Serpico

Serpico is a 1973 biographical-crime film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino. The screenplay was adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from the book of the same name written by Peter Maas with the assistance of its subject, Frank Serpico. The story details Serpico's struggle with corruption within the New York City Police Department during his eleven years of service, and his work as a whistleblower that led to the investigation by the Knapp Commission.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the rights from Maas. Agent Martin Bregman joined the film as co-producer. Bregman suggested Pacino for the main part, and John G. Avildsen was hired to direct the film. Pacino met with Serpico to prepare for the role early in the summer of 1973. After Avildsen was dismissed, Lumet was hired as his replacement. On a short notice, he selected the shooting locations and organized the scenes; the production was filmed in July and August.
Upon its release, "Serpico" became a critical and commercial success. At the same time, the film drew criticism from police officers. It received nominations for the Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. Pacino earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, while Salt and Wexler received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Plot.
NYPD Officer Frank Serpico is rushed to the hospital, having been shot in the face. Chief Sidney Green fears Serpico may have been shot by another cop. In a flashback, Serpico graduates from the police academy, and he becomes frustrated with his fellow officers' laxness. On patrol, he confronts three men raping a woman and apprehends one of the assailants. When the suspect is beaten during interrogation, Serpico declines to participate. He later persuades the suspect to give up the others. Serpico breaks protocol to arrest the suspect himself, but is coerced not to take credit. He is then assigned to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He moves to Greenwich Village and begins dating Leslie, a woman in his Spanish class. For his appearance, interests and a misunderstanding in the men's bathroom, he is accused of being homosexual. Serpico clarifies the situation to Captain McLain, and he requests a transfer.
At his new precinct, Serpico works in plain clothes. While chasing a burglar, he is nearly shot when other officers fail to recognize him. Serpico later befriends Bob Blair, who has been assigned to the Mayor's Office of Investigations. Meanwhile, Leslie leaves Serpico to marry another man in Texas. Serpico is offered a bribe and informs Blair, who arranges a meeting with a high-ranking investigator. He is told that he must either testify or “forget it”. He turns the bribe over to his sergeant. Serpico then requests a transfer, and begins recording his phone calls. At the time, he begins a romance with his neighbor, Laurie.
He is reassigned to the 7th Division, but he immediately discovers corruption. Forced to accompany fellow plainclothes officers as they perpetrate violence, extortion, and collect payoffs, he refuses to accept his share of the money. He informs McLain, who assures him that the police commissioner wants him to continue gathering evidence, and that he will be contacted by the chief's office. Serpico becomes impatient waiting for the promised contact, fearing for his life. Serpico and Blair go to the mayor's assistant, who promises a real investigation and support. Their efforts are stymied by political pressure, and Serpico dismisses Blair's suggestion to go to other officials or the press.
Serpico's colleagues try to convince him to take the payoff money, but he declines. The strain takes a toll on him, and his relationship with Laurie. When Serpico discovers a suspect he arrested receiving special treatment, he brutalizes the man, who reveals he served fifteen years for killing a cop. Frustrated after a year-and-a-half of inaction, Serpico informs McLain that he has gone to outside agencies with his allegations. In front of the squad, Serpico is sent to meet with division inspectors, who explain that his charges never made it up the chain of command. The inspectors inform the commissioner, who orders them to investigate the division themselves, and acknowledges that McLain told him of the allegations.
As the investigation proceeds, Serpico is threatened by the squad, and Laurie leaves him. The district attorney leads Serpico to believe that if he testifies in a grand jury, a major investigation into rampant department corruption will happen. During the grand jury, he is prevented by the DA from answering questions that point up the chain of command. Serpico becomes more frustrated. Knowing his life is in danger, he, Blair, and an honest division commander go to "The New York Times". After his allegations are printed, he is reassigned to a dangerous narcotics squad in Brooklyn, where he finds even greater corruption.
During a drug arrest, Serpico is shot in the face when his backup fails to act. He recovers, though with lifelong effects from his wound. Serpico receives a detective's gold shield. He then testifies before the Knapp Commission, a government inquiry into NYPD police corruption. An epilogue reveals that he resigned from the NYPD on June 15, 1972, and that he was later awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor for "conspicuous bravery in action". Its conclusion states that he moved to Switzerland.
Background.
After Frank Serpico recovered from being shot, he helped Peter Maas write "Serpico". Detective David Durk, who also appeared in front of the Knapp Commission, planned to sell the rights of their story for a film adaptation. Early negotiations included Paul Newman in the role of Durk, and Robert Redford as Serpico. Serpico distanced himself from the project, as he felt that he would be merely portrayed as a sidekick. Script writer John Gregory Dunne turned down the project, as he felt "there was no story". Director Sam Peckinpah, as well as Newman and Redford left the project.
After the success of several of his films in the 1960s, and the first years of the 1970s, producer Dino De Laurentiis decided to move from Italy to the United States. The change in financing laws further regulated the Italian film industry, and the producer settled in New York City. Following their collaboration on "The Valachi Papers", De Laurentiis purchased the rights to Maas' book. Maas received US$400,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) and participation in the film, while the rights for his work were secured before the March 1973 publication of the book. Initially, De Laurentiis' found resistance to the project from Paramount Pictures. The studio considered that "enough cop movies" had been made. In turn, De Laurentiis was supported by Charles Bluhdorn, president of Gulf+Western who wanted the film to be made. De Laurentiis later declared that "no American producer would have had the courage" to depict police corruption in a motion picture.
Maas' agent, Sam Cohn, was approached by agent Martin Bregman. Bregman expressed his interest to also produce the film after reading an article in "New York" magazine about the book. Bregman proposed one of his signed actors, Al Pacino to play the lead. Waldo Salt was chosen to write the screenplay adaptation. The first draft did not impress Maas, De Laurentiis, nor Bregman. Bregman felt that the result was "very political", and that the story did not reflect what the producers desired to portray on the film. Bregman and Maas then directed Salt to the parts of the book they envisioned to be reflected on the screenplay. The second draft was considered a substantial improvement by the production team. Bregman took the treatment to Pacino, who initially did not find the film interesting. Salt then visited Pacino with the re-worked script, that convinced him to consider the part. A meeting with Serpico, Maas and Pacino was then arranged for the actor to meet the subject of the film. Upon meeting him, Pacino was fully convinced to accept the part. John G. Avildsen was then chosen to direct the film.
Salt's work did not satisfy Avildsen, who threatened to leave the project unless he could bring Norman Wexler to write the screenplay. They had previously worked together in Avildsen's "Joe". Both then traveled to Switzerland, to visit Serpico at home, and work the details. Time to work on the production was constricted due to Pacino's commitment to "The Godfather Part II". Further disagreement arose between Avildsen and Bregman regarding the script, and then the selection of the filming locations. Upon finding resistance to his plans, Avildsen threatened Bregman of quitting multiple times. An aggravated Bregman then called for a meeting with the production team, in order to cause the director to quit in front of witnesses. Avildsen had insisted on a meeting with Bregman and De Laurentiis to shoot a scene in the real home of Serpico's parents for authenticity. The producers felt that the structure could not accommodate the production team and equipment efficiently. The escalating tension on the meeting resulted in De Laurentiis firing Avildsen, and the director quit in return. Avildsen's account for the reason of his dismissal was refusing to cast Cornelia Sharpe as Leslie. Sharpe was at the time dating Bregman. Avildsen would later declare that he should have treated the situation "with more finesse". Sidney Lumet was then hired to complete the job for his reputation as an effective director under a tight schedule.
Pacino was shortly distracted from the project by an offer to play the lead in "Lenny", but ultimately he turned it down. To prepare for "Serpico", he rode with police officers for a night, but he decided it was not enough. A method actor, he felt that he needed to spend time with Serpico. Pacino and Serpico met several times in Montauk, New York, where the actor rented a house for the summer season. Pacino was moved by Serpico's conviction to reform the NYPD, and became more committed to the project. In character, Pacino often walked through areas of the city that were considered dangerous at the time. While waiting in traffic, he attempted to arrest a truck driver, as he was enraged by the exhaust fumes. He was refused service at a Manhattan restaurant for the appearance he kept for the film.
Production.
Lumet organized the 107 speaking parts that took place in 104 different locations. The longest scenes took up two-and-a-half pages of the screenplay, while the average was one page. A budget of $3.3 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was assigned. Two weeks of rehearsal were held. Pacino had learned Salt's screenplay, and he agreed with Lumet that Wexler's revised version improved the structure, but that the dialogue was impoverished. Lumet allowed the actors to improvise certain dialogues, and he also allowed their creative input for the scenes. The cast selected dialogues from both scripts as the filming progressed. Though he had already a good knowledge of New York locations, Lumet considered the work "physically brutal, and emotionally tough". The principal photography on "Serpico" began in early July 1973. The film was planned to be released before Christmas, with four-and-a-half months for the crew to complete the movie. Filming took place in July and August. The story of the film encompassed eleven years, from 1960 through 1971.
To accommodate the scenes around Pacino's facial hair, the film was shot in reverse. Pacino started with long beard and hair. He was shaved to a mustache, and then eventually his hair was cut, and he was clean-shaven for the beginning of the film. Lumet decided each day if Pacino was to be further shaven, and the crew prepared fake beards in case they were required. Winter conditions were simulated, as the team had to defoliate trees and cut shrubs. Special make-up was used to absorb the sweat, and to keep the actors' skin dry. The cast wore winter coats, and their skin was made to look bluish, while their breath had to be visible. The director followed Serpico's desire for the winter to look "cold and heavy", and the summer "idyllic and hazy". The team had difficulty to find locations suitable for the scenes set in the 1960s, since graffiti did not become common until 1970. Lumet shot up to thirty-five different setups daily. The team had to move three times a day on an average. Each location had to be cleared of cars that did not belong to the particular period, and extras could not feature long hair, or non-period wardrobe. Hairdressers were present with the crew. Multiple locations in the city including Harlem, South Bronx, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and Astoria, Queens were used. Lewisohn Stadium was featured shortly before its demolition. The party scene was shot at Sidney Kingsley's fifth avenue loft. The NYPD cooperated with the director, and allowed him to film in four active police stations.
Serpico's apartment had to be built by the crew. It featured a fixed ceiling, and movable walls. As Serpico's original apartment, it was located in Greenwich Village. Through lighting, Lumet and cinematographer Arthur Ornitz chose to maintain a "warm look" on the location. Different techniques were used to reflect moods, and the changes that the character went through the years. Lumet focused on portraying Serpico's struggle to balance his work and personal life, and his increased isolation and alienation, as his efforts produced slow results. The director decided to portray him "darker and darker". As the film progressed, the cast costumes became darker in color, until the courtroom scene, where all the actors wore dark tones. Lumet told Charles Champlin: "I was trying to negate color, to make a picture in color that was not colorful". Meanwhile, he desired Serpico's fellow officers to be "men with charm, who were all the more evil for being human and understandable". Lumet finished shooting the film in fifty-one days, on budget.
The film was edited by Dede Allen. Allen received the scenes from Lumet directly after they were shot. She had a limit of forty-eight hours to finish her work for its delivery to the sound department. Lumet did not want to add a score to the picture, but he decided he would do it before De Laurentiis commissioned one. He learned that Mikis Theodorakis was released from prison in Greece. He was able to locate him in Paris, as the composer quickly left his country of origin. Theodorakis accepted Lumet's offer, and flew to New York City the next day. He met with the director, who played the movie for him the day of his arrival. Theodorakis agreed that it should not have a soundtrack, but he offered a composition of his to add to the film. Theodorakis had arranged a tour of the United States with a Greek orchestra and told Lumet that he could not be present for the spotting session. Lumet offered the help of Bob James, who would sit with the director for the spotting. To inform of the progress of the sessions and possible changes on the arrangements, James flew to the cities where Theodorakis appeared in order to work the details together.
Release.
The film was released on December 5, 1973 in New York, and on December 18 in Los Angeles. The opening week in New York garnered $123,000. "Serpico" was released nationwide on February 6, 1974. The film was a critical and commercial success. It grossed between $23.4 million and $29.8 million.
Serpico attended the premiere of the film, but he did not finish watching it. Serpico felt "distant" from the end results. On an interview with Pauline Kael for "The New Yorker", he concluded that it "didn't give a sense of frustration you feel when you're not able to do anything". According to Lumet's account, he met Serpico shortly before the production. The director asked him to stay clear of the set, to not make Pacino "self-conscious" regarding his portrayal. Serpico watched the film in its entirety for the first time in 2010. In a later interview, he declared that Lumet barred him from the set after he interrupted the shooting of a scene that "never happened". Serpico also criticized the dismissal of Avildsen by the production team. Serpico and Avildsen remained friends, and shared a property on Long Island for three years in the 1980s. New York City Police Commissioner Michael Codd stated that the film "tends to imply that Serpico was the only honest cop in the whole department". Detective Durk was not pleased with "Serpico". Durk, who was depicted in the character of Bob Blair, felt that the movie would deter other policemen to denounce corruption. On an interview with "The New York Times", he considered that the movie was unfair to honest police officers. Durk stated that the end of the film conveyed that "the cost of honesty is martyrdom", and Serpico's departure for Switzerland showed him "wounded and frustrated". Meanwhile, Bronx district attorney Burton B. Roberts declared that it "bears absolutely no relationship to the truth". Lumet defended his artistic license on the portrayal of the story, as he felt he desired to make a film that "people believed in". Bregman dismissed the critics, as he felt that the real names were not relevant for viewers in cities outside New York. Maas rebuked Durk's comments regarding honest policemen, and in reference to Serpico being wounded he asked: "where were they?"
Critical reception.
Premiere reception.
"The New York Times" felt that the film was "galvanizing" for Pacino's performance, and by the "tremendous intensity" of Lumet's direction. The publication considered the film at the same time "disquieting" for its use of fictional names, as the reviewer felt that it diminished the role of Durk. Meanwhile, it called Theodorakis' soundtrack "redundant and dumb". The "New York Daily News" delivered a favorable review of the film. It rated it four stars out of five, and called it "a triumph of intelligence, compassion and style". A follow-up critic by the publication deemed Pacino's acting a "masterful performance", as the reviewer remarked "he walks like a cop. He talks like a cop. He even seems to think as a cop". The review also praised Lumet and his "talent for achieving social realism". "The Record" considered it "one of the finest films of the year". While it felt that the portrayal of Serpico was "too righteous and obsessive", the review favored Pacino, but felt that his performance was "sometimes a little too intense". It praised the photography of New York City as authentic, and credited Ornitz and Allen's work for it. "The Village Voice" wrote a mixed review. It criticized the focus of the film on Serpico, and the minor role the screenplay writers gave to the character that represented Durk. The reviewer considered that Serpico was "worth seeing" for Pacino's performance. "Variety" deemed Pacino's acting "outstanding", and Lumet's a combination of "gritty action and thought-provoking comment".
For "Newhouse News Services" it was an "exciting movie", but the review remarked that it was "weakened" by its focus on Serpico. The news agency attributed the minimization of the other characters to avoid "possible lawsuits". The "Los Angeles Times" acclaimed "Serpico". Charles Champlin called Pacino "one of the handful of genuine star actors in American films". Salt and Wexler's screenplay was hailed as "almost documentary reality", and its treatment of the main character "a complex and evolving portrait". The reviewer also remarked that the romances and break-ups were presented with "unhackneyed honesty". The contributions of the supporting cast were well noted. Champlin felt that Allen's work was considered to be "high on the list" for an Academy Award nomination and deemed Theodorakis' music "effective".
Wide release reception.
The "Chicago Tribune" rated the film with two-and-a-half stars. The critic expressed that its treatment of corruption is its "principal strength and weakness", and added that "Serpico" "loses the perspective" that "corruption ... begins and ends with individuals making active and passive decisions". "The Philadelphia Inquirer" celebrated the film's critic of police corruption, despite its "embellishments and omissions" on the story. Pacino's performance was called "riveting", and the piece praised the "sharply individualized characterizations" by Tony Roberts, Jack Kehoe, John Randolph, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young and Cornelia Sharpe. Meanwhile, also for "Philadelphia Inquirer", investigative journalist Greg Walter lamented its portrayal of police officers as "snarling, insipid ass(es)". Walter felt that Maas' book was "coldly objective", but that the director's work delivered characters that were "one-dimensional caricatures". "The Boston Globe" welcomed Lumet's "melodramatic efficiency". The publication considered the story "heavily repetitious", but favored its "quick pace". It regarded Ornitz's camerawork as "the right documentary look", while it lamented Theodorakis' score as "disruptive" and "out of character". "Esquire" further criticized Theodorakis, as the reviewer opined that his "composing voice ought to be silenced". Meanwhile, the piece praised Allen's work.
The "Miami Herald" hailed the use of "street talk" instead of the "language of actors and actresses" by Salt, Wexler and Maas. It praised Lumet and Ornitz's photography that "generate the smells, sounds and styles of the city". It considered Pacino's acting "predictably excellent", and it favored Theodorakis' music. The "Detroit Free Press" suggested that "Serpico" would be a breakthrough role for Pacino as an actor, and called his work "fascinating". The newspaper defined the film as an "encouraging morality tale". Meanwhile, "San Francisco Examiner" observed Pacino's acting to be "a brilliant, solidly thought out performance". The publication added that the supporting cast's contributions "never satisfactorily fleshed out". Regarding Lumet, the reviewer felt that he directed the film with "skill and vigor". "The Cincinnati Enquirer" attributed the commercial success of the film to Pacino's acting, and to the film's depiction of "hard, cold, grit and grime reality".
For "The Evening Sun" reviewer Lou Cedrone expressed his doubts about Durk's "gratis talk of defamation of the police image". Cedrone considered that Durk "comes off very nicely" on the film, and defended Lumet's choice to "emphasize the action rather than the definition". Meanwhile, it viewed the use of "Neapolitan" music as "foolish perhaps, but not touching". It declared Pacino's contribution "a magnificent performance". The "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" found "Serpico" to be "meticulously crafted, intelligently written, unflinchingly honest". The publication noted the "fidelity" with which the director captured New York, and that the city "becomes more than just a background". It summed Pacino's acting as "naturalistic, flawlessly convincing". The "Honolulu Advertiser" attributed Pacino's "brilliant portrayal" to turn an "ordinary cop movie" into "extraordinary". The review favored Lumet, the writers and the supporting cast.
The "Austin American-Statesman" pointed that the film's "realiam" (sic) produced a "fascinating film". The "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" celebrated Pacino's "towering performance". Roberts' performance was noted as a "standout". Sharpe and Eda Young's appearances as Serpico's love interests were deemed to be "played with restrained excellence". The newspaper opined that the film was "15 minutes too long", but that viewers would not "realize the length until you're outside looking at your watch". The "Kansas City Star" detailed the criticism the film received from police officers, and Serpico's discontent with the production. The piece noted that despite the fictional additions, "Serpico" was a "superrealistic dramatization". Meanwhile, Wexler and Salt were praised for the authentic use of profanity in the dialogues. "The Times" opened its review applauding Serpico's denunciation of police corruption, while it pointed that the film "exceeds (the) expectations" of the viewers for it to be "powerfully dramatic". Lumet's "accurate eye for surroundings" was remarked, and the reviewer hailed Pacino and the supporting cast.
Later reviews.
On the review aggregator Metacritic the movie garnered a score of eighty-seven, out of seven reviews from mainstream critics. The result indicated "universal acclaim". Rotten Tomatoes rated it 90% "Fresh", based on reviews from forty-one critics. The website remarked Pacino's "ferocious performance".
AllMovie gave "Serpico" five stars out of five. The review described the situation in the United States following the Watergate scandal, and how the "bureaucratic depravity touched a cultural nerve". It welcomed the film's "documentary-style realism". "The A.V. Club" received it positively, the reviewer felt that "Serpico" expressed "artful, character-driven slices of life". In its later review, "The Village Voice" declared that the "Watergate-era time capsule of hippie fashions" that the film presented "ought to look pretty dated", but that the story "feels depressingly relevant".
Legacy.
On September 21, 1975, "Serpico" was premiered on television on "The ABC Sunday Night Movie". It was released on VHS in 1991, and on DVD in 2002. The film was then made available in Blu-ray in 2013. Masters of Cinema released "Serpico" in the United Kingdom on Blu-ray in 2014. It contained three video documentaries about the film, a photo gallery with an audio commentary by Lumet and a forty-four page booklet.
A television series based on Maas' book and the motion picture was broadcast on NBC between September 1976 and January 1977, with David Birney playing the role of Serpico. Fourteen episodes were broadcast, and one was never aired. The series was preceded by a pilot film, "Serpico: The Deadly Game", which was broadcast in April 1976.
The 1976 Italian film "The Cop in Blue Jeans"' main character was inspired by "Serpico". In the 1977 film "Saturday Night Fever", a poster of "Serpico" is featured in the room of its main character, Tony Manero. The film is referenced in 1994's "Natural Born Killers" by the character Scagnetti. The poster of the film is featured in the room of the main character of 1997's "Boogie Nights". In a 2004 Corner Gas episode, "The Taxman", local cops Davis and Karen talk about the film and Karen tries to rent it at the video store. "Serpico" was referenced in a 2016 episode of "El ministerio del tiempo" as the reason for the nickname of one of its main characters, "Pacino". Among other police films, "Serpico" influenced the Hong Kong action cinema.
Accolades.
The film received Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor (Al Pacino) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The script won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Theodorakis was nominated for both the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. Sidney Lumet was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Directors Guild of America Award. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Pacino won his first Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1974. For his performance, he also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Pacino's role as Frank Serpico ranked at number forty on the American Film Institute's "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains". Meanwhile, "Serpico" also ranked at number eighty-four on AFI's "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers", a list of America's most inspiring films.


Sea Hero

Sea Hero (foaled March 4, 1990 – July 12, 2019) was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1993 Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes. Beginning in 2011, Sea Hero was the oldest living winner of the Kentucky Derby until his death in 2019.
Background.
Sea Hero was bred in Virginia by Paul Mellon and raced for Mellon's Rokeby Stables. Sea Hero was by Polish Navy, who was a good racehorse but otherwise a disappointment as a sire. Sea Hero's dam was Glowing Tribute, who descended from one of the most distinguished thoroughbred families in North America – that of La Troienne. Glowing Tribute was named Kentucky Broodmare of the Year in 1993 after she had produced not only Sea Hero but graded stakes winners Hero's Honor, Wild Applause and Glowing Honor.
In 1992, Mellon, then aged 84, started dispersing most of his stock but kept Sea Hero, who was in training with MacKenzie Miller. Sea Hero was considered somewhat temperamental and had a habit of getting his tongue over the bit, forcing Miller to experiment with different equipment.
Racing career.
Sea Hero made his racing debut on July 13, 1992 in a maiden special weight race at Belmont Park, in which he finished fourth. He did not win his first race until September 7 in what was his fourth start, racing over 1 mile on the turf. He next won an allowance race on the turf then switched to dirt to win the Grade I Champagne Stakes. He finished the year with a seventh-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
At the start of his three-year-old campaign, Sea Hero was winless in his first three starts. His best result was a fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes to Prairie Bayou, who then became the lukewarm favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Sea Hero entered the Derby as a 13-1 longshot and pulled off the upset by lengths over Prairie Bayou. It marked the first Derby win for jockey Jerry Bailey and for 71-year-old trainer Miller. It was also the first Derby win for Mellon, who became the only person to ever win the Kentucky Derby, The Derby, and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, having captured the latter two with Mill Reef in 1971.
Following his Derby win, Sea Hero finished fifth in the Preakness and seventh in the Belmont but still earned a $1 million bonus for leading the Triple Crown points standings after Prairie Bayou's breakdown in the Belmont. He then finished fourth in the Jim Dandy Stakes, thus entering the Travers with a three-race losing streak.
In the $1 million Travers Stakes, Sea Hero displayed an "uncanny sense of timing" by reverting to his form in the Kentucky Derby. He tracked behind the early pace, then angled wide to get running room. In the stretch, he sprinted to the lead for a two-length win over Kissin Kris, with Belmont Stakes winner Colonial Affair in fourth. Sea Hero became the first Derby winner to also win the Travers since Shut Out in 1942. It was the fifth Travers win for Rokeby Stable.
Sea Hero then shipped to Woodbine racetrack for the Molson Export Million, where he finished third to Canadian Triple Crown winner Peteski. He finished second in the Eclipse Award balloting for Champion three-year-old to Prairie Bayou, who had been more consistent in his brief career.
At age four, Sea Hero had one win from eight starts, plus a second-place finish in the Bowling Green Handicap on the turf.
Retirement and Stud Career.
Sea Hero was retired to stud at Lane's End Farm in 1995 but was considered a disappointment. Sea Hero did not sire a stakes winner until his second-crop became of racing age. In 1999, he was sold to Karacabey Pension Stud in Izmit, Turkey where he had better results, becoming the seventh all-time leading sire in Turkey by progeny earnings. He was a top 10 stallion for many years, ranking as high as #3 in 2007. He is the sire of fifteen stakes winners and has also proved a successful broodmare sire. Sea Hero was pensioned from stud duty in 2015.
According to statistics from the Jockey Club of Turkey, Sea Hero's progeny won 730 races and placed another 1,653 times in that country, amassing total earnings of 32,890,013 lira ($5,750,160). His lifetime progeny earnings worldwide total $19,165,928. Sea Hero sired 15 black-type winners and 23 black-type-placed runners, including two champions – one in Turkey and one in the Dominican Republic.
Honors.
A bronze statue of Sea Hero stands in the paddock at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 2015, another statue was installed at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia. Sea Hero Road in Frankfort, Kentucky is named for the horse, as is Sea Hero Court in Napa, California. Sea Hero Place in Austin Texas is also named for the Kentucky Derby Winner.
Death.
Sea Hero died in July 2019 in Turkey at the age of 29, where he had lived since 1999. His death was attributed to infirmities of old age. At the time of his death, he had held the title of oldest living Kentucky Derby winner for 8 years.
Pedigree.
Sea Hero is inbred 4 × 4 to War Admiral, meaning War Admiral appears twice in the fourth generation of Sea Hero's pedigree. He is also inbred 5 × 5 to La Troienne through her daughters Businesslike and Big Hurry.


The Sea of Ice

The Sea of Ice, (German: "Das Eismeer") (1823–1824), is an oil painting that depicts a shipwreck in the Arctic by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Before 1826 this painting was known as The Polar Sea.
The work was first exhibited at the Prague Academy exhibition in 1824 with the title "An Idealized Scene of an Arctic Sea, with a Wrecked Ship on the Heaped Masses of Ice". Considered one of Friedrich's masterpieces, the radical composition and subject matter were unusual for their time and the work was met with incomprehension. The painting was still unsold when Friedrich died in 1840. It is currently held by the Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany.
Background on Friedrich.
Caspar David Friedrich was born on September 5, 1774 in Greifswald, Germany. He grew up a Protestant. Friedrich began studying art with a drawing teacher from the University of Griefswald named Johann Gottfried Quistorp. He went on to study at the Akademi for de Skønne Kunster in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1794–1798. After this Friedrich studied at the Hochschule der Bildenen Künste in Dresden, Germany. Friedrich decided to live the rest of his life in Dresden where he died on May 7, 1840.
Romanticism.
The Romantic movement emerged at the end of the eighteenth century. Romanticism was both an artistic movement and an approach to life. It rejected the Enlightenment ideas of rationalism and intellect in favor of religion, emotion, and culture. A major theme in Romanticism is the focus on nature as the subject.
In the 19th century many Germans were interested in the Arctic including Friedrich. In German Romanticism the North was seen as a positive thing while the classic south was a negative thing.
Friedrich and Romanticism.
Like many other painters in the 19th century, Friedrich decided to focus on landscapes as the main subjects of his paintings. Friedrich's style is considered to fit under the category of Romanticism because of his paintings of nature. His goal was to create on the canvas the images in his mind. Through his paintings, Friedrich attempted to show the spiritual and religious meaning of nature. Friedrich is famous for creating spiritual meaning in many of his paintings.
History.
The collector Johann Gottlob von Quandt commissioned two pictures that were to symbolize the south and the north. Johann Martin von Rohden received the commission to paint "Southern Nature in her Abundant and Majestic Splendor", while the commission for "Northern Nature in the whole of her Terrifying Beauty" fell to Friedrich. However, as Schukowski in a letter dated 1821 reported, Friedrich –
Accounts of expeditions to the North Pole were occasionally published during those years which is likely how Friedrich became familiar with William Edward Parry's 1819–1820 expedition to find the Northwest Passage. In the winter of 1820–21, Friedrich made extensive oil studies of ice floes on the river Elbe, near Dresden. These were probably incorporated into "The Sea of Ice".
The image created a lasting impression on the French sculptor David d'Angers during his visit to Dresden in 1834, which he described as follows:
Description.
"The Sea of Ice" was composed in one of Friedrich's studios near Dresden. This painting is clearly based on the Arctic, though Friedrich had never visited the Arctic. It has been suggested that Friedrich gained his knowledge about the Arctic from the William Edward Parry's expedition. But because there were multiple reports and articles about the Arctic in Germany it has never been confirmed that Friedrich used Parry's expedition to paint "The Sea of Ice". Friedrich also gained knowledge about icebergs through studying them on the Elbe.
"The Sea of Ice" represents what Friedrich believes the Arctic looks like. In the foreground of the painting there are small icebergs layered on top of each other, which makes them almost look like steps. In the background, however, the icebergs are crushed together to form a tower of ice. These icebergs are very large and suggest something terrible has happened. Right next to this massive ice tower is a minuscule detail that is not the subject of the painting. It is a shipwreck.
Analysis.
The shipwreck in "The Sea of Ice" suggests the idea that nature will always be superior to men. Ice is a place of death and nature will always defeat anyone who tries to intrude on it.
As a child, Friedrich suffered a traumatic experience which involved his brother, Johann Christoffer, who on the 8th of December, 1787 fell through the ice on a body of water and died. It has been rumored that Friedrich might have forced his brother to go onto the ice. Some scholars have speculated that Friedrich's experience could have influenced this painting.
There is a theory that Friedrich painted this piece as a commentary on Germany. Just as the ship is frozen in ice, Germany is considered to be a frozen wasteland politically with no hope for improvement.
The work may have been inspired by Théodore Géricault's "The Raft of the Medusa" (1818–19). Friedrich's work shares with Géricault's a similar compositional framework and bleak metaphorical outlook in relation to the unforgiving sea. The tragedy represented in "The Medusa" is a human responsibility irrespective of the surroundings, while the "The Sea of Ice" presents a more pessimistic message, with the tragedy a result of mankind's hubris in its attempts to master nature.
Sublime.
The theory of the sublime combines the emotion of horror and pleasure. The main theorists of the sublime are Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Schiller. Nature has always been associated with the idea of the sublime. Towards the end of the 18th century, paintings of the Arctic were associated with the sublime. There has, however, been debate about whether or not the painting "The Sea of Ice" belongs to the category of the sublime. The shards of ice may convey danger, but they can also be seen as beautiful. One reason why there has been debate about whether or not this painting fits the sublime is that it is not clear if the viewer can actually be a part of the painting, which is a major element of the sublime.
Influence.
The painting has been hailed by critic Russell Potter as a key instance of the "Arctic Sublime", and an influence on later nineteenth-century polar paintings.
The painting inspired Paul Nash's 1941 work "Totes Meer" (Dead Sea). It also proved influential upon the arctic landscapes of Lawren Harris.
Architect Thom Mayne references "The Sea of Ice" as a primary influence on his approach to the dynamic relationship between architecture, landscape, and nature. It possibly served as an inspiration for the Sydney Opera House.
The outdoor, free-floating sculpture "She Lies" by Monica Bonvicini is a three-dimensional interpretation of the original Friedrich painting installed in the Oslo fjord next to the Oslo Opera House. The sculpture opened in May 2010 and has become one of the tourist attractions in downtown Oslo.


Suburbia (film)

Suburbia, also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side, is a 1984 American coming-of-age drama/thriller film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris, and produced by Roger Corman, about suburban punks who run away from home. The kids take up a punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes. The punks are played by Chris Pedersen, Bill Coyne, Timothy Eric O'Brien and Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea, amongst others.
It contains live footage of D.I. performing "Richard Hung Himself", T.S.O.L. performing "Wash Away" and "Darker My Love", and The Vandals performing "The Legend of Pat Brown". In turn, the film inspired the Pet Shop Boys song "Suburbia."
Plot.
A hitchhiking teenage runaway, Sheila, is picked up on Interstate 605 in the Greater Los Angeles Area by a woman with a toddler. When the car gets a flat tire, they find a telephone booth on the edge of an abandoned tract housing district. While the mother is on the phone, the toddler is attacked and killed by a stray dog.
Another teenage runaway, Evan Johnson, leaves his suburban home and abusive, alcoholic mother, ending up at a punk rock concert by D.I., where Keef slips drugs into his drink. The concert ends abruptly when a female attendee has her clothes torn off by the punks in the audience. Jack Diddley offers Evan a place to stay at "T.R. House", a punk house in the abandoned tract housing district off Interstate 605. Along the way, they pick up Joe Schmo, who also intends to move into the house. Joe changes his mind when he learns each resident must be branded with the letters T.R. ("The Rejected"), but winds up coming back and accepting the brand. He begins to form a romantic relationship with Sheila, who has also moved into the house.
The next morning, several men from "Citizens Against Crime", including Jim Tripplett and Bob Skokes, drive through the neighborhood shooting at the packs of wild dogs that roam the area. T.R. kids Razzle and Skinner confront them, but the situation is defused by Jack's stepfather, police officer Bill Rennard. Jack, Evan, and Skinner steal food for the house by raiding the garages of a nearby suburban neighborhood, and they make further enemies of Jim and Bob by disrupting their garage sale. When Evan sees on the news that his mother has been arrested for drunk driving, he collects his younger brother, Ethan, and brings him to live at T.R. House, where Sheila gives him a mohawk. Sheila admits to Joe that she was physically and sexually abused by her father.
During a T.S.O.L. concert, the T.R. gang get into a fight defending Skinner. The men they were fighting with enter the concert and stab a security guard, framing the T.R. kids for the crime by using the knife to hang a flier with "T.R." written in blood. Jim and Bob next witness the T.R. crew vandalizing a convenience store. At a Citizens Against Crime meeting, they accuse Bill and the rest of the police of not doing enough to curb the teenagers' criminal behavior, declaring their willingness to take the law into their own hands. Bill goes to T.R. House and implores the teens to stay out of trouble. That night, Jim and Bob invade the house and threaten the teens, assaulting Sheila in the process. The next morning, the kids find that Sheila has killed herself by overdosing on Keef's drugs. Not knowing what to do, they bring her body back to her parents. When the T.R. kids come to the funeral, Sheila's father insists that they leave. Joe reveals his knowledge of Sheila's abuse, and a fight breaks out, hospitalizing Sheila's father.
At a Vandals concert that night, Bill shows up and warns the T.R. kids to clear out of T.R. house immediately, before their actions bring the Citizens Against Crime down on their heads, but they decide to stay. Learning of the violence at the funeral, Jim and Bob show up at the house and are attacked by the teens, who drive them off. They bring their car back around for another pass, accidentally running over and killing Ethan. Bill arrives, but is too late to prevent the tragedy.
Production.
Director Penelope Spheeris recruited street kids and punk rock musicians to play each role, rather than hire young actors to portray punk rockers.
Reception.
Vincent Canby called it a "clear-eyed, compassionate melodrama about a bunch of young dropouts" and "probably the best teen-agers-in-revolt movie since Jonathan Kaplan's "Over the Edge"."
Home media.
The film was a part of Shout Factory's "Roger Corman Cult Classics" series, reissued on DVD in May 2010. It is also streaming on the Criterion Channel as part of "Women Filmmakers in New World Pictures"


Maria Giberne

Maria Rosina Giberne (1802−1885) was a French-English artist and convert to Roman Catholicism.
Early life.
The seventh of thirteen children, Giberne was born in Clapton, London in 1802, the daughter of wine merchant Mark Giberne and Rebecca Sharp.
Work.
Giberne spent the late 1840s and 1850s in Rome working as an artist, living first with the Colonna and then the Borghese families. She produced portraits in chalk and then in oils, of members of those families and of subjects including Newman, Henry Wilberforce, and Pope Pius IX. When Newman was raised to the cardinalate, she produced a portrait of Saint Francis de Sales for his private chapel. Giberne professed vows as a sister of the Visitation at the convent in Autun, France, in 1863, taking the name Maria Pia in honour of Pius IX. She died at the convent in 1885.


Leigh Gill

Leigh Gill is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in "Joker" and "Game of Thrones".


Jaani Dushman

Jaani Dushman () is a 1979 Indian Hindi-language horror film produced and directed by Rajkumar Kohli under the Shankar Movies banner. It features an ensemble cast including Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Mehra, Rekha, Neetu Singh and Reena Roy and music composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal. The film is recorded as a "Super Hit" at the box office.
Plot.
Jwala Prasad is to marry the girl of his dreams. On the day of the marriage, his wife is dressed all in red, mixes poison in the milk, and Jwala becomes a monster, and continues to terrorize the region, first abducting brides dressed in red and killing them. When a groom confronts and kills the monster, it leaves the body of Jwala Prasad and possesses the body of his killer. Years later, another man has now killed this creature, and the monster has possessed the man's body, and it is again on a killing spree. The suspense mounts as one by one the brides are killed off and no one seems to have a clue. Everybody seems to be suspect, including the village Priest, the Thakur, his son, and several other people. The suspense is unraveled in the end and the monster is made to promise that he will no longer possess any person and will not carry on with his killing spree.
Soundtrack.
All lyrics by: Verma Malik
Trivia.
Two of the movie songs were listed in Binacca Chart of 1979; "Chalo Re, Doli Uthao Kahaar" by Mohammed Rafi and "Oh Meri Jaan" by Kishore Kumar and Anuradha Paudwal.


Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn

Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn (October 13, 1866 – December 21, 1965) was an American artist and adventurer. Deaf from the age of five, Washburn had a varied career, including creating paintings and etchings and serving as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War, Mexican Revolution, and World War I. He was also an accomplished naturalist, writing on the intelligence of insects and spiders as well as serving on an expedition collecting bird eggs.
Early life and education.
Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn was born October 13, 1866 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was born into a wealthy family, the son of William Drew Washburn and the grandson of Israel and Martha Washburn. He became deaf at age five after contracting scarlet fever and spinal meningitis. He was a student at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf and graduated in 1884.
Washburn attended Gallaudet College, graduating as the class valedictorian with a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1890. While he originally planned on studying natural science and entomology, writing essays with his own illustrations of spiders, bees, and caterpillars, he discovered a love for drawing at Gallaudet. He went on to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1893.
Career in art.
After graduating from MIT, Washburn moved to New York City, where he shared an apartment with illustrator Howard Chandler Christy. He joined the Art Students League and studied painting under Harry Siddons Mowbray. He took private lessons from painter William Merritt Chase and studied at Chase's Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, where he returned multiple summers. He traveled to Europe along with Chase and other students, studying with Albert Besnard in Paris and with Joaquín Sorolla in Spain. While living in Venice, Washburn was inspired to embrace drypoint etching, buying supplies in Paris and creating his first drypoint etchings in 1903. Though he did not begin to etch until he was mid-career, he created over 1,000 etchings.
He exhibited regularly around the beginning of the twentieth century, including in the Paris salons, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. His paintings, a part of the realist movement, are marked by a fluid, brushy technique and special attention given to light and atmosphere. Washburn was known as "the silent artist" and was quoted as saying "deafness may sometimes be an inconvenience but never a handicap".
International travels.
In 1904, the "Chicago Daily News" hired him as a war correspondent covering the Russo-Japanese War from Manchuria and Japan via etchings and text. He lived in a temple in Kyoto along with his brother Stanley Washburn. The Washburn brothers discovered the location of the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo on the Mekong River in Indochina and reported it as a scoop; an international incident resulted from the story as Japan argued France was violating its neutrality. He returned to the U.S. in 1907 and continued to work on his etchings.
Washburn traveled to Mexico in 1910 to study architecture and Mexican culture. When the Mexican Revolution began, he reported on the conflict; at one point the railroad station where he was typing a report was riddled with bullets. Washburn was the last outsider to interview the notoriously secretive President Francisco I. Madero shortly before his assassination. When the violence escalated in 1911, he booked passage home on the SS Merida, but the boat sank after a collision and Washburn's copperplates and canvases were lost at sea.
He and his brother Stanley became war correspondents again at the outbreak of World War I, traveling through Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand. In 1916 he returned to the U.S., painting portraits of local Native Americans in Arizona. Washburn then traveled to Mexico again, creating illustrations of bullfighting.
In 1925 Washburn traveled to the Marquesas Islands with a scientific expedition, sketching rare birds and collecting eggs. He spent seven months on the islands; his adventures there included meeting a group of islanders who he described as cannibals, teaching them signs and convincing them to model for his etchings.
Later life.
Washburn continued his artwork throughout his life, though by 1937 his eyesight had deteriorated and he switched mediums from etching to oil painting. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1940 and exhibited there several times between 1940 and 1955. The De Young Museum held a solo exhibition of his work in 1954.
He married Margaret Ohrt in 1943 and they settled in Maine. Washburn returned to studying insects, arguing for the intelligence and communication skills of spiders, bees, and caterpillers. He wrote an essay titled "The Mind of a Spider" which became required reading in the 1940s in the Washington D.C. public schools, after impressing the superintendent of the school system.
Washburn died in Farmington, Maine on December 21, 1965.
Awards and legacy.
Gallaudet College awarded Washburn an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1924 and he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Bowdoin College in 1947. In 1969, Gallaudet dedicated the Washburn Arts Center in his honor.


Holly One

Holly One aka Oliviero Migliore (April 12, 1965 - September 8, 2006) was an Italian porn star who was foremost known for his short stature (around ).
He settled in Spain in the 1980s and started to perform in shows at night clubs in Ibiza in the 1990s. He was discovered by Juani de Lucía, the owner of the Barcelona night club "Bagdad", and became a protagonist of erotic spectacles staged at the place. He made his hardcore debut in the movie "Pequeño pero Matón" in 1997. Until his death, he performed in numerous porn films along with famous actors Rocco Siffredi and Nacho Vidal in scenes with Katsumi ("Who Fucked Rocco?"), Kelly Stafford ("Rocco e Kelly indecenti a Barcelona"), and other distinguished (mostly Spanish-based) porn actresses of the period.
His acting credits were not confined to pornography though. He appeared in many mainstream films, among which were "All About My Mother" and "".
He was a favorite figure of the Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival through both his stage performances and award nominations there. In 2000, he won a Ninfa Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film "Bulls and Milk" (Narcís Bosch/International Film Grup).
He died in Barcelona of cardiac arrest caused by lung disease.


Don Peyote

Don Peyote is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Dan Fogler and Michael Canzoniero. It stars Fogler as a slacker who has a spiritual awakening and becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories.
Plot.
Warren (Dan Fogler) is an unemployed artist and pot head who has crazy dreams. That is the only remarkable thing about him until a day comes when a crazy homeless man confronts him on the street. From that day on, Warren descends into himself, insanity and a confusion of mind and body, spurred on by drugs, along with Doomsday and conspiracy theories.
Production.
Fogler recruited the large cast of cameos in part by allowing them to co-write their characters and improvise. The film was shot between 2010 and 2013.
Release.
XLrator gave "Don Peyote" a limited release on May 16, 2014, and released it on DVD on July 8, 2014.
Reception.
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that only one of thirteen surveyed critics (8%) gave the film a positive rating; the average rating was 3.5/10. Metacritic rated it 14/100 based on eight reviews. Sheri Linden of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "To call Don Peyote a mess would be putting too fine a point on it. The hallucinatory odyssey of a conspiracy-theory-obsessed New Yorker is a bad trip, destination nowhere." Daniel M. Gold of "The New York Times" called it "a cautionary tale of drug-fueled decline" that may not have been realized by its creators. Gary Goldstein of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "a tedious, incoherent look at a paranoid stoner's emotional and spiritual unraveling". Calum Marsh of "The Village Voice" wrote that the film becomes increasingly incomprehensible as time goes on. Christopher Schobert of Indiewire rated it D and wrote, "Perhaps in the hands of a Charlie Kaufman or Michel Gondry, this story could move beyond the unexceptional, but in Fogler's hands, "Don Peyote" is a slow-moving dirge." Vadim Rizov of The Dissolve rated it 0/5 stars and wrote, "In practice, Dan Fogler's sophomore directorial effort (co-directed/written by Michael Canzoniero) is merely execrable, segueing incoherently from one stand-alone fragment of a terrible movie to another." Matt Donato of We Got This Covered rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote, ""Don Peyote" is a delusional, hallucinogenic journey into the mind of an apocalypse obsessed lunatic – a jumbled puzzle of ideas missing a few crucial connections."


Tiger with a Tortoise

Tiger with a Tortoise or Tiger Playing with a Tortoise is an 1862 oil on canvas painting by Eugène Delacroix. It was sold by Christie's in New York for $ 9,875,000 in May 2018


The Birds (sculpture)

The Birds comprises a pair of outdoor sculptures depicting house sparrows by Myfanwy MacLeod, installed after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza, which served as the site of the 2010 Olympic Village in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The work depicts one male and one female house sparrow, each approximately five metres tall, and was the first piece approved by the city's Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. It was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film of the same name, sustainability, the site's history as a shipyard, and immigration.
They were removed on November 23, 2017 for repairs, but later restored to their original location.
Background.
"The Birds" was the first work of public art to be approved under the city's Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. It was installed in Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza, which served as the site of the 2010 Olympic Village, in April 2010. MacLeod was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film of the same name. She has said of the piece, "I think it boils down to wanting to make something sublime for the plaza – that is something beautiful, but frightening at the same time." She has also said of its inspiration:
"The Birds" was also inspired by sustainability and the site's history as a shipyard, where sailors often wore sparrow tattoos. The sculptures have been called an "ode to immigration" based on MacLeod's interest in "alien species" and when non-native species are introduced to an environment (the house sparrow is not native to North America). MacLeod said: "My work for the Olympic Village tries to infuse the ordinary and commonplace sparrow with a touch of the ridiculous and the sublime. Locating this artwork in an urban plaza not only highlights what has become the 'natural' environment of the sparrow, it also reinforces the 'small' problem of introducing a foreign species and the subsequent havoc wreaked upon our ecosystems."
The sculptures were produced by Heavy Industries, with some bodywork completed by Semi-Rigid Plastic Parts Repair. "The Birds" was the last of the public art program's works to be installed, despite being the first approved.
Description.
The work depicts one male and one female house sparrow, each between tall, or approximately life size. The birds have been described as realistic and "massive yet friendly-looking". Their bodies are made from hard coated expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, coated with a polyurea skin and airbrush painted, all clad around a steel armature. Their cast bronze legs were sealed with wax. According to Heavy, the EPS form pieces were "glued together with pressure-sensitive adhesive, specifically formulated for bonding EPS to itself and other materials".
Reception.
Marsha Lederman of "The Globe and Mail" called the sculptures "huge and intimidating and a bit creepy", but acknowledged the artist's intent. Explaining connection between immigration and sparrows specifically, she wrote that the birds were introduced "to satisfy cultural nostalgia for homesick Europeans. The birds were alien, exotic. They're now ubiquitous. Part of the everyday landscape. Barely noticed… Not these." Tuija Seipell of Jaunted said the sparrows were reminiscent of the bird that Flick and the Blueberries build to scare the Hoppers in the 1998 film "A Bug's Life".


The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables

The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables or The Immaculate Conception of Soult (original title ) is an oil painting by the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. It was painted 1678 and measures . Looted by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult in 1813 and taken to France, it was bought by the Louvre in 1852. It has been held by the Museo del Prado, Madrid, since 1941.
Provenance.
According to Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, the work was commissioned from Bartolomé Esteban Murillo by Justino de Neve (1625–1685). De Neve was a canon of Seville Cathedral and ecclesiastical president of the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville. He commissioned the painting for his personal collection, and donated it to the chapel at the hospital in 1686. Belief in the Immaculate Conception had been on the rise in Spain since the 16th century and the country became its main defender, even fighting for it to be recognized as an official dogma of the Catholic Church, a goal that was eventually realized in 1854. The Immaculate Conception became a very important cultural symbol during this period, featured in many works of art.
In 1813, during the Peninsular War, the painting was looted by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult and taken to France. Soult left behind the painting's frame which remains in the hospital to this day. The painting remained in Soult's possession until his death in 1851; the painting's alternative name is derived from his.
The painting was auctioned in 1852, and acquired by the Louvre Museum for 615,300 francs; reputedly the largest sum ever paid for a painting at that time. It was exhibited there until 1941, during which time Murillo's art fell out of fashion; as a result the Vichy Regime agreed to return it to Spain's Francisco Franco in an exchange of artwork, along with the "Lady of Elche" and several pieces of the Treasure of Guarrazar. In exchange, Spain's Museo del Prado gave the Louvre the "Portrait of Mariana of Austria" by Diego Velázquez. In 1981, the Prado's restoration specialist, Antonio Fernández Sevilla, carried out a careful superficial restoration of "The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables", in preparation for an exhibition dedicated to Murillo. A more in-depth restoration was carried out in 2007.
Description.
Murillo painted around two dozen versions of the Immaculate Conception, possibly the most of any Spanish painter at that time. In the majority, the Virgin Mary appears dressed in a white robe with a blue mantle, her hands crossed over her chest, with a crescent moon at her feet, and eyes upraised towards Heaven. "The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables" stands out from Murillo's others due to its triumphant tone. This effect is achieved through Murillo's use of light which creates a sense of movement from the bottom right to the top left of the painting. This upward movement, and the symbolism associated with the clouds and angels surrounding the principal figure, create a visual reference to the Assumption, connecting Mary's purity with her status as Christ's mother. In this composition, Murillo did not include several traditional elements of the Virgin's iconography—such as the Tower of David, the sealed fountain, or palm and cypress trees—possibly because these symbols were already featured in the painting's original frame in the Los Venerables Hospital, as described by in the 18th century.


Brent Collins

Brent Collins (October 31, 1941 – January 6, 1988) was an American actor who played the role of Mr. Big in the daytime soap opera "As the World Turns" from 1982 to 1983, and Wallingford on "Another World", from 1984 until his death.
On "Another World", Collins played the friend and confidante of Felicia Gallant (Linda Dano) and Cass Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer). These three characters were given much screen time in the mid-1980s, and gave Collins the highest level of fame he experienced in his career.
Collins, (a dwarf) was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, typically causes its sufferers to grow much larger than normal in size. Late in 1987, Collins grew rapidly from his short stature, which led to his fatal heart attack. This situation is very rare, and very few cases have been documented in medical records.
He also was a guest-star on shows such as "", "The Golden Girls", and "The Streets of San Francisco".


Zelda Rubinstein

Zelda May Rubinstein (May 28, 1933 – January 27, 2010) was an American actress and human rights activist, known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the "Poltergeist" film series. Playing "Ginny", she was a regular on David E. Kelley's Emmy Award-winning television series "Picket Fences" for two seasons. She also made guest appearances in the TV show "" (1996), as seer Christina, and was the voice of Skittles candies in their long-running "Taste the Rainbow" ad campaign. Rubinstein was also known for her outspoken activism for little people and her early participation in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Early life.
Rubinstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 28, 1933 to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland, Dolores and George Rubinstein. She was the youngest of three children and the only short-statured person in her family (Zelda has been incorrectly referred to as a dwarf). Rubinstein did not become comfortable with her short stature until she was an adult. In a 1992 interview with the "Chicago Sun-Times", Rubinstein told the newspaper that she "had a rough childhood, [but] I became very verbally facile... I learned to meet everyone head-on."
She stood just tall due to a deficiency of the anterior pituitary gland, which produces growth hormone. Commenting in 2002 on the challenges of being a very short-statured person, Rubinstein said, "Midgets are "societally" handicapped. They have about two minutes to present themselves as equals—and if they don’t take advantage of that chance, then people fall back on the common assumption that 'less' is less."
Rubinstein won a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned her bachelor's degree in bacteriology and became a sister of the national sorority Phi Sigma Sigma. She moved to Berkeley, California, at the age of 25, studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a medical lab technician at blood banks.
Acting career.
In 1978, Zelda decided to pursue an acting career. She studied acting at the University of California. "Poltergeist" was her first major film role.
Film critic Pauline Kael, who essentially dismissed "Poltergeist" as an "entertaining hash", held special praise for Rubinstein's portrayal of the psychic Tangina, saying she "gives the movie new life and makes a large chunk of it work."
She remained active in film and television thereafter, frequently portraying various psychic characters, such as her appearance on "Jennifer Slept Here". She also narrated the horror television series "Scariest Places on Earth", which aired in the U.S. on ABC Family and in Canada on YTV.
Rubinstein's other minor/major film roles included "Sixteen Candles", "Under the Rainbow", "Cages", "Teen Witch", "The Wildcard", "Southland Tales" and "National Lampoon's Last Resort". She also contributed voice-over work for TV including "Hey Arnold!", and "The Flintstones". She made numerous guest appearances on network TV shows, including "Caroline in the City", "Martin", "Mr. Belvedere", and had a starring role as Ginny Weedon in the TV series "Picket Fences". Her character there was killed off in typical off-beat fashion, by falling into a freezer early in the third season. She also appeared in an episode of "Tales From The Crypt" in which she played the mother of a girl who has been dead for 40 years. In 1993, she made a cameo appearance in the campy thriller "Acting on Impulse", which reunited her with "Poltergeist III" co-star Nancy Allen.
She also starred in two different roles on the same show in 1984 and in 1990: "Santa Barbara".
Beginning in 1999, she did voiceovers in television starting with the Fox Family reality TV show "Scariest Places on Earth", commercials promoting movies such as "Lady in the Water", and products including Skittles candy. Her last film role came in 2007 when she made a cameo appearance in the horror film "". She also appeared in a cameo as herself at the Revenge of the Mummy ride in Universal Studios Florida on the screens which shows various actors from the films warning the people to leave, telling them about the curse of Imhotep.
Human rights and activism.
Rubinstein became active in the fight against HIV/AIDS in 1984. She appeared in a series of advertisements, directed towards gay men specifically, promoting safer sex and AIDS awareness. Rubinstein did so at risk to her own career, especially so shortly after her rise to fame, and admitted later that she did "pay a price, career-wise." "I lost a friend to AIDS, one of the first public figures that died of AIDS," the actress said in an interview with "The Advocate". "I knew it was not the kind of disease that would stay in anybody's backyard. It would climb the fences, get over the fences into all of our homes. It was not limited to one group of people." She attended the first AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk.
Death.
Rubinstein died in Los Angeles, California, on January 27, 2010. She was 76. Eric Stevens, Rubinstein's agent for four years, said the actress had never recovered from a mild heart attack that she had suffered several months earlier, which he said had left her a patient at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles. "She had several pre-existing conditions that she had been dealing with for years, and unfortunately they began to overtake her," Stevens said. Stevens also said that per Rubinstein's request, no funeral would be held.


Stepsister from Planet Weird

Stepsister from Planet Weird is a Disney Channel Original Movie which was released in June 2000. Directed by Steve Boyum, it stars Courtnee Draper, Tamara Hope, Lance Guest, and Khrystyne Haje.
Summary.
Megan Larson is an ordinary 16-year-old girl. Her workaholic father Fred and windsurfing mother Kathy are divorced, and Megan longs for them to get back together as much as she longs for her little brother Trevor to be less annoying. But the thing she wants the most is for popular boy Cutter to be her boyfriend, so her dearest wish is to be in with the popular group.
Things begin to get out of control when her mother meets Cosmo Cola, a nice but very strange man. He has a pretty and intelligent daughter named Ariel who is even weirder than her dad. Ariel hides under her father's car when the wind blows because she is afraid of wind, talks in a sophisticated manner, wears many layers to 'protect her essence' and cannot ride a bicycle, even with training wheels and a football helmet. Mostly she complains that she hates the town where they live and wants to return to her hometown in Yukon to be with her boyfriend Fanul. Worst of all for Megan, the kids at school think that the way Ariel behaves is 'cool and revolutionary'. Her teachers believe her mannerisms are poetic, and she even gets to sit at the popular table on her first day, which attracts Cutter's attention.
What Megan does not realize is that Ariel and her father are aliens from Planet Zircalon. Because Ariel's father was a freedom fighter on their home planet, they escaped to Earth, leaving behind their home, Ariel's mother who perished in the escape, and Ariel's boyfriend Fanul who is the son of the tyrannical emperor S'Vad. On her home planet, every citizen is a gaseous bubble that floats carelessly, so Ariel is very uncomfortable with the solid objects of Earth. She hates everything on Earth: her name, the way the wind blows, food, the solid objects and the people. "Every time I look at this horrid vehicle; the rubbery flesh, the flat face, the ghastly yellow hair that grows out of this hideous skull, I can only think I am grotesque."
Ariel and Megan become enemies despite Megan's mother's engagement to Ariel's father. As Ariel and Megan realize that they both want to break up their parents, they agree on a temporary alliance to achieve their common goal. However, none of their plans work out.
After a while, Megan begins to suspect something especially unusual is occurring and discovers that Ariel and Cosmo are aliens. Fanul and S'Vad arrive to take Ariel and Cosmo home to Zircalon, but Fanul turns on his father after Megan, Ariel, and Cutter convince him of the benefits of freedom. As Ariel's race is vulnerable to wind, she, Megan, Cutter, Fanul, and Trevor are able to defeat S'Vad with a leaf blower and hairdryers.
After S'Vad is defeated, Cosmo marries Kathy, Megan and Fanul develop feelings for each other while Ariel and Cutter do the same, and Ariel and Megan become best friends. Fanul plans to return home and take over as ruler after the death of his father, but also plans to make changes to the way things are run and to grant the people freedom. Fanul promises to return to Earth occasionally to visit Megan. Megan and Ariel realize that even though they are from different worlds they are a lot alike.


(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear

"(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" is a popular song first recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957 for the soundtrack of his second motion picture, "Loving You", during which Presley performs the song on screen. It was written by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe and published in 1957 by Gladys Music.
Presley single.
The song was a U.S. No. 1 hit for during the summer of 1957, staying at No. 1 for seven weeks, the third of the four Presley had that year. "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" would also hit No. 1 on the R&B Best Sellers List, becoming his fourth No. 1 on that chart. The song also reached No. 1 on the country charts for a single week.
Cover versions.
The song was used in "Full House" and in the Disney special "D-TV Romancin"'.


Mimie Mathy

Mimie Mathy (8 July 1957) is a French actress, comedian and singer who is best known for her starring role in the long-running "Josephine, Guardian Angel" television series. Mathy has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, and is tall.
Life and career.
Interested in the theatre from childhood, she studied the dramatic arts from 1979 to 1981 at Michel Fugain's workshop in Nice. In the early 1980s she performed in a number of theatre roles and appeared in "Le Petit Théâtre de Bouvard" television show. She formed a touring comedy troupe "Le Trio des Filles" (The Three Girls) which performed shows such as "Existe en trois tailles" ("Available in Three Sizes") from 1988 to 1993. In 1993 she performed in the TV movie "Une nounou pas comme les autres" ("A Nanny Like No Other"), which garnered a 52.7% market share (~12 million viewers) in France.
Since 1994 she has performed 15 times in the annual Les Enfoirés (The Tossers) charity concert for Restaurants du Cœur (Restaurants of the Heart). Les Enfoirés was the most watched TV show in France in 2009, with 12.3 million viewers.
In 1997 she began her title role in "Josephine, Guardian Angel", a TF1 TV Series really popular in France.
In 2006 she issued a music CD, "La Vie M'a Raconte" (Life Told Me) produced by Patrick Fiori.
Personal life.
On 27 August 2005 she married restaurateur and chef Benoist Gérard, a man she met during one of her shows by picking him out of the audience.
Philanthropy.
Since May 2009, Mimie Mathy is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
Awards and recognition.
François Dorieux named a rose cultivar for her in 1999. In 2007 she was selected the fifth most popular French celebrity and highest ranking female celebrity by the weekly "Le Journal du Dimanche".


Two Lions (sculpture)

Two Lions (Danish: To Løver), also known as The Disgruntled (Danish: De Utilfredse), is an outdoor bronze group sculpture of two lions situated in Fælledparken in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Description.
The sculpture is situated in an area of Fælledparken known as Den Franske Plads (The French Square). It depicts two lions, one male and one female. The male lion stands up while its female counterpart is lying down.
History.
The sculpture was created by in 1905 and a bronze cast of the sculpture was subsequently presented to the City of Copenhagen by the Victor Freund Grant (Victor Freunds Legat). Jensen wanted the sculpture placed at Langelinie and a location in Søndermarken was also considered but it was ultimately installed in the garden complex at present-day Israels Plads. The sculpture was later moved to a new location outside the entrance to Fælledparken on Østerbrogade. Another reason for the move was fear that a tail might break or bend, or that it might suffer other damage, since local use tended to use it for "gymnastic exercises". In 1915 it was proposed to protect it at its new location by installing a surrounding rough iron fence.
The sculpture was moved to a small mound a little further to the west when the site was redesigned in 2010. In 2012 the sculpture was moved to its current location close to Serridslevvej in Fælledparken.


Say Hi to Pencil!

Say Hi to Pencil! (Vietnamese : "Xin chào Bút Chì !") is a 2011 Vietnamese clay animation comedy film produced by the group SleepingCatFilm.
Directed and written.
Directed and written by: Phuong Anh Pham, Thanh Hynh, Huynh Thanh Thanh.
Sound: Huu tuan nguyen .


The Wedding Dance

The Wedding Dance (sometimes known as The Dance Village) is a 1566 oil-on-panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Owned by the museum of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan, the work was discovered by its director in England in 1930, and brought to Detroit. It is believed to be one of a set of three Bruegel works from around the same time: "The Wedding Dance", "The Peasant Wedding" (1567) and "The Peasant Dance" (1569).
The painting depicts 125 wedding guests. As was customary in the Renaissance period, the brides wore black and men wore codpieces. Voyeurism is depicted throughout the entire art work; dancing was disapproved of by the authorities and the church, and the painting can be seen as both a critique and comic depiction of a stereotypical oversexed, overindulgent, peasant class of the times.
Background.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder completed "The Wedding Dance" in 1566. It was believed to have been lost for many years, until discovered at a sale in London in 1930 by William R. Valentiner, the director of the Museum Detroit Institute of Arts at the time. Valentiner paid $35,075 for "The Wedding Dance" through a city appropriation. It is still owned by the museum.
"The Peasant Wedding" (1567) and "The Peasant Dance" (1569) are also by Bruegel which share the same wedding theme and elements and were painted in the same period in Bruegel's later years. They are considered to be a trilogy of works by Bruegel. In all three of the paintings, there are pipers playing the pijpzak (bagpipes), they also exude pride and vanity, for example in "The Peasant Dance" the man seated next to the pijpzak player is wearing a peacock feather in his hat.
Robert L. Bonn, an author, described these trilogy of works as "superb examples" of anthropological paintings, and states that "in three genre paintings Bruegel stands in marked contrast both to painters of his day and many others who followed." Thomas Craven summarises "The Wedding Dance" as "One of several celebrations of the joys of gluttony painted by Brueghel with bursting vitality". Walter S. Gibson also views the paintings as a "sermon condemning gluttony" and "an allegory of the Church abandoned by Christ."
Description and themes.
The popular painting shows a group of 125 wedding guests wearing clothing from the times, presented in the canvas in an apparently chaotic way in an outdoor party surrounded by trees. The brides wore black as it was the Renaissance period and the men wore codpieces, which were an important part of their clothing at the time. Voyeurism (spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours) is shown throughout the work.
In the foreground there is a dancer wearing the colours of that time period and there are many peasants in that area. In the middle there is the bride dancing with an older man, her father. On the right of the work, behind a musician playing on a pijpzak, there is a man watching the dance from the side. Judging by the writing utensils hanging on his belt, he is a writer or possibly a middle-class painter. Behind him is a hanging tablecloth decorated with a crown and beneath it is the bride's table. Before her table, money collectors can be seen digging trenches while the wedding guests sit down and eat.
The movements of the people show that their behaviour is inappropriate or a caricature of rustic buffoonery, but its representation of fertility and reproduction is presented in a joyful manner. Indeed, the painting reflects a degree of ambiguity in that it can both be seen as an attack on the stereotypical oversexed behaviour of the lower orders as well as evoking a comical picture. In the sixteenth century, when this was painted, dance was subject to a strict code and regarded by the authorities and church as a social evil. People could not swing their arms or legs or laugh too loud, as that would be considered a type of rudeness to many people. The painting therefore "expresses the peasants' liberation from the stricter limits of upper classes" by failing to adhere to the expected social standards of the times.
The author of "The Theme of Music in Northern Renaissance Banquet Scenes", Robert Quist, has said that the painting was part of a series of Seven Deadly Sins and Virtues and that the paintings "attest to [Bruegel's] moral devotions". He says "While dancing may appear innocuous or natural for peasants, it poses a palpable threat to the human soul. Its [dancing] usefulness in characterizing the peasantry as wild and unruly undoubtedly derives from the moral opprobrium in which dancing was held by religious and civil authoriries alike.


Glebe Burying Ground

Glebe Burying Ground, also known as Glebe Cemetery, is a historic cemetery located near Swoope, Augusta County, Virginia. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Augusta County and contains a wide variety of stones illustrating the evolution of local funerary art from the 1770s through the 19th century. The surviving stones date from 1770 to 1891. They reflect changes in the local funerary art of Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers and their descendants.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.


Finding of the Body of Saint Mark

The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark or Discovery of the Body of Saint Mark is a painting by Tintoretto. Dated to between 1562 and 1566, it is part of a cycle of paintings of Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice. It is now held in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
Description.
The painting was commissioned by Tommaso Rangone, the “grand guardian” of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice, from Tintoretto as part of a series of large canvases depicting Venice's acquisition of the body of Saint Mark.
The painting shows Venetians busily removing corpses from tombs along the right wall and from a crypt in the background. In the left foreground, Saint Mark surrounded by a faint halo appears and beseeches the Venetians to stop as his body has been found and lies pale at his feet, strewn on an oriental rug. In the center of the canvas, an elder (portrait of Rangone) kneels, acknowledging the miracle. Elsewhere in the room, the figures are either astonished or oblivious to the apparition.
In places, the work appears unfinished (e.g. the tiles of floor and the cornices are still visible through some clothing and figures). The foreshortening is accentuated by the tiles, the wall tombs, and finally the rays of light that emerge from the crypt in the background. In the right foreground, a contorted half-naked man is described as "possessed by demons", and above him hover strands of smoke.
Like its companion piece, "Saint Mark's Body Brought to Venice", the composition exemplifies Tintoretto's preference for dramatic effects of perspective and light. According to the art historian Thomas Nichols, "the linear logic of the emptied, boxlike perspective vistas is undermined by an irrational play of light and shade. Both paintings suggest the simultaneous existence of different levels of reality through the use of a range of pictorial techniques."
According to art historian Augusto Gentili, the iconography of the painting suggests that it represents not the finding of the body of Saint Mark, but "Miracles of Saint Mark in the church of Boucolis in Alexandria".


Gladys the Swiss Dairy Cow

Gladys the Swiss Dairy Cow, also known simply as "Gladys", is a work of public art in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Gladys was created and is maintained by artist/owner James Lebinski since August 2002. The underlying sculpture is a fiberglass Swiss dairy cow, and is the same shape and size as the famous CowParade cows.
Lebinski has created more than 50 pieces of art using the sculpture by decorating it with paint, cloth, and various other materials for each holiday. Gladys was displayed in Fairfield, Connecticut, from October 2002 until April 2006, and can currently be found in Monroe, Connecticut.
History.
In July 2002, Lebinski recovered a fiberglass cow sculpture from a Dumpster in Norwalk, Connecticut. Lebinski repaired the sculpture's smashed body and four broken legs and painted it pink. Gladys was placed on display in Fairfield, Connecticut in August 2002. The sculpture became an object of attention and resulted in suggestions to the artist to create whimsical seasonal designs using the sculpture as a base.
Early development.
In 2002, the first seasonal artwork using the sculpture was titled "Gladys as a Skeleton", and was created for Halloween. A significant amount of public attention was generated by this artwork, and this attention was the genesis of the ongoing project to create holiday-themed art.
The next piece was created for Christmas 2002. The cow sculpture was painted as Santa Claus and the artwork was titled "Gladys as Santa Cow". These two works gained public attention and generated initial press coverage.
2003.
The ongoing creation of works based on the cow sculpture continued in 2003.
The first work for the cow sculpture in 2003 was for Valentine's Day and was titled "Gladys as a Valentine". Next, in March 2003, the cow sculpture was converted to "Gladys as a Leprechaun". The use of a single prop was in keeping with using paint as a primary medium.
In April 2003, the media used to create the art was expanded to include additional props and attachments.
In May 2003, the cow sculpture was converted into "Gladys as Uncle Sam". The art was then incorporated into a parade float for the 2003 Fairfield Memorial Day Parade. This was the first large-scale public exhibition of the work. As a result, the work was awarded "Best Appearing Float—Service Club" by the 2003 Fairfield Memorial Day Parade Committee.
In July 2003, the cow sculpture was converted into "Gladys in an Itsy-Bitsy Teenie-Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini". The use of props was expanded to include props that were not physically attached to the sculpture.
In August 2003, the cow sculpture was converted to art with a first-day-of school motif. The work "Gladys as a School Bus" represented the first piece that was designed to closely resemble a real-life object, and was achieved in a paint-only medium.
In October 2003, the cow sculpture was converted into "Gladys as a Scarecrow", inspired by The Wizard of Oz. This marked the first complete departure from the sculpture as a painted work. The use of straw, natural fiber, burlap, and organic materials was incorporated to achieve a fall motif.
In December 2003, the cow sculpture was converted into a Christmas theme: "Gladys as a Reindeer". This work was featured in a multi-page article in the "Fairfield Citizen-News".
2004.
In February 2004, the sculpture was converted into "Gladys as a Valentine Bride".
In March 2004, the cow sculpture was converted into a Saint Patrick's Day work. The rainbow colors were true to the Roy G. Biv color spectrum of a rainbow. Ultimately, a pot of gold prop was added, along with a second piece of public art titled "Sophie as a Leprechaun" to clarify the "pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow" theme.
For Easter in April 2004, the sculpture was transformed into a work of art that featured an Easter bonnet prop, and multiple painted Easter eggs with individual images.
In May 2004, the Uncle Sam motif was re-created, representing the first time a work was repeated. The art was featured as an entry in the 2004 Fairfield Memorial Day Parade. The work was awarded "honorable mention" by the 2004 Fairfield Memorial Day Committee.
In August 2004, the cow sculpture was transformed into a tribute to the Fairfield Fire Department, Station 2. The work incorporated memorial logos for the Worcester 6, and 9/11 FDNY. The firefighters' union logo and Irish firefighter logo were also reproduced.
In October 2004, the cow sculpture was converted into "Gladys as Dracula". Additionally, an Ogden Nash poem was incorporated on a tombstone prop.
In December 2004, the cow sculpture was converted into a lighted Christmas tree. The use of additional props was expanded to incorporate day-visible ornaments, presents, and a Christmas tree, as well as night-visible multicolored lights.
2005.
In January 2005, the cow sculpture was converted into "Gladys as a Mardi Gras Jester".
In April 2005, the cow sculpture, was designed in a Spring/Easter scheme and represented the first use of a sponge painting technique to achieve the green grass effect, with sufficient fading to deliver a suitable image.
The next work based on the cow sculpture was "Gladys as an Animal Control Vehicle" in tribute to the Fairfield Police Department Animal Control Department.
In December 2005, the cow sculpture was used to create "Gladys as a Shepherd". The primary medium was blue and white textured cotton cloth.
2006.
In January 2006, the cow sculpture was converted to "Gladys as a Cow". The motif was a black and white spotted cow.
In April 2006, the sculpture was placed on display in Monroe, Connecticut.
In October 2006, the cow sculpture was painted as "Gladys as a Skeleton" and was incorporated into Gaffney's Ghoulish House, a charity food drive with a halloween haunted house theme.
2007.
In December 2007, the cow sculpture was placed on display as "Gladys as Santa Claus". Along with Gladys, "Goldie the Cow" was created and decorated as a reindeer, and Sophie the Pig was created and decorated as an elf.


Carl Georg August Wallin

Carl Georg August Wallin (2 February 1893 in Svanshall, Jonstorp, Skåne County, Sweden – 28 July 1978 in Svanshall) was a Swedish marine painter, master mariner and visual artist. Most often he has painted mariners and coastal landscapes.
Biography.
Carl Wallin was born in Svanshall, a little fishing village in the western Skälderviken in Malmöhus County in northwest of Skåne County, about 25 kilometers north of Helsingborg, the nearest village to the south is Jonstorp. He grew up in an old seamen’s family, his father was the sea captain Jöns Andersson and his mother was Annette Wallin. His father was captain in the barque "Netten", which disappeared in the North Atlantic with men and everything in 1893, the same year he was born. In 1904, when he was 11 years old, his mother died too. He grew up with his grandmother. In 1925 he married Anna Greta Ingeborg Jönsson.
As soon as he had left school he went to sea. Wallin took his master mariner degree in 1914 and then he served shipping company "Transmarin AB" as an officer and commander. He got an interest to start painting in 1935. He was inspired by a steward on board the boat, which he commanded, and who painted landscapes as a hobby. He bought a box of colors and a piece of canvas by the meter and started painting.
In 1940 he left sea in order to devote his time to marine painting. Now he was marin painter full time. As a painter he was self-taught. His ambition was to render any ship technically correct and its movements in the sea and the rhythm of the waves. On the stretched canvas he sketched the ship and the rhythm of the waves with charcoal and chalk. Then he made a painting in brown and ochre.
Artistry.
Wallin’s debut was in the early 1940s, when "Broström Lines" announced a competition for promotional picture of the school ship "Albatross". He emerged as the winner in the contest in which the curator at Sjöhistoriska Museet, Gerhard Albe, was in the jury. His breakthrough came in an exhibition in Göteborgs Handelstidning’s premises in connection with the Albatross boat launch. The orders poured in from around the country. For "Broström AB" he made many oil paintings, about 50 pieces, some of which were reproduced by the shipping company and were delivered to the agents and employees. Shipping Company "Nordstjernan AB" ordered some 30 paintings by Wallin.
Carl Wallin painted some 700 ship paintings, most of them named with the names of the ships, usually full-rigged ship, but he has also painted marine compositions and coastal landscapes. Many of the great shipping companies of that time commissioned paintings of their ships by Carl Wallin. But even foreign shipping companies, seafarers associations and federations as well as private buyers commissioned paintings.
Carl Wallin’s drawing of the "Cutty Sark" (the tea clipper built in Scotland), which since 1955, is the label on the whiskey bottles of Cutty Sark whisky, which is a Scotch blended whisky, is probably his most famous ship painting.
The clipper ship "Cutty Sark" was one of the most famous clipper ships that sailed under Brittiska Ostindiska Kompaniet (British East India Company). In 1953 he traveled for study purposes to a lot of countries, he went to Germany, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Algeria, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Italy.
Carl Wallin was living in Svanshall, where he also had his studio. He initiated the formation of the maritime museum in Svanshall, founded in 1959 and located in the deckhouse to the S/S Ribersborg. His customers often came to visit him and gave him order. For relaxation and recreation from his painting he liked to go sailing and fishing. Many of his paintings have ended up all around the world. He was active until his final year, in 1978, when he died at age 85. Carl Georg August Wallin and his wife, Anna-Greta Ingeborg Wallin (25 October 1904 - 29 June 1984), are both buried in Jonstorp's cemetery, Farhult-Jonstorps parish in Höganäs municipality.
Carl Wallin participated in the exhibition "Kulla-art" in Höganäs, including at the 10th anniversary celebration in 1950, and he has performed separately in Malmö and Höganäs museum in 1956, in Arild in Skåne County in 1964 and in a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sjöhistoriska museet in Stockholm, in 1969. In 1983, after his death, a major exhibition in Höganäs museum was arranged.


Angiola Guglielma Butteri

Angiola Guglielma Butteri, also known as Angelica Bottero, was a 17th-century Italian artist and nun. She died 26 July 1676 at 80 years old.
She entered the convent of Sant’Orsola in Casale, then capital of Monferrato, where she was instructed by Sister Francesca Caccia, daughter of the artist Moncalvo, or by Francesca’s sister Orsola Maddalena Caccia. Among her paintings is a representation of Saints Catherine, Agatha, and Apollonia, which is (or was) in the city’s cathedral.
Recently many works signed "C." were attributed to Angiola Guglielma Butteri.


Rememory

Rememory is a 2017 British-American-Canadian science fiction mystery film directed by Mark Palansky and written by Mark Palansky and Michael Vukadinovich. The film stars Peter Dinklage, Julia Ormond, Anton Yelchin, Henry Ian Cusick, Gracyn Shinyei and Colin Lawrence. The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2017. The film was released on Google Play on August 24, 2017, before being released in theaters and video on demand on September 8, 2017, by Lionsgate Premiere.
Plot.
Sam Bloom (Peter Dinklage) and his brother are driving in the night when their car collides with another, causing his brother’s death.
After a year, scientific pioneer Gordon Dunn (Martin Donovan) mysteriously dies. He has created a device that allows one to record memories and watch them. Bloom sets about trying to solve the murder using this memory machine. Bloom learns that Dunn’s device has a technical fault which causes recurring hallucinations for its users including him. Most of the users have been quite upset with Dunn, directly blaming him for their mental deterioration. He also finds out that Dunn and his wife Carolyn (Julia Ormond) were separated after they lost their only daughter in an accident. After a confrontation with one of his patients, Dunn realized how much pain his machine caused people and attempted to use it to erase his own painful memories. However, doing so resulted in his death when the machine sent him into synaptic failure.
Bloom re-watches his “accident memory” and finds out that the Dunns were in the other car and that their daughter was killed in the collision. Bloom had fled the scene after seeing the little girl dead, leaving his brother to take the fall. Bloom hands over his memory to Carolyn as a sort of confession apology. Time passes and it is unclear if she watches the memory glass, later she throws it into the sea with Dunn’s recordings as she watches her daughter playing on the water—a hallucination resulting from her own use of the memory device. A montage of the lives of everyone affected by the device is shown over the launch of the repaired memory device while a recording by Dunn plays describing the power of memories for a person.
Production.
On March 27, 2012, Catherine O'Hara and Peter Dinklage joined the cast of the film. On February 10, 2016, Julia Ormond replaced O'Hara in the film. Principal photography began in Gastown, Vancouver on January 25, 2016, and ended on February 22, 2016.
Release.
The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2017. The film was released on Google Play on August 24, 2017, before being released in theaters and video on demand on September 8, 2017, by Lionsgate Premiere.
Reception.
"Rememory" received generally negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 25%, based on 20 reviews with a consensus reading, ""Rememory" has some intriguing themes and a compelling cast to work with, but they're lost in the fog of a forgettable melodrama."
Guy Lodge of "Variety" reviewed the film, saying, "A bit of a trudge, despite Dinklage's committed and empathetic performance." Yasmin Kleinbart of The Young Folks and Scott Beggs of "Nerdist" both went on to say that "Dinklage deserves better than this film." Meredith Borders of "Birth.Movies.Death." shared similar sentiments, saying, "If it weren't for Dinklage's remarkable performance, the film would have very little to recommend it."
John DeFore of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave a more positive review, saying, "A good-looking mystery whose sci-fi elements take a back seat to meditations on guilt and deception."


Death and Fire

Death and Fire, known in German as Tod und Feuer, is a 1940 expressionist painting by Paul Klee. It was one of the last before his death on June 29th of that year. In 1935 Klee started to suffer from scleroderma, which manifested itself with fatigue, skin rashes, difficulty in swallowing, shortness of breath and pain in the joints of his hands. Paintings during this period tended to be simpler and representative of the suffering he was going through. "Tod", the German word for death, is a common motif throughout the painting. It can be seen most distinctly in the features of the face, though the "d" and "t" are rotated. The word can also be seen in the figure's raised arm as the "T", the yellow orb as the "O", and the figure's head as the "D".
The painting also represents hieroglyphics, an interest of Klee's during this time, which can also be seen in many of his other late 1930s paintings, such as "Insula dulcamara (1938)" and "Heroische Rosen (1938)". , it is on display at Zentrum Paul Klee, a museum in Bern, Switzerland that is dedicated to the works of Paul Klee.