Troika Pottery

Troika was an art pottery that operated in Cornwall from 1962 to 1983. It was founded by three people, Leslie Illsley, Jan Thompson and Benny Sirota who took over the Powell and Wells Pottery at Wheal Dream, where Sirota had previously worked as a decorator and driver. The name is from the Russian , meaning "a set of three", or triumvirate.
History.
Troika was set up in February 1962 by Leslie Illsley, Jan Thompson and Benny Sirota who took over the Powell and Wells Pottery at Wheal Dream, St Ives, Cornwall, where Benny Sirota had previously worked. They wanted to pursue their vision of pottery as art, without regard to function. This ran counter to the aims of much of the studio pottery movement at the time, as epitomised by the work of Bernard Leach. They initially relied on the ceramics of Leslie's wife, Caroline (Kingston School of Art). This included the novel double egg cup.
The venture rapidly became successful, gaining both critical praise and very high sales through a combination of the summer tourist trade and contracts with department stores such as Heals and Liberty in London. Vases, lamp bases and tableware were made using plaster moulds; tiles and wall plaques were also made in the early years.
The Troika pottery was based at the Wheal Dream site in St Ives from 1962 to 1970, when it moved to Fragden Place in Newlyn. Benny Sirota left in 1980, and with declining sales, the business closed in 1983.
From 19 January to 9 March 2013, an exhibition, "Troika 1963-1983", was held at the Penlee House Gallery and Museum Penzance, celebrating 50 years since the inception of Troika, which included a number of prototypes by Leslie Illsley. Benny Sirota attended the opening, and explained the origin of the company's name: "my grandfather escaped from Russia dressed as a woman on a troika – a sledge with three horses...there were three of us who started the firm – and it just gelled."
Ranges.
Troika had two distinct ranges of ceramics — the rough textured wares and the smooth glazed wares. Although there was some crossover in shapes and styles between these ranges, they each had different characters and different successes. A number of examples can be found in the V&A collection.


Ngesti Pandawa

Ngesti Pandawa is a professional wayang wong or wayang orang art company located in Semarang. The Ngesti Pandawa wayang orang is housed in the Ki Narto Sabdho Hall in Taman Budaya Raden Saleh or the Taman Raden Saleh Cultural Complex at Jalan Sriwijaya 29, Semarang City, Central Java Province, Indonesia. Ngesti Pandawa is one of three surviving wayang orang troupes in Indonesia, besides Wayang Orang Sriwedari in Taman Sriwedari Solo and Wayang Orang Bharata in Jakarta. It is hoped that wayang orang will again be able to entertain generations of audiences while sending a timeless moral message.
History.
Ngesti Pandawa was founded in Madiun by Sastro Sabdo on July 1, 1937 with the aim of reviving the art of wayang orang panggung, wayang plays performed by human actors on a proscenium stage. Wayang orang panggung is a blend of court wayang orang (which was also called pendhapa wayang orang because it was performed in the pendhapa [the spacious open hall of Javanese stately mansions] instead on a stage) with western theater. The first wayang orang panggung troupe was first established in 1895 by Gan Kan, a Chinese entrepreneur from Surakarta (Solo).a The founding of wayang orang Ngesti Pandawa was intended to preserve the art of wayang orang, and inspire a sense of love in traditional arts. The wayang orang performances also provide entertainment to the public. Sastro Sabdo's mission was supported by Sastro Sudirdjo, Narto Sabdo, Darso Sabdo, and Kusni.
Since its founding, wayang orang Ngesti Pandawa has been much liked by the public. Not only by the Javanese but also by the Dutch and Chinese population. Wayang orang, from its early beginning, was a performing art that was enjoyed by a diverse audience, indigenous and non-indigenous.
Ngesti Pandawa has gone through a long historical journey in the city of Semarang. During that time, Ngesti Pandawa has had to move several times. In 1954, Ngesti Pandawa occupied a new building in the Gedung Rakyat Indonesia Semarang (GRIS) building complex at Jalan Pemuda 116 (currently Paragon City Mall Semarang). From the 1960s to the 1970s, under the leadership of Sastro Sabdo and Narto Sabdo Ngesti Pandawa reached its peak of popularity and became an icon of Semarang. Ngesti Pandawa became a point of reference for other wayang orang groups in that era. Its theatrical scenery, musical accompaniment, costume, choreography, and stage tricks were emulated by other wayang orang groups.
The popularity of Ngesti Pandawa attracted the attention of President Sukarno. When Mount Merapi erupted 1953, Ngesti Pandawa was called to raise funds for the victims. President Sukarno invited Ngesti Pandawa to perform at the Istana Merdeka or Merdeka Palace in Jakarta and Istana Negara or the Palace in Bogor. This was certainly a proud moment for Ngesti Pandawa. For a wayang orang company, being invited to perform at the State Palace is certainly a great honour. Due to its achievements, Ngesti Pandawa in 1962 was again invited to the Presidential Palace to receive the Wijayakusuma Award from the President of the Republic of Indonesia.
In 1994, the GRIS complex was sold by the local government to a third party. Ngesti Pandawa had no home anymore, and had to move to the Taman Raden Saleh Cultural Complex and was housed in a theater building for two years. In 1996 it moved to the Majapahit Amusement Park and formed the Wayang Orang Ngesti Pandawa Foundation. In 2001 Ngesti Pandawa was again given the opportunity by the local government to use a hall at the Taman Raden Saleh cultural complex. Ngesti Pandawa reserves the right to use the hall every three days in a week. However, regular performances are only staged on Saturday evenings starting at 8 pm.
Current situation.
Despite the ups and downs, the Wayang Orang Ngesti Pandawa continues to perform, keeping its mission to preserve Javanese culture and to entertain the people of Semarang and tourists visiting the city. Every Saturday at 8 pm Ngesti Pandawa is never fails to perform, presenting different lakons or stories from the vast wayang repertoire.
Several social media such as his website, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are used to get interest from the society and tourists.
In addition to regular performances at the Raden Saleh Cultural Park in Semarang, Ngesti Pandawa has also performed in other cities including Sukoharjo, Jepara, Solo, and Jakarta. Ngesti Pandawa even has performed for limited audiences such as students and government as well private institutions, as part of its effort to introduce wayang orang to the general public.
The head of Semarang City’s Culture and Tourism Office, Masdiana Safitri, has promised to renovate the venue of Ngesti Pandawa, to make it more attractive and comfortable for visitors. Hopefully, this will allow Ngesti Pandawa to regain its former glory, as an entertainment with a timeless moral message to all generations of people.


Sharapanjara

Sharapanjara () is a 1971 Indian Kannada language film directed by Puttanna Kanagal, based on a novel by Triveni of the same name, and starring Kalpana and Gangadhar in lead roles. This film is considered one of the best Kannada movies ever made. Triveni's novel was richly visual and Puttanna not only stayed faithful to the novel on screen but also retained most of the novel's dialogues and credited Triveni for them.
The film won the award for Best Feature Film in Kannada at the 20th National Film Awards in 1972. It also won three awards at the 1970-71 Karnataka State Film Awards including the award for First Best Film.
The film was later remade in Telugu as "Krishnaveni" (1974) starring Vanisri.
Plot.
The film revolves around the issues of a woman's chastity, the acceptance of mentally ill by society and unfaithful spouses. The story starts with the chance meeting of the heroine Kaveri (Kalpana) and the hero Satish (Gangadhar). Satish falls in love with Kaveri who is educated, sophisticated, beautiful and hails from a loving family and they get married with the blessings of their parents. They form a picture-perfect couple. They build their dream house, have a son, buy a car and are generally prosperous. When Kaveri conceives for the second time, the doctor express concern over her health. During the post-partum period, she is triggered by memories of abuse as a teenager leading to her symptoms of post-partum psychosis, for which she seeks treatment at an in-house mental healthcare facility. After recovery, when she is discharged from the hospital, and returns home, Satish treats her with callousness. Kaveri faces scorn from her family, neighbours and society in general, as well, owing to the stigma around mental healthcare. Kaveri, eventually discovers that her husband, Satish, has been having an extra-marital relationship with a female colleague. Unable to bear it all, Kaveri's distress causes her post-partum psychosis symptoms to relapse. Kalpana's performance as a woman dealing with trauma was widely acclaimed by critics.
The movie dwells on two social issues. One, the male ego and entitlement. Kaveri's husband spurns her because of her past incident. And uses it as an alibi to be unfaithful to her. Two, the social acceptability of mentally challenged people. The general treatment Kaveri receives from her servants, her cook, her family members and neighbours depicts how the society lacks the sensitivity that is so much needed for people like Kaveri.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack composed by Vijaya Bhaskar was well received by the audience. Songs like "Sandesha Megha Sandesha" and "Uttara Dhruvadim Dakshina Dhruvaku" are still popular.
Reception.
The film was a big hit and ran for one year in Karnataka in about three theatres. The character Kaveri portrayed by Kalpana is one of the strongest and widely acclaimed characters in Kannada cinema. The movie gave impetus to Kalpana's career.


Abu and the 7 Marvels

Abu and the Seven Marvels is a 2002 illustrated fairy tale novel by Richard Matheson, and illustrated by William Stout. Abu is a Persian varlet who seeks the hand of Princess Alicia, in a love triangle with the scheming Grand Vizier Zardak. Inspired heavily by Arabian Nights, Abu must seek tokens from each of the seven marvels of the world in order to win Alicia's hand. He is accompanied by a washed-up genie and his little brother Mut.
Reception.
"Publishers Weekly" stated that it was "(w)himsical and diabolically clever" and "a gem", while "The Guardian" called it "charming".
Art.
William Stout described his participation in the project as "a labor of love", and noted that his original artwork — "several elaborate and well-researched full color illustrations" — was rejected by Matheson as too "serious".


Mykhailo Starytsky

Mykhailo Petrovich Starytsky (; 14 December 1840 – 27 April 1904), in English Michael Starycky, was a Ukrainian writer, poet, and playwright.
He was born in a family of retired cavalry officer (Rittmeister) Petro Starytsky and Anastasia Lysenko. He was a cousin of the famous Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and father-in-law of Ivan Steshenko.
He was orphaned early in life and raised by Lysenko's father, so he was able to supply much of the information for the composer's biography. Starytsky wrote librettos, songs, stories, dramas and poems. Later in life, Starytsky worked with Lysenko, collecting Ukrainian folk songs and transforming them into plays and operas for which Starytsky wrote the librettos (including "Taras Bulba", an adaptation of the novel by Gogol). He eventually switched from writing scripts for theatre to writing books. Starytsky is currently remembered for his work with Lysenko, as well as his later poetry and novels. He was buried at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.


Carolyn L. Mazloomi

Carolyn L. Mazloomi (born August 1948) is an American author, curator and quilter. She is a strong advocate for presenting and documenting African-American-made quilts. Her own quilts tell complex stories around African American heritage and contemporary experiences.
Life.
Mazloomi was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to a family of amateur artists and painters. She graduated from Northrop University in Inglewood, California, and worked in Los Angeles as an aerospace engineer. In the early 1970s, she encountered an Appalachian quilt at a market in Dallas that began her passion for quilting. She continued her quilting experiments while earning her Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from USC in 1984.
Mazloomi is now retired from her job as an aerospace engineer and Federal Aviation Administration crash site investigator. She lives in Ohio with her family.
Women of Color Quilters Network (WOCQN).
In the mid-1980s after trying unsuccessfully to expand her small Los Angeles-based African-American quilting circle, Mazloomi placed an advertisement in "Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine" requesting correspondence with other quilters who shared this frustration. Her advertisement and the resulting correspondence led to the formation of the Women of Color Quilters Network (WOCQN) in 1986, a national organization of 1,700 members.
Founding members of the WOCQN included Carolyn, Claire E. Carter, aRma Carter, Cuesta Benberry, Meloydy Boyd, Michael Cummings, Peggie Hartwell, and Marie Wilson.
Quilting.
Mazloomi works in narrative quilts that tell stories through visuals. Common themes include music, inspired by an aunt who owned a Louisiana juke joint, and the African-American experience during the Civil Rights Movement.
Other organizations.
Mazloomi currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for American Quilts.


Paroemion

Paroemion is the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (as wild and woolly, threatening throngs). It is also called head rhyme or initial rhyme. It is also alliteration taken to an extreme where nearly every word in a sentence begins with the same consonant.
An example of paroemion is:


Edwina Pettway

Edwina Pettway (b. 1950) is an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective. She learned to quilt from her mother, Candis Pettway, alongside her sisters Qunnie Pettway and Sally Mae Pettway. Her quilts are known for mixing the Gee's Bend tradition with "the pop excesses of Hollywood and Las Vegas."
Life.
Coming from a long matrilineage of quilters, Dinah Miller is Edwina Pettway's great-grandmother and Qunnie Pettway and Sally Mae Pettway are her sisters.


Angels Revenge

Angels Revenge, or Angels Brigade, is a 1979 American comedy action thriller film directed by Greydon Clark and distributed by Arista Films. It is also known as Angels' Brigade and Seven from Heaven.
The film has major roles for Peter Lawford and Jack Palance as the leaders of a drug cartel, and gives minor roles to character actors Jim Backus, Alan Hale, Jr., Pat Buttram and Arthur Godfrey (playing himself). Of the actresses who played the movie's seven female protagonists, however, the closest any had previously come to any degree of fame was Susan Kiger, who had been the "Playboy" Playmate of the Month for January 1977. Kiger played singer Michelle Wilson; her co-stars were Sylvia Anderson as stuntwoman Terry Grant, Lieu Chinh as martial arts instructor Keiko Umaro, Jacqueline Cole as high-school teacher April, Noela Velasco as model Maria, and Robin Greer as policewoman Elaine Brenner. Her younger sister Liza Greer plays high-school student Trish, who invites herself into the team. Jack Palance played chief antagonist Mike Farrell, assistant to Lawford's kingpin character.
Plot.
The film focuses on seven women who decide to fight the local drug cartel after the brother of Michelle Wilson, a Las Vegas pop singer, is found severely beaten. When taken to the hospital, the young man is found to have been on illegal drugs. The singer meets with April, her brother's teacher, and the two hatch a plan to destroy the local drug processing plant. They recruit four more women with special skills and connections to help them carry out their audacious goal. As they plan their first strike, they discover high-schooler Trish spying on them. The student gets relegated to phone duty, but eventually worms her way into their escapades. The "Angels" not only destroy the processing plant, but also manage to intercept one of the shipments. As a result, the women receive unwelcome attention from the local drug cartel.
Critical response.
The film was not well received by the critics or the general public, being seen as a cheap knockoff of the "Charlie's Angels" television series. The plot was seen as contrived. It also had a number of actors, primarily Lawford and Palance, whose popularity had fallen since the 1960s.
"Mystery Science Theater 3000".
Because of the poor response to the film, it faded into obscurity until it was featured in a 1995 episode of the television series "Mystery Science Theater 3000". The movie was edited somewhat for "MST3K"; for example, the character of Miller (Neville Brand) is listed in the opening credits, but is only mentioned towards the end of this version, never actually appearing on screen.
"Rifftrax".
In 2017, former MST3K writers and cast members Bridget Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl riffed the uncut movie as a video-on-demand for RiffTrax.


Mary Catherine Lamb

Mary Catherine Lamb (March 12, 1949 – August 15, 2009) was an American textile artist, whose quilts reframed traditional Roman Catholic iconography. Recycling vintage textiles popular during the mid-20th Century, she both honored and affectionately skewered her Catholic upbringing.
Early life and education.
Mary Catherine Lamb, known as "MC" to her friends, was born March 12, 1949, in Oakland, California, into a devoutly Catholic family. Her only sibling, Colette, was born three years later. Lamb read voraciously as a child, a habit she continued all her life, and also kept a journal that by the time of her death ran to 22 volumes, filled with elaborate illustrations.
The Lamb sisters both attended St. Leo the Great Catholic School in Oakland, then went on to Oakland's Holy Names High School. MC graduated in 1967 and attended Merritt College in Oakland the following year. She left the Catholic church when she moved away from home to attend college. In 1971, she married Richard Daley, a finish carpenter, and moved with him in 1972 to Portland, Oregon. They divorced in 1978.
Quilting.
Clearing out the family home in Oakland after her mother's death in 1986, Lamb rediscovered religious objects of her girlhood. She described being struck anew by the holy cards given to young Catholic children, and though long separated from the Catholic faith, she felt a resurgence of affection for these tokens of her childhood, recalling "the sense of promise, of security that the pictures of saints and angels imparted." "I found a lot of Catholic mementos that really stirred me," she said years later. "It was a revelation to me to realize I could embrace the images in a completely different way, on my own terms. It could incorporate playfulness and irreverence. But it also has a little bit of grief and yearning for the security of the past." "While maintaining my decades-long rejection of the Church, I found that rather than feeling the old rebellious anger I’d long held for these images, I savored the intensity of nostalgia they stimulated. The irony inherent in these parallel responses didn’t escape me," she said. Before long, choosing wall quilts as her medium, she would find herself drawn to "domestic textiles from the time when I believed and found comfort in the myths and symbols of the Catholic pantheon."
Around the time her mother died, Lamb enrolled in an art class at Marylhurst College taught by Portland art photographer Christopher Rauschenberg and multimedia artist Susan Banyas; the class explored the possibilities of translating life events into art. One of her first projects was "All My Hope", a small quilt honoring her mother who, despite youthful dreams of a singing career, instead became a social worker. Rauschenberg was immediately impressed by her work: "I thought she was a terrific artist, thought her work was really great."
"Cootie Quilt" was the first quilt Lamb made that really felt like it was more than following an assignment, she said. "All the fabrics in it are cut-up draperies or dishtowels or tablecloths. And I like how these cooties are funny in a way. I mean they’re comical, but they also have this kind of outer-space, menacing aspect. And it also got me started on the idea of doing a series of quilts based on the shapes of old toys."
In common with many traditional and contemporary quiltmakers, Lamb constructed her quilts with secondhand fabrics, "anticipating the recycled-art movement," as one critic put it. In time, she would become known for her eccentric choices of materials in creating "wry narratives that blended Christian symbolism with social comment," her multileveled pictorial quilts "at once innocent and troubling, reverent and irreverent, serious and tongue-in cheek." Lamb's first "religious" quilts impressed Rauschenberg by "the level of her craft, her vision, dealing with the religious imagery that can be traumatizing." He became a friend who championed and promoted her work throughout the rest of her life and after her death.
In an unpublished artist's statement, Lamb described her inspiration for the "religious" quilts: "I thought of creating a Byzantine-like depiction of the Virgin Mary... the solemnity tempered by the unlikely combination of homely secondhand household fabrics and lush metallic. It seemed a revelation to me that I could embrace the imagery in my own way, and delight in it...I didn't have to reject the beauty of the compelling, magic, historical images of the saints and angels just because I intellectually reject the dogma of the powerful institution for which these lovely images are symbols." She began using iron-on heat transfers of photographic images, a decision she described as "partly as a solution to drawing (or painting or embroidering or appliquéing) a believable face, but I was so struck by the almost eerie degree of humanity it lent to the piece that I have continued to rely on this method's power."
Like generations of quilt makers before her, Lamb used a familiar block construction process. She began with a full size drawing of one or multiple images she wanted to include – then broke down the original composition into "essentially abstract units, unreadable by themselves," which would eventually "coalesce into the narrative only when pieced together." Individual blocks completed, she would deliberately "fracture" the pieces so that they didn't fit neatly together, ultimately disjointing the images. For "Saint Anthony’s Torment", for example, a few squares were given a quarter-turn before being attached to the neighboring squares. A few other squares were completely transposed, their positions switched entirely. The process helped "to exaggerate the kinetic sense of these ‘moving pictures,’" the artist’s deliberate disjuncts in pattern alignment "introduc[ing] both motion and the notion of deconstruction of the subject." In "Saint Anthony's Torment", the viewer sees "an individual struggling to maintain his concentration in the face of diabolical distraction, clinging to faith and sanity while everything is spinning apart."
Lamb drew particular inspiration from the Book of Kells, an illuminated Gospel book believed to have been created c. 800 AD, whose illustrations embellished traditional Christian iconography with ornate, swirling motifs. "I became enamored of medieval depictions of these stories," she wrote. "[T]he flat, graphic quality of illuminated manuscripts . . . made them well suited for reinterpretation with two-dimensional textile work." Rummaging through Portland's garage sales and thrift stores, Lamb emerged with raw materials, treasures to her thinking: cast-off mid-20th century curtains, tablecloths and garments. These discarded fabrics would continue to reinforce memories of her Catholic childhood, "when certain religious images conveyed to me unquestioned order of the universe – with fond amusement not unlike my feelings for the holy cards themselves." Among the silks, satins, brocades and metallics she gathered were "some hideous things I’d rather be shot in the foot than wear." Some of her quilts were also festooned with found elements like seashells, buttons, sequins, fake pearls, old coins, bugle beads, and subway tokens. For Lamb, vintage cocktail dresses from the 1950s also exuded an "air of regal elegance like that of gilded medieval renditions of sacred subjects." "As a skeptical adult, I conjure up these images with a mixture of yearning and irony," she said. "I also find humor in the transformations (tablecloth into mantle, skirt into halo) and hope the viewer does [too.]" Using these fabrics "previously worn or otherwise lived with lends a whisper of anonymous experience, a shimmer of life, to the whole...For me, the spiritual aspect comes from the lives these fabrics lived. These fabrics have soaked up experience that we’ll never know about," she wrote. Whether eliciting memories of common Catholic childhoods, or an instant, startling sense of "déjà vu", many viewers felt an immediate connection with the quilts and the "range of emotional experience that was once played out in the presence of the reconfigured pieces of damask, cotton, satin, and corduroy," castoffs hinting of unknown lives, "the ordinary . . . infused with the numinous," she said.
Studying quiltmaking at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, Lamb was aware of America's studio quilt art movement born in the mid-1960s. As did several better-known art quiltmakers unknown to her, she "worked with pictorial images and approached design holistically, as a painter would." Robert Shaw, renowned quilt curator, historian and author, met and befriended Lamb early on, featuring two of her quilts in his influential 1997 book, "The Art Quilt". Michael James, internationally-known, pioneering quilt artist and author (now chair of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design), was another who quickly recognized Lamb's unique blend of the sacred and profane, and wrote about her.
 Regarding the question of why Lamb's work wasn't better known during her lifetime, Carolyn Ducey, curator at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, noted that "Lamb was not concerned with [marketing her work]. She was more wrapped up in doing the work." Further, Lamb's irreverent religious content may have distanced some exhibition jury members. After her death, Michael James assessed Lamb's stature in the studio quilt world as "At the top...She was one of the originals."
Exhibitions.
Lamb was a member of Portland's Blackfish Gallery, the country's longest-running cooperative gallery, from 1993 through 1998, and was subsequently invited to join Nine Gallery, co-founded by nine artists, including Rauschenberg. Over the years her quilts were displayed in both galleries, in solo shows as well as in exhibitions with fellow member artists. During her lifetime, her quilts were exhibited not only regionally but also around the U.S. and the world, including galleries and museums in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Orleans, Oberlin, Tennessee, France, and the Czech Republic. From 1999-2001, her "Angel at the Tomb" hung in the residence of the American Ambassador to Turkmenistan, part of the U.S. State Department Art in the Embassies cultural exchange program. Currently, Lamb's "Cootie Quilt" is in the collection of the Renwick Gallery (a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum), "Michael the Archangel Bids You Aloha" is in the collection of the Portland Art Museum, and "Our Lady of Perpetual Garage Sales" is in the collection of the Pacific Northwest College of Art's Center for Contemporary Art and Culture. The International Quilt Study Center & Museum owns fourteen of Lamb's quilts through donation or direct purchase
Personal life and community activism.
Mary Catherine Lamb arrived in Portland in 1972 and found the city to be suitably politically liberal and a mecca for artists and writers. She quickly attracted a group of loyal friends who called themselves "MC's Tribe" and stuck with her through the end. A wonderful host, she loved celebrations and rituals and was eager to find any excuse to indulge in them. Her "hard-core" monthly poker games, held in her home, had one admission requirement: the guest must be able "to contribute to discussions of life, culture and current events." A movie fanatic, she gathered her women friends for semi-monthly movie outings. The rules: no popcorn during the film, no standing up until the credits were through.
For a free spirit with a legendary sense of humor, she could be surprisingly prim and proper. She deplored improper grammar and punctuation, sent thank-you notes immediately, and set her table with appropriate china and crystal. She had impeccable manners.
Lamb's income derived from an ever-changing patchwork of part-time jobs. She worked as a night-shift dishwasher at a restaurant and a clerk at the Multnomah County Library. She wrote and edited for technical firms and also worked as a copy editor for several Pacific Northwest publications, including Glimmer Train, "Left Bank", Eighth Mountain Press, "Mississippi Mud", and Willamette Week, the city's alternative newspaper. A spin-off from her frequent trips to thrift stores and garage sales was a successful eBay store she called "A Prize Every Time," from which she sold carefully selected vintage clothing.
An inheritance from her mother's 1986 death allowed her to become more financially secure. She left her library job but continued copy editing. While continuing to study quiltmaking at the Oregon School of Art and Craft, she was able to focus more on her art studies at Marylhurst. The Marylhurst degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, was awarded in 1992.
Off work, in the spirit of her "hippie days" in the Bay Area, Lamb threw herself into a variety of liberal causes. While at the library, she helped organize its first labor union. Volunteering for community radio station KBOO-FM led to hosting "Women Reading Women," a semi-monthly program spotlighting fiction written by women. In 1992, she vigorously opposed Ballot Measure 9, an anti-gay measure on the Oregon ballot. Five years later, she joined OPB Watch, a committee opposing the elimination of most of the music programming on Oregon Public Broadcasting, and in 2002, organized a letter-writing campaign against shutting down the 127-year-old post office in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse.
Buckman house.
In 1990, Lamb purchased a century-old, ten-room, three-story house in Portland's Buckman neighborhood, in which she showcased her impressive, ever-expanding collection of cultural miscellanea. It became, as Robert Shaw described it, an "amazing house . . . a very personal museum of things she loved."
The Buckman house offered visitors a whimsical, arresting array of quirky collections. Dozens of sock monkeys lined the window seat of her bedroom. The bathroom walls displayed assorted paint-by-number pictures. Bright cotton handkerchiefs were pinned high on a wall like colorful little flags. Women's gloves, no two alike, made a valance across the bedroom window. Chinese checkerboards covered one wall. A small, serene figure of The Virgin of Guadalupe presided over the living room, guarded by a ring of plastic cootie toys. Elsewhere, other religious statuettes, holy cards, paintings and prayer books were arranged in abundance, a collection that, like her quilts, "both honors and affectionately skewers my Catholic upbringing," she said. Spread throughout the house were many vignettes, seemingly-disparate objects juxtaposed, underscoring both their uniqueness and common spirit. The third floor was her studio space, shelves and drawers housing hundreds of pieces of vintage fabric and other oddments, raw material for the quilts she pieced with a vintage Singer sewing machine.
On the steps leading up from the sidewalk, painted wooden crutches served as balustrades, and brightly-hued bowling balls defined the periphery of the front porch. Lavishly-illustrated articles about the house appeared in regional newspapers, including the "Oregonian", the "Portland Tribune", and at least one national magazine, including "Budget Living".
Death.
When Lamb was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, "MC’s Tribe" gathered around her, bringing food and company to her house. Five years later, as plans were being made to celebrate the cancer's official remission, it returned with a vengeance, this time attacking her liver and then her brain. The Tribe, now eighty-plus strong, again rose to the occasion, raising funds for her care, taking turns providing meals, and simply keeping her company. She died at age 60, on August 15, 2009, her sister Colette having nursed her through her last days. To the end, she was rushing to complete a commission for Rauschenberg: a quilt commemorating his father, the artist Robert Rauschenberg, who had died the previous year. Her October memorial service, held in Portland's Tiffany Center, was attended by "a couple of hundred" of her friends.
After Lamb's death, Rauschenberg took detailed photographs of the Buckman house, documenting its rooms and their contents. The results, along with Susan Seubert's photos for "Budget Living", were published in a book titled "Mary Catherine Lamb’s House". The home was sold and the hundreds of items Lamb had meticulously amassed and arranged throughout her home were distributed among The Tribe.


Day of Darkness

Day of Darkness was the original name of Ireland's D.O.D. Festival. It happened annually in Ballylinan from 2002 to 2008 as a metal music festival.
The 2002 line-up was headlined by Primordial and ran for a second year in 2003. Numbers however dwindled that year and a number of changes were implemented before the festival's third running in 2004. In 2005, the festival was moved to the first week in July and has been held on the same weekend each year since. In 2006 a second day was added to the festival and camping tickets were introduced.
The festival discontinued in 2008.
Past line-ups.
2008.
"Friday Line-Up"
"Saturday Line-Up"
2007.
"Saturday Line-Up"
"Friday Line-Up"
2006.
"Saturday Line-Up"
"Friday Line-Up"
2005.
"Eve of Darkness Warm-up Show"
2004.
"+ Special tribute to Bathory featuring members from Primordial, Sol Axis, Geasa, and Kingdom"


Foolish Little Girl (song)

"Foolish Little Girl" is a song written by Helen Miller and Howard Greenfield and performed by The Shirelles. The song reached #4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, #9 on the R&B chart, and #38 on the UK Singles Chart in 1963. The song appeared on their 1963 album, "Foolish Little Girl".
This song is a mini_opera, with Shirley Allston, acting like a mother, to Beverly Lee, acting like a daughter. It begins with Alston's spoken recitation, and then declares her daughter a fool, for refusing a suitor, who is planning to get married to another girl, while the daughter hopelessly declared her love for him.
The song was ranked #57 on "Billboard" magazine's Top "Hot 100" songs of 1963.


Down with Love (song)

"Down with Love" is a popular song with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg and music by Harold Arlen. It was originally written in 1937 for Kay Thompson, but introduced by her replacement, Vivian Vance, in the Broadway musical "Hooray for What!".
The song was recorded in 1940 by Eddie Condon's Orchestra with vocals by Lee Wiley. The song has been performed by Judy Garland, Bobby Darin, and Blossom Dearie among others, and has become a pop and jazz standard. Barbra Streisand recorded "Down with Love" in 1963 for "The Second Barbra Streisand Album", and performed the song live on "The Judy Garland Show". Garland's rendition was featured in the 2003 movie "Down with Love", with an additional version by Michael Bublé and Holly Palmer.


Pilling (knitting)


Mitridate (Porpora)

Mitridate is an opera by Nicola Antonio Porpora to a libretto by Filippo Vanstriper premiered in Rome in 1730. Porpora and revived and revised the work for London (1736) with actor-manager and librettist Colley Cibber in direct competition with Handel's opera house. The London version of the opera was performed for the 250th anniversary of Porpora's death at the Festival "Winter in Schwetzingen" Directed by Jacopo Spirei, conducted by Felice Venanzoni (November 2017 to February 2018).
The opera was written for the castrati Farinelli, Senesino and the famous soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, the original Cleopatra.


Famil-e Door

Famil-e Door (in Persian: فامیل دور, lit. "Distant relative") is an Iranian fictional puppet character who was first introduced in Kolah Ghermezi TV series in 2011. Famil-e Door is a door-keeper who is from Door (in Persian: دور, lit. Far; a fictional village in Iran) and has a wife. In 2014, he also becomes a father. Though Famil-e Door is older than the rest of the characters, he participates in all their plans and games, and sometimes is even naughtier than the kids. He is a very sweet and witty puppet. One of his major characteristics is being very much interested in doors as he is a doorkeeper. He frequently says "door" as he speaks and always cares if they are properly closed. He also immediately responds to any door knock or similar sounds. His son who debuted in Kolah Ghermezi 93 (2014), looks much like him. He uses the same phrases and body language as his father.. He is one of the most favourites amongst the other puppets in this show, and frequently in any survey, rated as the top favourite. He has a sister in law named Shooreh.
Creation.
Iraj Tahmasb, the creator of the series needed new puppets for 2010 program and he asked Marzieh Mahboub (The puppet-maker of the series) to introduce him some voice actors. She also introduced Bahador Maleki, who had a Bachelor's degree in Puppetry and he had a great role in creation of the characteristics of Famil-e Door.
Catchphrases.
He uses different catchphrases in the series like "What happened?", "What did he say?", "How do I look like right now?", "Sir Dagh" (sit down) to sit Baba'ee down, "Me?", "My first name is Famil and my last name is Door", etc. He is obsessed with doors and frequently talks about them in his speeches and poems. He also mispronounces the "L" sound as a "R".


The Greyness of Autumn

The Greyness of Autumn is a short black comedy film following the life of Danny McGuire, an ostrich living in Glasgow. The film was produced by Quick Off The Mark Productions and marked the directorial debut for Chris Quick.
Plot.
Danny McGuire is an ostrich who works for a call centre selling loft insulation. His life seems to be relatively stable with a decent job and a girlfriend of many years. However, on the first day of autumn, Dannys life is turned upside down when he learns that his job is being outsourced to India. That very same night, his girlfriend tells him that she has met another man and is leaving him. Distraught by the events of the day, Danny turns to his flat mate Nelson (a cornflake eating monkey) at the local pub but their conversation is cut short when a fight breaks about between the pub landlord Barry and Nelson. Danny slips away unnoticed from the bar and heads home to drown his sorrows. Upon his way home, Danny unexpectedly walks into the path of a mugger who holds him at knifepoint demanding his shoes. Despite attempts to inform the mugger that he has no shoes, Danny is knocked out by a punch to the face.
After reflecting on recent events over a bottle of whiskey, Danny soon comes to realise that he can't escape the vicious cycle known as 'The Greyness of Autumn' and realises that society will never accept him for being different and that Danny could only be free if he ended his life.
Release and reception.
The film was released on 28 December 2012 and had its first public screening in April 2013 at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow where it was shown alongside "The Priest with Two Guns" by Rodney Reynolds. Both films coincidentally had Duncan Airlie James in the leading role.
Throughout 2013, the film appeared at a number of festivals in the United Kingdom including the Edinburgh Short Film Festival and the Deep Fried Film Festival. Internationally, the film was screened in various countries including the United States where it featured in the Big Little Comedy Festival. It was also shown at the Dublin Short Film & Music Festival in Ireland.
"The Greyness of Autumn" received highly positive reviews from critics. In the United Kingdom, MovieScramble said: The London Film Review and ScreenCritix both gave the film 4 out of 5 stars with Edmond Guy adding:
Internationally, the film received high praise with Mark Bell of Film Threat in the United States saying:
Canadian review site Pretty Clever Films wrote:
In 2014, the film returned to the festival circuit appearing in the Southern Colorado Film Festival and the Portobello Film Festival. In November, the film screened at the Barossa Film Festival in South Australia. In 2015, the film returned to Australia for the People of Passion Festival where it picked up the Best Short Comedy accolade.
Eurovision.
In 2013, the producers of the film considered a bid for the character Nelson to represent the United Kingdom at the 2014 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. A support page was launched on Facebook but eventually no song materialised and the bid was abandoned.
Autumn Never Dies.
On December 12, 2014, it was announced on the website of Quick Off The Mark Productions that writing had begun on a possible sequel to "The Greyness of Autumn" entitled "Autumn Never Dies". A crowd funding campaign was launched on Kickstarter on 17 August 2015 to raise funds for the production and lasted for 30 days. The campaign successfully raised £1,505 from 44 backers including former "Gamesmaster" host Dominik Diamond. The film is due for release in 2016.


Mike Massey

Michael Massey (born April 9, 1947), professionally known as Mike Massey, is an American professional pool player, best known as a trick-shot artist since the late 1970s, who has given substantial visibility to the sport by traveling the globe to perform exhibitions and compete in a variety of disciplines. He has won professional national and international tournaments in trick-shot competition, nine-ball, eight-ball, straight pool, and one-pocket, and he has become even more influential in the sport as an accomplished instructor, consultant, and fund-raiser. From 1989 to 1991 he served as a contributing editor of "The Snap Magazine". Massey was born in Loudon, Tennessee, and for several years lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he owned a pool hall. He has the nickname of "Tennessee Tarzan", but he now lives in Midway, Utah.
Massey was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Billiard Congress of America on April 7, 2005. For 2007 he was ranked as #8 in "Pool & Billiard Magazine"'s poll of the "Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players".
World Trickshot Championship.
In 1991, Massey took part in the inaugural World Trickshot Championship in the United Kingdom and despite not winning the event, demonstrated his skills in a special "duel" against the former World Snooker Champion Steve Davis before a live audience, hosted by TV personality Jeremy Beadle. Massey also demonstrated his ability to impart spin onto a ball with his hand, throwing s from the end of the 12-foot-long snooker table, which would then curve around and travel behind the to (snooker term: ) a placed in front of the righthand pocket, without the cue ball touching a .
Massey used props and illusion as an integral part of his routine, such as two balls bonded together, magic props and card tricks. In the words of the 1991 World Trickshot Champion Terry Griffiths: "I feel quite embarrassed to have won actually; Mike Massey is miles ahead of the rest of us. I think it was maybe a touch of nerves that put him off tonight." Massey would go on to win the event in later years.
Massey was also notable for his ability to pick up twice as many pool balls using only one hand than anyone else, a skill he claimed had won him many bets. During the aforementioned Duel with Steve Davis, he managed to pick up 8 balls, with Davis managing to pick up 5. Massey stated that the smaller snooker balls (as compared to U.S. pool balls) made the task more difficult rather than easier. Massey was able to achieve his total of 8 balls by holding a ball between each finger, then picking up 3 more using his palm and thumb muscle.
Titles and achievements.
2020 Pocatello open champion


Old Corn Meal

Old Corn Meal, or Signor Cormeali, was an African-American street vendor in New Orleans, Louisiana who became famous in the late 1830s for singing and dancing while he sold his wares. He is one of the earliest known African Americans to have had a documented influence on the development of blackface minstrelsy specifically and American popular music in general.
Old Corn Meal was known for walking through New Orleans singing and dancing while he led his horse and cart and sold corn meal. "Fresh Corn Meal", which he composed, was his signature song; he also did popular material from blackface acts like "Old Rosin the Beau" and "My Long Tail Blue". He was a natural baritone, but he could "easily [transform] into a ringing falsetto". His popularity led to an invitation to perform at the St. Charles Theatre in 1837. There he did a solo act alongside his horse and cart. Old Corn Meal performed there at least once more, in 1840.
White performers who did blackface acts probably took material from Old Corn Meal. George Nichols, a blackface circus clown is one, as is Thomas D. Rice, whose "Corn Meal" skit most likely came from seeing Old Corn Meal's act during one of his visits to New Orleans in 1835, 1836, and 1838.
In 1837, "Old Corn Meal" was included in a performance at the recently opened St. Charles Theatre in a melodrama called "Life in New Orleans". The newspaper accounts of the performance make clear, Kmen argues, that as a musician he was widely known — he was described in one article as "the celebrated sable satellite," and another mentioned "the popular song Fresh Corn Meal" that he sings. The performance, which featured Old Corn Meal performing on stage the way he did in the street — from his horse-drawn vendor's cart — was such a success that another was organized, though during the second performance his horse fell on stage and was killed.
Kmen describes this as "the first appearance of a Negro on the white stage in New Orleans, indeed perhaps in the United States," though at least the latter claim is inaccurate. But his research shows clearly that Old Corn Meal was a much discussed figure, coming up repeatedly in articles in the "Picayune" during the late 1830s. When he died in 1842, his passing was noted in several newspapers. The "Bee" declared: "Poor old Corn Meal . . . is gone. never again shall we listen to his double toned voice — never again shall his corn meal melodies, now grumbled in a bass — now squeaked in a treble, vibrate on the ear. He was a public-spirited a character as any we ever met with, and was as thoroughly known as a popular politician."


Flora Moore

Flora Moore (born 1951) is an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters.
Her work is included in the collection of the High Museum.
Early life.
Moore was born in Rehobeth, Alabama to Isaac James and Creola Young. Growing up, her main responsibilities were to harvest cotton and attend school. She worked on the farm " until [she} got big enough to know what it was about, and then [she} didn’t want to do that no more." Her education was disrupted during desegregation when the Gee's Bend High School was shut down in order for integration with Wilcox County schools. She finished the eleventh grade.
Work.
She used to do yard work for her cousin Estelle Witherspoon, a pillar of Gee's Bend's quilting community. In fact, seeing the quilts hanging in Witherspoon's yard, an early gathering place for quilters before the Freedom Quilting Bee collective started, was what inspired Moore to learn to quilt as a teenager. She began quilting under the instruction of Witherspoon and her aunt Ma Willie Abrams. Despite their mentorship, Moore still describes her work and patterns as following her own internal compass. The free-form, improvised quilting style is iconic of Gee's Bend artists. Moore describes her methods and artistic practices in an interview with The Souls Grown Deep Foundation:" Sometimes you sit down and be thinking you going to put it this way, according to how you feel about it. You might know how somebody else do it, but you tell yourself, I’m going to do it different. When you sit, you don’t know how it going to come out, and you don’t think it will come out like that. I made that quilt out of corduroy. I just put it my way; I didn’t put it the way the pattern went."Moore often made her work from sturdier materials such as corduroy and clothes donated to the quilting bee.


Mrika

Mrika ("Maria") is an opera in three acts composed by Prenkë Jakova with a libretto in Albanian by Llazar Siliqi. It premiered (in a four-act version) in Shkoder, Albania in 1958 at the Migjeni Theatre. The revised three-act version (and the one used today) premiered in Tirana at the Academy of Music and Arts of Albania in December 1959. The work is based on a "musical action" in two scenes, "Dritë mbi Shqipëri" ("Light over Albania"), a previous collaboration between Jakova and Siliqi which had premiered in Tirana in July 1952. "Mirka" is popularly considered to be the first Albanian opera. Its first stage director was Kristaq Antoniu.


2 Foreigners In Bollywood

2 Foreigners In Bollywood is a comedy group known from social media based in Mumbai, India. The group consists of the three members Johan Bartoli, Hampus Bergqvist and Vidhan Pratap Singh(rewa). Johan and Hampus both come from Stockholm, Sweden, and moved to India in September 2015 to work as actors in the Hindi Film Industry after completing their education in business school. The comedy group are best known for their Facebook page 2 Foreigners In Bollywood where they upload comedy videos. Their video content is about cultural clashes and every day situations in India.
In June 2017, 2 Foreigners In Bollywood was the most viewed original video content page on Facebook India with over 70 million views in that month. Their Facebook page has 3.5 million followers (as of October 2017).


Melissa Hayden (actress)

Melissa Hayden (born November 13, 1969 in Pacific Palisades, California) is an American actress. Prior to her acting career, she was a longtime member of the California-based song and dance troupe The Young Americans.
She is best known to soap fans for playing the role of Bridget Reardon on "Guiding Light" from May 21, 1991 to June 18, 1997, in which she spawned some of the show's most-remembered storylines. After she left "Guiding Light", Hayden dropped out of the public eye for many years, but in 2009, she reprised her role as Bridget for the ending of the series.
In 1994, Hayden won a Daytime Emmy Award for her role as "Outstanding Younger Actress" on "GL". She had also been nominated in the same category in 1993. She also won a Soap Opera Digest Award and a Young Artist Award in 1994 and 1993 respectively for her role as Bridget.
Hayden also played the character of Mouse on "General Hospital".


Yinian

Aisin-Gioro Yinian (1916–1987), art name Rushiguan Ge (如是觀閣) was a Manchu nobleman, author and the last heir of the principality of Rui before the extinction of his line. He was also known by his Han Chinese name Jin Jishui ().
Life.
The peerage of Prince Rui was created in 1636 in honor of Dorgon's merits. Although Dorgon had no male heir, his nephew Dorbo was adopted by him and succeeded his title. Yinian was a descendant of Dorbo.
Yinian was born in Beijing. In his early years, he was surrounded by the servants in his family residence and enjoyed a prestigious life. After the death of his uncle Zhongquan in 1939, who had no offspring, Yinian was designated as his uncles successor. Puyi, the head of the house of Aisin-Gioro who had abdicated from the throne of China by then, was set up as a puppet by the Japanese empire in Manchuria during the second world war.
Puyi attempted contacting Yinian and invited him to succeed his uncle's peerage. Yinian was enraged by Puyi's offer since he deeply despised Puyi for the latter's cooperation with the Japanese. As a result, he refused his title and peerage and even compared Puyi with Shi Jingtang who cooperated with the Khitans.Yinian's living condition had worsened throughout years due to his uncle's squandering of family properties. By the time of his uncle's death, he had to pawn off valuable belongings he possessed. Despite not being able to make a living, he rejected the invitations that offered him a job in the administration system of Japanese occupation.
After the wars, Yinian worked in Beijing library as a transcriber. He published several novels in the 40s. In the 1950s, he started a magazine with another Manchu writer Jin Shoushen from Wanyan clan. During the cultural revolution, he was able to make through the political turbulence without being harmed since he was not into the politics.
In 1974, he was invited by a government run publishing house to participate in the revision of the Compendium of Materia Medica. Yinian died in the year of 1987 unmarried and childless.
Yinian's memoir “Life in the imperial mansion” was a faithful recall of the aristocratic life of Qing dynasty nobles. His poetry also received a certain degree of recognition among the Chinese literati.


The Antelope Wife


Charlie McCarthy

Charlie McCarthy is Edgar Bergen's famed ventriloquist dummy partner. Charlie was part of Bergen's act as early as high school, and by 1930, was attired in his famous top hat, tuxedo, and monocle. The character was so well-known that his popularity exceeded that of his partner, Bergen.
Charlie's personality was that of a mischievous little boy (with an Irish lilt), who could crack wise, misbehave, and flirt shamelessly in a way that Bergen couldn't (much the same way that the Muppet characters behaved more outrageously than any of their human co-stars). The original McCarthy dummy was built by noted carpenter/dummy-maker Theodore Mack, and was later rebuilt by Frank Marshall.
Charlie and Bergen made their radio debut on NBC's "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" (sponsored by a noted coffee brand) in 1937, supported by singer Nelson Eddy (a role later filled by Dale Evans, amongst others). The following year, Charlie would be joined by a much dumber dummy, "Mortimer Snerd". After a famous feud with W. C. Fields in the 1930s (during which Charlie often vowed to the comedian that he'd "mow him down"), the dummy became a true icon.
By 1939, Charlie was commanding 35.7% of the audience share.
Though shortened to 30 minutes as "The Chase and Sanborn Program", it wasn't until 1947, in a rare case of star taking precedent over sponsor in the title, that the series was officially renamed "The Charlie McCarthy Show". After a year's hiatus while the duo toured the stage, 1949 brought a switch to CBS and change of sponsors to Coca-Cola. In 1955, Charlie and Bergen entered their last format, with the ventriloquist taking top billing for once, in "The New Edgar Bergen Hour", which ran until 1956.
During this lengthy tenure, Charlie's guest roster was filled by many of the biggest stars of the day, including Henry Fonda, the Andrews Sisters, Rosemary Clooney, Roy Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Carol Channing, Groucho Marx, Dinah Shore, Liberace, Bergen's wife Frances Bergen, and in occasional appearances, Charlie's ""sister" Candice Bergen. Bergen and McCarthy also co-starred with Mickey Mouse in the 1947 Disney film "Fun and Fancy Free". McCarthy also had a cameo in the 1938 Disney cartoon "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood", tormenting W.C. Fields, who appeared as Humpty Dumpty.
In 1977, Charlie appeared with Bergen and Mortimer Snerd on Episode 207 of "The Muppet Show". Fozzie's dummy "Chuckie"" is based on Charlie.
Bergen and McCarthy made their final film appearance in "The Muppet Movie", as guest judges of the Bogen County Fair beauty contest. Bergen died in 1978 shortly after filming this sequence, and the film is dedicated to his memory. Charlie is now on permanent display in the Smithsonian Institution.
Orson Welles.
Charlie and Bergen were programmed opposite "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" on CBS, a struggling intellectual program helmed by Orson Welles. On October 30, 1938 many listeners fiddled with the dial during Nelson Eddy's musical interlude, intending to switch back for Charlie's next comedy spot, and stumbled on Welles' production of "The War of the Worlds", allegedly engendering a panic. As later reported, noted critic and wit Alexander Woolcott sent the young Welles a telegram on the subject: "This only goes to prove, my beamish boy, that the intelligent people were all listening to the dummy, and that all the dummies were listening to you." Ironically, by 1944, Orson Welles had become a recurring guest, with the dummy puncturing the pomposity of the genius.
References.
Tollin, Anthony. "Comedy from the Golden Age of Radio". Booklet for tape/CD set. Radio Spirits Inc., 1996.


Stora Teatern

Stora Teatern (popularly known as Storan) is a musical theater in the Lorensberg district of Gothenburg, Sweden. Inaugurated in 1859, it is situated in Kungsparken park south of Kungsportsplatsen.
It was originally founded to replace the "Segerlindska teatern", and as such was known as "Nya Theatern" until 1880. The thirty-meter-high theater was inaugurated on September 15, 1859. During the first 60 years, this was mainly a dramatic theater featuring opera and operetta. In 1916, Stora Teatern became primarily a lyrical theater.


Capriccio discography

This is a partial discography of "Capriccio", Richard Strauss's opera from 1942. "Capriccio: A Conversation Piece for Music" is his final opera.


Tambour lace

Tambour lace refers to a family of lace made by stretching a fine net over a frame (the eponymous "Tambour", from the French for drum) and creating a chain stitch using a fine hook to reach through the net and draw the working thread through the net.
The chain-stitch embroidery was used extensively in the East—Persia, India, and China—many centuries ago but is thought not to have come to Europe until the seventeenth century. Little of it is heard of until the 1760s when translucent muslins from India, perhaps already tamboured with sprigs, were coming into fashion.
In the second half of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, tambouring was a fashionable pastime for ladies of the French and English courts. It was usually done on fine muslin and was variously known as sewed muslin and flowered muslin.
Although tambour is often a surface embroidery, it is used in Limerick lace.


The Mirror of Justices

The Mirror of Justices, also known in Anglo-Norman as "Le mireur a justices" and in Latin as "Speculum Justitiariorum", is a law textbook of the early 14th century, written in Anglo-Norman French by Andrew Horn (or Horne). The original manuscript is in the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (manuscript identifier CCCC MS 258).
The work was published in 1642, based on a copy owned by Francis Tate and the Cambridge manuscript. In 1646 it was translated into English and printed together with Anthony Fitzherbert's "The Diversity of Courts and their Jurisdictions". This version was republished in 1659 and 1768. In 1895 the Selden Society published an edition of the work containing the Anglo-Norman text with a parallel English translation, and an extensive introduction by Frederic William Maitland.


Franses Tapestry Archive

The Franses Tapestry Archive and Library in London is devoted to the study of European tapestries and figurative textiles. It is the world’s largest academic research resource on the subject.
History.
Established in 1987, the archive was co-founded by Simon Franses, a director of the Franses Gallery and Tom Campbell, a tapestry scholar. After 7 years of full-time work Dr Campbell moved to New York to take up a curatorial post at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He went on to curate two landmark Tapestry exhibitions "Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence" (2002) and "Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor" (2007). In 2008 he was appointed director of the museum.
The vast collection of images began to be collected by Dr Campbell with a team of research assistants, and was gathered from across Europe and America. The Archive has continued to expand over 29 years. It now holds over 240,000 visual records of European tapestries accessible by subject, date, country of manufacture and place of origin. These records have been collected and catalogued from several hundred museums, libraries, auction houses, trade and private collections, and allows precise identification of individual works (as well as visual reconstruction of dispersed sets of tapestries).
Archive.
The images are stored under almost 900 main headings from Landmark Series of European Tapestries to more modest works, altar frontal, table carpets, cushions and upholstery.
The Collection includes:
Research projects.
The Archive has undertaken a number of research projects. A joint survey with the National Trust of the Tapestries in their 200 historic houses was carried out. Assistance is given to academics and scholars and where copyright is owned, images are made available for publication.
A project with Glasgow City Art Gallery and Museum assembling documentation from the Archive on Sir William Burrell’s collection of medieval tapestries. The Burrell Collection has appointed two international tapestry scholars to catalogue this Tapestry collection. The archive assisted with the academic research and securing loans for the "History Woven in Threads" an Exhibition of Medieval and Renaissance Tapestries held in 2014 at Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius.
Lost and stolen.
Several missing or stolen pieces have been recovered through the Archive – in 1993 two Gobelins Tapestries stolen from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, were located and returned, and a Brussels Tapestry stolen from North Mymms Park, England. In 2001 The Art Loss Register deposited images of missing or stolen tapestries and textiles.
Other uses of the documentation.
The documentation is also used to provide appraisals for government indemnity in the case of inter-museum loans, grant-giving bodies and Acceptance in Lieu.


Helen Frances Gregor

Helen Frances Gregor CM (28 June 1921 - 25 May 1989) was a Czechoslovakian-Canadian artist who specialised in textile art.
She was born in Prague in Czechoslovakia, the daughter of Fred and Lily Lorenz. She was considering a career in theatrical design, but moved with her family to England in 1940 to escape the Second World War. She studied art at Newark Technical College, Birmingham College of Art, and at the Royal College of Art's School of Design in London. She exhibited at the Czechoslovak Club, and at Liberty in London. She also studied at the American School of Craftsmen in Rochester, New York.
She married Tibor Gregor, who had been born in Slovakia and had moved to London to study at the London School of Economics. He served in a Czech battalion with British Army in the Second World War. They had two children. Her husband became an executive director of the Canadian Soft Drinks Association, and was a district governor of Rotary International, and its treasurer in 1981-82 and director in 1980-82, and a trustee of the Rotary Foundation from 1986 to 1989.
Gregor moved to Canada with her husband, and became a teacher at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in 1952, where she founded and became head of the textile department. She worked in textile art, creating tapestries, and challenged the distinction between fine art and applied art.
She exhibited at the Triennial of Tapestry in Łódź twice. Examples of her works are held by the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the Ontario Society of Artists, and the Ontario Crafts Council. She won Ontario Crafts Council's Mather Award in 1982, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1987. The Ontario Crafts Council established the Helen Frances Gregor scholarship in her honour.
Her book "The fabric of my life : reflections of Helen Frances Gregor" was published in 1987.
Gregor died of a heart attack in Seoul, South Korea. Her husband died in 2008.


Rabarock

Rabarock was a rock festival held annually in Järvakandi, Estonia between 2005–2009 and 2011–2012. It took place in the first half of June.


Tyg

A tyg (or tig) is a large English pottery mug with three or more handles dividing the rim into sections for several drinkers. These tall, black-glazed, red-bodied drinking vessels were produced from the 15th century through the first half of the 17th century, peaking in popularity during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some were made with as many as nine handles. The multiple handles also allow hot drinks to be passed around without pain.
Tygs were made in large quantities at Wrotham in Kent and in many Staffordshire factories. Examples have surfaced at 17th-century American colonial sites, as well as in the UK. There are also examples of Japanese and German tygs.
Many of the leading names in Staffordshire and Worcester area have manufactured miniature three handled tygs that stand proud at only 1 to 1 7/10 inches in size. Most were probably used for decoration rather than drinking, as many of them are exquisitely painted. They are widely collected.
Frilly-based tyg.
The term 'frilly-based tyg' is used in some English archaeological literature to refer to a type of medieval and early post-medieval drinking mug or pitcher, usually wheel-thrown with a rounded belly and a straight or flared neck, which may have one or more handles. The 'frilly base' refers to the foot-ring of the mug, which after throwing was given an alternating bossed and indented form by manual shaping with fingers or thumbs. This style was popularized from c. 1300 onwards in hard-fired Rhenish wares, for example in ash-glazed wares from Siegburg, near Bonn, Germany, and later in salt-glazed wares like those from Raeren, eastern Belgium. These were imported to England in large quantities and were imitated in English stoneware and earthenware.


Speckulation Entertainment

Speckulation Entertainment is a British record label dedicated to musical theatre. It was founded by Neil Eckersley who has released original cast recordings of "A Spoonful of Stiles & Drewe", "Stiles & Drewe's Peter Pan", "Christmas in New York" and Dougal Irvine's "Departure Lounge".
Solo releases by West End artists include "Julie Atherton: No Space for Air" and "Helena Blackman: The Sound of Rodgers & Hammerstein". Speckulation's recent album, "Michael Bruce: Unwritten Songs", was promoted with the YouTube personality "Portrait of a Princess" and has received over a half million views to date. Speckulation's latest album is a live recording of "Momentous Musicals" which starred Gareth Gates. The original cast recording of "Been on Broadway" is expected for release in 2015.


InterHarmony International Music Festival

The InterHarmony International Music Festival is a summer Music Festival in Germany and Italy. The Festival is an annual intensive summer performance festival, which includes a concert series of international solo musicians and young performers, and an institute for students of solo, chamber music, and orchestral playing. The festival hosts three sessions in two locations: Acqui Terme, in the Province of Alessandria in Piedmont, Italy, and Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany in Bavaria.
History.
The InterHarmony International Music Festival was conceived in 1997, when cellist Misha Quint, the Music Director and Founder, started his first International Music Festival in Blonay, Switzerland. This festival, the Intensive Cello Studies Abroad, was held at the Hindemith Foundation in Chalet de lacroix. Quint then opened the Soesterberg International Music Festival in Soesterberg, Netherlands in 1998. His festival in the Netherlands was a success and lasted for nine years. In the midst of the location in Soesterberg in 2000, the name, "InterHarmony", was born.
The Festival in 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland was the first to bear this name. Other locations later took it up. Some locations, such as Soesterberg and Sulzbach-Rosenberg also retained the location name within the city as a subsidiary of InterHarmony. The Sulzbach-Rosenberg location of InterHarmony opened in 2005 and was an immediate success with local audiences. The Hinterzarten, Germany locale in the Black Forest lasted from 2008 – 2011. There were two locations in the United States: The Berkshires, Massachusetts from 2007- 2008, and San Francisco, California, at San Francisco State University in 2009.
InterHarmony remains one of the only festivals of its kind to move around the world. Many students and artists-in-residence end up traveling to all the locations, and in the case of 2012, spending nearly six weeks at the festivals.
The Festival has gained renown in Germany and brings international culture and artistry to its locations. For example, The U.S. Consul General spoke at the final concert where Misha Quint performed in 2008, and a Young Artist Showcase was given in the offices of the German Consulate in New York City in 2012. In 2010, Caitlin Hulcup, a soloist from the Vienna Staatsoper, and Christa Mayer from the Bayreuther Festspiele, performed with the InterHarmony Festival Orchestra and the Forchheimer Kammerorchester, a Symphony Orchestra in Germany.
InterHarmony Concert Series in New York City.
In 2015 InterHarmony International Music Festival opened the InterHarmony Concert Series with three concerts at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City each year. The series showcases artist performers and advanced young artists who have previously performed at InterHarmony International Music Festivals in Europe.
InterHarmony Outstanding Guest Artist series.
In 2015 InterHarmony International Music Festival opened the InterHarmony Outstanding Guest Artist Series in its sessions in Italy and Germany. Famous musicians are invited to perform and give a master class to young artists. In 2015 the guest artists were violinist Vadim Repin and pianist Bruno Canino in Italy, and pianist Alfred Brendel gave a lecture in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany. The 2017 guest artists were Nikolaj Znaider, Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Bruno Canino, Alfred Brendel, Christa Mayer, and Boris Kuschnir. In 2018, guest artists were the conductors Gerard Korsten, Christian Vasquez, and Nicoletta Conti, pianist Alfred Brendel, and violinists Nikolaj Znaider, Sergey Khachatryan, Boris Kuschnir, and mezzo-soprano Christa Mayer. The 2019 guest artists included Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Saleem Ashkar, Alfred Brendel, Guy Braunstein, Alexei Volodin, Boris Kuschnir, Lubov Stuchevskaya, Nikolaj Znaider, Christa Mayer, and Christian Vásquez.
Artist Performers.
Each session of InterHarmony has at least forty guest artists. Previous guest artist faculty have included the following performers:


Feur Buidhe an t-Samhraidh

Feur Buidhe an t-Samhraidh (Yellow Summer Grass) is a young adult novel written in Scottish Gaelic by Tim Armstrong and published by Sandstone Press in 2014. The novel is set in Scotland and the United States and follows Colman and Seonag, two young Scottish musicians who slip into a dangerous underworld of crime and violence when they become lost and separated from their band's US tour. This is Armstrong's second novel in Gaelic, following Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach, and it received mostly positive reviews. Writing in Dàna Magazine, Liam Alastair Crouse called the novel “exciting and enticing”, although he felt the author left some questions unanswered in the ending. While Ronald Black, writing in The Scotsman newspaper, noted that he particularly enjoyed the ending.


Bettada Jeeva

Bettada Jeeva is a National Award-winning (2011) Kannada film directed by P. Sheshadri starring Suchendra Prasad, Rameshwari Varma and H. G. Dattatreya. The story is based on Jnanpith awardee K. Shivaram Karanth's novel. It depicts the tradition of people living in remote areas of Western Ghats during pre-Independence days in India.
Story.
The story happens in around early forties. A young freedom fighter Shivaramu, lost in jungle while he travels to a place near Subramanya, meets two villagers called Deranna and Bhatya. They advice Shivaramu to stay in the house of Gopalayya, a Brahmin living with his wife Shankaramma in Kelabailu. The couple treats Shivaramu well and asks him to stay for couple of more days. They express that their son Shambhu had left them years back. They treat Shivaramu as their own son.
During the stay, Gopalayya narrates the story of his past. Recalls his hardworking days of making a beautiful crop field beside mountain. Shivaramu slowly gets clear introduction to the legendary personality of Gopalayya. Shivaramu gets more curious at his attitude of fighting against nature to build his dreams in a place called Katumule. Meanwhile, Shivaramu meets Narayana, his wife Laxmi and their kids, living in Katumule. They feel that Shivaramu could be a person sent by Shambhu. Narayana also expresses that Shambhu's return may cause them to leave Katumule. So, Narayana plans to leave before that critical moment come and thinks of having his own land. Couple of days later Gopalayya says about his decision to transfer the property of Katumule to Narayana.
Later while talking to Shivaramu, everyone gives their own explanation for Shambhu's disappearance. Laxmi talks about an incident which could be the reason for leaving. Narayana describes Shambhu as a crooked minded. Gopalayya describes that opposing Shambhu's decision to join freedom movement may be the reason for him to leave the place. At the same time Shankaramma also blames herself to be the reason for his riddance. Each character explores their hidden feelings in their own way with Shivaramu.
Once Shivaramu finds Shambhu's photo and identifies him that he was also a comrade with him in freedom fighting, says he would try to find out Shambhu. When Shivaramu comes across an incident of villagers hunting a tiger, he requests and stops them from killing it. Finally he leaves the place Kelabailu, with a promise of finding Shambhu.


Ventriloquist Cat

Ventriloquist Cat is an MGM animated film, directed by Hollywood director Tex Avery. The film was released in the US with the movie "The Big Hangover" on May 27, 1950.
Plot.
An alley cat is being chased by a dim-witted bulldog after he is caught writing on the fence "I hate Dogs!" In order to escape, the cat inadvertently jumps into a box full of magician's props and discovers a ventriloquist's device for throwing his voice. With his newly acquired powers of ventriloquism, the cat plays a series of practical jokes on the bulldog. Ultimately, the jokes backfire on the cat after he discards the device.
Remake as "Cat's Meow".
"Ventriloquist Cat" was later remade in CinemaScope as "Cat's Meow", which was released on January 25, 1957. It was one of two Avery MGM cartoons to have been reworked in the widescreen format (the other was the 1949 Droopy cartoon "Wags to Riches", which was redone as "Millionaire Droopy"); as Avery himself was long gone from MGM at the time of these remakes, the new versions were worked on by the Hanna-Barbera unit, despite having Avery's name credited on the title card.
"Cat's Meow" was the final MGM animated film before the MGM cartoon studio shut down in 1957.


Thingee

Thingee is a puppet which was used as an unofficial ambassador and icon for New Zealand children's television during the 1990s, appearing in multiple television shows such as "The Son of a Gunn Show", and also children's programme, "What Now". He appeared on T-shirts, dolls, puzzles and advertising all over New Zealand. He was voiced by "After School" camera operator and director Alan Henderson, who died on 15 February 2020.
Appearance.
Thingee was usually presented as a grey (with brown undertones) humanoid thing with large bulbous eyes, a large toothless snout and a domed head. In a similar manner to the "Rainbow " characters Zippy and George, he was generally shown from the shoulders up, with one arm.
Character history.
According to Stephen Campbell, one of the creators, both Thingee's name and species were accidental. The puppet was originally based on a duck, and the name used as a placeholder until they thought of a proper one.
Thingee first appeared on "After School" in 1987, under the hosting of Richard Evans and Annie Roach. Viewers first saw what was believed to be perhaps the egg of a dragon, Thingee existed in egg form for several weeks on the show until he hatched. Thingee later teamed up with Jason Gunn, who would from then on become his regular colleague, in 1988 when Jason took over as host for "After School". Jason and Thingee continued working together in 1989 on "After 2".
From 1992 on he co-hosted Jason Gunn vehicles "Jase TV" and "The Son of a Gunn Show". They later starred in the straight to video film "Jason and Thingee's Big Adventure". Thingee also appeared in celebrity editions of "Wheel of Fortune", test cricket commentary and "Face the Music" in 1992.
From 1996 he was a host on the Sunday morning television show "What Now", where it was revealed that the character was an alien and eventually Thingee made contact with his people and made the decision to return home to his own planet. As a result, the character was retired from New Zealand television.
Appearances in popular culture.
During a recording of "Son of a Gunn" in 1994, one of Thingee's eyeballs popped out. While this outtake was not included in the episode that was eventually broadcast, shortly afterwards the clip was screened on a TVNZ bloopers show, where it found fame and became an iconic Kiwi television moment. The eyepop scene was used in the opening credits of the satirical show "Eating Media Lunch".


Holbein carpet

Holbein carpets are a type of carpet taking their name from Hans Holbein the Younger, due to their depiction in European Renaissance paintings, although they are shown in paintings from many decades earlier than Holbein. The art historian Kurt Erdmann has sub-divided the "Holbein" design into four types (of which Holbein actually only painted two); they are among the commonest designs of Anatolian carpet seen in Western Renaissance paintings. Their production started by the mid-15th century, and continued to be produced for nearly two centuries. All are purely geometric and use a variety of arrangements of lozenges, crosses and octagonal motifs within the main field. The sub-divisions are between:
Holbein frequently used carpets in portraits, on tables for most sitters, but on the floor for Henry VIII.
References.
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Internet radio licensing

An Internet radio license is a specific type of broadcast license that allows the licensee to operate an Internet radio station. The licensing authority and number of licenses required varies from country to country, with some countries requiring multiple to cover various areas of a station's operation, and other countries not having stringent licensing procedures in place. Licensing costs also vary, based on the number of listeners that a station has, as well as other factors such as the number of songs played, the number of broadcast hours, and whether tracks are dubbed to a digital playout system.
Licensing fees for Internet radio have often been the subject of controversy. For example, in 1998, the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act meant that US-based Internet radio and satellite radio stations would have to pay separate royalties to recording artists and sound recording copyright owners, unlike traditional over-the-air stations that paid royalties only for the use of the underlying musical works. This led to the creation of the "SaveNetRadio.org" petition group, in addition to the proposal of the Internet Radio Equality Act.
In some countries, stations which broadcast via other mediums – for example, by AM, FM and DAB digital radio – typically must also obtain a separate broadcast license in order to simultaneously broadcast via the Internet.
Multimedia content is intellectual property. These regulations on this property differ from country to country; however, the general rule is that the station must own, or have a license to broadcast the content that is covered under copyright regulations. Content that has been released under some creative commons licenses, public domain or similar can be streamed with no special content licensing requirements. However the content licensed under non-free cultural Creative Commons licenses with non-commercial (NC) clause cannot be streamed if Internet broadcast station has any form of advertising, either in the stream or on the station website.
Internet radio licensing by country.
Netherlands.
Internet radio licensing in the Netherlands is partially dealt with by the main Dutch royalty body BUMA/STEMRA, which charges a fixed fee in order for a station to broadcast via the Internet.
United Kingdom.
In the United Kingdom, Internet radio stations may obtain licenses from both the MCPS-PRS Alliance and Phonographic Performance Limited. These licences are optional, in that they are only required to compensate rights holders (a legal requirement). For a station broadcasting only libre or original content works, a licence isn't required to operate an internet radio station and no Ofcom Licence is required for Internet broadcasting.
Although the fees for the MCPS-PRS Alliance is largely fixed, the fees for Phonographic Performance Limited is calculated based on the number of tracks played per hour, in addition to the number of listeners (calculated via Internet radio audience measurement). In addition to these two main licenses, stations may also pay the PPL dubbing fee in order to store those tracks to a hard-drive or other storage device for playout, and the MCPS-PRS TV and Radio Advertisement License in order to use commercial copyrighted music in advertisements and promotional pieces. The multitude of licenses required, and the accumulative cost of them all, have priced many small stations out of running sustainably via Internet mediums with the exception of stations that play solely freely licensed content.
Hungary.
In Hungary, internet radio stations must obtain licences both the Association of Hungarian Record Companies and the Artisjus Hungarian Copyright Protection Association. They have fixed fees, that means cca. 95 EUR per month together, plus 4% of the Income of the station. In 2015 Rendőrség (English: ′Guard of Order′ or Police) in coordinated action was raided more than 200 'illegal' stations, seized streaming servers, PCs. 1-2 years later the owners were charged with violation of copyright law. Since the new Media Law was adopted in 2011, Internet Stations must obtain a special licence from the NMHH (National Media and Communications Authority) by sending the exact schedule and financial plan. According to the plans, licensed internet radio stations are required to include music made in Hungary 35% of broadcasting time, and must send weekly reports from the aired contents to the Authority, like FM stations now.
North America.
Neither the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States nor the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Canada currently require a licence for broadcasts via the Internet originating in their respective countries. However, stations that play recorded music are required to pay licensing fees or royalties through ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, depending upon which organization licensed the recording. SoundExchange also works with music industry partners in the United States and around the world to collect performance royalties generated through airplay on Internet radio stations.
Stations that broadcast only via the Internet may voluntarily register for a standardised identifier or call sign through Internet Radio Uniform Callsign (IRUC), an industry organisation that provides the system as a means to efficiently catalog participating stations in the United States, Canada and Mexico; these call signs are not mandatory and are not a license to broadcast and do not exempt the broadcaster from paying music licensing fees. IRUC's system utilizes standardised call sign prefixes as allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).


Swiss Tolkien Society


The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival

The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival is an annual Shakespearean theatre festival in Philadelphia. Every year, The Festival produces two or three productions of Shakespeare's plays. Starting out as the Red Heel Theatre in 1989, and changing name and purpose in 1993, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival is now the region's only theatre devoted entirely to Shakespeare's works. In 2008/9, they engaged in intensive planning with the board of directors and cultural and community leaders and decided to re-brand and rename the company to better reflect their programming. The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre now has several programs for adults and students including a lecture series featuring world-renowned Shakespeare scholars, Shakespeare School Tour which also tours in schools, and a Classical Acting Academy providing early career actors with intense classical training culminating in a free summer Shakespeare play for the public.
In Summer 2008, The City Council of Philadelphia passed a resolution honoring The Theatre for excellence in performance and educational programming, recognizing the impact The Theatre has made on Philadelphia's cultural landscape and particularly on its students.
Open Door Project.
The Open Door Project, which is The Festival's educational outreach and includes school matinees and Artist-in-Residence programs, comprises more than a third of the overall performances of the entire Festival. Thousands of students come to see The Festival every year as part of the school matinees, many of whom take part in the Artist-in-Residence program, which places actors in classrooms to teach the students about Shakespeare's work. In addition, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival creates its own original curriculum for each play they produce.
Young Professionals Company.
Technically part of the Open Door Project, the Young Professionals Company is a sort of training ground for up and coming actors new to the Philadelphia theatre community. Since they started in 2003, the company has continued to produce plays which are free to the public. Now known as the Classical Acting Academy, it offers the same great opportunities for young actors and the audiences.
Shakespeare Café.
The Shakespeare Café is a new program being introduced in the 2007 season. Following the trend of trying to make Shakespeare more digestible, this is The Festival's new, less formal show featuring shows based on the Bard's work. They plan to have an improvisation comedy show with ComedySportz as well as a jazz performance by Arpeggio Jazz Quartet and a new play featuring Shakespeare's fights.
Past Festivals.
2008 "Romeo and Juliet", "Pericles, Prince of Tyre"
2007 "Othello", "The Taming of the Shrew"
2006 "The Tempest", "Much Ado About Nothing", "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) "
2005 "Hamlet", "As You Like It"
2004 "Julius Caesar", "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)"
2003 "Othello", "Macbeth"
2002 "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "King Lear", "Cymbeline"
2001 "Twelfth Night", "Measure for Measure", "Romeo and Juliet"
2000 "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Winter's Tale", "Hamlet"


Do or Die (film)

Do or Die is a 1991 action film starring Cynthia Brimhall, Pat Morita and Erik Estrada. It was directed, written and produced by Andy Sidaris. It's the sixth installment in the Triple B series.


Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a non-profit professional theater company based at Boscobel in Garrison, New York. The festival runs a roughly twelve-week repertory season each year, operating under a large open-air theater tent. Its productions attract a total audience of about 50,000 from the Hudson Valley, New York City, and 40 US states.
The company has proposed moving to a new permanent location in Garrison, New York in 2022. Its proposal envisions a paradigm shift from a seasonal theater festival to a year-round cultural center. Festival plans call for large-scale development of an 80-acre parcel of land currently occupied by a golf course. Included are a permanent tent on the crest of a ridge line overlooking the Hudson, an indoor theater, housing for theater personnel, an inn, a welcome center, and other structures. HVSF would also acquire a for-profit wedding and event venue and a restaurant, both currently operating on the site. The proposal has generated stiff resistance, with the scale of development, environmental impact, and loss of green space among the community’s concerns.
HVSF also performs William Shakespeare's works and live theater throughout the tri-state area by touring. The company has limited runs of its most popular programs through its "HVSF On The Road" series and brings student-oriented productions and education programs to about 50,000 elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers each year. HVSF's arts education programs also include training for early-career theater artists by way of its Conservatory Company, professional development for educators, and free audience engagement offerings before and after performances throughout the summer.
History.
HVSF was founded by Melissa Stern and Terry O’Brien in September 1987 with an outdoor production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Manitoga, home of industrial designer Russel Wright, in Garrison, New York. The following year, Boscobel House and Gardens agreed to host HVSF's mainstage season on the estate's expansive grounds, and that summer's production of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" was performed under a tent overlooking the Hudson River.
In 1994, the festival added a second show to its season and began hands-on, performance-driven education programs within area schools. In 2004, HVSF began to tour productions to middle and high schools. In 2006, HVSF acquired a custom-designed, open-air theater tent with seating for 540.
The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival was the subject of a one-hour documentary and two hour film of a performance of "Twelfth Night" which premiered on the PBS affiliate WNET (Channel 13 in New York City) on September 18, 2008. The program also aired on WLIW (Channel 21 on Long Island).
More than 500,000 patrons have been served since HVSF's first season in 1987. Terry O’Brien led the theater for 27 years, directing more than 30 productions, and stepped down as Artistic Director in December 2013. After a search for his successor, HVSF's Board of Directors appointed Davis McCallum as Artistic Director in May 2014.
In 2016, the festival produced a community-driven production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with a cast of about 40 citizen actors from the Hudson Valley region, directed by John Christian Plummer.
In 2017, the festival mounted its first new plays: "Pride and Prejudice" by Kate Hamill (adapted from the novel by Jane Austen), and Lauren Gunderson's "The Book of Will".
Location.
With its plays performed in an open-air theater tent on the grounds of the Boscobel, the festival is known for its backdrop. The stage, a rough patch of dirt that is on the same level as the first few rows of the audience, recedes into lawns with a view of the Hudson River and West Point in the distance. The company uses the vast open space behind the stage as scenery for the plays. According to Ben Brantley of "The New York Times", "nature and Shakespeare are the stars" in this festival.
The company received a gift of a land parcel of 50 acres in Garrison in August 2020 and will move to that location permanently in time for the 2022 season. HVSF plans to build a permanent open air structure that will preserve the river views it is famous for at its current Boscobel location.
Recognition.
The festival was named among The New York Times' "50 Essential Summer Festivals" in 2016, was Hudson Valley Magazine's 2016 Editors’ Pick for Best Summer Theater, and was nominated for a Drama League Award for its 2015 production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
It produces classic and new works with an economy of style, focusing on script, actors and audience with the Hudson River and Hudson Highlands as its set and setting. The Wall Street Journal hails it as, "The most purely enjoyable summer Shakespeare festival in America," while The New York Times comments, "If anyone wonders about the future of live theater or asks where the audience is, the answer is 'Under that tent."
It is listed as a "Major Festival" in the book "Shakespeare Festivals Around the World" by Marcus D. Gregio (Editor), 2004.
Education programs.
In addition to its summer productions, the festival sponsors year-round education programs to about 50,000 students and teachers annually. These programs include in-school residencies and theater arts workshops for students, resource workshops for educators, a fall touring production for students in grades K-5, a spring touring production for students in grades 6-12, its annual Shakespeare Summer Camp for ages 8–16, and the Teachers' Shakespeare Institute. HVSF's Conservatory Company, a performance based training program for 6 - 8 early career actors, offers on- and off-stage opportunities to work alongside the festival's acting company.


Gunpowder Milkshake

Gunpowder Milkshake is an upcoming American action thriller film directed by Navot Papushado, from a screenplay by Papushado and Ehud Lavski. The film stars Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh and Carla Gugino.
It is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 14, 2021, by Netflix.
Premise.
A secret sisterhood of female assassins, over the course of a single night, fight to stop a cycle of violence while coming to the aid of a mother-daughter assassin duo.
Production.
The project was announced during the annual American Film Market in April 2018, with Studiocanal and The Picture Company procuring the rights to the film.
In January 2019, Karen Gillan was cast in the film. In February, Lena Headey was cast, with Angela Bassett joining in April, and Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino and Ivan Kaye joining in May. In June 2019, Adam Nagaitis and Ralph Ineson joined the cast of the film.
Filming began on June 3, 2019 and finished on August 20, 2019 in Berlin.
Release.
In February 2020, STX Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. In April 2021, Netflix bought U.S. distribution rights from STX Entertainment.


Something Borrowed (novel)

Something Borrowed is a 2005 novel by author Emily Giffin. The novel concerns morals regarding friends and relationships. It addresses the stigma against single white women in their thirties and the pressure that society places on them to get married. "This is a realistic situation that women face in today's society", according to one book review.
The title comes from a "Something old, something new", a traditional nursery rhyme concerning a bride's attire.
"Something Borrowed" became an international bestseller and was placed on "The New York Times" Best Seller List, among others. It was developed into a film by Hilary Swank's shared production company.
Plot summary.
The novel centers around the protagonist and narrator, Rachel White, a thirty-year-old single woman who is a consummate good-girl. She and Darcy Rhone have been best friends since childhood, and hard-working Rachel is often in the shadow of flashy, sometimes selfish Darcy. Then, after a night of drinking on Rachel's thirtieth birthday, she sleeps with Darcy's fiancé, Dex. After this turns into an affair, Rachel explores the meaning of friendship, true love, and ethics.
Awards and honors.
The novel, along with two others by Giffin, was an international bestseller, and it got many honors, including being on both "The New York Times" Best Seller List and "USA Today"'s Top 150 list.
Film.
Hilary Swank and Molly Smith acquired the rights to co-produce a film based on the novel "Something Borrowed". Warner Bros. (USA/Canada), Entertainment Film Distributors (UK), Summit Entertainment, (International) Alcon Entertainment developed the project along with 2S Films and Wild Ocean Films.
The film was directed by Luke Greenfield. Actress Ginnifer Goodwin played the lead role of Rachel. Kate Hudson was cast as Darcy, Rachel's best friend. John Krasinski played Ethan, Rachel's friend and confidant in both "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue". Colin Egglesfield played Darcy's fiancé, Dex, while Steve Howey played Marcus. Warner Bros. released the film adaptation on May 6, 2011, and received a 3.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes.