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eggi1972 · 1 year ago

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[Theater] Mit der S-Bahn ins Kleine Haus in Gießen

Nach Woyzeck dachte ich mir, gebe ich auch dem Kleinen Haus mal wieder eine Chance. So ein bisschen Angst hatte ich ja schon, da das Schauspiel für mich nicht ganz ans Musiktheater heranreicht. Aber irgendwie nach „Woyzeck“ und vor allem „Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer“ war für mich klar, da muss ich dann doch hin. Gesagt getan, mal wieder eine andere Freundin eingepackt und erstmal zusammen einen Tee im Foyer getrunken. Meine erste Feststellung war, es wird voll im Kleinen Haus und ganz ehrlich, dies freut mich sehr, denn dies zeigt einmal mehr, dass Theater anziehend sein kann, und noch immer ist. Die Einführung zu „Einsame Menschen“ machte diesmal Simone Sterr, möglicher Weise da Lena Meyerhoff, die Dramaturgin des Stückes, leider erkrankt war. Ich hoffe wirklich, dass es nichts Schlimmes ist. Frau Sterr hat die Einführung gut gemacht. Vielleicht war sie am Anfang noch nicht ganz, ich sag mal, eingegroovt in das Stück, aber das gab sich schnell. Sie hat einiges über Felicia Zeller erzählt, die den Theatertext in der jetzigen Form geschrieben hat. Da kam dann meine große Angst wieder hoch. Einen klassischen Text von Gerhart Hauptmann in das Hier und Jetzt zu bringen, das kann auch mal gewaltig nach hinten losgehen. Trotzdem war ich irgendwie auch neugierig, was mich da erwartet. Vor allem diese angefangenen Sätze kenne ich ja auch, wenn mein Kopf schneller ist, als meine Zunge. Das ist beim Kritiken schreiben manchmal noch schlimmer, denn meine Finger sind nun noch langsamer als meine Zunge. Dies führt manchmal doch zu dem ein oder anderen Schmunzler in meiner Umgebung. Dies macht dann auch immer jede Kritik oder Rezension so anders, denn ich weiß nie so wirklich wo es hingeht mit meiner Kritik, erst dann wenn die Kritik fertig geschrieben ist. Copyright: Christian Schuller Copyright: Christian Schuller Copyright: Christian Schuller Die Geschichte erzählt im Endeffekt, das wonach wir alle irgendwie streben. Da ist das Idealbild von Familie und Kind, dafür aber trotzdem nicht im Beruf und im Privaten nachgeben. Da sind unsere Ideale die wir bitte nicht vergessen. Im Falle dieser Geschichte wird dies in der beruflich erfolgreiche Marie dargestellt, die von Germaine Sollberger gespielt wird. Sie ist auch noch eine reiche Erbin und hat ein Gelände mit einer alten Villa darauf gekauft, welche direkt an einem See und Wald liegt und dazu noch einen S-Bahnanschluss hat. Ganz nebenbei ist sie noch schwanger, zumindest am Anfang, mit einem Kind, welches sie mit Gerhart hat, der noch immer an seiner Doktorarbeit schreibt. Ich habe das Gefühl, er hat mit Ende dreißig noch nicht mal angefangen, sie zu schreiben. Immer wieder formuliert er alleine schon den Titel der Arbeit um, welches er sehr gestenreich macht, und in einer Geschwindigkeit, die bei mir schon einen Knoten im Hirn erzeugt. Da sind wir dann auch schon beim Kritikpunkt an Levent Kelleli. Ich glaube, er hatte zweimal einen Texthänger. Es war nicht schlimm, aber vielleicht wäre es sinnvoll, an der ein oder anderen Textstelle vielleicht ein wenig langsamer zu sprechen, und dafür dann diese auch wirklich schwierigen Passagen noch besser zu meistern. Aber ganz ehrlich. Ich hätte mir schon in den ersten zwei Minuten mehr als einmal einen Knoten in die Zunge geredet. Er hat es wirklich geschafft, die Worte klar und deutlich zu artikulieren. Wie gesagt, die zwei Stellen waren halt mal ein kleiner Hänger. Seine Mutter Erika wurde von Carolin Weber gespielt. Ich kann ja mit solchen Esoterikmenschen eher weniger etwas anfangen. Aber die tänzelnde Erika mit ihren kleinen Schritten und ihrer echt stark überspitzten Persönlichkeit war dann doch sehr angenehm. Ben Janssen spielte Bölsche, ein Freund von Marie und Gerhart, der ein Umweltaktivist ist und durchaus ein kleiner Tollpatsch. Als er zu Marie am Ende sagte, dass wenn er seine Gipsverbände ab hätte, dann werde er richtig Gas geben und den Wald schützen, und sie überreden wollte, in ein Baumhaus zu ziehen und mit ihm für das Überleben des alten Waldes zu kämpfen, musste ich echt an mich halten. Denn bis er ohne Gips ist, ist wahrscheinlich der Regenwald komplett abgeholzt und das Baby von Marie und Gerhart hat sein Studium beendet. Gestartet ist Bölsche mit einem Gipsbein und es kamen noch ein Armbruch und eine Halskrause dazu, bis das Stück in den letzten Teil einbog. Margarete wurde von Amina Eisner gespielt. Sie will in die Villa mit einziehen, denn eigentlich soll daraus ein Co-Worker-Space für Backpacker werden. Sie freundet sich mit Gerhart an und bringt in ihm besondere Seiten zum Klingen. Er kleidet sich besser, macht Sport und so einige andere Dinge mehr, und natürlich stört sie ihn nicht. Seine Freundin Marie und sein Baby Fritz hingegen stören ihn doch sehr und er erfindet immer wieder neue Ausreden, um sich vor dem Helfen zu drücken. Es sind zwei wirklich kurzweilige Stunden, wo ich noch einiges schreiben und erzählen könnte. Die Zeit verging wie im Fluge und man wurde gut unterhalten. Die Stimmen waren besonders beim Singen wirklich sehr gut, richtig klar. Vor allem Carolin Weber, aber auch Germaine Sollberger stachen in meinen Ohren ein wenig heraus. Wobei jeder der Schauspieler ein paar Szenen hatte, wo ich wirklich dachte, das ist extrem gut. Das Bühnenbild war einfach, aber gut. Man konnte immer sehr gut erkennen, wo man sich gerade befand, wobei da schon einiges an Dreck auf der Bühne war, nachdem das Stück zu Ende war. Es war auch wirklich ein langer Applaus im Kleinen Haus und es war voll und ich kann verstehen warum. Die Schauspieler waren diesmal wirklich gut. Es wurde zwar schnell gesprochen und man hat sicher den ein oder anderen Satz im Kopf beendet, der unausgesprochen von den Schauspielern gesagt wurde. Und irgendwie waren sie alle ein wenig einsam, da sie sich nie wirklich richtig ausgedrückt haben und dem einen oder dem anderen vielleicht nicht alles gesagt haben. Es war trotzdem nicht hektisch auf der Bühne und wie das Ganze endet werde ich sicherlich nicht verraten, denn ich hoffe, dass die ein oder andere S-Bahn, oder in Gießen wohl eher ein Stadtbus, am Kleinen Haus hält und dort noch viele Menschen aussteigen lässt, denn dieses Stück, unter der Regie von Anaїs Durand-Mauptit und der Dramaturgie von Lena Meyerhoff, hat noch einige Vorstellungen verdient. Es gibt nur noch drei Vorstellungen und bei fast allen nur noch Restkarten. Ich fände es schade, wenn sie diese Vorstellungen versäumen und irgendwie würde ich mich freuen, wenn noch die ein oder andere Vorstellung dazu käme. Copyright: Christian Schuller Copyright: Christian Schuller Copyright: Christian Schuller Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel

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tejanaculturalstudiesminjares · 1 year ago

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Family photo of Frank Gerhart, Marguerite Gerhart, Jim Gerhart (the author's uncle), and JoAnn Gerhart (the author's mother). Photo courtesy of Anthony Pignataro.

Anthony Pignataro looked through his grandmother, Marguerite Gerhart, and found a digital copy photo of her with a tanned skin tone and thick hair. He inferred she wasn't white, and upon investigating "Marguerite" was not her birth name. As he said "Like her mother, who Americanized her name from Maria to Mary", he concluded that his grandmother didn't want to be associated with her given name.

https://www.gustavoarellano.org/2021/08/mexican-american-passing-as-white/

#assimilation #mexican-american and white racial identity #white assimilation #americanized #american #racial identity #cultural identity

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why-bless-your-heart · 3 years ago

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My grandfather gave me a copy of my great-grandmother's reading list, which she wrote up when she was 19. She also left little reviews for most of these, but for now I'm just sharing the book titles.

Microbe hunters - Paul de Kruf

The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

The Opinions of Anatole France

The Dark Journey - Julein Green

The Highest up - Mary Roberts Rinehart

It's A Racket! - Hostetter, Besley

The Royal Road to Romance - Richard Halliburton

New Worlds to Conquer - Richard Halliburton

Rasputin: The Holy Devil - Rene Fulop-Miller

Tar: A Midwest Childhood - Sherwood Anderson

Thunder on the Left - Christopher Morley

The Chicken-Wagon Family - Barry Benefield

The Arrow - Christopher Morley

One of Ours - Willa Cather

The American Language - H.L. Mencken

Henry I - William Shakespeare

Playing With Love - Arthur Schnitzler

The Professor's House - Willa Cather

That Man Heine - Lewis Browne

The Merrie Tales Of Jacques Tournebroche - Anatole France

The Glorious Adventure - Richard Halliburton

Bashan and I - Thomas Mann, translated by Herman G Scheffauer

Comedies of Words and Other Plays - Arthur Schnitzler, translated by Pierre Loving

Before Dawn - Gerhart Hauptmann

Note from Mama L: The play is graphic, clear cut and beautiful. Every person is perfectly drawn - I had never heard of dipsomania. Why didn't they call it tipsomania?

Europe After 8:15 - Willard Huntington Wright, George Jean Nathan, H. L. Mencken, Thomas H. Benton

Happiness in Marriage - Margaret Sanger

Marriage in the Modern Manner, Ira S Wile and Mary Day Winn

Note from Mama L: [These] are both junk books, very poorly written with nothing to say. The most interesting thing in the first one is Truman's notations on the margin. (Go off, Mama L!)

The Road to the Open - Arthur Schnitzler, translated by Horace Samuel.

Gold - Jakob Wassermann, translated by Louise Collier Wilcox

Anthology of World Poetry - Mark Van Woren

The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism - George Bernard Shaw

Essays on Russian Novels - William Lyon Phelps

Poems of Home

The Joy of Living - Hermann Sudermann

Buddenbrooks - Thomas Mann

Anthology Of World Poetry - Mark Van Doren

Marriage and Morals - Bertrand Russell

The Three-Cornered Hat - Pedro Antonio de Alarcon

The Outcast - Luigi Pirandello

Story of Philosophy - Will Durant

Open All Night - Paul Morand

The Growth of a Soul - August Strindburg

The American Public Mind - Peter Odegard

Il Duce: The Life and Work of Benito Mussolini - L. Kemechey

Treatise on the Gods - HL Mencken

The Rise of American Civilization - Chas & Mary Beard

The Beaver Coat - Gerhart Hauptmann

The Conflagration - Gerhart Hauptmann

The Weavers - Gerhart Hauptmann

The Child of Pleasure - Gabriele D'Annunzio

The Philosophical Way of Life - T.U. Smith

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemmingway

Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-two Hundred Women - K.B. Davis

Peacock Pie - Walter De La Mare

Reading With A Purpose: Russian Literature - Avraham Yarmolinsky

Trivia - Logan Pearsall Smith

In Defense of Women - H.L. Mencken

Imperial Palace - Arnold Bennett

Apple Sauce - Ina Michael

Grand Hotel - Vicki Baum

Lola: Or, the Thought and Speech of Animals - Henny Kindermann

Great American Short Stories

Salammbo - Gustave Flaubert

A Simple Soul - Gustave Flaubert

Collected Parodies - Louis Untermeyer

What I Believe - Bertrand Russel

Hypatia: Or, Woman and Knowledge - Dora Russell

A Variety of Things - Max Beerbohm

The Marks of an Educated Man - E.A. Wiggam

The Dramatic Works of Moliere

Michael Kramer - Gerhart Hauptmann

The Water Gypsies - A.P. Herbert

A Tale of Brittany - Pierre Loti

Father - Elizabeth Von Armen

Wanderers - Knut Hamson

Children and Fools - Thomas Mann

Twentieth Century Poetry - Drinkwater, Canby, and Benet

Modern Greek Stories

Madam Chrysantheme - Pierre Loti

The Department Store: A Novel To Today - Margarete Bohme

The Confessions of A Fool - August Strindberg

Tales from the Fjeld - P.C. Asbjornsen, translated by Sir George Dasent

The Twilight of the Souls - Louis Couperus

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man - James Weldon Johnson

A Handy Guide for Beggars - Vachel Lindsay

Weird Tales - Eta Hoffmann

The Philosopher's Stone - J. Anker Laresen

#She's definitely where I get my reading from #My grandparents were... not good at their job #so my dad got a lot of his nurturing from her #she would give him books as gifts every occasion #Mama L's Booklist

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whitepolaris · 4 years ago

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Gimme Shelter (of the Backyard Cold War Kind) by Mark Sceurman

Many of us who were brought up during the cold war period, from 1958 to the early 1960s, remember the school drills for “duck and cover.” If you were a student, you were ushered to the ground floor of the school and told to get on your knees and put your coat over your hand. You would then wait, intensely listening for the sirens that would signal a nuclear attack was imminent. The NJ school system issued a dog tags for every student, and the rumor was that the tags would withstand a nuclear blast, in case your body needed to be identified when the Big One was dropped.

Yellow-and-black fallout shelter signs were posted on larger buildings to let you know that if an attack did take place while you were out and about, you would have safe refuge, at least for the moment.

Backyard bomb shelters were also being built for the safety of the family, and some still exist throughout the state. Weird N.J. was invited to see a backyard bomb shelter in Clifton; it was completely stocked with food and water from 1961, with virtually nothing touched in the last forty years.

Patrick DeLager, whose parents had the bomb shelter built, tell us his story. “One day this salesman came to the door and told my father, ‘If you want to protect your family, you have to buy one of these bomb shelters.’ After talking to my mom, they decided that, ‘Well, we gotta save the kids!’”

Weird N.J.: How was the bomb shelter made?

They brought in a big steam shovel and dug the whole backyard up. They flatbedded in this giant metal tank. It also had a few other big pipes for the shaft, ladders, and the escape hatch.

Weird N.J.: Do you know of any other bomb shelters in the area?

None that I know of. But everybody in the neighborhood knows this one’s here. When I was younger, I always got to be quarterback in the football games because if I wasn’t, well then, the other kids couldn’t go into the bomb shelter if we were attacked!

Weird N.J.: What kind of supplies did your father keep down there?

There are old boxes of cake mix, soup, sugar, baking powder, etc. But I don’t really know how they planned on using or cooking the stuff. He did replenish the supplies once in a while. I think he had a box of cereal that he mixed with chloroform to keep it safe!

Patrick opened the weathered, cone-shaped hatch in the middle of the backyard, and we saw a three-foot-wide cylindrical tube with a metal ladder attached to it. Shining a flashlight into the hole, we saw that it went down at least twenty feet. It was full of cobwebs.

Weird N.J. correspondent Dean Cole was the first to enter. Next went Mark M. and myself, followed by Patrick, his sister Marie Gerhart, and their friend Janet Martin.

Reaching the bottom, we entered a small cement chamber that led into the shelter. The safe room was no more than twelve feet long and about seven feet wide. It was actually not much more than a round metal tank-and with six people, it was getting more claustrophobic every minute. Since the walls were round, one got the feeling that the room was spinning. Either that or the air was getting thinner.

“Wow, your parents really stocked up on the sugar,” Mark M. said, noting the forty to fifty pounds of vintage Sucrest stashed away beneath the wooden benches.

“Well, that was for the coffee,” Patrick said.

Dean pulled out a can of Tropical Treat fruit drink, a little weathered and rusted but still sealed.

“Condensation has ruined most of the stock,” Patrick said.

We started to pull out boxes of cake mix, peanut butter, and bottles of water and instant coffee purchased at Two Guys. We even found some aspirin.

“I think the aspirin is still good because, you know, there were no expiration dates back in the ‘60s!” joked Patrick.

The escape hatch was bolted and filled with sand, and there was a hand-cranked air vent that allowed fresh air to be brought in. Patrick explained the theory of the hatch: “In case you’re locked in here, you could use the other hatch. The sand (as we all know) prevents radiation from permeating. The sand would fall, then you would put the ladder down and get out-to what, I don’t know!”

There were no comforts of home in this shelter. The commode was nothing more than a wooden box with lime in it. There was no electricity, stove, refrigerator, or beds. Just the wooden seats to sit on while you waited for the end of the world.

“Can you imagine staying in here for two months? I would go nuts!” I said.

“Well, you’d get to know your family very well,” said Dean.

“We asked Patrick again what possessed his father to have a bomb shelter in his backyard.

“My father was pressured by my mother. He was scared, like most of us were. At that time, this place wasn’t that funny. He just wanted us to feel safe. The shelter cost twenty-five hundred dollars to install. I still have the receipts.”

As we exited, the climb back up into the light was a refreshing change, even though we were in the hole for only about twenty minutes. To come out of that shelter after a nuclear attack would be unimaginable.

The DeLage family home was recently sold to a new owner, bomb shelter and all. It may have turned out to be an adding selling point in these uncertain times we were living in-again.

#type read #weird new jersey vol 2

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rocketwerks · 6 years ago

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Gretter House

209 North Twenty-Seventh Street Built, circa 1894 VDHR 127-0192

April 2019 — showing 209-211 North Twenty-Seventh Street, 209 at right

Home of a talented artist, who faded from fame.

(Library of Congress) — Beers Illustrated Atlas of the Cities of Richmond & Manchester, 1877 — Plate H — showing the Andrew Ellett property comprised of lots 117 & 125

Among the few houses dating from the late ’twenties is the Andrew Ellett house, built in 1829 by William C. Allen. By early March, 1830 it was occupied by Fleming James, a prominent business man who nearly twenty years later was to build the eastern half of Linden Row. In 1835 Allen sold the property, which at that time ran back to Broad Street, to Orren Williams. From that time until 1937 it remained in the hands of the same family: Williams left it in 1841 to Cornelia Hull, who, three years later, became the wife of Andrew E. Ellett.

[HOR] — Andrew Ellett House, 2702 East Grace Street

There is no more charming old house of moderate size left in Richmond than the Ellett house. The Greek Revival had hardly begun to influence Richmond architecture when it was built: the little porch with two small columns and a tiny pediment are the only signs of it here. The house is fairly well preserved. The front is painted a light grey, with white trim, and it is shadowed by a big tree. Even to those who are not versed in Richmond’s past, this is a house that makes them say, “I wish I could live there!”

The Ellett family continued to make this their home until the death of Caroline H. Ellett, Andrew Ellett’s daughter, in June, 1929. [HOR]

(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 43 — showing 209-211 North Twenty-Seventh Street

However, at some point in the mid-1880′s, the Ellett family decided to divest some of their property holdings and subdivided lots 117 and 125 into eight smaller parcels. They retained the largest one for the house at 2702 East Grace but created four lots on Broad Street, two on Twenty-Seventh Street, and one next door on the East Grace Street corner.

New neighbors quickly appeared. 207 North Twenty-Seventh was built in 1888, 2700 East Grace Street and 2701, 2703, 2705, 2709 East Broad Street were all constructed in 1890. The last entry was a double-house in 1894, 209-211 North Twenty-Seventh, on the smallest lot that stood on the alley that now ran completely between Twenty-Seventh and Twenty-Eighth Streets.

(Find A Grave) — marker of Frederick Pleasants Gretter at Shockoe Hill Cemetery

That same year, 209 North Twenty-Seventh was occupied by the Gretter family: Frederick, his wife Mary, and daughter Florence. Combined, they constitute its longest occupancy by a single family. Frederick is listed as the head of the household on the 1920 census and died in 1922 at the age of 80. Mary replaced him on the 1930 census, dying in 1936 at the age of 84, and was followed by Florence on the 1940 census.

Interestingly, although they are the family most closely associated with the house, the Gretters were renters, not owners, during their long stay. This may explain why both Mary and Florence had to take in boarders following Frederick’s death.

(Chronicling America) — Richmond Dispatch advertisement — Thursday, January 29, 1891

The Gretter’s status as renters may have had much to do with Frederick’s occupation as a clerk in the dry goods store Levy & Davis, which seems to have paid the bills but did not afford him the opportunity to own his own home. This was further complicated by the death of Abraham Levy in 1894, and the closing of the business.

It is unknown where Frederick landed in the aftermath, but he lived another 28 years and continued living in the same place, so it’s safe to assume that he found another gig. Dry goods stores were everywhere on Broad Street in those days. There was Temple, Pemberton, Cordes & Co., which eventually became J. B. Mosby & Co., plus there was Miller, Rhoads, & Gerhart which became Miller & Rhoads, and this other company called Thalhimers.

Due to the volatility of the dry goods business, Frederick may have played things conservatively when it came to living arrangements. He did not skimp on his daughter, however.

(Chronicling America) — Richmond Times illustration of Florence Gretter — Sunday, February 11, 1900

Between 1897 and 1900 there were occasional pieces in both the Richmond Times and the Richmond Dispatch about Florence and her emerging talents.

Talented Young Artist Who is Gaining Fame Miss Florence E. Gretter, one of Richmond's attractive young women, is establishing for herself quite a reputation as an artist at the Cooper Institute, New York. About three years ago it was discovered that Miss Gretter possessed great talent in this direction and she decided to cultivate that talent at the above-mentioned institute. She has received the highest praise from her instructors, and although Miss Gretter will not be graduated from the Institute until spring, her name is already known, and even as far as England have her praises been sung. Miss Gretter's especial favorite is miniature painting on ivory, and an excellent picture of Fitzhugh Lee is now on exhibition at the Woman's Exchange. (Chronicling America)

Here’s where the mystery of Florence Gretter takes hold.

(Cooper Union) — Foundation Hall at Cooper Union

Her father, a former Confederate Private living in Lost Cause/Jim Crow Virginia, sent his southern belle daughter north to an art school in the East Village of New York City for training as an artist. The more you think about it, the more it makes you scratch your head.

Cooper Union (also called the Cooper Institute) was then and remains today a prestigious art school. The fact that she went there raises many questions. How did they know to send her to a specific school in a northern state? Who in Richmond would have recommended it to them? What prompted her parents to conclude that she was sufficiently talented to spend the money for her to live in New York City during her studies? Where did she stay? Did life in the East Village and the Big Apple affect her outlook?

Intriguing questions, but in many cases, there are no answers, save one. Cooper Union originally offered free courses to students until a formal four-year degree program was created in 1902, and then switched to granting those students full scholarships. Aside from rail fare, room, and board, Florence’s education in New York was as cost-effective as a dry goods clerk could hope for.

(University of Richmond Museums) — Untitled [Female Model] — charcoal on paper — artist, Florence Gretter, circa 1899

One thing, however, is crystal clear — the woman had talent. In 1990, the University of Richmond was the beneficiary of a surprise donation of seven charcoal sketches made by Florence during her studies at Cooper Union. Each is signed with her name and numbered, indicating that they formed part of a portfolio submitted for a grade.

This figure study represents an idealized female form at the turn of the nineteenth century. The model’s body is rendered smooth, even porcelain-like, and her hair, pinned loosely on top of her head, suggests the Gibson girl hairstyle which was popular at the time. Although this image, created by a female artist, does not suggest any sort of sexualized content, the hairstyle and the sensitively rendered female form reveal pressures upon women at the time to aim towards perfection in their appearance. (University of Richmond Museums)

(Find A Grave) — Major Norman Vincent Randolph

The truly sad thing is that these sketches are Florence’s only known extant work.

From newspaper articles, we know that she had commissions for miniatures at various times. The 1900 Richmond Times article above references commissions from England and for a portrait of Fitzhugh Lee. A Richmond Times-Dispatch from Sunday, June 28, 1903 states

A beautifully executed miniature of the late Major Norman V. Randolph has been painted by Miss Florence Gretter of North Twenty-seventh Street.

The miniature was shown at R. E. Lee Camp to Major Randolph's comrades who greatly admired it. It represents the Major in his Confederate uniform with his hat on and with the animated expression his face wore when in health. The coloring of the miniature is exceedingly fine. (Chronicling America)

Outside of these mentions and the charcoal sketches at UR, there is no other public record of this artist’s work.

(Virginia Museum of History & Culture) — from a glass plate negative of Florence Gretter — Foster Studios — early 20th century

Miniatures are a subset of portraiture with a devoted following — witness The Miniature Artists of America. You would think that someone, somewhere would have some mention of what she produced. However, Dr. Carol Aiken, a portrait miniature conservator and scholar, maintains a database of miniature artists and has never heard of Florence Gretter.

This is all the more intriguing because it appears that Florence continued working on her artistic chops, even after she no longer attended Cooper Union. An article in the Sunday, October 28, 1906, Richmond Times-Dispatch mentions her plan to show her miniatures at the Jamestown Exhibition that year. It goes on to say that she had recently traveled to Boston to spend some time perfecting her work in oil painting.

Why Boston? With whom did she study? How long was she there, and what, if anything, did she produce from this encounter?

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards) — The Virginia Club, AKA Adams-Van Lew House

Sadly, however, it seems that the excursion to Boston was Florence’s last public foray in the pursuit of excellence. The Richmond newspapers continue to reference her activities, but except for Boston, they are focused primarily on her Church Hill neighborhood.

At the time, Church Hill was still a leader in social Richmond activity. The westward expansion of the city was full-bore by 1900, but as the oldest area of the city, Church Hill still had gravitas.

A Richmond Times article on June 16, 1900, describes a Banquet at the Virginia Club where a Handsome Reception Tendered the Ladies Last Night and stating that the Affair was a Great Success. Miss Florence Gretter was among the named attendees.

(Virginia Museum of History & Culture) — from a glass plate negative of Mrs. Mary V. Gretter — Foster Studios — early 20th century

Aside from these mentions, she participated in the Star Club (Richmond Dispatch, Sunday, November 16, 1902), where she played the role of the Hostess of the Inn; assisted in closing exercises of the higher department of Miss Robinson's School (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sunday, June 12, 1904); participated in the Delightful Musicales of Miss Effio Aylett Cofer, singing The Norse Maiden's Lament with six other ladies (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sunday, June 17, 1906); and for hosting the Fortnightly Flinch Club (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sunday January 8, 1904), so named for a card game based on stockpiling.

However, beyond this, her focus on art is either lost or no longer covered by the Richmond newspaper society columns. By 1922 her father had died, leaving her mother Mary little choice but to take in boarders in order for them to continue paying rent.

(Newspapers.com) — Richmond Times-Dispatch — Sunday, October 27, 1929

Even so, Florence appears to have kept her hand in the game. Aside from her obituary in 1957, her last mention in the Richmond newspapers was in 1929, just three days after Black Tuesday ushered in the Great Depression when she was 53. It doesn’t say much, but the photograph shows her at work in her studio still painting portrait miniatures. It goes on to mention a recent miniature of Major Norman V. Randolph.

This in itself is telling. She first painted Major Randolph’s portrait in 1903 (above). By 1929, she is still painting it, which suggests that she might have had a regular clientele for leaders from the Lost Cause.

April 2019 — Protestant Episcopal Church Home, 206 North Thompson Street, known today as The Windsor

Towards the end of her life, Florence contended with her own boarders until they, and the 18 stairs to the second floor where she slept, became too much.

Prior to moving to the Protestant Episcopal Church Home, she reached for a life-line in neighbor Eugene Markham. Florence had hoarded the sketches from Cooper Union as trophies, clinging to a time of creativity in which she still held pride, and gave them to him to keep them from the dust bin. Her plan succeeded. On Eugene’s death, his daughter discovered them in his attic, rolled up in wallpaper sheets, and nearly threw them away until she realized what she’d found. There is probably a Princess Leia-Death Star Plans analogy to be made here, but let’s not.

Not every college hoopster goes to the NBA or even the G-League. Not every artist, no matter how talented, finds a patron, or an art community in which to thrive. Florence Gretter did not transform into Georgia O’Keefe in the steel canyons of New York City; she had game but never found (or at least there is no record to show that she found) a larger audience than the Richmond society that she’d grown up with. A pity; she was quite skilled. One wonders what she’d have achieved in a different environment.

(Gretter House is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)

Notes

Rocket Werks gives a big shoutout to Page Hayes of House of Hayes. Scans of old newspaper photographs and articles tend toward extreme graininess. Page was able to take the 1900 sketch of Florence Gretter from the Richmond Times and turn it into a thing of beauty. Outstanding.

A shoutout of equal voice is given to Mrs. Jean Heath. Mrs. Heath is the daughter of Eugene Markham, and it was she who discovered the hidden charcoal drawings that are Florence Gretter’s legacy and bequeathed them to UR. As a ten-year-old Mrs. Heath knew Florence when she was still dressing up in Colonial costume at St. John’s Church, making Sunday dinner rolls for her neighbors, and cheese sandwiches for the boarders for whom she cared — a witness to the perigee of Florence Gretter’s life. Without her, much of Florence’s legacy would be lost to history.

Print Sources

[HOR] Houses of Old Richmond. Mary Wingfield Scott. 1941.

#mustseerva #rva #rvahistory #twentyseventhstreet #cityatomic #atlasrva

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mutantsalon · 6 years ago

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Queer California: Untold Stories April 13–August 11, 2019 at the Oakland Museum of California Image: Brown Rainbow Eclipse Explosion, 2017, Young Joon Kwak. Photo: Ruben Diaz @pingpongpaw , courtesy @commonwealthandcouncil Work by artists and collaborators including Absolute Empress III Shirley, Chloe Aftel, Laura Aguilar, Tina Valentin Aguirre, D-L Alvarez, Steven Arnold, Gilbert Baker, Lisa Ben, Andrea Bowers, Kaucyila Brooke, Ginger Brooks-Takahashi, Craig Calderwood, Pat Campano, Monica Canilao, Tammy Rae Carland, Cassils, Jerome Caja, Willy Chavarria, Kate Clark, Torreya Cummings, Amanda Curreri, Cyclona, Cecil Davis, Reed Erickson, Rhys Ernst, Edie Fake, Eve Fowler, William P. Gaddis Jr., Clay Geerdes, Rick Gerharter, James Gobel, Nicki Green, James Gruber, Barbara Hammer, Mick Hicks, William E. Jones, Lenn Keller, Joseph Richard Kapps, Young Joon Kwak, Vero Majano, DJ Brown Amy (Amy Martinez), Jaguar Mary, Helen Nestor, Yetunde Olagbaju, Kari Orvik, Frances Reid, Augie Robles, Peaches, Grace Rosario Perkins, Marlon Riggs, Nica Ross, Julio Salgado, Helen “Sanders” Sandoz, Jose Sarria, Patrick Staff, Chuck Stallard, Eric A. Stanley, A.L. Steiner, Elizabeth Stevens, Sylvester, Tina Takemoto, Xara Thustra, Wu Tsang, Chris E. Vargas, Lex Vaughn, Travis Y., and Cathy Zheutlin. Additional participants include L. Frank, Joseph Byron Jones, Miss Major, Toshio Meronek, Deborah A. Miranda, Donovan Nation, Kenny Ray Ramos, Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Kayla Strickland, and Karen Vigneault. Contributing archives include The American Philosophical Society; The Archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (AASF); Bay Area Lesbian Archives; California State Archives; The Collections of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University; The Digital Transgender Archive; The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society; Lambda Archives; The Lesbian Herstory Archives; ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries; San Francisco Public Library; James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center; The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center; and Willard Library. Curated by Christina Linden @hotcorners (at Oakland Museum of California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BviSLVrl1Lf/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=nb5az71pdl0l

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dermontag · 3 years ago

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Gerhart Baum im "ntv Frühstart" "Mit Putin gibt es keinen Ausweg" 25.05.2022, 09:42 Uhr Gerhart Baum glaubt nicht an ein Ende des Ukraine-Kriegs, solange Wladimir Putin an der Macht ist. Dass die eigene Partei in außenpolitischen Fragen wenig sichtbar sei, schmerzt den früheren FDP-Bundesinnenminister. Der frühere Bundesinnenminister Gerhart Baum hat Zweifel, ob es ein Ende des Ukraine-Krieges im Einvernehmen mit dem russischen Präsidenten geben kann. "Mit Putin gibt es keinen Ausweg", sagte Baum in der Sendung "Frühstart" von ntv. Putin habe mit dem Angriff auf die Ukraine einen Tabubruch begangen. Putin sehe sich auf einer Mission. Er fühle sich vom Schicksal berufen, Groß-Russland wiederherzustellen. "Da kommt er dann auch gar nicht mehr raus", so Baum. Wie wolle man mit einem solchen Mann eine dauerhafte Friedensordnung aufbauen, fragt sich Baum. "Ich halte das für ausgeschlossen." Baum begrüßte ausdrücklich die Lieferung schwerer Waffen in die Ukraine. Das Land müsse sich behaupten können. Zudem unterstützte der FDP-Politiker die Zielsetzung des Verteidigungsministers der USA, Lloyd Austin, Russland strategisch zu schwächen. "Die Amerikaner haben vollkommen recht, wenn sie sagen, wir müssen Russland so schwächen, dass es nicht mehr expansiv ist", sagte der 89-Jährige. Außenpolitik geht auch ohne Außenministerium Wie hat sich eigentlich die FDP in der Debatte über die Lieferung schwerer Waffen behauptet? Gut, konstatierte Baum. Vor allem würdigte er das Engagement von Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, der Vorsitzendenden des Verteidigungsausschusses, die sich früh und vehement für eine robuste Unterstützung der Ukraine engagiert hat. Allerdings sei sie Verteidigungspolitikerin und da zeige sich, dass seiner Partei außenpolitischer Einfluss fehle, sagte Baum. "Die FDP hat ihre Stimmen verloren als eine ernst zu nehmende Kraft zur Gestaltung der Außenpolitik", bemängelte der langjährige Innenminister und spätere Leiter der deutschen Delegation in der UN-Menschenrechtsorganisation. Die geringere Sichtbarkeit in außenpolitischen Fragen hänge auch mit den Ämtern in der amtierenden Bundesregierung zusammen, sagte Baum. Aber "das kann die Partei auch machen, ohne einen Außenminister zu stellen." Das sei ein Defizit. Zusätzlich vermisste Baum die Leidenschaft der Liberalen für Europa. Europa sei unsere Zukunft, das dürfe nicht schiefgehen, mahnte das FDP-Urgestein.

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hbhughes · 5 years ago

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Adelheid “Heidi” Rosemarie Denn

Adelheid “Heidi” Rosemarie Denn died peacefully in Residential Hospice on December 31, 2019 in Wilkes Barre, Pa. at the age of 86.

Heidi was born in West Berlin, Germany on April 16, 1933. She was the oldest of 7 children born to the late Walter and Renate Heintze. After graduating from high school, she became an accomplished tailor and seamstress. In 1959 Heidi met and married her late husband, Thomas E. Denn, while he was stationed in Germany and serving in the United States Army. She settled in as the perfect Army wife and in 1961, she and Tom and their first born moved to America making it their home. After living in several states and Army bases, they settled in Plains and Miners Mills, PA. Heidi then worked at the Plains American Legion and as a seamstress and tailor. Eventually, she moved to Forty Fort and retired at the young age of 82, after working for 15 years at Creating Unlimited Possibilities (CUP) where she cared for adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.

Along with her husband and parents, Heidi was preceded in death by her sisters, Helga and Renate and brothers Claus Dieter, Gerhart, and Walter, of Germany. Also preceding her in death was her son-in-law, Joey Lynch, whom she loved dearly.

Heidi is survived by daughters, Heidi Abels (Orem) of Glennville, PA., Mary Lynch and fiancé Bob Manfre of Trucksville, PA., Kim Denn of San Rafael, CA., and sons Thomas Denn (Felicia) of Arnold, MD., and Mike Denn of Plains, PA.; grandchildren, Christian Lynch of Forty Fort and his fiancé, Katie Owens, Casey Lynch of State College and her fiancé, Nick Martiniano, Emily Brady (George) Kingston, Clara Lynch Forty Fort, Max and Nicolas Denn of Arnold, MD,, and Candice and Clarissa Denn; great grandchildren, Aurora Martiniano, Troy, Carson and Ryan; Brother, Horst (Vera) Heintze, Germany.; nieces, nephews and many dear friends.

Family and friends may call from 10am-12pm on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at Hugh B. Hughes & Son, Inc. Funeral Home, 1044 Wyoming Avenue, Forty Fort.

A memorial service will be held immediately following hours of calling at 12pm at the funeral home with, Rev. William Lukesh and Rev. Jay Jones, officiating.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Meals on Wheels Wyoming Valley 190 S. Sprague Ave. Kingston, Pa.18704; Forty Fort Pres. Church 1224 Wyoming Ave. Forty Fort, Pa. 18704 or Trucksville United Methodist Church 40 Knob Hill Rd. Trucksville, Pa. 18708

Our family would like to thank all those caring for Heidi this year, in her Doctor’s offices, home health therapists and nurses, Residential Hospice and especially Gayle and Sandy.

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lvcarchiveblog · 7 years ago

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Happy National Sisters Day!

You know, I was sitting here thinking, “What sorority from the past could I showcase on this day?” And then it hit me. Obviously I should bring you pictures of Kappa Lambda Nu, also known as Clio, also known as the Clionian Literary Society.

The very first Clionian Literary Society was formed in 1869 at McKendree University. It is one of the few literary societies that is still active to this day (although not on our campus).

The top photo shows Kappa Lambda Nu in 1960. Seated is Joanne Freed, Emily Bowman, Eileen Gluyas, Mary Metzger, Nancy Fenstermacher, Beth Williams, and Sally Marshall. Standing is Dolores Koncar, Carolyn hake, Lynne McWilliams, Ann Grove, Shirley Brown, Carolyn Magee, Leann Grebe, Mary Lu Haines, Donna Bressler, Marjorie Miller, Blanche Hawkins, Fran Niedzialek, Doris Kohl, and Sue Smith.

The bottom photo shows the Kappa Lambda Nu pledges in 1960. Seated is C. Hock, S. Gerhart, E. Naylor, and L. Gatchel. Standing is P. Sharadin, J. Witman, A. Kurr, H. Haskell, P. McDyer, M. Colgan, and L. Ensminger.

#lvc #lebanonvalleycollege #bishoplibrary #library #archives #history #ywca #heartsisterweek #nationalsistersday #sisters #heart #1960s #1960 #clubs

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hirstory · 6 years ago

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Queer California: Untold Stories

April 13 – August 11, 2019

Oakland Museum of California

Work by artists and collaborators including Absolute Empress III Shirley, Chloe Aftel, Laura Aguilar, Tina Valentin Aguirre, D-L Alvarez, Steven Arnold, Gilbert Baker, Lisa Ben, Andrea Bowers, Kaucyila Brooke, Ginger Brooks-Takahashi, Craig Calderwood, Pat Campano, Monica Canilao, Tammy Rae Carland, Cassils, Jerome Caja, Willy Chavarria, Kate Clark, Torreya Cummings, Amanda Curreri, Cyclona, Cecil Davis, Reed Erickson, Rhys Ernst, Edie Fake, Eve Fowler, William P. Gaddis Jr., Clay Geerdes, Rick Gerharter, James Gobel, Nicki Green, James Gruber, Barbara Hammer, Mick Hicks, William E. Jones, Lenn Keller, Joseph Richard Kapps, Young Joon Kwak, Vero Majano, DJ Brown Amy (Amy Martinez), Jaguar Mary, Helen Nestor, Yetunde Olagbaju, Kari Orvik, Frances Reid, Augie Robles, Peaches, Grace Rosario Perkins, Marlon Riggs, Nica Ross, Julio Salgado, Helen “Sanders” Sandoz, Jose Sarria, Patrick Staff, Chuck Stallard, Eric A. Stanley, A.L. Steiner, Elizabeth Stevens, Sylvester, Tina Takemoto, Xara Thustra, Wu Tsang, Chris E. Vargas/MOTHA, Lex Vaughn, Travis Y., and Cathy Zheutlin.

Additional participants include L. Frank, Joseph Byron Jones, Miss Major, Toshio Meronek, Deborah A. Miranda, Donovan Nation, Kenny Ray Ramos, Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Kayla Strickland, and Karen Vigneault.

Contributing archives include The American Philosophical Society; The Archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (AASF); Bay Area Lesbian Archives; California State Archives; The Collections of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University; The Digital Transgender Archive; The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society; Lambda Archives; The Lesbian Herstory Archives; ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries; San Francisco Public Library; James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center; The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center; and Willard Library.

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mst3kproject · 8 years ago

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Voodoo Woman

This movie was directed by Edward L. Cahn, who brought us The She Creature. Its stars include Marla English, who was Andrea in The She Creature; Tom Conway, who was Mr. Chapple in The She Creature; and Lance Fuller, who was Dr. Ted Ericson in... you guessed it, The She Creature. The monster suit is the She Creature with a different mask, although this time they have the good sense not to ever linger on a shot of it. And the plot, about a weirdo turning women into monsters for no reason that is ever explained, is also from The She Creature. It's like everybody involved in the earlier movie said, “well, that sucked – can we have a do-over?” and then they made Voodoo Woman.

Is it any better? Uh... I honestly don't know how to answer that. It is definitely five thousand percent more racist.

The mad Dr. Gerhart has teamed up with voodoo priest Chaka to turn a young woman named Zuranda into a telepathically-controlled murderous monster. The transformation works, but as soon as Gerhart orders the monster to kill, the spell breaks and she changes back. Chaka declares that the problem is Zuranda herself just doesn't have a murderous disposition – Gerhart will have to find a subject with a little more innate bloodlust. His wife Susan is much too meek for his purposes, but it just so happens that there's a party of thieves in this neck of the jungle, and their leader Marilyn is particularly merciless. Perfect!

One thing that does make Voodoo Woman suck less than its sister movie is that this time, the cast actually looks interested. Lance Fuller and Marla English mumbled their way through The She Creature without emotion, looking and sounding as if they neither knew nor cared what was going on. They're not entirely to blame for this, since the script gave them nothing much to work with: their characters were dull and passive and the story made no sense. In Voodoo Woman they're playing villains, and seem to be having fun with these more proactive characters.

The non-She-Creature actors aren't bad, either. I'm absolutely astonished how well Otis Greene does with his cringeworthy lines as Bobo (yes, Bobo) the manservant. Martin Wilkins is unenthusiastic but serviceable as Chaka the voodoo priest... the 'unenthusiastic' part is probably because he spent most of his career playing voodoo priests and characters with names like 'Zimba' (in Panther Girl of the Congo) and 'Gamboso' (in Bomba and the Jungle Girl - is there a pattern here?). I can't really say anything about Jean Davis as Zuranda because she has basically nothing to do, but Mary Ellen Kaye as Susan Gerhardt is pretty decent. In fact, she has a certain amount of chemistry with both Conway and Greene, although none at all with her Designated Love Interest, Ted. Ted himself is played rather blandly by an actor we’ve seen before in Swamp Diamonds. He calls himself 'Touch Connors', which is the gay-porn-iest screen name I have ever seen outside of actual gay porn.

All the actors get a little help from the fact that the plot is not quite so baffling as it was in the She Creature. Dr. Gerhardt's desire to create a murderous female monster doesn't make any more sense than Dr. Carlo Lombardi's, but for some reason the how part works better. Lombardi's weird hypnosis thing is highly contrived in order to shove the 'reincarnation' thing in with it, and mostly just makes everybody's eyes cross as we try to figure it out. Voodoo Woman basically tells us, “a wizard and a mad scientist did it!”, and the audience just accepts that.

Of course, my willingness to accept it probably has a lot to do with my ignorance of actual voodoo and the fact that media like this has taught me to think of it as sorcery. I have grave doubts whether this movie has any more to do with voodoo than The She Creature did with hypnosis. Even much more recent film-makers (hello, Disney) seem to consider the word 'voodoo' a license to make shit up – as long as you have a few skulls lying around and stick some pins in a doll, it counts as voodoo. Movies frequently take a similar 'it's all in the accessories' approach to Native American spirituality or Asian medicine, with the assumption that the (white) audience will believe those funny foreign people are capable of anything.

So let's talk about race in this movie. Oh, boy.

The She Creature's ethnic stereotypes were limited to making fun of Swedish people. In Voodoo Woman we get an entire African Village Set full of caricatures too broad even for The Leech Woman (although they have the sense not to emphasize the fakeness with stock footage of Actual Africa). It's not that the movie is unsympathetic towards these characters. Even when they're doing pretty sketchy stuff, they're still presented as victims of the violence Dr. Gerhardt has introduced into their world. It's that even when kindly disposed towards them, the film can only see the as types, not as human beings.

Zuranda (played by a white actress in a lot of body paint) is nothing but the Helpless Native Maiden. She never speaks, although she screams a lot, and she meets an ignominious end when one of Marilyn's followers rapes and strangles her. Bobo the servant (Bobo. For fuck's sake) is a Man Friday, obedient and sexless and probably supposed to be much younger than Greene, who was thirty-three when he played the role. Chaka the Witch Doctor comes closest to having a character arc – he seems occasionally conflicted about what he and Gerhardt are doing and what the gods (not to mention the villagers) are going to think about it, but persists because of his own greed.

I want to doubt that this movie actually set out to say anything about racial friction in colonial Africa, but the conflicts it shows us do follow a clear pattern. The white characters live in constant fear of black violence. Dr. Gerhardt is aware that his relationship with Chaka is the only thing keeping the villagers from killing him or driving him away. Susan is terrified of her husband but does not try to run away because she is even more frightened of Gando, the tribesman he has hired to guard the house. Marilyn's hired guide, Ted, repeatedly warns against going into certain areas or interrupting ceremonies, because the punishment is death.

Despite all this, though, it is always, always the white characters who strike first. Ted has to stop the others from attacking the man who's been following them through the jungle, because to do so would be to provoke retaliation. Left alone, all the man does is watch, but their fear of him leads to them thinking they must strike first. When the treasure hunters are eventually attacked and captured, it is because the villagers want justice for the murder of Zuranda, which was even less 'provoked' than an attack on the following man would have been.

Dr. Gerhardt seems to have far more reason to be afraid of the villagers, but again, it's his own fault. He knows very well that he has profaned their sacred spaces and destroyed homes and families with his monsters. He accuses the natives of human sacrifice, but the way he talks about the ritual makes it clear that the sacrifice is itself a form of justice as well as a religious rite – the usual victim is 'some tribesman who has fallen out of favour'. It is no surprise, and does indeed feel like justice, when the community chooses Dr. Gerhardt himself as this year's sacrifice.

Even when there is black-on-black violence in this film, it is always prompted by the white characters. The monsterized Zuranda attacks a home, but does so under Dr. Gerhardt's control. Bobo (his fucking name is Bobo. I cannot get over that) offers to deliver a letter for Susan and is murdered by Gando, but is this again at Dr. Gerhardt's orders. The presence of this domineering white man drives people to violent acts they would not have committed on their own. He is defeated only when he encounters somebody more violent than himself, in the form of Marilyn.

Again, I don't think this was intentional. I really doubt the film-makers sat down and thought about using this story to present the idea that the fear of inter-racial violence is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The weirdest part is that the commentary on race relations isn't even the only subtext you can tease out of Voodoo Woman. There's points at which the movie also seems to be talking about abusive relationships! Dr. Gerhart treats his wife the same way he treats his monsters. He tells Marilyn, as she is about to become the creature, “as long as you live, I will be your master. You have no life other than that I give you.” This is very much analagous to how he treats Susan, keeping her locked up and threatening to have her killed if she disobeys him. Viewed in this light, it seems very significant indeed that the monsters are female, and that Gerhardt uses them to indulge his own desire to kill – it's an even more thoroughly twisted version of look what you made me do.

Come to think of it... although both Zuranda and Marilyn have dark hair, the monsters are blonde. In light of the undercurrent of racial tension, this, too, is interesting.

Another set of ideas about sexual violence seem to be manifest in Marilyn. As in The She-Creature, we have a sexually aggressive woman as a villain (Edmund L. Cahn had either an issue or a kink – I can't decide which), but the interesting part is that Marilyn's way of expressing this is stereotypically male. She gets obvious sexual pleasure from watching men fight, like a man might from seeing women wrestle. She persists in trying to seduce Ted after he's made it clear he's not interested, and seems to consider her multiple lovers a source of power rather than a source of shame. These things make her threatening to the male viewer in a similar way to how a strange man in a dark parking garage might seem threatening to a woman. I could write a damn thesis on that alone.

In the end, I don't know what to do with Voodoo Woman. It's either a tacky racist movie, or a tacky racist movie that tackles some very weighty social issues. Fortunately for us fans of MST3K fodder, it's also an amusing tacky racist movie. The embarrassed extras, unconvincing 'jungle' sets, stupid monsters, and a gratuitous musical number (oh yes) make it fun to riff with friends.

And then there's Bobo. They named a character Bobo and we're supposed to take that seriously. Good god.

#mst3k #reviews #voodoo woman #tw: rape #tw: abuse #episodes that never were #boy are we in africa!#50s

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osobypostacieludzie · 7 years ago

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Alfred Ploetz - był niemieckim lekarzem, biologiem, eugenistą znanym z określenia terminu higiena rasowa (Rassenhygiene) i promowania tej koncepcji w Niemczech. Rassenhygiene to forma eugeniki. Alfred Ploetz urodził się w Swinemünde w Niemczech (obecnie Świnoujście, Polska), a dorastał i uczęszczał do szkoły w Breslau (obecnie Wrocław). W tym czasie rozpoczął swoją przyjaźń z Carlem Hauptmannem, bratem słynnego autora Gerharta Hauptmanna. W 1879 roku założył tajne rasistowskie stowarzyszenie młodzieżowe. W dramacie Gerharta Hauptmanna "Vor Sonnenaufgang" (Before Sunrise), który po raz pierwszy wykonano 20 października 1889 r. w Berlinie, kluczowa postać dziennikarza Lotha oparta jest na Ploetzu. Po szkole Ploetz studiował najpierw ekonomię polityczną we Wrocławiu. Tam dołączył do "Freie wissenschaftliche Vereinigung" (wolnego związku naukowego). Wśród jego przyjaciół był - oprócz brata - jego były szkolny przyjaciel Ferdynand Simon (późniejszy zięć August Bebel), bracia Carl i Gerhart Hauptmann, Heinrich Laux i Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Krąg ten entuzjastycznie czytał prace Ernsta Haeckla i Charlesa Darwina. Carl Hauptmann był uczniem Ernsta Haeckela, a Gerhart Hauptmann i Ploetz uczęszczali na niektóre jego wykłady. Grupa rozszerzyła i opracowała plan założenia kolonii w jednym z państw Pacyfiku i utwierdziła się w "stowarzyszeniu Pacyfiku". Zaplanowali "społeczność opartą na zasadach przyjaznych, socjalistycznych, a może także ogólnoniemieckich". W wyniku prześladowań osób o nastawieniu socjalistycznym w zastosowaniu antysocjalistycznych praw Otto von Bismarcka (1878-1890), w 1883 r. Ploetz uciekł do Zurychu, gdzie kontynuował studia ekonomii politycznej u Juliusa Plattera (1844-1923). W swoich wspomnieniach Ploetz podaje jako ważny powód wyboru Zurychu, który w swoich studiach w Breslau teorie socjalistyczne pojawiły się tylko przypadkowo. Po półrocznym pobycie w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ploetz wrócił do Zurychu i zaczął studiować medycynę. W 1886 roku zakochał się w koleżance Agnes Bluhm, mimo że była zaangażowana w Pauline Rüdin. Zdecydowali się wziąć ślub wczesnym 1887 roku. Ploetz widział także Amerykankę imieniem Mary Sherwood, która studiowała hipnozę. W 1890 r. Ploetz został lekarzem i poślubił swoją byłą dziewczynę Pauline, chociaż ta dwójka nigdy nie miała dzieci. Bluhm utrzymywała jednak Ploetza jako bliskiego przyjaciela przez całe życie i oboje mieli podobne poglądy na temat czystości rasowej i korzyści płynących z eugeniki. Ploetz i jego żona mieszkali w USA przez cztery lata, a rozwodzili się w 1898 roku. Ploetz później ożenił się z Anitą Nordenholz. W tym małżeństwie powstało troje dzieci: Ulrich (zwany Uli), Cordelia (zwana Deda) i Wilfrid (zwana Fridl, 1912-2013). Ploetz po raz pierwszy zaproponował teorię higieny rasowej (eugenika rasowa) w swoich "Podstawach higieny rasowej" (Grundlinien einer Rassenhygiene) w 1895 r. W 1904 r. Ploetz założył czasopismo "Archiv für Rassen-und Gesellschaftsbiologie" z Fritzem Lenzem jako redaktorem naczelnym, a w 1905 r. Niemieckie Towarzystwo Higieny Rasowej (De Berliner Gesellschaft fur Rassenhygiene) z 31 członkami. W 1907 roku społeczeństwo stało się "Międzynarodowym Towarzystwem Higieny Rasowej". W 1930 r. Został doktorem honoris causa Uniwersytetu w Monachium. Ploetz był zwolennikiem partii nazistowskiej, która przejęła władzę w 1933 roku. Ploetz napisał w kwietniu 1933 roku, że wierzy, że Hitler doprowadzi rasową higienę z poprzedniej marginalności do głównego nurtu. W 1933 r. Minister spraw wewnętrznych Rzeszy Wilhelm Frick utworzył "ekspercki komitet doradczy ds. Ludności i polityki rasowej", w skład którego weszli Ploetz, Fritz Lenz, Ernst Rüdin i Hans F.K. Günther. Ten ekspercki komitet doradczy miał za zadanie doradzać nazistom w zakresie wdrażania i egzekwowania przepisów dotyczących kwestii rasowych i eugenicznych. W 1936 r. Hitler mianował Ploetza profesorem. W 1937 wstąpił do partii nazistowskiej. Zmarł w wieku 79 lat i został pochowany w swoim domu w Herrsching nad Ammersee w Bawarii. Po jego śmierci Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer pochwalił jego "wewnętrzną sympatię i entuzjazm z Narodowym Ruchem Socjalistycznym". Ernst Rüdin, także zaangażowany narodowy socjalista, pochwalił Ploetza dwa lata wcześniej jako człowiek "dzięki jego zasłużonym służbom pomógł stworzyć naszą nazistowską ideologię". W swojej książce Efektywność naszej rasy i ochrona słabych (1895) opisał społeczeństwo, w którym zastosowano idee eugeniczne. Społeczeństwo badałoby moralną i intelektualną zdolność obywateli do decydowania o małżeństwie i dozwolonej liczbie dzieci. Może również obejmować zakaz reprodukcji. Niepełnosprawne dzieci są przerywane, chorzy i słabi, bliźniaki i dzieci, których rodzice Ploetz uważa za zbyt starych lub młodych, są "wyeliminowani". Wraz z wieloma innymi eugenikami w Europie i Ameryce Ploetz wierzył w wyższość rasy nordyckiej. Jego pisma miały duży wpływ na nazistowską ideologię. Jego opinia na temat kwestii żydowskiej zmieniła się w trakcie jego życia, ale jego pogląd i doktryna NSDAP były zgodne z chwilą, gdy partia doszła do władzy w 1933 roku. We wczesnych pismach Ploetz uznawał Żydów za drugą najwyższą kulturową rasę po Europejczykach. Nie stwierdził żadnej znaczącej różnicy w "rasowym charakterze" pomiędzy Aryjczykami a Żydami, argumentując, że zdolności umysłowe Żydów i ich rola w rozwoju ludzkiej kultury uczyniły ich niezbędnymi dla "procesu mieszania rasowego", który poprawiłby ludzkość: “ Wysokie uzdolnienia Żydów i ich wybitna rola w postępach ludzkości w stosunku do ludzi takich jak Jezus, Spinoza, Marks muszą być uprzejmie uznani bez wahania ... Cały ten antysemityzm jest klapą, która powoli zniknie w świetle wiedzy naukowej i ludzka demokracja ". Później skorygował ten pogląd. Podkreślił, że odrębność Żydów wskazuje, że ich cechy psychiczne będą niekorzystnie wpływać na Aryjczyków, wprowadzając indywidualizm i brak miłości do wojska i narodu. On faworyzował globalną dominację rasy aryjskiej.

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neighbourskid · 4 years ago

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Goodbye 2015! You sucked.

(original date: 29 December 2015)

Ah, it is that time of the year again. Christmas is over, the year slowly but surely coming to an end....

And yes, we are doing it again. Looking back on the year, seeing all that wasn't good, everything that sucked. We see it everywhere.

January: 2015 will be my year, I can feel it!

December: Oh, nevermind....

It's all over the social media. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr... we see it everywhere, from everybody.

But this year you will not hear it from me. I do, of course, agree. This year sucked. Most of it really. There were so many shitty things this year. All the killings of black people, the wars all over the world, the incidents in Paris... you name it, it probably happened.

But, as I said, you will not hear any complaining from me. No. I will look back at all the good things that happened this year. And now I should probably stop rambling about what I could do and get started. So, without further ado: My year in, well, I guess, numbers.

2015 in Movies

As you, my dear readers, have without doubt noticed, I have watched a few movies this year. Well, a few is quite understated. All in all I have been to the cinema 30 times since last December. Which, for most people, is a lot. At least most of my friends told me that I was, and I quote here, bonkers, out of my mind, crazy.. you get the feeling. A few also said they could not afford such extravagances. My answer was mostly, "me neither". But I did go, still.

So, here are the numbers. Since last December, I have-

been to the movies 30 times

seen 26 different movies

seen one movie 4 and another 2 times

seen 3 movies in one afternoon & 4 in one week

been to the movies with 14 different people

been to the movies 12 times on my own

been to 16 different cinemas

And those, my dear readers, are the movies I've seen:

It was a good year of cinema, I tell you. Very excited for next year. Can't wait to try beating my record. And I tell you, I will try. I will also try and watch the Award ceremonies. And watch the nominated movies beforehand. At least that is the plan.

But enough of movies and cinema now. Let's move on to the next category. Because besides sitting in cinemas all year, I have also read a couple of books. You who read my blog have, of course, noticed that.

2015 in Books

At the beginning of this year I planned to read 50 books for the '2015 Reading Challenge', but I guess I failed.

But I did read, mind you. A lot. For school mostly, but right after I graduated I started reading the books I actually wanted to read, the books I had at home for a long time but never read. I read novels, memoirs, short stories, biographies.. I read a lot. But I think I bought even more.

So I guess, these are my numbers for books. In 2015 I've read-

21 books

around 4.5k pages

13 books for school

7 German ones

11 English ones

3 French ones

This here are the books I've read:

I mostly enjoyed reading the books I read on my own terms. But 'Frankenstein', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' and 'The Hound of Baskervilles', which I all read for school, were brilliant as well. I loved reading them. They were the most interesting ones I read for school.

'Die Macht der Drei' was honestly one of the worst books I've ever read. While discussing it with my teacher for the presentation I had to have about it, we mostly laughed about how bad it was. The story would have potential, mind you, but it was so badly written. It was horrible to read.

The French ones were acceptable, but I barely understood a thing.

Right now I'm still reading 'The Sherlockian' by Graham Moore (the great chap who wrote the academy award-winning screenplay for "The Imitation Game"), which is a brilliant book as well.

I'm hoping to read more in 2016, trying the challenge again, probably.

Mooooving on now. What else happened in 2015? Humm..... My shitty memory is quite challenging when it comes to such things. Well, how about a top ten of good things that happened? Yeah, sound like a good enough idea.

Top 10 Things of 2015

10. Getting my teeth. It should probably be further up the list, but idk. It was painful getting them, but it was worth it. I have them now, which is all that counts.

09. Watching the Oscars all alone in my bed, all night long and then going to school without having slept a second. It was a great night. I enjoyed that and I will be doing that again next year. The ceremony really touched me somehow. I loved it.

08. The summer camp "Connected" I helped organizing this year. It was amazing, we had a great time. And if you wanna know more about it, read the blog post I made about it.

07. Having made sure that my friend and I can go to San Diego next summer, around time for Comic-Con. I feel like this should be way up the list, but it's just the planning. I know that if I make a list at the end of 2016 it will grace the top of the list. It will probably be the list. But the planning alone is already motivating me like nothing else.

06. Probably graduating from my school? Like, that I made it, that I did not fail. It wasn't a particularly nice event, but hey, it happened. So the three years of, well, suffering, were worth it. I had fun at some of the exams, but that was an exception.

05. I went to the Europa Park in Germany with my friend and we had the best time ever. It was so much fun, I tell you. It was great being away from everything for two days and just enjoying the moment, being there without having to please any people, being able to just be ourselves. Sigh, I miss it.

04. The week me and my classmates spent in Calella, Spain the week after graduation. We had an amazing time there. It was a beautiful goodbye to these people. I really enjoyed myself there. It was great.

03. Going to the Cinema so much...I think. Yeah. It was great. I really liked that. I love the feeling of sitting among strangers, experiencing the same thing for 2.5 hours and then leaving. Not alone. But somehow as a group. It inspires me. Really does.

02. I will put 'Warner Bros. Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter' on this place, because as much as it hurt my heart being there, as much as the nostalgic feeling was killing me inside...it was a truly amazing experience and I loved every second of it. It showed me what a tremendous impact Harry Potter had on my life, my childhood. J.K. Rowling formed so much of my life with her books. And I am very grateful for that. I nearly broke down into tears in the café of the studio, but it was....sigh, amazing. Truly was.

01. I knoooooooow it sound incredibly cheesy to put this on my place 1 of the top ten things that happened this year....but it was kinda the highlight. It really was. So, as you know, I've been to London this fall to watch Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet. And as brilliant as the play was (AND IT WAS ASTONISHING), my highlight happened three days later, when I went back to the Barbican, stood in the cold for what felt like forever to meet Benedict. And having this incredible man stand an arm's length away from me, smiling and looking at me was most definitely the best thing that happened this year.

Now that I have rambled on for, like, forever I will end this looking back post, with looking forward. Because that is something we all should do: Look forward. Not back. Don't dwell on past things. Don't drag yourself down for something that didn't work out the way you planned it. Look to the future. Keep moving forward!

The things I look forward to in 2016 are quite a few, I tell you. And I'd rather think about them, than about all the bad things that happened in 2015.

In 2016 I look forward to going to Letters Live! in March with a few of my friends. I look forward to maybe visiting my grandma's hometown in Italy. I look forward to our team weekend in February, our teenager party in April. I look forward to the two weeks my friend and I will be spending in San Diego next July. I look forward to meeting Zachary Levi. I look forward to starting my studies next Fall. I look forward to... 2016. And hopefully it will be a good year. Hopefully our world will come to good terms with itself. Hopefully some wars will end. Hopefully the refugee crisis will get a good solution. Hopefully, we can all be the best versions of ourselves. Hopefully we get to fulfil our dreams. Hopefully this will be our year!

And with that, my dear friends and readers, I wish you all a happy new year. I hope it will indeed be a happy new year for you.

With love,

Alex

#blog post #import from old blog #long post #2015 #end of year #movies #books #highligths

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pangeanews · 4 years ago

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Rudolf Kassner: chi è costui? Il maestro sconosciuto del secolo

Figura pressoché ubiqua, inafferrabile, mi fu rivelata, per così dire, da Rainer Maria Rilke, che nel 1910 ne scrive così a Magda von Hattingberg, una delle tante ammiratrici che gli ‘servivano’ per attingere alla propria interiorità, per specificare il proprio ragionamento. “Fu un’epoca difficile, aprii stanco il libro e lessi, fra gli aforismi di Rudolf Kassner questo: La via del fervore alla grandezza passa attraverso il sacrificio. Mi trapassò l’anima. Come un pugnale che venga affilato contro di te, e che poi l’assassino porti per un anno sotto il mantello, sempre stretto nella mano in agguato: come poi questo pugnale si levi infine e si tenda e entri nel petto vero: così colpì dentro di me”. Rilke aveva il libro di Kassner con sé in Egitto: alla calura faraonica, ancestrale, forse, è imputabile l’estasi dei toni.

Più che l’aforisma mi colpì la figura, ignota. Rudolf Kassner. Doveva essere un uomo straordinario – fantomatico. A Kassner, Rilke dedica la poesia Wendung, “Svolta” – “Stelle caddero in ginocchio/ sotto l’assalto dei suoi sguardi alzati” –, nel 1916 gli dona il manoscritto dei ‘notturni’, Gedichte an die Nacht; soprattutto, per Kassner, esplicitamente, è scritta l’ottava delle Elegie duinesi:

Chi ci ha dunque voltati che, in qualsivoglia cosa intenti, disposti siamo come uno che parte? Come quello, sull’ultima collina che gli mostra per una volta ancora tutta la sua valle, s’arresta, si volge indietro, indugia – così viviamo, in un continuo prendere congedo.

All’amica e mecenate Marie von Thurn und Taxis, Rilke scrive, “non è forse il più importante tra gli scrittori del nostro tempo?”. Pare lo sia stato, a sfogliare l’opaca schiettezza delle statistiche: morto nel 1959 in Svizzera, nel Canton Vallese, dove s’era ritirato in omaggio all’amico Rilke, per penetrare nelle sue visioni liriche, Kassner, tra il 1930 e il 1955 è stato candidato per tredici volte al Nobel per la letteratura. Nonostante la letteratura non fosse il più esatto tra i suoi interessi.

Ve l’ho detto, Kassner ha qualcosa di famelico e fatato insieme, è totem e ombra. Nato nel settembre del 1873 in Moravia, settimo di dieci figli, il padre, Oskar, impiantò in Slesia una fiorente azienda di barbabietole, fabbricava zucchero; i figli li fece educare da precettori privati. Rudolf nasce sfibrato dalla poliomelite, il dolore lo allena, perfeziona gli studi a Vienna e a Berlino, fa il viaggiatore, instancabile. Nella sua vita convergono le maggiori personalità del secolo: a Parigi frequenta Paul Valéry e André Gide, dal 1902 entra in amicizia con Hugo von Hofmannsthal, che riconosce in lui un soldale (“Credo che sia il letterato e l’uomo di cultura più notevole espresso dal mondo tedesco”, scrive, nel 1904). Non fu filosofo, lo dissero “il nuovo Nietzsche” e lui rispose che non avevano capito nulla, per lui la visione di Nietzsche era troppo volgare, troppo nera, troppo pop. Postulò il potere dell’immaginazione sulla ragione, fu un micidiale aforista, tutti lo cercarono, si concesse a pochissimi. A Friedrich Dürrenmatt e a Marguerite Yourcenar spalancò le porte di casa; Thomas S. Eliot, che aveva incrociato a Parigi molti anni prima, si limitò a un laccato elogio per i suoi ottant’anni (pratica pia attuata quel dì): “Rendo omaggio a un uomo illustre, a un grande europeo che con orgoglio può guardare alla propria opera”. Influenzò Curtius, Georg Simmel, Wystan H. Auden (“Il numero degli autori che riescono a condizionarci è davvero piccolo: lui è uno dei rari a poter imprimere un cambiamento nel nostro modo di pensare”). Disse che fu l’India a dargli i natali come filosofo: vi atterrò nel 1908, a Bombay, restò un anno. A Calcutta fece amicizia con Stefan Zweig.

Fu un viaggiatore della mente, Kassner, certo – ma viaggiò moltissimo. In Inghilterra studiò l’opera di Laurence Sterne, di De Quincey, di Thomas Hardy; dalla Francia tornò traducendo Gide e Saint-John Perse; nel 1905 esplorò il Nordafrica, attraversando il Sahara in macchina. Dopo l’India, affrontò l’Egitto e l’Italia; nel 1911 virò in Russia: entusiasta, tradusse Puskin, Gogol’, Dostoevskij, Tolstoj. Uomo di sfrenate energie, voltò in tedesco William Blake e Platone, s’inoltrò nei meandri della cultura orientale, fu poligrafo, volutamente ermetico; conservatore, anti-nichilista, si preferì mistico – lavorò, in fondo, ai margini di tutto, nell’occulto, destinato a essere occultato. La Germania nazionalsocialista bandì la sua opera – e, in sintesi, il suo autore. Affascinato dalle teorie di Albert Einstein, andò a incontrarlo, non prima di aver studiato: era convinto che le loro opinioni sul mondo e sul tempo non divergessero troppo.

In Italia, l’opera di Rudolf Kassner è inesistente. Nel 1942, per la cura di Alessandro Pellegrino, Bompiani pubblica Gli elementi dell’umana grandezza e altri saggi; nel 1997 Neri Pozza edita I fondamenti della fisiognomica (a cura di Giovanni Gurisatti); è Artemide, invece, nel 2004 a stampare una antologia di scritti sotto il titolo La visione e il suo doppio (a cura di Gerhart Baumann, Aldo Venturelli, Laura Benzi). Tutto qui. Kassner, per sua natura – per scelta, diremmo – non si apparenta ad alcuna scuola: è un ‘antimoderno’, crede che la modernità, il culto del progresso, abbiano sfacciatamente volgarizzato il volto umano, fino a piallarlo nell’anonimo pollaio. I lavori sulla fisiognomica – che intersecano una visione della storia, dell’estetica, un’etica – sono quelli più affascinanti. Secondo lo studioso, nel volto è dipinta l’origine e il destino di colui che lo indossa. “L’uomo è come appare, anche se non appare come è realmente”, scrive in uno dei suoi aforismi paradossali. Tutto è forma: il viso di un uomo, una bestia, una idea, una religione. La forma è l’essenza, l’essenziale: non è la superficie ma il modo in cui si lascia esporre il mistero. Lo studio dei volti, dunque, è l’indagine di un immaginario. Costretto alla metropoli, alla vita artatamente ‘sociale’ l’uomo perde la personalità del proprio volto – nella civiltà delle macchine e della democrazia ‘siamo tutti uguali’, cioè equivalenti. Leggere i volti significa farsi veggenti. La fisiognomica, perciò, non è scienza ma estro filosofico, anomalia da ispirati. L’uomo moderno – che sia un parto della massa o uno squalo del capitale – è scisso, inautentico: la simulazione lo distingue; l’uomo fa l’attore, il volto prende figura di maschera, di mascherina. Il rito quotidiano è ‘di facciata’: il sacro monte dell’interiorità ci è precluso. A dire di Kessner, solo il Giusto può vagare tra le contraddizioni senza distrarsi, riesce a curare l’ulcera. D’altronde, scrive, “Sai che sono debole – ogni definizione è falsa”. Alla catena umana in catena di montaggio esistenziale, Kessner opponeva i paradossi dell’immaginazione. Noi non siamo spendibili, non siamo riassunti e replicati dalle nostre spese, dalle nostre voglie involute; siamo un universo ambiguo. Per i paladini dell’ordine, questo è troppo. (d.b.)

*In copertina: Rudolf Kassner nel 1956

L'articolo Rudolf Kassner: chi è costui? Il maestro sconosciuto del secolo proviene da Pangea.

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#Cultura generale #main #Arte #fisiognomica #Letteratura #Neri Pozza #Rilke #Rudolf Kassner

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