Simone Martini (Siena, ca. 1284 - Avignon, 1344) - Madonna and Child with Angels (central compartment of polyptychs (ca. 1322-1324) - tempera, gold and silver leaf on panel 182.7 x 59.7 (excluding the 17th century frame) - provenance Orvieto, church of San Francesco - MODO, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Orvieto

  

Simone Martini è stato un pittore e miniatore, considerato indiscutibilmente uno dei maestri della scuola senese e sicuramente uno dei maggiori e più influenti artisti del Trecento italiano, l'unico in grado di contendere lo scettro di maggiore artista del trecento a Giotto. La sua formazione avvenne, probabilmente, nella bottega di Duccio di Buoninsegna.

 

Simone Martini was a painter and miniaturist, indisputably considered one of the masters of the Sienese school and certainly one of the greatest and most influential artists of the Italian fourteenth century, the only one able to contend for the sceptre of greatest artist of the fourteenth century to Giotto. Its formation happened, probably, in the store of Duccio di Buoninsegna.

Beale Street's entertainment district is an important site in the history of the blues, that influential musical form which has had an impact on American rock, jazz, pop, and symphonic music. Theaters also held an important place in the life of Beale Street. The largest show-house for blacks in the South was the Palace Theater on Beale. It was famous for its traditional Tuesday night amateur shows. The old Pastime, opened in 1909, was the first theater for blacks on Beale Street. The Daisy Theatre (seen in the photo above) was constructed in 1912 and a loan was secured on a handshake. The 'Old' Daisy is a prime surviving example of nickelodeon architecture from the early cinema era. The tiny hall features a grand half dome entrance on Memphis’s famous Beale Street.

 

The Daisy Theatre is unusual in that the stage and screen are on the sidewalk end of the building. Double doors on either side of the half-dome enter into small vestibules one on either side of the stage. Emerging from the vestibules, you have the audience looking at you! There is a small balcony, vaguely horse-shoe shaped, supported from above with iron rods. This is the reason for the reverse design, the fire escapes from the balcony and booth could only open onto the alley behind the building. There was no lobby at all, just hallways. Despite its tiny stage, The Daisy was a prime performing venue on the so-called “Chitlin' Circuit” from the 1930’s up into the 1960’s.

 

During much of the 20th century Beale Street served as the business and entertainment center for African-Americans from all over the Mid-South. This extensive history resulted in the Beale Street Historic District being listed as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) and included on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on October 15, 1966. In addition, the historic district had its boundary increased on July 29, 1993. Included in the original listing as a contributing structure was The 'Old' Daisy Theatre. All the information above about the historic district (and much more) was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration and can be viewed here:

npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/86ff03b2-f33a-4377-b51...

 

Information about The Daisy Theatre above was found on the following website:

cinematreasures.org/theaters/10962

 

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.

 

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11

 

The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/

In studying Andre Kertesz's photography I really like how he captured the shadows in his images. There is an artistic and pleasing balance between the subject and shadows.

 

This is my attempt at a still life "influenced" by Kertesz's work.

"La Giralda" es el monumento más emblemático de Sevilla, aúna lo mejor del crisol de culturas que se dio en la ciudad hispalense entre almohades y cristianos. Una torre admirada e influyente a lo largo de su historia, tan bella como las vistas que ofrece.

 

"La Giralda" is the most emblematic monument in Seville, it combines the best of the melting pot of cultures that occurred in the city of Seville between Almohads and Christians. An admired and influential tower throughout its history, as beautiful as the views it offers.

 

Sevilla (Andalucía/ Spain)

Buddhism was influential in ancient times and Christianity had influenced large segments of the population in the 18th and 19th century, yet they grew rapidly in membership only by the mid-20th century, as part of the profound transformations that South Korean society went through in the past century. But they have shown some decline from the year 2000 onwards. Buddhism entered Korea from China during the period of the three kingdoms (372, or the 4th century). Buddhism was the dominant religious and cultural influence in the North–South States Period (698–926) and subsequent Goryeo (918-1392) states. Confucianism was also brought to Korea from China in early centuries, and was formulated as Korean Confucianism in Goryeo. However, it was only in the subsequent Joseon kingdom (1392–1910) that Korean Confucianism was established as the state ideology and religion, and Korean Buddhism underwent 500 years of suppression. Buddhism in the contemporary state of South Korea is stronger in the east of the country, namely the Yeongnam and Gangwon regions, as well as in Jeju.

Sculpture in Schönbrunn

 

"Aspasia [...] c. 470 BC[...] – c. 400 BC)[...] was an influential immigrant to Classical-era Athens who was the lover and partner of the statesman Pericles. The couple had a son, Pericles the Younger, but the full details of the couple's marital status are unknown. According to Plutarch, her house became an intellectual centre in Athens, attracting the most prominent writers and thinkers, including the philosopher Socrates. It has also been suggested that the teachings of Aspasia influenced Socrates. Aspasia is mentioned in the writings of Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and others. Though she spent most of her adult life in Greece, few details of her life are fully known. Some scholars suggest that Aspasia was a brothel keeper and a prostitute. Aspasia's role in history provides crucial insight to the understanding of the women of ancient Greece. Very little is known about women from her time period. One scholar stated that, "To ask questions about Aspasia's life is to ask questions about half of humanity."" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspasia

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptures_in_the_Sch%C3%B6nbrunn_G...

 

From my series "Shoot First, Ask Later"

 

The influential urban activist, Jane Jacobs once compared the activity on a city block to “a complex and intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole.” In taking this image, I was struck by how each person in it is busy going about their own business apparently unaware of what anyone else is doing. Yet I thought also of Jacobs' metaphor and of the underlying connections that link this street scene and the countless others like it to the larger dance of a living, vibrant city,

   

Very, very difficult... Henri´s street photography is awesome and very strong, and definitely his style is very dificult to catch. You need to be a superb photographer and to stay in the precise moment... I always lose the scene or shot in a too slow speed. The hardest style for the time being, at least for me.

 

Sorry for the delay posting, but I tried a lot of places and subjects in order to get a good photo. This is the result. I hope you enjoy it.

Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925) was an American artist born in Lowell, Massachusetts. After early figure-painting and illustration, he became prominent as a landscape painter. Generally associated with American Impressionism, he is also remembered for his New England landscapes and involvement with the Old Lyme Art Colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut and his influential years at the Cornish Art Colony.

 

Metcalf painted Winter's Festival in 1913. During the 1910s, his career began to hit full stride. By the 1920s, he was producing what many consider to be his finest paintings, and he received critical acclaim.

 

This Metcalf original was seen and photographed on display at

San Francisco's de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.

  

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens

 

Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica region and is the southernmost capital on the European mainland. With its urban area's population numbering over 3.6 million, it is the eighth-largest urban area in the European Union (EU). The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which constitutes a small administrative unit of the entire urban area, had a population of 643,452 in 2021, within its official limits, and a land area of 38.96 square kilometres (15.04 square miles).

 

Athens is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years, and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. According to Greek mythology, the city was named after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, but modern scholars generally agree that the goddess took her name after the city. Classical Athens was one of the most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. It was a centre for Hellenistic democracy, the arts, education and philosophy, and was highly influential throughout the European continent, particularly in Ancient Rome. For this reason it is often regarded as the cradle of Western civilisation and the birthplace of democracy in its own right independently from the rest of Greece.

 

In modern times Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece. It is a Beta (+) – status global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is one of the biggest economic centres in Southeast Europe. It also has a large financial sector, and its port Piraeus is both the second-busiest passenger port in Europe and the thirteenth-largest container port in the world. The Athens metropolitan area extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits as well as its urban agglomeration, with a population of 3,638,281 in 2021 over an area of 2,928.717 km2 (1,131 sq mi).

 

The heritage of the Classical Era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments, and works of art, the most famous of these being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western culture. Athens retains Roman, Byzantine and a smaller number of Ottoman monuments, while its historical urban core features elements of continuity through its millennia of history. Athens contains two World Heritage Sites recognised by UNESCO: the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Athens is home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of five cities to have hosted the Summer Olympics on more than one occasion.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(Greece) "اليونان" "希腊" "Grèce" "Griechenland" "יוון" "ग्रीस" "ギリシャ" "그리스" "Греция" "Grecia" "Hellenic Republic" "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία"

 

(Athens) "أثينا" "雅典" "Athènes" "Athen" "אתונה" "एथेंस" "アテネ" "아테네" "Афины" "Atenas"

 

(Europe) Europa "European Union" "أوروبا" "欧洲" "אירופה" "यूरोप" "ヨーロッパ" "유럽" "Европа"

Irving Penn, Influential photographers...another great learning experience trying to create an image influenced by a great photographer. It was interesting learning the mechanics of positioning for this photo as well as Penn's vision which was to project the independence of woman. Link to Irving Penn's photo. americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/penn/05.cfm

Two Jack Lake was named in 1959 after two influential locals—Jack Stanley and Jack Watters—whose lives shaped early Banff.

 

Jack Stanley, known as “Captain Jack,” ran boat tours on nearby Lake Minnewanka and helped popularize the area for visitors in the early 1900s. Jack Watters was a prominent figure in the coal mining town of Bankhead, located at the base of Cascade Mountain. Their contributions to tourism and industry earned them a shared legacy in the lake’s name.

 

Beyond its name, Two Jack Lake is a tranquil arm of Lake Minnewanka, offering postcard views of Mount Rundle and easy access from Banff. It’s a favorite for sunrise photography, kayaking, and winter skating—especially when methane bubbles freeze beneath the surface. The lake’s calm beauty and layered history make it a quiet but meaningful stop in the Rockies.

National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece, within the exhibition "Countless Aspects of Beauty" in Ancient Art. The exhibition presented a timeline of aesthetic trends, evolving from neolithic times to late antiquity.

 

This photo shows the marble statue of Aphrodite of the Syracuse type, 2nd c. AD. Also, another outstanding sculpture completes the scene: the sleeping little Eros, who is looking like he sleeps at the feet of the goddess. This Aphrodite statue which was discovered in southern Italy, at Baiae in the Bay of Naples (once a hedonistic seaside playground for ancient Rome’s rich and famous), probably adorned a luxurious bath or garden. It is made of Parian marble and has a height of 1.8 m. The statue was restored by the sculptor Antonio Canova, since it initially lacked head, neck and right arm. It is a Roman copy of a Greek original. With her left hand, the goddess holds her dress to prevent it from falling down, while with her right attempts to cover her left breast. Thus, the statue belongs to the Venus pudica type (suggesting an action to cover the breasts), which derives from a statue of the famous Athenian sculptor Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Cnidus, which Pliny the Elder, the writer of encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), described as “superior to all the statues … of any … artist that ever existed.” Praxiteles introduced an important legacy of artistic revolution, when around 350 BC pioneered a new perception of nudity in Greek art when he created the first beautifully unclad female figure, the Aphrodite of Knidos (Cnidus). The original Greek sculpture is no longer in existence; however, the successors, the Roman copies, like the one in the image, survive of this influential work of art.

 

Born from the foam of the sea, according to the Hesoid, was Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus (the Sky). Her companions were Eros and Himerus (desire). Having travelled as far as the shores of Cyprus, the goddess emerged from the sea waves. There, as mythological tradition has it, the Horai (seasons of the year) and the Graces, anointed her, dressed her in divine robes, adorned her with bright ornaments and led her to Olympus. Since then her allotted task was to offer erotic desire to gods and mortals. According to Homer, the bewitching goddess was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.

 

The unsurpassed beauty of Aphrodite transcends the ancient art that records in a vivid and glorious manner her sensual figure. Associated sometimes with legends narrating her adventures and at other times with her cult, the image of the goddess embodies the essence of female beauty and symbolizes the generative power of sexual union.

 

This image is included in the galleries

Van drone Galleries: Sculptures- Esculturas curated by Van dorne Galleries

 

Antiquities curated by Jiakometi

 

CLASSICS curated by Creamy Pet

  

This is a rural scene but it is neither from this time or place. It imagines how Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) may have populated the Tasmanian landscape in his medieval imagination. His classic novel "Ivanhoe" (1819) is perhaps the most influential medieval fantasy of all time. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanhoe

 

This photo montage consists of 13 individual photographs taken by me, mostly at the Sheffield Medieval Festival in October 2019. And yes, that's a real wedge tailed eagle flying away in the sky. The landscape itself was probably painted by John Glover (1767-1849) who lived just up the road in Van Diemen's Land. But he never imagined it like this.

 

Dedication:

 

As a boy growing up in the highlands of New Guinea there were many people who made impressions on my life in a strange country. At the time in the 1960s - before the country gained independence in 1975 - the Australian administrators used a system of Kiaps or Patrol Officers to govern the remote provinces. openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/126312/...

 

At Laiagam where we lived in the Lagaip River Valley, the local Kiap was Denys Faithful. Denys reminds me now of Errol Flynn (who also spent some early years in New Guinea looking for gold), a swashbuckling character who once played a trick on me by threatening to throw my visiting grandfather in the calaboose (prison). After my outraged pleas he took the handcuffs off and there were laughs all round. Denys was also a serious pilot and owned his own Stinson named "Big Ben".

 

But Denys' real passion was painting. I remember being awed to walk into his studio setup and see the wonderful pictures he was working on at the time, and that smell of fresh oils has stayed with me ever since. Denys specialised in aircraft portraits (not surprisingly) and I recall seeing his masterpiece at the old Port Moresby Airport. It was a mural that included every type of aircraft that had ever flown in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. I can't say it directly influenced this sort of photo art, but his work was certainly collage-like.

 

Legendary Tasmanian journalist Tim Bowden once interviewed Faithful:

"I remember having a great recording session in Queensland with a former kiap called Denys Faithful, who as a young man, had worked in the Highlands, had had first contact experiences and enough adventures to sustain a whole book. I hope that he got around to writing it. He walked down to his front gate to farewell me. Getting in to my car, I wound down the driver’s window for a final goodbye and I shall never forget what Denys said just before I drove away.

‘Make sure you tell it properly because for many of us the memories are all we’ve got.’"

historycouncilnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2002-...

 

I found out just recently that Denys Faithful died on the Sunshine Coast last August aged 91. It was a good innings for a very fine Australian.

influential

This corner block of offices in a very posh and expensive part of central London directly opposite the main entrance to St James's Palace (off beyond my right shoulder, above) became a Grade II" listed building in 1958. It was built in 1882 by R Norman Shaw for the Alliance Insurance Company.

 

It consists of red brick with plenty of stone dressings in richly-striated chromatism and moulded brick decorative panels, with tiled roofs. It is described as "Queen Anne," and is closely based on earlier Flemish Renaissance and French designs. It features four tall stories, a basement, two-storeyed attics in gables and a five-storey corner turret.

 

The building is six windows wide to St. James's Street (heading off to the left, above), the three to left in a slightly advanced gabled break. The stone-banded ground floor has two large semi-circular shop windows flanking enriched doorway with entablature - the window arches are deep and moulded with alternating stone and cut-brick voussoirs.

 

The upper floors have mullion-transom windows, tall on the first floor with two transoms, enriched heads and capitals carved on dividing piers. There are also figured brick and stone friezes and panels with sill bands and cornices.

 

The gable is shaped with scrolled kneelers and pediment capping. The corner turret is corbelled out from the ground floor which has mannerist pediments to windows and a finialed roof.

 

The return to Pall Mall (off to the right, above) has two similar large shop windows and similar fenestration and details to five bays above, all crowned by a similar gable. First-floor cast iron balconies on stone corbelling are a feature of both fronts. Atop are lofty, stone-dressed chimney stacks.

 

The building is considered to be an Influential commercial design. - mostly from Historic England's web page on the building.

© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com

_______________________________________________

 

For more information about my art: info@benheine.com

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Maurice Bejart, Innovative Choreographer of Modern Ballet

 

By Lewis Segal

 

Maurice Bejart, for four decades an extraordinarily innovative and influential choreographer and company leader in Europe who often received critical scorn in the English-speaking world, has died. He was 80.

 

Hospitalized last week with heart and kidney trouble, Bejart died at Lausanne's University Hospital in Switzerland. In response to Bejart's death, French Culture Minister Christine Albanel called him "one of the greatest choreographers of our time."

 

He "played an essential role in making a large number of people love contemporary dance, without ever ceding to the easy way out or renouncing his deep demands as an artist," she said. "He never stopped surprising us, until the end."

 

Although he began his ballet career dancing the 19th century classics in pristine versions staged from the choreography notebooks of what is now the Kirov Ballet, Bejart eventually developed a complex style of contemporary ballet. It incorporated movement influences from a number of cultures, along with a flamboyant theatricality very much in the neo-Expressionist tradition of Western Europe but foreign to classical dancing. A key element of that new style was its refusal to accept conventional notions of what kind of dancing, roles and prominence "belonged" to males versus females.

 

Contrary to their original versions, Bejart cast a man in the title role of his "Firebird" and in "Bolero" created a sexually indeterminate ballet: It is danced with 40 men and one woman, 40 women and one man or with an all-male cast.

 

"I and a few others have fought for men's liberation in ballet -- true equality," he said in a 1985 Times interview, "though, of course, it is normal when you fight for equality that it looks like you are too much on the other side." Above all, his approach to ballet was personal and intuitive, insisting, as he said, that "dance is a tool for expressing myself totally, for being, breathing, living, becoming myself."

 

He was born Maurice Jean Berger on Jan. 1, 1927, in Marseilles, France, the son of self-taught philosopher Gaston Berger. His mother, Germaine Capellieres, died when he was 7. From age 14, he trained at the school of the Marseilles Opera Ballet where, he told The Times, he remembered being the only boy in a class of 25 to 30 girls.

 

"It was not right," he said. "Life is a balance between men and women. If I push the boys [as a choreographer], it is because there still needs to be a reaction against the prejudice that it is not good for men to dance."

 

After earning academic degrees in Marseilles and in Aix en Provence, Bejart continued his dance studies in Paris and London with a number of major ballet teachers, including Vera Volkova. He made his debut as a dancer in 1945, adopting the surname of the playwright Moliere's wife. His performing experience included stints with the Marseilles Opera Ballet, the International Ballet in London, the Cullberg Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, where he choreographed for the first time in 1950.

 

In 1953, after serving in the French Army, he co-founded the Ballets de l'Etoile in Paris, which he also co-directed.

 

In 1955, his ballet "Symphonie pour un homme seul" attracted enormous attention as the first classical choreography set to musique concrete, music put together from a number of electronic and other noninstrumental sources.

 

Two years later, the company changed its name to the Ballet Theatre de Paris de Maurice Bejart.

 

But during this period he also worked with other institutions, including Belgian television and the Opera in Brussels, where he created an enormously popular version of "The Rite of Spring" in 1959. It became his signature work.

 

Its acclaim led Bejart to move to Brussels in 1960, where he founded the Ballet du XXieme Siecle based at the city's opera house, the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie. After his arrival, attendance at the Monnaie shot up from 40,000 a year to 250,000, and Bejart's success at home was matched abroad.

 

However, critics often disapproved of works that were long on philosophical and dramatic content but short on pure dance -- particularly ballets that emphasized sensual and often openly homoerotic male dancing.

 

In hindsight, many of the attacks seem to be barely veiled homophobia, but Bejart took them in stride. "A creator who does not shock is useless," he said at the time. "People need reactions. Progress is only achieved by jostling."

 

He also created arena spectacles on the grandest scale, in particular his celebrated stagings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1964 and Berlioz's "Romeo and Juliet" for Brussels' Royal Circus in 1966. His "Messe pour le Temps Present" premiered at the Papal Palace in Avignon, France, in 1967, and the following year he choreographed "Ni Fleurs, Ni Couronnes" for the Olympic Festival in Grenoble.

 

He expressed his interest in the music of Wagner not only through choreography for his own company, but also for others, most notably the Wagner festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and the Berlin Opera. Virtually every company on the European continent wanted him or someone with the same unorthodox approach to classical dance.

 

"Ballet is part of the theater," he told the New York Times in 1983. "I want my dancers to be on stage like human people . . . who give emotion to the audience."

 

In 1970, he established the Mudra Center, a groundbreaking international performance academy in Brussels. In 1978, Mudra Afrique opened in Senegal. But friction with the Monnaie management caused him to move to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1987 and found Bejart Ballet Lausanne.

 

"I want to question, renew myself again," he said to explain the move, downplaying any conflicts. "I want a new start toward the future, to create something new."

 

In 1992, he founded a school in Lausanne similar to the Mudra Center and began a series of collaborations with international ballet stars, designers and musicians. And his success in Switzerland sustained his reputation as one of the greatest creative artists in all of Europe.

 

At the beginning of this century, Bejart transformed "The Nutcracker" into an autobiographical fantasy about a young, motherless boy -- and ultimately the ballet became what he called "a kind of hymn to the ideal mother that he does not know of." Eventually, that boy met a woman who might be, in Bejart's words, "the mother and maybe Terpsichore," goddess of dance.

 

Bejart was a close friend of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace and recently, for the 10th anniversary of Versace's 1997 murder, he choreographed a two-part ballet, "Thank you, Gianni, With Love," in Milan.

 

His many awards include the Hammarskjold Prize (1973), the Erasmus prize (1974) and the Prize of the Society of Dramatic Authors (1980).

 

His writings include a number of essays and several books, including a 1963 novel, "Mathilde ou le temps perdu," and two theater pieces: "La Reine vert" (1963) and "La Tentation de Saint-Antoine" (1967).

 

"I tried to write a few books, but I don't think they are so good," he said seven years ago in a television interview. "But I try to explain myself in every ballet."

 

He amplified that statement in an interview the same year with the London Independent: "All my ballets are, above all, encounters, with a piece of music, with life, with death, with love," he said, "with beings whose past and work reincarnate themselves in me, just as the dancer who I no longer am is reborn every time in interpreters who surpass him."

 

Bejart is survived by a sister. His longtime companion, Argentine dancer Jorge Donn, died of AIDS in 1992.

 

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--> The article appeared on www.latimes.com/

 

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Maurice Bejart (Obituary)

 

French choreographer who attracted large new audiences to ballet with showmanship and work of striking originality

 

By The Times

 

Maurice Béjart probably did more than any other choreographer in the past century to win vast new audiences for ballet. He was by temperament a populist, eager to make ballet as direct and lively an art as cinema, and to attract the same kind of public; but he found no difficulty in reconciling this with the introduction of philosophical themes into his work, often based on oriental culture and beliefs.

 

In his native France and its neighbouring countries, most critics and the public saw him as unable to do anything wrong; many reviewers in Britain and the United States found it difficult to allow that he could do anything right. History is likely to assess him nearer to his own estimation, which was that as a man of the theatre he worked constantly to extend his reach, with results that varied in quality but were rarely dull.

 

At his best, Béjart produced some of the most exciting dance theatre of our time. Among his astonishingly large output of about 220 creations, the three most likely to survive in the repertoire are his devastatingly simple but gripping Bolero and his highly original treatments of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and The Firebird. In both of these latter, characteristically, he gave more importance than usual to male dancing. His Firebird was the leader of a partisan troop, shot and killed in battle but returning in spirit to inspire continued resistance. For Rite, he abandoned the original idea of a single female sacrificial victim in favour of showing a man and a woman chosen to save their tribe through ritual copulation and death.

 

Often, Béjart worked on a monumental scale, producing spectacles that demanded large arenas and sometimes involved actors as well as dancers. The huge Forêt National sports stadium in Brussels and the courtyard of the Palais des Papes at Avignon were long among his regular venues, and for the bicentenary of the French revolution, the French Government commissioned him to create 1789...et nous in the great hall of the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

At the other extreme, however, he could make a fastidiously precise short pure-dance piece such as Webern Opus 5 for just two dancers, and in Ni fleurs, ni couronnes he created variations on episodes from The Sleeping Beauty. The Paris Opera commissioned several ballets from him, and his Le Molière imaginaire, based on the playwright's life and works, had its premiere at the Comédie Française starring Robert Hirsch, doyen of that theatre, in the central role, which Béjart himself later played with distinction.

 

There was often humour as well as showmanship in his creations; Le Concours, for instance, combined a whodunnit mystery with parodies of ballet life, including recognisable caricatures of some habitual competition judges.

 

Dancers loved working with him. Among the international stars for whom he created roles were Jean Babilee in Life, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Fernando Bujones, Suzanne Farrell in Nijinsky, Clown of God, Sylvie Guillem repeatedly, Rudolf Nureyev in Songs of a Wayfarer, Maya Plisetskaya in Isadora and Vladimir Vassiliev in a very personal treatment of Petrushka. But he also grew his own stars within his company, especially the male dancers; Paolo Bortoluzzi, Jorge Donn and others brought both poetry and heroism to their roles, leading a marvellous men's ensemble from which new talent constantly emerged at need. Nor did his women soloists ever lack notable roles to show off their gifts.

 

Born Maurice-Jean Berger in Marseilles in 1927, he was educated at the lycée there and extended his mind by avidly reading the books in the library of his father, a professor of philosophy. He also began ballet classes at the Marseilles Opera, making his inauspicious debut as (by his own account) a weedy-looking grub crawling out of an apple in Le Festin de l'araignée. As a teenager he first tried his hand at choreography with a solo for himself, Petit Page. Moving to Paris, he furthered his studies with some of the best ballet teachers including Lubov Egorova, Madame Rousanne (whom he lovingly depicted in his ballet Gaite Parisienne) and, later in London, Vera Volkova.

 

After a season in 1948 with Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris (during which he was one of Margot Fonteyn's partners in the Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty), Béjart joined Mona Inglesby's International Ballet, dancing the classical leading roles — Bluebird, Prince Siegfried, the man in Les Sylphides — on tour all over Britain. There followed a period dancing with the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, for which he staged an early version of Firebird on Swedish television.

 

The 1950s were for Béjart a decade of struggling to establish himself with freelance work and his own small companies. He began to make a name with experimental work such as Symphonie pour un homme seul, which in 1955 was the first ballet to use the musique concrète (by Schaeffer and Henry) that was about to become fashionable, and Sonate à trois, a danced version of Sartre's Huis Clos to music by Bartók.

 

Béjart's breakthrough came in 1959 when the new director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, Maurice Huysman, wanted to present The Rite of Spring and invited Béjart to choreograph it. To provide enough dancers, they added to the local opera-ballet Béjart's own group, Janine Charrat's company from Paris and the Western Theatre Ballet from England.

 

The enormous public success of this production led Huysman to offer Béjart his own large company based in Brussels but touring widely, which he boldly named The Ballet of the Twentieth Century.

 

It was only after more than a quarter-century of success with a world-wide public that a dispute over funding with the new director of the Monnaie, Gérard Mortier, led Béjart to move his base from Brussels. In spite of a personal plea from the King of the Belgians, and tempting offers from other cities, he chose to accept an invitation to settle in Lausanne, where he was promised complete artistic freedom, good working conditions for his dancers, and the facilities to continue the dance and theatre school which he had started in Belgium. It is notable that the school's graduates include many choreographers who have never emerged as imitators of Béjart but have been encouraged to find their own way forward.

 

Béjart had more than once been offered the directorship of the Paris Ballet de l'Opéra, but had declined it. This did not prevent him from announcing the promotion to étoile of two men in that company for whom he had created roles — an announcement that had to be formally contradicted by the management as being without authority. In 1974 Béjart became, jointly with Dame Ninette de Valois, the first from the world of dance to be awarded the highly respected Erasmus Prize.

 

With maturity and success, Béjart developed an impressive appearance, not tall but with a commanding air, helped by the unexpectedly blue eyes that shone keenly in contrast to his dark complexion, black hair and beard. Besides his prolific work for the dance stage, he produced operas, always controversially, and made a revealing film, Je t'aime, tu danses, in which he appeared with the young dancer Rita Poelvoorde.

 

He also wrote voluminously: a novel, Mathilde ou le Temps perdu, inspired by his passion for Wagner, two plays and three volumes of autobiography, besides long discursive programme notes for many of his productions. These last could sometimes seem pretentious, but in private life he was a man completely without side: simple, direct, even earthy, and full of admiration for the work of others (Frederick Ashton's choreography was an early and lasting inspiration for him). He neither flaunted nor hid his homosexuality but chose almost always, even in long-term relationships, to live alone.

 

Advancing years, and sorrow at the death of some close friends, did not interrupt his activity and originality. He continued making new ballets right until this month, in spite of illness (exhaustion plus heart and kidney problems) that required his frequent admission to hospital. His final creation, under the title Round the World in 80 Minutes, will have its premiere on December 20 in Lausanne.

 

It was characteristic of Béjart that when he reached his 70th birthday he celebrated it with the creation of a big new work, Le Presbytère, to music by Mozart and the group Queen, which took as its theme those who had died young, especially from Aids, but treated it with a startlingly positive outlook and celebratory conclusion.

 

Maurice Béjart, choreographer and ballet director, was born on January 1, 1927. He died on November 22, 2007, aged 80

 

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The Obituary appeared on www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/

William Chambers of Glenormiston or William Chambers FRSE (16 April 1800[1] – 20 May 1883) was a Scottish publisher and politician. The brothers were influential in the mid-19th century in both scientific and political circles. Edinburgh Scotland UK

by Remigius Hogenbergh,print,published 1572

 

Matthew Parker (6 August 1504 – 17 May 1575) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder (with Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker) of Anglican theological thought.

 

Parker was one of the primary architects of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. The Parker collection of early English manuscripts, including the book of St. Augustine Gospels and Version A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was created as part of his efforts to demonstrate that the English Church was historically independent from Rome, creating one of the world's most important collections of ancient manuscripts.

 

The eldest son of William Parker, he was born in Norwich, in St. Saviour's parish. His mother's maiden name was Alice Monins, and she may have been related by marriage to Thomas Cranmer. When William Parker died, in about 1516, his widow married John Baker. Matthew was sent in 1522 to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,[1] where he is said to have been contemporary with William Cecil, but Cecil was only two years old at the time. Parker graduated BA in 1525, was ordained deacon in April and priest in June 1527, and was elected fellow of Corpus in the following September. He commenced MA in 1528, and was one of the Cambridge scholars whom Thomas Wolsey wished to transplant to his newly founded "Cardinal College" at Oxford.

 

Parker, like Cranmer, declined the invitation. He had come under the influence of the Cambridge reformers, and after Anne Boleyn's recognition as queen he was made her chaplain. Through her, he was appointed dean of the college of secular canons at Stoke-by-Clare in 1535. Hugh Latimer wrote to him in that year urging him not to fall short of the expectations which had been formed of his ability. In 1537 he was appointed chaplain to King Henry VIII. In 1538 he was threatened with prosecution, but the Bishop of Dover, however, reported to Thomas Cromwell that Parker "hath ever been of a good judgment and set forth the Word of God after a good manner. For this he suffers some grudge." He graduated DD in that year, and in 1541 was appointed to the second prebend in the reconstituted cathedral church of Ely. In 1544, on Henry VIII's recommendation, he was elected master of Corpus Christi College, and in 1545 vice-chancellor of the university. He got into some trouble with the chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, over a ribald play, Pammachius, performed by the students, which derided the old ecclesiastical system.

 

On the passing of the act of parliament in 1545 enabling the king to dissolve chantries and colleges, Parker was appointed one of the commissioners for Cambridge, and their report may have saved its colleges from destruction. Stoke, however, was dissolved in the following reign, and Parker received a generous pension. He took advantage of the new reign to marry in June, 1547, before clerical marriages had been legalized by parliament and convocation, Margaret, daughter of Robert Harlestone, a Norfolk squire. During Kett's Rebellion, he preached in the rebels' camp on Mousehold Hill, without much effect, and later encouraged his secretary, Alexander Neville, to write his history of the rising.

 

Parker's association with Protestantism advanced with the times, and he received higher promotion under John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland than under the moderate Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. At Cambridge, he was a friend of Martin Bucer and preached Bucer's funeral sermon in 1551. In 1552 he was promoted to the rich deanery of Lincoln, and in July 1553 he supped with Northumberland at Cambridge, when the duke marched north on his hopeless campaign against the accession of Mary Tudor. As a supporter of Northumberland and a married man, under the new regime Parker was deprived of his deanery, his mastership of Corpus Christi, and his other preferments. However, he survived Mary's reign without leaving the country – a fact that probably aggravated more ardent Protestants who went into exile and idealized their fellows who were martyred by Queen Mary. Parker respected authority, and when his time came he could consistently impose authority on others. He was not eager to assume this task, and made great efforts to avoid promotion to the archbishopric of Canterbury, which Elizabeth designed for him as soon as she had succeeded to the throne.

 

He was elected on 1 August 1559 but, given the turbulence and executions that had preceded Elizabeth's accession, it was difficult to find the requisite four bishops willing and qualified to consecrate Parker, and not until December 19 was that ceremony performed at Lambeth by William Barlow, formerly Bishop of Bath and Wells, John Scory, formerly Bishop of Chichester, Miles Coverdale, formerly Bishop of Exeter, and John Hodgkins, Bishop of Bedford. The allegation of an indecent consecration in the Nag's Head Fable seems first to have been made by the Jesuit, Christopher Holywood, in 1604, and has since been discredited. Parker's consecration was, however, legally valid only by the plentitude of the royal supremacy; the Edwardine Ordinal, which was used, had been repealed by Mary Tudor and not re-enacted by the parliament of 1559. The Roman Catholic Church asserted that the form of consecration used was insufficient to make a bishop, and therefore represented a break in the Apostolic Succession, but the Church of England has rejected this, arguing that the form of words used made no difference to the substance or validity of the act.

 

Elizabeth wanted a moderate man, so she chose Parker. There was also an emotional attachment. Parker had been the favourite chaplain of Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Before Anne was arrested in 1536, she had entrusted Elizabeth's spiritual well-being to Parker. A few days after this, Anne had been executed following charges of adultery, incest and treason. Parker also possessed all the qualifications Elizabeth expected from an archbishop except celibacy. He mistrusted popular enthusiasm, and he wrote in horror of the idea that "the people" should be the reformers of the Church. He was not an inspiring leader, and no dogma, no prayer-book, not even a tract or a hymn is associated with his name. The 56 volumes published by the Parker Society include only one by its eponymous hero, and that is a volume of correspondence. He was a disciplinarian, a scholar, a modest and moderate man of genuine piety and irreproachable morals. His historical research was exemplified in his De antiquitate ecclesiae, and his editions of Asser, Matthew Paris, Thomas Walsingham, and the compiler known as Matthew of Westminster; his liturgical skill was shown in his version of the psalter and in the occasional prayers and thanksgivings which he was called upon to compose. He left a priceless collection of manuscripts, largely collected from former monastic libraries, to his college at Cambridge. The Parker Library at Corpus Christi bears his name and houses his collection.

 

Parker avoided involvement in secular politics and was never admitted to Elizabeth's privy council. Ecclesiastical politics gave him considerable trouble. Some of the evangelical reformers wanted liturgical changes and at least the option not to wear certain clerical vestments, if not their complete prohibition. Early presbyterians wanted no bishops, and the conservatives opposed all these changes, often preferring to move in the opposite direction toward the practices of the Henrician church. The queen herself begrudged episcopal privilege until she eventually recognised it as one of the chief bulwarks of the royal supremacy. To Parker's consternation, the queen refused to add her imprimatur to his attempts to secure conformity, though she insisted that he achieve this goal. Thus Parker was left to stem the rising tide of Puritan feeling with little support from parliament, convocation or the Crown. The bishops' Interpretations and Further Considerations, issued in 1560, tolerated a lower vestiarian standard than was prescribed by the rubric of 1559, but it fell short of the desires of the anti-vestiarian clergy like Coverdale (one of the bishops who had consecrated Parker) who made a public display of their nonconformity in London.

 

The Book of Advertisements, which Parker published in 1566, to check the anti-vestiarian faction, had to appear without specific royal sanction; and the Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum, which John Foxe published with Parker's approval, received neither royal, parliamentary nor synodical authorization. Parliament even contested the claim of the bishops to determine matters of faith. "Surely," said Parker to Peter Wentworth, "you will refer yourselves wholly to us therein." "No, by the faith I bear to God," retorted Wentworth, "we will pass nothing before we understand what it is; for that were but to make you popes. Make you popes who list, for we will make you none." Disputes about vestments had expanded into a controversy over the whole field of Church government and authority, and Parker died on May 17, 1575, lamenting that Puritan ideas of "governance" would "in conclusion undo the queen and all others that depended upon her." By his personal conduct he had set an ideal example for Anglican priests, and it was not his fault that national authority failed to crush the individualistic tendencies of the Protestant Reformation.

 

I went for a shot inspired by his Involuntary Sculpture series since I don't know any prostitutes personally. ;o)

 

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©Christine A. Owens 3.6.18

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I really appreciate your comments and faves. I'm not a hoarder of contacts, but enjoy real-life, honest people. You are much more likely to get my comments and faves in return if you fit the latter description. Just sayin. :oD

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If you like b/w photography and/or poetry check out my page at:

expressionsbychristine.blogspot.com/</a

collective 52 photo project - monthly IP prompt for March

I love how David Bailey captures the personality of his subjects. Here's my patient and hesitant husband, Steve, in his element, one of the rooms we're working on, texturing walls, painting. He is quite the handyman. ;o)

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©Christine A. Owens 4.30.18

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I really appreciate your comments and faves. I'm not a hoarder of contacts, but enjoy real-life, honest people. You are much more likely to get my comments and faves in return if you fit the latter description. Just sayin. :oD

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If you like b/w photography and/or poetry check out my page at:

expressionsbychristine.blogspot.com/</a

Castle Crag is a hill in the North Western Fells of the English Lake District. It is the smallest hill included in Alfred Wainwright's influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, the only Wainwright below 1,000 feet (300 m).

 

Wainwright accorded Castle Crag the status of a separate fell because it "is so magnificently independent, so ruggedly individual, so aggressively unashamed of its lack of inches, that less than justice would be done by relegating it to a paragraph in the High Spy chapter."[1] Subsequent guidebooks have not always agreed: Castle Crag is one of only two Wainwrights not included in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells.

 

The fell has an impressive appearance, a rugged height apparently blocking the valley of Borrowdale, which is squeezed between Castle Crag and Grange Fell, its neighbour on the other side. This narrow gorge known as the 'Jaws of Borrowdale', and is prominent in views from Keswick and Derwentwater.

 

High Spy, the parent fell, forms part of the north-south ridge between Borrowdale and the Newlands Valley. The rough spur of Low Scawdel (1,709 ft) runs out due east from the summit, breaking steeply over Goat Crag and then falling to Broadslack Gill. This small tributary of the River Derwent separates High Spy from Castle Crag.

 

The wooded height of Castle Crag rises between Broadslack Gill and the Derwent, the two streams meeting to the north beneath the outlying knoll of Low Hows. It has steep faces on all sides except the south, where a low ridge runs out and then swings west around the head of Broadslack Gill. A narrow col here provides the topographic link to High Spy.

 

The Derwentwater fault runs along the valley of Broadslack Gill, the higher ground to the north west being mainly composed of the Birker Fell Formation. These are plagioclase-phyric andesite lavas and subordinate sills. By contrast Castle Crag shows outcropping of the Eagle Crag Member, a mixture of siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate and tuff with frequent andesite sills.[3]

 

The slopes of Castle Crag are extensively quarried with pits and levels on the northern and south eastern flanks. The summit has also been extensively worked. The High Hows Quarry later achieved fame as the home of Millican Dalton, the eccentric and self-styled "Professor of Adventure". The caves here formed his summer home from the 1920s until shortly before his death in 1947.

 

The summit area is believed to have been an ancient hill fort,[1] although the western section has been sliced away by quarrying. It can only be gained by means of a sloping crack to the south. The very highest point is a rock outcrop about eight feet high and twelve feet across. Atop this is a well constructed circular cairn of slate. A memorial to Borrowdale men killed in World War I is affixed to the outcrop.

 

There is a fine view down the valley, Skiddaw seen to good effect across the lake. Southwards Great Gable and the Scafells ring the head of the Derwent catchment, while near at hand- enhanced by the steepness of the slope- is a view of the woods and crags of mid Borrowdale.

 

The original size (large image) is the best intended view. Illustrates the power of writing.

Mary Brickell Park is one of Miami's earliest parks, having been deeded to the city by one of the most influential pioneer family in 1924. From the time of their arrival in Miami, the Brickell's purchased and accumulated land south of the Miami River and Fort Lauderdale.

 

They opened a trading post located at the mouth of the Miami River. However, it was their real estate holdings that made the family wealthy.

 

The Mausoleum is the only surviving structure that is directly connected to the Brickell family and is situated on land they once owned on Brickell Point. At one time the Brickell Mausoleum held the remains of William Brickell, who died in 1908 and his wife Mary Brickell, who died in 1922 and their daughter Edith Brickell. Edith died of pneumonia due to the influenza in 1918. This mausoleum was their private family cemetery located on their homestead.

 

In 1948, however, daughter Maude E. Brickell complained that the nights were too noisy at the mausoleum location and moved the remains of the family members to Woodlawn Cemetery.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:

miami-history.com/news/remembering-mary-brickell/

www.zippingaround.com/post/mary-brickell-park-miami-flori...

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

Tereza theodoulou, Greek born and now she is an influential English dance teacher, see her details below. Capture: Saint James Square, Barcelona.

Advanced Classes weekly with Tereza Theodoulou at Dance College Whitstable

 

VEURE:

SEE:

VER:

dancewhitstable.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dance-Ma...

   

George Bird Grinnell, an influential author, became an early advocate of setting this area as a preserve after visits in the 1880s. He first explored the glacier that was to bear his name, Grinnell Glacier, in 1887 and described it as being 1000 feet high and several miles across. About 90% of the ice that Grinnell saw is now gone. It was about 151.3 acres as of 2006. Glaciologists have predicted that if carbon dioxide levels increase at a worst-case scenario, all the glaciers in the park, including Grinnell, will disappear by the year 2030.

 

Visit my website for other recent work and portfolio

 

In the heart of Liverpool, narrow and almost modest, Mathew Street runs like a fissure in time. It is neither wide nor solemn; on the contrary, its brevity and discreet appearance stand in contrast to the symbolic weight it has acquired over the decades. There, among brick façades and perpetually lit signs, one of the most influential cultural transformations of the twentieth century began to take shape.

 

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Cavern Club pulsed beneath the street like a basement charged with electricity. Each midday, a group of young musicians descended into that enclosed, sweaty space to play before an audience that was close—almost tangible. Among them were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and, later, Ringo Starr. On that small stage, the Beatles learned to listen to their audience, to refine their sound, and to forge an identity that had not yet imagined its universal destiny.

 

Mathew Street was for them a place of learning and repetition, of mistakes and discoveries. There was no epic quality to it, only routine: chords patiently tuned, songs reshaped night after night, complicit glances among musicians who were beginning to understand one another without words. The street did not witness the fully formed myth, but rather the preliminary, almost anonymous work that made it possible.

 

Today, Mathew Street still preserves something of that echo. Not so much in its recreated venues or the statues that evoke memory, but in the idea that a small space can contain an immense history. To walk along it is to traverse the precise point where the everyday and the extraordinary met, and where four young men from Liverpool began, unknowingly, to change popular music forever.

Ronda corrida

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, recognizes and archives the history of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures who have had some major influence on the development of rock and roll. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Atlantic Records founder and chairman Ahmet Ertegun. In 1986, Cleveland was chosen as the Hall of Fame's permanent home.

Dunham Massey is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Cheshire, England.[1] The parish includes the villages of Sinderland Green, Dunham Woodhouse and Dunham Town, along with Dunham Massey Park, formerly the home of the last Earl of Stamford and owned by the National Trust since 1976. Dunham Massey was historically in the county of Cheshire, but since 1974 has been part of Trafford Metropolitan Borough; the nearest town is Altrincham. As of the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 475.[2]

Dunham Massey has a long history, as reflected in its 45 listed buildings. It was a locally important area during the medieval period, and acted as the seat for the Massey barony. The Georgian hall, with the remains of a castle in its grounds, is a popular tourist attraction. There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Dunham Massey: Dunham Park, located south of Dunham Town, and Brookheys Covert.

History

The Chester to York Roman road passes between the settlements of Dunham Massey and Bowdon and today forms the boundary between the two places. The name Dunham is derived from the Anglo-Saxon dun, meaning hill. The Massey element of the name is a result of its ownership by the Massey Barons. The manor of Dunham is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having belonged to the Saxon thegn Aelfward before the Norman Conquest and to Hamo de Masci after. De Masci was an influential baron, who also had control over the manors of Baguley, Bowdon, Hale, Partington, and Timperley. The addition of "Massey" to the name Dunham reflects the manor's importance within the barony; Dunham was the seat of the Masseys. The importance of Dunham is further emphasised by the presence of two of de Massey’s castles: Dunham Castle and Watch Hill Castle on the border with Bowdon; a third, Ullerwood Castle, was near Hale. The Masseys remained barons of Dunham and its environs until the 14th century, when the line became extinct.[3][4]

The Booth family inherited most of the Massey lands in 1409, with Dunham Massey remaining at the heart of the estate; at the time, only four villages were in the Trafford area. By the Elizabeth period, Dunham Massey Castle had been demolished. Probably during the medieval period, Dunham Massey Hall became the home of the manorial lord, and a centre of power in the area. The hall was rebuilt in 1616, leaving no remains of the old medieval hall. The mill at Dunham was first documented in 1353, although the mill's present structure dates to the 1860s. It lies on the River Bollin, opposite Little Bollington. The first record of Dunham's deer park was also in 1353. The settlement of Dunham Woodhouse dates from the 15th century. During the medieval period, the primary source of employment in Dunham Massey was agriculture, mainly arable.

The Warrington and Stockport Railway was constructed through Dunham during 1853/54. Dunham Massey railway station served the area between 1854 and its closure in 1962. Dunham grew as a result, the population increasing by 57.5% between 1851 and 1881. Otherwise, the industrial revolution had little effect on Dunham Massey, and it remained a predominantly agricultural area.

Dunham Massey Hall

  

Dunham Massey Hall.

The present hall was initially built in 1616 by Sir George Booth, who was amongst the creations of Baronets by James I in 1611, but was later remodelled by John Norris for George, Earl of Stamford and Warrington between 1732 and 1740; it was also altered by John Hope towards the end of the 18th century and by Joseph Compton Hall between 1905 and 1908. The hall itself, the stables, and the carriage house of Dunham Massey are all Grade I listed buildings, three of six such buildings in Trafford.[5]

The site is moated and lies immediately west of the village of Dunham, with the deer park lying to the south. The hall was donated to the National Trust by the last Earl of Stamford, in 1976. The hall was used as a military hospital during the First World War. Inside is a collection of Huguenot silver, the carving The Crucifixion by 17th century wood carver Grinling Gibbons, and a white marble bust of the Emperor Hadrian; the head is antique, but the neck and shoulders are 18th century, it was probably acquired by the 5th Earl of Stamford. The collection of paintings in the hall include Allegory with Venus, Mars, Cupid and Time by Guercino; The Cascade at Terni by Louis Ducros; and portraits by William Beechey, Francis Cotes, Michael Dahl, A. R. Mengs, Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Enoch Seeman, and Zoffany. The 7th Earl of Stamford removed a selection of paintings to Enville Hall in the late 1850s, and it was not until the time of Roger Grey, 10th Earl of Stamford that some were returned after sales in 1929 and 1931.[6] The deer park at Dunham Massey is the only medieval park in Trafford to survive to the present.[4] The hall and grounds are open to the public and are a popular tourist attraction, with over 115,000 visitors in 2007.

Governance

The civil parish parish of Dunham Massey was created in 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894, and has its own parish council. Dunham Massey became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in 1974 upon the borough's creation, but was previously in Bucklow Rural District. The village is part of the Bowdon electoral ward.[9][4] The councillors for the Bowdon ward are David Merrell, Paula Pearson, and Stephanie Poole, all members of the Conservative Party.[10] Dunham Massey is also a part of the Altrincham and Sale West constituency, and belongs to the North West England constituency of the European Parliament. Since the formation of the Altrincham and Sale West constituency in 1997, it has been represented in the House of Commons by the Conservative MP, Graham Brady. At the 2005 General Election, the Conservatives won with a majority of 7,159 and 46.4% of the vote. Labour won 30.3% of the vote, Liberal Democrats won 21.7%, and the United Kingdom Independence Party won 1.7%.

Geography

Dunham Massey lies to the east of Warburton, and to the west of Bowdon, with Altrincham approximately 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast. The landscape is generally flat, with some mossland. Dunham Park occupies 192.7 acres (780,000 m2) of the area. The Roman road running from Chester to York forms the boundary between Dunham and Bowdon. The River Bollin runs to the south, with the Bridgewater Canal running through the area. The local geology is lower keuper marl, with a ridge of sand and gravel running from Dunham to Warburton.

Demography

As of the 2001 UK census, Dunham Massey had a total population of 475. For every 100 females, there were 96.3 males. The average household size was 2.36.[2] Of those aged 16–74 in Dunham Massey, 42.0% had no academic qualifications or one GCSE, similar to the figures for all of Trafford (40.8%) and in England (45.5%).[12][13] According to the census, 0.01% were unemployed and 19.24% were economically inactive.[12] 17.89% of the population were under the age of 16, and 9.89% were aged 75 and over; the mean age of the residents of Dunham Massey was 43.71. 75.79% of residents described their health as 'good'.

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Brookheys Covert

Brookheys Covert is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Dunham Park Estate (grid reference SJ742904). The site is a semi-natural wood consisting mainly of ash, birch, and rowan, with a wetland habitat and several marl pits, which have flooded to form ponds. The reserve spans 5.8 acres (23,000 m2) and is managed by the Dunham Massey Estates. Brookheys Covert provides a habitat for many animals, including foxes, rabbits, squirrels, and 57 species of bird.[15][16]

Dunham Park

 

Dunham Park covers an area of 192.7 acres (780,000 m2) and is part of the Dunham Park Estate, run by the National Trust (grid reference SJ740870). The park is mostly “pasture-woodland or park-woodland” and has been since the Middle Ages. Many of the oak trees, which make up the larger part of the woodland, date back to the 17th century. Dunham Park is the only place in the northwest of England with such a concentration of old trees, and one of only a few remaining in England, making it a site of national importance. The park supports a range of animals, including fallow deer and over 500 species of insect.

Grade II listed buildings

Dunham Massey has many grade II listed buildings; among the most striking is the 18th century sandstone obelisk at the end of the north vista from Dunham Massey Hall. Tradition has it that it marks the burial site of a race horse.[18]

There are many listed residences in Dunham Massey, most of them dating from the 18th or early 19th century, and many of them featuring Flemish bond brickwork and slate roofs. They include: Dunham Massey Lodge, on Dunham Road;[19] Willow Cottage;[20] numbers 1 and 2 Barns Lane;[21] number 1 Orchard View;[22] The Hollies, on Station Road;[23] numbers 1, 3 and 4 Woodhouse Lane;[24] Big Tree Cottages, on Woodhouse Lane.[25] Agden View, also on Woodhouse Lane, dates from 1725 and has both garden wall bond and Flemish bond brickwork.[26] Big Tree House, on Charcoal Road, dates from the mid-18th century and features English bond brickwork.[27] Yew Tree Cottage and Lime Tree Cottage are also on Charcoal Lane; both houses date to the 17th century and exhibit garden wall bond brickwork with slate roofs.[28] Ivy House, on Woodhouse Lane, was built in the early 18th century.[29] Kitchen Garden cottage was built in 1702.[30] Rose Cottage and Farm Cottage are late 18th or early 19th century.[31] The Meadows, on School Lane, was built in the 17th century and features garden wall bond brickwork and a thatched roof.[32]

The farm buildings of Home Farm, including its dovecote, were built in the early 19th century, and feature Flemish bond brickwork.[33][34] Sinderland House, also dating from the early 19th century, is another of Dunham Massey's listed farmhouses.[35] Manor Farmhouse, on Station Road, was built by George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington; the building dates from the mid-18th century and features both Flemish and garden wall bond brickwork.[36] The farmhouse on Station Road was built in 1752.[37] The barn on Woodhouse Lane dates from the early 18th century and features garden wall bond brickwork, a slate roof, and upper cruck frames.[38] Dog Farmhouse, also on Woodhouse Lane, was built in the early 19th century; however it may have been an adaptation of an earlier, possibly 18th century, farmhouse.[39]

Dunham School was built in 1759, with additions in 1860 and the 20th century. Above the door is an engraved panel reading “This School was Erected in 1759 For the Benefit of the Township of Dunham Massey. According to the Will of Thomas Walton Gent”. The school now serves as the parish hall.[40] The nearby Dunham School Bridge, over the Bridgewater Canal, was built in 1776 by John Gilbert,[41] who also built the aqueduct for the Bridgewater Canal over the River Bollin, which was opened in 1776.[42] The other listed bridge, Brick Kiln Lane Bridge, was also built in the 18th century.[43] Bollington watermill was constructed in the 1860s, and has an undershot waterwheel.[44]

There are a number of listed structures in the grounds of Dunham Massey Hall, including the 1720 wellhouse that supplied water to the hall until the 1860s,[45] and the early 18th century ornamental sundial in front of the hall, depicting a black slave clad in leaves, carrying the sundial above his head.[46] The stable buildings,[47] the slaughterhouse,[48] the deer house,[49] the orangery,[50] and an ashlar shelter to the west of the hall,[51] all date from the 17th or 18th century. Barn Cottages date from at least 1751. The cottages were originally a single barn, which was converted in the 19th century.[52] Other grade II listed structures in the grounds of the hall include: the lakeside wall (18th century);[53] two small piers south of the garden forecourt (18th century);[54] a pier north west of the garden forecourt (18th century);[55] the gateway opposite the kitchen (1750);[56] the piers at the south of forecourt garden topped with lions (18th century);[57][58] and an obelisk erected by George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington, in 1714 in memory of his mother.[59] Near the hall there is a Grade II* listed sawmill, probably built in 1616.[

 

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known as David Bowie,[a] was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as among the most influential musicians of the 20th century, he was known for his constant reinvention and visual presentation, and is often referred to as the "chameleon of rock". His music, stagecraft and fashion have had a significant impact on popular culture.

 

Bowie studied art, music and design before embarking on a music career in 1962. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a self-titled solo album before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK singles chart with "Space Oddity" (1969). His commercial breakthrough came in 1972, during the glam rock era, with the Ziggy Stardust character and its accompanying album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Throughout the 1970s, he experimented with funk, art rock, electronic and ambient, particularly with the 1977–1979 Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes" and Lodger). He also created other personas during the period, including Halloween Jack (Diamond Dogs) and the Thin White Duke (Station to Station). He achieved his greatest commercial success in the 1980s with Let's Dance (1983). He fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued experimenting with musical styles, including industrial, jungle and drum and bass.

 

Outside of music, Bowie received recognition for his acting roles, emphasising smaller parts and cameos rather than leading roles. His most well-known files include The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Labyrinth (1986), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Basquiat (1996), and The Prestige (2006). He was also a painter, writer, created the first modern celebrity bond ("Bowie Bonds") and was one of the first artists to engage with his fans directly through his website, BowieNet. He performed live regularly throughout his career, before retiring from touring in 2004; his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. He returned from a decade-long recording hiatus in 2013 with The Next Day. His final studio album, Blackstar, released two days before his death in 2016, was analysed as a powerful farewell to his fans.

 

During his lifetime, his record sales were estimated at over 100 million worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He achieved eleven UK number-one albums, including Aladdin Sane (1973) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980). His UK or US number-one singles included "Fame", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Under Pressure" (with Queen). He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone ranked him among the greatest singers, songwriters and artists of all time. Although his sexuality is disputed, he is regarded as an influential figure in the LGBTQ community....Wikipedia

Ironbridge, River Severn, Telford, Shropshire

 

This has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. I’ve often regarded it as the twin to Worsley, both influential in the Industrial Revolution and the driving force that put ‘Great’ in Great Britain. However, it’s a real bugger to photograph because of the bend in the river and the overgrown trees that overhang both sides of the river bank.

 

This was taken, with much patience I might add, whilst sat at a park bench watching the world go by. So many tourists milling about eating fish and chips and rapidly melting ice creams in the late afternoon sun.

 

Now the history bit…

 

The Iron Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. Its success inspired the widespread use of cast iron as a structural material, and today the bridge is celebrated as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution.

 

The geography of the deep Ironbridge Gorge, formed by glacial action during the last ice age, meant that there are industrially useful deposits of coal, iron ore, limestone and fire clay present near the surface where they are readily mined, but also that it was difficult to build a bridge across the river at this location. To cope with the instability of the banks and the need to maintain a navigable channel in the river, a single span iron bridge was proposed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard. After initial uncertainty about the use of iron, construction took place over 2 years, with Abraham Darby III responsible for the ironworks. The bridge crosses the Ironbridge Gorge with a main span of 100 ft 6 in (30.63 m), allowing sufficient clearance for boats to pass underneath.

 

In 1934 it was designated a scheduled monument and closed to vehicular traffic. Tolls for pedestrians were collected until 1950, when the bridge was transferred into public ownership. After being in a poor state of repair for much of its life, extensive restoration works in the latter half of the 20th century have protected the bridge. The bridge, the adjacent settlement of Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge form the UNESCO Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.

 

Background

The Ironbridge Gorge was formed at the end of the last ice age by the overflowing of Lake Lapworth, which resulted in the exposure of useful deposits of resources such as coal, iron ore, fire clay and limestone near the surface where they were readily mined. With the river providing a means of transport, the local area was an important centre of the emerging Industrial Revolution.

 

Abraham Darby I first smelted local iron ore with coke made from Coalbrookdale coal in 1709, and in the coming decades Shropshire became a centre for industry due to the low price of fuel from local mines. The River Severn was used as a key trading route, but it was also a barrier to travel around the deep Ironbridge Gorge, especially between the then important industrial parishes of Broseley and Madeley, the nearest bridge being at Buildwas 2 miles (3.2 km) away. The Iron Bridge was therefore proposed to link the industrial town of Broseley with the smaller mining town of Madeley and the industrial centre of Coalbrookdale. The use of the river by boat traffic and the steep sides of the gorge meant that any bridge should ideally be of a single span, and sufficiently high to allow tall ships to pass underneath. The steepness and instability of the banks was problematic for building a bridge, and there was no point where roads on opposite sides of the river converged.

 

The Iron Bridge was the first of its kind to be constructed, although not the first to be considered nor the first iron bridge of any kind. An iron bridge was partly constructed at Lyons in 1755, but was abandoned for reasons of cost, and a 72-foot-10-inch (22.2 m) span wrought iron footbridge over an ornamental waterway was erected in Kirklees, Yorkshire, in 1769.

 

Proposal

In 1773, architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard wrote to his 'iron mad' friend and local ironmaster, John Wilkinson of Broseley, to suggest building a bridge out of cast iron. Although he specialised in the design of chimneypieces and other items of interior decoration, and in funerary monuments, he had also previously designed both wooden and stone bridges.

 

During the winter of 1773–74, local newspapers advertised a proposal to petition Parliament for leave to construct an iron bridge with a single 120-foot (37 m) span. In 1775, a subscription raised funds of between £3000 to £4000 (equivalent to £361,000 to £482,000 in 2016), and Abraham Darby III, the grandson of Abraham Darby I and an ironmaster working at Coalbrookdale, was appointed treasurer to the project.

 

In March 1776, the Act to build a bridge received Royal assent. It had been drafted by Thomas Addenbrooke, secretary of the trustees, and John Harries, a London barrister, then presented to the House of Commons by Charles Baldwyn, MP for Shropshire. Abraham Darby III was commissioned to cast and build the bridge. In May 1776, the trustees withdrew Darby's commission, and instead advertised for plans for a single arch bridge to be built in "stone, brick or timber". No satisfactory proposal was made, and the trustees agreed to proceed with Pritchard's design, but there was continued uncertainty about the use of iron, and conditions were set on the cost and duration of the construction. In July 1777 the span of the bridge was decreased to 90 feet (27 m), and then increased again to 100 feet 6 inches (30.6 m), possibly in order to accommodate a towpath.

 

Construction

The site, adjacent to where a ferry had run between Madeley and Benthall, was chosen for its high approaches on each side and the relative solidity of the ground. The Act of Parliament described how the bridge was to be built from a point in Benthall parish near the house of Samuel Barnett to a point on the opposite shore near the house of Thomas Crumpton. Pritchard died on 21 December 1777 in his towerhouse at Eyton on Severn, only a month after work had begun, having been ill for over a year.

 

The bridge is built from five sectional cast-iron ribs that give a span of 100 feet 6 inches (30.6 m). The construction of the bridge used 378 long tons 10 cwt (847,800 lb or 384.6 t) of iron, and there are almost 1,700 individual components, the heaviest weighing 5 long tons 5 cwt (11,800 lb or 5.3 t). Components were cast individually to fit with each other, rather than being of standard sizes, with discrepancies of up to several centimetres between 'identical' components in different locations.

 

The masonry and abutments were constructed between 1777 and 1778, and the ribs were lifted into place in the summer of 1779. The bridge first spanned the river on 2 July 1779, and it was opened to traffic on 1 January 1781.

 

In 1997, a watercolour by Elias Martin was discovered in a Stockholm museum, which showed the bridge under construction in 1779. The painting shows a moveable wooden scaffold consisting of derrick poles standing in the river bed being used as a crane to position the half-ribs of the bridge, which had been taken to the site by boat from Darby's foundry 500 metres (1,600 ft) downstream. Using the approach depicted in the painting, a half-size replica of the main section of the bridge was built in 2001 as part of the research for the BBC's Timewatch programme, which was shown the following year.

 

Design

Decorative rings and ogees between the structural ribs of the bridge suggest that the final design was Pritchard's, as the same elements appear in a gazebo he rebuilt. A foreman at the foundry, Thomas Gregory, drew the detailed designs for the members, resulting in the use of carpentry jointing details such as mortise and tenon joints and dovetails.

 

The two outer ribs are engraved with the words: "This bridge was cast at Coalbrook-Dale and erected in the year MDCCLXXIX".

 

Two supplemental arches, of similar cast iron construction, carry a towpath on the southern bank and also act as flood arches. A stone arch with a brick vault carries a small path on the northern (town side) bank.

 

Castle Crag is a hill in the North Western Fells of the English Lake District. It is the smallest hill included in Alfred Wainwright's influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, the only Wainwright below 1,000 feet (300 m).

 

Wainwright accorded Castle Crag the status of a separate fell because it "is so magnificently independent, so ruggedly individual, so aggressively unashamed of its lack of inches, that less than justice would be done by relegating it to a paragraph in the High Spy chapter." Subsequent guidebooks have not always agreed: Castle Crag is one of only two Wainwrights not included in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells.

 

The fell has an impressive appearance, a rugged height apparently blocking the valley of Borrowdale, which is squeezed between Castle Crag and Grange Fell, its neighbour on the other side. This narrow gorge known as the 'Jaws of Borrowdale', and is prominent in views from Keswick and Derwentwater.

 

High Spy, the parent fell, forms part of the north-south ridge between Borrowdale and the Newlands Valley. The rough spur of Low Scawdel (1,709 ft) runs out due east from the summit, breaking steeply over Goat Crag and then falling to Broadslack Gill. This small tributary of the River Derwent separates High Spy from Castle Crag.

 

The wooded height of Castle Crag rises between Broadslack Gill and the Derwent, the two streams meeting to the north beneath the outlying knoll of Low Hows. It has steep faces on all sides except the south, where a low ridge runs out and then swings west around the head of Broadslack Gill. A narrow col here provides the topographic link to High Spy.

 

The Derwentwater fault runs along the valley of Broadslack Gill, the higher ground to the north west being mainly composed of the Birker Fell Formation. These are plagioclase-phyric andesite lavas and subordinate sills. By contrast Castle Crag shows outcropping of the Eagle Crag Member, a mixture of siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate and tuff with frequent andesite sills.

 

The slopes of Castle Crag are extensively quarried with pits and levels on the northern and south eastern flanks. The summit has also been extensively worked. The High Hows Quarry later achieved fame as the home of Millican Dalton, the eccentric and self-styled "Professor of Adventure". The caves here formed his summer home from the 1920s until shortly before his death in 1947.

 

The summit area is believed to have been an ancient hill fort, although the western section has been sliced away by quarrying. It can only be gained by means of a sloping crack to the south. The very highest point is a rock outcrop about eight feet high and twelve feet across. Atop this is a well constructed circular cairn of slate. A memorial to Borrowdale men killed in World War I is affixed to the outcrop.

 

There is a fine view down the valley, Skiddaw seen to good effect across the lake. Southwards Great Gable and the Scafells ring the head of the Derwent catchment, while near at hand- enhanced by the steepness of the slope- is a view of the woods and crags of mid Borrowdale.

 

Castle Crag may be ascended easily from the villages of Grange in Borrowdale or Rosthwaite, and can be combined with the lovely riverside walk along the River Derwent.[1] The Allerdale Ramble long distance walking route runs along the valley of Broadslack Gill, whilst the Cumbria Way crosses the eastern slopes of Castle Crag.

  

Wanted to try creating something for a digital photogram for the Man Ray prompt . This is four photos, three changed to b/w, one left in color. Applied the solarize effect to all of them and layered with different opacities.

 

The Medici were maybe the most influential Italian family from 13th to 17th century. The family produced three Popes (Leo X, Clement VII and Leo XI), numerous Lords of Florence (notably Lorenzo the Magnificent) and later members of the French and English royal families. They strongly kept Florence and Tuscany under their rule, with an illuminated gouvernment where art and humanism flourished in an unsurpassed way. They were among the real fathers of the Renaissance of Italy, and consequently of the whole Western world.

 

Medici's family originated from Mugello, a valley about 20-30 miles north of Florence, toward Bologna and the Padan plains. They ever remained strongly tied to this wonderful land, and to three fortresses they owned there: the Fortress of Saint Martin, the Villa of Cafaggiolo, and the Castle of Trebbio. These stunning fortresses rise very near one another at 2-3 miles apart and forms an incredible and huge triangle of Medioeval beauty. This photo shows the third one and smallest of them: a real jewel in a marvellous land.

 

By the way...20 minutes drive from my house.... ;-)))

View On Black

Martin Luther King Jr. (Atlanta, Georgia, 15 January 1929 – Memphis, Tennessee, 4 April 1968) was a Baptist minister, intellectual, and one of the most influential leaders in modern history. He became the moral and strategic heart of the American Civil Rights Movement, transforming the fight against racism and segregation into a universal struggle for human dignity. He was not simply a “speaker”: he was an organizer, a strategist of nonviolent resistance, and a global symbol of justice.

King was born into a deeply rooted Black Christian community. His birth name was Michael King Jr., later changed to Martin Luther King Jr. He studied at Morehouse College, then at Crozer Theological Seminary, and earned a PhD in Systematic Theology from Boston University. His education and faith shaped a rare combination: spiritual authority, intellectual depth, and political clarity.

He married Coretta Scott King, who would become a powerful activist in her own right and carry his legacy forward. Together they had four children: Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice. King’s family life was inseparable from his mission: his wife and children lived under constant threat, surveillance, and hatred, because his struggle disturbed the foundations of a racist system.

King rose to national prominence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956), triggered by Rosa Parks’ arrest. The boycott was not only a protest: it was a disciplined political campaign that proved collective dignity could defeat legalized humiliation. King’s leadership helped turn nonviolent resistance into a mass force—organized, strategic, and morally unbreakable.

In 1957 he became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), helping coordinate civil rights campaigns across the South. He led and supported major actions in Birmingham, Selma, and other cities, facing arrests, beatings, threats, and violent repression. He was jailed multiple times; his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” became a landmark of modern political ethics, defending civil disobedience against unjust laws and condemning the dangerous comfort of neutrality.

On 28 August 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King delivered the speech that became one of the most famous in human history: “I Have a Dream.” It was not a poetic moment alone—it was a political declaration that made equality a global moral demand. In the following years, the Civil Rights Movement achieved historic legal victories, including the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965), milestones that changed the United States forever.

In 1964 King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for leading nonviolent resistance to racial injustice. The prize recognized not only his words, but the discipline and courage of a movement that faced hatred with moral strength and political strategy.

In his final years, King expanded his struggle beyond segregation. He spoke openly against poverty, economic exploitation, and the Vietnam War—positions that made him even more threatening to power. He launched what would become the Poor People’s Campaign, insisting that civil rights without economic justice were incomplete.

In 1968 King traveled to Memphis to support the strike of Black sanitation workers—men demanding dignity, fair treatment, and the right to live as human beings. On 4 April 1968, King was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when he was shot and killed. He died at the age of 39. James Earl Ray was convicted of the assassination. King’s death sparked grief, rage, and uprisings across the United States, because his murder was widely felt as the execution of hope itself.

Martin Luther King Jr. was killed because he was effective. He exposed injustice with clarity, and he organized people to defeat it without becoming what they fought against. He proved that nonviolence is not weakness: it is discipline, courage, and political power. His life remains a permanent accusation against racism, indifference, and every system built on humiliation.

The Trinity of Carnatic music refer to the outstanding trio of composer-musicians of Carnatic music in the 18th century, being Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri.

 

Tyagaraja, was a composer and vocalist of Carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music. He was prolific and highly influential in the development of India's classical music tradition.

 

Muthuswami Dikshitar was a South Indian poet, singer and veena player, and a legendary composer of Indian classical music,

 

Shyama Shastri was a musician and composer of Carnatic music.

Earlstoun dam is an important component of the highly influential Galloway Hydroelectric Power Scheme, providing daily storage capacity and flow regulation for Earlstoun power station. The dam combines both gravity and arch sections, with the gravity section providing the necessary abutment for the arched section to the centre. The dam has a fixed spillway for automatic regulation of the level of water and further roller gates to the gravity section. There is also a regulation valve to the arched section. The water is fed out into an aqueduct which takes it to the penstocks above Earlstoun power station. The Galloway scheme was a significant technological achievement and the first example of run of the river technology to be successfully utilised on a large scale in Scotland.

 

The architectural design of Earlstoun Dam is of a distinctively modern style, with the clean sweeping lines of the wave-wall and the synthesis of features such as corbel brackets to the control tower characterising the modern, dynamic attitude with which hydroelectricity was viewed in this period.

 

The development of the Galloway Hydroelectric Scheme predates the 1943 Hydroelectric (Scotland) Act which formalised the development of Hydroelectricity in Scotland and led to the founding of the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board. Those developments which predated the 1943 act were developed by individual companies as a response to particular market and topographic conditions. The completion of a number of schemes without a national strategic policy framework is groundbreaking as is the consistency of high quality aesthetic and engineering design across all of the schemes.

 

The Galloway scheme was influential on the future development of hydropower in Scotland. After initial opposition to the parliamentary act granting powers for the completion of the scheme it was approved with a number of safeguards on the landscape and amenity of the area. This necessitated the high quality design of both power stations and dams which characterises the Galloway scheme. This condition also proved influential during the drafting of the Hydroelectric (Scotland) Act of 1943 where the visual impact of future schemes was a primary concern.

 

Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners was a pioneering engineering company, responsible for a number of high profile works in Scotland, including the Kincardine Bridge. The company was founded by Alexander Gibb in 1921 and quickly became the UK's largest firm of consulting engineers with numerous international clients. Gibb was personally involved in the design and construction of the Galloway scheme, and the pioneering nature of the Galloway development is due, in large part, to his abilities as an engineer. Merz and McLellan were pioneering British electrical engineers and developed a high profile practice, working on a number of power stations across Britain, including Dunstan B, as well as completing hydroelectric work in Italy in the 1980s.

Castle Crag is a hill in the North Western Fells of the English Lake District. It is the smallest hill included in Alfred Wainwright's influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, the only Wainwright below 1,000 feet (300 m).

 

Wainwright accorded Castle Crag the status of a separate fell because it "is so magnificently independent, so ruggedly individual, so aggressively unashamed of its lack of inches, that less than justice would be done by relegating it to a paragraph in the High Spy chapter." Subsequent guidebooks have not always agreed: Castle Crag is one of only two Wainwrights not included in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells.

 

The fell has an impressive appearance, a rugged height apparently blocking the valley of Borrowdale, which is squeezed between Castle Crag and Grange Fell, its neighbour on the other side. This narrow gorge known as the 'Jaws of Borrowdale', and is prominent in views from Keswick and Derwentwater.

 

High Spy, the parent fell, forms part of the north-south ridge between Borrowdale and the Newlands Valley. The rough spur of Low Scawdel (1,709 ft) runs out due east from the summit, breaking steeply over Goat Crag and then falling to Broadslack Gill. This small tributary of the River Derwent separates High Spy from Castle Crag.

 

The wooded height of Castle Crag rises between Broadslack Gill and the Derwent, the two streams meeting to the north beneath the outlying knoll of Low Hows. It has steep faces on all sides except the south, where a low ridge runs out and then swings west around the head of Broadslack Gill. A narrow col here provides the topographic link to High Spy.

 

The Derwentwater fault runs along the valley of Broadslack Gill, the higher ground to the north west being mainly composed of the Birker Fell Formation. These are plagioclase-phyric andesite lavas and subordinate sills. By contrast Castle Crag shows outcropping of the Eagle Crag Member, a mixture of siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate and tuff with frequent andesite sills.

 

The slopes of Castle Crag are extensively quarried with pits and levels on the northern and south eastern flanks. The summit has also been extensively worked. The High Hows Quarry later achieved fame as the home of Millican Dalton, the eccentric and self-styled "Professor of Adventure". The caves here formed his summer home from the 1920s until shortly before his death in 1947.

 

The summit area is believed to have been an ancient hill fort, although the western section has been sliced away by quarrying. It can only be gained by means of a sloping crack to the south. The very highest point is a rock outcrop about eight feet high and twelve feet across. Atop this is a well constructed circular cairn of slate. A memorial to Borrowdale men killed in World War I is affixed to the outcrop.

 

There is a fine view down the valley, Skiddaw seen to good effect across the lake. Southwards Great Gable and the Scafells ring the head of the Derwent catchment, while near at hand- enhanced by the steepness of the slope- is a view of the woods and crags of mid Borrowdale.

 

Castle Crag may be ascended easily from the villages of Grange in Borrowdale or Rosthwaite, and can be combined with the lovely riverside walk along the River Derwent.[1] The Allerdale Ramble long distance walking route runs along the valley of Broadslack Gill, whilst the Cumbria Way crosses the eastern slopes of Castle Crag.

  

A new photo series - ICONS - featuring influential women throughout history.

 

Zenobia was famed for her sultry beauty, keen intelligence, and athletic prowess. Zenobia became queen through marriage to Odaenathus, the king of Palmyra. After Odaenthus was assassinated in 267, Zenobia decided her personal loss was an opportunity for professional growth - she took charge of the Palmyrene Empire as regent for her young son, Vaballathus.

 

Greedy for power and territory, the queen ambitiously invaded and conquered Egypt, Syria, and beyond, greatly expanding her empire - and treading on the Roman Empire's toes.

 

Though an oracle warned that her army would be picked off by Rome like doves by hawks, Zenobia was too stubborn to back down. She personally led her forces into battle on horseback, her beautiful long dark hair rippling behind her on the wind as she charged forward...toward disaster.

 

Palmyra was captured. Aurelian freed her, and as a consolation prize, gave her a villa in Tivoli. She married a Roman senator and spent her remaining years in considerable luxury. In time, she won renown as a philosopher and socialite.

 

- Excerpt from Doomed Queens (Kris Waldherr)

 

Dress by etsy's LangeDollCouture. Wig by etsy's Fantasydolls. Glass eyes by flickr's Cate_Dartfinger.

Confucius (551–479 BCE) is seen as the pre-eminent Chinese sage, and the most influential person in China’s great history. He is the embodiment of all that has come to be associated with the religion that grew up around his teachings. The development of Confucianism is seen to have occurred during a period known to scholars as “The Axial Age”. This was a time of significant moral and spiritual development for humanity. The term was first coined by Swiss philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers (1883-1969). In a nutshell Jaspers summed up “The Axial Age” starting with the Chinese masters:

 

“Confucius and Lao-Tse were living in China, all the schools of Chinese philosophy came into being, including those of Mo Ti, Chuang Tse, Lieh Tzu and a host of others; India produced the Upanishads and Buddha and, like China, ran the whole gamut of philosophical possibilities down to materialism, scepticism and nihilism; in Iran, Zarathustra taught a challenging view of the world as a struggle between good and evil; in Palestine the prophets made their appearance from Elijah by way of Isaiah and Jeremiah to Deutero-Isaiah; Greece witnessed the appearance of Homer, of the philosophers—Parmenides, Heraclitus and Plato,—of the tragedians, of Thucydides and Archimedes. Everything implied by these names developed during these few centuries almost simultaneously in China, India and the West."

— Karl Jaspers, "Origin and Goal of History", (p.2)

 

Confucius had no idea that his ideas would become so influential in Chinese history. He failed to convince the politicians of his own day to see the virtue in his teachings about respect and harmony. Moreover, he had to endure a life of considerable hardship, even poverty. But through it all he gained to himself some loyal followers who after his death collected his principal sayings and developed the rudiments of a philosophy that some consider almost a religion. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism

 

There is a very readable biography on Confucius by Meher McArthur published in 2010. And here is a nice little summary by Alain De Botton and his School of Life: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUhGRh4vdb8

 

There is a long documentary by Dan Snow including major interviews with scholars on “The Story of The Real Confucius”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaFDr11g4Rg

 

* We don't know what the real Confucius looked like, so this porcelain figure of a wise man from China can stand in for the sage.

  

The origins of the present South Carolina State House, a fine example of neoclassical architecture and the third in the State's history, can be traced back to the 1849 recommendation of Govenor Whitemarsh B. Seabrooks that a fireproof building be constructed by the State to protect its historic papers. The cornerstone for such a facility was laid in 1851, but 2 years later the legislature expanded the project to include construction of a new capitol. By 1851, work was proceeding rapidly but had to be stopped when it was discovered that poor workmanship and materials had caused the walls to crack. At this juncture, John Rudolph Niernsee, an Austrian-born architect then residing in Baltimore, was hired to oversee the project. Niernsee drafted a new design for the building—which would be followed with few exceptions until completion—and late in 1855, after the cracked walls had been razed, construction resumed. Using granite from the nearby Congaree River and $1,240,032 in legislative appropriations, Niernsee, by 1860, had completed most of the exterior work on the new capitol, and by 1862 its vaults were ready to receive the public papers.

 

During the Civil War, construction continued albeit on a somewhat limited basis. In February 1865, William T. Sherman and the Union Army occupied Columbia, and he ordered a number of public buildings including the old state house put to the torch. For some unknown reason, Sherman spared the unfinished state house. Although some have claimed he admired its beauty and left it alone for that reason, South Carolina historian A.S. Salley offers a more likely explanation: "He probably wished to save the store of explosives it would have taken to blow it up and he probably feared injury to his reckless, drunken soldiers in the explosions." Despite the exemption, the structure did suffer damage from shelling and the burning of the nearby old state house. Sherman's men also destroyed $700,000 worth of finished marble and other materials as well as Niernsee's models and plans.

 

In the first years after the war, work on the building proceeded very slowly. Not until 1869 was the roof finished and the legislature able to meet in the still uncompleted building. These were the years of Reconstruction, and the capitol served as the setting for some of this drama's most exciting scenes. Between 1869 and 1874, the only State legislature in American history with a black majority sat here, attracting attention both in this country and abroad. In 1873, James Shepherd Pike, a leading Republican journalist, used the capitol as the backdrop for his famous book, The Prostrate State: South Carolina under Negro Government, which made blacks appear as "ignorant dupes, the tools, of Federal power." Although Pike, according to his biographer Robert P. Burden, was "far from dispassionate in his influential report on Reconstruction", his account was accepted at face value because of his prominence. Pike's book also influenced historians, helping reinforce the image of Reconstruction as an era of black domination, corruption, and misrule. In 1935, Henry S. Commager praised its "transparent honesty" and "thorough documentation," and as late as 1947, it was described as the classic work on Reconstruction outrages. The interpretation presented in The Prostrate State is, of course, no longer accepted by most historians.

 

The state house also witnessed one of the final acts of Reconstruction. In 1876, Wade Hampton and the Democrats conducted their famous "Red Shirt" campaign against Daniel H. Chamberlain and the Republicans in a concerted effort to "redeem" the State. "Both parties engaged in fraud, with some counties reporting more votes than there were registered voters", says historian Alien W. Trelease. The result was that both Hampton and Chamberlain claimed victory, and their respective parties claimed control of the lower house of the legislature. When the General Assembly convened in November 1876, the Democratic members of the lower house withdrew when several of their members' election certificates were not recognized. They then chose William H. Wallace speaker while Republicans elected Edwin W.M. Mackey to the same post. On November 30, the Democratic legislators returned to the capitol and "thus was seen the singular spectacle of two speakers and two Houses conducting deliberations in the same hall." Four days later, because of threatened bloodshed, the Wallace House moved to another meeting place, probably at the urging of Wade Hampton who exerted himself to the utmost to maintain peace. According to scholar Hampton M. Jarrell, if Wade Hampton "had no other claim to greatness, his wise leadership during the five months following the election of 1876 would entitle him to both state and national honor; for during this crisis he maintained peace in an area where, but for him, violence would have erupted." Next, both Chamberlain and Hampton were inaugurated as Governor, and South Carolinians found themselves confronted with the spectacle of dual government. It soon became apparent that Hampton and the Wallace House had the full backing of the white population and that Chamberlain and the Mackey House were tolerated only because of the presence of Federal troops in the state. On April 10, 1877, fulfilling part of the compromise which had allowed his United States Presidential inauguration, Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew these troops, and the following day Hampton and his supporters assumed full control of the government of South Carolina.

 

Because of the austerity programs of "Redeemers" like Hampton, work on the capitol proceeded slowly. Finally, in 1885, Governor Hugh S. Thompson, a strong advocate of completing the capitol, recalled John Rudolph Niernsee, its original architect, from Baltimore, but he died before he was able to resume the project. From 1888 to 1891 his son, Frank McHenry Niernsee, served as architect, and under his direction much of the interior work was completed. In 1900, Frank Milburn became architect and stirred up a great deal of controversy because he substituted the present dome for the tower which had been envisioned by the elder Niernsee. Because much of Milburn's work was of inferior quality, he was replaced in 1905 by Charles Coker Wilson, who corrected these deficiencies and finished the exterior in 1907. Finally, after 56 years and the expenditure of $3,450,000, the South Carolina State House had been completed. Since 1907 the exterior of the capitol has changed little, while the interior has been modernized. Today, it still serves as the meeting place for the South Carolina General Assembly and contains the Governor's Office, and the Office of the Legislative Council.

 

For its long, storied history, the South Carolina State House was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on June 5, 1970 and later determined to be a National Historic Landmark (NHL) on May 11, 1976. All of the information above, and much more, was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration. These documents can be viewed here:

npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/8ced7ef7-4232-403f-9aa...

 

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.

 

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." --Jeremiah 29:11

 

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