Well I will let you in on a secret, ok it is not but anyway, when my wife comes across Lego sets on sale for about 50% off she lets me know and I thought on this one it might be worth the parts but then I decided to try an alternate build so here it is. Except for one part, a 2x4 white tile on the trunk, it would be considered an alternate.

  

Sienna Evans' original Alex body on the right (unmodified), and modified Tonner Antoinette body on the left.

 

I filed and sanded the Antoinette body neck to match the contour of the Alex body's neck. There was plenty of material in the Antoinette neck to do this without the neck becoming too thin. I also had to make the neck peg gap smaller to secure the Sienna head, and I did this by taping around the neck peg and squirting polyurethane resin onto the underside, essentially casting a space-filling washer in place. I used Smooth-On Smooth Cast 300Q.

Kreissieg exhaust. That's all i know about this particular Gallardo.

 

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+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Tyne was the second of the five River-class light cruisers in the Royal Navy, which were introduced during the interwar period and played, after modifications, an active role in World War II, especially in the Mediterranean theatre of operations.

 

After the construction of the Danae-class cruiser, the demerits of the small cruiser concept became apparent. At the end of 1917, plans for an additional six C-class vessels, plus three new-design 7,200 ton-class scouting cruisers were shelved, in favor of an intermediate 5,500 ton-class vessel which could be used as both a long-range, high speed scout ship, and also as a command vessel for destroyer or submarine flotillas. The resulting River-class vessels were essentially enlarged versions of the Danae-class cruisers, with greater speed, range, and weaponry. With improvements in geared-turbine engine technology, the River-class vessels were capable of the high speed of 36 knots (67 km/h), and a range of 9,000 nmi (17,000 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h). The number of BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) L/45 Mark XII guns was increased from only three to seven in single mounts and provision was made for 48 naval mines. However, the four triple torpedo launchers on the Danae-class were reduced to just two double launchers, and the River-class remained highly deficient in anti-aircraft protection, with only two QF 3 in 20 cwt L/45 Mk. I and two QF 2-pounder L/39 Mk. II guns. A total of eight ships were ordered, but, with less pressure after the end of WWI, only five were built and finished.

 

The first River-class ship, H.M.S. “Trent”, was laid down in December 1918 and launched in August 1919. H.M.S. “Tyne” was the second cruiser of this new class, laid down 8 July 1919, launched 24 September 1920 and completed at Chatham Royal Dockyard 2 June 1922. Completed too late to see action in the First World War, “Tyne” was initially assigned to operate in the Baltic Sea against the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia. She was then on detached service in the West Indies. Following this assignment, she was attached to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet for the following five years. 1923/24, “Tyne” became a member of the Cruise of the Special Service Squadron, also known as the “Empire Cruise”. Following this tour, she went with the squadron to the Mediterranean for the next few years.

 

In May 1928 “Tyne” was assigned to the North America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda. She ran aground on 2 July 1928 on the Thrum Cap Shoal, 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) off Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was badly damaged, suffering the breach of her engine room and of one of her boiler rooms. She was abandoned by most of her 445 crew, the officers remaining on board. Subsequently, all her guns and torpedo tubes and much of her other equipment had to be removed to lighten her. She was finally refloated on 11 July 1928 and towed off by H.M.S. “Despatch” and several tugs. She was repaired throughout 1929 and then reduced to the reserve.

 

In 1930, however, due to a shortage of ships at foreign theatres of operation, she was reactivated and transferred back to the America and West Indies Station. During 1931-1933 she served with the South American Division, and in 1934 she relieved the cruiser “Curlew” in the Mediterranean and was reassigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron. In 1935 she returned to Britain to be paid off into the reserve, but “Tyne” was kept active in British coastal waters for cadet training.

 

On the outbreak of the Second World War, “Tyne” was recommissioned and thoroughly modernized, since the original armament and other equipment had become obsolete by 1939. All five River-class ships were re-designed as light trade protection cruisers and were outfitted with new, state-of-the-art equipment and armament, including six new and very compact turrets. Pairs were placed at the bow and at the stern each, with another two placed singly at port and starboard amidships. Each was armed with twin 5.25-inch (133 mm) guns in high angle mountings. These new, quick-firing weapons were primarily surface weapons, but it was intended to fire the heaviest shell suitable for anti-aircraft defense, so that the ships could be used for convoy protection from aerial attacks.

The ballistic performance of the QF 5.25 was very good, with a maximum range of 24,070 yd (22,010 m) at 45 degrees with an 80 lb (36.3 kg) HE shell. In comparison, the contemporary French 138 mm (5.4 in) Mle 1934 guns as used on the Mogador-class destroyers had a maximum range of 21,872 yards (20,000 m) at 30 degrees with an 88 lb (39.9 kg) SAP shell, and the Italian 135/45 mm gun as used on the Capitani Romani-class cruisers had a maximum range of 21,435 yards (19,600 m) at 45 degrees with a 72.1 lb (32.7 kg) AP shell.

The new turrets were far more modern in design than previous light cruiser turrets and offered efficient loading up to 70 degrees to provide the intended dual-purpose capability. Furthermore, “Tyne” was, like its revamped sister ships, outfitted with four twin QF 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-poms" and a pair of triple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tube launchers, mounted under the main deck. The latter carried a steam catapult for a reconnaissance waterplane, initially a Fairey Swordfish on floats but later replaced by a Supermarine Walrus amphibious flying boat. The depth charge racks were augmented by two new launchers.

 

After her modifications at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, field tests in the Channel and receiving a light disruptive Admiralty paint scheme, “Tyne” joined the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, escorting convoys to Scandinavia and engaged in the hunt for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. After the Norwegian Campaign she participated in the operations hunting the German battleship Bismarck and, together with the cruiser “Kenya”, intercepted one of the German supply ships, “Belchen”, on 3 June 1941.

 

Between July and August 1941, as part of Force K with the Home Fleet, she was involved in “Operation Gauntlet”, with operations to Spitzbergen and Bear Island. After one of these sorties, in company with the cruiser “Nigeria”, she intercepted a German troop convoy off Northern Norway, and the German ship “Bremse” was sunk. Later that year she was transferred to the Mediterranean and arrived in Alexandria on 21 October 1941 to join a new Force K, where the ship received a new high-contrast paint scheme, typical for this theatre of operations.

 

On 9 November 1941, Force K, consisting of “Tyne”,”Aurora”, “Penelope”, “Lance” and “Lively”, she was involved in the destruction of the Beta Convoy. In the resulting battle the Italian destroyer “Fulmine” was sunk, as well as the German transports “Duisburg” and “San Marco”, the Italian transports “Maria”, “Sagitta” and “Rina Corrado”, and the Italian “Conte di Misurata” and “Minatitlan”. The Italian destroyers “Grecale” and “Euro” were damaged.

 

On 24 November Force K, intercepted an Axis convoy about 100 nautical miles west of Crete. The Axis convoy was bound from the Aegean to Benghazi. The two German transports in the convoy, “Maritza” and “Procida”, were both sunk by H.M.S. “Penelope” and H.M.S. “Lively” despite the presence of the Italian torpedo boats “Lupo” and “Cassiopea”. On 1 December 1941 Force K, with “Tyne”, “Penelope” and ”Lively”, attacked the Mantovani Convoy. The Italian destroyer “Alvise Da Mosto” and the sole cargo ship “Mantovani” were sunk. H.M.S. “Tyne” next participated in the First Battle of Sirte on 17 December 1941. On 19 December, while steaming off Tripoli, she was heavily damaged in a mine field and was forced to retire to Malta for hull repairs.

 

After repairs, which lasted several months into summer 1942, she returned to service in the MTO and joined Force H. In November she became part of the Centre Task Force for the Landings in North Africa, Operation Torch. Off Oran, she engaged the Vichy French destroyers “Tramontane” and “Tornad”e on 8 November 1942, damaging the former so badly that it had to be beached. The following day she badly damaged the destroyer “Épervier” and drove it ashore. By early December 1942 she was operating as part of Force Q at Bône against the Axis evacuation and supply convoys between Trapani and Tunis.

 

However, “Tyne” was hit on 20 December 1942 off Trapani (Sicily) by an air-dropped torpedo. She caught fire, had two of her turrets out of action and was badly flooded. Later that day she was attacked once more by German dive-bombers, and a fatal bomb hit at the ship’s stern eventually led to her loss the following day. 115 men were killed through the attacks, the rest, more than two-thirds of the crew, was rescued.

 

All River-class ships had a very active war career and proved to be satisfactory in service, even though they were hardly a match for full-fledged battleships and worked best in conjunction with other ships. Especially in the Mediterranean they were very effective in protecting crucial convoys to Malta and even managed to see off some ships of the Italian Royal Navy. However, their outdated WWI machinery became their Achilles heel and limited their potential, and the relatively light main guns lacked range and firepower to take on major enemy ships their own.

From 1940 on the ships were to be replaced by the much more modern and better-equipped new Dido-class cruisers, but a shortage of guns for them, due to difficulties in manufacturing them, delayed their introduction so that the River-class cruisers had to soldier on. Two ships, “Tyne” and “Thames”, were lost, and the three post-war survivors “Trent”, “Severn” and “Mersey”, were immediately put into reserve after the end of hostilities in Europe and quickly broken up.

  

General characteristics:

Displacement: 5,100 long tons (5,200 t) (standard)

Length: 500 ft (152.4 m)

Beam: 47 ft (14.2 m)

Draft: 16 ft (4.8 m)

Draught: 12 ft 6 in (3.8 m) (deep)

Armor: Belt: 64 mm (3 in), Deck: 29 mm (1 in)

Complement: 450

 

Propulsion:

12× Admiralty boilers with 4× geared steam turbines, developing 90,000 shp (67,000 kW)

and driving four shafts

 

Performance:

Top speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)

Range: 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)

 

Armament (after conversion):

12× 5.25 guns (133 mm) 50 caliber guns in six twin turrets

4× twin QF 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" AA guns in powered mounts

2× triple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

2× throwers and 2× racks astern with 48 depth charges

  

The kit and its assembly:

The Royal Navy’s River-class light cruisers never existed. These fictional interwar ships were based on the Dido-class cruisers’ concept, just placed in an earlier generation and realized on the basis of an old/outdated ship. Inspiration came with an aftermarket set of six 1:700 white metal turrets that I came across recently, and I wanted to use it to build something like the American Atlanta-class light cruisers with a specialized AA armament.

 

However, this armament called for a suitable and bigger hull than my former destroyer builds, and I was eventually able to hunt down a cheap Tamiya kit of a Japanese Kuma-class light cruiser as starting point. It was perfect in size (almost exactly as big as a Dido-class cruiser!), shape and time frame, even though I I basically only used the kit’s single-piece hull as starting point. I had to modify the superstructures thoroughly to adapt the Japanese ship to the new role and also to a more Western layout and silhouette.

For instance, the typically Japanese tall “pagoda” bridge/command section of that era had to disappear, and I changed the superstructures almost completely, because the new twin turrets needed much more space than the small single guns of the Kuma cruiser. I also wanted to place them at different levels, and this called for suitable staggered platforms, too.

 

Initially there was the plan to mount the six turrets in groups of three at both bow and stern, but it was soon clear that this would not work – this arrangement would have been too long and too high, too, so that I went with two staggered pairs. I also wanted to give the ship – unlike the American Atlanta-class ships – a catapult for an on-board aircraft, and this required some free space on deck.

With this framework I scratched new/additional superstructures, using leftover pieces from the two recently built Matchbox K-class destroyers and from a Revell H.M.S. Ark Royal carrier. Everything evolved through trial-and error, in an attempt to find a plausible layout for all the deck equipment. The lowered hull section for the Kuma-class’ front torpedo tubes was filled with a cabin and re-purposed for lifeboats. Then the initially continuous superstructure was split to make room for the steam catapult amidships at deck level. The rear turrets eventually found their final places on a separate superstructure that would also carry the secondary mast and the crane for the floatplane, and I mounted the last two turrets in lateral positions (again somewhat inspired by the Atlanta-class arrangement with similar positions), above the Kuma-class’ openings for the rear torpedo launch tubes. These did not make sense at this position anymore, so that the OOB openings were closed/filled and moved further forward, under the new “flight deck”. Some PSR had to be done, too, in order to blend some disparate donor parts and fill the worst gaps. Therefore, the finish is certainly not as crisp as an OOB model – but I think that these flaws remained on an acceptable level.

 

Once the general deck layout had been settled, detail work began. This included a re-arrangement of bridge, masts and funnels, and the main deck had to offer enough space for the re-located catapult, together with the turrets in the side positions, lifeboats and AA stations, which found their place at deck level and in two twin alcoves in higher positions. Fiddly stuff, and I must admit that “creating” such a battleship is conceptually not easy.

The aircraft on board is actually the OOB Kawanishi E7K floatplane from the Kuma-class cruiser kit – but it looks similar enough to a Swordfish that this illusion could be easily supported with a suitable paint scheme.

  

Painting and markings:

I used the opportunity to apply another typical Royal Navy paint scheme, a so-called “Alexandria-style” pattern. This was a high-contrast scheme, sometimes described as consisting of black and white, but it was typically made up from 507a (Dark Grey) and 507c (Light Grey). It had been christened after the dockyard where it had been initially applied, and it was actually not a defined pattern (like the Admiralty schemes, which had been designed at offices by people who frequently had no practical naval experience!), but rather a common but individual application of standard paints that had been in ample supply at most dockyards! The ships had to be painted with what was at hand, and so the disruptive scheme caught on and was applied, like Mountbatten Pink, to a considerable number of British ships operating in the MTO. This two-tone scheme was not intended to conceal the ships, but rather to confuse the observer concerning speed, direction and what the ship actually was.

 

The pattern I applied to the model was loosely based on what the cruiser H.M.S. Devonshire carried in 1941, a kind of zebra pattern with wide, well-defined block stripes. As a visual gimmick these stripes were kind of “mirrored” along a line on the hull, as if reflected by the water and therefore making assessing size or distance even more difficult.

The paints are Humbrol 147 (Light Grey, FS 36495) and 27 (Sea Grey). The deck was painted as if the wooden areas had not been overpainted yet and allowed to weather, so that the once-holystoned, yellow-ish light wood had become dull and rather grey-ish. I used Humbrol 168 (RAF Hemp) and Revell 87 (Beige) as basis, and some light shading with thinned sepia ink was done to enhance the wooden look – and it’s nice contrast to the rather cold, grey camouflage. Metal decks, turret tops and the bow area were painted with Revell 47, simulating 507b (Medium Grey). Areas around the bridge were painted with Humbrol 62 (Leather) to simulate Corticene coating.

 

I originally wanted to paint the model in separate elements before final assembly, but this was not possible due to the many adjustments. The model was slightly weathered with a highly thinned black ink wash. Some Sienna Brown water paint was used for rust stains here and there. Portholes along the hull and on the superstructures were created with a thin black felt tip pen. The same tool was used to paint the muzzles of the guns. The crisp black boot topping was easy to create through the kit’s separate waterline bottom – OOB it comes in red, and it just had to be re-painted.

The kit’s segments were sealed with a coat of acrylic matt varnish before final assembly. Finally, rigging with heated and extended dark grey sprue material was done and paper flags were added.

  

It is not obvious, but the fictional H.M.S. “Tyne” took more scratchwork and mods than one would expect – it was/is almost a scratch build on the basis of a stock cruiser hull. More or less, the whole superstructure was re-arranged and the whole armament is new, but I think that the outcome looks quite plausible. The camouflage – even though only consisting of two shades of grey - looks interesting, too, and I think that the confusing effect becomes obvious in some of the beauty pics.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MagnumTi

 

www.timjohnsonphotograph.com/

 

I don't know if there are any more strobists out there who own larger scale not-so-portable strobes like I do, but I think this would be more geared to you I think. I have 4 Alien Bee strobes, along with the grid spots that I really enjoy using, but they aren't the greatest thing to go "portable" with.

 

I like using the AlienBee/White Lightning 7" reflectors and grid spots, and wanted to find a way to use them with my SB-800 (although this could be fitted to any flash unit I believe). So, I set out to Home Depot to search the isles to see if anything would work. In the electrical section, I found this 3" to 2" pvc bushing that fit very snuggly into the 7" reflector.

 

It was a little long, so with a hacksaw I cut off the excess lip up to the inside support bars. Next, I outlined with a marker the shape of the SB800 onto the bushing. With a file set, I filed down the area that I outlined with marker until the flash unit fit all the way in until it was all the way in (this took a little while to shape out correctly to fit).

 

Once I had a good tight fit, I removed SB800 from the pvc, placed the pvc into the reflector, then re-inserted the flash unit back into the bushing (this gave a nice tight fit into the reflector).

 

Like I said, if you don't already own these, I don't know if this will be of any help to you. Also, maybe someone can find a better way to improvise this, but it works great for me, and maybe it will work for someone else as well!

 

Check out the lighting spread from using this here.

  

Chronodex Mods by Folks at Fountain Pen Network

 

Here's an update of the Chronodex Weekly Planner for 2012.

I'm very happy to find like minded people who love the Chronodex idea. Although it was first designed for the Midori Traveler's Notebook format, folks at Fountain Pen Network really took it to the next level.

 

Coronado took the time to modify it into a more popular portrait format and in half letter size for his Levenger Circa. He also changed the grid background into dots so it is less intrusive. You can download Coronado's version of the Chronodex here.

 

Coronado also made a Levenger Circa version of the bookmark I portrayed. Like minded.

 

jsButterfly, who has just started a new blog called Paper Spaces, made Chronodex her 2012 diary too, also following Coronado's bookmark hack.

 

If you are into radial thinking for heightened creativity, or simply want to have a little change of your scheduling method, please do try Chronodex and share with us fans here on Scription or the Chronodex Flickr group.

 

Lastly, Boris from Russia, how do you find using Chronodex? I'm yet to receive any comments from people from Hong Kong and Japan. どのようにスケジューリングのChronodex方法が好きですか？

 

More on Scription blog: scription.typepad.com/blog/2011/12/chronodex-mods-by-folk...

Colosseum

Following, a text, in english, from the Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia:

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering.

Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD[1] under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus,[2] with further modifications being made during Domitian's reign (81–96).[3] The name "Amphitheatrum Flavium" derives from both Vespasian's and Titus's family name (Flavius, from the gens Flavia).

Capable of seating 50,000 spectators,[1][4][5] the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.

Although in the 21st century it stays partially ruined because of damage caused by devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions and still has close connections with the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession that starts in the area around the Colosseum.[6]

The Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin.

The Colosseum's original Latin name was Amphitheatrum Flavium, often anglicized as Flavian Amphitheater. The building was constructed by emperors of the Flavian dynasty, hence its original name, after the reign of Emperor Nero.[7] This name is still used in modern English, but generally the structure is better known as the Colosseum. In antiquity, Romans may have referred to the Colosseum by the unofficial name Amphitheatrum Caesareum; this name could have been strictly poetic.[8][9] This name was not exclusive to the Colosseum; Vespasian and Titus, builders of the Colosseum, also constructed an amphitheater of the same name in Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli).[10]

The name Colosseum has long been believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby.[3] (the statue of Nero itself being named after one of the original ancient wonders, the Colossus of Rhodes[citation needed]. This statue was later remodeled by Nero's successors into the likeness of Helios (Sol) or Apollo, the sun god, by adding the appropriate solar crown. Nero's head was also replaced several times with the heads of succeeding emperors. Despite its pagan links, the statue remained standing well into the medieval era and was credited with magical powers. It came to be seen as an iconic symbol of the permanence of Rome.

In the 8th century, a famous epigram attributed to the Venerable Bede celebrated the symbolic significance of the statue in a prophecy that is variously quoted: Quamdiu stat Colisæus, stat et Roma; quando cadet colisæus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus ("as long as the Colossus stands, so shall Rome; when the Colossus falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, so falls the world").[11] This is often mistranslated to refer to the Colosseum rather than the Colossus (as in, for instance, Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage). However, at the time that the Pseudo-Bede wrote, the masculine noun coliseus was applied to the statue rather than to what was still known as the Flavian amphitheatre.

The Colossus did eventually fall, possibly being pulled down to reuse its bronze. By the year 1000 the name "Colosseum" had been coined to refer to the amphitheatre. The statue itself was largely forgotten and only its base survives, situated between the Colosseum and the nearby Temple of Venus and Roma.[12]

The name further evolved to Coliseum during the Middle Ages. In Italy, the amphitheatre is still known as il Colosseo, and other Romance languages have come to use similar forms such as le Colisée (French), el Coliseo (Spanish) and o Coliseu (Portuguese).

Construction of the Colosseum began under the rule of the Emperor Vespasian[3] in around 70–72AD. The site chosen was a flat area on the floor of a low valley between the Caelian, Esquiline and Palatine Hills, through which a canalised stream ran. By the 2nd century BC the area was densely inhabited. It was devastated by the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, following which Nero seized much of the area to add to his personal domain. He built the grandiose Domus Aurea on the site, in front of which he created an artificial lake surrounded by pavilions, gardens and porticoes. The existing Aqua Claudia aqueduct was extended to supply water to the area and the gigantic bronze Colossus of Nero was set up nearby at the entrance to the Domus Aurea.[12]

Although the Colossus was preserved, much of the Domus Aurea was torn down. The lake was filled in and the land reused as the location for the new Flavian Amphitheatre. Gladiatorial schools and other support buildings were constructed nearby within the former grounds of the Domus Aurea. According to a reconstructed inscription found on the site, "the emperor Vespasian ordered this new amphitheatre to be erected from his general's share of the booty." This is thought to refer to the vast quantity of treasure seized by the Romans following their victory in the Great Jewish Revolt in 70AD. The Colosseum can be thus interpreted as a great triumphal monument built in the Roman tradition of celebrating great victories[12], placating the Roman people instead of returning soldiers. Vespasian's decision to build the Colosseum on the site of Nero's lake can also be seen as a populist gesture of returning to the people an area of the city which Nero had appropriated for his own use. In contrast to many other amphitheatres, which were located on the outskirts of a city, the Colosseum was constructed in the city centre; in effect, placing it both literally and symbolically at the heart of Rome.

The Colosseum had been completed up to the third story by the time of Vespasian's death in 79. The top level was finished and the building inaugurated by his son, Titus, in 80.[3] Dio Cassius recounts that over 9,000 wild animals were killed during the inaugural games of the amphitheatre. The building was remodelled further under Vespasian's younger son, the newly designated Emperor Domitian, who constructed the hypogeum, a series of underground tunnels used to house animals and slaves. He also added a gallery to the top of the Colosseum to increase its seating capacity.

In 217, the Colosseum was badly damaged by a major fire (caused by lightning, according to Dio Cassius[13]) which destroyed the wooden upper levels of the amphitheatre's interior. It was not fully repaired until about 240 and underwent further repairs in 250 or 252 and again in 320. An inscription records the restoration of various parts of the Colosseum under Theodosius II and Valentinian III (reigned 425–455), possibly to repair damage caused by a major earthquake in 443; more work followed in 484[14] and 508. The arena continued to be used for contests well into the 6th century, with gladiatorial fights last mentioned around 435. Animal hunts continued until at least 523, when Anicius Maximus celebrated his consulship with some venationes, criticised by King Theodoric the Great for their high cost.

The Colosseum underwent several radical changes of use during the medieval period. By the late 6th century a small church had been built into the structure of the amphitheatre, though this apparently did not confer any particular religious significance on the building as a whole. The arena was converted into a cemetery. The numerous vaulted spaces in the arcades under the seating were converted into housing and workshops, and are recorded as still being rented out as late as the 12th century. Around 1200 the Frangipani family took over the Colosseum and fortified it, apparently using it as a castle.

Severe damage was inflicted on the Colosseum by the great earthquake in 1349, causing the outer south side, lying on a less stable alluvional terrain, to collapse. Much of the tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches, hospitals and other buildings elsewhere in Rome. A religious order moved into the northern third of the Colosseum in the mid-14th century and continued to inhabit it until as late as the early 19th century. The interior of the amphitheatre was extensively stripped of stone, which was reused elsewhere, or (in the case of the marble façade) was burned to make quicklime.[12] The bronze clamps which held the stonework together were pried or hacked out of the walls, leaving numerous pockmarks which still scar the building today.

During the 16th and 17th century, Church officials sought a productive role for the vast derelict hulk of the Colosseum. Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590) planned to turn the building into a wool factory to provide employment for Rome's prostitutes, though this proposal fell through with his premature death.[15] In 1671 Cardinal Altieri authorized its use for bullfights; a public outcry caused the idea to be hastily abandoned.

In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV endorsed as official Church policy the view that the Colosseum was a sacred site where early Christians had been martyred. He forbade the use of the Colosseum as a quarry and consecrated the building to the Passion of Christ and installed Stations of the Cross, declaring it sanctified by the blood of the Christian martyrs who perished there (see Christians and the Colosseum). However there is no historical evidence to support Benedict's claim, nor is there even any evidence that anyone prior to the 16th century suggested this might be the case; the Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that there are no historical grounds for the supposition. Later popes initiated various stabilization and restoration projects, removing the extensive vegetation which had overgrown the structure and threatened to damage it further. The façade was reinforced with triangular brick wedges in 1807 and 1827, and the interior was repaired in 1831, 1846 and in the 1930s. The arena substructure was partly excavated in 1810–1814 and 1874 and was fully exposed under Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.

The Colosseum is today one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, receiving millions of visitors annually. The effects of pollution and general deterioration over time prompted a major restoration programme carried out between 1993 and 2000, at a cost of 40 billion Italian lire ($19.3m / €20.6m at 2000 prices). In recent years it has become a symbol of the international campaign against capital punishment, which was abolished in Italy in 1948. Several anti–death penalty demonstrations took place in front of the Colosseum in 2000. Since that time, as a gesture against the death penalty, the local authorities of Rome change the color of the Colosseum's night time illumination from white to gold whenever a person condemned to the death penalty anywhere in the world gets their sentence commuted or is released,[16] or if a jurisdiction abolishes the death penalty. Most recently, the Colosseum was illuminated in gold when capital punishment was abolished in the American state of New Mexico in April 2009.

Because of the ruined state of the interior, it is impractical to use the Colosseum to host large events; only a few hundred spectators can be accommodated in temporary seating. However, much larger concerts have been held just outside, using the Colosseum as a backdrop. Performers who have played at the Colosseum in recent years have included Ray Charles (May 2002),[18] Paul McCartney (May 2003),[19] Elton John (September 2005),[20] and Billy Joel (July 2006).

Exterior

Unlike earlier Greek theatres that were built into hillsides, the Colosseum is an entirely free-standing structure. It derives its basic exterior and interior architecture from that of two Roman theatres back to back. It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft / 640 Roman feet) long, and 156 meters (510 ft / 528 Roman feet) wide, with a base area of 6 acres (24,000 m2). The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft / 165 Roman feet). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft / 1,835 Roman feet). The central arena is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating.

The outer wall is estimated to have required over 100,000 cubic meters (131,000 cu yd) of travertine stone which were set without mortar held together by 300 tons of iron clamps.[12] However, it has suffered extensive damage over the centuries, with large segments having collapsed following earthquakes. The north side of the perimeter wall is still standing; the distinctive triangular brick wedges at each end are modern additions, having been constructed in the early 19th century to shore up the wall. The remainder of the present-day exterior of the Colosseum is in fact the original interior wall.

The surviving part of the outer wall's monumental façade comprises three stories of superimposed arcades surmounted by a podium on which stands a tall attic, both of which are pierced by windows interspersed at regular intervals. The arcades are framed by half-columns of the Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, while the attic is decorated with Corinthian pilasters.[21] Each of the arches in the second- and third-floor arcades framed statues, probably honoring divinities and other figures from Classical mythology.

Two hundred and forty mast corbels were positioned around the top of the attic. They originally supported a retractable awning, known as the velarium, that kept the sun and rain off spectators. This consisted of a canvas-covered, net-like structure made of ropes, with a hole in the center.[3] It covered two-thirds of the arena, and sloped down towards the center to catch the wind and provide a breeze for the audience. Sailors, specially enlisted from the Roman naval headquarters at Misenum and housed in the nearby Castra Misenatium, were used to work the velarium.[22]

The Colosseum's huge crowd capacity made it essential that the venue could be filled or evacuated quickly. Its architects adopted solutions very similar to those used in modern stadiums to deal with the same problem. The amphitheatre was ringed by eighty entrances at ground level, 76 of which were used by ordinary spectators.[3] Each entrance and exit was numbered, as was each staircase. The northern main entrance was reserved for the Roman Emperor and his aides, whilst the other three axial entrances were most likely used by the elite. All four axial entrances were richly decorated with painted stucco reliefs, of which fragments survive. Many of the original outer entrances have disappeared with the collapse of the perimeter wall, but entrances XXIII (23) to LIV (54) still survive.[12]

Spectators were given tickets in the form of numbered pottery shards, which directed them to the appropriate section and row. They accessed their seats via vomitoria (singular vomitorium), passageways that opened into a tier of seats from below or behind. These quickly dispersed people into their seats and, upon conclusion of the event or in an emergency evacuation, could permit their exit within only a few minutes. The name vomitoria derived from the Latin word for a rapid discharge, from which English derives the word vomit.

Interior

According to the Codex-Calendar of 354, the Colosseum could accommodate 87,000 people, although modern estimates put the figure at around 50,000. They were seated in a tiered arrangement that reflected the rigidly stratified nature of Roman society. Special boxes were provided at the north and south ends respectively for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins, providing the best views of the arena. Flanking them at the same level was a broad platform or podium for the senatorial class, who were allowed to bring their own chairs. The names of some 5th century senators can still be seen carved into the stonework, presumably reserving areas for their use.

The tier above the senators, known as the maenianum primum, was occupied by the non-senatorial noble class or knights (equites). The next level up, the maenianum secundum, was originally reserved for ordinary Roman citizens (plebians) and was divided into two sections. The lower part (the immum) was for wealthy citizens, while the upper part (the summum) was for poor citizens. Specific sectors were provided for other social groups: for instance, boys with their tutors, soldiers on leave, foreign dignitaries, scribes, heralds, priests and so on. Stone (and later marble) seating was provided for the citizens and nobles, who presumably would have brought their own cushions with them. Inscriptions identified the areas reserved for specific groups.

Another level, the maenianum secundum in legneis, was added at the very top of the building during the reign of Domitian. This comprised a gallery for the common poor, slaves and women. It would have been either standing room only, or would have had very steep wooden benches. Some groups were banned altogether from the Colosseum, notably gravediggers, actors and former gladiators.

Each tier was divided into sections (maeniana) by curved passages and low walls (praecinctiones or baltei), and were subdivided into cunei, or wedges, by the steps and aisles from the vomitoria. Each row (gradus) of seats was numbered, permitting each individual seat to be exactly designated by its gradus, cuneus, and number.

The arena itself was 83 meters by 48 meters (272 ft by 157 ft / 280 by 163 Roman feet).[12] It comprised a wooden floor covered by sand (the Latin word for sand is harena or arena), covering an elaborate underground structure called the hypogeum (literally meaning "underground"). Little now remains of the original arena floor, but the hypogeum is still clearly visible. It consisted of a two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages beneath the arena where gladiators and animals were held before contests began. Eighty vertical shafts provided instant access to the arena for caged animals and scenery pieces concealed underneath; larger hinged platforms, called hegmata, provided access for elephants and the like. It was restructured on numerous occasions; at least twelve different phases of construction can be seen.[12]

The hypogeum was connected by underground tunnels to a number of points outside the Colosseum. Animals and performers were brought through the tunnel from nearby stables, with the gladiators' barracks at the Ludus Magnus to the east also being connected by tunnels. Separate tunnels were provided for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins to permit them to enter and exit the Colosseum without needing to pass through the crowds.[12]

Substantial quantities of machinery also existed in the hypogeum. Elevators and pulleys raised and lowered scenery and props, as well as lifting caged animals to the surface for release. There is evidence for the existence of major hydraulic mechanisms[12] and according to ancient accounts, it was possible to flood the arena rapidly, presumably via a connection to a nearby aqueduct.

The Colosseum and its activities supported a substantial industry in the area. In addition to the amphitheatre itself, many other buildings nearby were linked to the games. Immediately to the east is the remains of the Ludus Magnus, a training school for gladiators. This was connected to the Colosseum by an underground passage, to allow easy access for the gladiators. The Ludus Magnus had its own miniature training arena, which was itself a popular attraction for Roman spectators. Other training schools were in the same area, including the Ludus Matutinus (Morning School), where fighters of animals were trained, plus the Dacian and Gallic Schools.

Also nearby were the Armamentarium, comprising an armory to store weapons; the Summum Choragium, where machinery was stored; the Sanitarium, which had facilities to treat wounded gladiators; and the Spoliarium, where bodies of dead gladiators were stripped of their armor and disposed of.

Around the perimeter of the Colosseum, at a distance of 18 m (59 ft) from the perimeter, was a series of tall stone posts, with five remaining on the eastern side. Various explanations have been advanced for their presence; they may have been a religious boundary, or an outer boundary for ticket checks, or an anchor for the velarium or awning.

Right next to the Colosseum is also the Arch of Constantine.

he Colosseum was used to host gladiatorial shows as well as a variety of other events. The shows, called munera, were always given by private individuals rather than the state. They had a strong religious element but were also demonstrations of power and family prestige, and were immensely popular with the population. Another popular type of show was the animal hunt, or venatio. This utilized a great variety of wild beasts, mainly imported from Africa and the Middle East, and included creatures such as rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, aurochs, wisents, barbary lions, panthers, leopards, bears, caspian tigers, crocodiles and ostriches. Battles and hunts were often staged amid elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings. Such events were occasionally on a huge scale; Trajan is said to have celebrated his victories in Dacia in 107 with contests involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.

During the early days of the Colosseum, ancient writers recorded that the building was used for naumachiae (more properly known as navalia proelia) or simulated sea battles. Accounts of the inaugural games held by Titus in AD 80 describe it being filled with water for a display of specially trained swimming horses and bulls. There is also an account of a re-enactment of a famous sea battle between the Corcyrean (Corfiot) Greeks and the Corinthians. This has been the subject of some debate among historians; although providing the water would not have been a problem, it is unclear how the arena could have been waterproofed, nor would there have been enough space in the arena for the warships to move around. It has been suggested that the reports either have the location wrong, or that the Colosseum originally featured a wide floodable channel down its central axis (which would later have been replaced by the hypogeum).[12]

Sylvae or recreations of natural scenes were also held in the arena. Painters, technicians and architects would construct a simulation of a forest with real trees and bushes planted in the arena's floor. Animals would be introduced to populate the scene for the delight of the crowd. Such scenes might be used simply to display a natural environment for the urban population, or could otherwise be used as the backdrop for hunts or dramas depicting episodes from mythology. They were also occasionally used for executions in which the hero of the story — played by a condemned person — was killed in one of various gruesome but mythologically authentic ways, such as being mauled by beasts or burned to death.

The Colosseum today is now a major tourist attraction in Rome with thousands of tourists each year paying to view the interior arena, though entrance for EU citizens is partially subsidised, and under-18 and over-65 EU citizens' entrances are free.[24] There is now a museum dedicated to Eros located in the upper floor of the outer wall of the building. Part of the arena floor has been re-floored. Beneath the Colosseum, a network of subterranean passageways once used to transport wild animals and gladiators to the arena opened to the public in summer 2010.[25]

The Colosseum is also the site of Roman Catholic ceremonies in the 20th and 21st centuries. For instance, Pope Benedict XVI leads the Stations of the Cross called the Scriptural Way of the Cross (which calls for more meditation) at the Colosseum[26][27] on Good Fridays.

In the Middle Ages, the Colosseum was clearly not regarded as a sacred site. Its use as a fortress and then a quarry demonstrates how little spiritual importance was attached to it, at a time when sites associated with martyrs were highly venerated. It was not included in the itineraries compiled for the use of pilgrims nor in works such as the 12th century Mirabilia Urbis Romae ("Marvels of the City of Rome"), which claims the Circus Flaminius — but not the Colosseum — as the site of martyrdoms. Part of the structure was inhabited by a Christian order, but apparently not for any particular religious reason.

It appears to have been only in the 16th and 17th centuries that the Colosseum came to be regarded as a Christian site. Pope Pius V (1566–1572) is said to have recommended that pilgrims gather sand from the arena of the Colosseum to serve as a relic, on the grounds that it was impregnated with the blood of martyrs. This seems to have been a minority view until it was popularised nearly a century later by Fioravante Martinelli, who listed the Colosseum at the head of a list of places sacred to the martyrs in his 1653 book Roma ex ethnica sacra.

Martinelli's book evidently had an effect on public opinion; in response to Cardinal Altieri's proposal some years later to turn the Colosseum into a bullring, Carlo Tomassi published a pamphlet in protest against what he regarded as an act of desecration. The ensuing controversy persuaded Pope Clement X to close the Colosseum's external arcades and declare it a sanctuary, though quarrying continued for some time.

At the instance of St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758) forbade the quarrying of the Colosseum and erected Stations of the Cross around the arena, which remained until February 1874. St. Benedict Joseph Labre spent the later years of his life within the walls of the Colosseum, living on alms, prior to his death in 1783. Several 19th century popes funded repair and restoration work on the Colosseum, and it still retains a Christian connection today. Crosses stand in several points around the arena and every Good Friday the Pope leads a Via Crucis procession to the amphitheatre.

 

Coliseu (Colosseo)

A seguir, um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre:

 

O Coliseu, também conhecido como Anfiteatro Flaviano, deve seu nome à expressão latina Colosseum (ou Coliseus, no latim tardio), devido à estátua colossal de Nero, que ficava perto a edificação. Localizado no centro de Roma, é uma excepção de entre os anfiteatros pelo seu volume e relevo arquitectónico. Originalmente capaz de albergar perto de 50 000 pessoas, e com 48 metros de altura, era usado para variados espetáculos. Foi construído a leste do fórum romano e demorou entre 8 a 10 anos a ser construído.

O Coliseu foi utilizado durante aproximadamente 500 anos, tendo sido o último registro efetuado no século VI da nossa era, bastante depois da queda de Roma em 476. O edifício deixou de ser usado para entretenimento no começo da era medieval, mas foi mais tarde usado como habitação, oficina, forte, pedreira, sede de ordens religiosas e templo cristão.

Embora esteja agora em ruínas devido a terremotos e pilhagens, o Coliseu sempre foi visto como símbolo do Império Romano, sendo um dos melhores exemplos da sua arquitectura. Actualmente é uma das maiores atrações turísticas em Roma e em 7 de julho de 2007 foi eleita umas das "Sete maravilhas do mundo moderno". Além disso, o Coliseu ainda tem ligações à igreja, com o Papa a liderar a procissão da Via Sacra até ao Coliseu todas as Sextas-feiras Santas.

O coliseu era um local onde seriam exibidos toda uma série de espectáculos, inseridos nos vários tipos de jogos realizados na urbe. Os combates entre gladiadores, chamados muneras, eram sempre pagos por pessoas individuais em busca de prestígio e poder em vez do estado. A arena (87,5 m por 55 m) possuía um piso de madeira, normalmente coberto de areia para absorver o sangue dos combates (certa vez foi colocada água na representação de uma batalha naval), sob o qual existia um nível subterrâneo com celas e jaulas que tinham acessos diretos para a arena; Alguns detalhes dessa construção, como a cobertura removível que poupava os espectadores do sol, são bastante interessantes, e mostram o refinamento atingido pelos construtores romanos. Formado por cinco anéis concêntricos de arcos e abóbadas, o Coliseu representa bem o avanço introduzido pelos romanos à engenharia de estruturas. Esses arcos são de concreto (de cimento natural) revestidos por alvenaria. Na verdade, a alvenaria era construída simultaneamente e já servia de forma para a concretagem. Outro tipo de espetáculos era a caça de animais, ou venatio, onde eram utilizados animais selvagens importados de África. Os animais mais utilizados eram os grandes felinos como leões, leopardos e panteras, mas animais como rinocerontes, hipopótamos, elefantes, girafas, crocodilos e avestruzes eram também utilizados. As caçadas, tal como as representações de batalhas famosas, eram efetuadas em elaborados cenários onde constavam árvores e edifícios amovíveis.

Estas últimas eram por vezes representadas numa escala gigante; Trajano celebrou a sua vitória em Dácia no ano 107 com concursos envolvendo 11 000 animais e 10 000 gladiadores no decorrer de 123 dias.

Segundo o documentário produzido pelo canal televisivo fechado, History Channel, o Coliseu também era utilizado para a realização de naumaquias, ou batalhas navais. O coliseu era inundado por dutos subterrâneos alimentados pelos aquedutos que traziam água de longe. Passada esta fase, foi construída uma estrutura, que é a que podemos ver hoje nas ruínas do Coliseu, com altura de um prédio de dois andares, onde no passado se concentravam os gladiadores, feras e todo o pessoal que organizava os duelos que ocorreriam na arena. A arena era como um grande palco, feito de madeira, e se chama arena, que em italiano significa areia, porque era jogada areia sob a estrutura de madeira para esconder as imperfeições. Os animais podiam ser inseridos nos duelos a qualquer momento por um esquema de elevadores que surgiam em alguns pontos da arena; o filme "Gladiador" retrata muito bem esta questão dos elevadores. Os estudiosos, há pouco tempo, descobriram uma rede de dutos inundados por baixo da arena do Coliseu. Acredita-se que o Coliseu foi construído onde, outrora, foi o lago do Palácio Dourado de Nero; O imperador Vespasiano escolheu o local da construção para que o mal causado por Nero fosse esquecido por uma construção gloriosa.

Sylvae, ou recreações de cenas naturais eram também realizadas no Coliseu. Pintores, técnicos e arquitectos construiriam simulações de florestas com árvores e arbustos reais plantados no chão da arena. Animais seriam então introduzidos para dar vida à simulação. Esses cenários podiam servir só para agrado do público ou como pano de fundo para caçadas ou dramas representando episódios da mitologia romana, tão autênticos quanto possível, ao ponto de pessoas condenadas fazerem o papel de heróis onde eram mortos de maneiras horríveis mas mitologicamente autênticas, como mutilados por animais ou queimados vivos.

Embora o Coliseu tenha funcionado até ao século VI da nossa Era, foram proibidos os jogos com mortes humanas desde 404, sendo apenas massacrados animais como elefantes, panteras ou leões.

O Coliseu era sobretudo um enorme instrumento de propaganda e difusão da filosofia de toda uma civilização, e tal como era já profetizado pelo monge e historiador inglês Beda na sua obra do século VII "De temporibus liber": "Enquanto o Coliseu se mantiver de pé, Roma permanecerá; quando o Coliseu ruir, Roma ruirá e quando Roma cair, o mundo cairá".

A construção do Coliseu foi iniciada por Vespasiano, nos anos 70 da nossa era. O edifício foi inaugurado por Tito, em 80, embora apenas tivesse sido finalizado poucos anos depois. Empresa colossal, este edifício, inicialmente, poderia sustentar no seu interior cerca de 50 000 espectadores, constando de três andares. Aquando do reinado de Alexandre Severo e Gordiano III, é ampliado com um quarto andar, podendo suster agora cerca de 90 000 espectadores. A grandiosidade deste monumento testemunha verdadeiramente o poder e esplendor de Roma na época dos Flávios.

Os jogos inaugurais do Coliseu tiveram lugar ano 80, sob o mandato de Tito, para celebrar a finalização da construção. Depois do curto reinado de Tito começar com vários meses de desastres, incluindo a erupção do Monte Vesúvio, um incêndio em Roma, e um surto de peste, o mesmo imperador inaugurou o edifício com uns jogos pródigos que duraram mais de cem dias, talvez para tentar apaziguar o público romano e os deuses. Nesses jogos de cem dias terão ocorrido combates de gladiadores, venationes (lutas de animais), execuções, batalhas navais, caçadas e outros divertimentos numa escala sem precedentes.

O Coliseu, como não se encontrava inserido numa zona de encosta, enterrado, tal como normalmente sucede com a generalidade dos teatros e anfiteatros romanos, possuía um “anel” artificial de rocha à sua volta, para garantir sustentação e, ao mesmo tempo, esta substrutura serve como ornamento ao edifício e como condicionador da entrada dos espectadores. Tal como foi referido anteriormente, possuía três pisos, sendo mais tarde adicionado um outro. É construído em mármore, pedra travertina, ladrilho e tufo (pedra calcária com grandes poros). A sua planta elíptica mede dois eixos que se estendem aproximadamente de 190 m por 155 m. A fachada compõe-se de arcadas decoradas com colunas dóricas, jónicas e coríntias, de acordo com o pavimento em que se encontravam. Esta subdivisão deve-se ao facto de ser uma construção essencialmente vertical, criando assim uma diversificação do espaço.

 

Os assentos eram em mármore e a cavea, escadaria ou arquibancada, dividia-se em três partes, correspondentes às diferentes classes sociais: o podium, para as classes altas; as maeniana, sector destinado à classe média; e os portici, ou pórticos, construídos em madeira, para a plebe e as mulheres. O pulvinar, a tribuna imperial, encontrava-se situada no podium e era balizada pelos assentos reservados aos senadores e magistrados. Rampas no interior do edifício facilitavam o acesso às várias zonas de onde podiam visualizar o espectáculo, sendo protegidos por uma barreira e por uma série de arqueiros posicionados numa passagem de madeira, para o caso de algum acidente. Por cima dos muros ainda são visíveis as mísulas, que sustentavam o velarium, enorme cobertura de lona destinada a proteger do sol os espectadores e, nos subterrâneos, ficavam as jaulas dos animais, bem como todas as celas e galerias necessárias aos serviços do anfiteatro.

O monumento permaneceu como sede principal dos espetáculos da urbe romana até ao período do imperador Honorius, no século V. Danificado por um terremoto no começo do mesmo século, foi alvo de uma extensiva restauração na época de Valentinianus III. Em meados do século XIII, a família Frangipani transformou-o em fortaleza e, ao longo dos séculos XV e XVI, foi por diversas vezes saqueado, perdendo grande parte dos materiais nobres com os quais tinha sido construído.

Os relatos romanos referem-se a cristãos sendo martirizados em locais de Roma descritos pouco pormenorizadamente (no anfiteatro, na arena...), quando Roma tinha numerosos anfiteatros e arenas. Apesar de muito provavelmente o Coliseu não ter sido utilizado para martírios, o Papa Bento XIV consagrou-o no século XVII à Paixão de Cristo e declarou-o lugar sagrado. Os trabalhos de consolidação e restauração parcial do monumento, já há muito em ruínas, foram feitos sobretudo pelos pontífices Gregório XVI e Pio IX, no século XIX.

Began to modify the body for my new doll-character :)

Yeah, right... Not going to happen. Ever.

One of my (small) modifications; I decided to make arches for all the open towers...

Very simple, a 4 stud wide arch brick, with two stud-pins up the bottom holes, and two 1x1 cheese slopes on those studs. Quick and simple, and I think it makes the open towers look a lot more finished.

visit www.kingbeeuw.com for more photos and videos!

No, no! No! This one goes there, THAT one goes there.

Description: This is a reprise with modification of my previous post of M101 (or NGC 5457) to show a Type II supernova SN2023ixf which was discovered on 19 May 2023. My image, which was taken on 27 May 2023, indicates the supernova as a relatively bright dot in one of the spiral arms. Among the three objects seen in the magnification inset the supernova is the brightest one. This post corrects color imbalances in M101 in my previous image which, however, does not impact the supernova.

Date/Time/Location: 2023-05-27 / 03:25:37 to 07:30:33 UTC / Washington D.C.

Equipment:

Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8

OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset

Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC

Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband

Processing Software: Pixinsight

Processing Steps:

Preprocessing: I preprocessed 39x300s subs (= 3.25 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following processes: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.

Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (both subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.

Nonlinear Postprocessing: Histogram Transformation > Local Histogram Equalization > Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction.

This is a small modification for the BB 8 set from Lego. I've replaced all the orange parts with medium green ones. That's why I call this color combination BB 6.

Joint modifications

Edited and added a soft overlay. Atronach guantlets and respirator made by Brokefoot.

A modification work done by Allen Pierson.

 

Isaac Hayes. : Walk On By :

 

youtu.be/DFdR2LLM3bY?si=O97DuGhtP5dqbFDt

  

If you see me walking down the street

And I start to cry each time we meet

Walk on by, walk on by

 

Make believe that you don't see the tears

Oh just let me grieve

In private cause each time I see you

I break down and cry

Oh baby, walk on by

sweater inspired from berroco's Valpuri

Old wooden staircase in Conestoga in upper left, then modifications in Mattebox using curves, and finally layering in EnlightApp. … Playing, not much more, I think …

In case you have missed it, on my website I explain why I believe the rear suspension of the LEGO 42083 Bugatti Chiron has a design flaw and how I think it could have been solved: www.nkubate.com/model-optimization-a-42083-showcase/

I stripped out the adhesive on the light strips and put in some 3M Dual Lock velcros so to allow more options for light positioning

Oh the MGB, the last great British Sports car?

 

A motor that refused to die even though British Leyland simply couldn't stop messing around with it. The MGB is an example of a car that went from one of the most loved and lovable cars in British motoring, to what many describe as an empty husk broken and bent for legislation purposes. But the MGB would have its way in the end!

 

The story behind the MGB begins in 1962, when the car was designed to incorporate an innovative, modern style utilizing a monocoque structure instead of the traditional body-on-frame construction used on both the MGA and MG T-types and the MGB's rival, the Triumph TR series. However components such as brakes and suspension were developments of the earlier 1955 MGA with the B-Series engine having its origins in 1947. The lightweight design reduced manufacturing costs while adding to overall vehicle strength. Wind-up windows were standard, and a comfortable driver's compartment offered plenty of legroom. A parcel shelf was fitted behind the seats.

 

The car was powered by a BMC B-Series engine, producing 95hp and giving the car a 0-60 of 11 seconds, perhaps not the briskest acceleration, but of course this car was more a comfy little cruiser, ambling about the countryside in sedate fashion admiring the views. The MGB was also one of the first cars to feature controlled crumple zones designed to protect the driver and passenger in a 30 mph impact with an immovable barrier (200 ton).

 

The roadster was the first of the MGB range to be produced. The body was a pure two-seater but a small rear seat was a rare option at one point. By making better use of space the MGB was able to offer more passenger and luggage accommodation than the earlier MGA while 3 inches shorter overall. The suspension was also softer, giving a smoother ride, and the larger engine gave a slightly higher top speed. The four-speed gearbox was an uprated version of the one used in the MGA with an optional (electrically activated) overdrive transmission. Wheel diameter dropped from 15 to 14 inches.

 

Upon its launch the MGB was given almost unanimous acclaim, largely due to its advanced and innovative design combined with its beautifully and sleek styling. Previous sports cars of the same calibre had always been levied with a reputation for their ropey nature, with a majority of previous models being simply remodelled versions of the MG's and Triumphs that dated back to the end of and in some cases even before World War II. But the MG was different, and if I'm honest, a large part of its appeal is due to its small, low body, and it's poky round headlights that make it look rather cute. It's the kind of car you could give a name, preferably a girl's one. Either way, the MGB sold in hundreds, disappearing off to all corners of the globe, touring the South of France, storming across the deserts of Southern California on Route 66, or dodging its way through the bustling Indian traffic, these things were adored.

 

However, the only version available was a soft-top roadster, which didn't appeal to everyone, so in 1965 MG took the B to Italy, and the great styling firm known as Pininfarina, and asked them to pop a roof on their windy little sports car. What resulted was a roof fixture that blended its way perfectly into the rest of the body, a smooth greenhouse cabin that was spacious but still maintained the styling that enthusiasts had come to know so well, going on to be dubbed "The poor man's Aston Martin."

 

Although acceleration of the GT was slightly slower than that of the roadster, due to its increased weight, top speed improved by 5 mph to 105 mph due to better aerodynamics.

 

However, tweaks were starting to be made to the MGB formula to try and give it a wider ranging market. Intended to replace the Austin Healey Sprite, the MG MGC was launched in 1967 as a reworked version of the classic MGB, but featuring a 2.9L BMC C-Series engine to up the power.

 

The problem was that the revised design of the car to incorporate the engine was nothing short of lazy. Instead of redesigning the whole car, MG chose to simply create a huge bulbous lump in the bonnet. The heavier engine also required modifications to the suspension which spoiled the handling. As well as that, the engines were quite poorly built, and later tuning by enthusiasts has proven that the car has the ability to run with 30% more power by carrying out simple modifications to head, exhaust and cam release.

 

However, the MGC did find some love, in the Royal Family of all places, as in 1967, HRH Prince Charles took delivery of an MGC GT (SGY 766F), which he passed down to Prince William 30 years later. At least one car had a happy ending!

 

But soon problems came roaring over the horizon like the four horsemen of the apocalypse. A whirlwind of legislation, corporate incompetence and plain old lazy design came right out of nowhere and would soon engulf and attempt to destroy the MGB, but not before stripping the poor thing of its dignity and its good name.

 

The first disaster to befall this plucky little car, British Leyland, which was formed in 1968 by merging all of Britain's major automotive firms including Rover, BMC (Austin/Morris) and Triumph (which was part of the Leyland Group). To save on costs the lavish chrome grille of the earlier models and spoked wheels were the first to go, but the B could survive without them.

 

Next up, fitting the car with a Rover V8 that had been developed from a series of Buick Pickup Truck engines. Although this could have been a good thing, this wasn't British Leyland's idea, but in fact belong to professional engine tuner Ken Costello, who, although had been commissioned by British Leyland to create a prototype, had already created a series of MGB's with V8's placed under the hood. British Leyland half-inched this idea and started fitting their own V8's, but went about it all wrong. The powerful 180bhp engine used by Costello for his conversions was replaced for production by MG with a more modestly tuned version producing only 137bhp. Although the car's 193lb-ft of torque meant it could reach 0-60 in 7.7 seconds and go on to a reasonable 125mph top speed, it was a thirsty beast, with only 20mpg. A bit of a territorial hazard admittedly, but it's not a good idea to develop such a gas guzzling car when it was about to smack headlong into the Oil Crisis of 1973. Barely anyone went out and bought it, and the money simply disappeared down the nearest drain.

 

But so far, the car's lovable external dimensions had yet to be compromised, but we haven't got to the legislation yet, one of those many apocalyptic horsemen I was mentioning earlier. Throughout the 1960's the death of James Dean had resulted in a gradual increase in safety legislation on US Highways, and in order to have a market there, cars had to conform. The height of the headlights, the bumpers, the smoke emissions, the recess of the switches, all of these things were scrutinised and had to be taken into account by car builders.

 

Indeed America can be owed with introducing many safety features and pieces of legislation we take for granted in modern motoring, but the British manufacturers almost seemed to go out of their way to redesign the cars completely and 100% wrong. In 1974 the glistening chrome was replaced by a gigantic bulbous rubber bumper that protruded from the front of the car like someone's bottom lip!

 

Other signs of their poor design included the removal of leather seats for something much more mundane, the use of dials and switches from other products such as Austin Allegros and Maxis, as well as door handles that came straight from the Morris Marina.

 

Internally, British Leyland had botched it with their laziness, choosing not to redesign the car like everyone else so that the headlights were at the required height, but instead placing solid blocks under the suspension to raise the lights to the desired level, but at the same time making the car look like it was going permanently downhill as well as making the handling so light it would slide constantly at speed. The engines were tuned down for emission regulations which made them woefully underpowered and thus they, to use a contemporary phrase, 'couldn't pull the skin off a Rice Pudding!'

 

Numbers dropped, but British Leyland went to that old trick in the book by using product placement to get by, putting one of their new MGB's in the New Avengers to be driven by Joanna Lumley's character Purdey. As far as I recall though, low slung sports cars aren't the best things to drive if you're in a miniskirt, because getting in and out of them can be quite revealing!

 

But this wasn't enough to save the MGB's deteriorating sales, in America cars would languish in stockyards and storage warehouses for months on end waiting to be sold, but to no avail. For this, the MG division was making losses of up to £400,000 per week, a clear sign that the ailing MGB had to go the way of all good cars, out of production. On October 21st, 1980, the last MGB rolled off the production line after 18 years, no pomp, no circumstance, just quietly slipping away into history.

 

After this, the MG brand was lost from its own original cars such as the Midget and the MGB that dated back to the 60's, instead being placed on tuned and slightly modified versions of British Leyland's family cars, including the MG Montego, the MG Maestro and, to the everlasting horror of MG purists although I personally don't think it's that bad, the MG Metro. The factory in Abingdon-on-Thames, where the MGB had been built, closed its gates immediately afterwards as part of the company's rationalisation, striking a blow to the economy of the region and the esteem of those who had been proud to build cars with those two simple letters, MG.

 

But all was not lost for the MGB, as soon afterwards the cars became fashionably retro, especially in the 1980's and 90's, when 60's examples were bought up largely by foreign markets due to their quintessentially British nature and their synonymous relationship with our country and way of life. Japan especially was a hotspot for old MG products, with Midgets and MGB's being shipped out there by the dozen. So popular were these that Rover Group, the descendants of British Leyland, went on to create a limited edition retelling of the MGB in the form of the MG RV8, constructed in 1993 with 2,000 examples built, the first original MG car to be built since the original MGB ended production in 1980.

 

Here in the UK, the MG craze kicked off with enthusiasts taking scrapyard shells and run down models and turning them into their own little put-together projects. The MGB has now become one of the most popular little retro sports cars of the modern era, and despite all its faults, even the rubber-bumper British Leyland models make some fantastic kit cars if you want good, wholesome sport fun on a budget!

To eliminate the ME Models adapter piece. Half straights aren't always feasible. Not only does it mess up the geometry unless you fix it with another half, but in some places they don't work!

An interesting photograph of two Matadors, on the left is the ex Wolverhampton Corporation "standard" type. On the right is the ex Birmingham City Transport Matador. It was always said in the Birmingham City Transport workshop that the vehicle was ex Royal Navy the same as the the fleets original Matador. Since acquiring 117, Rod Handford has done a lot of research into its history. The build cards for it show it was built as an Armoured Command Vehicle, or Dorchester as they became known by the troops. These would be very low mileage when sold off by the Ministry, this one going to the well known PSV breaker Birds of Stratford upon Avon. Birmingham must have done some form of deal with him as it arrived in Tyburn Road Works around the 23 June 1959, now with a cab, from an ex RAF AEC, probably a AEC 854 refueler, (some paint still in cab and photograph indicate it was almost certainly fitted with an autovac), and new headlights. A few modifications have been found, including the road springs, it has two additional leaves in each spring which considerably increase its riding height, hence the staged photograph

So, gonna try to mod a fig. It's gonna be big...

mannequin-parade-sl.blogspot.de/

My good friend Oliver Becker has given me the privilege of taking a shot at rendering another one of his great creations! This is my modification of Oliver's "Dreadnaught".

 

www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/435908

In May 2013, after winning a European tender, MVSA Architects and Buro Van Stigt were commissioned to design the new University Library (UB) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), located on the Binnengasthuis site. In June 2015, MVSA Architects was also commissioned to design the entire interior. The new University Library was officially opened in September 2025. Area 16.000 m2

The library is housed in the former Second Surgical Clinic and the Nurses' House - both monumental, listed buildings - supplemented by newly built sections. The historic buildings, dating from around 1900, enclosed an open courtyard. By covering this courtyard with an atrium canopy, is created a coherent whole in which the library is now experienced as a single building. The new atrium forms the heart of both the library and the campus. From this atrium, a sculptural main staircase leads up to quieter study floors and down to the book lending center and bicycle parking on level -1.

The atrium canopy is one of the most notable elements of the design: an elegant steel structure that stretches over the buildings like a leaf, with panels that resemble its veins. A striking example of biomimicry. This canopy connects old and new, while all its weight rests on the steel structure, similar to how the weight of a tree rests entirely on its trunk. This means that the monumental buildings are not burdened by the weight of the atrium canopy.

Most public and socially oriented functions, study rooms, lecture halls, and the university library café, are located on the ground floor. Because the complex consists of monumental buildings, external modifications are limited. The only place where external newbuild is visible is on the streetscape on the corner of the Nieuwe Doelenstraat – this is the only place where the new identity and function of the complex is visible. The former ambulance gate on the Vendelstraat will be widened and converted into an accessible, open main entrance that connects the campus area directly to the library atrium.

The façade of the new building features a unique screen that functions as a veil between the University Library and the surrounding residential spaces, while also serving as a sunlight filter. “But do read, it doesn't say what it says”. This line from Martinus Nijhoff's poem Awater is displayed in 3D-printed letters with a bronze coating on the facade screen, in 24 languages and 6 different scripts. These languages and scripts correspond to those taught at the Faculty of Humanities. This quote was chosen by faculty members and students.

When repurposing the existing complexes, careful consideration was given to their future-proofing. Reuse and revaluation of the monumental buildings were central. In order to increase the sustainability level of the buildings, an integrated approach was chosen. Sustainable and future-proof materials were used throughout the project.

Reducing energy consumption was one of the most important principles. The atrium and its canopy play a crucial role in this: they reduce the external surface area of the buildings, act as a climate buffer, and collect and drain rainwater. The outer shell is optimally insulated, including with insulating glass. In addition, sustainable systems are used, such as thermal energy storage (TES) and smart ventilation technology.

Accessibility for everyone, regardless of physical limitations, is a fundamental principle of the design. Despite the building's monumental status, a completely barrier-free layout has been achieved, with three elevators providing access to all floors. Inside, open study balconies and logical walking routes encourage spontaneous interaction.

 

Modification includes : rebuilding jaw so no longer spring action, and rebuilding club/weapon so it fits in hand properly. Grimlock was painted with MANY shades of metallic paint, and went through 45 stages of dry brushing and detail effects to make him look like old worn metal. He was clear coated in a prismatic lacquer paint, giving his metal parts a full spectrum of color at certain angles of light. Then clear coated in a high-gloss lacquer.

Modification to remove ugly wedge plates

landing head idealian

não gostei MUUIITO muito, não... ficou bem falso...mas vale, né?

Modifications have begun!

Modification for LEGO® Technic set 8258 Crane Truck (default build). It gives set 8258 an added fifth wheel (coupler) and power supply to connect/attach trailers realistically. A (semi-)trailer has a so called king pin. This pin is at the front of the trailer and connects to the tractor or semi-truck which set 8258 is.

 

These modifications are in building instructions and a inventory/parts list is available for you to add this to your own 8258. By modifying 8258 with this you enable the ability to connect to soon to be released lowboy trailers!

 

This kingpin at the front of the trailer makes a pivoting connection with the tractor's fifth wheel. It forces the fifth wheel to open up and as soon as the kingpin is in place rubber belts forces the fifth wheel to close again. It stays there until it is manually released. By moving two levers manually the trailer can be released and thus uncoupled.

 

The pictures show two lowboy trailers. Both are so called detachable gooseneck trailers. The Yellow version has a liftable third axle. The Blue one a so called flip axle where a part of the frame holding the third axle is flipped on top of the second axle.

 

With this type of lowboy trailer the gooseneck is removed to make the deck accessible. Because the front part of the trailer rests on the surface the truck with the gooseneck still attached can drive off. In order to keep the gooseneck elevated at the correct hight is as a support. This support rests on the trucks frame.

 

Instructions for both shown lowboy trailer will be available soon, the first one in December 2014, the second one hopefully the 1st half of 2015.

 

Both lowboy trailers can perfectly be combined with LEGO® Technic set 8043 Motorized Excavator as well as with LEGO® Technic set 8275 Motorized Bulldozer. Obviously you can combine it with any of your MOCs as well.

Black locust thorn.

Chassis: 0714TR

 

Chassis 0714TR Piero Drogo was the first owner of this early pontoon fender 250 TR. He immediately made small modifications like adding cooling scoops for the rear brakes. At its debut Drogo raced the car to a strong fourth in the 1958 Buenos Aires 1000 km. After he raced his Ferrari a few more times, Drogo sold it to American amateur racer Alan Connell through Luigi Chinetti. The new owner had the car painted black with a red band across the nose. The 250 TR was raced for many more seasons, scoring numerous wins. At one point it sported disc brakes and a clear carburettor cover. Restored to its original configuration but painted in Connell's colors, it was offered at RM Auctions' Leggenda e Passione sale in 2009. Here it sold for over $12 million, setting a new world record for a car sold at auction.

 

[Text from Ultimatecarpage.com]

 

www.ultimatecarpage.com/sn/128/Ferrari-250-TR.html

 

That said, this Ferrari 250 TR might be now worth quite a lot more....

-

 

This might not come as a shock, but ultra-rare vintage cars are only going to get more expensive as time rolls on, particularly if there's a prancing horse on the car's nose. For example, in 2011, a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa sold for $16.39 million. In February 2012, a 1964 250 GTO sold for nearly $32 million. Later that year, a 1962 250 GTO sold for $35 million. It was the most expensive car ever sold, making last year's 275 GTB/4 NART Spider and its $27.5-million auction price seem like a drop in the platinum-lined bucket. Now, there's been another high-dollar Ferrari sale.

 

An unrestored, 1957 250 Testa Rossa was reportedly sold for over $39 million, making it the most expensive car ever sold in the United Kingdom. Just for perspective, $39 million is about 28 LaFerraris or roughly 128 F12 Berlinettas. It's not the most expensive car ever sold, but it still represents a huge sum of money for a classic car. Part of the reason for chassis number 0704 - the car pictured above is 0714, which sold for a mere $12.2 million in 2009 - being sold for so much is down to its excellent provenance.

 

It made its race debut at the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans, although it failed to finish. Phil Hill and Peter Collins racked up wins with this exact car in Buenos Aires and Sebring, according to the folks at Hemmings. Combining race wins by a former Formula One World Champion with an unrestored example of an extremely rare car (one of just 34 250 Testa Rossas ever built) makes its monumental sale price almost seem reasonable.

 

Following its racing life, the 0704 was donated to The Henry Ford Museum, outside of Detroit. It spent 30 years there, before being sold in 1997. According to Hemmings, the care by The Henry Ford team, which has a voluminous collection of rare and classic cars, is part of the reason this unrestored car remains in such good condition.

 

As this was a private sale, rather than through an auction house, it's unlikely we'll ever know the complete details behind the sale. The pricing information comes from The Daily Mail, which claims well-placed sources confirmed the price of 24 million pounds (that converts to $39.2 million as of this writing). The car was owned by Tom Hartley, Jr., a UK-based car dealer. Hartley admitted to selling the car, although it's unclear who the new owner is, according to Hemmings.

 

[Text from Autoblog]

 

www.autoblog.com/2014/02/04/1957-ferrari-250-testa-rossa-...

 

This Lego miniland-scale Ferrari 250 Testarossa Racer s/n 0714TR (1958 - Scaglietti), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.

 

Alongside is modelled a UCS (Ultimate Collector Series) scale V12 engine. Note the red camshaft covers - a feature of Ferrari Testarossa race cars from teh 1950s and 1960s, whether they were V12s (as shown in this model), or inline four cylinder models, as per 500TR and derivatives.

Elvis Aaron Presley[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often referred to mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.

 

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans[6] led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of the White American youth.

 

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of his most famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

 

Having sold over 400 million records worldwide, Presley is recognized as the best-selling solo music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rhythm & blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon Elvis (April 10, 1916 – June 26, 1979) and Gladys Love (née Smith; April 25, 1912 – August 14, 1958) Presley in a two-room shotgun house that his father built for the occasion. Elvis's identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church, where he found his initial musical inspiration.

  

A photo of Elvis's parents at the Historic Blue Moon Museum in Verona, Mississippi

Presley's father Vernon was of German, Scottish and English origins. He was a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia through his ancestor Tunis Hood. Presley's mother Gladys was Scots-Irish with some French Norman ancestry. His mother and the rest of the family believed that her great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was Cherokee. This belief was restated by Elvis's granddaughter Riley Keough in 2017. Elaine Dundy, in her biography, supports the belief.

 

Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, showing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by his landowner and sometime-employer. He was jailed for eight months, while Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.

 

In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average". He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance. The ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth. A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."

 

In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade; he was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. By then, the family was living in a largely black neighborhood. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO. He was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, who was one of Presley's classmates and often took him into the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar instruction by demonstrating chord techniques. When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.

 

In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Lauderdale Courts. Enrolled at L. C. Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him that he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing". He was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy".

 

In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Lee Denson, a neighbor two and a half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts. That September, he began working as an usher at Loew's State Theater. Other jobs followed at Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products. Presley also helped Jewish neighbors, the Fruchters, by being their shabbos goy.

 

During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. In his free time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing those clothes. Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Lauderdale Courts, he competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became in school after that."

 

Presley, who received no formal music training and could not read music, studied and played by ear. He also frequented record stores that provided jukeboxes and listening booths to customers. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs, and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills. The Southern gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style. He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African-American spiritual music. He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

 

Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South—only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences. He certainly listened to the regional radio stations, such as WDIA-AM, that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African-American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas. B.B. King recalled that he had known Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street. By the time he graduated from high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.

 

Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, which was once owned by the rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Following Lisa Marie Presley's death in 2023, the mansion is to be inherited by her daughters. In addition to being the final resting place of Elvis Presley himself, the property contains the graves of his parents, paternal grandmother and grandson, and contains a memorial to Presley's stillborn twin brother. In addition, Lisa Marie Presley will be buried there.

 

Graceland is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the Whitehaven neighborhood, about nine miles (14 kilometers) south of central Memphis and fewer than four miles (6.4 km) north of the Mississippi border.[5] It was opened to the public as a house museum on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, becoming the first site recognized for significance related to rock music. Graceland was declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site. Graceland attracts more than 650,000 visitors annually.

 

Graceland Farms was originally owned by Stephen C. Toof, founder of S.C. Toof & Co., the oldest commercial printing firm in Memphis. He worked previously as the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal. The "grounds" (before the mansion was built in 1939) were named after Toof's daughter, Grace. She inherited the farm/property from her father in 1894. After her death, the property was passed to her niece Ruth Moore, a Memphis socialite. Together with her husband, Thomas Moore, Ruth Moore commissioned construction of a 10,266-square-foot (953.7 m2) Colonial Revival style mansion in 1939. The house was designed by architects Furbringer and Ehrman.

 

After Elvis Presley began his musical career, he purchased a $40,000 home for himself and his family at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis. As his success and fame grew, especially after his appearances on television, the number of fans who would congregate outside the house multiplied. Presley's neighbors, although happy to have a celebrity living nearby, soon concluded that the constant gathering of fans and journalists was a nuisance.

 

In early 1957, Presley gave his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, a budget of $100,000 and asked them to find a "farmhouse"-like property to purchase, with buffer space around it. At the time, Graceland was located in southern Shelby County, several miles south of Memphis' main urban area. In later years, Memphis would expand with residential developments, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties. Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957, for the amount of $102,500.

 

Later that year, Presley invited Richard Williams and singer Buzz Cason to the house. Cason said: "We proceeded to clown around on the front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out." Presley was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union, "to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good."

 

After Gladys died in 1958 aged 46, Presley's father Vernon remarried to Dee Stanley in 1960, and the couple lived at Graceland for a time. There was some discord between Presley and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however. Elaine Dundy, who wrote about Presley and his mother, said that

 

"Vernon had settled down with Dee where Gladys had once reigned, while Dee herself – when Elvis was away – had taken over the role of mistress of Graceland so thoroughly as to rearrange the furniture and replace the very curtains that Gladys had approved of." This was too much for the singer, who still loved his late mother deeply. One afternoon, "a van arrived ... and all Dee's household's goods, clothes, 'improvements,' and her own menagerie of pets, were loaded on ... while Vernon, Dee and her three children went by car to a nearby house on Hermitage until they finally settled into a house on Dolan Drive which ran alongside Elvis' estate."

 

According to Mark Crispin Miller, Graceland became for Presley "the home of the organization that was himself, was tended by a large vague clan of Presleys and deputy Presleys, each squandering the vast gratuities which Elvis used to keep his whole world smiling." The author adds that Presley's father Vernon "had a swimming pool in his bedroom", that there "was a jukebox next to the swimming pool, containing Elvis' favorite records", and that the singer himself "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television." According to the singer's cousin, Billy Smith, Presley spent the night at Graceland with Smith and his wife Jo many times: "we were all three there talking for hours about everything in the world! Sometimes he would have a bad dream and come looking for me to talk to, and he would actually fall asleep in our bed with us."

 

Priscilla Beaulieu lived at Graceland for five years before she and Presley wed in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1967. Their daughter Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, and spent the first years of her life on the estate. After her parents divorced in 1972, her mother moved with the girl to California. Every year around Christmas, Lisa Marie Presley and all her family would go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie often returned to Graceland for visits.

 

When Elvis would tour, staying in hotels, "the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, so as to make the same configurations of space as he had at home – the Graceland mansion. His furniture would arrive, and he could unwind after his performances in surroundings which were completely familiar and comforting." 'The Jungle Room' was described as being "an example of particularly lurid kitsch."[

 

On August 16, 1977, Presley died aged 42 at Graceland. The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, although later toxicology reports strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; "fourteen drugs were found in Elvis' system, with several drugs such as codeine in significant quantities. Presley lay in repose in a 900-pound (410 kg), copper-lined coffin just inside the foyer; more than 3,500 of his mourning fans passed by to pay their respects. A private funeral with 200 mourners was held on August 18, 1977, in the house, with the casket placed in front of the stained glass doorway of the music room. Graceland continued to be occupied by members of the family until the death of Presley's aunt Delta in 1993, who had moved in at Elvis's invitation after her husband's death. Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited the estate in 1993 when she turned 25.

 

Presley's tombstone, along with those of his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, are installed in the Meditation Garden next to the mansion. They can be visited during the mansion tours or for free before the mansion tours begin. A memorial gravestone for Presley's stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site.

 

In 2019, the owners of Graceland threatened to leave Memphis unless the city provided tax incentives. The Memphis City Council subsequently voted on a deal to help fund a $100 million expansion of Graceland.

 

Constructed at the top of a hill and surrounded by rolling pastures and a grove of oak trees, Graceland is designed by the Memphis architectural firm, Furbringer and Erhmanis. It's a two-story, five-bay residence in the Colonial Revival style, with a side-facing gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles, a central two-story projecting pedimented portico, and two one-story wings on the north and south sides. Attached to the wing is an additional one-story stuccoed wing, which was originally a garage that houses up to four cars. The mansion has two chimneys; one on the north side's exterior wall, the second rising through the south side's roof ridge. The central block's front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi and its rear wall is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings. The front facade fenestration on the first floor includes 9x9 double-hung windows set in arched openings with wooden panels above, and 6x6 double-hung windows on the second floor.

 

Flanked by two marble lions, four stone steps ascend from the driveway to the two-story central projecting pedimented portico. The pediment has dentils and a small, leaded oval window in the center while the portico contains four Corinthian columns with capitals modeled after architect James Stuart's conjectural porticos for the "Tower of the Winds" in Athens, Greece. The portico's cornered columns are matched by pilasters on the front facade. The doorway has a broken arched pediment, full entablature, and engaged columns while its transom and sidelights contain elaborate and colorful stained glass. And above the main entrance is another rectangular window, completed with a shallow iron balcony.

 

Graceland is 17,552 square feet (1,630.6 m2) and has a total of 23 rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. To the right of the Entrance Hall, through an elliptical-arched opening with classical details, is the Living Room. The Living Room contains a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) white couch against the wall overlooking the front yard. To the left are two white sofas, a china cabinet and a fireplace with a mirrored wall. The painting that hangs in the room was Elvis' last Christmas present from his father, Vernon, and also displayed are photographs of Elvis' parents Vernon and Gladys, Elvis and Lisa Marie. Behind an adjoined doorway is the Music Room, framed by vivid large peacocks set in stained glass and contains a black baby grand piano and a 1950s style TV. And the third adjacent room is a bedroom that was occupied by Elvis' parents. The walls, carpet, dresser, and queen size bed are bright white with the bed draped in a velvet-looking dark purple bedspread along with an en-suite full bathroom done in pink.

 

To the left of the Entrance Hall, mirroring the Living Room, is the Dining Room, headlined by a massive crystal chandelier. It features six plush chairs in golden metal frames set around a marble table, all of which are placed on black marble flooring in the center with carpet around the perimeter. Connected to the Dining Room is the Kitchen, which was used by Elvis' aunt Delta until her death in 1993 before it was opened to the public two years later.

 

The original one-story wing on the north end of the residence includes a mechanical room, bedroom, and bath. In the mid-1960s, Presley enlarged the house to create a den known as the Jungle Room which features an indoor waterfall of cut field stone on the north wall. The room also contains items both related to and imported from the state of Hawaii because, after starring in the tropical film "Blue Hawaii" (1961), the musician wanted to bring some memorabilia from The Aloha State to his mansion, which gives visitors the same feeling. In 1976, the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio, where he recorded the bulk of his final two albums, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977); these were his final known recordings in a studio setting.[27] During the mid-1960s expansion of the house, Presley constructed a large wing on the south side of the main house that was a sidewalk, between the music room in the original one-story wing and the swimming pool area, that connected to the house by a small enclosed gallery. The new wing initially housed a slot car track and to store his many items of appreciation, but was later remodeled to what is now known as the Trophy Building, which now features an exhibit about the Presley family, and includes Priscilla's wedding dress, Elvis' wedding tuxedo, Lisa Marie's toy chest and baby clothes and more.

 

The Entrance Hall contains a white staircase leading to the house's second floor with a wall of mirrors. However, the second floor is not open to visitors, out of respect for the Presley family, and partially to avoid any improper focus on the bathroom which was the site of his death. Still, it features Elvis' bedroom at the southwest corner that connects to his dressing room and bathroom in the northwest. His daughter Lisa Marie's bedroom is in the northeast corner, and in the southeast is a bedroom that served as a private personal office for the musician. The floor has been untouched since the day Elvis died and is rarely seen by non-family members.

 

Downstairs in the basement is the TV room, where Elvis often watched three television sets at once, and was within close reach of a wet bar. The three TV sets are built into the room's south wall and there's a stereo, and cabinets for Elvis' record collection. And painted on the west wall is The King's 1970s logo of a lightning bolt and cloud with the initials TCB, both of which represent 'taking care of business in a flash'. And the last room in the mansion opposite of the TV room is the billiard room; an avid billiards player, Elvis bought the pool table in 1960 and had the walls and ceiling covered with 350–400 yards of pleated cotton fabric after the two basement rooms were remodeled in 1974. The pool balls are arranged just the way they were in the musician's final days along with a strict warning sign to visitors that says "Please Do Not Touch! Thank You!" in capital letters. And in one corner of the pool table, there's a rip in the green felt, which was caused by one of Elvis' friends in a failed attempt of a trick shot.

 

Critics such as Albert Goldman write: "Though it cost a lot of money to fill up Graceland with the things that appealed to Elvis Presley, nothing in the house is worth a dime." In chapter 1 of his book, Elvis (1981), the author describes Graceland as looking like a brothel: "it appears to have been lifted from some turn-of-the-century bordello down in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Lulu White or the Countess Willie Piazza might have contrived this plushy parlor for the entertainment of Gyp the Blood. The room is a gaudy mélange of red velour and gilded tassels, Louis XV furniture and porcelain bric-a-brac..." And he dismisses the interior as "bizarre," "garish" and "phony," adding that "King Elvis's obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag."

 

In similar terms, Greil Marcus writes that people who visited the inside of Graceland—"people who to a real degree shared Elvis Presley’s class background, and whose lives were formed by his music—have returned with one word to describe what they saw: ‘Tacky.’ Tacky, garish, tasteless—words others translated as white trash."

 

According to Karal Ann Marling, Graceland is "a Technicolor illusion. The façade is Gone With the Wind all the way. The den in the back is Mogambo with a hint of Blue Hawaii. Living in Graceland was like living on a Hollywood backlot, where patches of tropical scenery alternated with the blackened ruins of antebellum Atlanta. It was like living in a Memphis movie theater... Diehard fans are sometimes disappointed by the formal rooms along the highway side of Graceland. They’re beautiful, in a chilly blue-and-white way, but remote and overarranged." The Jungle Room's "overt bad taste" lets nonbelievers "recoil in horror and imagine themselves a notch or two higher than Elvis on the class scale."

 

After purchasing the property Presley spent in excess of $500,000 carrying out extensive modifications to suit his needs including a pink Alabama fieldstone wall surrounding the grounds that has several years' worth of graffiti (signatures and messages) from visitors, who simply refer to it as "the wall". Designed and built by Abe Sauer is the wrought-iron front gate shaped like a book of sheet music, along with green colored musical notes and two mirrored silhouettes of Elvis playing his guitar. Sauer also installed a kidney shaped swimming pool and a racquetball court, which is reminiscent of an old country club, furnished in dark leather and a functional bar. There is a sunken sitting area with the ever-present stereo system found throughout Graceland, as well as the dark brown upright piano upon which Elvis played for what were to be his last songs, Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and "Unchained Melody".

 

However, reports conflict about which one was the last song. The sitting area has a floor-to-ceiling shatterproof window designed to watch the many racquetball games that took place there when Elvis was alive. In the early hours of the morning on which Elvis died, he played a game of racquetball with his girlfriend Ginger Alden, his first cousin Billy Smith and Billy's wife Jo before ending the game with the song on the piano before walking into the main house to wash his hair and go to bed. Today the two story court has been restored to the way it was when Elvis used the building.

 

Elsewhere on the estate is a small white building that served as an office for Vernon, along with an old smokehouse that housed a shooting range and a fully functional stable of horses.

 

One of Presley's better known modifications was the addition of the Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier. It was used by the musician to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life. It is also where his entire family is buried: himself (1935–1977), his parents Gladys (1912–1958) and Vernon (1916–1979), and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood (1890–1980) while a small stone memorializes his twin brother Jesse Garon, who died at birth thirty minutes before Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. In late 2020, Lisa Marie's son Benjamin Keough was laid to rest on the opposite end of the Meditation Garden after his death from suicide in July of that year. Lisa Marie Presley died from sudden cardiac arrest in January 2023 and is buried next to her son.

 

After Elvis Presley's death in 1977, Vernon Presley served as executor of his estate. Upon his death in 1979, he chose Priscilla to serve as the estate executor for Elvis's only child, Lisa Marie, who was only 11. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis's and Priscilla's daughter Lisa Marie's inheritance to only $1 million. Taxes were due on the property; those and other expenses due came to over $500,000. Faced with having to sell Graceland, Priscilla examined other famous houses/museums, and hired a CEO, Jack Soden, to turn Graceland into a moneymaker. Graceland was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Priscilla's gamble paid off; after only a month of opening Graceland's doors the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla Presley became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises, or EPE, stating at that time she would do so until Lisa Marie reached 21 years of age. The enterprise's fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100 million.

 

An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis's grave is held on the anniversary of his death. Known as Elvis Week, it includes a full schedule of speakers and events, including the only Elvis Mass at St. Paul's Church, the highlight for many Elvis fans of all faiths. The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had several hundred media groups from around the world that were present resulting in the event gaining its greatest media publicity.

 

One of the largest gatherings assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002 with one estimate of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain. On the 38th anniversary of Elvis's death, an estimated 30,000 people attended the Candlelight Vigil during the night of August 15–16, 2015. On the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death, on August 15–16, 2017, at least 50,000 fans were expected to attend the Candlelight Vigil. No official figure seems to have been released, maybe because, for the first time, attendees had to pay at least the lowest tour fare, $28.75, to cover the extra security costs due to a larger than usual crowd.

 

For many of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Graceland each year, the visit takes on a quasi-religious perspective. They may plan for years to journey to the home of the 'King' of rock and roll. On site, headphones narrate the salient events of Elvis's life and introduce the relics that adorn the rooms and corridors. The rhetorical mode is hagiographic, celebrating the life of an extraordinary man, emphasizing his generosity, his kindness and good fellowship, how he was at once a poor boy who made good, an extraordinary musical talent, a sinner and substance abuser, and a religious man devoted to the Gospel and its music. At the meditation garden, containing Elvis's grave, some visitors pray, kneel, or quietly sing one of Elvis's favorite hymns. The brick wall that encloses the mansion's grounds is covered with graffiti that express an admiration for Presley as well as petitions for help and thanks for favors granted.

 

The Graceland grounds include a new exhibit complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, which includes a new car museum, Presley Motors, which houses Elvis's Pink Cadillac. The complex features new exhibits and museums, as well as a studio for Sirius Satellite Radio's all-Elvis Presley channel. The service's subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Not far away on display are his two aircraft including Lisa Marie (a Convair 880 jetliner) and Hound Dog II (a Lockheed JetStar business jet). The jets are owned by Graceland and are on permanent static display.

 

In early August 2005, Lisa Marie Presley sold 85% of the business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to CKX, Inc., an entertainment company (on whose board of directors Priscilla Presley sat) that also owns 19 Entertainment, creator of the American Idol TV show.

 

Graceland Holdings LLC, led by managing partner Joel Weinshanker, is the majority owner of EPE. Lisa Marie Presley's estate retains a 15% ownership in the company.

 

In August 2018, Gladys Presley's headstone, which contained the Jewish star of David on one side and a cross on the other and was designed by Elvis himself, which become publicly displayed when it placed in Graceland's Mediation Garden after being stored for many years in the Graceland Archive.

 

Lisa Marie Presley's estate, which is being held in trust for her daughters Riley Keough and Harper and Finley Lockwood, retain 100% sole personal ownership of Graceland Mansion itself and its over 13-acre original grounds as well as Elvis Presley's personal effects – including costumes, wardrobe, awards, furniture, cars, etc. Prior to her death in 2023, Lisa Marie Presley had made the mansion property and her father's personal effects permanently available for tours of Graceland and for use in all of EPE's operations.

 

According to Elvis Presley's Enterprises, staff at Graceland informally kept a list of celebrities who had visited in the first years following Elvis's death. This practice was not formalized for a decade. Muhammad Ali was an early celebrity visitor in 1978, as was singer Paul Simon. He toured Graceland in the early 80s and afterward wrote a song of the same name; it was the title track of his Grammy-winning album Graceland.

 

During the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, U2 toured Graceland. The footage was filmed for the film Rattle & Hum. During the visit, drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., sat on Elvis Presley's motorcycle -- against the rules for Graceland visitors.

 

On June 30, 2006, then US President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a tour of the mansion. It was one of the few private residences on United States soil to have been the site of an official joint-visit by a sitting US president and a serving head of a foreign government. On August 6, 2010, Prince Albert II, Head of State of the Principality of Monaco, and his fiancée (now Princess of Monaco) Charlene Wittstock, toured Graceland while vacationing in the US. On May 26, 2013, Paul McCartney of The Beatles visited Graceland. Prince William and Prince Harry, while in Memphis for a friend's wedding, visited Graceland on May 2, 2014.

 

The home has also been visited by former US President Jimmy Carter; the late Duchess of Devonshire, the sitting ambassadors of India, France, China, Korea and Israel to the United States; as well as several US governors, members of the US Congress, and at least two Nobel Prize winners, namely singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, a Literature Prize laureate, and the former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, a Peace Prize honoree, who visited it on October 10, 2001.

 

In May 2016, Graceland welcomed a newlywed couple as its 20 millionth visitor.

 

In June 2022, actors Austin Butler and Tom Hanks visited the mansion and were interviewed virtually by the Good Morning America news program from the Jungle Room to talk about their biographical film Elvis.

 

In popular culture

Paul Simon named an album Graceland, as well as its title track. The song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1987.

The song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn mentions Graceland; in the second verse, he refers to the mansion and the Jungle Room. This song was later covered by Cher and Lonestar, among others.

The film 3000 Miles to Graceland is about a group of criminals who plan to rob a casino during an international Elvis week, disguised as Elvis impersonators. No scenes take place at or near the estate.

The film Finding Graceland stars Harvey Keitel with Johnathon Schaech. Keitel is an impersonator who claims to be the real Elvis after Schaech picks him up as a hitch-hiker.

In the rock music "mockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap, band members gather around Presley's grave at Graceland and attempt to sing a verse of "Heartbreak Hotel".

Pop punk group Groovie Ghoulies have a song called "Graceland" on their 1997 album Re-Animation Festival.

In the movie Zombieland: Double Tap, the protagonists venture to Graceland in hopes of shelter during a zombie apocalypse, but are distressed to find it in a ruined state.

During the credits of Lilo & Stitch, there's a photograph of Lilo, Nani, David and Stitch visiting the front gates of Graceland. Almost 20 years later, the original painting of that shot was put on display as part of the traveling Walt Disney Archives exhibition at Graceland.

In the season three episode of American Dad “The Vacation Goo”, Steve Smith asks Stan Smith if they can go to Graceland for their next vacation and Stan says “Steve, if you want to pay your respects to a fat man who died on the toilet, we can visit your Aunt Mary’s grave.”

Phoebe Bridgers has a song "Graceland Too" on her second studio album Punisher.

In the third episode of National Treasure: Edge of History, "Graceland Gambit," the main protagonist, Jess (portrayed by Lisette Olivera) is on a treasure hunt that leads her and her friends to Graceland.

Florence + The Machine reference Graceland and Elvis in their song "Morning Elvis" on their 2022 album Dance Fever.

AT-LP120USB with heatshrink tubing and cotton inside arm.

anaglyph stereo red/cyan

macro TTW

 

Amiens, France.

 

We woke after close to ten hours sleep.

 

Ten.

 

Hours.

 

Life seemed better. And there was breakfast that was going to be prepared for us, with no washing up afterwards.

 

That's living alright.

 

Outside it looked warm already. Time would tell.

 

We went down for breakfast, there was fruit, bready stuff, croissants, coffee, Nutella. All the major food groups.

 

We filled our boots, by which time it was just after eight. And the cathedral opened at half seven.

 

We walked outside to the car, and in the shade of the hotel it was lovely and cool, but wouldn't stay that way for long.

 

We programmed a parking house nearby, I fired up the horses in the car, and we lurched off towards the city centre.

 

For a Monday morning, traffic was light, so we cruised carefully into the centre, turning down a side road, then down the ramp to the underground parking house.

 

Whether we would find our way back again after our visit and lunch would be another matter.

 

We had seen the cathedral, the largest by volume in France, apparently., on the way into the centre. To say it towered over the surrounding area would be something of an understatement.

 

But once we parked, walked up the the street level, and at the next junction we looked to the left and there was the roof of the cathedral.

 

We'd go that way.

 

Five minutes later, after walking down an alley paved with white marble, we came to the south-west corner of the church.

 

Entrance by the south door, a sign seemed to be suggesting.

 

We walked along the southside, and there was an open door. We went in.

 

Inside was a space at least as large as St Paul's in London, but untouched by puritans or time, A Baroque pulpit, covered in gold leaf caught the eye.

 

I took a shot, and a guy came over to engage me in conversation. As my French is below middle school standard, and his English was little better, but he seemed to be suggesting that I was taking my photos wrong.

 

I said thanks, tried to explain the hand-held night-shooting mode, but went over his head.

 

He came back, and showed me a video of his work. Not sure if he was trying to get me to employ him to take shots.

 

I explained I had some 50,000 pictures of churches, and I really did know what what I was doing.

 

When he came back a third time, I guess I became rude. As ride as you can be in fractured Franglais.

 

He walked off.

 

Phew.

 

I went round snapping the scenes, chapels and details, then switched to the big lens for more details and the stained glass windows.

 

Meanwhile, at nine, Mass began, and the cathedral was filled with the harmonised voices of the choir, then the benediction read out.

 

Amen.

 

Amiens, and the Valley of the Somme, was the centre of the First World War battle of the same name, so the cathedral has memorials to nations and battalions that sacrificed themselves in the defence of the city and area.

 

There is little evidence of the war now, other than the occasional memorial, the city is rebuilt and vibrant.

 

We walked back outside, into the bright sunshine, and temperatures were some ten degrees higher than went we entered.

 

Next on the list were the "floating gardens" of Les Hortillonnages. Of which we had no idea what they were, but was high on the top rated attractions in the city.

 

We walked down from the butte that the cathedral straddles, and came across a small stream, running in the lea of the cathedral. On the other was a row of houses with shops in their ground floors, and behind all had identical metal spiral staircases.

 

The road in front was filled with fast food joints, discotheques, and other shops, all closed at half eleven, though some stayed open until 05:00.

 

On the left a road opened up, and there over the main road was the Somme river, also lined with restaurants, bars, and shops. The maps app said to carry on, so we did.

 

We crossed the river beside another main road, then the way was down a steep curving road to the riverbanks. On the side was a brasserie, where we called in for a cold drink. And then a beer.

 

We went back out and down to the riverbank, walking along hoping to see an entrance. We did find it, but turns out the public part doesn't open until one, and it was too hot to wait.

 

We explored further along, where there was a mixture of houses, summer houses and allotments, all on small islands separated with by ditches or minor stretches of the river.

 

It was all very nice, and peaceful despite being only a short walk from the city centre. But all private.

 

We sat and watched the wildlife: dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies and birds, while a couple of boats chugged by.

 

Thoughts turned to lunch, so we walked back towards the cathedral, stopping for a drink at the same brasserie, then along the river where we took a shaded table at a café, and ordered pork something. Which came with a very thin carrot, some kind of root vegetable (half of) and a sauce.

 

It was so pleasant sitting and eating watching the world go by, we had dessert and a coffee.

 

Back to the cathedral to take shots of the statues and triple doors at the west end, by which time it was hot indeed, so we made our way back to the parking garage, paid the fee and drove back to street level.

 

Our journey back to the hotel wasn't helped by a failure of the net, and the road the hotel is on is so new the car's sat nav didn't have it listed. However, nearby was Rue de Christ, which we remembered the name of, so programmed that in, which got us withing a mile of the hotel, at which point the internet came back and we found our way back.

 

Before going to the room, we went over the road to the corner store to buy beer, mile, sandwiches and crips, so we would not go down to eat.

 

And finally up the the air conditioned coolness of the room, where i cracked open the family sized bottle of Le Chouffe as I reviewed my shots from the day.

 

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The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens; Picard: Cathédrale Noter-Danme d'Anmiens), or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral. The cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Amiens. It is situated on a slight ridge overlooking the River Somme in Amiens, the administrative capital of the Picardy region of France, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Paris.

 

The cathedral was built almost entirely between 1220 and c. 1270, a remarkably short period of time for a Gothic cathedral, giving it an unusual unity of style. Amiens is an early example of the High Gothic period, and the Rayonnant style of Gothic architecture.[4][5] The Rayonnant appeared in the triforium and clerestory, which were begun in 1236, and in the enlarged high windows of the choir, added in the mid-1250s.[5]

 

Its builders were trying to maximize the internal dimensions in order to reach for the heavens and bring in more light. As a result, Amiens Cathedral is the largest by volume in France,[6] 200,000 cubic metres (260,000 cu yd), more than double the volume of Notre Dame of Paris.[7]

 

The cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.[8] Although it has lost much of its original stained glass, Amiens Cathedral is renowned for the quality and quantity of early 13th-century Gothic sculpture in the main west façade and the south transept portal, and a large quantity of polychrome sculpture from later periods inside the building.

 

A fire destroyed the Romanesque cathedral in 1218. A plan for a new cathedral was made by master-builder Robert de Luzarches, and in 1220 Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy laid the first stone.[11] Luzarches revolutionised the system of Gothic construction by using pieces of stone of standardised sizes and forms, rather than making unique pieces for each function.[11] He was the architect until 1228, and was followed by Thomas de Cormont until 1258. Thomas's son, Renaud de Cormont, acted as the architect until 1288.[11]

 

The construction was carried out, unusually, from the west to the east, beginning in the nave. De Cormont gave the structure its striking dimensions and harmony by his construction of the grand arcades and the upper windows. The nave was completed in 1236, and by 1269, the upper windows of the choir were in place. At the end of the 13th century, the arms of the transept were completed, and in the beginning of the 14th century the facades and the upper towers were finished. While these works were underway, the chapels between the buttresses and at the angles of the transept were added

 

The original design of the flying buttresses around the choir had them placed too high to counteract the force of the ceiling arch pushing outwards resulting in excessive lateral forces being placed on the vertical columns. The structure was only saved when masons placed a second row of more robust flying buttresses that connected lower down on the outer wall.[13]

 

In 1497 the four pillars of the transept crossing, as well as the two left columns of the chevet began to show cracks and other signs of stress. A team of experts examined the damage and carried out some repairs, but the cracks continued. The problem was finally resolved by Pierre Tarisel, who in 1498 installed a wrought iron bar chain around the level to resist the forces pushing the stone columns outward. The chain was installed red hot to act as a cinch, tightening as it cooled, and is still in place.[13] In 1503 Tarisel took similar actions to reinforce portions of the entrance of the choir.

 

In the 16th century, the cathedral suffered damage from fires, windstorms, and the explosion of a nearby powder mill, without major damage. It also underwent several modifications to accommodate changing styles; a new rose window, in the Flamboyant Gothic style, full of curls and counter-curls, was installed in the south transept. In the 18th century, architectural modifications were made to comply with new doctrines pronounced by the Council of Trent. The old medieval rood screen between the choir and nave was replaced by an ornate iron grill choir screen, so that the parishioners in the nave could see the altar. The altar itself was modified, removing the twelve massive candelabras and twelve chests of relics of martyred saints. Major works were also carried out to strengthen the flying buttresses.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens_Cathedral

66790 LEFT 66791 RIGHT @ EMD LONGPORT Having modifications for work on the UK Network having arrived from Europe , 27th April 2020

My slightly famous corset piercing, which has graced numerous body mod sites and e-zines. I was even called out for it on the streets of NY whilst shopping! (I was wearing normal clothes too)

 

Even though I only had it for a year and a half it will always be apart of me. I have the scars to remind me. I will always look back with fondness.

 

Photo was taken by me, with the help of an ex-boy. There is a red sheet tacked to the wall behind me and the camera was propped up on a stack of drums with the timer on. Despite all of that, it came out to be a pretty nice photo and the cover to my book.

 

Color balance was corrected in PS to make reds pop.

My sewing scissors (actual size and all). Old picture taken right after it was done, a new one should be up soon :)

His "dragon ears" were really pretty in their own way, but nothing I can work with character-wise. They don't make sense for him, so off they go!