West-German postcard by Filmwelt Berlin, Bad Münder, no. SW 0.0226, 1997. Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd. Harrison Ford in Star Wars - Episode IV - A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977).

 

American film actor Harrison Ford (1942) specialises in roles of cynical, world-weary heroes in popular film series. He played Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, archaeologist Indiana Jones in a series of four adventure films, Rick Deckard in the Science Fiction films Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and secret agent Jack Ryan in the spy thrillers Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). These film roles have made him one of the most successful stars in Hollywood. In all, his films have grossed about $5.4 billion in the United States and $9.3 billion worldwide.

 

Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1942. His parents were former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William "Christopher" Ford. Harrison graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and did some acting. After dropping out of college, he first wanted to work as a DJ in radio and left for California to work at a large national radio station. He was unable to find work and, in order to make a living, he accepted a job as a carpenter. Another part-time job was auditioning, where he had to read out lines that the opposing actor would say to an actor auditioning for a particular role. Harrison did this so well that he was advised to take up acting. He was also briefly a roadie for the rock group The Doors. From 1964, Ford regularly played bit roles in films. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the Western A Time for Killing (Phil Karlson, 1967), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens. The "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name but was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957. French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (1969), but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor. The part eventually went to Gary Lockwood. He had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point (1970) as an arrested student protester. His first major role was in the coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). Ford became friends with the directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and he made a number of films with them. In 1974, he acted in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) starring Gene Hackman, and played an army officer named "G. Lucas" in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, co-produced by George Lucas. Ford made his breakthrough as Han Solo in Lucas's epic space opera Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977). Star Wars became one of the most successful and groundbreaking films of all time and brought Ford, and his co-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, widespread recognition. He reprised the role in four sequels over the course of the next 42 years: Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980), Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983), Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015), and Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019).

 

Harrison Ford also worked with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on the successful Indiana Jones adventure series playing the heroic, globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones. The series started with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981). Like Star Wars, the film was massively successful and became the highest-grossing film of the year. Ford went on to reprise the role throughout the rest of the decade in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989), which co-starred Sean Connery as Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr. and River Phoenix as young Indiana. In between the successful film series, Ford also played very daring roles in more artistic films. He played the role of a lonely depressed detective in the Sci-Fi film Blade Runner, (Ridley Scott, 1981) opposite Rutger Hauer. While not initially a success, Blade Runner went on to become a cult classic and one of Ford's most highly regarded films. Ford received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the crime drama Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) with Kelly McGillis, and also starred for Weir as a house-father in the survival drama The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir, 1986) with River Phoenix as his son. In 1988, he played a desperate man searching for his kidnapped wife in Roman Polanski's Frantic. For his role as a wrongly accused prisoner Dr. Richard Kimble in the action thriller The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ford received some of the best reviews of his career. He became the second of five actors to portray Jack Ryan in two films of the film series based on the literary character created by Tom Clancy: the spy thrillers Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and Clear and Present Danger (Phillip Noyce, 1994). He then played the American president in the blockbuster Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997) opposite Gary Oldman. Later his success waned somewhat and his films Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) and Six Days Seven Nights (Ivan Reitman, 1998) both disappointed at the box office. However, he did play a few special roles, such as an assassin in the supernatural horror-thriller What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000) opposite Michele Pfeiffer, and a Russian submarine captain in K-19: The Widowmaker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2002) with Liam Neeson. In 2008, he reprised his role as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008) with Cate Blanchett. The film received generally positive reviews and was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. Later Ford accepted more supporting roles, such as in the sports film 42 (Brian Helgeland, 2013) about baseball player Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball. Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the long-awaited Star Wars sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015), which became massively successful like its predecessors. He also reprised his role as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), co-starring Ryan Gosling. Harrison Ford has been married three times and has four biological children and one adopted child. From 1964 to 1979, Ford was married to Mary Marquardt, a marriage that produced two children. From 1983 to 2003, he was married to Melissa Mathison, from which marriage two more children were born. In 2010, he married actress Calista Flockhart, famous for her role in the TV series Ally McBeal. He owns a ranch in Jackson Hole (Wyoming). Besides being an actor, Ford is also an experienced pilot. Ford survived three plane crashes of planes he piloted himself. The most recent accident occurred in 2015 when he suffered an engine failure with a Ryan PT-22 Recruit and made an emergency landing on a golf course. Among other injuries, Ford sustained a broken pelvis and ankle from this latest accident. In 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

(Taken with my mobile phone.)

 

Dear friends, so much has happened in the past few months. I don't even feel like the same person any more.

 

I lost the job that I had held for 14 years. I had to take a part-time job, which did not pay the bills. I am happy to say I will be back at my old job full-time beginning November 11.

 

My husband and I separated. I moved into Mom and Dad's house in Rose Hill, VA where I grew up. I'm in the process of fixing it up but it's a log house that was built in 1927, it requires a lot of work, and funds are low right now. I don't currently have internet or good cell phone signal because the house is in such a rural location.

 

I've missed y'all terribly. I hope to be in a position to post regularly again soon.

The Postcard

 

A postally unused carte postale published by F. Chapeau of Nantes.

 

Although the card was not posted, someone has written a date on the back:

 

"5. 12. 32".

 

Le Château des Ducs de Bretagne

 

Le Château des Ducs de Bretagne is a large castle located in the city of Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique département of France.

 

It is located on the right bank of the Loire, which formerly fed its ditches. It was the residence of the Dukes of Brittany between the 13th. and 16th. centuries, subsequently becoming the Breton residence of the French Monarchy.

 

The castle has been listed as a Monument Historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862.

 

Restoration of the Château

 

Starting in the 1990's, the town of Nantes undertook a massive programme of restoration and repairs to return the site to its former glory as an emblem of the history of Nantes and Brittany.

 

Following 15 years of works and three years of closure to the public, it was reopened on the 9th. February 2007, and is now a popular tourist attraction. Night-time illuminations at the castle further reinforce the revival of the château.

 

The restored edifice now includes the new Nantes History Museum, installed in 32 of the castle rooms. The museum presents more than 850 objects of interest with the aid of multimedia devices.

 

The château and its museum try to offer a modern vision of the heritage by presenting the past, the present and the future of the city.

 

The 500-metre round walk on the fortified ramparts provides views not just of the castle buildings and courtyards but also of the town.

 

The Sale of Liquor

 

So what else happened on Monday the 5th. December 1932?

 

Well, on that day, a joint resolution was introduced to the U.S. Congress repealing the Eighteenth Amendment, and turning the regulation of liquor over to the individual states.

 

British War Debts

 

Also on that day, the British government suggested issuing bonds to cover its war debts to the United States.

 

'Jane'

 

Also on that day, the comic strip 'Jane' by Norman Pett first appeared in the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror.

 

Little Richard

 

The 5th. December 1932 also marked the birth, in Macon, Georgia, of Little Richard.

 

Richard Wayne Penniman, known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades.

 

Described as the "Architect of Rock and Roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950's, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll.

 

Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk.

 

He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop, and his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.

 

"Tutti Frutti" (1955), one of Richard's signature songs, became an instant hit, crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. His next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart, followed by a rapid succession of fifteen more hits in less than three years.

 

Richard's performances during this period resulted in integration between the white Americans and black Americans in his audience.

 

In 1962, after a five-year period during which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe.

 

During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates. Richard advised the Beatles on how to perform his songs, and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.

 

Richard is cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, drawing black and white people together despite attempts to sustain segregation.

 

Many of his contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, recorded covers of his works.

 

Impressed by Richard's music and style, and personally covering four of Richard's songs on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him, and that he was "the greatest".

 

Richard was honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

 

Richard was the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Recording Academy and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

 

In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres, and for helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concerts in the mid-1950's.

 

"Tutti Frutti" was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that:

 

"Richard's unique vocalizing over the

irresistible beat announced a new era

in music".

 

Little Richard - The Early Years

 

Richard Wayne Penniman was the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon and a brick mason, who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side, and who also owned a nightclub called the Tip In Inn. Richard's mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church.

 

Initially, his first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo", but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame.

 

The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors, he began singing in church and taking piano lessons at a young age.

 

Possibly as a result of complications at birth, Richard had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, and he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.

 

Richard's family were very religious, and joined various A.M.E., Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, with some family members becoming ministers. He enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship and live music.

 

Richard later recalled that people in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because:

 

"There was so much poverty, so

much prejudice in those days".

 

He had observed that:

 

"People sing to feel their connection

with God, and to wash their trials and

burdens away."

 

Gifted with a loud singing voice, he recalled that:

 

"I was always changing the key upwards,

and I was once stopped from singing in

church for screaming and hollering so loud.

My singing gave me the nickname "War Hawk".

 

Richard recalled that:

 

"As a child, I would beat on the steps

of the house, and on tin cans and pots

and pans, or whatever, while I was

singing, and this used to annoy the

neighbors."

 

Richard's initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and Marion Williams.

 

Joe May, a singing evangelist who was known as "The Thunderbolt of the Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired Richard to become a preacher. He credited the Clara Ward Singers for one of his distinctive hollers.

 

Richard attended Macon's Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. He eventually learned to play alto saxophone, joining the school's marching band while in fifth grade.

 

While still in high school, Richard got a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. He sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, and his favorite singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

 

Little Richard's Music Career

 

(a) 1947–1955: Beginnings

 

In October 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the fourteen-year-old Richard singing her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium, and she invited him to open her show.

 

After the show, Tharpe paid Richard, inspiring him to become a professional performer. Richard stated that his piano style was greatly influenced by Ike Turner's piano intro on "Rocket 88".

 

In 1949, Richard began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show. He was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by Nubillo, who also:

 

"Carried a black stick and exhibited

something he called 'the devil's child'—

supposedly the dried-up body of a

baby, with claw feet like a bird, and

horns on its head."

 

Nubillo told Richard:

 

"You're gonna be famous, but you'll

have to go where the grass is greener".

 

Before entering the tenth grade, Richard left his family home and joined Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia". Richard recalled that the song was the first secular R&B song he learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B music, which they considered "devil music".

 

Little Richard was influenced by Jordan. In fact, the whoop sound on Jordan's record "Caldonia" sounds eerily like the vocal tone Little Richard adopted, in addition to the "Jordan-style pencil-thin mustache".

 

Richard also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne".

 

In 1950, Richard joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard. Performing in the minstrel show circuit, Richard, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus, and Broadway Follies.

 

Having settled in Atlanta at this point, Richard began listening to rhythm and blues, and frequented Atlanta clubs, including the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock, where he saw performers such as Roy Brown and Billy Wright onstage.

 

Richard was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy style of showmanship, and was even more influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona. Inspired by Brown and Wright, he decided to become a rhythm-and-blues singer, and after befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him.

 

Richard began to sport a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.

 

Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with Zenas Sears, a local D. J. Sears recorded Richard at his station, backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with RCA Victor. Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the blues ballad, "Every Hour", which became his first single, and a hit in Georgia.

 

The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father, who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox. Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Richard was hired to front Perry Welch and His Orchestra, and played at clubs and army bases for $100 a week.

 

Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records for the label failed to chart; the recordings were marketed with little promotion from RCA Victor, although ads for the records showed up in Billboard Magazine.

 

After his father´s death in 1952, Richard began to find success, RCA Victor re-issued the recordings on the budget RCA Camden label. He continued to perform during this time, and Clint Brantley agreed to manage Richard's career.

 

Moving to Houston, he formed a band called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tijuana in New Orleans, and Club Matinee in Houston.

 

Richard signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time. Like Richard's venture with RCA Victor, none of his Peacock singles charted, despite Richard getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle.

 

Disillusioned by the record business, Richard returned to Macon in 1954. Struggling with poverty, he settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines.

 

While in Macon, he met Esquerita, whose flamboyant onstage persona and dynamic piano playing deeply influenced Richard's approach to performance. That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers, and formed a harder-driving rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith.

 

In 1954, Richard signed on to a Southern tour with Little Johnny Taylor. The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in order to get a "bass fiddle effect". Around this time, Richard signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.

 

At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Richard sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Richard got a call from the label. Finally, in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Richard money to buy out of his Peacock contract, and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.

 

Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt that Richard was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles. However, Richard told him that he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans, where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen.

 

Richard's recordings that day failed to produce much inspiration or interest (although Blackwell saw some promise). Frustrated, Blackwell and Richard went to relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Richard then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti".

 

Blackwell felt that the song had hit potential, and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial ones. He also changed the microphone placement, and pushed Richard's voice forward.

 

Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November, and became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America, and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.

 

(b) 1956–1962: Initial Success and Conversion

 

Richard's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number thirteen on the Top 100 while reaching the top ten in Great Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies.

 

Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and leader Grady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas.

 

Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that:

 

"While the similarities between Little Richard

and Fats Domino for recording purposes were

close, Richard would sometimes stand up at

the piano while he was recording and onstage,

whereas Domino was plodding, and very slow,

Richard was very dynamic, completely uninhibited,

unpredictable, and wild. So the band took on

the ambience of the vocalist."

 

Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor).

 

As his later Producer H. B. Barnum, explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on television from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues", especially in the South where racism was most overt.

 

Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing souvenirs to the audience. He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored stones and sequins. Richard said he began to be more flamboyant onstage so that no one would think he was "after the white girls".

 

Little Richard recalled:

 

"A lot of songs I sang to crowds first

to watch their reaction. That's how I

knew they'd hit."

 

Richard claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to some women throwing their panties onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying that it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist.

 

Richard's show stopped several times that night due to fans being restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him.

 

Overall, Richard produced seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille".

 

Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone covered the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts, several positions higher than Richard's.

 

His fellow rock and roll peers Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending Alan Freed, Richard was given a role in "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock, and Mister Rock and Roll.

 

Richard was given a larger singing role in the 1956 film, The Girl Can't Help It starring Jayne Mansfield. That year, he scored more hit successes with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin,'" the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100.

 

By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.

 

Richard performed at the famed twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles on the 2nd. September 1956.

 

Also performing that day were Dinah Washington, The Mel Williams Dots, Chuck Higgins' Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and his 20-Piece Recording Orchestra, and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.

 

Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly predominantly white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis.

 

Richard's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in March 1957, and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and a number of "filler" tracks.

 

In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing that he intended to follow a life in the ministry.

 

Richard claimed in his autobiography that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney, his plane was experiencing some difficulty, and he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines, and felt that angels were "holding it up".

 

At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him, and claimed that he was "deeply shaken". Though he was eventually told that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Richard took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.

 

Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard later read that the flight he had originally planned to take had crashed into the Pacific Ocean, He regarded this as a further sign to "do as God wanted".

 

After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology.

 

Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label, Richard complained that he was unaware that Speciality had reduced the percentage of royalties he was to earn from his recordings.

 

In early 1958, Specialty released Richard's second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart.

 

Specialty continued to release Richard's recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his unique version of "Kansas City", until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material.

 

In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach. A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on the 11th. July 1959.

 

Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist that he had worked with.

 

Richard's childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the notes of the album that:

 

"Richard sings gospel the

way it should be sung".

 

While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S. with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and in the UK.

 

(c) 1962–1979: Return to Secular Music

 

Mick Jagger said of Richard:

 

"I heard so much about the audience

reaction, I thought there must be some

exaggeration. But it was all true.

He drove the whole house into a

complete frenzy ... I couldn't believe

the power of Little Richard onstage.

He was amazing."

 

In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there.

 

With soul singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Richard, who featured a teenage Billy Preston in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date, performed only gospel material during the show. This led to boos from the audience, who were expecting Richard to sing his rock and roll hits.

 

The following night, Richard viewed Cooke's well-received performance. Bringing back his competitive drive, Richard and Preston warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic, hysterical responses from the audience.

 

A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage. Hearing of Richard's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Richard on some tour dates, to which he agreed.

 

The first show for which the Beatles opened was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October. The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents, opened for Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg.

 

During this time, Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs, and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.

 

Back in the United States, Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with his 1950's band, the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister.

 

In the fall of 1963, Richard was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones. Richard agreed, and helped to save the tour from flopping.

 

At the end of that tour, Richard was given his own television special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit, and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice.

 

In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll, Richard released "Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the song reached the top twenty there, but only climbed to number 82 in the U.S.

 

Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Richard's new releases were not well promoted, nor well received by radio stations.

 

In November 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Richard's Upsetters band as a full member.

 

In December 1964, Richard brought Hendrix and childhood friend and piano teacher Eskew Reeder to a New York studio to re-record an album's worth of his greatest hits. He went on tour with his new group the Upsetters to promote the album.

 

In early 1965, Richard took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.

 

Three other songs were recorded during the sessions, "Dance a Go Go" aka "Dancin' All Around the World", "You Better Stop", and "Come See About Me." However "You Better Stop" was not issued until 1971, and "Come See About Me" has yet to see official release.

 

Around this time, Richard and Jimi appeared in a show starring Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Paramount, New York. Richard's flamboyance and drive for dominance reportedly got him thrown off the show.

 

Hendrix and Richard clashed over the spotlight, as well as Hendrix's tardiness, wardrobe and stage antics. Hendrix also complained over not being properly paid by Richard. In early July 1965, Richard's brother Robert Penniman "fired" Jimi. However, Jimi wrote to his father, Al Hendrix, that he quit Richard because:

 

"You can't live on promises when

you're on the road, so I had to cut

that mess aloose".

 

Hendrix had not been paid for five-and-a-half weeks, and was owed 1,000 dollars. Hendrix then rejoined the Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials.

 

Richard later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records in early 1966.

 

His former Specialty labelmate Larry Williams produced two albums for Richard on Okeh - the studio release The Explosive Little Richard, which utilised a Motown-influenced sound and produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love." Secondly Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live! which returned him to the album charts.

 

Richard was later scathing about this period, declaring Larry Williams "the worst producer in the world". In 1967, Richard signed with Brunswick Records, but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label the following year.

 

Richard felt that producers on his labels failed to promote his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to push him to record in a style similar to Motown, and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect.

 

Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little support from his label. While Richard managed to perform at huge venues in England and France, in the U.S. Richard had to perform on the Chitlin' Circuit.

 

Richard's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950's, failed to help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers. Richard later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to criticise his new recordings.

 

Making matters worse, Richard said, was his insistence on performing in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers. This caused many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to choose not to play his music.

 

By then acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Richard to focus on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show, "Where It's At".

 

Richard was also featured on the Monkees' TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969.

 

Williams booked Richard shows in Las Vegas casinos and resorts, leading Richard to adopt a wilder, flamboyant, and androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

 

Richard was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival, where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Richard produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner.

 

These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.

 

Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Richard in 1970, and he released the album, The Rill Thing, with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest charted single in years.

 

In May 1970, Richard made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Richard's other Reprise singles charted, with the exception of "Greenwood, Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who incidentally played on the track.

 

It charted only briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; it made a strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing.

 

Richard became a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh, and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's 1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King".

 

To keep up with his finances and bookings, Richard and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole Incorporated. On American TV, Richard announced that he would appear in a Rock Hudson motion picture, playing "The Insane Minister". (The appearance has never seen the light of day.)

 

Richard also mentioned a new project involving Mick Jagger and Joe Cocker, celebrating his 20 years in show business, though it was never realized.

 

By 1972, Richard had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with his musical peer Chuck Berry, Richard would come on stage and announce himself as "The King of Rock and Roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise, and told the packed audience there to "let it all hang out".

 

Richard, however, was booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters worse, he showed up with just five musicians, and struggled through low lighting and bad microphones.

 

When the concert film documenting the show came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed did not make the final cut of the film.

 

The following year, he recorded a charting soul ballad, "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in twelve states.

 

Richard did no new recordings in 1974, although two "new" albums were released. In the summer, came a major surprise for fans, "Talkin' 'bout Soul", a collection of released and unreleased Vee Jay recordings, all never before on a domestic LP. Two tracks were new to the world: the title tune and "You'd Better Stop", both uptempo.

 

Later that year came a set recorded in one night, early the previous year, called "Right Now!", and featuring "roots" material, including a vocal version of an unreleased Reprise instrumental "Mississippi", released in 1972 as "Funky Dish Rag"; his third try at his gospel-rock "In the Name"; and a 6 minute plus rocker, "Hot Nuts", based upon a 1936 song by Li'l Johnson ("Get 'Em From The Peanut Man").

 

1975 was a big year for Richard, with a world tour, and acclaim over high energy performances throughout England and France. His band was perhaps his best to date. He cut a top 40 single (US and Canada), with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Take It Like a Man".

 

Richard worked on new songs with sideman, Seabrun "Candy" Hunter. He told Dee-Jay, Wolfman Jack, that he planned on releasing a new album with Sly Stone, but it never materialized.

 

In 1976, he decided to retire again, being physically and mentally exhausted, having experienced family tragedy and the drug culture. He was talked into once again re-cutting his greatest hits, for Stan Shulman in Nashville. This time, they did not use new arrangements, but stuck to the original arrangements.

 

Richard re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits for K-Tel Records, in high-tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring the new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up," with both tracks reaching the UK singles chart.

 

Richard later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol. By 1977, worn out from years of drug abuse and wild partying, as well as a string of personal tragedies, Richard quit rock and roll again and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.

 

At the same time, while touring once again as a minister and returning to talk shows, a controversial album was released by the discount label, Koala, taken from a 1974 concert.

 

It includes an 11 minute discordant version of "Good Golly, Miss Molly". The performances are widely panned as subpar, and the album has gained some notoriety amongst record collectors.

 

(d) 1984–1999: Comeback

 

In 1984, Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records, Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music, and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959. The suit was settled out of court in 1986.

 

According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work, which he co-owned with Sony-ATV, songs by the Beatles and Richard.

 

In September 1984, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which put Richard back in the spotlight. Richard returned to show business in what Rolling Stone referred to as "a formidable comeback" following the book's release.

 

Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil. After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack.

 

Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success in the American and British charts. The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track.

 

In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin,'" and "Operator".

 

Richard spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest on television shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was referred to as his "unique comedic timing."

 

In 1988, he surprised fans with a serious tribute to Otis Redding at his Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony, singing several Redding songs, including "Fa Fa Fa (sad song)", "These arms of mine", and "Dock of the Bay ".

 

He told Otis' story, and explained how his 1956 tune "All Around the World" was Redding's reference on his 1963 side, "Hey, Hey Baby".

 

In 1989, Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town". That same year, Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.

 

In 1990, Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me".

 

In 1991, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm.

 

The same year, he recorded a version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation benefit album For Our Children. The album's success led to a deal with Walt Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.

 

In 1994, Richard sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on the 20th. March that year, miming to his reworked rendition of "America the Beautiful".

 

Throughout the 1990's, Richard performed around the world and appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John and Solomon Burke.

 

In 1992 he released his final album, Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka, featuring members of Richard's then current touring band.

 

(e) 2000–2020: The Later years

 

In 2000, Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard, which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960's.

 

Richard was played by Leon Robinson, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance.

 

In 2002, Richard contributed to the Johnny Cash tribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. In 2004–2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full Southern Child album, produced and composed mostly by Richard, scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved.

 

In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand. A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing.

 

The same year, Richard was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Richard and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS.

 

That same year, Richard appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record. In June 2010, Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo.

 

In 2009, Richard was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.

 

Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Richard kept up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances by 2010.

 

Despite his health problems, Richard continued to perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., in June 2012:

 

"Richard was still full of fire, still a master

showman, his voice still loaded with deep

gospel and raunchy power."

 

Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013.

 

In September 2013, Rolling Stone published an interview with Richard who said that he would be retiring from performing. He told the magazine:

 

"I am done, in a sense, because I don't

feel like doing anything right now.

I think my legacy should be that when I

started in showbusiness there wasn't no

such thing as rock'n'roll.

When I started with 'Tutti Frutti', that's

when rock really started rocking."

 

Richard performed one last concert in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2014.

 

In June 2015, Richard appeared before a benefit concert audience, clad in sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise funds for the National Museum of African American Music.

 

He charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working in Nashville nightclubs. In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a press release indicating that Richard was one of the key artists and music industry leaders that attended its third annual Celebration of Legends Luncheon in Nashville.

 

In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin') with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970's, including a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try to Help Your Brother".

 

On the 6th. September 2017, Richard participated in a long television interview for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, appearing in a wheelchair, clean-shaven, without make-up, dressed in a blue paisley coat and tie, where he discussed his lifelong Christian faith.

 

On the 23rd. October 2019, Richard addressed the audience after appearing to receive the Distinguished Artist Award at the 2019 Tennessee Governor's Arts Awards at the Governor's Residence in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

Little Richard's Personal Life

 

(i) Relationships and Family

 

Around 1956, Richard became involved with Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia. Richard and Robinson quickly got acquainted, despite Robinson not being a fan of rock and roll music.

 

Richard said in his 1984 autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with her, including Buddy Holly, although Audrey denied those statements.

 

Richard proposed marriage to Robinson, but she refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel as a stripper and socialite. Richard re-connected with Robinson in the 1960's, though she left him again after his drug abuse worsened.

 

Robinson was interviewed for Richard's 1985 documentary on The South Bank Show, and denied Richard's statements. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy food in whites-only fast food stores, as he could not enter any, due to the color of his skin.

 

Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year, and wed on the 12th. July 1959 in California. According to Harvin, she and Richard initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations.

 

When the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, Harvin said it was due to her husband's celebrity status, which had made life difficult for her. Richard said the marriage fell apart due to his being a neglectful husband and because of his sexuality.

 

Both Robinson and Harvin denied Richard's statements that he was gay, and Richard believed they did not know it because:

 

"I was such a pumper

in those days".

 

During the marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Richard and his son remained close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards. Harvin later married McDonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California, on the 23rd. March 1975.

 

(ii) Little Richard's Sexuality

 

In 1984, Richard said that he just played with girls as a child, and was subjected to homosexual jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walking and talking. His father brutally punished him whenever he caught him wearing his mother's makeup and clothing.

 

The singer said he had been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager. Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home when he was fifteen. In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Richard explained:

 

"My daddy put me out of the house.

He said he wanted seven boys, and

I had spoiled it, because I was gay."

 

Richard got involved in voyeurism in his early twenties. A female friend would drive him around picking up men who would allow him to watch them having sex in the backseat of cars.

 

Richard's activity caught the attention of the Macon police in 1955, and he was arrested after a gas station attendant reported sexual activity in a car Richard was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail, and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.

 

In the early 1950's, Richard became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright, who helped in establishing Richard's look. Billy advised Richard to use pancake makeup, and to wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his.

 

As Richard got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters, to wear makeup too, in order to gain entry into predominantly white venues. He later stated:

 

"I wore the make-up so that white

men wouldn't think I was after the

white girls.

It made things easier for me, plus

it was colorful too."

 

In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine:

 

"I figure if being called a sissy would

make me famous, let them say what

they want to."

 

Richard's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers.

 

During Richard's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism and group sex continued, with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson participating. Richard wrote that Robinson would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Richard.

 

Despite saying he was "born again" after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Richard left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. The incident was reported to the student's father, and Richard withdrew from the college.

 

In 1962, Richard was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California. However he still participated in orgies, and continued to be a voyeur.

 

On the 4th. May 1982, on Late Night with David Letterman, Richard said:

 

"God gave me the victory. I'm not gay

now, but, you know, I was gay all my

life. I believe I was one of the first gay

people to come out.

But God let me know that he made

Adam be with Eve, not Steve.

So, I gave my heart to Christ."

 

In his 1984 book, while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told Charles White that he was "omnisexual".

 

In 1995, Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life". In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Richard as "bisexual".

 

In October 2017, Richard once again denounced homosexuality in an interview with the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, stating that:

 

"Homosexual and transgender identity

is an unnatural affectation that goes

against the way God wants you to live."

 

(iii) Little Richard's Drug Use

 

During his initial heyday in the 1950's rock and roll scene, Richard was a teetotaler, abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Richard often fined bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era.

 

By the mid-1960's, however, Richard began drinking large amounts of alcohol, as well as smoking cigarettes and marijuana. By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented that period:

 

"They should have called me

Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so

much of that stuff!"

 

By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP, otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol misuse began to affect his professional career and personal life. He later recalled:

 

"I lost my reasoning."

 

Of his cocaine addiction, Richard said that he did whatever he could to use cocaine. Richard admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day.

 

In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill Richard for failing to pay his drug debt. Richard said that this was the most fearful moment of his life; Williams' own drug addiction made him wildly unpredictable.

 

Richard did acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends," and when reminiscing about the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking:

 

"I knew he loved me—

I hoped he did!"

 

Within that same year, Richard had several devastating personal experiences, including his brother Tony's death from a heart attack, the accidental shooting of his nephew whom he loved like a son, and the murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's house."

 

These experiences convinced the singer to give up drugs and alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the ministry.

 

(iv) Little Richard and Religion

 

Richard's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites, mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.

 

At the age of ten, influenced by Pentecostalism, he would go around saying that he was a faith healer, singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick, and touching them.

 

He later recalled that they would often say that they felt better after he prayed for them, and would sometimes give him money. Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.

 

After he was born again in 1957, Richard enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. It was also at this time that he became a vegetarian.

 

Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960's. He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970, and resumed evangelical activities in 1977. Richard represented Memorial Bibles International, and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many black characters.

 

As a preacher, he evangelized in anything from small churches to packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races, and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love.

 

In 1984, Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Richard promised her that he would remain a Christian.

 

During the 1980's and 1990's, Richard officiated at celebrity weddings. In 2006, in one ceremony, Richard wedded twenty couples who had won a contest.

 

Richard used his experience and knowledge as an elder statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner.

 

At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Richard asked guest of honor Fats Domino to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational booklets at the concert, a common practice at Richard's shows.

 

Richard told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C. audience in June 2012:

 

"I know this is not Church, but

get close to the Lord. The world

is getting close to the end. Get

close to the Lord."

 

In 2013, Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating:

 

"God talked to me the other night.

He said He's getting ready to come.

The world's getting ready to end,

and He's coming, wrapped in flames

of fire with a rainbow around His

throne."

 

Rolling Stone reported that Richard's apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members as well as cheers of support. He responded to the laughter by stating:

 

"When I talk to you about Jesus, I'm

not playing. I'm almost 81 years old.

Without God, I wouldn't be here."

 

Little Richard's Health Problems and Death

 

In October 1985, having finished his album Lifetime Friend, Richard returned from England to film a guest spot on the show Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries.

 

Richard's recovery from the accident took several months, preventing him from attending the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.

 

In 2007, Richard began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches. In November 2009, he entered hospital to have replacement surgery on his left hip.

 

Despite returning to performing the following year, Richard's problems with his hip continued, and he was brought onstage in a wheelchair, only being able to play sitting down.

 

On the 30th. September 2013, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at home the week before. Taking aspirin and having his son turn on the air conditioner saved his life, according to his doctor. Richard stated:

 

"Jesus had something for me.

He brought me through."

 

On the 28th. April 2016, Richard's friend Bootsy Collins stated on his Facebook page that:

 

"Richard is not in the best of

health, so I ask all the Funkateers

to lift him up."

 

Reports began being posted on the internet stating that Richard was in grave health, and that his family were gathering at his bedside. On the 3rd. May 2016, Rolling Stone issued a rebuttal by Richard and his lawyer. Richard stated:

 

"Not only is my family not gathering

around me because I'm ill, but I'm still

singing. I don't perform like I used to,

but I have my singing voice, I walk

around, I had hip surgery a while ago,

but I'm healthy.'"

 

His lawyer said:

 

"He's 83. I don't know how many

83-year-olds still get up and rock

it out every week, but in light of

the rumors, I wanted to tell you

that he's vivacious and conversant

about a ton of different things, and

he's still very active in a daily routine."

 

Though Richard continued to sing into his eighties, he kept away from the stage.

 

On the 9th. May 2020, after a two month illness, Richard died at the age of 87 at his home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, from a cause related to bone cancer. His brother, sister, and son were with him at the time.

 

Richard received tributes from many popular musicians, including Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz, as well as many others, such as film director John Waters, who were influenced by Richard's music and persona.

 

Richard was laid to rest at Oakwood University Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.

 

Little Richard's Legacy

 

Richard claimed to be "The Architect of Rock and Roll", and history would seem to bear out his boast. More than any other performer—save, perhaps, for Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona.

 

On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.

 

Richard's music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th. century. As a rock and roll pioneer, Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer.

 

Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds, and his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail.

 

Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk.

 

He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.

 

Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and innovative visceral rhythms.

 

He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm, and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos. He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high register.

 

His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry.

 

"Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960's classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.

 

Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music. He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as contributing to the genre's early development.

 

Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that:

 

"Richard has done a lot for

me and my soul brothers

in the music business."

 

Cooke said in 1962 that:

 

"Richard has done so

much for our music".

 

Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".

 

James Brown and others credited Richard and his mid-1950's backing band, The Upsetters, with having been the first to put funk in the rock beat. This innovation sparked the transition from 1950's rock and roll to 1960's funk.

 

Richard's hits of the mid-1950's, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations.

 

AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger stated that:

 

"Little Richard merged the fire of

gospel with New Orleans R&B,

pounding the piano and wailing

with gleeful abandon. While other

R&B greats of the early 1950's had

been moving in a similar direction,

none of them matched the sheer

electricity of Richard's vocals.

With his high-speed deliveries,

ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed

force of personality in his singing,

he was crucial in upping the voltage

from high-powered R&B into the

similar, yet different, guise of rock

and roll."

 

Emphasizing the folk influences of Richard, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote:

 

"His songs were literally good

booty. They were the repressed

stuff of underground lore.

And in Little Richard they found

a vehicle prepared to bear their

chocked energy, at least for his

capsulated moment."

 

Ray Charles introduced him at a concert in 1988 as:

 

"A man that started a kind of music

that set the pace for a lot of what's

happening today."

 

Richard's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works.

 

As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend Category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that:

 

"Richard is, without question, the

boldest and most influential of the

founding fathers of rock'n'roll."

 

Little Richard's Influence on Society

 

In addition to his musical style, Richard was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line, despite attempts to sustain segregation.

 

As H. B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock:

 

"Little Richard opened the door.

He brought the races together."

 

Barnum described Richard's music as follows:

 

"It wasn't boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy,

they were fun records, all fun. And they

had a lot to say sociologically in our

country and the world."

 

Barnum also stated that:

 

"Richard's charisma was a whole

new thing to the music business.

He would burst onto the stage

from anywhere, and you wouldn't

be able to hear anything but the

roar of the audience. He might

come out and walk on the piano.

He might go out into the audience."

 

Barnum also stated that Richard was innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with multi-colored stones and sequins, and that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed.

 

In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Richard for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts and changing American culture for ever.

 

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister of the heavy metal band Motörhead spoke highly of Little Richard, stating:

 

"Little Richard was always my main

man. How hard must it have been

for him: gay, black and singing in

the South? But his records are a

joyous good time from beginning

to end."

 

The Influence of Little Richard

 

Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres. Quincy Jones stated that:

 

"Richard was an innovator whose

influence spans America's musical

diaspora from Gospel, the Blues &

R&B, to Rock & Roll, & Hip-Hop."

 

James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him. Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin.

 

Redding started his professional career with Richard's band, The Upsetters, and first entered a talent show performing Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for fifteen consecutive weeks.

 

Ike Turner claimed that most of Tina Turner's early vocal delivery was based on Richard, something Richard reiterated in the introduction to Turner's autobiography, Takin' Back My Name.

 

Bob Dylan first performed covers of Richard's songs on piano in high school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little Richard".

 

Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Richard. He was quoted in 1966 saying:

 

"I want to do with my guitar what

Little Richard does with his voice."

part time job at Harrods ? ;p

miss ya..

Walking past some university buildings in Nottingham I heard my name called out and there was an old friend who I haven’t seen for a long time. Spotting my camera, she asked if I was out taking people for my stranger project and when I said yes, she pointed to a couple of students that had followed her out of the building and said she was sure they’d be willing to take part. Why not, I thought and headed towards the girl she had indicated.

 

The girl (sorry I didn’t catch your name) said I should ask Ryan – the other person my friend had suggested I ask – and along with a few other students who’d picked up on what was going on encouraged Ryan to be a stranger for me – not that he needed much persuasion.

 

I decided to photograph Ryan where we were as he was already lit with some excellent side-lighting. I’ve converted the image to monochrome because there was a vivid pink line on the glass doorway behind him that demands to much attention in the colour version, pulling the eye away from Ryan.

 

Ryan is studying to be a social worker. The course in generic which is good as he hasn’t decided in which area he’d like to work yet. Ryan has a part time job in a well-known coffee chain and for the last two years has been a special constable in Derbyshire.

 

Ryan told me the one thing he can’t live without is coffee.

 

Who had Ryan’s first star crush been on? Kirstie Allsopp was the answer and he mentioned the TV programme Location, Location, Location as being where he first saw her.

 

Before we parted company, I asked what Ryan would consider to be his greatest achievement and he said completing two marathons in the process of which he raised £3,500 for charity.

 

Thank-you Ryan for letting yourself be volunteered to be a stranger for me, and I hope you like your portrait.

 

This picture is #196 in the 100 Strangers project, yes, I’m doing a second 100. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

 

This is my 167th submission to the Human Family Group. To view more street portraits and stories visit www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/</a

 

PENN CENTRAL 6501 6513 U25C M6 HARTFORD CT "FRY" 1975

Seeing Neal Lebaron's photo's today taken on the Hartford Line ( or Springfield Line whatever ) got me fired up to find a shot from our heyday on the line from back in the day..this photo was taken in 1975 in what turned to be a substantial blizzard that closed our HS for a couple of snow days.

 

Ok I've always been proud of the fact we were "all weather railfans" even as young men . ( I distinctly remember my mom gave me a ration about going out.. when "they" were sayin stay off the roads that day...now some 47 years later. lol)

We both had part time jobs to get to if school was closed. However our trusty scanner alerted us that M6 was leaving Cedar Hill and so we trucked through the sloppy white stuff to get trackside which took the better part of the forty minutes M6 took to arrive.

 

In those days you could almost set your watch by M6 (Cedar Hill-Beacon Park ) M7 Beacon Park-Cedar Hill and the Flexi-van mail train # 16 (Philadelphia West Springfield; which had ceased to run sometime in 74 )

 

HART Tower informed M6 he had no pickup and we decided to take advantage of the wide open shot north of Hartford Yard at "FRY" Short for Fishfry Street which was basically the running tracks for the yard and a summertime temp block station/ manual crossover location.

M6 usually rated 3 or 4 4 axles or 2 sixes and today was no exception as he came along at track speed with a matched set of U25Cs .

The U25s were my favorite GEs at the time, and I think I have pictures of almost all of the 6 axle versions PC rostered .

I loved the high pitched whine of the big fans in the rear and no GE sounded quite the same when they were wound up in notch 8 as the U25cs or U25bs .

Neal and I hung around the yard for while longer but the scanner was silent , the snow was getting harder to drive in, and we both had to be at work by 3 pm .

It was a snow day well spent ...

Hartford CT "FRY" Hartford Line Northeastern Region PC

 

[52/52]

 

There is so much I want to say about the concept behind this image, but I'll leave it open for interpretation.

 

---

 

DONE MY 52 WEEKS PROJECT ~ WOOT!!!:)

 

This project was definitely worth it. I feel like I've grown so much throughout the year and my love for fine art photography has only deepened. Some weeks, with school assignments toppling over me I felt like I couldn't really do this project, but I did, I made it through- even if I don't love every single photo per week, its still a complete set:) I still want to attempt the 365, but I'm too afraid I'll last a few days and give up. . . maybe some day.

 

I've learned so much through the year, grown, found my passion, explored:

- bought my first DSLR

- had my work published

- participated in a small exhibition with EMW

- got accepted into the program of my choice at university (biomedical- here I come)

- learned that its okay to be a blend of science and art nerdery all in one

- got my first part-time job

- collaborated with Muslim Link's newspaper on concept pieces for articles

- learnt that people are actually interested in my work and sold my first few prints :)

- had my first [5] testimonials written for me

 

I hope I don't stop. Although I don't plan on doing another 52 weeks next year, I still want to keep creating the concepts I have sitting in my sketchbook. Someday I want my work up in galleries, and I'll do what it takes to get there insha'Allah.

 

Every time I've needed to escape from the world, photography has been my means of doing it. I've learnt that I am far better at expressing myself through art, then I am through words, and that's okay.

 

Also, I'd like to thank every single person who's become a source of support for me. A BIG thank you goes to Philip, for always putting up with my uncertainty and being my human tripod when I need it. Another thank you goes to Maryam, Hira, Judy, Sarah, Sarina and Zakariya for modelling for me and putting up with my crazy shinanigans. I also want to thank the following for their support: Anisah, Brad Rose, Dai, Chuck, Jacob, Simon, Rosane, , John, Vaida, Rob, Lichon, Nurul, Lisdhmangus, Amy & Shreya. <3

  

Most of all, a big thank you goes to every single one of you, for every view, comment, favourite, the whole bit. It means so much to me :)

 

I wish you all a very happy new year, best of luck! xox

central antwerpen;

 

it was 15 years ago that i visited this city for the first time.

 

a brave 18-year-old boy maq suddenly decided to travel around europe, with very little money he earned with his part time job in a small kiosk on a railway platform in tokyo.

 

at that time, being a country boy with a narrow narrow eye-sight, i was just shocked at everything i see in front of my eyes, and somehow i found myself not ready for experiencing europe (also i was really poor. i had only money for one apple pie a day).

 

i remember it was beautiful.

i remember it was fun.

i remember the people were very friendly and welcoming.

 

but somehow i felt myself defeated and i told myself to visit this city again when i become adult enough.

 

am i now as adult as i had expected 15 years ago?

not sure about that.

but i was fully satisfied to have kept my promise with the boy-maq.

 

the old buildings and the pretty square were kindly reminding me of the 15 years i have passed through.

  

*special thanks to johan for the umbrella ;-)

The pay is horrible, but at least the mercs let me use my own equipment ^.^

 

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lower%20Planes/60/95/2555

 

((AH-1W Super Cobra by [Apache]))

"As soon as children find something that interests them they lose their instability and learn to concentrate." -Maria Montessori

 

I LOVE my part-time job at Raintree Montessori in the 3-6 year old classroom. I arrive at 7:15am and leave just after our 30 minute recess at 9:00am. Our lead teacher Ann likes it when I bring my camera to the playground. Score.

 

If you are looking for an inspiring part-time job, Raintree needs mature and outgoing adults to spend time in the classrooms at the beginning of the day or the end of the day. What a wonderful environment to participate in and be surrounded by. It's food for my soul and helps me to slow the fuck down.

Cloud-based approaches allow us to chart new dynamic ways to educate and learn that aligns with the way we think, share, study and collaborate within and beyond the classroom.

  

Plenary Session

  

9:15-9:30 Welcome

Konstantinos Doukas, CEO Doukas School (Conference Opening)

Konstantinos I. Doukas has been the CEO of Doukas School since 2006. He served as President of the Board of Directors of the Information Society S.A. initiatives between 2004-2010. He holds a diploma in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and an M.S. degree from the Dept. of Communication and Technology in Education, Columbia University (New York, USA). He served as a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts (M.I.T.), during the Project Athena. He has coordinated and served as invited speaker in many national and international conferences. He is responsible for a number of Greek and European research projects in the new technologies in Education. A former international athlete of the Greek National Handball team, he still practices on an amateur basis, reaping overall benefits for his professional and personal life.

9:30-9:50 Invited Speaker

Marietta Giannakou, Member of the European Parliament, Head of the Greek European People’s Party Delegation, former Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs

Marietta Giannakou graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Athens, with a specialization in Neurology and Psychiatry. She was a founding member of ONNED (youth segment of the New Democracy, N.D., party). In 1989 she became Head of the EP Delegation of N.D. and a member of the EPP Political Bureau. Between 1990-1991 she served as Minister of Health, Welfare and Social Security. Between 1992-1996, she served as the International Secretary of N.D. In 1992, she became Vice-President of EUCD. Between 1992-2004, she served as the National Coordinator of the European Commission against Drugs. She had the following positions with N.D.: Secretary of International and European Affairs, Member of the Executive Committee, Head of the N.D. Delegation. Member of the European Convention on the Future of Europe, representing the Hellenic

Parliament. Between 2004 – 2007, she served as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament and as Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs. She has been honored by the Republic of Chile for her contribution to the re-establishment of democracy, by the Federal Republic of Germany; by the Republic of Italy; by the European People’s Party, for her contribution as Member of the European Parliament for European integration, by the Republic of Poland, and the Republic of France. . MEP in 1984-1990, 1999-2000. MEP since 2009.

9:50-10:30 Keynote Speakers

Prof. Kostis Koutsopoulos, European Association of Geographers, “SoC: Towards a new education paradigm”

Professor Koutsopoulos was born in Volos, Greece. After completing his B.S. degree at the University of Athens, he got his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Departments of Geography and Civil Engineering. He taught at the University of Iowa until 1980, after which time he was elected as Chair of Geography at the National Technical University of Athens. He has been Director of the Geography and Spatial Analysis Lab, Chairman of the Geography and Regional Planning Department, Director of the Graduate Program “Environment and Development” and Dean of the Rural and Surveying Engineering School. He has organized numerous congresses, meetings and seminars and has participated as keynote speaker, invited speaker, session chair and conveyor in many others. He has presented 155 papers in various meetings; he has published 50 papers in refereed journals, written 61 books and authored 100 other publications. He has been serving in various capacities in scientific and academic boards and associations in Greece and abroad.

Karl Donert, Innovative Learning Network, “Cloud-based Education: the State-of-the-Art”

Karl Donert is a Geographer with a national and international profile, a strong track record in initiating innovative projects, as well as leading major networking activities. He is Director of the European Centre of Excellence: digital-earth.eu and adjunct faculty at the Centre for GeoInformatics at Paris Lödron University, Salzburg. Karl is President of EUROGEO (European Association of Geographers) and a UK National Teaching Fellow. He is a member of the Council of Europe groups on Education & Culture and Landscapes and Climate Change, a former Hon. Vice President of the Geographical Association, a Fellow of Academia Europea, the European scientific and Research Academy, the Royal Canadian Geographical Association and Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers. He has extensive experience in major educational developments. He was coordinator of the HERODOT Thematic Network for Geography in Higher Education, initiator of the digital-earth network on geo-media and participated in more than 100 other international projects mainly concerned with the innovative uses of ICT and education. He is Director and Chief Executive of Innovative Learning Networks Ltd, a UK company specialising in professional and academic networking, developing research & development partnerships and project management. An inspirational speaker, and a European leader in learning and teaching geography acts as a consultant to many organisations, working in this context to raise the profile and quality of learning and teaching activities and research in geographic media.

10:30-11:30 Conference Speakers

Prof. Demetrios G Sampson, University of Piraeus, “Cloud-based Digital Technologies for Opening Up Education: Keep Learning Beyond the Physical Classroom at the Digital Cloud”

Demetrios G. Sampson received his degree in Electrical Engineering from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Electronic Systems Engineering from the University of Essex, UK in 1995. He is a Full Professor of Digital Systems for Learning and Education at the Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, Greece, a Research Fellow at the Information Technologies Institute (ITI), Centre of Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), and an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University, Canada. He is the Founder and Director of the Advanced Digital Systems and Services for Education and Learning (ASK) since 1999. He has been a Visiting Professor at a number of universities including National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan (2011), the University of Tunis (2012, 2013), Beijing Normal University, China (2013), Peking University Beijing, China (2013), and the University of North Texas, USA (2013). He is the co-author of more than 325 publications in scientific books, journals and conferences .He is a Senior and Golden Core Member of IEEE and was the elected Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Learning Technologies (2008-2011). He is the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Service Award (July, 2012). He is a member of the ICT Advisory Board of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALESCO) since March 2014. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Educational Technology and Society Journal.

Bart Verswijvel, European Schoolnet, “Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century”

Bart Verswijvel is a Flemish (Belgian) educator who was a Dutch teacher (mother tongue) in a secondary school for about 30 years. Since 2011, he has a part-time job at the Flemish National Support Service for eTwinning in Brussels. Since March 2012, Verswijvel has worked for European Schoolnet as a Pedagogical Adviser, and he is involved in several projects like the Future Classroom Lab, iTEC, eTwinning and Living Schools Lab. He is especially interested in the integration of ICT in education and in project work. He is a freelance speaker, leader of workshops, prize winner in several competitions like eTwinning Awards and Microsoft Innovative Teachers, and a Microsoft Expert Educator. In 2010, Bart was awarded the Queen Paola Prize for Education.​

 

16:15-17:00 Round Table: The Cloud today and perspectives on the future

 

Tasos Pagakis manages Ericsson Brand, Internal, Marketing and PR Communications in Southeastern Europe. He has worked as a Corporate and brand communicator on and offline as of 1988 in global agencies, pitched for hundreds of businesses, shaped creative standards and created strategic plans for more than 370 globally accredited companies in 57+ market categories. He is a writer of numerous articles in international media, a Startups supporter and a believer of change towards sustainable business models. His achievements: 2010 Serbian Gold PR corp comms, 2009 Ermis Gold PR corp governance, 2009 Ermis Silver PR CSR, 2006 Gold EFFIE for retail, 2005 Gold TV award NY, 3 Gold Effies, 71 creative awards in NY, Epica, Montreaux, Eurobest, AdAge, Ermis Festivals (2000-2009). He has been a Saatchi&Saatchi strategy team member that created the European VISA campaign “Love every day”. He has been Project Manager of the VISA International 2004 Athens Olympics Brand presence plan. When in Lowe Worldwide, he designed and launched the “Insight Mining” strategic planning tool. He is an active supporter of the NGO’s Arcturos and Actionaid.

 

Dimitris Raftopoulos is Project Manager, EU Projects Consultant and Chair of Finances and European Projects Working Group at the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT). He focuses on Strategic Human Resources Management and Gender Issues specializing in implementing, managing and evaluating European Projects. Holding an MBA, he has dedicated his professional experience to human and entrepreneurial development. His knowledge is in the fields of: combating gender issues in the work environment, promotion of employability, strengthening of professional skills as well as EU-funded programmes related to local development, employment, education, social exclusion, mental health, relevant legislation, economics and social policies. He interacts well in multicultural environments and has gained excellent communication skills through his work experience. Additionally, he has held the position of Human Resource Manager for the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 and worked as a consultant for several organizations in the Greek public sector. Other positions he has held: Commercial Director and Development Director for ICT startups. He has been involved in many EU projects and has solid knowledge of managerial issues, building teams and on stimulating communications.

  

Workshops Summaries

 

Cloud Applications – Implementations

(conducted in parallel for 90 min. 12:00-13:30)

 

“Planet School”: blended learning for inclusive classrooms

“Planet School” is the most important blended learning platform for schools in Germany. But it is still not accessible and usable for everyone. The evaluation and further advancement of “Planet School” for inclusive education is the main focus of the study. The goal is to offer variable content. The revised version of “Planet School” addresses different types of learners with accessible and usable materials, including movies, television broadcasts, interactive learning content, etc. I expect enormous enhancement in the European and the international discourse on the participation of persons with disabilities at ICT and a big step towards anchoring in practice.

 

Ingo K. Bosse is a professor at the Technical University of Dortmund (Germany) in the Special Education program. He leads the department for Motor and Developmental Disabilities. His research interests lie in the field of special and inclusive education with the main focus on inclusive media education, the use of information and communication technologies for learning and assistive technologies. He is also interested in researching educational aspects for students with special needs in augmentative and alternative communication. Currently he is finalizing a project that investigated the potential of the blended learning platform “planet school”. Ingo Bosse takes part in the research cluster Technology for Inclusion and Participation (TIP) at the Technical University of Dortmund that initiates, supports, and coordinates interdisciplinary research projects that investigate new ways to improve the inclusion, participation and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities, impairments or disadvantages.

Prof. Dr. Ingo Bosse, Dortmund University of Technologies

“Putting away the umbrella”: What will you do when the Cloud comes?

 

Alan will talk about his use of Cloud based tools to support his work in a range of contexts from classrooms, to teacher support and training. Alan has presented hundreds of workshops in many European countries, and tries to provide ideas which can be used immediately, but also others which can be developed further over a longer period of time.

Alan will talk about his use of mobile devices, work with the Open University and ESRI and refer to opportunities for work outside the classroom. Alan is a Geographer, but ideas arerelevant for other subjects too.

 

Alan Parkinson is an experienced and award-winning teacher and author. He has worked across the UK and EU with the Geographical Association and as a freelance geography consultant. He is a Chartered Geographer and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is Education Director of Explorer HQ, creators of Mission: Explore. He teaches Geography at King’s Ely School. He blogs at livinggeography.blogspot.com

 

_________________________________

Le-MATH: Learning Mathematics through new communication factors

In the workshop we will discuss the preliminary guidelines for the two methods developed by the Le‐MATH project that is the MATHFactor and the MATHeatre. The guidelines are developed based on the collection and study of good practices in more than 10 European countries. We will see on-line video of actual implementation and discuss and analyze the video samples. This will give a clear overview and hands‐on to the participants and will help them understand the two methods and how these could improve the learning of mathematics as well as the change of attitudes towards mathematics. Participants are expected to teach mathematics to pupils in the age group 9‐18. The method can be used by other disciplines, so participants could be from different fields. Some participants will have the opportunity to play the role of pupils for few minutes and others will become evaluators.

 

Gregory Makrides holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the IIT, USA. Since 1986, he has taught at Roosevelt University of Chicago, at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), USA, at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, at the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus. Since 2006 is the Director of Research and International Relations Service at the University of Cyprus and in parallel, he is also the Executive Director of the European Office of Cyprus, since 2007. He has publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings and in public press. He is an editor of the Mediterranean Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and the Editor of the Mathematics Magazine of the Cyprus Mathematical Society. He is the coordinator of several European funded projects and he has been a partner in several other EU funded projects as well as an external evaluator. He has chaired the organizing committee of more than 40 conferences since 1997 and has organized more than 100 National and Multinational competitions since 1995. He is the President and he has important posts in several organizations (CMS EAEC EACG MASSEE THALES etc).

  

_________________________________

English Attack! Platform: A Web 2.0 Platform for English language learners

English Attack! platform (www.english-attack.com), is an English-language learning service specifically designed for the digital generation that uses short-session online entertainment to encourage frequent digital immersion in real everyday English. English Attack! is an innovative learning method that combines interactive exercises based on hundreds of videos. The platform also offers a number of online games, thematic visual dictionaries, a number of Web 2.0 social features for the global community of English language learners, all in the context of a system of rewards and motivational games.

 

Ionela Lungu is a Project Manager professional specialized in the IT&C industry. She is holding a Bachelor of Computer Engineering and Automatic Control Degree from the Gheorghe Asachi University of Iasi. Currently she is coordinating the development team of ASSIST Software, a software development and outsourcing company from Suceava, Romania. She brings value to the company by constantly supporting the team members to update their knowledge, conquer new areas of expertise, and adhere to the quality management system of the company. She was also actively involved in the management team within European projects – FP7 and Eurostars.

  

_________________________________

ESRI’s Cloud in Education

GIS technology provides the education community with tools to develop a greater understanding of our world through geospatial data analysis. With GIS, students and faculty can integrate and evaluate data from many sources to develop new theories and knowledge. This helps prepare students to meet the demands of the twenty-first-century workforce, whether they are involved in science, government, or business. Libraries, museums, schools, and universities are also increasingly using GIS for resource management, facilities management, and advanced research. ArcGIS Online, ESRI’s Cloud platform, allows you to easily create maps, visualize your fieldwork data and share this content with anyone you choose. It is a great way to start using GIS and introduce key spatial concepts to your students (www.marathondata.gr)

 

Iro Giannakou, GIS Analyst at Marathon Data Systems (ESRI’s official distributor in Greece and Cyprus)Adonis Kontos, President at Marathon Data Systems (ESRI’s official distributor in Greece and Cyprus)

  

_________________________________

Cloud Applications by ICT Companies (Apple and Microsoft)

Increasing collaboration and communication in the classroom and the institution with Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Partners in Learning Program.

 

Microsoft has a global strategy in education and with programs such as the Microsoft Partners in Learning Program, we aim to help educators and school leaders connect, collaborate, create, and share so that students can realize their greatest potential. In this workshop, we will be presenting the Microsoft global strategy in education and the different programs and resources that we provide to the educator community for free as well as the local programs of Greek Partners in Learning. In this context, we will showcase the Microsoft Office 365 Education, an online platform that can provide staff, faculty, and students at a school with free email, sites, online document editing and storage, IM, and web conferencing. Microsoft Office 365 platform that offers a holistic group of collaboration and communication tools is offered free for academic and education institutions. Our local partners will then present a complete Learning Management System based in Office365 that provides students, teachers, and staff with the enterprise-grade communication and productivity services they need with the power and flexibility each individual institution requires.

  

_________________________________

Workshops: “Hands-On the Cloud”

(conducted in parallel for 90 min. 14:30-16:00)

Collaboration Snacks: Learn how to implement web 2.0 tools to organize communication and collaboration activities. In this workshop the participants explore Web 2.0 tools that can be used in the teaching practice. The tools will support different types of classroom activities. They can be implemented in different types of educational interaction like frontal teaching, group work or independent learning. The majority of the tools are web based and free to use. They can be used on a wide range of devices and support the idea of Bring Your Own Device. Participants are kindly requested to bring their own device for their successful participation in the workshop.

 

Bart Verswijvel, European Schoolnet is a Flemish (Belgian) educator who was a Dutch teacher (mother tongue) in a secondary school for about 30 years. Since 2011 he has a part time job at the Flemish National Support Service for eTwinning in Brussels. Since March 2012 Bart Verswijvel has worked for European Schoolnet as a Pedagogical Adviser, and he is involved in several projects like the Future Classroom Lab, iTEC, eTwinning and Living Schools Lab. He is especially interested in the integration of ICT in education and in project work. He is a freelance speaker, leader of workshops, prize winner in several competitions like eTwinning Awards and Microsoft Innovative Teachers, and a Microsoft Expert Educator. In 2010 Bart was awarded the Queen Paola Prize for Education.​

  

_________________________________

Tablets use in School Classroom

“1:1 educational computing” describes the educational practice where each student has their own computing device. These devices are mobile and are equipped with a wireless connection. They also come in various forms (Smartphones, iPads, tablets, etc.) and have varying possibilities. This 1:1 practice, primarily as a methodology, offers many benefits. Some of them are as follows:

- The student becomes an active participant in his own learning and educational activities;

- The teacher becomes a partner and mentor. He or she organizes, inspires and creates experiential activities, releases the potential in the classroom, fosters initiative and critical thinking;

- computer technology makes numerous diverse tools available to the student. Technology enables teaching to become individualized, reinforces the role of multiple representations and promotes research and the quest for information.

Smart and mobile devices, with their user-friendly educational software, contribute effectively to learning. They create appropriate learning environments with opportunities for interdisciplinary instruction. Mainly, they cultivate 21st century competences, by combining skills, knowledge, attitudes and values. In this workshop, by working with tablets, we highlight the importance of the Cloud environment for the pedagogical framework we are presenting.

 

Vassilis Economu is IT Manager at Doukas School since 1994. From 2004, he is head of the Doukas School “1:1 Computing Team”, which aims to introduce and develop the Student Personal Computer into the educational procedure. From 2006, he is member of Doukas School “Quality Research Team”. He is a certified Validator specialized in the evaluation of companies according to the standards of the European Foundation for Quality Management – “Commitment to Excellence”. He has participated as researcher and analyst-programmer in more than 20 projects concerning ICT in Education and in Special Education as well. He has participated in the development of ICT software (more than 50 software titles). He continues to train hundreds of teachers to develop ICT in educational practice. He has developed various Management Information Systems in several programming environments. He has published articles and studies in educational magazines and has presented several papers in scientific conferences related to the “introduction of ICT in educational procedure” and “quality in education”.

  

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Collaboration in the Cloud with Linoit

Do you want to collaborate in a colorful cloud-environment? Than follow our sticky note-workshop about Lino. Lino is an online sticky notes service. Here, you can freely post, see and peel off sticky notes, memos, pictures and videos you make with your device, and even annex files on a canvas. Sticky notes posted while you’re offline will appear once you log on. You can organize your memos and ideas by changing the colors of your sticky notes, moving them and adding an icon on them. Lino is an ideal tool to share your ideas. You can create your own group to collaborate. Lino is also available as an app on your Smartphone or tablet.

 

Nicole Vandeborne, Basisschool Zavelberg

  

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Cloud computing and mobile devices for teachers

The computer is a useful utility inside and outside the classroom. This course aims to address a range of services available on Internet, considered of interest, usefulness and applicability for the teacher. The mentioned services are oriented to the organization of tasks and application in classroom context. The contents includes information management and e-mail, scheduling and events, storage and files synchronization, sharing data and settings between electronic devices. The adopted methodology wants to create skills and methodologies that helps to learn, search for, select and adopt the best options to increase efficiency and quality to the teacher’s work. Participants are kindly requested to bring their own device for their successful participation in the workshop.

 

Telmo Costa, 41 years old, graduated in 1995. Master in e-Learning Management and Production at the Carlos III University, Madrid. Teacher at Horácio Bento Gouveia School. School Coordinator of European Projects and coordinator of two Comenius Multilateral Partnerships. Trainer in ICT and Educational Technologies. 2008-2011: Teaching associate professional, coordinating ICT projects streamlined in the Madeira Region Education System. Training Portfolio: Cloud computing and mobile devices, School in the Cloud – Web 2.0 in the personal and professional Organization, Interactive Whiteboards, E-Portfolios, Evaluation of learning in ICT, School 2.0 – Web 2.0 in the Classroom Organization, Illustration of Contents, Multimedia presentation on education, Publications: Interactive Whiteboards, Training Support Book.

  

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Digital Media in the EFL Classroom

Enhancing all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) has always been a challenging task for most EFL teachers. The main purpose of this workshop is to provide some tips that can be useful to teachers of English as a foreign language in the information age. Participants will leave with a better understanding of how tools and services on the cloud can help them achieve the educational objectives of activities that enhance all four language skills. Also, they will examine possible ways of improving their own teaching through the use of cloud technology.

 

Bessie Mitsikopoulou is Associate Professor at the Department of Language and Linguistics, Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Athens. She holds a PhD in Critical Discourse Analysis (University of Athens), an MA in Applied Linguistics (University of Reading), a Postgraduate Specialist Diploma in Computers in Education (Institute of Education, University of London) and a BA in English Language and Literature (University of Athens). Her research interests are in the areas of critical discourse analysis, educational linguistics, new media and applications of new technologies in education, critical and academic literacies. Since January 2004, she has been Thematic Consultant of English Literacy for the Second Chance Schools in Greece, and a member of the Scientific Committee for Second Chance Schools. She has also been the Coordinator of the English Group for the Digital Platform Project of the Greek Ministry of Education. She has participated in several research and EU-funded projects in the areas of language education, curriculum reform, genre analysis and ICTs. Her recent book Rethinking Online Education: Media, ideologies, and Identities is published by Paradigm Publishers (2013).

 

Smaragda Papadopoulou holds a ΒΑ degree in Greek Language and Literature from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and an MSc in Technology Education and Digital Systems from the University of Piraeus. Her scientific interests lie primarily in the fields of technology-enhanced learning, e-learning and online training. So far she has worked as a language editor and proofreader of study guides for primary and secondary education students. She has also participated as an instructional material designer in e-learning projects concerning adult training in Information Communication Technologies (ICT). Since September 2011 she has been working as en eLearning specialist at the Research Centre for Language Teaching, Testing and Assessment and has developed the e-training programme for Primary EFL teachers.

 

Georgia Gyftoula, Centre of Self-Access Learning & Materials Development, University of Athens, has been a state Primary School English teacher since 1993. She holds a MEd in ELT by the Hellenic Open University and a MEd in Education Management and Administration by the University of Thessaly. She has been interested in implementing projects of Environmental Education, e-twinning and other European programmes as well as integrating ICT in her teaching. She is currently teaching at the 3rd Primary School of Zografou.

 

Ms. Chryssanthe Sotiriou has obtained a BA in English Literature from the English Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a postgraduate diploma with distinction in Translation from the University of Mons-Hainaut in Belgium, being a scholar of the ‘Alexander Onassis’ Foundation. She has been involved in the Leonardo da Vinci Sectoral Programme: “Mobile and Wireless Technologies for Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (ΜW-TELL)” and in “Digital School”: Greek Ministry of Education. Her research interests include Project Based Learning (PBL), Game Based Learning (GBL) and the use of social media in Education. She has given lectures in seminars and conferences for teaching and the use of technology to teachers of primary and secondary education. She has many years of teaching experience, working as an EFL teacher at Doukas School in Athens, since September 1995; recently holding the position of Language Coordinator in High School.

Elinda Gjondedaj, Centre of Self-Access Learning & Materials Development, University of Athens

  

Organized by Doukas School - Website: www.schoolonthecloud.eu

(45.80)

 

Still a day behind, but I'm not stressing it. :)

 

Had a great day- Lounged around all morning and caught up on my internet as well as watching House Hunters with mom. Skyped with the beautiful human that is Sammy. Cooked home-made pizzas and omf were they ever good. Procrastinated some things then took like a 40 minute shower and glammed myself up for this VIP event at my friend's work. Went to that and then the mall, bought food and a bra because yolo

 

Dropped off client photos and got my first comission (score) and boy oh boy did it ever feel good. Also got paid from my part time job (im rakin' it in) (lol not really)

 

chillin now. I always get moody at night.

For Wolf Choir Week.... This guy could be the head of the party planning committee with a part time job in pharmaceutical sales.

 

This is the most riduclous thing ever. The funny thing is I look like my dad circa 1972.

 

If you would have told me a year ago that I would be postinga photo of myself on the internet looking like a 1972 pothead with a super moustache, I would have laughed at you..... my god.......

Hey there, special thanks to Ant-Man for the tag. Personally I think of myself as a pretty weird guy, so you might be shocked of some things that I do. Personally I think it's ok to stick out of the crowd!

 

So with out further adieu... 20 Things You Didn't Know About Me!

 

20. I'm a huge fan of Smash Bros and Nintendo in general, but I actually grew up with the original Playstation and the games that came with it.

 

And yes, I was one of those people that thought Link's name was Zelda at first.

 

19. I'm known for my adaption skills, so I have a good understanding of what I'm doing when it comes to gaming. I also switch between the 3 main consoles and the PC constantly. That's mostly because none of my other friends have a Wii (U).

 

18. I'm not much of a computer guy, but my dad is. He's an employee of the town's communications company - one of the better ones at that. My grandpa just so happens to be the top manager of the place! I work for them as a part time job.

 

17. I take from my mom more than my dad. I'm more serious and the guy that constantly works to keep things in line as apposed to a more calm and chill personality. I'm a bit more laid back than my mom, and I take a bit of technical prowess from my dad. I really love and deeply respect both the same.

 

16. Seriousness aside, I have a soft spot for anything that's adorable or cute. Kirby being my favorite Nintendo character gives a pretty big hint of that.

 

15. Despite that, I'm absolutely crept out of anything that has huge cat eyes (i.e. Toon Link).

 

14. I crave uniqness. Most of the time, I try to be original and think outside the box, but sometimes that doesn't work out. I hate going to a restaurant to try something new all for you to just not like it...

 

13. I have 4 other siblings, 3 sisters and a younger brother. I'm also the oldest of them and happen to be the tallest head in my house. Ether I'm tall or everybody is really short. I dunno. Isn't 6,4 tall or somethin'? Eh, probably not.

 

12. I have a close relationship with the oldest sister (you may know her as Sis). She's pretty much the exact opposite of me, yet somehow, we get along so well... Pretty cool huh?

 

I love them all the same though. I consider myself like a father to them and I'm very protective.

 

11. I was Mr. Curious George when I was younger and still am. There was this one time I snuck out the front door and crawled into the street when I was 2-3, one of my moms friends returned me later after almost running over me... So needless to say, my parents pretty much deadbolt the door after that experience.

 

Naturally, I just snuck out the back door later :P

  

Fortunately, curiosity hasn't killed this cat yet!

  

10. I think Buzz Lightyear and Bugs Bunny are the bomb.

 

9. I'm not a movie/TV person, but if I do watch something, It'd better be funny or at least interesting.

 

8. Music is one of my favorite things. I just find it so beautiful... I also play piano and I'm head of my Youth Group's worship team.

 

7. I was never interested into sports all that much and I prefer staying indoors over burning in the sun any day.

 

Unless that outdoors has a pool... I love pools.

 

6. Cookies are my favorite baked goods. Snickerdoodle is my favorite kind!

 

5. I'm a huge perfectionist, been that way since childhood. If something is off, I grow extremely impatient and try to do whatever I can to fix it ASAP.

 

4. I've grown up with this constant idea that everything has feelings. I obviously know better now, but it still bugs me.

As a result, I don't have anyone or anything that I prefer over the other - assuming it's personal to me.

 

Other things I ether don't care about or don't have strong feelings ether way for.

 

3. I have a HUGE fear of needles.

 

2. I'm actually allergic to many different things. Some of those happen to be common types of trees, cockroaches (wat), and apples...

 

I don't ask questions, I just, uh... Work here...?

 

1. The "gem" you see associated with my nicknames across the internet is actually the abbreviation of my full name and "ssb" stands for Super Smash Bros.

 

So technically, my nickname is G****** E***** M**** Super Smash Bros Guy 13. Sometimes it's others, like Gem Jim for example.

 

BONUS: I love facts :3

  

Well there you have it folks, hope ya enjoyed! I know I did. So much that I just might do a sequel.

A beautiful morning on my way to work at glacier Sólheimajökull.

It's a priority to have a part time job like that in a weather we got today.

The mountain in centre is named Litlafjall and in distance we can see the icecap Mýrdalsjökull

In the early 1870s when John Cable built his mill at the west end of Cades Cove, it was surrounded only by his fields. Like most farmers with gristmills, Cable's milling was a part-time job. Although the mill was open for business on specific days, customers who came at other times could ring a large bell near the mill when they wanted to call John Cable from his fields. Today, Cable Mill has a visitor center plus the Gregg-Cable House and several farm buildings which were moved in from other parts of the cove.

No kidding.....I really do!

And I'll bet you didn't know that in the summer he vacations in the Wildwoods, on the Jersey coast.!

Since the elves have it all under control up at the North Pole, he's taken up a part-time job for a couple of hours on the weekend to make a little extra $ tending a parking lot....seems reindeer feed has gotten a little pricey!

 

This is my buddy Mike. And he indeed runs the parking lot up the street on the weekends.

He's retired, he's a drummer that plays in a rock cover band that plays all over the island, and picks up a little extra cash doing this on the weekends.

He has a cheery, friendly personality, and LOOK at him!

What kid would not believe that he's not the real deal?

As a matter of fact a "Santa scout" actually approached him and offered him a job.

Last year after his Wildwood gig, he went to Santa School out in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The company put him and his wife up in a hotel and covered expenses, while he went through his Santa training, and then they placed him in a mall out there. He was a natural, and absolutely loved the whole experience.

 

sigh...............now I wonder if going to see Santa is going to become a thing of the past. 8-(

These people are of all ages...16 to 96. This photo is in a blurred state, so as to accentuate the attached poem mostly. I used a monotone look and then hand brushed colors to resemble the photos of the 1930s - 1950s!

 

I am doing a book review on Create a Poem by Chartwell Books, to be published March 2021. I took one exercise from the book and wrote the following. The title was to be about life and I had to use ten specific words, given in the book: state, spirit, body, destiny, memory, time, sacrifice, purpose, existence, death. I ended up with some pretty heavy stuff, I guess.

 

The Cycle of Life

 

The Child

As children, we eat, play, sleep, and grow.

We learn to read and count.

We explore the boundaries in which we live.

What do we want to be when we grow up?

What will be our destiny?

 

They say…

Let the spirit of childhood blossom.

Nurture creativity! Encourage critical thinking skills.

Mold good character in the child.

Encourage sensory play and learning.

Teach respect for the elements of our world,

so the Earth will be beautiful and healthy for generations to come.

 

But, when will I grow up?

I just want to be a teenager.

 

The Teen

Can we, uh, please just have some freedom?

We need to be with our friends. Can we have a few dollars?

Maybe we can borrow the car? Maybe get a part-time job?

What? We must pay for our own gas in the car?

 

They advise us…

Focus on getting a good education for the next 8 or 10 years.

 

High School Graduation

What do we want to do with our lives?

What kind of a job will we have in the near future?

What will be the next chapter in our lives?

 

The Child is a Grown-up Now

We are stepping out into the world.

Got a real job and a paycheck.

Got our own place. But got bills.

Maybe got married. And now got a family!

Got responsibilities – that’s for sure.

Oh, will these parent teacher conferences ever end?

Yet, there’s so much joy in raising a family.

Traditions to start or continue from our childhood.

 

Maybe what they said and advised us was right after all.

They knew, and now, I know they were right!

 

Our Nest is Empty

Where has time gone?

We have an empty nest.

Look at the state of things around us? Look at the state we are in?

We recall the memories of our successes and failures along the way raising our family.

 

The Retirement Years

Retirement. Life is slowing down a little. Fewer schedules.

Time to reflect on life.

Certain smells, sounds, pictures, tastes, and sights will take us back to the memories of earlier days.

Often we wish we could rewind the clock and be young again.

Would we live our lives differently?

Maybe, we will explore new hobbies.

We notice new aches and pains! Flexibility is fading quickly.

It seems we sacrificed our bodies for the business of life’s everyday demands in our younger years.

We felt that we could change bad habits later in life.

Can we turn things around and make up for lost time with our health?

 

Aging Speeds Up

The first 70 years seemed to fly by!

Looking back, what was our purpose in life?

How about the next 30?

Where does life go from here?

So the frail years are coming.

Why can’t we do things like we once could?

Sometimes, we cannot remember what, when, where, or why? And maybe, who or how.

Are we a little too quick to speak our mind?

Are we still wanted?

What value do we have to others?

Or are we just in a limbo form of existence between life and death?

 

Death

Did we leave the world a better place?

What impact did we have on the lives of others?

 

The cycle of life repeats itself over and over again.

To pay the bills she has had to take on a part time job as an exotic dancer. The money is good but it's so hard on her feet wearing heels all night. Especially when she has to be back in her 4 inch pumps in just a few hours to work her office day job!

Charlotte’s been an illustration major at RIT for the past two years. She wants to work in an art museum, and she says the Norman Rockwell museum would be her dream job. She loves his work and says it would be great to be around it.

 

She doesn’t usually paint at the Lake Ontario shore, but she wanted to be productive while her boyfriend was sailing. She’s been painting since high school. Charlotte said she does a lot of “master studies,” where she tries to recreate paintings done by master artists. In trying to copy a master’s painting, it helps her learn how they did it.

 

She looks forward to school “getting back to normal,” because she feels that personal interaction is especially important for her particular area of study. For example, if you’re a math major, Charlotte says, you can do math on a computer. But with art and illustration, there’s a lot of up-close watching and observation needed for students to be able to learn various techniques. When you’re painting or illustrating in a virtual classroom, you can’t necessarily see what you’re doing wrong, and you’re just hoping you’re getting it right.

 

Charlotte is fully vaccinated, and she has a part-time job in a retail environment. The store where she works is one of the few places that won’t allow customers to enter unless they’re wearing a mask. She says there have been a lot of customers who don’t seem to understand the concept of a mask. In spite of this, hardly anyone has gotten angry or belligerent yet.

 

She’s the president of the RIT Outing Club, and a lot of her club members have gone out together on hikes. For example, they’ve gone backpacking and camping in the Adirondacks, but they can’t do overnight trips during the pandemic. RIT has set a limit, where students can’t go beyond a certain radius outside the city. This has limited a lot of trips that they can take.

 

Charlotte has tried to keep the club together, but a lot of members aren’t participating because the club can’t take the fun trips they’re used to. They’re restricted to doing things like walking the Erie Canal trail, which isn’t adventurous enough for many diehard club members.

 

She’s been in restaurants, depending on how cautious the restaurant is about maintaining or following health-safety guidelines. Charlotte said some restaurants are conscientious and others clearly don’t care. She and her friends avoid those.

 

It’s been over a year since she’s seen a movie in a theater. She and her friends are considering returning to a theater by taking advantage of the offer to rent a theater for a small group of people.

 

This picture is #34 in my 100 Strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100strangers.com/.

 

Thanks, Charlotte!

Mokotan's part time job ^^ Photos taken at London Heritage Farm

This is another side of the bag, based on Japan Sakura season as its theme. Petals dancing in the sky, having a little picnic under the sakura tree. Such a wonderful day...

 

This is a customer's order. While working on my big projects, I also take order as my part time job :>. Should be able to deliver on time. Phew....

 

French postcard by Editions Nugeron, no. Star 196. Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Cruisade (Steven Spielberg, 1989).

 

American film actor Harrison Ford (1942) specialises in roles of cynical, world-weary heroes in popular film series. He played Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, archaeologist Indiana Jones in a series of four adventure films, Rick Deckard in the Science Fiction films Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and secret agent Jack Ryan in the spy thrillers Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). These film roles have made him one of the most successful stars in Hollywood. In all, his films have grossed about $5.4 billion in the United States and $9.3 billion worldwide.

 

Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1942. His parents were former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William "Christopher" Ford. Harrison graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and did some acting. After dropping out of college, he first wanted to work as a DJ in radio and left for California to work at a large national radio station. He was unable to find work and, in order to make a living, he accepted a job as a carpenter. Another part-time job was auditioning, where he had to read out lines that the opposing actor would say to an actor auditioning for a particular role. Harrison did this so well that he was advised to take up acting. He was also briefly a roadie for the rock group The Doors. From 1964, Ford regularly played bit roles in films. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the Western A Time for Killing (Phil Karlson, 1967), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens. The "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name but was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957. French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (1969), but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor. The part eventually went to Gary Lockwood. He had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point (1970) as an arrested student protester. His first major role was in the coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). Ford became friends with the directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and he made a number of films with them. In 1974, he acted in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) starring Gene Hackman, and played an army officer named "G. Lucas" in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, co-produced by George Lucas. Ford made his breakthrough as Han Solo in Lucas's epic space opera Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977). Star Wars became one of the most successful and groundbreaking films of all time and brought Ford, and his co-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, widespread recognition. He reprised the role in four sequels over the course of the next 42 years: Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980), Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983), Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015), and Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019).

 

Harrison Ford also worked with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on the successful Indiana Jones adventure series playing the heroic, globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones. The series started with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981). Like Star Wars, the film was massively successful and became the highest-grossing film of the year. Ford went on to reprise the role throughout the rest of the decade in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989), which co-starred Sean Connery as Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr. and River Phoenix as young Indiana. In between the successful film series, Ford also played very daring roles in more artistic films. He played the role of a lonely depressed detective in the Sci-Fi film Blade Runner, (Ridley Scott, 1981) opposite Rutger Hauer. While not initially a success, Blade Runner went on to become a cult classic and one of Ford's most highly regarded films. Ford received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the crime drama Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) with Kelly McGillis, and also starred for Weir as a house-father in the survival drama The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir, 1986) with River Phoenix as his son. In 1988, he played a desperate man searching for his kidnapped wife in Roman Polanski's Frantic. For his role as a wrongly accused prisoner Dr. Richard Kimble in the action thriller The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ford received some of the best reviews of his career. He became the second of five actors to portray Jack Ryan in two films of the film series based on the literary character created by Tom Clancy: the spy thrillers Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and Clear and Present Danger (Phillip Noyce, 1994). He then played the American president in the blockbuster Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997) opposite Gary Oldman. Later his success waned somewhat and his films Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) and Six Days Seven Nights (Ivan Reitman, 1998) both disappointed at the box office. However, he did play a few special roles, such as an assassin in the supernatural horror-thriller What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000) opposite Michele Pfeiffer, and a Russian submarine captain in K-19: The Widowmaker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2002) with Liam Neeson. In 2008, he reprised his role as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008) with Cate Blanchett. The film received generally positive reviews and was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. Later Ford accepted more supporting roles, such as in the sports film 42 (Brian Helgeland, 2013) about baseball player Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball. Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the long-awaited Star Wars sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015), which became massively successful like its predecessors. He also reprised his role as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), co-starring Ryan Gosling. Harrison Ford has been married three times and has four biological children and one adopted child. From 1964 to 1979, Ford was married to Mary Marquardt, a marriage that produced two children. From 1983 to 2003, he was married to Melissa Mathison, from which marriage two more children were born. In 2010, he married actress Calista Flockhart, famous for her role in the TV series Ally McBeal. He owns a ranch in Jackson Hole (Wyoming). Besides being an actor, Ford is also an experienced pilot. Ford survived three plane crashes of planes he piloted himself. The most recent accident occurred in 2015 when he suffered an engine failure with a Ryan PT-22 Recruit and made an emergency landing on a golf course. Among other injuries, Ford sustained a broken pelvis and ankle from this latest accident. In 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Wellington.

Morphett selected the area around Wellington and up both banks of the Murray River for the Secondary Towns Association as a Special Survey for £4,000 in 1839. Morphett bought up land in the district for himself as well. The Secondary Towns Association had also paid for the Special Survey at Currency Creek which they foresaw would become the New Orleans of the South. They had the same idea about Wellington (although Morphett wanted to call the town Victoria.) They surveyed the land, selling off 400 forty acre farmlets and they subdivided one thousand town blocks for the town of Wellington. Their high expectations were not met, few town blocks were built upon and Wellington East on the other side of the Murray never developed at all. In 1879 a new road and rail bridge was opened at Edwards Crossing removing much of the traffic across the Murray at Wellington. The town survived this. But the arrival of the railway at nearby Tailem Bend (1886) took even more traffic away from Wellington. But before the bridge was built Wellington in the 1840s had great potential. Morphett operated the first ferry across the Murray in 1839 before the town was established in 1840. The town had a police presence before the township was established too with a Sub-Protector of Aboriginals based there. The government stationed police there from 1841 to bring law and order to the region. The first police station was built in 1845 but it was probably not much more than a shanty. It was replaced by a new station in 1849. But the soft soils at Wellington meant that this structure was soon in need of replacement and it was condemned in 1862. The current police station, and court house (and originally ferry house too) were erected in 1864. The stables were added in 1865. Although in a good state of repair it has not been a court house and police station for many years. It was owned by the National Trust but it has recently been sold to private occupiers. In the 1840s two hotels were licensed in Wellington but only one survived, the 1846 built Wellington Hotel. Despite modernisation it is still there and still operates.

 

Perhaps the most famous ferryman at Wellington was the former Police Commissioner Alexander Tolmer. The one time Commissioner of Police, and instigator of the Gold Escort services from the Victorian goldfields in the early 1850s. But by 1857 he was unemployed as his position was made redundant. In that year Tolmer moved to Wellington to become a sheep farmer and the ferry man. He wrote his biography which he called A Chequered Career to explain his demise. Tolmer wrote about himself: ”I knew no more about sheep farming than the man in the moon.” He gave up farming and was almost destitute but he then he gained a part time job as returning officer for the District of Murray. Then in 1862 Tolmer was appointed Crown Lands Ranger at a salary of £200 per annum. In 1866 he and his family were transferred to Kingston South East and he departed from Wellington. In 1871 he returned to the Valuations Department of the government in Adelaide. He then lived at Mitcham until he died there in 1891.

 

I have one part-time job doing the office work for an arborculturalist, which is not my field of discipline... Tomorrow I start a second part-time job tomorrow as a research assistant/administrator for somebody doing a PhD in a discipline that is also thoroughly out of my own field of theology/philosophy LOL

New Beginnings for a new week - not just me, but for everyone...

Minutes pass by before New York's finest show up. Thankfully, Yuri is the one leading the charge. Upon entering the newsroom, the officers draw their weapons. Yuri, and one of the other officers, are the only ones not to have their weapons trained on me. They step in front of the others.

 

"Weapons down!" The other officer orders. Initially, they are quite hesitant. Can't say I blame them. J Jonah has managed to convince them along with several others that I'm some sort of menace to this city. Thankfully, he has this commanding presence about him, while still being quite welcoming at the same time. It's a strange mix of emotions. Eventually, after a few minutes of silence, they finally lower their weapons.

 

"Thanks for that. Don't really feel like being riddled with bullets today. Not to sound ungrateful, but who are you?" I ask with a sigh of relief, as the officers grab the Pterodax, leading them down to their squad cars.

 

"This is my partner, Officer Davis." Yuri replies, introducing him.

 

"No need to be so formal Yuri.. It's Jefferson. It's nice to finally meet you Spider-Man. My son's a big fan of yours." He says, as we shake hands. My grip firm, but not so much so that I squish his hand with my enhanced strength.

 

"That's a nice grip you got there! " Officer Davis says with a chuckle.

 

"Thanks Jeff! Yours too. I guess it's a cop thing, huh?"

 

"Cop thing?"

 

"You know.. You're both police officers, and I'm a spider-cop." I reply, managing to stay completely serious when saying that.

 

Jeff looks over at Yuri, baffled at what I just said.

 

"Don't look at me Jeff. I'm not used to this either. This Spider-Cop thing? It's too new." Yuri says, shrugging her shoulders.

 

"Right... Is there anything you can tell us about these guys?"

 

"Well, besides the fact they're something out of a science fiction film, not all too much unfortunately. Their Pterodax armor, at least, that's what they called it, was only a prototype a couple of months ago. Their leader, Alistair Smythe, has had it out for me ever since my battle with Doctor Octopus inadvertently caused the death of his father, Spencer Smythe. He wanted me here, to get revenge, once and for all. So many innocent people, endangered once again because of me. That's pretty much all I know, as I know nothing about the Pterodax armor itself, or where it exactly came from." I answer, trying not to leave anything out.

 

"That's more than enough, thank you. Also, there's no need for you to blame yourself. You did good tonight. Everyone else may not want to admit it, but the city needs you." Jeff says, trying to reassure me.

 

"I appreciate that, more than you know. I should probably get going, but can you keep me updated with any leads you get on the Sinister Six?"

 

"Like I said the other day, you'll be the first to know. How exactly are we supposed to get in contact with you though?"

 

"Got a notepad and a pen?" I ask, to which they both nod. Yuri hands me a notepad, and a pen. After writing down the number to my crappy, flip-phone burner I carry for occasions like this, I hand the notepad, and pen, back to Yuri. I give a quick wave goodbye, before running, and leaping out of the hole in the wall entrance to the newsroom. Free falling, until the very last second, to which I swing, giving me the most momentum. I have to make a stop, to drop my costume off at home, before going to Harry's party. Don't want to have to explain why I have a Spider-Man costume to everyone there.

 

And I'm out of web fluid.. Just great! I manage to land on a nearby rooftop with my last strand of webbing. Really need to get myself a part-time job, as making web fluid's expensive. It takes me longer than usual to make it back to the Hardy Estate, drop off my costume, and get out, without Felicia's mother noticing. Thankfully, I'm able to get out okay, since Aunt May, and Mrs. Hardy are still at F.E.A.S.T. They really put in long hours there.

 

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

Approximately 45 minutes later, Osborn Mansion

 

Well, 45 minutes, and five subway stops later, I finally arrive at Harry's house. The gate's open, so I walk through the entrance, making my way to the front door. I walk by a couple, making out on the front porch, with little to no regard for anyone else. Once I reach the front door, I open it. I've never seen so many people in Harry's mansion. It's packed full of people! Almost like he invited the whole school or something. Anyways, it's hard to really concentrate, as there's loud music playing throughout the mansion. I'm easily able to spot Flash Thompson, laughing with the jocks, each with a plastic red cup in hand. I make my way through the crowds, until I notice a group huddled around the TV, watching two people play the newest Mortal Kombat. I hear the iconic Get over here! line. Well, someone's playing Scorpion. It doesn't take me long before I realize who the one controlling Scorpion is. Lana... My mind flashes back to earlier today, when she told me she needed space. I have to respect her wishes though, so I quickly turn around, looking for Harry. He's the one person who isn't fully mad at me right now. I'm finally able to spot him over in the kitchen, talking to a girl with black hair. He's smiling, and laughing. Haven't seen him like this since Cheyenne. He notices me walking towards him, and waves. The girl helps wheel him over to meet me. There's something so familiar about her, but I can't quite place what that is.

 

"Peter!! So glad you could make it! Peter, this is Elaine. Elaine, this is Peter." He says with a smile, introducing us.

 

"So this is Elaine? It's nice to meet you."

 

"Nice to meet you too, Peter. Harry's told me a lot about you!" Elaine replies, with a bright cheerful smile

 

"All good things I hope!" I say, my voice trailing off, uncertain if Harry told her everything.

 

"Of course! Nothing but good things!" Elaine says, giving us a thumbs up.

 

"Don't worry Pete, I haven't told her any embarrassing stories, yet " Harry teases, my face slightly going red at the thought.

 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you! I could tell her about the time you--" I reply, teasing him back.

 

"Okay, okay, I won't!" He interrupts me before I can say any more.

 

"So, Elaine, what do you do? Like, do you have a job, go to school or what exactly? Cause Harry here hasn't told me much, besides your name." I look over at him, and he just shrugs.

 

"Oh, straight to it then, aha, alright. Currently I'm taking general study courses at ESU, as I don't really know what I want to do quite yet. I might take go into the sciences, and take Arachnology, but I don't know for certain." She muses.

 

"Nice. It's not often that people are interested in Arachnology. It'd be cool to see you go through with that, especially if your passionate for the subject. Though job prospects may be limited. If worst comes to worst, I'm sure Harry could find a position for you at Oscorp or something." I say thoughtfully.

 

"Do I have to worry about the two of you nerding out in front of me? Please tell me I don't!" Harry groans.

 

"No promises!" Elaine playfully teases, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.

 

"Also, we've already talked about a potential position at Oscorp. She already politely declined. Wants to get by without handouts, which I support wholeheartedly." He says, grabbing, and holding onto her hand with his own.

 

As we're talking, I notice my sister's in the other room, with her group of friends, drinking what I assume is alcohol. I should probably go over there and stop her before she drinks so much that she regrets it.

 

American Craft Beer Week®

United States

11-17 May 2020.

 

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▶ "American Craft Beer Week®, the annual national beer holiday celebrated since 2006 by millions of beer lovers, breweries, and retailers, will be observed May 11-17 2020. Hosted by CraftBeer.com, a website published by the [U.S.] Brewers Association, this year’s celebration will feel different, but the spirit of supporting craft breweries who have supported their communities and country remains the same.

 

American Craft Beer Week provides an opportunity for beer-lovers to connect safely with each other while supporting – and possibly even saving – local microbreweries, taprooms, brewpubs, and regional craft breweries. These small businesses are undergoing unprecedented challenges due to the global pandemic.

 

U.S. craft breweries are job creators and community gathering places—providing more than 161,000 direct full and part-time jobs and hosting nearly 68 million unique brewery visitors in 2019 alone. Additionally, craft breweries donated more than $82 million to local charities last year, approximately $3.10 for every barrel of beer brewed."

— [U.S.] Brewers Association.

 

***************

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Lyle was on the northeast corner of Madison and Michigan, sitting on the sidewalk outside the store. He's been homeless for a couple months and stays in a shelter. His Dad used to work for a gym in Detroit. He wants to find a part-time job to save some money. He likes cars and video games. What he wants people to know is, "I'm a lover, not a fighter".

The owner of this chair, my mother, was born in 1918 – just as the First World War ended.

 

She was one of 6 children, living through hard times, austerity and constant financial crisis.

 

She met my father, born in 1913, who had 8 brothers and sisters and her family did not approve of him nor of their engagement.

 

However, she loved him, defied her family and married him in 1935.

 

My sister was born in 1937 and whilst she was still a toddler, my father was sent off to the war in the Middle East to fight the Afrika Korps headed by General Rommel.

 

As a Desert Rat, he was fighting out there for 5 years; was trapped during the siege of Tobruk and bombarded non-stop for 10 months by German planes and artillery. During this terrible seige, 30,000 British troops deserted and escaped into the desert. My father stayed and fought.

 

He came back a changed man but with some very close friends and comrades, Desert Rats and Gurkhas alike, with whom he had served and fought side by side with in the desert. He stayed in touch with those he had befriended and served with until the year he died.

 

During the Second World War, my mother and sister were evacuated and relocated deep into the countryside, far away from the frequently bombed Portsmouth Naval Base and stayed in touch by letter with my father in the volatile and unpredictable Middle East.

 

On his return from the war, jobs were hard to find and my father struggled to find employment. He was desperate, so he went for an interview for a job he had never done before and knew nothing about.

 

When he was offered it, he immediately took it and then spent the next few days being taught how to do it by his brother.

 

He later excelled at the job he initially knew nothing about and won awards for his skill and quality of workmanship.

 

My mum, dad and sister moved into a little 2 bedroom house in 1948 and my mother, as independent and as stubborn as ever, still lives there, on her own, today.

 

It is where the now empty chair and all her memories are and she will not be moved.

 

She loves the house because it is “full of memories” for her and it is her home.

 

Sixteen years after my sister was born and exactly 9 months after a happy Christmas celebration, I arrived on the scene – much to my mother’s utter surprise. She had gone to the Doctor feeling tired, run down and nauseous and came home with the news that she was pregnant, with me. For me to burst on the scene as a new and unplanned addition to the family, was a big surprise for all.

 

My mother wanted to take a part time job to help with the finances, but my father would not allow it – he alone was the bread winner and sole provider for his family.

 

He worked harder and took on another job to make ends meet now that I was around and there was an extra mouth to feed.

 

Neither my mother nor my father coveted material possessions. They lived simply and frugally within their means.

 

My father died prematurely in 1984 and my mother was heartbroken. She never remarried because she only ever had one true love in her life – the man her family disapproved of and who had stood by her, provided for her, paid all the bills and kept a roof over her head for 50 years.

 

No-one would ever match up to my father and that’s how it remains to this day.

 

Since my father died, she has lived alone in the little house she loves for almost 30 years and treasures all her fond memories tied into it.

 

My mother is now in hospital, very weak and fighting once again to beat her illnesses.

 

Her heart is very weak and there has been a “Do not resuscitate” order in place since May 2013 and still she fights on.

 

Although she is clearly getting weaker in hospital, she still talks of getting back to her home once again, where all her memories are and of sitting in her chair by the window watching the world go by with a photo of my father by her side. She takes a photo of him everywhere with her.

 

My mother was 95 this year and my father would have been 100 this year had he lived - so that's a lot of living and a lot of memories between them.

 

This is a big chair to fill.

 

It might be empty but it is full of memories.

 

UPDATE Spring 2014

 

The chair in the photograph is now by my mothers bedside in the care home with her.

 

She is too weak to get out of bed and sit in it but it is there for her to look at and feel comfort from.

 

She is the weakest she has ever been and is only now able to move her head and eyes.

 

Her fighting spirit is often mentioned and admired by the nursing staff as she still battles her various health problems.

 

The "Do Not Resuscitate" order has now been in place for just over a year but so far, it has not been needed.

 

A small 2 inch sq silver framed portrait of my father is on the table over her bed. She nods and smiles at it every single day and whispers "Goodnight" to it without fail.

 

UPDATE June 2014: Morphine; anti-biotics; chest infection; water infection; blood clots; Warfarin; hallucinations; high temperature; bad dreams; struggling to eat and drink; delirious; breathing difficulties; random thoughts and ramblings; incoherent at times and a Do Not Resuscitate order.

 

The family have been called in several times during the night over the past few weeks to say "Goodbye" to her, as she was not expected to make it through the night on multiple occasions.

 

However, she continues to survive the doctors worst fears and expectations but gets slowly weaker after each major trauma.

 

The consultant called her a "fighter" yesterday.

 

My mum was 96 this year and had he lived my father would have been 101.

 

"Who knows where the time goes" Sung by Judy Collins Lyrics by Sandy Denny

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJeLguRecYc

  

UPDATE Mum passed away in her sleep in the early hours of 29 Oct 2014.

 

Free of pain at last.

 

RIP Mum 1918 - 2014

We went past this cannabis shop just right outside of the UC Berkeley campus yesterday. I was taken aback by the 10% discount offered to students everyday. Well, the annual tuition fee is a whopping US$16,552 annualy for any California resident who is pursuing an undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley. The average cost of cannibis in the US is about $312 per ounce. You really need to have a scholarship, a loan, a college fund, some financing from the parents, or perhaps even working part-time jobs in order to pursue a degree at UC Berkeley, while getting high on a regular basis. That would be my assessment.

Being Honest in Job Interview, I Got an Unexpected Gain

Recently, I had been looking for a part-time job. And I saw a want ad on the Internet and thought it is good in the working items, the salary and all the other aspects. Then I contacted the manager of the company and made an appointment to have an interview the next day at the company.

 

The next day, a lady in her 40’s also came to apply for this job. I thought: The lady looks more mature and steady than me, and very likely the manager will engage her and refuse me. So I couldn’t help feeling worried in my heart. Later, the manager asked us to his office and told us: “Now I have opened a web page, and the one who can print the page will be employed.” Finishing saying this, he went out of the office. Looking at the page on the computer, I felt very nervous: I can just do something easy like making charts or files but not print documents from a computer. By comparison, isn’t obvious that I will lose? It looks like that lady will be employed and I will be hopeless. As expected, she did manage to do that at last.

Terms of use

I haven't seen much of Bob lately, but I'd heard from some of the other toys that Bob got a part-time job as a delivery guy...I didn't believe it until I saw him toodling down the road in his new wheels!

 

(This is straight-out-of-the-camera for 7 Days of Shooting's "SOOC Thursday + Commuting and Travel Week")

 

(this made Explore (highest number was #119)...my first explore! Woo Hoo!

Thanks everyone! :D)

28 SECRETS in 28 DAYS-------SECRET #3

-

One would think that it would be easy to come out if one grows up in San Francisco, especially with two ultra-cool and lefties as parents. Well, it was NOT for ADDA.

 

There were a lot of expectations of career paths, my dad was in the military, and I was willing to follow. So naturally, I was in the high school ROTC program, (in San Francisco, no less) and I was the BATALLION COMMANDER (totally guy in charge), (SECRET 3 1/2).

 

That career path continued in college at SAN FRANCISCO STATE, along with the ROTC program at USF. (The current San Francisco Chief of Police, Heather Fong was a fellow ROTC cadet)

 

My part-time job in college, as well as high school, was working at the SAN FRANCISCO ZOO, as a popcorn pusher (ok, food concessions/gift shop) (SECRET 3 3/4).

 

There was a wild rainbow of employees at the zoo, ranging from flaming queens to high school kids from the local Catholic schools. Being in San Francisco, and a city government job, everyone got along just fine, from the straightest guys to the nelliest of queens.

 

Well, I became pals with one of the 'queens' , who also went to SF STATE.

 

Paul must of saw a person struggling with his true being. So, we started to go out, as friends, to cafes and such. Then the places got a tad wilder than most places you'd take your 'straight' friend to!

 

We started hitting the HOTTEST 'BRANCHE' gay discos (hey, it was 1975...) and go dancing together!

 

REALLY. There was THE CITY, (the movie THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY featured a setting like THE CITY disco..the DJ booth was a huge one story juke box!). There was wall-2-wall booze, drugs, sex, shirtless men, topless girls...it was...well...FUN!

 

So, we'd dance...until the wee hours of the morning...ok 2am...then go to our respective apartments, then respective classes the next day (sometimes at 6am for a ROTC run), or go to work at the zoo.

 

Well, this went on for awhile...never going there to get picked up or dance with someone else...and going to the LATEST gay clubs...OIL CAN HARRY'S, BUZZBY'S.

ALFIES...

 

Finally, after 3 1/2 years of ROTC, I had to attend OFFICER BOOT CAMP at FORT LEWIS, Washington for 6 weeks. It was there that when I saw this incredibly HOT Texas cowboy/officer that it occurred to me that HEY, MAYBE I'M ATTRACTED TO GUYS & I'M, LIKE, GAY! (geesh,how long did it take?).

 

So after OFFICER BOOT CAMP...I went back to SAN FRANCISCO, and went to a 'Sex Counselor" who helped me come out.

 

Well, then the fun began...sort of...I had to tell my commanding officer in ROTC that, hello, I'm gay...OH, I had already signed a committment to join the military as a 2nd LT. He was cool and said there are tons of gays in the military, though are not 'out'...This was back in 1976! and then, he told me a way to get out of my committment (SORRY, BIG SECRET), which I did...

 

Then next step. Have sex with a guy! So at OIL CAN HARRY's one night, I went on my own and got picked up pretty fast...Well, the next morning, I called my mom and told her. She was very OK about it. I'm like, "Mom , I just told you I was gay. She's like, well, how do you REALLY know. I slept with someone last night...Oh, that's OK...and then, I told her I was dropping out of ROTC/ARMY...That was cool too.

 

So, with this new OUTness, I went to THE PICTURE MACHINE on Geary Blvd, in San Francisco and got a BUTTERFLY tattoo by THE OWNER TATTOO ARTIST --PATRICK MARTYNUIK . I called the PICTURE MACHINE and they were so excited to hear that I had one of the founder's tattoos! I told the guy, its only a little one...He still wanted to see it. Apparently, PATRICK MARTYNUIK was a superstar in the tattoo world!

 

It sort of a SECRET, cause it is impossible to see for I'm so hairy (I clipped for the photo)...and, you'll have to wait for SECRET #28 to see it more clearly ...and read about ADDA DADA's BIGGEST SECRET....it's a jaw-dropper ...hahaha

 

I have to say that I love making these. The embroideries are so dang sweet that I enjoyed making them even the 3rd time around.

 

It's been a challenge to do these wholesale orders (my first ones ever), because I got the orders just as I went back to work as a librarian. So here I am - juggling my 2-year-old, my home, my garden, and TWO part-time jobs. It's been a crazy couple of months. But I'm so glad I found time to sew up the Baby Blocks and Toddler Toes for Quiet Hour Toys. It's so rewarding to be paid to be crafty! And I even managed to make some nifty tags this time. Life is full, but good.

West-German postcard by Filmwelt Berlin, Bad Münder, no. SW 4.039, 1995. Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd. Harrison Ford in Star Wars - Episode IV - A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977).

 

American film actor Harrison Ford (1942) specialises in roles of cynical, world-weary heroes in popular film series. He played Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, archaeologist Indiana Jones in a series of four adventure films, Rick Deckard in the Science Fiction films Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and secret agent Jack Ryan in the spy thrillers Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). These film roles have made him one of the most successful stars in Hollywood. In all, his films have grossed about $5.4 billion in the United States and $9.3 billion worldwide.

 

Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1942. His parents were former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William "Christopher" Ford. Harrison graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and did some acting. After dropping out of college, he first wanted to work as a DJ in radio and left for California to work at a large national radio station. He was unable to find work and, in order to make a living, he accepted a job as a carpenter. Another part-time job was auditioning, where he had to read out lines that the opposing actor would say to an actor auditioning for a particular role. Harrison did this so well that he was advised to take up acting. He was also briefly a roadie for the rock group The Doors. From 1964, Ford regularly played bit roles in films. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the Western A Time for Killing (Phil Karlson, 1967), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens. The "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name but was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957. French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (1969), but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor. The part eventually went to Gary Lockwood. He had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point (1970) as an arrested student protester. His first major role was in the coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). Ford became friends with the directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and he made a number of films with them. In 1974, he acted in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) starring Gene Hackman, and played an army officer named "G. Lucas" in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, co-produced by George Lucas. Ford made his breakthrough as Han Solo in Lucas's epic space opera Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977). Star Wars became one of the most successful and groundbreaking films of all time and brought Ford, and his co-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, widespread recognition. He reprised the role in four sequels over the course of the next 42 years: Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980), Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983), Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015), and Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019).

 

Harrison Ford also worked with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on the successful Indiana Jones adventure series playing the heroic, globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones. The series started with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981). Like Star Wars, the film was massively successful and became the highest-grossing film of the year. Ford went on to reprise the role throughout the rest of the decade in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989), which co-starred Sean Connery as Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr. and River Phoenix as young Indiana. In between the successful film series, Ford also played very daring roles in more artistic films. He played the role of a lonely depressed detective in the Sci-Fi film Blade Runner, (Ridley Scott, 1981) opposite Rutger Hauer. While not initially a success, Blade Runner went on to become a cult classic and one of Ford's most highly regarded films. Ford received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the crime drama Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) with Kelly McGillis, and also starred for Weir as a house-father in the survival drama The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir, 1986) with River Phoenix as his son. In 1988, he played a desperate man searching for his kidnapped wife in Roman Polanski's Frantic. For his role as a wrongly accused prisoner Dr. Richard Kimble in the action thriller The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ford received some of the best reviews of his career. He became the second of five actors to portray Jack Ryan in two films of the film series based on the literary character created by Tom Clancy: the spy thrillers Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and Clear and Present Danger (Phillip Noyce, 1994). He then played the American president in the blockbuster Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997) opposite Gary Oldman. Later his success waned somewhat and his films Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) and Six Days Seven Nights (Ivan Reitman, 1998) both disappointed at the box office. However, he did play a few special roles, such as an assassin in the supernatural horror-thriller What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000) opposite Michele Pfeiffer, and a Russian submarine captain in K-19: The Widowmaker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2002) with Liam Neeson. In 2008, he reprised his role as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008) with Cate Blanchett. The film received generally positive reviews and was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. Later Ford accepted more supporting roles, such as in the sports film 42 (Brian Helgeland, 2013) about baseball player Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball. Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the long-awaited Star Wars sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015), which became massively successful like its predecessors. He also reprised his role as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), co-starring Ryan Gosling. Harrison Ford has been married three times and has four biological children and one adopted child. From 1964 to 1979, Ford was married to Mary Marquardt, a marriage that produced two children. From 1983 to 2003, he was married to Melissa Mathison, from which marriage two more children were born. In 2010, he married actress Calista Flockhart, famous for her role in the TV series Ally McBeal. He owns a ranch in Jackson Hole (Wyoming). Besides being an actor, Ford is also an experienced pilot. Ford survived three plane crashes of planes he piloted himself. The most recent accident occurred in 2015 when he suffered an engine failure with a Ryan PT-22 Recruit and made an emergency landing on a golf course. Among other injuries, Ford sustained a broken pelvis and ankle from this latest accident. In 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Today I stopped and had my lunch along the waterfront trail on King Street before heading to my afternoon part time job from my morning part time job. It was so nice to sit and enjoy the surrounding view.

 

© All Rights Reserved - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without My Written Consent

580EXII into medium softbox camera right.

Hey guys! It's been a long time since I posted anything on here (since August '15, woah!). Even though I factually went through my dark ages, there are several reasons as to why I didn't feel like uploading/finishing my creations.

 

Aside from school and hanging out with my friends, I started to get more into playing video games. Sooo yeah I decided to build myself a gaming PC with a friend of mine, and I gotta say it's a very time consuming hobby haha. Aside from the spare time I spent on gaming, I also used the money I earned with my part-time job primarily on improving my ‘gaming setup’ as well. Since I’m currently satisfied with my gaming setup, I got more money left to use for other things haha.

 

The last couple of months I’ve been browsing Flickr more and more frequently, and upon seeing the amazing creations people put out I really got into LEGO again. That’s why I bought myself the Brick Bank modular building, and I really enjoyed the experience of building something again!

 

I also recently bought myself a new camera lense, since I got a couple of friends who like taking trips and photograph the nice things we see along the way. Since I really enjoy doing photography, it made me think about combining it with LEGO by making scenes, so I guess I’m gonna build some Batman/Military themed scenes in the near future as well.

 

Next Tuesday I will be taking my last final exam, and after that I will have way more time on my hands so I can create some MOCs. I’m also planning on working more, so I can use the money I earn for purchasing more LEGO pieces off of Bricklink!

 

By the way, I'm not planning to actually finish the locomotive, even though it’s mostly done. The only things I’m not satisfied with are the unstable base of the locomotive itself and the dark grey parts I needed to use, since I don’t have black versions of them.

 

So yeah, I'm glad I'm back now!

French postcard by Editions Nugeron, no. Star 202. Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Cruisade (Steven Spielberg, 1989).

 

American film actor Harrison Ford (1942) specialises in roles of cynical, world-weary heroes in popular film series. He played Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, archaeologist Indiana Jones in a series of four adventure films, Rick Deckard in the Science Fiction films Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and secret agent Jack Ryan in the spy thrillers Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). These film roles have made him one of the most successful stars in Hollywood. In all, his films have grossed about $5.4 billion in the United States and $9.3 billion worldwide.

 

Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1942. His parents were former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William "Christopher" Ford. Harrison graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and did some acting. After dropping out of college, he first wanted to work as a DJ in radio and left for California to work at a large national radio station. He was unable to find work and, in order to make a living, he accepted a job as a carpenter. Another part-time job was auditioning, where he had to read out lines that the opposing actor would say to an actor auditioning for a particular role. Harrison did this so well that he was advised to take up acting. He was also briefly a roadie for the rock group The Doors. From 1964, Ford regularly played bit roles in films. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the Western A Time for Killing (Phil Karlson, 1967), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens. The "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name but was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957. French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (1969), but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor. The part eventually went to Gary Lockwood. He had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point (1970) as an arrested student protester. His first major role was in the coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). Ford became friends with the directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and he made a number of films with them. In 1974, he acted in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) starring Gene Hackman, and played an army officer named "G. Lucas" in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, co-produced by George Lucas. Ford made his breakthrough as Han Solo in Lucas's epic space opera Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977). Star Wars became one of the most successful and groundbreaking films of all time and brought Ford, and his co-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, widespread recognition. He reprised the role in four sequels over the course of the next 42 years: Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980), Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983), Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015), and Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019).

 

Harrison Ford also worked with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on the successful Indiana Jones adventure series playing the heroic, globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones. The series started with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981). Like Star Wars, the film was massively successful and became the highest-grossing film of the year. Ford went on to reprise the role throughout the rest of the decade in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989), which co-starred Sean Connery as Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr. and River Phoenix as young Indiana. In between the successful film series, Ford also played very daring roles in more artistic films. He played the role of a lonely depressed detective in the Sci-Fi film Blade Runner, (Ridley Scott, 1981) opposite Rutger Hauer. While not initially a success, Blade Runner went on to become a cult classic and one of Ford's most highly regarded films. Ford received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the crime drama Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) with Kelly McGillis, and also starred for Weir as a house-father in the survival drama The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir, 1986) with River Phoenix as his son. In 1988, he played a desperate man searching for his kidnapped wife in Roman Polanski's Frantic. For his role as a wrongly accused prisoner Dr. Richard Kimble in the action thriller The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ford received some of the best reviews of his career. He became the second of five actors to portray Jack Ryan in two films of the film series based on the literary character created by Tom Clancy: the spy thrillers Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and Clear and Present Danger (Phillip Noyce, 1994). He then played the American president in the blockbuster Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997) opposite Gary Oldman. Later his success waned somewhat and his films Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) and Six Days Seven Nights (Ivan Reitman, 1998) both disappointed at the box office. However, he did play a few special roles, such as an assassin in the supernatural horror-thriller What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000) opposite Michele Pfeiffer, and a Russian submarine captain in K-19: The Widowmaker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2002) with Liam Neeson. In 2008, he reprised his role as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008) with Cate Blanchett. The film received generally positive reviews and was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. Later Ford accepted more supporting roles, such as in the sports film 42 (Brian Helgeland, 2013) about baseball player Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball. Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the long-awaited Star Wars sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015), which became massively successful like its predecessors. He also reprised his role as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), co-starring Ryan Gosling. Harrison Ford has been married three times and has four biological children and one adopted child. From 1964 to 1979, Ford was married to Mary Marquardt, a marriage that produced two children. From 1983 to 2003, he was married to Melissa Mathison, from which marriage two more children were born. In 2010, he married actress Calista Flockhart, famous for her role in the TV series Ally McBeal. He owns a ranch in Jackson Hole (Wyoming). Besides being an actor, Ford is also an experienced pilot. Ford survived three plane crashes of planes he piloted himself. The most recent accident occurred in 2015 when he suffered an engine failure with a Ryan PT-22 Recruit and made an emergency landing on a golf course. Among other injuries, Ford sustained a broken pelvis and ankle from this latest accident. In 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Quake is wasting no time, as he directs his seismic blasts at the building that's behind me. I guess he's trying to pin me down or something, but it's not really effective as I block the incoming debris with my hard-light shield. I turn to notice him smiling, but why would he be smiling? Then I realize that some of the debris made it past my shield, and is about to crash right into one of the thugs that is still alive, but unconscious. Gah, how could I make such a rookie mistake? Okay, don't actually answer that, as I already know. C'mon Andy, fly faster!! I grab the thug just in time, and fly out-of-the-way, before the piece of debris crashes into the ground. I drop him off behind some cover, as Quake wasn't phased to taking out his own groupies just to get to me. While I'm distracted, Quake gets a lucky shot off, as I get hit in the back, which sends me into one of the storage containers nearby. Ugh, low blow man. I groan, as I pick myself up and off the wall of the storage container, as I levitate into the air.

 

"You sure about not telling me what I want to know? I mean you're going to prison either way, but this info would be a huge help."

 

"Ah yes, prison... Doesn't scare me as much as it used to. It's a revolving door, so even if you were to beat me down now, I would be back in a matter of days. Sorry kid, I don't know anything, and even if I did, I sure wouldn't tell you."

 

"Guess we'll see about that." I clench my fists, as I fly towards him. He tries to dodge, but he's too late. I'm already there, my fists colliding with his back. He aims his arms behind him, trying to blast me apart, but my flight speed increases, as I barrage Quake with beams of light, while moving around him, so it's harder for him to hit me. Eventually, he goes down. I check for a pulse, and sure enough, he's still alive. Phew, that took a lot out of me. Looks like Dusk and Dawn are done their fight as well, as Crepuscule's tied up, ready to be shipped off to prison. I fly over to them, to check up on how they are doing.

 

"Hey, you two okay?"

 

"Just peachy. Crepuscule doesn't do too well against my energy blasts." Dawn replies, panting, like he's almost out of breath.

 

"So hey, are you related to Crepuscule by the way? I heard her say something about mother and father, but didn't catch-all of it." I ask, turning to face Dusk.

 

"It's not really any of your business." Dusk says, with this coldness in her voice.

 

"Lei-- I mean Dusk, just tell him. He just took on more than he should have so that I could help you out. His intentions seem good." Dawn says, trying to convince her to trust in me.

 

"Fine. But only since Dawn seems to trust you."

 

"Sure, sure!" I say, eager to hear what the deal is. Dusk rolls her eyes, before speaking once more.

 

"It's as you said. Crepuscule and I are related. She's my mother. At least she was... Ever since I learned of her nighttime activities, I don't know who she is anymore. My parents lied to me for most of my life, keeping this monstrous side of themselves hidden."

 

"Oh. Honestly, I really wish I could relate, and give you advice, but I can't. My parents don't have powers. Though I guess there's still a chance they are secretly evil, but I doubt it. Parents hide things to keep their children safe, at least, that's what I've been told. Though that doesn't excuse all the terrible crimes she's committed. There is an upside to this though, as you've found yourself someone who truly loves you. I can tell that Dawn would never do anything to hurt you, and would always be there besides you. Honestly, I'm kind of envious of you two. I wish I had the love that you two have for each other for someone else, but I don't know if I'll ever have it. Me being a superhero also kind of complicates things."

 

"I wouldn't worry about that. You have a good heart Solar, and when the time is right, you'll find the love you're looking for. For now, keep up the good fight. We need all the heroes we can get in Cardinal City, even if Archon believes otherwise. It feels like more villains are coming, and we have to be ready for them." Dawn looks sincere as he's talking to me, as if he truly believes what he's saying.

 

"Thanks. Hey, have either of you heard of Architect? I've tried to figure out who he is, but I'm no super genius."

 

"No, sorry, I haven't. But I do know this PI that's pretty good at finding these sort of things out." Dawn says, as he finds a paper and pen. He writes down the address, along with her name, and gives it to me.

 

"Dude, thanks!" I say enthusiastically, as this is the first potential lead I've gotten

 

Dawn: "Yeah, no worries. Just be sure to bring some money, and it will all hopefully work out. Also, if this turns into something bigger, and you need help, be sure to let us know."

 

"How?"

 

"With this. Just a two-way communication device, just speak into it, and if we aren't doing anything, we'll come and help." Dawn hands me the device, as he's speaking.

 

"Sounds good! Guess I better get going now. Thanks for everything, and I'm sure I'll be seeing more of you two." I give them a wave, before lifting off the ground, and flying to an ATM. The question is how I'm gonna pay for this PI. With no part-time job, money is a little hard to come by. Upon arrival at the terminal, I start typing in my PIN after entering my card. I get some odd looks from other people walking by, but I just smile. I tap on the show balance button, and my eyes feel like they are going to pop out of their socket, and my jaw just drops. Uhh, I'm not even sure how to respond to this many zeroes. How? It's definitely not my parents, because we are struggling as it is. But no one else knows my account number. This is super sketchy, I'm not gonna lie. But hey, this will definitely be enough. I get myself a blank cheque before grabbing my card, and taking off. Alright, time to go to the PI's office I guess. Devyn McAllister. It takes me a little while to navigate through the different districts, to find her office. Eventually, I find it, and land outside the front door. The open sign is still visible, and so I enter, hoping for something to come of this.

Our unknown assailant has tracked a group of ragtag mercenaries to the unstable ground of Rajona. The oblivious mercenaries stride along with their latest catch, off to receive their ransom. Little do they know that the masked man has a different plan for them....

  

Inspired by brickattack! Your landscape got me thinking man!

Also, this was a biiiiiooootch to photograph. It was interesting to get the right angles!

 

UPDATES:

yeah, so, I'm doing cross country, quite a few advanced classes, and I have a part time job. Girlfriend and social life too! Legos are, once again ): taking the back seat in my life. So this'll probably be the last photo/build for a while.

Before drive-throughs, McDonalds, Tim Hortons, Boston Pizza, Pizza Hut, or any of the others, Whitehorse had a KFC and a DQ. This is the site of the later. Those two businesses were the only places to go for “fast food” that wasn't a local invention. Whitehorse also had an A&W Drive-In for a time, but it was gone by the time I moved here around '75 or '76.

 

When we were teens, my friends and I would split our fast food dollars between the "chicken village" as some called it, and the "DQ". As I said, there were no "drive-throughs" then, so you either walked or drove down to this place and ordered in person. During the warmest days of our short summers, you also had the option of lining up and ordering from a window behind those railings to the right of the main doors. Generally, though, you walked in and ordered from the counter. During those times of rotary dial telephones, and before cell phones, home computers, or home delivery, you pretty much had to walk at least as far as the distance from your car to a counter and talk to a real corporeal human being.

 

Walking through those two doors into the building, you’d find a long counter to your immediate right, and tables or booths to your left. Once inside, you’d communicate your selections to someone at the counter, usually a familiar face from high school working for gas money, pay for your food then go sit at one of the tables and wait for the number on your receipt to be called.

 

As teenagers, my friends and I certainly spent a few hours in that place talking about cars, girls, teachers, dreams, and everything else, though not necessarily in that order. Growing up here, most of the kids I knew would find the occasional part-time job at either the DQ, KFC, or the Travel Lodge. For me, it was washing dishes at the Travel Lodge, but my friend, Fred, did stints at both KFC and the DQ. I still remember his possibly not unique invention of a crème de menthe milkshakes with dipping chocolate squirted in, but for us that was Fred’s gastronomic genius at work. Pretty soon it was our group's favourite DQ drink. I can't forget the day another friend, Mike, inadvertently put a dent in the outside southern wall of the building when his huge 1950's era Plymouth, or whatever it was, but more of a boat than a car, failed to stop against the curb. It was such a lumbering heavy rust bucket that just tapping the wall, changed the building's contours forever. Then there were the hours sitting in Fred's Datsun B510, which was perennially strewn with discarded food bags from KFC, wasting more time in talk and asking that perennial question, “what do you guys wanna do?”

 

I suppose those memories aren't unique to my time or to my city, but they sure were strangely good ones. The old DQ is inextricably tied to those times, and while memories may last a lifetime, buildings certainly don't. The restaurant lasted long enough for me to buy at least a couple ice cream cakes there for my own daughter, but it closed while my children were still quite young. It soldiered on in other roles for a while, but now it’s boarded up and done! I would imagine that its days are strictly numbered now. It's a valuable lot in the downtown core of this, unfortunately growing, city of increasingly impatient people. So, someone will have plans for it, and I don’t imagine that they will include this old building.

 

Photo taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro mounted to a tripod. I took seven bracketed exposures on this minus thirty-two degree Celcius day, then processed them in Adobe Lightroom Classic 12 into a single photo. I hope you find something of interest in the image and the story. Enjoy.

Exciting Day! I got myself a part time job, that fits in perfectly with school hours and its term time only, so all those lovely school holidays home with the little ones!

To celebrate we headed to McDonalds for a fun tea and then drove back through the hills! As it was a glorious evening we stopped for a run about in the Burton Dassett Country Park - or at Windy Castle as the kids call it!

Absolutely love this photo of the kids and Windy Castle silhouetted against the late evening sun and clouds.

I have recently started a part time job in a pub near me which has definitely been helping the purse strings. I also get to meet some lovely people too and who knows I just might meet the man for me, I guess I can hope.

Hello , I’m Giang – this is my Vietnamese name and you can also call me Jane. I’m Paloma’s driver has been 6 months. Honestly, this is amazing part-time job and I still very excited each time I meet my new friends – my guests who came from diffirent countries, do ...

 

www.palomamotorbiketours.com/impressive-tour.html

Death Valley National Park, California

 

From my 2016 trip to see Ringo Starr in Las Vegas, plus some of Southern California. The Beatles were far and away my favorite group and I'd always wished I had gone to see them when they performed in Kansas City way back in 1964. Of course, there were a few insurmountable obstacles to my attending. For one, I was a child so getting there would have been a problem. An even bigger problem was the fact that I had no interest in the group at that time. I rather liked some of their songs, but I was loath to admit it. I found the screaming girl thing to be ridiculous in the extreme, so much so that it turned me off to the extent that in spite of tapping my feet to "She Loves You," I felt disdain for the group. That feeling would actually last until 1970--the year after they broke up. I was still a mere lad, but I had a part-time job and so had a bit of spending money and on a whim, bought the "Red' and "Blue" two record sets of their greatest hits and became a huge fan overnight. Since then, of course, Lennon was murdered, and Harrison died of cancer--both events saddened me immensely. In early 2016, Ringo performed in Newton, Kansas, but I didn't hear about it until the day after, but the near miss made me determined to see both him and Paul. I checked Ringo's schedule and decided to see him in Vegas. John and George were gone, but I could at least see the two surviving members (I would see Paul in 2019).

 

I enjoyed the concert, and afterward spent a few days in and around Vegas--seeing some of the sights and partaking of some of the great restaurants there (I don't gamble). I then moved on to California, making a number of stops, but spent most of the time here in Death Valley. Such a starkly beautiful landscape. I spent six days in or near here and could have easily spent more--except that I had a return flight scheduled and I wanted to visit a few other places.

 

I made no notation of where this was--just one of the many day hikes I undertook while here.

On my final morning in Tokyo I brought my wife to see the Meiji Shrine, located in Shibuya, Tokyo, it is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.

I had been here before I found it quite fascinating and full of activity.

The girl pictured here is a Miko. This is a Shinto term indicating a shrine maiden. They used to be a shaman or Shinto priestess, but in modern times they are often university students with a part-time job working at the shrine.