Genevieve is a 1953 British comedy film produced and directed by Henry Cornelius and written by William Rose. It stars John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall as two couples comedically involved in a veteran automobile rally.

Plot
Two veteran cars and their crews are participating in the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Alan McKim (John Gregson), a young barrister, and his wife, Wendy (Dinah Sheridan), drive Genevieve, a 1904 Darracq. Their friend Ambrose Claverhouse (Kenneth More), a brash advertising salesman, his latest girlfriend, fashion model Rosalind Peters (Kay Kendall), and her pet St. Bernard ride in a 1905 Spyker.

The journey to Brighton goes well for Claverhouse, but the McKims' trip is complicated by several breakdowns, and they arrive very late. As Alan cancelled their accommodation in their usual plush hotel during a fit of pique, they are forced to spend the night in a dingy run-down hotel (with a cameo performance by Joyce Grenfell as the proprietress) leaving Wendy feeling less than pleased.

They finally join Ambrose and Rosalind for after-dinner drinks, but Rosalind gets very drunk, and insists on playing the trumpet with the house band. To the surprise of all, she performs a hot jazz solo before falling fast asleep moments later, to Wendy's great amusement.

Alan and Wendy have an argument over Ambrose's supposed romantic attentions to her, and Alan goes off to the garage to sulk. Whilst he works on his car in the middle of the night, Ambrose turns up. Angry words are exchanged, and Alan impulsively bets the other man £100 that he can beat Ambrose back to London, despite racing not being allowed by the club. Ambrose accepts the bet—"First over Westminster Bridge."

The following morning, despite Rosalind's massive hangover and Wendy's determined disapproval of the whole business, the two crews race back to London. Each driver is determined that his car is the better, come what may, and they both resort to various forms of cheating. Ambrose sabotages Alan's engine, and Alan causes Ambrose to be stopped by the police.

Finally, on the outskirts of London (West Drayton), both cars are stopped by traffic police and the four contestants are publicly warned after Alan and Ambrose almost come to blows. At Wendy's insistence, they decide to call off the bet and have a party instead. But whilst waiting for the pub to open, words are exchanged and the bet is on again.

The two cars race neck-and-neck through the southern suburbs of London. But with only a few yards to go, Genevieve breaks down. As Ambrose's car is about to overtake it, its tyres become stuck in tramlines (London's last trams ran in 1952, but many of the tracks were still in evidence when the film was made that same year) and it drives off in another direction. The brakes on Genevieve fail, and the car rolls a few yards onto Westminster Bridge, thus winning the bet.

Cast

 John Gregson as Alan McKim
 Dinah Sheridan as Wendy McKim
 Kenneth More as Ambrose Claverhouse
 Kay Kendall as Rosalind Peters
 Geoffrey Keen as First traffic policeman
 Reginald Beckwith as J.C. Callahan
 Arthur Wontner as Elderly Gentleman
 Joyce Grenfell as Hotel proprietress
 Leslie Mitchell as Himself – Newsreel Commentator
 Michael Balfour as Trumpeter (uncredited)
 Stanley Escane as Newsreel cameraman (uncredited)
 Fred Griffiths as Ice Cream Seller (uncredited)
 Charles Lamb as Publican (uncredited)
 Arthur Lovegrove as Hotel doorman (uncredited)
 Edward Malin as Spectator (uncredited)
 Edie Martin as Guest at Hotel (uncredited)
 Michael Medwin as Father-to-be (uncredited)
 Harold Siddons as Second traffic policeman (uncredited)
 Patrick Westwood as Motor mechanic (uncredited)

Production
Henry Cornelius had made  Passport to Pimlico for Ealing Studios, but had left the studio to go independent. He approached Michael Balcon to make Genevieve for Ealing. However, given that Cornelius' returning would disrupt the studio's production schedule, and that he had not won any friends at Ealing by leaving, Balcon turned the film down, leaving Cornelius to have his film made for Rank Studios.

Earl St John was originally not enthusiastic to make the movie but agreed to take it to the Rank Board if the budget could be kept to £115,000. J. Arthur Rank agreed to provide 70% of the finance if Cornelius could source the rest elsewhere; the director obtained the money from the National Film Finance Corporation.

The original choices for the male leads were Guy Middleton and Dirk Bogarde; they turned the film down, and their roles were given to Kenneth More and John Gregson respectively. Dinah Sheridan says that the studio wanted Claire Bloom to play her part. Sheridan was offered two other films around the same time (Grand National Night and Street Corner) and asked Dirk Bogarde for this advice:
He told me to take Genevieve if I got it. He had turned it down because he didn't want to do comedy again. They didn't want Kenneth More, they wanted Guy Middleton; they wanted Dirk instead of John Gregson, Claire Bloom instead of me and I can't remember who they wanted instead of Kay Kendall. But we got on so well together and it worked. Ninety per cent of the credit must go to Bill Rose, a wonderful writer.
Kenneth More was appearing in the enormously successful production of The Deep Blue Sea when Henry Cornelius approached him to play the part of Ambrose. More said Cornelius never saw him in the play, but cast him on the basis of his work in an earlier film, The Galloping Major. More's fee was £3,500 or £4,000.

Filming took place between October 1952 and February 1953. More recalls "the shooting of the picture was hell. Everything went wrong, even the weather." More says because of Cornelius' perfectionism the film went over budget by £20,000.

Rutland Mews South, London SW7, was used during filming as the location for the home of Alan and Wendy.

The themes of the musical score were composed and performed by Larry Adler, and harmonised and orchestrated by composer Graham Whettam who wrote the orchestral scores incorporating Larry Adler's tunes. Dance numbers were added by Eric Rogers.

Kendall's trumpet solo was mimed to a rendition by the jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker.

The comedic tone of Genevieve was established by the following disclaimer at the end of the opening credits:
 This was meant to underscore the fact that the actual event portrayed in the film is not a race.

Cars

The script for Genevieve originally called for the rivals to be driving British cars, Alan McKim a Wolseley or Humber, and Ambrose Claverhouse a Lanchester. No owners of such cars were willing to lend them for filming, and eventually Norman Reeves loaned his Darracq and Frank Reese his Spyker. The Darracq was originally named Annie, but was permanently renamed Genevieve after the film's success. Genevieve returned from a 34-year visit to Australia in 1992, and takes part in the London-Brighton Run every year. In July 2002, Genevieve and another Spyker participated in a 50th anniversary rally, touring the filming locations. Both Genevieve and Ambrose Claverhouse's Spyker were, , on display at the Louwman Museum in The Hague.

Reception

Critical
Genevieve  was critically reviewed by Bosley Crowther for The New York Times, giving the film a very positive appraisal. "On the strength of the current mania that some restless people have for automobiles of ancient vintage—what are fondly called "veteran cars"—a British producer-director, Henry Cornelius, has made a film that may cautiously be recommended as one of the funniest farce comedies in years."

Box office
Genevieve was the second-most popular film at the British box office in 1953.

The film was released in the US by Universal. According to one report in Variety the film grossed $560,000 in the US. Other accounts in the same magazine give this figure as $450,000 or $400,000 of which $338,000 was returned to Britain. Nonetheless, John Davis placed an advertisement in the New York Times where he accused American distributors of putting films such as Genevieve, Simba, The Purple Plain and The Cruel Sea in art house cinemas instead of mainstream cinemas.

According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.

Genevieve initiated a cycle of other comedies from the Rank Organisation. It helped turn the lead actors into film stars, particularly More.

Awards and nominations

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
According to the commentary on the Criterion edition of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, nearly a decade later Rose used Genevieve as the basis for the former, another automobile comedy, but on a larger scale and set in Scotland. He sent an outline to Stanley Kramer, who as luck would have it was ready to make a comedy after a string of intense dramas which had been critical successes but hadn't made money. Kramer agreed to buy the project provided they would change the setting to America. Rose agreed, and he and his wife Tania wrote the screenplay. Released in 1963, the film became the biggest box-office hit of Rose's career.

See also
 BFI Top 100 British films

References

Notes

Bibliography

  ("from the screenplay by William Rose").

External links

1953 films
1950s sports comedy films
British auto racing films
1950s comedy road movies
British sports comedy films
Fictional cars
Films directed by Henry Cornelius
Films set in Brighton
Films set in London
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
British comedy road movies
Best British Film BAFTA Award winners
1953 comedy films
1950s English-language films
1950s British films

Genevieve (film)


Pyton was a Norwegian comic book series which was produced by the company Gevion, and afterwards Bladkompaniet, between the years 1986 until 1996. An anthology magazine with no major main character, its style of humor focused mostly on satiric and toilet humour, including sexual, toilet, and farting jokes. Most of Pytons material was produced by the magazine's own staff, but a handful of foreign comics also appeared in the magazine, including Gary Larson's The Far Side, and the German comic Werner.

The name is Norwegian for python, a term which in Scandinavia also has gained a slang adjective meaning of "disgusting" or "sick". The magazine also adopted a python snake as mascot (after discarding their original polar bear), who occasionally featured in his own comics.

The magazine reached its peak around 1990 when it sold around 35,000 copies per month.

The Essential Guide to World Comics by Tim Pilcher and Brad Brooks says that the anthology and its sister series MegaPyton had "short-lived but important MAD-style humour anthologies with an underground comix edge."

The magazine's editor was Dag Kolstad, who prior had been the editor for Norsk MAD, the Norwegian edition of MAD Magazine. Kolstad was also a writer for many of the series (under the pen name Dick Kolby), and was also featured in the actual series as the sadistic and overweight character Redaktøren (The Editor). Another prominent writer was Rolf Håndstad (pen name: Rhesus Minus, Balle Brock).

Some of Pytons most prominent artists were Tommy Sydsæter, Bjørn Ousland, Arild Midthun (pen name: Arnold Milten), Kristian B. Walters and Frode Øverli who a few years later created the successful and popular comic strip Pondus. Martin Kellerman, who later went on to create Rocky, also made a few contributions to Pyton in the mid-1990s.

In 2009, the old magazine had gained a large nostalgic appeal, and it was decided to launch the massive collector box MegaPyton (not to be confused with the Swedish magazine Mega-Pyton, see below), featuring classics from the magazine collected in hardcover books.

Recurring features
The monthly publication had no constant features, nevertheless several new features were created almost monthly. Some of the most popular features were:
 Dølle Døck, created by Dick Kolby and Tommy Sydsæter
 Rhesus Minus og Tommy Tusj, created by Rolf Håndstad and Tommy Sydsæter
 Pervo-Kris, created by Kristian B.Walters
 Hellitern og Halvlitern, created by Bjørn Ousland
 Lucky Duck, created by Bjørn Ousland
 Bottolf Nerd, created by Arnold Milten
 Deep Shit Junkies, created by Frode Øverli
 Wunder-Bjarne, created by Tom Ostad
 Førerhunden Adolf, created by Erik Nordgård
 Skateboard-Fantomet, created by Erik Nordgård
 Bøffert Fusk, created by Mikael Grahn

Foreign editions
In 1990, a foreign edition was launched in Sweden, also named Pyton. Apart from publishing older Norwegian material, this spinoff edition also showcased Swedish artists such as Joakim Lindengren, Mikael Grahn and Alf Woxnerud etc. This soon led to much international collaboration between the two editions with many cartoonists, both Norwegian and Swedish, producing work published in both editions. The Swedish edition folded in 1998.

In 1992, the Swedish spinoff Mega-Pyton appeared, in the beginning it was mostly a thicker version of the original magazine, but after a while it evolved into a more alternative/underground-oriented magazine featuring artists such as Ivan Brunetti, Mike Diana and Sam Henderson, as well as local Swedish artists including David Liljemark. This edition folded in 2001.

In 1994, after the success of the Swedish launch, there was an attempt to release a Danish edition under the same name. For some reason, this edition wasn't as successful as the other Scandinavian editions, and the magazine was cancelled after only seven issues in 1995.

The longest lasting of these editions was in Finland, where the magazine was launched in 1989, titled Myrkky (Finnish for "poison" or "venom"), published by the Finnish branch of the Nordic publisher Egmont. Originally, the magazine featured mostly translated Swedish and Norwegian material, but after these editions folded, the magazine published more and more native material, as well as material imported from other sources. The most popular character in Myrkky was Pera Pervo (Pervo-Kris). This edition didn't fold until November 5, 2008, with a final summer special appearing in 2009.

Regular strips in Myrkky included Myyntimies Mynttinen, Pera Pervo (Pervo-Kris) and Firkin the Cat.

Perhaps the most famous cartoonist whose work appeared in Myrkky is the British Hunt Emerson. However, most of the strips - particularly after the other editions had folded - were drawn by Finnish cartoonists. Regular Finnish cartoonists included Santtu Liima, Armas Salakka and Samson.

See also
 Viz comics

References

Comics magazines published in Norway
Adult humour titles
Satirical comics
1986 comics debuts
1996 comics endings
Magazines about comics
1986 establishments in Norway
1996 disestablishments in Norway
Defunct magazines published in Norway
Magazines established in 1986
Magazines disestablished in 1996
Norwegian-language magazines

Pyton


Antonietta Marini-Rainieri was an Italian operatic soprano active during the first half of the 19th century. She was married to lauded operatic bass Ignazio Marini and often appeared on stage with him. In 1835 she portrayed Giulietta opposite Amalia Schütz Oldosi as Romeo in the Teatro Regio di Parma's first staging of Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi. At La Scala she portrayed roles in the world premieres of Giuseppe Verdi's first two operas: Leonora in Oberto (1839) and the Marchesa del Poggio in Un giorno di regno (1840). She also appeared at that house as the Princess of Navarra in the premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's Gianni di Parigi (1839). In 1843, she sang the title role in the premiere of Giovanni Pacini's Maria, regina d'Inghilterra at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo. She reprised that role in December 1843 at La Scala, and at the Teatro Carlo Felice in February 1844.

References

Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Italian operatic sopranos
19th-century Italian women opera singers

Antonietta Marini-Rainieri


Teresa K. Woodruff is an American medical researcher in human reproduction and oncology, with a focus on ovarian biology, endocrinology, and women's health. She joined Michigan State University as the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs in August 2020. Woodruff became the interim President of Michigan State University on November 4, 2022 after the resignation of Samuel L. Stanley. She was previously the Thomas J. Watkins Memorial Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Chief of the Division of Reproductive Science in Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Woodruff was Dean of the Graduate School and Professor in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois as well. She is credited with coining the term oncofertility and founded the Oncofertility Consortium at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She is also founder and chief of the Division of Fertility Preservation and founder and director of the Women's Health Research Institute at Northwestern University.

Education
Woodruff graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology and Chemistry from the Olivet Nazarene University in 1985. She was awarded the "O" Award in 2016, presented "to honor alumni who exhibit the characteristics and ideals of their alma mater." She completed her graduate study at Northwestern University, receiving a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Cell Biology in 1989.

Career

Ovarian biology research
In 1986, as a graduate student in the laboratory of Kelly Mayo at Northwestern University, Woodruff cloned the protein subunits that form the peptide hormones inhibin and activin. This work was recognized in 2000 by the Endocrine Society Weitzman Award, which is presented to "an exceptionally promising young clinical or basic investigator who has not reached the age of 50."  After completing her doctorate in 1989, Woodruff completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech, Inc in South San Francisco, CA, where she contributed to the development of inhibin and activin assays, which are used today for the diagnosis of Down syndrome and to measure the ovarian reserve. She is named as inventor on five patents based on her work at Genentech. Woodruff also continued her research into the physiology of inhibin and activin in pituitary and ovarian function in rodent and the effects of recombinant human inhibin and activin in primates.

Woodruff returned to Northwestern University as a faculty member in 1995 to study inhibin and activin actions and interactions within the pituitary-gonadal axis, characterizing the regulation of subunit assembly and ligand processing in the ovary, the ligands' role in paracrine regulation of folliculogenesis, and their signal transduction pathways in the regulation of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). In collaboration with Theodore Jardetzky, she solved the crystal structures of activin with its receptor and with its bioneutralizing binding protein follistatin. In 2015, her lab used in silico methods to design small molecule activin antagonists based on the structure of activin bound to its receptor.

Using single-cell elemental analytical methods at the Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with inorganic chemist Tom O'Halloran, Woodruff discovered a role of zinc in the regulation of oocyte maturation and at the moment of fertilization. Using single-cell x-ray fluorescence, Woodruff and O'Halloran described the phenomenon of the "zinc spark," an event during which 10 billion zinc ions are lost from the egg. The discovery of the zinc spark was named as one of Discover magazine's top 100 stories of 2016.

Oncofertility research

At Northwestern University, Woodruff led a highly collaborative effort that resulted in the development of a hydrogel that acts as a 3-dimensional support system for encapsulated in vitro culture of the ovarian follicle and its enclosed maturing oocyte (eIVFG). Live births in mice resulted from these studies, and this work was named as the most important breakthrough of the decade 1998-2008 by Nature Medicine. eIVFG methods were subsequently used to develop and test a microfluidic system that supports 28-day reproductive cycles ex vivo—an "ovarian cycle in a dish." On March 28, 2017, her team announced the creation of Evatar, a miniaturized female reproductive tract composed of ovarian follicles or intact ovaries (mouse) interconnected with human explants from fallopian tubes, uterus, and cervix with liver organoids to provide a metabolic management tissue system. Woodruff and team also recently created decellularized and 3D-printed ovarian bioprosthetics as replacement organs for women who have lost gonadal function. The development of an ovarian bioprosthetic was named as one of Discover magazine's 100 most important discoveries of 2018, and was recognized as a top five medical breakthrough by the Chinese Academy of Science. Her work to bridge the basic sciences and medicine was recognized with a Halo Award in 2018.

In 2006, Woodruff introduced the term oncofertility to describe the application of her work to meeting the fertility needs of young cancer patients and she has "been at the center of the movement ever since." With a $21.5-million National Institutes of Health Interdisciplinary Roadmap Grant awarded in 2007, she launched the Oncofertility Consortium, an interdisciplinary team of oncologists, fertility specialists, social scientists, educators, and policy makers dedicated to the clinical care of women at risk of losing their fertility because of cancer treatment. As part of the Oncofertility Consortium, Dr. Woodruff helped form the National Physicians Cooperative (NPC) to facilitate sharing of fertility preservation protocols and techniques between reproductive endocrinology practices and ensure that clinicians and patients receive up-to-date information about available treatment options.

Educational work
Woodruff was named director of the newly formed Institute for Women's Health Research at Northwestern University, where she spearheads advocacy and education on sex equity in biomedical research, the attrition of women from STEM fields, and the need for greater knowledge of basic science concepts among patients. Her call for sex equity in clinical trials was the subject of a 2014 interview with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes.

Woodruff also created the Women's Health Science Program (WHSP) for High School Girls & Beyond to provide science education programs to 9th -12th grade female students in Chicago Public Schools. WHSP runs four academies: the Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA), Cardiology Summer Academy (CSA), Infectious Disease Summer Academy (IDSA), and Physical Science Weekend Academy (PSWA). For this work, Dr. Woodruff was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring in an Oval Office ceremony in 2011.

Woodruff created a series of videos for 8- to 12-year-olds covering topics such as puberty, menstruation, and anatomy; a MOOC for college students on reproductive health; and the Repropedia, a dictionary of reproductive science and health terms, created and updated by science and clinician contributors, for links to websites and social media to ensure accurate understanding of key terms by the public.

In 2015, Woodruff was named the Director of the Center for Reproductive Science at Northwestern University. In 2016, she founded the Masters of Science in Reproductive Science and Medicine program within the Center.

Woodruff joined Michigan State University in August of 2020. She was hired as the new provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. She was appointed interim president on October 31, 2022 and would assume the position after outgoing president Samuel L. Stanley Jr. stepped down on January 11, 2023. Stanley stepped down from the position early on November 4, 2022 and Woodruff took over as interim president.

Awards and recognition
Woodruff holds 10 U.S. Patents. In 2017, she received a Guggenheim Award and was elected to the National Academy of Inventors. She was elected as a fellow to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018. Woodruff is also an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005 as well as the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2017.

Service
Woodruff has served on the school board of the Chicago-based Young Women's Leadership Charter School and as president of The Endocrine Society, and was selected as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Endocrinology in September 2017. Dr. Woodruff has also served with the Economic Club of Chicago since 2015 and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Adler Planetarium since 2018.

References

External links

Living people
Olivet Nazarene University alumni
Northwestern University faculty
American oncologists
Women oncologists
20th-century American scientists
20th-century American women scientists
21st-century American scientists
21st-century American women scientists
Year of birth missing (living people)
American scientists
American women academics
Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Teresa Woodruff


Route

For mapping purposes, the route is split at Glasgow into Lochs and Glens (south)

and (north)

Sunderland to Carlisle
This route follows the Sea to Sea (C2C) cycle route for much of its length before the C2C departs to Whitehaven and NCN7 continues to Carlisle.

Carlisle to Glasgow
The route runs from Carlisle across the border to Dumfries; this section takes a long route at present, but may change following the construction of an "all-purpose route" alongside the M6 extension. In Scotland, the route then heads west to Dumfries and then Newton Stewart. At this point, it does not use the route of the abandoned Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railway. It then splits into alternative on and off-road paths to run north through hilly country to meet the coast again at Ayr.  After meeting the NCN 73 near Kilwinning, it follows back roads and an old railway, meets the NCN 75 west of Paisley, which run together into Glasgow, with 7 and 75 splitting outside the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.

Carlisle | Dumfries | Newton Stewart | Ayr | Kilwinning | Paisley | Glasgow

Glasgow to Pitlochry
From the point described above, the trail proceeds west along the north of the River Clyde, through Dumbarton to Loch Lomond at Balloch.  Regional route 40 branches off here, while the route turns north east into the Trossachs.  Passing through Drymen, Aberfoyle and Callander (where it planned to meet NCN 76) it then goes north through Strathyre and Glen Ogle to Killin.  Much of this section of the route is off road, using the old trackbed of the former Callander and Oban Railway and Killin Railway .  From Killin, the route runs along the south shore of Loch Tay, and then down the glen east, crossing the Tay on the former railway bridge at Logierait from where it turns north to Pitlochry, meeting the NCN 77.

Glasgow | Dumbarton | Balloch | Drymen | Aberfoyle | Callander | Balquhidder | Killin | Kenmore | Pitlochry

Pitlochry to Inverness
The route north from Pitlochry roughly follows the route of the A9 road and Highland Main Line railway through the Grampian mountains via the Pass of Killiecrankie, Pass of Drumochter and  Slochd Summit to the Moray Firth at Inverness.

Pitlochry | Blair Atholl | Newtonmore | Kingussie | Aviemore | Culloden | Inverness

References

National Cycle Routes

National Cycle Route 7


Bloodchild is a young adult novel written by British author Tim Bowler. It was originally published in 2008 in the UK.  Bloodchild opens with a startling scene of visionary sensation. A boy lies dying in a deserted country lane. As he slips away, he sees almost abstract blocks of colour, as vivid and monumental as a Rothko painting. A deep blue ocean is sucking him under; misty red faces are swirling like shadows around him; and a girl with blue eyes as wide as the ocean is commanding him back to life.

Against all the odds he survives – but with an almost total loss of memory. He does not even know himself. And that is not all. At night he is tormented by visions, in the daytime by hostile strangers. Why does he have so many enemies? And who is the strange child who seems to have a story to tell him? Something has happened in this town, something terrifying. Will can sense it but he can't work out what it was. Perhaps the old Will knew. But that was before the accident. The new Will must search for the answers again – and this is a dangerous task. For the town has a secret and there are those who will do everything in their power to preserve it. Even kill.

References

External links
Tim Bowler
Oxford University Press

Bloodchild at Fantastic Fiction

2008 British novels
British young adult novels
Novels by Tim Bowler
Oxford University Press books

Bloodchild (novel)


Monty Comes Back is a 2016 American drama/comedy film written and directed by Thomas John Nudi and starring Brandon Tyler Jones. The film is set almost entirely in Anna Maria Island, Florida and filmed on location, as well as in Bradenton and Sarasota. It was shot in 16 days during the summer of 2015 on a production budget of only $15,000 collected from a successful Kickstarter campaign, as well as private investors.

Synopsis
Monty (Brandon Tyler Jones) is a semi-successful thespian working in Detroit, Michigan. A former Genius Grant recipient, he has squandered his funds and remains in stasis at a local community theater. After losing his job due to an over-inflated ego, he returns home to Anna Maria Island, Florida to stay with his parents, Ed (Brad Clark) and Marie (Deborah Childs), under the false pretense of being on a "creative hiatus". During his time home, he continues to let his ego destroy his relationships with family and friends while trying to renovate his grandfather's old Chevrolet 210.

Cast

 Brandon Tyler Jones as Monty
 Deborah Childs as Marie
 Brad Clark as Ed
 Stephen Birge as Joel
 Jessica Cohen as Lula
 Johnny Hobbs as Bob the Fisherman
 Paul Saulo as Jim
 David McMahon as Tucker the Trucker

Background

Thomas John Nudi initially wrote the screenplay for the film during his time as a film production graduate at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, while studying under Barry W. Blaustein (Saturday Night Live, Coming to America). Semi-autobiographical in nature, the film is based on his feelings returning to his hometown after reaching moderate levels of academic success.

The script was acquired by NuFamCo Films in May 2014, and pre-production began in fall of that year.

Production
Monty Comes Back is directed by Thomas John Nudi and produced by Nudi, Vincent Dale, and Trishul Thejasvi (who also doubled as the film's cinematographer). Production was funded by donations through Kickstarter and investors from around Florida's Gulf Coast. Nearly the entire cast and crew volunteered for their respective roles, with much of the crew coming from Ringling College of Art and Design and Suncoast Technical College. Other than Brandon Tyler Jones, a resident of New York City at time of production, and Deborah Childs, of Atlanta, Georgia, the cast was made up entirely of Florida actors.

Filmed over the course of sixteen days between May and June 2015, locations, props, and numerous other resources were donated by businesses and the communities of Manatee County and Sarasota County.

Music

Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the film is made up entirely of songs by independent musicians, the majority of whom are Florida-based, of which Nudi collected over a decade. The rights for use in the film were donated by all the artists featured.

Track listing
"Shhh/Peaceful" - The Craters
"The Hell and Back" - Archangel
"Chiefin' & Rollin' (BFMO Remix)" - S.B.E.
"In the Mood" - The Bob Dewart Group
"People Say" - The Hobies
"ZZzzz" - The Craters
"Cold Light, Cold Air" - The Roseline
"Horseshoes and Hand Grenades" - The Prospect
"Brighter Light" - The Hobies
"All by Myself" - Gainstaville
"Keep Running and You'll Never Escape" - Reggie Williams
"Let's Chill" - S.B.E.
"Soul" - The Smokin' Bones
"Leaving the Console" - Colin Pepper
"Prolly" - Shelby Baldock

Score
The film's score is composed by Dylan Glatthorn, and will be released as a digital download in Summer 2016.

Reception
Monty Comes Back is an official selection of the 18th annual Sarasota Film Festival, and premiered April 2, 2016.

Awards

Wins

 Sarasota Film Festival
 Audience Award - Best Florida Feature

See also

References

External links

2016 comedy-drama films
American comedy-drama films
Films set in Florida
Films shot in Florida
2016 films
American independent films
Kickstarter-funded films
2016 directorial debut films
2016 independent films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films

Monty Comes Back


Swanwick Shore Strict Baptist Chapel is a Strict Baptist place of worship in Lower Swanwick, a village in the Borough of Fareham in Hampshire, England.  It has been in continuous use for worship since 1844, when it succeeded a converted boat-shed which had become unsuitable.  Worshippers had gathered there since 1835, led by a pastor who had previously attended a different chapel nearby and who continued to lead the congregation until his death in 1892.  Historic England has listed the simple brick building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

History
In the early 19th century, Nonconformist Christians living in the Swanwick area of South Hampshire were provided for at an Independent (later Congregational) chapel which opened at nearby Sarisbury in 1803, several years after worshippers began meeting in local houses.  George Harding, a regular attendee, sometimes ministered in the chapel, but after a few years it was temporarily closed.  By the time it reopened, Harding's beliefs had changed and were more closely aligned with those of the Strict Baptist movement.  He began to minister to people sympathetic to that cause, initially in houses and then from 1835 in a boat-shed he acquired and fitted out as a meeting house.

This wooden building was "not an ideal place": measuring  and built entirely of wood, it often overheated, regularly flooded—especially at high tide on the River Hamble, a tidal river on which the shed stood—and soon became so popular as a place of worship that no more people could get in.  In 1844, the building was condemned, and Harding arranged for a new permanent chapel to be built close to the site.  John Moody, who owned the riverside boatyard where he founded Moody Yachts and where the old shed stood, assisted with this.  It was completed the same year; the date is commemorated on a stone in the gable.

George Harding remained as pastor until his death in 1892.  A vestry was built to the rear of the chapel in the 1870s, but few changes have taken place to the building since then apart from some small alterations in the late 20th century.  The chapel was awarded Grade II listed status on 26 September 2005; this defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest".  As of February 2001 it was one of 406 Grade II listed buildings, and 423 listed buildings of all grades, in the Borough of Fareham.

Architecture
The chapel stands back slightly from Bridge Road (the A27), historically the main route between Southampton, Fareham and Portsmouth.  Externally the building is very simple: of red and grey brick with a slate-tiled roof, it has a symmetrical east-facing façade with two large, slightly recessed, arched blind windows set below the gable and above a central doorway.  Between the round-arched tops of the blank windows is a datestone (click for image) reading .  The bricks are laid in the Flemish bond pattern, and at the bottom there is a rendered plinth.  The panelled double doors sit below a slate projection carried on plain brackets.  The north and south elevations are similar: they have two sash windows set between projecting brick pilasters.  The north face has a small additional window, a later addition.  The vestry to the rear is, like the chapel itself, of one storey but is shorter; the walls are rendered, and there is a single sash window.

See also
 List of places of worship in the Borough of Fareham

Notes

References

Citations

Sources
 General sources

External links

1835 establishments in England
19th-century churches in the United Kingdom
Baptist churches in Hampshire
Borough of Fareham
Churches completed in 1844
Grade II listed churches in Hampshire

Swanwick Shore Strict Baptist Chapel


Monads are a way of organizing code in functional programming languages. They provide a structure for handling complex operations that involve multiple steps or may fail at some point.

In simpler terms, a Monad is like a box that holds some value or computation. You can use certain operations, like 'bind' or 'map', to extract the value from the box, modify it, or put it into another box.

One of the benefits of using Monads is that they can help you write more readable and maintainable code, by separating the concerns of handling errors, side effects, and pure computations.

Some common examples of Monads in functional programming languages include the Maybe Monad for handling null values or errors, the List Monad for dealing with collections, and the IO Monad for working with input/output operations.

Programming languages

Monad (functional programming)


The Impossible Man is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #11 (February 1963), and was created by writer Stan Lee and writer/artist Jack Kirby. The Impossible Man has been featured in other Marvel-endorsed products such as action figures, arcade and video games, animated television series, and merchandise such as trading cards.

The Impossible Man is a Poppupian from the planet Poppup and has shape-changing abilities. The character is primarily used for comedy, as he is portrayed as a lonely, attention seeking alien that often annoys those around him, especially the Fantastic Four. Over the years, the Impossible Man created a wife called The Impossible Woman and also had a son named Adolf Impossible.

The Impossible Man has made various appearances in Marvel cartoon series, such as the 1978 and 1994 Fantastic Four series as well as Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.

Publication history
The Impossible Man first appeared in Fantastic Four #11 (Feb 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. According to Lee in a 1970 interview, this "was the worst-selling Fantastic Four we've ever had". In Lee's opinion, the green alien on the cover was "too unusual and too frivolous."

After a long absence, Impossible Man returned in Fantastic Four #175 (Oct 1976) and visited the Marvel Comics office. At the end of the story, he was adopted by the Fantastic Four. This time, the character became popular. He remained a regular part of the comic until #195 (June 1978), when Sue told him that she was tired of him, and he turned into a bee and flew away.

Originally, there were no limits to Impossible Man's transforming abilities - he convincingly imitated Sue Richards in Fantastic Four #175 (Oct 1976) and President Jimmy Carter in Marvel Two-in-One #27 (May 1977) - but in The New Mutants Annual #3 (Sept 1987), he could only turn into something that was green and purple, and that limitation has stuck ever since.

Fictional character biography

1960s
When the Impossible Man first appeared, he was different from previous guest stars in that he was not a villain. The team first meet him at the Flamingo restaurant when they are summoned there to investigate a disturbance.  Written by Lee to be a prankster and hedonist, the Impossible Man claimed to belong to the alien race of Poppupians from planet Poppup in the "Tenth Galaxy", who all share a collective consciousness and the ability to shapeshift, as their planet is so dangerous they have the ability to evolve very quickly. Seeking amusement, the character visits Earth for a vacation by turning himself into a spaceship, talking of a Poppup Tourist Bureau. After finding the superhero team the Fantastic Four and realizing nobody else on Earth has his power (therefore concluding he is the most powerful being on Earth), he constantly harasses them until they decide to ignore him and tell other people to do the same, forcing the Impossible Man to leave as he finds Earth so boring, and saying Earth will never get their tourist business. He gets his name after the Thing claims he is "impossible".

1970s
The character does not appear again until 1976. Acting as a deus ex machina in a storyline involving the cosmic entity and world-devourer Galactus, the Impossible Man convinces him to consume his homeworld Poppup instead of Earth, causing Galactus to seemingly perish from 'cosmic indigestion'. Since the Poppupians were a shared consciousness they were happy to sacrifice their planet to stop Galactus, knowing that their culture would live on in the embodiment of its most adventurous member. The Impossible Man then makes a humorous appearance at the offices of Marvel Comics, where he causes havoc until Stan Lee promises to give him his own title.

He offers peripheral assistance to the Fantastic Four when they are trapped in the Negative Zone by the Frightful Four, a team of their enemies. The Impossible Man impersonates Jimmy Carter, on the day of the Inauguration of Jimmy Carter. The Impossible Man briefly takes Carter's place to foil an attempt to enslave him during an adventure with the Thing and the cyborg Deathlok. He later saves the Invisible Woman from a fall and becomes fascinated with Earth movies. When returning to the Baxter Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, the Impossible Man is surprised and defeated by the villain Klaw, who, in an alliance with the Molecule Man, attempts to kill the Fantastic Four. During the course of the storyline, the character recovers and, courtesy of his abilities, mimics and defeats Klaw in turn and assists the Fantastic Four in stopping the Molecule Man. The character continued his trend of general disruption during a visit to Hollywood with the Invisible Girl.

1980s
After helping the Thing defeat several villains at a party, the Impossible Man observes the Thing with his partner Alicia Masters and becomes lonely. The character then decides to reproduce - here an asexual process - by splitting in two.  This creates fellow Poppupian the Impossible Woman. The pair later attempt to recreate their race and create the Impossible Kids, with the entire "family" visiting the Thing. When the Impossible Woman is missing, the character hires private investigator Jessica Drew to locate her, and has an encounter with the mutant X-Men after stealing artifacts from Earth to settle a supposed family dispute with the other members of his race.

More comedic adventures followed, with the Impossible Man engaging in a shapeshifting competition with Warlock, causing havoc on an alternate universe version of Earth, and trying to obtain the movie rights to the autobiography of professional sidekick Rick Jones.

1990s
The Impossible Man finds and teases the cosmic being the Silver Surfer on two occasions, pleading for him to develop a sense of humor before battling the titan Thanos. The character returns to Earth and causes more mischief, encounters the hero Daredevil while looking for a lost child, starts a bar fight, watches the Eternal Makkari win a galactic marathon, and invites various otherwise un-contacted heroes and supervillains to the wedding of Rick Jones.

After a brief encounter with the young superhero team the New Warriors, the character enlists the aid of mutant team X-Force to instill some pride in his children, and enters into a wager with the alternate universe imp Mister Mxyzptlk.

2000s
The Impossible Man and the Poppupians make a cameo appearance in Noh-Varr's origin story.

The Impossible Man returns to Earth disguised as the Silver Surfer, and after teasing the hero Spider-Man warns of an alien invasion. The Impossible Man's race are also revealed to have survived, with their consciousness stored inside the character. With the aid of the Fantastic Four, the aliens and the newly reborn Poppupians are transported off world, merging into one race on Spider-Man's suggestion.

2010s
Later during the Chaos War, the Impossible Man confronts Mikaboshi, trying to humor and reason with him while shapeshifting in various forms to divert him, but the Chaos King tires of him and brutally dispatches him. Impossible Man's last words are "I thought we were just playing around..."

Impossible Man returns to Earth where he witnesses a battle between Hulk, Red Hulk, and Xemnu. Impossible Man uses his magic to combine Hulk and Red Hulk into the Compound Hulk. Impossible Man watches as the Compound Hulk fights Xemnu's minion Kluh (a smart version of the Gray Hulk).

Impossible Man is later shown to have a son named Adolf Impossible who has many of his father's fantastic powers and has a much more introverted personality. This causes Impossible Man to label Adolf as "entirely too possible" and plead with the Future Foundation to accept him and allow him to grow as a person.

Powers and abilities
The Impossible Man's unique physiology enables him to take on virtually any form via molecular manipulation, an effect commonly accompanied by a "Pop!" sound. He can mimic the properties of objects or humanoid beings at will. Almost every feature the Impossible Man copies another superhuman's appearance and their powers, such as Thor, Klaw, or even Wolverine. He has the ability to travel through hyperspace across different universes, psionically levitate himself, and reproduce asexually. The Impossible Man and his mate are able to survive in the vacuum of space for months without sustenance by inducing a low-metabolic rate onto themselves.

The Impossible Man possesses total knowledge of Earth's popular culture.

Other versions

Wha...Huh?
Impossible Man appears in the spoof comic "Wha...Huh?" in the segment titled "What If Identity Crisis Happened in the Marvel Universe". He appears as a villain that few of the heroes remember.

The Cross-Time Caper
The Impossible Man appears in Excalibur, during the Cross-Time Caper. He has populated an analogue of the Earth with multiple twisted versions of the superheroes of the Marvel Universe (such as Daredevil, the 'Man without Common Sense').  This version of the Earth is destroyed by Galactus, who deems it "Too silly to be allowed to exist", and deems the Impossible Man as "In your own way... as great a threat as the Phoenix". Once Galactus leaves, Impossible Man repopulates the planet effortlessly, allowing the mayhem to begin again. His powers in this reality generate a 'Pip' rather than a 'Pop'.

In other media

Television
 The Impossible Man appears in a self-titled episode of Fantastic Four (1978), voiced by Frank Welker.
 The Impossible Man appears in the Fantastic Four (1994) episode "Hopelessly Impossible", voiced by Jess Harnell.
 The Impossible Man appears in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, voiced by Terry Klassen.
 The Impossible Man appears in The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced again by Jess Harnell.
 The Impossible Man appears in the Avengers Assemble episode "Avengers: Impossible", voiced by Tom Kenny.
 Impossible Man appears in the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "Mission Impossible Man", voiced again by Tom Kenny.

Video games
Impossible Man appears as a mini-boss in Super Hero Squad Online.

References

External links
 Impossible Man at Marvel.com

Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Stan Lee
Comics characters introduced in 1963
Cultural depictions of Jimmy Carter
Fictional characters who can duplicate themselves
Fictional characters with dimensional travel abilities
Fictional characters with slowed ageing
Fictional pranksters
Marvel Comics characters who are shapeshifters
Marvel Comics male superheroes
Marvel Comics male supervillains
Marvel Comics superheroes
Marvel Comics supervillains

Impossible Man


Đặng Dung (Chữ Hán: 鄧容, 1373 - 1414) was the poet and general of the later Tran Dynasty in Vietnamese history.

Biography
Đặng Dung was born in Ta Ha Commune, Thien Loc District, Nghe An (now Can Loc District, Ha Tinh Province). He was the eldest son of Dang Tat.

During the Ho dynasty, Đặng Dung assisted his father in governing Thuận Hóa. However, when the Ming army occupied the country (then known as Đại Ngu), the Hồ Dynasty collapsed. In response, Đặng Dung and his father participated in the insurrection led by Trần Ngỗi, also known as Giản Định Đế.

In 1409, following the war in Bô Cô (Hiếu Cổ commune, Ý Yên district, now Nam Định Province), Emperor Giản Định, influenced by the words of eunuchs Nguyễn Quỹ and Nguyễn Mộng Trang, who accused Đặng Tất of being an autocrat, ordered the execution of Đặng Tất and Nguyễn Cảnh Chân. Outraged by these events, Đặng Dung left Trần Ngỗi and, along with Nguyễn Cảnh Di (son of Nguyễn Cảnh Chân), led the troops from Thuận Hóa to Thanh Hóa. Trần Quý Khoáng was then crowned emperor.

In 1413, when the Ming forces launched an offensive against Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An, both Giản Định and Trần Quý Khoáng's armies retreated to the mountains and forests. Eventually, Trần Quý Khoáng and his entire clan were captured in 1413. In solidarity, Đặng Dung chose to take his own life alongside Trần Quý Khoáng.

References

Trần dynasty generals
Vietnamese male poets
1414 deaths
1373 births
15th-century Vietnamese poets
14th-century Vietnamese people

Đặng Dung


A rectangular cuboid, also called rectangular parallelepiped (or orthogonal parallelepiped) is a special case of cuboids and parallelepipeds in which all angles are right angles, and opposite faces are equal.  By definition this makes it a right rectangular prism.
Rectangular prisms are often referred to colloquially as "boxes" (after the physical object).

A square rectangular cuboid (also called square cuboid, square box, or right square prism) is a special case of a rectangular cuboid in which at least two faces are squares. It has Schläfli symbol {4} × { }, and its symmetry is doubled from [2,2] to [4,2], order 16.

A cube is a special case of a square rectangular cuboid in which all six faces are squares. It has the Schläfli symbol {4,3}, and its symmetry is raised from [2,2], to [4,3], order 48.

If the dimensions of a rectangular cuboid are a, b and c, then its volume is abc and its surface area is 2(ab + ac + bc).
The length of the space diagonal is

Rectangular cuboid shapes are often used for boxes, cupboards, rooms, buildings, containers, cabinets, books, sturdy computer chassis, printing devices, electronic calling touchscreen devices, washing and drying machines, etc. They are among those solids that can tessellate three-dimensional space. The shape is fairly versatile in being able to contain multiple smaller rectangular cuboids, e.g. sugar cubes in a box, boxes in a cupboard, cupboards in a room, and rooms in a building.

A rectangular cuboid with integer edges as well as integer face diagonals is called an Euler brick, for example, with sides 44, 117 and 240.
A perfect cuboid is an Euler brick whose space diagonal is also an integer. It is currently unknown whether a perfect cuboid actually exists.

The number of different nets for a simple cube is 11. However, this number increases significantly to (at least) 54 for a rectangular cuboid of three different lengths.

See also
Hyperrectangle
Minimum bounding box
Rectangle

Notes

References

Orthogonality

Rectangular cuboid


The list of Texas hurricanes lists tropical storms and hurricanes that hit the U.S. State of Texas during that 50-year period.

1900-1929
September 8-9, 1900: The 1900 Galveston Hurricane hit Galveston, Texas. The storm killed 8,000 to 12,000 people, mostly in Texas. It also caused $30 million in damage. It was the deadliest hurricane to ever hit the United States.

August 16-18, 1915: The 1915 Galveston hurricane hit just to the southwest of Galveston. The storm caused $56 million in damage in Texas alone. There were 111 deaths in or near Texas.

September 14-15, 1919: The 1919 Florida Keys hurricane struck near Corpus Christi, Texas. The storm took 284 to 300 lives near Corpus Christi.

1930-1949
August 13-14, 1932: The 1932 Freeport hurricane hit around Freeport. The storm caused forty deaths in Texas.

September 4-5, 1933: The eleventh storm struck just north of Brownsville. It killed 179 people. It caused $28 million in damage.

August 29-30, 1942: The 1942 Matagorda hurricane hit around Matagorda, Texas. It did $26.5 million in damage in south-central Texas. Eight people died.

July 27, 1943: The 1943 Surprise Hurricane hit at the Bolivar Peninsula, near Galveston. It was a Category 2 storm having winds near 105 mph. The storm killed 19 people. It caused $17 million in damage.

References

History of Texas

List of Texas hurricanes (1900–1949)


Vitaly Dmitrievich Shafranov (; December 1, 1929 – June 9, 2014) was a Russian theoretical physicist and Academician who worked with plasma physics and thermonuclear fusion research.

Life
Vitaly Dmitrievich Shafranov was born  in the village of Mordvinovo in Ryazan region in 1929. During World War II, Schafranov attended the school and worked together with his father building roads. In 1943 he got his first national award at the age 14. From 1946, Schafranov studied at the Physics Department of the Moscow State University. After graduating in 1951, he started to work with nuclear fusion in the Theory Department headed by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Leontovich at LIPAN (Laboratory of Measuring Instruments of the USSR Academy of Sciences) as today's Russian Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute" was known at the time. He examined tokamaks stability and gave some parameter estimation for Soviet tokamak experiments. He also dealt with shock waves in plasmas and interaction of electromagnetic waves with plasmas. Later, he worked intensively on stellarators. In 1981 he became the successor of Leontovich as head of the Theory Department of Nuclear Fusion at the Kurchatov Institute.

Concepts such as the Shafranov shift (1959), the Kruskal-Shafranov stability criterion and limit value and the Grad-Shafranov equation (1957) are named after him. In 1972, he suggested with Lev Artsimovich a tokamak with D-shaped cross-section.

In 2001 he received the Hannes Alfvén Prize. In 1981 he became a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and full member of the Academy in 1997. In 1971 he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR and the Lenin Prize in 1984.

Since 1983 he was editor of Plasma Physics Reports (Fizika Plasmy). From the death of Boris Kadomtsev to his death, he served as the editor of the Reviews of Plasma Physics collection.

Selected work
 On magnetohydrodynamical equilibrium configurations, Soviet Physics JETP, vol. 6, 1983, p. 1013.
 Plasma Equilibrium in a Magnetic Field, in  Leontovich, M. A. (Ed.): Reviews of Plasma Physics, vol. 2, 1963.
 Electromagnetic waves in a plasma, in Leontovich: Reviews of Plasma Physics, vol. 3, 1963.
 V. S. Mukhovatov: Plasma equilibrium in a Tokamak, Nuclear Fusion, vol. 11, 1971, p. 605.
 Determination of the parameters  and  in a tokamak for arbitrary shape of plasma pinch cross-section, Plasma Physics, vol. 13, 1971, 757.
 L E Zakharov, V D Shafranov. Equilibrium of a toroidal plasma with noncircular cross-section, Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys. vol. 18, 1973, 151–156.
 L. E. Zakharov, V. D. Shafranov. Evolution of equilibrium of toroidal plasma, in B. Kadomtsev, Plasma Physics, Advances in Science and Technology in the USSR Physics Series, MIR Moscow 1981.
 L. E. Zakharov, V. D. Shafranov. Equilibrium of current carrying plasmas in toroidal configurations, in M. A. Leontovich Reviews of Plasma Physics, vol. 11, Consultants Bureau, New York 1986.
  V. D. Shafranov. Magnetohydrodynamic theory of plasma equilibrium and stability in stellarators: a survey of results, Physics of Fluids, vol. 26, 1983, S. 357.
 V. D. Pustovitov in B. Kadomtsev: Reviews of Plasma Physics, vol. 15, 1989, 163.

References

External links
 Award of the 2001 Hannes Alfvén Prize of the European Physical Society to Professor Vitaly Shafranov
 Vitalii Dmitrievich Shafranov (on his 80th birthday)

1929 births
2014 deaths
Soviet physicists
20th-century Russian physicists
Recipients of the Lenin Prize
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Plasma physicists

Vitaly Shafranov


Michael Joseph McKenna (8 December 1951 in Bairnsdale, Victoria), an Australian suffragan bishop, is the eighth Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Bathurst, appointed in 2009.

Early years and background
The eldest of the eleven children born to Maxwell and Marie (née Warburton) McKenna, Michael McKenna was educated at St Patrick's School, Stratford, and at St Patrick's College, Sale. From 1971–74, he studied in the Honours Schools of Political Science and English Literature at The University of Melbourne. With an early interest in audio and video technology, McKenna worked as a producer and presenter on 3RRR-FM and showed works at the Melbourne Fringe and St Kilda Film Festivals. He commenced studying for the priesthood at St Paul's National Seminary, Sydney, and in 1983 was ordained priest by Bishop D'Arcy; graduating in theology from the Sydney College of Divinity in 1984.

Returning to Victoria, McKenna was appointed an Assistant Priest in the parish of St Joseph's, Warragul in the Diocese of Sale before moving to an administrative role as Bishop's Secretary, Diocesan Secretary and Chancellor where he was a regular columnist in the diocesan monthly newspaper, Catholic Life. While undertaking postgraduate studies from the Gregorian University in Rome, in 1991 McKenna was elected as General Secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, based in Canberra. During 1998 he was Administrator of Lumen Christi Parish, Churchill before taking up a Resident Fellowship in the Divinity School of Harvard University.

Serving as rector of Corpus Christi College from 1999 until 2005, McKenna established strong links between the Seminary and the Catholic Church in Vietnam. He was a member of the Senate of Catholic Theological College and of the Melbourne College of Divinity, where he served as chair of the Board of Ministry Studies.

In 2006, McKenna was appointed as Catholic Chaplain to the University of Melbourne, where it is reported he reintroduced the celebration of Mass on campus and started new groups in social service, biblical study, Christian meditation and philosophy and faith. In 2007, he took on the pastoral care of All Saints Parish, Fitzroy, an inner city community of many cultures, most notably Vietnamese and Sudanese. That year, he was elected to the Archbishop's Council of Priests and appointed to the Melbourne Catholic-Evangelical-Pentecostal Dialogue.

Roman Catholic Bishop of Bathurst
On 15 April 2009 McKenna was appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Bathurst and was consecrated on 26 June 2009 by George Cardinal Pell, together with Bishops Emeritus Patrick Dougherty and Jeremiah Coffey, Bishop of Sale. It was the first time since the consecration of Bishop O'Farrell in 1920 that a bishop had been consecrated in Bathurst, though he was not consecrated in the Cathedral of St Michael and St John, but at St Stanislaus' College.

References

1951 births
Living people
Roman Catholic bishops of Bathurst
People from Bairnsdale
Pontifical Gregorian University alumni

Michael McKenna (bishop)


Ibbenbüren or Ibbenbueren is a medium-sized town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on position 185 of the biggest cities in Germany and the biggest city in Tecklenburger Land.

Geography
Ibbenbüren (Ibbenbueren) is on the Ibbenbürener Aa river, at the northwest end of the Teutoburger forest and rather exactly in the center of the two cities Rheine in the west and Osnabrück in the east, both about 20 km away.

History
Ibbenbüren is said in documentary evidence for the first time in 1146, when the bishop of Osnabrück at that time, Philipp of Katzenelnbogen, donated a tenth of his possessions in Ibbenbüren to the Getrudenkloster of Osnabrück. Although Ibbenbüren is already much older and a document of the year 1348 already occupies the establishment of a church in the year 799, the year 1146 is officially considered as the year of the foundation of Ibbenbüren.

In the years 1219 and/or 1234 it appears as church village. In this transition of the High Middle Ages to the Late Middle Ages the noble gentlemen of Ibbenbüren, that is the abbot of Herford and the counts of Tecklenburg, possessed basic rule in the place. To this time Ibbenbüren belonged to the Diocese of Osnabrück. During this time the castle of Ibbenbüren was built by the noble gentlemen of Ibbenbüren starting from 1150. Last remainder of this castle are the remnants of the heath tower in the proximity of the Aasee.

After the noble gentleman of Ibbenbüren died out, Ibbenbüren came under the exclusive rule of the counts of Tecklenburg. This rule lasted until the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century, when Ibbenbüren finally fell into possession Charles' V. in 1548 by awkward and luckless tactics used by the counts of Tecklenburg. Karl donated it to his sister Mary of Habsburg, governor of the Netherlands. Ibbenbüren was assigned to the office Lingen. Into this period also the falls the beginning of coal mining.

After Ibbenbüren repeatedly fell under control of the Netherlands and Spain in the Dutch Revolt, it was assigned to the House of Orange-Nassau after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In this time falls the beginning of iron ore mining in and around Ibbenbüren, which ended in the first half of the 19th century. By succession it came under Prussian rule in 1702. On February 1, 1724 Ibbenbüren attained municipal rights, which stood among other things in connection with the introduction excise duty. In the year 1743 the first magistrate and mayor appointed.

During the rule of Napoléon Bonaparte at the beginning of the 19th century, Ibbenbüren belonged to the first French Empire, until it was freed by Prussian and Russian troops in 1815. It came back under Prussian rule on January 1, 1816, resulting to be assigned to the district of Tecklenburg. After the end of World War II the city Ibbenbüren and the municipality Ibbenbüren Land formed by December 31, 1974 the department federation Ibbenbüren, resulting in today's city of Ibbenbüren. With the simultaneous dissolution of the district of Tecklenburg and fusion with the old district of Burgsteinfurt, Ibbenbüren was assigned to the new district of Steinfurt.

Coat of arms
Ibbenbüren's coat of arms has a golden anchor on a blue shield. The city colors are blue and gold.

References

Other websites

Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia
Steinfurt (district)

Ibbenbüren


During the occupation of Norway by Germany, the occupying powers imposed martial law in Trondheim and other surrounding areas, effective October 6, 1942 through October 12, 1942. During this time, 34 Norwegians were killed by extrajudicial execution. This also served as a pretext for the arrest and detention of all male Jewish inhabitants of the area as part of the Holocaust in Norway.

Background

There had been several incidents of sabotage and other acts of resistance in the months leading up to the introduction of martial law, but it is likely that the shooting of two German police officers at Majavatn on September 6 enraged Terboven enough to take this step. Preceding this, there had also been periods of martial law in Oslo, Asker, and Bærum from September 10 to September 16, 1941.

Some also speculate that news of the German military setbacks at the Battle of Stalingrad had reached the Norwegian resistance movement, and that German occupying powers were anxious to discourage more assertive bold moves by the resistance.

Martial law

Josef Terboven, the German Reichskommissar for the occupation of Norway, arrived by train in Trondheim on October 5. Starting on the morning of October 6, German soldiers posted red notices of "civilian martial law" all over the city. The area covered included the municipalities of Trondheim, Leinstrand, Strinda, Byneset, Orkdal, Orkanger, Orkland, Buvik, Børsa, Skaun, Geitastrand, Klæbu, Tiller, Malvik; the entire county of Nord-Trøndelag, and Grane in Nordland, where the Majavatn incident took place. In addition, surrounding municipalities, such as Melhus, were subject to curfew. The conditions of martial law included a general curfew from 8 PM to 5 AM; a general prohibition against using railroads and other long-distance transportation means; and a prohibition against assembly. Violations were to be punished with no less than ten years' imprisonment at hard labor or with capital punishment. To enforce martial law, Terboven mobilized nearly 13,000 police officers, Hirdmen, and soldiers with over 3,000 vehicles.

Terboven stopped the publication of all newspapers on October 6, convening a public meeting in the main square, addressing an audience that primarily consisted of German and Norwegian police officers. He warned against "inferior racial elements" that colluded with the "emigrant clique in London," promising that he would "seize the large...those that pull the strings," and that "this evening the public will become familiar with how this principle is put into action."

Extrajudicial executions

That evening, Terboven announced from a loudspeaker in the main square in Trondheim that 10 prominent residents of the area had been executed as "atonement sacrifices" (soneofre) at what became the killing grounds in Falstadskogen near Falstad concentration camp, north of Trondheim at 6 PM that evening, and all their financial assets confiscated.

Those executed were:

From Trondheim, attorney Otto Skirstad, theater director Henry Gleditsch, editor Harald Langhelle, merchant Hirsch Komissar, engineer Hans Konrad Ekornes, bank president Gunnar Sandberg Birch, captain Finn Berg, and shipowner Per Tangen Lykke; attorney Bull Aakran from Røros, and construction leader Peder Eggen from Klæbu.

Eight of these were still held at the Gestapo headquarters in Misjonshotellet one block from the square and heard the announcement of their deaths. These eight were later taken by car to Falstad concentration camp, where they were joined by the remaining two for the short drive to Falstadskogen. They were bound, blindfolded, and placed two and two in front of a mass grave that had been dug that day. They were shot at short range by a firing squad of ten.

Terboven also convened a tribunal in Falstad to try individuals "hostile to the state" on October 7. Chaired by Gerhard Flesch, this tribunal condemned 15 from the municipality of Grane to death, and these were shot the following morning. An additional 9 were condemned on October 8 and executed October 9, bringing the total number of extrajudicial executions to 34.

The additional 24 executed were:

Peder Stor-Tjønnli, Majavatn; Johan Audun, Bogfjellmo; Johan Øygård, Aursletta; Einar Øygård, Aursletta; Ole Sæter, Aursletta; Olaf Svebakk, Svebakk; Alf Stormo, Trofors; Oddvar Olsen Majavatn; Magnus Lien Stavasdalen; Edvard Sæter; Sæter; Peter Lund, Sæter; Arne Holmen, Holmen; Mikael Holmen, Holmen; Aksel Johansen, Østerfjorden; Ingvald Melingen, Majavatn; Tormod Tverland, Tverland; Leif Sjøfors, Holmen; Bjarne Lien, Stavassdalen; Nils Møllersen, Stavassdalen; Arne Moen, Majavatn; Agnar Blåfjellmo, Blåfjellmo; Emil Øylund, Majavatn; Peder Forbergskog, Majavatn; and Rasmus Skerpe, from Majavatn Of the 43 Norwegians executed at Falstad, 34 were killed during the martial law.

In addition to arresting a dozen or so Jewish men in the course of these days, the authorities raided 1,434 residential properties and arrested 93 individuals.

In a petty and unpopular gesture, the Norwegian county governor, Henrik Rogstad, also prohibited the sale of tobacco in Trondheim. Terboven invited to a celebratory party in his train car the evening martial law was imposed.

Martial law was lifted on October 12 when the occupying authorities determined that law and order had once again been established.

Effects and legacy

Imposition of martial law in Trondheim and surrounding areas was characteristic of Terboven's "iron fist" policy of governing Norway through fear, intimidation, and capricious violence. Within a few months, most of Norway's Jews would be murdered in Auschwitz, driven underground, or to Sweden, where they sought refuge until the war ended. The arrest and deportation of political leaders into the Nacht und Nebel camps in Germany also intensified after this.

In truth, Norway was already under martial law by any conventional standard. The legally elected government was chased into exile by the invading German forces; a front government led by Vidkun Quisling was for all practical purposes completely under the control of Terboven's dictatorship. There was no freedom of the press or expression; freedom of assembly was severely curtailed; Norwegians were not free to move; the courts had become politicized; all central institutions, ranging from the Church of Norway to teachers' unions, and athletic events, were compromised in one way or another by the German authorities or Nasjonal Samling. The imposition of Terboven's version of martial law added capricious, deadly violence to make a point that was already clear to the Norwegian public.

However, it is doubtful that Terboven's measures did anything to weaken the resolve of the Norwegian resistance movement. In the remaining 2½ years of the occupation, resistance groups became more organized and coordinated, their connection with the outside world was strengthened, and public opinion against both Norwegian and German Nazi authorities stiffened.

References

1942 in Norway
20th century in Trondheim
The Holocaust in Norway
Trondheim in 1942
Norway in World War II
History of Nordland
History of Trøndelag

Martial law in Trondheim in 1942


Elinor Armer (born October 6, 1939) is an American pianist, music educator and composer.

Biography
Elinor Armer was born in Oakland, California but at the age of 2 months moved to Davis, California with her family where she would spend most of her childhood. Armer's father worked as an engineer and worked for the Agricultural Engineering Department for the University in Davis, which prompted the family's move.  Her father was an acoustical engineer and used to set up speakers in the family's living room, exposing Elinor to acoustics at a young age. Elinor first began sight-reading music and enjoying four-part harmony because of many hymnals found in the Armer home, due to her father's Methodist Evangelist background.

Armer comes from a family of California artists, her grandfather was a commercial artist and her grandmother was an author. Her mother was a writer as well and who sang and played the piano. Elinor shared her love of piano with her mother; they frequently sang and played together throughout her childhood. Armer was eight years old when she began playing the piano

Though her mother played the piano also, Elinor was taught to play by a neighbor, Fritz Berens, who happened to be a piano teacher. Her early lessons focused on ear training and dictation. These early music lessons fostered her love and influenced her becoming a composer later in life.

Armer says that some of the major influences in her life include participating in a rhythm band when she was in kindergarten, the radio, and the records her siblings and parents would play around the house.

She studied music under Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner for composition and Alexander Libermann for piano. She attended Mills College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in 1961, the University of California, Berkeley from 1966 to 1968, and California State University, San Francisco, where she received a Master of Arts degree in 1972. She teaches composition and chairs the department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has performed and lectured throughout the United States. She helped co-found the organization Composers, Inc. Her papers are housed at UC Berkeley Music Library.

Education
In 1957, Elinor graduated from Davis High School. While she did not know it then, Elinor would eventually go on to be induced into the Davis Senior High School Hall of Fame. She went on to attend Mills College for her secondary education. While there, she tried out several different majors before deciding on majoring in music composition. Her Piano teacher, Alexander Libermann, had a great deal of influence on her pursuing the piano. Libermann was a very popular professor during his time, and gave a series of lectures on the piano - how to practice, play, and teach. Elinor graduated from Mills college in 1961. From there she continued on to study her masters at UC Berkeley, although she went on to complete her graduate degree in composition from California State, San Francisco.

Career
Elinor Armer has traveled throughout the U.S. as well as abroad to perform. Her music styles range from orchestral to solo. The majority of Elinor's composition including Promptu and Etude Quasi Cadenza has been written for pianist Lois Brandwynee. Elinor Armer enjoys a world-renowned reputation for her work in music education. Elinor is aligned with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, in which she founded the Composition Department in 1985. Along with the Conservatory of Music, Elinor teaches piano, composition, music history, and theory to students out of her home studio located in Berkeley, CA.

Awards and honors
 The Norman Fromm Composer's Award
 Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Charles Ives Center for American Music, the Chamber Music Conference/Composer's Forum of the East, Yaddo, and the Djerassi Foundation
 The Gerbode Foundation New Music Composition Award (1991)

Works
Armer has produced a collaborative multi-part fantasy series with author Ursula K. Le Guin called Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts which has been recorded on the Koch International Label.

While attending Mills College, Elinor would record and transcribe her lectures with her professor, Alexander Libermann. Upon his death, Elinor and a team of others consolidated these lectures and published a book known as "A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano".

Discography
 Music of Darius Milhaud (2004) – Audio CD by Parallele Ensemble;Elinor Armer, Darius Milhaud, Nicole Paiement, Parallele Ensemble, et al., Kleos Classics
 Armer: Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts/Falletta (2 CDs) (1995) – Audio CD by Elinor Armer, JoAnn Falletta, Women's Philharmonic, San Francisco Girl's Chorus, et al., Koch Int'l Classics
 Sonata for Cello and Piano, Opus 11, Works for Cello and Piano (2000) – Audio CD by Paul Hindemith, Elinor Armer, Seymour Shifrin, Paul Turok, et al., Music & Arts Program

References

External links
 Official website
 Inventory of Armer compositions, UC Berkeley Music Library
 Elinor Armer Oral History Interview, San Francisco Conservatory of Music Library and Archives

1939 births
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
American women classical composers
American classical composers
American music educators
American women music educators
Living people
Mills College alumni
Musicians from Oakland, California
Pupils of Darius Milhaud
San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty
San Francisco State University alumni
21st-century American composers
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century American women pianists
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American composers
21st-century American women musicians
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers

Elinor Armer


Silverfall is an action role-playing video game, developed by software company Monte Cristo for Windows.  A port has been made for PlayStation Portable.  An expansion for the Windows version of the game, entitled Silverfall: Earth Awakening, was released in 2008. Silverfall: Gold Edition was also released in 2008, containing the main game as well as the expansion.

Plot
The Kingdom of Silverfall is being attacked by an unnamed evil force. The protagonist is asked to go to the city of Cloudworks, a technologically aligned city in the middle of a desert, to search for the Archmage of Silverfall. The protagonist finds the Archmage has been corrupted by the Shadow Mage, who is revealed as the same evil force attacking the kingdom as a whole.The Shadow mage possesses the Archmage's child and flees in its new vessel.

The party then returns to the ruined Silverfall to find the water supply has been contaminated by the undead summoned by the Shadow Mage, and must be purified by Gaian druids. The druids agree to bless the water, but ask that the protagonist kill the Prince of the corrupt Elves to prevent further attacks. The party slay the Prince.

The party receives the water to cleanse Silverfall's supplies but as they return, they discover the king has been killed and the princess kidnapped. The few clues left behind leads the party to Greybay.

In the Greybay docks, the party fights their way to a ship belonging to the Princess' kidnappers and kill the captain of the ship. On his body, directions are found to the Necroraider graveyard where the Princess is being held. The party then fight their way to the crypt of Iznahel, the creator of the Necroraiders. Upon Iznahel's defeat, the protagonist discovers that the means to defeat the Shadow Mage lie in the mountain town of Steelight.

Once there, they find that the current Duke of Steelight's health is rapidly failing. The duke's mother asks the player to find the legitimate heir, her grandchild, whom she exiled several years before. In exchange for finding the heir, the protagonist will be given the stone to save the Archmage's child. The child is rescued and returns to his grandmother.

The protagonist receives the stone to cleanse the Archmage's child, but before they can do so, the King of Darkness arrives and kills the child. It is revealed that the King of Darkness is creating a portal in the dwarven palace and after a battle with the protagonist where he's mortally wounded, he manages to escape through the portal to Blaize, where he plans to use the temple to summon the God.

The party follows him through and fights their way to the temple, where the Avatar of the God kills the King of Darkness. The Avatar then attacks the party, but is defeated. The protagonist is declared the King/Queen of the Silverfall.

Reception

Silverfall  received "mixed or average reviews"  on review aggregator Metacritic for the PC version based on 32 Reviews.

References

External links
SilverFall.net
GameRankings.com Reviews

2007 video games
Action role-playing video games
Cooperative video games
Fantasy video games
Monte Cristo (company) games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Multiplayer online games
PlayStation Portable games
Role-playing video games
Video games developed in France
Video games with gender-selectable protagonists
Windows games

Silverfall


The Güstrow–Schwaan railway is a single-track, electrified main line in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

History

In 1850, a branch was opened from the Bad Kleinen–Rostock railway in Bützow to Güstrow. In the following years the network was further expanded, including a connection from Güstrow to Neubrandenburg opened in 1864, which was extended to Stettin (now Szczecin in Poland) in 1867. The line from Gustrow to Plau was opened in 1882. What was still missing was a direct connection between Rostock and Güstrow, the largest and the fourth largest towns in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.  The Neustrelitz–Warnemünde railway (Lloyd Railway) was put into operation in 1886, connecting Rostock with Neustrelitz and Berlin, but bypassing Güstrow. A year later, two lines between Rostock and Güstrow emerged almost simultaneously. On the one hand, the Priemerburg–Plaaz railway was built by the Güstrow Plau Railway (), which provided a connection to Rostock via the Lloyd Railway. On the other hand, a state line was built by the Grand Duchy to Schwaan on the Bad Kleinen–Rostock railway. Originally the line was controlled from Schwiesow and Rukieten on the existing main lines, but by the end of the 19th century the line was controlled from local signal boxes in the stations of Güstrow and Schwaan.

In addition to local traffic, the line was significant for long-distance traffic. From 1895, trains from Berlin to Rostock and Copenhagen ran via Güstrow instead of on the direct route via Plaaz on the Lloyd Railway.

After the Second World War, the Lloyd Railway south of Plaaz was dismantled as reparations to the Soviet Union. As a result, after the reconstruction in 1948 of the Schwaan–Rostock line, which had also been dismantled for reparations, the Güstrow–Schwaan line became an important route for passenger and freight traffic. The traffic between Berlin and Rostock ran via Neubrandenburg and Güstrow. The route via Karow served as an alternate route. Güstrow station was rebuilt from 1952 to 1954 because of the increased freight traffic. The first relay interlocking of the Reichsbahndirektion (railway division) of Schwerin went into operation there in 1954.

Even after the reconstruction of the Lloyd Railway in 1960, the route was particularly important for long-distance services between Rostock and Berlin with more than half of the Durchgangszug (express) trains continued to run via Güstrow. The line was electrified in May 1985.

Since 1998, local trains running between Rostock and Güstrow have been included in the Rostock S-Bahn network. In subsequent years, the line speed was raised to 120 km/h and the last crossing opportunity located in former Mistorf station was removed.

Current situation

The line is served hourly (every two hours on weekends) by line S2 of the  Rostock S-Bahn (Warnemünde–Rostock Hauptbahnhof–Güstrow). Every two hours, a Regional-Express (RE5) runs on the Rostock–Berlin–Lutherstadt Wittenberg route; once a day this time slot is operated as the InterConnex service on the Warnemünde–Berlin–Leipzig route.

Notes

References

Railway lines in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
1850 establishments in Germany
Railway lines opened in 1850
Buildings and structures in Rostock (district)

Güstrow–Schwaan railway


If Kafoamotalau was the oldest son of Vaea, of his first wife, then why did Moeakiola, a younger brother, succeed their father? This only make sense if the latter ranked higher than the former because of the high rank of his mother. Then indeed Simuoko must have been a tamahā, despite the denial of it by some.
D.V. Burley; Sacred child and sacred place; Polynesian paradox, USP 2005; ISBN 982-02-0371-6

Vaea/en


Léolo is a 1992 Canadian coming of age-fantasy film by director Jean-Claude Lauzon. The film tells the story of a young boy named Léo "Léolo" Lauzon, played by Maxime Collin, who engages in an active fantasy life while growing up with his Montreal family, and begins to have sexual fantasies about his neighbour Bianca, played by Giuditta del Vecchio. The film also stars Ginette Reno, Pierre Bourgault, Andrée Lachapelle, Denys Arcand, Julien Guiomar, and Germain Houde. Gilbert Sicotte narrates the film as the adult Léolo.

With a story developed by Lauzon as a semi-autobiographical work, the project was supported by producer Lyse Lafontaine as a co-production with France. Filming took place in Montreal and Sicily in 1991. It was Lauzon's final film, as he died in a plane crash in 1997 while working on his next project.

Initially released in the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Léolo won three Genie Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Lauzon, losing Best Motion Picture to Naked Lunch. It later benefited from a resurgence of interest, leading to critics and filmmakers adding it to the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time in 2015. The film also influenced the naming of the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, when site co-creator Senh Duong decided upon the site name while viewing the film.

Plot
In Mile End, Montreal, Léo Lauzon is a young boy living in a tenement with his dysfunctional family, serving as the unreliable narrator. He uses his active fantasy life and the book L'avalée des avalés by Québécois novelist Réjean Ducharme to escape the reality of his life. He feels his father is insane and denies being his son. After having a dream revealing his mother was impregnated after falling into a cart of tomatoes contaminated by an Italian man's semen, Léo identifies as Italian rather than French Canadian and adopts the name Léolo Lozone.

Growing up in an apartment with a rat in the bathtub, a turkey and a family obsessed with regular bowel movements, Léolo continues to write. His writings are discovered by the Word Tamer, a reincarnation of Don Quixote who searches through trash for letters and photographs. Léolo observes a neighbouring young woman named Bianca and imagines her singing to him from a closet, emitting a white light. His grandfather, who Léolo believes attempted to murder him by holding him under a pool, helps her financially and extorts her for sexual favours, revealing her breasts and putting his feet in her mouth. Léolo begins to fantasize about Bianca sexually and discovers masturbation. Meanwhile, his brother Fernand, after being beaten by a bully and failed in a special education class, builds up impressive muscles. The Word Tamer, continuously monitoring Léolo's thoughts, reads of the boy's hopes for how Fernand's muscles will make them invincible. However, upon being confronted by the bully for a second time, Fernand is overwhelmed with fear and is beaten again while Léolo watches in shock.

Finally convinced his grandfather is responsible for all of the family's troubles, Léolo attempts to lower a noose and hang his grandfather while he is in the bath. His grandfather sees Léolo doing it and is choked, before finally being freed, with Léolo injured in the process. Léolo subsequently goes to the hospital, where he is told his actions could constitute attempted murder, though he is not charged. Reacting with horror to the ways other boys are pursuing sex, he seeks out the services of a prostitute named Regina. Upon later becoming ill, he ends up in the same institution where many other members of his family have been treated.

Cast

Themes and interpretations
New York remarked on the classical allusions in the story:
Léolo dreams of Sicily, of sunlight and Greek ruins, and of a slender Italian girl, Bianca, a neighbor, whom he imagines standing on a hill in Taormina singing to him. Léolo is meant to be a modern Dante sitting in one of the dark circles of his hell, and Bianca is his Beatrice.

The story is also related with a "dreamlike environment", with "choral music" that evokes "the possibility of spiritual transcendence". Part of the way the narrative shifts from natural to fantasy elements is through the Word Tamer character, who becomes "an omniscient god-like observer". Author Bill Marshall assessed the Word Tamer as one of the benign elders, as opposed to the bad ones, and hypothesized that the Word Tamer's abode, Federico Fellini's Cinecittà property, symbolizes the film's "exaggerated, grotesque realism".

Some Canadian analysis of Léolo has related to possible political symbolism and Quebec's national identity. In 1992 at the Toronto International Film Festival, programming director Piers Handling called the film an "epitaph for Quebec", in which the title character rejects his Quebecois identity and joins another world by fantasy. Canadian historian George Melnyk remarked that Pierre Bourgault is a prominent Quebec separatist, but is not allowed to say much in the film, which also features the muscular Fernand intimidated by a smaller English Canadian, and non-Quebecois music, concluding the film represented a "national identity crisis". Among the cosmopolitan music uses is Tibetan-style chanting, and songs by The Rolling Stones and Tom Waits. Film scholar Jim Leach wrote that in real life, Lauzon would call himself a Canadian director, despite contemporary belief Quebec cinema was distinct. In the narration, the setting "Mile End, Montreal, Canada" does not mention Quebec, and Léolo's supposed Italian father refers to the tomatoes as destined for "America" rather than Quebec, though they are sold in Montreal. It is also thought the film is set in the late 1950s, in the "old Quebec" before the Quiet Revolution.

However, Lauzon denied the film had any political meaning, saying he was not an intellectual, and his film "does not have the flag draped all over it". He also said he had an admiration for the Italian people. Leach questioned if the film is set before the Quiet Revolution, saying if Léolo was born in the 1950s, the 12-year-old character lived in 1965, and Ducharme's book seen in the film was published in 1967. Marshall noted the Ducharme novel would place the story in the 1960s, but argued "otherwise the feel is 1950s".

Production

Development
Director Jean-Claude Lauzon wrote the screenplay, starting it in Sicily while shooting his first film Night Zoo. It served in part as an autobiography, with Lauzon stating he wrote it "almost in a state of trance" and was initially unsure how the storyline would develop or end. Before completing high school and going on to study film in university, Lauzon stated he had lived on "the criminal fringes" of Montreal streets, and his dark perspective is found in Léolo. André Petrowski, a friend of Lauzon, also claimed the film depicted the "gross pathology" of the Lauzon family in a "very, very personal way".

Although Lauzon had offers to shoot Hollywood action films after Night Zoo (1987), he instead presented the Léolo script to producer Lyse Lafontaine. Lafontaine stated the screenplay had been rejected by other producers and was difficult to read, but she found it "magic" and produced it with Aimée Danis. The film had a $5 million budget.

Casting

Singer Ginette Reno was cast as the mother after initially rejecting the role, finding the subject matter was "too violent and rough". She was persuaded to star in the film, believing it might win her new fans, even if others were shocked by it. For the title role, Maxime Collin was cast at age 11.

For the part of the Word Tamer, who reads Léolo's writings, Lauzon cast his mentor, university professor Pierre Bourgault. Although in reality Bourgault is a strong proponent of the Quebec sovereignty movement, Lauzon denied he was cast for political reasons. A bodybuilder, Yves Montmarquette, portrayed Fernand for the scenes after the character builds up his muscles.

Lafontaine's son Mikaël had a small part as a swimmer. The film's French producers asked Lauzon to use actor Pierre Richard in the film, which he did not.

Filming
The film was shot over 58 days beginning in the fall of 1991, originally in Montreal. In one scene, Léolo is seen sitting in front of a house, which was where Jean-Claude Lauzon was born. Reno spent three months filming Léolo over the fall of 1991. A second stage of filming took place briefly in Sicily.

Lafontaine found shooting the film difficult because of Lauzon's emotional swings, although Reno found him affectionate. Lauzon asserted those who found him too temperamental to work with did not know him well, and he had a history of good relations with film departments. When Lafontaine traveled to Italy with Lauzon, he gave her a letter thanking her for her ineptitude in business, which he considered necessary to make a film with feeling. She kept it as a cherished keepsake.

In one scene, a boy commits an act of bestiality with a tied-down cat. Lauzon initially intended to use a puppet for the cat in a rehearsal, but the actor objected that it would be ridiculous, insisting on a real cat.

Release
The film was entered into the Cannes Film Festival and screened on 17 May 1992, where it received a standing ovation. At Cannes, Lauzon supposedly told juror Jamie Lee Curtis he wanted to have sex with her, which Los Angeles Times writer Kenneth Turan believed compromised the film's prospects of winning the Palme d'Or. It was screened at the 1992 Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival in September 1992, distributed by Fine Line Features. The film opened in Quebec in June, and in the U.S. in February 1993. It had a release in 70 countries in total.

After Lauzon was killed in the northern Quebec plane crash in 1997, CBC Television, Télé-Québec and Showcase aired Night Zoo and Léolo in August, and Serge Losique announced an outdoor screening for Léolo at the Montreal World Film Festival in September. In 2014, Léolo was selected for a 2K digital restoration for a screening in the Cannes Classics selection of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The restoration was carried out by the Elephant project and Cinémathèque québécoise, and it was the first Canadian film screened for Cannes Classics.

Reception

Box office
After opening at Place des Arts in Montreal on June 4, 1992, the film made $100,000 after its first week. The film had a total of 110,000 admissions in Quebec theatres. In its first weekend in two New York theatres, it made $31,009, which was considered a successful launch.

According to Box Office Mojo, the film finished its run grossing $611,703 domestically. It was one of the highest-grossing films worldwide for distributor Alliance Films. It did particularly well in Germany and Spain, while it did not perform well in the U.S.

Critical reception
Canadian critic Brian D. Johnson, writing for Maclean's, said the film "elevates Canadian cinema to new heights of creative ambition and achievement". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, writing "Léolo is an enchanting, disgusting, romantic, depressing, hilarious, tragic movie, and it is quite original- one of the year's best. I have never seen one like it before". Janet Maslin of The New York Times called Léolo "daring, bracingly original" and initially "whimsical". Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times praised it as "extraordinary". Peter Brunette of The New York Times wrote "It's a bizarre, occasionally upsetting film, but its underlying portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man theme couldn't be more classic". David Denby of New York magazine panned the film as "the most maladroit film I've seen in ages".

In 2005, Time magazine named Léolo one of Time's All-TIME 100 Movies. That year, Ebert added it to his Great Movies list, writing on "the deep amusement and even love that Lauzon conveys in his material". Ebert also said "The technical brilliance of the film is astonishing". In 2014, Peter Howell of The Toronto Star, writing on Léolo'''s screening in Cannes Classics, called the film "masterful", while Bruce Kirkland of The Toronto Sun called it "brilliantly deranged" and speculated Lauzon would have enjoyed seeing the film's revival. Also in 2014, Turan included Léolo in his book, Not to Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites From a Lifetime of Film, citing it as an example of one of the films among the 54 with "a more limited following". The next year, the Toronto International Film Festival placed it fifth in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time, regarded as a "noteworthy" change in the overall Top 10, which had been compiled once per decade since 1984. The Cannes restoration likely led to the resurgence of interest in the film, resulting in the Top 10 addition.

In 2001, an industry poll conducted by Playback named it the 12th best Canadian film of the preceding 15 years.

Accolades
The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film was selected for competition for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and its loss caused critics to accuse the jury of conservative choices.

At the 13th Genie Awards, Léolo received nine nominations and was perceived as being in an unusually tight competition with David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch. Naked Lunch was considered to have triumphed over Leolo'' on awards night.

See also
 List of submissions to the 65th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
 List of Canadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

Bibliography

External links

1992 films
1992 comedy-drama films
Canadian coming-of-age comedy-drama films
Canadian fantasy comedy films
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Films shot in Montreal
Films about dysfunctional families
Films set in Montreal
Films directed by Jean-Claude Lauzon
1990s French-language films
French-language Canadian films
1990s Canadian films
Canadian fantasy drama films

Léolo