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scotianostra · 3 years

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On September 21st 1832 the novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott died aged 61.

By the time he returned to Edinburgh in 1778 to prepare for school, his parent’s had moved from their apartment in the old town to a house in George Square, a new development of terrace houses occupied by better-off citizens escaping the narrow streets of the old town. He went to the prestigious Royal High School, one of the oldest schools in the world, and a powerful influence in the Scottish Enlightenment; that flourishing of learning and reason that had mirrored the French Enlightenment and made Scotland a centre of intellectual life in the 18th century. Classes were taught in Latin and Greek and during Scott’s time the school developed an international student-body with students from Russia, Germany, the USA and the British colonies.

At school Scott stood ‘head and shoulders above his literary contemporaries’, in the words of one historian and by the age of 12 he was attending the University of Edinburgh studying classics. At 15 he joined his father’s firm to become a solicitor. Adolescence had not yet been invented. During that time his literary interests continued to develop when he regularly attended a literary salon of a friend and met poets, including the great Robbie Burns. In 1789 he began studying law at the University of Edinburgh.

Since his days with Aunt Jenny in the countryside, Scott had been fascinated with the tales of local story-tellers and had even devised a means of recording them with knife-marks on a stick, since writing them down openly was not culturally acceptable. At 25 he began his literary career, with the publication in 1796 of the tales he had collected, called The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

The following year, after a whirlwind three-week courtship, he married Charlotte Genevieve Charpentier, the daughter of a Frenchman and ward of a member of the English nobility. He was appointed an officer of the Scottish courts and with that position, his wife’s income, his earnings as a solicitor and his writing he was comfortably well-off for some time. Charlotte and Walter had five children, one dying young and they remained happily married until Charlotte’s death in 1826. The couple began their married life in a large house he had built in the new parts of Edinburgh, moving a few years later to a larger outside the town of Selkirk, where his court was situated.

Scott used the new printing business of two friends, James and John Ballantyne, to self-publish his early poetry. By 1810 he had become well-known and had written such familiar works as The Lady of the Lake, and Marmion, containing the often-quoted lines, “Oh! what a tangled web we weave…..”.

The Ballantyne brothers moved the business to Edinburgh, and Scott went into partnership with them, a move that was to ultimately prove near fatal to his well-being.

At that time prose was considered inferior to poetry, so when Scott published his first novel, Waverley, in 1814 he did so anonymously. Over the next five years he published a series of similar novels, all with Scottish historical settings and all anonymous written by “the author of Waverley”. Despite their great success and huge sales for the time, only in 1827, after almost all his novels had been published, did Scott admit his authorship of them – while his books of poems were all published in his own name.

The later novels, especially Ivanhoe, were thinly-veiled historical allegories of political issues of the time, particularly the rise of Scottish nationalism and protest against English rule. Despite this, when Scott suggested to the future King George IV that he could find the Crown Jewels hidden away after the Union he gained support for the venture and when he found them in the bowels of Edinburgh Castle the grateful King knighted him a baronet.

In 1825 there was a national banking crisis which led to the collapse of John Ballantyne & Co. and left Scott, the financial partner, with massive debts. Rather than declare bankruptcy or accept help from his admirers he wrote himself out of his debts with a flurry of publications written so quickly he left punctuation to the printers. He travelled to France and collected material for his nine-volume biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, but by 1831, with Charlotte dead and stressed by his financial ruin, his health began to fail.

Sir Walter Scott suffered a stroke and passed away on Sept. 21st 1832 at his home, Abbotsford. Although he had not yet paid back all his debts, his novels continued to sell and all debts were settled by his estate a short time later. The house was opened to the public in 1833, it has remained a popular tourist attraction since then. The last descendant of Scott lived there until 2004.

The Scott Monument, a 200 feet tall and the world’s largest monument to a writer, is in Princes Street Gardens, in Edinburgh. Scott is also commemorated on a stone slab in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum in the Old Town.; quotes from his work are also visible on the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament building in Holyrood another statue can be found in Parliament House which houses the Scottish High Courts

There is a tower dedicated to his memory on Corstorphine Hill, which I have featured in my posts a couple of times in the west of the city and Edinburgh's Waverley railway station, opened in 1854, takes its name from his first novel.

Elsewhere in Scotland the large column that dominates George Square in Glasgow is also a monument to the writer. Up in Perth there is a statue to the writer, in honour of his work, 'The Fair Maid of Perth', a novel published in 1828. There is a statue of Scott at Markethill Road, East Kilbride. another is located outside the Clovenfords Hotel in Galashiels and one at Market Place, Selkirk.

There is also is a bronze portrait statue of Walter Scott and the writer's favourite dog Maida in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, another at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia and a memorial at Victoria Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. I could probably go on searching and find many others around the world, but I shall leave that for another post perhaps.

Scott’s Tomb is in the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, on the banks of the same River Tweed as his estate and an ancient and important church in Scottish history. He had selected this spot when he was much younger.

#Scotland #scottish #lawyer #historian #songwriter #poet #literary figure #history

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hms-chill · 4 years

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RWRB Study Guide: Chapter 4

Hi y’all! I’m going through Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue and defining/explaining references! Feel free to follow along, or block the tag #rwrbStudyGuide if you’re not interested!

The Willard (75): A luxury hotel just down the street from the White House, where rooms can cost up to $8,000 per night. It hosts the turkeys to be pardoned by the president.

Cornbread and Stuffing (75): Traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Pardoning turkeys are commonly named after foods associated with Thanksgiving, recently including Bread, Butter, Cheese, and Apple.

Pennsylvania Avenue (75): The street that the White House and Willard are on.

Until I pardon them (75): The pardoning of the turkeys is an actual American tradition. Americans began sending turkeys to the president around the same time we started celebrating Thanksgiving, and the tradition of pardoning them began with Clinton in 1999. Only one turkey is officially pardoned, but there is always a backup turkey, and you can read their names here.

En suite (76): A bathroom directly connected to a bedroom.

CNN (76): Cable News Network, a liberal news station.

Republican primary debate (76): A debate between candidates for the Republican (conservative) party, held before the party decides who they will nominate for the presidential race.

Summer home in Majorca (79): Majorca is an island in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Spain.

Jurassic Park* (79): A movie in which dinosaurs escape from their cages and the main characters have to escape them.

Autoerotic asphyxiation (80): “erotic asphyxiation” is essentially sexual choking; if it’s “autoerotic” it would be Alex doing it to himself.

Silk pillow over my face (80): This may be a reference to the Shakespeare play Othello where (spoilers, though it’s been out for like 500 years) the title character smothers his wife with a pillow after rumors that she’s cheating on him.

Jaffa cakes (80): A British snack with a sponge cake base, a layer of orange jam, and topped with chocolate.

Jabba (81): Jabba the Hutt, a Star Wars character.

Great British Bake Off (81): A famously wholesome baking show that is technically a competition between home bakers from around the UK, though it is far from competitive.

Scandinavian skin care (81): Many luxury skincare brands have come from Scandinavian countries in the past few years.

Chopped (82): An incredibly competitive American cooking show.

The Manson tapes (82): A series of tapes revealing the dealings of the Manson Cult, which was responsible for nine murders in 1969.

David Bowie (82): A famously bisexual British actor and musician known for his bold presentation and stagecraft. He was admitted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. (listen here and here)

Seinfeld (82): An American sitcom from the 1990s. Wayne Knight, who played Dennis Nedry and had a very bad time in Jurassic Park, was also in Seinfeld.

Jeff Goldblum (82): An American actor (and force of chaos) known for his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, a scientist who sees from the very beginning that maybe breeding massive predators is a bad idea.

The Post (84): The Washington Post

Oval Office (84): The president’s office in the White House

Lincoln Bedroom (85): A guest bedroom that is part of the Lincoln Suite in the White House, named after President Lincoln, who used to room as an office.

Chocolate shop on the first floor (85): According to the White House Museum online, there is a chocolate shop on the bottom floor of the White House that prepares the chocolates served in the White house.

The Atlantic (85): An American editorial magazine that covers news, politics, education, science, and more. It targets serious readers and “thought leaders”. (More)

Truman Balcony (85): A balcony overlooking the White House’s South Lawn (in the “back” of the White House).

Mijo (85): For those who haven’t read my fic “Speaking My Language” here, “mijo” is Spanish term of endearment that translates directly to “my son” (Mi hijo)

Washington monument (86): A tall obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, DC, dedicated to George Washington.

Eisenhower Building (86): The Eisenhower Executive Offices Building is a building that houses the executive Office of the President, including the Vice President’s office.

Los Bastardos (86): Spanish for “The bastards”.

Caldillo (86): a spicy Mexican beef stew.

Masa (86): A corn/maize dough used for making corn tortillas, tamales, and other Mexican/Latin American dishes.

Valedictorian (87): A student who ranks the highest in their graduating class in high school.

New Orleans (87): A city in Louisiana known for its vibrant blend of French and Creole culture, its jazz scene, and its Mardi Gras celebration. It is also Casey McQuinston’s hometown.

AP classes (90): Advanced placement classes are high school classes taught at a college level; at the end of the year, students take a test to determine whether or not they will get college credit for it.

Hanukkah (90): A Jewish celebration honoring the second rededicating of the temple in Jerusalem. It is not traditionally a major Jewish holiday, but it has become one of the best-known due to the fact that it occurs near Christmas every year.

“Good King Wenceslas” (91): A traditional Christmas song about a king who braves the cold to give alms to a poor peasant on Christmas.

Jim-jams (91): Pajamas.

Tiger sharks over a baby seal (91): According to my roommate, who loves sharks, tiger sharks are one of the most vicious types of sharks. They’re bottom feeders, so they wouldn’t necessarily get seals too often, but if they got one, they would be all over it.

Bougie (95): Fancy or upper class (from the French “bourgeoisie”).

Real Housewife (95): The Real Housewives of [City] are a string of semi-popular American reality TV shows.

East Room (95): An event and reception room in the White House.

Tramp stamp (96): A tattoo on the lower back, associated with less savory activities and a general air of trashiness.

Zac Posen (97): A gay, Jewish fashion designer from New York, known for his glamorous evening gowns and cocktail dresses.

Middle-shelf whiskey (97): A “middle shelf” alcohol is one step up from the cheapest option; a whiskey is a dark alcohol associated with Texas/the West.

“American Girl” (98): A 1976 rock song that has become a rock classic. (Listen here)

Center for American Progress (98): A liberal public policy research and advocacy organization.

Pez (candy) (99): A type of small, sweet pieces of candy that come from fancy, collectable Pez dispensers.

Sky writers (99): Sky writers use the trails of their airplanes to write things in the sky. It costs at least $3,500 for a single message.

“Get Low” (101): Despite its incredibly raunchy lyrics, this song was a common one at school dances in the early 2010s. I was in middle school in roughly 2010-2012, and I have vivid memories of people being into this song.

The Kid ‘n Play (102): A dance move pioneered by the hip-hop duo of the same name, loosely based on the Charleston. (see it here)

Vato (102): Mexican slang for “friend”, “person”, or “dude”.

Moët & Chandon (102): A luxury French champagne.

New Year’s Kiss (103): At least in the US, it’s traditionally considered good luck to kiss someone at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s.

Peach schnapps (103): Schnapps is a sweet, inexpensive, and very alcoholic drink.

Rookie NFL running back (103): A running back is a football position responsible for running with the ball. Most are either short and quick to avoid tackles or big and stocky to power through them.

Yacht kid (104): Someone rich.

Orion**(105): A winter northern hemisphere constellation of a hunter/warrior. According to Greek mythology, Orion was the only man (or person) the goddess Artemis ever loved, but she refused to give up her life with her huntresses for him. He began burning/destroying her forest in retribution, and she is forced to kill him.

America’s golden boy (105): A “golden boy” is a boy who is favored or put upon a pedestal.

Tequila (106): A type of alcohol that originates from central Mexico.

Bloke (106): British slang for a “regular dude” or everyday man.

Teen Vogue (106): An American magazine aimed at teenagers that used to focus on fashion and celebrity news, but has more recently shifted to dealing with serious social issues.

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*This movie is especially known for its special effects, which are incredible because they actually built animatronic dinosaurs and also got real scientists on the project to help them figure out how dinosaurs would move/act. After it came out, earth and environmental science departments around the world got a ton of funding to see if they could find any dinosaur DNA in fossils, as that’s a central part of the movie’s plot.

**According to a nerd astronomy class I took in like 4th grade, every culture who could see Orion saw a warrior, which is just... really cool to me. That so many people for so long saw the same thing in a set of stars.

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If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! And if you’d like to/are able, please consider buying me a ko-fi? I know not everyone can, and that’s fine, but these things take a lot of time/work and I’d really appreciate it! A massive thanks to @lyanna-wilson for the ko-fis the other day; they meant a ton!

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Chapter 1 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 5

#rwrb study guide #not fic #rwrb #rwrb analysis #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #henry fox mountchristen windsor x alex claremont diaz #bea fox mountchristen windsor #pez okonjo #june claremont diaz #nora holleran #super six #the white house trio #red white and royal blue #casey mcquiston #fic ref #reference

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wikitopx · 4 years

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Levallois-Perret is a commune in the northwestern part of the Parisian suburbs, in France.

It is 6.4 kilometers (3.97 miles) from the core of Paris and is the most densely inhabited city in Europe. Levallois-Perret is home to the grandest historical monuments, squares, parks, and museums, etc and its attractions are the perfect havens for the seekers of modernity and history.

[toc]

1. Arc de Triomphe

The Triumph Arc or the “Arc de Triomphe”, built between 1806 and 1836, is the most stupendous of all triumphal arches and is built in an ornamental style typical of the first half of the 19th century.

It stands at the center of Charles de Gaulle Square, otherwise called the Star Square or the “Place de l'Étoile”, and it is situated at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The triumphal arch pays tribute to the individuals who battled for France, specifically, those who fought in the Napoleonic wars.

Engraved within and at the highest point of its curves are all the names of the generals and their wars. It is essential to note that there is really no street-level access for pedestrians to the Arc de Triomphe.

What’s more, kindly don’t endeavor it, it’s extremely risky for anybody to attempt. But, there is an underground passage for pedestrian - it’s advisable to get off at the Charles de Gaulle Metro - Etoile through lines one, two or six or the RER, through line A.

2. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is found on the grounds of the Arc de Triomphe and honors an unknown soldier, killed during World War I. This tomb has made the Arc de Triomphe a revered patriotic site. On 11 November 1923, the flame was ignited for the first time. Since that moment, it has never been extinguished.

3. Place Charles de Gaulle

The Place Charles de Gaulle is also known as the Place de l'Etoile or Star Square, because of the streets that intersect here, making a star-like shape. However, it is most famous for being the area of the Arc de Triomphe.

In 1970, after the death of General De Gaulle, the place was named “Place Charles de Gaulle” to honor him, despite the fact that many individuals still call it by its other names.

4. La Défense

The idea to erect the great arch of La Défense was bolstered by the previous late president Francois Mitterrand, who wanted to build a 20th-century rendition of the Arc de Triomphe. Designed by the Danish engineer Spreckelsen, La Défense is more of a cube-like building than an arch.

The 106 meters (348 feet) wide building contains a central entranceway and the edges of the cube contain offices, whereas the top contains a viewing deck, that until 2010, was open to the public.

5. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a sumptuous neo-Byzantine edifice, erected in the year 1861. Roman Kouzmine, who was the architect of Tsar Alexander II, was the person in charge of completing this Orthodox church.

The edifice was visualized as a center when Russian resettlement in Paris was rising, and it continues to be at the heart of today’s Russian community. The building has witnessed a wide range of prominent events, such as Picasso’s marriage and Vassily Kandinsky’s funeral.

6. Jean-Jacques Henner National Museum

Located in a 19th-century chateau, the Musée National Jean-Jacques Henner is devoted to exhibiting the great works of the famous painter Jean-Jacques Henner.

The collections relate to Henner’s life, from his first days in Alsace to his residence in the Medici Villa and, at last, his stay in Paris, where he was a flourishing painter and among the most prominent of his time.

The various works from Henner’s studio give an understanding of how an effective painter worked during the Impressionist period.

7. Des Chanteraines Park

A few steps away from the city, the Chanteraines Park, stretching for more than 82 hectares (202.6 acres), is an invitation to a change of scenery. It offers a wide assortment of activities to unwind and relax in nature.

With its two lakes, natural reserve, lawns, valleys, groves and gardens, it features water sports, a farm and organic vegetable garden, fishing area, circus, a pony club, and riding school. Chanteraines Park is a place for reflection and unwinding, with games and amusement, for all.

8. Monceau Park

The construction of Parc Monceau goes back to the 17th-century. Situated in the eighth arrondissement, it is presently a standout amongst the most lovely and rich gardens, in Paris.

Guests enter the park through a vast, wrought iron entryway, enhanced with gold. The promenade is full of surprises, with various statues, a Renaissance arcade of the old Paris Town Hall, awesome trees, various types of birds and a large pond.

Monceau Park is surrounded by lavish buildings and extravagant mansions, including the Cernuschi Museum.

9. Des Batignolles Square

Drawn from the model of English gardens, the Square des Batignolles seems significantly bigger than its genuine range. The cave, the cascading stream, and the small lake are reminiscent of a scene in the Bois de Boulogne.

This square contains treasures for those who open their eyes to the miracles of nature: magnificent trees, including willow, hazelnut, and ash as well as a lemon tree and a giant sequoia.

The garden additionally offers numerous activities for the kids, who can stop for a minute in the little greenhouse. It has become one of the landmarks of the garden, since its construction in 1996.

10. De la Jatte Island

Île de la Jatte is two kilometers (1.2 miles) from Paris. Since the end of the 19th-century, it has been a place for gatherings and recreation for Parisians, who come for the canoeing and to rest and unwind.

The impressionist painters, particularly Georges Seurat, gave this island some notoriety, with his piece called “Un Dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte” or “A Sunday evening at La Grande Jatte.”

Lovers of nature and active recreation, shouldn’t delay to go for a stroll along the banks and appreciate the quiet and serenity of the area as well as the numerous restaurants on the island.

More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Chesterfield, UK

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-levallois-perret-708873.html

#Wikitopx #Wikitopx - Feed

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keremulusoy · 5 years

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ERNEST HEMINGWAY WEN TO THE KUBA AND SETTLED IN A HOTEL IN HAVANA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. HE PUT INTO WORDS ON ALL OCCASIONS THAT HE SPENT HIS YEARS WHICH HE CALLED MENTALLY MOST CREATIVE YEARS IN THERE.

American novelist and journalist Ernest Hemingway fell in love with Cuba at the first step into the shore. He built his dream home there, discovered that he enjoyed fishing, wrote some of his most famous novels on the island and established an eternal bond with the Cuban people. Hemingway has left a lot of heritage after his death in this region. He immortalized his great love he had felt for The Old Man and The Sea with expressing it “I am feeding from there”.

He was not one of those who discovered himself later, he knew himself well. He knew what he wanted. Hemingway, who was born in Chicago in 1899, actually began his writing career in high school. His articles were published regularly in the school newspaper. In his writings, he used the nickname “Ring Lardner Jr.” After high school, despite all the pressure from his family, he decided to become a newspaper reporter instead of going to university. During those years when the First World War continued, he started to work as an ambulance driver in the Red Cross.

He lived the most productive period of his career between the years 1925-29 and was named among the most successful writers in the world. He wrote some of the most important works of him; In Our Time, the Sun also Rises, Men without Women, A Farewell to Arms; in this period. Then, during World War II, he went to Cuba and settled in a hotel in Havana. On every occasion, he mentioned that he spent the years that he called mentally most creative years, in there. Hemingway was a passion for danger, love, and adventure. In addition to his writings, he also left his mark on the world with these aspects. The four marriages he made, the two world wars he attended, the Spanish Civil War, his world travels in all directions, his safaris in Africa and the kinds of adventures not included in the ranking contributed him to have a lifestyle that worth documenting. The fact that he penned them all was the breeze from his own experiences. The strength of his pen brought absolute success. Everything he has experienced has strengthened the character of this man who always had a realistic, featured and deep perspective. These characteristics, with his own words; made him look more and more like Cuba. He lived in Cuba for 22 years. When they came to these soils with his whole family for the first time in 1928 as a part of his trip to Spain, he was so mesmerized and wanted to stay here for three more days, winking at his ships to go. He shared many times with his associates that he felt like he put down roots in there and he had a special connection with there. He said in a letter “I shall only try to understand Cuba for the rest of my life”.

He returned to this land in 1932 for the Marlin swordfish that he had hunted in the Cuban waters. He began to write his first chronic history writings and never left this island again. When it was asked about this issue, he talked about his loyalty with saying; “I love this country, I feel like at home. Where a man feels like a house outside his birthplace, that is his real home.”

In 1933, he bought the fishing boat Pilar to navigate the Cuban waters. He studied the taxonomy of the rare swordfish Marlin species in Cuba with his friend Charles Cadwalader, the director of the Philadelphia Academy. This trip was an important scientific activity for the scientific world.

Hemingway’s tastes were very clear. At first, the city of Havana, fish, boxing, women, and cigar… His shelter in Havana, to where he came as a resident tourist during the Marlin fish season, was the Ambos Mundos Hotel, very close to the port. The room numbered 511 on the fifth floor, where she stayed on numerous occasions, was transformed at the will of him into a home by arranging it again. This room, which currently serves as a museum, is flooded with visitors. You can easily understand how much the author felt that he belonged there as you wander in this room, where his books, typewriter, glasses and countless personal belongings are exhibited. Obviously, it was an indescribable pleasure for him to watch the city from a place that has all the beauties of Havana. We can imagine that, he was lost in the entrance of the harbor through the large window of his hotel room opening to Havana, tasting the salts from the ocean, the cathedral’s bell tower, the rooftops of buildings, the Cuban flag fluttering in El Morro; on his breaks while writing the chronicles of the newspaper. It was located very close to the harbor, which the wind used to protect its boat in the crowded city district, where it was not clear. He wrote his novels “A Farewell to Arms” and “For Whom The Bells Toes”, and bought his farm where he would spend the rest of his life with the money he earned from the novels. In the early 1940s, the region, which was exposed to a lot of people, began to tire hem out and he began to live in de Paula, San Francisco until 1961. The house is now used as a museum.

With its architecture, interior decoration, landscaping and decoration materials, it has a full characteristic of an ethnographic museum for the region. Even those who travel this place with digesting it can have detailed information about the historical and cultural structure of the region. His boat named “Pilar” is on display at the entrance of the museum house, which is allowed to visit from outside. The fact that cats and dogs are buried in a private graveyard in their own garden is a sign of how much they care about their friends…. He wrote the novel “The Old Man and the Sea” which belonged to Havana, in this house, and his drafts and notes are preserved as is. Hemingway felt that every point of Havana was his own, and he believed that there were traces of this city in his past. Every place had a different meaning to him. You can find this admiration in the sentence written by the author on the walls of La Bodeguita Restaurant; “My La Bodeguita’daMojito, my El Floridita’da Daiquiri”.

Another stopover point is the Terramar Restaurant which is now full of Hemingway memories. The picture of Ernest Hemingway, who spent all his free time sunbathing and resting in Cojimar Bay, and swordfish, was able to see on the wall of the military barracks here. The privilege of being the only foreign painting on the walls of a public institution in Cuba belongs to Ernest Hemingway.

“The Old Man and the Sea”, which deserved the Pulitzer Prize in 1954, is a Cuban chronicle in which he expresses the feeling of that land and based on a real character. It is possible to see traces from Havana in every section of the work. In the taste of a diary of a process which he has been unable to fish for eighty-four days with a Cojimar fisherman, called Anselmo Hernandez… The anecdote of the novel dedicated to him was well-known. “Man is not created for defeat, a human being can be destroyed but never be defeated”. In fact, this novel where he wrote his own war is the war of life between the sea and the old man with patience. “I tried to write a real old man, a real teenager, a real sea, a real fish and real sharks. If I’ve built them well enough, it could mean a lot. When you write something good and sincerely, then you realize that it’s a lot of other things.” says Hemingway about this book. Love for Ernest Hemingway is experienced in Cuba at the same intensity today. They speak of respect for one of the state elders, and the name “Papa” sounds magical for them. The fact that Fidel Castro built a monument in Havana after the author’s death explains it. Ernest Hemingway ended with a hunting rifle in Idaho on July 2, 1961, saying, “What we add to life from ourselves, that is what we take from life.”

NOTES:

Ernest Hemingway was sent to Istanbul in 1922 as a war correspondent while he was working in the Toronto Daily News. During a month spent in our country, he reported news about Izmir Fire, Mudanya, Lausanne, Edirne and Istanbul to his newspaper.

Immediately after he learned that he won the Nobel Prize, in an interview with journalists, Hemingway said that “I have to say that the winner of this award is the Cuban people. The details of all my works that deserve this award have been considered in Cuba have been written together with my fishermen friends from Cojimar. For me, this place has always been adopted as a homeland with this work.” and celebrated the joy of the prize with the fishermen of Cojimar. With this behavior of him, the people of Cojimar admired him and called him “Papa”.

He did not complete the day without stopping by El Floridita in his daily life, during the period he stayed in Havana. This restaurant-bar was the haunt of seafarers, diplomats, writers, doctors, athletes, FBI agents, bank managers, where the author had the opportunity to talk with people from all over the world. As a matter of fact, he always recognized the protagonists of his writings here. This is why you can see a bronze Hemingway statue leaning on elbows on the mahogany bar counter in Floridita.

“The principle I believe in ethics is; if you feel good after doing something, it is ethical; if you feel bad, it’s unethical.”

Ernest Hemingway

By: Dilek Alp

*This article was published in the March-April issue of Marmara Life.

An Ecstatical Wind Blew In Havana Ernest Hemingway ERNEST HEMINGWAY WEN TO THE KUBA AND SETTLED IN A HOTEL IN HAVANA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR.

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learningrendezvous · 7 years

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Architectural Design

SUNCHEON CITY, KOREA: HOLDING THE ECO-LINE

By Charles Jencks

American-born Charles Jencks is a landscape architect, theorist and critic best known for his Garden of Cosmic Speculation, near Dumfries, Scotland, and his writings on post-modernism. He has designed landscapes projects around the world, including Parco Portello in Milan, Northumberlandia near Newcastle, England and Wu Chi at the Olympic Forest Park in Beijing. Jencks is also co-founder of the Maggie's Centres - a series of cancer care centres designed By leading modern architects, named in honour of his late wife Maggie Keswick. In this talk, Jencks discusses his recent project Holding the Eco-line, a landscape design for the Suncheon Bay expo in 2013. He explains the development of the design and his Korean hosts' reaction to it, as well as the importance of symbolism in his work, and his latest creation the Crawick Multiverse, inspired By cutting edge theories of the origin of the universe.

DVD-ROM / 2015 / 39 minutes

BREAKING INTO CHINA: FENGMING MOUNTAIN PARK

By Martha Schwartz

Martha Schwartz first came to prominence with her Boston bagel garden - a radical manifesto for a more artful approach to landscape design. Her recent projects include Dublin Docklands Grand Canal Square in Dublin, Mesa Arts Centre in Arizona and Jacob Javits Convention Center Plaza, New York. In this talk, she describes her project Fengming Mountain Park in the Chinese city Chongqing for a major Chinese developer. The project is a rectangular section cut through a large construction site designed to showcase the sales centre for a series of forthcoming residential towers. Building on the idea of zigzagging movement of water down a mountain, she has created a processional route across the site, marked by a series of monumental orange cut-steel structures - like origami mountains on legs - that glow at night. This is a truly exciting time to be working in China, she says, with construction taking place on an epic scale and developers just beginning to appreciate landscape architecture as art-form.

CD-ROM / 2014

NEW RIJKSMUSEUM, THE

Director: Oeke Hoogendijk

In 2003, the ambitious renovation of one of the world's greatest museums began. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, home to a glorious collection including masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer, was supposed to reopen its doors in 2008 after five years of construction. But from the start, the project was opposed by unyielding bureaucrats and public resistance. The museum directors battled politicians, designers, curators and even the Dutch Cyclists Union as they struggled to complete the renovation and put its massive collection back on public display. Five years late, with costs exceeding half a billion dollars, the museum finally reopened.

Oeke Hoogendijk's epic documentary captures the entire story from design to completion, offering a fly-on-the-wall perspective on one of the most challenging museum construction projects ever conceived. With its decade-long scope, the film reveals a surprisingly dramatic story that art and architecture lovers will not want to miss.

DVD (Dutch, English, French, and Spanish with English Subtitles) / 2014 / 131 minutes

STRANGE AND FAMILIAR: ARCHITECTURE ON FOGO ISLAND

Director: Marcia Connelly & Katherine Knight

In a rapidly urbanized world, what does the future hold for traditional rural societies? As Fogo Island, a small community off the coast of Newfoundland, struggles to sustain its unique way of life in the face of a collapse of its cod fishing industry, architect Todd Saunders and social entrepreneur Zita Cobb's vision for positive change results in the envisioning, designing and building of strikingly original architecture that will become a catalyst for social change.

Experience this staggeringly beautiful place and how the community and local workers, together with Saunders and Cobb, come together and play a role in this creative process during a time of optimism and uncertain hope. Change is coming to Fogo Island.

DVD / 2014 / 54 minutes

SAGRADA: THE MYSTERY OF CREATION

Director: Stefan Haupt

One of the most iconic structures ever built, Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia is a unique and fascinating architectural project conceived by Antoni Gaudi in the late 19th century. More than 125 years after construction began, the basilica still remains unfinished. Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation celebrates Gaudi's vision and the continuing work of architects as they strive to complete the colossal project while delving into the process of artistic creation in a historical context.

La Sagrada Familia was commissioned by the Order of St Joseph in 1882. After conflicts arose between the Order and the original architect, 31 year old Antoni Gaudi was hired to complete the design. A devout Catholic and architectural prodigy, Gaudi envisioned a place of worship that combined elements of classic French Gothic style and the curvilinear, organic aspects of the budding Art Nouveau school.

Despite decades of delays, thousands of artisans, laborers, and designers have contributed to the ambitious and glorious landmark. Inspired by Gaudi's vision, the film explores our fundamentally human search for the meaning of existence, and the quest for creative expression.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Catalonian metropolis, the documentary investigates the structural developments of the Sagrada Familia while allowing the audience time to observe, perceive, and reflect upon the historical, artistic and personal significance of the basilica.

DVD (Catalan, Spanish, French, and German with English Subtitles) / 2013 / 90 minutes

SUKKAH CITY

Director: Jason Hutt

When best-selling author Joshua Foer (Moonwalking with Einstein) began to build his first sukkah, a small hut that Jews build and dwell in every fall for the holiday of Sukkot, he wanted to move beyond the generic plywood boxes and canvas tents that have become the unimaginative status quo. He discovered that while the bible outlines the basic parameters for what a sukkah should look like and how it should function, it leaves plenty of room for variation and interpretation. Foers thought, 'what if contemporary architects and designers were challenged to design and construct twelve radical sukkahs? What would they come up with?' And so was born the design competition and exhibition known as "Sukkah City."

Sukkah City chronicles the architecture competition created by bestselling author Joshua Foer and Roger Bennett (Reboot co-founder) that explored the creative potential of the ancient Jewish sukkah and created a temporary exhibition of 12 newly designed sukkahs in the heart of New York City. The film goes behind the scenes of the jury day, the construction, and the exhibition to provide an entertaining and inspiring portrait of the project's visionary architects, planners and structures and celebrates an exciting, singular moment in the American Jewish experience.

DVD / 2013 / 67 minutes

TINY: A STORY ABOUT LIVING SMALL

Director: Merete Mueller & Christopher Smith

What is home? And how do we find it? Through one couple's attempt to build a Tiny House with no building experience, this charming documentary raises questions about sustainability, good design, and the American Dream.

From 1970 to 2010, the average size of a new house in America has almost doubled. Yet in recent years, many are redefining their American Dream to focus on flexibility, financial freedom, and quality of life over quantity of space. These self-proclaimed "Tiny Housers" live in homes smaller than the average parking space, often built on wheels to bypass building codes and zoning laws. TINY takes us inside six of these homes stripped to their essentials, exploring the owners' stories and the design innovations that make them work.

TINY is a coming-of-age story for a generation that is more connected, yet less tied-down than ever, and for a society redefining its priorities in the face of a changing financial and environmental climate. More than anything, TINY invites its viewers to dream big and imagine living small.

DVD / 2013 / 62 minutes

BREEDING ARCHITECTURE

By Farshid Moussavi (FOA) & Alejandro Zaera-Polo (FOA)

The architects Farshid Moussavi (from Iran) and Alejandro Zaera-Polo (from Spain), husband and wife, met at Harvard, but their collaboration only started when working at OMA in Rotterdam. There they began working on competitions. Then they taught at the AA, London. It was there that they won the competition for the Osanbashi Port Terminal building in Yokohama, and that was the beginning of their practice FOA. Many other commissions have followed. Included here are the BBC Music Centre, White City, London, the S.E.Coastal Park in Barcelona, and a project for the World Trade Center, New York. They are highly inventive designers. No one of their buildings resembles another. To them, style is anathema. They have been exploring ideas of convergence between landscape and infrastructure; and enjoy working with other people in a collaborative situation, where the client is tough and the project grows in discussion. No matter the constraints, they say they have a lot of fun.

CD-ROM / 2007

ISAMU NOGUCHI

By Shoji Sadao

The architect Shoji Sadao, partner of Buckminster Fuller, met Isamu Noguchi through him and worked with both of them for many years, eventually becoming a partner also to Noguchi. He is now Director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation in Long Island City, New York. Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), the world-famous Japanese American sculptor, transformed landscapes and sculpted space into places of symbolism, mythology and abstraction. Sadao describes some of the landscape work they did together. He also relates how Noguchi came to design the bamboo and paper Akari lamps. Noguchi, he concludes, "always wanted to do something timeless"... "eternal verities were what Noguchi looked for".

CD-ROM

SEVEN THEMES

By Niall McLaughlin

The young architect Niall McLaughlin identifies seven themes underlying his work: the use of light, the history of place; materials and making determining the architecture, buildings as metabolisms or ecosystems; building space in the landscape, landscape providing metaphors for buildings, and collaboration. This last he says is a way of 'ambushing his own imagination' and 'a route into originality'. Each of the themes is discussed in relation to one or more of his projects, each solution unique and innovative: small wonder that early in his career he received the accolade of Young Architect of the Year. Born in Geneva, McLaughlin was raised in Ireland. After his architectural training at University College, Dublin (1979-84) he worked for Scott Tallon Walker in Dublin and London, and in 1991 set up his own practice in London while teaching at Oxford Brookes University and later at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

CD-ROM

TALE OF TWO CITIES, A

By Kathryn Findlay

After graduating from the AA, the Scottish born architect Kathryn Findlay spent 20 years in Japan. In 1987 she set up in partnership there with Eisaku Ushida. Now she is back in London, faced with the switch in cultures and its influence on her work. The Japanese, she says, see the creation of space as a total design involving all the senses. "What is solid and what is temporary becomes much more gradual and fused, and begins to make you more aware of invisible forces, energy, factors that create spaces." Curvilinear, fluid and flowing forms are the basis of most of Ushida Findlay's work, merged with spiral geometry into one organic object. Continuous primary surfaces link the interior and exterior of a house whose shape is formed around a meandering route generated by the circulation system. Large spaces may dissolve into smaller spaces and merge into the landscape. Familiar materials are used in unfamiliar ways to give a twist to the sense of reality. The invisible is made tangible. Such concepts are illustrated in the projects described by Kathryn Findlay in her recorded talk.

CD-ROM

DESIGNING FOR CRICKET

By David Morley

The English architect David Morley trained at Cambridge and the AA. Working with Norman Foster on several projects, he set up their French office which was responsible for the Carre d'Art at Nimes. In 1987 he started his own practice in London and has designed a variety of buildings including a hospital extension, housing, halls of residence for two Oxford colleges and, not least, the award winning work at Lord's Cricket Ground, the subject of his recorded talk. Cricket is quintessentially an English game and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) which owns Lord's is the premier cricket club in the world. In the 1980's it recognised that its leading role should be reflected in the building environment it created. The Mound Stand by Michael Hopkins & Partners, the first example of this attitude, was such a success that they were encouraged to pursue excellence in architectural design in all the subsequent projects that they commissioned; also recognising the importance of unifying and linking individual separate buildings with a clear master plan for the entire grounds. David Morley & Partners were chosen to design three buildings and the master plan while Hopkins, Grimshaw and Future Systems are the authors of the remaining new structures.

CD-ROM

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN IS OUR TASK

By Serge Chermayeff

The late Serge Chermayeff was born in Russia and educated in Britain where he became a British subject and practised architecture before World War Two. But in 1940, he emigrated to the USA, became an American citizen and devoted his life to teaching environmental design. Many of to-day's leading architects have emerged from his courses benefited by his informed, analytical and incisive approach. First he was at Brooklyn College, NY. Then, in the 1940's, he went to work with Gropius at Harvard. In the 1960's, he joined Paul Rudolph at Yale where he remained until his retirement in 1970 with the title Professor Emeritus. At which point he felt free to travel and study planning in far-flung countries. All this he describes in his recorded talk. And he concludes: "As a teacher, my subject has always been 'environmental design', not 'architecture'. The experience gave me a clear view that professional involvements are not anything that can be frozen. They are constantly changing, growing, adjusting - a natural process, a constant inter-action between environment and the function. Nothing is ever finished, particularly in relation to planning. Everything obsolesces". Gropius once wrote to his students to the following effect: "Don't think that when you have done something it is of importance. Because what is important is that the thread of action behind your action will be picked up by somebody else. Your worth will be the judgement of those who pick up your work and carry it further".

CD-ROM

EXPLORING THE BOUNDARIES OF DESIGN

By Peter Rice

The late Peter Rice liked the title by which he was known in France, 'geometre', for he was as much a thinker and strategist as an engineer. He began his professional career with Ove Arup & Partners working on Sydney Opera House, and later formed part of the team that won the competition for the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Since then he has collaborated with Renzo Piano or Richard Rodgers (members of that team) as well as, briefly, with Frei Otto, and recently with Martin Francis and Ian Ritchie at La Villette. He has always been interested in the scale and detail of a building, detailing being a way of breaking down scale. With Piano he had the object of exploring the whole building process; also of working outside the building industry, for example investigating what a Fiat car might be like in the 1990's. He explored the extent to which computers and software technology can be used to predict and control the performance of a building, and the way in which different materials are expressed and how this influences their use in buildings - cast iron, steel, concrete, Ferro cement, glass, polyesters and plastics, polycarbonate. By continuing to experiment with different materials he hoped to maintain his inventiveness and avoid becoming repetitive as a designer.

CD-ROM

IDEA OF DESIGN, THE

By Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher, one of Britain's top graphic designers, was an art student in London in the 50's. But it was not until he studied and worked in the USA that he found his vocation. This in time led to his becoming design consultant to the Time Life group in London. At this point he also teamed up with Colin Forbes and Bob Gill to form the immediately successful partnership Fletcher Forbes & Gill. Later Gill left and the architect Theo Crosby' and the product designer Kenneth Grange' joined them, and the group changed its name to Pentagram and was able to offer a much enlarged range of services. They have numbered most of the world's prestigious industrial companies among their clients. In Fletcher's recording he is concerned with taking out of context the essential idea of his designs. Graphic design being a method of communicating ideas to people, he describes and illustrates many ways in which he has done this, demonstrating his fertile and innovative approach.

CD-ROM

REFURBISHMENT OF NEW YORK'S LINCOLN CENTER, THE (CHARLES RENFRO)

By Charles Renfro

Charles Renfro joined Diller and Scofidio, founded by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, in 1997. Since Renfro became a partner in 2004, the firm has been known as Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The practice first gained attention for its site-specific, landscape and multi-media work, most notably the Blur Building, a pavilion at the 2002 Swiss Expo. It completed its first major building, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston, in 2006. The renovation of the High Line, a formerly disused elevated railway line running along the west side of Manhattan, has become a much loved addition to the city since it opened in summer 2009. The second phase of the High Line opened in summer 2011. In this talk, Renfro discusses the firm's interventions at Lincoln Centre arts complex in Manhattan's Upper West Side. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the original campus, designed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by America's leading architects of the time and outlines Diller Scofidio + Renfro's approach to the refurbishment. He details the various phases of the project, which include opening up the Julliard music school and the Alice Tully concert hall, reworking Dan Kiley's landscape scheme for the North Plaza and re-energising Lincoln Center's front entrance, Robertson Plaza.

CD-ROM

SELF-DESIGNING STRUCTURES

By Frei Otto

German born architect Frei Otto started practice in Berlin in 1952, but in 1968 moved to Warmbronn near Stuttgart. Since 1964 he has been Professor and Director of the Institute of Lightweight Structures at the University of Stuttgart, and he has been a visiting professor at universities all over the world. Although he trained as an architect, his heart is in natural science. He seeks to understand how structures are made by Nature, how much energy and materials etc. are required, and the process by which these come together. His research has led to the design of tented structures that are remarkable for their diversity and inclusiveness - membrane structures, mesh-steel cable-nets, tree structures, asymmetrical self-supporting shells - built for any climate and in any shape or size. He has revived the tent as a leading species of modern tensile architecture. But, as he explains in his recorded talk, he does not only design 'tents'. The ideas developed for his own all-weather, indoor-outdoor, minimum-energy house have led to the ecological multi-storey housing he designed for the 1984 Berlin International Building Exhibition.. Man, he says, must stop destroying Nature and start to see himself as part of it. His opportunity is a nature-oriented technology; natural structures. Professor Otto adds a short statement in German at the end of the talk.

CD-ROM

http://www.learningemall.com/News/Architectural_Design_1703.html

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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Cecil Rhodes’ Grave in Zimbabwe Has Become an Awkward Tourist Attraction

The burial site of Cecil John Rhodes is seen at Matobo National Park in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / Associated Press

Skift Take: A grave is different than a monument, and it's smart of the government to see the commercial potential of Rhodes' grave for tourism. If you listen close, you can likely hear him spinning in it right now.

— Jason Clampet

The remains of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes lie under a slab of stone atop a granite hill in Zimbabwe, largely unscathed by political ferment over a man whose colonial legacy rankles many in Africa nearly a century after his death.

Lizards scamper around a grave that, while occasionally vandalized, attracts tourists and has been tolerated by longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe, who turned 93 last month. In this picturesque place, the burial site of a historical figure who is increasingly vilified seems secure, for now, in a country that has long accused Western powers of clinging to a colonial mindset.

Monuments to colonial rule have been removed in many countries across Africa, though some remain. There is debate over whether to erase symbols of an era of white domination on the continent or preserve them as cautionary reminders of the past.

“There are certain things in history which you must leave for posterity’s sake,” Dumiso Dabengwa, a former home affairs minister in Zimbabwe who is now an opposition politician. “People must get to know — when they hear about Cecil John Rhodes and they want to see the place where he would want to rest — and be able to make up their minds about the type of man that he was.”

Rhodes, prime minister of the Cape Colony at the southern tip of Africa in the late 19th century, made a fortune in gold and diamond mining and grabbed land from the local population. He was the namesake of territories that eventually became the nations of Zimbabwe — formerly Rhodesia — and Zambia. Accusations that he was a racist have tainted his association with education and philanthropy.

Statues of Rhodes, who died in 1902, were uprooted in Zimbabwean cities after independence from white minority rule in 1980. He became a polarizing figure again in 2015 when students defaced a statue of him at South Africa’s University of Cape Town, which removed the monument. Last year, the University of Oxford in Britain, which allocates scholarships named after Rhodes, said it would not take down a statue of its benefactor despite protests by some students.

The Rhodes grave lies in Matobo National Park, a United Nations heritage site where granite spires and other unusual rock formations captivate visitors, and where indigenous spirits are said to dwell. About 15,000 people visit the grave annually, some ascending to watch the sunset or sunrise, said Moira FitzPatrick, a regional director for a state agency that oversees Zimbabwe’s museums and monuments.

The grave generates badly needed cash in a country beset by economic turmoil. A foreign adult pays $15 to get into the park, and then another $10 to see the burial site. A Zimbabwean adult pays a total of $8.

Mugabe came to this area near Bulawayo in western Zimbabwe for his birthday celebrations last month, addressing thousands of supporters near a school named after Rhodes. While officials announced that the school would be renamed after Matobo — also called Matopo or Matopos by visitors — the president joked about the British empire builder.

“Where is the ghost or spirit of Rhodes coming from?” Mugabe said in the Shona language. “If he is to rise from the dead, I am not going to order the boys to fire one bullet or use an AK-47. I will order them to use a machine gun to crush that head like that of a cobra.”

Amid laughter from the audience, Mugabe continued: “We are not the ones who killed him. We don’t know where he died in South Africa but he demanded that he be buried here. The colonialists here in Zimbabwe listened to his wish, which was written in his will, and buried him here.”

Mugabe, who says he will run in elections next year, has not said where he will be buried. One strong possibility is the National Heroes Acre, a North Korean-built national monument in the capital, Harare, where independence leaders and other prominent Zimbabweans, many linked to Mugabe’s ruling party, are interred.

There has been talk of building a monument to indigenous heroes in the same place as the grave of Rhodes, who had an estate in the area and described the hill where he is buried as the “View of the World.”

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government takes an entrepreneurial approach.

The thinking, FitzPatrick said, is “if it’s a tourist spot, then let’s make some money.”

This article was written by Christopher Torchia from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

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