Antiochus of Ascalon (; ; c. 135/130 – c. 68 BC) was an 1st century BC Platonism philosopher who rejected skepticism and blended Stoic doctrines with Platonism as the first philosopher in the tradition of Middle Platonism.

Antiochus moved to Athens early in his life and became a pupil of Philo of Larissa at the Platonic Academy, but he went on to reject the prevailing Academic skepticism of Philo and his predecessors. This led to his resignation from the academy and the establishment of his own school, which he named the "Old Academy" as he claimed it was closer to original doctrines of Platonism that he believed had been betrayed by the skeptics of the New Academy under Philo. His students at this new institution included the Roman politicians Varro and Cicero. Antiochus was also the friend of the Roman politician and general Lucullus, whom he accompanied on a trip to North Africa and on a campaign to Armenia.

After the decline of the New Academy in the late 1st century BC, his school was the sole inheritor of the Platonic tradition in Athens, which began the period of philosophy known as Middle Platonism. Antiochus endeavoured to bring some doctrines of the Stoics and the Peripatetics into Platonism, and stated, in opposition to Philo, that the mind could distinguish true from false, following the Stoic doctrine of katalepsis. In doing so, he claimed to be reviving the doctrines of the Old Academy. Despite his emphasis on the Platonic tradition, his ideas were often more Stoic than Platonist; in particular, he gave up the Platonic philosophy of transcendence in favor of a materialistic doctrine of nature.

Life
The primary surviving account of Antiochus' life is a biography of him written by Philodemus in his History of the Academy, which survives in a fragmentary papyrus recovered from the Villa of the Papyri in  Herculaneum., However, due to the poor state of preservation of the papyrus, a significant part of the relevant section is either lost or difficult to read. Some additional biographical information comes the Academica of Cicero, who was a close friend of Antiochus, and from the later biographer Plutarch in his Life of Lucullus and Life of Cicero.

Early life and education
Antiochus was born in the late 1st century BC, probably sometime between 135 BC and 130 BC. Nothing is known about his early life, but both Strabo and Stephanus of Byzantium mention him as a notable philosopher from Ascalon. He travelled to Athens and joined the Platonic Academy Some time after 110 BC, when Philo of Larissa was the current scholarch of the Academy. Antiochus studied under Philo for a significant portion of his career – Antiochus' relationship with Philo as a student lasted longer than that of any of the scholar's other students. However, at an some later time, the two philosophers became estranged as a result of a disagreement about skepticism.

While at Athens, Antiochus also studied Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy that rivaled the Academy. He studying under Mnesarchus, who had recently taken charge of the Stoa Poikile after the death of its previous scholarch Panaetius. The contact to the Stoa was probably mediated by the Stoic philosopher Sosus, who also came from Ascalon, and whom Antiochus would go on to name the title of one of his later works after. It is unclear whether Antiochus initially belonged to the Stoics and only later switched to the Academy, or whether, like many other philosophers of the time, he was an academic from the start and only attended Stoic courses on the side.

The Old Academy
Under the direction of Philo, who was scholarch from 110/109 to 88, the academy adhered to Academic skepticism, which had been the predominant form of Platonism since it was introduced by Arcesilaus in approximately 265 BCE, a period called the Middle Academy. This skepticism became even more strict under the New Academy of  Carneades, who had been the scholar of the Academy until 137/136. Philo, who only joined the Academy after Carneades' health-related resignation, represented a milder version of skepticism. Skepticism was coupled with a sharp rejection of the Stoic doctrine of katalepsis.

Antiochus tended to abandon the core theses of skepticism, which seemed untenable to him. In doing so, he came into conflict with the prevailing current in the Academy, which at the time was already moderate and willing to compromise, but was still committed to the tradition of Carneades. After some time, this led to him leaving the academy and founding his own school in Athens. In an attempt to connect his school with Platonism before the introduction of skepticism, he called his school the Old Academy, which during the later Roman Empire this would be referred to as the "fifth academy", with Philo being understood as the founder of a "fourth academy".

Exile in North Africa
In 88 BC, the political turmoil in Athens that would ultimately result from the First Mithridatic War caused many members of Athens' upper class, including Philo and many of his students, to flee to Rome. Antiochus, however, who was no longer a member of that school by this point, did not follow them and appears to have travelled to Alexandria instead. Either in a camp of the Romans besieging the city, or perhaps in Alexandria itself, he met Lucullus, a Roman officer who served under Sulla. Lucullus, who later achieved prominence as a politician and general in the wars against Mithridates, became his friend and patron.

In 87 BC, Philo wrote a treatise in two books from his exile in Rome where he gave concessions on some important principles of skepticism, but did not renounce the claim to continue to be a skeptic in the tradition of Carneades, and stuck to the idea of a unified teaching tradition at the academy since it was founded. When Antiochus received these Roman books in Alexandria in the winter of 87/86, he reacted with indignation and wrote a response entitled Sosus, which was named for the Stoic philosopher Sosus of Ascalon. With the publication of Sosus, Antiochus' break with the New Academy and Philo was complete; he had disputed both the soundness of Philo's philosophical approach and the historical accuracy of his understanding of the history of philosophy.

Return to Athens
Later, probably soon after the end of the conflict there, Antiochus returned to Athens, which was controlled by the Romans from March 86 onward, and resumed his teaching. Since the skeptical "New Academy" had not survived the turmoil of war – after Philo's flight apparently no new scholarch was elected – Antiochus' "Old Academy" was now the only institution that claimed to continue the tradition of Plato's Academy, emphasizing his Academy's sharp contrast to the skepticism of the New Academy. However, Antiochus did not continue the Platonic Academy as it had been maintained for most of the Hellenistic period; Antiochus did not teach on the site where the Academy had been seated since Plato's time, which was destroyed in the Sack of Athens, but at the Ptolemaium, a gymnasium in the city centre, while the academy grounds were no longer used for philosophical classes.

Probably around 83 BC, the famous Roman scholar Varro stayed in Athens and studied under Antiochus. In 79, a circle of prominent Romans was gathered in the "Old Academy": Cicero, who spent six months with Antiochus, his younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero, his cousin Lucius Tullius Cicero, his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus and the politician Marcus Pupius Piso. Atticus shared a household with Antiochus. The poet and Epicurean philosopher Philodemus of Gadara, who wrote the surviving biography of him, was also one of Antiochus' friends. Ambassadorial trips by Antiochus to Rome and "to the governors in the provinces" reported by Philodemus testify to the philosopher's prestige at this time, when he was at the height of his fame, and Strabo, in describing Ascalon, mentions his birth there as a mark of distinction for the city. and Cicero frequently speaks of him in affectionate and respectful terms as the best and wisest of the Academics, and the most polished and acute philosopher of his age.

When Antiochus' friend and patron Lucullus undertook a campaign to Armenia in the year 69 in the Third Mithridatic War, he accompanied him and was present at the battle of Tigranokerta against the troops of the Armenian king Tigranes II on October 6, 69. Regarding the course of the battle, Antiochus remarked that the sun had never seen such a battle; Tigranes suffered a catastrophic defeat; only five men were said to have fallen on the Roman side. In the following year, Antiochus died in Syria, where he had accompanied Lucullus on another campaign.

Philosophy
While Antiochus staunchly espoused skepticism during the time he belonged to the school of Philo, after his departure and break with Philo, he fought skeptical philosophy as fiercely as he had previously defended it.  All of Antiochus' writings are lost, but his philosophical doctrines can be reconstructed from the philosophical writings of Cicero, especially the Lucullus, which discusses his epistemology, and the De Finibus, which discusses ethics. In addition, there are individual statements by the Pyrrhonist skeptic Sextus Empiricus, who also transmits an Antiochus fragment quoted verbatim. It is unclear to what extent Sextus' further doxographical explanations on epistemology are based on a lost writing by Antiochus. Augustine also commented on Antiochus' philosophy, based on his reading of Varro's writings About Philosophy, which have also since been lost. All of the surviving details of Antiochus' teaching relate to the second, anti-skeptical phase.

Platonism
Although he did not take up many central doctrines of Platonism, Antiochus did not see himself as an innovator who presented his own insights, but as a faithful herald of the Platonic tradition.

He saw the Stoics and the Peripatetics as being in fundamentally in agreement with Platonism; all three schools proclaimed the same truths, they just presented that truth differently. Antiochus presents himself as the intellectual heir of all three traditions and makes appeals to the "ancients"; among his authorities are not only the scholars of the older academy, but also Aristotle. However, the skepticism introduced by Arcesilaus turned away from this consensus based in truth, and the Peripatetic school had also lost their way after Aristotle in their excessive focus on natural philosophy; only the Stoics had been able to preserve any of the original authentic teachings of Platonism, the apparent differences had simply been attempts to correct some details. In epistemology, the Stoics are in fact the defenders of Platonism against Plato's own apostate school, the skeptics of the New Academy. In ethics, however, Antiochus says the Stoics of stole the teachings of the Old Academy and covered it up by introducing deviant, inappropriate terminology.

Like most Ancient Greek philosophers, Antiochus divided philosophy into three branches: Logic, Physics, and Ethics. Of these, he considered ethics to be the most important branch of philosophy, as it answered the question of how to live in the right way. In second place he considered logic, especially epistemology, as a means of grasping truths on these matters. He classifies Physics, or Natural philosophy, as the least important. What he criticizes about it is that it deals with obscure, difficult questions, the clarification of which is far less important than the question of how best to live.

Epistemology
In epistemology, Antiochus attacks the position of the skeptics, according to which all statements - especially all philosophical teachings - are only opinions, the correctness of which can at best be made plausible, but never conclusively proven. Antiochus believed that there is knowledge whose absolute reliability follows from the fact that the possibility of error can be logically excluded,  a "knowledge-imparting idea" (katalēptikḗ phantasía), which enables secure knowledge. This katalepsis – a Stoic technical term – is characterized by the fact that its correctness is unquestionable because no wrong idea is conceivable that could produce the same impression as the correct one, therefore, there can be no doubt as to the correctness of the insight into reality gained in this way. For Antiochus, as for the Stoics, this is the criterion of truth. In his argument with Philo, he sees this criterion as an indispensable prerequisite for a meaningful distinction between the true and the false. Unlike the Stoics, however, Antiochus only allows general concepts to be true, while the Stoics also considered individual sense perceptions to be true.

Antiochus distinguishes between the sensible, which is subject to constant change, and the intelligible, which is always unchanging. According to his teaching, since sense data only concern changeable things, they cannot by themselves provide access to truth, but only produce opinions; the knowledge of truth is an achievement of the intellect in dealing with the concepts, which have the property of remaining and persevering. This distinction is reminiscent of Plato's division between the world of appearances and the world of ideas. It is not meant in this sense, however, because Antiochus does not ascribe an ontologically independent existence to the unchangeable. Plato mistrusted the senses, since their objects were only inadequate images of archetypes (ideas), and assumed an independent world of ideas that one could and should turn to directly. For Antiochus, however, the intelligble does not exist in a separate intelligible world, but only in the form of general concepts and the conclusions drawn from them, insofar as these exist in the mind.  This unplatonic teaching of Antiochus greatly enhances the role of sensory perception compared to Platonism. The intellect, which evaluates and orders the impressions conveyed by the sense organs, is itself a sense in Antiochus' materialistic world view. The universal is derived by the mind exclusively from the sense impressions - it cannot be deduced otherwise - and has meaning only through its connection with them.

Against the skeptics' assertion that nothing can be known with certainty, Antiochus raises the objection that such a fundamental doubt cannot - as Arcesilaus and Carneades had claimed - also refer to itself. Rather, the skeptics are forced, inconsistently, to make a truth claim for their own principle.  In addition, there is a contradiction in the fact that the skeptics on the one hand assume the actual existence of objectively true or false ideas and on the other hand deny that a distinction between true and false is possible. Furthermore, Antiochus claims that the skeptical attitude cannot be implemented in everyday life, since it leaves the skeptical philosopher with no criterion according to which he can make reasonable decisions and thus condemns him to inactivity. A further argument refers to the empirical success that can be achieved by acting on the basis of a correct, knowledge-providing idea; this success presupposes a connection between the idea and reality, which is not given in the case of a deceptive idea.

Ethics
For Antiochus, the highest good and the purpose (telos) of life is to "live according to nature". As Antiochus notes, historically correctly, this concept was taught by the Old Academy Platonists, and the Stoics adopted it from the Academy. However, the concept of nature underwent a change of meaning in the Stoa. For the Stoics, human reason was regarded as a manifestation of the divine logos directing the cosmos from within; human nature was significant only insofar as it was an expression of the general nature of the cosmos. Therefore, in the Stoic system of values, only the spiritual goods, the virtues that make a reasonable life possible, were given their own value. For Antiochus, however, the model for human nature cannot be universal nature, but only human-specific nature in its particularity. He relates the ideal of what is natural to the specifically human nature in its perfection, when it has reached a state in which it lacks nothing. In doing so, he aims to include the human body.

Physical goods
Antiochus accuses the Stoics of having distanced themselves from nature by disregarding physical goods (such as health, strength and beauty). Since man consists of body and soul, one cannot simply give up the body. Rather, human nature should be brought to perfection in every respect, including on the physical level. Therefore, physical goods should not be denied any intrinsic value. In the physical realm, too, there is something in accordance with nature that is worth striving for for its own sake and even contributes to the attainment of the highest goal, the perfect natural life. Antiochus even speaks of bodily "virtues" in the sense of desirable states of perfection of the body. By this he not only means that the individual organs are healthy and fulfill their tasks without problems, He considered virtue to include not only positive character traits, but generally desired, natural qualities, such as natural posture and graceful gait.

External goods
In addition, external goods such as friends, relatives and the fatherland, even wealth, honor and power, are valuable and worth striving for. However, external goods, in contrast to mental and physical goods, are not absolutely necessary for a perfect life according to human nature. However, this does not devalue and render superfluous the equally legitimate striving for physical and external goods. Virtue (of character) is not the only good thing in people.

Mental goods
In the case of intellectual virtues, Antiochus distinguishes between those that are bestowed by nature and "arise of their own accord", such as quick comprehension and memory, and "voluntary", which are due to the activity of reason. The voluntary virtues—the cardinal virtues of prudence, sophrosyne, courage, and justice—are acquired after one has chosen them. Their acquisition is at all times in the power of the individual. They alone are necessary for the attainment of happiness, and they are also sufficient prerequisites for it. Therefore, a happy life is possible at any time by one's own decision; physical and external obstacles and evils cannot prevent it.

It is true that the spiritual goods, namely the virtues, have priority and that a virtuous character alone is sufficient to achieve eudaimonia (happiness). However, Antiochus does not share the radical view of those who deny that physical and external goods have any influence on the happiness of a wise man. Although he believes that the cardinal virtues are sufficient for a happy life, he sees physical and external goods as additional reinforcing factors that can increase happiness even further. This makes a perfectly happy life (Latin vita beatissima) possible, while the mental and spiritual virtues alone can only guarantee a happy life (vita beata).

Hierarchy of virtues
Antiochus emphasizes that the development of the individual, which leads to the perfection of his human nature, takes place gradually, with the later building on the earlier. The stages of development are hierarchically ordered according to the teachings of Antiochus.  Progress is not a replacement of the lower by the higher, but an addition of the higher to the lower. The course of a human life leads from the initial instinctive striving for self-preservation, which is common to all living beings, to the perception and use of one's own abilities and abilities, a stage of development intended for humans and animals, but not for plants. Finally - in the best case - progress leads to self-knowledge with regard to what is specifically human, the realization of which is demanded by human nature. The possibility of such reflection on what is in accordance with nature is placed in man by nature like a seed. It is then up to him to implement this system.

As a rule, people strive for what is in accordance with nature and therefore valuable. If there are errors and ethical conflicts, this is due to the fact that the hierarchical order of goods is not being observed, and a lower value is being preferred over a higher one. Antiochus therefore rejects one-sidedness with regard to the question of the best way of life. The ideal is neither the active life of non-philosophers (Greek bíos praktikós, Latin vita activa) geared towards external success, nor the tranquil, withdrawn life of some philosophers (bíos theōrētikós, vita contemplativa), but rather a combination of both forms of life.

Natural philosophy
Antiochus' stoic background is very clearly noticeable in the natural sciences. In agreement with the Stoics, Antiochus holds matter to be infinitely divisible, contradicting the opinion of the Atomists and Epicureans.

He assumes two first principles of all reality, an efficient cause and the matter that presents itself to and is fashioned by the force. According to Stoic terminology, Antiochus also called the efficient cause "quality" (Greek poiótēs, Latin qualitas). Theoretically, the primordial matter is featureless, completely unformed and therefore suitable for receiving any form. Matter receives its diverse, constantly changing forms from the efficient cause. The efficient cause and matter belong together by nature, each of the two is contained in the other. Without matter there can be no efficient cause, as the efficient cause is unthinkable outside of matter, and matter needs the efficient cause that holds it together.

Since active force and matter cannot exist independently of one another, the featureless primordial matter does not really exist for Antiochus; the two original principles can only be separated in the act of thinking, not in reality. Since nothing exists apart from the two principles and everything that exists is necessarily spatial, there is no being independent of physical existence for Antiochus, in contradiction of Plato's theory of forms, which considered ideas as independent, transcendent archetypes of sense objects. The inseparability of the connection between efficient cause and matter also means that the soul itself as material, because the existence of matter determines that of efficient cause.

Works
Antiochus wrote several works, none of which have survived. A clear presentation of the material that met the needs of the audience was important to Antiochus. His criticism of an artificial philosophical jargon that can only be understood with the help of an interpreter shows that he placed great value on general understanding.

According to Cicero, when Antiochus was still a student of Philo, he wrote treatises in which he represented skepticism "extremely astutely". Cicero mentions an epistemological treatise called Sosus, which was written around 86 BC, which was Antiochus' reply to the Roman books of Philo. The stoic Sosos, after whom the dialogue is named, apparently appeared as an important participant in the conversation. Around 78 BC Antiochus wrote a treatise in which he presented his view that there is agreement between the Stoa and the Peripatetics, the school of Aristotle, with regard to the doctrinal content and the differences can be reduced to questions of formulation. In the last year of his life, he wrote a treatise entitled "On the Gods." Another of his works, called Canonica, is quoted by Sextus Empiricus, and appears to have been a treatise on logic.

Cicero knows the works of Antiochus and extracts from them ideas that he reproduces in three of his philosophical writings (De finibus, Lucullus, Academica posteriora). Although he names Antiochus as the originator of the body of thought, he never gives a specific written source. A number of attempts to attribute larger text passages in these and other works of Cicero and in the writings of other authors to Antiochus, although his name is not mentioned there, remains hypothetical.

Legacy

Ancient
Antiochus was called the founder of the "fifth Academy," in the same way that Philo was called the founder of the fourth. This split occurred just before the First Mithridatic War began in 88, which would lead to the destruction of the academy in 86. During this time, Antiochus was resident in Alexandria. He had returned to Athens by the time Cicero studied there in 79, and he seems to have died around 68, after which time his brother Aristus of Ascalon succeeded him as head of the school. Apparently he hardly deviated from the teaching of Antiochus. With his death, Antiochus' "Old Academy" seems to have perished as an institution; in any case, nothing is known of other scholars.

The aftermath of Antiochus' philosophy in antiquity was largely due to his significant influence on his two very prominent Roman disciples, Cicero and Varro. He also indirectly influenced the republican politician Marcus Junius Brutus, who played an important role in the assassination of Caesar and the civil war that followed. Brutus was a student and friend of Aristos and an admirer of Antiochus, but did not know him personally. He wrote several philosophical works. In his treatise On Virtue, which is lost today, he followed closely the ethics of Antiochus.Although Cicero does not agree with Antiochus' criticism of skepticism, he paints a very positive picture of his personality. He praises his exceptional talent and education, his intelligence, his gentle, peaceful character and the persuasiveness of his demeanor. His nickname "the swan" (kýknos), which the late antique scholar Stephanos of Byzantium has handed down, probably referred to the rhetorical skills of the philosopher. Opponents of Antiochus insinuated that his motive for breaking with academic skepticism and founding his own school was lust for fame. Cicero and Plutarch mention such accusations.

On the other hand, judgments in the Roman Empire were unfavorable. Plutarch indicated his disapproval only indirectly. The Middle Platonist Numenius of Apamea disliked Antiochus' proximity to the Stoa; he censured the introduction of numerous "foreign" (incompatible with Platonism) elements. The skeptic Sextus Empiricus, a representative of Pyrrhonic skepticism, held Antiochus for a Stoic who brought Stoic philosophy to the Academy and taught it there. Augustine was particularly harsh when he referred to the rumors that Antiochus was motivated more by lust for glory than love of truth, who accomplished nothing of substance and polluted Platonism with stoic evil; the materialistic aspect of Antiochus' teaching could only meet with the sharpest opposition in Christian circles.

Modern
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many scholars emphasized the unplatonic aspects of Antiochus' teaching. His perceived eclecticism, or mixing of different philosophical traditions, which they believed took place without understanding the peculiarities of the sometimes incompatible teachings, aroused offense. Theodor Mommsen thought that Antiochus had a malformed doctrine by combining Stoic ideas with together with Platonic-Aristotelian ones. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff judged that Antiochus had "trimmed a doctrine that met the needs and feelings of the so-called educated, because it avoided all sharp dialectics and seemed to retain everything that was good and beautiful." Eduard Zeller also shared this assessment.

Since the late 20th century, however, more positive assessments have prevailed. Jonathan Barnes considers Antiochus' return to the past to be understandable, since it drew attention to the achievements of important predecessors at a time when the schools of philosophy were in decline. Woldemar Görler also came to a relatively favorable assessment; in his view, Antiochus' philosophy is "not a vague compromise" but "self-contained." The founder of the "Old Academy" did not reinterpret Plato's teachings in the Stoic sense and blurred the serious differences between the schools out of dishonesty, but because metaphysical thinking was foreign to him; his syncretism is an expression of a tendency of the zeitgeist of the time. Thus, regardless of his position as head of a "Platonic" school, he had in fact become almost a pure Stoic. John Dillon also considers Antiochus' thinking to be coherent. According to Mauro Bonazzi, Antiochus was by no means a "platonic Stoic". Rather, he skilfully pursued his strategy: he did not want to merge Platonism and Stoa, but subordinate the Stoic teachings to Platonism and incorporate them into it.

Notes

Ancient sources
 Cicero, Lucullus, Book II of the Academica
 Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
 Philodemus, History of the Academy
 Plutarch, Life of Cicero
 Plutarch, Life of Lucullus
 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism
 Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians

References

 Fleischer, K., "Der Stoiker Mnesarch als Lehrer des Antiochus im Index Academicorum", in Mnemosyne 68/3, 2015, pp. 413–423.

Further reading

External links
 Middle Platonism – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

130s BC births
60s BC deaths
2nd-century BC Greek philosophers
1st-century BC Greek philosophers
Academic philosophers
Ancient Greek educators
Ancient Greeks from Ascalon
Hellenistic-era philosophers from Asia
Hellenistic-era philosophers in Athens
Middle Platonists

Antiochus of Ascalon


Poetic Justice is a 1993 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Singleton, and starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, with Regina King and Joe Torry in supporting roles. Poetic Justice follows Justice (Jackson), a poet mourning the loss of her boyfriend from gun violence, who goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck along with her friend (King) and a postal worker (Shakur) who she initially cannot stand but soon helps Justice deal with her depression.

Following the success of his debut film, Boyz n the Hood, Singleton wanted to make a film that would give a voice to young African-American women. Jada Pinkett, Lisa Bonet, Monica Calhoun and many other popular actresses auditioned for the role of Justice, though Singleton knew from the script's draft that the role was solely intended for Janet Jackson. Filming took place from April 14 to July 4, 1992.

Poetic Justice was released in the United States on July 23, 1993. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the screenplay though praised Jackson and Shakur's performances and chemistry. It reached No. 1 in the box office its opening weekend, grossing $11,728,455. It eventually grossed a total of $27,515,786. Jackson received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song for "Again", which also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The film has developed a cult following, especially for the chemistry between Jackson and Shakur.

Plot

Justice is a young African American woman living in South Central, Los Angeles, named by her late mother who gave birth to her while attending law school. After the fatal shooting of her boyfriend Markell, Justice becomes deeply depressed, spending most of her time with her cat named Whiteboy in the house that she inherited from her grandmother, and only going out to her job at a local hair salon. A talented poet, Justice reads many of her poems throughout the film, both to other characters and in voice-over.

While she is working at the salon one day, a young postal clerk named Lucky arrives and begins flirting with her. She and her female boss Jessie rebuff his advances, pretending to be lesbians and mocking Lucky with their "relationship".

Lucky has also suffered tragedy in his life: his main focus is caring for his young daughter Keisha, whom he had to forcibly remove from the care of her crack-addicted mother (nicknamed "Angel"), who was using drugs and having sex with her drug dealer while leaving the child unattended in the apartment. Lucky dreams of a professional career in music and shows considerable promise, but insists that his cousin is the true talent.

Justice's friend Iesha manages to talk Justice into taking a road trip to Oakland with Iesha's boyfriend, Chicago, Lucky's co-worker at the post office. Justice warily accepts, mainly because she has to go to Oakland for a hair show and her car had stopped working at the last minute. Unbeknownst to Justice, Lucky is also on the trip, and she will now be sharing a postal van with him and their two mutual friends. Initially, they argue, but they soften towards each other as they gradually discover their similarities.

The quartet makes a couple of detours: the first is a family reunion barbecue they see signs for on the road, where it becomes apparent (although there were ample hints earlier) that Iesha and Chicago's relationship is troubled. Iesha openly flirts with another man at the barbecue, while Chicago broods watching her behavior. Iesha and Chicago argue in the mail truck until Justice talks to Iesha about her behavior with alcohol. Iesha throws up and tearfully apologizes to her.

At the next stop, a carnival, Lucky and Justice grow closer while discussing their lives. After leaving the reunion, they stop at a beach where each of the four contemplates their separate situations in internal monologues. Afterward, the friction between Chicago and Iesha explodes when Iesha informs Chicago that she has been seeing someone on the side, and he physically attacks her. Lucky initially decides to abstain until Justice defends Iesha by kicking Chicago in the groin, who retaliates by attacking her. Lucky knocks Chicago out, and he, Justice and a bleeding and shaken Iesha leave him behind and continue on their journey.

Lucky stops the postal van at a beach, and Justice goes to see what's wrong. She begins opening up to him about her life, and Lucky becomes sympathetic. They share a kiss, and Justice walks away apparently unsure of her feelings for Lucky. She goes back to him, and they kiss again.

When the now-trio arrive in Oakland, they receive news that Lucky's cousin, with whom he had been working on recording music, has been killed. Blaming himself for not being in Oakland sooner and believing he could have prevented the shooting had he been in town, Lucky angrily blames Justice for distracting him while they were on the road. Jessie advises Justice and Iesha about men before the hair show. Lucky's uncle and aunt give him his cousin's recording equipment. Lucky decides to give up work and take care of Keisha.

Months later, Lucky meets up with Justice again back at the hair salon, bringing Keisha. Remorseful over his conduct in Oakland and his cruel words towards Justice there, he apologizes. She smiles at him coyly and they passionately kiss. She then turns her attention to Keisha, fussing over her hair. Justice and Lucky's eyes meet over Keisha's head and they smile, as strongly connected as ever.

Cast
 Janet Jackson as Justice, a poet and hairdresser
 Tupac Shakur as Lawrence "Lucky", a postal clerk and aspiring rapper
 Regina King as Iesha, Justice's friend
 Joe Torry as "Chicago"
 Tyra Ferrell as Jessie
 Rose Weaver as Aunt Audrey
 Billy Zane as Brad (Opening Movie)
 Lori Petty as Penelope (Opening Movie)
 Khandi Alexander as Simone
 John Cothran Jr. as Uncle Earl
 Maya Angelou as Aunt June
 Norma Donaldson as Aunt May
 Jenifer Lewis as Anne, Lucky's Mother
 Maia Campbell as Shante
 René Elizondo Jr. as Earl
 Clifton Collins Jr. as Kareem LaVine
 Tone Loc as James Paul A.K.A. Bone
 Q-Tip as Markell, Justice's boyfriend
 Keith Washington as Dexter
 Roger Guenveur Smith as Heywood
 Michael Colyar as Panhandler
 Baha Jackson as Baha
 The Last Poets as themselves

Production
On July 23, 2013, John Singleton spoke with writer Lathleen Ade-Brown for Essence magazine and discussed the 20th anniversary of the film. The interview mentioned that in 1993, black female leads were rare and he wanted to give a voice to young African American women. He also revealed whose idea it was for Janet Jackson to wear the now iconic box braids: "That was a collaboration between myself, Janet, [dance choreographer] Fatima Robinson and dancer named Jossie Harris. Jossie had the braids in Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" video. I brought her and Fatima and a couple of other dancers over to hang out with Janet and they all became friends. I said, "Why don't we try and do Janet's hair like Jossie's hair?" We got the hairstyle from Harlem and just put it in a West Coast movie.".

Jada Pinkett, Lisa Bonet, Monica Calhoun and many other popular actresses auditioned for the role of Justice, though Singleton knew from the script's draft that the role was solely intended for Janet Jackson. Rapper and actor Ice Cube was offered the lead role of Lucky, but turned it down, stating that he was not in a point in his career that he would play in romantic movies. Filming began on April 14th, 1992 and ended on July 4th, 1992.

Release
The film opened July 23, 1993 in the United States. Cineplex Odeon initially decided not to release the film at its Universal CityWalk Hollywood theater due to fear of violence. Rita Walters called Cineplex Odeon's decision racist and they agreed to delay the release until July 28. Around the country, five violent incidents occurred around theaters during the film's opening weekend, including a killing outside a Las Vegas theater.

Reception

Box office
Poetic Justice made $27,515,786 in the domestic box office, against a production budget of $14 million. For its opening weekend it opened at number one at the US box office with over $11,700,000 in ticket sales. It ranked 20th for the year of 1993 openings and 21st for highest R-rated movies of 1993.

Critical reception
Upon its release, Poetic Justice received mostly negative reviews with most critics comparing it unfavorably to Singleton's debut film Boyz n the Hood. Much of the acclaim was directed to the performances by both Jackson and Shakur, with criticism stemming from the writing and story line. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 34% rating based on 32 reviews. The site's consensus states; "Poetic Justice is commendably ambitious and boasts a pair of appealing stars, but they're undermined by writer-director John Singleton's frustrating lack of discipline." On Metacritic the film has a score of 51% based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert: "...Boyz n the Hood was one of the most powerful and influential films of its time, in 1991. "Poetic Justice" is not its equal, but does not aspire to be; it is a softer, gentler film, more of a romance than a commentary on social conditions." He also stated, "...Poetic Justice unwinds like a road picture from the early 1970s, in which the characters are introduced and then set off on a trip that becomes a journey of discovery. By the end of the film, Justice will have learned to trust and love again, and Shakur will have learned how to listen to a woman. And all of the characters - who in one way or another lack families - will begin to get a feeling for the larger African/American family to which they belong. The scene where that takes place is one of the best in the film." Leonard Klady of Variety stated: "Though aiming to create a feel for the locale, Singleton periodically loses sight of audiences unfamiliar with the colorful lingo. Poetic Justice has a lot to commend, but discipline is not high on the list. That flaw will be a major stumbling block toward wide appeal, and overseas prospects seem particularly remote." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a disappointement" but praised Singleton for his skills and suggested "A filmmaker who is adept at saying what's on his mind, he will do better when he finds something he truly wants to say." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticized the film for "wrong turns and right-minded preachiness" but praised the young director saying: "If Singleton, 25, stumbles, it is over ambition and not the complacency of a new Hollywood hotshot riding a trend." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "Although its aspirations are high, the film works only fitfully when Mr. Singleton exercises his gift for vernacular speech, for finding the comic undertow in otherwise tragic situations, and even for parody." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a C- grade. Richard Schickel of Time panned the film "What must be said is that the new movie is simply awful: poorly structured, vulgarly written, insipidly directed, monotonously performed."

Despite the mixed reviews from contemporary film critics, the film has come to be considered one of Singleton's most enduring films.

Accolades

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released on June 29, 1993, through Epic Soundtrax, and consisted of a blend of hip hop and R&B music. It peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 25, 1993. Three charting singles were released from the album: "Indo Smoke" by Mista Grimm, "Get It Up" by TLC, and "Call Me a Mack" by Usher Raymond. Recorded at Unique Recording Studios, New York City

The soundtrack also has the Stevie Wonder song "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer", a track that was originally on his 1970 album Where I'm Coming From. The song "Definition of a Thug Nigga", recorded by Tupac Shakur for the film, later appeared on his 1997 posthumous album R U Still Down? (Remember Me).

References

External links

 Original Poetic Justice Script
 Poetic Justice at the Open Media Database
 VH1 Clips, Trailer and more

1993 films
1993 LGBT-related films
1993 romantic drama films
African-American romantic drama films
Columbia Pictures films
Films scored by Stanley Clarke
Films about writers
Films directed by John Singleton
Films set in Los Angeles
Films set in Oakland, California
Golden Raspberry Award winning films
American gang films
Hood films
Lesbian-related films
Films with screenplays by John Singleton
Works about poets
1990s English-language films
1990s American films
African-American films

Poetic Justice (film)


Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820 – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates. Wolf depicted animals accurately in lifelike postures and is considered one of the great pioneers of wildlife art. Sir Edwin Landseer thought him "...without exception, the best all-round animal artist who ever lived".

Germany

Joseph was the first son of a farmer, Anton Wolf, and his wife Elisabeth née Probstfeld. The Minnesota pioneer Randolph Michael Probstfield was his first cousin. Wolf was born in Mörz, near Münstermaifeld, then in Rhenish Prussia, not far from the river Moselle, in the Eifel region. He was originally called Mathias but later went by the name of Joseph. In his boyhood he assiduously studied bird and animal life, and showed a remarkable capacity as a draughtsman of natural history subjects. He showed an early talent for art by cutting paper silhouettes of birds and animals which he pasted onto windows. He later took an interest in hunting. He made himself brushes from the fur of a stone marten, and drew illustrations of birds that he raised from the nest or found near his home. He took a special interest in birds of prey, and considered art as a career but realized at the age of sixteen that he needed more training to be professional. With support from his father he was apprenticed to a firm of lithographers, Gebrüder Becker at Koblenz. Here he found his first illustrated ornithology book (by Johann Conrad Susemihl—he went on to illustrate a later edition of it in the collection of a trader with an interest in birds, and was surprised by the poor quality of the plates). He returned home after three years of apprenticeship, and for a while took up a temporary job with the village headman in searching homes for illegally concealed liquor.

Wolf travelled to Frankfurt and introduced himself as a lithographer to the ornithologist Eduard Rüppell. Rüppell was just beginning to work on the birds of Abyssinia and he encouraged Wolf to work for him either by living in Frankfurt or Darmstadt where he suggested Wolf could work for Johann Jakob Kaup. Wolf moved to Darmstadt but went on working on Rüppell's The Birds of North-East Africa. Kaup was impressed by his abilities and took one of Wolf's sketchbooks to a meeting in Leyden to show to Hermann Schlegel at the Natural History Museum, Leiden. Schlegel immediately commissioned Wolf to work on some plates for Traité de Fauconnerie. The result was a set of "magnificent paintings of birds of prey in life size" which established Wolf's reputation in Europe.

At the age of 20, Wolf was to appear at Maien to join the Army. As a fit young man with sharp-shooting abilities he could not be rejected, but it was peacetime and the surgeon, who knew him, helped him avoid recruitment under the pretext of a weak chest. Back in Darmstadt, Wolf went on working on bird plates, and joined an art school where he worked on portraits, landscapes and copying of works in the Darmstadt Gallery. He was a keen observer of wild birds and once had a pit dug in which he sat all day to watch the courtship of black grouse. In 1847, he left Darmstadt to join the Antwerp Academy to learn the Dutch oil painting techniques. Around this time, Kaup visited the British Museum, he was asked about the German artist who did the plates for Schlegel's book, and Wolf was invited to London to illustrate the genera of birds for a book by George Robert Gray.

London
Wolf travelled to London on 20 March 1848 on the Soho, and was introduced by David William Mitchell, an amateur illustrator himself and a secretary of the Zoological Society of London, to Trübner of Longmans publishing. The very next day was set to work on Gray's The Genera of Birds. While at work in the insect room of the British Museum, he met other naturalists including J. O. Westwood with whom he could converse in French. He was a friend of William Russell, an accountant and a Campbell related to the Duke of Argyll. Russell brought Sir Edwin Landseer and the Duke of Argyll to see the works of Wolf. The Duke soon became a patron and he was also introduced to the Duke of Westminster. Wolf's paintings were also appreciated by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of London.

John Gould admired Wolf and would have liked him on his staff, but Wolf only contributed illustrations on a freelance basis. Wolf accompanied Gould on a collection trip to Norway. Wolf thought of Gould as a shrewd and uncouth man. Wolf also noted that Gould lacked a knowledge of feather patterning, apart from knowing nothing about composition, with a tendency to add too much colour, claiming that specimens in the wild were brighter.

Wolf was commissioned by the Zoological Society of London to paint a watercolour of wapiti deer in the snow; it is dated January 1881. Wolf soon became the illustrator of choice for all the books published by returning adventurers like David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates (for instance Bates' 1863 book The Naturalist on the River Amazons).Wolf joined an association called the German Athenaeum which was founded in 1869 and members met for scientific, literary and musical evenings. For their exhibitions he worked on a range of compositions often with natural elements. His favourite medium was charcoal and ink. Wolf became treasurer to a fund for German widows during the Franco-Prussian War  (War of 1870.) After the war, he met Daniel Giraud Elliot in Paris and visited a battlefield. He rendered the image in a design called "Peace and War" with turtle doves on a bush over a soldier's helmet. He also produces some cartoon like illustrations including "Lecture on Embryology" in which he taunts certain men of science. When Charles Darwin began his study of animal expressions, he was introduced by Abraham Dee Bartlett, the zoo superintendent, to the abilities of Wolf in illustrating minute details of animals in action. Darwin requested Wolf to make some illustrations from photographs and living animals in the zoological garden. Wolf held his own opinions on the reliability of others' observations and even doubted Darwin's interpretation of the face of a monkey as a "laugh". Darwin visited him on several occasions and Wolf appreciated him for being very approachable, someone that even "a child could talk to".

Impact

Wolf's abilities were widely acclaimed even in his lifetime. Wolf established wildlife art as a genre and his observation of living birds allowed him to produce illustrations in very accurate and lifelike stances. On occasion he would come back from a trip and produce very accurate sketches from memory. He was very careful in his observation of feather patterns and when he read the works of Sundevall and Nitzsch on pterylography, he had nothing new to learn. The zoologist Alfred Newton called him "the greatest of all animal painters", while Landseer said that Wolf must have been a bird before he became a man. Wolf made numerous drawings in pen and charcoal as well as lithographs for scholarly societies such as the Zoological Society of London (he produced 340 "attractive" colour plates for the ZSL Proceedings in the course of 30 years), and a very large number of illustrations for books on natural history and travel published from various countries; and was considerably successful as a painter as well. Until 1946, the cover of the journal Ibis carried a woodcut by Wolf of an ibis against a background with ruins, a pyramid and a rising sun. In 1946 the sun was removed from the background; the design was entirely changed in 1948 due to excessive wear of the block. In 1865, J. H. Gurney named a species of harrier after Wolf, but it was found to be an already described species.

Wolf died in London, surrounded by his pet birds. He is buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

In 2002, a new road in Mörz, "Joseph Wolf Weg", was named after the artist.

Wolf had four daughters, two of whom had children. His direct descendants live in the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand.

His bicentenary was celebrated with a "Joseph Wolf year" in Mörz in January 2020.

Notes

Cited references

External links

Mörz website Joseph Wolf 200

1820 births
1899 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
German ornithologists
Artists from the Rhine Province
German bird artists
German lithographers
People associated with the British Museum
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists

Joseph Wolf


Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a short-lived artistic nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland in 1916 (revived in the 21st century). It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings, in the back room of Holländische Meierei, Spiegelgasse 1, on February 5, 1916, as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes. Other founding members were Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp.

Events at the cabaret proved pivotal in the founding of the anarchic art movement known as Dada. In 2013, the Cabaret Voltaire performances were collectively ranked by Dale Eisinger of Complex as the 25th best work of performance art in history.

Cabaret Voltaire closed in the summer of 1916, but the Cabaret was revived in the same building in the 21st century.

History

Switzerland was a neutral country during World War I and among the many refugees coming to Zürich were artists from all over Europe. Ball and Hennings approached Ephraim Jan, patron of the Holländische Meierei at Spiegelgasse 1, which had already hosted Zürich's first literary cabaret, the Pantagruel in 1915. Jan permitted them to use the back room for events. The press release on 2 February 1916 announcing the opening of the club reads:

The Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has formed with the object of becoming a center for artistic entertainment. In principle, the Cabaret will be run by artists, permanent guests, who, following their daily reunions, will give musical or literary performances. Young Zürich artists, of all tendencies, are invited to join us with suggestions and proposals.

The cabaret featured spoken word, dance and music. The soirees were often raucous events with artists experimenting with new forms of performance, such as sound poetry and simultaneous poetry. Mirroring the maelstrom of World War I raging around it, the art it exhibited was often chaotic and brutal. On at least one occasion, the audience attacked the cabaret's stage. Though the cabaret was to be the birthplace of the Dadaist movement, it featured artists from every sector of the avant-garde, including Futurism's Marinetti. The cabaret exhibited radically experimental artists, many of whom went on to change the face of their artistic disciplines; featured artists included Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Giorgio de Chirico, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Max Ernst.

On 28 July 1916, Ball read out his Dada Manifesto. In June, Ball had also published a journal with the same name. It featured work from artists such as the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and had a cover designed by Arp.

The cabaret closed in the summer of 1916.

While the Dada movement was just beginning, by 1917 the excitement generated by Cabaret Voltaire had fizzled out, and the artists moved on to other places in Zürich such as the Galerie Dada at Bahnhofstrasse 19, and later Paris and Berlin.

21st century revival

After the turn of the millennium, the building which had housed Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 had fallen into disrepair, and in the winter of 2001/2002 a group of artists describing themselves as neo-Dadaists, organised by Mark Divo, squatted the building to protest its planned closure. They declared that it was a signal for a new generation of artists to align themselves with a revival of Dada.

Over a period of three months there was a number of performances, parties, poetry evenings and film nights. Among the participating artists were Ingo Giezendanner, Lennie Lee, Leumund Cult, Mickry3, xeno volcano, elektra sturmschnell, Aiana Calugar, and Dan Jones. The building was decorated on the outside as well as the inside. Thousands of people from around Zürich took part in the experiment. On April 2, 2002 police evicted the occupants.

A new cabaret has since opened in the building, with an extensive programme of events such as, Hugo Ball: Fuga saeculi, in 2008, curated by Bazon Brock and included a performance of Gabriella Daris' corporeal poem LopLop: WORD or WOman biRD (an homage to Max Ernst's namesake collage from 1921) as well as a film projection by Werner Nekes, and the 2008 exhibition Dreamachine: David Woodard, Sheela Birnstiel, Christian Kracht.

More recently, Cabaret Voltaire has adopted personalities and celebrated them as Dadaists, such as Alexander Archipenko, Tatsuo Okada and Mikhail Bakunin. Cabaret Voltaire sponsored the restoration of Bakunin's grave plate in the Bremgarten cemetery in Bern, adding a portrait by Swiss artist Daniel Garbade and the Bakunin quote: "By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible." In 2020, the first season of the television show The Fugitive Game, which focusses on German poet Emmy Hennings, was filmed on location at Cabaret Voltaire.

In popular culture
 The electronic band Cabaret Voltaire was named as so in reference to the club, drawing inspiration from Dadaism and incorporating it in their earliest albums.

References

External links

 Dada and Surrealism: Texts and Extracts
 Cabaret Voltaire homepage, archive from 10 December 2018

Dada
Underground culture
Modernist theatre
Culture of Zürich
Squats
Former squats

Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich)


Ralph Frary (July 3, 1876 – November 9, 1925) was a professional baseball player and umpire. From 1895 to 1906, Frary played in the minor leagues with several teams as a catcher, outfielder, and first baseman. Frary umpired 17 National League games in 1911, eight of them as the home plate umpire.

Playing career
Frary played catcher and first base with Montana, Spokane and Seattle of the Pacific Coast League and Pacific National League. He signed with Nashville of the Southern League in 1906, having had "trouble at Seattle."

Umpiring career
In 1908, Frary umpired in the Northwestern League. That July, it was reported as "practically settled" that Frary would be promoted to the major leagues the following year. The next month, Frary made headlines when President Charley Wolf of the Spokane club accused him of being crooked and connected to gamblers. Frary demanded that the National Board of Minor Leagues either expel Frary or Wolf. In September, Aberdeen manager Bob Brown accused Frary of drunkenness on the field. Frary remained in the Northwestern League through the 1910 season, after which he stated that he would not return to the league without a generous boost in pay.

In June 1911, Frary was promoted to the National League umpiring staff. In his debut, Frary was the base umpire for a Christy Mathewson shutout against the Boston Rustlers. In July, Frary took a foul ball to the leg and blood poisoning developed. Frary was able to return to the field briefly in mid-August, but he came home within a few games when he was bothered by leg trouble again. He umpired his last NL game on August 14, 1911. Contrary to initial reports, Frary was not ultimately retained by the NL for the next season. Despite speculation that he might open a book at a local racetrack, he umpired in the Union Association in 1912 and 1913.

In May 1914, Frary abruptly departed for a three-year contract in the Federal League. By 1915, however, Frary was back in the Northwestern League. In 1918, Frary ejected Salt Lake City pitcher Clarence "Popboy" Smith after an argument about which ball should be in play. After being tossed, Smith struck Frary with a punch that broke the umpire's nose. The pitcher received a suspension and $250 fine. Before the 1920 season, Frary and two other umpires were fired from the Pacific Coast League staff by new league president William H. McCarthy.

Personal life
Frary ran The Mecca, a Spokane saloon that served as a hangout for popular figures such as a young Jack Dempsey. The saloon was ordered closed in 1911 for harboring unsavory characters and selling liquor on Sundays. During the investigation of the saloon, Frary's wife was involved in a police chase. Mrs. Frary was wanted to testify before the commissioner's court, but she hurriedly jumped into a taxi to evade officers. Though the police car had mechanical problems, officers caught up to the cab and took Mrs. Frary into custody.

Death
Frary died in Aberdeen, Washington in November 1925.

References

Fort Wayne (minor league baseball) players
Seattle Yannigans players
Seattle Rainmakers players
Batavia Giants players
Geneva Alhambras players
Rochester Brownies players
Montreal Royals players
Canandaigua Rustlers players
Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players
St. Paul Apostles players
St. Paul Saints (Western League) players
Seattle Clamdiggers players
Sacramento Gilt Edges players
Spokane Smoke Eaters players
Helena Senators players
Spokane Indians players
Portland Browns players
Seattle Siwashes players
Nashville Vols players
Major League Baseball umpires
Sportspeople from New York (state)
1876 births
1925 deaths

Ralph Frary


Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961) is regarded as one of the most significant recordings of its era.  The centerpiece of the album is the definitive version of Nelson's composition, "Stolen Moments". Other important recordings from the 1960s are the albums More Blues and the Abstract Truth (1964) and Sound Pieces (1966), both also on Impulse!.

Biography

Early life and career
Oliver Nelson was born into a musical family in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. His brother was a saxophonist who played with Cootie Williams in the 1940s, and his sister sang and played piano. Nelson began learning to play the piano when he was six and started on the saxophone at the age of 11. Beginning in 1947, he played in "territory" bands in and around Saint Louis, before joining the Louis Jordan band, where he stayed from 1950 to 1951, playing alto saxophone and arranging charts for Jordan's band.

In 1952, Nelson underwent military service in the United States Marines Corps playing woodwinds in the 3rd Marine Division band in Japan and Korea. It was in Japan that Nelson attended a concert by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and heard Maurice Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye and Paul Hindemith's Symphony in E Flat. Nelson later recalled that this was the first time that I had heard really modern music for back in St. Louis I hadn't even known that Negroes were allowed to go to concerts. I realized everything didn't have to sound like Beethoven or Brahms ... . It was then that I decided to become a composer.

Nelson returned to Missouri to study music composition and theory at Washington University in St. Louis and Lincoln University, graduating with a master's degree in 1958. He also studied with composers Elliott Carter, Robert Wykes and George Tremblay.

While back in his hometown of St. Louis, Nelson met and married Eileen Mitchell; the couple had a son, Oliver Nelson Jr., but soon divorced. After graduation, Nelson married St. Louis native Audrey McEwen, a union that lasted until his death and produced a son, Nyles.

After completing his degree Nelson moved to New York City, playing with Erskine Hawkins and Wild Bill Davis, and working as the house arranger for the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He also played on the West Coast briefly with the Louie Bellson big band in 1959, and in the same year began recording for Prestige Records as the leader of various small groups. From 1960 to 1961, he briefly played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, and then joined the Quincy Jones big band playing tenor saxophone, both in the U.S. and on tour in Europe.

Breakthrough and afterwards
After six albums as leader between 1959 and 1961 for the Prestige Records label, Nelson's big breakthrough came with The Blues and the Abstract Truth, an album recorded for Impulse! also featuring Eric Dolphy, Roy Haynes and Freddie Hubbard, which made his name as a composer and arranger. Subsequently, he recorded a number of notable big-band albums including Afro-American Sketches and Full Nelson.

Nelson worked as an arranger on large ensemble albums for Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Johnny Hodges, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich, Jimmy Smith, Billy Taylor, Stanley Turrentine, Irene Reid, and Gene Ammons. The music Sonny Rollins wrote for Alfie (1966), a film made in Great Britain,  was arranged by Nelson for Alfie of the same name. He also led all-star big bands in various live performances between 1966 and 1975.  Nelson continued to perform as a soloist during this period, now focusing primarily on soprano saxophone.

In 1967, Nelson moved to Los Angeles to be near the television and movie industry and began composing background music for television and films, for which he became highly sought after. Television projects included Ironside, Night Gallery, Columbo, The Six Million Dollar Man  and Longstreet. Films scored by Nelson include Death of a Gunfighter (1969), Skullduggery (1970), Dial Hot Line (1970), Zig Zag (1970) and The Alpha Caper (1973). He also arranged Gato Barbieri's music for Last Tango in Paris (1972). During this productive time he also arranged and produced albums for pop stars such as Nancy Wilson, James Brown, The Temptations, and Diana Ross.

Along with his big-band appearances (in Berlin, Montreux, New York, and Los Angeles), he led a small group that included John Klemmer, Ernie Watts, Freddie Hill, and Frank Strozier in a United States Department of State-sponsored tour of West Africa in 1969. Less well-known is the fact that Nelson composed several symphonic works, and was also deeply involved in jazz education, returning to his alma mater, Washington University, in the summer of 1969 to lead a five-week-long clinic that also featured such guest performers as Phil Woods, Mel Lewis, Thad Jones, Sir Roland Hanna, and Ron Carter. Among the student participants at the Washington University Summer Jazz Institute were saxophonists Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, and Hamiet Bluiett, who later co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray.  Nelson's book of jazz practice exercises, Patterns for Improvisation, was published in 1966 and remains highly regarded to this day.

Nelson died of a heart attack on October 28, 1975, at the age of 43. It is widely believed that Nelson's commitment to his work resulted in lengthy periods of stress which contributed to his premature death.

Discography

References

External links

[ Oliver Nelson] at AllMusic
Oliver Nelson – brief introduction from the Jazz Files
Oliver Nelson – introduction from Impulse! Records
Oliver Nelson: A Discography – Douglas Payne's site, including discographies of Nelson's work in different genres, reviews, etc.
Oliver Nelson Published Big Band Arrangements and Compositions

1932 births
1975 deaths
Musicians from St. Louis
African-American jazz composers
African-American jazz musicians
American jazz clarinetists
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
American music arrangers
Big band bandleaders
Hard bop saxophonists
Mainstream jazz saxophonists
Post-bop saxophonists
Soul-jazz saxophonists
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Prestige Records artists
RCA Records artists
Verve Records artists
Impulse! Records artists
Inner City Records artists
Flying Dutchman Records artists
United States Marines
Jazz arrangers
20th-century jazz composers
20th-century saxophonists
20th-century American composers
Jazz musicians from Missouri
American male jazz composers
American jazz composers
20th-century American male musicians
Argo Records artists

Oliver Nelson


Mária von Ilosvay (8 May 1913 – 16 June 1987) was a Hungarian contralto renowned for her performances of the role of Erda in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

She studied in Budapest and Vienna, where her teachers included Laura Hilgermann, Felicie Kashovska and Mária Budanovicz. In 1937 won first prize in the International Singing Contest in Vienna. During 1937 and 1938 she toured America with an opera company. In 1940, she joined the Hamburg company, while appearing as a guest artist in Vienna, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Salzburg. She became a mainstay at the Bayreuth Festival following its re-opening in 1951 when she made her debut there, until 1958. She recorded the role of Erda in live recordings from Bayreuth conducted by Clemens Krauss (1953) and Joseph Keilberth (1955, Decca stereo).

Among her other recordings of opera excerpts on two 10 inch LPs are arias from La finta semplice, La Betulia Liberata, Il trovatore, Don Carlos, Mignon and Carmen. She may also be heard in Verdi's Requiem, recorded in 1955 under van Kempen.

References

1913 births
1987 deaths
Contraltos
20th-century Hungarian women opera singers

Maria von Ilosvay


Tanner Lee Houck (born June 29, 1996) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was drafted by the Red Sox with the 24th overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft. Listed at  and , he throws and bats right-handed.

Amateur career
Houck attended Collinsville High School in Collinsville, Illinois. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 12th round of the 2014 MLB draft, but did not sign and attended the University of Missouri to play college baseball. As a freshman at Missouri in 2015, Houck started 15 games, going 8–5 with a 3.49 earned run average (ERA) and 91 strikeouts and only 12 walks in  innings. As a sophomore, Houck started 15 games and was 5–6 with a 2.99 ERA and 106 strikeouts.

Professional career
The Boston Red Sox selected Houck with the 24th overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft. He signed on June 21, 2017, and was assigned to the Class A Short Season Lowell Spinners, where he spent the whole season, posting an 0–3 record with a 3.63 ERA in  innings pitched. In 2018, he played with the Class A-Advanced Salem Red Sox where he pitched to a 7–11 record with a 4.24 ERA in 23 starts.

In 2019, he began with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs, and was promoted to the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox on July 13. Overall during 2019, Houck was 8–6 with a 4.01 ERA and 107 strikeouts in  innings. Following the 2019 regular season, Houck made six starts for the Peoria Javelinas of the Arizona Fall League.

During the start-delayed 2020 MLB season, Houck won his MLB debut against the Miami Marlins on September 15, allowing two hits and no runs in five innings pitched while striking out seven batters.  Those strikeouts resulted in Houck donating $700 to his charity, Pitch for Adoption, as before the game he had pledged to donate $100 for each strikeout. While Houck was a freshman in high school, his family adopted a 4-year-old girl, which moved him to become a supporter for adoption. Houck became only the fourth player in Red Sox history to strikeout seven or more batters and not allow any runs in a MLB debut game. In Houck's second start, against the New York Yankees on September 20, he took a no hitter into the sixth inning, exiting the game after that inning having held the Yankees to one hit and one unearned run. Overall with the 2020 Red Sox, Houck appeared in three games (all starts), compiling a 3–0 record with 0.53 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched. Following the 2020 season, Houck was ranked by Baseball America as the Red Sox' number eight prospect.

Houck began the 2021 season on Boston's active roster; he lost one start and made one relief appearance before being optioned to the team's alternate training site on April 7. He was recalled to start one game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox on April 18, taking the loss. Houck was again recalled by the Red Sox on July 16, earning his first major-league save that evening, pitching the final three innings of a 4–0 win over the Yankees in The Bronx. He was optioned to and recalled from the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox several times during July and August. Overall during the regular season, Houck made 18 appearances (13 starts) for Boston, compiling a 1–5 record with 3.52 ERA; he struck out 87 batters in 69 innings.

Houck began the 2022 season in the Red Sox' starting rotation. He was placed on the restricted list prior to a late April series in Toronto, as he was apparently not vaccinated against COVID-19 (required to enter Canada), causing him to miss a start. He re-joined the team on April 29 in Baltimore. Houck was again placed on the restricted list in late June when the Red Sox played another series to Toronto. On August 9, Houck was placed on the injured list due to lower-back inflammation. On September 3, Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced that Houck would have season-ending back surgery. In 32 appearances (four starts) during 2022, Houck recorded a 5–4 record with eight saves and a 3.15 ERA while striking out 56 batters in 60 innings pitched.

Houck returned to the starting rotation for 2023. On June 16, he was struck by a line drive in a home game against the Yankees, and was subsequently placed on the injured list with a facial fracture. He returned to Boston's active roster on August 22.

International career
In the summer of 2015, Houck played for the United States collegiate national team. Against Cuba, Houck, A. J. Puk and Ryan Hendrix combined to throw a no-hitter.

In October 2019, Houck was selected for the United States national baseball team for the 2019 WBSC Premier12 tournament.

References

External links

SoxProspects.com
Missouri Tigers bio

1996 births
Living people
Baseball players from Illinois
Boston Red Sox players
Lowell Spinners players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Missouri Tigers baseball players
Pawtucket Red Sox players
People from Collinsville, Illinois
Peoria Javelinas players
Portland Sea Dogs players
Salem Red Sox players
Worcester Red Sox players
United States national baseball team players
2019 WBSC Premier12 players

Tanner Houck


is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping ume plums (while still unripe and green) in  and sugar. It has a sweet, sour taste, and an alcohol content of 10–15%. Famous brands of umeshu include Choya, Takara Shuzo and Matsuyuki. Varieties are available with whole ume fruits contained in the bottle, and some people make their own umeshu at home.

Japanese restaurants serve many different varieties of umeshu and also make cocktails. Umeshu on the Rocks (pronounced umeshu rokku), Umeshu Sour (pronounced umeshu sawa), Umeshu Tonic (with tonic water), and Umeshu Soda (with carbonated water) are popular. It is sometimes mixed with green tea (o-cha-wari) or warm water (o-yu-wari). Umeshu can be served at different temperatures; chilled or with ice, room temperature, or even hot in the winter.

Umeshu can be made either from real plum fruit, or using additive flavours and perfumes to emulate the taste of plums. Umeshu which is made from exclusively plum fruit (without additives) will be labelled as Honkaku Umeshu and will typically be made only from ume fruit, sugar, and alcohol.

Homemade umeshu
 Main ingredients include:
 Ume fruits
 Sugar (rock)
 Shōchū
 Traditional recipe:
 Ume fruit 1 kg
 Sugar 500g–1 kg (rock/cubes)
 Shōchū 1.8l
 After three months in a cold and dark place, it is ready to be consumed (although it is better to wait at least six months)
Umeshu should be allowed to mature for at least nine months.

See also
 Suanmeitang, Chinese plum beverage
 Maesil-ju, Korean plum wine

References

External links

 A recipe for umeshu
 Umeshuthai

Rice wine
Fruit liqueurs
Japanese liqueurs
Plum dishes

Umeshu


Il minestrone is a 1981 Italian comedy film directed by Sergio Citti. It was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival.

Plot
Francesco and Giovanni are two tramps on the outskirts of Rome, forced to rummage through the trash forever in search of food.  They meet and make friends and through a misunderstanding are arrested.  They are locked up in the security cell of the police station with The Maestro, a poor but well-dressed specialist in running away from the restaurants, taverns and eateries of Rome after having gorged without paying. Upon release, the three come together late in the evening and go to a restaurant where, at the end of a memorable binge (tagliatelle, tripe with tomato sauce, oxtail, asparagus, mozzarella with tomatoes, lamb with potatoes), they concoct a clever ruse to escape and cheat the owner Attilio. In running away, they fall into a cold and smelly mud puddle and take refuge in a cattle car to dry off and warm up. They fall asleep and wake to find themselves in a small town in Tuscany, and then begin to wander in the countryside of Poggibonsi (Siena). They try to scrounge food from the old woman Beatrice, but she does not even know how to feed the seven children living with her, and she is forced to sacrifice her old turtle. By and by they come across a restaurant owned by two hunters, who are in the habit of serving the customers only after enjoying their own comfortable meal and who keep their waiter chained up like a dog. The three friends release the waiter and decide to leave the restaurant without eating, sensing the danger of being caught and shot. After further wanderings, they are nearly lynched by a group of laborers after being caught eating the temporarily unguarded soup at the laborers' table. Left tied up while the mob goes off for a while, they are freed by the waiter who they had recently saved, who joins them.  The waiter leads them to an old inn but when they arrive they are dismayed to learn that it has been turned into a funeral home.

The next day, they come upon Gildo (Farnese), a failed industrialist who lost his entire fortune and who is about to commit suicide, saving him just in time, and after an initial skirmish, Gildo and his family join them. Gildo leads the group to the house of his father, a Marquis who initially humiliates him in front of the group by refusing to be moved by their plight while he samples bits from a vast spread of delicious dishes.  The Marquis later accepts Gildo after forcing him to abandon his wife and children to their fate. For the rest of them, the search for food continues, and the group is joined by other strange characters that they come across. After a sumptuous and surreal "imaginary lunch", they find a strange box on a beach and gorge on the "gelatin" in it, which is unfortunately merely packing material for a missile. Poisoned by the ingestion of this non-edible substance, they are all admitted to a clinic, where they meet a holy man (Gaber), who convinces them to follow him. But he is not of sound mind, and he takes them quite by chance to a mountain pass, where the orchestra performs the Tyrolean leitmotif of the film (music was created and directed by Nicola Piovani), while the closing credits roll.

Cast
 Roberto Benigni as Maestro
 Franco Citti as Francesco
 Ninetto Davoli as Giovanni
 Daria Nicolodi as Eleonora, wife of Gildo
 Fabio Traversa as Waiter
 Francesca Rinaldi as Francesca, daughter of Gildo
 Olimpia Carlisi as Undertaker clerk
 Giorgio Gaber as The Prophet
 Franco Iavarone as Food Taster (as Franco Javarone)
 Giulio Farnese as Gildo
 Carlo Monni
 Daniela Piperno

References

External links

1981 films
1980s Italian-language films
1981 comedy films
Films directed by Sergio Citti
Films with screenplays by Vincenzo Cerami
Italian comedy films
Films scored by Nicola Piovani
1980s Italian films

Il minestrone


The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called the Battle of Walnut Hills, fought December 26–29, 1862, was the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton repulsed an advance by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman that was intended to lead to the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

On December 26, three Union divisions under Sherman disembarked at Johnson's Plantation on the Yazoo River to approach the Vicksburg defenses from the northeast while a fourth landed farther upstream on December 27. On December 27, the Union army pushed their lines forward through the swamps toward the Walnut Hills, which were strongly defended. On December 28, several futile attempts were made to get around these defenses. On December 29, Sherman ordered a frontal assault, which was repulsed with heavy casualties, and then withdrew. This Confederate victory and the victory against Grant at Holly Springs frustrated Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's attempts to take Vicksburg by a direct approach.

Background

Starting in November 1862, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commanding Union forces in Mississippi, undertook a campaign to capture the city of Vicksburg, high on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, one of two Confederate strong points (the other being Port Hudson, Louisiana) that denied the Union complete control of the Mississippi River. Grant split his 70,000-man army into two wings—one commanded by himself and one commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. Sherman commanded the Right Wing, or XIII Corps, Army of the Tennessee, redesignated the XV Corps on December 22. His expeditionary force of 32,000 troops was organized into four divisions, commanded by Brig. Gens. Andrew J. Smith, Morgan L. Smith, George W. Morgan, and Frederick Steele.

Grant's wing marched south down the Mississippi Central Railroad, making a forward base at Holly Springs. He planned a two-pronged assault in the direction of Vicksburg. As Sherman advanced down the river, Grant would continue with the remaining forces (about 40,000) down the railroad line to Oxford, where he would wait for developments, hoping to lure the Confederate army out of the city to attack him in the vicinity of Grenada, Mississippi.

The seven gunboats and fifty-nine troop transports commanded by Rear Adm. David D. Porter departed Memphis, Tennessee, on December 20, stopped at Helena, Arkansas, to pick up additional troops, and arrived at Milliken's Bend above Vicksburg on December 24. After advancing up the Yazoo River, the transports disembarked Sherman's men at Johnson's Plantation, opposite Steele's Bayou, north of the city. Preceding the landing, the U.S. Navy conducted torpedo clearing operations on the Yazoo, during which the ironclad USS Cairo was sunk.

The Confederate forces opposing Sherman's advance were from the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, commanded by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, a Pennsylvanian who chose to fight for the South. The officer in direct command of the defenses of Vicksburg was Maj. Gen. Martin L. Smith, who commanded four brigades led by Brig. Gens. Seth M. Barton, John C. Vaughn, John Gregg, and Edward D. Tracy. Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Lee commanded a provisional division with brigades commanded by Cols. William T. Withers and Allen Thomas; Lee was the primary commander of the Confederate defense in the Walnut Hills until the arrival late on December 29 of Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson. Although the Union forces outnumbered the men to their front by two to one (30,720 to 13,792), they faced a formidable maze of both natural and man-made defenses. First was a thick entanglement of trees, which was broken intermittently by swampland. Chickasaw Bayou, a stream that was chest-deep, 50 yards wide, and choked with trees, also acted as a barrier to Sherman's men because it was parallel to the planned line of advance and hampers communication between units. Furthermore, the Confederates had formed dense barriers using felled trees for abatis.

Opposing forces

Union

Confederate

Battle
On December 26, Sherman deployed the brigades of Col. John F. DeCourcy and Brig. Gens. David Stuart and Francis P. Blair, Jr., to perform reconnaissance and find weaknesses in a Confederate defense. They moved slowly ahead through the difficult terrain, skirmishing with S.D. Lee's covering force that had been at Mrs. Lake's plantation. On December 28, Steele's division attempted to turn the Confederate right flank, but was repulsed by Confederate artillery fire as they advanced on a narrow front.

On the morning of December 29, Sherman ordered an artillery bombardment of the Confederate defenses to weaken them before a general Federal advance. For almost four hours, an artillery duel took place all along the line of battle, but did little damage. At 11 a.m., the duel ceased, and the infantry deployed into their lines of battle. Understanding the formidable nature of the Confederate fortifications, Sherman remarked, "We will lose 5,000 men before we take Vicksburg, and may as well lose them here as anywhere else."

At noon, Union troops advanced with a cheer. Blair's brigade moved on the left, DeCourcy's in the center, followed by Brig. Gen. John M. Thayer's brigade on the right; all of Thayer's brigade except the 4th Iowa Infantry was ordered not to follow Thayer's orders by General George W. Morgan (the order conveyed by General Steele who was officially Thayer's superior.) Thus, instead of arriving before the Confederate lines with 3500 men, Thayer found himself with 500. Colonel James A. Williamson, commanding the 4th Iowa, was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. They crossed water barriers and abatis and carried the advance rifle pits on the weight of sheer numbers, but met stiff resistance when they came against the main Confederate line and began to crumble under the heavy fire. The survivors fell back across the bayou on a corduroy bridge. S.D. Lee ordered his men to make a counterattack, during which they captured 332 Union soldiers and four battle flags.

Another assault ordered by Sherman was conducted by two divisions under A.J. Smith (his own division and that of M.L. Smith, who had been wounded the day before) advancing across Chickasaw Bayou to seize the Indian Mound that was in the center of the Confederate line, defended by Barton and Gregg. Skirmishers from the brigades of Cols. Giles A. Smith and Thomas Kilby Smith covered the bayou crossing and the 6th Missouri Infantry of G. A. Smith's brigade led the way with 20 pioneers, building a road on the far bank. Five attempts to carry the position at the Indian mound were repulsed.

On the far Union right, an attack by Col. William J. Landram's brigade of A.J. Smith's division was easily repulsed by the Confederates of Vaughn's brigade.

Aftermath
That evening, Sherman declared that he was "generally satisfied with the high spirit manifested" by his men although their attacks had failed in the face of strong Confederate positions on the high bluffs. The battle was a lopsided victory for the Confederates: Union casualties were 208 killed, 1,005 wounded, and 563 captured or missing, the majority among the 4th Iowa and the brigades of Blair and De Courcy. Confederate casualties were light at 57 killed, 120 wounded, and 10 missing. Sherman conferred with Adm. Porter, whose naval gunfire had also failed to do any significant damage to the enemy. They decided to resume the attacks on the following day and Porter sent a boat to Memphis to get more small arms ammunition.

By the morning of December 30, Sherman had concluded that resuming the attacks at the same location would be fruitless and he and Porter planned a joint army-navy attack on Drumgould's Bluff to the northeast, hoping that the steep bluffs would provide cover for his men as they advanced. It was imperative that such a movement be started in secrecy so that the Confederates would not shift their defensive forces. The movement commenced on December 31, but was called off in heavy fog on January 1, 1863.

During this period, the overland half of Grant's offensive was also failing. His lines of communication were disrupted by raids by Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who destroyed a large supply depot in the Holly Springs Raid on December 20. Unable to sustain his army without these supplies, Grant abandoned his overland advance. Sherman realized that his corps would not be reinforced by Grant and decided to withdraw his expedition, moving to the mouth of the Yazoo on January 2. On January 5, Sherman sent a letter to General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck, summing up the campaign (in a manner reminiscent of a famous statement by Julius Caesar), "I reached Vicksburg at the time appointed, landed, assaulted, and failed." He and his command were then temporarily assigned to Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand for an expedition up the Arkansas River and the Battle of Arkansas Post. Although Grant tried a number of operations, or "experiments", to reach Vicksburg over the winter, the Vicksburg Campaign did not begin again in earnest until April 1863.

Battlefield Preservation
The American Battlefield Trust and its partners acquired and preserved more than three acres of the battlefield in 2022.  The Trust added almost four more acres with two additional acquisitions in 2023 for a total of 7.03 acres saved.

See also

Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1862
List of costliest American Civil War land battles

Notes

References
Ballard, Michael B. Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. .
Bearss, Edwin C. The Campaign for Vicksburg. Vol. 1, Vicksburg is the Key. Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1985. .
Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. .
Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. . The collection of maps (without explanatory text) is available online at the West Point website.
Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. .
Korn, Jerry, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. War on the Mississippi: Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985. .

National Park Service battle description
CWSAC Report Update

Memoirs and primary sources
U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.

External links

Chickasaw Bayou
Chickasaw Bayou
Chickasaw Bayou
Chickasaw
History of Warren County, Mississippi
1862 in the United States
1862 in the American Civil War
1862 in Mississippi
December 1862 events

Battle of Chickasaw Bayou


Philippa Scott (born November 10, 1935) is an American actress. Her movie credits include The Searchers (1956), As Young as We Are (1958), Auntie Mame (1958), Quick, Let's Get Married (1964), Petulia (1968), Some Kind of a Nut (1969), Cold Turkey (1971) and Bad Ronald (1974).

Scott has also appeared in television shows such as  Maverick, Mr. Lucky, The Alaskans, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, F Troop, Have Gun – Will Travel, Redigo, The Tall Man, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Rat Patrol, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Waltons, Columbo and Jigsaw John.

Scott was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of actress Laura Straub and screenwriter Allan Scott. She was married to producer Lee Rich from 1964 until their divorce in 1983. The couple had two children.

References

Other websites

1935 births
Living people
Actors from Los Angeles
American movie actors
American television actors

Pippa Scott


John Nathan Raney (born April 4, 1947) is a businessman in College Station, Texas, who is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 14, which encompasses Brazos County, including Bryan–College Station.

Background

A sixth-generation Texan, Raney was born in Huntsville in Walker County and reared for several years on a farm in Madison County, which had been owned by his family for 125 years. In 1950, he moved back to Huntsville. In 1960, he relocated to Bryan, where he graduated in 1965 from the former Stephen F. Austin High School, renamed and consolidated in 1971 as Bryan High School. In 1969, Raney received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University, with a concentration in marketing. In June 1969, after his graduation from TAMU, Raney launched Aggieland Book Store, a business which he still operates. From 1969 to 1975, he was a first lieutenant in the Texas Army National Guard.

Political life

Raney has been active in the Republican party since the early 1970s, including a stint as Chairman of the Republican Party of Brazos County,

2011
Representative Raney has served in the state House since December 23, 2011, having won with 58 percent of the vote in a special runoff election to fill the seat vacated by fellow Republican Fred Brown, whose tenure had extended from 1999 until his resignation in 2011.

2012

Raney won his first full term in the House on November 6, 2012, 60 to 36 percent, over Democrat Judy Le Unes. The Libertarian candidate, Joshua Baker, received the remaining 4 percent of the ballots cast.

2014

In 2014, Raney ran against Democrat Andrew Metscher, a Texas A&M student in economics.  He defeated Metscher in the general election 68%–28%.

2016
Representative Raney faced a Republican primary opponent in the 2016 election cycle from former College Station City Councilman Jess Fields. Raney defeated Fields 68%-31%.

2018
Raney won again in the general election held on November 6, 2018. With 26,663 votes (56.4 percent), he defeated his Democratic opponent, Josh Wilkinson, who polled 20,647 votes (43.6 percent).

2022
Raney won against challenger John Harvey Slocum in the republican primary race on March 1, 2022. https://www.kbtx.com/2022/03/02/raney-defeats-slocum-texas-house-district-14-republican-primary/ Accessed on March 28, 2022.

Policy positions
A member of the House committees on Administration, Appropriations, and Higher Education, Representative Raney supports tuition revenue bonds for public universities, the concealed-carry law in classrooms for the purpose of self-defense from attackers, and the prohibition of abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. Representative Raney authored a bill to allow Texas A&M University to lease and sell land on the main campus in College Station.

Representative Raney backed the approved 2013 Texas State Budget and legislation to assist College Station in the establishment of a medical district. He supports legislation to allow Brazos County to earmark specified hotel and motel sales taxes to underwrite part of the costs for renovations to Kyle Field at TAMU.  Representative Raney supported legislation to increase funding of highways and transportation, securing the border with Mexico, and more funding for education at the vocational, technical, and higher levels.

Endorsements
Raney has received endorsements from Life PAC, Texas Alliance for Life, Texas Retailers Association, Texas Municipal Police Association, Texas Association of Business, Texas Association of Manufacturers, Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, Texas Association of Realtors, National Rifle Association, Texas State Rifle Association, College Station Professional Firefighters Association, Bryan Professional Firefighters Association, National Federation of Business, Conservative Roundtable of Texas, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Department of Public Safety Officers Association, Independent Bankers Association of Texas, A&M PAC, Texas Medical Association, Texas Farm Bureau, Texas Society of Professional Engineers, and others.

Personal life
Raney met his wife, the former Elizabeth Hodges, at the 1972 Republican State Convention. The couple married in 1974 and have two daughters and sons-in-law, Beth and Grant Hawkins and Laura and Alex Scogin, and eight grandchildren.

Raney is affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the Texas Retailers Association. He is active in the First United Methodist Church in Bryan.

References

External links
 Campaign website
 State legislative page
 John Raney at the Texas Tribune

1947 births
Living people
Republican Party members of the Texas House of Representatives
People from Madison County, Texas
People from Bryan, Texas
People from College Station, Texas
Texas A&M University alumni
Businesspeople from Texas
United States Army officers
21st-century American politicians
American United Methodists
20th-century Methodists
21st-century Methodists
People from Huntsville, Texas

John N. Raney