Þuríðr Þorkilsdóttir (Faroese Turið Torkilsdóttir, Icelandic Þuríður, Norwegian Turid) sometimes anglicized as Thurid   (ca. 960-ca. 1047)  was a powerful, influential woman in the Faroe Islands during the Viking Age.

Biography
She was born at Ulfdal in Dovrefjell, Norway and died in Skúvoy.  Þuríðr was the daughter of Ragnhild Þoralfsdóttir and Þorkil Barfrost. Around 986, she married Sigmundur Brestisson on his third visit to Norway. According to the Færeyinga saga, the wedding took place at the farm of Jarl Håkon Sigurdsson near Trondheim and lasted for seven days. She had a daughter with him, Þóra. That autumn, the couple and their daughter moved to the Faroes, where  Þuríðr lived the rest of her life. Þuríðr and Sigmundr later had four sons, Þórálfr, Steingrímr, Brandr and Heri Sigmundsson, who all lived on the farm in Skúvoy. After her husband's death in 1005, she was generally called Þuríðr meginekkja, meaning powerful widow.

In popular culture
The Faroese heavy metal band Týr wrote a song with the  name Þurið Þorkilsdóttir for the album By the Light of the Northern Star.

References

10th-century Faroese people
10th-century Norwegian women
11th-century Norwegian women
Faroese people of Norwegian descent
11th-century Faroese people

Þurið Þorkilsdóttir


The main religion in Morocco is Sunni Islam, which is also the state religion of the country.Officially, 99% of the population are Muslim, and virtually all of those are Sunni. The second-largest religion in the country is Christianity, but most Christians in Morocco are foreigners. There is a community of the Bahá'í Faith. Only a fraction of the former number of Maghrebi Jews have remained in the country, many having moved to Israel.

Islam

According to The World Factbook maintained by the American Central Intelligence Agency, and a 2009 report by the Pew Research Center, about 99% of Moroccans are Muslims. Almost all of those are Sunni, although Pew reported in 2012 that when asked which sect they belong to, 67% of those surveyed answered Sunni, while 30% volunteered only that they were Muslim.

Islam reached Morocco in 680 CE, taken to the country by the Arab Umayyad dynasty of Damascus. The first Islamic dynasty to rule Morocco were the Idrissids. Article 6 of the Moroccan constitution states that Islam is official religion of the state.
The King of Morocco claims his legitimacy as a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

The Maliki Sunnite branch of Islam is dominant, while a small minority belong to Zahirism or the Shiite branch. Relations between Sunni and Shiite have been strained in recent years, with a Moroccan crackdown on material and organisations originating from Shia-majority Iran and the group Hezbollah.

Christianity

Morocco first experienced Christianity while under Roman rule, as the Empire converted to the faith in its later years. Christianity in Morocco appeared during the Roman times, when it was practiced by Christian Berbers in Roman Mauretania Tingitana.  Many of the pre-Christian religions were then reduced in number as Christianity spread. However, after the arrival of Islam, Christianity ceased to have a significant population in the country until finally being reduced to near extinction under the almohad's forced conversion policy. Indigenous Christianity in North Africa effectively continued after the Muslim conquest until the early 15th century.

Due to the Spanish and French colonization beginning in the 19th century, Roman Catholicism grew in Morocco, albeit mainly being the European colonists. A small number of Moroccans with origins in these two countries remain in Morocco. The British, who mainly belonged to the Protestant Anglican Communion, were also given permission to build churches of their faith, such as the Church of Saint Andrew, Tangier.

During the French and Spanish protectorates, Morocco had significant populations of European Catholic settlers; on the eve of independence, an estimated 470,000 Catholics resided in Morocco. Since independence in 1956, the European Christian population has decreased substantially, and many Christians left to France or Spain. Prior to independence, the European Catholic settlers had historic legacy and powerful presence. Independence prompted a mass exodus of the European Christian settlers; after series of events over 1959-1960 more than 75% of Christian settlers left the country.

Sub-Saharan Africans, mainly Catholics from former French colonies, have migrated to Morocco in recent years. Conversions of Moroccan Muslims to Christianity, mainly by American Protestants in the remote and mountainous south of the country, have taken place despite the risk of legal consequences. The CIA World Factbook estimates that Christians are currently 1% (~380,000) of the Moroccan population.

Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity. On 27 March 2010, the Moroccan magazine TelQuel stated that thousands of Moroccans had converted to Christianity. Pointing out the absence of official data, Service de presse Common Ground, cites unspecified sources that stated that about 5,000 Moroccans became Christians between 2005 and 2010. According to different estimates, there are about 8,000–40,000 Moroccan Christians of Berber or Arab descent, mostly converted from Islam. Other sources estimated the number of convert to the Anglican Moroccan Church of a bit more than 1,000. A popular Christian program by Brother Rachid has led many former Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East to convert to Christianity.

Judaism

Morocco was a destination for the Jewish diaspora after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Roman Empire. A second wave of Sephardic Jews arrived in the country following the Alhambra Decree of 1492 which expelled all Jews from nearby Spain. The Jews, as well as the Christians, had legal autonomy relating to their own faith in cases when both parties were of the same religion.

After the creation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948, the population of Moroccan Jews decreased significantly due to emigration. Moroccan Jews also migrated to other countries, such as the linguistically-similar France and Quebec, Canada. A total of 486,000 Israelis are of Moroccan origin, while the World Factbook estimates that in 2010 only around 6,000 Jews remained in Morocco. Most of them are elderly, with the largest population in Casablanca and the remainder thinly dispersed around the country.

The most recent estimates put the size of the Casablanca Jewish community at about 2,500, and the Rabat and Marrakesh Jewish communities at about 100 members each. The remainder of the Jewish population is dispersed throughout the country. This population is mostly elderly, with a decreasing number of young people.

Bahá'í Faith

The Bahá'í Faith, which originated in the 19th century, is documented as starting its missions in Morocco in 1946, while the country was still under colonial rule. A Ten Year Crusade was initiated to spread the belief, establishing assemblies and schools in Morocco. In the early 1960s, shortly after independence, mass arrests were made of Bahá'ís, and death sentences given to the most prominent believers, sparking international outrage. Most estimates count the Bahá'í population in modern Morocco as between 150 and 500. However Association of Religion Data Archives and Wolfram Alpha estimated 32,598 Bahá'ís in 2005 and 2010.

Religiosity

Survey results released in 2019 by Arab Barometer revealed that 13% of respondents who did the survey said they were not religious, compared to 82% who said they were, with 44% answering that they were somewhat religious, and 38% describing themselves as religious. Among those aged 18–29, only 24% said they were religious, compared to 68% of those aged 60 or more. Those without a university education were 20 points more likely to be religious than those with a degree. The proportion of religious respondents who were women was 44%, while 31% of men identified as such. The same survey saw nearly 100 percent of respondents identify as Muslims. Another 2021 Arab Barometer survey found that 67.8% of Moroccans identified as religious, 29.1% as somewhat religious, and 3.1% as non religious.

A 2015 poll by Gallup International found that 93% of those surveyed said they were a religious person, 4% responded that they were not a religious person, while about 1% described themselves as "convinced atheists".

Freedom of religion

The government plays an active role in determining and policing religious practice for Muslims, and disrespecting Islam in public can carry punishments in the forms of fines and imprisonment.

Only the religions of Islam and Judaism are recognized by the Moroccan constitution as native to the country, with all other religions being considered "foreign". While foreigners can generally practice their religion in peace, citizens who practice "foreign religions" face obstacles from the government and social pressure. In particular, Shia Muslims and members of the Bahá'í Faith face discrimination from the government, as do some Christian groups.

In 2023, Morocco was ranked as one of the 30 countries in the world where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.

See also
Islam in Morocco
Christianity in Morocco
Catholic Church in Morocco
Protestantism in Morocco
Freedom of religion in Morocco
Irreligion in Morocco

References

Human rights in Morocco

Religion in Morocco


Zhang Guan () (died 359) was a general and regent of the Chinese Former Liang dynasty, during the early reign of the young prince Zhang Xuanjing.

Zhang Guan was a distant relative of the ruling family of the Former Liang. He was serving as the governor of He Province (河州, modern southwestern Gansu and eastern Qinghai) under Zhang Xuanjing's uncle Zhang Zuo, who had seized the throne from Zhang Xuanjing's older brother Zhang Yaoling in 354. Zhang Zuo, whose reign was marked by violence and extravagance, was fearful of Zhang Guan's military power, so he sent his subordinate Suo Fu (索孚) to replace Zhang Guan while ordering Zhang Guan to attack the Xiongnu tribes which had rebelled. He then set up an ambush against Zhang Guan, ready to seize him and/or kill him. However, news leaked, and Zhang Guan executed Suo and then proceeded against the capital, announcing that he was going to store Zhang Yaoling. He won victories over Zhang Zuo's forces and approached the capital Guzang (姑臧, in modern Wuwei, Gansu). He was joined in his cause by the general Song Hun, who also marched on Guzang. In response, Zhang Zuo executed Zhang Yaoling by beating him to death.

That move, however, did not save Zhang Zuo. As Song arrived at the capital, Zhang Zuo ordered that Zhang Guan's brother Zhang Ju (張琚) and son Zhang Song (張嵩) be arrested and killed, but Zhang Ju and Zhang Song instead started an uprising within Guzang and opened the city gates to allow Song Hun's forces to enter. Zhang Zuo's own forces turned on him and killed him. Song Hun and Zhang Ju then declared the six-year-old Zhang Xuanjing the Duke of Xiping—a hereditary Jin dynasty-created title that his family had held for generations. Upon Zhang Guan's subsequent arrival at Guzang, he became the regent, and he instead had Zhang Xuanjing claim the title of Prince of Liang, a title that the Jin dynasty did not confer, but continued to claim to be a Jin vassal. He had himself made the governor of Liang Province (涼州, modern central and western Gansu) and the Duke of Zhangyi.  In early 356, in response to diplomatic and implicit military pressure that Former Qin put on the state, Zhang Guan submitted Former Liang to formal Former Qin authority.

Once Zhang Guan became regent he became dictatorial and suspicious, making awards and punishments based on his own personal whim. He became apprehensive of Song Hun, and considered killing Song Hun and his brother Song Cheng (宋澄), and further considered deposing Zhang Xuanjing and making himself prince.  Once Song Hun heard this news, he gathered his troops and declared Zhang Guan to be treasonous, claiming to have authorization from Zhang Xuanjing's grandmother Princess Dowager Ma to kill him. A battle soon developed within Guzang, but Song prevailed, and Zhang Guan and his brother Zhang Ju both committed suicide, and their clan was slaughtered.  Song Hun became the regent.

Former Liang generals
Former Liang regents
Jin dynasty (266–420) people
Former Qin people
359 deaths
Suicides in China
Ancient suicides
Year of birth unknown

Zhang Guan


Plymouth Grammar School, sometimes called Plymouth Corporation Grammar School, was a grammar school in Plymouth, England.

The school was closed in 1937.

History
Founded or refounded in 1562, one source states that the school was established by the Corporation of Plymouth in the reign of King Henry VII, paying the schoolmaster £10 a year and providing rooms over an ancient chapel. A late 16th-century pupil was Martin Blake, who was believed to be a grandson of William Blake, one of the school's founders.

A report of 1841 notes the existence of letters patent of Elizabeth I in the
15th year of her reign, confirmed by letters patent of Charles II and an Act of Parliament in the same year.

The heyday of the school was under the master John Bidlake (1755–1814), an old boy of the school who was an author and artist as well as a schoolmaster. At the school he taught at least four boys who went on to become notable artists, Benjamin Haydon, Samuel Prout, Philip Hutchins Rogers, and Charles Lock Eastlake, and also Nathaniel Howard, later a classical and Persian scholar who translated Dante, and the electrician William Snow Harris.

There was a charitable trust founded in 1732 by the will of a Plymouth apothecary,  Henry Kelway, which was to educate and clothe as many boys born in Plymouth or Saltash as the funds would stretch to, with preference for Kelway's own descendants, and if possible to send them on to Oxford to be prepared for holy orders, which by 1818 occasionally happened. The trust funds left by Kelway then amounted to £4,860, invested in Bank Stock, .

In 1821, the school was called a charitable institution and its buildings were in St Catherine's Street, Plymouth. They consisted of a school-room, described as a narrow, gloomy apartment with "forms for seven classes", and a house and garden for the master, the Rev. W. Williams, together with a boys' play ground, all next to the school-room.

In 1867, the school was teaching 45 boys, of whom ten were foundationers, paying two guineas a year to be taught Classics and English, the rest paying £9 a year for Classics, English, French, German, and other  subjects. The Master was the Rev. W. Harpley, MA.

Originally for boys only, in the twentieth century the school began to admit girls, becoming coeducational. Its last headmaster, Frank Sandon, commented in 1950 on the closure of the school in 1937: "Unfortunately, the Plymouth City Council did not believe in co-education and I did, and... my school was closed."

Notable former pupils
John Bidlake (1755–1814), author, artist, and schoolmaster
Sir George Molesworth Birdwood (1832–1917), Indian civil servant and naturalist
Octavian Blewitt (1810–1884), author
Guise Brittan (1809–1876), Commissioner of Crown Lands, New Zealand
Charles Lock Eastlake (1793–1865), painter
J. Rendel Harris (1852–1941), biblical scholar and curator of manuscripts
William Snow Harris (1791–1867), electrician
Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846), painter
Nathaniel Howard, classical and Persian scholar
Collingwood Hughes (1872–1963), Conservative politician
Samuel Prout (1783–1852), watercolour painter
Philip Hutchins Rogers (1794–1853), painter
Sir John Snell (1859–1938), electrical engineer
Bertram Steele (1870–1934), scientist, first professor of chemistry at the University of Queensland<ref>Barry Chiswell, "Steele, Bertram Dillon (1870–1934)" in Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol. 12 (1990), pp. 60–61</ref>
Sydney Thelwall (1834—1922), clergyman
Robert Walling (1895–1976), soldier, journalist, and poet
Further reading
Charles William Bracken, The Plymouth Grammar School'' (Devonshire Association, 1945)

Notes

Boys' schools in Devon
Defunct grammar schools in England
Defunct schools in Plymouth, Devon
Educational institutions established in the 1560s
1562 establishments in England
1937 disestablishments in England
Educational institutions disestablished in 1937
Plymouth, Devon

Plymouth Grammar School


Dedication often refers to various religious and secular ceremonies and practices such as:

 Dedication (ritual) the ritual or ceremonial establishment of a purpose for a person, place, or thing
 Dedication of churches
 Child dedication, a Christian ceremony
 Pariṇāmanā (Sanskrit), commonly rendered in English as Dedication
 Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday commemorating the Maccabean Revolt
 Dedication stone
 Date stone, sometimes also referred to as a dedication stone

Dedication often refers also to honor or tribute:
 Dedication (art)
 Dedication (publishing)

Dedication may also refer to:

Ceremonies
 Opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon cutting ceremonies serve to dedicate buildings and groups
 Ceremonial ship launching

Film and television
 Dedication (film), a 2007 film starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore
 Dedications (MuchMusic), a Canadian television program
 "Dedication" (The Unit), a television episode

Literature
 Dedication (publishing), in book design, a page in the front matter
 "Dedication" (short story), a 1988 story by Stephen King
 Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams, a 2005 play by Terrence McNally
 "For John F. Kennedy His Inauguration" or "Dedication", a 1961 poem by Robert Frost

Music

Classical
 "Dedication", a 1918 composition by Peter Warlock

Albums
 Dedication (Ahmed Abdullah album), 1998
 Dedication (Bay City Rollers album) or the title song, 1976
 Dedication (Chief Keef album), 2017
 Dedication (Gary U.S. Bonds album) or the title song, 1981
 Dedication (Herbie Hancock album), 1974
 Dedication (Mal Waldron album) or the title song, 1985
 Dedication (Raised Fist album) or the title song, 2002
 Dedication (Robin Eubanks and Steve Turre album), 1989
 Dedication (Steve Kuhn album) or the title song, 1998
 Dedication (Zomby album), 2011
 Dedication!, by Duke Pearson, 1970
 Dedication: The Very Best of Thin Lizzy or the title song, 1991
 Dedications (Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio album), 1976
 Dedications II, Akiyoshi album released in the U.S. as Dedications, 1977
 The Dedication, a mixtape by Lil Wayne, with DJ Drama, 2005
 Dedication, an EP by Kalin and Myles, 2014
 Ihda' (Dedication), by DAM, 2006

Songs
 "Dedication" (song), by Nipsey Hussle
 "Dedication", by Beastie Boys from Hello Nasty, 1998
 "Dedication", by Brand Nubian from One for All, 1990
 "Dedication", by War from Eric Burdon Declares "War", 1970
 "Dedication", the closing theme music for the British TV programme Record Breakers

See also
 Dedication Stone
 Dedicate (horse)
 Dedicated (disambiguation)
 Christening (disambiguation)

Dedication


The Diedrich Busch House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and as a contributing property in the McClellan Heights Historic District in 1984.

Diedrich Busch
Diedrich Busch (1827–1893) was born in the town of Hamminkeln in Prussia He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, which became his trade for most of his life. He immigrated to the United States in 1853, landing in New York on July 3, and then made his way to Davenport. Busch was married twice. His first wife died young and then he married Emma Balcke, whose father was the pastor at the German Methodist Episcopal Church. Busch owned and operated a grocery store in the Village of East Davenport and the family lived above the store for several years before this house was built in 1877. Over the years he had made a sizeable investment in real estate on the east side of Davenport where he developed many houses and commercial structures.

Architecture
While this house sits geographically in the McClellan Heights neighborhood, architecturally it fits more properly in the neighboring Village of East Davenport. East Davenport was an industrial town that began in the 1850s and was annexed into the city of Davenport by the time the decade ended. The house follows a popular Vernacular style of architecture from the mid to late 19th-century Davenport known as the McClelland style. It shows influences from other architectural styles as well, such as the bracketed eaves and the polygonal window bay on the east side that suggests the Italianate style. The round arch windows in the attic is another popular feature in Davenport homes built in this era. The veranda that wraps around from the front of the house to the west side was probably added in the early 20th-century. The same is true for the sunroom in the re-entrant angle between the houses main block and the pavilion on the west side.

References

Houses completed in 1877
Houses in Davenport, Iowa
Vernacular architecture in Iowa
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa
1877 establishments in Iowa

Diedrich Busch House


Bejun Mehta (born 29 June 1968) is an American countertenor. He has been awarded the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award, Le Diamant d'Opera Magazine, the Choc de Classica, the Traetta Prize, and been nominated for the Grammy Award, the Laurence Olivier Award, and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Michael Stallknecht called him "arguably the best counter tenor in the world today."

Early life and family
Mehta was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His father, Dady Mehta, a pianist born in Shanghai, China, to Indian parents, is a cousin of conductor Zubin Mehta. His father was professor of piano at Eastern Michigan University. His mother, Martha Ritchey Mehta of Altoona, Pennsylvania, was a soprano and journalist who worked in the development office of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and she was her son's first voice teacher.  His brother, Navroj Mehta, is a violinist and the artistic director of the Ventura Music Festival.

Early musical career
From the age of nine through fifteen, Mehta was a  solo boy soprano in concerts and recordings. Of his CD for the Delos label in 1983 (Bejun DE 3019), Leonard Bernstein commented, "It is hard to believe the richness and maturity of musical understanding in this adolescent boy." He was named by the magazine Stereo Review as the Debut Recording Artist of the Year.

After his voice changed, Mehta studied the cello, both as a soloist and orchestral player, under Aldo Parisot at Yale University. Mehta graduated from Yale University with a degree in German literature. At the same time he completed an internship at Delos, where he had recorded as a boy. This led to work as an independent recording producer for labels such as Sony/CBS, BMG/RCA, Deutsche Grammophon, and Delos. His production of Janos Starker's final recording of Bach's Cello Suites (BMG/RCA 61436) won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance without orchestra.

Mehta sang for several years as a baritone without much success. "I was average, just average," he said. He began to experiment with singing in the countertenor range after reading a 1997 New Yorker profile of the countertenor David Daniels, whose early experiences seemed to mirror his own.

In 1998 he attended the Music Academy of the West summer conservatory program, where Marilyn Horne, who knew of his work as a boy soprano, offered him sponsorship through the Marilyn Horne Foundation, an organization that works to develop new talent and preserve the art of song recital. He made his operatic debut as a countertenor that same year as Armindo in a New York City Opera production of  Partenope by Handel. Two months later he substituted for David Daniels, who was taken ill during an international concert tour.

Countertenor career
Mehta regularly performs the great roles of his repertoire with leading opera houses such as Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet, La Scala, Theater an der Wien, Berlin State Opera, La Monnaie, Netherlands Opera, Barcelona's Liceu, Teatro Real in Madrid, Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera. He has performed at the festivals of Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, and Verbier, and at the London BBC Proms.

Mehta performs programmes with repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. He has performed at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus, Vienna and the Wiener Musikverein, Carnegie Hall and Zankel Hall, New York, the 92nd Street Y, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Valencia's Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Madrid's Teatro de la Zarzuela, Cité de la Musique, Paris, the Prinzregententheater Munich, and the festivals of Edinburgh, San Sebastian, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, and the BBC Proms in London. Mehta has also conducted the Belgian Baroque Orchestra B'Rock in concerts of Haydn and Mozart symphonies.

Mehta's operatic roles include, among many others: Orlando in Orlando, Tamerlano  in Tamerlano, Giulio Cesare in Giulio Cesare, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Orfeo  in Orfeo ed Euridice, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Farnace in Mitridate, Didymus in Theodora, Hamor in Jephtha, Cyrus in Belshazzar, Arsamenes in Xerxes, Andronico in Tamerlano, Radamisto in Radamisto, Riccardo Primo in Riccardo Primo, Arsace in Partenope, Masha in Eötvös's Three Sisters, Ottone in Agrippina, and Emone in Antigone.

Bejun Mehta has been profiled by CBS (60 Minutes II), A&E (Breakfast with the Arts), ORF 2 (Austria), Arte (France), and ARD (Germany). He was nominated for the Olivier Award for his portrayal of Orlando at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. His main voice teachers have been Phyllis Curtin of Boston University (baritone) and Joan Patenaude-Yarnell of the Manhattan School of Music and Curtis Institute (countertenor).

The British composer George Benjamin wrote a lead role for him in his opera Written on Skin, which premiered in 2012 at Aix-en-Provence. In 2013 he gave a "visceral and beautifully-sung performance" in the world premiere recording of that opera.  In 2014, Benjamin was at work on a new concert piece for Mehta that receives its world premiere in September 2015 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Mehta's CD Down by the Salley Gardens, a collection of English art song, was released in 2011 (with Julius Drake /Harmonia Mundi). Ombra Cara, Mehta's recording of Handel arias (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/René Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi), was awarded the 2011 Echo Klassik as Opera Recording of the Year. Mehta's CDs and DVDs also include Agrippina (BBC Music Magazine's 2012 Opera Award and nominated for a Grammy as Best Opera Recording of the Year) and Belshazzar, both on Harmonia Mundi, Theodora (C-Major Entertainment/Unitel, shortlisted for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), Mitridate (Decca), Messiah (Unitel Classics), and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Glyndebourne Label), George Benjamin's Written on Skin (Nimbus CD, BBC Magazine 2014 Premiere Recording of the Year), Benjamin's Written on Skin (Opus Arte DVD, 2013 Royal Opera House, 2014 Gramophone Award-Contemporary). Mehta's 2013 solo CD Che Puro Ciel (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/René Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi), a collection of classical arias and was awarded Le Diamant d'Opera Magazine, the Choc de Classica, and was shortlisted for the 2014 Gramophone Award in the Recital category. In 2014, Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv released a new complete studio recording of Orlando with Mehta in the title role (B'Rock/Jacobs), which was shortlisted for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Also in 2014, ArtHaus released a theatrical film version of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice shot entirely on location at the Cesky Krumlov Theater in which Mehta both starred as Orfeo and was the artistic advisor. Mehta also appears on El Maestro Farinelli, Pablo Heras-Casado's debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv (2014), singing two of Farinelli's most notable arias.

Discography

Bejun. (Solo album). Arias and songs. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Delos DE 3019
Handel: Rinaldo. (Mago cristiano). Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood. Decca CD 467087
Handel: Giulio Cesare. (Tolomeo). Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski. Archiv Produktion CD 4742102
Peter Eötvös: Trois Soeurs. (Masha). Théatre du Chatelet, Peter Eötvös. Chatelet DVD/TV
Handel: Messiah. (Alto/Middle Brother). Fully staged production by Claus Guth, Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Theater an der Wien. Unitel/Classica DVD, C-Major Entertainment 703104
Mozart: Mitridate. (Farnace). Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski, Salzburg Festival. Decca DVD, Unitel/3Sat
Handel: Belshazzar. (Cyrus). Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Harmonia Mundi HMD 9909028.29 (DVD)
Handel: Theodora. (Didymus). Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Ivor Bolton, Salzburg Festival. Unitel/Classica DVD, C-Major Entertainment A04001521
Ombra Cara. (Solo album). Handel operatic arias. Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, René Jacobs. Harmonia Mundi HMC902077
Down by the Salley Gardens. (Solo album). English songs. With Julius Drake. Harmonia Mundi HMC902093
Handel: Agrippina. (Ottone). Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Harmonia Mundi HMC902088.90
Benjamin: Written on Skin. (Boy/Angel 1). Mahler Chamber Orchestra, George Benjamin. Nimbus NI5885 (CD)
Benjamin: Written on Skin. (Boy/Angel 1). Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, George Benjamin. Opus Arte OA1125 D (DVD)
Che puro ciel: The Rise of Classical Opera. (Solo album). Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Harmonia Mundi HMC902172
El Maestro Farinelli. (Soloist). Concerto Köln, Pablo Heras-Casado. DG/Archiv Produktion 479 2050
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice. (Orfeo). Collegium 1704, Vaclav Luks. ArtHaus Musik DVD 102 184/108 103
Handel: Orlando. (Orlando). B'Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs. DG/Archiv Produktion 479 2199
CANTATA – yet can I hear ... Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. PENTATONE PTC 5186669 (2018)

References
Kenneson, Claude, (1998), Musical prodigies: perilous journeys, remarkable lives, Hal Leonard Corporation,

Notes

External links

Bejun Mehta at Harmonia Mundi

Living people
Operatic countertenors
20th-century American male opera singers
American people of Parsi descent
1968 births
Yale University alumni
People from Laurinburg, North Carolina
Musicians from Ann Arbor, Michigan
Singers from North Carolina
American male musicians of Indian descent
American musicians of Indian descent
Singers from Michigan
Classical musicians from Michigan
Music Academy of the West alumni
21st-century American male opera singers
Classical musicians from North Carolina

Bejun Mehta


Detective Arnold John Flass is a fictional character appearing in American comic books, published by DC Comics, and is commonly associated with the Batman franchise. He is a corrupt detective who sells drugs and gives money to drug dealers or the Gotham Mafia. He was the first police-partner of (back then) office James Gordon when Gotham was an unsafe place (before Batman).

He was played by Mark Boone Junior in Batman Begins.

Batman characters
DC Comics characters

Arnold Flass


The Großmarkthalle München (Wholesale Market Munich) is a German-international wholesale market located in the Munich borough of Sendling. In an area of 310,000 m2, 270 importing companies and wholesalers offer 140 different product classes from 83 countries with a sales volume of more than 750 million Euro. Additionally there are 65 horticultural producers, 45 florists and 15 wholesalers of miscellaneous lines. The market's geographical sales area is virtually "boundless": day after day it supplies a region with approximately 5 million people and delivers goods to almost every European country.

Location
The Wholesale Market is located on the border of the Munich boroughs of Sendling and Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt. The Mittlerer Ring, Munich's inner-city orbital road system, runs south of the market premises, allowing easy access for cars and delivery trucks. The nearest Munich U-Bahn stations are Brudermühlstraße to the south-west, Implerstraße to the west and Poccistraße to the north-west. Bus 152 also runs from Implerstraße directly to the Wholesale Market.

Market facilities

The main entrance of the Wholesalemarket Munich is situated directly opposite to the Munich garbage burning and recycling facility. Their three very tall chimneys are easy to see protruding into the Munich skyline. The adjoining "South Station" with its own track infrastructure and modern unloading equipment provides an optimal and reliable connection to the railway system. Munich is an advance border entrance point, which means all import/export formalities can be transacted easily within the branch offices of the public authorities.

Opening and operational hours

Parking area for trucks: Parking availability for delivery trucks is "around the clock" from Monday to Sunday, 24 hours a day; Freight handling activities: Monday through Friday, 4:00 am to 8:00 pm; Saturday, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm
Freight handling halls (UGM I, II, III): Monday through Friday, 2:00 am to 8:00 pm, Saturday, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm
Customs clearance: Monday through Thursday, 5:00 am to 4:00 pm, Friday, 5:00 am to 2:30 pm, Saturday, 8:00 am to 12:00 pm; beyond the regular customs service hours, customs clearance can carried out after making a previous agreement with the Papp forwarding agency
Sales hours in the Wholesale Market Munich: Monday through Thursday, 5:30 am to 1:00 pm, Friday, 5:30 am to 2:00 pm

External links

 Homepage

Retail markets in Munich
Wholesale markets

Wholesale Market Munich


Windy McPherson's Son is a 1916 novel by American author Sherwood Anderson. It was published by John Lane as part of a three book contract. Windy McPherson's Son is Sherwood Anderson's first novel.

Development history
In September 1907, the Anderson family (at that time just Sherwood, his wife Cornelia and son Robert) moved from Cleveland to Elyria, Ohio, where Anderson became head of the Anderson Manufacturing Company (name changed to American Merchants Company after 1911). As part of the family's new home, Anderson set aside an attic where he would escape the stresses of business and family life. It was during one winter between 1907 and 1912 that both this room and his office (where Frances Shute, his secretary, would sometimes stay late typing drafts of his first two novels) served as the settings in which Windy McPherson's Sons was composed. Though it is likely that most of his first novel was composed in Elyria, there is some evidence pointing to possible edits made between those early years and the novel's publication in 1916.

Obvious parallels can be drawn between the plot of Anderson's own life and that of his first novel. The beginning section of the novel is inspired by his youth, the second "...combined the ways he had tried to make money in Chicago and Ohio..." and the marriage between Sam and Sue resembles the one between Sherwood and Cornelia. The characters of Mary Underwood and Janet Eberly were likely inspired by Trillena White, a high school teacher that befriended Anderson while he attended the Wittenberg Academy in Springfield, Ohio between 1899 and June 4, 1900, and stayed for a time with the Andersons in Elyria.

In addition to the personal connections between Windy McPherson's Son and the author's life made by biographers and critics, the influence of other writers is also seen in the book. Anderson himself said of his early writing that he had, "come to novel writing by novel reading." In particular, William Dean Howells (whose writing Anderson disliked), Arnold Bennett, Thomas Hardy, Henry Fuller, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, and George Borrow, are all mentioned by Anderson biographer Kim Townsend as authors Anderson would have been reading and discussing at the time he wrote Windy McPherson's Son. In his 1951 biography of Anderson, however, Irving Howe denies such influences, and contradicts Anderson's own statement, arguing that other than the "early social novels of H.G. Wells and the radical-adventure stories of Jack London... Anderson's early novels were all too much his own, reflecting in their style the natural inclination of a poorly educated writer to strain for the literary and lapse into the colloquial."

Plot

Windy McPherson's Son is the story of Sam McPherson's rise in the world of business and search for emotional enlightenment in later life. McPherson starts out as an ambitious newsboy in Caxton, Iowa, with drunkard of a father who constantly embarrasses him. Eventually, after his mother's death and an episode with a middle-aged schoolteacher, McPherson leaves Caxton for Chicago. In Chicago, he gets a job as a buyer of farm implements and establishes his reputation in business. While his professional life is blossoming, his personal life suffers. After meeting Sue Rainey, the daughter of his boss Colonel Rainey, they get married and twice fail to have children. Following a business deal that forces his father-in-law out of his own company, McPherson and Sue Rainey separate.

One day, once McPherson had become quite wealthy, he gets a telegram saying that Colonel Rainey committed suicide. This causes Sam to realize that he is unhappy with his life. This feeling inspires him to leave Chicago and travel all over becoming involved in various adventures. Finally, McPherson's comes across a promiscuous and alcoholic mother of three children. A deal is made and McPherson gets custody of the children. Showing up with the children at Sue's current place of residence, the five of them become family.

References

Sources
 Duffey, Bernard (1966). "From The Chicago Renaissance in American Letters: A Critical History". in White, Ray Lewis (ed). The Achievement of Sherwood Anderson: Essays in Criticism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina. OCLC 276748
 Howe, Irving (1951). Sherwood Anderson. New York: William Sloane Associates.
 Rideout, Walter (2006). Sherwood Anderson: A Writer in America. Vol. 1. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
 Townsend, Kim (1987). Sherwood Anderson: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
 White, Ray Lewis (1994). "Introduction". in Anderson, Sherwood. Windy McPherson's Son. Chicago, IL: Illinois UP.

External links
 First two editions of Windy McPherson's Son at Hathi Trust

1916 American novels
Novels set in Chicago
Novels by Sherwood Anderson
John Lane (publisher) books

Windy McPherson's Son


The Loretto Baths, in short Lollo, is the oldest open-air swimming pool in Germany. It is located at the foot of the Lorettoberg in Wiehre in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau. When it opened in 1841, it was the city's first public swimming baths. Its uniqueness lies in the partial separation of sexes.  There is one pool which can be used by women only, but also one for the whole family. To this day, it is the only pool in Germany that has a separate pool for women.

History

The Loretto Baths were founded in 1841 as a cold river bathing facility by Johann Nepomuk Stadler. Thirty years later, he passed the baths on to his son-in-law, Oskar Heim. At first the baths were for gentlemen only. The water for the pool came directly from the Hölderle, a stream which still runs through the grounds of the baths to this date. At the time, the cold water from the stream was heated in a separate pool.

When some pools started to establish areas where women might take a dip in the late 19th century, the Loretto Baths added an area for women too. This women only area is surrounded on all sides by either walls, hedges or changing rooms. In 1886, most women could not swim, but since pools had become fashionable, they were keen to learn.

After Heim´s death, the city of Freiburg purchased the baths and used the pools as a cold store during the winter. During World War I  the Reichswehr  took charge of the pool and it was no longer open to the public. In 1920,the Loretto Baths were leased to the local swimming club.
Conflicts later arose with the community of Günterstal as their waste water was piped into the Hölderle. This problem was later solved by drilling a deep well for the sole use of the Loretto Baths.

In 1926, the city of Freiburg once again took over the running of the bathing facility. Then in 1940, after much heated discussion involving petitions from local citizens´ groups, the women-only area was re-opened to the whole family.

During the Nazi era   the Fähnlein  scouts of the Preußen - a Hitler youth group - used the pool as a base.
In 1945, then again from 1948 to 1951, the swimming pool was confiscated by the military government and closed to the German public. From 1952 onwards it was open to the people of Freiburg once more.

In the 1960s plans were made to construct a ten-story high building for the nearby hospital, but these plans were never realized.

In 1999 the ladies' pool was completely renovated, since which time there has been a significant increase in the number of guests.

A further original feature of the baths are the 125 year-old individual cubicles, which can be rented each season for up to four months.

Segregation of the Sexes

Segregation of the sexes has been abolished everywhere in Freiburg except in the Loretto Baths. In 1980, a law student filed a lawsuit against the city but was unsuccessful, since there was already a family pool right next to the Loretto Baths. The court concluded: "According to §10 of the local code, which says that public institutions have to be used in accordance with their purpose, the interdiction for males to use the ladies' pool of the Loretto Baths does not violate the equality act of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany"

In addition, women have had the right to bathe topless in the Loretto Baths since the 1970s.

The only man allowed in the ladies' area is the lifeguard, although men are afforded entrance for rare concerts, at which times the normally off-limits area is open to everyone. On such occasions, the Friends of the Lorettobad entertain visitors with choral singing, piano-playing, or orchestral performances. Warning signs are hung out at the entrance to the ladies' area when such events take place: "Men present"! Serious feminists and Muslim women flee as soon as the musicians arrive to set up and practice before a show, others continue bathing.

Opening Times
As the baths are no longer heated, they are only open during the summer, from May to September.

Facilities

The Family Baths

Facilities available:
 a 25 metre pool with an area for non-swimmers
 a children's play pool with a fountain and awning
 a large surrounding meadow for relaxing and playing games
 a children's water slide
 play areas with sand and mud
 sunloungers
 a snack bar
 table-tennis tables
 giant chess game

The Women's Baths
Facilities available:
 a 25 metre pool with an area for non-swimmers
 a children's play pool with a fountain
 a meadow where you can lie down and relax
 sunloungers

References

Buildings and structures completed in 1841
Sports venues in Baden-Württemberg
Buildings and structures in Freiburg im Breisgau
Swimming pools
Tourist attractions in Freiburg im Breisgau

Loretto Baths


Cimarron is a 1931 pre-Code epic Western film starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, and directed by Wesley Ruggles. Released by RKO, it won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Howard Estabrook and based on Edna Ferber's 1930 novel "Cimmaron", and Best Production Design (by Max Rée).

Both Dix and Dunne were nominated for their leading roles, and Edward Cronjager for Best Cinematography, but did not win.

Estelle Taylor, Edna May Oliver, and Roscoe Ates appeared in supporting roles. The movie made Dunne a star.

Epic in scope, spanning forty years from 1889 to 1929, Cimarron was RKO's most expensive production up to that date, as well as its first production to win the Best Picture Oscar. It was a critical success, although it did not recoup its production costs during its initial run in 1931.

It is the first of only four Westerns to ever win the top honor at the Academy Awards, not a one during their heyday as popular Hollywood features, being followed almost 60 years later by Dances with Wolves in 1990,  then Unforgiven in 1992 and No Country for Old Men in 2007.

Plot
The Oklahoma land rush of 1889 prompts thousands to travel to the Oklahoma Territory to grab free government land; Yancey Cravat and his young bride, Sabra cross the border from Kansas to join the throngs. In the ensuing race, Yancey is outwitted by a young prostitute, Dixie Lee, who takes the prime piece of real estate, the Bear Creek claim, that Yancey had targeted for himself.

His plans for establishing a ranch thwarted, Yancey moves into the town of Osage, a boomtown, where he confronts and kills Lon Yountis, an outlaw who had killed the prior publisher of the local newspaper. Having a background in publishing himself, Yancey establishes the Oklahoma Wigwam, a weekly newspaper, to help turn the frontier camp into a respectable town. After the birth of their daughter, Donna, a gang of outlaws threatens Osage, led by "The Kid", who happens to be an old acquaintance of Yancey's. To save the town, Yancey faces and kills The Kid.

Beset by guilt over his killing of The Kid, Yancey leaves Sabra and his children to chase another land rush settling the Cherokee Strip. After his departure, Sabra takes over the publication of the Wigwam, and raises her children until Yancey returns five years later.  Not to her, but just in time to represent Dixie Lee, who had been charged with being a public nuisance, and win her acquittal.

Osage continues to grow, as does the Territory of Oklahoma, which gains statehood in 1907 and benefits from the early oil boom of the 1900s.  Also prospering alongside the settlers are the Native American tribes, which Yancey supports through editorials in his newspaper. Once more he disappears from Osage, for several years. At the time, Sabra is vehemently anti-Native American, despite her son's involvement with an Indian woman.

Years later Sabra becomes the first female member of Congress from the state of Oklahoma, taken to lauding the virtues of her by-then Indian daughter-in-law.

Sabra and Yancey are reunited one final time when she rushes to his side after he has rescued numerous oil drillers from a devastating explosion. He dies in her arms.

Cast
 Richard Dix as Yancey Cravat
 Irene Dunne as Sabra Cravat
 Estelle Taylor as Dixie Lee
 Nance O'Neil as Felice Venable
 William Collier Jr. as The Kid
 Roscoe Ates as Jesse Rickey
 George E. Stone as Sol Levy
 Stanley Fields as Lon Yountis
 Robert McWade as Louis Hefner
 Edna May Oliver as Tracy Wyatt
 Judith Barrett as Donna Cravat
 Eugene Jackson as Isaiah
 Dennis O'Keefe (uncredited)

(Principal cast list as per AFI database, and The RKO Story)

Production
Despite being in the depths of the Great Depression, RKO Radio Pictures invested more than $1.5 million  (equivalent to approximately $ in ) into production of Ferber's novel.

Filming began in the summer of 1930 at the Quinn Ranch outside of Los Angeles, California, where the land rush scenes were shot. More than twenty-eight cameramen, and numerous camera assistants and photographers, were used to capture scenes of more than 5,000 costumed extras, covered wagons, buckboards, surreys, and bicyclists as they raced across grassy hills and prairie to stake their claim.

Cinematographer Edward Cronjager planned out every take (that recalled the scenes of Intolerance some fifteen years earlier) in accordance with Ferber's descriptions. In order to film key scenes for this production, RKO purchased 89 acres in Encino where construction of art director Max Ree's Oscar-winning design of a complete western town and a three-block modern main street were built to represent the fictional Oklahoma boomtown of Osage. These award-winning sets eventually formed the nucleus of RKO's expansive movie ranch, in Encino, where other RKO (and non-RKO) films were later shot.

Release
RKO Radio Pictures premiered Cimarron at the RKO Palace Theatre (Broadway) in New York City on January 26, 1931, to much praise, and then on February 6 a Los Angeles Orpheum Theatre premiere followed, that also included personal appearances of Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, a stage show and an augmented orchestra. Three days later, the movie was released to theaters throughout the nation. Despite being a critical success, the extremely high budget and ongoing Depression combined against the film. While it was a commercial success in line with other films of the day, RKO Pictures could not at first recoup their heavy investment in the film, that ended up losing $565,000. However, it recouped some more money on a 1935 re-release that enjoyed another premiere in Oklahoma City at the (John Eberson designed) Midwest Theatre. The movie remained RKO's most expensive film until 1939's Gunga Din (that filmed exteriors in the Alabama Hills at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas, but had one scene shot on RKO's movie ranch in Encino).

Reception

Contemporary reviews
Reviews by film critics were overwhelmingly positive at the time. Variety led off its review with, "An elegant example of super film making and a big money picture. This is a spectacular western away from all others. It holds action, sentiment, sympathy, thrills and comedy – and 100% clean. Radio Pictures has a corker in 'Cimarron'." The review went on to praise the actors, particularly Dix and Oliver, as well as the direction, stating, "Wesley Ruggles apparently gets the full credit for this splendid and heavy production. His direction misses nothing in the elaborate scenes, as well as in the usual film making procedure." The magazine specifically pointed out the quality of the make-up in the aging of the principle players, who have to go through forty years on-screen.

Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times also gave the film a stellar review, calling it, "A graphic and engrossing screen conception of Edna Ferber's widely read novel ...", and also praised the handling of the passage of time in this epic. Hall also singled out the performance of Dunne. Motion Picture Magazine raved, "A great and worthy effort, this transcription of early Oklahoma life will be hailed as one of the high-spots of the year. It has everything. RKO seems to have placed no restrictions upon making it a lavish, bona-fide epic."

John Mosher of The New Yorker praised the "great care" that had been taken with the historical accuracy of the film's visual details, that he thought "as good as anything that has come out of Hollywood, and because of this expertness the film gains especial value". He also wrote that Richard Dix was "certainly at his best in this role". His only criticisms concerned the second half of the film, that he thought had "sagging moments" and an ending that was too abrupt. The Evening Independent called it "a notable addition to the small list of pictures that the years have given to the American theater. For in Cimarron is vested stirring drama, stark beauty, daring and adventure on a plane that is seldom seen on the screen." The West Seattle Herald declared that it was "even more powerful than the great story read by millions in America. Cimarron the picture is all that is gripping in Cimarron the story. Spectacular scenes abound in this production."

Elizabeth Yeaman of the Hollywood Daily Citizen saw the film as a new type of history, writing that, "Like history, the picture has moments of thrilling glory and moments of repetition and daily routine. Cimarron does not follow the rules of story construction... It is, in short, a graphic interpretation of a portion of history, the history of the state of Oklahoma from the time of the first great land rush until the present."

Retrospective reviews
More recent appraisals of the film have not been as positive. Steve Evans of DVD Verdict wrote in 2006, "Seen with contemporary eyes, the film is badly dated, slow moving, and pocked with racist caricatures....The recreation of the great 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush remains an exciting spectacle....Unfortunately, the film never manages to top this opening shot."

Assessing the film in 2009, James Berardinelli called it "an excellent study of how tastes have changed over the years. Critically lauded at the time of its release, Cimarron was beloved by most who saw it. Eight decades later, it is frequently cited on lists of the most undeserving Academy Award winners and is rightfully impugned for racist overtones and scattershot storytelling."

As of September 2023 Cimarron held a "Rotten" 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews, with a weighted average of 5.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Cimarron is supported by a strong performance from Irene Dunne, but uneven in basically every other regard, and riddled with potentially offensive stereotypes."

Awards and honors
At the 1931 Academy Awards ceremony at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Cimarron was the first film to receive more than six Academy Awards nominations and be nominated for the Big Five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing). Additionally, it is one of only two films (the other being Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) to receive nominations in every eligible category. It won for three of them, including Best Picture.  In 1946 it was joined byThe Best Years of Our Lives as the only Best Picture Oscars won by RKO.

Cimarron was the first Western to win the Best Picture award, and remained the only Western genre film with that honor until 1990, when Dances with Wolves won.

1930–1931 Academy Awards

References

External links

1931 films
Best Picture Academy Award winners
RKO Pictures films
American black-and-white films
American Western (genre) epic films
Films set in Oklahoma
1930s English-language films
Films based on American novels
Films scored by Max Steiner
Films directed by Wesley Ruggles
Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Films set in the 1880s
Films set in the 1890s
Films set in the 1900s
Films set in the 1920s
1931 Western (genre) films
Films based on Western (genre) novels
Films based on works by Edna Ferber
Photoplay Awards film of the year winners
1930s American films

Cimarron (1931 film)


Broken Angel or the Broken Angel house was a building located at 4/6 Downing Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, at the intersection of Downing and Quincy street. The house was featured prominently as a backdrop in the film Dave Chappelle's Block Party and was demolished in 2014.

Design
Artists Arthur and Cynthia Wood  built the top part of the structure in the 27 years that they were owners of the building. Arthur had a camera obscura on the top area and a room that looked like it floated in the air. The inside was like a huge cathedral with arches and colorful "stained glass windows" that were made from the remains of bottles and glass.

History
Brooklyn artist Arthur Wood purchased the 4-story brick tenement building in 1979 for $2,000. He lived in the house with his wife Cynthia, his son Christopher, who is now a stone carver, and his daughter Elizabeth. The artist explored ideas about design and vernacular architecture with improvised construction to add new floors and rooms to the original building, to the point where the structure reaches 104 feet, or about 9 stories above the sidewalk. The site has been compared to Watts Towers in Los Angeles for the ad hoc construction and is acknowledged for its value as folk art and as part of the cultural heritage.

As a result of a fire on October 10, 2006, the New York City Department of Buildings declared the building dangerous, telling Arthur and Cynthia that they had to go. A couple of days later police arrived, cordoned off Downing Street and had battering rams ready to strike down the door. When Arthur defied the vacate order by staying in the building, he was arrested. The police also arrested Cynthia who was outside with their dog Jack. Arthur and Cynthia were taken away in handcuffs and kept at the precinct for many hours. Arthur and his wife and pets lived in a car outside their own building during the cold winter months that followed.

On January 11, 2007 it was announced that Arthur Wood had partnered with local real estate developer Shahn Christian Andersen to renovate Broken Angel, build a new addition to its side, and convert the building to residential condominiums and artist space.

Despite the Woods' efforts the house was a square box, and the plans to renovate it under the direction of Shahn Christian Andersen were never completed. Faced with a foreclosure from Madison Realty Bank, and Cynthia being diagnosed with cancer, the Woods struggled to fight the foreclosure and get their house back. Cynthia Wood died at the age of 72.

Demolition
In January 2009, the house was put on the market by owner Arthur Wood for $4 million and banks filed for foreclosure on the development loans. The site (including the house), was bought by developer Alex Barrett in January 2014 who paid $4.1 million for the structure; he plans to convert the site into an eight-unit condominium building, with a brand new two-unit building next door at 8 Downing Street. Demolition of the house began in April, 2014. By May, 2014 the structure was completely demolished.

Featured in movies
The Broken Angel House has a small story segment in the movie Dave Chapelle's Block Party.

References

Folly buildings in the United States
Buildings and structures in Brooklyn
Buildings and structures in New York (state)
Buildings and structures demolished in 2014
2014 disestablishments in New York (state)

Broken Angel House


Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil (10 April 1901 – 3 May 1971), also known as D. R. Gadgil, was an Indian economist, institution builder and the vice-chairman of the Planning Commission of India. He was the founder Director of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune and the author of the Gadgil formula, which served as the base for the allocation of central assistance to states during the Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plans of India. He is credited with contributions towards the development of Farmers' Cooperative movement in Maharashtra. The Government of India recognised his services by issuing a commemorative postage stamp in his honour in 2008.

Biography

Early years
Gadgil was born on 10 April 1901 in Nasik in the western Indian state of Maharashtra as the son of Ramchandra Bhargav, in Brahmin family which had migrated from the Konkan region. His early education was at his ancestral city of Nagpur after which he graduated from Mumbai University and proceeded to Cambridge University from where he secured Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Literature (MLitt) degrees. It is reported that the dissertation he submitted for his MLitt degree became a classic and was published by Oxford University Press as a book, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times in 1924. He stayed at Cambridge and returned to India after obtaining a DLitt (Honoris Causa).

Career
Once in his home country, Gadgil joined the Maharashtra government service but gave it up in 1925 to serve as the principal at the Maganlal
Thakordas Balmukunddas Arts College, Surat. Later, he associated himself with the Servants of India Society of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and when the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) was established in Pune in 1930, he became its founder director. His tenure at the institute lasted till 1933 during which time he undertook several projects related to development of rural economy. He was also a member of the Indian Economic Association and served as its president for the year 1940. In 1946, the Government of Maharashtra entrusted him and A. D. Gorwala, an Indian Civil Service officer, with the responsibility of devising a plan for the distribution of food in times of scarcity, and they recommended the introduction of fair price shops and rationing system, reportedly against the suggestions of Mahatma Gandhi. He was also involved with the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement and the cooperative sector and is known to have drawn up a plan for the development of Mumbai and Pune.

Meanwhile, Gadgil's involvement with the cooperative movement in Maharashtra grew as he got associated with Vithalrao Vikhe Patil, Shankarrao Dhumal (father of Ajay Dhumal), and Vaikunthbhai Mehta, three of the pioneers of Indian cooperative movement. He became a director of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank in 1930, served as the chairman of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank and held the chair of the National Federation of Cooperative Banks. His association with Vithalrao Vikhe Patil and Shankarrao Dhumal is said to have resulted in the founding of  Pravara Cooperative Sugar Factory, the first industrial venture in the Asian cooperative sector, in 1949. The venture, which later came to be known as the Pravara Model of Integrated Rural Development, is reported to have gained national recognition. He also served as the president of the National Cooperative Union of India, the apex organisation of the cooperative movement in India.

The Reserve Bank of India included him as a member of the Survey Panel for the rural credit and, later, in 1952, he became a director of the apex bank in India, holding the post for a decade, till 1962. In 1966, he took up the post of the vice-chancellor of the Savitribai Phule Pune University but stayed at the post only for one year to move to Union Government as the Deputy chairman of the now defunct Planning Commission of India, the highest bureaucratic position in the Indian economic sector which holds the rank of a cabinet minister. He also served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, from 3 April 1966 to 31 August 1967.

Gadgil formula

After his appointment as a member of the Planning Commission of India, Gadgil conducted studies on the pattern of allocation of central assistance to the states in the Five-Year Plans of India. In 1969, he evolved a set of guidelines for the purpose, popularly known as the Gadgil formula, which formed the base of central assistance to states in the Fourth and the Fifth Five-Year Plans of India. The proposals were based on the parameters such as Population (60%), Per Capita Income (10%), Tax Effort (10%), On-going Irrigation and Power Projects (10%) and Special Problems (10%). Later, on insistence from the state governments, the formula was revised (modified Gardgil formula) as Population (55%), PCI (25% – calculated by deviation and distance methods), Fiscal Management (5%) and Special Development Problems (15%). In 1990, the standards were again modified, when Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India, held the post of the deputy chairmanship of the Planning Commission, and the new set of rules came to be known as Gadgil-Mukherjee formula.

Personal life and honours
Gadgil is known to have been an enthusiastic reader and had a personal library composed of 3000 books. He was married to Pramila and the couple had three sons, Ajit, Purshottam and Madhav, and one daughter, Sulabha. He died on 3 May 1971, succumbing to a heart failure, while he was travelling from New Delhi to Pune. His youngest son, Madhav Gadgil, is a renowned ecologist, who chaired the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010, popularly known as the Gadgil Commission.

Honours
A year after Gadgil's death, the Government of Maharashtra and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly started a training institute, Dhananjayrao Gadgil Institute of Co-operative Management (DGICM) at Nagpur, in 1972, to provide training for state government and cooperative sector employees, which is run by the National Council for Cooperative Training (NCCT), New Delhi. On his birth centenary year, Maharashtra Economic Development Council, instituted the Gadgil Centenary Memorial Lecture, which is an annual event. The Government of India honoured him with a commemorative postage stamp, designed by reputed stamp designer, Sankha Samanta, in 2008. Manmohan Singh, then Prime Minister of India, unveiled a statue of Gadgil at Pravara Nagar in Maharashtra on 8 February 2008. The central library of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics has been named Dhananjayrao Gadgil Library, in his honour.

Publications
Gadgil's first published book was his MLitt thesis, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times, originally published by Oxford University Press, in 1924 and subsequently reprinted many times. His researches in the 1930s and 40s, were brought out as a book, The Federal problem in India by Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in the Indian Independence year of 1947. The institute published another of his work, Economic Effects of Irrigation: report of a survey of the direct and indirect benefits of the Godavari and Pravara canals, in 1948. His observations on the economic policy of India have been documented as a book, Planning and economic policy in India, first published in 1961, prior to his joining the Planning Commission of India, reprinted subsequently by Sangam Books in 1979. In 2011, Oxford University Press, compiled his works and published India Economy: Problems and Prospects, The: Selected Writings of D.R Gadgil, edited by the noted economist-activist, Sulabha Brahme.

References

Bibliography

External links

1901 births
1971 deaths
20th-century Indian economists
20th-century Indian educational theorists
Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Academic staff of Savitribai Phule Pune University
Cooperatives in Maharashtra
Indian technology writers
Indian male writers
20th-century Indian non-fiction writers
English-language writers from India

Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil


Bernardo de Irigoyen (December 18, 1822 – December 27, 1906) was an Argentine lawyer, diplomat and politician.

Biography
Born in Buenos Aires, Irigoyen enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and earned a juris doctor in 1843. He was commissioned by Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas to settle a boundary dispute with Chile (Rosas was charged with the Argentine Confederation's foreign policy during his 1835–1852 reign), and from 1844 to 1850, Irigoyen served as Justice Minister in Mendoza Province, where he enacted the first provincial judicial system, as well as reformist military law and land law statutes.

He again negotiated with Chile over the disputed Straits of Magellan (1851), and following Rosas' overthrow, helped draft the 1852 San Nicolás Agreement. He participated in the constitutional assembly that paved the way for the 1860 reunification with secessionist Buenos Aires Province, and was nominated to the Argentine Supreme Court; he refused, however, and resumed his private practice.

Irigoyen returned to public life in 1870 as a provincial legislator, and in 1875, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by President Nicolás Avellaneda. He negotiated boundary treaties with Brazil and Paraguay in the wake of the Paraguayan War against the latter nation, and was named Internal Affairs Minister in 1879, during which tenure he drafted the 1880 federalization of Buenos Aires. He was returned to the Foreign Minister's post by Avellaneda's successor, President Julio Roca, and secured the boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina.

He was elected to the Argentine Senate in 1884, and ran unsuccessfully for President in 1886. He later represented Argentina in talks with U.S. Secretary of State James Blaine for the formation of a Pan-American Congress; ultimately, however, the Argentine relationship with the British Empire led Irigoyen, who was otherwise amenable to the idea, to reject Blaine's proposals for closer economic ties with the United States.

Irigoyen joined Bartolomé Mitre, Leandro Alem, and others in establishing the Civic Union in 1890. Formed to challenge the paramount National Autonomist Party (PAN), the Civic Union organized its first presidential ticket in 1892. Irigoyen was nominated as Mitre's running mate, though before the campaign could begin in earnest, Alem's opposition led to Mitre's quitting the race. Irigoyen attempted to create a coalition of more conservative Civic Union figures and reformists from within the ruling PAN. His faction, however, was overshadowed by Hipólito Yrigoyen's newly formed Radical Civic Union, which espoused a policy of "breaking before bending" on the subject of electoral reforms to the undemocratic system then prevailing.

The aging lawmaker ran instead, in 1898, for Governor of Buenos Aires Province, and was elected, serving until 1902. Bernardo de Irigoyen retired afterwards and died in Buenos Aires in 1906. His death deprived the influential former President Roca of one of his most respected allies, and Roca's hegemony over national policy ended shortly afterwards.

References
Historical Dictionary of Argentina. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978.

1822 births
1906 deaths
Lawyers from Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires alumni
19th-century Argentine lawyers
Government ministers of Argentina
Foreign ministers of Argentina
Members of the Argentine Senate for Buenos Aires
Members of the Argentine Senate for Buenos Aires Province
Governors of Buenos Aires Province
Argentine diplomats
Candidates for President of Argentina
Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery
Presidents of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies
Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires Province

Bernardo de Irigoyen


Christiane Henriette of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (16 November 1725, Ribeauvillé – 11 February 1816, Arolsen) was a Countess of Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld by birth and by marriage a Princess of Waldeck-Pyrmont.

Life
Christiane Henriette was the daughter of the Count Palatine and Duke Christian III of Zweibrücken (1674–1835) from his marriage to Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken (1704–1874), daughter of Louis Crato, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken. Christiane Henriette was the sister of Christian IV, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, the Great Landgravine, and Field Marshal Frederick Michael, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken.  She was also an aunt of the first Bavarian king Maximilian I.

She married on 19 August 1741 in Zweibrücken, Karl August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1704–1763).  After the death of her husband in 1763, she was Regent of the principality and guardian for her first-born son from 1764 to 1766.  In the years 1764 to 1778, the New Castle at Arolsen was built as her Wittum by Franz Friedrich Rothweil.

Christiane Henriette was considered highly educated in arts and sciences.  She was a close friend of the anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Christiane collected a comprehensive library, which by 1788 included about 6,000 volumes and in her Arolsen Castle, she maintained an art and natural history collection.

When she died, Christiane left behind a considerable debt, which is why parts of her library and art collection had to be auctioned off in 1820.

Christiane Henriette died in 1816 and was buried in the park of her New Castle at Arolsen.

Offspring
From her marriage with Karl August, Christiane Henriette had the following children:
 Charles (1742–1756)
 Friedrich (1743–1812), Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont
 Christian (1744–1798), Portuguese Field Marshal
 George I (1747–1813), Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont
 married in 1784 princess Auguste of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1768-1849)
 Caroline Louise (1748–1782)
 married in 1765 (divorced 1772) Peter von Biron, Duke of Courland (1724-1800)
 Louise (1751–1816)
 married in 1775 Duke Frederick Augustus of Nassau-Usingen (1738-1816)
 Louis (1752–1793), Dutch General, killed in battle

Ancestors

References
 Joseph Heinrich Wolf: Das Haus Wittelsbach: Bayern's Geschichte aus Quellen, G. G. Zeh, 1847, p. 482
 Kerstin Merkel, Heide Wunder: Deutsche Frauen der frühen Neuzeit, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2000, p. 211 ff.

Footnotes

1725 births
1816 deaths
People from Ribeauvillé
House of Wittelsbach
Countesses Palatine of Zweibrücken
Princesses of Waldeck and Pyrmont
Daughters of monarchs
Mothers of monarchs

Countess Palatine Christiane Henriette of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld


Sigurd Jorsalfar is a work of incidental music composed by Edvard Grieg for a play by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson celebrating King Sigurd I of Norway. Published as Op. 22, it was first performed in Christiania on 10 April 1872. An orchestral suite compiled by Grieg from the main work and published as Op. 56 was premiered in Oslo on 5 November 1892 and revised by the composer the same year.

The full work consists of nine parts; five are purely orchestral, and four are scored for tenor or baritone, male chorus, and orchestra. Three of the instrumental pieces comprise the suite. The first of these, entitled "In the King's Hall", is a prelude in ternary form which opens with a bassoon and clarinet theme played against plucked strings. The musical material of the exterior sections comes from the trio of a gavotte for piano that Grieg composed in 1867 and left unpublished. The second, "Borghild's Dream", is an intermezzo contrasting a sensitive string melody with an agitated section.  The third, "Homage March", opens with trumpet fanfares before presenting its main subject, a martial theme, on four cellos.  The middle part, again a trio, is dominated by a melody for the first violins; the work ends with a recapitulation of the movement's first section.

Incidental music
 Introduction to Act I
 Borghild's Dream
 At the Matching Game
 The Northland Folk
 Homage March
 Interlude I
 Interlude II
 The King's SongHorn Signals

Suite

References
David Ewen, Encyclopedia of Concert Music.  New York; Hill and Wang, 1959.

External links

1872 compositions
Suites by Edvard Grieg
Incidental music
Compositions for symphony orchestra

Sigurd Jorsalfar (Grieg)


Hnyat-phanat (, ) is a Burmese traditional sandal, similar to flip-flops. Although it refers to almost any sandal worn by the people of Myanmar, it is mostly used to refer to the traditional Mandalay velvet slippers that originate in Upper Burma (Myanmar).

Hnyat-phanat literally means 'clip footwear', since the slipper is held in place by the clipping of the big and second toe.

Design and style

The slipper is very simple and is worn by almost everybody in Myanmar. It consists of a flat sole held loosely on the foot by a Y-shaped strap that passes between the first (big) and second toes and around either side of the foot. The main distinguishing feature of Burmese traditional sandals is the material.

The flat sole is plain with no patterns or designs. It is either coated with fine soft lacquer or velvet ( gadiba), and the same goes for the Y strap. Lacquered slippers are usually either brown or black, while velvet slippers can come in a variety of colors. Velvet sandals are traditionally worn at formal occasions like weddings.

Hnyat-phanat does not have any grip or friction on the lower side of the sole, and is thus not suitable for use in wet conditions.

See also
Longyi, a Burmese garment

References

Sandals
Folk footwear
Burmese clothing
Burmese culture

Hnyat-phanat


The Array Operations Center (AOC) in Socorro, New Mexico, is the control and monitor center for the Very Long Baseline Array. From the AOC, National Radio Astronomy Observatory operators are able to remotely control and monitor the ten VLBA telescope stations over the internet. The operators aim the antennas, select radio frequencies for observation, control the hard drives, and monitor the weather and 'health' of the equipment at every site. A real-time display of the array's status is available for observers to also monitor their observations.

The VLBA's digital correlator is also housed in the AOC. When the hard drives from the telescopes' last observation are brought to the AOC, the supercalculator combines them into a merged dataset, creating the mathematical equivalent of a single, giant telescope's observation.

The AOC is a component of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and is located inside the NRAO's Pete V. Domenici Science Operations Center on the campus of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

References

Radio telescopes
Research institutes in New Mexico
National Science Foundation
Astronomy institutes and departments
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Socorro, New Mexico

Array Operations Center


The Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (, PRTC) was a political party in Central America.

Ideology
The group that founded the PRTC was inspired by Marxism-Leninism, Che Guevara and the experiences of the Vietnamese national liberation struggle. The party was accused of Trotskyism by other revolutionary groups, an accusation that the party rejected.

History
The PRTC was founded in 1975, by a sector that had left the ERP-RN after the 1972 elections. Clandestine pre-congress meetings for the founding of PRTC were held in Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador in 1975. Provisional 'Zonal Leaderships' were formed in these countries. The party also formed cells in Mexico and the United States. Contacts were established with activists in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. In April 1975 the Liberation League was founded as a multisectoral mass front, which was to become a front organization for the party. In December 1975 the plenary session of the party congress was opened with delegates from around Central America. The PRTC was formally founded in San José on January 25, 1976. Fabio Castillo Figueroa became the General Secretary of the party. The party adopted a democratic centralism as its organizational principle.

During the period of 1976-1978, the party built up organizational structures throughout Central America with the exception of Nicaragua. The leadership was based in Costa Rica. In Guatemala, several of the leaders of the party would later join ORPA. In El Salvador, the Zonal Leadership was made up of Mario López (a.k.a. Comandante Venancio, Zonal Secretary), Manuel Federico Castillo, Luis Díaz, Humberto Mendoza, Nidia Díaz and Joaquín Morales Chávez.

The second party congress of PRTC was held in Tegucigalpa in April 1979. The congress elected Dr. José María Reyes Mata as the new General Secretary of the party. The congress also formed a Central American Political Commission as a new party leadership. The Commission had one member from each Central American country.

In 1979, the party set up a series of new mass organizations in El Salvador. The peasant sector of the Liberation League was converted into a separate organization, Brigadas de Trabajadores del Campo (BTC). Other new mass organizations were Brigadas Revolucionarias de Estudiantes de Secundaria and Comités de Base Obrera. The People's Liberation Movement (MLP) was formed as an umbrella body of the mass organizations of the party. In January 1980 MLP was one of the organizations that founded the Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas, an alliance which would later found the Revolutionary Democratic Front in April 1980. In 1979, the party also launched an armed wing, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Popular.

In August 1980 the main leader of PRTC in El Salvador, Luis Díaz, 'disappeared'.

In October 1980 a PRTC Central Committee meeting was held in Managua. The meeting dissolved the Central American structures of the party, converting the national party branches into separate parties. As a continuation of the unified PRTC, the meeting set up a Conference of Revolutionary Parties in Central America as a coordinating body of the individual PRTC. This shift was necessary for the Salvadoran branch of PRTC to be able to join the FMLN. The Salvadoran PRTC became one of the members of the FMLN guerrilla movement on December 5, 1980. The Honduran PRTC continued armed struggle of its own.

References

1975 establishments in North America
1980 disestablishments in North America
Communist parties in Costa Rica
Communist parties in El Salvador
Communist parties in Guatemala
Communist parties in Honduras
Communist parties in Nicaragua
Communist parties in Panama
Defunct political parties in Belize
Defunct political parties in Costa Rica
Defunct political parties in El Salvador
Defunct political parties in Guatemala
Defunct political parties in Honduras
Defunct political parties in Nicaragua
Defunct political parties in Panama
Far-left political parties
History of Central America
Marxist parties
Political parties disestablished in 1980
Political parties established in 1975
Salvadoran Civil War
Transnational political parties
Paramilitary organizations based in Honduras