A Bullet for the General

A Bullet for the General (; original title means "Who knows?", in the Spanish language), also known as El Chucho Quién Sabe?, is a 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western drama film directed by Damiano Damiani and starring Gian Maria Volonté, Lou Castel, Klaus Kinski and Martine Beswick. The film, a Zapata Western, tells the story of El Chuncho, a bandit, and Bill Tate (or El Niño/The Kid), a counter-revolutionary contract killer in Mexico. Chuncho soon learns that social revolution is more important than mere money.
Plot.
During the Mexican Revolution, a Durango-bound government munitions train is forced to stop due to the presence of a crucified federal army officer on the tracks. El Chuncho Muños, a gun runner loyal to the revolutionary leader General Elías, leads his gang in an assault on the train. Lieutenant Alvaro Ferreira commanding the rurales of the escort attempts to save the officer, but upon being fatally wounded by Chuncho, he is forced to order the train to run the captain over and escape the bandits. Bill Tate, an American passenger on the train, kills the engineer and stops the train again, allowing Chuncho and his gang to kill the remaining rurales and take their weapons. Posing as a former prisoner of the army, Tate joins the gang, and is quickly befriended by Chuncho, who nicknames him "Niño".
After several heists, the gang travels to the town of San Miguel, where Chuncho meets with his old friend Raimundo to overthrow the weakhearted town boss, Don Felipe. Rosaria, Felipe's spirited wife, attempts to defend him; when Chuncho's men assault her, Tate angrily berates them for their behaviour. Chuncho shoots Guapo, a gang member, for attempting to kill Tate. Don Felipe is made to drive Chuncho and his gang back to San Miguel, and he is eventually executed.
Chuncho prepares to stay in San Miguel, drilling the villagers in the hopes of becoming a General himself; Tate convinces much of the gang to leave San Miguel so they can sell their weapons to Elías. Eventually missing his bandit lifestyle, Chuncho leaves San Miguel under the care of El Santo, his priestly half-brother, on the pretext of recovering a gold-plated Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun from his former gang. After killing one of them, Picaro, Chuncho resumes leadership of the others, hoping to sell the weapons to Elías before returning to San Miguel.
Elías' emissary arrives, but is pursued by army troops. Tate and Chuncho use the machine gun to decimate the troops, but nearly all of Chuncho's remaining gang is killed in the firefight. Unseen by the others, Tate also kills the emissary. Adelita, Chuncho's last surviving loyal gang member, abandons the pair after her lover, Pepito, is killed in the battle. During the ride to Elías' camp, Tate falls victim to a malaria attack. While getting quinine pills for Tate, Chuncho finds a golden bullet among his possessions.
Chuncho and Tate arrive at Elías' camp the next morning, where they encounter several starving revolutionaries. Chuncho sells the guns and is paid five thousand pesos, before learning from Elías that the people of San Miguel were massacred by the army. Realising his irresponsibility, Chuncho allows himself to be taken away to be executed by Santo, one of the sole survivors of the attack. Meanwhile, Tate, from a high vantage point, shoots Elías and kills Santo before Chuncho's sentence can be carried out. Tate escapes as Elías' doctors pronounce his death: shot in the head with a golden bullet.
Weeks later, Chuncho, now an impoverished beggar, tracks Tate to a hotel in Ciudad Juarez and tries to shoot him. Tate, insisting that he has been waiting for him, gives him a half-share of the reward he received from the Mexican Government for assassinating Elías: 100,000 pesos in gold. Chuncho, astonished by Tate's apparent loyalty and friendship, visits a barber, a tailor and a brothel.
The next morning the pair prepare to leave for a new life in the United States. However, when Chuncho watches as Tate cuts through a line to buy their train tickets, he begins to reconsider their relationship and his responsibilities. Learning that he had been further manipulated by Tate through his pretending to be an army prisoner, Chuncho suddenly declares that, although they are friends, he must kill him. Tate asks why, to which Chuncho replies "¿Quién sabe?" before shooting him. Tate's body begins its return to the United States, while Chuncho, laughing manically, tosses his bag of money to a group of peasants and flees from the authorities down an external corridor of carriages, exhorting the poor to buy dynamite instead of bread.
Production.
The screenplay and story for "A Bullet for the General" is credited to Salvatore Laurani while Franco Solinas is credited with the adaptation and dialogue. Film historian Howard Hughes noted that "A Bullet for the General" was the first Italian Western to seriously deal with the Mexican revolution and credited Solinas with the political aspects on the film. Solinas was a Marxist writer best known in film for his screenplays for "Salvatore Giuliano" and "The Battle of Algiers".
"A Bullet for the General" was directed by Damiano Damiani and shot in Almería between July and August 1966. Damiani had originally wanted to shoot the film in Mexico which proved to be impossible.
Release.
"A Bullet for the General" was released in Italy in December 1966.
Reception.
In a contemporary review, the "Monthly Film Bulletin" declared the film to be "a lively sortie into the Mexican Revolution with a good deal of boisterous action and a spirited performance from Gian Maria Volonte". The review noted the running time cut from 135 minutes to 77 minutes, stating "substantial pruning unfortunately plays havoc with the continuity (a character who was clearly of some importance in the original is here reduced to a few marginal references)."
Damiano's film has been called a "serious statement about the Mexican Revolution" and has been recognised as an accomplished blend of "tension, action, politics and history".


Friedrich Martersteig

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Martersteig (11 March 1814, Weimar - 6 September 1899, Weimar) was a German history and genre painter. After 1874, he spelled his name Mardersteig.
Life and work.
He began his studies in 1822 at the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School. In 1829, a grant from Grand Duke Charles Frederick enabled him to attend the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied with Ludwig Richter and made copies of the Old Masters.
Upon graduating in 1834, thanks to another grant, he was able to continue at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied with Karl Ferdinand Sohn, Theodor Hildebrandt and Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow.
From 1838 to 1848, he lived in Paris; working at the studios of Paul Delaroche and Ary Scheffer. This was followed by exhibitions at the Salon and the Prussian Academy of Arts (1844–1850).
In 1848, he returned to Weimar and received a commission from Grand Duke Charles Frederick to create a decorative painting for Wartburg Castle. The following year, he was elected a member of the Prussian Academy. Shortly after, the Grand Duke named him a Professor.
From 1853 to 1884, he was a drawing teacher at the "Sophienstift"; a girls' school established by Princess Sophie of the Netherlands. In 1862, he was appointed President of the (General German Art Cooperative).


Ferdinand Roybet

Ferdinand Victor Léon Roybet (12 April 1840 – 11 April 1920) was a French painter and engraver, best known for his historical and costume genre scenes.
Biography.
He was born in Uzès. His father was the owner of a café and a liqueur manufacturer who moved his family to Lyon in 1846. He began by studying engraving at the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon. After his father's death in 1863, he took his new wife and baby to Paris, where he studied with Jean-Georges Vibert and copied the Old Masters at the Louvre.
In 1865, after some financial hardships, he presented two paintings at the Salon and, the following year, achieved success when one of his works was purchased by Mathilde Bonaparte for 5,000 francs. He then decided to concentrate on costumed figures, mostly from the 18th century, and was awarded a contract for three canvases per month at an annual salary of 25,000 francs.
Following the Siege of Paris, he embarked on a long period of travelling, visiting Belgium and Algeria. Upon his return, he sold the works he had created for 10,000 francs, settled into a mansion and began collecting antiquities from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This eventually led to financial difficulties and his mansion was repossessed by his creditors.
He was named a knight in the Legion of Honour in 1893 and had many wealthy people among his clients – notably Cornelius Vanderbilt, who paid 100,000 francs for one of his works at the Palais de l'Industrie in 1893. He also painted many notable people in period costume, including Count Robert de Montesquiou, Madame Henriette Poincaré and General Joseph Gallieni.
He died in Paris on 11 April 1920. Toward the end of his life, he had turned to religious subjects, producing a tableau of 22 paintings depicting the Passion of Christ. After his death, in 1921, they were the subject of a special showing at the Salon. Six years later, the was established in Courbevoie by Consuelo Fould, who owned a large number of Roybet's paintings.


Amun-Re (board game)

Amun-Re is a game designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 2003 by Hans im Glück in German and in English by Rio Grande Games.
Players are leaders of different Egyptian dynasties who try to gain influence in 15 provinces of ancient Egypt. Influence and building pyramids earns points for the players. Points are scored at two instances during the game, at the end of the "Old Kingdom" and at the end of the "New Kingdom", and the player who amasses the most points wins the game.
Gameplay.
"Amun-Re" is played in six rounds, where each round consists of an auction of provinces, followed by the purchase of "power cards" (for special use or that give bonuses in scoring), farmers (that generate income), and bricks (which are converted into pyramids on a three-for-one basis), a sacrifice phase, and then income. All prices in auctions, as well as for purchases, are based on the triangular numbers.
The number of provinces available for auction in each round is equal to the number of players, but it is randomly determined which provinces will be available. Each province gives the player who wins it different abilities. For example, some provinces can support more farmers, some allow the players to buy more cards, and some produce a set income automatically. Certain power cards also give game-end bonuses if a player's provinces meet certain conditions, such as being on the same side of the Nile. Once the provinces have been auctioned, players may buy power cards and farmers as allowed by the provinces that they own, and as many bricks as they want or can afford.
Following purchases, there is a sacrifice where each player either sacrifices a number of gold or can steal from the sacrifice (and a player must either sacrifice or steal, "sacrificing" 0 gold isn't allowed). Rewards are given to players based on their sacrifice (highest sacrifice receiving the most reward, "thieves" getting no reward beyond the three gold they steal). Players may choose whether they wish to receive cards, bricks, farmers, or some combination of these as rewards.
Finally, players receive income. The sacrifice that has just taken place determines the income generated by each farmer. In certain provinces, income is only generated if the sacrifice is below a certain level. Other provinces provide a fixed amount of gold, or a combination of farmer income and fixed income.
As the ends of rounds three and six (the end of the "Old Kingdom" and "New Kingdom") points are scored for pyramids, sets of pyramids, temples in territories controlled, and for bonuses earned using power cards. At the end of the Old Kingdom, players lose their claim to all of their provinces and all farmers are cleared from the board, while bricks and pyramids remain. The same provinces will be used in the New Kingdom, but they will be auctioned again and may be owned by different players.
Although this game is best played with 5 players so the entire board is used, it does play quite well with 3 or 4. The game allows for many different strategies to be used.


A Town Called Bastard

A Town Called Bastard (also known as A Town Called Hell on DVD and blu-ray) is a 1971 international co-production spaghetti Western. It was shot in Madrid with Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Stella Stevens and Martin Landau.
It was released on blu-ray on 18 August 2015. The film was retitled "A Town Called Hell" for US release as the word "bastard" was thought offensive.
Plot.
The story concerns a vengeful widow (Stella Stevens) who returns to a small town presided over by a priest (Robert Shaw) and a sadistic Mexican outlaw (Telly Savalas). Violence erupts when a brutal army Colonel (Martin Landau) arrives in search of an elusive rebel leader.


Anne-Liese of Dessau

Anne-Liese of Dessau () is a 1925 German silent historical film directed by James Bauer and starring Maly Delschaft, Werner Pittschau and Julia Serda. It portrays the life of Anna Louise Föhse.
The film's sets were designed by Robert A. Dietrich.


Hammer of the Gods (book)

Hammer of the Gods is a book written by music journalist Stephen Davis, published in 1985. It is an unauthorized biography of the English rock band Led Zeppelin. After its release it became a "New York Times" bestseller paperback, and is hyped by its publisher as being the best-known Led Zeppelin biography. It has been reprinted three times since its first publication and has been released under the alternative title Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. The title is derived from a line in "Immigrant Song", a track from the band's third album.
Davis travelled with Led Zeppelin for two weeks at the beginning of the band's 1975 U.S. Tour, while he was a music journalist at "Rolling Stone" magazine.
Criticism.
"Chicago Tribune" music reviewer Greg Kot called it "one of the most notorious rock biographies ever written". All three surviving members of the band have cast doubts on its accuracy, with one article summarising their collective view of the book as a "catalogue of error and distortion".
"I opened it up in the middle somewhere and started to read it, and I just threw it out the window," said guitarist Jimmy Page. "I was living by a river then, so it actually found its way to the bottom of the sea."
"The guy who wrote that book knew nothing about the band," said vocalist Robert Plant. "I think he'd hung around us once. He got all his information from a guy who had a heroin problem who happened to be associated with us. The only thing I read was the 'After Zeppelin' part, because I was eager to get on with the music and stop living in a dream state."
"It's a very sad little book," said bassist John Paul Jones. "It made us out to be sad little people. He ruined a lot of good, funny stories."
One of the author's primary sources of information was Richard Cole, the band's tour manager. As Plant explained:
Former manager Peter Grant told "Proximity" magazine that the book was "completely unreliable" and that Davis had asked for money from him over the manuscript, before publication. Grant refused.
"There are some very funny stories in that book," Jones conceded, "but oh-so inaccurate. There were other bands that were far worse than us. The Who used to blow things up! Most of the towns we played in America in those days, everybody went to bed at 10.30. Everywhere closed around the time we played 'Whole Lotta Love'."
The negativity of the book, along with other controversial music biographies by Davis, earned him the industry nickname "Stephen Salacious".
Cole subsequently published his own autobiography that included his tenure as tour manager with Led Zeppelin, entitled "" (1992), which was also criticized by members of the band.


Mommie Dearest

Mommie Dearest is a memoir and exposé written by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of actress Joan Crawford. Published in 1978, it described the author's upbringing by an unbalanced alcoholic mother, whom she judged unfit to raise children. The book attracted much controversy regarding child abuse and child trafficking, with many family friends denouncing it as fiction. It was turned into a 1981 film of the same name starring Faye Dunaway.
Synopsis.
In the book, Christina contends that Joan, whom she describes as not wishing to be involved in parenting her, was an alcoholic who hit her regularly and placed more importance on being famous than on bringing up her children. Joan's alcoholism was later publicly confirmed by close friends after her death.
Christina suggests that Joan may have adopted children as a publicity stunt to sustain her career. She implies Joan had a long list of affairs with men, who Christina was required to call "Uncle" and on some occasions "Daddy", and that Joan also had many affairs with women. Christina writes that as she grew older and more difficult to control, Joan found excuses to remove Christina from the home by sending her to various boarding schools and strict religious academies, often specifying in her instructions that Christina must be allowed no contact with the outside world. Often, the threat of boarding school or the actual sending of Christina to these schools was used to punish Christina for defying her mother or fighting back against her abusive behavior.
Christina recounts several evenings on which Joan's behavior was unbalanced, and at least one encounter with her mother where Joan attempted to strangle her. In another encounter, Joan reportedly discovered Christina's clothes hanging in a closet on wire hangers, which Joan detested, instead of crochet hangers, and reprimanded her harshly. In an incident in which Christina refused to eat very rare beef, Joan ordered the meat returned to the refrigerator and refused to allow Christina any other food for several days until she finished the meal; Christina managed to hold out until her mother gave up and allowed her regular meals again. Joan allegedly disposed of her children's possessions to punish them for minor transgressions. Christina also wrote that Joan strapped Christina's younger adopted brother, Christopher, to his bed each night until he was 12, ostensibly to control his sleepwalking.
Christina reported that Joan's controlling and erratic behavior continued throughout Christina's adulthood. She asserts that Joan was jealous of her daughter's burgeoning acting career, to the point of taking over Christina's role in the soap opera "The Secret Storm" while Christina was in the hospital recovering from an operation to remove an ovarian cyst. (Christina's character was 28 years old; Joan was then in her 60s.) She also used money to control the adult Christina's behavior by refusing to give her money for basic living expenses, even while taking her out for expensive meals and paying for taxis.
The book culminates with Christina learning that she and her brother Christopher had been left out of Joan's will, even though Christina believed that both she and her brother had reconciled with their mother prior to her death.
Reactions.
The book's publication in 1978 created an enormous amount of attention.
Some of Joan's friends disputed the version of events presented in "Mommie Dearest". Among them were Van Johnson, Cesar Romero, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Sydney Guilaroff, Ann Blyth, Gary Gray, and particularly Myrna Loy, Joan's friend since 1925. While acknowledging that Joan was highly ambitious for much of her life, critics have suggested that Christina embellished her story. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Crawford's first husband, described the book by stating, "The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in "Mommie Dearest" is not the Joan Crawford I knew back then." The two younger Crawford children, Cindy and Cathy, born in 1947 and also adopted by Crawford, have stated categorically many times that they did not witness or experience any of the events that were described in the book. Christopher Crawford stated "I honestly to this day do not believe that she ever cared for me."
Bette Davis, longtime rival of Crawford's, denounced the book, stating "I was not Miss Crawford’s biggest fan, but, wisecracks to the contrary, I did and still do respect her talent. What she did not deserve was that detestable book written by her daughter. I’ve forgotten her name. Horrible." Ironically, Davis's daughter later wrote a heavily criticized book alleging an abusive upbringing with Davis.
Liz Smith, writing in the "Baltimore Sun", said, "I was inclined to believe Joan was misguided in her attempts to 'mold' her children—and was vain and self-absorbed like most great stars—but the stories of beatings and near-madness were over the top." Crawford's secretary for nearly 50 years, Betty Barker, also stated that while Joan was strict, Christina and Christopher were never abused.
Joan's friends Helen Hayes, James MacArthur, June Allyson, and Betty Hutton have stated they saw questionable behavior, but not outright abuse.
Epilogue.
The last pages of Christina's book suggest that she was not about to let her mother have the "last word" by omitting her daughter from her will. Biographer Fred Laurence Guiles later reported that Christina began writing her book before Crawford's death and have suggested that Joan's knowledge of its contents may have been a factor in Joan cutting her daughter from her will.
Christina later released a "20th Anniversary Edition", which included 100 pages of new material and omitted about 50 pages of original material. The second edition names certain individuals not named in the original book and focuses more on Christina's relationship with her mother from her high school graduation until the 1970s. It also reveals what became of her brother and describes several incidents involving him.
Released by a smaller publishing company, the second edition included some unconventional promotional methods. In 1981, the book was adapted as a movie, starring Faye Dunaway, at which the shocked Christina gave negative feedback about the film and lectures on the new edition of her book at screenings of the film. Christina also appeared at readings with drag entertainer Lypsinka, who has made numerous appearances as Joan Crawford during stage acts.
In 2017 Crawford worked with lyricist and composer David Nehls on a stage musical adaptation of "Mommie Dearest", which was produced by Out of the Box Theatrics in New York City.
References in other media.
"Saturday Night Live" featured a sketch parodying "Mommie Dearest" on the ninth episode of its fourth season, airing on December 16, 1978. Jane Curtin portrayed Joan Crawford as mercurial, ill-tempered, and micromanaging. Gilda Radner played an exaggerated version of young Christina as mute and possible mentally handicapped, puffing her cheeks out and crossing her eyes as she sauntered around the set. This sketch, which took place around Christmas, also featured Dan Aykroyd as Clark Gable, Bill Murray as Cary Grant, Laraine Newman as Katharine Hepburn, and guest host Elliott Gould as fictional character Archer Armstrong.
Victoria Beckham referenced the famous wire hangers scene in her music video for "Let Your Head Go".
Four years after Joan Crawford's death, Blue Öyster Cult released the song "Joan Crawford" as part of their album "Fire of Unknown Origin ("1981). In the final third of the song you hear a voice calling "Christina" with the lines "Mother's home" and "Come to mother". In the background you hear the word "No" repeated over and over. This is in reference to parts described in the book.


Abraham Matthijs

Abraham Matthijs or Abraham Matthys (1581 in Antwerp – 2 September 1649 in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter and art collector who was active in Antwerp and Italy. He is known for his religious compositions, marine scenes and portraits.
Life.
Abraham Matthijs was born in Antwerp as the son of the fishmonger Hendrik Matthijs and Margaretha van Roubergen. His parents were relatively well-off as they owned their own house on the Vismarkt. At the age of 10 Abraham he was registered at the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke as a pupil of Tobias Verhaecht, a landscape painter who had been the first teacher of Rubens. Abraham left Antwerp for Italy in 1603. Little is known about his residence or his work in Italy. He was back in Antwerp in 1619.
Abraham became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1619 and had a pupil called Fransoeis Cosyn in that year. He left Antwerp not long after that and was absent from Antwerp from 1619 until the end of 1623. From 1633 to 1644 he received a pupil almost annually. He remained a bachelor his whole life and became a member of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance. He had an active role in the Sodaliteit der Jongmans van den Zoeten Naem Jesus, a fraternity for bachelors established in the Dominican church in Antwerp. In 1632 and 1637 Matthijs was the prefect of the Sodaliteit.
Matthijs was commercially successful and bought his own house. He became an avid art collector. His collection came to hold 340 paintings as well as numerous drawings and sculptures. The works included originals and copies of Italian masters, landscapes and a portrait of Paul Bril, two portraits of saints by Anthony van Dyck and two portraits and a self-portrait by Rubens painted during his youth, which is lost.
Matthys suffered from a weak constitution and on 17 and 19 September 1638 he was so ill that he drew up a will. He did not die then but more than 10 years later on 2 September 1649. He had before his death made arrangements to be buried in the habit of the Franciscans in the church of the Franciscans. He had also commenced a painting to be hung over his grave in the church which was unfinished at the time of his death.
Work.
Abraham Matthijs is known for religious paintings, portraits and marine scenes. Only very few of his works are preserved. One of them depicts (1633, Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)). This work shows that the artist was still steeped in the style of the generation of painters preceding the Baroque innovations introduced in Antwerp by Rubens. Matthijs' palette in this work was muted and unbalanced. The figures in the composition are also not well arranged. He also painted an "Assumption of Mary" for a local monastery.
He further painted a portrait of the marine painter Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, which hangs in the church of Our Lady in Hoboken, near Antwerp, where Peeters is buried.
Abraham Matthijs painted the (National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London). It shows a fleet of whaling ships at work with some of the whales floundering about while being hauled to the shore.


Robin of Sherwood

Robin of Sherwood is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In the United States it was shown on the premium cable TV channel Showtime and, later, on PBS. The show starred Michael Praed and Jason Connery as two different incarnations of the title character. Unlike previous adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, "Robin of Sherwood" combined a gritty, authentic production design with elements of real-life history, 20th century fiction, and pagan myth.
"Robin of Sherwood" has been described by historian Stephen Knight as "the most innovative and influential version of the myth in recent times". The series is also notable for its musical score by Clannad, which won a BAFTA award.
Overview.
Richard Carpenter had previously worked with producer Paul Knight on two other dramas involving historical adventure, "Dick Turpin" (1979–1982) and "Smuggler" (1981). For their next project, Carpenter and Knight decided to have their production company Gatetarn do an adaptation of the Robin Hood legend. With the aid of television producer Sidney Cole, Carpenter and Knight were able to create a production deal for the show. Goldcrest Films, the US network Showtime, HTV and Gatetarn agreed to fund the series. "Robin of Sherwood" was more expensive than Carpenter and Knight's previous series; each episode of "Robin of Sherwood" cost around £500,000 to film. Filming on "Robin of Sherwood" began in 1983. The show premiered in 1984, on ITV in the UK and on Showtime in the United States. There were three series, composed of a two-hour opening episode and 24 one-hour long episodes, although the pilot is sometimes screened as two one-hour episodes. The episodes comprising "The Swords of Wayland" were transmitted as one episode in the UK on their original screening, on a bank holiday weekend in 1985. The show was shot on film and almost entirely on location, mostly in the northeast and southwest of England; HTV West in Bristol was the base of operations, and most of the filming was done in and around Bristol and its surrounding counties. Primary locations were the Blaise Castle Estate in North Bristol and Vassals Park to the south. Some of the forest scenes were shot near Bradford-on-Avon.
"Robin of Sherwood" is one of the most influential treatments of the core Robin Hood legend since "The Adventures of Robin Hood", featuring a realistic period setting and introducing the character of a Saracen outlaw. Carpenter also added fantasy elements to the story (which had not appeared in previous TV versions of the legend). These included Robin's supernatural mentor Herne the Hunter, Robin gaining a magic sword called Albion, and the outlaws battling against black magicians and demons as well as the Sheriff and his henchmen.
Michael Praed played Robin of Loxley in the first two series. His 'Merry Men' consisted of Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone), Little John (Clive Mantle), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose), Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams), the Saracen Nasir (Mark Ryan) and Lady Marian (Judi Trott). He is also assisted by Herne the Hunter (John Abineri). As in the legend, Robin is opposed by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Nickolas Grace) and Guy of Gisburne (Robert Addie), as well as the Sheriff's brother Abbot Hugo (Philip Jackson) (representing all the greedy abbots in the legends).
In the opening story, "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer", Robin and his half-brother Much fall foul of the Sheriff's henchman, Sir Guy of Gisburne and are imprisoned in Nottingham Castle. They manage to escape, and gather a team of fellow rebels to fight back against the Sheriff's authority.
At the end of the second series, Robin of Loxley is killed, and Robert of Huntingdon (played by Jason Connery) replaces him as Robin Hood. The third series had the same episode count as the first two combined, so each incarnation of Robin featured in the same number of episodes.
At the conclusion of Series Three, Goldcrest was forced to pull out of the venture, due to a downturn in the fortunes of their film arm. Goldcrest had been responsible for critical and commercial hits such as "Chariots of Fire" (1981) and "Gandhi" (1982) earlier in the 1980s, but had hit a lean period with such films as "Revolution" (1985) and "Absolute Beginners" (1986). The series was expensive to produce; HTV could not afford to finance it alone, and so "Robin of Sherwood" came to an unexpected end.Goldcrest invested £1,289,000 in the first six episodes, £1,944,000 in the next seven and £4,035,000 in the next twelve. Despite the huge popularity of the series, Goldcrest's financial difficulties due to its cinematic investments, prevented further production.
During the course of the third series, the new Robin discovers that he is the half-brother of his nemesis Guy of Gisburne (an idea suggested to Carpenter by the fact that both actors had blond hair). Carpenter planned to have Guy eventually discover that his greatest enemy was also his half-brother. However, this particular story arc was never resolved, as the show's intended fourth (and final) series was never made. The fourth season would have also featured the return of Baron de Belleme. The sudden cancellation also broke off Robin and Marion's intended marriage and left Marion at Halstead Abbey as a novice. Carpenter later said that, if he had known the third season would be last, he would have married Robin and Marion.
After the series ended, Carpenter and Knight tried several times to revive the show. First, Knight tried to gain funding from US producers for a fourth season, but was unsuccessful. Carpenter then wrote a script for a feature film adaptation of the series, and tried to get funding for it. Carpenter said in a 1990 interview that the film was intended to star the TV series' regular cast (with, however, a new actor playing Robin if Connery was unavailable). Carpenter also said that the film would not be an adaptation of the unmade fourth season, but "a story on its own". However, the appearance of two Robin Hood films in 1991 ("Robin Hood" and "") meant that Carpenter and Knight could not interest potential producers in a third Robin Hood film.
Temporal setting.
"Robin of Sherwood" is set in the usual period for Robin Hood stories – England in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, during the reigns of the Angevin kings Richard I and John.
"Robin Hood and the Sorcerer" opens in the year 1180 AD, before flashing forward fifteen years ahead. In the final episode of Season One, however, King Richard's return to England following his capture and ransom is depicted, which occurred in 1194. The Season Two episode "The Prophecy" is set in the year 1199 AD, when Prince John becomes King of England. In the Season Three episode "The Time of the Wolf (Part One)", the Sheriff dictates a legal document dated for the year 1211 AD, and the plot of the episode involves King John raising an army to fight Llywelyn of Wales (a historical event which took place in that same year).
Episodes.
In repeats, episodes have frequently been broadcast out of order, and alternative orders have been suggested. The original running order creates a number of continuity errors, the most notable being Marian's father being referred to as being dead in "The Swords of Wayland" even though he was discovered to be alive in "The Prophecy" and appears in later episodes.
Music.
The music for "Robin of Sherwood" was composed and performed by Irish folk group Clannad. The show's original soundtrack, "Legend", was released in 1984 and won the BAFTA award for Best Original Television Music.
Three singles were released from the album: the theme-tune "Robin (The Hooded Man)", "Now is Here" and "Scarlet Inside". An EP contained a remix of "Robin (The Hooded Man)" from the third series.
While not all of the show's music is found on the "Legend" album, some additional pieces can be found on Clannad's albums "Macalla" (released 1986) and "" (released 2005). In November 2003, Clannad revealed on their official web site that "there were several other pieces of music recorded for the third series of "Robin of Sherwood" that were not included on the "Legend" album. Unfortunately no-one has been able to locate the master tapes of this music. The search is continuing and hopefully one day these recordings will be able to be released."
Reception.
A review at rpg.net, written in 2003, opines:
Reviewing "Robin of Sherwood" for "SFX Magazine", Jayne Nelson stated that "this incarnation of England's most famous outlaw will probably never be bettered". Nelson praised the show's "excellent writing, moody cinematography and haunting score." Nelson also said that "The Greatest Enemy" was the best episode of the show, followed by "The Swords of Wayland" and "The Sheriff of Nottingham".
Richard Marcus, writing on blogcritics.org, writes in 2008:
Controversy.
ITV aired "Robin of Sherwood" during an early-evening television slot, and promoted the programme as being for a family audience. However, Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers and Listeners' Association criticised "Robin of Sherwood" as being unsuitable for children (as the organisation previously did with "Doctor Who"). Whitehouse claimed that the show depicted "extensive violence", objected to the depiction of Satanic villains in "The Swords of Wayland", and also criticised the apparent "resurrection" of Robin in "The Greatest Enemy" as being disrespectful to Christianity. Carpenter later met Whitehouse for a public debate, and introduced himself to her and the audience by saying "I'm Richard Carpenter, and I'm a professional writer. And you're a professional... what?" "The Guinness Book of Classic British TV" defended "Robin of Sherwood", stating that the show's "swordplay was strictly zero blood" and that the supernatural elements were the result of Carpenter's "love for the subject matter".
DVD and Blu-ray releases.
In the US and Canada, the first and second series have been released by Acorn Media in a five DVD set. A second set, containing the complete third series was released on 9 October 2007
In October 2010 Network DVD announced the forthcoming release of Series 1 and 2 in a single Region B Blu-ray set, entitled "Robin of Sherwood: Michael Praed" (the 3-Disc Blu-ray and DVD bonus disc). This was released on 15 November 2010. In the US and Canada, the first and second series were released on 7 June 2011 by Acorn Media as "Robin of Sherwood: Set 1".
Network DVD released Blu-ray set, entitled "Robin of Sherwood: Jason Connery", on 31 October 2011.
Bonus features.
On "The Complete Collection" DVD set, there are "seventeen hours of special features", including fourteen commentary tracks, a documentary on the folk group Clannad creating the score for the series, outtakes, bonus footage, a behind the scenes documentary, four documentaries that look back on the making of the show with former cast and crew, and other behind the scenes footage too.
Audio plays.
In July 2015, Bafflegab Productions, the producers of the audio play/comic book series "The Scarifyers", and co-producer Barnaby Eaton-Jones announced that they were adapting a feature-length script entitled "", written by Richard Carpenter before his death in 2012. Jason Connery, Judi Trott, Ray Winstone, Clive Mantle, Mark Ryan, Phil Rose, Philip Jackson, and Nickolas Grace (Robert of Huntingdon, Lady Marion, Will Scarlet, Little John, Nasir, Friar Tuck, Abbot Hugo, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, respectively) all agreed to reprise their roles for the project, with Daniel Abineri taking the role of Herne in place of his father, John Abineri, who died in 2000. In December 2015, Barnaby Eaton-Jones took over as sole producer of the audio play, with Spiteful Puppet (the award-winning audio company who produced 'Hood') as executive producers; as approved by ITV Studios and Richard 'Kip' Carpenter's estate. After beginning its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in September 2015, the production set a goal of £10,000 within 30 days to cover production costs; due to enthusiastic fan support, however, the goal was reached in just under 24 hours. The audio play was released in 2016, with proceeds going to the Sherwood Forest Trust and the British Red Cross.
The success of the play led to Spiteful Puppet announcing a set of four further 'Robin of Sherwood' plays for 2017, two featuring Jason Connery and two featuring Michael Praed. This release was later pushed back to 2018 however a series of enhanced audiobooks was announced, with the first four being released in December 2017.


Jan Cossiers

Jan Cossiers (Antwerp, 15 July 1600 – Antwerp, 4 July 1671) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. Cossiers' earliest works were Caravaggesque genre works depicting low life scenes. Later in his career he painted mostly history and religious subjects as well as portraits. Cossiers was one of the leading painters in Antwerp after Rubens' death in 1640 and one of the most original colorists in 17th-century Flanders.
Life.
Jan Cossiers was the son of Antoon, a watercolor painter, and Maria van Cleef. He was baptized in the Antwerp Cathedral on 15 July 1600. He received his first training from his father and then moved to the studio of the prominent portrait and history painter Cornelis de Vos.
He travelled to Aix-en-Provence in France in 1623, where he stayed with and studied under the Dutch painter Abraham de Vries. He visited Rome where he is recorded in October 1624. In Rome he likely saw work of Caravaggio, which had an important influence on his work. He was back in Aix-en-Provence in 1626. Here he met Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, the famous humanist and close friend of Peter Paul Rubens. Peiresc recommended Cossiers to Rubens. He also met up with other Flemish and Dutch artists such as Simon de Vos and Johan Geerlof as is shown by the group portrait by Simon de Vos referred to as "". This portrait is believed to show the three artist friends enjoying a smoke and a drink together during their residence in Aix-en Provence.
Jan Cossiers returned to Antwerp in 1627. The following year he was admitted as a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. It is possible that for a short while he was connected to Rubens' workshop. Apparently Rubens had chosen Cossiers to accompany him to Madrid in 1628 but Cossiers' parents had opposed the idea. In 1630 Cossiers married Joanna Darragon in the St. James' Church, Antwerp. He became the dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1640. On 26 July of that year he married for a second time to Maria van der Willigen. He was elected a number of times as a 'consultor' of the 'Sodaliteit der getrouwden', a fraternity for married men established by the Jesuit order.
In the 1630s Cossiers was able to obtain a number of large commissions thanks to the intervention of Rubens. He assisted Rubens in 1635 in the decorations for the joyous entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. Rubens had the overall management of this project. He further assisted with Rubens' commission for decorating the Torre de la Parada, a hunting lodge of Philip IV of Spain near Madrid. Cossiers painted mythological scenes after designs by Rubens. Other Antwerp artists such as the brothers Cornelis de Vos and Paul de Vos also worked on this large commission.
Cossiers enjoyed the patronage of the governors of the Southern Netherlands such as Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. After the death of Rubens in 1640 he was recognized as one of the leading history painters in Flanders and he received many commissions for Counter-Reformation altarpieces. He also was a portrait painter to the rich bourgeoisie.
He had many pupils including Jan Carel van Bremt, Grée Melsen, Jacques (Jacob) de Langhe, Jacques de l'Ange (who may be identical to Jacques de Langhe), Carel van Savoyen and Franciscus van Verbist.
Work.
General.
Jan Cossiers was a versatile artist who worked in various genres such as portraits, genre and history paintings. There was a clear evolution in Cossiers' career, which was not unlike that of some of his Antwerp contemporaries such as Simon de Vos and Theodoor Rombouts.
Cossiers started out as a painter of Caravaggesque genre scenes. He later became involved in the execution of religious and mythological compositions that were part of the large commissions of the Rubens workshop in the 1630s. After the death of Rubens he became one of the leading painters of altarpieces in Flanders.
Low-life subjects in a Caravaggesque style.
Jan Cossiers' early works were depictions of 'low-life' themes such as the prodigal son in a tavern, merry companies, smokers, drinkers, card players, backgammon players, fortune tellers, etc. Some of these works revisited the theme of the five senses popular in Flemish genre art.
These early works use the typical Caravaggesque chiaroscuro effects with dramatic lighting by a single light source so as to create dramatic effect and depth. An example of a work painted during this early period is the "" (Musée des beaux-arts, Valenciennes). It depicts a man in very elegant costume who is read his fortune by a gipsy woman. The man does not realise that his pocket is being picked by a young man. The light falls on the man creating a dramatic effect. Cossiers created many versions of this subject.
Another subject, which Cossiers reprised multiple times is that of the prodigal son. One "" was auctioned at Sotheby's on 3 December 2014, New York, lot 31. It shows the prodigal son while feasting and drinking in a tavern, unaware that his pocket is being picked. In the background the son is shown being expelled from the inn after completely squandering his inheritance.
History subjects.
In the 1630s Cossiers became connected to Rubens and commenced to paint history subjects. Examples are the mythological scenes he painted after designs by Rubens for the Torre de la Parada such as the ', "Narcissus" and ' (Prado Museum). During this period his work underwent the influence of the monumentality and palette of Rubens, whom he assisted on large commissions. After the death of Rubens he was able to fill the gap left by Rubens' enormous studio and supplied Counter-Reformation altarpieces to the many churches in Catholic Flanders as well as to the open market.
His works of the 1630s and 1640s were very colourful, which can be attributed to Rubens' influence. In his later works his palette became more subdued and his brushwork was applied more freely. His compositions in this late period emphasize the pathos of the figures through their exaggerated emotional expressions and lively gestures. An example is "The Flagellation of Christ" (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp). Among his late religious paintings is also the large "Passion of Christ" (1655–6) in the Church of the Beguines in Mechelen.
Jan Cossiers did not entirely abandon the low life themes in this later stage of his career as shown by a late "" (Auctioned at Sotheby's 9 July 2011, New York, lot 39), which has the freedom of the brushwork and the subdued coloring of Cossiers' later period.
Portraits.
Jan Cossiers had received his training from leading portrait painters such as Cornelis de Vos and Abraham de Vries. He had thus learned the necessary skills to cater to the demand of the well-off bourgeoisie for individual and group portraits.
His portraits are characterised by their sensitive likenesses, psychological insight and casual elegance. In the "" (Auctioned at Christie's on 19 April 2007, New York, lot 226) Jan Cossiers was able to portray the sitter's self-assured and dignified nature through details such as the sitter's left hand, which is resting securely at his waist.
Jan Cossiers moved in the circle of the famous Flemish genre painter Adriaen Brouwer who was known, amongst others, for his tronies, i.e. head or facial studies, which investigate varieties of expression. Brouwer painted a tavern scene called "", which included tronie-style portraits of Jan Cossiers together with the painters Jan Lievens, Joos van Craesbeeck (1600-1671), Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Brouwer himself (c. 1636, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Jan Cossiers is the second figure on the right and appears to have smoke in his mouth, as if tasting it before exhaling. This type of group portrait doubled as a representation of one of the five senses (in this case the sense of taste).
Jan Cossiers also painted a number of genre portraits that represent the five senses. These portraits can at the same time be regarded as tronies. Examples are the portraits of ' (Sold at Hampel (München), 2011-03-25 - 2011-03-26, lot 207) and ' (Sold at Bonhams on 5 July 2006, London, lot 46), which are likely portraits of Adriaen Brouwer as well as representations of the sense of taste. The paintings are believed to be part of a series on the five senses.
As was common in Antwerp’s art world at the time, Cossiers collaborated with other specialist artists, for whom he painted the figures. A garlanded portrait of Huygens by Cossiers and Daniel Seghers is now in the Mauritshuis. He is known to have collaborated with the still life and animal painter Adriaen van Utrecht on a kitchen scene (dated 1639, private collection). Cossiers painted the portraits of van Utrecht and his wife Constancia in a kitchen amidst an extensive still life with game, lobster, fish and vegetables painted by van Utrecht.
Drawings.
Cossiers was a very accomplished draughtsman, which is shown by a number of portraits of children, including his own.
Cossiers made a series of portrait studies of his family members. Each of the drawings is numbered in the top left and most identify the sitter by name and are dated 1658. The series is characterized by the intimate treatment and particularly lifelike effects. The surviving portraits only depict the artist's sons and not his five daughters. These portraits are executed in a very varied and fluid manner.
External links.


From Anna

From Anna is a children's novel written by Canadian children's author Jean Little, first published in 1972. It is the story of Anna Solden, a visually impaired child who moves from Germany to Canada with her family, on the eve of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. The book is one of Jean Little's most popular works.
Plot summary.
In the mid 1930s in Germany, things are changing, people are moving away or disappearing. The new headmaster at the Solden's school forbids the singing of a song titled "My thoughts are free" (Die Gedanken sind frei) during an assembly, instead making the school sing the national anthem. Anna's father, disturbed by the changes in his country, promises Anna that she will be able to grow up in a place where her thoughts are free. When his brother Karl in Canada dies, leaving him his shop and the home he had purchased there, Ernst sees an opportunity to move to Canada. He announces to his family that they will be moving to Canada. The rest of the family comes on board slowly, but Anna, terrified, resists. In Germany she is nearly failing school, how will she manage in a new country and a new language?
When they arrive in Toronto, they are greeted by a friend of their uncle's, Dr. Schumacher, who helps them move in, and gives the children check-ups before they start school. Anna is terrified to learn she will be starting school soon, but during her examination, a startling discovery is made; Anna can barely see. A prescription for glasses helps immensely; however, even with the glasses, she has less than normal vision, and is put in a special multi-grade class for students with similar vision. Her teacher here is Miss Williams. Seeing the potential in Anna she sets out to slowly coach the girl out of her shell. She gives Anna "A Child's Garden of Verses", and Anna discovers a love of reading. Her English improves with leaps and bounds, and soon she speaks only English at school and with the friends she has found there. However, she continues to present her old prickly side to her family, remembering all the years when they didn't understand her.
As the Soldens' first Christmas in Canada approaches, the children are becoming more and more aware of the effects of the depression on their lives. Instead of keeping with tradition in getting money from their parents to buy presents, the older children decide to come up with presents for their parents themselves. They struggle to include Anna, but in the end, decide she is "only a kid" and that their parents will not expect anything from her. Anna is hurt and infuriated by this, and she cannot keep her mood from her classmates the next day. When she describes her problem to Miss Williams, a flood of similar stories comes from her classmates. They all express a desire to give their parents a present that truly shows how much they are capable of.
Miss Williams returns the next day with a plan. With money for supplies provided by herself and Dr. Schumacher, the children are going to weave wastepaper baskets. Some children are dubious, but Anna takes to it right away, weaving a beautiful basket. On Christmas Eve, after her siblings have presented their gifts for Mama and Papa, Anna brings hers out. Her parents are amazed and her siblings surprised, wondering how she could have made something so beautiful. Miss Williams and Dr. Schumacher, invited by Anna to share in the family's celebrations, arrive. The novel closes with the whole group singing "Silent Night", the children in English, and the adults (minus Miss Williams) in German.
References.
Little, Jean. From Anna. Harper Collins. New York, New York. (1972)


List of The West Wing episodes

"The West Wing" is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that aired on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where the Oval Office and offices of presidential senior staff are located, during the fictitious Democratic administration of Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen).
Series overview.
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Specials.
Two special episodes were produced to complement the series and broadcast on NBC. The first was a terrorism-themed episode produced in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The episode pushed the scheduled season premiere back a week and encouraged viewers to donate to charity—profits from the episode and cast members' weekly pay were also donated. The episode "was written and produced in record time" – less than three weeks. Although timely and well-intentioned, the episode was criticized for being condescending and preachy.
The second special interspersed the characters' fictional lives with interviews of real West Wing personnel, including Presidents Ford, Carter and Clinton; press secretaries Marlin Fitzwater and Dee Dee Myers; presidential advisors David Gergen, Paul Begala and incumbent Karl Rove; Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; Chief of Staff Leon Panetta; presidential personal secretary Betty Currie; and speechwriter Peggy Noonan. The documentary won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2002 for "Outstanding Special Class Program". Both episodes ran within the season 3 television season and were included on the season's DVD.
A third retrospective "clip-and-interview" special was slated to air in the hour before the series finale; however, it was axed and replaced with a re-run of the "Pilot" episode, as cast members were not contracted to do the special and there were disputes over pay.


Bum Phillips (opera)

Bum Phillips is an opera in two acts by American composer Peter Stopschinski. Kirk Lynn wrote the English language libretto based on Bum Phillips' memoirs "Bum Phillips: Coach, Cowboy, Christian". The opera was conceived by theater director Luke Leonard and commissioned by Monk Parrots, Inc. as described in a 2014 "Sports on Earth" article titled "A Night at the "Bum Phillips" Opera".
Instrumentation.
The work is scored for one violin, one bass, two French horns, one drummer, percussion, and two pianos (one Fender Rhodes).


Run, Man, Run

Run, Man, Run (, also known as "Big Gundown 2") is an Italian-French Zapata Western film. It is the second film of Sergio Sollima centred on the character of Cuchillo, again played by Tomas Milian, after the two-years earlier successful western "The Big Gundown". It is also the final chapter of the political-western trilogy of Sollima, and his last spaghetti western. According to the same Sollima, "Run, Man, Run" is the most politic, the most revolutionary and even anarchic among his movies.
Plot.
When Cuchillo returns to his hometown in Mexico he soon finds himself in prison, sharing a cell with a dangerous desperado, the poet Ramirez. Despite a pardon and release in one day, Ramirez hires Cuchillo to help him escape. Waiting for his release are numerous bounty hunters eager for the price on Ramirez's head. Evading the hunters, they make it to Ramirez's village, but only minutes before the revolutionary bandit Reza arrives. Ramirez is shot but before he dies, he passes information to Cuchillo regarding $3M in hidden gold, and charges him with returning it to the revolutionary leader, Santillana. Hot on Cuchillo's trail are French mercenaries serving President Diaz, Reza and his bandits, an American gunslinger, and Cuchillo's fiancé, Dolores...who simply wants Cuchillo to stop running and marry her. Deceptions and double-crosses rule as all parties race to discover the gold cache.
Soundtrack.
In addition to composing a large amount of film scores himself, Bruno Nicolai also arranged many of Ennio Morricone's film scores. In an interview in the featurette "Run Man Run: 35 Years Running", director Sergio Sollima stated that Morricone, who was then contracted with Universal Pictures was not allowed to work for any other film company, but composed the score to the film without credit.
 | title = Run, Man, Run (Run Man Run: 35 Years Running)
 | medium = DVD
 | publisher = Blue Underground
 | location = Los Angeles, California
 | date = 1968


Frans van Dorne

Frans van Dorne or François van Dorne (Leuven, baptized on 10 April 1776 - Leuven, 30 November 1848) was a Flemish painter of portraits and religious subjects. He is known for his still lifes of fruit and flowers. He trained in Paris with the famous French Neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David. Van Dorne worked in Paris until 1822, the year in which he returned to his hometown Louvain.
Life.
Frans van Dorne was the son of Martin van Dorne and Petronilla Ekermans. His father was an eminent painter of still lifes of fruit and flowers who was nominated court painter by Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, the governor of the Austrian Netherlands.
Frans trained initially with his father. Later he studied under Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen, a prominent history and portrait painter in the Baroque style and a court painter of Maria Theresa of Austria. Verhaghen was then a teacher at the Academy of Leuven, which had been founded in October 1800 by van Dorne's father, together with Verhaghen, François Xavier Joseph Jacquin, Josse-Pieter Geedts, Frans Berges, Pieter Goyers and Antoon Clevenbergh.
Van Dorne won the prize for drawing after the antique at the Academy in 1802. Thanks to the prize he disposed of the necessary financial resources to continue his studies in Paris. In Paris he became one of a selected number of pupils of Jacques-Louis David, the famous French Neoclassical painter. He worked in Paris for a long time.
In 1806, he received from the magistrates of his native city Leuven a commission to paint a full-length portrait of Emperor Napoleon. Van Dorne submitted a mythological picture representing Venus to the Paris Salon of 1808. The painting was not well received by the critics and from that time onwards the artist decided to dedicate himself to portrait painting.
Van Dorne married Maria Theresia Bastiné who was the sister of the painter Jean-Baptiste Bastiné of Louvain, an artist who had also studied under David in Paris around the same time as van Dorne.
Van Dorne remained in Paris until 1822, the year in which he returned to his hometown Louvain. He produced a large number of portraits until the end of his career. He received a commission from a monastic institution in England to paint four religious compositions representing various episodes of the life of the Virgin. He also painted a copy of a masterpiece of the Flemish Baroque master Gaspar de Crayer for the St. Peter's Church in Leuven.
He died in Leuven on 30 November 1848.
Work.
Frans van Dorne was mainly a portrait painter although he also painted a number of religious compositions. His portraits show the influence of the French Classicism that he had studied under David in France.


Dancing in the Dark (novel)

Dancing in the Dark is a 2005 novel by Kittitian-British writer Caryl Phillips that won the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2006. The novel reimagines the life of Bert Williams (1874—1922), the first black entertainer in the U.S. to achieve the highest levels of fame and fortune, while darkening his skin with burnt cork and "playing the dim-witted 'coon' on Broadway and elsewhere", a story that allows the author to deal with issues of race and identity that he also addressed in his novel "A Distant Shore", as reviewer Tabish Khair notes: "Dancing in the Dark explores the particular tensions of assuming a false identity which, in a racist society, would be considered the 'true' identity of the player. This catches the performer in the double bind of using the actor's art to confirm prejudices, which then blind their audiences to that art." The story also deals with "the perils of self-invention, that have long plagued American culture".


Duplessis

Duplessis was a historical television series in Quebec, Canada, that aired in 1978. It tells the story of Maurice Duplessis, the controversial premier of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1959. It is one of the most famous mini-series in Quebec television history. The series was written (but not directed) by Oscar-winning film director Denys Arcand, and based in large part on Conrad Black's popular biography. The series contains 7 episodes, each one containing a different historic moment in Duplessis's life and path into power. Duplessis is portrayed by Jean Lapointe.
It is distributed by Radio-Canada and is available on DVD.


Tournament of Legends

Tournament of Legends is a fighting video game developed by High Voltage Software for the Wii console.
Gameplay.
"Tournament of Legends" has ten playable warriors based on Graeco-Roman mythology. The gameplay is described as a hybrid between traditional fighting games and the alternative puzzle-based gameplay of "Punch Out!!". Players gesture using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to initiate horizontal and vertical attacks, as well as execute quick-time events to avoid taking damage from periodic stage hazards. Button inputs allow the character to dodge, block, charge and use special attacks. To win a match, the player must defeat the opponent three times in two 90 second rounds. Breaks are allowed for fighters to regenerate armor and health.
The game does not have online multiplayer and features offline split-screen multiplayer instead.
Development.
"Tournament of Legends" uses an updated version of High Voltage's Quantum3 engine in use in their games "The Conduit" and "The Grinder", which was also presented at E3 2009 alongside an early version of "Legends", titled "Gladiator A.D.", which was much different than the final product, particularly with respect to age-appropriateness, theme and accessory support. Before "Gladiator" was retitled "Legends", it employed a visual style not dissimilar to the film "300", including the use of slow motion during power attacks. Pursuing a more grounded, realistic and mature approach to the premise of gladiator combat, the game was planned to employ attacks and finishing moves with graphic violence consistent with the ESRB's Mature rating, as well as support the Wii MotionPlus for true-to-life motion controls. However, by the time High Voltage Studios announced in February 2010 that Sega would publish the game, as it had done for High Voltage's recent Wii games, the game was retitled as "Tournament of Legends" and re-themed into a more upbeat, colorful fighting game about mythological figures that would be less violent and support the Classic Controller instead of the Wii MotionPlus. In the following E3, close to the game's final release, High Voltage confirmed that they were looking into the possibility of porting the game to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,<ref name="PS3/360"></ref> but there were no further developments about the status of such versions in the years that followed.
Reception.
The game has received generally unfavorable reviews, with a Metacritic score of 45 based on 38 reviews. GameSpot awarded the game 4.5 out of ten and said "... unresponsive controls are the first thing you'll notice". Official Nintendo Magazine awarded it 40%, and remarked "this is just insulting". There were however positive reviews. Destructoid gave the game a 7.5 and said "[Tournament of Legends is] a good little fighter that makes good use of the console's interface and truly brings back the feeling of playing a fighting game in the nineties." Similarly, GamingCritics also praised the game's tone for being reminiscent of classic 90's fighting games and stated that "...both fighting newcomers and seasoned vets can get enjoyment out of the formula here" and awarded the game an 8 out of 10


Stone Age (board game)

Stone Age is a designer board game designed by Michael Tummelhofer and published by Hans im Glück in 2008. It is a development game with a Stone Age theme that involves taking control of a tribe to collect resources and build a village that has the most powerful chief.
Players collect wood, break stone and wash their gold from the river. They trade freely, expand their village and so achieve new levels of civilization. With a balance of luck and planning, the players compete for food in this prehistoric time.


Kane (video game)

Kane is a multi-section action game published by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64 in 1986. It was ported to the Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, and the Commodore 16 and Plus/4. The game is set in the Wild West, and its name is a reference to the main character of the film "High Noon". It consists of four distinct scenes, although some versions only contain two. A sequel was released in 1988.
Gameplay.
The player takes the role of sheriff of the town of Kane. The game is split into four levels, two of which are shooting games using an on-screen target and two of which are side-scrolling action sequences on horseback. Only the shooting levels are present in all versions of the game. These may be played separately in the practice mode (with only one try given), but in order to complete and win the game, they must be played successively. The progress in the first scene defines the tries given in the next scenes.
Scene 1: The player controls a target and must shoot birds with a bow and arrow in order to trade with the Indians. The birds appear at varying altitude from the left and fly horizontally to the right. At higher difficulty levels the speed also varies. The player starts with ten arrows. As the arrows take time to reach the target and the birds are moving, the player must anticipate the position the birds will be when the arrow reaches them. If the shot is successful, the arrow returns to the quiver, but arrows that miss are lost. It is possible to take down more than one bird with a single shot if the falling bird hits another as it plummets. The player can kill no more than forty birds or no more than forty birds can be let away (a tally of each is kept on screen). After the limit is reached or the quiver is empty, the player proceeds to the next scene, provided he has killed enough birds to trade for at least one 'peace token'. The number of birds required for a token depends on the difficulty level, beginning with three. The tokens earned in this scene act as the lives for the following scenes.
Scene 2: The player is on horseback and must ride to the town of Kane in a set time limit. The player must canter left to right or gallop to overcome wide obstacles. There are a number of obstacles (bushes, rocks, etc.) that the player must avoid by jumping over. The peace tokens are spent if the horse collides with an obstacle, and if the last medal is spent, the rider gives up and it is game over.
Scene 3: When the player reaches the town, he is ambushed by outlaws. The player controls the aim of a revolver, but unlike the first scene, the character on screen also moves left and right with the aim movement. The outlaws appear from cover at varying positions in the town and shoot at the player. The player must shoot ten outlaws, avoiding being shot himself. At higher difficulty levels, the bandits are quicker and more accurate. The players' revolver has six bullets. At any time the player can move to the rightmost position to reload the weapon, but he is still vulnerable when reloading. The peace tokens are spent if the player is shot.
Scene 4: The player is on horseback again and must catch a moving train, this time moving from right to left. The train is travelling at the horse's canter speed, so the player must gallop faster than the train to reach the steam-engine and stop the train. As in scene 2, the horse must jump obstacles. These are more diverse and complicated and require a perfect knowledge of their order. At higher levels the player starts further from the engine and has to gallop longer. The peace tokens are spent if the horse collides with an obstacle.
After successfully completing the scenes, the game then repeats with greater difficulty.
Release.
The game was first released on the Commodore 64 in early 1986. It was then ported to Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, featuring all four scenes, and Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, and Commodore 16/Plus/4 with only the shooting scenes included (scenes 1 and 3 in the original game). Despite this, the BBC/Electron inlay gives instructions for all four scenes. This was corrected on the C16/Plus 4 inlay. All releases were in Mastertronic's £1.99 range.
Reception.
Reviews for the game were mixed, possibly reflecting the relative quality of the different versions of the game. The original version on the C64 was given a generally positive review in "Zzap!64" with particular praise being given to the sampled sound effects and animation of the main sprites (although they alleged that the main character is stolen from "Impossible Mission"). The music comes in for criticism with the backgrounds and short nature of the game also being questioned but the game is recommended as "worth every penny of the measly two quid asking price" with an overall score of 63%. In direct contrast, their review of the C16 version in the Zzap!C16 supplement, the background graphics are praised but they claim "the movement of the main sprite leaves a little to be desired" giving an overall score of 48%. The Amstrad version (which is the most similar to the original) was particularly well received, scoring 70% in both Amstrad Action and Amtix!.
The Spectrum version gained less favourable reviews. "Your Sinclair" was particularly critical, giving a score of only 3/10, complaining of the "luridly coloured" background graphics and the "dreadfully repetitive" gameplay. Graham Taylor of Sinclair User could find only the character animation worthy of praise saying "the rest stinks", giving a score of 2/5. Crash gave a slightly higher score of 54% but were still mostly dismissive and did not recommend the game, claiming it was inferior to the original: "Mastertronic seem to have taken their time translating this to the Spectrum - and to be honest they shouldn't have bothered".
Jon Revis of "Electron User" was also unimpressed with the Acorn version, criticising the unresponsive controls and especially the fact that scenes 2 and 4, as described in the inlay, are missing from the game: "It's a pity the programmer didn't read [the inlay]. The game may only cost £1.99 but I can't help feeling Mastertronic will receive a few letters of complaint about this one". The game was given a score of 4/10 for playability but an overall score of 6/10.
Legacy.
"Kane 2" was released in 1988 for the C64 but was not ported to any other machines. It is very similar to the first game with almost identical graphics and gameplay. Scene 1 is a riding and shooting level, scene 2 is a shooting level (like scene 3 in the first game), scene 3 is a challenge to tame a bronco and scene 4 is a riding level. The lack of improvement over two years after the original lead to negative reviews. "Zzap!64" gave a score of 33% and said "It's not abysmal, it's just that it doesn't really approach the standards required of a good budget program these days. "Kane" was good for its time, but in mid 1988 "Kane II" just doesn't appeal in the same way".


The Passion of Ayn Rand

The Passion of Ayn Rand is a biography of Ayn Rand by writer and lecturer Barbara Branden, a former friend and business associate. Published by Doubleday in 1986, it was the first full-length biography of Rand and the basis for the 1999 film of the same name starring Helen Mirren as Rand.
Background.
Branden was a close associate of Rand's for 18 years. She and her husband, Nathaniel Branden, were leading figures in the Objectivist movement based on Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, and they operated the Nathaniel Branden Institute to promote Objectivism. In 1954, Rand began an extramarital affair with Nathaniel Branden. The breakdown of Rand's relationship with Nathaniel Branden in 1968 coincided with the closure of the Nathaniel Branden Institute and the expulsion of both Nathaniel and Barbara Branden from Rand's circle.
"The Passion of Ayn Rand" was an unauthorized biography intended to replace an earlier, authorized essay about Rand's life that Branden had written for the 1962 book "Who Is Ayn Rand?" Branden drew in part on the same audiotaped interviews with Rand that she had conducted for the earlier project. Branden also interviewed over 100 people who knew Rand during all phases of her life. "The Passion of Ayn Rand" also made the first public revelation of the affair between Rand and Nathaniel Branden. In an interview, Branden said that she had undertaken the book in part "to rescue [Rand] from the need to be godlike. As I wrote, she was much more than that: she was a human being and a woman ... it is only in that context that Objectivism can be separated from its founder and its supporters and be seen as a philosophy which stands or falls by its own relationship to reality – not by the virtues or vices of those who espouse it."
Publication history.
The book was first published in 1986 in a hardcover edition from Doubleday. A paperback edition was released by Anchor Books in 1987. In 1999 the book was adapted into a movie of the same name that aired on the Showtime Networks.
Contents.
The book is a chronological presentation of Rand's life, followed by an epilogue discussing the influence of Rand and her ideas. In the introduction to the book, the author summarized her point of view as follows: "Those who worship Ayn Rand and those who damn her do her the same disservice: they make her unreal and they deny her humanity. I hope to show in her story that she was something infinitely more fascinating and infinitely more valuable than either goddess or sinner. She was a human being. She lived, she loved, she fought her battles, she knew triumph and defeat. The scale was epic; the principle is inherent in human existence."
Reception.
Acclaim.
One of the positive reviews that the book received, shortly after publication, came from Joseph Sobran: "..."The Passion of Ayn Rand" is an excellent book, especially for those (like me) who had their youthful fling with Objectivism. Mrs. Branden ... seems to harbor no rancor toward Miss Rand; in fact she still has enormous admiration for her ideas and celebrates her growing influence. But she admires Miss Rand on her (Mrs. Branden's) own terms."
George Gilder wrote, "Who was Ayn Rand? The answer emerges at last in a superb biography written with much of the sweep, drama and narrative momentum of the great works of Ayn Rand herself – and with the psychological insight and sensitivity that forever eluded her ... Working with some 50 hours of biographical tapes, [Branden] achieves a remarkable balance of intimacy and objectivity in telling the tempestuous story of a flawed but heroic woman, who bore the moral defense of capitalism on her back like Atlas for nearly two decades, and never shrugged."
Another early review came from the sociologist of religion Peter L. Berger. Although Berger was critical of Rand's antipathy to religion and of her "flat Enlightenment rationalism," he concluded, "And yet there is something appealing, even a touch of grandeur, about the figure who emerges from Ms. Branden's somewhat tortured account ... the hero-worshiper who invented improbably heroic figures in her novels and who convinced very ordinary people that they too could be heroes; the mature and successful figure who always refused compromise, no matter what the cost, and who faced bitter personal disappointment and pain with an unbending courage. One can understand why this individual, whatever her intellectual and personal foibles, could command loyalty and inspire commitment."
Florence King included a section on Ayn Rand in her book "With Charity toward None" which quoted liberally from Branden's book; King also included "The Passion of Ayn Rand" on a list of books "I particularly enjoyed and recommend for general reading."
According to Mimi Reisel Gladstein, "Branden accomplishes a rare feat for biographers; she is able to illuminate the attractive and repellent aspects of Rand's personality, showing why so many would follow her unreservedly, while others reacted with abhorrence."
In a lengthy essay review, David Ramsay Steele declared that "The tale told by Barbara Branden is absolutely riveting. It is considered high praise to say of a book that, having once begun it, you can't put it down, but for me the more significant accolade is that having finished it you can't put it down, and that is certainly true of this amazing and fascinating story. It recounts Rand's life, partly on the basis of personal recollection and partly on the basis of detailed research." Steele complained, however, that the book makes excuses for its subject: "The attitude Branden has towards Rand is one that individuals generally hold only towards their parents: a burning anger, a rage for self-justification, contained by a rigid insistence that the parent is good and worthy."
Criticism.
In a review that focused mainly on Ayn Rand's ideas, which he rejected, Terry Teachout declared that "Barbara Branden is an excruciatingly bad stylist, trapped in the throes of what Wolcott Gibbs used to call 'ladies'-club rhythm' ... But Mrs. Branden's hopeless style is offset by her intimate knowledge of the details of Ayn Rand's personal life."
Strongly negative reactions to "The Passion of Ayn Rand" have been expressed by some writers affiliated with the Ayn Rand Institute. According to Steele, "The orthodox Randists, led by Leonard Peikoff, have put it about that anyone who utters a word in praise of the book is to be shunned, boycotted, and cut off root and branch." In 1986 Peter Schwartz declared that "The Passion of Ayn Rand" is a tissue of arbitrary assertions: "Epistemologically, conclusions reached by a categorically non-objective method have the status of the "arbitrary." They are not true and not false, but are, rather, entirely outside the cognitive realm – because they are not genuine "attempts" at cognition. Admirers of Ayn Rand need not – and should not – feel compelled to try to rebut each and every concrete charge made by Barbara Branden (and others who are sure to follow)." Peikoff pronounced that the biography was motivated by "venomous hatred" and agreed with Schwartz that its entire contents were "non-cognitive"; unlike Schwartz, however, he proclaimed that he had never read it and never intended to.
In 2005, James S. Valliant published a book-length negative review, "The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics", aiming to discredit "The Passion of Ayn Rand" on grounds of internal inconsistency, inconsistency with other available sources, and inconsistency with previously unpublished diary entries made by Rand in 1967 and 1968. Valliant partly concurred with Schwartz and Peikoff's judgment of arbitrariness, but he also claimed to have shown that much of what "The Passion of Ayn Rand" said about Rand's character and actions was false, and that it was "valueless" as a historical document.
In her 2009 biography of Rand, "Goddess of the Market", historian Jennifer Burns says of the book that "Too often Branden takes Rand's stories about herself at face value, reporting as fact information contradicted by the historical record." She faults Branden for editorial tampering with Rand's statements in the taped interviews: "Sentences presented in quotes as if they were spoken verbatim by Rand have been significantly edited and rewritten." But she also notes that "Barbara and Nathan[iel] were privy to Rand's inner doubts, triumphs, and insecurities as were no others." She wrote that Valliant "often goes overboard" in his attack on Branden's biography and concluded in a retrospect the following year that the biography was largely accurate.


Ernst Klimt

Ernst Klimt (3 January 1864 in Vienna – 9 December 1892 in Vienna) was an Austrian history painter and decorative painter. He was a younger brother of the better-known artist Gustav Klimt.
Biography.
He was the third of seven children born to the gold engraver, Ernst Klimt (1834–1892), originally from Bohemia, and was raised under very modest circumstances.
In 1877, aged only thirteen, he became a student at the University of Applied Arts, where his older brother, Gustav, had been studying for a year. They were both students of the decorative painter and engraver, Ferdinand Laufberger, and would become his assistants on several projects. He also introduced them to Hans Makart, who employed them for what is now known as the "", celebrating the silver anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife, Elisabeth.
After Laufberger's death, in 1881 he, Gustav, and their friend from school, Franz Matsch, founded the "Künstler-Compagnie" and, two years later, opened their own studio. Among other things, their company created curtains and ceiling paintings for theaters in Reichenberg, Karlsbad and Fiume. They also produced ceiling paintings for the Hermesvilla and frescoes for the stairwell of the new Burgtheater. In 1890, they helped complete paintings in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which had been left unfinished by Makart, several years before. Ernst's largest solo commissions were at Mondsee Castle and Peleș Castle in Romania.
In 1891, he married Helene Flöge (1871-1936), the sister of Gustav's friend, Emilie Flöge, and they had a daughter; also named Helene.
He died unexpectedly, from an inflammation of the pericardium. Gustav took care of his wife and daughter and completed his unfinished paintings. His company was officially dissolved, but Gustav maintained professional contact with Matsch until 1900. He was interred at the , next to his father, who had died only a few months earlier.


Jan Baptist Herregouts

Jan Baptist Herregouts (c. 1640 – 25 November 1721) was a Flemish painter, etcher, printmaker and brewer. He is known for his portraits, history subjects and allegorical scenes.
Life.
Jan Baptist Herregouts was likely born in Roermond (or possibly in Dendermonde) between 1635 and 1645 as the son of David Herregouts and Cecilia Genits or Geniets. His father was a painter from Mechelen who had moved to Roermond in 1646. Here David Herregouts had built a successful career as a painter thanks to the support of the local Catholic Church. Jan Baptist’s mother was a daughter from a family of butchers in Mechelen.
Jan Baptist had three brothers who were painters: Hendrik Herregouts (Mechelen, 1633 – Antwerp, 1704) who had a peripatetic career as a painter including stays in Antwerp and Bruges, Willem Herregouts who emigrated to Amiens in France where he was known i.a. as Guillaume Herregosse or Guillaume Hergosse and Maximilian Herregouts about whom currently nothing much is known other than two works, one entitled "Kitchen, in which a woman is busy baking pancakes" (1674) and a second entitled "Eliezer and Rebecca at the well".
Jan Baptist likely first trained under his father and may have made a study tour to Italy. He then worked for several years in Antwerp probably in the workshop of his brother Hendrik. He became a member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke between 18 September 1667 and 17 September 1677. He remained a member until 1682 when he moved to Bruges. Here he possibly assisted his brother Hendrik with some of the commissions he was completing in that city. In 1684, he lived at the home of the sculptor Norbert van den Eynde, son of Hubert van den Eynde. He became a master in the Bruges Guild of Saint Luke in 1684. He subsequently filled various leadership positions in the guild. In 1717 he was one of the four artists who contributed funds to the creation of a drawing academy in Bruges.
Jan Baptist became a successful history and portrait painter. He married Anna-Pieternelle Timmermans. The couple had two children: Marie-Anne Herregouts (1685-1749) and Jan Baptist Herregouts (1688-1717). Jan Baptist or his wife likely operated a beer brewery in Bruges.
He died in Bruges where he was buried in the St James Church.
Work.
Jan Baptist is mainly known for his many altar pieces and religious works that he produced for the churches of Bruges. He also produced a number of portraits although there are some doubts about the authorship of some of the portraits attributed to him. An art historian has argued that his self-portrait and the portrait of his father (both in the Groeningemuseum) that are usually attributed to him are possibly the work of his brother Hendrik.
The following works of Jan Baptist Herregouts are preserved in Bruges:
Jan Baptist Herregouts was regarded as a capable painter in the style of the late 17th century. His palette was much admired.
Jan Baptist Herregouts was also active as an engraver. Etchings by his hand are executed in a pleasant and loose style.


The Shadow of Zorro (video game)

The Shadow of Zorro is a video game based on the character Zorro for PlayStation 2 and Windows. The game was published in North America by Dreamcatcher Entertainment.
Gameplay.
The game is a 3D stealth-adventure., featuring 7 chapters, 700 animated cutscenes, and 28 different locations. Gameplay includes spying and rescue missions.
Plot.
A new garrison commander, Captain Fuertes, arrives at the village. Don Alejandro de la Vega suspects that he might be the "Butcher of Zaragoza", a Spanish war criminal who committed atrocities under Napoleon. In order to uncover the truth, Zorro sets out to investigate.
Production.
Release.
A website for the title was launched in mid 2001. Cryo and Dreamcatcher officially announced the game on October 3, 2001, to be released during the holiday season later that year. The game arrived in Polish stores on September 3, 2002.
Critical reception.
"Shadow of Zorro" has received generally poor reviews. Futuregamez.net awarded the game 49% stating that the game "seems very underdeveloped with poor level structures." Gry Online gave it a mixed review, though praised the Flash-based website for its ingenuity.


Art and Life in America

Art and Life in America is a book by Oliver W. Larkin published in 1949 by Rinehart & Company which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for History. It is a book which comprehensively deals about Art and artists in the United States .


The Terrorist Hunters

The Terrorist Hunters (published 2009) is a controversial non-fiction book by former senior police officer Andy Hayman, co-written by Margaret Gilmore, about Hayman's role as head of the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Operations Division. The Attorney General for England and Wales, Baroness Scotland QC, sought, and initially won, a High Court injunction against the publication of the book. The book was reported to have sold 2,500 pre-order copies before the injunction was issued.
Narrative.
The primary focus of "The Terrorist Hunters" is on the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the investigation it sparked as well as the role of the UK's security services, particularly the Met and MI5 in combating terrorism in the years after the attacks, though it also covers the investigation into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
"The Terrorist Hunters" is highly critical of the government's emergency committee, known as COBR, of which Hayman was often a member. Hayman describes COBRA in the book and in interviews with "The Times" as "cumbersome, bureaucratic and overly political."
Hayman also discusses Sir Ian Blair, former Met Commissioner, whom he described as a friend but of whom he later became highly critical in relation to a statement by the commissioner regarding the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian national who was mistakenly shot dead by CO19 officers on the London underground after being misidentified as a suicide bomber the day after the failed 21 July 2005 London bombings. He also questions whether his role and the role of other intelligence and emergency service officials attending the meetings were taken seriously enough and recalls an exchange with Patricia Hewitt, then Secretary of State for Health during a COBRA meeting in the immediate aftermath of the 7 July bombings, about the number of scenes at which the bombers had struck.
"The Terrorist Hunters" goes on to deal with events in 2007, when an attack was launched on Glasgow International Airport on the same day as two attempted car bombings in London. Hayman praises Strathclyde Police for their cooperation in the subsequent investigations, though is critical of Alex Salmond, then Scottish First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, accusing Salmond of waging a "turf war" over control of the Glasgow suspects in "some amazing playground antics", a claim which was strongly denied by Salmond and the SNP.
Within the book, Hayman also calls for an official public inquiry into the events of 7 July 2005.
Injunction.
On 1 July 2009, the English High Court issued a temporary injunction against the sale of "The Terrorist Hunters" after a hearing requested by Baroness Scotland QC, the Attorney General. The reason given for the injunction was "legal reasons relating to ongoing criminal proceedings", the Crown Prosecution Service fearing a passage in the book might influence jury members of a pending trial. When the injunction ran out the book returned to sale unedited and a paperback edition was published in October 2009.
Publication.
Prior to its release, copies of "The Terrorist Hunters" were provided to the Cabinet Office, MI5, MI6 and the Crown Prosecution Service for approval, prompting Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson to suggest the Metropolitan Police Authority, the force's governing body, review whether senior officers should be allowed to publish such books in the future. The book, published by Bantam Press was serialised in British broadsheet newspaper "The Times" prior to its release.


Antoon van den Heuvel

Antoon van den Heuvel, Antoine van den Heuvel or Anton van den Heuvel (nickname: 'don Antonio') (c. 1600 – 5 August 1677) was a Flemish history painter and draughtsman. After training and working in Antwerp and Rome, he returned to his native Ghent where he was one of the important creators of altarpieces for the churches in the region.
Life.
Little is known about his early life and training. He was born in Ghent. In the declaration he made when he was admitted as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke of Ghent in 1628, he stated that in the previous 10 years he had been working in Antwerp and Rome. He was given the nickname 'don Antonio' because of his stay in Italy.
Antoon van den Heuvel remained active for the rest of his life in Ghent and its neighbouring areas where he was particularly in demand for altarpieces. In 1662 he was responsible for the cleaning of the Ghent Altarpiece painted by the van Eyck brothers.
He died in Ghent.
Work.
Antoon van den Heuvel painted mainly religious scenes and portraits. He is usually regarded as a representative of the international Caravaggesque movement. His "Lamentation" in the Church of Borsbeke relies upon a painting by the Dutch Carravagist Gerard van Honthorst of the same subject for its composition and a number of motifs.
His style is, however, not that easily reduced to the Caravaggesque movement. His early work showed a preference for contrasting colours and strong lighting, with little use of transitional tones. But compared to his contemporary Jan Janssens, one of the foremost representatives of the Ghent Caravaggisti, Antoon van den Heuvel rarely showed Caravaggesque elements. Only in one work, 'Mary with the Christ Child and the Rosary' of 1634 (Church of Nazareth, Belgium, he adopted one of the motifs of Caravaggio: 'The Madonna with the snake' (Rome, Galleria Borghese).
Van den Heuvel's style is in its linear compositions and bright lighting more Classicist in nature and closer to the work of Agostino Carracci, Annibale Carracci and Lodovico Carracci and their followers. He must have seen their work during his residence in Rome.
Van den Heuvel also borrowed motifs and compositions of contemporary Flemish painters such as Rubens and Caspar de Crayer.
His later work between 1640 and 1650 is less colourful and therefore appears less expressive.
Van den Heuvel also made designs for engravings. The paintings (some of them after designs by Rubens) that he (and other painters) made on the occasion of the Joyous Entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in Ghent in 1635 were engraved to be included in a publication authored by Guillaume van der Beke (Guilielmus Becanus). The publication was entitled "Serenissimi principis Ferdinandi Hispaniarum infantis S.R.E. cardinalis triumphalis introitus in Flandriae metropolim Gandavum" and was published by Johannes Meursius in Antwerp in 1636. Leading Antwerp engravers Jacob Neefs, Pieter de Jode II and Antony van der Does made the engravings for the publication.
A portrait painting made by van den Heuvel was used by the prominent engraver Paulus Pontius as the basis for his engraving of a portrait of the Flemish poet Jeremias Pierssene. Guillaume Duvivier, an engraver who was active in Ghent in the 17th century, made an engraving after a painting of Antoon van den Heuvel which shows two servant women in a kitchen. This genre subject is atypical for van den Heuvel who mainly painted religious scenes and portraits.


Celestino Alfonso

Célestino Alfonso (1 May 1916, at Ituero de Azaba, Salamanca province, Spain – 21 February 1944, at Fort Mont-Valérien, France) was a Spanish republican, a volunteer in the French liberation army FTP-MOI, and a part of the resistance operation led by Missak Manouchian. He was, by profession, a carpenter.
Youth.
Alfonso arrived in France at the beginning of the 1930s. In 1934, he joined the "Jeunesse communiste" (Communist Youth) and became responsible for the Ivry-sur-Seine group. In 1936, he set out as a volunteer for republican Spain, arriving on 27 August 1936. He served as a machine-gunner with the rank of sergeant, and from 1937, the rank of lieutenant. In 1938, his right hand was wounded. He was, shortly afterward, named political commissar of the 2nd International Brigade with the rank of captain. In February 1939, he was repatriated to the camp at Saint-Cyprien, from which he escaped.
Second World War.
In May 1942, Alfonso joined the French resistance. Arrested, he was deported to Germany, where, after six months in a camp, he succeeded in escaping and returned to Paris where he became head of a FTP-MOI resistance group. He participated in many operations in Paris and in the Orléans region, notably the execution of General Ernst Von Schaumburg, commandant of Greater Paris, and on 29 September 1943 of SS officer , responsible for the STO in France.
Assassination of Ritter.
The FTP-MOI intelligence service had noticed the strengthening of security measures on rue Saint-Dominique in Paris. A large Mercedes with swastikas on the sides regularly entered the courtyard of the "Maison de la Chimie", and a Nazi official was let out. After four months of planning, the military leadership of the FTP requested Marcel Rayman, and Alfonso to plan an attack against this official. The operation was put under the authority of Missak Manouchian, the military overseer of the FTP-MOI, from late August 1943.
On the morning of 28 September 1943, the Mercedes was parked for a few minutes before picking up its passenger. Alfonso fired at the SS officer as he got into the car. The windshield blocked the bullets, but the man was injured, probably by flying glass. He attempted to get out of the car through the opposite door, but Rayman hit him, fatally, with three bullets. The fighters only learned the man's identity through the German press: it was General , the assistant in France to Fritz Sauckel, who was responsible for the mobilization and deportation of labor under the German STO (Obligatory Work Service) in Nazi-occupied Europe. Ritter was the chief recruiter of slave labor in occupied France.
The front-page denunciation of this "abominable act" and the official funeral at the "église de la Madeleine" gave the operation even more impact.
Arrest and execution.
Alfonso was arrested in October 1943, and he was shot at the fort Mont-Valérien on 21 February 1944, along with 21 other members of the FTP-MOI. He had a wife and a small child.
Affiche rouge.
Alfonso's name was featured on the Affiche rouge poster, as: "Alfonso, Espagnol rouge, 7 attentats" (Alfonso, Spanish Communist, 7 attacks)


The Three Musketeers (2006 video game)

The Three Musketeers is a Windows XP and Windows Vista platform game published and developed by Swedish developer-publisher Legendo Entertainment. It was released in Europe on February 22, 2006, and is rated 7+ by PEGI. The European release, which included Scandinavian releases in partnership with Ubisoft, saw the game sold both in boxed form at retail outlets and online; in other territories, the game may only be downloaded. The game supports more than ten different settings for various languages. A WiiWare version entitled was released in North America on July 27, 2009 and in the PAL regions on July 31, 2009.
Gameplay.
The game, which features two-dimensional movement through a cartoonish three-dimensional environment, is loosely based on the 1844 Alexandre Dumas, père classic "The Three Musketeers". It is the first video game to use this novel as its source material. In the game, the player controls Porthos in an attempt to save his kidnapped companions.
Reception.
The game was nominated for a 2006 Swedish Game Award in the category Family Game of the Year. In contrast, the UK Official Nintendo Magazine gave the WiiWare version 20%, saying,"There are hundreds of games that are worth your money more than this hopelessly generic, lazily conceived side-scroller". Thus, it currently stands as the lowest score that the magazine has given to a WiiWare game.