Charvet (fabric)

 A charvet fabric is woven of silk or acetate in warp-faced rib weave, of a reversed reps type with a double ridge effect. The fabric's name derives from its frequent and "clever" use in the 19th century by the Parisian shirtmaker Charvet. It is characterized by a soft handle and shiny appearance. It also drapes well. The bindings create a herringbone effect parallel to the warp, which make this weave suitable for creating faint diagonal stripe effects for ties, for which the fabric is cut on the bias. Patterns on this base are often made with supplementary weft. The fabric has also been used for mufflers, scarves and robes.
This weave is based on the "Régence" weave, a kind of reps with all weft raised on the backside, which was popular during the regency of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (lasting from 1715 to 1723). In the United States, at the end of the 19th century, the term was used in a broader sense, to describe either fabrics "extremely dainty in construction and effect" or silk shirtings. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the weave is rather found in solid fabrics for semi formal wear.
By extension, the term is also used in knitting for a certain kind of bias striping, going up from left to right.


Thomas Whitty

Thomas Whitty (1713–1792) was an English carpet manufacturer who founded Axminster Carpets in 1755.
Whitty was impressed by a large Turkish carpet he saw at Cheapside Market in London, and upon his return to Axminster he used his skills as a weaver to work out how to produce a product of similar quality. After several months work he completed his first carpet on midsummer's day 1755. His carpets were then chosen by wealthy aristocrats to have in their English country homes and town houses. Axminster Carpets were produced for the music room of the Brighton Royal Pavilion, Saltram House, Warwick Castle, Chatsworth House and in 1800 for the Sultan of Turkey.
King George III and Queen Charlotte purchased Axminster carpets and also visited the factory which dominated the English carpet market between 1755 and 1835 when Samuel Rampson Whitty, the grandson of the founder was declared bankrupt following a disastrous fire seven years earlier which destroyed the weaving looms.
Blackmores of Wilton, near Salisbury, bought the remaining stock and looms and extended their business to include hand-knotted carpets which were still called Axminsters.


Needlepoint

Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of counted thread embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern. Needlepoint is the oldest form of canvas work.
The degree of detail in needlepoint depends on the thread count of the underlying mesh fabric. Due to the inherent lack of suppleness of needlepoint, common uses include eyeglass cases, holiday ornaments, pillows, purses, upholstery, and wall hangings.
History.
The roots of needlepoint go back thousands of years to the ancient Egyptians, who used small slanted stitches to sew up their canvas tents. Howard Carter, of Tutankhamen fame, found some needlepoint in the cave of a Pharaoh who had lived around 1500 BC.
Modern needlepoint descends from the canvas work in tent stitch, done on an evenly woven open ground fabric that was a popular domestic craft in the 16th century.
Further development of needlepoint was influenced in the 17th century by Bargello and in the 19th century by shaded Berlin wool work in brightly colored wool yarn. Upholstered furniture became fashionable in the 17th century, and this prompted the development of a more durable material to serve as a foundation for the embroidered works of art. In 18th century America, needlepoint was used as a preparatory skill to train young women to sew their own clothing.
Terminology.
When referring to handcrafted textile arts which a speaker is unable to identify, the appropriate generalized term is "needlework". The first recorded use of the term needlepoint is in 1869, as a synonym for point-lace. Mrs Beeton's "Beeton's Book of Needlework" (1870) does not use the term "needlework", but rather describes "every kind of stitch which is made upon canvas with wool, silk or beads" as Berlin Work (also spelled Berlinwork). Berlin Work refers to a subset of needlepoint, popular in the mid-19th Century that was stitched in brightly colored wool on needlepoint canvas from hand-colored charts.
"Needlepoint" refers to a particular set of stitching techniques worked upon stiff openwork canvas.
However, "needlepoint" is not synonymous with all types of embroidery. Because it is stitched on a fabric that is an open grid, needlepoint is not embellishing a fabric, as is the case with most other types of embroidery, but literally the making of a new fabric. It is for this reason that many needlepoint stitches must be of sturdier construction than other embroidery stitches.
Needlepoint is often referred to as "tapestry" in the United Kingdom and sometimes as "canvas work". However, needlepoint—which is stitched on canvas mesh—differs from true tapestry—which is woven on a vertical loom. When worked on fine weave canvas in tent stitch, it is also known as "petit point". Additionally, "needlepoint lace" is also an older term for needle lace, an historic lace-making technique.
Contemporary techniques.
Materials.
The thread used for stitching may be wool, silk, cotton or combinations, such as wool-silk blend. Variety fibers may also be used, such as metallic cord, metallic braid, ribbon, or raffia. Stitches may be plain, covering just one thread intersection with a single orientation, or fancy, such as in bargello or other counted-thread stitches. Plain stitches, known as tent stitches, may be worked as basketweave, continental or half cross. Basketweave uses the most wool, but does not distort the rectangular mesh and makes for the best-wearing piece.
Several types of embroidery canvas are available: single thread and double thread embroidery canvas are open even-weave meshes, with large spaces or holes to allow heavy threads to pass through without fraying. Canvas is sized by mesh sizes, or thread count per inch. Sizes vary from 5 threads per inch to 24 threads per inch; popular mesh sizes are 10, 12, 14, 18, and 24. The different types of needlepoint canvas available on the market are interlock, mono, penelope, plastic, and rug.
Frames and hoops.
Needlepoint canvas is stretched on a scroll frame or tacked onto a rectangular wooden frame to keep the work taut during stitching. Petit point is sometimes worked in a small embroidery hoop rather than a scroll frame.
Patterns.
Commercial designs for needlepoint may be found in different forms: hand-painted canvas, printed canvas, trammed canvas, charted canvas, and free-form.
In hand-painted canvas, the design is painted on the canvas by the designer, or painted to their specifications by an employee or contractor. Canvases may be stitch-painted, meaning each thread intersection is painstakingly painted so that the stitcher has no doubts about what color is meant to be used at that intersection. Alternatively, they may be hand-painted, meaning that the canvas is painted by hand but the stitcher will have to use their judgment about what colors to use if a thread intersection is not clearly painted. Hand-painted canvases allow the stitcher to give free range to their creativity with threads and unique stitches by not having to pay attention to a separate chart. In North America this is the most popular form of needlepoint canvas.
Printed canvas is when the design is printed by silk screening or computer onto the needlepoint canvas. Printing the canvas in this means allows for faster creation of the canvas and thus has a lower price than Hand-Painted Canvas. However, care must be taken that the canvas is straight before being printed to ensure that the edges of the design are straight. Designs are typically less involved due to the limited color palette of this printing method. The results (and the price) of printed canvas vary extensively. Often printed canvases come as part of kits, which also dramatically vary in quality, based on the printing process and the materials used. This form of canvas is widely available outside North America.
On a trammed canvas the design is professionally stitched onto the canvas by hand using horizontal stitches of varying lengths of wool of the appropriate colours. The canvas is usually sold together with the wool required to stitch the trammed area. The stitcher then uses tent stitch over the horizontal lines with the trame stitches acting as an accurate guide as to the colour and number of stitches required. This technique is particularly suited to designs with a large area of mono-colour background as such areas do not require tramming, reducing the cost of the canvas and allowing the stitcher to choose the background colour themselves. The Portuguese island of Madeira is the historic centre for the manufacture of trammed canvases.
Charted canvas designs are available in book or leaflet form. They are available at book stores and independent needlework stores. Charted Canvas designs are typically printed in two ways: either in grid form with each thread intersection being represented with a symbol that shows what color is meant to be stitched on that intersection, or as a line drawing where the stitcher is to trace the design onto his canvas and then fill in those areas with the colors listed. Books typically include a grouping of designs from a single designer such as Kaffe Fassett or Candace Bahouth, or may be centered on a theme such as Christmas or Victorian Needlepoint. Leaflets usually include one to two designs and are usually printed by the individual designer.
Free-form needlepoint designs are created by the stitcher. They may be based around a favorite photograph, stitch, thread color, etc. The stitcher just starts stitching! Many interesting pieces are created this way. It allows for the addition of found objects, appliqué, computer-printed photographs, goldwork, or specialty stitches.
While traditionally needlepoint has been done to create a solid fabric, more modern needlepoint incorporates colored canvas, a variety of fibers and beadwork. Different stitching techniques also allow some of the unstitched, or lightly stitched, canvas to show through, adding an entirely new dimension to needlepoint work. Some of these techniques include "shadow" or "light" stitching, blackwork on canvas, and pattern darning.
Needlepoint continues to evolve as stitchers use new techniques and threads, and add appliqué or found materials. The line between needlepoint and other forms of embroidery is becoming blurred as new stitchers adapt techniques and materials from other forms of embroidery to needlepoint.
Famous needlepointers.
Historical and political figures.
Royal needlepointers include: Mary, Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette, Queen Elizabeth I, Princess Grace. In fact, the American Needlepoint Guild has established a Princess Grace Award (Needlepoint) for needlepoint completed entirely in tent stitch. (This award is not formally associated with the Princess Grace Foundation which presents the "Princess Grace Awards".)
An American historical figure who was an avid needlepointer is Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington.
Modern celebrities.
American football player Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier released a book titled "Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men" (1973) that shows Grier stitching and samples of his work.
Actress Mary Martin's book "Mary Martin's Needlepoint" (1969) catalogues her works and provides needlework tips.
The American actress Sylvia Sidney sold needlepoint kits featuring her designs, and she published two popular instruction books: "Sylvia Sidney's Needlepoint Book" and "The Sylvia Sidney Question and Answer Book on Needlepoint".
The MTV documentary "9 Days and 9 Nights with Ed Sheeran" (2014) revealed that Taylor Swift made Sheeran a Drake-themed needlepoint as a friendship gesture.
Actress Loretta Swit's book, "A Needlepoint Scrapbook" (1986), includes a design for Ms. Pac-Man.
Needlepoint stitches.
Most commercial needlework kits recommend one of the variants of tent stitch, although Victorian cross stitch and random long stitch are also used. Authors of books of needlepoint designs sometimes use a wider range of stitches. Historically, a very wide range of stitches have been used including:
There are many books that teach readers how to create hundreds, if not thousands, of stitches. Some were written by famous stitchers, such as Mary Martin and Sylvia Sydney. However, the most popular and long-lived is "The Needlepoint Book" by Jo Ippolito Christensen, Simon & Schuster. First published in 1976 by Prentice-Hall, the widely distributed text has been continuously in print and was revised in 2015. Over 425,000 copies have been sold as of 2017. It contains 436 stitches and 1680 illustrations in 560 pages.
In popular culture.
A needlepoint stitched by Cullen Bohannon's murdered wife, Mary, is referred to repeatedly throughout "Hell on Wheels" season 1. For example, in episode 2, "Immoral Mathematics" (November 13, 2011), Bohannon flashes back to seeing Mary stitching the needlepoint; in episode 3, "A New Birth of Freedom"(November 20, 2011), Bohannon finds a piece of that finished needlework in the personal effects of the now-deceased foreman, Daniel Johnson (who in the previous episode had admitted to being part of the Union outfit that raped and killed Mary); and in episode 4, "Jamais je ne t'oublierai" (November 27, 2011), the inebriated Bohannon realizes he's lost the needlepoint, and he gets into a fight with Bolan, when the latter tauntingly reveals that he has the swatch.
Examples.
A famous example of a large carpet worked in canvas work is the Bradford carpet which is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.


Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello

Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello, also known as Romeyne Robert (New York, 16 October 1877 – Perugia, 22 January 1951), was an aristocrat and businesswoman, originally from the United States. She was a member of the Ranieri Bourbon di Sorbello family.
Family and education background.
Romeyne Robert belonged to a wealthy family of the United States upper bourgeoisie with ancient French Huguenot roots, originally from La Rochelle (Charente Maritime, France), which settled in America around the end of the 17th century: the first member of this family who travelled to Italy was Judge Daniel Robert, in 1686. In the nineteenth century the family began to accumulate a substantial fortune, as a result of well-managed business activities; more specifically Christopher Rhinelander Robert (1802–1878), Romeyne's grandfather, was a prosperous businessman, who  ̶  in 1835 – founded the company Robert & Williams, for the import of sugar, tea and coffee. A religious man and dedicated philanthropist, in 1863 he established the Robert College in Istanbul, an institution to which he left a substantial legacy and which became an important advanced training centre in the Near East, as well as a monument to American philanthropy.
Howell Robert (1844–1914), Christopher's son, married Charlotte Shaw (1841–1940), a second cousin of the writer, playwright, linguist and musical critic George Bernard Shaw. They had three daughters, but only Romeyne lived to become an adult.
Romeyne grew between Germantown, near Philadelphia and Morristown in New Jersey. A cultured young woman, great enthusiast of music and theatre and fluent in four languages, she travelled extensively across Europe with her parents, and continued her education there. In 1901 during a trip to Italy with her mother Charlotte, in Rome, she met her future husband: marquis Ruggero Ranieri di Sorbello (1864–1946), whom she married in 1902. She then moved permanently to Perugia, at Palazzo Sorbello, an aristocratic residence in town, historically property of her husband's family.
The "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello".
Romeyne became active in the area of philanthropy and social promotion, following the model inaugurated by the "settlement movement", established in England around the end of the 20th century, which later developed also in major cities along the north-east coast of the United States. The indigent communities living in what were known as settlement houses, funded by men and women from this movement, benefited from educational and welfare projects; this also included the development – particularly among immigrant women – of artistic and professional training, often with an ideal link to the Arts and Crafts movement, which had also reached England from the United States and whose purpose was the promotion of arts and the industry, creating products of high artistic value, highlighting the artisan experience by reproducing motifs and drawings related to the past, more specifically to the Renaissance period. These artefacts were actually the subject not only of great artistic interest, but also involved a flourishing market of collectors and enthusiasts.
Following this model, Romeyne then decided to set up at Villa del Pischiello, on the estate of the Ranieri di Sorbello family, in the hilly area around Lake Trasimeno, a school of embroidery, which later became known as "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello".
For this project of hers, she availed herself of support from Carolina Amari (Florence, 9 September 1866 – Rome, 11 August 1942), one of the outstanding figures within the women's emancipation movement which started in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, based on the model of what was happening at the time in the Anglo-Saxon world. Carolina Amari, an extremely cultured woman, with great sensitivity and philanthropic interest, also provided the necessary artistic and technical guidance to establish the cooperative called "Industrie Femminili Italiane" (1903), with the aim of supporting or developing workshops and embroidery and lace-making activities throughout Italy; this led to rediscovering an artistic technique by then in decline. Being also well known in the United States for her artistic interpretation on fabric of medieval and Renaissance patterns, as well as for her technical dexterity, in partnership with Florence Colgate and Gino Speranza, in 1905 she contributed to setting up in New York the "Scuola d'Industrie Italiane", whose purpose was to help immigrant women find meaningful employment by producing and selling embroidered and lace items.
The partnership between Romeyne and Carolina Amari encompassed both the artistic and the business side, with a view to implementing many of the methods promoted by the company I.F.I., resulting in a successful business, from both an entrepreneurial and a social perspective, as source of employment, income and emancipation for young female farm labourers in the areas around Lake Trasimeno, who worked there as embroiderers. The school workshop was inaugurated in 1904 with eight embroiderers; ten years later it employed eighty women, and between 1928 and 1933 at least one hundred and fifty.
Work procedures in the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello".
All the women who lived in the areas around the villa and who had an interest in contributing to supporting the family, or who wished to set aside resources, thus becoming independent from male figures, could enrol in this "vocational school", where they could learn a trade. Each of the female workers was assigned a specific task, which had to be completed independently, without divulging information about the possible techniques learnt and employed there. All this led to training a specialised female workforce, as well as allowing for a unique end product. The work was done from home, passing through the hands of several women, each of them performing their specific task, the same as on an actual "assembly line". Once the finished item was delivered, the job completed was recorded in a pocket-sized log-book, which was indeed one of the first examples of "worker’s personal card", one of which was given to each female staff member. On a set day of the month, in the presence of the Marchioness and of an accountant, the women went to the villa and were paid for the work they had done; it was then Romeyne herself who encouraged them to open an account with the Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia where they could pay in their earnings.
The female staff had the chance to learn, or perfect, several more or less popular embroidery stitches; following a social welfare concept, though, they were not only engaged in their work: many of them also learned to read and write, as well as acquiring basic personal hygiene and cleaning skills, which were also required on the job.
Romeyne, as well as being head of the school, often prepared patterns for embroidering: she had studied art and drawing, therefore she was skilled at reproducing on sketchbooks the ornaments and friezes she saw on architectural structures, artefacts or painted images. She was also inspired by the ancient embroideries she saw in the collection owned by Countess Edith Rucellai in Florence, which she used to create a pattern based on a medieval-Renaissance taste concept, with distinctive curls, floral panoplies, animal and anthropomorphic figures. Starting from her preparatory sketches, it was then the task of Carolina Amari to produce more stylised drawings, then copied out on paper patterns for the embroiderers who finally reproduced the subject using several types of stitch.
The point of pride, as well as original creation at the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" was the so-called "Punto Sorbello" or "Umbro Antico": officially patented by the Marchioness, it was actually the result of restyling by Carolina Amari of traditional stitches and embroideries of Arab origin, widespread both in Italy and in Portugal. It was usually stitched on rough cloth, and consisted of various types of overlapping needlepoint (using stitches known as curly, witch, grass, entwined, full, scallop, etc.), which resulted in an ideal relief effect. Starting in 1908, the products were made almost exclusively on valuable linen fabric woven in the "Tela Umbra" workshop, founded in Città di Castello in 1908 by Baroness Alice Hallgarten Franchetti, a friend of Romeyne's with whom she started a profitable business arrangement.
As entrepreneur and "promoter" of her own business, Romeyne started to take part in numerous trade fairs and exhibitions, for example the international "Industries and Labour " show in 1911 in Turin, proving highly successful. The demand for embroideries from her school increased considerably in Italy, but most notably in Europe and in America: foreign markets were indeed the source of most of its revenues.
Based on this experience, the Marchioness decided to encourage the establishment of other similar vocational schools, which, with more or less difficulty, were being opened in the region. This is how, in 1921, a partnership was created with other women from the Perugia aristocracy, resulting in the Cooperative called “Arti Decorative Italiane", to which the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" became affiliated and which was active until 1929. The end of this syndicated organisation was mainly due to the economic collapse caused by the Great Depression in the United States, which led to a considerable reduction in orders, bringing down the requests for some textile articles to almost zero because of the exorbitant customs duties being imposed.
The school remained open until 1934. For several years Carolina Amari, by then advanced in age, had no longer been its artistic director, the position having been assigned to Amelia Pompili. Having officially ceased all her activities, Marchioness Romeyne decided to gather in her Perugia residence at Palazzo Sorbello all of the unsold artefacts, creating a collection with a large number of items produced both in the embroidery workshop she had inaugurated, and in other affiliated schools from the area. The idea behind this was presumably preventing someone from continuing to produce embroideries in the style known as "Sorbello stitch", whose quality might not be up to the standards which she had set, thus inevitably devaluing a result which had taken more than 30 years to achieve.
Today some examples of the embroideries made by the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" are kept in 4 museums: Casa Museo di Palazzo Sorbello (Perugia, Italy), Museum of the "Tela Umbra" (Città di Castello, Italy), Museum of the embroidery of Bologna (Bologna, Italy), Cooper Hewitt Museum (New York City).
Her teaching effort: the Pischiello rural school.
The commitment on the part of Marchioness Romeyne Robert in the area of philanthropy was not limited to the embroidery school, it also took the concrete form of a teaching project aimed at improving the living conditions of children from the rural areas of Pischiello; this project began with the opening of the first primary school at Pischiello, founded by Romeyne in 1903 using several rooms in one wing of the Villa del Pischiello.
This school was officially opened on 19 December 1903; it consisted of three co-ed forms, with one class for each grade, and had twenty-seven pupils in the school year 1903–1904, whose age ranged between nine and twelve Starting in 1907 the school also took on children resident in the municipality of Passignano sul Trasimeno, with the latter renting some classrooms through an annual concession free of charge granted by Romeyne's husband, Ruggero Ranieri di Sorbello. From that moment onwards the teachers, who initially had no specific teaching qualifications, began to be recruited by means of a public competition organized by the Municipality of Passignano.
Having realised the backwardness of living conditions of farmers in the area, as well as the insufficient educational offer by the Pischiello facility for dealing with this situation, Romeyne decided to experiment with the Montessori method, following the virtuous example of her friend Baroness Alice Hallgarten Franchetti (1874–1911), also of American origin and wife of the Baron and senator of the Kingdom of Italy Leopoldo Franchetti. The Montessori method played an essential role in the development of the Pischiello school towards a more structured set-up.
The friendship with Alice Hallgarten Franchetti and the meeting with Maria Montessori.
Romeyne Robert and Alice Franchetti attended the same intellectual and feminist circles in Rome, as well as sharing the same ideals of social renewal. They had a very close friendship, not just as regards the artisan workshops they managed ("Tela Umbra" for Alice, "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" for Romeyne), but also because of their profitable cooperation in fostering the primary schools which they had both started in their respective country residences.
Already in 1901 Alice Hallgarten Franchetti had decided to set up a school using some of the rooms on the second floor at Villa della Montesca, the Franchetti country residence near Città di Castello. Shortly after that, a second rural school was opened in the small village of Rovigliano. The relevant syllabus projects were compiled by Baroness Franchetti herself, then perfected with the help of important personalities in the area of modern pedagogy, including the British teacher Lucy Latter. In 1907, Baron and Baroness Franchetti contributed to opening the first "Casa dei Bimbi" in Rome and, after having personally met the pedagogy expert from the Marche region Maria Montessori in the home of the writer Sibilla Aleramo, decided to support her concretely by inviting her to stay at Villa Montesca for the summer of 1909. It was during her stay in Città di Castello that Maria Montessori put down in writing what would become the first edition of her celebrated "Metodo", dedicating her work to Baron and Baroness Franchetti. During the same period she also held the first teachers’ training course with focus on the Montessori method at Palazzo Alberti-Tomassini, headquarters of the Tela Umbra workshop in Città di Castello. After this course, Baroness Franchetti inaugurated a "Casa dei Bambini" at Villa Montesca.
Thanks to mediation by Alice, Romeyne Robert had a chance to meet both Maria Montessori and the teacher Felicitas Buchner at Villa Wolkonsky in Rome in 1909. The  Montessori method, initially "tested" on request of the Marchioness directly on her three children (Gian Antonio, Uguccione and Lodovico), was then applied to teaching in the rural primary school at Pischiello just three months after the meeting with the illustrious pedagogy expert: in June 1909 the Pischiello school appeared to be fully equipped and operational following Maria Montessori's theories. In December that same year, an official request arrived for items and photographic documentation for the Universal Exhibition in Brussels in 1910 from the Municipality of Passignano: there was very little time to deliver these materials, therefore the Italian Ministry for Public Education decided not to take part, expressing the intention of using the teaching documentation as part of a national exhibition scheduled for 1911 to celebrate fifty years after Italian unification.
Starting in the 1920s the Pischiello school started a transformation process from rural school to subsidiary school, according to the classification of experimental schools opened in 1912 by Conte Eugenio Faina, initially in his estates for the training of farmers, and then in various Italian regions, under the coordination of the Ente Nazionale per la Scuola Rurale. Opening of the subsidiary school at Pischiello was authorised in 1927, but lessons there started only in the school year 1930–31. The shift towards this new educational trend, however, did not coincide with a change in the intentions of the Marchioness, who persevered in her wish to support disadvantaged children by paying personally the enrolment fee in the Opera Nazionale Balilla for the whole school in 1933; this meant that even the children whose family was worst off, could have access to free material assistance and school meals.
The rural school at Pischiello officially closed in 1967 because there were too few pupils enrolled.
World War Two and her final years.
During the difficult years after Italy entered the Second World War, Romeyne and her husband Ruggero, who was by then nearly eighty years old and in poor health, went to stay at Castello di Sorbello, a family residence in Sant’Andrea di Sorbello, in the Municipality of Cortona. Romeyne's three children, after the armistice was signed by General Badoglio in 1943, used their forces in the service of allied troops; they were thus accused of anti-fascist activities and collaboration with the enemy: Uguccione joined the intelligence service of the Allies, known as IS9 (or also as A-Force), in an effort to save disbanded Allied forces beyond enemy lines; he was followed in this venture by his brother Lodovico. Giovanni Antonio, the eldest of the three brothers, after Italy's Liberation was appointed "Vice-prefetto" by the Allied Military Government, with the specific assignment of rebuilding roads and bridges in the province, a position which he held from July 1944 to January 1945.
From January to May 1944, Castello di Sorbello was occupied by the German army, then liberated by British Allied troops. Despite the German occupation, Romeyne managed to hide in some rooms of the buildings of the large mansion several British officers for about ten days, thereby making sure that their presence did not become known in the valley. Being a very assertive woman, she succeeded in ensuring the release of her husband, following the arrest by Fascist supporters of the Republic of Salò acting upon an order by the Head of the Province, Armando Rocchi, who tried in vain to make him confess where his three sons were hiding.
At the end of the war, Romeyne travelled to the United States for a holiday, the first time she had done so since her marriage: even though she had always been an enthusiastic traveller, the routes she followed had mostly been within the borders of Italy and the rest of the European continent, either for pleasure or to promote products made at the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello".
Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello died on 22 January 1951. She was laid to rest in the monumental cemetery of Perugia. On 27 January 1951, an article published in the newspaper "Il Mattino del Centro Italia", praised her business success and commitment to a social and teaching mission.


Pets.com sock puppet


Jeanne Renaud

Jeanne Renaud (born August 27, 1928) is a Canadian dancer, choreographer and artistic director. She is considered to be one of the founders of modern dance in Quebec. Born in Montreal, Renaud studied music at the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy. She trained in classical ballet with Elizabeth Leese and in modern dance with Gérald Crevier in Montreal. She went on to study with Merce Cunningham, Hanya Holm and Mary Anthony in New York City. In 1948, she gave a recital with Françoise Sullivan in Montreal. She taught dance in Paris from 1949 to 1954. In 1952, she joined with Les Automatistes who had left Quebec for Paris to present a performance at the American Club there. From 1959 to 1965, she was associated with Françoise Riopelle at the École de Danse Moderne de Montréal as dancer, teacher and choreographer. In 1966, she founded Le Groupe de la Place Royale, the first official modern dance company in Quebec, with Peter Boneham; she was dancer, choreographer, artistic director and administrator for Le Groupe until 1972.
After leaving Le Groupe, from 1971 to 1975, with Ed Kostiner, she operated Galerie III, a space for contemporary visual art, theatre, music and dance. She next worked for the Canada Council, then the Quebec Ministère des affaires culturelles and then was head of the Conservatoire d'art dramatique du Québec for both Montreal and Quebec City. From 1985 to 1987, she was artistic director with Linda Stearns for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. From 1987 to 1989, she taught in the dance department of the Université du Québec à Montréal, retiring in the latter year.
She was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier in 1989 and, in 1995, the Governor General's Award for the Performing Arts. In 1998, she was named to the Order of Canada.
Renaud married Jean-Pierre Labrecque around 1948; the couple had a daughter and a son. They separated in the early 1970s.
The writer Thérèse Renaud and the artist Louise Renaud were her sisters.


La fuga in maschera

La fuga in maschera is a comic opera by Gaspare Spontini premiered in the Carnival season in Naples in 1800 at the Teatro Nuovo. The work was thought lost but found in 2007 and given its modern premiere at Jesi’s Teatro Pergolesi in 2012. The opera is scored for 2 oboes, 1 clarinet, 1 bassoon, 2 horns, strings and basso continuo.


Albert Yonathan Setyawan

Albert Yonathan Setyawan (born in Bandung, Indonesia, 1983) is an Indonesian contemporary ceramic artist, living in Japan.
Early life and education.
Setyawan studied ceramics at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and Kyoto Seika University.
Work.
Setyawan's work investigates the transitory nature of existence. Setyawan works mainly with ceramics, as well as video, installation, drawing and performance.
In his ceramic work, he produces hundreds or thousands of organic or geometric forms by hand that are installed on walls or floors—”exalted aggregations” that resemble labyrinths or mandalas.
Setyawan's use of repetition through aesthetic forms as well as the repetitive labor of the handmade slip-casting process emphasize a meditative aspect in his work, which he relates back to factory-produced ceramics where slip-casting is used.
Exhibitions.
Setyawan was one of five artists exhibited in the Indonesian pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013
Setyawan was featured in the Sunshower exhibition at Mori Art Museum in 2017
Pola Museum Annex held a solo show of Setyawan’s works in 2017
His work featured at Echigo Tsumari Art Field in 2018
Setyawan was in a two-person show with Aiko Miyanaga in 2018 at Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
His work was included in the Contemporary Worlds exhibition at National Gallery Australia in 2019


Tommy (original cast recording)


Laura Leighton

Laura Diane Leighton (born July 24, 1968) is an American actress. She played Sydney Andrews on the television series "Melrose Place" (1993–1997) and its remake (2009–2010), and Ashley Marin on Freeform's series "Pretty Little Liars" (2010–2017).
Career.
In the early 1990s, Leighton's first on-screen jobs were in a commercial for Pizza Hut and Dep Hair Gel before taking her first major acting role as Sydney Andrews in the prime time soap opera "Melrose Place". The part was originally intended for only two episodes in season 1, but was eventually developed into a full-time role for the subsequent seasons 2 to 5 (1993–97). During the show's run, Leighton appeared on numerous magazine covers (including "Entertainment Weekly" and "Rolling Stone and People"). Leighton left the show at the end of the fifth season in 1997, which saw her character Sydney being struck and seemingly killed by a car, only moments after her wedding to Craig Field played by David Charvet.
During breaks while filming "Melrose Place", Leighton starred in the made-for-television films, "In the Name of Love: A Texas Tragedy for FOX" as Laurette Wilder, a woman from a poor background who falls for a rich man to the disgust of his grandparents, and "The Other Woman" for CBS as Carolyn Bryan, a newly married model who finds herself making friends with her husband's dying ex-wife. She also hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in 1995 with musical guest Rancid.
After leaving "Melrose Place" in 1997 at the end of her contract, Leighton accepted a six-episode role on "Beverly Hills, 90210". Aaron Spelling created the role of aspiring actress Sophie Burns for her, and she reportedly received a six-figure salary per episode. In 1999, she appeared in the independent short film "Angels, Baby! directed by Jeff Fisher" along with the Paul Lazarus-directed romantic comedy "Seven Girlfriends" opposite Tim Daly, and the thriller "The" "Clean and Narrow opposite Jack Noseworthy" which was released direct to video in early 2000.
In the 2000s, Leighton guest-starred in the shows "Cupid" and "The Outer Limits", and voiced a part in the animated series "Duckman". She later starred in the indie film "The Sky Is Falling" with Dedee Pfeiffer and Eric Close before taking a break to have her son Jack Douglas. In 2003, she returned to the small screen in "SKIN for FOX", which was cancelled after three episodes, and in the short-lived 2005 ABC series "Eyes".
In 2006–07, after her FOX pilot "Damages" with Cole Hauser was not picked up, she made numerous prime-time guest appearances, on shows such as the ABC drama/comedy "Boston Legal", ', ', and "Shark". In 2004, she starred in the Lifetime movies "A Deadly Encounter" as Joanne Sanders, a single mother who is the victim of a stalker, and "Love Notes," as Nora Flannery, a classic music critic who, while on a job, finds love with a popular country and western singer. Leighton also appeared in the thriller "The Burrowers" directed by J.T Petty and the Hallmark Channel movies "Daniel's Daughter" opposite Sebastian Spence and "Mending Fences", opposite Angie Dickinson.
On April 5, 2009, "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that Leighton would appear in the 2009 series "Melrose Place", reprising her role as the presumed-dead Sydney Andrews, who would serve as landlord at Melrose Place. The remake only lasted a single season on The CW before being cancelled. On December 7, 2009, ABC Family announced that Leighton had been cast in a lead role in the TV series "Pretty Little Liars", a TV adaptation of a book of the same name by Sara Shepard as Ashley Marin, the mother of Hanna Marin played by Ashley Benson, one of the four main characters on the show. Leighton stayed with "Pretty Little Liars" for all seven seasons until the show's end in June 2017.
In 2018, Leighton guest starred on the CBS medical drama "Code Black" playing Sonya Finn, the wife of a Hollywood actor, and then starred in the Hallmark Christmas movie "Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane" opposite Alicia Witt and Colin Ferguson and based on the book by author Mary McDonough. Leighton kicked off 2020 with a return to series TV in a guest spot on Spectrum's original series "L.A.'s Finest" playing Karen Scott and in March 2021, during an interview with Australian breakfast news program, Grant Show revealed that she had just finished filming a guest appearance on his series Dynasty, due to air later in the year when the show's fourth season kicks off in May.
Accolades.
Following her performance in the second season of "Melrose Place", Leighton was featured on the cover of "Entertainment Weekly"'s 1994 Fall TV Preview issue. She appeared on the cover of "Rolling Stone" with her co-stars Heather Locklear and Josie Bissett in May 1994, in an issue entitled "The Hot Issue". In 1995, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her work on the series. was named one of the most beautiful people in the world by "People" magazine, and hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live". The role of Sydney Andrews, which she signed on to reprise in the 2009 "Melrose Place" spin-off, has been recognized by "The Hollywood Reporter" as "one of the most popular characters" from the original series. The spin-off saw Leighton share the cover of the August 24, 2009 issue of "TV Guide" with her co-star Ashlee Simpson.
Personal life.
Leighton was born Laurie Miller in Iowa City, Iowa, and is a 1986 graduate of West High School in Iowa City. During her time at West High, Leighton was a cheerleader and a member of the school's show choir, and performed numerous solos during her time with the group. Leighton then joined The Young Americans and was a member of their 1987 "Around the World in 80 days" show.
In 1988, Leighton assumed her maternal grandfather's surname.
In May 1998, Leighton married her "Melrose Place" co-star Doug Savant. They have two children together: Jack and Lucy.


Figgjo (company)

Figgjo AS is a Norwegian ceramics manufacturing company based in Figgjo in the municipality of Sandnes, Norway.
History.
Figgjo was founded by Harald Lima and Sigurd Figved in 1941. In 1946, designer and ceramist Ragnar Grimsrud (1902-1988) became co-owner and general manager of Figgjo. The company took its current form in 1968 following the merger of Stavangerflint AS with Figgjo Fajanse AS.
The company has a factory, museum and factory outlet at Figgjo. It specializes in vitrified china for the domestic and professional catering markets. The underglaze backstamps FF, Figgjo Fajanse and Figgjo Flint are found on the company's products.


Viva Cisco Kid

Viva Cisco Kid is a 1940 American Western film directed by Norman Foster, written by Samuel G. Engel and Hal Long, and starring Cesar Romero, Jean Rogers, Chris-Pin Martin, Minor Watson, Stanley Fields and Nigel De Brulier. It was released on April 12, 1940, by 20th Century Fox.


Suzani (textile)

Suzani is a type of embroidered and decorative tribal textile made in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries. Suzani is from the Persian سوزن "Suzan" which means needle. The art of making such textiles in Iran is called "Suzandozi" (needlework).
Suzanis amazingly not disappear in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In the early 15th century, Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, the Castilian ambassador to the court of Timur (Tamerlane), left detailed descriptions of embroideries that were probably forerunners of the suzani.
Suzanis were traditionally made by Central Asian brides as part of their dowry, and were presented to the groom on the wedding day.
These hand-embroidered vintage suzanis are infused with the character that only comes from everyday use. The story of each of these suzanis is as rich as their colors and as intricate as the designs that cover their surfaces.


Ava (2020 film)

Ava is a 2020 American action thriller film directed by Tate Taylor and written by Matthew Newton. The film stars Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Common, Geena Davis, Colin Farrell, Ioan Gruffudd and Joan Chen.
"Ava" was released in Hungary on July 2, 2020, and in the United States through DirecTV Cinema on August 27, 2020, followed by a limited theatrical and video on demand release on September 25, 2020, by Vertical Entertainment. Despite Chastain's performance receiving praise, the film received negative reviews.
Plot.
Ava Faulkner (Jessica Chastain) is a recovering addict and former soldier turned assassin. In France, she kidnaps her new target, an English businessman. Before she kills him, she questions him on why someone wants him dead. Unbeknownst to her, another woman electronically eavesdrops on the conversation. Afterwards, Ava flies to Boston where she visits with her estranged sister Judy and her mother who is hospitalized for angina pain. Ava has not seen them in eight years.
Ava's handler and former Army superior, Duke, sends her to Saudi Arabia to kill a German general. Ava lures the general into a trap and injects him with a poison to make it appear he died of a heart attack. She is interrupted by the general's security guards. A gunfight ensues, leaving all the men dead.
Ava escapes and travels to Barneville-Carteret where Duke apologizes for the botched operation, insisting that the bad intel was a simple mistake. He gives her time off to decompress and she returns to Boston and meets Michael, her former fiance who is now in a relationship with her sister Judy.
In British Columbia, Duke meets with his superior, Simon. Simon's daughter Camille is the woman who had earlier eavesdropped on Ava's hit. Simon believes Ava is a liability and that her questioning of targets demonstrates insufficient commitment to their operation. After Duke leaves, Simon reaffirms the hit on Ava. She kills her attacker and then confronts Duke who insists that it was a random drug addict attack. That night, Ava goes to dinner with Judy and Michael but their conversation does not go well. The next morning, Judy meets Ava and tells her Michael is missing. Realizing he has started gambling again, Ava rescues him from a gambling den run by a woman, Toni, to whom Michael is indebted.
Duke revisits Simon and reveals he knew Ava was set up. A fight ensues between the two men, resulting in Simon killing Duke. He sends a video of Duke's death to Ava. A heartbroken Ava goes to Judy's house, where she invites Michael to run away with her but he declines, revealing that Judy is pregnant. Ava heads to Toni's den where she kills some of her men before giving Toni a bag of money to pay off Michael's debt. Ava strangles Toni, then changes her mind, letting Toni live while warning her to stay away from Michael.
Back at her hotel, Ava is attacked by Simon. They fight, with both sustaining serious injuries. Exhausted, Simon flees when the fire alarm goes off, warning Ava that he will kill her if he sees her again. Ava pursues Simon, cornering and killing him under the Zakim Bridge. Ava goes to her sister's house, warning Judy to leave the country and giving her the number to a Swiss bank account filled with Ava's earnings. Before she leaves, Michael gives her a letter from Duke, who says that he is happy with how his life turned out. As she walks down the street, Ava is stalked by Simon's daughter, Camille.
Production.
In August 2018, the production drew criticism due to Matthew Newton, who at the time was set to direct, having been accused of multiple allegations of assault and domestic violence. In addition to the accusations, he had also pleaded guilty to assaulting Brooke Satchwell, his then girlfriend. Jessica Chastain, a vocal advocate for the Me Too movement, was accused of hypocrisy for working with Newton. Newton would ultimately step down from directing the film, with Tate Taylor hired to replace him. Newton is credited as the film's writer.
In September 2018, Colin Farrell, Common, and John Malkovich joined the cast of the film. In October 2018, Christopher Domig, Diana Silvers, Geena Davis, Joan Chen, and Jess Weixler joined the cast of the film. In November 2019, it was announced the film had been re-titled "Ava".
Filming.
Principal photography began on September 24, 2018, in Boston.
Release.
The film was released in Hungary on July 2, 2020. It was released in the United States through DirecTV Cinema on August 27, 2020, followed by video on demand on September 25, 2020, by Vertical Entertainment. It received a DVD and Blu-ray release in Australia on September 2, 2020, by Madman Entertainment.
It began streaming on Netflix on December 6, 2020. It was the third most-watched film on the site on its first day of release and finished first in its second day. It went on to become the top-streamed film over its first weekend.
Reception.
Critical response.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 17% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Ava" seems to have all the components of an entertaining spy thriller, but not even this spectacular cast is enough to salvage the dull, clichéd story they're given to work with." On Metacritic, the film was assigned a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Guy Lodge of "Variety" wrote that "the film provides an adequate showcase for its producer-star's unexpected prowess as an action hero — yet Matthew Newton's skimpy, dial-a-cliché script makes the whole enterprise feel more like a mid-range series pilot than a major star vehicle." Writing for "The Hollywood Reporter" Boyd van Hoeij said that "Chastain is utterly convincing in another tough-as-nails role. If audiences stick with the movie, it's largely thanks to her movie-star charisma, which almost compensates for the increasingly ridiculous plot. Malkovich and Farrell seem to understand they are A-list talent in B-movie roles, and relish the opportunity."
Box office and VOD.
In Hungary, the film made $31,820 from 59 theaters in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office. The film grossed a total of $3.3 million worldwide.
In its debut weekend in the U.S., "Ava" was the most rented film on Apple TV and Google Play, and second on FandangoNow. In its second weekend the film topped Apple TV, Google Play, and Spectrum, and remained second at FandangoNow. "IndieWire" described the performance of "Ava" as "the best showing for a non-premium title in the six months we’ve covered weekly VOD performance."


The Michael Players

The Michael Players RBV are the oldest existing body of performers of Manx dialect theatre in the Isle of Man. They are centrally important to the continued tradition of Manx dialect theatre, both through their performances and in their unique collection of Manx plays.
History.
Although it is not known when the Michael Players were first formed, a group in Kirk Michael were performing Manx dialect plays or sketches at least as early as the 1930s. A group were performing again after the war by 1948, but the Michael Players made their first full "revived" performance in 1954. This performance was organised by Miss Mary Cannell as an entertainment for the Manx branch of the Celtic Congress in Michael School following a tour of Bishopscourt. Cannell instituted the annual "Oie'll Verree" entertainment finishing in the Michael Players' performance of a Manx dialect play. The Players were produced for many years by Miss Mary Cannell and Mrs Edna Cooil. In more recent years, the Players have been produced by Winnie Callister, until her retirement from the group in 2014, followed by Roy Kennaugh, until his death at the end of 2017.
The Michael Players today continue the tradition of giving an annual performance of Manx dialect theatre at an Oie'll Verree event, held on Old Christmas Eve in early January. The event is now organised by the Michael Heritage Trust and held at the Ebenezer Hall in Kirk Michael. The event is very popular and tickets consistently sell out long in advance of the evening. As supporters of the event, revenue from the ticket sales for these events has gone to the Michael Heritage Trust since the year 2000, but proceeds previously went to the Celtic Congress. The Michael Players are the only established group performing works from the Manx dialect theatre tradition in the Isle of Man today.
In 2017 the Michael Players were awarded the Reih Bleeaney Vanannan, the Isle of Man's greatest annual cultural award for contributions to Manx culture. It was awarded to the Players in recognition of "over 60 years of community cultural contribution [...] in presenting, preserving and promoting Manx dialect theatre." The value of the work of the Players was alluded to in a statement issued by the organisers of the award:
"The plays of Cushag, Christopher Shimmin, Mona Douglas, Kathleen Faragher and many more make up a unique tradition which could easily have been lost if it had not been for successive generations of enthusiasts with a strong sense of community and a desire to share and celebrate Manx culture."
The Michael Players' Collection.
Over the course of their existence, the Michael Players have come to collect an important and unique collection of Manx dialect theatre. As many as 50 plays have been identified as of significant importance to Manx literature, and many are not known to exist anywhere else. Many of these are in the original manuscript form, or else bear unique annotations by the authors. Writers whose plays are represented include: Kathleen Faragher, Mona Douglas, Christopher R. Shimmin, J. J. Kneen, Juan Noa, P. W. Caine and W. B. Meyrick. The collection of plays has been estimated as being of great importance for Manx literature:
"The Michael Players [...] store of Manx dialect play and sketch manuscripts is the most important resource of its kind anywhere in the world and it contains unique copies of plays which would be otherwise entirely lost today."
In June 2016 a project funded by Culture Vannin was launched to transcribe these plays and make them freely available on line. An initial release of plays by J. J. Kneen was followed in December 2016 with a number of plays by Christopher Shimmin. It is hoped that the full collection of plays will eventually be made available.
Performances.
Although the Michael Players have been performing for over 60 years, there are few records of the plays performed within each year. The known performances are as follows:


Batiste

Batiste is a fine cloth made from cotton, wool, polyester, or a blend, and the softest of the lightweight opaque fabrics.
History and description.
Batiste is a balanced plain weave, a fine cloth made from cotton or linen such as cambric. Batiste was often used as a lining fabric for high-quality garments. Batiste is also used for handkerchiefs (cotton batiste) and lingerie (batiste de soie).
In 1901 "Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language" defined batiste as "usual French name for cambric" or "applied in commerce to a fine texture of linen and cotton".
"Cambric" is a synonym of the French word "batiste", itself attested since 1590. "Batiste" itself comes from the Picard "batiche", attested since 1401, derived from the old French "battre" for bowing wool. The modern form "batiste" or "baptiste" comes from a popular merge with the surname Baptiste, pronounced "Batisse", as indicated by the use of the expressions "thoile batiche" (1499) and "toile de baptiste" (1536) for the same fabric. The alleged invention of the fabric, around 1300, by a weaver called Baptiste or Jean-Baptiste Cambray or Chambray, from the village of Castaing in the peerage of Marcoing, near Cambrai, has no historic ground.
Type.
Lightweight opaque fabrics are very thin and light but not as transparent as sheer fabrics. The distinction between the two is not always pronounced. End uses include apparel and furnishings. Organdy (a sheer fabric), lawn, and batiste begin as the same greige goods. They differ from one another in the way they are finished. Lawn and batiste do not receive the acid finish and, thus, remain opaque. Better quality fabrics are made of combed yarns.


Kathleen Flinn

Kathleen Flinn (born June 1, 1967) is an American writer and journalist. She is best known for the 2007 "New York Times" bestseller, "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry".
Early life.
Flinn was born in Davison, Mich., to Milton G. Flinn Sr., a foreman for General Motors' AC Spark Plug plant in Flint, Mich. Her mother, Irene Flinn, was also employed by GM in its personnel department. She was the youngest of five siblings in a poor family on their semi-rural farm before abruptly being uprooted to Florida at age 11 due her father's terminal cancer diagnosis; her third book focuses on this part of her life. Flinn states she began cooking at age eight to feed herself as a latchkey kid, and began writing stories to fill up what she referred to as "lonely hours" when her father was sick and after he died when she was 13.
Books.
"The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry" was the first to provide an in-depth look of attending and graduating from the famed Paris culinary school Le Cordon Bleu. The book has been translated into nine languages and sold in more than 60 countries worldwide.
After losing her job, 36-year-old Flinn decided to cash in her savings to attend the famed culinary school, graduating with a diplome de cuisine in 2005. Throughout the book, Flinn intersperses dozens of recipes, accounts of her "wretchedly inadequate" French, stories of competitive classmates and the love story of her emerging relationship with her husband. Early in the book, she shares that she began dreaming of attending the famous cooking school while writing obituaries at The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "The Seattle Times" referred to the book "a very personal memoir of transformation, as well as an insider's look at Le Cordon Bleu, the first of its kind." The book earned generally positive reviews on its debut and earned a spot on "The New York Times" bestseller list as well as being included on numerous "best of" lists for 2007 before being named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in General Non-fiction in 2008. The film rights to the work were purchased by a division of 20th Century Fox.
Her second book, "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School" (Viking/Penguin, October 2011) chronicles a year-long project inspired by a supermarket encounter with a woman loading up on processed foods. Flinn used her culinary training to help novice cooks find their cooking confidence and in the process, reported on the state of home cooking in general. The book earned a 2012 ASJA Award for Best Book in the Non-Fiction Autobiography/Memoir category from the American Society of Journalists and Authors
Viking/Penguin published her third book, "Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good", a multi-generational culinary memoir about growing up in her home state of Michigan. The title refers to her grandmother's phrase meant to coax the youngest kids to eat burnt toast. Flinn reflected it had a metaphorical meaning, "that going through something tough is good for you, or what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." That book was a finalist in several book awards, including Goodreads Readers Choice Awards and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and was named a Michigan Notable Book.
Outside of her book publishing career, Flinn's work has been featured in more than three dozen publications worldwide.
Popularity in Japan.
In 2017, Flinn's second book was translated into Japanese under the title "Dameonnatachi no Jinsei wo Kaeta Kiseki no Ryouri Kyoushitsu" which loosely translates to "Miracle Recipes for Bad Women". The book was a bestseller, and among the few translated works that reached the top 30 in sales on Amazon.jp that year. In 2018, Flinn announced that she was working on a new book specifically for the Japanese market. The resulting book, Sakana Lesson, debuted in June 2019 from CCC Media House.
Personal.
While earning a B.A. in journalism at Columbia College Chicago, she held internships at Adweek and Playboy magazines and worked as a stringer for the Chicago Sun-Times before launching on a journalism career that included newspapers and magazines. While working as a lead in the editorial operations for Microsoft's MSN operation in London, she was among a small team that pulled together Madonna's "come back" concert at the Brixton Academy in 2000; the event was listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the largest online webcast for several years. Raised in both Michigan and Florida, she now divides her time between residences in Seattle and Anna Maria Island, Florida.


Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor (born July 23, 1962) is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director, and film director. He is probably best known for his acting roles in independent films and the sitcom "Twitch City".
Personal.
MacIvor was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and educated at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and then at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario. MacIvor is openly gay. He married Paul Goulet in 2006; they have since divorced. He has an Italian Greyhound, called 'Buddy'.
Career.
In addition to his film and theatrical credits, MacIvor wrote the libretto to the opera "Hadrian," for which Rufus Wainwright wrote the music.
Theatre.
MacIvor founded the theatre company da da kamera with Michele Jelley in 1986 to independently produce his own work. He was in residence at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre - for whom he has written, directed, and acted. His plays include "Never Swim Alone", "This is a Play", "Monster", "Marion Bridge", "You are Here", "Cul-de-sac", and "A Beautiful View". Five of MacIvor's plays were published as "I Still Love You" in 2006, in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of da da kamera, ("Never Swim Alone", "The Soldier Dreams", "You are Here", "In on It", and "A Beautiful View"), and won MacIvor a coveted Governor General's Award for Drama.
Solo theatre work.
MacIvor is particularly well known for a series of solo shows created in collaboration with director Daniel Brooks. These include "House", "Here Lies Henry", "Monster" and "Cul-de-sac". These incorporate a minimalist and meta-theatrical style. In "House" and "Here Lies Henry", MacIvor portrays one character who speaks directly to the audience, acknowledging their presence. While the direct address of the audience continues in "Monster" and "Cul-de-sac", MacIvor portrays several characters throughout the course of the piece and this direct address is occasionally broken up by dialogue between these characters.
In 1992, "2-2 Tango" was included in "Making Out", the first anthology of Canadian plays by gay writers, alongside works by Ken Garnhum, Sky Gilbert, David Demchuk, Harry Rintoul and Colin Thomas.
The first three of these pieces were staged at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in the 2006/2007 season as part of a tribute and retrospective of da da kamera's work.
MacIvor and Brooks later collaborated with Iris Turcott to create the play "Who Killed Spalding Gray?", in which MacIvor performs the part of a fictional character partly based on the style of deceased American actor Spalding Gray. The show premiered at the Halifax's Magnetic North Theatre Festival, and was later performed in Toronto at the Luminata Festival and at the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary
Film.
In his early film work, MacIvor frequently collaborated with director Laurie Lynd, including on the short films "RSVP" in 1991, "The Fairy Who Didn't Want to Be a Fairy Anymore" in 1992, and the feature film "House" (1995).
In the early 2000s MacIvor wrote, co-wrote and directed several independent films, which were usually made in his home province of Nova Scotia. They include "Past Perfect," "Marion Bridge", "Whole New Thing" and "Wilby Wonderful".
As an actor he appeared in Jeremy Podeswa's "The Five Senses," had a recurring role in the television series "Republic of Doyle" and played Nathan in the iconic Canadian television series "Twitch City." In recent years MacIvor has been working with director Bruce McDonald as screenwriter of the films "Trigger" and "Weirdos" (for which MacIvor won a Canadian Screen Award in 2017 for best original screenplay).
Awards and honors.
In addition to winning the Governor General's Award for Drama in 2006, MacIvor has won other notable awards during his career. Mr. MacIvor also has two Chalmers New Play Awards, once in 1997 and 1992.
Plays.
In 1998, MacIvor won the award for overall excellence at the New York International Fringe Festival for his play "Never Swim Alone".
In 2002, his play "In On It" earned him a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award.
In 2008, he was awarded the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.


Heather Croall

Heather Croall (born 1967) is an international arts festival CEO and Artistic Director and documentary producer, best known for leading Sheffield Doc/Fest and Adelaide Fringe, and her work on live music / archive films including The Big Melt, "From the Sea to the Land Beyond, Girt By Sea, From Scotland With Love, Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise"
In 2020 Heather Croall won the Leadership Award at the SA Woman Awards and in 2021, Croall was nominated as Leader of the Year in the South Australian Woman of the Year Awards. In 2011 Croall was named one of "Realscreen"'s annual trailblazers, and in 2013 the Alliance of Women Film Journalists named Croall Ambassador of Women's Films for the year, for her work "to boost documentary film and open opportunities for women filmmakers". In 2015 she received Sheffield Doc/Fest's Inspiration Award.
In February 2015 she left Sheffield Doc/Fest to take up the position of CEO and Artistic Director of the Adelaide Fringe, with her contract there extended until 2022.
Early life.
Croall was born in Blackpool in 1967 and lived in Sheffield until the age of five, when her family emigrated to South Australia.
Career.
In 1993 Croall set up a production company, Re Angle Pictures, to produce and direct documentaries. In 2020 she Produced and Directed a documentary about her dad and her home town of Whyalla called “Yer Old Faither” it won the audience award at Adelaide Film Festival and was selected for Glasgow Film Festival and others. Her 1999 film "Paradise Bent: Boys will be Girls in Samoa" won the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.
She continued her career at the South Australian Film Corporation, and also produced digital and documentary strands at the Adelaide Fringe. In 2001, she developed Crossover, an organisation which works with technologists, coders, artists, performers, filmmakers, writers and more to create new interdisciplinary projects.
From 2003 Croall worked for the Australian International Documentary Conference, where she became CEO and Festival Director and developed the MeetMarket pitching event.
Sheffield Doc/Fest.
In 2006 Croall was invited to become CEO and festival director at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
When she joined the festival, it was a two-day event attracting 500 delegates and 2000 public attendees. Croall widened it to a five-day event with 3000 delegates and 25,000 public attendees. She found new funding which tripled the budget in two years, and changed the date of the festival from November to June. She brought in the MeetMarket pitching forum, which in 2011 generated £5.6 million worth of business for producers. She also added year-round training and events alongside the festival.
"Variety" magazine said Croall lifted Doc/Fest "into the premier league of international doc events".
In 2012 Croall sat on the US Documentary jury at the Sundance Film Festival, and she was on the 25th anniversary advisory committee for PBS's "POV" documentary series. In 2015 she was awarded Sheffield Doc/Fest's Inspiration Award.
Adelaide Fringe.
In February 2015 Croall left Doc/Fest to become CEO and festival director of the Adelaide Fringe, with her contract extended to 2020 after two successful festivals.
In August 2016, under Croall's leadership, the Adelaide Fringe began an official partnership with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Filmography.
Croall has co-produced a number of films, in which directors edit together archive footage on a particular theme, soundtracked by original music.
Accolades.
In 2020 Heather Croall won the Leadership Award at the SA Woman Awards and in 2021, Croall was nominated as Leader of the Year in the South Australian Woman of the Year Awards.
In 2015 Croall received Sheffield Doc/Fest's Inspiration Award.
In 2014 Croall was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists named Croall 2013's Ambassador of Women's Films for her work "to boost documentary film and open opportunities for women filmmakers", and in 2011 Croall was named a trailblazer by "Realscreen".
Media appearances.
She has appeared on BBC Two's "The Review Show" and BBC Radio 4's "The Media Show".


Tim Bagley

Timothy Hugh Bagley (born August 17, 1957) is an American character actor who has appeared in numerous films and television programs. He had recurring roles on the TV series "Hope & Gloria", "Strip Mall", "Will & Grace", "According to Jim", "The King of Queens", "Monk", "Help Me Help You", "10 Items or Less", "$h*! My Dad Says", and portrayed Richard Pratt on the Showtime series, "Web Therapy". Previously, Bagley had a recurring role as Principal Toby Pearson on the American sitcoms "Teachers", and currently plays Peter on "Grace and Frankie".
Early life.
Bagley was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Carol and Elwyn Bagley. He has four siblings. The family also lived in Madison, Wisconsin and Niles, Michigan.
After high school, he moved to Southern California to perform with the singing group, The Young Americans. During this time, he also attended California State University Fullerton, where he majored in Art with a Psychology minor. At some point he began taking acting classes with Nina Foch and Howard Fine, and began training and working with The Groundlings. In 1994, Fern Champion and Mark Paladini cast Bagley in his first feature film role as Irv the mechanic in the hit film "The Mask".
Start in comedy.
In 1989, Bagley began studying with The Groundlings, and was soon writing and performing with their prestigious Main Stage Company. Although he retired from the theatre's Main Company in the mid 1990s, Bagley still comes back regularly to perform in The Groundlings’ all-improv show "Cookin' with Gas". In 1995, Bagley left the Groundlings and turned his attention to television. After guest appearances on "" and "Seinfeld", he landed his first regular role on the Showtime series "Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies".
Television career.
Since breaking into television in the early 1990s, Bagley has become a familiar face on primetime television. He has guest starred on such shows as "Seinfeld", "Wings", "Dharma & Greg", "According to Jim", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "The X Files", "Suddenly Susan", "ER", "Ellen", "3rd Rock from the Sun", "The Nanny", and "Desperate Housewives".
He has also had regular and recurring roles in such hit shows as "The King of Queens", "Hope & Gloria", "Strip Mall", and "7th Heaven", and portrayed fellow OCD sufferer Harold Krenshaw on "Monk" for several episodes, often antagonizing the titular character, Adrian Monk and his assistants, Sharona Fleming and Natalie Teeger. He also appeared in "Grimm" as a blutbad.
But he is perhaps best known on television for his appearances as Larry, one half of a married gay couple with an adopted daughter, on the hit sitcom "Will & Grace".
He also starred with Lisa Kudrow and Victor Garber on "Web Therapy", the series of online vignettes developed by Kudrow which was adapted into a half-hour show by Showtime. He can also be seen as Principal Pearson on the 2016 TV Land comedy "Teachers".
Film career.
In addition to his work in independent films, Bagley has appeared in big-budget movies like "The Mask", "" and "Knocked Up". Other high-profile films include "Employee of the Month", "Happy, Texas" and "Mistress", starring Robert De Niro. He appeared briefly at the beginning of the 2006 film "Accepted".
He also had a memorable monologue in "The Day After Tomorrow" as TV news reporter Tommy Levinson, first seen trapped at the Santa Monica Pier during a hailstorm and later reporting live as tornadoes strike Los Angeles (being killed when he is hit by flying debris). Bagley delivered his lines with a helicopter hovering a mere 10 feet above his head, only to discover years later that director Roland Emmerich described it as one of the most dangerous and terrifying shots he'd ever done.
Theatre awards.
Bagley won two LA Weekly Theater Awards for best solo comedy performance in "Groundlings, Pretty Groundlings", and best ensemble for "Groundlings, Good and Twenty". He later won the Jury Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado for his one-man show, "Happy Hour", a poignant comedy about his family and personal tragedy. Additionally, Bagley created a successful one man show based on his experiences as a butler at the Playboy Mansion. "Clean Boy, Dirty Stories", first presented at The Groundlings, went on to achieve great critical acclaim at Aspen Comedyfest.


Rihei ware

 is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally made in Takamatsu, Kagawa prefecture.


Mark Elder

Sir Mark Philip Elder (born 2 June 1947) is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
Life and career.
Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, the son of a dentist. He played the bassoon when in primary school, and at Bryanston School, Dorset, where he was one of the foremost musicians (bassoon and keyboards) of his generation. He attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge as a choral scholar, where he studied music. He later became a protégé of Sir Edward Downes and gained experience conducting Verdi operas (as well as Prokofiev's "War and Peace" and Wagner's "Meistersinger") in Australia, at the Sydney Opera House.
Elder and his wife Mandy have a daughter, Katie.
The ENO and association with several orchestras.
From 1979 to 1993, Elder was the music director of English National Opera (ENO). He was known as part of the "Power House" team that also included general director Peter Jonas and artistic director David Pountney, and which gave ENO several very successful years of productions. Elder has also served as principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1992–1995) and music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (1989–1994). He has also held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1982–1985) and the London Mozart Players (1980–1983).
The Hallé years.
Elder was appointed music director of the Hallé Orchestra in 1999. His first concert as music director was in October 2000.
He proposed several novel ideas for concerts. These have included the abandonment of traditional concert evening garb. Elder is generally regarded as having restored the orchestra to high musical standards, after a period where the continuing existence of the orchestra was in doubt. In 2004, he signed a contract to extend his tenure from 2005 to 2008, with an optional two-year extension at the end of that time. A 2005 report indicated that Elder would be with the orchestra at least until 2010.
In May 2009, the orchestra announced the extension of Elder's contract to 2015. In November 2013, the Hallé announced the further extension of Elder's contract through "at least 2020".
He has been President of the London Philharmonic Choir from 2014 and is currently the Royal Academy of Music's Barbirolli Chair of Conducting.
Public pronouncements.
He first conducted the Last Night of the Proms in 1987. He was scheduled to conduct again in 1990, but his remarks about the nature of some of the traditional Proms selections in the context of the impending first Gulf War led to his dismissal from that engagement. In 2006, he returned to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra for his second "Last Night" engagement, and used the traditional speech at the end of the concert to criticise aircraft baggage restrictions, in place following the uncovering of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, which have made it difficult for musicians to carry their instruments on aircraft. In a reference to the fact that laptop computers are now allowed in aircraft cabins, Elder said, "...it seems to me that next year we should all look forward to 'Concerto for Laptop and Orchestra.'" He also made a plea for children to be given more opportunity to sing at school.
Honours.
Elder was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours. He won an Olivier Award in 1991 for his outstanding work at English National Opera. He received the 2006 conductor prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In April 2007, Elder was one of eight conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical music outreach manifesto, "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century", to increase the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving free entry to all British schoolchildren to a classical music concert. Elder was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 2008. He was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to music.
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
In addition to being involved in the above-named orchestras, Elder became "principal artist" of the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in December 2011. As noted in the article: "His first project with the OAE as principal artist was [to give] a performance of Berlioz's "Romeo and Juliet" on 18 February 2012 at the Royal Festival Hall, London."
Style.
Describing his own conducting style, Elder has said that in contrast to Sir Adrian Boult, who was
famously non-perspirational:
Recordings and writing.
Elder has recorded for the Hyperion, NMC, Chandos, Opera Rara, and Glyndebourne record labels, as well as for the Hallé Orchestra's own label. In addition to his conducting and recording activities, Elder also has written on music for "The Guardian" and other newspapers.


Goce

Goce is an opera composed by Kiril Makedonski (1925–1984) in tribute to Gotse Delchev. The work was commissioned to be the very first opera performed by the Macedonian National Opera Company. It premiered on May 24, 1954 and it is the first opera to be written in the Macedonian language.


Warp and weft

Warp and weft are the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. The lengthwise or longitudinal warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a frame or loom while the transverse weft (sometimes woof) is drawn through and inserted over-and-under the warp. A single thread of the weft crossing the warp is called a "pick". Terms vary (for instance, in North America, the weft is sometimes referred to as the fill or the filling yarn). Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end.
Inventions during the 18th century spurred the Industrial Revolution, with the "picking stick" and the "flying shuttle" (John Kay, 1733) speeding up production of cloth. The power loom patented by Edmund Cartwright in 1785 allowed sixty picks per minute.
Etymology.
The word "weft" derives from the Old English word "wefan", to weave. "Warp" means "that which is thrown away" (Old English "wearp", from "weorpan", to throw, cf. German "werfen", Dutch "werpen").
Warp.
The warp is the set of yarns or other things stretched in place on a loom before the weft is introduced during the weaving process. It is regarded as the "longitudinal" set in a finished fabric with two or more sets of elements.
The term is also used for a set of yarns established before the interworking of weft yarns by some other method, such as finger manipulation, yielding wrapped or twined structures. Very simple looms use a spiral warp, in which the warp is made up of a single, very long yarn wound in a spiral pattern around a pair of sticks or beams.
The warp must be strong to be held under high tension during the weaving process, unlike the weft which carries almost no tension. This requires the yarn used for warp ends, or individual warp threads, to be made of spun and plied fibre. Traditionally wool, linen, alpaca, and silk were used. However, improvements in spinning technology during the Industrial Revolution created cotton yarn of sufficient strength to be used in mechanized weaving. Later, artificial or man-made fibres such as nylon or rayon were employed.
While most weaving is weft-faced, warp-faced textiles are created using densely arranged warp threads. In these the design is in the warp, requiring all colors to be decided upon and placed during the first part of the weaving process, which cannot be changed. Such limitations of color placement create weavings defined by length-wise stripes and vertical designs. Many South American cultures, including the ancient Incas and Aymaras, employed "backstrap weaving", which uses the weight of the weaver's body to control the tension of the loom.
Weft.
Because the weft does not have to be stretched on a loom the way the warp is, it can generally be less strong. It is usually made of spun fibre, originally wool, flax and cotton, today often of synthetic fibre such as nylon or rayon.
The weft is threaded through the warp using a "shuttle", air jets or "rapier grippers". Handlooms were the original weaver's tool, with the shuttle being threaded through alternately raised warps by hand.
As metaphor.
The expression "warp and weft" (also "warp and woof" and "woof and warp") is used metaphorically the way "fabric" is; e.g., "the warp and woof of a student's life" equates to "the fabric of a student's life". Warp and weft are sometimes used even more generally in literature to describe the basic dichotomy of the world we live in, as in, up/down, in/out, black/white, Sun/Moon yin/yang, etc. The expression is also used similarly for the underlying structure upon which something is built. The terms "warp" and "woof" are also found in some English translations of the Bible in the discussion of mildews found in cloth materials in Leviticus 13:48-59.


Canvas work


London Fringe Theatre Festival (Ontario)

The London Fringe Theatre Festival is a Canadian annual fringe theatre and related arts festival in London, Ontario. It is credited with triggering a resurgence in local playwriting and performance after the University of Western Ontario cancelled its drama program.
The first festival was presented in 2000, comprising 28 local, national, and international productions. The festival currently runs for ten days near the beginning of June. Prior to 2009 it began on the province's Civic holiday weekend, but was moved that year to take advantage of the east-to-west circuit of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals.
The London Fringe Festival organization also sponsors and supports theatre- and arts-related events throughout the year, including a Nuit Blanche event and The Lost Soul Stroll, a historical .


Broad Humor Film Festival

The Broad Humor Film Festival is a film festival that takes place every year in Los Angeles, California. It focuses exclusively on comedic films written and directed by women. Begun in 2005, it is held yearly in the summer months and brings together female writers and directors for a weekend of screenings, readings and events with the aim of fostering greater opportunity for women as the creators of film content. The festival has film and screenplay competitions for both feature-length and short films. Projects can be narrative or documentary. In addition, the festival offers continuing support to festival filmmakers and writers through its Legacy Program, a series of initiatives encouraging alumnae to create and screen new work.
History.
Broad Humor was conceived in 2005 by filmmaker Susan diRende in response to the absence of women from a series of prominent forums for film industry recognition from awards such as the Oscars to film festivals such as the Los Angeles Film Festival, and in response to the low rate of employment of women directors in film and television. The festival came into being as a grass-roots effort and was named one of five top niche film festivals by MovieMaker Magazine in its first year.
The festival showcases work in which all the generative artists are female. Writing and directing must be done exclusively by women. Submissions for the festival come primarily from the United States and Canada, though submissions have been received from Europe, Asia and Australia as well.
The festival has been invited twice to Italy, screening a Broads Abroad program in Rome in 2007 and again in 2008 to the launch of the Tuscany Tourism Office programs for women, "Benvenute in Toscana".
In 2014, Michelle Clay stepped into the position of Executive Director and senior programming for the festival. Founder Susan diRende remains active in growing the Broad Humor brand and continues to be a contributor to programming.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Broad Humor Film Festival was cancelled for 2020.


Linthorpe Art Pottery

Linthorpe Art Pottery was a British pottery that operated between 1878 and 1890 in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough. It produced art pottery, and is especially known for the early collaboration of the designer Christopher Dresser; many of the early wares have his impressed signature.
History.
The Linthorpe Art Pottery was a born of a collaboration between the leading Orientalist and designer Christopher Dresser and local businessman, John Harrison, who was the proprietor of the Sun Brick Works based in Linthorpe village. The men are said to have had a prior acquaintance and that Dresser suggested to him that he might profitably re-purpose his brickworks into the production of ceramics that had not previously been attempted in Europe. It is also claimed that they sought to alleviate some of the conditions of unemployment in Middlesbrough, which was a consequence of the Long Depression and its dependence on the iron and steel industries for employment.
Harrison undertook an initial pilot in 1879, which presumably ran alongside the existing brickworks, with Dresser acting as Art Superintendent, designing the new Linthorpe Ware; a thrower was drafted from the Issac Wilson and Co Pottery in Middlesbrough; the first firing was overseen by the kiln manager from the William Smith pottery in Stockton. Following this initial success Harrison decided to expand production and Dresser recommended the hiring of Henry Tooth, an artist from Buckinghamshire who was then working on the Isle of Wight as a suitable manager for the pottery. Having no previous ceramic experience he spent some time training at the T G Green Pottery in Derbyshire.
The pottery was innovative in its use of the local red brick clay, previously used by the brickworks, which was supplemented by white clay imported from Cornwall by the mid-1880s. It was also the first pottery in the country to use gas-powered kilns to fire the ceramics, which allowed it to experiment with running and special effect glazes for which it became well known. This combined with the designs of Dresser, who designed over a 1,000 individual pieces for the pottery during their collaboration, many of which can now be found in collections as wide-ranging as the Dorman Museum in Linthorpe, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum the Metropolitan Museum of Art the Cooper–Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Between 1880 and 1881 Harrison issued a prospectus proposing to establish a Linthorpe Art Works Company, which would also produce wallpapers, glass and beaten and decorative metals. It was hoped to issue a 1,000 shares at £5 per share, raising £50,000, however, no public offering was ever made and it is after the failure of this proposal that the collaboration with Dresser, who would have received shares had the venture succeeded, seems to have waned. Henry Tooth, who was named as manager of the proposed works in the prospectus, left in early 1882 to establish the Bretby Pottery with William Ault and was succeeded in his role by Richard Patey.
Linthorpe Art Pottery achieved national and international recognition starting in 1882 when it was exhibited at the Society of Arts Exhibition of Modern English Pottery; in 1883 it was shown at the Calcutta International Exhibition and was awarded a bronze medal; in 1884 it was shown at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans and was awarded a bronze medal; and in 1885 it was shown at the International Inventions Exhibition of 1885 in South Kensington, where it received both a Diploma of Merit and a Gold Medal, and where Princess Alexandra is said to have purchased a turquoise vase, exciting considerable interest in the pottery by the general public.
The pottery ran into difficulties in the late 1880s, due in part to the rising cost of materials and saturation of the market by similar products produced by the Bretby pottery formed by a partnership between potter William Ault and Henry Tooth, amongst others. In 1889 John Harrison was made bankrupt by the collapse of the Onward Building Society and he succumbed to pneumonia shortly thereafter, dying at only 45. His estate allowed the pottery to continue into 1890 as a going concern, however, it was finally closed permanently when the works were sold by public auction on 10 April 1891.
Legacy.
The Christopher Dresser Society was established in 2013 following a £10,000 bequest made to Teesside University. It aims to develop a wider recognition of the influence of Dresser's work, as well as creating a resource for further scholarship. It was launched on 20 June 2013 with a two-day symposium and a series of events hosted by the university and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.
Identifying Marks.
Linthorpe Art Pottery can have up to three identifying marks. Firstly, the factory mark, of which there are several variations, the earliest of which was the work Linthorpe impressed, this was latterly combined with the shape of mould number one, with this being registered on 14 November 1882 as a Trademark. A slight variant of this mark was used on tiles which produced raised lettering. Secondly, there was the impress of the signature of Dresser in his capacity of Art Superintendent, which would seem to identify works that are either designed or were influenced by him, notably no mould to date above the number 1700 bears his signature. Thirdly, in his capacity as pottery manager, Henry Tooth, had his monograph impressed into each piece, this practice is discontinued by his successor when Tooth departs in 1882. Finally, the majority of pieces have the mould number impressed into the base of the work.


Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival

The Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, nicknamed "IndyFringe," is a 10-day showcase of traditional and non-traditional theatre, dance, music, improvisation and a wide range of other performance and visual arts, performed and created by local, national and international artists. The festival features performances by 64 adult performance groups.
History.
Based on the Fringe Festival that began in Edinburgh, Scotland, when rogue theater groups set up on the edges of the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947, IndyFringe's roots are found in Mayor Bart Peterson's Cultural Tourism Initiative in 2001. A group of experts and citizens met for "Theatre City Indianapolis 2012" and came up with the idea for an Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. Central Indiana Community foundation donated seed money and IndyFringe was born.
The first year for the festival was 2005. The festival drew 4,775 patrons in its inaugural year. In 2006, a substantial increase in publicity and media coverage resulted in attendance doubling, with 9,677 patrons. In 2010, there were 11,214 attendees.
Schedule.
The festival is typically presented in mid August. The 2017 festival is scheduled for August 17–27, 2017.
Performance groups are invited to apply for a place in the festival in November each year. Sixty-four groups perform on eight different stages. Approximately half of the groups are local and half are national and international.
Performances are presented at eight Indianapolis area venues: the Phoenix Theatre, ComedySportz Theatre, Theatre on the Square, IndyFringe Basile Theatre, Indy Eleven Theatre and the Fireman's Union Hall. All are located in the Massachusetts Avenue Arts and Cultural District within easy walking distance of one another.


Nick Carter-Killmaster

Nick Carter-Killmaster is a series of spy adventures published from 1964 until 1990, first by Award Books, then by Ace Books, and finally by Jove Books. At least 261 novels were published. The character is an update of a pulp fiction private detective named Nick Carter, first published in 1886.
No actual author is credited for the books, with the Nick Carter name being used as a house pseudonym. Volumes varied between first-person and third-person narratives. Authors known to have contributed entries in the series are Michael Avallone, Valerie Moolman, Manning Lee Stokes, Dennis Lynds, Gayle Lynds, Robert J. Randisi, David Hagberg, and Martin Cruz Smith. The name Nick Carter was acknowledged by the series as having been inspired by the early 20th century pulp fiction detective of the same name in the 100th Killmaster volume (labelled "Nick Carter 100") which included an essay on the earlier Nick Carter and included a Nick Carter detective short story alongside a Killmaster adventure.
The title character of the series serves as Agent N3 of AXE, a fictional spy agency for the United States government. The novels are similar to the literary James Bond novels—low on gadgets, high on action. Sexual encounters in particular are described in detail.
The character.
The definitive description of Nicholas J. Huntington Carter is given in the first novel in the series, "Run, Spy, Run". Carter is tall (over ), lean and handsome with a classic profile and magnificently muscled body. He has wide-set steel gray eyes that are icy, cruel and dangerous. He is hard-faced, with a firm straight mouth, laugh-lines around the eyes, and a firm cleft chin. His hair is thick and dark. He has a small tattoo of a blue axe on the inside right lower arm near the elbow—the ultimate ID for an AXE agent. At least one novel states that the tattoo glows in the dark. Carter also has a knife scar on the shoulder, a shrapnel scar on the right thigh. He has a sixth sense for danger.
Carter served as a soldier in World War II, then with the OSS, before he joined his current employer AXE.
Carter practices yoga for at least 15 minutes a day. Carter has a prodigious ability for learning foreign languages. He is fluent in English (his native tongue), Cantonese, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Putonghua (Mandarin), Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish and Vietnamese. He has basic skills in Arabic, Hindustani, Japanese, Korean, Romansch, Swahili, and Turkish. In the early novels, Carter often assumes a number of elaborate disguises in order to execute his missions.
Weapons and paraphernalia.
Nick Carter uses three main weapons during the course of the series, all of which are named, and have histories. The gun, Wilhelmina, is a stripped-down German Luger. In the earliest stories, Carter got the gun off a German officer during a harrowing mission during World War II. Later stories state that he has had a series of Lugers, all named Wilhelmina. The knife, Hugo, is a pearl-handled 400-year-old stiletto crafted by Benvenuto Cellini. The blade retracts into the handle, and the knife is worn on a special sheath on the wrist, designed to release it into the user's hand with a simple muscle contraction. The third member of the triad is Pierre, a poison gas bomb, which is a small egg-shaped device, usually carried in a pocket but sometimes as a "third testicle" at his scrotum. Activated with a simple twist, it would, within seconds, kill anyone or anything that breathed its odorless and colorless gas.
Carter often takes with him other weapons as the mission demands. These have included:
Carter has used a variety of equipment in the novels, most of which have nicknames. These have included:
AXE.
The agency Carter works for is described as being smaller and far more secret than the CIA, mostly concerned with assassinations. In the first novel of the series, "Run, Spy, Run", AXE is described as "the trouble-shooting arm of the US secret services". AXE headquarters are located in the 6th floor offices of a building in DuPont Circle, Washington, DC under the cover of the Amalgamated Press and Wire Service. AXE is purported to contain several different departments with specific functions including Editing (later called "Special Effects and Editing")—headed by Geoffrey Poindexter—which, among other things, creates false biographies for agents and provides appropriate props (e.g. fake latex fingerprints); Documents—whose role is to plant stories in the media to support specific activities and create false identification and travel documents; Records—which provides background information on suspects; and Operations—which provides logistic support for specific missions. AXE has a branch office near Columbus Circle, New York City and affiliate offices in countries around the world.
Agents are given code designations; Carter's N3, which has at least once been stated as standing for Number three, identifies him as one of the elite Killmasters. It has been stated in some novels that there are four Killmasters in AXE, with Carter the most senior. The meaning of the code N3 is described differently in different novels—sometimes it is Carter's personal designation, other times it is considered a rank, with N1 being the highest, while in other novels we are told that Carter is the third Killmaster to have worked for AXE, with both his predecessors having been killed in action.
AXE agents.
In the first novel in the series ("Run, Spy, Run"), AXE is described as comprising 24 agents. They are identified by alpha-numeric code. The following agents/codes have been described:
Novels.
N.B.: The listing here is in series order (not necessarily by publication date, which is given)


Pupsnya

Pupsnya (, lit. "puppets") was a weekly Ukrainian TV show of political satire and shown nightly Monday through Friday on TET during the 2007–2008 television season. It used puppets to represent politicians. It was similar to the Russian show "Kukly".
It was produced by Yuri Stytskovskyy and mainly written by Sergey Steblynenko.