Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasion in May 1940, he surrendered his country, earning him much hostility, both at home and abroad.

Leopold's act was declared unconstitutional by Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot and his cabinet, who moved to London to form a government-in-exile, while Leopold and his family were placed under house arrest. In 1944, they were moved to Germany and then Austria, before being liberated by the Americans, but banned for some years from returning to Belgium, where his brother Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, had been declared regent. Leopold's eventual return to his homeland in 1950 nearly caused a civil war, and under pressure from the government, he  abdicated in favour of his son Baudouin in July 1951.

Leopold's first wife, Astrid of Sweden, was killed in a road accident while on a driving holiday in Switzerland in August 1935, being much mourned by the public. His morganatic second marriage, to Lilian Baels in captivity in 1941, was contrary to Belgian law, which stipulates that the civil marriage has to occur before a religious marriage, and she was never permitted the title of queen.

Early life and family

Prince Leopold was born in Brussels, the first child of Prince Albert, heir to the Belgian throne, and his consort, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria. In 1909 his father became King of the Belgians, as Albert I, and Prince Leopold became Duke of Brabant.

In August 1914, when Belgium was invaded by Germany, King Albert allowed Leopold, then aged twelve, to enlist in the Belgian army as a private and fight in defence of the kingdom.  However, in 1915, with Belgium almost entirely occupied by the Germans, Leopold was sent to join Eton College, while his father fought on in France.

After the war, in 1919, the Duke of Brabant visited the Old Mission and Saint Anthony Seminary in Santa Barbara, California.

He married Princess Astrid of Sweden in a civil ceremony in Stockholm on 4 November 1926, followed by a religious ceremony in Brussels on 10 November. The marriage produced three children:
 Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium, born at the Royal Palace of Brussels on 11 October 1927, Grand Duchess consort of Luxembourg. She was married on 9 April 1953 to Prince Jean, later Grand Duke of Luxembourg. She died at Fischbach Castle on 10 January 2005.
 Prince Baudouin of Belgium, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, who became the fifth King of the Belgians as Baudouin, born at Stuyvenberg on the outskirts of Brussels on 7 September 1930, and died at Motril in Andalusia, Spain, on 31 July 1993.
 Prince Albert of Belgium, Prince of Liège, who became the sixth King of the Belgians as Albert II, born at Stuyvenberg on 6 June 1934. He abdicated in July 2013.

On 29 August 1935, while the king and queen were driving along the winding, narrow roads near their villa at Küssnacht am Rigi, Schwyz, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Leopold lost control of the car which plunged into the lake, killing Queen Astrid.

Leopold married Lilian Baels on 11 September 1941 in a secret religious ceremony, with no validity under Belgian law. They originally intended to wait until the end of the war for the civil marriage, but as the new Princess of Réthy was soon expecting their first child, the ceremony took place on 6 December 1941. They had three children in total:

 Prince Alexandre of Belgium, born in Brussels on 18 July 1942. In 1991, he married Léa Wolman, a marriage revealed only seven years later. He died on 29 November 2009.
 , previously Mrs. Drucker and later Mrs. Gourgues, born in Brussels on 6 February 1951. Her first marriage, to Paul Drucker in 1981, lasted 40 days (and formally divorced in 1985). She subsequently married Jean-Paul Gourges in 1989.
 Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, later Lady Moncada, born in Brussels on 30 September 1956, a journalist, her professional name is Esmeralda de Réthy. She married pharmacologist Salvador Moncada in 1998. They have a son and a daughter.

World War II

When World War II broke out in September 1939, the French and British governments immediately sought to persuade Belgium to join them. Leopold and his government refused, maintaining Belgium's neutrality. Belgium considered itself well-prepared against a possible invasion by Axis forces, for during the 1930s the Belgian government had made extensive preparations to deter and repel an invasion of the country by Germany such as the one that had occurred in 1914.

On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht invaded Belgium. On the first day of the offensive, the principal Belgian strong point of Fort Eben-Emael was overwhelmed by a daring paratroop operation and the defensive perimeter thus penetrated before any French or British troops could arrive. After a short running battle that eventually involved the armies of all four belligerents, Belgium was overwhelmed by the numerically superior and better-prepared Germans.

Nevertheless, the Belgian perseverance prevented the British Expeditionary Force from being outflanked and cut off from the coast, enabling the evacuation from Dunkirk. Alan Brooke who commanded II Corps of the BEF thought that the 10th Belgian Division was in the wrong place and wanted to deploy north of Brussels to avoid "double-banking". He was advised by Roger Keyes to see the king, and on 12 May was "making progress in getting matters put right" in discussion with the king in English, but was interrupted (twice) by the king's advisor who spoke to the king in French (in which Brooke was fluent). The advisor was insistent that the Belgian division could not be moved and the BEF should be stopped further south and clear of Brussels; Brooke said he was not putting the whole case to the king; he found that arguing with the advisor was a sheer waste of time as he cared little about the BEF and most of his suggestions were "fantastic". The king's advisor Raoul Van Overstraeten was not the Chief of Staff, as Brooke had assumed - Van Overstraeten had refused that rank - but the king's aide-de-camp, with the rank of Major-General, and would not give up the Louvain front. The French liaison officer, General Champon, told Brooke that Van Overstraeten had ascendancy over the king and had taken control, so it was useless to see the Chief of Staff. Later (15 May) Brooke found that the BEF was likely to "have both flanks turned" with French defeats, and started withdrawal on 16 May.

After his military surrender, Leopold (unlike Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in a similar predicament) remained in Brussels to surrender to the victorious invaders, while his entire civil government fled to Paris and later to London.

Surrender and constitutional crisis

On 24 May 1940, Leopold, having assumed command of the Belgian Army, met with his ministers for the final time. The ministers urged the king to leave the country with the government. Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot reminded him that capitulation was a decision for the Belgian government, not for the king, to make. The king indicated that he had decided to remain in Belgium with his troops, whatever the outcome. The ministers took this to mean that he would establish a new government under the direction of Hitler, potentially a treasonous act. Leopold thought that he might be seen as a deserter if he were to leave the country: "Whatever happens, I have to share the same fate as my troops." Leopold had long had a difficult and contentious relationship with his ministers, acting independently of government influence whenever possible, and seeking to circumvent and even limit the ministers' powers, while expanding his own.

French, British, and Belgian troops were encircled by German forces at the Battle of Dunkirk. Leopold notified King George VI by telegram on 25 May 1940 that Belgian forces were being crushed, saying "assistance which we give to the Allies will come to an end if our army is surrounded". Two days later (27 May 1940), Leopold surrendered the Belgian forces to the Germans.

Prime Minister Pierlot spoke on French radio, saying that the king's decision to surrender went against the Belgian Constitution. The decision, he said, was not only a military decision but also a political decision, and the king had acted without his ministers' advice, and therefore contrary to the Constitution. Pierlot and his Government believed this created an impossibilité de régner:

It was impossible, however, to summon the Belgian Chamber of Representatives or Belgian Senate at this time, or to appoint a regent. After the liberation of Belgium in September 1944, the government asked Leopold's brother, Prince Charles, to serve as regent.

After Leopold's surrender, the British press denounced him as "Traitor King" and "King Rat"; the Daily Mirror published a picture of Leopold with the headline "The Face That Every Woman Now Despises". A group of Belgian refugees in Paris placed a message at King Albert's statue denouncing his son as "your unworthy successor". French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud accused Leopold of treason. Flemish historians Valaers and Van Goethem wrote that Leopold III had become "The scapegoat of Reynaud", because Reynaud was likely already aware that the Battle of France was lost.

Leopold's surrender was also decried by Winston Churchill. In the House of Commons on 4 June 1940 he said:

At the last moment when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold called upon us to come to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and his brave, efficient army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our left flank and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly, without prior consultation, with the least possible notice, without the advice of his ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent a plenipotentiary to the German Command, surrendered his army and exposed our whole flank and means of retreat.

In 1949, Churchill's comments about the events of May 1940 were published in Le Soir (12 February 1949). Leopold's former secretary sent a letter to Churchill saying that Churchill was wrong. Churchill sent a copy of this letter to the King's brother, Prince Charles, via his secretary André de Staercke. In his own letter Churchill wrote,

With regards to King Leopold, the words which I used at the time in the House of Commons are upon record and after careful consideration I do not see any reason to change them (...) it seemed to me and many others that the king should have been guided by the advice of his ministers and should not have favoured a course which identified the capitulation of the Belgian Army with the submission of the Belgian State to Herr Hitler and consequently taking them out of the war. Happily this evil was averted, and in the end, all came right. I need scarcely say that nothing I said at the time could be interpreted as a reflection upon the personal courage or honour of King Leopold.

De Staercke replied that Churchill was right: "The Prince, Monsieur Spaak [Belgian Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak] and I read your text, which states the precise truth and seems perfect to us."

Belgian historian Francis Balace wrote that capitulation was inevitable because the Belgian Army was not able to fight any longer against the German army. Even Churchill admitted that their position was perilous. In a telegram to Field Marshal Lord Gort on 27 May, only one day before the Belgian capitulation, he wrote, "We are asking them to sacrifice themselves for us."

After the fall of France
Upon Leopold's surrender, the government ministers left for exile, mostly in France. When France fell at the end of June 1940, several ministers sought to return to Belgium. They made an overture to Leopold but were rebuffed:

Pierlot and his government saw that Western Europe had been conquered by the Germans completely and tried to make amends to their king. Would it be possible for them to return to Belgium and form a new government? Leopold showed his stubborn nature; he was insulted by his ministers... His reply was short: "The situation of the king is unaltered; he does not engage in politics and does not receive politicians.

Because of the great popularity of the king, and the unpopularity of the civil government from the middle of 1940, the government crisis persisted. The Royal Articles state:

This refusal [of the king to reconcile with the ministers] left the ministers with no other option than to move to London, where they could continue their work representing the independent Belgium. From the time of their arrival in London, they were confident about an Allied victory and soon were treated with respect by the Allies.... Pierlot and Spaak helped to build Leopold's reputation as a heroic prisoner of war and even said that the Belgians should support their king. But they had no idea what Leopold was doing in the Royal Castle of Laeken. He refused to reply to their messages and stayed cool toward them. What was he doing in the castle? Was he collaborating, did he oppose the Germans, or had he decided to just shut his mouth and wait to see how things would go?

On 2 August 1940, several ministers conferred in Le Perthus in France near the Spanish border. Prime Minister Pierlot and Foreign Minister Spaak were persuaded to go to London, but they were able to start out for London only at the end of August and could travel only via neutral Spain and Portugal. When they reached Spain, they were arrested and detained by the regime of Francisco Franco; they finally arrived in London on 22 October.

Meeting with Hitler

Leopold rejected cooperation with the government of Nazi Germany and refused to administer Belgium in accordance with its dictates; thus, the Germans implemented a military government. Leopold attempted to assert his authority as monarch and head of the Belgian government, although he was a prisoner of the Germans. Despite his defiance of the Germans, the Belgian government-in-exile in London maintained that the king did not represent the Belgian government and was unable to reign. The Germans held him at first under house arrest at the Royal Castle of Laeken. Having since June 1940 desired a meeting with Adolf Hitler in respect of the situation of Belgian prisoners of war, Leopold III finally met with him on 19 November 1940. Leopold wanted to persuade Hitler to release Belgian POWs, and issue a public statement about Belgium's future independence. Hitler refused to speak about the independence of Belgium or issue a statement about it. In refusing to publish a statement, Hitler preserved the king from being seen as cooperating with Germany, and thus engaged in treasonous acts, which would likely have obliged him to abdicate upon the liberation of Belgium. "The [German] Chancellor saved the king two times."

Second marriage
On 11 September 1941, while a prisoner of the Germans, Leopold secretly married Lilian Baels in a religious ceremony that had no validity under Belgian law, which required a religious marriage to be preceded by a legal or civil marriage. On 6 December, they were married under civil law. The reason for the out-of-order marriages was never officially made public.

Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey, Archbishop of Mechelen, wrote an open letter to parish priests throughout the country announcing Leopold's second marriage on 7 December. The letter from the Cardinal revealed that the king's new wife would be known as Princesse de Réthy, not Queen Lilian, and that any children they had would have no claim to the throne. Leopold's new marriage damaged his reputation further in the eyes of many of his subjects.

The Political Testament

The ministers made several efforts during the war to work out a suitable agreement with Leopold III. They sent Pierlot's son-in-law as an emissary to Leopold in January 1944, carrying a letter offering reconciliation from the Belgian government-in-exile. The letter never reached its destination, however, as the son-in-law was killed by the Germans en route. The ministers did not know what happened either to the message or the messenger and assumed that Leopold was ignoring them.

Leopold wrote his Political Testament in January 1944, shortly after this failed attempt at reconciliation. The testament was to be published in case he was not in Belgium when Allied forces arrived. The testament, which had an imperious and negative tone, considered the potential Allied movement into Belgium an "occupation", not a "liberation". It gave no credit to the active Belgian resistance. The Belgian government-in-exile in London did not like Leopold's demand that the government ministers involved in the 1940 crisis be dismissed. The Allies did not like Leopold's repudiation of the treaties concluded by the Belgian government-in-exile in London. The United States was particularly concerned about the economic treaty it had reached with the government-in-exile that enabled it to obtain Congolese uranium for America's secret atom bomb program, which had been developed for use against Germany (although, as it turned out, Germany surrendered before the first bomb was ready).

The Belgian government did not publish the Political Testament and tried to ignore it, partly for fear of increased support for the Belgian Communist party. When Pierlot and Spaak learned of its contents in September 1944, they were astonished and felt deceived by the king. According to André de Staercke, they were dismayed "in the face of so much blindness and unawareness".

Churchill's reaction to the Testament was simply, "It stinks." In a sentence inspired by a quote of Talleyrand about the Bourbons after the restoration of the French monarchy in 1815, Churchill declared, "He is like the Bourbons, he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing."

Exile and abdication

Deportation and exile
In 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered Leopold deported to Germany. Princess Lilian followed with the family in another car the following day under an SS armed guard. The Nazis interned the family in a fort at Hirschstein in Saxony from June 1944 to March 1945, and then at Strobl, Austria.

The British and American governments worried about the return of the king. Charles W. Sawyer, US Ambassador to Belgium, warned his government that an immediate return by the king to Belgium would "precipitate serious difficulties". "There are deep differences even in the royal family and the situation holds dynamite for Belgium and perhaps for Europe". "The Foreign Office feared that an increasing minority in French-speaking Wallonia would demand either autonomy or annexation to France. Winant, the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James's, reported a Foreign Office official's concern regarding irredentist propaganda in Wallonia." and that "the French Ambassador in Brussels... is believed to have connived in the spreading of this propaganda".

Leopold and his companions were released by members of the United States 106th Cavalry Group in early May 1945. Because of the controversy about his conduct during the war, Leopold III and his wife and children were unable to return to Belgium and spent the next six years in exile at Pregny-Chambésy near Geneva, Switzerland. A regency under his brother Prince Charles had been established by the Belgian legislature in 1944.

Resistance to Leopold's return

Frans Henri van den Dungen, rector of the Free University of Brussels, wrote to Leopold on 25 June 1945 about concerns for serious disorder in Wallonia, "The question is not if the accusations against you are right or not [but that...] you are no longer a symbol of Belgian unity."

Robert Gillon, the President of the Belgian Senate, told the king that there was a threat of serious disorder: "If there are only ten or twenty people killed, the situation would become terrible for the king."

The president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, Frans Van Cauwelaert, was concerned that there would be a general strike in Wallonia and revolt in Liège. He wrote, "The country is not able to put down the disorders because of the insufficient forces of the police and a lack of weapons."

In 1946, a commission of inquiry exonerated Leopold of treason. Nonetheless, controversy concerning his loyalty continued, and in 1950, a referendum was held about his future. Fifty-seven per cent of the voters favoured his return. The divide between Leopoldists and anti-Leopoldists ran along the lines of socialists and Walloons who were mostly opposed (42% favourable votes in Wallonia) and Christian Democrats and Flemish who were more in favour of the king (70% favourable votes in Flanders).

General strike of 1950

On his return to Belgium on 22 July 1950, Leopold was met with one of the most violent general strikes in the history of Belgium. Three protesters were killed when the gendarmerie opened automatic fire upon the protesters. The country stood on the brink of civil war, and Belgian banners were replaced by Walloon flags in Liège and other municipalities of Wallonia. To avoid tearing the country apart, and to preserve the monarchy, Leopold decided on 1 August 1950 to delegate his powers and duties to his 20-year-old son Baudouin, making the latter regent. He abdicated on 16 July 1951 in favour of Baudouin, being urged to do so by the government.

Post-abdication life
Leopold and his wife continued to advise King Baudouin until the latter's marriage in 1960. Some Belgian historians, such as Vincent Delcorps, speak of there having been a "diarchy" during this period.

In retirement, he followed his passion as an amateur social anthropologist and entomologist and travelled the world, collecting zoological specimens. Two species of reptiles are named after him,  Gehyra leopoldi and Polemon leopoldi.

He went to Senegal and strongly criticized the French decolonization process, and he explored the Orinoco and the Amazon with Heinrich Harrer.

Leopold died in 1983 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe) following emergency heart surgery. He was interred next to Queen Astrid in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Leopold's second wife, the Princess de Réthy, was later interred with them.

Notable royal descendants
As of 2023, two of Leopold's grandsons are reigning monarchs: Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg since 2000, and King Philippe of Belgium since 2013.

Ancestry

See also
 Crown Council of Belgium
 Kings of Belgium family tree
 Royal Trust
 List of covers of Time magazine (1930s), (1940s)

References

Winston Churchill, Speech to the House of Commons Delivered on June 4 1940 ("We shall fight on the beaches . . .")

External links

 Official biography from the Belgian Royal Family website
 Our Royal Guest: King Leopold In England (1937), newsreel of 1937 state visit, British Pathé YouTube Channel
 Jean Stengers, Léopold III et le gouvernement: les deux politiques belges de 1940. Duculot, 1980
 War Controversy (in Dutch)
 Princess Lilian, his second wife (in French)

1901 births
1983 deaths
20th-century Belgian monarchs
Nobility from Brussels
Princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Monarchs who abdicated
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Belgium)
House of Belgium
Dukes of Brabant
Belgian military personnel of World War I
Belgian people of World War II
World War II political leaders
Allied occupation of Europe
Belgian entomologists
Burials at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken
Grand Crosses of the Royal Order of the Lion
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Recipients of the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Leopold III of Belgium
Bailiffs Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Recipients of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
Extra Knights Companion of the Garter
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3
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Collars of the Order of the White Lion
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre
Grand Crosses with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia
Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint-Charles
Recipients of the Order of the Crown (Italy)
People educated at Eton College
Belgian people of German descent
Belgian people of Portuguese descent
20th-century Belgian zoologists
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)

Leopold III of Belgium


Tangophobia Vol. 1: Contemporary Sounds of Buenos Aires is a compilation CD released by Argentine independent label Constitution Music. It contains tracks from different neo-tango and electronic artists from Buenos Aires, including NeoShaft, B.A. Jam, Hybrid Tango and Tanghetto.

The most important point of interest of this compilation are five unreleased tracks from the band Tanghetto, one of them being a remnant from "Emigrante (electrotango)" sessions, named "Otra oportunidad" ("Second chance").

In Tanghetto's words: "As we were still working on Emigrante (electrotango) and Hybrid Tango, we occasionally gathered together in the studio with friends and colleagues who are also exploring the path of tango and electronica. From these joint sessions arose this unusual compilation. We felt like this music was worth releasing as a full-length album".

The palette of styles goes from house to trip hop, from electrotango to chill out music.

The artists that performed in the album are Tanghetto, Hybrid Tango (Tanghetto's side project), NeoShaft, B.A. Jam and Black Market, all Buenos Airesbased electronic musicians.

Track listing
"Humedad" (Humidity) [3:44]  Performed by Tanghetto
"La Huída" (The Runaway) [4:11]  Performed by Tanghetto and Black Market
"Incognito" [4:21]  Performed by B.A. Jam
"Aire" (Air) [5:22]  Performed by NeoShaft
"Renacer" (Rebirth) [5:04]  Performed by NeoShaft
"Tango Provocateur" [3:55]  Performed by B.A. Jam
"Diagonal Sur" [3:32]  Performed by Hybrid Tango / remixed by B.A. Jam
"Biorritmo" (Bio Rhythm)  Performed by Tanghetto and NeoShaft
"Sector 'A'" [3:30]  Performed by Hybrid Tango / remixed by B.A. Jam
"Sesión de Medianoche" (Midnight Session) [4:19]  Performed by B.A. Jam
"Otra Oportunidad" (Second Chance)  Performed by Tanghetto (Emigrante (electrotango) sessions)
"El Derrumbe" (The Downfall) [3:53]  Performed by Tanghetto

External links

 Argentine independent label Constitution Music

2005 albums
Tanghetto albums

Tangophobia Vol. 1


American cheese (also called a cheese slice or processed cheese) is a kind of pasteurized processed cheese. Usually, it has a mild taste. Originally, it was white, and made by mixing other kinds of cheese, most often Cheddar cheese and Swiss.

It is no longer produced by mixing existing kinds of cheeses, but by using a number of ingredients. In many countries, including the US, processed cheese is licensed differently to "real" cheese. American cheese may therefore not be sold as "cheese", but as "processed cheese".

On the label, the word cheese is often left out, and the product is labeled "American slices", "slices" or similar. Since this kind of processed cheese is very common in the United States, it is often used to refer to all kinds of processed cheese. All the same, the term "American cheese" does have a legal definition in the American Code of Federal Regulations.

Processed cheese

American cheese


Flood Gallery Fine Arts Center is a non-profit contemporary art institution in the River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina. It has made significant contributions to the region by cultivating a strong exhibitions program bringing in artists both national and international, and through its expansive arts in education programs.

History
The Flood Gallery and Fine Arts Center is housed inside the Historical Phil Mechanic Studios Building (circa 1923). It was built originally as the Pierce-Young-Angel Food Storage Warehouse located near the French Broad River and Norfolk Southern Railroad in the industrial area currently known as the River Arts District. The Mechanic family purchased the building in the 70's, and it became a construction company. When Phil Mechanic died in the late 1990s, his son, Mitch Mechanic, inherited the building. Mitch and his wife, Jolene, converted the building into ateliers, or art studio spaces. After a massive upgrade to bring the 90-year-old building up to city code compliance, the place became Phil Mechanic Studios. In 2005, Jolene Mechanic, and popular local artist Sean "Jinx" Pace, collaborated and became co-founders and created the non-profit Flood Gallery and Fine Art Center. The Flood Gallery Fine Arts Center is currently directed by Carlos Steward the Editor in Chief of the Black Mountain Press.

Today, Phil Mechanic Studios has become a hub for art and science. They currently house two art galleries – the Flood Gallery and the Pump Gallery showcasing an ambitious exhibitions program for both local artists as well as national and international artists; artist studios, and a library featuring more than 1,000 books and films and internet capability for the artists in residence. In 2017 they moved to 850 Blue Ridge Rd in Black Mountain East of Asheville, NC.

Exhibitions
The Flood Fine Arts Center opened its exhibition space in 2005, with international artist H.K. Zamani (a.k.a. Habib Kheradyar Zamani). Zamani has shown his work in Prague, the Czech Republic; Lublin, Poland; Graz, Austria; Frankfurt, Germany; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Bangkok, Thailand; London, England; and now resides in Los Angeles, California where he shows work regularly.
In the past five years, The Flood Fine Arts Center has hosted other internationally acclaimed artists including Jim Buonaccorsi, Nava Lubelski, Mike Estabrook, Cory Bradley, Mike Calway-Fagen, Allen Leper Hampton, Porge Buck, Heinz Kossler, and James Esber.

Collections

The Flood Fine Arts Center houses 146 posters from the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This collection opens October 5, 2013 in four venues in Asheville, NC before traveling to galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York City and London. The exhibit catalogue is authored by Hamid Dabashi, of Columbia University with a foreword by Courtyard Gallery Director, Carlos Steward. This catalogue was published by the Black Mountain Press.

References

 "Revolutionary Images" , October 2013, "Bold Life"
 "Hip-shakin' samba, South American jazz to rumble Flood Gallery", February 8, 2007, Citizen-Times
 "Lorraine Walsh to Hold Multimedia Exhibition at Flood Fine Art Center", October 28, 2006 announcement from UNC
 "Officially alternative", June 7, 2006, Mountain XPress
 "Jolene Mechanic opens the Flood and Pump Galleries", May 31, 2011, "Bold Life"

Arts centers in North Carolina
Buildings and structures in Asheville, North Carolina
Tourist attractions in Asheville, North Carolina
Culture of Asheville, North Carolina

Flood Gallery Fine Arts Center


TEXRail is a hybrid rail line (i.e., a non-commuter rail service that operates on the national rail network) in Tarrant County, Texas that provides service between downtown Fort Worth and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, with intermediate stations in North Richland Hills and Grapevine. It is operated by Trinity Metro (formerly Fort Worth Transportation Authority). The line was opened for preview service on December 31, 2018 and started revenue service on January 10, 2019. In , the system had a ridership of , or about  per weekday.

The new line is worth $1 billion. It is considered a segment of the Cotton Belt Rail Line project, alongside the DART-operated Silver Line (currently under construction) to the east.

Officials with Trinity Metro are hoping the new rail line will entice non-member cities along the line to join the transit agency in its quest to become a regional transit entity.  Planned TEXRail stations led to agreements with Grapevine and North Richland Hills in 2006 and 2016, respectively, that allowed stations to be built within those cities. The route also passes through Haltom City, Hurst, and Colleyville, but these cities have not joined or signed interlocal agreements, preventing Trinity Metro from building stations in them.

History
Grapevine citizens voted 8,058 to 2,898 on November 7, 2006 to levy a 1-cent sales tax, of which ¢ would authorize Grapevine to contract with Trinity Metro for rail service and another ¢ for other transit improvements, like a downtown parking garage. This includes an expansion of the commuter rail system to link southwest Fort Worth to the north end of DFW International Airport.

Trinity Metro's Board of Directors finalized their plans in October 2006 for the southwest-to-northeast expansion. Two commuter routes, a light rail route and a bus rapid transit route were under consideration. The Board's recommendation was a commuter rail line that runs in the southwest part of the city near Sycamore School Road, running near Texas Christian University and the Medical District on its way to the existing T&P Station and Fort Worth Central station. At that point it turns northwest toward the Stockyards before turning northeast toward DFW International Airport. Preliminary plans call for nine new stations with eleven total, and could be contingent on other cities along the corridor joining the agency.

A proposal to use private funding to construct both TEXRail and DART's Dallas County segment was considered, but this plan was abandoned after necessary legislation was not passed in the State Legislature. Following this legislative defeat, Trinity Metro began pursuing federal grant funds in order to build TEXRail.  On March 5, 2014, it was announced that the TEXRail project would receive $50 million in federal grant funds from President Barack Obama's 2015 New Starts Funding Budget.

In April 2015, Trinity Metro approved a contract for pre-construction services, awarded to an Archer Western Contractors/Herzog Contracting Corp (Archer Western Herzog) a joint venture, as well as approving the final design for the Iron Horse and Smithfield Road stations.

On June 9, 2015, Trinity Metro ordered an initial eight 4-car articulated Stadler FLIRTs DMUs. The contract was valued at $106.7 million, with an option for up to 24 additional DMUs, and includes the supply of components for 10 years. This was Switzerland-based Stadler's first order in the US for any model outside its Stadler GTW product line, therefore making it subject to the regulations of the Buy America Act. As such, one element of the contract is that the final assembly of the trains will take place in the US, at their plant in Salt Lake City.

That same month, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave approval for the project to advance into the engineering phase that immediately precedes the start of construction. In June 2016, Trinity Metro received a Letter of No Prejudice from the FTA, essentially green-lighting the project. In reaction to this, Trinity Metro said they planned to start preliminary construction in July 2016, on track for a planned opening date in December 2018. DFW Airport also said they would provide the $40 million to build the station at Terminal B, with an opening date in late 2018.

Construction on the line officially started on August 24, 2016, with a groundbreaking held at Grapevine's historic depot, the site of Grapevine-Main Street station.

On January 4, 2019, less than 12 hours before service was scheduled to commence, the opening was suspended due to signal issues identified during an inspection by Federal Railroad Administration officials along the southern end of the line in Downtown Fort Worth. The new opening took place on January 10, 2019.

Future expansion
Scott Mahaffey, Trinity Metro board chairman, has expressed interest in extending the line south and adding two stations to serve the medical district and Texas Christian University at an estimated additional cost of $200 million. This extension could be completed by 2025, when all additional planned and proposed stations are added the line will be an additional 14 miles longer. City Councilman Jungus Jordan has said that he would like to see the line go even farther south to serve Tarleton State University's new campus near the Chisholm Trail Parkway. In 2020, $38.9 million was granted by the U.S. Department of Transportation-Federal Transit Administration to extend the line to the medical district. Under the proposed expansion plan, construction would start in spring 2024 with completion by the fall of 2026, total cost is projected to be $167 million.

Operations
Travel time from T&P Station to DFW International Airport is estimated to be approximately 55 minutes. There are 73 trips per day, with 30 minute headways between start of service at 3:20am to 9:00am for morning rush, 2:30pm to 7:00pm for afternoon rush, with 1-hour headways outside of the rush hour time periods; all 100 series trains listed on the Trinity Metro TEXRail schedule do not complete full journeys from FTW to DFW or vice versa.

The line is predominantly single tracked, with passing sidings installed to allow for 30-minute headways.

Stations

Stations were opened on December 31, 2018:

Rolling stock

Trinity Metro provides TEXRail service using eight Stadler FLIRT self-propelled diesel multiple units (DMU) capable of seating 229 passengers and carrying up to 488 passengers. In TEXRail application, the diesel power module contains two  (1400 hp Total) Deutz AG TCD 16.0 V8 engines that comply with US EPA Tier 4 emission standard, able to achieve a top speed of , however mainline track speed is limited to 70 mph. These units at  long weigh in at  empty ( full load).

The contract to purchase eight trainsets, valued at about $100 million, was awarded to Stadler in June 2015.  The first set was delivered in October 2017, and four more sets had arrived by November 2018. Equipment testing and crew training started in March 2018.

Each rail vehicle is configured with an operator cab at either end for bidirectional movement. At the center of the train is the power pack with two diesel engines, with a passageway to allow access to other parts of the train, and allows it to be much quieter than traditional commuter rail. TEXRail vehicle amenities include USB ports equipped at every seat, work tables, lap trays, a quiet car, ADA compliant level boarding, overhead luggage racks, bike racks, and a restroom near the center of each train.

References

External links

Passenger rail transportation in Texas
Rail transportation in Fort Worth, Texas
Railway lines opened in 2019
Commuter rail in the United States
2019 establishments in Texas

TEXRail


1: Nenokkadine () is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film directed by Sukumar. The film was produced by Ram Achanta, Gopichand Achanta and Anil Sunkara on 14 Reels Entertainment banner and was distributed by Eros International. The film stars Mahesh Babu and Kriti Sanon who makes her acting debut through this film. Nassar, Pradeep Rawat and Kelly Dorji appear in supporting roles. Mahesh Babu's son, Gautham Krishna, made his debut in the film as a younger version of the protagonist. 1: Nenokkadine revolves around the search by Gautham, a rock musician  with schizophrenia, missing 25 percent of his brain's grey matter for his parents with the help of Sameera, a journalist.

Sukumar began working on 1: Nenokkadine script after completing 100% Love (2011), making a bus driver's tale about a boy who claimed that his parents were murdered on his bus the film's base. R. Rathnavelu was the film's director of photography, and Karthika Srinivas, its editor. Devi Sri Prasad composed the soundtrack and background score. 1: Nenokkadine was introduced on 12 February 2012, and principal photography, which began on 23 April 2012, was completed in late October 2013. It was filmed in London, Belfast, Bangkok and Indian cities including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai and Bangalore. Produced on a budget of 6070 crores, it was the most expensive Telugu film at the time of its release.

1: Nenokkadine was released on 10 January 2014 on about 1,500 screens during the Sankranti festival season. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, praising Sukumar's direction, writing, screenplay, music & score, emotional weight, cinematography, action sequences and cast performance (particularly Babu), however the pace and complexity in screenplay as well as the length receives criticism.  Grossing over $1.327 million, 1: Nenokkadine became the fourth-highest-grossing Telugu film at the United States box office at the time. The film was commercially unsuccessful at the box office but has gained a cult following over the years for Babu's stellar performance and Sukumar's unique writing. The film won three awards from eight nominations at the 4th South Indian International Movie Awards, and two awards at the 11th CineMAA Awards. The film is considered one of the "25 Greatest Telugu Films Of The Decade" by Film Companion.

Plot
Gautham is a schizophrenic rock musician who is missing 25% of his grey matter. He hallucinates a mysterious person he believes is one of the three murderers of his parents. As a child, Gautham was convinced that he was an orphan and assumes that his parents are dead; he does not remember their names or what they looked like. At one of his concerts, Gautham sees one of the three men and chases him. Sameera, a journalist at the concert, films Gautham fighting his imaginary opponent. Gautham surrenders to the police after "killing" the man, confessing that he killed three men: one in Belfast, one in Pune and one just now in Hyderabad. He is released from custody after Sameera broadcasts the video on television.

According to the psychiatrist, if Gautham can hallucinate a person other than the three men, he can be treated. Gautham goes to Goa on vacation. Sameera stalks him, convincing him that two people are stalking him: a journalist who wants to interview him (imaginary), and a person claiming to be his fan (real). Gautham begins to fall in love with Sameera. He saves her from a group of people trying to murder her; on an isolated island together, Gautham learns the truth behind the fourth imaginary person and writes Sameera off as a disturbed journalist. By the time he learns about Sameera's intentions, she has left for Hyderabad; Gautham pursues her. In Hyderabad, Gautham accidentally spoils Sameera's birthday plans, infuriating her.

Although he is convinced that he has made up an enemy to cope with being an orphan, a mysterious person tries to kill Sameera but Gautham saves her. Sameera learns that the mysterious person is Antonio Rosarios (one of the people behind Gautham's parents' death), a Goa-based crime boss who wants to kill her because she tried to expose the presence of hydrogen cyanide in seeds sold by Rosarios' company, AG1. Gautham meets Rosarios in the lobby of Sameera's office building. Assuming that he is an illusion, he shoots Rosarios dead. By the time Gautham realizes Rosarios is really dead and learns that his parents were really murdered. He catches an aged taxi driver who was stalking him (another of the three men he imagined), and learns that Rosarios, along with an NRI in London killed his parents; his father gave a bag to the taxi driver to deliver to Gautham

In the bag is an old Rubik's Cube, a key and a British coin. Gautham and Sameera leave for London, where they and their driver Gulaab Singh escape from a murder attempt; Gautham's manager, Michael, is killed. The Rubik's Cube, when solved a certain way, reveals a safe deposit-box number in which Gautham finds a preserved rice sample. After escaping another murder attempt in a parking lot, he eludes the police and the two men with Sameera and Singh's help. One of the men—a fan—seeks revenge for his father (one of the other murderers, according to the aged taxi driver), who was killed by Gautham in Belfast when he performed there. Gautham learns that the aged taxi driver he met previously is a businessman and the murderer; the person hit by the businessman's car in Gautham's presence was the actual, innocent taxi driver.

Gautham and the businessman confront each other. The businessman reveals that he and Gautham's father were best friends and worked in the same company. They worked on cultivating Golden rice, a variety that could grow in any weather. When Gautham's father refused to sell it in favor of distributing it globally for free, the businessman and Rosarios killed his parents. When he refuses to tell Gautham about his parents, Gautham kills him. On his way to the airport, Gautham passes the school he had attended in his childhood and hears children singing a rhyme. It reminds him of a similar rhyme he learnt from his mother, and he remembers his way back to his house. At his house (a dilapidated villa), Gautham finds a photo of his parents, Chandrasekhar and Kalyani. He later introduces the rice variety at a global convention as "the second green revolution", and film ends with Gautham standing in his field of golden rice.

Cast

 Mahesh Babu as Gautham
 Gautham Krishna as young Gautham (cameo appearance)
 Kriti Sanon as Sameera
 Nassar as an unnamed businessman, Chandrashekar's friend
 Kelly Dorji as Antonio Rosarius
 Pradeep Rawat as Taxi Driver
 Anand as entrepreneur Chandrashekhar, Gautham's father
 Anu Hasan as Kalyani, Gautham's mother
 Raghu Babu as Raghu, Gautham's friend
 Sayaji Shinde as Inspector John Baadshah
 Posani Krishna Murali as Gulaab Singh
 Srinivasa Reddy as Baadshah's subordinate
 Naveen Polishetty as the taxi driver's son
 Ravi Varma as Michael
 Surya as Gautham's doctor
 Amit Tiwari as actual businessman's henchman
 Banerjee as Sameera's boss
 Sophie Choudry in the item number "London Babu"

Production

Development
After completing 100% Love (2011), Sukumar began working on a psychological thriller with Mahesh Babu in mind as the protagonist because he felt that Babu had universal appeal. An incident in which a bus driver talked about a young boy who said that his parents were murdered on his bus became the story's base. Babu met Sukumar on the set of Businessman (2012) in Goa, and listened to the script for 25 minutes. Although Sukumar could not describe the story well in the noisy restaurant, Babu agreed to appear in the film within half an hour. Sukumar worked on 1: Nenokkadine script for two months, and considered it his dream project.

Ram Achanta, Gopichand Achanta and Anil Sunkara of 14 Reels Entertainment, who produced Babu's Dookudu (2011) and Aagadu (2014), agreed to produce 1: Nenokkadine after hearing the script. Asked about his frequent collaboration with them, Babu said that Sukumar clearly indicated the risk of budget escalation and longer production and said that he and Sukumar could be viewed as criminals if it was produced by someone else. Sunil Lulla and Andrew Hefferman were credited as co-producers, and Koti Paruchuri was its executive producer. The film, introduced on 12 February 2012 in Hyderabad, received its title in May 2013.

Casting

Babu agreed to be fit and healthy, since the film emphasised action scenes. He followed a 12-week Dynamic Transformation Plan (DTP) supervised by Kris Gethin, developing his abdominal muscles and losing weight. Babu then followed a Yoda Three Training regime (Y3T), supervised by Neil Hill, further developing his muscles. His stylist, Ashwin Malwe, said that his appearance and style would be "sophisticated and classy" in the film. Sukumar had Babu wear eyeglasses, since the director felt that audiences tended to consider a bespectacled character to be perfectionistic and positive, and the actor's hairstyle was changed.

Tamannaah was considered for the female lead, since the producers were impressed with her performance in 100% Love. She declined the offer, citing scheduling conflicts, and the Producer's Council told her not to sign for any new films until she completed her current assignments. After auditioning two actresses, Sukumar chose Kajal Aggarwal in March 2012 as the female lead. She was replaced by Kriti Sanon in October 2012, due to scheduling conflicts. Sanon was signed for Heropanti (2014) after completing one shooting schedule for 1: Nenokkadine, and divided her time between the films. Sanon, who was involved in several action scenes filmed on the sea, was apprehensive about a scene in which Babu took her from a yacht since she did not know how to swim.

Babu's seven-year-old son, Gautham Krishna, was chosen to play the younger version of the protagonist in his Telugu cinema debut. According to Sukumar, Gautham looked like the actor did as a child. When the director approached Babu and his wife, Namrata Shirodkar, Gautham Krishna was only six and they were apprehensive. His introduction scene was filmed silently by Peter Hein, since the boy was afraid of gunfire. Naveen Polishetty played a supporting role as Babu's friend in the film, and Vikram Singh was signed as an antagonist. Nassar, Pradeep Rawat, Kelly Dorji, Sayaji Shinde and Anu Hasan were cast in other supporting roles.

Jacqueline Fernandez was approached to perform an item number in the film, but the producers failed to make a deal and instead signed Sophie Choudry after seeing her performance in "Aala Re Aala" from Shootout at Wadala (2013). For her first Telugu song, Choudry joined the film's set in September 2013. Sukumar said about the item number, "It's a superstar's film and it should reach all. Item numbers are common these days, and people expect to see them. The situation was that Babu had to go to a pub to get information about the person he was looking for. So there was an occasion to put in an item number".

Crew

R. Rathnavelu, who collaborated with Sukumar on Arya (2004) and Jagadam (2007), was the film's director of photography in his return to Telugu cinema after seven years. Rathnavelu called the film "more challenging aesthetically" and compared it to Enthiran (2010), which he considered his technically-toughest film. He created the film's visual style in a week with a variety of cameras, such as Red Epic, Body Rigs, Doggies and an underwater scuba camera. For the climaxes, Rathnavelu shifted from chrome to black-and-white to full colour in synchronisation with the story's mood.

Rathnavelu had to address the protagonist's mood swings and hallucinations, replicating scenes with minor differences. The film was shot in locations with a variety of climates, and new technical crews were hired in those places. Sukumar said, "We looked at world technicians and saw their work and can use whatever we learnt" and called it a "new yet learning experience" .

Sukumar's usual composer, Devi Sri Prasad, was chosen for the film's soundtrack and score in Prasad's first Babu film. He went through the script and discussed it with Sukumar, who felt that Prasad translated his vision in the background score. Prasad finished re-recording the film's second half in four days. Eleven-year-old journalist Smrithika Thuhina's father was an associate director of the film, and Prasad emailed him the rhyme's tune with several stills from the scene; his daughter wrote the lyrics for the rhyme. P. Madhusudhan Reddy was the film's audiographer.

Peter Hein choreographed 1: Nenokkadine action sequences, and Prem Rakshith choreographed its songs. Jakka Hari Prasad and Palnati Surya Pratap worked on the film's story, and Y. K. Arjun, Thota Srinivas and Potluri Venkateswara Rao developed the script. Jeremy Zimmerman was credited with the screenplay, assisted by Sunil Madhav. V. Srinivas Mohan was 1: Nenokkadine visual-effects producer and R. C. Kamalakannan and Adel Adili's visual-effects company, Makuta, worked on the film. Karthika Srinivas was its chief editor, assisted by Siva Saravanan.

Filming

Principal photography began on 23 April 2012, with the filming of "Who R U?" featuring Babu and Aggarwal supervised by Prem Rakshith on a set at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad. Six hundred models performed in the song, and about 2,000 people participated in the shoot. After its completion, an action sequence was filmed. The first shooting schedule wrapped up, and Babu returned to the set of Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2013). The second schedule began on 31 May 2012 on house and colony sets at Saradhi Studios in Hyderabad, including scenes with Babu and others. Scenes of Babu at the police station were also part of the schedule.

Since the actor had allotted a block of time to Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, 1: Nenokkadine filming was delayed. When the former neared completion, he resumed work on 1: Nenokkadine in late September 2012 in Hyderabad. Filming continued in Goa in mid-October, after a four-month hiatus, and a song with Babu and others was filmed in late October. The Goa schedule wrapped up on 1 November, with half the filming completed. Babu took a break to promote Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, returning to the set on 23 January 2013. The next shooting schedule, which began on 18 March, lasted for three weeks. Night scenes focusing on Babu and others were filmed in Kukatpally in mid-April.

The next schedule, which began on 18 June, filmed in London and Belfast for 60 days. At the Causeway Pictures studio in Northern Ireland, 1: Nenokkadine was the first Telugu film shot in Belfast. Hollywood stunt co-ordinator Conrad Palmisano supervised stunts by Babu and others. Rathnavelu called the action scene in a London car park "one of the most satisfying" things he had ever done. The scene takes place during a power failure, with the headlights of motorcycles chasing the protagonist the only sources of light. To film the scene, Rathnavelu used LED lamps and three torchlights; smoke was pumped into the air to create a backdrop. When scenes were filmed on one of London's three main bridges, traffic was stopped on both sides of the bridge for more than eight hours.

After London, filming continued in Bangkok in August 2013 and in Hyderabad in September; some scenes were filmed in and near Banjara Hills. The last shooting schedule began in Bangkok in early October 2013, with action scenes supervised by Peter Hein. The remaining dialogue scenes were filmed in Bangalore in mid-October 2013. They were finished by late November, and the last song was filmed in Mumbai. Principal photography wrapped in late December 2013.

Music

The film's five-song soundtrack was composed by Sukumar's usual collaborator Devi Sri Prasad, with lyrics by Chandrabose. Lahari Music acquired its marketing rights for 1 crore, which is a record for a Telugu film. The soundtrack album was released on 21 December 2013 with a promotional event at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad. The event, watched by 14,500 people, was shown live in 24 theatres across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and was the first Indian soundtrack release event shown live in theatres. The rhyme from the film's climax was released separately on 23 January 2014.

The audio received a positive response from critics. Cinecorn.com rated 3 out of 5, stating, the music album as "good". Indiaglitz rated 3.25 out of 5, stating "An album with intense as well as playful songs, it is a true Sukumar-DSP product, complete with meaningful lyrics." Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog stated the soundtrack as "ear-friendly", while a review for The Times of India, described the album as "fair", compared to Prasad's previous works.

Release
1: Nenokkadine was released globally on 10 January 2014 on about 1,500 screens, around the same time as Yevadu (which was released two days later). The film was Babu's third consecutive release during the Makar Sankranti festival season, following Businessman in 2012 and Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu in 2013. Eros International acquired its global distribution rights for 72 crore, and it was released and distributed by 14 Reels Entertainment. 1: Nenokkadine was released on 900 screens across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Including multiplexes, 108 screens were booked in Hyderabad and there were 600 screenings on the film's release day. It broke the record held by Attarintiki Daredi (2013), which had been released on 100 screens in Hyderabad. 14 Reels Entertainment released the film in Auro 11.1 cinema audio format, supported by Barco.

Karnataka distribution rights were sold to RNR Films, who had distributed Dookudu in the state, for 45 crore. 1: Nenokkadine was released on about 200 screens overseas, a record for a Telugu film. In addition to the United States and the United Kingdom, the film was released in Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Malaysia and Germany; it was the first Telugu film released in Ukraine. When reaction to the film's length was mixed, the producers reduced its running time from 169 to 149 minutes. 1: Nenokkadine had its global television premiere on 8 June 2014 on Gemini TV, with a TRP rating of 7.32. The film was dubbed in Hindi as 1: Ek Ka Dum.

Marketing
A mobile app was released on 27 November 2013 on Google Play, and later on iOS; 1: Nenokkadine first look, posters, video promos and other promotional material were released through the app. On 21 December 2013, users could download the film's soundtrack and purchase bulk pre-release tickets. Its digital-media marketing was handled by Sharath Chandra, Anurag and Rohita of First Show Digital. The digital campaign placed third at the 2014 Indian Digital Media Awards in Mumbai, surpassing that for Krrish 3. It accounted for 15 percent of total promotional activity, influencing the sale of 7,500 tickets on the film's release day. 1: Nenokkadine YouTube channel had 12 million views; on Facebook its page received 130 million views, reaching 40 million users and engaging 3.9 million people.

The film's audio teaser was released on 17 December 2013, a few days before the audio launch. The theatrical trailer of the movie was released on 25 December 2013. South Indian actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu found a poster of Sanon crawling behind Babu "regressive", triggering a backlash on Facebook and Twitter from Babu's fans. Actor Siddharth and filmmaker Sekhar Kammula shared her view, receiving a similar response, and filmmaker Pritish Nandy said that the poster was "gross" and "regressive". Sukumar later removed that sequence from the film to avoid further issues, although the Central Board of Film Certification did not object to its inclusion.

Reception

Critical response
According to an early report from the International Business Times, 1: Nenokkadine received negative reviews from critics. Later reports suggest that the reviews were mixed. According to The New Indian Express, its audience was "gripped through the whole film, but not for the right reasons": "Ending with a heralding of a second 'Green Revolution' and carrying on a legacy that aims at a food Utopia, you wish the movie continued with the schizophrenia and ended in an asylum". Karthik Pasupulate of The Times of India gave the film three out of five stars: "The [Telugu cinema] format of six songs, five fights and loads of entertainment and melodrama makes it impossible to respectably adapt racy Hollywood styled suspense thrillers". Radhika Rajamani of Rediff called the film "inordinately long, with repetitive scenes and slow and sluggish narration", and a "sense of ennui set in after a point"; however, Rajamani praised the lead actors' performances. Sify gave the film 2.75 out of five stars: "In 1 Nenokkadine, individual sequences are cool but the same cannot be said if we see it in totality. Apart from Mahesh Babu's stunning performance, the drive of the film is completely off the track. It disappoints." Suresh Kavirayani of Deccan Chronicle gave the film 2.5 out of five stars: "To say it in a line, the film falls short of expectations and disappoints film goers, especially the fans of Mahesh Babu". Kavirayani called Rathnavelu's cinematography its "saving grace", praising the lead pair's performances.

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu wrote, "How often do we get to watch a Telugu film where the audience, along with the protagonist and supporting characters, is also required to think and distinguish between events unfolding in real and imaginary spaces?" and called 1 Nenokkadine a "visually stunning" film. Sridhar Vivan of Bangalore Mirror gave the film 3.5 out of five stars: "As the film tries out a refined or reformed revenge saga, it needs to be seen whether 1 Nenokkadine works at the box office. If it does, it is a good sign for Telugu cinema". A. S. Sashidhar of The Times of India wrote, "The first half of 1: Nenokkadine is good and will keep you wanting for more. The story has a few interesting twists and turns, in the second half too to keep the audience glued to the screen", and Sukumar "should be commended for superb attempt in choosing to make a film that has not been explored in Telugu movies". Shekhar of Oneindia called the film a "brilliant psychological thriller": "The first half of 1: Nenokkadine is excellent and will impress all classes of audience. A few sentimental scenes slow down the pace of narration in the second half. But the superb climax that lasts for 15 minutes will compensate for it. The viewers will surely walk out of theatre with contented hearts".

Box office
1: Nenokkadine earned a distributor share of 8.4 crore at the AP-Nizam box office on its first day, and 12.4 crore over its opening weekend. Its United States opening box office total was $947,000 (5.82 crore), which trade analyst Taran Adarsh called a "glorious start" and "one of the best openings ever by an Indian film". 1: Nenokkadine passed the $1 million mark in three days, the seventh Telugu film (and Babu's third, after Dookudu and Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu) to earn a million dollars. On its fourth and fifth days the film earned a share of 3.25 crore at the AP-Nizam box office, for a five-day total share of about 15 crore.

By the end of 1: Nenokkadine first week it had earned a distributor share of 18.1 crore at the AP-Nizam box office, 2.1 crore in Karnataka and 90 lakh in the rest of India. The film's first-week global box-office total was 25.2 crore. In ten days 1: Nenokkadine grossed over $1.27 million in the United States, the fourth-highest-grossing Telugu film in that country. The film earned a distributor share of about 28.9 crore, on a budget of 70 crore.

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

2010s Telugu-language films
2014 action thriller films
2014 psychological thriller films
2014 films
Indian action thriller films
Indian psychological thriller films
Indian films about revenge
Films scored by Devi Sri Prasad
Films directed by Sukumar
Films shot in Bangkok
Films shot in London
Indian nonlinear narrative films
Indian avant-garde and experimental films
2010s avant-garde and experimental films

1: Nenokkadine


Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Pacific coast south of El Segundo, west of Hawthorne and Redondo Beach, and north of Hermosa Beach. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,506.

Manhattan Beach is one of the three Beach Cities, along with Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach within the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. The community is known for a long beach stretching approximately  and roughly  wide. The climate is unusually moderate because of Manhattan Beach's proximity to the Pacific Ocean, with an average year-round high temperature of  and an average year-round low of .

History

The sandy coastal area was likely inhabited by the Tongva tribe of Native Americans. Archeological work in the nearby Chowigna excavation show evidence of inhabitants as far back as 7,100 years ago. The Tongva Village of Ongovanga was located near neighbouring Redondo Beach. It has been mentioned at the Historical Society that the location of a portion of current day Manhattan Beach may have been used as a Native American burial grounds.

In the mid-18th century, the Portolá expedition was the first European land exploration of present-day California. It traveled north from San Diego to the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. In 1784, the Spanish Crown deeded Rancho San Pedro, a tract of over , to soldier Juan José Domínguez. It included what is today the entire Port of Los Angeles; San Pedro, Los Angeles; Harbor City, Los Angeles; Wilmington, Los Angeles; Carson; Compton; the Dominguez Hills; Lomita; the Palos Verdes Peninsula; Redondo Beach; Hermosa Beach; Manhattan Beach; and Torrance.

In 1863, a Scottish immigrant, Sir Robert Burnett, purchased Rancho Sausal Redondo and Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela from Avila's heirs for $33,000. Ten years later in 1873, Burnett leased the ranch to a Canadian, Daniel Freeman (not the American of the same name, who was the first to file a claim under the Homestead Act of 1862). Burnett returned to Scotland. Freeman moved his wife and three children onto the ranch and started growing various crops. On May 4, 1885, Freeman bought the ranch from Burnett for $140,000. At some point after this the location was informally called "Shore Acres." Shortly thereafter, in 1888 the area's first freight and passenger railroad tracks were built by the Santa Fe Railroad company. The tracks ran through Manhattan Beach and spanned all the way to Redondo Beach with a substation constructed in later years at Center Street, which today is Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

George H. Peck owned the land that became part of the north section of Manhattan Beach. A coin flip decided the town's name. Around 1902, the beach suburb was named "Manhattan" after developer Stewart Merrill's home, the New York City borough of Manhattan. "Beach" was appended to the city's name, in 1927, at the behest of the postmaster.

Incorporation of the City of Manhattan Beach won in a vote held on November 26, 1912.

Mrs. W. A. Bruce, a landowner of property near the coast, created the first beach resort for Black Americans in Southern California, Bruce's Beach. Bruce set up a small portable cottage with a stand in front where soda and lunches were sold. There were two dressing tents with showers, and fifty bathing suits were available for rent. Peck's land was located between Bruce's land and the beach itself, and Bruce erected "no tresspassing signs" on his land, which required beachgoers to walk a half-mile around his land in order to go to the beach. Many beachgoers did so, which made the nearby white landowners unhappy. In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan began violently harassing the resort's visitors, the Bruce family, and four other Black families that bought lots. In 1924, the city used eminent domain to seize the land from the Black property owners under the pretense of building a park. Bruce's attorney noted that there was a lot of vacant property located on both sides of Bruce's Beach that could have been used for a public park, and that the city's insistence in seizing Bruce's property was a ruse to carry out the city's racist objection to Black people using the public beach. In 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom, ordered by law to begin procedures for immediate restitution of property to descendants of the family.

The land in Manhattan Beach was formerly sand dunes. During the 1920s and 1930s, Kuhn Brothers Construction Company leveled uneven sandy sites and some excess sand was sold and shipped to Waikiki, Hawaii, to convert their reef and rock beach into a sandy beach. The sand was also used to build the Los Angeles Coliseum and portions of the Pacific Coast Highway.

The McMartin preschool trials, allegedly an example of day care sex abuse hysteria, started with investigations of a Manhattan Beach preschool in 1983.  The trials ran from 1987 to 1990 and resulted in no convictions.  HBO dramatized this case in the Emmy-winning Indictment: The McMartin Trial, which was partially filmed in Manhattan Beach.

Geography

Climate

Manhattan Beach benefits from ocean breezes that provide clean air and summer temperatures that are  cooler than the inland regions of Southern California.

The city has a total area of . Manhattan Beach features  of ocean frontage.

Beach and sand dunes
Manhattan Beach is a prominent area for beach volleyball and surfing.

A majority of the land in Manhattan Beach was once exposed sand dunes, which now lie beneath the city's buildings and streets. The underlying dunes afford residents ocean views throughout western portions of the city. The tallest hill is 244 feet high, and it is located in the city's southwest region. The only remaining exposed sand dune is at Sand Dune Park, where sand resembling the original landscape can also be found. In the late 1920s, excess sand from Manhattan Beach was purchased by Hawaiian developers, who negotiated a deal with the Kuhn Brothers Construction Company to ship the sand across the Pacific Ocean from Manhattan Beach via Los Angeles Harbor to Waikiki Beach over a ten-year period.

The beach is approximately 2.1 miles long and 400 feet wide. In the early part of the last century, the beach was narrow (approximately 150 feet) and sloping. From 1938 to 1989, it more than doubled in width when large quantities of sand were placed on beaches to the north during construction of the Hyperion Treatment Plant, Marina del Rey, and Scattergood Power Plant. The sand was carried southward by the ocean's natural littoral flow and widened Manhattan Beach.

Every August, the city hosts the Manhattan Beach Open Volleyball Tournament and the International Surf Festival.

Neighborhoods

The city has several distinct neighborhoods, including the "Strand", "Sand Section", "Hill Section", "Tree Section", "Gas Lamp Section", "Manhattan Village", "Manhattan Heights", "East Manhattan Beach" (Manhattan Village, Manhattan Heights, Liberty Village), The Poet's Section" (Shelley, Tennyson, Longfellow, Keats), and "El Porto" (North Manhattan Beach). The Roth Tract, between Herrin and Peck, is sometimes referred to as the "Bird Section."

The "Hill Section" is known for its high-priced homes; many of the residences are remodeled or newly constructed. The steep hills allow panoramic ocean and city views.

The "Sand Section" has quiet walk-street neighborhoods adjacent to the ocean. Oceanfront homes stretch along the bike path and walking lane of "The Strand". "The Strand" section of Manhattan Beach includes some of the most expensive real estate per square foot in the United States.

Since 2010, new property developments in Manhattan Beach cannot exceed two lot parcels. Size and appearance restrictions were enacted by the Manhattan Beach City Council to preserve the appearance of the beachfront community after three lots were joined to create a  oceanside home in 2008.

Downtown
"Downtown" Manhattan Beach is considered the heart of the city. The area runs along Manhattan Beach Boulevard and the streets perpendicular to the Manhattan Beach Pier and Valley Drive. There are Zagat-rated casual fine-dining restaurants, specialty boutiques and retailers that create a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use downtown center.  The Metlox site, where the pottery factory once stood for decades, was closed in the early 1990s and redeveloped into a mixed-use center. The Metlox site includes a luxury boutique hotel, spa, restaurants, shops and underground parking.

North Manhattan Beach District
North Manhattan Beach business district is located near the intersection of Rosecrans and Highland and has restaurants and shops. The district is defined as covering "32nd Street to 45th Street and consist[s] of over 80 businesses".

Rosecrans Corridor
The Rosecrans corridor is located on the south side of Rosecrans Avenue, east of Sepulveda, and west of Aviation.

The Manhattan Beach Country Club, the westdrift Manhattan Beach Hotel and Golf Course, retail stores, restaurants, supermarkets, multi-story office buildings, and shopping centers border the Rosecrans corridor between Sepulveda and Aviation Boulevards. The Rosecrans corridor is adjacent to The Point and Plaza El Segundo off Sepulveda Blvd, which features additional retailers.

Sepulveda Corridor
The Sepulveda Corridor occupies the commercial zone, and is the city's main north–south highway. The area includes the Manhattan Village Mall, which is located east of Sepulveda Boulevard between Marine and Rosecrans Avenues. The mall, built in the early 1980s, was remodeled in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Manhattan Village Mall is executing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment which adds both outdoor and enclosed retail and restaurant space. There are several medium-size hotels, large automobile dealerships, automotive repair shops, restaurants, multi-story office buildings, medical buildings, pharmacies, banks, and small shopping centers along this corridor. Kaiser Permanente's medical offices include a laboratory and pharmacy.

Aviation Corridor
The Aviation Corridor is located along Aviation Boulevard (the city's eastern boundary), south of Rosecrans Avenue, and north of Marine Avenue. Aviation High School was located at the intersection of Manhattan Beach Blvd. and Aviation until it closed in the early 1980s. The zone includes several major entertainment and aerospace complexes, including Manhattan Beach Studios and the Northrop Grumman Space Park Complex. Manhattan Beach Media Campus has production for movies and entertainment including the Marvel motion pictures Thor and Iron Man 2 and both sequels to James Cameron's Avatar movie. The studio complex has large photovoltaic solar panel rooftop installations in the area which generates approximately 1 megawatt of power.

Demographics

The 2010 United States Census reported that Manhattan Beach had a population of 35,135. The population density was . The racial makeup of Manhattan Beach was 29,686 (84.5%) White (79.3% Non-Hispanic White), 290 (0.8%) Black or African American (U.S. Census), 59 (0.2%) Native American, 3,023 (8.6%) Asian, 49 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 409 (1.2%) from other races, and 1,619 (4.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2,440 persons (6.9%).

The Census reported that 35,107 people (99.9% of the population) lived in households, 28 (0.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.

There were 14,038 households, out of which 4,735 (33.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 7,583 (54.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 892 (6.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 438 (3.1%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 695 (5.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 85 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,627 households (25.8%) were made up of individuals, and 1,078 (7.7%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50. There were 8,913 families (63.5% of all households); the average family size was 3.10.

The population was spread out, with 8,725 people (24.8%) under the age of 18, 1,740 people (5.0%) aged 18 to 24, 9,532 people (27.1%) aged 25 to 44, 10,681 people (30.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 4,457 people (12.7%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.9 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.2 males. There were 14,929 housing units at an average density of , of which 9,420 (67.1%) were owner-occupied, and 4,618 (32.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.8%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.3%. 25,587 people (72.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 9,520 people (27.1%) lived in rental housing units.

According to the 2010 United States Census, Manhattan Beach had a median household income of $139,259, with 3.4% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

Many high-profile individuals in the sports and entertainment industry live in Manhattan Beach due to its oceanfront desirability, top performing school district, and commuting distance to Los Angeles.

According to Mapping L.A., German and English were the most common ancestries in 2000. Canada and the United Kingdom were the most common foreign places of birth.

Economy
According to the City's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Residential prices in Manhattan Beach are among the highest in the state of California. In 2013, the Dataquick study reported that more homes exceeding $1 million were sold in Manhattan Beach than any other city in California. Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, La Jolla, Malibu, Bel-Air, Orinda, Atherton, Montecito, and other high end cities in California ranked behind Manhattan Beach. The Higley 100 Census survey found that The Hill Section of Manhattan Beach is the second highest mean household income neighborhood in Los Angeles County, with Beverly Park ranking first and Beverly Hills (the 90210 section) ranking third, respectively. The current median residential home price is $2.2 million according to a November 23, 2014, Los Angeles Times article, and land values in Manhattan Beach rank among the highest per square foot in the nation. Land values on the Manhattan Beach "Strand" are routinely around $10 million for a  piece of land.

Parks and recreation

The wide sandy beaches attract over 3.8 million visitors annually. Beach volleyball, swimming, body boarding and surfing are popular activities among residents and visitors. Popular surf spots include the pier and El Porto, the northern end of the beach. Lifeguard stations are located along the entire length of the beach and the beach is cleaned and groomed daily by crews from LA County Beaches and Harbors Department. Along the Strand at the eastern edge of the beach, a concrete bike path is reserved for bicycles. The bikeway extends north to Santa Monica and south to Torrance. A separate  walkway, reserved for pedestrians, runs alongside the bike path. Restrooms and shower facilities are provided adjacent to the Strand paths. An area known Veteran's Parkway is a pedestrian walkway that runs adjacent to Valley Drive and Ardmore Avenue near downtown Manhattan Beach. Nearly  and  long and extending into Hermosa Beach, the wood-chip walkway is a popular trail for runners and dog-walkers.

There are several public parks in the city. The largest and most popular is Polliwog Park located on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, two blocks west of Aviation Boulevard. Polliwog Park includes the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden, as well as a small lake, open-air concert amphitheater, playground equipment, picnic tables, restrooms, and a fenced dog exercise area. It is also the site of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society Red Cottage, which is home to the city's collection of historical artifacts. Marine Avenue Park, west of Aviation Boulevard on Marine, has several lighted ball fields, basketball courts, and an indoor racket ball facility.  A small skate park was added to Marine Avenue Park in 2017 after a 16-year battle over its location. Live Oak Park in the downtown area has ball fields, batting cages, playground equipment, basketball courts, tennis courts, and picnic tables. Additionally, Begg pool offers comprehensive swimming programs year around for both adults and children including instruction, recreational swimming, water aerobics, and even a youth swim team and adult swim club.  Bruce's Beach (formerly Culiacan Park) is north of downtown.

For over 50 years, the city of Manhattan Beach hosts an annual Hometown Fair at Live Oak Park in downtown Manhattan Beach. Popular among community residents, the fair features food and drink, live music, games and booths to raise funds for local causes.

Government

Local government
The city of Manhattan Beach is governed by a five-member City Council. City Council members are elected every four years. The office of the Mayor of Manhattan Beach rotates every nine months among the members of the City Council, so that each City Council member serves one term as Mayor.  A City Manager is appointed by the City Council. An elected City Treasurer serves a four-year term.

The Beach Cities Health District, provides health and wellness services to the residents of Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach. It is funded partially by over $3 million annually from property taxes. The voters of the three beach cities elect the 5-member Board of Directors to 4-year terms. One of 78 California Health Districts, it was created in 1955 as South Bay Hospital which no longer exists and took on its current name in 1993. Beach Cities Health District is now focused on real estate development and opened AdventurePlex, a Manhattan Beach fitness center for kids and their families, in 2002. Filled with mazes, tunnels, outdoor rock climbing walls, complex ropes courses, and an indoor gym, AdventurePlex challenges children physically and intellectually in health-focused recreational activities.

County government
Manhattan Beach is in the Second Supervisorial District of Los Angeles County. Holly Mitchell is the District Supervisor. The county collects taxes on properties in Manhattan Beach and maintains property assessment rolls. Los Angeles County maintains the beach and provides daily cleaning and grooming. The county also maintains the bike path at the eastern edge of the beach.
The Manhattan Beach County Library is located downtown on Highland Avenue two blocks north of Manhattan Beach Boulevard. The library is part of the County of Los Angeles Public Library system, and includes Internet-accessible computers, WiFi, and access to the six million items in the county library collection. The new $19 million, 20,000 square foot, two-story facility featuring a glass exterior was completed in 2015.

State legislators
In the California State Legislature, Manhattan Beach is in , and in .

Federal government
In the United States House of Representatives, Manhattan Beach is in .

Education
According to US Census data, Manhattan Beach holds the ranking as the second most educated city in Los Angeles County and the fifth most educated city in the state of California.

Primary and secondary schools

Public education in Manhattan Beach is provided by the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, which oversees five elementary schools (Grand View, Meadows, Pacific, Pennekamp, Robinson), one middle school (Manhattan Beach Middle School), and one high school (Mira Costa High School).

The Manhattan Beach Unified School district is ranked as the third-best-performing school district in the state of California. The district received a score of 926 on the 2010 California Academic Performance Index. Each individual school also ranks at the top of its respective category.
Manhattan Beach is currently ranked as one of the best suburbs in Los Angeles Country for its high-earning and well educated residents.

Manhattan Beach's top performing school district is currently ranked as the third best in the state of California, behind only Palo Alto and South Pasadena.  and Forbes Magazine ranked the city's school district, MBUSD, as the sixth best school district in the United States.

Private schools located in Manhattan Beach include American Martyrs Catholic School (of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles), Manhattan Academy, Montessori School of Manhattan Beach and Journey of Faith Christian School.

Residents of Manhattan Beach were in the Wiseburn School District until 1913, when the Manhattan Beach elementary school district formed. Residents attended Redondo Union High School until 1950, when Mira Costa High School opened. Residents were within, in addition to the elementary district, the South Bay Union High School District until 1993, when the latter dissolved. MBUSD formed in 1993.

Media
Manhattan Beach is served by Easy Reader-Manhattan Beach, Beach Magazine, the Daily Breeze, the Los Angeles Times, and the Beach Reporter.

In popular culture

Filming locations
1408 (2007) John Cusack's character surfs in El Porto waves.
2012 (2009) Cracks appear down the middle of 45th Street.
The 1983 Taylor Hackford film Against All Odds was filmed along The Strand and on the beach.
George Jung of Blow (2001) film.
The CBS series CSI: Miami, at Manhattan Beach Studios and one episode was taken at Pollywog Park.
The TV show Hannah Montana used Mira Costa High School as the image of the school portrayed in the TV show, and the Manhattan Beach Pier was also commonly shown in the intro of the show.
Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)  Closing scene filmed on Manhattan Beach Pier.
Jerry Maguire (1996) In the movie, Dorothy's (Renée Zellweger) house is in the Gas Lamp Section on 23rd Street.
The Fox Network series The O.C.
The scenes set inside Governor Swan's mansion in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl were shot here.
Point Break (1991) In the movie, Keanu Reeves buys his surfboard from a shop located on the Manhattan Beach pier.
Starsky and Hutch (2004) In the movie, Starsky (Ben Stiller), can be seen stretching under the pier.
Tequila Sunrise (1988) Mel Gibson's character lives on the beach near the pier.
The CW Television Network series Veronica Mars.
The TV show Weeds.
The movie Airborne.
The video for the song "White Walls" by Macklemore.
The movie Mac & Devin Go to High School and scenes from the music video "Young, Wild & Free" by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa.

Other
Manhattan Beach is mentioned in the song "Surfin' U.S.A." by the Beach Boys. Group members were from the adjacent city of Hawthorne.
The Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament in Manhattan Beach is known as "The Championships, Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball." The names of the tournament champions are inscribed in plaques along Manhattan Beach Pier. This event usually takes place in August and airs on national TV.

Notable people
See: List of people from Manhattan Beach, California

Public transportation
Manhattan Beach is served by Beach Cities Transit.  The Douglas and Redondo Beach C Line stations are nearby, though outside the city.

Historically, Manhattan Beach was served by the Pacific Electric streetcar system.

See also

References

External links

Manhattan Beach Historical Society
Leadership Manhattan Beach
Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce

1912 establishments in California
Cities in Los Angeles County, California
Incorporated cities and towns in California
Populated coastal places in California
Populated places established in 1912
South Bay, Los Angeles

Manhattan Beach, California


Suzanne Axell, (born 27December 1955) is a Swedish journalist and television presenter. She has presented SVTs Fråga doktorn and she has worked as a journalist for Expressen, Aftonbladet and Arbetet. She has also worked for local radio in Uppland, Stockholm and for Sveriges Radios P4 station.

Career
In 1980, she started her career in media. For ten years she worked as a crime reporter for Expressen and as an entertainment reporter for Arbetet. In 1990, she turned down a job at Aftonbladet to start working for local radio stations. She presented Parasollet at Radio Uppland, and she continued to work at that station for five years.

After working at Radio Stockholm in her hometown Stockholm and Sveriges Radio, she started presenting the SVT daily show Go'kväll in 1999, recorded in Norrköping. She presented over 300 shows. Since 2003, she is the presenter of the health facts show Fråga doktorn on the same channel. Axel co-wrote the book Fråga doktorn which was published in 2005. In it she also interviewed Royal Dramatic Theatre actress Marie Göranzon.

Axell has received an award from the Chernobyl foundation in Russia, for her reports about Natasha Andersson and her work for children from the radiation damaged area surrounding Chernobyl. Axell has competed three times in the SVT quiz show På spåret in 2004, 2005 and 2006. On the first two occasions she reached the semifinals along with her teammate Peder Lamm.

References

External links

Living people
1955 births
Swedish journalists
Swedish television personalities
20th-century Swedish women writers
21st-century Swedish women writers
Swedish women television presenters

Suzanne Axell


The Saxon Class XV T was a class of goods train steam locomotive operated by the Royal Saxon State Railways, which had been conceived for hauling trains and acting as banking engines for routes in the Ore Mountains. In 1925 the Deutsche Reichsbahn grouped them into their DRG Class 79.0.

History
The two locomotives were built in 1916 at the Sächsischen Maschinenfabrik, formerly Hartmann.

The undercarriage of the locomotives was unusual. Instead of an alternative proposal for a twelve-coupled locomotive with sideways-sliding Gölsdorf axles, as was realised a year later in the shape of the Württemberg K, the Saxon Railways decided on a proposal by their head of the engineering department, Lindner, for a design that was unique in Germany: the Saxon XV HTV was given two, fixed, six-coupled drives. This was mainly because they had doubts about the suitability of the Gölsdorf system for twelve-couplers. The outside axles were designed as Klien-Lindner axles and could be slid sideways by about 37 mm from their centre position. The design of these axles required them to be fixed into an outside frame. In the centre of the locomotive was a double cylinder on each side, each with a high-pressure cylinder for the rear and a low-pressure cylinder for the front drive.

This design with its low stress on the rails, low inherent resistance and simple weight compensation was promising especially as it also avoided the use of cranked driving axles. Similar thoughts in the USA during the 1930s led to the development of duplex locomotives. Because the cylinders of adjacent axles also had 28 mm of side play, the locomotive could negotiate radii of as little as 170 m. Through the special design of the cylinders, the use of crank axles (Kropfachse) was avoided. Whilst this design enabled the steam lines between the high- and low-pressure cylinders to be extremely short, long admission and exhaust tubes were necessary.

The XV HTV soon proved to be expensive to maintain, particularly with regard to the drives and the hollow axles; as a result no more were procured. Even the usual tendency of all compound engines to sway could not be eliminated by the Klien-Lindner configuration. Wear and tear on the wheel tyres changed the crank settings of the driving gear. That meant that the synchronisation of the drive had to be constantly adjusted, in order to ensure a balanced distribution of effort.

Nevertheless, the engines were successful in practice. They had impressive riding qualities right up to their top speed and wear and tear on the wheel flanges was low. The Deutsche Reichsbahn took both locomotives over as 79 001 and 79 002, but retired them by 1932.

The serial number 79 001 was allocated from 1938 to 1947 to BLE No. 44 of the former Brunswick State Railway Company and from 1951 it was given to the former French locomotive, 1-242.TA.602, which ended up in German hands after World War II.

Design features
The boiler barrel comprised 2 shells with a diameter of 1,450 mm. On the top were two steam domes which were connected by a pipe inside the boiler. Between steam dome and chimney was a sand box. The firebox was made of copper and position over the first axle of the rear drive. The smokebox superheater was of the Schmidt type.

The locomotive frame comprised an inside frame of 28 mm thick plate, and an outside frame for the hollow axles of 20 mm thick plate.

The four-cylinder compound cylinders were arranged horizontally on the outside and each drove its centre axle

See also
Royal Saxon State Railways
List of Saxon locomotives and railbuses

Sources

External links
 Photo

0-6-6-0 locomotives
15 HTV
Sächsische Maschinenfabrik locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1916
Standard gauge locomotives of Germany
CC h4vt locomotives
Duplex locomotives
Freight locomotives

Saxon XV HTV


Pant is a small village in Shropshire in England. It is in the civil parish of Llanymynech and Pant. It is located on the border with Powys in Wales. It is situated 15 miles north west of Shrewsbury, the county town.

In the 2011 census, the village's population was listed under the civil parish's population, which was 2,100 people.

The village's name means "hollow" in Welsh.

Villages in Shropshire

Pant, Shropshire


Business class (also known as executive class or upper class) is a high quality second-tier travel class available on some commercial airlines and rail lines. Its level of accommodation is higher than economy class and domestic first class but lower than international first class. However, many airlines offer only business class as the highest level of international service.

References

Travel

Business class


Nasser Abul is a Kuwaiti online activist. On 7 July 2011, he was imprisoned by the government of Kuwait on state security charges, following a series of tweets in support of  Arab Spring protesters in Bahrain. Sheikh Abdullah Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Fateh Al Khalifa of Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family thanked the Kuwaiti government for Abul's arrest and also announced his intention to file a private libel suit against Abul.

Following his arrest, Abul stated that the most inflammatory tweets on his account had been posted by hackers, and that when he became aware of the tweets, he had deleted them with his iPhone. Abul has alleged that he was beaten and subjected to sleep deprivation in the first two days of his detention; according to his lawyer, Abul was also denied counsel for several hearings. One week after his arrest, Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and called for his immediate release. Human Rights Watch also demanded that the charges against him be dropped, with a representative stating that "Kuwait has sunk to a new low by arresting people just for posting criticism of governments on the internet." On 19 September, Kuwaiti MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, requested Abul's release, calling it "a shame to taint Kuwait's human rights history".

On 27 September 2011, Abul was released from Kuwait Central Prison.

See also
 Hamad al-Naqi

References

Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Kuwait
Kuwaiti activists
Kuwaiti people of Iranian descent
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Kuwaiti prisoners and detainees

Nasser Abul


The whistle register (also called the flute register or flageolet register) is the highest register of the human voice, lying above the modal register and falsetto register. This register has a specific physiological production that is different from the other registers and is so called because the timbre of the notes that are produced from this register is similar to that of a whistle.

In some sopranos, the modal register vocal production may extend into what is usually thought of as the whistle register.

Physiology and definition
The whistle register is the highest phonational register, that in most singers begins above the soprano "high D" (D6 or 1174.6 Hz) and extends to about an octave above (D7 or 2349.3 Hz). It is created by using only the back of the vocal folds. The lower part of the whistle register may overlap the upper parts of the modal and falsetto registers, making it possible for singers to phonate these notes in different ways. However, fundamentally, the whistle register is most commonly used to produce pitches above D6. As with the other vocal registers, the whistle register does not begin at the same point within every voice, and there are rare voices that can extend the whistle register much higher or lower than the range listed above. For example, most operatic coloratura sopranos can sing up to the "high" F above "high" C without entering into the whistle register.

The physiology of the whistle register is the least understood of the vocal registers. Unlike other types of vocal production, it is difficult to film the vocal cords while they are operating in this manner as the epiglottis closes down over the larynx, and the resonating chamber assumes its smallest dimensions. It is known that when producing pitches in this register, vibration occurs only in some anterior portion of the vocal folds. This shorter vibrating length naturally allows for easier production of high pitches.

Although the whole physiological production of whistle tone is not understood, it is known that when the lateral cricoarytenoid muscles are active but the transverse arytenoid muscles inactive, a triangular opening is seen between the arytenoids, the vocal processes contact each other, but the posterior parts at the apex do not contact each other. The exception to this would be if the vocal folds are not stretched, as stretching of the vocal ligaments abducts (moves away from) the vocal processes.

Use in music

In popular music, the whistle register is used with more variety and to produce much higher pitches than are called for in classical music. It has mostly been used by female singers, with notable examples being Minnie Riperton, Betty Wright, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and Ariana Grande.

Some male singers can also make use of the whistle register, including Vitas, Adam Lopez, and Dimash Qudaibergen. An Iranian man named Amirhossein Molaei holds the Guinness Book of Records title for the highest vocal note produced by a man (F#8, 5989 Hz).

See also
Vocal register

References

Further reading

External links
Whistle register at SITE123

Voice registers
Human voice

Whistle register