Blazing Saddles is a 1974 American satirical postmodernist Western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger, based on a story treatment by Bergman. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences, was nominated for three Academy Awards and is ranked number six on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.

Brooks appears in three supporting roles: Governor William J. Le Petomane, a Yiddish-speaking Native American chief and the "aviator/director" in line to help invade Rock Ridge (a nod to Howard Hughes); he also dubs lines for one of Lili Von Shtupp's backing troupe and a cranky moviegoer. The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself, appearing with his orchestra.

The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from the Count Basie Orchestra playing "April in Paris" in the Wild West, to Pickens's character mentioning the Wide World of Sports.

In 2006, Blazing Saddles was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot
On the American frontier of 1874, a new railroad under construction will have to be rerouted through the town of Rock Ridge to avoid quicksand. Realizing this will make Rock Ridge worth millions, territorial attorney general Hedley Lamarr plans to force Rock Ridge's residents out of the town and sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to shoot the sheriff and trash the town.

The townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart, a Black railroad worker about to be executed for assaulting Taggart. A Black sheriff, Lamarr reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos and leave Rock Ridge at his mercy.

After an initial hostile reception (Bart takes himself "hostage" to escape), he relies on his quick wits and the assistance of Jim, an alcoholic gunslinger known as the "Waco Kid", to overcome the townspeople's hostility. Bart subdues Mongo, an immensely strong and dim-witted, yet philosophical henchman sent to kill him, then outwits German seductress-for-hire Lili Von Shtupp at her own game, with Lili falling in love with him.

Upon release, Mongo vaguely informs Bart of Lamarr's connection to the railroad, so Bart and Jim visit the railroad worksite and discover from Bart's best friend Charlie that the railway is planned to go through Rock Ridge. Taggart and his men arrive to kill Bart, but Jim outshoots them and forces their retreat. Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, recruits an army of thugs, including common criminals, motorcycle gangsters, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazis and Methodists.

East of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the White townspeople to the Black, Chinese, and Irish railroad workers who have all agreed to help them in exchange for acceptance by the community, and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect copy of the town as a diversion. When Bart realizes it will not fool the villains, the townsfolk construct copies of themselves.

Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway", forcing the raiding party to send for change to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town and its population of dummies, which have been booby trapped with dynamite. After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers attack the villains.

The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs literally breaks the fourth wall and bursts onto a neighboring movie set, where director Buddy Bizarre is filming a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; the brawl then spreads into the studio commissary for a food fight, and spills out of the Warner Bros. film lot onto the streets of Burbank.

Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten, hails a taxi and orders the cabbie to "drive me off this picture". He ducks into Mann's Chinese Theatre, which is showing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he settles into his seat, he sees onscreen Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape and shoots him in the groin. Bart and Jim then enter the theater to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on because his work is done (and because he is bored).

Riding out of town, he finds Jim, still eating his popcorn, and invites him along to "nowhere special". The two friends briefly ride into the desert before dismounting and boarding a limousine, which drives off into the sunset.

Cast

Cast notes:
 Count Basie and his orchestra make a cameo appearance, playing "April in Paris" in the middle of the desert as Bart rides toward Rock Ridge to assume the post of sheriff.
 Brooks appears in three on-screen roles: Governor William J. Le Petomane, the Yiddish-speaking Native American chief (appearing in redface) in Bart's backstory, and an applicant for Hedley Lamarr's thug army (an aviator wearing sunglasses and a flight jacket). He also has two off-screen voice roles, as one of Lili's German chorus boys during "I'm Tired", and as a grouchy moviegoer.
 "Le Petomane" refers to Joseph Pujol, a performer in 19th-century France who was a professional flatulist using "Le Pétomane" as his stage name.
 Carol Arthur (Harriet Johnson) was DeLuise's wife.
 "Olson Johnson" is a reference to the vaudeville comedy team Olsen and Johnson, "Howard Johnson" to the now-defunct Howard Johnson's restaurant chain, "Van Johnson" to the actor Van Johnson, and "Dr. Samuel Johnson" to the 18th-century English writer by that name. The character of "Gabby Johnson" is a direct parody of cowboy actor Gabby Hayes.

Production

Development
The idea came from a story outline written by Andrew Bergman that he originally intended to develop and produce himself. "I wrote a first draft called Tex-X" (a play on Malcolm X's name), he said. "Alan Arkin was hired to direct and James Earl Jones was going to play the sheriff. That fell apart, as things often do." Brooks was taken with the story, which he described as "hip talk—1974 talk and expressions—happening in 1874 in the Old West", and purchased the film rights from Bergman. Though he had not worked with a writing team since Your Show of Shows, he hired a group of writers (including Bergman) to expand the outline, and posted a large sign: "Please do not write a polite script."

Brooks described the writing process as chaotic:  Bergman remembers the room being just as chaotic, telling Creative Screenwriting,

Title
The original title, Tex X, was rejected to avoid it being mistaken for an X-rated film, as were Black Bart – a reference to Black Bart, a white highwayman of the 19th century – and Purple Sage. Brooks said he finally conceived Blazing Saddles one morning while taking a shower.

Casting
Pryor was Brooks's original choice to play Sheriff Bart, but the studio, claiming his history of drug arrests made him uninsurable, refused to approve financing with Pryor as the star. The role of Sheriff Bart went to Cleavon Little, and Pryor remained as a screenwriter, instead. Brooks offered the other leading role, the Waco Kid, to John Wayne who declined, deeming the film "too blue" for his family-oriented image, but assured Brooks that "he would be the first one in line to see it." Dan Dailey was Brooks first choice for the role. Gig Young was cast, but he collapsed during his first scene from what was later determined to be alcohol withdrawal syndrome, and Wilder was flown in to replace him.

Johnny Carson and Wilder both turned down the Hedley Lamarr role before Korman was cast. Madeline Kahn objected when Brooks asked to see her legs during her audition. "She said, 'So it's THAT kind of an audition? Brooks recalled. "I explained that I was a happily married man and that I needed someone who could straddle a chair with her legs like Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. So she lifted her skirt and said, 'No touching.

Filming
Principal photography began on March 6, 1973, and wrapped in early May 1973. Brooks had numerous conflicts over content with Warner Bros. executives, including frequent use of the word "nigger", Lili Von Shtupp's seduction scene, the cacophony of flatulence around the campfire and Mongo punching out a horse. Brooks, whose contract gave him final cut, declined to make any substantive changes, with the exception of cutting Bart's final line during Lili's seduction: "I hate to disappoint you, ma'am, but you're sucking my arm." When asked later about the many "nigger" references, Brooks said he received consistent support from Pryor and Little. He added: "If they did a remake of Blazing Saddles today [2012], they would leave out the N-word. And then, you've got no movie." Brooks said he received many letters of complaint after the film's release.

Music
Brooks wrote the music and lyrics for three of Blazing Saddles songs, "The Ballad of Rock Ridge", "I'm Tired", and "The French Mistake". Brooks also wrote the lyrics to the title song, with music by composer John Morris. To sing the title song, Brooks advertised in the trade papers for a "Frankie Laine–type" singer; to his surprise, Laine himself offered his services. "Frankie sang his heart out ... and we didn't have the heart to tell him it was a spoof. He never heard the whip cracks; we put those in later. We got so lucky with his serious interpretation of the song."

The choreographer for "I'm Tired" and "The French Mistake" was Alan Johnson. "I'm Tired" is a homage to and parody of Marlene Dietrich's performance of Cole Porter's song "I'm the Laziest Gal in Town" in Alfred Hitchcock's 1950 film Stage Fright, as well as "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" from The Blue Angel.

The orchestrations were by Morris and Jonathan Tunick.

Lawsuit
During production, retired longtime film star Hedy Lamarr sued Warner Bros. for $100,000, charging that the film's running parody of her name infringed on her right to privacy. Brooks said that he was flattered and chose to not fight it in court; the studio settled out of court for a small sum and an apology for "almost using her name". Brooks said that Lamarr "never got the joke". This lawsuit would be referenced by an in-film joke where Brooks' character, the Governor, tells Lamarr that "This is 1874; you'll be able to sue HER."

Release
The film was almost unreleased. "When we screened it for executives, there were few laughs," said Brooks. "The head of distribution said, 'Let's dump it and take a loss.' But [studio president John] Calley insisted they open it in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago as a test. It became the studio's top moneymaker that summer."

The world premiere took place on February 7, 1974, at the Pickwick Drive-In Theater in Burbank; 250 invited guests—including Little and Wilder—watched the film on horseback.

Response
While Blazing Saddles is now considered a classic, critical reaction was mixed upon initial release. Vincent Canby wrote:

Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, calling it a "crazed grab bag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?" Gene Siskel awarded three stars out of four and called it "bound to rank with the funniest of the year," adding, "Whenever the laughs begin to run dry, Brooks and his quartet of gag writers splash about in a pool of obscenities that score belly laughs if your ears aren't sensitive and if you're hip to western movie conventions being parodied."

Critics often perceived Blazing Saddles as inherently "un-cinematic", defying some expectations for Hollywood filmmaking in the era, often displaying production style associated with Broadway theater and US television variety shows. This was in part due to its "simplistic framing" and the casting of Harvey Korman, known for The Carol Burnett Show (CBS, 1967–1978), which was similarly "low on characterization and story, instead opting for a high volume of one-liners and visual gags." Typical to this perception, Variety wrote: "If comedies are measured solely by the number of yocks they generate from audiences, then Blazing Saddles must be counted a success ... Few viewers will have time between laughs to complain that pic is essentially a raunchy, protracted version of a television comedy skit."

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film "irreverent, outrageous, improbable, often as blithely tasteless as a stag night at the Friar's Club and almost continuously funny." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post was negative, writing: "Mel Brooks squanders a snappy title on a stockpile of stale jokes. To say that this slapdash Western spoof lacks freshness and spontaneity and originality is putting it mildly. Blazing Saddles is at once a messy and antiquated gag machine." Jan Dawson of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Perhaps it is pedantic to complain that the whole is not up to the sum of its parts when, for the curate's egg that it is, Blazing Saddles contains so many good parts and memorable performances." John Simon wrote a negative review of Blazing Saddles, saying: "All kinds of gags—chiefly anachronisms, irrelevancies, reverse ethnic jokes, and out and out vulgarities—are thrown together pell-mell, batted about insanely in all directions, and usually beaten into the ground."

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 88% approval rating based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The site's consensus reads: "Daring, provocative, and laugh-out-loud funny, Blazing Saddles is a gleefully vulgar spoof of Westerns that marks a high point in Mel Brooks' storied career." On Metacritic it has a score of 73% based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ishmael Reed's 1969 novel Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down has been cited as an important precursor or influence for Blazing Saddles, a connection that Reed himself has made.

Box office
The film earned theatrical rentals of $26.7 million in its initial release in the United States and Canada. In its 1976 reissue, it earned a further $10.5 million and another $8 million in 1979. Its total rentals in the United States and Canada totalled $47.8 million from a gross of $119.5 million, becoming only the tenth film up to that time to pass the $100 million mark.

Awards and accolades
While addressing his group of bad guys, Harvey Korman's character reminds them that although they are risking their lives, he is "risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor!" Korman did not receive an Oscar bid, but the film did get three nominations at the 47th Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Madeline Kahn.

In 2006, Blazing Saddles was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Upon the release of the 30th-anniversary special edition in 2004, Today said that the movie "skewer[ed] just about every aspect of racial prejudice while keeping the laughs coming" and that it was "at the top of a very short list" of comedies still funny after 30 years. In 2014, NPR wrote that, four decades after the movie was made, it was "still as biting a satire" on racism as ever, although its treatment of gays and women was "not self-aware at all".

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – No. 6

Adaptations

TV series
A television pilot titled Black Bart was produced for CBS based on Bergman's original story. It featured Louis Gossett Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as his drunkard sidekick, a former Confederate officer named "Reb Jordan". Other cast members included Millie Slavin and Noble Willingham. Bergman is listed as the sole creator. CBS aired the pilot once on April 4, 1975. The pilot episode of Black Bart was later included as a bonus feature on the Blazing Saddles 30th Anniversary DVD and the Blu-ray disc.

Possible stage production
In September 2017, Brooks indicated his desire to do a stage version of Blazing Saddles in the future.

In popular culture
The Rock Ridge standard for CD and DVD media is named after the town in Blazing Saddles.

The 1988 animated television film The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound is a Western parody similar to Blazing Saddles. Starring anthropomorphic cartoon dog Huckleberry Hound, the film is set in the California Gold Rush era and has some similar spoofs and gags. Here, much like Bart, Huck is unexpectedly appointed as a sheriff to defend townspeople.

The 2022 animated film Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, starring Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Yeoh and Ricky Gervais, was originally titled Blazing Samurai and its creators called it "equally inspired by and an homage to Blazing Saddles." Brooks served as an executive producer for the production, voiced one of the characters, and received screenplay credit.

Home media
The film was released on VHS several times and was first released on DVD in 1997, followed by a 30th Anniversary Special Edition DVD in 2004 and a Blu-ray version in 2006. A 40th anniversary Blu-ray set was released in 2014.

References

External links

 Blazing Saddles essay by Michael Schlesinger at National Film Registry.

1974 films
1974 Western (genre) films
1970s American films
1974 black comedy films
1970s English-language films
1970s parody films
1970s satirical films
1970s Western (genre) comedy films
African-American Western (genre) films
American Western (genre) comedy films
American black comedy films
American parody films
American satirical films
Ethnic humour
Films about racism in the United States
Films directed by Mel Brooks
Films scored by John Morris
Films set in 1856
Films set in 1874
Films set in a movie theatre
Films shot in California
Films with screenplays by Andrew Bergman
Films with screenplays by Mel Brooks
Films with screenplays by Richard Pryor
Films with screenplays by Norman Steinberg
Films with screenplays by Alan Uger
Self-reflexive films
Metafictional works
United States National Film Registry films
Warner Bros. films
Postmodern films

Blazing Saddles


Car of Dreams is a 1935 British romantic comedy film directed by Graham Cutts and Austin Melford and starring Grete Mosheim, John Mills, Norah Howard and Robertson Hare. A tycoon's son falls in love with a woman who works at his father's factory. It was based on the 1934 Hungarian film The Dream Car.

The film was shot at the Lime Grove Studios in London, with sets designed by the art director Alfred Junge.

Plot
Vera Hart lives with her parents. Her father is an antiques salesman who loves his stock too much to sell it and therefore doesn't make any money. Through her friend Molly, Vera manages to get a menial job at Miller's music instrument factory.

Vera has a habit of going into shops and trying on expensive clothes and jewellery which she could never hope to pay for. On her way home from work she stops in a car dealer and sits in a new luxury car. Robert Miller, the young son of the owner of Miller's factory, sees Vera and falls instantly in love with her. He pretends to be an employee at the car showroom and they bond together. On a whim, he decides to buy Vera the car and pretends she has won it as the 10,000th customer to visit the shop. Vera's father is delighted by the new car, but her mother is more suspicious.

Miller wants to spend more time with Vera, but he is uncertain about telling her his true identity in part because he is constantly harassed by women who are interested in his inheritance. He approaches the Hart family and offers to chauffeur the car for them, doing jobs such as weddings to pay for it. As none of them can drive, they accept his offer. Miller gets into the habit of driving Vera to work at the factory, still not revealing the truth that his family owns the business.

When he discovers how little she is paid, he has her salary raised to five pounds a week. Unfortunately this leads to bad feelings amongst Vera's colleagues, in particular her superior Henry Butterworth and Anne Fisher who has a crush on Miller, who suspect that Vera is the fancy woman of Miller. Vera is bemused by her pay rise because she is under the impression that she has never met Miller.

When Vera comes to his office to confront Miller about her increased salary, he hides and gets his friend Peters to pretend to be him. Peters takes a shine to Vera, and tries to persuade her to go out on a date with him. Once she has gone, Miller and Peters get into an argument over whether each of them have a shot with her and whether she is more interested in love or money. The debate is put to the test when Vera, Miller and Peters all head down to a country hotel for an ice-skating carnival. A concerned Mr Butterworth and Miss Fisher also head down to the hotel to keep an eye on Vera, and are shocked when they see her separately with both Peters and Miller, believing that she is two timing them.

Still without revealing his true identity, Miller asks Vera to live with him for ever in a couple of rooms over a garage. She joyfully accepts, but when Butterworth tells her who Miller really is she is hurt - thinking that his offer was not one of marriage but one of a kept woman. She then pretends to be uninterested in Miller and instead focuses her attention on Peters. Eventually however the confusion is resolved and Miller and Vera drive off together in their "car of dreams".

Cast

Grete Mosheim as Vera Hart
John Mills as Robert Miller
Norah Howard as Anne Fisher
Robertson Hare as Henry Butterworth
 Mark Lester as Miller Senr.
Margaret Withers as Mrs. Hart
Paul Graetz as Mr. Hart
Glennis Lorimer as Molly
 Jack Hobbs as Peters
Hay Plumb as Chauffeur

Soundtrack
 "Car of Dreams" (Written by Maurice Sigler, Al Goodhart and Al Hoffman)

References

External links

1935 films
1935 romantic comedy films
British black-and-white films
British films based on plays
British romantic comedy films
Films set in England
Films set in London
Films shot at Lime Grove Studios
Remakes of Hungarian films
Films produced by Michael Balcon
1930s English-language films
1930s British films
English-language romantic comedy films

Car of Dreams


Eupithecia oxycedrata is a species of moth in the family Geometridae. It is found in Spain, southern Portugal, the Balearic Islands, southern France, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Crete, western Romania and the Crimea. It is also found in North Africa, from Morocco to Tunisia, and in Turkey. The habitat consists of dry maquis, especially where junipers grow.

The wingspan is 16-19.5 mm. There are two generations per year, with adults on wing from early April to late June and again from early September to mid October.

The larvae feed on the needles and flowers of Juniperus oxycedrus.

References

Moths described in 1833
oxycedrata
Moths of Europe
Moths of Asia
Moths of Africa
Taxa named by Jules Pierre Rambur

Eupithecia oxycedrata


John Albert Beckman (October 22, 1895, in New York, NY – June 22, 1968, in Miami, Florida) was a professional basketball player.

During his 27 years lasting pro career (1914–41) he was known as the "Babe Ruth of basketball". He is mostly known for his time with the Original Celtics (1918/19, 1921–27, 1929). He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1973.

Professional career
Beckman began playing for St. Gabriel's Catholic School in Manhattan as a 15 year old in 1910. He did not attend college but instead played for the Opals of the Hudson County League in 1910. In 1915, Beckman played for De Neri, an EL team based in Philadelphia, he played 34 of the team's 40 games, making 88 field goals and 74 free throws. Concluding the season with 250 points and finishing third in scoring in the EL, with an average of 7.4 points per game - a high average in a low-scoring basketball era. In the 1917-18 season, the EL was postponed early because of World War I. Beckman led the EL in scoring with 9.25 points per game.

Player profile
The 156 pound forward, was referred to as one of the true stars of the earliest years of basketball. He was considered the best free-throw shooter of his era. His prolific free-throw shooting and gritty playing style always excited crowds. In 1918, Beckman's teammate, Chris Leonard of the Original Celtics, considered Beckman, "a master of the fastbreak", due to his lightning speed. Beckman was a complete offensive player respected for his scoring ability, having outstanding shooting ability along with his slashing ability. He was credited as a valuable team player, for his selflessness and commitment in teamwork, passing and team defense.

References

External links
 Basketball Hall of Fame profile

1895 births
1968 deaths
Basketball players from New York City
Cleveland Rosenblums players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
Original Celtics players

John Beckman


A cash sweep, or debt sweep, is the mandatory use of excess free cash flows to pay down outstanding debt rather than distribute it to shareholders.

Firms always have the option to pay down debt with excess cash, but they do not always choose to do so. This can lead to firms wasting excess cash. A cash sweep forces the firm to pay at least a portion of all excess cash flows a year to pay down its debt at a quicker rate to minimize credit risk and liability.

References

Cash flow
Corporate finance

Cash sweep


Robert Sempill, 3rd Lord Sempill (c. 1505–1576) was a Scottish lord of Parliament.

Robert, also Semphill or Semple, 3rd Lord Sempill (d. circa 1575), commonly called the 'Great Lord Sempill', was the elder son of William Sempill, 2nd Lord Sempill, by his first wife, Lady Margaret Montgomery, eldest daughter of Hugh Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Eglinton. His parents' marriage was commemorated in carved stone heraldry at Castle Semple Collegiate Church. Through her paternal grandmother, Lady Margaret Montgomery was a fifth generation descendant from Robert II of Scotland. So descendants of Robert, 3rd Lord Sempill, are descended from many Scottish monarchs up to Robert II, and also from Anglo-Saxon kings (through the marriage of Malcolm III of Scotland to Saint Margaret of Scotland).

The Sempill family from the thirteenth century were hereditary bailiffs of the regality of Paisley and sheriffs of Renfrew under the Lord High Steward of Scotland. They frequently distinguished themselves in the English wars, and were employed in important duties of state. Sir Thomas Sempill, father of John Sempill, 1st Lord Sempill, was killed at the battle of Sauchieburn on 11 June 1488, fighting in support of James III, and the first Lord Sempill, created by James IV about 1489, fell at Flodden on 9 September 1513.

Early career
Robert, as Master of Sempill, served in household of James V of Scotland wearing livery costume, and gave the King presents which were recorded because the King had them embellished by his craftsmen. In 1532 the King's armourer William Smithberde polished and sharpened the blades of eight two-handed swords given by Robert, other gifts were stockings and a tartan coat called a "galcot" in January 1533. On 20 October 1533, he was made Governor and Constable of the king's castle of Douglas. In April 1534, after Robert had reached his majority, James V exacted a financial penalty for his "non-entry" to the Sempill lands, punishing his father for non-payment.

Robert Sempill became Master of Household to Regent Arran. In July 1550, Robert Sempill was summoned for treason. David Stewart became Master of Household to Regent Arran in his place.

He succeeded his father as Lord Sempill in 1552.

Murder
Robert, Lord Sempill, was said to have murdered William Crichton, 5th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar, on 11 June 1552. According to the story recorded by John Lesley, Lord Sempill was in the private lodging of Regent Arran in Edinburgh and was moved by rage to stab Lord Sanquhar with his sword. Sempill was arrested and taken to Edinburgh Castle and would have been beheaded, but his influential friends secured his release.

It was said by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie that Sempill's daughter Grizzel, called 'Lady Gilton', who was the widow of James Hamilton of Stenhouse a former Provost of Edinburgh, was particularly helpful in securing help for Sempill. She was the mistress of John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, Regent Arran's brother. A record survives of a pardon granted in September 1552 to Lord Sempill's eldest son, Robert Master of Sempill, for his part in the murder.

For Lesley, the incident was an example of the troubles in Scotland during a period of factional rivalry between Regent Arran and Mary of Guise before she became Regent. Pitscottie tells the story as an example of corruption in Arran's regency.

Religion and the sieges of Castle Semple
Robert, Lord Sempill, resisted the Scottish Reformation in 1560. Being a steadfast supporter of the queen regent against the Lords of the Congregation, he was described by Knox as "a man sold under sin, an enemy to God and to all godliness." The Lords of the West laid siege to Castle Semple in Lochwinnoch in December 1559. Leaving his son at Castle Semple, Lord Semple took refuge in the stronghold of Dunbar Castle, then under the command of a French captain, Corbeyran de Cardaillac Sarlabous. Sarlabous was asked in August 1560 to give him up but declined to do so until he received the command of Mary, Queen of Scots and Francis II of France. Thomas Randolph shortly afterwards reported that Sempill had conveyed himself secretly out of Dunbar, and had retired to his own castle with twenty arquebusiers lent him by Sarlabous, and then that he had gone to France.

After the Scottish Reformation Parliament, James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault and his son James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran again besieged Castle Semple. An ally of the Hamiltons, the Earl of Glencairn gave a description of an assault on the castle on 18 September 1560 that penetrated the yard. The attackers took some sheep to prove their achievement: "This last Wednesday the few hagbutters here came to Castle Sympill, and they within came forth to the yards in their accustomed manner, and they, more wilful than wise, came plain upon them and drove them out of the yards into the castle, while they (the defenders) shot little pistols at them out of the windows, and dared not come to the wall heads (parapet). And to verify this, they took sheep that they had within the close away with them. And never a man hurt or slain, but one who will heal, and diverse of the enemy evil hurt, as my brother has written to me." Lord Sempill made his way to Dumbarton Castle but was captured on 14 October 1560. When Castle Semple was taken in November 1560, he was at Dunbar. He was 'relaxed from the horn' in March 1561. A royal cannon with the insignia of James V of Scotland, probably used at this siege, was recovered from Castle Semple Loch in the 19th century and is now in the collection of Glasgow Museums.

Lord Sempill and Mary Queen of Scots
Sempill was one of the "nobles and barons of the west country" who on 5 Sept 1565 signed a band in support of Mary and Darnley, in opposition to the Earl of Moray and other rebels of the Chaseabout Raid, and in Mary's army held a command in the vanguard of the battle; Robert, 3rd Lord Sempill's initial  loyalty to Mary Queen of Scots was acknowledged: "Pope Pius IV to John, Lord of Hume, William, Lord of Seton, John, Lord of Sempill…: The report which the Queen of Scotland's ambassador... has given of the steadfastness of... some... Scottish nobles in defence of the Catholic religion, as also of their loyalty to their Queen, is very gratifying to the Pope, who felicitates them on the renown they have won among men, and much more upon the reward they may expect from God. He exhorts them still to persevere, more especially as there is now no little hope of better things".Roxine A. Beaumont-Sempill (2015) The Semples, Lord Sempills of West Scotland: family and contextual history from the 11th to 19th Centuries, p. 104. Cites Rigg, J M (1916) Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Vatican Archives, vol. 1, 1558-1571, pp. 136-152, 224-240.  Though a Catholic, he joined the association for the 'defences of the young prince' after the murder of Darnley, in opposition to Bothwell and the queen.

At Carberry Hill on 14 June 1567, he commanded in the vanguard of the army that opposed the queen; and he was also one of those who signed the documents authorising William Douglas of Lochleven to take the queen under his charge in Lochleven Castle. In Morton's declaration regarding the discovery and custody of the 'casket letters', he is mentioned as having been present at the opening of the casket.

Marian Civil War
After the queen's escape from Lochleven, Sempill assembled his dependents against her at Langside on 13 May 1568. On the 19 May he was, with the Earl of Glencairn, appointed Lieutenant of the Western parts, with special instructions to watch Dumbarton Castle, and prevent the entrance into it of provisions or reinforcements or fugitives. For his special services he obtained a gift of the abbey of Paisley.

While returning one evening in May 1570 from the army that had demolished the castle of the Hamiltons, Sempill visited a house belonging to one of daughters, where he was captured by some of the Hamiltons' dependents, and carried a prisoner to Craignethan Castle, then known as "Draffen".He was afterwards taken to Argyle by Lord Boyd. Calderwood states that he remained in Argyle for twelve months, but he was probably set at liberty in February 1571; for when the house of Paisley surrendered to the regent at that time, the lives of those within it were granted on this condition.<ref>Calendar State Papers, Foreign 1569–71, nos. 962, 1570: Calderwood, History, vol. 2, p. 565</ref> Notwithstanding the utmost efforts of Glencairn and Sempill, the castle of Dumbarton continued to hold out, until, on 1 April 1571, its rock was scaled by his cousin Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill.

Family
Robert 3rd Lord Sempill married firstly, Isabel Hamilton, a Sister of William Hamilton of Sanquhar, and secondly Elizabeth Carlyle, a daughter of Lord Torthorwald.

His children with his first wife Isabel Hamilton of Sanquhar, included four daughters and two sons:
 Robert Master of Sempill, who predeceased him, father of Robert Sempill, 4th Lord Sempill
 Andrew Sempill, ancestor of the Sempills of Burchell
 James Sempill. In August 1542 Andrew Sempill and his brother James Sempill, sons of Robert, Master of Sempill, were old enough to witness a property transaction made in Paisley.
Children with his second wife Elizabeth Carlyle, include
 John Sempill of Beltrees, who married Mary Livingston in March 1565. She was one of the Four Marys who were ladies in waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots.
 Colonel William Sempill of Lochwinnoch, who was involved in the Spanish blanks plot, is thought to have been a son of the 3rd Earl.
 Jean Sempill married James Ross, 4th Lord Ross.

Lord Sempill was still living on 29 March 1574, when Claud Hamilton brought an action against him
</ref> but died before 17 January 1576.

Not the poet of that name
Neither the 3rd lord Sempill nor his son Robert, Master of Sempill, nor the 4th Lord Sempill could have been, as Sibbald, Motherwell, and others maintain, the Robert Sempill who was author of the Sempill Ballads, the 4th Lord was born too late, while in the case of the first two the early date of their death precludes the supposition.

See also
The Peel of Castle Semple

Bibliography
 Sempill, Robert (d.1572) (DNB00)
 Calendar State Papers, Foreign Elizabeth Calendar State Papers Scotland Register Privy Council Scotland, vols. i.–ii
 Knox, John, History of the Reformation Calderwood, History of the Chirch of Scotland Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 493–4
 Collections for the County of Renfrew'', vol. ii. 1890.

References

Scottish Reformation
16th-century Scottish people
Members of the Privy Council of Scotland
Scottish murderers
Lords of Parliament (pre-1707)
Lords Sempill
1500s births
1576 deaths
Robert

Robert Sempill, 3rd Lord Sempill


Life Just Is is a 2012 British independent drama film written and directed by Alex Barrett and starring Will De Meo, Jack Gordon, Nathaniel Martello-White, Fiona Ryan, Jayne Wisener and Paul Nicholls.

Plot
Life Just Is tells the story of Pete, Tom, Claire, David and Jay who are university graduates having trouble making the move into adult life. Amongst the hanging out and their daily routines simmers Pete's desire to find a spiritual answer to life's meaning, Jay's desperate need not to get hurt again and Tom and Claire's ever increasing mutual attraction.

Cast
 Will De Meo as David
 Jack Gordon as Pete
 Nathaniel Martello-White as Tom
 Fiona Ryan as Claire
 Jayne Wisener as Jay
 Paul Nicholls as Bobby
 Rachel Bright as Anna
 Jason Croot as Walahfrid
 Vanessa Govinden as Michelle
 Andrew Hawley as Nick
 Lachlan McCall as Lawrence
 Joshua Osei as Vince
 Niall Phillips as Ollie
 Alix Wilton Regan as Zoe
 Gillian Wisener as Beth

Themes
Through its examination of the lives of a group of young adults in today's society, Life Just Is explores a number of contemporary themes concerning life after university and finding one's place in life. More specifically, the film looks at the existential clash between desire and fear and the ways in which the latter prevents people from achieving the former. The film also examines attitudes towards religion and the standoff between religious ideas and modern values.

Soundtrack
Life Just Is features no original score and no non-diegetic music on its soundtrack, instead containing only music listened to by the characters themselves. In addition to the tracks featured in the film, there are also several moments when the characters sing songs. In one scene, the character David performs "Geordie in Wonderland" by The Wildhearts, and two of the other songs he sings are originally by bands featuring ex-Wildhearts members: "Lemonade Girl" by The Jellys and "Moving Along" by Plan A.

In November 2011, the complete soundtrack listing was unveiled on the film's blog, revealing that the film also features songs by Emma McGlynn, The Lustjunks, The Heart Strings, Deckard, Nate Seacourt, The High Wire and Animal Kingdom.

Marketing
Since the very early stages of production, the team behind the film have been posting comprehensive updates on the project's blog, with the intention of being as open and as informative as possible about their creative process and experiences. In the run up to the shoot, the documenting expanded to include video updates posted on both the film's blog and its YouTube channel. During the shoot, actress Jayne Wisener created a series of popular video diaries.

After the shoot, the production launched an international competition to design their poster. An overwhelming success, the competition (aimed predominately at students) attracted over 100 entries from 23 different institutions based in eight countries spread over four continents. The entries were simultaneously shortlisted by a panel of industry experts and a public vote run on the film's Facebook page. On 28 February 2011 Soledad del Real was announced as the winner, as decided by the film's director and producers. All of the entries were later collated into an ebook given away for free on the film's website.

From September 2009 to May 2011, the team behind the film also ran a popular networking and screening night entitled 'Life's Just Networking' at The Duchess pub in Battersea, London. They continue to run occasional events under their 'Life's Just Events' banner.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews upon release. It currently holds a 27% 'rotten' critical score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews.

It has been described as "gogglingly boring and appallingly acted" by Catherine Shoard of The Guardian, "a British twist on the mumblecore genre" by Amber Wilkinson of Eye for Film and "unimaginative and quite frankly dull" by Jennifer Tate of ViewLondon. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph was more positive, awarding the film three out of five stars and calling it a "Thoughtful, affable, unfashionably angsty shoestring debut about young Londoners figuring stuff out in their post-college years". Robey also noted that "The young cast shine". David Parkinson of Empire Magazine also awarded the film three out of five stars, stating that "Writer/director Barrett delivers a promising debut that pitches four believable characters into the euphoria and dismay of post-uni life". The film critic Brad Stevens went even further in his praise, writing that "In his first feature, Barrett has already acquired the skill to know exactly where to position his camera in order to suggest a view on the material without ever imposing such a view artificially... It may be a cliché, but Barrett's key influences clearly come not from art but rather from life, from the generosity and curiosity with which he has observed both his contemporaries and himself...It is tempting to describe LIFE JUST IS as one of the most promising debuts in contemporary cinema, but this temptation should be resisted. We are not dealing with promise here: we are dealing with achievement".

Several reviewers noted the influence of Ingmar Bergman and Carl Th. Dreyer upon the film. Anton Bitel of Little White Lies wrote "writer/director Alex Barrett's feature debut settles for rites-of-passage ensemble drama in a Bergman mould, but its stilted, awkward dialogue hardly improves upon the audible lines of the film-within-a-film critiqued in that opening scene." Meanwhile, Mark Kermode of The Observer wrote that the film "deserves credit for looking beyond the boundaries of the usual cash-strapped youth fare, and for daring to be more Carl Dreyer than Danny Dyer", and also made the film DVD of the Week.

References

External links

2012 films
2010s coming-of-age drama films
British coming-of-age drama films
British independent films
2012 independent films
2010s English-language films
2010s British films

Life Just Is


Peter Cowan (4 November 1914 – 6 June 2002) was a Western Australian writer, noted especially for his short stories.

Biography
Born in 1914 in South Perth, Peter Walkinshaw Cowan was the son of Norman Walkinshaw Cowan and Marie Emily Johnston. His grandmother was Australia's first female parliamentarian, Edith Dircksey Cowan. He was descended from several Western Australian pioneering families, including the Browns of York, the Cowans and the Wittenooms.

After leaving Wesley College, Perth in 1930, Cowan worked in insurance and as a farm labourer before completing his matriculation at Perth Technical College and subsequently entering the University of Western Australia in 1938. After completing his teaching qualifications, he worked as a teacher at Wesley College.

He married Edie Howard and they had a son, Julian. The family moved to Melbourne in 1943 while Cowan was serving in the RAAF. While in Melbourne, he became involved in the Angry Penguins modernist literary movement.

After the war, Peter Cowan returned to Perth and taught English and Geography for many years at Scotch College. In 1964, he became a Senior Tutor in English at the University of Western Australia, and later an Honorary Research Fellow after his retirement.

Works
Peter Cowan published eight volumes of short stories, five novels and three biographies. He also edited two books of diaries and letters and co-edited seven volumes of short fiction.

His first published work was a short story, "Living", published in Angry Penguins in 1943. Over the next twenty years, he continued to publish short stories.

He received a Commonwealth Literary Fund Fellowship in 1963 to write his first novel, Summer. His other novels included Seed (1966), The Color of the Sky (1986) and The Hills of Apollo Bay (1989).

In later years, he was particularly active in recording his family's pioneering history in Western Australia. He wrote a biography of his grandmother Edith Dircksey Cowan, entitled A Unique Position (1978), and a biography of her uncle Maitland Brown (1988), as well as editing the letters of Eliza and Thomas Brown (A Faithful Picture, 1977), and the diary and reports of Walkinshaw Cowan (A Colonial Experience, 1978).

For many years, he was co-editor of the literary journal Westerly and wrote many articles and reviews for it.

His manuscripts and his extensive Australiana book collection are held in Special Collections in the University of Western Australia Library.

Awards
Peter Cowan's novel The Color of the Sky won the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Fiction and the Western Australia Week Literary Award in 1986.

In 1987, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, and in 1992 he received the Patrick White Award for an Australian Writer of Great Distinction.

Edith Cowan University conferred its first Honorary Degree (Doctor of Philosophy) on Peter Cowan in 1995. In 1997, the Peter Cowan Writers' Centre was established at the Joondalup Campus of Edith Cowan University, based in the reconstructed house of his grandmother.

He was named one of Western Australia's Living Treasures in 1999, and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 for service to literature through writing.

The Peter Cowan Short Story Competition
The Peter Cowan Short Story Competition was launched by the Peter Cowan Writers Centre in 2010, in honour of Peter Cowan. The Competition involves the submission of stories of a maximum of 600 words, and is administered by the Peter Cowan Writers Centre in Joondalup, Western Australia.

Selected bibliography
Drift (1944) short stories
The Unploughed Land (1958) novella / short stories (some reprinted from Drift, above)
Summer (1964) novel
The Empty Street (1965) novella / short stories
Seed (1966) novel
The Tins (1973) short stories
Mobiles (1979) short stories
The Color of the Sky (1986) novel
A Window in Mrs X's Place (1986) selected short stories from previous volumes
Voices (1988) short stories
The Hills of Apollo Bay (1989) novel
The Tenants (1994) novel

References

Writers from Perth, Western Australia
1914 births
2002 deaths
People educated at Wesley College, Perth
Patrick White Award winners
Australian male writers

Peter Cowan (writer)


Histones are proteins found in eukaryotic cell nuclei, which package the DNA into structural units called nucleosomes. They are the chief protein components of chromatin, the active component of chromosomes.

Histones act as spools around which DNA winds, and play a role in gene regulation. Without histones, the unwound DNA in chromosomes would be very long. For example, each human cell has about 1.8 meters of DNA, but wound on the histones it has about 90 millimeters of chromatin, which, when duplicated and condensed during mitosis, result in about 120 micrometers of chromosomes.

Functions

Compacting DNA strands
Histones act as spools around which DNA winds. This packs in the large genomes of eukaryotes to fit inside cell nuclei. The compacted molecule is 40,000 times shorter than an unpacked molecule.

Chromatin regulation

Histones undergo changes which alter their interaction with DNA and nuclear proteins. Long-term changes in histone/DNA interaction cause epigenetic effects. Combinations of modifications are thought to constitute a code, the so-called histone code. Histone modifications act in diverse biological processes such as gene regulation, DNA repair and chromosome condensation (mitosis).

Examples
Examples of histone modifications in transcription regulation include:

History
Histones were discovered in 1884 by Albrecht Kossel.  The word "histone" dates from the late 19th century and is from the German "Histon", of uncertain origin: perhaps from Greek histanai or from histos. Until the early 1990s, histones were dismissed as merely packing material for nuclear DNA. During the early 1990s, the regulatory functions of histones were discovered.

The discovery of the  H5 histone appears to date back to 1970's.

Conservation across species
Histones are found in the nuclei of eukaryotic cells, and in certain Archaea, namely Euryarchaea, but not in bacteria. Histone proteins are among the most highly conserved proteins in eukaryotes, which suggests they are vital to the biology of the nucleus. In contrast, mature sperm cells largely use protamines to package their genomic DNA, most likely to achieve an even higher packaging ratio.

Core histones are highly conserved proteins, that is, there are very few differences among the amino acid sequences of the histone proteins of different species. Linker histone usually has more than one form within a species and is also less conserved than the core histones.

References

Molecular biology
Cell biology

Histone


The  were riots where many of the citizens of Japan became upset and rebelled against the government. This happened between July 1918 to September 1918. They caused the ending of the Terauchi Masatake government.

Causes
A very large rise in the price of rice caused very bad economic (money) problems, especially in rural areas (outside of cities) where rice was the main food of daily life for the people. Farmers, became angry at the government (who set the amount of money made by the farmers) and the rice merchants when they learned that they were making much less money for growing the rice than it was being sold for to the public. They blamed the government and the merchants for letting the price of rice rise so high. The rise in the price of rice happened just at the worst point in the rapid rise in prices in many things such as food and rents that was happening just after World War I. This caused problems for the people of Japan. The Siberian Intervention made things worse because the government themselves bought lots of rice to feed their soldiers who were outside of Japan. This made the price of rice rise even more. The government did not do anything to stop it, and it spread to the towns and cities.

The riots
The Rice Riots were the biggest, most violent and widespread in modern Japanese history. The first protest happened in the small fishing town of Uozu in Toyama Prefecture, on 23 July 1918. Starting with peaceful petitioning, the protest quickly grew into riots, strikes, looting, incendiary bombings of police stations and government offices and into armed fights. By mid-September 1918, over 623 protests and or riots had happened in 38 cities, 153 towns and 177 villages, with over 2 million people taking part in them. 25,000 people were arrested, and 8200 were convicted of crimes. Punishments were given including minor fines and up to the death penalty.

Prime Minister Terauchi said he and his cabinet were to blame for the riots, and they all ended their jobs on 29 September 1918.

People studying this part of Japanese history think that the riots and so the need for rice in some way may have caused the Japanese to grow their occupation of other countries. Evidence of this is thought to be the increase in rice production in Taiwan and Korea.

References

Notes

1918
20th century in Japan
20th-century riots

Rice riots of 1918


Dr. Loren E. Babcock (born May 26, 1961) is an American geologist. He is professor of Earth Science at Ohio State University. Babcock has written over 125 scientific articles and the textbook, Visualizing Earth History. He researches topics in processes of fossilization and the evolutionary history of trilobites and other Cambrian fossils. A fellow from the Geological Society of America, Babcock was the recipient of the Charles Schuchert Award for Excellence and Promise in Paleontology and the Erasmus Haworth Award for Distinguished Alumni Honors in Geology. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1990.

In 2008, he was one of a team of researchers who discovered the oldest footprints ever found, over 570 million years old, in Nevada. Although he was uncertain, Babcock believed that they came from an arthropod species.

References

American geologists
1961 births
People from Buffalo, New York
Ohio State University faculty
Living people
University of Kansas alumni

Loren E. Babcock


Food drying is a method of preserving food. The food is dried (either dehydrated or desiccated). Drying stops the growth of bacteria and fungi by removing water. These micro-organisms, which cause food to spoil, need water to survive.

This method of preserving food has been used since ancient times. The earliest known practice is 12,000 BC by people in the Middle East and Asia.

Water is traditionally removed through evaporation by drying the food in the air, sun or in smoke. A great variety of drying techniques are now used.

Many different foods can be preserved by drying. Meat and fish are preserved through such traditional methods as drying, smoking and salting.

Related pages
 Curing

References

Cooking
Food preservation

Food drying


is the leader of the video game company FromSoftware and head designer of games such as Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. Miyazaki grew up in a poor family. Miyazaki loved reading, but since his family could not even afford to buy books for him, he would often borrow them from the library. Although he loved reading, there were parts of the books he read that he could not understand, so he just made up parts of the story in his own mind. This would be the way stories in the Souls series of video games, which he would later make, are told. In those games, some details are told to the player, but the player is expected to imagine the parts of the story not told.

After university, Miyazaki would be an account manager for the US company Oracle Corporation until he was 29. This was because after playing the game Ico, he decided to quit his job to become a game designer. Due to his age and lack of experience, very few companies would hire him. However, he got a job from FromSoftware and became the leading designer for some of the Armored Core games. While FromSoftware had ideas for Demon's Souls, the idea was put away because no one thought the game would be popular. However, Miyazaki liked the idea and lead the development team. Demon's Souls would become so popular that FromSoftware would become a well-known video game company, and Miyazaki would later take over the company.

1974 births
Japanese artists
Japanese video game designers
Living people
People from Shizuoka Prefecture

Hidetaka Miyazaki