Plot.

Picking up a couple of years after, Tommy Jarvis, who killed mass murderer Jason Voorhees, returns to Crystal Lake, now renamed Forest Green, after being released from the mental institution. Tommy, still suffering from hallucinations ever since with Jason, arrives with his friend Allen Hawes during a thunderstorm, hoping to cremate Jason's body and finally end his hallucinations once and for all. At the cemetery, they exhume Jason's corpse but seeing it causes Tommy to have an audio flashback to killing Jason, and he stabs Jason's body with a metal fence post. As he turns his back on Jason, two lightning bolts strike the post and revive Jason as an immortal revenant. Jason then kills Hawes with a punch through the heart and retrieves the hockey mask Tommy brought with him.  Tommy flees to the sheriff's office to warn the police of Jason's return, but he is caught and arrested. His warning that Jason has returned goes unheeded by Sheriff Mike Garris. The sheriff, who is aware of Tommy's institutionalization and thinks he is imagining Jason, locks Tommy in a cell. On the road, camp counselors Darren Robinson and Lizabeth Mott get lost looking for the camp. They are killed by Jason, who impales them both with the metal rod that resurrected him.  The following morning, Garris' daughter Megan and her friends Sissy Baker, Cort Andrews, and Paula Mott arrive to report Darren and Lizabeth missing. Tommy warns them about Jason, but as he is now considered an urban legend, they ignore the warnings, though Megan becomes attracted to him. In the woods, Jason happens upon a corporate paintball game; he kills the players for their equipment. During these kills, Jason discovers that he is far stronger than before when he rips off a man's arm.  At Camp Forest Green, the children arrive, and the teens do their best to run the camp without Darren and Lizabeth. Meanwhile, Garris decides to escort Tommy out of his jurisdiction due to his influence on Megan. Tommy tries to make a run for Jason's grave but finds that the caretaker had covered it up to deny responsibility for it being dug up, and Hawes' body is buried in its place. Tommy is then handcuffed and escorted out of town by Garris, who warns him to never return. That night, Jason murders the caretaker and a nearby couple who witness the murder. Meanwhile, Cort goes out to have sex with a girl named Nikki Parsley, but Jason kills them both. The sheriff's men find the victims' bodies and Garris immediately implicates Tommy in the murders, believing he has gone insane imagining Jason.  Tommy contacts Megan and convinces her to help him lure Jason back into Crystal Lake. Meanwhile, Jason makes his way to the camp and kills both Sissy and Paula, but refrains from harming the children. Meanwhile, Tommy and Megan are pulled over by Garris. Despite Megan's alibi that she was with Tommy, he does not believe him to be innocent and arrests him, and then goes to the camp to investigate. As Tommy and Megan develop a ruse to trick the watching deputy and escape, Jason kills Garris and two other deputies when they arrive at the camp.  Jason is about to kill Megan when Tommy calls to him from the lake; apparently remembering his killer, Jason goes after Tommy instead. Tommy is attacked in a boat in the middle of the lake and ties a boulder around Jason's neck to trap him. Jason fights back, holding Tommy underwater long enough to seemingly drown him. Megan rushes out to save him but is nearly killed when Jason grabs her leg; she turns the boat's activated motor around onto Jason's neck, and he releases her. She takes Tommy back to shore and uses CPR to revive him. Tommy says that it is finally over and Jason is home. Under the water, anchored to the bottom of the lake, Jason is still alive. The final shot of the film is his eye staring off into the water, waiting patiently for.

Production.

Pre-production and writing.

Although the previous film in the series, "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning", had been a financial success, it had disappointed the series' fans and received some of the worst reviews of any film in the series. In order to prevent further alienating the fans (and thus potentially endangering the series), the producers decided to take the series in a new direction, moving it away from what producer Frank Mancuso Jr. called the "coarse" nature of "A New Beginning".  To this end, Mancuso hired Tom McLoughlin, who had directed the successful horror film "One Dark Night" but was also known around Hollywood for shopping around various comedy scripts he had written, a dichotomy that appealed to Mancuso. McLoughlin was given free rein on how he would present the story, with the only condition being that he bring back Jason and make him the film's villain.  McLoughlin decided to take the film in the direction of an old Universal Monsters movie, specifically the 1931 version of "Frankenstein", which portrayed the monster as a lumbering killer brought to life by electricity. McLoughlin also drew from vampire lore in order to give Jason a weakness, namely being returned to his "home soil"; to achieve this, McLoughlin disregarded the idea presented in "Part 2" that Jason had survived his drowning, instead presenting the idea that Jason has always been some sort of supernatural force. He also decided to retcon the ending of the fifth film, where Tommy Jarvis was a serial killer. In fact, Pam's truck from the fifth film can be seen indicating she is alive. In the "Tommy Tapes" for "" (2017) written by Adam Green, it's explained that the ending of the fifth film was Tommy's dream.  McLoughlin further decided to expand the series' thematic scope, incorporating action film elements and postmodern metahumor; when Jason is first encountered in the woods near Crystal Lake, the character Lizbeth comments that she and Darren should flee because she knows about proper conduct to survive a horror film. McLoughlin would further satirize the series itself, as Martin the gravedigger comments on Jason's exhumation, "Why'd they have to go and dig up Jason?" before breaking the fourth wall and addressing the camera with the observation, "Some folks sure got a strange idea of entertainment." In addition to "Frankenstein", McLoughlin also cited as inspiration his love of Gothic horror, particularly the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and his Catholic upbringing; "Jason Lives" features the series' only explicit references to God, and during the climax a praying girl is spared by Jason (a similar scene, in which the same girl prays for Tommy while Megan performs CPR, then mouths "Thank you" while looking skyward was deleted from the final cut of the movie, apparently against McLoughlin's wishes; he recalled in the 2009 DVD's director's commentary, "Somehow it didn't stay in... probably too much sentiment").

Casting.

The decision to retcon the events of "Part V" resulted in many members of that film's cast—whose characters had survived—having their contracts to return for a sequel terminated. At one point in time when "Jason Lives" was being considered as a direct sequel to "A New Beginning" rather than to "The Final Chapter", the surviving characters Pam and Reggie from "A New Beginning" were to have died in the film's opening moments.  Although Mancuso retained control over the film's casting, he deferred to McLoughlin's judgment; the only caveat was that the final girl had to be a "very attractive blonde". To fulfill this requirement, McLoughlin chose Jennifer Cooke, based on her performance in the television series "V". The role of Hawes, Tommy's would-be sidekick who dies within the first five minutes of the movie, was given to another television veteran, Ron Palillo, famous for the role of Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter".  John Shepherd was initially asked to reprise his role as Tommy Jarvis from the previous film. Shepherd, an evangelical Christian who had reservations about returning to the series based on the atmosphere surrounding "A New Beginning", was initially attracted to "Jason Lives" based on the scene in which a praying girl is spared by Jason. He ultimately decided to film "Caught" and shortly thereafter retired from acting to go to seminary. Thom Matthews, who would take over the mantel of Tommy Jarvis, was chosen for his work in the horror comedy "Return of the Living Dead", although McLoughlin himself was unaware of Matthews' horror credentials until after shooting began. Other cast members were culled from actors who McLoughlin had directed before (such as David Kagen, who was also an acting teacher for female lead Jennifer Cooke) and McLoughlin's own family—Jason's first female victim in the film, Lizbeth, was played by McLoughlin's wife, Nancy. In keeping with the series' tradition, the role of Jason was given to a stuntman, Dan Bradley. Bradley, however, was replaced shortly thereafter by C. J. Graham. Bradley's involvement during the paintball scene is kept.

Filming.

After the first day of filming, Mancuso decided that he disliked Bradley's appearance onscreen as Jason. Although the scenes that Bradley filmed—in which Jason kills the paintball playing executives—were kept in the completed picture, the rest of Jason's scenes were performed by C. J. Graham, an area restaurant manager and former soldier. As part of a stage show put on at the restaurant, a magician would hypnotize audience members and place them in a scenario during which they encountered Jason Voorhees; Graham, who stood 6'3 and weighed 250 lbs, was asked to play Jason for the scenario. "Jason Lives" special effects coordinator, Martin Becker, was in the audience for one such show, and recommended Graham to Mancuso and McLoughlin. Both men were impressed with Graham's presence, and he was hired to film the remainder of Jason's scenes.  "Jason Lives" would become notable for being the only film in the franchise to contain no nudity; the characters in the film's sole sex scene are both fully clothed, a conscious move on McLoughlin's part to distance the series from the notion that the "Friday the 13th" films were morality tales in which premarital sex was punished by death. McLoughlin was pressured by the film's producers to have Darcy Demoss remove her shirt during the RV sex scene, but he only suggested the idea to Demoss, who refused.  "Jason Lives" was filmed in Covington, Georgia, an area close to Atlanta, GA. The scenes involving the police department and town were filmed in Covington while the camp scenes were filmed at Camp Daniel Morgan outside the city limits of Covington. In the film, Camp Crystal Lake has been renamed Lake Forest Green. Surrounding Camp Daniel Morgan are Smokey the Bear signs asking everyone to "Keep the Forests Green".  Some of the climactic moments of the film involving the primary characters in the lake were actually filmed in the swimming pool of McLoughlin's father. Although McLoughlin ruined the pool's filter in the process (it was jammed by gore churned into the water when Jason is hit with the boat propeller), McLoughlin's father was pleased that he could now boast a Hollywood film had been shot in his backyard.

Post-production.

McLoughlin's attempt to deliver a "different" kind of "Friday the 13th" film were met with skepticism from the producers. In contrast to the series' other entries, which had to be edited for violence in order to avoid an "X" rating, the film's producers requested that McLoughlin add additional gore, violence, and murders to the film. The original cut of the film contained 13 killings as an in-joke; in order to appease the studio, McLoughlin had to add an additional three killings, bringing the total up to 16. These were the killings of Martin the gravedigger, and the recently engaged couple on a nighttime picnic. The scene of Jason killing Martin would later be cited by McLoughlin as one of his favorite parts of the movie for the shot in which the picnicking man suddenly realizes that he's been spotted by Jason, which McLoughlin felt to be the film's scariest moment.  Additionally, McLoughlin was made to extend Sissy's death, adding the shots of Jason dragging her to the ground and twisting her head off; as originally filmed, Sissy was simply pulled out of the cabin window, and wasn't seen again until Megan finds her head in the squad car.  McLoughlin also found himself in contention with the producers over how the film should end. In the original script, the movie was supposed to have concluded in the graveyard, with Martin the gravedigger meeting Jason's father, Elias—a heretofore unseen character in the series—with the implication that Elias knows Jason has been resurrected and has come looking for him. The studio balked at the scene, as they did not want the responsibility of having to introduce Elias' backstory in the next installment. Additionally, the added murder of Martin made the scene an impossibility to shoot. This ending would have tied up a continuity error from "A New Beginning", when it is mentioned that Jason was cremated; a deleted scene from "Jason Lives" had Tommy asking Sheriff Garris why Jason wasn't cremated, as had been planned, at which point Garris informs him that someone paid the city to bury Jason; Elias' handing Martin a wad of money would have indicated that he was the man who paid for Jason's burial. The scene was later storyboarded for inclusion on the film's "Deluxe Edition" DVD release, with Bob Larkin reprising his role as Martin to provide voiceover. Elias, like Jason, was scripted to be completely silent.  McLoughlin ultimately shot three endings, two of which, against his expectations, were not included on the film's DVD release. In one ending, Jason's mask floats to the surface of Crystal Lake, having become detached during his struggle with Megan. In another, Deputy Cologne was seen trying to reach the jail cell keys after having been locked in by Tommy and Megan; the door to the police station opens and the film abruptly ends, indicating that Jason had managed to get free. The producers disliked both of these endings, as each one left Jason's survival ambiguous, and wanted it explicitly shown onscreen that he was still capable of returning for a sequel. As a result, McLoughlin shot the film's used ending, showing a closeup of Jason's open, twitching eye.

Music.

The film's music was composed by Harry Manfredini, who composed the scores to all of the series' previous installments. In addition to the original score, the soundtrack also featured:  "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" had an accompanying music video, combining clips from the film with new footage featuring Cooper. It is not present on any home video release of the film, but may be viewed on YouTube.  On January 13, 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 6-CD boxset containing Manfredini's scores from the first six "Friday the 13th" films. It sold out in less than 24 hours.

Reception.

Box office.

"Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" opened on August 1, 1986, in 1,610 theaters and grossed $6.7 million in its opening weekend, ranking number two at the US box office. Ultimately, it would go on to gross a total of $19.4 million, ranking at number 46 on the list of the year's top earners.

Critical response.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" holds a 52% approval rating based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 5.02/10. The consensus reads: “"Friday the 13th: Part VI - Jason Lives" indeed brings back ol' Voorhees, along with a sense of serviceable braindead fun.”  "Variety" describe the film as predictable but "reasonably slick". Caryn James of "The New York Times" called it "a gory waste of time". Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" called it the least offensive film of the most offensive film series ever. Ken Hanke of "Mountain Xpress" wrote that it "may not be exactly a good movie in the strict sense, but it's easily the best in the series".

Novelization.

A novelization of "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" was written by Simon Hawke in 1986; notably, the novelization features an appearance by a Mr.Voorhees, Jason's father who was originally meant to appear in the film but was cut. The book also includes various flashbacks to Jason's childhood and the backstories of characters such as Tommy and Sheriff Garris are also expanded.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (stylized onscreen as Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI) is a 1986 American slasher film written and directed by Tom McLoughlin, and starring Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, and C.J. Graham as Jason Voorhees. It is the sixth installment in the "Friday the 13th" film series. The film follows Voorhees who, after being accidentally resurrected, stalks another group of camp counselors.

Vendredi 13, chapitre VI : Jason le mort-vivant ("Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives") est un film américain de Tom McLoughlin sorti en 1986.


History.

Early history.

Formerly and variously known as "Paislay", "Passelet", "Passeleth", and "Passelay" the burgh's name is of uncertain origin; some sources suggest a derivation either from the Brittonic word "pasgill", "pasture", or from "passeleg", "basilica", (i.e. major church), itself derived from the Greek βασιλική "basilika". However, some Scottish place-name books suggest "Pæssa's wood/clearing", from the Old English personal name "Pæssa", "clearing", and "leāh", "wood". Pasilege (1182) and Paslie (1214) are recorded previous spellings of the name. The Gaelic translation is "Pàislig".  Paisley has monastic origins. A chapel is said to have been established by the 6th-/7th-century Irish monk, Saint Mirin at a site near a waterfall on the White Cart Water known as the Hammils. Though Paisley lacks contemporary documentation it may have been, along

Witch Trials.

The Paisley witches, also known as the Bargarran witches or the Renfrewshire witches, were tried in Paisley in 1697. Seven were convicted and five were hanged and then burnt on the Gallow Green. Their remains were buried at Maxwelton Cross in the west

Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution, based on the textile industry, turned Paisley from a small market town to an important industrial town in the late 18th century. Its location attracted English mill owners; immigrants from Ayrshire and the Highlands poured into a town that offered jobs to women and children. However, silk fell out of fashion in 1790. The mills switched to the imitation Kashmir (cashmere) shawls called "Paisley". Under the leadership of Thomas Coats (1809-1893), Paisley became the world centre for thread making. The high-status skilled weavers mobilised themselves in radical protests after 1790, culminating in the failed "Radical War" of 1820. Overproduction, the collapse of the shawl market and a general depression in the textile industry led to technical changes that reduced the importance of weavers. Politically the mill owners remained in control of the town.

Origins of Paisley Shawls.

By the mid-19th century weaving had become the town's principal industry. The Paisley weavers' most famous products were the shawls, which bore the Paisley Pattern made fashionable after being worn by a young Queen Victoria. Despite being of a Kashmiri design and manufactured in other parts of Europe, the teardrop-like pattern soon became known by Paisley's name across the western world. Although the shawls dropped out of fashion in the 1870s, the Paisley pattern remains an important symbol of the town: the Paisley Museum maintains a significant collection of the original shawls in this design, and it has been used, for example, in the modern logo of Renfrewshire Council, the local authority.  According to Monique Lévi-Strauss, informations on the history of Kashmir Shawls's weaving techniques had been described in books, but in a very unintelligible language. John Irwin published in 1955 a book named Shawls, a Study in Indo-European Influences, in which he relates the Kashmir Shawls history and how these Shawls spread on the European Market during the XIX° century. The book

Political Radicalism.

Through its weaving fraternity, Paisley gained notoriety as being a literate and somewhat radical town and between 1816 and 1820 became the scene of a Radical War. Political intrigue, early trades unionism and reforming zeal came together to produce mass demonstrations, cavalry charges down the high street, public riots and trials for treason. Documentation from the period indicates that overthrow of the government was even contemplated by some. The weavers of Paisley were certainly active in the 'Radical

Economic Hardship.

The economic crisis of 1841–43 hit Paisley hard as most of the mills shut down. Among the mill owners, 67 of 112 went bankrupt. A quarter of the population was on poor relief. The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel decided to act. He secured additional funds for relief and sent his own representative to the city to supervise its distribution. He convinced Queen Victoria to wear Paisley products

First World War.

Paisley suffered heavy losses in the First World War. The town's war memorial was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer (other sources

Paisley Snail.

Paisley was also the site of an incident that gave rise to a major legal precedent. In a Paisley cafe in 1928, a woman allegedly found a dead snail in a bottle of ginger beer, and became ill. She sued the manufacturer for negligence. At the time

Second World War.

Owing to its industrial roots, Paisley, like many industrial towns in Renfrewshire, became a target for German "Luftwaffe" bombers during World War II. Although it was not bombed as heavily as nearby Glasgow (see Clydebank Blitz), air raids still occurred periodically during the early years of the war, killing nearly

Industrial Decline.

Paisley, as with other areas in Renfrewshire, was at one time famous for its weaving and textile industries. As a consequence, the Paisley pattern has long symbolic associations with the town. Until the Jacquard loom was introduced in the 1820s, weaving was a cottage industry. This innovation led to the industrialisation of the process and many larger mills were created in the town. Also as a consequence of greater mechanisation, many weavers lost their livelihoods and left for Canada and Australia. Paisley was for many years a centre for the manufacture of cotton sewing thread. At the heyday of Paisley thread manufacture in the 1930s, there were 28,000 people employed in the huge Anchor and Ferguslie mills of J & P Coats Ltd, said to be the largest of their kind in the world at that time. In the 1950s, the mills diversified into the production of synthetic threads but production diminished rapidly as a result of less expensive imports from overseas and the establishment of mills in India and Brazil by J & P Coats. By the end of the 1993, there was

Regeneration.

In 2015, the town launched its bid to become UK City of Culture in 2021. On 15 July 2017 Paisley was announced as one of five shortlisted candidates, however

Geography and climate.

Paisley sits primarily on an expanse of low ground around 12 metres (40 ft) above sea level surrounding the White Cart Water, which runs through the town centre. There are some hills and ridges which have been absorbed as the town has expanded. The settlement is historically centred on Oakshaw, an area surrounding a hill to the north of the current High Street. Oakshaw is a conservation area, and on the high ground many of Paisley's significant buildings can be found, such as the High Kirk, the Coats Observatory and the former John Neilson Institution, which was once a school and is now converted into residential flats.  Around the centre there are a large number of older residential buildings. The town centre, Whitehaugh, Seedhill and Charleston areas contain many examples of Scottish tenement flats. Three to four storeys tall, with shops on the ground floor and constructed of local pale and red sandstone, these tenement flats have been extensively restored and modernised over the last two decades.  Paisley expanded steadily,

Economy.

Public sector organisations in Paisley include the headquarters of Renfrewshire Council, the largest campus of the University of the West of Scotland, the Paisley campus of West College Scotland and the Royal Alexandra Hospital.  Glasgow Airport, located on the northern edge of Paisley, is also a significant employer and part

Landmarks.

Civic buildings.

As the administrative centre of the county of Renfrewshire, Renfrew District and, currently, Renfrewshire council area, Paisley is home to many significant civic buildings. Paisley Town Hall, adjacent to the Abbey, was funded by the will of George Aitken Clark, one of the Clark family, owners of the Anchor Mills. In competition, Sir Peter Coats funded the construction of the modern Paisley Museum and Central Library (1871), also in a neo-Classical style. The Clarks and Coats families dominated Paisley industry until their companies merged in 1896. Renfrewshire's former County Buildings, Police Station and Jail

Religious sites.

Most noticeable among the buildings of Paisley is its medieval Abbey in the centre of the town dating from the 12th century. The earliest surviving architecture is the south-east doorway in the nave from the cloister, which has a round arched doorway typical of Romanesque or Norman architecture which was the prevalent architectural style before the adoption of Gothic. The choir (east end) and tower date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are examples of Gothic Revival architecture. They were reconstructed in three main phases of restorations with the tower and choir conforming to the designs of Dr Peter MacGregor Chalmers. The roof in the nave is the most recent of restorations with the plaster ceiling by Rev Dr Boog which was added in the 1790s being replaced

Other.

Dating from circa 1160 Blackhall Manor is the oldest building in Paisley. It was given to the Burgh of Paisley by the Shaw-Stewart family in 1940, but was threatened with demolition in 1978. It was privately purchased in 1982 and fully restored as a private dwelling. As a result of its historic textile industry, Paisley has many examples of Victorian industrial architecture. Most notable is the Category A listed Anchor Mills, built in 1886. The building was converted in 2005 into residential flats. Textiles have a longer history in Paisley, represented by the Sma' Shot cottages complex on Shuttle Street: a small public museum of weaving from its 18th-century origins as a cottage industry.  Another landmark connected with the textile industry is the Dooslan Stane or Stone. The stone was a

Education.

Paisley is the main site for the modern University of the West of Scotland, which was created from a merger between the University of Paisley and Bell College in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. The University of Paisley was granted university status in 1992, having existed previously as a central institution known as Paisley College of Technology. The further education college West College Scotland has a campus in the town; this institution was previously known as Reid Kerr College.  There are currently four comprehensive state

Religion.

Paisley is home to a number of religious denominations and is an important historical centre for the Christian faith in Scotland. The town's historic patron saint is Saint Mirin (or Mirren); according to legendary accounts, Mirin settled in Paisley as a missionary sent from Ireland in the 6th century and was instrumental in bringing the relics of St Andrew to Scotland. Paisley Abbey, one of the towns most significant landmarks, was constructed as a priory in the 12th century and raised to abbey status in the 13th. It served as an ecclesiastical centre for a wide area surrounding the county of Renfrewshire for centuries until the Reformation when such religious centres were reduced to the status of parish churches. For the Church of Scotland, Paisley forms part of the Presbytery of Greenock and

Notable people.

Historically, Paisley was notable as the religious home of the Stewart family who descended from Walter FitzAlan, the first High Steward of Scotland and founder of Paisley Abbey, eventually becoming the Scottish and British Royal Family. The Stewarts once resided at a castle in nearby Renfrew. All six of the High Stewards are buried in the Abbey, as

Media.

Paisley has one local daily newspaper, the Paisley Daily Express, which is owned by the Trinity Mirror Group. Various local radio stations have operated at times, including Q96 from 1992 to 2007 – serving the

Sport.

St Mirren F.C. is Paisley's sole professional association football team. As of 2018, it plays in the Scottish Premiership. In 2009, the team moved from their Love Street stadium to a new 8,029 capacity stadium, known formally as St Mirren Park, on Greenhill Road. The stadium was later renamed as The Paisley 2021 Stadium to mark the town's bid to be UK City of Culture in 2021.  St Mirren last won the Scottish Cup on 16 May 1987. Since then, the club has won the Scottish First Division title twice, in 1999–2000 and in 2005–06, as well as winning the Challenge Cup in 2005. The club won the Scottish League Cup for the first time in its history on 17 March 2013. In addition to professional football, the club is also involved in youth development and social projects in the town. Another professional football team, Abercorn F.C., was based in Paisley until its decline and liquidation in 1920.  Basketball has a strong history in Paisley. St Mirren is a leading basketball team, currently competing in Division 1 of the Scottish National League. The team was formed in 1997 and are regular challengers at the top of the table. They have won the National League title once, in 2000, and have won the Scottish Cup three times

Transport.

Paisley is connected to the motorway network and the National Rail network, and contains Glasgow Airport within its boundaries.  Paisley is connected by road to the UK motorway network, with the M8 running along the northern edge of the town, providing access to Greenock to the west and Glasgow to the east. This forms part of the unsigned E05 Euroroute from Greenock to Gibraltar. Many major A roads converge through the town, including the A726, A737 and A761. The Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, a public body, has direct operational responsibilities covering the area, such as supporting (and in some cases running) local bus services in Paisley and across Strathclyde.  The town has four railway stations and is linked by rail to Glasgow city centre as well as Inverclyde and the

Government and politics.

Paisley is the administrative centre for the council area of Renfrewshire Council, and also lies within the registration county of the same name. The town is divided into Community Councils for representation at the most local

Public services.

Paisley lies within the Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Division of the Scottish police service and is one of three Area Commands in that division. Paisley is divided into five community policing areas: Paisley North-west (incorporating Glasgow Airport); Paisley South-west; Paisley East and Ralston; Paisley South; Gallowhill (as part of Renfrew and Gallowhill). Gallowhill is covered by the Renfrew Area Command. For judicial purposes, the area forms part of the sheriffdom of North Strathclyde and public prosecutions are directed by the Procurator Fiscal for Argyll and Clyde. There is a

International relations.

Paisley is twinned with:  http://www.paisley.org.uk/

Paisley ( ;, ) is a town situated in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Located north of the Gleniffer Braes, the town borders the city of Glasgow to the east, and straddles the banks of the White Cart Water, a tributary of the River Clyde.

Paisley (gaélique écossais : "Pàislig") est une ville (et ancien burgh) d'Écosse située dans les Lowlands d'Écosse. Elle est située de chaque côté de la rivière Cart, au nord de Gleniffer Braes, approximativement à 11,1 kilomètres à l'ouest-sud-ouest de Glasgow. C'est le centre administratif du council area, de la région de lieutenance et ancien comté de Renfrewshire. De 1975 à 1996, elle était la capitale administrative du district de Renfrew, au sein de la région du Strathclyde.


Union fort, and Battle of Fort Pillow.

Because of its strategic location controlling traffic on the Mississippi River, the fort was attacked and captured by the Union Army, which controlled it during most of the war. On June 4, 1862, Confederate troops evacuated Fort Pillow, enabling Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee. An exception to Union control of this site took place for less than one day immediately after the Confederate victory in the Battle of Fort Pillow in 1864.  The Confederate States Army defeated the Union troops at the Battle of Fort Pillow (April 1864), resulting in the massacre of 229 of the 262 black Union soldiers engaged in the battle. The white Union soldiers numbered 285. An examination of regimental records showed that "less than 36 percent of the men from white units died in battle or of wounds, while the death toll for black units was 66 percent."  A Confederate wrote in a letter home that "Forrest ordered them [negroes] shot down like dogs, and the carnage continued." In addition to regimental records, contemporary accounts by troops on both sides, as well as journalists, describe it as appalling slaughter. Within about three weeks, as political controversy grew, Confederates began to dispute accounts of a massacre. Subsequent reports after the battle from Union officers to the Department of War countered much that was reported in the popular press and some of the testimony given before Congress. This slaughter by the Confederate troops under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest has been classified by historians as a massacre. Confederate apologists debate the fatality numbers.  "Remember Fort Pillow!" became a battle cry among black Union soldiers for the remainder of the Civil War. While the Union casualty count for the battle does not indicate that the Confederate forces took many prisoners, Confederate records show about 200 prisoners were shipped south.  In 1866, the Union Army created a cemetery for both Confederate and Union soldiers south of the battle site. In 1867, they moved about 250 bodies of Confederate and Union soldiers from that cemetery to the Memphis National Cemetery.

Historic site and museum.

In 1973, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Remains of the fort's earthworks were well-preserved as of 2011.  The park has an interpretive center and museum (open 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. daily, except for certain holidays). Tours of the museum and restored fortifications are available upon request. The park also offers many recreational activities, including camping, picnicking and fishing.

Fort Pillow State Historic Park is a state park in western Tennessee that preserves the American Civil War site of the Battle of Fort Pillow. The 1,642 acre (6.6 km2) Fort Pillow, located in Lauderdale County on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, is rich in both historic and archaeological significance. In 1861, the Confederate army built extensive fortifications and named the site for General Gideon Johnson Pillow of Maury County. It was attacked and held by the Union Army for most of the American Civil War period except immediately after the Battle of Fort Pillow, when it was retaken by the Confederate Army. Many African-American soldiers were killed in what modern historians describe as a "massacre" or "atrocity". Interpretive sites are part of the park.

Le Parc d'État de Fort Pillow (en anglais : ) est une réserve naturelle située dans l'État du Tennessee, aux États-Unis. Il protège le site de la bataille de Fort Pillow de la guerre de Sécession.


Teams.

Twelve teams qualified for the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup final tournament. Each of the six FIFA confederations had at least one representative.

Squads.

For a list of the squads that contended for the final tournament, see "1991 FIFA Women's World Cup squads".

Match officials.

For the first time in FIFA competition, six female officials were included. All functioned as assistant referees, except for Cláudia Vasconcelos who took charge of the third place play–off; becoming the first woman to referee a match sanctioned by FIFA.

Tournament review.

FIFA's technical report demonstrates that, after the tournament, players and officials were undecided whether to persist with 80 minute matches, or to change to 90 minutes in line with men's football. Opinion was also divided about the suitability of using a size five football. Some teams reported difficulty in sourcing good quality equipment in the correct size.  The tournament was considered a major success in the quality of play and attendances at the games. FIFA president João Havelange wrote that:  The perceived success of the tournament was a significant factor in the subsequent inclusion of women's football in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Sue Lopez reported that although attendances were very high, many tickets were complimentary. The "novelty factor" of women from foreign lands playing football also encouraged local people to attend.

Draw.

The draw for the group stage was held on 14 September 1991 at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou, China. The draw was part of a televised two-hour live show, featuring songs in both Chinese and English from the female singers Zhang Qiang (Beijing), Lin Ping (Guangzhou), Jenny Tseng (Hong Kong) and (Taiwan).

Group stage.

Teams were awarded two points for a win, one point for a draw, and none for a defeat.

Statistics.

Awards.

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international governing body selected China as host nation as Guangdong had hosted a prototype world championship three years earlier, the 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament. Matches were played in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, as well as in Foshan, Jiangmen and Zhongshan. The competition was sponsored by Mars, Incorporated, maker of M&M's candy. With FIFA still reluctant to bestow their "World Cup" brand, the tournament was officially known as the 1st FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M's Cup.

La Coupe du monde féminine de football 1991 est la première édition de la Coupe du monde de football féminin. 12 équipes participent au tournoi qui déroule en Chine du 16 au. Les États-Unis remporte la première Coupe du monde féminine en battant la Norvège en finale par 2 à 1. L'affluence a été de, soit une moyenne de par match.


Structure.

The plantar fascia is a broad structure that spans between the medial calcaneal tubercle and the proximal phalanges of the toes. Recent studies suggest that the plantar fascia is actually an aponeurosis rather than true fascia. The Dorland’s Medical Dictionary defines an aponeurosis as: (i) a white, flattened or ribbon-like tendinous expansion, serving mainly to connect a muscle with the parts that it moves, (ii) a term formerly applied to certain fasciae. Further, it defines the plantar aponeurosis as bands of fibrous connective tissue radiating toward the bases of the toes from the medial process of the tuber calcanei (posterior half of the calcaneus).  The plantar fascia is made up of predominantly longitudinally oriented collagen fibers. There are three distinct structural components: the medial component, the central component (plantar aponeurosis), and the lateral component (see diagram at right). The central component is the largest and most prominent.  In younger people the plantar fascia is also intimately related to the Achilles tendon, with a continuous fascial connection between the two from the distal aspect of the Achilles to the origin of the plantar fascia at the calcaneal tubercle. However, the continuity of this connection decreases with age to a point that in the elderly there are few, if any, connecting fibers. There are also distinct attachments of the plantar fascia and the Achilles tendon to the calcaneus so the two do not directly contact each other. Nevertheless, there is an indirect relationship whereby if the toes are dorsiflexed, the plantar fascia tightens via the windlass mechanism. If a tensile force is then generated in the Achilles tendon it will increase tensile strain in the plantar fascia. Clinically, this relationship has been used as a basis for treatment for plantar fasciitis, with stretches and night stretch splinting being applied to the gastrocnemius/soleus muscle unit.

Function.

The plantar fascia contributes to support of arch of the foot by acting as a tie-rod, where it undergoes tension when the foot bears weight. One biomechanical model estimated it carries as much as 14% of the total load of the foot. In an experiment using cadavers, it was found that failure of the plantar fascia averaged at loads of 1189 ± 244 newtons (121 ± 24 kgf or 267 ± 55 lbf). Failure most often occurred at the proximal attachment to the calcaneus, which is consistent with the usual location of symptoms (i.e. in plantar fasciitis). Complete rupture or surgical release of the plantar fascia leads to a decrease in arch stiffness and a significant collapse of the longitudinal arch of the foot. By modeling it was predicted such conditions would result in a 17% increase in vertical displacement and a 15% increase in horizontal elongation of the foot when it was loaded at. Surgical release also significantly increases both stress in the plantar ligaments and plantar pressures under the metatarsal heads. Although most of the figures mentioned above are from either cadaver studies or investigations using models, they highlight the relatively large load the plantar fascia is subjected to while contributing to the structural integrity of the foot.

Gait.

The plantar fascia also has an important role in dynamic function during gait. It was found the plantar fascia continuously elongated during the contact phase of gait. It went through rapid elongation before and immediately after mid-stance, reaching a maximum of 9% to 12% elongation between mid-stance and toe-off. During this phase the plantar fascia behaves like a spring, which may assist in conserving energy. In addition, the plantar fascia has a critical role in normal mechanical function of the foot, contributing to the "windlass mechanism". When the toes are dorsiflexed in the propulsive phase of gait, the plantar fascia becomes tense, resulting in elevation of the longitudinal arch and shortening of the foot (see 3A). One can liken this mechanism to a cable being wound around the drum of a windlass (see 3B); the plantar fascia being the cable, the metatarsal head the drum, and the handle, the proximal phalanx.

The plantar fascia is the thick connective tissue (aponeurosis) which supports the arch on the bottom (plantar side) of the foot. It runs from the tuberosity of the calcaneus (heel bone) forward to the heads of the metatarsal bones (the bone between each toe and the bones of the mid-foot).

Le fascia plantaire est un tissu conjonctif épais (aponévrose) qui supporte l'arche du pied. C'est donc une enveloppe fibreuse qui recouvre le tendon allant de la du calcanéum aux métatarses.


History.

The museum was founded in 1952 and was first open to the public in the former Shanghai Racecourse club house, now at 325 West Nanjing Road. The founding collections came principally from three sources: a batch of artifacts gathered by the Communist 3rd Field Army during the civil war from accidental finds and confiscations of private property and brought to Shanghai upon the Communists' conquest of the city; artifacts confiscated by the customs service; items sold by private collectors due to political pressure during political purges and purchased by the government. The former Shanghai Municipal Museum was also merged into the new Shanghai Museum.  In the next few years, the museum's collections were further enriched from other private and institutional collections in Shanghai, including the collection of the former Shanghai Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society, which were moved to the museum as "foreign" institutions gradually left the city in the 1950s. In 1959 the museum moved into the Zhonghui Building at 16 South Henan Road, which housed insurance companies and bank offices. During the metal-gathering campaign of the Great Leap Forward, the Shanghai Museum participated in rescuing bronzeware from metal that had been confiscated or donated and were sent to be melted down. Before the Cultural Revolution, a tradition formed whereby Shanghai's wealthy collectors would make annual donations to the museum.  The museum's work largely halted as a result of the Cultural Revolution. After the end of the revolution, as one of China's most important museums, the collections have continued to be enriched with the fruit of donations, government purchases, and important finds from archaeological excavations.  The growth of its collections put enormous pressure on the cramped premises. For his role in ensuring a large, purpose-built home, it is said that Shanghai Museum owes much of its current existence to Ma Chengyuan, its director from 1985 until his retirement in 1999. When a new museum was omitted from Shanghai's five-year reconstruction plan in 1992, Ma lobbied Mayor Huang Ju for its rebuilding. After seeing the dilapidated rooms of the Zhonghui Building, Huang agreed to allocate a prime site on the People's Square, but the museum had to raise its own building funds. Ma raised US$25 million by leasing the old building to a Hong Kong developer. He also made many trips abroad to solicit donations, mainly from the Shanghai diaspora who had fled to Hong Kong after the Communist revolution, raising another $10 million. The money still ran short, but he eventually won another 140 million yuan from the city government to complete the building.  Construction of the current building started in August 1993. It was inaugurated on October 12, 1996 to wide acclaim. It is 29.5 meters high with five floors, covering a total area of 39,200 m2.  Designed by local architect Xing Tonghe, the building is designed in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking vessel called a "ding". It is said that the inspiration for the design was specifically provided by the Da Ke ding, now on exhibit in the museum. The building has a round top and a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese perception of the world as "round sky, square earth" ().

Collections.

The museum has a collection of over 120,000 pieces, including bronze, ceramics, calligraphy, furniture, jades, ancient coins, paintings, seals, sculptures, minority art and foreign art. The Shanghai Museum houses several items of national importance, including one of three extant specimens of a "transparent" bronze mirror from the Han Dynasty.

Galleries.

It has eleven galleries and three special temporary exhibition halls. The permanent galleries are:

Numismatic Collections.

The Museum has an important collection of ancient coins from the Silk Road, donated since 1991 by Linda and Roger Doo. The collection contains 1783 pieces from the Greeks to the Mongol Empire.

Bibliography.

Chen Xiejan, Doo R, Wang Yue (2006) Shanghai Museum's Collection of Ancient Coins from the Silk Road

The Shanghai Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District of Shanghai, China. Rebuilt at its current location in 1996, it is considered one of China's first world-class modern museums.

Le musée de Shanghai (上海博物館) est un musée d'art chinois ancien situé à Puxi sur la Place du Peuple dans le district de Huangpu à Shanghai, Chine. L'entrée y est gratuite. Il est situé en face de la Mairie de Shanghai.


Background.

"Sorry" was one of the first tracks developed for "Confessions on a Dance Floor", along with "Hung Up" and "Future Lovers". It was also the one which took the most time to finish because Madonna "thought it was too melodramatic and could never decide when it was right." The songs were developed with a remixed perspective in mind. Madonna commented that, "Whenever I make records, I often like the remixes better than the original ones. [...] So I thought, screw that. I'm going to start from that perspective". She promoted the album at the dance party "Misshapes" held at Luke & Leroy's nightclub in Greenwich Village, invited by Junior Sanchez to take over the DJ booth where she mixed "Hung Up" with "Sorry".

Composition.

Musically, "Sorry" is an uptempo dance song containing layers of beats and strong vocal on the chorus. It is set in common time with a moderately fast dance groove tempo of 132 beats per minute. Composed in the key of C minor, Madonna's vocal range spans from F to G. It follows the chord progression of E–Cm–A–B during the spoken introduction. It then changes to Fm–Gm-Cm in the chorus, while continuing in A–Cm–A–Fm in the intermediate verses, ultimately ending in repeated lines of "I've heard it all before".  Lyrically the song has excerpts of different languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi, Lithuanian and Japanese. The song talks about personal empowerment and self-sufficiency, denoting a shift in focus of Madonna as an artist from her previous songs about supremacy like "Everybody" (1982), "Vogue" (1990) or "Music" (2000) which was centered around the subject of music itself. Among the various remixes, the Pet Shop Boys remix consisted of additional vocals provided by Neil Tennant from the group. Pet Shop Boys and Madonna had always mutually admired each other, from the time they wrote the song "Heart" (1988) for Madonna but never delivered it.

Critical response.

Jennifer Vineyard of MTV News wrote that "Sorry" is the "album's strongest track" and that it is a "Pet Shop Boys-esque" song. Vineyard went on to say that it "...wistfully evokes the sounds of the '80s-era dance clubs that first lofted her toward stardom." According to a review in the BBC's Collective, "New single 'Sorry' states Queen Madge's unapologetic stance, and though the song is wrapped up in relationship sentiment, one cannot help but hear the subtext, perhaps directed at her more savage critics: 'there are more important things than hearing you speak'." Alan Braidwood from BBC Music called the song "lethally catchy". Mike Pattenden of "The Times" and Sal Cinquemani from "Slant Magazine" noted that the bassline of the song utilizes The Jacksons' 1980 song "Can You Feel It". The song was noted by Slant Magazine as one of the best songs of 2006. In a review of "Sorry" from Virgin Media, it wrote that the song's musicscape features an "infectious combo of pumping, filtered synths and disco beats". Keith Caulfield from "Billboard" commented that, "[Sorry] should keep fans hung up on Madonna's ability to create instant radio and club classics." He also called the song "springy" while reviewing the album.  Ben Williams of "New York" magazine, wrote that the song is "propelled by a catchy bass melody". Joan Morgan of "The Village Voice", in review of "Confessions on a Dance Floor", wrote: "The party continues admirably with the multilingual, kick-your-man-to-the-curb 'Sorry'." Stephen M. Deusner of "Pitchfork" wrote, "The cascades of sound wash directly into 'Sorry', setting up the song's panlingual apologies and shifting bass tectonics." Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" wrote that the first half of the album consists of love songs, happy and sad, and included "Sorry" into the mix. Alexis Petridis from "The Guardian" called the song as triumphant. Kitty Empire from the same publication said that "'Sorry' sees Madonna taking a lover to task over an insistent dance-pop rush." Alan Light from "Rolling Stone" called the song "throbbing". Thomas Inksweep from "Stylus" magazine commented that "Sorry" and "Hung Up" may not be as sleazy as Madonna's initial singles "Burning Up" (1984) or "Physical Attraction" (1984), but they have the same "modus operandi" of being designed for all-night dancing.

Chart performance.

In the United States, "Sorry" debuted at number 70 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for the issue dated March 11, 2006 and reached a peak of 58 the following week. The same week it reached a peak of 46 on the Pop 100 chart. Its low chart performance in America was attributed to limited radio airplay. A petition was signed by about 3,300 fans at petitionline.com. Known as the "End the Madonna U.S. Radio Boycott"; it was addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays. Message boards at "Entertainment Weekly" and VH1 were filled with entries by users showing support for Madonna, as well as conspiracy theories about why she was not played on radio. The song, however, reached the top of the Hot Dance Club Play chart for two weeks, as well as Hot Dance Airplay chart for seven weeks. As of April 2010, the song has sold 366,000 digital units in the United States.  In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number one on the chart dated February 26, 2006. The song became Madonna's 12th number one single in Britain and second consecutive single from the album to peak the British chart, after "Hung Up." This made Madonna the female artist with most number one songs in the United Kingdom, while placing her in fifth place in overall tabulation. According to the Official Charts Company, the song has sold 200,000 digital downloads there and was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In Australia, the song debuted and peaked at four.  The song peaked at number two on the Canadian Singles Chart and was certified platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) on April 10, 2006 for sales of 80,000 units of paid digital downloads. "Sorry" debuted at number five in Ireland and was on the chart for 12 weeks. Elsewhere in Europe, the song became a top ten hit for Madonna reaching the top ten of countries like Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland while reaching the top of the charts in Italy, Spain, Romania and "Billboard's" Eurochart Hot 100 Singles.

Music video.

The music video incorporated parts of the television show "Pimp My Ride". It was directed by Madonna's longtime choreographer Jamie King and featured choreography from The Talauega Brothers. Many of the performers featured in Madonna's "Hung Up" video were in that of "Sorry", which was shot as a continuation from the "Hung Up" video. Madonna's parts in the video were shot first, followed by the shot of the skaters. The shoot took place for over two days.  The video starts with Madonna standing in front of neon lighted screen in a purple leotard uttering "Sorry" in different languages. As the music starts she comes out from the gaming parlour of her "Hung Up" video with the boombox and her three female dancers, leaving the three male dancers (whom Madonna had been passionate with in the previous video) behind protesting. They board a van where Madonna and her dancers strip of their clothes into new ones.  As they move around the city in the van, they pick up different men from the streets to join them. These scenes are interspersed with the scenes of Madonna singing in front of the neon screen. The video progresses like this until the intermediate verse whence Madonna is shown standing in a cage opposite to a number of men. As the bridge builds up, Madonna starts fighting with the men. The chorus starts again and Madonna and everyone else are shown skating in circles around a roller rink. The three male dancers return and join Madonna in doing a dance routine and in a conga line with everyone else. Madonna and her dancers all get back on the van during the outro of the song, leaving the boombox behind on the streets. The video ends with the close-up of Madonna in the purple leotard and fades into her silhouette. In 2009, the video was included on Madonna's compilation, "".

Live performances.

"Sorry" was performed on the 2006 Confessions Tour as part of the bedouin themed segment. Madonna was dressed in a Jean-Paul Gaultier kaftan with pants and high heeled boots. As Madonna finished the performance of the song "Isaac", she took off the kaftan and wore a jacket given to her by the dancers and greets them one by one.  The song was also used as a video backdrop during the interlude between the bedouin and the glam/rock sections. The video featured images of political leaders past and present like Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Their images flashed across the screen, with text and footage of war atrocities intermingled in between. Madonna appears on the screens wearing her "Sorry" video leotard and utters the words "talk is cheap" and "don't speak", along with the music and Bush's lips stuttering. The performances of "Sorry" and the remix video was included in "The Confessions Tour" CD and DVD.  Tom Young from BBC Music called the performance a "delight" but described the video as the "lowlight" of the tour. Ed Gonzalez from "Slant Magazine" wrote that the performance was not among the concert's highlights. However, he commented that the remix backdrop "feels ecstatic [...] a collage of Godardian weight you can dance too". Thomas Inkseep from "Stylus" described the song's performance and remix as "fantastic".

"Sorry" is a song by American singer Madonna from her tenth studio album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005). It was written and produced by Madonna and Stuart Price, and released as the second single from the album on February 7, 2006. It later appeared on "Celebration", her 2009 greatest hits album. An uptempo dance song, "Sorry" was one of the first tracks developed for the album. One remix on the CD maxi single was done by the Pet Shop Boys, featuring added lyrics by the band. The song features a dance groove tempo, and talks about personal empowerment and self-sufficiency.

Sorry est une chanson de l'artiste américaine Madonna issue de son dixième album studio. Écrite et produite par Madonna et Stuart Price, la chanson sort en tant que second de l'album le et apparaît sur la compilation de la chanteuse, sortie en 2009. Le titre au tempo modérément rapide est l'un des premiers développés pour l'album, mais aussi celui ayant nécessité le plus de temps à finaliser. Un des remix de la chanson est produit par les et contient des éléments vocaux supplémentaires ajoutés par le groupe. Le titre, bien qu'écrit en anglais, utilise des extraits de différentes langues, et traite d'émancipation personnelle et d'autonomie.


Early life.

Patterson was born in Springville, Alabama, one of seven children of Green Davis Patterson, an insurance agent, and Mary Isabell "Mollie" Newton Patterson. By the 1890s his family had moved to Taylor, Texas, where he spent most of his boyhood and attended school through 8th grade. In 1917 he registered for a World War I draft card in Lubbock County, Texas.  Patterson had intended to be a serious pianist, but he instead became a vaudeville piano player. By the end of the 1920s he moved to California. He entered the movie business as an actor during the 1930s. His earliest identified screen work was an uncredited appearance in the Roy Rogers' Western film "The Arizona Kid" (1939).

Movies and TV.

Patterson found plenty of movie work, mainly playing cantankerous types as well as blacksmiths, hotel clerks, farmers, shopkeepers and other townsmen, usually bit roles and character parts in Republic Pictures westerns, and then in popular TV westerns such as "The Cisco Kid", "The Adventures of Kit Carson", "The Lone Ranger", and "Annie Oakley. He also had small cameo appearances in a number of sci-fi movies by Bert I. Gordon: Beginning of the End, The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People, and Earth vs. The Spider.  Patterson played recurring or different roles in adult/family TV westerns, including the role of "Hank Miller" in 33 episodes of "Gunsmoke" from 1962 through 1972, on "Have Gun-Will Travel" (eleven episodes), "Death Valley Days" (nine episodes), "Tales of Wells Fargo" (seven episodes), "Maverick" (four episodes), "Cheyenne" (four episodes), "Wagon Train" (three episodes), "Daniel Boone" (three episodes), "The Virginian" (two episodes), "The Rifleman", "Bonanza", and in episodes of "Lawman", "Bat Masterson", "The Restless Gun", and many others. In 1959 Patterson appeared as a sodbuster in an uncredited role on "Lawman" ("The Young Toughs").  He made additional TV appearances, including three episodes of "The Twilight Zone" as well as "Perry Mason", "Burke's Law, The Untouchables", "Judd for the Defense", "My Three Sons, and in later years "The Mod Squad" and "Love, American Style" and "Highway Patrol".

"Green Acres".

In 1963 Patterson first appeared in what would become a recurring role as farmer Fred Ziffel on the popular CBS rural comedy "Petticoat Junction". In 1965 CBS debuted another rural comedy, "Green Acres". Both series were set in the mythical farming community of Hooterville, with characters from "Petticoat Junction" often also appearing in "Green Acres", including Patterson's Fred Ziffel character. It was on the popular, irreverent "Green Acres" that Patterson earned his greatest fame. In 1965 and 1966—two of the years in which the two series ran concurrently—Patterson frequently appeared in both shows in the same week in primetime.  The association of Patterson's character with the popular character Arnold, the pet pig whom Fred and his wife Doris treated as a son, ensured Patterson a place in TV history. Arnold attended school, watched TV and was a talented artist, piano player, and actor. He even "talked" (snorted, grunted and squealed) in a language that everyone in Hooterville seemed to understand except Oliver Wendell Douglas ("Green Acres" co-star Eddie Albert).  According to westernclippings.com "Characters and Heavies" by Boyd Magers, "Ironically, by the time Patterson was doing 'Green Acres' he was in his late 70s and almost completely deaf, but the producers loved his portrayal so much they worked around his hearing impairment by having the dialogue coach lying on the floor out-of-shot tapping Hank's leg with a yardstick as a cue to speak his line."

Personal life.

Hank Patterson was married to Daisy Marguerite (Sheeler) Patterson, a Kentucky native four years younger than Hank whose parents were both of German ancestry. They are listed together in both the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census residing in Los Angeles. In the 1940 census, Hank's occupation is listed as "Actor, Motion Picture Studio & Stage."  Patterson's great-grandfather, James Pearson, was an original settler of St. Clair County, Alabama, as was his mother's great-grandfather, Thomas Newton. His great-grandfather, Henry S. Patterson, moved to Blount County, Alabama, around 1857 from Murray County, Georgia. Between 1894 and 1897, the family left Alabama to live in Texas.  Hank Patterson died at age 86 on August 23, 1975 of bronchial pneumonia. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood. Daisy died, also at age 86, on February 2, 1979.  Patterson's great-niece is actress Téa Leoni.

Hank Patterson (born Elmer Calvin Patterson; October 9, 1888 – August 23, 1975) was an American actor and musician. He is known foremost for playing two recurring characters on three television series: the stableman Hank Miller on "Gunsmoke" and farmer Fred Ziffel on both "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres".

Hank Patterson, de son vrai nom Elmer Calvin Patterson, est un acteur américain né le à Springville, en Alabama, et décédé de pneumonie le à Woodland Hills (États-Unis).


Background.

President Juan Esteban Montero had assumed office on November 15, 1931. By mid-1932, he was already in serious problems, due to the economic impact of the market crash of 1929. To the very grave social and economic problems he faced, he could add the growing political instability that was gripping the country. He was pictured as an inefficient and unpopular leader, and the number of conspiracies that sought to displace him was growing by the day.  On June 4, 1932, a group of young socialists under the leadership of Eugenio Matte; some air force personnel under colonel Marmaduke Grove; and some army personnel (followers of former president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo) under Carlos Dávila staged a coup d'état by taking over the Air Force base of El Bosque, in Santiago, demanding the resignation of President Montero.  Montero refused to call on the army to put down the coup, and instead chose to resign. That same night, the victorious revolutionaries organized a Government Junta composed of retired General Arturo Puga, Eugenio Matte and Carlos Davila, with colonel Grove as their minister of Defense. They immediately proceeded to proclaim the "Socialist Republic of Chile".

Creation and fall.

The proclamation took by surprise and divided public opinion immediately. The Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) and the trade unions manifested their opposition, because they considered the coup as "militarist". At the same time, businessmen, professionals and students of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile also heatedly opposed it, also on ideological grounds. At the end the new republic received only the guarded support of the socialists and the employees' associations.  A few days following the proclamation of the new “Socialist Republic of Chile,” the Junta dissolved Congress and, among other measures, stopped evictions from low-rental properties, decreed a three-day bank holiday (which was followed by strict controls on withdrawals), and ordered the “Caja de Crédito Popular” (a savings and loan bank for Chileans of modest means) to return clothes and tools which had been pawned there.  The new Junta ordered a half-million free meals served daily by the Government to Chile's unemployed. State pawnshops had to obey an order to return, free of any charge, sewing machines and all tools pawned by the "certified unemployed." After only a few days in office the Government began to run short of funds, so it ordered the police to raid all the jewelry shops in Santiago, seizing valuables from helpless jewelers. To avoid what it could be termed as a "confiscation", the police gave each jeweler "compensation" in the form of a receipt which they could cash in paper pesos. Credits and deposits in foreign currency in the national and foreign banks operating in Chile were declared the property of the State. They also pardoned all the people involved in the Sailors' mutiny. A General Commissariat of Subsistence and Prices was also established with the authority to fix the price of staple foods.  The division of public opinion was also present inside the Government Junta, where the followers of General Ibáñez opposed the radicalization of the socialist movement promoted by Grove and Matte. On June 13, Carlos Dávila resigned in protest. Three days later, on June 16, and with the support of the army, he proceeded to expel the socialist members of the government, and replace them with his own supporters. Eugenio Matte and Marmaduque Grove were arrested and exiled to Easter Island. Some authors consider this date as the true end of the socialist republic.  With army support, Carlos Dávila, proclaimed himself provisional President of the “Socialist Republic of Chile”. At the same time he declared a state of emergency, press censorship, and a host of centrally-planned economic measures. Nonetheless, the lack of military and public opinion support forced him to resign on September 13, 1932. The office was passed onto General Bartolomé Blanche, who was replaced, under threat of a military uprising, by the President of the Supreme Court, Abraham Oyanedel, who immediately called for presidential and congressional elections.

The Socialist Republic of Chile () was a short-lived (June 4, 1932 – September 13, 1932) political entity in Chile, that was proclaimed by the Government Junta that took over that year.

La République socialiste du Chili (en castillan "República Socialista de Chile") est le nom d'un régime politique chilien s'étendant du coup d'État du mené par Carlos Dávila Espinoza, jusqu'au coup d'État du (soit un total de seulement 12 jours).


History.

In March 1967, members of the Segerstrom family, most notably, Harold (Hal) T. Segerstrom, Jr. and cousin, Henry Segerstrom opened a shopping center called "South Coast Plaza" in one of the family's lima bean fields in rapidly growing Orange County. Originally anchored by a May Company that had opened in late 1966 and Sears, the initial phase of the center was designed by Victor Gruen. It was built the same year as The Irvine Company's nearby Fashion Island in Newport Beach.  The success of the center brought rapid expansion: an additional wing with Bullock's in 1973, I. Magnin in 1977, Nordstrom in 1978, and Saks Fifth Avenue in 1979. The opening of the Nordstrom store is considered a seminal event as it was the first Nordstrom store outside of the Pacific Northwest and marked the West Coast and later the nationwide expansion of its chain.  In 1986, the center began opening its largest expansion, with Nordstrom replacing its store with a new location twice the size of the original in May, and the addition of a free-standing wing across Bear Street, identified as "Crystal Court" and anchored by The Broadway and J. W. Robinson's, which opened in the Fall. These two stores were anchors at nearby Fashion Island, but were willing to cannibalize sales at that location due to the strong drawing power of South Coast Plaza. This signified South Coast Plaza's elevation from regional shopping center to national shopping destination. The expansion continued in fall 1987 with an enlargement of Bullock's and the redevelopment of the former Nordstrom as additional center space, including a Tiffany's that opened in fall 1988. The Crystal Court standalone wing never performed as well as the original center, its separation due both to land restrictions and the fact that May Co. and The Broadway routinely refused to allow each other to build stores at their existing centers, which explains the proximity of so many competing malls throughout Southern California.  In 1991, the I. Magnin location was closed by I. Magnin's new owner, Federated Department Stores and reopened as the first standalone Bullock's Men's store, also owned by Federated. May Co. and Robinson's merged in 1993 to form Robinsons-May, retaining both locations as separate full-line stores, while the two Bullock's locations and Broadway store were all renamed Macy's in early 1996, with again like Robinson-May, separate stores being maintained on either side of Bear Street. In 1995, prior to the Federated Department Stores/Broadway Stores merger, Bloomingdale's was in negotiations to build a location at South Coast Plaza, but other anchor tenants would not give permission for its construction. When Federated merged all the stores into its Macy's West division in 1996, it opted to not convert Broadway's Crystal Court location to Bloomingdale's. Another $100,000,000 renovation and reconfiguring of the center came in 2000, with Robinsons-May closing its Crystal Court location and expanding the original May Co. store. The separate Crystal Court name was dropped and the free-standing wing, now called the west wing, was joined to the original center by a -long pedestrian bridge across Bear Street. The west side was reoriented toward home furnishings, anchored by the former Broadway store, which was refurbished as Macy's Home and Furniture. The former J. W. Robinson's store was redeveloped as center space at the time, housing primarily Crate & Barrel, Borders Books and Music, and Sport Chalet.  In March 2006, the Robinsons-May store, historically the first store at South Coast Plaza as the May Company, was closed as part of its merger with Macy's and re-opened as Bloomingdale's in May 2007.  South Coast Plaza is still privately held by the Segerstrom family (and the second largest family-owned center in the United States behind the Mall of America), and so is one of the few shopping centers in the United States that have not been purchased by a Real estate investment trust/REIT.  Sandra (Sandy) Segerstrom Daniels a Managing Partner of C. J. Segerstrom & Sons, founded the Festival of Children Foundation in 2002. The foundation hosts the annual Festival of Children at South Coast Plaza each September.  Festival of Children coincides with the foundation's efforts to recognize September as National Child Awareness Month.

Architecture.

South Coast Plaza has always had a strong design element in its building. One of the most striking additions to the mall was the angular 1973 Bullock's wing designed by Welton Becket and the 1977 I. Magnin wing designed by Frank Gehry. In 1982, Henry Segerstrom commissioned the sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, to design a small plaza at one end of the South-Coast facility. The result, "California Scenario" was an international prizewinner and is enjoyed by visitors and workers from the surrounding office buildings alike. The 1986–1987 expansion introduced postmodern architecture to the mall with a recurring pyramid motif. Chandeliers took the shape of inverted pyramids, and the escalator atrium leading to the center's third floor is loosely modeled after the Grand Gallery of the Pyramid of Khufu. The original Mid-Century modern exteriors of Sears and May Company were redesigned shortly thereafter. In 2000, the pedestrian bridge, known as Bridge of Gardens, and accompanying Garden Terrace were completed by landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson. There are also carousels placed in wide rest areas.  In 2006, Anton Segerstrom decided that the center was well overdue for a remodeling. Construction began in summer 2006 on a $30 million remodeling project to update the center. South Coast Plaza underwent an intense makeover, with Italian ivory marble replacing the original burgundy tile floors, and travertine to surround new water and fountain features. Modern and contemporary oil-rubbed bronze replaced the dated brass side railings and all door/elevator hardware. Construction began in the Bloomingdale's wing, and was completed in time for the 40th anniversary of South Coast Plaza, in the Fall of 2007, just one year later. This is the largest remodel for the center since the construction of the Bridge of Gardens connecting the main building with the Crystal Court in 1999, and the exterior/interior remodel of the West building.

Today.

South Coast Plaza continuously brings in approximately 24 million visitors annually. The shopping center has about of gross leasable area and over 270 stores, making it one of the largest shopping centers in the United States. Its stores generate revenue of nearly 1.5 billion dollars per year, making it the highest-grossing center in the United States.  In 2004, South Coast Plaza received the Federal Trademark as "The Ultimate Shopping Resort".  Many ultra-luxury brands, which have very few boutiques nationwide, have chosen South Coast Plaza as one of their few (and for some brands, their only) store locations. Zara made its debut in the California market opening their first California store in South Coast Plaza in 2004. In 2005, French luxury design house Chloé opted to open their second United States boutique at South Coast Plaza. As of Fall 2008, this is still the only southern California location, with Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills notably absent. Watch Manufacturer Rolex opened their flagship U.S. location at South Coast Plaza. Purveyor of modern furniture Room & Board also opened a showroom in 2002.  Since 2007, South Coast Plaza has held "Fashion Plates", an annual 10-day Restaurant Week-like promotion of its high-end restaurants at discounted rates.  In 2016, Italian designer brand, WEEKEND MaxMara, opened its freestanding store in California.  In July 2017, the Sears store was sold to the mall owners.  On October 15, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 142 stores nationwide. The Sears anchor was closed permanently on January 1, 2019, making it the last original anchor store to close in the mall.  In 2019, Furla opened a new store at South Coast Plaza. This is the first store in the company to open in California.

Location.

The center is adjacent to Interstate 405 in an area called South Coast Metro, which includes portions of the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana. Metro Pointe, an outdoor mall and office complex, is located across the street from South Coast Plaza, as are several high-rise office buildings, hotels, and restaurants, as well as the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

South Coast Plaza is a regional shopping mall in Costa Mesa, California. The largest shopping center on the West Coast of the United States, its sales of over $1.5 billion annually are the highest in the United States. Its 275 retailers represent the highest concentration of design fashion retail in the U.S., with the second highest sales-volume in California at —second only to Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose-Santa Clara, at. The national average is. The mall is anchored by three Macy's stores, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. The South Coast Plaza is the largest shopping mall in California and the 4th largest in the United States.

Le South Coast Plaza est le plus grand centre commercial de la côte ouest des États-Unis, il est situé à Costa Mesa, dans le Comté d'Orange à 50 km au sud du centre-ville de Los Angeles. C'est le troisième centre commercial des États-Unis, en termes de surface de vente, avec m2, après le King of Prussia Mall et le Mall of America.


Geography.

The Southern Patagonia Ice Field extends from parallels 48° 15′ S to 51° 30′ S for approximately, and has an area of, of which roughly fall within Chile and within Argentina.  The ice mass feeds dozens of glaciers in the area, among which are the Upsala (765 km), Viedma (978 km) and Perito Moreno (258 km) in the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina, and the Pío XI Glacier or Bruggen Glacier (1,265 km, the largest in area and longest in the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica), O'Higgins (820 km), Grey (270 km) and Tyndall (331 km) in Chile. The glaciers going to the west flow into the fjords of the Patagonian channels of the Pacific Ocean; those going to the East flow into the Patagonian lakes Viedma and Argentino, and eventually, through the rivers "de la Leona" and Santa Cruz, to the Atlantic Ocean.  An important part of the ice field is protected under different national parks, such as the Bernardo O'Higgins and Torres del Paine in Chile, and the aforementioned Los Glaciares in Argentina.  There are two known volcanoes under the ice field; Lautaro and Viedma. Due to their inaccessibility they are among the least researched volcanoes in Chile and Argentina.

History.

Exploration.

Thorough explorations include the expeditions of Federico Reichert (1913–1914), Alberto de Agostini (1931), and Harold William Tilman and Jorge Quinteros (1955–1956); as well as Eric Shipton (1960–61). The first (North-South) crossing of the field was accomplished in 1998 by Pablo Besser, Mauricio Rojas, José Montt and Rodrigo Fica. Nevertheless, some areas of the field remain largely unexplored  From the air, initial exploration was conducted in 1928–29 by Gunther Plüschow after whom a glacier is named. It was further studied in 1943 by aerial photographs made by the United States Air Force on request of the Chilean government.

Borderline.

Fifty kilometers of the Chile–Argentina border, between Mount Fitz Roy and Cerro Murallón, remain undefined on the ice field.  This Southern Patagonian Ice Field section of the border is the last remaining border issue between Chile and Argentina. On 1 August 1991 the governments of Chile and Argentina agreed on a borderline, but the agreement was never ratified by the Argentine parliament. Later, in 1998, both governments agreed that the line would run along the high peaks and watershed (as specified in their 1941 treaty) northward from Cerro Murallón to a point on a line of latitude due west of "Section B" that was specified in the 1998 agreement a few km southwest of Mt. Fitz roy. However, they also agreed that final demarcation and exact location of the line there would wait until completion of a detailed 1:50,000 scale map of the area and further negotiations. To date, this one section remains the final non-concluded boundary section and an occasional irritant in Argentina-Chile relations.

Controversy.

In 2006, the Argentine "Instituto Geográfico Militar" (IGM) (today "Instituto Geográfico Nacional") edited a map without a note about the nondefined border but showed the Argentine claims as the official borderline. After Chilean diplomatic protests, the Argentine government withdrew the map and urged Chile to expedite the demarcation of the international border that had already been established by both countries in the 1881 treaty. However, many in Chile consider the border to have been established by the "Laudo of 1902," which was an agreement signed "to perpetuity" by both countries under British tutelage. The map published by the British Crown, as part of the documentation of the "Laudo of 1902", illustrates a clear demarcation line (from the Fitz Roy to the Stokes) to the east of the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields leaving most of the territory in question in the Chilean side (Santis, 1995:3–7). That is the cartography used by many international map publishers for many decades, but since 2007, some new international maps show the Argentine claim as the border line.  In January 2008, technicians of both countries began the final demarcation of the border.  In 2018, Argentina made a National Ice Inventory in which are included some disputed glaciers. From September 20 to October 4 of the same year, the Argentine army traveled to into the area that is pending to be demarcated. This caused controversy mainly in Chile where the mayor of Villa O'Higgins denounced the fact as a "provocation" and made a call to the central government of Chile to reinforce the sovereignty in the zone. The head of the Argentine expedition said: "This expedition marks a new precedent with the presence of the Argentine Army in our Southern Ice Field in the middle of that immensity of irregular ice, developing the integration between soldiers from different regions ". The Chancellor Roberto Ampuero lowered the tone to the event and affirmed that neither of the two countries "needs permission to enter that territory. Chile has done it and now it has just done Argentina (...) we have an agreement signed in 1998, which establishes that we are setting which are the borders in the southern zone, near the Ice Field ".  After the Argentine government published its inventory of glaciers including undefined territory the Chilean Foreign Ministry informed that a claim note had already been sent denying the Argentine inventory.  "Regarding the area of the Southern Ice Field, and the way in which it is represented in the National Glacier Inventory of Argentina, the Government of Chile wishes to clarify that, as can be seen from the sources of said Inventory, it has been based on internal cartography of Argentina prior to the “Agreement between the Republic of Chile and the Argentine Republic to specify the route of the limit from Mount Fitz Roy to Cerro Daudet”, 1998, in that sense, it is unenforceable to our country and it does not constitute the basis of the joint work that both countries have been carrying out in relation to the Agreement. Likewise, and precisely in view of the above, it does not call into question the validity of the 1998 Agreement ".  In the demarcation is still pending.

The Southern Patagonian Ice Field ( or ""), located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. It is the bigger of two remnant parts of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, which covered all of southern Chile during the last glacial period, locally called the Llanquihue glaciation.

Le champ de glace Sud de Patagonie (en ou ) est un champ de glace situé en Patagonie. Il se trouve sur la cordillère des Andes méridionale, à la frontière entre l'Argentine et le Chili.


Creation.

The idea to create a Commission for Democracy through Law as a group of experts in constitutional law was conceived by the then Minister for Community Policies of Italy, Antonio Mario La Pergola. The election of the name was based on the theory of La Pergola that expressed that sustainable democracies could only be built in a constitutional framework based on the rule of law.  The formal proposal for the creation of the commission was made by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gianni De Michelis, who invited the other Foreign Affairs ministers of the Council of Europe to the "Conference for the Creation of the European Commission for Democracy through Law" that was held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice from March 31 to April 1, 1989. At this meeting, Foreign Affairs and Justice ministers reunited with representatives of the Constitutional Courts of the 21 countries of the Council of Europe.  The committee of ministers, seeking to assist the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, approved the creation of the Commission as a partial agreement at the session in Venice from January 19 to 20, 1990. The Foreign Affairs and Justice Ministers of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia also participated as observers in this meeting.  On May 10, 1990, ministers from 18 countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey) of the Council of Europe adopted the statute of the Commission.

Member states.

Starting with 18 member states, soon all member states of the Council of Europe joined the Venice Commission and since 2002 non-European states can also become full members. As of 13 July 2014, the Commission counts 60 member states – the 47 member states of the Council of Europe and 13 other countries. Belarus is an associate member and there are five observers. The Palestinian National Authority and South Africa have a special co-operation status similar to that of the observers. The EU, OSCE/ODIHR and IACL/AIDC (International Association of Constitutional Law / ) participate in the plenary sessions of the Commission.

Members.

The members are "senior academics, particularly in the fields of constitutional or international law, supreme or constitutional court judges or members of national parliaments". Acting on the Commission in their individual capacity, the members are appointed for four years by the participating countries. The current and former members include, amongst other notable academics and judges:

President.

The president of the Commission, since December 2009, is its former Secretary General Mr Gianni Buquicchio, whilst his predecessor, Mr Jan Erik Helgesen, Professor at the University of Oslo, is elected 1st Vice-President. The new Secretary General of the Commission, who is the head of the Commission's secretariat at the Council of Europe's headquarters in Strasbourg, France, is Mr Thomas Markert.  The main focus of the work of the Venice Commission is on draft constitutions and constitutional amendments but the Commission also covers para-constitutional law, i.e. laws which are close to the Constitution, such as minority legislation or electoral law.  Requests for opinions come from the participating states and the organs of the Council of Europe or international organisations or bodies participating in the Venice Commission's work. The opinions adopted by the Commission are not binding but are mostly followed by member states.  The areas of the Commission's activities are as follows:

Democratic institutions and fundamental rights.

The Venice Commission's primary task is to assist and advise individual countries in constitutional matters in order to improve functioning of democratic institutions and the protection of human rights. Already in 1991 the Commission helped in creating the first democratic Constitution of Romania since 1947. In 2012, in an invited Opinion, the Venice Commission expressed several criticisms of church-related legislation in Hungary.

Working method.

The working method adopted by the Commission when providing opinions is to appoint a working group of rapporteurs (primarily from amongst its members) which advises national authorities in the preparation of the relevant law. After discussions with the national authorities and stakeholders in the country, the working group prepares a draft opinion on whether the legislative text meets the democratic standards in its field and on how to improve it on the basis of common experience. The draft opinion is discussed and adopted by the Venice Commission during a plenary session, usually in the presence of representatives from that country. After adoption, the opinion becomes public and is forwarded to the requesting body.

Non-directive approach.

Although its opinions are generally reflected in the adopted legislation, the Venice Commission does not impose its solutions, but adopts a non-directive approach based on dialogue. For this reason the working group, as a rule, visits the country concerned and meets with the different political actors involved in the issue in order to ensure the most objective view of the situation.

Conflict resolution by providing legal advice.

A political agreement settling a conflict should be supported by a viable legal text. It may also be possible for an agreement on a legal text to foster a political solution. For this reason the Venice Commission pays particular attention to countries which are going through or have gone through ethno-political conflicts. In this context, at the European Union's request, the Venice Commission has played an important role in developing and interpreting the constitutional law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro as well as that of Kosovo. It has also been involved in efforts to settle the conflicts on the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova.  The Commission drafts opinions, initiates studies and organises conferences inter alia on:

Elections, referendums and political parties.

The work of the Commission in the field of elections, referendums and political parties is steered by the Council for Democratic Elections (CDE). The CDE is made up of representatives of the Venice Commission, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. The aim of the Council for Democratic Elections is to ensure co-operation in the electoral field between the Venice Commission as a legal body and the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of the Council of Europe as political bodies in charge of election observation, in order to promote the European common values in this field – the principles of the European electoral heritage.  The Commission identifies and develops standards in the area of elections through:

Constitutional and ordinary justice.

Another branch of the Commission's activities includes co-operation with the constitutional courts and equivalent bodies. Since its creation, the Venice Commission has been aware that it is not sufficient to assist the states in the adoption of democratic constitutions but that these texts have to be implemented in reality. Key players in this field are constitutional courts and equivalent bodies exercising constitutional jurisdiction.  Cooperation with Constitutional Courts, ordinary courts and ombudspersons is done by means of:

Transnational studies, reports and seminars.

The Commission's transnational activities enable it to carry out the main duties laid down in its Statute, which are to improve the functioning of democratic institutions, knowledge of legal systems and understanding of the legal culture of countries working with it.  While most of the work of the Commission is country specific, the Commission also prepares, through its own initiative and at request of outside bodies such as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, studies and reports addressing topics of general interest in the member and observer states. Transnational topics are also covered in the Unidem seminars (University for Democracy) and published in the Science and Technique of Democracy collection.

Comparative studies.

Comparative studies on topics to do with the functioning of democracy offer initial overviews of the law in various countries. Such a comparative approach then makes it possible to identify constitutional values that are shared throughout Europe and, where relevant, any areas of weakness. The third stage is that of harmonisation, in which, on the basis of Commission recommendations, the principles concerned are incorporated into the law of those countries where they have not yet been established.

UniDem (University for Democracy) seminars.

The UniDem seminars bring leading specialists from the political and academic worlds and constitutional courts (or equivalent bodies) and the Commission into contact with, for example, a specific university or constitutional court. Reports are presented on particular countries or specific aspects of the topics under discussion. By allowing exchanges between specialists from a variety of backgrounds, the UniDem seminars help to define the rules common to democratic states in which human rights and the rule of law are respected.

Positions taken.

Blasphemy.

In 2009, the Venice Commission attracted rare news coverage for its opinion that "blasphemy should not be illegal".

Elections: boundary delimitation.

As part of its report, "European Commission for Democracy Through Law: Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, Guidelines and Explanatory Reports adopted October 2002", the Venice Commission recommended a number of considerations, also when dealing with issues of boundary delimitation.

Action against Poland.

In December 2017, the Venice Commission published a report where, invoking Article 7 of the founding treaty, the Commission threatened Poland with losing its voting rights after the Polish government attempted measures to reshape and control the Supreme Court of Poland.

Legislation on religious freedoms in Montenegro.

Since 2015, the Venice Commission was included in process of legislative reform and regulation of various legal issues related to religious freedoms and rights of religious communities in Montenegro. First opinion of the VC on the initial draft law on freedom of religion in Montenegro, was issued in November 2015. It was followed by a prolonged period of internal consultations and additional deliberations in Montenegro, resulting in the creation of a new draft law, that was followed by another opinion of the VC, issued in June 2019, recommending various improvements and clarifications.

The European Commission for Democracy through Law is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, at a time of urgent need for constitutional assistance in Central and Eastern Europe. Due to its meeting place in Venice, Italy, where sessions take place four times a year, it is usually referred to as the Venice Commission.

La Commission européenne pour la démocratie par le droit, aussi appelée commission de Venise, est un organe consultatif du Conseil de l’Europe composé d'experts indépendants en droit constitutionnel. Elle a été créée en 1990, après la chute du mur de Berlin, à une période où une aide constitutionnelle était nécessaire pour les États d'Europe centrale et orientale.