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I am sure this sweater keeps your neck warm!
More photos here:
www.demotix.com/news/227107/sam-frenzel-mercedes-benz-fas...
Among the most comical and mischievous citizens of dogdom, the Bull Terrier is playful and endearing, sometimes stubborn, but always devoted. These unique 'eggheads' are exuberant, muscular companions who thrive on affection and exercise. Bull Terriers are robust, big-boned terriers who move with a jaunty stride suggesting agility and power.
It’s almost comically inevitable that whenever I visit this certain lake all the mallard ducklings are in the darkest possible stretch of water. Every. Single. Time. So I was thrilled for a little help from a little patch of sunlight!
It's not completely fair to compare a 1983 lens to one from 1999... but still, I don't think I've ever seen a clearer demonstration of the "rangefinder advantage" when it comes to lens size.
Both of these lenses are 35mm focal lengths, with apertures wider than f/2.0.
Lenses for SLR cameras (like the Canon AE-1 on the left) must allow room for the reflex mirror to flip out of the way. Whenever the focal length of the lens is shorter than about 40mm, the optical design must be a highly asymmetrical "retrofocus" design.
A lens for a rangefinder camera has no such limitation, and so can have its rear lens element quite close to the film (although some RF bodies require clearance for light-meter cells or other obstructions).
So even for short focal lengths, rangefinders can use compact, nearly-symmetrical lens designs (which offers advantages for abberation correction). The Cosina-made 35/1.7 Ultron here isn't symmetrical though: It's an odd configuration of 8 elements in 6 groups, using a concave front element and an aspheric rear one.
Anyway, the Ultron is a great lens--probably the second one I'd rescue from a burning building, after my beloved Zuiko 85/2.0.
But my new Vivitar 35/1.9 seems to be no slouch either. It was made by Komine (although it's not one of the elite "Series 1" lenses) and was laughably cheap--like, about 10% of the Ultron's price.
As shown here, the Canon camera & lens is 68% heavier than the Voigtländer. For the lenses alone, it's 376g for the Vivitar versus 197g for the Ultron (which remember, is even a fraction of a stop faster).
This white ibis was almost comical looking with its orange red legs and bill, and roly poly eyes! Whenever I got too close, he would honk like a goose and run for it!
View On Black (large)
Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Torino, no. 124. Photo: Macari.
Erminio Macario (1902-1980), best known as Macario, was an Italian film actor and comedian. His comical style was a mixture between Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. He appeared in 42 films between 1933 and 1975.
Born in Turin in 1902, Erminio Macario made his debut at a young age in the amateur dramatics company Don Bosco Oratory in Valdocco. Then he was part of some small amateur companies of his hometown until 1924 when he was cast in the company of dancing and pantomime of Giovanni Molasso. Soon after, he entered the company of Wanda Osiris, the undisputed queen of the revue of that time in Italy. Between the two wars, he became in a short time one of the most popular comedians of the revue theater. Macario made his film debut with Aria di paese/Country Air (Eugenio de Liguoro, 1933). He played an unemployed drifter takes a series of jobs, each one of which he quickly loses. He then goes to the countryside for a while where he falls in love with a woman (Laura Adani). His breakthrough came six years later with two comedy films directed by Mario Mattoli and co-written by a young Federico Fellini, Imputato alzatevi!/Defendant, Stand Up! (Mario Mattoli, 1939) and Lo vedi come sei... lo vedi come sei?/Do you see how you are ... do you see how you are? (Mario Mattoli, 1939).
Erminio Macario starred in the comedy ll fanciullo del West/The Boy of the West (Giorgio Ferroni, 1943), named after Puccini's opera 'La fanciulla del West' (The Girl of the West). It is considered the first western parody in Italian cinema. Then followed a series of successful comedies directed by Carlo Borghesio, including Come persi la guerra/How I Lost the War (Carlo Borghesio, 1947) with Vera Carmi, and Come scopersi l'America/How I Discovered America (Carlo Borghesio, 1949) with Carlo Ninchi and Delia Scala. Since the early fifties Macario appeared in short characterisations in anthology films and was the sidekick of Totò in such films as La cambiale/The bill (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959), and Totòsexy/Sexy Toto (Mario Amendola, 1963). Starting from the mid-sixties he finally focused on television and theatre. One of his last films was the comedy Due sul pianerottolo/Two on the landing (Mario Amendola, 1976) with Rita Pavone. At the age of 77, Macario passed away in 1980 in Turin.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
A Companhia do Capitão Dirck Jacobsz Rosecrans, Cornelis Ketel
Em 1588, a companhia dos besteiros de Amsterdam encomendou uma pintura de seus membros. O retrato do grupo em tamanho natural de treze oficiais e soldados foi pendurado na sede do clube ao longo do canal Singel, em Amsterdam. Este foi o primeiro retrato conhecido de uma milícia em que seus membros são retratados de corpo inteiro. Havia passado muito tempo desde que seus membros empunhassem apenas bestas, estando agora equipados com armas de fogo também.
Para animar o retrato o pintor acrescentou dois cães, um de aparência perigosa, com uma focinheira, e o outro, um vivaz terrier.
The Company of Captain Dirck Jacobsz Rosecrans and Lieutenant Pauw, Cornelis Ketel, 1588
olieverf op doek, h 208cm × w 410cm. More details
Thirteen self-assured officers of the Amsterdam militia, the city’s armed civic guard, are portrayed here. From 1580, at the initiative of William of Orange, the old militia guilds were refashioned into civic guards organized along military lines. The officers were recruited from the upper levels of society. The dark muzzled dog at right contrasts comically with the jaunty little lapdog at centre jumping up on its owner’s legs.
Rijks Museum - National Museum of Netherlands
Vision:
The Rijksmuseum links individuals with art and history.
Mission:
At the Rijksmuseum, art and history take on new meaning for a broad-based, contemporary national and international audience.
As a national institute, the Rijksmuseum offers a representative overview of Dutch art and history from the Middle Ages onwards, and of major aspects of European and Asian art.
The Rijksmuseum keeps, manages, conserves, restores, researches, prepares, collects, publishes, and presents artistic and historical objects, both on its own premises and elsewhere.
From 1800 to 2013
The Rijksmuseum first opened its doors in 1800 under the name ‘Nationale Kunstgalerij’. At the time, it was housed in Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. The collection mainly comprised paintings and historical objects. In 1808, the museum moved to the new capital city of Amsterdam, where it was based in the Royal Palace on Dam Square.
After King Willem I’s accession to the throne, the paintings and national print collection were moved to the Trippenhuis on Kloveniersburgwal, while the other objects were returned to The Hague. The current building was put into use in 1885. The Netherlands Museum for History and Art based in The Hague moved into the same premises, forming what would later become the departments of Dutch History and Sculpture & Applied Art.
The beginning
On 19 November 1798, more than three years after the birth of the Batavian Republic, the government decided to honour a suggestion put forward by Isaac Gogel by following the French example of setting up a national museum. The museum initially housed the remains of the viceregal collections and a variety of objects originating from state institutions. When the Nationale Kunstgalerij first opened its doors on 31 May 1800, it had more than 200 paintings and historical objects on display. In the years that followed, Gogel and the first director, C.S. Roos, made countless acquisitions. Their first purchase, The Swan by Jan Asselijn, cost 100 Dutch guilders and is still one of the Rijksmuseum’s top pieces.
Move to Amsterdam
In 1808, the new King Louis Napoleon ordered the collections to be moved to Amsterdam, which was to be made the capital of the Kingdom of Holland. The works of art and objects were taken to the Royal Palace on Dam Square, the former city hall of Amsterdam, where they were united with the city’s foremost paintings, including the Night Watch by Rembrandt. In 1809, the Koninklijk Museum opened its doors on the top floor of the palace.
A few years after Willem I returned to the Netherlands as the new king in 1813, the ‘Rijks Museum’ and the national print collection from The Hague relocated to the Trippenhuis, a 17th-century town-palace on Kloveniersburgwal, home to what would later become the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Much to the regret of the director, Cornelis Apostool, in 1820 many objects including pieces of great historical interest were assigned to the Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden [Royal Gallery of Rare Objects], which had been founded in The Hague. In 1838, a separate museum for modern 19th-century art was established in Paviljoen Welgelegen in Haarlem. Contrary to the days of Louis Napoleon, very few large acquisitions were made during this period.
Cuypers Cathedral
The Trippenhuis proved unsuitable as a museum. Furthermore, many people thought it time to establish a dedicated national museum building in the Netherlands. Work on a new building did not commence until 1876, after many years of debate. The architect, Pierre Cuypers, had drawn up a historic design for the Rijksmuseum, which combined the Gothic and the Renaissance styles. The design was not generally well-received; people considered it too mediaeval and not Dutch enough. The official opening took place in 1885.
Nearly all the older paintings belonging to the City of Amsterdam were hung in the Rijksmuseum alongside paintings and prints from the Trippenhuis, including paintings such as Rembrandt’s Jewish Bride, which had been bequeathed to the city by the banker A. van der Hoop. The collection of 19th-century art from Haarlem was also added to the museum’s collection. Finally, a significant part of the Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden, which had by then been incorporated into the new Netherlands Museum for History and Art, was returned to Amsterdam.
Renovations
Over the years, collections continued to grow and museum insight continued to expand, and so the Rijksmuseum building underwent many changes. Rooms were added to the south-west side of the building between 1904 and 1916 (now the Philips wing) to house the collection of 19th-century paintings donated to the museum by Mr and Mrs Drucker-Fraser. In the 1950s and 1960s, the two original courtyards were covered and renovated to create more rooms.
In 1927, while Schmidt-Degener was Managing Director, the Netherlands Museum was split to form the departments of Dutch History and Sculpture & Applied Art. These departments were moved to separate parts of the building after 1945. The arrival of a collection donated by the Association of Friends of Asian Art in the 1950s resulted in the creation of the Asian Art department.
The 1970s saw record numbers of visitors of almost one-and-a-half million per year, and the building gradually started to fall short of modern requirements.
‘Verder met Cuypers'
The current renovation reinstates the original Cuypers structure. The building work in the courtyards are removed. Paintings, applied art and history are no longer displayed in separate parts of the building, but form a single chronological circuit that tells the story of Dutch art and history.
The building is thoroughly modernized, while at the same time restoring more of Cuypers original interior designs: the Rijksmuseum has dubbed the venture ‘Verder met Cuypers‘ [Continuing with Cuypers]. The Rijksmuseum will be a dazzling new museum able to satisfy the needs of its 21st-century visitors!
Every year, the Rijksmuseum compiles an annual report for the previous year. Annual reports dating back to 1998 can be found here (in Dutch only). Reports relating to the years before 1998 are available in the reading room of the library.
O Museu Rijks é um dos maiores e mais importantes museus da Europa.É o maior dos Países Baixos, com acervo voltado quase todo aos artistas holandeses. As obras vão desde exemplares da arte sacra até a era dourada holandesa, além de uma substancial coleção de arte asiática.
Esse é o Rijksmuseum, o Museu Nacional dos Países Baixos. E aproveite, caro leitor, porque o Rijks esteve parcialmente fechado para reforma durante 10 anos – voltou a funcionar só em 2013. Ou seja, quem esteve em Amsterdam na última década não conheceu o Rijks, pelo menos não completamente.
Mas o quê tem lá? Muita coisa. Destaque para as coleções de arte e História holandesas. Os trabalhos dos pintores Frans Hals e Johannes Vermeer são alguns dos mais concorridos, mas imbatível mesmo é Rembrandt van Rijn, considerado um dos maiores pintores de todos os tempos. Se você não é um fã de museus de arte, mas faz questão de conhecer o trabalho desses grandes artistas, uma dica: assim que chegar ao Rijks, vá direto para a ala onde estão as obras-primas. Assim você vê o mais importante no início da visita, quando ainda está descansado e poderá dedicar o tempo necessário para essas obras.
A mais famosa delas é a “A Ronda Noturna”, de Rembrandt, uma obra que inspirou músicas, pinturas, filmes e até um flash mob. Quando o Rijks foi reaberto, artistas recriam a cena mostrada no quadro dentro de um shopping de Amsterdam. A ação está no vídeo abaixo e eu te garanto que vale a pena dar play.
Read more: www.360meridianos.com/2014/01/museus-de-amsterdam.html#ix...
Read more: www.360meridianos.com/2014/01/museus-de-amsterdam.html#ix...
Rijksmuseum, Museu Nacional
42 Stadhouderskade
Amsterdam
O museu Rijksmuseum de Amsterdã é o Museu Nacional da Holanda, onde você encontrará uma impressionante coleção permanente, formada por 5.000 pinturas e 30.000 obras de arte, além de 17.000 objetos históricos.
Esse museu nacional foi fundado em 1885 e está instalado em um edifício de estilo neogótico. A sua principal atração é a extensa coleção de quadros pintados por artistas holandeses, abrangendo um período que vai do séc. XV aos dias de hoje. A obra de arte mais famosa em exibição é o quadro A Ronda Noturna, de Rembrandt.
O museu Rijksmuseum está dividido em cinco departamentos: pintura, escultura, arte aplicada, arte oriental, história dos Países Baixos e gravuras. O núcleo da coleção é a pintura e suas obras mais representativas são as que pertencem ao Século de Ouro holandês, com quadros de artistas como Rembrandt, Vermeer ou Frans Hals.
Ver fonte: dreamguides.edreams.pt/holanda/amsterda/rijksmuseum
Museu Rijks, Amesterdão
O Museu Rijks (Museu Nacional) é um edifício histórico, sendo o maior museu nos Países Baixos. O Museu é o maior no numero relativamente às suas colecções, na área do edifício em si, no financiamento e no numero de funcionários empregados.
Cada ano, mais de um milhão de pessoas visitam o Museu Rijks. O Museu emprega cerca de 400 pessoas, incluindo 45 conservadores de museu que são especializados em todas as áreas.
O Museu Rijks é internacionalmente reconhecido pelas suas exibições e publicações, mas não só apenas por estes produtos de grande qualidade, mas também pelas áreas no museu em si que são fonte de inspiração e encorajam a criação de novas ideias.
O museu também tem recursos consideráveis para a educação, para a decoração e apresentação de exibições. Importantes designers são regularmente chamados a trabalharem em projectos no Museu Rijks.
O edifício principal do Museu Rijks está a ser renovado. A boa noticia é que a melhor parte da exposição está apresentada na redesenhada ala Philips. O nome desta exposição denomina-se "The Masterpieces'.
O museu abre diariamente das 10 da manhã até ás 5 da tarde.
A entrada é pela Stadhouderskade 42.
Rijksmuseum
Origem: Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre.
O Rijksmuseum é um museu nacional dos Países Baixos, localizada em Amsterdão na Praça do museu. O Rijksmuseum é dedicado à artes e história. Ele tem uma larga coleção de pinturas da idade de ouro neerlandesa e uma substancial coleção de arte asiática.
O museu foi fundado em 1800 na cidade da Haia para exibir a coleção do primeiro-ministro. Foi inspirado no exemplo francês. Pelos neerlandeses ficou conhecida como Galeria de Arte. Em 1808 o museu mudou-se para Amsterdã pelas ordens do rei Louis Napoleón, irmão de Napoleão Bonaparte. As pinturas daquela cidade, como A Ronda Nocturna de Rembrandt, tornaram-se parte da coleção.
Em 1885 o museu mudou-se para sua localização atual, construído pelo arquiteto neerlandês Pierre Cuypers. Ele combinou elementos góticos e renascentistas. O museu tem um posição proeminente na Praça do Museu, próximo ao Museu van Gogh e ao Museu Stedelijk. A construção é ricamente decorada com referências da história da arte neerlandesa. A Ronda Nocturna de Rembrandt tem seu próprio corredor no museu desde 1906. Desde 2003 o museu sofreu restaurações, mas as obras-primas são constatemente presentes para o público.
A coleção de pinturas inclui trabalhos de artistas como Jacob van Ruysdael, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer e Rembrandt e de alunos de Rembrandt.
Em 2005, 95% do museu está fechado para renovação, mas as pinturas da coleção permanente ainda estão em mostra em uma exibição especial chamada As Obras-primas.
Algumas das pinturas do museu:
Rembrandt van Rijn
A Ronda Nocturna
Os síndicos da guilda dos fabricantes de tecidos
A noiva judia
A lição de Anatomia do Dr. Deyman
Pedro negando Cristo
Saskia com um véu
Retrato de Titus em hábito de monge
Auto-retrato como Apóstolo Paulo
Tobias, Ana e o Bode
Johannes Vermeer:
A Leiteira
A Carta de Amor
Mulher de Azul a ler uma carta
A Rua pequena
Frans Hals:
Retrato de um jovem casal
A Companhia Reynier Real
O bebedor alegre
Retrato de Lucas De Clercq
Retrato de Nicolaes Hasselaer
Retrato de um homem
Página oficial do Rijksmuseum
Virtual Collection of Masterpieces (VCM)
O melhor museu de Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum
O Commons possui uma categoria contendo imagens e outros ficheiros sobre Rijksmuseum
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
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Se você visitar Amsterdam, precisará conhecer o Museu Nacional da Holanda: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. O Museu Nacional fica na Praça do Museu, situada no centro de Amsterdam. O Museu Nacional, ou Rijksmuseum, possui uma maravilhosa coleção de arte e história holandesas. Após uma visita ao Rijksmuseum, você saberá mais sobre história e arte e terá visto alguns dos maiores marcos culturais da Holanda.
Obras-primas do Museu Nacional
Ao todo, a coleção do Rijksmuseum apresenta a história da Holanda em um contexto internacional, desde 1.100 até o presente. Há alguns ícones da história e cultura da Holanda que você não pode perder:
Ronda Noturna (de Nachtwacht) de Rembrandt é uma das mais famosas obras desse mestre holandês e é de tirar o fôlego.
O Rijksmuseum tem uma das melhores coleções de pinturas dos grandes mestres do século XVII, como Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Vermeer e Rembrandt.
Assim como o Museu Histórico de Haia, o Rijksmuseum apresenta lindas casas de bonecas, mobiliadas em detalhes, datando de 1676.
Se você não puder ir ao Delft Real, pode ainda apreciar algumas das melhores cerâmicas de Delft, de conjuntos de chá a vasos, no Museu Nacional.
Museu que é visita obrigatória em Amsterdam
Quer sua estadia em Amsterdam seja breve ou longa, você deve visitar o Rijksmuseum. Chegue cedo para evitar enfrentar filas. Combine a visita ao Rijksmuseum com várias outras atrações próximas, como o Museu Van Gogh, o Museu Stedelijk Amsterdam e a Coster Diamonds
Para obter mais informações sobre Amsterdam, retorne à página sobre Amsterdam ou à página sobre os museus de Amsterdam.
www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/182444-f...
The darkness of the temple was all-encompassing. Their hololamps felt like comically weak attempts to fight back, as dim and small as they were. The huge, empty halls seemed to call out to them as they passed. More than once, Nathan thought he’d heard someone.
“What was that?” he’d asked Ozz, who stared at him with concern.
“Nothing, kid. Just like last time. Get a grip, would ya?”
Something glinted in Ozz’s light. He peered at it, trying to get a closer look.
Eefo, their guide, (and current victim of blackmail) led from the front.
“Come,” she said. “The deep archives are this way. If there are any records related to Balaam’s Heart, we will find them there.” Then she added, more bitterly, “We can only hope this excursion does not doom the known galaxy.”
Nathan frowned over at her. “Or maybe it’ll keep it safe. If we don’t find the Heart, Pyerce might. It’s worth the risk.”
“Woah, woah, woah!” Ozz exclaimed, and his excited cry echoed in the tunnel. He hurried over to what he’d found—a pile of artifacts, gleaming beneath the dust and sand. “These babies look valuable!”
Eefo and Nathan stood in the entrance of another hall, pausing to look back at him. Eefo couldn’t hide her disgust with his priorities.
“Artifacts for processing, not what you seek.”
“Yeah, not what we came here for,” Nathan said. “Come on, Ozz. Sooner we get out of here, the better.”
Of course, Nathan should never have said that, because that’s the exact kind of thing that leads to ironic catastrophe. And so it did.
The rumbling began quietly, but was deafening before they had a chance to react. The walls were trying to shake apart. The ground bucked underneath them. The tunnel was filled with the cacophony of shouting and the crashing of rock as they all dodged rubble dropping from overhead and dived for cover. What felt like forever was over in just a few seconds.
Nathan pushed himself off the ground and looked frantically for his friend.
“Ozz, Ozz!”
“Nerd?” came the weak reply, through a layer of fallen rock.
“Ozz!” Nathan shouted again, trying to pull away rubble. His efforts were in vain.
“I’m alright, kid! Just…in a different room. You got our bounty?”
Nathan felt a mixture of relief and annoyance surge through him, and he took several deep breaths. Eefo was getting to her feet nearby.
“You okay?” he asked. She replied with a thumbs up.
“Yeah, she’s okay,” he told Ozz. “Hey, we’re gonna make it out of this. Listen, try and go back the way we came, or find another path out. We’ll all join back up at the entrance, got it?”
“Sure, sure. Me, worried? About the dark? Nah. See ya in a bit, no problem.”
Nathan took a moment to rest after the stress of the cave-in. “He’ll be fine,” he told himself.
“Perhaps he will,” Eefo replied dryly. “Forgive me for my lack of concern.”
“Okay, Ozzie, okay. You’re gonna be okay,” Ozz whispered, casting his hololamp around the rubble to find a good path out. The way they’d come in was blocked, so he chose the next best doorway and started trudging along. “No worries, no worries. Think happy thoughts. You’ll get paid! Oh—“ he turned back and—at least something was going right—a few of the gleaming artifacts were strewn across the floor.
“Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!” Ozz hooted in glee, scooping up a few golden discs to stuff into his jacket. “Come to Ozzie! Now we just gotta find a way outta this pit, and Papa Ozzie can find a nice fence to hock to you to!”
He was glad Nathan wasn’t here to see him talk to treasure.
Now weighed down with future fortunes, Ozz trudged ahead into the dark tunnels and empty halls of the temple, all by his lonesome. He hummed to himself to ward off any fears. He really needed to start carrying a blaster. Nothing like a blaster to make you feel safe.
“Your pockets are heavy, thief.”
Ozz spun around, looking for the source of the voice. “Whosaidthat!” he cried, brandishing one of the discs.
“A denizen of this sacred place,” said the voice from nowhere.
“Oh…oh great, now I’m really going crazy. Amazing. Just ignore it, Ozzie, keep walkin’…”
“Ignoring a thing does not make it go away. Your name is Ozzie?”
“What? No, it’s…Ozzamandes. Hey, I’m not talkin’ to you. You’re just a voice in my head. Guy might look crazy talkin’ to himself like that.”
“I am not a manifestation of insanity, but of the force.”
“Ha, the force! Good one, brain.”
Suddenly, a creature appeared before him, a woman who seemed both there and not there at the same time, who shone with a ghostly blue glow. Ozz froze in place and stared at her, stunned.
She spoke with power and grace, and her face was severe. “A faith is a necessity for a creature, Ozzamandes. Woe to them who believes nothing. Woe to you, for I sense this void...within you.”
Shocked, Ozz’s grip went limp. A disc fell to the floor with a ‘clang’.
“Follow me,” Eefo said. “I will find us a way out of the tunnels.”
Nathan stopped in his tracks. “Wait a second. I want to get out too, but not before we find what we came for.”
Eefo’s face twitched. “Don’t you want to find your friend?”
“Yeah, but he’ll be fine, and ticked off at me if we leave this place with nothing to show for it. Can we still get to the archives after the cave-in?”
Eefo had been caught trying to wiggle out of showing him the archives, and she looked accordingly hateful.
“…Yes,” she spat. “Come, do not lose the way.”
As they walked, Nathan questioned her.
“The Scriptist’s madness, or whatever…he mentioned spirits. That’s just you, right? You’re gaslighting your mentor?”
“The spirits are real. The sabotage is mine, but the drain on his mind…the spirits are real. Dark things.”
This was not exactly the answer Nathan had wanted to hear while spelunking in a pitch-black tunnel.
“Oh, I see,” he said, shining his light behind him and hurrying to catch up.
“So what was your life like around here, huh? See any good holos?”
“As a Jedi scholar, I forbade myself from material pleasures, if that is what you ask.”
“Sheesh, aren’t you a bucket of fun.”
Ozz now continued his journey through the tunnels with the ghost woman at his side.
"You scoff. There is moral grandeur in this, no? The renunciation, the sacrifice this station requires? The self-exile, the remembrance of mortality, the committing of one's spirit to mystery and thought rather than toil?"
"Hah, I'd love to see you tell that to my pops. He loved toil."
"You use the past-tense. Your father is one with the force?"
"He's dead, if that's what you're askin'. We didn't see eye-to-eye, so wouldn't make much of a difference if he wersen't."
“But now you have another family? One of your own?”
“Hah! A family, nah. Just this kid mooching off my ship.”
“You have a child?”
Ozz shook his head, muttering to himself before replying. “No, no. Human’s name is Nathan, we’ve been working together for a few weeks. Can’t stand the guy, honestly. Always going on about safety and stuff. Takes himself too seriously. Got me fired once! For something I didn’t do, I’ll have you know.”
The woman smiled softly. “I sense care in your voice.”
“Pah! You’re hearin’ things too, then.”
“Love finds us in unlikely places. When it crosses our path, we are often slow to embrace it. We deny ourselves the comforts of familial care in order to protect our vulnerable, fragile egos.”
Ozz raised an eyebrow up at her and grimaced. “Geez, you get personal, lady. Bet you were a weirdo as a kid.”
They were stopped by sounds up ahead, strange howls and whispers that seemed to slither by in a tunnel before them. The woman flew in front of Ozz, her expression stern.
“What the keff was that!” Ozz cried, covering his head and looking around for danger.
“Dark spirits. My counterparts. The other side.”
“Well geez, terrible roommates! You just all hang out in the temple together? Just a big spirit party, good and bad?”
“I do not wish it to be this way. Their presence is a desecration.”
“Okay, okay…why don’t you evict ‘em then? You’re all glowly, I bet you could get rid of ‘em.”
“It’s not a question of my power, but of my purpose. I pledged myself in life to study and knowledge, it is not my place to raise hands against evil, but to equip those who do. I put them out of mind, and avoid their distraction.”
“Hm, couldn’t you make, like, an exception?”
She rounded on him, her expression fierce, her eyes wide.
“Does my life sound like one of exceptions, Ozzamandes?”
Ozz shrunk back from the frightful display. “Well, no. No, that’s a good point. But…”
The look on her pale face told him not to continue, but he was never good at listening to warnings.
“Well, you don’t really have a life, anymore. You’re—sorry if I’m the first one to tell you this—but you’re dead, lady.”
“I know this. Don’t insult my intellect.”
“Well then, you did good! You held to your pledges! They were pledges for life, right?”
She looked thoughtful, her brow knit. She said nothing.
“Besides, weren’t you the one that told me…ignoring something doesn’t make it go away?”
The deep archives were once locked behind doors that required power to open, powers neither Nathan nor Eefo had. But time and war wears away all things, this time to Nathan’s benefit. The doors were long since destroyed, and their access unblocked.
It was a narrow hall. Rows and rows of old books, many of them destroyed, lined the shelves.
Eefo gestured forward. “Feast away, you fool.”
Nathan shot her a look. “Kind of unnecessary, but…thank you for bringing me here. Where do I start?”
“Balaam’s Heart? I recommend ‘B’.”
“Oh, it works like that? Huh, I expected something weirder,” he said, and he stepped forward to scan the massive stacks.
Eefo looked on the shelves—the sheer amount of terrible, dangerous knowledge—and at the young man now searching amongst the tomes. Fear clutched at her heart. Her mind went to the blaster under her robes.
“You speak sense. Most unexpected,” the ghostly woman said.
“Oh, nice,” Ozz grunted. “I’ll try not to be offended about how you said that.”
“My apologies. Perhaps, as a spirit, my purpose is something different than what I was bound to in life. Perhaps I must evolve, as my being has evolved. Perhaps I must oppose the dark things here, and purify this temple. Thank you, Ozzamandes, for speaking with me. It has been most enlightening.”
“Sure, sure, any time. Now, I gotta get outta here, any chance…?”
“We have been following that path for some time. I have been leading you to your friends while we talked. They are just ahead.”
Ozz blinked in surprise. “No kidding? You’re alright, lady.”
“Ozzamandes,” she said, and her voice became serious and heartfelt. “Do not deny your care for your friend. You would rob yourself of greater riches than those you carry in your coat.”
Ozz avoided her gaze, nodding vaguely. “Oh, uh, sure, sure. Yeah, thanks for the advice.”
“And Ozzamandes,” she said again.
“What?”
“Please leave behind the things you’ve pilfered from my temple, if you please.”
“Oh,” Ozz blushed, and he casually removed the golden discs from his pockets and dumped them on the floor as gently as he could. “Sure thing, of course.”
She smiled. “Thank you. Farewell, I hope we meet again.”
“Me too, ‘cept I got no plans to come back to this joint. But uh, I’ll see ya when I see ya.”
A fondly amused expression was the last thing on her face before she faded away, and he was left in the dark. A door stood in front of him.
Ozz smiled proudly. “’Most enlightening’…Old Ozzie, who woulda thought!”
Ozz entered the deep archives. The first thing he saw was Eefo, hand on her blaster, and an unaware Nathan. Something in his chest swelled up, and his eyebrows furrowed. She was gonna blast his partner? Not on her life.
“Hey, what’s the big idea?” he shouted, and Eefo spun in alarm. She hastily drew her blaster. “Nate, look out!”
Ozz threw himself into the Rodian researcher, knocking both of them to the floor. The blaster went off harmlessly, a bright red bolt striking an ancient tome and completing its transition to nothing more than a pile of ashes.
Nathan ducked and swiveled. He stared at the prone Eefo. A few seconds and he would’ve been toast.
“Woah, woah! Thanks Ozz!” He suddenly grasped that Ozz was here, and grinned widely. “Ozz! You made it!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ozz said, dusting himself off. Eefo looked trapped. “Had some help. I’ll tell ya about it later. Geez, once a spy, always a spy, huh!”
Eefo glared at him defiantly. “You’ll bring ruin to the galaxy!” she said, her voice trembling.
She stood on shaking legs, and occasionally her eyes darted towards the shelves, wide with fear. She was like an animal, and Nathan felt, most of all, pity. He understood what was driving her.
Nathan grabbed Ozz's arm and pulled him aside. He whispered, "Hey, I'm trying to honor what you said on Yavin, I'm telling you before I do something crazy."
Ozz looked at him warily. "...Kid, whatever you're thinking, you better not risk our profit, here. We're in a golden spot with this!"
"No, I'm not okay with how we've done this. Catching spies is one thing, but blackmailing, threatening deserters to get what we want?" He shook his head firmly. "That's not how I want us to do things."
Ozz looked between his eyes, searching for a way to convince him otherwise. There was no chance. He had no choice but to back down.
"That's...another payout lost, kid. I hope you know what you're doing: we need credits! Finding your girl is gonna take credits, you understand?"
"I know, we'll figure it out! I'm sure we can pick up a side job or something, but...I want to let Eefo go free. She's not even a spy anymore."
Ozz threw up his hands. "Have it your way. But you're the least lucrative partner I've ever had."
"This pays off in other ways, Ozz.” He turned back to the Rodian, approaching her cautiously.
“Hey, I’m not mad that you wanted to shoot me, alright? It’s…well, it’s not okay, Eefo. But I get it.” He stepped forward, and she flinched. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he told her. “We’re going to let you go free. You don’t have to worry about us leaking anything, or telling anyone where you are, okay?”
Eefo raised a brow skeptically. She waited for him to continue.
“Now, I know you think what we’re doing is wrong. But…I wish you could trust me. My intentions are nothing but good, I swear. You’re right that this is dangerous stuff. The Empire is looking for it, and I can’t leave whether they find it or not up to chance. Please, you don’t have to agree, but…don’t shoot me?”
She met his gaze, and gradually seemed to calm. Her eyebrow still twinged in frustration, but she sighed, and the fight had left her.
“Yes. Alright.”
“Great,” Nathan nodded. “Ozz, help me find this book!”
Ozz was already by the stacks, and held up an old pile of slates bound together with rope. “Was it ‘Balaam’?”
“Yeah, why—“
“Here ya go.”
He passed the slates to Nathan. Sure enough, Balaam’s name was on them.
“No way,” Nathan said, staring. “Ozz, thank you!”
“No problem,” he shrugged, unaware of his partners efforts to do what he’d just done in one glance.
“We’ve got what we needed. Let’s go see sunlight again, huh?”
Eefo led them back through the tunnels until they found the staircase they’d originally descended. They were cheered to see the light flooding through the open archways of the temple doors. Cold wind filled their ears as they crossed the old atrium floor and ventured out into the open air.
They gasped in horror when they saw the sky.
An Imperial Light Cruiser lay in the upper atmosphere. A small, white shape was gliding down towards them; a shuttle.
“Aw, hell,” Ozz grunted, slumping hopelessly.
“No!” Eefo screamed. “No! They’re coming for the temple!”
Nathan blanched, and held Balaam’s slates tightly under his arm. “We’ve got to get out of here. We can’t fight that thing.”
“The temple is bad enough, but we must not lead them to the Searchers! The unencrypted archives, the research, they cannot be allowed to have it!”
His jaw firmly set, Nathan made a decision. “Ride back to the outpost, I’ll hold them here.”
“Kid,” Ozz said weakly. “What the keff are you gonna do?”
A plan was formulating in his mind. Nathan approached the small conductor Eefo had planted in the ground when they’d arrived.
“Eefo, show me how to work this thing. Then you both go, get to safety!”
“Hey, kid,” Ozz said, his tone full of worry in a way Nathan had never heard.
“Yeah?”
“We’re gonna come back for you. Just hold out, okay? Trust in the…the force, or whatever. You better be alive when I get here.”
“I’ll do my best,” Nathan shrugged. “Chances aren’t great.”
A grin broke on Ozz’s face. “Oy, bring back the optimism. You’re downright depressing, you know that?”
“I’ll bring back the optimism when we make some money, how about that.”
“Oh, so never.”
“Well, never say never!”
“Ha! There it is,” Ozz grinned. He patted Nathan on the side. “Take care, kid. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Geez, what’s gotten into you?”
“Oh, shut up. I dunno, had some time to think while I was in those tunnels. Anyway, enough dwaddling! Let’s get this show on the road!”
“Yeah, I’ll see you in a bit, Ozz.”
A few minutes later, Ozz and Eefo sped back towards camp, Balaam’s slates in hand.
Alone at the entrance to the temple, Nathan waited for the shuttle to touch down.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 505/1. Photo: Oliver-Film. Paul Heidemann in Die Liebesfalle (N.N., 1917).
Paul Heidemann (1884-1968) was a German stage and screen actor, and also a film director and producer. In the silent period, he was famous for his comical parts.
Paul Heidemann was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1884. After an initial career in the tobacco branch he took acting lessons at the Meiningen based court actor Leopold Teller. In 1906 he debuted in Hanau as Prince Karl-Heinz in the operetta Alt-Heidelberg. In 1909 he joined the Theatre of Breslau, where he sang in Bruno Granichstaedten’s operetta Bub oder Mädel. Here Heidemann created his reputation as a talented comedian. On the recommendation of composer Jean Gilbert, he moved to Berlin in 1911, where he debuted in Gilbert’s play Die keusche Susanne. Franz Porten discovered Heidemann for the cinema, where he played his first lead in Das Brandmal ihrer Vergangenheit (1912), followed by films such as Ihr Unteroffizier (1914), Ein nettes Pflänzchen (1916) und Der Diplomatensäugling (1919). From 1913 to 1915 he played the character Teddy in countless comical shorts, such as Teddy ist herzkrank (1914), Teddys Geburtstagsgeschenk (1915) and Teddy züchtet Notkartoffeln (1915); sometimes he directed these as well. Between 1919 and 1923, Heidemann had his own production company, Paul Heidemann-Film GmbH in Berlin, where he played the lead in films initially mostly directed by Erich Schönefelder and later on rather by Georg Schubert and Heidemann himself. A late example is Eine kleine Freundin braucht ein jeder Mann (Paul Heidemann, 1927), starring Heidemann but also Julius Falkenstein, Hans Albers, Siegfried Arno, and Charlotte Ander.
In the 1920s, Paul Heidemann became an important supporting actor and sometimes leading actor in all kinds of films, in particular comedies, such as Die Bergkatze (Ernst Lubitsch, 1921) with Pola Negri, So sind die Männer (Georg Jacoby, 1922) with Harry Liedtke, Der Sprung ins Leben (Johannes Guter, 1923) with Xenia Desni, Das süsse Mädel (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Mary Nolan and Mary Parker, Die dritte Eskadron (Carl Wilhelm, 1926) with Claire Rommer, Flucht aus der Hölle (Georg Asagaroff, 1928) with Heidemann, Jean Murat and Agnes Esterhazy, and Flucht vor der Liebe (Hans Behrendt, 1928) with Jenny Jugo and Enrico Benfer. Simultaneously Heidemann acted on the Berlin stages, mainly in operettas. When in the early 1930s military comedies were popular, Heidemann acted in various military farces such as Wenn die Soldaten... (Luise & Jakob Fleck, 1931) with Otto Walburg, Schön ist die Manöverzeit (Erich Schönfelder, 1931) with Ida Wüst, Die Mutter der Kompanie (Franz Seitz senior, 1931), Drei von der Kavallerie (Carl Boese, 1932) with Paul Hörbiger and Fritz Kampers, and Liebe in Uniform (Georg Jacoby, 1932). Heidemann also acted in many successful films of the 1930s, often as sidekick of the favourite actor Hans Albers. Among the most well-known productions are Die grosse Sehnsucht (Stefan Szekelty, 1930) with Camilla Horn and Theodor Loos, Ihre Hoheit befielt (Hanns Schwarz, 1930-1931), Der tolle Bomberg (Georg Asagaroff, 1932) with Heidemann in the lead, Ganovenehre (Richard Oswald, 1932) with Fritz Kampers, Paprika (Carl Boese, 1932) with Franziska Gaal, Narren im Schnee (Hans Deppe, 1938) with Anny Ondra, and Schneider Wibbel (Viktor de Kowa, 1939) with Erich Ponto.
During the Second World War, Paul Heidemann worked again as film director and staged some film comedies, such as Mein Mann darf es nicht wissen (1940) with Mady Rahl, Krach im Vorderhaus (1941) again with Rahl, Weisse Wäsche (1942) with Harald Paulsen, and Floh im Ohr (1943), even if the films were not huge hits. In the 1950s he acted both in BDR and DDR films, playing Presskopp in the old Berlin farce Ein Polterabend (Curt Bois, 1955) and the mayor in Bärenburger Schnurre (Ralf Kirsten, 1957). He also acted then in films like Torreani (Gustav Fröhlich, 1951), Der keusche Josef (Carl Boese 1953), Rittmeister Wronski (Ulrich Erfurth, 1954), Der Mustergatte (Erik Ode, 1956) and Jede Nacht in einem anderen Bett (Paul Verhoeven 1956-1957). Paul Heidemann died in Berlin in 1968.
Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Defa-sternstunden.de, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Toa Poraru is mostly a color-swapped Emperor clone with some minor changes, but this is deliberate since they're the same character, technically. Their torso may seem the most variant, but the structure is actually 100% the same, however instead of Armor Poraru just uses fabric to cover it up. One "non-canon" difference is that Poraru is one unit shorter - The Mata head limits posability when using a 3-length axle, but the neck looks comically long with a 4-length, however with the Emperor, I could use the cape to compensate. In Poraru's case, there is no cape and he'd look really stupid with a longer neck.
Backstory:
Toa Poraru was once a completely ordinary and uninteresting Toa of Stone. He had some misgivings about the Toa code and sometimes was vocal about this, but other than this, he was a by-the-book Toa doing his duty. He and his Toa team protected their small village somewhere in a minor island of the Southern Isles. His life was entirely unremarkable until a few centuries before Teridax's uprising, a Makuta went mad on the Northern Continent (presumably due to a poorly conducted experiment) and went into a crazed rampage. The Brotherhood wanted to contain him, but were unsuccessful, and fearing a controversy, instead "lured" the Makuta southward.
Poraru's team heard in advance of what was coming their way, and planned to intercept the enraged Makuta in a region far from their village. They succeeded in this endeavor, and together the six of them even managed to defeat the Makuta, however it was in a complete blood-rage and wouldn't give up. Poraru's suggestion to "put the Makuta out of its misery" was repeatedly rejected by the leader of the team citing the Toa Code. However, their attempts to contain the bestial creature failed, and after escaping, it headed straight for their village. By the time the Toa arrived, the village was in ruins and the Matoran massacred. This was the last straw for Poraru - the Toa Code which in the past had merely inconvenienced him, was now directly responsible for the death of those he swore to protect. Desiring vengeance, he set off to kill the Makuta, and was joined by two other Toa from his team who shared his views, while the other three remained and effectively exiled them.
They tracked down the Makuta, and since they now fought to kill, their change in strategy caught him off-guard, allowing them to injure him severely. Alas, once again, their prey got away. In retaliation for the injury, it swing back to the ruins and ambushed the three Toa who refused to hunt him down. Blaming themselves for the death of their brothers, Poraru and the other two Toa swore to finally end the rampage of this crazed Makuta. On their third confrontation, thanks to the injury, they finally killed him - however only Poraru survived the conflict.
Having lost any purpose in life, he began wandering about the Southern Isles. At one point, in a seedy inn, he overheard a boastful merchant from Stelt bragging about finding a source of Energized Protodermis which wasn't under the control of either the Brotherhood of Makuta nor the Hand of Arthaka. He "persuaded" the merchant to reveal the location of the font, and travelled there immediately. He knew that anyone coming into contact with energized protodermis is either killed, or, provided they yet have an unfulfilled destiny, changed. If he dies, so be it, but if this would give him a new purpose, all the better.
Upon arriving to the cave, he was surprised to see that the merchant did not mislead him, and plunged into the pool. When he emerged, he saw his reflection on nearby crystal formations - he hadn't changed much, but the color of his armor was now black and silver. In his mind floated, ever present, two words - "Emperor" and "Unity". He was compelled to return to the site of his former village. On this journey, he began making some realizations. His control over Stone was gone, replaced by telepathic, telekinetic and teleconductive abilities. Then, he realized he can revert to his old form at will, and then his control over Stone returns at the expense of his new abilities. In dream, he realized his new purpose in life was to achieve absolute Unity across the known world. For this, he'd need followers. During his journeys, he sought out disenfranchised warriors, exiled Toa, former Dark Hunters and any other beings who would follow him. They returned to his old home and founded the United Southern Empire.
Planning his expansion, a single problem constantly returned - Metru Nui. He hadn't the military force to conquer it, and it would never join the Empire willingly so long as it was governed by a Turaga and overseen by a Makuta. If he'd push northward gradually, annexing and conquering smaller lands and working his way up, they'd make note of the threat and send an army of Toa against him. However, he had one advantage - everyone who knew he once broke the Toa code was dead. As far as Metru Nui was concerned, Poraru was still Toa Poraru. And thus the plan was born - he alone would venture north, while his lieutenants would continue the conquest of the south. He, as Poraru, would infiltrate the Toa order, while as the Emperor would gain the support of other factions, so that unwittingly all players in the north would further the imperial cause.
His plan was upended by Teridax's uprising against the Great Spirit, and during his Reign of Shadows, the Emperor fought alongside the Toa Resistance against Teridax's forces, all the while ensuring the secret of Poraru and he being one and the same didn't get out. When Teridax fell and Spherus Magna was united, the Emperor led his people to a new home, from which they would endeavor to unite this new world.
For the rest of this story, check out the description under the other MOC, "The Emperor".
Remember him in the hit TV series "Heartbeat"?
(He played the lovable village buffoon David Stockwell.)
He lives here in Southport and writes a local weekly newspaper column. Yesterday I snapped him in Southport's 'Wayfarers Shopping Arcade ' presenting prizes at a local Halloween fancy dress competition.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbeat_(UK_TV_series)
" Comical village buffoon. Originally it was subtly suggested that David had severe learning disabilities and possibly some kind of mental disability, having to be cared for by his mother, Florence (who appeared in a single episode, 3.8 "Endangered Species", in which his father was said to be unknown). However, as his appearances became more regular these elements were toned down, and he grew into more of a comedy character: clumsy, slow-witted, easily led and uneducated, but with the proverbial "heart of gold".
Due to his gullible nature he became a dogsbody first to Claude Greengrass, then Vernon Scripps, then Peggy Armstrong. David's signature gesture is to whip his hat off when he meets another person, or to scrunch it up in his hands when he is nervous or worried. David earned a living of sorts by doing odd jobs such as making deliveries, digging graves, gardening, and driving a taxi (originally for Vernon Scripps, though after the latter's departure from the series David was apparently self-employed as a taxi driver, with his base being Bernie's garage, where he also acts as a mechanic). David originally "worked" for and lived with Claude Greengrass, and he took on Greengrass' house when the latter emigrated. Later Vernon Scripps moved in with David, until he too left the series.
David's last "house guest" was his aunt Peggy (Armstrong), who took it upon herself to move in with him. For many years David was accompanied by a lurcher dog called Alfred, which originally belonged to Greengrass. Alfred's death upset David greatly, but the grief was lessened by Peggy's gift of a new dog "Deefer" (from "D for dog"). In Series 17, a pregnant Gina Ward informed David that she wanted him to be her baby's godfather. "
Italian postcard by Tip. Sent by mail in 1922.
Ferdinand Guillaume (1887-1977) was an Italian comical actor, famous in the 1910s as Tontolini and Polidor.
Ferdinand(o) Guillaume, the son of a well-bred European circus family once fled from France during the Revolution, was enrolled by the Cines company in 1910 together with his brother Natale and their wives. Guillaume was launched as the character Tontolini, in 1912 also known in Britain and the US as Jenkins. Guillaume provided Cines and Italy an international reputation in the field of comical films. His circus background was a clear consistency in his films. Actress Lea Giunchi was married to Natale (Natalino) Guillaume and often played as 'Lea' in the Tontolini comedies, before becoming the regular film partner of Kri-Kri (Raymond Frau), who more or less substituted Guillaume when the latter moved over to Pasquali.
After some 100 shorts as Tontolini, and after the success of his first feature-length film, Pinocchio (Giulio Antamoro, 1911), Ferdinand Guillaume went over to the Pasquali company. Here he created the character of Polidor (named after a horse in his previous circus shows), continuing his double profession of leading actor and director, being often the scriptwriter of his films too. Shooting some 100 films, up to four films a month, in the years 1912-1914, the Polidor films were distributed all over Europe and the US. Guillaume's output shrunk considerately from the outbreak of the First World War, although he still had a large output in 1916-1917. Guillaume managed to pursue a constant career in cinema until 1920, when his brother died in a plane crash dring the shooting of a film. Guillaume had occasional come-backs in sound cinema, as in Fellini’s films Le notti di Cabiria (1957) and La dolce vita (1960), and in Pasolini's Accatone (1961). His last film part was that of an old actor in Fellini's Toby Dammitt (1968).
Sources: Ivo Blom (Encyclopedia of Early Cinema), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
In a slightly comical turn events, as I was setting up my camera on tripod while chasing this supercell near Seymour Texas, this group of cows, who were grazing nearby, got curious and literally ran over to check out who I was and what I was doing. They stood there staring at me for a bit as I started taking photos then went on to do cow things...
#26 -- Comical -- 119 Pictures in 2019
Since the theme of this year's Snowdown Parade was "Comics," does that mean that every parade entry is by definition comical? Here are several dozen "Jane Jetson" Dancing Divas, coming down 5th Street, sort of in step.
I ordered a comical number of UV filters and lens caps. In late December, I took stock of the lenses I owned that (A) were missing proper caps and filters and (B) I cared about. The number was sufficient that I now have the resulting tower of (mostly single use plastic) packaging on my table.
With Captain Bison, stout and tall
Miss Zebu went to grace the ball.
She took the gallant Captain's arm,
And just by Pig and Peacock Farm,
Before them in full dress, they saw
Admiral Chataway Macaw.
He bowed politely, so did they,
And to the Hall they went their way.
This comical looking creature with the oversized wings is another member of the planthopper family, this time in a sub-family with the tongue-twisting name "Dictyopharidae".
...
Dictyopharidae is a family of bugs in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha belonging to the suborder Fulgoromorpha.
Technical info:
Canon 100mm f2.8 L macro lens + 20mm ET + Raynox DCR-250
1/80
f16
ISO200
pop-up flash + DIY diffuser
Explored!
View On Black Photo ©2010 Angela A. Stanton, All rights reserved. Contact: angela@stantonphotostudios.com for further information.
Playing a bit with creativity--actually I created this for my entry to the monthly "educational" analysis by a creative study group I participate in as member of PSA (the American Photographic Association), which you can find here: www.psaphoto.org/Group40/member5.htm. We change pictures around the 10th of each month and comment on each other's pictures by the 25th of each months. Some of the members are senior photographers with a ton of experience and most in the Creative Groups also have a ton of experience with Photoshop and/or Corel and other tools. So this month I decided to combine painting with photograph and make the comical into something a bit more serious. of course, as art goes, it is in the eye of the beholder... Say no more. =)
Sorry for putting it on in a rather small size... piracy is active and well alive... this piece has been uploaded to my website in full size at www.stantonphotostudios.com in the Photo Art folder. So if you wish to see the full size, check it out there. After clicking on the picture, click on "slide show" and hit the pause button immediately on your screen. This is the first picture in the folder. It will cover your monitor, no matter how big--it is a big file.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Enjoy your weekend everyone!! happy 4th of july!
Hey, guys! I have a request. Can someone please clone out this woman for me? I'm horrible at cloning lol. I can email it to you and give you a shoutout after you do it. I just thought her unintentionally pointing at these cars in my shot was pretty funny XD. If you can clone her out, please send me a Flickr PM. Best wishes,
Nathan
i know~color of chimpanzee is black but i don't like black ^^
really i like the face of this model~
folded from CP.
A trio of comic characters on the side of the big rubber castle on Clevedon sea front. As Coulportste pointed out it's Woody, Jess and Buzz from the Toy Story films.
White cockatoos (genus Cacatua), collectively known as corellas in Australia. They screech, hang about and generally have a lot of fun.
ODC March 29 Comedy
EXPLORED Dec 2, 09 #309
A 1st century BC Hellenistic gargoyle representing a comical cook-slave from Ai Khanoum, Afghanistan. The term gargoyle is most often applied to medieval work, but throughout all ages some means of water diversion, when not conveyed in gutters, was adopted. In Egypt, gargoyles ejected the water used in the washing of the sacred vessels which seems to have been done on the flat roofs of the temples. In Greek temples, the water from roofs passed through the mouths of lions whose heads were carved or modeled in the marble or terracotta cymatium of the cornice.
A local legend that sprang up around the name of St. Romanus (AD 631–641), the former chancellor of the Merovingian king Clotaire II who was made bishop of Rouen, relates how he delivered the country around Rouen from a monster called Gargouille or Goji, having the creature captured by the only volunteer, a condemned man. The gargoyle's grotesque form was said to scare off evil spirits so they were used for protection. In commemoration of St. Romain the Archbishops of Rouen were granted the right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession (see details at Rouen).
Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras. The most famous examples are those of Notre Dame de Paris. Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles.
Both ornamented and unornamented water spouts projecting from roofs at parapet level were a common device used to shed rainwater from buildings until the early eighteenth century. From that time, more and more buildings employed downpipes to carry the water from the guttering at roof level to the ground and only very few buildings using gargoyles were constructed. In 1724, the London Building Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain made the use of downpipes compulsory on all new construction.
Gargoyles and the Church
Gargoyle located in Paris on Notre DameGargoyles were viewed two ways by the church throughout history. On one hand the gargoyles were used as a representation of evil. It is thought that they were used to scare people into coming to church, reminding them that the end of days is near. It’s also thought to give them some assurance that evil is kept outside of the church’s walls.
On the other hand the medieval clergy viewed gargoyles as a form of idolatry. Animals were viewed as soulless beings in the eyes of the Catholic Church. In the 12th century a church leader named St. Bernard of Clairvaux was famous for speaking out against the various forms of animals and monsters hanging on his church.
The Animals
In the medieval world many creatures had mystical powers attributed to them. Also, human qualities were sometimes ascribed to specific animals - that is, the animals were anthropormorphized. Below is a list of some animals commonly used as gargoyles, and the meanings behind them.
Lion
Lions were the most common non-native animal crafted as a gargoyle in the medieval period. In ancient times, the lion was linked to the sun, most likely due to its golden mane bearing similarity to the solar wreath of the sun. During the medieval period lions became the symbol of pride, one of the 7 deadly sins. Cats other than lions were rare among gargoyle carvings because of their dark nature and association with Satanism and Witchcraft.
Dog
Dogs were the most common native animal crafted as a gargoyle. Dogs were seen as faithful, loyal, and intelligent, making them excellent guardians.
Wolf
Although the wolf was a feared creature in medieval times, it was also respected. Wolves ability to live and cooperate as a pack gave rise to the metaphor that a wolf could be a leader of a pack and protect the members. This was linked to priests who would fight of the evil of the Devil for the common folk. The wolf was also linked to the deadly sin of greed.
Eagle
A powerful bird who was said to be able to slay dragons. Eagles were respected for their ability to see far away objects, and were also said to renew themselves by looking into the sun (accounting for the glint always seen in the eagle’s eye in paintings).
Snake
From the story of Adam and Eve, the serpent represents a struggle between good and evil. The serpent was related to the deadly sin ‘envy’. They were also thought to be immortal due to the shedding of their skin. This gave rise to the symbol for immortality being the Ouroboros, a serpent with a tail in its mouth.
Goat
The goat had two viewpoints in medieval times. One perspective was that the goat was equated with Christ due to its ability to climb steep slopes and find edible food. On the other side it was seen as a symbol for lust and even linked to Satan.
Monkey
Monkeys were seen as what happened to humans when nature went awry. They were thought to be stupid creatures, and their intelligence was misrepresented as cunning. The monkey was linked to the deadly sin of ‘sloth’.
Chimeras
Chimeras are merely mixes of different types of animal body parts to create a new creature. Some of the more notiable chimeras are griffins, centaurs, harpies, and mermaids. Chimeras often served as a warning to people who underestimated the devil.
thanks for the texture Kenny... www.flickr.com/photos/photohound/
Spanish postcard. Photo Pathé.
Charles Prince (1872-1933), aka just ‘Prince’, was a French film actor, director and writer. He was famous for his countless comical shorts with his alter ego Rigadin.
Charles Ernest René Petitdemange - better known as Charles Prince - was born at Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines) in 1872 – though some mention his birthplace as Petitdemange, near Paris. Prince’s father was a manufacturer of artificial silk and had planned for his son to study commerce and assist him. Prince chose otherwise. He had his theatrical debut in 1896 at the Theatre de l’Odéon in the play 'La Bodinière', using a first pseudonym: Seigneur. Around the turn-of-the-century, Charles took the stage name of Prince. He became a popular boulevard theatre star, cherished for his comic performances at the Theatre des Variétés, as in 'Ma Tante de Honfleur'. After a decade, Pathé Frères hired him in 1908 to act in their films. Right from the beginning almost all of his films were directed by Georges Monca, mostly for the Pathé subsidiary SCAGL (Société Cinématographique des Auteurs et Gens de Lettres). Already in 1909, Prince acted in almost 20 shorts such as a few with Mistinguett, e.g. Fleur de pavé (Michel Carré, Albert Capellani, 1909). This number greatly increased in the subsequent year 1910, when Prince introduced his character of Rigadin: ¾ of his film performances that year - over 30 films - were as Rigadin. Monca also directed all of the Rigadin shorts. While in 1911 Prince played in 23 Rigadin comedies, 1912 was a top year with 45 Rigadin shorts. In 1913 some Prince did 30 Rigadin shorts and in 1914 22 ones despite the outbreak of the First World War and the temporary collapse of the French film industry then. In the early 1910s Prince/Rigadin was extremely popular throughout the world, rivalling – the now better-known - Max Linder. What both actors helped, was that they worked for Pathé, the first multinational in film history, which had a clockwork production output, massive distribution and promotion around the globe, and even its own global network of cinemas. In Germany Rigadin was known as Moritz, in Britain and the US as Whiffles, in Italy as Tartufini, in Spain as Salustiano, and in Russia as Prenz. Prince/Rigadin had a remarkable face with a curling lip showing his teeth and an upturned nose, for which he even mocked himself in Le Nez de Rigadin (1911).
As Rigadin, Prince often played the bourgeois who gets in trouble with authorities or with love interests, because of his timidity and clumsiness. Just like Prince’s previous stage performances, the Rigadin comedies thus mocked pre-war bourgeois drama and their main topic of amour, even if Prince himself occasionally acted in these bourgeois dramas as well. In contrast to the previous anarchic comedy at Pathé and other companies, Rigadin was inspired by vaudeville and light stage comedy, and so Prince’s character stuck to ‘white collar’ respectability and convention while being pestered by mothers-in-law or his own mistresses. In Rigadin n’aime pas le vendredi 13 (1911) for instance, Rigadin has dinner with his fiancée and her parents, but it is Friday the 13th and Rigadin is so superstitious that everything goes wrong. In La Garçonnière de Rigadin (1912) Rigadin lends his bachelor flat to his future father-in-law, not knowing ‘Papa’ is going to use it for his secret rendezvous. In contrast to Linder, Prince also made Rigadin do countless transformations in all kinds of professions, from domestic, cook, chestnut seller, poet, singer and explorer to the president of the French Republic and Napoleon. In Rigadin peintre cubiste (1912) Prince mocked avant-garde art by having Rigadin and his model wear angular clothes. In Rigadin aux Balkans (1912) Prince played a war cameraman who fakes scenes for the camera in France. During the First World War, the number of Rigadin comedies went down from some 20 films in 1915, to 16 in 1916, 13 in 1917, and 11 in 1918. Still, all in all, Prince must have acted in some 200 shorts as of 1908, mostly Rigadin comedies. Prince also experimented with the exchange between stage and screen. In the war revue show Nouvelle Revue, shown at the Paris Theatre Antoine in 1915, a notary Rigadin from the countryside is appalled by a film poster suggesting he has an affair with a girl and visits a Parisian cinema. There he speaks to the Rigadin on the screen, until the other turns around and starts to speak with him. When the notary tries to pursue him, he is suddenly in the film…
In all of these years, the number of films in which Prince wasn’t Rigadin was really small. As of 1913, Prince acted in long(er) features as well, mostly dramas. In 1913 he thus acted opposite Léon Bernard and Suzanne Demay in the SCAGL production Les Surprises du divorce, directed by Monca. Then followed Le Bon juge, Le Coup de fouet, Ferdinand le noceur, Le Fils à papa and Monsieur le directeur, all co-directed in 1913 by Monca and Prince himself. Subsequent long films co-directed by Prince were in 1914 Les Trente millions de Gladiator, Bébé, La Famille Boléro, La Femme à papa (all co-directed by Prince) and Les Fiançés héroïques (Monca 1914), in 1915 L’Auréole de la gloire and La Main dans le sac (both by Monca), in 1916 La Mariée récalcitrante (Monca, Prince). In 1919-1921 Prince played in a few feature-length comedies, again all directed by Monca, such as Les Femmes collantes (1919-1920) and Madame et son filleul (1919). One last time he played in a Rigadin short, probably mocking his own dissatisfaction or that of the spectators, as the title was Prince embêté par Rigadin (1920). By the early 1920s, though, not only the popularity of Rigadin but also that of Prince had faded, and for years Prince didn’t act in film anymore. After one last silent film in 1928 (Embrassez-moi by Robert Péguy and Max de Rieux), he did have an active career in early French sound cinema between 1930 and 1933, but now in supporting roles, as in Maurice Tourneur’s Partir (1931) and Pierre Colombier’s Sa Meilleure cliente (1932), starring Elvire Popesco and René Lefèvre. Prince died at Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (Val-de-Marne) in 1933. Unfortunately, his tomb was destroyed. In 1900 Prince married vaudeville and film actress Miss (Aimée) Campton (1882-1930), whose original name was Emily Strahan Cager. Campton was the cousin of Paul Derval, director of the Folies-Bergères. They had one daughter Renée (1901-1993). In 1914 Prince married his second wife Gabrielle (1883-1974). Prince's great-grandson is French film director Cris Ubermann.
Sources: Richard Abel (The Ciné Goes to Town), The Bioscope, Eva Krivanec (Theatre und Medien/Theatre and the Media), Adrien Vernardin (Le Musée du Music-Hall), Bibliothèque du Film, Wikipedia (French and English), IMDb, and various obituaries in newspapers.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
A bar patron lights a cigarette with a large facsimile of a Zippo lighter at a pub in Uptown Dallas.
I was standing next to the Stegosaurus sculpture when I captured this shot of some tourists about to be eaten by the rather comical looking T-Rex of Sugar Mill Gardens. So UN-scary is this dinosaur, that children feel no threat standing in front of it, even with its teeth bared, and looking ready to attack! No need to yell, "Look out!" here, though. These sculptures made of chicken wire and concrete have been here since the late 1940's into the early 50's, and are two of the last remaining 5 that have survived. Unlike the ruins, the sculptures, like most outdoor art in the Daytona area, have no protection from the elements, and have fallen prey to vandalism and intense weathering. That said, they do try to preserve the sculptures a bit, having made repairs when the T-Rex's fingers were falling off, and adding the fences around them to discourage children from climbing on them, though I would imagine this is more to guard against lawsuits than damage to the art.
In its heyday, this place was known as Bongoland, and was one of the first theme parks in Florida. There were some 25 sculptures back then, and I've yet to see any photos of the ones that no longer remain. Still standing are these two, the T-Rex and the Stegosaurus, a Dimetrodon, a Tricerotops, and a Giant Ground Sloth.
Daily Dog Challenge: Comical
Our Daily Topic: On Display
Miss Maggie is definitely a source of comedy in this house. She used to sleep either in her bed at the foot of ours, or on our bed. Lately we find her all over the house. This is one of her favorites -- inside my closet under my long dresses. Just makes yourself right at home, Miss Maggie.
(Alas this is an iPhone pic, and unlike many, I have not mastered the iPhone camera. Although not one of my best images, it was just too darn cute not to share!)
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The usual comical, frantic, jerky feeding behavior of this egret usually allows it to be identified from a great distance off even though you cannot discern any of its field marks. It's my favorite large wader to watch trying to secure a meal. This bird, however was remarkably subdued... it was uncharacteristically calm and patient! This behavior is more typical for its larger cousin: Great Egret.
IMG_8985; Reddish Egret
I am currently involved in a local theater production of Romeo & Juliet. A dare of sorts from family members much more involved in the theater than I, and it has been a fun show if not sometimes comical as being the engineer turned amateur actor on stage. Something it has afforded me is the chance to read between my scenes; and a few factors turned my heart from the hot arid nights on stage in the Utah desert back towards my brief time in Scotland last year (okay, it was mostly the re-run of Bachmann's Caledonian 812; and then seeing the Rapido Caledonian single, and the matching Evolution coaches, and the Caledonian vans, and the Jones Goods engine and the Sonic Models Glen Class and... well you know).
So um, what better chance to try and prevent buying all the model trains that vaguely tie to Scotland than try to satiate my memory by reading Waverley, the book famous for "giving the train station its name." I got into the third volume tonight and in a roundabout twist of reading, Edward Waverley was asked by a party of Jacobites wishing to pass the time away during Bonnie Prince Charlie's unsuccessful siege of Edinburgh Castle to read a bit of Shakespeare. Waverley, the English gentleman turned compatriot to the Scottish rebels; chooses Romeo & Juliet. By the end of the reading, the audience reacts to their love of Mercutio "even if we didn't understand all the jokes in that old language" and mourn the tragic death of that "Tibbert or Taggart fellow," and Waverley caught in divided romantic ambitions himself decides to abandon his pursuit of a "Rosalind" in favor of seeking the fair hand of Juliet (I am sure this pointed literary reference can in no way be setting up Waverley for some future tragedy!)
I had to inform the fellow castmates that from here on out our show should feature some "Tibbert or Taggart fellow" like Sir. Walter Scott described. For a moment, I was in three places at once; there in the desert air in our own Shakespeare in the park, with Edward Waverley in a house in Edinburgh in 1745 when the Young Pretender/Chevalier held court in Holyroodhouse; and back on my own brief few days in the modern tourist friendly city.
Turning back to last year, on a spring day in Edinburgh; a ScotRail HST set departs Waverley station, under the gave of the monument to the author whose titular character gave this place its name. The diesel train set, a late-1970's early-1980's creation famous for its ability to sprint at 125 MPH; is an increasingly rare sight in the UK as more and more rail operators retire their HST fleets; although a few have found a second life in Mexico.
For the past two summers I have been working almost exclusively with the ever comical Atlantic Puffin. These images are a small selection from this project to view more please visit www.kevinmorgans.com or alternatively follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kevinmorgansphotography/
Italian postcard. 'Hobby'. 1950s.
Nino Besozzi, born Giuseppe Besozzi (Milan, February 6, 1901 - Milan, February 2, 1971), was a popular Italian comical stage and screen actor, who excelled in 1930s Italian comedy.
Besozzi made his stage debut in Siena in 1919 with the Calò Company, and then joined various companies alongside artists such as Irma Gramatica, Luigi Cimara, Andreina Pagnani, Ruggero Ruggeri, Vera Vergani, Virgilio Talli, and Vittorio De Sica, revealing particular talents in the comic genre. From 1931 to the second post-war period he alternated theater and cinema, specializing in parts of a casual and brilliant young man in the context of the comic-sentimental repertoire of "white telephones" and often paired with Elsa Merlini in films such as Goffredo Alessandrini's La segretaria privata (1931), Besozzi's film debut, and T'amerò sempre by Mario Camerini (1933). In the first he is a banker who treats a new typist (Elsa Merlini) as a flirt, so he is taught a lesson. In the latter, he is a shop accountant who defends a hairdresser (Elsa de Giorgi) with an illegitimate child against the aristocratic scoundrel (Mino Doro) who wants to keep her his mistress despite an upcoming marriage. In the same years, Besozzi made his first fleeting appearances before the radio microphone, as in Goldoni's Le gelosie di Lindoro (1932), with Dina Galli. As for the theater, in this period he founded the famous Besozzi-Falconi Company, together with Armando Falconi.
Distinguished also in dramatic roles, from 1946 he imposed himself on the theater especially in the brilliant repertoire, interpreting works such as Siamo tutti milanesi by Arnaldo Fraccaroli and I morti non pagano by Nicola Manzari. Gifted with a flexible voice, with which he also played through nasal effects, he took part in various radio broadcasts, especially in the 1950s: from magazines such as Zig Zag (1950) and Fermo posta (1956) to comedies such as Gondinet's Viaggio di piacere (1956, directed by Convalli), Bettina by de Musset (1958, directed by Meloni) and Ricordati by Cesare di Davion (1959, directed by Brissoni), with Lina Volonghi and Alfredo Bianchini.
Besozzi made his debut on television in 1956 participating in the variety Lui, lei e gli altri, a sort of sitcom ante litteram. Later he engaged in television prose, but also in variety shows such as Un due tre and Con loro (1956), he was among the interpreters of the TV series Mont Oriol (1958) and Il Conte di Montecristo (1966). Among his latest radio interpretations were Ipotesi strutturale by Plebe and Di Martino (1969, directed by Giuseppe Di Martino) and Bowen's Il vestito di pizzo (1970, directed by Michele Bandini). Nino Besozzi was also an outstanding caricaturist, draftsman, and painter.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian), and IMDb.
No known copyright restrictions. Please credit UBC Library as the image source. For more information, see digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/about.
Creator: Unknown
Date Created: 1923
Source: Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. Arkley Croquet Collection.
Permanent URL: digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/ref/collection/arkl...
Almost comical in its representation of the endemic polar bear this rusty old sign with the caption Арктикуголь Шпицберген (Arcticcoal Spitsbergen) stands in Pyramiden, a Russian enclave occupied under the Svalbard Treaty of 1920. The coal miners left it here when they deserted the place in 1998.
None of this means the Russians have given it up. They haven't. There is a permanent presence and indeed, if you visit, you will be met, greeted and guided by Russians.
In an odd twist, whereas Article 9 of the Treaty forbids the use of Svalbard for war-like purposes, Norwegian authorities have recently intercepted a Russian national at Tromsø airport in contravention of sanctions banning his alleged actions while in Norway. Descriptions of his possessions suggest espionage at a tense time where Russian expansionism, military aggression and sabotage are suspected. And where was he headed? Why, to Svalbard, of course, and a convenient location of Russian territory. Watch this space!