Portland Saturday Market

The Portland Saturday Market is an outdoor arts and crafts market in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest continuously operated outdoor market in the United States. It is held every Saturday and Sunday from the beginning of March through December 24, in Tom McCall Waterfront Park underneath Burnside Bridge and south of the bridge, as well as within an adjacent plaza just across Naito Parkway, extending west to the Skidmore Fountain. The market's hours of operations are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m on Sundays, and admission is free. The market is accessible by foot, bicycle, Segway, and TriMet's MAX Light Rail line which stops near the market at the Skidmore Fountain stop. The market has over 400 members and generates an estimated $12 million in gross sales annually. It has become a central economic engine for the historic Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, and attracts an estimated 750,000 visitors to this area each year.
History.
The market was founded in 1974 by craftspeople Sheri Teasdale and Andrea Scharf, who modeled it after the Saturday Market in Eugene, Oregon. It was founded as a mutual benefit corporation, under which all members would share in the cost and governance of the market, yet keep all profits they receive from selling their items. All items sold at the Saturday Market are required to be handmade by the person selling it, and a committee of members judge each new item against a minimum standard of quality.
Sock It To Me, a sock and apparel company based out of Portland, started at the Saturday Market.
Location.
The group did not have a location for the market, until Bill Naito offered them a parking lot known as the "Butterfly lot". A large butterfly mural hangs over the market today commemorating the past. For the first year that the market operated, there was no specific site plan. A board of directors was established and the first chair was Scott Nay who worked in the Human Resources Department in the city of Portland. He was instrumental in hiring the first market manager Dana Comfort who along with a well chosen staff began to organize the site by and under the Burnside Bridge. A clear site plan was eventually created, marking out booth spaces, defining aisles and a pattern for customer traffic. In 1976, the market moved to a site under the Burnside Bridge between First Avenue and Front Avenue (now Naito Parkway), where it then remained for the next 33 years. It began operating on Sundays in 1977.
Relocation in 2009.
In April 2005, the Portland Development Commission and Portland Saturday Market began a study of potential sites that serve as a permanent location for the Saturday Market. Although the market had already been operating for three decades, it had always existed on a patchwork of short-term leases with private property owners, providing little or no long-term certainty. That situation was viewed as a disincentive to capital investment, due to a lack of mid-week activities on the site, and as reinforcing adverse social conditions, creating an unsafe area within the neighborhood along with the additional burden of weekly cleaning of the site before Market use. The long-range major goals for the Market included: a permanent location, improved infrastructure, and more protection from the weather, needing to be met in a cost efficient manner. In October 2005, the city launched its own study, called the "Ankeny/Burnside Development Framework Project", to assess the opportunities for the area and how best to direct public funding to increase private investment.
The recommendations from these studies eventually led to a plan which would move the market out of the space under the Burnside Bridge at First Avenue, to a new space one block east, in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, and include construction of an open-side shelter (called a "pavilion" by market representatives) to provide 8,000 square feet of semi-weather-protected space immediately south of the bridge. Ankeny Square, the small plaza located between the Skidmore Fountain and Naito Parkway, would continue to be used for vendor booths each weekend, in addition to the larger space to the east of Naito Parkway, within the park. The move would increase the number of craft-vendor spaces slightly, from 255 to 275. The intention was that Waterfront Park would lease the pavilion to the market on the weekends during the market season, while also leasing the area for other projects during the week. The project was overseen by the Portland Development Commission, who had recently concluded a three-year study on possible permanent locations. Also under the project's umbrella was an accommodation for the headquarters of Mercy Corps. At the beginning of the 2009 season, the new space was not ready for use, so the market opened temporarily at its old location.
In May 2009, Saturday Market moved into its new location in Waterfront Park. Ankeny Plaza, a relatively small portion of the market, was retained as part of the reconfigured market, and is used by about 50 vendors each weekend. In August 2009, a new public fountain was brought into use next to the market's space, in the park at Ash Street, named the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain in honor of Portland businessman and civic leader Bill Naito, who had also been one of the Saturday Market's early supporters.


Yvonne (musical)

Yvonne is a musical comedy with a book and lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Jean Gilbert and Vernon Duke (at that time still using his birth name of Dukelsky). It was adapted by Greenbank from an Austrian musical of the same name. Some additional songs were written by the show's conductor, Arthur Wood. The story concerns an engaged young lady, Yvonne Savigny, the daughter of old professor who loves riotous gaiety. To avoid trouble, she impersonates an absent music hall star at the Scala Music Hall. A young man has fallen in love with Yvonne and disguises himself as a servant in her father's house. After various complications, Yvonne leaves her silly fiancé for the amorous suitor and all ends happily.
"Yvonne" was first played in the British provinces before premiering at Daly's Theatre, London, in May 1926, directed by Herbert Mason and produced by the company originally created by impresario George Edwardes. Ivy Tresmand took the title role, and Arthur Pusey co-starred as Yvonne's suitor. Other cast members included Maria Minetti, who played the music hall star; Mark Lester as Professor Savigny, Horace Percival and later Gene Gerrard as the hapless fiancé, and American dancer Hal Sherman as a comic waiter and gardener. After its London run of 280 performances, the company again toured the productionin the UK.
The musical did not go down well with critics; Noël Coward was one of those who disliked it, referring to it as "Yvonne the Terrible". It was Greenbank's last major work for the West End stage.


Quilt Index

The Quilt Index is a searchable database for scholars, quilters and educators featuring over 50,000 quilts from documentation projects, museums, libraries, and private collections. It also has quilt-related ephemera and curated essays and lesson plans for teachers.
Searching.
The overall collection includes quilts made from the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first century, representing a wide range of quilting styles, techniques, purposes and functions.
Users can browse for quilts based on their time period, location of origin, style, purpose, or by the collection in which they are now housed, or search for specific quilts by a variety of metadata, including pattern, quilter and identification number.
Collections, essays and exhibits.
Although the Quilt Index is not an actual museum site with in-house collections, the Index does have online exhibitions which highlight works in its digital collection. These include:
Wiki.
The Quilt Index Wiki which became live in August 2008, is a collaborative, user-generated tool for quilters and quilt scholars featuring information about state and provincial quilt documentation projects, including publication lists and locations where records are housed. The wiki also provides an expanding directory of museums with quilt collections, and information about those collections. Users can also add information about local, regional and national oral history projects relating to quilt history to the wiki. The wiki is powered by MediaWiki software. Although not fully WYSIWYG, instructions for editing the wiki are available on its main page.
Facilitators.
The Alliance for American Quilts (AAQ), MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online and Michigan State University Museum present the Quilt Index. Michigan State University staff members lead project work, in consultation with AAQ, the Quilt Index Task Force, the Quilt Index Editorial Board, and representatives from each contributor.
The project has been supported by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Copyright issues.
Contributors to the Quilt Index retain copyright to their contributions of data (both text and images), and agree to permanently license these contributions to the Quilt Index to display on the website for educational purposes.


Arifa Jan

Arifa Jan (born c.1987) is an Indian activist for felt rug making in Srinagar in Kashmir. Jan was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar on 8 March 2020.
Life.
She was born in about 1987. She is known for reviving the Kashmiri art of rug making known as Namda. She graduated from the Craft Development Institute, Srinagar and she was involved in a project based on Namda textiles. Namda rugs have been made since the 11th century and they are not woven but felted. Layers of wool fibre are beaten together and then brightly embroidered. The older areas of Srinagar are known for this, but some skills like dyeing are no longer popular careers.
She has created three manufacturing facilities that employ 25 people and 100 women have been trained to produce these felted rugs. The first of the facilities was in the old part of Srinagar known as Sekidafar and later she created similar organisations in two other areas of Srinagar, Noorbagh and Nawa Kadal.
Jan became one of what was called the "Magnificent Seven". These were seven women chosen to handle the Prime Minister's account on Women's Day. The others were Chennai-based social worker Sneha Mohandoss, bomb blast survivor Malvika Iyer, Kashmiri Numdha mushroom farmer Bina Devi, urban water conservationist Kalpana Ramesh, Maharashtra Banjara handicraft promotor Vijaya Pawar and lady mason Kalavati Devi.
On the same day she was given the Nari Shakti Puraskar. President Ram Nath Kovind awarded her one of twelve awards. The awards were made on International Women's Day in New Delhi.


Ottawa Fringe Festival

The Ottawa Fringe Festival is an annual fringe theatre festival in Ottawa. The festival was inaugurated in 1997. The festival takes place for ten days each June. Performances are held indoors and out.
Performance Spaces.
Performances all take place in downtown Ottawa. Two of the regular stages are located at the University of Ottawa, including Studio Léonard-Beaulne and Academic Hall. Three others are located at Arts Court: Arts Court Theatre, Arts Court Library and Ottawa Dance Directive (ODD Box). The venues are all within walking distance of one another.
Shows and Attractions.
Throughout the festival, a courtyard is set up just outside Arts Court to provide refreshment and a location for mingling with the artists.
Most Fringe performances are plays, and most last an hour or less. Since 2009, a limited number of 90-minute spots have been available. The content of the plays varies since acceptance to the festival is by lottery, and the shows are not juried. Because Ottawa is a bilingual city, both English and French productions are presented at the Fringe, though a small number of productions in past years have been bilingual.
Cost.
Each patron must purchase a $3 Fringe Pin, which grants entry for the duration of the festival. Most performances are ticketed events, and require the purchase of a ticket on top of the Fringe Pin. Visitors aren't permitted entrance to ticketed performance unless they are wearing a Fringe Pin.
Tickets generally cost $12. For those attending multiple shows, discounted admission is available in the form of five- and ten-show passes, for $45 and $99 respectively. In keeping with the core mandate of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, one hundred percent of the proceeds from ticket sales go to the performers.
Performing at the Ottawa Fringe.
The Fringe seeks to minimize its impact on the artistic decisions of its performers. Thus the festival allocates its limited stage time by lottery, with a certain percentage put aside for local, Canadian, and international troupes. Each winning troupe will get to perform its show in the same venue at different times, from a little after noon to midnight, over several days. The rotation of time slots helps to even out the audience-dampening effects of performing late at night or when most people are at work.
Since anyone able to meet an application fee can apply to perform at the Fringe, and berths are awarded by lottery, the quality of the shows can vary widely.
The Ottawa Fringe has spawned at least one international success. Ottawa playwright and actor Pierre Brault's one person show, "Blood on the Moon," tells of the trial, (perhaps wrongful) conviction, and execution of Patrick J. Whelan for D'Arcy McGee's murder. After its successful Fringe run, Brault performed "Blood on the Moon" at the National Arts Centre, toured the show across Canada, and even brought it to Ireland.


Karen Breschi

Karen Breschi (born 1941) is an American ceramic artist. Her work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago


Mafia film

Mafia films—a version of gangster films—are a subgenre of crime films dealing with organized crime, often specifically with Mafia organizations. Especially in early mob films, there is considerable overlap with "film noir". Popular regional variations of the genre include Italian "Poliziotteschi", Chinese "Triad films", Japanese "Yakuza films", and Indian "Mumbai underworld films".
History.
The American movie "The Black Hand" (1906) is thought to be the earliest surviving gangster film. In 1912, D. W. Griffith directed "The Musketeers of Pig Alley", a short drama film about crime on the streets of New York City (filmed, however, at Fort Lee, New Jersey) rumored to have included real gangsters as extras. Critics have also cited "Regeneration" (1915) as an early crime film.
Though mob films had their roots in such silent films, the genre in its most durable form was defined in the early 1930s. It owed its innovations to the social and economic instability occasioned by the Great Depression, which galvanized the organized crime subculture in the United States. The failure of honest hard work and careful investment to ensure financial security led to the circumstances reflected in the explosion of mob films in Hollywood and to their immense popularity in a society disillusioned with the American way of life.
1930s.
The years 1931 and 1932 saw the genre produce three enduring classics: Warner Bros.' "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy", which made screen icons out of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, and Howard Hawks' "Scarface" starring Paul Muni, which offered a dark psychological analysis of a fictionalized Al Capone and launched the film career of George Raft. These films chronicle the quick rise, and equally quick downfall, of three young, violent criminals, and represent the genre in its purest form before moral pressure would force it to change. Though the gangster in each film would face a violent downfall which was designed to remind the viewers of the consequences of crime, audiences were often able to identify with the charismatic anti-hero. Those suffering from the Depression were able to relate to the gangster character who worked hard to earn his place and success in the world, only to have it all taken away from him.
Because of the Production Code, such films had to always end with the gangster protagonist dying in a hail of bullets at the film's climax. Furthermore, the film's protagonist was always somehow "deviant" from the norms of American society. In "Little Caesar", it is strongly implied that Caesar Enrico Bandello (Edward G. Robinson) is gay as he is clearly jealous when his handsome friend Joe Massaria (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) dances seductively with his lover Olga (Glenda Farrell), which causes him to make his first major mistake that leads to his downfall. In "The Public Enemy", the protagonist Tom Powers (James Cagney) is a casually brutal misogynist, most notably expressed in the famous scene when he rammed a grapefruit into the face of his girlfriend after she annoys him.. About this scene and many others similar to it, the American critic Thomas Doherty noted "what went largely unremarked was the vicious nature of the relationships between men and women in the gangster genre". In "Scarface", Tony Carmonte (Paul Muni) has a barely veiled incestuous passion for his sister Cesca (Ann Dvorak), which leads to his death.
Despite the genre spanning the decade before dying out, some argue that the gangster film in its purest form only existed until 1933, when restrictions from the Production Code led to films that did not have the same power as the earlier ones.
Production code.
As the appeal and attraction of gangster movie stars such as Cagney, Robinson, Muni, and Raft grew, so too did the efforts to combat their fascination. During the early years of crime film, "Scarface", arguably the most violent of gangster films created during the entire decade, particularly was the subject of criticism. Released in 1932, it ushered in the worst year of the Depression, and as profits slid, Hollywood did what it could to restore its earnings, which resulted in the upping of sex and violence in the movies. "Scarface" can be interpreted as a representation of the American dream gone awry, presented when US capitalism had reached its lowest, and Prohibition was being seen as a failed social experiment and would soon be abolished. It faced opposition from regulators of the Production Code, and its release was delayed for over a year while Hawks attempted to tone down the incestuous overtones of the relationship between Paul Muni's character Tony Camonte and his sister (Ann Dvorak).
The Capone-like Carmote is in many ways the most monstrous gangster portrayed in 1930s films, a man utterly devoid of any positive qualities as he ruthlessly schemes and shoots his way to the top. Through Carmote was closely based on Al Capone, the most notable aspect of his character, namely his "incestuous obsession" with his sister and the way he kills any man who expresses any sort of interest in her as he wants her for himself, was not based on Capone. Besides for Capone, there are many references to "The Great Gatsby" in "Scarface" such as the scene where Carmonte lovingly caresses his silk shirts, which like the same scene in "The Great Gatsby" are a sign of material success for the protagonist. "The Great Gatsby" was the best-selling novel of 1925, and the references to the novel in the film were meant to symbolize the decay of America from the hopeful days of 1925 to the sense of collapse of 1932. The violence and the barely veiled theme of incestuous passion greatly outraged critics, churches, politicians and civic groups in 1932. The journalist Jack Alicoate in the "Film Daily" wrote that watching "Scarface" induced "nausea" in him and that "There are certain things that simply do not belong on the screen. The subject matter of "Scarface" is one of them".
Eventually the Production Code and general moral concerns became sufficiently influential to cause the crime film in its original form to be abandoned, with a shift to the perspective of the law officers fighting criminals, or criminals seeking redemption. This is illustrated by James Cagney's role as a law officer in the 1935 movie "G Men", and his part as Rocky Sullivan in "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. These pictures demonstrate the growing acceptance of crime films during the 1930s as long as criminals were not portrayed in a flattering light. For example, in "G-Men", Cagney plays a character similar to that of Tom Powers from "The Public Enemy", and although the film was as violent and brutal as its predecessors, it had no trouble getting a seal of approval from the Production Code office. It was now the law officers that the films attempted to glamorize, as opposed to the criminals.
1930s culture.
Politics combined with the social and economic climate of the time to influence how crime films were made and how the characters were portrayed. Many of the films imply that criminals are the creation of society, rather than its rebel, and considering the troublesome and bleak time of the 1930s this argument carries significant weight. Often the best of the gangster films are those that have been closely tied to the reality of crime, reflecting public interest in a particular aspect of criminal activity; thus, the gangster film is in a sense a history of crime in the United States. The institution of Prohibition in 1920 led to an explosion in crime, and the depiction of bootlegging is a frequent occurrence in many mob films. However, as the 1930s progressed, Hollywood also experimented with the stories of the rural criminals and bank robbers, such as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. The success of these characters in film can be attributed to their value as news subjects, as their exploits often thrilled the people of a nation who had become weary with inefficient government and apathy in business. However, as the FBI increased in power there was also a shift to favour the stories of the FBI agents hunting the criminals instead of focusing on the criminal characters. In fact, in 1935 at the height of the hunt for Dillinger, the Production Code office issued an order that no film should be made about Dillinger for fear of further glamorizing his character.
Many of the 1930s crime films also dealt with class and ethnic conflict, notably the earliest films, reflecting doubts about how well the American system was working. As stated, many films pushed the message that criminals were the result of a poor moral and economic society, and many are portrayed as having foreign backgrounds or coming from the lower class. Thus, the film criminal is often able to evoke sympathy and admiration out of the viewer, who often will not place the blame on the criminal's shoulders, but rather a cruel society where success is difficult. When the decade came to a close, crime films became more figurative, representing metaphors, as opposed to the more straight forward films produced earlier in the decade, showing an increasing interest in offering a thought provoking message about criminal character.
An additional factor concerning public attitudes was the rural bank robbers operating in the Midwest and in the South were usually WASPs or at least of German descendent unlike the gangsters in urban areas who were often Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans or Jewish-Americans. The fact that many gangsters in the cities had Italian, Irish or Ashkenazi surnames was used by xenophobes at the time to argue that all of the crime in America was caused by immigrants, making the emergence of bank robbers with Anglo-Saxon or German surnames from families long resident in American problematic for those of an xenophobic outlook. One critic in the Communist newspaper "The New Masses" mocking wrote in 1934: "It must be a point of some concern to the professional patriots to realize that the crooks of the Midwest are not Wops, Pollacks or Jews. There are Barrows and Barkers and Pretty Boy Floyds of Texas and Oklahoma, the Twohys of Minnesota, the Dillingers and Pierpoints of Indiana, all native-born". In part because most American audiences preferred "evil foreigners" as villains, there was tendency of the part of Hollywood productions to focus on the urban gangsters, who were usually so-called hyphenated-Americans who were "ethnic" in contrast to Hollywood's ideal WASP Americans. For an example, in the 1931 film "The Star Witness", a middle-class WASP family witnesses a murder committed by Italian-American gangsters who kidnap their child to prevent them from testifying. In response, the Leeds family patriarch, the crotchety Grandpa, warns against the "yellow-bellied, back-stabbing foreigners" presumably causing all the crime in America and in the climax of the film delivers an xenophobic speech in a courtroom where he says "I'll tell you, a danged, dirty foreigner can crowd an American just so far-"just so far"!", leading the courtroom to erupt in applause.
Perhaps the most extreme anti-gangster film was "Gabriel Over The White House" (1933) concerning a corrupt politician named Jud Hammond who is elected president and after encountering the Archangel Gabriel becomes a drastically changed man. Hammond suspends the constitution, disbands Congress, declares martial law and orders all criminals to be shot, saying that crime has reached such a point that America has to do away with the rule of law. The film's principle villain, the Al Capone-like gangster Nick Diamond and his entire gang are all lined up and summarily shot under the Statue of Liberty. Afterwards, their corpses are dumped into the Atlantic ocean to symbolize that America has rejected them. The film was largely a reflection of the ideas of the media magnate William Randolph Hearst who financed it and worked uncredited on the script.
Even in the years 1930-32 when gangster films were at the height of their popularity in the United States, such films usually did better at the box office overseas than within the United States as the twisted version of the "American Dream" trope presented in these films were more popular with audiences abroad than with American audiences. The suggestion made in the gangster films that ruthlessness and amorality that the qualities that American society rewarded the most provoked considerable outrage at the time, and a great many newspaper editorials condemned Hollywood for releasing such films. A review in "The New York Post" called the 1931 film "Little Caesar" a "Horatio Alger tale transferred to the underworld". As early as the summer of 1932, Will Hays of the Hays office advised Hollywood production chiefs that he wanted no more gangster films, leading to a promise that "there would be no more sawed off shotgun stuff". Despite the promise made in 1932, it was being reported in "Variety" on 13 June 1934 that "infuriated federal officials" were planning to impose censorship to end gangster films once and for all if Hollywood did not promise to end such films.. The Labour Department contended that watching gangster films were the leading cause of criminality in children while the Justice Department claimed that such films "encouraged a general disrespect for the police and a lenient attitude towards thugs". Largely as a result of such pressure, in July 1934 gangster films were effectively banned within Hollywood as the Hollywood moguls were always terrified about the possibility of the federal government imposing censorship.
Mafia Westerns.
In Italian cinema after the Second World War, the Mafia was depicted in genre that was very close to the Westerns produced by Hollywood at the same time, as people on the mainland of Italy tended to see Sicily as a "frontier", an island that the Italian state did not entirely control, and as a remote, mysterious and dangerous place. Typical of these films was "In nome della legge" (1949) directed by Pietro Germi, which told the story of the magistrate Schiavo newly arrived from the mainland in a town in Sicily oppressed by the corrupt Baron Lo Vasto, who employs the Mafia to terrorize the people. Schiavo who plays a role analogous to the honest Sheriff in American Westerns proceeds to "clean up" the town by imposing the authority of the Italian state and by persuading the local Mafia boss that the Baron is the enemy of the town. In this and other films like "I Mafiosi" (1959) by Roberto Mauri, the Mafia was portrayed in romantic terms, with Mafiosi depicted as criminals who lived by a strict code of honor which reflected a peculiarly Sicilian version of "machismo". In late 1940s-1950s, Mafiosi were portrayed as a sort of an Italian version of the "noble savage" as tough, but fundamentally warmhearted men who owning to Sicily's isolation and predominately rural character had kept certain honorable and manly qualities that men in the rest of Italy had lost.
1960s.
In the 1960s, the Mafia became the subject of several Italian comedies directed by Giorgio Simonelli and starring Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia such as "I due mafiosi" , "Due Mafiosi nel Far West" and "Due Mafiosi contro Goldfinger" (1965) which reflected the stereotypes on the mainland of Italy about Sicilians being backward and rustic. In all of these comedies the Mafia was portrayed as the "folkloric expression" of a certain quaint if slightly disreputable Sicilian institution, which was in part made possible by widespread ignorance on the mainland of the more malign aspects of Mafia influence in Sicily. The favorable portrayal of the Mafia in many Italian films was also in part due to the perception that the Mafia was a benign institution that together with the ruling center-right Christian Democratic Party and Catholic Church upheld the social order against the revolutionary challenge of the Italian Communist Party.
It was after a spate of high-profile Mafia crimes such as the Sack of Palermo that it became unfashionable to portray Mafia favorably.  In the black comedy "Mafioso" (1962) by Alberto Lattuada, the Mafia was depicted as a sinister organisation that entraps a honest and good man in a life of crime, as the film's hero is forced against his will to become a Mafia assassin. In other films such as "Salvatore Giuliano" (1961) by Francesco Rosi, "Il giorno della civetta" (1968) by Damiano Damiani, and "The Brotherhood" (1968) by Martin Ritt, the Mafia was depicted as a cruel, oppressive organisation, which was both a result of Sicily's backwardness and its cause.
1970s.
In the 1970s there was a revival of mob films, notably with "The Godfather" (1972), based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo. It was followed by two sequels: "The Godfather Part II" (1974) and "The Godfather Part III" (1990). It also inspired other mob films such as "The Valachi Papers", starring Charles Bronson.
The "Godfather" films depicted a dichotomy in values between the first generation Italian-American Vito Corleone who still follows the traditional code of honor of a Mafiosi vs. his Americanized son Michael, who during the course of the films comes to lose all his moral bearings as greed consumes him. Marlon Brando who played Vito Corleone described his character: "I had a great deal of respect for Vito Corleone: I saw him as a man of substance, tradition, refinement, a man of unerring instinct who just happened to live in a violent world and who had to protect himself and his family in this environment". The American author Tom Santopietro argued that much of the appeal of the "Godfather" lay with the way Brando played his character as an Old World gentleman who still lived by his traditional values such as "omertà" (the Mafia code of silence) and a certain modesty, which stood in stark contrast to modern American values, most notably the way in which the media relentlessly publicized everything relating to the lives of the famous. Santopietro argued the way in which the media never allowed any privacy together with the way in which many Americans were happy to share the most intimate details of their lives made "omertà" all the "more alluring" in modern America.
The "Godfather" films also offered up a perverted version of the "American Dream" trope as the Corleones rise up to power and wealth via thoroughly illegal and brutal means. In the late 1960s-early 1970s, events such as the Vietnam War and various social protest movements had caused many Americans to lose confidence in traditional American values, and so the twisted, dark version of the "American Dream" theme had a particular appeal when "The Godfather" was released in 1972. Since the Corleone family become more powerful under the leadership of the "ruthless and business-oriented" Michael Corleone than it was under the leadership of his father, the "Godfather" saga seems to be suggesting that these are the qualities that American society rewards. The film's director, Francis Ford Coppola, had intended "The Godfather" to be an indictment of American society as he envisioned the story of the Coreones to be a metaphor for what he saw as the underhanded methods of American big business and of the U.S. government. Coppola envisioned the moral degeneration of Michael Corleone as a metaphor for what he perceived as the moral degeneration of America, saying: "Like America, Michael began as a clean, brilliant young man endowed with incredible resources and believing in a humanistic idealism. Like America, Michael was the child of an older system, a child of Europe. Like America, Michael was an innocent who tried to correct the ills and injustices of his progenitors. But then he got blood on his hands. He lied to himself and to others about what he was doing and why. And so he became not only a mirror image of what he'd come from, but worse". Brando also expressed his agreement with the film's message, saying: "The story is about the corporate mind because the Mafia is the best example of capitalists we have. The key phrase in the story is...'just business, nothing personal'. When I read that, McNamara, Johnson, and Rusk just flashed by my eyes". Inspired by the worldwide success of "The Godfather" films, in the 1970s Italian films depicted Mafiosi as anti-heroes, men who made their livings via crime, but who possessed a certain nobility and grandeur of character.
The two most important Mafia films of the 1970s have been described as "The Godfather" and "Mean Streets". Unlike "The Godfather", which was set among the "top" of a Mafia family dealing with its leaders, "Mean Streets" is set on the "bottom" of the Mafia dealing with its fringes. The principle characters in "Mean Streets" are not Mafiosi, but rather the "wannabes", a subculture of tough working class Italian-American young men who aspired to join the Mafia. The only major character who is a Mafiosi is Uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), a middle-ranking Mafia functionary who works as a loan shark and employs the protagonist Charlie (Harvey Keitel) as a debt collector. In the film, the Mafiosi are whom Charlie and his friends emulate and aspire to be, through the film suggests that none of them will actually enjoy the sort of wealth and power they hope achieve to. Through often compared to "The Godfather", the only major similarities are that both films are set in tightly linked Italian-American communities in New York and the character of Giovanni, described as an "Old World gangster, full of cold resolve and ponderous advice" whom could have easily fitted into "The Godfather" as a Coreleone "capo". Unlike the "grand romanticism" of "The Godfather", "Mean Streets" is shot in a semi-documentary style on location in a working class New York neighborhood which reflects the influence of French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realist films on its director, Martin Scorsese. Unlike "The Godfather" with its lush romanticism, "Mean Streets" is grim and gritty with its characters living hopeless, desperate lives.
1980s.
The 1983 remake of "Scarface" was not particularly well received at the time of its release, but over time it has come to be seen as a classic of the mob film genre. It went on to inspire films such as "King of New York". On the other hand, Sergio Leone shot an epic crime drama film "Once Upon a Time in America", starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. Though its release of "US Cut" was a critical and commercial failure, the "European Cut" release and "Director's Cut" were both critical success and regained its publicity and reputation. The 1987 "The Untouchables" directed by Brian De Palma, presented a very fictionalized version of the law enforcement efforts of Eliot Ness to bring down the "Outfit" of Al Capone.
The 1980s saw "La Mattanza" ("The Slaughter") in Italy as the Corleonesi family proceeded to liquidate its rivals, leading to over 1, 000 gangland murders in 1981-83 and in addition, the Mafia assassinated with impunity magistrates, policemen, and journalists. Notable victims included General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa and his wife Emanuela Setti Carraro in 1982, magistrate Rocco Chinnici in 1983, the journalist Giuseppe Fava in 1984, the policemen Giuseppe Montana and Ninni Cassarà in 1985, the prosecutor Rosario Livatino in 1990, magistrate Antonio Scopelliti in 1991, and the magistrate Giovanni Falcone and his wife Francesca Morvillo in 1992. In the 1980s-1990s, the general feeling in Italy was that the Mafia was out of control. As a consequence, Italian cinema in the 1980s-1990s turned towards the "cinema democratico" ("democratic cinema"), a series of realistic, gritty films that depicted the Mafia as an unstoppable force that had completely corrupted almost everyone and murdered the few honest people willing to stand up to it. Films and TV series such as "La piovra" (1984), "La scorta" (1993) and "Palermo-Milano sola andata" (1995) had as their heroes a solitary policeman or magistrate, alone in cringing to his honesty and integrity, who had to battle not only Mafia assassins, but also his corrupt superiors and the prevailing apathy of Italian society.
1990s.
The films of the 1990s produced several critically acclaimed mob films, many of which were loosely based on real crimes and their perpetrators. Many of these films featured long-time actors well known for their roles as mobsters such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Chazz Palminteri.
The most notable from the decade was the 1990 film "Goodfellas", directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ray Liotta as real-life associate of the Lucchese crime family Henry Hill. Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci also starred in the film with Pesci earning an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards in all, including Best Picture and Best Director, making "Goodfellas" one of the most critically acclaimed crime films of all time. Scorsese stated his purpose in adopting Hill's 1985 memoir "Wiseguy" as "Goodfellas" was as an "antidote" to the mythicized version of the Mafia presented in "The Godfather", saying he wanted to present Mafiosi as they really were. Scorsese stated in an interview that he wanted to show the Mafiosi "attitude" in "Goodfellas", saying the Mafiosi in the film: "Don't give a damn about anything, especially when they're having a good time and making lots of money. They don't care about wives, their kids, anything". The British journalist Tom Brook wrote in 2015: ""Goodfellas" had such an impact partly because it depicted the ruthlessness of mobster life quite differently from the mafia movies that preceded it". The American columnist Jerry Capeci stated: ""The Godfather" romanticised the gangsters and made them out to be people who killed only for reasons of honour. But "Goodfellas" showed them to be what they really are: violent, murderous guys who killed just at the drop of a hat, who shoot people in the legs just to make them dance for fun". The columnist Gary Susman stated that: "I would say that "Goodfellas" introduced the idea of the talkative gangster. We used to think of the Mafioso as somebody who operated under a code of "omertà" and was fairly quiet about what he did. Here we get a gangster who can’t shut up.” Inspired by "Goodfellas", a number of films and TV shows such as "The Sopranos" would feature what Susman called "the chatty gangsters and philosophers with guns" as characters.
Following their collaboration in "Goodfellas", Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci would team up again in 1995 with the film "Casino", based on Frank Rosenthal, an associate of the Chicago Outfit who ran multiple casinos in Las Vegas during the 1970s and 1980s. The film was De Niro's third mob film of the decade, following "Goodfellas" (1990) and "A Bronx Tale "(1993).
De Niro's fellow mob actor, Al Pacino, also resumed roles in the crime film genre during the 1990s, reprising his role as the iconic Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part III" (1990). The film served as the final installment in "The Godfather" trilogy, following Michael Corleone as he tries to legitimize the Corleone family in the twilight of his career. "The Godfather Part III" incorporated elements of the real life scandal relating to the Vatican Bank in the 1980s and the collapse of the Milan-based Banco Ambrosiano in 1982. The Vatican Bank, which owned the majority of the shares in the Banco Ambrosiano ,which were accused of amongst other things of money laundering for the Mafia. One of the film's characters, the corrupt Archbishop Gilday in charge of the Vatican Bank seems to be have based on Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the American cleric who was at the center of the Vatican Bank scandal. The film courted controversy by including the allegation that Pope John Paul I had been murdered in 1978 after he ordered a "clean up" of the corrupt Vatican Bank. In the film, Michael Corleone invests his ill-gotten fortune into the International Immobiliare, an Italian bank similar to the Banco Ambrosiano whose majority shareholder is the Vatican Bank, only for the proceedings to be blocked by the newly elected Pope John Paul I, causing Corleone to order the pope's murder to allow the deal to go through.
In 1993, Pacino starred in the film, "Carlito's Way" as a former gangster released from prison who vows to go straight. In 1996, Armand Assante starred in television film Gotti as infamous New York mobster, John Gotti. In Donnie Brasco (1997), Pacino starred alongside Johnny Depp in the true story of undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone and his infiltration of the Bonanno crime family of New York City during the 1970s. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
"Lo zio di Brooklyn" (1995) was a vulgar Italian comedy with all of the characters are grotesquely misshapen in some way, being a metaphor for the stunted nature of Sicilian society that was being held back by the Mafia. "Lo zio di Brooklyn" ("The Uncle From Brooklyn") followed the misadventures of three Sicilian brothers trying to operate business honestly who are the subject of extortion by Mafiosi who are portrayed by dwarf actors as to make literal the metaphorical smallness of the Mafiosi.
2000s.
The 2000s continued to produce box office mob films cast with high-profile actors. "Road to Perdition", a 2002 American crime film directed by Sam Mendes and based on the graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins, boasted an ensemble cast of Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig. The plot takes place in 1931, during the Great Depression, following a mob enforcer and his son as they seek vengeance against a mobster who murdered the rest of their family. Unlike many of its modern mob film predecessors, "Road to Perdition" sought to recreate the film noir genre while still using contemporary techniques and effects. The cinematography, setting, and the lead performances by Newman (in his final theatrical screen appearance) and Hanks were well received by critics.
In 2002, the film "Angela" directed by Roberta Torre was released, which was highly unusual in that it told the story of a female "Mafiosi". Based on a true story, it told the tale of the wife of the Palermo "Mafiosi" Saro who became engaged in his business and was killed when it was discovered that she was having an affair with his subordinate Massino. The film was noted for its claustrophobic style set in the labyrinthine streets of Palermo and its often harsh color scheme, suggesting that Angela is just as much a prisoner of the Mafia as she is a perpetrator. This impression enhanced by the lead actress Donatella Finocchiaro's , quiet, understated performance as Angela, giving the impression of a woman who is simply resigned to her life in the Mafia. The film ends not with Angela's murder, but rather with her waiting by the dockyards of Palermo in the evening for Massino.
In 2006, director Martin Scorsese returned to the mob genre in "The Departed", starring the ensemble cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen. The film was a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong Triad film "Infernal Affairs". Set in Boston, the film follows the parallel double lives of undercover officer William Costigan Jr. (DiCaprio), who has infiltrated Irish mob boss's Frank Costello (Nicholson) and Colin Sullivan (Damon), who has served as a mole in the Massachusetts State Police. The characters are loosely based on famous gangster Whitey Bulger and corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, who grew up with Bulger. "The Departed" had gone on to win several awards, including four Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Scorsese), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Mark Wahlberg was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Also notable is "Public Enemies", a 2009 American biographical-crime film directed by Michael Mann and written by Mann, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman. It is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34. Set during the Great Depression, the film chronicles the final years of the notorious bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) as he is pursued by FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), and his relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), as well as Purvis' pursuit of Dillinger associates and fellow criminals Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff) and Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham). Scenes from "Manhattan Melodrama", are depicted in the 2009 film as being the last motion picture seen by the notorious gangster John Dillinger, who was shot to death by federal agents on 22 July 1934, after leaving Chicago's Biograph Theater where the film was playing.
"Gangs of New York" (2002), also directed by Scorsese, was the first modern gangster film to focus on the 19th-century Irish gangs. Although the gay nineties had been a popular setting for prewar crime films, from the 1950s until the early 21st century most gangster movies were set in either the prohibition era, postwar America, or the present day.
The 2007 film "American Gangster" directed by Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe also bears mention in fictionalizing the life of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas and his rivalry with the American Mafia.
The 2000s saw a twist to the Italian "cinema democratico" genre in that in films like "I cento passi" (2000), "Placido Rizzotto" (2000) and "Alla luce del sole" (2006), the solitary hero who takes on the Mafia is not a policeman, but rather on a "common citizen" like the trade unionist Placido Rizzotto, the Catholic priest Father Pino Puglisi or the Socialist activist Giuseppe Impastato, all of whom were murdered by the Mafia. Unlike the films of the 1980s-1990s which were always set in the present, the newer "cinema democratico" films tended to be set sometime in the past, and portrayed the Mafia as a product of centuries of backwardness and oppression in Sicily, a sort of "collective disease" that can only be cured by the reformation of society. "Le conseguenze dell'amore" (2004) portrayed a rather ordinary and boring man who works as a money launder for the Mafia in Switzerland, a hero trapped by the "ruthless mechanism of the system". The stockbroker hero, Titta Di Girolamo, is notable for avoiding all human contact for last 8 years of his life, which is revealed half-way through the film to be a punishment by the Mafia after he made a poor investment; if he ever speaks to anyone again, he will be killed. After a chance encounter with a barmaid, Sofia, Girolamo falls in love with her and is killed by the Mafia by being lowered into concrete. Since falling in love leads inexorably to Girolamo's murder, the film suggests the Mafia is the opposite of everything good in humanity and Girolamo's relationship with Sofia is a rebellion against Mafia power.
The 2008 Italian mob film "Gomorrah" was met with much critical acclaim upon its premiere in North America. The film was directed by Matteo Garrone, based on the book by Roberto Saviano that depicts the modern-day of the Casalesi crime family of the southern Italian region of Campania. The film follows five independent plots of people whose lives are influenced by organized crime in Naples and Caserta. Despite failing to represent Italy in the category of Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards, "Gomorrah" is still regarded as one of the more prominent mafia films from the Italian cinema.
Another Italian film from 2008 was "Galantomini", which despite its title, which roughly translates "gentlemen", told the story of a female boss in the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia. The film told very a Romano and Juliet story as it related the relationship between the Sacra Corona Unita boss, Lucia Rizzo and a prosecutor, Ignazio De Raho, who initially set out to imprison her. Through the story in the film is fictional, there is an element of truth in that a number of women who hold leadership positions in the Sacra Corona Unita, very much unlike the Mafia in Sicily.. The American scholar Dana Renga argued that the film with its portrayal of Puglia as a lost eden before the founding of the Sacra Corona Unita in the 1980s and Rizzo as the seductive Lilith-like gangster who lures De Raho to his doom has strong sexist elements.
The animated movie "Shark Tale" contained an Italian Mob boss as one of its main characters and had several references to the acclaimed "The Godfather" including character traits, etc. In addition, mob film veteran Robert De Niro playing a Mob Boss and notable mob film director Martin Scorsese behind the voice of an integral character.
2010s.
The 2010s continued the 2000s trend of bringing new movies featuring both prohibition and post–World War II real life mob incidents into the box office.
In 2012, "Lawless" was based on the 2008 novel "The Wettest County in the World" as the film follows a trio of siblings who run an illegal moonshine business during Prohibition.
"Gangster Squad" is a crime film directed by Ruben Fleischer, from a screenplay written by Will Beall, starring an ensemble cast that includes Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn. It is the story of a group of LAPD officers and detectives called the "Gangster Squad" who are attempting to keep Los Angeles safe from Mickey Cohen, a real life post–World War II Los Angeles gangster who became a powerful figure in the criminal underworld, and intended to continue to expand his criminal enterprise and his gang during the 1940s and '50s. The film was released January 11, 2013.
A 2015 Italian mob film, "Suburra", directed by Stefano Sollima, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo, starred Pierfrancesco Favino, Elio Germano and Claudio Amendola, and focused on the connections between organized crime and politics in Rome in 2011.
A 2018 biographical mafia film, "Gotti", directed by Kevin Connolly, stars John Travolta as John Gotti, released in June. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 0% based on 38 reviews, and an average rating of 2.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "." In 2019, Martin Scorsese released a biographical mafia film through Netflix, "The Irishman", starring all three heavyweights in the genre, Robert De Niro as Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, and Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino.


Maggie Gyllenhaal

Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal (; born November 16, 1977) is an American actress and film producer. Part of the Gyllenhaal family, she is the daughter of filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs, and the older sister of fellow actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
Gyllenhaal began her career as a teenager with small roles in several of her father's films, and appeared with her brother in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko" (2001). She then appeared in "Adaptation," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (both 2002), and "Mona Lisa Smile" (2003). Gyllenhaal received critical acclaim for her leading roles in the erotic romantic comedy drama "Secretary" (2002) and the drama "Sherrybaby" (2006). Each of her performances in these two films earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. After several commercially successful films in 2006, including "World Trade Center", she received wider recognition for playing Rachel Dawes in Christopher Nolan's 2008 superhero film "The Dark Knight".
For her performance as a single mother in "Crazy Heart" (2009), she received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She subsequently starred in the comedies and dramas: "Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang" (2010), "Hysteria" (2011), and "Won't Back Down" (2012). Her other acting efforts were in the action-thriller "White House Down" (2013), in which she played a Secret Service agent, and in 2014's "Frank", playing a musician. She also produced and starred in the drama "The Kindergarten Teacher" (2018).
Gyllenhaal has also been involved in theatre; she has appeared in five stage productions since 2000. In 2014, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of "The Real Thing." In addition to film and theatre, she starred in several television series, including the BBC political-thriller miniseries "The Honourable Woman". For her performance, she won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She also produced and starred in the HBO period drama series "The Deuce" (2017–19). Gyllenhaal has been married to actor Peter Sarsgaard since 2009 and they have two children together.
Early life.
Gyllenhaal was born in Manhattan, the daughter of Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (née Achs) and Stephen Gyllenhaal. The first name on Maggie's birth certificate is "Margalit", which she did not discover until 2013, when adopting her husband's surname. "Margalit" () is a Hebrew word meaning "pearl"; some news stories have spelled it "Margolit". She has two brothers; actor Jake Gyllenhaal and a half-brother named Luke from her father's second marriage.
Her father is a film director and poet, and her mother is a screenwriter and director. Her father, a member of the noble Gyllenhaal family, is of Swedish and English ancestry, and was raised in the Swedenborgian religion. Her last native Swedish ancestor was her great-great-grandfather Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal, a descendant of Leonard Gyllenhaal, a leading Swedenborgian who supported the printing and spreading of Swedenborg's writings.
Her mother was born in New York City (growing up in Brooklyn), and is Jewish, from families that emigrated from Russia and Poland. Her mother's first husband was Eric Foner, a noted historian and history professor at Columbia University. Gyllenhaal has stated that she "grew up mostly Jewish, culturally", and she identifies as Jewish, though she did not attend Hebrew school. Her parents married in 1977, and filed for divorce in October 2008.
Gyllenhaal grew up in Los Angeles and studied at the Harvard–Westlake prep school. She spent four months as a student at The Mountain School, a semester school for high school juniors in Vermont. In 1995, she graduated from Harvard–Westlake and moved to New York to attend Columbia University, where she studied literature and Eastern religions. She also studied acting for a summer term at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, England.
Career.
1992–2001: Early work.
At the age of 15, she made a brief appearance in her father's film "Waterland" (1992). Soon, she had supporting roles in "A Dangerous Woman" (1993) and "Homegrown" (1998), which were directed by her father, which also featured her brother Jake. With their mother, she and Jake appeared in two episodes of "Molto Mario", an Italian cooking show on the Food Network. After graduating from college, she had supporting roles in films including "Cecil B. Demented" (2000) and "Riding in Cars with Boys" (2001). Gyllenhaal later achieved recognition in her own right playing her real brother's on-screen sister in the indie cult favorite "Donnie Darko" (2001).
She made her theatrical debut in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of Patrick Marber's "Closer", for which she received favorable reviews. Production started in May 2000 and ended in mid-July of that year. Gyllenhaal has performed in several other plays, including "The Tempest", "Antony and Cleopatra", "The Butterfly Project", and "No Exit".
2002–2005: Film breakthrough.
Gyllenhaal's breakout role was in the black comedy, "Secretary" (2002), a film about two people who embark on a mutually fulfilling BDSM lifestyle. "The New York Times" critic Stephen Holden noted: "The role of Lee, which Maggie Gyllenhaal imbues with a restrained comic delicacy and sweetness, should make her a star." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote: "Maggie Gyllenhaal, as the self-destructive secretary, is enigmatic and, at moments, sympathetic." The film received generally favorable reviews, and Gyllenhaal's performance earned her the Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, her first Golden Globe nomination, and an Independent Spirit Award nomination. "Secretary" was Gyllenhaal's first film role which featured full frontal nudity. Impressed with the script, she initially had reservations about doing the film, which she believed could deliver an anti-feminist message. However, after carefully discussing the script with the film's director, Steven Shainberg, she agreed to join the project. Although insisting Shainberg did not exploit her, Gyllenhaal has said she felt "scared when filming began" and that "in the wrong hands ... even in just slightly less intelligent hands, this movie could say something really weird." Since then, she is guarded about discussing her role in the film, saying only that "despite myself, sometimes the dynamic that you are exploring in your work spills over into your life."Next, she had a supporting role in the comedy-drama "Adaptation" (2002), a film that tells the story of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's struggle to adapt "The Orchid Thief" into a film. She later appeared in the unauthorized biography "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002), part of an ensemble cast that included Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts. The movie grossed US$33 million worldwide. That same year, she had a small role in the comedy "40 Days and 40 Nights". In 2003, she co-starred with Julia Roberts in "Mona Lisa Smile" in the role of Giselle. In an interview with "The Daily Telegraph", she revealed the reason for accepting the role was "to play somebody who feels confident in herself as a sexy, beautiful woman". The film generated mostly mixed reviews, with Manohla Dargis of the "Los Angeles Times" describing it as "smug and reductive". Her next roles were in smaller independent films: "Casa de los Babys" (2003), is a story about six American women impatiently waiting out their lengthy residency requirements in a South American country before picking up their adoptive babies, and "Criminal" (2004), a remake of the Argentinian film "Nine Queens", with John C. Reilly and Diego Luna. Gyllenhaal plays an honest hotel manager forced to help her crooked brother (Reilly) by seducing one of his victims.
She starred in the HBO film "Strip Search" (2004), in which she portrayed an American student in China suspected of terrorism. For her role, Gyllenhaal had to perform multiple scenes of full-frontal nudity as the film tackled issues of strip searches. In 2004, Gyllenhaal returned to theater in a Los Angeles production of Tony Kushner's "Homebody/ Kabul" as Priscilla, the Homebody's daughter, who spends most of the play searching for her elusive mother in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kushner gave her the role in "Homebody/ Kabul" on the strength of her performance in "Closer". Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" wrote: "Ms. Gyllenhaal provides the essential bridge between the parts of the play's title." John Heilpern of "The New York Observer" noted that Gyllenhaal's performance was "compelling". Finally in 2004, Gyllenhaal was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Viewed as a sex symbol, she was ranked in the "Hot 100 List" by "Maxim" magazine in 2004 and 2005.
Gyllenhaal's next film role was in the 2005 comedy-drama "Happy Endings", in which she played an adventuress singer who seduces a young gay musician (Jason Ritter) as well as his rich father (Tom Arnold). She recorded songs for the film's soundtrack, calling the role the "roughest, scariest acting ever" and adding she is more natural when singing on screen than when acting. Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" declared Gyllenhaal's performance "as wonderfully, naturally slouchy-sexy as her character is artificial".
2006–2009: Comedies, dramas and theatre.
Following "Happy Endings", Gyllenhaal appeared in five films releases in 2006: "Trust the Man", "Stranger than Fiction", "Monster House", "World Trade Center", and "Sherrybaby". In "Trust the Man", featuring Julianne Moore, David Duchovny, and Billy Crudup, she played Elaine, who has been dating Tobey, Crudup's character, for seven years and has begun to feel that it is time for her to settle down and start a family. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. Ethan Alter of "Premiere" felt that the performances by Gyllenhaal and Duchovny were "much more at ease" and concluded with "that's probably because they're played these characters many times before". In "Stranger than Fiction", Gyllenhaal played a love interest of Harold Crick, played by Will Ferrell. Her performance in the film received favorable reviews; Mike Straka of Fox News wrote: "Gyllenhaal has never been sexier in any film before and her interplay with Ferrell will propel her to more A-list films, leaving her indie-darling days behind, no doubt." She voiced Elizabeth "Zee" in the computer animated horror film "Monster House". Gyllenhaal played Allison Jimeno, the wife of Port Authority officer Will Jimeno, in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center", based on the September 11 attacks in New York City. She regarded this as "one of the films she most enjoyed making". The film received favorable reviews and proved to be an international success, earning US$162 million worldwide.
In "Sherrybaby", Gyllenhaal played a young drug-addicted thief trying to put her life in order after prison so she can reconcile with her daughter. During promotion of the film, she noted of her portrayal of the character: "I think she's in such dire straits that all she has are these kind of naive, fierce hopes. And while I was playing the part I was looking for pleasure and hope in everything, even in these really bleak things. And so it was really mostly after I finished the movie that I felt pain." Her performance in the film was well-received; David Germain of the "Associated Press" wrote, "Gyllenhaal humanizes her so deeply and richly ... that Sherry elicits sympathy even in her darkest and weakest moments", and Dennis Harvey of "Variety" magazine called her performance "naturalistic". For her performance, Gyllenhaal earned a second Golden Globe Best Actress nomination and won the Best Actress category award at the 2006 Stockholm International Film Festival.
She appeared in "The Dark Knight" (2008), the sequel to "Batman Begins" (2005), in which she replaced Katie Holmes as Assistant District Attorney, Rachel Dawes. Gyllenhaal acknowledged her character was a damsel in distress to an extent, but said director Christopher Nolan sought ways to empower her character, so "Rachel's really clear about what's important to her and unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change" from the many conflicted characters she had previously portrayed. "The Dark Knight" was a critical and commercial success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America. With revenue of $1 billion worldwide, it became the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, and remains Gyllenhaal's most commercially successful feature to date. In a "Salon" magazine review of the film, Stephanie Zacharek called Gyllenhaal's character "a tough cookie in a Stanwyck-style bias-cut dress" and stated that "the movie feels smarter and more supple when she's on-screen". "IGN" film critic Todd Gilchrist wrote, "Gyllenhaal adds real depth and energy to Rachel Dawes".
In addition to film, Gyllenhaal played Yelena Andreevna in the Classic Stage Company's 2009 Off-Broadway production of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in New York City. The cast also included her husband Peter Sarsgaard. The production, directed by Austin Pendleton, began previews on January 17 and ended its limited run on March 1. Joe Dziemianowicz of the "New York Daily News" was unenthusiastic about her performance, writing "Gyllenhaal, who was so dynamic as a druggie in the film "Sherrybaby", plays Yelena with a slow-mo saunter and monotonous pasted-on smile that makes it seem as if she's been in Sherry's stash." However, Malcolm Johnson of the "Hartford Courant" was complimentary, noting that she "ultimately blossoms" as the character.
Gyllenhaal agreed to star in the comedy "Away We Go" (2009), in which she plays a bohemian college professor who is an old friend of John Krasinski's character. The film generated broadly mixed reviews, with Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" describing Gyllenhaal's subplot as "over-the-top". However, A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" praised Gyllenhaal and co-star Allison Janney for their performances, writing that "both [are] quite funny". Scott concluded with, "Ms. Gyllenhaal's line about sex roles in 'the seahorse community' is the screenplay's one clean satirical bull's-eye". Her next role came in the musical-drama "Crazy Heart", in which she played journalist Jean Craddock, who falls for musician Bad Blake, played by Jeff Bridges. The film received an acclaimed response, with praise for Gyllenhaal's performance too. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" observed that Gyllenhaal was "funny, touching and vital as Jean" and that her part was "conventionally conceived, but Gyllenhaal plays it with a tough core of intelligence and feeling." Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
2010–present.
In addition to acting, she presented 13 episodes of the PBS television series "Independent Lens" between 2009–10. The program presents documentary films made by independent filmmakers. In 2010, Gyllenhaal appeared in "Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang" with co-star Emma Thompson, the sequel to the 2005's "Nanny McPhee". She played Isabel Green, which required her to speak with an English accent. The feature received generally positive reviews; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 76% based on 119 critics. "The Sydney Morning Herald" complimented Gyllenhaal's realistic accent and ability to capture her English character with ease. It was a reasonable success at the box office, earning $93 million worldwide.
For her next film, Gyllenhaal starred in the biographical romance "Hysteria" (2011), which focuses on the events that led to the creation of the vibrator during the Victorian era. The film received a mixed reception; writing for "The Guardian", David Cox noted the film's stereotypes and "yelps of delight", and praised Gyllenhaal's English accent. In February 2011, Gyllenhaal starred in another Anton Chekhov Off-Broadway production as the character Masha in Austin Pendleton's "Three Sisters" at the Classic Stage Company. The play focused on the Prozorov sisters (Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, and Juliet Rylance), who are "unlucky in love, unhappy in the provinces and longing to return to Moscow", as summarized by Bloomberg's Jeremy Gerard. The production began preview performances on January 12, with a limited engagement through March 6.
In 2012, she played mother Jaime Fitzpatrick in the drama "Won't Back Down," about a group of parents involved in a parent trigger takeover of a failing school. Next, she appeared alongside Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, as a Secret Service agent in the action-thriller "White House Down" (2013). The film was met with mixed reviews and under-performed at the box office. A year later, she starred in the musical comedy "Frank", about a man who joins an odd band with a group of bizarre musicians. Gyllenhaal, who also plays a musician, said she initially turned down the role because she did not understand it. However, she changed her mind after the story "stuck with her". The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to favorable opinions; "Slant" magazine's critic opined that Gyllenhaal has "passive and palpable screen presence". Also that year, she played Hathfertiti in Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler's "River of Fundament," loosely based on the 1983 novel "Ancient Evenings" by Norman Mailer.
Gyllenhaal played the lead role as Baroness Nessa Stein, a British-Israeli businesswoman heiress in the BBC political spy thriller television miniseries, "The Honourable Woman". The series was well received; Kevin Fallon wrote in the "Daily Beast": "Gyllenhaal delivers what might be the most towering, complex, best performance of her career in the miniseries." "Time" magazine praised the series' pacing, themes, settings, and called Gyllenhaal's performance "remarkable". At the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, she won Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for her performance. "The Honourable Woman" appeared in a list of "The" "Guardian" critics' 30 best television shows of 2014.
In 2016, Gyllenhaal narrated Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina;" it was made available for purchase on Amazon's Audible store. In an interview, Gyllenhaal said "Making this, doing this, I feel like it's one of the major accomplishments of my work life." In February 2017, she served as a member of the jury for the 2017 Berlin Film Festival. Returning to film in 2018, Gyllenhaal starred in "The Kindergarten Teacher", a drama in which her character becomes obsessed with a student whom she believes is a child prodigy. The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and was distributed via Netflix. It is a remake of the 2014 Israeli film of the same name. The feature opened to mainly popular reviews; "The Daily Telegraph" critic gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and thought Gyllenhaal was well-cast, writing "[her] earnest intensity as an actress, gift for fatigue and slightly holier-than-thou authority are key assets here." Although Dennis Harvey of "Variety" magazine praised her performance, he thought the film lacked "psychological insight".
She served as a producer and starred in the HBO drama series "The Deuce," which aired between 2017–19; she played Eileen "Candy" Merrell, a sex worker during the Golden Age of Porn. "The Deuce" earned Gyllenhaal a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Personal life.
In 2002, Gyllenhaal began a relationship with actor Peter Sarsgaard. They got engaged in April 2006, and married on May 2, 2009, in a small chapel in Brindisi, Italy. They have two daughters, Ramona (born 2006) and Gloria Ray (born 2012). The family lived in a townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In 2019, they listed their townhouse for sale.
Political views.
At the 18th Independent Spirit Awards in 2003, she spoke out against the Iraq war, stating the reason for the invasion was "oil and imperialism". In 2005, Gyllenhaal drew controversy for her statement that the September 11 attacks were "an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world  ... It is always useful as individuals or nations to ask how we may have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to this conflict." Gyllenhaal took part in Artists United to Win Without War, a campaign started by Robert Greenwald that aimed to advance progressive causes and voicing opposition to the Iraq War.
She and her brother Jake filmed a commercial for Rock the Vote, and visited the University of Southern California to encourage students to vote in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, in which she supported John Kerry. Gyllenhaal supported Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. She has campaigned on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an organization her family strongly supports. In June 2013, Gyllenhaal and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
Charity work.
Gyllenhaal is a supporter of Witness, a non-profit organization that uses video and online technologies to expose human rights violations. She co-hosted a benefit dinner with founder Peter Gabriel in November 2007. Gyllenhaal helped raise funds for TrickleUp.org, another non-profit that helps people in poverty to start a micro-enterprise. For one of the fundraisers, Gyllenhaal helped design and promote a necklace that sold for US$100; all proceeds from sales went to the charity. Since 2008, Gyllenhaal has been supporting the Hear the World Foundation as ambassador. In her role, she advocates for equal opportunities and better quality of life for people with hearing loss. In October 2008, she hosted a fashion show called "Fashionably Natural", which was presented by Gen Art and SoyJoy in Los Angeles. The show featured new designers who worked only with natural and eco-friendly fabrics and materials. Gyllenhaal is an advocate of Planned Parenthood; in 2012 she said, "Women's health is very important to me.  It has become such a politicized issue and so I will make every effort to elect officials who believe as strongly as I do that all women [...] have access to quality health care and information."


Alexanders saga

Alexanders saga is an Old Norse translation of "Alexandreis", an epic Latin poem about the life of Alexander the Great written by Walter of Châtillon, which was itself based on Quintus Curtius Rufus's "Historia Alexandri Magni". It is attributed in manuscripts of the saga to Brandr Jónsson, bishop of Skálholt who is also said to have been responsible for authoring Gyðinga saga. Kirsten Wolf has commented on the saga's literary qualities thus: ""Alexanders saga" [...] has stirred the admiration of scholars and writers for centuries because of its exceptionally imaginative use of the resources of language and its engaging narrative style."
Manuscripts.
"Alexanders saga" is preserved in five medieval Icelandic manuscripts and a number of later manuscripts, of which only Stock. Papp. fol. no. 1 has independent textual value. The main manuscript source of the text is AM 519a 4to, dating from 1270-1290. A fragment of the saga appears in AM 655 XXIX 4to which dates from the same period. It is also found in AM 226 fol (and its copy AM 225 fol) which contains the Biblical compilation Stjórn. In these manuscripts "Alexanders saga" comes after "Rómverja saga" and before "Gyðinga saga". In AM 226 fol, AM 225 fol, and Stock. Perg. 4to no. 24 the text is shorter than AM 519a 4to and also contain a translation of "Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem".
Kalinke and Mitchell identified the following manuscripts of the saga:


Hyper Music/Feeling Good

"Hyper Music" and "Feeling Good" are songs by the English alternative rock band Muse from their second album "Origin of Symmetry" (2001), released as a double A-side single on 19 November 2001.
Composition.
"Hyper Music" is an art punk song, written by vocalist and guitarist Matthew Bellamy. "Feeling Good" was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley for the 1964 musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd," later covered by jazz and soul singer Nina Simone.
A softer, rearranged version of "Hyper Music" was recorded under the title of "Hyper Chondriac Music" and included on Muse's 2002 compilation album "Hullabaloo Soundtrack".
Music videos.
The music videos for "Feeling Good" and "Hyper Music" were directed by David Slade. The music video for Hyper Music begins with a shot of a room that has a red floor and greyish walls with Bellamy slouching with a mic in front of him, and a guitar in his hands. The video then changes to a shot next to Bellamy, as he starts playing the song. Seemingly out of nowhere, the rest of the band appears behind him as they all start playing, with shots interspersed with Bellamy playing his guitar alone, before stabilising into just the band playing the song, with a few shots of just Bellamy, with the shots of purely Bellamy increasing when the beginning riff is repeated. When the chorus repeats for the final time a crowd of people appears, jumping around the band. Nearly the entire video is shot very shakily, with apparent lens flares appearing at several moments.
The music video for Feeling Good is rather similar. It begins with Bellamy playing a keyboard instrument. There is clearly a light shining on him. The light's cause is a hole in the roof, from which red petals are falling down on Bellamy. Shots of bizarre looking people are shown walking into light in the same room, with them continuing for the first 30 seconds. As the band yet again appears behind Bellamy, the petals' falling gets heavier. At a bit over the one minute mark the lights mostly disappear, as Bellamy starts singing into a megaphone, accompanied by a change in Bellamy's voice to a buzzing distortion. The lights turn back on as the distortion turns off, and the megaphone is gone, but now the warped looking people are standing behind the band. The people slowly begin climbing up the walls, presumably to escape, as the band keeps playing, with many of the people just staring at the band. In the final moments of the video the majority of the people are seen crawling on the walls.
Release.
It was released on 19 November 2001 on 7" vinyl—as a double A-side—and double CD—backed with "Shine" and a cover of The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want". It reached number 24 in the UK Singles Chart—the lowest of all four singles released from "Origin of Symmetry", though sold better than all of them except "Plug in Baby".
Legacy.
"Feeling Good" was ranked as the fifth best cover version in a poll by "Total Guitar" in 2008. Later in 2010, Muse's cover of "Feeling Good" was ranked by "NME" as the greatest cover song of all time in September 2010. Over 15,000 people voted it to number one, beating The Beatles' cover of "Twist and Shout" and Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt". In 2014, a BBC poll saw it voted the ninth best cover version ever.
Muse successfully sued Nescafé in 2003 when their version of "Feeling Good" was used in a television advert without permission, donating the £500,000 compensation to Oxfam. Nescafé later replaced it with the Nina Simone version. "Feeling Good" is used in Virgin Atlantic's 2010 commercial run in the United States, "001".
"Feeling Good" has been featured in the film "Seven Pounds", and the television series "John from Cincinnati", "Doctor Who Confidential", "Queer as Folk", "Luther", "The Handmaid's Tale", "Shameless" and "Tracy Beaker Returns". Season 8 "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert performed "Feeling Good" on the show, using the arrangement of Muse's version. The song is also featured in the video game "The Saboteur".


Rent (albums)

Rent (Original Broadway Cast Recording) is an album of music from the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 musical "Rent". It is produced by DreamWorks with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. The album is a 2-disc (in its CD format) collection of every song from the musical; some small segments of narration and spoken dialogue from the play are not included in the recording. The collection ends with a studio-recorded rearrangement of the song "Seasons of Love" featuring Stevie Wonder. The album was recorded by the original Broadway cast of "RENT" and was released on August 27, 1996. A second one-disc album was released in 1999 containing highlights from the original cast album.


Kinky Boots (Broadway cast album)

A Broadway original cast album for the musical "Kinky Boots" was released on May 28, 2013, less than two months after the show opened on Broadway. It was produced by Cyndi Lauper, who wrote the songs, Stephen Oremus, the orchestrator and conductor, and William Wittman. On release it premiered at number one on the Billboard Cast Albums Chart and number fifty-one on the "Billboard" 200 chart, making it the highest charting Broadway cast recording since "The Book of Mormon"s album was released two years earlier.
Before the album's release and the show's Chicago tryout beginning in October 2012, the song "Sex Is in the Heel" became the first Broadway song to reach the top 10 of the "Billboard" club charts in 25 years. "Land of Lola" was released as a dance remix by Wayne G. & LFB in June 2013.
Reception.
The album received a favorable review in "Playbill" from Steven Suskin and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.


Therese May

Therese May (born 1943 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American artist who was one of the first to exhibit quilts as a fine art form. She is known for her mixed media quilts.
Early life and education.
May was born August 5, 1943 in Madison, Wisconsin. She began to self-identify as an artist while in kindergarten. She studied painting at the University of Wisconsin, earning a bachelor's degree in Art in 1967. In 1974 she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from San Jose State University.
Early career.
May began to piece quilts in the late 1960s. Initially, her quilts were made of squares and triangles. However, she soon developed a method which involved projecting a photographic slide on to paper and then tracing the image. The drawing was then cut out and used as a pattern for fabric. May entered a quilt that was made using this method ("Therese Quilt") in a mixed craft media exhibition at the Walnut Creek Civic Art Center in 1969: "Animals, Quilts, and Blunt Instruments". She won a prize and realized that a career as a fiber artist was possible.
Jean Ray Laury, who is "regarded by many as the leading voice in the early sixties quilt revival," saw "Therese Quilt" and included it in her book, "Quilts and Coverlets: A Contemporary Approach" (1970). "Quilts and Coverlets" is considered to be the first major book on contemporary quiltmaking, and it became widely influential among fiber artists. Inclusion in this book launched May's career.
"Therese Quilt" (1969) features an image of May's face that was reproduced eighty times and traced onto eighty different fabrics. Each tracing was then cut identically into pieces and reassembled like a miniature jigsaw puzzle so that each portrait is composed of different fabrics and no two blocks are the same. The portraits were then machine appliquéd to a backing fabric. The fabrics, which were obtained from used clothing that was purchased in thrift shops, "zing and clash, rather than coordinate." In describing the quilt, Laury wrote, "The pattern of hexagonal shapes is so reminiscent of old quilts that it is a delightful jolt to have the faces emerge from the pattern." May stated that these self-portraits reflect human nature in that, "We are the same person and yet we are never the same. With each passing hour we are slightly different." "Therese Quilt" was later selected as one of the "Twentieth Century's Best American Quilts" by a panel that included representatives of The Alliance for American Quilts, The American Quilt Study Group, The International Quilt Association, International Quilt Festival, and PRIMEDIA Special Interest Publications.
"Bridget Quilt" (1968) was also included in "Quilts and Coverlets". It, too, featured a repeated image, with each repetition composed of different fabrics. Laury described it as combining "the elements of a traditional quilt with the photographic image approach of contemporary painting."
During the 1970s, "May's subject matter focused on domestic scenes, her children, and her collection of salt and pepper shakers." She also incorporated patterns from Early American hooked and braided rugs in her paintings, drawings, and quilts.
Later career.
In 1977, May began drawing and painting fantasy animals. These images began to appear in her quilts in 1981. She was inspired by artists such as Joan Brown, Roy De Forest, and David Gilhooly. Around 1980 she began painting directly on her quilts, creating "thick, often crusty, surfaces of layered color and texture." May enjoys the risk of adding paint, stating, "Adding paint can either make or break the work. You can lose a lot of time if the paint you add doesn't work." In addition to paint, she often embellishes her quilts with embroidery and will intentionally leave some or all of the threads dangling to "add another layer of texture, color, and tactile interest" to the quilt's surface. She often adds buttons and beads. May states that, "An embellished quilt has the feeling of a collection." Her work has influenced the use of embellishment in quilts, which she encourages in the workshops that she teaches.
May continued to exhibit regularly, sell her work, and teach, and by the late 1980s she was working full-time as a professional artist. Two of her pieces, "Thy Will Be Done" (1985) and "For All The World To See" (1984), were included in "The Art Quilt", an exhibition featuring the work of non-traditional quilters which opened at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in 1986, and then traveled to seven other sites over a three-year period. Robert Shaw wrote, "As the first major curated exhibit of its kind, "The Art Quilt" defined the cutting edge of the new movement and identified its leading practitioners." During this period May also created "Fish and Chicks" (1986), a "personal visual narrative" that is full of symbolism.
One of May's later works is "Pregnant Winter Tree" (1993), a machine appliquéd piece which is also painted, beaded, and further embellished with buttons. Robert Shaw describes it as "dreamlike and open to interpretation." Referring to it, May noted, "Much of the time there is so much more to the world than is apparent. In the creative process sometimes we think nothing is happening, but actually lots is happening. When things don't seem to be growing, they really are."
May's other later works include "Cup-O-Wurms" (1995) and a piece commissioned for the San Jose Convention Center in 1993. In 1997, Robert Shaw described her as "one of the most visible and highly regarded quilt artists for many years."


Urbino maiolica

Urbino majolica is maiolica type of earthenware made in Urbino, Italy. Urbino has long been a key city in the making of maiolica.


Gul Sanobar

Gul Sanobar is an Indian fantasy adventure television series created by Dhirubhai Gohil which aired on DD national from 2000 to 2001. It is based on the Persian legend of "Gul o Sanaubar" and the "Arabian Nights".
Home media.
RDG Productions Pvt. Ltd. re-released the show on its YouTube channel starting from 2018.


Books of Clanranald

The Books of Clanranald are two paper manuscripts that date to about the early 18th century. The books are written in Classical Gaelic, and are best known for their traditional account of the history of Clan Donald. The manuscripts are commonly referred to as the "Red Book" and the "Black Book". The name "Red Book", however, may actually be a misnomer. Although Gaelic tradition on South Uist notes a "Red Book of MacMhuirich", it is uncertain whether this book is identical to the surviving manuscript. In fact, the manuscript may be partly derived from the red book of tradition. The name "Black Book" may have been coined in order to distinguish it from the so-called "Red Book".
The "Red Book" was composed by Niall MacMhuirich, a member of the MacMhuirich bardic family, who wrote the clan history within, and was responsible for the collection of some of the manuscript's other poetical material. A later hand also added material into the book.
Compared to the "Red Book", the "Black Book" is more of a miscellaneous collection of material. This manuscript was compiled by several people, but the history within this work was written by Christopher Beaton, a member of the Beaton learned family, who appears to have been employed by the family of the Earls of Antrim.


No Place Like London


Haibun

 is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of "haibun" is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal.
History.
The term "haibun" was first used by the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, in a letter to his disciple Kyorai in 1690. Bashō was a prominent early writer of "haibun", then a new genre combining classical prototypes, Chinese prose genres and vernacular subject matter and language. He wrote some "haibun" as travel accounts during his various journeys, the most famous of which is "Oku no Hosomichi" ("Narrow Road to the Interior").
Bashō's shorter "haibun" include compositions devoted to travel and others focusing on character sketches, landscape scenes, anecdotal vignettes and occasional writings written to honor a specific patron or event. His "Hut of the Phantom Dwelling" can be classified as an essay while, in "Saga Nikki" ("Saga Diary"), he documents his day-to-day activities with his disciples on a summer retreat.
Traditional "haibun" typically took the form of a short description of a place, person or object, or a diary of a journey or other series of events in the poet's life. "Haibun" continued to be written by later "haikai" poets such as Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki.
In English.
"Haibun" is no longer confined to Japan, and has established itself as a genre in world literature which has gained momentum in recent years.
James Merrill's "Prose of Departure", from "The Inner Room" (1988), is an earlier example.
The first contest for English-language "haibun" took place in 1996, organized by poet and editor Michael Dylan Welch, and judged by Tom Lynch and Cor van den Heuvel. Anita Virgil won first prize, and David Cobb won second prize. The contest resulted in the publication of "Wedge of Light" (Press Here) in 1999. As credited by Welch, the first anthology of English-language "haibun" was Bruce Ross's "Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun" (Tuttle), published in 1998.
Jim Kacian and Bruce Ross edited the inaugural number of the annual anthology "American Haibun & Haiga" (Red Moon Press) in 1999; that series, which continues to this day, changed its name to "Contemporary Haibun" in 2003 and sponsored the parallel creation in 2005 of "Contemporary Haibun Online", a quarterly journal that added Welsh "haibun" author Ken Jones to the founding editorial team of Kacian and Ross.
Characteristics.
A "haibun" may record a scene, or a special moment, in a highly descriptive and objective manner or may occupy a wholly fictional or dream-like space. The accompanying haiku may have a direct or subtle relationship with the prose and encompass or hint at the gist of what is recorded in the prose sections.
Several distinct schools of English "haibun" have been described, including "Reportage narrative mode" such as Robert Wilson's "Vietnam Ruminations", "Haibunic prose", and the "Templum effect".
Contemporary practice of "haibun" composition in English is continually evolving. Generally, a "haibun" consists of one or more paragraphs of prose written in a concise, imagistic "haikai" style, and one or more haiku. However, there may be considerable variation of form, as described by editor and practitioner Jeffrey Woodward.
Modern English-language "haibun" writers (aka, practitioners) include Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross, Mark Nowak, John Richard Parsons, Sheila Murphy, Nobuyuki Yuasa, Lynne Reese, Peter Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and David Cobb, founder of the British Haiku Society in 1990 and author of "Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore," a 5,000-word haibun which has been considered seminal for the English form of kikōbun (i.e., travel diary).


Kojojash

Kojojash is a Kyrgyz lesser epic tale that has been told for centuries. The Kyrgyz are an ancient Turkic tribe from Central Asia. Although there is evidence that the ancient Kyrgyz had a runic alphabet, epic tales such as this were never written down. They were passed from generation to generation orally. These epic tales chronicle the history of the Kyrgyz people; they highlight the importance of heroes and showcase the battles between internal and external enemies (Köçümkulkïzï). These tales are the only sources of ancient Kyrgyz history.
The characters.
Kojojash.
Kojojash is the protagonist of this epic tale. He is a very skilled hunter capable of slaughtering almost any animal. His skills are so high that he can provide for a tribe of twenty families. Those families rely on him for support. Without him, they cannot eat. Kojojash is too proud; his pride leads him to his death. He cannot accept that some animals are able to escape from his gun. His lust to kill drives him to the cliffs where he meets his death.
Zulayka.
Zulayka is the wife of Kojojash and the interpreter of the dream. When Kojojash dreams of becoming lost on a cliff, she interprets this as a bad omen and begs him to stop hunting. Zulayka cares deeply for her husband. In fact, she chose him instead of he choosing her. She bears one son Moldojash.
Sur-Ecki.
Sur-Ecki is the she-goat that Kojojash swears to kill. The wife of Alabash, she has hundreds of children and is very prosperous. One day as she is feeding with her kids, Kojojash comes and slaughters all of them. She begs him to spare her husband and herself, so she may bear more children and continue the line of their family. Kojojash refuses and blatantly kills Alabash in front of Sur-Ecki's face. Sur-Ecki swears revenge and leads Kojojash on top a steep rocky cliff, in essence leading him to his death. At the end of the story, Sur-Ecki becomes the wife of Kojojash's son, Moldojash.
Moldojash.
Moldojash is the son of Zulayka and Kojojash. He searches for his father's remains, but cannot find them. At the end of the tale, he marries Sur-Ecki, thus restoring peace between man and the goats.
The story.
The tale begins by introducing Kojojash. Kojojash is a great hunter. He is revered by his tribe and provides for them by hunting. No animal can seem to escape him. One day, as Kojojash was walking through the village, he met a girl named Zulayka. Zulayka was choosing a husband from a crowd of men. When she saw Kojojash, she immediately chose him. The two were wed.
One night, Kojojash had a dream. In his dream, he came upon a herd of goats and slaughtered every last one. On his way back, he became trapped upon a high cliff ledge. His wife interpreted this dream as a bad omen. In the wilderness, the she-goat Sur-Ecki also had a bad dream. She dreamt that a hunter slaughtered all of her children. Both of these dreams act as foreshadowing for the events to come. As Kojojash is hunting the next day, the events of his dream begin to unfold. He comes upon a family of goats and slaughters all of the kids. The she goat Sur-Ecki pleads for Kojojash to let her husband and her live and reproduce, but Kojojash slaughters her husband Alabash in front of her face. Sur-Ecki swears revenge, and flees from Kojojash without being harmed. Kojojash swears to hunt down and kill Sur-Ecki. Kojojash returns home and reveals the events of the hunt to his wife. She is scared for his life and asks him to stop hunting. He refuses, since he is the sole provider of food for his tribe. Kojojash decides that he will continue to pursue and hunt down Sur-Ecki. As he is chasing her, she leads him onto a steep rocky cliff. Kojojash becomes trapped, just like in his dream. Kojojash calls out and his father finds him. He instructs his father Karïpbay to go to the village and have the carpenters build a ladder.
After the ladder rescue attempt fails, Kojojash decides that his only option is death. He instructs his pregnant wife to name their child Moldojash if it is a son. And then, he throws himself off the cliff to his death. Zulayka bears a son, and names him Moldojash after her late husband's request. Moldojash searches for his father after he learns of Kojojash's death. He cannot find the remains, but he does find Sur-Ecki. He marries Sur-Ecki, and returns home to his people.
References.
Köçümkulkïzï, Elmira. "THE KYRGYZ EPIC “KOJOJASH”." THE KYRGYZ EPIC “KOJOJASH”. 2004. 3 May 2007


Josef Ekberg

Josef Ekberg (February 18, 1877 – December 7, 1945) was a Swedish designer who worked at Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory from 1889 until his death in 1945.
Ekberg was born in Värmdö, Sweden. His father was an organ maker by profession. Ekberg began working in the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory aged 12. He started out as a helper in the factory and eventually progressed to the post of painter. His first designs were simple landscape motifs. From 1908 until 1917 he was the artistic leader of the factory. He developed the sgrafitto and luster glazes.
Ekberg was also a good friend of Gunnar Wennerberg. In 1898 the two developed the Sgraffito technique and several designs together in the 1890s. Some of their designs attracted the attention of ironmaster Odelberg. They also exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.


Buckstitching

Buckstitching is a technique used in leathercraft for securely joining two or more pieces of heavy leather along a seam. It is a simple, durable technique. Buckstitching is performed using a pronged metal tool that leatherworkers call a "buckstitch chisel" that has between one and five (or more) cutting tips. The chisel is held over the leather pieces to be joined, and is then struck with a mallet until the chisel penetrates all of the leather and produces what are called "lacing slits". This is repeated along the entire seam. Next, a special leatherworker's needle is used to thread a wide sturdy lace back and forth through all of the slits.
Buckstitching is often found on items such as cowboy boots, western saddles, and other leather products associated with the American frontier. It is an alternative to the whipstitch, the running stitch, the saddle stitch, the round braid, loop lacing, and appliqué lacing.