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#1B-1, Indianapolis 500, 2011, 100th Anniversary, White Board, Signed By 42 Drivers, With Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.),
1) N/A,
2) N/A,
3) Spike Gelhausen,
4)Bryan Herta,
5)Roger Mears,
6) Jeff Andretti,
7) Hiro Matsushita,
8) N/a,
9) N/A,
10) Tyce Carlson,
11) Elton Rasmussen,
12) N/A,
13) N/A,
14) Dennis Firestone,
15) Steve Chassey,
16) Paul Durant,
17) Lyn St. James,
18) Howdy Holmes,
19) N/A,
20) N/A,
21) Mike Groff,
22) Roberto Guerrero,
23) Jimmy Kite,
24) Donnie Allison,
25) John Martin,
26) Bill Vulkovich,
27) Willy T. Ribbs,
28) Patrick Bedard,
29) Arie Luyendyk Jr.,
30) Raul Boesel,
31) Phil Giebller,
32) Claude Bourbonnais,
33) Shigeaki Hattori,
34) Chuck Hulse,
35) The Late Gary Bettenhausen,
36) Scott Goodyear,
37) Bob Harkey,
38) Robby McGehee,
39) Janet Guthrie,
40) Vern Schuppan,
41) N/A,
42) John Jones,
N/A) Didier Theys,
N/A) Phil Krueger,
1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard Guitar owned by Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy. Vintage guitar authentication.
#1A-5, Muti Colored Autographed NASCAR Lamp Box signed The Late Jim Sauter, The Late Kevin Grubbs, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, and 38 Other Drivers, with Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.),
1) Ray Dunlap, ESPN, Lt. Green,
2) Ted Musgrave, #1, Mopar Performance, Pink,
3) Kevin LaPage, #37, Timber Wolf , Pink,
4) Randy LaJoie, #7, Kleenex, Lt. Green,
5) Larry McRenolds, FOX, Pink,
6) David Star, #75, Spears, Green,
7) Tom Powers, #55, U Of N.W. Ohio, Lt. Green,
8) Hank Parker Jr., #36, GNC Live Well, Lt. Green,
9) Dana White, #86, Coverall Car Parts, L Green,
10) Casey Mears, #66, Phillips 66, Orange,
11) Ashton Lewis, #46, Civil Air Patrol, Pink,
12) Phil Bonfield, #52, Means Racing, Brown,
13) Lon Richman, #N/A, Did Not Qualify, Green,
14) Bobby Dotter, #08, People Against Drugs, Orange,
15) Carlos Contreras, #43, Hot Wheels, Blue,
16) Steve Portengay, #39, Rotor Rooter, Lt. Blue,
17) Jason Schuller, #73, Met-Rx, Orange,
18) Tony Raises, #33, Bace Motorsports, Brown,
19) Mike Bliss, #16, IWX Motorfrieght, Orange,
20) Jeff Hammond, FOX, Blue,
21) Jay Sauter, #21, Rockwell Automat, Pink,
22) Bill Lester, #8, Dodge Motorsports, Orange,
23) Matt Crafton, #88, MENARD, Blue,
24) Lance Norwick, #90, Express Persona, Lt. Blue,
25) Randy McDonald #72, Bussiness Driver, Green,
26) CARL EDWARDS, #63, Mittler Brothers, Orange,
27) Stacy Compton, #59, Kingsford, Lt. Green,
28) Larry Foyt, #14, Hannah's Casino, Pink,
29) Jack Sprauge, #24, Net Zero, Very Lt. Green,
30) N/A, #90, N/A, Orange,
31) The Late Jim Sauter, #29, Advance Rockwell, Lt Green,
32) Scott Riggs, #10, Nestle NesQuik, Brown,
33) The Late Kevin Grubbs, #54, Toys R US, Pink,
34) N/A, N/A, N/A, Orange,
35) Mark Green, #38, Great Clips, Orange,
36) GREG BIFFLE, #60, Grainger, Brown,
37) Amy Earl, ESPN, Pink,
38) Tim Fedewa, #n/a, N/A, Blue,
39) Steve N/A, N/A, N/A, Lt. Green,
40) Kenny Schrader, #52, Federated Auto Parts, Blue,
41) Shane Hall, #63, Greased Lightning, Lt. Blue,
42) Jimmy Means, #52, Alka Selzer, Brown,
#E1D-2-4, NASCAR, Mark Martin, Greg Sacks, Rick Wilson, Signing, with 21 Others drivers #4 White Track Cars 1995. GM Goodwrench 400 and Detroit Gasket 200 at Michigan International Speedway.
Mark Martin was the winner of the 1995 Detroit Gasket 200.
1) Bobby Dotter, #08, Hyde Tools,
2) Curtis Markum, #63, Lysol,
3) Hermie Sadler, #1, DeWalt,
4) Phil Parsons, #99, Luxair,
5) Mike Wallace, #90, Duron, Winston Cup,
6) Kenny Wallace, #8, Red Dog, Beer, Winston Cup,
7) Tim Fedewa, #55, Innkeeper,
8) Elton Sawyer, #38, Ford Credit, Winston Cup,
9) Steve Grissom, #29, Channellock, Winston Cup,
10) Jason Keller, #57, The Budget Gourmet,
11) Greg Sacks, #32, Active Trucking, Winston Cup,
12) Terry LaBonte, #14, MW Windows, Winston Cup,
13) Rodney Combs, #43, Jebco,
14) Bill Brodrick, The Unical 76 Hat Man,
15) Jeff Purvis, #4, Kodak Fun Saver,
16) Greg Clark, #53, Clark Racing,
17) Rick Wilson, #75, Food Country, Winston Cup,
18) Tommy Ellis, #50, Healthsource,
19) David Green, #44, Slim Jim, Winston Cup,
20) Mike McLaughlin, #43, Black Flag,
21) Jim Weber, T.N.N. Motorsports,
22) Mark Martin, #60, Winn Dixie, Winston Cup,
23) Randy Porter, #18, Unifirst Uniforms,
24) Kevin LaPage, #71, Vermont Teddy Bear, Winston Cup.
Revell, 1/24 scale, Die Cast, autographed by 21 drivers with Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.)
NASCAR Hologram to authenticate autographed items...and I suppose other "things". Jeff is making his final start as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver today. Competing with Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for the Sprint Cup Championship. I won this Dupont Motor Sports flag, autographed by Jeff Gordon and Chip Foose (who designed his car that year) at an event at the Brickyard 400...several years ago. The hologram can be seen at the far right of his signature.
Monthly Scavenger Hunt
November 2015
#10 Hologram
#1A-5, Muti Colored Autographed NASCAR Lamp Box signed The Late Jim Sauter, The Late Kevin Grubbs, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, and 38 Other Drivers, with Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.),
1) Ray Dunlap, ESPN, Lt. Green,
2) Ted Musgrave, #1, Mopar Performance, Pink,
3) Kevin LaPage, #37, Timber Wolf , Pink,
4) Randy LaJoie, #7, Kleenex, Lt. Green,
5) Larry McRenolds, FOX, Pink,
6) David Star, #75, Spears, Green,
7) Tom Powers, #55, U Of N.W. Ohio, Lt. Green,
8) Hank Parker Jr., #36, GNC Live Well, Lt. Green,
9) Dana White, #86, Coverall Car Parts, L Green,
10) Casey Mears, #66, Phillips 66, Orange,
11) Ashton Lewis, #46, Civil Air Patrol, Pink,
12) Phil Bonfield, #52, Means Racing, Brown,
13) Lon Richman, #N/A, Did Not Qualify, Green,
14) Bobby Dotter, #08, People Against Drugs, Orange,
15) Carlos Contreras, #43, Hot Wheels, Blue,
16) Steve Portengay, #39, Rotor Rooter, Lt. Blue,
17) Jason Schuller, #73, Met-Rx, Orange,
18) Tony Raises, #33, Bace Motorsports, Brown,
19) Mike Bliss, #16, IWX Motorfrieght, Orange,
20) Jeff Hammond, FOX, Blue,
21) Jay Sauter, #21, Rockwell Automat, Pink,
22) Bill Lester, #8, Dodge Motorsports, Orange,
23) Matt Crafton, #88, MENARD, Blue,
24) Lance Norwick, #90, Express Persona, Lt. Blue,
25) Randy McDonald #72, Bussiness Driver, Green,
26) CARL EDWARDS, #63, Mittler Brothers, Orange,
27) Stacy Compton, #59, Kingsford, Lt. Green,
28) Larry Foyt, #14, Hannah's Casino, Pink,
29) Jack Sprauge, #24, Net Zero, Very Lt. Green,
30) N/A, #90, N/A, Orange,
31) The Late Jim Sauter, #29, Advance Rockwell, Lt Green,
32) Scott Riggs, #10, Nestle NesQuik, Brown,
33) The Late Kevin Grubbs, #54, Toys R US, Pink,
34) N/A, N/A, N/A, Orange,
35) Mark Green, #38, Great Clips, Orange,
36) GREG BIFFLE, #60, Grainger, Brown,
37) Amy Earl, ESPN, Pink,
38) Tim Fedewa, #n/a, N/A, Blue,
39) Steve N/A, N/A, N/A, Lt. Green,
40) Kenny Schrader, #52, Federated Auto Parts, Blue,
41) Shane Hall, #63, Greased Lightning, Lt. Blue,
42) Jimmy Means, #52, Alka Selzer, Brown,
1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar. The epitome in vintage Les Pauls! Double white PAF pickups, nitrocellulose finish, Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard, reams of mojo and vibe make this particular Burst an exceptional thing of beauty. Vintage guitar authentication.
#1A-6, NASCAR, INDY, NHRA, Lamp Box Has 67 Auto Racing Drivers Autographs, 33 NASCAR, 12 INDY, 22 NHRA, Drivers Signing , With Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.),
1) NASCAR, Rich Bickle, #15,
2) NASCAR, Randy LaJoie, AC Delco,
3) NASCAR, Dennis Sentzer,
4) INDY, N/A, Honda, #78,
5) NASCAR, Brendon Gaughan, #77,
6) NASCAR, Steven Wallace,
7) NASCAR, Mike Skinner, #5, Tundera,
8) NASCAR, Bill Lester, #22,
9) N/A,
10) N/A,
11) NASCAR, Steven Wallace, #05,
12) NASCAR, David Reutimann, #17,
13) NASCAR, Mark Green, #06, Joe Gibbs Racing,
14) NHRA, Pro Stock, Allen Johnson, Mopar,
15) NHRA, Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher, U.S.Army,
16) NHRA, Pro Stock, Jason Line, Summit,
17) INDY, Sara Fisher,
18) NHRA, Funny Car, Ron Capps, Brut,
19) INDY, S--- S---, #24,
20) NASCAR, Jon Wood, #47, Armorall,
21) NHRA, Funny Car, Bob Bode, Mr. Bee,
22) NHRA, Funny Car, John Force, 13X, Castrol GTX,
23) INDY, Guthrie,
24) NASCAR, David Ragan, #6, Scotts, (The Late Kevin Grubb is in photo)
25) NHRA, Pro Stock, Greg Anderson, Summit,
26) NASCAR, The Late Jason Leftler, Great Clips Racing,
27) NHRA, Funny Car, Don Purdhomme, Hot Wheels, Brut, Skoal,
28) INDY, N/A, #5, IBS,
29) NHRA, Top Fuel, Morgan Lucas, Lucas Oil,
30) NASCAR, Hank Parker Jr., Ameriquest,
31) NHRA, Funny Car, The Late Eric Medlen, Castrol Syntec,
32) NASCAR, Ashton Lewis, #25, McDonald's,
33) NASCAR, Clair B. Lang, Pit Row Reporter, Writer,
34) INDY, NASCAR, Sam Hornish, Team Penski,
35) N/A,
36) NHRA, Funny Car, Ed (Ace) McCullen, Brut, McDonald's, Crew Chief,
37) NASCAR, Todd Kluever, 3M,
38) NHRA, Funny Car, Gary Densham,
39) NHRA, Top Fuel, Larry Dixon, Miller Lite,
40) INDY, Helio Castroneves, Dancing With The Stars,
41) NASCAR, Justin Allgaier, #63,
42) NHRA, Dick LaHaie, Miller Lite, Crew Chief,
43) NHRA, Funny Car, Ashley Force, Hot Wheels,
44) NHRA, Funny Car, Del Worsham, Checker,
45) NASCAR, Kelly Sutton,
46) NHRA, Funny Car, John Larson,
47) NASCAR, Aaron Fike, Caught For Use of Drugs,
48) NHRA, Marty Reed, ESPN, No Photo,
49) NASCAR, Johnny Benson, #10, Team Tundra,
50) NHRA, Pro Stock, Erica Enders,
51) INDY, Julianne Hough, Dancing With The Stars, Judge,
52) NASCAR, Ray Everham, Cheerios Racing, Owner,
53) N/A,
54) INDY, Milka Duno, CITGO,
55) N/A,
56) NASCAR, Stephen Leight, CitiFinancial,
57) No Number,
58) No Number,
59) INDY, Jydell, #17,
60) NASCAR, Ray Dunlap, SPEED,
61) NASCAR, Ron Hornaday Jr., #33,
62) NASCAR, Mike Wallace,
63) N/A,
64) N/A,
65) NASCAR, Scott Wimmer, #66,
66) INDY, Scott Sharp,
67) INDY,
68) NHRA,
69) NASCAR,
Drivers Signatures Can't Find On Board:
NASCAR
Mike Bliss,
Green Shirt,
Jack Sprauge,
NHRA
Lucas -More-,
Frank Pedrogon,
Barre?,
Numbered Signatures that I don't know who signed:
9, 10, 35, 53, 55, 63, 64,
2015, NASCAR Chase Fest, 16 Contenters NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
#E1D-3-2, NASCAR, 27 Drivers signing, White Track Truck, #2, 1996, Sears Auto Center 200, at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway, Mike Bliss was the Pole Setter. Ron Hornaday Jr. was the 1996 NASCAR Truck Series Champion.
1) The Late, Barry Dodson, #2, Team ASE Crew Chief, Winston Cup,
2) Mike Bliss, #2, Team ASE, POLE SETTER,
3) Rich Bickle, #43, Cummins Engines,
4) Mike Skinner, #3, GM Goodwrench, Last Years Pole Setter, Winner, and Champion, Winston Cup,
5) Lonnie Cox, #36, DuPont Thompson,
6) Rick Carelli, #6, ReMax International,
7) Lance Norwick, #19, Macklanburg Duncon,
8) Jerry Granville, #81, Flickers, was the Atlanta Felcons football Coach,
9) Michael Dokken, #64, Clearwater Linen,
10) Dave Rezendes, #7, QVC,
11) Robbie Reiser, #4, GMC Trucking, Winston Cup, Matt Kenseth Crew Chief,
12) Walker Evans, #20, DANA, Dirt Road Race Legend,
13) Bob Keselowski, #29, Winnebago, Brad's Father,
14) Ron Hornaday Jr., #16, NAPA, Becomes The 1996 Nascar Truck Champion.
15) David Smith, #12, Blake Racing,
16) Bryon Reffner, #44, 1-800-COLLECT,
17) Dick Bergeren, CBS Sports Reporter,
18) Doug George, #21, ORTHO,
19) Mike Hurbert #11, RPM Racing,
20) Bob Brevak, #31, Ho-Chunk Casino,
21) Joe Ruttman, #80, Roush Parts, Winston Cup,
22) Ron Barfield Jr., #94, Super 8 Motel,
23) Frank Dan, #69, Ford Racing, Did not Qualify,
24) Butch Miller, #98, Raybestos Brakes,
25) Bobby Gil, #75, Spears ,
26) Kenny Allen, #65, Action Rent-To-Own,
27) Mike Joy, CBS Sports Reporter,
Racing Champions, stripped and repainted, 1/24 scale, die cast, signed by 22 drivers with Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.)
Av. Mª Cristina - Barcelona (Spain).
Barcelona Harley Days: 18-19-20 Jun 2010.
Better seen in Fluidr.
Se ve mejor en Fluidr.
Love finished. The Spanish State finally does not accept the wish of the Catalan people approved by General Court and authenticated by himself in the ballot boxes.
Se acabó el amor. El Estado Español finalmente no acepta la voluntad del pueblo catalán aprobada por las Cortes Generales y refrendada por él mismo en las urnas.
ENGLISH
The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia provides Catalonia's basic institutional regulations. It defines the rights and obligations of the citizens of Catalonia (Spain), the political institutions of the Catalan nationality, their competences and relations with the rest of Spain and the financing of the Government of Catalonia.
This Law was approved by referendum 18 June 2006 and supplants the Statute of Sau, which dated from 1979.
Catalonia is an Autonomous Community within the Kingdom of Spain, with the status of historical region in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. In September 2005, the Parliament of Catalonia approved the definition of Catalonia as a 'nation' in the preamble[4] of the new Statute of Autonomy (autonomous basic law). The 120 delegates of all parties (CiU, PSC, ERC, ICV-EA) with the exception of the 15 delegates of the Partido Popular approved this definition. In the opinion of the Spanish Government this has a 'declaratory' but not a 'legal' value, since the Spanish Constitution recognises the indissoluble "unity of the Spanish Nation".
The Generalitat de Catalunya is the institution in which the self-government of Catalonia is politically organised. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat and the Executive Council or Government of Catalonia.
The Statute of Autonomy gives the Generalitat of Catalonia the powers which enable it to carry out the functions of self-government. These can be exclusive, concurrent and shared with the Spanish State or executives. The Generalitat holds jurisdiction in various matters of culture, education, health, justice, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments. Catalonia has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, although the Spanish government keep agents in the region for matters relating to border control, terrorism and immigration.
Most of the justice system is administered by Spanish judicial institutions. The legal system is uniform throughout Spain, with the exception of so-called "civil law", which is administered separately within Catalonia.
The Statute has been legally contested by the surrounding Autonomous Communities of Aragon, Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, as well as by the Partido Popular (the main opposition party at the Spanish Parliament). The objections are based on various topics such as disputed cultural heritage but, especially, on the Statute's alleged breaches of the "solidarity between regions" principle enshrined by the Constitution in fiscal and educational matters. The Constitutional Court of Spain is currently assessing the constitutionality of the challenged articles and its binding assessment is expected sometime in 2010.
The Catalan political arena has largely viewed this debate as a sort of cultural war waged by "Spanish nationalists" (espanyolistes in Catalan). In response, four of the six political parties represented at the Catalan parliament--Convergence and Union, the Catalan Socialists, Republican Left of Catalonia, and Catalan green party--reached an agreement to fight together at the Spanish Senate to reform the Constitutional Court of Spain, and hopefully nullify the possibility of an overturn of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. This pact is particularly interesting because, aside from the fact that they all pertain to various degrees of Catalan nationalism, the four parties differ greatly in political ideology, and together, they form nearly 80% of the Catalan Parliament.
The June 28 of 2010, the Constitutional Court, in view of the resource of unconstitutionality presented by deputies of the Popular Party, and after 4 years of controversial deliberations, solved by 6 votes to favor and 4 against the constitutionality of most of the text, doing to observe the “legal inefficiency” of the Introduction (where the term consisted nation when talking about Catalonia) although the failure it maintains the definition of Catalonia like nation, and declared 14 inconstitucionales articles.
These articles treat about the language, the managing organs and judicial organs of the Generalitat of Catalonia, on competences in the matter of bank, savings banks and insurance and on the level and calculation of the participation of Catalonia in the yield of the state tributes and equilibrators and solidarity, that is, the basic axis of the self-government of Catalonia.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Autonomy_of_Catalonia
----------------------------
CASTELLANO
El "Estatuto de Autonomía de Cataluña" es la norma institucional básica de Cataluña que las Cortes Generales de España han aprobado en 1932, 1979 y 2006 para otorgar la autonomía y fijar los márgenes del autogobierno de este territorio. El Estatuto de autonomía de 2006 fue aprobado por las Cortes Generales y posteriormente refrendado por los ciudadanos de Cataluña el 18 de junio de 2006. Incluye, entre otros aspectos, el sistema institucional en que se organiza la Generalidad de Cataluña, las competencias que le corresponden y su tipología, derechos y deberes de los ciudadanos, el régimen lingüístico, las relaciones institucionales de la Generalitat y la financiación de la Generalidad.
El 21 de enero de 2006, el Presidente del Gobierno de España, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero y el jefe de la oposición de Cataluña, Artur Mas llegaron a un preacuerdo sobre la definición de Cataluña en el nuevo Estatuto y sobre el modelo de financiación. El nuevo Estatuto de Cataluña fue aprobado en el Congreso de los Diputados el 30 de marzo de 2006, tras lo cual fue remitido al Senado, que lo aprobó en la Comisión General de Comunidades Autónomas el 5 de mayo de 2006 y en el pleno el 10 de mayo de 2006. En la votación final, el texto contó con el apoyo de todos los grupos políticos, salvo del PP, que votó en contra, y con la abstención de ERC.
Tras entrar en vigor el 18 de junio de 2006, el Estatuto fue recurrido por considerarlo inconstitucional en siete ocasiones por siete instancias distintas: el Partido Popular a través de la firma de sus diputados y senadores contra 187 artículos y disposiciones ; el Defensor del Pueblo contra 112 artículos y cuatro disposiciones adicionales, y cinco comunidades autónomas (Comunidad de Murcia, contra el artículo 117, La Rioja contra 12 artículos y siete disposiciones adicionales, Gobierno de Aragón contra una disposición adicional, Generalidad Valenciana contra ocho artículos y cuatro disposiciones transitorias, Gobierno de las Islas Baleares contra lo que establece el Estatuto sobre el Archivo de la Corona de Aragón).
El 28 de junio de 2010, el Tribunal Constitucional, ante el recurso de inconstitucionalidad presentado por diputados del Partido Popular, resolvió por 6 votos a favor y cuatro en contra la constitucionalidad de la mayor parte del texto, haciendo observar la "ineficacia jurídica" del Preámbulo (donde constaba el término nación al referirse a Cataluña) aunque el fallo mantiene la definición de Cataluña como nación, y declaró 14 artículos inconstitucionales.
La ponencia fue redactada finalmente por la Presidenta, María Emilia Casas, y la votación se realizó por bloques: el primero respecto al Preámbulo, en la que se resolvió por 6 votos a favor y 4 en contra mantener el término nación, si bien se advirtío de su falta de eficacia jurídica, ya que no forma parte del texto normativo; el segundo bloque afecto a los artículos a declarar inconstitucionales, siendo una mayoría de 8 magistrados contra 2 los que han votado por la inconstitucionalidad de 14 de ellos; los otros dos bloques, que eran los preceptos ajustados a la Constitución y la interpretación de los artículos sobre los que existía conformidad, fueron avalados por 6 votos a cuatro. Cuatro de los magistrados, pertenecientes al denominado sector conservador, manifestaron que presentarían un voto particular: Ramón Rodríguez Arribas, Jorge Rodríguez Zapata, Vicente Conde y Javier Delgado.
El Tribunal Constitucional declaró 14 artículos inconstitucionales: el artículo 6 sobre lengua y nombres cooficiales, el 76 sobre el carácter vinculante de los dictámenes del Consejo de Garantías Estatutarias, el 78 sobre algunas funciones del Síndico de Agravios de Cataluña, el 95.5 sobre el Presidente del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña, el 97, 98, 99, 100 y 101 sobre el Consejo de Justicia de Cataluña, el 111 sobre las competencias compartidas entre el Estado y la Generalidad de Cataluña, el 120.2 sobre competencias de la Generalidad en cajas de ahorro, el 126.2 sobre competencia compartida en materia de crédito, banca, seguros y mutualidades no integradas en el sistema de seguridad social y el 206.3 sobre el nivel y cálculo de la participación de Cataluña en el rendimiento de los tributos estatales y mecanismos de nivelación y solidaridad.
Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estatuto_de_autonom%c3%ada_de_Catal...
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
#E1D-2-5, NASCAR, The Late Jim Sauter, H.O.F. Ned Jarrett, and 27 other Drivers Signing White Track car #5, 1996, Sears Auto Center 250, at Milwaukee Mile Speedway,
1) David Green, #95, Caterpillar, Winston cup,
2) Chad Little, #23, John Deere, Winston Cup,
3) Dale Fishline, #70, Murphy Motorsports,
4) Stevie Reeves, #96, Glabber Girl,
5) Ron Hel Jr., #66, Levitz Furniture,
6) Dennis Setzer, #38, Lipton Tea,
7) Phil Parsons, #10, Channellock,
8) Jim Bown, #51, Barbasol,
9) Todd Bodine, #81, Cape Carrsol, Winston Cup,
10) The Late Jim Sauter, #32,
11) Tim Fedewa, #40, Kleenex,
12) Mark Green, #37, Timber Wolf,
13) Chad Little, #23, John Deere, Winston Cup,
14) Kevin LaPage, #88, Farmers, Choice Fert, W.C.,
15) Curtis Markum, #63, Lysol,
16) Nathen Butkey, #4, Dura Glass,
17) Dick Berggren, CBS Sports, Announcer,
18) Bobby Dotter, #55, Lub Tek,
19) Larry Pearson, #92, Stanley Tools, Winston Cup,
20) Buckshot Jones, #00, Aqua Fresh,
21) Mike McLaughlin, #34, Royal Oak,
22) Elton Sawyer, #38,
23) Joe Hanson, #76,
24) Tommy Houston, #6, Suburbar, Propane,
25) Ned Jarrett, H.O.F., Winston Cup Champion,
26) Jason Keller, #57, Slim Jim,
27) Glen Jarrett, T.N.N. Motorsports,
28) Mike Dillion, #72, Detroit Gasket,
29) Jim Mclivaine, #29 Basket Ball Player, Grand Marshall,
Revell, 1/24 scale, Die Cast, autographed by 29 drivers with Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.)
In person and via photography, verified and corroborated with the most trustworthy, heavily credentialed, senior, and sane collectors I know--about a half dozen of them!!--that this "last cartouche" (the DAS is NOT a cartouche--no writing or letters! Check a dictionary for the old "Egyptian" correct definition and its basis if you doubt that... ) butt stock is authentic, albeit it's been sanded. Not too many dings. No cracks, no paint, weird Danish or other stampings...
The metal will be removed before I dump it for something I actually need.
More detail of the letters is here:
www.flickr.com/photos/15631192@N04/27538894973/in/photost...
Sign in so these can be worked with, enlarged, and so on, if you're looking for information.
See adjacent shots for images of the detailed markings, closeup and overall.
Copyrighted shot, not "free" or "public domain".
All rights reserved.
Humorously, years ago I got a very nice M1 ( an old D.C.M. gun with full paperwork) marked "JLG" generally in the cartouche area, on a nice replacement walnut stock, probably an Overton-produced unit. Not a "cartouche", just the letters. Not the right size, no box... Puzzled, I realized the same initials appeared on some other items I acquired from the estate. It was the INITIALS of the deceased, who was an avid shooter. Under the buttplate on that one was his social security number.
Weirdly, this was about the very LAST item I was looking for or wanted when I stumbled across this, and upon cleanup, contacted the network of "usual suspects" because I no longer trust my eyesight on wood. Looking back, I doubt if I've seen two dozen of these. They're fairly close to being the least common of the letter cartouched butt stocks.
Last one I had was on an old D.C.M. rifle, from an estate, and had been surmarked with a DAS (Defense Acceptance Stamp). It, too, was absolutely authentic, and appeared on an all original rifle right in that low 4 million area where one would figure such things might've happened.
Anyway, it's a certainty. Not some loudmouth's assertion or slimy internet "proof"!! Strange find. There are handguards with it which "color matched", but I remain unconvinced they're "correct" to it, and I have other uses for them, anyway.
Weirdest one I had: What a serious student of military wood told me was a pre-1940 hunk of wood, almost "new", but with an absolutely authentic JLG cartouche. Apparently it fascinated him. He insisted upon having it IMMEDIATELY. Most of the assclowns on forums suggested it was a "fake"...nope, wrong again. It must've sat around for a long time before it got kicked out the door, and NO ONE will ever know how or why, but we do know WHERE that happened: At the Armory, in Springfield, Massachusetts. And the "when" would be while Guion's stamp was still in use.
Authenticated and copyrighted photo. All rights reserved. No reference use or reproduction of any kind without express written permission. Criminal and civil statutes and all rights law WILL be enforced.
History of the Shaolin Temples
There are few historical entities that engender as much debate, confusion, and acrimony as the nature and reality of Shaolin. We have heard distinguished university professors categorically deny the existence of either Shaolin or its problem-children Tongs; that only authenticated accounts by the Communist Chinese government are to be trusted; or that the temples are fictitious, based on stories in old novels.
The following accounts are taken from sources who 1) practiced the specific kung fu styles to Master level from the "supposed" temples, 2) learned their arts AT those temples before the temples were destroyed, or 3) were taught by practitioners from those temples. Also, our sources were corroborated by at least three individuals (standard rule of evidence accepted by most professional journalists). The masters, however, have declined to be named for the reasons that 1) they do not want to engage in controversy--the information is here to accept or reject as you like (as directed by the last lesson of the Buddha), 2) they have assumed new names after leaving China because, as refugees, did not want their families to suffer for their actions. Having said that, and agreeing in advance to protect the confidentiality of our sources, we have been told that...
The Shaolin order dates to about 540 A.D., when an Indian Buddhist priest named Bodhidharma (Tamo in Chinese), traveled to China to see the Emperor. At that time, the Emperor had started local Buddhist monks translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit to Chinese. The intent was to allow the general populace the ability to practice this religion.
This was a noble project, but when the Emperor believed this to be his path to Nirvana, Tamo disagreed. Tamo's view on Buddhism was that you could not achieve your goal just through good actions performed by others in your name. At this point the Emperor and Tamo parted ways and Tamo traveled to the nearby Buddhist temple to meet with the monks who were translating these Buddhist texts.
The temple had been built years before in the remains of a forest that had been cleared or burned down. At the time of the building of the temple, the emperor's gardeners had also planted new trees. Thus the temple was named "young (or new) forest", (Shaolin in Mandarin, Sil Lum in Cantonese).
When Tamo arrived at the temple, he was refused admittance, probably being thought of as an upstart or foreign meddler by the head abbot (Fang Chang). Rejected by the monks, Tamo went to a nearby cave and meditated until the monks recognized his religious prowess and admitted him. Legend has it that he bored a hole through one side of the cave with his constant gaze; in fact, the accomplishment that earned his recognition is lost to history.
When Tamo joined the monks, he observed that they were not in good physical condition. Most of their routine paralleled that of the Irish monks of the Middle Ages, who spent hours each day hunched over tables where they transcribed handwritten texts. Consequently, the Shaolin monks lacked the physical and mental stamina needed to perform even the most basic of Buddhist meditation practices. Tamo countered this weakness by teaching them moving exercises, designed to both enhance ch'i flow and build strength. These sets, modified from Indian yogas (mainly hatha, and raja) were based on the movements of the 18 main animals in Indo-Chinese iconography (e.g., tiger, deer, leopard, cobra, snake, dragon, etc.), were the beginnings of Shaolin Kung Fu.
It is hard to say just when the exercises became "martial arts". The Shaolin temple was in a secluded area where bandits would have traveled and wild animals were an occasional problem, so the martial side of the temple probably started out to fulfill self-defense needs. After a while, these movements were codified into a system of self-defense.
As time went on, this Buddhist sect became more and more distinct because of the martial arts being studied. This is not to say that Tamo "invented" martial arts. Martial arts had existed in China for centuries. But within confines of the temple, it was possible to develop and codify these martial arts into the new and different styles that would become distinctly Shaolin. One of the problems faced by many western historians is the supposed contraindication of Buddhist principles of non-violence coupled with Shaolin's legendary martial skills. In fact, the Shaolin practitioner is never an attacker, nor does he or she dispatch the most devastating defenses in any situation. Rather, the study of kung fu leads to better understanding of violence, and consequently how to avoid conflict. Failing that, a Buddhist who refuses to accept an offering of violence (i.e., and attack) merely returns it to the sender. Initially, the kung fu expert may choose to parry an attack, but if an assailant is both skilled and determined to cause harm, a more definitive and concluding solution may be required, from a joint-lock hold to a knockout, to death. The more sophisticated and violent an assault, the more devastating the return of the attack to the attacker. Buddhists are not, therefore, hurting anyone; they merely refuse delivery of intended harm.
The Shaolin philosophy is one that started from Buddhism and later adopted many Taoist principles to become a new sect. Thus even though a temple may have been Taoist or Buddhist at first, once it became Shaolin, it was a member of a new order, an amalgamation of the prevailing Chinese philosophies of the time.
Other temples sprung from Henan. This happened because the original temple would suffer repeated attacks and periods of inactivity as the reigning Imperial and regional leaders feared the martial powers of the not-always unaligned monks. Refugee Shaolin practitioners would leave the temple to teach privately (in Pai) or at other Buddhist or Taoist temples. In rare cases, a new Shaolin Temple would be erected (Fukien, Kwangtung) or converted from a pre-existing temple (Wu-Tang, O Mei Shan). Politically and militarily involved monks (such as the legendary White Eyebrow and Hung Tze Kwan) would be perpetual sources of trouble for the generally temporally aloof monks.
The Boxer rebellion in 1901 was the beginning of the end of the Shaolin temples. Prior to that, China had been occupied by Western and Japanese governments and business interests. The British had turned the Imperial family into an impotent puppet regime largely through the import and sales of opium and the general drug-devastation inflicted upon the poor population. This lead to the incursion of other European powers, including Russia, France and Holland, and later the Japanese and Americans. By the late 1800s, China was effectively divided into national zones, each controlled by one of the outside powers (similar to post World War II Berlin, on a hugely larger scale). The long standing animosities between China and Japan worsened, and extended to include all other "foreign devils" as well. Coupled with the now almost universal disdain by the Chinese for their Empress, a Nationalist movement with nation-wide grass-roots support was born. Among the front line soldiers of the new "order" were the legendary and near-legendary martial artists--many Shaolin--known as Boxers (remember how Bruce Lee, in his films depicting these times, refers to himself as a Chinese boxer...). Though their initial assaults on the military powers of the occupation governments were not entirely successful (many believed in Taoist magical spells that would make them impervious to gunfire), their temporary defeat would lead to a more modern reformation that included adopting modern military weapons and tactics.
The withdrawal of western forces was prolonged over many years, and by the end of World War I saw China in an almost feudal state of civil war. Not only were national troops fighting loyalists, but both sides had to fight the Japanese (who still held much of the northern Manchurian region of China) as well as many powerful, regional warlords. Many parts of China were virtually anarchies, but by 1931 almost all non-Asian occupants had been successfully driven out (with the interesting exception, in the late 1930s, of the volunteer American airmen known as The Flying Tigers, who helped repel Japanese forces prior to World War II), and the major combatants within China were the Nationalists and the Communists. Both sides displayed the typical jingoistic attitudes of forces in mindless warfare--if you aren't with us, you are against us. Neutrality meant nothing except the possibility of a later enemy. Consequently, Shaolin and other monks were routinely murdered by soldiers from both sides. One result of this program of murder was the exodus of many monks into the hills, or abroad, with the hope that Shaolin knowledge might survive even if the temples themselves did not.
The temples were unfortunate victims of war in a land that had abandoned its historical practice of respecting posterity and ancestors. All were ransacked and looted by various armed groups. O Mei Shan Temple ("Great White Mountain"), in Szechuan Province, was situated on a mountain top and deemed by Chinese officers to be a fitting target for artillery practice. It was shelled in turn by Nationalist and Communist armies. In a fitting twist of fate, this one-time site of medical and natural history knowledge was rebuilt by the Communists in the mid 1970s, and now stands as the National Park and Research Headquarters for the panda preserve.
There are various stories coming out of China today referring to the history of Shaolin, particularly over the past 300 years. However, many of these stories are suspect (compare Chinese accounts of Tiananmen Square with CNN news coverage), with the more commonly "authenticated" versions coming from government records. The fact that Chinese authorities outlawed Shaolin and martial arts practices makes any story about their history from such sources suspect. The prevalent wu-shu styles originated as a result of a compromise between the post-World War II governments and the national need and history of having a martial arts tradition. Wu-Shu, however, was not designed as a martial art (strictly illegal), and claims to the contrary date back only a decade or so, following on the popularity of Kung Fu.
What is Karate?
"True karate is this: that in daily life one's mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice."
--Gichin Funakoshi
Karate can also be described as a martial art, or fighting method, involving a variety of techniques, including blocks, strikes, evasions, throws, and joint manipulations. Karate practice is divided into three aspects: kihon (basics), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).
The word karate is a combination of two Japanese characters: kara, meaning empty, and te, meaning hand; thus, karate means "empty hand." Adding the suffix "-do" (pronounced "doe"), meaning "way," i.e., karate-do, implies karate as a total way of life that goes well beyond the self-defense applications. In traditional karate-do, we always keep in mind that the true opponent is oneself.
To understand this we must first review our concept of Karate. Karate appears fearful and destructive to many people. Movies have contributed to popularizing Karate in the wrong way. There are also many people who think that Karate is only a type of calisthenics or, perhaps, even a type of dance. This shows undeniably the lack of a proper view of what Karate really is.
Karate is a martial art, for many people it is a way of life, and it shares the common aim with Judo, Kendo, Aikido, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, and Japanese flower arranging of cultivating through physical and spiritual training. It is also within reason to claim that Karate, as the original martial art, through physical and spiritual training and discipline, makes the impossible possible, even to the unarmed, and helps one in pursuing the aim of his life. A physical training so strict naturally involves a demanding psychological training as well. Karate is a method of unifying the body and spirit and of making human life at once broader and deeper.
"Karate" is a combination of two Japanese words, "Kara" meaning empty or open and "Te", meaning hand, and is therefore used to describe a style of unarmed combat. Karate not always had this meaning of empty hands, this modern phrase started in a meeting of the Okinawan masters sponsored by an Okinawan newspaper, at which the use of the T'ang character in the word Karate was discussed. The ideograph for Kara was altered to erase the Chinese connection for political reasons. So, the character " T'ang" (Kara) was replaced for "Empty" (Kara).
It is generally accepted that the origins of karate are to be found in India (525 A.D.). The credit is given to a Buddhist priest named Daruma Taishi,also known as Bohdidharma, who was the third child of a king and a brilliant student of Zen. Daruma studied the attacking techniques of animals and insects and the forces of nature, and, combining these with a special breathing technique, he created the basis for a legendary system of weaponless fighting and mental concentration. Daruma created in China the Shao-Lin temple in the province of Honan and in that monastery he instructed other monks in his particular style of unarmed combat.
The system developed at the temple gradually disseminated throughout Asia, spreading to Okinawa, Korea and Mongolia. By 1130 A.D., aspects of this system had even been incorporated into the indigenous military disciplines of geographically and culturally isolated Japan.
The Asia fighting arts were historically taught and refined in secrecy, as their practice was routinely prohibited in different regions. Consequently, various regionally and family-based styles and schools evolved, one of these being the Kempo style of Okinawa.
By 1901, Kempo was being taught openly in Okinawa, and in 1916, was demonstrated in Japan by master Gichin Funakoshi. There, under the name of Karate, practical applications of the system were further refined and united with the Zen-based philosophy of the Japanese disciplines. The popularity of karate as both a martial art and a sport spread quickly in Japan and beyond, contributing to the development of diverse systems and schools.
Kyokushin Karate is a discipline through which practitioners may find clues to assist them in their own spiritual development and self-exploration. It is also, importantly, a martial art, encompassing philosophical considerations of life and death, struggle and survival. It is a practical form of self-defense, emphasizing (at the initial stages) kicks, punches, blocks and body movement. It is an intense physical activity, which directly benefits mental conditioning.
"Kyokushinkaikan" is comprised of four Japanese words:
Kyokushin Karate is characterized by requiring of its participants, tenuous training, conditioning and realistic contact while sparing. Kyokushin karate-ka believe this contact is necessary in order to fully appreciate the resiliency of the human body and spirit and to prepare for any serious confrontation. The word "OSU" and the phrase "osu no seishin" (perseverance under pressure) succinctly summarize the essence of the Dojo Kun, written by Sosai Mas Oyama and Eiji Yoshikawa.
Kyokushin philosophy is further reflected in the following maxim:
"... One Thousand days of training, A beginner; Ten thousand days of training, A master."
Masutatsu Oyama
Master Funakoshi
Gichin Funakoshi is widely considered the primary "father" of modern karate due to his efforts to introduce the Okinawan art to mainland Japan, from where it spread to the rest of the world. Born in 1868, he began to study karate at the age of 11, and was a student of the two greatest masters of the time, Azato and Itosu. He grew so proficient that he was initiated into all the major styles of karate in Okinawa at the time. For Master Funakoshi, the word karate eventually took on a deeper and broader meaning through the synthesis of these many methods, becoming karate-do, literally the "way of karate," or of the empty hand. Training in karate-do became an education for life itself.
Master Funakoshi was the first expert to introduce karate-do to mainland Japan. In 1916 he gave a demonstration to the Butokuden in Kyoto, Japan, which at that time was the official center of all martial arts. On March 6, 1921, the Crown Prince, who was later to become the Emperor of Japan, visited Okinawa and Master Funakoshi was asked to demonstrate karate. In the early spring of 1922 Master Funakoshi traveled to Tokyo to present his art at the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo organized by the Ministry of Education. He was strongly urged by several eminent groups and individuals to remain in Japan, and indeed he never did return to Okinawa.
Master Funakoshi taught only one method, a total discipline, which represented a synthesis of Okinawan karate styles. This method became known as Shotokan, literally the clan or the house of Shoto, which was the Master's pen name for his poetry, denoting the sound of the wind blowing through pines.
So Nei Chu
The defeat of Japan and the subsequent indignity of Occupation almost proved to be too much for Mas Oyama, who nearly despaired. Fortunately for all of us, So Nei Chu came into his life at that time. Master So, another Korean (from Oyama's own province) living in Japan, was one of the highest authorities on Goju Ryu in Japan at the time. He was renowned for both his physical and spiritual strength. It was he who encouraged Mas Oyama to dedicate his life to the Martial Way. It was he too who suggested that Oyama should retreat away from the rest of the world for 3 years while training his mind and body.
MAS OYAMA
Masutatsu (Mas) Oyama was born Yong I-Choi on the 27th of July, 1923, in a village not far from Gunsan in Southern Korea. At a relatively young age he was sent to Manchuria, in Southern China, to live on his sister's farm. At the age of nine, he started studying the Southern Chinese form of Kempo called Eighteen hands from a Mr. Yi who was at the time working on the farm. When Oyama returned to Korea at the the age of 12, he continued his training in Korean Kempo.
In 1938, at the age of 15, he travelled to Japan to train as an aviator, to be like his hero of the time, Korea's first fighter pilot. Survival on his own at that age proved to be more difficult than he thought, especially as a Korean in Japan, and the aviator training fell by the wayside.
He did however continue martial arts training, by participating in judo and boxing, and one day he noticed some students training in Okinawan Karate. This interested him very much and he went to train at the dojo of Gichin Funakoshi at Takushoku University, where he learned what is today known as CyberDojo home pages.
His training progress was such that by the age of seventeen he was already a 2nd dan, and by the time he entered the Japanese Imperial Army at 20, he was a fourth dan. At this point he also took a serious interest in judo, and his progress there was no less amazing. By the time he had quit training in Judo
Mountain Training
When he was 23 years old, Mas Oyama met Eiji Yoshikawa, the author of the novel Musashi, which was based on the life and exploits of Japan's most famous Samurai. Both the novel and the author helped to teach Mas Oyama about the Samurai Bushido code and what it meant. That same year, Oyama went to Mt. Minobu in the Chiba Prefecture, where Musashi had developed his Nito-Ryu style of swordfighting. Oyama thought that this would be an appropriate place to commence the rigours of training he had planned for himself. Among the things he took with him was a copy of Yoshikawa's book. A student named Yashiro also came with him.
The relative solitude was strongly felt, and after 6 months, Yashiro secretly fled during the night. It became even harder for Oyama, who wanted more than ever to return to civilisation. So Nei Chu wrote to him that he should shave off an eyebrow in order to get rid of the urge. Surely he wouldn't want anyone to see him that way! This and other more moving words convinced Oyama to continue, and he resolved to become the most powerful karate-ka in Japan.
Soon however, his sponsor informed him that he was no longer able to support him and so, after fourteen months, he had to end his solitude.
A few months later, in 1947, Mas Oyama won the karate section of the first Japanese National Martial Arts Championships after WWII. However, he still felt empty for not having completed the three years of solitude. He then decided to dedicate his life completely to karate-do. So he started again, this time on Mt. Kiyozumi, also in Chiba Prefecture. This site he chose for its spiritually uplifting environment.
This time his training was fanatical — 12 hours a day every day with no rest days, standing under (cold) buffeting waterfalls, breaking river stones with his hands, using trees as makiwara, jumping over rapidly growing flax plants hundreds of times each day. Each day also included a period of study of the ancients classics on the Martial arts, Zen, and philosophy.
After eighteen months he came down fully confident of himself, and able to take control of his life. Never again would he be so heavily influenced by his society around him. (Though it is probably safe to say that his circumstances were also probably never again as traumatic!)
Bulls, Challengers, and the Godhand
In 1950, Sosai (the founder) Mas Oyama started testing (and demonstrating) his power by fighting bulls. In all, he fought 52 bulls, three of which were killed instantly, and 49 had their horns taken off with knife hand blows. That it is not to say that it was all that easy for him. Oyama was fond of remembering that his first attempt just resulted in an angry bull. In 1957, at the age of 34, he was nearly killed in Mexico when a bull got some of his own back and gored him. Oyama somehow managed to pull the bull off and break off his horn. He was bedridden for 6 months while he recoverd from the usually fatal wound. Today of course, the animal rights groups would have something to say about these demonstrations, despite the fact that the animals were already all destined for slaughter.
In 1952, he travelled the United States for a year, demonstrating his karate live and on national televison. During subsequent years, he took on all challengers, resulting in fights with 270 different people. The vast majority of these were defeated with one punch! A fight never lasted more than three minutes, and most rarely lasted more than a few seconds. His fighting principle was simple — if he got through to you, that was it.
If he hit you, you broke. If you blocked a rib punch, you arm was broken or dislocated. If you didn't block, your rib was broken. He became known as the Godhand, a living manifestation of the Japanese warriors' maxim Ichi geki, Hissatsu or "One strike, certain death". To him, this was the true aim of technique in karate. The fancy footwork and intricate techniques were secondary (though he was also known for the power of his head kicks).
Kyokushinkai Karate
Martial art created by Sosai Masutatsu Oyama in 1955. It is a style of karate focuses on strenuous physical training, especially kumite and tameshiwari, though it also inludes kihon, kata, self-defense techniques, and weapons. It is the utilization of circular movement in the execution of techniques that distinguishes Kyokushin Karate from the traditional styles of Karate that rely on simple linear motion. Kyokushin Karate is characterized by requiring of its participants, strenuous training, conditioning and realistic contact while sparring. Kyokushin karate-ka believes this contact is necessary in order to fully appreciate the resiliency of the human body and spirit and to prepare for any serious confrontation.
The kanji (Japanese characters) calligraphy, worn universally on the front of the gi, simply means "Kyokushinkai", which is the name given by Sosai Mas Oyama to the karate style he created. It is composed of three characters:
Kyoku meaning "Ultimate".
Shin meaning "Truth" or "Reality".
Kai meaning "Society" or "Association".
Kan = Building, School
Kanku
The symbol of Kyokushin Karate is the Kanku, which is derived from Kanku Kata, the Sky Gazing Form. In this kata, the hands are raised and the fingers meet to form an opening through which the sky is viewed. The top and bottom points of the Kanku represent the first fingers of each hand touching at the top and the thumbs touching at the bottom, symbolizing the peaks or ultimate points. The thick sections at the sides represent the wrists, symbolizing power. The center circle represents the opening between the hands through which the sky is viewed, symbolizing infinite depth. The whole Kanku is enclosed by a circle, symbolizing continuity and circular action.
K-1 Kickboxing
While the sport of Boxing having its long history since the age of Roman Empire and a very large population base in its amateur and professional practitioners, with its techniques having been thoroughly experienced, researched and evolved, it makes us to think that the "Sweet Science" is almost coming to be at a point of its perfection.
In comparison, while Muay Thai has its own history, Kickboxing is a new sport now gaining a world wide popularity, and the population is still small. The world of Kickboxing is also not as unified yet, as there are many organizations in the world having their own championship tournaments with different rules. Also the lines are thin between this sport and other full-contact or semi-contact fighting tournaments. There are still many new ideas and techniques coming out in Kickboxing, with a large help from the variety of already existing Martial Arts such as Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu and many others.
Kickboxing has taken into a form around 500 years ago (some say it's longer) in the country of what's now Thailand, called Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. Most of the kickboxing styles in the world is based on Muay Thai, including Japan, Europe, and Australia. In Muay Thai match, the fighters are allowed to:
Kick and knee to the leg, body, head
Punch to the body, head
Elbow to the body, head
Back spin punch
(They used to allow head butts and throws)
What's dominant in America is the American-style kickboxing, which is started out as a full contact Karate tournament with the basis of boxing. It allows kicks to the waist above only, and there is no elbow and knee strikes. There are many Kickboxing organizations in the world having their own championship tournaments. The organizations are, to name a few: W.K.A., W.K.C, I.K.K.C., K.I.C.K., P.K.F., P.K.A, I.S.K.A., etc. Savate is a French version of kickboxing. San Shou is a Chinese kickboxing started out from Kung-fu, allowing throws in addition. And so is Draka from Russia. Shoot-boxing is started out in Japan and is a combination of Muay Thai with throws.
Out of what seems to be an disorganized situation in present kickboxing world, there came a kickboxing event called K-1. Originally a full-contact Karate event that became a huge success in Japan, it is now considered sort of a unified tournament of striking Martial Arts where any styles and organizations can freely compete in it --- as long as they adhere to its rule. It's tournament rule is similar to that of Muay Thai without elbow strikes. So far the champions from many styles of striking-based Martial Arts have competed in it, such as Karate, Boxing, Muay Thai, Kung-fu, Taekwondo, American Kickboxing, Draka, Capoeira, Shootfighting and No Hold Barred (UFC, Vale Tudo). It has been a huge success in Japan and in Europe, and now it is also becoming big in the US.. It is said that the idea of K-1 event is a very important step in the development of Kickboxing and the Martial Arts in general.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
Salem, Nebraska. No authenticated witch, just a spooky abandoned house in a small, dying Midwest village.........and a bit of imagination and post processing.
#1B-1, Indianapolis 500, 2011, 100th Anniversary, White Board, Signed By 42 Drivers, With Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.),
1) N/A,
2) N/A,
3) Spike Gelhausen,
4)Bryan Herta,
5)Roger Mears,
6) Jeff Andretti,
7) Hiro Matsushita,
8) N/a,
9) N/A,
10) Tyce Carlson,
11) Elton Rasmussen,
12) N/A,
13) N/A,
14) Dennis Firestone,
15) Steve Chassey,
16) Paul Durant,
17) Lyn St. James,
18) Howdy Holmes,
19) N/A,
20) N/A,
21) Mike Groff,
22) Roberto Guerrero,
23) Jimmy Kite,
24) Donnie Allison,
25) John Martin,
26) Bill Vulkovich,
27) Willy T. Ribbs,
28) Patrick Bedard,
29) Arie Luyendyk Jr.,
30) Raul Boesel,
31) Phil Giebller,
32) Claude Bourbonnais,
33) Shigeaki Hattori,
34) The Late Chuck Hulse, pass away 7/13/20 at age 93
35) The Late Gary Bettenhausen,
36) Scott Goodyear,
37) Bob Harkey,
38) Robby McGehee,
39) Janet Guthrie,
40) Vern Schuppan,
41) N/A,
42) John Jones,
N/A) Didier Theys,
N/A) Phil Krueger,
#E1D-3-1, NASCAR, The Late John Nemecheck, Mike Skinner, and 20 other drivers signing, White Track Truck, #1, 1995, Sears Auto Center 125, at The Milwaukee Mile Speedway, Mike Skinner was the pole Setter and Winner of the Race and the 1995 Nascar Truck Series Champion.
1) Dick Bergeren, CBS, Sports Reporter,
2) Mike Bliss, #2, Ultra Custom Wheels,
3) P.J. Jones, #1, Sears Diehard,
4) Scott Legasses, #24, DuPont,
5) John Kinder, #14, Stoppe Motorsports,
6) Ron Hornaday Jr., #16, Papa John's Pizza,
7) Dennis Setzer, #30, Taylor Togs,
8) T.J. Clark, #23, ASE,
9) Rodney Combs, #43, U.S. Olympic Bob Slide,
10) The Late John Nemecheck, #87, Burger King, Signature Rubbed,
11) Ken Squire, CBS, Motorsports Reporter,
12) Butch Miller, #98, Raybestos,
13) Bob Keselowski, #29, Winnebago,
14) Rick Carelli, #6, Total Petroleum,
15) Mike Skinner, #3, GM Goodwrench, Pole Setter, Winner of The Race and 1995 Truck Champion,
16) Bill Sedwick, #75, Spears Motorsports,
17) Kerry Teague, #51, Teamsters Local 71,
18) Kenny Allen, #65, ONSAT, TV Plus,
19) Bob Brevak, #34, Scaffidi Mack,
20) Ron Evans, #20, Barbary Coast,
21) Johnny Benson Jr., #18, Performance Friction, Winston Cup,
22) Mike Joy, CBS Motorsports, no Picture,
Racing Champions, stripped and repainted, 1/24 scale, die cast, signed by 22 drivers with Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.)
#E1D-1-1, Autographed White Limo with 16 Signers, Bill Murry, Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Picture Proof Autographs,(P.P.A.), all 16 signers comes with an Picture Proof Photo. (P.P.P.)
1) Vanna White, Wheel Of Fortune,
2) Jensen Buchannan, Marley, from Another World,
3) FABIO, Fabio Lanzoni, Italian Model,
4) Tommy Puett, Life Goes On, Tyler,
5) Mario Lopez, Save By The Bell, Slater,
6) Bill Murry, Ghost Busters, Dr. Peter Venkman,
7) Floyd Weasen,
8) Mary DeBaggis, DJ 104.3 FM Radio,
9) Roe Conn, WLS Radio,
10) Annie Maxfield, WGN Radio,
11) Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Save By The Bell, Zack,
12) Carol Ramas, WBBM am Radio,
13) Red?,
14) Russell Todd, Another World, Dr. Jamie Frame,
15) Bernie Toyoyta, WBBM AM Radio,
16) The Late, Ed (Rat Fink) Roth
an Majorettt, 1/24 scale, die cast.
This photo is a promotional still of actor Johnny Depp in his starring role in the 1995 film Don Juan DeMarco. The image includes a visible signature, and similar authenticated photos are available for purchase from various online retailers. This photo was taken in 1994 during the production of the film Don Juan DeMarco. The film itself was released in the United States in April 1995, and this specific photograph is a promotional still from that time period. The photo credit is given to Merrick Morton, and the image includes a New Line Cinema logo.
Image Details Film: The image is a promotional photo for the New Line Cinema film Don Juan DeMarco, released in 1995.
Actor: It features Johnny Depp as the titular character, a young man who believes he is the legendary world's greatest lover.
Johnny Depp - John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. His films, in which he has often played eccentric characters, have grossed over $10.8 billion worldwide.
Depp began his career as a musician performing in several amateur rock bands before making his feature film debut in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). He then acted in Platoon (1986) before rising to prominence as a teen idol on the television series 21 Jump Street (1987–1990). Depp portrayed lead roles in Arizona Dream (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Benny & Joon (1993), Dead Man (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Ninth Gate (1999), Chocolat (2000), and Blow (2001). During this time, Depp became known for his work with director Tim Burton, collaborating on eight films together, starting with Edward Scissorhands (1990), followed by Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Depp gained worldwide stardom for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003–2017). He earned three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles as the leading man in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), J. M. Barrie in Finding Neverland (2004), and the title role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). His other well-received films include Public Enemies (2009), Rango (2011), Into the Woods (2014), Black Mass (2015), Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Minamata (2020). He portrayed Gellert Grindelwald in two films within the Wizarding World's Fantastic Beasts films in 2016 and 2018.
For his work in the film industry, he received an Honorary César and star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999. He was named People's Sexiest Man Alive twice, in 2003 and in 2009. Outside acting, Depp has produced films through his company Infinitum Nihil, which he founded in 2004. He also formed the rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry. In 2022, Depp won a defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, with the jury awarding him $15 million and Heard $2 million in her countersuit. The highly publicized case sparked widespread debate on defamation, domestic abuse, and male victims of domestic violence, leading to a settlement in December 2022.
LINK to video - Don Juan DeMarco Official Trailer - Johnny Depp Movie (1994) - www.youtube.com/watch?v=AteQZ7q6rtA
LINK to video - Johnny Depp Interview 1993 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEY0nAvLd64
LINK to video - Johnny Depp 1999 Interview - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61poirKUwQ
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
NASCAR, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Jammie McMurry, NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, .
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
2015, NASCAR Chase Fest, 16 Contenters NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
$ 2.3 million was sold at auction Saturday in Denver, Billy Kidd and only authenticated portrait is believed to be alive.
$ 2.6 million on 15 percent of the quota price in an attempt to influence the selling price, is included. Organizers hope for between $ 300,000 and $ 400,000 could go.tintype, including a bulky sweater and wrinkled layers of clothing, a hat, wearing a Fort Sumner, New Mexico Poster outlaw is believed to have been taken in 1879 or in 1880. He was a Winchester rifle in his right hand and a Colt revolver in a holster on his left side, standing with one hand.Tintypes were an early form of photography that uses metal plates. Inverse images, and Billy Kidd Billy Kidd led to believe incorrectly that the left hand is a tintype. Billy Paul Newman 1958 fantasy film “The Left” inspired.Billy Kidd, a friend, taking photos of Don Dedrick, and a tintype of his family, was later owned by the Upham family.
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
The early history of this striking yellow painted aircraft is obscure, as it has no authenticated history before 1936, when it was acquired from crated storage at Le Havre in France for preservation by vintage vehicle and aircraft collector Richard Nash for his International Horseless Carriage Corporation. When discovered, the oil tank was still half-full.
Although for many years the aircraft was claimed to be the 1911 Gordon Bennett Cup racer, this is not the case. That machine was earlier and differed considerably in appearance. This example may actually have been built by Louis Blériot, famous for making the first cross-Channel flight, during his summer holidays circa September 1911.
Originally built as a single-seat racing aircraft, it was unofficially timed at 130kph (81mph) and could be the Bleriot shown at the Paris Aero Show in December 1911. By the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 it was in store at Le Havre until discovered by Nash, who quickly restored it, only to crash it at Brooklands in June 1936. He rebuilt the aircraft again between 1938 and 1939 and then, in 1953, sold it to the Royal Aeronautical Society along with other aircraft now in the RAF Museum collection, such as the Caudron G3, Fokker DVII, Sopwith Camel and Blériot XI. All these aircraft were formally purchased by the Ministry of Defence from the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1992 following many years on loan and are now on display at Hendon. RAF Museum, Hendon. Noise removal software used as the natural lighting is poor.
Carlos “Botong” Francisco (1912-1969)
Untitled, (Pista ng Angono, The Fiesta of Angono)
signed and dated 1960 (upper right)
oil on canvas
20” x 30” (51 cm x 76 cm)
Starting bid: P 5,000,000
Provenance:
Private Collection, London
With an authentication provided by Mr. Salvador “Badong” Juban, protegé and artist assistant of Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco from 1959 until his death in 1969.
About the Subject
Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco is often compared to Diego Rivera, the Mexican painter he, too, admired — and for good reason. Botong created massive murals as well as created an archetypal Filipino character, mythic as “Malakas” and as heroic as Bonifacio and Rizal, and molded in their images.
As the clay for these statues, he relied on the cast of characters of his beloved hometown Angono. He would paint tillers of the soil, even camote-diggers; fishermen pulling at their nets (in the “Mampupukot”); also families gathering around their favorite meal (in the fishing-town of Angono, that would be none other than “sinigang”, the painting of which resides in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas collection) as well as the making of Christmas rice-cakes of puto bumbong.
The Fiesta of Angono was a central event in the town’s life, as well as in Botong’s. And as Salvador Juban, his long-time protegé and artist assistant, would recall, Botong always painted from life and the things he knew. The Fiesta ritual consisted of a parade carrying the sacred image of San Clemente to the lake’s banks at the edge of the town, under a bamboo arch and accompanied by uniformed devotees and a brass band. That would be none other than the famous Banda Uno put together by Angono’s other favorite son, musician Lucio San Pedro — Botong’s cousin. (Angono is the home of not just one but two national artists, Botong being one for the arts and San Pedro, the other for music) Higantes, or giant papier-mâché statues, were also introduced in the 1950s, although Juban says they started off only as a pair and were not the horde they are today.
San Clemente (the Pope St. Clement) would be hoisted reverentially into a “pagoda” tower, itself set on a bamboo platform on a row of bankas (boats), propelled by the fishermen of Angono with long sticks across the lake to the other side of town, from where it would make its way back to the church. (San Clemente is the patron saint of fishermen, having suffered a watery fate at the hands of the Roman emperor Trajan who cast him into the Mediterranean for his faith, his feet weighed down with an anchor.)
Juban remembers that Botong would be an avid participant of the fiesta, following the saint to the lakeshore and on its long procession. At one time, he was even “presidente de festejos”, in charge of the festivities. During one fateful fiesta, the pagoda sank from the weight of the devotees and Botong led the townsfolk in raising money to build five large boats to carry the pagoda the next year.
The overweighed pagoda appears to be the subject of a watercolor in the collection of the De La Salle University Museum, Botong adds an interesting sidebar by focusing on the distracting charms of an Angono lass in the foreground, hinting that the travails of the men struggling on the raft, are nothing compared to her smile. This attention to the microcosm would appear deliberately and often in his many works.
Botong would invite various celebrities to the fiesta, and his guests would include the movie actor Mario Montenegro and director Manuel Conde. He recalls how Alejandro “Anding” Roces and many other writers would perch on a roof of a house to take photographs of the proceedings.
Botong would go on to create various masterpieces about the Angono fiesta: The “Fiesta” (1946), an important oil leading to his final work, the “Pista sa Nayon” (1947), which now hangs in Malacanan; and the “Fluvial Parade” (1961), which is in the collection of the Far Eastern University.
The “Fluvial Parade”, 1961 is a magnificent spectacle of the Angono Fiesta, featuring San Clemente under a bamboo arch on a raft that travels down the water, seemingly sent off by a large golden hot-air paper balloon, (another floats away in the distance.) There is the Banda Uno with a majorette, presumably Botong’s recurring nod to the master Lucio San Pedro. There are fisherfolk, peering behind a row of paddles. A fisherman at the top right holds the silver-y kanduli fish (otherwise know as the Manila Bay catfish and not to be mistaken for the black hito) aloft, ready to find its destination in the favorite dish of the sons of Angono, the delicious sinigang na kanduli sa miso, which is being stewed intently in an oversized kawa (cauldron) by the couple in the foreground.
There is a table of diners, another recurring theme in Botong’s fiesta paintings, of the “panigang” — which is the time-honored way in Angono to enjoy sinigang, laid out on banana leaves with mounds of rice, “in all its soupy and sour glory.” (Think boodle fight but with more focus.) — by Lisa Guerrero Nakpil
About the Painting
Salvador “Badong” Juban, Botong’s last protege and artist assistant, says that he recalls Botong working on this particular painting, “Pista ng Angono” in the master’s sala or living room. (He joined Botong in 1959; this painting is dated 1960.)
It is Juban who gives the first clue to the origins and the meaning of this painting, pointing out the similarities between the couple cooking up the sinigang in the “Fluvial Parade” (1961) and the more prominent pair in this work, dated 1960. Pointing to the profile and finely-shaded jaw of the male cook, he exclaimed that “only Botong could have produced such fineness of work.”
In this “Pista ng Angono”, the larger-than-life features of the other works — the saint and its arch, the brass band and higantes, the golden balloons, and yes, the heaving crowds — all recede into the distance. So also do the larger homes of the richer and more famous, filled with prosperous merrymakers. One spies a single purple toned higante beside the thatch-roofed stage for the town zarzuela. The Banda Uno leads the return of the saint, symbolized by the bamboo arch. Instead of a large hot air balloon, now just bunches of much smaller, multi colored ones flutter in the wind.
But that is not to say that the images have been less carefully drawn: In Ino M. Manalo’s essay “Angono: Hometown as Subversion”, in the landmark book, “The Life & Art of Botong Francisco”, he zeroes in on Botong’s mastery of “the technique of the tiny”, or the use of “minutiae”, the smallest details to put forward the idea that nothing is unimportant.
The patchwork, galvanized-iron roof of the church, the delicately colored white veils of the ladies streaming out of the church; even the portraits of the diners at the panigang are lovingly limned. (One gentleman has sideburns, a lady’s dangling earring is painstakingly outlined.) The church of Angono is a solemn, towering if pale presence in the near distance.
If the “Fluvial Parade” features the fiesta’s principal players in the theater of town life, Botong now chooses to focus on the backstage, behind-the-scenes characters in this “Pista ng Angono”. Here we see men and women, still toiling away even as the fiesta winds down. It is a private look at Botong’s neighbors and friends; showing his very real connection to the simple folk who keep the fiesta (and the town, for that matter) humming; a different take from the usual pomp and circumstance of the hermana mayor and her friends celebrating in the distance.
A woman, half-hidden, sitting on the ground, pounds away at a mortar, the pestle in one hand; a man back turned, but pants pockets clearly drawn, tends to a lechon (roast pig); another character (reminiscent of the work, Puto Bumbong) is half-seen grinding a coconut. An almost-secretive, sly courtship takes place on the front porch of a house; a coy lass listens to a man on his guitar, while her father has his back turned, distracted by the fiesta goings-on. (Angono tradition has it that men who came a-wooing would be obliged to clean the home of their intended before the fiesta with the scratchy Angono leaf, isis.)
The lead characters in this work are the cook and his helpmate, busy with the preparation of the various fiesta dishes. There are tin cups and tomatoes on a small table apart from various pots and pans. (Juban says the typical menu, apart from sinigang na kanduli, would be adobo, menudo, inihaw na dalag with the anise-like leaves of the alagaw.) The cook wears a hat, an apron, and a towel tied around his neck. Higante near thatch hut for zarzuela. Note the finely-shaded jaw of the male cook, that Juban said, “only Botong could have produced such fineness of work.”
To the right of this pair, is another important character, a young woman in the traditional alampay (scarf) worn over her head, that Botong loved to chronicle. She is tirelessly scrubbing away at a pile of pinggan (plates), rinsing them in a palanggana (basin) of water. She squats beneath a sinuous red tolda (half-tent), a device to create a familiar space found in the other fiesta paintings, held up by two gnarled trees.
The figures are all Botong’s gentle reminders that the Philippines, as Ino M. Manalo has put it, is unmistakably “a country of people with individual lives that the audience is being challenged to understand.” These common folk go on undisturbed by the hubbub of the fiesta, engrossed in their own world, underlining Botong’s love for the ordinary men, the Juan de la Cruzes, his brothers, mates and co-conspirators in the town of Angono. For Botong, these men and women were the most important figures in his personal kaleidoscope of life.
For Juban, the beauty of the unadorned country life was the most important theme of Botong’s works — making this only recently discovered gem a significant chapter in the master’s history. — by Lisa Guerrero Nakpil
About Salvador Juban
Salvador ‘Badong’ Juban officially joined the great Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco’s studio as an apprentice in 1959, winning an audience, he laughingly recalls, on the strength of his father being a captain in the local constabulary.
The clincher was that Juban presented to Botong a bulging scrapbook of clippings of the artist’s works — and related how he had been fascinated by Botong, already a local legend, even as a child. Juban said that Botong was the simplest of men, whose studio was no more than a shack made up of rice sacks and thatch and Juban would watch through its open windows, entranced as the master worked late into the night. Juban even persuaded his mother, the town washerwoman to allow him to deliver the laundry to Botong’s two maiden aunts who raised him. (He said his mother would often object because he would be gone for hours, as he would take the opportunity to observe Botong even more closely.)
Juban was first assigned to transfer Botong’s sketches for woodcarvings (his wife was from the Philippine woodworking capital, Paete, and instigated the use of this medium.) It was years before he was allowed to actually take paint to canvas, and Juban says he was first allowed to use only the pigments left over from the famous Philippine International Fair murals, almost a decade before. He assisted Botong on a number of commissions, including the masterpieces at Manila City Hall, Manila Banking Corporation, Don Bosco and for various leading Filipino and multinational organizations. Juban said that as a result, he became an expert in forming curls of smoke and clouds (‘usok at ulap.’)
Badong Juban worked as Botong’s “protege” from 1959 to 1962, when he took a short break to work on props and backdrops for Premiere films; returning in 1965 as a full-fledged artist’s assistant until the day of Botong’s death in 1969, but he remained a household fixture for about a decade, sleeping on a banig (straw mat) in the studio. — by Lisa Guerrero Nakpil
About the Artist
Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco was born on November 4, 1912; was raised and lived in the ancient town of Angono, Rizal. He fell short by one year of completing his course in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, preferring to work instead in the Philippines Herald as an illustrator. There, he would meet the other artists who would become the legendary Thirteen Moderns, Vicente Manansala, Cesar Legaspi and Hernando Ocampo. His classmates would eventually also join that august roster: Galo Ocampo, Diosdado Lorenzo and Ricarte Purugganan.
He would go on to win numerous awards and win the love of a grateful nation, for his paintings that captured the Filipino soul. Botong would be named Philippine National Artist for Painting, posthumously, in 1973. — by Lisa Guerrero Nakpil
Lot 100 of the Leon Gallery auction on 11 June 2016. For more details, please see leon-gallery.com/v2/gallery/AuctionData-23-Spectacular-Mi...
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
Original Video of Authentication, analysis and expertise The Painting by Mykola Hlushchenko "Still life with a Glass Jar and a Bottle" by Art Expert Dmytro Omelyanovich Gorbachev
08/08/2018 20:30:44 at his apartment
Art critic Dmytro Gorbachev: "Eye is a computer"
The Exclusive of the Library of the Ukrainian Art
en.uartlib.org/exclusive/mystetstvoznavets-dmytro-gorbach...
May 4, 2018 Text by Kateryna Lebedieva
The name of Dmytro Omelyanovich Gorbachev is familiar to everyone who is at least a bit interested in the Ukrainian culture. An art critic who popularizes the term “Ukrainian avant-garde” not only in Ukraine but also in the West; author of books and scripts, researcher, charismatic lecturer and a man with a brilliant sense of humor. We talked with Dmytro Omelyanovich about the brightest episodes of his work as an expert.
Some time ago I happened to read an article about Malevich and the avant-garde. My name was mentioned in it, though, without much respect. The article dealt with the fact that on the art market of the Russian avant-garde there is more forgery than real art works. They also wrote that I introduced into the market the works that had never been exhibited, and which had been never written about. The principle of an archivist is to find traces. But in a large number of avant-garde works the provenance had never been ascertained. So should we refuse to do the work? No, I do not think so. Not an archivist, but an expert whose eyes have been estimating hundreds of works, almost immediately is able to state whether this is a real thing or not. At the energetics level. The work can be well done, but “dead”. There are such art critics who label “falshak” to everything. There are cock and bull stories about me; they say anything you bring him, Gorbachev calls “Malevich”…
What do you think about the scandal with the exhibition of Igor Toporovsky’s collection in Belgium?
There are some originals there, for example, the works by Alexander Rodchenko. The rest is rubbish. 90% of the fakes immediately fall out, but 10% must be studied carefully. In general, any work must being watched for a long time in order to understand how the eye reacts, and only after that the conclusion can be made. The eye of the expert is a computer. It captures a bunch of circumstances which even are difficult to be formulated. Long time ago I asked a tailor about a cloth if it was cheviot or drape. He ansewered sheviot. I asked why? He answered that he could see it! I thought that he was a real expert, he could see it, without revising any documents, although this is important too. Any expert must develope visual perception; intuition is gained with long practice. In fact, there are a lot of fakes, not just in avant-garde: everything you want can be forged to earn money. Nowadays even prominent artists sometimes do it, they seem to be embodied into the artist whose works are being forged. I know one alike who strikingly falsifies the manner of Bogomazov in drawing. But only in drawing, his painting turns pale and unexpressive.
What other interesting stories can you tell us about art forgery?
Fictions at the highest level in the history of art are few. But there were also such cases when the artist himself recognized his work. For example, the French artist Maurice Utrillo even sued with one of his imitators but when he was shown the picture, he said: ”It may be my work”. There was a Spanish painter who falsificated Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and he always remained above suspicion, but when he died,a lot of half finished canvases were found in his studio. If a copy is made at the level of the artist, there is no reason to worry. This does not compromise the artist. But there are, on the contrary, such originals, to which the artist did not even touch. Tetyana Yablonska‘s picture “Bread” is now exibited in the National Art Museum. Tetyana Nilivna was asked to copy her own picture. The original of “Bread” belongs to Tretyakov Gallery. She did not want to do it so she hired an artist Ivan Yukhno, a good copyist. He made an impeccable copy. Yablonska only marked a year, 1950, while in the original is 1949, and signed the picture. In this way she authorized it. So if a brilliant copyist remakes a picture at the level of the artist, it is impossible to prove anything.
How many art expertises did you do in your life and when did you start?
I have been doing them verbally since 1965. I started with Alexandra Exter‘s “Bridge Sevr”. It was not difficult, because in the book by Tugendhold published in 1922 this work was reproduced. Then some guys brought “Pimonenko”, and it was rubbish. How did they produce fakes in the 1960s? They took any appropriate sketch, put a sign “Repin”, “Pimonenko” even hardly trying to imitate the signature. The art market looked like that. In 1990s I first went abroad and met with a collector, a friend of Marcade. She also brought the work of Exter to be examined. After that the Russian experts reproached me with not taking money for that, saying that it was their bread so I had to be paid too. First I took as much as I was offered and later I began to give a written certificate. Sometimes I was asked for more information about the object and it turned to become a kind of art recearch. One of the collectors once told me that my report on the picture was so interesting that he started exhibiting it. At that time Iwas paid 100 dollars until once in America a collector said that $100 was a tip. And he gave $200. After arriving home I began to take $200 for an examination. In the 1980s in the Tretyakov Gallery, young art historians took 5 rubles for an examination. They took 5 rubles and asked the collectors: “Whose name do you want me to write?”
Were styles and methods of falsificating art items different before the 1990s and after that period?
Before ”perestroika” painting practically had no value, there were no auctions, museums and collectors were not robbed. In the National Art Museum of Ukraine the windows were constantly open, the latches did not work, because they were still of the pre-revolutionary times of Nicholas Bilyashivsky and Fedir Ernst. But the moment came when art works started being sold and bought and the first robberies began. Chudnovsky from Leningrad, who had Chagall and Malevich, was robbed in his apartment. Dozens of people used to come to his place, and one day the people from the Caucases came, according to the recommendation. They attacked him, tied his hands and feet, put him on the floor and began to cut out the paintings from the frames according to the plan: they knew where were the pictures they wanted. But on the eve of this event he changed the order and Malevich and Chagal were in other places. The next day the collector went to the Hermitage and located those masterpieces into deposit… In Poltava Art Museum in the 1990s the still life of the 17th century disappeared. Everyone was surprised because there was no alarm. It turned out that the robbers had an agreement with the police. Two years later the still-life was found in Manchester!
Have you ever been mistaken while examinating pictures?
Yes, I have. Thieves often take psychological moments into account. Once a beautiful girl in tears came to my place. He said that her grandfather from Zhytomyr died, there was his collection in the attic. The pictures were not outstanding, but in the style of some artist (I do not remember who exactly). I thought that he had a kind of creative failure and determined the work as an original. Two months later another beauty comes in, cries and says “grandfather died, the attic is full of of pictures”. I asked her: ”in Zhytomyr?” ”No, in Vinnitsa”. I drew her away and turned back to the previous one to reconsider my decision… Once a collection of works by Malevich’s pupils appeared. I invited Igor Dychenko to have a look at it and he bought the best of those works. A year later, we began to see and realized that that was Kazimir Severinovich himself: the forms have no weight, only Malevich could paint like that. Not a masterpiece, not the best work; It is evident that a person had been experimenting. Up to now, Jean-Claude Marcade has confirmed that this is Malevich of 1916. The work is kept in the Art Arsenal in Kyiv.
What painters, by the way, are more often falsificated?
All those who are expensive: Anatol Petrytsky, Oleksandr Khvostenko-Khvostov. In the 1990s, Vasyl Yermylov “Portrait of the artist Olexiy Pochtenniy” (1924) was sold at Sotheby’s. A German collector bought it. I could see clearly that it was a fake.The collector sais: ”Do not tell me that, I bought it because it costs $50 thousand, not $500 thousand, and the expert assured me that the work was real”. At that moment I realized that not everyone wants to know the truth… But there is an inaccurate attribution too. A collector writes from America: Exter has been found, could you confirm? But even from the photo I can see that it is a work of Katria Vasilieva, the student of Exter. The owner of the picture asks: ”Could you not tell anyone about it?” Yes I can. Obviously, he wanted to sell this work as an Exter’s one, and this is not my business. Once an agent brought a picture of Olexandr Murashko, in my opinion, of 1905. At the restoration workshop, it was originally said that it was the second third of the 20th century, and six months later the same restorers decided that it was the last third of the twentieth century. They found the paints, the mass production of which was launched in 1916. But before 1916, these paints had been produced by handicraftsmen. And they were found in the pictures of Yavlensky, a friend of Kandinsky. As we know. Murashko visited Munich in 1905 and had a nice time with Yavlensky there! So the main thing is an expert eye. Devices can also make mistakes. Do you know an anecdote about Picasso? Furtseva, the Minister of Culture of the USSR, arrived in Paris for a conference. She is asked for her identity card. She forgot it at home. “Do not worry, you can prove that you are really Furtseva. Recently, we had Picasso here, he also forgot his papers, but he quickly drew a picture in his original manner. Everybody could see that it was Picasso. “And who is Picasso?”, she asks, “Oh, you are welcome, you have proved that you are the Minister of Culture of the Soviet Union.”
This situation can also be applicable to our realities?
Completely.
Copyright © Library Of Ukrainian Art
From the book “Olena Chekan: I'll rise again to say the sun is shining!”
Crown of Interviews – The Garland of Memories:
ukrainianweek.com/Columns/50/154401
ukrainianweek.com/Culture/163918
Olena was one of the best Ukrainian journalists I knew
What can I say about Olena Chekan? She impressed me a lot in many aspects. First of all, by her mere appearance. She was an actress with the artistic appearance. She could find something funny in different situations, but at the same time she very seriously treated such issue as Ukrainian issue. She impressed me when we collaborated in Tyzhden magazine by her Ukrainian patriotism, even though she was from Moscow, she was from the city. And Ukrainian cities were always Russified, for many centuries. But, all the same, she became the great sympathizer of Ukraine, particularly because she saw that Ukraine has the big cultural potential. By the way, she was among those who discovered exactly the Ukrainian culture in its highest manifestation for the readers of the magazine.
For example, she prepared an article about the artist Aleksandra Ekster, and its title was sensational and paradoxical - “Cubofuturism as Presentiment.”
We have recently discovered the word cubofuturism – and suddenly as a presentiment. So, Kyiv artist Ekster was an abstractionist, but not as Malevich or Kandinsky – she created her own kind of abstractionism. She influenced the art of theater around the world, partially through her students. So, it was really cubofuturism as presentiment, the presentiment of new architecture, new design. And when Olena started writing about Ekster, for example, she knew about her as much as the experts knew. She read everything, but not as an art critic, but as a journalist. She had to find some sensational aspects.
So, she wrote that the archivists have found that Ekster was born not when she stated (1884), but on 1882. And the archivists were hesitating if they have to reveal this woman's secret. Olena decided to publish this information and commented this situation as “the academic heartlessness”. All your articles were special. In the article about Ekster she discussed who is a Ukrainian artist. I told her once that a famous film director and artist Yudkevych was Ekster's student (he told me that he did it in Kyiv). So, I say: “Is Ekster a Ukrainian artist” - “No! She's European”.
For many European is opposite to Ukrainian, but Olena told me that it is wrong. For example, Ekster worked in rural areas, she gave the rebirth to folk crafts and supported Hanna Sobachko, the folk futurist and village artist. But, on the other hand, in Paris she had such friends as Picasso, Braque, Leger. So, she combined Ukrainian heartland which gave her a lot in understanding the tonality and the modern Parisian trends. Then, as Olena noted, there were a director Tairov (whio collaborated with Ekster) and his wife Koonen. In their memoirs they wrote that even in everyday life there was a combination of Ukrainian and French. It is told that among the painting of Braque and Picasso which were presented to her you could find Ukrainian embroidery, carpets, ceramics. Even her kitchen was predominantly Ukrainian, as Ekster took with her her maid Nastia, Ukrainian villager. So Olen wrote, and I liked it, that this Nastia taught Picasso or Leger to cook Ukrainian varenyky. She didn't know French, but she thought that people on French markets knew Ukrainian. Nastia told that she just pointed to things and asked for “se, se and se” in Ukrainian. And everyone understood her.
As you see, that is the example of the journalist text created according to academic standards. It is a rare combination of academic precision and journalist approach, because usually journalists are more shallow, and it is even normal – you cannot demand from the journalist to know everything. Factual mistakes happen often in such articles, but I don't see it as a problem. But Olena managed not to make any mistakes in any detail. So, I think that she was an outstanding journalist and art critic.
I remember one more of her articles - “The Era of Pan-Ukrainianism.”
Is was like an interview with me, but she worked on it, corrected some of my mistakes, made the subtitles. She also liked my idea very much. She realized that Ukrainian did a lot for the world culture. Now we know it, and the world recognizes it not only in art or literature (Malevich and Arkhipenko), but also in technology (Sikorsky).
She realized it all, that is why she also became the patriot of Ukraine. I understand her, because it is the great culture, and when you get to now it, you become the sympathizer of this nation which created this unique intellectual society. So, thanks to her subtitles, my text got the volume. For example, there was a fact about the Ukrainian origins of Chekhov, but not everybody can treat this fact without some bias.
For example, take one German Ukrainist that I know. So, he recognizes Ukrainian priorities in many areas. He understands that Gogol is not only Russian, but also a Ukrainian author. Maybe, even more Ukrainian. But when I told him about Chekhov, he replied that he is not ready psychologically to add Chekhov to Ukrainian areal. But Olena was ready for it. Even more, she mentioned the fact that in 1897 in some questionnaire Chekhov wrote Malorossianin as his natiionality.
There are many such facts, and his language is Ukrainianized, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. He even jokingly signed as “Yours Karpenko-Kary” (Ukrainian playwright) from time to time. But not everyone is ready to adopt this reality. Olena knew and felt it, this Ukrainianness attracted her.
I also remember one of her articles about the artist Ackerman (Parisian artist from Uzhgorod). She titled it “Hutsul supremacist”, and it was the great title, because Ackerman was a huge fan of Malevich, and he was from Hutsul land. The great title for an article about Samuel Ackerman.
ukrainianweek.com/Culture/34075
I was always impressed by everything Olena did.
You know, we were also close during Maidan, where she was very active. I am also a former Russian who became a Ukrainian nationalist, even though many if my Russian acquaintances are very skeptical about everything Ukrainian. But Olena was always very different from those Russians.
As you see, my impressions are more connected with journalism, I cannot tell much about the everyday situations. I just don't know them as we communicated mostly in media dimension. But I may say directly that Olena was one of the best Ukrainian journalists I knew. That was a rare combination of art knowledge and taste and education and journalism skills.
I was very sorrowful when I knew that she passed away, because I was her sympathizer. I still respect her very much.
I remember her irony, it was something very attractive in her. You could see this irony in all her articles and even in talking with her. She could ridicule something or talk about something humorously, it was her very attractive feature. We had this creative connection, but I never visited her house. But she visited me to take an interview. Her appearance was very attractive and artistic. Olena told that she is an actress, and you could instantly realize it, her behaviour was artistic, and I liked it.
I remember her articles, how bitingly she ridiculed the Ukrainophobes. I remember her as a very attractive, intellectually open person who liked her job and who was absolutely free in journalism. It was a person who didn't pay attention to conjuncture. Maybe, she could write about something which could bring her more money, but I don't remember such cases.
But I remember her small texts in Tyzhden, small bright miniature stories on the last page of the magazine. That is all I remember about Olena Chekan.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olena_Chekan
October 24, 2015
Prof. Dmytro Horbachov – Ukrainian art critic, historian of Ukrainian art, curator and international art expert. Specialist in Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde
Translated by © Dmytro Hubenko
Copyright © Publishing House of Dmitry Burago.
All rights reserved.
MD, Baltimore MD. Walters Museum.
"Head of a Saint" possibly by Andrea della Robbia (not authenticated), circa 16th century.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurry, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer,
#1B-10, Good Enough To Be NHRA, White Board, signed by 26 Drivers, With Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.),
Name, Series, Sponsor, Signed in,
1) Tony Pedrogon, Funny Car, Syntec, Black,
2) Larry Dixon, Top Fuel, Miller, Black,
3) Don Prudhomme, Owner, Skoal, Hot Wheels, Black,
4) Dick LaHaie, Crew Chief, Miller, Blue,
5) John Force, Funny Car, 15 Time Champion, Red,
6) Bob Glinton, Pro-Stock, Black,
7) Austin Coil, J. Force Crew Chief, Blue,
8) Brandon Bernstein, Top Fuel, Budweiser, Red,
9) Mark Oswald, Funny Car, Blue,
10) Darrell Alderman, Pro-Stock, Black,
11) Jeg Coughlin, Pro-stock, Jeg's,
12) Whit Basmore, Funny Car, Black,
13) Gary Skuzie, Funny Car, "O", Black,
14) Frank Dedrogon, Funny Car, Red,
15) John Larson, Funny Car, Lucas Oil, Blue,
16) Shirley Muldowney, Top Fuel, Red,
17) Ed (Ace) McCullin, Crew Chief, McDonald's, Red,
18) Gary Densham, Funny Car, Summit, Blue,
19) Del Worsham, Funny Car, Valvoline, Red,
20) ESPN, Black,
21) Doug Herbert, Top Fuel, Black,
22) Allen Johnson, Pro-Stock, Blue,
23) Jason Line, Pro Stock, Red,
24) N/A, Top Fuel, Red,
25) Troy Coughlin, Pro Stock, Jegs, Black,
26) Bodie, Funny Car, Blue,
#37-4, Hollywood, Star Trek, The Late James Doohan(Scotty), Nichelle Nichols(Uhura), Grace Lee Whitney(Yeoman Rand), Bruce Hyde(Lt. Kevin Riley), Signing, 1991, Hallmark, USS Enterprise, 1st Edition, With Picture Proof Photos, (P.P.P.)
NASCAR 2015 Chase Fest contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick, autographed, #29, McDonald's, 1/24th scale diecast, Picture Proof
As you can tell, I won NaNoWrimo by meeting my word count goal of 5,000 words with a novel inspired by a LEGO minifig, believe it or not! Here's the novel that I wrote, if you're interested!
Space Police System Log (Sector Twelve)Stardate 10.29.2110 11:00 AM GMT
>System accessed from portable pad 100198
>Portable pad 100198 info: Pad no longer exists
>Query to portable pad 100198 pertaining to identity
>Portable pad 100198 reply: “I’ve got a new recruit, so I had to give the recruit Hime’s old pad”
>Portable pad 100198 authenticity: Security access level Green permitted
>Security system access by portable pad 100198: Security code “Admin” entered
>New security status of portable pad 100198: Security level Red all areas accessible
>Portable pad 100198 request access to level 9.
>Portable pad 100198 request granted
>Portable pad 100198 has went offline.
>Weapon discharge in Level 9.
>Establish lockdown.
>Lockdown established.
>Portable pad 100198 online.
>Portable pad 100198 requests removal of lockdown.
>Portable pad 100198 request granted.
>Portable pad 100198 requests shutdown of all security systems.
>Query portable pad 100198 authentication code.
>Portable pad 100198 authentication code Piccadilly.
>Portable pad 100198 request granted.
>All security systems disabled.
>Weapon discharge in Level 9
>Operator 195 vitals zero.
>Medical units dispatched.
>Portable pad 100198 request: Cancel medic dispatch and do not call medical again.
>Portable pad 100198 request granted.
>All medical response circuits disabled.
>Medical assistance call 009 canceled.
>Weapons discharge in Level 9.
>Operator 004 vitals zero.
>Weapon type established: Walther Silenced Disintegrator S/N 009.
>ERROR: Portable pad 100198’s owner has not been issued with such a weapon.
>Weapons discharge in Level 9.
>Operator 894 vitals zero.
>Weapon type established: Walther Silenced Disintegrator S/N 008.
>ERROR: Portable pad 100198’s owner has not been issued with such a weapon.
>ERROR: Discharge of two different weapons of the “Pistol” class, one in each hand, is a recognized violation of Marksmanship Statute 8976.
>GENERAL ERROR CONDITION
>Portable pad 100198 has been disabled.
>All changes revert to fifth-to-last save.
>Security teams dispatched to Level 9.
>Owner of portable pad 100198 has been disabled.
>Large explosion of the type “Fission Bomb” has been detected.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 10.31.2110
I couldn’t decipher much of the system log, as I am not that good with computer language. From what I can piece together, it happened like this:
It was a cold, dark, dry Martian night in the Sector 12 station. Sergeant-at-Arms Kelby had just begun checking his third-quarter timesheets, when an old, disused pad (100198) started to hack into the system form the disused back entrance. Eventually, it managed to hack the security codes so that it carried Captain Piccadilly’s code! The operator of the pad used this to get into Level 9, our chaotic call center. Then, he/she opened fire on the cavernous room, filled to the gills with vidphone operators. We lost three operators at that instant. They were Susan Adams, “Acid” Wund, and Jon Baker. They were all at the top of their game, and much too young to die. The security cameras caught a glimpse of a completely black-clad figure dual-wielding banned Walther Disentegrators. I ran a face-match on this picture, and had no luck. The perp suddenly teleported out of there. A small orange and red object dropped, and then KA-WHAM!, no more feed or system logging. I instantly recognized the explosion type. It was a 1-2 megaton fission bomb, with about the yield of the one that destroyed Hiroshima. Thankfully, the system’s last gasp included activating the rad shields and sealing off every section. The system and all the other electronic devices went kaput, because the Keptin designers forgot to add shielding to their design. We had no deaths from the blast, but about 50 got concussion wounds, and all of the evidence was destroyed. I might mention that the café’s food suddenly tasted like a mouthful of brick dust. I can only hope the radiation didn’t affect Sector Twelve’s food stores. The case is nowhere near closed, though.
Chapter 2
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 988) Stardate 11.2.2110
Today started out well enough. I had just figured out a new lead on Case 987. By looking at what was visible of the perp’s face through the mask, I was able to figure out that the perp was the same species as the infamous mugger Slizer. It is definitely not Slizer, though, because he is safe and sound in Planet Lisa’s max-security prison. Then, the worst happened. Reports started filtering in that the Skaalgan, a warrior race, had rebelled against the good rule of the Galactic Republic. First, le me give you a bit of background on the Skaalgan.
The Skaalgan are categorized as a Type 12 species. Normal Earth composition air is quite toxic to them, so they have to wear chlorine-filled pressure suits off their home planet, Schvinge. They are also a traditionally violent race, so these methane suits, if punctured, also serve as a deadly gas bomb to Type 3 (oxy-breathing mammals like the Humans) species. At last count, they have orchestrated a baker’s dozen rebellions against the Republic. (source: Hyperwikipedia)
They appeared to have no reason other than “it was Bob’s birthday, and that means we go rebel against somebody”. Their main forces for the initial assault consisted of the Mustard Juggernauts, the deadliest combination of armor, gas suits, and weapons the galaxy has ever seen. The Mustard Juggernauts are armed with the deadly GE Minigun and the Heckler&Koch MP5. While outdated, the Minigun puts out an astonishing 3,000 rounds per minute, and the MP5 is astonishingly accurate. Our forces were only ray-shielded, so these “outdated” mass throwers came as quite a surprise. Their main spearheads were on three planets: Planet Lisa, a then-deserted asteroid, and Space Station EM-3. It was a complete massacre. The Space Police peacekeepers, using the completely wrong type of shielding, dropped like flies. We had to call in the Space Marines.
I didn’t hear much from HNN on the issue. It soon went deep black. I had to go through the official channels to get any information on the rebellion. From what I heard, it has already been resolved. It’s not my department, anyways…..
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.5.2110
I think I have a lead! The only place where Walther Disentegrators can be found is Jack Jeebs Pawn in Queens, New York. I have a void in my schedule tomorrow, so I think I’ll go to Queens to check this out. There’s also a few friends of mine up there that may have some information pertaining to the case. By the way, Sally has been acting up lately. I think she somehow got a copy of Windows Vista to run as a background emulator to relieve boredom, and it is bugging up the system like heck.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.6.2110
I am on the evening rocket back to HQ as I write this. The visit to Jeebs’ place was quite eventful. It’s fresh in my mind, so I’ll give you a play-by-play.
I walked into the pawn shop at high noon, with a spring in my step thanks to some spring-augmented stilts from a street vendor. I soon accidentally bumped my head on the chandelier. I asked Jeebs about the Walther disintegrators nicely, and then he unexpectedly tells me about these kids walking in and stealing every single bit of high-tech weaponry he has, including the Walther Disentegrators! Luckily, those kids frequented the shop, so Jeebs new exactly who they were. They were Derek Rodriguez and Alfred Lord, both 17. They lived in the Jamaica Estates apartments, room 131 and 342 respectively. I will have to file for a warrant to both interview and interrogate these kids about the robbery and where the disintegrators went.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.7.2110
Paperwork sucks eggplants. I had to go through a Trip Value Assessment, an after-action report, an incident report, a polygraph test, an appeal for a warrant, an overhead expense justification sheet for the spring-augmented stilts, and a part replacement chitty for Sally’s graphics chip (it had become infested with gremlins) just for those past two days! Arrghh!
Anyway, I pulled up the files on those kids. Nothing came up except for this odd code fragment from Sally.
>fuzzy wuzzies
That’s all. I think I need to replace the monitor again.
Chapter 3
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.8.2110
I finally got the warrant for search of the Jamaica Estates apartments, rooms 131 and 342. I am right in front of the building right now, so I’ll go ahead and log it. The log may prove crucial.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.8.2110 Supplemental
2:00 I am at the lobby.
2:01 I ask the receptionist which way I should head to get to room 131.
2:02 Receptionist: “Here’s a map, you should know how to use it.”
2:03 Note to self: Do not ask directions from the receptionist. Ever.
2:04 I am knocking at the door of room 131.
2:09 Nobody has answered.
2:10 I am using the ancient elevator in lieu of a turbolift to get to room 342.
2:15 I am knocking at the door of room 342.
2:16 I apparently am knocking at the front door of the Odd Species Embassy in New York, New York.
2:17 Something has gone seriously wrong. I appear to have entered a spatial disturbance.
2:18 Starfleet Lieutenant Commander Data answers the door. I ask him about the disturbance.
Data: “I have no idea as to what just happened. However, I am on vacation and am able to assist.
2:19 Data pulls out his tricorder and scans me.
Data: “You appear to have come from the year 2110. Welcome to the twenty-fourth century.”
2:20 Make that temporal disturbance. I hate it when Carl Sagan forgets to carry a number.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.8.2410
I have entered a temporal disturbance while knocking at the door of room 342 at the Jamaica Estates apartments in Queens, New York. I have acquired a helper in the form of Starfleet Lieutenant Data. He is an android with a positronic brain. I have no leads on either Incident 987 or how I am supposed to get out of here. Yikes. Of course, the fuzzy wuzzies may have something to do with that.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.12.2410
I just searched “fuzzie wuzzies” about a minute ago and it came up with some interesting results. Fuzzie wuzzies appears to be an asteroid in the next sector over with an odd temporal anomaly on its surface. I’m in the middle of coordinating an attempt to figure out which time and system it goes to.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.16.2110
I am not allowed to divulge the methods by which I got back because of the Prime Directive, but here I am. Everything’s good now, but the Jamaica Estates apartments are going to have to have a thorough scientific scan for anomalies. I hope I can interrogate the two kids while they’re waiting for their rooms to finish the scan. Meanwhile, back to Sally’s defective monitor…
Transcript of interview of Derek Rodriguez and Alfred Lord by SPSI Saxon Fletcher
Stardate 11.16.2110 2:00 PM
Saxon Fletcher: Do you happen to know anything about the temporal anomaly in Alfred Lord’s room?
Alfred Lord: Woops, sorry about that. It’s a leftover from when my whole family lived in the apartment and I wanted to keep my little sister out of my room. I really must recalibrate that thing.
Saxon Fletcher: What do you know about the thief of Jack Jeebs’s whole weapons stock?
Derek Rodriguez: His weapons stock has never been stolen, ever. I should know. He lies to any overly curious people so they don’t go spreading rumors that Jeebs has some illegal weapons. He only sells those illegal weapons to people threatening him with a much bigger gun or a permit, though.
Alfred Lord: His whole stock is intact. I bought a target blaster off him just yesterday.
Saxon Fletcher: Do you happen to know anything about a pair of Walther Disentegrators that disappeared from Jeebs’s store about two weeks ago?
Derek Rodriguez: He sold them to a light-green colored alien that looked a lot like that Slizer dude you see on the “Most Wanted” posters.
Saxon Fletcher: That’s all. Good day.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.17.2110
I had to go through more paperwork than ever today! I think the paper I used was about the yield from an entire tree. I had to go to a debriefing run by the Physicists that Formerly said Theoretical, make an absence excuse sheet, negotiate with Sally’s defective gremlin-catching lawyer, file an After-Action Report from the interview of Rodriguez and Lord, explain the Prime Directive to about fifty of my coworkers, go through a full bio scan, and last but not least, a cost-risk assessment for some utterly unrelated thing that accidentally got wired to me. I plan to quantify Rodriguez’s statement about Jeebs’s sales with my old pals at MiB, test out those stilts, and try to catch up on my doctorate of investigation.
CHAPTER 3
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.18.2110
I’m at the Queens MiB bureau as I write this. It appears that both the MiB have developed a lifespan-enhancing drug called “boosterspice” with no ill effects. This has Potential with a capital P. Sadly, I am not allowed to divulge any details about this breakthrough, or I would have to brain-wipe you. Anyways, I checked with K about Jeeb’s activities. Turns out the kids were right. Jeebs uses everything he can to keep the long arm of the law out of his shop. The MiB (or Mibbies as we call them in the amateur xenobiologist community) assigned me Agent J to help me out on the case, as they lost one of their own (“Acid” Wund, who was visiting). I’ve also been assigned an extremely potent version of the famed Noisy Cricket with a longer antenna to use if things get interesting. Here’s a play-by play log of our “visit” to Jeebs’s shop.
11:00 AM Agent J and I are exiting the Mibbie’s Queens Bureau through the west exit.
11:02 AM I see the street vendor that sold me those spring-loaded stilts. I thank him.
11:05 AM Agent J and I stop to talk to a pug. He quantifies the kid’s statement yet again.
11:15 AM J and I are waiting at the bus stop.
11:45 AM J and I are still waiting.
12:00 PM We get on the bus to MacDougal Street.
1:00 PM We get off the bus.
1:15 We are at the “Question of Time” jewelry shop, aka Jeebs’s shop.
1:16 Agent J: “Jeebs, let’s see the goods.”
1:17 Jeebs: “I don’t know nothing about any goods! I’m just a humble jewelry shop owner!”
1:18 Agent J: “Skip it. We know you have extraterrestrial weapons here.”
1:19 Jeebs pulls out a fearsome-looking shotgun and presses it to J’s head. It’s time for the Son of the Noisy Cricket.
1:20 I shoot the Noisy Cricket II at Jeeb’s head and simultaneously cause Jeeb’s head to disappear, the shotgun drops on the button that changes Jeebs’s shelves, and the recoil throws me back about 10 feet. “Noisy Cricket” my butt.
1:21 Jeebs: “You idiot! Do you know how much that stings?”
1:22 I ask Jeebs about the two Walther Disentegrators he sold a couple weeks ago.
1:23 Jeebs: “That guy said he was mafia. I can’t tell you anything”.
1:24 Agent J: “The mafia doesn’t have aliens.”
1:25 Jeebs: “Alright, fine. I don’t know his name, but I do know where he lives and what he is. He is a rouge Igor from Discworld, transported here by a temporal anomaly. He currently lives in the Jupiter sky colonies.
1:26 Me: “That pretty much seals it. All Igors call themselves Igor, so we know his name, location, and timeframe.”
1:27 Agent J and I are heading back to MiB HQ.
5:00 We are back at MiB HQ. I hate rush hour.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.19.2110
I am starting preparations for the trip to Jupiter to track down the Jovian Igor. I’ve collected a warrant, a small rocket-powered atmosphere skipper, and the pressure suits necessary so far. I’m in the process of figuring out a vehicle-mounted weapons system that won’t accidentally shoot through the gas envelopes of the colonies. My solution so far uses a combination of a railgun shooting small, thin-walled ampoules of hydrogen at an incredibly high speed. Theoretically, this design will have a darn-near unlimited ammo supply, given that the Jovian atmosphere is primarily made up of hydrogen. I just have to keep the whole atmosphere from going up in flames! Agent J has come through with some of the gadgets we are going to need, and my alma mater Clark County University has provided us with a prototype warp drive capable of going Warp 4. Now all we need is a vehicle to cram all this stuff in.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.20.2110
We’ve got a ship. It’s a robust cargo hauler called the Star Porter. I’ve got a configuration for everything. The railgun design has been fabbed and is in shipping, and I am trying to cram the CCU warp drive into Engineering. I’ve collected a crack crew. Now to get the muscle to operate the lifts right… Agent J is wrestling with installing the scanners and matter-energy reactor. I have also come up with another lead about the Jovian Igor. He lives in Sky Colony 4, near the equator.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.21.2110
Ha, all the keys I had to press were the two, the one, and the zero. Anyways, we’ve got everything ready and will be underway once the FAA gives us a clearance, which could be tomorrow or the next millennium, knowing how the FAA hates everyone. I’m trying to find more info on Sky Colony 4. Apparently, the fourth colony disappeared into the Big Red Spot about five years ago, yet its transponders are giving the “all clear” signal, and their locators are disabled. Rumors have been circulating that Four broke away from the Republic. This adds another SP team to my crew compliment, but they’re good people. Heading up SPSI Team TWO will be Special Operator Medvedev. He will have Agent K, Bob and a young upstart named Kirk under him.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.22.2110
We’ve got an FAA clearance at last. We launch tomorrow. All preparations are done.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.23.2110
We have launched. We are going to do a mid-trip refuel with a Ramses-class supertanker, net info dump near Asteroid AP Alpha, and finally detach the atmospheric hopper section, which contains the bridge, living quarters for the SP investigation units, and a gas envelope inflator. I also am riding the hopper down. When we hit the atmosphere, we will gather inflatable gasses for about a minute (sixty kilometers downwards), inflating the gas envelope as we go down. Once the gas envelope inflates, we will gain the designation Sky Rover One. We will make our way over to Five’s last known location, then deploy rocket hoppers in a spiral search pattern.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.24.2110
We have made it to the refuel point with the Ramses-class supertanker Star Provider.
No sight of her, yet, which is very weird. Meanwhile, the crew has been amusing themselves with the holodeck. They have been having as much fun with the constant power and picture tube repairs as with using it. Changing the picture tubes requires hooking into a safety line climbing rig and climbing a hundred-foot ladder of titanium-sheathed Net conduits to the projector. There, they have to input a thirty-two digit hexadecimal security code to gain access to the projector assembly. Once they replace it, they face a hundred-fifty foot rappel down to safety. It’s not for the queasy. The projector blows quite a lot, so they get a lot of chances. One of our engineers is testing a wing system to eliminate the rappel. He has went through five “Frequent Patient” cards at sickbay.
The power units are a whole different story. When they go down, all heck breaks lose. The subject has to suit up in full “battle rattle”, containing a deactivator pistol, a high-strength locator beacon, a holoresolver HUD, and a Scout power armor suit. Once down to the engineering levels, he has to literally do battle with the failing holoprojector computer. The computer generates random images, most used in battle training and therefore quite frightening. The subject uses his holoresolver HUD to check and see if the hologram can do any damage (the holodeck computer has been known to interface with the replicator at times) and takes the required action. If the hologram is innocuous, he adjusts his HUD to block it out and move on. If the hologram’s matter-energy settings are off and it looks to be malicious, the subject tries to access the shipwide network and shut that down. If not, he shoots it with the deactivator, which tells the computer to shut that image down. The computer has, on occasion, taken cues from early pre-warp two-dimensional “videogames” and have a life system, which causes the image to take multiple shots to shut down. To counter this, the arts department is working with the geeks to create higher-power weapons such as deactivator cannons. I think that, with the proper modifications, these weapons will be quite useful on Sky Colony Four. Once the subject has gotten to the central holodeck computer, he has to interface directly with it via his Net implant to reprogram it to accept the new power circuitry. This is incredibly tedious at the best of times, and utterly nauseating and terrifying when the computer is really on the fritz or in one of its moods. After he has reprogrammed it, he has to come back through the “stacks”, which contain, at total, fifteen thousand terabytes of data. He must not bump a single memory stack for fear of taking down life support or his locator beacon receiver software. The Adar designers, in their endless wisdom, made this a fun little labyrinth. Thankfully, we haven’t lost a man yet, but it took five hours until we heard from SP Investigation Team ONE Matrix Specialist Max “Job Title” Porkins.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.25.2110
We have finally sighted the Star Provider and refueled. The Bussard-Cherenkov balance refueling process is quite a spectacle, so I’ll relate the process to you.
First, the subject has to bleed off all its fuel. This is usually accomplished by having the refueling point when the subject is almost completely out of fuel, but the modified Star Porter is a bit different. Our modifications meant that the quad-blaster cannon gas reserves are in the previous main fuel tank, and the fuel is contained in MASSIVE external conformal fuel tanks (ECFTs). The ECFT designer forgot to add external dump valves. Additionally, our refuel point had to be when we were midway there, because that was the last refuel point until Jupiter. We could have lasted until we were three-quarters there, but then we would be dead in space with no refueling opportunity.
Our pilot accomplishes this by taking the Star Porter through VERY aggressive combat maneuvers. He first detaches the atmospheric hopper section so the crew doesn’t get nauseated, and then goes through about twenty barrel rolls. It worked, thankfully, and I didn’t have to ride shotgun on THAT stagecoach. Next, the atmospheric hopper pilot reattaches with the main section (taking up precious fuel, but the main section pilot made it within a kilometer). Next, the tanker takes down an umbilical and refuels each ECFT individually, a painstaking process. Finally, the tanker detaches. Anyways, we refueled well and are now going towards the Net dump.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.26.2110
We have made it to the Net dump but are having some problems. The conduits are overflowing and maxing out the processors. It’s definitely going to be interesting. The engineers have hacked up a solution, involving some duct tape and a welder. We’ll see how long that holds up. I’ve actually managed to dredge u some information regarding these rebel Igors. They actually have a secret society and are plotting to take over Jupiter. They have, so far, only been able to put one Igor in, our perp.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.27.2110
We are now separating the atmospheric section from the section with the warp drive.
T+1 The section has been successfully separated.
T+2 The section is in free fall.
T+3 The envelope has been inflated.
T+4 Redesignation: Sky Rover One.
T+5: Heading to the bearing of the last transmit from Five.
T+6: Preparing to offload rocket hoppers.
T+20: Last known position of Five reached. Initiating full sensor scan.
T+25: Faint signal heard spinwards. Deploying rocket hoppers one and two to investigate.
T+30: Rocket hoppers have reported that they have found Five. I’m heading in.
T+35: I have launched in Boarding One. I am really regretting not taking those drop sickness pills.
T+40: Boarding One has inflated its envelope and we are coming alongside Five.
T+41: Sending query.
T+42: Five has fired its railgun.
T+42: We are undertaking evasive maneuvers.
T+43: We are firing at Five’s weapons stations.
T+44: We have disabled Five’s weapons.
T+45: Coming alongside Five.
T+46: SPI teams ONE and TWO have boarded.
/end log
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.28.2110
We have tracked down the Jovian Igor and he is in jail, but it’s no fun if you, dear reader, do not know how it happened, so here goes!
It was an all-too-stormy day on Jupiter. The time: high noon. We had boarded the rebel Sky Colony Five via the good ship Boarding One and swept the colony like the old Navy SEALs. Suddenly, our old friend the Jovian Igor fired at my first officer Sgt. Novak. Sadly, the perpetrator was a dead shot. I set my trusty Noisy Cricket to “stun” and went after the direction of the shot, with Men In Black Agent J trailing close behind. Little did we know, the Igor had professional training. Like any good blaster sniper, he never shot from the same spot twice. With holographic decoys that we had set out earlier dropping like flies, it looked like a miniature D-Day, except for two details: We were on a blimp and using blasters. Agent J suggested using jetpacks, which we did. Thankfully, they were the new repulsor units. Taking energy from the batteries of the dearly deceased hologram units, we took to the air like so many birds. Trouble is, our flight skills weren’t all that good (both of us having barely passed Basic Jetpack Skills in primary), so we barely made it over the courthouse roof . These comedic antics acted as excellent evasive maneuvers, so we were never hit once. I pulled out my binoculars and had a look around. Surprisingly enough, the Igor was smack-dab in my sights. I took my Noisy Cricket off safety and fired. The recoil knocked me back about 10 feet, thus throwing off my gyros. I barely had enough time to compensate before I hit the ground. My jetpack busted, I had to chase the perp on foot. He ran up a fire escape, firing wildly (and missing) all the time. When he got up, he had to change blaster gas cells. I took the opportunity and fired. The infamous Jovian Igor was down. I took out a Styrette from my supplies and injected the Igor with an anesthetic, which would keep him out for at least 5 hours. Then the worst happened. Blaster fire started pouring in from all directions. It turned out that our little friend was not alone. I left the perp to the paddy wagon and dove for cover. Fortunately, his henchmen were not as well trained, firing from the same spot all the time. Agent J was able to take most of them out, but had to leave the ones better fortified to the Noisy Cricket, which was in possession of me. I found the first one near the radio shack. He was pretty well dug in there, with Dura Crete walls and a heavy ML42. One shot with that weapon, and I would have been dead. I saw him before he saw me, though, and took him out. One shot, and KABOOM! No more bunker! I moved on to the next one, who was snug as a bug I the armory. “This is going to be hard,” I thought to myself. Completely the opposite, this guy was the dumbest of them all. He barely fired and stood way out in the open, where I shot him with the Noisy Cricket. He was, without a question, disintegrated. I took a weapon with less recoil from the armory, as well as a new repulsor pack. Again, I took to the air, but with a little more confidence this time. I spotted the third and plinked a grenade into his hideout near the commissary. It failed to go off. I plinked another, ditto. The grenades must have been affected by the harsh Jupiter atmosphere. I landed and fired my Noisy Cricket at him, and he then went down. That was the last of them. I then went back to our base and we packed up and headed for home with the Jovian Igor safe behind bars.
Investigator Saxon Fletcher’s Case Log (Incident 987) Stardate 11.29.2110
We are en route back home. We have successfully reconnected with our warp drive section, made our Net dump, refueled from the atmosphere, and solved the dual mysteries of the Jovian Igor and the missing Sky Colony Five. It turns out that the Igor society hopped onto Five disguised as normal passengers and then executed a military coup. The colony turned off its transponder and went completely self sufficient from the Republic. I can’t wait to be done with all this running around!
~~
Image credit goes to ywp.NaNoWriMo .org. Used with permission.