Suzanne Preston Blier is an American art historian who currently serves as Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University with appointments in both the History of Art and Architecture department and the department of African and African American studies.  She is also a member of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and a faculty associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.  Her work focuses primarily on African art, architecture, and culture.

Career
Blier's interest in African art began when she served as a Peace Corps volunteer, from 1969 to 1971 in Savé, a Yoruba center in Dahomey (now Benin Republic).

She began her professorial career at Vassar College serving as a lecturer from 1979 to 1981.  She then spent the following years at Northwestern University as an assistant professor.  In 1983, she began work at her alma mater, Columbia University as an assistant and associate professor before being promoted to full professor. She remained at Columbia until 1993, subsequently transferring to teach at Harvard University. In 1988, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Other fellowships have included the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey as well as the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, Ca. (twice), the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) in Washington, D.C., and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Ma.

In 2023, Blier published The History of African Art, that addresses the art across the continent in a series of chronologically-framed chapters for the publisher Thames and Hudson's Art Essentials series. The book is described by the press as an "indispensable introductory guide explores the art of the African continent from its early origins over 150,000 years ago to the contemporary." Another 2023 book by Blier, The Streets of Newtowne: A Story of Cambridge, MA (Imagine and Wonder Publications) was written for young people and adults addresses this city's rich diversity of its historic residents from the city's indigenous origins to today. The book includes a section co-authored with a member of the Massachusett Tribal Council. For this wor,  Blier received a 2023 Preservation Award from the Cambridge Historical Commission one that "celebrates outstanding projects and notable individuals who conserve and protect the city's architecture and history."

Blier's 2019 book, Picasso's Demoiselles, the Untold Origins of a Modern Masterpiece, won the 2020 Robert Motherwell Award for an outstanding publication in the history and criticism of modernism in the arts by the Dedalus Foundation. The citation reads in part: "This book uncovers the previously unknown history of Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, one of the twentieth century's most important, celebrated, and studied paintings....In this profoundly insightful work, Blier fundamentally transforms what we know about this revolutionary and iconic work." The book also was a 2019 Wall Street Journal holiday art book selection and was also honored as one of the best books of 2020 by the Art Forum. In addition the book was a finalist for the 2020 PROSE Award in Art History and Criticism, granted annually in recognition for the very best in professional and scholarly publishing. Blier's 2019 book also featured in the 2023 Art in American overview "The 8 Most Essential Books to Read About Pablo Picasso" by art critic and editor, Alex Greenberger. The other four authors cited in this overview include poet and novelist Gertrude Stein, Artist and Picasso partner Françoise Gilot (and co-author Carlton Lake), Picasso bibliographer John Richardson (four books), historian Annie Cohen-Solal. Greenberger points out that Blier's "that Les Demoiselles d'Avignon can't be considered simply a painting of five female sex workers. Pointing out that African masks inspired Picasso's depiction of these women, Blier writes that Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon is "...consistent with the larger colonial world that Picasso and his friends inhabited. Her feminist analysis involves viewing the titular demoiselles as more than sex objects. She also explores what African art meant to white Europeans like Picasso, whose encounters with work from afar were often bound by the walls of museums that cared little for their holdings' original context."

In 2017,  Blier's book Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c.1300, won this PROSE award in the same Art History and Criticism category. Her 2004 book, Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa, with photographs by James Morris, was named a "Best of Year" book selection by the Washington Post and was selected by the New York Times Book Review for inclusion in its Holiday Selection that year. Another of Blier's books, The Royal Arts of Africa (1998), a Choice Award winner, has been translated into five languages and is a leading textbook in the field; it was reissued in 2012. Her 1995 book titled African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power won the 1997 Charles Rufus Morey Book Prize awarded by the College Art Association for an outstanding publication in art history and was a finalist for the Melville J. Herskovits Award of the African Studies Association. Blier's 1987 book, The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression, won the 1989  Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award presented by ACASA (Arts Council of the African Studies Association). The production of both African Vodun and The Anatomy of Architecture were supported by grants from CAA's Millard Meiss Publication Fund.

Blier's scholarship has appeared in numerous magazines, journals, and edited volumes, including African Arts, Journal of African History, American Journal of Semiotics, Res: Anthropology and Art, and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historiansand The Art Bulletin. In 2018 her chapter, "The African urban past: Historical Perspectives on the Metropolis," appearing in David Adjaye's African Metropolitan Architecture (2011 and 2018 Rizzoli) was selected for inclusion in the Getty Conservation Institute's publication: Historic
Cities: Issues in Urban Conservation (Spring 2019), a volume identified as a collection of "classic" texts that have been influential in the history of thinking and practice in the field of urban conservation. In 2015 Homme Blanc/Homme Noir: Impressions d'Afrique which includes Blier's "L'Afrique et l'Occident: une introduction," received the Prix International du Livre d'Art Tribal.

In 2011, two of her articles, "Imaging Otherness in Ivory: African Portrayals of the Portuguese ca. 1492" and "Kings, Crowns and Rights of Succession: Obalufon Arts in Ife and Other Yoruba Centers" were selected for inclusion in The Centennial Anthology of the Art Bulletin comprising the 33 top articles over the journal's 100-year history. Blier was one of only three art historians (along with Meyer Shapiro and Leo Steinberg) to have two articles included. In 2014 Blier published an essay on the importance of African Art in the Art Museum titled "Art Matters."

Blier's interests in mapping led to the creation of the electronic media project, Baobab: Sources and Studies in African Visual Culture (also known as "The Baobab Project").  This project was established at Harvard in 1993 and funded by the Seaver Institute. It represented one of the largest academic studies of African art.  The interactive website included images and an ethnographic database based on GIS, along with narrative-form case studies framed around the questions concerning the social roots of creativity. Topics included the coexistence of traditional art and Islam, African political expansion in relation to style, and art variables in the ancient Yoruba city-state. This Baobab Project led to the creation of AfricaMap in 2007, a website that seeks to bring together the best available cartographic data on the continent in an interactive GIS format.  In 2011, the AfricaMap website, housed at Harvard's Center for Geographic Research, was expanded into WorldMap along with an array of other map types. In 2013, Blier and Peter Bol received a Digital Humanities Implementation Grant Award to enhance this website with their project, "Extending WorldMap to Make It Easier  for Humanists and Others to Find, Use, and Publish Geospatial Information."

Blier is a member of the National Committee for the History of Art and was the 43rd president of the College Art Association (CAA), the national association of Artists, Art Historians, and Designers from 2016-2018. She chairs CAA's Committee of Scholarship and Research (2020-). A member of CAA's board from 2012 to 2018, Blier served as vice president for publications (2013–15) and vice president of Annual Conference (2015–16), and has served on task forces for the development of CAA's Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, the Guidelines for the Evaluation of Digital Scholarship in Art and Art History and Guidelines on the Importance of Documenting the Historical Context of Objects and Sites. She also chaired  the 2015-16 task force on the Annual Conference that instituted key changes to this recurring event and chaired the 2016-2018 task force on Governance that spearheaded important changes in the association's name, branding, and Board nomination processes. Blier's involvement in CAA spans several decades. She originally served on the board from 1989 to 1994. She was a member of the Art Bulletin Editorial Board from 2003 to 2007, serving one year as chair, and participated on the juries for CAA's Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art (2004–6) and Charles Rufus Morey Book Award (2009–11). Blier also helped to shape CAA's Strategic Plan 2015–2020 and, in her role as vice president, chaired both the Annual Conference Committee and the 2016 task force that brought significant changes to the Annual Conference organization and structure. Blier also has served on the board of directors of the Society of Architectural Historians. In 2022 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2017 she became active in architectural preservation and other efforts in revitalizing Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, helping to found the Harvard Square Neighborhood Association that same year as part of this effort. Among the preservation projects taken up by this group are the Harvard Square Subway Kiosk and the Abbott Building, home to the world's only Curious George store. She also led an effort to rezone Harvard Square to promote its revitalization. In 2019 she helped to found the Cambridge Citizens Coalition, a citywide organization focused on government transparency.

In 2018 she was honored with a Yoruba chieftaincy title in Nigeria, Otun Yeye Obalufon, in partial recognition of her scholarship on ancient Ife art. In 2019 Blier received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Vermont in recognition of her scholarship in African art and her leadership in online mapping. In 2022 she was honored as a special Yoruba ambassador. In June 2023 she was honored with "Profile in Citizenship" commendation by the Peace Corps

For a profile of Blier's career see "Facing African Art."

Education
Blier attended Burlington High School.  She received her B.A. in art history from the University of Vermont in 1973.  She later received her M.A. (1976) and Ph.D. in art history and archaeology (1981), both from Columbia University.

Works

Beauty and Beast: A Study in Contrasts, 1976,
Africa's Cross River (Art of the Nigerian Cameroon Border Redefined), 1980,  ISBN B000N90BM0
Gestures in African Art, 1982, ISBN B0006EBIHE
The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression, 1987,
African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power, 1995,
Royal Arts Of Africa: The Majesty of Form, 1998,
A History of Art in Africa, co-author, 2000,
Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa, 2003,
Art of the Senses, with Edmund Gaither and Michael Kan, 2004,
Royal Arts of Africa, 2012,
Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, c.1300, 2015,
The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art, with David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2017,
Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes, with David Bindman and Vera Ingrid Grant, 2017,
Asen: Mémoires de fer forgé: Art vodun du Danhomè, 2019,
Picasso's Demoiselles: The Untold Origins of a Modern Masterpiece, 2019,
The History of African Art. 2023. ISBN 978-0500296257
The Streets of Newtowne: A Story of Cambridge, MA, 2023,

References

External links
 Harvard University profile
 IQSS profile

1948 births
Living people
American Africanists
American art historians
University of Vermont alumni
Columbia University alumni
Northwestern University faculty
Columbia University faculty
Harvard University faculty
Women art historians
Historians of African art
American expatriates in Benin
Vassar College faculty
Historians of Yoruba art
American women historians
21st-century American women writers
Burlington High School (Vermont) alumni

Suzanne Blier


Marcella Di Folco (7 March 1943 – 7 September 2010) was an Italian LGBT rights activist, actor, and politician. In her film appearances, played in male characters before transition, she is credited as Marcello Di Falco.

Career
In 1988, she became president of the MIT - Movimento Identità Transessuale  (Transsexual Identity Movement) and in 1997 vice-president of the Osservatorio Nazionale sull'Identità di Genere (National Observatory on Gender Identity, ONIG).

She was elected municipal councilor of Bologna in 1995, with the Green party. She was the first open trans woman to hold a political public office in the world. In 2014, at the 32nd Torino Film Festival, the film Una nobile rivoluzione (A Noble Revolution) by Simone Cangelosi, which tells her story had its premiere. In October 2019 Italian Journalist Bianca Berlinguer edited Storia di Marcella che fu Marcello (The Story of Marcella that was Marcello before) a confession of Marcella Di Folco's life she recorded before Marcella died.

Personal life
Di Folco had gender corrective surgery in 1987.

Filmography

 Fellini Satyricon, directed by Federico Fellini (1969)
 In the Name of the Italian People, directed by Dino Risi (1971)
 Sotto a chi tocca!, directed by Gianfranco Parolini (1972)
 I racconti di Canterbury N. 2, directed by Lucio Dandolo (1972)
 Roma, directed by Federico Fellini (1972)
 Anche se volessi lavorare, che faccio?, directed by Flavio Mogherini (1972)
 Decameron nº 2 - Le altre novelle del Boccaccio, directed by Mino Guerrini (1972)
 L'età di Cosimo de' Medici, directed by Roberto Rossellini (1973) (film TV)
 Amarcord, directed by Federico Fellini (1973)
 Shoot First, Die Later, directed by Fernando Di Leo (1974)
 Finché c'è guerra c'è speranza, directed by Alberto Sordi (1974)
 , directed by Roberto Rossellini (1974) (film TV)
 Quant'è bella la Bernarda, tutta nera, tutta calda, directed by Lucio Dandolo (1975)
 Di che segno sei?, directed by Sergio Corbucci (1975)
 Mondo candido, directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti e Franco Prosperi (1975)
 Vinella e Don Pezzotta, directed by Mino Guerrini (1976)
 Todo modo, directed by Elio Petri (1976)
 Tutti possono arricchire tranne i poveri, directed by Mauro Severino (1976)
 Un borghese piccolo piccolo, directed by Mario Monicelli (1977)
 Squadra antigangsters, directed by Bruno Corbucci (1979)
 Joséphine ou la comédie des ambitions, directed by Robert Mazoyer (1979) (miniserie TV)
 La città delle donne, directed by Federico Fellini (1980)
 I carabbinieri, directed by Francesco Massaro (1981)

References

20th-century Italian politicians
21st-century Italian politicians
Italian LGBT politicians
20th-century Italian actresses
1943 births
2010 deaths
Transgender actresses
Transgender women politicians
Italian transgender people
Italian LGBT actors

Marcella Di Folco


ChicagoNow was a blogging site managed by Tribune Publishing, owner of the print Chicago Tribune newspaper. It featured a network of blogs of international, national, and local interest on a variety of topics ranging from crime to public schools to politics and diplomacy.

Notable ChicagoNow contributors included the staff of the Chicago Reporter, and Shimer College president Susan Henking.

On August 18, 2022, the site was shut down with no announcement.

History
ChicagoNow was launched in August 2009.  Its launch coincided with the Tribune company's bankruptcy.  As a newspaper-run blogging community, with the initial tagline "a blog by and for locals", it represented what one observer called "a new value proposition for newspapers".

ChicagoNow utilized Movable Type as its blogging platform when it first launched but switched to WordPress in 2011.

The website of the Tribune daily RedEye, which later moved to its own domain, was initially hosted on ChicagoNow.

After the acquisition of the Tribune by Alden Global Capital ChicagoNow was shut down without warning on August 18, 2022.

Reception
In April 2010, the World Editors Forum described ChicagoNow as a "hyperlocal blog network" that has "a personal quality that many larger newspapers lack."

In September 2010, Time Out Chicago criticized ChicagoNow for hosting an unidentified police officer in what they called "a hate-filled, racist rant by blogger Joe the Cop, entitled The ghetto shooting template, for three days and counting now." ChicagoNow removed the posts in question, stating that while they don't edit posts, they reserve the right to remove them.

References

External links

 Tribune Media Group's ChicagoNow 2009 introduction

American blogs
Tribune Publishing
Internet properties established in 2009
Internet properties disestablished in 2022
2009 establishments in Illinois

ChicagoNow


The spore print is the powdery deposit obtained by allowing spores of a fungal fruit body to fall onto a surface underneath. It is an important diagnostic character in most handbooks for identifying mushrooms. It shows the colour of the mushroom spores if viewed en masse.

Method

A spore print is made by placing the spore-producing surface flat on a sheet of dark and white paper or on a sheet of clear, stiff plastic, which facilitates moving the spore print to a darker or lighter surface for improved contrast; for example, it is easier to determine whether the spore print is pure white or, rather, very slightly pigmented.  The mushroom is left for several hours, often overnight, in this manner. Some guides advise using a moisture-resistant enclosure, like a glass or jar, to contain the mushroom during printing. If the mushroom is to be preserved, a small hole can be made in the spore print paper rather than cutting the stipe. When the mushroom is removed, the colour of the spores should be visible. Mycologists often use glass slides, which allow for quick examination of spores under a microscope. A mushroom cannot be identified from its spore print alone; the spore print is only one characteristic used in making a taxonomic determination. Spore prints are usually white to cream, black, or shades of red, purple, or brown. The poisonous false parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites) has a green spore deposit. Although the spore print is generally used to help identify the genus of a specimen, on occasion it can be used to help distinguish between similar species. For example, the lookalikes Russula crustosa and Russula virescens have yellowish and white spore deposits, respectively.

In the field, spore print colour can sometimes be quickly determined by examining the top of stipes for spore "dust" on the nearby forest floor.

Collecting and examination of a spore print is not always successful. Some mushrooms are too young or too old to produce spores. Mushrooms collected at high elevations will typically not produce a spore print at lower elevations. Sometimes, the colour can vary depending on the thickness of the spore print. In the genus Lactarius, for example, thin deposits are usually white, while thick deposits are cream to yellow. Many of the original authors of species guides in this genus did not indicate whether spore print colours they recorded were with thick or thin prints, limiting the usefulness of this feature as an identification characteristic. In some instances, the colour of the spore print matches that of the mature gills, but this is not always true and gill colour cannot reliably be used as an indicator of spore print colour.

The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) created a 'how-to guide' for people interested in creating their own spore prints.

Importance

Historically the classification of many families of fungi were based on spore colour, a feature first systematically emphasized by Swedish mycologist Elias Fries. An example is the Tricholomataceae, a large family containing many fungi whose common factor was having white spores. However recent molecular research has shown some strange relationships, with some fungi of disparate spore colours showing close relations.

See also

 Mushroom hunting

References

Fungal morphology and anatomy

Spore print


Cal is a 1984 Irish drama film directed by Pat O'Connor and starring John Lynch and Helen Mirren. Based on the novella Cal written by Bernard MacLaverty who also wrote the script, the film was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where Mirren won the award for Best Actress.

Plot
Cal (John Lynch) is a young member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1970s Northern Ireland. He acts as a driver on a nighttime murder of a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which takes place at the victim's home in view of his father, who is also shot.

One year later, Cal learns that a librarian, Marcella (Helen Mirren), to whom he is attracted, is a Catholic and the widow of the victim. Cal wants to leave the IRA, but is pressured to remain. He and his father live in the city, where they feel threatened by Orange Order marches and are harassed by Loyalist gangs. Cal is offered work in Marcella's Protestant husband's family farm, where she lives. Initially he works as a hand and, after he and his father are burned out, moves to a semi-derelict cottage on the farm, without telling the IRA his new location.

Marcella is unhappy, feeling suffocated by her domineering mother-in-law and sick father-in-law. Marcella confesses that her marriage was not a happy one. Over time, Cal and Marcella begin a love affair—with Marcella unaware of Cal's role in her husband's death.

While Christmas shopping for Marcella and her child, he is abducted by the IRA, who are unwilling for him to leave them. The car is stopped at a British Army checkpoint and tries to get away. In the ensuing crash, Cal escapes and makes his way to Marcella's home, where he declares his love for her and hints at his involvement in her husband's murder. He has been pursued to the house by the RUC and is arrested and taken away.

Most of the movie was filmed in Drogheda in locations around the town, including Barrack Street and St. Finian's Park.

Cast
 Helen Mirren as Marcella
 John Lynch as Cal
 Donal McCann as Shamie
 Ray McAnally as Cyril Dunlop
 John Kavanagh as Skeffington
 Stevan Rimkus as Crilly
 Catherine Gibson as Mrs Morton
 Louis Rolston as Dermot Ryan
 Tom Hickey as Preacher
 Gerard Mannix Flynn as Arty
 Seamus Forde as Mr Morton
 Edward Byrne as Skeffington Sr
 J. J. Murphy as Man in Library
 Audrey Johnson as Luc
 Brian Munn as Robert Morton

Reception
As of 16 March 2011, the aggregate review website Rotten Tomatoes has recorded 91% positive response based on 11 reviews.

Goldcrest Films invested £396,000 in the film and received £278,000 in return. They lost £118,000.

See also
 Cal (soundtrack)

References

External links

 Movie trailer

1984 films
1984 romantic drama films
English-language Irish films
Films about the Irish Republican Army
Films based on Irish novels
1980s political drama films
Films about The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
Films directed by Pat O'Connor
Films set in Belfast
Films produced by David Puttnam
Films scored by Mark Knopfler
Irish romantic drama films
Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios
1980s English-language films

Cal (1984 film)


A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from french oublier meaning to forget) or bottle dungeon is a basement room which is accessible only from a hatch or hole (an angstloch) in a high ceiling. Victims in oubliettes were often left to starve and dehydrate to death, making the practice akin to—and some say an actual variety of—immurement.

Etymology
The word dungeon comes from French donjon (also spelled dongeon), which means "keep", the main tower of a castle. The first recorded instance of the word in English was near the beginning of the 14th century when it held the same meaning as donjon. The proper original meaning of "keep" is still in use for academics, although in popular culture it has been largely misused and come to mean a cell or "oubliette". Though it is uncertain, both dungeon and donjon are thought to derive from the Middle Latin word dominus, meaning "lord" or "master".

In French, the term donjon still refers to a "keep", and the English term "dungeon" refers mostly to oubliette in French. Donjon is therefore a false friend to dungeon (although the game Dungeons & Dragons is titled Donjons et Dragons in its French editions).

An oubliette (same origin as the French oublier, meaning "to forget") is a basement room which is accessible only from a hatch or hole (an angstloch) in a high ceiling.

The use of "donjons" evolved over time, sometimes to include prison cells, which could explain why the meaning of "dungeon" in English evolved over time from being a prison within the tallest, most secure tower of the castle into meaning a cell, and by extension, in popular use, an oubliette or even a torture chamber.

The earliest use of oubliette in French dates back to 1374, but its earliest adoption in English is Walter Scott's Ivanhoe in 1819: "The place was utterly dark—the oubliette, as I suppose, of their accursed convent."

History
Few Norman keeps in English castles originally contained prisons, though they were more common in Scotland. Imprisonment was not a usual punishment in the Middle Ages, with most prisoners awaiting an imminent trial, sentence or a political solution. Noble prisoners were not generally held in dungeons, but lived in some comfort in castle apartments. The Tower of London is famous for housing political prisoners, and Pontefract Castle at various times held Thomas of Lancaster (1322), Richard II (1400), Earl Rivers (1483), Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York (1405), James I of Scotland (1405–1424) and Charles, Duke of Orléans (1417–1430). Purpose-built prison chambers in castles became more common after the 12th century, when they were built into gatehouses or mural towers. Some castles had larger provision for prisoners, such as the prison tower at Caernarfon Castle.

Features

Although many real dungeons are simply a single plain room with a heavy door or with access only from a hatchway or trapdoor in the floor of the room above, the use of dungeons for torture, along with their association to common human fears of being trapped underground, have made dungeons a powerful metaphor in a variety of contexts. Dungeons, as a whole, have become associated with underground complexes of cells and torture chambers. As a result, the number of true dungeons in castles is often exaggerated to interest tourists. Many chambers described as dungeons or oubliettes were in fact water-cisterns or even latrines.

An example of what might be popularly termed an "oubliette" is the particularly claustrophobic cell in the dungeon of Warwick Castle's Caesar's Tower, in central England.  The access hatch consists of an iron grille. Even turning around (or moving at all) would be nearly impossible in this tiny chamber.

However, the tiny chamber that is described as the oubliette, is in reality a short shaft which opens up into a larger chamber with a latrine shaft entering it from above. This suggests that the chamber is in fact a partially back-filled drain. The positioning of the supposed oubliette within the larger dungeon, situated in a small alcove, is typical of garderobe arrangement within medieval buildings. These factors perhaps point to this feature being the remnants of a latrine rather than a cell for holding prisoners. Footage of the inside of this chamber can be seen in episode 3 of the first series of Secrets of Great British Castles.

A "bottle dungeon" is sometimes simply another term for an oubliette. It has a narrow entrance at the top and sometimes the room below is even so narrow that it would be impossible to lie down but in other designs the actual cell is larger.

The identification of dungeons and rooms used to hold prisoners is not always a straightforward task. Alnwick Castle and Cockermouth Castle, both near England's border with Scotland, had chambers in their gatehouses which have often been interpreted as oubliettes. However, this has been challenged. These underground rooms (accessed by a door in the ceiling) were built without latrines, and since the gatehouses at Alnwick and Cockermouth provided accommodation it is unlikely that the rooms would have been used to hold prisoners. An alternative explanation was proposed, suggesting that these were strong-rooms where valuables were stored.

In fiction
Oubliettes and dungeons were a favorite topic of nineteenth century gothic novels or historical novels, where they appeared as symbols of hidden cruelty and tyrannical power. Usually found under medieval castles or abbeys, they were used by villainous characters to persecute blameless characters. In Alexandre Dumas's La Reine Margot, Catherine de Medici is portrayed gloating over a victim in the oubliettes of the Louvre.

Dungeons are common elements in modern fantasy literature, related tabletop, and video games. The most famous examples are the various Dungeons & Dragons media. In this context, the word "dungeon" is often used broadly to describe any labyrinthine complex (castle, cave system, etc) rather than a prison cell or torture chamber specifically. A role-playing game involving dungeon exploration is called a dungeon crawl.

Near the beginning of Jack Vance's high-fantasy Lyonesse Trilogy (1983–1989), King Casmir of Lyonesse commits Prince Aillas of Troicinet, who he believes to be a vagabond, to an oubliette for the crime of having seduced his daughter. After some months, the resourceful prince fashions a ladder from the bones of earlier prisoners and the rope by which he had been lowered, and escapes.

In the musical fantasy film Labyrinth, director Jim Henson includes a scene in which the heroine Sarah is freed from an oubliette by the dwarf Hoggle, who defines it for her as "a place you put people... to forget about 'em!"

In the Thomas Harris novel The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice makes a descent into Gumb's basement dungeon labyrinth in the narrative's climactic scene, where the killer is described as having an oubliette.

In the Robert A. Heinlein novel Stranger in a Strange Land, the term "oubliette" is used to refer to a trash disposal much like the "memory holes" in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

See also
 Immurement
 Keep

References

Further reading

Castle architecture
Rooms
Imprisonment and detention

Dungeon


My Fabulous Gay Wedding is a Canadian reality show hosted by comedian Scott Thompson in the first season and Elvira Kurt in the second. The series airs on the Global Television Network. It is broadcast in the U.S. as First Comes Love, on Logo.

In the first season, the show features a same-sex couple that plans to marry; the arrangements for the wedding are prepared, on two weeks' notice, by a team of wedding planners who are both heterosexual and homosexual. As with typical, Western heterosexual weddings, the general idea is to create a unique experience that reflects the personality of the people to be wed, while adding a special gay sensibility. The spirit of the program is one of fun.

In the second season, with new host Elvira Kurt, the stories concentrate more on the couples than the wedding planning process. The team of wedding planners has been reduced to one: Fern Cohen. This season debuted on Logo in February 2007.

Through interviews with the family members, the show also explores the issue of same-sex marriage and its effect on the social fabric.

External links
First Comes Love series page on Logo

Official Blog

Global Television Network original programming
2005 Canadian television series debuts
2000s LGBT-related reality television series
2000s Canadian reality television series
Television series by Entertainment One
2000s Canadian LGBT-related television series
Canadian dating and relationship reality television series
Same-sex marriage in Canada
Canadian LGBT-related reality television series

My Fabulous Gay Wedding


Eowils and Halfdan (Healfdan) were kings in Danish (Viking) ruled Northumbria in the early tenth century.

Following the death of Alfred the Great in 899 the throne was disputed between his son Edward the Elder and Æthelwold, a son of Alfred's elder brother. Æthelwold was unable to get significant support in Wessex and fled to Northumbria, where he was accepted as king, but he was killed by Edward's men at the Battle of the Holme in 902. In the following years there seems to have been no clear leadership in Northumbria as no kings are named on coins of the period.

In 909 King Edward sent an army to ravage Northumbria, and the following year the Northumbrians retaliated by sending an army to raid across Wessex and Mercia. On the way back the army was intercepted near Tettenhall by an army of Wessex and Mercia and suffered a heavy defeat. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle names two kings among the Danish dead called Eowils and Halfdan.  In Æthelweard's Chronicon, a Latin translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a third king, Ingwær, is also named as killed at Tettenhall.

The defeat put an end to the threat from the Northumbrian Vikings for a generation.

References

External links
Anglo-Saxon Monarchs - Edward the Elder
  and

10th-century English monarchs
Monarchs of Jorvik
Monarchs killed in action
Vikings killed in battle
Anglo-Saxon warriors
910 deaths
Year of birth unknown
10th-century Vikings

Eowils and Halfdan


The Xagħra Stone Circle (), also known as the Xagħra Hypogeum or the Brochtorff Circle, is a Neolithic funerary complex located in Xagħra, Gozo, Malta. It consists of a series of caves which were used to bury the dead, and which were surrounded by a walled enclosure. It mainly dates back to around 3000 to 2400 BC, although the earliest tombs at the site date back to 4100 to 3800 BC. The caves collapsed sometime before 2000 BC, and the site was later used for domestic and agricultural purposes.

After being discovered in the late 18th century, the site was excavated in the 1820s before being reburied and forgotten. It was rediscovered in 1964, and major excavations took place between 1987 and 1994. It is the only prehistoric stone-enclosed hypogeum in Europe, and it is regarded as one of the most important archaeological sites in Malta along with the megalithic temples and the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni. Recent dating through AMS has added scores of new date estimates of the burials as part of the ERC funded FRAGSUS project and the ToTL project. The isotopic studies indicate changing dietary and climatic conditions and link with broader changes in the local environment.

Etymology
When first discovered in 1788, the site was simply described as an "ancient structure" without a name. After it was depicted in paintings by Charles Frederick de Brocktorff in the 1820s, the site was commonly referred to as the Brochtorff Circle, although it is not known who came up with this name.

The site eventually became known as the Xagħra Stone Circle or the Gozo Stone Circle. According to the archaeologist David Trump, these names are misnomers because 'Stone Circles' in northern Europe and the British Isles refer to a different type of Neolithic structure. In 2009, Trump coined the term Xagħra Circle as the name best describing the site.

Site
The Xagħra Stone Circle originally consisted of a walled enclosure surrounding caves which were used as a necropolis. It has some similarities to the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, a prehistoric funerary complex on the main island of Malta. However, Ħal-Saflieni is a man-made carved structure, while the Xagħra Stone Circle consists of natural caves which were adapted into a cemetery. Excavations at the site have shown that the bodies of the deceased were dismembered, and the different body parts were buried at separate places.

The site was the burial ground of the same community which built the nearby Ġgantija temple, which is now well-preserved. Several other temples might have stood in the vicinity, including at Santa Verna (where a few megaliths which are probably the remains of an important temple were found) and Ta' Ġesù.

The earliest tombs at the site date back to between 4100 and 3800 BC, during the [[Żebbuġ phase](although new chronology suggests the start date is probably closer to 3800 BC)] of Maltese prehistory. There was limited activity from 3800 to 3000 BC but pottery and dated bones demonstrate that burials were taking place in the caves and rock cut tomb, even though much of this material was probably reworked when the site was expanded and elaborated during the later Ggantija and Tarxien periods. Thus most of the site activity dates from 3000 to 2400 BC, associated with the insertion of megalithic stones into the subterranean complex to form compartments for burial areas. The caves in which the complex was built were prone to collapse, and they weakened over time so megaliths were used in an attempt to stabilize the roof. The structure finally collapsed at some point before 2000 BC. and when excavated parts of the roof were found sunken into the top of the cave in the East Cave zone.

During the Bronze Age, the site was probably used for non-funerary domestic purposes, and remains from the Tarxien Cemetery and Borġ in-Nadur phases were uncovered in the area. The land was subsequently used for agricultural purposes until the 20th century.

Discovery, excavations and recent history

The Xagħra Stone Circle was first recorded by Jean Houel in 1788. In the 1820s, Otto Bayer excavated part of the complex through a collapsed cave roof, and Charles Frederick de Brocktorff painted several paintings showing the site during this excavation. The site was filled in by the late 1830s, and its exact location was lost over time. The two monumental pillars which formed the circle's entrance still stood in 1828, but they were subsequently removed.

The complex was rediscovered by the Gozitan researcher Joe Attard Tabone in 1964. It was excavated between 1987 and 1994 by a joint team from the University of Malta, the Maltese Museums Department and the University of Cambridge. These excavations revealed the remains of one of the largest funerary complexes in the Mediterranean, and led to a better understanding of the society who built Malta's megalithic temples. About 220,000 human bones belonging to between 450 and 800 individuals were uncovered during the excavations, along with some animal bones and a series of artifacts, including figurines and architectural fragments. The human remains archive was further analysed as part of the FRAGSUS ERC Advanced Project, headed by Caroline Malone, and published as vol 3 of the Fragsus Monographs, see references below. The new work has extracted aDNA from three individuals, showing that people originated from the eastern Mediterranean area as well as from the Adriatic-central Europe area in the third millennium BC. The new work also examines the 11000 teeth recovered in the excavations and identifies a range of pathologies and health issues in the prehistoric population.

The Xagħra Stone Circle is regarded as one of the most important archaeological sites in Malta. It is the only stone-enclosed hypogeum in Europe, and the only prehistoric necropolis in Malta which was properly excavated – no records were kept when the human remains and artifacts at Ħal-Saflieni were cleared in the early 20th century. Parts of the site remain unstudied, and efforts are being made to preserve the complex, since it is fragile and prone to collapse.

The site is on government-owned land, and it is managed by Heritage Malta. The remains have Class A protection, and they are listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands. The site is not accessible to the public.

References

Mortuary Customs in Prehistoric Malta, 2009, edited by Malone, Stoddart, Trump et al. Open access. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/353601

Further reading
 Mortuary Customs available as a free Open Access download  https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/353601
Anon 2004. The Brochtorff Stone Circle. Current World Archaeology 7: 14–23.
Chalmers, R. M. L. 1993.An investigation of the geomorphology and Local Resources of the Brochtorff Circle on Gozo. BA project, Bristol.
Duhig, C. 1996. Burial practices in a Neolithic Maltese hypogeum – the human remains from the Brochtorff Circle, Gozo. In Anderson, S. and Boyle, K. (eds), Ritual treatment of human and animal remains. Proceedings of the First Meeting of the Osteoarchaeological Research Group. Oxford, Oxbow Books, pp. 63–72
Grima, R. 2004. The Archaeological Drawings of Charles Fredrick de Brochtorff. Malta, Midsea Books Ltd and Heritage Malta.
Malone, C. A. T. and Stoddart, S. K. F. 1995. Discoveries at the Brochtorff Circle. Treasures of Malta. Magazine of the Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti 1(2): 15–19.
1996. Maltese and Mediterranean Megalithism in the light of the Brochtorff Circle. In Grifoni Cremonesi, R., Guilaine, J. and L'Helgouach, J. (eds), The Neolithic in the Near East and Europe. Colloquium XVI. Megalithism. Preprints of the XIII Congress of the UISPP, Forlì, Italy. Forlì, Abaco, pp. 109–114
Malone, C. A. T., Stoddart, S. K. F., Bonanno, A., Gouder, T. and Trump, D. 1995. Mortuary ritual of fourth millennium BC Malta: the Zebbug Period Chambered Tomb from the Brochtorff Circle at Xaghra (Gozo). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 61: 303–345.
Richards, M., Hedges, R., Walton, I., Stoddart, S. K. F. and Malone, C. A. T. 2001. Neolithic Diet at the Brochtorff Circle Malta. European Journal of Archaeology 4(2): 253–262.
Stoddart, S. K. F. 2004. Cycles of Life or eternity: new light on prehistoric Maltese funerary ritual from the Brochtorff Circle at Xaghra2003 Conference in Malta (CD-ROM). Sarasota, Florida, EMPTC,
Stoddart, S. K. F., Wysocki, M., Burgess, G., Barber, G., Duhig, C., Malone, C. A. T. and Mann, G. 1999. The articulation of disarticulation. Preliminary thoughts on the Brochtorff Circle at Xaghra (Gozo). In Downes, J. and Pollard, A. (eds), The loved body's corruption: archaeological contributions to the study of human mortality. Glasgow, Cruithne Press, pp. 94–105
Stoddart et al, Vol 3 of the Fragsus Project:  Temple People 2022, together with Vols 1 and 2, Temple Landscapes, and Temple Places https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/312497
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/315523
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/344488
Trump, D. H., Bonanno, A., Gouder, T., Malone, C. A. T. and Stoddart, S. K. F. 1993. New light on death in prehistoric Malta: the Brochtorff Circle. In Burenhult, G. (ed), The Illustrated History of Humankind. American Museum of Natural History. Vol 2. People of the Stone Age. Hunter-Gatherers and Early Farmers. Old World Civilisations. New York, Harper Collins, pp. 100–101

Buildings and structures completed in the 24th century BC
1788 archaeological discoveries
Prehistoric sites in Malta
Burial monuments and structures
National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
Neolithic sites of Europe
Archaeological sites in Malta
Buildings and structures in Xagħra

Xagħra Stone Circle


The Pepsi Refresh Project (PRP) was a 2010 initiative by PepsiCo to award $20 million in grants to individuals, businesses and non-profits that promote a new idea that has a positive impact on their community, state, or the nation. The project is completely separate from the Pepsi Corporate Foundation and uses money budgeted for marketing.

More than 80 million votes were registered and, at its peak, 37% of Americans were aware of the Refresh Project.

This project has been the focus of a 2013 Harvard Business School case ("The Pepsi Refresh Project: a Thirst for Change"), describing the process that Pepsi's marketing team, led by senior marketing director Ana Maria Irazabal, went through to come up with this idea.

In early 2012, Pepsi abandoned the Refresh Project. One opinion is due to declining market share and falling to third place behind Coke and Diet Coke.

Rules
The PRP began on January 13, 2010 when the website, refresheverything.com began accepting ideas online. In contrast to the extensive requirements of Federal and Philanthropic organizations, the application process did not require skill in grant writing. The rules of the project state that the first 1,000 ideas proposed online each month will be considered for a share of $1.3 million available It took less than a week for one thousand "January" ideas to be submitted and the site stopped accepting ideas.

Voting started February 1, 2010 for the group of ideas proposed during January. On March 1, the first grants were announced in six categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, the Planet, Neighborhoods and Education.

Up to 32 ideas may be selected every month in each of the following grant segments: $5K; $25K; $50K; and $250k. Individuals, non-profits, and socially beneficial businesses are eligible to compete in all categories.

In September 2010, the Pepsi Refresh Project was criticized for allowing a coalition of progressive, nonprofit organizations called the 'Progressive Slate' to participate in the project, accusing the company of violating its own terms.

Power votes
Codes printed on Pepsi sodas could be redeemed for "power votes", in a way a hybrid of a loyalty program and crowd funding. The soft drink marketer had placed an alphanumeric code under the caps of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max two-liter and 20-oz. bottles, as well as 12-pack and 24-pack carton wraps. Each code was worth between five and 100 votes; participants entered the code on the Power Vote page on the Pepsi Refresh site to find out its worth.

Metrics
The Pepsi Refresh Project generated more than 80 million votes and "37% of Americans were aware of the Refresh Project".

The Pepsi Refresh Project included the risks associated with digital promotions, due to the nature of the campaign. "This was not corporate philanthropy. This was using brand dollars with the belief that when you use these brand dollars to have consumers share ideas to change the world, the consumers will win, the brand will win and the community will win. This was a big bet. No one has done it on this scale before", declares the head of digital, Shiv Singh.

NFL
Prior to Super Bowl XLIV, the National Football League website hosted a one-week Pepsi Refresh Project contest for ideas suggested by NFL players. Drew Brees was the winner of the "Super Bowl Refresh Project" with more than half a million votes. A $100,000 grant was given to the Hope Lodge in New Orleans for no-cost housing of cancer patients and families.

Gulf disaster
In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, on July 12, 2010 a special competition was announced within the PRP: Do Good for the Gulf. An additional $1.3 million was committed to projects for communities in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas which were adversely affected by the disaster.  The application period was a full month, the response was overwhelming, and 32 projects were funded with grants, which ranged from providing mental health services for oil disaster victims, to building seafood farms to help employ displaced workers, to creating shelters for animals that lost their homes.

References

External links
Pepsi Refresh Project

Philanthropic organizations based in the United States
Grants (money)
2010 establishments in the United States

Pepsi Refresh Project


The Main Street Cinema is a small movie theater currently located on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland and previously at the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland.

Disneyland Version
When the theater opened on the park's opening day on July 17, 1955, the cinema showed many silent movies, including films starring Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. In the 1970s, these were replaced with several Disney shorts on six different screens while a recorded musical accompaniment plays. Five of the six shorts are played without sound and are changed from time to time. The sixth short is always Mickey Mouse's 1928 cartoon classic Steamboat Willie, which is played with its original sound, albeit in an edited version to remove objectionable content; it includes an introduction prepared for a 1950s reissue reminding the viewer when the short was created, and that it is still screening today worldwide.

In 2010, for the 55th anniversary of the park, footage of Disneyland's opening day was shown.

In June 2019, displays selling Disney resort-brand merchandise were added inside the cinema as a test to drive traffic into it. This was later removed, and benches were added to give a better view of the featured films.

Original Films Shown
 Fatima's Dance (1903)
 A Dash Through the Clouds (1912)
 Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
 The Noise of Bombs (1914)
 Dealing for Daisy (1915)
 Shifting Sands (1918)
 The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Magic Kingdom Version
The version at the Magic Kingdom is also located on Main Street, U.S.A., and opened with the park on October 1, 1971. As with the Disneyland version, the cinema at the Magic Kingdom originally showed silent movies before switching to Disney cartoons. By 1994, the cinema showed the Mickey's Audition short that was previously shown at Disney-MGM Studios. Here, it aired under the title of Mickey's Big Break.

In June 1998, the Cinema ceased showing cartoons and began to show previews of then-new Disney animated movies. By 2005, five of the screens were removed from the building when it became a venue for guests to play the Virtual Magic Kingdom online game, and the building was renamed as VMK Central. However, a single screen remained in the building which was used for showcasing promotional trailers or videos. VMK Central closed on September 30, 2007, and was replaced with a gift shop called The Art of Disney in November 2007. It remained as such until 2021, when the store was closed and the artwork formerly housed there was relocated to a shop in Fantasyland.

In May 2021, the venue was used as a temporary location for the Sweets and Treats shop. For the 50th Anniversary Celebrations, the venue became home to The Magic of Walt Disney World, containing a shop known as the Walt Disney World Vault Collection Store.

Tokyo Disneyland Version
The Cinema at Tokyo Disneyland was housed in the World Bazaar, and operated from the park's opening day on April 15, 1983, until October 20, 2002, when the cinema closed to make way for an extension to the Emporium shop next-door, with the combined lot being renamed to the Grand Emporium in December 2002. The Main Street Cinema signage was removed in the process.

Hong Kong Disneyland Version
Although the attraction does not exist in Hong Kong Disneyland, a facade does for the building that houses the shop inside.

The first shop the building was home to was  Midtown Jewelry, a jewelry shop that operated from the park's opening day on September 12, 2005, until April 14, 2016.

On July 26, 2016, as part of the park's 10th Anniversary celebration, a Duffy the Disney Bear themed shop named My Journeys with Duffy opened, becoming a joint Duffy and Friends themed gift shop and Meet & Greet attraction.

See also
 List of Disneyland attractions

References

External links

 Disneyland Resort attraction page for Main Street Cinema

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions
Disneyland
Main Street, U.S.A.
Tokyo Disneyland
1955 establishments in California
1983 establishments in Japan
2002 disestablishments in Japan

Main Street Cinema


The Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation () is the oldest printed chronicle of Switzerland.

The Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation was written by Petermann Etterlin's from Lucerne. According to the Swiss historian Jean-François Bergier, Etterlin decided to compose a chronicle on the history of the city of Lucerne towards the end of his life, between 1505 and 1507. Etterlin's chronicle, which was printed for the first time in 1507 by Michael Furter, is considered to be the earliest surviving printed version of the William Tell story.

Except for the section in which Etterlin describes his wartime experiences, the Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation is, for the most part, a compilation of earlier sources. As Müller observes, Etterlin's chronicle is primarily based on Hans Schriber's White Book of Sarnen (German: Weisses Buch von Sarnen), Conrad Justinger's Bernese Chronicle as well as on a chronicle from Zurich.

Etterlin's Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation is interesting from a historical standpoint because its author seems to have been familiar with an older version of the White Book of Sarnen than the one that is preserved in the public record office of the canton of Obwalden.

References

Bergier, Jean-François. Wilhelm Tell: Realität und Mythos. München: Paul List Verlag, 1990.
Müller, P. L. "Petermann Etterlin." Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 14 (1881): 397–398.

1507 books
Swiss illustrated chronicles
William Tell

Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation