Day 6 of my 30 Days of Gratitude and Iain and I got to take dad out of hospital for the day. He wanted to go a wee run. Just the three of us. So we went to Callendar which is about 45 minutes from Glasgow. He's struggling to walk and is very frail at the moment, so we stayed in the car most of the time. We had a lovely drive and came back via Doune Castle which was the place used for Monty Python's Holy Grail movie, then up to Bridge of Allan, back past Stirling and home. Just before Bridge of Allan we stopped at a monument in the middle of nowhere. It was of a man named David Stirling who founded of the SAS. I took this picture of a poppy tied to his bootlace. It was nice because dad was reminiscing a lot about the old days and even managed to give us a couple of songs from the past. It was a day to be really grateful for.

I've worked with Johnny so many times, and I think this is definitely one of my favorite characters because we've always talked about old horror movies, and the idea of being able to create something like that and see Johnny play a monster in a way is fantastic!

- Tim Burton on Sweeney Todd

 

Sweeney Todd is angry.

After 15 years of imprisonment on a false charge, Barber Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) returns to London a changed man. Now called Sweeney Todd, he finds his old barber shop and prepares revenge against Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) for disrupting his unassuming life, throwing him in jail, and stealing his wife and child for himself. With razors in hand, Sweeney Todd aims to murder the judge and anyone who gets in his way. When Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) realizes that she's got a serial killer living in the barber shop above her meat pie bistro, she deduces a plan that solves both of their problems, disposing the bodies and perking up her failing business. Together, they refurbish and reopen both shops to plenty of eager customers. Don't ask what's in the pies.

 

Who is Sweeney Todd?

The origin of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street dates back to the 1600s. A combination of stories about crazy barbers over the years added to his legend. The character is first most prominently featured in a London serial magazine in 1846. Films followed in the 1930s, and Stephen Sondheim's musical is based on a play version from the 1960s. When it hit Broadway in 1979, it won eight Tonys, including one for Best Musical, and two Grammys.

 

I had no idea who Sweeney Todd was, but I had heard of Stephen Sondheim's musical starring Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. (She won a Tony too.) When Johnny signed on for Tim Burton's film version, I assumed it would be a drama with no singing because Johnny doesn't do that. Because I love Angela Lansbury, I rented a DVD of that Sweeney Todd to get an idea of what Johnny signed up for. My reaction was unexpected: He's going to play that guy, that huge, scary, Frankenstein-looking guy with the booming voice and horrible haircut? Wait, what is Mrs. Lovett putting in the pies? This thing involved a lot of throat-slitting and cannibalism, and the audience was laughing about it. I didn't get it.

 

Get ready for a shock!

Leading up to the movie's release, I saw a photo of Johnny on the set. He had a glaring white streak in his hair. I didn't get that either. (Johnny later explained the obvious: Sweeney's been through a shock.) Still, I was excited to see this thing. I was thrilled to hear that Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman were his costars, and I was intrigued that Sascha Baron Cohen also snagged a key role. With Tim Burton in charge, I had no idea what to expect from all these intriguing choices!

 

I tried to avoid seeing anything else about the movie because I like to be surprised by the finished product. But, inevitably, I eventually caught a preview on TV. You must have heard when it happened because it was as if a Beatle showed up in my apartment: Johnny was singing!!!

 

"He's got the best job," Tim Burton says about Johnny in this role. "He just stares and broods and doesn't have much dialogue. I wish I could have that job! But he did have to sing, so that sort of balanced the whole thing out." I think only Tim Burton could get Johnny to do that.

 

Apparently, Johnny kept everyone in suspense about his hidden talent. "We're here at the studio, sets were being constructed, wardrobe was being made, other actors and commitments were being made," Producer Richard Zanuck remembers. "Literally, we were spending millions of dollars on the picture, and not one person on earth had heard Johnny sing--and he's the star of the picture!" Producer Walter Parks concurs, "I think, at the end of the day, Stephen Sondheim didn't hear him sing before he decided that he would accept the fact that Johnny was going to do it. You just look at Johnny's body of work and you realize that this is a man that holds himself to the highest possible standard, and we all knew that if he said he could do it, he could do it."

 

I don't think Johnny ever said he could do it, but he said he would try. "I wasn't sure if I'd be able to sing any of it! I certainly wasn't convinced I'd be able to sustain," he says. "That, in many cases, was the booger: holding a note for 12 beats, not easy! There were several instances when I thought, 'I'm just gonna hit the deck. I ran out of air 5 minutes ago.' It's beautiful stuff to sing. I can only imagine that it must be really nice if you're a singer!"

 

For help, Johnny called on his childhood friend Bruce Witkin. Johnny first moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s with dreams of snagging a record contract with his band The Kids, and Bruce Witkin was the lead singer. Still working in music now, Bruce Witkin helped Johnny learn and record all the songs for Sweeney Todd. "We started knocking them down, one by one," Johnny recalls. "We started with 'My Friends.' That was the first song I ever sang in my life. I don't even sing in the shower. It was pretty weird. Yeah, scary!" (It's awesome!!!!!!!!!)

 

Bring on the music!

Producer Richard Zanuck remembers the moment when everyone's fears were put to rest. "One day, I was in my office on the phone. Tim burst in and lays down a little cassette player and his headphones--I didn't know what he was doing--and he walked out. So, I got off the phone, put them on, and listened to Johnny sing for the first time. And, I just put it down and went into Tim's office, and we just stared at each other with great relief. And, we had the biggest smiles at each other because we knew we had a great voice with Johnny!"

 

Unlike his other roles, Johnny found Sweeney Todd in the music. "The character actually came out of the singing, out of the words, Sondheim's words, his melodies, the emotion that the arrangements kind of evoke. I heard him before I saw him." Johnny didn't take any singing lessons to prepare for this role either. He didn't imagine Sweeney Todd was the kind of guy who would bother to take lessons. In Sweeney's case, singing was purely an emotional release.

 

It seems that Tim Burton was the only one who wasn't really concerned about his star's abilities. "I remember when I first heard Johnny. I thought, 'That's amazing! He sounds like some kind of rock star!' Just by the nature of him doing it brings something different to it. I'd say that about all the actors because they're not singers. They all bring a certain modern quality to it, which is in the piece, but it just pushes it that much further."

 

It's true! Aside from the actress who plays the beggar woman in the movie (Laura Michelle Kelly), singing was new to all of the actors, and they were terrified. "One of the more challenging moments in one's life is when you've got the music in your hand, and you're in a huge rehearsal room, and Stephen Sondheim walks across the room and says, 'Okay, let's hear it.'" Alan Rickman says.

 

Unlike Johnny, Helena Bonham Carter, who has always wanted to be in a musical (and to be Mrs. Lovett specifically), tackled her role with weeks of singing lessons. "If you're going to sing, and you're going to do your first musical, it's really stupid to be Mrs. Lovett," she says. If you watch, Mrs. Lovett has to go that extra mile: Some of her songs are fast and require multitasking, whether it's baking or interacting with other people in the scenes. Before filming began, she had to imagine what her musical scenes would be like, including what she thought the other actors involved might do. Then, she recorded the songs to fit the anticipated actions accordingly. As usual, she's amazing!

 

Excited about seeing this wonderful cast, all I was worried about was the blood. Surprisingly, the studios weren't so concerned: "It was an amazing thing," Tim Burton describes proposing this project to the powers that be. "You go, 'We're going to make an R-rated musical with lots of blood, with no professional singers, about a serial killer and cannibalism,' and they go, 'Great!' I've never had that happen in my life before. That gave me hope that there are still people in Hollywood that are willing to try different things."

 

It's splattered!

Sweeney Todd was released on Christmas Day. I knew that when I went home to Ohio for the holidays and Dad referred to it as "that slasher movie," no one in my family was interested in being dragged out in the middle of winter to see Sweeney Todd with me. So, I planned to see it as soon as I got back to D.C.

 

This delay turned out to be a blessing because, as a consolation prize, I allowed myself to watch all the Sweeney Todd specials on MTV, HBO, Starz and wherever else. I learned all the behind-the-scenes secrets about making the perfect mixture of "blood," the variety of razor blades, throat-slitting techniques, and stunts. I started to compare the gore to Monty Python's skit spoofing the violence in Sam Peckinpah movies. Somehow, that was comforting and made me feel more prepared for sitting in a dark theater to watch it on the big screen.

 

Eventually, my sister decided to see Sweeney Todd and asked me how bloody it was before she went. "It's not too bloody," I said. Post viewing, she called back, yelling, "Not too bloody?!" She claims that my vision was burred by my heart-shaped rose-colored Johnny Glasses. (Do those exist?!)

 

The truth is that my blood and gore tolerance preparation went out the window when I got to the theater, so I averted my eyes from all the blood the first time I saw Sweeney Todd. Instead of witnessing any of the murders straight on, I only saw red out of the corner of my eye as I focused on other things in the scene. What's going on outside that window behind him? What's that picture on the wall? I'm into details, after all.

 

There is a lot of blood.

 

But I'm in love!

Despite the gore, I love (love, love, love) this movie! At first glance, it's not my kind of movie at all but, in it's own weird way, it is my favorite kind: a modern musical that looks like a Gothic old movie. Apparently, that's what Tim Burton was going for: Drawing on his love of classic horror films, which he and Johnny both watched as kids, he looked to Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Lon Chaney, for inspiration. These great silent horror film stars were so expressive with internal emotion in their movies. He created that same look and feel for Sweeney Todd with the makeup's pale skin and dark, sunken eyes paired with the grayness of the beautiful Gothic sets.

 

The look of this movie is somehow just as I imagined it. Sweeney Todd is dramatic, tragic, funny, and scary all at the same time. Despite the dark subject matter, by all accounts, the set was a happy one. All of the actors reflect that in their fantastic performances. And, the film's magnificent score ties everything together. "This is Tim Burton's giant salute to classic horror films," Johnny says. "It's a beautiful marriage from two completely different worlds." It's a masterpiece!!!

 

Rest assured, Sweeney Todd is not all blood and guts or any kind of slasher film. This is a good story! "The violence is secondary to the motive," Stephen Sondheim explains. "It's a story about revenge, and it's about how revenge eats itself up. In that sense, it's a tragedy. It's the classic tradition of somebody who goes out for revenge and ends up destroying himself." Doesn't that sound great?

 

For those of you who don't like musicals, you might be okay with this one because it's not a faithful adaptation. The movie is filmed at a faster pace than the stage version, and many songs were cut to keep the story's intensity. "This is not a movie of the stage show; this is a movie based on the stage show," Stephen Sondheim clarifies. "That's the most exciting thing about this." (I don't know about that. Did I mention that Johnny sings in this?) This story is reinvented from Tim Burton's head. "Tim has taken it and adapted it to his vision, his version of Sweeney Todd," Johnny says. "It's a whole other animal."

 

Is the third time a charm?

Sweeney Todd was nominated for three Oscars, for costume design, art direction, and Johnny's spectacular performance! Alas, Daniel Day Lewis was nominated that year too, and whenever Daniel Day Lewis is nominated for anything, he wins it. I love Daniel Day Lewis just as much as the next person, but he already had an Oscar by then. Give somebody else a chance! Johnny played a psychotic depressed serial killer singing Sondheim with a cockney accent. I can't imagine anything being much harder than that! I blame the blood for deterring voters.

 

With his eighth nomination, Johnny did win his first Golden Globe for this performance! But, to my extreme disappointment, that was the year the writer's strike happened and the live televised Golden Globes event was cancelled. In addition to winning an Oscar for art direction and a Golden Globe for Best Picture, Sweeney Todd was nominated for and won a bunch of other well-deserved awards around the world. The film earned honors for Tim Burton, the actors (notably Johnny, Helena Bonham Carter, and newcomer Ed Sanders, who is excellent as Toby), and the crew (for art direction, production design, and costume design). I don't call it a masterpiece for nothing!

 

Gordon can sing too!

Drawing something for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd was intimidating--not because of the blood but because I love nearly everything about it! Whatever lofty plans I had to capture the whole look and feel of this movie, Gordon was ready since he helped celebrate Sweeney Todd the first time around. After I first saw the movie, Gordon dressed up as Sweeney and tested out his lungs--putting all The Kitties in stitches! You can see the drawing here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2008/01/illustration-friday-....

 

Watching the movie again recently, I noticed how reflections and mirrors are used as Johnny sings "My Friends." In that spirit, I made the panels look like broken mirrors. The first row highlights a few key moments in the film since I couldn't decide on a favorite. They are:

- Sweeney singing "My Friends" about his treasured razors (with Mrs. Lovett/Mini checking out her competition).

- An iconic moment in which Sweeney finally feels at home.

- And, Sweeney's determined look out his barber shop window at London and it's unsuspecting citizens--a climactic moment at the end of the scene.

 

Following those is an excerpt from Sweeney's "Epiphany," which kind of says it all. This story does not have a happy ending. (But it's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

Where else did Johnny show up that year?

Johnny participated in three documentaries in 2007, all of which I recommend! They are listed below.

 

- Brando. This documentary, which original aired on Turner Classic Movies, explores the life of Johnny's mentor and friend Marlon Brando.

- Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. Learn all about the charismatic lead singer of The Clash. It'll leave you inspired to run out buy his music (or more of it), as I did.

- Runnin' Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. If you're not already a fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, this 4-hour documentary will make you one. You might remember that Johnny appeared in the band's video for "Into the Great Wide Open" in 1993. I mentioned it while celebrating Film #7, Arizona Dream; you can see the video in that blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2011/04/johnny-kitties-celeb....

 

What's next?

Johnny trades in his razors for guns and goes gangsta in Public Enemies.

 

For images from Sweeney Todd or information about Johnny Kitties, see my blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/09/johnny-kitties-celeb....

 

Eddie Izzard performing the 'Stripped', 2010 Canadian Tour in Montreal (St Denis Theatre) on 25th May, 2010.

 

Referred as the "Lost Python" by Monty Python's John Cleese, Eddie Izzard was listed as number 3 of the 100 Greatest British National Comedians by British television station Channel 4. (Noted from Wikipedia).

 

Check out Eddie Izzard's comic routines reanimated using Lego blocks (Star Wars fans can rejoice) - Death Star Cantina (featuring Darth Vader), Cake or Death

On a suggestion from Steffe, HyperBob borrows Big Al's Fez and assuming wrongly that snakes are mezmerised by the movement of the black tassels on the fez, he enters the python's den in a rash and foolhardy manner to take a snapshot, only to meet his doom.

The Postcard

 

A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Walton-on-Thames on Sunday the 30th. August 1908 to:

 

Mr. N. Bodiam,

Upper Street,

Hollingbourne,

Maidstone,

Kent.

 

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

 

"Dear N,

Just a P.C. to let you know

I am getting on all right.

I like everything very well

so far.

I have got a very nice car.

I have driven it three times

and manage it all right so

far.

I feel a bit strange today,

I don't know many people

yet, and no nice walk after

church tonight.

Best wishes,

P.H."

 

The Palace Theatre

 

The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. Its red-brick façade dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus behind a small plaza near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road. The Palace Theatre seats 1,400.

 

Richard D'Oyly Carte, producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, commissioned the theatre in the late 1880's. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt, and was intended to be a home of English grand opera.

 

The theatre opened as the Royal English Opera House in January 1891 with a lavish production of Arthur Sullivan's opera 'Ivanhoe'. Although this ran for 160 performances, followed briefly by André Messager's 'La Basoche', Carte had no other works ready to fill the theatre.

 

He leased it to Sarah Bernhardt for a season, and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted into a grand music hall and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, managed successfully first by Sir Augustus Harris and then by Charles Morton. In 1897, the theatre began to screen films as part of its programme of entertainment.

 

In 1904, Alfred Butt became manager and continued to combine variety entertainment, including dancing girls, with films. The Marx Brothers appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway shows.

 

In 1925, the musical comedy 'No, No, Nanette' opened at the Palace Theatre, followed by other musicals, for which the theatre became known. 'The Sound of Music' opened in 1961 and ran for 2,385 performances at the theatre. 'Jesus Christ Superstar' ran from 1972 to 1980, and 'Les Misérables' played at the theatre for nineteen years, beginning in 1985.

 

In 1983, Andrew Lloyd Webber purchased the Palace Theatre, and by 1991 had refurbished it. Monty Python's 'Spamalot' played there from 2006 until January 2009, and 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert' opened in March 2009 and closed in December 2011. Between February 2012 and June 2013, the Palace hosted a production of 'Singin' in the Rain'.

 

From June 2016 the play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' ran at the theatre until performances were suspended in March 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

David Clarke

 

So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?

 

Well, the 30th. August 1908 marked the birth of David Gainey Clarke. He was an American Broadway and motion picture actor.

 

The Life and Career of David Clarke

 

A native of Chicago and graduate of Butler University, Clarke started his career as a stage actor during the 1930's. He made his first film 'Knockout' in 1941.

 

David is best known for his film noir roles as a character actor during the 1940's and 1950's. He also played at the Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles, and was featured on Broadway in the original productions of 'A View from the Bridge', 'Orpheus Descending', 'The Ballad of the Sad Cafe', 'Inquest', and 'The Visit'.

 

On television, Clarke appeared as Abel Bingley in 'The Waltons' and as Tiso Novotny in the soap opera 'Ryan's Hope'.

 

Personal Life and Death of David Clarke

 

David Clarke was married to Nora Dunfee. He lived in Belmont, Ohio for several years until he sold his house and moved to Arlington, Virginia to be with his two daughters. He died in Virginia from pneumonia on the 18th. April 2004, aged 95 years.

Pat Rooney and Michael Palin in a book shop on 42nd Street in New York on the 6th June 2005. Normally I would not allow the big stars in entertainment to have their photo taken with me. As Michael is a nice guy and we had a few things in common, like travel, I relented and was delighted and it made his day.

 

Seriously, he is a gentleman and a lovely guy and it was just a bit of luck that I met him as he had finished signing his latest book. I came into the book shop almost by accident. We had a chat he told me he was off in a few weeks to stay in Lismore Castle in Waterford.

 

Michael Edward Palin, CBE, FRGS ( born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. Palin wrote most of his comedic material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as the Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "Argument Clinic", "Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition", and "The Fish-Slapping Dance".

Palin continued to work with Jones after Python, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[1] In a 2005 poll to find The Comedians' Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.[2]

After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer and travel documentarian. His journeys have taken him across the world, including the North and South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe and, most recently, Brazil. In 2000 Palin was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.[3] From 2009 to 2012 Palin was the president of the Royal Geographical Society.[4] On 12 May 2013, Palin was made a BAFTA fellow, the highest honour that is conferred by the organisation.[5]

Early life and career[edit]

 

Palin was born in Broomhill, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the second child and only son of Mary Rachel Lockhart (née Ovey) and Edward Moreton Palin.[6][7] His father was a Shrewsbury School and Cambridge-educated engineer working for a steel firm.[8] His maternal grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Lockhart Ovey, DSO, was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1927.[9] He started his education at Birkdale Preparatory School, Sheffield, and later Shrewsbury School. His sister Angela was nine years older than he was. Despite the age gap the two had a close relationship until her suicide in 1987.[8][10] He has ancestral roots in Letterkenny, County Donegal.[11]

When he was five years old, Palin had his first acting experience at Birkdale playing Martha Cratchit in a school performance of A Christmas Carol. At the age of 10, Palin, still interested in acting, made a comedy monologue and read a Shakespeare play to his mother while playing all the parts.[12] After his school days in 1962 he went on to read modern history at Brasenose College, Oxford. With fellow student Robert Hewison he performed and wrote, for the first time, comedy material at a university Christmas party.[13] Terry Jones, also a student in Oxford, saw that performance and began writing together with Hewison and Palin.[12] In the same year Palin joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-Operative Society Players and first gained fame when he won an acting award at a Co-Op drama festival.[14] He also performed and wrote in the Oxford Revue (called the Et ceteras) with Jones.[15]

In 1966 he married Helen Gibbins, whom he first met in 1959 on holiday in Southwold in Suffolk.[8] This meeting was later fictionalised in Palin's play East of Ipswich.[16] The couple have three children and a grandchild. His youngest child, Rachel (b. 1975) is a BBC TV director, whose work includes MasterChef: The Professionals, shown on BBC2 throughout October and November 2010.[17][18] While still a baby, his son William briefly appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as "Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film". His nephew is the theatre designer Jeremy Herbert.[citation needed]

After finishing university in 1965 Palin became a presenter on a comedy pop show called Now! for the television contractor Television Wales and the West.[19] At the same time Palin was contacted by Jones, who had left university a year earlier, for assistance in writing a theatrical documentary about sex through the ages.[20] Although this project was eventually abandoned, it brought Palin and Jones together as a writing duo and led them to write comedy for various BBC programmes, such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Billy Cotton Bandshow, and The Illustrated Weekly Hudd.[21] They collaborated in writing lyrics for an album by Barry Booth called Diversions. They were also in the team of writers working for The Frost Report, whose other members included Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Monty Python members Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle. Although the members of Monty Python had already encountered each other over the years, The Frost Report was the first time all the British members of Monty Python (its sixth member, Terry Gilliam, was at that time an American citizen) worked together.[8] During the run of The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team contributed material to two shows starring John Bird: The Late Show and A series of Bird's. For A series of Bird's the Palin/Jones team had their first experience of writing narrative instead of the short sketches they were accustomed to conceiving.[22]

Following The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team worked both as actors and writers on the show Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, and the successful children's comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and David Jason. The show also featured musical numbers by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, including future Monty Python musical collaborator Neil Innes. The animations for Do Not Adjust Your Set were made by Terry Gilliam. Eager to work with Palin[23] sans Jones, Cleese later asked him to perform in How to Irritate People together with Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The Palin/Jones team were reunited for The Complete and Utter History of Britain.

During this period Cleese contacted Palin about doing the show that would ultimately become Monty Python's Flying Circus.[8] On the strength of their work on The Frost Report and other programmes, Cleese and Chapman had been offered a show by the BBC, but Cleese was reluctant to do a two-man show for various reasons, among them Chapman's reputedly difficult personality. At the same time the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set had led Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam to be offered their own series and, while it was still in production, Palin agreed to Cleese's proposal and brought along Idle, Jones and Gilliam. Thus the formation of the Monty Python troupe has been referred to as a result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.[24]

Monty Python[edit]

 

Main article: Monty Python

In Monty Python, Palin played various roles, which ranged from manic enthusiasm (such as the lumberjack of the Lumberjack Song, or Herbert Anchovy, host of the game show "Blackmail") to unflappable calmness (such as the Dead Parrot vendor, Cheese Shop proprietor, or Postal Clerk). As a straight man he was often a foil to the rising ire of characters portrayed by John Cleese. He also played timid, socially inept characters such as Arthur Putey, the man who sits idly by as a marriage counsellor (Eric Idle) makes love to his wife (Carol Cleveland), and Mr. Anchovy, a chartered accountant who wants to become a lion tamer. He also appeared as the "It's" man at the beginning of most episodes.

Palin frequently co-wrote sketches with Terry Jones and also initiated the "Spanish Inquisition sketch", which included the catchphrase "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" He also composed songs with Jones including "The Lumberjack Song", "Every Sperm is Sacred" and "Spam". His solo musical compositions included "Decomposing Composers" and "Finland".[25]

Other work[edit]

 

After the Monty Python television series ended in 1974, the Palin/Jones team worked on Ripping Yarns, an intermittent television comedy series broadcast over three years from 1976. They had earlier collaborated on the play Secrets from the BBC series Black and Blue in 1973. He starred as Dennis the Peasant in Terry Gilliam's 1977 film Jabberwocky. Palin also appeared in All You Need Is Cash (1978) as Eric Manchester (based on Derek Taylor), the press agent for the Rutles.

In 1980, Palin co-wrote Time Bandits with Terry Gilliam. He also acted in the film.

In 1982, Palin wrote and starred in The Missionary, co-starring Maggie Smith. In it, he plays the Reverend Charles Fortescue, who is recalled from Africa to aid prostitutes.

In 1984, he reunited with Terry Gilliam to appear in Brazil. He appeared in the comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[1] Cleese reunited the main cast almost a decade later to make Fierce Creatures.

After filming for Fierce Creatures finished, Palin went on a travel journey for a BBC documentary and, returning a year later, found that the end of Fierce Creatures had failed at test screenings and had to be reshot.

Apart from Fierce Creatures, Palin's last film role was a small part in The Wind in the Willows, a film directed by and starring Terry Jones. Palin also appeared with John Cleese in his documentary, The Human Face. Palin was in the cast of You've Got Mail, the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romantic comedy as a subplot novelist, but his role was eventually cut entirely.[26]

He also assisted Campaign for Better Transport and others with campaigns on sustainable transport, particularly those relating to urban areas, and has been president of the campaign since 1986.[27]

Palin has also appeared in serious drama. In 1991 Palin worked as producer and actor in the film American Friends based upon a real event in the life of his great grandfather, a fellow at St John's College, Oxford.[28] In that same year he also played the part of a headmaster in Alan Bleasdale's Channel 4 drama series G.B.H..

Palin also had a small cameo role in Australian soap opera Home and Away. He played an English surfer with a fear of sharks, who interrupts a conversation between two main characters to ask whether there were any sharks in the sea. This was filmed while he was in Australia for the Full Circle series, with a segment about the filming of the role featuring in the series.

In November 2005, he appeared in the John Peel's Record Box documentary.[29]

 

Michael Palin, Nightingale House, November 2010

In 2013 Michael Palin appeared in a new First World War drama titled The Wiper Times written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman.[30

 

Television documentaries[edit]

 

Travel[edit]

Palin's first travel documentary was part of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, in which, humorously reminiscing about his childhood hobby of train spotting, he travelled throughout the UK by train, from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh and Inverness. At the Kyle of Lochalsh, Palin bought the station's long metal platform sign and is seen lugging it back to London with him.

In 1994, Palin travelled through Ireland for the same series, entitled "Derry to Kerry". In a quest for family roots, he attempted to trace his great grandmother – Brita Gallagher – who set sail from Ireland 150 years ago during the Great Famine (1845–1849), bound for a new life in Burlington, New Jersey. The series is a trip along the Palin family line.

Starting in 1989, Palin appeared as presenter in a series of travel programmes made for the BBC. It was after the veteran TV globetrotter Alan Whicker and journalist Miles Kington turned down presenting the first of these, Around the World in 80 Days, that gave Palin the opportunity to present his first and subsequent travel shows.[31] These programmes have been broadcast around the world in syndication, and were also sold on VHS tape and later on DVD:

Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (Travel 1988; Programme release 1989): travelling as closely as possible the path described in the famous Jules Verne story without using aircraft.

Pole to Pole (Travel 1991; Programme release 1992): travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole, following as closely as possible the 30 degree line of longitude, over as much land as possible, i.e., through Europe and Africa.

Full Circle with Michael Palin (Travel 1996/97; Programme release 1997): in which he circumnavigated the lands around the Pacific Ocean anti-clockwise; a journey of almost 50,000 miles (80,000 km) starting on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait and taking him through Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999): retracing the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway through the United States, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

Sahara with Michael Palin (Travel 2001/02; Programme release 2002): in which he trekked around and through the world's largest desert.

Himalaya with Michael Palin (Travel 2003/04; Programme release 2004): in which he travels through the Himalaya region.

Michael Palin's New Europe (Travel 2006/07; Programme release 2007): in which he travels through Central and Eastern Europe.

Brazil with Michael Palin (2012) in which he travels through Brazil.

Following each trip, Palin wrote a book about his travels, providing information and insights not included in the TV programme. Each book is illustrated with photographs by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was on the team. (Exception: the first book, Around the World in 80 Days, contains some pictures by Pao but most are by other photographers.)

All seven of these books were also made available as audio books, and all of them are read by Palin himself. Around the World in 80 Days and Hemingway Adventure are unabridged, while the other four books were made in both abridged and unabridged versions, although the unabridged versions can be very difficult to find.[citation needed]

For four of the trips a photography book was made by Pao, each with an introduction written by Palin. These are large coffee-table style books with pictures printed on glossy paper. The majority of the pictures are of various people encountered on the trip, as informal portraits or showing them engaged in some interesting activity. Some of the landscape photos are displayed as two-page spreads.

Palin's travel programmes are responsible for a phenomenon termed the "Palin effect": areas of the world that he has visited suddenly become popular tourist attractions – for example, the significant increase in the number of tourists interested in Peru after Palin visited Machu Picchu.[32] In a 2006 survey of "15 of the world's top travel writers" by The Observer, Palin named Peru's Pongo de Mainique (canyon below the Machu Picchu) his "favourite place in the world".[33]

Palin notes in his book of Around the World in 80 Days that the final leg of his journey would originally have taken him and his crew on one of the trains involved in the Clapham Junction rail crash, but they arrived ahead of schedule and caught an earlier train.

Art and history[edit]

In recent years, Palin has written and presented occasional documentary programmes on artists that interest him. The first, on Scottish painter Anne Redpath, was Palin on Redpath in 1997. In The Bright Side of Life (2000), Palin continued on a Scottish theme, looking at the work of the Scottish Colourists. Two further programmes followed on European painters; Michael Palin and the Ladies Who Loved Matisse (2004) and Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi (2005), about the French artist Henri Matisse and Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi respectively. The DVD Michael Palin on Art contains all these documentaries except for the Matisse programme.

In November 2008, Palin presented a First World War documentary about Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, when thousands of soldiers lost their lives in battle after the war had officially ended. Palin filmed on the battlefields of Northern France and Belgium for the programme, called the Last Day of World War One, produced for the BBC's Timewatch series.[34]

 

Activism[edit]

 

In July 2010, Palin sent a message of support for the Dongria Kondh tribe of India, who are resisting a mine on their land by the company Vedanta Resources. Palin said, "I’ve been to the Nyamgiri Hills in Orissa and seen the forces of money and power that Vedanta Resources have arrayed against a people who have occupied their land for thousands of years, who husband the forest sustainably and make no great demands on the state or the government. The tribe I visited simply want to carry on living in the villages that they and their ancestors have always lived in".[35]

On 2 January 2011, Palin became the first person to sign the UK-based Campaign for Better Transport's Fair Fares Now campaign.

Recognition[edit]

  

Class 153, no. 153335 'Michael Palin' at Cambridge.

Each member of Monty Python has an asteroid named after him. Palin's is Asteroid 9621 Michaelpalin.[36]

In honour of his achievements as a traveller, especially rail travel, Palin has two British trains named after him. In 2002, Virgin Trains' new £5 million high speed Super Voyager train number 221130 was named "Michael Palin" – it carries his name externally and a plaque is located adjacent to the onboard shop with information on Palin and his many journeys.[37] Also, National Express East Anglia named a British Rail Class 153 (unit number 153335) after him. In 2008, he received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society in Dublin.

Palin was instrumental in setting up the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in 1993.[38]

In recognition of his services to the promotion of geography, Palin was awarded the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in March 2009, along with a Fellowship to the Society.[39] In June 2013, he was similarly honoured in Canada with a gold medal for achievements in geography by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.[40]

In June 2009, Palin was elected for a three-year term as President of the Royal Geographical Society.[41]

Because of his self-described "amenable, conciliatory character" Michael Palin has been referred to as unofficially "Britain's Nicest Man."[42

 

Bibliography[edit]

 

Travel books[edit]

Around the World in 80 Days (1989) ISBN 0-563-20826-0

Pole to Pole (1992) ISBN 0-563-37065-3

Full Circle (1997) ISBN 0-563-37121-8

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999) ISBN 0-297-82528-3

Sahara (2002) ISBN 0-297-84303-6

Himalaya (2004) ISBN 0-297-84371-0

New Europe (2007) ISBN 0-297-84449-0

Brazil (2012) ISBN 0-297-86626-5

All his travel books can be read at no charge, complete and unabridged, on his website.

Autobiography (contributor)[edit]

The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons (2003) ISBN 0-7528-5293-0

Diaries[edit]

Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years. 2006. ISBN 0-297-84436-9

Diaries 1980–1988: Halfway to Hollywood – The Film Years. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2009. ISBN 978-0-297-84440-2

Fiction[edit]

Hemingway's chair (1995) ISBN 0-7493-1930-5

Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls w/Terry Jones, illus Martin Honeysett, Frank Bellamy et al. (1974) ISBN 0-413-32740-X

Dr Fegg's Encyclopaedia of all world knowledge (1984) (expanded reprint of the above, with Terry Jones and Martin Honeysett) ISBN 0-87226-005-4

The Truth (2012) ISBN 978-0297860211

Children's books[edit]

Small Harry and the Toothache Pills (1982) ISBN 0-416-23690-1

Limerics or The Limerick Book (1985) ISBN 0-09-161540-2

Cyril and the House of Commons (1986) ISBN 1-85145-078-5

Cyril and the Dinner Party (1986) ISBN 1-85145-069-6

The Mirrorstone with Alan Lee and Richard Seymour (1986) ISBN 0-224-02408-6

Plays[edit]

The Weekend (1994) ISBN 0-413-68940-9

 

Television[edit]

 

Now! (October 1965 – middle 1966)

The Ken Dodd Show

Billy Cotton Bandshow

The Illustrated Weekly Hudd

The Frost Report. (10 March 1966 – 29 June 1967)

The Late Show (15 October 1966 – 1 April 1967)

A Series of Bird's (1967) (3 October 1967 – 21 November 1967 screenwriter (guest stars)

Twice a Fortnight (21 October 1967 – 23 December 1967)

Do Not Adjust Your Set (26 December 1967 – 14 May 1969)

Broaden Your Mind (1968)

How to Irritate People (1968)

Marty (TV series) (1968)

The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969)

Monty Python's Flying Circus (5 October 1969 – 5 December 1974)

Saturday Night Live (Hosted 8 April 1978 with Musical Guest Eugene Record, and 27 January 1979 with The Doobie Brothers)

Ripping Yarns (1976–1979)

Great Railway Journeys of the World, episode title "Confessions of a Trainspotter" (1980)

East of Ipswich (1987) writer

Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (1989)

GBH (1991)

Pole to Pole (1992)

Great Railway Journeys, episode title "Derry to Kerry" (1994)

The Wind in the Willows (1995)

The Willows in Winter (1996)

Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997)

Palin On Redpath (1997)

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999)

Michael Palin On... The Colourists (2000)

Sahara with Michael Palin (2002)

Life on Air (2002)

Himalaya with Michael Palin (2004)

Michael Palin's New Europe (2007)

Around the World in 20 Years (30 December 2008)

Brazil with Michael Palin (2012)

 

Awards[edit]

 

BAFTA Awards[edit]

1984 Nominated – BAFTA Award for "Best Original Song" (the award was discontinued after the 1985 ceremonies) for Every Sperm is Sacred from The Meaning of Life (shared with André Jacquemin, Dave Howman and Terry Jones)

1989 Won – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for A Fish Called Wanda (as Ken Pile)[43]

1992 Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for G.B.H.

2005 Won – BAFTA Special Award

2009 Won – BAFTA Special Award as part of the Monty Python team for outstanding contribution to film and television[44]

2013 Won – BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award[45][46

 

References[edit]

 

^ Jump up to: a b "Film Nominations 1988". BAFTA. Retrieved 11 January 2008.

Jump up ^ Michael Palin Biography Yahoo.com. Retrieved 7 May 2012

Jump up ^ "Trio of Dames lead showbiz honours". BBC News. 31 December 1999. Retrieved 15 August 2006.

Jump up ^ People & Staff Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 24 June 2012

Jump up ^ "Michael Palin To Receive Academy Fellowship At The Arqiva British Academy Television Awards".

Jump up ^ Nick Barratt (11 November 2006). "Family detective". The Daily Telegraph (UK). Retrieved 25 October 2008.

Jump up ^ "Michael Palin Biography (1943–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2011-06-01.

^ Jump up to: a b c d e Chalmers, Robert (29 July 2012). "The dark knight rises: Perhaps Michael Palin isn’t the nicest chap in Britain after all...". The Independent. Retrieved 14 August 2012.

Jump up ^ The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons, pg. 31

Jump up ^ "The wandering man". Thestandard.com.hk. Retrieved 2011-06-01.[dead link]

Jump up ^ "First Letterkenny heritage magazine launched". Donegal News. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013. "Over 100 people attended the official launch of Letterkenny Community Heritage Group’s new magazine in the Station House Hotel this week. [...] Did you know that Michael Palin of Monty Python fame has ancestral roots in the town?"

^ Jump up to: a b Ross, 200

Jump up ^ Michael Palin biography[dead link]

Jump up ^ "ABC TV Documentaries: Sahara episode 3/4". Australian Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2 September 2006.

Jump up ^ Desert Island Discs, Radio 4, Sat 17 November 1979 - www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castawa...

Jump up ^ Ross, 57

Jump up ^ Warman, Anna. "Travelling with Michael Palin". Retrieved 14 August 2006.

Jump up ^ "Home truths on Wanderlust". Camden New Yournal. 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 September 2008.

Jump up ^ Michael Palin by John Oliver at BFI Screen Online, URL accessed 13 December 2006

Jump up ^ Hodgkinson, Tom (2006). "In Conversation with Michael Palin". The Idler. Retrieved 20 December 2006.

Jump up ^ Biography at Pythonet.org, URL accessed 17 December 2006

Jump up ^ "A Series Of Bird's". BBC Guide to Comedy. Retrieved 16 September 2006.

Jump up ^ Ross, 91

Jump up ^ The Pythons Autobiography By The Pythons; Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, John Chapman, David Sherlock, Bob McCabe; Thomas Dunne Books; 2003

Jump up ^ Monty Python Sings - Monty Python : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic

Jump up ^ "NEWS 1999_01_17 - Michael Palin Dropped From Final Print of Hanks/Ryan Romantic Comedy". Daily Llama. Retrieved 2011-06-01.

Jump up ^ Campaign for Better Transport website[dead link]

Jump up ^ American Friends at Rotten Tomatoes.com, URL accessed 13 December 2006

Jump up ^ "John Peel's Record Box", 2005

Jump up ^ "Python Palin stars in BBC WWI drama". BBC News. Retrieved 2 July 2013.

Jump up ^ Vestey, Michael (6 August 2005). "Watching over Whicker". Findarticles.com. Retrieved 25 October 2008.[dead link]

Jump up ^ Webster, Ben (14 January 2005). "Globetrotter Palin brought down to earth by eco-lobby". The Times (London). Retrieved 14 August 2006.

Jump up ^ Wilkinson, Carl (8 January 2006). "My favourite place in the world". The Observer (UK). Retrieved 18 August 2007.

Jump up ^ "Timewatch – The Last Day of World War One". BBC. Retrieved 1 November 2008.

Jump up ^ Michael Palin sends message to support Dongria Kondh, Survival International

Jump up ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 17 October 2006.

Jump up ^ Virgin Trains, URL accessed 13 December 2006

Jump up ^ "Palin's centre for stammerers wins £340,000 grant". Retrieved 9 September 2008.

Jump up ^ "Royal Scottish Geographical Society: Medals & Awards". Retrieved 29 January 2010.

Jump up ^ Ouzounian, Richard (26 June 2013). "Michael Palin, from Monty Python to travel series host". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 26 June 2013.

Jump up ^ "Michael Palin announced as new president of Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)". Retrieved 25 November 2009.

Jump up ^ Lee, Marc (24 August 2009). "Michael Palin: he's not a Messiah, just a very nice man". The Daily Telegraph (London).

Jump up ^ "BAFTA Film Awards - Best Supporting Actor 1989". BAFTA.

Jump up ^ "Monty Python Special Award". Retrieved 20 October 2009.[dead link]

Jump up ^ "TV Baftas 2013: all the winners". The Guardian. 12 May 2013.

Jump up ^ "Michael Palin To Receive Academy Fellowship At The Arqiva British Academy Television Awards". BAFTA.

 

via Twitter twitter.com/tableau

Since everyone's been doing library photos I felt the need to jump on the bandwagon! I spend enough time there anyway- the libraries on campus are so old and wonderful to explore. This is in the west stacks... which are supposedly haunted, but I think that every university begs to have a ghost story, so i'm not sure of the credibility.

 

A-line secretary dress: Vintage, gift from my best friend Charles

Cardigan: Salvation Army

Velvet beret: Vintage from Dolly Python's

80s stretch belt: Mom's old

Tassel necklace: Estate sale

Tights: target

Jazz heels: Thrifted in Denver- they're my favorite!

 

NEW Python's Rope Belts at Veneno

 

Taxi: slurl.com/secondlife/Longwood/75/35/23/?title=Veneno%20%3...

The isolation of the machine is the least of his worries when that weight, like Monty Python's foot is about to descend on him. Just a thought dredged up from 0-level science days ( which were not yesterday) don't the tick rubber tyres insulate the machine. As in cars not getting struck by lightening or was that something else. I recall from sea scout days that in the case of being enveloped by a thunderstorm at sea one was to rig a cantenery of chain beneath the boat and suspend an anchor some twenty feet below one. I think in such circumstances I would be more likely to stick my fingers in my ears and go La-La-la...

Doune Castle was the home of Robert Stewart, the 1st Duke of Albany. He was ruler of Scotland, in all but name, from 1388 until his death in 1420.

 

The castle was long thought to have been entirely built for Albany, but recent research has shown there are significant remains of a earlier castle incorporated into the structure.

 

Doune’s most striking feature is the 100ft high gatehouse which includes the splendid Duke’s Hall with its musicians’ gallery, double fireplace and carved oak screen.

 

This impressive architecture has made it popular with production companies. It was Swamp Castle, Castle Anthrax and Camelot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and more recently a location in the pilot for Game of Thrones and the fictional Castle Leoch for the TV adaption of the Outlander novels.

 

Discover the nature trail in the castle grounds or take an audio tour of the castle narrated by Monty Python’s Terry Jones. Hear the exciting history of the medieval castle and residents, as well stories of the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Josie has become very particular about being wrapepd up in a towel after bath. The corner of the towel is first placed on her left shoulder, and wrapped around her from the back the long way and then tucked in at the top.

 

We were lazy and left a towel laying around after bath, and she found it the next morning and demanded to be wrapped up. So we did, then she took off running and zoomed down the hallway with her arms bound to her sides. As expected she quickly face planted. But in the same fashion as Monty Python's invincible black night, she popped herself back upright using no arms at all. and continued to run, bouncing with a gleeful smile.

In a scene from the BBC TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus John Cleese demonstrates some athletic footwork.

Full colour image of a Green Tree Python's body

Picture a Torchlit dungeon. We hear clanging footsteps. Shadows on the Grille. The footsteps stop and keys jangle. The great door creaks open and Ximinez walks in and looks round approvingly. Fang and Biggles enter behind pushing in the dear old lady. They chain her to the wall.

 

Ximinez: Now, old woman! You are accused of heresy on three counts. Heresy by thought, heresy by word, heresy by deed, and heresy by action. Four counts. Do you confess?

 

Old Lady: I don't understand what I'm accused of.

 

Ximinez: Ha! Then we'll make you understand! Biggles! Fetch...THE CUSHIONS!

~Monty Python's Flying Circus

 

IMG_3972

15 Apr 11

conejo zombie rompió la mieeeel!

 

ruuuuuuuuuuuun!

 

es conejo

 

es ninja

 

es zombie

 

es diabético

 

es obsesivo compulsivo

 

es agresivo

 

sabe gruñir

 

tiene colmillos

 

muerde

  

vuelvo y digo: "ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun, run for your lives"

Blackburns Goddess Sci-Fi Heels 6 color Fitmesh

CF - SCI-FI SUIT

HYPNOSE NAILS SQUARE GLOSSY

itGirls & VELOUR x Picasso Babe Muse (LEGACY0 PYTHON

lali's Sci-Fi Helmet 10

LEGACY Meshbody (f) Special Edition (1.6)

LeLUTKA Avalon Head 3.1

TABLET HL-1

VELOUR: ANACONDA SKIN for EVO X (PYTHON)

{S&C}Free Dove Necklace Gold/silver/black

~MR~ Fairy Dream~FATPACK

~MR~Star Walker~FATPACK

  

On my left is my RL daughter Rochelle (yes she is the funny Alien) AKA missbitch93. Please head over to her profile for more info. Thank you guys. <3

 

Visit this location at [BluShock Unleashed] SteelStrand City - Planet Serados in Second Life

*Luke Skywalker, on his way to see the emporer*

 

DARTH VADER:: None shall pass.

LUKE: What?

DARTH VADER: None shall pass.

LUKE: I have no quarrel with you, Father, but I must see the Emporer.

DARTH VADER: Then you shall die.

LUKE: I command you as Leader of the Rebellion to stand aside!

DARTH VADER: I move for no man.

LUKE: So be it!

[hah]

[parry thrust]

[Luke chops Darth Vader's left arm off]

LUKE: Now stand aside, worthy adversary.

DARTH VADER: 'Tis but a scratch.

LUKE: A scratch? Your arm's off!

DARTH VADER: No, it isn't.

LUKE: Well, what's that then?

DARTH VADER: I've had worse.

LUKE: You liar!

DARTH VADER: Come on you pansy!

[hah]

[parry thrust]

[Luke chops Darth Vader's right arm off]

LUKE: Victory is mine!

[kneeling]

We thank thee Lord, that in thy merc-

[Darth Vader kicks Luke in the head while he is praying]

DARTH VADER: Come on then.

LUKE: What?

DARTH VADER: Have at you!

LUKE: You are indeed brave, Father, but the fight is mine.

DARTH VADER: Oh, had enough, eh?

LUKE: Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left.

DARTH VADER: Yes I have.

LUKE: Look!

DARTH VADER: Just a flesh wound.

[Headbutts Luke in the chest]

LUKE: Look, stop that.

DARTH VADER: Chicken! Chicken!

LUKE: Look, I'll have your leg. Right!

[whop, chops off Darth Vaders leg]

DARTH VADER: Right, I'll do you for that!

LUKE: You'll what?

DARTH VADER: Come 'ere!

LUKE: What are you going to do, bleed on me?

DARTH VADER: I'm invincible!

LUKE: You're a loony.

DARTH VADER: The Sith Lord always triumphs! Have at you!

Come on then.

[whop]

[ARTHUR chops Darth Vader's other leg off]

DARTH VADER: All right; we'll call it a draw.

LUKE: Come, Patsy.

DARTH VADER: Oh, oh, I see, running away then. You yellow

bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite

your legs off!

   

FROM: (Drum roll....) Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail - Arthur -v- The Black Knight

 

Text is a bit long i guess.... but didnt really know where to cut it from. oh well! *shrug*

A needlework piece of Terry Gilliam´s animation scene in Monty Python´s Holy Grail.

Made the pattern in PCStitch.

Palace Theatre dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus near the intersection of Shaftesbury Ave. and Charing Cross Rd. The theatre, which seats 1,400, was commissioned in the late 1800s by Richard D'Oyly Carte, producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and intended to be a home of English grand opera. The theatre opened as the Royal English Opera House in 1891 with a lavish production of Arthur Sullivan's opera Ivanhoe. He then leased it to Sarah Bernhardt for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted into a grand music hall and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties. In 1897, the theatre began to screen films and in 1904 combined variety entertainment, including dancing girls, with films. The name of the theatre was changed to The Palace Theatre in 1911. The Marx Brothers appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway shows. In 1925, No, No, Nanette opened at the Palace Theatre, followed by other musicals for which the theatre became known. The Sound of Music ran for 2,385 performances, opening in 1961. Jesus Christ Superstar ran from 1972 to 1980, and Les Misérables played at the theatre for 19 years, beginning in 1985. In 1983, Andrew Lloyd Webber purchased the theatre and completed a refurbishment in 1991. Monty Python's Spamalot played from 2006 to 2009. In June 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened at the theatre.

One thin mint.

From Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Armor inspired by Dragon Age 2 and Monty Python's Black Knight. Made from cardboard, duct tape, and foam.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

When I was a kid, and we lived in Rathrout, Ballinadee, dad used to work in the boatyard. I used to play around it, swallowing ball bearings and burying my vile candy floss (that I had begged to try and then rapidly regretted) in sandpits. My best friend Lee and I, used to hang with the bigger kids and jump off the boat launch and try to look brave.

 

We learned to play pool in Keoghan's bar, before we could see over the edge of the table, and gorged ourselves silly on Tayto crisps. Once, I even drank so much lucozade after a school sports day that it streamed out of my nose.

 

I remember my parents playing pool competitions while I sat on the windowsill in the tiny pool room. I remember whistling Monty Python's "Always look on the bright side of life' when stuck up there for hours, while eating blue smarties - which were subsequently outlawed for having evil dyes in the shells.

 

Good times. These days, no one visits the bar. The seats around the pool table are the same ones my Dad built in the 80s, there are still sparse walls, a Mother Mary hanging on the end wall, and just a Guinness Toucan, a Black and Whites whiskey mirror, and a pool cue rack.

 

A couple of the old characters still go there- the star of which is the mentally impaired Doaney, a pig farmer who still lives with his mother and tells us inappropriate tales of French prostitues on his first trip out of Ireland. He tells of giving one of the travellers in a nearby field a blowjob- "you have to get it where you can"... he grunts a lot and has been drinking out of the same glass for 40 years. Nelius sits behind the bar, austere, unsmiling, like Frakenstein carved from driftwood. Sylvie sits in the back room under Mother Mary, warm yet empty. The pair built a house up the road that took ten years to complete- they'll never move there and will probably always live in the one room annex to the bar.

 

Some things I never looked at, or noticed though- lie how beautiful Kilmac is in the evening, when the water is glassy and the air is thick.

This is my biggest claim to fame so far…

 

In June 2013, I was contacted by a Hollywood ‘Special Effects Supervisor & Director’, although I wasn’t made aware of his job title at the time. He asked if I would be open to licensing one of my images for use in a theatrical film and went on to say…

 

… “there's a sequence in the film that takes place on a virtual deserted island environment. The idea would be to utilize your photo as the foundation of the view of the sunset sky. Only the sky portion of the image would be used. It's only in a few shots in the film but it is important to the director to get it right.”

 

It was only when the photo license agreement came through in an email that I realised my photography was about to be used for something really big – a movie called ‘The Zero Theorem’ directed by Terry Gilliam.

 

Safe in the knowledge that my photograph would be in the hands of visual effects professionals, I signed the license agreement and released the image RAW file so that the post-production team could get to work. Since then, it’s been the case of hurry-up and wait for the film release – and it’s been an agonising eight months so far.

 

So why haven’t I mentioned this on Flickr before now? Well, to be honest I wasn’t 100% sure that my work would be used in the film’s final cut, despite being generously paid for my efforts. However, after watching the trailer online I finally spotted my handy work. It’s a scene with Christoph Waltz and Mélanie Thierry on a deserted beach beneath an adaptation of the original sunset image. If you look carefully at the original photograph you will see elements of the sky, which appear below in the screen shot from the movie trailer. Although the sunset is rather kitsch, I think the post-production team have done an incredible job to adapt the photograph. More importantly, it clearly fits the narrative of this sci-fi movie and Gilliam's vision for the scene.

 

The Zero Theorem will be in UK cinemas on March 14. Will I get a mention in the credits? Now that would be fun!

 

Stars of ‘The Zero Theorem’ include Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis, Lucas Hedges, Matt Damon, Ben Whishaw and Tilda Swinton amongst others. Terry Gilliam is probably most well-known for his work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and films such as Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and Time Bandits.

 

Here's a link to my website 'Published Work' page and follow the link to the official movie trailer:

www.markgeorgephotography.co.uk/news.html

 

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Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 284. Peter Sellers.

 

British comedian Peter Sellers (1925-1980) was an incredibly versatile actor. He played Chief Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films with as much ease as Clare Quilty in Lolita (1962). Stanley Kubrick asked him to play three roles in Dr. Strangelove (1964) for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

Richard Henry Sellers was born in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, England. He was literally born into show business. His parents, William "Bill" Sellers and Agnes Doreen "Peg" née Marks, were vaudeville performers in an acting company run by his grandmother, and Peter arrived while they were appearing in Southsea. Although christened Richard Henry, his parents called him Peter, after his elder stillborn brother. He made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre, Southsea, when he was two weeks old. Sellers remained an only child. He began accompanying his parents in a variety act that toured the provincial theatres, causing much upheaval and unhappiness in the young Sellers' life. Sellers studied dance as a child before attending St. Aloysius’ Boarding and Day School for Boys. As a teenager, he learned to play the drums and played with jazz bands. At the age of 18, Sellers entered the Royal Air Force during World War II. There he became part of a group of entertainers who performed for the troops. Sellers played his drums and did dead-on impersonations of some of the officers. After the war, he struggled to launch his comic career for several years. After several previous attempts, Sellers managed to land work with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) by winning over radio producer Roy Speer during a phone conversation. His spot-on impersonations helped to make him a beloved radio comedian. In 1951, Sellers joined fellow comics Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine for The Goon Show. The program proved to be hugely popular with listeners who tuned in to hear their absurd skits and bits. The success of The Goon Show helped Sellers break into films. In 1951 the Goons made their feature film debut in Penny Points to Paradise (Anthony Young, 1951). Sellers and Milligan then penned the script to the short Let's Go Crazy (Alan Cullimore, 1951), the earliest film to showcase Sellers's ability to portray a series of different characters within the same film, and he made another appearance opposite his Goons co-stars in the flop, Down Among the Z Men (Maclean Rogers, 1952). In 1954, Sellers was cast opposite Sid James, Donald Pleasence and Eric Sykes in the comedy Orders Are Orders (David Paltenghi, 1955). Then he landed a part as one of the oddball criminals in the classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955) with Alec Guinness. The Ladykillers was a success in both Britain and the US, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Sellers starred with David Tomlinson and Wilfrid Hyde-White as a chief petty officer in Up the Creek (Val Guest, 1958). In 1959, his career really took off with the satire I’m All Right, Jack (John and Roy Boulting, 1959). For his part as Fred Kite, the dogmatic communist union man, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In The Mouse That Roared (Jack Arnold, 1959) with Jean Seberg, Sellers played three characters: the elderly Grand Duchess, the ambitious Prime Minister and the innocent and clumsy farm boy selected to lead an invasion of the United States. This box office hit helped to introduce Sellers to the American audiences. In 1959 he was also nominated for an Academy Award for the eleven-minute short The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (Richard Lester, Peter Sellers, 1959). Sellers portrayed an Indian doctor, Dr Ahmed el Kabir opposite Sophia Loren in the romantic comedy The Millionairess (Anthony Asquith, 1960) based on the George Bernard Shaw play. The Goon Show ended its run in 1960, but the program proved to be a strong influence on British comedy. It paved the way for such future comedy shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

Peter Sellers hit his stride in the early 1960s with three of his most famous roles. Stanley Kubrick asked him to play the role of the mentally unbalanced TV writer Clare Quilty in Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962), opposite Sue Lyon, James Mason and Shelley Winters. Sellers introduced audiences to the world’s most bumbling detective, French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, in Blake Edwards’s The Pink Panther (1963). The film proved to be a huge success, and it was quickly followed by the sequel A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964) again with Herbert Lom as Commissioner Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as Cato. Andrew Spicer in The Encyclopedia of British Cinema: “In Clouseau, Sellers combined his vocal ingenuity and skill as a slapstick comedian, yet always retained an essential humanity through the inspector's indefatigable dignity in the face of a hostile universe.” In Kubricks’s cold war satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964), Sellers once again showed his ability to tackle multiple characters the well-meaning US President Merkin Muffley, unflappable RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and the nightmarish Dr. Strangelove himself, the government's adviser on nuclear warfare, who is unable to control his own body. His black gloved hand always tries to make a Nazi salute, expressing an ineradicable desire to dominate and destroy. Kubrick later commented that the idea of having Sellers in so many of the film's key roles was that "everywhere you turn there is some version of Peter Sellers holding the fate of the world in his hands". In 1964, Sellers had his first heart attack. He was reportedly clinically dead for two and a half minutes before being revived. This incident marked the beginning of his heart troubles, and he later had a pacemaker installed to help manage his heartbeat. Making a full recovery, Sellers continued to work in the cinema. What's New Pussycat (Clive Donner, 1965) with Peter O'Toole and Romy Schneider, was another big hit, but a combination of his ego and insecurity made Sellers difficult to work with. When the James Bond spoof, Casino Royale (Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, 1967) ran over budget and was unable to recoup its costs despite an otherwise healthy box-office take, Sellers received some of the blame. His films of the late 1960s and early 1970s had some decidedly mixed results.

 

It was his famed character Inspector Clouseau who gave Peter Sellers a boost at the box office with The Return of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1975) with Christopher Plummer and Catherine Schell. This hit spawned two more Pink Panther films, The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Blake Edwards, 1976), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1978). Sellers earned raves for his subtle, understated turn as the simple gardener Chance who becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics in Being There (Hal Asby, 1979), a film adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel. His character spouts ideas and comments based on his years of television-watching, which are confused by others as words of wisdom. Sellers earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for his performance. After making this remarkable black comedy, Sellers’s career seemed to be on an upswing. But he never lived to realise this new wave of potential. His last film was The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (Piers Haggard, 1980), a comedic re-imagining of the eponymous adventure novels by Sax Rohmer; Sellers played both police inspector Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu, alongside Helen Mirren and David Tomlinson. The film, completed just a few months before his death, proved to be another box office flop. Peter Sellers died in a London hospital in 1980, after suffering another heart attack. Sellers was only 54. In his personal life, Sellers struggled with depression and insecurities. Wikipedia: “An enigmatic figure, he often claimed to have no identity outside the roles that he played. His behaviour was often erratic and compulsive, and he frequently clashed with his directors and co-stars, especially in the mid-1970s when his physical and mental health, together with his alcohol and drug problems, were at their worst. Sellers was married four times”. He was survived by his fourth wife Lynne Frederick, and three children from his previous marriages. His son Michael and daughter Sarah came from his first marriage to Anne Howe and daughter Victoria came from his second marriage to actress Britt Ekland. He was also briefly married to Miranda Quarry from 1970 to 1974. Sellers was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush in the biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Stephen Hopkins, 2004).

 

Sources: Andrew Spicer (The Encyclopedia of British Cinema), Ashley G. Mackinnon (IMDb), Biography.com Wikipedia and IMDb.

LEGO Monty Python's Mr. Creosote from the Meaning of Life at Brickcon 2011

Python, Devine your futures landscape,PYTHON was a monstrous serpent which Gaia (Mother Earth) appointed to guard the oracle at Delphoi. The beast was sometimes said to have been born from the rotting slime left behind after the great Deluge. When Apollon laid claim to the shrine, he slew the dragon with his arrows. The oracle and festival of the god were then named Pytho and Pythian from the rotting (pythô) corpse of the beast. According to some, Apollon slew the monster to avenge his mother Leto, who had been pursued relentlessly by the dragon during her long pregnancy.Python was variously described as a male or female drakon. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo (and some Greek art) equates her with Ekhidna, a woman-headed serpent or drakaina, which nursed and consorted with the monstrous giant Typhoeus.In the image right, Apollon, seated upon the omphalos stone at Delphoi, slays Python with his arrows. Here she appears as Ekhidna, a she-serpent with woman's head and breast.PYTHON (Puthôn), the famous dragon who guarded the oracle of Delphi, is described as a son of Gaea. He lived in the caves of mount Parnassus, but was killed by Apollo, who then took possession of the oracle. (Apollod. i. § 1 ; Strab. ix. p. 422.)Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 356 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.) :"Straightway large-eyed queenly Hera took him [Typhaon] and bringing one evil thing to another such, gave him to the Drakaina [Python]; and she received him. And this Typhaon used to work great mischief among the famous tribes of men. Whosoever met the Drakaina, the day of doom would sweep him away, until the lord Apollon, who deals death from afar, shot a strong arrow at her. Then she, rent with bitter pangs, lay drawing great gasps for breath and rolling about that place. An awful noise swelled up unspeakable as she writhed continually this way and that amid the wood : and so she left her life, breathing it forth in blood. Then Phoibos Apollon boasted over her : `Now rot here upon the soil that feeds man! You at least shall live no more to be a fell bane to men who eat the fruit of the all-nourishing earth, and who will bring hither perfect hecatombs. Against cruel death neither Typhoios [her consort] shall avail you nor ill-famed Khimaira [her spawn], but here, shall the Earth and shining Hyperion make you rot.' Thus said Phoibos, exulting over her : and darkness covered her eyes. And the holy strength of Helios made her rot away there; wherefore the place is now called Pytho, and men call the lord Apollon by another name, Pythian; because on that spot the power of piercing Helios made the monster rot away."

Homeric Hymns 3 to Apollo 300 ff : "But near by [Delphoi] was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great drakaina, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep: for she was a very bloody plague. She it was who once received from gold-throned Hera and brought up fell, cruel Typhaon to be a plague to men."Simonides, Fragment 573 (from Julian, Letters) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric III) (Greek lyric C6th to 5th B.C.) :"[Apollon] killed the snake Python with a hundred arrows. [N.B. This is probably Simonides' etymology for Apollo's title hekateros, "hundred missiles."] "Melanippides, Fragment 5 (from Plutarch, On Music) (from Julian, Letters) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric V) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :"[The mythical musician] Olympos was the first to use the Lydian mode, when he played on his pipes a lament for the Python."Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 22 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"[Apollon] made his way to Delphoi, where Themis gave the oracles at that time. When the serpent Python, which guarded the oracle, moved to prevent Apollon from approaching the oracular opening, he slew it and thus took command of the oracle."Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 703 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :"[Orpheus] told them [the Argonauts] in song how Apollon long ago, when he was still a beardless youth rejoicing in his locks, slew the monster Delphyne with his bow beneath the rocky brow of Parnassos."Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 91 (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :"[Apollon prophesies from the womb of his mother Leto :] `Not yet is the tripod seat at Pytho my care; not yet is the great serpent dead, but still that beast of awful jaws, creeping down from Pleistos, wreathes snowy Parnassos with his nine coils.'"Strabo, Geography 9. 3. 10 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[In the musical contest of the Pythian Games held at Delphoi were] citharoedes, fluteplayers and citharists who played without singing, who rendered a certain melody which is called the Pythian Nome. Now the melody was composed by Timosthenes, the admiral of the second Ptolemy . . . and through this melody he means to celebrate the contest between Apollon and the Drakon, setting forth the prelude as anakrousis, the first onset of the contest as ampeira, the contest itself as katakeleusmos, the triumph following the victory as iambos and daktylus, the rhythms being in two measures, one of which, the dactyl, is appropriate to hymns of praise, whereas the other, the iamb, is suited to reproaches (compare the word 'iambize'), and the expiration of the Drakon as syringes, since with syringes players imitated the dragon as breathing its last in hissings."

Strabo, Geography 9. 3. 12 : "[According to Ephoros, a Greek historian C5th B.C., who rationalised the Python myth] Apollon, visiting the land [of Phokis], civilized the people by introducing cultivated fruits and cultured modes of life . . . when he arrived at the land of the Panopaians he destroyed Tityos, a violent and lawless man who ruled there; and the Parnassians joined him and informed him of another cruel man named Python and known as the Drakon, and that when Apollon shot at him with his arrows the Parnassians shouted 'Hie Paian' to encourage him (the origin, Ephoros adds, of the singing of the Paian which has been handed down as a custom for armies just before the clash of battle); and that the tent of Python was burnt by the Delphians at that time, just as they still burn it to this day in remembrance of what took place at that time. But what could be more mythical than Apollon shooting with arrows and punishing Tityoses and Pythons, and travelling from Athens to Delphoi and visiting the whole earth?"Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 6. 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"The most widespread tradition [for the naming of Pytho, Phokis] has it that the victim of Apollon’s arrows rotted here, and that this was the reason why the city received the name Pytho. For the men of those days used pythesthai for the verb 'to rot’ . . . The poets say that the victim of Apollon was a Drakon posted by Ge to be a guard for the oracle. It is also said that he was a violent son of Krios, a man with authority around Euboia. He pillaged the sanctuary of the god, and he also pillaged the houses of rich men. But when he was making a second expedition, the Delphians besought Apollon to keep from them the danger that threatened them. Phemonoe, the prophetess of that day, gave them an oracle verse:--`At close quarters a grievous arrow shall Apollon shoot at the spoiler of Parnassos; and of his blood-guilt the Kretans shall cleanse his hands’ but the renown shall never die.’ It seems that from the beginning the sanctuary at Delphoi has been plotted against by a vast number of men. Attacks were made against it by this Euboian pirate."Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 7. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :

"When Apollon and Artemis had killed Pytho they came to Aigialeia [Sikyon] to obtain purification."Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 30. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"The Kretans say . . . that Karmanor [of Krete] purified Apollon after he killed Pytho."Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2. 7. 7 : "When Apollon and Artemis had murdered Python they came to Aigialeia [Sikyonia] for purification."Aelian, On Animals 11. 2 (trans.Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) :"The people of Epeiros maintain that the [sacred] Drakones [of their temple of Apollon] are sprung from the Python at Delphoi."Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 7 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :

"Apollon organised funeral games in honour of Python [the Pythian Games of Delphoi]."Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :

"From Terra [Gaia] [was born] : Python a divine snake."Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 53 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Latona [Leto] was borne there [Ortygia] at Jove’s [Zeus'] command by the wind Aquilo [Boreas], at the time when the Python was pursuing her, and there, clinging to an olive, she gave birth to Apollo and Diana [Artemis]. This island later was called Delos."Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 140 :"Python, offspring of Terra [Gaia], was a huge Draco who, before the time of Apollo, used to give oracular responses on Mount Parnassus. Death was fated to come to him from the offspring of Latona [Leto]. At that time Jove [Zeus] lay with Latona, daughter of Polus [Koios]. When Juno [Hera] found this out, she decreed that Latona should give birth at a place where the sun did not shine. When Python knew that Latona was pregnant by Jove, he followed her to kill her. But by order of Jove the wind Aquilo [Boreas] carried Latona away, and bore her to Neptunus [Poseidon]. He protected her, but in order not to make voice Juno’s decree, he took her to the island Ortygia, and covered the island with waves. When Python did not find her, he returned to Parnassus. But Neptunus brought the island of Ortygia up to a higher position; it was later called the island of Delos. There Latona, clinging to an olive tree, bore Apollo and Diana [Artemis], to whom Vulcanus [Hephaistos] gave arrows as gifts. Four days after they were born, Apollo exacted vengeance for his mother. For he went to Parnassus and slew Python with his arrows. Because of this deed he is called Pythian. He put Python’s bones in a cauldron, deposited them in his temple, and instituted funeral games for him which are called Pythian."Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. 434 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"When Tellus [Gaia the Earth] deep-coated with the slime of the late deluge, glowed again beneath the warm caresses of the shining sun, she brought forth countless species, some restored in ancient forms, some fashioned weird and new. Indeed Tellus (the Earth), against her will, produced a Serpens (Serpent) never known before, the huge Python, a terror to men's new-made tribes, so far it sprawled across the mountainside. The Deus Arctitenens (Archer god) [Apollon], whose shafts till then were used only against wild goats and fleeing deer, destroyed the monster with a thousand arrows, his quiver almost emptied, and the wounds, black wounds, poured forth their poison. Then to ensure the centuries should have no power to dull the lustre of that deed, Phoebus [Apollon] founded the sacred games, the crowded contests, known as Pythian from that Serpens overthrown."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. 459 : "My [Apollon's] countless arrows slew but now the bloated Python, whose vast coils across so many acres spread their blight."Propertius, Elegies 4. 6 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :"He [Apollon] put to rest throughout its winding coils the serpent Python, the terror of the peaceful Musae."Seneca, Hercules Furens 453 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :"Did Phoebus [Apollon] encounter savage monsters or wild beasts? A draco (dragon) was the first to stain Phoebus’ shafts."Seneca, Medea 700 ff : "[The witch Medea summons deadly serpents with a spell by calling out the names of the great Drakones :] `In answer to my incantations let Python come, who dared to attack the twin divinities [Apollon and Artemis] . . . Let Hydra return . . . Thou, too, ever-watchful dragon [of the Golden Fleece].'"Statius, Thebaid 1. 561 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :"The god [Apollon] had smitten the dark and sinuous-coiling monster, the earth-born Python, who cast about Delphos his sevenfold grisly circles and with his scales ground the ancient oaks to powder, even while sprawling by Castalia’s fountain he gapes with three-tongued mouth athirst to feed his deadly venom: when having spent his shafts on numberless wounds he left him, scarce fully stretched in death over a hundred acres of Cirrhaean soil, then ,seeking fresh expiation of the dead, he came to the humble dwelling of our [Argos’] king Crotopus."Statius, Thebaid 5. 531 ff : "He that shook the horns of sacred Parnassus [Python], twining his coils among them, until pierced by a hundred wounds he bore, O Delian [Apollon], a forest of thy arrows."Statius, Thebaid 6. 8 ff : "Next [the Delphian Games] is celebrated the freeing of Phocis from the Serpent’s coils, the battle of the boy Apollo’s quiver."Statius, Thebaid 7. 350 ff : "Lilaea that sends forth the ice-cold springs of Cephisus, whither Python was wont to take his panting thirst and turn aside the river from the sea . . . quivers the god [Apollon] emptied here in countless slaughter."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4. 314 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :

"A sacred place conspicuous; the place where the Pythian [Apollon] had noticed on a hill the ninecircling coil of the Drakon’s back, and put to sleep the deadly poison of the Kirrhaian serpent."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13. 22 ff :

"Zeus will not receive you without hard work, and the Horai will not open the gates of Olympos to you unless you have struggled for the prize . . . Apollon mastered Delphyne [Python], and then he came to live in the sky." Suidas s.v. Delphoi (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.) : "Delphoi : The sanctuary of Apollo. It was thus named because the serpent Delphyne was found there, the one which Apollon killed."

PYTHON

  

Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon inspects excess equipment Aug. 25 on Caserma Ederle.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

 

After playing with the Pit from my last Sparta photo I found a helmet from an old school knight. This is what I came up with. Oh and the grail is seen after the bridge.

Multiple functions can easily be graphed using Python's list comprehensions.

"Candid Photography", better known as "Nudge Nudge", is a sketch from the third Monty Python's Flying Circus episode, "How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away" featuring Eric Idle (author of the sketch) and Terry Jones as two strangers who meet in a pub.

  

Sketch description

 

As patrons in a pub, Idle (playing a younger man) asks Jones (as an older gentleman) personal, sexual innuendo-laden questions about his relationship with his wife, such as "Is your wife a 'goer'?", "is she a sport?", "is she interested in photographs?", etc. Jones responds in a confused, non-committal sort of way, appearing not to understand the innuendo, and Idle responds with an enthusiastic "Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge. Wink wink. Say no more". As the sketch continues, his questions get more and more clearly sexual, and his reactions to Jones's responses get more and more complicated. After a period of time, Jones demands to know what Idle is talking about. Somewhat embarrassed, Idle clumsily asks if Jones has slept with a lady. When Jones says that he has, a fascinated Idle asks, "What's it like?"

 

The sketch appears in the 1971 spin-off feature film, And Now for Something Completely Different and the 1982 concert film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. It was also performed when the Pythons appeared on The Midnight Special.

  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ona-RhLfRfc

  

Candid street shot of a fish stall market trader in Bergen Norway.

A trip to North Yorkshire obviously included a trip to the Black Sheep Brewery in Masham. I bought some glasses, a t shirt and some beer.....

Black Sheep IPA, Black Sheep Ale, Monty Python's Holy Grail, and Velo.

 

Photo taken on the farm we stayed on in Ravensworth, North Yorkshire - and yes, that's a chicken....

 

The Postcard

 

A Celesque Series postcard published by the Photochrom Co. Ltd. The card was produced in Great Britain.

 

The card was posted in Bridlington on Tuesday the 2nd. August 1921 to:

 

Miss A. Smith,

96, Bosworth Street,

Tudor Road,

Leicester.

 

The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

 

"Dear Annie,

We are having a lovely

time, weather perfect.

Nellie and Gertie have

been on the stone pier

before breakfast.

Sorry Ian could not

escort them.

Love Miriam".

 

The Photochrom Co. Ltd.

 

The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Royal Tunbridge Wells originally produced Christmas cards before becoming a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards.

 

These mainly captured worldwide views as real photos, or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color.

 

They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist-signed cards in named series as well. The huge number of titles that Photochrom produced may well exceed 40,000.

 

In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier, and began publishing similar photo-chromolithographic postcards after securing the exclusive English licence for the Swiss photochrom process.

 

This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints, their colours were much softer and reduced.

 

Apart from their better known photochroms, they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.

 

One of the largest unnamed series that Photochrom produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravure. Many of these cards were simply hand coloured with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distinct appearance. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.

 

Photochrom postcard series include:

 

-- Night Series - Line block halftone over a blue tint depicting London.

-- Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photo cards.

-- Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.

-- Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.

-- Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in colour.

-- Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.

 

Bridlington

 

Bridlington is a coastal town on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea, situated in the East Riding of Yorkshire approximately 28 miles (45 km) north of Hull and 34 miles (55 km) east of York. The Gypsey Race river runs through the town and emerges into the North Sea in the town harbour.

 

In the 2011 Census the population was 35,369.

 

Bridlington is a minor sea fishing port with a working harbour, and is well known for its shellfish. It has a mix of small businesses across the manufacturing, retail and service sectors with its prime trade being tourism during the summer months.

 

The origins of the town are uncertain, but archaeological evidence shows habitation in the Bronze Age and Roman periods. The settlement at the Norman conquest was called Bretlinton, but has also gone by the names of Berlington, Brellington and Britlington, before settling on its modern name in the 19th century.

 

Bridlington in World War II

 

During the Second World War, Bridlington suffered many air-raids with a significant number of deaths and extensive bomb damage.

 

David Hockney

 

Artist David Hockney owned a house in Bridlington, at which an assistant drank a cleaning product and died in March 2013.

 

Wallace Hartley and The Titanic

 

There is a blue plaque in Bridlington for Wallace Hartley. He led an orchestra in the town in 1902, although he is particularly famous as leader of the band that played as the Titanic sank in April 1912.

 

Wallace Henry Hartley (2nd. June 1878 – 15th. April 1912) was an English violinist and bandleader on the Titanic during its maiden voyage.

 

He became famous for leading the eight-member band as the ship sank on the 15th. April 1912. He died at the age of 33, along with the rest of the band, when the ship went down.

 

-- Wallace Hartley - The Early Years

 

Wallace Hartley was born and raised in Colne, Lancashire. His father, Albion Hartley, was the choirmaster and Sunday school superintendent at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel, on Burnley Road where the family attended services.

 

Albion introduced the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee" to the congregation.

 

Wallace studied at Colne's Methodist day school, sang in Bethel's choir, and learned to play the violin from a fellow congregation member.

 

After leaving school, Hartley started work with the Craven & Union Bank in Colne. When his family moved to Huddersfield, Hartley joined the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

In 1903, Wallace left home to join the municipal orchestra in Bridlington, where he stayed for six years.

 

-- Wallace Hartley and the White Star Line

 

Wallace later moved to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire and in 1909, he joined the Cunard Line as a musician, serving on the ocean liners RMS Lucania, RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania.

 

Whilst serving on the Mauretania, the employment of Cunard musicians was transferred to the music agency C.W. & F.N. Black, which supplied musicians for Cunard and the White Star Line.

 

This transfer changed Hartley's onboard status, as he was no longer counted as a member of the crew, but rather as a passenger, albeit one accommodated in second-class accommodation at the agency's expense.

 

It later transpired that neither the shipping company nor the music agency had insured the musicians, with each claiming it was the other's responsibility.

 

In April 1912, Hartley was assigned to be the bandmaster for the White Star Line ship RMS Titanic.

 

Wallace was at first hesitant to leave his fiancée, Maria Robinson, to whom he had recently proposed, but Hartley decided that working on the maiden voyage of the Titanic would give him possible contacts for future work.

 

-- The Sinking of the Titanic

 

After the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of the 14th. April 1912 and began to sink, Hartley and his fellow band members started playing music to help keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the lifeboats.

 

Many of the survivors said that Hartley and the band continued to play until the very end. A newspaper at the time reported:

 

"The part played by the orchestra on board

the Titanic in her last dreadful moments will

rank among the noblest in the annals of

heroism at sea."

 

Though the final song played by the band is unknown, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" has gained popular acceptance.

 

Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember (1955) popularised wireless officer Harold Bride's account of hearing the song "Autumn".

 

Ellwand Moody, a musician on the Mauretania alongside Hartley, claimed that Hartley had said he would play either "Nearer, My God, to Thee" or "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" if he were ever on a sinking ship.

 

-- After the Sinking

 

Hartley's body was recovered almost two weeks after the sinking. Several press reports confirmed that Wallace was found fully dressed with his music case strapped to his body.

 

His body was returned to Liverpool, where Hartley's father met the ship and brought his son's body back to his home town of Colne.

 

The funeral took place on the 18th. May 1912. One thousand people attended Hartley's funeral, while an estimated 30,000–40,000 lined the route of his funeral procession.

 

Hartley was laid to rest in the Keighley Road cemetery, Colne, where a 10 feet (3.0 m) high headstone, containing a carved violin at its base, was erected in his honour.

 

Frederick Cayley Robinson's 1912 oil painting The Outward Bound (see below) shows a youth in a boat watching as Titanic leaves Southampton. It was commissioned in memory of Hartley, and given to Leeds Art Gallery by the Leeds Professional Musicians. The painting was unveiled in the City Art Gallery by the Lord Mayor of Leeds on the 23rd. December 1912.

 

Additionally a memorial to Hartley, topped by his bust (see below), was erected in 1915 outside what was then the town library in Colne. This was later moved slightly to make way for a World War One memorial.

 

Hartley's large Victorian terraced house in West Park Street, Dewsbury bears a blue plaque.

 

In 2001, Hartley's name was still being used when naming new streets and housing in the town of Colne. In 2008, the pub chain J D Wetherspoon named a newly-opened pub, (the building having been the long-standing King's Head Hotel) in Colne after the bandleader.

 

-- Memorials to the Band

 

A memorial to the Titanic musicians as a whole was erected in Broken Hill, in New South Wales. The people of Broken Hill were so moved by the bravery of the ship's bandsmen that they launched a public appeal in order to create a memorial to them.

 

The memorial, in the shape of a broken pillar, was unveiled in December 1913.

 

The City of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, has an Edwardian bandstand to commemorate the musicians lost. It was erected by the Ballarat Council with funds raised by the Victorian Band Association, and citizens of the area.

 

The Titanic Memorial bandstand, was unveiled on the 22nd. October 1915. Every year on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a band plays "Nearer, My God, To Thee", in the bandstand.

 

-- Wallace Hartley's Violin

 

In March 2013, after two years of in-depth trace analysis by The Forensic Science Service on behalf of auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son, and seven years of evidence-gathering by the Wiltshire-based auction house, it was announced that a violin found in a British man's attic inside a leather case with the initials "W. H. H." was the instrument used by Hartley during the ship's last moments.

 

The identification was helped by an engraving on the German-made violin which his fiancée (Maria Robinson) had placed on the instrument in 1910 which read:

 

'For Wallace on the occasion of

our engagement from Maria.'

 

Further tests by a silver expert from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain confirmed that the plate on the base of the violin was original, and that the metal engraving done on behalf of Maria Robinson was contemporary with those made in 1910.

 

A CT scan enabled experts to view 3D images of the inside of the violin. The fine detail of the scan meant that experts could examine the construction, interior and the glue holding the instrument together showing signs of possible restoration.

 

While researching the origins of the violin, the auctioneers and Christian Tennyson-Ekeberg, biographer of Wallace Hartley and author of Nearer, Our God, to Thee: The Biography of the Titanic Bandmaster, discovered the transcript of a telegram sent to the Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, Canada, dated 19th. July 1912 in the diary of Hartley's grieving fiancée in which she stated:

 

"I would be most grateful if you could

convey my heartfelt thanks to all who

have made possible the return of my

late fiancé's violin."

 

After Maria Robinson's death in 1939, her sister gave the violin to the Bridlington Salvation Army and told its leader, a Major Renwick, about the instrument's association with the Titanic.

 

The violin was later passed on to a violin teacher, who gave it to the current owner's mother. Henry Aldridge & Sons stated:

 

"It's been in the same family

for over 70 years."

 

Craig Sopin, the owner of one of the world's largest collections of Titanic memorabilia, a leading Titanic expert, and a general skeptic of Titanic claims, stated that:

 

"The violin is Hartley's and

not a fraud."

 

The Hartley violin was exhibited in Belfast at the shipyard where the RMS Titanic was built, and in the United States at Titanic Branson and Titanic Pigeon Forge museums.

 

It was sold by auction house Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on the 19th. October 2013 for £900,000 ($1.7 million).

 

The violin now resides at Titanic Belfast Museum and is open to public viewing. It has two large cracks, and is no longer playable.

 

After seeing the violin auctioned at Aldridges, British folk singer/songwriter Reg Meuross was inspired to write a song about the story of the violin, "The Band Played Sweet Marie", that was released on his album England Green and England Grey in 2014.

 

The story of Wallace Hartley and his violin is also the inspiration behind the song "Titanically" written by Canadian singer/songwriter Heather Rankin and David Tyson, with a music video directed by American-Canadian filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald.

 

The music video was released the 2nd. June 2017, to honour Hartley's birthday.

 

Alan Whicker

 

So what else happened on the day that Miriam posted the card to Annie?

 

Well, the 2nd. August 1921 marked the birth of Alan Whicker CBE.

 

Alan Donald Whicker was a British journalist and television presenter. His career spanned almost 60 years, during which time he presented the documentary television programme Whicker's World for over 30 years. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for services to broadcasting.

 

Alan Whicker - The Early Years

 

Whicker was born to British parents in Cairo, Egypt, in 1921. When he was three years old, his father Charles became seriously ill, and the family moved to Richmond in Surrey, where he and his mother remained after the death of his father.

 

He attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School where he excelled at cross-country running. During the Second World War he was commissioned as an officer in the Devonshire Regiment of the British Army. He then joined the British Army's Film and Photo Unit in Italy in 1943, filming at Anzio and meeting such influential figures as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. He was also responsible for taking into custody British traitor John Amery.

 

Alan revealed in his television series Whicker's War (2004) that he was one of the first in the Allied forces to enter Milan. When there he took into custody an SS general and troops who were guarding the SS's paymaster's payroll money that was used to pay the SS troops, along with large amounts of cash in foreign currency, all contained within a large trunk.

 

Whicker later handed over the SS men and the trunk of cash to the commander of an advancing US armoured column. Whicker also shot footage of the body of Benito Mussolini.

 

Alan Whicker's Broadcasting Career

 

After the Second World War, Whicker became a journalist and broadcaster, acting as a newspaper correspondent during the Korean War. After joining the BBC in 1957, he became an international reporter for their Tonight programme.

 

In 1958, he began presenting Whicker's World, which began life as a segment on the Tonight programme before becoming a fully-fledged series itself in the 1960's.

 

Whicker's World was filmed all over the globe, and became a huge ratings success in the UK. Whicker continued to present the series up until the 1990's, and he won a BAFTA Award in 1964. Alan also won the Richard Dimbleby Award at the 1978 BAFTA ceremony.

 

Whicker was instrumental in launching Yorkshire Television (which made Whicker's World for some years), producing television programmes for them from 1969 until 1992.

 

While presenting Whicker's World, Whicker was known for his subtle brand of satire and social commentary. Whicker's World was parodied in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch featuring a tropical island, "Whicker Island", where all the inhabitants dress and act like Alan Whicker.

 

Benny Hill, towards the end of his BBC series in 1968, impersonated Whicker in a parody called 'Knicker's World'. He was parodied again in 1981 by the Evasions, a British funk group whose song, 'Wikka Wrap', featured songwriter Graham de Wilde impersonating Whicker. De Wilde also composed the theme tune for the 1980's BBC episodes of Whicker's World.

 

Whicker appeared in various adverts for American Express, Barclaycard, and was also the man behind the advertising slogan 'Hello World', for travelocity.co.uk. He narrated the 2007 and 2008 BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain.

 

In the 2005 New Year Honours, Whicker was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to broadcasting. In 2009, then in his 80's, Whicker returned to some of the locations and people who were originally featured in Whicker's World for the BBC series Alan Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime. In this, he met with various people whom he had interviewed decades earlier to see how their lives had progressed since the initial programme.

 

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1983 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Berkeley Hotel in Kensington, London.

 

Alan Whicker's Personal Life

 

Whicker had a relationship with Olga Deterding from 1966 to 1969. He was with his partner, Valerie Kleeman (who was 20 years his junior), from 1969. He neither married nor had children.

 

The Death and Legacy of Alan Whicker

 

Alan died on the 12th. July 2013 from bronchial pneumonia at his home in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, aged 91.

 

Broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson stated that:

 

'Whicker was a fine journalist and

great storyteller. I can think of no

other television reporter before or

since who created such a wonderful

catalogue of unforgettable programmes.'

 

Michael Palin noted that:

 

'Whicker was a great character, a great

traveller and an excellent reporter.'

 

Travel presenter Judith Chalmers said:

 

'He was an icon for the travel industry'.

 

Most obituary writers said that Whicker was 87 at the time of his death, based on his entry in Who's Who giving a date of birth in 1925. The Financial Times pointed out that his age had been queried, with school records showing August 1921, making him 91 when he died.

 

In June 2015 it was announced that Whicker's estate would fund three annual awards totalling over £100,000 to be awarded to documentary makers, including funding and recognition prizes for audio documentaries.

LEGO Monty Python's Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog by Oscar Heath at Brickcon 2011

BOBA:

Look. You've got it all wrong. You don't need to follow me. You don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves. You're all individuals!

 

CLONES:

Yes, we're all individuals!

 

BOBA:

You're all different!

 

CLONES:

Yes, we are all different!

 

JENKINS:

I'm not.

 

COMMANDER CODY:

Shhhh.

 

CLONES:

Shh. Shhhh. Shhh.

 

BOBA:

You've all got to work it out for yourselves!

 

CLONES:

Yes! We've got to work it out for ourselves!

 

BOBA:

Exactly!

 

CLONES:

Tell us more!

 

BOBA:

No! That's the point! Don't let anyone tell you what to do! Otherwise-- Ow! No!

 

BOBA's MUM:

Come on, Boba. That's enough. That's enough.

      

I could go on all day, I love Monty Python! And yes.. I realise Boba doesn't have a mum... For those that dont realise, this is from Monty Python's classic, 'Life of Brian'.

www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-so....

 

FEATURES

 

Cover feature: BLACK RIDER

 

In Django Unchained the two strands of the spaghetti western – the blood-soaked revenge saga and the jokey pastiche – are twisted together by Quentin Tarantino, with a modern seasoning of racial politics. But unlike Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, these westerners talk – a lot. By Kim Newman.

 

+ Tim Lucas on Django Unchained’s roots in a whole range of 1960s and 70s exploitation films dealing with race.

 

DUTY CALLS

 

Hollywood didn’t get to grips with the Vietnam War until years after the event. In our rolling-news age, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty arrives only 18 months after the bin Laden kill mission it depicts. But is such haste at the expense of perspective? By Michael Atkinson.

 

MR FREEDOM

 

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, the story of the president’s struggle to pass the abolition of slavery before the end of the Civil War, has attracted praise in the US – and criticism for its white perspective. But how does the film – the director’s first biopic – fit into the Spielberg oeuvre? By Graham Fuller.

 

BOOM AND BUST

 

Lenny Abrahamson’s two critically fêted films Adam & Paul and Garage examined the underside of Irish society. But What Richard Did, the director’s latest, sees him switch his attention to Dublin’s stockbroker belt to reflect on the fate of the Celtic Tiger.

 

POLANSKI AND THE GROTESQUE

 

Violence and humiliation, sexual excess and transvestism, absurd humour and the transgression of taboos – Roman Polanski’s films, showcased in a BFI Southbank season, are laced with grotesquerie. But their power relies on a carefully crafted sense of reality. By Philip Horne.

 

+ Michael Brook on Polanski in Poland and Charles Barr on his work with Kenneth Tynan.

 

DEEP FOCUS

 

21st CENTURY NOIR

 

The crucial elements of film noir – violence, sex, memory and identity – remain as germane to today’s leading filmmakers as to last century’s, argues Nick James.

 

RUSHES

 

Michael Koresky celebrates the tone of effortless ease at the heart of screwball.

 

Object Lesson: Hannah McGill on film’s troubled treatment of changes to gender.

 

First Sight: Anton Bitel talks to Jen and Sylvia Soska about American Mary.

 

Dispatches: Mark Cousins on the architecture of Amour.

 

THE INDUSTRY

 

Development Tale: Charles Gant on the long gestation of The Liability.

 

The Numbers: Charles Gant reviews the year’s arthouse fortunes.

 

How It Works: Ashley Clarke on Gone Too Far, an innovative inner-city British comedy.

 

Profile: Nick Roddick talks to Russian film ambassador Catherine Mtsitourisze.

 

FESTIVALS

 

Nick James on Morelia’s unique charms.

 

James Benn reports from Tokyo and Simon Merle from Rome.

 

WIDE ANGLE

 

Brian Dillon previews the first UK survey of video artist Gerard Byrne.

 

Soundings: Frances Morgan on the innovative soundtrack of Performance.

 

Primal Screen: Matthew Sweet pays tribute to the first four-legged film stars.

 

Gonzalo de Lucas celebrates the heartfelt film criticism of Serge Daney.

 

Carlos Losilla finds fascinating signposts to new directions at Seville.

 

Bradlands: Brad Stevens asks what musicians offer when they make films.

 

Lost and Found: Chris Darke on Chris Petit’s knowing neo-noir Chinese Boxes.

 

FORUM

 

Kieron Corless investigates the new currency of the newsreel format and hears from three filmmakers embracing its potential: Jem Cohen, Sylvain George and Alex Reuben.

 

PLUS: Rebecca Vick on the history of the newsreel; Letters.

 

FILMS OF THE MONTH

 

Antiviral

Bullhead

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet

Zero Dark Thirty

 

Other new releases reviewed in this issue

 

American Mary

Ballroom Dancer

Bullet to the Head

Code Name: Geronimo

Django Unchained

Do Elephants Pray?

Everyday

Flight

Hitchcock

The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey

Hyde Park on Hudson

I Give It a Year

I Wish

Jack Reacher

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

The Liability

A Liar’s Autobiography The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman

Lincoln

May I Kill U?

Midnight Son

Les Misérables

Playing for Keeps

The Punk Syndrome

The Sessions

Song for Marion

So Undercover

UFO

V/H/S

What Richard Did

Wreck-It Ralph

 

DVD FEATURES

 

Philip Kemp on René Clément’s early promise.

 

Kate Stables discovers Pathé’s early colour ‘fairy film’ fantasias.

 

James Blackford has his appetite whetted by Zombie Flesh Eaters.

 

+ REVIEWS OF

 

Abraham Lincoln

Les Amants de Montparnasse

Dance Hall

Excision

The Funhouse

In the Mood for Love

Nowhere to Go

Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)

Ramrod, Red Dust

Rosemary’s Baby

Les Soeurs Brontë

Sunday Bloody Sunday

W+B Hein: Materialfilme 1968-1976

 

TELEVISION

 

Accused

Connie

Luck – Season 1

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

 

BOOKS

 

Kevin Jackson hails the loquacious charms of Richard Burton’s diaries.

 

Jasper Sharpe pries the lid off North Korean cinema culture.

 

Kim Newman assesses Taschen’s mammoth tome from the 007 files.

 

Ian Christie appraises a collection of essays on early cinema.

 

ENDINGS

 

David Jenkins on Big Night.

Larks' tongues. Wrens' livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars' earlobes. Wolf nipple chips. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar. Tuscany fried bats. (Monty Python's Life of Brian)

 

this Roman rubbish is being advertised at the aptly named "Roman Food and Wine" in Roman Road, Bow

 

Explored, Jul 11, 2010 #363

Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon inspects excess equipment Aug. 25 on Caserma Ederle.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

 

Spc. Benjamin Roalson and Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon inspect excess equipment for disposal on Caserma Ederle Aug. 25.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

 

In a scene from the BBC TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus John Cleese demonstrates some athletic footwork.

More photographs of Torquay, can be viewed by visiting my photography website - Beautiful England

 

Torquay has long been regarded as one of the most glamorous resorts of the English Riviera. In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was a prisoner, stood on the deck of HMS Bellerophon in Tor Bay and pronounced Torquay to be, "Beau". It is easy to see why he felt this. Built on seven green hills, overlooking Tor Bay, Torquay is a resort with a genuine European atmosphere. Sparkling white villas built by the Victorians, adorn the hill tops. The promenade is lined with palm trees and colourful gardens. There is a lively harbour and an international marina.

 

The Victorians named Torquay, "Queen of the Riviera" and it became one of the most popular resorts in the south of England. In 1848, South Devon Railway made the town easily accessible. Bathing became fashionable and separate beaches were designated for ladies and gentlemen to bathe. It was not until 1899 that mixed bathing was permitted.

 

Kent's Cavern attracted many visitors. Here were found human bones, together with those from Ice Age creatures, indicating for the first time that man had existed far earlier than previously thought. It is now a floodlit spectacle of stalagmites and stalactites situated close to Anstey's Cove and is open to the public.

 

The English Riviera has 22 miles of coastline, coves and cliffs and provides 19 varied beaches, some small and secluded, but still easily accessible. From Marine Drive there are extensive views over Thatcher Rock, across Tor Bay to Berry Head at Brixham. From Babbacombe Bay the red cliffs of Dawlish can be seen.

 

The BBC TV series, 'Fawlty Towers', is closely associated with Torquay. This comedy programme, staring John Cleese, as the eccentric hotelier, was first broadcast in 1975 and has been screened in over sixty countries. The hotel shown in the opening shots was, in fact, not in Torquay, but was the Wooburn Grange Country Club at Bourne End in Buckinghamshire, which has now been demolished.

 

The inspiration for Basil Fawlty was Donald Sinclair, the owner of Hotel Gleneagles, who Monty Python's Flying Circus team encountered in 1971. Whilst they were staying there, Donald Sinclair criticised Terry Gilliam for not using his knife and fork correctly and it is alleged Eric Idle's bag was thrown outside because Sinclair believed that there was a bomb in it! The Monty Python team moved out, but John Cleese, realising the potential, stayed on and brought his first wife, Connie Booth, to join him to experience Sinclair's unusual behaviour at first hand. She later co-wrote the programmes with her husband.

 

Sadly, Donald died in 1981. John Cleese affectionately described Donald Sinclair, a war hero, as, "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met". Hotel Gleneagles still exists in Asheldon Road, Torquay. It has been transformed into a luxury boutique hotel, overlooking Lyme Bay.

 

Agatha Christie, the world famous crime writer, was born in Torquay and spent most of her life in the area. She often bathed at Beacon Cove, an original "ladies only beach" and Meadfoot Beach. The family home was in Barton Road. She was married on Christmas Eve 1914 and spent her honeymoon at The Grand Hotel. She owned 'Greenway', standing above the River Dart, near Brixham, for thirty-eight years, which she used as a summer home and retreat, until she died in 1976. It is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public. Visitors can travel by ferry from Torquay or Brixham.

  

Melrose Abbey in the south of Scotland, near the English border.

 

There are some really intricate carvings here, including one which we dubbed the doggoyle, a pup that looks sort of like a hound.

 

Construction began in 1136 and destruction began a few centuries later.

 

(A lot of these ruins are kind of like the palace that kept sinking into the swamp in Monty Python's Holy Grail movie ... there's an abbey near this one that was ravaged by fire three times and sacked four times in various battles!)

High-heeled Sneakers (Altitude Sickness)

by Bruce Dean

(previously published in Monday Magazine)

 

Government Street had never been as British as the cobblestone roads of Windsor, England – but to jar my memory of a lost love, it’s enough.

 

I was about to set off backpacking through Europe, alone and without contacts when a friend insisted on giving me a number – just in case. “It’s a good friend who lives just outside of London. I’ve told her about you and she says you’re welcome to stay at her flat, just give her a ring.” I didn’t know anything about Linda.

 

She just about blew her top when she heard where I was staying. I’d given Linda a ring, just to check in and say hello. Linda said I’d picked the worst part of London to bed down in and insisted I pop on out to Windsor for a night or two. I was on the road to find myself, I was on a real adventure – but I was all alone and had left a whole world behind. I welcomed the invitation.

 

Her voice had sounded like a nightmare of a nanny but my need for a home base somehow smoothed out her rigid British accent. Somehow she felt safe amid the uncertainty of all that lay ahead and the mess I left behind in Canada.

 

Sick and tired of my career and sick and tired of my marriage – wandering through Europe drinking wine seemed like a great way to avoid making any decisions – other than deciding to leave.

 

The train to Windsor from London delivered scenes of sad lives of the poor near the rails, vast farm land for such a small country, and Bobby’s on Bikes – Cops without guns. True to the tourist breed, I got lost when I got off the train in Windsor and wandered around the maze of streets. When they built Windsor there were no cars or city planners. Through all the hundreds of years Windsor’s roads have confused, I’m sure nobody was ever this lost. I finally broke down and phoned Linda for directions. She asked me to describe where I was but my phone booth was surrounded by massive stone walls. Linda surmised I was beside the castle.

 

My, “What castle?” only weakened Linda’s opinion of Canadian men.

 

“Windsor Castle,” she said, “the Queen of England’s house, you know…”

 

I just said, “Sure,” and Linda told me to, “Stay put and don’t get lost again. You better be pretty ‘cause you don’t present to be the quickest boat in the harbour. I’ll be by shortly to pick you up. Don’t get any dumb ideas and wander off.”

 

The insane driver in the small white car was yelling something in British I couldn’t understand. It turned out to be my name, and it turned out to be Linda shouting. I didn’t know what to make of this woman.

 

She was loud. She drove like a fool. She wasn’t timid. She needed sun and I don’t know how she fit those long legs inside that small car.

 

The cobble stone roads worked well with her insane driving. I closed my eyes and felt like I was riding one of those old rickety wooden roller coasters. The car rumbled with every uneven stone that jiggled the small car’s springs. Every pull on the steering wheel by her slender white hands, and with every thrust of the throttle by the toes at the end of those long legs, and the G-forces kicked in.

 

We pulled into a small neighborhood with rows of carbon-copy two-story redbrick townhouses in front of tall red brick fences that hid little worlds in their small yards. Linda’s flat was cozy. Her television had three channels and her antique black phone looked, and rang, like a phone from Monty Python’s. Her laugh leaked insanity.

 

Linda had a bamboo bong that stood about 3 feet tall. Linda had hash.

 

We talked until we needed wine and so we walked to town. She knew a shortcut I knew no woman in high heels to suggest, or travel. Hopping over a tall stone wall, it was like she wore high-heeled sneakers. I was impressed.

 

It wasn’t that her legs could use the length, they didn’t. It was that I was noticing her legs at all. I was supposed to be on the mend – my heart and my dreams. I wasn’t supposed to be noticing legs at all – and not this pale.

 

A candle-lit Italian restaurant with a rude waiter, an evening walk in a wet meadow, a tall beer in a short pub, a cozy couch in her living room for my bed. Everything was perfect – until she asked me upstairs in the middle of the night. Perfect just got passionate.

 

This trip to Europe was now a mess. I tore myself from Linda only to smash a car in France. I sped down Germany’s Autobahn and I drank fine wine throughout many historic European grape growing regions – but I missed her high-heeled sneakers. I spent the remainder of my trip with Linda in London.

 

It was just bad timing, and that’s all. A death in the family and I had to return to Canada. Our romance was put on stand-by. The reality of the long distant relationship didn’t escape either of us. We weren’t kidding ourselves.

 

I had been back in Canada for several months when I suffered from another bout of altitude sickness. She was tall and I wasn’t thinking at all. Colleen and I laughed and spilled wine on my living room rug. I had phoned Linda and she mistook my voice for someone else she had been expecting to call – I had been phoning her less. We were no fools – the distance did its deed.

 

To this day my eyes are drawn to the cobblestone along segments of Government Street and my thoughts are filled with high-heeled sneakers. I will always be reminded of her but I will never be immune to the effects of altitude sickness. Eventually, my eyes will be drawn up from the cobblestone – to travel up another set of freakishly long legs.

 

Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon inspects excess equipment Aug. 25 on Caserma Ederle.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

 

Excess equipment is inspected before disposal at Caserma Ederle Aug. 25.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

   

Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon documents excess equipment disposal on Caserma Ederle Aug. 25.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

 

Excess equipment is inspected before disposal at Caserma Ederle Aug. 25.

 

This year’s U.S. Army Europe Supply Excellence Award winners are at it again, and they haven’t got much to show for it.

 

Not much, that is, in terms of the excess equipment and supply backlog that U.S. Army Africa, Headquarters Support Company, Supply team has just about eliminated since the command came into being in late 2008.

 

“Nobody really sees what it was like here two and a half years ago,” said Staff Sgt. Tasha Falcon, HSC Supply Seargent.

 

In that time, Falcon and her staff have accounted for, documented and removed 3,000 pieces of various equipment valued at $1.6 million from Army Africa’s inventory: military end items, computers, digital printers — a small mountain range of diverse material that wound up on the supply company’s to-do list in mid-2009.

 

“Nobody ever knew how to turn in equipment, I suppose,” Falcon said.

 

“When I first got here, there was nothing. The supply room had no system at all. We built this from scratch. It’s been about two and a half years of working on it. Now it’s a question of maintaining,” she said.

 

Whatever the source of the landslide of stuff that has made its way through the company’s motor pool on Caserma Ederle since then, Falcon and her crew have cleaned house with flying colors. HSC Supply has two back-to-back, first-place finishes in the annual Army Supply Excellence Award competition at the USAREUR level to prove it.

 

With any luck, the HSC Supply Company may go all the way to the winner’s circle at the Army level later this year.

 

“By winning, the Department of the Army will now come down to inspect us. That should be in the November-December timeframe. We don’t have an exact date yet,” Falcon said.

 

“Once they come, they do the evaluation. It’s not really an inspection; they just talk to you like normal people and evaluate you. But your adrenaline’s running. Even just getting put into the system, to be evaluated by DA, is an accomplishment. To be able to call home and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I won this.’ They’re so proud. It’s great.”

 

Though the big bulge in the python’s belly may have passed, there’s always something to prepare for removal from Army Africa’s inventory. Falcon and her staff of two soldiers and two contractors have another deadline looming Oct. 1.

 

“That’s a date we set on the heels of the DA Campaign Plan on Property Accountability to get rid of our excess,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Joachim Consiglio, USARAF G-4 Supply Division chief.

 

In the past week alone, HSC Supply accounted for and emptied three 20-foot cargo trailers, making the property available for removal to the Lerino Supply Support Activity, said Daniel Brown, G-4 Property Book Office.

 

“There were lots of technical inspections to turn in the paperwork. My main priority is — still to do my job, but focus on deadlines,” Falcon said.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job; in fact, we’re ahead of schedule,” said Consiglio. “Our end state was Oct. 1, and at the rate the team has been executing, they will exceed the milestone date,” he said.

 

A visit to the supply company by USARAF Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, in August had a positive effect on the overall process, Falcon said.

 

“We’ve always had support, but he put the word out. Everybody was . . . ‘What can we do to help?’ So now it’s a focus,” Falcon said. “By Oct. 1: everything gone. We can take care of it, we can do it right here ourselves.”

 

And with a little help from Army Africa’s friends in USAG Vicenza Directorate of Logistics, said Consiglio.

 

“Since requesting support from DoL, their director made us the priority for our excess turn-in, and this has been the key enabler in allowing us to surge at such a higher rate. Their staff has been fantastic, from the SSA support to doing technical inspections for us during the 45-day process,” he said.

 

What’s next after the Oct. 1 finish line?

 

“Just keeping up on the daily paperwork and the filing system,” said Spc. Benjamin Roalson. “Just the day-to-day thing that keeps us rolling.”

 

“The next benchmark is preparation for the DA CSA Supply Excellence competition, continual cultural awareness of supply discipline across the command, and monitoring lifecycle replacement,” said Consiglio.

 

Whatever follows, Falcon will be on the job and taking the lead. The Houston, Texas, native has taken to the trade, and to the Army too.

 

“I’m extending. I just got my grade,” Falcon said.

 

“I really enjoy working supply and logistics. It’s hard work; it’s long hours. I go home at the end of the day thinking there’s not enough hours in the day,” she said.

 

“Logistics is constant, constant, constant.”

  

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica