you have to experience a considerable amount of shit in order to appreciate beautiful things.

  

the last days have been a bit exhausting. a few phonecalls with my mom who thought that her life just ended because a huge asshole left her. my business was to get across to her that she has to look forward and concentrate on what is left (which is among other things 3 awsome children including my humble self) and on who she was before she met him: a jolly, offhanded and (most important) self-confident woman who always knew what she wanted . now she did a short city trip and talked this morning on my answering machine saying "thank you" and "i´m so fucking fine!". i hope that this is going to last...

 

***

I did a marathon of re-stringing and sueding yesterday afternoon of my new dolls. It was so windy all day that I had to wait until late in the evening before I could start with the face-ups though. At 3.40 a.m. when I was done with Sally, so in the dead of the night I just snapped a couple of pics of her posing by my desk. I confess, I'm just nuts about this girl! I thought I managed to give her the look I was after: sassy, sexy, self-confident, a bit of a know-it-all even, risk-taker... That's my Sally! :D I can't wait to do a proper photo session with her outdoors.

 

My Sally has the 62cm body in burnt sugar colour. She takes a 8-9 wig and is best with 14mm eyes, I prefer oval eyes for her.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3282, 1968. Photo: DEFA / Dietrich. Jan Spitzer and Heidemarie Wenzel in Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968).

 

German actress Heidemarie Wenzel (1945) became known in DEFA films of the early 1970s, such as Zeit der Störche/Time of the storks (1971) and Nemuritorii (1974).

 

Heidemarie Wenzel was born in 1945 in Berlin, Germany. During her youth, she played in the children's theatre and in the movement choir of the Deutschen Staatsoper (German State Opera). From 1963 to 1966 she studied at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch (Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Berlin. After graduation she got her first engagements in Rostock and Greifswald. Very soon she began to work as a freelance actress in film and on television. Her first major role was as Fanny in the film adaptation of Johannes R. Becher's novel Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968), starring Rolf Ludwig and Jan Spitzer. The film was heavily criticised by officials in the GDR because of the unusual narrative style. Wenzel had her breakthrough in the role of the self-confident teacher Susanne in Zeit der Störche/Time of the storks (Siegfried Kühn, 1971), opposite Winfried Glatzeder. In Die Taube auf dem Dach/The Dove on the Roof (Iris Gusner, 1973), she was able to show her acting talent properly for the first time, however, the film was banned even before its premiere. The pretty, tall, slender and blonde actress was both open-minded and intelligent as well as introverted. She was often cast for contemporary roles as in Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul und Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973), starring Angelica Domröse and Winfried Glatzeder. This was the most succesful film of the DEFA in its history.

 

Until the mid-1970s, Heidemarie Wenzel played several more major roles, but then she got less and less good offers, as she was considered politically unreliable. In 1986 she made an exit request and was not occupied in the following years. Therefore, she had to work as an office assistant at the church. In 1988 she was expatriated to the Federal Republic (West-Germany). From 1991, she became a star in both West and East Germany in the TV series Unsere Hagenbecks/Our Hagenbecks (1991-1994) about a family who runs a zoo in Hamburg. When her character died in an accident, it came to public protests. In the 1990s Wenzel also appeared more often in the theatre. Her later series include the popular hospital soap In aller Freundschaft/In all Friendliness (1998) with Rolf Becker. The series follows the staff of the fictional Sachsenklinik hospital in the city of Leipzig. Wenzel lives in Berlin-Tempelhof. She has a son and a daughter. In her first marriage Wenzel was married to the director Kurt Veth, which is why she was also credited at times as Heidemarie Wenzel-Veth. Since 1977, she is married to the director and author Helmut Nitzschke.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

from the series

"believe me, it´s a scarf "

 

giant luxury

scarf stole

wrap cloak

with 2 sleeves

 

fabric knitting

art-yarn fusion

with lurex & metallic effects

a perfect lagenlook layer

for self-confident fashion divas

Pandion ridgwayi after capturing the meal of the day. From that moment on he was very self-confident and I could come very close...

I liked his red scarf and black hat, and when I approached for a portrait, it turned out that Risto is a writer. He had just published his first novel !

 

It amazes me each time to find out the real life story which lies, for example, behind a hat or a scarf. That mundane detail, which has at first caught my attention and curiosity, becomes the beginning of a deep look into somebody's life.

 

I admire all these wonderful people on my path, my fellow human beings, who open up and share their stories with the rest of us.

Reaching out works in mysterious ways. One never knows how, but it always touches someone deep in the heart.

 

It was my pleasure to meet you, Risto, a.k.a. Ricky, the floor is yours, please:

 

"I was born in Sipoo, near Helsinki. When I was only one year old we moved to Espoo, a big city near Helsinki.

I was a quiet and shy boy because I had vitiligo in my face and body. (Vitiligo is a condition in which the pigment is lost from areas of the skin, causing whitish patches, often with no clear cause.)

 

"I also had problems to say the R- and S-letters, but I went to a speech therapist and learned to speak normally. However, because of that, and some family issues, I started to keep a diary.

I have some 30 notebooks and three cardboard boxes filled with thoughts.

 

"I was good in sports. I have played floor-ball in 3rd division and have won a couple of times the title of player who makes the most goals.

 

"After all the difficulties--I have also problems to focus when I read as I have a strong imagination and am usually "in deep waters" and in my own world--I graduated from high school.

I was so depressed because of my vitiligo that I decided to study everything about it.

 

"I contacted a dermatology specialist, Allan Lassus, (a big name in Finland - R.I.P) and he prescribed some special medicines.

During two summers, whenever it was a sunny day, I took two pills and walked out to take sun.

Gradually, the pigments came back to my skin and it boosted my self-confidence as I looked normal.

 

"I went to the army because all my friends did and because I also wanted to please my relatives. I didn't think that my decision was stupid or thoughtless. In Finland everyone has to go to the army or instead serve by working in churches, hospitals, libraries etc.

 

"After a fortnight in the army, I've noticed that it wasn't something I respected in my own life. My precious soul and peaceful mind are more important to me than playing with guns and hearing constant shouting.

 

I moved to a library in Kivenlahti, Espoo, to accomplish my military service. While in the library, I read a few books, listened to many records and decided that I wanted to write a book.

 

"I wrote my first novel called "Tuntemattoman paljastuskirja" ("The Revealing Book of the Unknown").

It tells a strange and dreamy story of a boy called "Unknown" or "Incognito" in that one split of a second of James Dean's death on a highway.

The beginning and the end of the story are the same moment. I thought it was an interesting idea.

I've sent the book to only one publisher as I was so self-confident that it was awesome and that everyone will want to publish it.

Well, you can guess that they didn't even call me or send an email.

I became really depressed.

 

"At the time, I broke up with my first girlfriend and I lived in my grandparents' old house which was a haunted place.

I couldn't sleep at night. I was really broken and tried to get at least a couple of sleeping hours with sleeping pills.

 

"I was working in a big supermarket called 'Euro Spar' in Espoo, but I quit there and moved to Helsinki near the centre.

I started to work in a little shop, 'K Pikkolo', where I also baked and did lots of different things.

 

"The next summer found me writing my first children's novel called: "Repsu".

It's a story about a creature who doesn't fit anywhere and starts to look for his home. He meets many animals and a boy and have some really good conversations with them.

I tried to get a similar kind of atmosphere in my book as "The Little Prince" had.

 

"My girlfriend at that time read it and said it was well written, but that it wasn't commercial enough. She said that people wanted to read Harry Potter so I didn't send "Repsu" to any publisher at all.

 

"I quit working in K-Pikkolo and went to work in Alko. It's a Finnish liquor store which has the sole monopoly to sell alcohol and has many stores everywhere in Finland.

 

"I also tried to get into many schools, but because of my reading problems I didn't get it. For example, in a school where you can study Film and TV script I was in the top 10 of 200 candidates, but only 4 got in. I was near, but not enough.

 

"A short while after I started to work in Alko, I had a mania episode in my life, mostly because I have a strong imagination. I was so worried about the nature situation, the climate, mankind and the whole world. So I started to write all nights long my book, or manifest, which was supposed to solve all the problems of the world and finally bring world peace.

I flipped.

 

"I were in a mental hospital for a few weeks. Then I was really depressed for a few moths. However, I got gradually better.

I forgot my thoughts about to save the world.

 

"My father published my first poetry book, but it didn't make me happy. My dad's friend composed and recorded an album from my poems. "Kaunis Saareni"-"My Beautiful Island"- and the singer was my father's friend Antero Launis. You can find it from Spotify if you're interested.

 

"After this bipolar disorder thing in my life, I worked in Alko for eight years with no mental problems. I still have a normal situation going on, probably because of good medication.

 

"I broke up with my girlfriend and decided that I have to accomplish my book of peace and love for Mother Nature.

In that novel I told very frankly and honestly everything that I thought about life, me, humanity and the world. I told my story how I went nuts and survived.

It is a love story and an urban fairytale, too.

I've sent my book to twelve publishers and many said that it was really good, but that it didn't fit their release program.

 

"Then I thought I wanted to help people, man to man. I quit my work in Alko and started to be a personal assistant to Pete, a 46-year old man who had MS disease

At the same time, I finally had my first contract with a small publishing house called Reuna - it was only a two year old company. The publisher was kind of a soulmate and thought my novel was super-good and the story really interesting.

 

"At the same time I tried to do my best in my work, but I had some chemistry problems with Pete and that's why I quilt my job with him.

 

"I became unemployed for one year, but last autumn I started to study horticulture in Hyria in Hyvinkää.

If I graduate I'll become a gardener, but I'm not sure if this is really my cup of tea. After all I just want to write, but because I am a new, unknown writer, I don't have big expectations that my first novel will sell much.

"Pyrypallo" -"Snowglobe"- was my publisher's candidate to the Finlandia competition. It is the most valued book competition in Finland, but I wasn't chosen among the six candidates.

However, "Pyrypallo" has been also sent to other competitions, so you never know...

Usually, candidates are from big publishers who have more power to influence the market, so I don't expect too much.

 

My message to the world?

 

Listen to every living thing - you'll learn from everyone. We have a paradise here around us, if only we treat nature and other people with love.

 

My struggle is to be always as good a human as possible. I try to be wise, playful yet responsible, caring and noble man. I want to be a loving and funny boyfriend to my girlfriend. I try to learn about myself and life so I would know who I want to be when I grow old.

I'm now 34-year old."

 

This is my 81st submission to The Human Family group.

 

Visit the group here to see more portraits and stories: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily.

Turned up at my dacha (I wish) last night after 10pm (local time; 2 hours ahead of BST). We, the driver and me, arrived in style from the airport in a new Mercedes people carrier, but it went decidedly downhill from there. She guided us into a dark car park at the rear of a Stalinist tower block with no clear signs that this was the hostel. I could have been kidnapped for all the world would know, except that the kidnapper, my driver, was exceedingly pert, petite and pretty. But that could have been a clever ruse, raising my confidence and lowering my defences and fully distracting me. And who was that lurking about in the grass behind the building? What was he doing? And where was the main door? Were we supposed to sidle in through the tradesman’s entrance, that metal thing, half battered, covered with graffiti and almost falling off its hinges?

 

OK, I admit it, the three hour trauma on the plane, being subjected to seemingly endless torture by two terrible two year olds (and their backing groups), had got to me and I was feeling a wee bit paranoid. I actually came off the plane shaking with stress (and half of that was feeling for the poor mother); everyone else was just shaking their heads in disbelief at the horror. It was one of those airplane disasters that somehow get overlooked on the news but, psychologically, the effects are just as devastating in the long run. (I may be exaggerating a tad.)

 

Anyway, we entered the Soviet building, went past a little old lady in a little old cubby hole, and climbed up some dingy, dirty steps to an even dingier lift. This took ten minutes to come down from the 8th floor and, when it eventually arrived, it was a struggle to get the both of us in it. We chugged up to the hostel, rang the bell and I was shown into the office.

 

The ‘hostel’ turned out to be a converted apartment and the office was the front room, barely changed since it used to hold the family, complete with spirally carpet, cigarette-burned sofa and glass-fronted cabinet once filled with porcelain now stuffed with junk. This was day one on duty for the girl and she couldn’t find any information for me, she couldn’t even pinpoint the hostel on the map. She knew where my dorm was though, it was the one that wasn’t the office, kitchen, other dorm or bathroom. She could hardly get lost.

 

The room was decorated in Stalin’s favourite colours – brown, nicotine yellow and off-white – with the obligatory soil-coloured spirally carpet. I was in the top bunk in a room for eight. The bathroom was down the corridor past the office. One bath/shower, one sink (draped with girls’ damp frillies) and a washing machine. The colour was baby pink (that’s the bathroom and the knickers in case you were wondering) and the air was hot and humid. The toilet was next door. Both were to cater for around 20 people. Bliss.

 

I aimed for an early night (as I wasn’t going to get any gen about Chernobyl (‘Eh, what?’) or cruises on the Dnieper from the receptionist. I fell asleep at midnight but was rudely awoken at 0200 by some fuck texting loudly on his phone. After five minutes of this I decided I’d give a hint of my annoyance by switching on the light, opening up my netbook and playing some music. Eventually he stopped sweating over his text and two minutes later he looked up at me from his lower bunk and said, ‘Vot you do?’

 

This gave me the chance to study him for the first time. He looked like a cliché of an Eastern Mafia thug: shaved head, furrowed brow, no neck, tattoos down both his bulging biceps and stone cold grey eyes. Yep, here was a cliché of things to see that was not on my tick list. Shit.

 

I said, ‘What does it look like?’ I hadn’t read Flashman this holiday up to that point but now, in hindsight having finished ‘Flashman at the Charge’, I could see what kindred spirits we were. I couldn’t back away from this because that would have made it even worse, so I brazened it out and stared him down even though I was quaking in my socks. ‘Why, is it bothering you?’, I just about managed to say. ‘Vot you do?’ he repeated, a mite more irritated this time. ‘Can you not see, I am reading.’ ‘Vot you do?’ I gave up and turned back to my netbook. This was getting boring. ‘I don’t know vot the police do in zis country,’ he intoned from below me in a deeply threatening voice, ‘but zey prorbably do not look favourably on a kicking.’

 

Funnily enough this cheered me up no end, and I even began to relax a wee bit. First, no real thug would ever condescend to threaten a ‘kicking’ when a good ‘knifing’ is far more cost-effective and silent. So he wasn’t so bad then, eh? And second, he admitted to not being Ukrainian and so he was as much an outsider and on foreign turf as me. Not so confident then. Perhaps.

 

On the other hand he was still far more violent (potentially) than me (eastern European? Too much bigotry?), and much bigger (actually) so it wasn’t all over.

 

I said, ‘Have you finished texting?’ He said, ‘Vot you do?’ I said, ‘I couldn’t sleep for your texting. Have you finished?’ He said, ‘I give you thirty seconds to switch off and then I come and kick you.’ Oh dear, what to do? Shit shit shit. I decided to bluff him, and said, ‘I will switch off when I am finished.’ He said, ‘You have ten seconds … Five ... One …’ And … he didn’t move. I looked down at him and he looked up at me and I turned back to my netbook and thanked God that he couldn’t see my pulse trampolining and he said … ‘I couldn’t turn the text off. I couldn’t turn the sound down. I tried. How you do it? I tried. I couldn’t turn it off …’ He sounded so pathetic, so lost, not a Russian Mafiosa at all, and then he shuffled out of bed and off to the toilet.

 

I immediately switched off the light and spent the following hour or so before tripping off into a troubled sleep thinking that the next thing I’d hear would be the hissing of his breath as he loomed over me prior to holding down my sheets and thumping me in the face. At least I’d get to sleep then.

 

I didn’t see the thug again and the following nights were trouble free (apart from the damned mosquitos Eastern mossies, eh? Bastards. They were as intrusive as the texting).

 

Train to Crimea, Monday 3rd September, 18.30

 

Listening to Donovan on my netbook. Gently swaying in the carriage as the train passes a forest of chestnuts and oak with the sun glinting horizontally into the train through the foliage. Sharing my 4 birth cabin with two bottles of red wine, a demi litre of vodka and two women (a blonde and a brunette), and a 17 hour journey through the night ahead of us.

 

Shame they’re both middle-aged and tea-totallers, and that they’ve both gone to sleep already.

 

Is it my socks?

 

The tradition here is that travellers all disrobe and treat the cabin as a hotel room (minus the room service. Or the restaurant. Or telly. Or toilet. Or most other things actually. Good ever-changing view out the window though). So I was turfed out as the two got into their grunties. When I came back in they were both under their duvets. Something tells me that this isn’t going to be a party that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

 

Ah well, all the more wine for me!! What’s this vodka like I wonder …

 

Had a good night’s conversation with an ex-pat on Thursday. I was in the ‘Lucky Pub’ off Khreshchatyk (13 beers proudly advertised, but 11 of them were off. So not so lucky then) and this diminutive Yorkshireman called over to me and asked if I was English after I’d complained to the waitress about the lack of pork scratchings with the beer (no I didn't). We got talking and he told me almost straight off what he was. He was quite up-front about it and totally not ashamed or embarrassed, so good for him. You have to admire such people who believe in themselves and put two fingers up to society; hang the consequences and to hell with Daily Mail readers. Great. I wanted to hear more. I love rebels (so long as they don’t squat in my flat when I’m away. There’s a limit you know.)

 

So, Peter’s a numerologist. There, I’ve said it. He even gave me his email address to pass on to anyone in my acquaintance who might want to delve into the murky depths of this underworld. You never know, my church is a broad one.

 

For the next couple of hours, Peter regaled me with his successes – ‘I told her that and she said ‘”You never!!! No way anyone could know that!!”, and I said, “But you need to accept that this is his destiny, it’s written in his birth date, he can’t help it.” And she said, “I never knew. I’ll respect him more now. It’ll be hard, but if he wants to dress as a cow, eat grass and moo around the house …’

 

Of course, eventually it came around to me. I didn’t want to ask him (he must get it all the time) but he was only too eager to analyse me. He asked me my birthdate, added the first numbers, took away the second, combined the year and subtracted the month and ended up with 4 digits that told him everything about me. He deduced that I was successful, that I like beetroot, am happy, a perfectionist who accepts that most people can’t be as good as me but allowances have to be made for the sake of global harmony, a man who other people follow, a sportsman, someone who has three of the four main elements (water, earth and fire) but lacks air and therefore never has original ideas but am good at following through with other peoples’ plans … ‘

 

OK, stop there!! I had to put him right about a few things!! Too many to list here but, for one, to say that I ‘like beetroot’!!! That takes the biscuit! How wrong can a person be? And then, to cap it all by thunder , he has the deuced bad manners to suggest that my dear beloved sister (whom he’s analysed too) also lacks ideas!! Well! I can just about accept that I’m a dunderhead, but my sister …. Gad! The dirty swine, damn him to hell and back!

 

He was a good sort though, by golly . I liked him and he didn’t take my scepticism the wrong way (thank God he wasn’t a Ukrainian zealot!) and we actually managed to veer away from numerology to more concrete and established topics like how shite Liverpool are at the moment, and the state of the nation.

 

So what about Kyiv? Not overwhelmingly Soviet (one statue I saw of Lenin. Guarded by the military! And a huge statue of Mother Ukraine guarding the Dnipro. Also the Landscape Park – very Soviet with tanks and missiles) and some magnificent boulevards and streets with fantastic microbreweries. Amazing underground shopping precincts (like Toronto) and deep underground network and stations (fall-out shelters?).

 

Kyiv is the centre of Slavic culture and home to Russian Orthodoxy. Christianity was brought here and the main collection of ancient ecclesiastical structures lies at Lavra – a place full of golden domes and whitewashed churches and bearded men in black dresses. Also there is an interesting museum of a man's lifetime's work - called the microminiature museum and contains his micro-pieces. Sooooooooooo tiny!! Horseshoes on fleas, portrait of Hemingway on a sliced pear seed, and a hollowed out human hair (polished inside and out and so transparent) containing a micro-sculpture of a red rose on a tiny golden stalk. Amazing.

   

Yinka erzählt:

"Die drei Volontäre von der Uni, mit denen ich arbeitete, hießen Ugo, Giò und Calogero. Sie waren freundlich, höflich und redeten über Fairness und Chancengleichheit. Aber irgendwie wurde ich mit ihnen nicht warm.

Nein, Calogero war anders, er kam aus einer Arbeiterfamilie, ein quirliger Typ mit schwarzen Locken, hochintelligent und witzig. Den mochte ich sehr.

Aber die anderen zwei? Wie soll ich das beschreiben? Sie waren smart, selbstsicher, aus gutem Hause... Valeria und ich waren einmal auf die Geburtstagsparty von Giò eingeladen. Seine Eltern hatten ein Ferienhaus in Ostia, dort fand das statt.

Ich fühlte mich nicht wohl dort, wie das fünfte Rad am Wagen. Es war nicht, weil sie reich waren, ich kenne genug reiche Leute aus Lagos oder Tripolis. Eher war es die Arroganz alteingesessener Patrizier-Familien. Ein Schwarzer als Arbeiter oder Hausangestellter, ja, aber nicht auf dem gleichen Level wie sie, dann fühlen sie sich bedroht. Ich suchte nach Calogero, aber der war erst gar nicht gekommen.

Valeria und ich diskutierten darüber. Auch sie kam sich so komisch am Rande vor, ich glaube, das hatte sie zum ersten Mal erlebt. Sie tat es ab: Ach, das sind alles alte Freunde, die haben sich ewig nicht mehr gesehen, das kann dann schon mal passieren, dass sie uns nicht beachten!

Wir wollten heiraten, unsere Hochzeit sollte aber ganz klein und geheim sein, weil Valeria nicht wusste, wie sie es ihrer Familie beibringen sollte. Sie wollte sie halt vor vollendete Tatsachen stellen.

Valeria hatte sowieso schon richtig Stress mit ihrem Vater. Bei der Party stellte sich raus, dass sie aus einer ähnlichen Familie kam wie Ugo und Giò. Deren Väter waren eng befreundet.

"Und wieso arbeitest du dann im Fitness-Studio? Das musst du doch gar nicht!", fragte ich sie.

Sie hatte sich mit ihrem Vater verkracht und wollte finanziell unabhängig von ihm sein. Wegen ihrer veganen Lebensweise.

Sie erzählte, einmal war sie zuhause, an einem Sonntag, und hat für die Eltern gekocht. Vegan natürlich. Sie war im Esszimmer und hat den Tisch schön gedeckt. Die Mutter brachte dann das Essen herein und legte ihr auf den Teller. Doch was war das? Warum sah die Soße so komisch aus? "Mama, hast du damit etwas gemacht?"

"Ich habe noch Sahne hereingerührt, damit es gehaltvoller wird. Kind, du bist doch viel zu dünn!"

Valeria schob den Teller weg, sagte, das isst sie nicht, und dann ist der Vater explodiert. Er schrie herum: "Du isst, was deine Mutter dir auf den Teller legt!" und gab ihr eine Ohrfeige. Er kriegte sich überhaupt nicht mehr ein.

Valeria stand wortlos auf und ging, und war seit dem auch nicht mehr dort. Ich kannte ihre Eltern also gar nicht.

Sie befürchtete auch, ihre Eltern würden denken, dass ich sie nur wegen des Geldes heiraten wollte.

"Will ich dich denn wegen dem Geld heiraten, du schöne reiche Frau?", fragte ich.

"Nein!", lachte Valeria. "Du ganz bestimmt nicht! Ich liebe dich!"

Eines Morgens aber kam ich zur Arbeit, wollte gerade mein Fahrrad abschließen, da kam Calogero aus der Kirche gelaufen und gestikulierte wie wild: "Verschwinde hier! Ganz schnell! Hier wurde eingebrochen und die goldene Marien-Statue gestohlen. Ugo und Giò behaupten, du warst es! Da kann nur Valerias Vater dahinter stecken! Mach schnell, die Polizei wird gleich da sein!"

Ich radelte erst mal heim in die WG und erzählte das. Sunny und Chika, meine Mitbewohner, meinten: "Pack schnell deine Sachen! Mit der italienischen Polizei ist nicht zu spaßen! Wir kennen einen Platz in Napoli, wo du sicher bist. Chika fährt dich hin. Das ist besser als im Knast von Rom zu verrotten. Wir Nigerianer haben hier keine Rechte!"

So kam es zu meiner überstürzten Flucht nach Napoli. Ob das richtig war? Die Frage hab ich mir erst später gestellt. Aber es war wohl Allahs Wille."

 

Yinka continues:

"The three volunteers from the university that I worked with were called Ugo, Giò and Calogero. They were friendly, polite and talked about fairness and equal opportunities. But somehow I didn't warm to them.

No, Calogero was different, he came from a working class family, a lively guy with black curls, highly intelligent and funny. I liked him a lot.

But the other two? How should I describe them? They were smart, self-confident, from a good family... Valeria and I were once invited to Giò's birthday party. His parents had a holiday home in Ostia, and that's where it took place.

I didn't feel comfortable there, like the fifth wheel on the wagon. It wasn't because they were rich, I know enough rich people from Lagos or Tripoli. It was more the arrogance of long-established patrician families. A black person as a worker or domestic servant, yes, but not on the same level as them, then they feel threatened. I looked for Calogero, but he hadn't even come.

Valeria and I discussed it. She also felt strangely on the sidelines, I think it was the first time she had experienced it. She dismissed it: Oh, they're all old friends, they haven't seen each other for ages, it can happen that they don't pay attention to us!

We wanted to get married, but our wedding was supposed to be very small and secret because Valeria didn't know how to tell her family. She just wanted to present them with a fait accompli.

Valeria was already having a lot of trouble with her father. At the party it turned out that she came from a similar family to Ugo and Giò. Their fathers were close friends.

"So why do you work in the gym? You don't have to!" I asked her.

She had fallen out with her father and wanted to be financially independent from him. Because of her vegan lifestyle.

She told me that one time she was at home, on a Sunday, and cooked for her parents. Vegan, of course. She was in the dining room and had laid the table nicely. Her mother then brought the food in and put it on her plate. But what was that? Why did the sauce look so strange? "Mom, did you do something with it?"

"I stirred cream into it to make it more substantial. Baby, you're much too thin!"

Valeria pushed the plate away, said she wouldn't eat that, and then her father exploded. He shouted: "You eat what your mother puts on your plate!" and slapped her. He didn't get hold on himself at all.

Valeria got up without saying a word and left, and hasn't been back since. So I didn't know her parents at all.

She was also afraid that her parents would think that I only wanted to marry her for the money.

"Do I want to marry you for the money, you beautiful rich woman?" I asked.

"No!" laughed Valeria. "Definitely not you! I love you!"

But one morning I came to work and was just about to lock my bike when Calogero came running out of the church, gesticulating wildly: "Get away from here! Quickly! There was a break-in and the golden statue of the Virgin Mary was stolen. Ugo and Giò say it was you! Only Valeria's father can be behind it! Run, the police will show up here soon!"

 

I cycled home to the shared apartment and told them about it. Sunny and Chika, my roommates, said: "Pack your things quickly! The Italian police are not to be messed with! We know a place in Naples where you will be safe. Chika will take you there. It's better than rotting in one of Rome's prisons. We Nigerians have no rights here!"

 

That's how I made my hasty escape to Naples. Was that the right thing to do? I didn't ask myself that question until later. But it was probably Allah's will."

 

Continuing my As You Passed By series, began semi-formally here:

www.flickr.com/photos/walking-on/5968402911/in/photostream

 

This guy carried his self confidently; I didn't know the tune he sang, but I could tell he dug it... And he just wanted to share. He knew people on the street, they knew him... They'd call out to him; And even through the tune being played in his headphones he'd hear his name and respond with mutual call out. WHILE still singing... He carried his self well...

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 167/70, 1970. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Uhlenhut.

 

German actress Heidemarie Wenzel (1945) became known in DEFA films of the early 1970s, such as Zeit der Störche/Time of the storks (1971) and Nemuritorii (1974).

 

Heidemarie Wenzel was born in 1945 in Berlin, Germany. During her youth, she played in the children's theatre and in the movement choir of the Deutschen Staatsoper (German State Opera). From 1963 to 1966 she studied at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch (Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Berlin. After graduation she got her first engagements in Rostock and Greifswald. Very soon she began to work as a freelance actress in film and on television. Her first major role was as Fanny in the film adaptation of Johannes R. Becher's novel Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968), starring Rolf Ludwig and Jan Spitzer. The film was heavily criticised by officials in the GDR because of the unusual narrative style. Wenzel had her breakthrough in the role of the self-confident teacher Susanne in Zeit der Störche/Time of the storks (Siegfried Kühn, 1971), opposite Winfried Glatzeder. In Die Taube auf dem Dach/The Dove on the Roof (Iris Gusner, 1973), she was able to show her acting talent properly for the first time, however, the film was banned even before its premiere. The pretty, tall, slender and blonde actress was both open-minded and intelligent as well as introverted. She was often cast for contemporary roles as in Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul und Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973), starring Angelica Domröse and Winfried Glatzeder. This was the most succesful film of the DEFA in its history.

 

Until the mid-1970s, Heidemarie Wenzel played several more major roles, but then she got less and less good offers, as she was considered politically unreliable. In 1986 she made an exit request and was not occupied in the following years. Therefore, she had to work as an office assistant at the church. In 1988 she was expatriated to the Federal Republic (West-Germany). From 1991, she became a star in both West and East Germany in the TV series Unsere Hagenbecks/Our Hagenbecks (1991-1994) about a family who runs a zoo in Hamburg. When her character died in an accident, it came to public protests. In the 1990s Wenzel also appeared more often in the theatre. Her later series include the popular hospital soap In aller Freundschaft/In all Friendliness (1998) with Rolf Becker. The series follows the staff of the fictional Sachsenklinik hospital in the city of Leipzig. Wenzel lives in Berlin-Tempelhof. She has a son and a daughter. In her first marriage Wenzel was married to the director Kurt Veth, which is why she was also credited at times as Heidemarie Wenzel-Veth. Since 1977, she is married to the director and author Helmut Nitzschke.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

see me on Model Mayhem

www.modelmayhem.com/1774005

Qualifying Statement:

I could not completely fulfill this assignment and write my own fan fiction because my computer’s logic board fried the day this assignment was given. I tried to access the fan fiction site with my work computer, but the internet filter wouldn’t allow me to access fanfiction.net.

 

I believe, however, I have augmented the assignment, by researching and reading many articles and writing a paper that might help us understand why fan fiction writers compose voluminous prose. I’ve spent at least 15 hours researching and writing this.

  

In her article, “Muse of the Hemispheres,” Dupree (2004) writes “William Faulkner didn't so much write The Sound and the Fury as erupt with it, pouring out the masterpiece in a matter of weeks, his words and ideas as unstoppable as a flood. ‘That emotion definite and physical yet nebulous to describe,’ he wrote of this creative explosion, ‘that ecstasy, that eager and joyous faith and anticipation of surprise.’ Like Faulkner, many writers have periods of frenzied inspiration. Where does that frenzy originate? It is an interesting question because others like Vincent Van Gogh and Dostoevsky were caught up in a creative frenzy of passion to create. As Flaherty (2003) points out, the same “frenetic” drive that pushed Van Gogh to produce a painting every 36 hours also pushed him to write two long letters a day to his brother, and Dostevsky to produce volumes of books, diary entries, articles. What is it that makes creative writers like John Updike “see a blank sheet of paper as radiant, as the sun rising in the morning?” If we could answer that question, then perhaps we could better understand what motivates fan fiction writers on the internet.

 

I propose that the motivation that drives creative writers in the fan fiction realm is, to a lesser extent, the same motivation that drove great writers like Earnest Hemmingway and Alexander Dumas. It is in the physiological and cognitive structures of their brains where one might find the matrix of this motivation. Only by identifying and understanding the locus of this motivation can we better design instruction that will foster creative writing in the classroom.

 

What drives individuals with an obsession to write? Whether they write Tom Clancy novels or volumes of fan fiction blogs, what is the source of their drive? This driving compulsion to write at its extreme is called hypergraphia. Hypergraphia is defined as the “overwhelming urge to write” (2004). The desire to write is so powerful that it can drive one to write on toilet paper or write with one’s own blood. There is no evidence that all creative writers suffer with hypergraphia, but their symptoms are similar to hypergraphia.. For example, Melissa Wilson, a fan fiction writer states the following about her experience when she writes: “the story lines get stuck in my head until I can't concentrate on anything other than a particular plot or scene. In this case, writing is a means of self-defense. It either gets written, or I get carted away by nice folks wearing white.” Could it be that all creative writers suffer from some form of hypergraphia. It seems they at least suffer from some of the symptoms.

 

Assuming that creative writers suffer from hypergraphia—at least somewhat—what causes it? Alice Weaver Flaherty (2004), a Harvard professor and neurologist purports that temporal and frontal lobe damage will precipitate it. She states the following:

 

“The temporal lobes are important for producing literature, in part because they are necessary for understanding semantic meaning and also Meaning in its philosophical senses, as in the Meaning of Life. And changes in the temporal lobes can produce hypergraphia. One example of these changes is temporal-lobe epilepsy. Some people with epilepsy stemming from temporal-lobe damage have hypergraphia so strong that they will write on toilet paper or use their own blood for ink if nothing else is at hand.”

 

Imacura (1992) has also discovered that “Two different neurobehavioural abnormalities have been reported under the term hypergraphia. One has been described in temporal lobe epilepsies and the other in the acute stage of strokes of the right cerebral hemisphere”. Perhaps this is what invoked Dostevsky to go through his bouts of passion to write. Flaherty goes on to say, “Dostoevsky had temporal lobe epilepsy. Some, but not all, people with temporal lobe epilepsy have a group of five personality traits called the Geschwind syndrome, which includes hypergraphia, strong religious or philosophical interests, and wide mood swings. Just before a seizure, Dostoevsky would experience an ecstatic or religious aura in which the world was flooded with meaning.” During his hypergraphic episodes he would write incessantly.

 

It hardly seems likely that all fan fiction writers, or even a majority, suffer from lobe damage, but at least we know its in the temporal lobe where creativity and drive is contained. Is it possible that the temporal lobe of a fan fiction writer is different from others? If so, how are they different? Furthermore, as fan fictionists write, would brain scans detect wave activity in their frontal and temporal lobes? It seems brain waves in the lobe area of the brain would crackle with different patterns of activity.

 

Another observation by Flauherty states the following:

 

“A second region critical for creative writing is the limbic system, the seat of emotion and drive. It gets its name from the fact that it forms a limbus or ring deep under the cortex. It drives many functions we wish we had conscious control over, but don't: for instance, hunger and sexual desire, and the experience of inspiration. The limbic system connects more strongly to the temporal lobes than to any other region of the cortex. This strong connection underlies the importance of emotion and drive to creativity -- factors that are anatomically as well as conceptually distinct from the cognitive contributions of the rest of the cerebral cortex. The limbic system also reflects the importance of mood swings in driving creativity.”

 

The reason her observation is important to understand the fan fiction phenomena is because the drive to write is largely controlled by the limbic system. Therefore, the drive is “more important than talent in producing creative work. Researchers find that above an IQ of 115, there is essentially no correlation between creativity and intelligence. Rather, in Thomas A. Edison's words, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration” (Flauherty, 2003).

 

There are other avenues of neurology that might account for drive and creativity in fan fiction writers. In Kaufman’s (2002), Dissecting the Golden Goose: Components of Studying Creative Writers, he states that there is a strong relationship between creativity and increased cortical arousal, basal skin conductance, and EEGs. He says, “Results have been promising, with positive correlation found between higher skin conductance and higher arousal and higher measured amounts of creativity”. If a researcher would measure skin conductance and EEG’s of fan fiction writers to that of a control group, would their be a substantial difference?

 

Perhaps not all fan fiction writers possess certain limbic or lobe anomalies, but do alter their temporal limbic regions through drug use? According to Flauherty, “For a few creative people, drugs have opened the door to inspired hypergraphia. Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly penned ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ a 6,000-word book in six days, with the help of cocaine”. Stevenson’s account brings to mind this question: If drugs invoke inspiration, then what percentage of fan fiction writers use drugs? If the drugs really work, which one’s work better and why? Furthermore, if the drug is pinpointed, is there a safe non-addictive drug or herb that would elicit the same creativity? It is hardly unlikely, nevertheless, an interesting thing to ponder.

 

As mentioned before, what drives fan fiction writers is not entirely neurological, there are cognitive underpinnings as well. Research shows that creativity and ambition to write could be induced by different cognitive needs. These different needs manifest themselves as emotional, intellectual, and social.. When people have unmet needs, they seek for an outlet to fill those needs. When a charged lighting bolt strikes a weather vane, the energy is channeled down a conductive path (copper wire) that provides an outlet for the focused energy. Likewise, unmet needs in a person with a creative writing disposition, is like pent up energy that needs a channel to remove it. Cognitive constructs in the writer’s mind, channel energy through writing. This energy seeking for a path might be a need for praise, positive feelings, understanding, resolution, and identification.

Some creative writers are driven by a voracious appetite for validation and praise. In one such case of Melissa Wilson (2004), a prolific fan fiction writer, she claims that praise is the central dynamic of her motivation. She states:

Really, though, there is one single overriding reason that I and most everyone I know writes fan fiction for the Internet: FAN MAIL! Yes, I will admit to being a slut for fan mail. One letter will put me on Cloud 9 for the entire day, and I've seen the same effect on my associates. Of course we write for the series, and for our own piece of mind, but nothing beats getting a letter in your INBOX stating "This is the best story I've read in ages!" Well, maybe getting a story dedicated to you from a new author who was inspired by your work can qualify, too.

Her motivation flies in the face, however, of Giovonni Moneta that states in his research that “money and praise, in interesting tasks has been systematically found to reduce intrinsic motivation”.

Flauherty also believes also that writing has the efficacy to elicit positive feelings in some people. In quoting another study, she states that there is evidence “that writing, at least on personally chosen subjects, has measurable mood effects. In both students and professional writers, the act of writing both intensified positive emotions and blunted negative ones.

There are also needs that could drive fan fiction writers to seek intellectual understanding. Lynn Chrenka (2004) makes this observation: “Writers can read what they have already written and use it as a springboard to further thinking and writing. Writing, then, may be considered a creative process that can generate thought…It is in writing something down that we may actually discover what we think. ‘How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" E. M. Forster wondered.”

Sometimes, writers will use writing to bring resolution, at least Flauherty did. She suffered from the same compulsion to write as did Dostevsky. Her impulse to write wasn’t invoked, however, by frontal lobe damage but rather, from the trauma associated from giving birth to a set of twins than losing them. In her book, Midnight Disease she shares her experience (The title is another name for hypergraphia.), after losing a set of twins, she said "the sight of a computer keyboard or a blank page gave me the same rush that drug addicts get from seeing their freebasing paraphernalia". In an interview with Houghton Mifflin (2004), she describes her experience:

 

“Well, it started after I gave birth prematurely to twin boys who died. For ten days I was filled with sorrow. Then suddenly, as if someone had thrown a switch, I was wildly agitated, full of ideas, all of them pressing to be written down. Because I was holed up in my office all the time, my friends worried that I was depressed, but I felt quite the opposite. As a neurologist, I had heard of the phenomenon of hypergraphia and was pretty sure that was what I had. That phase lasted about four months.”

Another reason why creative writers might be motivated to write fan fiction is because they identify with their creative counterparts. Birds of a feather, flock together, is not only true of fowl but perhaps fan fiction writers as well. They, like all people, possess an innate desire to have a sense of belonging whether to a family, friendship, marriage, culture, or country. They want to associate with others of similar values, interests, desires, and needs. In Kaufman’s seminal study on creative writers, he found that writers are a very homogenous group with many similar personality characteristics and backgrounds. In his research, Kaufman supports the idea that creative writers have many similar characteristics. Creative writers tend to be the following:

• Open, impulsive, anxious, driven, hostile, affective, emotionally unstable, less socialized, unconforming (Feist, 1999)

• Tend to suffer from bipolar disorders (Andreason, 1999)

• Are either Extraverted-Intuitive-Feeling-Perceptive or Introverted-Intuitive-thinking-Judging (Hall & MacKinnon, 1969)

• Firstborn children (Roe, 1952; Simonton, 1987)

• Come from non-abusive homes that “does not appreciate or encourage literary interests”

• Experienced an early death of a parent (One study showed a figure of 55% for poets and writers; F. Brown, 1968)

• Had mothers who were not as emotionally involved, self-confident, had higher occupational levels and higher levels of divergent thinking (Runco, 1986)

Perhaps fan fictions writers are motivated to write because they want the association with those they can identify with.

There are many unanswered questions about creative writers, but perhaps neurological and cognitive science might help us find answers to these questions. These answers might not only help us understand great writers of the past like Victor Hugo and Jane Austen, but these answers might help us create great writers for the future—our children.

 

(Dave, I also found research on what we could do as instructional technologists to harness and focus hypergraphia in our students, but I ran out of time. As it is, I spent at least 15-20 hours researching and answering the first question you asked).

  

Olympus digital camera

German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 47/426. Photo: DEFA-Neufeld. Late 1950s.

 

Lore Frisch (1925-1962) was a German film actress of the 1950s and early 1960s, who in the 1950s starred in the popular DEFA films Der Ochse von Kulm (1955), Zar und Zimmermann (1956), and Meine Frau macht Musik (1958). When her married lover abandoned her, she committed suicide.

 

Lore Frisch was born 4 May 1925 in Schwindegg, Bavaria, as Eleonora Frisch, daughter of a painter from Bad Reichenhall. She took ballet lessons during her school days. During the Second World War, she worked as a nurse, and when stationed in Ost Friesland, she joined the Wanderfrühne Ostfriesische Kammerspiele Leer. Lore Frisch initially worked there as a prompter, tailor, and stage painter. Later she also took on theater roles. In 1948 she had appearances in Ingolstadt and at Munich theaters. She received acting lessons from Martin Hellberg and worked temporarily as a broadcaster, stenographer, and nurse. In the early 1950s, Lore Frisch appeared in three Heimat films, shot in Bavaria.

 

Martin Hellberg, who had moved to the GDR in 1949, brought her to DEFA in 1954, where she had a prolific career. At the DEFA dubbing studios, Frisch also met European stars such as Giovanna Ralli and Marina Vlady. In the film comedy Der Ochse von Kulm (Hellberg, 1955), she played the wife of a Bavarian farmer who rebels against the American occupying powers. In 1956 she made her most successful film Zar und Zimmermann (Hans Müller), which also ran in the BRD. Zar und Zimmermann deals with a period piece musical comedy about czar Peter I (Bert Fortell), who incognito as Peter Michailow, works in the Dutch Republic in the little town of Saardam [a pun on the real village of Zaandam where the real Peter I stayed], learning to build ships. He trades places with a fellow Russian carpenter, Peter Iwanow (Günther Haack), to escape foreign ambassadors and the pushy, greedy mayor Van Bett (Willy Kleinau). While the French ambassador has recognized the czar, the English ambassador and the mayor think Iwanow is the czar, creating all kinds of misunderstandings. Meanwhile, both Peters are in love with Marie (Frisch), who cannot decide which one she'll go for, and even Marie is fooled by the fake czar.

 

In 1958 Frisch had great success as the leading actress in the revue film Meine Frau macht Musik (Hans Heinrich). In this film, she played a housewife who steadfastly goes her way as a singer. She also embodied combative, self-confident women, especially as a women's rights activist in Nur eine Frau (Carl Balhaus, 1958). In contrast, in the satire Das Kleid (Konrad Petzold, 1961), an adaptation of the fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes, she was an opportunistic Minister of Clothing. Due to the obvious parallels to everyday life in the GDR, the film only premiered in 1991.

 

Lore Frisch, who had been living in West-Berlin, moved to the GDR in 1959, hoping to get more big parts at DEFA, but she only got smaller ones. She occasionally also appeared at theaters. When her lover, the actor Alexander Hegarth, who was married, went back to his wife in Western Germany, Frisch was so devastated that she committed suicide and died in Potsdam on 6. Juli 1962.

 

Sources: 215072.homepagemodules.de/t521386f11775326-Der-Synchronop..., Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Chronicles of Lifting Light D:

Plucking a Rose

 

She had pleaded with me to lend her £80! Her beguiling eyes were opened wide as she begged; “It’s perfect” she had said, “so please, I will do anyt…,” she cut it off, remembering whom she was bargaining with for a favor. As her twin brother, we have done some pretty over the top bits of role playing over the years, and she was suddenly wary of signing her life away …….( smart girl)

 

^^^^^^

 

A bit of background:

We had all had been invited to my sister’s boyfriend “ Brian’s” parents renewal of their wedding vows the following month and , I knew she wanted to make an impression at the fancy dress. Sis and my better half, “Ginny” had gone dress shopping, and apparently Sis had found a gown that they both liked quite a bit, but it cost a bit more than she could afford the moment and Ginny, having just bought a new dress herself that day, was temporarily out of lending cash. So Sis had had them hold it, then tracked me down to ask a favor( nothing new there), and was now begging me to lend her £80, to help pay it off.

^^^^^^

 

She knew I was a sucker for a good plead, especially when I received the puppy eye look that my sister, and Ginny , had down pat ( not to mention my golden retriever Sam).

  

As it happened, I owed her a small favor, so I gave her the needed notes without making her bargain her life away, and she skipped off happily. I figured that would be the last of it until her payday, but being a mere man in a ladies world, I was yet once more wrong on that account.

  

Later that week sis rang me up. She had a formal reunion she just received the invitation to. It was at a large, multipurpose hall about an hour away, and was going on the weekend before Brian’s parents do. It was being put on for her old coworkers at the Barristers office she had interned at while at Oxford. Brian was busy that weekend getting ready for his parents party, and would not be able to be her escort. So she called to see if I would be his backup. As incentive, said she would wear the gown I had lent her the money for if I agreed to be her chaperone. Seeing how smashing my sister looks when she dresses up (like my Ginny also), It was impossible to say no to her pleads. Unfortunately Ginny had switched weekends with a co-worker so she could make Brian’s do the next weekend, so she was out of the picture also. Which was a shame, escorting a pair of well-dressed young ladies is always something I always looked forward to doing. But one is also quite nice.

  

I arrived at my twin’s apartment that appointed evening and waited while she put on the finishing touches. Ready? she had called out sweetly, yes I said, and out she came strolling, a wide big smile on her dolled up face. I figured my eyes did a bugger, for she started to giggle in the way she does when overly pleased with herself (which actually happens quite a bit frequently).

  

She was totally stunning, a living “Galatea”, and I told her as much. Her long silvery gown was hanging from her figure like someone had poured it over her. And that is just what it looked like someone had done! I have heard the term liquid satin, but this was just incredible the way it delightfully flowed and swished as she moved about. Brian was going to go nuts when her saw her, and she definitely would be turning some heads as she strolled in with him. She twirled around in a circle for full effect, and I just stood there mesmerized by the women before me that was my kid sister( by all of 4 minutes), the same sister that had only days before been wearing stained shirt and jean jumper, tramping through the barn in the horses stalls, while hauling shovelfuls of …… well I’m sure you get the gist of it..

  

As I said it was a long thin gown, of a colour that seemed to change between silver and cream as it moved slinking along her youthful figure, with wide straps that went over her shoulders ending in four thin spaghetti straps along her back. The bodice was all decorated with swirls of rhinestones, going down and around her gowns waistline. She was also wearing her sliver open toed heels, the ones with the rhinestone straps (with pointed toes that rightfully hurt when kicked….. another day, another story). She had also put on her rhinestone jewelry, a set consisting of earrings, necklace and wide dangling bracelet. The total package presented was quite a vision to behold, and I told her as much.

  

That, my girl, I said with enthusiasm, is one rightful picture of eye-catching loveliness you have gone and managed to make of yourself! She gushed, your sweet, and gave me an all-enveloping hug. As she broke away, sis looked up at me smiling and curtsied, why thank you kind sir, and once you have picked your jaw off the floor, can we please be going. Certainly I said, and opened the door for her. As she rustled past, sis asked if I thought Brian would like it? Lass, I said with all due modesty, He would be a daft bugger if he didn’t. I added, It was certainly money well lent, and she looked at me teasingly, okay mood breaker, for that you won’t get the first dance. Likely I will be the only one wishing to dance with you anyway I retorted, what will you be doing then? She just squished her eyes at me, turned and closed and locked her apartment door.

  

Suddenly I stopped, Oi! , wait a minute, I felt my suit coat pocket, okay luv, give it back I said as she grinned back at me, producing my thin, special occasion only, wallet. Getting better, aren’t I? She stated happily, it wasn’t a question. A bit I admitted, you’ve been practicing then? Only on you and Ginny she stated, but you two are getting too easy she smirked. I playfully tapped her on the back, what’s all this about easy I asked, producing her bracelet from me pocket, dangling it shimmering in front of her mascara lined eyes, you may want to put this back on I said.

  

Turd, she exclaimed taking it back, no more hugs for you mister, she stated, taking my arm and pulling me out to my car. All tricks out of the way now?, Good we can enjoy the evening with no more worries. I just nodded as I led her to me car, a bullet grey 1954 Circa Mercedes that Brien’s Uncle had helped me restore. As I opened the door, my sister slipped herself in, while under her breath she said playfully ( and not for the first time) “how I ever survived those first nine months I spent with you in such close proximity without going bonkers, I will never know!”

  

It took us almost 90 minutes to find the joint, arriving with the do in full swing. I was amazed at the number of vehicles in the over filled lot. When we got inside the poshly decorated “palace” We discovered that there were a total of 3 formal functions going on, ours, and a wedding reception on the second floor, and a formal dance for some private girls only academy occupying the entire first floor.

  

We went upstairs and found the chamber where the Barrister’s office reunion was being held. Now I will admit that I had harbored some thoughts that Sis may have been quite a bit overdressed for the event, but my fears were unfounded. What greeted my eyes was quite a “snob fest” of overdressed and fairly pompous looking guests. I had only ever met a couple of my sister’s former coworkers, and they had been interns her own age. But the majority here were the snooty , older husband and wives, of , of course, a group of stuck up Barristers. We were unable to spy any of Sis’s old friends, but while looking we were immediately scooped up by one of her old bosses co-workers ( whom sis had found insufferable) and led around like some prize colts, being introduced to a bunch of older coots who forgot our names as fast as they were given( we were nobodies) , although I satisfactorily noticed more than a few leering and jealous eyes looking over me sister. But, alas, nothing from the female end found me even remotely interesting (ouch in the ego department there)

  

We finally found an empty table, and I went off for drinks. As I watched over my sister while waiting for the barkeep to mix the drinks, I saw a rather posh looking tux boy zero in on our table and swoop in for the kill.

  

He was a rather tall chap with devilish good looks, thin moustache, small ponytail, monkey suit, the works! Looking like he was a model Fortunes mag rag, he loomed over me sister, and I knew what the cheeky devil was asking. Sure enough, sis cutely offered him her hand and he helped her up and led her to the dance floor. The barkeep handed me our drinks, and as I turned , Sis shot a look back at me as they were passing, a rather chiding look that I took meant “ told you, no first dance, mate” my suspicions were confirmed when added insult to injury as she stuck her tongue out at me over his shoulder.. I raised my glass in cheers, and headed back to our table.

  

I watched the two swirling around, feelin a bit jealous, but then this was me sister, not Ginny. I knew Brian would be seething, so I felt jealous for him I told meself. Then my mind went on to fantasize “what if he was after something, like say her jewels, and my mind went into a jewel thief mode, with him as the main character. ” I almost wish he had been, than he would be just no realizing that this little charmer had nothing to offer, and would soon be leaving her for greener pastures ( of which there was acres of at that place) and so dump his pretty partner after the one dance.

  

I tried to lose my envious nature, but at one point he held her close, too close I reckoned. I felt like shouting out to them “Aye mate, make room for Jesus”! This bit came from couple of elderly nuns who had been chaperoning one of my old seminarian academy dances, would walk up to couples dancing a wee bit too close in their eyes, and place their hands between them, separating them a bit, while spouting off, “make room for Jesus children”- Ginny and I had been amongst the chastised ourselves!

  

When sis got back I rose and greeted the pair, shaking his hand as sis introduced us. She did not say I was her brother, so I knew that she wasn’t eager for any repeat performances. The Git had hands that didn’t know where to stop, in my opinion anyhows. But all that didn’t change the fact that my sister was still a bit smitten with the gigoloish bloke. All in all though, he was quit the polite bugger, shooting me a self-confident look like, ‘no worries old chap’, as I shook a firm hand, I nodded, and off he went to those greener pastures.

  

I turned to my now still fawning sister, Remember Brian I said, and she just gave me a simpering smile. I held out my hand, care to, Mademoiselle? Sorry luv, She apologized, I need to freshen up a bit first and she darted off like a swallow taking wing. She started to head off to the exit stairs, whoa I called out after her, powder room is the opposite way luv! No doing, she said as she coyly looked back at me over her shoulder, whispering her words, not sharing with any of those old crows, I will be using the one downstairs in the main lobby! And she scurried away on her mission, long gown fluttering merrily about her high heels.

  

I waited, bored, not one pretty female came up to my side and asked me to have a go on the dance floor, like “fingers” romeo had done with me sister. I looked around carefully, but I just did not see any female of the same ilk sitting alone and bored as I was at her own table, waiting for someone to rescue her pretty self. So I waited, and waited as the minutes went by, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 26,27,28,29..I had just decided to take a meander down to make sure there was nothing serious going on the first floor that might have been keeping her, like say, a sudden breakout of kittens, when I finally saw her smirking face popping up from the stairwell.

  

As she sat down I tried to playfully admonish her behavior, failing miserably. About time I said, since when does it take 30 minutes to have a P.. she cut me off by placing a finger to my lips, Sorry luv, You wouldn’t believe the twit I just ran into she said and leaned closer to me, for my ears only it seemed.

  

She started talking in a low voice, though no one else was in ear shot. Apparently that private girls Academy dance that is going on downstairs,.. well I , I just ran into one of em, a snobbish princess, a real talker and spinner of tales her about her pretty own self, a young girl named Rose. Sounds like Micke, I said, and sis suddenly exploded into giggles. She finally controlled herself, placing her hand on my shoulder, yes, exactly like our cousin Michele, they almost even look alike, though Micke’s hair is longer, and blonder

  

Our cousin Micke was one who could never tell the truth about anything, even when she was tattling on some poor soul. Apparently born with an overactive imagination ( Kinda runs in the family I suppose) her stories were always overly embellished with tall tales, stretched out wild examples, and added characterizations, all centered around herself being the Heroine. Someone like that would have made a great children’s story book writer, or gossip columnist, but not our Micke, she turned around and became, of all things, involved in politics….God save the Queen!

  

The upshot is that we all started to treat anything coming out of Micke’s mouth ( horrid pun that, I do apologize) as mostly fabrication, which would rile her to now end, especially if she was tellin the God’s honest truth! So I knew exactly what this cheeky creature named Rose was all about, as I looked at my giggling sister.

  

One she caught her breath, Sis started in on Rose. Just as she did, a song started up from the band and rising, I took her hand, lifted her up from her seat, her gown falling swishing down to her feet. But through all that she never stopped talking about the annoyance she had encountered downstairs whom had obviously stricken a nerve! I led my twin to the dance floor, taking the talkative imp into my arms as she continued to fill me in on the quite over imaginative young lady named Rose.

  

“My Lord” sis exclaimed, as we danced, “within the first ten minutes I learned more about this girl than even her own parents probably know. Talk about stuck up on herself. And did you know there is a rose garden by the entrance, just like her name!”, My sister did an imitation of a twittering nasally voice at the end of her statement, rolling her eyes in disbelief of it all. Of course we had noticed the rose garden, bit difficult not too since it was lining both sides of the concourse into the main way into the building. It had short paths branching off along the way with benches and fountains. But This Rose apparently had acted like she was the only one who had noticed, the rest of us apparently being blind as a colony of bats, Sis spitted out the words.

  

Sis went on, building up steam, her figure becoming rigid… “She first noticed me dress and come up to compliment me on it, but before I could thank her, she went off on a tirade about her own gown.” OOH, I hate people who ask you a question only because they want to tell cut in about their lives rather than give a listen to anything you may actually have to say… “he thought I was one of the chaperones at her party, apparently because I looked too old to be one of the guests! That stuck a nerve I tell you. I wasn’t able to get word in too let the little tripe know I didn’t belong with her elitist crew atoll!”

  

She took a breath, and now it was my turn to shush her with a finger placed to her lips. She actually bit it( well more of a playful nip, actually)! Better now I asked. She sighed, and I felt her figure go from tense to a bit more lithe. She leaned against me, yes she said, than pulled away and went off again! One more thing, she asked if my jewels were real, than before I could set the girl straight, Rose cut me off and spouted off about how she had won the pearls she was wearing at the Arthurian Carnival, and had decided to wear them rather than her own better diamonds. I mean, come’on, talk about rude, her pearls weren’t any more real than this, and she flipped her necklace in my face, then sis caught the look in me eyes, and went quiet, concentrating on her dancing, with a wicked little grin creeping across her face. Finally we were able to enjoy the music as we danced to the rest of the song.

  

Now after the song ended, sis spied, and dragged me over, to introduce me to her old chief, a pretty lady called Sarah. A lady not much older than ourselves. She had her long hair down, wearing a sequined red gown with long red satin gloves. Her green emeralds were real, a dainty set that set off her figure rather nicely. She was a rather pleasant lady, with a mischievous gleam to her green eyes. It had been a pleasant conversation, which ended abruptly as her husband called her away. As Sarah moved off, Sis explained that Sarah had been the “class clown” always telling jokes and playing tricks. But being the boss, no one who fell victim to her pranks ever dared to try and repay her back in kind!

  

The rest of the evening (shortened because the band was stopped at 9:30 – Barristers are such Scrooges!) followed pretty much to same formula; light mingling with people who only seemed able to talk a few minutes before being called away, snacking on a rather fancy display of hors d'oeuvres , and drinking ( the bar was the best attraction in my humble opinion).

  

I spotted Romeo a few times, but he never did a second approach on Sis, and I couldn’t really tell if she was relived, or not. As for myself, I was starting to feel fairly pleased that I had resisted the temptation to play any of my tricks on my Twin’s jewelry, so I had been a man of my word, so far. So, it was with mixed feelings from both of us, when the last dance was announced. The whole “congregation” seemed to flock swishing out on the floor, crowding it. It was a slow dance ( Mr. Rod Stewart, as I recall) and quite a pleasant way to end the evening.

  

Well, it was after the last dance, as we had collected our things to leave, when Sarah caught sight of us and called us over to the bar ( located off the main chambre, it was a small 3 sided room open to the dance floor with no seating) , where she was now holding a lonely court, apparently all alone! Sara was by now also pretty well toshed…..

  

We ordered a round of drinks ( bar was open till eleven, but the music had ended, a total ballyhoo on someone’s part in the planning) Taking mine, I left the chatting ladies and wondered over ( not for the first time) to a rather fine set of J.M Cameron prints on display. Soon I was joined by the 2 ladies, and I started to explain to Sarah about the photographer’s history.

  

As we talked, my sister maneuvered herself around behind Sarah. By the look on my sister’s face, I knew she was up to something. She got close behind, and Sarah backed into her, Sarah turned, there you are she said, and smiled, then looked back at me. She appeared to be deeply interested I what I was telling her about the life and times of Julia Margaret, a shirttail cousin of ours! As I continued, I saw that sis had her fingers on the red silk clutch purse that Sarah was holding to her side in her left hand. Sis said, “oh Sara, show my brother your ring”! Sarah held it up and I looked at it, Sis reached put her free hand on Sarah’s left arm, jostling it a bit, as she made like she wanted to look also, ,but I could see the red clutch out of the corner of my eye, and as sis was doing her little performance, she was gently pulling the small purse form Sarah’s gloved fingers. Slippery Satin gloves holding an even slipperier silk clutch purse, made the maneuver much easier than it probably should have. I started feeling a bit uncomfortable as I watched my amused sister manage to slip away with it, and holding the purse behind her come to my side, her back to a wall. We chatted for about another couple of long minutes, before Sarah was called away, and she left us, never realizing her clutch purse was gone. We walked steadfastly away, I imitated Bogart, and how much do you think the dame has in her purse. Oh, my twin answered, a few pence, and a soiled lace handkerchief she joked, without opening the purse.

  

Fine I said, you get the handkerchief, Rather not she said, giggling, and we headed over to The now deserted table Sarah had been sitting at, and Sis unflappably placed the purse on Sarah’s’ chair, alongside her satin wrap.

So have I created a monster no? I asked her as I led her away, she looked up at me with those big eyes of hers wide open with satisfaction, no worries luv, Sarah was always playing tricks on someone another, I just never dared to pay her back when we worked together. Just how much work did you girls actually accomplish? I chided She just sqoze my arm, and hurried me our way, as we tried not to look like we were bolting for the exit stairway.

  

We gained the stairs without any further ado, and made it through the lobby, and had gained the outside concourse, when I saw something up ahead, and taking my sister’s arm , I held her up from going any further.

  

Ahead of us was a petite lady in a shimmering blue satin dress, chatting away to a bored looking young man in an ill-fitting tux. If the lass’s hair had been a bit more blonde, and longer she would have passed as Micke’s double. Is that your Rose then I asked, nodding in the couple’s direction?

  

Sis looked over, and then answered me by pulling me forcibly the rest of the way off the path and out of sight of the main concourse, into a small alcove surrounded by some hedges. What do we do she said , That is her! That’s that Rose creature twit I was tellin you about! She looked back towards the building, I don’t want to go back in she said, Sara my see us. What do we do?

  

The pair were some distance off in the rose garden. But there was no way out other than walking past them. I thought about it for a minute. Looking at my sister, in her quite fetching gown, with its sparkling bodice, as well as the sparkling rhinestone she was wearing, made me recall the fantasizing I had been doing as she had danced with that posh bloke. Thinking of him being a Jewel thief, and watching the other female guests in their finery, had been putting beguiling visions in my head all the evening long. Let’s play a game I said, one that will give yonder Rose a story no one will believe ever happened.. My sister looked at me wryly,( I could see it in her eyes,’ no time for games now lad, this is serious’’ but she just stated inquisitively, what sort of game sir?

  

One where we get yonder Rose girl to believe you have met a jewel thief I said, I could feel myself warming up to the idea now that I had said it. If we pull it off, that will be a story she will try telling that everyone will believe she totally made up in her head.

  

My sister balked, no, she said, one bit of fun this evening has been enough for this girl.

  

Okay I said, but how would this girl feel about having a bit of fun if she wasn’t owing her brother £80?

  

I saw her mascaraed eye’s light up, and she again gave me that wicked grin. Let’s have it than you scoundrel, I will give into your chicanery for the debt you hold over my head sir , she said giggling, stealing a line from a play she had been involved with. Knowing I had her hooked, I could tell she was warming up to the idea rather nicely, and not just because she owed me a healthy bit of the realms’ currency.

  

First off, I said, you don’t know me from Adam.

But your name’s not Adam she said in all seriousness.

Attend pleas, I told her smiling.

You go up and fall into Roses clutches, I follow once the lad leaves after being freed from his bondage.

Hey, how did bondage get into this she said, giggling, I don’t owe you that much mister. I just looked at her, we have to do this seriously to pull it off.

Okay she said, placing a hand across her mouth, like she was zipping it shut.

I follow after the lad leaves ( and he soon will ). I come up on the two of you, and make your acquaintances. Your act will be to find me charming… that’s not going to be easy, sis said, then quickly went back to listening

Then you, I said ignoring her, and continuing on …..

  

Once Rose has me in her hooks, you Meander off, bend down to look at some flowers, remove your earrings, and place them into your purse. I will listen on for a bit, take my leave, let Rose come find you, and let her discover your earrings are gone. Then let her think they were stolen by you? She asked. Right, and she should, as bobs your uncle, fall right into your story, I said. Then added, just play along like they were real diamonds and astonished at how I had managed to get them. Send Rose off back inside to go upstairs find your mother Sarah,( sis like that bit of it), and say in the meanwhile you are going off to see if you can get me license number. I will be waitin by the car to make our getaway….

  

I finished mapping it out, and she told me she had the gist of it. I had her hand pull her sunglasses from her purse and I put them on. Then she asked before walking off, “ not bad for on the fly, or had you already been putting thought into this play earlier?” I just patted her on her derriere, get going lass, times a wastin.

  

Turning she headed out, and from a hole in the hedgerow I watched as she moved off, her gown definitely swished in a most pleasing fashion I admitted to myself again. I’ll have to have Ginny buy one like it, I thought to meself, wincing over how pretty the thing was with sis wearing it , imagining my Ginny wearing it, her long red hair flowing free. I would willing give Ginny the money also, I promised to meself, no lending, and hang the cost….

  

Sis rustled her way up to the couple, Rose spotted her immediately and pulled her over. The 3 of them started to chit chat together.

  

I now thought of myself as the smarmy bloke who had cheated me out of a dance earlier, making him a thief in my mind. And like said thief, looking over the situation before me. I remembered an old show where this bloke in a white suit was pointing out his female guests jewels to a male who fancied himself a pickpocket and had just minutes earlier relieved the white suited host of his gold watch. As the camera (representing the blokes eyes) moved around the room, focusing on various well-dressed ladies and their jewels( hanging around necks, dangling from ears, attached to well-shaped bosoms ,bracelets wrapped around gloved wrists and ,rings glittering on fingers) the viewer was led to imagine the wheels turning in his head as to how he was to acquire them, ala Arsène Lupin. I had to leave, so I never finished watching it, nor could I ever find it listed again. But it was this type of character that I now fancied meself portraying.

  

(In Character) I had ducked into the hedge, the pair near the bend had not seen me, so it gave me time to plan how best to approach them. One was wearing a pretty dress of blue, long black hair up in a bun. She was the younger, definitely not a relation, I could tell by the way her companion was listening. The girl was wearing a cheap set of pearls, paste, not worth more in a few farthings. It was her companion that had caught me eye, and not just the pretty gown she had quite nicely wrapped herself in. But it was her diamonds, a pretty glittering set, that with a minimal bit of effort, would be coming home with me. I had actually danced with her earlier, so I had been able to appraise em, and now providence had put her in me way. I remembered how that shimmery little necklace had been taunting me while we had danced, my fingers had ached for a go at them. Now, all I needed was for a brief diversion, to get both the girl’s attention focused elsewhere, by, say smelling a rose, and with a nimble flick of me fingers, the necklace would be off from around her sweet throat and in me pocket. Possibly those dangling earrings of hers instead, if it was a long time she was paying attention to her roses.

  

My brief fantasy ended abruptly, it was time. Sis said something to the lad, who had been growing more and more uncomfortable, he answered, and then, managing to interject into Roses story long enough to pay his leave, He walked off. He was now coming up the path towards me, but not seeing me as I had moved further into the hedgerow. He walked on past, staring straight ahead…

  

Mentally prepared, I waited till he was well past my hiding hole. I adjusted the sunglasses and left my shadowy corner. Between the electric lamps that run along the gardens path, and the waning moon, I was able to see quite clearly with them. I also saw happily that the sparkles from sis dress and jewelry were not at all too muted.

  

I silently approached, came up upon the two without notice. They both jumped( In a quite charming manner, actually) as I started to speak.

  

Excuse me, this is that way out I asked, sounding confused. Certainly both girls chirped, and Rose pointed to the way out. Sis asked me if I had been at the dance. What dance I answered.? Is that why the two of you are so beautifully dressed. . Rose ate it up. And showing off her gown to me( and unknowingly ,her pearls) happily took the lead, telling me of the academies dance. As Rose started to tell me about all her academy, I walked over to a bush of white roses just off one of the branching paths, at the end of this particular path was as a fountain from which merrily gurgling falling water could be faintly heard. I bent down to smell a white rose. I offered it up to my sister, who bent over to sniff, her necklace and earrings swaying to and fro in a quite nice exhibition of colorfully brite sparkles. Rose just stood behind us, kept on chatting with her story, as I winked at my sister. We both stood back up.

  

Sis turned to Rose, and suggested she take a smell also. As Rose ( still chattering )bends to smell sis, had her hand on the girls shoulder. I watched in a mixture of horror and excitement as I saw my sister’s fingers nip over to the simple eye and hook clasp of Roes’ pearl necklace, pulled it up and with a flick of her fingers undid the clasp, an let it fall to the path just as Rose was straightening up. I think my twin was as astonished as I was that she had managed to pull it off, slipping off the obviously cheap pearl necklace that Rose had had dangling from her the front of her blue gown. I asked Rose a question pertaining to her story, and as I held her full attention, , Sis, who had been standing out of Rose’s sight behind her, wandered off for a distance, disappearing around behind the fountain with a whisk of her gown. Rose never appeared to have noticed my sister waltzing off as she straightening her pretty gown after rising up from her smelling of the rose, never missing a word in her story, nor her missing pearl necklace either!

  

I listened to Rose just prattle on, seemingly forever,( its amazing how long 3 minutes can last!) Finally, my leave-taking came in the form of a couple of girls in fluttering gowns walking up and past us, escapees from our little reunion upstairs I recognized. I smiled at them, and they smiled back( why hadn’t they been doing that back at the dance, when I had been left alone to my own devices!) One of the girls was flaunting some rather nice pieces of gemmed gold jewelry, and I made my decision to follow them, like any jewel thief worth his salt would do. I interrupted Rose, politely taking me leave, there goes some friends of mine, they apparently didn’t recognize me, but I need to ask one of them a question. I am sorry, but it has been a pleasure, but I must shove off. I took her hand and kissed a ringed finger, , she blushed rather prettily. Then if she didn’t try and start another story, I headed it off by asking, “Where did your pretty friend go, “as I looked round. Rose looked around also , There she is over there Rose pointed out after spotting my sister some distance away , her back to us, playing with a hand in the fountain . Right then, tell her I said cheerio, and left, giving her a nod as I started sauntering off after the disappearing pair of ladies. I looked back, and saw Rose darting off to where sis was standing

  

I quickly exited stage right, keeping on the sunglasses, I reached the entrance to the parking lot just as the pair of girls were turning a corner. I turned it behind them, gesturing like I was hailing out to them in case Rose was watching, although I had said nothing, and the pair in front of me were totally oblivious to their part in our little play. I crossed into the lot and made for the other side, skirting around towards my vehicle while making sure the coast was clear. I regained my Mercedes. After tossing the glasses and my suit coat and tie into the back seat, I climbed in fired up the engine, and left the parking lot, circling around a couple of blocks, before re-entering and pulling alongside the sidewalk, stopping just before the entrance to the concourse.

  

Five long minutes later my sister finally swished out through the exit, alone. She saw me, and scurried over, her gown doing its nice bit of fluttering along her figure as she moved. Not only had she taken off her necklace, but also the earrings and bracelet, I had gotten out, and was holding the door for her, She slipped into her seat. I regained mine as she was settling in I said, whew , you were right on about that one, did she buy it?

  

It was priceless sis said, she noticed my diamonds were missin, and I managed to really act astonished. Then Rose came to the conclusion herself, that they had been stolen, with her overactive imagination it was not a stretch for her. Then she looked herself over and discovered her pearls were missing. Oh no I asked how valuable where they. Pretty valuable she said, I only spent 6 shillings at the carnival, but he said they were worth a lot more! , what about yours, , were they rhinestones ? No I said, thery were real, she really didn’t hear me, she shad started repeating the same nonsense about how she had a diamond necklace at home that was worth quite a bit, and she was glad her Mater had not wanted to wear the thing this evening,

  

While listening, I had pulled slowly away, a couple had walked out and were heading to their car, paying us no nevermind other than a nosy glance by the gentleman at me car. But I figured it was time to make ourselves scarce.

  

I continued on with my questions: But your earrings and bracelet as well, she must have thought I was in possession of outstandingly light fingers! She didn’t question it, sis said, just gawked as I checked mesefl over. I must have drooped em I said, but she wan’t buyin it, no she exclaimed, he must have nicked them.

  

I had suggested that her pearls had simply fallen away, and we got back to where we had met you, and I spied the pearls on the ground, the thief had a hole in his pocket apparently, she figured. Brilliant mind that one I said, she should be a detective. Did she bite on the Sarah angle? Din’t tell her that, Sis looked smug, I improvised with a story of me own she admitted all happy with her darling self. And I teasingly told her as much!

  

Sis just smirked at me, and continued on.

I had to remind her that me jewels were missing to get her to stop her storytelling.

  

We looked a bit for mine, than I came up with a thought, tellin Rose that I had read about a jewel thief who had targeted a dance in oxford, stealing a few thousand pounds from the female guests there. I told her she should go back in and find out how many others lost jewels, I told her she would be a hero. You should have seen Rose’s smug face light up at the thought, and without another word, off she went.

  

Excellent, I praised her, much better way to end it. But I still cannot believe you went for her pearls like that, rather risky. Twas she conceded, but can you imagine her telling everyone about it…. and she broke into that nasely twang she had use earlier in imitation of Rose..

  

Rose-“the thief took my pearl necklace!,” Party Guest – “you mean the one you are wearing?” Rose- “Well yes , see he had this hole in his pocket, din’t he now! “ Party Guest- “ I see( in a disbelieving tone) “Rose- “What about me friend, had her dimonds nicked, dint she!” Part Guest-“ what Friend would that be now?” Rose- “ The chaperone, you know, the one with the silvery gown and long black hair!” Party Guest –“ Ther wasn’t no chaperone waering a silver dress you balmy twi…..”

  

Sis could not finish her routine, starting to chortle so hard at the picture of it in her mind, she nearly busted a gut. I also was smirking, the whole affair, in my opinion, had all played out brilliantly!

  

All in all, twas a merry drive back to town for us, with me twin sister talking miles a minute over her successes that evening, including the fact that her debt to me had been paid off. With interest paid, I thought to myself, as I stole a glance at my beautifully decked out passenger, with interest paid my dear!

.

Portland is one of the most friendliest places I know. It never ceases to amaze me how a simple smile, from a random stranger on the street, can open up a channel to getting to know each other. A conversation, like opening a book. You pick it up, not really knowing what to expect, and you end up unfolding a beautiful story, a mystery just a minute ago.

 

Allison is a 22 y/o Portlander, studying graphic design and german. She had spent two years in Germany and got interested to learn the language on a deeper level.

 

Up until recently, Allison has had an eating disorder which solved itself when she started working at a new place. She's selling clothes and accessories to women to make them feel good about themselves. And Allison did, indeed look radiant and self confident.

 

Although she was working when I ran into her, Allison took a minute to pose for me and thanked me for inviting her to participate in my Human Family project.

As I didn't want to steal more of her time, Allison has promised to answer a few questions by email upon receiving the photos I've promised to send.

 

As I said, Portland is definitely a very friendly place :-)

 

This is my 340th submission to The Human Family group.

Visit the group here to see more portraits and stories: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 165/71, 1971. Retail price: M 0,20. Photo: Uhlenhut.

 

German actress Heidemarie Wenzel (1945) became known in DEFA films of the early 1970s, such as Zeit der Störche/Time of the storks (1971) and Nemuritorii (1974).

 

Heidemarie Wenzel was born in 1945 in Berlin, Germany. During her youth, she played in the children's theatre and in the movement choir of the Deutschen Staatsoper (German State Opera). From 1963 to 1966 she studied at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch (Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Berlin. After graduation she got her first engagements in Rostock and Greifswald. Very soon she began to work as a freelance actress in film and on television. Her first major role was as Fanny in the film adaptation of Johannes R. Becher's novel Abschied/Farewell (Egon Günther, 1968), starring Rolf Ludwig and Jan Spitzer. The film was heavily criticised by officials in the GDR because of the unusual narrative style. Wenzel had her breakthrough in the role of the self-confident teacher Susanne in Zeit der Störche/Time of the storks (Siegfried Kühn, 1971), opposite Winfried Glatzeder. In Die Taube auf dem Dach/The Dove on the Roof (Iris Gusner, 1973), she was able to show her acting talent properly for the first time, however, the film was banned even before its premiere. The pretty, tall, slender and blonde actress was both open-minded and intelligent as well as introverted. She was often cast for contemporary roles as in Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul und Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973), starring Angelica Domröse and Winfried Glatzeder. This was the most succesful film of the DEFA in its history.

 

Until the mid-1970s, Heidemarie Wenzel played several more major roles, but then she got less and less good offers, as she was considered politically unreliable. In 1986 she made an exit request and was not occupied in the following years. Therefore, she had to work as an office assistant at the church. In 1988 she was expatriated to the Federal Republic (West-Germany). From 1991, she became a star in both West and East Germany in the TV series Unsere Hagenbecks/Our Hagenbecks (1991-1994) about a family who runs a zoo in Hamburg. When her character died in an accident, it came to public protests. In the 1990s Wenzel also appeared more often in the theatre. Her later series include the popular hospital soap In aller Freundschaft/In all Friendliness (1998) with Rolf Becker. The series follows the staff of the fictional Sachsenklinik hospital in the city of Leipzig. Wenzel lives in Berlin-Tempelhof. She has a son and a daughter. In her first marriage Wenzel was married to the director Kurt Veth, which is why she was also credited at times as Heidemarie Wenzel-Veth. Since 1977, she is married to the director and author Helmut Nitzschke.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

St Mary, Hadleigh, Suffolk

 

Hadleigh is a pleasant, self-important little town. It is one of those places remote enough to be a microcosm of bigger towns - the factories, shops and housing estates all to scale. Its centrality in this part of Suffolk gave it the headquarters of Babergh District Council in 1974, despite the fact that the greater part of the population of the district lives in the Sudbury conurbation and the southern suburbs of Ipswich. Having said that, Hadleigh has expanded greatly in recent years, with characterless new estates now lining the bypass, and in any case Babergh District Council has since merged with Mid-Suffolk District Council and the councillors have all toddled off to Stowmarket. But the heart of the town is still probably the loveliest of any in East Anglia.

 

If Hadleigh is small, however, St Mary is not. This is one of the grand Suffolk churches, the only big one with a medieval spire which is also the only proper wood and lead spire in the county. There are echoes of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, only without the twist. It was built in the 14th century, and the exterior bell, a 1280 clock bell doubling as a sanctus bell, is Suffolk's oldest. The aisles, clerestory and chancel head eastwards of it, equalling Lavenham in their sense of the substantial. It is one of the longest churches in Suffolk.

 

To the south west of the church stands the famous Hadleigh Deanery, more properly the gorgeous red brick Tudor gateway to the now demolished medieval Deanery. It was at this Deanery gateway in July 1833 that the meeting was held which gave birth to the Oxford Movement, and went on to change the face of Anglican churches forever. It is no exaggeration to say that the modern Church of England was born in this building. The Rector here, in one of those anachronisms so beloved of the CofE, is styled 'Dean of Bocking'. Bocking is a village in Essex, and the living is in the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury, so Hadleigh Rectors are installed in Canterbury Cathedral.

 

The south side of the graveyard is taken up by the former guild hall, and on the fourth side there is a scattering of excellent 18th and 19th century municipal and commercial buildings. With the possible exception of the Bury churches, it is the best setting of any urban church in Suffolk. Hadleigh was one of the great cloth towns, a centre for merchants rather than factories (most of the work was farmed out to self-employed weavers in nearby villages, quite literally a cottage industry). The wealth of those days rebuilt the church, particularly the fine 15th century clerestory and aisles.This is a big church, since it needed to contain the chantry altars of at least five medieval guilds. And it has always been an urban church, as you can tell from the way buildings on the north side cut into it. The east window was clearly always intended to be seen up the gap to the busy High Street.

 

The magnificent south doorway retains its original 15th century doors. It is interesting to compare it with Cotton, barely 50 years older, but from a quite different generation of architecture. Gone are the delicate fleurons, the articulate details that speak of an internal sense of mystery. Here, we enter the realms of self-confident rationalism for the first time. You step into a space that is light and airy, so vast that at once it swallows sound, a feeling accentuated by the sheer width of the chancel arch. Trees close by on the north side gently wave shadows into the nave. It feels that the church is organically part of the town and has been so down the long centuries, although perhaps it is hard at first to see this building as anything other than the rather polite CofE parish church it has become.

 

If you'd been here some ten years or so ago, you might have though that this was a very strange church, for there was the surreal sight of a snooker table and a pool table in the north aisle. They were part of what was called the Hadleigh Porch Project, an attempt to provide something to do for teenagers in the town who had been causing a nuisance in the churchyard and porch. The parish galvanised itself and attracted funding, and the building became used by young people for secular activities, one idea being that the sense of ownership conveyed would give them a sense of responsibility. Coming here in Lent of 2013, I was struck by the Stations of the Cross lining the arcades, each created by a local youth group or organisation. They were radically different from anything I'd seen before, and I'm sure that Maggi Hambling's Christ, looking on from the north aisle, would have approved.

 

Coming back in 2019, the snooker and pool tables have now gone, and so have the run of the mill Victorian benches that filled the nave. Regular users of this site will know that I am an enthusiast of replacing 19th Century pews with modern chairs in medieval churches, but here you can't help feeling that it hasn't really been done very well. The chairs themselves are not the problem so much as the floor, which has been left with expanses of floor boards between the lines of poor encaustic tiles. Perhaps there are plans to replace all of this with a polished wood and pamment floor (Oundle in Northamptonshire is a good example on a similar scale). I hope so.

 

The sheer size of the nave and its aisles stops the stained glass overwhelming it, which is a relief because there is a lot of it and it is by no means all good. To start with the best, there is a 1988 window by John O'Connor for Chapel Studios beside Maggi Hambling's painting, a memorial to John Belton, a former rector. But the glass in the south aisle is mostly by Ward & Hughes, and some of it very poor indeed, from the height of that period when Thomas Curtis was trashing the brand.

 

Of course, there is much here that is older and more traditional. In the south chancel chapel is what has become known as the St Edmund bench end, attached to a modern bench. It appears to shows a wolf, with the Saint's head in its jaws. But a closer look shows that the beast has cloven hooves, and what are either wings and a collar or possibly eucharistic vestments. It is more likely related to those bench ends more common in east Norfolk depicting a mythical beast holding the head of St John the Baptist. There are squints through to the high altar from this chapel, so this was probably the site of a guild altar.

 

There are recent memories of the High Church past of St Mary. In the high sanctuary are not one but two plaques to former Dean Hugh Rose, one commemorating his conference that led to the Oxford Movement, and the other the centenary of that movement, laid by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1935. One of the plaques quotes Pusey's eulogy to Rose, that when hearts were failing, he bade us stir up the gift that was in us, and betake ourselves to our true mother. Another religious figure associated with Hadleigh is the puritan preacher Rowland Taylor, who was burned at the stake on nearby Aldham Common in the brief but unhappy reign of Mary I. One of the Ward & Hughes windows in the south aisle remembers him.

 

Up in the chancel, grinning figures peer down from the roof, and in the east window of the north chancel aisle is a small collection of old glass, including heraldic shields, a Tudor royal arms and haunting fragments of 15th Century English glass, all that survives of what must once have been one of the largest expanses in England, a sobering thought.

Simple, stylish and self-confident. A classic icon in a modern package,

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Our story is simple. Embrace the DNA of a design classic and skilfully and respectfully remaster it to meet the demands of modern day life.

 

Mini Remastered by David Brown Automotive is a handcrafted masterpiece with all the style, technology and engineering excellence that encompasses our ethos, whilst retaining all the spirit and personality of the original.

 

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89th Geneva International Motor Show

Internationaler Auto-Salon Genf

Suisse - Schweiz - Switzerland

March 2019

According to recent research completed by The Prince's Trust 'Unemployed young people are twice as likely to feel depressed as those in work. They are also more likely to feel ashamed, isolated and unloved more of the time..... More than one in four young people claim that unemployment caused them to exercise less and one in 10 young people claim that being out of work drove them to drugs or alcohol.'

 

Being currently unemployed myself, this research really worries me. OK, I am old enough to know what the right thing for me to do is (i.e stay positive, keep on applying and remain occupied during the day), but deep down I know I could easily start to feel isolated, rejected and as though everything I have worked for has been a complete waste of time. I know sooner or later I will start to feel like I have been Bleed Dry of all my motivation and drive to become a success. There is only so many 'unfortunately, on this occasion.... blah blah blah' I can take from these people before I start to become self confident of my ability to do anything!

 

But if I feel like this, imagine what people younger than me feel whose enthusiasm for life has been shattered. I would presume something similar to what is represented in this image! Now that is f***ing scary!

    

VCAD alumni’s Evan Ducharme second fashion collection “Belladonna” was shown at the Eco Fashion Week on April 23, 2013 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

 

Evan’s work was inspired by such people as Ida Rentoul Outhwait, Arthur Rackham, Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis as well as the World War 1 French military clothes and belladonna plant. The collection portrays women as strong and self-confident females.

 

In his collection Evan has used such natural and ecofriendly fibers as hemp, melton wool, silk-cotton blends, reclaimed wool crepe, organic jersey and organic cotton.

 

Turn Your Fashion Dreams into Reality:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYtwSyxpCc

 

VCAD - Fashion Design Program

500 - 626 West Pender Street

Vancouver, BC V6B 1V9

CANADA

Beningerslikken, Voorne-Putten

The history of the Franciscan Church - similar to the history of Salzburg Cathedral - can be traced back to Salzburg's early Christian period. Both churches are distinguished by their contrasting architectural styles: the Cathedral, a dominating Baroque bishops' church and the Franciscan Church, a slender, Gothic church for the middle class. The Cathedral, a stately ecclesiastical structure, the Franciscan Church a place of silent communion.

The church's origins are obscure, it is maintained that it may be older than the Cathedral. Its construction is attributed to St. Virgil. As most of the other churches in Salzburg it was repeatedly ravaged by fire and fell victim to the chastisement of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in 1167. The aspiring Salzburg burghers left their mark on the city with their reconstruction of the church at the turn of the 12th century and again at the beginning of the 15th century. The self-confident middle class could afford to have the church renovated by the most famous architect in the Salzburg region, Hans von Burghausen. At that time Hans von Burghausen had gained recognition through his churches in Landshut and Neuötting. His masterpiece is the magnificent hall choir which effectively reflects the fusion of light and darkness, one of the Fransican Church's special features. The original high altar was built by Michael Pacher from 1495-1498 but has, unfortunately, not been preserved. Fortunately, the statue of the Madonna with Child, one of Michael Pacher's masterpieces, was integrated in the high altar designed by Fischer von Erlach 1709/1710 and thus preserved for posterity. The tower holds one of the oldest preserved bells made by the master bell-founder, Jörg Gloppischer, in 1468.

VCAD alumni’s Evan Ducharme second fashion collection “Belladonna” was shown at the Eco Fashion Week on April 23, 2013 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

 

Evan’s work was inspired by such people as Ida Rentoul Outhwait, Arthur Rackham, Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis as well as the World War 1 French military clothes and belladonna plant. The collection portrays women as strong and self-confident females.

 

In his collection Evan has used such natural and ecofriendly fibers as hemp, melton wool, silk-cotton blends, reclaimed wool crepe, organic jersey and organic cotton.

 

Turn Your Fashion Dreams into Reality:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYtwSyxpCc

 

VCAD - Fashion Design Program

500 - 626 West Pender Street

Vancouver, BC V6B 1V9

CANADA

Women of the Revolution - Russia 1907-1934

 

The avant-garde was feminine! At least, that was the case in Russia before and after the Revolution of 1917. A great number of Russian artists were convinced that their work could contribute to a fair and classless society. In comparison to other avant-garde movements, it is conspicuous just how many women were involved in this movement in Russia. They stood on an equal footing with their male colleagues and collaborated with them in a self-confident manner. Without the powerful vision of figures such as Aleksandra Ekster, Natalia Goncharova and others, the avant-garde movements structured around Mikhail Larionov, Kazimir Malevich or Vladimir Tatlin would never have been able to have such an extraordinary impact.

The exhibition illustrates the central role of female artists in Russia in the early twentieth century. Many of the works on display are being presented in the Netherlands for the very first time.

This exhibition in the Groninger Museum has been on show from March 23, 2013 until 18 August 18, 2013.

St. Mary's Church in Lübeck (German: Marienkirche, officially St. Marien zu Lübeck) was built between 1250 and 1350. It has always been a symbol of the power and prosperity of the old Hanseatic city, and is situated at the highest point of the island that forms the old town of Lübeck. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the old Hanseatic City of Lübeck.

 

St. Mary's epitomizes north German Brick Gothic and set the standard for about 70 other churches in the Baltic region, making it a building of enormous architectural significance. St Mary's Church embodied the towering style of French Gothic architecture style using north German brick. It has the tallest brick vault in the world, the height of the central nave being 38.5 metres.

 

It is built as a three-aisled basilica with side chapels, an ambulatory with radiating chapels, and vestibules like the arms of a transept. The westwork has a monumental two-tower façade. The height of the towers, including the weather vanes, is 124.95 metres and 124.75 metres, respectively.

 

St. Mary's is located in the Hanseatic merchants' quarter, which extends uphill from the warehouses on the River Trave to the church. As the main parish church of the citizens and the city council of Lübeck, it was built close to the town hall and the market.

 

HISTORY OF THE BUILDING

In 1150, Henry the Lion moved the Bishopric of Oldenburg to Lübeck and established a cathedral chapter. A wooden church was built in 1163, and starting in 1173/1174 this was replaced by a Romanesque brick church. At the beginning of the 13th century, however, it no longer met the expectations of the self-confident, ambitious, and affluent bourgeoisie, in terms of size and prestige. Romanesque sculptures from this period of the church's history are today exhibited at St. Anne's Museum in Lübeck

 

The design of the three-aisled basilica was based on the Gothic cathedrals in France and Flanders, which were built of natural stone. St. Mary's is the epitome of ecclesiastical Brick Gothic architecture and set the standard for many churches in the Baltic region, such as the St. Nicholas' Church in Stralsund and St. Nicholas in Wismar.

 

No one had ever before built a brick church this high and with a vaulted ceiling. The lateral thrust exerted by the vault is met by buttresses, making the enormous height possible. The motive for the Lübeck town council to embark on such an ambitious undertaking was the acrimonious relationship with the Bishopric of Lübeck. The church was built close to the Lübeck Town Hall and the market, and it dwarfed the nearby Romanesque Lübeck Cathedral, the church of the bishop established by Henry the Lion. It was meant as a symbol of the desire for freedom on the part of the Hanseatic traders and the secular authorities of the city, which had been granted the status of a free imperial city (Reichsfreiheit), making the city directly subordinate to the emperor, in 1226. It was also intended to underscore the pre-eminence of the city vis-à-vis the other cities of the Hanseatic League, which was being formed at about the same time (1356).

 

The Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) was added to the east of the south tower in 1310. It was both a vestibule and a chapel and, with its portal, was the church's second main entrance from the market. Probably originally dedicated to Saint Anne, the chapel received its current name during the Reformation, when paid scribes moved in. The chapel, which is 12 metres long, 8 metres deep, and 2 metres high, has a stellar vault ceiling and is considered a masterpiece of High Gothic architecture. It has often been compared to English Gothic Cathedral Architecture and the chapter house of Malbork Castle. Today the Chapel of Indulgences serves the community as a church during winter, with services from January to March.

 

In 1939 the town council built its own chapel, known as the Bürgermeisterkapelle (Burgomasters' Chapel), at the southeast corner of the ambulatory, the join being visible from the outside where there is a change from glazed to unglazed brick. It was in this chapel, from the large pew that still survives, that the newly elected council used to be installed. On the upper floor of the chapel is the treasury, where important documents of the city were kept. This part of the church is still in the possession of the town.

 

Before 1444, a chapel consisting of a single bay was added to the eastern end of the ambulatory, its five walls forming five eighths of an octagon. This was the last Gothic extension to the church. It was used for celebrating the so-called Hours of the Virgin, as part of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, reflected in its name Marientidenkapelle (Lady Chapel) or Sängerkapelle (Singers' Chapel).

 

In total, St Mary's Church has nine larger chapels and ten smaller ones that serve as sepulchral chapels and are named after the families of the Lübeck city council that used them and endowed them.

 

DESTRUCTION AND RESTAURATION

In an air raid by 234 bombers of the British Royal Air Force on 28–29 March 1942 – the night of Palm Sunday – the church was almost completely destroyed by fire, together with about a fifth of the Lübeck city centre, including Lübeck Cathedral and St. Peter's Church.

 

Among the artefacts destroyed was the famous Totentanzorgel (Danse Macabre organ), an instrument played by Dieterich Buxtehude and probably Johann Sebastian Bach. Other works of art destroyed in the fire include the Mass of Saint Gregory by Bernt Notke, the monumental Danse Macabre, originally by Bernt Notke but replaced by a copy in 1701, the carved figures of the rood screen, the Trinity altarpiece by Jacob van Utrecht (formerly also attributed to Bernard van Orley) and the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem by Friedrich Overbeck. Sculptures by the woodcarver Benedikt Dreyer were also lost in the fire: the wooden statues of the saints on the west side of the rood screen and the organ sculpture on the great organ from around 1516–18 and Man with Counting Board. Also destroyed in the fire were the mediaeval stained glass windows from the St. Mary Magdalene Church (de), which were installed in St. Mary's Church from 1840 on, after the St. Mary Magdalene Church was demolished because it was in danger of collapse. Photographs by Lübeck photographers like William Castelli (de) give an impression of what the interior looked like before the War.

 

The glass window in one of the chapels has an alphabetic list of major towns in the pre-1945 eastern territory of the German Reich. Because of the destruction it suffered in World War II, St. Mary's Church is one of the Cross of Nails centres. A plaque on the wall warns of the futility of war.

 

The church was protected by a makeshift roof for the rest of the war, and the vaulted ceiling of the chancel was repaired. Reconstruction proper began in 1947, and was largely complete by 1959. In view of the previous damage by fire, the old wooden construction of the roof and spires was not replaced by a new wooden construction. All church spires in Lübeck were reconstructed using a special system involving lightweight concrete blocks underneath the copper roofing. The copper covering matched the original design and the concrete roof would avoid the possibility of a second fire. A glass window on the north side of the church commemorates the builder, Erich Trautsch (de), who invented this system.

In 1951, the 700th anniversary of the church was celebrated under the reconstructed roof; for the occasion, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer donated the new tenor bell, and the Memorial Chapel in the South Tower was inaugurated.

 

In the 1950s, there was a long debate about the design of the interior, not just the paintings (see below). The predominant view was that destruction had restored the essential, pure form. The redesign was intended to facilitate the dual function that St. Mary's had at that time, being both the diocesan church and the parish church. In the end, the church held a limited competition, inviting submissions from six architects, including Gerhard Langmaack (de) and Denis Boniver (de), the latter's design being largely accepted on 8 February 1958. At the meeting, the bishop, Heinrich Meyer (de), vehemently – and successfully – demanded the removal of the Fredenhagen altar (see below).

 

The redesign of the interior according to Boniver's plans was carried out in 1958–59. Since underfloor heating was being installed under a completely new floor, the remaining memorial slabs of Gotland limestone were removed and used to raise the level of the chancel. The chancel was separated from the ambulatory by whitewashed walls 3 metres high. The Fredenhagen altar was replaced by a plain altar base of muschelkalk limestone and a crucifix by Gerhard Marcks suspended from the transverse arch of the ceiling. The inauguration of the new chancel was on 20 December 1959.

 

At the same time, a treasure chamber was made for the Danzig Parament Treasure from St. Mary's Church in Danzig (now Gdańsk), which came to Lübeck after the War (removed in 1993), the Parament Treasure is now exhibited at St. Anne's Museum), and above that a large organ loft was built. The organ itself was not installed until 1968.

 

The gilded flèche, which extends 30 metres (98 ft) higher than the nave roof, was recreated from old designs and photographs in 1980.

 

LOTHAR MALSKAT AND THE FRESCOS

The heat of the blaze in 1942 dislodged large sections of plaster, revealing the original decorative paintings of the Middle Ages, some of which were documented by photograph during the Second World War. In 1948 the task of restoring these gothic frescos was given to Dietrich Fey. In what became the largest counterfeit art scandal after the Second World War, Fey hired local painter Lothar Malskat to assist with this task, and together they used the photographic documentation to restore and recreate a likeness to the original walls. Since no paintings of the clerestory of the chancel were available, Fey had Malskat invent one. Malskat "supplemented" the restorations with his own work in the style of the 14th century. The forgery was only cleared up after Malskat reported his deeds to the authorities in 1952, and he and Fey received prison sentences in 1954. The major fakes were later removed from the walls, on the instructions of the bishop.

 

Lothar Malskat played an important part in the novel The Rat by Günter Grass.

 

INTERIOR DECORATION

St. Mary's Church was generously endowed with donations from the city council, the guilds, families, and individuals. At the end of the Middle Ages it had 38 altars and 65 benefices. The following mediaeval artefacts remain:

 

A bronze baptismal font made by Hans Apengeter (de) (1337). Until 1942 it was at the west end of the church; it is now in the middle of the chancel. It holds 406 litres (89 imperial gallons), almost the same as a Hamburg or Bremen beer barrel, which holds 405 litres (89 imperial gallons).

Darsow Madonna from 1420, heavily damaged in 1942, restored from hundreds of individual pieces, put back in place again in 1989

Tabernacle from 1479, 9.5 metres high, made by Klaus Grude (de) using about 1000 individual bronze parts, some gilded, on the north wall of the chancel

Winged altarpiece by Christian Swarte (c. 1495) with Woman of the Apocalypse, now installed behind the main altar

Bronze burial slab by Bernt Notke for the Hutterock family (1505), in the Prayer Chapel (Gebetskapelle) in the north ambulatory

Of the rood screen destroyed in 1942 only an arch and the stone statues remain: Elizabeth with John the Baptist as a child, Virgin and Child with Saint Anne , the Archangel Gabriel and Mary (Annunciation), John the Evangelist and St. Dorothy.

In the ambulatory, sandstone reliefs (1515) from the atelier of Heinrich Brabender (de), with scenes from the Passion of Christ: to the north, the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper; to the south, Christ in the garden of Gethsemane and his capture. The Last Supper relief includes a detail associated with Lübeck: a little mouse gnawing at the base of a rose bush. Touching it is supposed to mean that the person will never again return to Lübeck – or will have good luck, depending on the version of the superstition.

Remains of the original pews and the Antwerp altarpiece (de) (1518), in the Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel)

John the Evangelist, a wooden statue by Henning von der Heide (c. 1505)

St. Anthony, a stone statue, donated in 1457 by the town councillor Hermann Sundesbeke (de), a member of the Brotherhood of St. Anthony

Remains of the original gothic pews in the Burgomasters' Chapel in the southern ambulatory

The Lamentation of Christ, one of the main works of the Nazarene Friedrich Overbeck, in the Prayer Chapel in the north ambulatory

The choir screens separating the choir from the ambulatory are recent reconstructions. The walls that had been built for this purpose in 1959 were removed in the 1990s. The brass bars of the choir screens were mostly still intact, but the wooden parts had been almost completely destroyed by fire in 1942. The oak crown and frame were reconstructed on the basis of what remained of the original construction.

 

ANTWERP ALTARPIECE

The impressive Antwerp altarpiece (de) in the Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel) was created in 1518. It was donated for the chapel in 1522 by Johann Bone, a merchant from Geldern. After the chapel was converted into a confessional chapel in 1790, the altarpiece was moved around the church several times. During the Second World War, it was in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) and thus escaped destruction. The double-winged altarpiece depicts the life of the Virgin Mary in 26 painted and carved scenes.Before 1869, the wings of the predella, which depict the legends of the Holy Kinship were removed, sawn to make panel paintings, and sold. In 1869, two such paintings from the private collection of the mayor of Lübeck Karl Ludwig Roeck (de) were acquired for the collection in what is now St. Anne's Museum. Two more paintings from the outsides of the predella wings were acquired by the Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (de) (Cultural foundation of Schleswig-Holstein) and have been in St. Anne's Museum since 1988. Of the remaining paintings, two are in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and two are in a private collection in Stockholm.

 

MEMORIALS

In the renaissance and baroque periods, the church space contained so many memorials that it became like a hall of fame of the Lübeck gentry. Memorials in the main nave, allowed from 1693, had to be made of wood, for structural reasons, but those in the side naves could also be made of marble. Of the 84 memorials that were still extant in the 20th century, almost all of the wooden ones were destroyed by the air raid of 1942, but 17, mostly stone ones on the walls of the side naves survived, some heavily damaged. Since these were mostly baroque works, they were deliberately ignored in the first phase of reconstruction, restoration beginning in 1973. They give an impression of how richly St. Mary's church was once furnished. The oldest is that of Hermann von Dorne (de), a mayor who died in 1594, a heraldic design with mediaeval echoes. The memorial to Johann Füchting (de), a former councillor and Hanseatic merchant who died in 1637, is a Dutch work of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque times by the sculptor Aris Claeszon (de) who worked in Amsterdam. After the phase of exuberant cartilage baroque, the examples of which were all destroyed by fire, Thomas Quellinus introduced a new type of memorial to Lübeck and created memorials in the dramatic style of Flemish High Baroque for

 

the councillor Hartwig von Stiten (de), made in 1699;

the councillor Adolf Brüning (de), made in 1706;

the mayor Jerome of Dorne (de) (who died in 1704) and

the mayor Anton Winckler (de) (1707),

 

the last one being the only one to remain undamaged. In the same year, the Lübeck sculptor Hans Freese created the memorial for councillor Gotthard Kerkring (de) (who had died in 1705), whose oval portrait is held by a winged figure of death. A well-preserved example of the memorials of the next generation is the one for Peter Hinrich Tesdorpf (de), a mayor who died in 1723.

 

The Sepulchral Chapel of the Tesdorpf family contains a bust by Gottfried Schadowof mayor Johann Matthaeus Tesdorpf (de), which the Council presented to him in 1823 on the occasion of his anniversary as a member of the Council, and which was installed here in 1835. Among the later memorials is also the gravestone of mayor Joachim Peters (de) by Landolin Ohmacht (c. 1795).

 

THE FREDENHAGEN ALTARPIECE

The main item from the Baroque period, an altar with an altarpiece 18 metres high, donated by the merchant Thomas Fredenhagen (de) and made by the Antwerp sculptor Thomas Quellinus from marble and porphyry (1697) was seriously damaged in 1942. After a lengthy debate lasting from 1951 to 1959, Heinrich Meyer (de), the bishop at the time, prevailed, and it was decided not to restore the altar but to replace it with a simple altar of limestone, with a bronze crucifix made by Gerhard Marcks. Speaking of the historical significance of the altar, the director of the Lübeck Museum at the time said that it was the only work of art of European stature that the Protestant Church in Lübeck had produced after the Reformation.

 

Individual items from the altarpiece are now in the ambulatory: the Calvary group with Mary and John, the marble predella with a relief of the Last Supper and the three crowned figures, the allegorical sculptures of Belief and Hope, and the Resurrected Christ. The other remains of the altar and altarpiece are now stored over the vaulted ceiling between the towers. The debate as to whether it is possible and desirable to restore the altar as a major work of baroque art of European stature is ongoing.

 

STAINED GLAS

Except for a few remains, the air raid of 1942 destroyed all the windows, including the stained glass windows that Carl Julius Milde had installed at Saint Mary's after they were rescued from the St. Mary Magdalene Church (de) when the St. Mary Magdalene's Priory was demolished in the 19th century, and including the windows made by Professor Alexander Linnemann (de) from Frankfurt in the late 19th century. In the reconstruction, simple diamond-pane leaded windows were used, mostly just decorated with the coat of arms of the donor, though some windows had an artistic design.

 

The windows in the Singers' Chapel (Lady Chapel) depict the coat of arms of the Hanseatic towns of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, and the lyrics of Buxtehude's Lübeck cantata, Schwinget euch himmelan (BuxWV 96).

The monumental west window, designed by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen (de), depicts the Day of Judgment.

The window of the Memorial chapel (Gedenkkapelle) in the South Tower (which holds the destroyed bells), depicts coats of arms of towns, states and provinces of former eastern territories of Germany.

Both windows in the Danse Macabre Chapel (Totentanzkapelle), which were designed by Alfred Mahlau in 1955/1956 and made in the Berkentien stained glass atelier in Lübeck, adopt motifs from the Danse Macabre painting that was destroyed by fire in 1942. They replace the Kaiserfenster (Emperor's Window), which was donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II on the occasion of his visit to Lübeck in 1913. It was manufactured by the Munich court stained glass artist Karl de Bouché (de) and depicted the confirmation of the town privileges by Emperor Barbarossa.

In 1981–82, windows by Johannes Schreiter (de) were installed in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle). Their ragged diamond pattern evokes not only the destruction of the church but also the torn nets of the Disciples (Luke 6).

In December 2002, the tympanum window was added above the north portal of the Danse Macabre Chapel after a design by Markus Lüpertz.

 

This window, like the windows by Johannes Schreiter in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle), was manufactured and assembled by Derix Glass Studios in Taunusstein.

 

CHURCHYARD

Saint Mary's Churchyard (de), with its views of the north face of the Lübeck Town Hall (de ), the Kanzleigebäude (de), and the Marienwerkhaus (de) has the ambiance of a mediaeval town.

 

The architectural features include the subjects of Lübeck legends; a large block of granite to the right of the entrance was supposedly not left there by the builders but put there by the Devil.

 

To the north and west of the church, the courtyard is now an open space, mediaeval buildings having been removed. At the corner between Schüsselbuden (de) and Mengstraße (de) are the remaining stone foundations of the Maria am Stegel (de) Chapel (1415), which served as a bookshop before the Second World War. In the late 1950s, it was decided not to reconstruct it, and the remaining external walls of the ruins were cleared away. On Mengstraße, opposite the churchyard, is a building with facades from the 18th century: the clergy house known as die Wehde (de), which also gave its name to the courtyard that lies behind it, the Wehdehof.

 

The war memorial, created in 1929 by the sculptor Hermann Joachim Pagels (de) 1929 on behalf of the congregation of the church to commemorate their dead, is made of Swedish granite from Karlshamn. The inscription reads (in translation):

 

The congregation of St. Mary's

in memory of their dead

1914 1918

(to which was added after the Second World War)

and

1939 1945

 

MUSIC AT ST: MARY´S

Music played an important part in the life of St. Mary's as far back as the Middle Ages. The Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel), for instance, had its own choir. After the Reformation and Johannes Bugenhagen's Church Order, the Lübeck Katharineum school choir provided the singing for religious services. In return the school received the income of the chapel's trust fund. Until 1802, the cantor was both a teacher at the school and responsible for the singing of the choir and the congregation. The organist, was responsible for the organ music and other instrumental music; he also had administrative and accounting responsibilities and was responsible for the upkeep of the building,.

 

MAIN ORGAN

St. Mary's is known to have had an organ in the 14th century, since the occupation "organist" is mentioned in a will from 1377. The old great organ was built in 1516–1518 under the direction of Martin Flor (de) on the west wall as a replacement for the great organ of 1396. It had 32 stops, 2 manuals and a pedalboard. This organ, "in all probability the first and only Gothic organ with a thirty-two-foot principal (deepest pipe, 11 metres long) in the western world of the time",[a] was repeatedly added to and re-built over the centuries. For instance, the organist and organ-builder Barthold Hering (de) (who died in 1555) carried out a number of repairs and additions; in 1560/1561 Jacob Scherer added a chest division with a third manual. From 1637 to 1641, Friederich Stellwagen carried out a number of modifications. Otto Diedrich Richborn (de) added three registers in 1704. In 1733, Konrad Büntung exchanged four registers, changed the arrangement of the manuals and added couplers. In 1758, his son, Christoph Julius Bünting (de) added a small swell division with three voices, the action being controllable from the breast division manual. By the beginning of the 19th century the organ had 3 manuals and a pedalboard, 57 registers and 4,684 pipes. In 1851, however, a completely new organ was installed – built by Johann Friedrich Schulze (de), in the spirit of the time, with four manuals, a pedalboard, and 80 voices, behind the historic organ case by Benedikt Dreyer, which was restored and added to by Carl Julius Milde. This great organ was destroyed in 1942 and was replaced in 1968 by what was then the largest mechanical-action organ in the world. It was built by Kemper & Son. It has 5 manuals and a pedalboard, 100 stops and 8,512 pipes; the longest are 11 metres (36 feet), the smallest is the size of a cigarette. The tracker action operates electrically and has free combinations; the stop tableau is duplicated.

Danse macabre organ (choir organ)

 

The Dance macabre organ (Totentanzorgel) was older than the old great organ. It was installed in 1477 on the east side of the north arm of the "transept" in the Danse Macabre Chapel (so named because of the Danse Macabre painting that hung there) and was used for the musical accompaniment of the requiem masses that were celebrated there. After the Church Reformation it was used for prayers and for Holy Communion services. In 1549 and 1558 Jakob Scherer added to the organ among other things, a chair organ (Rückpositiv), and in 1621 a chest division was added. Friedrich Stellwagen also carried out extensive repairs from 1653 to 1655. Thereafter, only minor changes were made. For this reason, this organ, together with the Arp Schnitger organ in St. James' Church in Hamburg and the Stellwagen Organ in St. James' Church (de) in Lübeck, attracted the interest of organ experts in connection with the Orgelbewegung. The disposition (de) of the organ was changed back to what it had been in the 17th century. But, like the Danse Macabre organ, this organ was also destroyed in 1942.

 

In 1955 the organ builders Kemper & Son restored the Danse Macabre organ in accordance with its 1937 dimensions, but now in the northern part of the ambulatory, in the direction of the raised choir. Its original place is now occupied by the astronomical clock. This post-War organ, which was very prone to malfunction, was replaced in 1986 by a new Danse Macabre organ, built by Führer Co. in Wilhelmshaven and positioned in the same place as its predecessor. It has a mechanical tracker action, with four manuals and a pedalboard, 56 stops and approximately 5,000 pipes. This organ is particularly suited for accompanying prayers and services, as well as an instrument for older organ music up to Bach.

 

As a special tradition at St Mary's, on New Year's Eve the chorale Now Thank We All Our God is accompanied by both

 

OTHER INSTRUMENTS

There used to be an organ on the rood screen, as a basso continuo instrument for the choir that was located there – the church's third organ. In 1854 the breast division that was removed from the Great Organ (built in 1560–1561 by Jacob Scherer) when it was converted was installed here. This "rood screen organ" had one manual and seven stops and was replaced in 1900 by a two-manual pneumatic organ made by the organ builder Emanuel Kemper, the old organ box being retained. This organ, too, was destroyed in 1942.

 

In the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) there is a chamber organ originally from East Prussia. It has been in the chapel since 1948. It has a single manual and eight voices, with separate control of bass and descant parts. It was built by Johannes Schwarz in 1723 and from 1724 was the organ of the Schloßkapelle (Castle Chapel) of Dönhofstädt near Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn, Poland). From there it was acquired by Lübeck organ builder Karl Kemper in 1933. For a few years it was in the choir of St. Catherine's Church, Lübeck. Then, Walter Kraft brought it, as a temporary measure, to the Chapel of Indulgences at St. Mary's, this being the first part of the church to be ready for church services after the War. Today this organ provides the accompaniment for prayers as well as the Sunday services that are held in the Chapel of Indulgences from January to March.

 

ORGANISTS

Two 17th-century organists, especially, shaped the development of the musical tradition of St. Mary's: Franz Tunder from 1642 until his death in 1667, and his successor and son-in-law, Dieterich Buxtehude , from 1668 to 1707. Both were defining representatives of the north German organ school and were prominent both as organists and as composers. In 1705 Johann Sebastian Bach came to Lübeck to observe and learn from Buxtehude,[b] and Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Mattheson had already been guests of Buxtehude in 1703. Since then, the position of organist at St. Mary's Church has been one of the most prestigious in Germany.

 

With their evening concerts, Tunder and Buxtehude were the first to introduce church concerts independent of religious services. Buxtehude developed a fixed format, with a series of five concerts on the two last Sundays of the Trinity period (i.e. the last two Sundays before Advent) and the second, third, and fourth Sunday in Advent. This very successful series of concerts was continued by Buxtehude's successors, Johann Christian Schieferdecker (1679–1732), Johann Paul Kunzen (de) (1696–1757), his son Adolf Karl Kunzen (de) (1720–1781) and Johann Wilhelm Cornelius von Königslöw.

 

For the evening concerts they each composed a series of Biblical oratorios, including Israels Abgötterey in der Wüsten [Israel's Idol Worship in the Desert] (1758), Absalon (1761) and Goliath (1762) by Adolf Kunzen and ''Die Rettung des Kindes Mose [The Finding of Baby Moses] and Der geborne Weltheiland [The Saviour of the World is born] (1788), Tod, Auferstehung and Gericht [Death, Resurrection and Judgment] (1790) , and Davids Klage am Hermon nach dem 42ten Psalm [David's Lament on Mount Hermon (Psalm 42)] (1793) by Königslöw.

 

Around 1810 this tradition ended for a time. Attitudes towards music and the Church had changed, and external circumstances (the occupation by Napoleon's troops and the resulting financial straits) made such expensive concerts impossible.

 

In the early 20th century it was the organist Walter Kraft (1905–1977) who tried to revive the tradition of the evening concerts, starting with an evening of Bach's organ music, followed by an annual programme of combined choral and organ works. In 1954 Kraft created the Lübecker Totentanz (Lübeck Danse Macabre) as a new type of evening concert.

 

The tradition of evening concerts continues today under the current organist (since 2009), Johannes Unger.

The Lübeck Boys Choir at St. Mary’s

  

THE LÜBECK BOYS CHOIR

has been at St. Mary’s since 1970. It was originally founded as the Lübecker Kantorei in 1948. The choir sings regularly at services on Sundays and religious festivals. The performance of the St John Passion on Good Friday has become a Lübeck tradition.

 

ST. MARY´S CHURCH TODAY

CONGREGATION

Since the establishment of Johannes Bugenhagen's Lutheran Church Order by the town council in 1531 St. Mary has been Protestant. Today it belongs to the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Services are held on Sundays and Church festivals from 10 o'clock. From Mondays to Saturdays in the summer season and in Advent there is a short prayer service with organ music at noon (after the parade of the figures of the Astronomical Clock), which tourists and locals are invited to attend. Since 15 March 2010 there has been an admission charge of two euros for visitors.

 

ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK

The astronomical clock was built in 1561–1566. It used to stand in the ambulatory, behind the high altar but was completely destroyed in 1942. Only a clock dial that was replaced during a previous restoration remains, in St. Anne's Museum The new Astronomical Clock, which was installed on the East side of the Northern transept, in the Danse Macabre Chapel. It is the work of Paul Behrens, a Lübeck clockmaker, who planned it as his lifetime achievement from 1960 to 1967. He collected donations for it, made the clock, including all its parts, and maintained the clock until his death. The clock front is a simplified copy of the original. Calendar and planetary discs controlled by a complicated mechanical movement show the day and the month, the position of the sun and the moon, the signs of the zodiac (the thirteen astronomical signs, not the twelve astrological signs), the date of Easter, and the golden number.

 

At noon, the clock chimes and a procession of figures passes in front of the figure of Christ, who blesses each of them. The figures originally represented the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire; since the post-War reconstruction, they represent eight representatives of the peoples of the world.

 

CARILLON

After the War, a carillon with 36 bells was installed In the South Tower. Some of the bells came from St Catherine's Church in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). On the hour and half-hour, choral melodies are played, alternating according to the season. Formerly the carillon was operated by a complicated electromechanical system of cylinders; the mechanism is now computer-controlled. At Christmas and Easter, the organist plays the clock chimes manually.

 

BELLS

The 11 historic bells of the church originally hung in the South Tower in a bell loft 60 metres high. An additional seven bells for sounding the time were made by Heinrich von Kampen (de) in 1508–1510 and installed in the flèche. During the fire in the air raid of 1942, the bells are reported to have rung again in the upwind before crashing to the ground. The remains of two bells, the oldest bell, the "Sunday bell" by Heinrich von Kampen (2,000 kg, diameter 1,710 mm, strike tone a0) and the tenor bell by Albert Benningk from 1668 (7,134 kg, diameter 2,170 mm, strike tone a0F#0), were preserved as a memorial in the former Schinkel Chapel, at the base of the South Tower The "Council and Children's Bell" made in 1650 by Anton Wiese (de), which used to be rung for the short prayer services before council meetings and for christenings, was given to Strecknitz Mental Home (de) in 1906 and was thus the only one of the historic bells to survive World War II. Today it hangs in the tower of what is now the University of Lübeck hospital.

 

The set of bells in the North Tower now consists of seven bells. It ranks among the largest and deepest-pitched of its kind in northern Germany. The three baroque bells originate from Danzig churches, (Gratia Dei and Dominicalis from St. John's (de) and Osanna from St. Mary's). After the Second World War, these bells from the "Hamburger bell cemetery" were hung in the tower as temporary replacement bells.

 

In 1951 the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer donated a new tenor bell. In 1985 three additional bells were made., completing the set. They have inscriptions referring to peace and reconciliation.

 

In 2005, the belfry was renovated. The steel bell frame from the reconstruction was replaced with a wooden one and the bells were hung directly on wooden yokes, so that the bells ring out with more brilliance.

 

This great peal is easily recognised because of the unusual disposition (intervals between the individual bells); the series of whole tone steps between bells 1–5 results in a distinctive sound with added vibrancy due to the tone of the historic bells.

 

DIMENSIONS

Total Length: 103 metres

Length of the middle nave: 70 metres

Vault height in the main nave: 38.5 metres

Vault height in the side naves: 20.7 metres

Height of the towers: 125 metres

Floor area: 3,300 square metres

 

WIKIPEDIA

West-German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 1297. Photo: Lilo.

 

Attractive Ruth Niehaus (1925–1994) was a German stage and film actress, who often played the femme fatale or 'the other woman’. She was dubbed the ‘Rita Hayworth of the German film of the 1950s’ and was regarded as a ‘Fräuleinwunder’.

 

Ruth Hildegard Rosemarie Niehaus was born in 1925 in Krefeld, Germany. Her parents were Elisabeth Niehaus, born Nettesheim, and the engineer Fritz Niehaus. Her brother was the Munich surgeon Helmut Niehaus. After completing her high school diploma in Dusseldorf, she attended the drama school there under Peter Esser. Her stage career began at the Stadttheater Krefeld in 1947-1948, followed by engagements at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg (1948-1949), at the Oldenburgische Staatstheater (1949-1950) and in Düsseldorf under the direction of Gustav Gründgebns (1952-1954). She played both in classical and modern theatre. The press called Niehaus a ‘Fräuleinwunder’ a term for young, attractive, modern, self-confident and desirable women of post-war Germany. In 1950 Ruth Niehaus reputedly spurned an offer of marriage from Orson Welles, and with it the chance to work in Hollywood. She did marry Ivar Lissner, a Jewish German journalist and best-selling author, who had been a spy with the German Abwehr during World War II. Niehaus made her film debut in the West-German comedy Das Haus in Montevideo/The House in Montevideo (1951). It was directed by Curt Goetz and Valérie von Martens who also played the leads, while Niehaus played their daughter. The film is an adaptation of Goetz's 1945 comic play of the same name and Goetz and von Martens had already frequently played their parts on stage. Niehaus next played a supporting part in Heidelberger Romanze/A Heidelberg Romance (Paul Verhoeven, 1951) starring Liselotte Pulver, O.W. Fischer and Gardy Granass. She then had the lead in the Heimatfilm Rosen blühen auf dem Heidegrab/Roses Bloom on the Moorland (Hans H. König, 1952). Wikipedia: “This unusually gloomy Heimatfilm, which clearly stood out from the ‘Kinokonfektion’ of the era, is one of the high points in Niehaus's film career.” She then co-starred with Ivan Desny and René Deltgen in the drama Weg ohne Umkehr/No Way Back (Victor Vicas, 1953). It was made at the height of the Cold War. In 1945 following the Battle of Berlin, a Red Army officer (Desny) is able to protect a young German woman (Niehaus) he finds living in a cellar. Several years later he returns to the city as a civilian, finds her again and makes plans to flee from East to West Germany under the noses of the KGB. For this role she won in 1954 the Bundesfilmpreis. Other films followed, such as Rosenmontag/Love's Carnival (Willy Birgel, 1955) with Dietmar Schönherr, and Auferstehung/Resurrection (Rolf Hansen, 1958) starring Horst Buchholz.

 

In 1959, Ruth Niehaus co-starred with Helmuth Schneider in the Argentine film Cavalcade (Albert Arliss, Richard von Schenk, 1960). At the beginning of the 1960s Niehaus largely withdrew from the film business and only sporadically took on roles in film and television productions. In 1980, she played a supporting part in the West German drama Fabian (Wolf Gremm, 1980), based on the novel by Erich Kästner. On television she played guest roles in Krimi series like Der Alte (1978) and Tatort (1983). Her main focus wat on the theatre. At the Festival in Bad Hersfeld, she was celebrated as ‘Das deutsche Gretchen 1959’ in Goethe's Faust under the direction of William Dieterle. In 1961 and 1962, she also played Titania in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Dieterle. From 1964 to 1968 she worked under the direction of Oscar Fritz Schuh at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus Hamburg. In Hamburg, she brought the present author Jean Cocteau to tears with her depiction of Eurydice in his play Orpheus. These years at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg were her most successful stage period. In 1968, she left the house together with Oscar Fritz Schuh and performed further roles in his productions. Until his death in 1984, Schuh was one of her closest friends. In 1987, Ruth Niehaus was able to celebrate her 40th stage jubilee. That year she also directed Rebecca at the Münchner Kammerspielen. She remained on stage until 1992. Sje incidentally played in films, such as in Hard Days, Hard Nights (Horst Königstein, 1989) with Al Corley. Her last film role was in Wir können auch anders/We can also differently (Detlev Buck, 1992). In 1994 she was honoured Ruth Niehaus together with Christa Auch-Schwelk for their documentary Jeffrey – Zwischen Leben und Tod/Jeffrey – Between Life and Death with the media award of the German AIDS-Stiftung. Ruth Niehaus died in 1994 in Hamburg. She was 69. She and her husband Ivar Lissner, who passed away in 1965, had a daughter Imogen (now Imogen Jochem).

 

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

"Dirty green always make me more self-confident."

 

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Greetings Jason

Cheri Sicard and members of the NORML Women's Alliance stopped by the CANNACig booth to check it out! They loved it and we had a GREAT time! :)

 

DEAR FB FRIENDS :) NEED SOME COMMENTS AND FB LIKES/TWEETS ON MY ARTICLE! :) THNX :) Check out the article on: blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2012/06/28/fx-thursday-nigh...

 

The stars shone brilliantly at Lure Night Club in Hollywood for the FX Summer Comedy Party. The celebration included series stars from Anger Management, Brand X With Russell Brand, Louie, Wilfred, and Totally Biased. Celebrities in attendance were Charlie Sheen, Russell Brand, Louis C.K., W. Kamau Bell, Selma Blair, Shawnee Smith, Daniela Bobadilla, Noureen DeWulf, Michael Arden, Derek Richardson, Elijah Wood, Jason Gann, Fiona Gubelmann and Dorian Brown.

 

The room was electric, buzzing with the anticipated arrival of the “winning” man himself, Charlie Sheen, star of Anger Management. He was easy to spot upon his entrance, surrounded by nearly a dozen bodyguards. I noticed that he was the only celeb with such an entourage.

 

Several sections of Lure were roped off for celebrities and VIPs. Massive video screens were everywhere, promoting the Thursday evening line up. Upon arrival with my daughter as my date, I stopped by to visit with each show and reunited with my friends from Wilfred — where I proudly work with them as the “marijuana expert” for the show.

 

About Cheryl Shuman:

 

Referred to as the "Martha Stewart of Marijuana," Cheryl Shuman announces the formation of Green Asset International Inc.. Shuman brings 25 years of experience working with media, celebrities, marketing and health care in Beverly Hills. Shuman found her passion in the cannabis movement since 1996 working as an activist and legal cannabis patient. Since using cannabis therapy, she has survived cancer and injuries from two car crashes.

 

Shuman was the founder of Beverly Hills NORML, founding charter member of the NORML Women's Alliance and served on the steering committee for Public Relations and Marketing on an International platform. Cheryl Shuman is a founding member of the NCIA, National Cannabis Industry Association and served as the Director of Special Projects for the NCIA including the Women's Cannabusiness Network. Cheryl Shuman transformed her non-profit career into a thriving profitable media enterprise.

 

Cheryl was the Executive Director of Celebrity, Media and Public Relations for the KUSH Brand which includes KUSH Magazine, KUSH Conventions and DailyBuds.com. Cheryl Shuman has been interviewed for television programs, newspapers and magazines, including but not limited to: ABC News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Today Show NBC, HBO Entertainment News and more.

 

Her private medical cannabis collective, "The Beverly Hills Cannabis Club" is unlisted and membership is by referral only. Through her personal relationships and connections within Hollywood, Cheryl Shuman has been named as one of the most influential women in the cannabis reform movement by international media. Her position within the cannabis industry creates the first and only company of its kind and at the forefront of entertainment marketing, celebrity endorsements, product placement integration, sponsorships, production and technology.

 

Cheryl Shuman serves as media spokesperson for the hot new vaporizer CANNACig Rapid Fire Marketing (pink sheets: RFMK) and conducts their marketing, public relations, product placement, and consulting services.

 

Cheryl Shuman's "Green Asset International Inc." is a business development company and acquisition vehicle. Green Asset made news with an historic $100 million funding facility dedicated to the cannabis industry with plans to go public by 2014.

 

--

Cheryl Shuman, C.E.O.

Green Asset International Inc.

Director of Celebrity, Media & Public Relations

"Smell the Truth" - Hearst Digital Media

(www.blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/)

The Truth List

(www.TheTruthList.com)

Spokesperson for CANNACig by RFMK

www.vinhaler.com/online-store.html

(www.Rapid-Fire-Marketing.com/)

Beverly Hills Cannabis Club

Join Free Using "Cheryl Shuman" as your invitation code on:

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Social Network Links:

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Facebook: www.FaceBook.com/CherylShumanInc

Twitter: www.Twitter.com/CherylShuman

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CASTING NOW!!! DREAM BIG! Nothing like being featured in a national TV show to gain huge national publicity for your business, career, or yourself!

 

Hollywood's most celebrated Network & Cable producers are now working with Cheryl Shuman to develop 4 (Four) different reality series evolving around the cannabis community and movement. These will be hits!! Imagine Entourage Meets Sex in the City Meets The Apprentices Meets Top Model Meets The Big C Meets the Cannabis Movement. These new hit shows about real men & women, living captivating lives in LEGAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA are now casting! This upcoming docu-series gives viewers an inside look at Cannabis Communities most intriguing, interesting, compelling, & glamorous individuals. In addition, we will be profiling some of the most compelling patient stories to help promote law reform as well as top political figures during the upcoming election.

 

The Production Team is currently looking for fabulous men, women and their families who live or work in the cannabis industry as well as main stream cannabis consumers to be on this series. We are searching for outgoing, exciting, strong, self-confident men & women who reside in LEGAL medical cannabis states who want to share their amazing lives!

 

Theses new docu-series are an amazing platform to promote current or future activism, business endeavors, careers, ideas, etc... you can't beat the huge publicity of a national television show to make you and your ideas/brand a major success!

 

If you or someone you know is living "the good life" in one of the legal medical marijuana communities, we want to hear from you!

 

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TO RECEIVE NOTICES LIKE THIS WITH MORE INFO ON ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY JOBS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND EVENTS:

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Kindest Personal Regards

 

Cheryl Shuman

Director of Celebrity, Media & Public Relations

 

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION COMMENTS AND FB LIKES/TWEETS ON MY ARTICLES! :) THNX :) Check out the article on:

 

blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2012/06/11/an-inside-look-a...

 

blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2012/06/28/fx-thursday-nigh...

 

The stars shone brilliantly at Lure Night Club in Hollywood for the FX Summer Comedy Party. The celebration included series stars from Anger Management, Brand X With Russell Brand, Louie, Wilfred, and Totally Biased. Celebrities in attendance were Charlie Sheen, Russell Brand, Louis C.K., W. Kamau Bell, Selma Blair, Shawnee Smith, Daniela Bobadilla, Noureen DeWulf, Michael Arden, Derek Richardson, Elijah Wood, Jason Gann, Fiona Gubelmann and Dorian Brown.

 

The room was electric, buzzing with the anticipated arrival of the “winning” man himself, Charlie Sheen, star of Anger Management. He was easy to spot upon his entrance, surrounded by nearly a dozen bodyguards. I noticed that he was the only celeb with such an entourage.

 

Several sections of Lure were roped off for celebrities and VIPs. Massive video screens were everywhere, promoting the Thursday evening line up. Upon arrival with my daughter as my date, I stopped by to visit with each show and reunited with my friends from Wilfred — where I proudly work with them as the “marijuana expert” for the show.

 

About Cheryl Shuman:

 

Referred to as the "Martha Stewart of Marijuana," Cheryl Shuman announces the formation of Green Asset International Inc.. Shuman brings 25 years of experience working with media, celebrities, marketing and health care in Beverly Hills. Shuman found her passion in the cannabis movement since 1996 working as an activist and legal cannabis patient. Since using cannabis therapy, she has survived cancer and injuries from two car crashes.

 

Shuman was the founder of Beverly Hills NORML, founding charter member of the NORML Women's Alliance and served on the steering committee for Public Relations and Marketing on an International platform. Cheryl Shuman is a founding member of the NCIA, National Cannabis Industry Association and served as the Director of Special Projects for the NCIA including the Women's Cannabusiness Network. Cheryl Shuman transformed her non-profit career into a thriving profitable media enterprise.

 

Cheryl was the Executive Director of Celebrity, Media and Public Relations for the KUSH Brand which includes KUSH Magazine, KUSH Conventions and DailyBuds.com. Cheryl Shuman has been interviewed for television programs, newspapers and magazines, including but not limited to: ABC News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Today Show NBC, HBO Entertainment News and more.

 

Her private medical cannabis collective, "The Beverly Hills Cannabis Club" is unlisted and membership is by referral only. Through her personal relationships and connections within Hollywood, Cheryl Shuman has been named as one of the most influential women in the cannabis reform movement by international media. Her position within the cannabis industry creates the first and only company of its kind and at the forefront of entertainment marketing, celebrity endorsements, product placement integration, sponsorships, production and technology.

 

Cheryl Shuman serves as media spokesperson for the hot new vaporizer CANNACig Rapid Fire Marketing (pink sheets: RFMK) and conducts their marketing, public relations, product placement, and consulting services.

 

Cheryl Shuman's "Green Asset International Inc." is a business development company and acquisition vehicle. Green Asset made news with an historic $100 million funding facility dedicated to the cannabis industry with plans to go public by 2014.

 

--

Cheryl Shuman, C.E.O.

Green Asset International Inc.

Director of Celebrity, Media & Public Relations

"Smell the Truth" - Hearst Digital Media

(www.blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/)

The Truth List

(www.TheTruthList.com)

Spokesperson for CANNACig by RFMK

www.vinhaler.com/online-store.html

(www.Rapid-Fire-Marketing.com/)

Beverly Hills Cannabis Club

Join Free Using "Cheryl Shuman" as your invitation code on:

(www.BeverlyHillsCannabisClub.com)

Social Network Links:

BHCC: www.BeverlyHillsCannabisClub.com

LinkedIN: www.LinkedIn.com/in/CherylShuman

Facebook: www.FaceBook.com/CherylShumanInc

Twitter: www.Twitter.com/CherylShuman

YouTube: www.YouTube.com/BeverlyHillsCannabis

Tonight I dedicate this picture to all the emotional constipated people...maybe, winning their emotional constipation, they would feel more confident...

Have a great sunday you all!

West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. I 452. Photo: CCC-Film / Constantin-Film / Grimm. Publicity still for Studentin Helen Willfüer/Helene Willfüer (Rudolf Jugert, 1956).

 

Attractive Ruth Niehaus (1925–1994) was a German stage and film actress, who often played the femme fatale or 'the other woman’. She was dubbed the ‘Rita Hayworth of the German film of the 1950s’ and was regarded as a ‘Fräuleinwunder’.

 

Ruth Hildegard Rosemarie Niehaus was born in 1925 in Krefeld, Germany. Her parents were Elisabeth Niehaus, born Nettesheim, and the engineer Fritz Niehaus. Her brother was the Munich surgeon Helmut Niehaus. After completing her high school diploma in Dusseldorf, she attended the drama school there under Peter Esser. Her stage career began at the Stadttheater Krefeld in 1947-1948, followed by engagements at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg (1948-1949), at the Oldenburgische Staatstheater (1949-1950) and in Düsseldorf under the direction of Gustav Gründgebns (1952-1954). She played both in classical and modern theatre. The press called Niehaus a ‘Fräuleinwunder’ a term for young, attractive, modern, self-confident and desirable women of post-war Germany. In 1950 Ruth Niehaus reputedly spurned an offer of marriage from Orson Welles, and with it the chance to work in Hollywood. She did marry Ivar Lissner, a Jewish German journalist and best-selling author, who had been a spy with the German Abwehr during World War II. Niehaus made her film debut in the West-German comedy Das Haus in Montevideo/The House in Montevideo (1951). It was directed by Curt Goetz and Valérie von Martens who also played the leads, while Niehaus played their daughter. The film is an adaptation of Goetz's 1945 comic play of the same name and Goetz and von Martens had already frequently played their parts on stage. Niehaus next played a supporting part in Heidelberger Romanze/A Heidelberg Romance (Paul Verhoeven, 1951) starring Liselotte Pulver, O.W. Fischer and Gardy Granass. She then had the lead in the Heimatfilm Rosen blühen auf dem Heidegrab/Roses Bloom on the Moorland (Hans H. König, 1952). Wikipedia: “This unusually gloomy Heimatfilm, which clearly stood out from the ‘Kinokonfektion’ of the era, is one of the high points in Niehaus's film career.” She then co-starred with Ivan Desny and René Deltgen in the drama Weg ohne Umkehr/No Way Back (Victor Vicas, 1953). It was made at the height of the Cold War. In 1945 following the Battle of Berlin, a Red Army officer (Desny) is able to protect a young German woman (Niehaus) he finds living in a cellar. Several years later he returns to the city as a civilian, finds her again and makes plans to flee from East to West Germany under the noses of the KGB. For this role she won in 1954 the Bundesfilmpreis. Other films followed, such as Rosenmontag/Love's Carnival (Willy Birgel, 1955) with Dietmar Schönherr, and Auferstehung/Resurrection (Rolf Hansen, 1958) starring Horst Buchholz.

 

In 1959, Ruth Niehaus co-starred with Helmuth Schneider in the Argentine film Cavalcade (Albert Arliss, Richard von Schenk, 1960). At the beginning of the 1960s Niehaus largely withdrew from the film business and only sporadically took on roles in film and television productions. In 1980, she played a supporting part in the West German drama Fabian (Wolf Gremm, 1980), based on the novel by Erich Kästner. On television she played guest roles in Krimi series like Der Alte (1978) and Tatort (1983). Her main focus wat on the theatre. At the Festival in Bad Hersfeld, she was celebrated as ‘Das deutsche Gretchen 1959’ in Goethe's Faust under the direction of William Dieterle. In 1961 and 1962, she also played Titania in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Dieterle. From 1964 to 1968 she worked under the direction of Oscar Fritz Schuh at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus Hamburg. In Hamburg, she brought the present author Jean Cocteau to tears with her depiction of Eurydice in his play Orpheus. These years at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg were her most successful stage period. In 1968, she left the house together with Oscar Fritz Schuh and performed further roles in his productions. Until his death in 1984, Schuh was one of her closest friends. In 1987, Ruth Niehaus was able to celebrate her 40th stage jubilee. That year she also directed Rebecca at the Münchner Kammerspielen. She remained on stage until 1992. Sje incidentally played in films, such as in Hard Days, Hard Nights (Horst Königstein, 1989) with Al Corley. Her last film role was in Wir können auch anders/We can also differently (Detlev Buck, 1992). In 1994 she was honoured Ruth Niehaus together with Christa Auch-Schwelk for their documentary Jeffrey – Zwischen Leben und Tod/Jeffrey – Between Life and Death with the media award of the German AIDS-Stiftung. Ruth Niehaus died in 1994 in Hamburg. She was 69. She and her husband Ivar Lissner, who passed away in 1965, had a daughter Imogen (now Imogen Jochem).

 

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

FULL VIDEO HD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSZTQHPhhg

ALINI VOL.2 DANCE RELEASE:

Booty - Sexy - Self Confident - HAPPY

 

The Dances cost 300L$ each. We give MORE THAN 30% on each Dance Pack (15 Dances) ■■ (2999L$).■■

STORE:

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MODELS:

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Darkness Copperfield

 

"Aye, Seahumans!"

 

For my third entry in the Turtle Competition over at Eurobricks, I decided to depict the often misunderstood Cap'tain Weedbeard. This could be the largest turtle in the competition with 202 pieces. But I had a lot of fun in imagining and building this character. I hope you like him as much as the previous ones (thank you for that!), and don't let his looks deceive you! Let me explain...

 

Cap'tain Weedbeard... You can often hear his name whispered in small, far off waves. Turtles glance around them and, with a low voice, tell each other the latest rumors.

 

" I heard he has a beard! Can you imagine, a turtle with a beard? He must have sold his soul to the Seadevil!"

Nothing of the sort! Those who pay attention to his name, might already guess that it isn't a real beard (because, really, a turtle with a beard?). It's seaweed, that accumulated on his face after all his years and years out in the ocean. They keep him warm, and they get to see the world. It's perfectly natural, and the Seadevil really hasn't anything to do with it.

 

" But I heard he has made a terrible monster his slave as well!"

I would hardly call Starbuck, the cute little starfish that accompanies him everywhere a terrible monster. The self-confident chap would probably like it, but with that honest heart of gold, I don't believe he's every hurt a flying fish.

 

" And what about his belt, with his terrible orange sword and that magic potion..."

Magic potion??? Cap'tain Weedbeard doesn't need any to be so amazing. No, that flask he always carries around is filled with fresh water. It has often saved his life on his adventures. And that 'sword', as you call it... I don't think a carrot would be useful when you're threatened.

 

" But you can't deny his wooden leg, or his missing eye, or that ferocious hat! You're not going to tell me he was born like that!"

No, of course not. Don't make a complete imbecile of yourself. He got heavily wounded while trying to help a vessel of those Seahumans (one of those vessels that look like an empty turtle shell, you know) that got caught in the middle of a storm. There came a bolt out of the heaven that struck the ship, and it exploded for some unknown reason. But those Seahumans Weedbeard was saving, didn't forget him, and they managed to save him. They repaired him as good as they could (but of course, with their primitive knowledge, that was no good), and left him that peculiar hat. He has worn it proudly ever since, as a reminder to how helpfulness and warmheartedness can change one's life. Aye, that Cap'tain Weedbeard is truly an amazing mate, and one of the finest turtles ever to swim around. Don't thou ever speak bad of him again, or else the lightning is coming to make you look just as good as he does...

 

_________

 

I hope you liked this one as well! I'd love to see what special turtles you can come up with!

Here is the entry topic.

Here is my entry in that topic, if it would interest you.

The area around Lübeck, today a large city with a population of more than 200,000, had been settled by Slavs since the 7th century. Slavs had a settlement north of the present city called "Liubice", which was razed by the pagan Rani tribe in 1128.

 

15 years later Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded the modern town as a German settlement on the river island of Bucu. He built a new castle, first mentioned as existing in 1147. Adolf II had to cede the castle to the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, in 1158. After Henry's fall from power in 1181, the town became an Imperial city. Emperor Barbarossa ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries.

 

In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of that medieval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa, and Florence.

 

Conflicts about trading privileges resulted in fighting between Lübeck (with the Hanseatic League) and Denmark and Norway – with varying outcome. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. From then on Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but the devastation from the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade caused the Hanseatic League – and thus Lübeck with it – to decline in importance. However, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.

 

In 1160 Henry the Lion moved the bishopric of Oldenburg to Lübeck and endowed a cathedral chapter. In 1163 a wooden church was built, however, at the beginning of the 13th century, it was no longer sufficient to meet the representative demands of the self-confident burghers.

 

St. Marien was built 1250 - 1350. It has always been a symbol of the power and prosperity of the Hanseatic city. It situated at the highest point of the island that forms the old town.

 

Gothic cathedrals in France and Flanders made of natural stone were the models for the new construction of Lübeck's three-nave basilica.

 

St. Marien epitomizes North German "Brick Gothic" and set the standard for many churches in the Baltic region. The church embodied the towering style of Gothic architecture using brick.

 

The incentive for the City Council to undertake such an enormous project was rooted in the bitter dispute with the Lübeck bishopric. As a symbol of the long-distance merchants' desire for freedom and the secular power of the city, which had been free of the Empire since 1226, the church building in the immediate vicinity of Lübeck's city hall and the market square was intended to clearly and uncatchably surpass in size the city's bishop's church, Lübeck Cathedral.

 

In March 1942, St. Marien (as well as the Cathedral and St. Peter) was almost completely burned out during the air raid on Lübeck, which destroyed one-fifth of the city centre. Reconstruction of the church began in 1947 and was essentially completed.

 

The impressive "Antwerpener Retabel" was created in 1518. It was donated in 1522 by Johann Bone, a merchant from Geldern. During WWII the altarpiece was in the "Briefkapelle" (Chapel of Indulgences) and thus escaped destruction. The double-winged altarpiece depicts the life of the Virgin Mary.

 

"Antwerp retable" is the collective name for a type of winged altarpiece that was produced in and around Antwerp workshops for export, especially in the first third of the 16th century. Even today, over 200 examples are preserved in churches and museums in various European countries.

   

Black Alice is a DC Comics character who can "borrow" any hero or villain who gained their abilities through magic. She's also a late-teens/early 20-something who has major 'tude, hence why I asked the cosplayer to pose with an epic eye-roll to show-off that 'whatever" attitude.

 

Cosplayer: Nightmare Loki.

 

While she and I talk/chat on social media (Facebook and Tumblr), I haven't seen her in person for at least ... seven or eight years? Maybe I'm a bit weird (yeah, yeah, I know, that's the understatement of the century) but I really do enjoy seeing people enjoy and get better at their crafts and hobbies and then showcase how much they've improved since I last saw them.

 

She's light-years from where she was when I first met her as Ms. Creeper way back when; while that cosplay was a great and cute Rule 63 version of an old-school DC Comics character I think the word I'm looking for is "matured." She's matured, a helluva lot more self-confident in who she is and her skills, and it shows.

 

Meet Alice! I finally finished her outfit and my "I can't bond with her omg I need to sell her"-time came to an end ^//////^ I'm really happy that she decided to start.. talking with me finally? x/D I spent a lot of time with her the past few days and I feel like I understand her character and appearence a lot more now.

Alice is Simons 16 years old girlfriend (his body is ordered!!) and overall a very cute, friendly and helpful little girl. She can be stubborn and moody sometimes but always tries her best to hide those character traits of her when she's with Simon so he doesn't get mad at her. Since her relationship with Simon isn't the healthiest you could also describe her as naive and not really self-confident since she doesn't even think about leaving her boyfreind even though he did a lot of awful things to her.

Her and Simons story take place when Alice get's pregnant and eventually gives birth to their son Finn ♥

The woman among these self-confident men and the children in the background makes me think that they may be teachers. Probably Egypt.

 

A journey of two german(?) travellers in the 1930s throughout many countries.

For more info about these photographs, see the caption in my album "World Tour 1930s"

James Hunt

   

James Hunt's was a turbulent life lived to the limit - in and out of racing cars. As a driver he overcame constant fear and enormous odds to become the best in the world - triumphing in one of the most dramatic championship battles in Formula One history. As a colorful personality and unconventional character he had no peers - alternately entertaining admirers and offending critics with his often outrageous behaviour. After he retired he continued to make a strong impact, as a TV commentator, but died suddenly in the prime of his life.

 

James Simon Wallis Hunt, born on August 29, 1947, into the family of a London stockbroker, was an unruly child: hyperactive, contrary and persistently rebellious. As a self-confident, competitive and determined youth he taught himself to play tennis and squash to a high standard. The tall and handsome public schoolboy also enjoyed considerable success with women. On his 18th birthday he saw his first race, a club meeting at Silverstone, and immediately decided to he was going to become World Champion. His parents refused to support their feckless son's foolish Formula One fantasy. James worked at odd jobs, bought a wrecked Mini and spent two years race-preparing it, only to have his first entry fail scrutineering because the driver's seat was an old lawn chair.

 

Many of his early races ended in huge accidents. In one of them his Formula Ford crashed and sank in the middle of a lake. He might have drowned had he been wearing the requisite seatbelts he couldn't afford to buy. In faster Formula Three cars 'Hunt the Shunt' had even bigger accidents. Eventually he learned to stay on the track long enough to win races, but never conquered his fears. In the garage his terror often caused him to vomit and on the grid he shook so much the car vibrated. As a racer his volatile mixture of adrenaline and testosterone made him among the hardest of chargers. However his reputation as a wild man with middling race results meant it unlikely he would have gone much further without the help of Lord Alexander Hesketh.

 

'The Good Lord' (as James called him) was an eccentric young British aristocrat who inherited a fortune and spent it lavishly on personal entertainment. Though he knew nothing about motorsport he decided to amuse himself by forming his own racing team and hired 'Superstar' (his nickname for Hunt) as his driver. The Hesketh Racing team had limited success in Formula Three and Formula Two but gained notoriety for seeming to consume as much champagne as fuel and for having more beautiful women than mechanics. Since the Good Lord was having so much fun in racing's lower ranks he thought it naturally followed that even more sport could be had at the highest level.

 

When Hesketh Racing arrived on the scene in 1974 the Formula One fraternity thought the team was a joke. The ridicule became grudging respect when James Hunt's Hesketh beat Niki Lauda's Ferrari to win the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. At the end of that season, however, Lord Hesketh announced he could no longer afford trying to produce the next British World Champion and James was out of a job.

 

Fortunately, just prior to the start of the 1976 season he was the only experienced driver available to fill an unexpected vacancy when Emerson Fittipaldi left McLaren. James was immediately fast but only became a regular winner when he learned to control his explosive emotions, though he remained prone to temper tantrums. He attacked a driver and a marshal with his fists and on more than one occasion stood in the middle of the track screaming profane abuse at bemused opponents. James joked that his reputation for road rage made rivals move out of his way: "because they thought I was barking mad!"

 

His closest friend among the drivers was Niki Lauda, with whom he became embroiled in a thrilling battle for the 1976 driving title. Lauda had been well in front until he was nearly killed in a fiery accident at the Nurburgring. James won that race and five others to force a championship showdown with the miraculously recovered Lauda in the last race of the season. It was so wet in Japan that Lauda decided it was too dangerous to race and parked his Ferrari after a couple of laps. Hunt stayed out in his McLaren and drove furiously to finish third and become World Champion.

 

His good looks, extrovert personality and unconventional behaviour made the 'Golden Boy' hugely popular with a wide public. He had a commanding presence and spoke impressively in a deep voice with a cultivated accent, saying exactly what he thought. He hated dressing up, always wore tattered blue jeans and often walked around in his bare feet, even on formal occasions. He drank heavily, smoked 40 cigarettes a day, occasionally took drugs, had a madcap social life and a succession of beautiful girlfriends. He married one of them, Suzy, a fashion model who eventually left him for the actor Richard Burton.

 

While he became a media darling for the tabloid press his behaviour was less appreciated by Formula One journalists, who found him a frustrating mixture of boisterous charm and overbearing conceit. Twice he was voted the least liked driver and despairing members of the Formula One establishment accused him of bringing the sport into disrepute.

 

Having achieved his championship goal his enthusiasm for racing began to wane. He admitted he never really enjoyed driving and finally, after two more seasons with McLaren, then a few races with Wolf, he retired mid-way through 1979: "for reasons of self-preservation."

 

He found it difficult to adjust to civilian life and suffered deep depressions that even wilder carousing failed to dispel. In 1980 he began working (with Murray Walker) on BBC television's Formula One coverage. At first, James did not take it seriously (he drank two bottles of wine during his first broadcast) but soon became a highly respected, articulate and opinionated commentator. In his private life he became a reformed character. A second marriage, to Sarah, ended in divorce but produced two sons to whom James became deeply devoted. He fell in love, with Helen, a beautiful blonde half his age. On June 15, 1993, she accepted his marriage proposal. A few hours later James Hunt had a massive heart attack and died at the age of 45.

 

Among those shocked by his sudden passing was his old friend and rival Niki Lauda, who said: "For me, James was the most charismatic personality who's ever been in Formula One."

   

Youngsters of Sri Lanka are often respectful but at the same time curious and self-confident. These two are no exception.

Photo was taken at Bandarawela in the highlands of the island.

*Health - Very Very Important Tips** **

 

Answer the phone by **LEFT** **ear**.**

Do not drink coffee **TWICE** a day.

Do not take pills with **COOL** water**.**

Do not have **HUGE** meals after 5pm.

Reduce the amount of **OILY** food you consume.

Drink more **WATER** **in the morning, less at night.

Keep your distance from hand phone **CHARGERS**.**

Do not use headphones/earphone for **LONG** period of time.

Best sleeping time is from **10pm** at night to **6am** in the morning.

Do not lie down immediately after taking **medicine** before sleeping.

When battery is down to the **LAST** grid/bar, do not answer the phone as

the radiation is 1000 times.

 

Forward this to those whom you **CARE **about!*

 

Here are some healthy tip for your smartness & physical fitness*. *

*

Prevention is better than cure.** *

 

* HEALTHY JUICES *

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Carrot + Ginger + Apple - Boost and cleanse our system. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Apple + Cucumber + Celery - Prevent cancer, reduce cholesterol, and

eliminate stomach upset and headache. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Tomato + Carrot + Apple* - *Improve skin complexion and eliminate bad

breath. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Bitter gou rd + Apple + Milk* - *Avoid bad breath and reduce internal body

heat. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Orange + Ginger + Cucumber* - *Improve Skin texture and moisture and reduce

body heat. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Pineapple + Apple + Watermelon *- *To dispel excess salts, nourishes the

bladder and kidney.*

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Apple + Cucumber + Kiwi *- *To improve skin complexion.*

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Pear & Banana* - * regulates sugar content.. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Carrot + Apple + Pear + Mango *- *Clear body heat, counteracts toxicity,

decreased blood pressure and fight oxidization *.

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Honeydew + Grape + Watermelon + Milk* - *Rich in vitamin C + Vitamin B2 that

increase cell activity and str engthen body immunity. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Papaya + Pineapple + Milk* - *Rich in vitamin C, E, Iron. Improve skin

complexion and metabolism. *

 

[image: mail by: alpha-Q group]*

Banana + Pineapple + Milk* - *Rich in vitamin with nutritious and prevent

constipation*

*

**Quite interesting!* *

*

 

*Keep Walking.....*

 

Jus to check this out.......

The Organs of your body have their sensory touches at the bottom of your

foot, if you massage these points you will find relief from aches and pains

as you can see the heart is on the left foot.

 

[image: []]

 

Typically they are shown as points and arrows to show which organ it

connects to.

 

It is indeed correct since the nerves connected to these organs terminate

here.

 

This is covered in great details in Acupressure studies or textbooks.

 

God created our body so well that he thought of even this. He made us walk

so that we will always be pressing these pressure points and thus keeping

these organs activated at all times.

 

So, keep walking...

 

*

*[image: www.gurlzgroup.tk]

 

*

*[image: www.gurlzgroup.tk]

 

*

Good one. Don't miss the attachments* *

Did You Know?** *

 

*Blood type and Rh*

 

*How many people have it?*

 

O +

 

40 %

 

O -

 

7 %

 

A +

 

34 %

 

A -

 

6 %

 

B +

 

8 %

 

B -

 

1 %

 

AB +

 

3 %

 

AB -

 

1 %

 

Does Your Blood Type Reveal Your Personality?

 

Accord ing to a Japanese institute that does research on blood types, there

are certain personality traits that seem to match up with certain blood

types. How do you rate?

 

*TYPE O*

 

You want to be a leader, and when you see something you want, you keep

striving until you achieve your goal. You are a trend-setter, loyal,

passionate, and self-confident. Your weaknesses include vanity and jealously

and a tendency to be too competitive.

 

*TYPE A*

 

You like harmony, peace and organization. You work well with others, and are

sensitive, patient and affectionate. Among your weaknesses are stubbornness

and an inability to relax.

 

*TYPE B*

 

You're a rugged individualist, who's str aightforwa rd and likes to do

things your own way. Creative and flexible, you adapt easily to any

situation. But your insistence on being independent can sometimes go too far

and become a weakness.

 

*TYPE AB*

 

Cool and controlled, you're generally well liked and always put people at

ease. You're a natural entertainer who's tactful and fair. But you're

standoffish, blunt, and have difficulty making decisions.

 

*

 

MOST IMPORTANT INFO NOW:** *

 

REGARDS, MANIKANDAN,

 

*You Can Receive*

 

*If Your Type Is*

 

O-

 

O+

 

B-

 

B+

 

A-

 

A+

 

AB-

 

AB+

 

AB+

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

AB-

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

A+

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

A-

 

YES

 

YES

 

B+

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

YES

 

B-

 

YES

 

YES

 

O+

 

YES

 

YES

 

O-

 

YES

 

*

 

KNOW ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF HAVING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES* REGARDS,

MANIKANDAN,

 

*Fruit*

 

*Benefit*

 

*Benefit*

 

*Benefit*

 

*Benefit*

 

*Benefit*

 

*apples*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*prevents constipation*

 

*Blocks diarrhea*

 

*Improves lung capacity*

 

*Cushions joints*

 

*apricots*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Controls blood pressure*

 

*Saves your eyesight*

 

*Shields against Alzheimer's*

 

*Slows aging process*

 

*artichokes*

 

*Aids digestion*

 

*Lowers cholesterol*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*Stabilizes blood sugar*

 

*Gua rd s against liver disease*

 

*avocados*

 

*Battles diabetes*

 

*Lowers cholesterol*

 

*Helps stops str okes*

 

*Controls blood pressure*

 

*Smoothes skin*

 

*bananas*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*Quiets a cough*

 

*Strengthens bones*

 

*Controls blood pressure*

 

*Blocks diarrhea*

 

*beans*

 

*Prevents constipation*

 

*Helps hemorrhoids*

 

*Lowers cholesterol*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Stabilizes blood sugar*

 

*beets*

 

*Controls blood pressure*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Strengthens bones*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*Aids weight loss*

 

*blueberries*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*Stabilizes blood sugar*

 

*Boosts memory*

 

*Prevents constipation*

 

*broccoli*

 

*Strengthens bones*

 

*Saves eyesight*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*Controls blood pressure*

 

*cabbage*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Prevents constipation*

 

*Promotes weight loss*

 

*Protects your heart*

 

*Helps hemorrhoids*

 

*cantaloupe*

 

*Saves eyesight*

 

*Controls blood pressure*

 

*Lowers cholesterol*

 

*Combats cancer*

 

*Supports immune system*

 

...* DRINK WATER ON EMPTY STOMACH*

It is popular in Japan today to drink water immediately after waking up

every morning. Furthermore, scientific tests have proven a its value. We

publish below a description of use of water for our readers. For old and

serious diseases as well as modern illnesses the water treatment had been

found successful by a Japanese med ical society as a 100% cure for the

following diseases:

 

Headache, body ache, heart system, arthritis, fast heart beat, epilepsy,

excess fatness, bronchitis asthma, TB, meningitis, kidney and urine

diseases, vomiting, ga str itis, diarrhea, piles, diabetes, constipation,

all eye diseases, womb, cancer and ear nose and throat diseases. *

 

METHOD OF TREATMENT*

 

1. As you wake up in the morning *before brushing teeth*, drink 4 x 160ml

glasses of water .....interesting

 

2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minutes

 

3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.

 

4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink

anything for 2 hours

 

5. Those who are old or sick and are unable to drink 4 glasses of water at

the beginning may commence by taking little water and gradually increase it

to 4 glasses per day.

 

6. The above method of treatment will cure diseases of the sick and others

can enjoy a healthy life.

 

The following list gives the number of days of treatment required to

cure/control/reduce main diseases:

 

1. High Blood Pressure - 30 days

 

2. Ga str ic - 10 days

 

3. Diabetes - 30 days

 

4. Constipation - 10 days

 

5. Cancer - 180 days

 

6. TB - 90 days

 

7. Arthritis patients should follow the above treatment only for 3 days in

the 1st week, and from 2nd week onwa rd s - daily.

 

This treatment method has no side effects, however at the commencement of

treatment you may have to urinate a few times.

 

It is better if we continue this and make this procedure as a routine work

in our life.

 

Drink Water and Stay healthy and Active.

 

This makes sense .. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals

..not cold water. Maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while

eating!!! Nothing to lose, everything to gain...

 

For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you.

 

It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water

will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed . It will slow down

the digestion.

 

Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed

by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine.

Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink

hot soup or warm water after a meal.

 

*

A serious note about heart attacks*: Women should know that not every heart

attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting.

 

Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.

 

You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart

attack..

 

Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.

 

60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up.

 

Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be

aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive...

 

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this mail sends it to everyone they

know, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.

 

**Please send this article to all your friends you care for.

I got tagged by Daph for 10 things about me...so...here we go!

 

1. This is me in the gardens of the Canterbury Cathedral. I went to England with my parents last year for the first time (including a daytrip to London!). I love to travel and have been to a lot of places inside Europe, but I've never been outside Europe...I hope I will soon though.

 

2. I am an only child, I have no siblings. I would love to have that kind of relationship you have with a brother or sister, I will never know how that is. I love my parents more than I can explain, they are not only parents but also friends to me, though sometimes I'm afraid for being left over alone when they won't be here anymore.

 

3. I love to read. Seriously, I can't imagine life without books. I read while I eat, I read before going to sleep, I read in the train, I read while I'm in the toilet :P And if it's impossible to read (like when I'm driving the car), I listen to audiobooks.

 

4. I am a christian. My relationship with Jesus means the world to me.

 

5. I love games. Boardgames, but especially digital games on the computer, on my psp or on my nintendo ds. I don't know if that makes me a nerd, but oh well :P I can't play digital games for too long though, because then I can't sleep at night. Maybe some kind of weird brain thing?

 

6. I've been tested positive for highsensitivity as well as high intelligence. It has mostly been a disastrous combination for me, but I'm learning how to deal with those characteristics better.

 

7. I want to write a book. It's one of my life-goals.

 

8. I dream a lot. At night, I mean :D I love to go to sleep just because I can't wait what crazy stories my mind will come up with this time. They are almost always fun and adventurous, and sometimes I even get good ideas in my dreams!

 

9. I do kickboxing for some years now. It's the perfect combination of strength training, endurance training, physical contact and having fun. And it makes you more self confident :)

 

10. Ten stands for ten next people I'm gonna tag :P Please only do it if you like to!! I love to read more about my flickr friends, and you don't have to upload a picture of yourself if you don't want to... something else will do too! Oh and sorry if you've already been tagged :P

I tag: Renate, Rinonhina, Spikelover, Eeffie, Jenniferabe, An, Amélie, HelleG, Linda, Lindsey Kaye & Lunita (oops, 11! :D)

These are the people I think who might like this, but if I forgot you and you'd like to make a 10 things about you, YOU'RE TAGGED too! :D

What is beauty?

scientists believe that there is a mathematical formula to beauty; full of ratios and symmetry. basically the more symmetrical and balanced you are, the more universally beautiful.

 

www.anaface.com is a neat website which tells you "scientifically" how beautiful you are. I did it just for fun; haha and the results are... interesting! Though I only recommend doing it for a giggle if you're very self confident in your appearance. and remember, that there are flaws in this system!

 

I'll post my results in the comments on a later date

Simple, stylish and self-confident. A classic icon in a modern package,

handcrafted just for you.

 

Our story is simple. Embrace the DNA of a design classic and skilfully and respectfully remaster it to meet the demands of modern day life.

 

Mini Remastered by David Brown Automotive is a handcrafted masterpiece with all the style, technology and engineering excellence that encompasses our ethos, whilst retaining all the spirit and personality of the original.

 

1.275 cc

4 in-line

71 hp @ 4.00 rpm

87 lb @ 3.100 rpm

Vmax : 145 km/h

0-100 kmh : 11,7 sec

740 kg (curb weight)

 

88th Geneva International Motor Show

Internationaler Auto-Salon Genf

Suisse - Schweiz - Switzerland

March 2018