View allAll Photos Tagged foreshadowing
Ava as young Miss Havisham who, in Chatles Dickens' "Great Expectations," is a decrepit old woman who has never taken off her decades old wedding dress since her fiancé stood her up on their wedding day.
Here, young Miss Havisham awaits the arrival of her beloved Mr. Compeyson who told her that he would meet her for a picnic the day after Easter...
Miss Havisham began the day in a state of happiness and excitement. "I have prepared such a wonderful picnic that will so impress my Mr. Compeyson. He will think of it as a foreshadowing of a blissful married life."
"I wish we had been able to spend Easter together; but next year, I shall be Mrs. Compeyson and we shall never be apart. In a way, I suppose that I'm celebrating the end of holidays without my beloved."
As hours go by, Miss Havisham is bewildered that Mr. Compeyson has not yet arrived...
As more time goes by, she is frozen in a state of embarrassment. She is not angry with her fiancé--"Something very important must have caused this delay," she thinks. She is, however, panic-stricken by what others--particularly her cousin Matthew who has warned her that Compeyson does not love her--will think of her if they know of her terribly disappointing experience.
Soon, she is more fixated on fabricating a story to tell Matthew in order to save face than she is on Compeyson's standing her up...
"I must find a way to make it seem that everything turned out beautifully. I shall say that Mr. Compeyson did come, though he could only stay a short while. I shall also declare that our little picnic was a veritable paradise!"
Though relieved, Miss Havisham still cannot bring herself to pack up all of the delightful sandwiches, pastries and drinks which she intended her fiancé to see as a demonstration of her love.
Day turns to evening as the ravishing young woman sits frozen in place at the picnic site, failing to notice the army of ants marching over the little feast into which she had put her heart....
I saw this fallen tree along the creek near my home back in March. I found the many twists and angles intriguing. Turns out this fallen old timer foreshadowed the loss of many if its kind in the tornadoes that blew through earlier this year. I think it is very well worth viewing large as there is some interesting color and detail in tiny yellow blossoms and even a bit of greenery growing in the top left part of the large trunk and the upper part of the young un's trunk.
By the way every time I stare at the center of this thing I see a different image. Some beautiful and some rather frightening...
One of my SM favorites to go along with this image: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMuEw-9t9Xs
Thanks for your comments, invites and faves! Still fighting a dragon but expecting my life to be normal from now on. Have a great Tuesday!
Earlier in the trip Alex got a Big Mac and special ordered an extra patty on it. I guess it was foreshadowing what we would end up seeing later that week. A loaded coal train broken up into two sections waits for clearance to double up their train and enter the main at the mine in Portage. There were 2 more Macs in DPU service on the end of the other cut. Unfortunately it was dark by the time there was a break in the traffic on the Pittsburgh Line so we only saw it idling on the spur.
If you look closely 7207 is still sporting some Conrail paint in the grill on the back.
Train: NS C47? with NS 7201, 7207, 7209
DPU 7208, 7202 (SD80MAC).
NS Spur in Portage
Portage, PA.
After getting talked by a red signal, CSX L452 pulls by East Medora with an overhauled SD70AC leading. As seen in many other places, East End Medora also has the X of doom spray painted on the mast, foreshadowing what's to come.
DP Turpin, Brakeman of UP Train LSI55 27, an acquaintance of mine for several years has a smirk on his face. It's foreshadowing his next outburst, which regarded the ambient temperature, and how the lack of heat was far too inadequate for these activities.
Pat's been out here a long time, we first spoke probably 20 years ago when he was on this same local, but I believe that was off the extra board at that time. I used to ride with them when I was little kid in this very place.
Locomotive: UP 1475
2-28-15
Poplar Bluff, MO
The Thorny Path is Couture's satire of decadent French society. A courtesan drives a carriage pulled not by animals but by four male captives who represent different ages and states of society. The naked old man leading the procession is flabby from indulgence; the troubadour following him, a symbol of young love, parodies the medieval ballads popular in nineteenth century France. The old soldier bends his head in self-reproach, and the young student writes as he walks, symbolising the educated nobility's ignorance of the realities of daily life. The thistles and thorny plants along the road suggest the painfulness of their journey. The decrepit figure seated at the rear of the carriage with a bottle of wine in her basket foreshadows the courtesan's future. Finally, Couture signed his initials on the stone figure at centre, which seems to be laughing at the entourage.
[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 130.8 x 190.5 cm]
gandalfsgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/thomas-couture-tho...
Some Young History.
Like all the areas of the western slopes of NSW this was once the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. Their lands covered one of the biggest agricultural regions of Australia. There was little conflict in this region and diseases more than pastoralist action reduced their numbers considerably within a couple of years of white pastoral occupation. Like so many areas beyond the declared Nineteen Counties- the legal limit of white settlement in the 1820s and 1830s - the first pastoralist was white squatter James White in 1826. This free settler established his Burrangong station on the banks of Stoney Creek on the advice of a local Aboriginal man, Coborn Jackie. James White never married but his brother joined him and the first white child born in the region was his niece Sarah White in 1830. She lived to be 107 years old. The district was rich as the soils were volcanic soils and numerous streams ran westward to the lower areas of western NSW. The area where the sheep flocks of White rested for their lambing became known as Lambing Flat. Another pastoralist Edward Taylor planted some cherry trees in 1847. In the 1840s these squatters got licensing and later leasehold rights over the land. Until the upheaval of 1860. Gold was discovered then by James White’s nephew Dennis Regan and Alexander the Yankee with it being reported in the press in August 1860.
By mid-1861 20,000 miners were at Lambing Flat including 2,000 Chinese diggers. The Chinese were resented and some argue that the origins of the White Australia Policy stem from the xenophobia of Lambing Flat. There is no direct linkage here but the sentiments foreshadowed the Commonwealth policy of 1901. A group of white diggers drove off 500 Chinese miners in November of 1860 and violence and distrust continued as they destroyed their tents. The NSW government acted quickly and a Gold Commissioner and troops were despatched to Lambing Flat two weeks later. A further group of Chinese were driven away in December. In early January a similar incident occurred but this time the diggers threatened to attack the police troops if they interfered. Despite 30 police troops at Lambing Flat a further indecent occurred at the end of January when hundreds of Chinese were frightened off the fields and their tens burnt. A Miners Protective League was formed to expel the Chinese. This did not happen on other goldfields so why Lambing Flat? No one really knows. In March the government sent 300 troops to Lambing Flat armed with cannon and a defensive compound was erected. The last violence occurred in late June and early July 1861 when 3,000 miners attacked the Chinese, cut off pigtails and stole property and burnt tents. One European miner was killed in the melee. Next they attacked the fortified gaol in order to release some imprisoned miners for violence on the goldfields. One miner was killed by the police during the riot which happened near the current main street of Young. The Courthouse and police station were burnt down by the protesters. Calm quickly returned and the police regained control of the goldfields. Were the miners influenced by their knowledge of Eureka? Is this really a foreshadowing of the emergence of the workers unions? Five miners were tried for crimes in Goulburn Courthouse later in 1861 but were all acquitted and then the NSW government passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act in November 1861. The miners appeared to have won the battle. The anti-Chinese banner which the rioters carried was hidden for 100 years but re-discovered in Young in the 1960s. It is now in the town museum. The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has artefacts to tell the story of the Lambing Flat riots and the bushranging era. It also has the name plate of Coborn Jackie the Aboriginal friend and advisor of James White.
The town of Yong was surveyed in March of 1861 during the goldfield violence. The name of Lambing Flat was already tainted by then and the town was named Young after Sir John Young the Governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867. Town blocks were sold in May 1861 and before the end of that year Young had a Post Office, a school, a bank, an Anglican and a Catholic church and a newspaper. A hospital and a new Courthouse were erected in 1862. At that time Young was having about 124,000 ounces of gold escorted out of the town annually. But the rush was over by 1864 and less and less gold was being located by 1867. The town turned into an agricultural service centre with a saw mill (1865), a flour mill (1866), a brewery (1877) and finally railway (1885). The town then got a tannery, a soap factory, a work boot factory, a brick kiln, meat works and butter factory all before 1900. In 1889 Young became the first town outside of Sydney to have a domestic electricity supply for its residents. The arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed farmers to experiment with fruit crops as the train could speed them to markets in Sydney. Apples, oranges and plums were the first grown commercially in the 1890s and one farmer in the 1890s had a cherry orchard with 7,000 fruiting trees and 3,000 seedling cherries. Others followed suit and by 1908 Young was railing 15,000 cases of cherries to Sydney each season. Major expansion of the cherry industry occurred in the 1920s with 77 orchards near Young and it was soon the second most important cherry growing region of NSW after Orange. Young began holding a cherry festival in 1949 and still does each year in early December when picking is in full swing.
Some interesting buildings in Boorowa Street and vicinity are:
•In Zouch Street is the Gothic Anglican Church built in 1893. Architect was Edmund Blacket. The first Anglican Church was built on this spot in 1865. Adjacent is the red brick 1937 Rectory and the 1866 Anglican school room.
•Continue along Cloete St. Take next left into Lynch St. Here is the Methodist Church built in 1909. Now the Uniting Church. Built in Arts and Craft style with horizontal banding bricks, tower etc. The first Methodist Church was built in 1865. Turn around and go along Lynch Street.
•On the corner is the 1928 neo classical style Courthouse with Doric columns.
•Next to it is the much altered Post Office and clock built in 1878. The original Post Office stood here when built 1862.
•Cross the roundabout to see the School of Arts building and library. Built in 1904 as a single storey with two gables.
•Next door is the former AMP Society building on the corner. Built in the 1920s with a curved Doric pillared entrance with the AMP statue logo above. A friend in times of need.
•Opposite is the Presbyterian Church. Built in 1920 of greenish grey coloured feldspar quartz. Young’s first Presbyterian church was built in 1871. Turn around and turn right at the roundabout into Boorowa St.
•On the corner is the Baroque style Commercial Bank of Sydney built in 1890. Two different style porches for the entrances.
•On the right painted grey is The Great Eastern Hotel built in 1904. A typical Australian hotel but with triangular pediments.
•At the next roundabout is the Commercial Hotel. Built in 1930s in Spanish Mission style in red brick.
•Next on left is Millard’s Department Store built in 1917. A major three storey edifice in the street.
•Opposite is Young Town Hall built in 1875. In 1922 the Soldiers War Memorial Clock tower was added. Turn around and go back to the roundabout and turn right. Just along the road is the marked Federation building built around 1901. It has a stepped pediment along the roof. It is important as it was the store of one of the last 19th century Chinese traders in Young – Billy Hayes (anglicised.) He ran it to the 1960s.
•Turn right here next you will see on the right the five storey red brick Millard’s flourmill. Cross the creek.
•You will see St Mary’s Catholic Church. Gothic in style and erected 1874 of local granite with Welsh slate roof. Granite addition to the nave made in 1934. Just behind the church on the side street is the Catholic Convent built in 1891. Gothic looking gables and excellent cast iron lacework on balconies. Now part of the Catholic College.
•Opposite is the Lambing Flat Museum in the old original town school. It opened in 1883. The first town school began in 1861 with the first government school on the site on the present railway station.
•Beyond the park is Young High School. It began as the first Courthouse on these goldfields in 1861. A second grand classical Greek temple building Courthouse opened in 1886 at a cost of £12,000. It was given to the Education Department in 1924. With additions it opened as the Young High School in 1947.
•Young railway station. The railway reached here from Harden in 1885 when the Gothic station was built. It is now the Information Centre.
Thierry Mugler Couturissme Musée Des Beaux-Arts Montréal
So, we’re moving on now to the last gallery, near the end of the show. On to the brave new world of Futuristic and Fembot Couture.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Mugler
www.mbam.qc.ca/expositions/a-laffiche/thierry-mugler/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=chnZ0zc5Klk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtmMS3kmRn0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qht7JRaePO0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ2DVwSVIIo
George Michael Video Too Funky
Directed by ? ( = Thierry Mugler)
Futuristic and Fembot Couture
“In my work I’ve always tried to make people look stronger than they really are.” The aerodynamic and robot-style looks invented by Mugler are now iconic. He took his inspiration from science fiction and comic-book heroines, from medieval armour and uniforms, from industrial design and futuristic vehicles. At the frontiers of reality, his automotive bodywork-clad creatures and cyborgs foreshadow transhumanist revolutions.
In 1989, Mugler presented his Hiver Buick collection in homage to the American Harley J. Earl, the designer of the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado’s famous tail fins. For it the couturier playfully devised detachable or “convertible” sheath gowns, “fender” bustiers and “radiator” belts, not to mention a “tail fin” bag.
Mugler later collaborated with Jean-Pierre Delcros, an aircraft bodywork specialist and Jean-Jacques Ureun, an industrial designer, in using novel techniques to create magnificent robot-creatures seemingly poured into chrome bustiers and Plexiglas catsuits. His all-time masterpiece is the Maschinenmensch [robot-woman]: in 1995, at his fashion house’s twentieth-anniversary show, the model, wearing a large hat and black chiffon gown under a purple satin evening coat, revealed her robotized body. Paying tribute to the character of Futura from the dystopian novel Metropolis—written in 1925 by Thea von Harbou and adapted for film by Fritz Lang in 1927—the outfit required six months of intensive work. Like a crab’s shell, its body armour is jointed by way of pieces attached by leather and rubber, and a plastic internal framework facilitates its movements over skin.
These remarkable couture objects continue to fascinate. The chrome bikini, fembot outfit and crystal adorned gold bodysuit with matching articulated armpieces and glove have been immortalized by leading photographers, from Helmut Newton to Herb Ritts, and worn by numerous stars, from Beyoncé to Lady Gaģa.
Mugler’s Metropolis was designed by artist and set designer Philipp Fürhofer, Berlin.
From the placard: Musée Des Beaux-Arts Montréal
Another in the Series... Again 2 shots stitched together.
This is the chapel inside the walls of the huge Chateau in the Bois de Vincennes - France. The light was so fantastic I had to put it to good use!
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) oil on canvas at the National Gallery of Art in London. Written near the painting: The subject is taken from the Greek myth Hero and Leander. Hero looks on as her lover Leander begins his daily swim across the Hellespont. Sea nymphs who were thought to control the waves are shown on the right. The brewing storm foreshadows Leander's drowning.
The papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, located on Rome's Esquiline Hill, dates to the fifth century, perhaps replacing an earlier church. According to a popular tradition, the site was chosen after a miraculous snow storm in early August was sent by the Virgin Mary. Dedicated by Pope Sixtus III, it was one of the first churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary after the Council of Ephesus declared her Theotokos, or Mother of God, in 431.
The basilica is decorated with mosaic panels lining the walls of the central aisle. Each panel represents one or more scenes from the Old Testament, taken from the Pentateuch.
This panel shows the encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, which is recounted in Genesis 14:18-20. Melchizedek is dressed as a priest with a short tunic and cape . In the sky above, Jesus Christ looks down and blesses the encounter. According to many church fathers, when God appeared or spoke in the Old Testament, it was God the Son. Melchizedek is also considered a type or foreshadowing of Christ in the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews.
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For every new smartphone, there is a first photo. While walking to San Diego neighborhood Hillcrest, I detoured off Washington onto Normal to avoid sidewalk congestion. There I passed this helmet, which unusual placement beckoned to be shot.
Considering ongoing overtures of war, as the United States spars with China and substantially backs Ukraine against Russia, I wondered: Will helmets like this someday soon be as standard wear as were surgical masks during the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdown period? Call the moment unwanted foreshadowing.
The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi is a Romanesque style, Roman Catholic church in the Terzo of San Martino in the city of Siena, Tuscany, Italy.
History
The church is built on the site of the former Church of San Clement, which was acquired by the Servite order in the Medieval era. The original Basilica was built in the 13th century, but later underwent reconstruction and transformation which continued until the 15th-16th century.
Exterior
The façade is simple and unadorned, with a single doorway and a rose window (indications of another can be discerned on the wall). It is in the Romanesque period style
The adjoining Campanile is likewise of the 13th century, richly embellished by four orders of windows. It was entirely restored in the 20th century. The church building stands atop it is cook entrance stairs, with views over the Duomo and the Palazzo Publico of Siena.
Interior
The interior is in great contrast with the rough and bare aspect of the exterior. A renaissance design is attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. The church was enlarged in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, as seen in the interior of a Latin cross, where the Gothic style of the transept and apse joins the Renaissance style of the three aisles. The Renaissance style does not continue into the transept and apse, which are in the Gothic style. Near the entrance is a Crucifix of the 14th century and a Holy Water stoup of the 13th century.
Works of art
The most important works housed in the Santa Maria dei Servi have included :
Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece
Coronation of the Virgin by Bernardino Fungai. This altarpiece is generally acclaimed as the masterpiece of Fungai and belongs to the period between 1498 and 1501. The four predella panels depicting the life of Saint Clement were sold separately, and were temporarily reunited for an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1988. The narrative scenes of the four panels are all painted with tempera on wood.
Conversion of Saint Clement, housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg. The first panel represents the young philosopher, Clement, who having thought that his parents and two brothers were lost at sea turned more seriously to inquire into the question of the immortality of the soul.
Reunion of Saint Clement with his family, also housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg. The second panel shows Clement reunited with his parents and brothers through the instrumentality of Saint Peter the Apostle
Saint Clement Striking the Rock, housed in the City Art Gallery, York, England. The third panel continues the narrative of the life of Saint Clement, after he succeeded Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome.
Martyrdom of Saint Clement, also housed in the City Art Gallery, York, England. The final scene depicting highlights in the life of Clement done in tempera and gold on wood, and is noted as the most magically evocative in Fungai’s career.
The central panel belonging to the predella, depicting The Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels, resurfaced at the 1991 sale of works from the Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos collection at Christie's in New York. The picture was subsequently purchased by the City Art Gallery, York.
It is not known when the Fungai predella panels were dismantled from the altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria dei Servi and then separated. There is a lack of information regarding the dates when these panels found their way into the museums where they are housed at the present.
Paintings
Madonna del Marcovaldo (called Madonna del Bordone) by Coppo di Marcovaldo, signed and dated 1261, in Byzantine style and partially repainted by a pupil of Duccio. Its height of 7 feet 3 inches and its width of 4 feet foreshadow the late-thirteenth-century tendency for panel paintings to approach the scale of frescoes.
The Massacre of the Innocents by Matteo di Giovanni (1491)
Adoration of the Shepherds (1404) by Taddeo di Bartolo
Madonna and Saints by Matteo di Giovanni
Madonna with child by Duccio di Buoninsegna
The Slaughter of the Innocents by Pietro Lorenzetti
Madonna del Popolo by Lippo Memmi
Herod’s Feast by Pietro Lorenzetti
The Death of St. John the Evangelist by Pietro Lorenzetti
Annunciation by Francesco Vanni
The Madonna of Belvedere of Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio and Taddeo di Bartolo (1363)
(Wikipedia)
Die meist nur Santa Maria dei Servi genannte Kirche wurde vom Bettelorden der Serviten vom 13. bis 16. Jahrhundert in der toskanischen Stadt Siena errichtet.
Lage
Die Basilika befindet sich innerhalb der Stadtmauern von Siena an der Piazza Manzoni. Dieser befindet sich im Stadtdrittel Terzo di San Martino in der Contrada Valdimontone (Widder). Zur Kirche gehört zudem der Konvent, der von den Serviten geleitet wurde, und das 1380 entstandene Oratorio della Santissima Trinità.
Geschichte und Baugestalt
Die Basilika entstand aus der Chiesa di San Clemente, die um 1234 von dem Orden der Serviten errichtet wurde. Aus dem Jahr 1362 sind Ziegelsteinlieferungen der Stadt Siena dokumentiert (ca. 50.000), um den Ausbau der Kirche zu unterstützen. An den Baunähten der Fassade ist ablesbar, dass der Bau später verbreitert und erhöht wurde. 1473 bis 1528 wurde das Querschiff gewölbt und das basilikale Langhaus in seiner heutigen Form mit seinen jonischen Säulen und den die Seitenschiffe begleitenden, tonnengewölbten Kapellennischen im Sinne der Renaissance errichtet. Im Unterschied zu den beiden älteren großen Bettelsordenskirchen in Siena, die heute ebenfalls im kirchlichen Rang einer Basilica minor stehen, kann die Bezeichnung "Basilika" bei S. Maria dei Servi durchaus auf den Bautyp bezogen werden.
Die Konsekration der Kirche fand am 18. Mai 1533 statt, fertiggestellt wurde sie allerdings erst 1537. Die Kirchenfassade blieb unvollendet. Von 1890 bis 1901 wurde die Kirche von Giuseppe Partini und Agenore Socini restauriert. 1908 wurde sie zur Basilica minor erhoben. Der Campanile stammt aus dem 13. oder 14. Jahrhundert und wurde 1926 komplett restauriert. Die Basilika gehört zum Erzbistum Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino. In der Kirche befinden sich die Reliquien des Francesco Patrizi da Siena (1266–1328) und des Gioacchino da Siena (um 1258–1305).
Werke im Innenraum (Auswahl)
Alessandro Casolani: Adorazione dei pastori, ca. 1581 entstanden
Coppo di Marcovaldo: Madonna del Bordone, inschriftlich 1261 datiertes, bekanntestes und einziges signiertes Werk des florentiner Malers. Auch wenn die Gesichter auf diesem über 2 m hohen Gemälde einige Jahrzehnte später übermalt wurden, bleibt das Tafelbild als ganz frühe ganzfigurige Darstellung der Madonna ein Schlüsselwerk für die weitere Kunstentwicklung.
Bernardino Fungai: Incoronazione della Vergine e Santi
Giovanni di Paolo: Madonna della Misericordia, 1431 entstanden
Biagio di Goro Ghezzi: Sant’Agnese (Wandgemälde)
Rutilio Manetti: Natività di Maria, 1625 entstanden, Martirio di San Lorenzo, 1602
Matteo di Giovanni: Strage degli Innocenti, 1491 entstanden
Lippo Memmi: Madonna del Popolo, 1325 entstanden
Astolfo Petrazzi: La Madonna e la peste di Siena
Lorenzo Rustici: Angeli
Ventura Salimbeni: Fresken des Oratoriums, zwischen 1595 und 1601 entstanden
Sano di Pietro: Madonna col Bambino e Santi
Segna di Bonaventura: Madonna col Bambino (Holzgemälde, 85 × 52 cm, 1319 entstanden)
Taddeo di Bartolo: Natività di Maria, 1404 entstanden
Ugolino di Nerio: Cucifix (Croce dipinto, dt. bemaltes Kreuz, 401 x 244,5 cm, 2003 restauriert)
Raffaello Vanni: Scena di Clodoveo
Francesco Vanni: Annunciazione, ca. 1585 entstanden
Orgel
Die Orgel wurde 1925 von der Orgelbaufirma Mascioni erbaut. Das Instrument befindet sich hinter dem Hauptaltar. Es hat 19 Register auf zwei Manuale und Pedal. Die Spieltrakturen sind mechanisch, die Registertrakturen sind elektrisch.
(Wikipedia)
Chassis n° 320013
Aguttes
Autoworld - Auction & Motion
Estimated : € 400.000 - 600.000
Not sold
Autoworld
Brussels - Belgium
October 2025
The Porsche 911 S was launched in 1966 as a sporty version of the 911. Equipped with a 2.0-litre flat-6 engine developing 160 hp, it offered significantly higher performance than the standard model introduced in 1964. Its 901/02 engine featured more aggressive camshafts and special Weber carburettors, and it was also equipped with four disc brakes, a novelty at the time. Recognisable by its Fuchs wheels, this iconic saloon laid the foundations for the Porsche legend on our roads and in competition.
The Porsche 911 S presented here is no ordinary car. Beneath its burgundy red exterior lie a number of subtle and innovative details that foreshadowed the future of the 911. The first detail concerns its chassis number, which does not correspond to the usual numbering system. The second is the original registration certificate, which states that this car was put into service on 31 May 1968 in the name of Dr Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG. These two points are surprising and suggest that we should focus on the technical characteristics of this car. During the car’s first restoration, its owner at the time was faced with a headache because the spare parts did not fit in place on his car. After multiple checks, it turned out that this car had a longer than normal chassis and wheelbase. This modification would become visible from 1969 onwards in order to improve the road holding of the 911.
The other special features of our model can be found under the bonnet. Its 2.0-litre engine is combined with a mechanical injection system developed by the famous engineer Hans Mezger. It is the first road engine to be equipped with this technology. Made entirely of aluminium, this more efficient system was also 16 kg lighter, thereby reducing the car’s oversteer. It was used in particular on the 911 2.7 RS and 2.7 MFI models. In addition to the injection system, the ignition system was also specific to this car, featuring the first high-performance capacitor ignition system, which proved to be more efficient, particularly at high revs. In view of the increase in performance, it was fitted with ventilated discs and an oil cooler, which would become standard on future 911s. Finally, there are a few other specific features, such as the rear windscreen wiper, electric windows and the choke on the handbrake. In conclusion, this unusual car, built in 1968, has many features that would be found on the 1969 model. This pre-production car was certainly used for homologation of the new specifications, but it was primarily Ferdinand Piëch’s company car. At the time, he was head of the testing and development department. He thus contributed directly and significantly to testing this new technology with a view to installing it in future 911 models. The story doesn’t end there, because in 1969, Porsche sold this car to Hans Mezger himself, who used it to drive to the factory until 1972. The story also goes that he drove it to Le Mans in 1970 to watch the victory of the 917, a prototype he himself had developed.
This 911 S is now in concours condition, having undergone a high-quality restoration worthy of its history. Accompanied by its original registration document and various copies of period documents, this car is ready to hit the road. An exceptional car in terms of its technicality and history, it highlights protagonists who have become key figures in the Porsche universe: Ferdinand Piëch and Hans Mezger. We can therefore say that it deserves its place in the finest collections, if not in the Zuffenhausen museum itself.
The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat (Russian: Собор Покрова пресвятой Богородицы, что на Рву) or Pokrovsky Cathedral (Russian: Покровский собор) - both are official names used by the Russian Orthodox Church - also known as the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed but popularly as Saint Basil's Cathedral (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), is a Russian Orthodox church erected on Red Square in Moscow in 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible. It commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.
St. Basil's marks the geometric center of Moscow. It has been the hub of the city's growth since the 14th centuryand was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as "Trinity Church" and later "Trinity Cathedral", contained eight side churches arranged around the ninth, central church of Intercession; the tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries the church, perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, as happens to all churches in Byzantine Christianity, was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the tsar.
The building's design, shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues in Russian architecture: "It is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.
As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's anti-theist campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely and forcefully secularized in 1929 and, as of 2011, remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. It is often mislabelled as the Kremlin owing to its location on Red Square in immediate proximity of the Kremlin.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia's article
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_BiShvat
This holiday is very meaningful to me because I am a gardener with a great love of trees!!! I inherited this love of trees from my maternal Grandmother Libby!!
We planted trees in Mama's gardens in Sea Gate, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, Long Island, New York, USA; North America; Planet Earth; Milky Way Galaxy; Universe Formed by Ha Shem (The Name) In The Big Bang.
I have personally planted trees in a number of locations in The United States, the Republic of The Marshall Islands, and Israel.
Dried fruit and almonds traditionally eaten on Tu BiShvat
Tu BiShvat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Tu Bishvat)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_BiShvat
Jewish Holiday
Official name Hebrew: ט״ו בשבט
Observances Tu BiShvat "seder"
Date15th of Shvat
2015 date February 4
2016 date January 25
2017 date February 11
2018 date January 31
Related to Sukkot
Tu BiShvat (Hebrew: ט״ו בשבט) is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (in 2016, Tu BiShvat begins at sunset on 24 January and ends at nightfall on 25 January). It is also called "Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot" (Hebrew: ראש השנה לאילנות), literally "New Year of the Trees." In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration. Its role is important to the concept of Chadash.
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Talmud
3 Biblical tithes
4 Kabbalistic and Hassidic customs
5 Customs in Israel
6 See also...
7 References
8 External links
Etymology
The name Tu BiShvat is derived from the Hebrew date of the holiday, which occurs on the fifteenth day of Shevat. "Tu" stands for the Hebrew letters Tet and Vav, which together have the numerical value of 9 and 6, adding up to 15.[1] Tu BiShvat is a relatively recent name; the date was originally called "Ḥamisha Asar BiShvat" (חמשה-עשר בשבט), which also means "Fifteenth of Shevat".[citation needed]
Talmud
Tu BiShvat appears in the Mishnah in Tractate Rosh Hashanah as one of the four new years in the Jewish calendar. The discussion of when the New Year occurs was a source of debate among the rabbis: "And there are four new year dates: – The first of Nisan – new year for kings and festivals – The first of Elul – new year for animal tithes. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon say: – The first of Tishrei– new year for calculation of the calendar, sabbatical years and jubilees, for planting and sowing – The first of Shevat, according to the school of Shamai; The school of Hillel says: the fifteenth of Shevat" (Rosh Hashana:2a).[2]
The rabbis of the Talmud ruled in favor of Hillel on this issue. Thus the 15th of Shevat became the date for calculating the beginning of the agricultural cycle for the purpose of biblical tithes.[3]
Biblical tithes
Orlah refers to a biblical prohibition (Leviticus 19:23) on eating the fruit of trees produced during the first three years after they are planted.[4]
Neta Reva'i refers to the biblical commandment (Leviticus 19:24) to bring fourth-year fruit crops to Jerusalem as a tithe.[5]
Maaser Sheni was a tithe which was eaten in Jerusalem and Maaser Ani was a tithe given to the poor (Deuteronomy 14:22–29) that were also calculated by whether the fruit ripened before or after Tu BiShvat.
Of the talmudic requirements for fruit trees which used Tu BiShvat as the cut-off date in the Hebrew calendar for calculating the age of a fruit-bearing tree, Orlah remains to this day in essentially the same form it had in talmudic times. In the Orthodox Jewish world, these practices are still observed today as part of Halacha, Jewish law. Fruit that ripened on a three-year-old tree before Tu BiShvat is considered orlah and is forbidden to eat, while fruit ripening on or after Tu BiShvat of the tree's third year is permitted. In the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th years of the Shmita cycle Maaser Sheni is observed today by a ceremony redeeming tithing obligations with a coin; in the 3rd and 6th years, Maaser Ani is substituted, and no coin is needed for redeeming it. Tu BiShvat is the cut-off date for determining to which year the tithes belong.
Tu BiShvat falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat and begins a three-month series of mid-month full moons that culminate in Passover.[6]
Kabbalistic and Hassidic customs[edit]
Dried fruit and almonds traditionally eaten by Ashkenazi Jews on Tu BiShvat
Main article: Tu BiShvat seder
In the Middle Ages, Tu BiShvat was celebrated with a feast of fruits in keeping with the Mishnaic description of the holiday as a "New Year." In the 16th century, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples instituted a Tu BiShvat seder in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel were given symbolic meaning. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection.[7]
In Israel, the kabbalistic Tu BiShvat seder has been revived, and is now celebrated by many Jews, religious and secular. Special haggadot have been written for this purpose.
In the Chassidic community, some Jews pickle or candy the etrog (citron) from Sukkot and eat it on Tu BiShvat. Some pray that they will be worthy of a beautiful etrog on the following Sukkot.[8]
Customs in Israe[
On Tu BiShvat 1890, Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement,[9] took his students to plant trees in the agricultural colony of Zichron Yaakov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund (Keren HaKayemet L’Israel), established in 1901 to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel. In the early 20th century, the Jewish National Fund devoted the day to planting eucalyptus trees to stop the plague of malaria in the Hula Valley;[10] today the Fund schedules major tree-planting events in large forests every Tu BiShvat.[11] Over a million Israelis take part in the Jewish National Fund's Tu BiShvat tree-planting activities.[12]
In keeping with the idea of Tu BiShvat marking the revival of nature, many of Israel's major institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The cornerstone-laying of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem took place on Tu BiShvat 1918; the Technion in Haifa, on Tu BiShvat 1925; and the Knesset, on Tu BiShvat 1949.[13]
Tu BiShvat is the Israeli Arbor Day,[11][14] and it is often referred to by that name in international media.[15] Ecological organizations in Israel and the diaspora have adopted the holiday to further environmental-awareness programs.[16][17] On Israeli kibbutzim, Tu BiShvat is celebrated as an agricultural holiday.[18]
See also
Arbor Day
Hebrew numerals
List of Jewish prayers and blessings
Judaism and ecology
Judaism and environmentalism
References
Jump up ^ When representing the number using letters, rabbinic rules forbid using the letter-numerals that represent 10 (י Yud) and 5 (ה Hei) together because they form the abbreviation of the "ineffable name of God", YHVH יהוה. Therefore, the number 15 is represented by the letters ט (Tet) and ו (Vav), or 9 and 6 = 15.
Jump up ^ "Tu Bishvat" . Jafi.org.il. 2005-05-15. Retrieved 2011-01-20.[dead link]
Jump up ^ Kariv, Gilad (2011-01-05). "Tu Bishvat / The festival of love – the celebration of nature" . Haaretz. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Jump up ^ "What is Orlah" . Ask Moses. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Jump up ^ "With Light and With Might: Glossary" . Sichosinenglish.org. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Jump up ^ MOSHER, JAMES (Jan 20, 2010). "Tu B'Shevat celebration inspires rabbi's lecture series" . Norwich Bulletin. Tu B'Shevat falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat and begins a three-month series of mid-month full moons that culminate in Passover. Purim occurs on the 14th of Adar (Feb. 28), the month after Shevat, and celebrates Jewish escape from a planned genocide in the Persian Empire. The Book of Esther is read on Purim and it foreshadows the rise and fall of Nazism. Passover is the festival of freedom and begins on the 15th of Nissan (March 30), the month following Adar.
Jump up ^ Tu B'Shevat on Virtual Jerusalem [dead link]
Jump up ^ "'A Thing or Tu 'bout Shvat'" . Torah.org. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Jump up ^ "Zionist Philosophies" . Mfa.gov.il. 1999-10-19. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Jump up ^ Zuroff, Rabbi Avraham (2011). "Just a Jewish Arbor Day?" . Ohr Somayach International. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b Rinat, Zafrir (20 January 2011). "Israelis Go Green For Tu Bishvat" . Haaretz. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Paz, Shelly (2008-01-19). "Tu Bishvat gets 'shmita' treatment | Israel | Jerusalem Post" . Fr.jpost.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.[dead link]
Jump up ^ "The Knesset's Early years" . Knesset.gov.il. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
Jump up ^ "Tu B'Shevat (Arbor Day) in United States" . Operational Home Front. 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2011.[dead link]
Jump up ^ "Arbor Day Around the World" . Arbor Day Foundation. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
Jump up ^ "Kibbutz Lotan – Tu B'shvat Campaign" . Kibbutz Lotan. 2005. Retrieved 20 January 2011.[dead link]
Jump up ^ "Tu B’Shvat – The Jewish Earth Day" . Jewish Woman Magazine. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
Jump up ^ Yael Zisling. "Tu Bishvat traditions" . Gemsinisrael.com. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tu Bishvat.
Judaism 101 Description of Tu B'Shevat at JewFAQ.org
A Starting Place To Learn Everything About Tu B'Shvat at tubsjvattrees.com
Tu Bishvat Seder Haggadah and Seder guidebook at Hazon.org
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life's extensive resources – learning resources and seder ideas
Neohasid.org: resources for making the seder, texts to learn, and deeper explanations of the Kabbalah of Tu Bishvat
Articles, Customs and Answers about Tu Bishvat at Yeshiva.co
[hide] v t e
Jewish and Israeli holidays and observances
Jewish holidays and
observances
Shabbat
High Holy Days
Rosh Hashanah Fast of Gedalia Ten Days of Repentance Yom Kippur
Three Pilgrimage Festivals
Passover Fast of the Firstborn Pesach Sheni
Shavuot
Sukkot Hoshana Rabbah Shemini Atzeret Simchat Torah
Yom tov sheni shel galuyot Chol HaMoed Isru chag
Rosh Chodesh Hanukkah Tenth of Tevet Tu BiShvat Fast of Esther
Purim Purim Katan Counting of the Omer Lag BaOmer 17th of Tammuz The Three Weeks The Nine Days Tisha B'Av Tu B'Av Rosh Hashanah LaBehema Holidays / memorial days
of the State of Israel
Yom HaShoah Yom Hazikaron Yom Ha'atzmaut Jerusalem Day
Ethnic holidays
Mimouna Seharane Sigd
Hebrew calendar months
Tishrei Cheshvan Kislev Tevet Shevat Adar and Adar Sheni Nisan Iyar Sivan Tammuz Av Elul
Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050
Categories: Days of the Hebrew calendarEnvironmental awareness daysForestry eventsForestry in IsraelHebrew names of Jewish holy daysJudaism and environmentalismMinor Jewish holidaysShevatJanuary observancesFebruary observancesObservances set by the Hebrew calendar
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного, romanized: Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo), known in English as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. Its completion, with its colors, was made in 1683. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City. Like all churches in Byzantine Christianity, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.
The cathedral has nine domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century, and it is considered as a prime example of Russian Renaissance architecture.
As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with prayer to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.
Constant – New Babylon
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, 2016
Een wereld zonder grenzen. Mensen die niet hoeven te werken, maar vrij zijn om te spelen en te reizen. Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920 – 2005) verbeeldde zijn ideeën over een nieuwe wereld in een van de meest visionaire en omvangrijke beeldende kunst projecten uit de naoorlogse kunstgeschiedenis: New Babylon. Tot op de dag van vandaag, en misschien juist wel in de huidige maatschappij, een inspiratiebron voor velen. Het Gemeentemuseum Den Haag beheert het overgrote deel van dit project en deed er uitgebreid onderzoek naar. Naar aanleiding hiervan presenteert het museum deze zomer een van de grootste tentoonstellingen ooit over dit intrigerende project dat centraal staat binnen Constants oeuvre.
Constant Nieuwenhuys, kortweg Constant, was niet alleen een vooraanstaand lid van de CoBrA-groep, maar is minstens even befaamd om New Babylon, een tot de verbeelding sprekend project waar hij bijna twintig jaar aan werkte. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog ziet hij hoe alles opnieuw moet worden opgebouwd en hoe de samenleving in de jaren 50 verandert door de toenemende automatisering. Hij ontpopt zich tot een waar visionair en toont de buitenwereld aan de hand van maquettes, constructies, geografische kaarten, schilderijen, tekeningen, aquarellen, grafiek, films, teksten, lezingen en tijdelijke ‘omgevingen’ hoe de nieuwe wereld eruit zal zien. De tentoonstelling brengt zowel het project zelf als de ontwikkeling naar New Babylon in beeld.
A world without borders or constraints. People freed from work and able to play and travel at will. Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920 – 2005) expressed his ideas for a new world in one of the largest and most visionary art projects in post-war history. New Babylon remains even now – and perhaps more than ever in the society of today – a source of inspiration for many people. The vast majority of the works associated with the project are in the hands of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and, working in close cooperation with Fondation Constant, the museum has carried out extensive research on them. The result is this summer’s show at the museum: one of the largest exhibitions ever held about this intriguing project, which forms a key part of Constant’s oeuvre.
Constant Nieuwenhuys (or Constant for short) was a leading member of the Cobra group but is equally famous for his intriguing New Babylon project, on which he laboured for almost twenty years. He witnessed the reconstruction of Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War and he saw how, by the 1950s, increasing automation was changing society. He revealed himself as a true visionary, producing architectural models, constructions, maps, paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, films, texts, lectures and temporary ‘environments’ to suggest to the public what their world might in future become. The exhibition will look not only at New Babylon itself, but also at the aspects of Constant’s oeuvre that foreshadow it.
The Fiat Coupé (type 175, officially titled the Coupé Fiat) was a coupé produced by the Italian manufacturer Fiat between 1993 and 2000. The car was introduced at Brussels Motor Show in 1993.
It is most remembered for its distinctive, angular design, with unique scalloped side panels. The body was designed by Chris Bangle from Centro Stile Fiat, while the interior was designed by Pininfarina. The exterior design would foreshadow much of late 1990s and early 2000s car design, acting as a precedent to both Bangle's somewhat notorious work at BMW, as well as futuristic angular designs by other marques, such as Ford and Renault.
History:
The Fiat Coupe made media headlines in auto magazines during 1992 after several spy shots were taken revealing the car on test. On its launch in 1993, the Coupé was available with a four-cylinder, 2.0 L 16V engine, in both turbo (190 PS) and normally aspirated (139 PS) versions. Both engines were later versions of Fiat's twin-cam design and inherited from the Lancia Delta Integrale, winner of the World Rally Championship a record six times. 1996 brought in a 1.8 L 16V engine (not available in the UK, 131 PS), along with a 2.0-litre 5-cylinder 20V (147 PS), and a 5-cylinder 2.0-litre 20V turbo (220 PS).
Fiat Coupé 20v Turbo Model
The turbocharged 16 and 20 valve versions were equipped with a very efficient Viscodrive limited-slip differential to counter the understeer that plagues most powerful front wheel drive cars. Additionally, the coupe featured independent suspension all round: at the front MacPherson struts and lower wishbones anchored to an auxiliary crossbeam, offset coil springs and anti-roll bar; at the rear, trailing arms mounted on an auxiliary subframe, coil springs and an anti-roll bar.
1998 saw the release of the Limited Edition which featured red Brembo brake calipers at the front and standard red calipers at the back, a body kit, push-button start, six-speed gearbox, strut brace to make the chassis more rigid and Recaro seats with red leather inserts which offered better support than the standard 20VT seats. The LE was produced in Black (flat), Red (flat), Vinci Grey (metallic), Crono Grey (flat) and Steel Grey (metallic). The bodywork of the LE also benefited from titanium coloured insert around the light bezels and the wing mirrors. Each Limited Edition ('LE') Coupé was manufactured with a badge located by the rear-view mirror which contained that car's unique number (it is rumored that Michael Schumacher was the original owner of LE No. 0001, however when the question was raised to him personally he confirmed he had owned one, but a red one, while LE No. 0001 is a Crono Grey one). Originally a spokesman from Fiat stated only approximately 300 Limited Editions would be built. The final amount was much higher, with numbers as high as 1400 touted by some. This angered many of the owners of the original 300 cars and almost certainly impacted residual values. The original number however was quoted by a Fiat UK spokesman, so probably that number only applied to the UK market. The numbered plaque on every Coupe features enough space for 4 numbers.
In 1998 the 2.0-litre 5-cylinder 20V got a Variable Inlet System which brought the power to 154 PS (113 kW). The 2.0-litre 5-cylinder 20V Turbo received a 6-speed gearbox and a large, satin gloss push starter button. In addition, the sills of the Turbo version were colour matched with the body paintwork. Fiat also released the 2.0 L 5 cylinder Turbo 'Plus'. This model came with an option kit that made it virtually identical to the LE, except for minor interior design changes and without the unique identification badge of the LE.
In 2000 Fiat released another special version of the Fiat Coupé. Featuring the 1.8-litre engine, it was only available throughout mainland Europe and marketed as an elegant and affordable edition. Fiat also made changes throughout the rest of the range: new seats, side skirts and wheels for the 2.0-litre 20V model, 'Plus' edition wheels on turbo models and Fiat manufactured seats on the 'Plus' that were virtually identical to the original Plus Recaro seats with the addition of extra airbags. The 2.0-litre 20V Turbo model is capable of accelerating from 0–100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in 6.5 seconds, with a top speed of 240 km/h (149 mph) or 250 km/h (155 mph) with later 6-speed gearbox. When production finally stopped in September 2000, a total number of 72,762 units had been produced.
[Text from Wikipedia]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Coup%C3%A9
This miniland-scale Lego FIAT Coupe (Type 175 - 1993 - Bangle) has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 92nd Build Challenge, - "Stuck in the 90's", - all about vehicles from the decade of the 1990s.
While spending a weekend at a friend's beach house on Lake Superior we were graced with 4 separate flyovers by 2 American Bald Eagles, including a return at dusk by this one to snatch a large Sucker fish directly offshore.
Lake Superior - Chocolay Twp
June 27th, 2015
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Gerard David, Oudewater ca. 1450/1460 - Brügge 1523
Geburt Jesu mit Stiftern und den Heiligen Hieronymus und Leonhard / Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and Leonard (1510 - 15)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In a characteristically Netherlandish treatment of the Nativity, David focuses attention on the mystery of the Incarnation - that is, Christ's birth and sacrifice for the redemption of mankind. Despite the joyful moment depicted, the figures all wear somber expressions, foreshadowing Christ’s eventual suffering and sacrifice. The sheaf of grain parallel to the manger refers to John 6:41: "I am the bread which came down from Heaven."
The two donors, who are presented by Saints Jerome and Leonard, have remained unidentified. They could have been called Catherine and Anthony, since they are painted with the attributes of saints with these names.
Source: MET
Allard K1 (1946-48) Engine 3917cc V8 SV
Race Number
Production 151
Registration Number SH 8990 (Berwickshire)
ALLARD SET
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623759787446/
Allard Motor Company Limited was a London-based low-volume car manufacturer founded in 1945 by Sydney Allard, in small premises in Clapham, South West London. It produced approximately 1900 cars before it became insolvent and ceased trading in 1958. Allards featured large American V8 engines in a light British chassis and body, giving a high power-to-weight ratio and foreshadowing the Sunbeam Tiger and AC Cobra of the early 1960s. Cobra designer Carroll Shelby and Chevrolet Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov both drove Allards in the early 1950s. The first cars were competition cars built primarily for trials. Further Allards were soon built to order. Allard's brother, Leslie, was a customer, while racer Ken Hutchinson purchased a 4.4-litre (270 cu in) Lincoln-Zephyr V12-powered version.. By the outbreak of war in 1939, twelve Allard Specials had been built. Sydney Allard's planned volume production was pre-empted by work on Ford-based trucks during the conflict.
The Allard Motor Company was founded in 1945, setting up in Clapham High Street, London
Using its inventory of easy-to-service Ford mechanicals built up during World War II and bodywork of Allard's own design, three post-war models were introduced with a newly designed steel chassis and lightweight body shells: the J, a competition sports car; the K, a slightly larger car intended for road use, and the four seater L. All three were based on the Ford Pilot chassis and powered by a fairly stock 85 hp (63 kW; 86 PS) 3,622 cc (221.0 cu in) sidevalve V8 with a single carburettor
The K1 Built from 1946 to 1948 using a 106 in (2,700 mm) wheelbase and was powered by a tuned version of the 221 cu in (3,622 cc) V8, the frame was made up from stamped steel channel sections by Thomsons of Wolverton specially for Allard. Side rails and cross members were designed to fit the Allard trailing link, transverse leaf independent front suspension and live rear axle. Production totaled 151 and fitted with the same engine options as the J1 the K1 could reach 86–90 mph (140–145 km/h).
The K1 was superseded by the K2 from 1950
Diolch am 85,460,081 o olygfeydd anhygoel, mae pob un yn 90cael ei werthfawrogi'n fawr.
Thanks for 85,460,081 amazing views, every one is greatly appreciated.
Shot 01.08-2021 exiting the Silverstone Festival 01.08.2021 Ref 150-022
(radio broadcast from 367-376)
..overall, I believe the activation of my son's brain and eventual control of all Institute robotics and facilities under his command will work out for us. he always had what's best for humanity in mind
(Shaun's idea-ls for humanity were THIS terrible, I have to admit :P)
(he disapproved humanity's future because of a trash-heap Commonwealth and ordered murder)
(now I have to scrap out Sunshine Tidings and build there @_@)
Some Young History.
Like all the areas of the western slopes of NSW this was once the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. Their lands covered one of the biggest agricultural regions of Australia. There was little conflict in this region and diseases more than pastoralist action reduced their numbers considerably within a couple of years of white pastoral occupation. Like so many areas beyond the declared Nineteen Counties- the legal limit of white settlement in the 1820s and 1830s - the first pastoralist was white squatter James White in 1826. This free settler established his Burrangong station on the banks of Stoney Creek on the advice of a local Aboriginal man, Coborn Jackie. James White never married but his brother joined him and the first white child born in the region was his niece Sarah White in 1830. She lived to be 107 years old. The district was rich as the soils were volcanic soils and numerous streams ran westward to the lower areas of western NSW. The area where the sheep flocks of White rested for their lambing became known as Lambing Flat. Another pastoralist Edward Taylor planted some cherry trees in 1847. In the 1840s these squatters got licensing and later leasehold rights over the land. Until the upheaval of 1860. Gold was discovered then by James White’s nephew Dennis Regan and Alexander the Yankee with it being reported in the press in August 1860.
By mid-1861 20,000 miners were at Lambing Flat including 2,000 Chinese diggers. The Chinese were resented and some argue that the origins of the White Australia Policy stem from the xenophobia of Lambing Flat. There is no direct linkage here but the sentiments foreshadowed the Commonwealth policy of 1901. A group of white diggers drove off 500 Chinese miners in November of 1860 and violence and distrust continued as they destroyed their tents. The NSW government acted quickly and a Gold Commissioner and troops were despatched to Lambing Flat two weeks later. A further group of Chinese were driven away in December. In early January a similar incident occurred but this time the diggers threatened to attack the police troops if they interfered. Despite 30 police troops at Lambing Flat a further indecent occurred at the end of January when hundreds of Chinese were frightened off the fields and their tens burnt. A Miners Protective League was formed to expel the Chinese. This did not happen on other goldfields so why Lambing Flat? No one really knows. In March the government sent 300 troops to Lambing Flat armed with cannon and a defensive compound was erected. The last violence occurred in late June and early July 1861 when 3,000 miners attacked the Chinese, cut off pigtails and stole property and burnt tents. One European miner was killed in the melee. Next they attacked the fortified gaol in order to release some imprisoned miners for violence on the goldfields. One miner was killed by the police during the riot which happened near the current main street of Young. The Courthouse and police station were burnt down by the protesters. Calm quickly returned and the police regained control of the goldfields. Were the miners influenced by their knowledge of Eureka? Is this really a foreshadowing of the emergence of the workers unions? Five miners were tried for crimes in Goulburn Courthouse later in 1861 but were all acquitted and then the NSW government passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act in November 1861. The miners appeared to have won the battle. The anti-Chinese banner which the rioters carried was hidden for 100 years but re-discovered in Young in the 1960s. It is now in the town museum. The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has artefacts to tell the story of the Lambing Flat riots and the bushranging era. It also has the name plate of Coborn Jackie the Aboriginal friend and advisor of James White.
The town of Yong was surveyed in March of 1861 during the goldfield violence. The name of Lambing Flat was already tainted by then and the town was named Young after Sir John Young the Governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867. Town blocks were sold in May 1861 and before the end of that year Young had a Post Office, a school, a bank, an Anglican and a Catholic church and a newspaper. A hospital and a new Courthouse were erected in 1862. At that time Young was having about 124,000 ounces of gold escorted out of the town annually. But the rush was over by 1864 and less and less gold was being located by 1867. The town turned into an agricultural service centre with a saw mill (1865), a flour mill (1866), a brewery (1877) and finally railway (1885). The town then got a tannery, a soap factory, a work boot factory, a brick kiln, meat works and butter factory all before 1900. In 1889 Young became the first town outside of Sydney to have a domestic electricity supply for its residents. The arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed farmers to experiment with fruit crops as the train could speed them to markets in Sydney. Apples, oranges and plums were the first grown commercially in the 1890s and one farmer in the 1890s had a cherry orchard with 7,000 fruiting trees and 3,000 seedling cherries. Others followed suit and by 1908 Young was railing 15,000 cases of cherries to Sydney each season. Major expansion of the cherry industry occurred in the 1920s with 77 orchards near Young and it was soon the second most important cherry growing region of NSW after Orange. Young began holding a cherry festival in 1949 and still does each year in early December when picking is in full swing.
Some interesting buildings in Boorowa Street and vicinity are:
•In Zouch Street is the Gothic Anglican Church built in 1893. Architect was Edmund Blacket. The first Anglican Church was built on this spot in 1865. Adjacent is the red brick 1937 Rectory and the 1866 Anglican school room.
•Continue along Cloete St. Take next left into Lynch St. Here is the Methodist Church built in 1909. Now the Uniting Church. Built in Arts and Craft style with horizontal banding bricks, tower etc. The first Methodist Church was built in 1865. Turn around and go along Lynch Street.
•On the corner is the 1928 neo classical style Courthouse with Doric columns.
•Next to it is the much altered Post Office and clock built in 1878. The original Post Office stood here when built 1862.
•Cross the roundabout to see the School of Arts building and library. Built in 1904 as a single storey with two gables.
•Next door is the former AMP Society building on the corner. Built in the 1920s with a curved Doric pillared entrance with the AMP statue logo above. A friend in times of need.
•Opposite is the Presbyterian Church. Built in 1920 of greenish grey coloured feldspar quartz. Young’s first Presbyterian church was built in 1871. Turn around and turn right at the roundabout into Boorowa St.
•On the corner is the Baroque style Commercial Bank of Sydney built in 1890. Two different style porches for the entrances.
•On the right painted grey is The Great Eastern Hotel built in 1904. A typical Australian hotel but with triangular pediments.
•At the next roundabout is the Commercial Hotel. Built in 1930s in Spanish Mission style in red brick.
•Next on left is Millard’s Department Store built in 1917. A major three storey edifice in the street.
•Opposite is Young Town Hall built in 1875. In 1922 the Soldiers War Memorial Clock tower was added. Turn around and go back to the roundabout and turn right. Just along the road is the marked Federation building built around 1901. It has a stepped pediment along the roof. It is important as it was the store of one of the last 19th century Chinese traders in Young – Billy Hayes (anglicised.) He ran it to the 1960s.
•Turn right here next you will see on the right the five storey red brick Millard’s flourmill. Cross the creek.
•You will see St Mary’s Catholic Church. Gothic in style and erected 1874 of local granite with Welsh slate roof. Granite addition to the nave made in 1934. Just behind the church on the side street is the Catholic Convent built in 1891. Gothic looking gables and excellent cast iron lacework on balconies. Now part of the Catholic College.
•Opposite is the Lambing Flat Museum in the old original town school. It opened in 1883. The first town school began in 1861 with the first government school on the site on the present railway station.
•Beyond the park is Young High School. It began as the first Courthouse on these goldfields in 1861. A second grand classical Greek temple building Courthouse opened in 1886 at a cost of £12,000. It was given to the Education Department in 1924. With additions it opened as the Young High School in 1947.
•Young railway station. The railway reached here from Harden in 1885 when the Gothic station was built. It is now the Information Centre.
Acrylic on Canvas (240 cm x 160 cm)
"We Saw the Future" is a conceptual series of acrylic paintings by , Brazilian artist Zéh Palito. The series portrays a world wherein man and animal merge as one. Defining Palito's archetypal foreshadowings of this obscure destiny, each painting illuminates a specific step of the journey. Using his signature color palette of bright reds, royal blues, lime greens, and electric yellows within the contrasting organic shapes against geometric, Zéh Palito takes his audience into this self-conceived dimension. He enhances the cardinal concept of nature’s connectivity by splashing evocative imagery about the canvas: grenades ejecting rainbows, hands possessing hearts, elephants and gorrilas exploring uncharted territory. “We Saw the Future” reinvents the inherent evolution, alludes to the riddance of all things bad, and leaps towards the equality of man and his fellow animal. Yet again, Zéh Palito gives his audience reason to take a second look at the world around them. For, it is man who determines what lay ahead. Perhaps the future is not such a mystery after all.
(Paley Martin- Art Nouveau MAG)
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собо́р Васи́лия Блаже́нного, tr. Sobór Vasíliya Blazhénnogo), commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. Its completion, with its colors, was made in 1683. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, because it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, like all churches in Byzantine Christianity, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.
The cathedral has nine domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.
As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with prayer to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.
Construction under Ivan IV
The site of the church had been, historically, a busy marketplace between the St. Frol's (later Saviour's) Gate of the Moscow Kremlin and the outlying posad. The centre of the marketplace was marked by the Trinity Church, built of the same white stone as the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy (1366–68) and its cathedrals. Tsar Ivan IV marked every victory of the Russo-Kazan War by erecting a wooden memorial church next to the walls of Trinity Church; by the end of his Astrakhan campaign, it was shrouded within a cluster of seven wooden churches. According to the report in Nikon's Chronicle, in the autumn of 1554 Ivan ordered the construction of the wooden Church of Intercession on the same site, "on the moat". One year later, Ivan ordered the construction of a new stone cathedral on the site of Trinity Church to commemorate his campaigns. Dedication of a church to a military victory was "a major innovation" for Muscovy. The placement of the church outside the Kremlin walls was a political statement in favour of posad commoners and against hereditary boyars.
Contemporary commentators clearly identified the new building as Trinity Church, after its easternmost sanctuary; the status of "katholikon" (собор, sobor, large assembly church) had not been bestowed on it yet:
On the Trinity on the Moat in Moscow.
In the same year, through the will of czar and lord and grand prince Ivan began making the pledged church, as he promised for the capture of Kazan: Trinity and Intercession and seven sanctuaries, also called "on the moat". And the builder was Barma with company.
— Piskaryov Chronicle, 1560 (7068 per Byzantine calendar)
The identity of the architect is unknown. Tradition held that the church was built by two architects, Barma and Postnik, the official Russian cultural heritage register lists "Barma and Postnik Yakovlev". Researchers proposed that both names refer to the same person, Postnik Yakovlev or, alternatively, Ivan Yakovlevich Barma (Varfolomey). Legend held that Ivan blinded the architect so that he could not re-create the masterpiece elsewhere. Many historians are convinced that it is a myth, as the architect later participated in the construction of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow as well as in building the walls and towers of the Kazan Kremlin. Postnik Yakovlev remained active at least throughout the 1560s. This myth likely originated with Jerome Horsey's account of Ivan III of Moscow having blinded the architect of the fortress of Ivangorod.
There is evidence that construction involved stonemasons from Pskov and German lands.
Architectural style
Because the church has no analog—in the preceding, contemporary, or later architecture of Muscovy and Byzantine cultural tradition, in general,—the sources that inspired Barma and Postnik are disputed. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc rejected European roots for the cathedral, opining that its corbel arches were Byzantine and ultimately Asian. A modern "Asian" hypothesis considers the cathedral a recreation of Qolşärif Mosque, which was destroyed by Russian troops after the Siege of Kazan.
Nineteenth-century Russian writers, starting with Ivan Zabelin,[5] emphasized the influence of the vernacular wooden churches of the Russian North; their motifs made their ways into masonry, particularly the votive churches that did not need to house substantial congregations. David Watkin also wrote of a blend of Russian and Byzantine roots, calling the cathedral "the climax" of Russian vernacular wooden architecture.
The church combines the staggered layered design of the earliest (1505–1508) part of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the central tent of the Church of Ascension in Kolomenskoye (1530s), and the cylindric shape of the Church of Beheading of John the Baptist in Dyakovo (1547); but the origin of these unique buildings is equally debated. The Church in Kolomenskoye, according to Sergei Podyapolsky, was built by Italian Petrok Maly, although mainstream history has not yet accepted his opinion. Andrey Batalov revised the year of completion of Dyakovo church from 1547 to the 1560s–70s, and noted that Trinity Church could have had no tangible predecessors at all.
Dmitry Shvidkovsky suggested that the "improbable" shapes of the Intercession Church and the Church of Ascension in Kolomenskoye manifested an emerging national renaissance, blending earlier Muscovite elements with the influence of Italian Renaissance. A large group of Italian architects and craftsmen continuously worked in Moscow in 1474–1539, as well as Greek refugees who arrived in the city after the fall of Constantinople. These two groups, according to Shvidkovsky, helped Moscow rulers in forging the doctrine of Third Rome, which in turn promoted assimilation of contemporary Greek and Italian culture. Shvidkovsky noted the resemblance of the cathedral's floorplan to Italian concepts by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Donato Bramante, but most likely Filarete's Trattato di architettura. Other Russian researchers noted a resemblance to sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, although he could not have been known in Ivan's Moscow. Nikolay Brunov recognized the influence of these prototypes but not their significance; he suggested that mid-16th century Moscow already had local architects trained in Italian tradition, architectural drawing and perspective, and that this culture was lost during the Time of Troubles.
Andrey Batalov wrote that judging by the number of novel elements introduced with Trinity Church, it was most likely built by German craftsmen. Batalov and Shvidkovsky noted that during Ivan's reign, Germans and Englishmen replaced Italians, although German influence peaked later during the reign of Mikhail Romanov. German influence is indirectly supported by the rusticated pilasters of the central church, a feature more common in contemporary Northern Europe than in Italy.
The 1983 academic edition of Monuments of Architecture in Moscow takes the middle ground: the church is, most likely, a product of the complex interaction of distinct Russian traditions of wooden and stone architecture, with some elements borrowed from the works of Italians in Moscow. Specifically, the style of brickwork in the vaults is Italian.
Layout
Instead of following the original ad hoc layout (seven churches around the central core), Ivan's architects opted for a more symmetrical floor plan with eight side churches around the core, producing "a thoroughly coherent, logical plan" despite the erroneous latter "notion of a structure devoid of restraint or reason" influenced by the memory of Ivan's irrational atrocities. The central core and the four larger churches placed on the four major compass points are octagonal; the four diagonally placed smaller churches are cuboid, although their shape is hardly visible through later additions. The larger churches stand on massive foundations, while the smaller ones were each placed on a raised platform as if hovering above ground.
Although the side churches are arranged in perfect symmetry, the cathedral as a whole is not. The larger central church was deliberately offset to the west from the geometric centre of the side churches, to accommodate its larger apse on the eastern side. As a result of this subtle calculated asymmetry, viewing from the north and the south presents a complex multi-axial shape, while the western façade, facing the Kremlin, appears properly symmetrical and monolithic. The latter perception is reinforced by the fortress-style machicolation and corbeled cornice of the western Church of Entry into Jerusalem, mirroring the real fortifications of the Kremlin.
Inside the composite church is a labyrinth of narrow vaulted corridors and vertical cylinders of the churches. Today the cathedral consists of nine individual chapels. The largest, central one, the Church of the Intercession, is 46 metres (151 ft) tall internally but has a floor area of only 64 square metres (690 sq ft). Nevertheless, it is wider and airier than the church in Kolomenskoye with its exceptionally thick walls. The corridors functioned as internal parvises; the western corridor, adorned with a unique flat caissoned ceiling, doubled as the narthex.
The detached belfry of the original Trinity Church stood southwest or south of the main structure. Late 16th- and early 17th-century plans depict a simple structure with three roof tents, most likely covered with sheet metal. No buildings of this type survive to date, although it was then common and used in all of the pass-through towers of Skorodom. August von Meyenberg's panorama (1661) presents a different building, with a cluster of small onion domes.
Structure
The foundations, as was traditional in medieval Moscow, were built of white stone, while the churches themselves were built of red brick (28 by 14 by 8 cm (11.0 by 5.5 by 3.1 in)), then a relatively new material (the first attested brick building in Moscow, the new Kremlin Wall, was started in 1485). Surveys of the structure show that the basement level is perfectly aligned, indicating use of professional drawing and measurement, but each subsequent level becomes less and less regular. Restorers who replaced parts of the brickwork in 1954–1955 discovered that the massive brick walls conceal an internal wooden frame running the entire height of the church. This frame, made of elaborately tied thin studs, was erected as a life-size spatial model of the future cathedral and was then gradually enclosed in solid masonry.
The builders, fascinated by the flexibility of the new technology, used red bricks as a decorative medium both inside and out, leaving as much brickwork open as possible; when location required the use of stone walls, it was decorated with a brickwork pattern painted over stucco. A major novelty introduced by the church was the use of strictly "architectural" means of exterior decoration. Sculpture and sacred symbols employed by earlier Russian architecture are completely missing; floral ornaments are a later addition. Instead, the church boasts a diversity of three-dimensional architectural elements executed in brick.
Colour
The church acquired its present-day vivid colours in several stages from the 1680s to 1848. Russian attitude towards colour in the 17th century changed in favour of bright colours; iconographic and mural art experienced an explosive growth in the number of available paints, dyes and their combinations. The original colour scheme, missing these innovations, was far less challenging. It followed the depiction of the Heavenly City in the Book of Revelation:
And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats, I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
— Revelation, 4:3–4 (KJV)
The 25 seats from the biblical reference are alluded to in the building's structure, with the addition of eight small onion domes around the central tent, four around the western side church and four elsewhere. This arrangement survived through most of the 17th century. The walls of the church mixed bare red brickwork or painted imitation of bricks with white ornaments, in roughly equal proportion. The domes, covered with tin, were uniformly gilded, creating an overall bright but fairly traditional combination of white, red and golden colours. Moderate use of green and blue ceramic inserts provided a touch of rainbow as prescribed by the Bible.
While historians agree on the colour of the 16th-century domes, their shape is disputed. Boris Eding wrote that they most likely were of the same onion shape as the present-day domes. However, both Kolomenskoye and Dyakovo churches have flattened hemispherical domes, and the same type could have been used by Barma and Postnik.
Development
1583–1596
The original Trinity Church burnt down in 1583 and was refitted by 1593. The ninth sanctuary, dedicated to Basil Fool for Christ (the 1460s–1552), was added in 1588 next to the north-eastern sanctuary of the Three Patriarchs. Another local fool, Ivan the Blessed, was buried on the church grounds in 1589; a sanctuary in his memory was established in 1672 inside the south-eastern arcade.
The vault of the Saint Basil Sanctuary serves as a reference point in evaluating the quality of Muscovite stonemasonry and engineering. As one of the first vaults of its type, it represents the average of engineering craft that peaked a decade later in the church of the Trinity in Khoroshovo (completed 1596). The craft was lost in the Time of Troubles; buildings from the first half of the 17th century lack the refinement of the late 16th century, compensating for poor construction skill with thicker walls and heavier vaults.
1680–1683
The second, and most significant, round of refitting and expansion took place in 1680–1683. The nine churches themselves retained their appearance, but additions to the ground-floor arcade and the first-floor platform were so profound that Nikolay Brunov rebuilt a composite church from an "old" building and an independent work that incorporated the "new" Trinity Church. What once was a group of nine independent churches on a common platform became a monolithic temple.
The formerly open ground-floor arcades were filled with brick walls; the new space housed altars from thirteen former wooden churches erected on the site of Ivan's executions in Red Square. Wooden shelters above the first-floor platform and stairs (the cause of frequent fires) were rebuilt in brick, creating the present-day wrap-around galleries with tented roofs above the porches and vestibules.
The old detached belfry was demolished; its square basement was reused for a new belltower. The tall single tented roof of this belltower, built in the vernacular style of the reign of Alexis I, significantly changed the appearance of the cathedral, adding a strong asymmetrical counterweight to the church itself. The effect is most pronounced on the southern and eastern facades (as viewed from Zaryadye), although the belltower is large enough to be seen from the west.
The first ornamental murals in the cathedral appeared in the same period, starting with floral ornaments inside the new galleries; the towers retained their original brickwork pattern. Finally, in 1683, the church was adorned with a tiled cornice in yellow and blue, featuring a written history of the church in Old Slavic typeface.
1737–1784
In 1737 the church was damaged by a massive fire and later restored by Ivan Michurin. The inscriptions made in 1683 were removed during the repairs of 1761–1784. The church received its first figurative murals inside the churches; all exterior and interior walls of the first two floors were covered with floral ornamentation. The belltower was connected with the church through a ground-floor annex; the last remaining open arches of the former ground-floor arcade were filled during the same period, erasing the last hint of what was once an open platform carrying the nine churches of Ivan's Jerusalem.
1800–1848
Paintings of Red Square by Fyodor Alekseyev, made in 1800–1802, show that by this time the church was enclosed in an apparently chaotic cluster of commercial buildings; rows of shops "transformed Red Square into an oblong and closed yard." In 1800 the space between the Kremlin wall and the church was still occupied by a moat that predated the church itself. The moat was filled in preparation for the coronation of Alexander I in 1801. The French troops who occupied Moscow in 1812 used the church for stables and looted anything worth taking. The church was spared by the Fire of Moscow (1812) that razed Kitai-gorod, and by the troops' failure to blow it up according to Napoleon's order. The interiors were repaired in 1813 and the exterior in 1816. Instead of replacing missing ceramic tiles of the main tent, the Church preferred to simply cover it with a tin roof.
The fate of the immediate environment of the church has been a subject of dispute between city planners since 1813. Scotsman William Hastie proposed clearing the space around all sides of the church and all the way down to the Moskva River; the official commission led by Fyodor Rostopchin and Mikhail Tsitsianov agreed to clear only the space between the church and Lobnoye Mesto. Hastie's plan could have radically transformed the city, but he lost to the opposition, whose plans were finally endorsed by Alexander I in December 1817 (the specific decision on clearing the rubble around the church was issued in 1816).
Nevertheless, actual redevelopment by Joseph Bove resulted in clearing the rubble and creating Vasilyevskaya (St. Basil's) Square between the church and Kremlin wall by shaving off the crest of the Kremlin Hill between the church and the Moskva River. Red Square was opened to the river, and "St. Basil thus crowned the decapitated hillock." Bove built the stone terrace wall separating the church from the pavement of Moskvoretskaya Street; the southern side of the terrace was completed in 1834. Minor repairs continued until 1848, when the domes acquired their present-day colours.
1890–1914
Preservationist societies monitored the state of the church and called for a proper restoration throughout the 1880s and 1890s, but it was regularly delayed for lack of funds. The church did not have a congregation of its own and could only rely on donations raised through public campaigning; national authorities in Saint Petersburg and local in Moscow prevented financing from state and municipal budgets. In 1899 Nicholas II reluctantly admitted that this expense was necessary, but again all the involved state and municipal offices, including the Holy Synod, denied financing. Restoration, headed by Andrey Pavlinov (died 1898) and Sergey Solovyov, dragged on from 1896 to 1909; in total, preservationists managed to raise around 100,000 roubles.
Restoration began with replacing the roofing of the domes. Solovyov removed the tin roofing of the main tent installed in the 1810s and found many original tiles missing and others discoloured; after a protracted debate the whole set of tiles on the tented roof was replaced with new ones. Another dubious decision allowed the use of standard bricks that were smaller than the original 16th-century ones. Restorers agreed that the paintwork of the 19th century must be replaced with a "truthful recreation" of historic patterns, but these had to be reconstructed and deduced based on medieval miniatures. In the end, Solovyov and his advisers chose a combination of deep red with deep green that is retained to the present.
In 1908 the church received its first warm air heating system, which did not work well because of heat losses in long air ducts, heating only the eastern and northern sanctuaries. In 1913 it was complemented with a pumped water heating system serving the rest of the church.
1918–1941
During World War I, the church was headed by protoiereus Ioann Vostorgov, a nationalist preacher and a leader of the Black-Hundredist Union of the Russian People. Vostorgov was arrested by Bolsheviks in 1918 on a pretext of embezzling nationalized church properties and was executed in 1919.[citation needed] The church briefly enjoyed Vladimir Lenin's "personal interest"; in 1923 it became a public museum, though religious services continued until 1929.
Bolshevik planners entertained ideas of demolishing the church after Lenin's funeral (January 1924). In the first half of the 1930s, the church became an obstacle for Joseph Stalin's urbanist plans, carried out by Moscow party boss Lazar Kaganovich, "the moving spirit behind the reconstruction of the capital". The conflict between preservationists, notably Pyotr Baranovsky, and the administration continued at least until 1936 and spawned urban legends. In particular, a frequently-told story is that Kaganovich picked up a model of the church in the process of envisioning Red Square without it, and Stalin sharply responded "Lazar, put it back!" Similarly, Stalin's master planner, architect Vladimir Semyonov, reputedly dared to "grab Stalin's elbow when the leader picked up a model of the church to see how Red Square would look without it" and was replaced by pure functionary Sergey Chernyshov.
In the autumn of 1933, the church was struck from the heritage register. Baranovsky was summoned to perform a last-minute survey of the church slated for demolition, and was then arrested for his objections. While he served his term in the Gulag, attitudes changed and by 1937 even hard-line Bolshevik planners admitted that the church should be spared. In the spring of 1939, the church was locked, probably because demolition was again on the agenda; however, the 1941 publication of Dmitry Sukhov's detailed book on the survey of the church in 1939–1940 speaks against this assumption.
1947 to present
In the first years after World War II renovators restored the historical ground-floor arcades and pillars that supported the first-floor platform, cleared up vaulted and caissoned ceilings in the galleries, and removed "unhistoric" 19th-century oil paint murals inside the churches. Another round of repairs, led by Nikolay Sobolev in 1954–1955, restored original paint imitating brickwork, and allowed restorers to dig inside old masonry, revealing the wooden frame inside it. In the 1960s, the tin roofing of the domes was replaced with copper.
The last round of renovation was completed in September 2008 with the opening of the restored sanctuary of St. Alexander Svirsky. The building is still partly in use today as a museum and, since 1991, is occasionally used for services by the Russian Orthodox Church. Since 1997 Orthodox Christian services have been held regularly. Nowadays every Sunday at Saint Basil's church there is a divine liturgy at 10 a.m. with an Akathist to Saint Basil.
Naming
The building, originally known as "Trinity Church",[8] was consecrated on 12 July 1561, and was subsequently elevated to the status of a sobor (similar to an ecclesiastical basilica in the Catholic Church, but usually and incorrectly translated as "cathedral"). "Trinity", according to tradition, refers to the easternmost sanctuary of the Holy Trinity, while the central sanctuary of the church is dedicated to the Intercession of Mary. Together with the westernmost sanctuary of the Entry into Jerusalem, these sanctuaries form the main east–west axis (Christ, Mary, Holy Trinity), while other sanctuaries are dedicated to individual saints.
Sanctuaries of the cathedral
Compass point Type Dedicated to Commemorates
Central coreTented churchIntercession of Most Holy TheotokosBeginning of the final assault of Kazan, 1 October 1552
WestColumnEntry of Christ into JerusalemTriumph of the Muscovite troops
North-westGroin vaultSaint Gregory the Illuminator of ArmeniaCapture of Ars Tower of Kazan Kremlin, 30 September 1552
NorthColumnSaint Martyrs Cyprian and Justinia (since 1786 Saint Adrian and Natalia of Nicomedia)Complete capture of Kazan Kremlin, 2 October 1552
North-eastGroin vaultThree Patriarchs of Alexandria (since 1680 Saint John the Merciful)Defeat of Yepancha's cavalry on 30 August 1552
EastColumnLife-giving Holy TrinityHistorical Trinity Church on the same site
South-eastGroin vaultSaint Alexander SvirskyDefeat of Yepancha's cavalry on 30 August 1552
SouthColumnThe icon of Saint Nicholas from the Velikaya River (Nikola Velikoretsky)The icon was brought to Moscow in 1555.
South-westGroin vaultSaint Barlaam of KhutynMay have been built to commemorate Vasili III of Russia
North-eastern annex (1588)Groin vaultBasil the BlessedGrave of venerated local saint
South-eastern annex (1672)Groin vaultLaying the Veil (since 1680: Nativity of Theotokos, since 1916: Saint John the Blessed of Moscow)Grave of venerated local saint
The name "Intercession Church" came into use later, coexisting with Trinity Church. From the end of the 16th century[66] to the end of the 17th century the cathedral was also popularly called Jerusalem, with reference to its church of Entry into Jerusalem as well as to its sacral role in religious rituals. Finally, the name of Vasily (Basil) the Blessed, who died during construction and was buried on-site, was attached to the church at the beginning of the 17th century.
Current Russian tradition accepts two coexisting names of the church: the official "Church of Intercession on the Moat" (in full, the "Church of Intercession of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat"), and the "Temple of Basil the Blessed". When these names are listed together the latter name, being informal, is always mentioned second.
The common Western translations "Cathedral of Basil the Blessed" and "Saint Basil's Cathedral" incorrectly bestow the status of cathedral on the church of Basil, but are nevertheless widely used even in academic literature. Especially during the 19. century, in English and other languages the Saint Basil's Cathedral was also called (Cathedral or Church of) Vassili Blagennoi.
Sacral and social role
On the day of its consecration the church itself became part of Orthodox thaumaturgy. According to the legend, its "missing" ninth church (more precisely a sanctuary) was "miraculously found" during a ceremony attended by Tsar Ivan IV, Metropolitan Makarius with the divine intervention of Saint Tikhon. Piskaryov's Chronist wrote in the second quarter of the 17th century:
And the Tsar came to the dedication of the said church with Tsaritsa Nastasia and with Metropolitan Makarius and brought the icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker that came from Vyatka. And they began to offer a prayer service with sanctified water. And the Tsar touched the base with his own hands. And the builders saw that another sanctuary appeared, and told the Tsar. And the Tsar, and Metropolitan, and all the clergy were surprised by the finding of another sanctuary. And the Tsar ordered it to be dedicated to Nicholas ...
— Piskaryov Chronicle, 1560 (7068 per Byzantine calendar)
Allegory of Jerusalem
Construction of wrap-around ground-floor arcades in the 1680s visually united the nine churches of the original cathedral into a single building. Earlier, the clergy and the public perceived it as nine distinct churches on a common base, a generalized allegory of the Orthodox Heavenly City similar to fantastic cities of medieval miniatures. At a distance, separate churches towering over their base resembled the towers and churches of a distant citadel rising above the defensive wall. The abstract allegory was reinforced by real-life religious rituals where the church played the role of the biblical Temple in Jerusalem:
The capital city, Moscow, is split into three parts; the first of them, called Kitai-gorod, is encircled with a solid thick wall. It contains an extraordinary beautiful church, all clad in shiny bright gems, called Jerusalem. It is the destination of an annual Palm Sunday walk, when the Grand Prince must lead a donkey carrying the Patriarch, from the Church of Virgin Mary to the church of Jerusalem which stands next to the citadel walls. Here is where the most illustrious princely, noble and merchant families live. Here is, also, the main muscovite marketplace: the trading square is built as a brick rectangle, with twenty lanes on each side where the merchants have their shops and cellars ...
— Peter Petreius, History of the Great Duchy of Moscow, 1620
Templum S. Trinitatis, etiam Hierusalem dicitur; ad quo Palmarum fest Patriarcha asino insidens a Caesare introducitur.
Temple of Holy Trinity, also called Jerusalem, to where the tsar leads the Patriarch, sitting on a donkey, on the Palm Holiday.
— Legend of Peter's map of Moscow, 1597, as reproduced in the Bleau Atlas
The last donkey walk (хождение на осляти) took place in 1693. Mikhail Petrovich Kudryavtsev noted that all cross processions of the period began, as described by Petreius, from the Dormition Church, passed through St. Frol's (Saviour's) Gate and ended at Trinity Cathedral. For these processions the Kremlin itself became an open-air temple, properly oriented from its "narthex" (Cathedral Square) in the west, through the "royal doors" (Saviour's Gate), to the "sanctuary" (Trinity Cathedral) in the east.
Urban hub
Tradition calls the Kremlin the centre of Moscow, but the geometric centre of the Garden Ring, first established as the Skorodom defensive wall in the 1590s, lies outside the Kremlin wall, coincident with the cathedral. Pyotr Goldenberg (1902–71), who popularized this notion in 1947, still regarded the Kremlin as the starting seed of Moscow's radial-concentric system, despite Alexander Chayanov's earlier suggestion that the system was not strictly concentric at all.
In the 1960s Gennady Mokeev (born 1932) formulated a different concept of the historical growth of Moscow. According to Mokeev, medieval Moscow, constrained by the natural boundaries of the Moskva and Neglinnaya Rivers, grew primarily in a north-easterly direction into the posad of Kitai-gorod and beyond. The main road connecting the Kremlin to Kitai-gorod passed through St. Frol's (Saviour's) Gate and immediately afterwards fanned out into at least two radial streets (present-day Ilyinka and Varvarka), forming the central market square. In the 14th century the city was largely contained within two balancing halves, Kremlin and Kitai-gorod, separated by a marketplace, but by the end of the century it extended further along the north-eastern axis. Two secondary hubs in the west and south spawned their own street networks, but their development lagged behind until the Time of Troubles.
Tsar Ivan's decision to build the church next to St. Frol's Gate established the dominance of the eastern hub with a major vertical accent, and inserted a pivot point between the nearly equal Kremlin and Kitai-gorod into the once amorphous marketplace. The cathedral was the main church of the posad, and at the same time it was perceived as a part of the Kremlin thrust into the posad, a personal messenger of the Tsar reaching the masses without the mediation of the boyars and clergy. It was complemented by the nearby Lobnoye mesto, a rostrum for the Tsar's public announcements first mentioned in chronicles in 1547 and rebuilt in stone in 1597–1598. Conrad Bussow, describing the triumph of False Dmitriy I, wrote that on 3 June 1606 "a few thousand men hastily assembled and followed the boyarin with [the impostor's] letter through the whole Moscow to the main church they call Jerusalem that stands right next to the Kremlin gates, raised him on Lobnoye Mesto, called out for the Muscovites, read the letter and listened to the boyarin's oral explanation."
Replicas
A scale model of Saint Basil's Cathedral has been built in Jalainur in Inner Mongolia, near China's border with Russia. The building houses a science museum.
We had an amazing late day sky yesterday. From rainbows to clouds that foreshadowed the weather to come... awesome.
This double rainbow was really neat. Too bad It was already half gone by the time I got to the beach.
These are the beautiful woods behind Gloucester County College. On the last day of Creative Photography Class, we took a relaxing trek through the woods. I was particularly struck by this bend in the creek. The water came up particularly red. Bob, my teacher explains below how the water gets its strange rusty red color. View On Black
Bog iron is a renewable resource, making it particularly important. It can be "harvested" from different parts of the bogs each year. After the limonite was removed, precipitation of the iron oxide began anew and in only 20 to 30 years a new "crop" was ready for production.
A full quarter century before the Industrial Revolution began in this country, a thriving iron industry had been established in remote sections of what is today the million acre New Jersey Pinelands, our country's first National Reserve. The unusual reddish brown color of Pinelands water is caused by decomposed plant material and dissolved iron.
Ground water in the coastal plains of New Jersey contains large concentrations of iron. This water seeped through the sands and sandpockets of the area carrying dissolved iron (Fe++) and manganese (Mn++). Upon reaching oxidized environments such as grottos, springs and swamps, these dissolved metals encountered so-called "iron bacteria" (e.g., Lepothrix), causing the chemical reactions that precipitate the ore masses. A thin film of rust forms on its surface and floats. The iron oxide combines with sand and gravel to form a low-grade iron ore that is deposited along stream banks.
These ore masses are composed of siderite, which is an iron carbonate ("white ore"), and various iron oxides ("brown ore"). Some of the ore masses can be larger than an automobile, but many are small. The miners laboriously dug the lumps from the clay, broke them in to smaller pieces, loaded them on wagons, and hauled them to the furnace. Much of the ore came from small pits on local farms, operated intermittently, supplementing meager winter incomes through mine work. For others, mining was their primary occupation.
In the 1840's, the discovery of anthracite coal near the magnetite iron ore beds of Pennsylvania foreshadowed the doom of iron production in southern New Jersey. Development of the Bessemer process and its incorporation in the new Pennsylvania furnaces was the nail in the coffin; the last of the great furnaces blew out its fire forever in the 1860's. By this time though, the iron of the Pines had already made its mark on the region and on the country as a whole.
Picture from the net, description from Wickipedia
The Scarab was unlike most cars of the era. Virtually all production cars at the time used a separate chassis and body, with a long compartment in the front, housing the engine, longitudinally placed behind the front axle, and a rearward passenger compartment. The front-mounted engine would typically drive the rear axle through a connecting drive shaft running underneath the floor of the vehicle. This layout worked very well, but had severe limitations where space utilization was concerned.
Instead, the Scarab did away with the chassis and drive-shaft, to create a low, flat floor for the interior, by using a unitized body structure, and by placing the Ford-built V8 engine in the rear of the vehicle. The car’s creator, motorcar and aviation engineer and journalist William B. Stout, envisioned his traveling machine to be an office on wheels. To that end, the Scarab's body, styled by John Tjaarda, a well known Dutch automobile engineer,[3] closely followed the construction of an aluminium aircraft fuselage.
Featuring a very short, streamlined nose and tapering upper body at the rear, it foreshadowed the contemporary monospace (or one-box) MPV or Minivan design — featuring a removable table and second row seats that turn 180 degrees to face the rear — a feature that Chrysler currently markets as Swivel ’n Go.[4]
Although reminiscent of the Chrysler Airflow, streamliner, and the slightly later (1938) KdF-Wagen — all aerodynamically efficient in appearance, the Stout Scarab was generally considered ugly at the time. Today its futuristic design and curvaceous, finely detailed nose earn it respect as an Art Deco icon
Joyeux Noël à toutes et à tous ! — A very Merry Christmas to all !
This series will be the last of my uploads for the trip I took to southern Burgundy in September 2023.
Listed as a Historic landmark in 1900, the Romanesque church in the out-of-the-way village of Gourdon is one of the secret wonders of Burgundy. Not particularly outstanding from the outside, its large silhouette nevertheless foreshadows an impressive interior, and indeed it is, with its combination of a whooping three-level, Cluny-inspired elevation, its three naves and its generalized system of groin vaulting. Its collection of sculpted capitals is also famous, as are the alfresco paintings that were discovered in the 1940s as the plastering that was applied to hide them in the 19th century began to peel away. More such discoveries were made in the 1970s and restoration lasted until the early 1990s.
Located on a hilltop in the département of Saône-et-Loire, Gourdon has been inhabited since time immemorial. Valuable traces of Roman presence were found in 1845 and promptly shipped to a museum in Paris (the Cabinet des Médailles) where the are still being exhibited to this day. A monastery was founded here very early on, as there is a written trace of a dependency of the Le Puy cathedral chapter in 534, but claims that it was “a Benedictine priory” seem to me a bit overambitious, in spite of my sympathies for that order: let’s not forget that Saint Benedict died only in 547 in Monte Cassino, and I doubt that his Rule was so well-known in Gaul in his own lifetime that it could have been adopted by a small religious establishment in Burgundy... The monastery did certainly exist, though, as Saint Gregory of Tours visited it in 570 and there met with Didier (or Desideratus). About this last figure, History hesitates between the quality of abbot (that would indeed rather be prior if Gourdon were a priory back then) and that of hermit. In any case, by 1104, when the completed parish church is mentioned (there remains no trace of the in-between period), there is no further mention of that monastery, which must have disappeared in the meantime; it was probably little more than a hermitage, as by Year 1000 the rule had been largely propagated by Saint Benedict of Aniane († 821) and Benedictine houses were flourishing all over the Western world. An already existing priory would most likely never have been so abandoned and shut down. No physical traces of that establishment were ever found by archæologists.
Since around 1100, the church has been left almost intact, except for the bell tower which collapsed in 1881 and was rebuilt in 1889, exactly as it was before.
Monkey are, I believe, shown on this capital. There had probably been seen by the sculptor in a traveling show or on some small piece of ivory brought from Africa or the Middle East —that’s how they got their “documentation”, back around Year 1000, which sometimes lead to amusing zoological mistakes...
Here is one last supplemental to my "Origin of the States" narrative, the fourth supplemental in a Civil War sequence and the seventh overall. We'll call it part 35.6 of 50 in a sporadic series
Editor's Note: I don't always identify the picture I use in this series, but this is a house displaying a Confederate battle flag in Franklin Grove, Illinois. Which didn't secede. The "Lost Cause" narrative is pervasive, even now. I had been hoping to have a relevant picture from South Carolina to use by now, but we didn't take that trip.
Hey! The Civil War's over! We came through Hell and survived! So we must have solved the problems of institutional racism and the destabilizing nature of "states' rights" philosophy, right? Right?
Oh.
Abraham Lincoln beat ex-General George "Cement Foot" McClellan in the presidential election of 1864 and won a second term as the 16th President of the United States. At his inauguration four months later -- barely a month before Bob Lee sat down at Appomattox with U.S. Grant -- Lincoln stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and gave a speech about forgiveness. Yes, the war was ending, Lincoln said, and the Union would endure, but this wasn't a time for some Northern victory dance filled with triumphant celebration. The nation had been torn apart and punished for the evils of slavery, and there was no glory here to celebrate. It was time for North and South to come together and reconcile their differences. The last line of this speech is perhaps the most enduring. "With malice toward none," Lincoln said, "with charity for all ... let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
Some historians suggest Lincoln's conciliatory tone was meant to foreshadow the gentle path he planned to take toward the reunification of the country, a process that came to be known as "Reconstruction." Lincoln had two big tasks to accomplish with Reconstruction. One, he needed to figure out how to bring the rebellious states back into the national fold, and two, he had to figure out how to integrate four million suddenly freed slaves into the larger society. There was plenty of debate over what this Reconstruction would look like. The victorious Union leaders started looking for pounds of flesh while the beaten Confederates worked to spin defeat into whatever kind of half-victory they could muster. Many in the North thought they should exact harsh retribution against the South, and some wanted Confederate leaders hanged as traitors. Some questioned whether the privileges of true statehood should be returned to the secessionist states at all. But Lincoln had seen enough of anger, and he meant to have the nation bind together in peace.
How or whether he would have managed that, we'll never know. A mere six days after Lee surrendered to Grant, a disgruntled actor with Southern sympathies crept into a theatre balcony and shot Lincoln in the back of the head, ending the planned reconciliation of Lincoln's imagination. Lincoln had held the nation together, but other people would have to figure out what that meant. Ultimately, it all turned into a big mess, and a lot of things we'd fought a war to settle were never really worked out at all. We're still working a lot of it out today.
President Johnson
One of the weird things about the Civil War is that when it ended, a man from the losing side became President.
During Lincoln's first term, the vice president had been a man from Maine named Hannibal Hamlin. But though Hamlin spent his vice presidency working hard to help push Lincoln's legislative agenda through Congress, he and Lincoln had never been all that close. Hamlin was one of those guys who wanted to take a hard line that forced the Southern states to accept the reality of freed slaves as true citizens, but he was a little too extreme for Lincoln's agenda of gentle reconciliation. So Lincoln -- who I'll remind you was a Republican -- decided to replace Hamlin with Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat. Which, yeah, is kind of absurd.
Andrew Johnson had been a U.S. senator from Tennessee when the war kicked off, and he was the only one of the 22 Southern senators who didn't quit as soon as his home state seceded. He'd loudly voiced his opposition to secession in the days leading up to the war, and after Nashville fell to Union forces in 1862, he served as Tennessee's Union-appointed military governor. The way Lincoln saw it, having a guy like Andrew Johnson as his vice president would be a big step toward showing that "malice toward none" was more than just a sound bite.
The obvious risk with that scheme was that somebody might shoot Lincoln in the back of the head, leaving a Southern Democrat who had until just recently owned a bunch of slaves to handle Reconstruction.
That's the thing about Johnson. Sure, he'd been opposed to secession, and he worked hard trying to keep Tennessee in the Union, but he was a BIG fan of slavery and an even bigger fan of states' rights. He was the classic Southern racist, and he saw little reason for some minor disagreement like the Civil Freakin' War to motivate Southerners to change their ways. I mean, yeah, Southerners couldn't keep slaves any more (probably), but that didn't mean they had to treat black people like they were human or something.
Basically, Johnson's plan for Reconstruction was to have the former Confederate states welcomed back into the fold like nothing had ever happened, and he kicked things off by telling all the rebel states to go ahead and elect whatever state legislators and governors and U.S. congressmen and senators they wanted. Predictably, the Southern states were big fans of this approach, and they all elected a bunch of the same old people who'd held these offices before the war, some of whom had been actively shooting at Union soldiers only a few months earlier.
These new-old legislatures immediately started coming up with all sorts of ways to effectively keep slavery going while calling it something else. States across the South spent 1865 and 1866 inventing "Black Codes," which differed from state to state -- states' rights, you know -- but all had the goal of keeping freed slaves subservient to white society. Black people couldn't buy, sell, or own property in most Southern states, and their movement was heavily restricted. The Southern states focused heavily on laws against "vagrancy" among freed slaves, which the law defined as simply not having a job recognized by white folk. Black people who didn't work enough could be arrested. Those convicted of vagrancy -- which was pretty much everybody arrested -- would then be sentenced to forced labor and doled out by counties or municipalities to private landowners still dependent on free labor to work as unpaid field hands. Which is a nicer way of saying, "slave."
The Northern reaction to this was also predictable, and Northerners in congress railed against President Johnson's so-called plan. "I mean, come on, people," they said. "We just fought a big ass war over this." They set about passing bills to force a harder line on the South, things like the Civil Rights Act of 1865 and the Second Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which allowed a wartime agency designed to integrate freed slaves into society to continue operating after the war's end. But Andrew Johnson vetoed all these bills, and Southern whites grew more angry and more bold. White folks rioted against freed blacks in places like Memphis and New Orleans. The first incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan appeared and started burning their first crosses and holding their first lynchings. (I guess the President figured there were good people on both sides.)
Radical Republicans
Things flipped in late 1866, when the November midterm elections filled Congress with an unbreakable majority of Radical Republicans. These were people more in line with Hamlin than Lincoln, people who had always believed the South would only accept the Civil War's outcome when forced. Andrew Johnson's attempt at easy Reconstruction had only proven the point, so now it was time for Reconstruction to turn radical.
The most immediate consequence of the election of 1866 was that the Radical Republicans had a large enough numerical majority to negate any Presidential veto, so they just overturned all the vetoes Johnson had issued the previous year. They refused to seat any elected representative from the South who had fought for the Confederate army, and they demanded that former Confederate states pass laws to guarantee the civil rights and safety of freed slaves as a condition of readmittance to the Union. They passed the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution granting freed slaves all the rights of full citizenship and prohibiting states from denying the right to vote based on race, then forced the Confederate states to ratify the amendments. They passed the four Reconstruction Acts, which set down a whole slew of requirements for the Southern states to follow before they were readmitted, and divided the South into five administrative districts controlled by military occupation forces until the process was complete. This left 40,000 troops scattered across the Southern states to quell riots and protect black people from the Klan. And when Andrew Johnson tried to weaken this military occupation by firing the Secretary of War, the Radical Republican congress impeached him. Johnson came within one senate vote of being the first and (still) only President to get fired by Congress.
The South could only stew in impotent rage as the Radical Republican roll continued through the election of 1868, which brought none other than former Union General U.S. Grant, killer of the Confederate cause, to the Presidency. And that wasn't even the worst of what democracy was bringing to the former Confederates in those days. The South's heavy dependenc on slavery had left many Southern congressional districts with large black majorities, and black men who'd once been slaves started getting elected to national office. Mississippi even elected a black man to the United States senate in 1870, and then another in 1875.
Reconstructed
Grant started out strong in the view of the Radical Republicans, creating the Justice Department to root out and prosecute Klan members and enforcing harsh military law on states (like South Carolina, of course) that refused to enfranchise blacks. But while the racism of Southern whites seemed to know no bounds, the altruistic urge of Northern whites to push for something resembling equality would only sustain itself for so long before the subtler racism hiding underneath turned it all to apathy. It didn't help that U.S. Grant turned out to be a far better general than a president, and his second term devolved into the kind of scandal-plagued, corruption-coated turmoil that puts people at the bottom of "Top 18 Presidents" lists. Reconstruction in the Grant era turned into a battle of attrition, as Southerners sustained themselves on hatred, determined to outlast Northern attention spans.
The end of Reconstruction came suddenly, thanks to another presidential election.
The election of 1876 pitted a New York Democrat named Samuel Tilden against a Republican from Ohio named Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden had a long history of opposing slavery, but he also kind of bought into the states' rights rhetoric and had also opposed using force against the South to prevent secession. With the end of the war now a decade past, Tilden felt it was time for the federal government to put Reconstruction to bed and focus on other issues. Southern whites loved that idea, so they swarmed to Tilden's side and tried violence and intimidation and whatever shenanigans they could come up with to keep black people from voting. The final result of their efforts was that four states had their electoral votes disqualified. This left Tilden with a clear advantage in both the popular and electoral vote, but without an electoral vote majority. And when that happens, the Constitution says the Congress gets to decide the election. But Congress was split; Republicans controlled the senate, while Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Somebody somewhere was going to have to work out a deal.
The deal became the Compromise of 1877. Democrats wanted Reconstruction to end. Republicans wanted Rutherford Hayes to be President. So the Democrats agreed to give the race to Hayes as long as Hayes and the Republicans gave up on Reconstruction. The Republicans were bored with Reconstruction by this time. The deal was a no-brainer.
What Did It All Mean?
With the official era of Reconstruction finally over in 1877, the final scars of the Civil War could finally be healed. But that sort of thing never heals completely. Government can move on and dance into the Gilded Age if it wants, but there's still going to be bitter white folks in the South seething over Yankee aggression fueled by an out-of-control federal government, and those folks will pass that bitterness down to their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren four generations removed. And there will still be poor black folks trying desperately to overcome the emotional and economic trauma of 10 generations of enslavement and the racism that persists once enslavement ends, unable to do much but bear the oppression those angry white folks impose on them.
It should be one of the most obvious observations in the world that the Civil War didn't end racism, though I've known plenty of Southerners in my day who like to pretend otherwise. The end of Reconstruction allowed the rise of a different kind of racism, institutionalized this time by Southern states once more determined to assert their rights. The Radical Republicans had forced the states to abandon their Black Codes, but that didn't mean they couldn't just come up with different versions of the same codes called something else. Like maybe Jim Crow. Because when it comes to race, some states always want to assert their rights. The Constitution wouldn't let them permit slavery and it wouldn't let them deny anybody the right to vote based on race. But they could certainly make it damned hard for black people to exercise that right. They could certainly keep black people isolated, separate and not at all equal. The fight for racial equality, which should have been won in 1865, would have to be fought continuously for the next hundred and fifty years. It's still being fought today.
But this is a series about states. So what about all these states and their rights? What happened there?
Well, that fight continues on today, too. The pendulum of power continues to swing between the nation and state. Wars and Depressions have occassionally pushed things Washington's way; free market economics in quieter times have pushed it back toward the states. Sometimes that push may strengthen some (but never all) of the states, but like the impotent Confederacy, it leaves the nation weaker and unable to respond in times of crisis. That may mean people go hungry. It may mean people suffer disease they didn't need to suffer. It may mean that states are forced to fight against each other for resources they need to meet the threat.
But I risk getting current here. This is a history series.
So next time I come back to this series, we'll go back to history. There's still fifteen more states to explore, and one of them doesn't even wait for the Civil War to finish before popping onto the scene ... though the war didn't have much to do with it. That one was all about money. And money more than anything is going to be the driver of the origins of all these states from now on.
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного, romanized: Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo), known in English as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. Its completion, with its colors, was made in 1683. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City. Like all churches in Byzantine Christianity, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.
The cathedral has nine domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century, and it is considered as a prime example of Russian Renaissance architecture.
As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with prayer to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.
BNSF 8103, with its crazy numberboards, runs west on the double track main through downtown Hawley, MN. In the background, you can see an eastbound train and the two famous railfan bridges just to the east of town.
This was a great day of Springtime railfanning in western Minnesota. DC power could still be found on coal trains, although you can see the MAC second out on this train foreshadowing the changes that were looming. This train was a surprise as I didn't hear it on the scanner. The last westbound I heard was a GEVO, so when this guy popped around the bend, it was a welcome sight!
Hawley's a great place to 'fan on the Staples Sub. This view is right near Main St...park your car, hop out, and you're set!
Pontsteiger, Houthavens Amsterdam, NL - arons en gelauff architecten
The building is located at the end of a 200 metre dam that projects into the water of the river IJ. The unusual form was designed with apartment dwellers’ preferences in mind: residential demand is highest either at the top of high rises (penthouse views) or at the base to connect to the liveliness at city level. In the Pontsteiger design concept the part in between is simply minimized. The large building consists of a six floor low rise block that wraps around a plaza on the waterfront. Two slender 60 metre towers at the open end of this block frame the river view. The towers carry a bridge spanning 48 metres rising to a height of 90 metres above the city. The result is an iconic building that foreshadows Amsterdam’s growth of high rise buildings around the river IJ.
The building is elevated 7 metres and set upon a base of four pavilions. The glazed pavilions accommodate lobbies, restaurants, bars and cafes. A marina for the residents of Pontsteiger is located at the Westside. The public space on ground level provides access to the water on all sides and creates views across the river in every direction. Despite its scale, the buildings elevated volume creates an astonishing light-footed presence on site and a constantly changing appearance different from every part of the city.
Flexibility has been key in the design that dates back to 2007.The original concept proved to be capable of adapting to extreme market forces throughout the project. A mix of floor plan typologies is employed to create apartments ranging between 65 m2 and410 m2.
The pavilions have sensuous curves and are constructed with sturdy timber window frames. The canopies bring a smaller scale to the ground floor and shield for the occasional downburst of wind. In the facades of the high rise a playfully patterned grid of marble-white concrete is set with artisan glazed bricks. The chameleonic tones of green and bronze create a facade that changes with the light and time of day, just like the surface of the waters that surround the building. Extra-large aluminium framed windows open up spectacular views all around. The large balconies are set within the building volume and are protected by large glass windscreens. All exterior ceilings are clad in timber lending to give the building a warm atmosphere, while referring to the locations history of timber docks.
This red sun in an otherwise cloudless sky foreshadows another day of climate extremes here in Sydney. Two days ago we recorded the hottest average temperature across Australia since records began - 40.9C - more than half a degree above the previous record. That record lasted one day before it was beaten yesterday by a whole degree - 41.9C. Today we have around 100 active bushfires in NSW, half of them out of control, fire crews on alert along the entire perimeter of Australia's largest city and a declared state of emergency. Will this finally galvanise Australia's leaders into action?
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного, romanized: Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo), known in English as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. Its completion, with its colors, was made in 1683. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City. Like all churches in Byzantine Christianity, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.
The cathedral has nine domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century, and it is considered as a prime example of Russian Renaissance architecture.
As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with prayer to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.
Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954
Universal was already famous for iconic "monster" movies. Frankenstein and Dracula became part of the culture. Creature from the Black Lagoon (CBL) is mostly in the same vein of monster-horror flick, but with a little science in its fiction. Unlike magical or demonic monsters, this one is supposedly a "natural" anomaly of evolution. CBL is often classified as sci-fi, so it's worthy of inclusion here.
Budget-wise, CBL is a B movie, but it's a cut above the usual B crowd. The acting was reasonable. The cinematography was impressive. The only "special" effect was the creature's costume. While the Creature is, in many people's mind, THE icon for man-in-rubber-suit monster costumes, something about the creature found resonance in movie-goers. He was strong enough to merit two sequels.
The producers tapped Jack Arnold for director. Arnold, who directed It Came From Outer Space had an excellent eye. His use of many camera locations, angles, framing and cuts, he lets the camera become invisible. Viewers are in the scene, not simply watching it.
The actors didn't get in the way of the story. Richard Carlson was already a big name in the sci-fi movie world. It Came From Outer Space, Magnetic Monster, and Riders to the Stars. Richard
Denning was a hunky star of many westerns and detective movies. He would go on to star in a few more sci-fi films. The female lead, Julie Adams was perfect as the beautiful damsel. The supporting cast were a little quirky at times, but not as stiff and wooden as second-teir actors tend to be.
Synopsis
A old archeologist, working in the remote Amazon, finds the fossilized hand -- somewhat humanoid, but obviously aquatic. He shows it to some other scientists who agree to mount an expedition to find the rest of the skeleton. While Dr. Maia was doing all this, a creature with the same kind of hand tears up his camp and kills his two native helpers. The scientists spend many days digging and sifting, but come up empty. They decide to go further upstream to the Black Lagoon to search. There, they encounter the Gill-Man. The two scientists are at odds over what's best -- capture the creature alive, kill it and bring it back, study it and leave, etc. All this debate becomes moot when the creature begins killing off crew members. The creature barricades the entrance to the lagoon so the ship cannot leave. The expedition becomes a battle for survival. They manage to drug and capture the creature, but it escapes its cage-tank. It kills Dr. Williams. It then captures the beautiful woman, taking her to his cave lair. The men follow, find her and the creature. After taking several bullet hits, the creature staggers away and dives into the lagoon. The final image is of the creature floating downwards, limp and lifeless.
Why is this movie fun?
This is one of those cultural icon movies that even non-fans of sci-fi know. In that regard, watching it like seeing a celebrity in person. Arnold does a good job with pacing and keeping tension up. It's interesting that the creature gets his own theme music, of sorts. Arnold that the same ascending three note phrase, "do da DEEEEE!" accompany each appearance. The creature's mixture of vulnerability and apparent invincibility, kept you off guard. Spear gun hits or bullets seemed to almost take him down, but not quite.
Dueling Scientists -- Dr. Reed (Carlson) represents the "good" side of science. He wants to study the creature, but not interfere or harm anything. He wants to expand the field of knowledge for altruistic reasons. Dr. Williams (Denning) represents the dark side of science. He's focused on the fundraising potential, the economic cost of expeditions. When confronted with the creature, he's all for killing it (not so much for the safety of the others) in order to bring it back for exhibition. This dualism of scientists is somewhat two-dimensional, but works as a sub-theme.
Many B-grade sci-fi films show their low-budget monster as little as possible. CBL breaks that rule in a big way. Viewers get several partial views right away (the hand) and not too far into the film, a full view of him. Since the producers didn't cheap out on the gill-man's costume, viewers aren't let down. He looks, moves and acts much one would think a gill-man would.
The gill-man is not simply a killing machine type of monster. His curiosity with (attraction to) Kay makes him more complex. In the swimming sequence (a strong foreshadow of the swimming girl scene in Jaws), he swims along with her, unseen, in a sort of parallel dance. He, the ancient, strong and primal male matching moves with the lithe, beautiful, innocent female. Some suggest that the gill-man's popularity was how well he echoed the adolescent male condition: awkward, unattractive, misunderstood, full of rage, attracted to beautiful women, but insecure approaching them. The big scene, in which the gill-man grabs Kay off the boat and swims her down to his cave lair is easily a young male fantasy.
CBL has the classic they're-after-our-women scene. It lives up to the poster art. The gill-man grabs the woman and runs (swims) off with her. He carries her in his arms toward his lair. Unlike other versions of this classic image, the gill-man appears to actually want the woman.