Suspended Animation Classic #588 First published April 2, 2000 (#14) (Dates are approximate)

 

Battle Pope; Dark Matters

By Michael Vance

 

Of what use is a beautifully wrapped package of sewage?

 

Battle Pope (Funk-O-Tron Publishing) is a new comic book that answers that question. Its art is outstanding. Its content stinks.

 

Its best use is as landfill.

 

The premise of Battle Pope is simple. A Pope who has committed every atrocity imaginable stands in judgment before God to receive a commission to fight against the creature he emulates, Satan. His sidekick is to be that 'inept' Son of God, Jesus Christ.

 

Ignorance is no defense of his excesses because the writer of Pope understands the principles that he trashes. Save your breath if you would claim the exaggeration of satire or the broad brush of parody as justification. Satire seeks truth as well as yaks, and the only goal of parody is laughter. Battle Pope falls far short of anything approaching humor or truth.

 

Christians will find Battle Pope blasphemous. Most other readers will find its graphic sex, violence and profanity tasteless, excessive and unentertaining.

 

The best scenario is this pretty package won't be found at all.

 

-0-

 

Of what use is a comic book without an artist?

 

Dark Matters (Dark Star Comics) is illustrated by Steve Kirkland “who cannot draw to save his life”. He creates or manipulates computer art to visually tell his story much like some people cut and paste images from magazines to produce a montage.

 

Regrettably, this approach has an internal logic that is interesting and works on many levels, but will leave some people unsatisfied.

 

Yes, gentle reader, Dark Matters’ packaging is somewhat unappealing. But its content shines. This Kirkland guy can write.

 

Kirkland chronicles seemingly unconnected human dramas tried to a vast, supernatural force that is symbolized by the illuminated face of a clock tower and the moon. He does so with an intricate, wholly believable plot and intriguing characterizations that captivate.

 

Dark Matters is a page turner and a rough-edged gem that will entertain readers who don’t obsess over polished art.

  

scandl-cat.

boxing day shopping is king.

i seen a 3000+ dvd collection. little jealous, i just broke 1000

plaque reads: Jan. 6 1880 - Oct 12. 1940 - In Memory of Tom Mix - Whose spirit left his body on this spot and whose characterization and protrayal in life served to better fix memories of the Old West in the minds of living men." • Tom Mix was film actor, 336 films 1910-1935 • drove 1937 yellow Cord 812 convertible about 75 mph on adjacent dirt road, crashed in ditch, died of broken neck caused by flying suitcase • Mix's "Tony, the wonder horse" atop monument cut from metal by inmates at Florence State Penitentiary • my father's photo of Tom Mix Circus winter hq

Lederer was born František Lederer to a Jewish family near Prague (then part of Austria-Hungary), he was raised bilingually and accordingly also used the German form of his name, Franz Lederer. He first worked for the stage, but in the late 1920s started his movie career. When the political situation deteriorated in Germany in the early 1930s Lederer decided to stay in the United States.

 

Frequently labelled a "gorgeous man" by the critical press of the time, it took a while for matinee idol Lederer to be taken seriously as an actor. Billed as Franz Lederer in most of his European films, the actor was fortunate enough to be associated with several powerhouse directors, among them G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box, Atlantic). While appearing on Broadway in 1932, Lederer was "discovered" for Hollywood, where he accepted a string of leading-man assignments in such films as Man of Two Worlds (1934), Romance in Manhattan (1934) and One Rainy Afternoon (1936). His cinematic stock in trade at the time was the outgoing, slightly naïve foreigner at the mercy of aggressive, acrimonious Americans or Britishers. One of his best screen characterizations was the disgruntled German-American bundist in Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), which won him the personal praise of his co-star Edward G. Robinson, who wasn't accustomed to handing out empty compliments. As Lederer grew older, he added villains, continental cads and jaundiced cynics to his repertoire; he even played a world-weary vampire in 1958's The Return of Dracula. An extremely wealthy man thanks to his real-estate holdings, Francis Lederer left films altogether in 1959, busying himself with civic, political and philanthropic enterprises. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 

Francis Lederer worked until one week before his death at his self-founded American National Academy of Performing Arts in Los Angeles. He died a centenarian in Palm Springs, California.

 

He was one of the last veterans of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the First World War.

 

text from www.answers.com/topic/francis-lederer?cat=entertainment

 

image from www.ami-autographs.com/home.htm?cinemactoractress.htm~mai...

Dr. Doug Rabin (Code 671) and PI La Vida Cooper (Code 564) inspect engineering samples of the HAS-2 imager which will be tested and readout using a custom ASIC with a 16-bit ADC (analog to digital converter) and CDS (correlated double sampling) circuit designed by the Code 564 ASIC group as a part of an FY10 IRAD. The purpose of the IRAD was to develop and high resolution digitizer for Heliophysics applications such as imaging. Future goals for the collaboration include characterization testing and eventually a sounding rocket flight of the integrated system.

*ASIC= Application Specific Integrated Circuit

 

NASA/GSFC/Chris Gunn

In her class presentation, Jordon Hasty ’11 demonstrated games such as “Pac-Man” and “Roller Coaster Tycoon” (pictured) to emphasize the evolving role of characterization in video games. "In Pac-Man, even the ghosts had names: Inky, Binky, Pinky, and Clyde," said Hasty.

 

As Assistant Professor of English Aden Evens questioned whether students’ connection to characters such as Pac-Man and Nintendo’s Super Mario was more than nostalgia, Peter Park '05 said, “I compare them to the whimsical characters like the Cat in the Hat, or the Grinch. Just as Dr. Seuss created lasting characters, so did video game creators.” (Photo: Joseph Mehling '69 / Dartmouth College Photographer)

Spanish, Artist Unknown

Active Salamanca, Late 15th Century

 

Crucifixion, ca. 1490

Tempera and gold on panel

 

In this large, crowded depiction of the Crucifixion, Christ's mother, Mary, faints in the arms of John the Evangelist. Christ's suffering and the Virgin's compassion are the dominant themes of this altarpiece, but the painting is also filled with jostling horses and soldiers who vie for the attention of the viewer. The centurion Longinus pierces Christ's side with a spear, while at right, one of the thieves who was crucified with Christ laughs as he offers his soul to a demon. The painting's gilded and punched surface and its lavishly costumed figures are typical of the International Gothic style, but its devotional emphasis and sympathetic characterizations denote the important influence of Netherlandish painting in Spain. The artist's misunderstanding of scale, visible in the diminished size of the guards who fight over Christ's cloak, indicates that he may have been working from several printed or painted models at once. Unpainted areas in the upper corners of the panel suggest that its original frame had a curved inner edge and that it was the center panel of a larger altarpiece.

 

Taken November 16th, 2010.

Newcastle Comic Con 2014

  

Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The character was created by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and is portrayed by Johnny Depp, who based his characterization on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and cartoon character Pepé Le Pew. He first appears in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He later appears in the sequels Dead Man's Chest (2006), At World's End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

 

In the films, Sparrow is one of the nine pirate lords in the Brethren Court, the Pirate Lords of the Seven Seas. He can be treacherous and survives mostly by using wit and negotiation rather than by force, opting to flee most dangerous situations and to fight only when necessary. Sparrow is introduced seeking to regain his ship, the Black Pearl, from his mutinous first mate, Hector Barbossa. Later he attempts to escape his blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones while battling the East India Trading Company. The character's role expanded as the films progressed.

 

The Pirates of the Caribbean series was inspired by the Disney theme park ride of the same name, and when the ride was revamped in 2006, the character of Jack Sparrow was added to it. He headlines the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and is the subject of spin-off novels, including a children's book series Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow, which chronicles his teenage years.

This is a squamous cell bronchogenic carcinoma, which classically cavitates. Cavitation implies communication with an airway - allowing sputum cytology, but also facilitating transmission if it is an infection. Radiologically, it allows some characterization of the wall, with a thickened, irregular, nodular implying cancer and (perhaps to a lesser degree in a modern hospital setting) abscess. A thin-walled cavity may still be an abscess (especially if small), or may indicate a post-infective pneumatocoele, an infected bulla, a resolving haematoma or contusion, or a pulmonary infarct (rare).

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers deliver environmental characterization and risk assessment solutions aimed at protecting and restoring our environment; including innovations for cleaning up contaminated groundwater and soil, protecting and maintaining natural resources, and assessing and monitoring environmental effects from waste sites and other hazards.

 

In this photo: PNNL Scientist Greg Patton

 

For more information, visit www.pnl.gov/news/

 

Terms of Use: Our images are freely and publicly available for use with the credit line, "Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory." Please use provided caption information for use in appropriate context.

Clay capping a large chert nodule ("flint") in the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA.

 

Flint is the "official" state gemstone of Ohio (actually, there's no such thing as "official" anything). "Flint" is sometimes used as a lithologic term by modern geologists, but it is a synonym for chert. Flint and chert are the same - they are cryptocrystalline, quartzose sedimentary rocks. Rockhounds often assert that flint is high-quality while chert is low-quality. Some geologists assert that "flint" implies a biogenic origin and "chert" implies a chemical origin.

 

Many cherts do have a chemical origin - chert nodules are moderately common in some limestone units. The nodules form during diagenesis - pre-existing silica components in the carbonate sediments are dissolved, mobilized, and reprecipitated as chert masses. Some cherts do have a biogenic origin - for example, radiolarian cherts (rich in radiolarian microfossils) or spicular cherts (rich in siliceous sponge spicules).

 

The most famous flint deposit in Ohio is Flint Ridge, in Licking County. At this locality, the Middle Pennsylvanian-aged Vanport Flint is exposed in several places. The geologic literature on the Vanport Flint is relatively sparse, with inaccurate, incomplete descriptions and characterizations. For example, the literature describes the Vanport as a sheet of flint at Flint Ridge - it's actually a meganodule horizon. Other descriptions refer to the chert as the remains of siliceous sponges. In reality, siliceous sponge spicules are quite scarce in Vanport samples.

 

Two graduate student projects during the 2000s, conducted at two different universities, had very different conclusions & interpretations about the origin of the Vanport Flint. A 2003 study concluded that chert at Flint Ridge is biogenic in origin. A 2006 study concluded that the chert is chemical in origin.

 

Studies done by geologists at Ohio State University at Newark indicate that the Vanport Flint has a relatively complex history, the details of which are still being worked out.

 

Modern flint knappers value the Vanport Flint for being multicolored and high-quality (= very few impurities). With artificial heating, the flint is more easily knapped into arrowheads, spear points, and other objects. Prehistoric American Indians quarried the Vanport Flint at many specific sites on Flint Ridge. Old Indian flint pits can be examined along hiking trails in Flint Ridge State Park ("State Memorial"). Many authentic Indian artifacts found in Ohio (arrowheads & spearpoints - "projectile points") are composed of Vanport Flint.

 

The gray material in the above photo is relatively soft clay that occurs atop a flint meganodule of Vanport Flint at Nethers Flint Quarries. Above that (not visible here) is a weathered sandstone.

 

The clay contains some slender modern roots and also has slickensides, indicating that this is a paleosol, specifically a vertisol. Vertisols are rich in "swelling clays" (= montmorillonite) that expand when wet and contract when dry. This volume change explains the slickensides, which represent slight differential displacement along fractures within the clay. A clay mineralogy analysis is currently being conducted on this material.

 

The clay paleosol likely started forming well into the pre-Pleistocene. Flint Ridge is at a relatively high elevation and it escaped glacial erosion during the Pleistocene Ice Age.

 

Stratigraphy: clay horizon immediately above the Vanport Flint, Allegheny Group, upper Middle Pennsylvanian

 

Locality: Nethers Flint Quarries - flint pit in the woods on the southwestern side of Flint Ridge Road, eastern Flint Ridge, far-western Muskingum County, east-central Ohio, USA (GPS: 40° 00.137’ North latitude, 82° 11.544’ West longitude)

 

Abdelwassie Hussien Bushra presents on model based aquifer characterization and groundwater management in the Raya Valley. International Congress: Water 2011 Integrated water resources management in tropical and subtropical dry-lands. Mekelle, Ethiopia 19-26 September 2011 (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu).

Suspended Animation Classic #285

Originally published June 12, 1994 (#24)

(Dates are approximate)

 

The New Frontier

By Michael Vance

 

“The New Frontier”/122 pages, $12.95 from NBM Publishing/artist, Michael Cherkas; writer, John Sabljic/available in comic shops and by mail.

 

When is a graphic novel neither graphic nor novel?

 

When it’s a mainstream comic book between heavy covers.

 

When is a graphic novel rich with inventive plot, characterization, and real adult insight into the world?

 

When it’s “The New Frontier”.

 

This frontier is the future of Earth with a twist. Adolph Hitler’s comic strip, "Herman the German”, is world famous, Fidel Castro slams ‘em out of American baseball parks, and the shocking death of sex symbol Rubi Fields is the foundation of the “Rubi Fields Church of the Millennium”. This is an Earth riddled with greed, corruption, and media lies, an America sunk into a mind numbing stupor where reality is artificial.

 

This is our world, tweaked.

 

“The New Frontier” is a cutting-edge dissection of superficial American culture and political foolishness, a cut at the heart of “Romance”, and a slash at the obsessions that lurk in every human psyche. In this America, only slightly different than our own, amoral is synonymous with saint. And here, an imitation of a dead starlet is enough to elect presidents.

 

Artist Michael Cherkas is a Canadian treasure. His instantly recognizable, unique style is technically flawless, and artistically riveting. There is no better use in comics of contrasting areas of black and white, shadow and light. His abstraction of “realistic” art (art in imitation of life) to simple, clean lines is incredible.

 

Although writer John Sabljic slips early in “The New Frontier” by attempting to layer multiple dialogues into single panels, he quickly gains his footing when he abandons the unintelligible experiment. Sabljic delivers a powerful, suspenseful punch in this ‘novel of pictures’, proving ‘one strike and you’re not out’.

 

So, what’s the only other problem with this “perfect” graphic novel?

 

You haven’t read it yet.

 

“The New Frontier” is one of the year’s best, and highly recommended. It doesn’t get much better than this.

 

This abridgement of Universal's 12-episode serial Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe as Dick Calkins' famed comic-strip space adventurer. Buck and Buddy (Jackie Moran) and are recruited to battle against modernistic gangster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). The duo travels to Saturn to get help in their mission, and after Buck and Buddy quell the internal struggles of the Saturnians, Buck triumphs over Killer Kane and his cosmic thugs.

Planet Outlaws Feature link: youtu.be/UD3xKy42KUY

 

Link to all 12 Serial Episodes:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtc-u3zFGk&feature=share&amp...

 

Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn. Directed by Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind.

Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade are in the middle of a trans-polar dirigible flight when they are caught in a blizzard and crash. Buddy then releases a special gas to keep them in suspended animation until a rescue party can arrive. However, an avalanche covers the craft and the two are in suspended animation for 500 years. When they are found, they awake to find out that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Along with Lieutenant Wilma Deering, Buck and Buddy join in the fight to overthrow Kane and with the help of Prince Tallen of Saturn and his forces, they eventually do and Earth is free of Kane's grip.

 

This is actually a pretty enjoyable serial, but it seems doomed to be forever overshadowed by the much superior Flash Gordon trilogy. Universal brought BUCK ROGERS out in 1939, in between their own chapterplays FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE; it also starred Buster Crabbe (but with his natural dark hair instead of Flash's golden curls) and although it is filled with space ships and weird gadgets, BUCK ROGERS lacks most of the elements that gave the Flash serials their intense emotional draw.

 

For one thing, there is none of the strong sexual charge that the Flash series had. Instead of nubile Dale Arden and sultry Princess Aura both competing for the hero's attention while the villain openly lusted for the heroine, Buck's epic featured Constance Moore as Col. Wilma Deering. Now, Moore is perfectly fine in her role, but she is after all a soldier in the resistance army and not a fair damsel in distress. She has a nice moment when she wrests a ray gun away from a guard and blasts her way out of her cell, but she and Buck seem to be merely chums on the same side.

 

Also, although BUCK ROGERS has plenty of futuristic gadgets (rayguns and buzzing spaceships which shoot sparks from their backs, teleportation tubes and invisibility rays), there are no grotesque monsters or nonhuman alien races on view. Prisoners have remarkably goofy metal helmets strapped on which turn them into docile zombies, and there are these homely goons called Zuggs moping around, but that's hardly as fascinating as Lion Men and Clay People and horned apes (that Orangapoid critter).

 

What's ironic about all this is that the comic strip BUCK ROGERS by Philip Nolan and Richard Calkins started in 1929, was immensely popular for many years and it success inspired the creation of Flash. Yet the Flash strip benefitted from the genius of Alex Raymond, one of the all-time great cartoon artists, and it produced stunning visual images (from the samples of Buck's strip I've seen, it was imaginative enough but pretty crude and drab). This contrast carried over to the serials.

 

Buck Rogers and his sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) are pilots who crash in the Arctic in1938 and survive for 500 years because the 'Nirvano' gas they were carrying put them in a state of suspended animation. They both seem to adapt to waking up in the year 2424 pretty well, where I would think most people would be so traumatized it would take a while to adjust. In this dystopic future, the Earth is ruled by a mega-gangster called Killer Kane (another setback; Anthony Warde would be okay as a crimelord but he just doesn't have the imposing presence to convince me this guy can dominate an entire planet).

 

Luckily, Buck and Buddy have been found by the small resistance movement hopelessly trying to overthrow Kane from their hidden city. Here is Dr Huer (C. Montague Shaw, who I just saw in the UNDERSEA KINGDOM doing the same gig with his wild inventions) and Wilma Deering leading the good fight. For some reason I missed, everyone immediately puts all their trust in Buck and he pretty much takes over. (Maybe he's just one of those charismatic alpha males or something.) Most of the serial involves desperate trips back and forth to Saturn to enlist the aid of the isolationist Saturnians, and this means running the blockade of Kane's ships. The usual fistfights and explosions and captures and escapes normal for this sort of situation ensue. It's a lot of fun if you take it on its own terms, with a strong linear plot and likeable heroes, but it really never kicks into high gear and seems a bit drab.

 

It's interesting that some (but not all) of the Saturnians are played by Asian actors. Prince Tallen, who gets caught up in most of the fun, was portrayed by a very young Philson Ahn, and I thought for years this was the same guy who in 1972 impressed us as the head of the Shaolin Temple in TV's KUNG FU (he taught all the styles, really amazing if you think about it). Turns out that was Phiip Ahn, Philson's brother.

 

Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind - 12 Chapters

 

BUCK ROGERS (1939): Director Ford Beebe, who also worked on Flash Gordon (1938), came straight from The Phantom Creeps (1939) and then went back to finish Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940). Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe or, as his family knew him, Lawrence. Now, Lawrence ‘Larry’ ‘Buster’ Crabbe had previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials, a couple of Tarzan movies and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers, aka that blonde guy who saves the universe but isn’t Flash Gordon. Actually, Buster Crabbe wasn’t the first actor to play Buck Rogers in-the-flesh, so to speak.

That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of their regular Santa Claus. Santa was off conquering Martians at the time, I think it was an exchange program of sorts. It strikes me that Buck Rogers is not unlike a male fantasy come to life. Just think of it – Buck gets to take a nice five-hundred-year-long sleep-in. With my busy schedule, I’m ecstatic if I can get twenty minutes nap on the weekend. Then, when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. In reality he’d be treated like something that’s escaped from the zoo. And finally, everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and crash rocket ships – out of the half-dozen flights Buck makes, he only lands successfully once. It’s easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (1938), and even the script is rather suspect.

Planet Outlaws

This film is actually a compilation of the Buck Rogers serials that ran originally in 1939. The cliffhanger endings and recap beginnings have been edited out to make it flow better -- with partial success. Some new footage was shot for the introduction and summary. At the opening, there are some newspaper headlines about jets chasing flying discs, and the obligatory checkered V2 launch, etc. to add a modern segue. After that, it's pure 1939.

Sci-fi movie technology had come a long way in the 14 years since Buck's debut. Audiences had grown accustomed to sleek and pointy rockets, flying saucers, strange aliens, etc. The Buck Rogers style world-of-the-future must have looked oddly quaint. (if not laughable) Just why Universal Pictures thought re-releasing Buck Rogers was a good idea is a bit of a mystery. Kids who were 8 or so back in 1939 would be young adults in '53. Perhaps Universal was banking on those young adults would buy tickets for a trip down memory lane.

Plot Synopsis

After a bit of modern ('53) footage about the wonders of modern progress and "flying disks," the old serial begins. Rogers and Buddy crashed in the arctic while on a transpolar flight. They were in suspended animation due to the cold and a vague gas. A patrol finds them in the year 2500 and revives them. In the world of 2500, a despot named Killer Kane is trying to take over the world. The forces of good are holed up in the "hidden city." Buck arranges a decoy maneuver to elude Kane's patrol ships. They fly to the planet Saturn in hopes of finding help. On Saturn, the Council sees Rogers and party as the rebels, and Kane as the rule of law. Rogers et al, escape Saturn, return to earth and seek to disrupt Kane's bamboozling of Prince Tallen, the Saturnian representative. Rogers sneaks into Kane's city, interrupts the treaty signing and convinces Tallen of Kane's evil by revealing Kane's "robot battalion" (slaves wearing mind-control helmets). Rogers and Tallen get to Saturn and the treaty is signed. Rogers escapes Kane's patrols via the Dissolvo Ray which rendered them invisible. Rogers and the war council plan for war. Rogers enlists the Saturnians to help. Meanwhile, Rogers sneaks into Kane's city and de-zombies Minister Krenco to lead an uprising of freed robot-slave-prisoners. Rogers storms Kane's palace and puts one of the robo-slave helmets on Kane. The End

The industrial vision of the future is delightful to watch. The heavily mechanical look of everything is so radically different from the sleek rockets and glowing acrylic audiences were growing accustomed to. The space ships look like they were built at locomotive factories or steamship yards. They spew roman-candle sparks and smoke and buzz as they fly. There are no computers, no radar or electronics. It's a fascinating snapshot of what pre-electronic-age people thought the future would be like.

When originally released in 1939, the Killer Kane character was a thinly disguised allusion to Hitler. In 1953, Kane was intended to represent a communist despot. It wasn't as tidy a fit. The narrator sums it up voicing a hope that scientists will develop the means for men to stand up to today's dictators and make the world safe for democracy. In the early 50s, there's little question of who they meant.

Simple Colors -- One endearing trait of Buck Rogers is the simplicity of the characterizations. The good guys do nothing but good. The bad guys are pure bad. The good guys are crack pilots and sharp shooters and tough as nails. The bad guys do nothing but bad, have trouble hitting a flying barn and are easily knocked out with one punch.

Industrial Baroque -- Somewhat like the baroque era's compulsion to decorate every square inch with swirls and filigree, Industrial Baroque sought to fill every space with heavy-duty hardware. The sets, and especially the rocket interiors are like flying boiler rooms. Valves, pipes, levers, dials, wheels, large flashing light bulbs. To look more "high tech" in the 30s meant cramming in more industrial hardware. Buck Rogers' ships show more affinity for Captain Nemo "steampunk" than the proto-space-age of the 50s.

Family Resemblance -- There is a noticeable similarity in the sets and costumes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Even serials of the early 50s, like Captain Video and the various Rocketman serials, look more like Flash and Buck than George Pal. The industrial baroque look and costuming are distinctive, making them almost a sub-genre of their own. In that regard, Buck has a timelessness.

Another take on the story and additional background info.

A round-the-world dirigible flight commanded by US Air Force officer Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) encounters dangerously stormy weather above the Himalayas; said weather, along with disastrous panic on the part of Rogers’ crewmen, causes the aircraft to crash. The cowardly crewmen ditch the ship and meet quick ends, but Rogers and young Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), son of the aircraft’s designer, survive the crash. The pair use a cylinder of “Nirvano” gas to place themselves into suspended animation until a rescue party can reach them, but an avalanche buries the ship and all searches prove fruitless; the dirigible and its two dormant inhabitants remain beneath rocks and snow for five hundred years.

Finally, in the year 2440, a spaceship unearths the wreck, and its pilots restore Buck and Buddy to consciousness. The holdovers from the 20th century soon learn that their rescuers are soldiers from the “Hidden City,” a pocket of resistance to the super-criminal who is ruling the 24th-century Earth–one “Killer” Kane (Anthony Warde). Rogers immediately pledges his support to Air Marshal Kragg (William Gould) and Scientist-General Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw), the leaders of the Hidden City exiles, and is soon en route to Saturn, hoping to convince that planet’s rulers to aid the Hidden City in freeing the Earth from Kane’s tyranny. To cement the Saturian alliance, Buck must battle Kane’s legions at every step of the way, with able assistance from Buddy and from Dr. Huer’s trusted aide Lieutenant Wilma Deering (Constance Moore).

 

Ever since its original release, Buck Rogers has stood in the shadow of Universal’s Flash Gordon serials; the studio encouraged such association by casting Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe as a different sci-fi hero, obviously hoping that the chapterplay would capitalize on the goodwill generated by Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars. The serial did succeed in reminding audiences of the Flash outings–but it reminded them of how much they had liked those serials and forced inevitable comparisons that were not in Rogers’ favor. Universal’s plans for a second Buck Rogers serial were quickly scrapped when the first outing failed to please matinee audiences; the intended Buck sequel was then replaced on the studio’s production schedule by–what else?–a third Flash Gordon chapterplay. Even today, Buck is typically dismissed by fans as a pale echo of the great Gordon serials.

It’s easy to see why Buck Rogers came as a disappointment to audiences expecting an outing in the Flash Gordon tradition. Its production design, while futuristic, is less quirky and more uniform than that of the Gordons; there are no monsters and no weird semi-human races besides the rather uninteresting Zuggs; there are also no supporting characters as developed or as interesting as Dr. Zarkov, Ming, King Vultan, the Clay King, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and other major figures in the Flash Gordon chapterplays. And yet, taken on its own terms, Buck Rogers is far from a failure; it does not approach the Flash Gordon trilogy in quality, but then few serials do.

Buck Rogers’ script, by former Mascot writers Norman Hall and Ray Trampe, is fast-moving and manages to avoid repetition for most of its length. The trip to Saturn, the attempts to convince Saturnian leader Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) of the justice of the Hidden City’s cause, the subsequent rescue of Tallen from Kane’s city, the second journey to Saturn to cement the alliance, and the attempts of Kane’s henchman Laska (Henry Brandon) to sabotage it–all these incidents keep the narrative flowing very nicely for the serial’s first eight chapters. As in many of Trampe and Hall’s Mascot scripts, however, the writers seem to run out of plot before the serial’s end. While Chapters Nine and Ten remain interesting (with Buck being converted into a hypnotized robot, Buddy’s rescue of the hero, and an infiltration of the Hidden City by one of Kane’s men), the last two chapters have a definite wheel-spinning feel to them, throwing in a redundant third trip to Saturn and an unneeded flashback sequence.

The last-chapter climax is also something of a disappointment, with Kane being overthrown quickly and undramatically instead of being definitively crushed. Here, Trampe and Hall seem to have been leaving room for the sequel that never came and trying to avoid duplicating the dramatic but very final destruction of MIng which closed the first Flash Gordon serial (and which needed to be explained away in the second). The other weak spot of the scripting is Buck and Buddy’s rather calm reaction when they realize that their old world (and everyone in it) is dead–and their extraordinarily quick adjustment to their new one. One wouldn’t have wanted the writers to dwell on our heroes’ plight (which would be absolutely crushing in real life), but I do wish Trampe or Hall could have given Buck and Buddy a few emotional lines about their displacement before getting on to the main action; Hall in his scripts for other serials (Hawk of the Wilderness, Adventures of Red Ryder), showed himself capable of far more dramatic moments.

  

As already mentioned, the serial’s visuals are less varied than those of the Flash Gordon serials, but that’s not to say they aren’t impressive by serial standards. Pains seem to have been taken to avoid duplicating too much of Gordon’s “look;” the spaceship miniatures are completely different than the ships in the Gordon trilogy, while Kane’s stronghold–probably the best miniature in the serial–is not the quasi-Gothic palace of Ming but rather an ominous, futuristic-looking version of New York City, complete with towering skyscrapers. The Hidden City’s great rock gates are also nifty, and the massive Saturnian Forum (a life-size set, not a miniature) is very visually impressive. The barren Red Rock Canyon area works well as the Saturnian landscape, but I think it was a mistake to also use the Canyon as the area between the Hidden City and Kane’s capital; Saturn and Earth shouldn’t look so similar.

 

The only major prop or set reused from the Gordon serials are the “bullet cars” from Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars; they’re just as fun to watch in action here as in the earlier serial. Other incidental props and sets–Kane’s robot room, his mind-control helmets, the various televiewing devices, the anti-gravity belts, Dr. Huer’s invisibility ray, and the Star-Trek-like molecular transportation chamber–add further colorful touches to the serial., and are respectably represented by Universal’s always above-average array of sets and props. The Zuggs, the “primitive race” ruled by the Saturnians, are somewhat disappointing, however; while suitably grotesque-looking, they’re nowhere near as menacing or memorable–in appearance or demeanor–as their obvious inspiration, the Clay People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.

The serial’s action scenes are brisk and energetic, suffering not at all from a general lack of fistfights–thanks to the swift-moving direction of Ford Beebe (a Mascot veteran like writers Trampe and Hall) and his co-director Saul Goodkind (usually an editor). The few hand-to-hand tussles–most of them on the rocky hills of Saturn–are executed routinely but skillfully by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Eddie Parker, and other stuntmen; the best of the bunch is the fight between Buck and a Kane man in the control room of the Hidden City, although this is more exciting for the suspenseful situation (Buck trying to close the gates that the henchman has opened to Kane’s oncoming armada) than for any particular flair in the staging.

Most of the action sequences consist of protracted chases and pursuits (both on foot and in rocketships), with occasional quick combats thrown in. Many of these lengthy chases are very exciting–particularly the long incursion into Kane’s city that occupies most of Chapters Three and Four, a great combination of action and suspense. Buddy’s later stealthy visit into Kane’s fortress to rescue Buck from the robot room, and the following escape, is also good, as are Buck’s skillful and repeated elusions of the rebellious Zuggs in Chapter Eight and the bullet car getaway in Chapter Six.

  

The cliffhanger endings are generally well-staged, with proper build-ups, but too many of them involve spaceship crashes that our heroes rather implausibly live through. The impressive collapsing forum at the end of Chapter Eleven and the bullet car crash at the end of Chapter Six provide nice variety amid the spaceship wrecks, but (alas) are also resolved by mere survival. Still, this is preferable to the blatantly cheating resolution of what is otherwise one the best chapter endings–Killer Kane’s pursuit of Buddy in a darkened council chamber and his apparently lethal zapping of the young hero. At least the resolution features a good stunt bit by Dave Sharpe.

The leading performances in Buck Rogers are all excellent (although most other critics would make a single exception; see below). Buster Crabbe, as always, makes a perfect serial hero–both genially cheerful and grimly serious, unassumingly polite and aggressively tough. As in the Flash Gordon trilogy, his down-to-earth attitude also helps to make the wild sci-fi happenings seem perfectly normal.

Jackie Moran (oddly “reduced” to serial acting only a year after playing Huck Finn in David O. Selznick’s big-budget classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer) does a fine job as Buddy Wade, handling his character’s frequent “golly, gee-whiz” lines in a low-key fashion that keeps Buddy from coming off as too naïve; his chipper but calm demeanor complements Crabbe’s well, and he has no problems carrying an entire chapter and part of another on his own.

Constance Moore, despite being saddled with perhaps the most unflattering costume ever worn by a serial leading lady (basically coveralls and a bathing cap), manages to come off as charming. Her Wilma Deering is self-possessed and capable-seeming but never too coldly efficient; she remains warmly likable even when piloting spaceships or explaining technology to Crabbe.

Henry Brandon is very good as Killer Kane’s chief henchman Captain Laska–suave and sly when acting as Kane’s ambassador to Saturn, haughtily arrogant when threatening people, and nervously jittery in the presence of his overbearing leader. Hard-bitten tough guys Wheeler Oakman and Reed Howes, along with the slicker Carleton Young , form Brandon’s backup squad.

As Killer Kane himself, perennial henchman actor Anthony Warde has been almost universally panned by critics as “miscast.” I have to dissent strongly, however; Warde does a fine job in the part and plays Kane with a memorable combination of viciousness and uncontrollable anger. The character is not a diabolical schemer like Ming, but rather a super-gangster who’s blasted and bullied his way to the top–and Warde’s bad-tempered, aggressive, and thuggish screen personality fits the part perfectly. He veers between intimidating ranting and harshly sinister sarcasm–as when he describes himself as a “kindly ruler” just after wrathfully sending a formerly trusted councilor to the robot room–but is quite menacing in both aspects.

Philson Ahn, brother of frequent serial and feature actor Phillip Ahn, does a good job as Prince Tallen of Saturn; he possesses his sibling’s deep and distinctive voice, which serves him well as a planetary dignitary. His manner also has a slightly tougher edge to it than his refined brother’s, which helps to keep the viewer in uncertainty in the earlier chapters as to whether Tallen will turn out to be friend or foe. Guy Usher plays Aldar, the head of Saturn’s ”Council of the Wise,” and does his best to seem suitably imposing and dignified, despite the almost comical way in which the “Wise” continually change their opinions–backing Kane, opposing him, giving into his demands, defying him, etc. Cyril Delevanti is enjoyable as a grumpy subordinate member of the Council.*

C. Montague Shaw has limited screen time, but is very good as Dr. Huer, balancing statesmanlike dignity with shrewdness and a touch of enjoyable scientific eccentricity (the last is particularly noticeable during his demonstration of his invisibility gas in Chapter Five). Energetic Jack Mulhall is typically affable and enthusiastic as Captain Rankin of the Hidden City, while Kenne Duncan has a rare good guy role as Mulhall’s fellow-officer Lieutenant Lacy. Perennial screen “underworld rat” John Harmon also plays against type as a Hidden City soldier, as does Stanley Price as a Hidden City pilot rescued from existence as a human robot. The dignified but stolid William Gould is good enough as Air Marshal Kragg, but I would have preferred a more dynamic actor in the role–Kragg is, after all, the top military leader of Kane’s enemies. Mulhall could have handled it well, as could Wade Boteler–who does an excellent job as the grim and concerned Professor Morgan in the first chapter, intensely instructing Buddy and Buck in the use of the Nirvano gas.

Lane Chandler also appears in the first chapter, as a military officer who demonstrates the Nirvano gas to a reporter played by another old pro, Kenneth Harlan. An unusually subdued Theodore Lorch is one of Kane’s councilors, while Karl Hackett has a good part as another councilor who gets into an argument with Kane that leads to Hackett’s being converted into a human robot (his terrified pleas as he’s dragged out of the council chamber are quite chilling). Al Bridge has some memorably sinister lines (“when this helmet is in place, you’ll never think or speak again”) in his periodic scenes as the slave-master of Kane’s human robots.

Unusually for Universal, several bit roles are filled by stuntmen; Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop in as various soldiers and officers, but aren’t as noticeable as Dave Sharpe, who’s given multiple speaking roles as a Kane soldier, a Hidden City soldier, a Saturnian officer, and a Saturnian soldier. His ubiquity can get a little distracting at times, particularly since some of his appearances follow right on the previous one’s heels; he also seems to have a bit of trouble with the formal-sounding Saturnian dialogue, coming off as much more stiff and affected than in his co-starring turn in Daredevils of the Red Circle.

The serial’s music score, like most other Universals of the period, is an eclectic but usually effective array of stock music, some of it cues from the Flash Gordon serials but the majority of it culled from Universal’s horror features, including (most notably) Franz Waxman’s score for Bride of Frankenstein, which furnishes some memorable opening-titles music.

All in all, though Buck Rogers has its share of flaws, it also has more than enough virtues (the acting, the fast pace, the interesting sci-fi trappings) to make it a good chapterplay. Despite its similar themes, it shouldn’t be pitted against the Flash Gordon trilogy–a match it’s bound to lose–but rather judged against the field of competition in general. When judged in this fashion, it’s just as entertaining–and often more entertaining–than many serials with less shabby reputations.

 

*One has to wonder, though, why some Saturnians are Orientals like Ahn and others Occidentals like Usher and Delevanti; my own theory is that men from various countries emigrated from Earth to Saturn sometime before the bulk of the serial took place; this would explain the racial assortment and also explain why the Hidden City chooses Saturn in particular as an ally (as usual, I’m probably putting too much thought into this).

 

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Terms of Use: Our images are freely and publicly available for use with the credit line, "Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory"; Please use provided caption information for use in appropriate context.

Lucretia

 

•Rembrandt van Rijn

•Dutch, 1606-1669

•1664

•Oil on Canvas

•Dimensions:

oOverall: 120 × 101 cm (47¼ × 39¾ in.)

oFramed: 159.1 × 139.4 × 16.5 cm (62⅝ × 54⅞ × 6½ in.)

•Andrew W. Mellon Collection

•1937.1.76

•On View

 

Overview

 

After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), a famous history painter. Upon completion of his training Rembrandt returned to Leiden. Around 1632 he moved to Amsterdam, quickly establishing himself as the town’s leading artist. He received many commissions for portraits and history paintings and attracted several students who came to learn his method of painting.

 

The tragic story of Lucretia, recounted by Livy, took place in Rome in the sixth century BC during the reign of the tyrannical ruler Tarquinius Superbus. Rembrandt portrays Lucretia in utter anguish, right before her act of suicide. The tension surrounding that awful moment poignantly captures the moral dilemma of a woman forced to choose between life and honor.

 

Lucretia’s husband, Collatinus, had boasted to his fellow soldiers that her loyalty and virtue were greater than that of their wives. Taking him up on the challenge, the men immediately rode to Rome where they discovered Lucretia and her handmaidens spinning wool. Lucretia’s very virtue enflamed the desire of Sextus Tarquinius, son of the tyrant, who secretly returned to the house a few days later. Lucretia received him as an honored guest, but he later betrayed that hospitality by entering her chamber and threatening to kill her if she did not yield to him. The next day Lucretia summoned her father and husband, disclosed what had happened, and told them that, even though they deemed her an innocent victim, she was determined to end her life to reclaim her honor. Lucretia then drew a knife from her robe, drove it into her heart, and died. Overwhelmed by grief and anger, Lucretia’s father, her husband, and two accompanying friends swore to avenge her death. Lucretia’s rape and death triggered a revolt that led to the overthrow of monarchical tyranny and the creation of the Roman Republic.

 

Entry

 

In a moment of inner anguish Lucretia stands, with arms outstretched, just prior to her act of suicide. Although her body faces the viewer, she looks down toward the sharply pointed dagger clenched in her right hand. She holds her left hand open at the same height as the right, as though part of her resists completing the self-destructive act. The tension surrounding that awful moment emphasizes the human drama of a woman caught in the moral dilemma of choosing between life and honor, a choice that would take on symbolic connotations.

 

The tragedy of Lucretia’s impending suicide is intensified in the contrast Rembrandt develops between her elegant attire and the poignancy of her gesture and expressions. Richly adorned with golden diadem, pearl earrings, pearl necklace, and a chain with a golden pendant from which hangs a tear-shaped pearl, she is a regal figure. Her golden dress with a cape that falls over her out-stretched arms adds to her splendor. Rembrandt, however, arranged her robes to emphasize her vulnerability. The clasps that hook her dress at the bodice hang unfastened. With her dress parted, her chest covered only by the white chemise that fits so gracefully, she is about to thrust the dagger into her heart.

 

The tragic story of Lucretia, recounted by Livy, took place during the reign of the tyrannical ruler Tarquinius Superbus in Rome in the sixth century BC. While away during the siege of Ardea, Lucretia’s husband, Collatinus, boasted that her loyalty and virtue were greater than that of his compatriots’ wives. Taking up the challenge, the men at camp rode immediately to Rome where they discovered Lucretia alone with her handmaidens, spinning wool while other wives were idly enjoying their leisure. Lucretia’s very virtue, however, inflamed the desire of Tarquinius’ son, Sextus Tarquinius, who returned without Collatinus’ knowledge a few days later. Having been received as an honored guest, he later stole secretly to Lucretia’s chamber, drew his sword, and threatened to kill her if she did not yield to him. She resisted, but when Sextus Tarquinius threatened to kill his own slave as well and place their naked bodies together to give the appearance that they had been killed in the act of adultery, she yielded to his demands rather than die in such disgrace.

 

The next day Lucretia summoned her father and husband to her side and related what had happened, stressing that only her body had been violated, not her heart. Despite their protestations of her innocence, she was determined to make the moral choice that fate had forced upon her, saying: “Never shall Lucretia provide a precedent for unchaste women to escape what they deserve.” Livy relates that with these words Lucretia drew a knife from under her robe, drove it into her heart, and fell forward, dead.[1]

 

Overwhelmed by grief, Lucretia’s father, her husband, and two accompanying friends swore to avenge her death. Her suicide helped rouse the anger of the populace against the tyrannical rule of Tarquinius Superbus, who was forced into exile. Sextus Tarquinius, who was also driven from Rome, was assassinated shortly thereafter. In Livy’s account Lucretia embodied chastity, but her tragedy assumed wider political dimensions because she was also considered a metaphor for Rome itself. Lucretia’s rape came to symbolize the tyrannical subjugation of the city by Tarquinius Superbus and his family.[2] Her rape triggered the revolt that led to the overthrow of tyranny and the creation of political freedom in the form of a republican government.

 

Rembrandt painted at least three images of Lucretia in his later years. The earliest of these is known only through an inventory of the possessions of Abraham Wijs and Sara de Potter, made on March 1, 1658. The inventory lists: “A large painting of Lucretia, by R: Van Rijn.”[3] The two extant images date from the last decade of Rembrandt’s life: the Washington Lucretia, 1664, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Lucretia, 1666 [FIG. 1]. In the Gallery’s haunting image, Rembrandt has evoked both Lucretia’s profound sadness and her resignation to the fate forced upon her. In the Minneapolis version, Rembrandt has portrayed Lucretia just after she has stabbed herself, her chemise already stained by blood from the mortal wound. The two images complement each other not only because their compositions and painterly qualities are similar, but also because they explore Lucretia’s emotions as she readies herself prior to her self-sacrifice and then responds to the consequences of her action. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have been conceived as a pair. The models Rembrandt used are different and their robes and jewelry, though similar in type, are not identical.[4]

 

As Stechow has demonstrated, three traditions exist for the representation of the Lucretia story: “narrative combinations of various scenes pertaining to the legend; dramatic scenes concentrating entirely on Tarquinius’ misdeed; and single figures of Lucretia stabbing herself.”[5] Rembrandt’s image belongs to the last. He certainly knew several earlier representations of Lucretia through prints and engravings, although only one has been suggested as a prototype for the Washington painting: Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving after a Raphael design [FIG. 2].[6] The essential transformation of the idealized statuesque figure into the emotionally evocative image of Rembrandt’s Lucretia, however, argues that the relationship is more superficial than real. Far closer in spirit to Rembrandt, however, are half-length depictions of Lucretia by Titian and his school that represent the heroine dressed in loose-fitting robes and poised at the moment before she thrusts the dagger into her heart.[7] Rembrandt, who was profoundly influenced by Venetian art during his later years, may have known of such depictions of Lucretia, for a number of such paintings ascribed to Titian or Paolo Veronese were in Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s collection in Brussels during the 1650s.[8] The painting of this compositional type that Rembrandt certainly knew, and used as a basis for other paintings in the 1640s and 1650s, was Titian’s Flora [FIG. 3], which was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1639.[9] The similarities in the general disposition of Lucretia’s head in the Washington painting and that of Flora suggest that this work continued to exert its influence on Rembrandt into the mid-1660s. Even supposing such antecedents could have helped provide the visual vocabulary for the rich pictorial effects and iconic composition of Rembrandt’s painting, the psychological characterization of Lucretia’s emotional state is entirely personal.

 

No record of commissions exists for these works, nor other information concerning Rembrandt’s motivation for painting them. Schwartz has suggested that the paintings have political overtones.[10] Because Lucretia’s suicide precipitated the revolt that helped institute the Roman Republic, she had traditionally been viewed, among her other qualities, as a symbol of patriotism. That such an attribute was associated with her in Rembrandt’s time is clear from a poem written by Jan Vos in 1660, quoted by Schwartz, about a Lucretia painted by Govaert Flinck (Dutch, 1615-1660) in the collection of Joan Huydecoper, one of the most influential patrons of the day: “In the red ink [of her blood] she writes a definition of freedom.” Lucretia, then, may well have assumed allegorical importance in the parallels that were being drawn around 1660 between the foundations of the Roman and Dutch Republics, as did Claudius Civilis, the first-century rebel leader of the Batavian revolt and the subject of Rembrandt’s 1661 painting for the Amsterdam Town Hall.[11]

 

The forceful impact of Rembrandt’s paintings of Lucretia, however, seems also to have resulted from personal associations the artist made between experiences in his life and the emotional traumas that he projected onto Lucretia at the time of her suicide. Only thus can we explain the essential transformation of the pictorial traditions for portraying this legendary Roman heroine that occurs in the two majestic paintings in Washington and Minneapolis.

 

Lucretia, in maintaining her honor through death, come to be revered as a symbol of chastity, honor, and faithfulness. Knuttel speculated that the 1664 Lucretia may have served as a psychological catharsis for Rembrandt after the death of his companion, Hendrickje, the previous year. Indeed, parallels can be found between Lucretia’s faithfulness and self-sacrifice and the indignities Hendrickje suffered because of her commitment to Rembrandt.[12]

 

The mythology surrounding Lucretia, however, was complex. While she was honored for her faithfulness she was also criticized by later Christians for having taken her own life, which was seen as a greater evil than adultery and a life of shame. As Garrard has written: “In Roman terms, Lucretia killed herself not out of guilt, but out of shame, concerned for her reputation and for the precedent of pardon that she might set for voluntary adulterers. Christian writers, schooled in a religion that placed the highest premium on the innocence of one’s personal conscience, regarded such values as excessively concerned with appearances and the opinion of others.”[13] Rembrandt, as he so often did, fused here the pagan and Christian worlds to create an exceptionally profound image of the psychological moment just prior to Lucretia’s fatal decision to thrust the knife into her heart. With her arms raised in a gesture that echoes that of Christ on the cross, she looks down toward the weapon of her destruction with an expression of one who, in her decision to commit suicide, must weigh issues never described by Livy: Rembrandt’s Lucretia is not the assured tragic heroine who has determined her punishment and dies for honor, but one who hesitates at that crucial moment because of an awareness of the moral dilemma that she faces.

 

It may be, as Held has remarked, that Rembrandt drew upon a theatrical tradition to give added poignancy to the moment, for Lucretia, whose mouth is partially open, seems to address the dagger as though giving the closing monologue of this tragic drama.[14] Shakespeare did exactly that in his Rape of Lucretia when she asks:

 

Poor hand, why quiver’st thou in this decree?

Honour thyself to rid me of this shame;

For if I die, my honour lives in thee,

But if I live, thou livest in my defame.[15]

 

Rembrandt’s late paintings, whether portraits, biblical accounts, or mythological stories, often take on an almost sacramental character in the way that the artist confronts the viewer with his images. His broad execution, rich colors, impressive use of chiaroscuro, and iconic compositional structure give these works unparalleled forcefulness. In Lucretia, all these elements of his late style are evident. Particularly remarkable in this painting is his use of chiaroscuro to transform an essentially symmetrical and static pose into an active one. Lucretia is lit not from the front but from the left. Light thus strikes her head, right arm, and shoulder. The dagger blade glistens against her white cuff. Although her left arm is thrown into shadow, her outstretched left hand catches the light. Through these subtle means of emphasis, which until the mid-1980s had been hidden by thick, discolored layers of varnish, Rembrandt heightened the drama by reinforcing the psychological and physical tension of the scene.[16]

 

Rembrandt painted this image using a broad range of techniques. He modeled the face quite densely by applying a sequence of paint layers. Some layers, such as the soft lavenders that model the shaded portions of the lower cheeks and chin, are quite smooth. Others, such as the pinks and oranges that highlight the cheekbones and the yellowish-whitish areas on the nose and forehead, are brushed on more vigorously. The eyes, nose, and mouth are broadly rendered. Specifics of eyebrows, eyelids, pupils of the eyes, nostrils, and lips were of little concern to the artist; instead he heightened and accented them with deft touches of rust-colored paint. One particularly bold stroke of ocher paint defines the upper left edge of the top lip.

 

Rembrandt varied his painting techniques in Lucretia’s cape and dress according to the play of light falling across her figure. Where light hits her right arm, Rembrandt cast a golden tone with a rich mixture of yellow, white, red, and salmon-colored paints. Under the lightest areas of the shoulder, he first laid in a light gray layer to give an added luminosity to the paints. On the shaded left sleeve, the paint is much less dense. A deep brown and reddish-brown layer covering the Ground in this area forms the basis for the sleeve’s tonality. Over it, Rembrandt, often with a dry brush, applied yellow, greenish yellow, red, and white highlights. In certain instances, for example, in a series of black strokes that shade part of the sleeve, he clearly used a palette knife as well as a brush.

 

Rembrandt utilized the palette knife even more frequently in the white of the left sleeve. Here he applied a rather dry paint onto the underlying brown layer to suggest the material’s transparency. More extensive use of the palette knife is seen in the dress near Lucretia’s waist. Here he spread broader areas of light-ocher paint with the knife to suggest the luminous character of the fabric. In general, the treatment of this area of the dress resembles that of the left sleeve where the underlying dark brown paint becomes an important ingredient in the overall color tonality. The one area with thick highlights in the dress is the belt, but even here Rembrandt did not really overlap paints. The accents of yellow, orange, and white are loosely applied and do not define the belt to any great degree.[17]

 

Stylistically, this painting resembles the so-called Jewish Bride in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The head of Lucretia is extremely close in type and in concept to that of the bride: both are built up in a comparable fashion. Remarkably similar are the ways in which the features are modeled with dense and somewhat roughly brushed strokes of paint. The similarities extend to the technique for the modeling of the pearls and even for indicating the gold diadem in the back of the hair. While most of the robes in the Jewish Bride are more densely painted than those of Lucretia and are built up almost exclusively with a palette knife, in the shaded area under the collar of the man Rembrandt used a modeling technique very similar to that seen in Lucretia’s left arm. Here he also used a brownish Imprimatura layer for the base collar of the robe and accented it lightly with a series of thin strokes of red paint applied with a palette knife.[18]

 

Similarities in painting technique also exist between this figure of Lucretia and that in Minneapolis, even though the latter work was painted two years later, in 1666. As is appropriate to its starker concept, Rembrandt applied his paints in a more angular fashion in the Minneapolis version than he did in the Washington painting. Still, the modeling of the facial features is once again comparable. One notices the way the top lip is defined with a bold stroke of flesh-colored paint along its upper edge. Also similar is the use of an Imprimatura layer as a base color of the left sleeve, and finally, the structure of the hand holding the dagger.

 

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

 

April 24, 2014

 

[1] Livy, The Early History of Rome, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt (Aylesbury, 1973), book 1, LIX, 99.

 

[2] Ian Donaldson, The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its Transformation (Oxford, 1982), 9, stresses the political significance of this point.

 

[3] Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen, The Rembrandt Documents (New York, 1979), doc. 1658/8, 418. “In ’t Voorhuijs Een groot stuck schilderij van Lucretia van R: Van Rijn.”

 

[4] The features in the Washington Lucretia resemble Rembrandt’s companion Hendrickje Stoffels, as she is seen in Rembrandt’s paintings from the mid-1650s (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv, no. 828B). Hendrickje, who appears much older in the portrait of 1660 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, had died in July 1663. The model Rembrandt used for the Minneapolis Lucretia is not found in other of Rembrandt’s paintings.

 

[5] Wolfgang Stechow, “Lucretia Statua,” in Essays in Honor of Georg Swarzenski (Chicago and Berlin, 1951), 114.

 

[6] First suggested by N. Beets (see N. Beets, “Een ‘print van Rafel’ en Rembrandt’s Lucretia,” Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant [January 1, 1914], I). Northern prints and paintings of Lucretia have a quite different character and do not seem to have influenced Rembrandt in his depictions of Lucretia; for the prints see Ilja M. Veldman, “Lessons for Ladies: A Selection of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Prints,” Simiolus 16 (1986): 113-127.

 

[7] The most profound sixteenth-century images of Lucretia were created in Venice. In two memorable paintings, Tarquin and Lucretia (Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna) and Tarquin and Lucretia (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), Titian focused on the dramatic confrontation between Tarquin and Lucretia, capturing the animal energy of Tarquin blindly driven by lust.

 

[8] For paintings attributed to Titian see Harold E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, 3 vols. (London, 1975), 3:215, cat. no. x-24, 219, cat. no. x-33. For Veronese’s Lucretia see Kunsthistorisches Museum, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie I, Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer (Vienna, 1965), 169, cat. no. 750.

 

[9] Harold E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, 3 vols. (London, 1975), 3:154-155, cat. no. 17.

 

[10] Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt: zijn leven, zijn schilderijen (Maarssen, 1984), 330, no. 382, repro. (English trans., Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings [New York, 1985], 330). It seems unlikely, however, that there is any pro-Orange or anti-Orange sentiment implied in these works, as Schwartz suggests.

 

[11] For the parallels drawn between the story of Claudius Civilis and the foundation of the Dutch Republic as seen in the decorations of the Town Hall in Amsterdam see H. van de Waal, “The Iconographical Background to Rembrandt’s Civilis,” in H. van de Waal, Steps towards Rembrandt: Collected Articles 1937-1972, ed. R. H. Fuchs, trans. Patricia Wardle and Alan Griffiths (Amsterdam, 1974), 28-43.

 

[12] In 1654 Hendrickje, who lived with Rembrandt but was not married to him, had been publicly disgraced when a tribune of the Dutch Reformed Church condemned her for “living in sin like a whore” with the artist. After Hendrickje’s death in 1663, Rembrandt may have linked the tribulations she had suffered and the emotional traumas he projected onto Lucretia. The resemblance of Lucretia to Hendrickje as she appeared in the mid-1650s (see note 4) seems to reinforce this hypothesis. For his part, Rembrandt identified himself with a historical figure in his Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul of 1661 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), in which the sword of Paul’s martyrdom protrudes from Rembrandt’s chest.

 

[13] Mary D. Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (Princeton, 1989), 219.

 

[14] Julius Held, “Das gesprochene Wort bei Rembrandt,” Neue Beiträge zur Rembrandt Forschung, ed. Otto van Simson and Jan Kelch (Berlin, 1973), 123. The theatrical character of the image is reinforced by the suggestion of curtains hanging behind Lucretia. These may have been more apparent before the paint darkened and the background suffered from Abrasion. Lucretia’s theatricality, however, has not always met with favor. Wilhelm von Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei (Braunschweig, 1883), 524, found the theatricality unconvincing given the portraitlike character of the image. The art dealer René Gimpel was more outspoken. When Lucretia was on the market in 1921 he wrote: “She is stabbing herself in her terror, with a ridiculous gesture. Neither realism nor idealism. A terrible lack of taste” (René Gimpel, Diary of an Art Dealer, trans. John Rosenberg [New York, 1966], 161).

 

[15] This quotation was first associated with Rembrandt’s 1664 Lucretia by Jan Veth, “Rembrandt’s Lucretia,” Beelden en Groepen 25 (1914): 25.

 

[16] The discolored varnish also had the effect of flattening the three-dimensional character of the image, which reduced the emotional impact of the scene by making the spatial relationships more difficult to decipher. One such critique against the painting was levied by Alfred Gold, “Die Sammlung Hielbuth,” Der Cicerone 13 (March 1921): 93.

 

[17] While I find the painting techniques described here characteristic for Rembrandt, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (personal communication, 1993) is quite critical of the way these areas are executed. He feels that the “paint has an abstract, unfunctional quality, and makes the impression of a method applied without regard for its reason.” He rejects the attribution to Rembrandt and notes that the painting has “strong similarities with works by Aert de Gelder.” This opinion is shared by Ernst van de Wetering, who argued in a lecture at the National Gallery of Art in January 2005 that Lucretia was painted by Aert de Gelder.

 

[18] The similarities in technique in this area have become even more evident since the 1993 restoration of the Jewish Bride.

 

Inscription

 

•Center Left: Rembrandt / 1664

 

Provenance

 

Jean-Joseph-Pierre-Augustin Lapeyrière [1779-1831, known as Augustin Lapeyrière, then de Lapeyrière], Paris; (his sale, Galerie Le Brun, Paris, 19 April 1825 and days following [originally scheduled for 14 March 1825 and days following], no. 143). Michael M. Zachary [d. 1837], London;[1] (sale, Phillips, London, 14-15 April 1826, 1st day, no. 64, bought in); (Zachary sale, Phillips, London, 31 May 1828, no. 25); purchased by Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769-1830] for Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro [1797-1864], London, and Novar House, near Evanton, Ross-shire, Scotland.[2] Paul Pavlovich Demidoff [1839-1885], Prince of San Donato, near Florence; (his sale, at his residence, Florence, 15 March-10 April 1880, no. 1146). (Léon Gauchez, Paris); (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 July 1889, no. 56, bought in); (Léon Gauchez, Paris), until at least 1893.[3] (Bourgeois & Cie., Paris); (Leo Nardus [1868-1955], Suresnes, France, and New York);[4] Matthew Chaloner Durfee Borden [1842-1912], New York, by 1906;[5] (his estate sale, American Art Association, New York, 13-14 February 1913, 1st day, no. 28); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and Paris);[6] sold 1913 to (Frederik Müller and Co., Amsterdam); sold 1913 to August Janssen [1863-1918], Amsterdam;[7] his estate; sold 1919 with the entire Janssen collection to (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam).[8] Hermann Heilbuth [1861-1945], Copenhagen, by 1920.[9] (Ehrich Brothers, New York), in 1921.[10] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and Paris); sold November 1921 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

 

[1] Although the main seller at the April 1826 sale was Lord Berwick, there were also other consignors. One annotation in the Wallace Collection (London) Library’s copy of the sale catalogue indicates that Zachary was the consigner of the NGA painting; another annotation next to the Lucretia entry reads “Sir T Lawrence.” The Getty Provenance Index© Database, Sale Catalogs, lot 0064 from sale catalog Br-2806, identifies the latter annotation as indicating a previous owner.

 

[2] This information is given by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 6(1915):120, no. 218 (also English edition, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols., London, 1907-1927: 6(1916):143-144, no. 218). However, the Wallace Collection (London) Library’s copy of the sale catalogue is annotated with the name “Woodin” as the buyer (The Getty Provenance Index© Database, Sale Catalogs, lot 0025 from sale catalog BR-3135). Munro acquired a significant collection that was dispersed in sales both before and after his death, but the painting has not been in any of the sale catalogues. Hofstede de Groot lists a Munro sale in London on 26 March 1859 (given as 26 March 1851, in the 1920-1921 exhibition catalogue), which has not been identified; the painting does not appear in a sale of Munro’s English pictures held in London on 26 March 1860.

 

[3] Although Algernon Graves, Art Sales from early in the eighteenth century to early in the twentieth century (mostly old master and early English pictures), 3 vols. London, 1918-1921: 2:383, gives the buyer at the 1889 sale as Wontner, the painting was in fact bought in and returned to the consignor, Gauchez. This information was kindly provided by Lynda McLeod, Librarian, Christie’s Archives, London, in her e-mail of 28 March 2013 (in NGA curatorial files). Émile Michel (Rembrandt: Sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris, 1893: 489) saw the painting in Paris, but did not identify the owner, who is named by Malcolm Bell (Rembrandt Van Rijn and His Work, London, 1899: 157).

 

[4] Jonathan Lopez kindly provided this information (oral communication, 13 October 2006). See also Jonathan Lopez, “‘Gross False Pretences’: The Misdeeds of Art Dealer Leo Nardus,” Apollo, 2nd ser., vol. 166, no. 548 (December 2007): 78, 80, 82 nn. 25, 26.

 

[5] Wilhelm von Bode and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt: History, Description and Heliographic Reproduction of All the Master’s Pictures, with a Study of His Life and His Art, translated by Florence Simmonds, 8 vols., Paris, 1897-1906: 8(1906):152, no. 595.

 

[6] Newspapers speculated that Knoedler’s might have been buying for the New York collector Henry Clay Frick; copies of various articles are in NGA curatorial files.

 

[7] The 1913 sales are described by Ben Broos, Great Dutch Paintings from America, exh. cat. The Hague and Zwolle, 1990: 69-70. See also Gerhardus Knuttel, “De Lucretia En Andere Werken Van Rembrandt Bij De Firma Fred. Muller & Co. Amsterdam,” Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 47, no. 2 (January-June 1914): 137-144.

 

[8] “Janssen Paintings Sold in Holland,” The Milwaukee Journal (3 August 1919): 10; Otto Hirschmann, “Die Sammlung August Janssen,” Der Cicerone 12 (January 1920): 17-18.

 

[9] The painting was included in a 1920-1921 exhibition of Heilbuth’s collection in Copenhagen.

 

[10] René Gimpel, Journal d’un collectionneur: marchand de tableaux, Paris, 1963: 184-185.

 

Exhibition History

 

•1832—British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1832, no. 44.[1]

•1909—The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909, no. 105.

•1920—A Collection of Paintings [H. Heilbuth], Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 1920-1921, no. 63.

•1969—Rembrandt in the National Gallery of Art [Commemorating the Tercentenary of the Artist’s Death], National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, no. 23, repro.

•1991—Rembrandt’s Lucretias, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1991-1992, brochure.

•2001—Rembrandt’s Women, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2001, no. 141, repro.

•2006—Rembrandt?: The Master and his Workshop, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 2006, no. 18, repro.

•2014—Rembrandt: The Late Works, National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2014-2015, no. 115, repro.

 

Exhibition History Notes

 

[1] In 1833 Alfred Joseph Woolmer (1805-1892) painted a fanciful view of the exhibition of 1832 in which Lucretia can be seen hanging prominently to the right of an arched doorway (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, inv. no. B 1981.25.694). Celina Fox, London World City, 1800-1840 (London, 1992), 447, repro. no. 383.

 

Technical Summary

 

The original coarse, plain-weave fabric, composed of heavy, unevenly spun threads, has been lined. The top, right, and left edges have been trimmed slightly, leaving worn and ragged edges. The bottom was at one time used as a tacking margin but has now been returned to the picture plane. Slight cusping present along the top and sides, but not the bottom, suggests a reduction in that dimension.

 

The double ground consists of a thick, gray lower layer and a moderately thin, dark brown upper layer.[1] In the dark areas, particularly the background, the dark brown upper ground layer was incorporated into the design, and in the upper left and lower right quadrants the upper ground was deliberately scraped away to expose the gray lower ground layer as part of the composition. In the richly impasted details on the dress, paint was applied thickly and freely with broad brushwork. Paint was both blended wet-into-wet and scumbled with a dry brush to exploit the coarse canvas texture. Extensive use of the palette knife can be recognized in the proper left cuff and in the lower portion of the dress. Incisions with the butt end of the brush are found in the proper left cuff and on the neck.

 

Several pentimenti have become visible over time. The dagger was once 3.5 cm longer, and the sitter’s proper right sleeve has been altered. Stray brushmarks cross the dress and white blouse at right, suggesting alterations to the neckline.

 

The paint is in good condition with few losses. Wide-aperture drying crackle has formed on either side of the head. Moderate abrasion has occurred in the darks, and the bottom tacking margin has been overpainted to incorporate it into the design. Conservation treatment was carried out in 1985 to remove an aged, discolored varnish layer and discolored inpainting.

 

Technical Summary Notes

 

[1] The ground composition was analyzed by the NGA Scientific Research department using cross-sections (see report dated May 8, 1985, in NGA Conservation files).

The Jayhawk, the well known mascot of The University of Kansas did not always look like it does today. The front lobby of the Student Union has a display built into the floor showing the progression of "alumni" Jayhawks.

    

The origin of the term "Jayhawk" (short for "Jayhawker") is uncertain. The term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants traveling to California in 1849. The origin of the term may go back as far as the Revolutionary War, when it was reportedly used to describe a group associated with American patriot John Jay

 

The term became part of the lexicon of the Missouri-Kansas border in about 1858, during the Kansas territorial period. The term was used to describe militant bands nominally associated with the free-state cause. One early Kansas history contained this succinct characterization of the jayhawkers

“Confederated at first for defense against pro-slavery outrages, but ultimately falling more or less completely into the vocation of robbers and assassins, they have received the name --- whatever its origin may be -- of jayhawkers.”

Another historian of the territorial period described the jayhawkers as bands of men that were willing to fight, kill, and rob for a variety of motives that included defense against pro-slavery "Border Ruffians", abolition, driving pro-slavery settlers from their claims of land, revenge, and/or plunder and personal profit.

 

In September 2011, the town of Osceola, Missouri, burned to the ground by Jayhawkers during the Sacking of Osceola, asked the University of Kansas to remove the Jayhawk as its mascot Over time, proud of their state's contributions to the end of slavery and the preservation of the Union, Kansans embraced the "Jayhawker" term. The term came to be applied to people or items related to Kansas. When the University of Kansas fielded their first football team in 1890, the team was called the Jayhawkers] Over time, the name was gradually supplanted by its shorter variant, and KU’s sports teams are now almost exclusively known as the Jayhawks. The Jayhawk appears in several Kansas cheers, most notably, the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" chant in unison before and during games In the traditions promoted by KU, the jayhawk is said to be a combination of two birds, “the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome thing known to rob other nests, and the sparrow hawk, a stealthy hunter.

 

The link between the term “Jayhawkers” and any specific kind of mythical bird, if it ever existed, had been lost or at least obscured by the time KU’s bird mascot was invented in 1912. The originator of the bird mascot, Henry Maloy, struggled for over two years to create a pictorial symbol for the team, until hitting upon the bird idea. As explained by Mr. Maloy, “the term ‘jayhawk’ in the school yell was a verb and the term ‘jayhawkers’ was the noun. KU’s current Jayhawk tradition largely springs from Frank W. Blackmar, a KU professor. In his 1926 address on the origin of the Jayhawk, Blackmar specifically referenced the blue jay and sparrow hawk. Blackmar’s address served to soften the link between KU’s athletic team moniker and the Jayhawkers of the Kansas territorial period, and helped explain the relatively recently invented Jayhawk pictorial symbol with a myth that appears to have been of even more recent fabrication.

 

Sesión de fotos inspirada en el libro de El Principito de Antoine de Saint-Exupéry / Photoshoot inspired by Le petit prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Waste Characterization participants use two layers of gloves and a protective layer for their clothing. Goggles are provided too.

Italian postcard by Rotal Foto, Milano (Milan), no. 250.

 

Film actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924 - 1996) was Italy's favorite leading man since the 1950’s, as well as one of the finest actors of the European cinema. In his long and prolific career, Mastroianni almost singlehandedly defined the contemporary type of Latin lover, then proceeded to redefine it a dozen times and finally parodied it and played it against type.

 

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines, in 1924. He was the son of Ida (née Irolle) and Ottone Mastroianni, who ran a carpentry shop. Marcello grew up in Turin and Rome. He appeared as an uncredited extra in Marionette (1939, Carmine Gallone) and later appeared as an extra in Una storia d'amore/Love Story (1942, Mario Camerini) and I bambini ci guardano/The Children Are Watching Us (1944, Vittorio De Sica). He worked in his father's carpentry shop; but during World War II he was put to work by the Germans drawing maps. During 1943–1944 he was imprisoned in a forced-labor camp, but he escaped and hid in Venice. In 1944, Mastroianni started working as a cashier for film company Eagle Lion (Rank) in Rome. He began taking acting lessons and acted with the University of Rome dramatic group. In the university's production of Angelica (1948) he appeared with Giulietta Masina. His first real film credit was in I Miserabili/Les misérables (1948, Riccardo Freda) with Gino Cervi. That year Mastroianni joined Luchino Visconti's repertory company, which was bringing to Italy a new kind of theater and novel ideas of staging. The young actor played Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire , Happy in Death of a Salesman , Stanley Kowalski in Visconti's second staging of Streetcar , and roles in Chekhov's Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya. He also acted in radio plays and he had first substantial film role in the comedy Una domenica d'agosto/Sunday in August (1949, Luciano Emmer). In 1955 he co-starred with Vittorio De Sica and Sophia Loren - an actress with whom he would frequently be paired in the years to come - in the screwball comedy Peccato che Sia una Canaglia/Too Bad She's Bad (1955, Alessandro Blasetti) and later worked with De Sica again on the comedy Padri e Figli/ Like Father, Like Son (1957, Mario Monicelli). His roles gradually increased in importance, but for the most part both the casts and crews of his projects were undistinguished, and he remained an unknown outside of Italy. Mastroianni permanently sealed his stardom in Italy, playing a timid clerk whose love is not reciprocated, in Le notti bianche/White Nights (1957, Luchino Visconti). He soon became a major international star appearing in films like I soliti ignoti/Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958, Mario Monicelli) with Vittorio Gassman. In this classic crime caper he displayed a light touch for comedy, playing the exasperated member of an inept group of burglars. In 1960 he played his most famous role as a disillusioned and world-weary tabloid columnist who spends his days and nights exploring Rome's high society in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita/The Sweet Life (1960) with Anita Ekberg. La dolce vita changed the look and direction of Italian cinema. The picture was a global smash, and star Mastroianni became a worldwide success story.

 

During the 1960’s Marcello Mastroianni played in many great films and regularly worked with the top Italian and French filmmakers. He appeared as the title character in Il bell'Antonio/Bell' Antonio (1960, Mauro Bolognini) and starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece La notte/The Night (1961), where again his distanced, expressionless demeanor fit perfectly into the film's air of alienation and remote emotionality. He appeared in interesting films like L'assassino/The Assassin (1961, Elio Petri), La Vie Privée/A Very Private Affair (1962, Louis Malle) with Brigitte Bardot, and Cronaca familiare/Family Diary (1962, Valerio Zurlini) with Jacques Perrin. Mastroianni followed La dolce vita with another signature role for Fellini, that of a film director/Fellini’s alter-ego who, amidst self-doubt and troubled love affairs, finds himself in a creative block while making a film in Otto e Mezzo/8½ (1962, Federico Fellini). The film won two Academy Awards. Mastroianni won the British BAFTA award twice for his roles in the black comedy Divorzio all'Italiana/Divorce, Italian Style (1963, Pietro Germi) and the deliciously funny three-part sex farce Ieri, oggi, domani/Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963, Vittorio De Sica) costarring with Sophia Loren. He and Loren starred together again in the equally amusing sex comedy Matrimonio all'italiana/Marriage Italian Style (1964, Vittorio De Sica). According to Elaine Mancini on Film Reference “Mastroianni's masculinity blends perfectly with Loren's exuberant earthy personality” in both these films. While he was to become known for playing Latin lover roles (wgich he spoofed in Casanova 70 (1965, Mario Monicelli)), his characters often were far more complexly drawn. They were not one-dimensional pretty boys; rather, beneath their handsome exteriors they were lazy, world-weary, and doubt-ridden. Other films were, La decima vittima/The Tenth Victim (1965, Elio Petri) with Ursula Andress and the Camus adaptation Lo Straniero/The Stranger (1967, Luchino Visconti) with Anna Karina.

 

Marcello Mastroianni won in 1970 the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for Dramma della gelosia - tutti i particolari in cronaca/Drama of Jealousy (1970, Ettore Scola). In 1987 he would win the award again for Oci ciornie/Dark Eyes (1987, Nikita Mikhalkov) and Mastroianni, Dean Stockwell and Jack Lemmon are the only actors to have won the award twice. During the 1970’s Mastroianni continued to work in interesting films by prolific directors like Leo the Last (1970, John Boorman), Permette? Rocco Papaleo/My Name Is Rocco Papaleo (1971, Ettore Scola) with Lauren Hutton, Liza (1972, Marco Ferreri) with Catherine Deneuve, Che?/What? (1972, Roman Polanski) with Sydne Rome, La Grande Bouffe/Blow Out (1973, Marco Ferreri), Touche pas à la femme blanche/ Don't Touch the White Woman! (1974, Marco Ferreri), La donna della domenica/The Sunday Woman (1975, Luigi Comencini) with Jacqueline Bisset, Ciao maschio/Bye Bye Monkey (1978, Marco Ferreri) with Gérard Depardieu, Così come sei/Stay as You Are (1978, Alberto Lattuada) with Nastassja Kinski, L'ingorgo - Una storia impossibile/Traffic Jam (1979, Luigi Comencini) with Annie Girardot, and La terrazza/The Terrace (1980, Ettore Scola) with Vittorio Gassman. He played against his Latin lover image in Scola’s Una giornata particolare/A Special Day (1977, Ettore Scola), in which Mastroianni's homosexual and Sophia Loren's oppressed wife come together on the day in 1938 when Hitler was cheered on the streets of Rome during his visit to Mussolini. His seemingly detached air was perfectly suited to satire as well, as he demonstrated in films as diverse as the historical drama Allonsanfàn (1974, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani), and La città delle donne/City of Women (1980, Federico Fellini). Yet he remained perfectly capable of playing highly dramatic roles, as he did so well in The Organizer , cast as a highborn but now indigent professor who becomes involved in union organizing activities in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Italy.

 

In the latter stages of his career, Marcello Mastroianni continued to take serious dramatic roles. For instance, he played the senior citizen who simply looks back on his past. In Stanno tutti bene/Everybody's Fine (1990, Giuseppe Tornatore), he is an elderly man who is absorbed in his memories, and who travels through Italy to call on his five adult children. In Oci ciornie/Dark Eyes (1987, Nikita Mikhalkov), he gives a tour-de-force performance as a once young and idealistic aspiring architect, who married a banker's daughter, fell into a lifestyle of afternoon snoozes and philandering, and proved incapable of holding onto what was important to him. His on-screen presence has also been directly linked to his earlier screen characterizations. In Prêt-à-Porter/Ready to Wear (1994, Robert Altman), he was reunited with Sophia Loren, and at one point in the scenario, she recreates her famous steamy striptease sequence from Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow . Loren is as beguiling as she had been 30 years earlier but Mastroianni is no longer the attentive young lover, so Sophia's seductive moves only put him to sleep. Mastroianni's appearance in two of Fellini's final features is especially sentimental. Ginger e Fred/Ginger and Fred (1986, Federico Fellini) is sweetly nostalgic for its union of Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina, two of the maestro's then-aging but still vibrant stars of the past. In Intervista (1987, Federico Fellini), he appears as himself with Anita Ekberg, with whom he had starred decades before in La dolce vita . Mastroianni's entrance is especially magical; the sequence in which he and Ekberg (who, he remarks, he has not seen since making La dolce vita ) observe their younger selves in some famous clips from that film is wonderfully nostalgic.

 

In 1988 Marcello Mastroianni was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Film Awards. He kept appearing in critically acclaimed films like To meteoro vima tou pelargou/The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991, Theodoros Angelopoulos), in which he was quietly poignant as an obscure man who may have once been an important Greek politician who had disappeared years earlier. Other films were Al di là delle nuvole/Beyond the Clouds (1995, Michelangelo Antonioni) and Trois vies et une seule mort/Three Lives and Only One Death (1996, Raúl Ruiz) with Anna Galiena. His final film was Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo/Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997, Manoel de Oliveira). Marcello Mastroianni was married to Italian actress Flora Carabella (1926 - 1999) from 1948 until his death. They had one child together, Barbara. Mastroianni also had a daughter, actress Chiara Mastroianni, with the actress Catherine Deneuve, his longtime lover during the seventies. Both Flora and Catherine were at his bedside in Paris when he died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72, as was his partner at the time, author and filmmaker Anna Maria Tatò. According to Christopher Wiegand and Paul Duncan in their book Federico Fellini, when Mastroianni died in 1996, the Trevi Fountain, which is so famously associated with him due to his role in Fellini's La dolce vita, was symbolically turned off and draped in black as a tribute. His brother Ruggero Mastroianni (1929-1996) was a highly regarded film editor who who edited several of Marcello's films directed by Federico Fellini, and appeared alongside Marcello in Scipione detto anche l'Africano/Scipio the African (1971, Luigi Magni), a comedic take on the once popular peplum/sword and sandal film genre. Marcello Mastroianni had held starring roles in about 120 films over the course of his long career.

 

Sources: Elaine Mancini (Film Reference; updated by Rob Edelman), Jason Ankeny (All Movie Guide), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Frankenstein (Universal, 1931).

 

youtu.be/1qNeGSJaQ9Q It’s Alive !!!

 

Universal Studios made themselves famous for "horror" films in the 1930s. Following the success of their Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, Universal put out a variation on Mary Shelley's story that would become hugely influential for decades. Universal's Frankenstein. Much has already been written about this film, so this review will not attempt to cover everything. James Whale's Frankenstein was a hybrid -- partly a horror movie, but also partly a sci-fi movie. The goal of FrankenFEST is to explore the science fiction aspects of the many Frankenstein films. Some have more "science". Some are more "horror". Some are just silly.

Synopsis

Henry Frankenstein and his hunchback assistant Fritz dig up a recently buried body and take down a hanged man. Henry still needs an undamaged brain, so Fritz sneaks into a medical college to steal one. He drops the first brain-in-a-jar, so takes the second, labeled "abnormal brain." Henry has his creature assembled on a table and awaits the storm's peak for the jolt to infuse life. Just then, his fiancee, Elizabeth, friend Victor and former teacher, Professor Waldman, come knocking at the door of Henry's spooky tower. Reluctantly, he lets them in. Baited by Victor's accusation that Henry is crazy, Henry shows them his experiment. The storm peaks and the creature moves. "It's Alive!" Waldman stays to help. Victor and Elizabeth express worry to Henry's dad, Baron Frankenstein. Meanwhile, Henry shows off his creature to Waldman. It needs time to mature. However, Fritz taunts it with fire, sending the creature into a rage. It murders Fritz. It beats up Henry before Waldman injects it with anesthetic. Victor, Elizabeth and the Baron arrive and take the sick and battered Henry back to the village. Waldman stays to get rid of the monster. Before he can, the anesthetic wears off. The monster kills Waldman and escapes. In the village, all is festive, music and dancing for the wedding. Elizabeth is troubled with premonitions of doom. The monster comes across a little girl who wants a playmate. She tosses flowers in the lake to watch them float. When she's out of flowers, the monster tosses her in to float. She doesn't. The monster is upset and flees. He goes into the village and sneaks into Elizabeth's bedroom. Before he can do anything, her screams bring everyone running. He escapes unseen. Maria's father brings her dead body into town. The Burgomeister organizes three search parties to find the killer. Henry leads the mountain group. The monster finds Henry alone, knocks him out and carries him away. The mob see this and purse them to a windmill. The monster throws Henry from the upper railing, but he catches on a windmill blade, so doesn't die. The mob burn down the windmill. Henry recovers with Elizabeth's doting. The baron makes a toast to a future "son of Frankenstein." The End

 

The "science" in Whale's Frankenstein is mostly medical or biological. Waldman describes Henry's work as being in "chemical galvanism" and "electro-biology." Henry himself describes the key being "rays" beyond violet in the spectrum. This "Life Ray" is apparently available in electricity. Much of Henry's lab is filled with large things that spark or arc. Electricity is, in this pre-atomic world, the magical stuff that can do wonders. Compare Henry's lab and creation with Rotwang's in Metropolis ('27). The motif of the mad scientist's lab being stocked with sparky things dates back to this era.

Compared to the Novel

The main characters are retained, although the names of Henry and Victor are swapped, for some reason. Universal's screenplay was more of an adaptation of a stage play written by Peggy Webling in 1927. Her successful play had to do something similar to Edison's screenplay, in paring the story down to some basic elements. Whale's film focused more on the hubris of unfettered "science" than on the philosophical elements of creator-creature obligations. The hubris of the "mad" scientist, as a plot trope, would endure many decades into future films.

 

Iconic Monster -- The famous monster was a combination of make-up specialist Jack Pierce (who created the flat-top head and bolts on the neck) and the characterization given by actor Boris Karloff. Their "monster" was too captivating to the public imagination, too iconic to ever really die -- as we shall see -- that he would reappear in many later films. Little children would dress up as the monster for halloween. Parodies and spin-offs would key off the Pierce-Karloff monster.

Much of the look of the film stems from the artistic style of German Expressionism. This style is a whole topic unto itself. The stark light and dark, the use of up-lighting, the asymmetry and odd angles all enhance the feeling of instability. Nothing is soft. Nothing is "quite right." Contrast Henry's tower with the village sets. They're all normal enough, and almost Disney quaint. The normal world vs. HIS world: dark, unstable and "off". The artistic style of German Expressionism would not remain popular beyond WWII, but its visuals in association with the mad scientist's lab would endure far beyond.

Far back into the 1800s, probably not long after Shelley penned her story, people would often confuse the monster and the man. The monster, in both the novel and the 1931 movie, had no name. He was, like the novel, called only, "my creation", "the monster" or "the fiend." It was Henry who carried the family name of Frankenstein. Yet, to the public imagination, such a strong character as the monster simply could not go nameless. He was often referred to as "Frankenstein" as if that were his name. That's not the case, but it has been a common enough mistake that it has stuck. The monster is more famous than the man.The more famous character gets the name. After all, children do not dress up as Henry (or Victor) Frankenstein.

Aside from the many Expressionist visuals, there is one scene which, though brief, is an interesting inclusion of a famous painting. When the monster accosts Elizabeth in her room, just as he sneaks out, and the others burst in, note Elizabeth's position on the bed. This very brief moment is also captured on the poster art.This seems an unmistakeable visual reference to Henry Fuseli's famous 1791 painting: "Nightmare" .Maybe this something that only art history majors might enjoy, but it was an interesting bit for Whale to include.

A curious note, is how much Frankenstein as a story had become intertwined with the classic vampire story: Dracula. For one, Universal released them both in 1931. Beyond proximity, Universal had originally cast Bela Lugosi as the monster, but he declined the part. Lugosi would, however, end up playing the monster in a few later iterations. As well, Webling's play, which served as source material, also followed a successful Dracula production by the same star. The two characters sprang from very different literary roots and told very different cautionary tales, yet, they would become paired in the popular imagination, as if they were somehow brothers.

Universal's 1931 Frankenstein is a movie classic that is not to be missed. It is a well-told and well-paced story, but more importunely, it is foundational to almost all the Frankenstein films to come.

I don't know who this is meant to be, but I thought she was pretty striking. The nakedness suggests Eve, but what are the three stones supposed to represent? They could be a red herring, but no one ever went broke assuming that every little detail in a bit of religious art was a symbol or a prop for purposes of characterization or exposition.

A RESEARCH CHEMIST SEPARATES DISTILLATES USING LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY.

 

CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HEAVY ENDS OF PETROLEUM AND SYNCRUDES FROM COAL AND SHALE OIL IS BEING DONE AS AN AID TO REFINING. RESEARCH ON UTILIZATION IS CONDUCTED TO PROVIDE BOTH GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY WITH TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON PREFERRED COMBINATIONS OF FUELS AND ENGINES FOR BEST USE OF AVAILABLE ENERGY RESOURCES.

 

For more information or additional images, please contact 202-586-5251.

Yuxin Chen, Graduate Student Instructor and Graduate Student Research Assistant in Mechanical Engineering, tries to verify lithium metal, solid-state batteries which use a solid electrolyte instead of the currently used flammable liquid electrolyte, inside the Battery Fabrication and Characterization User Facility at the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory at 2301 Bonisteel Blvd, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI on Friday May 7, 2021.

The University of Michigan is researching ways to harness abundant materials for battery production, or reuse older materials to relieve the disproportionate pressure placed on countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo for cobalt or the Philippines for nickel.

Photo: Robert Coelius/University of Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing

Entry in category 1. Object of study; Copyright CC-BY-NC-ND: Priyanka Parmar

 

This image shows a phenotype of bacteria isolated from naturally developing biofilms in shower hose. This colony took a 3D-structure composed of hundreds of thousands of individual bacterial cells, in 3 days on agar plate. Biofilms are more than just dense clusters of bacterial cells. Within biofilm, bacterial species divide up the work of maintaining the colony and differentiate into specialized forms for their function. As shown in the picture, they feature sophisticated functional structures (wrinkles, pigments...) that serve the collective destiny of the cells. The photo was taken through the ocular of the optical microscope. Bacterial colonies display well-structured and beautiful morphologies that can be very easily observed. I evaluated the risk represented by biofilms that harbor Legionella pneumophila and that develop in shower hoses on human health. Diseases caused by L.pneumophila are on the rise in Switzerland. Showers have been implicated in outbreaks of legionellosis

 

Mouse fibroblast cells grown on cover slip, fixed and stained with lamin- (green) and tubulin- (red) antibodies to visualize the nuclear rim and the cytoskeleton. DNA counterstained with DAPI (blue). Morphological analysis of cells for the characterization of our Chromobody®-Technology. Image taken from untreated control cells with 20x objective on IN Cell 1000. Post-processing of images with Abode CS3

Development of Chromobodies® as direct live cell markers

This abridgement of Universal's 12-episode serial Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe as Dick Calkins' famed comic-strip space adventurer. Buck and Buddy (Jackie Moran) and are recruited to battle against modernistic gangster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). The duo travels to Saturn to get help in their mission, and after Buck and Buddy quell the internal struggles of the Saturnians, Buck triumphs over Killer Kane and his cosmic thugs.

Planet Outlaws Feature link: youtu.be/UD3xKy42KUY

 

Link to all 12 Serial Episodes:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtc-u3zFGk&feature=share&amp...

 

Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn. Directed by Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind.

Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade are in the middle of a trans-polar dirigible flight when they are caught in a blizzard and crash. Buddy then releases a special gas to keep them in suspended animation until a rescue party can arrive. However, an avalanche covers the craft and the two are in suspended animation for 500 years. When they are found, they awake to find out that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Along with Lieutenant Wilma Deering, Buck and Buddy join in the fight to overthrow Kane and with the help of Prince Tallen of Saturn and his forces, they eventually do and Earth is free of Kane's grip.

 

This is actually a pretty enjoyable serial, but it seems doomed to be forever overshadowed by the much superior Flash Gordon trilogy. Universal brought BUCK ROGERS out in 1939, in between their own chapterplays FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE; it also starred Buster Crabbe (but with his natural dark hair instead of Flash's golden curls) and although it is filled with space ships and weird gadgets, BUCK ROGERS lacks most of the elements that gave the Flash serials their intense emotional draw.

 

For one thing, there is none of the strong sexual charge that the Flash series had. Instead of nubile Dale Arden and sultry Princess Aura both competing for the hero's attention while the villain openly lusted for the heroine, Buck's epic featured Constance Moore as Col. Wilma Deering. Now, Moore is perfectly fine in her role, but she is after all a soldier in the resistance army and not a fair damsel in distress. She has a nice moment when she wrests a ray gun away from a guard and blasts her way out of her cell, but she and Buck seem to be merely chums on the same side.

 

Also, although BUCK ROGERS has plenty of futuristic gadgets (rayguns and buzzing spaceships which shoot sparks from their backs, teleportation tubes and invisibility rays), there are no grotesque monsters or nonhuman alien races on view. Prisoners have remarkably goofy metal helmets strapped on which turn them into docile zombies, and there are these homely goons called Zuggs moping around, but that's hardly as fascinating as Lion Men and Clay People and horned apes (that Orangapoid critter).

 

What's ironic about all this is that the comic strip BUCK ROGERS by Philip Nolan and Richard Calkins started in 1929, was immensely popular for many years and it success inspired the creation of Flash. Yet the Flash strip benefitted from the genius of Alex Raymond, one of the all-time great cartoon artists, and it produced stunning visual images (from the samples of Buck's strip I've seen, it was imaginative enough but pretty crude and drab). This contrast carried over to the serials.

 

Buck Rogers and his sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) are pilots who crash in the Arctic in1938 and survive for 500 years because the 'Nirvano' gas they were carrying put them in a state of suspended animation. They both seem to adapt to waking up in the year 2424 pretty well, where I would think most people would be so traumatized it would take a while to adjust. In this dystopic future, the Earth is ruled by a mega-gangster called Killer Kane (another setback; Anthony Warde would be okay as a crimelord but he just doesn't have the imposing presence to convince me this guy can dominate an entire planet).

 

Luckily, Buck and Buddy have been found by the small resistance movement hopelessly trying to overthrow Kane from their hidden city. Here is Dr Huer (C. Montague Shaw, who I just saw in the UNDERSEA KINGDOM doing the same gig with his wild inventions) and Wilma Deering leading the good fight. For some reason I missed, everyone immediately puts all their trust in Buck and he pretty much takes over. (Maybe he's just one of those charismatic alpha males or something.) Most of the serial involves desperate trips back and forth to Saturn to enlist the aid of the isolationist Saturnians, and this means running the blockade of Kane's ships. The usual fistfights and explosions and captures and escapes normal for this sort of situation ensue. It's a lot of fun if you take it on its own terms, with a strong linear plot and likeable heroes, but it really never kicks into high gear and seems a bit drab.

 

It's interesting that some (but not all) of the Saturnians are played by Asian actors. Prince Tallen, who gets caught up in most of the fun, was portrayed by a very young Philson Ahn, and I thought for years this was the same guy who in 1972 impressed us as the head of the Shaolin Temple in TV's KUNG FU (he taught all the styles, really amazing if you think about it). Turns out that was Phiip Ahn, Philson's brother.

 

Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind - 12 Chapters

 

BUCK ROGERS (1939): Director Ford Beebe, who also worked on Flash Gordon (1938), came straight from The Phantom Creeps (1939) and then went back to finish Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940). Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe or, as his family knew him, Lawrence. Now, Lawrence ‘Larry’ ‘Buster’ Crabbe had previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials, a couple of Tarzan movies and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers, aka that blonde guy who saves the universe but isn’t Flash Gordon. Actually, Buster Crabbe wasn’t the first actor to play Buck Rogers in-the-flesh, so to speak.

That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of their regular Santa Claus. Santa was off conquering Martians at the time, I think it was an exchange program of sorts. It strikes me that Buck Rogers is not unlike a male fantasy come to life. Just think of it – Buck gets to take a nice five-hundred-year-long sleep-in. With my busy schedule, I’m ecstatic if I can get twenty minutes nap on the weekend. Then, when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. In reality he’d be treated like something that’s escaped from the zoo. And finally, everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and crash rocket ships – out of the half-dozen flights Buck makes, he only lands successfully once. It’s easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (1938), and even the script is rather suspect.

Planet Outlaws

This film is actually a compilation of the Buck Rogers serials that ran originally in 1939. The cliffhanger endings and recap beginnings have been edited out to make it flow better -- with partial success. Some new footage was shot for the introduction and summary. At the opening, there are some newspaper headlines about jets chasing flying discs, and the obligatory checkered V2 launch, etc. to add a modern segue. After that, it's pure 1939.

Sci-fi movie technology had come a long way in the 14 years since Buck's debut. Audiences had grown accustomed to sleek and pointy rockets, flying saucers, strange aliens, etc. The Buck Rogers style world-of-the-future must have looked oddly quaint. (if not laughable) Just why Universal Pictures thought re-releasing Buck Rogers was a good idea is a bit of a mystery. Kids who were 8 or so back in 1939 would be young adults in '53. Perhaps Universal was banking on those young adults would buy tickets for a trip down memory lane.

Plot Synopsis

After a bit of modern ('53) footage about the wonders of modern progress and "flying disks," the old serial begins. Rogers and Buddy crashed in the arctic while on a transpolar flight. They were in suspended animation due to the cold and a vague gas. A patrol finds them in the year 2500 and revives them. In the world of 2500, a despot named Killer Kane is trying to take over the world. The forces of good are holed up in the "hidden city." Buck arranges a decoy maneuver to elude Kane's patrol ships. They fly to the planet Saturn in hopes of finding help. On Saturn, the Council sees Rogers and party as the rebels, and Kane as the rule of law. Rogers et al, escape Saturn, return to earth and seek to disrupt Kane's bamboozling of Prince Tallen, the Saturnian representative. Rogers sneaks into Kane's city, interrupts the treaty signing and convinces Tallen of Kane's evil by revealing Kane's "robot battalion" (slaves wearing mind-control helmets). Rogers and Tallen get to Saturn and the treaty is signed. Rogers escapes Kane's patrols via the Dissolvo Ray which rendered them invisible. Rogers and the war council plan for war. Rogers enlists the Saturnians to help. Meanwhile, Rogers sneaks into Kane's city and de-zombies Minister Krenco to lead an uprising of freed robot-slave-prisoners. Rogers storms Kane's palace and puts one of the robo-slave helmets on Kane. The End

The industrial vision of the future is delightful to watch. The heavily mechanical look of everything is so radically different from the sleek rockets and glowing acrylic audiences were growing accustomed to. The space ships look like they were built at locomotive factories or steamship yards. They spew roman-candle sparks and smoke and buzz as they fly. There are no computers, no radar or electronics. It's a fascinating snapshot of what pre-electronic-age people thought the future would be like.

When originally released in 1939, the Killer Kane character was a thinly disguised allusion to Hitler. In 1953, Kane was intended to represent a communist despot. It wasn't as tidy a fit. The narrator sums it up voicing a hope that scientists will develop the means for men to stand up to today's dictators and make the world safe for democracy. In the early 50s, there's little question of who they meant.

Simple Colors -- One endearing trait of Buck Rogers is the simplicity of the characterizations. The good guys do nothing but good. The bad guys are pure bad. The good guys are crack pilots and sharp shooters and tough as nails. The bad guys do nothing but bad, have trouble hitting a flying barn and are easily knocked out with one punch.

Industrial Baroque -- Somewhat like the baroque era's compulsion to decorate every square inch with swirls and filigree, Industrial Baroque sought to fill every space with heavy-duty hardware. The sets, and especially the rocket interiors are like flying boiler rooms. Valves, pipes, levers, dials, wheels, large flashing light bulbs. To look more "high tech" in the 30s meant cramming in more industrial hardware. Buck Rogers' ships show more affinity for Captain Nemo "steampunk" than the proto-space-age of the 50s.

Family Resemblance -- There is a noticeable similarity in the sets and costumes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Even serials of the early 50s, like Captain Video and the various Rocketman serials, look more like Flash and Buck than George Pal. The industrial baroque look and costuming are distinctive, making them almost a sub-genre of their own. In that regard, Buck has a timelessness.

Another take on the story and additional background info.

A round-the-world dirigible flight commanded by US Air Force officer Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) encounters dangerously stormy weather above the Himalayas; said weather, along with disastrous panic on the part of Rogers’ crewmen, causes the aircraft to crash. The cowardly crewmen ditch the ship and meet quick ends, but Rogers and young Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), son of the aircraft’s designer, survive the crash. The pair use a cylinder of “Nirvano” gas to place themselves into suspended animation until a rescue party can reach them, but an avalanche buries the ship and all searches prove fruitless; the dirigible and its two dormant inhabitants remain beneath rocks and snow for five hundred years.

Finally, in the year 2440, a spaceship unearths the wreck, and its pilots restore Buck and Buddy to consciousness. The holdovers from the 20th century soon learn that their rescuers are soldiers from the “Hidden City,” a pocket of resistance to the super-criminal who is ruling the 24th-century Earth–one “Killer” Kane (Anthony Warde). Rogers immediately pledges his support to Air Marshal Kragg (William Gould) and Scientist-General Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw), the leaders of the Hidden City exiles, and is soon en route to Saturn, hoping to convince that planet’s rulers to aid the Hidden City in freeing the Earth from Kane’s tyranny. To cement the Saturian alliance, Buck must battle Kane’s legions at every step of the way, with able assistance from Buddy and from Dr. Huer’s trusted aide Lieutenant Wilma Deering (Constance Moore).

 

Ever since its original release, Buck Rogers has stood in the shadow of Universal’s Flash Gordon serials; the studio encouraged such association by casting Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe as a different sci-fi hero, obviously hoping that the chapterplay would capitalize on the goodwill generated by Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars. The serial did succeed in reminding audiences of the Flash outings–but it reminded them of how much they had liked those serials and forced inevitable comparisons that were not in Rogers’ favor. Universal’s plans for a second Buck Rogers serial were quickly scrapped when the first outing failed to please matinee audiences; the intended Buck sequel was then replaced on the studio’s production schedule by–what else?–a third Flash Gordon chapterplay. Even today, Buck is typically dismissed by fans as a pale echo of the great Gordon serials.

It’s easy to see why Buck Rogers came as a disappointment to audiences expecting an outing in the Flash Gordon tradition. Its production design, while futuristic, is less quirky and more uniform than that of the Gordons; there are no monsters and no weird semi-human races besides the rather uninteresting Zuggs; there are also no supporting characters as developed or as interesting as Dr. Zarkov, Ming, King Vultan, the Clay King, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and other major figures in the Flash Gordon chapterplays. And yet, taken on its own terms, Buck Rogers is far from a failure; it does not approach the Flash Gordon trilogy in quality, but then few serials do.

Buck Rogers’ script, by former Mascot writers Norman Hall and Ray Trampe, is fast-moving and manages to avoid repetition for most of its length. The trip to Saturn, the attempts to convince Saturnian leader Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) of the justice of the Hidden City’s cause, the subsequent rescue of Tallen from Kane’s city, the second journey to Saturn to cement the alliance, and the attempts of Kane’s henchman Laska (Henry Brandon) to sabotage it–all these incidents keep the narrative flowing very nicely for the serial’s first eight chapters. As in many of Trampe and Hall’s Mascot scripts, however, the writers seem to run out of plot before the serial’s end. While Chapters Nine and Ten remain interesting (with Buck being converted into a hypnotized robot, Buddy’s rescue of the hero, and an infiltration of the Hidden City by one of Kane’s men), the last two chapters have a definite wheel-spinning feel to them, throwing in a redundant third trip to Saturn and an unneeded flashback sequence.

The last-chapter climax is also something of a disappointment, with Kane being overthrown quickly and undramatically instead of being definitively crushed. Here, Trampe and Hall seem to have been leaving room for the sequel that never came and trying to avoid duplicating the dramatic but very final destruction of MIng which closed the first Flash Gordon serial (and which needed to be explained away in the second). The other weak spot of the scripting is Buck and Buddy’s rather calm reaction when they realize that their old world (and everyone in it) is dead–and their extraordinarily quick adjustment to their new one. One wouldn’t have wanted the writers to dwell on our heroes’ plight (which would be absolutely crushing in real life), but I do wish Trampe or Hall could have given Buck and Buddy a few emotional lines about their displacement before getting on to the main action; Hall in his scripts for other serials (Hawk of the Wilderness, Adventures of Red Ryder), showed himself capable of far more dramatic moments.

  

As already mentioned, the serial’s visuals are less varied than those of the Flash Gordon serials, but that’s not to say they aren’t impressive by serial standards. Pains seem to have been taken to avoid duplicating too much of Gordon’s “look;” the spaceship miniatures are completely different than the ships in the Gordon trilogy, while Kane’s stronghold–probably the best miniature in the serial–is not the quasi-Gothic palace of Ming but rather an ominous, futuristic-looking version of New York City, complete with towering skyscrapers. The Hidden City’s great rock gates are also nifty, and the massive Saturnian Forum (a life-size set, not a miniature) is very visually impressive. The barren Red Rock Canyon area works well as the Saturnian landscape, but I think it was a mistake to also use the Canyon as the area between the Hidden City and Kane’s capital; Saturn and Earth shouldn’t look so similar.

 

The only major prop or set reused from the Gordon serials are the “bullet cars” from Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars; they’re just as fun to watch in action here as in the earlier serial. Other incidental props and sets–Kane’s robot room, his mind-control helmets, the various televiewing devices, the anti-gravity belts, Dr. Huer’s invisibility ray, and the Star-Trek-like molecular transportation chamber–add further colorful touches to the serial., and are respectably represented by Universal’s always above-average array of sets and props. The Zuggs, the “primitive race” ruled by the Saturnians, are somewhat disappointing, however; while suitably grotesque-looking, they’re nowhere near as menacing or memorable–in appearance or demeanor–as their obvious inspiration, the Clay People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.

The serial’s action scenes are brisk and energetic, suffering not at all from a general lack of fistfights–thanks to the swift-moving direction of Ford Beebe (a Mascot veteran like writers Trampe and Hall) and his co-director Saul Goodkind (usually an editor). The few hand-to-hand tussles–most of them on the rocky hills of Saturn–are executed routinely but skillfully by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Eddie Parker, and other stuntmen; the best of the bunch is the fight between Buck and a Kane man in the control room of the Hidden City, although this is more exciting for the suspenseful situation (Buck trying to close the gates that the henchman has opened to Kane’s oncoming armada) than for any particular flair in the staging.

Most of the action sequences consist of protracted chases and pursuits (both on foot and in rocketships), with occasional quick combats thrown in. Many of these lengthy chases are very exciting–particularly the long incursion into Kane’s city that occupies most of Chapters Three and Four, a great combination of action and suspense. Buddy’s later stealthy visit into Kane’s fortress to rescue Buck from the robot room, and the following escape, is also good, as are Buck’s skillful and repeated elusions of the rebellious Zuggs in Chapter Eight and the bullet car getaway in Chapter Six.

  

The cliffhanger endings are generally well-staged, with proper build-ups, but too many of them involve spaceship crashes that our heroes rather implausibly live through. The impressive collapsing forum at the end of Chapter Eleven and the bullet car crash at the end of Chapter Six provide nice variety amid the spaceship wrecks, but (alas) are also resolved by mere survival. Still, this is preferable to the blatantly cheating resolution of what is otherwise one the best chapter endings–Killer Kane’s pursuit of Buddy in a darkened council chamber and his apparently lethal zapping of the young hero. At least the resolution features a good stunt bit by Dave Sharpe.

The leading performances in Buck Rogers are all excellent (although most other critics would make a single exception; see below). Buster Crabbe, as always, makes a perfect serial hero–both genially cheerful and grimly serious, unassumingly polite and aggressively tough. As in the Flash Gordon trilogy, his down-to-earth attitude also helps to make the wild sci-fi happenings seem perfectly normal.

Jackie Moran (oddly “reduced” to serial acting only a year after playing Huck Finn in David O. Selznick’s big-budget classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer) does a fine job as Buddy Wade, handling his character’s frequent “golly, gee-whiz” lines in a low-key fashion that keeps Buddy from coming off as too naïve; his chipper but calm demeanor complements Crabbe’s well, and he has no problems carrying an entire chapter and part of another on his own.

Constance Moore, despite being saddled with perhaps the most unflattering costume ever worn by a serial leading lady (basically coveralls and a bathing cap), manages to come off as charming. Her Wilma Deering is self-possessed and capable-seeming but never too coldly efficient; she remains warmly likable even when piloting spaceships or explaining technology to Crabbe.

Henry Brandon is very good as Killer Kane’s chief henchman Captain Laska–suave and sly when acting as Kane’s ambassador to Saturn, haughtily arrogant when threatening people, and nervously jittery in the presence of his overbearing leader. Hard-bitten tough guys Wheeler Oakman and Reed Howes, along with the slicker Carleton Young , form Brandon’s backup squad.

As Killer Kane himself, perennial henchman actor Anthony Warde has been almost universally panned by critics as “miscast.” I have to dissent strongly, however; Warde does a fine job in the part and plays Kane with a memorable combination of viciousness and uncontrollable anger. The character is not a diabolical schemer like Ming, but rather a super-gangster who’s blasted and bullied his way to the top–and Warde’s bad-tempered, aggressive, and thuggish screen personality fits the part perfectly. He veers between intimidating ranting and harshly sinister sarcasm–as when he describes himself as a “kindly ruler” just after wrathfully sending a formerly trusted councilor to the robot room–but is quite menacing in both aspects.

Philson Ahn, brother of frequent serial and feature actor Phillip Ahn, does a good job as Prince Tallen of Saturn; he possesses his sibling’s deep and distinctive voice, which serves him well as a planetary dignitary. His manner also has a slightly tougher edge to it than his refined brother’s, which helps to keep the viewer in uncertainty in the earlier chapters as to whether Tallen will turn out to be friend or foe. Guy Usher plays Aldar, the head of Saturn’s ”Council of the Wise,” and does his best to seem suitably imposing and dignified, despite the almost comical way in which the “Wise” continually change their opinions–backing Kane, opposing him, giving into his demands, defying him, etc. Cyril Delevanti is enjoyable as a grumpy subordinate member of the Council.*

C. Montague Shaw has limited screen time, but is very good as Dr. Huer, balancing statesmanlike dignity with shrewdness and a touch of enjoyable scientific eccentricity (the last is particularly noticeable during his demonstration of his invisibility gas in Chapter Five). Energetic Jack Mulhall is typically affable and enthusiastic as Captain Rankin of the Hidden City, while Kenne Duncan has a rare good guy role as Mulhall’s fellow-officer Lieutenant Lacy. Perennial screen “underworld rat” John Harmon also plays against type as a Hidden City soldier, as does Stanley Price as a Hidden City pilot rescued from existence as a human robot. The dignified but stolid William Gould is good enough as Air Marshal Kragg, but I would have preferred a more dynamic actor in the role–Kragg is, after all, the top military leader of Kane’s enemies. Mulhall could have handled it well, as could Wade Boteler–who does an excellent job as the grim and concerned Professor Morgan in the first chapter, intensely instructing Buddy and Buck in the use of the Nirvano gas.

Lane Chandler also appears in the first chapter, as a military officer who demonstrates the Nirvano gas to a reporter played by another old pro, Kenneth Harlan. An unusually subdued Theodore Lorch is one of Kane’s councilors, while Karl Hackett has a good part as another councilor who gets into an argument with Kane that leads to Hackett’s being converted into a human robot (his terrified pleas as he’s dragged out of the council chamber are quite chilling). Al Bridge has some memorably sinister lines (“when this helmet is in place, you’ll never think or speak again”) in his periodic scenes as the slave-master of Kane’s human robots.

Unusually for Universal, several bit roles are filled by stuntmen; Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop in as various soldiers and officers, but aren’t as noticeable as Dave Sharpe, who’s given multiple speaking roles as a Kane soldier, a Hidden City soldier, a Saturnian officer, and a Saturnian soldier. His ubiquity can get a little distracting at times, particularly since some of his appearances follow right on the previous one’s heels; he also seems to have a bit of trouble with the formal-sounding Saturnian dialogue, coming off as much more stiff and affected than in his co-starring turn in Daredevils of the Red Circle.

The serial’s music score, like most other Universals of the period, is an eclectic but usually effective array of stock music, some of it cues from the Flash Gordon serials but the majority of it culled from Universal’s horror features, including (most notably) Franz Waxman’s score for Bride of Frankenstein, which furnishes some memorable opening-titles music.

All in all, though Buck Rogers has its share of flaws, it also has more than enough virtues (the acting, the fast pace, the interesting sci-fi trappings) to make it a good chapterplay. Despite its similar themes, it shouldn’t be pitted against the Flash Gordon trilogy–a match it’s bound to lose–but rather judged against the field of competition in general. When judged in this fashion, it’s just as entertaining–and often more entertaining–than many serials with less shabby reputations.

 

*One has to wonder, though, why some Saturnians are Orientals like Ahn and others Occidentals like Usher and Delevanti; my own theory is that men from various countries emigrated from Earth to Saturn sometime before the bulk of the serial took place; this would explain the racial assortment and also explain why the Hidden City chooses Saturn in particular as an ally (as usual, I’m probably putting too much thought into this).

 

VIEW OF THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR ELECTRON MICROSCOPY, WITH THE HVEM (L) AND ARM (R) SILOS IN FOREGROUND.

 

THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AT THE LAWRENCE BERKELEY LABORATORY IS A USER-ORIENTED FACILITY DESIGNED TO MAKE AVAILABLE A WIDE RANGE OF MICRO-STRUCTURAL AND MICRO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION TECHNIQUES. THE CENTER IS BUILT AROUND TWO MICROSCOPES, EACH HOUSED IN ITS OWN THREE-STORY SILO. INSTALLED IN 1982, THE HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRON MICRO- SCOPE (HVEM), WHICH ACCELERATES ELECTRONS TO ENERGIES OF 1.5 MILLION ELECTRON VOLTS (MEV), IS THE MOST POWERFUL MICROSCOPE OF ITS KIND IN THE U.S. THE ATOMIC RESOLUTION MICROSCOPE (ARM), INSTALLED IN 1983, OPERATES IN THE 0.4 TO 1.O MEV RANGE AND OFFERS THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION IN THE WORLD. THESE TWO INSTRUMENTS WILL ENABLE MATERIALS SCIENTISTS AND BIOLOGISTS TO STUDY SAMPLES UNDER THE MOST REALISTIC CONDITIONS EVER POSSIBLE AND TO DISTINGUISH INDIVIDUAL ATOMS IN EVEN CLOSELY PACKED METALLIC AND CERAMIC STRUCTURES.

  

For more information or additional images, please contact 202-586-5251.

Rupa is 19 and is studying design in Insurgentes University. Soon, she is going to switch to the UAM Xochimilco (a very important university in Mexico) and continue her college education in design. When I see her close to the Fine Arts Palace, I was very attracted to get a portrait of her because of her beauty, her characterization like a "Catrina" (a very important symbol in the Day of the Dead in México) but with a very natural and organic style and because she was very focused taking pictures with his reflex camera. We talked a little and I notice Rupa is that kind of people who radiate a peaceful joy with the eyes. After the pictures I said thanks to her and good bye and she replied with a "Hare Krishna".

  

By the way, I think that joining to the 100 Strangers Project has been a very good decision, not only to improve my very bad photographer skills, but also because this is a exercise of consciousness to really understand that it's true: "Each person is a cosmic singularity", and in that way each one of us is a miracle and each person is beautiful. When I've been taking the portraits of strangers and sharing a moment with them and knowing something about their lives I can feel that I'm a little closer to be a better person.

Eden trying on accessories at Jillery, a kid-friendly shop on the corner of East 7th Street and Avenue B. The title is her characterization of the look she was going for.

Anna Bułka ARTstudio999

"There’s a delicate balance you have to strike,” said Argonne physicist Byeongdu Lee, who led the characterization of the supraparticles using high-energy X-rays provided by Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source. “If the attractive Van der Waals force is too strong, all the nanoparticles will smash together at once, and you’ll end up with an ugly, disordered glass. But if the repulsive Coulomb force is too strong, they’ll never come together in the first place.”

 

Researchers from the University of Michigan and China also collaborated on the study.

  

Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory

  

Photo by: George Joch

  

29861D38

 

Dr. Robert Egbert loads a plate of dilute microbial cultures to assay the fluorescence phenotypes of a biochemical event detector via flow cytometry. Fluorescent protein expression allows rapid characterization of gene circuits to reveal the relationship between DNA sequence and function.

 

Terms of Use: Our images are freely and publicly available for use with the credit line, "Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory"; Please use provided caption information for use in appropriate context.

Known as the Mackay Mansion, The Gould and Curry Mining Company Office is one of several imposing buildings constructed in Virginia City by the capitalists who made their fortunes on Comstock silver and gold. Built in 1860 in a simplified brick Italianate style, it served as the office of the Gould and Curry Mining Company. In addition to company office space, the building also provided accommodations for the Company Mine Superintendent.

 

The three-story house was surrounded by a wood veranda and deck, with a colonnade of square posts. It was also equipped with a 500-gallon, gravity-flow water tank for running water and an early water heater installed in 1874. The house was first occupied by a young mine superintendent named George Hearst, who began the Hearst fortune on the Comstock starting with just $400 in borrowed funds. As was the habit of so many miners, Hearst stayed in Virginia City for only a short time but made several million dollars.

 

The building survived the Great Fire of 1875, after which it became the local business headquarters, and brief residence, for one of the most powerful and wealthy characters on the Comstock, John Mackay. Mackay was one of the Comstock's "silver kings," who along with his partners Flood, Fair, and O'Brien discovered the Consolidated Virginia's "Big Bonanza" in 1873. Later in his life Mackay contributed millions of dollars to the School of Mines at the University of Nevada, which bears his name. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the transatlantic cable.

 

The term "mansion" has been liberally applied in the Comstock to include any large and vaguely residential building. This has been done for promotional purposes and is far from being an accurate characterization. Even the most elaborate dwellings in Virginia City would be considered no more than ordinary houses in any urban setting. In the case of the Savage, Gould & Curry and Chollar properties, all referred to as mansions, the term is a complete misnomer, having been applied to buildings that served primarily as offices for major mining companies.

Giuseppe Maria Crespi's Woman Tuning a Lute (about 1700-1705). "A favorite among wealthy patrons, Crespi was best known for his scenes of daily life. At once immediate and timeless, this study of a young woman absorbed in tuning her lute demonstrates the painter's gift for characterization, and for enriching a subtle palette with warm, diffuse light."

 

At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Fairfield Porter (1907–1975), The Screen Porch, 1964. Oil on canvas, 80 × 80 in.

 

Fairfield Porter’s The Screen Porch is an unconventional family portrait. Painted at the artist’s Maine studio during a summer vacation, it portrays his two young daughters and the poet James Schuyler, with whom Porter was having an open affair. Porter’s wife, Anna, looks in from outside, while the viewer observes the foursome from the artist’s perspective. Although Porter’s broad, flat application of paint precludes clearly articulated facial expression, the figures’ divergent gazes imply a lack of engagement with one another. His family jokingly referred to this composition as “The Four Ugly People,” a characterization that may have reflected tension within a nontraditional familial arrangement.

Characterization at the Central Neutralization Facility at East Tennessee Technology Park is necessary before demolition begins.

Suspended Animation Classic #401

Originally published August 25, 1996 (#34)

(Dates are approximate)

 

Sally Forth; Dominion

By Dr. Jon Suter

 

Working women are an enduring theme of comic strips. “Ella Cinders” and “Tillie the Toiler” were early members of the genre, but their numbers continue to grow and to provide boundless humor.

 

The modern working woman can be as neurotic as Cathy Guisewaite’s “Cathy” or as unflappable as Greg Howard’s “Sally Forth”, a strip which deserves a much wider following.

 

“Sally Forth” is consistently amusing in its depiction of a two-paycheck, one child, family.

 

The cast of characters is small: Sally, husband Ted, and daughter Hillary, as well as Sally’s boss, and a few co-workers.

 

These are all rational human beings caught in an irrational world.

 

The humor is subtle and quiet; it accumulates from day to day. Howard’s pacing is a strength, but new readers should allow several days for its subtle impact to be felt.

 

Recent topics have included organ donation and gender roles. Recurring motifs include Sally’s “chocaholism” every year, she and Hilary race to see who gets to eat the ears of chocolate Easter bunnies.

 

Hilary is a blend of cynicism and naiveté who seems to understand the contradictions of adult behavior.

 

A few years ago, a new artist, Craig Mackintosh, joined Howard; within days, outraged letters inundated local editors and the North America Syndicate because of changes in the size of the characters.

 

Hilary seemed to shrink and the other characters seemed out-of-proportion.

 

Within weeks, the traditional versions reappeared and calm was restored. If Hilary had grown, would the furor have been as strong?

 

Since the characters are not aging, there are few changes in relationships or characterization.

 

Topical references to fads can help date older strips, but the humor is rarely dated.

 

At least four anthologies have appeared since 1982. The latest is “I Gave at the Office” (Andrews and McMeel, 1994). Any of these would be worth having, but are hard to find.

 

MINIVIEW: “Dominion: Conflict I [Dark Horse]. An ensemble paper sitcom in a future Japanese police stations, it misses funny and hits cute. Nice art. MV

 

ronpics.com/ ©

In 2009 I worked on a portfolio of photographs for my friend Raj. He needed an actor portfolio and this is a photo from that set.

Room III of the palaestra Is Or II 4

Herculaneum, Ercolano

Available images: 3

  

Wolfgang Ehrhardt W.Ehrhardt

Information on building component

  

Localization:

Ercolano, Ancient place name: Herculaneum, Italy, IT, palaestra Is Or II 4

- Location information is in situ -

Place in the Gazetteer

Characterization:

Description: More, but white-ground, decorations third style are in the two rooms flanking the hall absidata II and III. As the spaces A, a and B also form these halls motifs and stylistic one unit. However, missing in them motives that they assign front handle late-stage third style. A comparison with motifs and ornaments Augustan walls such as the Casa del Bell'impluvio in Pompeii shows stylistic differences. The other hand, closer murals caliguläisch-Claudian period, such as in the palaestra of Pompeii or in Terrace House VIII 2,26.27. The purple and green colored bars of the graceful architecture in the upper zone are found in the upper zone of the Pompeian palaestra, the peristyle of the house I 7.1 9 in Pompeii and in the architectural pieces of the space 5 in House VIII 2,26.27. A style comparison of corresponding individual motifs with those of the later wall paintings in the homes V 1, and V 4 23:26, a in Pompeii, however, shows differences again. The ajar in Room III on the wall retrieved images can originate either from this or from the picturesque features of the hall II, even if the only surviving picture in Hall II has stylistic similarity. However, only the images Naples Naz. Mus. Inv. No. 9020, 9021 used in stylistic habit. The images Naples Mus. Naz. Inv. No. 9019, 9022 form from both the style as well as the painters forth a self-matching, but distinct from the others discovered in Room III couple. Certainly all of these pictures come from either Hall II Hall III still out as they demonstrate next to their respective frame no white background. Dismiss is also suggested by the common name applied to it "stucco painting" idea, you have these pictures painted on plastered surfaces separately and this stucco panels used subsequently in decorated wall surfaces. This is not necessarily an indication of special antiquarian interest, such as the space shows 32 of the Mysteries Villa. used under low res. fro criteria for dai

Model: Anna Mora Garrido

Photography and Retouch: Nahuel D'Angelo

Characterization and Styling: Xènia D'Angelo

An environmental specialist with consulting firm GeoEngineers performs field screening of landfill material excavated from test pit STP-1 (located adjacent to TP-1 from the June 2019 sampling). One sample from each test pit will go to a certified lab, and will be evaluated for a suite of contaminants as outlined in the Interim Action Work Plan for the site. The waste characterization sample in test pit STP-1 was collected from 20 feet below ground surface, deeper than the originally plan due to public comments and previous sampling results.

  

Star Trek- The Menagerie , “Return to Talos IV”

youtu.be/v5XBfgPy43A?t=2s The full feature.

 

The Menagerie Review: February 8, 2014 by neoethereal

As the only two-part episode in The Original Series, “The Menagerie” also cleverly serves as a re-telling of the very first Star Trek story ever filmed, “The Cage.” This week on The Uncommon Geek, I examine all of these episodes in full detail, highlighting their connections to other aspects of the Trek mythos. As well, I take a look at the ground broken by Gene Roddenberry concerning the nature of reality, decades before movies like “The Matrix” challenged the perception of our everyday world.

 

Equipped with little more than a shoestring budget and massive constraints on time with which to work, Gene Roddenberry and his Star Trek production team had to get extremely creative in order to make the show work. Nowhere, in my opinion, is that more evident than here in “The Menagerie,” an entry that served the purpose of buying the production team time to properly finish subsequent episodes, and as well, afforded Gene Roddenberry a unique opportunity to re-tell the story he had wanted to get on the air all along, “The Cage.”

 

This episode begins with the Enterprise having been called out of its way, to Starbase 11. Confusion arises when the starbase’s commanding officer, Commodore Mendez, reveals to Captain Kirk that the base never sent any message to the Enterprise. Spock claims to have received that message, which puts Kirk into the difficult position of whether to trust the starbase computers, or the word of his first officer and friend.

 

It turns out that Captain Christopher Pike, the former commander of the Enterprise, who was recently crippled and disfigured in a terrible accident, is on Starbase 11, and suspicion arises that perhaps he relayed a message to Spock. When Kirk finally gets to see Pike, however, he realizes that it would have been impossible for Spock’s former commanding officer to have done this, for Pike is now wheelchair bound, and his communication with others is limited to electronic beeps that fill in for “yes” and “no.

 

While Kirk and Mendez wrestle over the truth, Spock executes a daring and clever plan to hijack the Enterprise, taking Captain Pike with him. It goes to show just how dangerous an opponent someone as smart and calculating as Spock can be when he puts his mind to it. Spock sets the Enterprise on a locked course for Talos IV, a planet which the ship visited on a past mission under Christopher Pike, and a planet that invites the death penalty upon any Starfleet officer who goes there

 

The secret file on Talos IV, and the article of General Order 7

I personally find the idea of a death penalty being associated with Talos IV to be somewhat dubious; although there is a very good reason why Starfleet wants the existence of the Talosians kept secret, I find it hard to believe that if the Federation is capable of having a death penalty, that it only applies to one law. It may just be a grand bluff, and indeed, there is some evidence to that effect later in the episode. Regardless, breaking General Order 7 is a serious offense, and Spock is if nothing else, putting his career and livelihood on the line.

 

Kirk, of course, isn’t going to sit by while his ship is abducted. He and Mendez make a daring attempt to chase the Enterprise in the Shuttlecraft Picasso, knowing full well that while they would never catch up, they would appear on the Enterprise sensors. Kirk gambles his life on the fact that his friend Spock would not leave him to die in the void of space, as the shuttle runs out of fuel. Kirk’s illogical gambit causes Spock’s plan to unravel, and he surrenders himself to custody, pleading guilty to every charge leveled against him. However, Spock has locked the Enterprise into a course for Talos IV that cannot be broken, which will potentially extend the death sentence that is on himself, to Kirk as well.

 

The court martial that proceeds against Spock is highly unusual; as mentioned, Spock pleads guilty without defense, but through some legal technicality, manages to arrange for the court to hear out his evidence as to why he went through with his illegal actions. Given that Kirk is presiding over the hearing, and that the crew has little else to do but wait until they reach Talos IV, I get the lenience, but I am not sure what real court would remain in session to examine evidence for someone who just admitted their guilt. Or admittedly, maybe I just don’t know enough about legal proceedings.

 

Spock’s evidence, as it turns out, is a transmission from Talos IV, beamed directly to the Enterprise, which details the vessel’s first trip there under the command of Captain Pike. Of course, this transmission is the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” and from this point on, “The Menagerie” consists almost entirely of footage from that episode.

 

Aside from some really goofy tech dialogue, and incomplete characterizations, “The Cage” holds up surprisingly well. We get to see that Jeffrey Hunter’s Captain Pike is a darker, colder man than James Kirk; he is someone whose decisions and responsibilities as a commander are weighing on him heavily, and he is nearing the point of considering resignation. Pike’s first officer is only referred to as Number One (played by Majel Barrett), who is an amazing example of a strong female role for 1960’s television, but unfortunately her character had to be discarded by Roddenberry when the studio forced him to choose between keeping his strong, logical female, or his alien Spock. Roddenberry ended up giving Spock Number One’s cold, emotionless, logical persona, and thus the Spock we know and love was born.

 

It really is a shame that NBC put so much pressure on Roddenberry to alter his concept of women in the 23rd Century; aside from Number One, the other female crew members of the Cage-era Enterprise also seem to be on equal footing with the men, and there isn’t a mini-skirt in sight. Of course, this reviewer by no means, from an aesthetic point view, objects to how the women of the Enterprise look in said mini-skirts, but cheekiness and my own red-blooded male impulses aside, the female officers in Starfleet should have been offered the same, more professional uniform as the males. Unfortunately we would have to wait until The Motion Picture to see more fairness in the way men and women are presented in Star Trek.

 

When Enterprise finds evidence of human survivors on Talos IV, from a doomed expedition many years ago, Pike, Spock, and an away team beam down to investigate. What at first seems like a wonderful discovery of lost, homesick men, turns out to be just an elaborate, life like illusion created by the Talosians. Pike is abducted when he is lured in by the only true human survivor from the crash, Vina, whom he is extremely attracted to.

 

Pike is subjected to a variety of illusions crafted by the Talosians, in order to foster cooperation, as well as to strengthen his attraction toward Vina. Vina is presented to Pike in a variety of forms; as a damsel in distress on Rigel VII, as a wife in the countryside on Earth, and as a primal, animalistic Orion slave woman, all in an attempt to make him submit to his situation.

 

However, Pike is every bit as stubborn as Captain Kirk, and certainly has a darker, more furious edge to him. When he discovers that primitive, base human emotions such as hatred, and anger, block out the Talosian’s illusions and their telepathic abilities, he mines that weakness long enough to take one of them captive. Once the illusion is broken, the Enterprise crew find out that their attempts to break Pike out from his underground cage with phaser fire were actually working, but all along they weren’t able to see it.

 

The Talosians had, thousands of centuries ago, devastated their planet and their civilization with war. They retreated underground, where their telepathic abilities flourished, but their physical bodies and their technology atrophied. They had apparently been testing various species for many years, looking for a suitable slave race to use for rebuilding their world, but none had shown as much promise as humanity.

 

However, when the away team threatens to kill themselves with an overloaded phaser, and as well when the Talosians finish screening the Enterprise‘s records, they realize that humans would rather die than be enslaved, and would be too violent to keep in captivity. With of course, the sad exception of Vina, who in reality is too badly disfigured to live a normal life outside of Talos IV.

 

(I once heard a suggestion that Vina could be repaired using the transporter. I don’t think 23rd century transporters were sophisticated enough for that, plus, there wouldn’t be an original, unaltered version of her pattern to reference.)

 

The ending of “The Cage” leads us to the final moments of “The Menagerie,” where it is revealed that not only have the Talosians been transmitting a signal to the Enterprise, but even Commodore Mendez himself has been one of their illusions all along!

 

It is also revealed that Spock’s only intention was to take Captain Pike to Talos IV, so that the crippled starship commander could live out the rest of his life as a healthy, happy man with Vina. Even Kirk seems to relent that it is better to live with an illusion of health and happiness, than a reality of living as a useless vegetable. That Commodore Mendez was an illusion, and that Starfleet sends a signal to the Enterprise, apparently excusing their violation of Talos space, seems to let Spock off the hook. Perhaps too easily in fact; despite acting out of nothing but loyalty to his former Captain, and despite that the way he enacted his plan was done in such a manner as to put the blame only on himself, Spock seems to get out of his predicament with apparently no trouble at all. We can make a guess that perhaps this incident is why he doesn’t receive a promotion or command of his own until years later, but there is nothing spoken on-screen to that effect.

 

We are also left to ponder about how much of the incident was real at all. Since the Talosians can apparently project their powers through subspace, one wonders just how long they conspired with Spock, and also, how much we see of Mendez was real or an illusion. My guess is that the Mendez we see at the base was real, and what goes onto the shuttle with Kirk was the illusion, but unfortunately, again, there is little to back that up. What we do know for sure is that the Talosian’s powers are not to be trifled with, and it is truly for wise for Starfleet to give them a wide berth.

Despite some problems with logic and consistency, “The Menagerie” is an entertaining, fascinating episode that shows original series Trek at some of its most interestingly cerebral. Gene Roddenberry’s first pilot examines the nature of reality decades before The Matrix did, and asks the questions: What is real? How does one define their purpose, their reality? Is our reality just relative, defined only by experience? Is there a such thing as an absolute reality, or only what our senses perceive, or for that matter what they think they perceive? This is smart, ahead of its time writing for the 1960s.

 

Through the tragedies that befell both Vina and Pike, we must also question the quality of human life, and the value we place on it. Is it worth staying alive if you can’t function? If your brain is sound but your body is broken, can you still truly live? Speaking for myself, I certainly would despise the existence that Captain Pike is forced to endure in his wheelchair. I’d rather be dead than live that way. I’m not sure how I would react exactly to being forced to live in an illusion, but it is certainly preferable to a reality of uselessness and immobility. Besides, is our everyday life not just an elaborate series of deceptions spun before our very eyes; maybe not as powerful as a trick of telepathy played by an alien race, but an illusion nonetheless?

 

For even provoking these thoughts, and much more, “The Cage,” and by extension, “The Menagerie,” are what I consider among the best of Star Trek’s purely cerebral stories about human nature. It is imaginative, thoughtful, and quite engaging.

Suspended Animation Classic #817 First published August 22, 2004 (#33) (Dates are approximate)

Ant

By Michael Vance

 

Ant #s 1-3/$2.95 & 32 pgs. each from Arcana/art and story by Mario Gully/sold in comics shops.

 

Good things come in small packages, especially when they are a small naked woman painted red.

 

That naked woman with antennae is Ant, the imaginary super heroine of an eight-year-old girl with big problems. She writes about Ant and her adventures in her journal because she can neither solve nor escape her big problems.

 

Certainly a prepubescent girl who images herself as an almost naked woman in pornographic poses as she battles crime has at least one major problem, right?

 

A prepubescent boy dreaming about naked women painted red in much more common and believable. Indeed, such a boy buying Ant is a sure bet.

 

In addition to female flesh encased in the exoskeleton of an ant, that young boy and his not-so-young brothers will also get excellent art by a new talent who is destined to become a major artist. His work is dynamic, his visual storytelling is enthralling, and he lacks only life experience. That will come with time.

 

In addition to female flesh, readers will also get a serviceable plot, believable dialog, nice characterization, and a story with lots of grammar and spelling problems.

 

Spelling can be fixed with a dictionary, but grammar requires a bit more education.

 

Both are more important than some folk imagine; anything that draws attention to itself and away from the story destroys suspension of disbelief, a critical element of all fiction.

 

The writing in Ant needs a bit more work or a different writer.

 

By the way, the writer and artist are the same guy. Someone equally talented at both is a rare someone indeed, so there is no shame in his weakness.

 

The shame would be a young artist ignoring the advice.

 

Ant is recommended for readers who enjoy superhero adventure and aren’t offended by lots of near nudity.

 

Tyler Gerczak, leader of the Particle Fuel Forms group, studies both light water reactor fuel systems and tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) coated particle fuel development for advanced nuclear reactor applications. His research interests primarily focus on applying advanced post-irradiation examination characterization techniques to irradiated fuel systems.

Celadon cables are manufactured in a patented process that minimizes triboelectric effect when taking measurements with probe cards.

Cover design by Peter Thorpe. Published in England as "The Lonely Skier."

 

Hammond Innes is an adventure writer similar to Alastair MacLean but even better when it comes to characterization. He's better known in England than here in the U.S., which is too bad.

Dr. Paul Lane, a research physicist in the Naval Research Laboratory's Optical Physics Branch, prepares an organic solar cell for optical characterization.

The VersaCore™ parametric probe card is an ultra high performance component compatible with both the Keithley S600 and Agilent 407x/408x test systems.