for canonization and was present in Rome in 1925 when little Thérèse was proclaimed a Saint of the Church.
So, as a measure of his devotion to the Little Flower, the Canon added a statue of St. Thérèse directly across from that of Our Lady of Lourdes. The shrine's statue to St. Thérèse was erected within weeks of her beatification in Rome by Pope Pius XI on 29 April 1923, an event which the Canon attended.
The decision to erect the statue was controversial. Some pilgrims expressed the view that this "new" Saint's statue should not stand in such proximity to that of the Blessed Mother.
The Canon took the unusual step of collecting these opinions and sending copies to the Superior of the Carmelite convent in France where St. Thérèse had lived her vocational life.
The Mother Superior's advice was that the statue should remain in its location, and she predicted that the Carfin Lourdes Grotto would enjoy large numbers of pilgrims as a result.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the secondary patroness of the grotto after Our Lady.
National and International Pilgrims
By the time of Canon Taylor's death in 1963, the Carfin Lourdes Grotto enjoyed a high national profile and attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims annually. Among the many seasonal pilgrimages to the shrine, each May, First Communicants from surrounding diocesan parishes visited for procession, with lines of white-dressed girls and school-blazered boys.
As the region is rich in Irish immigrants, local Hibernian groups attended the shrine annually on procession. Lithuanian and Polish groups also attended the shrine on annual pilgrimage.
New Additions
Memorial to Black Madonna of Częstochowa
Following the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival,[5] the glass chapel used at the event was relocated to Carfin Grotto, where it was placed near the arena of Our Lady, Star of the Sea in the lower garden area of the grotto. This building, the grotto's second Glass Chapel, was subsequently dedicated to the victims of the Lockerbie Disaster. Daily Mass is now celebrated in this glass chapel, now named Our Lady, Maid of the Seas after the ill-fated aircraft from Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed near the Scottish town of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.
More recently, the Reliquary opened within the Grotto grounds and features many religious artifacts used throughout the years at various processions and celebrations.
Most recently, a new Pilgrimage Centre opened in 1997, featuring an exhibition of the history of different faiths and beliefs, as well as displaying various religious artifacts.
The centre also features a cafe and shop.