Dhobi Ghat (), released internationally as Mumbai Diaries and Bombay Diaries, is a 2010 Indian drama film directed by Kiran Rao in her directorial debut. The film was produced by Rao and Aamir Khan, and stars Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra and Khan in the lead roles. Gustavo Santaolalla was signed to compose the score and soundtrack of the film, which includes a song by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Dhobi Ghat had its world premiere in September 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 21 January 2011 in cinemas. The film being mainly tagged an Art and Parallel cinema was critically successful, as it well received and appreciated by critics, although it was an average performer at the box office. The film was longlisted for the 65th BAFTA Awards in the Best Film Not in the English Language category.

Plot
Arun (Aamir Khan), a reclusive artist, moves into a run-down flat in the older part of Mumbai. After attending an exhibition of his works, he meets Shai (Monica Dogra), an American banker who has come to Mumbai to devote time to her hobby, photography, and takes her back to his flat, where they have a one-night stand. The next morning, Arun expresses his disinterest in continuing the relationship, and Shai angrily storms out.

Shortly after, Zohaib Shaikh aka Munna (Prateik Babbar), a dhobi (washerman) who dreams about getting a break in Bollywood, arrives to deliver Arun's laundry. Arun moves into a new apartment the next day. While unpacking, he finds a small container that had been left by the previous tenant, Yasmin, of the apartment. In it, he finds a silver chain, a ring, and three videotapes (Pehli chitti, Doosri chitti and Aakhri chitti) by Yasmin Noor. The tapes turn out to be video diaries through which Yasmin communicates with her brother. In the tape, she is generally happy and shows her apartment, which is the same one Arun is occupying now. The next morning, Arun is informed by his manager that art dealers, impressed with his art, have decided to open a gallery in Sydney featuring his works. Arun is pleased by this, as it would also give him a chance to visit his ex-wife and child, settled in Australia. He begins to work on a new painting.

When Munna delivers laundry to Shai's house, they meet and soon become friends. Munna agrees to show Shai around Mumbai and help her gather photographs about the occupations of the poor. In return, Shai agrees to shoot a portfolio of Munna to help him get into the film industry. Arun continues watching Yasmin's tapes and learns more about her life, including that she has recently married a man who seems distant. Shai obtains Arun's new address from Munna. Shai's father's construction company is constructing a building opposite Arun's apartment. Shai starts shooting photos of Arun from the construction site without Arun being aware of it.

Munna continues struggling to find work in films. To earn a living, he washes clothes by day and kills rats by night. He disapproves of his brother's criminal activity but they are close, and Munna's brother uses his underworld contacts to try to get Munna a break in the industry. In the meantime, Munna shows Shai the different facets of Mumbai, including the dhobi ghaat, where he works as a launderer. Munna develops feelings for Shai but is unable to express them, mostly because of his working-class status. One day, Arun spots Shai nearby and invites her to his house. He apologizes for their first meeting. Munna sees them together and feels betrayed but Shai is able to convince him to keep helping her. One night, while Munna is at his rat-killing job, Shai sees him and takes pictures. Dismayed, Munna flees from her.

Arun watches the final video by Yasmin. Her tone has changed considerably since the previous tape, in which she revealed learning that her husband was in an extramarital affair. She strongly indicates that she intends to commit suicide. Shaken by the knowledge that Yasmin might have hanged herself in that very room, Arun flees the apartment and moves into a new one. Munna arrives home to find that his brother has been killed. He and his family relocate to a new flat and Munna visits his brother's contact in the film industry to show him his portfolio.

Arun studies the painting he has been working on, which is now complete. Yasmin is prominently featured along with other things she had left behind. Shortly after, Shai finds Munna and Munna again tries to flee her, but she catches up with him. She insists upon their friendship and asks about Arun's whereabouts. Still hurt, Munna lies to her and they exchange an abrupt farewell before Shai leaves. Moments later, Munna changes his mind and runs after Shai's car, weaving through the traffic. The film ends when Munna catches up to the car and gives Shai Arun's new address.

Cast
 Prateik Babbar as Zohaib "Munna" Shaikh
 Monica Dogra as Shai Edulji
 Kriti Malhotra as Yasmin Noor
 Aamir Khan as Arun
 Kitu Gidwani as Vatsala
 Danish Hussain as Salim
 Jehan Manekshaw as Pesi
 Ashok Varma as Yasmin's Husband
 Nafisa Amin Khan as Amma
 Sunny Charles as a taxi driver

Music

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Academy Award-winning Gustavo Santaolalla and includes a song by Ryuichi Sakamoto. All of the songs were only included in the film. No soundtrack of Dhobi Ghat was released in the market.
Two other songs included in the movie are "Ab Ke Sawaan Ghar Aazaa" which is a thumri in Raga Tilak Kamod sung by Begum Akhtar and "Dil Tadap Tadap Ke Kah Raha Hai Aa Bhi Ja" which is from the film Madhumati and sung by Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar.

Production
In an interview, Rao expressed that the film was meant to be a tribute to Mumbai and that she sought to reveal other sides of the city not often portrayed.
The film was shot in Mumbai using "guerilla" techniques. Due to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, shooting was delayed when, citing safety concerns, the government denied Rao permission to shoot scenes at a railway station. According to the director, Mumbai is the "fifth character" in Dhobi Ghat.

The movie was shot at skycrapers under construction, Mohammed Ali markets, sea facing bungalows at Worli, Dhobi Ghat at Mahalaxmi, Chowpatty and Marine Drive. No special sets were constructed to shoot the movie. The movie was released in 2 versions. The original version is around 40% English, while the second version has all dialogue dubbed in Hindi.

Rapid Eye Movies, a German distributor bought the rights for the film's theatrical release in Germany. Dhobi Ghat was released without an intermission, becoming the first Indian film to do so.

Release
In spite of some expletives, the film was originally passed with a U/A certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification, but Khan did not want "parents to come with their eight year olds for it", and hence got it re-certified with an A certificate. He felt this was him "reducing his audience by half". On the other hand, the film received a 12A classification from the British Board of Film Classification for theatrical release, and a 12 rating for home video release.

Critical reception
Upon release, the film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Bhawana Somaaya, senior editor of Ticket Please gave the film a five out of five stars, stating that "Rao portrays the drudgery and the magnificence of the city in unforgettable imageries". She also says that "There is no doubting that Dhobi Ghat is amongst the most significant films in the history of Indian cinema" Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 70%, with an average score of 6.8/10. Blessy Chettiar, film critic of Daily News and Analysis wrote, "With Dhobi Ghat, Kiran Rao finally gives Mumbai a film that represents its true hues and tints." Mathures Paul of The Statesman gave the film four stars out of five noting that, "Dhobi Ghat is part atmospheric portrait, part video diary that has enough heart-breaking moments you don't want to watch. But neither can you look away".
Pratim D. Gupta of The Telegraph compared Dhobi Ghat with Satyajit Ray's Charulata in the way that the five characters, including Mumbai, operate like a string quintet. Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times gave the film three and a half stars stating, "Bombay, is the centre of this film's attention. It's probably the only city in the world where so many classes so closely merge into a common river of sorrows, beauty or hope: unaware of how each affects the other every day. This film is first-rate tribute; it's visceral, I realize -- both clichés for compliments. Nothing more appropriate comes to mind." Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave the film three stars, stating, "If you are willing to have patience, Dhobi Ghat comes together nicely. It has a poetry and melancholy that stays with you." "Dhobi Ghat is a Poetry on Canvas!" said Swati Deogire of The ILIKE Times giving it a 3.5/5" Gaurav Malani of India Times Movies gave the film two stars, stating "Dhobi Ghat is a pretentious attempt at producing an arthouse piece".

Box office
In spite of being an art film with dark theme, Dhobi Ghat grossed  after its theatrical run in India. Besides, Dhobi Ghat did well in the overseas markets including USA, UK and Dubai collecting  after the second weekend. The movie completed its overseas theatrical run with a collection of about $2.6 million. Aamir Khan commented on Dhobi Ghat's success saying, "I am very happy with Dhobi Ghat's collection. Films like 'Dhobi Ghat' are really breaking grounds. It's a very unusual film and the kind of business it has done is huge for this kind of film. The kind of budget the film was made at, it's a very successful film. It made double the money it had cost us to make the film.". Boxofficeindia.com declared the film as "Average".

References

External links

2010 films
2010s Hindi-language films
Films set in Mumbai
Films shot in Mumbai
UTV Motion Pictures films
Films scored by Gustavo Santaolalla
Indian avant-garde and experimental films
2010s avant-garde and experimental films
2010 directorial debut films
Films about poverty in India
Films about artists
Films about fictional painters

Dhobi Ghat (film)


Peter Noel Kirsten (born 14 May 1955) is a former cricketer who represented South Africa in 12 Test matches and 40 One Day Internationals from 1991 to 1994. He is the current coach of the Ugandan national side, having been appointed in August 2014.

Cricket career
Kirsten first attended Selborne Primary in East London, and in 1966 scored his first century at the age of ten. In 1967 the family moved to Cape Town and Kirsten was enrolled at the oldest school in the country, South African College School, also known as SACS. Kirsten represented Western Province at schools level in both rugby (Craven Week 1972–73) and cricket (Nuffield Week 1971-72-73). Kirsten made his debut for Western Province in first-class cricket while still at school, scoring 72 runs in the second innings. At the end of the 1973 Nuffield Week, he was selected for the South African Schools team. In the subsequent match against the Northern Transvaal first-class team he scored a century. He became only the fifth schoolboy to achieve this feat.

After enrolling at Stellenbosch University he played for S.A. Universities in 1976 and 1977, scoring centuries in both matches he played in. In 1978 he played for Western Province against S.A. Universities, again scoring a century. During the 1976–77 South African first-class cricket season he scored six centuries in seven innings.  Kirsten became a professional cricketer in 1978. He played for Derbyshire from 1978 to 1982 in 106 matches, scoring 7,722 runs at an average of 49.50. In South Africa he played for Western Province in 133 matches, scoring 9,087 runs at an average of 41.88. He captained Western Province for three seasons during the 1980s, achieving the first-class and One Day Tournament series double in 1981–82.

He represented South Africa in all 19 unofficial Rebel Test matches from 1982 to 1989, scoring 1,192 runs at an average of 41.10. Kirsten also captained South Africa in 6 of these matches, winning 4 times, losing 1 and drawing 1. During his first-class career he scored centuries in both innings of a match on three occasions, as well as eight double centuries, still the most by a South African batsman. In 1990 he moved to East London and became captain of the newly promoted Border team.

At the end of 1991, South Africa was invited to rejoin the International Cricket Conference, and went on their first ever tour of India. Kirsten played in all three ODIs, scoring 86 not out in the final match, earning him the man of the match award. Controversy surrounded the selection of the 1992 World Cup team, when Clive Rice, Jimmy Cook and Kirsten were omitted from the preliminary team. All three players were stalwarts of South African cricket during the exile years. Kirsten was eventually recalled to the team and became the team's most prolific run scorer at the tournament.

Kirsten made his Test debut in 1992 against the West Indies, aged 36 years and 340 days, scoring 52 in the second innings. On the 1994 South African cricket tour of England he scored a first-class century against Sussex, before aged 39 years and 84 days, he scored his first and only Test century against England at Headingley.

Peter Kirsten finished his career with 626 Test runs and 1,293 ODI runs.

Kirsten is currently a cricket commentator for SABC Sports.

Personal life
Kirsten married his wife Tuffy in 1983. After retiring from cricket he published a biography with Telford Vice, In the nick of time.

Kirsten comes from a sporting family, his father Noël Kirsten played first-class cricket for Border. Peter, his younger brother Andy and half-brothers Gary and Paul Kirsten represented Western Province. Gary also played in 101 cricket Tests for South Africa.

Rugby
In 1974, Kirsten played flyhalf for Western Province under-20 in a curtain raiser to the first test between the Springboks and the British & Irish Lions at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town. In wet conditions his ball handling abilities so impressed journalist John Reason, that special mention of this was made in his book, The Unbeaten Lions. Kirsten, aged 19, was selected to play for the Quaggas against the touring Lions. He scored 12 points as his team was defeated by 16 – 20. Following the Lions-Quagga game, he was duly selected to play for the Western Province rugby team, but in only his third match, he severely damaged his knee. It would take him out of rugby permanently.

References

External links

1955 births
Living people
Cricketers from Pietermaritzburg
South Africa Test cricketers
South Africa One Day International cricketers
South African cricketers
South African Universities cricketers
Border cricketers
Derbyshire cricketers
Northamptonshire cricketers
Sussex cricketers
Western Province cricketers
South African rugby union players
Coaches of the Uganda national cricket team
South African cricket coaches
South African expatriate sportspeople in Uganda
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
South African expatriate sportspeople in England
Alumni of South African College Schools
Western Province (rugby union) players

Peter Kirsten


Charlotte of Hesse-Homburg (Charlotte Dorothea Sophia; 17 June 1672 – 29 August 1738) was a Duchess of Saxe-Weimar by marriage to  Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar.

Life
Born in Kassel, she was the eldest of twelve children born from the second marriage of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg with Louise Elisabeth Kettler, Princess of Courland and Semigallia.

In Kassel on 4 November 1694 Charlotte married Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar as his second wife.

After her husband's death in 1707, she received as a Wittum (Dower land) the town of Hardisleben. Her main residence was the Yellow Castle (German: Gelbe Schloss) in Weimar, which was built during 1702-1704.

The guardianship of her only surviving child, Johann Ernest, was given to her brother-in-law William Ernest; however, Charlotte devotedly took care of her son during his illness and death aged 18, in 1715.

Charlotte died in Weimar aged 66. She was buried in the Fürstengruft, Weimar.

Issue
She had four children:

 Charles Frederick (Weimar, 31 October 1695 – Weimar, 30 March 1696).
 Johann Ernest (Weimar, 25 December 1696 – Frankfurt, 1 August 1715).
 Marie Louise (Weimar, 18 December 1697 – Weimar, 29 December 1704).
 Christiane Sophie (Weimar, 7 April 1700 – Weimar, 18 February 1701).

Notes

References
Karl Helmrich:  Geschichte des Grossherzogthums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach für Schule und Haus, p. 106. [retrieved 5 October 2014].
Johann Samuel Ersch: Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste in alphabetischer..., p. 260. [retrieved 5 October 2014].

|-

1672 births
1738 deaths
Charlotte
Charlotte
Charlotte
Daughters of monarchs

Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Homburg


Last Rites is a 1988 thriller film starring Tom Berenger, Daphne Zuniga, and Chick Vennera. The film was written and directed by television producer and writer Donald P. Bellisario, best known for his work on the television series Magnum, P.I. and Quantum Leap. It was Bellisario's first and only theatrical film directing effort.

Plot

Father Michael is a New York priest with close ties to the Mafia crime syndicate — his father is a don.  The priest's brother-in-law Gino, a mafia boss, is murdered while having sex with Angela, a mistress. She narrowly escapes by hiding in a bathroom and locking the door.

Pursued by hitmen, the mistress comes to the priest for confession. She is afraid to go to the police so Father Mike agrees to meet her at her choice of location. A cab driver transports him to a loft apartment, telling him a sorrowful tale of how Angela has helped him and his wife with the grief over losing a young son. Father Mike confronts her about knowing his relationship to Gino. She denies knowing the connection. When the two encounter the hitmen, the priest is wounded and one of the hitmen recognizes Father Mike.

Angela hides in his church. She tells him it was Gino's wife who shot him. Gino is buried, and Father Mike glares across the casket at his sister Zena, having seen her with the hitmen when he was shot. He speaks to his father, who says he expects to lose at his racketeering trial and be sent to prison. The Don tells the priest that his sister wants to run the business, but he has said no since she's a woman. As they leave the cemetery, the hitman tells the Don and Zena that he recognized Michael.

Zena comes to confession and tells Father Mike that she knows of him helping the girl. The priest begins to fall in love with Angela. He meets best friend Nuzo, a detective and godson of his father. Nuzo tells him not to trust her. He tells Mike that Gino gave evidence to a rival crime syndicate, which sealed the Don's fate, in return for 5 million dollars. Nuzo tells him to sit tight while he makes an arrest, but Nuzo is gunned down, dying in Mike's arms.

Father Mike and Angela flee to Mexico, heading for her village. For the first time the priest violates his vows and they have sex. In the morning she is gone. Meanwhile, the Don finds out they are in Mexico and sends Zena to kill the girl. Father Mike races to catch up to Angela, thwarting another hitman along the way. He arrives in the village in time for a religious festival. Seeing no sign of Angela, Michael goes into the Cathedral. He prays sincerely and contemplates. There is an emphasis on the Virgin Mary, as there is throughout this film.

Angela is a fraud who set Gino up and took the money. She is also married to the "cabbie" she sent to pick him up. Now she instructs her husband to kill him. He stops at the festival and Michael spots him. He witnesses the cabbie drive away in the rental car Angela took. Seeing the statue of "The Virgin", but his heart more or less committed to "sin", Michael discards his priestly ring.

Michael then goes to the hotel and finds a surprised Angela. He lies that he loves her and they have sex again. She awakens to see Michael sitting in a chair, staring at her. He stands, walks to the door and leaves her, saying "vaya con Dios," which is Spanish for "go with God."

Angela is stunned to see Zena step through the door. Zena fatally shoots Angela as Michael continues down the steps past the body of the "cabbie." He gets into a limo and waits for Zena. She sits next to him and says "thank you, brother." He takes her hand and kisses it as they drive away.

The film ends, in the Cathedral, with a slow zoom onto "The Virgin". As the shot reached its closest point, and as the film begins its ending fade to black, a barely perceptible tear is shown dripping from the statue's eye.

Cast
 Tom Berenger as Father Michael Pace
 Daphne Zuniga as Angela
 Chick Vennera as Nuzo
 Anne Twomey as Zena
 Dane Clark as Don Carlo
 Paul Dooley as Father Freddie
 Vassili Lambrinos as Tío
 Adrian Paul as Tony
 Deborah Pratt as Robin Dwyer
 Tony DiBenedetto as Lt. Jericho

Reception
The film was both a commercial and critical failure and caused a significant amount of controversy because of the touchy subject matter.  Roger Ebert (himself raised Catholic) gave the film a "zero star" rating, writing, This is it -- located at last and with only six weeks to spare -- the worst film of 1988. "Last Rites" qualifies because it passes both acid tests: It is not only bad filmmaking, but it is offensive as well -- offensive to my intelligence.

In The United States, the film grossed $427,000, making it one of the biggest box office bombs of 1988.

References

External links

1988 films
1988 directorial debut films
1988 thriller films
American thriller films
Films about Catholic priests
Films scored by Bruce Broughton
Films shot in Mexico
Films about the American Mafia
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Mexican thriller films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films
1980s Mexican films

Last Rites (1988 film)


Maude Frazier (April 4, 1881 – June 20, 1963) was an American politician. She was the first female lieutenant governor of Nevada. Before entering politics, Frazier was a teacher, principal and school superintendent. She was a member of the Democratic Party

Frazier served in the Nevada Assembly from her first election in 1950 until 1962, when she was appointed Lieutenant Governor by Gov. Grant Sawyer to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Rex Bell. She served the remaining six months in Bell's term, retired and died within a year of leaving office.

In the legislature, Frazier was the driving force behind the establishment of the first public college in southern Nevada, which eventually became the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  The first building on the campus was named Maude Frazier Hall and completed in 1957.

See also
List of female lieutenant governors in the United States

References

External links
 Construction photos of Maude Frazier Hall at UNLV from UNLV Libraries Special Collections.
 Demolition video of Maude Frazier Hall from Uncle Jack's Very Vintage Vegas site.
 "Take a long look at Frazier Hall,"  building history from Las Vegas Sun.
 "Frazier is more than just a name on a building," memories of Maude Frazier from Las Vegas Sun article about plans to demolish Frazier Hall.
 "Old, ugly, and in the way", - Las Vegas City Life article.
 The University of Nevada, Las Vegas: a history by Eugene Moehring, University of Nevada Press, 2007.
 The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada
 Grant Free
 A Guide to the Maude Frazier Collection, University of Nevada, Reno, Special Collections

1881 births
1963 deaths
Lieutenant Governors of Nevada
Democratic Party members of the Nevada Assembly
Politicians from the Las Vegas Valley
Women state legislators in Nevada
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians

Maude Frazier


Suzanne David Hall (January 23, 1927 – July 7, 2011) was a spy for the French resistance during World War II while still a teenager. During her training to become an opera singer, she relayed messages that helped bring about the Allied invasion of Normandy. The 2003 novel For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley was based on interviews with Hall.

Biography
Hall was born on January 23, 1927, in Cherbourg, France to Étienne and Désirée LeDoux David.

According to Bradley's book, Hall's conviction to fight for France began on the day she and her best friend Yvette went down to the beach. There they met Yvette's mother's friend, Madame Montagne, who was pregnant with a second child. A few minutes into conversation, German planes bombed the entire beach and town square. After the missiles ceased, Yvette and Suzanne looked up to find Madame Montagne lying dead with her small child also dead at her side. It was Wednesday, 29 May 1940. Hall was thirteen years old at the time.

Yvette was also badly injured. She never recovered.

Later, the Germans forced Hall and her family to move out of their house and into a dingy apartment. They used her and other houses on her street as a "home base". Three years later the Germans abandoned the home, and Hall and her family came back to it. All their belongings had been sold or ruined.

Two years after the bombing at the beach, Hall cut herself, and because there was no medication around to treat it, it became infected. She had to see her doctor, a Mr. Leclerc, about the abscess. As she was with her voice teacher at the time, Mr. Leclerc asked if she traveled much for her opera singing. She replied that she only traveled to Normandy and soon would to Paris. The doctor told her that he was a spy as well and asked if she would like to be a spy for the French Resistance.

Hall never told her name to any of the other spies. To them, she was spy number 22, the 22nd spy in Cherbourg, where she lived. All of the other spies she met also had numbers. She never knew their names. She only ever knew Dr. Leclerc's name. He had done this because names were dangerous.

When she was seventeen, Hall was captured by the Germans. She was interrogated for hours, but she never confessed. She was saved when the Allies landed nearby in 1944.

Soon afterward, she found out from another captured spy, number 14, that all of the others had confessed and been killed. Dr. Leclerc and his family had been shot in the street. For her brave service during the war, Hall was awarded the Croix de Lorraine by General Charles de Gaulle.

Hall married Larson Hall and had a son and daughter.

She died on July 7, 2011, in Kingsport, Tennessee, after having lived there for 64 years.

References

1927 births
2011 deaths
French spies
Women spies
French women in World War II

Suzanne David Hall


Farhad Mosaffa (Persian: فرهاد مصفی, born: September 25, 1989) is an Iranian model he is the first Iranian Contestant crowned as Mr Iran, he competed in Manhunt International 2012, the world's first and oldest male modeling competition.

Early life
Born in Iran, he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as an infant. Farhad attended McGill University and the University of British Columbia pursuing a career in medicine. He was scouted by Orange Models at seventeen years old. At the age of eighteen Mosaffa progressed into working with a number of fashion companies, most notably Folio, he made his debut as a runway model at the L'Oreal Fashion Week for Zoran Dubric and the Parasucco Collections held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2009. His career went off from there leading him to sign campaign deals for Names like H&M, Cassey Rodford and Lipton.

Career
Etro  (Catalog)
Iceberg (Catalog)
Cassey Rodford (Spread)
Creative Outlook (Spread)
Erica (Campaign)
Martha Stewart Living (Print)
Harry Rosen (Spread)
Maxim (Catalog)
L'Oreal Fashion Week (Runway)
Zoran Dubric (Runway)
Angels and Demons (Runway)
Dubai Fashion Week (Runway)
Rajesh Pratap Singh (Runway)
Manish Malhotra (Runway)
Cynthia (Catalog)
H&M (Campaign)
Lipton (MBC4 TV Commercial)

References

External links
 Manhunt international Official Website

Canadian male models
Iranian emigrants to Canada
Living people
Manhunt International winners
Canadian beauty pageant contestants
1989 births

Farhad Mosaffa


The  is a botanical garden located within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park at 817 Sengokuhara, Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan. It is open daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged.

The garden was founded in 1976, and now contains some 1700 plant varieties, including about 200 types of woody and herbaceous wetland plants from Japan, as well as 1300 varieties (120 species) of alpine plants. Collections include Habenaria, Hemerocallis, Iris, Lilium, Lysichitum, and Primula, plus deciduous trees such as Acer, Cornus, and Quercus.

External links
 Hakone National Park
 BGCI entry

See also
 List of botanical gardens in Japan
 Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park

References

Botanical gardens in Japan
Gardens in Kanagawa Prefecture
Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park
Hakone, Kanagawa
Wetlands of Japan

Hakone Botanical Garden of Wetlands


The Ediacaran period (about 635–541 million years BC), is named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia. It is the last geological period of the Proterozoic eon. The Edicaran is followed by the Cambrian, the first period of the Palaeozoic.

The period is famous for the first larger-bodied fossils, which are probably the first recorded metazoans. These were impressions or trace fossils, first found in England's Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. Geologists did not know what they had found. It was over 60 years later before fossils from the same period were found in South Australia.

The status of the Ediacaran as an official geological period was confirmed in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). This made it the first new geological period declared in 120 years.

The Vendian
The Ediacaran period was previously called the Vendian period. The Vendian period was proposed in 1952 by Russian geologist/paleontologist Boris Sokolov. The term Vendian is still widely used.

The two terms are not the same. The Vendian was a longer period: it included the whole of the Marinoan glaciation, of Snowball Earth fame. In other words, the Vendian included the last part of the Cryogenian period.

Borders of the Ediacaran

The Ediacaran lasted for about 90 million years. It began at the end of the Cryogenian Snowball Earth. It ended with the first appearance worldwide of some kinds of trace fossils (Treptichnus pedum) at the base of the Cambrian. The Ediacaran period's start is defined at the base of a carbonate layer, referred to as a "cap carbonate". This caps glacial deposits and shows a sudden climatic change at the end of the Marinoan ice age. The period ended with the mass extinction of almost all the Ediacaran fauna.

No exact dating has been possible at the type section of the Ediacaran period in South Australia.

Ediacaran biota

The Ediacaran biota include the oldest definite multicellular organisms. The fossils are traces or impressions of soft-bodies forms with segments, fronds, disks, or bags. Skeletons or shells are not found.

References

Ediacaran


School Library Journal (SLJ) is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with a focus on technology, multimedia, and other information resources that are likely to interest young learners. Reviews are classified by the target audience of the publications: preschool; schoolchildren to 4th grade, grades 5 and up, and teens; and professional librarians themselves ("professional reading"). Fiction, non-fiction, and reference books books are reviewed, as are graphic novels, multimedia, and digital resources.

History
School Library Journal was founded by publisher R.R. Bowker in 1954, under the title Junior Libraries and by separation from its Library Journal. The first issue was published on September 15, 1954. Gertrude Wolff was the first editor.

Early in its history SLJ published nine issues each year, dated September to May and released on the fifteenth of each month. It now publishes monthly. In 2008 School Library Journal launched Series Made Simple, a twice-annual supplement which features reviews of series nonfiction books. It also releases a Best Books list annually.

R.R. Bowker sold SLJ and Library Journal in 1985 to Reed International (later merged into Reed Elsevier). In 2006 School Library Journal had a circulation of 38,000 subscribers and more than 100,000 readers. Reed sold the two journals in 2010 to Media Source Inc., owner of the Junior Library Guild and The Horn Book Magazine.

Website
The School Library Journal website provides full access to every issue published from 1996 to the present, including the current issue. It also publishes several blogs and several e-newsletters including Curriculum Connections, SLJ Teen, and SLJ Extra Helping.

See also
List of literary journals

References

External links

Children's magazines published in the United States
Literary magazines published in the United States
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Book review magazines
Children's literature criticism
English-language magazines
Library science magazines
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Peronet Lamy (died before July 1453), called Perenet lenlumineur ("Peronet the Illuminator"), was a Gothic painter and manuscript illuminator who spent his career in the employ of the House of Savoy.

Lamy's birthplace is hypothesised to be Saint-Claude in the Bresse, then a Savoyard region bordering France. There is no record of Lamy's birth, but his brother Jean was living in Saint-Claude in 1453.

Lamy's first appearance in the historical record is in Savoy in May 1432, when he added the marginalia to the Escorial Apocalypse, a project on which he worked until 1434. This manuscript for Amadeus VIII of Savoy (also antipope Felix V) had been illustrated by Jean Bapteur beginning in 1428. The records of payment indicate that Lamy illuminated not just the marginalia for all ninety-seven folios, but also all the initials and "certain images". These four miniatures have been identified on folios 24v to 26r; they were painted after Bapteur had left the project, and Lamy had to work around his already existing illustrations.

From these miniatures it has been possible for art historians to characterise Lamy's work in terms of phases. In the miniatures, his early work, the figures are brightly coloured and softly outlined, although they have been compared unfavourably as "blander" than Bapteur's. His style is influenced heavily by Franco-Flemish art. Maxence Petit-Delchet calls him "franco-flamande" (Franco-Flemish), while Bapteur he labels "franco-italien" (Franco-Italian). In time Lamy's style grew darker and more angular.

In August 1432 Lamy was again working with Bapteur, this time on the sale nove (new room) and new chapel of the château at Thonon—the project which had taken Bapteur away from the Apocalypse. This is Lamy's only preserved or recorded non-manuscript work. For the rest of his life he was a miniaturist, but none of the manuscripts he worked on has been identified. In 1434, before he had even ceased work on the Apocalypse, Lamy illuminated a book of hours for Anne of Lusignan, giving it one hundred gold letters. In 1436 Lamy completed a Nativity scene for the frontispiece of a Gospel book commissioned by Pietro Donato; the rest of the illuminations in this work were done by Johannes de Monterchio. The identification of this work as Lamy's was first communicated to the Pierpont Morgan Library by Otto Pächt in 1943. While the bulk of the Gospel lectionary is in the Paduan style, the frontispiece is distinctly un-Italian; it was once attributed to an Upper Rhenish artist. Probably Lamy was hired by Donato while the latter was attending the Council of Basel. Donato hired Lamy again to work on the miniatures for his copy of the Codex Spirensis, an important Carolingian compilation containing notably the Notitia Dignitatum and De rebus bellicis. The initials in this manuscript are by others. The miniatures are immensely useful to scholars as basically faithful reproductions of the originals, shedding much light on the late Roman army. The architectural illustrations in the Notitia appear influenced by the manuscript workshop of the French regent, John, Duke of Bedford. At least one of the illustrations, a view of Constantinople, appears to have been an addition of Peronet not found in the original. Peronet produced another copy of the Notitia (which was in Florence c.1443) wherein the miniatures are stylised and "modernised".

In 1440 Lamy made (or was paid for) an "ystoire de Nostre Dame et la premiere letter et la vignette entour" as part of a book of hours for Yolande of France, the young fiancée of the future Amadeus IX. His next major work as an unidentified psalter and then, in November 1443, unspecified aucunes enlumineures, for which the Savoyard court paid him five gold ducats. These illuminations have been identified as those of the Royal Missal, commissioned by Duke Louis and given to his father, Felix V. Peronet Lamy has also been identified with the master of the Champion des Dames, and with the creator of the Archives Missal, another missal for Felix V.

Lamy's work for Felix can be dated to before 1445, as financial troubles past that date would have precluded any more commissions. Lamy's final recorded work was on a breviary for Duke Louis (c.1452). The Champion, written c.1441–2 by Martin Le Franc, contains the earliest known portrait of Philip the Bold.

Notes

External links
"Peronet Lamy," Art Encyclopedia, The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Apocalipsis figurado de las duques de Saboya: Madrid, Escorial, Biblioteca Monasterio San Lorenzo, MS E., Vitrina 5, at the University of Arizona Library, Special Collections.

1450s deaths
15th-century French painters
French male painters
15th-century people from Savoy
Year of birth unknown
Manuscript illuminators

Peronet Lamy


Gattinara is a red Italian wine with Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) status produced from Nebbiolo grapes grown within the boundaries of the comune of Gattinara which is located in the hills in the north of the province of Vercelli, northwest of Novara in the Piedmont region. It was awarded DOC status in 1967 and received its DOCG classification in 1990.

Wines

The wine is made primarily from the Nebbiolo grape variety (known locally as Spanna) which must constitute a minimum 90% of the wine and may be blended with up to 10% Bonarda di Gattinara and no more than 4% of Vespolina. The wine is aged in wooden barrels for two years or three years if it is a riserva, with an additional two years of ageing in the bottle. The Oxford Companion to Wine asserts that wine from Vercelli hills on the west bank of the Sesia River and Novara hills are capable of producing rivals to Barolo and Barbaresco, and has at times in Piedmontese history been more admired than Barolo for its longevity.

References

regione.piemonte.it

Footnotes

External links
Gattinara (DOCG) The Italian Trade Commission

Italian DOCG
Wines of Piedmont
Province of Vercelli
Gattinara

Gattinara DOCG


Chris Walley (born 1954 in Wales) is a geologist, author, and tertiary education lecturer.

Life and career
Chris Walley was born in Wales in 1954; however, he grew up in northern England. He received a Bachelor of Science in geology from Sheffield University and a Phd from the University of Wales, Swansea. He taught at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon from 1980 to 1984, where he met his wife and where his two sons John and Mark were born.

From 1984 to 1994 he was based in Swansea where he was a consultant for the oil industry. He did fieldwork in a number of African and Asian countries and wrote numerous synthesis volumes on the geology of different countries. In the late eighties, he began writing in his spare time. He had two novels, Heart of Stone and Rock of Refuge, published under the pseudonym of John Haworth.

In 1994, he was asked to return to Lebanon to rebuild the Department of Geology at AUB and lived there with his family until 1998. During that time he carried out both teaching and research duties was also involved in setting up a large environmental project in the Bekaa with A Rocha Lebanon.

In 1998, he returned to the United Kingdom and began to make a new career in writing and editing, in particular for the Christian market. He retained his geological interests, however, and led field trips for Wheaton College (Illinois).

In September 2004 he started teaching again, geology and geography, at Gorseinon College, now Gower College Swansea. He taught geology and environmental science there full-time while writing in his spare time.

In summer 2014 Chris took the opportunity to take early retirement from teaching in order to take up the voluntary position of Mediterranean Conservation Science Coordinator with www.arocha.org. To do this more effectively, he and his wife moved to the south of France, where they are based between the two A Rocha France centres of Courmettes (Alpes-Maritimes) and Tourades (near Arles). He has a particularly strong link with the Domaine des Courmettes.

Author
As John Haworth, he wrote two thrillers, which were published in the United States by Crossway; and have also been translated into Swedish and German: Heart of Stone and Rock of Refuge. These are now available under his own name as Kindle ebooks.

Under his own name, he wrote The Lamb Among the Stars series.  The first two volumes, The Shadow at Evening and The Power of the Night, were republished by Tyndale in October 2006 as one hardback volume: The Shadow and Night. The next in the series, The Dark Foundations, was published at the same time.  The last volume, The Infinite Day was first published by Tyndale in May 2008.

Chris has also co-authored a number of non-fiction books, particularly The Life: A Portrait of Jesus (Authentic, 2003), with J. John.

Bibliography

As John Haworth
Heart of Stone (1988)
Rock of Refuge (1989)

As Chris Walley
The Lamb Among the Stars series
The Shadow at Evening (2002)
The Power of the Night (2003)
Reprinted in combined volume as The Shadow and Night (2006)
The Dark Foundations (2006)
The Infinite Day (2008)

Co-authored/edited
Ten: Living the Ten Commandments in the 21st Century (with J. John) (2000)
Calling Out (with J. John) (2000)
God's Priorities: Living Life from the  Lord's Prayer (with J. John) (2001)
Walking with God (2002)
Marriage Works (with J. John) (2002)
The Life: A Portrait of Jesus (2003)

References

External links
 Author's website

British thriller writers
Welsh geologists
Welsh male novelists
Welsh fantasy writers
Welsh science fiction writers
Alumni of the University of Sheffield
Alumni of Swansea University
Academic staff of the American University of Beirut
Living people
1954 births

Chris Walley


Michael Martin Murphey (born March 14, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter. He was one of the founding artists of progressive country. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins in 1959. He has recorded the hit singles "Wildfire", "Carolina in the Pines", "What's Forever For", "A Long Line of Love", "What She Wants", "Don't Count the Rainy Days", and "Maybe This Time". Murphey is also the author of New Mexico's state ballad, "The Land of Enchantment". Murphey has become a prominent musical voice for the Western horseman, rancher, and cowboy.

Early life
Michael Martin Murphey was born on March 14, 1945, to Pink Lavary Murphey and Lois (née Corbett) Murphey, in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Texas, where he grew up. He has a brother, Mark, who is three years younger. When he was 6 years old, he started riding horses on his grandfather's and uncle's ranches. Years later he would remember sleeping on his grandfather's porch under the stars, listening to the older man's stories and cowboy songs.

He enjoyed being around these men of the land as they went about their work. These experiences made a deep impression on the young boy. During these early years, he developed a special love for cowboy songs and stories. He was also an avid reader, especially drawn to the books of Mark Twain and William Faulkner. As a youth, he enjoyed writing poetry and loved listening to his uncle's old 78 rpm records, particularly the music of country and folk artists such as Hank Williams, Bob Wills, and Woody Guthrie.

In junior high school he began performing as an amateur, and later as a camp counselor at a summer camp called Sky Ranch. At the age of 17, he took his first "professional" music job, playing western songs around a campfire at a Texas ranch. By the early 1960s, Murphey was playing the clubs in Dallas, performing country music, folk music, and rock music. He won over Texas audiences with his charm and talent, and soon formed a band that developed a significant following in the Dallas area.

Songwriting success

After graduating from W. H. Adamson High School in Oak Cliff, Murphey studied Greek at the University of North Texas. As a member of the institution's Folk Music Club, he befriended Steven Fromholz, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Shiva's Headband fiddler Spencer Perskin and Armadillo World Headquarters co-founder Eddie Wilson. Murphey then moved to California, where he studied creative writing and majored in medieval history and literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. He signed a publishing contract with the Sparrow Music company, and soon he made a name for himself in the Los Angeles folk music scene. By 1964, he formed a musical group with an old Texas friend, Michael Nesmith, John London, and John Raines, under the name the Trinity River Boys.

Murphey's first big break came through his friend Michael Nesmith, who had become part of the popular television musical group, The Monkees. Nesmith asked Murphey to write them a song for the next Monkees album, and Murphey composed "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round". The album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. sold over five million copies.

Murphey formed the Lewis & Clarke Expedition with Boomer Castleman, and recorded one self-titled album for Colgems Records, the company that also released the Monkees' LPs. They had a modest hit with "I Feel Good (I Feel Bad)". Boomer Castleman went on to find success with his controversial song "Judy Mae" and as the writer and producer of the million selling novelty hit "Telephone Man" for singer Meri Wilson.

In 1968, Murphey moved to Wrightwood, a village in the San Gabriel Mountains adjacent to the Mojave Desert of California to work on his songwriting. Based on the success of his songs, he signed a contract with the Screen Gems company, the publishing arm of Columbia Pictures. Some of his songs were recorded by Flatt and Scruggs and Bobbie Gentry. Kenny Rogers and the First Edition recorded an entire album of Michael Murphey songs called The Ballad of Calico, about a Mojave Desert ghost town.

Murphey wrote some additional songs for The Monkees, but he grew disillusioned with the poor financial rewards and the Southern California music scene.

Austin years
In 1971, Murphey returned to Texas and played a pivotal role in launching the progressive country genre with a unique sound that combined his country, rock, and folk influences. It was during this period that Murphey co-wrote "Geronimo's Cadillac" with the lyricist Charles John Quarto, a song about Native American rights that later became an unofficial anthem for the American Indian Movement in the early 1970s.

In 1971, Murphey was signed to A&M Records by Bob Johnston, who discovered him in a Dallas club, the Rubaiyat. Johnston had produced some of the country's most popular recording artists, including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Simon and Garfunkel. In 1972, Johnston produced Murphey's first album Geronimo's Cadillac in Nashville, Tennessee. The sound of the album reflects Murphey's love of country, folk, and blues music. Murphey's early gospel influences are also evident throughout the album. The title track was released as a single, and reached the Top 40 on the US pop charts. In addition to the title track, the album included "Boy from the Country", "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Around?", and "Michael Angelo's Blues". Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed, "On the strength of his first album alone, Michael Murphey is the best new songwriter in the country."

In 1973, Murphey followed up with the album Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir, which continued the urban cowboy theme of the first album. The album included "Cosmic Cowboy, Pt. 1", "Alleys of Austin", and "Rolling Hills".

Throughout this period, Murphey's band included Bob Livingston and Gary P. Nunn, the author of "London Homesick Blues". He performed a number of times at the Armadillo World Headquarters, and his photo was even used for the original cover of Jan Reid's book, The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock. But Michael Murphey's musical vision was expanding beyond the confines of the outlaw country sound and moving toward a much more ambitious musical tapestry.

"Wildfire" and the Epic years
In 1973, Murphey signed to Epic Records and released the album Michael Murphey that same year. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album included the orchestra anthem "Nobody's Gonna Tell Me How To Play My Music", and "Southwestern Pilgrimage".

In 1975, Murphey released his seminal album, Blue Sky – Night Thunder, also produced by Bob Johnston. The album generated two hit singles: "Carolina in the Pines" and his Platinum-certified signature song "Wildfire", a sentimental song about the ghosts of a woman and her horse. As a boy, he first heard from his grandfather the story of a ghost horse rescuing people in the desert. Years later, Murphey had a dream about this ghost horse and wrote the words and music the same day with songwriter Larry Cansler.

In the summer of 1975, "Wildfire" became a chart-topping hit, reaching No. 2 in Cash Box and No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts, giving Murphey a new level of commercial success and exposure. It immediately sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in July 1975. It eventually surpassed two million in US sales and was awarded a platinum disc by the R.I.A.A. in September 2001.  The song's harmonies were supplied by Jeff Hanna and Jimmy Ibbotson from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the piano introduction and ending coda played by jazz pianist Jac Murphy. The introduction is based on a piece by the Russian classical composer Alexander Scriabin.

During the late 1970s, he recorded four albums: Swans Against the Sun (1975), Flowing Free Forever (1976), Lone Wolf (1978), and Peaks, Valleys, Honky Tonks & Alleys (1979). The album Swans Against the Sun produced his first country hits "A Mansion on the Hill" and "Cherokee Fiddle", which also became a top ten hit for Johnny Lee. Murphey's friends, John Denver, Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, and Steve Weisberg appeared on the album. In 1981, Murphey made his first film appearance in Hard Country, which he cowrote.

To distinguish himself from actor Michael Murphy, the singer began using his middle name for film and music credits. To this day, he is known as Michael Martin Murphey.

Mainstream success

In 1982, Murphey signed with Liberty Records and produced two original albums, Michael Martin Murphey and The Heart Never Lies, as well as a compilation of re-recorded versions of his A&M, Epic, and Liberty hits called The Best of Michael Martin Murphey.

In the early 1980s, Murphey had significant commercial success with hits like "Still Taking Chances", "Disenchanted", "Don't Count the Rainy Days", "Will It Be Love by Morning", "Radio Land", "Maybe This Time", and the number one hit "What's Forever For", written by Rafe Van Hoy, which also crossed over to number three at AC Radio and number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. In 1983, Murphey was voted Best New Male Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. In 1985, his rerecorded version of "Carolina in the Pines" reached the Top 10.

In 1985, Murphey signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros. Records and continued his streak of successful recordings. In 1986, he released the album Tonight We Ride, which included "Rollin' Nowhere", "Fiddlin' Man", and "Santa Fe Cantina". In 1987, he released the album Americana, which included "Once Upon a Time", "My Darling Wherever You Are", and another number one country hit with the song "A Long Line of Love". That same album produced the hit single "A Face in the Crowd" with Holly Dunn, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In 1988, Murphey released the album River of Time, which produced three hit singles that reached number three on the charts: Jesse Winchester's "I'm Going to Miss You, Girl", his own "From the Word Go", and "Talkin' to the Wrong Man", which featured his son Ryan. In 1989, Murphey closed out a successful decade of recording with the album Land of Enchantment, which contained "Never Givin' Up on Love", "Got to Pay the Fiddler", "Route 66", and "Land of Enchantment", which became New Mexico's state ballad.

Cowboy songs

Despite the impressive critical and commercial success he achieved throughout the 1980s, Murphey's authentic creativity began to gravitate towards the Western music that appealed to him as a child coming of age in Texas. As early as 1985, Murphey performed with the New Mexico Symphony in a show called A Night in the American West, which led to many subsequent performances with American and Canadian symphonies, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. These western shows, and the songs he was writing and recording at the time, presaged a major change in Murphey's career.

In 1990, he released the album Cowboy Songs. The album contained Murphey's versions of old cowboy songs from the public domain such as "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", "The Old Chisholm Trail", the beautiful "Spanish is the Loving Tongue", the classic "The Streets of Laredo", and his tip of the hat to Roy Rogers, "Happy Trails". The album contained Murphey's own "Cowboy Logic".

Murphey was reluctant to promote the project, but he eventually released "Cowboy Logic" as a single and it quickly became a hit. Soon after, the album caught on and sold much better than expected. Cowboy Songs earned widespread praise from country and folk music critics, such as Jack Hurst from the Chicago Tribune who wrote, "[This is] not only one of the finest albums of [the] year but also one of the finest of the last decade. Its 22 riveting cuts represent a labor of not only love but also scholarship; it raises a cult musical genre to the level of mainstream art. Cowboy Songs went on to achieve Gold status, the first western album to do so since Marty Robbins' No. 1 Cowboy in 1980.

In 1991, Murphey followed up with two additional albums of cowboy songs. His innovative concept album, Cowboy Christmas: Cowboy Songs II, contained versions of traditional and original western Christmas songs, including "The Christmas Trail," "The Cowboy Christmas Ball," and "Two-Step 'Round the Christmas Tree". An accompanying video was later released of one of Murphey's Cowboy Christmas Ball concerts, which included many of these songs. Cowboy Songs III contained a mix of traditional and original cowboy songs, including a virtual duet with Marty Robbins, "Big Iron," which used an early Marty Robbins' vocal track.

Cowboy Songs and its follow-up albums were so successful that they inspired the formation of Warner Western, a new subsidiary label of Warner Bros. Records devoted to western music and cowboy poetry. In 1992, Warner Western issued albums by Don Edwards, Waddie Mitchell, and the Sons of the San Joaquin. All three records were produced by Murphey.

In 1995, Murphey further demonstrated his musical ambitions with the concept album Sagebrush Symphony, recorded live with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Herb Jeffries, and the Sons of the San Joaquin. In 1997, he released the album The Horse Legends, a musical tribute to this majestic animal. The album included several new Murphey songs, a new version of "Wildfire", and covers of some well-known songs, such as Dan Fogelberg's "Run for the Roses" and Gordon Lightfoot's "The Pony Man".

In 1998, Murphey left Warner Bros. Records and started his own record label, WestFest/Real West Productions. That year, he released Cowboy Songs Four, which contained both traditional and original cowboy songs, including "Utah Carroll," "Little Joe, the Wrangler," and Murphey's "Song from Lonesome Dove". In 1999, he released Acoustic Christmas Carols: Cowboy Christmas II, which included Murphey's quiet renditions of traditional Christmas songs, and featured his son Ryan and daughter Laura.

In 2001, Murphey released a compilation of some of his best-loved songs, Playing Favorites, which included rerecorded versions of such songs as "Carolina in the Pines," "Cherokee Fiddle," "Cowboy Logic," "What's Forever For," and "Wildfire". He followed this up in 2002 with Cowboy Classics: Playing Favorites II, which again included re-recorded versions of some of his best-loved cowboy songs. That same year, Murphey released Cowboy Christmas III, which contained a new original song "The Kill Pen," as well as original cowboy poetry written and recited by his daughter Karen. In 2004, Murphey released Live at Billy Bob's Texas, and in 2006, he released Heartland Cowboy: Cowboy Songs, Vol. 5.

Murphey has championed Western cowboy culture and the wilderness. In 1986 he founded WestFest, an annual music festival held at Copper Mountain, Colorado that celebrates western art and culture. Molly Carpenter, writing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, noted, "Murphey's love for the American West clearly comes through in his songs, painted with vivid images of the rugged mountains and vast deserts of southwest landscapes, all evidence of his travels from his native Texas to California's Mojave Desert, Colorado's Rockies and the wild diversity of New Mexico, his home for the past 10 years."

During the 1990s, in a further effort to preserve the traditions of the West, Murphey led a group of performers—including cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell and western music historian and troubadour Don Edwards — in a series of improvisational concerts called Cowboy Logic, which toured throughout the United States, including such unlikely locations as New York City and Las Vegas. Waddy Mitchell is the co-founder of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Murphey met Mitchell there in 1986, the first such event he had ever attended. He later described the transforming event as "a religious experience ... I'd been collecting cowboy music and performing it among my friends. But when I saw a lot of other guys like me and also women performing this music and enjoying each other's company, it was the most important thing that had happened to me in years in my musical life."

On May 22, 2007, he made a rare appearance in New York City to perform "Wildfire" on the Late Show with David Letterman. The song had become one of Letterman's favorites and was included regularly on the show. That same month, Murphey organized and performed for John Wayne's 100th Birthday Celebration, with the approval of the John Wayne Family. Murphey was commended by the White House for his activities. Later that year, he released three DVDs detailing his love of the cowboy ways, life, and preservation of the American West traditions. The DVDs document his trail rides, cattle drives, and Cowboy Poetry gatherings. One of Murphey's Cowboy Christmas Ball concerts, recorded in Oklahoma City, was included as a fourth DVD in the combination CD/DVD set.

In December 2007, Murphey released "A Soldier's Christmas" based on a poem by Michael E. Marks, a soldier serving in Iraq. Marks sent the poem to Murphey, who was so moved by the poem he sought permission to set it to music, which he did. He started including the song in all his concerts, including his Cowboy Christmas Ball concerts, to long standing ovations after its performance, which prompted its release in December 2007.

Bluegrass years

In February 2009, Murphey released Buckaroo Blue Grass, which marked a return to his bluegrass musical roots. Murphey's love of Bluegrass music dates back to when he sang lead vocals with the Earl Scruggs Band. Over the years, his songs have been recorded by Bluegrass artists such as Flatt and Scruggs, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, the Country Gentlemen, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

On Buckaroo Bluegrass, Murphey offers new versions of his famous Bluegrass songs, such as "Carolina in the Pines", "Fiddlin' Man", "Lost River", and "What Am I Doing Hanging Around". Murphey also includes new Bluegrass versions of several of his classics, such as "Boy from the Country", "Dancing in the Meadow", and "Healing Spring". The album includes two new songs, "Close to the Land", the theme song of the PBS documentary television series America's Heartland, and "Lone Cowboy", a song that reflects Murphey's experiences as a solo artist performing throughout the West at music festivals, cowboy gatherings, historical theaters, and trail rides. Michael's son, Ryan, produced the album, and added acoustic guitar and vocals.

In February 2010, Murphey released a follow-up album, Buckaroo Blue Grass II – Riding Song, which follows the production approach of the first album.

In May 2011, Murphey gave a benefit concert at the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper near Benton, Kansas to help save the cabin where Brewster Higley wrote the song "Home on the Range", Kansas' state song. "He might have been living anywhere," Murphey noted, "but he was inspired by that place. This song gives focus to the heritage of the American West, to the prairie and its songs, poems and literature." Murphey made his first pilgrimage to the cabin prior to the concert, where he performed the song.

In June 2011, Murphey released Tall Grass & Cool Water, subtitled Cowboy Songs VI and Buckaroo Blue Grass III. The CD includes two classics from the Sons of the Pioneers, "Cool Water" and "Way Out There", as well as other Western classics such as "Texas Cowboy", "Santa Fe Trail", and "The James Gang Trilogy". Murphey closes out the album with a beautiful duet with Carin Mari, "Springtime in the Rockies".

On September 4, 2011, Murphey performed at the wedding of long-time friend David Lauren and Lauren Bush, the niece of former President George W. Bush, at Ralph Lauren's Double RL Ranch near Ridgway, Colorado. The event was called "America's Royal Wedding". Murphey, who helped Ralph Lauren find the ranch they now call home, has been friends with the Lauren family for nearly 30 years. "I go there to write songs from time to time", Murphey noted, "It's the most spectacular ranch in the Rockies." At David Lauren's request, Murphey performed "Vanishing Breed" for the couple's first dance. Murphey wrote the song at a cabin on the Lauren ranch in the 1980s. Murphey and his Rio Grande Band played nearly six hours for the Lauren and Bush families.

In January 2012, Tall Grass & Cool Water became the number 1 album on the Top 20 Western Music Albums Chart of the Western Music Association.

In July 2013, Murphey released Red River Drifter, his first album of all new original songs in 20 years. The album reached number three on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums chart. He was named among the top 50 Greatest Country & Western singers by American Cowboy magazine.

Legacy

Murphey has had a successful music career that has spanned four decades and included such musical genres as folk, country, rock, popular, western, and cowboy music. As a singer, songwriter, and producer, he has contributed some of the best-loved songs of his generation. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Cher, Lyle Lovett, Flatt and Scruggs, Claire Hamill, Hoyt Axton, Roger Miller, Bobbie Gentry, Michael Nesmith, and the Monkees. Murphey is the narrator of the short film Spirit of the Cowgirl at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas

Murphey was so pivotal to the foundation of progressive country that one of the many names for the genre, "Cosmic Cowboy music", was taken from one of Murphey's songs. Murphey played a major role in the resurrection of the cowboy song genre, recording and producing some of the most successful cowboy music of the past forty years. His album Cowboy Songs inspired a whole series of albums. For his accomplishments in the Western and Cowboy Music field, Murphey received five awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, formerly known as the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Political views
Murphey has long been a champion of the western wilderness and wildlife, and has lent his support to various political causes associated with western culture and ideals. Early in his career, for example, he supported the Native American rights movement, which used his song, "Geronimo's Cadillac", as an anthem. In 1986, he founded an annual festival, WestFest, celebrating western art and culture in an effort to preserve the traditions of the West. He has been a long-time supporter of the conservation movement, attempting to find a middle ground between ranchers and activists on opposite sides of environmental issues.

In the past decade, Murphey has focused his political energies on the issue of private property rights—especially in the western and southwestern United States. In 2006, he released "The Ballad of Kit Laney" in support of the New Mexico rancher's fight with the United States Forest Service over water rights. Laney was imprisoned for assault after standing up to federal agents who seized his ranch in 2004. Murphey helped form the Farmers' Freedom Agriculture Alliance and scheduled a benefit—The Farmers' Freedom Concert—to protest unfair land acquisitions across the western states. Murphey's opposition to the political forces threatening the American family farmer and rancher transcends political party affiliation. "I can tell you," Murphey observed, "that politics—doesn't matter whether it's Democrats or Republicans—have been involved with big agribusiness for a long, long time."

Honors and awards
 2023 Best Original Western Song "Blues for 66" Ryan Murphey and Michael Martin Murphey from the album Road Beyond the View
 2021 Texas Trail of Fame Induction into the Fort Worth Trail of Fame and placement of marker in from to Billy Bob's Texas
 2021 Lone Star Film Festival - Stephen Bruton Award Prestigious Lone StarFilm Festival honor for significant impact in film and TV by a musical artist
 2019 Wrangler Award Induction into the Cowboy Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Awards
 2009 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Bluegrass Album, for Buckaroo Blue Grass
 2009 Texas Country Music Hall of Fame
 2008 National Day of the Cowboy "Cowboy Keeper Award".
 2007 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Wrangler Award for Best Song, for "Long and Lonesome Road to Dalhart"
 2007 Texas Music Award for Best Song, for "Close the Land (America's Heartland)"
 2007 Letter of Commendation from the President of the United States, for Murphey's involvement producing John Wayne's 100th Birthday Celebration
 2004 Western Music Association Hall of Fame
 2000 The New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Lifetime Achievement Award
 1999 Academy of Western Artists Award for Best Album, for Cowboy Songs Four
 1998 The Golden Smokey Award for Outstanding Service to the U.S. National Park Service
 1997 Will Rogers Cowboy Philosopher Award, Will Rogers Memorial Commission
 1982 Academy of Country Music Top New Male Vocalist
 1972 Rolling Stone Magazine Best New Singer-Songwriter in the Nation, for the album Geronimo's Cadillac
 American Quarter Horse Association Lifetime Honorary Member
 CMA Award Nominations (three times)
 BMI Platinum Record, for the song "Wildfire"
 BMI Gold Record, for the album Cowboy Songs, the first Gold album in Cowboy music since Marty Robbins
 RIAA Certified Gold Records for "Blue Sky, Night Thunder" and "Cowboy Songs"
 King of the Cowboys Award for Outstanding Contribution to Western Family Entertainment by the Cody Order of Scouts, State of Nebraska
 Cody Order of Scouts, Nebraska
 Nebraska Country Music Hall of Fame
 Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame
 Western Heritage Awards from the Cowboy Hall of Fame (six-time winner)
 International Charley Russell Western Heritage Society Red Sash Award for Outstanding Service in Preservation of Western Heritage, 1999–2000

Discography

 Geronimo's Cadillac (1972)
 Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir (1973)
 Michael Murphey (1974)
 Blue Sky – Night Thunder (1975)
 Swans Against the Sun (1976)
 Flowing Free Forever (1976)
 Lone Wolf (1978)
 Peaks, Valleys, Honky Tonks & Alleys (1979)
 Hard Country (1981)
 Michael Martin Murphey (1982)
 The Heart Never Lies (1983)
 Tonight We Ride (1986)
 Americana (1987)
 River of Time (1988)
 Land of Enchantment (1989)
 Cowboy Songs (1990)
 Cowboy Christmas: Cowboy Songs II (1991)

 Cowboy Songs III (1993)
 Sagebrush Symphony (1995)
 The Horse Legends (1997)
 Cowboy Songs Four (1998)
 Acoustic Christmas Carols (1999)
 Playing Favorites (2001)
 Cowboy Classics: Playing Favorites II (2002)
 Cowboy Christmas III (2002)
 Live at Billy Bob's Texas (2004)
 Heartland Cowboy: Cowboy Songs, Vol. 5 (2006)
 Buckaroo Blue Grass (2009)
 Lone Cowboy (2010)
 Buckaroo Blue Grass II (2010)
 Tall Grass & Cool Water (2011)
 Campfire on the Road (2012)
 Red River Drifter (2013)
 High Stakes (2016)
 Austinology - Alleys of Austin (2018) Featuring Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and many others
 Cowboy Christmas Live (Austin) (2019) Recorded Live at the Paramount in Austin, TX
 Road Beyond the View (2022) Ryan Murphey and Michael Martin Murphey release

References

External links

 Michael Martin Murphey's Official Website

Archival Materials
 Michael Martin Murphey papers, 1982–2014, at Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University

1945 births
American country singer-songwriters
American male singer-songwriters
Country musicians from Texas
Epic Records artists
Living people
Singers from Dallas
Singers from New Mexico
People from Wrightwood, California
Progressive country musicians
Singing cowboys
Singer-songwriters from Texas
21st-century American singer-songwriters
20th-century American singer-songwriters
Singer-songwriters from California
People from Oak Cliff, Texas
Country musicians from California
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
Country musicians from New Mexico
W. H. Adamson High School alumni

Michael Martin Murphey


Necromancy () is the practice of magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events and discover hidden knowledge. Sometimes categorized under death magic, the term is occasionally also used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft as a whole. In fictional settings such as Dungeons & Dragons, or fantasy video games, it is associated with the reanimation of corpses often meant to be used as weapons.

Etymology

The word necromancy is adapted from Late Latin : a loan word from the post-Classical Greek  (), a compound of Ancient Greek  (, or 'dead body') and  (, or 'divination'). The Koine Greek compound form was first documented in the writings of Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century AD. The Classical Greek term was  (), from the episode of the Odyssey in which Odysseus visits the realm of the dead souls, and  in Hellenistic Greek;  in Latin, and necromancy in 17th-century English.

Antiquity

Early necromancy was related to – and most likely evolved from – shamanism, which calls upon spirits such as the ghosts of ancestors. Classical necromancers addressed the dead in "a mixture of high-pitch squeaking and low droning", comparable to the trance-state mutterings of shamans.
Necromancy was prevalent throughout antiquity with records of its practice in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, and China. In his Geographica, Strabo refers to  (), or "diviners by the dead", as the foremost practitioners of divination among the people of Persia, and it is believed to have also been widespread among the peoples of Chaldea (particularly the Hermeticists, or "star-worshipers") and Babylonia. The Babylonian necromancers were called  or , and the spirits they raised were called . Traditional Chinese folk religion involves necromancy in seeking blessing from dead ancestors through ritual displays of filial piety.

The oldest literary account of necromancy is found in Homer's Odyssey. Under the direction of Circe, a powerful sorceress, Odysseus travels to the underworld () in order to gain insight about his impending voyage home by raising the spirits of the dead through the use of spells which Circe has taught him. He wishes to invoke and question the shade of Tiresias in particular; however, he is unable to summon the seer's spirit without the assistance of others. The Odysseys passages contain many descriptive references to necromantic rituals: rites must be performed around a pit with fire during nocturnal hours, and Odysseus has to follow a specific recipe, which includes the blood of sacrificial animals, to concoct a libation for the ghosts to drink while he recites prayers to both the ghosts and gods of the underworld.

Practices such as these, varying from the mundane to the grotesque, were commonly associated with necromancy. Rituals could be quite elaborate, involving magic circles, wands, talismans, and incantations. The necromancer might also surround himself with morbid aspects of death, which often included wearing the deceased's clothing and consuming foods that symbolized lifelessness and decay such as unleavened black bread and unfermented grape juice. Some necromancers even went so far as to take part in the mutilation and consumption of corpses. These ceremonies could carry on for hours, days, or even weeks, leading up to the eventual summoning of spirits. Frequently they were performed in places of interment or other melancholy venues that suited specific guidelines of the necromancer. Additionally, necromancers preferred to summon the recently departed based on the premise that their revelations were spoken more clearly. This timeframe was usually limited to the twelve months following the death of the physical body; once this period elapsed, necromancers would evoke the deceased's ghostly spirit instead.

While some cultures considered the knowledge of the dead to be unlimited, ancient Greeks and Romans believed that individual shades knew only certain things. The apparent value of their counsel may have been based on things they knew in life or knowledge they acquired after death. Ovid writes in his Metamorphoses of a marketplace in the underworld where the dead convene to exchange news and gossip.

Prohibited among Israelites

There are also several references to necromancers – called "bone-conjurers" among Jews of the later Hellenistic period – in the Bible. The Book of Deuteronomy (18:9–12) explicitly warns the Israelites against engaging in the Canaanite practice of divination from the dead:  Though Mosaic Law prescribed the death penalty to practitioners of necromancy (Leviticus 20:27), this warning was not always heeded. One of the foremost examples is when King Saul had the Witch of Endor invoke the spirit of Samuel, a judge and prophet, from Sheol to divine the outcome of a coming battle (1 Samuel 28:3–25). However, the so-called witch was shocked at the presence of a familiar spirit in the image of Samuel for in I Sam 28:7 states "Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor" and in I Sam 28:12 says, "when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out in a loud voice." and the familiar spirit questioned his reawakening asking as if he were Samuel the Prophet, "Why hast thou disquieted me?" Saul died the next day in combat, with Chronicles 10:13 implying this was due to the prohibition against necromancy.

Early and High Middle Age

Many medieval writers believed that actual resurrection required the assistance of God. They saw the practice of necromancy as conjuring demons who took the appearance of spirits. The practice became known explicitly as maleficium, and the Catholic Church condemned it. Though the practitioners of necromancy were linked by many common threads, there is no evidence that these necromancers ever organized as a group. One noted commonality among practitioners of necromancy was usually the utilization of certain toxic and hallucinogenic plants from the nightshade family such as black henbane, jimson weed, belladonna or mandrake, usually in magic salves or potions.

Medieval necromancy is believed to be a synthesis of astral magic derived from Arabic influences and exorcism derived from Christian and Jewish teachings. Arabic influences are evident in rituals that involve moon phases, sun placement, day and time. Fumigation and the act of burying images are also found in both astral magic and necromancy. Christian and Jewish influences appear in the symbols and in the conjuration formulas used in summoning rituals.

Practitioners were often members of the Christian clergy, though some nonclerical practitioners are recorded. In some instances, mere apprentices or those ordained to lower orders dabbled in the practice. They were connected by a belief in the manipulation of spiritual beings – especially demons – and magical practices. These practitioners were almost always literate and well educated. Most possessed basic knowledge of exorcism and had access to texts of astrology and of demonology. Clerical training was informal and university-based education rare. Most were trained under apprenticeships and were expected to have a basic knowledge of Latin, ritual and doctrine. This education was not always linked to spiritual guidance and seminaries were almost non-existent. This situation allowed some aspiring clerics to combine Christian rites with occult practices despite its condemnation in Christian doctrine.

Medieval practitioners believed they could accomplish three things with necromancy: will manipulation, illusions, and knowledge:
 Will manipulation affects the mind and will of another person, animal, or spirit. Demons are summoned to cause various afflictions on others, "to drive them mad, to inflame them to love or hatred, to gain their favor, or to constrain them to do or not do some deed."
 Illusions involve reanimation of the dead or conjuring food, entertainment, or a mode of transportation.
 Knowledge is allegedly discovered when demons provide information about various things. This might involve identifying criminals, finding items, or revealing future events.

The act of performing medieval necromancy usually involved magic circles, conjurations, and sacrifices such as those shown in the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic:
 Circles were usually traced on the ground, though cloth and parchment were sometimes used. Various objects, shapes, symbols, and letters may be drawn or placed within that represent a mixture of Christian and occult ideas. Circles were usually believed to empower and protect what was contained within, including protecting the necromancer from the conjured demons. A text known as the Heptameron explain the function of the circle thusly: "But because the greatest power is attributed to the Circles; (For they are certain fortresses to defend the operators safe from the evil Spirits;)..."
 Conjuration is the method of communicating with the demons to have them enter the physical world. It usually employs the power of special words and stances to call out the demons and often incorporated the use of Christian prayers or biblical verses. These conjurations may be repeated in succession or repeated to different directions until the summoning is complete.
 Sacrifice was the payment for summoning; though it may involve the flesh of a human being or animal, it could sometimes be as simple as offering a certain object. Instructions for obtaining these items were usually specific. The time, location, and method of gathering items for sacrifice could also play an important role in the ritual.

The rare confessions of those accused of necromancy suggest that there was a range of spell casting and related magical experimentation. It is difficult to determine if these details were due to their practices, as opposed to the whims of their interrogators. John of Salisbury is one of the first examples related by Richard Kieckhefer, but as a Parisian ecclesiastical court record of 1323 shows, a "group who were plotting to invoke the demon Berich from inside a circle made from strips of cat skin" were obviously participating in what the Church would define as "necromancy".

Herbert Stanley Redgrove claims necromancy as one of three chief branches of medieval ceremonial magic, alongside black magic and white magic. This does not correspond to contemporary classifications, which often conflate "nigromancy" ("black-knowledge") with "necromancy" ("death-knowledge").

Late Middle Ages to Renaissance

In the wake of inconsistencies of judgment, necromancers and other practitioners of the magic arts were able to utilize spells featuring holy names with impunity, as any biblical references in such rituals could be construed as prayers rather than spells. As a consequence, the necromancy that appears in the Munich Manual is an evolution of these theoretical understandings. It has been suggested that the authors of the Manual knowingly designed the book to be in discord with ecclesiastical law. The main recipe employed throughout the Manual used the same religious language and names of power alongside demonic names. An understanding of the names of God derived from apocryphal texts and the Hebrew Torah required that the author of such rites have at least a casual familiarity with these sources.

Within the tales related in occult manuals are found connections with stories from other cultures' literary traditions. For instance, the ceremony for conjuring a horse closely relates to the Arabic One Thousand and One Nights and French romances; Chaucer's The Squire's Tale also bears marked similarities. This becomes a parallel evolution of spells to foreign gods or demons that were once acceptable, and frames them into a new Christian context, albeit demonic and forbidden. As the material for these manuals was apparently derived from scholarly magical and religious texts from a variety of sources in many languages, the scholars who studied these texts likely manufactured their own aggregate sourcebook and manual with which to work spells or magic.

In the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, it is stated that "Of all human opinions that is to be reputed the most foolish which deals with the belief in Necromancy, the sister of Alchemy, which gives birth to simple and natural things."

Modern era
In the present day, necromancy is more generally used as a term to describe manipulation of death and the dead, or the pretense thereof, often facilitated through the use of ritual magic or some other kind of occult ceremony. Contemporary séances, channeling and Spiritualism verge on necromancy when supposedly invoked spirits are asked to reveal future events or secret information. Necromancy may also be presented as sciomancy, a branch of theurgic magic.

As to the practice of necromancy having endured in one form or another throughout the millennia, An Encyclopædia of Occultism states:

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

Divination
Left-Hand Path
Magic (supernatural)

Necromancy


Mark de Jonge (born 15 February 1984) is a Canadian male sprint canoeist, primarily specializing the 200 m kayak event. De Jonge won a bronze medal in the K-1 200 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He is the two time reigning world champion in same event having also won a silver medal at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in 2013. He is also the current Pan American champion in the 200 having won gold in Toronto at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, where he also won an additional bronze, and a silver and bronze at previous editions of the Pan Am Games. He was named the Air Canada Athlete of the Year in 2015 for Canada.

Career
Born in Calgary in 1984, de Jonge moved to Halifax in 1997 where he started kayaking. His parents enrolled him in the popular local sport at the Maskwa Aquatics Club as a way of getting to know other children in the area.

Despite being a competitive kayaker he missed out on the 2004 and 2008 editions of the Summer Olympics. He did win a silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in the men's K-4 1,000 metres event, alongside Angus Mortimer, Jeremy Bordeleau and Chris Pellini.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics he won bronze in the K-1 200 metres event. When the quick sprint 200 m event was added to the Olympics de Jonge saw his opportunities flourish, as the event suited his skill set aptly. Yet he missed out on most of the qualifying events after he dropped an 80lb weight on his finger training in 2012. Despite the injury he still managed to win the national trials and qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics. There he won a bronze in the inaugural event. After he said "Obviously, I did want gold. But I was never thinking about the result. I'm happy with the bronze. I'm really happy that I had an awesome race out there, three really good races at the Olympics. I'm proud that, when the time came, I was really ready to go."

De Jonge built off the Olympic success winning his first world cup medal the following year, he then won a silver in the 200 at the 2013 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships. At the 2014 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships he won his first world championships title while also setting the world record in the semi-finals on his way to the title. With the win in Moscow he said that "For years I've sort of dreamed of this moment." de Jonge repeated as world champion at the 2015 world championships and in December was named the 2015 Air Canada athlete of the year through an online voting process.

In May 2021, de Jonge was named to Canada's 2020 Olympic team.

Personal
De Jonge graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax with a degree in civil engineering in 2009. He worked full-time for three years with Stantec Consulting as an engineer-in-training before he took a leave of absence to focus on kayaking before the 2012 Olympics.

In 2018 he was named one of the greatest 15 athletes in Nova Scotia's history.

References

 Canadian Olympic Committee

External links

1984 births
Living people
Canadian male canoeists
Canoeists at the 2007 Pan American Games
Canoeists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Canoeists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Canoeists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Olympic canoeists for Canada
Sportspeople from Calgary
Sportspeople from Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dalhousie University alumni
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Olympic bronze medalists for Canada
Olympic medalists in canoeing
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada
Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada
Pan American Games bronze medalists for Canada
Pan American Games medalists in canoeing
Canoeists at the 2015 Pan American Games
Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games
Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games

Mark de Jonge


Abraham Zabludovsky (born Abraham Zabludowski Kraveski; June 14, 1924 – April 10, 2003) was a Mexican architect. He was the brother of the well known journalist Jacobo Zabludovsky.

Abraham Zabludovsky was born in Białystok, Poland.  He studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, graduating in 1949. In his early years he produced a large number of outstanding residential buildings and offices in Mexico City, making rigorous use of the International style and demonstrating an impeccable handling of contemporary design, techniques and materials. Also notable from this period was the Centro Cívico Cinco de Mayo (1962), Puebla, on which he collaborated with Guillermo Rossell.

In 1968 Zabludovsky began working in collaboration with Teodoro González de León, although the two architects continued to work on some projects individually and retained their separate stylistic identities. Their collaborative work was remarkable for its quality and maturity, establishing functional and formal solutions that were later widely imitated. Clear examples of their characteristic proposals for constructions of massive, linear volume are the Delegación Cuauhtémoc (1972–3; with Jaime Ortiz Monasterio (b 1928) and Luis Antonio Zapiain (b 1942)), the headquarters of INFONAVIT (Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores, completed 1975) and the new building for the Colegio de México (1974–5; see MEXICO, fig. 7), all in Mexico City.

Zabludovsky also carried out a number of works individually in the same style. Outstanding among these was the Centro Cultural Emilio O. Rabasa (1983), Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, a construction with sculptural aspects that manages faithfully to fulfil the need for both theatricality and diffusion. He also designed two multipurpose auditoriums in Celaya and Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato (1990), two theatres in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, and Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes (1991), and a convention centre in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas (1994).

He died of a heart attack in Mexico City on April 10, 2003, aged 78.

Awards
 Professor Emeritus of the Mexican National Academy of Architecture
 Honorary member of The American Institute of Architects
 Professor Emeritus of the International Academy of Architecture in Sofia, Bulgaria
 Gold Medal at the International Architecture Biennial in Sofia, Bulgaria
 Latin American Grand Prix at the Buenos Aires Biennial
 Honorary mention at the Third International Architecture Biennial in Brazil
 VITRUVIO Award for outstanding achievements in the creation and fomenting of culture

References

Modernist architects from Mexico
1924 births
2003 deaths
Architects from Mexico City
Architecture firms of Mexico
Jewish architects
Mexican Jews
Mexican people of Polish-Jewish descent
Polish emigrants to Mexico
People from Białystok
National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
20th-century Polish architects
20th-century Mexican architects
21st-century Mexican architects

Abraham Zabludovsky


Myrica californica (California bayberry, California wax myrtle or Pacific wax myrtle; syn. Gale californica (Cham. & Schltdl.) Greene, Morella californica (Cham. & Schltdl.) Wilbur) is an evergreen shrub or small tree native to the Pacific Ocean coast of North America from Vancouver Island south to California as far south as the Long Beach area.

It grows to 2–10 m tall, and has serrated, sticky green leaves 4–13 cm long and 0.7–3 cm broad, which emit a spicy scent on warm days. The flower's inflorescence is arranged in a spike 0.6–3 cm long, in range of colors from green to red. The fruit is a wrinkled purple berry 4–6.5 mm diameter, with a waxy coating, hence the common name wax myrtle. This species has root nodules containing nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, allowing it to grow in relatively poor soils.

Cultivation and uses
It grows well on cool, moist coastlines and can be planted in lines as a seaside windbreak. The bark and leaves have historically been used on occasion for gastrointestinal ailments. The most active chemical is apparently the glycoside myricinic acid, which is related to saponin. The plant tissues are also high in tannins. The wax may be extracted from the fruit and made into candles and soap; however, this species produces much less wax than other bayberries, and so is rarely used for this purpose.

Various birds eat the berries in small quantities.

References

External links

Flora of North America: Myrica californica
Jepson Manual treatment of Myrica californica
Myrica californica — UC Photo gallery

californica
Flora of California
Flora of Oregon
Flora of Washington (state)
Flora of the Klamath Mountains
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area
Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains
Garden plants of North America
Drought-tolerant plants
Flora of the West Coast of the United States
Shrubs
Plants described in 1831
Flora without expected TNC conservation status

Myrica californica