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The house where we all lived in Omaha, from 1955 until the spring of 1956.
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Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html
and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html
Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.
So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.
For now, here is a random list of things I remember:
1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.
2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.
3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.
4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.
5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.
6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).
7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.
8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.
9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.
10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted.
11. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.
Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by Fotofolio of Box 661, Canal Sta., NY, NY. The photography was by Rollie McKenna. The card has a divided back.
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas, who was born in Swansea on the 27th. October 1914, was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night' and 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion.'
Dylan's other work included 'Under Milk Wood' as well as stories and radio broadcasts such as 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' and 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog'.
He became widely popular in his lifetime, and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a roistering, drunken and doomed poet.
In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas, an undistinguished pupil, left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later.
Many of his works appeared in print while he was still a teenager. In 1934, the publication of 'Light Breaks Where no Sun Shines' caught the attention of the literary world.
While living in London, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara. They married in 1937, and had three children: Llewelyn, Aeronwy and Colm.
Thomas came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, though he found it hard to earn a living as a writer. He began augmenting his income with reading tours and radio broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940's brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as an accessible voice of the literary scene.
Thomas first travelled to the United States in the 1950's. His readings there brought him a degree of fame, while his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in the United States cemented his legend, however, and he went on to record to vinyl such works as 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'.
During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into a coma. He died on the 9th. November 1953, and his body was returned to Wales. On the 25th. November 1953, he was laid to rest in St Martin's churchyard in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.
Although Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language, he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. He is noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. He is regarded by many as one of the great modern poets, and he still remains popular with the public.
-- Dylan Thomas - The Early Years
Dylan was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, the son of Florence Hannah (née Williams; 1882–1958), a seamstress, and David John Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher. His father had a first-class honours degree in English from University College, Aberystwyth and ambitions to rise above his position teaching English literature at the local grammar school.
Thomas had one sibling, Nancy Marles (1906–1953), who was eight years his senior. The children spoke only English, though their parents were bilingual in English and Welsh, and David Thomas gave Welsh lessons at home.
Thomas's father chose the name Dylan, which means 'Son of the Sea', after Dylan ail Don, a character in The Mabinogion. Dylan's middle name, Marlais, was given in honour of his great-uncle, William Thomas, a Unitarian minister and poet whose bardic name was Gwilym Marles.
Dylan caused his mother to worry that he might be teased as the 'Dull One.' When he broadcast on Welsh BBC, early in his career, he was introduced using this pronunciation. Thomas favoured the Anglicised pronunciation, and gave instructions that it should be spoken as 'Dillan.'
The red-brick semi-detached house at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (in the respectable area of the Uplands), in which Thomas was born and lived until he was 23, had been bought by his parents a few months before his birth.
Dylan's childhood featured regular summer trips to the Llansteffan Peninsula, a Welsh-speaking part of Carmarthenshire, where his maternal relatives were the sixth generation to farm there.
In the land between Llangain and Llansteffan, his mother's family, the Williamses and their close relatives, worked a dozen farms with over a thousand acres between them. The memory of Fernhill, a dilapidated 15-acre farm rented by his maternal aunt, Ann Jones, and her husband, Jim, is evoked in the 1945 lyrical poem 'Fern Hill', but is portrayed more accurately in his short story, 'The Peaches'.
Thomas had bronchitis and asthma in childhood, and struggled with these throughout his life. He was indulged by his mother and enjoyed being mollycoddled, a trait he carried into adulthood, and he was skilful in gaining attention and sympathy.
Thomas's formal education began at Mrs Hole's Dame School, a private school on Mirador Crescent, a few streets away from his home. He described his experience there in Reminiscences of Childhood:
"Never was there such a dame school as ours,
so firm and kind and smelling of galoshes, with
the sweet and fumbled music of the piano lessons
drifting down from upstairs to the lonely schoolroom,
where only the sometimes tearful wicked sat over
undone sums, or to repent a little crime – the pulling
of a girl's hair during geography, the sly shin kick
under the table during English literature".
In October 1925, Dylan Thomas enrolled at Swansea Grammar School for boys, in Mount Pleasant, where his father taught English. He was an undistinguished pupil who shied away from school, preferring reading.
In his first year, one of his poems was published in the school's magazine, and before he left he became its editor. In June 1928, Thomas won the school's mile race, held at St. Helen's Ground; he carried a newspaper photograph of his victory with him until his death.
During his final school years Dylan began writing poetry in notebooks; the first poem, dated 27th. April 1930, is entitled 'Osiris, Come to Isis'.
In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later. Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934. Of the 90 poems he published, half were written during these years.
In his free time, Dylan joined the amateur dramatic group at the Little Theatre in Mumbles, visited the cinema in Uplands, took walks along Swansea Bay, and frequented Swansea's pubs, especially the Antelope and the Mermaid Hotels in Mumbles.
In the Kardomah Café, close to the newspaper office in Castle Street, he met his creative contemporaries, including his friend the poet Vernon Watkins.
-- 1933–1939
In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time.
Thomas was a teenager when many of the poems for which he became famous were published:
-- 'And Death Shall Have no Dominion'
-- 'Before I Knocked'
-- 'The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower'.
'And Death Shall Have no Dominion' appeared in the New English Weekly in May 1933:
'And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the
west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and
the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they
shall rise again
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion'.
When 'Light Breaks Where no Sun Shines' appeared in The Listener in 1934, it caught the attention of three senior figures in literary London - T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Grigson and Stephen Spender. They contacted Thomas, and his first poetry volume, '18 Poems', was published in December 1934.
'18 Poems' was noted for its visionary qualities which led to critic Desmond Hawkins writing that:
"The work is the sort of bomb
that bursts no more than once
in three years".
The volume was critically acclaimed, and won a contest run by the Sunday Referee, netting him new admirers from the London poetry world, including Edith Sitwell and Edwin Muir. The anthology was published by Fortune Press, in part a vanity publisher that did not pay its writers, and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves. A similar arrangement was used by other new authors, including Philip Larkin.
In September 1935, Thomas met Vernon Watkins, thus beginning a lifelong friendship. Dylan introduced Watkins, working at Lloyds Bank at the time, to his friends. The group of writers, musicians and artists became known as "The Kardomah Gang".
In those days, Thomas used to frequent the cinema on Mondays with Tom Warner who, like Watkins, had recently suffered a nervous breakdown. After these trips, Warner would bring Thomas back for supper with his aunt.
On one occasion, when she served him a boiled egg, she had to cut its top off for him, as Thomas did not know how to do this. This was because his mother had done it for him all his life, an example of her coddling him. Years later, his wife Caitlin would still have to prepare his eggs for him.
In December 1935, Thomas contributed the poem 'The Hand That Signed the Paper' to Issue 18 of the bi-monthly New Verse.
In 1936, Dylan's next collection 'Twenty-five Poems' received much critical praise. In 1938, Thomas won the Oscar Blumenthal Prize for Poetry; it was also the year in which New Directions offered to be his publisher in the United States. In all, he wrote half his poems while living at Cwmdonkin Drive before moving to London. It was the time that Thomas's reputation for heavy drinking developed.
In early 1936, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–94), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish and French descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and at the age of 18 joined the chorus line at the London Palladium.
Introduced by Augustus John, Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf pub on Rathbone Place in London's West End. Laying his head on her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed. Thomas liked to comment that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met.
Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with Augustus John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and by the second half of 1936 they were courting. They married at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall, on the 11th. July 1937.
In early 1938, they moved to Wales, renting a cottage in the village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire. Their first child, Llewelyn Edouard, was born on the 30th. January 1939.
By the late 1930's, Thomas was embraced as the "Poetic Herald" for a group of English poets, the New Apocalyptics. However Thomas refused to align himself with them, and declined to sign their manifesto.
He later stated that:
"They are intellectual muckpots
leaning on a theory".
Despite Dylan's rejection, many of the group, including Henry Treece, modelled their work on Thomas's.
During the politically charged atmosphere of the 1930's, Thomas's sympathies were very much with the radical left, to the point of holding close links with the communists, as well as being decidedly pacifist and anti-fascist. He was a supporter of the left-wing No More War Movement, and boasted about participating in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists.
-- 1939–1945
In 1939, a collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934, appeared as 'The Map of Love'.
Ten stories in his next book, 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' (1940), were based less on lavish fantasy than those in 'The Map of Love', and more on real-life romances featuring himself in Wales.
Sales of both books were poor, resulting in Thomas living on meagre fees from writing and reviewing. At this time he borrowed heavily from friends and acquaintances.
Hounded by creditors, Thomas and his family left Laugharne in July 1940 and moved to the home of critic John Davenport in Marshfield, Gloucestershire. There Thomas collaborated with Davenport on the satire 'The Death of the King's Canary', though due to fears of libel, the work was not published until 1976.
At the outset of the Second World War, Thomas was worried about conscription, and referred to his ailment as "An Unreliable Lung".
Coughing sometimes confined him to bed, and he had a history of bringing up blood and mucus. After initially seeking employment in a reserved occupation, he managed to be classified Grade III, which meant that he would be among the last to be called up for service.
Saddened to see his friends going on active service, Dylan continued drinking, and struggled to support his family. He wrote begging letters to random literary figures asking for support, a plan he hoped would provide a long-term regular income. Thomas supplemented his income by writing scripts for the BBC, which not only gave him additional earnings but also provided evidence that he was engaged in essential war work.
In February 1941, Swansea was bombed by the Luftwaffe in a three night blitz. Castle Street was one of many streets that suffered badly; rows of shops, including the Kardomah Café, were destroyed. Thomas walked through the bombed-out shell of the town centre with his friend Bert Trick. Upset at the sight, he concluded:
"Our Swansea is dead".
Soon after the bombing raids, he wrote a radio play, 'Return Journey Home', which described the café as being "razed to the snow". The play was first broadcast on the 15th. June 1947. The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war.
In May 1941, Thomas and Caitlin left their son with his grandmother at Blashford and moved to London. Thomas hoped to find employment in the film industry, and wrote to the director of the films division of the Ministry of Information (MOI). After initially being rebuffed, he found work with Strand Films, providing him with his first regular income since the Daily Post. Strand produced films for the MOI; Thomas scripted at least five films in 1942.
In five film projects, between 1942 and 1945, the Ministry of Information (MOI) commissioned Thomas to script a series of documentaries about both urban planning and wartime patriotism, all in partnership with director John Eldridge:
-- 'Wales: Green Mountain, Black Mountain'.
-- 'New Towns for Old' (on post-war reconstruction).
-- 'Fuel for Battle'.
-- 'Our Country' (1945) was a romantic tour of Great
Britain set to Thomas's poetry.
-- 'A City Reborn'.
Other projects included:
-- 'This Is Colour' (a history of the British dyeing industry).
-- 'These Are The Men' (1943), a more ambitious piece in which Thomas's verse accompanied Leni Riefenstahl's
footage of an early Nuremberg Rally.
-- 'Conquest of a Germ' (1944) explored the use of early antibiotics in the fight against pneumonia and tuberculosis.
In early 1943, Thomas began a relationship with Pamela Glendower; one of several affairs he had during his marriage. The affairs either ran out of steam or were halted after Caitlin discovered his infidelity.
In March 1943, Caitlin gave birth to a daughter, Aeronwy, in London. They lived in a run-down studio in Chelsea, made up of a single large room with a curtain to separate the kitchen.
The Thomas family made several escapes back to Wales during the war. Between 1941 and 1943, they lived intermittently in Plas Gelli, Talsarn, in Cardiganshire. Plas Gelli sits close by the River Aeron, after whom Aeronwy is thought to have been named. Some of Thomas’ letters from Gelli can be found in his 'Collected Letters'.
The Thomases shared the mansion with his childhood friends from Swansea, Vera and Evelyn Phillips. Vera's friendship with the Thomases in nearby New Quay is portrayed in the 2008 film, 'The Edge of Love'.
In July 1944, with the threat of German flying bombs landing on London, Thomas moved to the family cottage at Blaencwm near Llangain, Carmarthenshire, where he resumed writing poetry, completing 'Holy Spring' and 'Vision and Prayer'.
In September 1944, the Thomas family moved to New Quay in Cardiganshire (Ceredigion), where they rented Majoda, a wood and asbestos bungalow on the cliffs overlooking Cardigan Bay. It was here that Thomas wrote the radio piece 'Quite Early One Morning', a sketch for his later work, 'Under Milk Wood'.
Of the poetry written at this time, of note is 'Fern Hill', believed to have been started while living in New Quay, but completed at Blaencwm in mid-1945. Dylan's first biographer, Constantine FitzGibbon wrote that:
"His nine months in New Quay were a second
flowering, a period of fertility that recalls the
earliest days, with a great outpouring of poems
and a good deal of other material".
His second biographer, Paul Ferris, concurred:
"On the grounds of output, the bungalow
deserves a plaque of its own."
The Dylan Thomas scholar, Walford Davies, has noted that:
"New Quay was crucial in supplementing
the gallery of characters Thomas had to
hand for writing 'Under Milk Wood'."
-- Dylan Thomas's Broadcasting Years 1945–1949
Although Thomas had previously written for the BBC, it was a minor and intermittent source of income. In 1943, he wrote and recorded a 15-minute talk entitled 'Reminiscences of Childhood' for the Welsh BBC.
In December 1944, he recorded 'Quite Early One Morning' (produced by Aneirin Talfan Davies, again for the Welsh BBC), but when Davies offered it for national broadcast, BBC London initially turned it down.
However on the 31st. August 1945, the BBC Home Service broadcast 'Quite Early One Morning' nationally, and in the three subsequent years, Dylan made over a hundred broadcasts for the BBC, not only for his poetry readings, but for discussions and critiques.
In the second half of 1945, Dylan began reading for the BBC Radio programme, 'Book of Verse', that was broadcast weekly to the Far East. This provided Thomas with a regular income, and brought him into contact with Louis MacNeice, a congenial drinking companion whose advice Thomas cherished.
On the 29th. September 1946, the BBC began transmitting the Third Programme, a high-culture network which provided further opportunities for Thomas.
He appeared in the play 'Comus' for the Third Programme, the day after the network launched, and his rich, sonorous voice led to character parts, including the lead in Aeschylus's 'Agamemnon', and Satan in an adaptation of 'Paradise Lost'.
Thomas remained a popular guest on radio talk shows for the BBC, who stated:
"He is useful should a younger
generation poet be needed".
He had an uneasy relationship with BBC management, and a staff job was never an option, with drinking cited as the problem. Despite this, Thomas became a familiar radio voice and well-known celebrity within Great Britain.
By late September 1945, the Thomases had left Wales, and were living with various friends in London. In December, they moved to Oxford to live in a summerhouse on the banks of the Cherwell. It belonged to the historian, A. J. P. Taylor. His wife, Margaret, became Thomas’s most committed patron.
The publication of 'Deaths and Entrances' in February 1946 was a major turning point for Thomas. Poet and critic Walter J. Turner commented in The Spectator:
"This book alone, in my opinion,
ranks him as a major poet".
From 'In my Craft or Sullen Art,' 'Deaths and Entrances' (1946):
'Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon, I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art'.
The following year, in April 1947, the Thomases travelled to Italy, after Thomas had been awarded a Society of Authors scholarship. They stayed first in villas near Rapallo and then Florence, before moving to a hotel in Rio Marina on the island of Elba.
On their return to England Thomas and his family moved, in September 1947, into the Manor House in South Leigh, just west of Oxford, found for him by Margaret Taylor.
He continued with his work for the BBC, completed a number of film scripts, and worked further on his ideas for 'Under Milk Wood'.
In March 1949 Thomas travelled to Prague. He had been invited by the Czech government to attend the inauguration of the Czechoslovak Writers' Union. Jiřina Hauková, who had previously published translations of some of Thomas' poems, was his guide and interpreter.
In her memoir, Hauková recalls that at a party in Prague, Thomas narrated the first version of his radio play 'Under Milk Wood.' She describes how he outlined the plot about a town that was declared insane, and then portrayed the predicament of an eccentric organist and a baker with two wives.
A month later, in May 1949, Thomas and his family moved to his final home, the Boat House at Laugharne, purchased for him at a cost of £2,500 in April 1949 by Margaret Taylor.
Thomas acquired a garage a hundred yards from the house on a cliff ledge which he turned into his writing shed, and where he wrote several of his most acclaimed poems. To see a photograph of the interior of Dylan's shed, please search for the tag 55DTW96
Just before moving into the Boat House, Thomas rented Pelican House opposite his regular drinking den, Brown's Hotel, for his parents. They both lived there from 1949 until Dylan's father 'D.J.' died on the 16th. December 1952. His mother continued to live there until 1953.
Caitlin gave birth to their third child, a boy named Colm Garan Hart, on the 25th. July 1949.
In October 1949, the New Zealand poet Allen Curnow came to visit Thomas at the Boat House, who took him to his writing shed. Curnow recalls:
"Dylan fished out a draft to show me
of the unfinished 'Under Milk Wood'
that was then called 'The Town That
Was Mad'."
-- Dylan Thomas's American tours, 1950–1953
(a) The First American Tour
The American poet John Brinnin invited Thomas to New York, where in 1950 they embarked on a lucrative three-month tour of arts centres and campuses.
The tour, which began in front of an audience of a thousand at the Kaufmann Auditorium in the Poetry Centre in New York, took in a further 40 venues. During the tour, Thomas was invited to many parties and functions, and on several occasions became drunk - going out of his way to shock people - and was a difficult guest.
Dylan drank before some of his readings, although it is argued that he may have pretended to be more affected by the alcohol than he actually was.
The writer Elizabeth Hardwick recalled how intoxicated a performer he could be, and how the tension would build before a performance:
"Would he arrive only to break
down on the stage?
Would some dismaying scene
take place at the faculty party?
Would he be offensive, violent,
obscene?"
Dylan's wife Caitlin said in her memoir:
"Nobody ever needed encouragement
less, and he was drowned in it."
On returning to Great Britain, Thomas began work on two further poems, 'In the White Giant's Thigh', which he read on the Third Programme in September 1950:
'Who once were a bloom of wayside
brides in the hawed house
And heard the lewd, wooed field
flow to the coming frost,
The scurrying, furred small friars
squeal in the dowse
Of day, in the thistle aisles, till the
white owl crossed.'
He also worked on the incomplete 'In Country Heaven'.
In October 1950, Thomas sent a draft of the first 39 pages of 'The Town That Was Mad' to the BBC. The task of seeing this work through to production was assigned to the BBC's Douglas Cleverdon, who had been responsible for casting Thomas in 'Paradise Lost'.
However, despite Cleverdon's urgings, the script slipped from Thomas's priorities, and in early 1951 he took a trip to Iran to work on a film for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The film was never made, with Thomas returning to Wales in February, though his time there allowed him to provide a few minutes of material for a BBC documentary, 'Persian Oil'.
Early in 1951 Thomas wrote two poems, which Thomas's principal biographer, Paul Ferris, describes as "unusually blunt." One was the ribald 'Lament', and the other was an ode, in the form of a villanelle, to his dying father 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night". (A villanelle is a pastoral or lyrical poem of nineteen lines, with only two rhymes throughout, and some lines repeated).
Despite a range of wealthy patrons, including Margaret Taylor, Princess Marguerite Caetani and Marged Howard-Stepney, Thomas was still in financial difficulty, and he wrote several begging letters to notable literary figures, including the likes of T. S. Eliot.
Margaret Taylor was not keen on Thomas taking another trip to the United States, and thought that if he had a permanent address in London he would be able to gain steady work there. She bought a property, 54 Delancey Street, in Camden Town, and in late 1951 Thomas and Caitlin lived in the basement flat. Thomas described the flat as his "London House of Horror", and did not return there after his 1952 tour of America.
(b) The Second American Tour
Thomas undertook a second tour of the United States in 1952, this time with Caitlin - after she had discovered that he had been unfaithful on his earlier trip. They drank heavily, and Thomas began to suffer with gout and lung problems.
It was during this tour that the above photograph was taken.
The second tour was the most intensive of the four, taking in 46 engagements.
The trip also resulted in Thomas recording his first poetry to vinyl, which Caedmon Records released in America later that year. One of his works recorded during this time, 'A Child's Christmas in Wales', became his most popular prose work in America. The recording was a 2008 selection for the United States National Recording Registry, which stated that:
"It is credited with launching the
audiobook industry in the United
States".
(c) The Third American Tour
In April 1953, Thomas returned alone for a third tour of America. He performed a "work in progress" version of 'Under Milk Wood', solo, for the first time at Harvard University on the 3rd. May 1953. A week later, the work was performed with a full cast at the Poetry Centre in New York.
Dylan met the deadline only after being locked in a room by Brinnin's assistant, Liz Reitell, and was still editing the script on the afternoon of the performance; its last lines were handed to the actors as they put on their makeup.
During this penultimate tour, Thomas met the composer Igor Stravinsky. Igor had become an admirer of Dylan after having been introduced to his poetry by W. H. Auden. They had discussions about collaborating on a "musical theatrical work" for which Dylan would provide the libretto on the theme of:
"The rediscovery of love and
language in what might be left
after the world after the bomb."
The shock of Thomas's death later in the year moved Stravinsky to compose his 'In Memoriam Dylan Thomas' for tenor, string quartet and four trombones. The work's first performance in Los Angeles in 1954 was introduced with a tribute to Thomas from Aldous Huxley.
Thomas spent the last nine or ten days of his third tour in New York mostly in the company of Reitell, with whom he had an affair.
During this time, Thomas fractured his arm falling down a flight of stairs when drunk. Reitell's doctor, Milton Feltenstein, put his arm in plaster, and treated him for gout and gastritis.
After returning home, Thomas worked on 'Under Milk Wood' in Wales before sending the original manuscript to Douglas Cleverdon on the 15th. October 1953. It was copied and returned to Thomas, who lost it in a pub in London and required a duplicate to take to America.
(d) The Fourth American Tour
Thomas flew to the States on the 19th. October 1953 for what would be his final tour. He died in New York before the BBC could record 'Under Milk Wood'. Richard Burton featured in its first broadcast in 1954, and was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film. In 1954, the play won the Prix Italia for literary or dramatic programmes.
Thomas's last collection 'Collected Poems, 1934–1952', published when he was 38, won the Foyle poetry prize. Reviewing the volume, critic Philip Toynbee declared that:
"Thomas is the greatest living
poet in the English language".
There followed a series of distressing events for Dylan. His father died from pneumonia just before Christmas 1952. In the first few months of 1953, his sister died from liver cancer, one of his patrons took an overdose of sleeping pills, three friends died at an early age, and Caitlin had an abortion.
Thomas left Laugharne on the 9th. October 1953 on the first leg of his trip to America. He called on his mother, Florence, to say goodbye:
"He always felt that he had to get
out from this country because of
his chest being so bad."
Thomas had suffered from chest problems for most of his life, though they began in earnest soon after he moved in May 1949 to the Boat House at Laugharne - the "Bronchial Heronry", as he called it. Within weeks of moving in, he visited a local doctor, who prescribed medicine for both his chest and throat.
Whilst waiting in London before his flight in October 1953, Thomas stayed with the comedian Harry Locke and worked on 'Under Milk Wood'. Locke noted that Thomas was having trouble with his chest, with terrible coughing fits that made him go purple in the face. He was also using an inhaler to help his breathing.
There were reports, too, that Thomas was also having blackouts. His visit to the BBC producer Philip Burton a few days before he left for New York, was interrupted by a blackout. On his last night in London, he had another in the company of his fellow poet Louis MacNeice.
Thomas arrived in New York on the 20th. October 1953 to undertake further performances of 'Under Milk Wood', organised by John Brinnin, his American agent and Director of the Poetry Centre. Brinnin did not travel to New York, but remained in Boston in order to write.
He handed responsibility to his assistant, Liz Reitell, who was keen to see Thomas for the first time since their three-week romance early in the year. She met Thomas at Idlewild Airport and was shocked at his appearance. He looked pale, delicate and shaky, not his usual robust self:
"He was very ill when he got here."
After being taken by Reitell to check in at the Chelsea Hotel, Thomas took the first rehearsal of 'Under Milk Wood'. They then went to the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, before returning to the Chelsea Hotel.
(Bob Dylan, formerly Robert Zimmerman, used to perform at the White Horse; Dylan Thomas was his favourite poet, and it is highly likely that Bob adopted Dylan's first name as his surname).
The next day, Reitell invited Thomas to her apartment, but he declined. They went sightseeing, but Thomas felt unwell, and retired to his bed for the rest of the afternoon. Reitell gave him half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of phenobarbitone to help him sleep, and spent the night at the hotel with him.
Two days later, on the 23rd. October 1953, at the third rehearsal, Thomas said he was too ill to take part, but he struggled on, shivering and burning with fever, before collapsing on the stage.
The next day, 24th. October, Reitell took Thomas to see her doctor, Milton Feltenstein, who administered cortisone injections. Thomas made it through the first performance that evening, but collapsed immediately afterwards.
Dylan told a friend who had come back-stage:
"This circus out there has taken
the life out of me for now."
Reitell later said:
"Feltenstein was rather a wild doctor
who thought injections would cure
anything".
At the next performance on the 25th. October, his fellow actors realised that Thomas was very ill:
"He was desperately ill…we didn’t think
that he would be able to do the last
performance because he was so ill…
Dylan literally couldn’t speak he was so
ill…still my greatest memory of it is that
he had no voice."
On the evening of the 27th. October, Thomas attended his 39th. birthday party, but felt unwell, and returned to his hotel after an hour. The next day, he took part in 'Poetry and the Film', a recorded symposium at Cinema 16.
A turning point came on the 2nd. November. Air pollution in New York had risen significantly, and exacerbated chest illnesses such as Thomas's. By the end of the month, over 200 New Yorkers had died from the smog.
On the 3rd. November, Thomas spent most of the day in his room, entertaining various friends. He went out in the evening to keep two drink appointments. After returning to the hotel, he went out again for a drink at 2 am. After drinking at the White Horse, Thomas returned to the Hotel Chelsea, declaring:
"I've had eighteen straight
whiskies. I think that's the
record!"
However the barman and the owner of the pub who served him later commented that Thomas could not have drunk more than half that amount, although the barman could have been trying to exonerate himself from any blame.
Thomas had an appointment at a clam house in New Jersey with Todd on the 4th. November. When Todd telephoned the Chelsea that morning, Thomas said he was feeling ill, and postponed the engagement. Todd thought that Dylan sounded "terrible".
The poet, Harvey Breit, was another to phone that morning. He thought that Thomas sounded "bad". Thomas' voice, recalled Breit, was "low and hoarse". Harvey had wanted to say:
"You sound as though from the tomb".
However instead Harvey told Thomas that he sounded like Louis Armstrong.
Later, Thomas went drinking with Reitell at the White Horse and, feeling sick again, returned to the hotel. Dr. Feltenstein came to see him three times that day, administering the cortisone secretant ACTH by injection and, on his third visit, half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of morphine sulphate, which affected Thomas' breathing.
Reitell became increasingly concerned, and telephoned Feltenstein for advice. He suggested that she get male assistance, so she called upon the artist Jack Heliker, who arrived before 11 pm. At midnight on the 5th. November, Thomas's breathing became more difficult, and his face turned blue.
Reitell phoned Feltenstein who arrived at the hotel at about 1 am, and called for an ambulance. It then took another hour for the ambulance to arrive at St. Vincent's, even though it was only a few blocks from the Chelsea.
Thomas was admitted to the emergency ward at St Vincent's Hospital at 1:58 am. He was comatose, and his medical notes stated that:
"The impression upon admission was acute
alcoholic encephalopathy damage to the brain
by alcohol, for which the patient was treated
without response".
Feltenstein then took control of Thomas's care, even though he did not have admitting rights at St. Vincent's. The hospital's senior brain specialist, Dr. C. G. Gutierrez-Mahoney, was not called to examine Thomas until the afternoon of the 6th. November, thirty-six hours after Thomas' admission.
Dylan's wife Caitlin flew to America the following day, and was taken to the hospital, by which time a tracheotomy had been performed. Her reported first words were:
"Is the bloody man dead yet?"
Caitlin was allowed to see Thomas only for 40 minutes in the morning, but returned in the afternoon and, in a drunken rage, threatened to kill John Brinnin. When she became uncontrollable, she was put in a straitjacket and committed, by Feltenstein, to the River Crest private psychiatric detox clinic on Long Island.
It is now believed that Thomas had been suffering from bronchitis, pneumonia and emphysema before his admission to St Vincent's. In their 2004 paper, 'Death by Neglect', D. N. Thomas and Dr Simon Barton disclose that Thomas was found to have pneumonia when he was admitted to hospital in a coma.
Doctors took three hours to restore his breathing, using artificial respiration and oxygen. Summarising their findings, they conclude:
"The medical notes indicate that, on admission,
Dylan's bronchial disease was found to be very
extensive, affecting upper, mid and lower lung
fields, both left and right."
The forensic pathologist, Professor Bernard Knight, concurs:
"Death was clearly due to a severe lung infection
with extensive advanced bronchopneumonia.
The severity of the chest infection, with greyish
consolidated areas of well-established pneumonia,
suggests that it had started before admission to
hospital."
Thomas died at noon on the 9th. November 1953, having never recovered from his coma. He was 39 years of age when he died.
-- Aftermath of Dylan Thomas's Death
Rumours circulated of a brain haemorrhage, followed by competing reports of a mugging, or even that Thomas had drunk himself to death. Later, speculation arose about drugs and diabetes.
At the post-mortem, the pathologist found three causes of death - pneumonia, brain swelling and a fatty liver. Despite Dylan's heavy drinking, his liver showed no sign of cirrhosis.
The publication of John Brinnin's 1955 biography 'Dylan Thomas in America' cemented Thomas's legacy as the "doomed poet". Brinnin focuses on Thomas's last few years, and paints a picture of him as a drunk and a philanderer.
Later biographies have criticised Brinnin's view, especially his coverage of Thomas's death. David Thomas in 'Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?' claims that Brinnin, along with Reitell and Feltenstein, were culpable.
FitzGibbon's 1965 biography ignores Thomas's heavy drinking and skims over his death, giving just two pages in his detailed book to Thomas's demise.
Ferris in his 1989 biography includes Thomas's heavy drinking, but is more critical of those around him in his final days, and does not draw the conclusion that he drank himself to death.
Many sources have criticised Feltenstein's role and actions, especially his incorrect diagnosis of delirium tremens and the high dose of morphine he administered. Dr C. G. de Gutierrez-Mahoney, the doctor who treated Thomas while at St. Vincent's, concluded that Feltenstein's failure to see that Thomas was gravely ill and have him admitted to hospital sooner was even more culpable than his use of morphine.
Caitlin Thomas's autobiographies, 'Caitlin Thomas - Leftover Life to Kill' (1957) and 'My Life with Dylan Thomas: Double Drink Story' (1997), describe the effects of alcohol on the poet and on their relationship:
"Ours was not only a love story, it was
a drink story, because without alcohol
it would never had got on its rocking
feet. The bar was our altar."
Biographer Andrew Lycett ascribed the decline in Thomas's health to an alcoholic co-dependent relationship with his wife, who deeply resented his extramarital affairs.
In contrast, Dylan biographers Andrew Sinclair and George Tremlett express the view that Thomas was not an alcoholic. Tremlett argues that many of Thomas's health issues stemmed from undiagnosed diabetes.
Thomas died intestate, with assets worth £100. His body was brought back to Wales for burial in the village churchyard at Laugharne. Dylan's funeral, which Brinnin did not attend, took place at St Martin's Church in Laugharne on the 24th. November 1953.
Six friends from the village carried Thomas's coffin. Caitlin, without her customary hat, walked behind the coffin, with his childhood friend Daniel Jones at her arm and her mother by her side. The procession to the church was filmed, and the wake took place at Brown's Hotel. Thomas's fellow poet and long-time friend Vernon Watkins wrote The Times obituary.
Thomas's widow, Caitlin, died in 1994, and was laid to rest alongside him. Dylan's mother Florence died in August 1958. Thomas's elder son, Llewelyn, died in 2000, his daughter, Aeronwy in 2009, and his youngest son Colm in 2012.
-- Dylan Thomas's Poetry
Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise. Although influenced by the modern symbolism and surrealism movements, he refused to follow such creeds. Instead, critics view Thomas as part of the modernism and romanticism movements, though attempts to pigeon-hole him within a particular neo-romantic school have been unsuccessful.
Elder Olson, in his 1954 critical study of Thomas's poetry, wrote:
"There is a further characteristic which
distinguished Thomas's work from that
of other poets. It was unclassifiable."
Olson went on to say that in a postmodern age that continually attempted to demand that poetry have social reference, none could be found in Thomas's work, and that his work was so obscure that critics could not analyse it.
Thomas's verbal style played against strict verse forms, such as in the villanelle 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night'.
His images appear carefully ordered in a patterned sequence, and his major theme was the unity of all life, the continuing process of life and death, and new life that linked the generations.
Thomas saw biology as a magical transformation producing unity out of diversity, and in his poetry sought a poetic ritual to celebrate this unity. He saw men and women locked in cycles of growth, love, procreation, new growth, death, and new life. Therefore, each image engenders its opposite.
Thomas derived his closely woven, sometimes self-contradictory images from the Bible, Welsh folklore, preaching, and Sigmund Freud. Explaining the source of his imagery, Thomas wrote in a letter to Glyn Jones:
"My own obscurity is quite an unfashionable one,
based, as it is, on a preconceived symbolism
derived (I'm afraid all this sounds woolly and
pretentious) from the cosmic significance of the
human anatomy".
Thomas's early poetry was noted for its verbal density, alliteration, sprung rhythm and internal rhyme, and some critics detected the influence of the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins, had taught himself Welsh, and used sprung verse, bringing some features of Welsh poetic metre into his work.
However when Henry Treece wrote to Thomas comparing his style to that of Hopkins, Thomas wrote back denying any such influence. Thomas greatly admired Thomas Hardy, who is regarded as an influence. When Thomas travelled in America, he recited some of Hardy's work in his readings.
Other poets from whom critics believe Thomas drew influence include James Joyce, Arthur Rimbaud and D. H. Lawrence.
William York Tindall, in his 1962 study, 'A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas', finds comparison between Thomas's and Joyce's wordplay, while he notes the themes of rebirth and nature are common to the works of Lawrence and Thomas.
Although Thomas described himself as the "Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive", he stated that the phrase "Swansea's Rimbaud" was coined by the poet Roy Campbell.
Critics have explored the origins of Thomas's mythological pasts in his works such as 'The Orchards', which Ann Elizabeth Mayer believes reflects the Welsh myths of the Mabinogion.
Thomas's poetry is notable for its musicality, most clear in 'Fern Hill', 'In Country Sleep', 'Ballad of the Long-legged Bait' and 'In the White Giant's Thigh' from Under Milk Wood.
Thomas once confided that the poems which had most influenced him were Mother Goose rhymes which his parents taught him when he was a child:
"I should say I wanted to write poetry in the
beginning because I had fallen in love with
words.
The first poems I knew were nursery rhymes,
and before I could read them for myself I had
come to love the words of them. The words
alone.
What the words stood for was of a very
secondary importance ... I fell in love, that is
the only expression I can think of, at once,
and am still at the mercy of words, though
sometimes now, knowing a little of their
behaviour very well, I think I can influence
them slightly and have even learned to beat
them now and then, which they appear to
enjoy.
I tumbled for words at once. And, when I began
to read the nursery rhymes for myself, and, later,
to read other verses and ballads, I knew that I
had discovered the most important things, to
me, that could be ever."
Thomas became an accomplished writer of prose poetry, with collections such as 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' (1940) and 'Quite Early One Morning' (1954) showing he was capable of writing moving short stories. His first published prose work, 'After the Fair', appeared in The New English Weekly on the 15th. March 1934.
Jacob Korg believes that one can classify Thomas's fiction work into two main bodies:
-- Vigorous fantasies in a poetic style
-- After 1939, more straightforward
narratives.
Korg surmises that Thomas approached his prose writing as an alternate poetic form, which allowed him to produce complex, involuted narratives that do not allow the reader to rest.
-- Dylan Thomas as a Welsh Poet
Thomas disliked being regarded as a provincial poet, and decried any notion of 'Welshness' in his poetry. When he wrote to Stephen Spender in 1952, thanking him for a review of his Collected Poems, he added:
"Oh, & I forgot. I'm not influenced by
Welsh bardic poetry. I can't read Welsh."
Despite this, his work was rooted in the geography of Wales. Thomas acknowledged that he returned to Wales when he had difficulty writing, and John Ackerman argues that:
"Dylan's inspiration and imagination
were rooted in his Welsh background".
Caitlin Thomas wrote that:
"He worked in a fanatically narrow groove,
although there was nothing narrow about
the depth and understanding of his feelings.
The groove of direct hereditary descent in
the land of his birth, which he never in
thought, and hardly in body, moved out of."
Head of Programmes Wales at the BBC, Aneirin Talfan Davies, who commissioned several of Thomas's early radio talks, believed that the poet's whole attitude is that of the medieval bards.
Kenneth O. Morgan counter-argues that it is a difficult enterprise to find traces of cynghanedd (consonant harmony) or cerdd dafod (tongue-craft) in Thomas's poetry. Instead he believes that Dylan's work, especially his earlier, more autobiographical poems, are rooted in a changing country which echoes the Welshness of the past and the Anglicisation of the new industrial nation:
"Rural and urban, chapel-going and profane,
Welsh and English, unforgiving and deeply
compassionate."
Fellow poet and critic Glyn Jones believed that any traces of cynghanedd in Thomas's work were accidental, although he felt that Dylan consciously employed one element of Welsh metrics: that of counting syllables per line instead of feet. Constantine Fitzgibbon, who was his first in-depth biographer, wrote:
"No major English poet has
ever been as Welsh as Dylan".
Although Dylan had a deep connection with Wales, he disliked Welsh nationalism. He once wrote:
"Land of my fathers, and
my fathers can keep it".
While often attributed to Thomas himself, this line actually comes from the character Owen Morgan-Vaughan, in the screenplay Thomas wrote for the 1948 British melodrama 'The Three Weird Sisters'.
Robert Pocock, a friend from the BBC, recalled:
"I only once heard Dylan express an
opinion on Welsh Nationalism.
He used three words. Two of them
were Welsh Nationalism."
Although not expressed as strongly, Glyn Jones believed that he and Thomas's friendship cooled in the later years because he had not rejected enough of the elements that Thomas disliked, i.e. "Welsh nationalism and a sort of hill farm morality".
Apologetically, in a letter to Keidrych Rhys, editor of the literary magazine 'Wales', Thomas's father wrote:
"I'm afraid Dylan isn't much
of a Welshman".
FitzGibbon asserts that Thomas's negativity towards Welsh nationalism was fostered by his father's hostility towards the Welsh language.
Critical Appraisal of Dylan Thomas's Work
Thomas's work and stature as a poet have been much debated by critics and biographers since his death. Critical studies have been clouded by Thomas's personality and mythology, especially his drunken persona and death in New York.
When Seamus Heaney gave an Oxford lecture on the poet, he opened by addressing the assembly:
"Dylan Thomas is now as much
a case history as a chapter in the
history of poetry".
He queried how 'Thomas the Poet' is one of his forgotten attributes. David Holbrook, who has written three books about Thomas, stated in his 1962 publication 'Llareggub Revisited':
"The strangest feature of Dylan Thomas's
notoriety - not that he is bogus, but that
attitudes to poetry attached themselves
to him which not only threaten the prestige,
effectiveness and accessibility to English
poetry, but also destroyed his true voice
and, at last, him."
The Poetry Archive notes that:
"Dylan Thomas's detractors accuse him
of being drunk on language as well as
whiskey, but whilst there's no doubt that
the sound of language is central to his
style, he was also a disciplined writer
who re-drafted obsessively".
Many critics have argued that Thomas's work is too narrow, and that he suffers from verbal extravagance. However those who have championed his work have found the criticism baffling. Robert Lowell wrote in 1947:
"Nothing could be more wrongheaded
than the English disputes about Dylan
Thomas's greatness ... He is a dazzling
obscure writer who can be enjoyed
without understanding."
Kenneth Rexroth said, on reading 'Eighteen Poems':
"The reeling excitement of a poetry-intoxicated
schoolboy smote the Philistine as hard a blow
with one small book as Swinburne had with
Poems and Ballads."
Philip Larkin, in a letter to Kingsley Amis in 1948, wrote that:
"No one can stick words into us
like pins... like Thomas can".
However he followed that by stating that:
"Dylan doesn't use his words
to any advantage".
Amis was far harsher, finding little of merit in Dylan's work, and claiming that:
"He is frothing at the mouth
with piss."
In 1956, the publication of the anthology 'New Lines' featuring works by the British collective The Movement, which included Amis and Larkin amongst its number, set out a vision of modern poetry that was damning towards the poets of the 1940's. Thomas's work in particular was criticised. David Lodge, writing about The Movement in 1981 stated:
"Dylan Thomas was made to stand for
everything they detest, verbal obscurity,
metaphysical pretentiousness, and
romantic rhapsodizing".
Despite criticism by sections of academia, Thomas's work has been embraced by readers more so than many of his contemporaries, and is one of the few modern poets whose name is recognised by the general public.
In 2009, over 18,000 votes were cast in a BBC poll to find the UK's favourite poet; Thomas was placed 10th.
Several of Dylan's poems have passed into the cultural mainstream, and his work has been used by authors, musicians and film and television writers.
The long-running BBC Radio programme, 'Desert Island Discs', in which guests usually choose their favourite songs, has heard 50 participants select a Dylan Thomas recording.
John Goodby states that this popularity with the reading public allows Thomas's work to be classed as vulgar and common. He also cites that despite a brief period during the 1960's when Thomas was considered a cultural icon, the poet has been marginalized in critical circles due to his exuberance, in both life and work, and his refusal to know his place.
Goodby believes that Thomas has been mainly snubbed since the 1970's and has become: "... an embarrassment to twentieth-century poetry criticism", his work failing to fit standard narratives, and thus being ignored rather than studied.
-- Memorials to Dylan Thomas
In Swansea's maritime quarter is the Dylan Thomas Theatre, the home of the Swansea Little Theatre of which Thomas was once a member. The former Guildhall built in 1825 is now occupied by the Dylan Thomas Centre, a literature centre, where exhibitions and lectures are held and which is a setting for the annual Dylan Thomas Festival. Outside the centre stands a bronze statue of Thomas by John Doubleday.
Another monument to Thomas stands in Cwmdonkin Park, one of Dylan's favourite childhood haunts, close to his birthplace. The memorial is a small rock in an enclosed garden within the park, cut by and inscribed by the late sculptor Ronald Cour with the closing lines from Fern Hill:
'Oh as I was young and easy
in the mercy of his means
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like
the sea'.
Thomas's home in Laugharne, the Boathouse, is now a museum run by Carmarthenshire County Council. Thomas's writing shed is also preserved.
In 2004, the Dylan Thomas Prize was created in his honour, awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30. In 2005, the Dylan Thomas Screenplay Award was established. The prize, administered by the Dylan Thomas Centre, is awarded at the annual Swansea Bay Film Festival.
In 1982 a plaque was unveiled in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. The plaque is also inscribed with the last two lines of 'Fern Hill'.
In 2014, the Royal Patron of The Dylan Thomas 100 Festival was Charles, Prince of Wales, who made a recording of 'Fern Hill' for the event.
In 2014, to celebrate the centenary of Thomas's birth, the British Council Wales undertook a year-long programme of cultural and educational works. Highlights included a touring replica of Thomas's work shed, Sir Peter Blake's exhibition of illustrations based on 'Under Milk Wood', and a 36-hour marathon of readings, which included Michael Sheen and Sir Ian McKellen performing Thomas's work.
Towamensing Trails, Pennsylvania named one of its streets, Thomas Lane, in Dylan's honour.
-- List of Works by Dylan Thomas
-- 'The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The New Centenary Edition', edited and with Introduction by John Goodby. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014.
-- 'The Notebook Poems 1930–34', edited by Ralph Maud. London: Dent, 1989.
-- 'Dylan Thomas: The Film Scripts', edited by John Ackerman. London: Dent 1995.
-- 'Dylan Thomas: Early Prose Writings', edited by Walford Davies. London: Dent 1971.
-- 'Collected Stories', edited by Walford Davies. London: Dent, 1983.
-- 'Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices', edited by Walford Davies and Ralph Maud. London: Dent, 1995.
-- 'On The Air With Dylan Thomas: The Broadcasts', edited by Ralph Maud. New York: New Directions, 1991.
-- Correspondence
-- 'Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters', edited by Paul Ferris (2017), 2 vols. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Vol I: 1931–1939
Vol II: 1939–1953.
-- 'Letters to Vernon Watkins', edited by Vernon Watkins (1957). London: Dent.
-- Posthumous Film Adaptations
-- 2016: Dominion, written and directed by Steven Bernstein, examines the final hours of Dylan Thomas.
-- 2014: Set Fire to the Stars, with Thomas portrayed by Celyn Jones, and John Brinnin by Elijah Wood.
-- 2014: Under Milk Wood BBC, starring Charlotte Church, Tom Jones, Griff Rhys-Jones and Michael Sheen.
-- 2014: Interstellar. The poem is featured throughout the film as a recurring theme regarding the perseverance of humanity.
-- 2009: A Child's Christmas in Wales, BAFTA Best Short Film. Animation, with soundtrack in Welsh and English. Director: Dave Unwin. Extras include filmed comments from Aeronwy Thomas.
-- 2007: Dylan Thomas: A War Films Anthology (DDHE/IWM).
-- 1996: Independence Day. Before the attack, the President paraphrases Thomas's "Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night".
-- 1992: Rebecca's Daughters, starring Peter O'Toole and Joely Richardson.
-- 1987: A Child's Christmas in Wales, directed by Don McBrearty.
-- 1972: Under Milk Wood, starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter O'Toole.
-- Opera Adaptation
-- 1973: Unter dem Milchwald, by German composer Walter Steffens on his own libretto using Erich Fried's translation of 'Under Milk Wood' into German, Hamburg State Opera. Also at the Staatstheater Kassel in 1977.
-- Final Thoughts From Dylan Thomas
"Somebody's boring me.
I think it's me."
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
"When one burns one's bridges,
what a very nice fire it makes."
"I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble; It is so sad and
beautiful, so tremulously like a dream."
"An alcoholic is someone you don't
like, who drinks as much as you do."
"I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me,
and my enquiry is as to their working, and my
problem is their subjugation and victory, down
throw and upheaval, and my effort is their self-
expression."
"The only sea I saw was the seesaw sea
with you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy.
Let me shipwreck in your thighs."
"Why do men think you can pick love up
and re-light it like a candle? Women know
when love is over."
"Poetry is not the most important thing in life.
I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading
Agatha Christie and sucking sweets."
"And now, gentlemen, like your manners,
I must leave you."
"My education was the liberty I had to read
indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes
hanging out."
"I'm a freak user of words, not a poet."
"Our discreditable secret is that we don't
know anything at all, and our horrid inner
secret is that we don't care that we don't."
"It snowed last year too: I made a snowman
and my brother knocked it down and I knocked
my brother down and then we had tea."
"Though lovers be lost love shall not."
"Man’s wants remain unsatisfied till death.
Then, when his soul is naked, is he one
with the man in the wind, and the west moon,
with the harmonious thunder of the sun."
"And books which told me everything
about the wasp, except why."
"We are not wholly bad or good, who
live our lives under Milk Wood."
"Love is the last light spoken."
"... an ugly, lovely town ... crawling, sprawling ...
by the side of a long and splendid curving
shore. This sea-town was my world."
"I do not need any friends. I prefer enemies.
They are better company, and their feelings
towards you are always genuine."
"This poem has been called obscure. I refuse
to believe that it is obscurer than pity, violence,
or suffering. But being a poem, not a lifetime,
it is more compressed."
"One: I am a Welshman; two: I am a drunkard;
three: I am a lover of the human race, especially
of women."
"I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they've ever
questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn't
know, because I won't ever dare ask that question."
"These poems, with all their crudities, doubts and
confusions, are written for the love of man and in
praise of God, and I'd be a damn fool if they weren't."
"Before you let the sun in, mind he wipes his shoes."
"Nothing grows in our garden, only washing.
And babies."
"Make gentle the life of this world."
"A worm tells summer better than the clock,
the slug's a living calendar of days; what shall
it tell me if a timeless insect says the world
wears away?"
"Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Come
closer now. Only you can hear the houses
sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt
and silent black, bandaged night."
"Rhianon, he said, hold my hand, Rhianon.
She did not hear him, but stood over his bed
and fixed him with an unbroken sorrow. Hold
my hand, he said, and then: Why are you
putting the sheet over my face?"
"Come on up, boys - I'm dead."
"Life is a terrible thing, thank God."
This series of photographs taken on approach to Melbourne Airport is accompanied by Muzak from the 1970s. Those old enough to remember will recall that airlines used to play "soothing" Muzak to calm nervous travellers when preparing to land.
"Rocker Ted Nugent used Muzak as an icon of everything 'uncool' about music. In 1986, he publicly made a $10 million bid to purchase the company with the stated intent of shutting it down. 'Muzak is an evil force in today's society, causing people to lapse into uncontrollable fits of blandness,' Nugent said. 'It's been responsible for ruining some of the best minds of our generation.'"
All photographs here were taken with the Leica D-Lux 7.
...as you are now, so once was I,
As I am now, you too shall be...
Prepare for death and follow me.
**these words were written on a tombstone that my high school friends and I saw when we were looking around at a cemetery in my small town. There was a picture of a woman with a smile that bared her teeth. We couldn't stop laughing and gasping. We tried to copy her smile, pulling our upper lips back from our top teeth...forever after when we did this...we said: Make the Face! And we would laugh uncontrollably. Even my parents would "make the face." Oh, the things that we remember from our youth that we never ever forget.
I found these words to be rather horrifying! :D
Angel and Adeline are standing on my favorite tombstone at the old Boulder Cemetery.
First aid courses are great fodder for several 'old faithful' titter provokers:
• Talking about types of burn; particularly ‘Carpet’
•‘Chest injuries’
•Feeling the dummy's tits while you perform CPR
•Sitting astride the dummy and gyrating and screaming yes yes yes while you perform CPR
- Exclaiming that the dummy has a pierced tongue when you finish CPR.
•Stating that it is pointless trying to resuscitate the dummy as they have no lower half.
•Emotional overacting whilst performing CPR: quoting ER; “get me a cotton bud, an anal swab, a vanilla latte and 3 large tampons” sobbing uncontrollably, throwing yourself on the dummy and begging them not to die.
•Giggling at the big bouncy breasted girl’s big bouncy breasts bouncing as she performs CPR.
•Wiping the mouth of the dummy with a wet wipe after CPR and saying, “Sorry, did I get your hair?” “It doesn’t normally go in that direction.”
•Wrapping people up in bandages so tight that bits of them go purple.
•Watching the instructor bend a male volunteer forward and prepare to ‘backblow’ him to stop him choking
•Putting two fingers up people’s noses to tip their heads back
•Discussion of whether you would feel a bit silly if you got out a plastic face shield before resuscitation. Would you fashion one out of a carrier bag if necessary before giving them mouth to mouth if they had 50 cold sores and a centipede scurrying out of their mouth or if this would seem a little vain and peevish?
•Calling the Heimlich manoeuvre the Hymen Remover.
Melker had an accident in the hallway today.
You might call it an uncontrollable urge.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UcpmUQkNU
For reasons that remain a mystery.
AI Future Worlds Oracle Series - Copper Blue Goddesses - Albha Cypreas Azure by Daniel Arrhakis (2023)
Since the time when Artificial Intelligence emerged, fears have grown among humanity about whether it could supplant man himself and radically transform society.
Despite all governmental and planetary regulations, its development became uncontrollable from the moment large multinational companies became omnipotent.
One of the series that became the most controversial, Oracle, was developed by one of the most influential and powerful Tycoons and consisted of the integration of hybrid quantum computing systems with the power of artificial intelligence associated with bionic robotic models.
If the use of these technologies in War was already controversial, the Oracle series proved to be even more dangerous, as these supposed Intelligent Artificial Goddesses could predict future events, the possibilities of revolutions or even political transformations within society itself.
But if this seemed like it could be an added value, over time it was realized that they ended up dictating their own future events, which led to suspicions that after all, it was the big companies that were directing the future of governments and their own people, as in fact always they had done so.
But worse, the direction seemed to be heading in the direction in which the majority of human society would truly be expendable in the hands of a powerful and untouchable elite.
After major protests and regulations worldwide, the Oracle series was discontinued, until it was eventually terminated.
Some of those models produced in that era became the object of great demand by museums and private collectors and they are the subject of these series that I present to you now.
As for the Oracle series, it continued to be produced in secret by large multinationals and secret government programs, but that's another story...
___________________________________________________
Desde a época em que a Inteligência Artificial surgiu, cresceram os receios entre a humanidade sobre se ela poderia suplantar o próprio homem e transformar radicalmente a sociedade.
Apesar de todas as regulamentações governamentais e planetárias, o seu desenvolvimento tornou-se incontrolável a partir do momento em que as grandes empresas multinacionais se tornaram onipotentes.
Uma das séries que se tornou mais polêmica, Oracle, foi desenvolvida por um dos mais influentes e poderosos Tycoons e consistia na integração de sistemas híbridos de computação quântica com o poder da inteligência artificial associada a modelos robóticos biônicos.
Se o uso dessas tecnologias na Guerra já era polêmico, a série Oráculo se mostrou ainda mais perigosa, pois essas supostas Deusas Artificiais Inteligentes poderiam prever eventos futuros, possibilidades de revoluções ou mesmo transformações políticas dentro da própria sociedade.
Mas se isso parecia poder ser uma mais-valia, com o tempo percebeu-se que acabavam por ditar os seus próprios acontecimentos futuros, o que levou a suspeitas de que afinal eram as grandes empresas que estavam a dirigir o futuro dos governos e dos seus próprios povos, como de facto sempre fizeram.
Mas pior, a direção parecia estar a caminhar num sentido em que a maior parte da sociedade humana seria verdadeiramente dispensável nas mãos de uma elite poderosa e intocável.
Após grandes protestos e regulamentações em todo o mundo, a série Oracle foi descontinuada, até ser finalmente encerrada.
Alguns desses modelos produzidos naquela época tornaram-se objeto de grande procura por museus e colecionadores particulares e são o motivo principal desta serie que agora vos apresento.
Quanto à série Oracle, ela continuou a ser produzida em segredo por grandes multinacionais e programas governamentais secretos, mas isso é outra história...
____________________________________________________
A new Series "Ai - Future Worlds" created by Daniel Arrhakis with a Futuristic Surrealistic Sci-Fi intriguing mood based in the role of Artificial Intelligence in our future society.
Stories imagined by Daniel Arrhakis with images created with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Art techniques.
“100% tourist, 0% time space continuum integrity”
“After being fused with the Kanohi Olmak, Vezon went on his many (unintentional) interdimensional adventures. On these trips, he has the uncontrollable urge to hoard everything that looks remotely valuable, with all of the consequences of such actions. This is what led to him getting his hands on the story bible, which he now uses to complete his collection of non-cannon masks.”
This a bit of a joke build that I did based on some derailed conversations with friends. After reading the serials, I always jokingly imagined Vezon to be a Deadpool like character, a loose cannon with some comedy aspects (preferably voiced by Jack Black).
And while you're movin', rock steady, rock steady, baby
Let's call this song exactly what it is...
(One that I can't sit still to whenever I hear.)
I was making a road-songs CD yesterday for our next trip, and this one has been a fave of mine for a very long time.
Of course I had to give it a play while driving last night. Yeah, I can only imagine what people behind me in traffic thought when they saw me grooving uncontrollably behind the wheel. AARP may be a little over a year away, but I can still groove.
♫ ♪ What it is, what it is, what it is! ♫ ♪
1961 Cadillac Fleetwood | "Concord Green" Iridescent Metallic
Kissimmee, Florida
May 2012
metal grates and squeals like torture and chains. I hear the lonely mechanisms late in the night, still working, still begging for a break from the endless trawl into the earth and back again, in moments. They have an eerie nature - uncontrollable, constant movement. They take the name of innocence and twist it into something nightmarish. Drilling for oil as if it's a punishment, chained to the ground and ongoing. Metal gates and demanding signs cut them off from the rest of the world. In the evening I see their reflections moving against the billowing material of the trailer. Severe shapes and robotic movement and that awful, awful noise.
I've always hated nodding donkeys. They're the giant machines that drill for oil. They creep me out.
“YOU CAN PAINT YOUR WALLS SAME AS M.ROTHKO DID, OR YOU CAN DRIP YOUR PAINT ON THE FLOOR AS J.POLLOCK DID, BUT DON’T YOU DARE CALL IT THE FINE/HIGH ART. IT’S CALLED AN ANARCHY & UNCONTROLLABLE CHAOS. IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER IF YOU’D HAND A GUN TO 3 YEARS OLD OR A PAINTBRUSH TO A MONKEY, THE RESULT WILL BE THE SAME-INNOCENT FREEDOM FOR DESTRUCTION OF BEAUTY & HARMONY. DON’T YOU DARE MY “SUPER-INTELLECTUAL” SUPER ARTISTS TWIST THE PERCEPTION OF FREEDOM IN BEAUTY. RECYCLING SAME CRAFT FOR OVER 60 YEARS IS NOT INNOVATION, IT’S MADNESS. MOST OF YOU ARE CRAFTSMEN, WHO LACK EVEN BASIC ART SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE OR TECHNQUE. IN ORDER TO CREATE MUSIC YOU WOULD NEED A BASIC KNOWLEDGE OTHERWISE IT WOULD BE CHAOS OR CONTEMPORARY CACOPHONY, CALLED FREE STYLE. I’M HERE TO JUDGE & I HAVE RIGHTS TO DO SO, BECAUSE I DESTROYED MY PAINTINGS 19 YEARS AGO, REALIZING THAT I FELL UNDER THE SPELL OF MODA = MODERN. NOW, FOR OVER 19 YEARS I’M PAINTING INVISIBLE PAINTINGS. I LOVE TRUE BEAUTY & TRUE TALENT. I VALUE PEOPLE WHO LOVE ART, WHO BELIEVE IN ART, WHO INVEST IN ART. BUT I WILL FIGHT THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO KILL THIS ALL. BEWARE MY INVISIBLE PAINTINGS ARE COMING TO MAKE YOUR VISUAL CRAFT INVISIBLE. KIDS MUST PAINT AS KIDS DO=ARTIST MUST PAINT AS MASTERS DO.”
A rare sighting of this super rare, priceless and highly endangered (kena threaten) tailless cuckoo. Thought to be extinct at the turn of the century when one of these freak was sighted perching on a CB (chee bye) tree just outside Elvis's Pub (China Town, SG) on Independence Day in 1945. As far as records shown, this is the second sighting since the second world war, WWII. I'm sure there are more world wars ahead if this species continue to be sighted especially in SG and especially among the CB photographers here. The first sighting was however, in a faraway Jalan Bersar toilet a long long time ago, too long to remember and there's no point mentioning.
In fact this sensationally enigmatic bird is long suspected to be a close relative of a very strange thing called Archaeopteryx (missing link between dinosaur and modern bird. The anatomical characteristics between the 2 are almost identical except for one major difference in their respiratory system in which one take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide while the other take in money and expel laughing gas) this strange creature possess feathers just like a modern bird but with a mouth full of very sharp teeth just like the cuckoo shown above. The set of 32 sharp teeth always get the job done in amazing ways. Feathers first evolved as a means of temperature regulation, inadvertently providing the wonderful possibility of flight. A 200 million year old fossilized remains of this creature suggest that it possesses advanced flight feathers which bear close resemblance to the Long-legged bare-backed Cuckoo shown above and thus for sure it's able to fly like a housefly. It also shared many characteristics such as long sexy legs, bare back, 2 boobs, long hair, nice butt, nice smell, nice shape, tasty, crunchy, smooth complexion, contour body and most strikingly of all, able to stand on just 2 legs with or without heels. This is a clear indication that she is a bipedal vertebrate and having the ability to walk upright and wear dress. A far cry from its ancestors which could at the best of their ability only crawl in small circles on the floor and could fart a little bit along the way. But exactly at which stage of the evolutionary ladder when she starts to develop such unique and impressive characteristics remains unknown and often hotly debated among the brightest brains in the scientific community. One such bright sunny brain is Professor Humpty Dumpty from the University of Hornytown. He had devoted his entire life studying a 220 million year old fossilized remains and has make a startling discovery that the remains were actually leftover chicken bones from last night's dinner xyz***!!F__K!!KNN.
However it's hypothetically accepted that once the position of her butt had evolved sufficiently to line up with her skull within an angle of 13deg from her spine or in simple terms when all of her 206 bones have anatomically fall into their correct place to take the form of half a cuckoo she would begin to stand upright and able to walk and run in circles probably able to jump and sings twinkle twinkle little stars along the way. Fossilized records had showed that this happens around 135.25 million years ago and still happening today at 4pm. Incidentally, by looking at this bird you are watching evolution unfolding in real time right before your very eyes.
However, scientists are still missing 2 critical components needed to establish the link between the 2 creatures to be the same exact species....the elusive number 2 left butt cheek bone and the left nipple bone If anybody happen to come across these 2 missing items, please alert the ICI (International Cuckoo Institute) The 2 cuckoo scientists on duty will be glad to provide protocol on the handling of artifacts with great paleontological significance such as these.
Birds like this one is one of the immensely successful evolutional outcomes of nature, a cornerstone to the trail of life on the planet.
In the beginning of time (some 150 million to 220 million years ago), there was only one single most successful design of living thing on our primitive world known as the sexysaur. One fine day, this group of hopelessly overweight organism decided to go air borne. In order to achieve that, they dramatically reduced their size and started to develop wings and took flying lessons. The possibility of flight opens up numerous window of opportunities greatly enhancing the survival of the species and thus securing a successful path in the process of evolution. The ability to fly allows them to travel over great distances in short period of time to places otherwise unreachable in search of food or mate, sight seeing, look for loss pets, search for food court, or serve as quick getaway from nasty flightless debt collectors. The perfect strategy that results in the successful evolution of bird species in the world.
The Long-legged bare-backed Cuckoo display above is one of its success story for which she serves as a living testimony. No other species, subspecies, antispecies, funnyspecies or even nonspecies is as successful as this sexyspecies.
Those that did not buy the idea happily went extinct some 65million years ago (this group of idiots become known as the dinosaurs)
Those that took to the sky, took their success, secrets, tactics, riddles and technology with them. Those folks became the birds that we know today including the one shown above.
In fact, in the history of evolution, the earth has underwent not one but several mass extinction brought on by either very violent natural causes or of extra-terrestrial origin such as a massive asteroid impact. The most recent is 65 million years ago (in geological time scale is just about during the last Christmas when you are about to have the first bite of your favorite Christmas pie when a stone the size of a football stadium hit the earth with incredible devastating consequences). In that geological instance, the big boys dinosaurs are completely annihilated, leaving behind their descendants flying above us today and some left-over bones for us to ponder. Destructive and violent as it sounds but such occurrence actually accelerates and assist evolution by wiping out the out-of-date, out-of-fashion, out-of-steam, incorrigible, bossy, stingy, rude, smelly, noisy, inconsiderate, oversize, unreasonable, difficult to control, impossible to tame, obese, unfriendly, grumpy, uncooperative, busybody, potential terrorist, all talk no action, indecent, big bully and out-of-money dominant life forms and provide the possibility of diversification in the development of new and improved life forms or organism. Our very own existence is the eventual outcome of such destructive forces. Prior to this, we are just a bunch of noisy little apes wondering around the plains of Africa looking for berries to eat.
One burning riddle scientists are still trying to figure out is that why this particular cuckoo has taken evolution not 1 not 2 but hundred of steps further and go wingless yet fully capable of flight. Perhaps this is an adaptation to the strange combination of high sugar bubble tea/apple pie diet and the lack of horny ground predators in sg. Nevertheless, it's clear that birds have evolved from dinosaurs (some might have even developed from sexysaurs, a kind of horny dinosaur that refuse to be annihilated 65 million years ago despite being hit by a massive meteoroid from an amusement park across Wall street) and this bird has came a long way transforming from a 40 ft ferocious meat-eating T-rex to a bird-sized gentle bubble tea sucker.
Looking at the image, not much eye contact though. But back contact is not bad too. This one comes with my favorite original contour body, rosewood fretboard on maple neck, sexy G-string, synchronised tremolo and locking tuner by Fender. Wonder if she is a brood parasite. I certainly would not mind if she visit my nest, I would be more than happy to provide full gps coordinates of my nest : 3rd stone from the sun
Additional note :
130 million years of gradual speciation had resulted in a pair of long slender cuckoo legs that is covered with gorgeous fair smooth skin instead of scales found in other bird or bird-like species. This gives the animal a huge evolutionary advantage over a pair of stupid scaly legs. That would allows her to attract more horny male species resulting in higher number of nesting cycles, hence more offspring, especially horny female chicks..the more the better
This is the only cuckoo and for that matter the only bird species which spot the longest hair on the planet. These what looks like human pubic hair is in fact very fine strands of crystallized radioactive carbon 13.13 isotopes. The phenomenon is a result of a combination of factors. One such combination is the excessive exposure to male species not of her own kind during her most horny period.
This is a direct result of a hypothetical condition known as Reset Windup. In engineering term, Reset Windup is a situation whereby the cuckoo's brain is overloaded with corrupted data during an attempt to correct an excessive amount of error information accumulated in her hippocampus as a result of some serious horny misjudgment As a consequence, the inner lining of her skull's tissue is heated up by the contaminated fluid to extremely high temperature and pressure. In a response to such deadly situation, her brain would then starts to drain off the deadly sexy fluid thru' the follicles thus allowing the internal pressure to falls back to its normal level of 13000 PSI (Pound per Sexy Inch) at ambient temperature. Million of years of evolution has equipped this cuckoo with a super brain capable of processing tremendous amount of data in a very short period of time with self diagnostic, self troubleshooting, self stimulating and debugging function. This special abilities allow the cuckoo to correct the mentioned deadly condition incredibly fast thus protecting her brain from serious hardware, software as well as underwear injury. Otherwise she could be a mad cuckoo or worst, dead cuckoo with a living but very corrupted brain. For any other bird species, the result would be undoubtedly 100% fatal. Even panadol can't help either.
The sexy sticky yellowish fluid subsequently cools and crystallize into the black-colored hair-like particles suspended from her skull as shown in the image.
Anyway, regardless of the vast number of strange combination of factors, long hair is always better than no hair (botak) for this particular species..
A recent discovery of a set of fossilized upper jaw bone by Professor Robin Hoody (Swordsman University) lies buried for 200 million years
under a 7-Eleven store at Wall Street belonging to this species has revealed something extraordinary. At some point in its evolutionary past this creature has possessed something out of anybody’s imagination, venom yes 100% pure venom no joke.
It is evident by its 2 enlarged front teeth still attached to the jaw structure after 200 million years by a tiny piece of pre-historic Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum. It has evolved to generate and store huge amount of venom ready to inject into her lucky prey victim just for one single most important purpose, kill the bargirl.
Traces of fossilised DNA in her mouth indicates there are at least 2000 complex chemical components of various type of toxin in her venom composition.
Each component has evolved to perform a very specific task, some of which makes the victim laugh and dance in circles fully naked while others destroy the blood structure turning it into a thick straw berry chicken soup which halt blood flow resulting in a joyful death. Both methods are extremely effective in taking the lives out of its living victims
Together they form a very potent Hemotoxin cocktail cough syrup which design to kill its victim in miniseconds in one single bite sometimes 2, depending male or female sexually active prey.
How and why at one point in time this sweet and gentle creature has developed such a nasty defensive/offensive mechanism is still a subject of intense study and would remain so for the next 200 million years until some smart Alec comes along figure that out and comes up with a rational explanation follow by a possible resolution.
However, recent studies show that this creature has given up its deadly chemical weapon sometimes between 100million and 50million years ago for something that is less nasty and deadly, a pair of boob-like airbags which attached to her chest. (subsequently the patent for the generation of the deadly venom has been sold to Poseidon (sea god) which he then deploy on some of his cheeky sea creatures such as Cone Snail, Box Jellyfish and Blue ring octopus to kill innocent cold blooded prey items under the sea and is met with huge success as a result of its extreme toxicity which could deliver instant death to their victims. They would become the world's most venomous animals. There are plans to expand its venom producing plants to China taking advantage of its cheap labour and free WIFI.
The reason for that is largely due to the extreme seasonal/environmental change which has impacted the behavior of her aggressive fast moving prey items. The greenhouse effect has caused her prey items to become more sluggish, stupid, lazy, groggy, grumpy, inconsiderate, abusive, unreasonable and most importantly loses their ability to run fast which eventually lead to their demise. (this is exactly
what 's happening to us currently)
As such, advance predator such as this female cuckoo, which is designed to be predatory at that moment in the evolutionary history also changes her predatory instinct. She can then focus her energy into more mating cycles instead of wasting her resources to generate venom of such complexity to bite and kill fast running sexy preys which has became obsolete since. Instead of biting her victim to death she seduce them to die for her. This method only works on male prey items for obvious reasons. Concurrently, she also give up the idea of large prey predation and devote to eat something more manageable in size such as tiny worms and occasionally a Big Mac or 2.
The male cuckoo however, is non-predatory from the very beginning of time and only eats fresh buttercake and drink lukewarm pure pussy juice.
highlight :
The absence of the usual tail feathers has revealed an extraordinary appealing organ which is usually well hidden from sight known as a butt and it grab me by the throat. This piece of juicy, extremely elastic, hand woven, shiny, safe-to-use, easy to wash, irresistible, often unusable, machine washable, microwave safe, warm & smooth, carefully calibrated, 100% sterilized, tasty, sometimes slightly salty, highly aromatic, at times problematic, robust, extremely stable, low in fats, high in proteins, low in cholesterol, sugar free, mostly playable, top quality, reliable, highly maneuverable, a little bit tricky, insect-resistant, a little bit slippery, weather resistant, water proof, solid and at the same time soft to touch organ (wish my bolster has all these qualities) allow her to sit comfortably on the eggs during incubation period and simultaneously preventing her from falling out of the nest when she farts in her sleep. Usually Cuckoo would build their nest more than 3 meters up on the tree and as such, this job is considered to be working at height. Risk assessment must be carried out and PPE (personal protective equipment) such as safety harness, hard hat, safety goggles, ear protection, safety pussy shoes, super glue, luggage bags, tooth pick, sun block, ladder, fishnet stocking, perfume, tampon, reader digest, fire extinguisher, speargun, shopping bag, manicure, moisturizer, hamburger, 7-up and parachute is required by law. However, in view of her super ass which is also a shock absorber and a pair of boob-like tissue which double as a parachute, she is well exempted from all safety equipment including toilet roll. It also has a build-in AI temperature and pressure control system which intelligently adjust to the optimal settings in the course of the incubation period for best comfort, stability, safety, gas exchange and heat transfer. Another amazing feature is that it can be programmed to switch off when the butt is not in use for incubation during which it can be used for other more functional purposes such as attracting a mate, for hire or just showing off.
Hence, this multifunctional multicoloured butt is indeed a staggering marvel of engineering bearing the hallmark of a product from nature manufactured to the highest quality and safety level which surpass all standards set by horny mankind
If you wish to have one installed, please contact Dr Hairy Cock mobile 88813888
Just in case you can't reach him. Just drop by at his workshop located at no. 13 Manymorecocks Street. He is sure in, 24/7. There in his ISO certified, digitally hygienic, explosion proof, terrorist-free, tax free, high-security, air-tight, earthquake-proof, anti-tsunami, mold-free, worry-free, cyber secured laboratory, you can find him busy at his work dismantling, assembling, designing and constructing a wide range of butts for an endless range of applications. His latest project which I'm not supposed to tell is a space butt mounted on a cuckoo just like the one display above and send the entire package to Mars. This highly classified scientific experiment is to test out the theory of cuckoo colonization in another planet outside of our own. In addition, the program is also design to seek out the origins of the Martians. Where do all these idiots would possibly come from? Have they evolved from kind of strange ancient microbial life or imported from another screw-up planet by some screw-up aliens on holiday and how they manage to evolve so unsuccessfully to become the present day Martians living in such a hostile place with no air, no water, no shops, no food court, no casino, no WIFI, no YouTube, no convenient stalls, no porn, no where to go except hiding under thick layers of red sand waiting for a sexy earth cuckoo to drop by once every few million years.
Unlike mother earth where we are all too familiar with, Mars has yet to install an atmospheric curtain around the red planet due to budget constraints of the stingy Martians. Without which, the cuckoo from earth would not survive for long no matter how good is her mating and incubating skills. No air means dead cuckoo. In order to overcome that, the future Mars cuckoo would need to evolve to develop a self- sustaining internal oxygen compartment which allows the generation and storage of oxygen gas. The solution, to convert her 2 existing boob-like organs into gas chambers each capable of storing 50 tons of O2 gas with provisions to generate and store an additional 50mg of Nitrogen/hydrogen sulfide mixture, 2.5mg of horny gas and a little laughing gas as well. With the well-thought system in place, we never need to depend on the cunning Martians for air. They overcharge every time. One major engineering problem pin down but still thousands more to go.
Another major issue is the lovely solar winds from the sun.
Without a magnetic curtain (generated by the earth's core) to repel them just like mother earth does, the deadly UV rays, cosmic rays, X rays, grandma rays, grandpa rays, stink rays, funny rays and a whole range of high energy nasty charged particles will soon strip the cuckoo external plumage exposing her naked body. That would prove fatal not for the cuckoo but for the Martians. The Martians for the longest time have never seen a naked cuckoo before and that would certainly blow their minds turning them into headless Mars bars. They must find a solution to this sticky problem fast otherwise the 2 remaining martians would be annihilated staring at the naked cuckoo all day long with the solar wind gently blowing.
However, this cuckoo has one super trick up her sleeve. Not only does her 2 boob-like organs able to generate and store gases they also double as electromagnetic flux generators. The resultant sexy magnetic field forms a cocoon-like shield wrapping all around her, protecting her fragile body from the deadly solar winds radiate from the sun's surface especially during a sunspot when the radiation is at its peak.
Apart from the protective function, the magnetic flux also create a spectacle of colorful aurora called Assrora in the region around her ass. This is a result of the intense magnetic forces interacting with the highly active stream of chemically complex mixture of gases exiting her bottom especially after a heavy meal of garlic and anions. At times, bright streaks of lightning can also be seen resulting from the excessive build-up of cheeky-charged particles discharging to the ground below follow by a series of ass splitting banshee screams.
Final conclusion :
Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace both came up with the Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection independently. Hat off to you guys.
Both are immensely successful in the development of their "The Origin Of Species" thesis thru keen observations of the natural world.
(but that did not shed light on why my boss crucified me for an incompetency that i never agree during the course of work despite after working diligently for half a million years. I am completely devastated. It's like a bullet thru' my brain. They forced me to take over a super hot potato and swallow it without a single drop of water, that really hunts. But life have to go on. I pray that one day justice will prevail and cleanse my name )
Sadly, both somehow missed this cuckoo. Has Alfred Wallace discovered this cuckoo during his field trip here in 1854 things will never be the same.
This cuckoo would provide all the materials he needs to formulate his theory and the answers to all the intriguing questions that he is dying to know about the origins of species and will undoubtedly be way ahead of Charles in that regards.
He would be able to see this cuckoo evolving right before his teary eyes in real time which otherwise would take millions of years, too slowly to be observed, study and recorded by any living human being.
Observing this cuckoo in real time doing the real things is like travel back in time doing the fake things. The technological innovations that nature has put into this bird is simply mind blogging. Such example is the transformation of the black bill into a CBlips, the boob-like objects in disguise, the extraordinary butt, from rock to rocket, from wings to no wings to chicken wings, from feather to fair skin, from bird-eyes to human-like eyes, from bird smell to sexy smell, from scaly legs to sexy legs, from dinosaur to sexysaur last and not least the state-of-the-art Fart propulsion system. In order to fully digest all her natural wonders of evolution, he probably have to dissect this human-like cuckoo to have a detailed look of her from the inside, outside and backside. I’m sure he is able to unlock more secrets and unravel more mysteries about this cuckoo and for that matter evolution itself. I’m sure he would exclaim after a detailed analysis of this cuckoo …damn it, this thing is a super delight...and damn hot !
This will also shed light on how other species evolve, half evolve, strangely evolve, little bit evolve, anyhow evolve or successfully fail to evolve. Evolution as we know today will never be the same again. All the books on evolution that we know about will have to be re-written for the sake of one bird, the Long-legged bare-backed tailless Cuckoo....sweat !
(have a good look at the specimen shown above. However, for safety reasons male reader is advised not to pay too much attention at one particular highly evolved piece of hardware known as the butt. It was reported that a curious male reader has suffered a phenomenon called pulsating eye-ball syndrome after having stared at the arousing object for 13mins straight without blinking leading to a massive short-circuiting of the brain cells which in turn causes the affected eye-balls to expand and contract at an alarming rate. If the condition is not treated promptly, the eye-ball would invariably turn into fish-balls)
In the image, there is a red color pillar with a grey color onion shaped object situated at the left side of the cuckoo. This strange looking structure is actually a mini nuclear missile which runs on radioactive plutonium13.13. Its function, however is not to deliver a massive destructive force to its enemy but to serve as a quick getaway transportation for the cuckoo in distress.
In the event of an emergency such as uncontrollable large scale fire or a horrible horny riot that ever to break out in the vicinity , this wingless cuckoo would then be able to jump onto the device right away, hold it tight like a bolster and launch herself away from any imminent dangers by licking the onion vigorously. A perfect escape strategy.
The last time a cuckoo ever try this out is yesterday 4pm when a stray exploding firecracker drop 4ft away trigger a responsive reaction. The cuckoo immediately swing into action and ride on the damn thing. The missile take off successfully saving the cuckoo's life. However, at 10,000ft in the air, the combustion chamber, a major component of the device suddenly blow up due to excessive temperature build up and blow the poor cuckoo's ass into 13 pieces. The cause of the incident was traced to a pair of faulty 'o' ring which served to isolate the cuckoo's fart gases from coming into contact with the rocket fuel source of highly compressed laughing gas.
The mixing of these gases created an phenomenon known as Shaky-ass where the highly excited male air molecules build up inside the cuckoo's butt starts to vibrate so violently that it leads to the catastrophic breakup of her ass. She survived the incident after having her badly damaged ass sew up in the Smithsonian Institution's gift shop. The repair job takes over a month to complete during which the out-of-action cuckoo is confined to doing blowjob. To blow away the curious Big-eye flies which gather around her injured butt just to watch.
To prevent such tragedy from happening again, it is mandatory for all female wingless cuckoo species to install titanium heat shield to protect their butt. As from yesterday, under the bizSAFE WSH regulation those cuckoo which deem vulnerable to the potentially fatal Shaky-ass condition and do not have sufficient protection for their asset will have their butt confiscated by the long and horny arms of the law. The better quality butts would then be used to installed in sex toys for the cuckoo sex industries to boost the declining birth rate. The resulting buttless cuckoo which have lost their sexual appeal to their male counterparts will have to be scraped or convert to sex slaves for a group of very horny male hyena in the singapore zoo and to be consumed as snack then after.
I'm not too sure if this particular cuckoo conform to the specific requirement unless an intimate butt inspection is being carry out to determine if the protective shield is of the right material and dimension to offer full protection to the entire butt and not half a butt or quaterbutt
For new installation, please contact Mr Hairy Maniac at 999111
For repairs/overhaul/replacement or unconditional sniffing contact Mr Spill Gates at $$$$123
For spare parts, you seriously run out of luck
One final and most important note (I promise) :
Cuckoo species are infamous for their brood parasitic behavior. Most cuckoo parents would leave their parental duties from incubating the eggs to feeding their own young
entirely to another species If this young cuckoo chick needs help, I won't mind to feed this hot freak until she is mature enough, tame enough, wild enough, hot enough, cheeky enough to fend for herself and at the same time providing her with the best TLC I could afford to give this poor chick a head start in life.
But please don't tell my wife about it....otherwise the consequence is unimaginable. I'll be put into an exceptional evolutionary transition transforming from a human being into a single cell organism in a brink of an eye. Literally nothing left.
The story of CB leaf :
According to historical records which date back to the early days of the SAF (sg army). Soldiers were strongly discouraged from using a particular type of plant for camouflage purpose in the course of field craft training. It was green and it was big and best of all it looked like a pussy. It was extremely hard for your enemies NOT to spot you from miles away because you looked just like a gigantic green moving pussy.
This is the infamous CB leaf. scientific name : Chee Bye leaf, common name : simpoh air plant
uncommon name : plant more leaves
Christian name : Chai tow kway (fried carrotcake) leaf
Hokkien name : CB leaf also
Cantonese name : also CB leaf
Malay name : CB leaf sama sama
Alternative name of the plant around the globe :
Indian name : roti prata curry leaf
Japanese name : Love that pussy leaf
Chinese name : make more pussy leaf
European name : eat the pussy leaf
American name : play that funky pussy leaf (til you die .......♫♫ ♪)
North Korean name : Rocket pussy leaf
Martian name : space pussy leaf
Mexican name : hot pussy leaf
Russian name : freeze pussy leaf
African name : Serengeti pussy leaf
Australian name : Kangaroo pussy leaf / Down under got pussy leaf
Thai name : Tom Yum pussy
Singapore name : Chilli pussy crab
Terrorist name : bomb that pussy
English name : pussywillow
Hungary name : Budapussy
Italian name : Pastapussy
Mongolia name : Magnolia icepussy
James Bond name : Octopussy leaf
Musical name : Pussy note in F major (with accidental)
Airplane name : Fly Pussy Fly
IT name : Fire Pussy Wall
Vacation name : Annual pussy leave
Technological name : acute erotic Pussification misalignment
Medical name : unkeratinized stratified squamous - epithelium......nevermind
Family name : Miss Pussy Leaf
WI-FI name : pussy 5G
Nickname : Lan Jiao (Lan bird)
Hieroglyphic name : dunno how to read
Fakename : Pussy Sham Leaf
Brandname : Brand essence of Pussy
Atomic name : Uranium Pussy 235 Leaf
Roadname : Missy Pussy street
Story name : 3 little pussy pigs
Ancient name : Rivers Of Babylon(there we sat down)
Alcoholic name : Johnnie Woker black pussy label.
Song name : Stairway To Heaven (Dazed and confused)
Band name : ZZ TOP (just got back from pussy's)
Astronomy name : Milky pussy way
Botanical name : Bellis perennis pussykickapoo
Biblical name : Caiaphas&pilate_Q_gsus
Technical name : Electromagnetic pussy excitation
Guitar name : Fender stratocaster vs Gibson les pussy
Biology name : multicellular pussycitation
Cosmology name : Supermassive black hole (there is one in every galaxy including ours. There is one found in our company known as the BOSS or more appropriately SMAH (SuperMassive AssHole)
Mystery name : Shroud of Turin. relics of Crucifixion & resurrection of the Lord.
Electrical name : High tension busbar juice
Arabic name : ساق طويلة كس زهرة
Electronic name : VLSI (Very Large Sexy Integration)
Archaeological name : Archaic pussy
Baby name : Cinderella, little glass pussy
Hebrew name : נֶחְמָד מודיע אלמוני flou(-ə)r
Thai name : ดอกไม้ หี
Surname : Ah Lian (aka pussy lian)
SG Lockdown name : Circuit Breaker, stay home stay safe, stay D (steady).
Controversy name : Documentary Hypothesis
Lost gospel name : Q source oral tradition
...
extra info :
This is a female featherless bird species (male species has got absolutely no interesting features and therefore nut thing worthy to talk about)
Only 4 species known to have existed in this world.
I got 3 of them and the forth one is still at large.
Believe to be hiding in a place far far away. A place so remote that even MRT+LRT+SBS bus can't reach.
I'm determined to track her down one day, shoot her and post her in flickr backside....i mean ...website.
What actually happened :
This group of people/photographer together with their supposedly hired model came by while I was busy shooting the Stork-billed Kingfisher hunting beside a small pond.
Out of nowhere a lady came over accusing me for trying to shoot their model and thus scaring her demanding me to move off from the area. I was rather taken aback and pissed off at her rude remarks. I then reminded her that this was a public place. I shoot my bird while you guys shoot your model. In fact I think the appearance of this huge group of people really impacted my photography.
It was at this moment that I decided to do exactly what they were accusing me.....shoot their fucking model !
A subject that was last on my list. I turn my lens away from the king and started framing this girl which I soon found her to be more appealing than my kingfisher. (Damn it I should have devoted my time shooting girls instead!)
Later, while I was reviewing the pics that I decided to do a write-up on this rather unexpected encounter. Inject a little humor, married it with a little avian flavor, spice it up with a little archaeological excitement, mix it with some astronomical reasoning, stir it with a bit of engineering logic, fix it with a dose of interplanetary space exploration, sprinkle with lots of nonsensical bullshit and turn it into something amusing.
100KV 07092018 1550
200KV 20122018 0808
300KV 24022019 2200
400kv 29052019 0100
500kv 01092019 0100
600kv 27022020 0100
700kv 12032021 0100
800kv 08042022 0100
1006022 25062024 0849
Jump caught by super Jairo
A few days ago I’ve been tagged by the lovely Jo, she’s being very patience waiting for my 16 random facts. And now my good friend Jeh sent me another invitation. So for both of you….
1.My middle name is Regina. So my real name is Flavia Regina, after my father and my mother
2.I’m a sugar addict
3.I don’t like bananas but I’ll eat them in case of emergencies
4.My favorite movie is Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (ok, to be honest I have a lot of favorite movies…it’s a very long list)
5.I’d like to travel trough time, but I would be satisfied with a travel around the world. Could you sponsor me?
6.I daydream a lot
7.I make my living writing, reading, talking and listening. I’m a P.R. (public relations)
8.Don’t be mad at me but I couldn’t watch Wall.E for more than 25 minutes
9.I fear heights
10.I bought a ticket to the Stick & Sweet tour and I didn’t go
11.I think the world would be a better place without Paris Hilton (I’m just kidding…no I’m not)
12.India was the hardest experience of my life
13.Photography is my life. Sometimes I wish to be a bw photographer (now I’m lying - lol, but I’ve been trying to do more bw shots)
14.I can’t memorize any lyrics
15.I still didn’t recover from Warrick Brown’s death
16.I have 10 all stars and I want more...
Ps: I guess it’s unnecessary to say that I have this uncontrollable urge to jump and colorful umbrellas. I’ve more random facts about me but I only have 4 minutes to save the world. Maybe another time ;o). Thx to Jo and Jeh, it was fun.
If you want it
You already got it
If you thought it
It better be what you want
If you feel it
It must be real
Just say the word and
I'll give you what you want
Today's soundtrack: 4 minutes – Madonna Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
Then ouse next door to mine, when I lived in Omaha in 1955-56.
**********************************
Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html
and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html
Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.
So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.
For now, here is a random list of things I remember:
1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.
2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.
3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.
4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.
5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.
6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).
7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.
8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.
9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.
10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.
11. Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.
Yes please don't worry about me, I'm not looking for sympathy either. I have been really very unwell for the most part of this last week, It's familiar although a bit worse than I've had before, not CV19, but a hefty spike of another sort in my ME condition not helped when I passed a Kidney stone Moinday night although at least the pain of that was shorter than usual. Last night and today I've been alternating between shivering uncontrollable and sweating like a Politician caught with their fingers in the till. Well not a UK Tory one of course, they're allowed to get away with anything.
Anyway I have no idea how iong this is going to last, but at least it's dull so my increased light sensitivity isn't as bad as if it was sunny. Once through this I expect my health to finally improve greatly although nothing is certain, one day at a time but dressing is out of the question. At least I'm also able to take care of myself, with care, so don't have to rely on anyone else. Look after yourselves xx
The school that I attended in Omaha, 1955-56.
For some reason, I remembered the name of the school -- and from there, it was easy to find ... except that in 1992, we didn't have Google Maps. So I had look very closely at an old-fashioned map before I could find it ...
One more thing: if anyone had asked me and my school-mates what a "drug free zone" was, we probably would have said, "What?!? No medicine?"
**********************************
Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html
and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html
Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.
So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.
For now, here is a random list of things I remember:
1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.
2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.
3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.
4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.
5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.
6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).
7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.
8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.
9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.
10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.
11. Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.
Luckily the roof is no longer on the water tower or I would have done one of my "shoe dangle" shots.
Being on that ladder is by far the scariest feeling I've ever had. At about half way up my arms and legs were uncontrollably shaking. Thats when I looked down....When you look down you see ALL the way down a few hundred feet. Quite the feeling being higher up then some of the buildings downtown.
And as always, yes, this was dumb. I was safe.
Thanks Derek!
The gunman 3/4
After boarding his bike and taking it cautiously through the dirtied and morbid streets of the narrows, a slum of a neighborhood deep within Gotham city where poverty is a tragically common sight and heroin dictates the way it’s lost inhabitants think and act and live, Bruce is stopped by the sight of a bleeding and withered man of about the same age. He puts his skeletal hand before Bruce’s front wheel and begins manically and uncontrollably moving about the ground looking straight at Bruce with eyes that show no sign of a pupil. Bruce wants to help the man and his addiction but knows real help can only come once dealers such as many of falcones close friends are put before a judge and punished justly.
Bruce: sorry...
He keeps driving till he finds the sordid old bar. He climbs the crumbling stairs to the bars back entrance, slamming open the rotting door and demanding Lenny to come forward. He’s never seen the mans face, only his mask and a few mugshots from years ago so can’t tell if the sorry souls in that pub are lying or really have no idea where len is. Whilst Leonard stays hidden, another enemy does not. Without detection, Floyd Lawton lifts a handgun to the back of Bruce’s head, demanding him to remove his cowl.
Floyd: take the damn thing off. Your mask. Take it off
Batman: Lawton...perfect timing
Floyd: thought I’d given up right. Never failed a job before and won’t start now
Batman: take the shot then.
Floyd:...as much as it pains me to say it. The guy hiring wants you alive....the only reason I didn’t shoot you dead the first time
Bruce lands a blow to Floyd’s face,noticing a stain of red seep through the front of his mask and then following it up by bringing him to the ground
Floyd again fires at him with several bullets, missing him as the batman swiftly disappears into the bars pitch black keg cellar
He cautiously follows the bat, scanning the cellar with his red sight, until he notices, on the ground before him, the daunting shadow of the towering dark knight. Floyd dodges several blows aimed at his head, managing to fire a tranquilliser into Bruce’s neck, instantly knocking him out
Floyd(muttering under his breath): ima goddamn gunman...I shoot people. Don’t capture them....Goddamnit
He murmurs to himself as he hauls Bruce into the back of a red van and drives away, taking his phone to make a deal with Carmine
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
The Brusio spiral viaduct (Brusio circular viaduct) is a single-track nine-arched stone spiral railway viaduct on the Bernina railway. It was first opened on 1 July 1908.
A key structure of the World Heritage-listed Bernina railway, it is located near Brusio, in the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, and was built to limit the railway's gradient at that location within its specified maximum of 7%. It is considered to be one of the architectural highlights of the Rhaetian Railway.
The Brusio spiral viaduct forms part of the Bernina Railway section between Brusio and Campascio. It is just south of Brusio, and approximately 54 kilometres (34 mi) from St. Moritz.
During the construction of the Bernina Railway, its engineers decided that its route and features ought to follow and adapt to the natural landscape to the maximum extent, avoiding unnecessary complexity wherever possible. They also decided to avoid the construction of a rack-and-pinion railway due to a desire for the line to be suitable for both passenger and freight traffic; the adoption of a rack system would have made it impossible to run heavy trains, effectively preventing the line's use by freight trains. It was also desirable for the line to serve valley locations, and thus for the route to vary in height above the valley floor. It was such decisions that drove the construction of the Brusio spiral viaduct.
A spiral viaduct was required immediately south of Brusio to limit the railway's grade to the required maximum of 7%, so that the train would not slip on the way up, or be uncontrollable on the way down. The construction of a viaduct on this site had not been originally planned for; instead, a spiral tunnel was at one point intended to be constructed; however, local geological factors discouraged the boring of such a tunnel. Therefore, the line's engineers decided to construct a 360 degree curve with a 50 to 70 m (160 to 230 ft) radius, rising up from the valley floor, the viaduct forms a part of that curve.
The spiral viaduct is 110 metres (360 ft) long, has a horizontal radius of curvature of 70 metres (230 ft), a longitudinal slope of 7 percent, and is made up of nine spans, each 10 metres (33 ft) in length. The spiral configuration maximises the rate of elevation in comparison to a conventional curve, while also avoiding the inconveniences of a switchback alternative. Wherever reasonable, local materials were sourced for its construction.
On 1 July 1908, the viaduct was opened in conjunction with the opening of the Tirano–Poschiavo section of the Bernina Railway. In 1943, the whole of the Bernina Railway was taken over by the Rhaetian Railway; this company continues to both own and operate services across the spiral viaduct to the present day. The services the spiral viaduct carries facilitate not only local trade purposes but tourism as well. Since 2008, the spiral viaduct, along with the rest of the route, has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Decided to go out today despite being overcast with a few snow showers.Headed to ormesby in search of the smew,but nothing apart from coots and pike fishermen.Then thought might as well go to caister to see if i could get any closer to the snowbuntings after last sundays trip,and hoped there where less blinkin dogs about on the beach.Arrived,weather was dull,low light and damn cold,couldnt find them at first but as per usual they soon showed themselves,chased them around for a bit then decided to sit it out next to where the guy feeds them.Was not long before they came waddling up the beach right in front of me,then a dog would come and they would go off but came back about 5 times,although the light was rubbish im pleased with these shots,stuck it out as long as i could,i was shaking uncontrollably with the cold,i must of looked so funny just random shaking lol.Taken me ages to warm up but worth every second of it,lovely little birds with real character when they came strolling up to me.
Looks even better when you press L :)
I've been on flickr for almost a 4years now, so I think you should know somethings about me(:
My favorite words are "Audacious," and "Witty"
Favorite colors-turquoise& Spring bud green
Favorite animals-Tiger& Sea turtle<3
I'm very outgoing, energetic, confident, I loooove adventures! My dream car is, in fact, a monster truck!
Brazil, Nepal, Italy and Bhutan are the places I reeeealllly want to go!!
I enjoy
Of course, photography, which I have been accepted into a digital and visual communications school!!!!!
Oatmeal cookies
Chinese food
Neon colored socks
Uncontrollable laughter
Genuine smiles
Staying up all night with friends
Dancing with music LOUD
MUSIC<3
When my family&friends call me "Jessie"
starring at the stars for hours, even if its winter
Camping, hiking, long walks
Diving into deep water.
Minions!!! (from the movie "Despicable me")
Running, Volleyball and Soccer
and
MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more.....(:
.
Abused & Abandoned Street Dogs.
Mr Baby Mickey waiting for breakfast at
The Spirit House with Mama & Rocky.
It's Friday the 8th of November and
plans are being made for another
early morning run to the temple
tomorrow morning. Lots of dog
stuff is being readied plus of
course carrots for Mr Ed ;-)~
And lets not forget special
foods for Molly & Crew.
I'll be gone by 5AM as usual
and arrive at The Dog Palace
just after 6AM. Mama & Rocky
will be uncontrollably excited;-)
Next Thursday the 14th Blondie will
receive another inoculation then the
end of the month he will be neutered.
And lets not forget around the 20th
all the temple dogs will be given their
monthly tic, parasite, mange inoculation.
That my friends will be a very very long day.
Not complaining just stating the facts ;-)~~~~~
Thank you for your comments and donations.
Thank You.
Jon&Crew.
Please help with your temple dog donations here.
www.gofundme.com/saving-thai-temple-dogs.
Please,
No Political Statements, Awards, Invites,
Large Logos or Copy/Pastes.
© All rights reserved.
.
Having dealt with both of their guards who were assigned to protect their tower from intruders, the Outlaws were quick to track down the controls for the tower’s dispersal system. At first, the trio were rather taken aback by the simplicity of the controls as well as the poor condition of their maintenance. Clearly, they had not been used much if at all in a long, long time.
Red Hood: Hey, focus! We’re up against the clock.
Arsenal: If you think you could do it any faster than by all means, be my guest!
Scarlett: It’s not a race you two.
Arsenal: You can bet it will be if Grayson gets his tower offline first.
Red Hood: Assuming he has any idea how to take it offline.
Arsenal: He won’t have to, Barbra will have their tower offline the moment she gets her hands on the controls if she hasn’t already.
Scarlett: Just…try not to mess this up. They’re counting on us to take this tower offline before it makes it to Blackgate or Arkham.
Arsenal: Don’t worry I’ve got this, just make sure you’re covering my back. The last thing I need is a sword sticking out my chest.
Red Hood: Relax, we’ve got you covered. Just focus on shutting this thing down.
Arsenal: Hearing you say that doesn’t exactly put me at ease.
Scarlett: Just….focus…..
Arsenal: But knowing that you’ve got my six as well does.
Red Hood: Are you calling me a bad shot?
Arsenal: Wouldn’t dream of it. I’m not one to call people names am I, Moody?
Red Hood: ....Don’t get carried away, Last Place.
Scarlett: Grow up you two.
Red Hood: Sorry, Mom.
Rather than rise to the jibe, Scarlett chose simply to roll her eyes instead. It was obvious to her that Jason and Roy were simply joking with one another to try and lighten the mood between all of them. After all, with how uncertain things were, it may well be one of their last times together. All the more reason to make it a good one.
Scarlett: That’s the wrong lever.
Arsenal: Very funny.
Scarlett: No seriously, you want the one on the left. The right just controls the airflow in the pipes.
Arsenal: ….
Without saying a word Arsenal realises the reason it’s been taking him so long to shut down the tower’s output is because he’s been lowering the airflow in the pipes rather than sealing the loading chamber off from the rest of the system. As quietly as possible, he reaches over to grab hold of the left lever and slowly moves it towards him.
Before either Jason or Scarlett can say anything a loud creak echoes throughout the room causing the pair of them to instinctively draw their guns. It’s only after quickly surveying the room and finding nothing that they slowly lower and holster them.
Arsenal: Itchy trigger finger?
Red Hood: You could say that.
Scarlett: It’s a side effect from when Pyg abducted me. Can’t help it.
Arsenal: I take it your’s is from the clown?
Red Hood: No, it’s just force of habit. It’s one of the first things Bruce drilled into me.
Scarlett: Didn’t Ollie ever teach you stuff like that?
Arsenal: Oh he did, I just didn’t feel worried. I knew you guys had my back.
Scarlett: And the fact that your bow and quiver were out of reach?
Arsenal: There’s also that.
Red Hood: Well warn us next time you’re about to do something like that. We’re on edge enough as it is.
Arsenal: Don’t worry, all I’ve got left to do is put this stuff Lucius gave us into the loading chamber and I’m done. Have you guys inoculated yourselves?
Scarlett: Yeah, we’re both good.
Arsenal: Alright, get ready. I’m opening the chamber now.
Though confident in Lucius’ ability to synthesise an effective neutralising agent, the three of them still choose to put their rebreathers back on before Roy proceeds to open the loading chamber and drops the canister containing the neutralising agent into the chamber. Almost immediately, the former side kick quickly slams the chamber shut and jumps back expecting a large explosion.
The trio race through the door back into the hallway where the two league agents who were tasked with guarding the tower remained, still unconscious. As Roy slams the door behind him, the trio patiently wait to hear a loud explosion erupt from the control as their heartbeats race uncontrollably.
Any second they thought.
Any second now……
Yet nothing happened.
All that could be heard was the familiar sound of the pipes groaning once again as all the gas in the system was neutralised rendering the tower worthless to the League.
Scarlett: Is that it?
Red Hood: Looks like it.
Scarlett: I thought there be an explosion or something.
Arsenal: Makes two of us.
Red Hood:Not all of Lucius’ toys end up going boom. I hope.
Arsenal: Just the best ones.
Scarlett: I know that look on your face….he didn’t give you more exploding arrows did he?
Arsenal: You never know, they might end up being useful.
Scarlett: In the right hands maybe.
Roy slowly climbs back onto his feet as he seemingly appears to take Scarlett’s remark as more of an insult than a joking remark.
Arsenal: You got something you want to say, Scarlett?
Scarlett: Relax Roy, I’m just trying to keep our spirits up.
Again, Roy remains silent for a few seconds before steadily walking towards Scarlett with visible anger on his face. Jason steps forward to try and put himself between both Roy and Scarlett but his fiancé stops him, clearly intent of dealing with the angered archer herself.
Coming to a stop just two steps away from her, Roy lifts his left arm up for both of them to see it clearly.
Arsenal: This is what happened when Ollie and I were too busy trying to keep each other in a good mood to actually focus on fighting Prometheus. We were arrogant, silly and above all reckless. Acting that way in the face of life and death situations puts all of us at risk. I’m lucky it only cost me my arm.
Jason was a tad bemused by Roy’s remarks. It was not often that Roy spoke positively of his cybernetic arm which he couldn’t help but find somewhat unsettling. The former Speedy had changed significantly since his time serving under the Green Arrow but Jason hadn’t realised how serious all of this was to him.
Arsenal: I’m not optimistic about our chances tonight. With how Ollie used to take about Bruce, the fact that we’re apparently up against an army of him scares the crap out of me. So we can’t afford to foolish. We can't afford to be stupid. But most of all we can’t afford to be reckless. They’ll tear us apart if we pull another stunt like you when you ran in here alone.
Scarlett: I know. I wasn’t thinking. Guess I’m lucky to have you guys.
Red Hood: We all are. Alone we’re vulnerable, we can be defeated. But together? I think we’re unstoppable.
Arsenal: I wouldn’t get carried away like that…
Scarlett: Yeah…..saying something like that is just daring them to destroy us.
Red Hood: Guys, I’m serious. Together we’ve accomplished things others could only dream of. We toppled Flamingo, we beat a privately financed militia and possibly found the only substance in the world that can take down the League of Assassins. Don’t see what that all means?
Scarlett: We should apply to join the Justice League?
Arsenal: I’m sure Bruce could put in a good word for us.
So much for remaining focused and not fooling around, Jason thought to himself as Roy blatantly contradicted what he’d just told Scarlett about the need to take this seriously.
Red Hood: No, it means as a team there’s nothing we can’t do. Hell, Batman trusted us with what could maybe be the thing that decides whether Gotham stands or whether Gotham falls. The goddamn Batman!
Scarlett: Did you seriously just call him that?
Arsenal: Christ, he must do some form of conditioning on you Robins if you call him that. Suddenly losing an arm doesn’t seem so bad.
Scarlett: I may take you up on that offer.
Alfred: Bunker to Outlaws. Please respond.
Red Hood: Outlaws here, go ahead bunker.
Arsenal: (quietly whispering) You sure you don’t mean the goddamn Outlaws?
Scarlett: Could be worse, at least he hasn’t started calling himself the goddamn Red Hood yet.
Arsenal: Yet.
Jason couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he awaited news from Alfred on the team’s next assignment. Great, he thought. This won’t be going away anytime soon.
Alfred: We believe the League of Assassins are moving to instigate chaos by targeting key parts of the city.
Red Hood: Do we have intel on where they’re hitting?
Alfred: Not at present I’m afraid, but Master Bruce believes their targets will be Gotham General, the GCPD and Arkham Asylum. Given your current location, Master Bruce wants the three of you to secure Arkham and stop the League from releasing any of the convicts out on to the streets.
Red Hood: Have we heard anything from Arkham recently?
Alfred: I’m afraid not. The camera footage has been altered so we suspect the League are already there.
Red Hood: Crap. We’d better hurry. Red Hood out.
Arsenal: So what’s the goddamn butler got to say?
Red Hood: The League’s moving to the next stage.
Scarlett: So what does that mean for us?
Red Hood: We’re going to Arkham.
ArsenaL: Arkham? That place where all those psychos Bruce has fought are locked up?
Red Hood: Yep.
Scarlett: Is....he there?
Red Hood: He should be.
Scarlett: Then...are you sure we should go there?
Red Hood: We don't have a choice. Bruce is counting on us. He wouldn't be sending us if he didn't have any other choice. Come on, we've got to move. The League might already be there and the last thing we need is a riot at Arkham.
I am always interested in the people in films who have just had a drink
thrown in their faces. Sometimes they react with uncontrollable rage, but
sometimes — my favorites — they do not change their expressions at all. Instead
they raise a handkerchief or napkin and calmly dab at the offending liquid,
as the hurler jumps to her feet and storms away. The other people at the table
are understandably uncomfortable. A woman leans over and places her hand
on the sleeve of the man's jacket and says, "David, you know she didn't
mean it." David answers, "Yes," but in an ambiguous tone — the perfect adult
response. But now the orchestra has resumed its amiable and lively dance
music, and the room is set in motion as before. Out in the parking lot,
however, Elizabeth is setting fire to David's car. Yes, this is a contemporary
film.
— Ron Padgett
Generated by me, Tool used AI Stable Diffusion
With the town's annual music festival approaching, Alan and the musicians hatch a plan to use the chorus's unique abilities to create an otherworldly performance that will captivate the entire town. Their hope is to showcase the chorus's potential to the world while finding a way to restore the balance of life and death in Harmonyville.
As the day of the festival arrives, the zombie synth chorus joins the musicians on stage, mesmerizing the crowd with their hauntingly beautiful harmonies. However, in the midst of the performance, the chorus begins to lose control, becoming more aggressive and uncontrollable.
Realizing that the chorus's exposure to the experimental energy is amplifying their undead nature, Alan race against time to find a solution. He discover that the only way to save Harmonyville is to use Alan's advanced technology to reverse the effects of the radiation and restore the balance between life and death.... this was the last concert....
Profile picture for the antagonist, Pandora Wulf in Beneath the Surface, Role Play Sim
Beneath the Surface Discord Server
My mother, she told me,
Don't get in trouble.
My father, he told me,
He knew I would.
My brothers, they told me,
Don't give a damn.
My sister, she told me,
to do something good.
I'm uncontrollable, emotional, chaotically proportional,
I'm visceral, reloadable
I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy
Everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted, twisted.
Everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted, twisted.
Everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted, twisted.
Everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted, twisted.
My mother, she told me,
Don't be a quitter.
My father, he told me,
He knew I was.
My brothers, they told me,
Do what you do.
My sister, she told me,
To do something good.
I'm uncontrollable, emotional, chaotically proportional,
I'm visceral, reloadable.
I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy.
Everybody in the world knows I'm a little twisted, twisted.
Mirit Ben-Nun’s art exists within and beyond reality. She moves away from reality with aggressive and dense colorfulness which reveals an inner testimony of a threatened existence of women. The lines, points and shapes do not reproduce facts but emphasize the special charge of emotional coping.
Mirit Ben-Nun shows a rebellious spirit and tries to reach out to things not through wholeness but via searching for their expression and manifestation.
She explores personal identity and through it tries to define a complementary art, thereby illustrating the world and the nature of human culture. She focuses on the expressive dimension because of the exposure afforded by the uncontrollable moment that so much affects life in a rapidly changing global world.
The discourse between the inner world and the emerging reality is hyperactive and generates in Ben - Nun an endless sequence of works.
From the depths of feelings, dreams, anxieties and expressions arise rigid and exciting meanings of existence whose essence expresses adaptation difficulties and restlessness.
Dora Woda
Pacu Jawi Bull Races of Sumatra
Photo below was shot in 2011 at the extraordinary Bull Races at Pacu Jawi. These races are held by farmers after the paddy fields have been harvested. It's an adrenalin inducing event which is not for the faint hearted. To shoot the best photos, you'll have to stand directly in front of the stampeding bulls, hold your bladder, and step aside at the very last moment, a-la-matador style. Although several photographers have been hurt shoting this event, some have won prestigious international photography awards with photos shot at Pacu Jawi.
Pacu Jawi literally means cow racing . Pacu is Race and Jawi is cow in the local Minangkabau Lingo. Its not really a race but a run of two bulls pulling a light sled each, on which the jockey places each leg. The jockey holds on to the bulls tails with each hand. To make the bulls go faster in the muddy field, he simply bites on the tails.
Its to demonstrates the strength of the owner's bulls, and of course, for the jockeys, its a macho thingy to participate in such a dangerous sport. Dangerous for the bulls, the jockeys and the spectators too, as the bulls are virtually uncontrollable and frightened, and they run in any and every direction, and many times, over locals and photographers, brave and foolish enough to stand directly in their tracks to get the best view and the best pictures. Several people have been seriously hurt shooting Pacu Jawi, and those are really mean horns to get into your gut.
(Words Credited To : PhotoSafari www.digitalartist.com.my/?q=node/701)
Dutch postcard, no. 850. Photo: Warner Bros.
Peter Lorre (1904–1964) with his trademark large, popped eyes, his toothy grin and his raspy voice was an American actor of Jewish Austro-Hungarian descent. He was an international sensation as the psychopathic child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931). He later became a popular actor in a two British Hitchcock films and in a series of Hollywood crime films and mysteries. Although he was frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner in the US, he also became the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.
Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in 1904 in the Austro-Hungarian town of Ružomberok in Slovakia, then known by its Hungarian name Rózsahegy. He was the first child of Jewish couple Alajos Löwenstein and Elvira Freischberger. His father was chief bookkeeper at a local textile mill. Besides working as a bookkeeper, Alajos Löwenstein also served as a lieutenant in the Austrian army reserve, which meant that he was often away on military manoeuvres. When Lorre was four years old, his mother died, probably of food poisoning, leaving Alajos with three very young sons, the youngest only a couple of months old. He soon remarried, to his wife's best friend, Melanie Klein, with whom he had two more children. However, Lorre and his stepmother never got along, and this coloured his childhood memories. At the outbreak of the Second Balkan War in 1913, Alajos moved the family to Vienna, anticipating that this would lead to a larger conflict and that he would be called up. He was, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and served on the Eastern front during the winter of 1914-1915, before being put in charge of a prison camp due to heart trouble. As a youth Peter Lorre ran away from home, worked as a bank clerk and, after stage training in Vienna, made his acting debut in Zurich in Switzerland at the age of 17. In Vienna he worked with the Viennese Art Nouveau artist and puppeteer Richard Teschner. He then moved to the then German town of Breslau, and later to Zürich. In the late 1920s, Peter Lorre moved to Berlin, where the young and short (165 cm) actor worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht. He made his film debut in a bit role in the Austrian silent film Die Verschwundene Frau/The vanished woman (Karl Leitner, 1929), followed by another small part in the German drama Der weiße Teufel/The White Devil (Alexandre Volkoff, 1930) starring Ivan Mozzhukhin. On stage and in the cinema, Lorre played a role in Brecht's Mann ist Mann/ A Man's a Man (Bertolt Brecht, Carl Koch, 1930) and as Dr Nakamura in the stage musical Happy End (music by composer Kurt Weill), alongside Brecht's wife Helene Weigel, Oskar Homolka and Kurt Gerron.
Peter Lorre became much better known after director Fritz Lang cast him cast in the lead role of Hans Beckert, the mentally ill child murderer in the classic thriller M (1931). Later, the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew (1940) used an excerpt from the climactic scene in M in which Lorre is trapped by vengeful citizens. His passionate plea that his compulsion is uncontrollable, says the voice-over, makes him sympathetic and is an example of attempts by Jewish artists to corrupt public morals. M was Lang’s first sound film and he revealed the expressive possibilities for combining sound and visuals. Lorre's character whistles the tune In the Hall of the Mountain King from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. ( Lorre himself could not whistle – it is actually Lang who is heard.) The film was one of the first to use a leitmotif, associating In the Hall of the Mountain King with the Lorre character. Later in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he is nearby, off-screen. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation, a technique borrowed from opera, is now a film staple. Lorre’s next role was the German musical comedy Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Monte Carlo Madness (Hanns Schwarz, 1931) starring Hans Albers and Anna Sten. That year he also co-starred in the comedy Die Koffer des Herrn O.F./The Trunks of Mr. O.F. (Alexis Granowsky, 1931) starring Alfred Abel, and Harald Paulsen. In 1932 Lorre appeared again alongside Hans Albers in the drama Der weiße Dämon/The White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932) and the science fiction film F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Respond (Karl Hartl, 1932) about an air station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Curt Siodmak had written the story after Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. It was the last German film that either Siodmak or Peter Lorre, who played a secondary character, would make in Germany before the war.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Peter Lorre took refuge in Paris, where he appeared with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon in the charming comedy Du haut en bas/High and Low (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933). Then Lorre moved on to London. There Ivor Montagu, Alfred Hitchcock's associate producer for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), reminded the director about Lorre's performance in M. They first considered him to play the assassin in the film, but wanted to use him in a larger role, despite his limited command of English at the time, which Lorre overcame by learning much of his part phonetically. The Man Who Knew Too Much was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period. Lorre also was featured in Hitchcock's Secret Agent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936), opposite John Gielgud and Madeleine Carroll. Lorre settled in Hollywood in 1935, where he specialized in playing sinister foreigners, beginning as the love-obsessed surgeon in the horror film Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935), and as Raskolnikov in the Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation Crime and Punishment (Josef von Sternberg, 1936). He starred in a series of eight Mr. Moto movies for Twentieth Century Fox, a parallel to the better known Charlie Chan series. Lorre played the ever-polite (albeit well versed in karate) Japanese detective Mr. Moto. According to Wikipedia, he did not enjoy these films — and twisted his shoulder during a stunt in Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (Norman Foster, 1939) — but they were lucrative for the studio. When the series folded in 1939, Lorre freelanced in villainous roles at several studios. In 1940, he co-starred with fellow horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the comedy You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940), a vehicle for bandleader and radio personality Kay Kyser.
In 1941, Peter Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He enjoyed considerable popularity as a featured player in Warner Bros. suspense and adventure films. Lorre played the role of effeminate thief Joel Cairo opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), a classic film noir based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The Maltese Falcon was Huston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Then Lorre portrayed the character Ugarte in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942). One of his co-stars in both films was Sydney Greenstreet with whom he made 9 films. Most of them were variations on Casablanca, including Background to Danger (Raoul Walsh, 1943), with George Raft; Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz, 1944), reuniting them with Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains, and Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco, 1946). The latter was a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket starring top-billed Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and third-billed Lorre cast against type by director as the romantic lead. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “As far as director Jean Negulesco was concerned, Lorre was the finest actor in Hollywood; Negulesco fought bitterly with the studio brass for permission to cast Lorre as the sympathetic leading man in The Mask of Dimitrios (1946), in which the diminutive actor gave one of his finest and subtlest performances.” Greenstreet and Lorre's final film together was the suspense thriller The Verdict (1946), director Don Siegel's first film. Lorre branched out into comedy with the role of Dr. Einstein in Frank Capra's version of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), starring Cary Grant and Raymond Massey.
After World War II, Peter Lorre's acting career in Hollywood experienced a downturn, whereupon he concentrated on radio and stage work. An exception was the horror classic The Beast with Five Fingers (Robert Florey, 1946). In Germany Lorre co-wrote, directed and starred in Der Verlorene/The Lost One (1951), an art film in the film noir idiom. Hal Erickson: “In keeping with Lorre's established screen persona, this is a tale of stark terror, disillusionment and defeatism. The actor stars as Dr. Rothe, a German research scientist who during WW2 discovers that his fiancée has been selling his scientific secrets to the British. In a fit of pique, he murders her, but is not punished for the crime, which is passed off by the Nazi authorities as justifiable homicide. (...) Not entirely successful, Der Verlorene is still a fascinating exercise in fatalism from one of the cinema's most distinctive talents.” Lorre then returned to the United States where he appeared as a character actor in television and feature films, often parodying his 'creepy' image. In 1954, he was the first actor to play a James Bond villain when he portrayed Le Chiffre in a television adaptation of Casino Royale, opposite Barry Nelson as an American James Bond and Linda Christian as the first Bond girl. Lorre starred alongside Kirk Douglas and James Mason in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954), and appeared in a supporting role in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Irwin Allen, 1961). He worked with Roger Corman on several low-budget films, including two of the director's Edgar Allan Poe cycle (Tales of Terror, 1962 and The Raven, 1963). He was married three times: actress Celia Lovsky (1934–1945); actress Kaaren Verne (1945–1950) and Anne Marie Brenning (1953-1964, his death). In 1953, Brenning bore his only child, Catharine. In later life, Catharine made headlines after serial killer Kenneth Bianchi confessed to police investigators after his arrest that he and his cousin and fellow Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono, disguised as police officers, had stopped her in 1977 with the intent of abducting and murdering her, but let her go upon learning that she was the daughter of Peter Lorre. It was only after Bianchi was arrested that Catharine realized whom she had met. Catharine died in 1985 of complications arising from diabetes. Lorre had suffered for years from chronic gallbladder troubles, for which doctors had prescribed morphine. Lorre became trapped between the constant pain and addiction to morphine to ease the problem. It was during the period of the Mr. Moto films that Lorre struggled and overcame his addiction. Abruptly gaining a hundred pounds in a very short period and never fully recovering from his addiction to morphine, Lorre suffered many personal and career disappointments in his later years. His final film was the Jerry Lewis comedy The Patsy (Jerry Lewis, 1964) in which, ironically, the dourly demonic Lorre played a director of comedy films. A few months after completing this film, Peter Lorre died of a stroke in 1964 in Los Angeles. He was 59.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
A Curious Vigilance
Part One of Two
A Watchman Cometh
“If you can’t take the heat, don’t be tickling dragons !”
Acte 1
Ginny and I had, several weeks ago, received invitations to a fellow student's upscale, formal evening wedding.
Since we both love to get dressed up, it was a no-brainer to accept. Even though we really weren’t players in her circle.
Probably just wanted the gifts. The git.
So I borrowed my twin brothers antique roadster, drove up the road a short way, and picked up Ginny.
As she walked up to the car I couldn’t help but think how we both were dressed for the kill.
I had on my smart purple silk dress with the long pleated slinky knee-length skirt and spaghetti straps. The dress came with a cuffed long-sleeved, waist-length, black satin jacket with rhinestone buttons.
I had put in a diamond pin on one side of the jacket. It was in the shape of a bursting star, giving off a pleasing shimmer.
My other jewels consisted of my silver v shaped necklace. The v was set with small round rhinestones with 3 kite shaped sapphires set hanging down the center of the V. I also had in the necklaces’s matching semi-long earrings. Also worn was my diamond tennis bracelet on my right wrist, while gracing my left was a wide rhinestone bracelet. One ring, diamonds surrounding a gold rose(my best ring) gracing the ring finger on my left hand, completed the look.
Ginny?
Well, our Ginny girl was smashing.
She had poured her lithe figure into the sleek satin high shoulder sleeve sheath dress she had bought to wear in a play she acted in last spring. It was midnight black with a brite lime green inner lining and tight lime green Lycra pants. The only decoration on the elegant dress was a glittery silver rhinestone Dragon, with green slanted eyes and a red fiery tongue. It was embroidered crawling up one side of the dress, grasping claws reaching around up towards her bosom.
“Naughty Dragon.”
Ginny had green mascara above her eyes, around which she drew lines of black mascara to give them a slanted look. The whole effect looked a lot like Shirley Jackson did in the Michael Caine movie Gambit. Right up to the solid gold headpiece in Gunny’s reddish hair.
Ginny also had in her emerald drop earrings, along with her wide emerald bracelet loosely dangling along an otherwise bare left wrist, and a fancy emerald cocktail ring flashing from the pinkie on her left hand.
But it was her necklace that stole the show.
The opulently handsome necklace was the estate auction won, long pendant that had neatly set her back a month's wages. We both had opened bids on it at the same time, with me immediately backing off so she would win it.
It was a very shimmery piece of jewellery, with its long rhinestone encrusted chain hanging past her breasts, ending with a dangling pendant which held a birds egg size synthetic oval-shaped emerald, surrounded by long rhinestone fringes that resembled the silver beard of the dragon on her dress.
It was a very striking effect, especially when it stopped swaying and hung straight down, appearing just out of reach from the grasping front rhinestone claw of the gem greedy dragon.
^^^^^^^^
The church and reception hall was only about a 60-minute drive away green m our village.
We arrived in the city where it was located early and stopped at a pub for a glass of wine, which we drank outside at a garden table.
We then left, arriving at the church with plenty of time to walk around and soak in the surroundings.
Acte 2
The wedding Proper was pretty normal, with the usual pomp, circumstance, and rigid schedule only the upper class seem to achieve with nothing atoll coming close to being original and new.
The reception was more of the same. Ginny, per normal, snagged more time on the dance floor than me. Though I was
by no means being ignored. The bar was free, so we made good use of that.
By around 7:30 we were a pair of happily well-fed, well-partied, and well-liquored-up young ladies.
The reception for the most part was the usual fun and the usual routine flow that goes on at such affairs.
There was only one incident of note, well actually I guess, two, that have a bearing on my story.
The first was this:
A young girl was wearing what must have been a previously worn, hideously yellow, satin bridesmaid gown. She also was wearing a nice set of real diamonds. Ginny was really impressed with the jewelry she was wearing. As the party went, and the more we drank, the more Ginny prattled on over different ways someone could try lifting some of those diamonds from the lady.
Sensing there may be trouble soon brewing, I was getting tired of holding Ginny back from her obsession, that I suggested we should be heading out.
Then I was asked to dance, and lost track of her. When I found her, she was chatting up the lady in yellow satin and diamonds. The lady was holding up Ginny’s shimmery pendant, and I saw that Ginny had a hand placed lightly on the lady’s wrist, next to her diamond bracelet
Telling myself:
“Enough of that missy!”
I went up and pried Ginny away.
“Don’t be tickling that Dragon, even if you were thinking of doing it as a prank.”
I scolded.
My twin brother is always saying “If you are not prepared to take the heat, don’t tickle a dragon!” In other words, don’t invite trouble if you are not sure you would welcome the outcome.
I started suggesting to her we might be heading home soon.
“Stop at our pub(The Poet & Peasant),” I suggested.
Ginny said we should do one better…
We could stop at the old cemetery where we liked to role-play various games of both pickpockets, and jewel thievery. Sometimes combining the two. There she could nick my jewels to her heart’s content.
I admitted that sounded promising.
Then came the second incident on the heels of her suggestion.
Ginny said pleasantly, if we’re not doing the pub, then we should take something to drink with us. That way we don’t need a pub.
Suspiciously, I asked my grinning childhood friend.
“What’s you on about? “
“I mean Cade, nick a bottle while I distract the bartender. He’s working over there alone for a few minutes.”
I sighed, but it may be fun, so game on….
We pulled it off. It was far easier than it should have been.
As Ginny flirted with the young man tending the open bar, so I kept moving till his back was to me, and I ended up sitting on the far end.
I took a deep breath, scurried around and grabbed a bottle from the supply bin on the floor, and walked straight out the nearest exit.
I circled around the building to the lot and found Ginny at the roadster waiting.
She had placed her black beaded purse, opened, on the bonnet of the car and was bending over to put lipstick on using the car's outside mirror.
“What did you snag luv?”
Breathless, I looked at the bottle for the first time. It was a bottle of Penderyn.
Slightly disappointed, I would have preferred wine over a single malt. But it would do.
Meanwhile, I was standing between Ginny and the roadsters’ bonnet.
I handed the bottle to her, and as she looked I reached out behind me and dipping my fingers into her purse pulled out her wallet.
Holding it behind, suppressing a desire to laugh, I circled around to the right side and got into the driver's seat.
Ginny put her lipstick inside her purse and snapped it close with one hand still holding the bottle. Then picking up the purse and got inside the passenger’s seat.
She never noticed her wallet was gone, and by then I had it inside my own purse.
Still totally clueless, Ginny asked as we drove away :
“Do you think we should include your brother in with us?”
I said he was practicing darts with Brian(my boyfriend) and their friend, teammate, and one of our fellow players, Derrick.
Ginny giggled, hoisting up the bottle.
“More for us then.”
Acte 3
We arrived at the cemetery with plenty of light left in the evening. Parking in the open lot, we made our way past the open wrought iron gates.
The almost 40 Hectares square-shaped cemetery is no longer in use, its main gates are permanently opened to the public, but besides us, only very few ever visit it. Judging by the dates on the gravestones, the last burial was not too long after the Victorian age officially ended. No way of truly establishing when its first burial was.
It lays along a lane called Abbots Chase.
Where a highwayman by the name of Craig Abbot used to roam several hundred years ago. It is said he is buried here in this very cemetery. Though most of the old stones are so blackened the names are not legible.
My dad is a direct descendant of Craig Abbot, and much to the chagrin of my mum’s Irish catholic family, my twin brother was named after him. Destiny?
The other end off Abbots Chase lane, west of the cemetery goes past the large old manor house some 5 kilometers away from the cemetery. The manor is now a private men’s seminary college.
^^^^^^^^^^^
We hung out at the cemetery and its interior, and surrounding woods, as kids, walking the 2 Kilometers along from the east end of the lane, where the local village was.
Both Ginny and I grew up in houses located on the opposite side of the village.
We use this private cemetery for our role-playing game adventures. We had the run of the area. Not only because of its solitude, and lack of visitors, but also because there were no roads in it. Only narrow overgrown horse-drawn cart paths. And a few cobblestone footpaths. Both of which are blocked by fallen gravestones.
The games have evolved. But they mostly are based on pickpocketing and other forms of thievery. Mainly related to lifting or the nicking of jewels that the one portraying the victim is wearing. We take turns being one or the other.
Originally there were just the 3 of us, Ginny, my twin brother, and myself. We would bring various costumes, play jewelry, and other various items. Backpacking them in from our homes.
We have since added four more “players” to our group, though only a few times have we all met here in force.
There are also times as we grew older that we have stopped to play after being somewhere dressed up. The motivation can be anything from too much to drink, or something that evening triggered the idea.
Like tonight, with Ginny taking a fancy to a young lady’s diamonds.
Acte 4
Ginny and I entered through the main gate and walked the 75 meters up to the marble pagoda sitting on a small hill.
In years long past, this pagoda would have served as the last service area for the deceased being buried here.
There is a set of steps leading up to the platform which is eye level. On the ground, flanking the steps are a pair of long marble benches. With old wrought iron ones scattered about surrounding the octagonal platform.
As per normal, no sign that anyone had been here in a while. Though we did have a bit of a jump when a fox ran out from underneath the pagoda, giving us the evil green eye before slipping off into some tall grass.
I had brought a blanket which we laid on the stairs. We put down our purses on one of the marble benches.
Sitting on the stairs, Ginny opened the bottle and took a small sip. Followed by a bigger one.
“Whew, that burns going down.”
She exclaimed passing it to me.
It smelled strong.
“Should have brought some water to cut it.”
I said taking a hit, feeling it burn warmly.
We each took several more sips before getting down to business.
I place a hand on Ginny’s arm, looking her in the eyes.
She starts to giggle. As do I also, both of us falling into each other’s arms, hugging as our figures are being racked by our uncontrollable laughter.
Meanwhile, I was busy. My hand running down her arm, I reached her her emerald bracelet and nimbly opened the clasp, easily pulling it off and cuffing it in my fist, moving that hand to her backside, using it to hold her quivering figure close.
Finally, we broke away, settling down. As I stroked her sleek backside with my hand, I say:
“Ok lass, are you ready to lift some of my diamonds?”
Taking a belt from the bottle ( it was not a sip, nor a gulp, somewhere in between)
Ginny nodded her head, earrings sparkling with intensity, like the look in her eyes just before she said:
“Let’s dance.”
Acte 5
I went over and pulled the cell from my purse, seeing a text from my brother asking if:
“Us girls were having fun?”
I sent one back:
“Smashing fun, wish you could be here, now I have to go and see a lady about doing a lift on some jewels she is wearing…”
That should make him stop in his tracks and ponder. I would imagine his own game now being off all of a sudden.
Giggling mischievously, I laid the cell in front of my purse on the marble seat, I selected “And we danced” by the Hooters.
Ginny was already on the platform, strutting her stuff. I went to the stairs, grabbed the bottle, took a swig, and ran up to join her.
She bumped into me with her hip, then went behind me, her hands running along my figure, then pulling me against her she ran her hands down along the satin sleeve of my jacket. I only felt it because I knew it was coming. After all, as her hand slipped along my wrist, she expertly whisked off my diamond bracelet.
I pushed her away using my hinney, then turned and began dancing close to her, wriggling up against and away from her figure. Her eyes had been opened quite wide, from the thrill of the bracelet lift, but she closed them as I rubbed my figure up along hers.
I had been eyeing her dazzling dripping jeweled pendant. My arms went up behind her back. Pulling down the clasp I unhooked it and reaching my hands up, pulled it away from her gown’s rhinestone dragon’s clutches
I had it pocketed before she reopened her eyes.
The music ended, and arm in arm we went back to the stairs, passing the bottle to each other.
We were becoming quite happily intoxicated by now, giggling at everything.
Acte 6
Ginny sets down the bottle, then stares at her bare wrist.
“I don’t suppose this bracelet fell off on its own?”
I chuckled, looking at where her necklace should have been dangling, picking up the bottle.
“No, it had a bit of help, I felt inside my pocket and pulled it out, replacing it as Ginny held up the bottle and asked:
“Another round?”
We both took several swigs before I decided it was time to have a bit more role play.
I place a hand on Ginny’s chest...
“Give me a lead luv…”
Ginny thinks a minute, long enough for us to take another swig each from the fast becoming 3/4 full bottle.
Looking me over, she tells me.
“Take a walk..”
I stand (maybe a little wobbly), and manage to do so, taking the path around the pagoda.
She comes up behind me, putting her hands over my eyes.
“Guess who Abigail?”
I answered...
I’m not Abigail?”
The voice behind me, as the hands are lifted from my eyes and reach down to my chest..”
“I’m so sorry, of course, your not, my bad.”
I turn around to face Ginny…
Placing a hand on my chest( lifting off my broach from the lapel of the jacket) Ginny says:
“I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I made a mistake like that. “
I feel her placing the broach in my pocket, as I say(thinking that counted as two lifts)
“That’s ok luv, we all make mistakes.’
Quite pleased with herself Ginny went back to the steps.
She thought I was following as she talked to me.
I did not, rather I hid in the bushes and watched her.
Ginny picked up the bottle and took a swig, handing it to me…
It was then she realized I wasn’t there.
“Where are you, you silly ninny?”
She called out, then began to walk back the way she had come.
I jump out of the bushes behind her my hand in the satin jacket's pocket( I can feel the cold necklace inside. I point my fingers In the pocket like I am ‘ packing heat’.
Prodding my finger in her back I say
“Stick 'em up, pretty lady!”
Ginny giggles,
“Speaking of sticks. Is that one or are you just happy to see me?
“Funny lady, now turn around. “
She did and gave a fake gasp, hand to her mouth, ring sparkly.
“There you go, now be a good Lass and hand over those jewels around your wrist and finger. ”
She lifted her wrist and undid the bracelet, then slips off her ring. As she hands them to me:
“My this bracelet is popular with thieves this evening.”
She then pulls out her gold hairpiece, shaking down her hair as I take it:
“Here thief. The thing was starting to pull on my hair and bothering me anyways.”
I smirk:
“Thanks, lady !”
We both have a laugh over this latest sequence of events, while I give her back the bracelet and ring.
I lead her, as her laughing satin clad figure leans into me, over to the steps.
But as we approach, Ginny stops and grabs my arm, her, heavily mascara’d eyes suddenly bugging out, placing a hand to her mouth, she really Gasped.
“Cade,Look, over by the gate!”
I did, feeling the hairs on my scalp rise by what I saw!
To be Continued…
This is the house next door to the one I lived in, back in 1955.
I remember that they had a couple of ducks and geese in their back yard -- which were always in a bad mood, and always chasing my sisters and me around the yard.
**********************************
Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html
and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html
Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.
So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.
For now, here is a random list of things I remember:
1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.
2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.
3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.
4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.
5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.
6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).
7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.
8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.
9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.
10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted.
11. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.
Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.
Thessaloniki (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη, often referred to internationally as Thessalonica or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace.[3][4] Its honorific title is Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa), literally "co-capital",[5] and stands as a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Symvasilévousa) or "co-reigning" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople.[6]
According to the preliminary results of the 2011 census, the municipality of Thessaloniki today has a population of 322,240,[1] while the Thessaloniki Urban Area (the contiguous built up area forming the "City of Thessaloniki") has a population of 790,824.[1] Furthermore, the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area extends over an area of 1,455.62 km2 (562.02 sq mi) and its population in 2011 reached a total of 1,104,460 inhabitants.[1]
Thessaloniki is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for the rest of southeastern Europe;[7] its commercial port is also of great importance for Greece and the southeastern European hinterland.[7] The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general,[8] and is considered to be Greece's cultural capital.[8] Events such as the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival are held annually, while the city also hosts the largest bi-annual meeting of the Greek diaspora.[9] Thessaloniki is the 2014 European Youth Capital.[10]
Founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, Thessaloniki's history spans some 2,300 years. An important metropolis by the Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine monuments, including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as several Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. The city's main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans.[11]
Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination in Greece. In 2010, Lonely Planet ranked Thessaloniki as the world's fifth-best party city worldwide, comparable to other cities such as Dubai and Montreal.[12] For 2013 National Geographic Magazine included Thessaloniki in its top tourist destinations worldwide,[13] while in 2014 Financial Times FDI magazine (Foreign Direct Investments) declared Thessaloniki as the best mid-sized European city of the future for human capital and lifestyle.
Etymology
All variations of the city's name derive from the original (and current) appellation in Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη (from Θεσσαλός, Thessalos, and Νίκη, Nike), literally translating to "Thessalian Victory". The name of the city came from the name of a princess, Thessalonike of Macedon, half sister of Alexander the Great, so named because of her birth on the day of the Macedonian victory at the Battle of Crocus Field (353/352 BCE).[16]
The alternative name Salonica (or Salonika) derives from the variant form Σαλονίκη (Saloníki) in popular Greek speech, and has given rise to the form of the city's name in several languages. Names in other languages prominent in the city's history include Солѹнь (Solun) in Old Church Slavonic, סלוניקה (Salonika) in Ladino, Selanik (also Selânik) in Turkish (سلانیك in Ottoman Turkish), Solun (also written as Солун) in the local and neighboring South Slavic languages, Салоники (Saloníki) in Russian, and Sãrunã in Aromanian. In local speech, the city's name is typically pronounced with a dark and deep L characteristic of Macedonian Greek accent.[17][18]
The name often appears in writing in the abbreviated form Θεσ/νίκη
History
From antiquity to the Roman Empire
The city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon, on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages.[20] He named it after his wife Thessalonike,[21] a half-sister of Alexander the Great and princess of Macedon as daughter of Philip II. Under the kingdom of Macedon the city retained its own autonomy and parliament[22] and evolved to become the most important city in Macedon.[21]
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, Thessalonica became a free city of the Roman Republic under Mark Antony in 41 BC.[21][23] It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the Via Egnatia,[24] the road connecting Dyrrhachium with Byzantium,[25] which facilitated trade between Thessaloniki and great centers of commerce such as Rome and Byzantium.[26] Thessaloniki also lay at the southern end of the main north-south route through the Balkans along the valleys of the Morava and Axios river valleys, thereby linking the Balkans with the rest of Greece.[27] The city later became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia.[24] Later it became the capital of all the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire due to the city's importance in the Balkan peninsula. When the Roman Empire was divided into the tetrarchy, Thessaloniki became the administrative capital of one of the four portions of the Empire under Galerius Maximianus Caesar,[28][29] where Galerius commissioned an imperial palace, a new hippodrome, a triumphal arch and a mausoleum among others.[29][30][31]
In 379 when the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloniki became the capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum.[24] In 390 Gothic troops under the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, led a massacre against the inhabitants of Thessalonica, who had risen in revolt against the Germanic soldiers. With the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki became the second-largest city of the Eastern Roman Empire.[26] Around the time of the Roman Empire Thessaloniki was also an important center for the spread of Christianity; some scholars hold that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians written by Paul the Apostle is the first written book of the New Testament.
Byzantine era and Middle Ages
From the first years of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki was considered the second city in the Empire after Constantinople,[33][34][35] both in terms of wealth and size.[33] with an population of 150,000 in the mid 1100s.[36] The city held this status until it was transferred to Venice in 1423. In the 14th century the city's population exceeded 100,000 to 150,000,[37][38][39] making it larger than London at the time.[40]
During the 6th and 7th centuries the area around Thessaloniki was invaded by Avars and Slavs, who unsuccessfully laid siege to the city several times.[41] Traditional historiography stipulates that many Slavs settled in the hinterland of Thessaloniki,[42] however, this migration was allegedly on a much smaller scale than previously thought.[42][42][43] In the 9th century, the Byzantine Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius, both natives of the city, created the first literary language of the Slavs, the Glagolic alphabet, most likely based on the Slavic dialect used in the hinterland of their hometown.[44][45][46][47][48]
An Arab naval attack in 904 resulted in the sack of the city.[49] The economic expansion of the city continued through the 12th century as the rule of the Komnenoi emperors expanded Byzantine control to the north. Thessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204,[50] when Constantinople was captured by the forces of the Fourth Crusade and incorporated the city and its surrounding territories in the Kingdom of Thessalonica[51] — which then became the largest vassal of the Latin Empire. In 1224, the Kingdom of Thessalonica was overrun by the Despotate of Epirus, a remnant of the former Byzantine Empire, under Theodore Komnenos Doukas who crowned himself Emperor,[52] and the city became the Despotat's capital.[52][53] This era of the Despotate of Epirus is also known as the Empire of Thessalonica.[52][54][55] Following his defeat at Klokotnitsa however in 1230,[52][54] the Empire of Thessalonica became a vassal state of the Second Bulgarian Empire until it was recovered again in 1246, this time by the Nicaean Empire.[52] In 1342,[56] the city saw the rise of the Commune of the Zealots, an anti-aristocratic party formed of sailors and the poor,[57] which is nowadays described as social-revolutionary.[56] The city was practically independent of the rest of the Empire,[56][57][58] as it had its own government, a form of republic.[56] The zealot movement was overthrown in 1350 and the city was reunited with the rest of the Empire.[56]
In 1423, Despot Andronicus, who was in charge of the city, ceded it to the Republic of Venice with the hope that it could be protected from the Ottomans who were besieging the city (there is no evidence to support the oft-repeated story that he sold the city to them). The Venetians held Thessaloniki until it was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430.
Ottoman period
When Sultan Murad II captured Thessaloniki and sacked it in 1430, contemporary reports estimated that about one-fifth of the city's population was enslaved.[60] Upon the conquest of Thessaloniki, some of its inhabitants escaped,[61] including intellectuals such as Theodorus Gaza "Thessalonicensis" and Andronicus Callistus.[62] However, the change of sovereignty from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman one did not affect the city's prestige as a major imperial city and trading hub.[63][64] Thessaloniki and Smyrna, although smaller in size than Constantinople, were the Ottoman Empire's most important trading hubs.[63] Thessaloniki's importance was mostly in the field of shipping,[63] but also in manufacturing,[64] while most of the city's trade was controlled by ethnic Greeks.[63]
During the Ottoman period, the city's population of mainly Greek Jews and Ottoman Muslims (including those of Turkish and Albanian, as well as Bulgarian Muslim and Greek Muslim convert origin) grew substantially. By 1478 Selânik (سلانیك), as the city came to be known in Ottoman Turkish, had a population of 4,320 Muslims, 6,094 Greek Orthodox and some Catholics, but no Jews. Soon after the turn of the 15th to 16th century, nearly 20,000 Sephardic Jews had immigrated to Greece from Spain following their expulsion by the 1492 Alhambra Decree.[65] By c. 1500, the numbers had grown to 7,986 Greeks, 8,575 Muslims, and 3,770 Jews. By 1519, Sephardic Jews numbered 15,715, 54% of the city's population. Some historians consider the Ottoman regime's invitation to Jewish settlement was a strategy to prevent the ethnic Greek population (Eastern Orthodox Christians) from dominating the city.[38]
Thessaloniki was the capital of the Sanjak of Selanik within the wider Rumeli Eyalet (Balkans)[66] until 1826, and subsequently the capital of Selanik Eyalet (after 1867, the Selanik Vilayet).[67][68] This consisted of the sanjaks of Selanik, Serres and Drama between 1826 and 1912.[69] Thessaloniki was also a Janissary stronghold where novice Janissaries were trained. In June 1826, regular Ottoman soldiers attacked and destroyed the Janissary base in Thessaloniki while also killing over 10,000 Janissaries, an event known as The Auspicious Incident in Ottoman history.[70] From 1870, driven by economic growth, the city's population expanded by 70%, reaching 135,000 in 1917.[71]
The last few decades of Ottoman control over the city were an era of revival, particularly in terms of the city's infrastructure. It was at that time that the Ottoman administration of the city acquired an "official" face with the creation of the Command Post[72] while a number of new public buildings were built in the eclectic style in order to project the European face both of Thessaloniki and the Ottoman Empire.[72][73] The city walls were torn down between 1869 and 1889,[74] efforts for a planned expansion of the city are evident as early as 1879,[75] the first tram service started in 1888[76] and the city streets were illuminated with electric lamp posts in 1908.[77] In 1888 Thessaloniki was connected to Central Europe via rail through Belgrade, Monastir in 1893 and Constantinople in 1896.
Since the 20th century
In the early 20th century, Thessaloniki was in the center of radical activities by various groups; the Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, founded in 1897,[78] and the Greek Macedonian Committee, founded in 1903.[79] In 1903 an anarchist group known as the Boatmen of Thessaloniki planted bombs in several buildings in Thessaloniki, including the Ottoman Bank, with some assistance from the IMRO. The Greek consulate in Ottoman Thessaloniki (now the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle) served as the center of operations for the Greek guerillas. In 1908 the Young Turks movement broke out in the city, sparking the Young Turk Revolution.[80]
The Ottoman Feth-i Bülend being sunk in Thessaloniki in 1912 by a Greek ship during the First Balkan War.
Constantine I of Greece with George I of Greece and the Greek army enter the city.
As the First Balkan War broke out, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire and expanded its borders. When Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister at the time, was asked if the Greek army should move towards Thessaloniki or Monastir (now Bitola, Republic of Macedonia), Venizelos replied "Salonique à tout prix!" (Thessaloniki, at all costs!).[81] As both Greece and Bulgaria wanted Thessaloniki, the Ottoman garrison of the city entered negotiations with both armies.[82] On 8 November 1912 (26 October Old Style), the feast day of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrius, the Greek Army accepted the surrender of the Ottoman garrison at Thessaloniki.[83] The Bulgarian army arrived one day after the surrender of the city to Greece and Tahsin Pasha, ruler of the city, told the Bulgarian officials that "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered".[82] After the Second Balkan War, Thessaloniki and the rest of the Greek portion of Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.[84] On 18 March 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated in the city by Alexandros Schinas.[85]
In 1915, during World War I, a large Allied expeditionary force established a base at Thessaloniki for operations against pro-German Bulgaria.[86] This culminated in the establishment of the Macedonian Front, also known as the Salonika Front.[87][88] In 1916, pro-Venizelist Greek army officers and civilians, with the support of the Allies, launched an uprising,[89] creating a pro-Allied[90] temporary government by the name of the "Provisional Government of National Defence"[89][91] that controlled the "New Lands" (lands that were gained by Greece in the Balkan Wars, most of Northern Greece including Greek Macedonia, the North Aegean as well as the island of Crete);[89][91] the official government of the King in Athens, the "State of Athens",[89] controlled "Old Greece"[89][91] which were traditionally monarchist. The State of Thessaloniki was disestablished with the unification of the two opposing Greek governments under Venizelos, following the abdication of King Constantine in 1917.[86][91]
The 1st Battalion of the National Defence army marches on its way to the front.
Aerial picture of the Great Fire of 1917.
Most of the old center of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, which started accidentally by an unattended kitchen fire on 18 August 1917.[92] The fire swept through the centre of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless; according to the Pallis Report, most of them were Jewish (50,000). Many businesses were destroyed, as a result, 70% of the population were unemployed.[92] Also a number of religious structures of the three major faiths were lost. Nearly one-quarter of the total population of approximately 271,157 became homeless.[92] Following the fire the government prohibited quick rebuilding, so it could implement the new redesign of the city according to the European-style urban plan[6] prepared by a group of architects, including the Briton Thomas Mawson, and headed by French architect Ernest Hébrard.[92] Property values fell from 6.5 million Greek drachmas to 750,000.[93]
After the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War and during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, a population exchange took place between Greece and Turkey.[90] Over 160,000 ethnic Greeks deported from the former Ottoman Empire were resettled in the city,[90] changing its demographics. Additionally many of the city's Muslims were deported to Turkey, ranging at about 20,000 people.[94]
During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy (with 232 people dead, 871 wounded and over 800 buildings damaged or destroyed in November 1940 alone),[95] and, the Italians having failed to succeed in their invasion of Greece, it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 8 April 1941[96] and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944 when it was liberated by the Greek People's Liberation Army.[97] The Nazis soon forced the Jewish residents into a ghetto near the railroads and on 15 March 1943 began the deportation process of the city's 56,000 Jews to its concentration camps.[98][99] They deported over 43,000 of the city's Jews in concentration camps,[98] where most were killed in the gas chambers. The Germans also deported 11,000 Jews to forced labor camps, where most perished.[100] Only 1,200 Jews live in the city today.
Part of Eleftherias Square during the Axis occupation.
The importance of Thessaloniki to Nazi Germany can be demonstrated by the fact that, initially, Hitler had planned to incorporate it directly in the Third Reich[101] (that is, make it part of Germany) and not have it controlled by a puppet state such as the Hellenic State or an ally of Germany (Thessaloniki had been promised to Yugoslavia as a reward for joining the Axis on 25 March 1941).[102] Having been the first major city in Greece to fall to the occupying forces just two days after the German invasion, it was in Thessaloniki that the first Greek resistance group was formed (under the name «Ελευθερία», Eleftheria, "Freedom")[103] as well as the first anti-Nazi newspaper in an occupied territory anywhere in Europe,[104] also by the name Eleftheria. Thessaloniki was also home to a military camp-converted-concentration camp, known in German as "Konzentrationslager Pavlo Mela" (Pavlos Melas Concentration Camp),[105] where members of the resistance and other non-favourable people towards the German occupation from all over Greece[105] were held either to be killed or sent to concentration camps elsewhere in Europe.[105] In the 1946 monarchy referendum, the majority of the locals voted in favour of a republic, contrary to the rest of Greece.[106]
After the war, Thessaloniki was rebuilt with large-scale development of new infrastructure and industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of its architectural treasures still remain, adding value to the city as a tourist destination, while several early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988.[107] In 1997, Thessaloniki was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture,[108] sponsoring events across the city and the region. Agency established to oversee the cultural activities of that year 1997 was still in existence by 2010.[109] In 2004 the city hosted a number of the football events as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics.[110]
Today Thessaloniki has become one of the most important trade and business hubs in Southeastern Europe, with its port, the Port of Thessaloniki being one of the largest in the Aegean and facilitating trade throughout the Balkan hinterland.[7] On 26 October 2012 the city celebrated its centennial since its incorporation into Greece.[111] The city also forms one of the largest student centres in Southeastern Europe, is host to the largest student population in Greece and will be the European Youth Capital in 2014
Geography
Geology
Thessaloniki lies on the northern fringe of the Thermaic Gulf on its eastern coast and is bound by Mount Chortiatis on its southeast. Its proximity to imposing mountain ranges, hills and fault lines, especially towards its southeast have historically made the city prone to geological changes.
Since medieval times, Thessaloniki was hit by strong earthquakes, notably in 1759, 1902, 1978 and 1995.[113] On 19–20 June 1978, the city suffered a series of powerful earthquakes, registering 5.5 and 6.5 on the Richter scale.[114][115] The tremors caused considerable damage to a number of buildings and ancient monuments,[114] but the city withstood the catastrophe without any major problems.[115] One apartment building in central Thessaloniki collapsed during the second earthquake, killing many, raising the final death toll to 51.[114][115]
Climate
Thessaloniki's climate is directly affected by the sea it is situated on.[116] The city lies in a transitional climatic zone, so its climate displays characteristics of several climates. According to the Köppen climate classification, it is a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) that borders on a semi-arid climate (BSk), with annual average precipitation of 450 millimetres (18 in) due to the Pindus rain shadow drying the westerly winds. However, the city has a summer precipitation between 20 to 30 millimetres (0.79 to 1.18 in), which borders it close to a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa).
Winters are relatively dry, with common morning frost. Snowfalls are sporadic, but οccur more or less every winter, but the snow cover does not last for more than a few days. Fog is common, with an average of 193 foggy days in a year.[117] During the coldest winters, temperatures can drop to −10 °C (14 °F).[117] The record minimum temperature in Thessaloniki was −14 °C (7 °F).[118] On average, Thessaloniki experiences frost (sub-zero temperature) 32 days a year.[117] The coldest month of the year in the city is January, with an average 24-hour temperature of 6 °C (43 °F).[119] Wind is also usual in the winter months, with December and January having an average wind speed of 26 km/h (16 mph).[117]
Thessaloniki's summers are hot with rather humid nights.[117] Maximum temperatures usually rise above 30 °C (86 °F),[117] but rarely go over 40 °C (104 °F);[117] the average number of days the temperature is above 32 °C (90 °F) is 32.[117] The maximum recorded temperature in the city was 42 °C (108 °F).[117][118] Rain seldom falls in summer, mainly during thunderstorms. In the summer months Thessaloniki also experiences strong heat waves.[120] The hottest month of the year in the city is July, with an average 24-hour temperature of 26 °C (79 °F).[119] The average wind speed for June and July in Thessaloniki is 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph)
Government
According to the Kallikratis reform, as of 1 January 2011 the Thessaloniki Urban Area (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Θεσσαλονίκης) which makes up the "City of Thessaloniki", is made up of six self-governing municipalities (Greek: Δήμοι) and one municipal unit (Greek: Δημοτική ενότητα). The municipalities that are included in the Thessaloniki Urban Area are those of Thessaloniki (the city center and largest in population size), Kalamaria, Neapoli-Sykies, Pavlos Melas, Kordelio-Evosmos, Ampelokipoi-Menemeni, and the municipal unit of Pylaia, part of the municipality of Pylaia-Chortiatis. Prior to the Kallikratis reform, the Thessaloniki Urban Area was made up of twice as many municipalities, considerably smaller in size, which created bureaucratic problems.[123]
Thessaloniki Municipality
The municipality of Thessaloniki (Greek: Δήμος Θεσαλονίκης) is the second most populous in Greece, after Athens, with a population of 322,240[1] people (in 2011) and an area of 17.832 km2 (7 sq mi). The municipality forms the core of the Thessaloniki Urban Area, with its central district (the city center), referred to as the Kentro, meaning 'center' or 'downtown'.
The institution of mayor of Thessaloniki was inaugurated under the Ottoman Empire, in 1912. The first mayor of Thessaloniki was Osman Sait Bey, while the current mayor of the municipality of Thessaloniki is Yiannis Boutaris. In 2011, the municipality of Thessaloniki had a budget of €464.33 million[124] while the budget of 2012 stands at €409.00 million.[125]
According to an article in The New York Times, the way in which the present mayor of Thessaloniki is treating the city's debt and oversized administration problems could be used as an example by Greece's central government for a successful strategy in dealing with these problems.[126]
Other
Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece. It is an influential city for the northern parts of the country and is the capital of the region of Central Macedonia and the Thessaloniki regional unit. The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is also based in Thessaloniki, being that the city is the de facto capital of the Greek region of Macedonia.
It is customary every year for the Prime Minister of Greece to announce his administration's policies on a number of issues, such as the economy, at the opening night of the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair. In 2010, during the first months of the 2010 Greek debt crisis, the entire cabinet of Greece met in Thessaloniki to discuss the country's future.[127]
In the Hellenic Parliament, the Thessaloniki urban area constitutes a 16-seat constituency. As of the national elections of 17 June 2012 the largest party in Thessaloniki is New Democracy with 27.8%, followed by the Coalition of the Radical Left (27.0%) and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (10.2%).[128] The table below summarizes the results of the latest elections.
Cityscape
Architecture
Architecture in Thessaloniki is the direct result of the city's position at the centre of all historical developments in the Balkans. Aside from its commercial importance, Thessaloniki was also for many centuries the military and administrative hub of the region, and beyond this the transportation link between Europe and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel / Palestine). Merchants, traders and refugees from all over Europe settled in the city. The need for commercial and public buildings in this new era of prosperity led to the construction of large edifices in the city center. During this time, the city saw the building of banks, large hotels, theatres, warehouses, and factories. Architects who designed some of the most notable buildings of the city, in the late 19th and early 20th century, include Vitaliano Poselli, Pietro Arrigoni, Xenophon Paionidis, Eli Modiano, Moshé Jacques, Jean Joseph Pleyber, Frederic Charnot, Ernst Ziller, Roubens Max, Levi Ernst, Angelos Siagas and others, using mainly the styles of Eclecticism and Art Nouveau.
The city layout changed after 1870, when the seaside fortifications gave way to extensive piers, and many of the oldest walls of the city were demolished, including those surrounding the White Tower, which today stands as the main landmark of the city. As parts of the early Byzantine walls were demolished, this allowed the city to expand east and west along the coast.[129]
The expansion of Eleftherias Square towards the sea completed the new commercial hub of the city and at the time was considered one of the most vibrant squares of the city. As the city grew, workers moved to the western districts, due to their proximity to factories and industrial activities; while the middle and upper classes gradually moved from the city-center to the eastern suburbs, leaving mainly businesses. In 1917, a devastating fire swept through the city and burned uncontrollably for 32 hours.[71] It destroyed the city's historic center and a large part of its architectural heritage, but paved the way for modern development and allowed Thessaloniki the development of a proper European city center, featuring wider diagonal avenues and monumental squares; which the city initially lacked – much of what was considered to be 'essential' in European architecture.
City Center
After the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, a team of architects and urban planners including Thomas Mawson and Ernest Hebrard, a French architect, chose the Byzantine era as the basis of their (re)building designs for Thessaloniki's city center. The new city plan included axes, diagonal streets and monumental squares, with a street grid that would channel traffic smoothly. The plan of 1917 included provisions for future population expansions and a street and road network that would be, and still is sufficient today.[71] It contained sites for public buildings and provided for the restoration of Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques.
The Metropolitan Church of Saint Gregory Palamas, designed by Ernst Ziller.
Today the city center of Thessaloniki includes the features designed as part of the plan and forms the point in the city where most of the public buildings, historical sites, entertainment venues and stores are located. The center is characterized by its many historical buildings, arcades, laneways and distinct architectural styles such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which can be seen on many of its buildings.
Also called the historic center, it is divided into several districts, of which include Ladadika (where many entertainment venues and tavernas are located), Kapani (were the city's central city market is located), Diagonios, Navarinou, Rotonta, Agia Sofia and Ippodromio (white tower), which are all located around Thessaloniki's most central point, Aristotelous Square.
The west point of the city center is home to Thessaloniki's law courts, its central international railway station and the port, while on its eastern side stands the city's two universities, the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Center, the city's main stadium, its archaeological and Byzantine museums, the new city hall and its central parklands and gardens, namely those of the ΧΑΝΘ/Palios Zoologikos Kipos and Pedio tou Areos. The central road arteries that pass through the city center, designed in the Ernest Hebrard plan, include those of Tsimiski, Egnatia, Nikis, Mitropoleos, Venizelou and St. Demetrius avenues.
Ano Poli
Ano Poli (also called Old Town and literally the Upper Town) is the heritage listed district north of Thessaloniki's city center that was not engulfed by the great fire of 1917 and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by ministerial actions of Melina Merkouri, during the 1980s. It consists of Thessaloniki's most traditional part of the city, still featuring small stone paved streets, old squares and homes featuring old Greek and Ottoman architecture.
Ano Poli also, is the highest point in Thessaloniki and as such, is the location of the city's acropolis, its Byzantine fort, the Heptapyrgion, a large portion of the city's remaining walls, and with many of its additional Ottoman and Byzantine structures still standing. The area provides access to the Seich Sou Forest National Park[131] and features amphitheatric views of the whole city and the Thermaic Gulf. On clear days Mount Olympus, at about 100 km (62 mi) away across the gulf, can also be seen towering the horizon.
Southeastern Thessaloniki up until the 1920s was home to the city's most affluent residents and formed the outermost suburbs of the city at the time, with the area close to the Thermaic Gulf coast called Exoches, from the 19th century holiday villas which defined the area. Today southeastern Thessaloniki has in some way become a natural extension of the city center, with the avenues of Megalou Alexandrou, Georgiou Papandreou (Antheon), Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, Delfon, Konstantinou Karamanli (Nea Egnatia) and Papanastasiou passing through it, enclosing an area traditionally called Dépôt (Ντεπώ), from the name of the old tram station, owned by a French company. The area extends to Kalamaria and Pylaia, about 9 km (5.59 mi) from the White Tower in the city centre.
Some of the most notable mansions and villas of the old-era of the city remain along Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. Built for the most wealthy residents and designed by well known architects they are used today as museums, art galleries or remain as private properties. Some of them include Villa Bianca, Villa Ahmet Kapanci, Villa Modiano, Villa Mordoch, Villa Mehmet Kapanci, Hatzilazarou Mansion, Chateau Mon Bonheur (often called red tower) and others.
Most of southeastern Thessaloniki is characterized by its modern architecture and apartment buildings, home to the middle-class and more than half of the municipality of Thessaloniki population. Today this area of the city is also home to 3 of the city's main football stadiums, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the Posidonio aquatic and athletic complex, the Naval Command post of Northern Greece and the old royal palace (called Palataki), located on the most westerly point of Karabournaki cape. The municipality of Kalamaria is also located in southeastern Thessaloniki and has become this part of the city's most sought after areas, with many open spaces and home to high end bars, cafés and entertainment venues, most notably on Plastira street, along the coast
Northwestern Thessaloniki had always been associated with industry and the working class because as the city grew during the 1920s, many workers had moved there, due to its proximity near factories and industrial activities. Today many factories and industries have been moved further out west and the area is experiencing rapid growth as does the southeast. Many factories in this area have been converted to cultural centres, while past military grounds that are being surrounded by densely built neighborhoods are awaiting transformation into parklands.
Northwest Thessaloniki forms the main entry point into the city of Thessaloniki with the avenues of Monastiriou, Lagkada and 26is Octovriou passing through it, as well as the extension of the A1 motorway, feeding into Thessaloniki's city center. The area is home to the Macedonia InterCity Bus Terminal (KTEL), the Zeitenlik Allied memorial military cemetery and to large entertainment venues of the city, such as Milos, Fix, Vilka (which are housed in converted old factories). Northwestern Thessaloniki is also home to Moni Lazariston, located in Stavroupoli, which today forms one of the most important cultural centers for the city.
To read more please click :-
Myth and legends surround this strange and rare machine, but this one I should tell you is the closest to to the truth.
Some considerably long time ago there was a secret government order to deliver new models of experimental walker to earth from some distant planet wherethey were manufactured. There were about one hundred of them on the ship when it got caught in a severe meteor shower. The spacecraft was badly damaged and all of the crue didn't survive, but the cargo itself reamined mostly untouched. But that wasn't known, so all of the info about the project was thought irrelevand and most of the files were deleted as if they never existed. It was discovered many years after by some space scrap collectors who didn't realize the true nature of what they found. Nor did they realize its cost. Well, mercenaries did, they bought each and every walker they could find and repaired those that were damaged, they managed to restore only about twenty of them. They created a special elite team equipped with these new machines and started to train the pilots. But then something unexpected happened: experimental alloys of the armor started to emitt serious amounts of unidentified radiation, presumably absorbed during the long-term exposure to cosmic rays (while lost in the open space). This radiation was mainly lethal, but in some rare cases it caused an uncontrollable mutations that completely changed human body turning it into an unstoppable zombie-like creature with only some bits of intelligence. Such mutants could still follow orders, all mercs had to do is implanting biochips into their brains to control them.
What's most interesting about this machine is that its armor changes its color from its original grey when not in vacuum. That effect is caused by the atmospehere air that is in contact with the alloy, it's working like a catalizator for the emission. Thus any enemy that sees the visible spectr of radiation is surely also exposed to its harmful impact.
I'm sorry for that clumsily written story, I realize how lame I am at this. That's my Ma.K.tober "entry", so to say. I guess you could call it Ma.K.ikoma. And it fits a fig!
Marble sarcophagus dating from 220–230 AD from Attica, displayed at the entrance of Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece. The cover resembles a mattress where a couple is couching and scenes of battles between Greeks and Amazons are depicted on the sides. The sarcophagus was pictorially chosen as a symbol of Death.
DEATH frightens or scares almost all of us, human beings. It is this very Fear of death that religions have long exploited or manipulated for their own benefit, for their continued existence. Still, such a “use” of the fear of death has been on the basis of a human right—that of the freedom of belief.
One recently experiences a global spread of increasingly alarming news about a pandemic, the Covid-19 pandemic. Few people may have noticed some very worrying inconsistencies (or even contradictions) in the story regarding the supposed pandemic:
—In the beginning, the press and the media had been reassuring the people that the SARS-CoV-2 caused a mild illness much like the flu (influenza), but nothing more worrying than that. Now, there is a twist, a U-turn: the mild flu-like illness suddenly became a potentially lethal disease (threatening the life of most patients older than 35 yrs); this notorious disease is supposed to cause acute respiratory distress (due to bilateral pneumonia-like abnormalities in both lungs of the patients) requiring mechanical ventilation; this respiratory complication is supposed to result into a permanent, lifelong impairment of respiratory function of the ones who survived the infection. These aspects of the same story contradict each other; they cannot both be true at the same time: it is a direct and absolute proof that the media lie (either now or earlier). Why should one, therefore, trust the information “as is” provided by the media…?!
—Fake video footage was shown on national TV from supposedly crowded streets and beaches, as well as from longest queues of cars in toll stations, whereas nothing of the above was true.
—Fake photographs of hundreds of coffins in Italy have flooded the media, pretending to be related to the dead from Covid-19, whereas the coffins where from a much older disaster (the Lampedusa shipwreck in 2013). Who and why does strive to cause panic and fear of death to the people?
—For how long one intends to enforce the “stay at home” strongest advice (repeated by rote by countless propaganda-victims)…?! What for? Even after 6 whole months of lock-down in-house, the population will still remain unprotected for the SARS-CoV-2, without immunization due to either a vaccine or survival after exposure to the virus. The “stay at home” advice merely delays the unavoidable, it is not a solution by itself!
—Yesterday, on March 20, 2020, the epidemiologist in charge in Greece announced fewest new cases of Covid-19, even less than the day before; such a small number of new cases repudiates the expected exponential increase of new cases. Despite the smallest number of new cases, the Cabinet Member sitting next to the physician spoke with authoritarian style and threatened that more restricting measures are being considered to be enforced to the people.
The people are prepared (by manipulation of their natural fear of death) to silently accept even declaration of Martial Law or a legal state of Emergency. The constitutional articles safeguarding human rights will be stripped. Democracy will cease to exist. An Empire of Fear is likely to be globally hatching as we speak. Then, we’ll know for sure Who is the culprit, the perpetrator of the global manipulation of death’s fear: it will be the one(s) who benefited from rising! The one(s) who masterminded and orchestrated this whole elaborate hoax will, alas, be invested with such absolute an authority to become unstoppable and uncontrollable…
“LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, VOI CH'ENTRATE”
(Abandon All Hope All Ye Who Enter Here)
—Dante Alighieri.
Thessaloniki (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη, often referred to internationally as Thessalonica or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace.[3][4] Its honorific title is Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa), literally "co-capital",[5] and stands as a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Symvasilévousa) or "co-reigning" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople.[6]
According to the preliminary results of the 2011 census, the municipality of Thessaloniki today has a population of 322,240,[1] while the Thessaloniki Urban Area (the contiguous built up area forming the "City of Thessaloniki") has a population of 790,824.[1] Furthermore, the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area extends over an area of 1,455.62 km2 (562.02 sq mi) and its population in 2011 reached a total of 1,104,460 inhabitants.[1]
Thessaloniki is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for the rest of southeastern Europe;[7] its commercial port is also of great importance for Greece and the southeastern European hinterland.[7] The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general,[8] and is considered to be Greece's cultural capital.[8] Events such as the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival are held annually, while the city also hosts the largest bi-annual meeting of the Greek diaspora.[9] Thessaloniki is the 2014 European Youth Capital.[10]
Founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, Thessaloniki's history spans some 2,300 years. An important metropolis by the Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine monuments, including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as several Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. The city's main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans.[11]
Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination in Greece. In 2010, Lonely Planet ranked Thessaloniki as the world's fifth-best party city worldwide, comparable to other cities such as Dubai and Montreal.[12] For 2013 National Geographic Magazine included Thessaloniki in its top tourist destinations worldwide,[13] while in 2014 Financial Times FDI magazine (Foreign Direct Investments) declared Thessaloniki as the best mid-sized European city of the future for human capital and lifestyle.
Etymology
All variations of the city's name derive from the original (and current) appellation in Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη (from Θεσσαλός, Thessalos, and Νίκη, Nike), literally translating to "Thessalian Victory". The name of the city came from the name of a princess, Thessalonike of Macedon, half sister of Alexander the Great, so named because of her birth on the day of the Macedonian victory at the Battle of Crocus Field (353/352 BCE).[16]
The alternative name Salonica (or Salonika) derives from the variant form Σαλονίκη (Saloníki) in popular Greek speech, and has given rise to the form of the city's name in several languages. Names in other languages prominent in the city's history include Солѹнь (Solun) in Old Church Slavonic, סלוניקה (Salonika) in Ladino, Selanik (also Selânik) in Turkish (سلانیك in Ottoman Turkish), Solun (also written as Солун) in the local and neighboring South Slavic languages, Салоники (Saloníki) in Russian, and Sãrunã in Aromanian. In local speech, the city's name is typically pronounced with a dark and deep L characteristic of Macedonian Greek accent.[17][18]
The name often appears in writing in the abbreviated form Θεσ/νίκη
History
From antiquity to the Roman Empire
The city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon, on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages.[20] He named it after his wife Thessalonike,[21] a half-sister of Alexander the Great and princess of Macedon as daughter of Philip II. Under the kingdom of Macedon the city retained its own autonomy and parliament[22] and evolved to become the most important city in Macedon.[21]
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, Thessalonica became a free city of the Roman Republic under Mark Antony in 41 BC.[21][23] It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the Via Egnatia,[24] the road connecting Dyrrhachium with Byzantium,[25] which facilitated trade between Thessaloniki and great centers of commerce such as Rome and Byzantium.[26] Thessaloniki also lay at the southern end of the main north-south route through the Balkans along the valleys of the Morava and Axios river valleys, thereby linking the Balkans with the rest of Greece.[27] The city later became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia.[24] Later it became the capital of all the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire due to the city's importance in the Balkan peninsula. When the Roman Empire was divided into the tetrarchy, Thessaloniki became the administrative capital of one of the four portions of the Empire under Galerius Maximianus Caesar,[28][29] where Galerius commissioned an imperial palace, a new hippodrome, a triumphal arch and a mausoleum among others.[29][30][31]
In 379 when the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloniki became the capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum.[24] In 390 Gothic troops under the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, led a massacre against the inhabitants of Thessalonica, who had risen in revolt against the Germanic soldiers. With the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki became the second-largest city of the Eastern Roman Empire.[26] Around the time of the Roman Empire Thessaloniki was also an important center for the spread of Christianity; some scholars hold that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians written by Paul the Apostle is the first written book of the New Testament.
Byzantine era and Middle Ages
From the first years of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki was considered the second city in the Empire after Constantinople,[33][34][35] both in terms of wealth and size.[33] with an population of 150,000 in the mid 1100s.[36] The city held this status until it was transferred to Venice in 1423. In the 14th century the city's population exceeded 100,000 to 150,000,[37][38][39] making it larger than London at the time.[40]
During the 6th and 7th centuries the area around Thessaloniki was invaded by Avars and Slavs, who unsuccessfully laid siege to the city several times.[41] Traditional historiography stipulates that many Slavs settled in the hinterland of Thessaloniki,[42] however, this migration was allegedly on a much smaller scale than previously thought.[42][42][43] In the 9th century, the Byzantine Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius, both natives of the city, created the first literary language of the Slavs, the Glagolic alphabet, most likely based on the Slavic dialect used in the hinterland of their hometown.[44][45][46][47][48]
An Arab naval attack in 904 resulted in the sack of the city.[49] The economic expansion of the city continued through the 12th century as the rule of the Komnenoi emperors expanded Byzantine control to the north. Thessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204,[50] when Constantinople was captured by the forces of the Fourth Crusade and incorporated the city and its surrounding territories in the Kingdom of Thessalonica[51] — which then became the largest vassal of the Latin Empire. In 1224, the Kingdom of Thessalonica was overrun by the Despotate of Epirus, a remnant of the former Byzantine Empire, under Theodore Komnenos Doukas who crowned himself Emperor,[52] and the city became the Despotat's capital.[52][53] This era of the Despotate of Epirus is also known as the Empire of Thessalonica.[52][54][55] Following his defeat at Klokotnitsa however in 1230,[52][54] the Empire of Thessalonica became a vassal state of the Second Bulgarian Empire until it was recovered again in 1246, this time by the Nicaean Empire.[52] In 1342,[56] the city saw the rise of the Commune of the Zealots, an anti-aristocratic party formed of sailors and the poor,[57] which is nowadays described as social-revolutionary.[56] The city was practically independent of the rest of the Empire,[56][57][58] as it had its own government, a form of republic.[56] The zealot movement was overthrown in 1350 and the city was reunited with the rest of the Empire.[56]
In 1423, Despot Andronicus, who was in charge of the city, ceded it to the Republic of Venice with the hope that it could be protected from the Ottomans who were besieging the city (there is no evidence to support the oft-repeated story that he sold the city to them). The Venetians held Thessaloniki until it was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430.
Ottoman period
When Sultan Murad II captured Thessaloniki and sacked it in 1430, contemporary reports estimated that about one-fifth of the city's population was enslaved.[60] Upon the conquest of Thessaloniki, some of its inhabitants escaped,[61] including intellectuals such as Theodorus Gaza "Thessalonicensis" and Andronicus Callistus.[62] However, the change of sovereignty from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman one did not affect the city's prestige as a major imperial city and trading hub.[63][64] Thessaloniki and Smyrna, although smaller in size than Constantinople, were the Ottoman Empire's most important trading hubs.[63] Thessaloniki's importance was mostly in the field of shipping,[63] but also in manufacturing,[64] while most of the city's trade was controlled by ethnic Greeks.[63]
During the Ottoman period, the city's population of mainly Greek Jews and Ottoman Muslims (including those of Turkish and Albanian, as well as Bulgarian Muslim and Greek Muslim convert origin) grew substantially. By 1478 Selânik (سلانیك), as the city came to be known in Ottoman Turkish, had a population of 4,320 Muslims, 6,094 Greek Orthodox and some Catholics, but no Jews. Soon after the turn of the 15th to 16th century, nearly 20,000 Sephardic Jews had immigrated to Greece from Spain following their expulsion by the 1492 Alhambra Decree.[65] By c. 1500, the numbers had grown to 7,986 Greeks, 8,575 Muslims, and 3,770 Jews. By 1519, Sephardic Jews numbered 15,715, 54% of the city's population. Some historians consider the Ottoman regime's invitation to Jewish settlement was a strategy to prevent the ethnic Greek population (Eastern Orthodox Christians) from dominating the city.[38]
Thessaloniki was the capital of the Sanjak of Selanik within the wider Rumeli Eyalet (Balkans)[66] until 1826, and subsequently the capital of Selanik Eyalet (after 1867, the Selanik Vilayet).[67][68] This consisted of the sanjaks of Selanik, Serres and Drama between 1826 and 1912.[69] Thessaloniki was also a Janissary stronghold where novice Janissaries were trained. In June 1826, regular Ottoman soldiers attacked and destroyed the Janissary base in Thessaloniki while also killing over 10,000 Janissaries, an event known as The Auspicious Incident in Ottoman history.[70] From 1870, driven by economic growth, the city's population expanded by 70%, reaching 135,000 in 1917.[71]
The last few decades of Ottoman control over the city were an era of revival, particularly in terms of the city's infrastructure. It was at that time that the Ottoman administration of the city acquired an "official" face with the creation of the Command Post[72] while a number of new public buildings were built in the eclectic style in order to project the European face both of Thessaloniki and the Ottoman Empire.[72][73] The city walls were torn down between 1869 and 1889,[74] efforts for a planned expansion of the city are evident as early as 1879,[75] the first tram service started in 1888[76] and the city streets were illuminated with electric lamp posts in 1908.[77] In 1888 Thessaloniki was connected to Central Europe via rail through Belgrade, Monastir in 1893 and Constantinople in 1896.
Since the 20th century
In the early 20th century, Thessaloniki was in the center of radical activities by various groups; the Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, founded in 1897,[78] and the Greek Macedonian Committee, founded in 1903.[79] In 1903 an anarchist group known as the Boatmen of Thessaloniki planted bombs in several buildings in Thessaloniki, including the Ottoman Bank, with some assistance from the IMRO. The Greek consulate in Ottoman Thessaloniki (now the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle) served as the center of operations for the Greek guerillas. In 1908 the Young Turks movement broke out in the city, sparking the Young Turk Revolution.[80]
The Ottoman Feth-i Bülend being sunk in Thessaloniki in 1912 by a Greek ship during the First Balkan War.
Constantine I of Greece with George I of Greece and the Greek army enter the city.
As the First Balkan War broke out, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire and expanded its borders. When Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister at the time, was asked if the Greek army should move towards Thessaloniki or Monastir (now Bitola, Republic of Macedonia), Venizelos replied "Salonique à tout prix!" (Thessaloniki, at all costs!).[81] As both Greece and Bulgaria wanted Thessaloniki, the Ottoman garrison of the city entered negotiations with both armies.[82] On 8 November 1912 (26 October Old Style), the feast day of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrius, the Greek Army accepted the surrender of the Ottoman garrison at Thessaloniki.[83] The Bulgarian army arrived one day after the surrender of the city to Greece and Tahsin Pasha, ruler of the city, told the Bulgarian officials that "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered".[82] After the Second Balkan War, Thessaloniki and the rest of the Greek portion of Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.[84] On 18 March 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated in the city by Alexandros Schinas.[85]
In 1915, during World War I, a large Allied expeditionary force established a base at Thessaloniki for operations against pro-German Bulgaria.[86] This culminated in the establishment of the Macedonian Front, also known as the Salonika Front.[87][88] In 1916, pro-Venizelist Greek army officers and civilians, with the support of the Allies, launched an uprising,[89] creating a pro-Allied[90] temporary government by the name of the "Provisional Government of National Defence"[89][91] that controlled the "New Lands" (lands that were gained by Greece in the Balkan Wars, most of Northern Greece including Greek Macedonia, the North Aegean as well as the island of Crete);[89][91] the official government of the King in Athens, the "State of Athens",[89] controlled "Old Greece"[89][91] which were traditionally monarchist. The State of Thessaloniki was disestablished with the unification of the two opposing Greek governments under Venizelos, following the abdication of King Constantine in 1917.[86][91]
The 1st Battalion of the National Defence army marches on its way to the front.
Aerial picture of the Great Fire of 1917.
Most of the old center of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, which started accidentally by an unattended kitchen fire on 18 August 1917.[92] The fire swept through the centre of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless; according to the Pallis Report, most of them were Jewish (50,000). Many businesses were destroyed, as a result, 70% of the population were unemployed.[92] Also a number of religious structures of the three major faiths were lost. Nearly one-quarter of the total population of approximately 271,157 became homeless.[92] Following the fire the government prohibited quick rebuilding, so it could implement the new redesign of the city according to the European-style urban plan[6] prepared by a group of architects, including the Briton Thomas Mawson, and headed by French architect Ernest Hébrard.[92] Property values fell from 6.5 million Greek drachmas to 750,000.[93]
After the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War and during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, a population exchange took place between Greece and Turkey.[90] Over 160,000 ethnic Greeks deported from the former Ottoman Empire were resettled in the city,[90] changing its demographics. Additionally many of the city's Muslims were deported to Turkey, ranging at about 20,000 people.[94]
During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy (with 232 people dead, 871 wounded and over 800 buildings damaged or destroyed in November 1940 alone),[95] and, the Italians having failed to succeed in their invasion of Greece, it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 8 April 1941[96] and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944 when it was liberated by the Greek People's Liberation Army.[97] The Nazis soon forced the Jewish residents into a ghetto near the railroads and on 15 March 1943 began the deportation process of the city's 56,000 Jews to its concentration camps.[98][99] They deported over 43,000 of the city's Jews in concentration camps,[98] where most were killed in the gas chambers. The Germans also deported 11,000 Jews to forced labor camps, where most perished.[100] Only 1,200 Jews live in the city today.
Part of Eleftherias Square during the Axis occupation.
The importance of Thessaloniki to Nazi Germany can be demonstrated by the fact that, initially, Hitler had planned to incorporate it directly in the Third Reich[101] (that is, make it part of Germany) and not have it controlled by a puppet state such as the Hellenic State or an ally of Germany (Thessaloniki had been promised to Yugoslavia as a reward for joining the Axis on 25 March 1941).[102] Having been the first major city in Greece to fall to the occupying forces just two days after the German invasion, it was in Thessaloniki that the first Greek resistance group was formed (under the name «Ελευθερία», Eleftheria, "Freedom")[103] as well as the first anti-Nazi newspaper in an occupied territory anywhere in Europe,[104] also by the name Eleftheria. Thessaloniki was also home to a military camp-converted-concentration camp, known in German as "Konzentrationslager Pavlo Mela" (Pavlos Melas Concentration Camp),[105] where members of the resistance and other non-favourable people towards the German occupation from all over Greece[105] were held either to be killed or sent to concentration camps elsewhere in Europe.[105] In the 1946 monarchy referendum, the majority of the locals voted in favour of a republic, contrary to the rest of Greece.[106]
After the war, Thessaloniki was rebuilt with large-scale development of new infrastructure and industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of its architectural treasures still remain, adding value to the city as a tourist destination, while several early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988.[107] In 1997, Thessaloniki was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture,[108] sponsoring events across the city and the region. Agency established to oversee the cultural activities of that year 1997 was still in existence by 2010.[109] In 2004 the city hosted a number of the football events as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics.[110]
Today Thessaloniki has become one of the most important trade and business hubs in Southeastern Europe, with its port, the Port of Thessaloniki being one of the largest in the Aegean and facilitating trade throughout the Balkan hinterland.[7] On 26 October 2012 the city celebrated its centennial since its incorporation into Greece.[111] The city also forms one of the largest student centres in Southeastern Europe, is host to the largest student population in Greece and will be the European Youth Capital in 2014
Geography
Geology
Thessaloniki lies on the northern fringe of the Thermaic Gulf on its eastern coast and is bound by Mount Chortiatis on its southeast. Its proximity to imposing mountain ranges, hills and fault lines, especially towards its southeast have historically made the city prone to geological changes.
Since medieval times, Thessaloniki was hit by strong earthquakes, notably in 1759, 1902, 1978 and 1995.[113] On 19–20 June 1978, the city suffered a series of powerful earthquakes, registering 5.5 and 6.5 on the Richter scale.[114][115] The tremors caused considerable damage to a number of buildings and ancient monuments,[114] but the city withstood the catastrophe without any major problems.[115] One apartment building in central Thessaloniki collapsed during the second earthquake, killing many, raising the final death toll to 51.[114][115]
Climate
Thessaloniki's climate is directly affected by the sea it is situated on.[116] The city lies in a transitional climatic zone, so its climate displays characteristics of several climates. According to the Köppen climate classification, it is a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) that borders on a semi-arid climate (BSk), with annual average precipitation of 450 millimetres (18 in) due to the Pindus rain shadow drying the westerly winds. However, the city has a summer precipitation between 20 to 30 millimetres (0.79 to 1.18 in), which borders it close to a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa).
Winters are relatively dry, with common morning frost. Snowfalls are sporadic, but οccur more or less every winter, but the snow cover does not last for more than a few days. Fog is common, with an average of 193 foggy days in a year.[117] During the coldest winters, temperatures can drop to −10 °C (14 °F).[117] The record minimum temperature in Thessaloniki was −14 °C (7 °F).[118] On average, Thessaloniki experiences frost (sub-zero temperature) 32 days a year.[117] The coldest month of the year in the city is January, with an average 24-hour temperature of 6 °C (43 °F).[119] Wind is also usual in the winter months, with December and January having an average wind speed of 26 km/h (16 mph).[117]
Thessaloniki's summers are hot with rather humid nights.[117] Maximum temperatures usually rise above 30 °C (86 °F),[117] but rarely go over 40 °C (104 °F);[117] the average number of days the temperature is above 32 °C (90 °F) is 32.[117] The maximum recorded temperature in the city was 42 °C (108 °F).[117][118] Rain seldom falls in summer, mainly during thunderstorms. In the summer months Thessaloniki also experiences strong heat waves.[120] The hottest month of the year in the city is July, with an average 24-hour temperature of 26 °C (79 °F).[119] The average wind speed for June and July in Thessaloniki is 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph)
Government
According to the Kallikratis reform, as of 1 January 2011 the Thessaloniki Urban Area (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Θεσσαλονίκης) which makes up the "City of Thessaloniki", is made up of six self-governing municipalities (Greek: Δήμοι) and one municipal unit (Greek: Δημοτική ενότητα). The municipalities that are included in the Thessaloniki Urban Area are those of Thessaloniki (the city center and largest in population size), Kalamaria, Neapoli-Sykies, Pavlos Melas, Kordelio-Evosmos, Ampelokipoi-Menemeni, and the municipal unit of Pylaia, part of the municipality of Pylaia-Chortiatis. Prior to the Kallikratis reform, the Thessaloniki Urban Area was made up of twice as many municipalities, considerably smaller in size, which created bureaucratic problems.[123]
Thessaloniki Municipality
The municipality of Thessaloniki (Greek: Δήμος Θεσαλονίκης) is the second most populous in Greece, after Athens, with a population of 322,240[1] people (in 2011) and an area of 17.832 km2 (7 sq mi). The municipality forms the core of the Thessaloniki Urban Area, with its central district (the city center), referred to as the Kentro, meaning 'center' or 'downtown'.
The institution of mayor of Thessaloniki was inaugurated under the Ottoman Empire, in 1912. The first mayor of Thessaloniki was Osman Sait Bey, while the current mayor of the municipality of Thessaloniki is Yiannis Boutaris. In 2011, the municipality of Thessaloniki had a budget of €464.33 million[124] while the budget of 2012 stands at €409.00 million.[125]
According to an article in The New York Times, the way in which the present mayor of Thessaloniki is treating the city's debt and oversized administration problems could be used as an example by Greece's central government for a successful strategy in dealing with these problems.[126]
Other
Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece. It is an influential city for the northern parts of the country and is the capital of the region of Central Macedonia and the Thessaloniki regional unit. The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is also based in Thessaloniki, being that the city is the de facto capital of the Greek region of Macedonia.
It is customary every year for the Prime Minister of Greece to announce his administration's policies on a number of issues, such as the economy, at the opening night of the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair. In 2010, during the first months of the 2010 Greek debt crisis, the entire cabinet of Greece met in Thessaloniki to discuss the country's future.[127]
In the Hellenic Parliament, the Thessaloniki urban area constitutes a 16-seat constituency. As of the national elections of 17 June 2012 the largest party in Thessaloniki is New Democracy with 27.8%, followed by the Coalition of the Radical Left (27.0%) and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (10.2%).[128] The table below summarizes the results of the latest elections.
Cityscape
Architecture
Architecture in Thessaloniki is the direct result of the city's position at the centre of all historical developments in the Balkans. Aside from its commercial importance, Thessaloniki was also for many centuries the military and administrative hub of the region, and beyond this the transportation link between Europe and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel / Palestine). Merchants, traders and refugees from all over Europe settled in the city. The need for commercial and public buildings in this new era of prosperity led to the construction of large edifices in the city center. During this time, the city saw the building of banks, large hotels, theatres, warehouses, and factories. Architects who designed some of the most notable buildings of the city, in the late 19th and early 20th century, include Vitaliano Poselli, Pietro Arrigoni, Xenophon Paionidis, Eli Modiano, Moshé Jacques, Jean Joseph Pleyber, Frederic Charnot, Ernst Ziller, Roubens Max, Levi Ernst, Angelos Siagas and others, using mainly the styles of Eclecticism and Art Nouveau.
The city layout changed after 1870, when the seaside fortifications gave way to extensive piers, and many of the oldest walls of the city were demolished, including those surrounding the White Tower, which today stands as the main landmark of the city. As parts of the early Byzantine walls were demolished, this allowed the city to expand east and west along the coast.[129]
The expansion of Eleftherias Square towards the sea completed the new commercial hub of the city and at the time was considered one of the most vibrant squares of the city. As the city grew, workers moved to the western districts, due to their proximity to factories and industrial activities; while the middle and upper classes gradually moved from the city-center to the eastern suburbs, leaving mainly businesses. In 1917, a devastating fire swept through the city and burned uncontrollably for 32 hours.[71] It destroyed the city's historic center and a large part of its architectural heritage, but paved the way for modern development and allowed Thessaloniki the development of a proper European city center, featuring wider diagonal avenues and monumental squares; which the city initially lacked – much of what was considered to be 'essential' in European architecture.
City Center
After the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, a team of architects and urban planners including Thomas Mawson and Ernest Hebrard, a French architect, chose the Byzantine era as the basis of their (re)building designs for Thessaloniki's city center. The new city plan included axes, diagonal streets and monumental squares, with a street grid that would channel traffic smoothly. The plan of 1917 included provisions for future population expansions and a street and road network that would be, and still is sufficient today.[71] It contained sites for public buildings and provided for the restoration of Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques.
The Metropolitan Church of Saint Gregory Palamas, designed by Ernst Ziller.
Today the city center of Thessaloniki includes the features designed as part of the plan and forms the point in the city where most of the public buildings, historical sites, entertainment venues and stores are located. The center is characterized by its many historical buildings, arcades, laneways and distinct architectural styles such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which can be seen on many of its buildings.
Also called the historic center, it is divided into several districts, of which include Ladadika (where many entertainment venues and tavernas are located), Kapani (were the city's central city market is located), Diagonios, Navarinou, Rotonta, Agia Sofia and Ippodromio (white tower), which are all located around Thessaloniki's most central point, Aristotelous Square.
The west point of the city center is home to Thessaloniki's law courts, its central international railway station and the port, while on its eastern side stands the city's two universities, the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Center, the city's main stadium, its archaeological and Byzantine museums, the new city hall and its central parklands and gardens, namely those of the ΧΑΝΘ/Palios Zoologikos Kipos and Pedio tou Areos. The central road arteries that pass through the city center, designed in the Ernest Hebrard plan, include those of Tsimiski, Egnatia, Nikis, Mitropoleos, Venizelou and St. Demetrius avenues.
Ano Poli
Ano Poli (also called Old Town and literally the Upper Town) is the heritage listed district north of Thessaloniki's city center that was not engulfed by the great fire of 1917 and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by ministerial actions of Melina Merkouri, during the 1980s. It consists of Thessaloniki's most traditional part of the city, still featuring small stone paved streets, old squares and homes featuring old Greek and Ottoman architecture.
Ano Poli also, is the highest point in Thessaloniki and as such, is the location of the city's acropolis, its Byzantine fort, the Heptapyrgion, a large portion of the city's remaining walls, and with many of its additional Ottoman and Byzantine structures still standing. The area provides access to the Seich Sou Forest National Park[131] and features amphitheatric views of the whole city and the Thermaic Gulf. On clear days Mount Olympus, at about 100 km (62 mi) away across the gulf, can also be seen towering the horizon.
Southeastern Thessaloniki up until the 1920s was home to the city's most affluent residents and formed the outermost suburbs of the city at the time, with the area close to the Thermaic Gulf coast called Exoches, from the 19th century holiday villas which defined the area. Today southeastern Thessaloniki has in some way become a natural extension of the city center, with the avenues of Megalou Alexandrou, Georgiou Papandreou (Antheon), Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, Delfon, Konstantinou Karamanli (Nea Egnatia) and Papanastasiou passing through it, enclosing an area traditionally called Dépôt (Ντεπώ), from the name of the old tram station, owned by a French company. The area extends to Kalamaria and Pylaia, about 9 km (5.59 mi) from the White Tower in the city centre.
Some of the most notable mansions and villas of the old-era of the city remain along Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. Built for the most wealthy residents and designed by well known architects they are used today as museums, art galleries or remain as private properties. Some of them include Villa Bianca, Villa Ahmet Kapanci, Villa Modiano, Villa Mordoch, Villa Mehmet Kapanci, Hatzilazarou Mansion, Chateau Mon Bonheur (often called red tower) and others.
Most of southeastern Thessaloniki is characterized by its modern architecture and apartment buildings, home to the middle-class and more than half of the municipality of Thessaloniki population. Today this area of the city is also home to 3 of the city's main football stadiums, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the Posidonio aquatic and athletic complex, the Naval Command post of Northern Greece and the old royal palace (called Palataki), located on the most westerly point of Karabournaki cape. The municipality of Kalamaria is also located in southeastern Thessaloniki and has become this part of the city's most sought after areas, with many open spaces and home to high end bars, cafés and entertainment venues, most notably on Plastira street, along the coast
Northwestern Thessaloniki had always been associated with industry and the working class because as the city grew during the 1920s, many workers had moved there, due to its proximity near factories and industrial activities. Today many factories and industries have been moved further out west and the area is experiencing rapid growth as does the southeast. Many factories in this area have been converted to cultural centres, while past military grounds that are being surrounded by densely built neighborhoods are awaiting transformation into parklands.
Northwest Thessaloniki forms the main entry point into the city of Thessaloniki with the avenues of Monastiriou, Lagkada and 26is Octovriou passing through it, as well as the extension of the A1 motorway, feeding into Thessaloniki's city center. The area is home to the Macedonia InterCity Bus Terminal (KTEL), the Zeitenlik Allied memorial military cemetery and to large entertainment venues of the city, such as Milos, Fix, Vilka (which are housed in converted old factories). Northwestern Thessaloniki is also home to Moni Lazariston, located in Stavroupoli, which today forms one of the most important cultural centers for the city.
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F-106A.
21 AD / 49 FIS.
Griffis AFB, New York.
ADC
Oct. 1976.
While on training mission from Malmstrom AFB entered uncontrollable flat spin Feb 2, 1970, forcing pilot to eject. Unpiloted, the aircraft recoveredon its own and made gentle belly landing in snow-covered field.Repaired and returned to service
From Wikipedia:
Poisoning
The plant is carcinogenic to animals such as mice, rats, horses and cattle when ingested, although they will usually avoid it unless nothing else is available. Young stems are quite commonly used as a vegetable in China, Japan and Korea. However, some researchers suspect a link between consumption and higher stomach cancer rates.[11] The spores have also been implicated as a carcinogen. Danish scientist Lars Holm Rasmussen released a study in 2004 showing that the carcinogenic compound in bracken, ptaquiloside or PTA, can leach from the plant into the water supply, which may explain an increase in the incidence of gastric and esophageal cancers in bracken-rich areas.[14]
In cattle, bracken poisoning can occur in both an acute and chronic form, acute poisoning being the most common. In pigs and horses bracken poisoning induces vitamin B deficiency.[15] Poisoning usually occurs when there is a shortage of available grasses such as in drought or snowfalls.
Along with the DNA damage caused by ptaquiloside it is shown that chemicals in the fern can damage blood cells and can destroy Vitamin B1. This in turn causes beriberi, a disease normally linked to nutritional deficiency.
Hydrogen cyanide is released by the young fronds of bracken when eaten by mammals or insects.[16] Two major insect moulting hormones, alpha ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone, are found in bracken. These cause uncontrollable, repeated moulting in insects ingesting the fronds, leading to rapid death.[17]
This was taken during the summer of 1955, when Mom and Dad went off prospecting for uranium in the hills of eastern Utah, while we three kids stayed behind with Grandpa and Grandma Yourdon.
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Some of the photos in this album are “originals” from the year that my family spent in Omaha in 1955-56. But the final 10 color photos were taken nearly 40 years later, as part of some research that I was doing for a novel called Do-Overs, the beginning of which can be found here on my website
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/index.html
and the relevant chapter (concerning Omaha) can be found here:
www.yourdon.com/personal/fiction/doovers/chapters/ch9.html
Before I get into the details, let me make a strong request — if you’re looking at these photos, and if you are getting any enjoyment at all of this brief look at some mundane Americana from 60+ years ago: find a similar episode in your own life, and write it down. Gather the pictures, clean them up, and upload them somewhere on the Internet where they can be found. Trust me: there will come a day when the only person on the planet who actually experienced those events is you. Your own memories may be fuzzy and incomplete; but they will be invaluable to your friends and family members, and to many generations of your descendants.
So, what do I remember about the year that I spent in Omaha? Not much at the moment, though I’m sure more details will occur to me in the days to come — and I’ll add them to these notes, along with additional photos that I’m tweaking and editing now.
For now, here is a random list of things I remember:
1. I attended the last couple months of 6th grade, and all of 7th grade, in one school. My parents moved from Omaha to Long Island, NY in the spring of my 7th grade school year; but unlike previous years, they made arrangements for me to stay with a neighbor’s family, so that I could finish the school year before joining them in New York.
2. Our dog, Blackie, traveled with us from our previous home in Riverside, and was with us until my parents left Omaha for New York; at that point, they gave him to some other family. For some reason, this had almost no impact on me. It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” — when Blackie was gone, I spent my final three months in Omaha without ever thinking about him again.
3. Most days, I rode my bike to school; but Omaha was the place where one of my sisters first started attending first grade — in the same school where I was attending 6th grade. I remember walking her to school along Bellevue Avenue on the first morning, which seemed to take forever: it was about a mile away.
4. As noted in a previous Flickr album about my year in Riverside, I was a year younger than my classmates; but I was tall for my age, and thus looked “normal” at a quick glance. But because I was a year younger, I was incredibly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Omaha was certainly not “sin city,” but by 6th grade and 7th grade, puberty was beginning to hit, and the girls had grown to the point where they were occasionally interested in boys. The school tried to accommodate this social development by teaching us the square dance (and forbidding the playing of songs by Elvis Presley, whose music was just beginning to be heard on the radio). I was an awful dancer, and even more of a shy misfit than my classmates; I continue to be an awful dancer today.
5. My bike ride to school was uneventful most days; but the final part of the ride was a steep downhill stretch on Avery Road, lasting three or four blocks. My friends and I usually raced downhill as fast as we could; but one day, my front bicycle wheel began to wobble on the downhill run, and my bike drifted uncontrollably to the side of the road and then off into a ditch. I got banged up pretty badly.
6. But this accident was nothing compared to my worst mishap: a neighborhood friend and I enjoyed playing “cowboys and Indians” in the woods near his home (and his younger brother usually tagged along). I had a bow and a few arrows for our adventure, and we often shot at trees a hundred feet away. Unfortunately, the arrows often disappeared into the underbrush (because we were lousy shots) and were difficult to find. Consequently, one of us came up with the clever idea of standing behind the “target” tree, so that we could see where the randomly-shot arrows landed. Through a series of miscommunications, I poked my head out from behind the tree just as my friend shot one of the arrows … and it skipped off the side of the tree and into my face, impaling itself into my cheek bone about an inch below my eye. An inch higher, and I would not be typing these words … (meanwhile, my friend's younger brother grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he tracked me down on the Internet, decades later).
7. In the summer of 1956, my parents decided to spend their summer vacation prospecting for uranium (seriously!) in the remote hills of eastern Utah, where my dad had grown up on the Utah-Colorado border. This entailed a long, long drive from Omaha; and it involved leaving me and my two sisters with my grandparents near Vernal, UT. My grandparents lived in a very small mining village outside of Vernal; and while they had electricity and various other modern conveniences, they also had an outhouse in the back yard. Trips to the “bathroom” in the middle of the night were quite an adventure. On the way back to Omaha at the end of this vacation trip (with no uranium ore having been found), we stopped for a couple of days of camping somewhere in the mountains of Colorado; you’ll see a couple of photos from that camping trip in this album.
8. There were no lizards in Omaha, and thus no opportunity for lizard-hunting with my slingshot—which had been a significant hobby in my previous homes in Riverside and Roswell. Indeed, there was almost nothing to shoot at … and I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could play (and hopefully win) marbles, to use as slingshot ammunition. But for reasons I never questioned or investigated (but about which I’m very curious now), there was a small vineyard in the field behind our house, and I was able to climb over the fence and retrieve dozens of small, hard, green grapes. They turned out to be excellent ammunition … but I never did find any lizards.
9. A few months before my parents left for New York, I told them about the latest craze sweeping the neighborhood: “English bikes,” with three speeds, thin tires, and hand-brakes. I desperately wanted one, but Dad said it was far too expensive for him to buy as a frivolous gift for me: at the time, English bikes had an outrageous price tag of $25. I was told that I would have to earn the money myself if I wanted one … and the going rate for young, scrawny kids who shoveled sidewalks, pulled weeds from gardens, and did babysitting chores, was 25 cents per hour. That works out to 100 hours of work … but I did it, over the course of the next few months, and when I got to New York, the first thing I did was buy my English bike.
10. Toward the end of my 7th-grade school year, everyone in my class was subjected to a vision test: we were lined up in alphabetical order, and one-by-one read off a series of letters that we could barely see on a large placard taped onto the classroom blackboard. Because my surname starts with a “Y,” I was usually near the end of the line … and by the time I got to the front, I had usually memorized the letters (because they never bothered to change them, from one student to the next) without even realizing it consciously. But on this particular occasion in 7th grade, for some reason, they decided to line us up in reverse alphabetical order … and I was the first in line. For the first time in my life, I realized that I could not see anything of the letters, and that I was woefully near-sighted.
11. When I got to New York, my parents took me to an optometrist to get my first set of glasses (and, yes, all of the neighborhood kids did begin taunting me immediately: “Four eyes! Four eyes!”) … and I’ve worn glasses ever since.
Three years after I arrived in New York, the glasses saved my vision when a home-brewed mix of gunpowder and powdered aluminum blew up in my face in the school chemistry lab (where I had an after-school volunteer job as a “lab assistant”). I suffered 2nd-degree burns on my face from the explosion, but the glasses protected my eyes. That, however, is a different story for a different time.
In this photo, it is now clear that the Bulls will jump over the proverbial moon oops.. or are they mooning the jump ?
Here you have the jockey in sharp dramatic pose kneeling in the mud as he watches the bulls moon over the emabankment alongwith his thin strip of wooden plank as it makes it last forlorn splash in the muddy waters of Ananapillay in Adoor. One of the runners is obscured and you only see the guide rope coming into the frame. There is one additional volunteer who is jumping in to control the bulls. Now that is some guts and glory.
The rest of the people are now seriously running for cover and you can see their backs in the frame.
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I did a search on google to find out about the current status of the bull racing in Kerala. The news is heartening. They did hold this even in 2012 and it had only 12 pairs of bulls in the event. There was some mention of court cases etc etc.. ( the interview was in Malayalam). So hopefully we can continue to see this in future. The number of running bulls is a great concern though. There used to be about 50-60 bulls participating in this event. Times are changing.
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Adoor in Kerala holds its famous Bull Races every year around the time of Onam. It is a celebration of agrarian existence and is carried on without any grants or aid from the Government. This is a spectacular fiesta of rural Kerala. There are 2-3 other such events that are held in Kerala.
Two racing bulls are hitched together and three men come into action. Two racers with lead ropes on either side of the bulls who try to control the direction and speed if possible and one often obscured by sprays of mud and water, a jockey who rides on a small flat strip of wood.
The bulls race ahead with the men keeping desperately abreast of the thundering hooves. At the end of the racing track there is a 4-6 feet embankment of earth which acts as a protection and a marker for the bulls. The embankment gets totally crowded with onlookers. The bull racers need to turn the bull around and do a 360 degree here but most times that effort fails as the bulls in their racing frenzy would be uncontrollable.
I have no idea on the current status of the bull races. There are enough organisations howling to stop such races but the Supreme Court of India in a judgement a few months ago allowed bull/bullock cart races to go on in Punjab. So chances are that the tradition may still live
Dates
Taken on August 15, 2007 at 1.16pm IST (edit)
Posted to Flickr September 25, 2012 at 12.40PM IST (edit)
Exif data
Camera Nikon D70
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 70 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
DSC_0382 via ACR ver 2 phototune scr part
I always read the “Tagged” entries with great interest. But it’s different when you are the one that’s tagged. Let’s see:
1) I run a special events company. We do Game Shows and Gangster, Western, Vegas, Western and Mardi Gras casinos. Our casinos are cast with professional actors and they blend theatre with gambling, live mystery and music. We work almost exclusively with corporate and convention markets and have done so since 1984. (I was twelve. Ahem.)
2) I am a professional magician. I perform close-up magic for adults at trade shows, conventions and corporate events. I also do stage shows for children. I like kids a lot. They remind me of me.
3) I am midway through writing my second novel. The first one I wrote to see if I could actually do it. I have very high hopes for the second one. I try to write something every day to keep it from curling up and dying for lack of attention. My goal is 2,000 words a day, but I don’t hit that often. I want ultimately to write for a living. That’s my long range plan. I am going to pen a few best-sellers and Sheree and I shall maintain matching luxury condos in New York and Paris. Yessir.
4) I live and breathe Photoshop. I teach it, I use it and I have unreasonable amounts of fun with it. Up until recently, I had a website up, designed to teach the basics of Photoshop in six hours.
Photoshop is a HUGE part of my life. I freelance my work in custom-designed PowerPoints that I build in Photoshop.
I love visual things…love the way colors blend and the image changes. I can spend a LOT of time tinkering with stuff and I won’t stop until it looks right to me. I like the idea of trying to speak word and concept into my images.
5) Winston Churchill once said “My single most important accomplishment was convincing the greatest woman in the world to marry me.” I totally understand that…but I disagree with him because I have the greatest woman in the world. His must have been the second best.
6) We love to travel and photograph this fascinating world. Later this month we’re off to New York (to see Alan) then Rhode Island (to see Gina) then Philadelphia (to see Sharon) and Washington DC (to see Peter and Elie) then back to NYC for more Alan. In January, we’re going to AFRICA! (You probably think we are fabulously wealthy, huh? See? Caught you! We’re not wealthy…we’ve just decided that travel is our number one priority.)
7) In college two of my friends and I were sent out to pick up cases of booze for a “Meet Your Potential Media Employers” night. (I was a journalism student…and later turned into a radio reporter for twelve years.) We all three got blotto before the event even began and I clearly remember sitting on the floor and telling the publisher of Edmonton’s largest daily newspaper that in MY opinion, the media had become a “whore to the advertisers.” I am unreasonably, unaccountably, rather childishly fond and proud of this memory.
8) My emotional and spiritual reset button is pressed each time I remind myself of the verse “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This keeps me out of an awful lot of crap. So God is my favourite author, followed distantly by Bill Bryson, Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, Christopher Moore and John Sandford.
9) My life has been saved twice. The first time was when I met Sheree in the mid 1980’s. The second was when I met Jesus about ten years later. Both times I was circling the drain.
10) I have music around me all the time: Andrea Bocelli, AC/DC, Sarah Brightman, ZZ Top, Beach Boys, Billie Holiday (and Etta James singing Billy Holiday – which is a sound as close to heaven as we are going to get), Eric Clapton, Eva Cassidy, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Led Zep, T-Bone Burnett, Leonard Cohen, Jeff Healy, J. J. Cale, Norah Jones, Rod Stewart’s American Songbook recordings and Vladimir Ashkenazy’s Mozart and Beethoven recordings are big favs. I have three iPods because, frankly, I could not imagine being without good music. Plus I am so absent minded that I can put one of those puppies down and lose it for a week. Having more than one keeps me from snivelling and weeping uncontrollably, since I am also a wee bit obsessive. And moody.
Now you know.
Don’t you feel better?
PS: Sheree took this picture of me one perfect afternoon in Rome. I have tinkered with it...a little.
12 months.
The most beneficial year of my life.
Two years ago, I met a boy.
A year I spent with him.
Loving him.
I truly thought I had found it.
Found the happiness I was searching for for so long.
My future was laid out in front of me.
I could touch it.
It was him.
My best friend.
He was right next to me and I was invincible.
Last year's September 3rd was not like this one.
I was not laughing.
I was not smiling.
I was not moving.
I was not breathing.
The boy's name I would write so proudly in my journal was leaving me.
Everything had stopped.
Abrupt.
And numbness was welcomed back with heavy arms.
Happiness left me and so did the color in my face.
I was finding out that it wasn't just about him.
Everything left me.
Always.
Everyone I ever loved would leave me.
A disappearing act that I couldn't seem to solve.
And I was fading away too.
My bed would make way for my tired bones but it never would give me rest.
I was terrified of sleep.
Nightmares were my normalcy only for me to be left over and over again.
An endless cycle.
An echo.
Everyone would tell me that a day would come.
That I would eventually smile again.
Eventually wasn't enough.
Every piece of advice given to me was thrown into the garbage.
No amount of words could take away my grief.
But everyone would keep at me.
Poking.
Prodding.
Telling me that I'm loved.
Loved by them. Loved by God.
They would never let up.
I was so far away but these people that I never before thought twice about cared when I didn't.
If I couldn't help myself, they would do it for me- even with my kicking and screaming.
In my vacancy, Stephanie wrote me a letter.
The kind of letter you keep in your memory box on your bedside table.
Sarah-
As I was praying for you, God gave me a picture of you in the middle of an ocean on a tiny boat. The waves were crashing against you, getting bigger and bigger and more violent. You felt helpless and insecure until you called out to the Lord and immediately He calmed the waves.
Then I saw another picture of God in the sky and you reaching up for Him but not being able to touch Him. I heard Him say this- "I want Sarah to see Me as her Daddy. Im as close to her as the skin on her bones but she doesn't believe I love her as much as I do. All she needs is to accept My unconditional, uncontrollable love for her and she will see how truly close I am. I want her to let Me open her eyes and her heart to My Fathers heart for her. She just doesn't realize how irrevocably I adore her because she is my girl! All she has to do is fall into My open arms and accept My affection and let Me tell her how amazing she is. Thats how easy it is to be filled with My joy. I want to be everything to her. I want to show her how crazy fun it is to have a dad like Me. I want to fulfill her wildest dreams and go above and beyond her wildest expectations. All she has to do is let Me! I want to take Sarah on adventures she's never dreamt shed get to do in her lifetime. I'm so jealous for her whole heart. I know her and there isn't a part of her I don't love."
Everyone that I felt had disappeared, my friends, my family- slowly began to reappear.
One by one.
My breaths became lighter and my strides became longer.
This painfully slow year of sadness was transforming into a fast year of hope.
Always a word thats definition was unknown to me.
When I thought all had left me, He was closer than He had ever been.
He was here with me.
Under my skin.
The front of my mind.
In my being.
He was here- all 365 days
He was doing it for me.
So I began praising Him.
Praising Him for aches and numbness.
Because I have overcome it.
He sent the enemy running away screaming.
___________
But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.
Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"
HE is my provider.
Thank you to everyone that has supported me.
I love you all.
Loss
- iSkye Silverweb
Chaos. Disorder. Nothing makes sense.
Lost my place in a blink, like that.
Reality sinks in, just a bit.
My loved one is not coming back.
Colours fade around me, food is tasteless to me.
Sunlight feels like a memory of last year.
But seeing his toy, his favourite cup -
and I burst into uncontrollable tears.
There's this hole at my feet, I wonder
If I fall into this, how far to escape
the crippling shock of OH MY GOD
this should not be his fate!
A hand squeezes mine, eyes meeting mine
words show on my screen, "All ok?"
Stepping back from the void, emotion devoid,
Typing, "I'm fine," saying "I just need another day."
Visit this location at The Colours of Loss and Healing in Second Life
I once staggered out of the Art School, a nightclub which sits at the top of this hill, and accidentally managed to pick up a bit of speed while walking down towards Sauchiehall Street (this photograph doesn't do justice to just how steep this hill is, but anyone who knows it will understand what happens when you pick up speed on it.) Despite my best efforts to slow down, and the generosity of a man who was walking up the hill who stuck his arm out for me to grab, I was running at full speed towards the bottom. I thought that I might be able to keep my balance if I kept running straight while I slowed down again, but that plan was thwarted by a passing taxi. It didn't hit me, but I had to swerve quickly. I was thrown off my feet and forward(!) rolled across the road, landing outstretched in front of the brightly lit window of the kilt shop you can see on the right hand side. My jacket and trousers were ripped and my glasses had been thrown off my face, but most worrying to me was the fact that the D700 was on my shoulder the whole time. Miraculously, and a testament to the incredible build quality of the camera, it came away with only a few scratches.
Another time, the one working brake on my bicycle snapped while I was cycling down the other side of the hill. My thought process probably went something like "Ach, what a nuisance... hang on a minute, this could be dangerous...oh fuck, I'm going to die!!" Flying towards West Graham Street, a fairly busy road on which an uncontrollably speeding cyclist might be killed by a passing car, I had no choice but to turn at full speed into some railings, which ruined the front wheel of the bike, as well as my right foot and trainer which got caught under it. A motorist who saw it all got out of his car and helped me up.
I've moving away from this area at the end of this month. I'll miss being right in the city centre, and only a stone's throw away from Nice'n'Sleazy, but I won't miss walking up and down this bloody hill.
Glasgow, 2011.
Sunset at Folly Beach County Park
Charleston County, Lowcountry South Carolina
Accessed via West Ashley Avenue
Date taken: March 23, 2014
Unsigned prints are available for purchase at Fine Art America.
Website & Social Media Links: Facebook | Website | Google+
Author and photographer, David duChemin often speaks of the two disparate worlds of photography as that of art and commerce, each largely different in approach and execution. I can say that the business side of photography has been really tough for me personally. After the initial flurry of activity occurs--you become a business, get all of your licenses, open appropriate bank accounts, grab a line of credit, put together a website, begin social marketing networks, get nailed with your first quarterly estimated tax payment, etc. etc.--it sinks in that this is going to be a long-term venture if at all, and the odds of success are stacked against you. I started out spending much of my time dependent upon and apprehensive about uncontrollable elements like the weather or the will of the buying public. Monthly bills come without prejudice and my photographs were selling without the same consistency or frequency as said bills--one photo here, one photo there, a license one day, a potential publication the next. There is a lot of pressure to begin shooting for market; adjusting your subject and travel schedule to be more in line with what you think might sell, someone else might want, what a magazine could use in their annual schedule. Decisions begin to slant more and more towards this end and less and less towards the thoughtless meandering in the woods that got you into the industry in the first place. Opportunities abound all around you--art shows on the weekends, creative marketing pieces that you could create with expensive Photoshop products, fancy websites and blogs that could generate interest and new markets--but how do you get ahead far enough to afford the capital to take advantage of them: the monthly recurring costs of new software on the cloud or the one-time expenses to print and display professionally at a show.
But then, you take a walk on the beach with the camera; or up a boulder-strewn trail in the mountains; or through a path of wildflowers, and it all makes sense, at least for me. I ground myself outside; on the best of days I manage to tap into the rhythms of nature. My thoughts become less cluttered, my purpose in life or business or in the eyes of peers, friends, family, less important, my ability to engage with the surroundings stronger and clearer. In some new-age garbligook I guess it is akin to meditation. I repeat this process almost daily. It starts with the morning check on social media networks and business earnings/expenses; addressing e-mails and inquires if present. The apprehension builds--will I make enough this month; can I afford gas to travel to the locations necessary; am I doing the right thing etc. etc.. Then, almost regardless of what the conditions are outside, every morning and evening I put on my pack and grab my tripod and take a walk down a trail somewhere. I know that all the concerns of life and career will bear down again when I return, but for that little bit of time when I'm on the trail, or feet in the sand on the beach, crouching in a tidal pool watching the sunset reflect in the calm waters, it all makes sense and my choices are validated. It doesn't last long, and the feeling is often attacked by invading thoughts when a tripod breaks, or the car makes an odd sound, or a pain develops in my knee, but the moments of peace are enough. And it's why I do this thing: to be outside, to find beauty in the world, to convey it the best I can. When it's all said and done, I aspire to provide solid, honest, and consistent content, both visual and written. That is within my control. The rest...well, I'll just do my best to let that stuff lie where it may.
Space Sector 666: Planet Ryut, 1990
"Yasiim!" echoed a deep, yet weakened voice. Out of the dust and debris walked a man with pure red skin, wearing black pants. "Uluva! Pendia! Call if you can hear me!" Atros, a psychologist of the planet Ryut, cried to his family, hoping, begging, for a response. It was all he could do.
It was a normal day. He had just left his office, when the sky began to cry, cry tears of fire. The robots, red and blue in color, crashed into the city of Crymzun. Cries and screams began to echo, almost as if it filled the streets. The blood… the blood is what truly filled the streets.
The robots, weapons in hand, butchered the innocent. Limbs torn, bodies blown apart… it was an absolute genocide.
Atros sprinted through the streets, passing the mutilated bodies of his people. They didn't matter, he had to find his wife and daughters. It's what he kept repeating to himself. He saw friends, colleagues… butchered before his very eyes. His goal was all that mattered. His family was all that mattered.
"Yasiim!" his voice bellowed out once again, his legs tired from running for almost 20 minutes straight. He avoided the robots, praying to find his family. He had to pray, hope was all he had.
It was all he had. That flicker of light left him as he came across impaled heads on pikes. The smaller light that left his eye, the flicker of hope that everything would be fine, was replaced with something else. No longer a spark of hope, but an inferno blazing with hatred.
And he screamed. Screamed because he was angry. Screamed because the love of his life and his children were nothing but mutilated corpses in front of him. He dropped to his knees in front of the pikes, his hands hurrying themselves in the sand.
This. This was the birth of true, uncontrollable rage. He knew it. He also knew that vengeance would be his.
Space Sector 666: Planet Ysmault, 1990
"Are you sure you wish to do this, Commander?" asked the second in command of the Empire of Tears, his face bearing worry.
In the center of a pentagram sat Atros, the sole surviving member of the planet Ryut. At each point of the star, stood a member of the Empire, all but one. On the remaining point was a black bowl filled with blood belonging to each of them.
"Start the ritual," commanded Atros, leaving no room for debate.
As the order was ushered, the other four members began to chant various phrases of ancient magic. Atros closed his eyes, the feeling of his blood cooling down a sign of success.
That's when his world went black.
Images began to flash through his mind, like a film reel.
An Indigo colored Lantern locked hands with another Lantern, Blue in color.
A Lantern in Yellow and a Green Lantern, both clad in capes, dueled with Atros himself, bearing some sort of red ring.
An Orange Lantern's blade collided with that of a Star Sapphire, both fighting for their lives.
Then the final image appeared, a reaper, bearing a scythe as black as the night itself. In front of him was a normal sized man, his skin gray and worn.
"The Blackest Night, falls from the skies.
The darkness grows, as all light dies.
We crave your hearts, and your demise.
By my Black Hand, the dead shall rise."
The vision ended, Atros panting and gasping for air. The sounds of the other members filled his ears, but none of the words were legible. Only one thing was on his mind.
"Black…. Hand…."
Space Sector 2814, 1991
"I only wish to know who you saw," spoke the low voice of Abin Sur, who currently was interrogating the red terrorist. "This could spell the death of all things, even you."
The small cell on his space shuttle was currently occupied by Atros, the leader of the Empire of Tears. His arms were folded in his lap, his eyes staring at the pink man.
"Please, Atros," Abin requested, sincerity riddling his voice. "If this vision you see is true, then you may be the key to saving our universe."
Atros' eyes narrowed, staring at the pink man in front of him. "Hand," he spoke, informing the other man. "Black Hand is all that I know of."
Abin nodded, turning from the cell to the main console. "Aya," he started, activating the A.I of the ship, "Scan Terra's life forms for any notable references of 'Black Hand'."
Atros knew it was his time. Sliding a small device from his sleeve, the press of a button caused a small explosion. Abin turned his head to see an empty cell. Before he could make an attempt to fight, a blade pierced through his abdomen.
Atros stood in front of him, a scowl present in his face. "The Blackest Night will arrive… and it will bring justice to those who were wrongfully punished." Abin stared at the malice filled eyes of the other man.
As the blade slipped from his abdomen, Abin stumbled to the console, only to feel a large hand on his shoulder. Abin was pushed aside, thrown into the floor with force. The sound of hands slamming against the console filled the ship, Atros repeating the motion until it was a mess of metal.
"Atros…" called out Abin, his hand raised. Atros turned his head to view the weakened man. "You will be one of them. One of those who ward off the Blackest Night."
Atros ignored the words, opting to crouch in front of the Lantern. "I will never aid your kind," he spewed, spitting in the face of man. "The blood of my family should be enough to prove it."
Atros stepped to the small escape pod on the ship, typing in coordinates. Ysmault, the home of the Empire of Tears. He gave one last glance at Abin before pressing the button on the console, sending himself back to his empire.
Space Sector 666: Planet Yasmult, 1995
"With blood and rage, crimson red."
The sound of a hammer pounding into metal is heard throughout the caves of Ysmault.
"Ripped from a corpse, so freshly dead."
The sparks flew from the red metal, the shape being a tall, yet lean lantern.
"Together, with our hellish hate."
The lantern was placed down, seemingly beginning to glow. A small ring floated from the center of the lantern.
"We'll burn you all."
The ring floated itself to the large red finger of its creator. Sliding itself on, a burst of red energy surged from the lantern. As the light dimmed, the smith stood tall. His body was covered in black and red armor, blood dripping from his hands and mouth.
"That is your fate!"
Mirit Ben-Nun’s art exists within and beyond reality. She moves away from reality with aggressive and dense colorfulness which reveals an inner testimony of a threatened existence of women. The lines, points and shapes do not reproduce facts but emphasize the special charge of emotional coping.
Mirit Ben-Nun shows a rebellious spirit and tries to reach out to things not through wholeness but via searching for their expression and manifestation.
She explores personal identity and through it tries to define a complementary art, thereby illustrating the world and the nature of human culture. She focuses on the expressive dimension because of the exposure afforded by the uncontrollable moment that so much affects life in a rapidly changing global world.
The discourse between the inner world and the emerging reality is hyperactive and generates in Ben - Nun an endless sequence of works.
From the depths of feelings, dreams, anxieties and expressions arise rigid and exciting meanings of existence whose essence expresses restlessness and lack of adaptation.
Dora Woda
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη, often referred to internationally as Thessalonica or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace.[3][4] Its honorific title is Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa), literally "co-capital",[5] and stands as a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Symvasilévousa) or "co-reigning" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople.[6]
According to the preliminary results of the 2011 census, the municipality of Thessaloniki today has a population of 322,240,[1] while the Thessaloniki Urban Area (the contiguous built up area forming the "City of Thessaloniki") has a population of 790,824.[1] Furthermore, the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area extends over an area of 1,455.62 km2 (562.02 sq mi) and its population in 2011 reached a total of 1,104,460 inhabitants.[1]
Thessaloniki is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for the rest of southeastern Europe;[7] its commercial port is also of great importance for Greece and the southeastern European hinterland.[7] The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general,[8] and is considered to be Greece's cultural capital.[8] Events such as the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival are held annually, while the city also hosts the largest bi-annual meeting of the Greek diaspora.[9] Thessaloniki is the 2014 European Youth Capital.[10]
Founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, Thessaloniki's history spans some 2,300 years. An important metropolis by the Roman period, Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine monuments, including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as several Roman, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. The city's main university, Aristotle University, is the largest in Greece and the Balkans.[11]
Thessaloniki is a popular tourist destination in Greece. In 2010, Lonely Planet ranked Thessaloniki as the world's fifth-best party city worldwide, comparable to other cities such as Dubai and Montreal.[12] For 2013 National Geographic Magazine included Thessaloniki in its top tourist destinations worldwide,[13] while in 2014 Financial Times FDI magazine (Foreign Direct Investments) declared Thessaloniki as the best mid-sized European city of the future for human capital and lifestyle.
Etymology
All variations of the city's name derive from the original (and current) appellation in Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη (from Θεσσαλός, Thessalos, and Νίκη, Nike), literally translating to "Thessalian Victory". The name of the city came from the name of a princess, Thessalonike of Macedon, half sister of Alexander the Great, so named because of her birth on the day of the Macedonian victory at the Battle of Crocus Field (353/352 BCE).[16]
The alternative name Salonica (or Salonika) derives from the variant form Σαλονίκη (Saloníki) in popular Greek speech, and has given rise to the form of the city's name in several languages. Names in other languages prominent in the city's history include Солѹнь (Solun) in Old Church Slavonic, סלוניקה (Salonika) in Ladino, Selanik (also Selânik) in Turkish (سلانیك in Ottoman Turkish), Solun (also written as Солун) in the local and neighboring South Slavic languages, Салоники (Saloníki) in Russian, and Sãrunã in Aromanian. In local speech, the city's name is typically pronounced with a dark and deep L characteristic of Macedonian Greek accent.[17][18]
The name often appears in writing in the abbreviated form Θεσ/νίκη
History
From antiquity to the Roman Empire
The city was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon, on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and 26 other local villages.[20] He named it after his wife Thessalonike,[21] a half-sister of Alexander the Great and princess of Macedon as daughter of Philip II. Under the kingdom of Macedon the city retained its own autonomy and parliament[22] and evolved to become the most important city in Macedon.[21]
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, Thessalonica became a free city of the Roman Republic under Mark Antony in 41 BC.[21][23] It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the Via Egnatia,[24] the road connecting Dyrrhachium with Byzantium,[25] which facilitated trade between Thessaloniki and great centers of commerce such as Rome and Byzantium.[26] Thessaloniki also lay at the southern end of the main north-south route through the Balkans along the valleys of the Morava and Axios river valleys, thereby linking the Balkans with the rest of Greece.[27] The city later became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia.[24] Later it became the capital of all the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire due to the city's importance in the Balkan peninsula. When the Roman Empire was divided into the tetrarchy, Thessaloniki became the administrative capital of one of the four portions of the Empire under Galerius Maximianus Caesar,[28][29] where Galerius commissioned an imperial palace, a new hippodrome, a triumphal arch and a mausoleum among others.[29][30][31]
In 379 when the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the East and West Roman Empires, Thessaloniki became the capital of the new Prefecture of Illyricum.[24] In 390 Gothic troops under the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, led a massacre against the inhabitants of Thessalonica, who had risen in revolt against the Germanic soldiers. With the Fall of Rome in 476, Thessaloniki became the second-largest city of the Eastern Roman Empire.[26] Around the time of the Roman Empire Thessaloniki was also an important center for the spread of Christianity; some scholars hold that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians written by Paul the Apostle is the first written book of the New Testament.
Byzantine era and Middle Ages
From the first years of the Byzantine Empire, Thessaloniki was considered the second city in the Empire after Constantinople,[33][34][35] both in terms of wealth and size.[33] with an population of 150,000 in the mid 1100s.[36] The city held this status until it was transferred to Venice in 1423. In the 14th century the city's population exceeded 100,000 to 150,000,[37][38][39] making it larger than London at the time.[40]
During the 6th and 7th centuries the area around Thessaloniki was invaded by Avars and Slavs, who unsuccessfully laid siege to the city several times.[41] Traditional historiography stipulates that many Slavs settled in the hinterland of Thessaloniki,[42] however, this migration was allegedly on a much smaller scale than previously thought.[42][42][43] In the 9th century, the Byzantine Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius, both natives of the city, created the first literary language of the Slavs, the Glagolic alphabet, most likely based on the Slavic dialect used in the hinterland of their hometown.[44][45][46][47][48]
An Arab naval attack in 904 resulted in the sack of the city.[49] The economic expansion of the city continued through the 12th century as the rule of the Komnenoi emperors expanded Byzantine control to the north. Thessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204,[50] when Constantinople was captured by the forces of the Fourth Crusade and incorporated the city and its surrounding territories in the Kingdom of Thessalonica[51] — which then became the largest vassal of the Latin Empire. In 1224, the Kingdom of Thessalonica was overrun by the Despotate of Epirus, a remnant of the former Byzantine Empire, under Theodore Komnenos Doukas who crowned himself Emperor,[52] and the city became the Despotat's capital.[52][53] This era of the Despotate of Epirus is also known as the Empire of Thessalonica.[52][54][55] Following his defeat at Klokotnitsa however in 1230,[52][54] the Empire of Thessalonica became a vassal state of the Second Bulgarian Empire until it was recovered again in 1246, this time by the Nicaean Empire.[52] In 1342,[56] the city saw the rise of the Commune of the Zealots, an anti-aristocratic party formed of sailors and the poor,[57] which is nowadays described as social-revolutionary.[56] The city was practically independent of the rest of the Empire,[56][57][58] as it had its own government, a form of republic.[56] The zealot movement was overthrown in 1350 and the city was reunited with the rest of the Empire.[56]
In 1423, Despot Andronicus, who was in charge of the city, ceded it to the Republic of Venice with the hope that it could be protected from the Ottomans who were besieging the city (there is no evidence to support the oft-repeated story that he sold the city to them). The Venetians held Thessaloniki until it was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II on 29 March 1430.
Ottoman period
When Sultan Murad II captured Thessaloniki and sacked it in 1430, contemporary reports estimated that about one-fifth of the city's population was enslaved.[60] Upon the conquest of Thessaloniki, some of its inhabitants escaped,[61] including intellectuals such as Theodorus Gaza "Thessalonicensis" and Andronicus Callistus.[62] However, the change of sovereignty from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman one did not affect the city's prestige as a major imperial city and trading hub.[63][64] Thessaloniki and Smyrna, although smaller in size than Constantinople, were the Ottoman Empire's most important trading hubs.[63] Thessaloniki's importance was mostly in the field of shipping,[63] but also in manufacturing,[64] while most of the city's trade was controlled by ethnic Greeks.[63]
During the Ottoman period, the city's population of mainly Greek Jews and Ottoman Muslims (including those of Turkish and Albanian, as well as Bulgarian Muslim and Greek Muslim convert origin) grew substantially. By 1478 Selânik (سلانیك), as the city came to be known in Ottoman Turkish, had a population of 4,320 Muslims, 6,094 Greek Orthodox and some Catholics, but no Jews. Soon after the turn of the 15th to 16th century, nearly 20,000 Sephardic Jews had immigrated to Greece from Spain following their expulsion by the 1492 Alhambra Decree.[65] By c. 1500, the numbers had grown to 7,986 Greeks, 8,575 Muslims, and 3,770 Jews. By 1519, Sephardic Jews numbered 15,715, 54% of the city's population. Some historians consider the Ottoman regime's invitation to Jewish settlement was a strategy to prevent the ethnic Greek population (Eastern Orthodox Christians) from dominating the city.[38]
Thessaloniki was the capital of the Sanjak of Selanik within the wider Rumeli Eyalet (Balkans)[66] until 1826, and subsequently the capital of Selanik Eyalet (after 1867, the Selanik Vilayet).[67][68] This consisted of the sanjaks of Selanik, Serres and Drama between 1826 and 1912.[69] Thessaloniki was also a Janissary stronghold where novice Janissaries were trained. In June 1826, regular Ottoman soldiers attacked and destroyed the Janissary base in Thessaloniki while also killing over 10,000 Janissaries, an event known as The Auspicious Incident in Ottoman history.[70] From 1870, driven by economic growth, the city's population expanded by 70%, reaching 135,000 in 1917.[71]
The last few decades of Ottoman control over the city were an era of revival, particularly in terms of the city's infrastructure. It was at that time that the Ottoman administration of the city acquired an "official" face with the creation of the Command Post[72] while a number of new public buildings were built in the eclectic style in order to project the European face both of Thessaloniki and the Ottoman Empire.[72][73] The city walls were torn down between 1869 and 1889,[74] efforts for a planned expansion of the city are evident as early as 1879,[75] the first tram service started in 1888[76] and the city streets were illuminated with electric lamp posts in 1908.[77] In 1888 Thessaloniki was connected to Central Europe via rail through Belgrade, Monastir in 1893 and Constantinople in 1896.
Since the 20th century
In the early 20th century, Thessaloniki was in the center of radical activities by various groups; the Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, founded in 1897,[78] and the Greek Macedonian Committee, founded in 1903.[79] In 1903 an anarchist group known as the Boatmen of Thessaloniki planted bombs in several buildings in Thessaloniki, including the Ottoman Bank, with some assistance from the IMRO. The Greek consulate in Ottoman Thessaloniki (now the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle) served as the center of operations for the Greek guerillas. In 1908 the Young Turks movement broke out in the city, sparking the Young Turk Revolution.[80]
The Ottoman Feth-i Bülend being sunk in Thessaloniki in 1912 by a Greek ship during the First Balkan War.
Constantine I of Greece with George I of Greece and the Greek army enter the city.
As the First Balkan War broke out, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire and expanded its borders. When Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister at the time, was asked if the Greek army should move towards Thessaloniki or Monastir (now Bitola, Republic of Macedonia), Venizelos replied "Salonique à tout prix!" (Thessaloniki, at all costs!).[81] As both Greece and Bulgaria wanted Thessaloniki, the Ottoman garrison of the city entered negotiations with both armies.[82] On 8 November 1912 (26 October Old Style), the feast day of the city's patron saint, Saint Demetrius, the Greek Army accepted the surrender of the Ottoman garrison at Thessaloniki.[83] The Bulgarian army arrived one day after the surrender of the city to Greece and Tahsin Pasha, ruler of the city, told the Bulgarian officials that "I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered".[82] After the Second Balkan War, Thessaloniki and the rest of the Greek portion of Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.[84] On 18 March 1913 George I of Greece was assassinated in the city by Alexandros Schinas.[85]
In 1915, during World War I, a large Allied expeditionary force established a base at Thessaloniki for operations against pro-German Bulgaria.[86] This culminated in the establishment of the Macedonian Front, also known as the Salonika Front.[87][88] In 1916, pro-Venizelist Greek army officers and civilians, with the support of the Allies, launched an uprising,[89] creating a pro-Allied[90] temporary government by the name of the "Provisional Government of National Defence"[89][91] that controlled the "New Lands" (lands that were gained by Greece in the Balkan Wars, most of Northern Greece including Greek Macedonia, the North Aegean as well as the island of Crete);[89][91] the official government of the King in Athens, the "State of Athens",[89] controlled "Old Greece"[89][91] which were traditionally monarchist. The State of Thessaloniki was disestablished with the unification of the two opposing Greek governments under Venizelos, following the abdication of King Constantine in 1917.[86][91]
The 1st Battalion of the National Defence army marches on its way to the front.
Aerial picture of the Great Fire of 1917.
Most of the old center of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, which started accidentally by an unattended kitchen fire on 18 August 1917.[92] The fire swept through the centre of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless; according to the Pallis Report, most of them were Jewish (50,000). Many businesses were destroyed, as a result, 70% of the population were unemployed.[92] Also a number of religious structures of the three major faiths were lost. Nearly one-quarter of the total population of approximately 271,157 became homeless.[92] Following the fire the government prohibited quick rebuilding, so it could implement the new redesign of the city according to the European-style urban plan[6] prepared by a group of architects, including the Briton Thomas Mawson, and headed by French architect Ernest Hébrard.[92] Property values fell from 6.5 million Greek drachmas to 750,000.[93]
After the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War and during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, a population exchange took place between Greece and Turkey.[90] Over 160,000 ethnic Greeks deported from the former Ottoman Empire were resettled in the city,[90] changing its demographics. Additionally many of the city's Muslims were deported to Turkey, ranging at about 20,000 people.[94]
During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy (with 232 people dead, 871 wounded and over 800 buildings damaged or destroyed in November 1940 alone),[95] and, the Italians having failed to succeed in their invasion of Greece, it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 8 April 1941[96] and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944 when it was liberated by the Greek People's Liberation Army.[97] The Nazis soon forced the Jewish residents into a ghetto near the railroads and on 15 March 1943 began the deportation process of the city's 56,000 Jews to its concentration camps.[98][99] They deported over 43,000 of the city's Jews in concentration camps,[98] where most were killed in the gas chambers. The Germans also deported 11,000 Jews to forced labor camps, where most perished.[100] Only 1,200 Jews live in the city today.
Part of Eleftherias Square during the Axis occupation.
The importance of Thessaloniki to Nazi Germany can be demonstrated by the fact that, initially, Hitler had planned to incorporate it directly in the Third Reich[101] (that is, make it part of Germany) and not have it controlled by a puppet state such as the Hellenic State or an ally of Germany (Thessaloniki had been promised to Yugoslavia as a reward for joining the Axis on 25 March 1941).[102] Having been the first major city in Greece to fall to the occupying forces just two days after the German invasion, it was in Thessaloniki that the first Greek resistance group was formed (under the name «Ελευθερία», Eleftheria, "Freedom")[103] as well as the first anti-Nazi newspaper in an occupied territory anywhere in Europe,[104] also by the name Eleftheria. Thessaloniki was also home to a military camp-converted-concentration camp, known in German as "Konzentrationslager Pavlo Mela" (Pavlos Melas Concentration Camp),[105] where members of the resistance and other non-favourable people towards the German occupation from all over Greece[105] were held either to be killed or sent to concentration camps elsewhere in Europe.[105] In the 1946 monarchy referendum, the majority of the locals voted in favour of a republic, contrary to the rest of Greece.[106]
After the war, Thessaloniki was rebuilt with large-scale development of new infrastructure and industry throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of its architectural treasures still remain, adding value to the city as a tourist destination, while several early Christian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988.[107] In 1997, Thessaloniki was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture,[108] sponsoring events across the city and the region. Agency established to oversee the cultural activities of that year 1997 was still in existence by 2010.[109] In 2004 the city hosted a number of the football events as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics.[110]
Today Thessaloniki has become one of the most important trade and business hubs in Southeastern Europe, with its port, the Port of Thessaloniki being one of the largest in the Aegean and facilitating trade throughout the Balkan hinterland.[7] On 26 October 2012 the city celebrated its centennial since its incorporation into Greece.[111] The city also forms one of the largest student centres in Southeastern Europe, is host to the largest student population in Greece and will be the European Youth Capital in 2014
Geography
Geology
Thessaloniki lies on the northern fringe of the Thermaic Gulf on its eastern coast and is bound by Mount Chortiatis on its southeast. Its proximity to imposing mountain ranges, hills and fault lines, especially towards its southeast have historically made the city prone to geological changes.
Since medieval times, Thessaloniki was hit by strong earthquakes, notably in 1759, 1902, 1978 and 1995.[113] On 19–20 June 1978, the city suffered a series of powerful earthquakes, registering 5.5 and 6.5 on the Richter scale.[114][115] The tremors caused considerable damage to a number of buildings and ancient monuments,[114] but the city withstood the catastrophe without any major problems.[115] One apartment building in central Thessaloniki collapsed during the second earthquake, killing many, raising the final death toll to 51.[114][115]
Climate
Thessaloniki's climate is directly affected by the sea it is situated on.[116] The city lies in a transitional climatic zone, so its climate displays characteristics of several climates. According to the Köppen climate classification, it is a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) that borders on a semi-arid climate (BSk), with annual average precipitation of 450 millimetres (18 in) due to the Pindus rain shadow drying the westerly winds. However, the city has a summer precipitation between 20 to 30 millimetres (0.79 to 1.18 in), which borders it close to a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa).
Winters are relatively dry, with common morning frost. Snowfalls are sporadic, but οccur more or less every winter, but the snow cover does not last for more than a few days. Fog is common, with an average of 193 foggy days in a year.[117] During the coldest winters, temperatures can drop to −10 °C (14 °F).[117] The record minimum temperature in Thessaloniki was −14 °C (7 °F).[118] On average, Thessaloniki experiences frost (sub-zero temperature) 32 days a year.[117] The coldest month of the year in the city is January, with an average 24-hour temperature of 6 °C (43 °F).[119] Wind is also usual in the winter months, with December and January having an average wind speed of 26 km/h (16 mph).[117]
Thessaloniki's summers are hot with rather humid nights.[117] Maximum temperatures usually rise above 30 °C (86 °F),[117] but rarely go over 40 °C (104 °F);[117] the average number of days the temperature is above 32 °C (90 °F) is 32.[117] The maximum recorded temperature in the city was 42 °C (108 °F).[117][118] Rain seldom falls in summer, mainly during thunderstorms. In the summer months Thessaloniki also experiences strong heat waves.[120] The hottest month of the year in the city is July, with an average 24-hour temperature of 26 °C (79 °F).[119] The average wind speed for June and July in Thessaloniki is 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph)
Government
According to the Kallikratis reform, as of 1 January 2011 the Thessaloniki Urban Area (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Θεσσαλονίκης) which makes up the "City of Thessaloniki", is made up of six self-governing municipalities (Greek: Δήμοι) and one municipal unit (Greek: Δημοτική ενότητα). The municipalities that are included in the Thessaloniki Urban Area are those of Thessaloniki (the city center and largest in population size), Kalamaria, Neapoli-Sykies, Pavlos Melas, Kordelio-Evosmos, Ampelokipoi-Menemeni, and the municipal unit of Pylaia, part of the municipality of Pylaia-Chortiatis. Prior to the Kallikratis reform, the Thessaloniki Urban Area was made up of twice as many municipalities, considerably smaller in size, which created bureaucratic problems.[123]
Thessaloniki Municipality
The municipality of Thessaloniki (Greek: Δήμος Θεσαλονίκης) is the second most populous in Greece, after Athens, with a population of 322,240[1] people (in 2011) and an area of 17.832 km2 (7 sq mi). The municipality forms the core of the Thessaloniki Urban Area, with its central district (the city center), referred to as the Kentro, meaning 'center' or 'downtown'.
The institution of mayor of Thessaloniki was inaugurated under the Ottoman Empire, in 1912. The first mayor of Thessaloniki was Osman Sait Bey, while the current mayor of the municipality of Thessaloniki is Yiannis Boutaris. In 2011, the municipality of Thessaloniki had a budget of €464.33 million[124] while the budget of 2012 stands at €409.00 million.[125]
According to an article in The New York Times, the way in which the present mayor of Thessaloniki is treating the city's debt and oversized administration problems could be used as an example by Greece's central government for a successful strategy in dealing with these problems.[126]
Other
Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece. It is an influential city for the northern parts of the country and is the capital of the region of Central Macedonia and the Thessaloniki regional unit. The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is also based in Thessaloniki, being that the city is the de facto capital of the Greek region of Macedonia.
It is customary every year for the Prime Minister of Greece to announce his administration's policies on a number of issues, such as the economy, at the opening night of the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair. In 2010, during the first months of the 2010 Greek debt crisis, the entire cabinet of Greece met in Thessaloniki to discuss the country's future.[127]
In the Hellenic Parliament, the Thessaloniki urban area constitutes a 16-seat constituency. As of the national elections of 17 June 2012 the largest party in Thessaloniki is New Democracy with 27.8%, followed by the Coalition of the Radical Left (27.0%) and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (10.2%).[128] The table below summarizes the results of the latest elections.
Cityscape
Architecture
Architecture in Thessaloniki is the direct result of the city's position at the centre of all historical developments in the Balkans. Aside from its commercial importance, Thessaloniki was also for many centuries the military and administrative hub of the region, and beyond this the transportation link between Europe and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel / Palestine). Merchants, traders and refugees from all over Europe settled in the city. The need for commercial and public buildings in this new era of prosperity led to the construction of large edifices in the city center. During this time, the city saw the building of banks, large hotels, theatres, warehouses, and factories. Architects who designed some of the most notable buildings of the city, in the late 19th and early 20th century, include Vitaliano Poselli, Pietro Arrigoni, Xenophon Paionidis, Eli Modiano, Moshé Jacques, Jean Joseph Pleyber, Frederic Charnot, Ernst Ziller, Roubens Max, Levi Ernst, Angelos Siagas and others, using mainly the styles of Eclecticism and Art Nouveau.
The city layout changed after 1870, when the seaside fortifications gave way to extensive piers, and many of the oldest walls of the city were demolished, including those surrounding the White Tower, which today stands as the main landmark of the city. As parts of the early Byzantine walls were demolished, this allowed the city to expand east and west along the coast.[129]
The expansion of Eleftherias Square towards the sea completed the new commercial hub of the city and at the time was considered one of the most vibrant squares of the city. As the city grew, workers moved to the western districts, due to their proximity to factories and industrial activities; while the middle and upper classes gradually moved from the city-center to the eastern suburbs, leaving mainly businesses. In 1917, a devastating fire swept through the city and burned uncontrollably for 32 hours.[71] It destroyed the city's historic center and a large part of its architectural heritage, but paved the way for modern development and allowed Thessaloniki the development of a proper European city center, featuring wider diagonal avenues and monumental squares; which the city initially lacked – much of what was considered to be 'essential' in European architecture.
City Center
After the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, a team of architects and urban planners including Thomas Mawson and Ernest Hebrard, a French architect, chose the Byzantine era as the basis of their (re)building designs for Thessaloniki's city center. The new city plan included axes, diagonal streets and monumental squares, with a street grid that would channel traffic smoothly. The plan of 1917 included provisions for future population expansions and a street and road network that would be, and still is sufficient today.[71] It contained sites for public buildings and provided for the restoration of Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques.
The Metropolitan Church of Saint Gregory Palamas, designed by Ernst Ziller.
Today the city center of Thessaloniki includes the features designed as part of the plan and forms the point in the city where most of the public buildings, historical sites, entertainment venues and stores are located. The center is characterized by its many historical buildings, arcades, laneways and distinct architectural styles such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which can be seen on many of its buildings.
Also called the historic center, it is divided into several districts, of which include Ladadika (where many entertainment venues and tavernas are located), Kapani (were the city's central city market is located), Diagonios, Navarinou, Rotonta, Agia Sofia and Ippodromio (white tower), which are all located around Thessaloniki's most central point, Aristotelous Square.
The west point of the city center is home to Thessaloniki's law courts, its central international railway station and the port, while on its eastern side stands the city's two universities, the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Center, the city's main stadium, its archaeological and Byzantine museums, the new city hall and its central parklands and gardens, namely those of the ΧΑΝΘ/Palios Zoologikos Kipos and Pedio tou Areos. The central road arteries that pass through the city center, designed in the Ernest Hebrard plan, include those of Tsimiski, Egnatia, Nikis, Mitropoleos, Venizelou and St. Demetrius avenues.
Ano Poli
Ano Poli (also called Old Town and literally the Upper Town) is the heritage listed district north of Thessaloniki's city center that was not engulfed by the great fire of 1917 and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by ministerial actions of Melina Merkouri, during the 1980s. It consists of Thessaloniki's most traditional part of the city, still featuring small stone paved streets, old squares and homes featuring old Greek and Ottoman architecture.
Ano Poli also, is the highest point in Thessaloniki and as such, is the location of the city's acropolis, its Byzantine fort, the Heptapyrgion, a large portion of the city's remaining walls, and with many of its additional Ottoman and Byzantine structures still standing. The area provides access to the Seich Sou Forest National Park[131] and features amphitheatric views of the whole city and the Thermaic Gulf. On clear days Mount Olympus, at about 100 km (62 mi) away across the gulf, can also be seen towering the horizon.
Southeastern Thessaloniki up until the 1920s was home to the city's most affluent residents and formed the outermost suburbs of the city at the time, with the area close to the Thermaic Gulf coast called Exoches, from the 19th century holiday villas which defined the area. Today southeastern Thessaloniki has in some way become a natural extension of the city center, with the avenues of Megalou Alexandrou, Georgiou Papandreou (Antheon), Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, Delfon, Konstantinou Karamanli (Nea Egnatia) and Papanastasiou passing through it, enclosing an area traditionally called Dépôt (Ντεπώ), from the name of the old tram station, owned by a French company. The area extends to Kalamaria and Pylaia, about 9 km (5.59 mi) from the White Tower in the city centre.
Some of the most notable mansions and villas of the old-era of the city remain along Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. Built for the most wealthy residents and designed by well known architects they are used today as museums, art galleries or remain as private properties. Some of them include Villa Bianca, Villa Ahmet Kapanci, Villa Modiano, Villa Mordoch, Villa Mehmet Kapanci, Hatzilazarou Mansion, Chateau Mon Bonheur (often called red tower) and others.
Most of southeastern Thessaloniki is characterized by its modern architecture and apartment buildings, home to the middle-class and more than half of the municipality of Thessaloniki population. Today this area of the city is also home to 3 of the city's main football stadiums, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the Posidonio aquatic and athletic complex, the Naval Command post of Northern Greece and the old royal palace (called Palataki), located on the most westerly point of Karabournaki cape. The municipality of Kalamaria is also located in southeastern Thessaloniki and has become this part of the city's most sought after areas, with many open spaces and home to high end bars, cafés and entertainment venues, most notably on Plastira street, along the coast
Northwestern Thessaloniki had always been associated with industry and the working class because as the city grew during the 1920s, many workers had moved there, due to its proximity near factories and industrial activities. Today many factories and industries have been moved further out west and the area is experiencing rapid growth as does the southeast. Many factories in this area have been converted to cultural centres, while past military grounds that are being surrounded by densely built neighborhoods are awaiting transformation into parklands.
Northwest Thessaloniki forms the main entry point into the city of Thessaloniki with the avenues of Monastiriou, Lagkada and 26is Octovriou passing through it, as well as the extension of the A1 motorway, feeding into Thessaloniki's city center. The area is home to the Macedonia InterCity Bus Terminal (KTEL), the Zeitenlik Allied memorial military cemetery and to large entertainment venues of the city, such as Milos, Fix, Vilka (which are housed in converted old factories). Northwestern Thessaloniki is also home to Moni Lazariston, located in Stavroupoli, which today forms one of the most important cultural centers for the city.
Our emotional state of choice is Ecstasy. Our nourishment of choice is Love. Our addiction of choice is technology. Our religion of choice is music. Our currency of choice is knowledge. Our politics of choice is none. Our society of choice is utopian though we know it will never be.
You may hate us. You may dismiss us. You may misunderstand us. You may be unaware of our existence. We can only hope you do not care to judge us, because we would never judge you. We are not criminals. We are not disillusioned. We are not drug addicts. We are not naive children. We are one massive, global, tribal village that transcends man-made law, physical geography, and time itself. We are The Massive. One Massive.
We were first drawn by the sound. From far away, the thunderous, muffled, echoing beat was comparable to a mother's heart soothing a child in her womb of concrete, steel, and electrical wiring. We were drawn back into this womb, and there, in the heat, dampness, and darkness of it, we came to accept that we are all equal. Not only to the darkness, and to ourselves, but to the very music slamming into us and passing through our souls: we are all equal. And somewhere around 35Hz we could feel the hand of God at our backs, pushing us forward, pushing us to push ourselves to strengthen our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. Pushing us to turn to the person beside us to join hands and uplift them by sharing the uncontrollable joy we felt from creating this magical bubble that can, for one evening, protect us from the horrors, atrocities, and pollution of the outside world. It is in that very instant, with these initial realizations that each of us was truly born.
We continue to pack our bodies into clubs, or warehouses, or buildings you've abandoned and left for naught, and we bring life to them for one night. Strong, throbbing, vibrant life in it's purest, most intense, most hedonistic form. In these makeshift spaces, we seek to shed ourselves of the burden of uncertainty for a future you have been unable to stabilize and secure for us. We seek to relinquish our inhibitions, and free ourselves from the shackles and restraints you've put on us for your own peace of mind. We seek to re-write the programming that you have tried to indoctrinate us with since the moment we were born. Programming that tells us to hate, that tells us to judge, that tells us to stuff ourselves into the nearest and most convenient pigeon hole possible. Programming that even tells us to climb ladders for you, jump through hoops, and run through mazes and on hamster wheels. Programming that tells us to eat from the shiny silver spoon you are trying to feed us with, instead of nourish ourselves with our own capable hands. Programming that tells us to close our minds, instead of open them.
Until the sun rises to burn our eyes by revealing the distopian reality of a world you've created for us, we dance fiercely with our brothers and sisters in celebration of our life, of our culture, and of the values we believe in: Peace, Love, Freedom, Tolerance, Unity, Harmony, Expression, Responsibility and Respect.
Our enemy of choice is ignorance. Our weapon of choice is information. Our crime of choice is breaking and challenging whatever laws you feel you need to put in place to stop us from celebrating our existence. But know that while you may shut down any given party, on any given night, in any given city, in any given country or continent on this beautiful planet, you can never shut down the entire party. You don't have access to that switch, no matter what you may think. The music will never stop. The heartbeat will never fade. The party will never end.
I am a raver, and this is my manifesto.