Aymeline Spring 2020 wearing Jason Wu's Successful Journey fashion.

Former Yugoslavian (Croatian) postcard. 3 K, No. 3845, mailed on 18-7-1963. Harry Belafonte in Carmen Jones (Otto Preminger, 1954).

Singer, actor, composer, author, and producer Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) was one of the most successful African-American artists in history. As the 'King of Calypso', he popularized the Caribbean musical style internationally in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million-selling album by a single artist and his hit The Banana Boat Song has become an evergreen. He also starred in several films, most notably in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959), Robert Altman's Kansas City (1996) and Bobby (Emilio Estevez, 2006). Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for humanitarian causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement and USA for Africa.

Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. at Lying-in Hospital in 1927, in Harlem, New York. He was the son of Melvine (née Love), a housekeeper, and Harold George Bellanfanti Sr., who worked as a chef. His mother was born in Jamaica, the child of a Scottish white mother and a black father. His father also was born in Jamaica, the child of a black mother and Dutch Jewish father of Sephardi origins. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with one of his grandmothers in her native country of Jamaica, where he attended Wolmer's Schools. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a janitor's assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play. At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre in such plays as 'Days of Our Youth' (1946). In 1954, he would receive a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue 'John Murray Anderson's Almanac'.

Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience at the Village Vanguard in New York, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others. At first, he was a pop singer, launching his recording career on the Roost label in 1949, but later he developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress' American folk songs archives. With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In 1952, he received a contract with RCA Victor. His first widely released single, which went on to become his 'signature' song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was 'Matilda' (1953). His breakthrough album 'Calypso' (1956) became the first LP in the world to sell over 1 million copies within a year. It spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. charts. The album introduced American audiences to calypso music, which had originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 20th century. Belafonte was dubbed the 'King of Calypso', a title he wore with reservations since he had no claims to any Calypso Monarch titles. One of the songs included in the album is the now famous 'Banana Boat Song' (listed as 'Day O' on the original release), which reached number five on the pop charts. His other smash hit was 'Jump in the Line'. Many of the compositions recorded for Calypso, including 'Banana Boat Song', gave songwriting credit to Irving Burgie. His triumphant success as an entertainer in the arts did not protect Belafonte from racial discrimination, particularly in the South. As a result, he refused to perform in the southern region of the United States from 1954 until 1961.

Belafonte's first film role was in Bright Road (Gerald Mayer, 1953), in which he appeared alongside Dorothy Dandridge. In this low-budget film adapted from the Christopher Award-winning short story 'See How They Run' by Mary Elizabeth Vroman, Dandridge starred as an idealistic first-year elementary school teacher trying to reach out to a problem student. Belafonte played the principal of the school. The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954). The screenplay by Harry Kleiner was based on the lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, from the 1943 stage musical of the same name, set to the music of Georges Bizet's 1875 opera 'Carmen'. Ironically, Belafonte's singing in the film was dubbed by an opera singer, as Belafonte's own singing voice was seen as unsuitable for the role. Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realise several then-controversial film roles. Island in the Sun (Robert Rossen, 1957) is about race relations and interracial romance set on the fictitious island of Santa Marta. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its hints of an affair between Belafonte's character and the character played by Joan Fontaine. The film also starred James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, and Joan Collins. In 1959, he starred in and produced the Film Noir Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959), in which he played a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co-starred with Inger Stevens in the Science-Fiction doomsday film The World, the Flesh and the Devil (Ranald MacDougall, 1959). Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Porgy and Bess (Otto Preminger, 1959), based on the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin. Here he would have once again starred opposite Dorothy Dandridge, but he refused the role because he objected to its racial stereotyping. Sidney Poitier would play the role in the film. Dissatisfied with the film roles available to him, Belafonte returned to music during the 1960s.

While primarily known for calypso, Harry Belafonte has recorded in many different genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. His second-most popular hit, which came immediately after 'The Banana Boat Song', was the comedic tune 'Mama Look at Bubu', also known as 'Mama Look a Boo-Boo' (originally recorded by Lord Melody in 1955), in which he sings humorously about misbehaving and disrespectful children. It reached number eleven on the pop chart. In 1959, he starred in Tonight With Belafonte, a nationally televised special that featured Odetta. Belafonte was the first Jamaican American to win an Emmy, for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte (1959). Belafonte recorded for RCA Victor from 1953 to 1974. Two live albums, both recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1959 and 1960, enjoyed critical and commercial success. From his 1959 album, 'Hava Nagila' became part of his regular routine and one of his signature songs. He was one of many entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the inaugural gala of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. That same year he released his second calypso album, 'Jump Up Calypso', which went on to become another million-seller. During the 1960s he introduced several artists to American audiences, most notably South African singer Miriam Makeba and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. His album 'Midnight Special' (1962) included a young harmonica player named Bob Dylan. As The Beatles and other stars from Britain began to dominate the pop charts, Belafonte's commercial success diminished. His 'Belafonte at The Greek Theatre' was his last album to appear in Billboard's Top 40. His last hit single, 'A Strange Song', was released in 1967 and peaked at number 5 on the charts. Belafonte has received Grammy Awards for the albums 'Swing Dat Hammer' (1960) and 'An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba' (1965). The latter album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid. In 1967, Belafonte was the first non-classical artist to perform at the prestigious Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Upstate New York, soon to be followed by concerts there by The Doors, The 5th Dimension, The Who, and Janis Joplin. In February 1968, Belafonte guest-hosted The Tonight Show substituting for Johnny Carson. Among his interview guests were Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. During the 1960s, he appeared on TV specials alongside such artists as Julie Andrews, Petula Clark, Lena Horne, and Nana Mouskouri. In 1968, Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark TV special on NBC. In the middle of a song, Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte's arm. The show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors, wanted to cut out the segment, but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or not at all. American newspapers published articles reporting the controversy and, when the special aired, it grabbed huge ratings.

In the early 1970s, Belafonte returned to the cinema in two films with Sidney Poitier. The Western Buck and the Preacher (Sidney Poitier, 1972) broke Hollywood Western traditions by casting blacks as central characters and portraying both tension and solidarity between African Americans and Native Americans in the late 19th century. Buck and the Preacher was one of the first films directed by an African American and to be based on a band of African Americans fighting against the White majority. The film was produced by Belafonte Enterprises, Columbia Pictures Corporation, and E & R Productions Corp. Uptown Saturday Night (Sidney Poitier, 1974) is an action-comedy crime film written by Richard Wesley and starring Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, and Harry Belafonte. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success and was part of the Blaxploitation wave. Later, Cosby and Poitier teamed up again, without Belafonte, for the sequels Let's Do It Again (Sidney Poitier, 1975) and A Piece of the Action (Sidney Poitier, 1977).

Harry Belafonte's recording activity slowed after he left RCA in the mid-1970s. RCA released his fifth and final Calypso album, 'Calypso Carnival' in 1971. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, Belafonte spent the greater part of his time touring Japan, Europe, Cuba, and elsewhere. In 1977, he released the album 'Turn the World Around' at Columbia Records. The album, with a strong focus on world music, was never issued in the United States. He subsequently was a guest star on a memorable episode of The Muppet Show (1978), in which he performed his signature song 'Day-O' on television for the first time. However, the episode is best known for Belafonte's rendition of the spiritual song 'Turn the World Around', from the album of the same name, which he performed with specially made Muppets that resembled African tribal masks. Belafonte reprised the song at John Henson's memorial in 1990. In 1984, Belafonte produced and scored the musical film Beat Street (Stan Lathan, 1984). Set in the South Bronx, the film follows the lives of a pair of brothers and their group of friends, all of whom are devoted to various elements of early hip hop culture. The cast included Rae Dawn Chong and Guy Davis. Together with Arthur Baker, Belafonte produced the gold-certified soundtrack of the same name. Beat Street's impact was felt internationally as well as throughout the United States. In Germany, for example, films as Beat Street are credited with introducing the hip-hop movement to the country.

In 1985, Belafonte was one of the organisers behind the Grammy Award-winning song 'We Are the World', a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa, and performed in the Live Aid concert that same year. Belafonte's involvement in 'USA for Africa' resulted in renewed interest in his music, culminating in a record deal with EMI. He subsequently released his first album of original material in over a decade, 'Paradise in Gazankulu', (1988). The album contains ten protest songs against the South African former Apartheid policy and is his last studio album. As UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Belafonte attended in 1988 a symposium in Harare, Zimbabwe, to focus attention on child survival and development in Southern African countries. As part of the symposium, he performed a concert for UNICEF. A Kodak video crew filmed the concert, which was released as a 60-minute concert video titled Global Carnival. Also in 1988, Tim Burton used 'The Banana Boat Song' and 'Jump in the Line' in his film Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988). Belafonte appeared with John Travolta in the film drama White Man's Burden (1995), about racism in an alternative America where black and white Americans have reversed cultural roles. The film was written and directed by Desmond Nakano. The film revolves around Louis Pinnock (Travolta), a white factory worker, who kidnaps Thaddeus Thomas (Belafonte), a black factory owner for firing him over a perceived slight. The film gained a negative reception from the critics and was not a box office success. For Robert Altman's jazz age drama Kansas City (1996), he won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Kansas City, which stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson, is also notable for its musical score being integrated into the film, with modern-day musicians recreating the Kansas City jazz of 1930s. For instance, Craig Handy played the role of Coleman Hawkins, Geri Allen played Mary Lou Williams, and James Carter played Ben Webster.

Following a lengthy recording hiatus, 'An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends' (1997), a soundtrack and video of a televised concert, were released by Island Records. 'The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music', a huge multi-artist project recorded by RCA during the 1960s and 1970s, was finally released by the label in 2001. Belafonte went on the Today Show to promote the album on 11 September 2001 and was interviewed by Katie Couric just minutes before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Awards for Best Boxed Recording Package, for Best Album Notes, and for Best Historical Album. On television, Harry Belafonte starred as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the TV drama Swing Vote (David Anspaugh, 1999) with Andy Garcia. In 2006, Belafonte appeared in the film Bobby, Emilio Estevez's ensemble drama about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Belafonte played Nelson, a friend of an employee of the Ambassador Hotel (Anthony Hopkins). Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He performed sold-out concerts globally through the 1950s to the 2000s. Owing to illness, he was forced to cancel a reunion tour with Nana Mouskouri planned for the spring and summer of 2003 following a tour in Europe. His last concert was a benefit concert for the Atlanta Opera on 25 October 2003. In a 2007 interview, he stated that he had since retired from performing.

In 2017 Harry Belafonte released 'When Colors Come Together', an anthology of his music for Sony Legends produced by his son David Belafonte. David wrote a remake of 'Island In The Sun', arranged by longtime Belafonte musical director Richard Cummings featuring Harry Belafonte's grandchildren Sarafina and Amadeus and a children's choir. Always outspoken in his beliefs, Belafonte achieved widespread attention for his political views in 2002 when he began making a series of negative comments about President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Belafonte created controversy in October 2002 when he made disparaging remarks about Secretary of State Colin Powell. Far from being upset, Powell reportedly took the remarks good-humoured, refusing to inflame the situation any further. Belafonte's other controversial political statements on U.S. foreign policy have included opposing the U.S. embargo on Cuba, praising Soviet peace initiatives, attacking the U.S. invasion of Grenada, praising the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, honouring Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and praising Fidel Castro. On a Martin Luther King Day speech at Duke University in 2006, Belafonte compared the American government to the 9/11 terrorists.

Belafonte and his first wife Marguerite Byrd were married from 1948 to 1957. They have two daughters: Adrienne and Shari, who also worked as an actress. In 1957, Belafonte married his second wife Julie Robinson, a former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company who was of Jewish descent. They had two children, David and Gina. David, the only son of Harry Belafonte, is a former model and actor and is an Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated music producer and the executive director of the family-held company Belafonte Enterprises Inc. As a music producer, David has been involved in most of Belafonte's albums and tours and productions. After 47 years of marriage, Belafonte and Robinson got a divorce. In April 2008, Harry Belafonte married photographer Pamela Frank. Recently, Belafonte returned to the cinema in Spike Lee's biographical crime film BlacKkKlansman (2018) as an elderly civil rights pioneer. Set in 1970s Colorado Springs, the plot follows the first African-American detective in the city's police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. BlacKkKlansman premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. Belafonte appears in the film recounting the lynching of Jesse Washington, a black teenage farmhand who was lynched in the county seat of Waco, Texas, on 15 May 1916, in what became a well-known example of racially motivated lynching. In 2019, the film won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee.

Harry Belafonte died in New York on 25 April 2023, due to congestive heart failure. He was 96.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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

Spike just had to get it out and looks so content at the end.

First Aberdeen have been successful in winning the University of Aberdeen tender for the 9U shuttle between Hillhead the University campus at Old Aberdeen and that at Foresterhill. It had been operated by Stagecoach Bluebird for almost eight years.

The service will continue to operate as a private contract until public service registration can legally take effect in February.

37638 on day two of the First operation, this works the am peak 17 a 0719 from Newhills to Adelphi for 0801 then direct to Hillhead to start as the 0830 9U to ARI.

Seen here at Sir Duncan Rice turning circle.

SONY DSC

I was stuck behind an accident and took advantage of the lack of traffic to go hunting with my camera. This one was actually at a spot where to was safe to pullover and observe for quite some time.

To see my complete collection of Bears, please go to www.flickr.com/photos/40800216@N08/albums/72157633262015335

All comments are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Rover 2200 Ser.II P6 (1973-76) Engine 2205cc S4 OHC Production 6126 9316 TCs (+ + 9316 SCs)

Registration Number MCW 934 P (Preston)

ROVER SET

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623690660271...

Designed by Spen King, Gordon Bashford and David Bache, the new Rover P6 represented a design aimed at appealing to a wider clientelle than the traditional Rover buyer.The design was advanced for the time with a de Dion tube suspension at the rear, four-wheel disc brakes (inboard on the rear), and a fully synchromesh transmission. The unibody design featured non-stressed panels bolted to a unit frame, inspired by the Citroën DS. The de Dion set-up was unique in that the "tube" was in two parts that could telescope, thereby avoiding the need for sliding splines in the drive shafts,

The Mark II 2200 SC and TC were the final version of the successful Rover P6 model with its enlarged overhead cam engine producing 98 bhp (SC) or 115bhp (TC) against the 89 and 110 bhp of the earlier 2000 SC and TC P6, the two only have tiny detail differances but have a strengthened transmission to cope with the extra torque, plus a larger ( 15 gallon) fuel tank bringing in line with the 3500.

The Series II, or Mark II as it was actually named by Rover, was launched in 1970. All variants carried the battery in the boot and had new exterior fixtures such as a plastic front air intake (to replace the alloy version), new bonnet pressings (with V8 blips even for the 4-cylinder-engined cars) and new rear lights. The interior of the 3500 and 2000TC versions was updated with new instrumentation

Thankyou for a massive 56,374,335 views

Shot 07.08.2016 at the 2016 Shugborough Car Show REF 121-836

Pin-Holga 1 (f/192) with Kodak Ektar 100 film, Exposure 3 m 7 sec

The first Pin-Holga conversion: A Holga CFN that leaked when the flash was fired. I cut the barrel and added a lens cap shutter. I ended up with f/192 which is the same as their factory 120PC although this aperture is cut in metal and not plastic.

Regarded by some as a candidate for the World's ugliest aircraft, the Gannet AEW variant was nevertheless a very successful design!

Successful 150m hop by SpaceX's Hopper

El Líder Máximo Cubano, simply loving it when a plan comes together :-D

Bay of Pigs Invasion

This is my English Pointer "Cowboy" after a successfull Utah pheasant hunt.

Kingfisher returning to the perch with trout

Just south of the south switch at Byron where the double track ends the hill has been topped and the train gains speed. Helperlink on the pushers allow them to cut off on the fly. This probably should be a video but everything is in motion here, the DPU is slowly pulling away and the tunnel motors are about the brake to a stop before reversing direction. July 20, 2024.

Lumen print

After preening and stretching we finally had lift-off as this juvenile Swallow-tailed Kite took off to hunt successfully over the bean/corn fields.

Juvenile Swallow-tailed Kite observed preening and hunting in Champaign, IL. A rare species for our state.

Obliging bird from Sunday morning and very successful. Best viewed large!

Some background:

The MBR-04 series were the first combat-ready Destroids and the most successful land-combat weapon Destroids that were built with OverTechnology of Macross. The abbreviation MBR (Main Battle Robot) indicates the model was developed as a walking humanoid weapon emphasizing the heavy armor firepower of an artillery combat vehicle, designed to replace mainline battle tanks. The Type 04 series was developed jointly by Viggers and Chrauler. Unlike the variable fighters, which had to be designed to accommodate transformation mechanisms, the MBR series featured a structure with a large capacity that allowed plenty of room for machinery and armor.

A short-range sub-variant, under the project handle "Cheyenne", was developed in 2010, too, but it was only produced in small number for evaluation purposes. It was based on the Defender's structure, but it carried a different armament, consisting of a pair of 37 mm six-barrel gatling guns plus AMM-1 missiles, and a more clutter-resistant radar system against fast and low-flying targets. The Cheyenne was intended as a complementary aerial defense unit, but the results from field tests were not convincing, so that the project was mothballed. However, in 2012 the concept was developed further into the ADR-04-Mk.XI "Manticore", which was fully tailored to the short-range defense role.

General characteristics:

Equipment Type: aerial defense robot, series 04

Government: U.N. Spacy

Manufacturer: Viggers/Chrauler

Introduction: March 2009

Accommodation: 1 pilot

Dimensions:

Height 11.37 meters (overall)

10.73 meters (w/o surveillance radar antenna)

Length 4.48 meters (hull only)

7.85 meters (guns forward)

Width 8.6 meters

Mass: 27.1 metric tons

Power Plant:

Kranss-Maffai MT828 thermonuclear reactor, output rated at 2800 shp;

plus an auxiliary GE EM10T fuel power generator, output rated at 510 kW

Propulsion:

2x thrust nozzles mounted in the lower back region, allowing the capability to perform jumps,

plus several vernier nozzles around the hull for Zero-G manoeuvers

Performance:

Max. walking speed: 72 kph when fully loaded

Design features:

- Detachable weapons bay (attaches to the main body via two main locks);

- Type 966 PFG Contraves radar and fire control set (a.k.a. Contraves II)

with respective heat exchanger on the upper back

- Rotating surveillance antenna for full 360° air space coverage

- Optical sensor unit equipped with four camera eyes, moving along a vertical slit,

protected by a polarized light shield;

- Capable of performing Zero-G manoeuvers via 16 x thrust nozzles (mounted around the hull);

- Reactor radiator with exhaust ports in the rear;

- Cockpit can be separated from the body in an emergency (only the cockpit block is recovered);

- Option pack featuring missiles or enlarged ammunition bays;

Armament:

2x Erlikon 78mm liquid-cooled high-speed 2-barrel automatic cannon with 200 rounds each,

mounted as arms

The kit and its assembly:

A kind of nostalgia trip, because my first ever mecha kit I bought and built in the Eighties was this 1:100 Destroid Defender! It still exists, even though only as a re-built model, and I thought that it was about time to build another, “better” one, to complete my collection of canonical Macross Destroids.

With this objective, the vintage kit was built basically OOB, just with some detail enhancements. The biggest structural change is a new hip joint arrangement, made from steel wire. It allows a more or less flexible 3D posture of the legs, for a more dynamic “walking” pose, and the resulting gaps were filled with paper tissue drenched in white glue and acrylic paint.

A more cosmetic change concerns the Defender’s optical sensor array on its “head”. OOB it just consists of a wide “slit” with a square window – very basic, but that’s how the defender is depicted in the TV series. However, I have a Macross artbook with original design sketches from Studio Nue, which reveal more details of this arrangement, and these include a kind of louvre that covers the mobile sensor array’s guide rails, and the sensor array itself consists of several smaller optical units – the relatively new 1:72 Defender from WAVE features these details, too, but the old 1:72 Defender from Arii (and later Bandai) also only has a red box, even though under a clear cover, which is IMHO dubious, though. The louvres were created from hemispherical styrene profile bits, the sensor array was scratched with a front wheel from an 1:100 VF-1 and more styrene bits.

The guns/arms were taken OOB, but I reduced the opening at the shoulder (and with it the angle the arms can be swiveled) with styrene profile material, which also hides the foo fit of the shoulder halves that hold the guns and a reinforcement styrene plate inside of them.

While I could have enlarged the ammunition boxes on the Defender’s shoulders (they are extended backwards), I left them in the original and OOB configuration. Another hull mod I eventually did not carry out were clear replacements for the molded searchlights. Having some visible depth and true clear covers would have been nice, but then I doubted the benefits vs. the mess their integration into the body would mean, so that I went for a simple paint solution (see below).

A final cosmetic modification tried to improve the look of the shanks – but it did not help much. On the Defender, there are two continuous ridges that run across the lower legs. This is a molding simplification and wrong because the Defender (and all other 04-Series chassis’) only features the ends of the ridges.

I tried to sand the inner sections away, but upon gluing the parts finally together I realized that the fit of these parts is abysmal, and PSRing on the resulting concave surface between the leftover humps was a nightmare. Did not work well, and it looks poor.

With this in mind, a general word about the Arii 1:100 Destroids with the Series 04 chassis: there are three kits (Defender, Tomahawk and Phalanx), and you’d expect that these used the same lower body just with different torsos. But that’s not the case – they are all different, and the Defender is certainly the worst version, with its odd “toe” construction, the continuous ridges and the horrible fit of the lower leg halves as well as the shoulders that hold the stub arms. The Tomahawk is better, but also challenging, and IMHO, when you are only looking for the lower body section, the Phalanx is the best kit or the trio.

Painting and markings:

This Defender was supposed to remain canonical and close to the OOB finish, so this became a simple affair.

All Macross Destroids tend to carry a uniform livery, and esp. the Tomahawk/Defender/Phalanx family is kept in murky/dull tones of green, brown and ochre: unpretentious "mud movers".

The Defender appears to carry an overall olive drab livery, and I settled on RAL 7008 (Khakigrau), which is - according to the RAL color list - supposed to be a shade of grey, but it comes out as a dull, yellowish green-brown.

This tone was applied overall from a rattle can, and the few contrast sections like the ammunition boxes or the dust guards of the knee joints were painted with NATO olive green (RAL 6014, Gelboliv, Revell 46). The hull was later treated with Modelmaster Olive Drab (FS 34087), which adds a more greenish hue to the basic paint.

The kit received a thorough black ink washing, then some dry-brushing with Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill) was applied. The decals came next, taken from the OOB sheet, plus four decals for those vernier thrusters that had not been molded into the kit’s surface. The only change is a different piece of “nose art” on the left leg, replacing the original, rather small decal. It actually belongs to a Czech AF MiG-21MF (one of the two famous Fishbeds from Pardubice in 1989, aircraft “1114”) and filled the bumpy area over the lower leg’s seam (see above) well – a kind of visual distraction from the PSR mess underneath...

Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, its major sub-assemblies put together. The optical sensors received lenses with clear paint over a silver base. The large searchlights were painted, too, with a silver base plus white and clear blue reflections on top, covered with a generous coat of Humbrol’s Clearfix to mimic a clear, glossy cover.

After final assembly, some mineral pigments were dusted onto the model’s lower areas with a soft, big brush.

I knew that the Defender was trouble, but esp. the legs turned out to be horrible to build. However, the small cosmetic changes really improve the model’s look, and I am quite happy with the result.

A successful catch for the heron - he appears to have caught a small Dace or a Roach.

I was annoyed to find a stick and wjhat looks to be an old bike frame in the way of the heron when I uploaded the shot.

The MiG-21 was the first successful Soviet aircraft combining fighter and interceptor characteristics in a single aircraft. It was a lightweight fighter, achieving Mach 2 with a relatively low-powered afterburning turbojet, and is thus comparable to the American Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter and the French Dassault Mirage III. Its basic layout was used for numerous other Soviet designs; delta-winged aircraft included Su-9 interceptor and the fast E-150 prototype from MiG bureau while the mass-produced successful front fighter Su-7 and Mikoyan's I-75 experimental interceptor combined a similar fuselage shape with swept-back wings. However, the characteristic layout with the shock cone and front air intake did not see widespread use outside the USSR and finally proved to have limited development potential, mainly because of the very small space available for the radar.

Like many aircraft designed as interceptors, the MiG-21 had a short range. This was exacerbated by the poor placement of the internal fuel tanks ahead of the centre of gravity. As the internal fuel was consumed, the center of gravity would shift rearward beyond acceptable parameters. This had the effect of making the plane statically unstable to the point of being difficult to control, resulting in an endurance of only 45 minutes in clean condition. This can be somewhat countered by carrying fuel in external tanks closer to the center of gravity. The Chinese variants somewhat improved the internal fuel tank layout (also second generation of Soviet variants), and also carry significantly larger external fuel tanks to counter this issue. Additionally, when more than half the fuel was used up, violent maneuvers prevented fuel from flowing into the engine (questionable), thereby causing it to shut down in flight. This increased the risk of tank implosions (MiG-21 had tanks pressurized with air from the engine's compressor), a problem inherited from the MiG-15, MiG-17 and MiG-19. The short endurance and low fuel capacity of the MiG-21F, PF, PFM, S/SM and M/MF variants—though each had a somewhat greater fuel capacity than its predecessor—led to the development of the MT and SMT variants. These had an increased range of 250 km (155 mi) compared to the MiG-21SM, but at the cost of worsening all other performance figures, such as a lower service ceiling and slower time to altitude.

The delta wing, while excellent for a fast-climbing interceptor, meant any form of turning combat led to a rapid loss of speed. However, the light loading of the aircraft could mean that a climb rate of 235 m/s (46,250 ft/min) was possible with a combat-loaded MiG-21bis, not far short of the performance of the later F-16A. Mig-21's Tumansky R-25 jet engine's specialty was the addition of a second fuel pump in the afterburning stage. Activating the ЧР booster feature allows the engine to develop 97.4 kilonewtons (21,896 lbf) of thrust under 4,000 meteres (13,000 ft) of altitude. The limit of operation is 1 minute for dogfight practice and 3 minutes for an actual wartime emergency, as further use causes the engine to overheat. Use of this "diamond regime" provided a massive 97.4 kN of thrust for no more than 3 minutes in actual wartime use. Use of this temporary power gave the MiG-21bis slightly better than 1:1 thrust-to-weight ratio and a climbing rate of 254 meters/second, equalling the F-16's nominal capabilities in close-quarters dogfight. In air combat practice with the MiG-21bis, use of WEP thrust was limited to 1 minute, to spare on the engines' 800 flight hours lifetime, since every second of super-afterburner use counted as several minutes of regular power run due to extreme thermal stress. When WEP was on, the MiG-21bis's R-25 engine produced a huge 5 meter long blowtorch exhaust - the six or seven brightly glowing rhomboid "shock diamonds" visible inside the flames gave the emergency-power setting its "diamond regime" name. Given a skilled pilot and capable missiles, it could give a good account of itself against contemporary fighters. Its G-limits were increased from +7Gs in initial variants to +8.5Gs in the latest variants. It was replaced by the newer variable-geometry MiG-23 and MiG-27 for ground support duties. However, not until the MiG-29 would the Soviet Union ultimately replace the MiG-21 as a maneuvering dogfighter to counter new American air superiority types.

The MiG-21 was exported widely and remains in use. The aircraft's simple controls, engine, weapons, and avionics were typical of Soviet-era military designs. The use of a tail with the delta wing aids stability and control at the extremes of the flight envelope, enhancing safety for lower-skilled pilots; this in turn enhanced its marketability in exports to developing countries with limited training programs and restricted pilot pools. While technologically inferior to the more advanced fighters it often faced, low production and maintenance costs made it a favorite of nations buying Eastern Bloc military hardware. Several Russian, Israeli and Romanian firms have begun to offer upgrade packages to MiG-21 operators, designed to bring the aircraft up to a modern standard, with greatly upgraded avionics and armaments.

Once this train had passed below me at the Piriaka lookout, I knew Id have to make a dash in order to get in front of it again and catch it from the overbridge in Piriaka itself. The Subaru was up to the task and I was able to park safely and run up to the bridge parapet......just in time!

CTA 7003 ready to head back to the yard at O' Hare airport sta.

Great Blue Heron and vole, Lake Los Carneros, Goleta, California

Sometimes the heron, especially its eyes, reminds me snake. I wonder if this prey was for itself or for its kids...

We made it in time for the vets to put an intravenous drip on him. Joey was so dehydrated that the vet failed to get the needle into his right paw, so she also had to shave his left paw.

It took a few minutes before she successfully inserted the needle in his left paw.

I felt so relieved as Joey perked up a little after receiving the saline fluids. On the way to the hospital he fell silent and looked very sleepy, which was a serious sign that he needed medical help.

The whole story starts here.

Mexican postcard by Sello, no. 216. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

On 25 November 2020, Mexican singer and actress Flor Silvestre (1930-2020) passed away. She was one of the most prominent and successful performers of Mexican and Latin American music and was a star of classic Mexican films. Famous for her melodious voice and unique singing style, she was nicknamed "La Sentimental" (The Sentimental One) and "La Voz Que Acaricia" (The Voice That Caresses). Her more than 70-year career included stage productions, radio programs, records, films, television programs, comics, and rodeo shows.

Flor Silvestre was born Guillermina Jiménez Chabolla in 1930 in Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico. She was the third child and second daughter of Jesús Jiménez Cervantes, a butcher, and María de Jesús Chabolla Peña. Her sisters Enriqueta and María de la Luz also became singers. Guillermina was raised in Salamanca and began singing at an early age. Her parents, who were also fond of singing, encouraged her to sing. She loved the mariachi music of famous Mexican singers Jorge Negrete and Lucha Reyes, and also sang songs that belonged to the pasodoble, tango, and bolero genres, which were popular in Mexico in the late 1930s. Her family moved to Mexico City and there she began her singing career. In 1943, when she was 13 years old, she debuted at the Teatro del Pueblo. Her next performance at the Teatro del Pueblo was in the play 'La soldadera' (The female soldier), directed by López Santillán. She played a girl who comes out of a railway wagon and sings 'La soldadera', a song written for her by José de Jesús Morales. The play was also broadcast by Mexico's national radio station, XEFO, and 'La soldadera' became the first song she performed on radio. XEFO announcer Arturo Blancas chose the title of Dolores del Río's film Flor Silvestre (Emilio Fernández, 1943), as the young singer's new stage name, so Guillermina Jiménez became Flor Silvestre, which means 'wild flower'. In 1945, she was announced as the "Alma de la Canción Ranchera" (Soul of the Ranchera Song), and in 1950, the year in which she emerged as a radio star, she was proclaimed the "Reina de la Canción Mexicana" (Queen of Mexican Song). In February 1950, she was a part of the "numerous, hybrid, but useful cast" of '¡A los toros!', a revue about bullfighting staged at the Teatro Tívoli. It was written and presented by announcer Paco Malgesto, who would become her second husband. In the revue, she sang Mexican musical numbers associated with bullfights. Also in 1950, she signed a contract with Columbia Records and recorded her first hits, which include 'Imposible olvidarte', 'Que Dios te perdone', and 'Pobre corazón'. In 1957, she began recording for Musart Records and became one of the label's exclusive artists with numerous best-selling singles, such as 'Cielo rojo', 'Renunciación', and 'Gracias'. Many of her hits charted on Cashbox Mexico's Best Sellers and Record World Latin American Single Hit Parade. She also participated in her husband Antonio Aguilar's musical rodeo shows.

Flor Silvestre made her film debut in 1949 singing in Te besaré en la boca/I will kiss you on the mouth (Fernando Cortés, 1950). In 1950, Flor signed a five-film contract with Gregorio Walerstein, a leading film producer known as "the Tsar of Mexican films" She made her acting debut in his production Primero soy mexicano/First I am Mexican (1950), co-starring Joaquín Pardavé (who also wrote and directed the film) and Luis Aguilar and featuring Francisco "Charro" Avitia. She was reunited with Luis Aguilar and Francisco Avitia in the film El tigre enmascarado/The masked tiger (Zacarías Gómez Urquiza, 1951). She then appeared as the leading lady of actor Dagoberto Rodríguez in a film trilogy, El lobo solitario/The lonely wolf (Vicente Oroná, 1952), La justicia del lobo/Wolf justice (Vicente Oroná, 1952), and Vuelve el lobo/The wolf returns (Vicente Oroná, 1952). Between 1950 and 1990, she appeared in more than seventy films. Beautiful and statuesque, she became one of the leading stars of the 'golden age' of the Mexican film industry. In 1955, she appeared in her first color film, La doncella de piedra/The stone maiden (Miguel M. Delgado, 1956), one of the first Mexican CinemaScope productions. An adaptation of Rómulo Gallegos' novel 'Sobre la misma tierra', the film features Flor Silvestre in the role of Cantaralia Barroso, the mother of the novel's protagonist, Remota Montiel (played by Elsa Aguirre). Silvestre played opposite famous comedians, such as Cantinflas in the Eastmancolor comedy El bolero de Raquel/Raquel's Shoeshiner (Miguel M. Delgado, 1957). She received for the first time top billing in Pueblo en Armas/People in arms (Miguel Contreras Torres, 1959) and its sequel ¡Viva la soldadera!/Long live the female soldiers!(Miguel Contreras Torres, 1960). Director Ismael Rodríguez gave her important roles in the Mexican Revolution epic La cucaracha/The Soldiers of Pancho Villa (Ismael Rodríguez, 1959) opposite María Félix and Dolores del Río, and Ánimas Trujano/The Important Man (Ismael Rodríguez, 1962) with Toshiro Mifune, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won a Golden Globe. In 1960, she starred opposite the popular comedy duo Viruta and Capulina in Dos locos en escena/Two Crazy Ones on the Scene (Agustín P. Delgado, 1960).

In 1973, Flor Silvestre played one of Pancho Villa's lovers in La muerte de Pancho Villa (Mario Hernández, 1973), and played Felipe Carrillo Puerto's wife, Isabel Palma, in Peregrina (Mario Hernández, 1974). She sang 'La palma' in Simón Blanco (Mario Hernández, 1975) and played the female leads in Don Herculano enamorado/Don Herculano in love (Mario Hernández, 1975), El moro de cumpas/The Moor of Cumpas (Mario Hernández, 1977), and Mi caballo el cantador/My horse the singer (Mario Hernández, 1979). She made her final film, Triste recuerdo/Sad memory (Mario Hernández, 1990). She was also the star of the comic book 'La Llanera Vengadora'. In 2013, the Association of Mexican Cinema Journalists honored her with the Special Silver Goddess Award. In 2015, her documentary 'Flor Silvestre: su destino fue querer' premiered at the Guadalajara International Film Festival. The 24-minute documentary features interviews with Flor Silvestre, who recounts her life and career; her five children, Dalia, Francisco, Marcela, Antonio, and Pepe; and singers Angélica María and Guadalupe Pineda. Flor Silvestre married her first husband, Andrés Nieto, in the 1940s. She gave birth to her first child, singer and dancer Dalia Inés Nieto, when she was 16 years old. Around 1953, Flor Silvestre married radio announcer and bullfighting chronicler Francisco Rubiales Calvo "Paco Malgesto", who would later become a famous presenter and pioneer of Mexican television. They had two children, translator Francisco Rubiales and singer and actress Marcela Rubiales. They lived in a house in Mexico City's Lindavista neighborhood. The couple separated and began divorce proceedings in 1958. Flor Silvestre's third and last husband was singer and actor Antonio Aguilar, who died in 2007. He was the love of her life. Their relationship began when they made the film El rayo de Sinaloa in 1957. They married in 1959 (or 1960, according to some sources) and had two sons who also became singers and actors, Antonio "Toño" Aguilar and José "Pepe" Aguilar. Aguilar built her a spacious home and ranch, El Soyate, northeast of Tayahua, Zacatecas. Flor Silvestre died on 25 November 2020 at her home in Villanueva, Zacatecas. She was 90.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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

British postcard by Santoro Graphics Ltd, London, no. C243.

American actor and producer Tom Cruise (1962) became with his charismatic smile the most successful member of Hollywood's Brat Pack, the golden boys and girls of the 1980s. Top Gun (1985) made him an action star, but with his roles in The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) he proved himself to be an all-round star and excellent actor. During the 1990s, he continued to combine action blockbusters like Mission Impossibe (1996) with highly acclaimed dramas like A Few Good Men (1992), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Magnolia (1999). He received more praise for his roles in Minority Report (2000) and Collateral (2002) and was for years one of the highest paid actors in the world. Although he continued to score major box office hits with the Mission Impossible franchise, his later work was overshadwowed by his outspoken attitude about Scientology which alienated him from many of his viewers.

Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 in Syracuse, NY. He is the only son of Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. He has three sisters: Marian, Lee Anne De Vette and Cass. In 1974, when Cruise was 12, his parents divorced. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. Deeply religious, he enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with the ambition to join the priesthood. He dropped out after one year. At high-school, he was a wrestler until he was sidelined by a knee injury. Soon taking up acting, he found that the activity served a dual purpose: performing satiated his need for attention, while the memorisation aspect of acting helped him come to grips with his dyslexia. Moving to New York in 1980, he studied drama at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse, in conjunction with the Actors Studio, New School University, New York. He signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and began acting in films. His film debut was a small part in Endless Love (Franco Zeffirelli, 1981), starring Brooke Shields. It was followed by a major supporting role as a crazed military academy student in Taps (Harold Becker, 1981), starring George C. Scott and Timothy Hutton. In 1983, Cruise was part of the ensemble cast of The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983). The Hollywood press corps began touting Cruise as one of the 'Brat Pack', a group of twenty-something actors who seemed on the verge of taking over the movie industry in the early 1980s. Cruise's first big hit was the coming-of-age comedy Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983), in which he entered film-trivia infamy with the scene wherein he celebrates his parents' absence by dancing around the living room in his underwear. From the outset, he exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Cruise played the male lead in the dark fantasy Legend (Ridley Scott, 1985) and the action film Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) with Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer. Top Gun (1986) established Cruise as an action star. However, he refused to be pigeonholed, and followed it up with a solid characterszation of a fledgling pool shark in The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, 1986), for which co-star Paul Newman earned an Academy Award. In 1988, he played the brother of an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988). However, Cruise had not yet totally convinced critics he was more than a pretty face while he also starred in Cocktail (Roger Donaldson, 1988), which earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. His chance came when he played paraplegic Vietnam vet Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989). For his role, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1990 Tom Cruise renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. He was introduced to Scientology by his ex-wife Mimi Rogers. Though Cruise's bankability faltered a bit with the expensive disappointment Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1990) with his-then wife Nicole Kidman, A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992) brought him back into the game. By 1994, the star was undercutting his own leading man image with the role of the slick, dastardly vampire Lestat in the long-delayed film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994), opposite Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. Although the author was vehemently opposed to Cruise's casting, Rice famously reversed her decision upon seeing the actor's performance, and publicly praised Cruise's portrayal. In 1996, Cruise scored financial success with the reboot of Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma, 1996), but it was with his multilayered performance in Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996), that Cruise proved once again why he is considered a major Hollywood player. For Jerry Maguire, he won another Golden Globe and received his second Oscar nomination. According to IMDb, Cruise is the first actor in history to star in five consecutive films that grossed $100 million in the United States: A Few Good Men (1992), the thriller The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996). 1999 saw Cruise reunited onscreen with Kidman in a project of a very different sort, Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1990). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film, which was the director's last, had been the subject of controversy, rumour, and speculation since it began filming. It opened to curious critics and audiences alike across the nation, and was met with a violently mixed response. However, it allowed Cruise to once again take part in film history, further solidifying his position as one of Hollywood's most well-placed movers and shakers. Cruise's enviable position was again solidified later in 1999, when he earned a third Golden Globe and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a loathsome 'sexual prowess' guru in Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)."

In 2000, Tom Cruise scored again when he returned as international agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible II (John Woo, 2000), which proved to be one of the summer blockbusters. Like its predecessor, it was the highest-grossing film of the year, and had a mixed critical reception. He then reteamed with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for a remake of the Spanish film Abre los Ojos/Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997) titled Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001) with Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. Though Vanilla Sky's sometimes surreal trappings found the film receiving a mixed reception at the box office, the same could not be said for the following year's massively successful Sci-Fi chase film Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2001), or of the historical epic The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003). For his next film, Cruise picked a role unlike any he'd ever played; starring as a sociopathic hitman in the psychological thriller Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004). He received major praise for his departure from the good-guy characters he'd built his career on, and for doing so convincingly. He teamed up with Spielberg again for the second time in three years with an epic adaptation of the H.G. Wells alien invasion story War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005). The summer blockbuster was in some ways overshadowed, however, by a cloud of negative publicity. It began, when Cruise became suddenly vocal about his beliefs in Scientology, the religion created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise publicly denounced actress Brooke Shields for taking medication to combat her postpartum depression, going so far as to call the psychological science a "Nazi science" in an Entertainment Weekly interview. In 2005, he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for The Today Show during which time he appeared to be distractingly argumentative in his insistence that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," and in a Der Spiegel interview, he was quoted as saying that Scientology has the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. This behaviour caused a stirring of public opinion about Cruise, as did his relationship with 27-year-old actress Katie Holmes. The two announced their engagement in the spring of 2005, and Cruise's enthousiasm for his new romantic interest created more curiosity about his mental stability. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he jumped up and down on the couch, professing his love for the newly-Scientologist Holmes. The actor's new public image alienated many of his viewers. As he geared up for the spring release of Mission: Impossible III (J.J. Abrams, 2006), his ability to sell a film based almost purely on his own likability was in question for the first time in 20 years. Despite this, the film was more positively received by critics than the previous films in the series, and grossed nearly $400 million at the box office. Cruise moved on to making headlines on the business front, when he and corporate partner Paula Wagner in 2006 officially "took over" the United Artists studio, which was all but completely defunct. One of the first films to be produced by the new United Artists was the tense political thriller Lions for Lambs (Robert Redford, 2007), with Redford, Cruise and Meryl Streep. The film took an earnest and unflinching look at the politics behind the Iraq war but was a commercial disappointment. This was followed by the World War II thriller Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008) with kenneth Branagh and Carice van Houten.

Tom Cruise would find a solid footing as the 2010s progressed, with blockbusters like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011) and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015). He is known for doing many of his own stunts in these films, even exceptionally dangerous ones. The Mission Impossible franchise earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Cruise reteamed with Cameron Diaz in the action-comedy Knight and Day (James Mangold, 2010). He starred as Jack Reacher in the film adaptation of British author Lee Child's 2005 novel One Shot (Christopher McQuarrie, 2012). He also starred in big budget fantasy projects like Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014). Tom Cruised was married three times. His first wife was actress Mimi Rogers, with whom he was married from 1987 till their divorce in 1990. His second marriage with Nicole Kidman from 1990 till 2001. They adopted two children Isabella Jane Cruise (1992) and Connor Antony Cruise (1995). he lived together with Vanilla Sky (2001) co-star Penélope Cruz from 2001 - 2004. His 2006 marriage to Katie Holmes ended in a divorce in 2012. They have one daughter, Surie Cruise (2006). Recently, Cruise returned on the screen as Ethan Hunt in the sixth installment of the Mission Impossible series, Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, 2018). In 2020, he will also return as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2020), in which Val Kilmer will also reprise his role from the first film.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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

Lossie 99 recovers to runway 23 at Lossie after a successful airtest.

BLOGGED:

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British postcard by Exclusive Collectors' Artcard. Photo: Geffen Pictures. Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994). Caption: The Vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Ageless, Immortal and Evil, he is sustained through the centuries by the blood of countless victims.

American actor and producer Tom Cruise (1962) became with his charismatic smile the most successful member of Hollywood's Brat Pack, the golden boys and girls of the 1980s. Top Gun (1985) made him an action star, but with his roles in The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) he proved himself to be an all-round star and excellent actor. During the 1990s, he continued to combine action blockbusters like Mission Impossibe (1996) with highly acclaimed dramas like A Few Good Men (1992), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Magnolia (1999). He received more praise for his roles in Minority Report (2000) and Collateral (2002) and was for years one of the highest paid actors in the world. Although he continued to score major box office hits with the Mission Impossible franchise, his later work was overshadwowed by his outspoken attitude about Scientology which alienated him from many of his viewers.

Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1962 in Syracuse, NY. He is the only son of Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. He has three sisters: Marian, Lee Anne De Vette and Cass. In 1974, when Cruise was 12, his parents divorced. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. Deeply religious, he enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with the ambition to join the priesthood. He dropped out after one year. At high-school, he was a wrestler until he was sidelined by a knee injury. Soon taking up acting, he found that the activity served a dual purpose: performing satiated his need for attention, while the memorisation aspect of acting helped him come to grips with his dyslexia. Moving to New York in 1980, he studied drama at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse, in conjunction with the Actors Studio, New School University, New York. He signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and began acting in films. His film debut was a small part in Endless Love (Franco Zeffirelli, 1981), starring Brooke Shields. It was followed by a major supporting role as a crazed military academy student in Taps (Harold Becker, 1981), starring George C. Scott and Timothy Hutton. In 1983, Cruise was part of the ensemble cast of The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983). The Hollywood press corps began touting Cruise as one of the 'Brat Pack', a group of twenty-something actors who seemed on the verge of taking over the movie industry in the early 1980s. Cruise's first big hit was the coming-of-age comedy Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983), in which he entered film-trivia infamy with the scene wherein he celebrates his parents' absence by dancing around the living room in his underwear. From the outset, he exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Cruise played the male lead in the dark fantasy Legend (Ridley Scott, 1985) and the action film Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) with Kelly McGillis and Val Kilmer. Top Gun (1986) established Cruise as an action star. However, he refused to be pigeonholed, and followed it up with a solid characterszation of a fledgling pool shark in The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, 1986), for which co-star Paul Newman earned an Academy Award. In 1988, he played the brother of an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988). However, Cruise had not yet totally convinced critics he was more than a pretty face while he also starred in Cocktail (Roger Donaldson, 1988), which earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. His chance came when he played paraplegic Vietnam vet Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989). For his role, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1990 Tom Cruise renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. He was introduced to Scientology by his ex-wife Mimi Rogers. Though Cruise's bankability faltered a bit with the expensive disappointment Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1990) with his-then wife Nicole Kidman, A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992) brought him back into the game. By 1994, the star was undercutting his own leading man image with the role of the slick, dastardly vampire Lestat in the long-delayed film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994), opposite Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. Although the author was vehemently opposed to Cruise's casting, Rice famously reversed her decision upon seeing the actor's performance, and publicly praised Cruise's portrayal. In 1996, Cruise scored financial success with the reboot of Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma, 1996), but it was with his multilayered performance in Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996), that Cruise proved once again why he is considered a major Hollywood player. For Jerry Maguire, he won another Golden Globe and received his second Oscar nomination. According to IMDb, Cruise is the first actor in history to star in five consecutive films that grossed $100 million in the United States: A Few Good Men (1992), the thriller The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996). 1999 saw Cruise reunited onscreen with Kidman in a project of a very different sort, Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1990). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film, which was the director's last, had been the subject of controversy, rumour, and speculation since it began filming. It opened to curious critics and audiences alike across the nation, and was met with a violently mixed response. However, it allowed Cruise to once again take part in film history, further solidifying his position as one of Hollywood's most well-placed movers and shakers. Cruise's enviable position was again solidified later in 1999, when he earned a third Golden Globe and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a loathsome 'sexual prowess' guru in Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)."

In 2000, Tom Cruise scored again when he returned as international agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible II (John Woo, 2000), which proved to be one of the summer blockbusters. Like its predecessor, it was the highest-grossing film of the year, and had a mixed critical reception. He then reteamed with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for a remake of the Spanish film Abre los Ojos/Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997) titled Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001) with Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. Though Vanilla Sky's sometimes surreal trappings found the film receiving a mixed reception at the box office, the same could not be said for the following year's massively successful Sci-Fi chase film Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2001), or of the historical epic The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003). For his next film, Cruise picked a role unlike any he'd ever played; starring as a sociopathic hitman in the psychological thriller Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004). He received major praise for his departure from the good-guy characters he'd built his career on, and for doing so convincingly. He teamed up with Spielberg again for the second time in three years with an epic adaptation of the H.G. Wells alien invasion story War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005). The summer blockbuster was in some ways overshadowed, however, by a cloud of negative publicity. It began, when Cruise became suddenly vocal about his beliefs in Scientology, the religion created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise publicly denounced actress Brooke Shields for taking medication to combat her postpartum depression, going so far as to call the psychological science a "Nazi science" in an Entertainment Weekly interview. In 2005, he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for The Today Show during which time he appeared to be distractingly argumentative in his insistence that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," and in a Der Spiegel interview, he was quoted as saying that Scientology has the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. This behaviour caused a stirring of public opinion about Cruise, as did his relationship with 27-year-old actress Katie Holmes. The two announced their engagement in the spring of 2005, and Cruise's enthousiasm for his new romantic interest created more curiosity about his mental stability. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he jumped up and down on the couch, professing his love for the newly-Scientologist Holmes. The actor's new public image alienated many of his viewers. As he geared up for the spring release of Mission: Impossible III (J.J. Abrams, 2006), his ability to sell a film based almost purely on his own likability was in question for the first time in 20 years. Despite this, the film was more positively received by critics than the previous films in the series, and grossed nearly $400 million at the box office. Cruise moved on to making headlines on the business front, when he and corporate partner Paula Wagner in 2006 officially "took over" the United Artists studio, which was all but completely defunct. One of the first films to be produced by the new United Artists was the tense political thriller Lions for Lambs (Robert Redford, 2007), with Redford, Cruise and Meryl Streep. The film took an earnest and unflinching look at the politics behind the Iraq war but was a commercial disappointment. This was followed by the World War II thriller Valkyrie (Bryan Singer, 2008) with kenneth Branagh and Carice van Houten.

Tom Cruise would find a solid footing as the 2010s progressed, with blockbusters like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011) and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015). He is known for doing many of his own stunts in these films, even exceptionally dangerous ones. The Mission Impossible franchise earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Cruise reteamed with Cameron Diaz in the action-comedy Knight and Day (James Mangold, 2010). He starred as Jack Reacher in the film adaptation of British author Lee Child's 2005 novel One Shot (Christopher McQuarrie, 2012). He also starred in big budget fantasy projects like Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014). Tom Cruised was married three times. His first wife was actress Mimi Rogers, with whom he was married from 1987 till their divorce in 1990. His second marriage with Nicole Kidman from 1990 till 2001. They adopted two children Isabella Jane Cruise (1992) and Connor Antony Cruise (1995). he lived together with Vanilla Sky (2001) co-star Penélope Cruz from 2001 - 2004. His 2006 marriage to Katie Holmes ended in a divorce in 2012. They have one daughter, Surie Cruise (2006). Recently, Cruise returned on the screen as Ethan Hunt in the sixth installment of the Mission Impossible series, Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, 2018). In 2020, he will also return as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2020), in which Val Kilmer will also reprise his role from the first film.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Recovered American-White Pelican being released into wild at Las Gallinas Water Sanitary District.

This substantial, two-storeyed brick residence was erected in 1902-03 for John Lamb, co-proprietor of the successful Queen Street drapery establishment of Edwards & Lamb, and a businessman with enlightened attitudes toward his employees. Named ‘Home’, (also known as Lamb House) the house has remained in the sole ownership of the Lamb family since its construction. Designed by eminent architect Alexander B Wilson, the residence embraced the Federation Queen Anne style and is recognised as one of Wilson’s greatest domestic works.

Kangaroo Point, originally part of the land of the Jagera and Turrbul people, was one of the earliest localities used for colonial purposes following the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement. The Kangaroo Point Cliffs were quarried for their Brisbane tuff, used in building works for the colony, and the area was farmed from 1837. Following the opening of the colony for free settlement in the 1840s, land along the peninsula was offered for sale. Industry and shipping was established along the river front, with modest working-class dwellings dotting the lower-lying areas. By the 1850s, the higher land at Kangaroo Point was attracting wealthy residents who erected substantial homes overlooking the Brisbane River.

The highest part of Kangaroo Point was River Terrace, running atop the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. By 1875 the terrace was recognised as ‘beauteous… with its unrivalled coup d’oeil of the great city’, and recommended to visitors for sightseeing. Subdivisions along the east side of the terrace were offered for sale from the 1850s, but the western side was reserved for public purposes, providing a dramatic clifftop promenade between the Kangaroo Point State School and St Mary’s church, at the Main Street intersection, and Leopard Street, a continuation of River Terrace.

By the turn of the 20th century Kangaroo Point was a highly appealing residential area, both for its quiet, leafy nature and for its proximity to the city, with ferry and bus services linking the area to the central business district. In 1901, a parcel of eight undeveloped subdivisions on Leopard and Wild streets, at the highest elevation overlooking the Gardens Point, were sold by the mortgagee. The subdivisions surrounded an older residence, ‘Rockfield’, built on the corner of Leopard and Wild streets, circa 1890, for Captain Daniel McGregor. The undeveloped sites had first been offered for sale in October 1852 and granted to John McCabe in 1855. They were transferred to land agent GT Lang in 1882, before they were purchased in August 1901 by John Lamb.

English-born John Lamb and his business partner to-be Thomas Edwards arrived in Australia on the ship Cuzco in 1881. After settling briefly in New South Wales, they established a drapery and clothier business in Brisbane’s premier shopping district, Queen Street, in 1884. Edwards and Lamb was one of a number of locally-established drapery firms opened between the 1860s and 1890s, which were the forerunners of Brisbane’s major department stores. By 1888, Edwards and Lamb had made ‘such rapid strides that… it is one of the representative mercantile house of the kind in the colony.' The firm openly supported workers’ rights, and was actively engaged in the Early Closing Association movement, which campaigned for shorter working hours for retail workers. The movement’s first chair and secretary were both recruited from Edwards and Lamb, and in the 1890s the firm employed Frank McDonnell as a manager-cum-union organiser until McDonnell’s elevation to Queensland Parliament in 1896. This was quickly followed by the passage of the Factories and Shops Act 1896, and the introduction of early closing in its 1900 replacement. McDonnell credited Edwards and Lamb for his success.

Following the death of Thomas Edwards in 1897, John Lamb purchased Edwards’ share in the business, and continued it on his own. In 1899, Lamb married Sarah Jeane Stephens in Maryborough, and by 1901 the couple had two children, with a third due in 1902. With his family growing, and his business on firm footing, Lamb purchased the Kangaroo Point sites and moved into temporary accommodation in Leopard Street, pending the construction of a new family residence.

Lamb’s timing coincided with a period of steady residential growth in Brisbane. The city had suffered in the 1890s from the combined effects of an economic depression and extensive flooding, and commissions for substantial houses had fallen off. By 1900, the economy was recovering, and businessmen and retailers engaged Brisbane’s prominent architects to design a number of large residences in the inner-city and suburban areas, from Waterton, at Chelmer, circa 1900, for insurance agent Thomas Beevor Steele (architect unknown); Drysllwyn, in Auchenflower, c1905, by architect Claude William Chambers, for mining entrepreneur William Davies; Endrim, at Toowong, 1906, by unknown architect, for tram company director JS Badger; Turrawan, at Clayfield, 1906, by Hall and Dods, for doctor Arthur Halford (combined surgery/house); Cremorne, at Hamilton, circa 1906, by Eaton and Bates, for publican James O'Connor; Feniton, at New Farm, 1906, by RS Dods, for the Trude family; to Weemalla, at Corinda, 1909, by RS Dods, for insurance company manager RM Steele.

Lamb engaged architect Alexander Brown Wilson to design his new Kangaroo Point house. Wilson was by then a well-established Brisbane architect, having commenced work with the Queensland Public Works Department in 1875 at the age of 16. From 1882 he was employed as architect FDG Stanley’s principal draftsman, before beginning his architectural training in Brisbane and Europe. He became the first Queensland-trained associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, returning to Brisbane to open his own architectural practice in 1884. He also helped found the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1888, and served four terms as its president. Wilson’s practice quickly developed into a substantial firm, particularly renowned for its church and domestic designs. Prominent examples of Wilson’s domestic work survive in Brisbane, including Leckhampton (1890), Kinauld (1888) and Como (1890), but his most recognised domestic work was his design for John Lamb.

In designing Lamb’s house, Wilson put his personal interpretation on the Queen Anne style. Imported from Britain and the United States, Federation ‘Queen Anne’ was the dominant style in Australian domestic architecture for substantial houses at the turn of the 20th century. Popularised by the influential British architect Richard Norman Shaw, who in the 1870s began designing country houses in an eclectic style combining elements from many periods of traditional English rural building, the style was labelled ‘Queen Anne’ after it became popular in America. In Australia, the style was characterised by: red facebrick walls, often with contrasting white painted ornamentation or timber joinery; complex roof forms with towers and multiple gables; Tudor-style half-timber panelling in gable ends; tall brick chimneys; terracotta detailing; and picturesque asymmetry. Roofs were often French Marseilles tile with a detailed ridge or apex. Verandahs featured ornamental posts, brackets, balustrades and valances. Patterns in leadlight windows, doors and fanlights tended to echo the free curves found in nature as the influence of Art Nouveau on the Queen Anne design became increasingly apparent after the 1900s. Although not as popular or extensively used as in Victoria and New South Wales, the Federation Queen Anne style spread to Queensland and was incorporated into designs from the 1890s until the 1940s. In Queensland the style was often applied to traditional timber houses, influencing their roof forms, timber verandah detailing and other ornamentation.

Notable Queen Anne features of the Lamb residence include its red brick composition, terracotta shingle tiles, chimney post, turned timber posts, gables of suggested half-timbering and Classical motifs on the three-storey tower.

Wilson drew plans for Lamb’s house, and a specification was detailed in September 1901. Wilson’s design for the residence set out a ground and first floor, with a protruding observation tower. It was of brick construction, with a tiled roof featuring half-timbered detailing to gable-ends; and a concrete-finished entrance porch aligned vertically with the observation tower. The front door, accessed by the porch, led to the central staircase via a vestibule, which had a lavatory to one side. On the river (northern) side of the residence was an eastern drawing room and connected western dining room that both featured fireplaces, architraves, large windows, skirting boards and ‘wainscoting’ (dado panelling). On the southern side of the residence was a morning (breakfast) room to the east, which opened onto the front verandah; with the kitchen, scullery and connected service wing to the west. Upstairs, there were six bedrooms, each of a different size; a small housemaid’s store and press; and a bathroom behind the central staircase. An additional stair climbed the observation tower, which had a viewing platform in response to the house’s prominent position atop the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Externally, there were two water tanks, a service wing, including a washhouse with fuel store and earth closet, and a full-sized tennis court (56 x 17m). Early photographs from the Leopard Street entrance driveway show various concrete render mouldings, including the residence’s name, Home, above the pediment to the entrance porch; and iron entrance gates set within a front fence with polychromatic brickwork and concrete capping.

The specifications also clearly distinguished between the primary and other rooms, requiring cedar and ‘fancy wood’ of a wider profile for timber joinery in the public rooms (including drawing, dining and morning rooms, staircase, vestibule and lavatory) and four principal bedrooms; with pine in the two back bedrooms and kitchen. Pressed metal ceilings and / or ceiling roses were to be located in public rooms and principal bedrooms, with leadlight glazing specified for use in a skylight, the front door, vestibule door, cloak-room (potentially describing the lavatory) window, small windows to dining room fireplace, bathroom windows, some verandah doors, and fanlights over dining room and drawing room windows. The drawing room and main bedroom featured bay windows.

Wilson called for tenders for the brick villa in March 1902. The house was constructed over a twelve month period by builder William Anthony at a contract price of £3,250. Work was underway by June 1902, when the ‘fine two-storied residence… commanding a beautiful prospect’ was described in the Brisbane Courier as the main work occupying Wilson’s ‘architectural skill’.

The eight subdivisions provided a generous 3133m2 site for the house and its features. The house was positioned near the back of the site, taking advantage of the extensive views, with a driveway from Leopard Street curving around the tennis court. The Leopard Street frontage was lined by a polychromatic brick wall and ornate driveway gates, also designed by Wilson. Fig trees were planted along the Leopard Street frontage to the property, with additional trees and gardens along the northern boundary, the tennis court fence and the circular driveway, which terminated in front of the house. A service entrance ran from Wild Street to the kitchen and service wing.

The Lamb family house was completed by April 1903, when Mrs Lamb advertised for a general servant from ‘Home, River terrace’. The youngest of the Lambs’ four children was born in 1905; by 1910, Mrs Lamb, with two servants and a children’s nursemaid, advertised for additional help.

The attraction of Kangaroo Point as a quiet but centrally located suburb for the well-to-do continued well into the 1920s. Its reputation as a leafy garden suburb was enhanced in the 1910s when River Terrace was planted with a line of fig trees and garden beds, improving the clifftop promenade. A photograph taken of the River Terrace promenade in 1919 displayed both the vegetation improvements and the view, which terminated in Home and its neighbouring house, Edgecliffe. In 1928 the suburb was recognised as one of the ‘garden suburbs of Brisbane’, with ‘handsome residences, well-kept gardens, wide-streets, and tree-lined avenues.’ From the 1930s, however, houses along the peninsula (including a number of historic homes) were removed for the construction of the Story Bridge (1940), and the suburb became increasingly busy.

Few changes appear to have been made to Home after its construction. Architect Wilson undertook minor repairs to the property in 1911, and a brick garage was added at the Wild Street boundary by 1925, with the circular driveway removed and extended to the garage. A pavilion was later added to the tennis court (extant by 1942). The trees, which had become substantial by the 1940s, were cut back in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

John Lamb senior died in 1920, passing the Edwards and Lamb business to his two sons, John and Frank, and the house to his widow, Sarah. Home was mortgaged in 1922 for the sum of £8,000. Three of the Lamb children did not marry, and continued to reside in the large family residence. Both sons worked for the retail firm, while Sarah and her daughters hosted a number of social and fundraising events at the house in the 1920s and 30s, particularly in aid of the nearby St Mary’s Anglican Church. The three unmarried children also purchased the neighbouring Rockfield in 1941. Following Sarah’s death in 1956, ownership of Home passed to her daughters, who remained resident at the house.

The Lamb family business – known both as Edwards and Lambs and simply Lamb’s – operated successfully into the mid-20th century, as one of the renowned Queensland draperies which dominated the state’s retailing market until the 1950s. From the small Queen Street store, it expanded to a large commercial operation with a mail order business for country customers, and was ‘always assured of patronage, especially from country people, who know they are dealing with a reputable establishment’. Until 1921 it relied on word-of-mouth, rather than advertising, for its business. Edwards and Lambs’ premises were extended in 1932 and 1938, doubling the floor size and improving the layout, until it developed a ‘world-wide reputation’ by 1949. A Victory Farm was established at Holland Park during WWII, changing to flowers after the war to decorate the business premises. The Lamb brothers also continued to operate Edwards and Lamb with attention to the welfare of its employees, providing a superannuation scheme and mutual benefits society; additional Christmas holidays; and an extra week’s pay on the firm’s 60th anniversary. As neither a private nor public company, the business was the responsibility of the Lamb brothers, and after both passed away, the firm was sold to Factors Ltd. The sale coincided with the demise of the Queensland-based retailers in the 1960s, when they were superseded by drive-in suburban shopping centres, and sold to large southern retailers.

Home’s prominent position and striking style have made it a Brisbane landmark. As early as 1906 the ‘fine residence’ was considered worthy of note amongst the ‘suburban beauties’ of Kangaroo Point, and the ‘stately home’ featured as one of Brisbane’s newer homes photographed for the Queenslander in 1927. Home has featured in numerous publications, including Salon, the Architectural Journal of New South Wales; Towards the Dawn; 150 years of Brisbane River Housing; architectural sketches; blog posts and tourism websites; and picture postcards of the city. Visible along two stretches of the Brisbane River, as well as from the Botanic Gardens, Kangaroo Point Cliffs and South Bank, it has attracted the attention of tourists, and the house was dramatically floodlit for the Royal Visit in 1954. In 2010, Home was recognised by the Australian Institute of Architects as a nationally significant work, as an important landmark, the best known residential work of Wilson, and arguably Brisbane’s most distinguished Queen Anne styled mansion.

In the late 2010s,

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

Osprey in front of the Noah Lake Hide, Shapwick, Somerset

Spring has arrived, the flowers are blooming and so have the mirrors of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. These three pictures help visually show how Webb’s iconic 21 foot 4-inch (6.5 meter) primary mirror has been built to fold to a much smaller size for takeoff.

Read more about Webb's recently successful mirror deployment test: go.nasa.gov/2Rq09P0

Image Credit: Northrop Grumman, NASA/Chris Gunn

Greylake

Looking out from the tower of the Grade I Listed Bath Abbey over the city, in Bath, Somerset.

In 675 Osric, King of the Hwicce, granted the Abbess Berta 100 hides near Bath for the establishment of a convent. This religious house became a monastery under the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester. King Offa of Mercia successfully wrested "that most famous monastery at Bath" from the bishop in 781. William of Malmesbury tells that Offa rebuilt the monastic church, which may have occupied the site of an earlier pagan temple.

Bath was ravaged in the power struggle between the sons of William the Conqueror following his death in 1087. The victor, William II Rufus, granted the city to a royal physician, John of Tours, who became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath. Shortly after his consecration John bought Bath Abbey's grounds from the king, as well as the city of Bath itself.

When this was effected in 1090, John became the first Bishop of Bath, and St Peter's was raised to cathedral status. As the roles of bishop and abbot had been combined, the monastery became a priory, run by its prior. With the elevation of the abbey to cathedral status, it was felt that a larger, more up-to-date building was required. John of Tours planned a new cathedral on a grand scale, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but only the ambulatory was complete when he died in December 1122.

The half-finished cathedral was devastated by fire in 1137, but work continued under Godfrey, the new bishop, until about 1156; the completed building was approximately 330 feet (101 m) long. It was consecrated while Robert of Bath was bishop. The specific date is not known however it was between 1148 and 1161.

In 1197, Reginald Fitz Jocelin's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey, but the monks there would not accept their new Bishop of Glastonbury and the title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219. Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath.

Joint cathedral status was awarded by Pope Innocent IV to Bath and Wells in 1245. Roger of Salisbury was appointed the first Bishop of Bath and Wells, having been Bishop of Bath for a year previously. Bath Cathedral gradually fell into disrepair. When Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells 1495–1503, visited Bath in 1499 he was shocked to find this famous church in ruins. King took a year to consider what action to take, before writing to the Prior of Bath in October 1500 to explain that a large amount of the priory income would be dedicated to rebuilding the cathedral.

Robert and William Vertue, the king's masons were commissioned, promising to build the finest vault in England. The new design incorporated the surviving Norman crossing wall and arches.

Prior Holloway surrendered Bath Priory to the crown in January 1539. It was sold to Humphry Colles of Taunton. The church was stripped of lead, iron and glass and left to decay. Colles sold it to Matthew Colthurst of Wardour Castle in 1543. His son Edmund Colthurst gave the roofless remains of the building to the corporation of Bath in 1572. The corporation had difficulty finding private funds for its restoration.

In 1574, Queen Elizabeth I promoted the restoration of the church, to serve as the grand parish church of Bath. She ordered that a national fund should be set up to finance the work, and in 1583 decreed that it should become the parish church of Bath. James Montague, the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608–1616, paid £1,000 for a new nave roof of timber lath construction; according to the inscription on his tomb, this was prompted after seeking shelter in the roofless nave during a thunderstorm.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8398/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Walther Jaeger, Berlin.

Wolfgang Liebeneiner (1905-1987) was a German-Austrian film and stage actor, who turned into a successful director in the mid-1930s. Under the Nazi regime, he had a thriving career. He directed a few propaganda films and had important positions at the Reichsfilmkammer and the Ufa. After the war, he could continue his career smoothly in both the theatre and the cinema.

Wolfgang Georg Louis Liebeneiner was born in Liebau in Prussian Silesia Germany (now Lubomierz, Poland) in 1905. He was the son of a textile manufacturer. Wolfgang was sent to the cadet schools Wahlstatt und Berlin-Lichterfelde and went for further schooling to Berlin-Zehlendorf. After graduating, he studied philosophy, Germanistik, and international history in Innsbruck (Austria), Berlin, and Munich. During his studies, he became the head of an academic stage group in Munich. In 1928, he studied acting and directing with Otto Falckenberg, the director of the Munich Kammerspiele. That same year he debuted in Frank Wedekind's Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening) and from then on he devoted himself entirely to acting. In 1931 he made his debut as a theater director and that year he also made his first film appearance as a British lieutenant in the World War I drama Die andere Seite/The Other Side (Heinz Paul, 1931), based on the play 'Journey’s End' by R.C. Sherriff. Conrad Veidt and Theodor Loos were the stars, and Liebeneiner played a supporting part. Soon followed more films, such as the romantic drama Liebelei/Flirtation (Max Ophüls, 1933) with Magda Schneider, the comedy Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez/The good old days of Aranjuez (Johannes Meyer, 1933) starring Brigitte Helm, and the biopic Abschiedswalzer/Farewell Waltz (Géza von Bolváry, 1934), in which he starred as composer Frédéric Chopin. In these films, he often played subtle, tragic lovers, both in supporting as well as leading roles. In 1936, Liebeneiner became a member of the Preußisches Staatstheater Berlin (Prussian State Theatre of Berlin).

In 1937, Wolfgang Liebeneiner directed his first film, Versprich mir nichts!/Promise Me Nothing (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1937) with Luise Ulrich. It was soon followed by the Heinz Rühmann comedy Der Mustergatte/Model Husband (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1937). Liebeneiner’s career thrived in Nazi Germany. In the following years, he directed a dozen films, including hits as Du und ich/You and I (1938) with Brigitte Horney, the comedy Der Florentiner Hut/The Leghorn Hat (1939), and Bismarck (1940), a biographical film of Otto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia, which focuses on how he and his aggressive war policies helped to unite Germany. Liebeneiner was appointed artistic director of the Deutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg (German Film Academy Babelsberg) in 1938 and a year later he became head of the Fachschaft Film of the Reichsfilmkammer (this was a department of the chamber of film, to which all actors, directors and other film-makers had to accede to further pursue their professional activities in Nazi-Germany. This department was responsible for the Berufsverbote for Jews and left-wingers. About 3000 film workers were excluded by the Reichsfilmkammer). In 1941, he directed the film Ich klage an/I accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) in cooperation with the National Socialist ministry of propaganda. The film was about voluntary Euthanasia of a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis but was intended to support the T-4 Euthanasia Program. (Over 70,000 men, women, and children were killed as a result of this program.). His next film, Die Entlassung/Bismarck's Dismissal (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1942) focused once again on Bismarck, played by Emil Jannings. From 1942 to 1945, Liebeneiner became the production chief at the Ufa (Universum Film AG), the largest German film studio at that time. In 1943, Goebbels even appointed him professor.

After the war, Wolfgang Liebeneiner could soon resume his theatre career. Already in the autumn of 1945, he was directing again. In 1947, he directed the premiere of Wolfgang Borchert's play 'Draußen vor der Tür' at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. He also directed the film version, Liebe 47/ Love ‘47 (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1949) with Hilde Krahl. From then he directed two to three light entertainment films a year. In the Adenauer era, Liebeneiner directed romantic dramas in which Ruth Leuwerik repeatedly played the lead role, such as Die Trapp-Familie/The Trapp Family (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1956) with Hans Holt, and Königin Luise/Queen Louise (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1957) with Dieter Borsche. These films were all very successful in the German-speaking countries, and Liebeneiner also played bit parts in some of them. In the 1960s he turned more and more to television, for which he filmed mainly plays, novels, and short stories. Incidentally, he made a film, for instance, Schwejks Flegeljahre/Schweik's Years of Indiscretion (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1965) with Peter Alexander in the role of soldier Josef Schwejk. In 1966 he directed the Mini-series Die Schatzinsel/Treasure Island, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novel. In 1977 he made one final feature film, Das chinesische Wunder/The Chinese Wonder (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1977) starring Senta Berger and Heinz Rühmann. Jan Onderwater at IMDb: “This is a dreadful and almost unbearable drama (…) Not only the subject of the badly written script is boring, Liebeneiner directs with disinterest.” He continued to make TV films till 1984. Meanwhile, in the theatre, he focused particularly on the staging of operas and operettas at various opera houses. After a long illness, Wolfgang Liebeneiner died in 1987 in Mödling near Vienna, Austria. He had been married twice: first, from 1934 to actress Ruth Hellberg. This marriage ended in a divorce. In 1944 he married the actress Hilde Krahl, whom he had met during the filming of Yvette, and who starred in several of his films. They had two daughters, of which Johanna Liebeneiner also became an actress.

Sources: Rudi Polt (IMDb), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

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