First piercing to make me laugh uncontrollably then almost faint.

Project 365 ~ Dislikes

ODT - April 9 ~ Stressed

Warning...this stunt can be hazardous to your health and have serious side effects. Symptoms may be nauseau, nervousness, diarrhea, constipation, agiation, loss of hearing and vision, uncontrollable urges to use profane language and may lead to serious injury or ultimately death. Don't try this without consulting a professional.

I really get don't like it when I have to get in rush hour traffic... especially if it's raining. Besides it makes my driving and shooting a little more stressful.

The Grade I Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos.

By 1953, the US Navy had already bought the F3H Demon fighter, but McDonnell Aircraft felt it could improve on the Demon’s design. A full-scale mockup of the F3H-G was built, and it was designed as an aircraft with a modular nose, with different versions for attack, reconnaissance, fighter, and interceptor. The Navy passed on the F3H-G, so McDonnell continued to tinker with the design, expanding it to a two-seat aircraft with J79 engines and a large number of hardpoints as an all-weather multirole fighter. Once more the Navy had little interest in this “Super Demon,” but it proposed instead that the design be reworked into a fleet air defense interceptor. Finally, the Navy accepted McDonnell’s aircraft as the F4H-1 Phantom II—having turned down McDonnell’s proposal to name it the F4H-1 Satan.

The Phantom II needed work before the first prototype took to the air in May 1958. Instability and problems at high angles of attack led to the fairly conventional design to be changed: the nose was lowered to accommodate the radar and give the pilot better vision, the wingtips bent upwards, and the tailplanes bent downwards. This gave the Phantom a hideous appearance, which one pilot likened to it having its nose stepped on while it was kicked in the rear end. Nonetheless, it worked, and flight testing of the F4H-1 went smoothly. It entered the fleet in 1960 after beating the heavily modified XF8U-3 Crusader III for the role of fleet defense, although the Phantom also retained a useful bomb-carrying capability, making it a multirole fighter. Under Project High Jump, Skyburner, and Sageburner, the F4H-1 also set a number of performance records.

Production F4H-1s, which differed only slightly from the preproduction aircraft, were designated F-4B in 1962. They would see their first combat operations, of sorts, in the Cuban Missile Crisis the same year, and then actual combat in 1964, when F-4Bs participated in Operation Pierce Arrow, the forerunner to Operation Rolling Thunder over North Vietnam. F-4Bs also were the first American fighters to score aerial kills during the war, first over a Chinese MiG-17 in April 1965 and then a North Vietnamese MiG-17 in June.

In combat, F-4 pilots had learned that they were at a severe disadvantage against North Vietnamese fighters, which were smaller and far more nimble than the big Phantom. The MiG-17 and MiG-21 could easily turn inside the F-4s, which risked going into an uncontrollable spin at certain angles of attack. Lack of training on the part of US Navy pilots, poor missiles and restrictive Rules of Engagement also gave the North Vietnamese advantages. The F-4 had, however, shown that it could hold its own if the pilot played to the Phantom’s strengths: incredible speed and acceleration, a good radar, and good performance in the vertical. While kill ratios were low, at least the F-4B was holding its own. The Marines would also use the F-4B extensively in South Vietnam, strictly as a fighter-bomber as they rarely ventured into North Vietnam. 170 F-4Bs were lost to enemy action or accidents over Vietnam in both Navy and Marine Corps service. Beginning in 1969, under Project Bee Line, the Navy began modifying most surviving F-4Bs to F-4N standard, though F-4Bs would serve until the end of the Vietnam War, with the last Navy F-4Bs not being converted until 1974 and the Marines not converting theirs until 1979.

One of my most popular pics on my Flickr page is one Dad took of two F-4Bs of VMFA-321 ("Hells' Angels"), but it wasn't until recently that I found this shot of just one of the aircraft, Bureau Number 153064. Both F-4s had stopped in for an overnight stop at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, on their way back to their home base at Andrews AFB, Maryland--hence the red, white and blue motif! (Note also the travel pod on the inboard starboard wing station.)

153064 had started its career with VF-121 ("Pacemakers"), the Pacific Fleet Replacement Air Group, before serving in Vietnam with VMFA-323 ("Death Rattlers") and VMFA-115 ("Able Eagles"), both at Da Nang. Following its war service, it was transferred to VMFA-321, and would remain with the squadron until 1981, by which time it had been upgraded to a F-4N. 153064 finished its career with VMFA-531 ("Grey Ghosts") at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina before retirement in 1982. It was sent to NAS China Lake, California and expended as a ground target--a sad end for a beautiful aircraft.

This really is a pleasing study of a F-4, and I'm surprised I hadn't posted it before.

German postcard by Verlag Hias Schaschko, München (Munich), no. 211. Photo: Patrick la Banca, ca. 1980.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was a German film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor. Fassbinder was part of the New German Cinema movement. Starting at age 21, Fassbinder made over forty films and TV dramas in fifteen years, along with directing numerous plays for the theatre. He also acted in nineteen of his own films as well as for other directors. Fassbinder died in 1982 at the age of 37 from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was born in Bavaria in the small town of Bad Wörishofen in 1945. The aftermath of World War II deeply marked his childhood and the lives of his bourgeois family. He was the only child of Liselotte Pempeit, a translator and Helmut Fassbinder, a doctor who worked out of the couple's apartment in Sendlinger Strasse, near Munich's red light district. In 1951, his parents divorced. Helmut moved to Cologne while Liselotte raised her son as a single parent in Munich. In order to support herself and her child, Pempeit took in boarders and found employment as a German to English translator. When she was working, she often sent her son to the cinema in order to concentrate. Later in life, Fassbinder claimed that he saw a film nearly every day and sometimes as many as three or four. As he was often left alone, he became independent and uncontrollable. He clashed with his mother's younger lover Siggi, who lived with them when Fassbinder was around eight or nine years old. He had a similar difficult relationship with the much older journalist Wolff Eder, who became his stepfather in 1959. Early in his adolescence, Fassbinder identified as homosexual. As a teen, Fassbinder was sent to boarding school. His time there was marred by his repeated escape attempts and he eventually left school before any final examinations. At the age of 15, he moved to Cologne and stayed with his father for a couple of years while attending night school. To earn money, he worked small jobs and helped his father who rented shabby apartments to immigrant workers. Around this time, Fassbinder began writing short plays and stories and poems. In 1963, aged eighteen, Fassbinder returned to Munich with plans to attend night school with the idea to eventually study theatrical science. Following his mother's advice, he took acting lessons and from 1964 to 1966 attended the Fridl-Leonhard Studio for actors in Munich. There, he met Hanna Schygulla, who would become one of his most important actors. During this time, he made his first 8mm films and took on small acting roles, assistant director, and sound man. During this period, he also wrote the tragic-comic play: Drops on Hot Stones. To gain entry to the Berlin Film School, Fassbinder submitted a film version of his play Parallels. He also entered several 8 mm films including This Night (now considered lost) but he was turned down for admission, as were the later film directors Werner Schroeter and Rosa von Praunheim. He returned to Munich where he continued with his writing. He also made two short films, Der Stadtstreicher,/The City Tramp (1965) and Das Kleine Chaos/The Little Chaos (1966). Shot in black and white, they were financed by Fassbinder's lover, Christoph Roser, an aspiring actor, in exchange for leading roles. Fassbinder acted in both of these films which also featured Irm Hermann. In the latter, his mother – under the name of Lilo Pempeit – played the first of many parts in her son's films.

In 1967 Rainer Werner Fassbinder joined the Munich Action-Theater, where he was active as an actor, director and script writer. After two months he became the company's leader. In April 1968 Fassbinder directed the premiere production of his play Katzelmacher, the story of a foreign worker from Greece who becomes the object of intense racial, sexual, and political hatred among a group of Bavarian slackers. A few weeks later, in May 1968, the Action-Theater was disbanded after its theatre was wrecked by one of its founders, jealous of Fassbinder's growing power within the group. It promptly reformed as the Anti-Theater under Fassbinder's direction. The troupe lived and performed together. This close-knit group of young actors included among them Fassbinder, Peer Raben, Harry Baer and Kurt Raab, who along with Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann became the most important members of his cinematic stock company. Working with the Anti-Theater, Fassbinder continued writing, directing and acting. In the space of eighteen months he directed twelve plays. Of these twelve plays, four were written by Fassbinder; he rewrote five others. The style of his stage directing closely resembled that of his early films, a mixture of choreographed movement and static poses, taking its cues not from the traditions of stage theatre, but from musicals, cabaret, films and the student protest movement. Fassbinder used his theatrical work as a springboard for making films. Shot in black and white with a shoestring budget in April 1969, Fassbinder's first feature-length film, Liebe ist kälter als der Tod/Love is Colder than Death (1969), was a deconstruction of the American gangster films of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Fassbinder plays the lead role of Franz, a small-time pimp who is torn between his mistress Joanna, a prostitute (Hanna Schygulla), and his friend Bruno, a gangster sent after Franz by the syndicate that he has refused to join. His second film, Katzelmacher (1969), was received more positively, garnering five prizes after its debut at Mannheim. From then on, Fassbinder centered his efforts in his career as film director, but he maintained an intermittent foothold in the theatre until his death. Fassbinder’s first ten films (1969–1971) were an extension of his work in the theatre, shot usually with a static camera and with deliberately unnaturalistic dialogue. Wikipedia: “He was strongly influenced by Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect) and the French New Wave cinema, particularly the works of Jean-Luc Godard.” Fassbinder developed his rapid working methods early. Because he knew his actors and technicians so well, Fassbinder was able to complete as many as four or five films per year on extremely low budgets. This allowed him to compete successfully for the government grants needed to continue making films. Unlike the other major auteurs of the New German Cinema, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, who started out making films, Fassbinder's stage background was evident throughout his work.

In 1971, Rainer Werner Fassbinder took an eight-month break from filmmaking. During this time, Fassbinder turned for a model to Hollywood melodrama, particularly the films German émigré Douglas Sirk made in Hollywood for Universal-International in the 1950s: All That Heaven Allows, Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life. Fassbinder was attracted to these films not only because of their entertainment value, but also for their depiction of various kinds of repression and exploitation. Fassbinder scored his first domestic commercial success with Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971). Loneliness is a common theme in Fassbinder's work, together with the idea that power becomes a determining factor in all human relationships. His characters yearn for love, but seem condemned to exert an often violent control over those around them. A good example is Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant/The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) which was adapted by Fassbinder from his plays. Wildwechsel/Jailbait (1973 is a bleak story of teenage angst, set in industrial northern Germany during the 1950s. Like in many other of his films, Fassbinder analyses lower middle class life with characters who, unable to articulate their feelings, bury them in inane phrases and violent acts. Fassbinder first gained international success with Angst essen Seele auf/Fear Eats the Soul (1974). which won the International Critics Prize at Cannes and was acclaimed by critics everywhere as one of 1974's best films. Fear Eats the Soul was loosely inspired by Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (1955). It details the vicious response of family and community to a lonely aging white cleaning lady (Brigitte Mira) who marries a muscular, much younger black Moroccan immigrant worker. In these films, Fassbinder explored how deep-rooted prejudices about race, sex, sexual orientation, politics and class are inherent in society, while also tackling his trademark subject of the everyday fascism of family life and friendship. He learned how to handle all phases of production, from writing and acting to direction and theatre management. This versatility surfaced in his films where he served as composer, production designer, cinematographer, producer and editor.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final films, from around 1977 until his death, were more varied, with international actors sometimes used and the stock company disbanded, although the casts of some films were still filled with Fassbinder regulars. Despair (1978) is based upon the 1936 novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov, adapted by Tom Stoppard and featuring Dirk Bogarde. It was made on a budget of 6,000,000 DEM, exceeding the total cost of Fassbinder's first fifteen films. In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden/In a Year of Thirteen Moons (1978) is Fassbinder most personal and bleakest work. The film follows the tragic life of Elvira, a transsexual formerly known as Erwin. In the last few days before her suicide, she decides to visit some of the important people and places in her life. Fassbinder became increasingly more idiosyncratic in terms of plot, form and subject matter in films like his greatest success Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Die Dritte Generation/The Third Generation (1979) and Querelle (1982). Returning to his explorations of German history, Fassbinder finally realized his dream of adapting Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). A television series running more than 13 hours, it was the culmination of the director's inter-related themes of love, life, and power. Fassbinder took on the Nazi period with Lili Marleen (1981), an international co production, shot in English and with a large budget. The script was vaguely based on the autobiography of World War II singer Lale Andersen, The Sky Has Many Colors. He articulated his themes in the bourgeois milieu with his trilogy about women in post-fascist Germany: Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lola (1981) and Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (1982), for which he won the Golden Bear at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. Fassbinder did not live to see the premiere of his last film, Querelle (1982), based on Jean Genet's novel Querelle de Brest. The plot follows the title character, a handsome sailor (Brad Davis) who is a thief and hustler. Frustrated in a homoerotic relationship with his own brother, Querelle betrays those who love him and pays them even with murder.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder had sexual relationships with both men and women. He rarely kept his professional and personal life separate and was known to cast family, friends and lovers in his films. Early in his career, he had a lasting, but fractured relationship with Irm Hermann, a former secretary whom he forced to become an actress. Fassbinder usually cast her in unglamorous roles, most notably as the unfaithful wife in The Merchant of Four Seasons and the silent abused assistant in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. In 1969, while portraying the lead role in the T.V film Baal under the direction of Volker Schlöndorff, Fassbinder met Günther Kaufmann, a black Bavarian actor who had a minor role in the film. Despite the fact that Kaufmann was married and had two children, Fassbinder fell madly in love with him. The two began a turbulent affair which ultimately affected the production of Baal. Fassbinder tried to buy Kaufmann's love by casting him in major roles in his films and buying him expensive gifts. The relationship came to an end when Kaufmann became romantically involved with composer Peer Raben. After the end of their relationship, Fassbinder continued to cast Kaufmann in his films, albeit in minor roles. Kaufmann appeared in fourteen of Fassbinder's films, with the lead role in Whity (1971). Although he claimed to be opposed to matrimony as an institution, in 1970 Fassbinder married Ingrid Caven, an actress who regularly appeared in his films. Their wedding reception was recycled in the film he was making at that time, The American Soldier. Their relationship of mutual admiration survived the complete failure of their two-year marriage. In 1971, Fassbinder began a relationship with El Hedi ben Salem, a Moroccan Berber who had left his wife and five children the previous year, after meeting him at a gay bathhouse in Paris. Over the next three years, Salem appeared in several Fassbinder productions. His best known role was Ali in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). Their three-year relationship was punctuated with jealousy, violence and heavy drug and alcohol use. Fassbinder finally ended the relationship in 1974 due to Salem's chronic alcoholism and tendency to become violent when he drank. Shortly after the breakup, Salem went to France where he was arrested and imprisoned. He hanged himself while in custody in 1977. News of Salem's suicide was kept from Fassbinder for years. He eventually found out about his former lover's death shortly before his own death in 1982 and dedicated his last film, Querelle, to Salem. Fassbinder's next lover was Armin Meier. Meier was a near illiterate former butcher who had spent his early years in an orphanage. He also appeared in several Fassbinder films in this period. After Fassbinder ended the relationship in 1978, Meier deliberately consumed four bottles of sleeping pills and alcohol in the kitchen of the apartment he and Fassbinder had previously shared. His body was found a week later. In the last four years of his life, his companion was Juliane Lorenz), the editor of his films during the last years of his life. On the night of 10 June 1982, Fassbinder took an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills. When he was found, an unfinished script for a film on Rosa Luxemburg was lying next to him. His death marked the end of New German Cinema.

Steve Cohn at IMDb: “Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Known for his trademark leather jacket and grungy appearance, Fassbinder cruised the bar scene by night, looking for sex and drugs, yet he maintained a flawless work ethic by day. Actors and actresses recount disturbing stories of his brutality toward them, yet his pictures demonstrate his deep sensitivity to social misfits and his hatred of institutionalized violence.”

Sources: Steve Cohn (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

German postcard by Verlag Hias Schaschko, München (Munich), no. 209. Photo: Fassbinder during the shooting of Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971), then still called Der Obsthändler/The Grocer.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was a German film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor. Fassbinder was part of the New German Cinema movement. Starting at age 21, Fassbinder made over forty films and TV dramas in fifteen years, along with directing numerous plays for the theatre. He also acted in nineteen of his own films as well as for other directors. Fassbinder died in 1982 at the age of 37 from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was born in Bavaria in the small town of Bad Wörishofen in 1945. The aftermath of World War II deeply marked his childhood and the lives of his bourgeois family. He was the only child of Liselotte Pempeit, a translator and Helmut Fassbinder, a doctor who worked out of the couple's apartment in Sendlinger Strasse, near Munich's red light district. In 1951, his parents divorced. Helmut moved to Cologne while Liselotte raised her son as a single parent in Munich. In order to support herself and her child, Pempeit took in boarders and found employment as a German to English translator. When she was working, she often sent her son to the cinema in order to concentrate. Later in life, Fassbinder claimed that he saw a film nearly every day and sometimes as many as three or four. As he was often left alone, he became independent and uncontrollable. He clashed with his mother's younger lover Siggi, who lived with them when Fassbinder was around eight or nine years old. He had a similar difficult relationship with the much older journalist Wolff Eder, who became his stepfather in 1959. Early in his adolescence, Fassbinder identified as homosexual. As a teen, Fassbinder was sent to boarding school. His time there was marred by his repeated escape attempts and he eventually left school before any final examinations. At the age of 15, he moved to Cologne and stayed with his father for a couple of years while attending night school. To earn money, he worked small jobs and helped his father who rented shabby apartments to immigrant workers. Around this time, Fassbinder began writing short plays and stories and poems. In 1963, aged eighteen, Fassbinder returned to Munich with plans to attend night school with the idea to eventually study theatrical science. Following his mother's advice, he took acting lessons and from 1964 to 1966 attended the Fridl-Leonhard Studio for actors in Munich. There, he met Hanna Schygulla, who would become one of his most important actors. During this time, he made his first 8mm films and took on small acting roles, assistant director, and sound man. During this period, he also wrote the tragic-comic play: Drops on Hot Stones. To gain entry to the Berlin Film School, Fassbinder submitted a film version of his play Parallels. He also entered several 8 mm films including This Night (now considered lost) but he was turned down for admission, as were the later film directors Werner Schroeter and Rosa von Praunheim. He returned to Munich where he continued with his writing. He also made two short films, Der Stadtstreicher,/The City Tramp (1965) and Das Kleine Chaos/The Little Chaos (1966). Shot in black and white, they were financed by Fassbinder's lover, Christoph Roser, an aspiring actor, in exchange for leading roles. Fassbinder acted in both of these films which also featured Irm Hermann. In the latter, his mother – under the name of Lilo Pempeit – played the first of many parts in her son's films.

In 1967 Rainer Werner Fassbinder joined the Munich Action-Theater, where he was active as an actor, director and script writer. After two months he became the company's leader. In April 1968 Fassbinder directed the premiere production of his play Katzelmacher, the story of a foreign worker from Greece who becomes the object of intense racial, sexual, and political hatred among a group of Bavarian slackers. A few weeks later, in May 1968, the Action-Theater was disbanded after its theatre was wrecked by one of its founders, jealous of Fassbinder's growing power within the group. It promptly reformed as the Anti-Theater under Fassbinder's direction. The troupe lived and performed together. This close-knit group of young actors included among them Fassbinder, Peer Raben, Harry Baer and Kurt Raab, who along with Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann became the most important members of his cinematic stock company. Working with the Anti-Theater, Fassbinder continued writing, directing and acting. In the space of eighteen months he directed twelve plays. Of these twelve plays, four were written by Fassbinder; he rewrote five others. The style of his stage directing closely resembled that of his early films, a mixture of choreographed movement and static poses, taking its cues not from the traditions of stage theatre, but from musicals, cabaret, films and the student protest movement. Fassbinder used his theatrical work as a springboard for making films. Shot in black and white with a shoestring budget in April 1969, Fassbinder's first feature-length film, Liebe ist kälter als der Tod/Love is Colder than Death (1969), was a deconstruction of the American gangster films of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Fassbinder plays the lead role of Franz, a small-time pimp who is torn between his mistress Joanna, a prostitute (Hanna Schygulla), and his friend Bruno, a gangster sent after Franz by the syndicate that he has refused to join. His second film, Katzelmacher (1969), was received more positively, garnering five prizes after its debut at Mannheim. From then on, Fassbinder centered his efforts in his career as film director, but he maintained an intermittent foothold in the theatre until his death. Fassbinder’s first ten films (1969–1971) were an extension of his work in the theatre, shot usually with a static camera and with deliberately unnaturalistic dialogue. Wikipedia: “He was strongly influenced by Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect) and the French New Wave cinema, particularly the works of Jean-Luc Godard.” Fassbinder developed his rapid working methods early. Because he knew his actors and technicians so well, Fassbinder was able to complete as many as four or five films per year on extremely low budgets. This allowed him to compete successfully for the government grants needed to continue making films. Unlike the other major auteurs of the New German Cinema, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, who started out making films, Fassbinder's stage background was evident throughout his work.

In 1971, Rainer Werner Fassbinder took an eight-month break from filmmaking. During this time, Fassbinder turned for a model to Hollywood melodrama, particularly the films German émigré Douglas Sirk made in Hollywood for Universal-International in the 1950s: All That Heaven Allows, Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life. Fassbinder was attracted to these films not only because of their entertainment value, but also for their depiction of various kinds of repression and exploitation. Fassbinder scored his first domestic commercial success with Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971). Loneliness is a common theme in Fassbinder's work, together with the idea that power becomes a determining factor in all human relationships. His characters yearn for love, but seem condemned to exert an often violent control over those around them. A good example is Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant/The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) which was adapted by Fassbinder from his plays. Wildwechsel/Jailbait (1973 is a bleak story of teenage angst, set in industrial northern Germany during the 1950s. Like in many other of his films, Fassbinder analyses lower middle class life with characters who, unable to articulate their feelings, bury them in inane phrases and violent acts. Fassbinder first gained international success with Angst essen Seele auf/Fear Eats the Soul (1974). which won the International Critics Prize at Cannes and was acclaimed by critics everywhere as one of 1974's best films. Fear Eats the Soul was loosely inspired by Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (1955). It details the vicious response of family and community to a lonely aging white cleaning lady (Brigitte Mira) who marries a muscular, much younger black Moroccan immigrant worker. In these films, Fassbinder explored how deep-rooted prejudices about race, sex, sexual orientation, politics and class are inherent in society, while also tackling his trademark subject of the everyday fascism of family life and friendship. He learned how to handle all phases of production, from writing and acting to direction and theatre management. This versatility surfaced in his films where he served as composer, production designer, cinematographer, producer and editor.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final films, from around 1977 until his death, were more varied, with international actors sometimes used and the stock company disbanded, although the casts of some films were still filled with Fassbinder regulars. Despair (1978) is based upon the 1936 novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov, adapted by Tom Stoppard and featuring Dirk Bogarde. It was made on a budget of 6,000,000 DEM, exceeding the total cost of Fassbinder's first fifteen films. In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden/In a Year of Thirteen Moons (1978) is Fassbinder most personal and bleakest work. The film follows the tragic life of Elvira, a transsexual formerly known as Erwin. In the last few days before her suicide, she decides to visit some of the important people and places in her life. Fassbinder became increasingly more idiosyncratic in terms of plot, form and subject matter in films like his greatest success Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Die Dritte Generation/The Third Generation (1979) and Querelle (1982). Returning to his explorations of German history, Fassbinder finally realized his dream of adapting Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). A television series running more than 13 hours, it was the culmination of the director's inter-related themes of love, life, and power. Fassbinder took on the Nazi period with Lili Marleen (1981), an international co production, shot in English and with a large budget. The script was vaguely based on the autobiography of World War II singer Lale Andersen, The Sky Has Many Colors. He articulated his themes in the bourgeois milieu with his trilogy about women in post-fascist Germany: Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lola (1981) and Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (1982), for which he won the Golden Bear at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. Fassbinder did not live to see the premiere of his last film, Querelle (1982), based on Jean Genet's novel Querelle de Brest. The plot follows the title character, a handsome sailor (Brad Davis) who is a thief and hustler. Frustrated in a homoerotic relationship with his own brother, Querelle betrays those who love him and pays them even with murder.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder had sexual relationships with both men and women. He rarely kept his professional and personal life separate and was known to cast family, friends and lovers in his films. Early in his career, he had a lasting, but fractured relationship with Irm Hermann, a former secretary whom he forced to become an actress. Fassbinder usually cast her in unglamorous roles, most notably as the unfaithful wife in The Merchant of Four Seasons and the silent abused assistant in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. In 1969, while portraying the lead role in the T.V film Baal under the direction of Volker Schlöndorff, Fassbinder met Günther Kaufmann, a black Bavarian actor who had a minor role in the film. Despite the fact that Kaufmann was married and had two children, Fassbinder fell madly in love with him. The two began a turbulent affair which ultimately affected the production of Baal. Fassbinder tried to buy Kaufmann's love by casting him in major roles in his films and buying him expensive gifts. The relationship came to an end when Kaufmann became romantically involved with composer Peer Raben. After the end of their relationship, Fassbinder continued to cast Kaufmann in his films, albeit in minor roles. Kaufmann appeared in fourteen of Fassbinder's films, with the lead role in Whity (1971). Although he claimed to be opposed to matrimony as an institution, in 1970 Fassbinder married Ingrid Caven, an actress who regularly appeared in his films. Their wedding reception was recycled in the film he was making at that time, The American Soldier. Their relationship of mutual admiration survived the complete failure of their two-year marriage. In 1971, Fassbinder began a relationship with El Hedi ben Salem, a Moroccan Berber who had left his wife and five children the previous year, after meeting him at a gay bathhouse in Paris. Over the next three years, Salem appeared in several Fassbinder productions. His best known role was Ali in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). Their three-year relationship was punctuated with jealousy, violence and heavy drug and alcohol use. Fassbinder finally ended the relationship in 1974 due to Salem's chronic alcoholism and tendency to become violent when he drank. Shortly after the breakup, Salem went to France where he was arrested and imprisoned. He hanged himself while in custody in 1977. News of Salem's suicide was kept from Fassbinder for years. He eventually found out about his former lover's death shortly before his own death in 1982 and dedicated his last film, Querelle, to Salem. Fassbinder's next lover was Armin Meier. Meier was a near illiterate former butcher who had spent his early years in an orphanage. He also appeared in several Fassbinder films in this period. After Fassbinder ended the relationship in 1978, Meier deliberately consumed four bottles of sleeping pills and alcohol in the kitchen of the apartment he and Fassbinder had previously shared. His body was found a week later. In the last four years of his life, his companion was Juliane Lorenz), the editor of his films during the last years of his life. On the night of 10 June 1982, Fassbinder took an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills. When he was found, an unfinished script for a film on Rosa Luxemburg was lying next to him. His death marked the end of New German Cinema.

Steve Cohn at IMDb: “Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Known for his trademark leather jacket and grungy appearance, Fassbinder cruised the bar scene by night, looking for sex and drugs, yet he maintained a flawless work ethic by day. Actors and actresses recount disturbing stories of his brutality toward them, yet his pictures demonstrate his deep sensitivity to social misfits and his hatred of institutionalized violence.”

Sources: Steve Cohn (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Self harm is seen in many ways. Approximately 1 out of 5 females cut and 1 out of 10 males cut. Individuals who cut have usually gone through or are going through something traumatic or emotional in their life. Cutting is a way to relieve and stop the uncontrollable pain they feel. The numbers for this form of abuse are still on the rise.

Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Duplex (4-4-4-4) Steam Engine #5544, one of the Sharks of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The powerful PRR T1 steam engines were designed for one thing - speed. Their massive boilers and split driver design were capable of hauling 910-ton passenger trains at speeds in excess of 100 mph. In fact, they rank as some of the strongest, fastest steam engines ever produced.

History has not been kind to the T1, as they has been labeled as locomotives with heavy and even uncontrollable wheel slippage, even at speed. However, a recent article published in the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine has shed new light on the performance of the T1, and that they did not show any sort of excessive wheel slippage while being tested by the C&O. Read more about the PRR T1s HERE.

The PRR T1s were designed with a rigid wheelbase, but unfortunately LEGO's tight turn radius forced me to articulate her. Still, I am very pleased with the results.

I started working on this design in April of 2008 - it has taken me a year and a half to get this far. I have started and stopped and given up this design many times, I began to feel she was impossible to build. I wish to thank the many Flickr users who helped me along this long road with the T1, including but not limited to: gambort and nnenn who helped me chisel her nose, and bricktrix, Cale Leiphart, Brickapolis, Scotty, Jayhurst, and JamesOfJames for helping me tweak the rest.

3 February at 13.00 - 16.00 Rasmussen Quinteto feat. Leo Minax

Sophisticated jazzy folklore based on the highlands of Brazil! Steen Rasmussen has once again invited Leo Minax, one of Brazil's great vocalists, to Denmark. Together they deliver contemporary Brazilian music as we know it from Gilberto Gil, among others. Sophisticated jazzy folklore based on Brazil's highlands,

Minas Gerais, where Leo Minax has his roots. In addition, they delve into the songs of the bossanova's first man, Antonio Carlos Jobim, which Leo Minax interprets uncontrollably beautifully. Line-up: Leo Minax (BR, voc, g), Steen Rasmussen (p), Lis Wessberg (tb), Bastian Sjelberg (b), Martin Andersen (dm) 10 February at 13.00 - 16.00

Lis Wessberg is among the leading trombonists in Denmark. Known for her beautiful tone and unique feeling on the instrument.

Has played with numerous of Danish top artists in jazz and pop music including Marilyn Mazur, Fredrik Lundin, Lennart Ginman, Jan Kaspersen, Claus Høxbroe, DR Bigband, Hanne Boel and many others.

For Wessberg, a good melody and a full, rich sound are the two most important elements of her performing and composing. Her trombone playing resembles a singer's voice, filled with warmth and emotion. Her compositions are soulful and thoughtful, while her arrangements have an almost dreamy quality.

Wessberg has performed on more than 50 albums.

Lis Wessberg released her debut album, Yellow Map, October 1st 2021.

She has also toured extensively in both Denmark and abroad, often at big festivals, sharing the stage with some of biggest stars in the music firmament, like Joyce Moreno, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band feat. Randy Brecker, to name just a few.

Her career as a trombonist came about quite by chance. When she was just 8 years old, she dreamed of playing in Herlev's local harmony orchestra. When the opportunity arose, the only instrument available was the trombone. Although the choice of instrument was random, she studied assiduously for many years with inspiring teachers, and she became skilled enough at the age of 19 to be admitted to the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. Wessberg completed her education in 1991 and soon began her career as a professional jazz musician.

Lis Wessberg’s influences are Miles Davis, Lee Konitz, Ben Webster, Chet Baker, Radiohead and Mark Hollis of Talk Talk.

FGR invades Zoolander...ridiculously good looking...isn't there more to life?

TRF: when I bought my car, my salesperson's name was Lou Lander. Every time they called his name over the loudspeaker it sounded like ZOOLANDER. I would start giggling uncontrollably.

Also, my dad used to tell me I was beautiful all the time, qualified with the "pretty girls are a dime a dozen, learn to use your brain" statement. I'm still trying to figure out what that means.

Fata Morgana 11/02/2022 12h29

The porch of the prison is the sixth scene in Fata Morgana. A band plays while guards watch a dancer; a confused man is after the boat.

When the boat has sailed just under the Falling Gate and the gates swing open, the visitor enters a dark barracks that is attached to a rock wall. To the left is a high window with flickering light behind it. Straight ahead, the visitor looks straight into the eyes of a confused looking and cross-eyed gunman, who stands some ten meters high on the cliff face and starts yelling directly at the boat and firing at it - it's what uncontrollably and the bullets do splash the water on either side of the boat. Beside him, a lantern rocks in the wind.

On the quay to the right is a veiled belly dancer who entertains the seven watching guards with her dancing skills. A three-piece band provides the accompanying music. One guard gets up and screams when he sees the boat passing by.

The sniper nervously shouts his last Arabic texts, but the boat passes him, turning left into Prison.

Fata Morgana

Fata Morgana, the forbidden city, also known as 1001 Arabian Nights (or "1001 nachten" in Dutch) is a dark ride in amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands. It was designed by Ton van de Ven and Jan Verhoeven and opened in 1986.

Fata Morgana is a dark ride/tow boat ride that was opened in 1986. The attraction is based on the 1001 Arabian Nights. The ride is populated by 140 animatronics. Fata Morgana is set inside a large building with turquoise and gold domes on the roof. A large tower serves as the entrance to the ride. There is a large square outside the ride with palm trees, fountains and flames. The ride's gift shop De Bazaar, and a kiosk, Oase, are located nearby to the ride.

The facade of the ride is a huge domed building painted gold and turquoise. Guests enter through a large tower that serves as the entrance to the ride. They then wait on raised platforms above a round canal with a turntable in the middle. Guests are taken down the stairs and onto the turntable, before boarding 16 passenger boats. There is never more than one boat in each scene, except for the first Jungle scene where one can see the back of a boat turning into the Poor District.

The attraction is considered to be the link between the old fairy-tale style of Anton Pieck and the newer, more intensive rides.

The opening was planned for 1984, but in order to give more time for the designing team it was postponed to 1986. The original name Fata Medina was changed to Fata Morgana to avoid confusion with the Islamic holy city, though it is more likely that it was a reference to the first completed part of the ride, the Medina quarter- the poor district and central marketplace.

The decorative art was bought in the Moroccan city of Marrakech and the animatronics were dressed by Belgian designer Jeanine Lambrechts.

Underwater rotating disks regulate the transport system provided by the Swiss manafucturer Intamin. The whole transport system was developed by Intamin (as a Tow boat ride). Total cost, converted from Guilders: €7 million.

The music for Fata Morgana was composed by composer Ruud Bos, who also wrote the musical themes for Dreamflight,Vogelrok and Villa Volta.

Naturally he chose a Harem style as the base theme for the music. More specifically, the beginning of the ride is linked by orchestral music to the dreamy, mideastern music with flutes and violins of the market, the first setting of the attraction. The music gets darker when the ride passes the prison part. A slow melody sets in upon entering the harbor but is extended with instruments like violins, gongs and a percussion. The musical climax comes when the ride ends in the final scene of the throneroom.

FACTS & FIGURES

Year of opening: 1986

Manufacturer: Intamin

Designer: Ton van de Ven, Jan Verhoeven

Model: Tow boat ride (14 boats)

Animatronics: 137 in total

Speed: 2 km/h

Capacity: 1800 riders per hour

Duration: 8 minutes

Length: 285 meters

[ Source and more Information: Wikipedia - Fata Morgana (Efteling) ]

.357 Magnum fully-automatic revolver.

EDIT - 10/22/2018: Secured the laser sight with two metal "straps" connected to the lower receiver hinge. It will not interfere with hinge movement or reloading.

An unmodified version of the firearm can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/125667481@N02/45483705101/in/datepo...

A truly ostentatious and impractical weapon, the MAF-357 LX is a gold-plated, silver-accented version of the (new) MAF line of automatic revolvers, the parent design has yet to see widespread use amongst its security forces due to the extreme recoil and poor reliability.

The LX, or Luxury variant, is a custom model tailored specifically for high ranking executives of the Thricell Military Conglomerate. This particular model was built for the CEO of the corporation, Montgomery Archibald Bates.

Boasting fully-automatic fire, the MAF-357 favours offensive output above all else, allowing users to take down heavily armored or physically strong targets with ease via brute force.

It achieves the full auto feature using a gas impingement system similar to the M4/M16 series of assault rifles, drawing gas from fired rounds to operate a slide-like mechanism to reset the hammer to the half-cocked position. As the user holds down the trigger, the hammer will cock, strike and reset repeatedly as the weapon's slide reciprocates, effectively providing full auto fire.

However, due to the revolver's fairly light weight, recoil becomes almost uncontrollable, potentially pulling a user's aim far off target, and with the full-auto firing at 400 RPM, many shots can go wayward, wasting ammunition.

To that end, the MAF-357 has been largely considered as a novelty weapon, as its poor overall performance and risk of self-inflicted injury has become a massive hinderance to anyone unfortunate enough to wield this weapon.

This particular model has been equipped with a laser sight to act as both a counter weight and aiming device, as well as a velocity optimized barrel paired with customized ammunition to maximize lethality and impact force. In addition, the slide mechanism has the name "Monty" engraved on both sides.

All models of the MAF-357 feature an eight round cylinder and ambidextrous safety.

This summer marks two years of living with this crazy woman. I honestly could not imagine not having a home without her. We are friends, sisters and everything in-between. We have talked each other out of more trees, laughed our asses off uncontrollably and cried more tears together then I can even explain. When you enter a virtual world you do not anticipate you will meet your best friend there, but it is where I found mine. Here is to unconditional love despite all our differences in personality and rolling through all our epic fuck ups together. Here’s to us!

The first time I heard this song I realized it was our song. It was a moment in time that just clicked. There is even a crazy video of all our random moments in SL I made to it. Then I heard it again on the radio the other day in a new version featuring Slash so I figured I needed to revisit it.

Stuck it out this far together

Put our dreams through the shredder

Let’s toast cause things got better

And everything could change like that

And all these years go by so fast

But nothing lasts forever

A date of "Sep 1955" is stamped on the front of this print, and I'm assuming that it may have been taken at about that point in time. Aleda is standing at the front entrance to our Omaha home...

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

Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website

www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html

and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:

www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html

Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.

So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.

For now, here is a random list of things I remember:

1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.

2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.

3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.

4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.

5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.

6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).

7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.

8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.

9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.

10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted.

11. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.

Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.

Fiat S76 Record (1910) Engine 28,353cc S4

Production 2

Race Number 63 Duncan Pittaway

FIAT SET

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623665060711...

The Fiat S76 Record was built by Fiat in an attempt to take the World Land Speed Record then held by the Blitzen Benz. Powered by a 28,353cc four cylinder engine, producing 290bhp compressed air starting with 3 spark plugs per cylinder, ignition with low voltage magneto, water cooling, transmission with chain, axle suspension rigid with front and rear leaf springs (rear longitudinal struts), 4-speed gearbox plus reverse gear.

The first car constructed was retained by Fiat and was tested by Felice Nazzaro who declared the car uncontrollable.

The second S76 was sold by Fiat to Russian Prince Boris Soukhanov, in 1911. Soukhanov originally hired Pietro Bordino to drive the car on the Brooklands motor racing circuit in Weybridge, Surrey, England. Bordino refused to drive the car faster than 90 mph. It was later driven at the Saltburn Sands beach near Redcar & Cleveland where it reached 116mph. Soukhanov then hired American driver Arthur Duray in a December 1913 land speed record attempt at Ostende, Belgium. Duray managed a one-way speed of 132.27 mph (213 km/h), but was unable to complete a return run within the hour allotted. The Beast of Turin was granted an unofficial title of world's fastest car due to this speed, but not made official due to being unable to complete the run within the time limit.

Following the end WW1 the first S76 built was dismantled by Fiat at the end of 1919. Soukhanov's S76, missing its engine, ended up in Australia, where it was rebuilt and re-powered with a Stutz engine. The S76's career ended when it was crashed at Armadale in the early 1920s while practicing for a race to the coast. In the 1950s, it ended up with early collector Stuart Middlehurst. Middlehurst took the S76's Rudge wheels and hubs to restore one of his Hispano-Suizas. Middlehurst then gave the chassis to Neville Roberts. The chassis was later purchased by Brian Arundale in the 1980s, who identified it as the S76, but no major restoration work was made.

Duncan Pittaway obtained the chassis of Soukhanov's S76 in 2003 and had it shipped to the UK. After the discovery of the surviving S76 engine from the sister car, Pittaway started the rebuild of the S76. Three major parts of the car needed to be recreated from scratch including: The double chain-drive gearbox, the body, and the radiator. All were created by referencing original Fiat drawings, and period photographs. In November 2014, Pittaway and a team of motorists managed to return the S76's engine to working order, although more work was needed before the car was fully operational again. This was completed in 2015 and the "Beast of Turin" was displayed and driven for the first time in almost a century at the Goodwood Festival of Speed between 23 – 26 June 2015. followed just two weeks later by its apearance and timed assault of the Chateau Impney Hillclimb

Many thanks for a fantabulous 40,611,568 views

Shot at the Chateau Impney Hill Climb, Chateuu Impney, Droitwich 12 July 2015 - Ref 108-142

When other light sources are unwieldy and uncontrollable, improvise with a small flashlight, some

heat-shrink tubing, two cable ties, and an incredibly useful gadget called a third hand.

THE "TUB"--"Treatment for uncontrollable behavior"

It must have been an uncontrollable urge for western tourists to take a photograph in traditional japanese outfit. Well, it wasn't always flattering......

Cabinet card, Japan, unidentified photographer, around 1900.

Mea Culpa and apology: I'm sorry for uploading several images in fairly short amount of time. I've been processing some of the files in my pending queue, ahead of all of the new ones which will be being added now that we've moved into warm summer-like weather. Once all of the flowers are blooming, and all of the insects come out to play, I'll fall uncontrollably far behind.

Such is life, I guess. At least you get to see even more variety of what I've been shooting up to now.

This one does hold up pretty nicely in largest uploaded size.

Much like the United States, the Soviet Union took away from the Korean War the idea that the future of fighters lay more in outright speed rather than armament or technology. As the USSR also needed an interceptor to protect against American strategic bombers, it was decided to combine both roles in a single type. Like their American counterparts, the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau experimented with several types of designs, before settling on a “tailed delta” design: though tailless deltas were being worked on in the United States, the Soviets did not chance the new technology entirely. The first Ye-4 prototype flew in June 1955, and after a relatively smooth test program and 40 pre-production MiG-21Fs, the aircraft went into production as the MiG-21F-13 in 1957. When it was publicly shown that year, it received the NATO reporting name “Fishbed,” though it was often confused with the similar (but larger) Su-9 “Fishpot.” Russian pilots nicknamed the MiG-21 the “Balalaika” or “Pencil” for its shape.

Unlike Western fighters, where gun armament was being abandoned in favor of all-missile armaments, the first MiG-21F-13s had two 30mm cannon in the fuselage, along with two missiles on the wings, usually K-13 (NATO reporting name Atoll) infrared types. Pilots flying MiG-21F-13s reported that it had a phenomenal climb rate, perfect for an interceptor, and due to the tailed delta design, it did not suffer as much of a performance penalty in turning dogfights, though it was not as manueverable as the swept-wing MiG-17. Range was also a problem, but the MiG-21 had always been designed as a point-defense interceptor—though this was no solace to MiG-21 pilots when they had run through two of the three fuselage tanks, which would unbalance the aircraft to near uncontrollability. While an experienced pilot could actually use this instability as an advantage, the average Soviet pilot (much less the average Soviet client state pilot) found controlling the MiG-21 difficult without full tanks.

Stability problems and an inadequate radar led Mikoyan-Gurevich to supercede the MiG-21F-13 with the improved MiG-21PF in 1961. This deleted the cannon to save weight, while the fuselage was slightly redesigned to accept the TsD-30T “Spin Scan” radar, making the MiG-21 a truly all-weather interceptor. Continued instability led later production MiG-21PFs to be produced with a larger tail, which became standard on all subsequent MiG-21 variants, though both “small tail” and “big tail” MiG-21PFs served in the Soviet Air Force and client states. This also gave the MiG-21 the ability to fire radar-guided RS-2MS (AA-1 Alkali) missiles, but these were so poor that they were rarely carried.

Though India had received downgraded MiG-21FLs in 1961, which had briefly seen service in the 1964 Indo-Pakistani War, the MiG-21 would receive its baptism of fire in service with the North Vietnamese People’s Air Force, which began to get first MiG-21F-13s and later MiG-21PFs by 1965. The advanced avionics of the MiG-21 made it difficult to adapt to the tropical environment of Vietnam, and initial combat against American F-4 Phantom IIs was disappointing. As North Vietnamese pilots improved, however, so did their kill ratio. Aided significantly by the restrictive Rules of Engagement imposed on American pilots by politicians, MiG-21s could rapidly climb to altitude and wait for instruction from ground-based intercept controllers to go after American formations, though successful pilots were often given permission to “free hunt” and shoot down any Americans they found.

The MiG-21’s small size and smokeless engine made it hard to see, while its ability in the vertical meant that a Vietnamese pilot could engage and disengage at will. (American pilots who later flew captured MiG-21s stateside reported that, had the Vietnamese been better trained in vertical tactics, the abysmal kill ratio of the Vietnam War might have been worse.) It far outclassed the F-105 Thunderchief in all but outright speed, while it could turn inside of the F-4 and was faster at low level; only the US Navy’s gun-armed F-8 Crusader could match the MiG-21 in speed and manueverability.

Vietnamese—and Russian—pilots flying the MiG-21 in combat, however, deplored its lack of vision to the rear (which American fighters of the time shared) and a cluttered vision to the front: using the radar meant sticking one’s face into a scope that shut out the outside world, which would be suicidal in a dogfight. Vietnamese pilots learned to close to within a thousand feet of their target before firing. Compounding their problem was that the MiG-21PF lacked an internal gun and only had two missiles to shoot with, and the missiles themselves were far from reliable—something, ironically, shared by the main opponent of the MiG-21, the F-4. Ejection from the early MiG-21s was also problematic, since the canopy was hinged to the front and designed to form a shield around the pilot when he ejected. In practice, however, the canopy was usually driven back into the pilot at supersonic speeds with often fatal results. Many Vietnamese pilots during the Rolling Thunder phase of the war preferred the subsonic, but cannon-armed and more manueverable MiG-17.

Nonetheless, despite its limitations and those of hidebound Soviet tactics, the MiG-21 excelled in the skies of North Vietnam, achieving parity with better-trained and equipped American pilots. By 1972 and Operation Linebacker, the MiG-21 had nearly replaced the MiG-17 in service. Earlier MiG-21PFs were supplemented by MiG-21PFMs, with a better radar, side-hinging (and safer) canopy, and provision for a fuselage-mounted gunpod. American tactics had improved considerably with US Navy pilots, while the USAF had introduced the gun-equipped F-4E, which evened the odds against the MiG-21s. Nonetheless, at least three North Vietnamese pilots achieved the rank of ace, and possibly more. (One Russian pilot, Vadim Schchbakov, is now known to have flown MiG-21s during Rolling Thunder and likely scored at least six victories.) The MiG-21 was still a formidable opponent in the right hands, though it proved unsuccessful in its original task of interceptor: during mass B-52 Stratofortress raids on North Vietnam in December 1972, only one B-52 was shot down by a MiG (and this remains quite controversial), while three MiG-21s were lost to either B-52 tail guns or collision.

MiG-21PFs had seen combat elsewhere as well. In India, the superb training of Indian pilots matched well with the nimble MiG-21, giving the Indian Air Force an edge against Pakistani F-86s and Hunters. In the Middle East, it did not fare as well against Israeli Mirage IIIs, and later Neshers and F-4Es. While the MiG-21 was more manueverable than all three aircraft, again the high degree of training of Israeli pilots often made the difference, while Egyptian and Syrian pilots were comparatively poorly trained: unlike the North Vietnamese, they were not given a grace period to learn the limitations and advantages of their fighter; during the Six-Day War of 1968, MiG-21s often did not even get into the air before being strafed and bombed by Israeli Mirages. Even so, the Israelis ranked the MiG-21 as their deadliest opponent, and at least one Syrian pilot did make ace.

While the “early” MiG-21s (MiG-21F-13s, MiG-21PF/PFM) were superseded by “late” MiG-21s (MiG-21MF, MiG-21bis), the basic design remained the same, and MiG-21PFs remained in service into the mid-1990s in several nations. Most survivors ended up being scrapped, expended as drones, or consigned to museums; a handful of flyable early MiG-21s remain.

This MiG-21PFM is a former Polish Air Force aircraft, probably delivered in the late 1960s and withdrawn from service in 1989. In 1994, Bort 7809 was acquired by the Armed Forces Military Museum in Largo, Florida in flyable condition. When that museum closed in 2017, the owner of the future National Museum of Military Vehicles acquired the museum's collection, including 7809.

At the time of this writing, 7809 is stored outside, displayed with its engine; undoubtedly, the NMMV will refurbish it before putting it on display. Being stored in Florida's humidity took its toll on the MiG, but it still looks to be in fair shape. 7809 is shown with two K-13 (AA-2) Atoll heat-seeking missiles, and wears Soviet stars, though the remnant of its Polish regiment marking is still faintly visible on the nose.

If you are interested in my works, they are available on Getty Images.

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I think all art is about control - the encounter between control and the uncontrollable.

- Richard Avedon

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● Non-HDR-processed / Non-GND/ND-filtered

● Black Card Technique 黑卡作品

Ah, in another few weeks we'll be seeing once more this wonderful pullulation in the hedges and verges. This was Thursday 1st May 1975, the beginning of the most beautiful month of the English year. All except January have their good points, mind you. This must have been quite late in the afternoon. I'd made a special trip to the HMV shop, then on the corner diagonally opposite the Odeon, to buy the Westerns long-playing record, released that day. I've still got it, although I have no means of playing it. Which was the label that used to put out all those train recordings? It would take half an evening to disinter the record from the back of the old boiler cupboard, but it was one of theirs.

I suppose I must've gone home and given the disc a play-through, then I walked three miles to photograph the 13:15 Paddington-Cardiff, which turned up behind D1046 Western Marquis. This would've been taken as I began to make my way home afterwards ...so probably getting on for four o'clock. Alas, I can't make out the number of the "Peak" from the rather grainy photo, and made no note of it at the time. My eyesight would have been good enough in those days, but of course I was squinting through a viewfinder.

I spent many evenings wandering around this semi-countryside just beyond the suburbs of Bristol with the great pal of my youth. One autumnal evening, on the run-up to Bonfire Night, we bought a pocketful of bangers and a box of Swan Vestas. You remember the instructions that used to be printed on bangers: lay the banger on the ground, light the blue touchpaper and retire to a safe distance. Yeah right. In the field off right of this photo, as we walked along the foot of the railway embankment, my friend lit a banger. The touchpaper burned down and the fuse started "fizzing" ...as we used to say. His intention was to throw the banger, hand-grenade fashion, so that it exploded in mid-air. This had to be judged to a nicety, of course. The "fizzing" would intensify as the moment of detonation approached; one had to listen and sieze the precisely correct moment. He reached back to throw, but at that moment the banger went off. Trudging along in the darkness ten yards behind I heard the bang and a torrent of imprecations as my friend hopped around on the turf in a maelstrom of little fiery embers. It was impossible not to laugh ...and I couldn't stop. For the rest of the evening and for days afterwards I'd suddenly start guffawing at the thought of it. It sounds callous, but I could see in the moment that he wasn't hurt. I think he was holding the banger at the end by his fingertips, or perhaps it exploded at the moment of leaving his hand; anyway, there was no injury. In adulthood one's laughter is mostly synthetic; one reproduces the appearance of laughter as a signal that what one has said is meant to be received as humorous, or one extends the courtesy of receiving as funny what has been said by another. There are occasional exceptions, at intervals of many years, but one never as a grown-up laughs spontaneously and uncontrollably as one did in childhood and youth.

Consciousness about controlling the uncontrollable.

On Saturday evening, 3 December 1960, a full rehearsal short of actual launch was being conducted by Robert Rhodus, the Martin Company OSTF test conductor. It was the ninth attempt – all of the other attempts had failed due to minor equipment malfunctions. The missile was loaded with liquid oxygen, it was raised to the surface from the silo, and the countdown began.

However, something went horribly wrong. The entire braking system was compromised and the missile began an uncontrollable descent to the bottom of the silo, where LOX and RP1 mixed, causing a massive explosion.

In the years that followed, enormous chunks of concrete could be seen on the hills near the Titan I facility, and a complete reference system gyro was found on the Marshalia Ranch Golf Course, more than a mile away from the blast site.

Read more about our journeys to Vandenberg missile sites here >>

Alternate Source | Become a Fan

As Humans we imagine a lot..

As Mortals we dream a ton

But wouldn't it be nicer if

we work and strive for that

There are things beyond our realms

Situations inevitable, Feelings uncontrollable

Nevertheless it matters if we believe

you and me, above us only sky

Picture taken in very bad conditions. Bright sun and eradicate uncontrollable shades.

[View On Black]

Make me fumble/

Make me fall/

Make my heart stop and start/

To tremble uncontrollably/

Let my eyes see fear make desire/

Keep those who long apart/

Forbid the kiss/

And leave us innocent/

Of the things some do in the dark/

Cuz Tracy is the one to me.

Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 6604.

On 16 April 2020, French Chanson singer and composer Christophe (1945) a.k.a. Daniel Bevilacqua has passed away. Christophe became famous in the early 1960s with his hits 'Aline' and 'Oh!... Mon Amour' which he sang in French and Italian. He died of complications by the Coronavirus at the age of 74.

Christophe was born Daniel Georges Jacques Bevilacqua in the Paris suburb of Juvisy-sur-Orge, in 1945. His father was an Italian-born building contractor. Daniel grew up to be an uncontrollable rebel. He hated school with a vengeance, complaining that his studies bored him to death, and by the age of 16 the young rebel had managed to get expelled from a dozen French boarding schools and 'lycées'. Like many other young teenagers in France, Daniel was bitten by the rock & roll bug in the late 1950s. he dreamed of launching his own music career and he devoted all his spare time to practicing guitar and teaching himself to play the harmonica. Daniel went on to form his first group in 1961, becoming the lead singer and guitarist of Les Hooligans. Danny Baby et Les Hooligans performed widely on the local bar and club circuit, playing covers of Gene Vincent songs and rock & roll classics such as 'Heartbreak Hotel'. In 1965, he changed his name to Christophe and had a massive hit with 'Aline'. This slow, romantic ballad proved phenomenally successful with the French public and went on to sell over 1 million copies. It was the smash hit of the summer of 1965. Following the phenomenal success of 'Aline', Christophe went on to record a whole string of hits such as 'Marionnettes' (1965), 'J'ai entendu la mer' (1966) and 'Excusez-moi Monsieur le Professeur' (1967). Another hit was the song 'Oh!... Mon Amour' which he sang in French and Italian. Christophe wasted no time in acquiring a rock & roll lifestyle to go with his new status as leading 60's pop star. The singer soon developed a real passion for sports cars, and he was often to be seen cruising around Paris in his collection of shining new Lamborghinis. Christophe eventually became so obsessed with fast cars and powerful engines that he ended up taking part in a Formula 1 race in 1968. He composed a part of the soundtrack of the film La route de Salina/Road to Salina (Georges Lautner, 1970). The song 'Sunny Road to Salina' returned years later on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004).

After a small break, Christophe returned in 1971, with Francis Dreyfus launching the record company Disques Motor and becoming the producer of Christophe records. The results were the albums 'Les Paradis perdus' (Lost Paradises, 1973) and 'Les mots bleus' (Blue Wordsd, 1974) with lyrics by Jean-Michel Jarre). They marked a turning-point in Christophe's musical style, and also heralded a radical change of image. Christophe left his squeaky clean 'Boy Next Door' look behind, re-inventing himself as a decadent and flamboyant dandy. Christophe's singing style had also changed - gone were the days of pop idol seriousness, Christophe now sang in a detached, faintly ironic way, crooning his way almost sarcastically through his new hit 'Señorita'. This new-style Christophe appeared to go down extremely well with his fans. Indeed, when the singer performed at the prestigious Olympia concert-hall in Paris in November 1974, his show was greeted with rapturous applause and hysterical cries of 'encore'. Suffering from a bout of nervous exhaustion and depression, the singer soon acquired a destructive drug habit. In 1978, he came back with 'Le Beau Bizarre'. Christophe's career appeared to be heading into a downward spiral when his wife, Véronique, encouraged him to re-release his very first hit single 'Aline'. Véronique's suggestion proved to be a brilliant idea - in 1980 'Aline' catapulted Christophe back to the top of the French charts, and sold 3.5 million copies. In 1983, Christophe released the single, 'Succès fou' (Crazy Success), followed by the album 'Clichés d'amour' (1984) on which he sang 1940s and 1950s classics such as 'Arrivederci Roma' and 'Dernier baiser', a French version of the Mexican classic 'Besame mucho'. In 1985, he wrote 'Ne raccroche pas' a song which is believed to be about the Princess Stephanie of Monaco. The following year, he wrote the song 'Boule de flipper' for Corynne Charby. In 1996, after a break, he returned with his album 'Bevilacqua'. It marked the beginning of a major Christophe comeback. For the very first time in his career, the singer wrote all of the songs on his new album, which revealed a more sympathetic, personal side to the public. Christophe, who had developed a passionate interest in synthesisers and techno, also explored the new possibilities offered by computers and he spent several months locked away in his home studio sampling voices and electronic sounds for 'Bevilacqua'. In 2001, he released another album 'Comm' si la terre penchait' (As If the Earth was Leaning At An Angle). This album confirmed Christophe's remarkable comeback and also proved his talent as an acute social observer and his ability to take new musical influences on board and weave them into imaginative new fusion styles. In February 2002, Christophe performed, in Clermont-Ferrand, his first live concert in more than two decades, followed by two appearances at the Olympia in March 2002. In 2011, Christophe took part in a tribute album for Alain Bashung two years after the latter's death. He sang 'Alcaline', a song written by Bashung in 1989 for his album Novice. Christophe released 14 studio albums in all, the most recent, 'Les Vestiges du Chaos', in 2016. As an actor, Christophe could be seen in Quand j’étais chanteur/The Singer (Xavier Giannoli, 2006) with Gérard Depardieu, Jeanne/Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont, 2019) and a few short films. He played an angel in the yet unreleased film Sol y sombra (Dominique Abel, 2020) with Jacqueline Bisset. Christophe died of emphysema after being in critical condition due to COVID-19 associated with a previous comorbidity (COPD) on 16 April 2020. In the 1960s, Christophe was in a relationship with singer Michelle Torr. In 1971, he married his girlfriend Véronique Kan and they had a daughter, Lucie.

Sources: RFI Musique, Les Gens du Cinema (French). Wikipedia and IMDb.

at home, west dulwich

Kiev 88, Arsat 80mm f2.8, Neopan 400

larger

A date of "Sep 1955" is stamped on the front of this print, and I'm assuming that it may have been taken at about that point in time. Patrice and Aleda are standing at the front entrance to our Omaha home...

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

Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website

www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html

and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:

www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html

Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.

So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.

For now, here is a random list of things I remember:

1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.

2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.

3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.

4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.

5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.

6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).

7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.

8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.

9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.

10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted.

11. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.

Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.

itsonlyfashionblog.com/2015/02/11/in-which-the-blogger-gu...

Seeing as today is St Leonards Day, which isn't noted in any Gregorian calendar that you'll find, I thought I'd do my bit to honour this most illusory of Saints through the medium of Railway Photography.

My initial thoughts this morning were trading towards disappointment, as in my eagerness to see this train run, the fifteen minutes extra it spent at Derby, pre-departure getting later, might as well have been an hour, cursor again and again hitting the 'refresh' widget, thoughts uncontrollably flapping, teeth grinding in an impatient manner, and with much pursing of lips in a side to side type motion. Then, one quarter of an hour later, I see progress through wizened eyes. It was time to unbox my car, and hit the road, Leonard.

I arrived early at Nether Whitacre, something I was fairly proud of, which gave me chance to consider my shot.

37175, happens on the rear at Whitacre Junction, a hill away from Coleshill Parkway, and roughly one third through it's run to Landore T.M.D.

Happy St Blenarps Day.

Life is but a dream among the wilderness....

We had an assignment to write our version of what happened in the movie Rashomon- as if we were present and witnessed the scene. Here's my version.

"I often imagine we are all lost forever in the forest called life. The more we try to find our way out, the deeper we are lost. We don’t know what’s around the bend. What is beautiful could also be dangerous… like a thicket of beautiful vines that could entangle you or like a delicious looking fruit that is poisonous .We tread cautiously, ridden with fear of the unknown. Fears that are real, and fears that are imaginary. We all witness the dance of bright beautiful sunlight and deep and dark shadows; birth and death, happiness and sadness, fortune and misfortune. If you explore you might unravel deep hidden secrets. Or you may keep seeking forever and never find an answer. Life Robert Frost says, “The woods are lovely and dark and deep”.

My art is mostly inspired by life, and hence I often go to the woods for inspiration. There is something very soothing and magical to be away from the world for a while and listen to your thoughts. But on that fateful afternoon I didn’t hear my thoughts; nor did I hear the soft rustle of the leaves or the enchanting ripples of the lake. Instead I heard the high pitched screams of a woman being raped that made me shudder without control. I couldn’t get up; I couldn’t even move… it was like my entire being was frozen. I was sitting by the jetty, and had a beautiful view of the lake and a stretch of forest with lovely pines. But what happened there turned the lake into a river of blood, the pines into swaying looming ghosts and the blue sky turned into a muddy gray and purple under which souls are crushed. I am not saying that to sound rhetoric. That is how the landscape actually turned in my head, like my mind started hallucinating just so I could watch the woman being raped by a bandit as her husband lied helplessly tied to a tree, like it was unreal.

It was impossible to register in my mind that I was witnessing a rape and murder. I was feeling like it just couldn’t happen to me, it just can’t be true. And yet the truth is there is a victim of rape every minute in the world and a victim of murder every thirty two minutes. Just take a minute and imagine. If imagining it can be shuddering, just imagine how horrid it would be if you had to experience it for real. Besides the victim, even their near and dear ones are left with scars on their memories that would never erase. That is why the woman’s husband must have killed himself. The bandit fled with the Samurai’s horse after he raped his wife. The Samurai’s wife just lied on the ground sobbing uncontrollably and then she limped to the tree to untie her husband. She must have wanted him to hold her, to embrace and reassure her, but all he did was walk past her. His behavior was very stone like. May be that’s how one becomes when faced with pain beyond endurance; you become numb. How painful it would have been for the Samurai to stay alive and remember every single moment of his life how mercilessly his wife was abused right in front of his eyes and he could do nothing to rescue her. I just blinked my eyes shut as I watched the samurai lift his wife’s dagger and motioned to shove it into his chest. I just closed my eyes and sat there never wanting to open them again. The world felt so ugly I didn’t want to see it again. And then I opened my eyes to the soft sobs of the woman as she moaned over her husband’s body. Eventually she stopped sobbing and the forest was engulfed in a deafening silence.

And then I was jolted to a state of panic and madness as my mind screamed to me, “Just run! Get away from here… This is not beautiful…Run from it all… Go away! Run! What if the bandit is still lurking around… What if he sees you? What if there is a whole gang of bandits in the forest?? Is there a safe place anywhere n earth? I just want to run to some place where no one can get me! What am I running from? Where do I want to go? Is there anyone I could rust to protect me? I need assurance, I wish I had a man to hold and comfort me! I am scared… I want to get out of the woods… which way do I go? I am lost…….”

And I just fled away from there… I didn’t walk to the woman and help her. I didn’t go and comfort her. For some reason I was afraid of her. I don’t think I can face her. I somehow feel guilty. I wish I had done something. I wish I could forget this whole incident. I wish I could go to the woods again….

I often wonder why the woman denies being raped. Why does she say she was lost in passion for the bandit? May be it is easier to blame someone else for your suffering. May be being angry and starting to hate someone you used to love helps erase pain. Yes, that must be so… She must have actually started to believe her story and blot the ugly memory of her rape. I wish she can get rid of all her ghosts…

As for me, I am still living with my ghosts. They are questions about life, about truth… They are why, and what if, and how, and why? And why… Why? Why??? Why????

I wish I could find the answers to my questions. I wonder if I could ever find my answers and make that ringing stop.

I wish I knew much more about life, but a lifetime is too short for that….. "

Hemali Tanna- VIZA 612

Many thanks to the follwing for their stock:

The beautiful model is: Chobits 22 by ~Lisajen-stock

lisajen-stock.deviantart.com/art/Chobits-22-88097850

Forest Roads Stock Pack by ~sophia-T

sophia-t.deviantart.com/art/Forest-Roads-Stock-Pack-38848422

Birds of A Feather by ~midnightstouch

midnightstouch.deviantart.com/art/Birds-of-A-Feather-4276...

On Monday 21st. February 1944 the 385th. BG, part of the 4th. Bombardment Wing, 8th. Air Force was tasked to provide 34 aircraft to carry out a diversionary raid on the Diepholz aircraft depot in N.W. Germany while the main force would attack an aircraft components works at Brunswick in Lower Saxony.

Two of the aircraft that took off from USAAF Station 155 at Great Ashfield, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk to fly to Diepholz were B-17G, 42-31370, coded SG-O, from the 550th. BS commanded by Capt. John Hutchison and B-17G, 42-37963, coded XA-O, from the 449th. BS commanded by 1st. Lt. Warren Pease. The Hutchinson crew were flying on their 25th. combat mission and cameraman 'Bud' Creegan was aboard to capture the completion of their tour of duty. Hutchinson's regular bombardier, Ed Gamble had been ill and his place was taken by Clarence Soucek, but during the briefing Gamble asked Soucek to swap as he didn't want to miss the 25th. mission.

German defences were light and despite inclement weather severe damage was inflicted on the target.

At 15.39 the returning bombers crossed the East Anglian coast at a height of 8,000 ft. at 52-43N, 01-41E, north of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The cloud base was at 4,000ft and was up to 3,000 ft. thick. The weather conditions were poor and Lt. Col. James McDonald, group leader that day, reduced the danger of collision by ordering the descent through the cloud in three-ship elements.

Capt. Hutchinson led one vic of three aircraft, Lt. Pease flew off his starboard wing and Lt. John Terrace flew on the port wing. Due to his position in the cockpit Lt. Terrace gave command of his bomber to Lt. Eugene St. John who had a better view of the lead bomber from his co-pilots seat. In the cloud, with no horizon, each pilot had to fly on their instruments. In the cloud it is thought that Lt. Pease may have suffered virtigo and lost control of his aircraft which entered a spin. To recover from a spin full rudder is applied in the opposite direction and the aircraft is placed in a dive, when the turn-and-slip indicator is centred the aircraft is pulled up and returned to level flight. The flight manual requires that the manoeuvre must be 'smooth and gradual' but with low height Pease and his co-pilot were struggling to do this.

When the formation emerged from the cloud St. John notice Pease's bomber was missing, then the bomber broke cloud in a very steep dive astern of Hutchinson's aircraft. With the altitude now at less than 1,000 ft. Pease flew under his leader and pulled up sharply into the path of the on-coming bomber. The starboard propeller (No. 3) of Hutchinson's bomber tore into the spine of Pease's aircraft completely severing the tail section that fell to earth. Seeing this happening St. John instinctively broke hard to port to save his aircraft. Continuing upwards, the front two-thirds of Pease's aircraft looped uncontrollably above Hutchinson's aircraft before cutting back onto it and breaking it in half, sending it crashing to the ground at Mill Dyke where it exploded on impact. The tail-less Pease aircraft swung 180 degrees towards the village of Freethorpe, miraculously flying level and making as if to crash land near Decoy Carr. The bomber slithered across the marsh before smashing into a dyke edge and exploding.

All twenty-one crew on the two bombers were killed.

B-17G Flying Fortress 42-37963, 449th BS, 385th BG

Pilot: 1st. Lt. Warren Jay Pease. Service number O-677864. Air Medal with 1 oak leaf cluster. Purple Heart. Buried at Cambridge American Cemetery in Plot B Row 5 Grave 40. He was born 19th. March 1922, at Juniata, Adams County, Nebraska. He married Marcia Kraschel in 1943.

Co-pilot: 2nd. Lt. Edward Blase Brown. Born 17th. Service number O-682781. February 1918 at Fort Benton, Chouteau, Montana and appears to have been repatriated to Fort Benton and buried in Riverside Cemetery. Enlisted in the Army Air Corps at San Francisco on the 17th. April 1942 as a Private, service number 19884120. He was single without dependants, had completed 4 years of college and worked as a clerk in a general office.

Navigator: 2nd. Lt. Bernard Kaplan. Service number O-808074. Born in Canada on 14th. June 1914. The body was returned to the States and reburied in Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida. On 2nd. January 1949 the body received a military escort from the US to the Beth Isreal Cemetery & Memorial Garden, Burnaby, Greater Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia, Canada where it was reburied in Row 54 A.

Bombardier: 2nd. Lt. Robert E. Jenkins. Service number O-683138. Born 25th. August 1921 at Taylor, Pennsylvania, enlisted at Greensburg, Pennsylvania on the 25th. March 1943, as Private 33441288. He was single with dependents. He had completed 4 years of high school and his occupation in civilian life was classified as semi-skilled mechanic & repairman. His body was returned to the US and reburied at Taylor Cemetery, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.

Flight engineer./top turret gunner: Tech. Sgt. William R. Clift. Service number 14134324. Air Medal with 1 oak leaf cluster. Purple Heart. He is buried at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Grave A.7.17, having come from Hamilton County, East Tennessee. Born 1921 in Tennessee, enlisted on the 17th. August 1942 at Camp Forrest, Tennessee as Private 14134324. A married man who had completed 4 years of high school, he worked as a carpenter in civil life.

Radio operator: Tech. Sgt. William Gill Jr. Service number 15324283. Born 13th. October 1924 at Triadelphia, West Virginia. Enlisted on 7th. November at Columbus, Ohio. The body was returned to the US and he is now buried in Saint Clairsville Union Cemetery, Belmont, Ohio.

Ball turret gunner: Staff Sgt. Franklin Charles Owsley. Service number 19056375. The body was returned to the states and interred at Alamosa Municipal Cemetery, Alamosa, Colorado. He was born on the 27th. May 1910 at Grain Valley, Jackson County, Missouri. Single without dependents, he enlisted at Fort Macarthur, San Pedro, California on the 21s.t February 1941 as Private 19056375. He had previously been an actor and had completed 3 years of college.

Tail gunner: Staff Sgt. Junior Matthew Falls. Service number 35539769. The body was returned to the US and now rests in the Oak Grove Cemetery, at Bowling Green, Wood County, Ohio. He is buried next to his brother, Lt. James R. Falls, who also died in combat. He was born on the 10th. October 1922 at Cygnet, Wood County, Ohio. Single and without dependents, he enlisted at Toledo, Ohio, on the 2nd. January 1943 as Private 35539769. He had completed 3 years of high school. Prior to enlistment his employment was classified as “semiskilled structural and ornamental metal worker”.

Left waist gunner: Staff Sgt. Harold E. Dickason. Service number 35339290. Air Medal. Purple Heart. Buried in Cambridge American Cemetery. Born Illinois in 1921, enlisted at Toledo, Ohio on the 8th. September 1942 as Private 35339290. A married man who had 1 year of college education, his civilian employment was classified as “semi-skilled occupations in manufacture of miscellaneous lumber products”.

Right waist gunner: Staff Sgt. Gail Farrell Bruner. Service number 17166484.The body was returned to the US and was buried at Ruhamah Cemetery in Rantoul, Franklin County, Kansas. He was born on the 6th. September 1919. Enlisted in November 1942.

B-17G Flying Fortress 42-31370, 550th. BS, 385th. BG.

Pilot: Capt. John Neal Hutchinson Jr. Service number O-795135. The body was subsequently returned to the US and buried at Greenville Cemetery, Washington County, Mississippi. He was born on the 10th. February 1920 and enlisted at Jackson, Mississippi on the 17th. January 1942 as an Aviation Cadet. His serial number was 14070803. He had completed 2 years of college and was working as a farm hand. He was single and without dependants.

Co-pilot: 2nd. Lt. Charles Gordon Curtis. Service number O-742971. Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters. Purple Heart. Born 13th. December 1923 at Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts, is buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery in Plot F, Row 3, Grave 22. Enlisted at Boston on the 7th. April 1942 in the Army Air Corps as Private 11068766. Single, without dependants, he had completed 4 years of high school and was then working as a semi-skilled mechanic and repairman.

Navigator: 1st. Lt. John Ellis Epps. Service number O-673516. Born 5th. February 1918 at Richmond City, Virginian. Buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery.

Bombardier: 1st. Lt. Edmond J. Gamble. Service number O-669266. The body was subsequently returned to the US and now lies in the Mausoleum at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield, Oakland County, Michigan. The memorial plaque records that he was born in Michigan in 1918. Enlisted at Detroit on the 14th. April 1941 and was given service number 36110224. Single, and without dependants, he was a machinist prior to signing up.

Flight engineer./top turret gunner: Tech. Sgt. Roy Clark Kitner. Service number 33237387. Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart. Born 3rd. November 1921 at New Bloomfield, Perry County, Pennsylvania, buried at the Cambridge American Cemetery, Plot C Row 6 Grave 40. He is also remembered in the Bloomfield Cemetery. Enlisted at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on the 31st. July 1942. He was previously a farm hand and was single without dependants.

Radio operator: Tech. Sgt. William Jerry Dukes. Service number 14108210. The body was subsequently returned to the US and now rests in Potomac Cemetery, Potomac, Vermilion County, Illinois.. He was born on 11th February 1921 at Collison Illinois. Enlisted at Fort McClellan, Alabama on the 17th. July 1942 as Private 14108210. Single and without dependants, William is stated to have completed 4 years of high school and his previous job was classified as “general farmer”.

Ball turret gunner: Staff Sgt. John Homer Erhardt. Service number 13023397. The body was returned to the US and now rests in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia in Section 12, Site 8122. He was born on the 9th. June 1920 in Washington, District of Columbia. Enlisted at Washington on the 4th. June 1941. Single and with no dependants, he had completed one year of high school and was then working as an insurance salesman.

Tail gunner: Staff Sgt. Joseph John Carpoinette. Service number 33349646. Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart. Born 7th. August 1920 at Sugar Notch, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was buried at the Cambridge American Cemetery, Plot A Row 3 Grave 12. Enlisted at Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on the 25th. July 1942. He’d completed 4 years of High School, was single without dependants and his civilian occupation was recorded in the group “managers and officials”.

Left waist gunner: Staff Sgt. Emilio M. Corgnatti. Service number 11009774. Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, Purple Heart. Born 2nd. October 1915 in Springfield, Massachusetts and is buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery in Plot B, Row 6, Grave 59. Enlisted at Springfield, Massachusetts on the 23rd. January 1942. Single and without dependents, he was educated to grammar school level, and had previously worked as a machinist.

Right waist gunner: Staff Sgt. Peter Bobulsky Jr. Service number 35324186. Air Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters. The body was returned to the States in 1948 and he now rests in Holy Spirit Cemetery, Parma, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, He was born 26th. April 1921. Enlisted in Cleveland on the 9th. September 1942. Single and without dependents, he had completed 4 years of high school. It’s not known what his pre-enlistment occupation was.

Photographer: Staff Sgt. Frank Leo Creegan Jr. Service number 17075825. The remains were returned to the US and he is now at rest in El Reno Cemetery, El Reno, Canadian County, Oklahoma. He was born in Henryetta, Oklahoma on 13th. April 1922. Enlisted at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri on the 13th. July 1942. Single and without dependents, he had completed 2 years of college, and his previous job was classified as “unskilled occupations in printing and publishing”.

The crash sites were excavated at various times from January 1964 to July 1978. The engine and collision scared propeller from the Hutchinson B-17 are displayed at Parham airfield, near Framlingham, Suffolk. Other artefacts can be seen in the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, Suffolk and the 100th. Bomb Group Museum at Thorpe Abbotts, near Diss, Norfolk.

The Channel 4 TV programme 'Time Team' did an episode on this crash, first broadcast 21st. February 1999. Series 6, Episode 8.

The memorial is on Riverside in Reedham and is placed next to the village war memorial.

Stuart Friedman - The Tease

Stag Modern Novels SP34, 1964

Cover Artist: unknown

"She was driven by an uncontrollable urge to want this man..."

Well after constructing a LEGO Star Trek Sulu minifigure I started thinking about the scenes that Sulu was famous. The TV episode that immediately comes to my mind is The Naked Time. As the custom was an easy mod, only requiring the head from yesterday's figure, the sword from the collectible minifigure musketeer, and the torso from Dastan; I figured, why not!

Episode Plot from Wiki with some alterations by me:

On stardate 1704.2, the starship USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, beams a landing team down to a research station on the planet Psi 2000, a world in the midst of breaking up. The team finds all six of the scientists manning the station dead. The circumstances of their deaths are not apparent; however, the life support systems had been found shut down and all control systems frozen solid.

One of the Enterprise crewmen, Mr. RED Shirt, carelessly removes his gloves and is contaminated by a strange red liquid. When Mr. RED Shirt returns to the ship he notices a strange itch and begins to act irrationally. Mr. RED Shirt threatens Lt. Sulu with a knife, then attempts to turn it on himself. Mr. RED Shirt is stopped and escorted to the sickbay where he later dies apparently from the superficial wounds he caused himself during the incident.

Soon Mr. RED Shirt's bizarre affliction begins to affect other crew members and quickly spreads through the ship. They each begin to display both comical and horrific exaggerations of character.

As the affliction spreads, Sulu abandons his post on the bridge and runs around the ship shirtless, brandishing a sword, and challenging everyone to a duel. Nurse Chapel confesses her deepest desires for Spock, though Spock rejects her. Spock himself shows troubled emotions and begins weeping uncontrollably because he can't tell his mother he loves her. He tells Captain Kirk that he feels ashamed when he feels friendship toward him. Captain Kirk is also affected, first becoming overly romantic toward the ship, then exhibiting paranoia, breaking down for fear that he is losing his ability to command.

McCoy manages to avoid the affliction and finds that somehow on Psi 2000, water has changed to a complex chain of molecules and once in the bloodstream, it acts like alcohol, depressing the centers of judgment and self-control.

Oh, and the image above is inspired from a T-Shirt

Constantius II caesar, 324 – 327. Medallion of four and a half solidi, Nicomedia July 325, AV 19.89 g. FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C Half-length bust diademed, draped and cuirassed l., holding Victory on globe in r. hand and a sword with handle in the shape of an eagle head in l. The cuirass is adorned with medusa head. Rev. PRICIPI – IVVE – NTVTIS Prince standing l., holding in r. hand standard and in l. sceptre; behind, two standards. In exergue, SMN:. C –. Alföldi –, cf. 386 and pl. 19, 242 (Thessalonica and bust r.). RIC –, cf. 139 (Thessalonica and bust r.). Gnecchi –. Toynbee –, cf. pl. XIX, 7 (Thessalonica and bust r.). Depeyrot p. 154 (Thessalonica and bust r.).

An apparently unrecorded variety of an exceedingly rare type. One of the most impressive

gold medallion of this period in existence. A spectacular portrait and incredibly detailed

reverse composition, work of an incredibly skilled master engraver. An absolutely

unobtrusive mark on obverse field and one on edge. Virtually as struck and Fdc

Born on 7 August A.D. 317, Constantius II was the second of the three sons born to Constantine I and Fausta. At the ripe age of seven, he was appointed to the rank of Caesar at Nicomedia on 13 November A.D. 324. This outstanding multiple-solidus medallion was struck to commemorate his elevation and was probably distributed as a donative while the young Caesar was at Nicomedia with his father. After all, nothing helps to cement the loyalty of the army to a young and inexperienced leader like beautiful gold.

Despite the extreme youth of Constantius II, the stunning obverse portrait represents him as a seasoned warrior, fully prepared for battle. He wears a cuirass and cradles a parazonium in his arm while he carries a globe and Victory in his hand, all of which serve to express the imperial hopes for the young Caesar. The cuirass with small but the prominent gorgoneion on the chest together with the plain diadem that Constantius II wears connect him to Alexander the Great, who was similarly depicted and frequently imitated by Roman emperors as a means of illustrating their own greatness. Other coin portraits also represent Constantine with a plain diadem and an elevated gaze, which also play on the theme of Alexander the Great. The plain diadem on the solidus of Constantius II is a clear departure from the usual laurel wreath used to indicate the portrait of a Caesar on coins of the late third and early fourth centuries. The parazonium also seems to cast Constantius II as a living representation of Virtus, the Roman personification of manliness and martial skill who often appears as a cuirassed figure cradling this sheathed weapon. At the same time, the connection to Virtus also plays on the theme of Alexander the Great. It was a common rhetorical exercise in antiquity to debate whether the greatness of Alexander should be attributed to his fortune (Fortuna) or to his virtue (Virtus). Clearly Constantine (and no doubt all of Alexander’s other Roman imitators) preferred the side of Virtus in this question since it associated greatness with the qualities of the individual rather than uncontrollable external forces.

The reverse legend names Constantius II as “prince of the youth” – a traditional title given to imperial heirs to the throne since the time of Augustus (27 B.C.-A.D. 14). The type depicting the Caesar with standards visually presents him as having the support of the army and illustrates his right to command it. This too is traditional, with similar types used on coins already in the second quarter of the third century

NAC106, 1069

Andy Warhol said (to quote him exactly) that "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes." Scottish castles have mostly had their 15 minutes of fame too! Excitement came to Hudshouse in 1745.

When Bonnie Prince Charlie left Edinburgh on October 31st with his Jacobite army, intent on marching to London to recover the crown that was rightfully his father's, he used a stratagem! On the advice of Lord George Murray, his most capable military commander, he made as if to march down the east coast, where General Wade awaited him in Newcastle, but then disappeared into the hills, passing through Jedburgh and across into the Liddesdale, by way of the Note O' the Gate - the way I just came too. A description still survives of their progress down Liddesdale. One of the things I find interesting about it is that descriptions of the Uprising written by those with Jacobite sympathies tend to paint a picture of 'the noble Highlander', while Hanoverian writers describe the Highlanders as uncontrollable marauding bandits!

In 1745 the rebel army passed down the valley of Liddel. The army entered Liddisdale by the Knote of the Gate at the head of the river, on its march from Jedburgh. Robert Jardine, a shepherd who was tending his flock on the sources of the river, described the Highlanders as marching without any order as they came in sight in the weather gleam, spreading themselves over the vale, carrying off sheep and cattle, attacking and robbing every unfortunate countryman that fell in their way. Three of them seized Jardine with the intention of robbing him, but fortunately for him, he had a very small sum on his person, and even that he contrived to conceal.

(Buisting is marking sheep for identification. Done with dye these days, but with a mix containing tar back then!)

The hangings of the bed in which the Pretender slept at Larriston were lately in the possession of an old woman, Jardine, whose family lived there at that time.

Neither maps (old or new) nor the internet give any indication as to the location of the "Hielandmans Grave."

hey! sorry ive been MIA. (exams, then break hit me)

I've been busy, and im sorry about the crappy picture of.. yeah. fruit..

i have no ideas.

thank you for 450+ views 500!!!!

okay ive been tagged by KAREN. and i dont really know how this works yet? i believe im supposed to write 10 facts about me? my life?

here goes nothing..

1. Im an expat living in shanghai.

2. I attend Shanghai American School

3. I'm short (153cm or 5ft and half an inch)

4. when somethings funny i laugh uncontrollably.

5. I'm extremely ticklish.

6. I can entertain myself.

7. I'm Korean (if you haven't gathered that from my name :P)

8. Ever since I watched the movie A Moment to Remember (내 머리 속의 지우개) ive been completely Amnesiphobic.

9. i love strawberries

12:30 The Streets of London

Red and Sicknote continued down the street ducking between makeshift military blockades and vehicle wreckages. Every so often, random objects shot over head and came crashing down behind them. So far they had managed to dodge a black taxi, red post box and a merchandise stand loaded with “I ❤️ London” memorabilia.

As they got closer, Sicknote started running his fingers down his bio grenades, it almost looked like he was playing the piano. He stopped a few canisters down and removed it from his rig. As he loaded it into the barrel of his grenade launcher, Red could see the word ‘cinnamon’ written on it in thick black marker.

“Cinnamon?” Asked Red. “Yep” came Sicknotes reply.

“Cinnamon? Seriously?” Asked Red in disbelief. “Yep” repeated Sicknote.

“What else is in there? I mean, your the Falcons bio weapons specialist. Your plan to stop a giant rampaging bear can’t be cinnamon.” The concern in Reds voice was obvious.

“Of course it isn’t! The cinnamon is for use until we get cleared to engage. It’s non-lethal.” Sicknote seemed deadly serious.

“You’re being serious!? Cinnamon!!?” Red was not impressed.

“I got the idea from those idiot videos on the internet. It tested well back at base.” Sicknote was not backing down.

“I should of sent you with Scorch and brought Ampere with me....” grumbled Red.

They got to the end of the street to find Daddy bear just mindlessly destroying whatever was in front of him. Red and Sicknote ducked behind a burnt out bus. “Ok, What’s the plan?” Asked Sicknote. “Black Falcon protocol is to try to communicate in the first instance, but I don’t think he wants to listen.” A ticket booth from the London Zoo came crashing down a few feet over from them smashing into several pieces, tickets flew everywhere. There was a corner shop a across the street from where it landed and Red could make out three civilians trapped inside. “We got three civvies trapped over there. I’ll get the big beasties attention while you get them out of here.” Sicknote nodded in acknowledgment as he made his way to the corner shop.

Red darted toward the bear. As she ran, she crouched and scooped up several clumps of rock debris. As she approached an overturned car she dropped onto her knee pads and slid into it. She tapped her earpiece. “Mainframe, where’s our clearance?” Mainframes voice came back. “General Mayhem is... ahem.... working on it.” Red sighed. “Give me something to work with here!” Mainframes voice sounded feeble. “Sorry Red.”

Red took several deep breaths, rolled out from under the car, leapt to her feet and threw one of the rocks she’d picked up at Daddy bear. It smacked him on the shoulder. He dropped the lamp post he’d been swinging about like a cricket bat and stared at Red. His eyes narrowed and he let a roar.

Red stared back. She had grossly underestimated how big Daddy Bear truly was, now she was this close she was regretting her decision distract him. “You’d make a lovely rug, it would add a touch of elegance to the break room at HQ!” Daddy Bear roared again, Red did not back down. She threw another rock and it smacked Daddy Bear right on the nose. He roared, picked up a pizza delivery scooter and threw it straight at Red. Red dived out the way and rolled back to her feet. She’d barely had time to steady herself when a car came barrelling toward her. She dived forward and narrowly avoided being crushed by the wreck. The barrage of random street objects continued. Each time Red was barely getting out of the way, and she was getting tired.

Something came flying from behind her and smacked Daddy Bear on top of his head. It exploded on impact and Daddy Bear was enveloped in a cloud of brown mist.

Red crouched and took a second to breath, as Sicknote walked up behind her. “Cinnamon?” She asked. “Cinnamon.” Replied Sicknote. Red couldn’t believe her eyes. Daddy Bear was staggering about, clutching at his throat and mouth as he coughed uncontrollably. “The people are clear. I found a few more and cleared them out too. You good?” Asked Sicknote. Red nodded and got to her feet. There was a crackle as Mainframes voice filled the Falcons earpieces. “You are cleared to engage Falcons, I repeat, you are cleared to engage.”

Without a word, Red pulled her twin MP5s round on there bandoliers and opened fire. Sicknote grabbed another canister from his rig, the word ‘Inferno’ scribbled on it, loaded it and fired.

Daddy Bear, still coughing from the cinnabomb, was caught in a hail of bullets. The Nutcracker rounds were clearly hurting him, but they ultimately bounced off. Mini explosions from the Mini Boomers left scorched hair and bald patches all over him, but still he stood. The inferno round landed at his feet and detonated. A cloud of black mist surrounded him and then ignited. Daddy Bear was engulfed in flames.

Sicknote and Reds MP5s clicked as their mags were finally empty. With a single flawless motion, both Falcons loaded new mags, Red loading two guns in the time Sicknote loaded one. There was no sign of movement from Daddy Bear. They edged toward the flaming street corner where he’d been.

There was a mighty roar. Daddy Bear shot out of the flames in a mighty leap, smoking, ember touched fur and bald patches adorned his once furry body. His arms raised above his head and his fists locked together as one. He swung his arms down in an arc as he landed and smacked the ground with unimaginable force. The shockwave ripples out, tearing concrete, blowing out concrete pillars, and shattering windows. Glass littered the skies as it fell from the surrounding buildings.

The shockwave rippled under the pavement where Sicknote and Red stood. It hit them with such force it sent them flying high into the air.

Sicknote hit the ground first landing on his shoulder sending a wave of pain down the rest of his body. Red landed across a car wreck, an audible ‘crack’ giving away she’d broken one or more ribs. She slid off the car and landed in a heap next to it. She hurt all over.

The surrounding area had been reduced to nothing but rubble and dust, Daddy Bear stood staring at her. There was a faint thud on the ground, then another, and another. Something big was walking toward her, but Daddy Bear wasn’t moving. She looked in the direction the thuds were coming from. Through the smoke and dust, she could make out the silhouettes of two extremely large creatures. Painfully she raised her hand to her earpiece and clicked it. “We have three bears, I repeat, we have three bears. Send reinforcements. Mainframe, we need reinforcements!”

Boulder, Colorado, VERY Cold and windy, shaking uncontrollably so used high shutter speed, sky kept getting better.

anxiety makes me anxious

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to create an unpleasant feeling that is typically associated with uneasiness, fear, or worry. Anxiety is a generalized mood condition that occurs without an identifiable triggering stimulus. As such, it is distinguished from fear, which occurs in the presence of an observed threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is the result of threats that are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable.

I was experiencing another terror-filled day down at the Golden Ponds Park. I remember moving as fast as I could but I seemed locked in slow motion and could easily have gotten caught by this uncontrollable locust had I moved too slowly. This was one of those slasher horror films where everyone made bad decisions. "OH NO," screamed the audience! This is where the vines entangled my ankles and digested my entrails. No more "noir theater," please! I can't help it! This may have involved varying degrees of authenticity.

Just when things were rolling along famously, I am entrenched in "action" shots for the series. I repaired as much of the camera shake as I could; I didn't do too badly. There are new developments in my "action" attempts. At the time, I found a dark path under a darker sky. After checking the EXIF, I found that although I started at 70mm on the zoom I must have waited until I was cranking to trip the shutter. 44mm was reported. It seems to be a workable solution at faster shutter speeds. I got some really crisp, animated streaks during the 1 second of this capture. The one second exposure is really luxurious. I really like the zoom on this shot; this is not particularly a slight zoom like recent posts... sometimes you eats the bear and...

This was another exploding shot along the St.Vrain River, rain that day, taken near the western park boundary... zooming as fast as I could crank! I aimed next to the dappled path and cranked fast, thus making streaks. It looks like the shot was centered just off the jogger. Right on her butt would be better. That is hard to control, especially when the viewfinder goes black. This is from my stash of recent zoom experiments at Longmont's Golden Ponds. There was no camera-back spin during the zoom; the camera was on the monopod. The foliage was expanding fast in this case.

I started to crank the zoom lucked out, starting the zoom at exactly 70mm. I am getting faster. I work on dexterity. I made these shots without the monster 72mm variable neutral density filter I don't like. Instead, I shot with a darker sky so the light would be sucked out of the daytime. Dusk helps. Here is the lucky shot that happened on the shoot. This picture was a new twist; using the camera as slowly as I could hold the monopod. I am getting better at hand held motion at these. I posted previous shots that were extremely lucky. I used Lightroom and then dropped it into Photoshop to see what what might appear.

{ Press "L" for Black background }

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Song : www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHzWHzojktA

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«Ne pleure pas petite sirène.

L'océan ne devrait pas venir de vos yeux.

Ne laissez pas votre cœur chavirer.

La mer est si magique. Je la voit se fâcher, puis se plaindre et enfin montrer sa magnificence. Cette force de la nature si incontrolable, si fragile. Très lunatique. Et pourtant elle a aussi quelques chose de reposant, digne, revigorant.»

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"Don't cry little mermaid.

The ocean should not come from your eyes.

Do not let your heart capsize.

The sea is so magical. I see getting angry and complaining and finally show its magnificence. This force if the uncontrollable nature, so fragile. Very whimsical. Yet it also has some thing relaxing worthy invigorating."

Meet the Infantry Squad (Left to Right):

1. "Hagibis" - Knife Specialist. Let's just say his fast-twitch muscles are uncontrollable.

2. "Dom" - He's dirty. He's old. Donald, whose last name rhymes with "rump", got nothing on him.

3. "Arniz" - Martial Arts Specialist. He specializes with sticks and "open hand" techniques.

4. "Balitok" (APC Driver) - He got a gold tooth. And grins. And puts the pedal to the metal. And that's it, really.

5. "Sigaw" - Squad Commander. He used to herd carabaos. Now he herds, er, leads a group of misfits to war. Got TMJ from shouting the battle cry way too many times.

6. "Tirador" - Slingshot Specialist. His aim is quite pretty... as in, pretty bad.

7. "Mantu Tuli" - a.k.a. The Circumciser. He has battled with many members... *crickets*... moving on...

8. "Lorena" (APC Gunner) - She has battled with many members as well... as in dis"member"ing them. If you encounter her in battle, don't be the next John Wayne Bobbitt... Just sayin'...

ENJOY THIS WITH GOOD LIGHT HEARTED SPIRIT

I hope shakesphere will forgive me for using a bit of artisitic licence to change his famous words to suit this picture.

When taking my daughter to Singapore Zoo, we came across this lovely bat and immediately I pulled out my gear.

To be honest, I never realized what came out of the captures until I downloaded the images in the computer.

When my girl and I saw this picture, both of us could not stop laughing. When she finally stopped laughing, she said to me "If that bat goes to "pee pee", it will go directly into its mouth"...and again started laughing uncontrollably.

The title is inspired from her words. I dedicate it to her and all the children of the world, who bring so much joy into our lives.

Photographed with Canon EOS 1D Mark III, and Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens. Handheld

Photograph © Kausthub Desikachar

Please do not reproduce in any form without prior written consent from the copyright holder. Please contact the photographer through Flickrmail, to inquire about licensing arrangements.