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The problem with these mirror shots is that usually, the exposure for the background is several stops different from what is required to ensure my silly visage shows up fairly well. This is a pretty good example of underexposed me against a sky that is actually a little over-exposed.
Looks like I'm going to have to rig a radio flash trigger or something, or possibly use a light scoop like Leslie's to trigger an off-camera flash.
Maggie had managed to hurt herself again. Late summer she tore a hole in her leg escaping the backyard with a 6ft fence. This time she split a nail all the way up to the toe. They had to cut off the nail at the toe.
Bandage, some pain meds and the cone of shame again lol
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
Vrijheid. Omdat het moet.
Hier kan alles. Dat is misschien het probleem?
In een stad waar veel verschillende mensen wonen kunnen vrijheden botsen. De vrijheid van de boerka-babe is niet die van de bling-bling bimbo en op straat kan jouw vrijheid door het gedrag van een ander worden ingeperkt. Is de geroemde Amsterdamse vrijheid "poep op de stoep en haat in de straat", of toch tolerantie en wederzijds respect?
Hoog tijd voor een vrolijk, diepgravend en verrassend onderzoek naar de stand van de vrijheid in Amsterdam. Psychiater en schrijver Theodore Dalrymple opent de avond met een kritisch betoog over vrijheid en lokt daarmee een prikkelende reactie uit van Femke Halsema. Dit zet de toon voor een programma op verschillende plekken in de schouwburg met debatten, film, poëzie, theater en beeldende kunst. Met optredens van Salah Edin, Jelka van Houten, Maggie MacNeal en salsaorkest Tipico Tampoco en José Lopretti. Te gast zijn verder Hedy d’Ancona, Eddy Terstall, Marjolijn Februari, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Rebecca Gomperts, Adriaan Jaeggi, Dolly Bellefleur, Gabi van Driem, Graham Locke, Nynke de Zoeten, Erik Jan Harmens, Alfred H. Stucki, Wimie Wilhelm, Lotje van Lunteren, Pieter Hilhorst, Khadija Arib, Snow Video, Ceylan Pektas-Weber, Nico Papineau Salm, Politie Balistraat en Parkour World Association Nederland. Kortom: een avond met dichters en denkers, filosofen, acteurs en muzikanten, Amsterdammers uit alle windstreken die een nacht lang de vrijheid proeven, peilen, onderzoeken en uitbundig vieren.
My parents' car, a 2008 Volvo S40 2.4i 5cylinder with automatic, leather, power driver seat. It was sold around the end of September 2016 with about 152,750 miles on it.
My parents bought this car brand new. That car was pretty cool. Mechanically the car was still in very good condition. Engine felt like new, no vibrations or strange noises that didn't happen when it was new. The transmission worked pretty much like new, never hunted for gears and was very smooth. Amazingly everything worked. We never had problems with windows, lights, rubber going bad, door locks, radio, controls, digital displays, analog displays, etc.
The only problems we had with the car throughout its lifetime were: (1) the car once went into limp mode where it felt like the engine was running on only 2 cylinders. Pulled off to the side of the road and shut off the car and started it back up and the problem was gone. This happened when the car was fairly new. (2) One time we shut the car off but one part within the engine didn't turn off. It started making a high pitch whining noise and we monitored it and see if it would turn off in time. It began to smoke a little so we put the key in, turned on the car, shut it off, and everything shut off. Very strange, but it never happened again. Happened when the car was pretty new. (3) About 3 times the electronic trunk release switch didn't work. Two times it was because the cables going to the trunk were moved enough (when opening the trunk) that the wires broke. One time the actual trunk release mechanism broke (a plastic piece). (4) One time we went to start up the car but it wouldn't start (nothing happened when turning the key except getting an error message in the dash). We waited a few minutes and tried again and it started right up.
Not really a problem, but we noticed if you turned the key to start the car and didn't keep it in the start position long enough you would occasionally get a rough start but it would eventually start after about 5-10 seconds.
What I didn't like about the car: The ride was VERY stiff. You felt everything in this car. It did handle okay, but the ride was too stiff for my preference (not even my little mx-5 is anywhere near that stiff). When sitting in the front with the windows down the wind would hit the B pillar and, due to the way the pillar was shaped, it would channel the wind straight into my ear. I got more wind blow in this car than any other I've ridden in, including my convertible. Putting the rear window down on the same side would help, but it was still rough. I wish the car had a key to open the trunk. The electronic trunk release was prone to failure and was not cheap to replace. The low beam headlights were pointed down very low and made it VERY hard to see in front. I asked my parents to see if these could be adjusted up a little higher but they never checked. The high beams worked amazing! The front seat belts had a design that was *supposed to* automatically adjust the seat belt vertical locations of the shoulder strap (it was like an L shaped cut in the B pillar). Unfortunately it was shaped poorly and never worked for me. The shoulder strap was always too low for my preference. Not so much a problem with the car itself, but owning a Volvo can be very expensive to repair if you are not prepared to buy the parts yourself and do the work yourself. The car wasn't really a driver's car. The steering wheel had no feel and the car had a fair amount of body roll (which was shocking considering how stiff the car was setup). The car had a 'feature' where if you partially moved the indicator lever it would blink 3 times. If you moved it all the way it would lock in and stay on. What usually happed with my dad is he would do a full signal and the indicator wouldn’t self cancel (steering wheel didn't turn enough) so he would need to manually shut it off but when he did he would go past center slightly to the other side and the car would signal 3 times in the opposite direction. It was confusing for him because he wasn't sure if the signal was now on in the other position or was only doing 3 blinks. It also was confusing for other drivers. If you are in the fast line, signal to go into the slow lane, shut off the signal and now it signals 3 times to go back in the fast lane.... I didn't like this.
I liked how mechanically reliable this car was. I also like the glass they used in this car (made by Saint-Gobain). The glass seemed higher quality and relatively resistant to getting dirty. I liked the quality of the paint and clear coat on the car. This car was almost never garaged and for the first 5 years was out in the New England winters and the past 3 years out in the Florida sun. Despite this the paint and clear coat still cleaned up almost like new (with the exception of one of the rear quarter panels where it was hit and poorly repaired (repainted)). I also liked how stupidly simple the car was. The audio controls, radio, cruise control, car settings, buttons, were all so intuitive! Besides the blasted 3 blink indicator thing, the car didn’t have extra fluff features. The windshield wipers covered almost the whole windshield! I liked how the front hood and rear trunk were on shocks. It made it very easy to open them and the trunk didn't have large bars intruding into the trunk. I also like how sturdy most of the car felt. The doors had a nice clunk when they were closed. Almost nothing felt cheap or fragile.
The car served us very well and we were all sad to see it go. My dad isn’t the best at repairing cars and the cost for Volvo to do repairs is prohibitively high. We don’t know how much longer the car would have gone before serious repairs were needed, but my parents didn’t want to chance it and opted to get a new vehicle.
I think if you can find one of these in well kept condition with a stick shift this would be a fun tuner car. Lower it slightly, flare out the wheels a bit, and modify the exhaust. It’s got a great shape to it and looks cool!
With the blocking we did have, the truck driver came up with a solution. Brad ran off to get a chain say so he could cut up the blocks we had into the appropriate length and height. Thank God for Brad. All the while my 36,000lb caboose hangs in the air, paying the crane company to sit and wait.
Is this going to be a problem? One of the edges has been broken of. Well, at least the missing part isn't doing anymore damage inside the hub!
In 1863, Ramsgate Harbour station opened, and over time was a heavily used station. Only problem was that the town was served by two rival companies, and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway had their main station here. Access to the station was via a tunnel nearly a mile long and a downward gradient of 1:75, in addition to the steepness of the line and danger of runaway trains, space at the bottom was very limited, with only space for a small turntable, so only small tank locomotives could be used.
Under rationalisation on Thanet in 1926, this and the Margate Beach branch was closed, and the main line linking the two networks completed, Ramsgate Town station being moved to facilitate this.
An electric narrow gauge railway was constructed before the war, and run until 1965 when another accident resulted in closure.
Since 1965, the tunnel had been sealed, but urban explorers did break in and left graffiti everywhere.
Prior to the Second World War, a series of tunnels were constructed for use as air raid shelters, and it is these which the tours now operating are taken along.
The main railway tunnel still has soot on the roof over where the up line would have been, and in places you can see where the sleepers for the narrow gauge railway was lifted.
The shelter tunnels run for over a mile, and had many different entrances, though all are now blocked up, and some of the tunnels have collapsed.
The tunnels dug were in a U shape and had room for thousands to shelter in bunks each night, and although when opened were seen as a waste of money, were very much needed at the end of 1940 as the Blitz began to bite.
People even lived down in the tunnels if their house was bombed, pre=fabricated wooden frames were used, draped with curtains or other fabric.
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The Herne Bay & Faversham Railway company was founded in 1857. In 1859 it became the Margate & London Railway, and two years later took the name Kent Coast Railway, by which it was known for the rest of its independent existence. It built a line from Faversham to Whitstable Town in 1860, extended it to Herne Bay & Hampton-on-Sea in 1861 and opened the section from there to a station called Ramsgate on 5 October 1863.[2] This was much closer to the seafront at Ramsgate than its predecessor, Ramsgate Town, which was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1846.[3]
In 1871, the Kent Coast Railway was bought by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway.[2] In June of that year, Ramsgate station took the name Ramsgate & St Lawrence-on-Sea, which it bore until 1 July 1899. For the rest of its existence it was known as Ramsgate Harbour.[4] The station was very popular and well-used, but was on a cramped site which was reached through a tunnel down a long 1-in-75 gradient. A train went out of control down this slope on 31 August 1891. One person was killed.[3][5] Plans were made to simplify the poorly connected railway network in the Thanet area; these were quickly adopted by the Southern Railway company, which took over the London, Chatham and Dover Railway's operations on 1 January 1923 as a result of the Grouping Act.[3] It built a new line, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) long, to connect the former Kent Coast Railway route from Faversham and the former South Eastern Railway route from Ashford,[2] which bypassed both Ramsgate Harbour and Ramsgate Town stations. Two new stations, Dumpton Park and Ramsgate, were built on this line to serve the town.[3] The line and the new stations opened on 2 July 1926, and the section of line between the new junction and Ramsgate Harbour station, and the station itself, closed on the same date.[2] The station site was bought by a company which converted it into a funfair. The station building was damaged by fire in 1998 and subsequently demolished. Part of the former route through the tunnel was opened as a narrow gauge tourist railway in 1936 which became the Tunnel Railway[3]. Services were suspended during World War 2. It reopened but it closed in 1965 following an accident at the beach station and the owners decided to close the railway. The railway was then dismantled. In 1939 part of the abandoned railway tunnel became an air raid shelter.[6] A network of tunnels was constructed leading from the disused railway tunnel leading under the town with various access steps to the surface. After the war finished these tunnels were abandoned. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Grant sections of the abandoned railway tunnel and wartime air raid tunnels have been restored and were officially reopened on 27 May 2014.
The problem:
🐕 + 🎄 = 💥
(At least as far as fluffy owls are concerned ).
So up on the highest shelf they go - spoilsport!
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
www.twitter.com/Memoire2cite « Non aux bidonvilles, non aux villes-bidon. L'urbanisme est un acte politique au service du peuple ». L'Atelier populaire des Beaux-Arts, en mai 1968, cristallise derrière ce slogan le mécontentement croissant face à la fabrique de la ville et à la multiplication de ce qu’on commence à appeler les Grands Ensembles. Délinquance juvénile, ennui, dépression, prostitution, ségrégation spatiale et sous-équipement... tels sont les symptômes d'une nouvelle maladie qui, selon L'Echo Régional du 22 mars 1962, frappe les villes dans les années 1960 : la « sarcellite ». Ce jugement très sévère sur les Grands Ensembles est partagé à la fois par les sociologues comme par les géographes voire par les politiques à en juger par le titre d'une note interne de la Commission Nationale du Logement en 1975 : « Grands Ensembles, grands problèmes ».Les quelques albums pour enfants qui entendent parler de l'époque dans laquelle leurs jeunes lecteurs vivent reprennent en cœur cette image austère de tours et de barres grises sans charmes. À l'instar de C'est le bouquet, de Claude Roy et Alain Le Foll édité en 1963 par Robert Delpire, l'extension horizontale de la fleur qui parvient à pousser à travers le béton et dans laquelle les habitants de la cité viennent se lover s'oppose à l'empilement des appartements dans les nombreuses tours. De la même façon, le troisième album des « Barbapapas », série créée en 1968, dénonce ces grandes barres grises qui brisent le rêve et l’imagination. Pourtant, face à cette critique qui met en avant davantage l'aspect esthétique ou inesthétique, une série, parue aux éditions La Farandole, fait résistance et entend porter un tout autre regard sur les Grands Ensembles et notamment sur le cadre de vie de ses habitants. Les six albums de la série « Nicole », réalisés entre 1969 et 1978, sont une idée d'Andrée Clair, auteure confirmée et militante communiste, mise en images par la toute jeune illustratrice débutante Bernadette Després.
La série des Nicole constitue probablement le témoignage d’un autre courant né dans les années 1960 mais qui s’affirme au sein de la gauche française et particulièrement du PCF après 1968 : il s’agit de la « Deuxième Gauche ». Dans cet article, il s’agira donc de montrer en quoi cette série peut être rattachée à ce nouveau courant et comment elle fait rupture avec le discours habituel sur les Grands Ensembles. Pour ce faire, nous entreprendrons d'abord de décrire la représentation des Grands Ensembles dans le paysage pictural français des albums pour enfants à la fin des années 1960. Ensuite, l’intentionnalité éditoriale qui a donné le jour à la série des « Nicole » dans la collection « Mille Images » sera interrogée. Enfin, les représentations et le discours socio-spatial original portés par la série sur les Grands Ensembles seront analysés. Grands chantiers, grands ensembles
1 « Quarante mille voisins », Cinq colonnes à la Une, Radiodiffusion de la Télévision Française, 2 dé (...)
« Dans quelques années, quand vous traverserez la banlieue parisienne, c’est en hélicoptère sans doute que vous irez. Et partout, vous survolerez des villes dans le genre de celle-ci. On les appelle les Grands Ensembles. On les appelle les villes-dortoirs. Elles doivent permettre aux familles de vivre loin de l’agitation et de l’air malsain des grandes cités. Elles existent dans le monde entier. Les urbanistes et les sociologues leur consacrent des volumes et des congrès1. »
C’est par ces mots que le journaliste de l’émission de télévision, Cinq colonnes à la Une, Pierre Tchernia, survolant en hélicoptère Sarcelles, présente en 1960 ce phénomène urbanistique original et sans réel précédent en France si l’on considère la vitesse de sa diffusion et l’ampleur des chantiers occasionnés. Le Ministère de la Reconstruction et de l’Urbanisme fut le moteur de ces constructions d’habitations mécanisées, préfabriquées et montées en série qui répondaient à une demande urgente de logements au lendemain de la Seconde guerre mondiale. Le Ministère se dota d’un arsenal de lois et de programmes de construction comme le programme de logements économique de première nécessité en 1955 et le décret du 31 décembre 1958 qui créa des Zones à Urbaniser en Priorité (ZUP) aux marges des grandes villes. Entre 1953 et 1978, ce sont 300 000 logements par an qui furent ainsi ouverts à l’habitation à loyer modéré. Plus de six millions de logements furent construits au total. L’émission de Cinq Colonnes à la Une se situe près de cinq ans après l’ouverture des premiers chantiers et l’on sent déjà dans le ton du journaliste le doute s’installer. « Elles doivent permettre aux familles de vivre loin de l’agitation et de l’air malsain des grandes cités », nous dit-il. Ces constructions commanditées par l’Etat, ayant recours aux méthodes de construction les plus modernes doivent améliorer les conditions de vie des habitants. Mais d’ailleurs comment nommer ces habitations ? On sent que le journaliste hésite : « grands ensembles », « villes dortoirs » ? En 1963, le géographe Yves Lacoste entreprend de donner une définition : Yves Lacoste, « Un problème complexe et débattu : les Grands Ensembles », Bulletin de l’Association (...)
Le Grand Ensemble apparaît comme une unité d’habitation relativement autonome formée de bâtiments collectifs, édifiés dans un assez bref laps de temps, en fonction d’un plan global qui comprend plus de 1000 logements environ2.
Raphaële Bertho, « Les grands ensembles », Études photographiques, 31, printemps 2014, [en ligne], (...)
cf. à ce propos Raphaële Bertho, op. cit.
Par « bâtiments collectifs », il faut comprendre une architecture de barres et de tours édifiées sur des zones d’implantation assez vastes ayant en commun d’appartenir à une même opération de grande envergure et visant à offrir des logements à loyer relativement bon marché. Raphaële Bertho souligne qu’avec le début des années 1960, « de réalisations glorieuses d’une Nation tournée vers l’avenir, [les grands ensembles] deviennent les symboles d’un État planificateur imbu de sa puissance3. » C’est d’ailleurs cette « toute puissance » qui est donnée à voir dans les premières images de Cinq Colonnes à la Une par une vue oblique depuis l’hélicoptère. L’observateur domine la création, l’aménagement et l’organisation humains. C’est tout le génie de l’architecte-urbaniste qui est mis en exergue ici dans ces images qui reprennent d’ailleurs une représentation très fréquente4 de ces manifestations bétonnées de la « modernisation triomphante ». Raphaële Bertho insiste sur l’image de cet « urbanisme nouveau » des Grands Ensembles qui est donnée par les services de l’État :
Dominique Gauthey, « Les archives de la reconstruction (1945-1979) », Etudes géographiques, n°3, no (...)
Raphaële Bertho, op. cit.
Les Grands Ensembles y sont présentés comme l’anticipation en actes d’une ville pensée et prévue pour l’homme, cités idéales où l’on retrouve l’importance accordée au soleil, à l’espace et à la verdure dans le credo moderniste. Une orientation manifeste, que l’on observe notamment dans la mise en scène des clichés lors des Salons des arts ménagers dans les années 1950, lesquels sont les vecteurs privilégiés de cette « planification intégrale du bonheur5 » auprès du public. Celui-ci est ainsi accueilli par la vision d’enfants profitant des espaces de loisirs nouvellement aménagés dans ces “cités radieuses”.Les enfants ont ainsi toute leur place dans ces projets modernes. Ces derniers sont en grande partie construits pour eux, part de la population française la plus nombreuse dans ce tout début de baby-boom. Louis Caro, « Psychiatres et sociologues dénoncent la folie des grands ensembles », Sciences et Vie(...)
L’Humanité du 5 novembre 1963.
Pourtant dès 1959, les grands ensembles sont mis sur la sellette. Dans Science et Vie, Louis Caro consacre un article entier à la formation des bandes de voyous dans les Grands Ensembles7. Dans les années 1962-1963, Sarcelles et ses avatars subissent de sévères critiques depuis qu’un des occupants d’une tour s’est défenestré. Les médias commencent à parler de « sarcellite », une maladie qui toucherait les habitants de Sarcelles et de tous les Grands Ensembles. Ainsi est-elle définie dans les colonnes de L’Humanité en 1963 : « Sarcellite, total désenchantement, indifférence à la vie sociale, ennui insurmontable, aboutissant à la dépression nerveuse dans les cas bénins, au suicide dans les cas aigus8. » Dès lors, les grands ensembles ne sont plus aussi radieux pour les enfants qui y habitent et il conviendrait peut-être de grandir ailleurs qu’à l’ombre des tours et des barres de béton armé. Claude Roy, Alain Le Fol, C’est le bouquet ! Gallimard, 1979, p.9.
10C’est à cette même époque que l’édition pour enfants s’intéresse au sujet et principalement certaines petites maisons d’édition. En 1963, Robert Delpire publie une histoire écrite par Claude Roy et mise en images par Alain Le Fol : C’est le bouquet ! Deux enfants, Claudelun et Claudelune, habitent au neuvième étage d’une tour d’un « Grand Ensemble de 2000 maisons avec un total de 200 000 appartements9 » situé tout près de Paris. La famille qui vivait jusque là dans des « coins-recoins-celliers-et-machin » au cœur de Paris, avait subi la crise du logement et était venue s’installer en banlieue dans des habitations imaginées par un Architecte malin :
L’Architecte, avec sa règle graduée, son équerre et sa bouteille d’encre de Chine, l’Architecte avait pensé à tout. Il avait prévu un vide-épluchures et vide-bouteilles, un vide-poussière et un vide-enfants. Mais il n’avait pas prévu les gens, et les gens s’ennuyaient dans tout ce ciment, ce verre, et ce vent, dans ces grands appartements tous pareils, qui ressemblaient à des cages à mouches empilées dans le ciel.
Roy, Cana, C’est le bouquet ! (1963), p. 10-11. © GallimardLa description qui est faite par Claude Roy d’un grand ensemble rejoint en tout point les griefs formulés contre ces grandes constructions grises : la tristesse, la monotonie, le fonctionnalisme poussé à l’excès. Les illustrations d’Alain Le Fol jouent sur l’opposition des constructions grises atoniques et de la « nature » multicolore. Cette opposition est développée tout au long de l’histoire, d’abord avec l’Oiseau Moqueur qui voit s’installer la famille, ensuite avec la croissance d’une plante semée accidentellement par l’un des deux enfants. Au début de l’histoire, la tour est perçue comme un supplice, une punition infligée aux enfants. L’Oiseau Moqueur se demande d’ailleurs : « Qu’est-ce qu’ils ont donc fait pour avoir mérité d’être enfermés dans ces cages-à-gens11 ? » Plus loin, lorsque la Mère veut calmer ses enfants qui semblent tourner en rond dans l’appartement, « elle les mettait dans le vide-enfants et ils allaient s’ennuyer sur le tas de sable à enfants à air conditionné ». À la fin, la fraxilumèle, cette plante aux couleurs merveilleuses, a dépassé les tours et envahi le Grand Ensemble. Elle est devenue l’aire de jeu la plus réjouissante dans laquelle enfants et adultes se retrouvent et s’amusent. On retrouvera cette même opposition entre la grisaille du béton et les couleurs liées au rêve et à l’enchantement dans un album de 1979 publié par le Père Castor, Fleur de béton de Michel Gansel et Monique Touvay. Dans cet ouvrage, trois jeunes garçons d’une cité HLM sortent de l’école et vont rendre visite à un de leur camarade malade et alité. Pour lui remonter le moral, ils lui confectionnent une grande fleur multicolore.Gansel, Touvay, Fleur de béton (1979), p. 4-5. © Père Castor/Flammarion
En 1968, Talus Taylor, un biologiste de San Francisco, rencontre à Paris une jeune architecte française, Annette Tison. Tous les deux imaginent sur une nappe de la brasserie Zeyer, place d’Alésia, un personnage hors norme, protéiforme, d’un rose très vif : Barbapapa. Ce dernier est né d’une graine et a pris naissance dans la Terre. Le premier album est publié en 1970 par la toute récente maison d’édition de l’École des loisirs. Deux ans plus tard, Barbapapa qui s’est construit une famille multicolore doit fuir une ville livrée à la démolition. Il est alors relogé dans de Grands Ensembles où il vit très mal l’entassement et l’ennui. La famille Barbapapa quitte alors la ville pour aller s’installer à la campagne.
Tison, Taylor, La Maison de Barbapapa (1972), p. 8-9. © Le Dragon d’or Ces trois ouvrages sont assez représentatifs du peu d’albums qui évoquent et représentent les grands ensembles entre 1960 et 1970. Le discours est toujours le même : éloigner les enfants de la « sarcellite » qui ne peut être qu’inéluctable dans ces grandes constructions que l’on s’emploie à représenter grises et tristes, sans joie et sans vie. Ce discours sera d’ailleurs maintenu bien après 1968. Cependant, à côté de cette production rare de quelques petits éditeurs et du silence des grandes maisons d’édition pour la jeunesse telles qu’Hachette, la série des « Nicole » a su attirer notre attention. Son discours sur les Grands Ensembles est à la fois très favorable et très engagé.
Sous le béton, la plage ! Nicole au quinzième étage est la première aventure d’une série de six éditée par La Farandole en 1969. Nicole et sa famille viennent d’emménager dans un appartement situé au quinzième étage d’une tour HLM. La jeune fille s’extasie, apprécie le confort et passe sa journée à la fenêtre à regarder la ville depuis le quinzième étage. Dans le deuxième album, Nicole et l’ascenseur (1971), c’est la diversité régnant dans cette tour de dix-huit étages qui est célébrée. Nicole dans le grand pré (1973) et Nicole et l’étoile de mer (1978) montrent qu’au cœur des Grands Ensembles existent des espaces verts de loisirs dans lesquels les enfants peuvent s’ébattre et s’épanouir au contact de la nature. Dans Nicole ne voit plus rien (1975), une panne d’électricité, aléa du modernisme, plonge la cité HLM dans le noir. Enfin Nicole et Djamila (1976) traite de la découverte de l’altérité au sein de ces grands ensembles qui ont accueilli une grande partie de la population immigrée venue offrir son travail en France depuis le milieu des années 1950. Ces six albums couvrent près de dix ans. La série se termine en 1978 et correspond, presque par hasard, avec la fin des politiques publiques des Grands Ensembles. Tous les albums en donnent une vision extrêmement positive. Aucune des illustrations ne montre de la grisaille, bien au contraire, tous les albums utilisent des couleurs très vives. L’illustratrice, Bernadette Després, n’a jamais recours au noir ou au gris pour dessiner les contours des Grands Ensembles mais au jaune d’or ou au bleu. La série toute entière, appartenant à la collection « Mille images » de la maison d’édition communiste La Farandole, est consacrée au bonheur de vivre dans les Grands Ensembles. On serait alors tenté de croire qu’il s’agit d’une prise de position politique éditoriale très marquée, rendant hommage à l’amélioration de la vie de la classe ouvrière. Cependant, il n’en est rien. D’autres ouvrages, publiés par La Farandole à la même époque que la série des Nicole, ont un discours très critique sur les Grands Ensembles.: Garonnaire, La Tour part en voyage (1974), couverture. © La Farandole
Prenons par exemple La Tour part en voyage de Jean Garonnaire en 1974. Les habitants d’une tour attristés par la vie au milieu de la cité HLM décident de desceller leur tour du sol pour l’emmener à la campagne, au milieu des bois et des prairies fleuries. Nous retrouvons ici encore une opposition ville/campagne, anthropisation/nature, qui semble être le courant dominant dans la littérature de jeunesse de l’époque qui veut bien s’intéresser à ce phénomène urbain. Il en va de même pour Grégoire et la grande cité (1979) de Jean-Pierre Serenne et Sylvia Maddonni où, dès la couverture, l’opposition cité HLM/champs fleuris est annoncé. : Serenne, Maddonni, Grégoire et la grande cité (1979), couverture. © La Farandole La ligne idéologique de La Farandole n’est donc pas fixée sur ce sujet à l’instar, d’ailleurs, de la ligne politique des membres du parti communiste français au sein duquel les avis sur la question des Grands Ensembles sont très partagés. Rappelons que L’Humanité fut l’un des premiers quotidiens à parler de « sarcellite » et que la jeunesse communiste de mai 1968 revendique davantage un urbaniste au service du peuple que le contraire. Il faut donc bien l’admettre, la série des « Nicole » est une œuvre originale dans le paysage de la littérature de jeunesse de cette époque et elle doit davantage son idéologie marquée pour les Grands Ensembles au militantisme de son auteure, Andrée Clair, qu’à celui de la maison d’édition ou du parti politique auquel elle se trouve rattachée. Hélène Bonnefond, « Les années "Lilenstein" de La Farandole », La Revue des livres pour enfants, n° (...) Ce à quoi semblent véritablement attachées Paulette Michel, l’épouse de Jean Jérôme, membre dirigeant du PCF, et Madeleine Gilard, les deux fondatrices de La Farandole en 1955, est une forme de « parler vrai » et de « montrer vrai ». Ceci peut se concevoir comme une véritable ligne éditoriale novatrice au milieu des années 1950. Hélène Bonnefond note que chez certains petits éditeurs comme La Farandole mais aussi Delpire, Harlin Quist ou l’École des Loisirs, « de plus en plus se développe l’idée que la jeunesse est un lectorat qui ne doit pas être restreint à des lectures angéliques, qu’il est capable de lire des histoires qui sont le reflet de la réalité sociale, culturelle, scientifique ou historique ». Sébastien Jolis, « Du logement au cadre de vie. Mobilisations associatives et vie sociale dans les (...)
22Comme le montre Sébastien Jolis14, au sein même du PCF, le regard sur les Grands Ensembles change au lendemain de mai 1968. La rupture est même consommée le 25 novembre de cette même année, après la journée nationale d’étude sur les équipements sociaux et culturels. En effet, si certains continuent à remettre en cause le financement par l’État de projets immobiliers collectifs, minimisant la place allouée aux équipements socio-culturels, d’autres, issus de la « Deuxième Gauche », qui s’étaient opposés au totalitarisme et au colonialisme, défendent une gestion partagée par les usagers des ZUP, une sorte de réappropriation des Grands Ensembles par la culture et les usagers eux-mêmes. C’est très sûrement avec la connaissance de cette faille au sein du PCF qu’il faut lier et comprendre le travail d’Andrée Clair dans la série des Nicole.
Andrée Clair, de son vrai nom Renée Jung, est née en 1916. Elle grandit dans la banlieue parisienne où son père est contrôleur des PTT et sa mère femme au foyer. Elle fait des études d’ethnologie à la Sorbonne puis part à Brazzaville où elle décroche un poste d’ethnologue assistante. Elle reste en Afrique pendant plusieurs années et y exerce plusieurs emplois liés à l’enseignement. Militante communiste, en 1949 elle est rapatriée d’office pour avoir contribué au développement du mouvement syndical africain. Elle retourne en Afrique après les indépendances et, de 1961 à 1974, elle devient conseillère culturelle du président Hamani Diori au Niger. Forcée de rentrer en France après le renversement de ce dernier, elle s’installe à Paris puis à Dreux où elle décèdera en 1982. Andrée Clair, « Pourquoi et pour qui j’écris ? », Enfance, tome 9, n°3, 1956, p.75.
Elle collabore avec les éditions de La Farandole depuis 1957. Elle écrit pour la jeunesse des romans et des albums qui ont très souvent pour toile de fond l’Afrique : Eau ficelée et ficelle de fumée (1957), Aminatou (1959), Dijé (1961), Les Découvertes d’Alkassoum (1964). Andrée Clair est une véritable militante engagée dans la vie sociale. En 1956, dans un numéro de la revue Enfance, elle écrit : « Pourquoi j’écris ? Pour remettre les choses en place. Autant que je le peux. Pour qui ? Pour les enfants, parce que... 15». Comme elle le dit elle-même, c’est la « rage » qui la pousse à écrire, celle de dénoncer le faux :
Ce n’est pas drôle d’avoir honte de la couleur de sa peau. Ce n’est pas drôle de découvrir que ce que vous avez toujours cru est faux. La rage déborda. Il fallait que je dise aux gens ce qu’était l’Afrique, l’enseignement, le racisme permanent, la vie de chaque jour. Il fallait dire la vérité. Cette vérité si difficile à trouver ici, pour qui n’a que de « bonnes » lectures. Comment le dire, sinon en écrivant ? Pour qui écrire, sinon pour des enfants ? J’avais été trompée. Je voulais détromper @ Le projet des « Nicole » naît de cette même rage d’expliquer aux enfants. Dans un entretien que j’ai pu avoir avec l’illustratrice, Bernadette Després m’a appris que le premier volume de la série, Nicole au quinzième étage, était une réaction à l’ouvrage de Claude Roy et Alain Le Fol, C’est le bouquet ! Pour Andrée Clair, il fallait donner une autre image des cités. Elle regardait C’est le bouquet ! comme une littérature bourgeoise adressée à des enfants qui ne connaissaient pas et ne connaîtraient sans doute jamais les Grands Ensembles.
« Je tiens à l’absolue exactitude de ce que j’écris [...] : géographie, ethnologie, milieu, ambiance17 », écrit encore Andrée Clair. Lorsqu’elle a l’idée du personnage de Nicole et de sa première aventure, La Farandole lui fait rencontrer une jeune illustratrice qui travaille pour la maison depuis quatre ans, Bernadette Després. Cette dernière a la même envie que son auteure : dessiner la vie des enfants au plus près de la réalité, ne pas chercher à leur mentir. Dès leur première rencontre en 1968, Andrée Clair entreprend de faire découvrir à Bernadette Després ces Grands Ensembles qu’elle devra dessiner, elle qui a grandi dans le VIIe arrondissement de Paris. Andrée Clair a une amie qui vit au quinzième étage d’une tour HLM dans le quartier de l’Argonne à Orléans. Elle y emmène Bernadette Després, lui fait voir la ville du haut de la tour. Bernadette Després prend tout en notes, fait des croquis de l’appartement. Andrée Clair supervise le travail de l’illustratrice de façon à être au plus proche de la réalité, s’accordant parfois la liberté de gommer les signes religieux comme la cathédrale d’Orléans qui est remplacée par un château fort. Andrée Clair, comme tous les auteurs de littérature pour enfants de La Farandole, fait partie du co (...)
Andrée Clair mise donc sur la sérialité ainsi que sur des histoires vraies18 de tous les jours pour accrocher ses jeunes lecteurs et faire passer un certain nombre de valeurs. Cette intentionnalité, elle l’exprimait déjà en 1956 :
Je suis contre la guerre (d’oppression, de conquête) et pour les résistants. Je suis contre le racisme, la bêtise, les mesquineries, la méchanceté. Je suis pour la beauté, la gaieté, l’amitié, la dignité, la lucidité. Pour la joie et l’enthousiasme. Pour ce qui est simple et sain, réel et humain. C’est dans ce sens que je veux entrainer mes lecteurs. Cette intentionnalité, quasi idéologique, est à la fois sociale et spatiale dans la mesure où elle est, dans le cas de la série « Nicole », liée à un lieu : les Grands Ensembles. Le travail d’illustratrice de Bernadette Després devient très important dès lors qu’il s’agit de créer un iconotexte dans lequel le récit textuel veut être en interdépendance avec le récit iconique.
Le Paradis des enfants Dans le discours iconotextuel de la série des « Nicole », trois arguments majeurs sont développés en faveur des Grands Ensembles : l’amélioration du niveau de vie des habitants, les bienfaits du vivre ensemble et une sorte d’égalité au droit à la ville. Ce sont ces trois arguments que nous souhaiterions développer ici à partir de quelques planches extraites de la série et qui nous semblent révélateurs du tournant que put représenter 1968. Clair, Després, Nicole au quinzième étage (1969), p.2-3. © La Farandole @ Andrée Clair, Bernadette Després, Nicole au quinzième étage, La Farandole, 1969, p.2.
30« J’habite au quinzième étage. Depuis une semaine, depuis le 4 décembre. Avant, nous habitions une pièce et une cuisine, au rez-de-chaussée, au fond d’une cour. C’était tout petit et on ne voyait jamais le soleil20 ». Ainsi commence Nicole au quinzième étage. Et dès la première double page, l’illustratrice joue sur les oppositions : l’enfermement et l’exiguïté des petites maisons entassées sur la page de gauche (p. 3) contrastent avec l’élévation et la prise d’espace sur la page de droite (p. 4). Le Grand Ensemble est une conquête spatiale et la petite famille de Nicole (son père, sa mère, sa grande sœur et son petit frère) vont dorénavant vivre à cinq dans un trois pièces-cuisine. Clair, Després, Nicole au quinzième étage (1969), p.4-5. © La Farandole
Cette conquête spatiale continue à la double-page suivante (p. 5-6). Sur la page de gauche, Nicole regarde le nouveau quartier à ses pieds desservi par une ligne de chemin de fer et une route à grande circulation. Sur la page de droite, une vue cavalière de l’appartement laisse deviner son agencement : « Notre appartement a trois pièces, une cuisine, une salle d’eau, un couloir, un séchoir, des placards. Quelle place !21 ». L’appartement est fonctionnel : les pièces de « long séjour » (chambres, salle de séjour, cuisine), donnant toutes sur l’extérieur, s’organisent autour de pièces dites de « court séjour », aveugles (buanderie, toilettes, salle de bain). Ce logement répond aux exigences du moment, telles qu’elles ont pu être définies dès la Reconstruction par des architectes comme Auguste Perret : confort (ensoleillement, chambres des enfants et des parents séparées), modernité (cuisine équipée, sanitaires, eau courante, électricité) et flexibilité (cloisons fines permettant un réaménagement de l’espace). Les tours sont équipées d’un indispensable ascenseur pour desservir les dix-huit étages. Cette couleur très visible sur les originaux se transforme en un orange vif sur les épreuves.
32« Nous avons notre chambre pour nous toutes seules. Nous avons chacun notre lit. Luc, le tout petit frère, dort dans la chambre de papa et maman. Le soir, nous dînons dans la salle de séjour. À midi, papa mange à la cantine de son usine. Luc se régale avec sa bouillie et son fruit, puis maman, Janine et moi, nous déjeunons dans la cuisine. Elle est claire. Dans toutes les pièces, il y a des grandes fenêtres. Quand il y a du soleil, il entre partout22. » À plusieurs reprises le texte insiste sur le gain de place, sur l’amélioration des conditions de vie apportées à une famille ouvrière. L’omniprésence du soleil se retrouve dans les images dans lesquelles Bernadette Després a eu abondamment recours à la couleur or23. Les traits de crayons donnent à ces couleurs un effet de scintillement.
Clair, Després, Nicole ne voit plus rien (1975), p.8-9. © La Farandole Andrée Clair, Bernadette Després, Nicole ne voit plus rien, La Farandole, 1975, p.6 Andrée Clair, op. cit., p.77.
Dans Nicole ne voit plus rien, l’aléa d’une panne d’électricité plonge la tour entière dans le noir. Le modernisme a ses limites ! « Mais... il n’y a plus de lumières nulle part. Oh !... c’est une panne d’électricité. Ce n’est que ça ! Maintenant qu’elle sait, Nicole n’a presque plus peur24. » Dans cette aventure, Nicole, restée seule à la maison, va devoir surmonter ses peurs en regardant par la fenêtre, en continuant à accomplir ses tâches. L’accident est appréhendé de manière optimiste et constitue pour Andrée Clair une véritable leçon de vie. « J’affirme que l’optimisme, la gaieté, l’entrain sont une forme de courage25 », déclare-t-elle en 1956. Les Grands Ensembles sont également pour Andrée Clair des espaces de mixité sociale où la diversité et la découverte de l’altérité sont bien réelles. L’exemple de Nicole et l’ascenseur en est un premier aperçu. Dans la tour où habite Nicole, les ascenseurs sont en panne. La mère de Nicole, qui revient du marché, doit monter les quinze étages à pied avec ses courses et son enfant en bas âge. Arrivée au dixième étage, les sacs se renversent et toutes les provisions tombent dans les escaliers. Cet accident devient une formidable occasion pour les habitants de la tour de venir en aide à la famille de Nicole. La majeure partie de l’histoire se déroule dans la cage d’escalier qui s’enroule autour des ascenseurs. De cette longue colonne vertébrale de la tour, Bernadette Després en fait un espace multigénérationnel, où les habitants se rencontrent et s’entraident. On sait combien la découverte de l’altérité est un aspect très cher à Andrée Clair. Les Grands Ensembles sont justement des lieux qui permettent la rencontre de l’Autre. C’est d’ailleurs tout le propos de l’album Nicole et Djamila, paru en 1976. Le père de Nicole arrive un soir à la maison avec une petite fille, Djamila. Son père a eu un accident du travail et sa mère est encore à la maternité. Djamila va donc passer quelques jours dans la famille de Nicole. Les deux fillettes qui semblent avoir le même âge vont partager la même chambre. cf. Yves Gastaut, « La flambée raciste de 1973 en France », Revue européenne des migrations interna (...) On ne peut éviter de replacer cet album dans son contexte historique. L’album est publié en 1976 au moment où la France connaît une flambée raciste et ce depuis la première crise économique de 1973. Face à la montée du chômage, l’État réglemente de manière plus drastique l’immigration en fermant les frontières26 et en multipliant les ordres de quitter le territoire national. Des affrontements racistes éclatent entre les partisans de l’Ordre Nouveau, favorable au retour des immigrés, et des partisans du PCF, à Paris et à Lyon. À Grasse et à Marseille, dans le courant de l’automne et de l’été 1973, des agressions racistes contre des Algériens font cinquante morts et près de trois cents blessés. Nous avons déjà évoqué précédemment le dégoût d’Andrée Clair pour le racisme et la bêtise humaine. Ce cinquième album de la série correspond encore à ce qu’écrivait Andrée Clair en 1956 : Andrée Clair, op. cit., p.76.
Ne pas insister sur les différences qui, si apparentes soient-elles, restent superficielles : peau, cheveux, forme des maisons ou art culinaire ; mais faire remarquer discrètement ce qui est semblable : causes de joie ou de tristesse, ennuis, soucis de chaque jour. Insister sur la richesse du cœur, de la pensée, de l’art. [...] Expliquer, toujours expliquer @ Clair, Després, Nicole et Djamila (1976), couverture. © La Farandole Dès la couverture, Bernadette Després montre davantage ce qui réunit les deux fillettes que ce qui pourrait les séparer : toutes les deux ont le sourire et jouent à la poupée dans la chambre de Nicole où de nombreux jouets sont éparpillés sur le sol. Rien dans l’image ne laisse entendre que la fillette aux cheveux longs est une petite Algérienne si ce n’est dans le titre. Le rapprochement entre les deux fillettes est doublé par le rapprochement de leurs deux poupées.: Clair, Després, Nicole et Djamila (1976), p.8 © La Farandole Andrée Clair, Bernadette Després, op. cit., 1976, p.9. Les différences de culture sont très discrètes. L’image panoramique des pages 8-9 représente une scène de table : le père de Djamila a été invité chez les parents de Nicole. Les convives partagent un plat unique qui ressemble à un hachis Parmentier. Dans un phylactère émanant du père de Djamila, Bernadette Després a dessiné un repas chez les parents de Djamila : « On n’a pas encore fêté la naissance de Karim. Samedi, nous invitons des amis. Ma femme voudrait que vous veniez. Moi aussi28. » Retour de bon procédé, les convives partagent un couscous. D’après Bernadette Després, Andrée Clair avait absolument tenu à ce que la famille algérienne soit assise sur des chaises et non par terre de façon à ce qu’on ne puisse pas se moquer d’eux. Pour terminer cette analyse de la série des « Nicole », un dernier aspect qui ne semble pas évident au premier coup d’œil le devient dès lors que l’on abandonne le point de vue contemporain et que l’on se replace dans le contexte de cette fin des années 1960. La série semble redéfinir la ville. Du haut de sa tour Nicole voit la ville se déployer, sortir de ses anciennes limites. La périphérie, les banlieues qu’elle habite s’étendent avec le développement des Grands Ensembles. Le phénomène peut parler à n’importe quel enfant dans la mesure où il est général à la France entière. Ces transformations fondamentales, ces transmutations de la ville industrielle en une forme tentaculaire, perceptibles dans les albums de la série, un philosophe les décrit, les analyse et s’en alerte en 1968, c’est Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre, Le Droit à la ville, Anthropos, 1968 (2009), p. 8. Le Droit à la ville paraît en mars 1968. Dans cet ouvrage, Lefebvre décrit le processus « d’implosion-explosion » que subissent toutes les villes des grands pays industriels : « Les gens se déplacent vers des périphéries lointaines, résidentielles ou productives. Des bureaux remplacent les logements dans les centres urbains29. » Au terme de « ville », qu’il conserve pour parler des villes industrielles d’avant 1945, le philosophe préfère le terme de « tissu urbain » ou « d’urbain ». Cette réalité nouvelle affirme l’éclatement de la ville classique en périphéries industrielles, pavillonnaires ou faites de grands ensembles et le grignotement progressif de la campagne. Lefebvre alerte des dangers potentiels de cette urbanisation « capitaliste » qui subordonne la campagne à l’urbain, qui empêche l’appropriation par ses habitants, qui créé des îlots de pauvreté à la marge et qui renforce une centralité soumise à l’argent. Pour Lefebvre, les habitants des quartiers périphériques, dénués selon lui d’urbanité, se verraient spolier leur « droit à la ville ». Est-ce l’impression qui se dégage des planches de la série des Nicole ? Non. Nicole et le grand pré (1973), Nicole et l’étoile de mer (1978).Sébastien Jolis, op. cit., p. 42. On pourrait dire, bien au contraire, qu’à travers les différentes aventures de Nicole dans sa cité HLM, Andrée Clair revendique un « droit à la ville pour tous ». La famille de Nicole, en occupant un humble deux pièces au fond d’une cour dans le centre-ville, se trouvait finalement à la marge de la ville, ne pouvant profiter d’aucune des innovations offertes par la modernisation. Habiter les Grands Ensembles a permis à cette famille d’y avoir accès et, en même temps, de jouir des services de la ville. La cité HLM, située en périphérie, n’est pas déconnectée du centre-ville : les moyens de transport (lignes de bus, chemin de fer) sont régulièrement représentés dans les histoires. Le lien avec la « nature » est toujours maintenu. Dans deux des albums de la série30, Nicole passe ses loisirs dans un « centre aéré » situé à proximité de chez elle : le Grand Pré. Pour ce centre aéré, Andrée Clair s’est inspirée du centre aéré de la ville de Saint-Pierre-des-Corps (Indre-et-Loire), Les Grands Arbres. Ce centre a été créé en 1964, en bord de Loire, à quelques mètres de Grands Ensembles, et continue à recevoir les enfants de la ville sous des tentes plantées au milieu d’une prairie ombragée. Il constitue un élément, voire une infrastructure paysagère, sur lequel les partisans de la « Deuxième Gauche » vont s’appuyer pour modifier le regard porté au Grands Ensembles après 1968. En mobilisant l’attention sur le cadre de vie, ils défendent « une amélioration de leur condition d’habitat, en rejetant l’idée d’un divorce entre les habitants et leur habitat en grand ensemble31 ». Clair, Després, Nicole et Djamila (1976), p.3. (détail) © La Farandol Enfin, à de nombreuses occasions, Bernadette Després représente la vue depuis la fenêtre de la cuisine ou de la chambre de Nicole : il s’agit du centre-ville, de son château et de ses vieilles maisons, de sa gare et de ses usines. Cette vue est, au même titre que les quelques images accrochées au mur et qui représentent la montagne ou la campagne, un tableau. Cette vue de la ville quasi-omniprésente dans les albums est la manifestation d’une sorte d’appropriation de la ville. À la différence des images encadrées, le centre-ville lui est bien réel, aisément accessible, à portée d’œil et de main La cité HLM n’est pas un espace sans vie, sans âme. Elle est, sous la plume d’Andrée Clair et les pinceaux de Bernadette Després une émanation de la ville, une partie parfaitement connectée au reste du tissu urbain. Elle est le lieu qui donne aux classes populaires « droit à la ville ». Voilà en quelques mots l’intentionnalité socio-spatiale qui est présente à travers les six volumes de la série des Nicole. Cette intentionnalité, on l’a vu, n’est pas éditoriale mais est propre à une auteure engagée et militante, défendant le réalisme au nom d’un certain nombre de valeurs telles que la tolérance, le droit au bonheur, l’amélioration du niveau de vie pour tous Peu d’ouvrages pour enfants se sont intéressés au phénomène des Grands Ensembles et quand ce fut le cas, ce fut presque tout le temps pour les dénigrer et en présenter les dangers. La série des Nicole apparaît alors comme une exception, une originalité, qui entend s’adresser aux enfants et, à travers eux, aux adultes qu’ils deviendront. Pour Andrée Clair, écrire pour les enfants c’est les aider à grandir.
Andrée Clair, op. cit., p.76. En parlant de Moudaïna ou Deux enfants au cœur de l’Afrique (1952), Andrée Clair écrivait : « Il reste toujours quelque chose des livres d’enfants que l’on a aimés. Les lecteurs de ce livre ne pensent peut-être plus aux enfants noirs comme ils y penseraient s’ils ne l’avaient pas lu. C’est un point de gagné contre le racisme et contre la bêtise. Car jamais deux monstruosités n’ont été si bien ensemble que ces deux-là32 » Marie-Claude Monchaux, Écrits Pour nuire, Paris, UNI, 1985, p. 12 Ibid., p. 54.
47La série des « Nicole » entendait « parler vrai » aux enfants. Ce « parler vrai », ce « montrer vrai » de la société et de ce qui entoure l’enfant a pu passer, aux yeux de certains critiques conservateurs, pour de la littérature de jeunesse subversive. En 1985, par exemple, Marie-Claude Monchaux, dans Écrits pour nuire, mène une campagne à charge contre ce « volontaire pourrissement qu’on constate dans les livres pour enfants depuis 196833 ». Ce qu’elle reproche à ces éditeurs comme La Farandole c’est de priver les enfants du « droit sacré du rêve34 » p. 54.
Je demande pour eux des îles, et des amours enfantines qui s’épanouissent avec les couleurs de la vie la plus belle, car ils ont le droit de l’espérer autrement que par le truchement d’un droit syndical. […] Mais non, on lui coupe dès huit ans sous le pied l’herbe naissante ! La vie, mon petit, c’est ce petit HLM, ces petits sentiments, ces petits frôlements de peau à peau, ces petits amours dont on change, cet air mesuré et qui empeste les frites, ces mamans qui pour l’instant n’ont pas de petit ami, ces petits couplets sur le droit de grève @ Un débat idéologique post-68 est ici manifestement présent. Pour Andrée Clair, en revanche, il n’y a absolument pas d’aliénation du droit au rêve. Seulement, elle affirme que le rêve peut prendre sa place au milieu du béton et des tours où règnent diversité, altérité et mixité.
www.dailymotion.com/video/xw6lak?playlist=x34ije -Rue neuve 1956 la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, villes, villages, grands ensembles réalisation : Jack Pinoteau , Panorama de la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, ce film de commande évoque les villes et villages français détruits puis reconstruits dans un style respectant la tradition : Saint-Malo, Gien, Thionville, Ammerschwihr, etc. ainsi que la reconstruction en rupture avec l'architecture traditionnelle à Châtenay-Malabry, Arles, Saint Étienne, Évreux, Chambéry, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Abbeville, Le Havre, Marseille, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkerque. Le documentaire explique par exemple la manière dont a été réalisée la reconstruction de Saint-Malo à l'intérieur des rempart de la vieille ville : "c'est la fidélité à l'histoire et la force du souvenir qui a guidé l'architecte". Dans le même esprit à Gien, au trois quart détruite en 1940, seul le château construit en 1494 pour Anne de Beaujeu, fille aînée de Louis XI, fut épargné par les bombardements. La ville fut reconstruite dans le style des rares immeubles restant. Gien est relevé de ses ruines et le nouvel ensemble harmonieux est appelé « Joyau de la Reconstruction française ».
Dans un deuxième temps est abordé le chapitre de la construction des cités et des grands ensembles, de l’architecture du renouveau qualifiée de "grandiose incontestablement". S’il est précisé "on peut aimer ou de ne pas aimer ce style", l’emporte au final l’argument suivant : les grands ensembles, c'est la campagne à la ville, un urbanisme plus aéré, plus vert." les films caravelles 1956, Réalisateur : Jack Pinoteau (connu pour être le metteur en scène du film Le Triporteur 1957 qui fit découvrir Darry Cowl)
www.dailymotion.com/video/xuz3o8?playlist=x34ije ,
Film d'archive actualités de 1952 Reconstruction de la France sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale état des lieux de la crise du logement , Actualités de 1952.
Sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre Mondiale état des lieux de la reconstruction de la France et de la crise du logement à l’œuvre, pénurie de logement, logements insalubres. Les actualités montrent des images d'archives de la destruction de la France, les Chars de la division Leclerc qui défilent sur les Champs Elysees. Le commentaire dénonce la lenteur de la reconstruction et notamment des manifestations qui ont eu lieue à Royan afin d''accélérer la reconstruction de la ville détruite.
Le film montre à Strasbourg, Mulhouse, des réalisation moderne de grands ensembles et des images d'archive de la reconstruction du Havre de Saint Nazaire.
Le film se termine à Marseille sur les réalisation nouvelles autour du vieux port puis on assiste à l'inauguration de la Cité Radieuse par le ministre de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme Eugène Claudius-Petit en présence de son architecte Le Corbusier à qui le ministre remet la cravate de commandeur de la légion d'honneur. www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1g5j?playlist=x34ije Brigitte Gros - Urbanisme - Filmer les grands ensembles 2016 - par Camille Canteux chercheuse au CHS -Centre d'Histoire Sociale - Jeanne Menjoulet - Ce film du CHS daté de 2014 www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUBwVPNh0s … L'UNION SOCIALE POUR L'HABITAT le Musée des H.L.M. musee-hlm.fr/ / - www.union-habitat.org/ / - www.institutfrancais.com/sites/default/files/dp_expositio... archives-histoire.centraliens.net/pdfs/revues/rev625.pdf tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00554230/document
www.1001pallets.com/2016/08/pallet-ottoman-wrap/
Soft furniture can be a big problem: No solid surfaces for your beverages. Make a Pallet Ottoman Wrap like this and solve that problem.
Here's how I built this Pallet Ottoman Wrap:
I used two reclaimed pallets to make this project. First, I had to separate the boards from the stringers, but I did it carefully! I reused the nails! You could use whatever fasteners you wanted or your Pallet Ottoman Wrap. I measured and cut the boards to custom-fit my ottoman. However, I took photos and will share what I did so you can adapt the idea. I made the end pieces from sections of stringer boards. I used four L-brackets, two on each side, to provide additional support and stability.
Next, I sanded the entire table to get rid of sharp edges and splinters. I started with 80-grit but progressed to 120-grit for the final sanding.
Finally, I painted mine a dark brown to go with the lighter brown tones of our furniture, but you could stain, varnish, or even shellac it if you wanted. After everything is assembled, you want to sand the whole thing down to get rid of any splinters or sharp edges ( 80 grit and progressing to 120 grit sandpaper is preferred). Then, depending on your desired look, you can stain it or paint it.
To further protect the wrap, or if you want to give it a better look, spray or brush on at least three light coats of polyurethane. Be sure to wait at least four hours between each coat to let it dry properly in a well-ventilated area. Now our soft ottoman does double duty as a convenient coffee table when we need, but converts easily for seating or lounging. Hope you are inspired by my Pallet Ottoman Wrap and find the description helpful!!
We decided to go for a city break rather than sun in Tenerife again this September. Other than a few days in the North East we haven’t been away since last March and wanted a change and hopefully some sun. The problem is getting flights from the north of England to the places we want to go to. We chose Valencia as we could fly from East Midlands – which was still a pain to get to as it involved the most notorious stretch of the M1 at five in the morning. In the end we had a fairly good journey, the new Ryanair business class pre-booked scheme worked quite well and bang on time as usual. It was dull when we landed with storms forecast all week, the sky was bright grey – the kiss of death to the photography I had in mind. I was full of cold and wishing I was at work. It did rain but it was overnight on our first night and didn't affect us. There has been a drought for eleven months apparently and it rained on our first day there! The forecast storms didn't materialise in Valencia but they got it elsewhere.
You May notice discrepancies in the spelling of some Spanish words or names, this is because Valencian is used on signs, in some guide books and maps. There are two languages in common use with distinct differences. There may also be genuine mistakes - it has been known!
Over the course of a Monday to Sunday week we covered 75 miles on foot and saw most of the best of Valencia – The City of Bell Towers. The Old City covers a pretty large area in a very confusing layout. There was a lot of referring to maps – even compass readings! – a first in a city for us. The problem with photography in Valencia is that most of the famous and attractive building are closely built around, some have poor quality housing built on to them. Most photographs have to be taken from an extreme angle looking up. There are no high points as it is pan flat, there are a small number of buildings where you can pay to go up on to the roof for a better view and we went up them – more than once!
The modern buildings of The City of Arts and Sciences – ( Ciutat de Las Arts I de les Ciencies ) are what the city has more recently become famous for, with tourists arriving by the coachload all day until late at night. They must be photographed millions of times a month. We went during the day and stayed till dark one evening, I gave it my best shot but a first time visit is always a compromise between ambition and realism, time dictates that we have to move on to the next destination. I travelled with a full size tripod – another first – I forgot to take it with me to TCoAaS! so It was time to wind up the ISO, again! Needless to say I never used the tripod.
On a day when rain was forecast but it stayed fine, albeit a bit dull, we went to the Bioparc north west of the city, a zoo by another name. There are many claims made for this place, were you can appear to walk alongside some very large animals, including, elephants, lions, giraffe, rhino, gorillas and many types of monkey to name a few. It is laid out in different geographical regions and there is very little between you and the animals, in some cases there is nothing, you enter the enclosure through a double door arrangement and the monkeys are around you. It gets rave reviews and we stayed for most of the day. The animals it has to be said gave the appearance of extreme boredom and frustration and I felt quite sorry for them.
The course of The River Turia was altered after a major flood in the 50’s. The new river runs west of the city flanked by a motorway. The old river, which is massive, deep and very wide between ancient walls, I can’t imagine how it flooded, has been turned into a park that is five miles long. There is an athletics track, football pitches, cycle paths, restaurants, numerous kids parks, ponds, fountains, loads of bridges, historic and modern. At the western end closest to the sea sits The City of Arts and Sciences – in the river bed. Where it meets the sea there is Valencia’s urban Formula One racetrack finishing in the massive marina built for The Americas Cup. The race track is in use as roadways complete with fully removable street furniture, kerbs, bollards, lights, islands and crossings, everything is just sat on the surface ready to be moved.
We found the beach almost by accident, we were desperate for food after putting in a lot of miles and the afternoon was ticking by. What a beach, 100’s of metres wide and stretching as far as the eye could see with a massive promenade. The hard thing was choosing, out of the dozens of restaurants, all next door to each other, all serving traditional Paella – rabbit and chicken – as well as seafood, we don’t eat seafood and it constituted 90% of the menu in most places. Every restaurant does a fixed price dish of the day, with a few choices, three courses and a drink. Some times this was our only meal besides making the most of the continental breakfast at the hotel. We had a fair few bar stops with the local wine being cheap and pleasant it would have been a shame not to, there would have been a one woman riot – or strike!
On our final day, a Sunday, we were out of bed and down for breakfast at 7.45 as usual, the place was deserted barring a waiter. We walked out of the door at 8.30 – in to the middle of a mass road race with many thousands of runners, one of a series that take place in Valencia – apparently! We struggled to find out the distance, possibly 10km. The finish was just around the corner so off we went with the camera gear, taking photos of random runners and groups. There was a TV crew filming it and some local celebrity (I think) commentating. Next we came across some sort of wandering religious and musical event. Some sort of ritual was played out over the course of Sunday morning in various locations, it involved catholic priests and religious buildings and another film crew. The Catholic tourists and locals were filling the (many) churches for Sunday mass. Amongst all of this we had seen men walking around in Arab style dress – the ones in black looked like the ones from ISIS currently beheading people – all carrying guns. A bit disconcerting. We assumed that there had been some sort of battle enactment. We were wrong, it hadn’t happened yet. A while later, about 11.30 we could hear banging, fireworks? No it was our friends with the guns. We were caught up in total mayhem, around 60 men randomly firing muskets with some sort of blank rounds, the noise, smoke and flames from the muzzles were incredible. We were about to climb the Torres de Serranos which is where, unbeknown to us, the grand, and deafening, finale was going to be. We could feel the blast in our faces on top of the tower. Yet again there was a film camera in attendance. I couldn’t get close ups but I got a good overview and shot my first video with the 5D, my first in 5 years of owning a DLSR with the capability. I usually use my phone ( I used my phone as well). Later in the day there was a bullfight taking place, the ring was almost next to our hotel, in the end we had other things to do and gave it a miss, it was certainly a busy Sunday in the city centre, whether it’s the norm or not I don’t know.
There is a tram system in Valencia but it goes from the port area into the newer part of the city on the north side, it wouldn’t be feasible to serve the historic old city really. A quick internet search told me that there are 55,000 university students in the city, a pretty big number. I think a lot of the campus is on the north side and served by the tram although there is a massive fleet of buses as well. There is a massive, very impressive market building , with 100’s of stalls that would make a photo project on its own, beautiful on the inside and out but very difficult to get decent photos of the exterior other than detail shots owing to the closeness of other buildings and the sheer size of it. Across town, another market has been beautifully renovated and is full of bars and restaurants and a bit of a destination in its own right.
A downside was the all too typical shafting by the taxi drivers who use every trick in the book to side step the official tariffs and rob you. The taxi from the airport had a “broken” meter and on the way home we were driven 22 km instead of the nine that is the actual distance. Some of them seem to view tourists as cash cows to be robbed at all costs. I emailed the Marriot hotel as they ordered the taxi, needless to say no answer from Marriot – they’ve had their money. We didn’t get the rip off treatment in the bars etc. that we experienced in Rome, prices are very fair on most things, certainly considering the city location.
All in all we had a good trip and can highly recommend Valencia.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Bachem Ba 349 Natter (English: Colubrid, grass-snake) was a World War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile. In 1943, Luftwaffe air superiority was being challenged by the Allies over the Reich and radical innovations were required to overcome the crisis. Surface-to-air missiles appeared to be a promising approach to counter the Allied strategic bombing offensive; a variety of projects were started, but invariably problems with the guidance and homing systems prevented any of these from attaining operational status. Providing the missile with a pilot, who could operate a weapon during the brief terminal approach phase, offered a solution.
After a rather fast and troublesome development phase the Natter was rushed into production. The SS ordered 150 Natters, and the Luftwaffe ordered 50, and the first serial production aircraft, now designated Ba 349 A-1, reached operational status in April 1945 with the Erprobungskommando (EK) 349. An operational launch site under the code name “Operation Kroku”s was being established in a small, wooded area called Hasenholz, south of the Stuttgart to Munich autobahn and to the east of Nabern unter Teck. Around the end of February and the beginning of March the Organisation Todt had been in action, constructing each set of the trios of concrete foundations (or "footings") for the stationary launch towers. These three launch pads and their towers were arranged at the corners of an equilateral triangle, 120 m per side.
By August 1945, 91 aircraft had been delivered to EK 349 and the first operational unit, the JG 400, into which the test unit was soon integrated. But a persistent lack of fuel, staff and maintenance resources kept most of them grounded. It was clear that the original plan for a huge network of Ba 349 bases that protected important locations would never be realized, and the idea of stationary bases made this network vulnerable to air raids, too. As a consequence mobile launch rigs for the Natter were developed, the so-called “Rampenwagen I”. This self-propelled vehicle was based on repurposed Königstiger battle tank hulls that had their engine moved into a mid-chassis position behind the driver’s compartment. This arrangement offered enough space at the heavy chassis’ rear section to carry an erectable ramp and two vacuum pumps that powered the launch sled for a single Natter that ran on rails on the ramp. The Natter interceptor was hooked with the ehlp of a crane into the erected ramp and started vertically. Beyond the Ba 349 this device could also be used to start the Messerschmitt E-4 “Enzian” anti-aircraft missile in a similar fashion, as well as the unmanned Fieseler Fi 103 “V1” cruise missile at a shallow launch angle
Adapting the existing Tiger II chassis turned out to be relatively easy, and unfinished hulls could be modified without major problems. A side benefit of the new mid-engine layout was that the driving shaft to the gearbox in the Jagdtiger’s front hull was shorter, saving material, weight, and internal space behind the engine bay. As a drawback the access to the engine compartment was limited through the low and long launch ramp – it had to be erected or even removed before the engine could be changed. Another characteristic feature of the modified hull was a different running gear. It used elements of Porsche’s original Tiger I running that was rejected for the heavy battle tank but adopted for the heavy Ferdinand/Elefant SPG that was based on Porsche’s Tiger I design. It consisted of four wheel-units per side made from pairs of 700 mm diameter steel road wheels and a longitudinal torsion bar suspension that remained outside of the hull. While its off-road performance was not as good as the original interleaved running gear with torsion bars inside of the hull, the Porsche system offered a production advantage over the Henschel running gear: it took a third less time to produce than Henschel’s system, reduced the hull construction time as well as machining time, required less maintenance, and could actually be completely replaced in the field without (theoretically) removing other parts and without the use of a jack. The Porsche system also saved about 1,200 kg in weight, 450 man-hours of work time, gained 100 mm more ground clearance, and saved RM 404,000 (Reichsmarks) in cost per vehicle. Much more importantly though, the use of this suspension freed up space inside the vehicle, an entire cubic meter extra! A few standard Jagdtiger SPGs were finished with this running gear, too, but it only became a standard on refurbished vehicles.
In service the Rampenwagen I received the official designation of Sd.Kfz. 282, and only a handful of these complex and bulky vehicles were build oer deilevered to frontline units until late 1945. In practice the Rampenwagen I was operated in combination with other vehicles to from mobile launch units for the Natter - plans envisioned groups with Sd.Kfz. 282s, accompanied by trabsporters for the tiny fighters, two cranes to lift them onto the launch sled on the ramp, plus fuel bowsers, a command and radio unit, plus supprt vehicles for staff and pilots as well as other equipment, and ideally even a mobile radar system that could guide and coordinate the interceptions. This, however, never materialized, due to the lack of resources, and only the Luftwaffe's JG 400 became operational enough to make some Ba 349 starts in the defense of the Stuttgart area, with very limited success.
Specifications:
Crew: 2 (Driver, Radio operator/ramp engineer)
Weight: 59.5 tons (131.050 lb)
Length: 14,04 m (45 ft 11 ¾ in) overall
7,80 m (25 ft 6 ½ in) hull only
Width: 3.625 m (11 ft 10 ½ in)
Height: 4.97 m (16 ft 3 ½ in) with launch sled
14,54 m (47 ft 7 ¾ in) with erected ramp
Ground clearance: 56,5 cm (22¼ in)
Suspension: Longitudinal torsion bars
Fuel capacity: 860 Liter (190 imp gal, 230 US gal)
Armor:
20–180 mm (0.79 – 7 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 34 km/h (21 mph)
Operational range: 120 km (75 mi) on road
80 km (50 mi) off road
Power/weight: 10,08 PS/ton
Engine:
V-12 Maybach HL230 P30 with 600 hp/441 kW
Transmission:
Maybach eight-speed OLVAR OG40-1216B gearbox
Armament:
None installed
The kit and its assembly:
Well, it's not really armour, but since this... thing is based on a Jagdtiger I put it here. It's actually cross-linked with the Ba 349 Natter that I am building in parallel - after all, how should that tiny rocket fight start? This thought had been on my mind for quite a time, and I had the Brengun Natter stashed away for some time. But creating a mobile launch platofrm - or better: coming up with a concept that could be turned into a model somehow, took really long. First ingredient was a Fujimi steam catapult kit from WWII, which works with an external sled, towed by a cable, quite different to the launch catapults that were for instance used for the Fi 103 VI, which operated like aircraft carrier steam catapults with a sled in a pressurized tube.
Finding a suitable chassis was more complicated. First bet was "Karl Gerät" mortar, which turned out to be much too big and also not really compatible with the Fujimi catapult, and the project went into hiatus again. Until inspiration struck and I remembered the Jagdtiger that I had built last year or so, with an oversized L/100 gun and the casemate moved to the rear of the hull (and the engine in a mid-positionj behind the drivers' compartment). That could work in size and arrangement!
Said and done, I procured an(other) Trumpeter Jagdtiger with the late Porsche running gear, with simplified and standardized elements that were intended for the E-Series of tanks, what would fit well into the model's intended time frame of mid 1945. And from that on things went straightforward, only that the catapult was shortened by 3" at the rear and modified to stand vertical - with the bonus that was able to construct a joint so that this is even functional. The launch sled, which was slightly tailored to hold the Natter, is movable, too. That area inside of the Jagdtiger hull had to be filled/improvised, but that worked well, too, thanks to some donor parts from a Modelcollect E-50 tank.
Painting and markings:
The paint scheme caused the next headaches. This is supposed to be a special vehicle, (re)constructed from a Jagdtiger hull, and somehow I did not find Dunkelgelb to be a proper solution. Late in WWII many tanks received an overall Olivgrün factory finish, but I also did not like that idea for this massive thing. Luftwaffe vehicles were, at least during early war stages, painted in their own color, RAL 7016, a dark and rather bluish tone slightly lighter than RAL 7021 Panzergrau, but that did not appear suitable, either. Red Oxidprimer was another option, but rejected, too.
Eventually I settled for a very simple overall RAL 7021 finish - a tone which was still available in considerable volume and applied to operational tanks - and in this case it would be a "2nd line vehicle". The dark tone would also work well to hide the launch platform's bulk in the shadows of trees or buildings, and it simply "looks German". Since the lattice girder catapult with the pressure piston inside was build before painting I used a rattle can - another argument for a uniform livery. After that the model was dry-brushed, decals and matt varnish were applied, and some dirt and dust was added with water colors and pigments.
Now for a puzzle from Katy Keene no 14 January 1954 issue. The answers can be found on the Katy Fashions paper doll page. No peeking. :)
Script:
U.P. Breaking News: K. I. Sawyer Latest KC-135 Emergency Landing/Raising Safety Concerns
The following exclusive information was not reported yet by Upper Peninsula TV stations and other media.
Many safety questions remain and a military plane is officially grounded after an emergency in the skies over Marquette County, Michigan on Tues. July 8, 2014
The emergency landing of a KC-135 refueling tanker is the latest in a series of similar hydraulic incidents involving the aging fleet of Milwaukee's 128th Air Refueling Wing, Upper Peninsula Breaking News has learned.
Veteran Investigative Reporter Greg Peterson has the story:
upperpeninsulabreakingnews.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/u-p-b...
-----
Essentially a flying gas station – this Air National Guard KC-135 is grounded – following an emergency that has happened at least 5 times in the past two years to KC 135 refueling tankers from the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee.
That's right – at least 5 times in the past two years – a KC-135 from the 128th has developed hydraulic problems resulting in emergency landings at airports around the Midwest.
The tankers are all about 50 years old.
In fact in June 2013, a reporter for Milwaukee Television station WISN TV-12 investigated a rash of KC-135 emergency landings after hydraulic warning.
Upper Peninsula Breaking News called the 128th's public affairs office to verify this important safety problem.
With overcast skies, the three-member crew of this KC-135 declared a hydraulic emergency:
Chief Don Hutchens, Forsyth Township Volunteer Fire Department:
Emergency officials from across Marquette County responded to the plane's call for help – fearing it might crash while landing – which would have been catastrophic.
The KC -135 was among several planes from the 128th Refueling Wing that have been practicing touch and goes on K.I. Sawyer's long runways.
Now the Marquette County Airport, the once vibrant K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base was a Strategic Air Command base – constantly on alert - with bomber crews ready to fly in moments.
This reporter has had the pleasure of riding on two KC-135 Refueling Tankers – as show in this photo when I worked at WLUC TV-6 in Marquette.
We refueled F-16 Jets over Lake Huron.
Then this reporter became one of only a handful of civilians to ride aboard a B-52 Bomber – this while I did features stories for the Mining Journal newspaper.
I was given this official coin of the Sawyer bomber wing and a patch – after as 12-hour flight that included Fourth of July Parades and an airshow in Grand Rapids.
This reporter hopes the officials at Milwaukee's 128th Air Refueling Wing get to the bottom of this hydraulic issues before there is a tragedy – as the large number of emergencies on this flying gas station is scary to all involved.
Greg Peterson, Upper Peninsula Breaking News
Milwaukee's 128th Air Refueling Wing
Public Affairs Office
414-944-8715
128 HQ/Public Affairs
mailto:128HQ.PublicAffairs@ang.af.mil
Milwaukee's 128th Air Refueling Wing on Facebook
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/128th_Air_Refueling_Wing
Forsyth Township Volunteer Fire Department; Forsyth Township Police department
www.forsythtwpmi.org/FT%20POLICE%20DEPT.htm
Local News Coverage
abc10up.com/air-national-guard-plane-makes-emergency-land...
www.upmatters.com/story/d/story/news/15079/3fYz_NNJ0kmTs-...
www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=1067608
WISN TV-12 Investigation in June 2013:
Emergency landing prompts questions about KC-135 safety
Hydraulic problems lead to 4th in-flight emergency
June 19, 2013
www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/emergenc...
www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/emergenc...
www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/emergenc...
Military plane makes emergency landing in Indiana
www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/Military...
A plane from Milwaukee's 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard is grounded and undergoing repairs after an in-flight emergency Tuesday.
For the fourth time in two months a KC-135 from Milwaukee makes an emergency landing, this time in Indiana.
The flight crew lost control of the hydraulic system and made an emergency landing in Indiana.
It's the fourth in-flight emergency in recent weeks involving four KC-135 refueling tankers.
Each of the planes is about 50 years old, which has some wondering if the aging aircraft are as safe as they should be.
Upper Peninsula Breaking News
U.P. Breaking News
Gmail:
UpperPeninsulaBreakingNews@gmail.com
Wordpress:
upperpeninsulabreakingnews.wordpress.com
youtube:
www.youtube.com/UPBreakingNews
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tocLjvEslBA
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/UpperPeninsulaBreakingNews
Twitter:
Greg Peterson
@UPBreakingNews
flickr
Mister wouldn't stop making the hot face at me, so I sprayed him down with the hose. Problem solved.
It is 28th of January 1966 and we are at Newcastle station, watching 3661 prepring to work #32 Flyer to Gosford. This was my first ride on No 32 and as I lived at Gosford that is where I was to get off - problem was that 32 did not (officially) stop at Gosford and so I could not book a seat! (It did always stop at Gosford to change engines). Somehow I got away with it this first time and many times thereafter.
Never got satisfied with the shape, and kept sanding until I basically broke the pipe. Anyways, it is always a good thing to get a new pipe for myself!
It's now become part of our travelling calendar - we go on a city break for Jayne’s birthday in January - no presents for birthday's and Christmas, we travel instead. This year it was Seville. We had to drive 180 miles south to Stansted to fly there though, Friday afternoon on the A1, such fun... It was a really good drive down in actual fact, the best day for months, glorious blue sky and a fantastic sunset- and I was in a car. We got stung for tea and drinks in the Radison Blu but we were overnighting and leaving the car so we didn't have much choice. Ryanair aagh! Again no choice. To be fair to the abrasive Irish man O Leary things are better than they used to be and it was an acceptable flight.
We were hoping for better weather than we got- don't you always? It was. cold, windy and after some initial beautiful sun on our first afternoon, it was mostly grey. The wind died but so did the sun. The other little problem was that it was my turn for the awful cold that Jayne had been trying to get over. I was under the weather in more ways than one all week, it was only a cold but it was the worst I've had for ages and it didn't help my mood, particularly when the sun was absent. We had a few hours of really nice light here and there and I made the most of it - I think!
Seville has miles and miles of narrow cobbled streets, they seem to go on for ever. They are almost random in layout and it is extremely difficult to find your way around, it's easier to just keep walking and see what you find. So we did! The architecture is stunning and the history is fascinating. Aside from the ancient history the two events that seem to have had a massive recent influence are the Expo's of 1929 and 1992. The incredible buildings or 'Pavilions' that were built for a one off event are now part of the reason that people visit the city. The 1929 pavilions are fantastic, each one is a story in itself and a destination in its own right but there are a lot of them in Parque Maria Luisa. Plaza Espana, built by the hosts of course, is the biggest and I would imagine that you could make a project out of photographing the individual ceramic tile displays around it on their own. These incredible buildings really need the light to be right to get images that people want to see, flat bright light from bright grey skies is good for certain things but dramatic architecture deserves better - or maybe I'm looking for the easy way option. The other discovery that we made, we found just down the road from the hotel, about an hour into the trip – The Metropol Parasol. A giant lattice work parasol, apparently called ‘The Mushrooms’ locally and apparently the world’s largest wooden structure. You have to look twice, having discovered that it is wood. Only later did we discover that we could get to the top and there is an extensive walkway around the top of it. It is built on top of ancient ruins, ( still intact and viewable) a food market and bars etc. and has a plaza around it and on it, that is buzzing on weekend evenings. Walking around the top, the first people up it one day and being back to watch the sunset later was one of the highlights of the trip for me.
The 1992 Expo also covered a massive area but left behind lots of modern - and some very strange - buildings and arenas. Some are of a temporary nature and get dismantled others find a new use. The land used was on an island between two branches of the River Guadalquivir – Isla de la Cartuja. The branch that goes through the city is now a canal, blocked at its northern end by a barrier with a motorway on it, and is used extensively for water sports, mainly rowing. Many of the buildings are now used by private companies as headquarters , others have a very derelict look. The whole area- even though it is home to the theme park- which was shut for the winter, has a neglected air about it. There are weeds growing everywhere but fountains are switched on, which seemed odd. Unlike the city a short distance away, there are no cafes or bars or other people around for that matter, just us meandering through. The car park that was created for the event is massive, it stretches for miles, and I really mean miles. Totally derelict, just the odd person or dog walker around. There is even a railway line terminating here, in the middle of nowhere a modern and apparently unmanned station, like a ghost station. At this point, across the river proper is open countryside, much flatter than I expected and very easy for local walkers and cyclists to get to - also very calm and quiet, a place to linger and enjoy the peace.
As usual I researched and discovered as we walked, we averaged around 13 miles a day and tried to get off the beaten track. We were out around 8.15, before sunrise, and had orange juice, coffee and Tostada with the locals for breakfast. The trouble is that there are many miles of walking in a relatively small area, some streets are only a few feet wide so there are a lot of them to explore. Incredible ancient churches and squares are around every corner- it's a very religious place - Catholicism rules in Spain. Unfortunately many are only a few feet away from the building next to it and it is difficult to get a decent shot of them. Seville is also famous, historically, as a producer of ceramic tiles. A building isn’t complete without a tile display of some sort and it would be very easy to make a project out of tiles alone. It may be a little boring for any companions though!
We walked the length of the embankment a couple of times, it has graffiti from end to end, several miles of massive concrete walls covered in everything imaginable, from marker pen scribbling to works of art. It was suggested to me that allowing people to paint here might prevent them from daubing property and monuments in the city- it hasn't! Most alleyways and shutters have been attacked to a greater or lesser degree. Spain has very high youth unemployment and maybe this plays a role. To be truthful though we haven't seen a city that's free of graffiti. The other problem is dogs- or what they produce, it's everywhere, absolutely everywhere, in a week we saw only one person remove his dogs mess. Fortunately the city streets are cleaned exceptionally well, some of the cleanest we have come across, men (and a lot of women) and machines are washing and sweeping endlessly.
Having had the wettest winter on record at home - almost three months of rain - we didn't want more rain but we got it. The upside was the water and the reflections that it created made photography on the cobbled streets more interesting, particularly at night. I usually find that it takes me a while to get into the groove on a trip and this one was no different, I didn't start shooting with total disregard - street shots- for a couple of days. Whilst the locals wore quilted jackets and scarves we got down to tee shirts at times, the warmer afternoons would be welcome in summer, never mind January, in Huddersfield. I envied the cyclists, being able to train in temperatures like this in winter - I wish! You need a lot less willpower to get out there and train hard in pleasant weather.
From a photography point of view I had a frustrating time, I never felt to get to grips with the place- other than on the streets at night. Writing this on my phone on the flight home, I haven't a clue what I've got to work with when I get back. I usually edit first and write later. Generally I have a first look, I'm disillusioned, I then revisit and see things differently- thankfully! Architectural shots with a grey sky could be destined for the monochrome treatment, we'll soon see. I'm still editing stuff from our London trip before Christmas, it's getting decent views in black and white and I quite enjoy looking at them myself.
We visited most of the notable tourist destinations, and went up anything that we could. Seville doesn't have a high point-it's flat! Nothing really stands head and shoulders above the city. The Cathedral tower is over 300 feet but the Cathedral itself fills a lot of the view on some aspects. Being square and having to look through bars in recesses you don't really get a completely open aspect. A new 600 foot tower is close to being finished, it's an office block and I couldn't find any mention of it being a viewing point in the future.
Oranges were the last thing on my mind when I suggested going to Seville. There are 25000 orange trees in Seville and now is the time that they are laden with big-and sour- Seville oranges, they are everywhere, apparently they are the property of the city authorities and will be harvested and sent to the UK to be made in to marmalade at some point in the near future. These trees will soon be covered in fragrant blossom, the city will smell beautiful for a couple of months. Studying the surrounding area it would be good to tour in March or April I would think, the scents, longer days and better weather would make for a fantastic trip. One for the future. The sunrise on our final morning was the best of the week, this was what we had looked forward to, we had to leave for the airport at 9.00...... Needless to say it was raining hard as we drove the last twenty miles home. Nothing new there then.
As usual I have aimed to present a pretty extensive collection of photographs of our chosen destination, some, at first glance will be pretty mundane shots of everyday life on the streets, often though, close inspection will reveal something humorous, something that needs a bit of thought. Others are definitely just people going about their holiday or work. Travelling with someone else it wouldn’t be fair to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to nail the perfect long exposure or HDR image of a cathedral or similar in perfect light – the one stunning shot to add to the portfolio- it’s not really my thing, I go for an overview of the place in the time available. Looking at the postcards locally it becomes obvious that stunning shots of some of these buildings are hard to come by. Heavily corrected converging verticals were quite obvious – and most likely will be in my own shots. As the owner of tilt and shift lenses I never travel with one – ever! My knees are already creaking from the weight of the bag.
Bundaberg Rum originated because the local sugar mills had a problem with what to do with the waste molasses after the sugar was extracted. Molasses was heavy and difficult to transport, and the costs of converting it to stock feed were rarely worth the effort. Sugar men first began to think of the profits that could be made from distilling. The key meeting was held at the Royal Hotel on 1 August 1885. W. M. C. Hickson served as the chairman, and other notables in attendance included all the big sugar mill owners of that time: W. G. Farquhar, F. L. Nott, T. Austin, J. Gale, S. McDougall, T. Penny, S. H. Bravo and A. H. Young. All became the first directors of the company, which started with a capital of £5,000.
The Bundaberg Distilling Company began its operations in 1888, and Bundaberg rum was first produced in 1889. Production ceased from 1907 to 1914, and from 1936 to 1939, after fires, the second of which caused rum from the factory to spill into the nearby Burnett River.
Christsen Pty Ltd operated their own Bundaberg Rum bottling plant in Bourbong Street, Bundaberg, at the rear of their large grocery and hardware business in the centre of town. The spirit was sold at UP and OP strength from their business. A spokesperson for the original family, Rod Patch, recalled that the shape of the current "Bundy Bottle" originated from bottles of Bushells Coffee and Chicory Essence.
Bundaberg residents would sell them to his grandfather for one penny a bottle, after which they were washed and filled with the spirit. The shape remains the same but the capacity has been increased to the current 700ml. Patch's great grandfather, Hans Truval Christsen, a Danish immigrant from Copenhagen, and his son Frederick Christsen, had a policy of employing staff of The Salvation Army faith in the rum bottling process, because they were less likely to be tempted to sample the spirit. The Christsen family supported settlement farming families through hard times, which was acknowledged with the naming of Christsen Park at Bargara Beach.
In 1961, the company introduced the polar bear as its unusual choice of mascot, to imply that the rum could ward off the coldest chill.
In 2000, the Bundaberg Rum company and the distillery were sold to British company Diageo. In 2014, a decision by Diageo to relocate the bottling operations of Bundaberg Rum to the western Sydney suburb of Huntingwood resulted in job losses in the city that bears the name of the drink.
The decision drew criticism from various levels of Queensland politics. The Premier, Campbell Newman, said it was a disappointing move, particularly for a region that had suffered devastating floods in recent years. Bundaberg mayor, Mal Forman, said, "I'm saddened by the announcement, but I had been assured the company had a commitment to the city ... I understood demand for bottled Bundaberg Rum had declined as more people bought pre-mixed cans, a trend I wanted no part of."
A Diageo spokeswoman later clarified the situation, saying some premium products, such as the Master Distillers Collection, would continue to be bottled in Bundaberg. "This was not a decision we have taken lightly, however it is a necessary one to ensure the longer term sustainability of the distillery. We remain absolutely committed to Bundaberg and the distillery and will continue to invest and focus on our core business of distilling, maturing and blending great quality rum in Bundaberg as we have done for the last 125 years.
The Bundaberg Rum distillery is open to visitors for tours of the facility. There is also a museum which offers free samples of Bundaberg Rum products for visitors in a historic Queenslander house. The Big Bundy Bottle is also outside of the bond store. A new $8.5 million visitor centre opened to the public in August 2016 replacing the smaller historic house next door.
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Urs Fischer (Zúrich, 1973)
Pintura problemática (Problem Painting), 2012
Acrílico, barniz y serigrafía sobre aluminio
360 x 270 x 2,5 cm
Kunsthaus Zürich,
Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde
Donación del artista
El 22 de abril, Día de la Tierra, es una fecha importante para crear conciencia sobre los problemas irreversibles que sufre nuestro planeta, a través de la contaminación que generamos cotidianamente.
La CROC en Benito Juárez que preside Mario Machuca Sánchez, festejó este día con la jornada de limpieza de playas y manglares ubicados en la Zona Hotelera, en la que participaron los compañeros croquistas, así como público en general para apoyar esta causa en beneficio del medio ambiente.
Con esta labor se recolectaron toneladas de basura que se clasificaron según su composición.
Posteriormente se llevó a cabo la clausura del programa Salvemos al Planeta, en la escuela primaria Flores Magón.
Los compañeros croquistas, Noel Pinacho Santos en representación de Mario Machuca, David Miranda Gómez, Jesús Arellano Flores y Fernando Cetina May, recibieron un reconocimiento por parte del director de la escuela, Raúl Hipólito Díaz Sánchez, por su compromiso a lo largo del programa los días 1, 2 y 3 de marzo, para la difusión de la cultura del reciclaje.
El comisionado sindical, Noel Pinacho, comentó que estas actividades son parte del trabajo social que realiza la CROC, con el propósito de generar una conciencia sobre el cuidado de nuestra naturaleza “los niños son el futuro, por eso, debemos difundir una cultura del cuidado del medio ambiente en los pequeños” señaló.
Sorry no uploads, computer problems. Now cleared up.
Whenever Rockford and Grand Rapids play things get nasty. Here Joseph Camarosa, in gray, drags Moritz Seider down. As you can see the other Griggins really don'e appreciate that. Thank you for your comments and faves.
Los Angeles Firefighters provided emergency medical care to a seriously injured Granada Hills woman who narrowly escaped death when a massive eucalyptus tree toppled into her home on October 25, 2010. © Photo by Mike Meadows