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Fact of the Day - SOMNATH TEMPLE

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Ruined Somnath temple, 1869

 

Did you know... that the Somnath temple located in Prabhas Patan near Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, India is believed to be the first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva? It is an important pilgrimage and tourist spot of Gujarat.  Reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by several invaders and rulers, the present temple was reconstructed in the Chaulukya style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in May 1951. The reconstruction was started under the orders of the Home Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel and completed after his death. (Wikipedia)

 

Interesting Facts About Somnath Temple Probably You Didn’t Know

The Somnath Temple is popular due to various legends connected to it. The place is an important pilgrimage and tourist spot..

 

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Present Somnath Temple.

 

  • Somnath Temple is believed to be the place where Lord Krishna ended his Lila and thereafter left for heavenly abode. 
  • The first Shiva temple at Somnath is believed to have been built at some unknown time in the past. 
  • Gujarat was raided by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1024, plundering the Somnath temple and breaking its sacred jyotirlinga.

 

Somnath Temple is a specimen of fine architecture of one of the 12 Jyotirlingas Shrines of Shiva. This place is believed to be the place where Lord Krishna ended his Lila and thereafter left for heavenly abode, therefore it is dubbed as Eternal Shrine. This legendary temple has been vandalized numerous times in history but with the help of some Hindu Kings, the temple was reshaped each time.

 

Somnath Temple is located in Veraval on the western coast of Gujarat, India. The temple is popular due to various legends connected to it. The place is an important pilgrimage and tourist spot. Lord Shiva has a strong connection here and also known as shrine eternal.

 

Somnath Temple History

According to popular tradition, the first Shiva temple at Somnath is believed to have been built at some unknown time in the past. The second temple has been built at the same site by the “Yadava kings” of Vallabhi around 649 CE. In 725 CE, Al-Junayd, the Arab governor of Sindh destroyed the second temple as part of his invasions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. In 815 CE, the Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II constructed the third temple, a huge structure of red sandstone.. 

 

The Chaulukya (Solanki) king Mularaja possibly built the first temple at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated a smaller earlier temple.. 

 

Somnath Temple Attacks

Gujarat was raided by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1024, plundering the Somnath temple and breaking its sacred jyotirlinga. Ghazni took away the wealth of almost 20 million dinars. As per historical records, the damage to the temple by was quite negligible because there are records of pilgrimages to the temple in 1038, which has no much mention of any damage to the temple.. 

 

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In14th century, Gujarati Muslim pilgrims were noted by Amir Khusrow to stop at

that temple to pay their respects before departing for the Hajj pilgrimage.. 

 

But claims are there that Mahmud had killed 50,000 devotees who tried to defend the temple. The temple at the time of Ghazni’s attack appears to have been a wooden structure, which is said to have decayed in time.

 

According to an inscription of 1169, Kumarapala rebuilt it in “excellent stone and studded it with jewels.” 

 

  • Then in 1299, the Somnath Temple was invaded by Alauddin Khalji’s army, led by Ulugh Khan. They defeated the Vaghela king Karna and sacked the Somnath temple. Legends state that the Jalore ruler Kanhadadeva later recovered the Somnath idol and freed the Hindu prisoners, after an attack on the Delhi army near Jalore. However, some other sources state that the idol was taken to Delhi, where it was thrown to be trampled under the feet of Muslims.
  • The Somnath Temple was rebuilt by Mahipala I, the Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the lingam was installed by his son Khengara sometime between 1331 and 1351.
  • In14th century, Gujarati Muslim pilgrims were noted by Amir Khusrow to stop at that temple to pay their respects before departing for the Hajj pilgrimage.
  • In 1395, the temple was again destroyed for the third time by Zafar Khan, the last governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate and later founder of Gujarat Sultanate.
  • In 1546, the Portuguese who were based in Goa attacked ports and towns in Gujarat including Somnath Temple and destroyed several of its structures.. 

 

Somnath temple to Dwarka

Dwarka is an ancient city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is very near to Somnath temple and due to its relevance to Hindu pilgrimage; people do tend to visit this place also.. 

The magnificent Temple of Dwarka has an elaborately tiered main shrine, a carved entrance and a black-marble idol of Lord Krishna.. 

 

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Somnath Temple said to have been safely hiding the famous

Syamantak Mani within the hollowness of Shivalinga. . 

 

The road distance between Dwarka and Somnath is 231 km and the aerial distance from Dwarka to Somnath is 210 km. One can also cover the distance through train which is almost 398 km distant... 

 

Here are some facts that are attached to this sacred and architecturally marvellous temple.

  1. The present-day Somnath Temple was built in five years, from 1947 to 1951 and was inaugurated by then President of India Dr Rajendra Prasad.
  2. Somnath Temple said to have been safely hiding the famous Syamantak Mani within the hollowness of Shivalinga, the Philosopher’s stone, which is associated with Lord Krishna. The stone is said to be magical, which was capable of producing gold. It is also believed that stone had alchemic and radioactive properties and thus it remains floating above the ground.
  3. The temple finds its reference in the sacred texts of Hindus like Shreemad Bhagavat, Skanda Purana, Shivpuran, and Rig-Veda. This signifies the importance of this temple as one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in India.
  4. According to records, the site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times as it was said to be the junction of three rivers, Kapila, Hiran and the mythical Saraswati. The meeting point was called as Triveni Sangam and is believed to be the place where Soma, the Moon-god bathed and regained his lustre. According to Swami Gajanand Saraswati (a Hindu scholar), the first temple was built 7, 99, 25,105 years ago as derived from the traditions of Prabhas Khand of Skanda Puran.
  5. The temple is said to be located at such a place that there is no straight-line land between Somnath seashore till Antarctica continent. In a Sanskrit inscription, found on the Arrow-Pillar called Baan-Stambh is stated that the temple stands at a point on the Indian piece of land, which happens to be the first point on land in the north to the south-pole on that particular longitude.

 

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The saga of Somnath temple is related to moon god and curse of his father in law

Daksha Prajapati.. 

 

  1. According to the text of Skanda Purana, the name of Somnath Temple will change every time the world is reconstructed. It is believed when Lord Brahma will create a new world after ending the one we are living, Somnath will acquire a new name of Pran Nath Temple.
  2. On the walls of Somnath Temple, the sculptures of Lord Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu can be seen.
  3. According to another reference in the Skanda Purana, there are about 6 Brahmas. This is the era of 7th Brahma who is called Shatanand.
  4. The flag mast on the peak of Somnath Temple is 37 feet long and it changes 3 times a day.
  5. The saga of Somnath temple is related to moon god and curse of his father in law Daksha Prajapati.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Somnath Temple  |  Facts about Somnath Temple

 

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Saturday's Fact of the Day - LOLLIPOPS

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Whirly Pop Lollipops

 

Did you know.... that a lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker, sticky-pop, etc. Lollipops are available in many flavors and shapes. (Wikipedia)

 

HISTORY

The idea of an edible candy on a stick is very simple, and it is probable that the lollipop has been invented and reinvented numerous times. The first confectioneries that closely resemble what we call lollipops date to the Middle Ages, when the nobility would often eat boiled sugar with the aid of sticks or handles.

 

The invention of the modern lollipop is still something of a mystery but a number of American companies in the early 20th century have laid claim to it. According to the book Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World, they were invented by George Smith of New Haven, Connecticut, who started making large hard candies mounted on sticks in 1908. He named them after a racehorse of the time, Lolly Pop - and trademarked the lollipop name in 1931.

 

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The term 'lollipop' was recorded by English lexicographer Francis Grose in 1796. The term may have derived from the term "lolly" (tongue) and "pop" (slap). The first references to the lollipop in its modern context date to the 1920s. Alternatively, it may be a word of Romany origin being related to the Roma tradition of selling candy apples on a stick. Red apple in the Romany language is loli phaba.

 

Ever been a sucker for suckers?
A majority of us know them as lollipops or suckers. Whatever you call them, there’s one thing we know for sure----they’re delicious. In honor of National Lollipop Day, we've shared some fun (and strange) facts about the popular, hard, confectionery candy. Here are 10 random facts about lollipops:

 

1. The largest lollipop was created by See’s Candies

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See’s Candies created the massive sugary giant on July 18, 2012 in Burlingame, California. The 7,003-pound, chocolate-flavored lollipop was 4 feet 8.75 inches in length, 3 feet 6 inches in width, and 5 feet 11 inches in height. (To put this in perspective, the lollipop is 1 inch taller than Kendall Jenner!)

 

2. Lil Wayne aka Weezy F. Baby made a song about Lollipops in his 2008 hit “Lollipop”.

 

 

Side Fact: "Lollipop" was the highest-selling ringtone of 2008.

 

3. Speaking of songs about lollipops, Ronald & Ruby recorded the iconic hit “Lollipop” in 1958.

 

 

The 60-year-old bubble gum pop song was inspired when songwriter, Julius Dixson, was late for a songwriting session with Beverly Ross. He explained that he was late because his daughter had gotten a lollipop stuck in her hair.

 

4. $90 for a lollipop?

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Feeling bougie? Imagine paying $90 for the world’s most expensive lollipop. DeLafée sells luxurious strawberry-flavored lollipops with edible gold. Buy your bae one of these lollipops so they know it’s real...

 

5. Guys, we’re having lollipops for dinner!

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Who said lollipops had to be sweet? You can now combine your need for candy and bacon in this quirky combination.

 

6. There is also a record for the longest chain of people licking lollipops!

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The Coordinadora de Peñas de organized the sweet event to take place September 7th, 2008 in Valladolid, Spain. The chain of jolly lollipop eaters involved 12,831 people. 

 

7. BRB, gotta make 16 million lollipops today.

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The O.G. candy company, Tootsie Roll, makes and wraps over 16 million lollipops a day, more lollipops than anyone else produces in the world. I just want to know how I can put in an application to wrap lollipops for a living.

 

8. George Smith invented the first lollipop

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Before there was Willy Wonka, George Smith of New Haven, Connecticut invented the first modern lollipop. Smith added a stick to the confectionery sugar to make them easier to eat.

 

9. There’s no age limit on lollipops

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The candy company, Lollyphile, produces a variety of beer flavored ones. Not feeling up for beer? Lollyphile also offers flavors in merlot, chardonnay, cabernet, and absinthe.

 

10. Lollipops are medicine...well, kinda

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In 2011, it was reported that moms across the U.S allegedly ordered lollipops that had been licked by kids infected with chickenpox. The intention of ordering the infected lollipops was to introduce the virus to their own children in hopes of building immunity and avoiding vaccinations….that’s definitely not a fun treat to receive.

 

 

Click the link to learn more on the History of Lollipop Candy

 

Source: WIkipedia - Lollipop  |  National Lollipop Day that don't suck

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Fact of the Day - DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE 

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Did you know... that dramatic monologue is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character. M.H. Abrams notes the following three features of the dramatic monologue as it applies to poetry:

  • The single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment […].
  • This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the auditors' presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker.
  • The main principle controlling the poet's choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker's temperament and character. (Wikipedia)

 

Definition of Dramatic Monologue
Dramatic monologue means self-conversation, speech or talks which includes interlocutor presented dramatically. It means a person, who is speaking to himself or someone else speaks to reveal specific intentions of his actions. However, in literature, it is a poetic form or a poem that presents the speech or conversation of a person in a dramatic manner.

 

Features of a Dramatic Monologue
A dramatic monologue has these common features in them.

  • A single person delivering a speech on one aspect of his life
  • The audience may or may not be present
  • Speaker reveals his temperament and character only through his speech

Types of Dramatic Monologue
There are three major types of dramatic monologues such as:

 

  • Romantic monologue:

One of the most important influences on the development of the dramatic monologue is romantic poetry. However, the long, personal lyrics typical of the Romantic period are not dramatic monologues, in the sense that they do not, for the most part, imply a concentrated narrative. 

 

  • Philosophical and psychological monologue:

Poems such as William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey and Percy Bysshe Shelley's Mont Blanc, to name two famous examples, offered a model of close psychological observation and philosophical or pseudo-philosophical inquiry described in a specific setting. The conversation poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge are perhaps a better precedent. The genre was also developed by Felicia Hemans and Letitia Elizabeth Landon, beginning in the latter's case with her long poem The Improvisatrice.

 

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  • Conversational monologue:

The novel and plays have also been important influences on the dramatic monologue, particularly as a means of characterization. Dramatic monologues are a way of expressing the views of a character and offering the audience greater insight into that character's feelings. Dramatic monologues can also be used in novels to tell stories, as in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and to implicate the audience in moral judgements, as in Albert Camus The Fall and Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

 

 

Dramatic Monologue Examples from Literature
Example #1
My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

 

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That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus.”

 

This extract is from the famous monologue of a duke. He tells his audience, possibly the father of his new bride, about his last duchess who could not survive his severity. It is a type of psychological monologue which tells the psychological state of mind of the speaker. Browning has exposed the duke’s cruel state of mind through this poem “My Last Duchess.”

 

Example #2
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot

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Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question …

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.”

 

This extract is from the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot, a famous and popular modern poet. He has highlighted the thoughts of a modern young man who is madly in love but still hesitates from expressing it. Therefore, he faces an existential dilemma. The poem highlights his psychological state of mind through this contemporary monologue. This extract highlights this dilemma of hesitation in the very first line and then is repeated in the last line.

 

Example #3
Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath

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I have done it again.

One year in every ten

I manage it—

A sort of walking miracle, my skin

Bright as a Nazi lampshade,

My right foot

A paperweight,

My face a featureless, fine

Jew linen.

 

This extract is from the famous monologue of Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus.” It also highlights her psychological state of mind about her act of committing suicide and subsequent failure. She has likened this act to The Holocaust to create her own powerful monologue.

 

Example #4
Dover Beach” By Matthew Arnold

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The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

 

Dover Beach” is another example of such an autobiographical monologue of Matthew Arnold. He has highlighted his own situation and his reaction over the sorrow that he is experiencing. This monologue expressed his thoughts about his bride when they were on honeymoon on the same breach. He recalls the past and writes about the sea again.

 

Example #5
 “Hawk’s Monologue” by Ted Hughes

 

 “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth’s face upward for my inspection
.”

 

These are the first two stanzas of the famous monologue of Ted Hughes. This poem presents a hawk perching high on a tree, thinking about his power and dreams. It presents a psychological state of mind of personified megalomaniac bird how he thinks when he holds power over the lives of other weak birds. This dramatic monologue is an example of how powerful people think when they have control over others.

 

Dramatic Monologue Meaning and Function
A monologue functions as a tool to give vent to one’s thoughts. It provides an opportunity for the poets to use powerful words spoken through their characters. So, the characters can express themselves or their ideas without an obstacle or hindrance. A dramatic monologue is also a convenient device to present different characters and their inner thoughts through verses.

Source: Wikipedia - Dramatic Monologue  | Literary Devices  - Dramatic Monologue

 

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Fact of the Day - THE NUTCRACKER

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(Left to right) Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna, Stanislava Belinskaya

as Clara and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz, in the original production

of The Nutcracker (Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, 1892)

 

Did you know... that The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky? The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".

Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker. The ballet' score has been used in several film adaptations of Hoffmann's story. Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda

(Wikipedia)

 

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT THE NUTCRACKER SUITE AND TCHAIKOVSKY
Posted by StringOvation Team | Dec 21, 2019

 

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the most famous Russian composer of the 19th Century, although that acclaim didn’t come all at once. As with many composers who went unlauded in their own lifetimes, audience appreciation of Tchaikovsky’s works grew over an expanse of time.
 

It’s hard to imagine that the man who composed the world-famous and truly adored Nutcracker Suite and Swan Lake, among other famous classical music scores, was a hypochondriac, refused to drink anything but bottled water (especially eccentric in an era when commercially bottled water wasn’t the norm), and who also suffered from the irrational fear that his head might fall off in the midst of conducting the orchestra.

 

TCHAIKOVSKY’S NUTCRACKER SUITE: DID YOU KNOW…?
Today, in honor of the holiday season, we want to share some interesting and little known facts about The Nutcracker Suite. We hope some new information and a fresh perspective will help you fall in love with this beloved work all over again.

 

IT WASN’T COMPOSED FOR CHILDREN
The Nutcracker Suite was commissioned by Imperial Russian Ballet choreographer Marius Petipa in 1891. Petipa wanted a ballet score based on Alexandre Dumas’ (1802-1870) adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s (1776-1882) fantasy story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Interestingly, Petipa grew ill mid-way through his choreography, leaving strict instructions for his successor – Lev Ivanov – which is why the choreography is so consistent throughout.

 

The original story was not a children’s tale at all, but rather a glimpse into the darker side of humanity – how a nightmare can bring to light your greatest fears. So, while you may enjoy playing tunes from The Nutcracker to delight the children in your life, the roots of the magical ballet are much darker than most people realize.

 

For example:

  • The main character (named Marie, rather than Clara) cuts her arm badly on the glass door of the toy cabinet during one of the battles and is wounded for much of the story.
  • The “Mouse King” is a hideous character, with seven heads.
  • The battles between the toy soldiers and the mice are gruesome in detail.
  • The Mouse Queen’s mice children are trapped and killed, one-by-one, by an angry princess.
  • Marie” (Clara) becomes trapped in the world of dolls forever (albeit, as their queen).

As long as you’re taking advantage of holiday movies this season (2019), check out The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, starring Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, which is a closer adaptation to Hoffman’s original, darker work.

 

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PROFESSIONAL BALLET COMPANIES GO THE EXTRA MILE
While community adaptations of the ballet abound, the world’s most professional ballet companies take the production very seriously, and their backdrops, payroll, and stage props are proof of that. For example, the New York City Ballet has:

  • A giant Christmas tree that weighs more than a ton and “grows” 42 feet
  • 62 orchestra members who play for every single performance
  • An instrument called a celesta (pronounced, “che-less-ta”) that plays during the Sugar Plum Fairy solo. According to the NYCB website, “Tchaikovsky used the newly-invented celesta to make the music for the Sugarplum Fairy sound like the "sprays of a fountain" as the choreographer Marius Petipa requested.” Click to see a celesta in action.
  • Roughly 57 different people who work backstage to keep everything going.

With ticket prices starting at around $95 each, you pay quite a bit more for the NYCB version than you do when you support your local symphony and ballet companies.

 

This year, two professional dance companies made headlines with some “firsts.” One of these was the NYCB casting the very first black “Marie” (called Clara in many of the U.S. versions). The second is the famous Joyce Theater in New York, who hired tap choreographer Michelle Dorrance and her company, Dorrance Dance, to create a tap-version of The Nutcracker set to Duke Ellington’s jazzier arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s score.

 

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Celesta instrument

 

TCHAIKOVSKY WROTE PART OF THE WORK AS A DARE
It is said that while in the midst of composing The Nutcracker, a friend of Tchaikovsky’s made a bet that he couldn’t write a melody based on an octave in sequence. He accepted the challenge, and the result is the Grand Adage from the Grand Pas de Deux, one of the most famous ballet duets of all time – played as Clara dances with her adored Nutcracker Prince during the second act of the ballet.

 

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The Nutcracker (2011) grand pas de deux

 

THE ULTIMATE COSTUMER'S DREAM (AND CHALLENGE)
If you’ve ever seen The Nutcracker, you’re aware of the ornate and larger-than-life costumes that appear throughout the show. Different ballet companies handle costume challenges differently, but the NYCBT’s costumes are standards for the types of Nutcracker costumes created by the world’s major ballet companies (Moscow, Los Angeles, Paris, London, etc.):

  • There are more than 150 individual costumes appearing on stage
  • The skirt Mother Ginger’s little children emerge from is made using a 40-pound metal frame, explaining why Mother Ginger typically does more walking and swaying, than dancing.
  • The Sugar Plum Fairy performs her solos in a minimum of seven layers of tulle
  • More than 144 separate jingle bells are sewn onto each costume of the Candy Canes
  • The Dewdrops’ leotards and tutus are each embellished with 65 actual crystal “dewdrops

 

YOU CAN THANK SAN FRANCISCO FOR THE NUTCRACKER’S SUCCESS IN THE U.S.
The Nutcracker was performed exclusively in Russia, and then throughout Europe, for the first several decades. The ballet was largely performed by children, which elicited continuous criticism from the audience.  Its evolution from “liked but not loved,” to “holiday tradition,” goes something like this:

  • 1919: Russian choreographer Alexander Gorsky casts Clara and The Nutcracker using adults, rather than children. He also creates an abridged version to keep the performance shorter (its two-hour, on average, length being one of the major criticisms).
  • 1920 – 1934: Various choreographers continue to address audience criticisms by casting more of the roles to adults, figuring out which dances were the best to remove to shorten the ballet and increase audience appreciation, and making Clara “dream” the entire Toyland sequences to make the story more believable.
  • 1934: The ballet is performed in England - the first time the entire ballet was performed outside of Russia and mainland Europe. The choreography was handled by Nicholas Sergeyev (originally from Russia), who brought back Petipa’s original choreography.
  • 1944: San Francisco Ballet’s Artistic Director, Willam Christensen, who decided to use Petipa’s original choreography in its entirety (no abridged version), and opened the ballet on Christmas Eve. The audience loved it, and the San Francisco Ballet has performed The Nutcracker every Christmas Eve – and throughout the winter season – since then.
  • 1954: The New York City Ballet premiered George Balanchine’s staging of the work, which includes Tchaikovsky’s complete, original ballet libretto. This version is trademarked as George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.

 

 

NON-TRADITIONAL VERSIONS ABOUND
Choreography is often altered or re-envisioned to create a fresh perspective. In Russia, Europe, and the U.S., most companies stick with more traditional choreography because audiences balk otherwise. However, other countries and cultures take more creative license since the work isn’t as embedded in their traditional holiday repertoire.

 

For example:

  • In China, you may attend versions paying homage to the Chinese New Year, with the Crane Goddess usurping the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy and dragons taking over for the mice.
  • South Africans appreciate the setting switch from the westernized living room and winter wonderland to the Kalahari desert, where local dance and circus arts are performed.
  • Ballet Hawaii has paid respect to their indigenous people and culture with a Waltz of the Flowers that includes tropical flowers and relocating the snow scene to the top of Mauna Kea.

 

As an Economist post titled, How “The Nutcracker” Danced all Over the World, puts it, The Nutcracker “…has been tweaked, honed and reinvented, becoming the perfect fabric onto which Christmas dreams are stitched.”

 

That is the most wonderful thing of all about music, dance, and the performing arts. While we respect and honor the standards, we also have the ability to infuse them with personal interpretations, influences, and stories to love them as our own. Hopefully, these little-known and interesting facts about The Nutcracker will continue to inspire your own interpretations as you play Tchaikovsky’s famous music throughout the holiday season.

Source: Wikipedia - The Nutcracker  |  Little Known Facts About The Nutcracker

 

 

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Fact of the Day - CAPOEIRA

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Capoeira or the Dance of War by

Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1825, published

in 1835

 

Did you know.... that Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music? It was developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil at the beginning of the 16th century. It is known for its acrobatic and complex maneuvers, often involving hands on the ground and inverted kicks. It emphasizes flowing movements rather than fixed stances; the ginga, a rocking step, is usually the focal point of the technique. The most widely accepted origin of the word capoeira comes from the Tupi words ka'a ("forest") paũ ("round"), referring to the areas of low vegetation in the Brazilian interior where fugitive slaves would hide. A practitioner of the art is called a capoeirista (Portuguese pronunciation: [kapuejˈɾistɐ]).  The dance and music was incorporated in the system to disguise the fact that they were practicing fighting techniques. After the abolition of slavery in Brazil, capoeira was declared illegal at the end of the 19th century. However, by the 1920s, authorities began to relax enforcement on its prohibition, and martial artists began to incorporate capoeira technique into their practices. By the 1970s, capoeira masters started traveling around the world, helping the art become internationally recognized and practiced. On 26 November 2014, capoeira was granted a special protected status as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. (Wikipedia)

 

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Simple animation depicting part of the ginga.

 

History
As a form of martial arts for slaves
Capoeira's history probably begins with the beginning of African slavery in Brazil. When Portuguese colonists began exporting West African slaves, Brazil, with its vast territory, received most of the slaves; almost 40% of all slaves sent across the Atlantic Ocean.

Although rebellions were rare, capoeira was invented as a hope of survival for slaves. If they managed to escape, as after an escape attempt, colonial agents were sent after the escapees. The martial arts were incorporated into a dance, to escape detection–with music and rhythmic moves, no suspicion could be raised regarding potential martial art training. Due to city growth, more slaves were brought to cities and so made capoeira more prominent and allowed it to be taught and practiced among more people. In Rio, the colonial government tried to suppress it and established severe physical punishments for its practice.

 

 

 

Post-slavery
After slavery was abolished in 1888, free former slaves had nowhere to live and no jobs. They were thought of by the public as lazy workers. Capoeira then found a new role—as a dance of criminals.

 

They used capoeiristas (capoeira dancers) as bodyguards and hitmen. In 1890, the Brazilian government prohibited capoeira when police identified it as an advantage in fighting and they didn’t want criminals to have this advantage. After the ban, anybody caught practising capoeira for any reason would be arrested and tortured by the police. Some practices still occurred in remote places with guards to warn of police.

 

By the 1920s, repression of capoeira had declined. Mestre Bimba from Salvador, a strong fighter in both legal and illegal fights, thought capoeira was losing its martial roots due to the use of its playful side to entertain tourists. Bimba began developing the first systematic training method for capoeira, and in 1932 founded the first capoeira school. He called it Luta Regional Baiana because it was illegal to use capoeira in the name. By 1940, capoeira was legalized.

 

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Mestre Bimba

 

Today
Today, capoeira is viewed as one of the symbols of Brazilian culture all around the world and in 1970 it was taught outside of Brazil for the first time. Capoeira presentations, normally theatrical and with little martiality, are common sights around the world. The martial arts part, however, is still present and still disguised, just as it was in the time of slavery, and trickery is still present and expert dancers used. An attack can be disguised even as a friendly gesture, such is the expertise gone into the research of new moves. Capoeira is now a symbol of Brazilian culture, its ethnic amalgam, and of resistance to oppression.

Capoeira_candeias_gingashow.jpg

 

Capoeira, dance-like martial art of Brazil, performed to the accompaniment of call-and-response choral singing and percussive instrumental music. It is most strongly associated with the country’s northeastern region.

 

The basic aesthetic elements of capoeira were brought to Brazil by enslaved people, primarily from west and west-central Africa. These elements were recombined and reinterpreted within the diverse enslaved community of Brazil to create a unique means of self defense, both driven and disguised—as merely a dance—by its musical accompaniment. Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, but capoeira continued to flourish within the Afro-Brazilian population, particularly in the northeastern state of Bahia. The government, however, recognizing the physical and spiritual potency of the art form and considering it a threat to society, continued to outlaw the practice until the early 20th century.

 

Capoeiristas-Salvador-Braz.jpg

capoeira
Capoeiristas in Salvador, Brazil.

 

Capoeira is best described not as a dance but as a sport in which the participants—historically, sometimes with blades strapped to their ankles or held between their toes—swing their legs high in attack, perform aerial somersaults, and pass within a hairsbreadth of each other’s knees, head, groin, or stomach. Flexibility, stamina, rapidity of movement, and malicia (deception) are more important than sheer muscular strength. Although marked by the use of graceful, fluid, and often acrobatic movements as a means to escape rather than block an attack, the “game” of capoeira, as it is called by its practitioners, can nonetheless be lethal when contact is actually made with a well-timed, well-placed blow.

 

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Click here for list of capoeira techniques

 

In current practice, two opponents face each other within the roda—a circle of capoeiristas (practitioners of capoeira)—emulating in a stylized manner the strikes and parries of combat, in time with the rhythms of a small musical ensemble. Music is indeed integral to the practice of capoeira. The ensemble typically consists of one to three berimbaus (struck musical bows), one or two atabaques (single-headed, standing, conical drums), a pandeiro (tambourine), an agogô (double bell), and sometimes also a reco-reco (scraped bamboo tube), all of which accompany call-and-response songs, usually led by one of the berimbau players.

 

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berimbau and pandeiro
Musicians playing berimbaus and (right) a pandeiro (tambourine).

 

Since about the 1930s in the state of Bahia and somewhat later in Rio de Janeiro, clubs have trained students in precise kicking, passing, and strategic deception. In the late 20th century capoeira began to gain an international following, and by the early 21st century active clubs existed in many cities throughout the world. Moreover, the art had gained many highly skilled female practitioners, though in its early years capoeira was an exclusively male domain.

 

Capoeria-3.jpg

 

Source: Wikipedia - Capoeira  |  Britannica - Capoeira  |  Capoeira Facts

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Fact of the Day - FAMOUS ARTISTS

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Did you know.... that art history is full of wild tales and fascinating figures, which can make it tough to determine what is fact and fiction about artists. Some of these stories endure because they remind us of the qualities we associate with artists—they’re creative, non-conforming, and more than a little eccentric. But in many cases, the truth is just as incredible as the art they create.

 

Mona Lisa

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Mona Lisa or La Gioconda c. 1503–1516, Louvre, Paris


While some claim that Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting is a self-portrait of the artist himself in drag, research has concluded it is likely a portrait of a woman named Lisa Gherardini, a member of a prominent Florentine family and wife of a wealthy silk merchant. Leonardo’s father allegedly knew Gherardini' father very well, and the painting was possibly commissioned by him.

 

The Last Supper

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The Last Supper c. 1492–1498, Convent of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy

 

Da Vinci’s other most famous work—which can be seen in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy—originally included Jesus’ feet. But in 1652, while installing a doorway in the refectory where the painting is on view, builders cut into the bottom-center of the mural, lopping off Jesus’ feet.

 

The Starry Night

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The Starry Night, June 1889. Museum of Modern Art, New York

 

The small town depicted in Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night is Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the south of France. Van Gogh painted the work while he was a patient at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. Presently, the hospital has a wing named after the painter.

 

Michelangelo’s David

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David by Michelangelo, Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, 1501-1504

 

The marble slab that was eventually turned into the sculpture of David by Michelangelo in 1504 was cut 43 years earlier for an artist named Agostino di Duccio, who planned to turn it into a statue of Hercules. Di Duccio abandoned his sculpture, which was originally to be installed in a Florentine cathedral, and the marble was unused for 10 years until another sculptor, named Antonio Rossellino, decided to work with it. Rossellino also abandoned his work because he found marble too difficult to sculpt, and eventually Michelangelo began work on his sculpture in 1501.

 

The Creation of Adam

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Michelangelo - Creation of Adam

 

Michelangelo painted the fresco ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—including the most famous panel called “The Creation of Adam,” which depicts God giving life to the first man—entirely standing up. The artist invented a series of scaffolds specially designed to attach to the chapel walls with brackets so he and his assistants could be close enough to the ceiling to reach above their heads to work and paint.

 

The Scream

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Figure on cliffside walkway holding head with hands.

 

There are technically five separate versions of Expressionist artist Edvard Munch’s most famous work, The Scream. The first two, from 1893 and created with tempera and crayon on cardboard, are located in the National Gallery in Oslo and the Munch Museum, respectively. A privately owned third version created in 1895 with pastels recently sold for nearly $120 million at auction. Yet another version from 1895 is a black and white lithograph. A final version, done in 1910 by Munch due to the popularity of the previous incarnations, is also held in the Munch Museum, and it made headlines in recent years for being stolen in 2004 and recovered in 2006.

 

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

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Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, oil on canvas

 

Picasso’s abstract depiction of five Barcelona prostitutes was deemed immoral when it debuted at the artist’s studio in 1907. Picasso created over 100 preliminary sketches and studies before setting his vision down on canvas, and in previous incarnations the figure at the far left was a man.

 

The Thinker

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Le Penseur in the Musée Rodin in Paris

 

Though there are now dozens of casts of Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker around the world, it had a much smaller origin. Rodin originally created a 70cm version in 1880 as the central component to a bigger sculptural work called “The Gates of Hell.” Inspired by Dante’s Inferno, the piece—first called The Poet—was conceived as a representation of Dante himself. The re-dubbed sculpture was exhibited on its own in 1888, then was enlarged to the depiction we know it today in 1904.

 

Girl with a Pearl Earring
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Girl with a Pearl Earring is an oil painting by

Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer,

dated c. 1665

 

Much like the Mona Lisa, the subject of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring has been highly contested—but for the most likely candidate, Vermeer didn’t have to look far. The model for his painting is thought to be his daughter Maria.

 

American Gothic

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A painting of a man and woman with stern expressions 

standing side-by-side in front of a white house. The man

holds a pitch fork.

 

Another famous painting with interesting models is Grant Wood’s American Gothic, which can be seen on view in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. To depict—for better or worse—the ideals of rural America, Wood wanted to use his mother, Hattie, as a model for his painting. Wood determined that standing for so long would be far too exhausting for his mother, so he had his sister wear his mother’s apron and pin while posing. For the male subject in the painting, Wood used his 62-year-old dentist.

 

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to learn more about Famous Artists.

 

Source: Facts about Famous Artists

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - MUSIC

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Did you know... that musicians and artists of all time have always given people joy, solace, and perspective? And while musicians die, their music never does. The greats will always stand the test of time and be remembered and referred to in deserted bedrooms, music classrooms, and, empty minds, staring out the window, when travelling long distances, or standing, in a crowded metro, on the way to work.

 

Facts About Music That Really Sing

By ALEX DANIEL  |  FEBRUARY 27, 2019

 

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They say music is a universal language. And, you know, they're probably right. After all, who doesn't love a great, foot-tapping tune? (If you believe the plot of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even aliens do!) But as much as you love music and music theory in all its forms—and as much as you think you know about your favorite songs and artists—there are still plenty of opportunities to be totally floored.

 

Musicians Have Shorter Life Spans Than the General Population

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One study, conducted by a University of Sydney professor, titled "Stairway to H*ll: Life and Death in the Pop Music Industry," examined the deaths of artists which took place between 1950 and June 2014. The study specifically looked at longevity and the proportion of suicides, homicides, and accidental deaths. Longevity was determined by calculating the average age of death for each musician by sex and decade of their death. These averages were then compared with averages by sex and decade for the general U.S. population. The results? Musicians' lifespans are 25 years shorter.

 

In 2016, Mozart Sold More CDs than Beyoncé

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In fact, Mozart sold the most CDs in 2016, beating out Adele, Drake, and Beyoncé, even though all of those artists had Grammy-winning hits that year. So, how'd an 18th-century composer sell more than pop music's greatest names? Well, in October 2016, the Universal Music Group released a box set commemorating the 225th anniversary of Mozart's death. Each disc included in the box set counted as one CD sold, and each set contained 200 discs. Throw in the proliferation of streaming—which has significantly dampened CD sales—and voila. Plus, the box set itself flew off shelves: As of this writing, there are only four remaining on Amazon ($686).

 

Singing in a Group Boosts Mood

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Multiple studies have been conducted that prove singing as a part of a group provides numerous physical and emotional benefits. Researchers have discovered that singing is soothing and does indeed raise one's spirits and mood. When you sing with others, the body releases feel-good hormones, like oxytocin, and reduces stress-causing ones, like cortisol

 

Some People Feel Nothing Toward Music

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Per the results of one study conducted at the University of Barcelona, 5 percent of participants did not feel any emotion whatsoever—didn't feel any chills or want to tap their feet—when listening to music. Before you start calling these study subjects monsters, know that they're totally normal in other ways: they received pleasure from other things, like food and sex, and had no other evident psychological issues. These were happy, healthy college students who just naturally did not care for any kind of music. 

 

Listening to Music Enhances Physical Performance

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Research has consistently shown that the synchronization of music with repetitive exercise provides enhanced physical performance, helping people both work out for longer and train more efficiently. In one study, participants who cycled in time to music found that they required 7 percent less oxygen compared to cycling with background (asynchronous) music. In other words, music provides temporal cues that have the potential to make more efficient use of physical energy. 

 

Rod Stewart Hosted the Largest Ever Free Concert
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Several free concerts have been reported to have an audience of one million (or more), but such numbers tend to be exaggerated. However, according to Guinness World Records, Rod Stewart's 1993 New Year's Eve concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, remains the most-attended free concert that ever took place. An estimated 4.2 million people were in attendance at this performance. The second most-attended free concert was Jean-Michel Jarre's September 6, 1997, performance at the University of Moscow, which reportedly had an estimated audience of 3.5 million.

 

Wanna Be" by The Spice Girls is the Catchiest Song of All Time
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In 2014, a group of researchers from The Museum of Science and Industry in England released an online test called "Hooked on Music." It contained one thousand quips from pop hits, going all the way back to the 1940s, and it asked 12,000 participants to identify songs as fast as possible. They found that "Wannabe" by The Spice Girls was the catchiest song: people were able to recognize it in about 2.3 seconds, which was way below the 5-second average of identifying other popular songs.

 

Finland Has the Most Metal Bands Per Capita

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Amorphis

Perhaps head-banging an effective way to keep warm. According to a Reddit user who created a map using data from Encyclopaedia Metallum' archive of metal bands, Finland is home to the most bands of this genre, with 53.5 metal bands per 100,000 people. Second place was tied between two other Nordic nations Sweden and Norway (27.2), while Iceland stole third (22.7). Though heavy metal music originated in the United States and the United Kingdom, their numbers for those countries were 5.5 and 5.2, respectively.

 

An Astronaut Released an Album with All Songs Recorded in Space

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In 2015, a Canadian astronaut named Chris Hadfield released his first album, which was entirely recorded while he was in orbit. Not only was he the first Canadian to walk in space, he's also a talented musician whose went viral with a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity." Hadfield spent 144 days at the International Space Station recording his 11 original songs for his appropriately-titled album, Space Sessions: Songs for a Tin Can.

 

The British Navy Uses Britney Spears Songs to Scare Off Pirates

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According to reports, British naval officers play Britney Spears songs to scare away Somali pirates off of Africa's eastern coast. Her songs "Oops I Did It Again" and "Baby One More Time" are the songs which are used. The rationale of playing these songs is because, supposedly, Somali pirates have a strong dislike for western culture and music, which make Britney Spears' songs a perfect fit to make the bandits move on as quickly as possible.

 

"Jingle Bells" Was Originally a Thanksgiving Song
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"Jingle Bells" is a Christmas classic, but it didn't originate that way. Written by James Lord Pierpont and published in 1857, it was meant to be sung during Thanksgiving. The song's original title was "One Horse Open Sleigh" then it was changed to "Jingle Bells", or "the One Horse Open Sleigh" when it was reprinted in 1859. There is a plaque in Medford, Massachusetts, at the former site of a tavern, where the song is said to have been written, in an area where, and an era when, sleigh races were popular.

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to read the next 29 facts about Music.

 

Source: 40 Facts About Music That Really Sing

 

 

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Fact of the Day - GOUACHE

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Gouache paints come in many colors and

are usually mixed with water to achieve

the desired working properties and to

control the opacity when dry.

 

Did you know... that gouache, body color, or opaque watercolor, is one type of watermedia, paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent, (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache has a considerable history, going back at least 1200 years.  (Wikipedia)

 

WATERMEDIA MYSTERY: REALLY, WHAT IS GOUACHE?

Palais-de-Justice-ink-pen-gouache-paper-

At the Palais de Justice, gouache on paper by Honoré Daumier;

in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.

 

We’ve all been wooed by that stand adjacent to the watercolor paints: gouache. We bring it home and stare. What is it? Will it work with watercolor paints?

 

Then it sits in a drawer for a year. Maybe 10. Time to dust it off. Because it could be real love after all. On the surface, gouache (pronounced ‘gwash’) and watercolor seem very similar, confusingly so. But transparent watercolorist Sue Archer would never be caught dead with gouache while artists like Donna Zagotta and Carla O’Connor rely on its properties as a major part of their painting style. So what’s happening here?

 

Below we hope to clear up some of the confusion of watercolor vs gouache.

 

WatercolorVSGouache-Sue_Archer-600_grand

 

Can gouache be used like watercolor?

Gouache, a member of the watermedia family, can absolutely be used like watercolor. Artists can use gouache on watercolor paper and any other surface suitable for watercolor. You can use your watercolor brushes with gouache without fear of ruining them (looking at you acrylics!), and you won’t need to buy any special chemicals for clean up because, like watercolor, gouache is water soluble and can be cleaned up with water. As with watercolor, you can rewet gouache with water to make alterations or thin it with water to make it more transparent.

 

In fact, you can mix gouache paints with watercolor paints and use them together. Artist Donna Zagotta does. Nothing will explode, we promise.

 

Wait, so are gouache and watercolor the same then?

No. While you can use the same paper and brushes, gouache will handle differently than watercolor. That’s because on a structural level, it’s manufactured differently than watercolor.

 

How is gouache different than watercolor?

The quick overview: Gouache is opaque, matte and can be blended. Gouache dries quicker and darker than watercolor.

 

Here's what’s going on:

On a structural level, all paint consists of color particles (color dust) suspended in medium. Oil paint is color particles suspended in oil. Acrylic is color particles suspended in polymer. Watercolor and gouache are color particles suspended in gum arabic.

 

DonnaZagottaTechniquesinGouache-600_gran

 

And not all particles are created equal.

 

Compared to watercolors, gouache has larger particles of pigment, and its particles are packed more tightly together. Large, tightly packed particles leave less space for light to slip through, and that’s what makes gouache opaque. Some manufacturers include a white chalk additive to further reduce transparency.

 

This level of opaqueness makes gouache great for illustrators who want to ensure accurate photography and reproduction of their work. That same quality makes gouache terrible for those glowing effects so sought after by transparent watercolorists.

 

Painters like Carl Dalio and Sue Archer reach for transparent watercolors because they want to create luminous paintings. Transparent pigments have tiny particles that aren’t packed together. This allows light to bounce through their paintings, hit the white paper and then bounce back out to the viewer’s eye, which creates spectacular luminosity.

 

Then why would I choose Gouache?
Artists like Sarkis Antikajian use gouache for his plein air kit because it’s easy to carry a palette (like watercolor) and he can still paint light on dark. It’s also water-based so it’s easy to clean up.

 

GouacheSketchbook-Artist_Sarkis_Antikaji

 

Watermedia artists Donna Zagotta uses gouache because she knows there are ways she can manipulate gouache paint that she can’t with transparent watercolor. For example, she can melt colors into one another. She does this by starting with a base color (in this case ultramarine blue.) When the color is dry she can add a second color on top.

 

The first stroke down will stick,” says Zagotta in her workshop, The You Factor: Powerful, Personal Design in Opaque Watercolor.  “But the more I play with it the more it starts melting the colors that are underneath….So I’m using an undercolor and an overcolor mixed together to create the third color.”

 

Zagotta has two palettes. One with her transparent watercolors and one with her gouache colors. She adds white gouache paint to her transparent watercolors so that they take on gouache characteristics. (Sort of like mixing watercolor paints with acrylic paints makes them acrylics a la Nicholas SImmons’ workshop, Innovative Water Media.)

 

For artist Carla O’Connor, gouache is her go to watermedia because she loves the textures she can achieve. “This medium brought me full circle in my career,” she says. “I can paint with gouache much the same way as I painted in oils.”

 

HowtoCreateTextureEffectsinGouache-Carla

 

Gouache sits on the surface of your paper so it allows you tremendous freedom in lifting possibilities and corrections and changing, which then again gives more and more different textures and technique possibilities,” says O’Connor in her workshop Figure Design in Gouache: The Process.

 

O’Connor also loves the grays you can get with gouache. She loves the gouache grays so much that she keeps part of her palette dedicated to them.  “I use to clean it up all the time,” she says of the lid of her palette where the greys live. “ I don’t do that anymore...I just keep adding paint to it and I can make it darker or lighter or a different color all together. But I use it for mixing all my greys.” That grey, which she calls her Mother Color because it’s a combination of all her colors, is now a signature of her work.

 

Are Gouache paints just opaque watercolor?

This gets confusing because of language and how artists use terms. Some artists refer to gouache and watercolor as totally separate media. However, some artists, like Donna Zagotta, use the word opaque watercolor to mean gouache.

 

Yellows-600_grande.jpg?v=1513901342

 

So then when you hear artists talk about opaque watercolor they could either be referring to gouache or to particular watercolor pigments, like the cadmiums, that are naturally opaque.

How do I make my gouache transparent?
If you have a set of gouache paints, and you’d like to have transparent washes in your paintings, no need to run out to the art store just yet. The good news is that you can make almost any pigment transparent. With watercolor and gouache, you simply add more water. This creates more space between those big pigment particles and allows light to bounce back through. Just make sure to allow a layer to dry completely before going back in for a second glaze.

 

UlramarineBlueGouache-600_grande.jpg?v=1

 

Does any of this matter?

Yes! (But also no.)

 

Artists at the level of Sue Archer, Carl Dalio, Carla O’Connor, and any of the other artists you see at CCPVideos.com are skilled and practiced enough to achieve very particular effects in their paintings. They know exactly where they want to go, and they want to use the best available tools to get there.

 

Carl Dalio’s paintings are all about luminosity and clean color, so he uses only the most transparent of watercolor pigments, and he cleans his palette constantly. Carla O’Connor wants rich, greyed color and freedom to create texture that is normally not available to transparent watercolorists, so she reaches mainly for gouache. And she cleans her palette far less frequently than Dalio.


Try Some Gouache!
So the next time you’re looking for a new medium to try or are just are curious about the differences watercolor trv gouache, grab some colors and start to play.

 

If you want some great guides in the process, we highly recommend Steven Quiller’s Water Media Foundation workshop to give you a good overview of gouache (and other watermedia). If you'd like to see how the media can be worked through an entire painting, check out  both Donna Zagotta’ The You Factor: Powerful, Personal Design in Opaque Watercolor and Carla O’Connor’s Figure Design in Gouache: The Process.

 

Check out the trailer to Mike Hernandez's excellent gouache video, "Creating Drama with Light and Color." 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Gouache  |  Watermedia Mystery

 

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Fact of the Day - NOMAD

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Mongol Nomads in the Altai Mountains

 

Did you know... that a nomad is a person with no settled home, moving from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a living. The word "nomad" comes ultimately from the classical Greek word νομάς (nomás, "roaming, wandering, especially to find pasture"), from Ancient Greek νομός (nomós, "pasture"). Most nomadic groups follow a fixed annual or seasonal pattern of movements and settlements. Nomadic peoples traditionally travel by animal or canoe or on foot. Today, some nomads travel by motor vehicle. Most nomads live in homes or other homeless shelters. (Wikipedia)

 

NOMADS - THE FACTS  | April 5th, 1995

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Tibetan Nomad
 

LIFE ON THE EDGE
The term nomadic is now a common metaphor for aimless wandering. In fact the movement of traditional nomadic peoples is far from haphazard: it is both predetermined and systematic. Most nomads live in marginal areas like deserts, steppes and tundra, where mobility becomes a logical and efficient strategy for harvesting scarce resources spread unevenly across wide territories.

 

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Who they are?

There are three main groups of nomads:

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Photo by
JOTH SHAKERLEY / PANOS PICTURES

 

Pastoralists: the word ‘nomad’ is derived from the Greek word for pasture – nomos. Pastoral nomads move with their households in search of pasture for their animals. There are an estimated 30-40 million of them in the world. Livestock is central to their livelihood and the basis of their culture. Their movement is seasonal, linked to rainfall and the availability of good forage for their animals.

  • Goat herders in the Peruvian Andes graze their animals on richer grasses at lower altitudes during the wet season, then move to higher altitudes during the dry season.
  • Of the 60,000 Sami in Scandinavia only 6,000 are still nomadic. They may migrate with their reindeer up to 300 kilometres from sheltered forests in the winter to coastal grasslands in the summer.

Hunter-gatherers: groups like the San of the Kalahari Desert, the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic, native people of the Amazonian rainforest and various hill tribes of Southeast Asia are nomadic in that they move in search of particular animals to hunt or foodstuffs to gather. These hunting cultures are now disappearing or changing under the influence of modern consumer society and the cash economy.

 

Traders and Craftworkers: Other groups may have nomadic lifestyles although they are neither pastoralists nor hunter-gatherers. In the West the best known of these are the Rom or Gypsies, sometimes known as Travellers. Originally from northern India, the Rom moved north-west about 1,000 years ago and scattered across Europe, working as petty traders, musicians, farm workers and day-labourers.

 

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Romani mother and child

 

ANIMALS

Animal mythology and symbolism permeate all aspects of nomadic society. Animals provide milk, meat and blood for food; hides, hair, wool, horn and bone for clothing, shelter and tools; and dung for fuel and fertilizer. Nomads also use animals for transport, freight carriage and traction (milling, threshing and ploughing).

  • The Bedouin of Saudi Arabia have a special vocabulary to describe their camels. The Arabic word for camel (jamal) comes from the same root as the word for beautiful (jamil).
  • In Somali, the word raadraa which means ‘to track down animals’ is now used to describe modern research. The word layis which means ‘to tame a young camel’ is also the term given to exercises in a student workbook.
  •  

Mongols use different words to describe the age, colour and size of horses. The word saaral is used for a white horse, ke’er for a bay and je’ered for a reddish-brown steed.

 

Cattle as Capital

Almost all English words for money come from the world of pastoral nomads. Cattle, chattel and capital come from the same root. Pecuniary comes from the Latin word for cattle, pecus.

 

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THREAT TO MOVEMENT
Nomadic peoples face many threats today, but the most serious is the attempt to stop them moving around.

  • Over the last 40 years the Raika camel nomads in Rajasthan, India, have lost access to half of the common lands previously used as pasture.
  • In Kenya, Government attempts to bring traditional Maasai lands under private title have ended up removing large areas of land from grazing. In some cases nearly half the land is now in the hands of non-Maasai.
  • In Inner Mongolia much of the best grazing land has been turned over to irrigated farming. With privatization nomads have to contract for the right to graze traditional lands. More and more are becoming semi-nomadic and even sedentary ranchers.

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Rabari, a caste of camel-herders -

Tashrih al-aqvam (1825)

 

SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

  • Mobility

Because nomads live in areas of climatic extremes they’ve had to be flexible and opportunistic. Mobility allows them to profit from widely-dispersed resources whose availability varies from year to year.

  • Mixed Economies

Pastoral nomads raise several kinds of animals: usually one large prestigious species and several smaller animals like goats and sheep. Disease or drought affects each species differently, thus increasing the nomads’ chances of survival. They also combine animal raising with small-scale farming, fishing, petty trading or migrant labour. And though nomads are subsistence-oriented, they have strong commercial skills, trading or selling animal hides, milk and meat in exchange for grain, tea and modern consumer goods.

  • Tribal Sharing

Most nomadic peoples are organized into tribes or clans which have a customary claim over a specific territory. Tribal elders control who has access to common property like water, pasture, game or wild foodstuffs. Outsiders have to ask permission if they want to use resources on land which traditionally belongs to another group. Strong tribal identities are also one way pastoral nomads have of banding together to defend their livestock against theft by their neighbours.

 

 

Source: New Internationalist - Nomad Facts  |  Wikipedia - Nomad

 

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Fact of the Day - DANCE

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Indonesian Dancers

 

Did you know... that dance is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by skillful performers into something that becomes intensely expressive and that may delight spectators who feel no wish to dance themselves? These two concepts of the art of dance—dance as a powerful impulse and dance as a skillfully choreographed art practiced largely by a professional few—are the two most important connecting ideas running through any consideration of the subject. In dance, the connection between the two concepts is stronger than in some other arts, and neither can exist without the other.

 

Ballet, modern dance, and Indian classical dance are forms of theatre dance, the dancers usually being highly trained professionals performing for audiences in particular venues and on special occasions. Tribal and ethnic dance, on the other hand, may be characterized by a number of almost opposite features. They are not necessarily the province of trained specialists (although they may be). Such dances may be participatory (i.e., with no real distinction between dancer and spectator), and, while they may take place in special venues or on special occasions, these are often intimately related to the everyday life of the community.

 

Tribal dance
A tribal society is essentially a self-contained system. While it may possess sophisticated cultural and social structures, its technological and economic structures are generally primitive. Consequently, by the late 20th century such societies had become increasingly rare, and many tribal dances had either died or become transformed.

 

Some tribal dances have been preserved, however, even in cases where tribes have been absorbed into other social structures, as a means of preserving cultural identity and a sense of historical continuity. This is quite common in many African states. A frequently cited case is that of King Sobhuza II, the Ngwenyama (“Lion”) of Swaziland, who in 1966 joined his people in a six-day Incwala, or ritual ceremony. Dressed in animal skins and elaborate plumage, Sobhuza performed dances that would ensure the renewal of the land, the king, and the people.

 

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South African performing a tribal dance in a traditional animal

skin costume with elaborate plumage during a ceremonial gathering

of regional bands.

 

In extant tribal societies, such as the Hopi Indians of northeastern Arizona, dance retains most of its traditional form and significance. The Hopi still dance as a form of worship, with specific dances for different ceremonies. Such dances, however, as in any other tradition, have undergone inevitable change and development throughout history, and they cannot be used as accurate evidence of what the tribal dances of early man were like. Generalizing about tribal dance is made difficult not only by the lack of evidence concerning its origins and the rapid dying of extant forms but also by the fact that the term tribal covers so many different kinds of dance. Tribal dances not only vary from one tribe to another but also fall into many different categories, such as weapon dances, fertility dances, Sun- and Moon-worshipping dances, initiation dances, war dances, and hunting dances.

 

The following are two examples of tribal dance that survived into the 20th century. The musicologist Curt Sachs quoted a description of the fertility dance of the Cobéua Indians of Brazil:

  • The dancers have large [artificial] phalli…which they hold close to their bodies with both hands. Stamping with the right foot and singing, they dance…with the upper parts of their bodies bent forwards. Suddenly they jump wildly along with violent coitus motions and loud groans.…Thus they carry the fertility into every corner of the houses…; they jump among the women, young and old, who disperse shrieking and laughing; they knock the phalli one against another.

 

Joan Lawson described the tree-worship dance performed both in Australia and up the Amazon River:

  • A solemn circling of the tree is followed by an ecstatic raising of the head and hands to the branches, leaves, and fruit. Hands are then gradually run down the trunk and finally the men kneel or lie grovelling at the roots. They hope that by so doing the strength of the tree will enter into them.

 

An interesting parallel with tribal dances may be found in the break-dancing and “body-popping” craze that swept the United States and Britain in the 1980s. While the dancers clearly were not members of a tribe in any strict sense, they were often members of a distinct group or crew that had its own style and identity. These crews were part of a larger group of young people, again with its own style and customs, that could be differentiated from other groups such as punks or skinheads. The two dance forms were characterized by an energetic spinning action, whereby the dancer propelled himself around on his neck, head, or shoulders and by small, jerky movements of the joints that traveled in a wave through his body. Rival crews often competed with one another in the street, showing off the skill and ingenuity of their moves.

 

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Breakdancing

 

Ethnic dance
In describing many dances, reference is often made to their ethnic, rather than their tribal, origins. An ethnic dance is simply a dance that is characteristic of a particular cultural group. Under this definition even the polka, which is almost always considered a social dance, may be called ethnic, as it began in a culturally distinct region of Europe. Flamenco, which began as an improvised dance among Andalusian gypsies, combines toe and heel clicking with body movements similar to Indian dance. Indian dances may be regarded as a general ethnic type, but there are numerous forms and traditions within the type: some are classical, while others are popular, being danced by non-specialists for communal festivities and for recreation. In this discussion of the art of dance, it is most useful to reserve the designation ethnic for those genres that, while perhaps in a state of transition, are still practiced by a unique cultural group, still retain some of their original communal or ritual functions, and have not yet reached the professionalized state of classical or folk dance.

 

The many Afro-Caribbean dance forms are usually considered to constitute a distinct ethnic form because they share certain characteristic movements. As in Indian dance, the legs are frequently bent, with the feet stamping out rhythms against the ground. The torso and back are also very mobile, executing sinuous rippling actions or more jerky, rhythmic movements. The body is frequently bent slightly forward, and there is greater use of the hips, which sway and circle in syncopated rhythms. Gestures and facial expressions are used in some narrative dances, but they tend to be much less sophisticated or strictly codified than in Indian dance.

 

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Carnival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Women dancing in a Carnival parade, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

 

In performance today, most Afro-Caribbean dance companies are made up of both dancers and drummers, the percussion marking out the rhythm and helping to intensify the emotion. Frequently the dancers take turns performing, and there is usually a great deal of informal communication among members of the company on stage. Participation by the audience is often encouraged at the end of the performance, reflecting the communal, rather than theatrical, origins of the form.

 

Folk dance
When tribal societies in Europe gave way to more structured societies, the old dance forms gradually developed into what are now called folk or peasant dances. For a long time these retained much of their original significance and therefore could have received the modern classification of “ethnic.” The Maypole dance, still sometimes performed in England, is a descendant of older tree-worshipping dances, the ribbons that the dancers hold as they dance around the pole symbolizing the tree’s branches. The Morris dance, also called the moresque because the blackened faces of the dancers resembled the Moors, is a survival of early weapon dances, which were not war dances but an ancient form of religious worship. The types and styles of these different dances were numerous, and, as with tribal dances, many were lost so that information about them often remains sketchy. In the 20th century, efforts to collect national music and dances were made by, among others, Cecil Sharp in England and Béla Bartók in Hungary. These efforts resulted in the revival of certain dances, but they are now danced mainly for recreation, and their original significance has been lost. It is in this conscious revival or preservation of ethnic and national dances for purposes of entertainment that modern folk dance has its origin.

 

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Maypole dance
Traditional Maypole dance from England, with

circle formation of dancers interweaving; detail

from a 19th-century drawing.

 

Although different areas and countries have different styles of dance, most of them share common formations and styles of movement. The earliest and simplest formation, the closed circle, is found in all folk dances and derives from the ritual of circling around an object of worship. The dancers grasp one another by the hands, wrists, shoulders, elbows, or waists and face the centre of the circle. In more complex forms, dancers move into and out of the circle to perform individual movements or to join into couples, or, as the dancers circle, they may weave around one another. In some dances there are two concentric circles, sometimes the inner one of men and the outer one of women.

 

Portuguese-folk-dancers-one-dances-Algar

Portuguese folk dancers from Algarve performing one of the traditional regional folk dances.

 

Another common formation, the chain, involves a long line of dancers, often holding hands or linked by handkerchiefs. The leader may trace a complex, serpentine pattern for the others to follow. Processional dances may travel a long way—even through an entire village. The dancers are mostly in couples, with the procession halting at times for them to dance together.

 

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Greek women performing a folk dance.

 

Many folk dances today are performed in sets, groups of about eight dancers who may perform in all of the above formations but within a restricted space. In other dances, individuals may leave the group and dance on their own.

 

Folk dance steps are usually quite simple variations on walking, hopping, skipping, and turning. Depending on the particular dance form, these steps may be long, slow, and gliding or short, fast, and springing. The hips are usually held still, though in more vigorous dances the men in particular may crouch, kneel, or even lie on the floor. Some dances involve large jumps and lifts, usually with the man seizing the woman by the waist, lifting her into the air, and possibly turning with her.

 

There are numerous kinds of holds. For example, two dancers may face each other and hold hands with the arms crossed, link arms, or use a hold similar to that of ballroom dancers. Individual folk dances may also contain distinctive motifs: the dancers may clap their hands, wave handkerchiefs, or clash sticks with one another. Some dances contain elements of mime—not only the bows and curtsies of courtship dance but also gestures such as those performed in certain Slavic harvest dances, where the arms are brought up to the chest and opened outward as if presenting something.

 

Many European folk dances are characterized by a strong emphasis on pattern and formation. The dancers frequently move in an ordered relation to one another, and the steps follow clearly delineated floor patterns on the ground. The circle is the simplest pattern, but the chain, the procession, and the longways dance are also common. (Some of the more complicated patterns are probably due to the influence of the court dances, which systematized and polished the more robust peasant forms.) Although there are numerous exceptions to the rule, the emphasis in many of those dances is on the footwork, rather than on large or vigorous movements of the body.

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to read more about Dance.

 

Source: Britannica - Dance

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Fact of the Day - WALKMAN

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Did you know... that walkman (stylized WALKMAN) is a brand of portable media players manufactured by Sony. The original Walkman, released in 1979, was a portable cassette player that allowed people to listen to music of their choice on the move. Its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term for personal stereos of any producer or brand.[4] By 2010, when production stopped, Sony had built about 200 million cassette-based Walkmans. (Wikipedia)

 

10 Portable Facts About the Walkman
BY NICK KEPPLER  |  JUNE 22, 2016

 

On June 22, 1979, Sony invited a group of journalists to Yoyogi Park in Tokyo and handed each of them a small blue and silver device attached to headphones. After they pressed play, an audio presentation informed them that the international electronics conglomerate was releasing a portable cassette player called the Walkman. As they listened, models on roller skates, skateboards, and tandem bicycles circled through the park with Walkmans on their waistbands and new lightweight earphones atop their heads.

 

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Less than two weeks later, on July 1, 1979, the Walkman hit store shelves in Japan. It would popularize the compact cassette developed 15 years earlier by Dutch manufacturer Philips, help define the ’80s, and usher in a new era of device-enabled disconnection. The Walkman and the company behind it are profiled in John Nathan's book Sony.

 

Here are a few things you might not have known about the device.

 

1. IT WAS INSPIRED BY A SONY CO-FOUNDER’S DESIRE TO LISTEN TO OPERA ON LONG FLIGHTS.
Sony cofounder Masaru Ibuka officially retired in 1976, but he continued to advise the company after his departure. In February 1979, he made a personal request of executives: an easy-to-carry device that would allow him to listen to operas on cassettes during international flights. It turned out to be a pretty simple request to fulfill: Kozo Ohsone, general manager of the tape recorder division, adapted a Pressman—a recording device that Sony marketed to journalists—by replacing the recording mechanism with a stereo amplifier and circuitry.

 

2. SONY HOPED THE WALKMAN WOULD MAKE UP FOR THE FAILURE OF BETAMAX.
In the ’70s, Sony introduced its Betamax tapes, video cameras, and players. Though popular with film production companies for their sound and picture quality, Betamax products were knocked out of the consumer market by the VHS tape, a product of JVC (the Victor Company of Japan). By 1980, VHS had more than half of the market share, and Betamax kept losing ground until it represented less than 10 percent of the market in 1986. VHS tapes could hold 120 minutes, compared to the 60 minutes of the original Betamax tapes, and JVC entered into savvy licensing agreements with American, European, and Asian electronics companies to create VHS-compatible products. Sony never successfully licensed Betamax technology, and its failure was a humiliating blow to the company. Sony’s chairman and other cofounder, Akio Morita, received a Walkman prototype soon after Ibuka got his, in the spring of 1979; he used it while golfing and was amazed by the quality of the sound. He thought the device could redeem Sony and rushed it into production for release that summer. This meant there wasn’t much difference between the first Walkmans on the shelves and the prototype made for Ibuka.

 

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Betamax

 

3. IT WAS MARKETED TO TEENAGERS.
Morita wanted the new device to be marketed to teenagers; he had seen teens lug radios and boomboxes to beaches and up mountains. This meant offering it at a price much lower than that of the Pressman—which retailed in the U.S. for $400 (in 1979 dollars)—even though it contained mostly the same technology. Morita’s imagined retail price for the Walkman was the equivalent of $125 in Japanese Yen. At that price, Sony needed to produce and sell 30,000 Walkman to turn a profit—a hefty first order for a new product, especially at a time when compact cassettes were a fraction of the pre-recorded music market and seen mostly as a professional tool to record speech.

 

The teen angle also meant that Sony had to produce new, more stylish and lightweight headphones, improving on the earmuff-like ones available at the time.

 

The initial ad campaigns emphasized youth and sportiness: young people on roller skates and bicycles, earphones on their ears and Walkmans on their belts. One advertisement said it all: a young, pretty girl with a Walkman wearing futuristic earphones walking past an elderly monk wearing a clunky, old ’60s-style headset.

 

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4. ITS ENTRY INTO FOREIGN MARKETS WAS DELAYED, MAKING IT ONLY MORE DESIRABLE.
Two months after the July 1 rollout, Sony sold out of the initial production in Japan. The company intended to introduce the Walkman to foreign markets in September 1979, but scrapped that plan in order to dedicate production to meet Japanese demand. This only made the Walkman more desired in other countries. Tourists and airline crews searched them out and brought them home. Whenever Sony executives went abroad, colleagues badgered them about obtaining Walkmans.

 

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Second generation budget Walkman model

from 1983 (model WM-4).

 

5. THE WALKMAN HELPED THE CASSETTE OVERTAKE VINYL AS THE BEST-SELLING MUSIC FORMAT.
In 1979, the year of the Walkman’ release in Japan, recorded music sales were about $4 billion in the U.S., half of which went to vinyl, a quarter to compact cassettes, and a quarter to 8-tracks, according to Mark Coleman's book Playback. The Walkman made its U.S. debut in June 1980, and just three years later, in 1983, cassettes overtook vinyl as the top format. By the time Sony stopped manufacturing the Walkman portable cassette players in 2010, the company had sold around 385 million units.

 

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Vintage 90s Walkman

 

6. THERE’S A SOCIOLOGICAL TERM CALLED "THE WALKMAN EFFECT."
In an essay that may seem either quaint or prophetic in the age of smartphones, Japanese professor Shuhei Hosokawa accused the Walkman of altering the urban landscape, from one in which experiences were shared and spontaneous into one where individuals were preoccupied and autonomous in thought and mood. In a 1984 article for the journal Popular Music, entitled "The Walkman Effect," Hosokawa, of the inter-university International Research Center for Japanese Studies, wrote that the “listener seems to cut the auditory contact with the outer world where he really lives: seeking the perfection of his ‘individual’ zone of listening.”

 

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The Walkman The Walkman Effect??

 

7. IT HELPED PEOPLE EXERCISE.
The Walkman coincided with the exercise craze of the ’80s, which saw the Western middle class, newly confined to office jobs, take to the gym and fitness classes. “Almost immediately, it became common to see people exercising with the new device,” Richard James Burgess wrote in The History of Music Production. “Appropriate personalized music eases the boredom and pain of repetitive exercise.”

 

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8. IT RULED THE PORTABLE TAPE PLAYER MARKET.
Nearly every consumer electronics company released a portable tape player in the ’80s, most of which undercut the Walkman in price. Yet because of brand power, the Walkman was unbeatable. A decade after its launch, it retained 50 percent of the market share in the U.S. and 46 percent in Japan despite costing about $20 more than the average personal tape player.

 

9. BY 1990, THERE HAD BEEN 80 WALKMAN MODELS.
For a decade, Sony created new redesigned and specialized Walkmans, including water-resistant, solar-powered, and double-cassette-deck models. By 1990, 80 varieties had gone to market.

 

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Water-resistant Walkman

 

10. THE BRAND NAME WAS SCRAPPED FOR CD DEVICES BUT REINSTATED FOR LATER TECHNOLOGY.
In 1979, the year the Walkman quickly went from prototype to cultural sensation, Sony president Norio Ohga commissioned a joint task force with Philips to create a commercially viable digital audio disc, which became the compact disc. Ohga championed the CD and was sideswiped by the company co-founders’ enthusiasm for the Walkman, its instant success, and the resultant surge in the cassette market.

 

But, Sony slowly rolled out the compact disc in the ’80s, and by the end of the decade, CDs had overtaken cassettes as the most popular format. Because the Walkman brand had become so associated with tapes, Sony used the term Discman for most of its portable CD players.

 

s-l300.jpg

 

Meanwhile, Sony continued manufacturing Walkmans, at a reduced capacity, until 2010, when it manufactured and shipped the last order of cassette players under the name. (The company still licenses the name to Chinese manufacturers of tape players, though.) The company has used the Walkman name for some of its MP3 players and cell phones to date.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Walkman  |  Portable Facts About the Walman

 

 

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Fact of the Day - WILDFIRES

320px-The_Rim_Fire_in_the_Stanislaus_Nat

The Rim Fire burned more than 250,000 acres

(1,000 km2) of forest near Yosemite National Park, in 2013

 

Did you know... that  wildfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, unwanted, uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation starting in rural areas and urban areas. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire can also be classified more specifically as a forest fire, brush fire, bushfire (in Australia), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire. Many organizations consider wildfire to mean an unplanned and unwanted fire, while wildland-fire is a broader term that includes prescribed fire as well as wildland fire use (WFU; these are also called monitored response fires) (Wikipedia)

 

CLIMATE 101: WILDFIRES
BY CLAIRE WOLTERS

 

WILDFIRES CAN BURN millions of acres of land at shockingly fast speeds, consuming everything in their paths. These rolling flames travel up to 14 miles an hour, which converts to about a four-minute-mile pace, and can overtake the average human in minutes.

 

In 2020, the wildfire season in the United States—which lasts from June through September—promises to be particularly devastating. This summer is expected to be the hottest on record, with drought conditions predicted in California through September. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has derailed mitigation efforts—such as homeowner assistance programs and controlled burns—due to concerns over social distancing and respiratory dangers. By the end of June, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had responded to nearly double the number of fires than it had in the entire 2019 season.

 

Destruction caused by wildfires in the United States has significantly increased in the last two decades. An average of 72,400 wildfires cleared an average of 7 million acres of U.S. land each year since 2000, double the number of acres scorched by wildfires in the 1990s. In 2015, the largest wildfire season recorded in U.S. history burned more than 10 million acres of land.

 

Because much of the U.S. is expected to get hotter and drier with climate change, wildfire risk is generally expected to rise. At the same time, as the population in the United States rises and people increasingly move into rural and wilderness areas, more homes and other structures are likely to be placed in harm’s way. That’s why it’s critical to understand how wildfires get started, how to stop them, and what to do when they occur.

 

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A mobile home and car burn at Spanish Flat Mobile Villa as

the LNU Lightning Complex fires tear through unincorporated

Napa County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020

 

How wildfires start
Though they are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as natural disasters, only 10 to 15 percent of wildfires occur on their own in nature. The other 85 to 90 percent result from human causes, including unattended camp and debris fires, discarded cigarettes, and arson.

 

Naturally occurring wildfires can spark during dry weather and droughts. In these conditions, normally green vegetation can convert into bone-dry, flammable fuel; strong winds spread fire quickly; and warm temperatures encourage combustion. With these ingredients, the only thing missing is a spark—in the form of lightning, arson, a downed power line, or a burning campfire or cigarette—to wreak havoc.  SEE RECENT CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

 

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The Woolsey Fire Malibu, California

 

Natural or man-made, three conditions must be present for a wildfire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Firefighters call these three elements the fire triangle.

  • Fuel

is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. The greater an area's fuel load, the more intense the fire is likely to be. The most wildfire-prone state is California, which lost 259,148 acres of land to 8,194 wildfires in 2019.

  • Air

supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. California wildfires are often made worse by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds, which can carry a spark for miles.

  • Heat sources

help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire.

 

Violent infernos are most common in the western states, where heat, drought, and frequent thunderstorms create ripe conditions. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and California experience some of the worst conflagrations. Wildfires also occur around the world and in most of the 50 states.

 

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Wildfires - Dry, Hot and WIndy

 

How they are stopped
Firefighters battle blazes by depriving them of one or more of the fire triangle fundamentals. One traditional method is to douse existing fires with water and spray fire retardants. Firefighters also sometimes work in teams, often called hotshots, to clear vegetation from the land around a fire to contain and eventually starve it of fuel. The resulting tracts of land are called firebreaks.

 

Firefighters may also employ controlled burning, creating backfires, to stop a wildfire. This method involves fighting fire with fire. These prescribed—and controlled—fires remove undergrowth, brush, and litter from a forest, depriving an otherwise raging wildfire of fuel.

 

granite_mtn_hotshots.jpeg

Granite Mountain Hotshots

 

Benefits of wildfires
Although they can be dangerous to humans, naturally occurring wildfires play an integral role in nature. By burning dead or decaying matter, they can return otherwise trapped nutrients to the soil. They also act as a disinfectant, removing disease-ridden plants and harmful insects from an ecosystem.

 

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New wildfires scorch nearly 10K acres in Northern California

 

Wildfires thin forest canopies and undergrowth, allowing sunlight to reach the forest floor and a new generation of seedlings to grow. In fact, some species of trees, like sequoias, rely on fire for their seeds to even open.

 

What to do in a wildfire
Wildfires devastate anything in their path. In 2018, the most destructive California wildfire of all time caused 85 deaths and was the world’s costliest single natural disaster that year with losses exceeding $16 billion. While they are difficult to stop, there are many steps people can take before, during, and after wildfires to limit their damage.

 

Before:

  • If you know a wildfire is traveling toward your area, the best thing to do is leave. Immediately.
  • If you live in a fire-prone area, its best to prepare for that course of action ahead of time. Have an evacuation plan in mind and a “go bag” with emergency supplies already packed during fire season.
  • Keep brush, weeds, and other potential fuels trimmed back on your property, especially around your home.
  • Put away grills, propane tanks, or other flammable materials that may be in your yard.
  • Close all doors and windows and fill sinks, tubs, and other containers with water to discourage fire.
  • Shut off natural gas, propane, or fuel oil supplies.
  • When you purchase a home in a wildfire-prone area, try to avoid neighborhoods on slopes that are steep or barren of vegetation, suggests the California Chaparral Institute. Although some people fear that houses near shrubs are more likely to burn, that’s not necessarily the case, the institute says. Rather, a landscape without vegetation can be the perfect runway for winds to bring embers, which are one of the biggest threats to homes during a wildfire.
  • Wetting your roof may help reduce the risk of airborne embers catching, says the California Chaparral Institute. In fact, some people in fire-prone areas even install rooftop sprinklers for that purpose.
  • If you cannot leave as a fire approaches, dial 911. Then don a face mask, or better, an N95 respirator to help reduce smoke and particle inhalation.

During:

  • If you can still leave, leave.
  • Listen for emergency alerts.
  • If you cannot leave, stay inside. Go to the safest building or room with the lowest smoke levels. Crouch low for the best air. If you don't have a mask, breathe through a wet cloth.
  • If you are caught outside, try to find a body of water to crouch in. If you can't, find a depression with the least vegetation and lie low, covering yourself with wet blankets, clothes, or soil if possible.

After:

  • Do not return until instructed to do so.
  • Listen to authorities before drinking water from the area.
  • Avoid items that are hot, smoky, or charred.
  • Text friends and family, but don’t call. Lines may be busy.
  • Wear a dust mask and document property damage.
  • Beware of the risk of flooding, since trees and protective vegetation might have been removed, exposing loose soil.

Source: Wikipedia - Wildfire  |  National Geographic - Wildfires

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Fact of the Day - LEGO HISTORY

240px-Bri-Plax_Interlocking_Building_Cub

Hilary Fisher Page's Interlocking

Building Cubes of 1939

 

Did you know... that the History of Lego began in 1932 in a Danish carpentry workshop and continues into the 21st century as a popular and very profitable line of construction toys and related products and services, including Lego board games, retail stores, Lego video games, Lego films, Legoland theme parks, and Lego Serious Play consultant services, with a significant impact on various areas of popular culture. Despite its expansion, the company remains privately held. (Wikipedia)

 

LEGOs Came To The US In The '70s And Still Rule Our Lives Today
Culture Rebeka Knott  |  February 8, 2019

 

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Benny the astronaut from 'The Lego Movie'

served as a bridge between past and present

in the 2015 film. Parents in the audience

recognized Benny's faded planetary insignia

and broken helmet. Source: lego.com

 

The LEGO System -- or as most call them, LEGOs -- came to America in the 1970s but has been around in one form or another for over 60 years. And with the release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, the LEGO entertainment empire just continues to build on its American (and global) dominance. But LEGOs didn't come to the United States until 1972, when LEGO USA was established. The products swiftly captured the imagination of American kids, becoming one of the must-have toy brands for younger Baby Boomers, Generation X and all who've followed. Those who grew up in the '70s learned to mash together plates, baseplates, bricks, tiles, wheels, slopes, arches, wedges -- and that's before the arrival of Minifigures, with their spaceships, police cars and medieval weaponry. And don’t let the word "toy" fool you -- the joy of assembling LEGOs has an almost addictive quality that makes these little plastic doodads attractive to parents and grandparents as well. The phrase "for kids of all ages" is usually an exaggeration, but in the case of LEGOs, it really does ring true.

 

Invasion Of The Little People

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The LEGO Knight's Joust play set from 1979.

 

Those of us who grew up with LEGOs in the '60s and early '70s remember them as very basic: brightly-colored square and rectangular bricks. In 1969, LEGO introduced Duplo, a system of larger bricks for younger kids. Then in 1977, LEGO brought forth a line that came to be known as Technic, featuring more specialized and technical parts. Technic sought to appeal to older kids, allowing them to construct accurate scale models of race cars, helicopters, bulldozers, and the like.

 

It wasn't actually until 1978 that LEGO introduced "Minifigures," the small people who would turn out to be the basis for the brand's empire decades later. Minifigure sets were introduced with various themes, including medieval knights, intrepid astronauts, vikings, the wild west, and city workers such as police officers and firefighters

 

You Oughta Be In Pictures

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The Lego Movie managed to pull together

original characters like Emmet and

Wildstyle with the classic superhero Batman. 

 

The Minifigures continued to proliferate throughout the 1980s and '90s, with increasingly specialized bricks and larger casts of characters within the worlds LEGO had created. But this toy company remained just that -- toys -- until 1999, when LEGO struck licensing deals to produce a line of LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Winnie the Pooh sets. The story for the last two decades has been one of expansion into entertainment via licensing. LEGO Harry Potter kicked off the LEGO console gaming venture, and LEGO thrived in animated TV series as well.

 

A movie seemed the next logical step, although getting the first LEGO Movie made wasn't easy. According to a Hollywood Reporter story, it took seven years. First, there was the challenge of hammering out deals with diverse properties, so that superheroes and Hobbits could fraternize on screen as they do in a child's toy box. And then the filmmaking itself, with the insistence that every CGI-bit on screen be a recognizable LEGO, took three years. In the end, everything was indeed awesome, and The Lego Movie hit theaters in February 2014. It was the fifth-highest grossing film of the year, pulling in over $250 million and remaining in theaters through September. Can Lego Movie 2: The Second Part top that impressive feat?

 

That remains to be seen. But the hoopla over LEGOs today provides an opportunity to look back at the origins of this iconic and oddly-named toy that is everywhere we turn these days -- not just the kids, but also those of us who are parents or grandparents. LEGO's origins are humble, and hardly portended such massive success.

 

Bricks of the Trade

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Even the little nubs (or bumps) on top of Lego pieces, that hold

them together, have a name. They are called studs!

 

This simple yet satisfying interlocking brick toy was manufactured by a Danish mastermind named, Ole Kirk Christiansen. Christiansen was a master carpenter by trade. In 1932, he opened a modest workshop where he made stepladders and ironing boards, with his 12-year-old son, to support the family. Later, in 1934, he named his company LEGO, which is derived from a Danish saying, leg godt. In English, this translates to, “play well.” The name turned out to be more than appropriate.

 

One Word: Plastics

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Ole Kirk Christiansen.

 

In 1934, the humble LEGO company had only six employees. By 1942, Christiansen’s business operations expanded, thereby expanding the number of employees to 40, thanks to his progressive and innovative thinking. He tended to embrace new technology, which led to the LEGO Group becoming the first Danish company to own a machine to inject molten plastic into a mold. The form was that of a block of a certain, uniform shape with a hollow bottom and bumps on top to lock it into another block. Because of the locking factor, each block had to be precise.

 

Plastic wasn't yet a common material in the manufacture of toys in the late '40s and early '50s. Up until that time, toys were typically made of wood or metal. Products manufactured by LEGO, however, may have been the one exception to this rule. Because these building bricks were so well made, they were widely accepted and appealing. Additionally, certain materials were in short supply due to WWII, so plastic seemed to be a reasonable alternative. After Christiansen perfected his manufacturing process, there was no stopping him.

 

Putting The Pieces Together

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The first Lego manufactured building bricks were called, Automatic Binding Bricks.

 

While LEGO was definitely on the right path, the name of their new product -- "Automatic Binding Bricks" -- just wasn’t catchy or exciting. Later, Christiansen changed the name to LEGO Mursten, or LEGO Bricks (1953). The name hit its mark and got the attention the product deserved, but the design and composition still needed to be perfected for stability.

 

Christiansen died in 1958, which is the year that the LEGO brand really arrived. His son, Godtfred, took control of the business and catapulted it to the power brand it became and remains. He perfected the design of the LEGO brick to make it sturdier and more versatile. Godfred was every bit as innovative as his father and took the brand to the next level with vehicles, roofs, building sets, mini figures and more. He also went a step further than his father when he patented the LEGO stud and tube brick configuration. Although Ole Christensen never lived to see the magnitude of his brand's achievement, it's certain that he would have been proud of its success and (like any father) his son's leadership. LEGO expanded its operations to several other countries during the 1960s, although the U.S. market remained untapped.

 

Lego Toys Are A Fixture In Households All Over The World

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Early Lego building set.

 

Often, when a LEGO building set is put together, there are a few stray extra pieces. This is because LEGO understands that sometimes the pieces are so small that they are easy to lose. Since there is no way to predict which pieces will be lost, they typically like to include the extra pieces. Some pieces are also so small that when a machine fills the box, they don’t weigh enough to register on the scale which also accounts for extra pieces.

 

A Hole In The Head

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Lego minifigure heads.

 

You may have noticed that LEGO mini figures have small holes in the top of their heads. You might be interested to know that the reason for that is the hole provides a way for air to pass through if a small child were to swallow the head or get it stuck in their throat.


There Are 62 Times As Many Lego Bricks As People On Earth

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Lego Production.

 

In one hour, 2.16 million LEGO pieces are molded. That is 36,000 every minute. The staggering number of total Lego pieces manufactured each year is approximately 19 billion. Since 1958, over 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced. That equals approximately 62 pieces per person worldwide. It has been estimated that the number of LEGO pieces produced each year would stretch around the world five times.

 

A Family Business For Over 80 Years

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Evolution of the Lego logo.

 

The LEGO Group was passed from Ole Christiansen to Godtfred Christiansen to Kjeld Christiansen, who is now in charge. Kjeld is the son of Godtfred and the grandson of the founder, Ole. The reason for LEGO’s continued success is probably that the family shares the same ideals. The brand strives to meet strict quality standards; for each million LEGO bricks produced, about 18 fail to meet the standard, and are rejected.

 

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Lego Toy of the Year Award. 

 

If you were to buy a set of LEGO bricks today, they would interlock perfectly with all the bricks manufactured since 1958. Now that’s perfection! That same perfection has resulted in LEGO bricks being been named Toy of the Year multiple times by various organizations, and in 2000 Fortune magazine acclaimed LEGO as Toy of the Century.  There is no doubt that with their history, they are sure to earn many other distinctions.

 


Source: Wikipedia - History of Lego  |  Groovy History - Lego

 

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Fact of the Day - BASSET HOUND

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Did you know... that the Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog in the hound family? The Basset is a scent hound that was originally bred for the purpose of hunting hare. Their sense of smell and ability to ground-scent is second only to the Bloodhound. Basset Hounds are one of six recognised "basset"-type breeds in France. The name basset is derived from the French word bas, meaning 'low', with the attenuating suffix -et—together meaning 'rather low'. Basset Hounds are usually bicolours or tricolours of standard hound colouration. (Wikipedia)

 

9 Floppy Facts About Basset Hounds
BY REBECCA OCONNELL  |  NOVEMBER 30, 2015


Don't let their droopy looks fool you: There's more to this noble breed than meets the eye. Below, a few things you might not know about the stout dogs from France.

 

1. THEIR NAME REFERS TO THEIR SIZE.

thumb_basset-hound.jpg
Basset comes from the French word bas, which means low, or short. But just because they’re short doesn’t mean they’re delicate: These dogs are typically only 14 inches tall but weigh a whopping 50 to 60 pounds on average.

 

2. THEY WERE BRED TO HUNT.

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French aristocrats bred these dogs from bloodhounds to use while hunting (both bassets and bloodhounds are said to be descendants of St. Hubert hounds). They were used to track a variety of animals, but especially rabbits and hares. The squat canines were tasked with scaring the animals out of the brush, allowing hunters to swoop in and nab their prey.

 

3. THEY'RE THE SECOND-BEST SNIFFERS IN THE CANINE KINGDOM.

 

Second only to one (the bloodhound), these dogs have a serious sense of smell. Bassets have over 220 million smell receptors, and the portion of their brains responsible for the sense of smell is 40 times that of a human's (humans, by the way, have just five million scent receptors). Using their complex noses, they can take in a big range of smells simultaneously and zone in on just one. Once they've targeted a scent, the dogs can follow it for impressive distances.

 

4. THEIR LONG EARS SERVE A PURPOSE. 

bh-ears-768x432.jpeg

The dog's large, floppy ears have a job to do. As a basset hound trots across the ground, its ears help bring smells directly to its face, while its dewlap (the loose skin underneath its chin) helps trap them. 

 

5. SO DOES THEIR SHORT STATURE.

220px-Bvdb-bassethound1.jpg

Short legs keep the dogs close to the ground—and thus, closer to the scents they're tracking. Bassets can keep their noses on the trail of a scent without having to crane their necks like others dogs, which means they don’t tire as quickly while running through brush. Their stubby limbs also limit how quickly the dogs can travel, which, back in the day, allowed hunters to keep up on foot, instead of having to follow on horseback. 

 

6. THEY MAKE GREAT MAYORS. 

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Victoria the basset hound was elected co-mayor of Concord, Ontario, in 2011. She held the office with Nelson, a very serious-looking Great Dane. Victoria made appearances in parades, traveled to neighboring towns, and raised over $1000 for the animals at the Concord Merrimack-County SPCA. She had this to say to The Concord Insider as her term came to an end: “Being the first co-canine mayor of Concord has been an amazing experience. I’ve met many wonderful people, who believe in the betterment of the lives of all canines, and, of course, the anti-squirrel movement.” 

 

7. EXPECT TO GIVE THEM A LOT OF BATHS. 

600-dog.jpg

As a result of being so low to the ground, bassets pick up more dirt than other dogs—which means they need frequent baths if you want your house to stay clean. Additionally, their eyes need frequent wiping to prevent infection, and because those large ears don’t circulate air very well, they need to be cleaned at least once a week. 

 

8. DON’T THROW THEM IN THE WATER.

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Thanks to their stubby legs and thick bodies, basset hounds have trouble swimming. Stick to outdoor activities away from large bodies of water. While the dogs are generally happy to hang out on the shoreline, you don’t want to run the risk of them falling in. 

 

9. THEY’RE FUNNY.

 

Basset hounds are natural scene-stealers. From Flash on The Dukes of Hazard to Sam on That’s So Raven, plenty of the charming dogs have hammed it up on television. Most notably, the breed inspired Droopy, the slow-talking cartoon character created by Tex Avery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fact of the Day - FOGHORN LEGHORN

Foghorn_Leghorn.png

Did you know.... that Foghorn Leghorn is a cartoon character who appears in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and films from Warner Bros. Animation. He was created by Robert McKimson and writer Warren Foster, and starred in 29 cartoons from 1946 to 1964 in the Golden Age of American Animation. ll 29 of these cartoons were directed by McKimson. Foghorn Leghorn's first appearance was in the 1946 Henery Hawk short Walky Talky Hawky. Foghorn's voice was created and originally performed by Mel Blanc and was later performed by Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey, Bill Farmer, Greg Burson, Jeff Bennett, and Frank Gorshin. (Wikipedia)

 

Origin
The character of Foghorn Leghorn was directly inspired by the popular character of Senator Claghorn, a blustery Southern politician played by Kenny Delmar who was a regular character on The Fred Allen Show, a popular radio show of the 1940s. The rooster adopted many of Claghorn' catchphrases, such as "That's a joke, ah say, that's a joke, son." Delmar had based the character of Claghorn upon a Texas rancher who was fond of saying this.

 

claghorn.jpg

 

A leghorn is a breed of chicken, and foghorn describes the character's loud, overbearing voice. At its most raucous, it sounds similar to that of another Blanc voice: Yosemite Sam (an almost exclusive Friz Freleng character). Both parts of the name suggest the association with "Senator Claghorn." According to Leonard Maltin, the character's voice was also patterned after a hard-of-hearing West Coast-only radio character from the 1930s, known simply as The Sheriff, on a radio program called Blue Monday Jamboree. The voice has similarities to that of another Mel Blanc voice, Yosemite Sam, a strictly Friz Freleng character, and even more similar to a proto-Sam character in "Stage Door Cartoon".

 

Foghorn debuted on August 31, 1946 in the Henery Hawk short Walky Talky Hawky.

 

History
Foghorn is a large, anthropomorphic adult rooster with a red head, long red tail-feathers, and yellow talons with short yellow claws. He has a Virginian accent, a "good ol' boy" speaking style, and a penchant for mischief. He has a knack of saying, "I say" as a form of interjection in his speech. All of the motion picture Foghorn Leghorn cartoons were directed by Robert McKimson, and the rooster vies with the Tasmanian Devil as the most popular character associated with the director. Many of the gimmicks involve Foghorn and Barnyard Dawg engaging in one-upmanship through a series of pranks. Unlike other Looney Tunes rivalries (with the notable exception of the Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner series), Foghorn is often the initial aggressor out of self-amusement and subsequently on the "losing" end of gimmicks.

 

Foghornleghorn&georgepdog.jpg

 

Most common among them was Leghorn's taking up a plank of wood, while ambling along humming "Camptown Races", coming to the sleeping Barnyard with his front half inside his doghouse, picking up his tail and rapidly whacking (almost always with eight strokes) his exposed rear end. Occasionally, Foghorn sings the song, but replaces "Camptown ladies sing this song..." with "Lump-teen-dozen and a-doo-dah day...". He does not sing any other part of the song, reverting to humming after the DOO-Dah's. Barnyard would give chase, usually with his leash still attached to his collar, until the leash stretched tautly and his barking was replaced by an anguished shriek.

 

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At times, when the dog would continue to bark, he would also yell, "AAAAAAAHHH, shaddap!" In rare cases, Barnyard starts the series of pranks; as such it is somewhat difficult to tell who started the feud. This gag was passed down to Leghorn's grandson in "Feather Bluster", where Foghorn was puzzled as to why the youngster was behaving that way and Barnyard was all too happy to remind him: "Ain't nothin' wrong with 'im, Foggy, 'ceptin' that he takes after you." He was joined in a few episodes by a weasel called "Bill" who initially attempted to eat him but ended up joining forces to outsmart Barnyard.

 

Other recurring themes throughout the cartoons included the attempts of the diminutive Henery Hawk to catch and eat Foghorn, and the rooster's efforts to woo the widowed hen Miss Prissy (often by babysitting her bookish son, Egghead, Jr.). Foghorn's voice was created by Mel Blanc and was later performed by Joe Alaskey, Frank Gorshin, Bill Farmer, and Jeff Bennett. Later, some of Foghorn's characteristic catch-phrases were drawn from the character of Senator Claghorn, a blustering Southern politician who was a regular character on the Fred Allen Radio Show. The rooster adopted many of Claghorn' catchphrases, such as "That's a joke, I say, that's a joke, son." The references to Claghorn were obvious to much of the audience when the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons first premiered, but like many of the references in WB cartoons of the era, they have since become dated.

 

A toddler version of Foghorn made appearances in short music videos of Baby Looney Tunes. He starred in only one episode of the show, in which he was trying to fit in with a gang of cool roosters and employed the help of Tweety and his friends before Lola Bunny suggested to just be himself, which came in handy when Barnyard Dawg chased the cool roosters.

 

4170670.jpg

 

Foghorn Leghorn made numerous appearances in Tiny Toon Adventures in numerous roles as Acme Looniversity's Professor of Hound Teasing, Baseball Coach and an obnoxiously loud Librarian. Foghorn appeared in an episode of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries entitled "Family Circles" and was voiced by Billy West. The rooster appeared in two Chuck Jones shorts of the 1990s, "Superior Duck" (1996) and "Pullet Surprise" (1997), voiced on both occasions by Frank Gorshin. He was part of the Toon Squad team in Space Jam, and was a croupier at Sam's casino in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In addition, Foghorn appeared in commercials for Jack In The Box, McDonald's, and GEICO. A character named Mr. Leghorn, based on Foghorn himself, made a pair of appearances in Loonatics Unleashed.

 

Work
Foghorn Leghorn is considered a significant Looney Tunes character, appearing in 28 cartoons, plus one cameo, in the Golden Age of American Animation. All 29 cartoons Foghorn Leghorn appeared in the Golden Age were directed by Robert McKimson, the animator who created him.

 

Design
74301dd6ba5b1fa098f5089514fda605.jpg
His voice was created by voice actor Mel Blanc, heavily patterned after the character of Senator Claghorn (hence Foghorn's name), a blustering southern politician who was a regular character on the Fred Allen radio show. Senator Claghorn was created and voiced by radio comedian Kenny Delmar. Foghorn Leghorn also used a number of Claghorn' catchphrases, like "That's a joke, son". The references to Senator Claghorn were obvious to much of the audience when the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons first premiered but like many of the references in WB cartoons of the era they have since become dated and "go over the heads" of most modern-day audiences.

 

Quotes

  • "That, I say, that woman has a mouth like an outboard motor. Put-Put-Put-Put-Put-Put-Put."
  • "Go, I say, go away, boy, ya bother me!"
  • "That, I say, that boy's about as sharp as a bowling ball."
  • "Boy, I say, boy has got a mouth like a cannon. Always shooting it off."
  • "Don't, I say, don't bother me, Dog. Can't you see I'm thinkin'?"
  • "Hey, whatcha making there boy? Looks like sodi-pop. Hyuk yuk! Watch it fizz!!" KA-BLAM
  • "Keep your shirt on, Prissy. He's just, I say just stirring the wagering pot."
  • "Looks like our fine feathered friend is heading into Venician territory...of Venice, Italy, that is."
  • "That dog's as subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oatmeal."
  • "Nice kid but doesn't listen to a word you say."
  • "Nice kid but a little dumb."
  • "That boy's as strong as an ox. And just about as smart."
  • "That dog, I say that dog is lower than a snake full of buckshot."
  • "Smart boy. Got a mind like a steel trap - full of mice."
  • "Now cut that out boy, or I'll spank you where your feathers are thinnest."
  • "Pay attention to me boy. I'm not just talking to hear my head roar."
  • "This boy's more mixed up than a feather in a whirlwind."
  • "That woman's as cold as a nudist on an iceberg."
  • "Some days, it don't pay to get outta bed!"
  • (sniffs air, imitates Tarzan calls, but coughs, then sings) "This is the way we bounce the ball, bounce the ball, bounce the ball, this is way we bounce the ball early in the mornin'"
  • "That dog, I say that dog, is strictly G.I. - Gibbering Idiot, that is."
  • "Secure last section of Pipe G, stretch Elastic X laterally."
  • "Boy's so dumb, you put his brain on the sharp edge of a razor blade, it would look like a marble rolling down a four-lane highway."
  • "Speakin' of figures, I put two n' two together and come up with a four-legged smart-aleck mutt!"
  • "The screwball in the back pocket!"

 

Source: Wikipedia - Foghorn Leghorn  |  LooneyTunes Fandom - Foghorn Leghorn

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Fact of the Day - APPLES

apple-tree-blossoms.jpg

Did you know.... that an apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree? Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts About Apples

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  • Apples are part of the rose family, just like pears and plums.
  • The apple tree originated in Central Asia. They have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe, and were brought to North America by European colonists.
  • There are more than 8,000 varieties of apples – the largest variety of fruit to exist.
  • Apple are one of the most widely grown tree fruit.
  • Apple trees take 4 to 5 years to produce their first fruit.
  • Apple trees are deciduous and have a period of dormancy followed by a flurry of activity in spring.

 

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  • Bees pollinate the flowers in late spring, moving from one tree to the next.

 

By the time the fruit is ready to be picked, the buds for next fall’s fruit are already in place.

apple-plants-250x250.jpg

 

  • The apple tree generally standing 1.8 to 4.6 meters (6 to 15 feet) tall in cultivation and up to 12 meters (39 ft) in the wild.
  • Life expectancy for apple tree is about 100 years.
  • China is by far the largest apple producer.

 

The Apple is popularly known as the supposed forbidden fruit of Eden. But this is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible!

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  • Apples can help you improve your memory.
  • Apples contain high levels of boron, which stimulates electrical activity of the brain and increases mental alertness.
  • Most of the antioxidants in apples, including Quercetin, are found in the skin.
  • A medium sized apple contains 80 calories.

 

apple-kashmiri.jpg

 

  • The soluble fiber contained in apples is called pectin, and can help lower cholesterol levels.
  • To produce one apple, it takes energy from 50 leaves.
  • Pomology is the science of apple-growing.
  • The apple genome was decoded in 2010.
  • Apples float in water because they are 25% air.

 

The most expensive apple in the world is Sekai Ichi apple it cost $21.00 each. Sekai ichi means “world’s number one” in Japanese.

apples.jpg

 

The largest apple ever weighed 1.849 kg (4 lb 1 oz) and was grown and picked by Chisato Iwasaki at his apple farm in Hirosaki City, Japan October 24 2005.

Heaviest-apple-600x450.jpg

 

  • Apples are also said to symbolize health, love and fertility.
  • Apple blossoms are a symbol of feminine beauty.
  • Apples were popular in Ancient Greece and Rome and were a sign of opulence.
  • In Norse mythology, the goddess of youth,  Iðunn was believed to grow magic apples that kept the gods youthful.
  • In the Chinese culture, the word for apples is pronounced as ‘ping’ which also stands for peace. This is why apples are a popular gift to give when visiting someone in China.
  • There is a classic story that Sir Isaac Newton came up with his law of gravity when an apple fell on his head.
  • The most famous saying involving apples is, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
  • The fear of apples is known as Malusdomesticaphobia.
  • New York City is nicknamed “The Big Apple.”

 

Note: 
I made apple sauce today.  I used 2 costco bags of gala apples.  I removed the skin, cored them and chopped them up.  I put them in a large pot, added ¼ cup of water and ground cinnamon.  You can add the cinnamon to taste.  Just don't put too much.  Then you boil until the apples are softened, take it off the heat and let cool for half an hour.  Then you mash them and put them into mason jars.  I was able to get 6 medium-size jars filled.  I put the lids on and put them in the freezer.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Apple Tree  |  JustFunFacts About Apple Tree

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Fact of the Day - HOT WHEELS

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Did you know.... that Hot Wheels is a brand of die-cast toy cars introduced by American toy maker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, former of Matchbox. (Wikipedia)

 

11 Collectible Facts About Hot Wheels
BY MARK MANCINI | SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

 

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An estimated 41 million people have played with them. They vary in price from $1 to more than $100,000. They can zip along orange trackways at speeds of almost 600 scale miles per hour. And they're about to get a big-screen adaptation courtesy of Fast & Furious director Justin Lin.

 

Here are 11 other things you might not know about those iconic racing toys called Hot Wheels.

 

1. HOT WHEELS WERE THE BRAINCHILD OF ELLIOT HANDLER, WHOSE WIFE CREATED BARBIE.
Elliot and Ruth Handler, along with their friend Harold Matson, founded a picture frame company named Mattel in 1945. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Handler started using spare parts to make dollhouse furniture, which was sold on the side. By 1946, toy manufacturing had become Mattel’s specialty. In its early years, the company’s biggest hits were novelty items like cap guns and ukuleles. Then, in the late 1950s, Ruth hit on what would prove to be a brilliant idea: The Handlers' young daughter, Barbara, loved to play with paper dolls; inspired, Ruth decided to create a three-dimensional replacement for the primitive toys. Elliot had his doubts, telling his wife that “no mother is ever going to buy her daughter a doll with breasts.” But he was wrong: Barbie debuted in 1959, and within 12 months, Mattel had sold 351,000 of the dolls.

 

But soon, Elliot would have his own multimillion-dollar idea. In the 1960s, tiny die-cast car toys were all the rage. The dominant force in that market was the English Matchbox brand, whose scaled-down vehicles left a lot to be desired (at least in Handler’s opinion). For one thing, these little cars were all based on existing automobiles. Surely, Handler felt, kids would rather play with designer hot rods. More importantly, the wheels made Matchbox cars difficult to get moving. Convinced that he could break into the die-cast game, Handler joined forces with a team of designers to create a series of aesthetically-pleasing, lightning-fast cars. Production started in 1967.

 

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Matchbox Car.

 

2. THERE ARE A FEW CONFLICTING STORIES ABOUT WHERE THE NAME CAME FROM.
In his 2003 book Hot Wheels: 35 Years of Speed, Power, Performance, and Attitude, Randy Leffingwell summarizes the two most popular explanations. Most people credit Handler with coining the name. According to some sources, when the businessman saw designer Fred Adickes testing out a prototype one day, he remarked “That’s one set of hot wheels you’ve got there.”

 

But Handler himself traced the origin to a chat he once had with Alexandra Laird, who worked in the packaging department. Between 1964 and 1969, she named more or less every outfit in Barbie’s closet and became known as Mattel’s “namesmith.” In her version of the story, Laird started cooking up ideas as soon as she learned about the die-cast project. “I went back and looked at these funny little cars and then wrote a whole bunch of names on a list the way I always did,” Laird said. Suggestion number one was Big Wheels. “Elliot looked at it, half-smirked, and asked me for another word, different from ‘big,’” Laird recalled. “He talked about the custom styling and wondered aloud if that was what people would call ‘hot.’” After that, Handler allegedly blurted out “Hot Wheels,” and the rest is history.

 

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3. ONE OF THE ORIGINAL HOT WHEELS DESIGNERS LATER PUT A NEW SPIN ON THE OSCAR MAYER WIENERMOBILE.

Most of Mattel’s first 16 Hot Wheels cars, which hit the shelves in 1968, were designed by GM's Harry Bentley Bradley. Hot Wheels aren't the only pop culture cars he left his mark on, though: In 1995, Bradley designed an all-new Wienermobile for Oscar Mayer. It had aerodynamic windows and hot dog-shaped dashboards.

 

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Wienermobile.

 

4. A CAR IN THE ORIGINAL LINE WAS BASED ON THE 1965 DODGE DEORA—WHICH DIDN’T HAVE DOORS!
Among the maiden 16 Hot Wheels, this might have been the strangest. In lieu of doors, the cab of an actual ’65 Deora was equipped with a hatch at the very front of the car. A driver would need to open the hatch and climb in backwards before he or she could sit down behind the wheel. Vehicle customizers Mike and Larry Alexander went to Harry Bradley, and together they created the experimental pickup for the 1967 Detroit Autorama, where it won nine trophies. Full-sized Deoras were never mass-produced.

 

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'65 Dodge Deora.

 

5. 16 MILLION HOT WHEELS CARS WERE SOLD IN 1968 ALONE.
Demand for these toys hasn't waned: Mattel estimates that over 4 billion cars have been produced and claims that eight of them are bought every single second.

 

6. IF YOU’VE GOT ONE WITH RED CIRCLES ON THE WHEELS, IT MIGHT BE WORTH SOME MONEY.
From 1968 to 1977, thin red lines were typically painted around the sidewalls of Hot Wheels tires. But in an effort to cut costs, Mattel went with all-black wheels partway through 1977. Collectors prize the old “redline” Hot Wheels—in fact, certain mint-condition models sell for thousands of dollars.

 

7. A TIE-IN TV SERIES TOOK SOME HEAT FROM THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION.

In 1969, a Hot Wheels cartoon series, sponsored by Mattel, premiered on ABC. The show featured a teenage car racer named Jack “Rabbit” Wheeler who, along with his buddies, always did his best to promote safe driving. The gang also took a firm stand against underage smoking, which they deemed “non-cool.” Mattel’s competitors wrote the FCC to complain that this Hot Wheels cartoon was a program-length commercial in disguise, which undermined federal advertising laws. The FCC concurred, and the resulting changes compelled ABC to cancel Hot Wheels in 1971.

 

Mattel was able to kick off another tie-in series in 2009, thanks to deregulatory measures that had taken effect during the 1980s. Titled Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five, it ran for two seasons on Cartoon Network.

 

 

 

8. FOR COLLECTORS, THE HOLY GRAIL IS A PINK VOLKSWAGEN WITH REMOVABLE SURFBOARDS.
In 1969, the company unveiled its most famous car to date: the Volkswagen Beach Bomb. With a surfboard loaded onto either side, it looked like the perfect rig for a summer road trip down the California coast.

 

Designing the iconic toy cars was a challenge: Originally, Mattel’s engineers wanted the surfboards to be removable units that could be loaded into the back of the van through wide-open rear windows. Keeping these specifications in mind, the toymakers built 16 prototypes. Then the team discovered that the Beach Bombs were too narrow to be used on Mattel's Super Charger race tracks—so they had to come up with a different design. The new VWs were wider and featured side compartments for the boards.

 

Most of the 16 prototype Beach Bombs are now worth around $15,000 apiece. But a pair of them command a price tag that’s normally reserved for full-sized, driveable Porsches: These are the bright pink, rear-loading 1969 Volkswagen Beach Bombs. According to collector Bruce Pascal, only two such Hot Wheels were ever made (most of the prototypes received a different color scheme). In 2011, one sold for $125,000.

 

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9. THE BRAND HAS COLLABORATED WITH NASA.
In 1998, Mattel teamed up with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory—a NASA research and development center—to create the Hot Wheels JPL Sojourner’s Mars Rover Action Pack Set. The product included a replica of the Sojourner rover, which landed on Mars that summer. Then, in 2012, Mattel renewed its alliance with NASA to manufacture scale models of yet another Red Planet vehicle: the six-wheeled, $2.5 billion Curiosity rover.

 

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Curiosity Rover.

 

10. THE BIGGEST HOT WHEELS TRACK LOOP ON RECORD WAS OVER 12 FEET HIGH.

In 2015, dynamometer technician Matt West built a 5-foot, outdoor Hot Wheels track loop for Blade, his 6-year-old son. “It started as a part-fun, part-physics lesson with my son at home,” West said. Before long, word of their exploits had spread to the technician’s workplace, namely, the Ford Motor Company’s Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Inspired by West’s playful afternoon, the staff decided to raise the bar for an upcoming Take Your Child to Work Day. Using 4-by-8 sheets of plywood as a stabilizer, Ford’s team set up an enormous Hot Wheels raceway with a massive loop. Guinness World Records later confirmed that, at 12.5 feet tall, it qualified as the largest Hot Wheels Track Loop ever built. On April 23, 2015, this monument to the creative spirit dazzled a crowd of adults and children alike; the very first car to brave the track was a Hot Wheels Ford Mustang.

 

 

 

11. IN 2011, THE HOT WHEELS BRAND WAS INDUCTED INTO THE NATIONAL TOY HALL OF FAME.
Located in Rochester, New York, the National Toy Hall of Fame honors the world’s most influential playthings, from the cardboard box to Raggedy Ann. Mattel’s Hot Wheels line was formally inducted in 2011, along with the dollhouse and the blanket.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Hot Wheels  |  MentalFloss - Hot Wheels

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - TET

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Tết at the Saigon Tax Trade Centre (2012)

 

Did you know... that Tết, Vietnamese New Year, Vietnamese Lunar New Year or Tet Holiday, is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. The word is a shortened form of Tết Nguyên Đán, which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day". Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar, which usually has the date falling in January or February in the Gregorian calendar. (Wikipedia)

 

ABOUT TET

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01/11/2019 BY STEPHEN NGUYEN

 

 

Tet holiday or Vietnamese Lunar New Year, even known as Tet Nguyen Dan, is truly an important event in Vietnamese traditional & culture. Because of being calculated by the lunar calendar, the Tet holiday takes place at the end of January that is obviously later than the globally New Year’s Day. The traditional event itself is the longest public holiday in Vietnam and also the most fantastic time for all travelers from all around the world to spend their time in Vietnam (if you are planning to enjoy the cheerful multi country Asia tours for New Year, do not ignore Vietnam). On January, 25th, 2020, Vietnamese Lunar New Year will occur.

 

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What is the Tet Holiday?
In Vietnam, Tet holiday is celebrated to greet the New Year (Lunar New Year) and it is also the time for people to recall what they’ve done last year. The event is considered an important mark for changes, plans, and a new beginning. Additionally, Vietnamese people believe that on the first day of the Tet holiday, what they do will affect their rest. Thus, they pay their great attention to every single word they say, every single thing they do. One more thing is that the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, perhaps, is the only occasion for family members having a good moment together after a year of working and studying hard.

 

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The Features of Vietnamese Tet Holiday
Vietnamese Lunar New Year Not Chinese Lunar New Year
Many people reckon that the Vietnamese have been celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year and yes, it must be a misunderstanding. Both of the two countries use the lunar calendar though, the customs and traditions of Vietnam are totally different from China. According to the Vietnamese historical document, in the 13th century, the Vietnamese tended to organize Tet holiday by painting on themselves as well as drinking traditional rice wine and using betel nuts to greet guests, tasting Banh Chung and pickled onions. In the period of the Ly dynasty (1009 – 1226), a huge number of important rituals were given birth such as setting up a dome to pray for rains, structuring communal holidays to crave for a lucky year of abundant harvests. During the period of King Le Thanh Tong (1442 – 1497), Tet holiday in Vietnam featured as the most essential festival and hundreds of mandarins had to gather at the court to celebrate such a meaningful event with the royal family.

 

Tet Holiday Cuisine
The Vietnamese Lunar New Year also means eat that affirmed the essential role of the cuisine in Tet Nguyen Dan. According to a Vietnamese traditional proverb, you can be hungry throughout a year; however, in the 3 days of the Tet holiday, never more. It is because dozens of scrumptious dishes will be prepared to feast the ancestors along with family members. So, let check out what dishes are served.

 

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Banh Chung – Vietnamese Square Sticky Rice Cake
Banh Chung is a traditional cake in Vietnam which only appears on the Tet holiday. The cake is made from immensely familiar ingredients such as sticky rice, green beans, and pork. All ingredients will be wrapped in green leaves in square-shaped and boiled overnight. It's the shape of the square stands for a symbol of Earth – according to a legend. Currently, one can strive Banh Chung all year round though, tasting this kind of cake at Tet holiday brings the Vietnamese people special feelings, especially when they stay up late to take care of Banh Chung which are boiled with their grandfathers and grandmothers. At the moment writing such these things, the memories when I spent time taking care of the boiled Banh Chung with my grandmother are vividly visible in my mind. Such a wonderful moment it was.

 

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Jam
Jam is a prevalent snack to greet guests on the Tet holiday. The snack itself is mainly made from dried fruits such as coconuts, carrots, apples or other kind of seeds like roasted watermelon seeds, sunflower seeds mixed with sugar. It is believed that eating such sweet things on the Lunar New Year will bring people luck for the year ahead.

 

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Pickled Onions
The Vietnamese people, in the Lunar New Year event, tend to eat more fat and oiled foods that easily cloy their appetites. Thus, it is the time for something low calories and fresh like pickled onions. This simple food helps the digestive system digest high protein food affectively. In Vietnam, the Tet holiday will only complete when people totally eat fat meat, pickled onions, and red distiches. Along with such delicious dishes, there are manifold different signature dishes like spring rolls, boiled chicken, sticky rice, and Vietnamese sausages.

 

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Tet Holiday Mascots
Vietnamese Zodiac
Each Lunar New Year in Vietnam has its own symbolic animals. 12 Vietnamese Zodiac signs are truly different from Chinese ones as the 4th Zodiac sign of Vietnam is Cat while in China, it is Rabbit. Each animal is believed to bring unique luck in its year; thus, you can see them everywhere in Vietnam from decorations to advertisements. Vietnamese Tet Holiday 2020 is the year of Rat.

 

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Tet Holiday Trees & Flowers
People in northern Vietnam tend to have Peach blossom while others in southern Vietnam have apricot blossom trees for their Tet holiday. The red color of peach blossom is considered to bring luck while the yellow one which is from apricot blossom trees stands for the fortune to the owners. Besides Peach blossom, people living in northern Vietnam also buy kumquat trees for the Tet holiday.

 

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Neu Tree
The tree is originally a 5-meter-tall bamboo shot. Based on each region of the owner, the chop of the Neu tree will hang different things such as votive papers, alcohol bottles which are made of straw, or amulet exorcism. Neu tree stands for a symbol that lets devils away from the place of living people.

 

Tray of Five Fruits
In Tet holiday, each family has a tray of five different fruits like bananas, oranges, grapefruits, or other tropical fruits that are only prepared on the Lunar New Year of Vietnam. However, it is based on which region the families follow to choose fruits. The tray of five fruits is tended to used to express the wishes of the family by the names, colors, and arrangements.

 

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Click the link below ⬇️ to read more on Tet.

Source: Tet Holiday in Vietnam  |  Wikipedia - Tet

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Tuesday's Fact of the Day - SONNET

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Sonnet 1, by WIlliam Shakespeare.

 

Did you know... that  sonnet is a poetic form which originated at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in Palermo, Sicily. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention and the Sicilian School of poets who surrounded him is credited with its spread. The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto (from Old Provençal sonet a little poem, from son song, from Latin sonus a sound). By the thirteenth century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. Conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history. Writers of sonnets are sometimes called "sonneteers," although the term can be used derisively. (Wikipedia)

 

SONNET

Poetic Form

WRITTEN BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

 

Sonnet, fixed verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme.  

 

The sonnet is unique among poetic forms in Western literature in that it has retained its appeal for major poets for five centuries. The form seems to have originated in the 13th century among the Sicilian school of court poets, who were influenced by the love poetry of Provençal troubadours. From there it spread to Tuscany, where it reached its highest expression in the 14th century in the poems of Petrarch. His Canzoniere—a sequence of poems including 317 sonnets, addressed to his idealized beloved, Laura—established and perfected the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet, which remains one of the two principal sonnet forms, as well as the one most widely used. The other major form is the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet.

 

The Petrarchan sonnet characteristically treats its theme in two parts. The first eight lines, the octave, state a problem, ask a question, or express an emotional tension. The last six lines, the sestet, resolve the problem, answer the question, or relieve the tension. The octave is rhymed abbaabba. The rhyme scheme of the sestet varies; it may be cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce. The Petrarchan sonnet became a major influence on European poetry. It soon became naturalized in Spain, Portugal, and France and was introduced to Poland, whence it spread to other Slavic literatures. In most cases the form was adapted to the staple metre of the language—e.g., the alexandrine (12-syllable iambic line) in France and iambic pentameter in English.

 

The sonnet was introduced to England, along with other Italian verse forms, by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, in the 16th century. The new forms precipitated the great Elizabethan flowering of lyric poetry, and the period marks the peak of the sonnet’s English popularity. In the course of adapting the Italian form to a language less rich in rhymes, the Elizabethans gradually arrived at the distinctive English sonnet, which is composed of three quatrains, each having an independent rhyme scheme, and is ended with a rhymed couplet.

 

The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg. Its greater number of rhymes makes it a less demanding form than the Petrarchan sonnet, but this is offset by the difficulty presented by the couplet, which must summarize the impact of the preceding quatrains with the compressed force of a Greek epigram. An example is Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXVI:

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh, no! it is an ever-fixéd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


The typical Elizabethan use of the sonnet was in a sequence of love poems in the manner of Petrarch. Although each sonnet was an independent poem, partly conventional in content and partly self-revelatory, the sequence had the added interest of providing something of a narrative development. Among the notable Elizabethan sequences are Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella (1591), Samuel Daniel’s Delia (1592), Michael Drayton’s Idea’s Mirrour (1594), and Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti (1591). The last-named work uses a common variant of the sonnet (known as Spenserian) that follows the English quatrain and couplet pattern but resembles the Italian in using a linked rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee. Perhaps the greatest of all sonnet sequences is Shakespeare’s, addressed to a young man and a “dark lady.” In these sonnets the supposed love story is of less interest than the underlying reflections on time and art, growth and decay, and fame and fortune.

 

In its subsequent development the sonnet was to depart even further from themes of love. By the time John Donne wrote his religious sonnets (c. 1610) and Milton wrote sonnets on political and religious subjects or on personal themes such as his blindness (i.e., “When I consider how my light is spent”), the sonnet had been extended to embrace nearly all the subjects of poetry.

 

It is the virtue of this short form that it can range from “light conceits of lovers” to considerations of life, time, death, and eternity, without doing injustice to any of them. Even during the Romantic era, in spite of the emphasis on freedom and spontaneity, the sonnet forms continued to challenge major poets. Many English writers—including William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning—continued to write Petrarchan sonnets. One of the best-known examples of this in English is Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us”:

 

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste
our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me
less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd horn.

 

In the later 19th century the love sonnet sequence was revived by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) and by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in The House of Life (1876). The most distinguished 20th-century work of the kind is Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnette an Orpheus (1922).

Source: Wikipedia - Sonnet  |  Britannica - Sonnet

 

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Fact of the Day - SUPERHERO FICTION

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"Captain Marvel smacks the Axis"

on the cover of Captain Marvel

Adventures number 17 (Fawcett

Comics, November 1942).

 

Did you know... that a superhero fiction is a genre of speculative fiction examining the adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess superhuman powers and battle similarly powered criminals known as supervillains. The genre primarily falls between hard fantasy and soft science fiction spectrum of scientific realism. It is most commonly associated with American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works. (Wikipedia

 

Facts Phenomenal About Superheroes

by Sammy Tran

 

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Why do people love superheroes? It’s an almost unanswerable question—not because there’s not an answer, but because there’s so many. Who can deny the childlike thrill of paging through a comic book, or sitting in a dark theater surrounded by other fans, waiting to be blown away by the best action that Hollywood has to offer? Through multiple generations, these characters have remained as popular as ever. Here are 44 super facts about DC and Marvel superheroes.

 

Unexpected Power
In Superman 2, Superman famously reacts to being charged at by a bad guy by revealing a bizarre power of his—ripping the letter S off his shirt, throwing it, and having it magically engulf and knock down his pursuer. The powers of Kryptonians just never end! This moment was so unique and memorable that it was once parodied by Family Guy.

 

 

 

Activate!
When the Justice League comics were adapted for TV as Super Friends, a bunch of new characters were added who had never actually appeared in comics. The most memorable of these would have to be the Wonder Twins, an alien brother and sister who could transform into whatever animal or object they wanted to upon fist-bumping each other. They also had a monkey sidekick named Gleek. It’s safe to say that this superhero team pops into many people’s heads when they think of corny 1970s cartoon shows.

 

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Radio Days
Shortly after Superman’s comic book life began, he became the star of what would help solidify his spot as a household name for decades to come—The Adventures of Superman radio series. This weekly program, mainly geared towards children and families, became a national sensation and gave birth to many of Superman’s most identifiable aspects which we still associate with him to this day—including the concept of Kryptonite.

 

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Punctuation Problems
Spider-Man is spelled with a hyphen, while Superman, Batman, and most other hero names are not. In fact, Stan Lee specifically decided to spell it with a hyphen to distinguish Spidey from some of these already established heroes. You’ll upset a lot of fans if you ever get that wrong so watch out!

 

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Catchy Tune
The ‘60s Spider-Man cartoon theme song, composed by Paul Francis Webster and Paul Harris, is one of the most popular superhero themes out there. It’s so popular that it was brought back and referenced in several of the more recent Spider-Man films.

 

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A Competitive Field
Never fear, the DC Comics heroes have also had memorable music associated with them. Superman has had acclaimed soundtracks written for his movies by two of the most popular movie composers of all time, John Williams and Hans Zimmer. As for Batman, need I say more than “na-na-na-na-na-na?”

 

Bruce McWayne
Batman’s billionaire secret identity, Bruce Wayne, was inspired by and named after a famed Scottish king and an American Revolutionary hero, Robert Bruce and Anthony Wayne.

 

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Speed Limit Reached
In the DC comics universe, The Flash is not just a really fast guy—he is the fastest person in the world.

 

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Founding Fathers
The original members of the DC’s Justice League of America were Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman. The league has since expanded many times and their missions had them defend the world’s population against just about every kind of danger imaginable on earth—and beyond.

 

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Roster Changes
Marvel’s answer to the Justice League was the Avengers, and the founding team may not be as familiar—at least until the MCU came along. The original lineup consisted of Ant-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and The Wasp. Noticeably absent were Thor and Captain America, two of the main stars of the recent films.

 

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Team Effort
The Avengers are not Marvel’s only popular superhero team—the X-Men debuted in 1963 and have been an extremely popular franchise ever since, with an also consistently growing roster.

 

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Click the link below ⬇️ to read about Superheroes

 

Source: Phenomenal Facts About Superheroes  |  Wikipedia - Superhero Fiction

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