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Nick Knight photographed McQueen in hair and make-up similar to that used in this show for the April 1998 issue of The Face magazine. The photos were accompanied by a handwritten letter from McQueen explaining the imagery and addressed to Joan of Arc. Tim Walker photographed two looks from the collection for British Vogue, including a dress in the red McQueen tartan. In October 2023, actress Taylor Russell was photographed in a pair of hooded, beaded fringe dresses – one in black, one in red – designed by Sarah Burton for the Alexander McQueen brand, inspired by the final dress from Joan.
American singer Lady Gaga wore the red lace dress from Look 78 to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, adding a tall crown of matching lace by Haus of Gaga to the look. Following her controversial performance of "Paparazzi", which ended with her apparently lifeless, hanging by the wrist and smeared with blood, she changed into the McQueen ensemble to accept the Best New Artist award. She later explained that the dress was "meant to be a continuation of the VMA performance. So after ... the princess had been murdered by the paparazzi, the red lace was meant to symbolize sort of my eternal martyrdom." It is recalled as one of Gaga's most memorable looks. Nina Bo'nina Brown wore a homemade version of the red lace dress for a performance on a Lady Gaga-themed episode of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2017.
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Joan (collection)
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City owns several items from Joan, including the long coat from Look 4, the buttoned jacket and beaded skirt from Look 42, the billowy black jacket and red and black striped pants from Look 74, and one unspecified ensemble. The Victoria and Albert Museum of London owns the red and black striped jacket from Look 76. The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Australia owns several items from Joan, including Look 11, a grey sheath dress, and Look 55, a red beaded dress.
Several items from Joan appeared in the retrospective exhibit Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty: the armour from Look 8, the black jacket from Look 42, and the red beaded dress from Look 82, the finale. A sequined jacket with a black-and-white printed image of Victorian era children from Joan appeared in the 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse.
In 2017, Shaun Leane auctioned a number of pieces he had created for the house at Sotheby's in New York, including a silver headdress from Joan which sold for an estimated $50,000.
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Ownership and exhibitions
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The English rock band the Kinks staged their first concert tour of the United States in June and July 1965. The sixteen concerts comprised the third stage of a world tour, following shows in Australasia, Asia and in the United Kingdom and before later stages in continental Europe. Initially one of the most popular British Invasion groups, the Kinks saw major commercial opportunity in the US, but the resultant tour was plagued with issues between the band, their management, local promoters and the American music unions. Promoters and union officials filed complaints over the Kinks' conduct, prompting the US musicians' union to withhold work permits from the band for the next four years, effectively banning them from US performance.
The programme was in the package-tour format typical of the 1960s, with one show per day, several support acts on the bill and the Kinks' set lasting around 40 minutes. Concerts were characterised by screaming fans and weak sound systems. The US press, which still largely viewed rock music as simple teenage entertainment, generally avoided reporting on the tour. Some shows were poorly attended, owing to a lack of advertising and promotion, leaving local promoters sometimes unable to pay the band the full amount they were due. A payment disagreement led to the band refusing to perform at the Cow Palace near San Francisco, and an argument over a union contract before a television appearance resulted in Ray Davies, the Kinks' bandleader, physically fighting with a union official.
The relationship between Ray and the Kinks' personal manager, Larry Page, was marked by continual friction. Bothered by Ray's behaviour, Page departed to England in the tour's final week, an action that the Kinks viewed as an abandonment. The band's subsequent efforts to dismiss Page led to a protracted legal dispute in English courts. Unable to promote their music in the US via tours or television appearances, the Kinks saw a decline in their American record sales. Cut off from the American music scene, Ray shifted his songwriting approach towards more overt English influences. Ray resolved the ban in early 1969, and the Kinks staged a comeback tour later that year, but they did not achieve regular commercial success in the country again until the late 1970s.
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Introduction
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In April 1965, the Kinks' personal manager Larry Page announced the band's intention to tour the United States. Initially planned to begin on 11 June, the tour would run for three weeks and would be the band's first in the country. The shows formed the third leg of a world tour, following concerts in January and February in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, and concerts in the United Kingdom in April and May. Page began co-managing the Kinks in November 1963, around two months after the band's two other managers, Grenville Collins and Robert Wace. The resulting three-manager set-up was complicated, and it soon became a source of resentment for the Kinks when they saw much of their income going to other people.
After witnessing the enormous commercial success experienced in the US by the Beatles in 1964, Page was hoping to break the Kinks into the American market before the Rolling Stones, who he felt had been underpromoted. Like their contemporaries, the Kinks were part of the British Invasion, a cultural phenomenon where British pop acts experienced sudden popularity in the US. A second wave of British acts, including the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and Them, entered the American charts in early 1965, and the Kinks were initially the most popular of these. Two of their earliest US singles – "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night", released in September and December 1964, respectively – had each reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while their first US album was moderately successful, peaking at number 29 in the magazine's Top LPs chart in March 1965. As the Kinks appeared to be on the verge of major American success, the band and their management considered a US tour to be the next pivotal step in their career.
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Background
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From 10 to 14 February 1965, while returning to Britain from the first leg of their world tour, the Kinks visited the US for the first time. The original plan had the band appearing on two musical variety programmes – Hullabaloo in New York and Shindig! in Los Angeles – along with two concert dates, but only the Hullabaloo appearance went ahead. When the band appeared on the programme, they angered trade union officials by initially refusing to sign paperwork with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the US performers' union. Joining the union was a requirement of the Kinks' appearance, but the band were not convinced that it was necessary. Two weeks after the band's visit, their US label Reprise Records issued "Tired of Waiting for You" as a single in the US. It subsequently reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the Kinks' third consecutive top ten single in the US. To capitalise on the nationwide publicity the band were experiencing, Reprise rushed out a second album in late March, Kinks-Size, which peaked at number 13 in the third week of June, the same week the US tour commenced.
By early 1965, the Kinks had developed a reputation for violence and aggression, both on and off the stage. The band's concerts were characterised by hysterical fans, whose swarming attempts occasionally left the group bruised, concussed and with torn clothing. On 9 April, a concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, descended into a riot between fans and police; the incident was covered by the Associated Press newswire and reported on in newspapers across the US. The band sometimes broke into physical altercations during rehearsals, recording sessions and concerts; infighting was most common between the brothers Ray and Dave Davies and between Dave and the drummer Mick Avory. Tensions within the group were more elevated than usual following a violent intra-band dispute on 19 May at a concert in Cardiff, Wales, where Avory struck Dave in the head with a hi-hat stand. Dave was briefly hospitalised, and the four remaining dates of the band's UK tour were cancelled. Britain's national press covered the Cardiff incident in detail, leading to hoteliers across the country imposing an unofficial ban on the Kinks. The band initially considered replacing Avory with a different drummer, but their managers pressurised them into downplaying the incident, both to avoid police charges and to allow them to fulfil their commitments, including the imminent US tour. After agreeing to regroup, the band performed one concert and made four British television appearances in the first week of June.
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Background
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The US shows were in the package-tour format typical of the 1960s. The Kinks and the Moody Blues were set to be joint headliners, but when the Moody Blues were unable to enter the country after having been denied US visas, they were replaced with different acts at various stages of the tour, including the Supremes, the Dave Clark Five and Sonny & Cher. Local groups and musicians performed as support acts, including Paul Peterson, Dick and Dee Dee, the Hollywood Argyles, the Rivieras and Dobie Gray, among others. Rather than headlining at the shows in California on 3 and 4 July, the Kinks instead appeared as one of several support acts for the American rock band the Beach Boys.
The shows ran for several hours, the Kinks' set usually lasting for around 40 minutes. On Page's recommendation, they based their shows around their first hit single "You Really Got Me". To generate anticipation, they played the opening bars of the song at the start of each concert before abruptly switching to a different number. They performed a complete version of the song midway through the set and repeated it during their encore.
The band wore matching red jackets, frilly shirts, black trousers and Chelsea boots, all of which were custom-ordered from Bermans & Nathans, a major theatrical costumier in London. Page commissioned the outfits in April 1964 as part of his early efforts to rework the band's image, providing them with a distinctive look, similar in effect to the collarless suits the Beatles wore in 1963. Though not historically accurate to the Victorian era, the look emphasised the band's Englishness, especially to an American audience who knew little about English culture. The band were regularly taunted by Americans during the tour over their appearance, especially their long hair, which, when paired with their outfits, gave them a more androgynous and less masculine appearance than that of other contemporary pop acts.
Sound quality at the band's shows was poor, as the often weak PA systems at the venues struggled to compete with the loud screams of fans. Drums were typically not miked, and Avory later recalled struggling to hear himself play at larger venues. A local newspaper article describing a show at one of the smaller venues reported that the band's vocals were "lost in an array of electric guitars".
Dave began the tour with his main guitar, a black Guild archtop electric with two Guild humbucking pick-ups and a Bigsby tailpiece, a custom-built instrument originally meant for Beatle George Harrison. The guitar was lost by an airline when the band flew to Los Angeles, and because the band did not travel with spare guitars, Dave was obliged to find a replacement at a local music shop. He bought a 1958 Gibson Flying V, which he debuted on Shindig! on 1 July. Dave played the guitar at chest-height, placing his arm through the cut-out V shape at the guitar's base.
The Kinks were accompanied on tour by Page and road manager Sam Curtis, who was hired two months earlier, before the band's recent UK tour. Page saw his own role as mainly promotional, dealing with stage management and public relations, while Curtis handled custodial duties, such as organising transport, meals and sleeping arrangements. In the final week of the US tour, California businessman Don Zacharlini stood in as temporary tour manager in Page's place. Collins and Wace, who generally focused on office work, remained in the UK for the duration of the tour. The band were regularly visited by their publisher Edward Kassner, who took time to promote Ray's songwriting catalogue; the band's publicist Brian Sommerville and booking agent Arthur Howes arrived three weeks before the start of the tour to perform advance work. The tour was booked through Ken Kendall Associates in New York City.
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Repertoire, tour personnel and equipment
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After announcing the tour, Page made several changes to the itinerary. He announced different dates in press releases before delaying the start by a week to 17 June, something necessitated by Dave's head injury in Cardiff. Early plans included different locations, including a Canadian show, probably for Vancouver, on 11 July. By 16 June, five of 16 finalised shows were cancelled, prompting the addition of hastily arranged concerts in downstate Illinois, Denver and Honolulu.
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The Kinks signed contracts for the tour on 16 June at Denmark Productions, the London offices of Page and Kassner. Among the forms were applications to join the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the US musicians' union. The union's main purpose was to regulate the movement and placement of professional musicians in America, and joining was a requirement for working in the country. Concerned that foreign workers would take away jobs from American citizens, the AFM in 1964 initially opposed allowing any British rock musicians to perform in the US. British groups often found the regulations of the AFM and AFTRA overly complicated, and some complained about the requirements to pay hundreds of dollars in fees for each visit. Ray initially expressed reservations about signing the necessary paperwork; after working a union job as a teenager, he had come to see trade unions as needlessly corrupt and militant. Page instead ascribed Ray's hesitance to his tendency towards prima donna–like behaviour.
Each of the Kinks had held romantic notions about the US since they were young, but Ray was apprehensive about visiting the country, having become more cynical after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. He worried in part how American police would respond to the Kinks' sometimes violent intra-band disputes, especially since only a month had passed since the incident in Cardiff. He was further disappointed by the poor financial returns of the band's February visit and was unhappy about leaving his wife Rasa at home with their first-born child, who was born weeks earlier in mid-May. Ray agreed to go after receiving assurances from his father that he would help Rasa take care of the baby.
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The Kinks departed London at midday on 17 June and arrived in New York City early that afternoon. The same day of their arrival, the band appeared on The Clay Cole Show to promote their latest single "Set Me Free", which entered the Hot 100 the week before and peaked a month later at number 23. The tour's first show occurred the following day at the Academy of Music, a cinema in New York City. The appearance was beset by issues; the band were disappointed by the old venue's facilities and the theatre's employees, who showed open contempt to those in the rock and roll business. The venue's marquee initially incorrectly advertised "The Kings", and a dispute arose when the Kinks, the Supremes and the Dave Clark Five realised that promoter Sid Bernstein had promised each group that they would be topping the bill. Problems continued at the following day's performance in Philadelphia, where Page was arrested and briefly jailed for failing to pay a local tax as demanded by a union official.
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The Kinks' audience, many of whom were teenage girls, were prone to fanatical behaviour. Curtis recalled women following the band throughout the tour out of sexual interest, especially for Dave. Upon their arrival in New York, the band were unable to enter their hotel for about two hours owing to a large crowd; and on other nights fans clung to the side of their moving vehicle or smashed its windows with their fists. After fans rushed the Kinks at the conclusion of their concert in Chicago, police and security guarded the stage at a show two nights later in Springfield, Illinois. To keep the fans further at bay during the tour, police escorted the band throughout the day and were posted at their hotel.
Tensions among the Kinks remained high during the tour. Since the incident in Cardiff, Dave and Avory had generally stopped speaking to one another, and Page later recalled separating the group to prevent more fighting. He further recalled that bassist Pete Quaife was generally a calming influence among his bandmates, but he remained hesitant to take sides. Throughout the tour, Page experienced regular issues from Ray, who often pestered his manager to amuse himself. Page described Ray as behaving like a prima donna, and Curtis suggested that Ray regularly sought to annoy anyone whose interest in him was entirely financial. While the other Kinks went out to clubs, Ray spent much of his free time during the tour alone in his hotel room, disappointed he was not at home with Rasa and their newborn.
The Kinks' shows received little to no coverage in local newspapers, as most journalists viewed the band and rock music more broadly as simple teenage entertainment. In contrast with the effective publicity work done by the Beatles and their management, the Kinks were aloof with the press in interviews. Ray was apprehensive about his role as the band's frontman and he was typically nervous in front of cameras. The band often tried to make interviewers look foolish or feel uncomfortable, something which regularly drew consternation from Page. Band biographer Jon Savage writes that compared to the British Invasion's "packaged pop groups", like the Dave Clark Five and Herman's Hermits, the Kinks instead presented as "brooding, dark, androgynous mutants" whose attitudes seemed anarchic to Middle America. The band later described sometimes feeling resentment from Americans during the tour, especially as they proceeded into the American Midwest, where attitudes skewed more conservative. Ray further sensed disgust on the part of those in the American music business, whose unhappiness with disruption of their industry by British acts was compounded when the Kinks' appearances were drawing less money than originally expected. A week before the band's 27 June show in Stockton, California, promoter Betty Kaye cancelled the concert because of poor advance-ticket sales, an action she expected to lose her around US$3,500 (equivalent to US$35,000 in 2024).
The Kinks were disappointed by the tour's early financial returns, which left them staying in inexpensive hotels and travelling mostly by coach. The band and their management experienced regular issues with local promoters, who often looked for reasons to avoid paying the full amount required by contract. Having been hastily arranged only weeks earlier, the band's shows in downstate Illinois were poorly advertised and poorly run, contributing to a growing feeling among the band that the tour was not meeting their original expectations. The band's 25 June concert in Reno, Nevada, was poorly attended because of both a lack of advertising and its conflicting with the opening day of the popular Annual Reno Rodeo. Kaye offered the band half of the agreed payment upfront, promising them the rest after the next night's performance in Sacramento, California. In retaliation, Page threatened to sue her, and the Kinks only performed for 20 minutes rather than the 40 minutes originally contracted. At the Sacramento show, Kaye was further offended when the Kinks played for 45 minutes but filled much of their set with a prolonged version of "You Really Got Me".
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From 27 June to 2 July, the Kinks had a week off from concerts, during which time they mostly did promotional work in Hollywood, California. The band lip-synched performances on the television programmes Shivaree, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, Shindig! and Dick Clark's variety show Where the Action Is. At the same time, Kassner promoted Ray's songwriting catalogue around Los Angeles. By the end of the week he had secured four agreements, including from Peggy Lee, who recorded "I Go to Sleep" as a single. The same week, Page met Cher as she finished sessions for her debut album at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, and he convinced her to record "I Go to Sleep" as well.
Cher's recording inspired Page, who booked studio time for the Kinks at Gold Star on 30 June. The band were normally produced by Shel Talmy, whose contract with Pye Records specified that he was to supervise all of their recording sessions. Talmy anticipated Page attempting to usurp his role and had filed a legal notice before the band left England advising them to not record in the US without him, but the session proceeded anyway. The Kinks were enthusiastic at the prospect of recording in an American studio for the first time, especially after plans to do so the day before at Warner Brothers Studios failed to materialise. During the session, they recorded Ray's composition "Ring the Bells". Page hoped to issue the recording as their next single, but Talmy again served the band legal papers to prevent it, leaving the recording unissued.
The Kinks were the featured performers on Shindig! for the week of 1 July, and the band selected "Long Tall Shorty" to play as the show's closing number. Rather than have the band mime to the version they recorded for their first LP, AFM requirements dictated that a new backing track be made, which the show's house band the Shindogs recorded at a separate evening session on 30 June. The Kinks attended the session, but Dave was the only one of them who appeared on the recording, contributing rhythm guitar. Among the Shindogs was lead guitarist James Burton, whom the Kinks were especially excited to meet, having known him for his guitar solos on many of Ricky Nelson's hits; Ray later recalled that getting to play with Burton was both "the biggest thrill" and "the only good thing" to happen during the tour.
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On 2 July, the Kinks appeared at the Cinnamon Cinder club in North Hollywood for a daytime shoot of Where the Action Is. While waiting beforehand in the band's dressing room, Dave refused to sign a contract presented to the band by AFTRA. The refusal prompted a union official to threaten to have the Kinks banned from ever playing in the US again. After a further exchange of words, a physical altercation occurred between the official and Ray, which ended when Ray punched him in the face. Ray later said the worker taunted the Kinks by calling them "communists", "limey bastards" and "fairies". He also recalled: I remember a guy came down – they kept on harassing us for various reasons ... and this guy kept going on at me about, "When the Commies overrun Britain you're really going to want to come here, aren't you?" I just turned around and hit him, about three times. I later found out that he was a union official.
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Ray's fight with the union official on 2 July marked a low point on the tour for him, a depression exacerbated by the absence of Rasa. The following day, after the afternoon soundcheck at the Hollywood Bowl, Ray informed Page that he was not going to perform the evening's show. Advertised as "The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular", the concert had the Kinks billed highest among the Beach Boys' ten support acts. Page regarded the concert as the pinnacle of the tour and an opportunity to present the Kinks as a second Beatles, and he later recalled trying to convince Ray to perform: "I spent all day pleading, begging, grovelling – and this was after a very heavy tour ... it was totally degrading for me." Ray demanded of Page that Rasa and Quaife's girlfriend Nicola be flown out to see them, and Page contacted Collins back in London to arrange the flight. Ray agreed to perform, and the concert proceeded as normal in front of around 15,000 concertgoers. Rasa and Nicola arrived in Los Angeles after the show and joined the group for the remainder of the tour.
After weeks of being agitated by Ray's behaviour, Page lost his patience at the Hollywood Bowl. He abruptly departed back to London on the morning of 4 July. In his place, he arranged for the band to be led by both Curtis and temporary tour manager Don Zacharlini, a local businessman who owned a chain of laundromats. Page advised Dave, Quaife and Avory of his intentions but did not tell Ray, who learned of Page's absence later that day. Ray was incensed by what he saw as an abandonment of the band; after expressing his feelings to his bandmates, the group decided that they would extricate Page from their business dealings upon their return to the UK.
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The same day as Page's departure, the Kinks arrived at the Cow Palace near San Francisco for an afternoon show as part of "The Beach Boys' Firecracker". The promoter, again Kaye, lost a significant amount of money when only 3,500 tickets were sold out of 14,000. The Kinks demanded to be paid upfront, but a lack of cash receipts meant that she was only able to offer a cheque. In light of their earlier pay disputes with her in Reno and Sacramento, the band refused to perform the San Francisco show.
Despite the absence of Page, the final week of the tour proceeded generally without incident. The band arrived in Hawaii on 5 July and held two concerts in Honolulu the following day, including a show for US Army troops at Schofield Barracks. Ray had expected Hawaii to be overly commercialised, but he was charmed by the islands' quiet beaches; he later named it his best holiday ever, and Rasa described her time there with Ray as like a second honeymoon. After an off-day spent in Waikiki, the band flew to Washington state and held three concerts, concluding the tour in Seattle on 10 July.
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Quaife and Avory remained in the US for an extra ten days sightseeing southern California with Zacharlini; Ray and Dave arrived home in London on 11 July and immediately conveyed their angry feelings about Page to Wace. Page was initially unaware of the others' plans to oust him, and though Ray and Wace continued to be friendly in their interactions with him, the two met with a solicitor on 2 August to begin planning the separation. The following day, Ray arrived unannounced at a Sonny & Cher recording session at which Page was present, angrily objecting to the duo recording one of his compositions, "Set Me Free", while also expressing his wish for Page to terminate involvement with the Kinks.
The Kinks resumed their world tour in Sweden on 1 September, accompanied only by Curtis. The following day, Wace and Collins' firm Boscobel Productions served a legal notice advising Page and Kassners' firm Denmark Productions that the Kinks intended to terminate their existing contract. Page filed litigation in November over his subsequent remuneration, leading to a protracted legal dispute between the two parties in London's High Court in May and June 1967, followed by the Court of Appeal from March to June 1968. Key aspects of each of the hearings centred on whether Page's departure to London in the final week of the US tour constituted a legal abandonment, something which generated disagreement among the three justices hearing the appeal. Page was only partially successful, when both courts awarded him compensation up to 14 September 1965. The management dispute ended on 9 October 1968, when a final appeal filed by Page was rejected.
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Return to England and dismissal of Larry Page
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Following the issues between the Kinks and Betty Kaye in Reno, Sacramento and San Francisco, she filed a formal complaint with Local 6, the San Francisco branch of the AFM. Union officials in Los Angeles and likely San Francisco filed further complaints. In response, the AFM withheld future work permits from the Kinks, in effect banning the band from future US performance.
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American performance ban
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The AFM made no public statements regarding their action against the Kinks, nor did they communicate to the band an explanation or possible duration. The Kinks hoped to return to the US soon after, but four tours booked for between December 1965 and December 1966 were each cancelled a month beforehand after the band proved unable to obtain work visas. Anticipating further visa issues, they declined an invitation to the Monterey International Pop Festival, a June 1967 Californian music festival which elevated the American popularity of several acts. Plans to tour the US in December 1967 and December 1968 similarly fell through after more visa denials.
The AFM's ban on the Kinks persisted for four years. Ray negotiated with the union to lift it when he visited Los Angeles in April 1969. As part of the agreement, the AFM required the Kinks and their management to write apologies to Kaye and refrain from discussing the matter publicly. Over ensuing decades, Ray, Dave and the band's management remained vague in explaining the situation in interviews. Asked for comment in December 1969 by Rolling Stone magazine, the union stated that it had no official paperwork regarding a ban on the Kinks but added that the reciprocity agreement between the AFM and the British Musicians' Union allowed either organisation to withhold permits from acts which "behave badly on stage or fail to show for scheduled performances without good reason". Other AFM officials subsequently said that the Kinks were banned on the grounds of "unprofessional conduct". The biographer Thomas M. Kitts alternatively suggests that the AFM's sanctions against the Kinks were motivated by a desire "to make an example of some young English musicians who, the union believed, were taking work from Americans". Kitts adds that the Kinks proved an easier target than the Rolling Stones, who, despite their presentation as one of teenage rebellion, often remained on agreeable terms with officials and promoters.
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In later interviews, Ray regularly cited the ban as producing a pivot in his songwriting towards English-focused lyrics. The situation left the Kinks comparatively isolated from American influence and changes in its music scene, guiding the band away from their earlier blues-based riffing towards a distinctly English style. While American songwriters explored the emerging drug culture and genre of psychedelia, Ray focused on English musical influences like music hall. Ray later suggested that visiting America ended his envy of the country's music, leading him to abandon attempts to "Americanise" his accent while withdrawing into what he later termed "complete Englishness and quaintness".
The American ban hampered the development of the Kinks' career. Unable to promote their music in the US via tours or television appearances, they saw a decline in their American record sales. American groups covered Ray's compositions less often after 1965, and those that did generally restricted their selection to British Top Ten hits. The band experienced continued success in the UK, but only two of their singles entered the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 while the ban remained active. By late 1967, after a string of poor performing singles, American record shops had generally stopped stocking the band's releases. The band steadily lost American fans, but they retained a cult following and received favourable coverage from America's nascent underground rock press. After the ban was lifted, Reprise and Warner Bros. Records initiated a promotional campaign to re-establish the Kinks' commercial standing before their return tour, held from October to December 1969, which the promotional campaign and some contemporary newspapers described as the band's first American tour. Other than their single "Lola", which reached number nine in the US in October 1970, the Kinks did not achieve regular commercial success in the country again until the late 1970s.
Critics and journalists often retrospectively identify the American ban as the critical juncture in the Kinks' career. Commentators typically see the ban as essential in shaping the band's underdog and outsider image, especially when compared to most successful British Invasion bands. According to the academic Carey Fleiner, the ban serves as a "rallying cry" for the band's fans when arguing why they do not enjoy the same long-term "multinational corporate brand" as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kinks%27_1965_US_tour
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American performance ban
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{
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The Kinks played for around 40 minutes, but no complete set lists from the US tour are known to band biographers. Below are examples of set lists from the second and fifth legs of the world tour, roughly two months before and three months after the US tour, respectively:
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The Kinks' 1965 US tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kinks%27_1965_US_tour
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Set list
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{
"word_count": 49,
"char_count": 271,
"is_intro": false
}
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According to the band researcher Doug Hinman, except where noted:
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The Kinks' 1965 US tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kinks%27_1965_US_tour
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Tour dates
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{
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The above table includes neither those shows which were cancelled before the tour began nor those dates which were not finalised. The cancelled shows were in Indianapolis, Louisville, Rockford, San Jose and San Diego, planned for 20, 22, 23 June and 2 and 5 July, respectively. Tentative dates planned for 9–16 June but never finalised included Manchester, Wappingers Falls, Boston, Providence, New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford and Youngstown, as well as Vancouver on 11 July.
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The Kinks' 1965 US tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kinks%27_1965_US_tour
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Tour dates
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{
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"char_count": 475,
"is_intro": false
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Marshfield was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L" in service between 1895 and 1954. Constructed by the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad, it was the westernmost station of the Metropolitan's main line, which then diverged into three branches. Marshfield was also served by the Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway (AE&C) and its descendant the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E), an interurban, between 1905 and 1953.
The Metropolitan, one of four companies operating the "L", handed its lines over to the Chicago Elevated Railways (CER) trust in 1911. The companies forming the trust formally merged into the Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT) in 1924, which continued operation of the "L" until it was taken over by the publicly-held Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in 1947. The CA&E had resulted from splitting of the AE&C in 1921.
In the 1950s, overhauls to the Metropolitan's lines, planned since the 1930s, replaced the Logan Square branch with a subway to go directly downtown and substitute a rapid transit right-of-way in the median of the Eisenhower for the main line and Garfield Park branch. Construction of these new lines was piecemeal, as was the end of service to Marshfield; Logan Square trains were diverted in 1951, as was Garfield Park and CA&E service in 1953. This left Douglas Park trains as the sole traffic at Marshfield until April 1954, when they too used a temporary right-of-way to go downtown. The Congress Line opened in 1958; the junction that Marshfield had served was maintained between the new line and the Douglas Park branch, but the station prior to this divergence was located on Racine Avenue, significantly to the east of Marshfield Avenue. An entrance to the Medical Center station on the new line was located on Paulina Street, a block west of Marshfield Avenue.
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Marshfield station
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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Introduction
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{
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The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Company was granted a 50-year franchise by the Chicago City Council on April 7, 1892, and began securing right-of-way shortly thereafter. The Metropolitan's operations comprised a main line that went westward from downtown to diverge into three branches – one northwest to Logan Square, one due west to Garfield Park, and one southwest to Douglas Park – and serve various parts of Chicago's west side. A further branch to Humboldt Park proceeded due west from the Logan Square branch past Robey Street. The franchise stipulated that this divergence take place somewhere between Wood Street and Ashland Avenue; the Metropolitan decided to place the junction at Marshfield Avenue, a minor street.
Originally intending for its railroad to be powered by steam locomotives like the competing South Side and Lake Street Elevateds, the Metropolitan decided in May 1894 to use electric traction instead. The tracks had already been largely constructed prior to the decision to electrify them, but retrofitting the third rail proved an easy task besides the switches of the main line. The junction at Marshfield required "elaborate special work" in its switches and signals, more so than other elevated railroads at the time, and has been described as being as late as 1948 "the most elaborate and complex junction on the Chicago elevated system". The main line and Logan Square branch up to Robey had their tracks completed by the middle of October 1894, and were given power in April 1895 for test and inspection runs. They began service at 6 a.m. on Monday, May 6, 1895; eleven stations opened that day, including Marshfield. Upon its opening, the Metropolitan became the first revenue electric elevated railroad in the United States. The Garfield Park branch opened on June 19, but service on the Douglas Park branch was delayed until April 28, 1896.
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Marshfield station
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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{
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The Metropolitan's lines were originally operated by the West Side Construction Company, which had been responsible for constructing them, and were transferred to the Metropolitan on October 6, 1896. The backers and officers of the two companies were largely identical, however, so this transfer of ownership was nominal. The expenses incurred in constructing this vast trackage would catch up to the Metropolitan, which entered receivership in 1897. The similarly-named Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway Company was organized in January 1899 and assumed operations on February 3 of that year.
The interurban Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway (AE&C) was incorporated in 1901 and began service on August 25, 1902, between Aurora and the Garfield Park branch's station on 52nd Avenue – later renamed "Laramie Avenue" – in Chicago. The AE&C and Metropolitan entered a trackage rights agreement in 1905, effective March 11, whereby AE&C trains were allowed to go into downtown Chicago via the Metropolitan's tracks and Wells Street Terminal, and the Metropolitan could extend its service westward on AE&C tracks to its station on Des Plaines Avenue. Having gone bankrupt in 1919 due to rising inflation from World War I and state regulations, the AE&C was split into two parts, one of which was the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E), in 1921.
The Metropolitan, along with the other companies operating "L" lines in Chicago, became a part of the Chicago Elevated Railways (CER) trust on July 1, 1911. CER acted as a de facto holding company for the "L" – unifying its operations, instituting the same management across the companies, and instituting free transfers between the lines starting in 1913 – but kept the underlying companies intact. This continued until the companies were formally merged into the single Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT), which assumed operations on January 9, 1924; the former Metropolitan was designated the Metropolitan Division of the CRT for administrative purposes. Although municipal ownership of transit had been a hotly-contested issue for half a century, the publicly-owned Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) was not created until 1945, nor given operation of the "L" until October 1, 1947.
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Marshfield station
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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History
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{
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Plans for Chicago to have a subway system to relieve the severe congestion of, if not replace, its elevated trackage dated back to the early 20th century, but the city lagged in building subways. A plan emerged in 1938 for a subway to go downtown from the west side; a 1939 plan also introduced the idea of replacing the main line and Garfield Park branch with a section of rapid transit operating through a superhighway (the eventual Interstate 290 or "Eisenhower") on Congress Street that had been proposed since the 1909 Plan of Chicago and more thoroughly planned in the early 1930s. These sections of transit would be connected, allowing for the northwest side's rapid transit to be routed through downtown rather than adhere to a trunk-and-branch model.
Work on the subway was delayed by World War II; it finally opened on February 25, 1951, rerouting Logan Square and Humboldt Park trains from Marshfield Junction. Construction on the expressway and Congress Line, on the other hand, had not started even though it had been adopted by the City Council in 1940 and formally authorized for construction in 1946. Clearance of the right-of-way began in 1949 and was largely complete by 1952, by which time only the "L" structure survived in the path of the future expressway. Changes were made to the Garfield Park and Douglas Park lines on December 9, 1951. Several stations were closed, including Laflin to Marshfield's east on the main line. Skip-stop, wherein trains were designated as either "A" trains or "B" trains and stopped at respective "A" or "B" stations, was applied during weekdays to the surviving stations; Marshfield was designated an "all-stop" station under this scheme and was thus unaffected.
As construction progressed, Garfield trains were rerouted from the "L" structure to temporary at-grade trackage running directly on Van Buren Street between Kedzie and Halsted, ceasing to make intermediate stops in that area; this included the main line stations of Marshfield and Racine. In the process, Marshfield became a "B" station and Halsted became the transfer point between Garfield Park and Douglas Park trains. These changes impacted westbound trains on September 20, 1953, and eastbound trains on September 27. The CA&E, having long struggled financially, had serious doubts about its ability to reroute its right-of-way into the new expressway median, and more immediately refused to use the at-grade tracks due to safety concerns as well as the prospect of delays caused by the use of traffic signals at road crossings. Despite some speculative plans for alternative train service to downtown Chicago, and after being barred by state regulators from abandoning rail service altogether in favor of buses, the CA&E ultimately abandoned service east of Des Plaines on September 20. This left Douglas Park trains as the sole remaining traffic for Marshfield and Racine, which remained temporarily open for them.
Douglas Park trains started using the Paulina Connector – the old Logan Square structure, connected to the Lake Street Elevated – to get to the Loop on April 4, 1954, removing the last traffic to Marshfield and Racine; they were demolished soon afterwards. After the change, Douglas Park riders needing to transfer to westbound Garfield Park trains were advised to use the Madison/Wells station in the Loop, whereas eastbound Garfield Park riders headed for Douglas Park were recommended to switch at State/Van Buren. The Congress Line was complete in the area of Marshfield and opened on June 22, 1958, combined with the subway and Douglas Park branch – by then simply the "Douglas" branch – as the new "West-Northwest Route". The route had a new station on Racine Avenue as the final station before the divergence of the Douglas branch from the line. West of the junction, the Medical Center station on the Congress Line contained an auxiliary exit and part-time entrance on Paulina Street, a block west of Marshfield Avenue.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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Closure and demolition
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The station was located at 416 South Marshfield Avenue in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago. The Metropolitan boasted of providing water closets, water fountains, newsstands, and waiting rooms at its stations, which also included racks for bicycles, staff to announce those in waiting rooms of approaching trains, and space for baby carriages. Unlike elsewhere on the "L", the Metropolitan's station houses, located at street level, had central heating and basements.
Marshfield had two island platforms, one each between an inner and outer track; after the AE&C began service, an additional side platform was constructed on the northern Garfield Park track west of the junction. A pedestrian bridge linked both "L" platforms and the interurban platform. East of the station, the tracks crossed over and became two bidirectional pairs rather than two pairs in the same direction. Trains bound for or coming from Logan Square and Humboldt Park used the northern tracks and island platform, while trains bound for or coming from Garfield Park and Douglas Park used the southern tracks and platform. Three switches existed at this interlocking, all of which were hand-thrown. The junction's switches and signals were constructed by the Paige Iron Works of Chicago. The tower for the junction was located on the southern platform. West of Marshfield, another junction involved the Douglas Park branch diverging from the Garfield Park tracks. This divergence, combined with the crossover, has led to descriptions of the junction as "actually consist[ing] of two junctions".
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Marshfield station
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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Station details
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{
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As originally opened, the Metropolitan's trains ran every six minutes between 6 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., and every ten minutes during the night, on the main line and Northwest branch; the average speed was 16 mph (26 km/h). By 1898, the night hours were updated so that trains ran at 30-minute intervals on each branch, or 7.5 minutes on the main line. Trains running on the Westchester branch, which was a western extension of the Garfield Park branch opened in 1926, did not stop at Marshfield, instead running express from Canal on the main line to Laramie on the Garfield Park branch.
The CA&E stopped at Marshfield to board westbound passengers and alight eastbound passengers; lest it compete with the "L" directly, patrons were not allowed to board eastbound trains at Marshfield, nor were westbound passengers allowed to alight at stations within the "L"'s area of service. As early as 1934, several morning rush hour CA&E trains a day stopped at Laflin instead of Marshfield to discharge eastbound passengers. By 1950, such trains, now the majority of morning rush hour trains, instead used Ogden for eastbound alightment, although the remainder of CA&E trains continued eastbound alightment at Marshfield. CA&E trains were limited to 45 mph (72 km/h) on "L" tracks, but were given priority over slower "L" train at the crossover east of Marshfield.
Station agents on the Metropolitan were originally on duty 24 hours a day; fare collection by on-train conductors was adopted on various Metropolitan branches for night and off-peak hours during the 20th century, although the main line maintained 24-hour station agents throughout its existence. Unlike other elevated railroads at the time, the Metropolitan did not sell tickets for passengers to present to staff; instead customers gave their fare to the station agent to record in a registry, a practice similar to streetcars. This practice was ultimately adopted by the other elevateds. The CA&E, on the other hand, sold tickets to be checked by conductors. Tickets could be purchased either at a station or on the train; full-fare tickets sold on trains came with a dime ($1.31 in 2024) surcharge over those bought in advance.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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Operations
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{
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A working-class neighborhood grew up around the station, supplanting what had been a fashionable area. Underneath the CA&E platform was the Dreamland Ballroom, a venue that was at one time owned by the CRT. Located near the station was the Coyne Electrical School and the Presbyterian Hospital, and the headquarters of the retail cataloger Alden's. By the 1940s, the neighborhood was inhabited by people of African, Greek, Italian, Jewish, and Mexican ancestry; it was considered blighted by officials and the public, but residents contested that description.
A streetcar ran on Ashland Avenue by the late 19th century; in the vicinity of the station, it turned west to run north from Paulina Street to avoid running on a boulevard, before turning back east to Ashland. By the early- to mid-20th century, this route was one of the "Big Five" streetcar lines in Chicago, which had the highest ridership, received the most amenities, and had the shortest wait times. Another streetcar route ran on Van Buren Street adjacent to the Metropolitan's tracks, being powered by horse until it was electrified in 1896. As of 1928, both routes had owl service. Buses replaced streetcars on Van Buren in 1951; the eastbound Van Buren streetcar track remained until it was removed to construct the temporary westbound Garfield Park "L" track, but the westbound track survived through the highway construction and opening of the Congress Line. Ashland's streetcars were replaced by buses in 1952 for weekend service, and in 1954 altogether.
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Marshfield station
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
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Neighborhood and connections
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In 1900, the earliest year data is available, Marshfield served 499,538 "L" passengers. Afterwards, ridership steadily increased until it peaked at 1,538,319 in 1926. Ridership last exceeded one million in 1929 before declining substantially to roughly 1900s levels. In the last full year of its operation, 1953, Marshfield served 688,433 passengers on the "L", a 3.48 percent decline from the 713,264 of 1951; ridership statistics are unavailable throughout the entire "L" for 1952. For the part of 1954 it was open, Marshfield served 135,928 passengers.
For 1953, Marshfield was in the exact middle of the main line's ridership, surpassing Racine and Franklin/Van Buren but underperforming Canal and Halsted. With respect to the "L" system as a whole, Marshfield's 1951 performance made it the 65th-busiest of 131 stations that were at least partially-staffed at the beginning of the year, while in 1953 it was the 68th-busiest of 137 such stations. Accounting for the part of 1954 it was open, it had the 114th-highest patronage out of those 137 stations. These statistics only measured the number of passengers who originated a trip from Marshfield rather than used it as a transfer, so are likely underestimates of the true patronage of the station.
Although the CA&E did not collect ridership statistics by station, the railroad's total ridership was less than four million annually, and declining, in the period from 1949. After the September 1953 suspension of direct "one-seat ride" service into Chicago, the railroad lost half of these riders by December as riders opted instead for the nearby Chicago and North Western Railroad (C&NW, modern-day Union Pacific West Line) or automobiles to get into the city. Faced with this onslaught, the CA&E discontinued passenger service altogether at midday on July 3, 1957. Passengers who had taken the morning trains to Chicago were caught unaware by this development and had to find alternative transportation home.
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Marshfield station
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield_station
| 71,888,960 |
Ridership
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Benjamin Franklin McAdoo Jr. (October 29, 1920 – June 18, 1981) was an American architect. He designed several residential, civic, and commercial structures in the Seattle area in a modernist aesthetic influenced by the Northwest Regional style.
Born in Pasadena, California, McAdoo attended school in southern California, where he was inspired by the work of Paul R. Williams and began to pursue architectural training. After working as a draftsman for local architectural firms and the Army Corps of Engineers, he pursued his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle, graduating in 1946. He became the first licensed African-American architect in the state of Washington, and after a brief period designing remodels and alterations, he began to receive commissions to design private residences.
Favorable coverage in The Seattle Times by architecture journalist Margery Phillips boosted McAdoo's career. A residence designed by him in Burien was declared the "Home of the Year" by The Seattle Times in association with the American Institute of Architects. After designing a number of low-income houses and apartments throughout the 1950s, including around eighty single-family "Houses of Merit", he was hired by the Agency for International Development to design modular houses in Jamaica. He returned to the United States after eighteen months in Jamaica and briefly worked for the Department of State and the General Services Administration in Washington, D.C., where he aided Edward Durell Stone in designing the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He returned to Seattle in 1964, where he pursued public and civic architectural commissions. In addition to his architectural work, he participated in the NAACP, hosted a weekly radio show on racial issues for several years, and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Washington House of Representatives.
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
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{
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On October 29, 1920, Benjamin Franklin McAdoo Jr. was born in Pasadena, California, to Alferetta Deroussel and Benjamin F. McAdoo Sr. He was the eldest of their four children. Benjamin McAdoo Sr. worked a variety of jobs, including as a hardwood floor contractor, while Alfaretta worked as a music instructor. McAdoo Jr. grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood of Pasadena, one of a few neighborhoods tolerating black renters when redlining practices excluded them from much of the city. He attended Pasadena High School while working part-time with his father on flooring installation and tree hauling. He took an interest in architecture after taking a mechanical drawing class in ninth grade. He frequently clipped newspaper articles about projects and architects, and became particularly inspired by the California African-American architect Paul R. Williams.
After graduating in 1938, McAdoo attended Pasadena Junior College. By 1940, he was living alongside his parents and siblings with his paternal grandmother, who ran a grocery store in the area. He was active in the local Seventh-day Adventist Church, giving speeches and sermons at church events. In 1941, he transferred to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to study architecture. He worked nights and attended classes during the day, but was forced to withdraw from the university for financial reasons. He then began work at a number of private architectural firms in Los Angeles.
In July 1942, following the United States' entry into World War II, McAdoo joined the Army Corps of Engineers at Camp Roberts, California, where he continued to work as a draftsman. Soon afterwards, he married Alice Thelma Dent. In October 1943, the couple relocated with their newborn daughter to Portland, Oregon, for McAdoo to pursue a job at the Kaiser Shipyards designing pipe systems for oil tankers. He sent inquiries to the architecture departments of the University of Oregon and the University of Washington (UW), both of which approved his request to transfer credits from his previous colleges. He chose to enroll in UW, due to a more receptive response to his letters and his belief that Seattle would be a more racially tolerant environment for him and his family than Oregon. While at UW, he published a junior project entitled "An Automobile Salesroom and Shop for Maintenance and Repair" in the university's architectural year book. While in college, he entered employment at a firm owned by James J. Chiarelli and Paul Hayden Kirk, prolific designers of Seattle homes who helped create the Northwest Regional style.
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
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Early life and education
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McAdoo graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree on June 22, 1946. In October 1946, he became the first licensed African-American architect in the state of Washington. In the April of the following year, he left Chiarelli & Kirk to found his own practice, working from his apartment in Seattle's University District. Business was favorable for architects at this time due to a post-war housing boom. The housing market in Seattle had been limited since the Great Depression, with the last major expansion in the late 1920s. This period corresponded with the rise of modernist architecture in the United States. He was initially hired for remodels and alterations, undertaking seventeen such commissions during his first year of business.
In June 1947, he received his first full commission for the Madrona residence of local dentist and Black community activist John P. Browning. After living in various homes to the south of Seattle, McAdoo moved into the city proper in 1949, living in a renovated house across the street from the Browning residence. He participated in a small homes design competition in 1947, designing an 887 sq ft (80 m2) ranch house featuring a butterfly roof. Although the design did not receive the prize, it was reviewed favorably in a column in The Seattle Times. His 1948–1949 Moorhouse residence in Magnolia, Seattle, was also praised by the paper. His work received consistently favorable coverage by The Seattle Times architecture columnist Margery Phillips, with her coverage becoming a major source of publicity across his early career. Beginning in 1954, Phillips launched a Seattle "Home-of-the-Month" column in association with the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects. One of McAdoo's works was chosen as one of the first winners, and his houses would ultimately be featured ten times in Phillips' columns. In 1956, a home McAdoo designed for George Hage was selected as "Home of the Year".
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
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Architectural practice
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{
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McAdoo broke into real estate development in 1948, designing and establishing the nine-unit Ben-Mar Apartments, named for his children Benjamin and Marcia. Unlike other apartment complexes in the area, these apartments were not limited to White tenants. In 1950, he created a design for a 620 sq ft (60 m2) single-family house titled the "House of Merit", featuring two bedrooms, a combined living and dining room, a projecting carport, and exterior walls covered in wood shakes. The House of Merit design was intended to be affordable and easy to construct; five of these homes were constructed before the end of the year, with around eighty constructed over the following four years. With increased business success, he purchased an office for his firm in 1951. The following year, he purchased a home in the Montlake neighborhood. At this time, less than 0.1% of the neighborhood's residents were Black. Local opinion among the predominately White residents was divided on his arrival due to tensions over racial integration in the city.
McAdoo's early designs were strongly influenced by the emerging Northwest Regional style, alongside general modern architecture. Key aspects of his designs include exposed structural elements, flat roofs, frequent use of wood, floor-to-ceiling windows, a reliance on horizontal lines, and the integration of the design into the surrounding landscape. His 1955–1956 design for the Kenneth & Kimi Ota house, the residence of a Japanese-American family living in Rainier Valley, Seattle, combined mid-century modern design with aspects of traditional Japanese architecture.
As residential neighborhoods spread across Seattle, McAdoo and his wife chose to relocate from Montlake into a residence outside of the Seattle city limits in the late 1950s, seeking to live closer to nature and take advantage of larger, less expensive properties. He selected a plot in the rural neighboring community of Bothell, which may have had nonexistent or unenforced laws against Black property owners. McAdoo and fellow architect Edward Watanabe designed the spacious residence in mid-century modern style, totaling 3,700 sq ft (340 m2) across a main floor and an exposed basement. Phillips featured McAdoo's residence three times in her Seattle Times coverage.
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
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Architectural practice
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After hosting a Ghanaian ambassador, McAdoo traveled to Ghana in 1960, seeking to set up an architectural business in the newly independent country. This venture was unsuccessful, but led to him meeting with President Kwame Nkrumah and hosting Ghanaian exchange students at his house. In 1961, he designed the "Pagoda of Medicine" in Nashville, Tennessee, which served as the medical offices of his brother-in-law Carl A. Dent. That same year, he was appointed the Chief Housing Advisor of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and was sent to design modular homes in Jamaica. He arrived in Kingston on January 14, 1962.
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
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Overseas and D.C.
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These homes were fashioned from concrete blocks and were able to be constructed by untrained builders, and allowed low-income areas to be connected to water and electrical infrastructure. While in Jamaica, McAdoo lived in a middle-class neighborhood, unlike the upper class accommodations where most foreigners were residing. He attended ceremonies for the Independence of Jamaica in 1962, alongside other American dignitaries such as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
After staying in Jamaica for 18 months, McAdoo briefly stayed in Washington, D.C., where he did architectural work for the Department of State and the General Services Administration. During this time, he continued to do some work in Seattle, designing the Four Seas Restaurant with Robert K. L. Wong. In D.C., McAdoo designed elements of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts supervised by chief architect Edward Durell Stone. He attempted to organize a Latin America division of the USAID, but was unsuccessful.
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
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Overseas and D.C.
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{
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Upon returning to Seattle in 1964, McAdoo and his family initially lived in an apartment atop his offices in Capitol Hill. After a difficult housing search held back by redlining practices and seller's discrimination, they moved to the Hilltop Community in Bellevue, Washington, where they lived in a home designed by Paul Hayden Kirk.
McAdoo continued his work with the General Services Administration at its Auburn offices, with his private architectural practice as a secondary job. In the late 1960s, he returned to private practice full-time, specializing in civic and educational buildings. His projects during the late 1960s and 1970s include the Southcenter Blood Bank, the University of Washington Ethnic Cultural Center, and a warehouse complex at the Naval Submarine Base Bangor. He designed the Queen Anne Pool in 1974–1978 as part of the Forward Thrust development project. Among his last designs was the Creston-Nelson Substation for Seattle City Light, which was built in 1979–1981.
McAdoo worked up until his death on June 18, 1981. His funeral was held at Green Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church. After his death, architects Garold Malcolm and Richard Youel continued his firm for about twenty years under the name "McAdoo, Malcolm and Youel". The firm was responsible for designing the Des Moines Library, which opened in 1988.
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wikipedia
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
| 77,587,117 |
Later career
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{
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Washington House of Representatives member Charles M. Stokes, a Republican, declined to run for reelection in order to pursue a State Senate office in 1954. He was first elected to his seat in 1950 for the 37th District, a district containing Seattle's predominantly black neighborhoods. He became the first African-American state representative from King County. Seeking to fill Stokes' now-vacant seat, McAdoo ran as a Democrat on a civil rights platform, advocating the elimination of sales taxes on food and clothing, greater funding for public schools, and support for the United Nations. He placed second in the district's Democratic primaries, behind Fred H. Dore. This allowed McAdoo to advance to the general election.
The third place candidate, Paul Revelle, disputed the results; McAdoo had listed his office as his address for the election, but his Montlake residence was outside of the district. McAdoo's lawyers pointed to the large numbers of voters registered to districts they did not live in. A superior court judge ruled that although many voters were indeed registered to other districts, McAdoo was ineligible to run in the 37th district. He appealed the decision to the Washington Supreme Court, which maintained the ruling. McAdoo's attorneys attributed the ruling to anti-Black discrimination on the part of the Democratic party. In 1964, he was elected president of the Seattle chapter of the NAACP; he would serve as chapter president until 1968. He began hosting a weekly KUOW-FM radio show in 1964 to discuss racial issues.
McAdoo was a member of a variety of architectural and civic organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the National Organization for Minority Architects, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and the Society of American Military Engineers. He was a board member of the King County Central Blood Bank, the Seattle Environmental Review Committee, the University of Washington's Educational Opportunity Program, and the board of trustees of Walla Walla College. McAdoo and his wife had two daughters and a son.
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wikipedia
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Benjamin F. McAdoo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo
| 77,587,117 |
Personal life and political ventures
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{
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Meurig ab Arthfael (or Mouric, ruled c. 848 – c. 874) was a king in south-east Wales. In the seventh century, Gwent was a single kingdom covering south-east Wales, but in the ninth century it was divided between Glywysing (now called Glamorgan), which had a higher status, and a smaller Gwent, covering the area which is now Monmouthshire. Historians disagree whether Meurig was king of Glywysing, with authority across south-east Wales, or only of Gwent. His sons Brochfael ap Meurig and Ffernfael ap Meurig were only kings of Gwent, and they were subject to their cousin Hywel ap Rhys, king of Glywysing.
The twelfth-century Book of Llandaff records charters in which Meurig granted land to bishops or guaranteed grants by others. Two charters state that he freed all churches from obligations to laymen, and in the view of the historian Wendy Davies, he was one of the few kings recorded in the charters who attempted to guarantee ecclesiastical immunity from widespread lawlessness and arbitrary use of power. Historians disagree when he died. Deaths of kings called Meurig are recorded in 849 and 874, and some historians date Meurig ab Arthfael's death definitely to 874, but others think that it is possible that he was the Meurig who died in 849.
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wikipedia
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Meurig ab Arthfael
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meurig_ab_Arthfael
| 77,744,241 |
Introduction
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{
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The boundaries and names of Welsh kingdoms varied over time in the early medieval period. In the seventh century, south-east Wales was a single kingdom called Gwent, but historians of Wales do not agree on the situation in the ninth century, when some kings made grants in locations across the territory, while others were confined to the eastern part. Thomas Charles-Edwards thinks that the old Gwent was divided between Glywysing (later called Morgannwg or Glamorgan) in the west and a smaller Gwent (now Monmouthshire) in the east, with the ruler of Glywysing being an over-king. Wendy Davies argues that it is more likely that the old Gwent remained a single kingdom now called Glywysing, but she also mentions junior kings whose territory was confined to the smaller ninth-century Gwent. Patrick Sims-Williams thinks that either may be true, and that they "may amount to the same thing".
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wikipedia
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Meurig ab Arthfael
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meurig_ab_Arthfael
| 77,744,241 |
Background
|
{
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|
The main sources for King Meurig ab Arthfael are charters recorded in the twelfth-century Book of Llandaff. Much of this book is fraudulent, and until the late twentieth century most historians dismissed it as worthless, but since the work of Davies in the 1970s on the charters, they have been reappraised, and while some are judged to be forgeries, others are regarded as genuine in whole or part. However, the charters are undated; several Meurigs are mentioned, and it is not always clear which one is being referred to. Confirmation that Meurig ab Arthfael and his sons, Brochfael and Fernfael, ruled in the ninth century is provided by their notice in two independent sources. Asser in his biography of Alfred the Great of 893 mentions "Brochfael and Ffernfael (sons of Meurig and kings of Gwent)", and charter 199bii is a grant by King Meurig, giving his sons' names as witnesses.
Davies dates Meurig's reign as c. 848 – c. 874. Almost nothing is known of kings in south-east Wales immediately before his time as his reign follows a gap in the Llandaff charters of some fifty years. His predecessor as king was probably his second cousin, Ithel ab Athrwys, who was killed in battle in 848 and was apparently the last of his line. According to a Harleian genealogy (an Old Welsh genealogy preserved in the Harleian Library), Meurig was a son of Arthfael ap Rhys.
Davies locates Meurig's grants across Glywysing and Gwent, and she and Charles-Edwards state that he ruled both territories as king of Glywysing. Charles-Edwards suggests that Meurig and his brother Rhys ab Arthfael probably ruled Glywysing successively. Sims-Williams dissents, arguing that in the only charter placing Meurig in Glywysing, his name was later interpolated, and that he had no power outside Gwent. Rhys ab Arthfael's son Hywel ap Rhys was king of Glywysing, and his cousins, Meurig's sons, had an inferior status as kings of Gwent.
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wikipedia
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Meurig ab Arthfael
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meurig_ab_Arthfael
| 77,744,241 |
Kingship
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{
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"char_count": 1916,
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|
Around 850, charters 169b and 170 state that Meurig ordered that all churches were to be released from obligations to laymen. Davies comments that the Llandaff charters give an "impression of lawlessness and of the arbitrary use of royal power by those who held it." In her view, Meurig is one of the few exceptions, as he seems to have attempted to free all ecclesiastical property from lay control, but he cannot have been wholly successful as kings continued to make grants transferring the ownership of churches in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Medieval Welsh kings owned large landed estates, and grants by Meurig to bishops recorded in charters in the Book of Llandaff include one in 868 surrendering the church at Tryleg to Bishop Cerennyr. Several charters approved by Meurig record grants by laymen to ecclesiastics. Two dated to around 850 record grants to Bishop Grecielis with Meurig's guarantee. In charter 169b, Fauu gave Cilpedec (Kilpeck) church with its land, and in charter 170 Cuinncum returned Cum Mouric (perhaps Little Dewchurch) church to the bishop. In charter 74 dating to around 860, Meurig consented to a grant by Britcon and Iliwg of Lann Mocha (St Maughans) to Archbishop Dyfrig's church, but in another version (171b) of the charter Meurig guaranteed their grant of Lann Bocha to Bishop Grecielis, and it is not clear which version is genuine.
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wikipedia
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Meurig ab Arthfael
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meurig_ab_Arthfael
| 77,744,241 |
Charters
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{
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Deaths of kings called Meurig are recorded in the Annales Cambriae in 849 and 874, and historians of Wales do not agree which one was Meurig ab Arthfael. Charles-Edwards thinks that he may be the Meurig who died 849, but Bartrum states that his death is recorded in 874. Davies argues that "the claims of the relative chronology of the witness sequence are such as to suggest that Meurig ab Arthfael, the King Meurig of grants 169b-171b, 199bii (214?), 216b, 225 died in 874 rather than 849". Sims-Williams mentions both dates as alternatives.
A genealogy of Meurig's nephew, Hywel ap Rhys, lists Gwriad ap Brochfael as an ancestor, but in the view of the scholar of Welsh genealogy Peter Bartrum, this is probably an error, and Gwriad may have been a son of Brochfael ap Meurig and father of Nowy ap Gwriad, king of Gwent in the 950s. This theory is not accepted by other historians, who describe Nowy's descent as unknown. Davies states that the royal line descended from Meurig appears to have ended with Brochfael, who died in the early tenth century.
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wikipedia
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Meurig ab Arthfael
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meurig_ab_Arthfael
| 77,744,241 |
Death
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{
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"Mother" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor from the deluxe edition of her fifth major-label studio album, Takin' It Back (2022). She co-wrote the song with Sean Douglas and its producers, Gian Stone and her brother Justin. Epic Records released it to US hot adult contemporary radio stations as the deluxe edition's lead single on March 27, 2023. A pop song with doo-wop influences, it interpolates the Chordettes' single "Mr. Sandman". Inspired by men who said Trainor's pregnancy would end her career, the song is about women's empowerment; in its lyrics, she instructs the male subject to stop mansplaining and to listen to her.
Critics were favorable toward its musical composition, while some criticized the lyrics. The song reached the top 30 on national record charts in Belgium, Ireland, Suriname, and the United Kingdom. Charm La'Donna directed and choreographed the music video for it, which stars Kris Jenner. The latter dons a platinum blonde bob and appears in a white silk gown in a scene which channels Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and later with Trainor in matching black gowns. The video received praise for the fashion choices; critics described it as glamorous. Trainor performed "Mother" on The Today Show and Capital's Summertime Ball and included it on the set list of her 2024 concert tour, the Timeless Tour.
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Introduction
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{
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After her song "Title" attained viral popularity on video-sharing service TikTok in 2021, Meghan Trainor announced her intention to pivot to its doo-wop sound on her fifth major-label studio album. The platform was highly influential on her creative process, and she began writing material that would resonate with audiences on it. Trainor gained popularity on TikTok while regularly sharing clips and other content with influencer Chris Olsen. Takin' It Back (2022) included the single "Made You Look", which went viral on TikTok. It became Trainor's first song since 2016 to enter the top 40 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 10 in several other countries.
Trainor wrote "Mother", the follow-up single, at the "last second". She stated that the song was influenced by "silly men" who warned her "that having a baby would end [her] career." Trainor wanted to create an upbeat and danceable four on the floor song and came up with the lines "I am your mother, bitch/ You listen to me, bitch/ Stop all that mansplainin'/ No one's listenin, bitch" while getting makeup done. She sang the song for her brother Ryan, who disliked it. Trainor recorded 60 different vocals for "Mother", and her brother Justin made a sub-bass for it, after which Ryan said "I hear it now" and could not prevent himself from singing the song repeatedly. Gian Stone produced the song with Justin the following day, and he helped Trainor write the verses alongside songwriter Sean Douglas.
On March 1, 2023, Trainor shared a clip of herself dancing to "Mother" with Olsen and her husband, Daryl Sabara, revealing part of its lyrics. The snippet garnered criticism from online critics, who accused her of making music solely to go viral on TikTok. Trainor announced the song when she was 21 weeks pregnant, following the announcement of her first book, also themed around motherhood, called Dear Future Mama. It was promoted with a YouTube Shorts campaign. "Mother" was serviced to hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States as the lead single from the deluxe edition of Takin' It Back on March 27. The song was sent for radio airplay in Italy on April 7, 2023. Its radio edit was released for digital download on April 12. On May 12, 2023, an extended play featuring remixes of "Mother" was released. In 2024, she performed the song for The Today Show's Citi concert series and Capital's Summertime Ball. It was included as the opener on the set list of Trainor's 2024 concert tour, the Timeless Tour.
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Background and release
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{
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"Mother" is two minutes and 27 seconds long. Stone and Justin produced and programmed the song, and the latter handled the engineering. Stone plays electric guitar and bass, Trainor and Douglas play keyboards, and Tristan Hurd plays trumpet. Jeremie Inhaber mixed the song, and Randy Merrill mastered it at Sterling Sound in New York City.
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Composition and lyrics
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Musically, "Mother" is a pop song with influences of doo-wop. The song opens with a man vocalizing: "the fact that Meghan Trainor is literally mother right now". It interpolates the Chordettes' 1954 single "Mr. Sandman" during the post-chorus, as Trainor uses the melody while singing the lyric "You just a bum bum bum".
"Mother" is about women's empowerment. In the song, Trainor proclaims that she is the subject's mother and that he should pay attention to what she says. She asks him to quit mansplaining and mocks him for the inability to bear children: "You with your God complex, but you can't even make life, bitch." In other lyrics, Trainor praises her partner's non-controlling nature and ability to satisfy her, and she encourages the man she is addressing to learn from him: "Y'all need a master class from my man / Learn how to satisfy like he can / Ain't tryna control me and own me / Like an old man on C-SPAN."
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Composition and lyrics
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Critics were favorable toward the song's musical composition. Rolling Stone's Tomás Mier compared the foppish lyricism of "Mother" to the colorful imagery featured in Trainor's songs "Made You Look" and "Don't I Make It Look Easy". Rachel DeSantis of People described "Mother" as "a retro, doo-wop-inspired bop", Carly Silva of Parade called it a "pop anthem", and Glamour described it as a "catchy ear-worm tune". Sydney Brasil of Exclaim! thought the song was catchy but criticized its lyrics. Writing for Vulture, Wolfgang Ruth predicted that the "bop" would be the first song lipsynced to in RuPaul's Drag Race's next season and thought Trainor victoriously careened into her latest gimmick: "Meghan Trainor is not Mother. But her commitment to the bit sort of is." Some reviewers criticized Trainor for calling herself mother, usually an African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) slang term also adopted by the LGBTQ community. Jezebel's Kady Ruth Ashcraft wrote: "Meghan Trainor is not mother. That sort of honorarium requires much, much better music", and she criticized her for bestowing the title upon herself instead of having it assigned to her by music fans. Brasil believed its righteous intention of "taking down entitled men" was ruined by Trainor's use of the word: "If anybody is 'mother,' it's definitely not a rich straight woman". In a May 2023 New York Times article, actress Michaela Jaé Rodriguez approved of it: "it's right for her, and she can use it in any way she wants to", but she noted that other people's perception may differ.
"Mother" experienced TikTok virality, but unlike "Made You Look", this did not translate into popularity on streaming services. In the United States, "Mother" charted at number 19 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 issued dated April 1, 2023. The song reached number 83 on the Canadian Hot 100 issued for the same date. It became Trainor's eighth single to reach the top 40 in the United Kingdom, debuting at number 42 on the UK Singles Chart dated March 23, 2023, and peaking at number 22 in its fourth week. "Mother" received a Silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry. In Australia, the song charted at number 49. It reached number eight on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart. "Mother" became Trainor's fourth entry on the Billboard Global 200, debuting at number 196. Elsewhere, the song peaked at number 1 on Sweden's Heatseeker chart, number 2 on the Netherlands's Single Tip chart, number 19 on Japan Hot Overseas, number 23 in Ireland, number 28 in Belgium, number 34 on Canada's CHR/Top 40 chart, number 35 in Suriname, and number 167 on the South Korean Download chart.
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Reception
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Charm La'Donna directed and choreographed the music video for "Mother", which was released on March 10, 2023. Kris Jenner stars in the video; Trainor stated regarding the casting choice: "I jokingly one day was like, 'What if I got the mother of all mothers, like the queen of mothers, to be in this music video, singing the lyrics?'" Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian promoted the visual on Instagram following its release, and the former stated: "that is [Jenner] living her best life and being such a star. This is where my mom thrives. She loves to be the center of attention and she's a little ham and I love it." A blooper video featuring Trainor and Jenner performing unchoreographed dances and posing for funny pictures was released on April 21, 2023, in which Trainor describes the shoot as the best day of her life second only to the birth of her son.
The video opens with a title card in all caps and bright lights which reads "Meghan Trainor is literally mother". Jenner appears in a Cult Gaia white silk gown with puff sleeves and a platinum blonde bob, surrounded by dancers in suits who channel a scene from Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (1953). In some scenes, the dancers spin her around and fan her with feathers. Trainor and Jenner appear together in matching floor-length velvet black gowns with gloves by Christian Siriano in subsequent scenes. Trainor shows off sonogram images from her second pregnancy, and Jenner closes the video as she winks while sipping a cup of tea.
Ruth believed the video was "feature-film-quality", and though he initially thought "pop music is dead" upon hearing the song, the video changed his mind: "This is camp to the highest degree. It's Mother at its most narcissistic." Critics praised the fashion choices: Silva and DeSantis described Jenner's look in the white gown as "glam", and Glamour thought it was "the most glamorous incarnation of the trademark Kardashian style". Writing for the GMA Network, Jansen Ramos believed Trainor delivered "one of her most iconic videos yet" and displayed "ultimate Hollywood glam". Billboard's Starr Bowenbank thought its blooper reel looked "just as fun as the final cut".
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Music video
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{
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|
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Takin' It Back (Deluxe).
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Credits and personnel
|
{
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|
Gian Stone – producer, songwriter, programming, electric guitar, bass
Justin Trainor – producer, songwriter, engineer, programming
Meghan Trainor – songwriter, keyboards
Sean Douglas – songwriter, keyboards
Pat Ballard – songwriter
Tristan Hurd – trumpet
Randy Merrill – mastering
Jeremie Inhaber – mixing
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wikipedia
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Mother (Meghan Trainor song)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(Meghan_Trainor_song)
| 73,160,931 |
Credits and personnel
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{
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Pseudastacus (meaning 'false Astacus', in comparison to the extant crayfish genus) is an extinct genus of decapod crustaceans that lived during the Jurassic period in Europe, and possibly the Cretaceous period in Lebanon. Many species have been assigned to it, though the placement of some species remains uncertain and others have been reassigned to different genera. Fossils attributable to this genus were first described by Georg zu Münster in 1839 under the name Bolina pustulosa, but the generic name was changed in 1861 after Albert Oppel noted that it was preoccupied. The genus has been placed into different families by numerous authors, historically being assigned to Nephropidae or Protastacidae. Currently, it is believed to be a member of Stenochiridae.
Reaching up to 6 cm (2.4 in) in total length, Pseudastacus individuals were small animals. Members of this genus have a crayfish-like build, possessing long antennae, a triangular rostrum and a frontmost pair of appendages enlarged into long and narrow pincers. Deep grooves are present on the carapace, which is around the same length as the abdomen. The surface of the carapace is usually uneven, with either small tubercles or pits. Sexual dimorphism is known in P. pustulosus, with the pincers of females being more elongated than those of the males. There is evidence of possible gregarious behavior in P. lemovices in the form of multiple individuals preserved alongside each other, possibly killed in a mass mortality event. With the oldest known record dating to the Sinemurian age of the Early Jurassic, and possible species surviving into the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, Pseudastacus has a long temporal range and was a widespread taxon. Fossils of these animals were first found in the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, but have also been recorded from France, England and Lebanon. All species in this genus lived in marine environments.
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wikipedia
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Introduction
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{
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|
Fossils of Pseudastacus had been described prior to the naming of this genus, under other names which are currently invalid. In 1839, German paleontologist Georg zu Münster established the genus Bolina to include two species, B. pustulosa (the type species) and B. angusta, both of which are based on specimens collected from the Solnhofen Limestone. The generic name references the nymph Bolina from Greek mythology, who threw herself into the sea. A year later, Münster described several fossils from the Solnhofen Limestone he believed to represent isopods, and erected the genus Alvis to contain the single species A. octopus, naming it after the dwarf Alvíss from Norse mythology.
In 1861, German paleontologist Albert Oppel placed B. pustulosa and B. angusta into two new genera, Pseudastacus and Stenochirus respectively. Now renamed as Pseudastacus pustulosus and Stenochirus angustus, the two species became the type species of their own respective genera. This was done because the name Bolina had already been assigned to both a gastropod and a ctenophore, thus the crustacean named by Münster had to be renamed. The name Pseudastacus combines the Greek word ψεύδος (pseudos, meaning 'false') and Astacus, referencing its resemblance to the modern crayfish genus. Oppel declared that 10 specimens known at the time represented P. pustulosus, one of which was from the Redenbacher collection of the Berlin Natural History Museum and the remaining nine were from the collection of the Palaeontological Museum, Munich. His analysis also found that the specimen named as Alvis octopus by Münster was not an isopod, but essentially identical to P. pustulosus, and therefore synonymized the two species. In addition, he identified one specimen (BSPG AS I 672) housed in the Palaeontological Museum as a second species of the genus which he named P. muensteri.
In 2006, Alessandro Garassino and Guenter Schweigert reviewed the decapod fossils from Solnhofen and found that four of the P. pustulosus specimens from Oppel's collection were still present, and that P. muensteri represents female specimens of P. pustulosus (thus being a junior synonym).
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wikipedia
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Discovery and naming
|
{
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Several species have been assigned to the genus Pseudastacus, though the placement of some species remains uncertain or tentative. In addition, some have since been moved into different genera after it was discovered that they were not closely related to the type species. A 2020 revision by Sylvain Charbonnier and Denis Audo retained five species within the genus Pseudastacus:
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wikipedia
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Species
|
{
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P. pustulosus is the type species of the genus, first named as Bolina pustulosa by Münster in 1839 and renamed in 1861. Its fossils were found in the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, which date back to the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic period.
P. mucronatus was originally named as Astacus mucronatus by English geologist John Phillips in 1835. The type specimen was extracted from the Speeton Clay Formation in Yorkshire, England, and is a fragment of the pincer. The pincer is very large, with alternating large and small tubercles on the inner margins. This is unlike the narrower and longer pincers of other Pseudastacus species, and the specimen may be referrable to Hoploparia dentata.
P. minor was described by German clergyman, paleontologist and geologist Oscar Fraas in 1878 from a specimen found in Cenomanian-aged deposits in Hakel, Lebanon. This specimen is now lost and only the original illustration remains, which shows features unlike any other Pseudastacus species: the rostrum is extremely long, there is an additional abdomen segment, the clawed limbs are placed further back and the general pincer shape is different. Its placement in this genus is thus uncertain.
P. pusillus is based on a fossilized cephalothorax from the Bajocian-aged deposits of May-sur-Orne, France, described in 1925 by Belgian carcinologist and paleontologist Victor van Straelen. The fossil was destroyed in World War II and it is difficult to tell from the original line drawing of the specimen whether this species truly belongs to Pseudastacus.
P. lemovices was named in 2020 based on five specimens preserved on a slab of Sinemurian-aged limestone, collected from Chauffour-sur-Vell, France. The specific name honors the Lemovices, a Gallic tribe that lived near this locality. It is the oldest known species of the family Stenochiridae.
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wikipedia
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Species
|
{
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|
The following species were formerly placed in Pseudastacus, but have since been moved to different genera.
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wikipedia
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Reassigned species
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P. hakelensis was first named as Homarus hakelensis in 1878. The species lived during the Cenomanian stage in Lebanon. It was moved to Notahomarus in 2017.
P. dubertreti, described in 1946 from a fossil found in Lebanon and kept in the National Museum of Natural History, France, lived during the Cenomanian stage. Later study of the fossil found this species to be synonymous with Carpopenaeus callirostris in 2006.
P. llopisi was named in 1971 and is known from numerous specimens found in the Early Cretaceous-aged site of Las Hoyas, Spain. In 1997 it was reassigned to the genus Austropotamobius.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Reassigned species
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Pseudastacus is a small crustacean, with the known specimens of P. pustulosus ranging from 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in) in total length. The carapace of P. lemovices reaches a length of 11 mm (0.43 in) excluding the rostrum, and a height of 6.5 mm (0.26 in).
Members of this genus often have an uneven carapace surface, with some species (such as P. pustulosus) having tubercles and others (such as P. lemovices) having pits distributed uniformly across the carapace surface. Individuals with smoother carapaces are also documented, though this may be due to abrasion. Grooves are present on the carapace, including a deep, arch-shaped cervical groove that stretches across the top of the carapace, linking to similarly deep gastroorbital, antennal and hepatic grooves at the sides. A weaker additional groove (the postcervical groove) lies behind the cervical groove on either side. The rostrum is triangular and elongated, with three spines on the sides. The carapace and head are separated by an arch-shaped depression. A pair of long antennae and two pairs of shorter antennules extend from the head, with the outer antennules being slightly narrower and more pointed than the inner pair. A pair of compound eyes are attached to the head by short eye stalks.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Description
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The thorax bears five pairs of appendages known as pereiopods (walking legs). The first three pairs of pereiopods terminate with chelae (pincers), and the pair furthest front is particularly long and enlarged. Though ornamented with tubercles in P. pustulosus, the pincers are smooth and undecorated in P. lemovices. The pereiopods decrease in size the further back they are placed, the pair furthest front being largest and longest. The abdomen is around the length of the carapace, with the frontmost segment being the smallest. The uropods (tail appendages) are equal in length, with a ridge down the middle. Long setae (bristles) are preserved on the uropod margins of P. lemovices.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Description
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In the years since it was first discovered, Pseudastacus has been placed in a variety of families by different authors. For many decades, the genus was thought to be a member of Nephropidae (the lobster family), as first reported by Victor van Straelen in 1925. This placement was followed by subsequent authors such as Beurlen (1928), Glaessner (1929), and Chong & Förster (1976). In 1983, Henning Albrecht erected the family Protastacidae and moved Pseudastacus into it, whereas Tshudy & Babcock (1997) included the genus into their newly-established family Chilenophoberidae. Although Garassino & Schweigert (2006) continued to place Pseudastacus in Proastacidae following Albrecht (1983), other authors in the 2000s would place it in Chilenophoberidae based on the more recent findings of Tshudy & Babcock (1997).
In 2013, Karasawa and colleagues recovered Pseudastacus as the sister taxon to Stenochirus, making Chilenophoberidae a paraphyletic group. The family was therefore synonymized with Stenochiridae. The following cladogram shows the placement of Pseudastacus within Stenochiridae according to the study:
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Classification
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Albert Oppel noticed that Pseudastacus fossils from the Solnhofen Limestone could be divided into two morphs; aside from those most similar to the P. pustulosus type specimen, there was also one with a smaller body and longer, more slender claws. Oppel believed the latter morph to be a separate species which he named P. muensteri in 1862. Over a century later, Garassino and Schweigert (2006) found that specimens of P. muensteri were essentially identical to P. pustulosus aside from the claw form. In addition, they noted that in fossil glypheids and the extant Neoglyphea inopinata, the females possess longer clawed limbs than the males. Based on this, they declared P. muensteri as a junior synonym of P. pustulosus, and actually represents a female specimen of this species which was sexually dimorphic.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Sexual dimorphism
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The type series of P. lemovices consists of five individuals preserved together in a single limestone slab, possibly indicating that the species exhibited gregarious behaviour, with this group being killed in a mass mortality event (perhaps caused by temperature changes or lack of oxygen). Evidence of gregarious behaviour is also known in other fossil lobsters, as well as in extant species.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Social behavior
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{
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Pseudastacus is believed to have first evolved during the Early Jurassic, with P. lemovices being the oldest member of the genus currently known. The five known specimens of this species were preserved in a single limestone slab collected from a garden in Chauffour-sur-Vell, France. The sediment in this locality represents a marine environment dating back to the Sinemurian age (between 199.5 and 192.9 million years ago), and the general area has been specifically dated to the late Sinemurian based on the presence of the green alga Palaeodasycladus mediterraneus in a regional bed.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Early Jurassic
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Pseudastacus pustulosus, the type species of the genus, is known from the most specimens. All known remains of this species were collected from the Solnhofen Limestone of Bavaria, Germany, which dates to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic period, between 149.2 and 145 million years ago. During the time of deposition, the European continent was partly inundated, forming a dry, tropical archipelago at the edge of the Tethys Ocean. The Solnhofen Limestone would have been laid down in a lagoonal environment cut off from the main ocean by reefs. A coastal habitat is further confirmed by the fossil content of the area, which includes numerous marine species that P. pustulosus would have lived alongside. These include cephalopods (such as ammonoids and belemnites), crinoids (such as Saccocoma), other crustaceans (including eryonids, axiids, glypheids, mantis shrimp, and the closely related Stenochirus), fish (such as pycnodonts, pachycormids, aspidorhynchids and caturids) and marine reptiles (such as turtles, ichthyosaurs and metriorhynchids). Remains of terrestrial animals, though rarer, are also present and represent species that would have lived on the islands surrounded by the lagoons, including dinosaurs (such as Archaeopteryx and Compsognathus), lizards (such as Ardeosaurus, Bavarisaurus and Schoenesmahl), and pterosaurs (such as Rhamphorhynchus, Aurorazhdarcho, Pterodactylus, Germanodactylus, Ctenochasma and Scaphognathus).
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Late Jurassic
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Two Pseudastacus species, P. mucronatus and P. minor, originate from deposits dating to the Cretaceous period, though their assignment to this genus remains uncertain. These two species did not coexist, being from different stages of the Cretaceous as well as different locations. Known remains of P. mucronatus have been collected from the Speeton Clay Formation in England, which extends from the Berriasian to Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous (145 to 113 million years ago). The formation was a marine environment that was initially deposited during a period of low sea level, and the sea level later fluctuated greatly over the course of the formation's deposition, representing events of marine transgression and regression. This is reflected by the foraminifera assemblage, and Plymouth Sound has been proposed as a modern analogue for the formation. Fossilized remains of various marine animals are preserved in the Speeton Clay Formation, with those of belemnites being the most abundant. Ammonites, crustaceans, and the teeth of sharks and rays (including Cretorectolobus, Spathobatis, Dasyatis and Synechodus) are also commonly recorded from these deposits.
Known from a single (currently missing) specimen from the Cenomanian-aged (between 100.5 and 93.9 million-year-old) marine deposits of Lebanon, P. minor would be the geologically youngest species of Pseudastacus, assuming it does belong to the genus. During this age, Lebanon was located on a large carbonate platform mostly submerged in the Neotethys Ocean, and located near the northeastern edge of the Afro-Arabian continent. Plant fossils from Cenomanian Lebanese deposits (including gymnosperms and deciduous angiosperms) indicate a similar climate to the modern-day Mediterranean Basin, and are similar to floral assemblages from contemporary Crimea, North America and Central Europe. The paleontological sites of Lebanon have yielded many well-preserved fossils, including a wide variety of fish, crustaceans and even octopuses. Terrestrial insects and reptiles (including pterosaurs and squamates) are also represented in the fossil finds from these deposits.
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Pseudastacus
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudastacus
| 75,389,462 |
Cretaceous
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Shovel Knight Showdown is a 2019 fighting video game developed and published by Yacht Club Games. It is an add-on to the platform game Shovel Knight. Players battle using one fighter from among a roster of twenty characters, each with various movesets and fighting styles. The game features several modes, such as "Treasure Clash", where players battle one another to collect the most gems, to a free for all battle to the death. In the story mode, a single player battles against AI-controlled opponents across several stages before facing a boss. Completing this mode with each fighter allows the player to unlock new stages and characters.
Yacht Club Games envisioned Showdown as a small minigame similar to modes in Mega Man 7 (1995) and Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). The developers gradually built a more expansive title which they compared to a party game. Showdown was released for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Wii U on December 10. It was launched alongside the Shovel Knight downloadable content (DLC) campaign King of Cards. The game received average reviews on release, with praise towards its characters and multiplayer gameplay. The single-player mode received a negative response, with many reviewers criticizing its difficulty balancing.
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Shovel Knight Showdown
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovel_Knight_Showdown
| 75,646,072 |
Introduction
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Shovel Knight Showdown is a fighting game. Players battle using one fighter from a roster of twenty different characters in the Shovel Knight franchise, all of which possess their own movesets and fighting styles. Each fighter has a basic and special attack, a movement skill, and the ability to parry. Playable characters range from Shovel Knight, who attacks with a shovel or magic wand, to Specter Knight, a fast character who can wall jump, to Plague Knight, who throws explosive bombs.
One to four players can engage in combat across several game modes. These settings include a free for all, where the victor is decided by whoever defeats all the other players, to a cooperative mode where players team up to battle AI-controlled opponents. One mode called "Treasure Clash" centers around collecting gems that appear around the level as quickly as possible, while claiming the jewels of other players by slaying them. During battle, various items appear intermittently across the level, and collecting them causes a helpful effect. For example, an item could be food that restores health, or a magnet that can be used to push back other players. Each stage can be altered using a set of modifiers that allow for different effects and battle scenarios, such as a modifier that prevents items from appearing, or another that causes bombs to fall randomly around the level. A special mode called "Chester's Choice" allows the player to randomly set these modifiers, leading to distinct battles with different combinations of stages, items, teams, and other features.
Showdown features a single-player story mode. Set after the narrative of Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, the plot of the mode is about Specter Knight's friends attempting to defeat the Enchantress by imprisoning her in a magic mirror. In the process, they accidentally create hostile clones of each of the knights which the player must defeat. In this setting, players battle through stages and opponents that are unique to the chosen character, though each variation of the story mode ends with a two-phase boss battle against the mirror. A special minigame must be completed to progress through the campaign; it requires the player to break several moving targets to achieve a set score. Story mode features three difficulty options, and completing the mode for each character allows the player to unlock new fighters and levels.
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Shovel Knight Showdown
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovel_Knight_Showdown
| 75,646,072 |
Gameplay
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{
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As part of the crowdfunding campaign for Shovel Knight on Kickstarter, Yacht Club Games listed several stretch goals, additional features for the game added when the funding met a certain target. Among the stretch goals was the addition of a four-player battle mode, which would eventually become Shovel Knight Showdown. Showdown was Yacht Club Games' first attempt at creating a multiplayer experience. The developers originally intended for Showdown to be a minigame similar to game modes in Mega Man 7 (1995) and Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988), though the team gradually made it more ambitious. They described the finished product as similar to a party game, yet more expansive and complicated, comparing it to a Super Smash Bros. game.
The team wanted to create variety between battles, and decided to create Chester's Choice to complement the free for all and Treasure Clash settings. The developers created the mode after finding the modifiers too difficult to navigate through a menu. The team tried simplifying these menus and options, but found that they were still too numerous to manage. Chester's Choice was designed as a way for players to avoid spending significant time picking these modifiers. They took inspiration for the mode from Mario Party games, where the game automatically determines each of its settings. Yacht Club Games originally called the mode Roulette, but eventually renamed it after Chester, a character from the franchise who acts as a merchant. Shovel Knight Showdown was delayed from its planned release date of April 9, 2019 so that the developers could refine it. The game was launched concurrently with the downloadable content (DLC) campaign Shovel Knight: King of Cards on December 10 for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
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Shovel Knight Showdown
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovel_Knight_Showdown
| 75,646,072 |
Development and release
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According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, Showdown received "generally favorable reviews" for its Nintendo Switch version, and "mixed to average reviews" for its PC versions. The game has a 36% approval rating on OpenCritic. Some reviewers said that Showdown lacked an identity as an independent game. Nintendo World Report found it to be fun when played in short periods, but said that it became repetitive over time. GameRevolution called it overall inferior to the rest of the Shovel Knight franchise due to its reliance on multiplayer. In a more positive review, USgamer said that Showdown was not as recognizable as other Shovel Knight, but was one of the best party games of 2019.
Critics considered Showdown a competent multiplayer game. USgamer felt that it would appeal to those who had never encountered the franchise, and would draw in new players through its chaotic gameplay. Nintendo Life noted the speed of matches, and said that it was easy to set up and teach players its mechanics. GameRevolution said that the modes helped make the game feel chaotic and fun, while Vandal found the combat too intense and disorderly to be entertaining. Other reviewers criticized the online multiplayer support as too limited.
The playable characters were positively received. Nintendo Life considered their movesets unique, saying that the inclusion of boss characters from previous games was good fan service. Nintendo World Report called many of the characters well-designed and implemented. USgamer felt that the game distinguished itself from the indie fighting game TowerFall because of its character options. Game Informer found the characters easy to learn and fun but lacking in depth due to their simplicity. Other critics considered some characters unbalanced. Nintendo World Report said that smaller fighters would be at a disadvantage, while GameRevolution cited Shovel Knight as a weak fighter compared to the others. Vandal criticized the characters for their simplistic movesets and lack of depth and balance.
The story mode received a negative response. USgamer opined that the single-player gameplay was inferior to multiplayer by design, but said that its narrative would placate fans of the franchise. Many reviewers wrote that it had poor difficulty balance. Others felt that its AI-controlled opponents were too easy, and GameRevolution added that the minigames in the campaign were frustrating to complete. Game Informer found the story mode repetitive, saying that it would dissuade players from completing it to unlock new characters and stages. A few critics highlighted the boss battle, with GameRevolution writing that it was reminiscent of earlier Shovel Knight games and "delivers on everything you'd want from the series".
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Shovel Knight Showdown
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovel_Knight_Showdown
| 75,646,072 |
Reception
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The Suicidal Tour (Brazilian Portuguese: Excursão Suicida), also known as the Death Tour (Excursão da Morte), took place when Brazilian professional football club Santa Cruz Futebol Clube played a series of at least 26 friendly matches in six different cities across the North Region of Brazil from 2 January 1943 to 29 April 1943, seeking to raise funds. The tour gained its name due to the misfortunes endured by the club, including financial difficulties, the threat of German submarine attacks, and deaths.
The tour began when, looking to recover from a financial crisis, Recife-based Santa Cruz arranged five matches in Belém, Pará. After those, the team was then invited to extend their tour to Amazonas. Traveling up the Amazon River for two weeks, Santa Cruz first started experiencing problems in Manaus, where seven members of the team's delegation caught dysentery. Although most of them recovered, two players went on to contract typhoid fever and died. Two other players left the club in order to play for Manaus clubs.
Unable to return home by sea due to World War II and needing to cover growing costs, Santa Cruz had to return to Recife by land, playing matches along the way to earn more money. The journey back to Recife had further problems, including a fake arrest warrant for a player, a trip alongside thieves, and two train derailments.
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Suicidal Tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_Tour
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Introduction
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One of the most popular clubs from the state of Pernambuco, Santa Cruz Futebol Clube was mired in a deep financial crisis through 1942. The club were performing poorly, owed wages to several of its staff, and had to subsist off the revenue from their suburban football fields and the monthly payments from their associates.
The club's directors decided to take a short tour of the North Region and play in friendly matches against local clubs. They made a deal with Belém-based club Transviário Esporte Clube, arranging for five games to be played in Belém, each costing Santa Cruz five million Brazilian réis.
Santa Cruz signed four new players for the tour. The team's delegation consisted of sixteen players, a president – who also acted as the treasurer and the team's coach – and a referee from the Pernambuco Sports Federation. The tour started in the middle of World War II, while German U-boats were patrolling the Brazilian coast.
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Suicidal Tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_Tour
| 76,744,202 |
Background
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Santa Cruz's delegation left Recife, Pernambuco, on 2 January 1943, aboard the steam-powered boat Pará. Due to fears of possible Nazi submarine attacks, the boat had to sail with its lights off while being escorted by two Brazilian Navy ships. Two days later, it arrived at Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, where the Pernambuco team won against the local state team 6–0.
The delegation then traveled to Belém, Pará, playing five games against teams based in the city. They beat Transviário 7–2 and Tuna Luso 3–1, drew with the Pará state team 3–3 and 4–4 with Paysandu, and subsequently lost to Remo 5–3.
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Suicidal Tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_Tour
| 76,744,202 |
Natal and Belém
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Although the team's delegation intended the matches in Belém to be the last ones of the excursion, they were invited by Olímpico Clube to travel to Manaus, Amazonas, to play against the local teams, making it the first time a team from Pernambuco visited the city. The delegation left for Manaus on 25 January, traveling up the Amazon River aboard a steamboat towing a shipment of food destined for Acre. Traveling at a speed of ten nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) per day, it took two weeks for the squad to arrive in the state of Amazonas.
The team arrived at Manaus on 7 February. Tired and playing under heavy rain, they lost their first game in Amazonas 3–2 to Olímpico. Santa Cruz played four more matches there, winning three times (5–1 and 5–4 against Rio Negro and 6–0 against Nacional) and losing once to the local state team. Shortly after the first match against Rio Negro, the head of the delegation and six players suffered from bouts of dysentery. Under medical orders to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, avoid certain foods like eggs and crustaceans, and drink only mineral water, they recovered and were able to participate in the next matches.
After the Manaus matches, the club directors planned for an international leg in Peru and Guyana. However, the Brazilian Sports Federation blocked the trip in response to a request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which advised clubs not to leave the country due to World War II. Facing a 90-day suspension if they proceeded with the trip, the team gave up and returned to Belém aboard the steamboat Fortaleza. Three players, Cidinho, Omar and França, did not come back with the squad, as they were "attracted by good offers" from local teams. While traveling to Belém, two players had a relapse of dysentery. Goalkeeper King and striker Papeira were diagnosed with typhoid fever and hospitalized. Both had disobeyed the medical orders; Papeira played barefoot, had cold showers and a few drinks, while King ate liver and eggs for dinner. The delegation intended to return to Recife as soon as possible, but all maritime travel was prohibited by the Brazilian government on 1 March, a day after they arrived in Belém.
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Suicidal Tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_Tour
| 76,744,202 |
Manaus
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Unable to buy plane tickets and needing to cover food and medical costs, the club had to keep playing matches to earn money. Santa Cruz played against Remo on 2 March, winning 4–2. Shortly before the match, the Belém police chief received a telegram from Manaus ordering the arrest of defender Pedrinho, who was accused of "doing evil to a 17-year-old girl" during his stay in Manaus. It turned out that the police officer who ordered his arrest was the director of an Amazonas club, and was interested in the player's abilities. As the accusation was falsified, the player was never arrested. He would play for Santa Cruz shortly afterwards, being included in the match against Paysandu on 9 March.
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Suicidal Tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_Tour
| 76,744,202 |
Belém to Recife
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Santa Cruz suffered their first casualty shortly afterwards, as King died from typhoid fever on 4 March 1943. His funeral was attended by various figures of Pará football, representatives of the CBD and the clubs where he played, and several Pernambuco authorities. The coffin was taken from the Pará Sports Federation headquarters to a cemetery, accompanied by a large crowd. After King's death, Cidinho, who had defected from Santa Cruz a week earlier, returned to the club.
Just three days after the death, the club played against Paysandu. A minute of silence was observed before the match. At 16:30, during the game, the players received the news that Papeira had also died. After the match, the pitch was invaded by fans who commiserated with the players. Paysandu's directors later visited Santa Cruz's delegation, and gave them the Cidade do Recife trophy as an act of sympathy. After losing two players, the club directors looked into returning to Recife via air travel, but the hospital and funeral costs left the delegation without money. Santa Cruz played five more games in Belém, before starting the journey back via boat to Pernambuco on 28 March.
Traveling first to São Luís, Maranhão, the players had to swap their first-class tickets for third-class ones to save money. They were forced to travel alongside thirty-five thieves being "exported" by Pará police to Maranhão. As a safety measure, the fifteen trophies won by Santa Cruz in the tour were hidden, but this precaution proved unnecessary as the thieves and the players became friends. In São Luís, the boat was detained for security purposes, and the club played six matches there, one of which featured the ship's cook, substituting for an injured player. Santa Cruz originally intended to depart to Recife after a match against Sampaio Corrêa (the fourth in Maranhão), but the delegation decided to play two more matches before leaving. The ship departed at midnight, but had to return to São Luís due to a thunderstorm and the presence of German submarines.
The players then decided to go to Teresina, Piauí, by train. The train derailed twice, but without any casualties. Santa Cruz played another match in Piauí before departing to Fortaleza, Ceará, by bus. There, they played the last match of the excursion, losing to Ceará Sporting Club 3–2. The excursion ended with either 26 or 28 matches played in total. On 29 April 1943, almost four months after starting the tour, Santa Cruz arrived in Recife. The team began the 1943 season on 2 May with the Campeonato Pernambucano, the state championship. Papeira's suitcase was given to his family, but King's suitcase had been lost in the sea back in São Luís.
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Suicidal Tour
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_Tour
| 76,744,202 |
Belém to Recife
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What a Merry-Go-Round is the eighteenth collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, made for the Autumn/Winter 2001 season of his fashion house Alexander McQueen. The collection drew on imagery of clowns and carnivals, inspired by McQueen's feelings about childhood and his experiences in the fashion industry. The designs were influenced by military chic, cinema such as Nosferatu (1922) and Cabaret (1972), 1920s flapper fashion, and the French Revolution. The palette comprised dark colours complemented with neutrals and muted greens. The show marked the first appearance of the skull motif that became a signature of the McQueen brand.
The collection's runway show was staged on 21 February 2001 at the Gatliff Road Warehouse in London, as part of London Fashion Week. It was McQueen's final show in London; all his future collections were presented in Paris. Sixty-two looks were presented in the main runway show, with at least six more in the finale. The show was staged in a dark room with a carousel at the centre. During the finale, the lights came up to reveal piles of discarded childhood bric-à-brac at the rear of the stage, while models dressed as evil clowns cavorted around the stage, posing in their eveningwear.
Critical response to the collection was generally positive, and it has attracted some academic analysis for the theme and messaging. Like McQueen's previous show Voss (Spring/Summer 2001), Merry-Go-Round served as a critique of the fashion industry, which he sometimes described as toxic and suffocating. It contained elements that several authors have taken as references to French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH and its management, with whom McQueen had a turbulent relationship. Ensembles from Merry-Go-Round have appeared in exhibitions such as the McQueen retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.
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What a Merry-Go-Round
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
| 78,000,217 |
Introduction
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British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was known for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs, and dramatic fashion shows. During his nearly twenty-year career, he explored a broad range of ideas and themes, including romanticism, femininity, sexuality, and death. His collections were strongly historicist, referencing and reworking historical narratives and concepts. McQueen began his career in fashion as an apprentice with Savile Row tailors, which earned him a reputation as an expert tailor. McQueen had a difficult relationship with the fashion industry, which he sometimes described as toxic and suffocating. He was often ambivalent about continuing his career in fashion. Several of McQueen's collections, including the preceding show, Voss (Spring/Summer 2001), were intended as commentary and critique on the industry.
From 1996 to October 2001, McQueen was – in addition to his responsibilities for his own label – head designer at French fashion house Givenchy, owned by luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. His time there was fraught, primarily because of creative differences between him, the label, and the management at LVMH. In December 2000, before his Givenchy contract ended, McQueen signed a deal with Gucci, an Italian fashion house and rival to Givenchy, effectively daring LVMH to fire him. Gucci bought 51 per cent of McQueen's company, retaining him as its creative director. What a Merry-Go-Round was the last collection he produced for his own label while with Givenchy.
McQueen's career roughly paralleled that of fellow British designer John Galliano, who preceded him in the industry by about a decade. Their designs and shows were similarly creative and theatrical. During the period in which their careers overlapped, fashion journalists compared and contrasted their work and career choices, and they have sometimes been referred to as rivals. McQueen, who had a competitive streak, resented being compared to Galliano and often sought to emulate or outdo Galliano's ideas in his own work.
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What a Merry-Go-Round
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Background
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What a Merry-Go-Round (Autumn/Winter 2001) is the eighteenth collection McQueen made for his eponymous fashion house. It was inspired by the dark underside of clowns, carnivals, and circuses, as well as the Child Catcher villain from the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). As was typical for McQueen, he pulled from his own life to inform his designs. In this case, he connected the vulnerability of childhood to his turbulent experiences with the fashion industry. McQueen explicitly drew on the fear of clowns in describing his vision: "We show children clowns as if they are funny. They're not. They're really scary." The carousel at the centre of the show represented the ride his career had been for the preceding year.
Additional inspiration came from the German silent vampire film Nosferatu (1922) and the cabaret shows of Weimar Germany, by way of the film Cabaret (1972). McQueen intended the collection's designs to be relatively unified in order to allow him to build a consistent visual identity for his brand. He felt that previous collections had had too many ideas he had not fully capitalised on.
The overall colour palette was dark. Most early looks featured neutral colours, and orange and green becoming more prominent later on. Skulls and harlequin patterns were a repeat motif. Primary materials included leather and jersey, embellished with sequins, lace, and peacock and ostrich feathers. The influence of military chic was clear in khaki items, garments tailored to resemble uniforms, and a headpiece of antique-looking aeroplanes. McQueen called these designs a reflection of the "regimented aspect of childhood". Many designs were reworked from earlier collections, including Joan (Autumn/Winter 1998), Eshu (Autumn/Winter 2000), and Voss.
McQueen's interest in historical fashion was a strong influence on the collection. Large greatcoats and gold braid drew aesthetically on the French Revolution, while other items, particularly the bias cut sheath dresses, were influenced by the clothing worn by flappers of the 1920s. Textile curators Clarissa M. Esguerra and Michaela Hansen identified Look 44, a sequined dress with ruffles at the hips, as exemplary of this influence in the collection. They argued that it was McQueen's reinterpretation of the robe de style, a 1920s silhouette characterised by a straight-cut top with a more voluminous skirt at the hips. They saw the sequins and colours as reminiscent of Weimar cabaret.
Several looks included accessories made from taxidermy pheasant claws clutching strings of Tahitian pearls, made by McQueen's longtime collaborator Shaun Leane. A classically-trained jeweller, Leane had to teach himself taxidermy in order to craft these items; he later replicated the pheasant claw earrings for his jewellery line.
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What a Merry-Go-Round
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Concept and collection
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The runway show was staged on 21 February 2001, at the Gatliff Road Warehouse in London. It was the last of six shows McQueen held there, and his final major show in his home city; all his future womenswear collections were staged in Paris. The invitations used an image by Ferdinando Scianna: an elderly-looking clown wearing a red, white, and blue outfit, echoing the tricoloured flag of France.
The audience were first led into gated standing-room-only area which journalist Maggie Alderson derisively described as "holding pens", where they were made to wait for half an hour before being allowed to take their seats, to the irritation of many. Notable audience members included model Kate Moss, actress Bianca Jagger, media executive Nicholas Coleridge, and Domenico de Sole, then-CEO of Gucci.
McQueen typically worked with a consistent creative team for his shows, which he planned with Katy England, his assistant and primary stylist. Gainsbury & Whiting oversaw production. Joseph Bennett, who had designed all of McQueen's runways since No. 13 (Spring/Summer 1999), returned for set design. Hair was styled by Guido Palau, with make-up by Val Garland. Philip Treacy created headpieces, while Shaun Leane was responsible for jewellery; both were longtime collaborators of McQueen's. Waterford Crystal produced a walking stick made from crystal and bone.
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What a Merry-Go-Round
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Production details
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The collection was presented in a dimly-lit room with a circular stage, the floor painted in a spiral of grey and blue. The centrepiece was a large antique carousel, the horses covered in black, purple, and lavender latex. At the rear, the stage was piled with childhood bric-à-brac including stuffed toys, puppets, balloons, and skeletons, all covered in dust, suggesting an old-fashioned child's nursery, a toy shop, or an attic filled with discarded possessions. These items were in darkness for much of the show, revealed only for the finale.
The show opened with an audio clip of the Child Catcher in which he attempts to lure children with treats so he can capture them. The rest of the backing music included heavy metal music, the theme song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and selections from the soundtrack of horror film Rosemary's Baby (1968) including the lullaby "Sleep Safe and Warm". "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins (1964) played over the finale.
The performance direction for the models was aggressive – Claire Wilcox wrote that they walked "like dominatrixes", while the Vogue reviewer called them "hard-as-nails". Models were styled with stark white face make-up as a base, reminiscent of Pierrot, a sad clown stock character from pantomime theatre. In the main section of the show, the models wore dark lips in a style typical of the 1930s and loose hair styled in Marcel waves. In the finale, they wore dark clown make-up and wigs teased into shapes, including some three-pointed styles. Fashion theorist Janice Miller considered it "emblematic" of villains from children's media.
Sixty-two looks were presented in the main runway show, with at least six more in the finale. Models walked around the carousel, some using its poles to twirl around. Look 34, a black dress, was styled with a gold fox skeleton draped over the model's shoulders to mimic a fox fur stole. Look 35 was a coat with a high, asymmetrical collar and Chinese-inspired embroidery in light green. Look 37 featured a showpiece necklace of Tahitian pearls and pheasant claws made by Shaun Leane. The long strands of pearls suggested 1920s fashion, while the mass of claws deceptively resembled fur and hinted at morbidity. Look 48 featured a helmet with large black feathers and decorative metal skull made by Philip Treacy, worn with a see-through slip of black with purple embroidery. Ana Honigman described the model as looking as though she were "half-siren and half-Valkyrie".
Following Look 62, a black knit dress with white skull on the front, the lights went down, then came back up, illuminating the carousel as well as the decor at the rear of the stage. Several models styled as evil clowns with dark clown make-up and large wigs dusted with cobwebs cavorted around the stage, posing in their eveningwear. One of these models had a gold skeleton – originally a piece of set decoration from Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996) – attached to her ankle. Another wore a bias cut dress in silver which exposed the model's breast, reminiscent of the 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix. Erin O'Connor became entangled in balloons on the side of the stage while making her entrance, dragging them to the centre of the carousel. Other models cut the balloons away to free her. After several minutes, the lights came up fully and the models walked out to take their final turn, followed by McQueen taking his bow and shaking de Sole's hand.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Catwalk presentation
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What a Merry-Go-Round was positively received by fashion critics upon its debut. De Sole, who would effectively be McQueen's manager at Gucci, called the collection "fantastic". Reviewers were generally pleased with the showmanship: Hilary Alexander wrote that it was "as striking as it was sinister", while Booth Moore at the Los Angeles Times called it "Broadway-worthy". Several felt it was the most exciting presentation of the season. Alexander complained that McQueen's was the only show worth seeing that Fashion Week, and wrote that it demonstrated "the huge gulf between a good designer and a genius". Both Maggie Alderson and Alexia Economou felt McQueen had used the season's trends – such as military chic, one-shoulder dresses, and tailored suits – better than any of the other designers presenting that week.
Despite the theatrics of the presentation, critics felt the designs had commercial potential, especially the draped dresses and tailored suits. John Davidson felt the clothing would be best for "confident, assured women prepared to stand out from the fashion crowd". Writing for The Independent, Susannah Frankel praised the way McQueen played with contrasts of "masculine and feminine, ultra-romantic and brutally sharp". Similarly, Lisa Armstrong felt McQueen's juxtaposition of opposing concepts was what made "his vision so modern". Alexander and Suzy Menkes both spoke positively of the unusual palette of colours and patterns. The military-themed items were a highlight for many reviewers. Others noted the leatherwork in the collection. Jess Cartner-Morley and Frankel both liked pieces from early in the collection, where the material had been shaped to resemble small scales. Menkes and Moore pointed to leather skirts cut in lace-like patterns, with Menkes especially charmed by one cut to show "a strutting peacock to echo a feathered bodice".
There was some criticism of the collection. The staff reviewer at Women's Wear Daily (WWD) enjoyed it, but felt that the theme and the designs were not as balanced as they had been in McQueen's past collections. They concluded that although he had not outdone his past successes, it was unfair to expect him to do so. For them, it was "enough that he constantly surpasses so many other designers". Cathy Horyn, fashion critic for The New York Times, felt it was "less coherent" than Voss had been, and called the military items "harsh". Alderson suspected a Nazi influence to the military designs, which she called shameful and "very hard to forgive". Menkes felt McQueen was too young to be reworking his earlier designs, although she felt the results were very polished. Kate Foster at The Scotsman disagreed with the general consensus of wearability and felt the clothes would "never be worn by real women". The unnamed reviewer for the Ottawa Citizen wondered what the theatrics "have to do with clothes" Alderson also felt the lighting was too dark and the seats too far from the stage.
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Contemporary
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Writing in retrospect, curator Kate Bethune felt that the reworked designs from earlier collections indicated that McQueen had succeeded in creating a "consolidating collection". She found it commercial in a positive way, highlighting the wearability of the bias-cut dresses. In a 2015 retrospective, Dazed magazine called Merry-Go-Round one of McQueen's darkest shows. Fashion theorists Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas regard What a Merry-Go-Round as "unjustly overshadowed" by the preceding collection, Voss.
Despite its positive reception, Merry-Go-Round was not one of McQueen's personal favourites. Shortly after the show, The New York Times quoted him as saying "it wasn't the strongest I've ever done". In a 2004 interview, he said he could not "bear to look back at" it, as he felt the show had completely eclipsed the actual designs.
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What a Merry-Go-Round
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Retrospective
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Many authors regard elements of the collection as being aimed toward the management at French conglomerate LVMH, with whom McQueen had a turbulent relationship. Some contemporary reviewers commented along these lines, with the WWD review calling it an "unsubtle comment" on his disputes with them. Judith Watt cited the reference to Liberty Leading the People as a general message to LVMH. Dana Thomas considered the use of the Child Catcher's voice a direct allusion to LVMH founder Bernard Arnault. Karen Homer concurred, writing that the elements from the French Revolution were a message indicating that McQueen was now free from LVMH. Bethune noted that ironically, despite all the messaging about being free from the French company, all of McQueen's future shows were staged in Paris.
Elements of the collection may have been a reference to the work of John Galliano. In her review for The Times, Armstrong wrote that she felt McQueen had intended his eveningwear as a direct challenge to Galliano, who was known for his romantic evening gowns. Thomas highlighted a number of Galliano references. Many models wore Marcel waves, which Galliano had been using extensively at that time. Others wore the three-pointed wigs, which mimicked those used in the Galliano show Filibustiers (Spring/Summer 1993). The 1930s-style make-up worn by some models also echoed Galliano's runway styling. Many designs were interpretations of Galliano standards like slip dresses, biker jackets, military coats, and sashes.
Some critics focused on the semiotics of the dark clown make-up. Fashion theorist Caroline Evans felt that it produced a "mournful and alienated image", showcasing the underside of the circus. For Miller, the harsh make-up paired with the graceful dresses "mirror[ed] the way McQueen oscillated between beauty and horror" in designing for women. Geczy and Karaminas wrote that the make-up transformed the models into "something uninvitingly ghastly and vampiric". Unlike models in most shows, whose purpose is to showcase beauty, the models in this show appeared as "predators and phantoms".
There were some comments about the gold skeleton worn with Look 34. In their contemporary reviews, Armstrong and Avril Groom remarked on the absence of fur in the collection, which McQueen had been regularly using for the past few years. Armstrong thought the skeleton was a "politically correct alternative to the fox stole". Groom described it as an indication that McQueen had given "his macabre sense of humour full rein". Author Kristin Knox called it an example of McQueen's "remanipulation of the macabre into a thing of true exquisite beauty".
Evans considered the show an example of the double-sided nature of fashion: both frivolous and morbid at once in its transience. Geczy and Karaminas, picking up the thread of Evans' analysis, identified the performance aspect of Merry-Go-Round as an example of McQueen's "critically incisive" creative practice. The circus theme combined with the references to death and loss of innocence suggested to them a "world of fallen and jaded entertainers". They interpreted this as McQueen's commentary on the "imagined reality" of the fashion industry. They also compared the collection's narrative to that of The Overlook (Autumn/Winter 1999), which had a melancholy winter setting. They felt both collections suggested "the loss of childhood innocence". Valerie Steele wrote that the skeleton grasping the model's ankle was a reference to death symbolism in the Middle Ages.
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What a Merry-Go-Round
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Analysis
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Merry-Go-Round marked the first appearance of the skull motif that became a signature of the brand.
When McQueen and Leane participated in the Fashion in Motion series at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 2001, they presented the pearl and pheasant necklace as one of their featured items. Two items from Merry-Go-Round appeared in the "Romantic Mind" section of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, a retrospective exhibition of McQueen's designs: a black coatdress and a black ensemble with gold military-style embellishments. The skull hat from Look 48 and a single pheasant claw earring with white pearls from Look 60 were placed in the Cabinet of Curiosities section with other accessories. Look 44 appeared in the exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, originally staged in 2022 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The garment is owned by the LACMA.
Some of McQueen's friends and collaborators have auctioned items from Merry-Go-Round. In 2017, Leane auctioned a number of pieces he had created for the house at Sotheby's in New York, including several from Merry-Go-Round. The pheasant claw and pearl necklace as well as the claw and pearl earrings from Look 60 were listed, but there is no final sale price noted for these items. The claw and pearl earrings from Look 32 sold for $13,750. A claw and pearl epaulette from Look 47 sold for $22,500. McQueen's friend Alice Smith auctioned a collection of McQueen memorabilia in 2020; an invitation from Merry-Go-Round sold for $334.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Merry-Go-Round
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Legacy
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Zhao Chongguo (Chinese: 趙充國; pinyin: Zhào Chōngguó, 137–52 BCE) was a Chinese military commander and official during the Western Han dynasty. Born to a family of officials in what is now eastern Gansu, Zhao studied military science in his youth. Around 100 BCE, he joined the Feathered Forest, a recently created elite cavalry unit recruited from the northwestern districts. He joined General Li Guangli's campaign against the Xiongnu confederation the following year, and was severely wounded in combat. Emperor Wu, impressed by Zhao's service, promoted him. He served as chief of staff for the supreme head of cavalry units. In 80 BCE, Zhao was appointed to manage the imperial parks, and also controlled the minting of cash coinage.
In 74 BCE, Zhao collaborated with the political leader Huo Guang to depose the newly enthroned emperor Liu He in favor of Emperor Xuan. For this, he was appointed Marquis of Yingping and was promoted to General of the Rear. After participating in conflicts against the Xionggnu, he volunteered to lead a campaign against the Qiang people (in what is now Qinghai) in 62 BCE. Joined by his son, he succeeded in pushing deep into Qiang territory, and exploited tribal divisions by granting amnesty to the Qiang, who defected to the Han forces. Zhao rejected proposals by his fellow generals and the emperor to continue offensive operations, believing that a protracted occupation would subdue the Qiang through attrition. He was able to implement his policy of tuntian (lit. 'farming garrisons'), although the emperor simultaneously approved offensive operations by other generals. Zhao's garrison technique proved successful, gaining him acclaim and influence on later tacticians. He retired in 60 BCE after his son created a scandal and committed suicide. Zhao's life and career is known mainly through a biography in the Book of Han.
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Zhao Chongguo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
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Introduction
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In 137 BCE, Zhao Chongguo was born in Shanggui Prefecture in Longxi Commandery, located along the western periphery of the Western Han dynasty (in what is now Tianshui in eastern Gansu). A stele erected for a member of his family in 180 CE claims the family originated as a branch of the ruling family of Zhao State during the Warring States period. His great-grandfather, Zhao Zhongkuang, was the privy treasurer (少府; shǎofǔ) under Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing. Zhongkuang's son, Zhao Sheng, served as an advisory counselor (諫議大夫; jiànyì dàfū) in the Imperial Court. Sheng's son Zhao Yu, Zhao Chongguo's father, served as a palace attendant, but committed some grave offense and was exiled to Shanggui.
Little is known about Zhao's early life or military experience before he joined the Feathered Forest (羽林; yǔlín) cavalry unit around 100 BCE. Posthumous histories report that he was ambitious as a youth and sought to become a general. The "Six Commanderies", including Longxi, had a regional tradition of cavalry service within the Han military. Zhao studied military science and the Four Barbarians. He likely began service as a cavalryman in a local defense unit and became known as a 'Son of the Respectable Families of the Six Commanderies' (六郡良家子; liùjùn liángjiāzǐ), a group many noted Han generals originated in. He was granted the courtesy name Wengsun, 'the old man's grandson'; the meaning behind this is unknown. At some point, Zhao moved to Lingju County in Jincheng Commandery (in what is now Yongdeng County in central Gansu). His move was likely connected to his military service; Lingju had recently fallen under Han control during the campaigns against the Qiang people.
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Zhao Chongguo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
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Early life and career
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In 104, an elite cavalry unit named the Feathered Forest was created in the imperial capital of Chang'an, one of five units placed under the administration of the Minister of the Imperial Household and tasked with protecting the Emperor. The members of the unit, dubbed the "Gentlemen of the Feathered Forest" (羽林郎; yǔlínláng), were mainly recruited from the northwest, with a particular emphasis on the descendants of men who died in military. Zhao joined the unit around 100. In 99, he joined a force of 30,000 cavalry in General Li Guangli's campaign against the Xiongnu to the north, receiving the rank of acting major. The Han army was forced to retreat and suffered heavy casualties. It eventually became trapped by the encroaching Xiongnu forces after several days of combat. Zhao led a group of around 100 men to breach the Xiongnu lines and allow for the rest of the Han army to retreat, suffering twenty sword cuts in the process. After General Li commended Zhao's service, Emperor Wu invited Zhao to a private meeting to see his battle wounds; he was so impressed that he promoted Wu to the rank of Gentleman of the Household (中郎; zhōngláng).Zhao was soon promoted again, becoming chief of staff for the General of Chariots and Cavalry (車騎將軍; jūjì jiāngjūn) — and likely Grand General Huo Guang — and progressed rapidly during Huo's succeeding dictatorship. In 80, Zhao led an army against the Di people, who had rebelled in Wudu Commandery in what is now southeastern Gansu. During this campaign, he held the title of Army Protector Chief Commandant (護軍都尉; hùjūn dūwèi), probably an advisory position to the Grand General. He was then sent to command the garrisons of Shanggu Commandery (in modern-day Inner Mongolia), possibly only as a brief inspection.
Later in 80, Zhao was appointed as the Chief Commandant of Waters and Parks (水衡都尉; shuǐhéng dūwèi), a position he held until 60 BCE. As the chief commandant, he managed the Shanglin Park to the north of the capital. This position also allowed him to administrate the minting of cash coinage, as the central mint was located inside the park. By 74, Zhao was joined in this position by the General of the Van (前將軍; qián jiāngjūn), Han Zeng. In August 74, Zhao collaborated with Huo to depose the newly enthroned emperor Liu He, who was seen as indulgent and unfit for the office by several officials. Zhao signed the deed of indictment against the emperor alongside the Imperial Counselor and Han Zeng, and Emperor Xuan (a great-grandson of Emperor Wu) was installed in his place. Around two hundred officials, charged with assisting with the excesses of Liu He's brief rule, were executed. Huo Guang's rule continued after the coup.
In reward for his service in the coup, Zhao was awarded the hereditary title of Marquis of Yingping (營平侯; yíngpíng hóu). Around this time, he was promoted to General of the Rear (水衡都尉; hòu jiāngjūn), alongside his concurrent civil post as the chief commandant. From 72 to 71, Zhao was one of five Han generals who participated in a large cavalry campaign against the Xiongnu at the request of the Wusun people of the northwest. During the campaign, he was titled the General of Pulei (蒲類都尉; púlèi jiāngjūn). Following a massive raid into Shanxi in 70, a defected Xiongnu commander advised the Han army to place Zhao, who had reportedly become infamous among the Xiongnu, in command of the northern frontier commanderies. The Xiongnu forces retreated the following year. Huo Guang died two years later, and the Huo family was overthrown in favor of direct rule by Emperor Xuan. Zhao remained in the good graces of the imperial government.
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Zhao Chongguo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
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Military service
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Preventing contact and alliances between the pastoralist Western Qiang people and the Xiongnu had been a geopolitical goal of the Han since the reign of Emperor Wu, and was a major motivator for the conquest of the Hexi Corridor. During the mid-60s, a chieftain of the Xianlian tribe of the Western Qiang requested permission to pasture their herds in the Huangshui Valley, from where they had previously been expelled. Zhao was angered after this proposal was relayed positively to the Han court by the emissary Yiqu Anguo, accusing the Qiang of merely seeking contact with the Xiongnu and recommending a preemptive attack. The Han government's official response to the proposal is unknown, but the local garrison was unable to prevent the Qiang resettlement in the region.
In 63, the chief of the Xianlian joined a large group of Western Qiang chieftains in suspending local feuds and forming an alliance. Zhao counseled Emperor Xuan on the matter, describing a unified Qiang as a particular threat to the Han, and predicting that the Xiongnu would imminently seek to ally with them. He felt that such a unification could be prevented by Han influence, writing "It is relatively easy to bring the Qiang under control because they are divided into many warlike tribes and always attack each other. It is not in their nature to become unified."
In 62, the Han became aware that the Qiang lord Langhe had sent envoys to the Xiongnu, seeking to join in an alliance to attack the city of Dunhuang and the region of Shanshan in the western deserts. Sensing an imminent attack, Zhao advocated for the officer Xin Wuxian, the Grand Administrator of Jiuquan, to be sent into Qiang territory as part of a punitive expedition. Instead, the Chancellor and Imperial Secretary sent Yiqu Anguo into Qiang territory, ostensibly for diplomatic purposes. His brutal campaign caused widespread resentment, and more Qiang tribes rose up in revolt. He was forced to retreat back into Han territory.
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Zhao Chongguo
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Campaign against the Qiang
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Emperor Xuan sent Imperial Secretary Bing Ji to consult Zhao on the leadership of an ensuing relief expedition. Although now in his seventies, Zhao convinced the imperial leadership that his experience made him the most capable leader for the expedition. He joined a group of around 10,000 cavalry troops mobilized at Jincheng Commandery. The army departed west along the Yellow River in April or May 61, seeking to make a crossing to the northern bank east of the confluence with the Huangshui River. During the night, Zhao sent three regiments to cross and construct field fortifications along the northern bank to protect the rest of the army. This vanguard was attacked by a small group of Qiang horsemen shortly after. Suspecting a possible ambush, he withdrew his forces and sent a party to scout a highly defensible location along the river known as the Siwang Narrows. When no Qiang forces were found at the narrows, the army traveled along the Huangshui through Luodu (now Ledu) and rested for several days at the fort of Longzhi, southeast of modern Xining.
Shortly before Zhao's arrival at Longzhi, a Qiang emissary named Diaoku from the Kai tribe was detained at the fort. Zhao declared him innocent and sent him as a messenger to the Qiang, promising amnesty and large monetary rewards for Qiang who decapitate those in the rebellion. They would also be rewarded with ownership of the wives, children, and property of the decapitated. As Zhao advanced upriver, his son Zhao Ang, the leader of the Gentleman of the Household, led a hastily assembled relief column consisting of two regiments of standing forces from Chang'an. Bogged down by Qiang forces at Lianju and cut off from its supply lines, it was eventually reinforced by a group of around 5,000 cavalry. The Grand Administrator of Jincheng, who governed the commandery's force of 10,000 cavalry, was also sent to reinforce Zhao Ang. Units of convicts from the capital were sent to assist the Han forces, resulting in a total force of around 60,000 men.
Xin Wuxian wrote to Zhao Chongguo and advocated a strike on the Han and Kai tribes near Qinghai Lake, suggesting that the enslavement of their families and the seizure of their livestock would greatly weaken the Qiang. This would allow for their destruction by the main army in the winter. Zhao stated that the plan would leave the northern frontier undefended against a potential Xiongnu attack, and that the amount of supplies needed for such an expedition would unhelpfully encumber the horses. Although the Han and Kai tribes were seen as most responsible for the rebellion, he believed that subduing and gaining the allegiance of the nearby Xianlian would secure the frontier against the other Qiang tribes.
After deliberations, the Three Dukes and the Nine Ministers advised the emperor against Zhao's proposal. Yiqu Anguo was dispatched to deliver the emperor's response to Zhao, reprimanding him for not seeking to prevent Han and Kai raids into Gansu. The emperor also gave Xin Wuxian the title of 'General Who Smashes the Qiang' (破羌將軍; pòqiāng jiāngjūn). Zhao rebuked this and responded with a further twelve-part outline of his plan in July or August of 61, stating that he still wished to attack the Xianlian, and only attack the Han and Kai if they continued their hostilities afterwards. He noted that a preemptive attack against the Han and Kai would guarantee their alliance with the Xianlian, while they could be otherwise convinced to turn against them. After a very brief period of deliberation, the emperor conceded and approved Zhao's plan.
Zhao advanced further into Qiang territory. The Xianlian troops scattered at their approach, leaving behind their livestock, carts, and wagons. The Chinese army proceeded into the territories of the Han sub-tribe, likely to the northeast of Qinghai Lake, but refrained from looting. This endeared the Han to the army. Around September, the Qiang chieftain Miwang sent an envoy to Zhao, asking for his people to be allowed to return to their original territory. Although most of his officers were opposed to pardoning Miwang for allying with the Xianlian, Zhao overruled them and granted clemency to him and the Han tribe.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
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Leading the campaign
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Zhao fell ill around two months later, but was urged to stay on the offense by Emperor Xuan. The emperor ordered Xin Wuxian to transfer his garrison troops to Zhao's army and ordered Zhao to attack around the January of 60, citing auspicious astrological signs. If Zhao's illness worsened, he ordered Xin and the General of Strong Crossbows, Xu Yanshou, to launch the attack in his stead. This frustrated Zhao, who did not seek to launch offensive operations immediately, and so had no use for additional men under his command; by the end of the year, he commanded an army of around 60,000 troops, requiring large amounts of grain and salt for rations. Zhao Ang sent an aide to his father, begging him to follow the emperor's orders despite his illness. Zhao replied that he intended to continue his plans, stating that "our brilliant ruler may judge if my words are loyal".
Zhao outlined a strategy for a longer-term occupation of the Qiang territories using tuntian (lit. 'farming garrisons'). He sought permission to disband most of his forces, leaving only 10,281 troops (comprising the troops from the commanderies of Huaiyang and Runan as well as the former convicts from the capital region) behind. These would refrain from offensive operations to construct administrative outposts, irrigation ditches, and reservoirs to build up the agricultural capacity along the Huangshui. He predicted that this could extend administration as far as Qinghai Lake. A group of 1,000 cavalrymen would be reserved to live off the land during the spring and summer to protect the army's farms.
Emperor Xuan was befuddled by Zhao's proposal, asking in reply: "What sort of general would plan this? When will the enemy be exterminated? When will our troops gain a decision? If you can figure out why this plan is to our advantage, memorialize again!" Zhao responded with another memorial, listing twelve advantages of his plan. He described the plan as denying the Qiang their most fertile territories and instead relegating them to the arid highlands, causing infighting and starvation among the Qiang armies. The plan would also allow for the construction of infrastructure to keep troops constantly supplied, as opposed to carrying their own supplies through the mountains, where they may be ambushed or cut off from resupply.
Zhao dismissed imperial concerns that the reduction in numbers would put the troops at risk of a large-scale Qiang assault by emphasizing that waiting out the enemy would further reduce their combat capacity due to their lack of supplies. The emperor submitted Zhao's proposal to several high officials for review, including the Three Dukes and the Nine Ministers. Eighteen out of an unknown number of high officials supported Zhao's third memorial. When the emperor ordered them to look over the memorials again, Chancellor Wei Xiang urged him to defer to Zhao's expertise; the emperor sent Zhao affirmation for his plan, but simultaneously approved plans for an offensive with troops led by Xin Wuxian, Xu Yanshou, and Zhao Ang. Their three armies returned later with around 5,000 captives and 3,000 severed heads total; during this same period, 5,000 Qiang had surrendered to Zhao Chongguo's forces. Due to the heavy cost of the offensive operations in return for limited benefit, the emperor demobilized the other armies while maintaining Zhao's garrison. The Han established the dependent state of Jincheng in 60, settling it with the surrendered Qiang tribes.
The Qiang continued to surrender to Zhao's forces. Many of the Qiang troops who had not starved or died in battle had fled elsewhere. Around July 60, Zhao was granted approval to disband his garrison. He returned to the capital, and Xin Wuxian was demoted from generalship and sent back to govern Jiuquan. The soldiers of the garrison returned to their homes, ending the Han colonial presence in the region. A second attempt at establishing agricultural colonies was made a few years after Zhao's withdrawal. Such attempts would not be made again until the 2nd century CE, during a series of rebellions and uprisings among the Qiang.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
| 77,142,111 |
Agricultural garrisons
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After returning to Chang'an, Zhao became the Commandant of the Guards, one of the Nine Ministers. In this post, he managed the conscript troops which guarded the gates of the imperial palace of Weiyang in Chang'an. That year, Emperor Xuan recreated the post of Colonel Protector of the Qiang, which had become vacant at some point following its creation by Emperor Wu. Xin Tang, the younger brother of Xin Wuxian was appointed to the post; Zhao, although ill and unable to attend the previous meetings on the position, penned a memorial stating that Xin Tang was unsuitable for the position due to his alcoholism. Following Zhao's recommendation, the emperor revoked Xin Tang's appointment in lieu of his elder brother Xin Linzhong.
During a dinner party, Zhao Ang described a private meeting he had once had with Emperor Wu to Xin Wuxian. Xin, seeking vengeance for his demotion back to Grand Administrator of Jiuquan, reported this breach of imperial confidence, and had Zhao Ang placed under probationary measures. Later in 60, Zhao Ang violated these measures by arriving at his father's headquarters and creating a great deal of disorder among his troops; Zhao Ang was demoted to petty officialdom and later committed suicide. Zhao Chongguo held a funeral for his son, for which he was granted a four-horse coach and 13.32 kilograms (29.4 lb) of gold—sixty catties.
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Zhao Chongguo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
| 77,142,111 |
Later life
|
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In 60, Zhao retired to his home in the northwestern commanderies, and was rewarded with great wealth. He continued to participate in state discussions on foreign policy until he died in 52. Following renewed hostilities with the Qiang, Emperor Cheng (r. 33 – 7 BCE) had Zhao Chongguo's remains reinterred at the Duling Mausoleum (the tomb of Emperor Xuan) in Chang'an. Emperor Cheng honored Zhao with a portrait at the imperial palace accompanied by a eulogy hymn commissioned from the poet Yang Xiong.
Zhao's marquisate of Yingping passed to Zhao Ang's son Qin. After Zhao Qin's death, it passed to his wife Princess Jingwu's adopted son, Zhao Cen; this was later removed in 10 BC after a dispute between Jingwu and Cen's biological father. Under the reign of Emperor Ping (r. 1–6 CE), the marquisate was recreated and granted to Zhao Chongguo's great-grandson, Zhao Ji. The title was abolished at some point before the fall of the usurper emperor Wang Mang's regime in 23 CE.
Although tuntian had been coined before Zhao's campaign, his outline of the strategy to Emperor Xuan became a foundational strategic text for its implementation. The strategy would be implemented by the Northern Wei, Sui, and Tang as the fubing system, and by the Ming dynasty through the weisuo system. In 1700, during the Dzungar–Qing Wars, the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty told his generals to study Zhao Chongguo's campaigns while attempting to create military settlements in Xinjiang.
The Book of Han (a 2nd century history of the Western Han dynasty) features a biography of Zhao Chongguo, which remains the only primary source on his life and career beyond a brief mention in a family genealogical stele which was erected dated to 180 CE and rediscovered in 1942.
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Zhao Chongguo
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Chongguo
| 77,142,111 |
Death and legacy
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The *SCAPE building is a community youth space located at 2 Orchard Link in Orchard Road, Singapore. Completed in 2010, the five-storey building spans 13,103.13 square metres (3.2 acres) and was designed by RSP Architects. The structure has a hexagon-clad façade, open circulation spaces, and multiple entrances.
In response to calls for a youth community space, a consultation exercise was held in 2005, and two thousand suggestions were gathered from the youths. An advisory panel consolidated these suggestions into six conceptual spaces themed around street culture, music, and technology. RSP Architects' proposal was selected through a 2006 architectural design competition, as it was integrated with the surroundings and emphasised youth-centric spaces.
Since its opening in June 2010, *SCAPE has undergone multiple revamps to boost youth engagement. A 2012 revamp introduced HubQuarters as a base for youth organisations offering development programmes, while a 2014 renovation added performance areas and a media hub. Another major redevelopment was announced in 2022 as part of the Somerset Belt Masterplan, which aimed to revitalise the district with new infrastructure, an updated tenant mix, and enhanced accessibility. The Ground Theatre and HubQuarters reopened in 2024, with further upgrades scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.
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*SCAPE building
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*SCAPE_building
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Introduction
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Designed by RSP Architects Planners and Engineers, the building was chosen through a 2006 competition organised by MCYS and received public endorsement through a vote. It features distinctive hexagonal cladding, along "versatile spaces" and "open circulation" that, according to RSP, embody "youthful vibrancy". The design prioritises accessibility of public space with a "porous" layout of several entry and exit points. The existing tree canopy was preserved, serving as a natural sunlight filter. A curved reflective ceiling overhangs the main drop-off area and the third-storey terrace.
On the ground floor facing Grange Road is the "Playspace", an outdoor event area that can accommodate 4,000 people standing. This site was left undeveloped because an MRT line runs beneath it. Initially, the building design featured six conceptual spaces, consolidated from 2,200 suggestions gathered during the 2005 consultation exercise. These spaces were to be connected via "interaction spaces", transitory spaces that would have allowed various impromptu activities to be held. Following the 2022 revamp, these spaces were restructured into three zones: the "Sense and Sustainability" for youth entrepreneurs to share ideas, "Freedom for Expression" for creative self-expression, and "My Creative Haven" as a digital and physical hub for learning and collaboration.
On the first floor is the Underground (formerly Street + Market), a bazaar space that accommodates around 30 flea market stalls and can also function as an acoustic performance venue. The second storey houses the Ground Theatre, a 10,362 sq ft (962.7 m2) space with seating for over 450 guests. Retail outlets and eateries span the second and third floors. The Studio, located across the third and fourth levels, contains jamming and dance facilities. There are sky terraces on the top three storeys, which function as relaxation spaces where youth could socialise. The HubQuarters and the management office are located on the fourth floor, while other offices occupy the fifth floor.
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*SCAPE building
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*SCAPE_building
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Architecture
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The venue underwent a S$500,000 renovation in 2012 to enhance youth engagement. The first-floor space, formerly known as "Street+Market", was renovated and rebranded as "Underground", a hub for young entrepreneurs. A new 850 sq ft (79 m2) "HubQuarters" was established on the fourth and fifth floors, replacing the former "Cache" space and serving as a base for youth organisations offering development programmes. The changes were aimed to provide more structured initiatives while preserving an inclusive space for youth activities. Additionally, *SCAPE partnered with Nanyang Polytechnic, ITE College East, and Lasalle College of the Arts to support and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs.
Another revamp was announced by youth minister Lawrence Wong in May 2014. By that time, the venue was attracting 440,000 visitors per month. The S$2.5 million project introduced new facilities, including a 100-seater indoor gallery, an outdoor stage with seating areas, and a dedicated walkway for street performances and wall art. A new media hub was also established for media groups to hotdesk or host events, with organisations like the Singapore Film Society and Project Unsung Heroes utilising the space. Nevertheless, Delane Lim of Agape Group Holdings noted that the space still lacked a clear identity because it tried to be a hub for retail, entrepreneurship, arts, media, and community service. Conversely, he said youth hubs in Hong Kong and South Africa thrive by being commercially run by young entrepreneurs, allowing for fresh ideas and greater autonomy with government funding. In June 2018, HubQuarters was revamped into a co-working space for youths.
On 27 July 2022, *SCAPE announced that the building would undergo another revamp to attract youths of all ages. The revitalisation was part of the Somerset Belt Masterplan, which aimed to "revitalise" the district into a "dynamic" hub for youths. The venue would be restructured into three major zones to allow further collaborations between young entrepreneurs, creatives, and content creators. Besides infrastructure changes to enhance the building's accessibility, a new tenant mix of retail, leisure and entertainment would be introduced. The project was expected to begin in early 2023 and completed in early 2024. By June 2024, limited venues were available to the public, with the planned "refreshed line-up" of tenants was planned to be confirmed only in 2025. In February 2025, the MCCY announced that the remaining upgrading works would be completed by the end of that year.
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*SCAPE building
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*SCAPE_building
| 79,595,782 |
Subsequent revamps
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The 3:16 game was a National Football League playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 8, 2012. The game took place in the 2011–12 NFL playoffs and finished with five statistics that each contained three digits in the order 3–1–6. It was the first playoff game to go to overtime since a 2010 overtime rule was codified stating both teams could possess the ball unless one scored a touchdown. The game also set a record for the shortest overtime in NFL history at the time; it took 11 seconds and the Broncos scored on their first play in overtime.
When Tim Tebow played college football for the Florida Gators during the 2008 Florida Gators season, he began writing messages on his eye black (a practice the NCAA would ban in April 2010). At the conclusion of the season, Tebow played in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game and inscribed the biblical citation "John 3:16" on his eye black. Exactly three years to the day after that championship game, Tebow played in this playoff game as a quarterback for the Broncos on January 8, 2012.
During the game, Tebow accumulated 316 passing yards with an average of 31.6 yards per completion. The Steelers finished the game with a time of possession of 31 minutes and 6 seconds. The game's ratings peaked between 8:00 and 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time with a rating of 31.6. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a second-quarter interception on 3rd-and-16.
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3:16 game
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:16_game
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Introduction
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The use of eye black involves painting black stripes under the eyes. The black is used to absorb light and make it easier for the wearer to see better. Eye black is commonly used in sports such as football, baseball and lacrosse. One of the first athletes to wear eye black was Babe Ruth in the 1930s.
Between 2003 and 2005, college football running back Reggie Bush started the trend of writing messages in his eye black. He scrawled the area code of San Diego (619) into his eye black. College football quarterback Tim Tebow began scrawling messages in his eye black. Tebow scrawled the citations for various Bible verses into his eye black. Some of the verses he promoted were Mark 8:36, John 16:33, Ephesians 2:8–10, James 1:2–4 and John 3:16. Tebow considers himself to be a devout Christian and was the quarterback for the Denver Broncos. John 3:16 was meaningful to him because of the message in the verse: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
On January 8, 2009, Tebow was the quarterback of the Florida Gators in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game: during the game, he wore eye black that was inscribed with "John 3:16". The reference to John 3:16 was said to have caused 94 million people to look up its meaning on the Google search engine.
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3:16 game
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:16_game
| 73,837,158 |
Background
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On January 8, 2012, during the 2011–12 NFL playoffs in a game between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tebow had game statistics that were similar to the referenced Bible verse John 3:16. The playoff game was played exactly three years after Tebow wore the eye black inscribed with the Bible verse John 3:16. The game finished with what was considered an upset victory: the final score of the game was Denver Broncos 29 and the Pittsburgh Steelers 23.
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3:16 game
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:16_game
| 73,837,158 |
Statistical Divinity
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Tebow accumulated 316 passing yards.
Tebow's passing yards averaged 31.6 yards per completion.
The Pittsburgh Steelers time of possession in the game was 31 minutes and 6 seconds.
CBS televised the game, with ratings peaking at 31.6 between 8:00 and 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
The only interception in the game was thrown by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers; he threw a second-quarter interception on 3rd-and-16.
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3:16 game
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:16_game
| 73,837,158 |
Statistical Divinity
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The line for the game called the Denver Broncos an 8-point underdog. In the first quarter, Shaun Suisham kicked field goals of 45 and 38 yards. The score at the conclusion of the first quarter was Pittsburgh Steelers 6, Denver Broncos 0. In the second quarter the Denver Broncos scored 20 points: on an Eddie Royal 30-yard pass, a Tim Tebow 8-yard run, two Matt Prater extra points and two field goals (20 and 28 yards). In the third quarter the Pittsburgh Steelers scored seven points on a Mike Wallace one-yard run and a Shaun Suisham extra point. In the fourth quarter the Denver Broncos scored once on a Matt Prater 35-yard field goal. The Pittsburgh Steelers scored three times: a Shaun Suisham 37-yard Field goal, a Jerricho Cotchery 31-yard touchdown pass and a Shaun Suisham extra point. At the conclusion of regulation time the score was 23 to 23. In overtime, on the first play after the kickoff, Demaryius Thomas scored on an 80-yard touchdown pass. The final score was Pittsburgh 23, Denver 29.
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wikipedia
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3:16 game
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:16_game
| 73,837,158 |
Game summary
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2011 was the first year of a new overtime rule in the NFL. Prior to 2011 NFL games that went to overtime were decided by any first score which resulted in sudden death. The game marked the first non-sudden death playoff game in NFL history. The new rule stated that each team would be given the opportunity to be on offense in the overtime unless one team scored a touchdown. The game marked the first playoff game to go to overtime since the new rule was codified in 2010. The exact language of the overtime scoring rule regarding the playoffs:
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wikipedia
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3:16 game
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3:16_game
| 73,837,158 |
Overtime
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{
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